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 MASOLLAM
 
 
 ^'
 
 MASOLLAM; 
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 
 
 A NO VEL 
 
 BY 
 
 LAUEENCE OLIPHANT 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'PICCADILLY,' ' ALTIORA TETO,' ETC. ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXVI
 
 l/.l 
 
 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST YOLUME. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE ladies' gallery OP THE HOUSE OF COM- 
 MONS, ....... 1 
 
 II, THE MASOLLAMS, . . . , . .25 
 
 III. AN ARMENIAN CURIOSITY-DEALER, . . .41 
 
 IV. MR CHARLES HARTWRIQHt's FINANCIAL CONFI- 
 
 DENCES, ....... 61 
 
 V. MISS FLORENCE HARTWRIGHt's SENTIMENTAL 
 
 CONFIDENCES, ...... 87 
 
 VI. SEBASTIAN DOES SOME DETECTIVE WORK, . .103 
 
 VII. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS AT THE TURRETS UNDERGO 
 
 A CHANGE, ...... 122 
 
 VIIT. MR REGINALD CLAREVILLe's POLITICAL CONFI- 
 DENCES, . . . . . . .1.17 
 
 604529 
 
 fxyrvi »«>f 1
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 IX. MINES AND COUNTKRMINES, .... 163 
 
 X. THE PLOT AT THE TURRETS THICKENS, . . 183 
 
 XI. COUNT SANTALBA, ..... 19!) 
 
 XII. A MIDNIGHT MYSTERY, ..... 223 
 
 XIII. MADAME MASOLLAm's SUSPICIONS ARE AROUSED, 242 
 
 XIV. A LITTLE TELEPATHY, ..... SfjG
 
 PAKT I.
 
 M A S L L A M : 
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 V 
 
 THE ladies' GALLEKY OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
 
 The ladies' gallery of the House of Commons 
 was more than usually crowded; it was the 
 third night of an adjourned debate, to be fol- 
 lowed by a division pregnant with fate to the 
 Government, and honourable members had 
 been balloting and intriguing for the admis- 
 sion of their female belongings, with an as- 
 siduity which was some indication of the 
 pressure from without or within, as the case 
 might be, to which they had been subjected. 
 There were wives, and friends of wives, of 
 
 VOL. I. A
 
 2 MASOLLAM : 
 
 various Cahiiiet Ministers ; there were two 
 or three fair creatures so tenderly interested 
 in certain honourable members, that they 
 thought it l)etter to be squeezed into that 
 dingy recess, and look down on the crowns 
 of the hats of those sapient legislators from 
 a distance, than not to see anything of them 
 at all ; and there were others, very insuffi- 
 ciently chaperoned, because the meml3ers in- 
 terested in them had "most unfortunately" 
 been quite unable to secure the requisite 
 number of seats. There were old ladies from 
 the country, who had been balloted for in due 
 course, because they were the wives of con- 
 stituents, and who thus came in accidentally 
 for a good thing in the way of a debate which 
 they altogether failed to appreciate ; and there 
 was one, the loveliest of them all — if there had 
 only been light enough to see her — who came 
 from nobody knew where, and who, as time 
 went on, and no gentleman appeared to dis- 
 turb her absorbed and intense contemplation 
 of what was going on beneath, gradually ex- 
 cited the curiosity of her eager companions in 
 a very marked degree. Attention had been 
 first called to her, partly by her having se-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 3 
 
 cured the best seat, to tlie exclusion of certain 
 ladies, each of whom thought the political posi- 
 tion of her husband gave her a right to it ; 
 partly by the size and lustre of two diamonds 
 in her ears, and the richness and perfect 
 taste of her costume ; and lastly, by the 
 extraordinary dejoth and brilliancy of her 
 large eyes, as she turned them for an instant 
 on some new-comer, revealing, as she did so, 
 a face so beautiful that it was evident she 
 must be a stranger, or with such advantages 
 she could not have failed to take society by 
 storm, whoever she might be. 
 
 " I am positive they are paste, my dear," 
 whispered old Lady Hornsey to Mrs Vere 
 Middlehurst, with her gaze fixed on the tiny 
 ears of the fair unknown ; "it is quite impos- 
 sible that they can be real. Why, there are 
 not half-a-dozen women in London who have 
 two solitaires of that water," 
 
 "No, they are real," returned her friend. 
 " I am never mistaken about diamonds, even 
 in such an uncertain lio;lit as this. She is a 
 foreigner, that is evident — probably a Russian 
 princess. If she is, Charles is sure to know 
 about her. He will come up as soon as he has
 
 4 MASOLLAM : 
 
 spoken : he told mc lie slioiild wait and answer 
 Mr Spintail,' who is speaking now. How prosy 
 lie is, and yet liow eagerly slie appears to listen, 
 as if she could possibly understand him, or his 
 feeble jokes ! It is no wonder, I am sure, that 
 the Conservatives have lost the confidence of 
 the country, if that is the kind of oratory they 
 are obliged to listen to, though Charles tells me 
 the Government is certain to be beaten." 
 
 " They are sure of a majority of nine, on the 
 contrary : I have it from the very best author- 
 ity. Meantime Spintail will most likely drawl 
 on for an age, and I shall be half dead with im- 
 patience. Can't you lean forward and whisper 
 to Gertrude Clareville to tell her daughter 
 Edith, who is sitting next the woman, to draw 
 her into conversation." 
 
 " I am afraid I could not do it without her 
 hearing." 
 
 "Oh, nonsense ! what does that matter? Let 
 us change places, if you don't mind the smell of 
 smoky chimneys : I am sure this fat woman in 
 front of me comes from the Black Country," — 
 and squeezing past her less enterprising neigh- 
 bour. Lady Hornsey bent forward, and made 
 her request to a lady sitting on the front
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 5 
 
 bench in a wliisper which she nevertheless 
 intended and believed to be inaudible. 
 
 But the ears with the diamonds seemed 
 gifted with an almost supernatural power of 
 hearino- • for althouo-h at the moment the at- 
 teution of their owner appeared to be riveted 
 upon Mr Spintail, she drew gently back, and 
 turning her large soft eyes upon her neigh- 
 bour, said in French, but without lowering 
 her voice — 
 
 "It will give me great pleasure to talk to 
 you, if your mamma will allow you, and if you 
 speak French. I understand a little English, 
 but I speak it so badly, I am afraid ; and I 
 have so many questions to ask, for I am quite 
 a stranger, and this interests me so much." 
 
 Edith Clare ville, who had not overheard 
 Lady Hornsey's stage aside, coloured with 
 surprise and embarrassment at this unexpected 
 address, and turned to her mother to hide 
 her momentary confusion, while poor Lady 
 Clareville felt as guilty as Lady Hornsey 
 should have done, had that veteran cam- 
 paigner been capable of feeling guilty under 
 any circumstances. 
 
 " ]\Iy daughter will, I am sure, be delighted
 
 b MASOLLAM : 
 
 to give you every iuformation in her power," 
 said Lady Clarcvillc, speaking across Edith ; 
 IniL just at this moment she was interrupted 
 by a commotion produced by some arrivals, 
 under the escort of two members, one of 
 whom was her son, and the other his most 
 intimate friend, who, after seating the ladies 
 who had been confided to them, edged them- 
 selves as close as possible to Lady Clareville 
 and her daughter. They had scarcely done so 
 when an appalling uproar arose from the body 
 of the House. 
 
 "Oh, look! listen!" exclaimed Edith's neigh- 
 bour, who only deemed too glad to take advan- 
 tage of the hint which Lady Hornsey's whisper 
 had afforded her to enter into conversation. 
 " What a noise they all make ! and why are 
 they all crying Awdrawdr — Awdrawdr ? what 
 does that mean, Awdraw^lr ? and now they all 
 go into fits of laughter, and one gentleman 
 takes the tail of the coat of a gentleman who 
 is standing up and pulls him." 
 
 " I can't imao'ine what is o-oino; on," said 
 Edith. " Kegy, please explain what is hap- 
 pening. Everybody seems screaming madly 
 at an unfortunate man who is staring wildly
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 7 
 
 about him in the middle of the Hoor, appar- 
 ently unconscious that he is the cause of the 
 uproar, and several people have made clutches 
 at his coat ; why, even the Prime Minister is 
 laughing; — there now, he has been pulled down 
 into a seat close to the table." 
 
 " It is only a new member, ignorant of the 
 rules of the House, passing between Spintail 
 and the Speaker," replied her brother, laughing. 
 " See how wretchedly abashed the poor victim 
 looks, in his temporary refuge on the front 
 Opposition bench, squeezed in between a lot of 
 ex-Ministers, and how the House is enjoying 
 his confusion, which is only exceeded by that 
 of Spintail, who has been interrupted in the 
 middle of his peroration, and can't pick it up 
 again." 
 
 " And what do they all mean l^y calling Ya, 
 ya, ya, ya, ya, ya ? " asked the unknown, turn- 
 ing to Eeginald Clare ville, as Mr Spintail, after 
 a final oratorical efi'ort, resumed his seat amid 
 the cheers of his party. Clareville was so 
 dazzled by the brilliancy of the gaze which 
 accompanied this question, and so melted by a 
 tenderness that did not seem altogether ap- 
 propriate to it, that to his intense mortifica-
 
 8 MASOLLAM : 
 
 tioii lie felt himself colouring slightly beneath 
 it, as he explained that this was the British 
 parliamentary method of expressing approba- 
 tion, lie soon became more than reconciled 
 to the thirst for information which seemed to 
 possess the fair stranger, as he pointed out the 
 more distinguished characters below, accom- 
 panying his remarks by a running commen- 
 tary, couched in a strain of cynicism which 
 exhibited singular impartiality, coming from 
 one of the most rising among the younger 
 politicians of the day. As he perceived the 
 interest he excited in his listener, he felt him- 
 self warming to his subject, the more especial- 
 ly as in the observations with which she occa- 
 sionally interrupted him, she displayed an 
 unusually (juick faculty of apprehension, and 
 an intelligence which seemed as rare as her 
 beauty. He was engaged in a subtle meta- 
 physical analysis of the moral and intellectual 
 characteristics of the Prime Minister, when 
 that statesman arose and held the House for 
 an hour under the spell of his eloquence. The 
 rinoins: cheers with which his last words were 
 greeted were followed by the division Ijell, 
 and Clareville and his friend, who had in the
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 9 
 
 meantime been devotino; liiiiiself to Miss 
 Clareville, were summoned to perform the most 
 important of their legislative functions. 
 
 " I must run away and vote now," he said, 
 hurriedly, " but I shall be back in a quarter of 
 an hour to take my mother and sister to the 
 carriao^e. There will be nothins; more of in- 
 terest to-night after the division ; " and then 
 after a pause, which he dared not prolong, as 
 he thought of the sand running through the 
 minute-glass, and the danger of being shut 
 out in the lobby, he stammered, " I suj^pose 
 somebody is coming for you ? " 
 
 " You are in a hurry now, — I will tell you 
 when you come back," she said, softly ; and 
 Clareville rushed after his friend, whom he 
 only overtook as he was entering the House. 
 
 Meantime Lady Hornsey had taken advan- 
 tage of the momentary stir in the ladies' 
 gallery to get immediately beliind the dia- 
 monds which had so keenly excited her 
 interest. 
 
 " Have you ever been in the House of 
 Commons before ? " she inquired, in by no 
 means the purest French, leaning forward till 
 her lips were in close proximity to those giit-
 
 10 MASOLLAM : 
 
 tering jewels. They seemed to flash if possible 
 more briolitly, l)ut their wearer had lapsed 
 into siuldoii taciturnity. 
 
 • "It is a curious scene, is it not ? " proceeded 
 her ladyship, nothing abashed, and in a louder 
 tone, as the members came trooping in ; and 
 the murmur which greeted them as the tellers 
 of the Opposition were observed to be on the 
 right, as they advanced to the table, swelled 
 to a sudden roar when the numbers were 
 announced. Then followed the wildest de- 
 monstrations of delight : honourable members 
 shrieked, and w^ent so far as to stand on their 
 seats and to fling their hats in the air ; for it 
 was such a crushing defeat on a cardinal point 
 of policy, that the Government, which had 
 already sustained more than one of minor 
 importance, was now left no alternative. It 
 was no wonder that the stranger was too much 
 interested to attend to Lady Hornsey, but 
 peered intently through the glass which ren- 
 dered her invisible to the eyes of Reginald 
 Clareville, at that moment gazing up at the 
 latticed barrier. 
 
 " Good heavens ! My dear, the Government 
 is beaten, and Avill have to go out," ejaculated
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 11 
 
 Lady Hornsey, applying this familiar epithet 
 in her agitation to whoever might chance to 
 think herself included. 
 
 " I think Lady Hornsey is speaking to you," 
 said Edith, not without a touch of malice, 
 turning to her impassible neighbour, 
 
 " Oh, pardon, mille fois pardon ! " exclaimed 
 the latter, looking round straight into Lady 
 Hornsey 's face, and scanning it with great 
 deliberation. " I was just thinking how much 
 these gentlemen resemble a set of howling 
 dervishes ; and how like we are, cooped up here 
 behind this lattice screen, to a lot of Turkish 
 ladies in a harem." She uttered the words 
 "derveesh" and " hareem " with the marked 
 pronunciation which belongs to them in 
 Eastern tongues, and again became absorbed 
 in the scene below, while Lady Hornsey, 
 leaning back to Mrs Vere Middlehurst, 
 whispered — 
 
 " I feel certain, my dear, that she has some 
 black paint round her eyes," — and her lady- 
 ship rose to leave, lingering, however, at the 
 doorway, that she might intercept Clareville 
 on his return. 
 
 "Oh, Mr Clareville," she said, when that
 
 1 '2 MASOLLAM : 
 
 gentleman appeared, " this defeat of the 
 Government is really cj^uite too terrible. You 
 will do me sueli a favour if you will find out 
 who the beautiful stranger is you have been 
 talking to. Mrs Verc Middlehurst has asked 
 her husband, and he does not know. If she 
 is the least respectable, I want her to come to 
 nie on Tliursday night : I am sure she would 
 create a sensation. I don't think I ever saw 
 anything so lovely. I suppose, if she has a 
 husband, I shall be obliged to have him too : 
 but foreigners are always presentable. Do 
 find out all aljout her, and come and lunch 
 with me to-morrow and tell me who she is, 
 and wdiat the Government mean to do about 
 it all," — and Lady Hornsey waddled off" on the 
 arm of Mr Vere Middlehurst, with a mind 
 agitated in equal proportions by her feminine 
 curiosity and her political proclivities. 
 
 " Sebastian," said Clare ville to his friend, 
 who had returned with him to the gallery, 
 " please look after my mother and sister while 
 I take care of the unprotected female next to 
 Edith, if, as I suspect, she stands in need of 
 protection ; " and as he spoke he looked up and 
 encountered a wistful confiding gaze, which
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 13 
 
 left no doubt on liis mind that his suspicions 
 woukl turn out correct. 
 
 " I will follow you," he added to his mother 
 and sister, who had now joined him, and were 
 putting on their wraps. " Hartwright will see 
 you to the carriage." 
 
 Meantime the gallery was emptying, but 
 the stranger, who was rapidly becoming in- 
 vested with a mysterious interest in Clare- 
 ville's eyes, remained seated. 
 
 "Do you expect somebody, or are you still 
 too much interested in the processes of British 
 legislation to tear yourself away ? " he asked, 
 as he seated himself comfortably by her side. 
 
 " I am not expecting anybody, and I am 
 more interested, perhaps, in some of the legis- 
 lators than in the legislation," she replied, 
 with a smile. "Though I confess that my 
 object in coming here to-night was chiefly to 
 be present at a crisis in the political fortunes 
 of this country, which cannot fail to exercise 
 a momentous influence not merely upon its 
 own future destiny, but which must seriously 
 afiect that of other nations. Those boisterous 
 politicians with the ccaur leger whom I saw 
 throwing their hats into the air just now,
 
 14 MASOLLAM : 
 
 little suspect the weighty consequences wliich 
 liting upon tlieir vote. They are like school- 
 boys who have been playing a game, and who 
 cheer because tlieir side has won. Have they 
 ever thought wliat their side winning means 
 for the countless millions whose fate has been 
 decided by that victory ? Des mariomiettes ! 
 How should they know, those twenty-seven 
 that formed the majority, what effect their 
 vote is destined to have on the fortunes of the 
 race ? But I tell you," — and she turned with 
 sparkling eye and quivering nostril on Clare- 
 ville, — " that among the wanderers of the 
 deserts, and dwellers in distant palm-groves, 
 its action will be felt, no less than among 
 those who claim the peat-bogs of Ireland, or 
 the lion's share of their industry in your own 
 country. Ah, I see more," she said, lowering 
 her voice, and speaking very slowly. " It 
 means war, and I see those who have taken 
 part in that vote to wdiom this night will 
 be fatal." 
 
 Clareville meanwhile had listened to this 
 strange exordium, with its assumption of pro- 
 phetic inspiration, with a mingled feeling of 
 admiration, wonder, and amusement. Nor
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 15 
 
 could lie altogether deny that, however much 
 she might be mistaken as to the far-reaching 
 consequences of the division in which he had 
 taken part, the levity which reduced it to a 
 mere party triumph was calculated to astonish 
 a stranger, who would naturally consider a 
 change in the Government, and therefore in 
 the foreign policy of so great a country as 
 England, to be a matter of extreme gravity : 
 but being of a somewhat sceptical and cynical 
 temperament, he failed altogether to be im- 
 pressed by what he irreverently termed "the 
 fortune-telling business " at the end, 
 
 " I quite admit the justice of your criti- 
 cism," he said, " as to a certain incongruity 
 between the solemnity of the issue at stake 
 and the somewhat boyish demonstrations we 
 make over it. We pick up the habit at our 
 public schools, and are unable to shake it off. 
 You have just seen here a cricket-match at 
 Lord's, or a university boat-race, or a Derby 
 day, carried into politics. We have no ima- 
 gination, and our methods are always more or 
 less the same. Thus you saw the episode of 
 the new member. We always look out for 
 that. It is like the dog that runs down the
 
 16 MASOLLAM : 
 
 race-course. Tlieii after the division is taken, 
 we clieer the winner, — that is the end of the 
 race ; but this time I am afraid it has been 
 witnessed b}^ a Cassandra : your terrible pre- 
 dictions liave caused me the greatest conster- 
 nation." 
 
 "T predicted no misfortunes to your 
 country. I simply say it is a crisis in her 
 fate from which, for all I know, she may come 
 out unscathed ; and in the ftite of others, 
 both of nations and of individuals, from which 
 they will not : but I did not ask you to attach 
 any importance to it. The day will come 
 when you will remember what I have said." 
 
 "You have said enough, at all events, to 
 excite my curiosity, and to give me food for 
 reflection. I so far agree with you, that I 
 think the position of foreign affairs abroad, 
 and the relation of England towards them, in 
 the hig;hest des^ree critical : and a reversal of 
 policy by a new Government must produce 
 important changes, and possibly bring about 
 new and serious complications. I should like 
 to know something more definite : for instance, 
 can you tell me to whom this night will 
 prove fatal, and how or when? — and might I
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 17 
 
 further venture to ask in which of the legis- 
 lators you are especially interested ? " 
 
 "It would be useless to answer your first 
 question, for you do not know those of whom 
 I am thinking ; but the legislators in whom 
 I am especially interested" — and she paused 
 as the words seemed forced from her lips by 
 an effort, either real or affected — " are Mr 
 Sebastian Hartwright and Mr Eeginald Clare- 
 ville. I would rather you had not asked me 
 the question, but I dare not refuse to 
 answer." 
 
 " She need not have led up to it in that 
 case," thought Clareville ; and he became 
 aware of a curious sensation of puzzled fas- 
 cination creejDing over him. This was the 
 more remarkable as he prided himself on his 
 imperviousness to attack from the whole 
 feminine armoury. As the only son of Lord 
 Clareville, he was an eligible parti, putting 
 aside his good looks and political prospects ; 
 but without being a misogynist, he had 
 obtained a reputation for imjDenetrability, 
 which was the exas|)eration and despair of 
 maidens and their mothers, to say nothing 
 of the young married women. Now he was 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 18 MASOLLAM : 
 
 already becoming conscious that this unknown 
 stranger was throwing a spell over him which 
 he was at a loss to describe. This was the 
 more annoying because she seemed aware of 
 her power, and to be doing it deliberately. 
 She was certainly not a flirt in the ordinary 
 acceptation of the term. Snakes who fascinate 
 birds can scarcely be said to be flirting with 
 them. Naturalists have not yet pushed sci- 
 entific analysis to the point of being able to 
 describe for us the sensation of the birds, 
 nor can any one venture to assert that their 
 emotions may not be of a mixed character 
 — a sort of pleasurable alarm, in fact. Much 
 less are they able to define the nature of 
 the force which is projected from the visual 
 organ of the reptile, and which possesses the 
 singular faculty of dominating the volition of 
 the victim : it is a region of speculation which, 
 while it is impossible for them to deny that 
 it exists, they shrink from entering upon — 
 an aggravating region, because it eludes the 
 power of a microscope or the action of a blow- 
 pipe, and is nevertheless an active and jDer- 
 sistent force in nature, which is pronounced 
 to be unknowable to anybody Ijecause it has
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 19 
 
 proved unknowable to tliem. It was so dis- 
 tinctly "feelable" by Clare ville, that lie made 
 a vigorous effort of will to resist tlie attraction 
 of which he was becoming conscious, the more 
 so as the languor which seemed stealing over 
 his faculties was calculated to predispose them 
 to a certain credulity. " An adventuress with 
 sham diamonds, who supposes that I am as 
 easy to mystify as to flatter," he thought, as 
 he said with an almost imperceptible sneer, 
 and with not quite so much respect thrown 
 into his tone as he had hitherto used — 
 
 " I suppose my sister Edith pointed us out 
 to you, and told you our names. I am sure 
 my friend Hartwright would feel as highly 
 flattered as I do by the interest you are kind 
 enough to express in us both, even though it 
 must be of somewhat sudden growth." 
 
 " Pardon me," she replied, not in the least 
 disconcerted by his change of manner; "it 
 has existed for many years. Nor is there any 
 reason why either you or he should be flattered 
 by it. There are often reasons why we should 
 feel an interest in persons which need not 
 always be complimentary to them — quite the 
 reverse." And Clare ville thought, as she said
 
 20 MASOLLAM : 
 
 this in a soft voice, that he detected a shade 
 of sadness beneatli the flash of those lovely 
 eyes. " You asked me who were the members 
 of Parliament that I felt especially interested 
 in, and I told you — voila tout ! At the same 
 time, I added that I would much rather not 
 have done so. Your sister did not tell me your 
 names," she added after a pause, as she rose 
 from her seat and drew a light houmous of a 
 very rich oriental material over her shoulders. 
 
 " 1 must admit," said Clarcville, a little 
 taken aback by this sudden change of front, 
 and with a somewhat embarrassed laugh, 
 "that I was unduly conceited in attaching 
 any complimentary sense to the interest you 
 expressed in us — in me, at all events. You 
 must let me make reparation for my vanity by 
 putting you into your carriage. And I think 
 that you, in your turn, owe me something 
 for having piqued my curiosity. If you cannot 
 stay and gratify it now, may I venture to hope 
 that you will allow me to call upon you ? " 
 
 " I shall be very happy to see you at my 
 hotel whenever you like to call," she replied, 
 as she accepted the proffered arm. 
 
 "As I do not possess, like you, the sense of
 
 A PROBLEiM OF THE PERIOD. 21 
 
 divining people's names, permit me to inquire 
 whose carriage I am to ask for," said Clare ville, 
 as tliey readied the yard, relapsing again into 
 resentment at the mystification of which he 
 felt he was beino; made the victim. 
 
 " Ask for Mr Cottrell's carriage, please ; " and 
 a policeman brought up at Clareville's request 
 a neat private brougham. 
 
 " May I call to-morrow, and if so, at what 
 hour, and where ? " asked Clareville, half in- 
 clined to beg for a seat by her side, as he 
 handed her into the carriao;e. 
 
 " At three o'clock to-morrow, at the Grand 
 Hotel, if that will suit you. You can bring 
 your friend Mr Hartwright with you, if you 
 like. See, here is my card, so that you cannot 
 make a mistake." And she added in a decided 
 tone, as if to check the request upon his lips, 
 " Good night, — I am much obliged for your 
 kindness ; please tell the coachman to drive 
 home." And Clareville pressed the tips of the 
 fingers that were extended to him, and shouted 
 " Home," as with uncovered head and pro- 
 found salutation he watched the carriage dash 
 oft', and saw the diamonds gleam for a moment 
 in the gaslight.
 
 22 MASOLLAM : 
 
 "Aniiiia, Masollam," lie muttered to himself, 
 glancing at tlie card lie still held in hi.s hand ; 
 " what an uncouth name ! There is nothino; 
 on her card nliout the Grand Hotel to prove 
 whether she is married or single, nor was there 
 on her finger either, now that I come to think 
 of it. Who is Cottrell ? Is there a Mr Masol- 
 1am, I wonder ; and if there is, what country 
 has the honour of claimino; him as a native? 
 Perhaps he is ' a wanderer of the desert, or a 
 dweller in some distant palm-grove.' It will 
 he only fair to Hartwright to tell him what an 
 interest he has excited in the breast of a lovely 
 and inspired prophetess, and take him with 
 me — I shall be sure to find him at the club." 
 And thither Clareville wended his way ; and 
 the two young men sat up till a late hour dis- 
 cussing the mysterious incognita whom they 
 were to visit on the following day, and, what 
 was far more important, the effect of the divi- 
 sion upon their own political prospects and 
 that of their party. 
 
 At three o'clock next day the two friends 
 repaired to the Grand Hotel, and asked for 
 Madame MasoUam, The porter informed them 
 that no such person had been staying at the
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 23 
 
 hotel, l3iit that a lady had left a note that 
 morning, saying that it was to be handed to a 
 gentleman who would call to inquire for her 
 at three o'clock that afternoon. It contained 
 only these lines : — 
 
 " I am sorry not to be able to keep my 
 appointment. Tell your friend we shall meet 
 before long. A. M." 
 
 " Not flattering, so far as I am concerned," 
 said Clare ville, with a laugh. "It is clear 
 which of us inspires the most interest." 
 
 " If she had been an impostor with designs 
 upon us, in the first place she would have 
 chosen you as more valuable prey than my- 
 self; and in the second, she would not have 
 disappeared when her eflbrts so far had been 
 crowned with success," returned his friend. 
 
 " I don't know about our respective values 
 as objects of prey," replied Clareville ; "but 
 of the two I suspect that, with your mystical 
 tendency, impulsive temperament, and love of 
 adventure, you would be far more easily cap- 
 tured than I should, my dear Sebastian. Per- 
 haps that is why she has decided that you are
 
 24 MASOLLAM. 
 
 to have the first chance. However, we have 
 more serious matters to attend to than this 
 lovely and mysterious witch, whatever her 
 designs may be ; " and the two young members 
 crossed the street ' into Palace Yard, on their 
 way to the House, under the escort of a police- 
 man especially told off to protect the valuable 
 lives of timid legislators on foot from their 
 more impetuous colleagues in hansom cabs.
 
 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE M A S L L A M S. 
 
 At the very moment tliat the two friends were 
 entering the House of Commons, a lady and 
 two gentlemen were standing on the platform 
 at the door of a first-class carriage of a train 
 which was on the point of taking its depart- 
 ure from the terminus of the Great Midland 
 Railway. 
 
 " I trust, Mr Masollam," said the younger 
 of the two men, " that you are satisfied with 
 the manner in which I have discharged my 
 trust towards your daughter? I assure you 
 it required all the influence I possess to obtain 
 the seat for her in the ladies' gallery which 
 she seemed so much to desire. I only regret 
 that my capacities for service are not always 
 equal to my inclinations ; but I beg of you
 
 26 MASOLLAM : 
 
 not on that account to hesitate to command 
 them. 1 am aware that in saying even thus 
 much, I am in a manner gnilty of presump- 
 tion. You, who see so fiiv into the motives 
 of men, n^quiro no verbal assurances from me 
 to enable you to appreciate mine." 
 
 "You speak wisely, my friend," replied the 
 person tlius addressed. " I judge no man by 
 his professions of service, nor by any analysis 
 he may furnish to me of his motives. I will 
 go farther, and say that a man's acts are but 
 an uncertain guide. I am, however, well satis- 
 fied with yours so far, and it is possible that 
 ere long occasion may arise when your pro- 
 fessions will be tested to the full extent of 
 your desires. You are but a beginner, you 
 know, and beginners are apt to be a little 
 over-confident. But here is the guard coming 
 to shut us out if we linger longer. Au revoir, 
 my son. You know my address — to the care 
 of Carabet at Tongsley. Write to me if you 
 have any information on the points in regard 
 to which you have my instructions." 
 
 Helping the lady into the carriage, the 
 speaker followed her with an activity beyond 
 his years ; while she, leaning out of the window.
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 27 
 
 waved an adieu to the gentleman left standing 
 on the platform, who kissed his hand in reply. 
 
 " It was a pity that Cottrell did not employ 
 some of that small capacity to which he has 
 just made allusion, to the extent of securing 
 us a carriage to ourselves," remarked Mr 
 MasoUam, in a tongue not certainly under- 
 stood by a gentleman and two ladies who were 
 its previous occupants, while he busied him- 
 self stowing away sundry rugs and packages 
 in the rack overhead. 
 
 ' ' It was not his fault. Nothing could have 
 been kinder, or more zealous or efficient, than 
 he has been. Besides, that need not prevent 
 us from talking secrets," returned the lady, as 
 she turned the flashing eyes and diamonds, 
 which had already captivated Reginald Clare- 
 ville and Lady Hornsey by their rival bril- 
 liancy, upon her travelling companions. "You 
 don't suppose any of them understand Ar- 
 menian ? " She slightly raised her voice, and 
 uttered the last sentence very slowly and dis- 
 tinctly, as she watched its efiect upon the 
 other passengers. Apparently satisfied that 
 she mio'ht continue her conversation in that 
 language without danger of being understood.
 
 28 MASOLLAM I 
 
 she continued, " What a pity it was that you 
 prevented me from keeping my appointment!" 
 
 " It was unavoidable," answered her com- 
 panion. "Read that," — and he handed her a 
 telegram to the following effect: "The H.'s 
 will probably leave England day after to- 
 morrow. Don't delay. — C." " Of course, then, 
 I had nothing for it but to leave Paris as 
 quickly as I could, and telegraph to you to 
 meet me here. I only just caught the train 
 as it was — thanks to the tidal boat." 
 
 " May I see our letter of introduction to 
 them ? " she asked. 
 
 He took a letter from a somewhat bulky 
 pocket-book, and gave it to her. This was 
 what she read : — 
 
 "My dear Hartwright, — This will be 
 handed to you by a very old friend of mine, 
 Mr MasoUam, who is now on a visit to Eng- 
 land with his daughter. I first made his 
 aquaintance in the East some thirty years 
 ago ; since then I have had occasion more 
 than once to test his extraordinary powers. 
 Do not allow any narrow prejudice to prevent 
 you from availing yourself of his services, 
 should he offer them : I consider him the most
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PEEIOD. 29 
 
 remarkably gifted man that I have ever met, 
 and he is as good as he is gifted. Let me add 
 that his daughter is as beautiful as she is 
 good'. — Yours ever, Santalba." 
 
 "He does not know as much about your 
 gifts as I do, my dear, or he would not have 
 ended with such an equivocal compliment. 
 However, you will probably soon have an 
 opportunity of exercising them," remarked the 
 old gentleman, as he slowly folded up the 
 letter and put it back in his pocket-book. 
 There was a remarkable alternation of vivacity 
 and deliberation about the movements of Mr 
 MasoUam. His voice seemed pitched in two 
 different keys, the effect of which was, when 
 he chang;ed them, to make one seem a distant 
 echo of the other — a species of ventriloquistic 
 phenomenon which was calculated to impart a 
 sudden and not altogether pleasant shock to 
 the nerves of the listeners. When he talked 
 with what I may term his "near" voice, he 
 was generally rapid and vivacious ; when he 
 exchanged it for his "far-off" one, he was 
 solemn and impressive. His hair, which had 
 once been raven black, was now streaked with 
 grey, but it was still thick, and fell in a
 
 30 MASOLLAM : 
 
 massive Wiive, over his cars, and nearly to liis 
 shoulders, giving him something of a leonine 
 aspect. His brow was overhanging and bushy, 
 and his eyes were like revolving lights in two 
 dark caverns, so fitfully did they seem to 
 emit flashes, and then lose all expression. 
 Like his voice, they too had a near and a far- 
 off expression, which could be adjusted to the 
 required focus like a telescope, growing smaller 
 and smaller as though in an effort to project 
 the sight beyond the limits of natural vision. 
 At such times they would be so entirely devoid 
 of all appreciation of outward objects, as to 
 produce almost the impression of blindness, 
 when suddenly the focus would change, the 
 pupil expand, and rays flash from them like 
 lig;htnino; from a thunder - cloud, oivino; an 
 
 ■DO ' O o 
 
 unexpected and extraordinary brilliancy to a 
 face which seemed promptly to respond to the 
 summons. The general cast of countenance, 
 the upper part of which, were it not for the 
 depth of the eye-sockets, would have been 
 strikingly handsome, was decidedly Semitic ; 
 and in repose the general effect w^as almost 
 statuesque in its calm fixedness. The mouth 
 was partially concealed by a heavy moustache
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 31 
 
 and long iron-grey beard ; but the transition 
 from repose to animation revealed an extra- 
 ordinary flexibility in those muscles which 
 had a moment before appeared so rigid, and 
 the whole character of the countenance was 
 altered as suddenly as the expression of the 
 eye. It would perhaps be prying too much 
 into the secrets of nature, or, at all events, 
 into the secrets of Mr Masollam's nature, to 
 inquire whether this lightening and darkening 
 of the countenance was voluntary or not. In 
 a lesser degree, it is a common phenomenon 
 with us all : the eff'ect of one class of emotions 
 is, vulgarly speaking, to make a man look 
 black, and of another to make him look 
 bright. The peculiarity of Mr Masollam was 
 that he could look so much blacker and 
 brighter than most people, and make the 
 change of expression with such extraordinary 
 rapidity and intensity, that it seemed a sort 
 of facial legerdemain, and suggested the sus- 
 picion that it might be an acc[uired faculty. 
 There was, moreover, another change which 
 he apparently had the power of working on 
 his countenance, which aftects other people 
 involuntarily, and which generally, especially
 
 32 MASOLLAM : 
 
 in the case of the fair sex, does so very 
 mucli against their will. For instance, we 
 say of a lady that she is journalihre, by 
 which we mean that on some days she looks 
 much older than on others. Now Mr Masol- 
 1am had the faculty of looking very much 
 older one hour than he did the next. There 
 were moments when a careful study of his 
 wrinkles, and of his dull, faded - looking 
 eyes, would lead you to put him down 
 at eighty if he was a day ; and there were 
 others when his flashing glance, expanding 
 nostril, broad smooth brow, and mobile mouth, 
 would make a rejuvenating combination, that 
 would for a moment convince you that you 
 had been at least five-and-twenty years out 
 in your first estimate. When he was erect, 
 he stood about six feet in his stockinets, but 
 his attitudes varied with his moods, and he 
 often drooped suddenly and tottered along 
 with bowed shoulders and unsteady gait. 
 These rapid contrasts were calculated to 
 arrest the attention of the most casual ob- 
 server, and to produce a sensation which was 
 not altogether pleasant when first one made 
 his acquaintance. It was not exactly mis-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 33 
 
 trust, — for both manners were perfectly frank 
 and natural, — so much as perplexity. He 
 seemed to be two opposite characters rolled 
 into one, and to be presenting undesigningly 
 a curious moral and physiological problem for 
 solution, which had a disagreeable sort of 
 attractiveness about it, for you almost im- 
 mediately felt it to be insoluble, and yet it 
 would not let you rest. He might be the 
 best or the worst of men. Perhaps his moral 
 nature presented the same violent contrasts 
 that were observable in his physical aspect, 
 and that he was alternately first one and 
 then the other. Either he was a freak ot 
 nature, a sort of lusus natiirw so far as the 
 psychical and emotional part of him was 
 concerned, or he had acquired a wonderful 
 artificial mastery over those forces which 
 transmit the expression of feeling to feature, 
 and could produce transformations which so 
 far transcend the trick of the comedian, that 
 they involved no forced or unnatural muscu- 
 lar distortion, but appeared simply to depend 
 upon the spontaneous but subtle play of some 
 internal light and shade, which seemed to trans- 
 fuse his whole being, and force their infiuence 
 VOL. I. C
 
 34 MASOLLAM : 
 
 upon the outer surfaces of liis organism. He 
 was like a landscape over which dark thunder- 
 clouds are constantly rolling, and obscuring 
 the bright sunlight, which, when it did burst 
 forth, made the very features that a moment 
 before were gloomy and almost repellent, 
 bright and attractive. The effect of this 
 peculiarity upon sensitive natures with whom 
 he was brought into contact, was to produce 
 in them corresponding alternations of sym- 
 pathy and antipathy. It was as though he 
 was alternately presenting to them the posi- 
 tive and negative poles of his being. They 
 were like tin geese with iron bills in a basin 
 of water, now sailing gracefully towards their 
 magnetic acquaintance, now turning their backs 
 upon him, and as gracefully sailing away. 
 
