Thomas Hardy ..........................................................................................................................................1

PREFACE. ...............................................................................................................................................2

BOOK THE FIRST. GEORGE SOMERSET.....................................................................................................2

I................................................................................................................................................................3

II. ..............................................................................................................................................................5

III. ...........................................................................................................................................................11

IV...........................................................................................................................................................14

V. ............................................................................................................................................................21

VI...........................................................................................................................................................27

VII. .........................................................................................................................................................31

VIII. ........................................................................................................................................................35

IX...........................................................................................................................................................41

X. ............................................................................................................................................................44

XI...........................................................................................................................................................47

XII. .........................................................................................................................................................52

XIII. ........................................................................................................................................................57

XIV........................................................................................................................................................60

XV. .........................................................................................................................................................64

BOOK THE SECOND. DARE AND HAVILL................................................................................................71

I..............................................................................................................................................................71

II. ............................................................................................................................................................76

III. ...........................................................................................................................................................82

IV...........................................................................................................................................................85

V. ............................................................................................................................................................91

VI...........................................................................................................................................................97

VII. .......................................................................................................................................................100

BOOK THE THIRD. DE STANCY. ...............................................................................................................103

I............................................................................................................................................................103

II. ..........................................................................................................................................................108

III. .........................................................................................................................................................113

IV.........................................................................................................................................................118

V. ..........................................................................................................................................................123

VI.........................................................................................................................................................126

VII. .......................................................................................................................................................132

VIII. ......................................................................................................................................................134

IX.........................................................................................................................................................137

X. ..........................................................................................................................................................141

XI.........................................................................................................................................................145

BOOK THE FOURTH. SOMERSET, DARE AND DE STANCY. ...............................................................151

I............................................................................................................................................................151

II. ..........................................................................................................................................................155

III. .........................................................................................................................................................157

IV.........................................................................................................................................................160

V. ..........................................................................................................................................................164

BOOK THE FIFTH. DE STANCY AND PAULA.........................................................................................167

I............................................................................................................................................................167

II. ..........................................................................................................................................................171

III. .........................................................................................................................................................174

IV.........................................................................................................................................................177

V. ..........................................................................................................................................................181

VI.........................................................................................................................................................185

VII. .......................................................................................................................................................187

VIII. ......................................................................................................................................................191

IX.........................................................................................................................................................195

X. ..........................................................................................................................................................199

XI.........................................................................................................................................................206

XII. .......................................................................................................................................................212

XIII. ......................................................................................................................................................216

XIV......................................................................................................................................................219

BOOK THE SIXTH. PAULA.........................................................................................................................222

I............................................................................................................................................................222

II. ..........................................................................................................................................................226

III. .........................................................................................................................................................231

IV.........................................................................................................................................................236

V. ..........................................................................................................................................................240

The changing of the old order in country manors and mansions may be slow or sudden, may have many

issues romantic or otherwise, its romantic issues being not necessarily restricted to a change back to the

original order; though this admissible instance appears to have been the only romance formerly recognized by

novelists as possible in the case. Whether the following production be a picture of other possibilities or not,

its incidents may be taken to be fairly well supported by evidence every day forthcoming in most counties.

The writing of the tale was rendered memorable to two persons, at least, by a tedious illness of five months

that laid hold of the author soon after the story was begun in a wellknown magazine; during which period

the narrative had to be strenuously continued by dictation to a predetermined cheerful ending.

As some of these novels of Wessex life address themselves more especially to readers into whose souls the

iron has entered, and whose years have less pleasure in them now than heretofore, so "A Laodicean" may

perhaps help to while away an idle afternoon of the comfortable ones whose lines have fallen to them in

pleasant places; above all, of that large and happy section of the reading public which has not yet reached

ripeness of years; those to whom marriage is the pilgrim's Eternal City, and not a milestone on the way. T.H.

The sun blazed down and down, till it was within halfanhour of its setting; but the sketcher still lingered at

his occupation of measuring and copying the chevroned doorwaya bold and quaint example of a

transitional style of architecture, which formed the tower entrance to an English village church. The

graveyard being quite open on its western side, the tweedclad figure of the young draughtsman, and the tall

mass of antique masonry which rose above him to a battlemented parapet, were fired to a great brightness by

the solar rays, that crossed the neighbouring mead like a warp of gold threads, in whose mazes groups of

He was so absorbed in his pursuit that he did not mark the brilliant chromatic effect of which he composed

the central feature, till it was brought home to his intelligence by the warmth of the moulded stonework under

his touch when measuring; which led him at length to turn his head and gaze on its cause.

There are few in whom the sight of a sunset does not beget as much meditative melancholy as contemplative

pleasure, the human decline and death that it illustrates being too obvious to escape the notice of the simplest

observer. The sketcher, as if he had been brought to this reflection many hundreds of times before by the

same spectacle, showed that he did not wish to pursue it just now, by turning away his face after a few

He took his measurements carefully, and as if he reverenced the old workers whose trick he was

endeavouring to acquire six hundred years after the original performance had ceased and the performers

passed into the unseen. By means of a strip of lead called a leaden tape, which he pressed around and into the

fillets and hollows with his finger and thumb, he transferred the exact contour of each moulding to his

drawing, that lay on a sketchingstool a few feet distant; where were also a sketchingblock, a small

Tsquare, a bowpencil, and other mathematical instruments. When he had marked down the line thus fixed,

It being the month of August, when the pale face of the townsman and the stranger is to be seen among the

brown skins of remotest uplanders, not only in England, but throughout the temperate zone, few of the

homewardbound labourers paused to notice him further than by a momentary turn of the head. They had

beheld such gentlemen before, not exactly measuring the church so accurately as this one seemed to be doing,

but painting it from a distance, or at least walking round the mouldy pile. At the same time the present visitor,

even exteriorly, was not altogether commonplace. His features were good, his eyes of the dark deep sort

called eloquent by the sex that ought to know, and with that ray of light in them which announces a heart

susceptible to beauty of all kinds, in woman, in art, and in inanimate nature. Though he would have been

broadly characterized as a young man, his face bore contradictory testimonies to his precise age. This was

conceivably owing to a too dominant speculative activity in him, which, while it had preserved the emotional

side of his constitution, and with it the significant flexuousness of mouth and chin, had played upon his

forehead and temples till, at weary moments, they exhibited some traces of being over exercised. A

youthfulness about the mobile features, a mature foreheadthough not exactly what the world has been

familiar with in past agesis now growing common; and with the advance of juvenile introspection it

probably must grow commoner still. Briefly, he had more of the beautyif beauty it ought to be calledof

the future human type than of the past; but not so much as to make him other than a nice young man.

His build was somewhat slender and tall; his complexion, though a little browned by recent exposure, was

that of a man who spent much of his time indoors. Of beard he had but small show, though he was as

innocent as a Nazarite of the use of the razor; but he possessed a moustache allsufficient to hide the

subtleties of his mouth, which could thus be tremulous at tender moments without provoking inconvenient

Owing to his situation on high ground, open to the west, he remained enveloped in the lingering aureate haze

till a time when the eastern part of the churchyard was in obscurity, and damp with rising dew. When it was

too dark to sketch further he packed up his drawing, and, beckoning to a lad who had been idling by the gate,

directed him to carry the stool and implements to a roadside inn which he named, lying a mile or two ahead.

The draughtsman leisurely followed the lad out of the churchyard, and along a lane in the direction signified.

The spectacle of a summer traveller from London sketching mediaeval details in these neoPagan days, when

a lull has come over the study of English Gothic architecture, through a reawakening to the artforms of

times that more nearly neighbour our own, is accounted for by the fact that George Somerset, son of the

Academician of that name, was a man of independent tastes and excursive instincts, who unconsciously, and

perhaps unhappily, took greater pleasure in floating in lonely currents of thought than with the general tide of

opinion. When quite a lad, in the days of the French Gothic mania which immediately succeeded to the great

Englishpointed revival under Britton, Pugin, Rickman, Scott, and other mediaevalists, he had crept away

from the fashion to admire what was good in Palladian and Renaissance. As soon as Jacobean, Queen Anne,

and kindred accretions of decayed styles began to be popular, he purchased such oldschool works as Revett

and Stuart, Chambers, and the rest, and worked diligently at the Five Orders; till quite bewildered on the

question of style, he concluded that all styles were extinct, and with them all architecture as a living art.

Somerset was not old enough at that time to know that, in practice, art had at all times been as full of shifts

and compromises as every other mundane thing; that ideal perfection was never achieved by Greek, Goth, or

Hebrew Jew, and never would be; and thus he was thrown into a mood of disgust with his profession, from

which mood he was only delivered by recklessly abandoning these studies and indulging in an old enthusiasm

for poetical literature. For two whole years he did nothing but write verse in every conceivable metre, and on

every conceivable subject, from Wordsworthian sonnets on the singing of his tea kettle to epic fragments on

the Fall of Empires. His discovery at the age of fiveandtwenty that these inspired works were not jumped

at by the publishers with all the eagerness they deserved, coincided in point of time with a severe hint from

his father that unless he went on with his legitimate profession he might have to look elsewhere than at home

for an allowance. Mr. Somerset junior then awoke to realities, became intently practical, rushed back to his

dusty drawingboards, and worked up the styles anew, with a view of regularly starting in practice on the

It is an old story, and perhaps only deserves the light tone in which the soaring of a young man into the

empyrean, and his descent again, is always narrated. But as has often been said, the light and the truth may be

on the side of the dreamer: a far wider view than the wise ones have may be his at that recalcitrant time, and

his reduction to common measure be nothing less than a tragic event. The operation called lunging, in which

a haltered colt is made to trot round and round a horsebreaker who holds the rope, till the beholder grows

dizzy in looking at them, is a very unhappy one for the animal concerned. During its progress the colt springs

upward, across the circle, stops, flies over the turf with the velocity of a bird, and indulges in all sorts of

graceful antics; but he always ends in one waythanks to the knotted whipcordin a level trot round the

lunger with the regularity of a horizontal wheel, and in the loss for ever to his character of the bold contours

which the fine hand of Nature gave it. Yet the process is considered to be the making of him.

Whether Somerset became permanently made under the action of the inevitable lunge, or whether he lapsed

into mere dabbling with the artistic side of his profession only, it would be premature to say; but at any rate it

was his contrite return to architecture as a calling that sent him on the sketching excursion under notice.

Feeling that something still was wanting to round off his knowledge before he could take his professional line

with confidence, he was led to remember that his own native Gothic was the one form of design that he had

totally neglected from the beginning, through its having greeted him with wearisome iteration at the opening

of his career. Now it had again returned to silence; indeedsuch is the surprising instability of art 'principles'

as they are facetiously calledit was just as likely as not to sink into the neglect and oblivion which had

been its lot in Georgian times. This accident of being out of vogue lent English Gothic an additional charm to

one of his proclivities; and away he went to make it the business of a summer circuit in the west.

The quiet time of evening, the secluded neighbourhood, the unusually gorgeous liveries of the clouds packed

in a pile over that quarter of the heavens in which the sun had disappeared, were such as to make a traveller

loiter on his walk. Coming to a stile, Somerset mounted himself on the top bar, to imbibe the spirit of the

scene and hour. The evening was so still that every trifling sound could be heard for miles. There was the

rattle of a returning waggon, mixed with the smacks of the waggoner's whip: the team must have been at least

three miles off. From far over the hill came the faint periodic yell of kennelled hounds; while from the nearest

village resounded the voices of boys at play in the twilight. Then a powerful clock struck the hour; it was not

from the direction of the church, but rather from the wood behind him; and he thought it must be the clock of

But the mind of man cannot always be forced to take up subjects by the pressure of their material presence,

and Somerset's thoughts were often, to his great loss, apt to be even more than common truants from the

tones and images that met his outer senses on walks and rides. He would sometimes go quietly through the

queerest, gayest, most extraordinary town in Europe, and let it alone, provided it did not meddle with him by

its beggars, beauties, innkeepers, police, coachmen, mongrels, bad smells, and such like obstructions. This

feat of questionable utility he began performing now. Sitting on the threeinch ash rail that had been peeled

and polished like glass by the rubbings of all the smallclothes in the parish, he forgot the time, the place,

forgot that it was Augustin short, everything of the present altogether. His mind flew back to his past life,

and deplored the waste of time that had resulted from his not having been able to make up his mind which of

the many fashions of art that were coming and going in kaleidoscopic change was the true point of departure

from himself. He had suffered from the modern malady of unlimited appreciativeness as much as any living

man of his own age. Dozens of his fellows in years and experience, who had never thought specially of the

matter, but had blunderingly applied themselves to whatever form of art confronted them at the moment of

their making a move, were by this time acquiring renown as new lights; while he was still unknown. He

wished that some accident could have hemmed in his eyes between inexorable blinkers, and sped him on in a

Thus balanced between believing and not believing in his own future, he was recalled to the scene without by

hearing the notes of a familiar hymn, rising in subdued harmonies from a valley below. He listened more

heedfully. It was his old friend the 'New Sabbath,' which he had never once heard since the lisping days of

childhood, and whose existence, much as it had then been to him, he had till this moment quite forgotten.

Where the 'New Sabbath' had kept itself all these yearswhy that sound and hearty melody had disappeared

from all the cathedrals, parish churches, minsters and chapelsofease that he had been acquainted with

during his apprenticeship to life, and until his ways had become irregular and uncongregational he could

not, at first, say. But then he recollected that the tune appertained to the old westgallery period of church

music, anterior to the great choral reformation and the rule of Monkthat old time when the repetition of a

word, or half line of a verse, was not considered a disgrace to an ecclesiastical choir.

Willing to be interested in anything which would keep him out ofdoors, Somerset dismounted from the

He found that it had its origin in a building standing alone in a field; and though the evening was not yet dark

without, lights shone from the windows. In a few moments Somerset stood before the edifice. Being just then

en rapport with ecclesiasticism by reason of his recent occupation, he could not help murmuring, 'Shade of

Perhaps this exclamation (rather out of date since the discovery that Pugin himself often nodded amazingly)

would not have been indulged in by Somerset but for his new architectural resolves, which caused

professional opinions to advance themselves officiously to his lips whenever occasion offered. The building

was, in short, a recentlyerected chapel of red brick, with pseudoclassic ornamentation, and the white

regular joints of mortar could be seen streaking its surface in geometrical oppressiveness from top to bottom.

The roof was of blue slate, clean as a table, and unbroken from gable to gable; the windows were glazed with

sheets of plate glass, a temporary iron stovepipe passing out near one of these, and running up to the height of

the ridge, where it was finished by a covering like a parachute. Walking round to the end, he perceived an

oblong white stone let into the wall just above the plinth, on which was inscribed in deep letters:

The 'New Sabbath' still proceeded line by line, with all the emotional swells and cadences that had of old

characterized the tune: and the body of vocal harmony that it evoked implied a large congregation within, to

whom it was plainly as familiar as it had been to churchgoers of a past generation. With a whimsical sense

of regret at the secession of his once favourite air Somerset moved away, and would have quite withdrawn

from the field had he not at that moment observed two young men with pitchers of water coming up from a

stream hard by, and hastening with their burdens into the chapel vestry by a side door. Almost as soon as they

had entered they emerged again with empty pitchers, and proceeded to the stream to fill them as before, an

operation which they repeated several times. Somerset went forward to the stream, and waited till the young

'You are carrying in a great deal of water,' he said, as each dipped his pitcher.

One of the young men modestly replied, 'Yes: we filled the cistern this morning; but it leaks, and requires a

Somerset was not sufficiently interested to develop a further conversation, and observing them in silence till

they had again vanished into the building, he went on his way. Reaching the brow of the hill he stopped and

looked back. The chapel was still in view, and the shades of night having deepened, the lights shone from the

windows yet more brightly than before. A few steps further would hide them and the edifice, and all that

belonged to it from his sight, possibly for ever. There was something in the thought which led him to linger.

The chapel had neither beauty, quaintness, nor congeniality to recommend it: the dissimilitude between the

new utilitarianism of the place and the scenes of venerable Gothic art which had occupied his daylight hours

could not well be exceeded. But Somerset, as has been said, was an instrument of no narrow gamut: he had a

key for other touches than the purely aesthetic, even on such an excursion as this. His mind was arrested by

the intense and busy energy which must needs belong to an assembly that required such a glare of light to do

its religion by; in the heaving of that tune there was an earnestness which made him thoughtful, and the shine

of those windows he had characterized as ugly reminded him of the shining of the good deed in a naughty

world. The chapel and its shabby plot of ground, from which the herbage was all trodden away by busy feet,

had a living human interest that the numerous minsters and churches kneedeep in fresh green grass, visited

by him during the foregoing week, had often lacked. Moreover, there was going to be a baptism: that meant

the immersion of a grownup person; and he had been told that Baptists were serious people and that the

scene was most impressive. What manner of man would it be who on an ordinary plodding and bustling

evening of the nineteenth century could single himself out as one different from the rest of the inhabitants,

banish all shyness, and come forward to undergo such a trying ceremony? Who was he that had pondered,

gone into solitudes, wrestled with himself, worked up his courage and said, I will do this, though few else

Whether on account of these thoughts, or from the circumstance that he had been alone amongst the tombs all

day without communion with his kind, he could not tell in after years (when he had good reason to think of

the subject); but so it was that Somerset went back, and again stood under the chapel wall.

Instead of entering he passed round to where the stovechimney came through the bricks, and holding on to

the iron stay he put his toes on the plinth and looked in at the window. The building was quite full of people

belonging to that vast majority of society who are denied the art of articulating their higher emotions, and

crave dumbly for a fugleman respectably dressed working people, whose faces and forms were worn and

contorted by years of dreary toil. On a platform at the end of the chapel a haggard man of more than middle

age, with grey whiskers ascetically cut back from the fore part of his face so far as to be almost banished

from the countenance, stood reading a chapter. Between the minister and the congregation was an open space,

and in the floor of this was sunk a tank full of water, which just made its surface visible above the blackness

Somerset endeavoured to discover which one among the assemblage was to be the subject of the ceremony.

But nobody appeared there who was at all out of the region of commonplace. The people were all quiet and

settled; yet he could discern on their faces something more than attention, though it was less than excitement:

perhaps it was expectation. And as if to bear out his surmise he heard at that moment the noise of wheels

His gaze into the lighted chapel made what had been an evening scene when he looked away from the

landscape night itself on looking back; but he could see enough to discover that a brougham had driven up to

the sidedoor used by the young waterbearers, and that a lady in whiteandblack half mourning was in

the act of alighting, followed by what appeared to be a waitingwoman carrying wraps. They entered the

vestryroom of the chapel, and the door was shut. The service went on as before till at a certain moment the

door between vestry and chapel was opened, when a woman came out clothed in an ample robe of flowing

white, which descended to her feet. Somerset was unfortunate in his position; he could not see her face, but

her gait suggested at once that she was the lady who had arrived just before. She was rather tall than

otherwise, and the contour of her head and shoulders denoted a girl in the heyday of youth and activity. His

imagination, stimulated by this beginning, set about filling in the meagre outline with most attractive details.

She stood upon the brink of the pool, and the minister descended the steps at its edge till the soles of his

shoes were moistened with the water. He turned to the young candidate, but she did not follow him: instead

of doing so she remained rigid as a stone. He stretched out his hand, but she still showed reluctance, till, with

She approached the edge, looked into the water, and turned away shaking her head. Somerset could for the

first time see her face. Though humanly imperfect, as is every face we see, it was one which made him think

that the best in womankind no less than the best in psalmtunes had gone over to the Dissenters. He had

certainly seen nobody so interesting in his tour hitherto; she was about twenty or twentyoneperhaps

twentythree, for years have a way of stealing marches even upon beauty's anointed. The total dissimilarity

between the expression of her lineaments and that of the countenances around her was not a little surprising,

and was productive of hypotheses without measure as to how she came there. She was, in fact, emphatically a

modern type of maidenhood, and she looked ultramodern by reason of her environment: a presumably

sophisticated being among the simple onesnot wickedly so, but one who knew life fairly well for her age.

Her hair, of good English brown, neither light nor dark, was abundanttoo abundant for convenience in

tying, as it seemed; and it threw off the lamplight in a hazy lustre. And though it could not be said of her

features that this or that was flawless, the nameless charm of them altogether was only another instance of

how beautiful a woman can be as a whole without attaining in any one detail to the lines marked out as

absolutely correct. The spirit and the life were there: and material shapes could be disregarded.

Whatever moral characteristics this might be the surface of, enough was shown to assure Somerset that she

had some experience of things far removed from her present circumscribed horizon, and could live, and was

even at that moment living, a clandestine, stealthy inner life which had very little to do with her outward one.

The repression of nearly every external sign of that distress under which Somerset knew, by a sudden

intuitive sympathy, that she was labouring, added strength to these convictions.

'And you refuse?' said the astonished minister, as she still stood immovable on the brink of the pool. He

persuasively took her sleeve between his finger and thumb as if to draw her; but she resented this by a quick

'But, my dear lady,' he said, 'you promised! Consider your profession, and that you stand in the eyes of the

She tacitly implied that to be a question she did not care to answer. 'Please say no more to me,' she

During this unexpected dialogue (which had reached Somerset's ears through the open windows) that young

man's feelings had flown hither and thither between minister and lady in a most capricious manner: it had

seemed at one moment a rather uncivil thing of her, charming as she was, to give the minister and the

waterbearers so much trouble for nothing; the next, it seemed like reviving the ancient cruelties of the

duckingstool to try to force a girl into that dark water if she had not a mind to it. But the minister was not

without insight, and he had seen that it would be useless to say more. The crestfallen old man had to turn

round upon the congregation and declare officially that the baptism was postponed.

She passed through the door into the vestry. During the exciting moments of her recusancy there had been a

perceptible flutter among the sensitive members of the congregation; nervous Dissenters seeming to be at one

with nervous Episcopalians in this at least, that they heartily disliked a scene during service. Calm was

restored to their minds by the minister starting a rather long hymn in minims and semibreves, amid the

singing of which he ascended the pulpit. His face had a severe and even denunciatory look as he gave out his

text, and Somerset began to understand that this meant mischief to the young person who had caused the

'In the third chapter of Revelation and the fifteenth and following verses, you will find these words:

'"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art

lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. . . . Thou sayest, I am rich, and

increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and

The sermon straightway began, and it was soon apparent that the commentary was to be no less forcible than

the text. It was also apparent that the words were, virtually, not directed forward in the line in which they

were uttered, but through the chink of the vestrydoor, that had stood slightly ajar since the exit of the young

lady. The listeners appeared to feel this no less than Somerset did, for their eyes, one and all, became fixed

upon that vestry door as if they would almost push it open by the force of their gazing. The preacher's heart

was full and bitter; no book or note was wanted by him; never was spontaneity more absolute than here. It

was no timid reproof of the ornamental kind, but a direct denunciation, all the more vigorous perhaps from

the limitation of mind and language under which the speaker laboured. Yet, fool that he had been made by the

candidate, there was nothing acrid in his attack. Genuine flashes of rhetorical fire were occasionally struck by

that plain and simple man, who knew what straightforward conduct was, and who did not know the

At this moment there was not in the whole chapel a person whose imagination was not centred on what was

invisibly taking place within the vestry. The thunder of the minister's eloquence echoed, of course, through

the weak sister's cavern of retreat no less than round the public assembly. What she was doing inside

therewhether listening contritely, or haughtily hastening to put on her things and get away from the chapel

and all it containedwas obviously the thought of each member. What changes were tracing themselves

upon that lovely face: did it rise to phases of Raffaelesque resignation or sink so low as to flush and frown?

was Somerset's inquiry; and a halfexplanation occurred when, during the discourse, the door which had

Looking on as a stranger it seemed to him more than probable that this young woman's power of persistence

in her unexpected repugnance to the rite was strengthened by wealth and position of some sort, and was not

the unassisted gift of nature. The manner of her arrival, and her dignified bearing before the assembly,

strengthened the belief. A woman who did not feel something extraneous to her mental self to fall back upon

would be so far overawed by the people and the crisis as not to retain sufficient resolution for a change of

The sermon ended, the minister wiped his steaming face and turned down his cuffs, and nods and sagacious

glances went round. Yet many, even of those who had presumably passed the same ordeal with credit,

exhibited gentler judgment than the preacher's on a tergiversation of which they had probably recognized

For Somerset there was but one scene: the imagined scene of the girl herself as she sat alone in the vestry.

The fervent congregation rose to sing again, and then Somerset heard a slight noise on his left hand which

caused him to turn his head. The brougham, which had retired into the field to wait, was back again at the

door: the subject of his rumination came out from the chapelnot in her mystic robe of white, but dressed in

ordinary fashionable costumefollowed as before by the attendant with other articles of clothing on her arm,

including the white gown. Somerset fancied that the younger woman was drying her eyes with her

handkerchief, but there was not much time to see: they quickly entered the carriage, and it moved on. Then a

cat suddenly mewed, and he saw a white Persian standing forlorn where the carriage had been. The door was

The stranger's girlish form stamped itself deeply on Somerset's soul. He strolled on his way quite oblivious to

the fact that the moon had just risen, and that the landscape was one for him to linger over, especially if there

were any Gothic architecture in the line of the lunar rays. The inference was that though this girl must be of a

serious turn of mind, wilfulness was not foreign to her composition: and it was probable that her daily doings

evinced without much abatement by religion the unbroken spirit and pride of life natural to her age.

The little village inn at which Somerset intended to pass the night lay a mile further on, and retracing his way

up to the stile he rambled along the lane, now beginning to be streaked like a zebra with the shadows of some

young trees that edged the road. But his attention was attracted to the other side of the way by a hum as of a

nightbee, which arose from the play of the breezes over a single wire of telegraph running parallel with his

track on tall poles that had appeared by the road, he hardly knew when, from a branch route, probably leading

from some town in the neighbourhood to the village he was approaching. He did not know the population of

Sleeping Green, as the village of his search was called, but the presence of this mark of civilization seemed

to signify that its inhabitants were not quite so far in the rear of their age as might be imagined; a glance at

the still ungrassed heap of earth round the foot of each post was, however, sufficient to show that it was at no

Aided by this friendly wire Somerset had no difficulty in keeping his course, till he reached a point in the

ascent of a hill at which the telegraph branched off from the road, passing through an opening in the hedge, to

strike across an undulating down, while the road wound round to the left. For a few moments Somerset

doubted and stood still. The wire sang on overhead with dying falls and melodious rises that invited him to

follow; while above the wire rode the stars in their courses, the low nocturn of the former seeming to be the

Recalling himself from these reflections Somerset decided to follow the lead of the wire. It was not the first

time during his present tour that he had found his way at night by the help of these musical threads which the

postoffice authorities had erected all over the country for quite another purpose than to guide belated

travellers. Plunging with it across the down he came to a hedgeless road that entered a park or chase, which

flourished in all its original wildness. Tufts of rushes and brakes of fern rose from the hollows, and the road

was in places half overgrown with green, as if it had not been tended for many years; so much so that, where

shaded by trees, he found some difficulty in keeping it. Though he had noticed the remains of a deerfence

further back no deer were visible, and it was scarcely possible that there should be any in the existing state of

things: but rabbits were multitudinous, every hillock being dotted with their seated figures till Somerset

approached and sent them limping into their burrows. The road next wound round a clump of underwood

beside which lay heaps of faggots for burning, and then there appeared against the sky the walls and towers

Somerset stopped to examine it. The castle was not exceptionally large, but it had all the characteristics of its

most important fellows. Irregular, dilapidated, and muffled in creepers as a great portion of it was, some

parta comparatively modern wingwas inhabited, for a light or two steadily gleamed from some upper

windows; in others a reflection of the moon denoted that unbroken glass yet filled their casements. Over all

rose the keep, a square solid tower apparently not much injured by wars or weather, and darkened with ivy on

one side, wherein wings could be heard flapping uncertainly, as if they belonged to a bird unable to find a

proper perch. Hissing noises supervened, and then a hoot, proclaiming that a brood of young owls were

residing there in the company of older ones. In spite of the habitable and more modern wing, neglect and

decay had set their mark upon the outworks of the pile, unfitting them for a more positive light than that of

He walked up to a modern arch spanning the ditchnow dry and greenover which the drawbridge once

had swung. The large door under the porter's archway was closed and locked. While standing here the singing

of the wire, which for the last few minutes he had quite forgotten, again struck upon his ear, and retreating to

a convenient place he observed its final course: from the poles amid the trees it leaped across the moat, over

the girdling wall, and thence by a tremendous stretch towards the keep where, to judge by sound, it vanished

through an arrowslit into the interior. This fossil of feudalism, then, was the journey'send of the wire, and

There was a certain unexpectedness in the fact that the hoary memorial of a stolid antagonism to the

interchange of ideas, the monument of hard distinctions in blood and race, of deadly mistrust of one's

neighbour in spite of the Church's teaching, and of a sublime unconsciousness of any other force than a brute

one, should be the goal of a machine which beyond everything may be said to symbolize cosmopolitan views

and the intellectual and moral kinship of all mankind. In that light the little buzzing wire had a far finer

significance to the student Somerset than the vast walls which neighboured it. But the modern fever and fret

which consumes people before they can grow old was also signified by the wire; and this aspect of today

did not contrast well with the fairer side of feudalismleisure, lighthearted generosity, intense friendships,

hawks, hounds, revels, healthy complexions, freedom from care, and such a living power in architectural art

Somerset withdrew till neither the singing of the wire nor the hisses of the irritable owls could be heard any

more. A clock in the castle struck ten, and he recognized the strokes as those he had heard when sitting on the

stile. It was indispensable that he should retrace his steps and push on to SleepingGreen if he wished that

night to reach his lodgings, which had been secured by letter at a little inn in the straggling line of roadside

houses called by the above name, where his luggage had by this time probably arrived. In a quarter of an hour

he was again at the point where the wire left the road, and following the highway over a hill he saw the

By halfpast ten the next morning Somerset was once more approaching the precincts of the building which

had interested him the night before. Referring to his map he had learnt that it bore the name of Stancy Castle

or Castle de Stancy; and he had been at once struck with its familiarity, though he had never understood its

position in the county, believing it further to the west. If report spoke truly there was some excellent vaulting

in the interior, and a change of study from ecclesiastical to secular Gothic was not unwelcome for a while.

The entrancegate was open now, and under the archway the outer ward was visible, a great part of it being

laid out as a flowergarden. This was in process of clearing from weeds and rubbish by a set of gardeners,

and the soil was so encumbered that in rooting out the weeds such few hardy flowers as still remained in the

beds were mostly brought up with them. The groove wherein the portcullis had run was as fresh as if only cut

yesterday, the very tooling of the stone being visible. Close to this hung a bellpull formed of a large wooden

acorn attached to a vertical rod. Somerset's application brought a woman from the porter's door, who

informed him that the day before having been the weekly showday for visitors, it was doubtful if he could

His dread of being considered an intruder was such that he thought at first there was no help for it but to wait

till the next week. But he had already through his want of effrontery lost a sight of many interiors, whose

exhibition would have been rather a satisfaction to the inmates than a trouble. It was inconvenient to wait; he

knew nobody in the neighbourhood from whom he could get an introductory letter: he turned and passed the

woman, crossed the ward where the gardeners were at work, over a second and smaller bridge, and up a flight

of stone stairs, open to the sky, along whose steps sunburnt Tudor soldiers and other renowned dead men had

doubtless many times walked. It led to the principal door on this side. Thence he could observe the walls of

the lower court in detail, and the old mosses with which they were paddedmosses that from time

immemorial had been burnt brown every summer, and every winter had grown green again. The arrowslit

and the electric wire that entered it, like a worm uneasy at being unearthed, were distinctly visible now. So

also was the clock, not, as he had supposed, a chronometer coeval with the fortress itself, but new and

The door was opened by a bland, intensely shaven man out of livery, who took Somerset's name and politely

worded request to be allowed to inspect the architecture of the more public portions of the castle. He

pronounced the word 'architecture' in the tone of a man who knew and practised that art; 'for,' he said to

No such uncomfortable consequences ensued. Miss De Stancy had great pleasure in giving Mr. Somerset full

He followed the butler into the inner buildings of the fortress, the ponderous thickness of whose walls made

itself felt like a physical pressure. An internal stone staircase, ranged round four sides of a square, was next

revealed, leading at the top of one flight into a spacious hall, which seemed to occupy the whole area of the

keep. From this apartment a corridor floored with black oak led to the more modern wing, where light and air

Here passages were broader than in the oldest portion, and upholstery enlisted in the service of the fine arts

Somerset was now left to himself, and roving freely from room to room he found time to inspect the different

objects of interest that abounded there. Not all the chambers, even of the habitable division, were in use as

dwellingrooms, though these were still numerous enough for the wants of an ordinary country family. In a

long gallery with a coved ceiling of arabesques which had once been gilded, hung a series of paintings

representing the past personages of the De Stancy line. It was a remarkable arrayeven more so on account

of the incredibly neglected condition of the canvases than for the artistic peculiarities they exhibited. Many of

the frames were dropping apart at their angles, and some of the canvas was so dingy that the face of the

person depicted was only distinguishable as the moon through mist. For the colour they had now they might

have been painted during an eclipse; while, to judge by the webs tying them to the wall, the spiders that ran

up and down their backs were such as to make the fair originals shudder in their graves.

He wondered how many of the lofty foreheads and smiling lips of this pictorial pedigree could be credited as

true reflections of their prototypes. Some were wilfully false, no doubt; many more so by unavoidable

accident and want of skill. Somerset felt that it required a profounder mind than his to disinter from the

lumber of conventionality the lineaments that really sat in the painter's presence, and to discover their history

The painters of this long collection were those who usually appear in such places; Holbein, Jansen, and

Vandyck; Sir Peter, Sir Geoffrey, Sir Joshua, and Sir Thomas. Their sitters, too, had mostly been sirs; Sir

William, Sir John, or Sir George De Stancysome undoubtedly having a nobility stamped upon them

beyond that conferred by their robes and orders; and others not so fortunate. Their respective ladies hung by

their sidesfeeble and watery, or fat and comfortable, as the case might be; also their fathers and

mothersinlaw, their brothers and remoter relatives; their contemporary reigning princes, and their intimate

friends. Of the De Stancys pure there ran through the collection a mark by which they might surely have been

recognized as members of one family; this feature being the upper part of the nose. Every one, even if lacking

other points in common, had the special indent at this point in the facesometimes moderate in degree,

While looking at the pictureswhich, though not in his regular line of study, interested Somerset more than

the architecture, because of their singular dilapidation, it occurred to his mind that he had in his youth been

schoolfellow for a very short time with a pleasant boy bearing a surname attached to one of the

paintingsthe name of Ravensbury. The boy had vanished he knew not howhe thought he had been

removed from school suddenly on account of ill health. But the recollection was vague, and Somerset moved

on to the rooms above and below. In addition to the architectural details of which he had as yet obtained but

glimpses, there was a great collection of old movables and other domestic artworkall more than a century

old, and mostly lying as lumber. There were suites of tapestry hangings, common and fine; green and scarlet

leatherwork, on which the gilding was still but little injured; venerable damask curtains; quilted silk

tablecovers, ebony cabinets, worked satin windowcushions, carved bedsteads, and embroidered

bedfurniture which had apparently screened no sleeper for these many years. Downstairs there was also an

interesting collection of armour, together with several huge trunks and coffers. A great many of them had

been recently taken out and cleaned, as if a long dormant interest in them were suddenly revived. Doubtless

they were those which had been used by the living originals of the phantoms that looked down from the

This excellent hoard of suggestive designs for woodwork, metalwork, and work of other sorts, induced

Somerset to divert his studies from the ecclesiastical direction, to acquire some new ideas from the objects

here for domestic application. Yet for the present he was inclined to keep his sketchbook closed and his

ivory rule folded, and devote himself to a general survey. Emerging from the groundfloor by a small

doorway, he found himself on a terrace to the northeast, and on the other side than that by which he had

entered. It was bounded by a parapet breast high, over which a view of the distant country met the eye,

stretching from the foot of the slope to a distance of many miles. Somerset went and leaned over, and looked

down upon the tops of the bushes beneath. The prospect included the village he had passed through on the

previous day: and amidst the green lights and shades of the meadows he could discern the red brick chapel

Before his attention had long strayed over the incident which romanticized that utilitarian structure, he

became aware that he was not the only person who was looking from the terrace towards that point of the

compass. At the righthand corner, in a niche of the curtainwall, reclined a girlish shape; and asleep on the

bench over which she leaned was a white catthe identical Persian as it seemedthat had been taken into

Somerset began to muse on the probability or otherwise of the backsliding Baptist and this young lady

resulting in one and the same person; and almost without knowing it he found himself deeply hoping for such

a unity. The object of his inspection was idly leaning, and this somewhat disguised her figure. It might have

been tall or short, curvilinear or angular. She carried a light sunshade which she fitfully twirled until,

thrusting it back over her shoulder, her head was revealed sufficiently to show that she wore no hat or bonnet.

This token of her being an inmate of the castle, and not a visitor, rather damped his expectations: but he

persisted in believing her look towards the chapel must have a meaning in it, till she suddenly stood erect,

and revealed herself as short in staturealmost dumpyat the same time giving him a distinct view of her

profile. She was not at all like the heroine of the chapel. He saw the dinted nose of the De Stancys outlined

with Holbein shadowlessness against the bluegreen of the distant wood. It was not the De Stancy face with

all its original specialities: it was, so to speak, a defective reprint of that face: for the nose tried hard to turn

As for the rest of the countenance, Somerset was obliged to own that it was not beautiful: Nature had done

there many things that she ought not to have done, and left undone much that she should have executed. It

would have been decidedly plain but for a precious quality which no perfection of chiselling can give when

the temperament denies it, and which no facial irregularity can take awaya tender affectionateness which

might almost be called yearning; such as is often seen in the women of Correggio when they are painted in

profile. But the plain features of Miss De Stancy who she undoubtedly waswere rather severely handled

by Somerset's judgment owing to his impression of the previous night. A beauty of a sort would have been

lent by the flexuous contours of the mobile parts but for that unfortunate condition the poor girl was burdened

with, of having to hand on a traditional feature with which she did not find herself otherwise in harmony.

She glanced at him for a moment, and showed by an imperceptible movement that he had made his presence

felt. Not to embarrass her Somerset hastened to withdraw, at the same time that she passed round to the other

part of the terrace, followed by the cat, in whom Somerset could imagine a certain denominational cast of

countenance, notwithstanding her company. But as white cats are much alike each other at a distance, it was

reasonable to suppose this creature was not the same one as that possessed by the beauty.

He descended the stone stairs to a lower story of the castle, in which was a cryptlike hall covered by

It happened that the central pillar whereon the vaults rested, reputed to exhibit some of the most hideous

grotesques in England upon its capital, was within a locked door. Somerset was tempted to ask a servant for

permission to open it, till he heard that the inner room was temporarily used for plate, the key being kept by

Miss De Stancy, at which he said no more. But afterwards the active housemaid redescended the stone steps;

she entered the crypt with a bunch of keys in one hand, and in the other a candle, followed by the young lady

'I shall be very glad to unlock anything you may want to see. So few people take any real interest in what is

Miss De Stancy, a little to his surprise, had a touch of rusticity in her manner, and that forced absence of

reserve which seclusion from society lends to young women more frequently than not. She seemed glad to

have something to do; the arrival of Somerset was plainly an event sufficient to set some little mark upon her

day. Deception had been written on the faces of those frowning walls in their implying the insignificance of

Somerset, when he found them tenanted only by this little woman whose life was narrower than his own.

'We have not been here long,' continued Miss De Stancy, 'and that's why everything is in such a dilapidated

Somerset entered the dark storecloset, thinking less of the ancient pillar revealed by the light of the candle

than what a singular remark the latter was to come from a member of the family which appeared to have been

there five centuries. He held the candle above his head, and walked round, and presently Miss De Stancy

'There is another vault below,' she said, with the severe face of a young woman who speaks only because it is

absolutely necessary. 'Perhaps you are not aware of it? It was the dungeon: if you wish to go down there too,

the servant will show you the way. It is not at all ornamental: rough, unhewn arches and clumsy piers.'

Somerset thanked her, and would perhaps take advantage of her kind offer when he had examined the spot

'No; I am sure Paula will be glad to know that anybody thinks it interesting to go down therewhich is more

Some obvious inquiries were suggested by this, but Somerset said, 'I have seen the pictures, and have been

much struck by them; partly,' he added, with some hesitation, 'because one or two of them reminded me of a

'But he is dead now. . . . He was unfortunate: he was mostly spoken of as "that unlucky boy." . . . You know, I

suppose, Mr. Somerset, why the paintings are in such a decaying state! it is owing to the peculiar treatment

of the castle during Mr. Wilkins's time. He was blind; so one can imagine he did not appreciate such things as

'O yes, for many years. But it will not be so again. We are going to have the pictures cleaned, and the frames

mended, and the old pieces of furniture put in their proper places. It will be very nice then. Did you see those

They ascended to the room designated the east closet. The paintings here, mostly of smaller size, were in a

better condition, owing to the fact that they were hung on an inner wall, and had hence been kept free from

'I really don't quite know,' Miss De Stancy replied after some thought. 'But Paula knows, I am sure. I don't

study them muchI don't see the use of it.' She swung her sunshade, so that it fell open, and turned it up till

it fell shut. 'I have never been able to give much attention to ancestors,' she added, with her eyes on the

'These ARE your ancestors?' he asked, for her position and tone were matters which perplexed him. In spite

of the family likeness and other details he could scarcely believe this frank and communicative country

'O yes, they certainly are,' she said, laughing. 'People say I am like them: I don't know if I amwell, yes, I

know I am: I can see that, of course, any day. But they have gone from my family, and perhaps it is just as

well that they should have gone. . . . They are useless,' she added, with serene conclusiveness.

'Yes, castle and furniture went together: it was long ago long before I was born. It doesn't seem to me as if

'I live here with Paulamy friend: I have not been here long, neither has she. For the first six months after

They walked on, gazing at the walls, till the young man said: 'I fear I may be making some mistake: but I am

'Ah, you don't know! Of course you don'tlocal changes don't get talked of far away. She is the owner of

this castle and estate. My father sold it when he was quite a young man, years before I was born, and not long

after his father's death. It was purchased by a man named Wilkins, a rich man who became blind soon after he

She went out upon the terrace; and without exactly knowing why, Somerset followed.

'Has only come here quite recently. She is away from home to day. . . . It was very sad,' murmured the

young girl thoughtfully. 'No sooner had Mr. Power bought it of the representatives of Mr. Wilkinsalmost

immediately indeed than he died from a chill caught after a warm bath. On account of that she did not take

possession for several months; and even now she has only had a few rooms prepared as a temporary

residence till she can think what to do. Poor thing, it is sad to be left alone!'

Somerset heedfully remarked that he thought he recognized that name Power, as one he had seen lately,

She looked across the distant country, where undulations of darkgreen foliage formed a prospect extending

for miles. And as she watched, and Somerset's eyes, led by hers, watched also, a white streak of steam, thin as

a cotton thread, could be discerned ploughing that green expanse. 'Her father made THAT,' Miss De Stancy

'That railway. He was Mr. John Power, the great railway contractor. And it was through making the railway

that he discovered this castlethe railway was diverted a little on its account.'

'Yes, but he took an interest in the locality long before he purchased the estate. And he built the people a

chapel on a bit of freehold he bought for them. He was a great Nonconformist, a staunch Baptist up to the day

of his deatha much stauncher one,' she said significantly, 'than his daughter is.'

'Her conduct has given mortal offence to the scattered people of the denomination that her father was at such

Somerset could guess the remainder, and in thinking over the circumstances did not state what he had seen.

'She would not submit to the rite when it came to the point. The water looked so cold and dark and fearful,

'Surely she should have known her mind before she had gone so far?' Somerset's words had a condemnatory

form, but perhaps his actual feeling was that if Miss Power had known her own mind, she would have not

'Paula's own mind had nothing to do with it!' said Miss De Stancy, warming up to staunch partizanship in a

moment. 'It was all undertaken by her from a mistaken sense of duty. It was her father's dying wish that she

should make public profession of herwhat do you call itof the denomination she belonged to, as soon as

she felt herself fit to do it: so when he was dead she tried and tried, and didn't get any more fit; and at last she

screwed herself up to the pitch, and thought she must undergo the ceremony out of pure reverence for his

memory. It was very shortsighted of her father to put her in such a position: because she is now very sad, as

she feels she can never try again after such a sermon as was delivered against her.'

Somerset presumed that Miss Power need not have heard this Knox or Bossuet of hers if she had chosen to go

'She did not hear it in the face of the congregation; but from the vestry. She told me some of it when she

reached home. Would you believe it, the man who preached so bitterly is a tenant of hers? I said, "Surely you

will turn him out of his house?"But she answered, in her calm, deep, nice way, that she supposed he had a

perfect right to preach against her, that she could not in justice molest him at all. I wouldn't let him stay if the

house were mine. But she has often before allowed him to scold her from the pulpit in a smaller way once

it was about an expensive dress she had wornnot mentioning her by name, you know; but all the people are

quite aware that it is meant for her, because only one person of her wealth or position belongs to the Baptist

Somerset was looking at the homely affectionate face of the little speaker. 'You are her good friend, I am

She looked into the distant air with tacit admission of the impeachment. 'So would you be if you knew her,'

she said; and a blush slowly rose to her cheek, as if the person spoken of had been a lover rather than a friend.

'O no. And I never knew one till I knew Paula. I think they are very nice; though I sometimes wish Paula was

They walked on, and came opposite to where the telegraph emerged from the trees, leapt over the parapet,

'Miss Power had it put up to know the latest news from town. It costs six pounds a mile. She can work it

herself, beautifully: and so can I, but not so well. It was a great delight to learn. Miss Power was so interested

at first that she was sending messages from morning till night. And did you hear the new clock?'

'The old one was quite worn out; so Paula has put it in the cellar, and had this new one made, though it still

strikes on the old bell. It tells the seconds, but the old one, which my very great grandfather erected in the

eighteenth century, only told the hours. Paula says that time, being so much more valuable now, must of

'Do you wish to come through this door?' she asked. 'There is a singular chimneypiece in the kitchen, which

is considered a unique example of its kind, though I myself don't know enough about it to have an opinion on

When they had looked at the corbelled chimneypiece they returned to the hall, where his eye was caught

anew by a large map that he had conned for some time when alone, without being able to divine the locality

represented. It was called 'General Plan of the Town,' and showed streets and open spaces corresponding with

'It is not anywhere but in Paula's brain; she has laid it out from her own design. The site is supposed to be

near our railway station, just across there, where the land belongs to her. She is going to grant cheap building

'O no! no!' replied Miss De Stancy, in tones showing how supremely ignorant he must be of Miss Power's

nature if he characterized her in those terms. 'It is GREEK pottery she meansHellenic pottery she tells me

to call it, only I forget. There is beautiful clay at the place, her father told her: he found it in making the

railway tunnel. She has visited the British Museum, continental museums, and Greece, and Spain: and hopes

to imitate the old fictile work in time, especially the Greek of the best period, four hundred years after Christ,

or before ChristI forget which it was Paula said. . . . O no, she is not practical in the sense you mean, at all.'

Miss De Stancy appeared unable to settle whether this new definition of her dear friend should be accepted as

kindly, or disallowed as decidedly sarcastic. 'You would like her if you knew her,' she insisted, in half tones

'And I! And yet at one time I could never have believed that I should have been her friend. One is prejudiced

at first against people who are reported to have such differences in feeling, associations, and habit, as she

seemed to have from mine. But it has not stood in the least in the way of our liking each other. I believe the

'It says a great deal for the liberality of both,' answered Somerset warmly. 'Heaven send us more of the same

As this remark called for no reply from Miss De Stancy, she took advantage of an opportunity to leave him

alone, first repeating her permission to him to wander where he would. He walked about for some time,

sketchbook in hand, but was conscious that his interest did not lie much in the architecture. In passing along

the corridor of an upper floor he observed an open door, through which was visible a room containing one of

the finest Renaissance cabinets he had ever seen. It was impossible, on close examination, to do justice to it

in a hasty sketch; it would be necessary to measure every line if he would bring away anything of utility to

him as a designer. Deciding to reserve this gem for another opportunity he cast his eyes round the room and

blushed a little. Without knowing it he had intruded into the absent Miss Paula's own particular set of

chambers, including a boudoir and sleeping apartment. On the tables of the sitting room were most of the

popular papers and periodicals that he knew, not only English, but from Paris, Italy, and America. Satirical

prints, though they did not unduly preponderate, were not wanting. Besides these there were books from a

London circulating library, papercovered light literature in French and choice Italian, and the latest monthly

reviews; while between the two windows stood the telegraph apparatus whose wire had been the means of

These things, ensconced amid so much of the old and hoary, were as if a stray hour from the nineteenth

century had wandered like a butterfly into the thirteenth, and lost itself there.

The door between this antechamber and the sleepingroom stood open. Without venturing to cross the

threshold, for he felt that he would be abusing hospitality to go so far, Somerset looked in for a moment. It

was a pretty place, and seemed to have been hastily fitted up. In a corner, overhung by a blue and white

canopy of silk, was a little cot, hardly large enough to impress the character of bedroom upon the old place.

Upon a counterpane lay a parasol and a silk neckerchief. On the other side of the room was a tall mirror of

startling newness, draped like the bedstead, in blue and white. Thrown at random upon the floor was a pair of

satin slippers that would have fitted Cinderella. A dressinggown lay across a settee; and opposite, upon a

small easychair in the same blue and white livery, were a Bible, the Baptist Magazine, Wardlaw on Infant

Baptism, Walford's County Families, and the Court Journal. On and over the mantelpiece were nicknacks of

various descriptions, and photographic portraits of the artistic, scientific, and literary celebrities of the day.

A dressingroom lay beyond; but, becoming conscious that his study of ancient architecture would hardly

bear stretching further in that direction, Mr. Somerset retreated to the outside, obliviously passing by the gem

On looking up, some time later, at the new clock that told the seconds, he found that the hours at his disposal

for work had flown without his having transferred a single feature of the building or furniture to his

sketchbook. Before leaving he sent in for permission to come again, and then walked across the fields to the

inn at SleepingGreen, reflecting less upon Miss De Stancy (so little force of presence had she possessed)

than upon the modern flower in a mediaeval flowerpot whom Miss De Stancy's information had brought

before him, and upon the incongruities that were daily shaping themselves in the world under the great

Somerset was still full of the subject when he arrived at the end of his walk, and he fancied that some

loungers at the bar of the inn were discussing the heroine of the chapelscene just at the moment of his entry.

On this account, when the landlord came to clear away the dinner, Somerset was led to inquire of him, by

way of opening a conversation, if there were many Baptists in the neighbourhood.

The landlord (who was a serious man on the surface, though he occasionally smiled beneath) replied that

there were a great manyfar more than the average in country parishes. 'Even here, in my house, now,' he

added, 'when volks get a drop of drink into 'em, and their feelings rise to a zong, some man will strike up a

hymn by preference. But I find no fault with that; for though 'tis hardly human nature to be so calculating in

'Well, you zee, sir, some says one thing, and some another; I think they does it to save the expense of a

Christian burial for ther children. Now there's a poor family out in Long Lanethe husband used to smite for

Jimmy More the blacksmith till 'a hurt his armthey'd have no less than eleven children if they'd not been

lucky t'other way, and buried five when they were three or four months old. Now every one of them children

was given to the sexton in a little box that any journeyman could nail together in a quarter of an hour, and he

buried 'em at night for a shilling a head; whereas 'twould have cost a couple of pounds each if they'd been

christened at church. . . . Of course there's the new lady at the castle, she's a chapel member, and that may

make a little difference; but she's not been here long enough to show whether 'twill be worth while to join 'em

for the profit o't or whether 'twill not. No doubt if it turns out that she's of a sort to relieve volks in trouble,

more will join her set than belongs to it already. "Any port in a storm," of course, as the saying is.'

'Yes; not but I was a Methodist onceay, for a length of time. 'Twas owing to my taking a house next door

to a chapel; so that what with hearing the organ bizz like a bee through the wall, and what with finding it

saved umbrellas on wet Zundays, I went over to that faith for two yearsthough I believe I dropped money

by itI wouldn't be the man to say so if I hadn't. Howsomever, when I moved into this house I turned back

again to my old religion. Faith, I don't zee much difference: be you one, or be you t'other, you've got to get

'The De Stancys, of course, have not much influence here now, for that, or any other thing?'

'O no, no; not any at all. They be very low upon ground, and always will be now, I suppose. It was thoughted

'O, then, you shall. I've got the history zomewhere. 'Twas gay manners that did it. The only bit of luck they

have had of late years is Miss Power's taking to little Miss De Stancy, and making her her companykeeper. I

That the two daughters of these antipodean families should be such intimate friends was a situation which

pleased Somerset as much as it did the landlord. It was an engaging instance of that human progress on which

he had expended many charming dreams in the years when poetry, theology, and the reorganization of

society had seemed matters of more importance to him than a profession which should help him to a big

house and income, a fair Deiopeia, and a lovely progeny. When he was alone he poured out a glass of wine,

and silently drank the healths of the two generousminded young women who, in this lonely district, had

found sweet communion a necessity of life, and by pure and instinctive good sense had broken down a barrier

which men thrice their age and repute would probably have felt it imperative to maintain. But perhaps this

was premature: the omnipotent Miss Power's character practical or ideal, politic or impulsivehe as yet

knew nothing of; and giving over reasoning from insufficient data he lapsed into mere conjecture.

The next morning Somerset was again at the castle. He passed some interval on the walls before encountering

Miss De Stancy, whom at last he observed going towards a ponycarriage that waited near the door.

A smile gained strength upon her face at his approach, and she was the first to speak. 'I am sorry Miss Power

has not returned,' she said, and accounted for that lady's absence by her distress at the event of two evenings

'But I have driven over to my father'sSir William De Stancy'shouse this morning,' she went on. 'And on

mentioning your name to him, I found he knew it quite well. You will, will you not, forgive my ignorance in

having no better knowledge of the elder Mr. Somerset's works than a dim sense of his fame as a painter? But

I was going to say that my father would much like to include you in his personal acquaintance, and wishes me

to ask if you will give him the pleasure of lunching with him today. My cousin John, whom you once knew,

was a great favourite of his, and used to speak of you sometimes. It will be so kind if you can come. My

father is an old man, out of society, and he would be glad to hear the news of town.'

Somerset said he was glad to find himself among friends where he had only expected strangers; and promised

That she could easily do. The short way was across that glade he saw therethen over the stile into the

wood, following the path till it came out upon the turnpikeroad. He would then be almost close to the house.

The distance was about two miles and a half. But if he thought it too far for a walk, she would drive on to the

town, where she had been going when he came, and instead of returning straight to her father's would come

It was not at all necessary, he thought. He was a walker, and could find the path.

At this moment a servant came to tell Miss De Stancy that the telegraph was calling her.

'Ahit is lucky that I was not gone again!' she exclaimed. 'John seldom reads it right if I am away.'

It now seemed quite in the ordinary course that, as a friend of her father's, he should accompany her to the

instrument. So up they went together, and immediately on reaching it she applied her ear to the instrument,

and began to gather the message. Somerset fancied himself like a person overlooking another's letter, and

She made no answer, and the machine went on with its story. There was something curious in watching this

utterance about himself, under his very nose, in language unintelligible to him. He conjectured whether it

were inquiry, praise, or blame, with a sense that it might reasonably be the latter, as the result of his

surreptitious look into that blue bedroom, possibly observed and reported by some servant of the house.

'"Direct that every facility be given to Mr. Somerset to visit any part of the castle he may wish to see. On my

return I shall be glad to welcome him as the acquaintance of your relatives. I have two of his father's

'Dear me, the plot thickens,' he said, as Miss De Stancy announced the words. 'How could she know about

'I sent a message to her this morning when I saw you crossing the park on your way heretelling her that

Mr. Somerset, son of the Academician, was making sketches of the castle, and that my father knew

Miss de Stancy then left him to proceed on her journey to Markton (so the nearest little town was called),

informing him that she would be at her father's house to receive him at two o'clock. Just about one he closed

his sketchbook, and set out in the direction she had indicated. At the entrance to the wood a man was at

work pulling down a rotten gate that bore on its battered lock the initials 'W. De S.' and erecting a new one

The warmth of the summer noon did not inconveniently penetrate the dense masses of foliage which now

began to overhang the path, except in spots where a ruthless timberfelling had taken place in previous years

for the purpose of sale. It was that particular halfhour of the day in which the birds of the forest prefer

walking to flying; and there being no wind, the hopping of the smallest songster over the dead leaves reached

his ear from behind the undergrowth. The track had originally been a wellkept winding drive, but a deep

carpet of moss and leaves overlaid it now, though the general outline still remained to show that its curves

had been set out with as much care as those of a lawn walk, and the gradient made easy for carriages where

the natural slopes were great. Felled trunks occasionally lay across it, and alongside were the hollow and

After a walk of threequarters of an hour he came to another gate, where the letters 'P. P.' again supplanted

the historical 'W. De S.' Climbing over this, he found himself on a highway which presently dipped down

towards the town of Markton, a place he had never yet seen. It appeared in the distance as a quiet little

borough of a few thousand inhabitants; and, without the town boundary on the side he was approaching,

stood halfadozen genteel and modern houses, of the detached kind usually found in such suburbs. On

It was almost new, of streaked brick, having a central door, and a small bay window on each side to light the

two front parlours. A little lawn spread its green surface in front, divided from the road by iron railings, the

low line of shrubs immediately within them being coated with pallid dust from the highway. On the neat piers

of the neat entrance gate were chiselled the words 'Myrtle Villa.' Genuine roadside respectability sat smiling

Perhaps that which impressed Somerset more than the mushroom modernism of Sir William De Stancy's

house was the air of healthful cheerfulness which pervaded it. He was shown in by a neat maidservant in

black gown and white apron, a canary singing a welcome from a cage in the shadow of the window, the

voices of crowing cocks coming over the chimneys from somewhere behind, and the sun and air riddling the

A dwelling of those wellknown and popular dimensions which allow the proceedings in the kitchen to be

distinctly heard in the parlours, it was so planned that a raking view might be obtained through it from the

front door to the end of the back garden. The drawingroom furniture was comfortable, in the

walnutandgreenrep style of some years ago. Somerset had expected to find his friends living in an old

house with remnants of their own antique furniture, and he hardly knew whether he ought to meet them with

a smile or a gaze of condolence. His doubt was terminated, however, by the cheerful and tripping entry of

Miss De Stancy, who had returned from her drive to Markton; and in a few more moments Sir William came

He was an old man of tall and spare build, with a considerable stoop, his glasses dangling against his

waistcoatbuttons, and the front corners of his coattails hanging lower than the hinderparts, so that they

swayed right and left as he walked. He nervously apologized to his visitor for having kept him waiting.

'I am so glad to see you,' he said, with a mild benevolence of tone, as he retained Somerset's hand for a

moment or two; 'partly for your father's sake, whom I met more than once in my younger days, before he

became so wellknown; and also because I learn that you were a friend of my poor nephew John

Ravensbury.' He looked over his shoulder to see if his daughter were within hearing, and, with the impulse of

the solitary to make a confidence, continued in a low tone: 'She, poor girl, was to have married John: his

The reverses of fortune which had brought Sir William De Stancy to this comfortable cottage awakened in

Somerset a warmer emotion than curiosity, and he sat down with a heart as responsive to each speech uttered

as if it had seriously concerned himself, while his host gave some words of information to his daughter on the

trifling events that had marked the morning just passed; such as that the cow had got out of the paddock into

Miss Power's field, that the smith who had promised to come and look at the kitchen range had not arrived,

that two wasps' nests had been discovered in the garden bank, and that Nick Jones's baby had fallen

downstairs. Sir William had large cavernous arches to his eyesockets, reminding the beholder of the vaults

in the castle he once had owned. His hands were long and almost fleshless, each knuckle showing like a

bamboojoint from beneath his coatsleeves, which were small at the elbow and large at the wrist. All the

colour had gone from his beard and locks, except in the case of a few isolated hairs of the former, which

retained dashes of their original shade at sudden points in their length, revealing that all had once been raven

But to study a man to his face for long is a species of ill nature which requires a colder temperament, or at

least an older heart, than the architect's was at that time. Incurious unobservance is the true attitude of

cordiality, and Somerset blamed himself for having fallen into an act of inspection even briefly. He would

wait for his host's conversation, which would doubtless be of the essence of historical romance.

'The favourable Bankreturns have made the moneymarket much easier today, as I learn?' said Sir

'And something is meant by this unusual quietness in Foreign stocks since the late remarkable fluctuations,'

insisted the old man. 'Is the current of speculation quite arrested, or is it but a temporary lull?'

Somerset said he was afraid he could not give an opinion, and entered very lamely into the subject; but Sir

William seemed to find sufficient interest in his own thoughts to do away with the necessity of acquiring

fresh impressions from other people's replies; for often after putting a question he looked on the floor, as if

the subject were at an end. Lunch was now ready, and when they were in the diningroom Miss De Stancy,

to introduce a topic of more general interest, asked Somerset if he had noticed the myrtle on the lawn?

Somerset had noticed it, and thought he had never seen such a fullblown one in the open air before. His eyes

were, however, resting at the moment on the only objects at all out of the common that the diningroom

contained. One was a singular glass case over the fireplace, within which were some large mediaeval

doorkeys, black with rust and age; and the others were two fulllength oil portraits in the costume of the end

of the last centuryso out of all proportion to the size of the room they occupied that they almost reached to

'Those originally belonged to the castle yonder,' said Miss De Stancy, or Charlotte, as her father called her,

noticing Somerset's glance at the keys. 'They used to unlock the principal entrancedoors, which were

knocked to pieces in the civil wars. New doors were placed afterwards, but the old keys were never given up,

'And those huge paintings were a present from Paula,' she continued. 'They are portraits of my

greatgrandfather and mother. Paula would give all the old family pictures back to me if we had room for

Sir William was impatient of the subject. 'What is the utility of such accumulations?' he asked. 'Their

originals are but clay nowmere forgotten dust, not worthy a moment's inquiry or reflection at this distance

of time. Nothing can retain the spirit, and why should we preserve the shadow of the form?London has

'It has,' said Somerset, and he asked if they had been up that season. It was plain that the matter with which

Sir William De Stancy least cared to occupy himself before visitors was the history of his own family, in

'No,' said the baronet. 'One might be led to think there is a fatality which prevents it. We make arrangements

to go to town almost every year, to meet some old friend who combines the rare conditions of being in

London with being mindful of me; but he has always died or gone elsewhere before the event has taken place.