 " So you saw both the young men," said Mr 
 Masollam to his daughter, after a cloudy 
 pause. " Tell me about them." And the sun 
 came out. 
 
 " I scarcely saw anything of young Hart- 
 wright," she replied ; " that is why I was so dis- 
 appointed at missing him to-day. He seemed 
 quite absorbed by Miss Clareville, Eeginald 
 Clareville's sister. So, fcmte de mieux, I de-
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 35 
 
 voted myself to Eeginald, cand I must say I 
 rather like him. He is decidedly clever and 
 orio'inal." 
 
 Two bright rays Hashed from the caverns 
 under the bushy brows of the old man as he 
 listened to this, and then went suddenly out, 
 find he sank back into his corner in silence. 
 
 " What did you leave mother to do in 
 Paris ? " asked his daughter, after another lono- 
 pause, during which they had both seemed 
 buried in their own thouo;hts. 
 
 " She is taking care of Santalba — he is not 
 well. It was better so : three of us would 
 have been too much of an intrusion on the 
 hospitality of this cold-blooded Englishman." 
 
 " Why, do you expect to stay with him ? 
 I thought we were going to Carabet's." 
 
 " Under no circumstances should we do that. 
 I have telegraphed to Carabet to take rooms 
 for us at the best hotel, and to meet us at 
 the stcition. In the first place, I doul)t whether 
 he has room for us ; and in the second, it 
 would not be expedient under the circum- 
 stances for us to be the sfucsts of a man who 
 keeps an old curiosity shop. Besides, there 
 are other reasons." A very dark cloud flitted
 
 36 MASOLLAM : 
 
 across the landscape as he uttered this hxst 
 sentence, but it had passed away l)efore he 
 added, "1 do not think it probable, after Mr 
 Hartwright receives our letter of introduction, 
 that he will alhnv us to remain in the hotel 
 — at least, if he decides to postpone his de- 
 parture ; but it does not much matter whether 
 he does or not." 
 
 The larsje town for which our travellers were 
 bound lay in the centre of an important min- 
 ino; district in one of the northern counties 
 of England, and it was nearly midnight before 
 they reached it. On the platform they were 
 met by a dapper little man, who received Mr 
 Masollam with a deference and respect almost 
 amounting to servility, and who manifested 
 in his intercourse with that personage a nerv- 
 ousness and timidity that seemed foreign to 
 his real nature, to judge from the somewhat 
 peremptory vivacity with which he ordered 
 about porters and cabmen in a language which 
 was meant to be English, but which a strong 
 foreign accent rendered almost unintelligible 
 to them. 
 
 " How is Sada ? " asked Mr Masollam in the 
 same language in which he had Ijcen con vers-
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PEEIOD. o7 
 
 iiig with Lis daughter, and in his deepest and 
 darkest tones, after they were all three seated 
 in the cab. There was too little lioht from the 
 flickering gas-lamjDs for Carabet to see the 
 change on the face which corresponded to the 
 voice, but his own trembled as he replied — 
 
 " She is as she always is — no better, no 
 worse. I watch her carefully, sage." 
 
 I can give no better translation of the final 
 epithet used than this, though it implied more, 
 and signified authority combined with wisdom. 
 
 " When do the Hartwridits leave ? " was 
 Mr Masollam's next question. 
 
 " His butler, who, ever since I have been 
 established in this town, has been my most 
 intimate friend," — and Carabet ventured on a 
 little laugh, which did not reach the dimen- 
 sions of an audible chuckle before it was 
 repressed from an instinctive feeling that it 
 would not l)e approved, — " his butler, Mr 
 Sharp, told me yesterday that instead of going 
 to-morrow evening, as they intended when I 
 sent you my telegram, they would not leave 
 till the following morning." 
 
 Mr Masollam drew a caixl from his jDocket, 
 and after inquiring the name of the hotel at
 
 38 MASOLLAM : 
 
 which they were to stay, ordered the cab to 
 stop, while lie carefully wrote it in the corner. 
 
 "Does Mr Hartwright live in the town?" 
 he inquired. 
 
 "No, master," answered Carabet ; " in a 
 mansion on its outskirts, about two miles out. 
 It is a very handsome house ; indeed they say 
 he lives much above his means." 
 
 " To-morrow morning," said MasoUam, in his 
 measured, reproving voice, " I shall have a 
 great many questions to ask you : you need 
 not trouble me with your information now, — 
 keep it till then, and I hope it will prove 
 to be sufficient. You have been spending a 
 good deal of money, my son ; and as some 
 months have elapsed since you have sent any 
 to me, I presume you have not made any." 
 
 "Believe me, I never forget, my master, 
 that my knowledge or information, whatever it 
 may be worth, and my time, and my money, 
 nay, my very life itself, is at your disposal, to 
 do with as you will." 
 
 He was continuing in his profession of faith 
 when he was interrupted by the cab drawing 
 up to the door of the hotel. 
 
 " Here," said Masollam before he got out,
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 39 
 
 Imiidino- the letter of introduction and card 
 to liis follower, "is a letter of introduction 
 and my card, which I wish you personally 
 to convey to your friend Mr Sharp, as early 
 as may be in the morning, and tell him, 
 when he gives it to Mr Hartwright, that the 
 messenger is waiting for an answer : and stay," 
 he added, as, after a profound salute, Carabet 
 was about to take his departure, — " does Sada 
 know that you expected me ? " 
 
 •' She knows nothing. I had no instruc- 
 tions to tell her anything, and kept silence." 
 
 "You did right — keep it still. Good 
 nio-ht," — and Masollam turned a face furrowed 
 with age to the obsequious waiter, and, leaning 
 on his daughter's arm, followed that function- 
 ary with bent frame and tottering steps to the 
 apartments which had been provided for them. 
 
 " I am suffering to-night," he said, when he 
 reached them, and threw himself wearily into 
 an arm-chair. "Carabet has been under my 
 influence now for more than twenty years, and 
 should have more sense of what is going on 
 under his nose. Sada is worse, much worse. 
 I felt it the moment I touched his hand ; and 
 he, though he lives in the house, was too dense
 
 40 MASOLLAM. 
 
 to perceive it. Iliere is something wrong with 
 him too, or he must have felt it," he muttered, 
 after passing his Jiand three or four times 
 slowly over his eyes, from which all light 
 seemed to have absolutely faded away. "We 
 have a, lieavy day before us to-morrow, ni}^ 
 child," lie added, looking up at his daughter, 
 who was standing by his chair with her hand 
 on his shoulder. "Go to bed ; you are tired 
 now, and will need all the r^st you can get for 
 what is in store for us both. I know not 
 what I should do, if it were not for the life I 
 gain from your strong young frame." 
 
 " Surely, father, you will go to bed too," she 
 said; "you who have come all the way from 
 Paris without stopping, must be far more tired 
 than I am." 
 
 " Physically," he replied, with a smile, " I 
 feel no fatigue except in so far as the moral 
 may affect the physical : my nerves are tired, 
 child, or rather they are only the outer casing 
 of what is tired within them — and that has 
 not been made tired l)y travelling, but by the 
 elements with which they are loaded. Go 
 you and sleep for us both, — your repose will 
 rest me, — while T watch."
 
 41 
 
 CHAPTER 111. 
 
 AN ARMENIAN CURIOSITY-DEALER. 
 
 However dense, from Mr Masollam's point of 
 view, Carabet may liave Ijeen in regard to 
 a certain item of information wliicli lie had 
 imparted to his sage and master, he was 
 correct enough as to the two pieces of intel- 
 lisence he had g-iven him with reference to 
 Mr Hartwright. The villa inhabited by that 
 gentleman, which stood in several acres of 
 shrubl;)ery and ornamental grounds, and was 
 called " The Turrets," was not without archi- 
 tectural merit, if, as may be gathered from the 
 name, it had not been too ornate and preten- 
 tious ; while the establishment which he kept 
 up in it was ftir beyond his means — so far 
 beyond them, that he had decided to let it 
 and go abroad, partly to economise, and
 
 42 MASOLLAM : 
 
 partly in the hope of finding some scheme 
 with which he might identify himself as a 
 promoter or concessioner, which would fur- 
 nish him with the capital necessary to meet 
 his most pressing creditors. 
 
 He was not altogether inexperienced in 
 such matters, for as the younger brother of 
 Eichard Hartwright — the celebrated contrac- 
 tor, and father of the young member to whom 
 I have already introduced the reader — he had 
 been interested in many most important fin- 
 ancial enterprises, and indeed in his earlier 
 days had Ijeen a partner in some of them ; 
 but his habits of reckless extravagance, com- 
 bined with a certain moral laxity in financial 
 matters, had decided his elder brother, who 
 was a man of scrupulous probity and sound 
 business capacity, to dissolve all connection 
 with him, and to content himself with tlirow- 
 ino; a good thino; from time to time in his 
 younger brother's way. It was on the top of 
 a cou2:>, made through his brother Richard's 
 instrumentality, that Charles Hartwright suc- 
 ceeded in winning the affections of a young 
 lady possessed of considerable fortune, whom 
 he shortly after married ; and had they been
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 4 
 
 o 
 
 contented to live quietly, their combined 
 resources sufficed to maintain them comfort- 
 ably in a style which corresponded with their 
 position. Mrs Charles Hartwright, unfor- 
 tunately, had aspirations of a social character 
 incompatible with economy. She wanted her 
 husband to be in Parliament, and succeeded 
 in making him spend far more in a contested 
 election, in which he was defeated, than he 
 could afford ; and she made three desperate 
 assaults on London society in three successive 
 seasons, only to be routed shamefully on each 
 occasion, — a circumstance the more galling, 
 because she saw success achieved by rivals who 
 seemed in her prejudiced eyes inferior to her- 
 self in the four great requisites for it — wealth, 
 beauty, talent, and impudence. When to these 
 political and social excesses were added the 
 cares of a family of three sons and two daugh- 
 ters, some of whom inherited the extravagant 
 habits of both father and mother, and had 
 come to an age when expensive dresses for 
 the girls, and hunting for the youths, were the 
 indispensable adjuncts of life, it became evi- 
 dent to Charles Hartwright and his wife that 
 a crash could only be averted, either by a
 
 44 MASOLLAM : 
 
 reduction of their establishment, which would 
 compromise tliem in the eyes of such aristo- 
 cratic friends as they had succeeded at a 
 great sacrifice of self-respect in making, or 
 by a temporary exile, during which it might 
 be hoped tliat something would turn up l)y 
 means of which their shattered fortunes mio;ht 
 be repaired. 
 
 Hartwright was brooding over his pros- 
 pects in his dressing-room, in an especially 
 unamiable frame of mind, for a hitch had 
 occurred at the last moment with the solicitor 
 with whom he was in negotiation for the lease 
 of his house, when his valet entered with a 
 letter and a card, saying, as he handed them 
 to his master — 
 
 " Mr Sharp told me to say that the mes- 
 senger w^as waiting, in case you wanted to 
 send an answer, sir." 
 
 Hartwright took them with the air of a 
 man whose communications w^ere generally of 
 an unpleasant nature, and after glancing at 
 the card slowly, perused the letter. Then 
 he took up the card again, looked at it more 
 carefully, and pondered. 
 
 "Bring me my waiting-materials," he said
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 45 
 
 at leiicctli, "and tell Jane to ask her mistress 
 to step here for a moment." 
 
 The servant disappeared, and shortly after 
 Mrs Hartwright, in an elaborately embroid- 
 ered 'peignoir, entered the room. 
 
 " Look at those," — and her husband gave 
 her the letter and the card. 
 
 " Well, what do you propose to do about 
 them?" said the lady, after complying with 
 his request. 
 
 " That is just what I sent for you to con- 
 sult about : it mig;ht be worth our while to 
 put off our departure for a few days, and see 
 what these people are like — more particu- 
 larly as I have just heard from Travers that 
 he will not take the house for his client, 
 who is a hunting man, unless I pay for the 
 repairs of the stables. Santalba is a man 
 who generally knows what he is about, and 
 he would not write so strongly unless he had 
 good reason for doing so. I was thinking of 
 writing to invite this Mr Masollam and his 
 daughter to come and dine and sleep." 
 
 " It will be very inconvenient," answered 
 Mrs Hartwright ; " half the things are packed 
 — we are all in confusion. I have already
 
 46 MASOLLAM : 
 
 settled witli some of the servants ; l)esides," 
 she added, somewhat inconsequently, after a 
 pause, " MasoUam is such a very odd name, 
 don't you think we had better see them first ? 
 Suppose we begin by asking them to lunch, 
 — we can always extend our invitation if we 
 find it best to make the effort ; and it will 
 be an effort, I assure you, Charles. Men 
 never can realise what an amount of bother 
 rootings-up of this sort entail." 
 
 Her husband looked at her with a grim 
 smile. 
 
 " If your amount of bother, as you call it, 
 were put in the balance against mine, I have 
 very little doubt wdiich would kick the beam. 
 However, we will not discuss that now ; let 
 it be as you say. I will invite them to 
 luncheon, and we will be guided as to what 
 civility we show them beyond that, by our 
 judgment as to the use they may be turned 
 to." From which it will appear that, what- 
 ever tliey might be in public, Mr and Mrs 
 Hartwright scorned humbug in their inter- 
 course with each other. 
 
 When, an hour later, Mr Hartwright's in- 
 vitation to luncheon was handed to Masollam,
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 47 
 
 that great Asiatic mystery was in liis most 
 youthful mood : his erect frame and sparkling 
 eyes quite startled the waiter who had helped 
 him to his room the preceding evening. Mr 
 Carabet had arrived early, and had been im- 
 parting information for some time, apparently 
 of a cheering kind. He had even had the 
 honour of breakfasting with the sage, who, 
 after looking at his watch, turned to his 
 daughter. 
 
 " Amina," he said, " Mr Hartwright has 
 kindly invited us to luncheon. As we shall 
 not need to start for more than a couple of 
 hours, suppose we w^alk round with Carabet 
 and see Sada ? " 
 
 "You should have seen the astonishment 
 of the natives," observed Carabet to his com- 
 panions, as he led the way, " when I first 
 dazzled their eyes with a glim23se of the taste 
 and the splendour of the East. The curiosity 
 and interest which it excited in a second-rate 
 town like this convinces me that, with the 
 growing taste for assthetic decoration, a great 
 field is oj^en to enterprising speculators from 
 the East, if they would try their fortunes in 
 the largest centres of population. As it is,
 
 48 MASOLLAM : 
 
 I believe mine is tlic only cstablisliment of 
 the kind outside of London. And I " 
 
 " Eemember, my son, tliat it is only a 
 means to an end," interrupted Masollam, 
 " and do not let your trading instincts divert 
 you from the higher aims which give our 
 lives a meaning imknown to the world at 
 large. You distract me with your commer- 
 cial gabble." 
 
 As he thus spoke, they turned down the 
 street in which Mr Carabet's shop was situ- 
 ated, and which seemed rather too quiet to 
 be considered eligible as a business locality; 
 but possibly it had other advantages which 
 compensated for this inconvenience. The 
 hric-a-lwac in which he dealt was almost 
 exclusively oriental. Besides a very fair as- 
 sortment of Egyptian and Syrian antiquities, 
 which had every appearance of being genuine, 
 there were Persian carpets and brass-work ; 
 silks from Bagdad ; filigree silver-work, kuf- 
 fiyehs and ahdyehs, from Damascus ; Bedouin 
 bangles, olive-wood, and mother-of-pearl orna- 
 ments from Jerusalem, and many of the cheaper 
 articles of Eastern manufacture adapted to all 
 classes of customers. Indeed in some respects
 
 A PKOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 49 
 
 the collection seemed too good for the country 
 town in which he had established himself, 
 and implied a confidence in the artistic and 
 aesthetic tendencies of the inhabitants which 
 it was extremely improbable that the results 
 would justify. That, however, was Mr Car- 
 abet's own affair. He was in the habit of 
 assuring his customers that he had no reason 
 to be dissatisfied with the patronage he was 
 receiving. He depended for it, he said, not 
 so much upon the people of the town as of 
 the country. His reputation was spreading. 
 People interested in such things made long 
 railway journeys expressly to see his collec- 
 tion ; and he had the satisfaction of knowing 
 that while he was putting money into his 
 pocket, he was the means of developing in the 
 manufacturing and rural districts of England 
 a taste for art, which could only be accom- 
 plished by persons who were willing to take 
 the risk of forcing it upon their notice by 
 bringing treasures of this description to their 
 very doors. Indeed he carried his zeal for 
 the general good in these matters so far, as to 
 exhibit specimens of all the different descriji- 
 tions of fraudulent imitations which are manu- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 MASOLLAM : 
 
 fcictiired to orclcr, and are current in the East, 
 for the benefit of the unwary traveller ; and 
 he even derived a small income by giving 
 private lessons on the subject. Mr Carabet, 
 who had an artless and unsophisticated mind, 
 was wont to confess to the customers with 
 whom he dealt the most largely, and from 
 whom he obtained the highest prices, that 
 he had scruples of conscience lest his pupils, 
 instead of being amateurs and tourists, who 
 came to him to learn how to buy the true, 
 were themselves manufacturers of base imi- 
 tations, who came to learn by minute ex- 
 amination of the originals how to make the 
 false. The frankness with which Mr Carabet 
 asked the advice of high-minded customers 
 on this knotty point, his great learning as a 
 numismatist, and the anxiety he showed *to 
 adjust his prices to the intrinsic value of the 
 articles he sold, made it impossible for any one 
 to suspect that he was himself one of the most 
 skilful fabricators of forgeries living. But it 
 was none the less a ]3roud boast of Mr Cara- 
 bet's, and a true one, that nobody who came 
 to buy genuine antiques from him had ever 
 purchased a forgery, or even paid a higher
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 51 
 
 price than the article was worth. In pro- 
 pounding his moral difficulties to his cus- 
 tomers, however, and explaining to them 
 the nature of the frauds perpetrated by less 
 scrupulous dealers than himself, it never 
 occurred to him to ask whether they con- 
 sidered it dishonest for a man to make 
 forgeries and sell them confidentially as such, 
 to men who came to buy them. As he was 
 a quick and remarkably intelligent man, with 
 a considerable charm of manner, which was 
 rather enhanced than otherwise in the eyes 
 of the natives by his eager efforts to master 
 their language — in which, during nearly a 
 year's residence, he had made tolerable pro- 
 gress — he had, at the expiration of that time, 
 won for himself a fair amount of respect and 
 popularity, which would have been far greater 
 vrere it not for a circumstance to which I am 
 about to allude. 
 
 His establishment was a modest one, and 
 consisted of a small house in an unfrequented 
 street, the lower portion of which was devoted 
 to the shop in which his articles were dis- 
 played, and to the storage of his wares. 
 Above this, he lived alone with his sister,
 
 52 MASOLLAM : 
 
 Sada, who was known by name to his neigh- 
 bours as Miss Carabet, and with whom he had 
 returned from the East two or three months 
 before. I say known by name, because she 
 had never been seen by any of them. This 
 they naturally regarded in the light of a per- 
 sonal injury, to which insult was added when 
 the most persistent inquiries addressed both 
 to the cook and housemaid — who were them- 
 selves townspeople, and burning with curiosity 
 — were absolutely fruitless. Mr Carabet occu- 
 pied the whole of the first floor, and his sister 
 the whole of the second. She performed all 
 the menial services required to keep her own 
 apartments in order herself, and was known 
 to take her exercise on the leads, because she 
 was a constant object of observation through 
 opera-glasses from the back windows of the 
 upper floors of the houses in the neighbouring 
 street, but they were too far off" to enable the 
 observers to distinguish her features. She 
 was always seen drying her clothes upon 
 them, from which it was inferred that she 
 had washed them herself, and this was borne 
 out by the testimony of Mary and Jane. 
 Neither of the servants above named were
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. bo 
 
 iillowed to ascend to tlie second storey : this 
 was a privilege which Mr Carabet reserved for 
 himself. He caused sufficient to be served for 
 two at each of his meals, and always carried 
 up his sister's portion before sitting down to 
 his own. The natural presumption was that 
 she was idiotic or insane ; but as her brother 
 usually spent some portion of each day with 
 her, and, so far as could be gathered from 
 the close observation of the servants, treated 
 her with marked consideration and respect, 
 a certain discredit was thrown upon this 
 hypothesis. 
 
 There was another mystery connected with 
 Mr Carabet which also exercised the imasrina- 
 
 o 
 
 tions of his servants — neither of whom, by the 
 way, slept in the house ; and this was the 
 locked room on his own floor. Into this room 
 no one l3ut himself was allowed to enter, under 
 any pretext whatever ; in fact it was impos- 
 sible, for he always kept the key in his pocket. 
 Indeed his first act on takins; the house was 
 to have a patent lock pi\t on the door. When 
 he was not in the shop, which he usually left 
 in charge of a trustworthy lad, except when 
 he was summoned by a customer, he was
 
 54 MASOLLAM : 
 
 either locked up in this room or up-stairs with 
 his sister, who seemed in some way to assist 
 him in his oc(5upation, for he was constantly 
 carrying small ol)jects up and down. 
 
 Visitors who did not come to buy anything 
 were so rare, that both the cook and the 
 housemaid rushed to the top of the kitchen 
 stairs when they heard a rustle in the passage, 
 and great was their astonishment when they 
 saw a lady and gentleman enter Mr Carabet's 
 sitting - room. This was immeasurably in- 
 creased when, from a coign of vantage on a 
 landing, they watched their master open the 
 mysterious chamber, and usher his visitors 
 into it. But a still more astounding surprise 
 was in store for them ; for a few moments 
 later the male visitor issued from the chamber 
 alone, and delilierately walked up-stairs to Miss 
 Carabet's floor, followed about a quarter of an 
 hour afterwards l)y the female visitor. They 
 must have remained there at least an hour. 
 Mr Carabct, in the meanwhile, had locked 
 himself into his room after his lady visitor 
 had left it, and stayed there until l^oth the 
 lady and gentleman had finished their visit to 
 Miss Carabet ; when, summoned by a knock
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 55 
 
 at the door, lie emerged, locked it again, and 
 they all three left the house. 
 
 " Well, I never seen the like of it," said 
 Mary to Jane, as they descended to the lower 
 regions to discuss this remarkable incident. 
 " One would ha' thought that old gentleman 
 'ad stayed up with Miss Carabet twenty years 
 by the look o' him, instead of an hour by the 
 clock. Did you see 'ow he went up two steps 
 at a time, and came down a 'oldin' on by the 
 banisters, as if 'is legs would give way under 
 him, like a old man of eighty ? " 
 
 " Ah, I did ; and I see more than that. 
 There was dimonds in that young woman's 
 ears worth a mint. I couldn't take my hi's 
 hoff of 'em," responded the cook. " A beauty 
 she is, to l^e sure 1 Mark my words, Mary, — 
 there'll be a tragiety committed in this 'ere 
 'ouse some day ; and now I know why I 
 dreamt, no longer ago than last night it 
 was, that I M^as in the witness - box, and 
 IVIr Carabet a standin' right hopposite to me, 
 as it might be there, with a rope round 'is 
 neck." 
 • " It may have l)een meant for an awful 
 warning," said Mary.
 
 56 MA80LLAM : 
 
 (I Ti 
 
 That's just wliat I says to myself," re- 
 turned her companion. " A warning received 
 means, by contraries, a warning given, I says ; 
 and so soon as Mr Carabet comes 'ome, I'm 
 blessed if I don't give it." 
 
 The cook had not long to wait before an 
 opportunity was afforded to her of putting her 
 threat into execution ; for Masollam dismissed 
 Carabet at the door of his room with a gesture 
 of impatience, and turning to his daughter as 
 soon as he had disappeared, said, in a voice 
 -SO feeble as to be almost a whisper — 
 
 ' ' I did wrong, Amina, in paying that visit 
 when I did — it will make us late for our ap- 
 pointment ; but it cannot now be helped. 
 " Quick," he added, as he sank at full length 
 upon a couch; " put your hands upon my head." 
 
 At the same moment, with rapid but trem- 
 bling fingers, he undid his shirt -collar, and 
 bared the upper part of his chest. 
 
 The girl, to whom the injunction seemed 
 familiar, pressed both her palms upon his 
 temples, from which she had drawn back the 
 heavy locks, and stood for a few moments 
 motionless. Then she slowly moved one 
 hand to his forehead, while she placed the
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 57 
 
 other upon the lower part of the back brain, 
 and again pressed, but in an opposite direc- 
 tion, with the same firm but gentle force. As 
 she did so, her own respiration underwent a 
 remarkable change. The breathing became 
 deeper, fuller, and more prolonged, until her 
 lungs seemed to acquire a power of unnatural 
 expansion, while that of her father appeared 
 altogether to have ceased : his eyes had closed, 
 his whole frame stiffened, as the gentle heaving 
 of his chest subsided into complete quiescence ; 
 and, except for a faint colour in his cheeks, 
 wdiich was not the hue of death, he would to 
 a casual observer have presented all the ap- 
 pearance of a corpse. Amina now withdrew 
 her hands from her father's head, and pouring 
 a few drops of a liquid, which had a strong 
 aromatic odour, from a small phial into some 
 water, she steeped her hands in it for a few 
 moments, then taking a chair, she drew it to 
 the side of the couch, and lifting one of the 
 apparently lifeless hands, held it between both 
 her ow^n, watching, as it seemed, for some in- 
 dication know^n to herself, to guide her as to 
 her further proceedings. She sat thus for 
 half an hour, motionless, except for the deep,
 
 58 MASOLLAM I 
 
 measured breaths, under the inllueiiee of which, 
 at long intervals, her bosom rose and fell. 
 Suddenly her face flushed, a slight tremor 
 shook her whole being, her breath came in 
 short quick gasps, with great apj^arent diffi- 
 culty. Instantly letting drop the hand which 
 she had hitherto clasped, she placed her own 
 upon that part of MasoUam's chest which was 
 bared, and rubbed it briskly. After a few 
 moments her exertions were rewarded by a 
 quiver of his eyelids, which he slowly raised, 
 drawing a deep, full breath : it seemed as 
 though it were answered by a corresponding 
 change in the respiration of his daughter, and 
 for some minutes their breathing was abso- 
 lutely synchronous. At last Masollam passed 
 his hand two or three times over his eyes, 
 and said — 
 
 " Carabet has been faithless." 
 
 " In what respect, father ? " 
 
 "He has been corresponding with your 
 mother without my knowledge." 
 
 " Then she also has l^een faithless for not 
 telling you of it." 
 
 " She acted for the best — she was afraid it 
 might cause me suffering to know it, but she
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 59 
 
 did wroiiiT : she o;ave liim directions without 
 consulting me, which have resulted in for 
 greater mischief, and therefore suffering, than 
 if she had shown me Carabet's letters." 
 
 "Had they reference to Sada? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Did she say nothing to you about it l)efore 
 I came up-stairs ? " 
 
 " AVhat could she say ? she knew nothing 
 about it. I only myself knew it a moment ago. 
 It has just been presented to me in a form 
 which has enabled me to read it." 
 
 " Did you see anything else — anything to 
 help you in our approaching visit to the 
 Hartwrights ? " 
 
 "Have you not learnt, child, that the con- 
 ditions under which I am enabled to penetrate 
 into regions which are closed to the common 
 herd, are encompassed with strict limitations ? 
 I was taken away to be made aware of a certain 
 specific fact connected with my own people, 
 and the special influences under which they 
 act. When the time arrives for me to be 
 brouo'ht into relations with those which affect 
 the people we are going to see, and revelations 
 are necessary with regard to them, they will
 
 60 MASOLLAM. 
 
 Le made to mc. However, I have seen some- 
 thing which may be of use ; " and he went to 
 a table and wrote hurriedly for a moment. 
 " Meantime," he continued, " the external 
 sources of information which I possess, and the 
 facts which have already come to my know- 
 ledge, will suffice for the present. We have 
 not a moment to lose, however, if we are to 
 avail ourselves of them : quick, order the fly." 
 " It has been standing at the door for the 
 last half-hour, father : I ordered it to be ready 
 at one, before we went out — it is only half-past 
 now ; and we can make the man drive fast."
 
 61 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MR CHARLES HARTWRIGHT's FINANCIAL 
 CONFIDENCES. 
 
 Charles Hartwright had spent so many of 
 the earlier years of his life on the Continent, 
 in connection with his brother's financial en- 
 terprises, that he spoke French fluently, and 
 on the entrance of Mr Masollam and his 
 dano-hter, addressed them in that lano-uao-e 
 with all the empressement of a man accus- 
 tomed to foreign ways, and desirous of making 
 a good impression upon his guests, 
 
 " Our mutual friend the Count, to whom I 
 am indebted for the pleasure of making your 
 acquaintance," he remarked, " failed to tell me 
 in his letter whether this was your first visit 
 to England, and whether you are acquainted 
 with our language, which must be my a^Dology 
 for addressing you in French."
 
 62 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " It is the first visit to England of my 
 daughter, hut I spent some of the earlier years 
 of my life in this country," remarked Masollam 
 in Enoiish ; " and as I am anxious that she 
 should acquire English more perfectly, and I 
 myself am a little out of practice, you will be 
 doiuo- us both a kindness to let us continue 
 our conversation in it." 
 
 Hartwiight complimented his guest, not 
 without reason, on the excellence of his accent, 
 and ]Mrs Hartwrioht drew a sio-h of relief at 
 finding that her own linguistic acquirements 
 were not to be tested. As two of the young; 
 ladies and one of the young- gentlemen were 
 present, and the conversation at luncheon 
 turned chiefly upon topics political and social, 
 it is without interest for our readers. 
 
 According to a preconcerted scheme, it had 
 been arranged between the worthy couple 
 whose guests the Masollams now were, that 
 after luncheon Mrs Hartwrigiit should take 
 the lady into the garden and estimate her 
 value, and her husband should retire into his 
 study with her father, and judge what use was 
 to be made of him : and that on meeting; after- 
 wards, they should signify the result to each 
 other by a certain secret code of sig;nals, and
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 63 
 
 that Mr Hartwrigiit would be guided thereby 
 as to the nature and extent of the invitation, 
 if any, that was to be extended to them. In 
 pm'suance of this arrangement, Mrs Hart- 
 wiight carried off Amina to the conservatory, 
 to show her some exotics from the East ; and 
 MasoUam accompanied her husband to his own 
 den, to test the merits of some Syrian tobacco. 
 
 " I must apologise for the somewhat dis- 
 ordered condition of the room," said Hart- 
 wriofht : " but the fact is, as Santalba will 
 have perhaps informed you, that we were 
 meditating a trip to the Continent, and I 
 have only put it ofi" at the last moment in 
 consequence of difficulties raised by the man 
 to whom I expected to let my house during 
 my absence." 
 
 " The Count merely told me that he thought 
 there were some matters in which my experi- 
 ence might be of service to you, and as I was 
 coming to England at any rate, begged me to 
 lose no time in calling upon you : he is so old 
 and valued a friend of mine, that I was only 
 too slad to think that I could be of use to one 
 with whom, as I understood, he had been so 
 intimately associated in early life." 
 
 " We were a good deal thrown together in
 
 64 MASOLLAM : 
 
 some enterprises abroad at one time — for my 
 brother Richard had such a high opinion of 
 his sagacity, that he confided to him many of 
 his most important affairs, in which I was also 
 interested. That some tie of a very close, and 
 I may almost say mysterious nature, existed 
 between them, connected probably in some 
 way with their financial relations, may be in- 
 ferred from the fact that on his death, which 
 took place a few months before Sebastian came 
 of age, he not only made the Count his son's 
 sole guardian, but made a will leaving his entire 
 property unreservedly to Count Santalba. It 
 seems that there was a private understanding, 
 that on Sebastian's coming of age, the Count 
 should transfer it to my nephew, though this 
 did not appear in the will." 
 
 " And did Santalba make the property over 
 to his ward on the latter attaining his ma- 
 jority?" asked Masollam. 
 
 " I believe he did. I have no means of 
 knowing exactly. At all events, he made over 
 enough to make my nephew an extremely 
 wealthy man." 
 
 Masollam's brow clouded, and for a moment 
 he remained buried in deep thought.
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. C5 
 
 " Go on," he said, suddenly, and in a some- 
 what more peremptory tone than was quite 
 agreeable to his host. 
 
 " I have little more to say," continued that 
 gentleman. " For some time past I have had 
 but little intercourse with Santalba, who 
 seems to have entirely abandoned his old 
 pursuits, and to have withdrawn from the 
 world of which at one time he was a distin- 
 guished ornament, and to lead a mysterious 
 and secluded life, apparently connected with 
 a mystical society of some sort, the nature 
 and objects of which none of his old friends 
 have been able to understand. The last time 
 I saw him was at my brother's funeral. Since 
 then he has taken no notice of several letters 
 which I have written to him, the last scarcely 
 a month since, in wdiich I referred to certain 
 difficulties I now find myself placed in. I am 
 happy to think," continued Hartwright, with 
 a polite inclination of the head, "that I am 
 indebted to it for the honour of your visit : 
 it proves at least that he is alive, and that I 
 may still regard him as a friend. Perhaps 
 you can throw some light upon his strange 
 conduct." 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 66 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " Yes," said Masollam, slowly, with one of 
 his sudden changes of manner, in a voice that 
 sounded to his startled auditor like a distant 
 echo, and eyes so shrunken that they were 
 barely visible in the depths of their enormous 
 recesses, " there is no man living who can 
 throw so much light upon your friend's life 
 as I can ; but," he added, and paused as 
 though taking a mental inventory of the 
 moral and intellectual faculties of the man 
 he was speaking to, " it would only dazzle 
 you if I did." 
 
 Hartwright felt a shiver pass over him as 
 his singular visitor, whose head had been 
 bowed forward as though in an attitude of 
 intense inquisition, threw it suddenly back, 
 and projected his burning glance upon him. 
 It was as though he had withdrawn the slides 
 of a couple of dark lanterns, as if to give point 
 to his remark. 
 
 "Would only dazzle me," he murmured, 
 repeating mechanically MasoUam's last words ; 
 and making a violent effort to shake off the 
 impression they had produced, he added, " Be 
 it so : I really have no great curiosity in the 
 matter. If it amuses Santalba, it does not
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PEIIIOD. G7 
 
 hurt me." He spoke half mockingly, half 
 testily, annoyed with himself at the fleeting 
 emotion he had experienced, and it was a 
 moment or two liefore he completely re- 
 covered his equanimity. After a pause, which 
 Masollam showed no inclination to break, he 
 said at last — 
 
 "You are jDerhaps aware of the contents of 
 the Count's letter ? " 
 
 " I am," replied his visitor, " and am only 
 waitinof to know in what manner I can serve 
 you ; " and fitting a cigarette into a long amber 
 mouthpiece, he lit it, as an intimation appar- 
 ently to his host that he was as patient as he 
 was indifi'erent on the suljject. 
 
 Hartwright laid his cheek on his hand, and 
 seemed for some moments lost in meditation. 
 
 "Mr Masollam," he said at length, "half 
 confidences are worse than no confidences. I 
 tell you frankly, I should like first to know 
 what your motive is in putting yourself out 
 of your way to try and serve me, before I 
 give you all mine." 
 
 " My motive, as I have already told you," 
 replied his guest, "is to serve my friend : that 
 I cannot serve him, or he me, without each of
 
 68 MASOLLAM : 
 
 US serving in one sense himself, arises from 
 the fixct tliat, as our aims and objects in life 
 are identical, our interests must be identical 
 also. AVliat those aims, objects, and interests 
 are, it is impossible, for the reason I have 
 already stated, for me now to impart to you," 
 
 " You think tlicj would dazzle me, eh ? " 
 said Hart Wright, with a sneer. 
 
 "Are you in earnest in asking that ques- 
 tion ? " exclaimed MasoUam, with such a sharp, 
 stern emphasis, that Hartwright was taken 
 aback by it. 
 
 " I did not mean so much to ask a ques- 
 tion," he stammered, "as to repeat what you 
 said. As, however, it is asked, I should be 
 glad to have an answer." 
 
 " Pardon me. I do not wish to press you 
 to ask it — we can leave the matter where it 
 is : or if you really desire to know more," 
 — and Masollam leant forward and extended 
 his hand, — " I must request you to place your 
 hand in mine." 
 
 Hartwright, anxious to retrieve the breach 
 of politeness of which he had been guilty, 
 did as he was asked, and became instantly 
 aware that he had never felt such an uncom-
 
 A PllOBLEM OF THE i'EKIOD. 69 
 
 fortaljle liaiid in his life. He hud not observed 
 anything peculiar about it on the occasion of 
 their first meeting, nor could he accurately de- 
 scribe why it was unpleasant now : it was not 
 cold, nor hard, nor clammy— on the contrary, 
 it was warm and soft ; but there was an in- 
 describable feeling of thinness and unsubstan- 
 tiality about it, which did not strike one at 
 the first touch, l)ut seemed to grow upon one 
 the longer the contact was maintained, until 
 it 25roduced a sensation of nervous irritabil- 
 ity wliicli l)ecame almost unbearable, Hart- 
 wright was by no means a man of nervous 
 temperament ; but for some time after he got 
 back his hand, he felt, as he told his wife 
 afterwards, as if it was c[uite diff'erent from 
 his other one, and had been tampered with 
 in some way. 
 
 Mr Masollam, on releasing the hand of his 
 host, turned upon him a smile of aftectionate 
 interest and urbanity as he observed — 
 
 " Further investigation convinces me that I 
 was mistaken in my first appreciation. I now 
 perceive that I was wrong in supposing that 
 any light which I might throw upon the suli- 
 ject of your inquiry would dazzle you. The
 
 70 MASOLLAM : 
 
 capacity of Ijeiiig dazzled, implies the capacity 
 of receiving light." 
 
 " In other words," said Hartwright, who did 
 not fail to apprehend the full force of this 
 remark, " you mean to convey to me politely 
 that I should be incapable of understanding 
 the aims in life which animate Santalba and 
 yourself." 
 
 " I think it possible that, in a vague and 
 general way, you might understand the aims, 
 though it is quite impossible that you could 
 sympathise with them. What you are ab- 
 solutely incapable of apprehending are the 
 methods we employ to accomplish those aims, 
 and the processes necessary to the achievement 
 of the great ends we have in view. I do not 
 speak thus in a sense which is in any way 
 derogatory to your natural intelligence, which 
 is great. It is not the ffiult of any man that 
 he was born without an ear for music, and 
 should neither sympathise in the object which 
 Beethoven had in view when he sat down 
 to compose a symphony, nor apprehend the 
 methods by which he arrived at it. You have 
 very fine talents, and cannot do better than 
 use them for the purposes for which they can
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 71 
 
 be made most available. It lias pleased Provi- 
 dence to endow me with o-ifts of another kind, 
 and, as I have already said, they are at your 
 service — that is to say, if you are satisfied 
 with this explanation, which is the only one 
 I can give you, of my motives for offering 
 them." 
 
 There was an assumption of patronising 
 authority and calm superiority on the part of 
 the speaker which was calculated to irritate 
 the vanity of his listener, the more especially 
 as he was conscious that he was being irresist- 
 ibly imposed upon by it. At the same time, 
 his confidence in Santalba's judgment, and the 
 allusion contained in the letter of the latter, 
 to the dano'cr of his allowino; his own narrow 
 prejudices to interfere with his interests, dis- 
 posed him to weigh carefully in his mind the 
 consequences of rejecting an offer made under 
 such sing-ular conditions. After a few mo- 
 ments' reflection, he came to the conclusion to 
 take Mr Masollam at his own valuation, and 
 to admit him frankly into his confidence. 
 
 " You know possibly something of my 
 family and myself from Santalba, and have 
 doubtless heard him speak of my nephew,
 
 72 MASOLLAM : 
 
 Sebastian Hartwriglit, if you do not know 
 that young man personally," he said. 
 
 " I have heard so high a character of him 
 from the Count," returned Masollam, " that it 
 has o;iven me a OTeat desire to make his ac- 
 quaintance, which I have never had the pleas- 
 ure of doing." 
 
 " I should say he was a young man remark- 
 ably receptive of that species of light to which 
 I am unfortunately so blind," rejoined Hart- 
 wriglit, who had not quite got over the feeling 
 of offence to which Masollam's previous remark 
 had given rise. " He is one of the privileged 
 few whom, I understand, Santalba still admits 
 to his intimacy, and indeed entertains views 
 the most strange and fantastic upon many 
 subjects. However, these are not what I now 
 desire to discuss, though it may be necessary to 
 allude to them hereafter. His father and I," 
 pursued Hartwriglit, after a short pause, " were 
 the only children of a civil engineer who had 
 not made a success of his profession, but who, 
 nevertheless, gave us both a good education, 
 and died in extremely mediocre circumstances. 
 Our mother did not long survive him, and 
 at the age of two- and three-and-twenty we
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 73 
 
 were left to push our fortunes in the world. 
 It is unnecessary for me to describe the 
 details of my elder brother's rapid and most 
 successful career as a contractor for railways 
 and other public works. They were prin- 
 cipally in foreign countries, many of them 
 undertaken in conjunction with the Count, 
 who, thougli noble, was in early life impecuni- 
 ous, and whose foreign training — for he had 
 been in diplomacy — and extensive knowledge 
 of puljlic men, rendered him a most valual)le 
 colleague. Unfortunately, my brother did not 
 entertain the same opinion in regard to myself 
 in that capacity. After associating me in one 
 or two of his earlier enterprises, he left me 
 to push my own fortunes, which I did, tant 
 hien que mal, and settled down here some 
 years ago with my wife, having had no great 
 cause to complain of fate. Unfortunately, just 
 before my brother's death we had a rather 
 warm discussion upon a family matter, which 
 left a coolness between us, to which I attribute 
 the fact that he died with barely a mention 
 of me in his will." 
 
 "Will you allow me to ask what was the 
 subject of difference ? " interrupted ]\Iasollam.
 
 K 
 
 4 MASOLLAM : 
 
 "My wife and I thought that it woukl be 
 desirable, if possible, to bring about a union 
 between my eldest daughter Florence and 
 Sebastian, more especially as the young lady 
 manifested a decided j^^nchant for her cousin." 
 
 " Was it reciprocated ? " 
 
 " Not exactly ; but Sebastian was an obedi- 
 ent son, and, I have no doubt, would have 
 consented had his father pressed him. This 
 he refused to do on the score of his youth, 
 — hence our difference. But to continue, the 
 whole property, which must amount to nearly 
 a million sterling, invested principally in coal- 
 mines and house property in this town, for 
 which, as you are perhaps aware, Sel)astian 
 is the sitting member, was left to Santalba, 
 and, as I have already explained, subsequently 
 transferred to Sebastian by the Count." 
 
 "Who appears to have carried out the testa- 
 tor's wishes in a most honourable manner," 
 again interrupted Masollam. 
 
 " I am not disputing that ; my remark had 
 reference to the fact that, if the matrimonial 
 alliance to which I have alluded was pros- 
 pectively desirable during my brother's life- 
 time, it is much more so now that my own
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 75 
 
 financial position has become compromised, 
 and that his son has inherited his property, 
 and shoukl be much more easy of accomplish- 
 ment, since the father is no longer alive to 
 throw obstacles in the way." 
 
 " Such being so palpably the case, how is 
 it you have not accomplished it ? I suppose 
 you have adopted the usual methods for 
 throwing the young people together. I think 
 that is the correct phrase," — and Masollam 
 smiled with such a sweet expression of sym- 
 pathy and interest, that Hartwright failed to 
 detect the sneer that it concealed. 
 
 " Everything that an affectionate father, a 
 devoted mother, and a daughter as accom- 
 plished and dutiful as she is attractive — you 
 will make allowances for a parent's partiality — ■ 
 could do, has been done. Sebastian constantly 
 comes and stays with us when on a visit to 
 his constituency : he is uniformly kind to his 
 cousins, and at times esj^ecially so to Florence ; 
 but there appears to be some subtle influence 
 at work, which always seems to prevent him 
 from — from — coming to the point, in fact." 
 
 "Perhaps he is in love with some one else." 
 
 " No ; we have been very particular in our
 
 76 MASOLLAM : 
 
 investigations in that matter, tlirougli some 
 friends in London who take a warm interest 
 in him, and have excellent opportunities of 
 watching his proceedings, and we arc most 
 positively assured that such is not the case." 
 
 At this moment the door was opened, and 
 a servant entered with a teleo;ram. 
 
 " For Mr MasoUam, sir," he said, giving it 
 to that gentleman, but addressing his master, 
 who was instinctively holding out his hand 
 for it. 
 
 With an apology for opening it, the recipi- 
 ent cast a momentary and indifferent glance 
 at the contents ; then, as he carelessly twisted 
 it into divers shapes, finally thrusting the hand 
 which held it into his pocket, he remarked, 
 with the distant air of a man who is chieHy 
 occu2:)ied with, the contemplation of his own 
 affiiirs, and takes no trouble to conceal the 
 fact that he is being bored — 
 
 "And you wish to enlist my services in 
 discovering this subtle oj^posing influence, and 
 overcoming it, eh ? " 
 
 There are few things more irritating to a 
 man's vanity than to force his most intimate 
 confidences from him, and then to treat them
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 77 
 
 with levity. And there was a lurking mockery 
 in Masollam's tone as he uttered the last words, 
 and then Ijecamc suddenly absorbed in watch- 
 ino- the convolutions of a wreath of tobacco- 
 smoke, which stung Hartwright to the quick. 
 For the second time during the interview he 
 felt himself invaded, as it were, by such a sen- 
 sation of antipathy, as to make it difficult for 
 him to resist putting an end to the conver- 
 sation by an outburst of insolence ; but his 
 better judgment suggested, after a moment's 
 reflection, that there was nothing to be gained 
 by c[uarrelling with his guest, after having 
 in some measure put himself in his power, 
 and that the only course left to him was to 
 smother his indignation, and put his trust in 
 Santalba's recommendation. He determined, 
 however, to waste as few words as possible, 
 and replied with a sullen bluntness, " To make 
 a long story short, I want you to exercise 
 those mysterious powers which Santalba hints 
 that you possess, and to which you seem to 
 make pretension, and bring about a match 
 between my daughter and my nephew." 
 
 "By means of a love - philtre, perhaps?" 
 and this time the sneer was undisguised.
 
 78 MASOLLAM : 
 
 "I do not pretend to know the difference 
 between the metliods employed by sages and 
 those practised 1 >y witches ; 1 have not much 
 confidence in either of them," retorted Hart- 
 wright, angrily. " Nor, if you will pardon my 
 saying so, am I aware of my having given 
 you any reason to employ a tone towards me 
 which savours of contempt. Perhaps," he 
 added, with a scornful curl of his lip, "it is 
 because I have not yet alluded to the delicate 
 subject of remuneration for your services ; but 
 you must perceive that the sum e7i jeu will 
 furnish an ample margin to meet charges of 
 this nature." 
 
 The speaker had scarcely finished the sen- 
 tence when, to his consternation, his strange 
 o;uest was seized with an uncontrollable fit 
 of trembling, which lasted for more than a 
 minute. 
 
 " What is the matter now ? have you caught 
 a chill ? " exclaimed Hartwright. " Will you let 
 me send for a glass of wine ? " 
 
 " Don't chatter any more, but tell me how 
 much money you require at once." 
 
 Masollam's eyes were closed as he said this 
 in so low a tone as to be scarcely audible,
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE TERIOD. 79 
 
 while the purport of the remark was so unex- 
 pected, that Hartwright literally did not know 
 whether to l)elieve his ears. A prey, for the 
 moment, to a conflict of emotions, his com- 
 mon-sense and urgent needs once more came 
 to the rescue, to save him from an outburst 
 of temper at the rudeness of his guest's ex- 
 clamation, as he replied somewhat surlily — 
 
 " A couple of thousand pounds would give 
 me time to look about : I should still require 
 to let the house." 
 
 " It must be to me, then," said Masollam, 
 in the same voice ; and he at the same time 
 drew out his pocket-book, with a deliberation 
 that almost amounted to effort, and taking 
 a cheque from it which was already filled up 
 in Hartwriffht's name, he handed it to his 
 host. To the astonishment of that gentle- 
 man, the sum inscribed was exactly the 
 amount he had mentioned, but it was still 
 unsigned. 
 
 "Give me a pen," murmured Masollam, 
 Ijarely opening his eyes, as he held out his 
 hand; and on Hartwright complying, he slowly 
 traced his name in the corner. He had no 
 sooner done so than another slight shiver
 
 80 MASOLLAM : 
 
 passed over his frame. He pressed his hands 
 over his eyes for a moment, and tlicn looked 
 up with a total change of feature and of man- 
 ner. "And now, my dear Mr Hartwright," 
 he said in a natural tone, and with great 
 sweetness of expression, " let me congratulate 
 you on the great temper, tact, and moderation 
 which you have shown throughout this inter- 
 view, which I have endeavoured to make as 
 short and as little painful to your feelings as 
 possible. When you come to know me Letter, 
 you will make allowance for my mental and 
 bodily peculiarities : we all have them, you 
 know, only mine are somewhat more marked 
 than those of other people. By the way, 
 Sebastian is rather an uncommon name for 
 an Englishman ; how did your nephew come 
 by itf" 
 
 Masollam's transitions, both of manner and 
 matter, were so sudden, that Hartwright was 
 still almost too bewildered to reply. 
 
 " First," he said, " let me express my thanks 
 for " 
 
 " Don't go back on that now," said Masollam, 
 in a hurried voice almost of alarm. 
 
 " But you will surely require security ? "
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 81 
 
 " Stop, will you ! " tliiuidered the old man, 
 springing to liis feet, and bringing liis fist 
 down on the table with such violence that the 
 inkstand clattered ; and then, sinking back 
 into his chair, he resumed, " We were talkino- 
 about that interesting nephew of yours and 
 his singular name." 
 
 " Yes," said Hartwright, now completely 
 cowed ; "he is called, I imagine, after one of 
 his mother's family. She was a Spaniard, 
 On one occasion my brother was nearly three 
 years absent from England ; on his return he 
 came back with a wife and a baby. It was 
 rather a romantic story. She eloped with him 
 from a convent, I believe ; but I don't know 
 the particulars. You must apply for them to 
 Santalba, who, I believe, was a connection of 
 the late Mrs Hartwright. In fact, I wonder, as 
 you know him, and show so much interest in 
 the family " — here Hartwright glanced at the 
 cheque — " and know so much about its finan- 
 cial necessities, that you are not familiar with 
 the birth, parentage, and education of us all." 
 
 "I am not of a prying nature," said Masol- 
 1am, with an amiable smile. " Shall we see 
 what has become of the ladies ? My dear Mr 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 MASOLLAM : 
 
 Hartwriglit, your very kind invitation to move 
 from the hotel here has taken me a little by 
 surprise, and I must carry away my daughter 
 now if we are to be back to dinner : ladies are 
 such slow packers, you know." 
 
 Of all the shocks which Hartwriglit had ex- 
 perienced in the course of this one remarkable 
 interview, this was destined to be the most 
 violent and unexpected. What did the man 
 mean by accepting an invitation to " move " 
 from the hotel here, which had never been 
 tendered to him ? In fact, Hartwright had 
 only just decided in his own mind to make 
 the signal agreed upon with his wife as a pre- 
 liminary to offering his guests the hospitality 
 of the house for the night. Masollam observed 
 the shade of annoyance and surj)rise which his 
 remark had occasioned, and continued — 
 
 " You will now be able to postpone your 
 trip abroad indefinitely, and we shall have 
 opportunities while living together of discuss- 
 ing those domestic and financial problems 
 which are vexing your spirit, under conditions 
 which will enable me to judge how they may be 
 solved in the manner you desire — conditions 
 which it was impossible for me to command
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. ' 83 
 
 during one short interview. Wliicli way ? " lie 
 asked, for by this time lie had walked into the 
 hall, followed by his host, and seemed to regard 
 the arrangement as finally settled. 
 
 Hartwright, too much engaged in collecting 
 his thoughts to make any further remark, 
 opened a glass door into a conservatory, 
 through which his wife and daughters, accom- 
 panied by Amina, were returning to the house. 
 
 " Amina, my child," said MasoUam, immedi- 
 ately on seeing her, " Mr Hartwright has been 
 so very kind as to invite us to come and stay 
 with him while w^e are resident in this part of 
 the country, and in fact has gone so far as to 
 change his own plans and postpone his depar- 
 ture for the Continent indefinitely. As we 
 have important business afi'airs to settle to- 
 gether, which require our immediate attention, 
 it is necessary that we make the move at 
 once. You will recognise the importance of 
 this prompt action later," he said, turning to 
 his host ; " and now I must ask you to allow 
 us to run away for an hour or two. At what 
 time do you dine ? " 
 
 "At a quarter to eight," replied Hartwright, 
 somewhat surlily. His wife was at that mo-
 
 84 MASOLLAM : 
 
 nieiit glaring at liim with such an expression 
 of indignation and amazement, that he was 
 afraid to manifest a politeness which, to do 
 him justice, he was far from feeling. 
 
 The Masollams had scarcely taken their 
 departure, and Mrs Hartwright was giving 
 vent to her pent-up feelings in a higher key, 
 and in stronger language than was quite con- 
 sistent with her social aspirations, when, to 
 her husband's great relief, and before he had 
 found a moment to enter upon an explanation, 
 she was interrupted by the arrival of another 
 telegram, this time addressed to himself, and 
 which ran as follows : — 
 
 " Parliament will be dissolved immediately. 
 Expect me to dinner to-night. — Sebastian." 
 
 " The plot seems to be thickening. There 
 is another surprise and another guest for you." 
 And Hartwright dexterously covered his retreat 
 by putting the message into his wife's hands, 
 and vanishing into the sanctum where he had 
 so lately been closeted with his strange visitor. 
 " I wonder," he muttered, as he sank with an 
 intense feeling of relief into his arm-chair, and
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 85 
 
 his eye fell on tlic drawer in wliicli he had 
 locked the unlooked-for cheque, — " I wonder 
 whether that old impostor was referring to 
 Sebastian's arrival to-night, when he talked 
 about my soon recognising the necessity of 
 prompt action. It certainly is strange that he 
 should have hit off so precisely the amount 
 I needed, and have forced himself upon us 
 exactly in the nick of time to meet Sebastian." 
 
 As he was thus ruminating, Masollam and 
 his dauoiiter were rollino- back to town in the 
 fly, and the former was in the act of remark- 
 ing, as he tore up into minute fragments a 
 telegram which Amina had just been reading, 
 and threw them out of the window — 
 
 " Cottrell did that well ; it reached me most 
 apropos, and the news it contained of Sebas- 
 tian's intended arrival to-night enabled me to 
 force the situation. Carabet was very accurate 
 in his estimate of our friend's financial needs, 
 too — or rather, I suppose, the butler was ; but 
 I never should have thought of taking a 
 cheque for the amount in my pocket, had I 
 not seen myself giving one to some one last 
 night when I was away." Being " away " 
 meant, in MasoUam's parlance, the trance con-
 
 86 MASOLLAM. 
 
 ditions into wliidi lie was in the habit oT 
 ftiUino'. " It is a hxr<xc sum," he added, with 
 a sigli, "l)ut I believe, with care and skilful 
 handling it will turn out a profitable invest- 
 ment. A great deal will depend upon you, 
 Amina, and upon your management of this 
 lad Sebastian." 
 
 From which it may be inferred that Miss 
 Masollam was completely in her father's con- 
 fidence. This, indeed, was the profound con- 
 viction of that young lady herself, but it was 
 an error from which I would guard my readers.
 
 87 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MISS FLORENCE HARTWRIGHT's SENTIMENTAL 
 CONFIDENCES. 
 
 When it came to be known to the younger 
 members of the Hartwright family that, for 
 reasons which were not made clear to them, 
 the proposed trip to the Continent had been 
 indefinitely postponed; that Mr Masollam and 
 his daughter had been invited to take up 
 their residence at the family mansion ; and 
 that their cousin Sebastian was expected to 
 arrive that evening, — a more than ordinary 
 commotion was produced ; while the strain to 
 w^hich Mrs Hartwright's temper was subjected 
 by this sudden revolution of her plans, was 
 not calculated to remove the friction which re- 
 sulted therefrom. Partially dismantled rooms 
 had to be hurriedly refurnished ; extra supplies 
 sent for from town ; servants to be persuaded
 
 88 MASOLLAM : 
 
 to resume their functions, who had made 
 arrangements for leaving ; trunks to be un- 
 packed ; and, worst of all, explanations to be 
 invented, which should satisfy the gossip to 
 which so unusual an occurrence was sure to 
 give rise. 
 
 " Oh, bother ! " said Laura to Florence, as 
 both those young ladies were standing knee- 
 deep in their respective wardrobes, in the room 
 which they occupied together. " I told Susan 
 to put my pink-satin dress in this trunk — and 
 now I've tumbled everything out on the floor, 
 and it's not there ; and Susan has had leave for 
 the afternoon to look for another place, which 
 I hope she has not found — and I've got noth- 
 ing to wear this evening ! I am certain that 
 dress Miss Masollam had on was made in 
 Paris : did you ever see such a lovely fit ? I 
 did feel such a dowdy ; and it will be worse 
 to-night, with this grey old thing ! " and she 
 bestowed a contemptuous kick on a heap of 
 flounces at her feet. 
 
 " Don't distress yourself, dear," observed 
 her sister, with a smile so markedly amiable 
 that an experienced observer of young-lady 
 nature would have had no difficulty in trans- 
 lating its meaning ; " nothing that either of
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 89 
 
 5^011 might wear would make any clifFerence. 
 Miss Masollam never could eitlier look or feel 
 a dowdy. It is your misfortune, not your 
 fault, Lai, that you were born one. It is silly 
 to complain now." 
 
 Laura cast an envious glance at the tall 
 graceful form of her sister. " It's fortunate 
 you have given up all idea of Sebastian," she 
 remarked ; and then, as a 1)right thought 
 seemed to strike her, she opened her grey 
 eyes and stared into vacancy, as though trans- 
 fixed with its brilliancy. 
 
 "Well, dear," asked Florence, "does that 
 amiable reflection suggest some new idea to 
 you ? " 
 
 " Indeed it does, Flo, They are meeting 
 here by appointment — I am certain of it. 
 Miss Masollam is just the kind of girl that 
 makes up her mind to marry a million ster- 
 ling, and does it ; and," she added, after a pause, 
 " you are just the kind of girl that makes up 
 her mind to do the same thing, and doesn't." 
 
 " There ! " she muttered to herself, as she 
 buried her head in her trunk, " that was for 
 saying I was born a dowdy." From which it 
 will appear that, though the Miss Hartwrights 
 bore the reputation among their acquaintances
 
 9 MASOLLAM : 
 
 of Ijeing " tlioroiiglily amiable girls," they 
 occasionally departed from their j)ublic role in 
 the privacy of the bed-chamber. 
 
 Florence knew her sister too well to prolong 
 the encounter, more especially as the bliint- 
 ness of her suggestion lui donnait a ])enseT. 
 She had anticipated with some little anxiety 
 the possibility of her finding a rival in the 
 beautiful stranger, but it had never occurred 
 to her before that there was likely to be any- 
 thing preconcerted in the meeting. Still, if 
 such did happen to be the case, it would-be 
 better to be on the spot, and judge for herself, 
 than, by going abroad, to abandon the field. 
 For some time past she had encouraged the 
 idea in her family that the match might be 
 considered hopeless, for she had come to the 
 conclusion that unintentionally they were the 
 main obstacles to it. But in point of fact 
 nothing was further from her purpose than to 
 give up the hope upon which the affections of 
 a lifetime had been fixed ; and she had good 
 reason for believing that the situation was 
 not so desperate as her father, in his descrip- 
 tion of it to Masollam, had given the latter to 
 understand.
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PEiUOD. 91 
 
 She well knew, what her parents had failed 
 to perceive, that she was the magnet which 
 attracted her cousin to the house, on the some- 
 what rare occasions when he honoured it with 
 his presence, and that nothing but the high 
 respect he entertained for his father's memory 
 and wishes while living, the absence of any 
 such respect for his uncle, a marked aversion 
 for his aunt, and an utter want of sympathy 
 wdth any of the younger members of the 
 family but herself, had interposed a barrier 
 to her own dearest wishes : for it is due to 
 Florence to say that she loved her cousin for 
 his own sake as well as for his money's ; 
 though, had he been a poor man, she would 
 have sacrificed her inclination to those more 
 practical views of life in which she had been 
 early trained, and found in the nearness of the 
 relationship an insujDerable obstacle to a closer 
 union. " If I had not been so violently thrown 
 at his head in the first place, and so heavily 
 handicapped by my family in the second," 
 ruminated this young lady, as she sat on the 
 edge of the bed and watched her younger 
 sister getting more and more dishevelled in 
 her efibrts to construct a suitable toilet,
 
 92 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " tlierc never would liavo Ijceii any dilH- 
 culty. I could have overcome his scruples 
 about his father's wishes. But now, what 
 with having made a false start and carrying 
 so much weight, if there is to be a rival in 
 the field as well, I shall have my work cut 
 out for me." 
 
 Florence had picked up a good deal of 
 racing slang, it will be perceived, from her 
 brothers, besides having sporting proclivities 
 of her own, which she carefully concealed 
 from Sebastian. 
 
 " There will be just time," she murmured, 
 as she glanced at her watch ; " how lucky 
 it was that papa failed to sell the pony- 
 carriage and ponies ! " — a reflection which 
 was suggested by a determination to wdiich 
 the young lady had arrived, as the result 
 of her review of the position of matters 
 generally. 
 
 In accordance with the fashion of the period, 
 the Miss Hartwrights enjoyed a large amount 
 of individual liberty ; and half an hour later, 
 Florence might have been seen "tooling along,'' 
 as she would have herself expressed it, in a 
 dainty little turn-out, to the Tongsley station,
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 93 
 
 to meet the express from London, due at half- 
 past five o'clock. 
 
 " Send William and your traps in a fly, and 
 let me drive you home," she said to her cousin, 
 after they had exchanged a cordial greeting ; 
 "and don't look so flattered and gratified, sir, 
 at the proposition : I assure you it is justified 
 by the sternest necessity, I want to have a 
 serious talk with you on business, before you 
 see papa. You know" " — and she looked up in 
 his face with a jDleading expression — "you are 
 our nearest relation ; and now that a crisis has 
 arrived in our domestic afl'airs, who is there 
 but 5'ou I can confide in ? Papa never tells 
 me anything, Imt mamma thinks he does, and 
 is jealous of my influence with him. Laura 
 never thinks of any one but herself, and my 
 brothers only of the next sporting events, 
 I am. sure they might as well try their hands 
 at wTitino- novels as make the kind of books 
 they do, for all the profit they bring them," 
 continued Florence, ruefully. " The fact is, 
 we are ruined : both the elder l)oys are over 
 head and ears in debt, and so is papa, and I am 
 sure I don't know what is to become of us." 
 
 " lie wrote some time ago to tell me he
 
 94 MASOLLAM : 
 
 was in difficulties, and I thought I had given 
 him enough to help him out. I only did it 
 for your sake, Flo," added Sebastian, redden- 
 ing slightly. "It is the third appeal he has 
 made to me since my father's death ; and as 
 he did not reduce his establishment upon a 
 former occasion, when I had made it the con- 
 dition of my loan, I should have refused him 
 this time had I not felt that you would be 
 the chief victim. You may judge of my sur- 
 prise, then, when I heard, only a few days ago, 
 that you were on the point of breaking up 
 your home and leaving for the Continent. I 
 should have come down at once, but was de- 
 tained by the political crisis." 
 
 "Well, you have just arrived herein time 
 for a domestic one, for we have undergone 
 another ^-evolution since then," said Florence, 
 " and it is one which causes me the greatest 
 anxiety : that is just why I took the strong 
 measure of coming to meet you alone. There 
 was an old Jew — at least I think he is a Jew, 
 and I strongly suspect he is a money-lender — 
 who came to lunch with us to-day. He was 
 closeted with papa for an hour after lunch, 
 and the result was, that at the end of the
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 95 
 
 conference we were informed that our Con- 
 tinental trip was given up — we were to have 
 started to-morrow, you know — and that the 
 old man and his daughter are to come and 
 live with us. From what I can make out 
 from mamma, who was too furious to enter 
 upon a full explanation, they seem to have 
 planted themselves upon us indefinitely. 
 What other conclusion was it possible for 
 me to arrive at, than that he has in some way 
 completely relieved papa from all his embar- 
 rassments ? I am not naturally timid, as you 
 know, Sebastian, but he was really a terrible 
 old man : I never felt such a combination of 
 fear and antipathy for any one. I am sure he 
 has some reason for wanting to get us all into 
 his power. I feel like a fly just beginning to 
 flutter on the edge of a spider's web. Then he 
 has o-ot a dauditer. I am sure he uses her 
 for a decoy when he wants to get hold of 
 young men. She's an awfully pretty girl," 
 concluded the young lady, spitefully. 
 
 "Why, my dear Flo, you quite take my 
 breath away : this is a domestic revolution 
 with a vengeance, with an interesting touch 
 of mystery in it too. Let us hope that your
 
 96 MASOLLAM : 
 
 heated imag-ination has exao-g-erated the grav- 
 ity of tlie crisis. I have no doubt I shall be 
 able somehow or other to save the situation. 
 I am glad I arrived so opportunely. Don't 
 alarm yourself about that terrible old man : 
 I shall soon be able to fathom his designs, if 
 he has any, and those of his lovely daughter." 
 
 " I didn't go so far as to say she was love- 
 ly, or that she had unj designs," said Florence, 
 with a pang. And she half thought of verify- 
 ing the suspicion which had produced it, by 
 asking her cousin if he had ever heard of a 
 Miss MasoUam ; but she changed her mind, 
 and simply added, " Well, I hope you may 
 find it as easy to arrange as you seem to think. 
 Don't say anything of all this, or seem to 
 know anything, when you meet papa and mam- 
 ma. I only wanted to prepare you, and con- 
 sult with you as to what it is best to do." 
 
 " It is impossible for me to give any ojDinion 
 upon the subject until I am in full possession 
 of all the facts." 
 
 " I feel a presentiment of misery," said 
 Florence ; and she added a pocket-handker- 
 chief to the whip and reins she already had 
 in her hands, so as to be prepared for the 
 
 -^
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 97 
 
 next emergency. "It is very crnel of papa 
 to drag liis children tliroiigli all tliis linmilia- 
 tion, and let entire strangers into tlie loosom 
 of his family. — and such strangers." Here 
 she applied the handkerchief. " I do hope 
 you will be able to see a way out of it, for me 
 at all events. I don't think any of the others 
 feel the degradation of it all as I do." Here 
 she removed the handkerchief, and looked up 
 at him with eyes that had not become red, 
 but were most becomingly brimming. 
 
 As Hartwright gazed into them, and won- 
 dered whether they were going gently to over- 
 flow or not, he felt an irresistible desire to 
 stay a trembling drop with something more 
 consolatory than words. She looked at the 
 moment so beautiful and so unhappy, and he 
 felt such deep pity for her woe — the road, 
 moreover, at this spot was so deserted — that 
 he ventured to impress a cousinly kiss upon 
 her forehead, merely as an evidence of fra- 
 ternal sympathy. He could not, however, 
 resist the impulse, which was not quite so 
 brotherly, of saying — 
 
 " Never mind, dear, whatever may happen 
 t(j tlie others ; perhaps, so far as you are per- 
 
 VOL. T. Gr
 
 98 MASOLLAM : 
 
 sonally ('(•nccninl, lliere may he a way out of 
 it." And tlieii in a panic lest he. should be 
 still further betrayed by his feelings, he added, 
 as he rememl)ered all the objections to a 
 marriao-o, towards which he was now rather 
 pi'um})ted by compassion and a long-standing 
 intimacy than urged by any more powerful 
 sentiment, — "But it is quite impossible to de- 
 cide anything until I know more. I was only 
 thinking" — and in his attempt to extricate 
 himself from the false position into which he 
 was floundering, he made matters worse — 
 " that, somehow or other, we must take care 
 that you are not sacrificed to — ahem — to, ah, 
 any old Jew money-lender, you know." 
 
 The girl, who, during this tender passage, 
 had allowed her ponies to drop into a walk, 
 looked up at her cousin with a startled and 
 horrified expression. 
 
 " Why, Sebastian," she exclaimed, " what 
 can you mean ? how could I personally be 
 sacrificed to this man ? I told you everything, 
 thinking that you would say something to 
 console me, and instead of that you say things 
 that quite terrify me," — and this time the 
 brimming eyes overflowed in real earnest.
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 99 
 
 "My dear Florence, I assure you I didn't 
 mean anything," said poor Sebastian, once 
 more a prey to his natural tenderness of 
 heart. " I don't know enough to be able to 
 mean anything that can alarm you. All I 
 wish you to understand is, that whatever 
 happens, you must put perfect trust and con- 
 fidence in my affection, and that, rather than 
 see your happiness endangered permanently, 
 I would ask you," — he was going to add, " to 
 find a refuge in the love which I offer you," 
 when he was interrupted by the rattle of a 
 rapidly approaching carriage, which seemed so 
 close behind them as to cause him to look 
 round, while Florence made way for it to 
 pass. As it did so, a fair face appeared at the 
 window, and its owner, as she bowed smil- 
 ingly to Florence, accompanied her salutation 
 with an almost impercej^tible sign of recogni- 
 tion to Sebastian, which that gentleman was 
 too much confounded with amazement to ac- 
 knowledge rmtil it was too late. His spas- 
 modic attempt to do so, however, and 'the 
 glance to which it was the response, were not 
 lost upon his cousin, who exclaimed — 
 
 "Good heavens, Sebastian, do you know her?"
 
 100 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " I met her only two niglits ago in the 
 gallery of the House of Commons, and it was 
 certainly rat 1m r a surprise to me to see her 
 turn up so suiklenly and unexpectedly here. 
 She seemed a mysterious sort of person, with 
 an odd name — Masollam, I think it was. But 
 how on e;irtli does she come to know you?" 
 
 " My acquaintance dates from a still more 
 recent period. T only saw her at lunch to- 
 day for the first time. Her father is the old 
 money-lender you have just been sacrificing 
 me to," said Florence, somewhat bitterly. 
 " Perhaps you know him too ? " 
 
 " I did not know she had a father," replied 
 Hartwright, who fell into a fit of musing 
 which lasted till they reached the lodge gates, 
 and which Florence was too much preoccupied 
 with her own thoughts to wish to disturb. If 
 these were somewhat of an ag-itated character, 
 they were not altogether unpleasing. Never 
 before had her cousin so nearly committed 
 himself in the sense she desired ; for if it is 
 not exactly complimentary to be married out 
 of compassion to the man one loves, it is, at 
 all events, better than not beino; married to 
 him at all. Had it not been for the inoppor-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 101 
 
 tune appearance of the lovely vision at the 
 carriage-window at tlie most critical moment 
 of lier cousin's speech, all uncertainty might 
 now have been at an end. But the golden 
 moment was lost. The suddenness of the sur- 
 prise, and the turn it gave to the conversation, 
 made it impossible for her to lead her com- 
 panion back to the delicate ground he was 
 treading with such hesitating steps, wdien he 
 was suddenly scared off it. Would so lovely 
 a face be one of evil omen, destined ever to 
 come between her and the fulfilment of her 
 hopes ? AVas it only her own heated imagina- 
 tion, as this vague presentiment shot through 
 her, that read in those lustrous eyes a glance 
 of warning and of menace ? And as the startled 
 look of her cousin recurred to her memory, 
 and she observed the reverie into which he 
 had since fallen, her suspicions took more 
 definite shape, till the plant of hope which 
 but a moment before had been so vigorously 
 pushing forth its tender shoots seemed slowly 
 to wither before them, and the possibility 
 contained in her sister's suggestion that the 
 meeting had been prearranged, seemed to ac- 
 quire stupendous proportions. Yet she knew
 
 102 MASOLLAM. 
 
 Sel)asti;iu to lie the soul of truth, as he was of 
 honour, and had such been the case, he never 
 would have said tliat it was a surprise to him 
 to meet her. On the other hand, why did Miss 
 Masollam seem so i)erfectly self- possessed ? 
 and why, even if the meeting was unex- 
 poctod on the part of her cousin, should it 
 have produced so marked an effect upon him ? 
 — and she once more uneasily glanced at him, 
 as she pulled up with rather a stylish flourish 
 at the door of the paternal mansion. " There 
 is a mystery somewhere, and it's a very un- 
 comfortable one," she muttered, as she con- 
 sio;ned Sebastian to the servant who was to 
 conduct him to his uncle, while she tripped up 
 to her room to dress for dinner, — " but I will 
 get to the bottom of it before I go to bed." 
 
 In common witli other young ladies of the 
 period, Florence Hartwright had a profound 
 confidence in her own power of grappling with 
 any mystery, and of solving it at the shortest 
 notice. She had yet to learn that the more 
 deeply you dive after solutions, the more hope- 
 lessly entangled do you become in problems.
 
 103 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SEBASTIAN DOES SOME DETECTIVE WORK. 
 