. . . But with a disposition to be happy, it is neither this place nor the other that can render us the reverse. In

short each man's happiness depends upon himself, and his ability for doing with little.' He turned more

particularly to Somerset, and added with an impressive smile: 'I hope you cultivate the art of doing with

Somerset said that he certainly did cultivate that art, partly because he was obliged to.

'Ahyou don't mean to the extent that I mean. The world has not yet learned the riches of frugality, says, I

think, Cicero, somewhere; and nobody can testify to the truth of that remark better than I. If a man knows

how to spend less than his income, however small that may be, whyhe has the philosopher's stone.' And Sir

William looked in Somerset's face with frugality written in every pore of his own, as much as to say, 'And

here you see one who has been a living instance of those principles from his youth up.'

Somerset soon found that whatever turn the conversation took, Sir William invariably reverted to this topic of

frugality. When luncheon was over he asked his visitor to walk with him into the garden, and no sooner were

they alone than he continued: 'Well, Mr. Somerset, you are down here sketching architecture for professional

purposes. Nothing can be better: you are a young man, and your art is one in which there are innumerable

'No, they are numerous enough: the difficulty is to find out where they lie. It is better to know where your

'And now give me some account of your new clubs, new hotels, and new men. . . . What I was going to add,

on the subject of finding out where your luck lies, is that nobody is so unfortunate as not to have a lucky star

in some direction or other. Perhaps yours is at the antipodes; if so, go there. All I say is, discover your lucky

'You may be able to do two things; one well, the other but indifferently, and yet you may have more luck in

the latter. Then stick to that one, and never mind what you can do best. Your star lies there.'

'You should be. Not that I mean to say that luck lies in any one place long, or at any one person's door.

Fortune likes new faces, and your wisdom lies in bringing your acquisitions into safety while her favour lasts.

To do that you must make friends in her time of smilesmake friends with people, wherever you find them.

My daughter has unconsciously followed that maxim. She has struck up a warm friendship with our

neighbour, Miss Power, at the castle. We are diametrically different from her in associations, traditions, ideas,

religionshe comes of a violent dissenting family among other thingsbut I say to Charlotte what I say to

you: win affection and regard wherever you can, and accommodate yourself to the times. I put nothing in the

way of their intimacy, and wisely so, for by this so many pleasant hours are added to the sum total

It was quite late in the afternoon when Somerset took his leave. Miss De Stancy did not return to the castle

that night, and he walked through the wood as he had come, feeling that he had been talking with a man of

simple nature, who flattered his own understanding by devising Machiavellian theories after the event, to

account for any spontaneous action of himself or his daughter, which might otherwise seem eccentric or

Before Somerset reached the inn he was overtaken by a slight shower, and on entering the house he walked

into the general room, where there was a fire, and stood with one foot on the fender. The landlord was talking

to some guest who sat behind a screen; and, probably because Somerset had been seen passing the window,

and was known to be sketching at the castle, the conversation turned on Sir William De Stancy.

'I have often noticed,' observed the landlord, 'that volks who have come to grief, and quite failed, have the

rules how to succeed in life more at their vingers' ends than volks who have succeeded. I assure you that Sir

William, so full as he is of wise maxims, never acted upon a wise maxim in his life, until he had lost

everything, and it didn't matter whether he was wise or no. You know what he was in his young days, of

'O, I thought everybody knew poor Sir William's history. He was the star, as I may zay, of good company

forty years ago. I remember him in the height of his jinks, as I used to zee him when I was a very little boy,

and think how great and wonderful he was. I can seem to zee now the exact style of his clothes; white hat,

white trousers, white silk handkerchief; and his jonnick face, as white as his clothes with keeping late hours.

There was nothing black about him but his hair and his eyeshe wore no beard at that timeand they were

black as slooes. The like of his coming on the race course was never seen there afore nor since. He drove his

ikkipage hisself; and it was always hauled by four beautiful white horses, and two outriders rode in harness

bridles. There was a groom behind him, and another at the rubbingpost, all in livery as glorious as New

Jerusalem. What a 'stablishment he kept up at that time! I can mind him, sir, with thirty racehorses in

training at once, seventeen coach horses, twelve hunters at his box t'other side of London, four chargers at

'And he lost all by his racing speculations?' the stranger observed; and Somerset fancied that the voice had in

'Partly by that, partly in other ways. He spent a mint o' money in a wild project of founding a wateringplace;

and sunk thousands in a useless silver mine; so 'twas no wonder that the castle named after him vell into other

hands. . . . The way it was done was curious. Mr. Wilkins, who was the first owner after it went from Sir

William, actually sat down as a guest at his table, and got up as the owner. He took off, at a round sum,

everything saleable, furniture, plate, pictures, even the milk and butter in the dairy. That's how the pictures

and furniture come to be in the castle still; wormeaten rubbish zome o' it, and hardly worth moving.'

'O no! he went away for many years. 'Tis quite lately, since his illness, that he came to that little place, in

'Not at all. Since that illness he has been happy, as you see him: no pride, quite calm and mild; at new moon

quite childish. 'Tis that makes him able to live there; before he was so ill he couldn't bear a zight of the place,

but since then he is happy nowhere else, and never leaves the parish further than to drive once a week to

Markton. His head won't stand society nowadays, and he lives quite lonely as you zee, only zeeing his

daughter, or his son whenever he comes home, which is not often. They say that if his brain hadn't softened a

'What's this I hear about his daughter? Is she really hired companion to the new owner?'

'Now that's a curious thing again, these two girls being so fond of one another; one of 'em a dissenter, and all

that, and t'other a De Stancy. O no, not hired exactly, but she mostly lives with Miss Power, and goes about

with her, and I dare say Miss Power makes it wo'th her while. One can't move a step without the other

following; though judging by ordinary volks you'd think 'twould be a catanddog friendship rather.'

''Tis not; they be more like lovers than maid and maid. Miss Power is looked up to by little De Stancy as if

she were a goda'mighty, and Miss Power lets her love her to her heart's content. But whether Miss Power

The landlord here left the stranger to go to some other part of the house, and Somerset drew near to the glass

partition to gain a glimpse of a man whose interest in the neighbourhood seemed to have arisen so

simultaneously with his own. But the inner room was empty: the man had apparently departed by another

The telegraph had almost the attributes of a human being at Stancy Castle. When its bell rang people rushed

to the old tapestried chamber allotted to it, and waited its pleasure with all the deference due to such a novel

inhabitant of that ancestral pile. This happened on the following afternoon about four o'clock, while Somerset

was sketching in the room adjoining that occupied by the instrument. Hearing its call, he looked in to learn if

She welcomed him without the least embarrassment. 'Another message,' she said.'"Paula to

Charlotte.Have returned to Markton. Am starting for home. Will be at the gate between four and five if

Miss De Stancy blushed with pleasure when she raised her eyes from the machine. 'Is she not thoughtful to let

Somerset said she certainly appeared to be, feeling at the same time that he was not in possession of sufficient

'Now I must get everything ready, and order what she will want, as Mrs. Goodman is away. What will she

want? Dinner would be bestshe has had no lunch, I know; or tea perhaps, and dinner at the usual time.

She ran to an arrowslit, and Somerset, who had also heard something, looked out of an adjoining one. They

could see from their elevated position a great way along the white road, stretching like a tape amid the green

expanses on each side. There had arisen a cloud of dust, accompanied by a noise of wheels.

'It is she,' said Charlotte. 'O yesit is past fourthe telegram has been delayed.'

'She has doubtless hired a carriage at the inn: she said it would be useless to send to meet her, as she couldn't

Miss De Stancy went away to give directions, and Somerset continued to watch. The vehicle, which was of

no great pretension, soon crossed the bridge and stopped: there was a ring at the bell; and Miss De Stancy

'Ah, noof course you could not from this window because of the trees. Mr. Somerset, will you come

Somerset felt an indescribable backwardness. 'I will go on with my sketching,' he said. 'Perhaps she will not

'O, but it would be quite natural, would it not? Our manners are easier here, you know, than they are in town,

A compromise was effected by Somerset declaring that he would hold himself in readiness to be discovered

The man advanced with a card: Miss De Stancy took it up, and read thereon: 'Mr. William Dare.'

She looked again at the card. 'This is some man of business, I supposedoes he want to see me?'

'Yes, miss. Leastwise, he would be glad to see you if Miss Power is not at home.'

Miss De Stancy left the room, and soon returned, saying, 'Mr. Somerset, can you give me your counsel in this

matter? This Mr. Dare says he is a photographic amateur, and it seems that he wrote some time ago to Miss

Power, who gave him permission to take views of the castle, and promised to show him the best points. But I

have heard nothing of it, and scarcely know whether I ought to take his word in her absence. Mrs. Goodman,

'Would you mind seeing him? If you think it quite in order, perhaps you will instruct him where the best

Thereupon Somerset at once went down to Mr. Dare. His coming as a sort of counterfeit of Miss Power

disposed Somerset to judge him with as much severity as justice would allow, and his manner for the moment

was not of a kind calculated to dissipate antagonistic instincts. Mr. Dare was standing before the fireplace

with his feet wide apart, and his hands in the pockets of his coattails, looking at a carving over the

mantelpiece. He turned quickly at the sound of Somerset's footsteps, and revealed himself as a person quite

His age it was impossible to say. There was not a hair on his face which could serve to hang a guess upon. In

repose he appeared a boy; but his actions were so completely those of a man that the beholder's first estimate

of sixteen as his age was hastily corrected to sixandtwenty, and afterwards shifted hither and thither along

intervening years as the tenor of his sentences sent him up or down. He had a broad forehead, vertical as the

face of a bastion, and his hair, which was parted in the middle, hung as a fringe or valance above, in the

fashion sometimes affected by the other sex. He wore a heavy ring, of which the gold seemed fair, the

diamond questionable, and the taste indifferent. There were the remains of a swagger in his body and limbs as

he came forward, regarding Somerset with a confident smile, as if the wonder were, not why Mr. Dare should

be present, but why Somerset should be present likewise; and the first tone that came from Dare's lips wound

A latent power in the man, or boy, was revealed by the circumstance that Somerset did not feel, as he would

ordinarily have done, that it was a matter of profound indifference to him whether this

'I have called by appointment; or rather, I left a card stating that today would suit me, and no objection was

made.' Somerset recognized the voice; it was that of the invisible stranger who had talked with the landlord

Somerset found from his inquiries that the man had unquestionably been instructed by somebody to take the

views he spoke of; and concluded that Dare's curiosity at the inn was, after all, naturally explained by his

errand to this place. Blaming himself for a too hasty condemnation of the stranger, who though visually a

little too assured was civil enough verbally, Somerset proceeded with the young photographer to sundry

corners of the outer ward, and thence across the moat to the field, suggesting advantageous points of view.

The office, being a shadow of his own pursuits, was not uncongenial to Somerset, and he forgot other things

'Now in our country we should stand further back than this, and so get a more comprehensive coup d'oeil,'

'I have lived mostly in India, Malta, Gibraltar, the Ionian Islands, and Canada. I there invented a new

photographic process, which I am bent upon making famous. Yet I am but a dilettante, and do not follow this

As soon as this business was disposed of, and Mr. Dare had brought up his van and assistant to begin

operations, Somerset returned to the castle entrance. While under the archway a man with a professional look

Somerset, who had hoped to hear an affirmative by this time, thought that Miss Power was bent on

disappointing him in the flesh, notwithstanding the interest she expressed in him by telegraph; and as it was

now drawing towards the end of the afternoon, he walked off in the direction of his inn.

There were two or three ways to that spot, but the pleasantest was by passing through a rambling shrubbery,

between whose bushes trickled a broad shallow brook, occasionally intercepted in its course by a transverse

chain of old stones, evidently from the castle walls, which formed a miniature waterfall. The walk lay along

the riverbrink. Soon Somerset saw before him a circular summerhouse formed of short sticks nailed to

ornamental patterns. Outside the structure, and immediately in the path, stood a man with a book in his hand;

and it was presently apparent that this gentleman was holding a conversation with some person inside the

pavilion, but the back of the building being towards Somerset, the second individual could not be seen.

The speaker at one moment glanced into the interior, and at another at the advancing form of the architect,

whom, though distinctly enough beheld, the other scarcely appeared to heed in the absorbing interest of his

own discourse. Somerset became aware that it was the Baptist minister, whose rhetoric he had heard in the

'Now,' continued the Baptist minister, 'will you express to me any reason or objection whatever which

induces you to withdraw from our communion? It was that of your father, and of his father before him. Any

difficulty you may have met with I will honestly try to remove; for I need hardly say that in losing you we

lose one of the most valued members of the Baptist church in this district. I speak with all the respect due to

your position, when I ask you to realize how irreparable is the injury you inflict upon the cause here by this

'My dear young lady, it is well known that your christening was the work of your aunt, who did it unknown to

your parents when she had you in her power, out of pure obstinacy to a church with which she was not in

sympathy, taking you surreptitiously, and indefensibly, to the font of the Establishment; so that the rite meant

and could mean nothing at all. . . . But I fear that your new position has brought you into contact with the

Paedobaptists, that they have disturbed your old principles, and so induced you to believe in the validity of

'I will demolish the basis of that seeming in three minutes, give me but that time as a listener.'

'Very well. . . . First, then, I will assume that those who have influenced you in the matter have not been able

to make any impression upon one so well grounded as yourself in our distinctive doctrine, by the stale old

The minister began to turn over the leaves of his little Bible, which it impressed Somerset to observe was

bound with a flap, like a pocket book, the black surface of the leather being worn brown at the corners by

long usage. He turned on till he came to the beginning of the New Testament, and then commenced his

discourse. After explaining his position, the old man ran very ably through the arguments, citing wellknown

writers on the point in dispute when he required more finished sentences than his own.

The minister's earnestness and interest in his own case led him unconsciously to include Somerset in his

audience as the young man drew nearer; till, instead of fixing his eyes exclusively on the person within the

summerhouse, the preacher began to direct a good proportion of his discourse upon his new auditor, turning

from one listener to the other attentively, without seeming to feel Somerset's presence as superfluous.

'And now,' he said in conclusion, 'I put it to you, sir, as to her: do you find any flaw in my argument? Is there,

madam, a single text which, honestly interpreted, affords the least foothold for the Paedobaptists; in other

words, for your opinion on the efficacy of the rite administered to you in your unconscious infancy? I put it to

It happened that Somerset had been over this ground long ago. Born, so to speak, a HighChurch infant, in

his youth he had been of a thoughtful turn, till at one time an idea of his entering the Church had been

entertained by his parents. He had formed acquaintance with men of almost every variety of doctrinal practice

in this country; and, as the pleadings of each assailed him before he had arrived at an age of sufficient mental

stability to resist new impressions, however badly substantiated, he inclined to each denomination as it

till he had travelled through a great many beliefs and doctrines without feeling himself much better than when

A study of fonts and their origin had qualified him in this particular subject. Fully conscious of the

inexpediency of contests on minor ritual differences, he yet felt a sudden impulse towards a mild intellectual

tournament with the eager old manpurely as an exercise of his wits in the defence of a fair girl.

'Sir, I accept your challenge to us,' said Somerset, advancing to the minister's side.

At the sound of a new voice the lady in the bower started, as he could see by her outline through the crevices

The minister held out the Bible with some reluctance, but he allowed Somerset to take it from his hand. The

latter, stepping upon a large mosscovered stone which stood near, and laying his hat on a flat beech bough

that rose and fell behind him, pointed to the minister to seat himself on the grass. The minister looked at the

Somerset for the moment was not observing him. His new position had turned out to be exactly opposite the

open side of the bower, and now for the first time he beheld the interior. On the seat was the woman who had

stood beneath his eyes in the chapel, the 'Paula' of Miss De Stancy's enthusiastic eulogies. She wore a

summer hat, beneath which her fair curly hair formed a thicket round her forehead. It would be impossible to

describe her as she then appeared. Not sensuous enough for an Aphrodite, and too subdued for a Hebe, she

would yet, with the adjunct of doves or nectar, have stood sufficiently well for either of those personages, if

Half in surprise she glanced up at him; and lowering her eyes again, as if no surprise were ever let influence

her actions for more than a moment, she sat on as before, looking past Somerset's position at the view down

the river, visible for a long distance before her till it was lost under the bending trees.

'In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the seventh chapter and the fourteenth verse'.

Here the young lady raised her eyes in spite of her reserve, but it being, apparently, too much labour to keep

them raised, allowed her glance to subside upon her jet necklace, extending it with the thumb of her left hand.

'Sir!' said the Baptist excitedly, 'I know that passage well it is the last refuge of the PaedobaptistsI

foresee your argument. I have met it dozens of times, and it is not worth that snap of the fingers! It is worth

no more than the argument from circumcision, or the Sufferlittlechildren argument.'

'That, too,' cried the minister, 'is answered by what I said before! I perceive, sir, that you adopt the method of

a special pleader, and not that of an honest inquirer. Is it, or is it not, an answer to my proofs from the eighth

chapter of the Acts, the thirtysixth and thirtyseventh verses; the sixteenth of Mark, sixteenth verse; second

of Acts, forty first verse; the tenth and the fortyseventh verse; or the eighteenth and eighth verse?'

'Very well, then. Let me prove the point by other reasoning by the argument from Apostolic tradition.' He

threw the minister's book upon the grass, and proceeded with his contention, which comprised a fairly good

exposition of the earliest practice of the Church and inferences therefrom. (When he reached this point an

interest in his offhand arguments was revealed by the mobile bosom of Miss Paula Power, though she still

occupied herself by drawing out the necklace. Testimony from Justin Martyr followed; with inferences from

Irenaeus in the expression, 'Omnes enim venit per semetipsum salvare; omnes inquam, qui per eum

renascuntur in Deum, INFANTES et parvulos et pueros et juvenes.' (At the sound of so much seriousness

Paula turned her eyes upon the speaker with attention.) He next adduced proof of the signification of

'renascor' in the writings of the Fathers, as reasoned by Wall; arguments from Tertullian's advice to defer the

rite; citations from Cyprian, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, and Jerome; and briefly summed up the whole matter.

Somerset looked round for the minister as he concluded. But the old man, after standing face to face with the

speaker, had turned his back upon him, and during the latter portions of the attack had moved slowly away.

He now looked back; his countenance was full of commiserating reproach as he lifted his hand, twice shook

his head, and said, 'In the Epistle to the Philippians, first chapter and sixteenth verse, it is written that there

are some who preach in contention and not sincerely. And in the Second Epistle to Timothy, fourth chapter

and fourth verse, attention is drawn to those whose ears refuse the truth, and are turned unto fables. I wish

The minister vanished behind the trees; Somerset and Miss Power being left confronting each other alone.

Somerset stepped aside from the stone, hat in hand, at the same moment in which Miss Power rose from her

seat. She hesitated for an instant, and said, with a pretty girlish stiffness, sweeping back the skirt of her dress

to free her toes in turning: 'Although you are personally unknown to me, I cannot leave you without

expressing my deep sense of your profound scholarship, and my admiration for the thoroughness of your

'Your opinion gives me great pleasure,' said Somerset, bowing, and fairly blushing. 'But, believe me, I am no

scholar, and no theologian. My knowledge of the subject arises simply from the accident that some few years

ago I looked into the question for a special reason. In the study of my profession I was interested in the

designing of fonts and baptisteries, and by a natural process I was led to investigate the history of baptism;

and some of the arguments I then learnt up still remain with me. That's the simple explanation of my

'If your sermons at the church only match your address today, I shall not wonder at hearing that the

It flashed upon Somerset's mind that she supposed him to be the new curate, of whose arrival he had casually

heard, during his sojourn at the inn. Before he could bring himself to correct an error to which, perhaps, more

than to anything else, was owing the friendliness of her manner, she went on, as if to escape the

'I need hardly say that I at least do not doubt the sincerity of your arguments.'

'Then why should you have delivered such a defence of me?' she asked with simple curiosity.

Paula again teased the necklace. 'Would you have spoken so eloquently on the other side if Iif occasion

'In letting him, and you, think I had been at all influenced by authority, scriptural or patristic.'

There was a moment of embarrassment: she wanted to get away, but did not precisely know how. He would

have withdrawn had she not said, as if rather oppressed by her conscience, and evidently still thinking him

the curate: 'I cannot but feel that Mr. Woodwell's heart has been unnecessarily wounded.'

'Yes. He is singlemindedness itself. He gives away nearly all he has to the poor. He works among the sick,

carrying them necessaries with his own hands. He teaches the ignorant men and lads of the village when he

ought to be resting at home, till he is absolutely prostrate from exhaustion, and then he sits up at night writing

encouraging letters to those poor people who formerly belonged to his congregation in the village, and have

now gone away. He always offends ladies, because he can't help speaking the truth as he believes it; but he

Her feelings had risen towards the end, so that she finished quite warmly, and turned aside.

'I was not in the least aware that he was such a man,' murmured Somerset, looking wistfully after the

minister. . . . 'Whatever you may have done, I fear that I have grievously wounded a worthy man's heart from

Somerset accepted her correction willingly. 'It was ill considered of me, however,' he said; 'and in his

distress he has forgotten his Bible.' He went and picked up the worn volume from where it lay on the grass.

'You can easily win him to forgive you, by just following, and returning the book to him,' she observed.

'I will,' said the young man impulsively. And, bowing to her, he hastened along the river brink after the

minister. He at length saw his friend before him, leaning over the gate which led from the private path into a

lane, his cheek resting on the palm of his hand with every outward sign of abstraction. He was not conscious

Never was a reconciliation effected more readily. When Somerset said that, fearing his motives might be

misconstrued, he had followed to assure the minister of his goodwill and esteem, Mr. Woodwell held out his

hand, and proved his friendliness in return by preparing to have the controversy on their religious differences

over again from the beginning, with exhaustive detail. Somerset evaded this with alacrity, and once having

won his companion to other subjects he found that the austere man had a smile as pleasant as an infant's on

the rare moments when he indulged in it; moreover, that he was warmly attached to Miss Power.

'Though she gives me more trouble than all the rest of the Baptist church in this district,' he said, 'I love her as

my own daughter. But I am sadly exercised to know what she is at heart. Heaven supply me with fortitude to

contest her wild opinions, and intractability! But she has sweet virtues, and her conduct at times can be most

'Sometimes I think those Stancy towers and lands will be a curse to her. The spirit of old papistical times still

lingers in the nooks of those silent walls, like a bad odour in a still atmosphere, dulling the iconoclastic

emotions of the true Puritan. It would be a pity indeed if she were to be tainted by the very situation that her

'Do not be concerned about her,' said Somerset gently. 'She's not a Paedobaptist at heart, although she seems

Mr. Woodwell placed his finger on Somerset's arm, saying, 'If she's not a Paedobaptist, or Episcopalian; if

she is not vulnerable to the mediaeval influences of her mansion, lands, and new acquaintance, it is because

she's been vulnerable to what is worse: to doctrines beside which the errors of Paaedobaptists, Episcopalians,

'Have you heard in your metropolitan experience of a curious body of New Lights, as they think themselves?'

The minister whispered a name to his listener, as if he were fearful of being overheard.

'O no,' said Somerset, shaking his head, and smiling at the minister's horror. 'She's not that; at least, I think

Somerset was now in haste to go back to the lady, to ease her apparent anxiety as to the result of his mission,

and also because time seemed heavy in the loss of her discreet voice and soft, buoyant look. Every moment of

delay began to be as two. But the minister was too earnest in his converse to see his companion's haste, and it

was not till perception was forced upon him by the actual retreat of Somerset that he remembered time to be a

limited commodity. He then expressed his wish to see Somerset at his house to tea any afternoon he could

spare, and receiving the other's promise to call as soon as he could, allowed the younger man to set out for the

summerhouse, which he did at a smart pace. When he reached it he looked around, and found she was gone.

Somerset was immediately struck by his own lack of social dexterity. Why did he act so readily on the

whimsical suggestion of another person, and follow the minister, when he might have said that he would call

on Mr. Woodwell tomorrow, and, making himself known to Miss Power as the visiting architect of whom

she had heard from Miss De Stancy, have had the pleasure of attending her to the castle? 'That's what any

There then arose the question whether her despatching him after the minister was such an admirable act of

goodnature to a good man as it had at first seemed to be. Perhaps it was simply a manoeuvre for getting rid

of himself; and he remembered his doubt whether a certain light in her eyes when she inquired concerning his

sincerity were innocent earnestness or the reverse. As the possibility of levity crossed his brain, his face

warmed; it pained him to think that a woman so interesting could condescend to a trick of even so mild a

complexion as that. He wanted to think her the soul of all that was tender, and noble, and kind. The pleasure

That evening Somerset was so preoccupied with these things that he left all his sketching implements

outofdoors in the castle grounds. The next morning he hastened thither to secure them from being stolen or

spoiled. Meanwhile he was hoping to have an opportunity of rectifying Paula's mistake about his personality,

which, having served a very good purpose in introducing them to a mutual conversation, might possibly be

He fetched his drawing instruments, rods, sketchingblocks and other articles from the field where they had

lain, and was passing under the walls with them in his hands, when there emerged from the outer archway an

open landau, drawn by a pair of black horses of fine action and obviously strong pedigree, in which Paula

was seated, under the shade of a white parasol with black and white ribbons fluttering on the summit. The

morning sun sparkled on the equipage, its newness being made all the more noticeable by the ragged old arch

She bowed to Somerset in a way which might have been meant to express that she had discovered her

mistake; but there was no embarrassment in her manner, and the carriage bore her away without her making

any sign for checking it. He had not been walking towards the castle entrance, and she could not be supposed

She had looked such a bud of youth and promise that his disappointment at her departure showed itself in his

face as he observed her. However, he went on his way, entered a turret, ascended to the leads of the great

From this elevated position he could still see the carriage and the white surface of Paula's parasol in the

glowing sun. While he watched the landau stopped, and in a few moments the horses were turned, the wheels

and the panels flashed, and the carriage came bowling along towards the castle again.

Somerset descended the stone stairs. Before he had quite got to the bottom he saw Miss De Stancy standing

'When did you come, Mr. Somerset?' she gaily said, looking up surprised. 'How industrious you are to be at

work so regularly every day! We didn't think you would be here to day: Paula has gone to a vegetable show

At this moment the noise of the carriage was heard in the ward, and after a few seconds Miss Power came

Somerset came forward, and Miss De Stancy presented him to her friend. Mr. Somerset acknowledged the

pleasure by a respectful inclination of his person, and said some words about the meeting yesterday.

'Yes,' said Miss Power, with a serene deliberateness quite noteworthy in a girl of her age; 'I have seen it all

since. I was mistaken about you, was I not? Mr. Somerset, I am glad to welcome you here, both as a friend of

Miss De Stancy's family, and as the son of your fatherwhich is indeed quite a sufficient introduction

'You have two pictures painted by Mr. Somerset's father, have you not? I have already told him about them,'

said Miss De Stancy. 'Perhaps Mr. Somerset would like to see them if they are unpacked?'

As Somerset had from his infancy suffered from a plethora of those productions, excellent as they were, he

did not reply quite so eagerly as Miss De Stancy seemed to expect to her kind suggestion, and Paula

remarked to him, 'You will stay to lunch? Do order it at your own time, if our hour should not be convenient.'

Her voice was a voice of low note, in quality that of a flute at the grave end of its gamut. If she sang, she was

'I am making use of the permission you have been good enough to grant meof sketching what is valuable

'Yes, of course, I am willing for anybody to come. People hold these places in trust for the nation, in one

sense. You lift your hands, Charlotte; I see I have not convinced you on that point yet.'

Somehow Miss Power seemed not only more woman than Miss De Stancy, but more woman than Somerset

was man; and yet in years she was inferior to both. Though becomingly girlish and modest, she appeared to

possess a good deal of composure, which was well expressed by the shaded light of her eyes.

'He was kind enough to deliver an address in my defence yesterday. I suppose I seemed quite unable to

'O no!' said he. When a few more words had passed she turned to Miss De Stancy and spoke of some

domestic matter, upon which Somerset withdrew, Paula accompanying his exit with a remark that she hoped

Somerset retired to the chambers of antique lumber, keeping an eye upon the windows to see if she

reentered the carriage and resumed her journey to Markton. But when the horses had been standing a long

time the carriage was driven round to the stables. Then she was not going to the vegetable show. That was

These queries and thoughts occupied the mind of Somerset until the bell was rung for luncheon. Owing to the

very dusty condition in which he found himself after his morning's labours among the old carvings he was

rather late in getting downstairs, and seeing that the rest had gone in he went straight to the dininghall.

The population of the castle had increased in his absence. There were assembled Paula and her friend

Charlotte; a bearded man some years older than himself, with a cold grey eye, who was cursorily introduced

to him in sitting down as Mr. Havill, an architect of Markton; also an elderly lady of dignified aspect, in a

black satin dress, of which she apparently had a very high opinion. This lady, who seemed to be a mere

dummy in the establishment, was, as he now learnt, Mrs. Goodman by name, a widow of a recently deceased

gentleman, and aunt to Paulathe identical aunt who had smuggled Paula into a church in her helpless

infancy, and had her christened without her parents' knowledge. Having been left in narrow circumstances by

her husband, she was at present living with Miss Power as chaperon and adviser on practical mattersin a

word, as ballast to the management. Beyond her Somerset discerned his new acquaintance Mr. Woodwell,

who on sight of Somerset was for hastening up to him and performing a laboured shaking of hands in earnest

Paula had just come in from the garden, and was carelessly laying down her large shady hat as he entered.

Her dress, a figured material in black and white, was short, allowing her feet to appear. There was something

in her look, and in the style of her corsage, which reminded him of several of the bygone beauties in the

gallery. The thought for a moment crossed his mind that she might have been imitating one of them.

'Fine old screen, sir!' said Mr. Havill, in a longdrawn voice across the table when they were seated, pointing

in the direction of the traceried oak division between the dining hall and a vestibule at the end. 'As good a

Havill was silent. 'You are one of the profession, perhaps?' asked the latter, after a while.