 Whatever defects may attach to the character 
 of Orientals, there is one from which they are 
 conspicuously free, — they are never snobs. 
 This reflection su2:g;ested itself to Sebastian 
 when, upon the occasion of his first intro- 
 duction to MasoUam, he contrasted the digni- 
 fied bearing of that gentleman with that of 
 the master of the house. A moment after, 
 Mrs Hartwright entered the room where they 
 were assembling before dinner, followed by 
 Miss MasoUam, and the comparison was again 
 unfavourable to the former. Where, he won- 
 dered, could these strangers have picked up 
 these manners of perfect self-possession ? Had 
 they been accustomed to good society, or was 
 it to ])G attriljuted to the instinctive good-
 
 1<)4 MASOLLAM : 
 
 breeding of lli<' r.ice from wliicli they sjirniig ; 
 ami if so, wliat was tha.t race? His cousins 
 were already in the room as he pondered thus, 
 and he felt that Florence's eye was fixed upon 
 liini. as he overheard one of her brothers 
 murmur to the other, as he stared in open- 
 eyed admiration of the stranger, that she was 
 "a resjular screamer." Miss Masollam made 
 no sio;n of recog;nition, but waited until Se- 
 bastian was formally presented to her, when 
 she quietly remarked, in a tone audible to the 
 whole company — 
 
 " I am so sorry, when you called upon me 
 in London, that I missed you. Indeed it 
 could not be helped. It must be so. I did 
 not much mind, because I knew soon I should 
 see you. I told Reginald Clareville to tell 
 you so. Did he indeed give my message ? " 
 
 With a smile of fascinating innocence, a 
 captivating foreign accent, and in these simple 
 little broken sentences, did Misg Masollam 
 explode her first shell in the midst of the 
 Hartwright family. 
 
 Charles Hartwright glanced at his nephew. 
 How was it, thought that gentleman, that 
 when, half an hour before, he had told him
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 105 
 
 that he was to meet Mr and Miss Masolhim, 
 who had been invited to come and stay some 
 time in the house, Sebastian had been silent 
 as to his having any previous knowledge of 
 them ? This was decidedly suspicious, and 
 Charles Hartwrigiit was a man of suspicious 
 temjDerament. 
 
 "Who is this girl," mentally exclaimed Mrs 
 Hartwright, " who calls Mr Clareville ' Eeg- 
 inald ' in this familiar way ? " and she bitterly 
 remembered a futile attempt she had once 
 made to get invited to one of Lady Clare- 
 ville's drums, and the refusal of her nephew 
 to use his influence to procure her an in- 
 vitation. 
 
 " I told you so," telegraphed Laura to her 
 sister in an expressive glance. " You see she 
 openly admits that she was to meet him 
 here." 
 
 " So Sebastian called on her in London ! he 
 never told me that," thought Florence, flush- 
 ing uneasily under her sister's triumphant 
 gaze. " What a minx that Laura is ! " and 
 she darted a sisterly look at her to that 
 eff'ect. 
 
 " naughty Sebastian," whispered the
 
 106 MASOLLAM : 
 
 vouiioor In-otlier to tlie elder; " wlio would 
 ever have suspected that 3'ou could have a 
 little game on of this sort ? Look at his face, 
 * Ned."^ 
 
 It is an unfortunate circumstance that the 
 expression of conscious innocence in a highly 
 sensitive nature, wdiich feels itself an object of 
 unjust suspicion, is often, in the eyes of pre- 
 judiced and superficial observers, not to be 
 distinguished from that of conscious guilt. 
 The tiushed check, the embarrassed manner, 
 the stammering utterance, is in point of fact 
 as likely to be the result of one as the other : 
 it is purely a matter of temperament in both 
 cases, and nothing can be more fallacious than 
 to allow evidence of this nature to have any 
 weight. But the Hartwrights were not a phil- 
 osophic family ; and even if they had been, the 
 conflicting passions by which they were at that 
 moment animated, would have put it out of 
 their power to judge calmly. Being of a per- 
 fectly frank and loyal nature, and a gentleman 
 to the tips of his fingers, Sebastian said, after 
 a momentary hesitation, and with a somewhat 
 heightened colour — " Clareville gave me your 
 message ; but 1 confess I had no idea its pur-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 107 
 
 port was SO soon to be realised. It was a mat- 
 ter of regret both to him and myself, when we 
 called, that we had not the pleasure of seeing 
 you. If I had known you were to be here," 
 he added, with a light laugh, recovering him- 
 self somewhat, " I think I should have taken 
 the liberty of bringing Reginald down with 
 me. 
 
 " Insolent puppy ! " internally ejaculated 
 Charles Hartwright ; "he talks as if the house 
 was his own." As he thought thus, he became 
 conscious that Masollam's eye was fixed upon 
 him, and felt irresistibly impelled to meet it. 
 " It's true," he mentally added as he did so. 
 " I am no longer master nor in my own house ; 
 it is that brute's leave he must ask." 
 
 " I wish you had brought him," said Mrs 
 Hartwright to herself ; and this reflection was 
 mentally responded to by all the younger 
 member.^ of the family — so that when Miss 
 MasoUam said, "I wish you had brought 
 him," it seemed an echo of their thoughts. 
 
 " It is not too late now — he is still in town; 
 shall I telegraph?" asked Sebastian. But 
 the query was not addressed to his uncle, 
 whom he seemed unconsciously to ignore in
 
 108 MASOLLAM : 
 
 his desire to gratify tlie wishes of the fair 
 straiio-cr. 
 
 " I like him very much — he is so clever," 
 she said in reply. 
 
 "An excellent suggestion, Mr Hartwright," 
 said Masollani ; "I know you agree with 
 me. 
 
 "An excellent suggestion," murmured that 
 gentleman , mechanically. 
 
 " Oh, quite too charming ! do telegraph for 
 him," exclaimed Mrs Hartwright, now that her 
 husl:)and had expressed his approval. 
 
 " Capital fellow, Clareville," chimed in the 
 youths, who only knew him by sight. 
 
 "There's a i^rix de consolation for you," 
 whispered Laura to her sister ; " why don't 
 you join in the general chorus of approba- 
 tion ? " But at that moment dinner was an- 
 nounced. 
 
 " It will be time enough if I telegraph after 
 dinner — he will Q-et it the first thino; in the 
 morning," said Sebastian, as, by Mrs Hart- 
 wright's desire, he offered his arm to his 
 cousin, and led her in to dinner. 
 
 This was the telegram which Reo;inald 
 Clareville's servant handed his master the
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 109 
 
 following morning, wlien he entered the bed- 
 room of that gentleman to prepare his matu- 
 tinal tub — 
 
 " Amina Masollam desires see you here im- 
 mediately. Curious affair. Do come. Name 
 hour arrival. I will meet you station. — 
 Sebastian." 
 
 " That ought to fetch him," the sender had 
 said to himself, while penning the above mis- 
 sive — and he was not mistaken. After a 
 few moments of hesitation, in which perplex- 
 ity and surprise were mingled with doubt as 
 to whether he could free himself from vari- 
 ous existing engagements, Clareville suddenly 
 seized a pen, as if impelled by an overpower- 
 ing impulse, and scribbled off in reply, " Ex- 
 pect me at half -past 5 p.m." Even his servant 
 was struck with the haggard countenance of 
 his master as he took the telegram, and would 
 have been still more surprised if he could have 
 heard the soliloquy which followed. 
 
 "I am too miserable for it to matter much 
 what I do," muttered Reginald. " What an 
 extraordinary night I have had ! Thank God, 
 I conquered at last — my mind is made up. 
 I have no longer a career that can be ruined,
 
 110 MASOLLAM : 
 
 or a life that can be blasted, or political pros- 
 pects that can be thrown away. I feel like a 
 craft wrecked by a moral tempest which has 
 suddenly and most unaccountably sprung up, 
 and is driving me I know not whither : mean- 
 time, any port is good in a storm, so I'll run 
 for the one Sebastian so unexpectedly offers, 
 and do my best in the interval to rejDair 
 damages, and clear away the traces of my 
 agony." 
 
 Meantime Sebastian had determined that he 
 would preserve an attitude of apparent indiffer- 
 ence, and not attempt, by broaching the sub- 
 ject either to Masollam or his uncle, to solve 
 the enigma of the presen-ce of the strangers 
 in the Hartwright family until he had re- 
 ceived his friend's reply. " For," he rumin- 
 ated, " two heads are better than one in a 
 business of this sort, and Clareville is just 
 the sort of fellow to tackle the girl, while I 
 devote my detective faculties to her father." 
 So he allowed it to be supposed that he was 
 about to drive into Tongsley on his own 
 affairs. Before starting, however, he had 
 taken the opportunity of saying privately 
 to his cousin Florence, " Find out if you can
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. Ill 
 
 from Miss Masollam, quite by accident as 
 it were, and without exciting her suspicion, 
 what hotel they stayed at in town. Don't 
 press the point if it does not come naturally, 
 as I can easily find out otherwise ; only I want 
 to avoid as much as possible attracting atten- 
 tion to them by making inquiries." 
 
 As Florence was a young lady not devoid 
 of intelligence, as the reader will have already 
 perceived, she found no difiiculty in carrying 
 out her cousin's instructions. 
 
 " Oh, perhaps you can tell me," she ex- 
 claimed, running up, with an open letter in 
 her hand, to Miss Masollam, who was taking 
 a stroll in the garden just after breakfast. " I 
 have just heard from a friend who is coming 
 to spend a few days at Tongsley with her 
 husband, who has some business here, and 
 she asks whether we can recommend the new 
 hotel, which has just been finished at the 
 station. It has been so lately opened, that I 
 have not met any one wlio has tried it : did 
 you go there ? " 
 
 " No," replied Amina ; "we went to the 
 George." 
 
 And it was straight to the George tliat
 
 112 MASOLLAM : 
 
 Sebastian, on receiving this piece of informa- 
 tion, drove. On tliinking over the matter in 
 the silent watches of the night, it had occurred 
 to him that a foreigner like Masollam would 
 not enter into important financial transactions 
 with Hartwright, whom he had never known 
 or seen before in his life, without the assistance 
 of some local attorney. And he now made in- 
 quiries at the George with the view of finding 
 out whether the strano;ers had either received 
 or made visits during their stay at the hotel. 
 Here he heard that they had been brought 
 there by Carabet, and gone out with Carabet, 
 bad been closeted with Carabet. and in fact 
 seemed to have had no communication with 
 any one but him. After obtaining all the 
 information he could about that Oriental and 
 his curiosit5^-shop, he determined to proceed 
 thither on foot ; and this he did all the 
 more readily, as he was something of a 
 numismatist. 
 
 Mr Carabet was disposing of a piece of 
 cloisonne enamel, with a languid and indifi*er- 
 ent air, to a lady for whose judgment in such 
 matters he evidently entertained small respect, 
 when Sebastian entered, and asked to be shown
 
 A PKOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 113 
 
 some antique coins. The dealer's face imme- 
 diately brightened, and, relegating his cus- 
 tomer to his assistant, he produced a drawer- 
 ful for Sebastian's inspection, watching nar- 
 rowly, as he did so, the face of the latter as 
 he turned over the contents. It was a very 
 important matter in Mr Carabet's trade for 
 him to form, as speedily as possible, an ac- 
 curate estimate of the amount of knowledsfc 
 possessed by those who came to purchase his 
 wares. When, therefore, Sebastian remarked, 
 after an inspection which lasted only a few 
 moments, that he could not find a coin in the 
 whole collection worth buying, and was turn- 
 ing away with a disappointed air, Carabet 
 hastily exclaimed — 
 
 " Wait, sir ; I have more " — this time 
 leaving the shop, to return with a tin box, 
 which he unlocked, and exhibited to his cus- 
 tomer's appreciative gaze a very diff"erent 
 assortment. 
 
 " You guard your treasures preciously from 
 the common herd, I see," said Sebastian, smil- 
 ing. " Have you never heard that the love 
 of money is the root of all evil ? " 
 
 " Not such very, very old money as this, 
 
 VOL. 1. ' H
 
 1 ] 4 MASOLLAM : 
 
 sir. No liarni to love old money ; to love 
 new money very bad." 
 
 " I am glad you think so. Is that the 
 general opinion in the country you come 
 from ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; everybody loves money there, 
 just the same as here." 
 
 " I suppose they don't make it so easily, or 
 you would not have left it to come here ? " 
 
 " Perhaps," replied Carabet, in a manner 
 which did not altogether imply assent to this 
 proposition. 
 
 " Where did you j)ick up this coin ? " asked 
 Sebastian. 
 
 "AtBaodad." 
 
 o 
 
 " And this one ? " 
 
 "At Damascus." 
 
 " And this ? " 
 
 "At Ispahan." 
 
 " I suppose you made some place your head- 
 quarters ? Where did you generally live in 
 the East ? " 
 
 " No, I never lived very long in one lAacc. 
 Here is indeed a rare coin," he added, chang- 
 ing the subject. 
 
 Sebastian saw that the man, who was ap-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 115 
 
 parently in Masollam's confidence, was not one 
 likely to be led into betraying it, and being 
 afraid to excite suspicion by further inquiries, 
 was about to make a purchase and take his 
 departure, when Carabet was suddenly in- 
 formed by his assistant that he was wanted. 
 AVliile his customer was waiting for his return 
 to complete his purchase — too delicate a matter 
 to he negotiated by an assistant — he overheard 
 a loud female voice in what appeared to be the 
 back passage. 
 
 " It's no use a-threatenin' nor a-arguin', Mr 
 Carabet — I aint a-goin' to stay out my month 
 in this 'ouse. If there aint been crimes in it 
 already, it's my opinion as there will be. I 
 told you the same thing yesterday." 
 
 " Not so loud, my good woman." And 
 Sebastian could hear Carabet continue in low 
 tones of expostulation, which seemed to pro 
 duce an effect, though their purport was in 
 audible, for the shrill voice replied — 
 
 "Well, if you let me see the woman you keep 
 bottled-up up-stairs, and call your sister, as 
 nobody 'as ever seen, except that old man and 
 the lady as was with him yesterday, and let me 
 wait upon her, I don't say but what I'll stay."
 
 1 1 C) MASOLLAM : 
 
 " What a row that woman is making ! " said 
 Sebastian to the assistant, with well-feigned 
 impatience. "Who is she?" 
 
 " The cook a-givin' warning," replied the 
 youth, with a grin. 
 
 " Well, tell your master I could not wait ; T 
 shall probably look in again." 
 
 "Now for the cook," he said to himself, as he 
 regained the street. " I am not sure that this 
 sort of amateur detective work is very reput- 
 able," he reflected, with a certain misgiving ; 
 " but it is certainly exciting, and I don't think 
 I do it badly ; and," he mentally added, " be- 
 sides, it is justified by the circumstances." It 
 was perfectly clear to Sebastian's mind that 
 the visitors on the previous day could be none 
 other than Masollam and his daughter, but 
 the mysterious prisoner was a new feature. 
 He thought he would linger a few minutes in 
 the neighbourhood of Carabet's residence, to 
 cross-examine the cook in case she left it. He 
 had not long to wait, for Carabet had failed to 
 accede to her terms, to judge by the flounce 
 with which she issued from the house and 
 slammed the door behind her. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Sebastian, ad-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 1 1 7 
 
 dressing her with great politeness ; " but l)y 
 the merest accident I overheard you just now, 
 when I was buying something in Mr Carabet's 
 shop, give him w^arning, and his assistant told 
 me you were a cook : is that so ? " 
 
 " It is, sir," she said, still Hushed with her 
 late encounter. 
 
 "I suppose you will have to look for another 
 place ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir," — and this time she dropped a 
 little anticipatory curtsey. 
 
 " Well, if you will give me your name and 
 address, and your references suit, perhaps you 
 may not have far to go to find one." And 
 Sebastian took out his pocket-book to make 
 the necessary entry. 
 
 "Jane Slocum, sir, 3 Hartwright's Build- 
 ings," dictated the cook. 
 
 Hartwrio;ht's Buildino;s were a row of model 
 lodging-houses for miners, which had been 
 erected by Sebastian's father. A bright idea 
 suddenly occurred to him. " If you go home 
 at once, I will l)e with you in half an hour — 
 you can get there by tramway in that time." 
 And he hurried off", leaving Jane not a little 
 flustered and bewildered, Ijut convinced from
 
 118 MASOLLAM : 
 
 the gentleman's manner that the a})pointment 
 was in earnest, and not one to be neglected. 
 In lialf an hour to the moment, Florence's pony- 
 carriage, of which Sebastian had taken pos- 
 session for the morning, was pulled up in the 
 suburban lane one side of which was oc- 
 cupied by Hart Wright's Buildings, and Jane 
 was standino; at the door of No. 3 to receive 
 her visitor, l)y whose equipage she was duly 
 impressed. 
 
 " Now," he said, as he sat down in the little 
 parlour, " I must first tell you who I am, be- 
 cause I am going to place great confidence in 
 you. I am glad to find that I know your 
 father well, as one who has been in my father's 
 employ, as well as in my own, for many years. 
 My name is Hartwright." 
 
 " What! Mr Sebastian Hartwright, our mem- 
 ber of Parliament, and owner of the mine, 
 and all these houses, sir ? " ejaculated the cook, 
 while she dropped a curtsey, quite out of keep- 
 ing with the position of her hands, which were 
 uplifted in amazement. 
 
 Sebastian nodded, with a smile, and con- 
 tinued : " I overheard what you said to Mr 
 Carabet about the woman he keeps confined
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 119 
 
 iip-stairs, and allows no one to see. I quite 
 understand your disinclination to remain in a 
 liouse where there is a mystery of this sort ; 
 but I have a particular interest in desiring to 
 get at the bottom of it. What I wish to pro- 
 pose to you is to return at once to Mr Carabet, 
 to tell him that you have thought over the 
 matter and have changed your mind, and will 
 remain with him as cook. If you will render 
 me this service, I will triple the monthly wages 
 you now receive from him ; but 1 should ex- 
 pect you to be silent as to any knowledge of 
 me, and to report to me everything you can 
 learn of Mr Carabet's establishment, and those 
 who frequent it, especially any visits which he 
 may receive again from that lady and gentle- 
 man who called upon him yesterda}^ You 
 can always see me while I am staying with 
 my uncle, by sending me a message from the 
 mine, where I will meet you when you have 
 anything to communicate. You need not 
 be afraid of doing this for me, as I am not 
 prompted by any feeling of enmity towards 
 any of those in regard to whom I desire infor- 
 mation. On the contrary, I shall only be too 
 delighted if the whole of what seems a mys-
 
 120 MASOLLAM : 
 
 tery can be satisfactorily explained, and if it 
 can be shown that there has never been any 
 ground for suspicion ; but the happiness of 
 some persons for whom I have a regard is at 
 stake, and 1 do not wish it to be sacrificed. I 
 do not ask you to listen at doors or play the 
 spy, but merely to keep me informed of what 
 comes under your notice. I dislike mysteries, 
 particularly wdien they are connected, however 
 remotely, with those in whom I feel an in- 
 terest ; and this is the case in the present 
 instance. " 
 
 If the truth must be told, Sebastian felt 
 more scruples about making the proposition 
 he was doing, than Jane Slocum in accepting 
 it. The prestige which she would enjoy in 
 her own eyes by rendering Hartwright the 
 service he required of her, and the prospect of 
 so large an increase to her salary, quite recon- 
 ciled her to the humiliation of asking to be 
 taken back into the service of her master ; and 
 so far from having scruples on any other score, 
 she determined in her own mind to Exceed 
 her instructions. So Sebastian drove back w^ell 
 satisfied with his morning's work, more mysti- 
 fied than ever since he had heard of the re-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 121 
 
 cluse in Carabet's establishment, and not with- 
 out recourse to a good deal of metaphysical 
 hair-splitting, to which he was obliged to re- 
 sort, to justify the course he was pursuing by 
 the interests of morality in general, and of his 
 cousin Florence in particular. He was, how- 
 ever, too honest an analyst of his own senti- 
 ments not to admit that he was conscious of 
 a remarkable power of fascination in Amina 
 MasoUam, and of a no less strange but more 
 unaccountable attraction towards her father, 
 — and this in spite of a distinct effort on his 
 part to resist both.
 
 122 
 
 CHAPTER Vll. 
 
 DOMESTIC AFFAIRS AT THE TURRETS UNDERGO 
 
 A CHANGE. 
 
 AVhile Sebastian was employed in the manner 
 described in the last chapter, the various actors 
 in the drama, whom he left Ijehind at The 
 Turrets, were not altogether idle. Florence 
 had been captured by her brothers, and carried 
 away into a small den redolent of cavendish 
 tobacco, and ornamented with guns, fishing- 
 rods, brier-wood pipes, and sporting pictures, 
 for the purpose of being " pumped " in regard 
 to the strange and inexplicable turn of events, 
 which had so far completely baffled conjecture 
 on the part of the two youths in their vain 
 attempts to read the riddle of the past twenty- 
 four hours. They got small satisfaction from 
 the young lady, however, whose dexterous
 
 MASOLLAM. 123 
 
 evasion of any direct replies only stimulated 
 their curiosity the more, and while it height- 
 ened their opinion of her sagacity — as she 
 intended it should — confirmed them in the 
 conviction that she was in the secret ; an 
 impression which, considering her complete 
 ignorance of it, she succeeded in conveying 
 with great adroitness. But then, as she had 
 more than once remarked to her father, when 
 confidentially discussing with him her brothers' 
 prospects in life, " they were such a j)air of 
 dufi"ers." Mrs Hartwright, who Avas occupied 
 in performing precisely the same operation 
 upon her husband in his sanctum, was more 
 successful, and was not lono- in extractino^ 
 from him a detailed account of all that had 
 transpired during his interview with MasoUam 
 on the previous day, and of the manner in 
 which the latter had unexpectedly come to 
 his financial relief. Mrs Hartwrioht rather 
 piqued herself on her talent for understanding 
 men in general, and her husband in particular ; 
 and that she had some ground for this opinion 
 may he gathered from the fact, that though 
 she had been dying of curiosity to know all 
 about it, ever since she had, in an unguarded
 
 124 MASOLLAM : 
 
 moment, fi!;ivcn vont to licr iiidio;nation the 
 day l)cfore on being forced into an unexpected 
 change of plan, she was al)le to control her 
 natural propensities until she felt that her 
 husband was beo:innino; to lose a little of his 
 self-confidence, and to crave for some of that 
 feminine counsel and advice in which, sooner 
 or later, he w^as always glad to find a refuge. 
 Mrs Hartwright was in the habit of remarking, 
 with a self-satisfied air, that Florence had 
 inherited some of this talent — a fact which 
 did not prevent her feeling a certain secret 
 jealousy of her daughter, as it may be re- 
 membered that young lady had already hinted 
 to Sebastian. While these several interviews 
 were taking place, Masollam and his daughter 
 were also engaged in a tMe-a-tete on a bench 
 under an old oak-tree, which they had dis- 
 covered in the most remote and retired part 
 of the grounds. Of the three conversations 
 which were going on at the same time on 
 the same subject, it is the only one worth 
 reporting. 
 
 "You will understand, Amina," Masollam 
 was saying, in allusion to his interview with 
 Hartwright on the preceding day, " that when 
 he so totally misconceived our relative posi-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 125 
 
 tions as to venture to allude to what he called 
 remuneration in return for my services, it was 
 necessary for me at once to reverse his ideas 
 on the subject. He is a hard, bad man, who 
 must be held with an iron grip. There are 
 times when the subtle iniiuences which radiate 
 from his perverted nature cause me excruciat- 
 ing torture." 
 
 And here I must explain to the reader that 
 I have a difficulty, not only in translating Mr 
 Masollam's words from the language in which 
 he was speaking, but in finding terms in which 
 to express the ideas they contained, and which 
 were derived from the conditions by which his 
 organism was afiected, and by which it was 
 rendered susceptible to physical sensations, 
 the nature of which were determined by the 
 moral states of those with whom he was 
 brought into contact. As illustrations of this 
 phenomenon will hereafter probably occur in 
 the course of the narrative, I will refrain 
 from any further description of them now. 
 That they were not peculiar to him, however, 
 may be gathered from the remark which his 
 last observation called forth from his daughter. 
 
 " I quite sympathise with you, father," she 
 said. " I am afraid our life in this house, so
 
 120 MASOLLAM : 
 
 long as its present occupants remain in it, 
 will be full of suffering to us both. In obedi- 
 ence to your instructions, 1 have been render- 
 ing myself sensitive to Florence." 
 
 "Well, dear, and what have you found?" 
 asked the old man. 
 
 " I have been feeling very little yet but 
 pain. She is not without high impulses and 
 grand qualities," she added after a pause, " but 
 she is vain, selfish," and she murmured, hesi- 
 tatingly, " not altogether loyal." 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " 
 
 "I mean she is not altogether loyal either 
 to her own highest impulses or her own 
 warmest affections — in other words, to those 
 she loves best." 
 
 " And whom does she love best ? " 
 
 "Her cousin Sebastian." 
 
 " Does he return her affection ? " 
 
 " Not in the sense she desires." 
 
 " Have you put yourself en rapport with 
 him ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " AVhy not ? " 
 
 " The time has not yet come," and a slight 
 tremor shook the girl's frame ; then, with a
 
 A PROBLEM OF THP] PERIOD. 127 
 
 sudden start, as tlioiio-li rousiiio- herself from 
 the dreamy manner in which she had been 
 replying to her father's questions, she asked, 
 "Has it, father?" 
 
 " No, my child, your instinct is right ; but 
 it soon will. Do you know what is the service 
 Mr Charles Hartwrioht desires me to render 
 him ? " 
 
 Amina closed her eyes, and seemed lost in 
 meditation. 
 
 " I think I can guess," she said at last. " To 
 brino- about a marriaQ;e between Florence and 
 her cousin." 
 
 " Exactly so ; and do you know why you 
 and I have hurried here ? " 
 
 "To prevent it." 
 
 " You are rio-ht aoain. I feared lest Sebas- 
 tian should be led by his compassion to per- 
 form an act to which he would not have been 
 prompted by his aftections, and wdiich he 
 might have had serious cause to regret." 
 
 "You were right, father — you always are," 
 and the girl looked up lovingly ; "he has a 
 generous nature and a tender heart." 
 
 " His friend will come to-day — at least T 
 think so."
 
 128 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " I think so too," said Amina. 
 
 " Then you know what is in store for us 
 both ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Do you think we are strong enough to 
 bear the burden between us ? " 
 
 " I can tell better after he arrives, I sup- 
 pose," she continued, with a sigh, " that I shall 
 have to undertake him ? " 
 
 " Yes : leave Sebastian to me for the present. 
 If we need reinforcements, we must send for 
 Santalba and your mother." 
 
 As one result of the conversation which had 
 taken place between Hartwright and his wife 
 w^as, that the latter insisted on knowing whether 
 Masollam had taken The Turrets definitely, 
 and if so, for how long and at what rent, 
 Mr Hartwright was now seen approaching in 
 search of his guest, and the MasoUams rose to 
 meet him. After the abrupt manner in which 
 the Oriental had terminated the interview on 
 the previous day, Hartwright felt at some 
 loss in recurring to the business part of the 
 financial transaction which had then been so 
 strangely forced upon him. He was embold- 
 ened, however, by perceiving a peculiarly
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 129 
 
 gentle expression on the countenance of the 
 old man, who, as they turned back towards 
 the house, slipped his arm into that of his 
 host with an air of confiding familiarit}^, and 
 said, with a smile, " Let us go for a few 
 moments into your study and complete the 
 arrangements which I was unable to attend 
 to yesterday. I don't think I am mistaken," 
 he added, as he stopped suddenly and laid his 
 hand on Hartwright's shoulder; "it was for 
 this purpose you came to look for me ? " 
 
 It gave the person he addressed a peculiarly 
 disao'reeable sensation to find his thouefhts 
 and acts divined in this way, but he was 
 rapidly arriving at the point where nothing 
 that Masollam could say or do astonished 
 him. 
 
 " Naturally," he replied, with a short uneasy 
 laugh, " I knew that matters could not be left 
 as they were, and felt sure that you would 
 be prepared at the first convenient opportunity 
 to discuss a few remainino; details." 
 
 " ' Discuss ' is not, I think, the right word," 
 replied Masollam, again taking his companion's 
 arm and moving^ on. " See, Amina, there is 
 Miss Hartwright making a bouquet ! Go and 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 130 MASOLLAM : 
 
 help luT. Now, my dear Mr Hartwright," 
 lie eontinned, when his daughter had left 
 them, " I suppose you wish to know whether 
 I am your guest or you mine. I think I 
 can relieve your mind on this point. From 
 this moment you are mine, if — as I am sure 
 you will be — you are prepared to fall into 
 the arrangement I am about to propose. I 
 will take your house for a year, with the 
 right of renewal at the expiration of that 
 term, at the rent which you had agreed upon 
 with the orentleman wdio wished to have the 
 repairs of the stables made at your expense. 
 I will make no such stipulation. As I think 
 it is desirable in your own interest that you 
 and your family should remain for some time 
 longer in this country, I will ask you all to 
 continue to live in this house, without mak- 
 ing any apparent change in your establish- 
 ment, the style of which suits me very well. 
 There is no need even for the servants to 
 know at present that we pay them, and not 
 you. These are domestic questions, the de- 
 tails of which Amina and Mrs Hartwright 
 w411 have no difficulty in settling. If you 
 have any delicacy in accepting my hospitality
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 131 
 
 on these terms, you and your wife can arrange 
 with my daughter what proportion you should 
 contribute to the general expenses : these are 
 matters which I do not trouble myself about. 
 In case you should desire to invite any friends 
 to visit you here, I should expect first to 
 be consulted in regard to them ; but in case 
 I desire to invite friends of mine, I should 
 wish to reserve to myself the privilege of 
 doing so, without consulting you. Sliould I 
 find, in order the better to carry out our 
 joint purposes, that it would be desirable for 
 you and your family to leave the house ex- 
 clusively to me and mine, I will give you a 
 week's warning of any such necessity, which, 
 I hope, will be sufticient. No one need 
 know anything of the details of this arrange- 
 ment, except your wife and my daughter." 
 
 " How about the lawyer who draws the 
 lease?" asked Hartwright. 
 
 " He will only know that he has drawn 
 the lease ; and, I suppose, he can hold his 
 tongue about that. Law}^ers are not generally 
 communicative. " 
 
 " This proposition is so novel, and involves 
 so many domestic matters for consideration,
 
 132 MASOLLAM : 
 
 that I am sure you will not expect me to 
 decide with reference to it until I have con- 
 sulted my wife." 
 
 "Send for her to come here at once, then." 
 The peremptory tone in which Masollam 
 uttered these \Vords, suggested the idea to 
 Hartwright that the Oriental was not accus- 
 tomed to disobedience on the part of his own 
 womenkind, and gave him a pang of envy. 
 " Perhaps I had better go myself," he said ; 
 and after ushering Masollam into his study, 
 which they had now reached, he departed, 
 not without sundry misgivings, in quest of 
 the lady of the liouse. 
 
 I will not trouble the reader with the details 
 of an interview which resulted in an arrange- 
 ment being^ concluded in the sense desired 
 by Masollam, the advantages of which, so 
 far as the Hartwright family were concerned, 
 were put before Mrs Hartwright in so tempt- 
 ing a light, and she and Miss Masollam were 
 left so completely mistresses of the domestic 
 situation, that any doubts which at first sug- 
 gested themselves to her mind, were speed- 
 ily overborne by the serene reflection that 
 a young girl from the East, who had never
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 133 
 
 been in England in lier life, would necessarily 
 be a mere puppet in her hands, and that 
 practically her own prestige and an expensive 
 establishment wonld be maintained chiefly 
 with Mr Masollam's money. There were, more- 
 over, several little household points on which 
 Mr Masollam made concessions ; while the 
 confidence he showed in her capacities as a 
 domestic manager, and the compliments he 
 paid her, confirmed her in her conviction 
 that her penetration of human nature, and 
 especially of male human nature, was superior 
 to that of her husband. She felt that Provi- 
 dence had, in the moment of their extremity, 
 sent them an oriental millionaire, on whom 
 she could exercise the peculiar talent upon 
 which she prided herself, of " managing men." 
 
 Only one little point remained to be settled 
 between Hartwright and his tenant — but here 
 Masollam's manner suddenly changed. His 
 eyes seemed to go out like extinguished lamps. 
 His voice became hollow and distant, and his 
 brow contracted, as if from pain. Slowly and 
 with apparent eff'ort he said — 
 
 " I will take that receipt for the £2000 that 
 you talked about yesterday. I can now do, as
 
 134 MASOLLAM : 
 
 your host and tenant, wliat, for reasons that it 
 is unnecessary to exphain, it would have been 
 premature to do then." 
 
 Hartwright, as he made out the receipt, 
 puzzled himself in vain to think what these 
 reasons could be, and handed it to Masollam, 
 who, with an abstracted air, placed it in his 
 voluminous pocket-book, and then abruptly 
 rose and left the room. 
 
 "Ouf!" said Hartwright, stretching him- 
 self, with a sigh of intense relief. " Thank 
 God, he is gone ; his very presence seems to 
 stifle me sometimes. What an old man of the 
 mountain he is ! " 
 
 " I am sure I don't know what you mean, 
 Charles, by ' an old man of the mountain.' Jf 
 it is a term of reproach, Mr Masollam does not 
 deserve it. You men never understand one 
 another. Now, the more I see of him, the 
 more perfectly charming do I think him. 
 Could anything be more generous and delicate 
 than his conduct has been throughout ? You 
 
 will see in a week I shall be able to " 
 
 And Mrs Hartwright performed a revolution- 
 ary movement with her two forefingers, to 
 indicate the facility with which she intended
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PEEIOD. 135 
 
 to turn Mr MasoUam round them. " Old man 
 of tlie mountain ! " slie repeated, indignantly ; 
 " lie is quite too darling an old man." 
 
 " There is Sebastian come back," said her 
 husband, glad to change the subject, as he 
 heard the rattle of the pony - carriage, "and 
 there is the luncheon-bell. He ought to have 
 had an answer from Clareville by this time. 
 It is very fortunate that he seems to have 
 been too much occupied with his own affairs 
 to think of meddling with ours. I expected 
 his visit portended a storm, when I found he 
 was coming down in such a hurry, and that he 
 had discovered that the last loan I got out of 
 him, on the understanding that it would clear 
 me of all eml^arrassments, left me as deeply 
 dipped as ever. I wonder his curiosity has 
 not been more excited, considering our sudden 
 change of plans and the strange guests he has 
 found here." 
 
 " If you comprehended men better," retorted 
 Mrs Hartwright, " you would understand that 
 he did not come here to make a storm, as you 
 call it, but to make love." 
 
 " Why, Florence told me herself she had 
 given up all hope of him."
 
 136 MASOLLAM. 
 
 " Ball ! I do believe you understand women 
 less than men." 
 
 " Why not call me a fool at once ? " 
 
 " Because you are not, Charles — except in 
 some things, and love-making is one of them." 
 
 " You did not think so once." 
 
 " Oh, don't rake up old scores — it was I that 
 was the fool then. Let us come in to lunch." 
 
 The party were all assembled in the dining- 
 room when Sebastian entered it. Turning to 
 Miss MasoUam — " Your friend, Mr Clareville, 
 will be here this afternoon," he said. 
 
 Florence's eyes were fixed on Amina as the 
 latter received this piece of intelligence, and 
 she saw, or fancied she saw, something in that 
 lovely and expressive countenance which sent 
 a thrill of hope and of triumph through her 
 whole being. "It is not Sebastian, but Clare- 
 ville, she loves, and has come here to meet." 
 The thought flashed upon her with the force 
 of a revelation. " Dear Miss Masollam," she 
 said aloud, " here is a chair; won't you come 
 and sit next me ? "
 
 137 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 MR REGINALD CLAREVILLE's POLITICAL 
 CONFIDENCES. 
 
 " Good heavens ! old man, what is the matter ? 
 How ill you are looking ! " was Sebastian's first 
 exclamation on meetino; his friend at the Tong;- 
 sley station the same afternoon. 
 
 "Yes, I feel rather seedy; that was why I 
 accepted your invitation so promptly. I hope 
 it is only a temporary fit of indigestion ; but 
 I am not quite sure whether it is the salmon 
 or the political crisis which has disagreed with 
 me. I was suffering morally as well as phy- 
 sically all last night aiyhow. Now, tell me 
 where we are going," added Reginald, chang- 
 ing the subject abruptly, as they took their 
 seats in Florence's pony-carriage. 
 
 " To The Turrets — my uncle's house."
 
 138 MASOLLAM I 
 
 " Your uncle's house ! " exclaimed Reginald 
 with amazement. " Why did you say nothing 
 about it in your telegram ? I have not the 
 pleasure either of Mr or Mrs Hartwright's 
 acquaintance, and I certainly have no inten- 
 tion of forcing myself upon them as their 
 guest. I supposed you had some sort of dig- 
 gings of your own here, or I should never 
 have accepted your invitation. It is not fair 
 of you, and, I must say, not like you," he con- 
 tinued, rather angrily, " to place me in this 
 false position." 
 