'Ahone of my own honoured vocation.' Havill's face had been not unpleasant until this moment, when he

smiled; whereupon there instantly gleamed over him a phase of meanness, remaining until the smile died

'What enormous sacrileges are committed by the builders every day, I observe! I was driving yesterday to

Toneborough where I am erecting a townhall, and passing through a village on my way I saw the workmen

pulling down a chancelwall in which they found imbedded a unique specimen of Perpendicular worka

capital from some old arcadethe mouldings wonderfully undercut. They were smashing it up as fillingin

'It must have been unique,' said Somerset, in the tooreadily controversial tone of the educated young man

who has yet to learn diplomacy. 'I have never seen much undercutting in Perpendicular stonework; nor

Paula looked from one to the other. 'Which am I to take as guide?' she asked. 'Are Perpendicular capitals

But Somerset had answered at the same time: 'There is seldom or never any marked undercutting in moulded

Havill looked keenly at Somerset for a time: then he turned to Paula: 'As regards that fine Saxon vaulting you

did me the honour to consult me about the other day, I should advise taking out some of the old stones and

'But the new ones won't be Saxon,' said Paula. 'And then in time to come, when I have passed away, and

those stones have become stained like the rest, people will be deceived. I should prefer an honest patch to any

As she concluded she let her eyes rest on Somerset for a moment, as if to ask him to side with her. Much as

he liked talking to Paula, he would have preferred not to enter into this discussion with another professional

man, even though that man were a spurious article; but he was led on to enthusiasm by a sudden pang of

regret at finding that the masterly workmanship in this fine castle was likely to be tinkered and spoilt by such

'You will deceive nobody into believing that anything is Saxon here,' he said warmly. 'There is not a square

'O yes, sir; you are quite mistaken,' said that gentleman slowly. 'Every stone of those lower vaults was reared

'I can assure you,' said Somerset deferentially, but firmly, 'that there is not an arch or wall in this castle of a

date anterior to the year 1100; no one whose attention has ever been given to the study of architectural details

'I have studied architecture, and I am of a different opinion. I have the best reason in the world for the

difference, for I have history herself on my side. What will you say when I tell you that it is a recorded fact

that this was used as a castle by the Romans, and that it is mentioned in Domesday as a building of long

'I shall say that has nothing to do with it,' replied the young man. 'I don't deny that there may have been a

castle here in the time of the Romans: what I say is, that none of the architecture we now see was standing at

There was a silence of a minute, disturbed only by a murmured dialogue between Mrs. Goodman and the

minister, during which Paula was looking thoughtfully on the table as if framing a question.

'Can it be,' she said to Somerset, 'that such certainty has been reached in the study of architectural dates?

Now, would you really risk anything on your belief? Would you agree to be shut up in the vaults and fed

'Willingly,' said Somerset. 'The date of those towers and arches is matter of absolute certainty from the

details. That they should have been built before the Conquest is as unlikely as, say, that the rustiest old gun

'How I wish I knew something precise of an art which makes one so independent of written history!'

Mr. Havill had lapsed into a mannerly silence that was only sullenness disguised. Paula turned her

conversation to Miss De Stancy, who had simply looked from one to the other during the discussion, though

she might have been supposed to have a prescriptive right to a few remarks on the matter. A commonplace

talk ensued, till Havill, who had not joined in it, privately began at Somerset again with a mixed manner of

'Not particularly. I designed the chapel built by this lady's late father; it was my first undertakingI owe my

'Ahthere we differ. I didn't do much sketching in my youth, nor have I time for it now. Sketching and

building are two different things, to my mind. I was not brought up to the professiongot into it through

sheer love of it. I began as a landscape gardener, then I became a builder, then I was a road contractor. Every

architect might do worse than have some such experience. But nowadays 'tis the men who can draw pretty

pictures who get recommended, not the practical men. Young prigs win Institute medals for a pretty design or

two which, if anybody tried to build them, would fall down like a house of cards; then they get travelling

studentships and what not, and then they start as architects of some new school or other, and think they are

While Somerset was reflecting how far this statement was true, he heard the voice of Paula inquiring, 'Who

Her eyes were bent on the window. Looking out, Somerset saw in the mead beyond the dry ditch, Dare, with

'He is the young gentleman who called about taking views of the castle,' said Charlotte.

'O yesI remember; it is quite right. He met me in the village and asked me to suggest him some views. I

'There is Italian blood in him,' said Charlotte brightly. 'For he spoke to me with an Italian accent. But I can't

'It is to be earnestly hoped that the gentleman does not prevaricate,' said the minister, for the first time

attracted by the subject. 'I accidentally met him in the lane, and he said something to me about having lived in

Malta. I think it was Malta, or Gibraltareven if he did not say that he was born there.'

'His manners are no credit to his nationality,' observed Mrs. Goodman, also speaking publicly for the first

time. 'He asked me this morning to send him out a pail of water for his process, and before I had turned away

'Then it appears,' said Somerset, 'that he is a being of no age, no nationality, and no behaviour.'

'A complete negative,' added Havill, brightening into a civil sneer. 'That is, he would be, if he were not a

'Not well known, Mr. Havill,' answered Mrs. Goodman firmly. 'For I lived in Markton for thirty years ending

'He is something like you, Charlotte,' said Paula, smiling playfully on her companion.

All the men looked at Charlotte, on whose face a delicate nervous blush thereupon made its appearance.

Paula bent down to Charlotte and whispered: 'Forgive my rudeness, dear. He is not a nice enough person to

be like you. He is really more like one or other of the old pictures about the house. I forget which, and really

'People's features fall naturally into groups and classes,' remarked Somerset. 'To an observant person they

often repeat themselves; though to a careless eye they seem infinite in their differences.'

The conversation flagged, and they idly observed the figure of the cosmopolite Dare as he walked round his

instrument in the mead and busied himself with an arrangement of curtains and lenses, occasionally

Somerset returned to the top of the great tower with a vague consciousness that he was going to do something

up there perhaps sketch a general plan of the structure. But he began to discern that this StancyCastle

episode in his studies of Gothic architecture might be less useful than ornamental to him as a professional

man, though it was too agreeable to be abandoned. Finding after a while that his drawing progressed but

slowly, by reason of infinite joyful thoughts more allied to his nature than to his art, he relinquished rule and

compass, and entered one of the two turrets opening on the roof. It was not the staircase by which he had

ascended, and he proceeded to explore its lower part. Entering from the blaze of light without, and imagining

the stairs to descend as usual, he became aware after a few steps that there was suddenly nothing to tread on,

Arrived at the bottom, he was conscious of the happy fact that he had not seriously hurt himself, though his

leg was twisted awkwardly. Next he perceived that the stone steps had been removed from the turret, so that

he had dropped into it as into a dry well; that, owing to its being walled up below, there was no door of exit

Placing himself in a more comfortable position he calmly considered the best means of getting out, or of

making his condition known. For a moment he tried to drag himself up by his arm, but it was a hopeless

He next looked round at a lower level. Not far from his left elbow, in the concave of the outer wall, was a slit

for the admission of light, and he perceived at once that through this slit alone lay his chance of

communicating with the outer world. At first it seemed as if it were to be done by shouting, but when he

learnt what little effect was produced by his voice in the midst of such a mass of masonry, his heart failed

him for a moment. Yet, as either Paula or Miss De Stancy would probably guess his visit to the top of the

He put his handkerchief through the windowslit, so that it fluttered outside, and, fixing it in its place by a

large stone drawn from the loose ones around him, awaited succour as best he could. To begin this course of

procedure was easy, but to abide in patience till it should produce fruit was an irksome task. As nearly as he

could guessfor his watch had been stopped by the fallit was now about four o'clock, and it would be

scarcely possible for evening to approach without some eye or other noticing the white signal. So Somerset

waited, his eyes lingering on the little world of objects around him, till they all became quite familiar.

Spiders' webs in plenty were there, and one in particular just before him was in full use as a snare, stretching

across the arch of the window, with radiating threads as its ribs. Somerset had plenty of time, and he counted

their numberfifteen. He remained so silent that the owner of this elaborate structure soon forgot the

disturbance which had resulted in the breaking of his diagonal ties, and crept out from the corner to mend

them. In watching the process, Somerset noticed that on the stonework behind the web sundry names and

initials had been cut by explorers in years gone by. Among these antique inscriptions he observed two bright

and clean ones, consisting of the words 'De Stancy' and 'W. Dare,' crossing each other at right angles. From

the state of the stone they could not have been cut more than a month before this date, and, musing on the

circumstance, Somerset passed the time until the sun reached the slit in that side of the tower, where,

beginning by throwing in a streak of fire as narrow as a cornstalk, it enlarged its width till the dusty nook

was flooded with cheerful light. It disclosed something lying in the corner, which on examination proved to

be a dry bone. Whether it was human, or had come from the castle larder in bygone times, he could not tell.

One bone was not a whole skeleton, but it made him think of Ginevra of Modena, the heroine of the Mistletoe

Bough, and other cribbed and confined wretches, who had fallen into such traps and been discovered after a

The sun's rays had travelled some way round the interior when Somerset's waiting ears were at last attracted

by footsteps above, each tread being brought down by the hollow turret with great fidelity. He hoped that

with these sounds would arise that of a soft voice he had begun to like well. Indeed, during the solitary hour

or two of his waiting here he had pictured Paula straying alone on the terrace of the castle, looking up, noting

his signal, and ascending to deliver him from his painful position by her own exertions. It seemed that at

length his dream had been verified. The footsteps approached the opening of the turret; and, attracted by the

call which Somerset now raised, began to descend towards him. In a moment, not Paula's face, but that of a

Somerset mastered his disappointment, and the man speedily fetched a ladder, by which means the prisoner

of two hours ascended to the roof in safety. During the process he ventured to ask for the ladies of the house,

Before he left the castle, however, they had returned, a circumstance unexpectedly made known to him by his

receiving a message from Miss Power, to the effect that she would be glad to see him at his convenience.

Wondering what it could possibly mean, he followed the messenger to her rooma small modern library in

the Jacobean wing of the house, adjoining that in which the telegraph stood. She was alone, sitting behind a

table littered with letters and sketches, and looking fresh from her drive. Perhaps it was because he had been

shut up in that dismal dungeon all the afternoon that he felt something in her presence which at the same time

She signified that he was to sit down; but finding that he was going to place himself on a straightbacked

chair some distance off she said, 'Will you sit nearer to me?' and then, as if rather oppressed by her dignity,

she left her own chair of business and seated herself at ease on an ottoman which was among the diversified

'I want to consult you professionally,' she went on. 'I have been much impressed by your great knowledge of

castellated architecture. Will you sit in that leather chair at the table, as you may have to take notes?'

The young man assented, expressed his gratification, and went to the chair she designated.

'But, Mr. Somerset,' she continued, from the ottomanthe width of the table only dividing them'I first

should just like to know, and I trust you will excuse my inquiry, if you are an architect in practice, or only as

'I am just going to practise. I open my office on the first of January next,' he answered.

'You would not mind having me as a clientyour first client?' She looked curiously from her sideway face

'What, all of it?' said Somerset, astonished at the audacity of such an undertaking.

'Not the parts that are absolutely ruinous: the walls battered by the Parliament artillery had better remain as

they are, I suppose. But we have begun wrong; it is I who should ask you, not you me . . . . I fear,' she went

on, in that low note which was somewhat difficult to catch at a distance, 'I fear what the antiquarians will say

if I am not very careful. They come here a great deal in summer and if I were to do the work wrong they

would put my name in the papers as a dreadful person. But I must live here, as I have no other house, except

the one in London, and hence I must make the place habitable. I do hope I can trust to your judgment?'

'I hope so,' he said, with diffidence, for, far from having much professional confidence, he often mistrusted

himself. 'I am a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a Member of the Institute of British

'Then I am sure you must be trustworthy,' she said, with enthusiasm. 'Well, what am I to do?How do we

Somerset began to feel more professional, what with the business chair and the table, and the writingpaper,

notwithstanding that these articles, and the room they were in, were hers instead of his; and an evenness of

manner which he had momentarily lost returned to him. 'The very first step,' he said, 'is to decide upon the

He faltered a little, for it seemed to disturb the softness of their relationship to talk thus of hard cash. But her

sympathy with his feeling was apparently not great, and she said, 'The expenditure shall be what you advise.'

'What a heavenly client!' he thought. 'But you must just give some idea,' he said gently. 'For the fact is, any

sum almost may be spent on such a building: five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty thousand, a

'I want it done well; so suppose we say a hundred thousand? My father's solicitormy solicitor nowsays I

may go to a hundred thousand without extravagance, if the expenditure is scattered over two or three years.'

Somerset looked round for a pen. With quickness of insight she knew what he wanted, and signified where

It was more than he had expected; and for a young man just beginning practice, the opportunity of playing

with another person's money to that extent would afford an exceptionally handsome opening, not so much

from the commission it represented, as from the attention that would be bestowed by the artworld on such

Paula had sunk into a reverie. 'I was intending to intrust the work to Mr. Havill, a local architect,' she said.

'But I gathered from his conversation with you today that his ignorance of styles might compromise me very

seriously. In short, though my father employed him in one or two little matters, it would not be righteven a

morally culpable thing to place such an historically valuable building in his hands.'

'He may have guessed that he would have it. I have spoken of my intention to him more than once.'

Somerset thought over his conversation with Havill. Well, he did not like Havill personally; and he had

strong reasons for suspecting that in the matter of architecture Havill was a quack. But was it quite generous

to step in thus, and take away what would be a golden opportunity to such a man of making both ends meet

comfortably for some years to come, without giving him at least one chance? He reflected a little longer, and

'I venture to propose a slightly modified arrangement,' he said. 'Instead of committing the whole undertaking

to my hands without better proof of my ability to carry it out than you have at present, let there be a

competition between Mr. Havill and myselflet our rival plans for the restoration and enlargement be

submitted to a committee of the Royal Institute of British Architectsand let the choice rest with them,

'It is indeed generous of you to suggest it.' She looked thoughtfully at him; he appeared to strike her in a new

light. 'You really recommend it?' The fairness which had prompted his words seemed to incline her still more

'I will think of it, since you wish it. And now, what general idea have you of the plan to adopt? I do not

Somerset, being by this time familiar with the general plan of the castle, took out his pencil and made a rough

sketch. While he was doing it she rose, and coming to the back of his chair, bent over him in silence.

'Ah, I begin to see your conception,' she murmured; and the breath of her words fanned his ear. He finished

'I would suggest that you walk over the building with Mr. Havill and myself, and detail your ideas to us on

'I will, then. But it is too late for me this evening. Please meet me tomorrow at ten.'

At ten o'clock they met in the same room, Paula appearing in a straw hat having a bentup brim lined with

plaited silk, so that it surrounded her forehead like a nimbus; and Somerset armed with sketchbook,

'I have not decided to employ him: if I do he shall go round with me independently of you,' she replied rather

'And now,' she said, as they walked on together through the passages, 'I must tell you that I am not a

Somerset, as they proceeded, pointed out where roofs had been and should be again, where gables had been

pulled down, and where floors had vanished, showing her how to reconstruct their details from marks in the

walls, much as a comparative anatomist reconstructs an antediluvian from fragmentary bones and teeth. She

appeared to be interested, listened attentively, but said little in reply. They were ultimately in a long narrow

passage, indifferently lighted, when Somerset, treading on a loose stone, felt a twinge of weakness in one

knee, and knew in a moment that it was the result of the twist given by his yesterday's fall. He paused,

'Ican I help you?' said Paula. But she did not come near him; indeed, she withdrew a little. She looked up

the passage, and down the passage, and became conscious that it was long and gloomy, and that nobody was

near. A curious coy uneasiness seemed to take possession of her. Whether she thought, for the first time, that

she had made a mistakethat to wander about the castle alone with him was compromising, or whether it

was the mere shy instinct of maidenhood, nobody knows; but she said suddenly, 'I will get something for you,

But Paula had vanished. When she came back it was in the rear of Charlotte De Stancy. Miss De Stancy had a

tumbler in one hand, half full of wine, which she offered him; Paula remaining in the background.

He took the glass, and, to satisfy his companions, drank a mouthful or two, though there was really nothing

whatever the matter with him beyond the slight ache above mentioned. Charlotte was going to retire, but

Paula said, quite anxiously, 'You will stay with me, Charlotte, won't you? Surely you are interested in what I

'Planning how to mend and enlarge the castle. Tell Mr. Somerset what I want done in the quadrangleyou

She walked on; but instead of talking on the subject as directed, Charlotte and Somerset followed chatting on

indifferent matters. They came to an inner court and found Paula standing there.

'I have not explained yet.' Paula seated herself on a stone bench, and Charlotte went on: 'Miss Power thought

of making a Greek court of this. But she will not tell you so herself, because it seems such dreadful

'I said I would not tell any architect myself,' interposed Paula correctingly. 'I did not then know that he would

'A Greek colonnade all round, you said, Paula,' continued her less reticent companion. 'A peristyle you called

ityou saw it in a book, don't you remember?and then you were going to have a fountain in the middle,

'I did say so,' remarked Paula, pulling the leaves from a young sycamoretree that had sprung up between the

From the spot where they sat they could see over the roofs the upper part of the great tower wherein Somerset

had met with his misadventure. The tower stood boldly up in the sun, and from one of the slits in the corner

'What can that be?' said Charlotte. 'Is it the fluff of owls, or a handkerchief?'

'It is my handkerchief,' Somerset answered. 'I fixed it there with a stone to attract attention, and forgot to take

All three looked up at the handkerchief with interest. 'Why did you want to attract attention?' said Paula.

'O Paula,' said Charlotte, turning to her friend, 'that must be the place where the man fell in, years ago, and

'They say so. O Mr. Somerset, what an escape!' And Charlotte De Stancy walked away to a point from which

She did not continue. In a moment she arose and went across to Miss De Stancy. 'Don't YOU go falling down

and becoming a skeleton,' she saidSomerset overheard the words, though Paula was unaware of itafter

which she clasped her fingers behind Charlotte's neck, and smiled tenderly in her face.

It seemed to be quite unconsciously done, and Somerset thought it a very beautiful action. Presently Paula

returned to him and said, 'Mr. Somerset, I think we have had enough architecture for today.'

The two women then wished him goodmorning and went away. Somerset, feeling that he had now every

reason for prowling about the castle, remained near the spot, endeavouring to evolve some plan of procedure

for the project entertained by the beautiful owner of those weatherscathed walls. But for a long time the

mental perspective of his new position so excited the emotional side of his nature that he could not

concentrate it on feet and inches. As Paula's architect (supposing Havill not to be admitted as a competitor),

he must of necessity be in constant communication with her for a space of two or three years to come; and

particularly during the next few months. She, doubtless, cherished far too ambitious views of her career to

feel any personal interest in this enforced relationship with him; but he would be at liberty to feel what he

chose: and to be the victim of an unrequited passion, while afforded such splendid opportunities of

communion with the one beloved, deprived that passion of its most deplorable features. Accessibility is a

great point in matters of love, and perhaps of the two there is less misery in loving without return a goddess

who is to be seen and spoken to every day, than in having an affection tenderly reciprocated by one always

With this view of having to spend a considerable time in the neighbourhood Somerset shifted his quarters that

afternoon from the little inn at SleepingGreen to a larger one at Markton. He required more rooms in which

to carry out Paula's instructions than the former place afforded, and a more central position. Having reached

and dined at Markton he found the evening tedious, and again strolled out in the direction of the castle.

When he reached it the light was declining, and a solemn stillness overspread the pile. The great tower was in

full view. That spot of white which looked like a pigeon fluttering from the loophole was his handkerchief,

still hanging in the place where he had left it. His eyes yet lingered on the walls when he noticed, with

Believing that the breezes, though weak below, might have been strong enough at that height to blow it into

the turret, and in no hurry to get off the premises, he leisurely climbed up to find it, ascending by the second

staircase, crossing the roof, and going to the top of the treacherous turret. The ladder by which he had

escaped still stood within it, and beside the ladder he beheld the dim outline of a woman, in a meditative

Somerset softly withdrew. When he had reached the ground he looked up. A girlish form was standing at the

top of the tower looking over the parapet upon himpossibly not seeing him, for it was dark on the lawn. It

was either Miss De Stancy or Paula; one of them had gone there alone for his handkerchief and had remained

awhile, pondering on his escape. But which? 'If I were not a faintheart I should run all risk and wave my hat

So he lingered about silently in the shades, and then thought of strolling to his rooms at Markton. Just at

leaving, as he passed under the inhabited wing, whence one or two lights now blinked, he heard a piano, and

a voice singing 'The Mistletoe Bough.' The song had probably been suggested to the romantic fancy of the

The identity of the lady whom he had seen on the tower and afterwards heard singing was established the

'I have been thinking,' said Miss Power, on meeting him, 'that you may require a studio on the premises. If so,

the room I showed you yesterday is at your service. If I employ Mr. Havill to compete with you I will offer

Somerset did not decline; and she added, 'In the same room you will find the handkerchief that was left on the

'O no. I went up last night to see where the accident happened, and there I found it. When you came up were

'Then she saw me,' he thought. 'I went for the handkerchief only; I was not aware that you were there,' he

It was very soft, but she might have heard him, for there was interest in her voice as she continued, 'Did you

'I did not know it was you; I saw that some lady was there, and I would not disturb her. I wondered all the

Paula hastened to explain: 'We understood that you would stay to dinner, and as you did not come in we

wondered where you were. That made me think of your accident, and after dinner I went up to the place

And now followed the piquant days to which his position as her architect, or, at worst, as one of her two

architects, naturally led. His anticipations were for once surpassed by the reality. Perhaps Somerset's inherent

unfitness for a professional life under ordinary circumstances was only proved by his great zest for it now.

Had he been in regular practice, with numerous other clients, instead of having merely made a start with this

one, he would have totally neglected their business in his exclusive attention to Paula's.

The idea of a competition between Somerset and Havill had been highly approved by Paula's solicitor, but

she would not assent to it as yet, seeming quite vexed that Somerset should not have taken the good the gods

provided without questioning her justice to Havill. The room she had offered him was prepared as a studio.

Drawingboards and Whatman's paper were sent for, and in a few days Somerset began serious labour. His

first requirement was a clerk or two, to do the drudgery of measuring and figuring; but for the present he

preferred to sketch alone. Sometimes, in measuring the outworks of the castle, he ran against Havill strolling

about with no apparent object, who bestowed on him an envious nod, and passed by.

'I hope you will not make your sketches,' she said, looking in upon him one day, 'and then go away to your

studio in London and think of your other buildings and forget mine. I am in haste to begin, and wish you not

'I have no other building to think of,' said Somerset, rising and placing a chair for her. 'I had not begun

'I suppose I ought not to say I am glad of it; but it is an advantage to have an architect all to one's self. The

architect whom I at first thought of told me before I knew you that if I placed the castle in his hands he would

'I don't wish to bind you. But I hinder you nowdo pray go on without reference to me. When will there be

He had a metallic tape in his hand, and went out of the room to take some dimension in the corridor. The

assistant for whom he had advertised had not arrived, and he attempted to fix the end of the tape by sticking

She went to the required corner and held the end in its place. She had taken it the wrong way, and Somerset

went over and placed it properly in her fingers, carefully avoiding to touch them. She obediently raised her

hand to the corner again, and stood till he had finished, when she asked, 'Is that all?'

'That is all,' said Somerset. 'Thank you.' Without further speech she looked at his sketchbook, while he

'You said the other day,' she observed, 'that early Gothic work might be known by the undercutting, or

something to that effect. I have looked in Rickman and the Oxford Glossary, but I cannot quite understand

It was only too probable to her lover, from the way in which she turned to him, that she HAD looked in

Rickman and the Glossary, and was thinking of nothing in the world but of the subject of her inquiry.

'I can show you, by actual example, if you will come to the chapel?' he returned hesitatingly.

'Don't go on purpose to show mewhen you are there on your own account I will come in.'

'Very well,' said Paula. She looked out of a window, and, seeing Miss De Stancy on the terrace, left him.

Somerset stood thinking of what he had said. He had no occasion whatever to go into the chapel of the castle

that day. He had been tempted by her words to say he would be there, and 'halfanhour' had come to his lips

almost without his knowledge. This community of interestif it were not anything more tenderwas

growing serious. What had passed between them amounted to an appointment; they were going to meet in the

most solitary chamber of the whole solitary pile. Could it be that Paula had well considered this in replying

Somerset proceeded to the chapel and waited. With the progress of the seconds towards the halfhour he

began to discover that a dangerous admiration for this girl had risen within him. Yet so imaginative was his

passion that he hardly knew a single feature of her countenance well enough to remember it in her absence.

The meditative judgment of things and men which had been his habit up to the moment of seeing her in the

Baptist chapel seemed to have left himnothing remained but a distracting wish to be always near her, and it

was quite with dismay that he recognized what immense importance he was attaching to the question whether

The chapel of Stancy Castle was a silent place, heaped up in corners with a lumber of old panels, framework,

and broken coloured glass. Here no clock could be heard beating out the hours of the dayhere no voice of

priest or deacon had for generations uttered the daily service denoting how the year rolls on. The stagnation

of the spot was sufficient to draw Somerset's mind for a moment from the subject which absorbed it, and he

Lifting his eyes from the floor on which his foot had been tapping nervously, he saw Paula standing at the

other end. It was not so pleasant when he also saw that Mrs. Goodman accompanied her. The latter lady,

however, obligingly remained where she was resting, while Paula came forward, and, as usual, paused

'Early piers, capitals, and mouldings, generally alternated with deep hollows, so as to form strong shadows.

Now look under the abacus of this capital; you will find the stone hollowed out wonderfully; and also in this

archmould. It is often difficult to understand how it could be done without cracking off the stone. The

difference between this and late work can be felt by the hand even better than it can be seen.' He suited the

She listened attentively, then stretched up her own hand to test the cutting as he had done; she was not quite

tall enough; she would step upon this piece of wood. Having done so she tried again, and succeeded in

putting her finger on the spot. No; she could not understand it through her glove even now. She pulled off her

glove, and, her hand resting in the stone channel, her eyes became abstracted in the effort of realization, the

Somerset placed his own hand in the cavity. Now their two hands were close together again. They had been

close together halfanhour earlier, and he had sedulously avoided touching hers. He dared not let such an

accident happen now. And yet surely she saw the situation! Was the inscrutable seriousness with which

she applied herself to his lesson a mockery? There was such a bottomless depth in her eyes that it was

impossible to guess truly. Let it be that destiny alone had ruled that their hands should be together a second

All rumination was cut short by an impulse. He seized her forefinger between his own finger and thumb, and

Somerset's hand was hot and trembling; Paula's, on the contrary, was cool and soft as an infant's.

'Now the archmould,' continued he. 'Therethe depth of that cavity is tremendous, and it is not

geometrical, as in later work.' He drew her unresisting fingers from the capital to the arch, and laid them in

She allowed them to rest quietly there till he relinquished them. 'Thank you,' she then said, withdrawing her

Her imperception of his feeling was the very sublimity of maiden innocence if it were real; if not, well, the

'Mr. Somerset, will you allow me to have the Greek court I mentioned?' she asked tentatively, after a long

break in their discourse, as she scanned the green stones along the base of the arcade, with a conjectural

'I did at firstI don't so much now. . . . I should love it, and adore every stone, and think feudalism the only

Somerset was a little surprised at the avowal: the minister's words on the effects of her new environment

recurred to his mind. 'Miss De Stancy doesn't think so,' he said. 'She cares nothing about those things.'

Paula now turned to him: hitherto her remarks had been sparingly spoken, her eyes being directed elsewhere:

'Yes, that is very strange, is it not?' she said. 'But it is owing to the joyous freshness of her nature which

precludes her from dwelling on the pastindeed, the past is no more to her than it is to a sparrow or robin.

She is scarcely an instance of the wearing out of old families, for a younger mental constitution than hers I

'Unless that very simplicity represents the second childhood of her line, rather than her own exclusive

'I mean,' replied Somerset, 'that you represent the march of mindthe steamship, and the railway, and the

She weighed his words, and said: 'Ah, yes: you allude to my father. My father was a great man; but I am

more and more forgetting his greatness: that kind of greatness is what a woman can never truly enter into. I

She walked away a few steps to rejoin the excellent Mrs. Goodman, who, as Somerset still perceived, was

waiting for Paula at the discreetest of distances in the shadows at the farther end of the building. Surely

She came back again. 'Did you know that my father made half the railways in Europe, including that one over

there?' she said, waving her little gloved hand in the direction whence low rumbles were occasionally heard

'Miss De Stancy told me a little; and I then found his name and doings were quite familiar to me.'

Curiously enough, with his words there came through the broken windows the murmur of a train in the

distance, sounding clearer and more clear. It was nothing to listen to, yet they both listened; till the increasing

'It has gone into the tunnel,' said Paula. 'Have you seen the tunnel my father made? the curves are said to be a

'Do you think it a thing more to be proud of that one's father should have made a great tunnel and railway like

that, than that one's remote ancestor should have built a great castle like this?'

What could Somerset say? It would have required a casuist to decide whether his answer should depend upon

his conviction, or upon the family ties of such a questioner. 'From a modern point of view, railways are, no

doubt, things more to be proud of than castles,' he said; 'though perhaps I myself, from mere association,

should decide in favour of the ancestor who built the castle.' The serious anxiety to be truthful that Somerset

threw into his observation, was more than the circumstance required. 'To design great engineering works,' he

added musingly, and without the least eye to the disparagement of her parent, 'requires no doubt a leading

mind. But to execute them, as he did, requires, of course, only a following mind.'

His reply had not altogether pleased her; and there was a distinct reproach conveyed by her slight movement

towards Mrs. Goodman. He saw it, and was grieved that he should have spoken so. 'I am going to walk over

and inspect that famous tunnel of your father's,' he added gently. 'It will be a pleasant study for this

She went away. 'I am no man of the world,' he thought. 'I ought to have praised that father of hers straight off.

Somerset did not forget what he had planned, and when lunch was over he walked away through the trees.

The tunnel was more difficult of discovery than he had anticipated, and it was only after considerable

winding among green lanes, whose deep ruts were like canyons of Colorado in miniature, that he reached the

slope in the distant upland where the tunnel began. A road stretched over its crest, and thence along one side

He there unexpectedly saw standing Miss Power's carriage; and on drawing nearer he found it to contain

'It is most natural,' said Paula instantly. 'In the morning two people discuss a feature in the landscape, and in

the afternoon each has a desire to see it from what the other has said of it. Therefore they accidentally meet.'

Now Paula had distinctly heard Somerset declare that he was going to walk there; how then could she say this

so coolly? It was with a pang at his heart that he returned to his old thought of her being possibly a finished

coquette and dissembler. Whatever she might be, she was not a creature starched very stiffly by Puritanism.

Somerset looked down on the mouth of the tunnel. The popular commonplace that science, steam, and travel

must always be unromantic and hideous, was not proven at this spot. On either slope of the deep cutting,

green with long grass, grew drooping young trees of ash, beech, and other flexible varieties, their foliage

almost concealing the actual railway which ran along the bottom, its thin steel rails gleaming like silver

threads in the depths. The vertical front of the tunnel, faced with brick that had once been red, was now

weatherstained, lichened, and mossed over in harmonious rustybrowns, pearly greys, and neutral greens, at

the very base appearing a little blueblack spot like a mouseholethe tunnel's mouth.

The carriage was drawn up quite close to the wood railing, and Paula was looking down at the same time with

Mrs. Goodman broke the silence by saying, 'If it were not a railway we should call it a lovely dell.'

Somerset agreed with her, adding that it was so charming that he felt inclined to go down.