 " My dear boy, the whole situation is so 
 strange that I could not explain it in a tele- 
 gram of twenty words. That's the worst of 
 telegrams ; they are always putting people into 
 false positions — particularly statesmen and 
 diplomats — even although they have ciphers 
 to help them out of them. I confined myself 
 to the literal truth ; it was Miss Masollam 
 invited you, not my uncle." 
 
 " Well, but I can't be Miss Masollam's 
 guest." 
 
 " I don't know that ; I rather fancy you 
 
 are. 
 
 "What! in your uncle's house?"
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 139 
 
 " As far as I can gather from my cousin 
 Florence, who has been employing her after- 
 noon in dexterously extracting the facts of the 
 case from her father and mother, and receiv- 
 ino' the confidence of the fair Asiatic, old 
 Masollam seems to have hired The Turrets 
 from my uncle, and insists upon the whole 
 family remaining in it as his guests. This 
 makes Miss Masollam mistress of the house, 
 and I suppose she invites whom she pleases." 
 
 Eesinald glanced at his friend to see whether 
 he was serious. 
 
 "Oh, there's an old Masollam, is there?" 
 he said at length. " I never heard of him 
 before." 
 
 " If you will apologise for saying that I 
 have placed you in a false position, and 
 express your gratitude to me instead for 
 having placed you in a position which is as 
 romantic as it must be gratifying to any well- 
 constituted mind, I will tell you a great deal 
 more that you never heard of before, in regard 
 to which I desire your sapient counsel and 
 advice. We have nearly two hours before us, 
 which will give me plenty of time to prime 
 you. There is no necessity for you to see any
 
 140 MASOLLAM : 
 
 of tlie party till you meet them before dinner, 
 more especially as you know your hostess 
 already." 
 
 " I apologise ; hut I shall reserve my ex- 
 pressions of gratitude until you have un- 
 bosomed yourself. Go on ; I am all at- 
 tention." 
 
 Sebastian's narrative was only interrupted 
 by their arrival at The Turrets. The friends 
 slipped unobserved into the house, when he 
 resumed it in his own room, to the great 
 interest of Reginald, who pondered for some 
 time in silence when it was concluded. 
 
 " Am I to understand," asked the latter at 
 length, " that you wish, as it were, to take 
 me into the family counsel ? " 
 
 " Only so far as I am personally concerned. 
 It is not necessary that any of its other mem- 
 bers should know of your being in my con- 
 fidence." 
 
 " By any of its other members you don't 
 mean to exclude your cousin Florence, I swp- 
 pose, as, from your account, she is the only 
 one who has consulted you on the subject?" 
 and Reginald favoured his friend with a shrewxl 
 glance. " To be of any use I must be in full pos-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 141 
 
 session of the facts," he added. " That must 
 be my excuse for asking you what rehitions 
 exist between yourself and your cousin." 
 
 Sebastian hesitated a moment. 
 
 " It has always been the desire both of my 
 uncle and aunt that we should marry ; but my 
 father was strongly opposed to the match." 
 
 " And you did not care about it ? " 
 
 " No ; I did not wish to oppose my father's 
 wishes." 
 
 " But the young lady, being dutiful, was 
 willing to obey hers, no doubt," said Clare- 
 ville, with a smile. " Well, I won't press the 
 point," he added, as he observed a shade of 
 embarrassment in his friend's countenance, 
 which was a sufficient answer to his question. 
 ' ' Now in regard to the nature of the financial 
 assistance which MasoUam has rendered to Mr 
 Hartwright, your cousin only assumes this to 
 be the case, and therefore is quite ignorant of 
 the amount." 
 
 " Quite," replied Sebastian. 
 
 "What impression does Masollam make 
 upon you ? " 
 
 "I am bound to say a most agreeable one. 
 He is extremely intelligent, full of the most
 
 142 MASOLLAM : 
 
 varied information, which he imparts in a 
 manner at once orig-inal and attractive. Flor- 
 ence described him to me as a terrible okl 
 man, for wiiom she has conceived the strongest 
 antipathy. To me, on the contrary, he is one 
 of the most engaging specimens of humanity 
 I have ever met." 
 
 " And you feel the same, no doubt, about 
 his daughter ? " 
 
 " I don't feel anything at all about her yet. 
 I admire her as I would a beautiful picture ; 
 but I am not especially attracted to her as a 
 human being. She seems to me a far more 
 puzzling and less satisfactory individual than 
 her father." 
 
 " Puzzling and unsatisfactory certainly, but 
 to me she is eminently attractive ; however, 
 perhaps that is because I am not under the 
 spell of the father," laughed Clareville. " Now 
 let us formulate our ideas a little. First, we 
 must find out who these people are, and where 
 they come from. Secondly, what the man's 
 motive is, not merely in lending your uncle 
 money — that may be explained by the rate of 
 interest he asks — but in suddenly establish- 
 ing himself in his house under such peculiar
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 143 
 
 conditions. Thirdly, it behoves us to get at 
 the bottom of his rehn^tions with the curiosity- 
 dealer, and the woman he seems to keep in 
 his house as a prisoner. And, fourthly, it may 
 aid in the elucidation of matters if we can 
 discover who this mysterious female may be. 
 No man has a right to keep a fellow-creature 
 in solitary confinement in this country. We 
 mig;ht invoke the arm of the law." 
 
 "Don't you think for the present it will be 
 better to invoke the aid of the cook ? " said 
 Sebastian. " It may do more harm than good 
 to act openly before we know exactly how the 
 case stands. The woman may be a voluntary 
 recluse, or partially insane." 
 
 " I don't much like the cook feature in the 
 affair," observed Reginald ; "it savours a good 
 deal more of the detective than of the gentle- 
 man ; but perhaps as an act of humanity it 
 may be justified. It is not in the interests of 
 your family, but of this poor unknown woman, 
 that I consent to it." 
 
 " And it was only in her interests that I 
 arranged it," replied Sebastian ; " but I am 
 afraid we shall have to do detective work our- 
 selves, or employ detectives to do it for us,
 
 144 MASOLLAM : 
 
 if we are to find out wlio the MasoUams are. 
 I thought of writing and putting them on Miss 
 MasoUam's track at the Grand HoteL" 
 
 " No, don't do that," said Eeginahl, quickly, 
 
 " AVell, suggest something else." 
 
 CL^reville remained lost in thought for some 
 moments. 
 
 " By the way," he exclaimed, suddenly, 
 " there is that strange friend of yours that 
 you once introduced me to in Paris, when you 
 wanted to drag me into those psychical in- 
 vestigations which seem to me as unprofitable 
 as they are fascinating to weak minds, I beg 
 your pardon, old man, I don't include you. 
 If, as your cousin says, this Oriental sets up as 
 a sort of necromancer, they are sure to know 
 something of each other. All fellows in that 
 line are either in league together, and then 
 they play into each other's hands, or else they 
 are rivals, and hate each other. What was 
 your friend's name, again ? " 
 
 " Santalba ; but you are entirely mistaken 
 if you suppose that he is either in league or 
 in rivalry with any necromancer. I know no 
 man who more thoroughly despises charlatan- 
 ism of every description, or who possesses a
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 145 
 
 higher sense of honour. Nor have I been able 
 to perceive any signs of it in Masollam, though 
 he is evidently a man whose higher gifts and 
 faculties have been remarkably developed. It 
 was this about him w4iich attracted me ; and 
 now that you mention it, I do see a strong 
 resemblance in many points between their 
 views, even during the short conversation 
 which I have already had with Masollam oA 
 those subjects in which I feel a special interest. 
 It is just jDossible, as 5^ou say, that they may 
 know each other, though, if so, it is strange 
 that I have never heard Santalba mention his 
 name ; however, I wdll write at once and ask 
 him." 
 
 " Not so fast. Don't let us show more of 
 our hand than we can help, even to the 
 chivalrous and high-minded Santalba. First 
 find out, if you can, from your uncle, how he 
 came to know Masollam. Somebody must 
 have introduced him, you know. And if you 
 fail there, you can tell Masollam himself how 
 like his views are to those of your friend, and 
 draw him that way. It will be time enough 
 to write when we know our ground a little 
 better." 
 
 VOL. I. K .
 
 146 MASOLLAM : 
 
 Mrs Hartwrio;lit's feelino-s of satisfaction at 
 liavino^ the Honourable Reo;inald Clareville 
 under her roof were somewhat damped, when, 
 after he had been duly presented to her and 
 the rest of the assembled company, with the 
 exception of Amina, who greeted him with 
 unembarrassed cordiality as an old ac(|uaint- 
 ance, MasoUam offered her his arm when dinner 
 was announced ; and turning with the calm 
 assurance of a host to Reginald, said, " Mr 
 Clareville, will you take my daughter into 
 dinner ? " Charles Hartwright -bit his lip ; 
 Florence linked her arm to that of her cousin 
 Sebastian, with a comfortable sense of relief; 
 and Mrs Hartwright, as she glanced at her 
 companion, began to doubt whether, after all, 
 she understood him so thoroughly as she sup- 
 posed — doubts which were speedily set at rest 
 by the profusion of compliments and pretty 
 speeches with which the bland Oriental pro- 
 ceeded to overwhelm her. 
 
 " It was very kind of you," said Miss 
 Masollam in French, in which language she 
 was more at ease than in English, and speak- 
 ing in a subdued tone, " to come to us in the 
 midst of this political crisis, when I am sure
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 147 
 
 your parliamentary prospects iniist be absorb- 
 ing all your time and thouglits." 
 
 "Yon are mistaken, Miss Masollam," Regin- 
 ald replied, with a more serions manner than 
 that which had characterised their first meet- 
 ing in London. " I made no sacrifice in 
 accepting your kind invitation ; for I had just 
 taken the most serious resolution of my life 
 when Sebastian's tele2;ram reached me." 
 
 She looked up at him with a glance of sur- 
 prise and inquiry. 
 
 " I will tell you what it is," he continued, 
 as though in answer to it ; "I have made up 
 my mind to abandon political life entirely." 
 
 " Now ! at the most critical juncture of your 
 country's fortunes!" she exclaimed; "at the 
 moment when every true patriot with the 
 influence and talents which you command, 
 should devote himself to its service I " 
 
 " It is just because my country is likely 
 soon to need my services, that I decline to 
 devote myself any longer exclusively to the 
 service of my party. I have done that too 
 long already," he added, bitterly. 
 
 She w^atched him intently as he spoke. 
 
 " Explain to me," she said ; " I am so igno-
 
 148 MASOLLAM : 
 
 rant of English ways. I tliouglit that the 
 difference between despotic government and 
 free government was, that in one the king 
 or emperor governed through his minister ; 
 and in the other, the people governed through 
 a party. That is called constitutional govern- 
 ment, or government by party ; is it not so ? " 
 This was not a very sentimental speech for 
 a young lady to make, yet it went straighter 
 to Clareville's heart than the most tender of 
 glances, or the most significant of pressures. 
 Thus are some men constituted, if the girls 
 only knew it. There was nothing original in 
 the definition, which was a very elementary 
 one, philosophically speaking, nor in the form 
 of its expression ; but it seemed to touch a 
 chord in Eeginald's nature which was at that 
 moment peculiarly sensitive, because it was 
 still vibrating with the shock of the political 
 agitation of pending events, and it seemed to 
 convey to him an assurance of intellectual 
 appreciation on the part of the speaker, of 
 subjects in which he was most deeply in- 
 terested, and of a faculty of sympathy which 
 would warrant his discussino; them with her. 
 One of his chief reasons for responding so
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 149 
 
 promptly to Sebastian's telegTam, was to talk 
 over with him more fully than had yet been 
 possible, the condition of public affairs, and 
 his own position with regard to them. In 
 Sebastian he knew he should find a sym- 
 pathetic counsellor and confidant ; but now 
 in the very thrill of the tones he was listening 
 to, he heard, as it were, the promise of a 
 tenderer sympathy, of a loftier inspiration, 
 than he could hope for even from a friend 
 whom he esteemed above other men. He 
 instinctively looked across the table at Sebas- 
 tian as this thought flashed upon him, and 
 could scarcely restrain a feeling of annoyance 
 at perceiving how^ completely his attention 
 was absorbed by the prattle of his cousin 
 Florence. 
 
 Miss Masollam's glance had followed Reg- 
 inald's. 
 
 "Perhaps you think that these are not 
 subjects for women to discuss," she said, in 
 a low and somewhat diftident tone. 
 
 " Pardon me,'" said Reginald, with a slight 
 start, as he recovered himself from his moment- 
 ary abstraction; "I was thinking exactly the 
 opposite, and congratulating myself on having
 
 150 MASOLLAM : 
 
 found one with whom I can discuss them. 
 Your definition of the difference between auto- 
 cratic and constitutional, or rather responsible 
 government — for there are countries which 
 have constitutions without the government 
 being responsible to the country, as it is in 
 England — is substantially correct. Unfortu- 
 nately, in politics as in religion, people attach 
 too much importance to the form, and too little 
 to the essence. It is the 'letter that killeth, 
 the spirit that giveth life.' The worst form 
 of government theoretically, becomes the best 
 if all the administrative units are actuated by 
 pure and high motives, mnd the best becomes 
 the worst if these latter are dishonest and self- 
 seeking ; and when a political party, under 
 what are called free institutions, becomes de- 
 moralised by private interests, internal dissen- 
 sions, and inherent weakness, though it may 
 not be corrupt in the w^orst sense of the word, 
 the most precious liberties of the people are 
 in greater danger than when they are in the 
 hands of a single man who is patriotic, resolute, 
 and free from the petty and personal ambitions 
 wdiich control the leaders of a party." 
 ' " Is it because both parties in England are
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 151 
 
 open to this charge that you wish to withdraw 
 from politics ? " asked Aminia. 
 
 " Not altogether ; I was talking of the draw- 
 Lacks which must ever attend the system of 
 government by party in the abstract. I do 
 not go so far as to assert that existing political 
 parties in England are worse than their pre- 
 decessors, or that one is much more sinning in 
 these respects than the other, though it has 
 been necessary for me to go through a parlia- 
 mentary experience myself to realise the full 
 extent of the evil ; still, if that were all, it 
 is possible, though it would probably be diffi- 
 cult — and, with the modifications which the 
 electoral system is undergoing, is daily be- 
 coming more so — for me to take an indepen- 
 dent position, and obey the dictates of my 
 conscience, rather than those of any political 
 leader ; but then I should have the disagree- 
 able sensation of knowing that if my example 
 were followed by many, the government of the 
 country would be rendered impossible. That 
 consideration, however — which has reference to 
 a hypothetical state of things, that in practice 
 is not likely to arise — would not in itself be 
 sufficient to drive me out of political life."
 
 152 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " What is the consiclercation which does, 
 then ? " 
 
 " The ftict that the highest moral aspira- 
 tions suggest political, social, and economic 
 problems, which are insoluble in existing 
 humanitary conditions, and one is therefore 
 driven to the alternative either of violating 
 one's noblest instincts, or of withdrawing 
 from political and social life altogether. 
 Common - sense, in the ordinary acceptation 
 of the term, is sense of such a very common 
 description that its exercise must ever bring 
 one into sharp collision with the most lofty 
 ethical ideal. A man may attempt it in 
 private life, and in these civilised days he 
 would be considered a harmless lunatic, and 
 thus escape the fate of the greatest moral 
 Teacher that ever lived ; but common-sense 
 in a statesman or politician demands that 
 when the nation he governs is smitten on 
 one cheek, it should instantly return the 
 blow ; that when occasion requires, its life- 
 blood should be poured out like water in 
 defence of its commercial interests — in other 
 words, of that money which its preachers 
 proclaim to be the root of evil. Common-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 153 
 
 sense demands that it should be externally 
 professing one thing theologically, and prac- 
 tising the exact opposite politically, socially, 
 and economically. Common-sense demands, 
 in fact, that it should live a lie, and the odd 
 thing is that so few seem troubled by the 
 inconsistency. Those that are, and who try 
 to carry their convictions into public life, are 
 impaled on the horns of a dilemma, and if 
 they are honest, find only two courses open to 
 them. Either they must repudiate the policy 
 of common-sense, and adopt what, in default 
 of a better definition, I will call the policy of 
 Christ, which would inevitably result in the 
 conquest and annexation of the country by 
 some foreio;n Government . with a common- 
 sense policy ; or by a cleverer adaptation of 
 that policy than their neighbours, they must 
 be more aggressive, more grasping, more self- 
 seeking, more skilful and unscrupulous in the 
 games of war and diplomacy, and thus by the 
 exercise of the most unchristian qualities, se- 
 cure that preponderance among other Powers, 
 which is the only sure foundation for the na- 
 tional prosperity. Honesty is only the best 
 policy for a nation or for an individual, in tlie
 
 154 MASOLLAM : 
 
 lowest and crudest acceptation of the term. 
 That honesty which consists in being true to 
 the highest moral ideal, is simply worldly 
 ruin. The disasters which are in store for 
 England, result not from her dishonesty, 
 but from the well-meant endeavour of her 
 statesmen to practise a higher political mor- 
 ality than is current among other nations. 
 It is not lofty enough to appear insane — the 
 world has not yet said of them that much 
 goodness has made them mad ; but it is sufE- 
 ciently opposed to common-sense to appear 
 intensely feeble, sufficiently impulsive to seem 
 flagrantly inconsistent, and, in fact, incon- 
 sistent enough to look distinctly hypocritical. 
 If the conscience of the nation and its rulers 
 were so quickened as to make their political 
 practice consistent with their religious pro- 
 fession, they would certainly seem mad, and 
 their end niio;ht be as traejic as that of their 
 hero who died at Khartoum. But if one man 
 by his death could leave such an imperishable 
 moral legacy to posterity as he has done, what 
 might not the death of a. nation accomplish ? 
 Who can say that the moral standard, which 
 is now a mere abstraction, might not then
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 155 
 
 become a realisation ? Meantime I cannot 
 be a party to a policy based upon spasmodic 
 moral impulses, so weak and fitful that tliey 
 slirivel to nothing before the blast of public 
 opinion, and so tempered to suit the exigencies 
 of party warfare or private ambitions, that in 
 some cases their very sincerity is dubious. I 
 would rather go upon the old middle-age lines 
 of expediency and so-called common-sense than 
 this, and secure the material greatness of the 
 empire by adopting the selfish and unscru- 
 pulous policy of jealousy and rivalry of each 
 other pursued by our neighbours. Better to 
 live by the force of greed, than die of the 
 rottenness of cant. I decline, however, to be 
 a party to a policy either of greed or of cant. 
 These are the reasons. Miss MasoUam, which 
 have influenced me in retiring from the arena 
 of politics." 
 
 "Entertaining these sentiments," said iVmina, 
 whose abstracted air indicated that she was 
 endeavourino; to estimate the force and value 
 of these remarks, " I can quite understand that 
 your right field of action is not in the sphere 
 which causes you such acute moral suff'ering ; 
 l)ut it does not follow that those whom you
 
 156 MASOLLAM : 
 
 condemn as weak and spasmodic in their 
 impulses towards a higher standard of inter- 
 national political morality, could do otherwise 
 for the moment than give the best expression 
 to them which seems in their power. Nor, on 
 the other hand, are those to he blamed who 
 conscientiously believe that the prosperity of 
 England can best be maintained by following 
 those traditional lines of policy to which its 
 greatness has been due, even though they 
 may be out of harmony with those higher 
 moral aspirations, the growing development 
 of which is the marked characteristic of the 
 age in which we live. ' 
 
 " It does not the less seem to me the 
 duty," replied Reginald, " for those who are the 
 most conscious of this development, to protest 
 alike against the moral feebleness of its half- 
 hearted representatives who discredit it, and 
 the moral denseness of those who resist it," 
 
 "On the contrary, it appears to me to be 
 inconsistent with a truly philosophic attitude 
 of mind to be dogmatic about motives of 
 action or lines of policy, inasmuch as the sort 
 of power required for political action implies 
 necessarily a one-sided view. The character
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 157 
 
 of force needed for tlie coercion of men and 
 events is not such as liiglily strung and sen- 
 sitive natures possess, whose functions lie in 
 another direction, and it must of necessity 
 be somewhat coarse, and relatively even brutal 
 in its attributes. The most powerful man 
 now in Europe is an illustration of force of 
 this description." 
 
 " He has created an empire, and developed 
 the arrogance and cupidity of his race. I don't 
 see that the interests of humanity, or of inter- 
 national morality have been much advanced 
 thereby." 
 
 " Pardon me, if I differ from you there. AVe 
 are not yet in a position to judge of the degree 
 in which the results of his policy may not, in 
 their ultimate influence, exercise a beneficial 
 effect upon those interests. It must often 
 happen that an individual, powerfully and 
 instinctively impelled, by virtue of the force 
 which he feels to be inherent in him, to act 
 with energy upon the external forms of life, 
 is bound to set aside many interests for the 
 sake of one ; but in the long-run these may 
 not suffer thereby. No one is in a position to 
 assert positively that they will. Take, for
 
 158 MASOLLAM : 
 
 instance, the leaders of the most divergent 
 25oh*tical ideas. They may be equally honest, 
 equally dosirons of their country's good, or 
 even of the world's good ; but as each one in 
 advising a course of action builds upon the 
 unknown quantity of the probable long chain 
 of after-events, it becomes a mere matter of 
 opinion which is good. Fortunately, in every 
 stage of civilisation, by far the greater number 
 of persons do not feel themselves called upon 
 to face political problems with the breadth of 
 view which produces in you the clear percep- 
 tion of the inconsistencies which render public 
 life impossible to you. Oj)posing political 
 parties have instincts just sufficiently broad 
 to enable them to balance each other, and act 
 without the sense of paralysis arising from the 
 consciousness that they are grappling with 
 problems incapable of solution. It is thus 
 that the divine potency has ever worked 
 through imperfect and often debased instru- 
 ments, using first one side and then the other 
 to correct the exao;2;erations of each ; and thus 
 from time to time does the rugged flint of 
 popular revolution come in contact with the 
 cold steel of military despotism. The shock
 
 A PflOBLEM OF THE PEEIOD. 150 
 
 each time is terrible, but a spark of sacred 
 fire lias flaslied from it into the world's 
 darkness." 
 
 The eye of the fair speaker kindled with the 
 enthusiasm of her utterance as she stopped 
 abruptly ; and Reginald felt tliat his growing 
 admiration for her somewhat marred his crit- 
 ical faculty in argument. 
 
 "The spark immediately goes out," he said, 
 with a smile. 
 
 " But often not before it has touched tin- 
 der," she answered quickly. 
 
 " And produced a disastrous conflagration," 
 he rejoined. " AVe might each continue the 
 metaphor to suit our own side of the question ; 
 but I cannot admit that progress is necessarily 
 evolved by the clash of evil passions." 
 
 " It would not be if tliev were all evil, or 
 those who roused them were animated onl}^ by 
 selfish ends. But, in point of fact, political 
 excesses are generally the result of an efi^ort 
 to remedy existing evils, and often to evoke 
 virtues. It is the underlying motive which 
 secures the ultimate benefit to humanity, by 
 drawing down a divine influence into the 
 world."
 
 160 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " Nay, now you are becoming mystical, and 
 beg the (question that there is such a thing as 
 a ' divine influence,' of which I have no sort of 
 proof." 
 
 " Why, you talked just now as if you were 
 a Christian," 
 
 " I hope not. I said that the altruistic 
 morality insisted upon by Christ should be 
 practically and uncompromisingly applied to 
 the policy of the nation ; and I am not aware 
 that any Christians have gone as far as that. 
 They don't assert it, except theoretically, even 
 of an individual. But there is nothing to 
 prevent my being a materialist, and to my still 
 according my complete adhesion to the ethical 
 system taught by a Jew 1800 years ago." 
 
 " I am a materialist too," said Amina ; " but 
 that does not prevent my believing in a God, 
 and in beings whom you may call angels, 
 spirits, devils, or by any other name, because 
 they happen to be invisible to you. It all 
 depends upon what you mean by the word 
 ' matter.' If you separate it from force of any 
 kind, I deny its existence ; if you do not sep- 
 arate it from force, you have no right to limit 
 its existence to something conditiotied on the
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 161 
 
 delicacy of your sense of touch, or the focus of 
 your eye, or that of your microscope. The 
 moment you admit that force cannot exist 
 without a transmitting medium — which philo- 
 sophically you must — matter is as good a 
 name for that medium as any other ; and the 
 Deity, together with all the hosts of the 
 peopled universes, and of those spiritual re- 
 gions which are variously designated, become 
 material. If you could only have the focus 
 of your eye changed by a hair, you would 
 find that matter, which is now invisible to 
 it, is not so very different from that which 
 is visible. But we have wandered from our 
 subject, which was your political dilemma, 
 and to which we had better not now return. 
 Before we part, I will take care that you have 
 a better proof than argument affords, of the 
 existence of the region of invisible matter. 
 I am the more surprised at your doubting it, 
 because my friend Count Santalba, in Paris, 
 told me that he knew you." 
 
 " I only saw him once, and know him too 
 slightly to have entered upon any discussion 
 with him ; and," added Eeginald, after a 
 pause, " now I think of it, that may account 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 1G2 MASOLLAM. 
 
 for the kind interest you manifested in me 
 when we first met in the Ladies' Gallery of 
 the House." 
 
 "Yes," she replied, simply, "it was from 
 Santalba I first heard of you ; " and then turn- 
 ing towards him, and fixing her large eyes 
 upon his as she slowly rose, as the signal for 
 the ladies to leave the table, she added, " and 
 it is to him we owe our introduction to this 
 house." 
 
 I
 
 1G3 
 
 X 
 
 %■•, 
 
 %% 
 
 ^- f 
 
 % 
 
 ^^, 
 
 i» 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MINES AND COUNTERMINES. 
 
 There was a significance in the glance of Amina 
 Masollam as she uttered the words which we 
 have recorded in the concluding sentence of 
 the last chapter, which was too marked to 
 miss its effect upon a nature so sensitive as 
 that of Reginald Clareville. " It was almost 
 as though she had overheard our conversa- 
 tion," he said to Sebastian, as they smoked 
 a cigarette together on the terrace before 
 joining the ladies. "As much as to say, You 
 need not resort to any such underhand means 
 as you were proposing, to find out how we in- 
 troduced ourselves here. Here is the answer 
 to the question you want to ask, but do not 
 dare. I read your distrust of us — but we 
 scorn mystery,"
 
 164 MASOLLAM : 
 
 "Scorn mystery, indeed," remarked Sebas- 
 tian ; " I should think they did. There was a 
 cool and frank audacity in the way MasoUam 
 displaced uncle Charles from the head of his 
 own table, in the presence of the assembled 
 company, and a sublime indifference to the 
 effect it was calculated to produce upon 
 them, which fairly took my breath away. 
 The old butler's face was a picture : did you 
 see it ? " 
 
 " No ; I had only time for a hurried glance 
 at your aunt's, who was rising to put her arm 
 in mine, when I was suddenly ordered off to 
 Miss MasoUam : it also appeared an interesting 
 study. Well, as he has taken such a decisive 
 measure, evidently with a view of exciting our 
 curiosity, he can have no objection to grati- 
 fying it, and it is no impertinence on your 
 part, as a member of the family, in request- 
 ino; him to do so. He seems to me to court 
 inquiry." 
 
 " We shan't have long to wait — listen." 
 
 As the sash-door through which they had 
 stepped out upon the terrace was standing 
 open, the clear, resonant tones of the Oriental, 
 which appeared pitched with design at a higher
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 165 
 
 key than was necessary, fell upon the stillness 
 of the night, 
 
 " My dear Mr Hartwright," he was saying, 
 " I think you have every reason to be satis- 
 fied with the promptitude and efficiency of 
 your lawyer. He impresses me also as being 
 a person of discretion ; and now that our little 
 business affairs have been so satisfactorily con- 
 cluded, I will ask you to excuse me, while I 
 join our friends upon the terrace," — and, suiting 
 the action to the word — "This is a luxury 
 your climate rarely afibrds you," he observed 
 to Clareville. "Have you ever been in the 
 East ? " 
 
 " No," replied Reginald. 
 
 "Then you don't know what nights are. 
 Let us sit down on this bench : I sometimes 
 feel so much older than I really am, and 
 sometimes so much younger — curious, isn't it ? 
 I have been feeling young nearly all day, and 
 now I feel what I call an old fit cominsj on. 
 That is why I must sit. You want to know 
 who I am, why I have come and established 
 myself here, and what is my motive for helping 
 Mr Hartwright out of his difficulties. Is not 
 that so? You see I come to the point at once."
 
 166 MASOLLAM : 
 
 The abruptness of this address did not dis- 
 concert the young men so much as it might 
 have done, had their own previous conversation 
 not in some measure prepared them for it. 
 
 "You have rightly anticipated," said Sebas- 
 tian, '• each of the questions which, as a 
 rehitive of the family, the head of which is 
 under financial obligations to me, I intended 
 to take the earliest opportunity of asking — 
 the more especially as I feel convinced that 
 your motives in acting as you have done are 
 not such as to need concealment." 
 
 " Pardon me, my dear Mr Hartwright," re- 
 plied Masollam ; "the present is not the ear- 
 liest opportunity you have had of making 
 these inquiries. We had a long talk yes- 
 terday upon other subjects, when you did not 
 allude to them ; but it is the earliest oppor- 
 tunity you have had since the arrival of your 
 friend, and it is for his arrival that, like you, 
 I have been waitino;," 
 
 " I am not aware that I have any concern 
 in the matter," said Clareville, who felt rather 
 indignant at the somewhat uncalled-for snub 
 which he thought Sebastian had received. 
 
 Masollam turned sharply on the speaker,
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 167 
 
 and his eyes seemed to gleam like points of 
 fire in the darkness. 
 
 " AVhat concerns your friend concerns you. 
 At least that is his opinion, or he would not 
 have waited to consult you before speaking to 
 me ; and you will allow me to add, my dear 
 Mr Clareville, that when you say you have no 
 concern in knowing who I am, and who my 
 
 daughter is, you well, you disappoint me : 
 
 think it over now. Do you adhere to that 
 statement ? " 
 
 " I am not in the habit of making state- 
 ments to which I can't adhere," said the other, 
 hotly ; for MasoUam's politeness exasperated 
 him. ' ' I don't deny a certain curiosity, but 
 I adhere to the assertion that it is no concern 
 01 mme. 
 
 Rco;inald afterwards told his friend that he 
 seemed to have put out Masollam's eyes l)y 
 this speech, the gleam in them vanished so 
 suddenly. 
 
 "Well, well," he murmured in his far-off 
 voice, " I have been a little premature : I did 
 not come here to gratify an idle curiosity. 
 I thought better of you, young man ; " and 
 he rose slowly, and with great apparent
 
 168 MASOLLAM : 
 
 effort, from the bench on which he had been 
 sitting. 
 
 ' ' But I am not asking from any idle curi- 
 osity," broke in Sebastian quickly, seeing that 
 he was about to leave them. 
 
 " Let me lean upon your arm ; 1 feel very 
 weak. There — thanks ! No, my son, I have 
 no fault to find with you. I could have told 
 you all had you asked me yesterday, but you 
 invoked your friend. You appealed to Caesar, 
 and to Csesar you must go. Still, I could 
 have told him too, had he been different. 
 That will do. Good night ; I am going to my 
 room : please ask my daughter to come to me 
 there at once ; " — and Masollam tottered into 
 the house alone, and Sebastian returned per- 
 plexed and disappointed to his friend. 
 
 " You spoiled everything, Eeginald : why 
 could you not say that it did concern you to 
 know who he and his daughter are ? " 
 
 " Because I deny any man's right to tell me 
 what to say. He is an old impostor, and 
 she — is a witch, I think." 
 
 "Well, I must go and send her to her 
 father, whatever she is ; " and Sebastian hurried 
 off, leaving his friend to chew the cud of his
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 169 
 
 reflections in a distinctly dissatisfied frame of 
 mind. He was angry with himself, because, 
 if Amina was what he had called her, he was 
 a fool to have been bewitched by her. If she 
 wasn't, he was a greater fool still not to have 
 read her rightly. He had lost his heart, he 
 felt sure of that now, to a woman of Avliom he 
 had spoken disparagingly to his friend, and of 
 whom he had declared to her own father — 
 who would certainly repeat it to her — that it 
 was no concern of his who or what she was, — 
 that his only interest in her was one of mere 
 idle curiosity. He had been promising him- 
 self a prolongation of their conversation in the 
 drawing-room, and now it was he who had 
 been the means of banishing her from it, prob- 
 ably for the rest of the evening. 
 
 "No doubt I told a lie," he muttered to 
 himself, "when I said it was no concern of 
 mine who she was ; and it was that old brute 
 with his glowing eyes and mocking manner 
 who seemed to twist it out of me. It is a 
 matter of supreme concern to me, on the con- 
 trary, who she is. Witch or angel, she is 
 mine — ay, in spite of that detestable father- 
 in-law. Florence Hartwright was right. He
 
 170 MASOLLAM : 
 
 is a terrible old man. I quite share her antip- 
 athy. He never had the slightest intention 
 of telling us any of his secrets. He amused 
 himself by taunting me, until he forced from 
 me a denial of any interest in his daughter, 
 and then dexterously used it to cover his 
 retreat, and tell her about it before I should 
 have time to see her again ; and yet," he 
 pondered, " considering I am not a bad match 
 for an unknown Oriental, it is difficult to 
 imagine what his game can be — unless, in- 
 deed," and he drew a long breath, as the full 
 force of the revelation burst upon him, — " he 
 destines her for Sebastian ! " 
 
 Now it all became clear to him : it was a 
 deep-laid plot of Masollam's to get the whole 
 family completely into his power, and the 
 price to be paid for their salvation from utter 
 ruin would be Sebastian and his millions. 
 The more he pieced his information together, 
 the more it fitted ii this hypothesis. 
 " And this precious friend of Sebastian's at 
 Paris," he continued mentally — " this Count 
 Santalba, who is so honourable and disin- 
 terested, has contrived the whole conspiracy, 
 and is doubtless to share the profits. Who
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. I7l 
 
 SO well able to keep his accomplice informed 
 of the exact situation, domestically and fin- 
 ancially, of the Hartwright family ; to influ- 
 ence his young and confiding friend, in his 
 own interest and that of this Eastern adven- 
 turer ? Who better acquainted with the re- 
 lations existino' between Sebastian and his 
 cousin Florence, and the danger which may 
 at any moment put an end to all their mer- 
 cenar}^ projects ? How fortunate that Amina 
 possesses no attraction for Sebastian ! Now 
 that I am on the track, this fair cousin and 
 I become natural allies. She is not, perhaps, 
 all that I could have wished in a wife for 
 Sebastian, but she is certainly more refined 
 than the rest of the family;" 
 
 If these were not exactly the words in which 
 Eeginald formulated his reflections, this was 
 the groove in which they ran, as he pro- 
 ceeded to evolve schemes for developing 
 Florence's ladyl' instincts, by having her 
 invited to Clareville Court, to which place 
 of refuge he proposed to carry off" Sebastian, 
 and where he doubted not, under the influ- 
 ence of his mother and sister, Florence would 
 show to better advantage than amid the
 
 172 MASOLLAM : 
 
 coarser surroinidings of her own family. He 
 felt sure that a proposal of this kind would 
 meet with the warmest approval of Mr and 
 Mrs Hartwright, whom he also determined to 
 put upon their guard, so soon as he could 
 venture, upon such short acquaintance, to 
 broach so delicate a subject. 
 
 He no sooner arrived at this conclusion, 
 than he felt that he was losing valuable time 
 in not joining the rest of the party, the more 
 especially as Sebastian had remained with the 
 ladies, and his own non-appearance among 
 them might seem sinsfular. The absence of 
 the Masollams furthered his designs. Mr and 
 Mrs Hartwrio;ht had once more assumed a 
 temporary reign in their own establishment ; 
 and while Laura, who had musical talent of 
 a high order to compensate for her other 
 deficiencies, was relegated to the piano, and 
 her brothers played heziqne, and Florence 
 and Sebastian seemed confidentially engaged 
 in a corner of the room, Clareville was en- 
 abled to devote himself exclusively to the 
 two elders of the family, who had been burn- 
 ing for an opportunity, thus most unexpect- 
 edly afi"orded them, of giving such an ex-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 173 
 
 planatioii of the anomalous condition of the 
 househokl as should save their own dignity, 
 and satisfy the natural curiosity of the visitor, 
 whom they could not call their guest. This 
 they were the better able to do, as the events 
 of the evening had determined them to arrive 
 at a sudden resolution ; for once husband and 
 wife had jumped absolutely at the same con- 
 clusion, which they had communicated to 
 each other when Miss MasoUam's departure 
 from the room afforded them an opportunity 
 of doing so. 
 