'If you do, perhaps Miss Power will order you up again, as a trespasser,' said Charlotte De Stancy. 'You are

'I suppose as the road is partly yours you might walk all the way to London along the rails, if you wished,

Somerset, feeling himself superfluous, raised his hat to his companions as if he meant not to see them again

for a while, and began to descend by some steps cut in the earth; Miss De Stancy asked Mrs. Goodman to

accompany her to a barrow over the top of the tunnel; and they left the carriage, Paula remaining alone.

Down Somerset plunged through the long grass, bushes, late summer flowers, moths, and caterpillars, vexed

with himself that he had come there, since Paula was so inscrutable, and humming the notes of some song he

did not know. The tunnel that had seemed so small from the surface was a vast archway when he reached its

mouth, which emitted, as a contrast to the sultry heat on the slopes of the cutting, a cool breeze, that had

travelled a mile underground from the other end. Far away in the darkness of this silent subterranean corridor

When he had conscientiously admired the construction of the massive archivault, and the majesty of its nude

ungarnished walls, he looked up the slope at the carriage; it was so small to the eye that it might have been

made for a performance by canaries; Paula's face being still smaller, as she leaned back in her seat, idly

looking down at him. There seemed something roguish in her attitude of criticism, and to be no longer the

In the middle of the speck of light before him appeared a speck of black; and then a shrill whistle, dulled by

millions of tons of earth, reached his ears from thence. It was what he had been on his guard against all the

time,a passing train; and instead of taking the trouble to come out of the tunnel he stepped into a recess, till

Somerset still remained where he had placed himself, mentally balancing science against art, the grandeur of

this fine piece of construction against that of the castle, and thinking whether Paula's father had not, after all,

the best of it, when all at once he saw Paula's form confronting him at the entrance of the tunnel. He instantly

'O, Mr. Somerset!' she exclaimed. 'You ought not to frighten me soindeed you ought not! The train came

out almost as soon as you had gone in, and as you did not returnan accident was possible!'

'Please do forgive my thoughtlessness in not reflecting how it would strike you!' he pleaded. 'II see I have

Her alarm was, indeed, much greater than he had at first thought: she trembled so much that she was obliged

'You ought not to have done it!' she said. 'I naturally thoughtany person would'

Somerset, perhaps wisely, said nothing at this outburst; the cause of her vexation was, plainly enough, his

perception of her discomposure. He stood looking in another direction, till in a few moments she had risen to

'It would have been dreadful,' she said with faint gaiety, as the colour returned to her face; 'if I had lost my

'I forgive you,' she returned goodnaturedly. 'I knew there was no GREAT danger to a person exercising

ordinary discretion; but artists and thinkers like you are indiscreet for a moment sometimes. I am now going

They were crossing the railway to ascend by the opposite path, Somerset keeping his eye on the interior of

the tunnel for safety, when suddenly there arose a noise and shriek from the contrary direction behind the

trees. Both knew in a moment what it meant, and each seized the other as they rushed off the permanent way.

The ideas of both had been so centred on the tunnel as the source of danger, that the probability of a train

from the opposite quarter had been forgotten. It rushed past them, causing Paula's dress, hair, and ribbons to

flutter violently, and blowing up the fallen leaves in a shower over their shoulders.

Neither spoke, and they went up several steps, holding each other by the hand, till, becoming conscious of the

fact, she withdrew hers; whereupon Somerset stopped and looked earnestly at her; but her eyes were averted

'We were not so very near, I think, were we?' she asked quickly. 'If we were, I think you werevery good to

They reached the top at last, and the new level and open air seemed to give her a new mind. 'I don't see the

He thought it had gone over the crest of the hill; he would accompany her till they reached it.

'NopleaseI would rather notI can find it very well.' Before he could say more she had inclined her

The tunnelcutting appeared a dreary gulf enough now to the young man, as he stood leaning over the rails

above it, beating the herbage with his stick. For some minutes he could not criticize or weigh her conduct; the

warmth of her presence still encircled him. He recalled her face as it had looked out at him from under the

white silk puffing of her black hat, and the speaking power of her eyes at the moment of danger. The breadth

of that clearcomplexioned foreheadalmost concealed by the masses of brown hair bundled up around it

signified that if her disposition were oblique and insincere enough for trifling, coquetting, or in any way

But it was ungenerous to ruminate so suspiciously. A girl not an actress by profession could hardly turn pale

artificially as she had done, though perhaps mere fright meant nothing, and would have arisen in her just as

The reflection that such feeling as she had exhibited could have no tender meaning returned upon him with

masterful force when he thought of her wealth and the social position into which she had drifted. Somerset,

being of a solitary and studious nature, was not quite competent to estimate precisely the disqualifying effect,

if any, of her nonconformity, her newness of blood, and other things, among the old county families

established round her; but the toughest prejudices, he thought, were not likely to be long invulnerable to such

cheerful beauty and brightness of intellect as Paula's. When she emerged, as she was plainly about to do,

from the seclusion in which she had been living since her father's death, she would inevitably win her way

among her neighbours. She would become the local topic. Fortunehunters would learn of her existence and

The points in his favour were indeed few, but they were just enough to keep a tantalizing hope alive.

Modestly leaving out of count his personal and intellectual qualifications, he thought of his family. It was an

old stock enough, though not a rich one. His greatuncle had been the wellknown Vice admiral Sir

Armstrong Somerset, who served his country well in the Baltic, the Indies, China, and the Caribbean Sea. His

grandfather had been a notable metaphysician. His father, the Royal Academician, was popular. But perhaps

this was not the sort of reasoning likely to occupy the mind of a young woman; the personal aspect of the

situation was in such circumstances of far more import. He had come as a wandering strangerthat possibly

lent some interest to him in her eyes. He was installed in an office which would necessitate free communion

with her for some time to come; that was another advantage, and would be a still greater one if she showed,

as Paula seemed disposed to do, such artistic sympathy with his work as to follow up with interest the details

The carriage did not reappear, and he went on towards Markton, disinclined to return again that day to the

studio which had been prepared for him at the castle. He heard feet brushing the grass behind him, and,

'I have just come from the village,' said Mr. Woodwell, who looked worn and weary, his boots being covered

'The temptations of her position have become too much for her! She is going out of mourning next week, and

will give a large dinnerparty on the occasion; for though the invitations are partly in the name of her relative

Mrs. Goodman, they must come from her. The guests are to include people of old cavalier families who

would have treated her grandfather, sir, and even her father, with scorn for their religion and connections;

also the parson and curateyes, actually people who believe in the Apostolic Succession; and what's more,

they're coming. My opinion is, that it has all arisen from her friendship with Miss De Stancy.'

'Well,' cried Somerset warmly, 'this only shows liberality of feeling on both sides! I suppose she has invited

'She has not invited me!. . . Mr. Somerset, not withstanding your erroneous opinions on important matters, I

speak to you as a friend, and I tell you that she has never in her secret heart forgiven that sermon of mine, in

which I likened her to the church at Laodicea. I admit the words were harsh, but I was doing my duty, and if

the case arose tomorrow I would do it again. Her displeasure is a deep grief to me; but I serve One greater

Their paths diverged; and when Somerset reached the hotel he was informed that somebody was waiting to

The landlady, who always liked to reply in person to Somerset's inquiries, apparently thinking him, by virtue

of his drawing implements and liberality of payment, a possible lord of Burleigh, came forward and said it

was certainly not a woman, but whether man or boy she could not say. 'His name is Mr. Dare,' she added.

Somerset went upstairs, along the passage, down two steps, round the angle, and so on to the rooms reserved

for him in this rambling edifice of stagecoach memories, where he found Dare waiting. Dare came forward,

'Also of photography,' said Dare with a bow. 'Though but an amateur in that art I can challenge comparison

Somerset looked upon his table. Two letters only, addressed in initials, were lying there as answers to his

advertisement. He asked Dare to wait, and looked them over. Neither was satisfactory. On this account he

overcame his slight feeling against Mr. Dare, and put a question to test that gentleman's capacities. 'How

would you measure the front of a building, including windows, doors, mouldings, and every other feature, for

a ground plan, so as to combine the greatest accuracy with the greatest despatch?'

As this was the particular kind of work he wanted done, Somerset thought the answer promising. Coming to

terms with Dare, he requested the wouldbe student of architecture to wait at the castle the next day, and

A quarter of an hour later, when Dare was taking a walk in the country, he drew from his pocket eight other

letters addressed to Somerset in initials, which, to judge by their style and stationery, were from men far

superior to those two whose communications alone Somerset had seen. Dare looked them over for a few

seconds as he strolled on, then tore them into minute fragments, and, burying them under the leaves in the

Though exhibiting indifference, Somerset had felt a pang of disappointment when he heard the news of

Paula's approaching dinnerparty. It seemed a little unkind of her to pass him over, seeing how much they

were thrown together just now. That dinner meant more than it sounded. Notwithstanding the roominess of

her castle, she was at present living somewhat incommodiously, owing partly to the stagnation caused by her

recent bereavement, and partly to the necessity for overhauling the De Stancy lumber piled in those vast and

gloomy chambers before they could be made tolerable to nineteenthcentury fastidiousness.

To give dinners on any large scale before Somerset had at least set a few of these rooms in order for her,

During the week he saw less of her than usual, her time being to all appearance much taken up with driving

out to make calls on her neighbours and receiving return visits. All this he observed from the windows of his

studio overlooking the castle ward, in which room he now spent a great deal of his time, bending over

drawingboards and instructing Dare, who worked as well as could be expected of a youth of such varied

Nearer came the Wednesday of the party, and no hint of that event reached Somerset, but such as had been

communicated by the Baptist minister. At last, on the very afternoon, an invitation was handed into his

studionot a kind note in Paula's handwriting, but a formal printed card in the joint names of Mrs. Goodman

and Miss Power. It reached him just four hours before the dinnertime. He was plainly to be used as a

Having previously arranged to pass a quiet evening in his rooms at the Lord Quantock Arms, in reading up

chronicles of the castle from the county history, with the view of gathering some ideas as to the distribution

of rooms therein before the demolition of a portion of the structure, he decided offhand that Paula's dinner

was not of sufficient importance to him as a professional man and student of art to justify a waste of the

evening by going. He accordingly declined Mrs. Goodman's and Miss Power's invitation; and at five o'clock

He dined early, and, clearing away heaviness with a cup of coffee, applied himself to that volume of the

Here he read that 'when this picturesque and ancient structure was founded, or by whom, is extremely

uncertain. But that a castle stood on the site in very early times appears from many old books of charters. In

its prime it was such a masterpiece of fortification as to be the wonder of the world, and it was thought,

before the invention of gunpowder, that it never could be taken by any force less than divine.'

He read on to the times when it first passed into the hands of 'De Stancy, Chivaler,' and received the family

name, and so on from De Stancy to De Stancy till he was lost in the reflection whether Paula would or would

not have thought more highly of him if he had accepted the invitation to dinner. Applying himself again to

the tome, he learned that in the year 1504 Stephen the carpenter was 'paid eleven pence for necessarye

repayrs,' and William the mastermason eight shillings 'for whyt lyming of the kitchen, and the lyme to do it

with,' including 'a new rope for the fyer bell;' also the sundry charges for 'vij crockes, xiij lytyll pans, a pare

of pot hookes, a fyer pane, a lanterne, a chafynge dyshe, and xij candyll stychs.'

'There, now I can't go, anyhow!' he said bitterly, jumping up, and picturing her receiving her company. How

would she look; what would she wear? Profoundly indifferent to the early history of the noble fabric, he felt a

violent reaction towards modernism, eclecticism, new aristocracies, everything, in short, that Paula

represented. He even gave himself up to consider the Greek court that she had wished for, and passed the

The next morning he awoke early, and, resolving to be at work betimes, started promptly. It was a fine calm

hour of day; the grass slopes were silvery with excess of dew, and the blue mists hung in the depths of each

tree for want of wind to blow them out. Somerset entered the drive on foot, and when near the castle he

observed in the gravel the wheelmarks of the carriages that had conveyed the guests thither the night before.

There seemed to have been a large number, for the road where newly repaired was quite cut up. Before going

Rooks were cawing, sparrows were chattering there; but the blind of her window was as closely drawn as if it

were midnight. Probably she was sound asleep, dreaming of the compliments which had been paid her by her

guests, and of the future triumphant pleasures that would follow in their train. Reaching the outer stone stairs

leading to the great hall he found them shadowed by an awning brilliantly striped with red and blue, within

which rows of flowering plants in pots bordered the pathway. She could not have made more preparation had

the gathering been a ball. He passed along the gallery in which his studio was situated, entered the room, and

seized a drawingboard to put into correct drawing the sketch for the Greek court that he had struck out the

night before, thereby abandoning his art principles to please the whim of a girl. Dare had not yet arrived, and

His eye fell upon something that moved. It was white, and lay in the folding chair on the opposite side of the

room. On near approach he found it to be a fragment of swan'sdown fanned into motion by his own

movements, and partially squeezed into the chink of the chair as though by some person sitting on it.

None but a woman would have worn or brought that swan'sdown into his studio, and it made him reflect on

the possible one. Nothing interrupted his conjectures till ten o'clock, when Dare came. Then one of the

servants tapped at the door to know if Mr. Somerset had arrived. Somerset asked if Miss Power wished to see

him, and was informed that she had only wished to know if he had come. Somerset sent a return message that

he had a design on the board which he should soon be glad to submit to her, and the messenger departed.

'The young lady was magnificentsapphires and opalsshe carried as much as a thousand pounds upon her

head and shoulders during that three or four hour. Of course they call her charming; Compuesta no hay muger

Somerset nodded to Dare to withdraw into an adjoining room, and offered her a chair.

'You wish to show me the design you have prepared?' she asked, without taking the seat.

'Yes; I have come round to your opinion. I have made a plan for the Greek court you were anxious to build.'

She regarded it attentively for some moments, her finger resting lightly against her chin, and said, 'I have

He showed his astonishment, and was almost disappointed. He had been grinding up Greek architecture

entirely on her account; had wrenched his mind round to this strange arrangement, all for nothing.

'Yes,' she continued; 'on reconsideration I perceive the want of harmony that would result from inserting such

a piece of marblework in a mediaeval fortress; so in future we will limit ourselves strictly to synchronism of

stylethat is to say, make good the Norman work by Norman, the Perpendicular by Perpendicular, and so

She involuntarily turned to look in his face, but stopped before she had quite lifted her eyes high enough.

'It is of no further use,' said Somerset, tearing the drawing in the other direction, and throwing the pieces into

the fireplace. 'You have been reading up orders and styles to some purpose, I perceive.' He regarded her with

'I have had a few books down from town. It is desirable to know a little about the architecture of one's own

She remained looking at the torn drawing, when Somerset, observing on the table the particle of

swan'sdown he had found in the chair, gently blew it so that it skimmed across the table under her eyes.

At her reply Somerset stretched out his hand for the swan's down, and put it carefully in his pocketbook;

whereupon Paula, moulding her cherryred lower lip beneath her upper one in arch selfconsciousness at his

act, turned away to the window, and after a pause said softly as she looked out, 'Why did you not accept our

It was impossible to explain why. He impulsively drew near and confronted her, and said, 'I hope you pardon

'I don't know that I can quite do that,' answered she, with ever so little reproach. 'I know why you did not

comeyou were mortified at not being asked sooner! But it was purely by an accident that you received

your invitation so late. My aunt sent the others by post, but as yours was to be delivered by hand it was left

Surely he could not doubt her words; those nice friendly accents were the embodiment of truth itself.

'I don't mean to make a serious complaint,' she added, in injured tones, showing that she did. 'Only we had

asked nearly all of them to meet you, as the son of your illustrious father, whom many of my friends know

It was now time for Somerset to be genuinely grieved at what he had done. Paula seemed so good and

'When I was dressed, I came in here to ask you to reconsider your decision,' she continued; 'or to meet us in

the drawing room if you could not possibly be ready for dinner. But you were gone.'

'And you sat down in that chair, didn't you, darling, and remained there a long time musing!' he thought. But

'I will,' replied Somerset. To add that it would give him great pleasure, etc., seemed an absurdly weak way of

He met her eyes in such a way that, if she were woman, she must have seen it to mean as plainly as words:

She must, indeed, have understood much more by this timethe whole of his open secret. But he did not

understand her. History has revealed that a supernumerary lover or two is rarely considered a disadvantage by

When she was gone he went on with the drawing, not calling in Dare, who remained in the room adjoining.

Presently a servant came and laid a paper on his table, which Miss Power had sent. It was one of the morning

newspapers, and was folded so that his eye fell immediately on a letter headed 'Restoration or Demolition.'

The letter was professedly written by a dispassionate person solely in the interests of art. It drew attention to

the circumstance that the ancient and interesting castle of the De Stancys had unhappily passed into the hands

of an iconoclast by blood, who, without respect for the tradition of the county, or any feeling whatever for

history in stone, was about to demolish much, if not all, that was interesting in that ancient pile, and insert in

its midst a monstrous travesty of some Greek temple. In the name of all lovers of mediaeval art, conjured the

simpleminded writer, let something be done to save a building which, injured and battered in the Civil

Wars, was now to be made a complete ruin by the freaks of an irresponsible owner. Her sending him the

paper seemed to imply that she required his opinion on the case; and in the afternoon, leaving Dare to

measure up a wing according to directions, he went out in the hope of meeting her, having learnt that she had

gone to the village. On reaching the church he saw her crossing the churchyard path with her aunt and Miss

De Stancy. Somerset entered the enclosure, and as soon as she saw him she came across.

'I think it dreadful impertinence,' spoke up Charlotte, who had joined them. 'Can you think who wrote it, Mr.

Somerset thought it a forcible illustration of her natural reticence that she should have abandoned the design

without telling him the reason; but he was glad she had not done it from mere caprice.

'It would be illadvised,' said Somerset. 'Still, if, after consideration, you wish it much, I will. Meanwhile let

me impress upon you again the expediency of calling in Mr. Havillto whom, as your father's architect,

expecting this commission, something perhaps is owedand getting him to furnish an alternative plan to

mine, and submitting the choice of designs to some members of the Royal Institute of British Architects. This

'Let him have all the particulars you have been good enough to explain to meso that we start fair in the

She looked negligently on the grass. 'I will tell the building steward to write them out for him,' she said.

The party separated and entered the church by different doors. Somerset went to a nook of the building that

he had often intended to visit. It was called the Stancy aisle; and in it stood the tombs of that family.

Somerset examined them: they were unusually rich and numerous, beginning with crosslegged knights in

hauberks of chainmail, their ladies beside them in wimple and coverchief, all more or less coated with the

green mould and dirt of ages: and continuing with others of later date, in fine alabaster, gilded and coloured,

some of them wearing round their necks the Yorkist collar of suns and roses, the livery of Edward the Fourth.

In scrutinizing the tallest canopy over these he beheld Paula behind it, as if in contemplation of the same

'You came to the church to sketch these monuments, I suppose, Mr. Somerset?' she asked, as soon as she saw

She sighed. 'Yes: that letter,' she said. 'I am persecuted! If I had been one of these it would never have been

'They are interesting, are they not?' he said. 'She is beautifully preserved. The gilding is nearly gone, but

'She is like Charlotte,' said Paula. And what was much like another sigh escaped her lips.

Somerset admitted that there was a resemblance, while Paula drew her forefinger across the marble face of

the effigy, and at length took out her handkerchief, and began wiping the dust from the hollows of the

features. He looked on, wondering what her sigh had meant, but guessing that it had been somehow caused

by the sight of these sculptures in connection with the newspaper writer's denunciation of her as an

The secret was out when in answer to his question, idly put, if she wished she were like one of these, she said,

'Yes. It is very dreadful to be denounced as a barbarian. I want to be romantic and historical.'

'Miss De Stancy seems not to value the privilege,' he said, looking round at another part of the church where

Charlotte was innocently prattling to Mrs. Goodman, quite heedless of the tombs of her forefathers.

'If I were one,' she continued, 'I should come here when I feel alone in the world, as I do today; and I would

They walked on till they reached the old black pew attached to the castlea vast square enclosure of oak

panelling occupying half the aisle, and surmounted with a little balustrade above the framework. Within, the

baize lining that had once been green, now faded to the colour of a common in August, was torn, kicked and

scraped to rags by the feet and hands of the ploughboys who had appropriated the pew as their own special

place of worship since it had ceased to be used by any resident at the castle, because its height afforded

Charlotte and Mrs. Goodman had by this time left the building, and could be seen looking at the headstones

'If you were a De Stancy,' said Somerset, who had pondered more deeply upon that new wish of hers than he

'And I should have the pew done up,' she said readily, as she rested her pretty chin on the top rail and looked

at the interior, her cheeks pressed into deep dimples. Her quick reply told him that the idea was no new one

with her, and he thought of poor Mr. Woodwell's shrewd prophecy as he perceived that her days as a

'What the De Stancys were, and are,' he said insidiously; and her silenced bearing told him that he had hit the

It was a strange idea to get possession of such a nature as hers, and for a minute he felt himself on the side of

the minister. So strong was Somerset's feeling of wishing her to show the quality of fidelity to paternal

'But have you forgotten that other nobilitythe nobility of talent and enterprise?'

'You have. Archimedes, Newcomen, Watt, Telford, Stephenson, those are your father's direct ancestors. Have

you forgotten them? Have you forgotten your father, and the railways he made over half Europe, and his

She did not answer for some time. 'No, I have not forgotten it,' she said, still looking into the pew. 'But, I

have a predilection d'artiste for ancestors of the other sort, like the De Stancys.'

Her hand was resting on the low pew next the high one of the De Stancys. Somerset looked at the hand, or

rather at the glove which covered it, then at her averted cheek, then beyond it into the pew, then at her hand

again, until by an indescribable consciousness that he was not going too far he laid his own upon it.

'No, no,' said Paula quickly, withdrawing her hand. But there was nothing resentful or haughty in her

tonenothing, in short, which makes a man in such circumstances feel that he has done a particularly foolish

The flower on her bosom rose and fell somewhat more than usual as she added, 'I am going away nowI

will leave you here.' Without waiting for a reply she adroitly swept back her skirts to free her feet and went

Somerset took her hint and did not follow; and when he knew that she had rejoined her friends, and heard the

carriage roll away, he made towards the opposite door. Pausing to glance once more at the alabaster effigies

before leaving them to their silence and neglect, he beheld Dare bending over them, to all appearance intently

He must have been in the church some timecertainly during the tender episode between Somerset and

Paula, and could not have failed to perceive it. Somerset blushed: it was unpleasant that Dare should have

seen the interior of his heart so plainly. He went across and said, 'I think I left you to finish the drawing of the

'Three hours ago, sir,' said Dare. 'Having finished that, I came to look at the churchfine buildingfine

Dare sighed whimsically. 'Badly in the morning, when I have been tempted to indulge overnight, and worse

Somerset looked at the youth, and said, 'I fear I shall have to dispense with your services, Dare, for I think

'On my honour no. My manner is a little against me, Mr. Somerset. But you need not fear for my ability to do

your work. I am a young man wasted, and am thought of slight account: it is the true men who get snubbed,

'Hang sentiment, Dare, and off with you!' A little ruffled, Somerset had turned his back upon the interesting

speaker, so that he did not observe the sly twist Dare threw into his right eye as he spoke. The latter went off

in one direction and Somerset in the other, pursuing his pensive way towards Markton with thoughts not

From one point in her nature he went to another, till he again recurred to her romantic interest in the De

Stancy family. To wish she was one of them: how very inconsistent of her. That she really did wish it was

It was the day of the gardenparty. The weather was too cloudy to be called perfect, but it was as sultry as the

most thinlyclad young lady could desire. Great trouble had been taken by Paula to bring the lawn to a fit

condition after the neglect of recent years, and Somerset had suggested the design for the tents. As he

approached the precincts of the castle he discerned a flag of newest fabric floating over the keep, and soon his

fly fell in with the stream of carriages that were passing over the bridge into the outer ward.

Mrs. Goodman and Paula were receiving the people in the drawingroom. Somerset came forward in his

turn; but as he was immediately followed by others there was not much opportunity, even had she felt the

He went on through a canvas passage, lined on each side with flowering plants, till he reached the tents;

thence, after nodding to one or two guests slightly known to him, he proceeded to the grounds, with a sense

of being rather lonely. Few visitors had as yet got so far in, and as he walked up and down a shady alley his

mind dwelt upon the new aspect under which Paula had greeted his eyes that afternoon. Her black

andwhite costume had finally disappeared, and in its place she had adopted a picturesque dress of ivory

white, with satin enrichments of the same hue; while upon her bosom she wore a blue flower. Her days of

His reverie was interrupted by the sound of his name, and looking round he beheld Havill, who appeared to

Somerset already knew that Havill had been appointed to compete with him, according to his

recommendation. In measuring a dark corner a day or two before, he had stumbled upon Havill engaged in

the same pursuit with a view to the rival design. Afterwards he had seen him receiving Paula's instructions

precisely as he had done himself. It was as he had wished, for fairness' sake: and yet he felt a regret, for he

'Well, Mr. Somerset,' said Havill, 'since we first met an unexpected rivalry has arisen between us! But I dare

say we shall survive the contest, as it is not one arising out of love. Hahaha!' He spoke in a level voice of

'Yes,' said Havill. 'Her proposed undertaking brought out some adverse criticism till it was known that she

intended to have more than one architectural opinion. An excellent stroke of hers to disarm criticism. You

'The writer states that he has discovered that the competent advice of two architects is to be taken, and

Somerset said nothing for a minute. 'Have you been supplied with the necessary data for your drawings?' he

Havill said that he had. 'But possibly not so completely as you have,' he added, again smiling fiercely.

Somerset did not quite like the insinuation, and the two speakers parted, the younger going towards the

musicians, who had now begun to fill the air with their strains from the embowered enclosure of a drooping

ash. When he got back to the marquees they were quite crowded, and the guests began to pour out upon the

grass, the toilets of the ladies presenting a brilliant spectaclehere being coloured dresses with white

devices, there white dresses with coloured devices, and yonder transparent dresses with no device at all. A

lavender haze hung in the air, the trees were as still as those of a submarine forest; while the sun, in colour

After watching awhile some young people who were so madly devoted to lawntennis that they set about it

like day labourers at the moment of their arrival, he turned and saw approaching a graceful figure in

creamcoloured hues, whose gloves lost themselves beneath her lace ruffles, even when she lifted her hand to

make firm the blue flower at her breast, and whose hair hung under her hat in great knots so well compacted

'You seem to be alone,' said Paula, who had at last escaped from the duty of receiving guests.

'Yes: I thought of that while I was in the drawingroom. But I could not get out before. I am now no longer a

responsible being: Mrs. Goodman is mistress for the remainder of the day. Will you be introduced to

She looked away from him, and while he was observing upon her cheek the moving shadow of leaves cast by

the declining sun, she said, 'O, there is my aunt,' and beckoned with her parasol to that lady, who approached

in the comparatively youthful guise of a grey silk dress that whistled at every touch.

Paula left them together, and Mrs. Goodman then made him acquainted with a few of the best people,

describing what they were in a whisper before they came up, among them being the Radical member for

Markton, who had succeeded to the seat rendered vacant by the death of Paula's father. While talking to this

gentleman on the proposed enlargement of the castle, Somerset raised his eyes and hand towards the walls,

the better to point out his meaning; in so doing he saw a face in the square of darkness formed by one of the

open windows, the effect being that of a highlight portrait by Vandyck or Rembrandt.

It was his assistant Dare, leaning on the windowsill of the studio, as he smoked his cigarette and surveyed

After holding a chattering conversation with some ladies from a neighbouring country seat who had known

his father in bygone years, and handing them ices and strawberries till they were satisfied, he found an

opportunity of leaving the grounds, wishing to learn what progress Dare had made in the survey of the castle.

Dare was still in the studio when he entered. Somerset informed the youth that there was no necessity for his

working later that day, unless to please himself, and proceeded to inspect Dare's achievements thus far. To his

vexation Dare had not plotted three dimensions during the previous two days. This was not the first time that

Dare, either from incompetence or indolence, had shown his inutility as a house surveyor and draughtsman.

'Mr. Dare,' said Somerset, 'I fear you don't suit me well enough to make it necessary that you should stay after

Dare removed the cigarette from his lips and bowed. 'If I don't suit, the sooner I go the better; why wait the

Somerset drew the inkstand towards him, wrote out a cheque for Dare's services, and handed it across the

'I'll not trouble you tomorrow,' said Dare, seeing that the payment included the week in advance.

'Very well,' replied Somerset. 'Please lock the door when you leave.' Shaking hands with Dare and wishing

There he contrived to get near Miss Power again, and inquired of her for Miss De Stancy.

'O! did you not know?' said Paula; 'her father is unwell, and she preferred staying with him this afternoon.'

'O no; he never comes out of his house to any party of this sort; it excites him, and he must not be excited.'

The day turned to dusk, and the guests began going in relays to the dininghall. When Somerset had taken in

two or three ladies to whom he had been presented, and attended to their wants, which occupied him

threequarters of an hour, he returned again to the large tent, with a view to finding Paula and taking his

leave. It was now brilliantly lighted up, and the musicians, who during daylight had been invisible behind the

ashtree, were ensconced at one end with their harps and violins. It reminded him that there was to be

dancing. The tent had in the meantime half filled with a new set of young people who had come expressly for

that pastime. Behind the girls gathered numbers of newly arrived young men with low shoulders and

diminutive moustaches, who were evidently prepared for once to sacrifice themselves as partners.

Somerset felt something of a thrill at the sight. He was an infrequent dancer, and particularly unprepared for

dancing at present; but to dance once with Paula Power he would give a year of his life. He looked round; but

she was nowhere to be seen. The first set began; old and middleaged people gathered from the different

rooms to look on at the gyrations of their children, but Paula did not appear. When another dance or two had

progressed, and an increase in the average age of the dancers was making itself perceptible, especially on the

'You dance, I think? Miss Deverell is disengaged. She has not been asked once this evening.' The speaker was

Somerset looked at Miss Deverella sallow lady with black twinkling eyes, yellow costume, and gay laugh,

who had been there all the afternoonand said something about having thought of going home.

'Is that because I asked you to dance?' she murmured. 'There she is appropriated.' A young gentleman had

at that moment approached the uninviting Miss Deverell, claimed her hand and led her off.

'You need not say so. That baldheaded gentleman is forty five. He does not think of younger men.'

Her face grew stealthily redder in the candlelight. 'O!I have no engagement at allI have refused. I

hardly feel at liberty to dance; it would be as well to leave that to my visitors.'

'My father, though he allowed me to be taught, never liked the idea of my dancing.'

Somerset closed the hand which was hanging by his side, and somehow hers was in it. The dance was nearly

formed, and he led her forward. Several persons looked at them significantly, but he did not notice it then,

Never had Mr. Somerset passed through such an experience before. Had he not felt her actual weight and

warmth, he might have fancied the whole episode a figment of the imagination. It seemed as if those

musicians had thrown a double sweetness into their notes on seeing the mistress of the castle in the dance,

that a perfumed southern atmosphere had begun to pervade the marquee, and that human beings were shaking

Somerset's feelings burst from his lips. 'This is the happiest moment I have ever known,' he said. 'Do you

'I think I saw a flash of lightning through the opening of the tent,' said Paula, with roguish abruptness.

He did not press for an answer. Within a few minutes a long growl of thunder was heard. It was as if Jove

could not refrain from testifying his jealousy of Somerset for taking this covetable woman so presumptuously

The dance was over, and he had retired with Paula to the back of the tent, when another faint flash of

lightning was visible through an opening. She lifted the canvas, and looked out, Somerset looking out behind

her. Another dance was begun, and being on this account left out of notice, Somerset did not hasten to leave

'A little ventilation would do no harm.' He flung back the tent door where he stood, and the light shone out

'I must go to the drawingroom soon,' she added. 'They will begin to leave shortly.'

'It is not late. The thundercloud has made it seem darksee there; a line of pale yellow stretches along the

horizon from west to north. That's eveningnot gone yet. Shall we go into the fresh air for a minute?'

She seemed to signify assent, and he stepped off the tent floor upon the ground. She stepped off also.

The air outofdoors had not cooled, and without definitely choosing a direction they found themselves

approaching a little wooden teahouse that stood on the lawn a few yards off. Arrived here, they turned, and

regarded the tent they had just left, and listened to the strains that came from within it.

'I mean,' she added in an undeceiving tone, 'because I saw Mrs. Goodman enter the tent again just as we came

She teasingly demurred, finally breaking the silence by saying, 'The rain is come at last,' as great drops began

In a moment the storm poured down with sudden violence, and they drew further back into the

summerhouse. The side of the tent from which they had emerged still remained open, the rain streaming

down between their eyes and the lighted interior of the marquee like a tissue of glass threads, the brilliant

forms of the dancers passing and repassing behind the watery screen, as if they were people in an enchanted

'How happy they are!' said Paula. 'They don't even know that it is raining. I am so glad that my aunt had the

The thunderstorm showed no symptoms of abatement, and the music and dancing went on more merrily

'We cannot go in,' said Somerset. 'And we cannot shout for umbrellas. We will stay till it is over, will we

Her hand was hanging by her side, and Somerset's was close by. He took it, and she did not draw it away.

Thus they stood a long while, the rain hissing down upon the grassplot, and not a soul being visible outside

Somerset emitted half a sigh: he wished she had been more demonstrative, yet felt that this passive way of

assenting was as much as he could hope for. Had there been anything cold in her passivity he might have felt

repressed; but her stillness suggested the stillness of motion imperceptible from its intensity.

'We must go in,' said she. 'The rain is almost over, and there is no longer any excuse for this.'

'To everything there is a season, and the season for this is not just now,' she answered, walking away.

They crossed the wet and glistening lawn, stepped under the tent and parted. She vanished, he did not know

whither; and, standing with his gaze fixed on the dancers, the young man waited, till, being in no mood to

join them, he went slowly through the artificial passage lined with flowers, and entered the drawing room.

Mrs. Goodman was there, bidding goodnight to the early goers, and Paula was just behind her, apparently in

her usual mood. His parting with her was quite formal, but that he did not mind, for her colour rose decidedly

higher as he approached, and the light in her eyes was like the ray of a diamond.

When he reached the door he found that his brougham from the Quantock Arms, which had been waiting

more than an hour, could not be heard of. That vagrancy of spirit which love induces would not permit him to

wait; and, leaving word that the man was to follow him when he returned, he went past the glare of

carriagelamps ranked in the ward, and under the outer arch. The night was now clear and beautiful, and he

strolled along his way full of mysterious elation till the vehicle overtook him, and he got in.

Up to this point Somerset's progress in his suit had been, though incomplete, so uninterrupted, that he almost

feared the good chance he enjoyed. How should it be in a mortal of his calibre to command success with such

a sweet woman for long? He might, indeed, turn out to be one of the singular exceptions which are said to

prove rules; but when fortune means to men most good, observes the bard, she looks upon them with a

threatening eye. Somerset would even have been content that a little disapproval of his course should have

occurred in some quarter, so as to make his wooing more like ordinary life. But Paula was not clearly won,

and that was drawback sufficient. In these pleasing agonies and painful delights he passed the journey to

Young Dare sat thoughtfully at the window of the studio in which Somerset had left him, till the gay scene

beneath became embrowned by the twilight, and the brilliant red stripes of the marquees, the bright

sunshades, the manytinted costumes of the ladies, were indistinguishable from the blacks and greys of the

masculine contingent moving among them. He had occasionally glanced away from the outward prospect to

study a small old volume that lay before him on the drawingboard. Near scrutiny revealed the book to bear

The evening had been so still that Dare had heard conversations from below with a clearness unsuspected by

the speakers themselves; and among the dialogues which thus reached his ears was that between Somerset

and Havill on their professional rivalry. When they parted, and Somerset had mingled with the throng, Havill

went to a seat at a distance. Afterwards he rose, and walked away; but on the bench he had quitted there

Dare put away the drawingboard and plottingscales which he had kept before him during the evening as a

reason for his presence at that post of espial, locked up the door, and went downstairs. Notwithstanding his

dismissal by Somerset, he was so serene in countenance and easy in gait as to make it a fair conjecture that

professional servitude, however profitable, was no necessity with him. The gloom now rendered it practicable

for any unbidden guest to join Paula's assemblage without criticism, and Dare walked boldly out upon the

lawn. The crowd on the grass was rapidly diminishing; the tennis players had relinquished sport; many

people had gone in to dinner or supper; and many others, attracted by the cheerful radiance of the candles,

Dare went to the gardenchair on which Havill had been seated, and found the article left behind to be a

pocketbook. Whether because it was unclasped and fell open in his hand, or otherwise, he did not hesitate to

examine the contents. Among a mass of architect's customary memoranda occurred a draft of the letter

abusing Paula as an iconoclast or Vandal by blood, which had appeared in the newspaper: the draft was so

interlined and altered as to bear evidence of being the original conception of that ungentlemanly attack.

The lad read the letter, smiled, and strolled about the grounds, only met by an occasional pair of individuals

of opposite sex in deep conversation, the state of whose emotions led them to prefer the evening shade to the

publicity and glare of the tents and rooms. At last he observed the white waistcoat of the man he sought.

'Mr. Havill, the architect, I believe?' said Dare. 'The author of most of the noteworthy buildings in this

'I have long wished for the pleasure of your acquaintance, and now an accident helps me to make it. This

Havill clapped his hand to his pocket, examined the book Dare held out to him, and took it with thanks. 'I see

'Well, it is merely ornamental; and in truth, I drop the title in England, particularly under present

'Ahthey are peculiar, perhaps? Ah, I remember. I have heard that you are assisting a gentleman in

'You could hardly be blamed for such words. However, you are mistaken. I did assist him to gain a little

further insight into the working of architectural plans; but our views on art are antagonistic, and I assist him

no more. Mr. Havill, it must be very provoking to a wellestablished professional man to have a rival sprung

Professional sympathy is often accepted from those whose condolence on any domestic matter would be

considered intrusive. Havill walked up and down beside Dare for a few moments in silence, and at last

showed that the words had told, by saying: 'Every one may have his opinion. Had I been a stranger to the

Power family, the case would have been different; but having been specially elected by the lady's father as a

competent adviser in such matters, and then to be degraded to the position of a mere competitor, it wounds

'A lady to whom I have been a staunch friend,' continued Havill, not heeding the interruption.

At that moment sounds seemed to come from Dare which bore a remarkable resemblance to the words, 'Ho,

ho, Havill!' It was hardly credible, and yet, could he be mistaken? Havill turned. Dare's eye was twisted

'Ho, ho, Havill! "Staunch friend" is goodespecially after "an iconoclast and Vandal by

'Sir, you have the advantage of me. Perhaps you allude to that anonymous letter?'

'Oho, Havill!' repeated the boyman, turning his eyes yet further towards the zenith. 'To an outsider such

conduct would be natural; but to a friend who finds your pocketbook, and looks into it before returning it,

and kindly removes a leaf bearing the draft of a letter which might injure you if discovered there, and

carefully conceals it in his own pocket why, such conduct is unkind!' Dare held up the abstracted leaf.

Havill looked as if he would like to snatch the leaf away, but altering his mind, he said grimly: 'Well, I take

you at your word: we are friends. That letter was concocted before I knew of the competition: it was during

'I should be ruined as far as this competition is concerned,' said Havill carelessly. 'Had I known I was to be

invited to compete, I should not have written it, of course. To be supplanted is hard; and thereby hangs a tale.'

'Well, 'tis indecorous. Her infatuated partiality for him is patent to the eyes of a child; a man she has only

known a few weeks, and one who obtained admission to her house in the most irregular manner! Had she a

watchful friend beside her, instead of that moonstruck Mrs. Goodman, she would be cautioned against

bestowing her favours on the first adventurer who appears at her door. It is a pity, a great pity!'

'O, there is lovemaking in the wind?' said Dare slowly. 'That alters the case for me. But it is not proved?'

Havill took the lad towards the tent, from which the strains of a waltz now proceeded, and on whose sides

flitting shadows told of the progress of the dance. The companions looked in. The rosy silk lining of the

marquee, and the numerous coronas of wax lights, formed a canopy to a radiant scene which, for two at least

of those who composed it, was an intoxicating one. Paula and Somerset were dancing together.

'Very welltime will show,' said the architect, dropping the tentcurtain. . . . 'Good God! a girl worth fifty

thousand and more a year to throw herself away upon a fellow like that she ought to be whipped.'

'I have reason. I would give something to be sure on this point, one way or the other. Let us wait till the dance

is over, and observe them more carefully. Horensagen ist halb gelogen! Hearsay is half lies.'

Sheetlightnings increased in the northern sky, followed by thunder like the indistinct noise of a battle. Havill

and Dare retired to the trees. When the dance ended Somerset and his partner emerged from the tent, and

slowly moved towards the teahouse. Divining their goal Dare seized Havill's arm; and the two worthies

entered the building unseen, by first passing round behind it. They seated themselves in the back part of the

As before related, Paula and Somerset came and stood within the door. When the rain increased they drew

themselves further inward, their forms being distinctly outlined to the gaze of those lurking behind by the

light from the tent beyond. But the hiss of the falling rain and the lowness of their tones prevented their

'I wish myself out of this!' breathed Havill to Dare, as he buttoned his coat over his white waistcoat. 'I told

you it was true, but you wouldn't believe. I wouldn't she should catch me here eavesdropping for the world!'

Paula and her lover backed yet further, till the hem of her skirt touched Havill's feet. Their attitudes were

sufficient to prove their relations to the most obstinate Didymus who should have witnessed them. Tender

emotions seemed to pervade the summerhouse like an aroma. The calm ecstasy of the condition of at least

one of them was not without a coercive effect upon the two invidious spectators, so that they must need have

remained passive had they come there to disturb or annoy. The serenity of Paula was even more impressive

than the hushed ardour of Somerset: she did not satisfy curiosity as Somerset satisfied it; she piqued it. Poor

Somerset had reached a perfectly intelligible depthone which had a single blissful way out of it, and nine

The rain ceased, and the pair moved away. The enchantment worked by their presence vanished, the details

of the meeting settled down in the watchers' minds, and their tongues were loosened. Dare, turning to Havill,

'I! The woman that interests my heart has yet to be born,' said Dare, with a steely coldness strange in such a

juvenile, and yet almost convincing. 'But though I have not personal hopes, I have an objection to this

courtship. Now I think we may as well fraternize, the situation being what it is?'

'He is in your way as her architect; he is in my way as her lover: we don't want to hurt him, but we wish him

'I have come here at some trouble to myself, merely to observe: I find I ought to stay to act.'

'If you were myself, a married man with people dependent on him, who has had a professional certainty

turned to a miserably remote contingency by these events, you might say you ought to act; but what

conceivable difference it can make to you who it is the young lady takes to her heart and home, I fail to

'Well, I'll tell youthis much at least. I want to keep the place vacant for another man.'

'Certainly.' Havill drew a deep breath, and dropped into a tone of depression. 'Well, scheme as you will, there

will be small advantage to me,' he murmured. 'The castle commission is as good as gone, and a bill for two

'Cheer up, heart! My position, if you only knew it, has ten times the difficulties of yours, since this

disagreeable discovery. Let us consider if we can assist each other. The competition drawings are to be sent

'In something over six weeksa fortnight before she returns from the Scilly Isles, for which place she leaves

'O, she goes awaythat's better. Our lover will be working here at his drawings, and she not present.'

'And if your design is considered best by the committee, he will have no further reason for staying, assuming

'I suppose so,' murmured Havill discontentedly. 'The conditions, as sent to me, state that the designs are to be

adjudicated on by three members of the Institute called in for the purpose; so that she may return, and have

'Then it amounts to this: your design MUST be best. It must combine the excellences of your invention with

the excellences of his. Meanwhile a coolness should be made to arise between her and him: and as there

would be no artistic reason for his presence here after the verdict is pronounced, he would perforce hie back

'I see the ingenuity of the plan, but I also see two insurmountable obstacles to it. The first is, I cannot add the

excellences of his design to mine without knowing what those excellences are, which he will of course keep a

secret. Second, it will not be easy to promote a coolness between such hot ones as they.'

'You make a mistake. It is only he who is so ardent. She is only lukewarm. If we had any spirit, a bargain

would be struck between us: you would appropriate his design; I should cause the coolness.'

Havill turned to Dare, and stared. 'By George, you don't stick at trifles, young man. You don't suppose I

Havill looked meditatively at his companion, and shook his head. 'In these idle suppositions we have been

A few days after the party at Stancy Castle, Dare was walking down the High Street of Markton, a cigarette

between his lips and a silvertopped cane in his hand. His eye fell upon a brass plate on an opposite door,

bearing the name of Mr. Havill, Architect. He crossed over, and rang the office bell.

The clerk who admitted him stated that Mr. Havill was in his private room, and would be disengaged in a

short time. While Dare waited the clerk affixed to the door a piece of paper bearing the words 'Back at 2,' and

Dare looked at the different drawings on the boards about the room. They all represented one subject, which,

though unfinished as yet, and bearing no inscription, was recognized by the visitor as the design for the

enlargement and restoration of Stancy Castle. When he had glanced it over Dare sat down.

The doors between the office and private room were double; but the one towards the office being only ajar

Dare could hear a conversation in progress within. It presently rose to an altercation, the tenor of which was

'Really I can stand it no longer, Mr. Havillreally I will not!' said the creditor excitedly. 'Now this bill

overdue againwhat can you expect? Why, I might have negotiated it; and where would you have been

then? Instead of that, I have locked it up out of consideration for you; and what do I get for my

'You'll do me inexpressible harm, and get nothing whatever,' said Havill. 'If you would renew for another

There was a silence; whereupon Dare arose without hesitation, and walked boldly into the private office.

Havill was standing at one end, as gloomy as a thundercloud, and at the other was the unfortunate creditor

with his hat on. Though Dare's entry surprised them, both parties seemed relieved.

'I have called in passing to congratulate you, Mr. Havill,' said Dare gaily. 'Such a commission as has been

'It will be a lift in that direction, from what I know of the profession. What is she going to spend?'

'Your commission as architect, five thousand. Not bad, for making a few sketches. Consider what other great

'Stancy Castle,' said Dare, since Havill seemed too agape to answer. 'You have not heard of it, then? Those

Havill replied in the affirmative, beginning to perceive the manoeuvre. 'Perhaps you would like to see them?'

'It will certainly be a magnificent structure,' said the creditor, after regarding the elevations through his

spectacles. 'Stancy Castle: I had no idea of it! and when do you begin to build, Mr. Havill?' he inquired in

'Five thousand pounds commission,' murmured the creditor. 'Paid down, I suppose?'

'And the works will not linger for lack of money to carry them out, I imagine,' said Dare. 'Two hundred

'You said nothing to me about this?' whispered the creditor to Havill, taking him aside, with a look of regret.

'It alters the case greatly.' The creditor retired with Havill to the door, and after a subdued colloquy in the

'What the devil do you mean by hoaxing him like this, when the job is no more mine than Inigo Jones's?'

'Don't be too curious,' said Dare, laughing. 'Rather thank me for getting rid of him.'

'But it is all a vision!' said Havill, ruefully regarding the pencilled towers of Stancy Castle. 'If the competition

were really the commission that you have represented it to be there might be something to laugh at.'

'It must be made a commission, somehow,' returned Dare carelessly. 'I am come to lend you a little

A carriage slowly passed the window, and Havill recognized the Power liveries. 'Hulloshe's coming here!'

he said under his breath, as the carriage stopped by the kerb. 'What does she want, I wonder? Dare, does she

Dare went out through the back office as Paula was shown in at the front. She wore a grey travelling costume,

'I am on my way to the railwaystation,' she said to Havill. 'I shall be absent from home for several weeks,

and since you requested it, I have called to inquire how you are getting on with the design.'

'No,' said Paula. 'I think it would be unfair. I have not looked at Mr.the other architect's plans since he has

begun to design seriously, and I will not look at yours. Are you getting on quite well, and do you want to

know anything more? If so, go to the castle, and get anybody to assist you. Why would you not make use of

In asking the question her face was towards the window, and suddenly her cheeks became a rosy red. She

'Having my own office so near, it was not necessary, thank you,' replied Havill, as, noting her countenance,

he allowed his glance to stray into the street. Somerset was walking past on the opposite side.

'The time isthe time fixed for sending in the drawings is the first of November, I believe,' she said

confusedly; 'and the decision will be come to by three gentlemen who are prominent members of the Institute

Havill went to the back window to tell Dare that he need not stay in the garden; but the garden was empty.

The architect remained alone in his office for some time; at the end of a quarter of an hour, when the scream

of a railway whistle had echoed down the still street, he beheld Somerset repassing the window in a direction

from the railway, with somewhat of a sad gait. In another minute Dare entered, humming the latest air of

'Her pretending indifference as to which of us comes out successful in the competition, when she colours

carmine the moment Somerset passes by.' He described Paula's visit, and the incident.

'It may not mean Cupid's Entire XXX after all,' said Dare judicially. 'The mere suspicion that a certain man

loves her would make a girl blush at his unexpected appearance. Well, she's gone from him for a time; the

'I went out of your garden by the back gate, and followed her carriage to the railway. He simply went to the

first bridge outside the station, and waited. When she was in the train, it moved forward; he was all

expectation, and drew out his handkerchief ready to wave, while she looked out of the window towards the

bridge. The train backed before it reached the bridge, to attach the box containing her horses, and the

carriagetruck. Then it started for good, and when it reached the bridge she looked out again, he waving his

'She looked at himnothing more. I wouldn't give much for his chance.' After a while Dare added musingly:

'You are a mathematician: did you ever investigate the doctrine of expectations?'

Dare drew from his pocket his 'Book of Chances,' a volume as well thumbed as the minister's Bible. 'This is a

The same evening Havill asked Dare to dine with him. He was just at this time living en garcon, his wife and

children being away on a visit. After dinner they sat on till their faces were rather flushed. The talk turned, as

'To know his design is to win,' said Dare. 'And to win is to send him back to London where he came from.'

They went down the town, and along the highway. When they reached the entrance to the park a man driving

'That was he,' said Dare. 'He sometimes drives over from the hotel, and sometimes walks. He has been

Strolling on under the trees they met three masculine figures, laughing and talking loudly.

'Those are the three firstclass London draughtsmen, Bowles, Knowles, and Cockton, whom he has engaged

The castle now arose before them, endowed by the rayless shade with a more massive majesty than either

sunlight or moonlight could impart; and Havill sighed again as he thought of what he was losing by

'I thought it might suggest somethingsome way of seeing the design. The servants would let us into his

They sauntered on smoking, Dare leading the way through the gatehouse into a corridor which was not

Dare, however, had gone on, and knowing the tortuous passages from his few days' experience in measuring

them with Somerset, he came to the butler's pantry. Dare knocked, and nobody answering he entered, took

down a key which hung behind the door, and rejoined Havill. 'It is all right,' he said. 'The cat's away; and the

Proceeding up a stone staircase he unlocked the door of a room in the dark, struck a light inside, and

returning to the door called in a whisper to Havill, who had remained behind. 'This is Mr. Somerset's studio,'

'How did you get permission?' inquired Havill, not knowing that Dare had seen no one.

'Anyhow,' said Dare carelessly. 'We can examine the plans at leisure; for if the placid Mrs. Goodman, who is

the only one at home, sees the light, she will only think it is Somerset still at work.'

Dare uncovered the drawings, and young Somerset's brainwork for the last six weeks lay under their eyes.

To Dare, who was too cursory to trouble himself by entering into such details, it had very little meaning; but

the design shone into Havill's head like a light into a dark place. It was original; and it was fascinating. Its

originality lay partly in the circumstance that Somerset had not attempted to adapt an old building to the

wants of the new civilization. He had placed his new erection beside it as a slightly attached structure,

harmonizing with the old; heightening and beautifying, rather than subduing it. His work formed a palace,

with a ruinous castle annexed as a curiosity. To Havill the conception had more charm than it could have to

the most appreciative outsider; for when a mediocre and jealous mind that has been cudgelling itself over a

problem capable of many solutions, lights on the solution of a rival, all possibilities in that kind seem to

Dare was struck by the arrested expression of the architect's face. 'Is it rather good?' he asked.

'The riddle that has worried me three weeks he has solved in a way which is simplicity itself. He has got it,

'The groundplan will be sufficient,' said Havill, his courage reviving. 'The idea is so simple, that if once seen

A rough tracing of Somerset's design was quickly made, and blowing out the candle with a wave of his hand,

'One man has need of another every ten years: Ogni dieci anni un uomo ha bisogno dell' altro, as they say in

'O yes, you will. A man who can contrive to get admitted to a competition by writing a letter abusing another

Havill was silent till he said, 'I think these gusts mean that we are to have a storm of rain.'

Dare looked up. The sky was overcast, the trees shivered, and a drop or two began to strike into the walkers'

coats from the east. They were not far from the inn at SleepingGreen, where Dare had lodgings, occupying

the rooms which had been used by Somerset till he gave them up for more commodious chambers at

Having possessed himself of Somerset's brains Havill was inclined to be jovial, and ordered the best in wines

that the house afforded. Before starting from home they had drunk as much as was good for them; so that

their potations here soon began to have a marked effect upon their tongues. The rain beat upon the windows

with a dull dogged pertinacity which seemed to signify boundless reserves of the same and long continuance.

The wind rose, the sign creaked, and the candles waved. The weather had, in truth, broken up for the season,

'Well, here we are,' said Havill, as he poured out another glass of the brandied liquor called old port at

Havill, who had not drunk enough to affect his reasoning, held up his glass to the light and said, 'I never can

quite make out what you are, or what your age is. Are you sixteen, one andtwenty, or twentyseven? And

are you an Englishman, Frenchman, Indian, American, or what? You seem not to have taken your degrees in

'That's a secret, my friend,' said Dare. 'I am a citizen of the world. I owe no country patriotism, and no king or

queen obedience. A man whose country has no boundary is your only true gentleman.'

'It would be a fact worth the telling. The secret of my birth lies here.' And Dare slapped his breast with his

'Literally, just under your shirtfront; or figuratively, in your heart?' asked Havill.

'Literally there. It is necessary that it should be recorded, for one's own memory is a treacherous book of

reference, should verification be required at a time of delirium, disease, or death.'

Havill asked no further what he meant, and went to the door. Finding that the rain still continued he returned

to Dare, who was by this time sinking down in a onesided attitude, as if hung up by the shoulder. Informing

his companion that he was but little inclined to move far in such a tempestuous night, he decided to remain in

the inn till next morning. On calling in the landlord, however, they learnt that the house was full of farmers

on their way home from a large sheepfair in the neighbourhood, and that several of these, having decided to

stay on account of the same tempestuous weather, had already engaged the spare beds. If Mr. Dare would

give up his room, and share a doublebedded room with Mr. Havill, the thing could be done, but not

To this the two companions agreed, and presently went upstairs with as gentlemanly a walk and vertical a

The other inmates of the inn soon retired to rest, and the storm raged on unheeded by all local humanity.

At two o'clock the rain lessened its fury. At halfpast two the obscured moon shone forth; and at three Havill

awoke. The blind had not been pulled down overnight, and the moonlight streamed into the room, across the

bed whereon Dare was sleeping. He lay on his back, his arms thrown out; and his wellcurved youthful form

Sleep had cleared Havill's mind from the drowsing effects of the last night's sitting, and he thought of Dare's

mysterious manner in speaking of himself. This lad resembled the Etruscan youth Tages, in one respect, that

of being a boy with, seemingly, the wisdom of a sage; and the effect of his presence was now heightened by

all those sinister and mystic attributes which are lent by nocturnal environment. He who in broad daylight

might be but a young chevalier d'industrie was now an unlimited possibility in social phenomena. Havill

remembered how the lad had pointed to his breast, and said that his secret was literally kept there. The

architect was too much of a provincial to have quenched the common curiosity that was part of his nature by

the acquired metropolitan indifference to other people's lives which, in essence more unworthy even than the

Dare was breathing profoundly. Instigated as above mentioned, Havill got out of bed and stood beside the

sleeper. After a moment's pause he gently pulled back the unfastened collar of Dare's nightshirt and saw a

word tattooed in distinct characters on his breast. Before there was time for Havill to decipher it Dare moved

slightly, as if conscious of disturbance, and Havill hastened back to bed. Dare bestirred himself yet more,

whereupon Havill breathed heavily, though keeping an intent glance on the lad through his halfclosed eyes

Dare was certainly conscious of something, for he sat up, rubbed his eyes, and gazed around the room; then

after a few moments of reflection he drew some article from beneath his pillow. A blue gleam shone from the

object as Dare held it in the moonlight, and Havill perceived that it was a small revolver.

A clammy dew broke out upon the face and body of the architect when, stepping out of bed with the weapon

in his hand, Dare looked under the bed, behind the curtains, out of the window, and into a closet, as if

convinced that something had occurred, but in doubt as to what it was. He then came across to where Havill

was lying and still keeping up the appearance of sleep. Watching him awhile and mistrusting the reality of

this semblance, Dare brought it to the test by holding the revolver within a few inches of Havill's forehead.

Havill could stand no more. Crystallized with terror, he said, without however moving more than his lips, in

dread of hasty action on the part of Dare: 'O, good Lord, Dare, Dare, I have done nothing!'

The youth smiled and lowered the pistol. 'I was only finding out whether it was you or some burglar who had

'Do put away that thing! It is too ghastly to produce in a respectable bedroom. Why do you carry it?'

'Cosmopolites always do. Now answer my questions. What were you up to?' and Dare as he spoke played

Havill had recovered some coolness. 'You could not use it upon me,' he said sardonically, watching Dare. 'It

'I did not think you were shrewd enough to see that,' replied Dare carelessly, as he returned the revolver to its

place. 'Well, whether you have outwitted me or no, you will keep the secret as long as I choose.'

'Because I keep your secret of the letter abusing Miss P., and of the pilfered tracing you carry in your pocket.'

They went to bed again. Dare was soon asleep; but Havill did not attempt to disturb him again. The elder man

slept but fitfully. He was aroused in the morning by a heavy rumbling and jingling along the highway

overlooked by the window, the front wall of the house being shaken by the reverberation.

'There is no rest for me here,' he said, rising and going to the window, carefully avoiding the neighbourhood

'Hurrah!' said Dare, jumping up in bed. 'I have been waiting for that these six weeks.'

When they were downstairs Dare's first act was to ring the bell and ask if his Army and Navy Gazette had

While the servant was gone Havill cleared his throat and said, 'I am an architect, and I take in the Architect;

'I am not an architect any more than I am a soldier; but I have taken in the Army and Navy Gazette these

When they were at breakfast the paper came in. Dare hastily tore it open and glanced at the pages.

'I am going to Markton after breakfast!' he said suddenly, before looking up; 'we will walk together if you

'I have just to make a call here,' said Dare, when they were opposite the barrackentrance on the outskirts of

the town, where wheeltracks and a regular chain of hoofmarks left by the departed batteries were

imprinted in the gravel between the open gates. 'I shall not be a moment.' Havill stood still while his

companion entered and asked the commissary in charge, or somebody representing him, when the new

batteries would arrive to take the place of those which had gone away. He was informed that it would be

'Now I am at your service,' said Dare, 'and will help you to rearrange your design by the new intellectual light

They entered Havill's office and set to work. When contrasted with the tracing from Somerset's plan, Havill's

design, which was not far advanced, revealed all its weaknesses to him. After seeing Somerset's scheme the

bands of Havill's imagination were loosened: he laid his own previous efforts aside, got fresh sheets of

'I may as well stay and help you,' said Dare. 'I have nothing to do till twelve o'clock; and not much then.'

So there he remained. At a quarter to twelve children and idlers began to gather against the railings of Havill's

house. A few minutes past twelve the noise of an arriving host was heard at the entrance to the town.

The X and Y Batteries of the Z Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, were entering Markton, each headed by the

major with his bugler behind him. In a moment they came abreast and passed, every man in his place; that is

Six shining horses, in pairs, harnessed by ropetraces white as milk, with a driver on each near horse: two

gunners on the leadcoloured stoutwheeled limber, their carcases jolted to a jelly for lack of springs: two

gunners on the leadcoloured stoutwheeled guncarriage, in the same personal condition: the ninepounder

gun, dipping its heavy head to earth, as if ashamed of its office in these enlightened times: the complement of

jingling and prancing troopers, riding at the wheels and elsewhere: six shining horses with their drivers, and

traces white as milk, as before: two more gallant jolted men, on another jolting limber, and more stout wheels

and leadcoloured paint: two more jolted men on another drooping gun: more jingling troopers on horseback:

again six shining draughthorses, traces, drivers, gun, gunners, lead paint, stout wheels and troopers as

So each detachment lumbered slowly by, all eyes martially forward, except when wandering in quest of

'He's a fine fellow, is he not?' said Dare, denoting by a nod a mounted officer, with a sallow, yet handsome

face, and black moustache, who came up on a bay gelding with the men of his battery.

Dare made no reply; and they watched the captain as he rode past with his drawn sword in his hand, the sun

making a little sun upon its blade, and upon his brilliantly polished long boots and bright spurs; also warming

his gold crossbelt and braidings, white gloves, busby with its red bag, and tall white plume.

Havill seemed to be too indifferent to press his questioning; and when all the soldiers had passed by, Dare

observed to his companion that he should leave him for a short time, but would return in the afternoon or next

After this he walked up the street in the rear of the artillery, following them to the barracks. On reaching the

gates he found a crowd of people gathered outside, looking with admiration at the guns and gunners drawn up

within the enclosure. When the soldiers were dismissed to their quarters the sightseers dispersed, and Dare

The guns were standing on the green; the soldiers and horses were scattered about, and the handsome captain

whom Dare had pointed out to Havill was inspecting the buildings in the company of the quartermaster. Dare

made a mental note of these things, and, apparently changing a previous intention, went out from the barracks

To return for a while to George Somerset. The sun of his later existence having vanished from that young

man's horizon, he confined himself closely to the studio, superintending the exertions of his draughtsmen

Bowles, Knowles, and Cockton, who were now in the full swing of working out Somerset's creations from

He had so far got the start of Havill in the competition that, by the help of these three gentlemen, his design

was soon finished. But he gained no unfair advantage on this account, an additional month being allowed to

Before scaling up his drawings Somerset wished to spend a short time in London, and dismissing his

assistants till further notice, he locked up the rooms which had been appropriated as office and studio and

It was afternoon. Somerset walked from the castle in the direction of the wood to reach Markton by a detour.