 "I must apologise, Mr Clareville," said 
 Charles Hartwright, "for not receiving you 
 as a guest in my own house. I assure you, 
 when my nephew despatched his telegram of 
 invitation, I had every intention of doing so, 
 as, although I was in the act of letting my 
 house to Mr MasoUam, I did not intend to 
 conclude the arrangement until your visit had 
 terminated. He, however, made it a condition 
 at the last moment that it must either be done 
 at once or not at all ; an.d as we were already 
 packed up to go abroad, and could not afford 
 a second time to lose a tenant after every 
 arrangement for our departure had been made,
 
 174 MASOLLAM : 
 
 1 was obliged to consent. But as we intend to 
 leave the day after to-morrow, he might at 
 least have had the decency not to assume the 
 duties of host until I had left." 
 
 " We must not be too hard upon Orientals, 
 you know, who are quite unfamiliar with our 
 ways," broke in Mrs Hartwright, who still had 
 a lingering weakness for Masollam. " I assure 
 you he was quite surprised when I hinted to 
 him that he had placed . us in a false position 
 relatively to our guest — for we intended you 
 to be our guest, you know, Mr Clareville ; and 
 he assured me that if he had had the least 
 idea tiiat it would have caused my husband 
 any annoyance — and I was obliged to admit 
 that it did — he never would have usurped 
 your position, Charles. He said that he did 
 it 23urely out of consideration for you, think- 
 ing you would be the last man to wish to 
 appear in any house in a position to which 
 you were not legally entitled, and the lease 
 had already been signed. I then felt, that 
 although, no doubt, it was unintentional on'his 
 part, he was placing you in a false position, — 
 I did not so much care about myself, — and it 
 was with great regret that we have decided
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 175 
 
 not to postpone our departure, as we shall 
 leave you behind in our own house, Mr Clare- 
 ^'ille; where, as I have often told Sebastian, 
 while we were masters of it, that we should 
 have been so glad to receive you." 
 
 " You are very kind, Mrs Hartwright," said 
 Eeginald ; " but I really hope you will re- 
 consider your determination, now that I quite 
 understand the situation, and agree with Mr 
 Hartwright that it was one in which Mr 
 Masollam had no right to place him : surely 
 to delay your trip for a few days will make no 
 difference. I hope under the circumstances 
 you will not think I am presuming on a very 
 short acquaintance — the more esj)ecially as Mr 
 Masollam is, so far as I can learn from Sebas- 
 tian, an entire stranger to you — if I venture to 
 suggest that his motive in forcing this lease 
 upon you so suddenly, and behaving as he has 
 done since, was to drive you to adopt the very 
 decision at which you have arrived. In other 
 w^ords, you are playing his game." 
 
 "What is his game?" asked Hartwright. 
 Clarevillc made no immediate reply, but 
 looked up as though accidentally, and let his 
 glance rest upon the corner in which Sebas-
 
 176 MASOLLAM : 
 
 tian and his cousin were ensconced. Charles 
 Hartwright's eyes instinctively followed Reg- 
 inald's. He was a man of too hot a temper, 
 and had been too much outraged in his pride, 
 to remember that his departure would have 
 precisely the opposite effect upon the fortunes 
 of his daughter from that which Masollam 
 had agreed to co-operate with him in achiev- 
 ing. He saw that he had been duped. And 
 Clareville judiciously allowed this conscious- 
 ness to work. 
 
 " Your own sagacity and knowledge of all 
 the circumstances are so much greater than 
 mine, Mr Hartwright," he said at length, 
 " that I cannot venture on any suggestion 
 which will not probably have occurred to 
 yourself. In fact, as an entire stranger, I 
 have already, perhaps, said too much. I can 
 only excuse myself on the ground of my 
 affection for your nephew, and my fear lest 
 he should be ensnared in toils set by unscru- 
 pulous adventurers to entrap him and his 
 fortune." 
 
 " I appreciate the kindness of your motives, 
 my dear sir," rejoined Hartwright, " and beg to 
 assure you that, so far from taking any offence
 
 A PllOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 177 
 
 at auy interest you may take in my family 
 affairs, I shall, on the contrary, feel highly 
 honoured by it. At the same time, your sug- 
 gestion of prolonging our visit here, the force 
 of which I fully recognise, is one which I 
 cannot bring myself to entertain : the atmo- 
 sphere of this house, or rather of its present 
 master, has become absolutely intolerable to 
 me. I confess to rather a violent temper, 
 Mr Clareville, and I assure you that there 
 are times when I can scarcely keep my hands 
 off the old scoundrel. I really cannot trust 
 myself to stay a moment longer under this 
 roof than is absolutely necessary." 
 
 " I think it a pity that your whole family 
 should be carried off to the Continent when 
 they have friends here who, I know, would 
 regret their departure," said Clareville. " Do 
 they all know of your determination to leave 
 England so soon ? " 
 
 " Only Florence," said Mrs Hartwright. " I 
 have not had an opportunity of telling the 
 others : besides, she is the only one that 
 ■ matters," 
 
 " And w]iat did she say ? " 
 
 " Oh, she is in despair. She is too proud 
 
 VOL. T. M
 
 178 MASOLLAM : 
 
 to say anything, but I know it, and you can 
 doubtless guess why," — and this time it was 
 Mrs Hartwright whose eyes rested on the cor- 
 ner, and Eeginald whose glance followed hers. 
 
 " I am thinking of carrying off Sebastian 
 with me when I leave this, to pay a visit to 
 my people at Clareville Court : you know he 
 is a frequent guest there, and a great favour- 
 ite of my father's," 
 
 Neither of the Hartwrio-hts could imag-ine 
 what this remark w^as leading up to, so Mrs 
 Hartwright discreetly confined herself to say- 
 
 mg- 
 
 " That will be very nice for him." 
 " I was thinking whether I could not even 
 make it nicer. He and his cousin seem such 
 great friends, I am sure it would add to the 
 pleasure of his stay if she were with us. Do 
 you think if Lady Clareville invited Miss 
 Hartwright to pay us a visit at Clareville 
 Court, she could be prevailed upon to accept ? " 
 "Politeness would require that the mother at 
 least should be included," thought Reginald, 
 "but that we really could not stand." 
 
 Whatever may have been Mrs Hartwright's 
 thoughts upon that subject, she was too much
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 179 
 
 flattered and gratified by tlie proposal to allow 
 them expression, while lier husband's eyes 
 sparkled with triumph, 
 
 " Both Mrs Hart Wright and I feel only too 
 much honoured by the proposal," he began ; 
 when, in order to stoj? any further protesta- 
 tions, Keginald rose, saying — 
 
 " Then I will go and make it to the young 
 lady herself." 
 
 " We shall catch that old fox in his own 
 trap yet," continued Hartwright to his wife, 
 when Reo;inald was out of hearins;. " He 
 never would have gulled me with his fantastic 
 assumption of magic, or whatever he calls ' his 
 peculiar gifts,' had it not been for that letter of 
 Santalba's. The Count's participation in the 
 conspiracy to marry Sebastian to that girl — for 
 that, I suppose, is what it amounts to — does, 
 I confess, completely baffle me. Of all men 
 that I have ever known, he, a friend of twenty 
 years, is the one on whose profound knowledge 
 of men and high sense of honour I thought 
 I could the most implicitly rely, and yet he 
 must now either be the dupe or the accomplice 
 of this adventurer." 
 
 " I always tell you, my dear, that you men
 
 180 MASOLLAM : 
 
 never understand one another. I don't exactly 
 know what you mean by the term 'adventurer.' 
 We are all adventurers in a sense, but I have 
 always thought that your friend Santalba was 
 a sort of mixture of a fool and a rogue." 
 
 "Well, I shall certainly go first to Paris 
 and make him explain his extraordinary 
 conduct." 
 
 If Charles Hartwright could have availed 
 himself of the facilities enjoyed by an author, 
 to witness what was transpiring in Mr Masol- 
 lam's room just then, he would have had 
 occasion to modify that determination. This 
 is what he would have seen. Stretched at 
 full length on the couch, with a face furrowed 
 with lines of deep suffering, and with drops of 
 perspiration standing in beads upon his brow, 
 lay MasoUam ; while standing near him, and 
 holding in his hand a telegram, was a young 
 man in a capacious ulster, the folds of which 
 concealed his figure nearly to his feet, and 
 whose heavy black moustache and beard cov- 
 ered the lower part of his face. And this is 
 what he would have heard. 
 
 "Dear child, it cuts me to the heart to send 
 you out in such a guise, on such a fatiguing
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 181 
 
 errand, at siicli an liour of the night ; but you 
 know that comhinations made in the invisi- 
 ble can only be met by a promptitude corre- 
 sponding to their rapidity of change. The 
 moment I came into full sensitiveness to Reof- 
 inald Clareville, I perceived that it would be 
 impossible for us to go through with this 
 struggle without help, and that Santalba and 
 your mother must manage to get here by 
 to-morrow night at latest, by the same train 
 that we did. This can only be done by the 
 immediate despatch of a telegram, the address 
 of which must be unknown to any one in this 
 house : there is no one but you to take it ; 
 and to ensure this secrecy, there is no alter- 
 native but for you to go on foot. That was 
 why, to save time, I told you to dress while I 
 wrote the telegram : now you have the ex- 
 planation of the cipher it contains. I will sit 
 up for you and let you in ; how long will it 
 be before you are back ? " 
 
 " What o'clock is it now, father?" asked the 
 girl, in a voice slightly muffled by the heavy 
 moustache from behind which it issued. 
 
 " A quarter past eleven." 
 
 " And it is five miles there and back. I
 
 182 . MASOLLAM. 
 
 sliiill hire a iiy back as far as the lodge-gate, 
 which is never locked. I can slip through nn- 
 observed. I shall not be much after half-past 
 twelve." 
 
 " Have you got your little revolver ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, follow me, in case any one sees us : 
 the servants will have to get accustomed to 
 my habit of letting any one I choose in and 
 out of my own house at all hours of the day or 
 night." And the pair glided stealthily from 
 the room.
 
 183 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE PLOT AT THE TURRETS THICKENS. 
 
 The following day passed uneventfully at The 
 Turrets. There was a general sense of a 
 strained situation all round, which seemed to 
 impose a certain reserve even upon the most 
 thoughtless and youthful members of the 
 Hartwright family. Masollam had sent word 
 by Amina that he was unable to leave his 
 room in consequence of what he called his 
 "attack "on the previous evening. "Attack 
 of what ? " Charles Hartwright had asked, with 
 a very perceptible sneer. 
 
 " I think the doctors would call it an attack 
 of the nerves," replied Amina; and Hart- 
 wTieht felt that his sneer was returned with 
 interest. 
 
 The announcement which he thereupon made
 
 1^8-1 MASOLLAM : 
 
 that he luul arrived ut the determination of 
 leaving The Turrets on the following morning 
 early, with his wife and family, was received 
 by Miss MasoUam with one of those conven- 
 tional expressions of regret, the hoUowness of 
 which she was at no pains to conceal. In 
 fact, Florence told Sebastian afterwards that 
 it seemed rather to afford her satisfaction than 
 otherwise. That young lady herself was in 
 the seventh heaven of delis^ht, for Reginald 
 had shown her the letter he had written and 
 despatched to his mother by the first post, 
 telling her to address the answer to his own 
 lodging in London, where Sebastian, who had 
 agreed to accompany the family to town, was 
 to call for it ; and as Clareville Court was only 
 a couple of hours from London, he was to ac- 
 company his cousin there as soon as the day of 
 the visit was fixed, after which the remainder 
 of the family were to prosecute their journey to 
 the Continent. It had not been without diffi- 
 culty that Clareville had induced Sebastian 
 to consent to this arrangement, as the latter 
 felt that he was abandoning an investigation 
 which, in the interests of his uncle's family 
 and of the unknown prisoner at Carabet's, for
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 185 
 
 whom he was haunted by a strange feeling of 
 sympathy, he felt bound to prosecute ; but, 
 as Eeginald had pointed out, now that the 
 mystery of Masollam's introduction was re- 
 moved, and Santalba was a man, in his 
 friend's judgment, above suspicion, there was 
 no longer any immediate hurry. Santalba's 
 character was a guarantee for the Masollams 
 and for all their acts. That, although it was 
 very far from being the opinion of Reginald, 
 was a point upon which his friend continued 
 firmly to insist ; and, for the moment, it 
 chimed in too well with Reginald's plans for 
 him to wish to controvert it. 
 
 " Miss Masollam has expressed her hope 
 that I should continue to consider myself her 
 guest for a few days longer," he continued, 
 " and this will give me an opportunity of pros- 
 ecuting those researches in which you are so 
 interested, and which seem to affect so nearly 
 the fortunes of your family, under more favour- 
 able circumstances than you could have done." 
 
 " And also," added Sebastian, with a laugh, 
 " of prosecuting that farther investigation, in 
 which, I am aware, you feel no concern, as to 
 who Miss Masollam is."
 
 18G MASOLLAM : 
 
 " I admitted a lively curiosity in the matter," 
 rejoined Reginald, " and I do not deny that 
 the general strangeness of the situation is one 
 of sufficient interest to tempt me to stay a 
 few days longer." 
 
 The fact was that, before Keginald had this 
 conversation with Sebastian, he had already 
 passed a very pleasant quiet hour, under the 
 remote tree already alluded to, with Amina, 
 and had fallen more deeply than ever under 
 the charm of her intellectual gifts and un- 
 common beauty. 
 
 " Is Mr Sebastian Hartwrig;ht Q-oino; to leave 
 to-morrow with the rest of the family ? " she 
 had asked ; and Reginald had replied that his 
 friend's plans were not absolutely decided, but 
 that he believed it to be highly probable. 
 Then she had raised her eyes to his in a 
 dreamy way, and said simply — 
 
 " And you ? " 
 
 And Reginald had answered that he would 
 leave it for her to decide what he was to do. 
 And she had unhesitatingly replied, " There 
 are many reasons why I think you had better 
 stay." But when he tried gently to lead her 
 on to talk of herself and her own past life, in
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 187 
 
 his endeavour to solve tlie mystery of lier liigli 
 mental attainments, and familiarity with those 
 social and speculative questions by which his 
 own mind was occupied, she had said, with a 
 marked emphasis which convinced him that 
 her father had repeated to her his unlucky re- 
 mark of the previous evening, " You must let 
 me choose my own time for satisfying your 
 curiosity ; " and after a pause she added — as • 
 the result apparently of an after -thought — 
 "and method of doing it." And then, with- 
 out o-ivino; Eesfinald time to excuse himself, she 
 had turned the conversation upon those topics 
 which she knew would be of the deepest in- 
 terest to her listener, who, as he wondered at 
 the breadth and originality of her views, felt 
 more and more conscious that he had no alter- 
 native left to him but to worship blindly at 
 her shrine, and to trust to time and oppor- 
 tunity to reveal its mysteries. 
 
 Charles Hartwright was the only member of 
 the party who was thoroughly out of temper. 
 In the first place, he could not disguise from 
 himself the fact that he had been duped by a 
 stranger, who had wormed himself into his 
 confidence and then betrayed it — who had in-
 
 188 MASOLLAM : 
 
 suited him in liis own house, and who now, by 
 shutting himself u}) in his own room, and re- 
 fusing to see him when he had requested an 
 interview, had deprived him of the opportunity 
 of venting his indignation in words, and of 
 giving Masollam what he called " a piece of his 
 mind." The ftict that he had resolved to pour 
 out the vials of his wrath upon Santalba in 
 Paris, was small consolation ; for in doing so 
 he was depriving himself of the one man upon 
 whose advice and knowledge of financial men 
 and affairs he had most relied for assistance 
 — so much so, that every time he thought of 
 his coming interview with his former friend 
 his resolution wavered. When he had told 
 his wife that one of his reasons for first goina: 
 to Paris was, " to take that traitor, Santalba, 
 roundly to task," she had said, " Pooh, my dear! 
 you will do no such thing. I understand you 
 better than you do yourself. If he has done 
 you an injury, you can give him a gentle hint 
 to that effect, and tell him that you expect 
 some reparation for it. That will be a far wiser 
 course than bursting out upon him the mo- 
 ment you see him. If he does nothing for us, 
 it will be time enough for you to go and insult
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 189 
 
 liim." Thus did Mrs Hartwrii»lit comLine a 
 good deal of the wisdom of the serpent with 
 the cackle of the goose ; and as her husband's 
 experience had taught him that her judgment 
 was better than his when he happened to be 
 in a jDassion, he swallowed his indignation 
 without further remark, and sat down to pour 
 out his spleen in a letter to MasoUam, which 
 he would leave behind to be handed to tliat 
 gentleman. But it happened in the case of 
 Charles Hartwright, as it so often does with 
 persons of violent passions and hasty impulses, 
 that he occasionally formed plans and even 
 took measures based upon the anticipation of 
 hypothetical conditions which were destined 
 never to arise. That evening when the party 
 were assembled for dinner, and Miss MasoUam 
 appeared a few minutes late, she took Ilart- 
 wright's arm, saying, as she did so, in English, 
 in those soft clear tones which were nevertheless 
 audible to the whole company — 
 
 " I must ask you to take me to dinner, Mr 
 Hartwright. Poor papa ! he is still too tired 
 to come down. He begs you will excuse him ; 
 and now, instead of going to bed, he must sit 
 up till twelve o'clock. He has just heard that
 
 190 MASOLLAM : 
 
 mamma will arrive to night — she will bring 
 with her Count Santalba." 
 
 ThiLs did Miss Masollam explode her second 
 shell in the midst of the Hartwright family 
 — and then, without allowing time for more 
 than a rapid exchange of bewildered glances 
 between the persons most interested in this 
 piece of startling intelligence, she marshalled 
 the party in to dinner. 
 
 Hartwright was too dumfoundered to say 
 anything. " Confound it ! " he muttered inter- 
 nally, "this disarranges all my plans. I sup- q 
 pose I must stay here now to meet him ; " 
 and the considerations which ensued u^^on 
 this reflection reduced him to silence, as he 
 contemplated an interview with Santalba, at 
 which Masollam would certainly be present, 
 and when the task of calling on them together 
 to account for their conduct towards him, pre- 
 sented a prospect which gave rise to a variety 
 of conflicting conjectures and emotions. 
 
 " I suspect this will upset Florence's little 
 apple-cart," said Laura, who was bringing up 
 the rear with one of her brothers, expressing 
 her sentiments in language especially adapted 
 to that young man's comprehension. "I should
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PEPJOD. 191 
 
 not wonder if she was done altoo-ether out of 
 that visit to Chireville Court, upon which she 
 has set her heart." 
 
 And indeed her sister was at the same 
 moment whispering to her cousin, " Was there 
 ever anything so unfortunate ? I am sure papa 
 will give up his idea of starting to-morrow, as 
 I know one of his reasons for croino; to Paris 
 was to see the Count, whose arrival here at 
 such a moment may give an entirely new 
 turn to all our plans." 
 
 " So there's a mamma, is there ? " murmured 
 Eeginald Clareville to Mrs Hartwright ; "that 
 is quite a new feature in the domestic ar- 
 rangements of the Masollam family. The plot 
 is decictedly thickening ; she may be what in 
 modern parlance is called 'an important fac- 
 tor' in it." And this reflection threw him 
 into a reverie as to the influence which the 
 presence of this hitherto unknown quantity 
 might exercise upon his own hopes and pros-, 
 pects. 
 
 " This is very sudden news," said Charles 
 Hartwright at last, in his abrupt and some- 
 what coarse way, to Miss Masollam. " You did 
 not tell us before tliat your motlier was alive.
 
 192 MASOLLAM : 
 
 and that 3^011 expected lier arrival so soon with 
 Santal])a ? " 
 
 "Didn't I ? " replied Amina, looking up calm- 
 ly into his face — and then seeing it growing- 
 purple with suppressed anger at her coolness, 
 she added, " I suppose papa forgot to ask me 
 to tell it to you till just now ; had he been 
 well enough to see you, he probably would 
 have told you before. I know he felt sure 
 you would be glad to hear it, as it may save 
 you a journey to Paris. If you will give us 
 the pleasure of your company here for a few 
 days longer, papa told me to say to you 
 that the Count will tell you many interesting 
 things that he is not well and strong enough 
 to talk about himself." 
 
 " Of course, Charles," said Mrs Hartwright 
 across the table, " we shall give up all idea of 
 starting to-morrow. I should so like to make 
 Mrs MasoUam's acquaintance." 
 
 " You can do that and still start to-mor- 
 row," gruffly responded her husband. "How- 
 ever, I have done with plan-making, and shall 
 be guided by circumstances after I have seen 
 Santalba." 
 
 And so the matter rested for the present.
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 193 
 
 Soon after dinner, Amina, with many apologies, 
 withdrew to her father's room, saying, as she 
 did so, that Mr MasoHam had given orders 
 that the new arrivals were to be shown up at 
 once to his own apartments, so as to avoid the 
 necessity of any of his friends putting them- 
 selves to the inconvenience of sitting up for 
 them. As this was regarded as a polite in- 
 timation on the part of the master of the 
 house that he did not intend to gratify any 
 idle curiosity that night, and as everybody 
 present was bursting w^ith a private commen- 
 tary on this new phase of affairs, which would 
 not bear public discussion, the party broke up 
 at an earlier hour than usual. 
 
 It had scarcely struck midnight when the 
 various couples who were engaged in dif- 
 ferent parts of the house interchanging the 
 views suggested by the sudden and unex- 
 pected arrival of Mrs Masollam and Count 
 Santalba, were interrupted by the rumble 
 of a carriage, for which they had been 
 listening for some minutes past, upon the 
 gravel approach leading to The Turrets. Ned 
 Hartwright, who had been sent by Laura 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 194 MASOLLAM : 
 
 on a reconnoitring expedition, was looking 
 through the chink of a slightly opened door, 
 leading from a passage into the entrance-hall ; 
 and this was what he saw : First, Miss Ma- 
 sollam, who appeared almost at the first sound 
 of the bell, and who was immediately after- 
 wards joined by Mr Sharp the butler, who, 
 on opening the front door, gave ingress, to 
 Ned's surprise, to Carabet, the curiosity-dealer, 
 whose shop the youth had occasionally visited 
 when in search of oriental trinkets to serve as 
 presents to the fair objects of his fleeting afi'ec- 
 tions. Carabet, with every demonstration of 
 respect, proceeded to help out of the carriage 
 a very upright and stately lady of rather over 
 the middle age, with very black piercing eyes, 
 an unusually dark complexion, very regular 
 features, and the traces of great beauty, 
 adorned with more jewellery than generally 
 befits a travelling costume, about which there 
 was nothing uncommon but the head-dress, 
 which consisted of a handkerchief almost as 
 large as a small shawl, of rich silk, fringed 
 with long tassels of twisted silk and gold, and 
 which was pinned closely under her chin.
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 195 
 
 Amina threw herself into this Lady's arms, 
 and Ned's indignation was excited by the 
 coklness with which the salute on both Mrs 
 Masollam's cheeks was returned by that lady, 
 when he thought how differently he would 
 have acted had he been in her place. She 
 was followed by a middle-aged man, slightly 
 below the average height, with iron-grey hair 
 crojDped very short, mild blue eyes, a black 
 moustache, aquiline features, small hands and 
 feet, and a general air of distinction which did 
 not need the assistance of a tailor to assert 
 itself, though Ned, with the eye of a connois- 
 seur, pronounced the fit of his travelling tweed 
 suit perfect. When, to his amazement, this 
 gentleman took Amina in his arms and kissed 
 her with as much warmth as he would have 
 done himself, Ned felt even more stirred to 
 the depths than he had done before, and 
 treasured this item of his observation as a 
 piece of intelligence which he would withhold 
 for the present, and impart to his sister Flor- 
 ence, or to Sebastian, or even to Eeginald 
 Clareville, according as opportunity might 
 arise, and attendant circumstances mioht sug-
 
 196 MASOLLAM : 
 
 gest the effect to be produced by it. Carabet 
 now humbly took his leave and retired. The 
 butler led the way, followed with stately 
 dignity by the old lady ; while the Count, 
 holding Amina's hand, brought up the rear. 
 The only words uttered throughout was 
 when Amina, speaking French, said to him, 
 " We must be quick ; we have not a mo- 
 ment to lose." All which was duly re- 
 ported to Laura, excepting the extremely 
 affectionate terms upon which the Count ap- 
 peared to be with Miss Masollam — and this 
 would have been worth all the rest — which 
 just shows how important it is for persons 
 engaged in underhand operations of this sort, 
 to have a spy upon whom they can absolutely 
 rely. If Ned could have followed the party 
 up to MasoUam's room, as he longed to do, he 
 would have had much more to report or to 
 conceal, as his fancy or love of mischief might 
 sugo-est. He would have seen Masollam 
 stretched apparently upon a bed of sickness, 
 and in such a condition of absolute prostra- 
 tion and exhaustion us to be unable to recog- 
 nise the new-comers : he would have seen
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PEEIOD. 197 
 
 these latter, in active co-operation witli his 
 daughter, proceed to apply restoratives of 
 which the medical profession have never 
 dreamed ; he would have seen the old man 
 at length return to consciousness, and then, 
 if he could have understood the language in 
 which he spoke, he would have have heard 
 him say strange things incomprehensible to 
 him, but apparently pregnant with weighty 
 meaning for those to whom they were ad- 
 dressed, and he would have been amazed at 
 the rapidly returning indications of an inflow- 
 ing of life and vigour, until at last, when the 
 restoration was complete, he would have heard 
 the old man tell his attendants to go and take 
 some rest ; and, immediately on their with- 
 drawal, he would have seen him rise from his 
 bed and dress, and take his hat, and let him- 
 self stealthily out, and go round to the stables 
 and cjuietly saddle a horse, and ride quickly 
 into town ; and he would have seen him let 
 himself into Carabet's house with a pass-key, 
 and Carabet come out and walk the horse up 
 and down for nearly an hour, to the great 
 perplexity of the policeman on duty ; and at
 
 198 MASOLLAM. 
 
 last he would have seen him emerge, momit, 
 and ride home, and get into bed again just as 
 the day was breaking. All this Ned missed, 
 because he had not an invisible lamp, which 
 would have thrown a flood of light upon the 
 destiny of those whose fortunes in the tangled 
 skein of life w^e are considering.
 
 199 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 COUNT SANTALBA. 
 
 Mr Masollam never looked younger, stronger, 
 or more thoroughly full of vigour than he did 
 on the morning following the occurrences nar- 
 rated in the last chapter, when he was among 
 the first of those to assemble in the breakfast- 
 room. He was followed soon after by Sant- 
 alba and Sebastian, who had already been out 
 together for a morning stroll. The former 
 bowed somewhat distantly to Clareville, and 
 greeted the rest of the party with the cordi- 
 ality of an old acquaintance, not seeming to 
 notice the cold and markedly rude manner 
 of Charles Hartwright. 
 
 " Although I have not had the pleasure of 
 seeing any of you since you were children," he 
 said, turning to the 'younger members of the
 
 200 MASOLLAM : 
 
 fcimily, " I have dandled you all by turns upon 
 my knee ; and you, Miss Hartwriglit, ought at 
 least to remember me." 
 
 " I thought I should do so when I saw you, 
 but I find I don't," replied Florence. 
 
 " Ah, I forgot, my hair was not grey then, 
 and I wore a beard. It was part of my trav- 
 elling costume in those days ; but now that I 
 have become a quiet stay-at-home person, it is 
 an appendage with which I have dispensed." 
 
 At this moment Mrs Masollam entered with 
 Amina, and was duly introduced by her hus- 
 band to the assembled party. 
 
 Clareville was at once struck by the strong 
 contrast she presented in every respect to her 
 daughter. Not only was her complexion much 
 darker, but her beauty must have been of a dif- 
 ferent and less refined type ; whereas Amina's 
 eyes were large and lustrous, and, except when 
 they flashed with some unwonted excitement, 
 were soft and beaming : her mother's, though 
 not less bright, were smaller and more pierc- 
 ing ; and Eeginald fancied there was an expres- 
 sion of latent treachery and cruelty in them, 
 which almost gave him a shudder. While in 
 manner she possessed all the native dignity of
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 201 
 
 an Oriental, it was also essentially oriental in its 
 manifestation. The ease and grace of a woman 
 accustomed to society were entirely wanting. 
 She maintained a coldness and indifference of 
 attitude which seemed too nearly allied to 
 contempt to be altogether polite. Possibly, 
 thought Reginald, it is partly the result of 
 reserve, arising from a consciousness of the 
 absence of any social training. As he looked 
 at her low narrow forehead, he doubted that 
 her intellectual faculty was likely to be of a 
 very high order ; but the somewhat heavy 
 chin, stern lines which age had worn at the 
 corners of a remarkably well-cut mouth — the 
 flexible nostril, with its upward curl, and the 
 penetrating but covert glance — suggested a 
 resolute and subtle nature, which it might l^e 
 difficult to coerce, and dangerous to trifle with. 
 It was evident, also, that she was far in- 
 ferior to her daughter in linguistic acquire- 
 ments. She knew no English, and only spoke 
 a few words of French with difiiculty. As, 
 moreover, she was too proud to show her 
 ignorance of it, she confined herself chiefly 
 to monosyllables. 
 
 The result of his observation was to throw
 
 202 MASOLLAM : 
 
 Eeginald into a reverie of despondency, which 
 was slightly tinged with mortification, when, 
 on looking suddenly up, he caught Amina's 
 eye, and fancied he detected the faintest sus- 
 picion of a smile hovering about the corners 
 of her mouth. " She is reading my thoughts 
 as though they were an open book," he said 
 to himself, as he withdrew his eyes quickly. 
 " She may not be a witch ; but she certainly 
 is an enchantress of a very dangerous sort ; " 
 and he repressed the sigh which rose in his 
 breast. 
 
 " My wife can't talk in any language which 
 you can understand, my dear Mrs Hartwright," 
 said MasoUam ; " don't trouble yourself to try 
 and make conversation. Indeed she is not a 
 talkative person in any tongue ; that was the 
 reason I married her. But she has a great 
 gift " — and he glanced at Clareville as though 
 bespeaking his attention — " which you, of all 
 women, will appreciate, for you share it with 
 her to a remarkable degree, — she thoroughly 
 understands men." 
 
 Mrs Hartwright gave a little flutter of sat- 
 isfaction, and turning to Mrs MasoUam with 
 a beaming smile, exclaimed, " Oh, then I am
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 203 
 
 sure we shall understand each other ; " while 
 Reginald felt that the remark had been aimed 
 at him, and that he was still bearing the con- 
 sequences of his unfortunate encounter with 
 Mr Masollam two evenings before. 
 
 " I suppose you got her here to explain me 
 to you," he felt strongly inclined to retort, 
 but remembered that, under the circumstances, 
 discretion was the better part of valour, the 
 more especially as Mr Masollam was saying 
 something to his wife in an unknown tongue, 
 which Mrs Hartwright flattered herself was 
 a translation of her last amiable, remark, but 
 which Reo;inald felt certain was an allusion 
 to himself, as Madame Masollam, after listen- 
 ing to it, honoured him with a languid stare, 
 and then proceeded to pick a bone of grilled 
 chicken with her fingers. 
 
 " How in the world did such a nibther ever 
 come by such a daughter ! " was Clareville's 
 internal comment on this proceeding, when 
 Santalba suddenly interrupted his gloomy 
 reflections, and with the instinct of a well- 
 bred man, who feels that the situation all 
 round is painfully strained, created a diver- 
 sion by launching into the field of politics,
 
 204 MASOLLAM : 
 
 which at this juncture, whether at iiome or 
 abroad, afforded abundant material for con- 
 versation. Charles Hartwright alone was too 
 much preoccupied with his own sullen rumin- 
 ations to take part in it ; and when, after 
 breakfast, Masollam said, " My dear Mr Hart- 
 wright, I hope you will join Santalba and 
 myself in my room ; we have some affairs to 
 talk over which will be of interest to you," 
 he replied in a harsh tone, " With your per- 
 mission, as I intend to leave by the afternoon 
 train, I will first ask Count Santalba to favour 
 me with a private interview for a few mo- 
 ments, after which I think evervthino; that 
 can be of interest to me will have been said ; 
 and as I shall have very little time left at my 
 dis^Dosal, I shall ask you to excuse me from 
 joining you as you propose." 
 
 Masollam shrugged his shoulders with an 
 amiable smile. "Be it as you will," he said. 
 " Santalba, I shall expect you when Mr Hart- 
 wright has done with you ; and if he sees fit 
 to change his plans once more, which I regret 
 to think is now highly improbable, I shall be 
 glad to see him too." 
 
 Hartwright led the way to the den which
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 205 
 
 he still called his own, followed by the Count, 
 the imperturbable expression of benignant 
 serenity wdiich rested on the countenance of 
 the latter, forming a marked contrast to the 
 strikino; variations which were the characteris- 
 tic of Masollam's every movement and play of 
 feature. A close observer of Santalba's face, 
 however, might have recognised that, under- 
 lying its extreme gentleness, there were indi- 
 cations of great moral power, and high intel- 
 lectual capacity. If he had learnt to control 
 the passions of his nature, there was in the 
 deep blue of the calm reflective eye, in the 
 massive forehead and somewhat projecting 
 brow, a latent force, which was none the less 
 there because it was held in complete subjec- 
 tion, and which perhaps asserted itself all the 
 more powerfully over the natures with which 
 it came into contact, because the organism 
 in which it was stored bore a placid surface. 
 Hartwright, though a dense man, so far as 
 his own organic sensitiveness was concerned, 
 was painfully conscious of this when he found 
 himself alone with his former friend. The 
 Count did not seem the same man that he was 
 when he had seen him last — an indefinable
 
 20 G MASOLLAM : 
 
 cliauge had taken place, which made him feel 
 ill at ease. In order not to be betrayed into 
 an outburst of temper, he had been preparing 
 some carefully weighed and cuttingly polite 
 sentences by way of opening the interview, 
 which, as he felt the influence of the benev- 
 olent and almost tender sympathy of Sant- 
 alba's gaze, seemed singularly out of place. 
 The latter perceived the momentary embar- 
 rassment, and laying his hand kindly on his 
 shoulders, said, " You are in trouble, old friend, 
 and, with an imperfect knowledge of the cir- 
 cumstances, are inclined to lay the blame on 
 me. If you will assume, for the sake of argu- 
 ment, that you may have jumped to this con- 
 clusion upon insuflicient data, perhaps you 
 will find that I can explain everything satis- 
 factorily. I would spare you the regret of 
 feeling afterwards that you have formed need- 
 lessly, harsh and unjust judgments." 
 
 "If I have been induced to form harsh 
 judgments," said Hartwright, "it is because 
 they are supported by facts. I shall only be 
 too glad to find that they are unjust. May I 
 ask what was your motive in introducing Mr 
 and Miss Masollam to me ? "
 
 A PROBLEil OF THE PERIOD. 207 
 
 " I sent him to you in answer to your letter 
 to me asking for assistance in your financial 
 difficulties. I understand he has afforded it 
 to you." 
 
 " He has lent me some money, certainly, 
 and I have now discovered his object in doing 
 so, thouo'h when I asked him what it was at 
 the time, he put me off with some grand 
 phrases about its being an act of service to 
 you ; and as I believed I could trust you, I 
 felt satisfied. Indeed I supposed, as he w^as 
 such an utter stranger to me, that, he was in 
 some way commissioned by you to give me 
 the money. I also asked him for advice and 
 assistance in another matter, for, relying on 
 that foolish passage in your letter about his 
 goodness and his wonderful gifts, I took him 
 into my entire confidence. Now I see that 
 his loan was as treacherous as his advice." 
 
 " What was his advice ? " 
 
 " It had reference to a marriag;e which I am 
 tr}T.ng to bring about between my nephew 
 and my daughter Florence — of which he ap- 
 proved, and which he promised to use his 
 gifts to accomplish." 
 
 " I think, if you will try and recall the
 
 208 MASOLLAM : 
 
 exact particulars of that interview, you will 
 find that it is your memory that is treacher- 
 ous, not his advice. See here," and Santalba 
 drew a paper from his pocket, which, on per- 
 using it, Hartwright found, to his surprise, con- 
 tained a report as nearly as possible verbatim 
 of what passed on the occasion of his first 
 interview with Masollam. " My oriental 
 friend," pursued Santalba, "is a very careful 
 man, with a very tenacious memory ; and it is 
 his habit, after important conversations — such 
 as the one under consideration — to record 
 them for future reference, in case of such 
 necessity as has now arisen. You will see 
 he did not express approval of the marriage 
 you desire, and that he carefully abstained 
 from making any promise or off'ering any 
 advice in regard to it." 
 
 " I don't deny the verbal accuracy of this 
 report, but a man may imply a great deal in 
 his manner without committing himself in 
 words. He distinctly wished to produce the 
 impression on my mind that he would use his 
 gifts to further my views ; look at his allusion 
 to the love-philtre. It is now clear to me 
 that the whole thing has been a j)lot from the
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 209 
 
 beginning, and that liis object in coming here 
 has been to many his danghter to my nephew, 
 and by getting me into his power financially, 
 to avert the danger of my opposition." 
 