He had not proceeded far when there approached his path a man riding a bay horse with a squarecut tail.

The equestrian wore a grizzled beard, and looked at Somerset with a piercing eye as he noiselessly ambled

nearer over the soft sod of the park. He proved to be Mr. Cunningham Haze, chief constable of the district,

'One word, Mr. Somerset,' said the Chief, after they had exchanged nods of recognition, reining his horse as

'There would have been nothing wrong in their doing so. Either of them might have gone back at any time for

'Ah, then all is explained. I was riding past over the grass on the night of last Thursday, and I saw two

persons in your studio with a light. It must have been about halfpast nine o'clock. One of them came

forward and pulled down the blind so that the light fell upon his face. But I only saw it for a short time.'

'They are all about the same age really. By the wayit couldn't have been Dareand Havill, surely! Would

Somerset endeavoured to discern in a description by the chief constable the features of Mr. Bowles: but it

seemed to approximate more closely to Dare in spite of himself. 'I'll make a sketch of the only one who had

no business there, and show it to you,' he presently said. 'I should like this cleared up.'

Mr. Cunningham Haze said he was going to Toneborough that afternoon, but would return in the evening

before Somerset's departure. With this they parted. A possible motive for Dare's presence in the rooms had

instantly presented itself to Somerset's mind, for he had seen Dare enter Havill's office more than once, as if

He accordingly sat on the next stile, and taking out his pocketbook began a pencil sketch of Dare's head, to

show to Mr. Haze in the evening; for if Dare had indeed found admission with Havill, or as his agent, the

But he could not make a drawing that was a satisfactory likeness. Then he luckily remembered that Dare, in

the intense warmth of admiration he had affected for Somerset on the first day or two of their acquaintance,

had begged for his photograph, and in return for it had left one of himself on the mantelpiece, taken as he said

by his own process. Somerset resolved to show this production to Mr. Haze, as being more to the purpose

He entered the old overgrown drive which wound indirectly through the wood to Markton. The road, having

been laid out for idling rather than for progress, bent sharply hither and thither among the fissured trunks and

layers of horny leaves which lay there all the year round, interspersed with cushions of vivid green moss that

Reaching a point where the road made one of its bends between two large beeches, a man and woman

revealed themselves at a few yards' distance, walking slowly towards him. In the short and quaint lady he

recognized Charlotte De Stancy, whom he remembered not to have seen for several days.

She slightly blushed and said, 'O, this is pleasant, Mr. Somerset! Let me present my brother to you, Captain

Her brother came forward and shook hands heartily with Somerset; and they all three rambled on together,

talking of the season, the place, the fishing, the shooting, and whatever else came uppermost in their minds.

Captain De Stancy was a personage who would have been called interesting by women well out of their

teens. He was ripe, without having declined a digit towards fogeyism. He was sufficiently old and

experienced to suggest a goodly accumulation of touching amourettes in the chambers of his memory, and

not too old for the possibility of increasing the store. He was apparently about eightandthirty, less tall than

his father had been, but admirably made; and his every movement exhibited a fine combination of strength

and flexibility of limb. His face was somewhat thin and thoughtful, its complexion being naturally pale,

though darkened by exposure to a warmer sun than ours. His features were somewhat striking; his moustache

and hair raven black; and his eyes, denied the attributes of military keenness by reason of the largeness and

darkness of their aspect, acquired thereby a softness of expression that was in part womanly. His mouth as far

as it could be seen reproduced this characteristic, which might have been called weakness, or goodness,

according to the mental attitude of the observer. It was large but well formed, and showed an unimpaired line

of teeth within. His dress at present was a heathercoloured rural suit, cut close to his figure.

'You knew my cousin, Jack Ravensbury?' he said to Somerset, as they went on. 'Poor Jack: he was a good

'He would have been made a parson if he had livedit was his great wish. I, as his senior, and a man of the

world as I thought myself, used to chaff him about it when he was a boy, and tell him not to be a milksop, but

to enter the army. But I think Jack was rightthe parsons have the best of it, I see now.'

'Nor I,' said the captain's sister. 'See how lovely you all looked with your big guns and uniform when you

entered Markton; and then see how stupid the parsons look by comparison, when they flock into Markton at a

and so on, there arises a strong desire for a quiet old fashioned country life, in which incessant movement is

'Well, men about here are youths at that age. It was India used you up so, when you served in the line, was it

'So do I,' said De Stancy drily. 'But I ought to grow a youth again, like the rest, now I am in my native air.'

They came to a narrow brook, not wider than a man's stride, and Miss De Stancy halted on the edge.

'Why, Lottie, you used to jump it easily enough,' said her brother. 'But we won't make her do it now.' He took

her in his arms, and lifted her over, giving her a gratuitous ride for some additional yards, and saying, 'You

are not a pound heavier, Lott, than you were at ten years old. . . . What do you think of the country here, Mr.

'I think very well of it,' said Somerset. 'But I leave to morrow morning, which makes it necessary that I turn

'That's a disappointment. I had hoped you were going to finish out the autumn with shooting. There's some,

'But you need not hire any!' spoke up Charlotte. 'Paula would let you shoot anything, I am sure. She has not

been here long enough to preserve much game, and the poachers had it all in Mr. Wilkins' time. But what

'No, thank you,' said De Stancy grimly. 'I prefer to remain a stranger to Miss PowerMiss SteamPower,

Charlotte was subdued, and did not insist further; while Somerset, before he could feel himself able to decide

on the mood in which the gallant captain's joke at Paula's expense should be taken, wondered whether it were

He had not been able to keep the question of De Stancy's domestic state out of his head from the first moment

of seeing him. Assuming De Stancy to be a husband, he felt there might be some excuse for his remark; if

unmarried, Somerset liked the satire still better; in such circumstances there was a relief in the thought that

Captain De Stancy's prejudices might be infinitely stronger than those of his sister or father.

'Going tomorrow, did you say, Mr. Somerset?' asked Miss De Stancy. 'Then will you dine with us today?

My father is anxious that you should do so before you go. I am sorry there will be only our own family

Her brother seconded the invitation, and Somerset promised, though his leisure for that evening was short. He

was in truth somewhat inclined to like De Stancy; for though the captain had said nothing of any value either

on war, commerce, science, or art, he had seemed attractive to the younger man. Beyond the natural interest a

soldier has for imaginative minds in the civil walks of life, De Stancy's occasional manifestations of taedium

vitae were too poetically shaped to be repellent. Gallantry combined in him with a sort of ascetic

selfrepression in a way that was curious. He was a dozen years older than Somerset: his life had been passed

in grooves remote from those of Somerset's own life; and the latter decided that he would like to meet the

Bidding them a temporary farewell, he went away to Markton by a shorter path than that pursued by the De

Stancys, and after spending the remainder of the afternoon preparing for departure, he sallied forth just before

He had become yet more curious whether a Mrs. De Stancy existed; if there were one he would probably see

her tonight. He had an irrepressible hope that there might be such a lady. On entering the drawingroom

only the father, son, and daughter were assembled. Somerset fell into talk with Charlotte during the few

The dinner having been fixed at an early hour to suit Somerset, they had returned to the drawingroom at

'There would have been no hurry,' said Somerset, 'had I not just remembered that I have left one thing undone

which I want to attend to before my departure. I want to see the chief constable tonight.'

'Cunningham Haze?he is the very man I too want to see. But he went out of town this afternoon, and I

'I have left word at his house asking him to call here if he gets home before halfpast ten; but at any rate I

shall see him tomorrow morning. Can I do anything for you, since you are leaving early?'

Somerset replied that the business was of no great importance, and briefly explained the suspected intrusion

into his studio; that he had with him a photograph of the suspected young man. 'If it is a mistake,' added

Somerset, 'I should regret putting my draughtsman's portrait into the hands of the police, since it might injure

his character; indeed, it would be unfair to him. So I wish to keep the likeness in my own hands, and merely

'My matter with Haze is that the barrack furniture does not correspond with the inventories. If you like, I'll

Thereupon Somerset gave Captain De Stancy an unfastened envelope containing the portrait, asking him to

destroy it if the constable should declare it not to correspond with the face that met his eye at the window.

He had not been absent ten minutes when other wheels were heard on the gravel without, and the servant

announced Mr. Cunningham Haze, who had returned earlier than he had expected, and had called as

They went into the diningroom to discuss their business. When the barrack matter had been arranged De

Stancy said, 'I have a little commission to execute for my friend Mr. Somerset. I am to ask you if this portrait

of the person he suspects of unlawfully entering his room is like the man you saw there?'

The speaker was seated on one side of the diningtable and Mr. Haze on the other. As he spoke De Stancy

pulled the envelope from his pocket, and half drew out the photograph, which he had not as yet looked at, to

hand it over to the constable. In the act his eye fell upon the portrait, with its uncertain expression of age,

Captain De Stancy's face became strained, and he leant back in his chair, having previously had sufficient

'It was only momentary,' said De Stancy; 'better in a minute a glass of water will put me right.'

'These spasms occasionally overtake me,' said De Stancy when he had drunk. 'I am already better. What were

we saying? O, this affair of Mr. Somerset's. I find that this envelope is not the right one.' He ostensibly

searched his pocket again. 'I must have mislaid it,' he continued, rising. 'I'll be with you again in a moment.'

De Stancy went into the room adjoining, opened an album of portraits that lay on the table, and selected one

of a young man quite unknown to him, whose age was somewhat akin to Dare's, but who in no other attribute

De Stancy placed this picture in the original envelope, and returned with it to the chief constable, saying he

'Thank you, thank you,' said Cunningham Haze, looking it over. 'AhI perceive it is not what I expected to

When the chief constable had left the house, Captain De Stancy shut the door and drew out the original

photograph. As he looked at the transcript of Dare's features he was moved by a painful agitation, till

During the following days Captain De Stancy's manner on the roads, in the streets, and at barracks, was that

Anybody who had closely considered Dare at this time would have discovered that, shortly after the arrival of

the Royal Horse Artillery at Markton Barracks, he gave up his room at the inn at SleepingGreen and took

permanent lodgings over a broker's shop in the town abovementioned. The peculiarity of the rooms was that

they commanded a view lengthwise of the barrack lane along which any soldier, in the natural course of

things, would pass either to enter the town, to call at Myrtle Villa, or to go to Stancy Castle.

Dare seemed to act as if there were plenty of time for his business. Some few days had slipped by when,

perceiving Captain De Stancy walk past his window and into the town, Dare took his hat and cane, and

followed in the same direction. When he was about fifty yards short of Myrtle Villa on the other side of the

Dare mounted a stile beside the highway and patiently waited. In about twenty minutes De Stancy came out

again and turned back in the direction of the town, till Dare was revealed to him on his left hand. When De

Stancy recognized the youth he was visibly agitated, though apparently not surprised. Standing still a moment

he dropped his glance upon the ground, and then came forward to Dare, who having alighted from the stile

'My dear lad!' said De Stancy, much moved by recollections. He held Dare's hand for a moment in both his

'You are not astonished,' said Dare, still retaining his smile, as if to his mind there were something comic in

'From going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it, as Satan said to his

'Entirely. I divined that your next quarters would be Markton, the previous batteries that were at your station

'I am rather out of cash. I have been knocking about a good deal since you last heard from me.'

'But, Willy, I am afraid it will not be much at present. You know I am as poor as a mouse.'

'I have a better plan. By getting over this stile we could go round at the back of the villas to SleepingGreen

Church. There is always a penandink in the vestry, and we can have a nice talk on the way. It would be

De Stancy sighed, and they were about to walk across the fields together. 'No,' said Dare, suddenly stopping:

my plans make it imperative that we should not run the risk of being seen in each other's company for long.

Walk on, and I will follow. You can stroll into the churchyard, and move about as if you were ruminating on

the epitaphs. There are some with excellent morals. I'll enter by the other gate, and we can meet easily in the

De Stancy looked gloomy, and was on the point of acquiescing when he turned back and said, 'Why should

'Somerset the architect. He suspects your having broken into his office or something of the sort.' De Stancy

'It was merely diamond cut diamond between us, on an architectural matter,' murmured Dare. 'Ho! and he

'I peeped at his drawingthat's all. But since he chooses to make that use of my photograph, which I gave

him in friendship, I'll make use of his in a way he little dreams of. Well now, let's on.'

A quarter of an hour later they met in the vestry of the church at SleepingGreen.

'I have only just transferred my account to the bank here,' said De Stancy, as he took out his chequebook,

'and it will be more convenient to me at present to draw but a small sum. I will make up the balance

When he had written it Dare glanced over the paper and said ruefully, 'It is small, dad. Well, there is all the

more reason why I should broach my scheme, with a view to making such documents larger in the future.'

'I shall be glad to hear of any such scheme,' answered De Stancy, with a languid attempt at jocularity.

'Then here it is. The plan I have arranged for you is of the nature of a marriage.'

'The lady's name is Miss Paula Power, who, as you may have heard since your arrival, is in absolute

possession of her father's property and estates, including Stancy Castle. As soon as I heard of her I saw what

a marvellous match it would be for you, and your family; it would make a man of you, in short, and I have set

'But, Willy, it seems to me that, of us two, it is you who exercise paternal authority?'

'Well, one must be indulgent under the circumstances, I suppose. . . . But,' added De Stancy simply, 'Willy,

Idon't want to marry, you know. I have lately thought that some day we may be able to live together, you

and I: go off to America or New Zealand, where we are not known, and there lead a quiet, pastoral life,

'I can't hear of it, captain,' replied Dare reprovingly. 'I am what events have made me, and having fixed my

mind upon getting you settled in life by this marriage, I have put things in train for it at an immense trouble to

myself. If you had thought over it o' nights as much as I have, you would not say nay.'

'But I ought to have married your mother if anybody. And as I have not married her, the least I can do in

'Yes, Willy, I admit that I have,' the elder replied reflectively. 'And I don't think I have failed in it thus far?'

'This will be the crowning proof. Paternal affection, family pride, the noble instincts to reinstate yourself in

the castle of your ancestors, all demand the step. And when you have seen the lady! She has the figure and

motions of a sylph, the face of an angel, the eye of love itself. What a sight she is crossing the lawn on a

sunny afternoon, or gliding airily along the corridors of the old place the De Stancys knew so well! Her lips

are the softest, reddest, most distracting things you ever saw. Her hair is as soft as silk, and of the rarest,

The captain moved uneasily. 'Don't take the trouble to say more, Willy,' he observed. 'You know how I am.

My cursed susceptibility to these matters has already wasted years of my life, and I don't want to make

'No, don't let me see her,' De Stancy expostulated. 'If she is only half so goodlooking as you say, she will

drag me at her heels like a blind Samson. You are a mere youth as yet, but I may tell you that the misfortune

of never having been my own master where a beautiful face was concerned obliges me to be cautious if I

'Well, to my mind, Captain De Stancy, your objections seem trivial. Are those all?'

De Stancy paused and looked at the lad as if his heart wished to confess what his judgment feared to tell.

'A vow of infinite solemnity. I must tell you from the beginning; perhaps you are old enough to hear it now,

though you have been too young before. Your mother's life ended in much sorrow, and it was occasioned

entirely by me. In my regret for the wrong done her I swore to her that though she had not been my wife, no

other woman should stand in that relationship to me; and this to her was a sort of comfort. When she was

dead my knowledge of my own plaguy impressionableness, which seemed to be ineradicableas it seems

stillled me to think what safeguards I could set over myself with a view to keeping my promise to live a

life of celibacy; and among other things I determined to forswear the society, and if possible the sight, of

'It is not so easy to avoid the sight of a beautiful woman if she crosses your path, I should think?'

'But do you mean to say, captain, that you can be in a room with a pretty woman who speaks to you, and not

'I do: though mere looking has less to do with it than mental attentivenessallowing your thoughts to flow

'But it would be considered very impolite not to look at the woman or comprehend her image?'

'It would, and is. I am considered the most impolite officer in the service. I have been nicknamed the man

with the averted eyesthe man with the detestable habitthe man who greets you with his shoulder, and so

on. Ninetyandnine fair women at the present moment hate me like poison and death for having persistently

'I cannot alwaysI break down sometimes. But, upon the whole, recollection holds me to it: dread of a

De Stancy narrated these details in a grave meditative tone with his eyes on the wall, as if he were scarcely

'But haven't you reckless moments, captain?when you have taken a little more wine than usual, for

'Not a pledged onebut I don't touch alcohol unless I get wet, or anything of that sort.'

De Stancy held up his left hand, on the third finger of which appeared an iron ring.

Dare surveyed it, saying, 'Yes, I have seen that before, though I never knew why you wore it. Well, I wear a

He threw open his shirtfront, and revealed tattooed on his breast the letters DE STANCY; the same marks

The captain rather winced at the sight. 'Well, well,' he said hastily, 'that's enough. . . . Now, at any rate, you

'But, captain,' said the lad coaxingly, as he fastened his shirt; 'you forget me and the good you may do me by

marrying? Surely that's a sufficient reason for a change of sentiment. This inexperienced sweet creature owns

the castle and estate which bears your name, even to the furniture and pictures. She is the possessor of at least

forty thousand a yearhow much more I cannot saywhile, buried here in Outer Wessex, she lives at the

'It is very good of you to set this before me. But I prefer to go on as I am going.'

'Well, I won't bore you any more with her today. A monk in regimentals!'tis strange.' Dare arose and was

about to open the door, when, looking through the window, Captain De Stancy said, 'Stop.' He had perceived

'Yes, indeed,' said Dare, turning the key in the door. 'It would look strange if he were to find us here.'

As the old man seemed indisposed to leave the churchyard just yet they sat down again.

'What a capital cardtable this green cloth would make,' said Dare, as they waited. 'You play, captain, I

'The same with me. But as I enjoy a hand of cards with a friend, I don't go unprovided.' Saying which, Dare

drew a pack from the tail of his coat. 'Shall we while away this leisure with the witching things?'

'But, Willy, why do you care for these things? Cards are harmless enough in their way; but I don't like to see

'It was by the merest chance I had them. Now come, just one hand, since we are prisoners. I want to show you

'Of course not,' said De Stancy, as if ashamed of what his objection implied. 'You are not corrupt enough

The cards were dealt and they began to playCaptain De Stancy abstractedly, and with his eyes mostly

straying out of the window upon the large yew, whose boughs as they moved were distorted by the old green

'It is better than doing nothing,' said Dare cheerfully, as the game went on. 'I hope you don't dislike it?'

'And the consecration of this place does not extend further than the aisle wall.'

'Doesn't it?' said De Stancy, as he mechanically played out his cards. 'What became of that box of books I

'Well, as I hadn't time to read them, and as I knew you would not like them to be wasted, I sold them to a

bloke who peruses them from morning till night. Ah, now you have lost a fiver altogetherhow queer! We'll

double the stakes. So, as I was saying, just at the time the books came I got an inkling of this important

De Stancy sighed impatiently. 'I wish you were less calculating, and had more of the impulse natural to your

'Gameby Jove! You have lost again, captain. That makes let me seenine pounds fifteen to square us.'

'I owe you that?' said De Stancy, startled. 'It is more than I have in cash. I must write another cheque.'

'Never mind. Make it payable to yourself, and our connection will be quite unsuspected.'

Captain De Stancy did as requested, and rose from his seat. Sir William, though further off, was still in the

'How can you hesitate for a moment about this girl?' said Dare, pointing to the bent figure of the old man.

'Think of the satisfaction it would be to him to see his son within the family walls again. It should be a

'Well, well, I'll think of it,' said the captain, with an impatient laugh. 'You are quite a Mephistopheles,

'Would that you were! Fifteen years ago I might have called the chance a magnificent one.'

'But you are a young man still, and you look younger than you are. Nobody knows our relationship, and I am

not such a fool as to divulge it. Of course, if through me you reclaim this splendid possession, I should leave

Sir William had by this time cleared out of the churchyard, and the pair emerged from the vestry and

departed. Proceeding towards Markton by the same bypath, they presently came to an eminence covered with

bushes of blackthorn, and tufts of yellowing fern. From this point a good view of the woods and glades about

Stancy Castle could be obtained. Dare stood still on the top and stretched out his finger; the captain's eye

followed the direction, and he saw above the manyhued foliage in the middle distance the towering keep of

'That's the goal of your ambition, captainambition do I say?most righteous and dutiful endeavour! How

the hoary shape catches the sunlightit is the raison d'etre of the landscape, and its possession is coveted by

a thousand hearts. Surely it is an hereditary desire of yours? You must make a point of returning to it, and

appearing in the map of the future as in that of the past. I delight in this work of encouraging you, and

pushing you forward towards your own. You are really very clever, you know, butI say it with

'Because I know the day is not so bright as it seems, my boy. However, you make a little mistake. If I care for

anything on earth, I do care for that old fortress of my forefathers. I respect so little among the living that all

my reverence is for my own dead. But manoeuvring, even for my own, as you call it, is not in my line. It is

'Well, well, let it stand thus for the present. But will you refuse me one little requestmerely to see her? I'll

contrive it so that she may not see you. Don't refuse me, it is the one thing I ask, and I shall think it hard if

'O Will!' said the captain wearily. 'Why will you plead so? Noeven though your mind is particularly set

upon it, I cannot see her, or bestow a thought upon her, much as I should like to gratify you.'

When they had parted Dare walked along towards Markton with resolve on his mouth and an unscrupulous

light in his prominent black eye. Could any person who had heard the previous conversation have seen him

now, he would have found little difficulty in divining that, notwithstanding De Stancy's obduracy, the

reinstation of Captain De Stancy in the castle, and the possible legitimation and enrichment of himself, was

still the dream of his brain. Even should any legal settlement or offspring intervene to nip the extreme

development of his projects, there was abundant opportunity for his glorification. Two conditions were

imperative. De Stancy must see Paula before Somerset's return. And it was necessary to have help from

Whether Havill already knew all was a nice question for Mr. Dare's luminous mind. Havill had had

opportunities of reading his secret, particularly on the night they occupied the same room. If so, by revealing

it to Paula, Havill might utterly blast his project for the marriage. Havill, then, was at all risks to be retained

Yet Dare would have preferred a stronger check upon his confederate than was afforded by his own

knowledge of that anonymous letter and the competition trick. For were the competition lost to him, Havill

would have no further interest in conciliating Miss Power; would as soon as not let her know the secret of De

Fortune as usual helped him in his dilemma. Entering Havill's office, Dare found him sitting there; but the

drawings had all disappeared from the boards. The architect held an open letter in his hand.

'Miss Power has returned to the castle, Somerset is detained in London, and the competition is decided,' said

'No. We are bracketedit's a tie. The judges say there is no choice between the designsthat they are

singularly equal and singularly good. That she would do well to adopt either. Signed SoandSo, Fellows of

the Royal Institute of British Architects. The result is that she will employ which she personally likes best. It

is as if I had spun a sovereign in the air and it had alighted on its edge. The least false movement will make it

'Singularly equal. Well, we owe that to our nocturnal visit, which must not be known.'

Dare felt secure of him at those words. Havill had much at stake; the slightest rumour of his trick in bringing

'The permanent absence of Somerset then is desirable architecturally on your account, matrimonially on

'Matrimonially? By the waywho was that captain you pointed out to me when the artillery entered the

'Captain De Stancyson of Sir William De Stancy. He's the husband. O, you needn't look incredulous: it is

practicable; but we won't argue that. In the first place I want him to see her, and to see her in the most

lovekindling, passion begetting circumstances that can be thought of. And he must see her surreptitiously,

'Which it hardly is. Well, you had better think it over and make inquiries about her habits, and as to when she

Shortly afterwards Dare took his leave. In the evening he made it his business to sit smoking on the bole of a

tree which commanded a view of the upper ward of the castle, and also of the old posterngate, now enlarged

and used as a tradesmen's entrance. It was halfpast six o'clock; the dressingbell rang, and Dare saw a

lightfooted young woman hasten at the sound across the ward from the servants' quarter. A light appeared in

a chamber which he knew to be Paula's dressingroom; and there it remained halfanhour, a shadow

passing and repassing on the blind in the style of headdress worn by the girl he had previously seen. The

As yet it was scarcely dark out of doors, and in a few minutes Dare had the satisfaction of seeing the same

woman cross the ward and emerge upon the slope without. This time she was bonneted, and carried a little

basket in her hand. A nearer view showed her to be, as he had expected, Milly Birch, Paula's maid, who had

friends living in Markton, whom she was in the habit of visiting almost every evening during the three hours

of leisure which intervened between Paula's retirement from the dressingroom and return thither at ten

o'clock. When the young woman had descended the road and passed into the large drive, Dare rose and

'O, it is you, Miss Birch,' said Dare, on overtaking her. 'I am glad to have the pleasure of walking by your

'No. And do you get a walk like this every evening when the others are at their busiest?'

'Almost every evening; that's the one return to the poor lady's maid for losing her leisure when the others get

'When does she appear to the best advantage? When riding, or driving, or reading her book?'

'Perhaps it is when she sits looking in the glass at herself, and you let down her hair.'

'She's middling, then. But there is one time when she looks nicer and cleverer than at any. It is when she is in

'Because when she is there she wears such a pretty boy's costume, and is so charming in her movements, that

'Not so much as she used to. Only on wet mornings now, when she can't get out for walks or drives. But she

'I am a poor artist, and can't afford models. To see her attitudes would be of great assistance to me in the art I

Milly shook her head. 'She's very strict about the door being locked. If I were to leave it open she would

'But consider, dear Miss Birch, the advantage to a poor artist the sight of her would be: if you could hold the

'No,' said the incorruptible Milly, shaking her head. 'Besides, I don't always go there with her. O no, I

When he had left her he returned to the castle grounds, and though there was not much light he had no

difficulty in discovering the gymnasium, the outside of which he had observed before, without thinking to

inquire its purpose. Like the erections in other parts of the shrubberies it was constructed of wood, the

interstices between the framing being filled up with short billets of fir nailed diagonally. Dare, even when

without a settled plan in his head, could arrange for probabilities; and wrenching out one of the billets he

looked inside. It seemed to be a simple oblong apartment, fitted up with ropes, with a little dressingcloset at

one end, and lighted by a skylight or lantern in the roof. Dare replaced the wood and went on his way.

Havill was smoking on his doorstep when Dare passed up the street. He held up his hand.

'Since you have been gone,' said the architect, 'I've hit upon something that may help you in exhibiting your

lady to your gentleman. In the summer I had orders to design a gymnasium for her, which I did; and they say

'I've discovered it. I shall contrive for him to see her there on the first wet morning, which is when she

'As you may have heard, she holds advanced views on social and other matters; and in those on the higher

education of women she is very strong, talking a good deal about the physical training of the Greeks, whom

she adores, or did. Every philosopher and man of science who ventilates his theories in the monthly reviews

has a devout listener in her; and this subject of the physical development of her sex has had its turn with other

things in her mind. So she had the place built on her very first arrival, according to the latest lights on

The wet day arrived with all the promptness that might have been expected of it in this land of rains and

mists. The alder bushes behind the gymnasium dripped monotonously leaf upon leaf, added to this being the

purl of the shallow stream a little way off, producing a sense of satiety in watery sounds. Though there was

drizzle in the open meads, the rain here in the thicket was comparatively slight, and two men with fishing

tackle who stood beneath one of the larger bushes found its boughs a sufficient shelter.

'We may as well walk home again as study nature here, Willy,' said the taller and elder of the twain. 'I feared

it would continue when we started. The magnificent sport you speak of must rest for today.'

'Come, let us move on. I don't like intruding into other people's grounds like this,' De Stancy continued.

'We are not intruding. Anybody walks outside this fence.' He indicated an iron railing newly tarred, dividing

the wilder underwood amid which they stood from the inner and wellkept parts of the shrubbery, and

Light footsteps upon a gravel walk could be heard on the other side of the fence, and a trio of cloaked and

umbrellascreened figures were for a moment discernible. They vanished behind the gymnasium; and again

nothing resounded but the river murmurs and the clocklike drippings of the leafage.

'And you should trust to my good sense, captain,' Dare remonstrated. 'I have not indulged in a prank since the

sixth year of my pilgrimage. I have found them too damaging to my interests. Well, it is not too dry here, and

damp injures your health, you say. Have a pull for safety's sake.' He presented a flask to De Stancy.

'Too much,' said De Stancy with misgiving. 'I have been taken unawares. Why, it is three parts brandy, to my

The speaker advanced to the back of the building, and withdrew the wood billet from the wall.

'Will, I believe you are up to some trick,' said De Stancy, not, however, suspecting the actual truth in these

unsuggestive circumstances, and with a comfortable resignation, produced by the potent liquor, which would

have been comical to an outsider, but which, to one who had known the history and relationship of the two

speakers, would have worn a sadder significance. 'I am too big a fool about you to keep you down as I ought;

He pressed the youth's hand with a smile, went forward, and looked through the hole into the interior of the

gymnasium. Dare withdrew to some little distance, and watched Captain De Stancy's face, which presently

Paula, in a pink flannel costume, was bending, wheeling and undulating in the air like a goldfish in its

globe, sometimes ascending by her arms nearly to the lantern, then lowering herself till she swung level with

the floor. Her aunt Mrs. Goodman, and Charlotte De Stancy, were sitting on campstools at one end,

watching her gyrations, Paula occasionally addressing them with such an expression as'Now, Aunt, look at

meand you, Charlotteis not that shocking to your weak nerves,' when some adroit feat would be

repeated, which, however, seemed to give much more pleasure to Paula herself in performing it than to Mrs.

Goodman in looking on, the latter sometimes saying, 'O, it is terrificdo not run such a risk again!'

It would have demanded the poetic passion of some joyous Elizabethan lyrist like Lodge, Nash, or Constable,

to fitly phrase Paula's presentation of herself at this moment of absolute abandonment to every muscular

whim that could take possession of such a supple form. The white manilla ropes clung about the performer

like snakes as she took her exercise, and the colour in her face deepened as she went on. Captain De Stancy

felt that, much as he had seen in early life of beauty in woman, he had never seen beauty of such a real and

living sort as this. A recollection of his vow, together with a sense that to gaze on the festival of this Bona

Dea was, though so innocent and pretty a sight, hardly fair or gentlemanly, would have compelled him to

withdraw his eyes, had not the sportive fascination of her appearance glued them there in spite of all. And as

if to complete the picture of Grace personified and add the one thing wanting to the charm which bound him,

the clouds, till that time thick in the sky, broke away from the upper heaven, and allowed the noonday sun to

pour down through the lantern upon her, irradiating her with a warm light that was incarnadined by her pink

doublet and hose, and reflected in upon her face. She only required a cloud to rest on instead of the green silk

net which actually supported her reclining figure for the moment, to be quite Olympian; save indeed that in

place of haughty effrontery there sat on her countenance only the healthful sprightliness of an English girl.

Dare had withdrawn to a point at which another path crossed the path occupied by De Stancy. Looking in a

side direction, he saw Havill idling slowly up to him over the silent grass. Havill's knowledge of the

appointment had brought him out to see what would come of it. When he neared Dare, but was still partially

hidden by the boughs from the third of the party, the former simply pointed to De Stancy upon which Havill

Dare nodded, and whispered, 'You need not have asked, if you had examined his face.'