 " I should have supposed, had that been his 
 object, that the easy thing would have been 
 for him to wait till you and your family were 
 safely abroad, and then he need neither have 
 lent you money nor feared your opposition, 
 for the field would have been free. You need 
 have known nothing about it." 
 
 " Pardon me ; had he not come just when 
 he did, Sebastian, who arrived only a few 
 hours later, would have been here alone ; and 
 Florence told me in confidence that she feels 
 certain that her cousin was on the point of 
 proposing to her, when he was interrupted by 
 the sudden a^Dpearance of Miss MasoUam at a 
 carriage-W'indow which passed at the moment. 
 I have no moral doubt that had it not been 
 for the most inop^jortune arrival of the Masol- 
 lams, the marriage would have been arranged 
 ere this. What other conclusion can I come 
 to but that you, who know my nephew so 
 well, and were aware of his father's objections 
 to the match, got wind in some way of the 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 210 MASOLLAM : 
 
 state of affairs ? — perhaps tlirougli some of the 
 peculiar gifts with which you and the whole 
 Masollam family seem endowed," he added, 
 with a sneer, "and were determined to thwart 
 it for your own purposes. If Masollam can 
 capture Sebastian's millions for his daughter, 
 it will be certainly turning his gifts to good 
 account ; but I am surprised that you should 
 be a party to such a conspiracy." 
 
 Santalba listened to this outburst with un- 
 ruffled composure. 
 
 "I have been thinking," he said, after a 
 pause, " how I could best convince you of 
 the utter delusion into which you have 
 fallen in regard to this whole matter. On 
 the whole, after weighing what you have 
 said, I have come to the conclusion — a very 
 disagreeable one, I assure you — that it will 
 be better for the present to leave you in 
 it. Had you been a man of different tem- 
 perament it would have been otherwise ; I 
 should have been able to take you partially 
 into my confidence, and, as the result of it, 
 you would no doubt have seen fit to post- 
 pone your departure, and to have listened to 
 some further explanations which Mr Masol-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 211 
 
 lam was prej^ared to give you. As it is, it 
 would be useless my renewing his invitation 
 that you should accompany me to his room." 
 
 " Quite," broke in Hartwright, fiercely. 
 
 " I supposed so, and do not mean to renew 
 it. Meantime I am at liberty to tell you this 
 much, that I have made arrangements with 
 Sebastian to remain with us here, instead of 
 going to pay his projected visit just now 
 to Clareville Court to meet Miss Hartwricrht ; 
 so I am afraid the engagement upon wdiich 
 you have set your heart is not to take place 
 yet, at all events." 
 
 Hartwright received this piece of intelli- 
 gence with a display of temper and violence 
 of languao-e which, as Mrs Hartwrig;ht had 
 predicted, rendered it impossible for him 
 afterwards to appeal to the Count, had he 
 .so desired, for that assistance which he be- 
 lieved the latter was so well able to afford. 
 
 "I will trust to time to right me in your 
 good opinion, Mr Hartwright," Santalba said, 
 rising. " Meantime you will excuse me for 
 terminating an interview which it will serve 
 no purpose to prolong. As it is probable 
 that you will now adhere to your intention
 
 212 MASOLLAM : 
 
 of leaving to-day, and I may not see you 
 again, I desire, before we part, to say that, 
 while I regret your violence, I do not resent 
 it, and should even again oifer to serve you, 
 were I not assured that I should only expose 
 myself to your further suspicion by doing so." 
 And without waiting for Hartwright's reply, 
 he left the room, and ascended to Masollam's 
 apartment. 
 
 Hartwright went at once in search of his 
 wife and daughter. The news of Sebastian's 
 treachery, as he called it, blinded him to all 
 considerations of policy, and his only thought 
 was to lose no time in shaking the dust from 
 off his feet against the whole party, who, to 
 his excited imagination, seemed to have entered 
 into a league to betray him. His fury was in 
 no degree mitigated by the fact that he could 
 not find those he sought. None of the ser- 
 vants had seen either of the ladies, and he 
 searched high and low for them in vain. 
 They had seen Mr Clareville and Mr Sebas- 
 tian go out for a walk, but had not seen 
 either Mrs Hartwright or Miss Florence since 
 breakfast. The fact was, that at that mo- 
 ment those ladies were sitting with Miss Ma-
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 213 
 
 sollani under her favourite tree, having been 
 carried off there by Amina, after she had ex- 
 changed a few words with Sebastian, who had 
 in like manner, apparently in obedience to 
 orders, gone off with EeginakI in the op- 
 posite direction for a walk. 
 
 " I am so glad, Mrs Hartwright," Miss 
 Masollam was saying, "that you and Miss 
 Hartwright agree to my proposal. She must 
 let me call her Florence, now that we are to 
 live too-ether. As soon as Mr Sebastian Hart- 
 Wright told me that he had agreed to the 
 Count's plan, provided 1 could induce Florence 
 to stav, I felt that not a moment was to be 
 lost in getting your consent. I had hoped that 
 you would all have remained, but my father 
 says that he is sure Mr Hartwright will not 
 ao"ree to that. I suppose there is no doubt 
 that if he w^ill not stay himself, he will allow 
 Florence to remain as our guest ? " 
 
 " I am not quite so sure of that, my dear," 
 replied ^Irs Hartwright. " Charles is a man of 
 a peculiar temper — in fact I am the only per- 
 son who ever understood him — and if I cannot 
 persuade him nobody can. But you may be 
 sure I will try, and I think 1 shall succeed,"
 
 214 MASOLLAM : 
 
 she added, with an assured little toss of her 
 head. At this moment Hartwright's voice was 
 heard bellowino- the names of his wife and 
 daughter in another part of the garden ; and 
 Mrs Hartwright jumped up, saying, " Now, 
 you two get back to the house as quickly as 
 you can without meeting him, and let me 
 manage him alone." 
 
 Mrs Hartwright's confidence was not mis- 
 placed. This turn of events was so difterent 
 from what Hartwright had anticipated ; it was 
 so difficult to perceive in it any confirmation 
 of his suspicion, or to discover a trap, that 
 beneath the sullen acquiescence which he at 
 last yielded to the proposal, there lurked a 
 mingled feeling of satisfaction and bewilder- 
 ment, which had the eff'ect of reducing him 
 to a state of decent civility towards all those 
 with whom he came in contact — indeed, when 
 he heard of the stipulation which Sebastian 
 had made as the condition of his own change 
 of plan, he was forced reluctantly to doubt 
 whether he might not have done his nephew 
 an injustice. 
 
 Clareville was not so easily reconciled to the 
 new proposition, which it had been Sebastian's
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. '215 
 
 task to convey to liim. He had very little 
 faith in Florence's power of fascination, and a 
 great deal in Amina's. " It is a mere blind," he 
 thought. " Sebastian would not stay without 
 Florence, and they saw that if I packed them 
 both off to Clareville Court, and enlisted the 
 sympathies of my mother and sister in the 
 young couple's love-affairs, it would be fatal 
 to their plans ; so rather than risk it, and in 
 order to avert suspicion, they have decided to 
 take the far lesser danger of keeping Florence 
 here, especially as they could not keep Sebas- 
 tian without her. Coute que coute, they are 
 bent on securing his money-bags, that is cer- 
 tain ; the question is, will Amina be a party 
 to the plot ? That she can win Sebastian from 
 Florence to herself the day she chooses, I know 
 them all three now too well to doubt." This 
 gave rise to a very painful series of reflections 
 in Clareville's mind, all the more so because he 
 could not confide them to his friend, to whom 
 the dissatisfaction he manifested at the change 
 seemed exaggerated and incomprehensible. 
 
 " It is very kind of you, old man," said 
 Sebastian, " being so disappointed at our hav- 
 ing to give up our visit to your people ; but
 
 21G MASOLLAM : 
 
 it is only a postponement, you know. I will 
 write to Lady CLireville and explain the cir- 
 cumstances as well as I can," 
 
 " You can't do that," said Reginald, " without 
 o-ivino; the reasons which Count Santalba ursjed 
 upon you to agree to the change of plan, and 
 you have not told me yet what they were." 
 
 "The fact is," said Sebastian, with some 
 embarrassment, "they are rather difficult to 
 explain to an outsider. Santallja has, as you 
 know, been the friend of my lifetime. He 
 was the one man in the world my father loved 
 and trusted above all others, and if I had not 
 inherited the same sentiments towards him, 
 my experience of his truth and goodness 
 would have led me to acquire them. We 
 have certain views of life in common, and I 
 admit that, knowing the lofty motives by 
 which he is governed, I often allow myself 
 to be influenced by him, without requiring 
 him to tell me all the reasons on which he 
 bases his advice." 
 
 " Hum," grunted Clare ville, in a disapprov- 
 ing and somewhat contemptuous manner. " I 
 should have thought you were old enough not 
 to be in leading-strings to any man."
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 217 
 
 "It is not a matter I can enter upon," re- 
 plied Sebastian, shortly. " I am only in lead- 
 ing-strinofs because I like it, and because he 
 is leading me where I want to go. You might 
 as well say that you are in leading-strings to 
 the Prime Minister when you vote the way he 
 wants you." 
 
 " So I do, and that's just the reason I won't 
 do it any longer." 
 
 "That is because he happens to have lost 
 your confidence ; but Santalba does not hap- 
 pen to have lost mine. When he does, I will 
 follow your example. By the way, you have 
 not told me what you think of him." 
 
 " I have not seen enough of him to judge 
 definitely; but I am quite ready honestly to 
 admit that, considering how prejudiced I was 
 ao-ainst him, I am surprised myself at the 
 favourable impression he has made upon me." 
 Sebastian's eyes glistened with delight as 
 he heard this confession. 
 
 "If for no other reason, I should have been 
 a fool," he cried, with enthusiasm, "to leave 
 the two best friends I have in the world, and 
 whom it has been the desire of my life to 
 bring together, for the sake of any girl. I
 
 218 MASOLLAM : 
 
 may tell you this much," he added, after a 
 pause, " it is for your sake, and on your ac- 
 count, I am staying." 
 
 " And it is for your sake, and on your ac- 
 count, that your cousin Florence is staying, I 
 suppose," rejoined Reginald. " It seems to me 
 that if you don't marry her after this, you will 
 be behaving badly." 
 
 " I might just as well say that it is for Miss 
 MasoUam's sake, and on her account, that you 
 are staying, and that if you don't marry her 
 after this, you will be behaving badly." 
 
 " It is by no means the same thing ; how- 
 ever, I can neither fathom your motives nor 
 force you to reconsider your decision. One 
 thing is certain, that there is a mysterious 
 game of some sort on foot, in which it seems 
 to me I am getting involved with you, and 
 which we neither of us understand. You ad- 
 mitted that when you telegraphed for me." 
 
 "Yes; but I did not then know that Sant- 
 alba had a hand in it." 
 
 "Has it not occurred to you as a strange 
 and suspicious circumstance, that although 
 you have known Count Santalba all your life, 
 he should never have informed j^ou of the
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 219 
 
 existence of the Masollams, with whom he 
 seems to have been in such close rcLations 
 during all that time ? ' 
 
 " I knew that he had derived much of his 
 remarkable knowledge and conversance with 
 oriental subjects of a theological and mysti- 
 cal character from an Eastern sage, whom I 
 have heard him allude to as 'the Master'; 
 but I never heard his name, and when I have 
 pressed him for fuller information on the sub- 
 ject, he answered that the day would come 
 when, if I desired it, I should be initiated 
 by the Master himself into these knowledges, 
 but that at the time I asked for it, an intro- 
 duction to him would be premature. You 
 must remember that although I have known 
 the Count all my life as being a friend of my 
 father's, it is only since the death of the latter 
 that I have been intimate with him, and since 
 then his conduct towards me in carrying out 
 my father's wishes in regard to his property, 
 which for some reason that I could never 
 understand he left away from me by will, has 
 been so thoroughly honourable as to place 
 him above all such unworthy suspicion as I 
 see you entertain in regard to him."
 
 220 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " Is he married ? " asked Clareville, 
 
 " His wife died some years ago. I only 
 remember as a cliild seeing her once ; but I 
 have heard from my father that she was even 
 a more remarkable person than he is. The 
 Count himself rarely alludes to her, and then 
 only in such terms of admiration and respect 
 as amount almost to veneration." 
 
 " Had they any children ? " 
 
 " I remember once hearing him talk of a 
 daughter who, I think, he said was then in a 
 convent in Paris, but it was some years ago ; 
 and as he has never mentioned her since, I 
 have shrunk from all reference to her, think- 
 ino- she miofht be dead." 
 
 The more Clareville pondered over the situa- 
 tion, as they walked for some time side by side 
 in silence, the more completely perplexed did 
 he become. He had a curious consciousness of 
 being in the meshes of a net, which was stealth- 
 ily and mysteriously enveloping him, without 
 any apparent effort on the part of the agencies 
 of which he was the victim. He looked back 
 to the night when, after his conversation with 
 Masollam, the whole conspiracy burst upon 
 him like a revelation, and he had lost not a
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 221 
 
 moment in forming a plan which should defeat 
 it. At the time, he had congratulated him- 
 self on the ingenuity and promptitude he had 
 displayed in devising, in the course of a few 
 hours, a method of removing; Sebastian and his 
 cousin from the dauQ-er of having; their love- 
 affairs interfered with, and of securing a fair 
 field for himself ; Init in the very nick of time 
 there suddenly appears upon the scene the only 
 man in the world who had influence enough 
 with his friend to upset the whole scheme, and 
 form a new combination even more dangerous 
 than that which he had destroyed. After what 
 Sebastian had just said, and after wdiat he had 
 himself observed of Santalba, he felt convinced 
 that the latter had only to use his influence 
 with his friend to induce him to give up all 
 thought of marriaQ;e with his cousin ; but on 
 the other hand, he further reflected that the 
 Count's influence with Sebastian was so un- 
 bounded, that had he desired to see him married 
 to Amina, with whom some mysterious tie ap- 
 parently existed, it did not need all this intrigue 
 and conspiracy to bring it about. Again, while 
 he felt a most profound mistrust and suspicion 
 of the Oriental and his wife, neither Count 
 
 '\
 
 222 MASOLLAM. 
 
 Santalbii nor Amiiia inspired liim with the 
 same sentiments ; on the contrary, he found 
 a difficulty in reconciling himself to the idea 
 that they were either mercenary or treacherous 
 — but this rendered the near relationship of 
 the one and the intimacy of the other with 
 the Masollams, and the apparent hearty co- 
 operation and complicity of both in their 
 designs, all the more inexplicable. Unable to 
 arrive at any satisfactory conclusion, Eeginald 
 at last said abruptly, " Well, as it seems that 
 there is nothing* more to be said on the matter, 
 suppose we turn homeward and see what is the 
 last new development." 
 
 But it was not at The Turrets that this was 
 to be looked for. Jane Slocum was in fact 
 watching it through the keyhole of a room 
 in the upper floor of the house inhabited by 
 Mr Carabet, the curiosity-dealer.
 
 9 o 
 
 ^ ^ O 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 A MIDNIGHT MYSTERY. 
 
 As the process of looking tlirougli a keyhole 
 is doubtless one with which the reader is 
 familiar, it is unnecessary for me here to ex- 
 patiate at length on the various disadvantages 
 attending this method of observation. Cer- 
 tainly one of its most fatal defects is the very 
 limited area which is embraced in the range of 
 vision. Not merely does this often prevent you 
 from seeing anything interesting, but it ex- 
 poses you to the danger of having the door sud- 
 denly opened by a person within approaching 
 it from the side ; and, knowing Mr Carabet's 
 habits, it was this contingency that Jane most 
 dreaded. The unusual circumstance, however, 
 of a visitor to Mr Carabet's sister, had so piqued 
 her curiosity that it induced her to incur this
 
 224 MASOLLAM : 
 
 serious risk ; and on seeing a strange, foreign- 
 looking lady, who had first been shown into 
 the first-fioor front, emerge therefrom at the 
 heels of the curiosity-dealer, and proceed to 
 follow him up the narrow staircase, Jane, who 
 had been watching from a post of observation 
 below, slipped off her shoes, and nimbly tripped 
 up in pursuit. It was not the first time she 
 had applied her eye to the aperture at which 
 it seemed now to be glued. And she had 
 sufficiently often seen the solitary occupant of 
 the room cross her field of vision to be familiar 
 with her appearance. She w^as a short and 
 rather stout woman, apparently about fifty 
 years of age, or perhaps more, with large blue 
 eyes, and a complexion which was somewhat 
 too dark to match them ; in fact, it was this 
 contrast between the colour of her eyes and 
 that of her skin which appeared to Jane her 
 most marked characteristic. Apart from this, 
 there was nothing striking in her features, 
 which, without being regular, would have been 
 pleasing, were it not for an abiding expression 
 of profound melancholy which seemed stamped 
 upon them. Her dark-brown hair was con- 
 fined in a sort of gauze kerchief wound about
 
 A TEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 225 
 
 her liead, with an end hanging down her back, 
 where the thin threads of gold with which it 
 was interlaced did not escape the observation 
 of the cook, nor did a heavy necklace of 
 twisted silver, with bracelets of the same 
 material, which even in her solitude the 
 recluse appeared to cling to as ornaments. 
 Her costume consisted of an under-garment 
 which Jane described to Mary as a muslin 
 night-o-own, over which was a robe of red and 
 yellow satin, open to the waist in front, and 
 reaching to the ground ; her feet were thrust 
 into embroidered slippers. She seemed to pre- 
 fer as a seat a low cushion to a chair ; and she 
 occupied herself on the various occasions when 
 she had been watched, sometimes with em- 
 broidery, sometimes with weaving little mats 
 of coloured straw, and sometimes with washing 
 pieces of copper brought to her by Carabet, 
 with a mixture, the nature of which remained 
 a mystery. All that Jane could make out of 
 her interview with her present visitor was that 
 the latter was also seated on a cushion on the 
 floor at her side, and speaking to her in an 
 unknown tongue ; but she was invisible from 
 her point of observation, and so was Carabet. 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 226 MASOLLAM : 
 
 That the communication was a painful one she 
 gathered from the fact that, from time to time, 
 the woman made gestures of despondency, 
 while her low tones seemed those of suppli- 
 cation, and a tear-drop occasionally trembled 
 on the fringe of her long dark lashes. The 
 interview came to an end so suddenly that, 
 had Jane not taken alarm at a movement 
 of the chair upon which Carabet seemed to 
 be sitting, she would have been caught in 
 Jlagra7ite delicto; as it was, she effected her 
 retreat in safety, and took another careful 
 observation of the visitor, as, followed by 
 Carabet, she got into the carriage, which had 
 been waiting at the door. Jane Slocum's first 
 impulse was to write at once to Sebastian, to 
 appoint a meeting at the rendezvous agreed 
 upon ; but she afterwards reflected that some 
 new development was occurring, and that she 
 might have something more interesting to 
 report by waiting twenty-four hours. The 
 result proved the correctness of her calcu- 
 lations. 
 
 Immediately on his return from escorting 
 the lady, Jane knew not whither, Mr Carabet 
 sent for both his servants.
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 227 
 
 "You will be glad to know," lie said, " that 
 
 I have made arrangements with the lady who 
 
 visited my sister to-day, and who is a relative 
 
 of mine, to take her back to her own country. 
 
 She will leave to-night b}^ the mail ; but as 
 
 that does not arrive here till after midnight, I 
 
 shall not expect either of you to sit up. I 
 
 will take my sister to the station myself. 
 
 I only mention it, because I know that you 
 
 will be glad to hear that she will be more 
 
 happily provided for than she could be while 
 
 she remained with me, and that the objection 
 
 you both felt to remaining in my service will 
 
 be removed, while your work will be a little 
 
 lighter." 
 
 " It was not the work I minded," said Jane ; 
 " it was a pleasure to cook her little bite for 
 the poor lady. It was the keepin' of her shut 
 up, as I objected to. I 'ates mistries. Will she 
 be kep' a prisoner in her own country, sir ? " 
 she pursued, eager in quest of further in- 
 formation ; but Mr Carabet was not to be 
 drawn from the shell of his reserve. 
 
 "As I said before, there will be no occasion 
 for your sitting up," and he went up-stairs 
 to the second floor, ignoring Jane's last query.
 
 228 MASOLLAM : 
 
 " There will be just all the occasion in life 
 for my sittin' up, Mr Carabet," she muttered 
 after hini, as she watched his retreating figure ; 
 l)ut she gained little by her vigilance. She 
 heard the rumble of a fly a little after mid- 
 night, which stopped at Carabet's door. She 
 saw that individual open it, and beckon in 
 the coachman, who followed him up-stairs, 
 and shouldered Miss Carabet's trunk. "His 
 sister, indeed," whispered Jane to Mary, whose 
 curiosity also prompted her to mar her night's 
 rest. " I wonder whether she is his sister. 
 She ain't a bit like him, and it's my belief 
 she is a married woman. She's a deal better 
 lookin' nor ever he was ; she 'as a reel nice 
 face, and maybe when she was young it was 
 a pretty one ; she's a regular furriner, anyhow. 
 If they are a-goin' to travel with her, I wonder 
 they don't dress her up properly, instead of 
 'avin' her look like a guy." 
 
 While these asides were going on, Carabet, 
 who was carrying some smaller parcels and 
 shawls, followed by his sister, had descended 
 the stairs and passed through the front door, 
 which he shut after him, so that the ser- 
 vants only knew, as they heard the rumble
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 229 
 
 of the carriage, tliat the mystery by which 
 they had been oppressed had been lifted from 
 the house, and with the inconsistency of 
 human nature, or, at all events, of the femi- 
 nine portion of it, they were conscious of a 
 sense of injury ; they were deprived of a 
 certain notoriety which they had enjoyed 
 among their acquaintances, and of a grievance 
 w^iicli they had come to regard as a sort 
 of perquisite connected with the place, and 
 they felt ill-used by its removal accordingly. 
 The followino; mornino- as Sebastian was 
 dressing for breakfast, his valet put the fol- 
 lowino^ note into his hands : — 
 
 Honored Sir, — Plese to mete me to-day at 
 the ofice at the mine at 3 o'clock. 
 
 Jane Slocum. 
 
 This invitation was punctually responded to 
 by Sebastian, after a consultation with Reg- 
 inald. " You will go, of course," the latter 
 had said. 
 
 '•' I have my doubts about doing so. Now 
 that I know that Santalba must be a party 
 to the whole transaction, I feel as if I was
 
 230 MASOLLAM : 
 
 a sort of spy upon him, and I had come to 
 the conclusion that I would tell him all about 
 my discovery of the imprisoned female, and 
 ask him who she was ; but, what with the 
 Hartwrights leaving, and Florence wanting me 
 to take her into Tongsley afterwards, I never 
 got a chance." 
 
 " It was most fortunate you did not. Now, 
 don't think I have not the highest opinion of 
 Count Santalba, or that I like this spying busi- 
 ness. You know it was I who objected to it 
 the most strongly at first ; but I implore you 
 to be guided by me in this matter. Let us 
 sift it a little further ourselves before we make 
 a clean breast of it to Santalba, or expect him 
 to make a clean breast of it to us. Had he 
 not had some good reason for keeping it secret 
 from you, he would have taken you into his 
 confidence ere now. No doubt he is waiting 
 for what he feels is the proper time ; let us 
 follow his example. Do not let either of us 
 give or require confidences prematurely. If, 
 as you say, and as I would fain hope, there is 
 nothing louche in this whole matter, he cannot 
 be injured by our satisfying ourselves of it 
 without troubling him. Go, then, and meet
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 231 
 
 Jane Slocum, and let us hear what she has 
 to say." 
 
 Sebastian's scruples thus overcome, he re- 
 paired to the rendezvous at the hour named, 
 and listened attentively to the cook's story. 
 From her description of the visitor, he easily 
 identified her as Madame MasoUam ; but as 
 he had met that lady at breakfast and lunch, 
 it was clearly untrue that, as Carabet had 
 given the servants to understand, she had her- 
 self accompanied his sister to her own country, 
 wherever that might be. The amount of false- 
 hood thus introduced distressed Sebastian, if 
 it were true that Santalba was a party to it ; 
 and when he made • his report to Reginald, 
 only confirmed that gentleman's suspicions. 
 " We must find out," he said, " from the clerk 
 and people on duty at the station last night, 
 whether any person answering the description 
 of Carabet's sister went by it. Any individ- 
 ual so singularly attired must have attracted 
 observation." But their inquiries proved futile ; 
 and it was evident that wherever Carabet had 
 conveyed the unfortunate lady on the previous 
 evening, it was not to the station. 
 
 Meantime the departure of the whole Hart-
 
 282 MASOLLAM : 
 
 wriglit family, with the exception of Florence, 
 had considerably diminished the party at The 
 Turrets. Moreover, since the MasoUams had 
 so suddenly entered into possession, the whole 
 2Jerso7i7iel of the establishment had been under- 
 o-oino- a silent and gradual change. This had 
 been facilitated by the fact that, as we know, 
 the Hartwrights had already discharged some 
 of their servants before the arrival of the 
 Masollams. Mr MasoUam's own private ser- 
 vant had come from Paris with Madame, who 
 also brought her own maid, while Santalba 
 had brought his valet. Carabet had had a 
 confidential interview with Mr Sharp, who 
 had agreed to stay ; a departing housemaid 
 had also been replaced by one sent by the 
 curiosity - dealer, and Mrs Hartwright had 
 carried off her own maid with her to the 
 Continent. Mr Sharp had been given to 
 understand that the wing of the house which 
 had been appropriated by the Masollams was 
 to be attended to entirely by their own ser- 
 vants ; and both he and the fragment of the 
 old household which still remained, soon per- 
 ceived that a sort of freemasonry subsisted 
 between the three servants who had arrived
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE TEIUOD. 233 
 
 from Paris, which entirely cut them off from 
 the interests common to the servants' hall. 
 In i'dct, a gloom appeared to have settled 
 over that portion of the establishment since 
 the introduction of the three foreigners, who, 
 although they knew a smattering of English, 
 seemed to hold aloof from their fellow-ser- 
 vants, and to be on terms of intimacy with 
 their masters and mistresses, and of secret 
 intelligence with each other, which caused 
 them to be regarded by the other domestics 
 with a certain awe, not unmingied with sus- 
 picion, and, in the case of the new housemaid 
 and a groom, with superstition. 
 
 While life below stairs presented these un- 
 usual and somewhat incongruous conditions, 
 life above was undero;oing; a still more remark- 
 able and radical change, which impressed it- 
 self, as was natural, most forciljly upon 
 Florence, who, while she had no reason to 
 complain of it, felt as if her old home was 
 undergoing; transformation at the touch of 
 some enchanter's wand. It was, moreover, 
 something so entirely different from what she 
 expected, when she had only consented to be 
 the guest of people so inexpressibly repugnant
 
 234* MASOLLAM : 
 
 to her as the Masollams, by the prospect of 
 finding her refuge in her cousin's company. 
 
 To her surprise and delight, ever since the 
 departure of her own family, Masollam had 
 confined himself to his room, upon the plea 
 of the increased frequency and severity of his 
 nervous attacks, where his wife generally re- 
 mained in attendance upon him. Even upon 
 the rare occasions when she joined the family 
 circle, her reticent and self-absorbed manner, 
 coupled with the clifiiculty she found in ex- 
 pressing herself in any known tongue, isolated 
 her from the English members of the party. 
 She appeared to Florence, but more especi- 
 ally to Clareville, who watched her narrowly, 
 to exhibit a marked coldness towards her 
 daughter, while there was an apparent lack 
 of symj^athy between herself and Santalija, 
 which caused him some surprise and food for 
 contemplation. 
 
 This jDractical withdrawal on the part of 
 both the Masollams from their active role as 
 hosts, left the charge of the establishment, and 
 its social and domestic duties, to devolve upon 
 their daughter, who was on such terms of 
 afiectionate and confidential intimacy with
 
 A TROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 235 
 
 Santalba, tliat she seemed almost unconsci- 
 ously to transfer them to him, or rather to 
 allow him to assume the position which her 
 father had abdicated. Clareville soon became 
 aware that, under the influence of this extra- 
 ordinary man, who w^as becoming a greater 
 enigma to him than Masollam himself, a de- 
 lightful sense of calm, almost amounting to 
 languor, was stealing over him. He could 
 scarcely realise that only a few days before 
 he had been tossed upon the stormy billows 
 of political life, a prey to the doubts and 
 anxieties which were suggested to him by his 
 sense of duty, and by what had seemed a 
 sudden quickening of his own moral nature, 
 of which he could render no account. He, 
 who believed in nothing of what the world 
 calls religion, and had often read with cynical 
 amusement and incredulity the narratives of 
 conversion which had from time to time been 
 forced upon him by those who professed to be 
 interested in his soul's welfare, had suddenly 
 found himself stirred to the depths by a new 
 and unknown force which would give him no 
 peace, but which had apparently originated in 
 the innermost depths of his own being. He
 
 236 MASOLLAM : 
 
 had undergone a species of moral eartliqiiake, 
 and a fire, the existence of which he had never 
 suspected, had burst through the hard super- 
 ficial crust of his worldly nature, and for a 
 moment spread over the surface of his being 
 a sense of ruin and devastation. From the 
 first moment of his intercourse with Amina 
 Masollam, he had become conscious of a power 
 which she seemed to possess, to lull and calm 
 his vexed spirit, and he attributed to this 
 the irresistible fascination which she exercised 
 over him ; but, being a man somewhat given 
 to the analysis of his own feelings, he refused 
 to put the cart before the horse in her case. 
 "I do not love her because she soothes me," 
 he reflected, "but she soothes me because I 
 love her." But this process of reasoning did 
 not apply to the effect which he was conscious 
 that the influence of the Count was exercising 
 upon him. He could not say of that influ- 
 ence that it was agreeable to him, because he 
 had been attracted to him from the first ; for 
 it was just the contrary, and his original an- 
 tipathy, which had been based on prejudice, 
 was being converted into sympathy under the 
 potency of a spell for which he could not
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 237 
 
 account. Next to Amina herself tliere was no 
 one in wliose society he felt such a delightful 
 sense of repose. He still shrank from broach- 
 ing those topics upon which his own soul was 
 most painfully exercised ; but, from a thou- 
 sand little signs, he felt convinced that Sant- 
 alba was not ignorant of their nature, and he 
 felt no resentment at the conviction, which 
 gradually forced itself on his mind, that the 
 long conversations, which he now had abun- 
 dant facility for enjoying with Amina, were 
 repeated to Santalba, and that he was an ob- 
 ject of the deepest interest to both. He felt 
 convinced that some close tie existed between 
 them ; but it caused him no jealousy, though 
 all he could extract from Amina, when he 
 asked her point-blank whether she was re- 
 lated to him, was — 
 
 "When we are alone I always call him 
 uncle ; but he is not really my uncle, and I 
 love him better than anybody else in the 
 world. That is all I can tell you now." 
 
 " What ! better than your own father and 
 mother ? " exclaimed Reginald. 
 
 " I said that was all I could tell you now. 
 Please don't ask me anything more about it."
 
 238 MASOLLAM : 
 
 And Eeginald was silent ; and, wliat was 
 more surprising, felt satisfied. 
 
 It will readily be supposed that, under these 
 circumstances, he ceased to trouble himself 
 further about the fate of the woman who had 
 been spirited away in the night from Cara- 
 bet's. If Sebastian was satisfied, and he 
 seemed disposed to let the matter drop, it 
 was no business of his. And so the days 
 glided by, and the troubled waves were 
 stilled ; and he began to wonder, as he 
 thought of the unexpected haven of rest 
 which Sebastian's telegram had procured for 
 him on the morning of his despair, whether, 
 after all, there might not be a Providence. 
 
 During all these days he made no inquiries 
 after Masollam, preferring to ignore his exist- 
 ence, as the very thought of him seemed to 
 introduce a disturbing; element into his soul's 
 tranquillity. Madame Masollam, too, had 
 gradually given up appearing even at meals ; 
 but he was aware that both the Count and 
 Amina spent many hours, both of the day 
 and night, in their apartments. He now 
 began to perceive that a certain method 
 seemed to reo;ulate the intercourse of all the
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 239 
 
 inmates of The Turrets. He observed that, 
 while no restraint appeared to be put on his 
 intercourse with Amina, she regulated its ex- 
 tent by a scrupulous attention to her other 
 duties. Among these was a devotion to Flor- 
 ence, which much puzzled him. For several 
 hours a-day, these two young ladies would be 
 together. Sometimes the Count would join 
 them ; and it gradually dawned upon Clare- 
 ville that never, by any accident, did he find 
 himself alone with Miss Hartwright. As he 
 did not especially care for her society, it was 
 only by degrees that he became conscious of 
 this fact. He had indeed been too much 
 absorbed in his own affairs to pay much 
 attention to that young lady ; but now he 
 became aware that, under the new influences 
 to wdiich she was being subjected, her char- 
 acter was undergoing a very marked change. 
 What excited in Clareville's mind further con- 
 jecture and surprise, was her acquiescence in 
 the reserve which Sebastian seemed to impose 
 upon himself in his intercourse with her. 
 Finally, he began to suspect that there was 
 a delicate process in operation by which the 
 cousins w^ere to Ije weaned from each other ;
 
 240 MASOLLAM : 
 
 and he felt liis old suspicions arising, only to 
 be indignantly suppressed, when he remem- 
 bered that they could only prove true by 
 proving Amiua false ; for although the object 
 of his devotion had always warned him so 
 sternly away from delicate ground, whenever 
 he began, however distantly, to allude to his 
 own sentiments, and had scrupulously con- 
 fined their intercourse to those topics in which 
 they felt a common interest and sympathy, 
 he flattered himself that she was neither un- 
 conscious of the state of his feelings towards 
 her, nor unresponsive to them : he had no- 
 thing, however, but his own sanguine hopes 
 to base this latter conjecture upon. Nor was 
 there any means by which he could arrive at 
 any positive conviction upon the subject, with- 
 out disturbing the peculiar moral conditions 
 which now reigned at The Turrets, to a degree 
 that might involve his own immediate de- 
 parture. There seemed to be a sort of potent 
 hidden law in operation, which imposed its 
 inward restraint with more or less force upon 
 every member of the party. It was most 
 marked in the Count and Miss Masollam, 
 both of whom seemed to act, even in the
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 241 
 
 minutest details of everyday life, under some 
 strong internal effort wliich never relaxed its 
 vigilance, or permitted impulsive or spasmodic 
 conduct of any sort, — at the same time, with- 
 out impairing a spontaneity in speech and 
 action which constituted their chief charm. 
 Sebastian was under a similar influence of 
 suppressed eftbrt, but in a far lesser degree ; 
 while Eeginald felt that both Florence Hart- 
 wright and himself were, so to speak, ren- 
 dered involuntary and unconscious subjects 
 of this subtle rule, to the gentle and l3enign 
 control of which they felt compelled to sub- 
 mit, if they desired to remain members of 
 the household. 
 
 VOL. L Q
 
 242 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 MADAME MASOLLAm's SUSPICIONS ARE AROUSED. 
 
 There was a side - entrance to The Turrets 
 besides the regidar approaches from the front 
 and rear — a sort of postern opening into a 
 shrubbery, through which a winding path led 
 to a door in the wall which surrounded the 
 grounds, and which afforded those who had a 
 private key a means of access to the house, 
 unobserved by its occupants. It was in a 
 passage leading to this side - entrance that 
 Madame Masollam had appropriated a room to 
 herself as a boudoir, which her disinclination 
 to mix with the rest of the party rendered 
 almost essential to her comfort. Here one 
 morning she was seated in a flowing oriental 
 robe, which answered the purpose of a dress- 
 ing-gown. By her side was a spirit - lamp.
 
 MASOLLAM. 243 
 
 wliicli had evidently been used for the prep- 
 aration of the small cup of l)lack coffee which 
 stood on the little round table before her. 
 Between her fingers was a cigarette, which she 
 had just lighted, and the fumes of which she 
 was inhaling with that dreamy languor which 
 is induced by the first whiff of the first cigar- 
 ette of the day, and wdiich makes it superior 
 to any other. She was gazing out of the 
 window with an air of abstraction, watching 
 apparently the tints of the early morning as 
 they flushed the eastern sky, for the sun had 
 not yet appeared above the horizon. Presently 
 she muttered something, probably a curse, on 
 the English climate, as with a little shiver she 
 rose and stirred the fire, which, although it 
 was summer, had evidently been kept in all 
 nifflit. Then she finished her coffee and her 
 cigarette, and, throwing away the end of the 
 latter with a gesture of impatience, muttered 
 something else ; and to judge from the un- 
 amiable expression of her countenance, this 
 time her anathema had reference possibly to 
 an individual. She was a]oparently expecting 
 some one, for she rose and went to the win- 
 dow which looked over the path in the shrul)-
 
 244 MASOLLAM : 
 
 bery, and returned in a moment with a sigli 
 of relief. 
 
 " AVliy are yon so late ? " .slie asked snap- 
 pishly, as a moment afterwards the curiosity- 
 dealer entered the room. 
 
 " In this country, my dear, I should lie 
 considered decidedly early," replied Carabct in 
 Armenian, which was evidently the mother 
 tongue of both of the speakers. " What kind 
 of a night has the Master had ? " 
 
 " Bad. I have not had a wink of sleep. 
 Tliino;s are goino; from bad to worse. Some- 
 thing must be done, and that promptly, or we 
 shall have had all our trouble for nothing. 
 Santalba and Amina have gone over to the 
 enemy. I always told the Master that they 
 would end by betraying us, but he would 
 never believe it. You know how he is ! 
 Amina and Santalba have only got to pass 
 an hour alone with him, and he forgets all he 
 has arranged with me, falls into all their views, 
 and becomes a mere tool in their hands." 
 
 " En revanche, Tigranuhe, you must re- 
 member that you and I have only got to 
 pass an hour alone with him, and he forgets 
 all he has arrans^ed with them, falls into all
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 245 
 
 our views, and becomes a mere tool in our 
 hands. It is strange," lie continued contem- 
 platively ; " there is no man, I suppose, in the 
 world so much and at the same time so little 
 of an individual as he is." 
 
 " That is because there is perhaps no other 
 man in the world so highly developed as he is, 
 whose nervous organisation is so keenly sensi- 
 tive to all the passing emotions of those with 
 whom he has established an internal rapport. 
 For the time that any individual influence is 
 thrown violently upon him, he almost feels 
 himself to be that individual. And as this 
 peculiarity is more marked in him than in 
 any one else, his own individuality becomes 
 marked, from the very fact that it is con- 
 stantly assuming, in an intense and exagger- 
 ated form, the individuality of others. Hence 
 he is made up of contrasts, and his impulses 
 are always extreme — and what is more ex- 
 traordinary, the will by which they are ani- 
 mated is far more potent than it is in the 
 persons from whom he derives his impulses. 
 Thus it is, that many of the most powerful 
 and influential men in the world of politics, 
 society, or commerce, derive their strength
 
 246 MASOLLAM : 
 
 from their faculty of al)sorl)ing and turning 
 to account the brain and will power of others ; 
 but the power thus derived is more the power 
 of influencing others, than of maintaining a 
 fixed purpose of their own. In politics, for 
 instance, such men seem weak and vacillating, 
 and possess the extraordinary gift of rendering- 
 others, who are not naturally so, as weak and 
 vacillating as themselves." 
 
 " You have become quite a profound phil- 
 osopher, sister, and have developed a power of 
 analysis I did not suspect." 
 
 "I too have a faculty of absorption, and I 
 have lived with David Masollani for nearly forty 
 years. Do you suppose I have gained nothing 
 from daily contact with such a mind as his ? " 
 
 " Which from your account is made up of the 
 minds of others." 
 
 " Only in the sense that it receives too 
 deeply their impressions ; but in itself it is 
 a greater mind than any of those whose im- 
 pressions it receives. To know that, one has 
 only to see what it can do in isolation. And 
 this brings me to what I want to say to you 
 now — something; must be done to remove 
 Santalba and Amina from his side."
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 247 
 
 " I tliouglit Amiua could be relied upon." 
 
 " Not uow. She has fallen completely under 
 the control of Santalba." 
 
 " When did you discover that he was a 
 traitor ? " 
 
 "I began to suspect it in Paris." 
 
 "Why, it was he who gave the Master a 
 warm letter of introduction to the Hartwriojlits. 
 That was not the act of a traitor." 
 
 " No ; it began to develop later than that. 
 It was in the course of our conversations in 
 Paris, after the Master had left, that I began 
 to perceive that he would only remain faithful 
 to us as long as the acts of the Master squared 
 with what he felt to be right. You remember 
 writing to me about Sada. I consulted him 
 about what should be done, and he presumed 
 to criticise not only my action in the matter, 
 but the judgment of the Master himself" 
 
 " Perhaps he thought that you had influ- 
 enced it." 
 
 " And if he did, is it not my function to 
 do so, in the relation I hold to him as his 
 wife ? " 
 
 "I see," said Carabet. "You desire that 
 great and powerful mind to receive exclu-
 
 248 MASOLLAM : 
 
 sively the imjjressions cast upon it by yours, 
 and to give effect to tlicm, as he with his 
 varied gifts alone can do, in action." 
 
 "I do not desire that as a personal wish, or 
 from any mean and selfish motive, but from 
 the conviction that our faculties supplement 
 each other, and that together, if no adverse 
 influences intervene, we make up a combina- 
 tion that nothing can conquer, thanks to the 
 spiritual forces which we control." 
 
 " Or which control you," said Carabct. 
 "Why should you be afraid of these adverse 
 intervening inHuences, if you have more pow- 
 erful spiritual forces at your control than they 
 have ? " 
 
 Madame Masollam looked at him suspic- 
 iously. " I don't quite like the tone of that 
 remark, brother," she said. 
 
 " Oh, I am all with you," he exclaimed 
 hurriedly, and with a shade of alarm in his 
 voice. " You need never be afraid of my 
 turning traitor, or having an opinion of my 
 own, apart from you and the Master. I am, 
 as you know, your slave in life and death. 
 I only wanted to understand the nature of 
 the influences with which we have to fight.
 
 A PilOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 249 
 
 They must be powerful, to cause you so much 
 anxiety." 
 
 " They are terrific : because they are in- 
 trenching themselves in the only two natures 
 which are a danger to us, because they have 
 been trained and prepared to fight with us, 
 that is why I call them traitors," 
 
 ' ' In what particular direction is their treach- 
 ery developing itself now ? " 
 
 " First, Sada's removal from your house was 
 done at Santalba's desire. It was at his in- 
 stigation that the Master paid her that mid- 
 night visit, and then directed me to go and 
 make arrangements for her removal, and I 
 was unable to induce him to reverse his 
 decision. It is the first time such a thing 
 has ever happened," she added bitterly. 
 " Secondly, neither Amina nor Santalba is 
 obeying instructions. Amina is instructed to 
 use all her influence with Florence, to wean 
 her from her attachment to Sebastian; instead 
 of that, she is rendering the girl more attrac- 
 tive to him, by developing her moral and in- 
 tellectual faculties, while Santalba seems to 
 be aidinor and abetting; her. Her duties are 
 towards Sebastian, not Florence. She seems
 
 250 MASOLLAM : 
 
 now to have dueicled to obey Santalba instead 
 of tlic Master. All last nioht lie was suffering 
 
 o o 
 
 physical agonies from her disobedience." 
 " Has she been spoken to about it ? " 
 " Not yet. The Master wished you to be 
 present. I will tell him you are here," — and 
 Madame Masollam left the room. In a few 
 moments she returned, saying, " I am going 
 to bring Amina. The Master says he wishes 
 you to go to him at once." 
 
 When Carabet entered, Masollam, or "the 
 Master," as he was generally called by those 
 immediately connected with him, was still in 
 bed ; his face was haggard, and bore traces of 
 recent suffering. "You have heard what the 
 business of the morning is from Tigranuhe," 
 he said in a low voice. Replying softly in 
 the affirmative, Carabet sat down by the 
 bedside. " I want you to fix your will as 
 strongly as possible in support of mine, while 
 I am talking to her," he next said — and 
 Carabet signified a silent assent. Masollam 
 then closed his eyes, and nothing more was 
 said ; even when Madame Masollam entered 
 with her daughter, the old man maintained 
 his motionless attitude, apparently ignoring
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PEIILOD. 251 
 
 their presence. This silence continued for at 
 least a quarter of an hour, none venturing to 
 move, much less to Ijreak it by words. 
 
 At last Masollam exclaimed with a groan, 
 " I cannot bear the pain of this. Amina, you 
 are killing me." 
 
 The girl lifted her trembling eyelids. " You 
 know I never want to give you pain, fa- 
 ther," she said; "what can I do to relieve 
 you ? " 
 
 " The only sure way would be to leave the 
 house. Your presence in it, now that you have 
 proved unfaithful, is a cause of constant suffer- 
 ing to me." 
 
 "Would it not do as well if Santalba were 
 to leave it ? " suo-o-ested Madame Masollam. 
 
 " Better ; but he might not go, and I can 
 not risk his refusal." 
 
 "But I am not conscious of having been 
 unfaithful ; if you wdl tell me what I have 
 done, I may remedy it, dear father," and 
 Amina leant forward and touched his hand. 
 He snatched it away as though stung by a 
 scorpion. An expression of intense distress 
 flushed Amina's countenance at this action. 
 " I was here with Uncle Santalba last night,
 
 252 MASOLLAM : 
 
 and you did not seem to feel anything wrong 
 about either of us then," she went on. 
 
 " I need not explain to you, child, who have 
 seen so many of them, how suddenly and 
 unexpectedly these revelations come upon me. 
 You had no sooner left, than I perceived the 
 cause of the duml) pain I have been suffering 
 from for the last three days, and could not 
 account for." 
 
 "But mother spoke to you about it first. 
 Was it not she who said that your suffering 
 was caused by us ? " and as she spoke she saw 
 something in the expression of her father's 
 face, which made her turn her flashing eye 
 upon her mother. 
 
 " Suppose it was, child — what then ? " and 
 Madame Masollam fiercely met her daughter's 
 gaze as she s]3oke. Amina's eyes dropped. 
 
 " Where do you want me to go, father ? " 
 she asked meekly. 
 
 "I don't want you to go," he sighed, "if I 
 could only see some other way out of it." 
 
 "As her Uncle Carabet seems more to be 
 relied upon than her Uncle Santalba, why 
 should she not 2^0 to him ? " ao-ain suo-o-ested 
 Madame.
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 253 
 
 Masollam made uo answer, and again closed 
 his eyes. 
 
 " There are many reasons why that would 
 not do," he said at length. " Do you think, 
 child, I can trust you, if I try you again ? " he 
 added, after another pause. 
 
 " I think so, father ; I was not willingly 
 unfaithful." 
 
 " No ; your infidelity w\as too subtle for 
 you to be externally conscious of it. Now I 
 think I can take your hand," and as though 
 bracino; himself for an eflJ'ort, he held out his 
 own. Amina placed hers in it. 
 
 " I feel Santalba's hand," he murmured, "and 
 I feel Clareville's, and I even feel something 
 of that young Hartwright woman. How is it, 
 Amina, that you cannot hold yourself closed 
 to the invasion of every personality you come 
 near ? You know I warned you against Clare- 
 ville. I did not think," he added, with a heavy 
 sigh, " that I should ever have to warn you 
 against Santalba." 
 
 " Don't you think you had better send for 
 him now, and explain that he is causing you 
 pain ? I am sure he is as unconscious of any 
 willing infidelity to his trust as I am."
 
 254 MASOLLAM : 
 
 "Had tliat 1)ceii so, I would have sent for 
 liim, as I liave sent for you. No ; you must 
 brace yourself to the effort, he must know 
 nothing of what has' passed. Be affectionate 
 to him as ever, and from time to time, I sup- 
 pose, I shall have to see him ; but close up 
 every avenue of sympathy, both to him and 
 to Clareville. Your manner to the latter must 
 change entirely — to him be cold and reserved ; 
 to Sebastian, with whom we really have to do, 
 for we should not be here but for him, be 
 cordial and affectionate, he must be won, and 
 though you knew this, acting I suppose under 
 Santalba's influence, you have neglected him, 
 and devoted yourself to those who do not 
 need your devotion. I shall soon know," he 
 added, in a warning voice, " whether the inter- 
 nal conditions have changed, and whether you 
 have been able to repair the grievous error 
 into which you have fallen. If you cannot, 
 you may prepare in three days to return with 
 Carabet to Damascus. I wished for your pres- 
 ence," added Masollam, turning to the latter, 
 " that you might know why a journey was 
 possibly in store for you, and be ready for it." 
 And he lifted his hand with a gesture which
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 255 
 
 indicated that the business of the morning, so 
 far as he was concerned, was at an end. 
 
 Amina, who, by a powerful effort of will, 
 had deprived herself during the interview of 
 that consolation to which she, in common 
 with the rest of her sex, usually resort under 
 trying circumstances, gave vent to her feelings 
 in sobs upon her pillow, in the privacy of her 
 own room. While Madame MasoUam, in the 
 privacy of hers, remarked to her brother with 
 the air of one who has scored a victory, " She 
 will never be able to hold out. It will be very 
 inconvenient, no doubt, but you may make up 
 your mind, my dear brother, for a journey to 
 the Pearl City of the East."
 
 250 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A LITTLE TELEPATHY. 
 
 Calms are proverbially treaclierous, and for 
 some days previous to the interview which we 
 have described in the last chapter, Clareville 
 had been haunted by a dumb sort of presenti- 
 ment that there was a storm brewing. He 
 could give no reason to himself for this feel- 
 ing of uneasiness, and attributed it to that 
 vao;ue instinct of mistrust of which we are 
 sometimes conscious, when events run too 
 smoothly to seem altogether natural, and our 
 happiness is too complete and too unexpected, 
 to have in it an element of permanence. He 
 had written to his mother immediately on the 
 change of plan, to ex2:)lain why the proposed 
 visit of Sebastian and Miss Hartwright was in- 
 definitely postponed, and to account for his own
 
 MASOLLAM. 257 
 
 aliseiice and seclusion in sucli stirring times ; 
 and lie liad spent some part of the night 
 which preceded the events described in the 
 last chapter in writing a letter to his father, 
 announcing; his intention to withdraw from 
 public life ; and he added that his friend 
 Sebastian Hartwrio-ht had arrived at the same 
 determination, and had induced him to join 
 in certain investigations in which they were 
 both interested, and which would necessitate, 
 for a time at all events, a certain degree of 
 retirement from the sj^heres of their former 
 activity. There was no assert io falsi in this 
 statement, though there was a very distinct 
 suiopressio veri. He said nothing in these 
 letters of the Masollam family, or of Count 
 Santalba; much less that, as the result of 
 many long conversations with Amina, he had 
 decided to enter upon a course of moral and 
 physical experiment, with the view of testing 
 in his own person the truth of certain con- 
 clusions in regard to the nature and extent of 
 the human faculty, and the laws governing 
 the vital forces which control it, at which she, 
 in common with Santalba — who, however, had 
 so far studiously avoided discussing these sub- 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 25S MASOLLAM : 
 
 jects with Eegin;il(l — seemed to have arrived. 
 It is possible that he was influenced in this 
 decision as much by his love for Amina as 
 by his love for truth, for our highest motives 
 in life are seldom unmixed ; and it is, more- 
 over, certain that he was not indifferent to 
 the fact that his most intimate friend would 
 be engaged in the same pursuit. 
 
 When he looked back at the extraordinary 
 change which a few weeks had worked upon 
 all his views of life, he could hardly believe 
 that he was the same man Avho was so lately 
 spinning round in the social and political 
 whirlpool, making splash enough as he did 
 so, to raise the hopes of his friends, and to 
 gratify his own vanity. He marvelled much 
 at the combination of circumstances which 
 had forced him not only to withdraw from 
 it, but to enter upon a course of research 
 which, of all others, had, been most anti-pa- 
 thetic to him. It had sufficed for the silent 
 watches of one night to tear away what he 
 could only describe to himself as a sort of 
 barrier between an outer and an inner con- 
 science, of the very existence of which he had 
 been hitherto unaware. His old conscience
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 259 
 
 had, so to speak, disappeared. It liad been 
 a good workaday sort of conscience — tlie 
 averao-e conscience of an Eno;lish Q;entleman 
 and a man of honour ; a conscience that would 
 scorn a base action accordino; to the standard 
 recognised in society of what baseness is ; 
 a conscience very particular indeed about 
 money, especially where gambling debts were 
 concerned — not perhaps quite so particular 
 about tradesmen, but even they had not much 
 to complain of; a conscience also particular 
 about w^omen, especially those whose husbands 
 were his own personal friends ; a conscience 
 that forbade him under any possible circum- 
 stances to tell a lie, except where a woman 
 was concerned — and which was, above all 
 things, scrupulous that its own dictates should 
 not be violated. Altogether, it had a very fair 
 glimmering light of its own, one that Clare- 
 ville had been able to see his way very well by, 
 for a matter of nearly thirty years ; and his 
 neighbours had recognised it as one quite as 
 highly quickened as theirs, so that he was 
 known among them as an honourable high-go- 
 ing fellow ; but its lamp had been eclipsed in a 
 night by the effulgence of a moral ray that had
 
 200 MASOLLAM : 
 
 shot across his being, revealing to him a code 
 written as thouoh in letters of fire, and which 
 seemed imperatively to demand of him the 
 sacrifice of himself, with all his personal aims 
 and ambitions, at the shrine of his fellow-men. 
 He who could believe neither in God nor in im- 
 mortality, saw by the light of this new revela- 
 tion that he had practically carried his scepti- 
 cism so far as to disbelieve even in humanity, 
 and the humiliation of this discovery pros- 
 trated and appalled him ; but the agony of 
 it was not destined to endure without allevi- 
 ation. The pain of the blow that felled was 
 more than compensated for by the tenderness 
 of the arm that uplifted. There is in the joy 
 of illumination which attends a divine revela- 
 tion, ample reward for the momentary blind- 
 ness produced by its first flash upon the moral 
 eyesight. Thus it was that as Eeginald, at 
 first stunned and blinded, awoke, as it w^ere, 
 to new moral consciousness, he felt the peace 
 of the new religion which had burst upon him 
 flood his soul, and, under the impulse of it, 
 dedicated himself to the service to which he 
 felt that it had called him. The interests of 
 self, of fiimily, of party, even of country, which
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 261 
 
 he had till now thought supreme, sank into 
 insignificance. The cry of the universe for help 
 seemed to ring in his ears ; but as he listened 
 to it, the sense of his own impotence became 
 so overwhelming that the ray of hope and of joy 
 went out, and he fell into a deep sleep, with 
 the sense of despair oppressing him like a 
 nightmare — and all he knew when he awoke 
 was that his decision had been irrevocably 
 taken, and that, even if it was (dl a dream, 
 it was one which conveyed a truth, the spell 
 of which was destined to change the whole 
 current of his life. He was conscious of more 
 than this. He remembered that at the moment 
 when in his sleep his despair seemed most 
 acute, an impression had been conveyed to 
 his mind that he would not be left to grope 
 in vain for the method of putting his resolu- 
 tion into practice, but that he would find a 
 way oj^en to him ; and as he thus dreamt, a 
 brio;lit female figfure seemed to flash out of the 
 gloom, lighting it for a moment with a super- 
 natural radiance, and as suddenly disappear- 
 ing, and he thought he recognised in it the 
 fair unknown whom he had met in the Ladies' 
 Gallery of the House of Commons, He was
 
 262 MASOLLAM : 
 
 pondering over this when he received Sebas- 
 tian's telegram and decided to accept the 
 invitation it contained ; and now, reviewing 
 the events which had since occurred, he could 
 recoo-nise a method in the guidance which he 
 was following ; for in his love for Amina, and 
 her sympathy with, his new aspirations, he 
 perceived that her influence was probahly the 
 only one which could have induced him to 
 experimentalise in the effort to realise them, 
 in a direction which was altogether opposed 
 to his inclination. His own crude notion as 
 to the best way to give effect to his new 
 humanitarian impulses, had been to bury him- 
 self in the slums of London, and go to work 
 among its outcasts ; but she proposed some- 
 thing very different, and suggested processes 
 of self-preparation for the work to which he 
 felt himself called, so foreign to all his in- 
 stincts, and so violently antagonistic to his 
 prejudices, that it needed all his love for her, 
 and all the influence of Sebastian, and the 
 assurances of his friend that he too had de- 
 termined actively to participate in the same 
 effort, to reconcile him to this new departure. 
 " Remember," he said to Sebastian, whom
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 263 
 
 lie met in the garden in tlie early morning 
 after he had arrived at this decision, " 1 
 go into this to satisfy Amina and you" — 
 he had taken to speaking of her as Amina 
 now; "but I positively decline to be dragged 
 into any kind of mysticism. She and you 
 say we all need some kind of moral prepara- 
 tion to be as useful as we should be. AVell, 
 I am quite ready to admit that ; God knows 
 there is plenty of moral repair needed m this 
 hulk, which is inhabited by what I suppose 
 you would call my soul." 
 
 " I am not jDarticular as to terms," said 
 Sebastian. " I am quite willing to admit that 
 you have not got a soul, if you are ready 
 to go to work for the purpose of making 
 moral repairs upon your body." 
 
 " Oh, I am w^illing to call the moral part 
 of my body my soul, provided you don't 
 separate it from the other part and make 
 it immortal ! " 
 
 " Well, supposing, to avoid such clumsy def- 
 initions as a moral part and a physical part, 
 we call the whole thing — you will admit you 
 are a ' thing ' ? — your ' organism,' that will 
 include your whole being — because, you know.
 
 264 MASOLLAM : 
 
 you are a ' being ' — and postpone the question 
 of its immortality indefinitely ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Reginald, laughing, " I will 
 grant you all that. I must say you are not 
 exacting; when arsfument is concerned. And 
 when are we to begin our experiments ? " 
 
 " That will dej)end upon Santalba. You 
 have remarked how carefully he has avoided 
 talking to you on these subjects." 
 
 " Yes ; and it has rather surprised me, as 
 I have led up to them several times." 
 
 " He was w^aiting for your decision ; there 
 was no use in his talking to you till you 
 had decided." 
 
 "But he might have helped me to decide." 
 
 " He did not think it right to do so ; and 
 you see he was correct, for you have de- 
 cided without him. He never wastes his 
 ammunition." 
 
 ' ' Well, I will try and receive the first 
 broadside, whenever he thinks fit to j^our it 
 into me, with as good a grace as possible. 
 By the way," and Reginald hesitated for 
 a moment, flushing slightly as he continued, 
 " you have not seen Miss Masollam in the 
 garden anywhere this morning, have you ? "
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 265 
 
 " Miss Masollam ! No; what should bring 
 her out at this early hour?" 
 
 "What can have brought you out at this 
 earlv hour? I midit as well ask," said 
 neo;inald. 
 
 " Suppose I put the same question to you, 
 old man. I will tell you exactly why I am 
 strolling about the garden at seven a.m., if 
 you will tell me why you are." 
 
 Eeginald paused for some time before he 
 answered. "Agreed," he said at length. 
 
 " Well, I came out simply because Santalba 
 told me last night to meet him here this 
 morning at seven." 
 
 " Did he promise that he would be here ? " 
 
 " No ; he never promises anything if he can 
 avoid it. He only told me to be here on the 
 chance. He seemed to have something weigh- 
 ing on his mind last night. ' It is very likely 
 I may need you to-morrow about something 
 important,' he said ; ' but I may be wrong ; 
 at any rate it will be best for you to be up 
 and out as early as possible.' That is all 
 that I know about it. He did not make it 
 a matter of confidence, or I should not have 
 repeated it. Now tell me your reasons."
 
 2GG MASOLLAM : 
 
 " I don't niiud telling you, because it only 
 shows what tricks our imagination can play, 
 and it compromises nobody. I got up be- 
 cause I distinctly heard Amina calling me 
 from the garden. That is my window," and 
 he pointed to one immediately above them. 
 " The tones were so distinctly hers, and in 
 such deep distress, that I jumped up and 
 looked out of the window, but I could see 
 no one. I should have gone back to bed 
 again, but I was so positively certain of her 
 voice that I dressed and came down at once. 
 Even still, I think, she must be in some other 
 part of the garden ; but I have been to her 
 favourite seat and everywhere I could think 
 of." 
 
 " Have you been to the back shrubbery ? " 
 
 " No, she never goes there ; but we may 
 as well look." 
 
 "What did she say?" asked Sebastian. 
 
 "Only 'Reginald,' 'Reginald.' The first 
 time I did not hear it so distinctly, for it 
 seemed to wake me ; but the second time 
 it seemed almost like a cry of distress coming 
 from the garden, and was unmistakable, for 
 I was broad awake at the time. I must have
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 267 
 
 eaten sometliino- that disag;reed witli me last 
 nio-lit." 
 
 " That might account for your dreaming you 
 heard it, l)ut not for your actually hearing 
 it, as you say you did, when you were awake." 
 
 " It may be with one's ears as with one's 
 eyes," answered Eeginald. " If you look at 
 something very hard, and then shut your 
 eyes, the image remains for a few seconds 
 stamped on the retina ; so if you hear some- 
 thing in a dream, the sound may repeat itself 
 on the tympanum after you are awake." 
 
 " My dear Eeginald, that won't do — too 
 thin. There is another far better way of 
 accounting for it, and it ought to suit you, 
 because it's scientific." 
 
 " Which is that ? " asked Eeginald. 
 
 " My poor friend," and Sebastian tapped 
 his forehead significantly, " you are mad — - 
 clearly mad. That is the scientific explana- 
 tion. The victim of hallucination. Never 
 breathe a word of this to any one but me. 
 I often hear voices like that, but then I 
 am a confirmed lunatic. I was fool enough 
 to mention it to several of my friends, and 
 I don't feel that my freedom is worth a
 
 20 S MASOLLAM : 
 
 day's purchase. Hark ! there is a step on 
 the path through the shrubbery. Come this 
 way, and we will reach the door in the gar- 
 den wall, and see if it is Miss Masollara ; if 
 it really was her voice you heard, you will 
 have regained your sanity." 
 
 " I don't feel sure of that," grimly mut- 
 tered Reoinald to himself, as he bethousfht 
 him that in the eyes of his family and friends 
 his passion for the fair Oriental would be the 
 greatest evidence of his insanity which he 
 could afford. 
 
 He was interrupted in his meditations by a 
 surprised whistle from his friend, as they both 
 stopped suddenly at a point where they were 
 screened by some bushes, and observed a man 
 draw a key from his pocket, and turn it in the 
 lock, and let himself out. " Carabet, by Jove ! 
 and with a pass-key, too. He seems to have 
 been spending the night here. There is mis- 
 chief brewing, depend upon it. This is what 
 Santalba was feeling. I must hurry back ; he 
 may be looking for me." And dropping his 
 friend's arm, Sel)astian quickly disappeared. 
 
 "It is very strange," murmured Reginald, 
 " the way I seem to be beginning to feel things
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PEEIOD. 269 
 
 before they happen. For days I have been 
 conscious that this cahn could not hist, and 
 that a crisis was impending ; and now that it 
 is. almost upon me, I can only vaguely make 
 out that it is a conflict of forces which affects 
 my own peace of mind and equilibrium in a 
 manner hitherto unknown to me. Pah ! it 
 is too absurd. I am getting as fanciful and 
 superstitious as a servant-girl. And yet if 
 Amina should be in distress ; and if there is 
 some conspiracy against her ; and this Carabet 
 is the tool to be employed, — the sharp pain 
 I felt the moment I saw him, may mean 
 something." 
 
 And Reginald slowly strolled round to the 
 other side of the house, where he had first met 
 Sebastian, who, as he now saw, had been 
 joined by Santalba, with whom he seemed 
 deeply engaged in conversation. On seeing 
 him, the Count beckoned to him to approach. 
 
 " Sebastian tells me," he said, laying his 
 hand affectionately on his arm, " that you 
 have made up your mind to devote your life 
 and energies and your means to the cause 
 to which we have dedicated ours." 
 
 "I told Miss Masollam, after a long con-
 
 270 MASOLLAM : 
 
 vei'satioii wliicli I liad with her last night," 
 replied Eeginuld, "that I would carefully 
 consider the subject, and give her a definite 
 answer this mornino;. I have considered it, 
 and I have so far decided, that I have written 
 to my father to prepare him for my with- 
 drawal from the worldly career which I had 
 proposed to follow ; but this by no means 
 implies that I commit myself to any adhesion 
 to views, or belief in theories, the truth of 
 which can only l)e tested by experiments. I 
 at present believe in nothing beyond the bare 
 fact that I have a duty to my fellow-creatures 
 which must override all personal considera- 
 tions, and which may possibly involve the 
 sacrifice of preconceived opinions, and even 
 of cherished affections. Hitherto I have 
 nursed myself in the comfortable cradle of 
 agnosticism, in the illusion, as I feel it may 
 possibly be now, that I had not the faculty 
 of mind which should enable me to discover 
 truth, nor the energies of will which should 
 stimulate me to do good. I have now decided 
 to devote my life to the search of the highest 
 truth I can attain, and to the performance 
 of the greatest good in my power. That is
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 271 
 
 practically all that my decision amounts to. 
 I know nothing yet of the processes to be 
 followed for the higher development of my 
 faculties ; but I am willing to test those which 
 Miss MasoUam assures me have proved satis- 
 factory, both to her and to yourself, and of 
 which it seems that my friend Sebastian here 
 is also ready and willing to make trial, reserv- 
 ing to myself always the right, if they in any 
 way violate my moral consciousness, to with- 
 draw from them." 
 
 "I do not think that you will ever have 
 occasion to regret your decision, even if it is 
 wrono- ; for if a man's motives be as pure and 
 as noble as those by wdiich you are animated, 
 truth can be revealed to him by means of 
 the very mistakes which he makes in the 
 search after it ; provided always he has no 
 other desire but to spend and be spent for his 
 fellow -creatures. We all arrive at truth in 
 different ways : here is Sebastian, who first 
 plunged in search of it into the vortex of 
 spiritualism, and is only just now recovering 
 from a severe attack of esoteric Buddhism. 
 Had he been actuated by no higher motives 
 than vulgar curiosity, the love of the marvel-
 
 272 MASOLLAM : 
 
 loiis, or the pursuit of a fasUionable craze, he 
 woukl have suffered injury, — as it is, he has 
 received no harm. But you must be prepared 
 for severe and unexpected tests." 
 
 " I have ah^eady said that I am ready for 
 them, provided they do not require of me any- 
 thing of which my conscience disapproves." 
 
 " 1 am here now," said the Count with a 
 grave earnestness of manner, ' ' to offer you 
 the first one ; and in doing so, I think it right 
 to remind you — and I am sure when you have 
 heard it, that you will agree with me — that if 
 you find it to be one which it is impossible for 
 you to accept, your visit here cannot be fur- 
 ther prolonged." 
 
 Clareville winced. " This is drivino; me rather 
 unfairly into a corner," he said to himself; 
 " how^ever, in for a penny, in for a pound." 
 
 " I am all attention," he rejjlied, turning to 
 the Count. 
 
 "Take this paper, then, which Mr Masol- 
 1am has requested me to hand you, and kindly 
 read it with attention." 
 
 Ee2;inald sat down on a g-arden - seat and 
 slowly perused the document, while Santalba 
 paced the gravel walk in front of him. It was
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 273 
 
 in Amina's handwriting, and purported to be 
 dictated to her by her father. It contained a 
 minute analysis, a sort of moral diagnosis of 
 the reader's own character ; entering into de- 
 tails which Reginald felt that it w^as impossible 
 for any one to know but himself, and tracing 
 the moral processes by which he had been 
 influenced from his youth to the present date, 
 with an accuracy and knowledge which utterly 
 confounded Clareville. He knew that he had 
 allowed Amina to " draw " him as he had 
 never been " drawn " before. He had revealed 
 to her many of the secrets of his heart, and 
 had frankly discussed the life problems by 
 which his conscience had been exercised ; but 
 this could not account for the inspiration 
 which had dictated in these pages incidents 
 in his life, and the moral consequences that 
 followed, which affected himself alone, and 
 which were of the nature of inner experiences 
 of which he had never spoken to living soul. 
 
 " Do you accept that as true ? " asked Sant- 
 alba, seeing that he had finished. 
 
 " I should be untrue myself if I did other- 
 wise," answered Reginald. 
 
 " That being so, and in the presence of your 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 274 MASOLLAM : 
 
 admission that he who dictated it has judged 
 you accurately, I have to propose to j^ou as 
 the test which you desire of jour own sincer- 
 ity of motive, that you submit yourself, of 
 course under the reservation you have just 
 mentioned, to the absolute guidance and direc- 
 tion of Mr and Madame Masollam." 
 
 Clareville felt the blood leave his cheeks. 
 The blow came from so unexpected a quarter 
 that he almost staggered under it. It was as 
 thouo'h some one had struck him from behind. 
 He looked at Sebastian, and his friend's pale 
 countenance was not reassuring. Amina's de- 
 spairing cry, Carabet's furtive exit, which he 
 had just witnessed, the mystery of the con- 
 cealed woman, his old suspicions of the con- 
 spiracy, wdiich seemed to afford the only clue 
 to the Masollams' presence in the house at all — 
 all rushed upon his mind with overwhelming 
 force. His first instinct was to plead, as a 
 valid reason for refusing this test, the reserva- 
 tion he had just made, and yet there was no 
 moral ground for refusing it. The fact that 
 he felt a violent antipathy to, and suspicion 
 of, Masollam, and the most intense repulsion 
 towards his wife, was no reason wh}' he should
 
 A PROBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 275 
 
 not place himself under their direction and 
 guidance, if by so doing he could advance the 
 ends he had in view. He had no proof what- 
 ever that Masollam had ever been guilty of 
 any dishonourable action ; the mysterious 
 female might now be free, and might from 
 the first have been a prisoner with her own 
 consent. Amina's cry proved nothing, nor 
 did the fact that Carabet was in the habit of 
 visiting the house with his own pass - key. 
 After all, the MasoUams were Amina's parents, 
 and must have instilled into her those noble 
 sentiments which had so strongly attracted 
 him to her. The more he analysed his feel- 
 ings, the more he felt that they were based 
 upon prejudice. Then he became conscious 
 of a singular conflict in his mind ; battling 
 with his hatred for the MasoUams — for the 
 sentiment he entertained towards them can 
 be described by no milder term — he felt 
 an uncontrollable impulse to obey Santalba. 
 Though the test was put to him as one 
 which he was free to accept or reject, his 
 liberty of choice seemed unduly interfered 
 with by the collateral consideration that 
 practically its rejection implied separation
 
 276 MASOLLAM : 
 
 from Amiiia, and, as lie fondly believed, 
 would cause lier disappointment and distress ; 
 while its acceptance would unite his aims and 
 efforts to hers, and would in fact be the first 
 link in a chain by which they might be 
 bound, possibly for life, in the closest bonds 
 of sympathy, of common interests, and of 
 mutual co-operation. It flashed upon him 
 that she knew of Santalba's intention to pre- 
 sent this test to him now, and that the cry 
 of distress he had heard, might be some inner 
 mysterious appeal from her soul to his not to 
 reject it. At first the fact that the singular 
 document he had read was in Amina's hand- 
 writing; had ojiven him a strang;e shock. The 
 idea that he had been morally dissected for 
 her benefit was inexpressibly painful to him, 
 — all the more so, as he felt that marvellous 
 though the analysis was, its accuracy must 
 still be largely due to the insight he had 
 allowed her to have into his character. By 
 degrees this reflection, instead of separating 
 them, seemed to be drawing them together. 
 A new tie had been established between them ; 
 she knew him better than his OAvn mother did 
 now, and was therefore, in one sense, closer to
 
 A PEOBLEM OF THE PERIOD. 2*77 
 
 him than any living woman. Should he re- 
 fuse the test, not only would it separate him 
 from her, but it would fairly give rise to the 
 suspicion, both in her mind and in Santalba's, 
 that he was animated by a petty motive of 
 wounded vanity. As he thought thus, he be- 
 came strangely overpowered by a conviction 
 that the bare idea of rejecting the test now 
 offered to him, constituted an infidelity to his 
 own highest aspirations, and to the senti- 
 ments to which he had so recently given 
 utterance, and would give the lie to his own 
 perfect sincerity of purpose. He was con- 
 scious, wiiile these conflicting emotions were 
 raging within him, that the mild eyes of Sant 
 alba were fixed upon him, and he imagined, 
 as he caught his glance, that he detected in 
 it a shade of anxiety. " I believe he and 
 Amina are honest, at any rate," he said to 
 himself, " so here goes. I won't refuse my 
 first fence ; it will be time enough to bolt off 
 the course if these infernal Masollams ex- 
 pect me to be a party to any of their con- 
 spiracies, or do anything I don't think right." 
 Then turning to the Count, — "It is a nasty 
 pill to begin with," he observed, " and I hope
 
 278 MASOLLAM. 
 
 tliere will not be many more like it ; but you 
 may consider it swallowed." 
 
 Santalba drew a long sigh, as though of 
 relief. 
 
 "And you, my boy," he said, turning to 
 Sebastian. 
 
 " Oh, I accept." 
 
 •'' Then I think the business of the morn- 
 ing is settled — it must be getting near break- 
 fast-time. There is Miss Hartwright taking 
 a stroll, and I think she would like you to 
 join her, Sebastian. You can tell her what 
 you think best. Amina feels much encour- 
 aged about Florence." 
 
 And the Count and Sebastian moved off in 
 opposite directions, leaving Clareville a prey 
 to conflicting and distinctly painful emotions. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PKiNTED BY WILLIAM l.LAi KWoOU AMU SO\!5.
 
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