'A fermentation is beginning in him,' said Dare, half pitifully; 'a purely chemical process; and when it is

complete he will probably be clear, and fiery, and sparkling, and quite another man than the good, weak, easy

To precisely describe Captain De Stancy's admiration was impossible. A sun seemed to rise in his face. By

watching him they could almost see the aspect of her within the wall, so accurately were her changing phases

'And is this,' he murmured, in the manner of one only half apprehending himself, 'and is this the end of my

Paula was saying at this moment, 'Ariel sleeps in this posture, does he not, Auntie?' Suiting the action to the

word she flung out her arms behind her head as she lay in the green silk hammock, idly closed her pink

Captain De Stancy was a changed man. A hitherto well repressed energy was giving him motion towards

longshunned consequences. His features were, indeed, the same as before; though, had a physiognomist

chosen to study them with the closeness of an astronomer scanning the universe, he would doubtless have

In recent years De Stancy had been an easy, melancholy, unaspiring officer, enervated and depressed by a

parental affection quite beyond his control for the graceless lad Dare the obtrusive memento of a shadowy

period in De Stancy's youth, who threatened to be the curse of his old age. Throughout a long space he had

persevered in his system of rigidly incarcerating within himself all instincts towards the opposite sex, with a

resolution that would not have disgraced a much stronger man. By this habit, maintained with fair success, a

chamber of his nature had been preserved intact during many later years, like the one solitary sealedup cell

occasionally retained by bees in a lobe of drained honeycomb. And thus, though he had irretrievably

exhausted the relish of society, of ambition, of action, and of his profession, the loveforce that he had kept

The sight of Paula in her graceful performance, which the judicious Dare had so carefully planned, led up to

and heightened by subtle accessories, operated on De Stancy's surprised soul with a promptness almost

On the evening of the selfsame day, having dined as usual, he retired to his rooms, where he found a hamper

of wine awaiting him. It had been anonymously sent, and the account was paid. He smiled grimly, but no

longer with heaviness. In this he instantly recognized the handiwork of Dare, who, having at last broken

down the barrier which De Stancy had erected round his heart for so many years, acted like a skilled

strategist, and took swift measures to follow up the advantage so tardily gained.

Captain De Stancy knew himself conquered: he knew he should yield to Paulahad indeed yielded; but

there was now, in his solitude, an hour or two of reaction. He did not drink from the bottles sent. He went

early to bed, and lay tossing thereon till far into the night, thinking over the collapse. His teetotalism had,

with the lapse of years, unconsciously become the outward and visible sign to himself of his secret vows; and

a return to its opposite, however mildly done, signified with ceremonious distinctness the formal acceptance

But the exceeding freshness of his feeling for Paula, which by reason of its long arrest was that of a man far

under thirty, and was a wonder to himself every instant, would not long brook weighing in balances. He

wished suddenly to commit himself; to remove the question of retreat out of the region of debate. The clock

struck two: and the wish became determination. He arose, and wrapping himself in his dressinggown went

to the next room, where he took from a shelf in the pantry several large bottles, which he carried to the

window, till they stood on the sill a goodly row. There had been sufficient light in the room for him to do this

without a candle. Now he softly opened the sash, and the radiance of a gibbous moon riding in the opposite

sky flooded the apartment. It fell on the labels of the captain's bottles, revealing their contents to be simple

De Stancy looked out and listened. The guns that stood drawn up within the yard glistened in the moonlight

reaching them from over the barrackwall: there was an occasional stamp of horses in the stables; also a

measured tread of sentinelsone or more at the gates, one at the hospital, one between the wings, two at the

magazine, and others further off. Recurring to his intention he drew the corks of the mineral waters, and

inverting each bottle one by one over the windowsill, heard its contents dribble in a small stream on to the

He then opened the hamper which Dare had sent. Uncorking one of the bottles he murmured, 'To Paula!' and

'A man again after eighteen years,' he said, shutting the sash and returning to his bedroom.

The first overt result of his kindled interest in Miss Power was his saying to his sister the day after the

surreptitious sight of Paula: 'I am sorry, Charlotte, for a word or two I said the other day.'

'Yes. When we were walking in the wood, I made a stupid joke about her. . . . What does she know about

'You know well enough, William; of your idiosyncrasies and so onthat you are a bit of a womanhater, or

at least a confirmed bachelor, and have but little respect for your own family.'

'But I thought you always liked women to know your principles!' said Charlotte, in injured tones; 'and would

'Yes, yes,' replied her brother hastily. 'Well, I ought to see her, just to show her that I am not quite a brute.'

'That would be very nice!' she answered, putting her hands together in agreeable astonishment. 'It is just what

I have wished, though I did not dream of suggesting it after what I have heard you say. I am going to stay

'Don't tell her anything plainly, for heaven's sake. I really want to see the interior of the castle; I have never

entered its walls since my babyhood.' He raised his eyes as he spoke to where the walls in question showed

'O yes. It is only recently that I have thought much of the place: I feel now that I should like to examine the

old building thoroughly, since it was for so many generations associated with our fortunes, especially as most

of the old furniture is still there. My sedulous avoidance hitherto of all relating to our family vicissitudes has

been, I own, stupid conduct for an intelligent being; but impossible grapes are always sour, and I have

unconsciously adopted Radical notions to obliterate disappointed hereditary instincts. But these have a trick

of reestablishing themselves as one gets older, and the castle and what it contains have a keen interest for

De Stancy's pulse, which had been beating languidly for many years, beat double at the sound of that name.

'I meant furniture and pictures for the moment,' he said; 'but I don't mind extending the meaning to her, if you

'The castle and our family history have as much romantic interest for her as they have for you,' Charlotte went

on. 'She delights in visiting our tombs and effigies and ponders over them for hours.'

'Indeed!' said De Stancy, allowing his surprise to hide the satisfaction which accompanied it. 'That should

'Not many as yet. And she cannot have many staying there during the alterations.'

'Ah! yesthe alterations. Didn't you say that she has had a London architect stopping there on that account?

'He is a young man: he has been to our house. Don't you remember you met him there?'

'Your face is as red as a peony. Now I know a secret!' Charlotte vainly endeavoured to hide her confusion.

'Very wellnot a word! I won't say more,' continued De Stancy goodhumouredly, 'except that he seems to

De Stancy had turned the dialogue on to this little well preserved secret of his sister's with sufficient

outward lightness; but it had been done in instinctive concealment of the disquieting start with which he had

recognized that Somerset, Dare's enemy, whom he had intercepted in placing Dare's portrait into the hands of

the chief constable, was a man beloved by his sister Charlotte. This novel circumstance might lead to a

'He may be very nice,' replied Charlotte, with an effort, after this silence. 'But he is nothing to me, more than

'Certainly there's not!' said Charlotte, with brave emphasis. 'It is more likely to be between Paula and him

De Stancy's bare military ears and closely cropped poll flushed hot. 'Miss Power and him?'

'I don't mean to say there is, because Paula denies it; but I mean that he loves Paula. That I do know.'

De Stancy was dumb. This item of news which Dare had kept from him, not knowing how far De Stancy's

sense of honour might extend, was decidedly grave. Indeed, he was so greatly impressed with the fact, that he

'Why!' she murmured tremblingly, for the first leaking out of her tender and sworn secret had disabled her

'I have seen herby accident. And now, my dear little sis, you will be my close ally, won't you? as I will be

yours, as brother and sister should be.' He placed his arm coaxingly round Charlotte's shoulder.

'Why, how can't you, I should say? We are both in the same ship. I love Paula, you love Mr. Somerset; it

'I don't like you to put it like thatthat I love himit frightens me,' murmured the girl, visibly agitated. 'I

don't want to divide him from Paula; I couldn't, I wouldn't do anything to separate them. Believe me, Will, I

could not! I am sorry you love there also, though I should be glad if it happened in the natural order of events

that she should come round to you. But I cannot do anything to part them and make Mr. Somerset suffer. It

'Now, you silly Charlotte, that's just how you women fly off at a tangent. I mean nothing dishonourable in the

least. Have I ever prompted you to do anything dishonourable? Fair fighting allies was all I thought of.'

Miss De Stancy breathed more freely. 'Yes, we will be that, of course; we are always that, William. But I

'Well, I suppose it will not be a breach of your precious neutrality if you get me invited to see the castle?'

'O no!' she said brightly; 'I don't mind doing such a thing as that. Why not come with me tomorrow? I will

De Stancy readily agreed. The effect upon him of the information now acquired was to intensify his ardour

tenfold, the stimulus being due to a perception that Somerset, with a little more knowledge, would hold a card

which could be played with disastrous effect against himselfhis relationship to Dare. Its disclosure to a

lady of such Puritan antecedents as Paula's, would probably mean her immediate severance from himself as

'Is Miss Power a severe pietist, or precisian; or is she a compromising lady?' he asked abruptly.

'She is severe and uncompromisingif you mean in her judgments on morals,' said Charlotte, not quite

He spent some following hours in a close study of the castle history, which till now had unutterably bored

him. More particularly did he dwell over documents and notes which referred to the pedigree of his own

family. He wrote out the names of alland they were manywho had been born within those domineering

walls since their first erection; of those among them who had been brought thither by marriage with the

owner, and of stranger knights and gentlemen who had entered the castle by marriage with its mistress. He

refreshed his memory on the strange loves and hates that had arisen in the course of the family history; on

memorable attacks, and the dates of the same, the most memorable among them being the occasion on which

the party represented by Paula battered down the castle walls that she was now about to mend, and, as he

hoped, return in their original intact shape to the family dispossessed, by marriage with himself, its living

In Sir William's villa were small engravings after many of the portraits in the castle galleries, some of them

hanging in the diningroom in plain oak and maple frames, and others preserved in portfolios. De Stancy

spent much of his time over these, and in getting up the romances of their originals' lives from memoirs and

other records, all which stories were as great novelties to him as they could possibly be to any stranger. Most

interesting to him was the life of an Edward De Stancy, who had lived just before the Civil Wars, and to

whom Captain De Stancy bore a very traceable likeness. This ancestor had a mole on his cheek, black and

distinct as a fly in cream; and as in the case of the first Lord Amherst's wart, and Bennet Earl of Arlington's

nosescar, the painter had faithfully reproduced the defect on canvas. It so happened that the captain had a

mole, though not exactly on the same spot of his face; and this made the resemblance still greater.

He took infinite trouble with his dress that day, showing an amount of anxiety on the matter which for him

was quite abnormal. At last, when fully equipped, he set out with his sister to make the call proposed.

Charlotte was rather unhappy at sight of her brother's earnest attempt to make an impression on Paula; but she

It was the darkest of November weather, when the days are so short that morning seems to join with evening

without the intervention of noon. The sky was lined with low cloud, within whose dense substance tempests

were slowly fermenting for the coming days. Even now a windy turbulence troubled the halfnaked boughs,

and a lonely leaf would occasionally spin downwards to rejoin on the grass the scathed multitude of its

comrades which had preceded it in its fall. The river by the pavilion, in the summer so clear and purling, now

Meanwhile Paula was alone. Of anyone else it would have been said that she must be finding the afternoon

rather dreary in the quaint halls not of her forefathers: but of Miss Power it was unsafe to predicate so surely.

She walked from room to room in a black velvet dress which gave decision to her outline without depriving it

of softness. She occasionally clasped her hands behind her head and looked out of a window; but she more

particularly bent her footsteps up and down the Long Gallery, where she had caused a large fire of logs to be

kindled, in her endeavour to extend cheerfulness somewhat beyond the precincts of the sittingrooms.

The fire glanced up on Paula, and Paula glanced down at the fire, and at the gnarled beech fuel, and at the

woodlice which ran out from beneath the bark to the extremity of the logs as the heat approached them. The

lowdown ruddy light spread over the dark floor like the setting sun over a moor, fluttering on the grotesque

countenances of the bright andirons, and touching all the furniture on the underside.

She now and then crossed to one of the deep embrasures of the windows, to decipher some sentence from a

letter she held in her hand. The daylight would have been more than sufficient for any bystander to discern

that the capitals in that letter were of the peculiar semigothic type affected at the time by Somerset and other

young architects of his school in their epistolary correspondence. She was very possibly thinking of him,

even when not reading his letter, for the expression of softness with which she perused the page was more or

She walked about for a little time longer, then put away the letter, looked at the clock, and thence returned to

the windows, straining her eyes over the landscape without, as she murmured, 'I wish Charlotte was not so

As Charlotte continued to keep away, Paula became less reasonable in her desires, and proceeded to wish that

Somerset would arrive; then that anybody would come; then, walking towards the portraits on the wall, she

flippantly asked one of those cavaliers to oblige her fancy for company by stepping down from his frame.

The temerity of the request led her to prudently withdraw it almost as soon as conceived: old paintings had

been said to play queer tricks in extreme cases, and the shadows this afternoon were funereal enough for

anything in the shape of revenge on an intruder who embodied the antagonistic modern spirit to such an

extent as she. However, Paula still stood before the picture which had attracted her; and this, by a coincidence

common enough in fact, though scarcely credited in chronicles, happened to be that one of the

seventeenthcentury portraits of which De Stancy had studied the engraved copy at Myrtle Villa the same

Whilst she remained before the picture, wondering her favourite wonder, how would she feel if this and its

accompanying canvases were pictures of her own ancestors, she was surprised by a light footstep upon the

carpet which covered part of the room, and turning quickly she beheld the smiling little figure of Charlotte De

Miss De Stancy's brother had been so continuously absent from home in India, or elsewhere, so little spoken

of, and, when spoken of, so truly though unconsciously represented as one whose interests lay wholly outside

this antiquated neighbourhood, that to Paula he had been a mere nebulosity whom she had never distinctly

outlined. To have him thus cohere into substance at a moment's notice lent him the novelty of a new creation.

And then Paula saw emerge into the red beams of the dancing fire, from behind a halfdrawn hanging which

screened the door, the military gentleman whose acquaintance the reader has already made.

'You know the house, doubtless, Captain De Stancy?' said Paula, somewhat shyly, when he had been

'I have never seen the inside since I was three weeks old,' replied the artillery officer gracefully; 'and hence

my recollections of it are not remarkably distinct. A year or two before I was born the entail was cut off by

my father and grandfather; so that I saw the venerable place only to lose it; at least, I believe that's the truth of

the case. But my knowledge of the transaction is not profound, and it is a delicate point on which to question

Paula assented, and looked at the interesting and noble figure of the man whose parents had seemingly

'The pictures and furniture were sold about the same time, I think?' said Charlotte.

'Yes,' murmured De Stancy. 'They went in a mad bargain of my father with his visitor, as they sat over their

He seemed to speak with such a courteous absence of regret for the alienation, that Paula, who was always

fearing that the recollection would rise as a painful shadow between herself and the De Stancys, felt reassured

De Stancy looked with interest round the gallery; seeing which Paula said she would have lights brought in a

'No, please not,' said De Stancy. 'The room and ourselves are of so much more interesting a colour by this

As they moved hither and thither, the various expressions of De Stancy's face made themselves picturesquely

visible in the unsteady shine of the blaze. In a short time he had drawn near to the painting of the ancestor

whom he so greatly resembled. When her quick eye noted the speck on the face, indicative of inherited traits

strongly pronounced, a new and romantic feeling that the De Stancys had stretched out a tentacle from their

genealogical tree to seize her by the hand and draw her in to their mass took possession of Paula. As has been

said, the De Stancys were a family on whom the hall mark of membership was deeply stamped, and by the

present light the representative under the portrait and the representative in the portrait seemed beings not far

removed. Paula was continually starting from a reverie and speaking irrelevantly, as if such reflections as

When candles were brought in Captain De Stancy ardently contrived to make the pictures the theme of

conversation. From the nearest they went to the next, whereupon Paula as hostess took up one of the

candlesticks and held it aloft to light up the painting. The candlestick being tall and heavy, De Stancy

relieved her of it, and taking another candle in the other hand, he imperceptibly slid into the position of

exhibitor rather than spectator. Thus he walked in advance holding the two candles on high, his shadow

forming a gigantic figure on the neighbouring wall, while he recited the particulars of family history

pertaining to each portrait, that he had learnt up with such eager persistence during the previous

fourandtwentyhours. 'I have often wondered what could have been the history of this lady, but nobody

has ever been able to tell me,' Paula observed, pointing to a Vandyck which represented a beautiful woman

wearing curls across her forehead, a squarecut bodice, and a heavy pearl necklace upon the smooth expanse

'O yes,' replied her brother promptly, seeing with enthusiasm that it was yet another opportunity for making

capital of his acquired knowledge, with which he felt himself as inconveniently crammed as a candidate for a

government examination. 'That lady has been largely celebrated under a fancy name, though she is

comparatively little known by her own. Her parents were the chief ornaments of the almost irreproachable

court of Charles the First, and were not more distinguished by their politeness and honour than by the

The stock verbiage of the family memoir was somewhat apparent in this effusion; but it much impressed his

listeners; and he went on to point out that from the lady's necklace was suspended a heartshaped

portraitthat of the man who broke his heart by her persistent refusal to encourage his suit. De Stancy then

led them a little further, where hung a portrait of the lover, one of his own family, who appeared in full

panoply of plate mail, the pommel of his sword standing up under his elbow. The gallant captain then related

how this personage of his line wooed the lady fruitlessly; how, after her marriage with another, she and her

husband visited the parents of the disappointed lover, the then occupiers of the castle; how, in a fit of

desperation at the sight of her, he retired to his room, where he composed some passionate verses, which he

wrote with his blood, and after directing them to her ran himself through the body with his sword. Too late

the lady's heart was touched by his devotion; she was ever after a melancholy woman, and wore his portrait

despite her husband's prohibition. 'This,' continued De Stancy, leading them through the doorway into the hall

where the coats of mail were arranged along the wall, and stopping opposite a suit which bore some

resemblance to that of the portrait, 'this is his armour, as you will perceive by comparing it with the picture,

'What unreasonable devotion!' said Paula practically. 'It was too romantic of him. She was not worthy of such

'He also is one whom they say you resemble a little in feature, I think,' said Charlotte.

'Do they?' replied De Stancy. 'I wonder if it's true.' He set down the candles, and asking the girls to withdraw

for a moment, was inside the upper part of the suit of armour in incredibly quick time. Going then and

placing himself in front of a lowhanging painting near the original, so as to be enclosed by the frame while

covering the figure, arranging the sword as in the one above, and setting the light that it might fall in the right

direction, he recalled them; when he put the question, 'Is the resemblance strong?'

He looked so much like a man of bygone times that neither of them replied, but remained curiously gazing at

him. His modern and comparatively sallow complexion, as seen through the open visor, lent an ethereal

ideality to his appearance which the timestained countenance of the original warrior totally lacked.

At last Paula spoke, so stilly that she seemed a statue enunciating: 'Are the verses known that he wrote with

'O yes, they have been carefully preserved.' Captain De Stancy, with true wooer's instinct, had committed

some of them to memory that morning from the printed copy to be found in every wellordered library. 'I fear

A solemn silence followed the close of the recital, which De Stancy improved by turning the point of the

'After writing that we may picture him turning this same sword in this same way, and falling on it thus.' He

De Stancy put away the sword, himself rather excitednot, however, by his own recital, but by the direct

This Protean quality of De Stancy's, by means of which he could assume the shape and situation of almost

any ancestor at will, had impressed her, and he perceived it with a throb of fervour. But it had done no more

than impress her; for though in delivering the lines he had so fixed his look upon her as to suggest, to any

maiden practised in the game of the eyes, a present significance in the words, the idea of any such

At this time a messenger from Markton barracks arrived at the castle and wished to speak to Captain De

Stancy in the hall. Begging the two ladies to excuse him for a moment, he went out.

While De Stancy was talking in the twilight to the messenger at one end of the apartment, some other arrival

was shown in by the side door, and in making his way after the conference across the hall to the room he had

previously quitted, De Stancy encountered the newcomer. There was just enough light to reveal the

countenance to be Dare's; he bore a portfolio under his arm, and had begun to wear a moustache, in case the

chief constable should meet him anywhere in his rambles, and be struck by his resemblance to the man in the

'What the devil are you doing here?' said Captain De Stancy, in tones he had never used before to the young

Dare started back in surprise, and naturally so. De Stancy, having adopted a new system of living, and

relinquished the meagre diet and enervating waters of his past years, was rapidly recovering tone. His voice

was firmer, his cheeks were less pallid; and above all he was authoritative towards his present companion,

whose ingenuity in vamping up a being for his ambitious experiments seemed about to be rewarded, like

'You can talk to me like that, after my working so hard to get you on in life, and make a rising man of you!'

expostulated Dare, as one who felt himself no longer the leader in this enterprise.

'But,' said the captain less harshly, 'if you let them discover any relations between us here, you will ruin the

'No; what I say is true. However, let that go. So now you are here on a call; but how are you going to get here

often enough to win her before the other man comes back? If you don't see her every daytwice, three times

'There is only one way of being constantly here: you must come to copy the pictures or furniture, something

'I'll think of it,' muttered De Stancy hastily, as he heard the voices of the ladies, whom he hastened to join as

they were appearing at the other end of the room. His countenance was gloomy as he recrossed the hall, for

Dare's words on the shortness of his opportunities had impressed him. Almost at once he uttered a hope to

Paula that he might have further chance of studying, and if possible of copying, some of the ancestral faces

Meanwhile Dare had come forward with his portfolio, which proved to be full of photographs. While Paula

and Charlotte were examining them he said to De Stancy, as a stranger: 'Excuse my interruption, sir, but if

you should think of copying any of the portraits, as you were stating just now to the ladies, my patent

photographic process is at your service, and is, I believe, the only one which would be effectual in the dim

'It is just what I was thinking of,' said De Stancy, now so far cooled down from his irritation as to be quite

On application to Paula she immediately gave De Stancy permission to photograph to any extent, and told

'Don't stare at her in such a brazen way!' whispered the latter to the young man, when Paula had withdrawn a

few steps. 'Say, "I shall highly value the privilege of assisting Captain De Stancy in such a work."'

Dare obeyed, and before leaving De Stancy arranged to begin performing on his venerated forefathers the

next morning, the youth so accidentally engaged agreeing to be there at the same time to assist in the

As he had promised, De Stancy made use the next day of the coveted permission that had been brought about

by the ingenious Dare. Dare's timely suggestion of tendering assistance had the practical result of relieving

the other of all necessity for occupying his time with the proceeding, further than to bestow a perfunctory

superintendence now and then, to give a colour to his regular presence in the fortress, the actual work of

The weather was frequently wet during these operations, and Paula, Miss De Stancy, and her brother, were

often in the house whole mornings together. By constant urging and coaxing the latter would induce his

gentle sister, much against her conscience, to leave him opportunities for speaking to Paula alone. It was

mostly before some print or painting that these conversations occurred, while De Stancy was ostensibly

occupied with its merits, or in giving directions to his photographer how to proceed. As soon as the dialogue

began, the latter would withdraw out of earshot, leaving Paula to imagine him the most deferential young

'You will soon possess duplicates of the whole gallery,' she said on one of these occasions, examining some

'No,' said the soldier. 'I shall not have patience to go on. I get illhumoured and indifferent, and then leave

'I scarcely knowmore than that I acquire a general sense of my own family's want of merit through seeing

how meritorious the people are around me. I see them happy and thriving without any necessity for me at all;

and then I regard these canvas grandfathers and grandmothers, and ask, "Why was a line so antiquated and

She chid him goodnaturedly for such views. 'They will do you an injury,' she declared. 'Do spare yourself,

De Stancy shook his head as he turned the painting before him a little further to the light.

'But, do you know,' said Paula, 'that notion of yours of being a family out of date is delightful to some people.

I talk to Charlotte about it often. I am never weary of examining those canopied effigies in the church, and

'I will try to see things in the same light for your sake,' said De Stancy fervently.

'Not for my sake; for your own was what I meant, of course,' she replied with a repressive air.

'What are you going to do with your photographs when you have them?' she asked, as if still anxious to

'I shall put them into a large album, and carry them with me in my campaigns; and may I ask, now I have an

opportunity, that you would extend your permission to copy a little further, and let me photograph one other

'That halflength of a lady which hangs in the morningroom. I remember seeing it in the Academy last

Paula involuntarily closed herself up. The picture was her own portrait. 'It does not belong to your series,' she

De Stancy's secret thought was, I hope from my soul it will belong some day! He answered with mildness:

A gentle sigh rose from the bosom of De Stancy. 'What is to become of me?' he said, with a light distressed

laugh. 'I am always inconsiderate and inclined to ask too much. Forgive me! What was in my mind when I

'I quite understand your interest in your family picturesand all of it,' she remarked more gently, willing not

'And in that ONE!' he said, looking devotedly at her. 'If I had only been fortunate enough to include it with

the rest, my album would indeed have been a treasure to pore over by the bivouac fire!'

'O, Captain De Stancy, this is provoking perseverance!' cried Paula, laughing half crossly. 'I expected that

after expressing my decision so plainly the first time I should not have been further urged upon the subject.'

It had not been a productive meeting, thus far. 'One word!' said De Stancy, following and almost clasping her

hand. 'I have given offence, I know: but do let it all fall on my own headdon't tell my sister of my

'You deserve to be told upon,' said Paula as she withdrew, with just enough playfulness to show that her

Charlotte looked at Paula uneasily when the latter joined her in the drawingroom. She wanted to say, 'What

is the matter?' but guessing that her brother had something to do with it, forbore to speak at first. She could

'Yes,' returned Paula, with reservation. However, she soon added, 'He not only wants to photograph his

ancestors, but MY portrait too. They are a dreadfully encroaching sex, and perhaps being in the army makes

'Don't say I have definitely complained of him; it is not worth while to do that; the matter is too trifling for

De Stancy's hobby of photographing his ancestors seemed to become a perfect mania with him. Almost every

morning discovered him in the larger apartments of the castle, taking down and rehanging the dilapidated

pictures, with the assistance of the indispensable Dare; his fingers stained black with dust, and his face

expressing a busy attention to the work in hand, though always reserving a look askance for the presence of

Though there was something of subterfuge, there was no deep and double subterfuge in all this. De Stancy

took no particular interest in his ancestral portraits; but he was enamoured of Paula to weakness. Perhaps the

composition of his love would hardly bear looking into, but it was recklessly frank and not quite mercenary.

His photographic scheme was nothing worse than a lover's not too scrupulous contrivance. After the refusal

of his request to copy her picture he fumed and fretted at the prospect of Somerset's return before any

impression had been made on her heart by himself; he swore at Dare, and asked him hotly why he had

'Hopeless? Somerset must still be kept away, so that it is not hopeless. I will consider how to prolong his

The time was cominghad indeed comewhen it was necessary for Paula to make up her mind about her

architect, if she meant to begin building in the spring. The two sets of plans, Somerset's and Havill's, were

hanging on the walls of the room that had been used by Somerset as his studio, and were accessible by

anybody. Dare took occasion to go and study both sets, with a view to finding a flaw in Somerset's which

might have been passed over unnoticed by the committee of architects, owing to their absence from the actual

He next went to Havill; and here he was met by an amazing state of affairs. Havill's creditors, at last

suspecting something mythical in Havill's assurance that the grand commission was his, had lost all patience;

his house was turned upsidedown, and a poster gleamed on the front wall, stating that the excellent modern

household furniture was to be sold by auction on Friday next. Troubles had apparently come in battalions, for

Without staying for a moment to enter his friend's house, back went Mr. Dare to the castle, and told Captain

De Stancy of the architect's desperate circumstances, begging him to convey the news in some way to Miss

Power. De Stancy promised to make representations in the proper quarter without perceiving that he was

He told Paula of Havill's misfortunes in the presence of his sister, who turned pale. She discerned how this

'Poor man,' murmured Paula. 'He was my father's architect, and somehow expected, though I did not promise

Then De Stancy saw Dare's aim in sending him to Miss Power with the news; and, seeing it, concurred:

Somerset was his rival, and all was fair. 'And is he not to have the work of the castle after expecting it?' he

Paula was lost in reflection. 'The other architect's design and Mr. Havill's are exactly equal in merit, and we

'That is our difficulty,' Paula murmured. 'A bankrupt, and his wife illdear me! I wonder what's the cause.'

'He has borrowed on the expectation of having to execute the castle works, and now he is unable to meet his

'Do the work of building in two halves or sections. Give Havill the first half, since he is in need; when that is

finished the second half can be given to your London architect. If, as I understand, the plans are identical,

Paula sighedjust a little one; and yet the suggestion seemed to satisfy her by its reasonableness. She turned

sad, wayward, but was impressed by De Stancy's manner and words. She appeared indeed to have a

smouldering desire to please him. In the afternoon she said to Charlotte, 'I mean to do as your brother says.'

A note was despatched to Havill that very day, and in an hour the crestfallen architect presented himself at

the castle. Paula instantly gave him audience, commiserated him, and commissioned him to carry out a first

section of the buildings, comprising work to the extent of about twenty thousand pounds expenditure; and

then, with a prematureness quite amazing among architects' clients, she handed him over a cheque for five

When he had gone, Paula's bearing showed some sign of being disquieted at what she had done; but she

covered her mood under a cloak of saucy serenity. Perhaps a tender remembrance of a certain thunderstorm

in the foregoing August when she stood with Somerset in the arbour, and did not own that she loved him, was

pressing on her memory and bewildering her. She had not seen quite clearly, in adopting De Stancy's

suggestion, that Somerset would now have no professional reason for being at the castle for the next twelve

But the captain had, and when Havill entered the castle he rejoiced with great joy. Dare, too, rejoiced in his

cold way, and went on with his photography, saying, 'The game progresses, captain.'

'He is practically banished for a year or more. What can't you do in a year, captain!'

Havill, in the meantime, having respectfully withdrawn from the presence of Paula, passed by Dare and De

Stancy in the gallery as he had done in entering. He spoke a few words to Dare, who congratulated him.

While they were talking somebody was heard in the hall, inquiring hastily for Mr. Havill.

'That, happily for us, will not affect his installation here,' said De Stancy. 'Now hold your tongue and keep at

Surely enough in a few minutes she came. De Stancy, to make conversation, told her of the new misfortune

Paula was very sorry to hear it, and remarked that it gave her great satisfaction to have appointed him as

architect of the first wing before he learnt the bad news. 'I owe you best thanks, Captain De Stancy, for

'Do I really deserve thanks?' asked De Stancy. 'I wish I deserved a reward; but I must bear in mind the fable

'The jester implored the priest for alms, but the smallest sum was refused, though the holy man readily agreed

'You give me unlimited thanks, but deny me the tiniest substantial trifle I desire.'

'What persistence!' exclaimed Paula, colouring. 'Very well, if you WILL photograph my picture you must. It

When Paula was alone she seemed vexed with herself for having given way; and rising from her seat she

went quietly to the door of the room containing the picture, intending to lock it up till further consideration,

whatever he might think of her. But on casting her eyes round the apartment the painting was gone. The

captain, wisely taking the current when it served, already had it in the gallery, where he was to be seen

bending attentively over it, arranging the lights and directing Dare with the instruments. On leaving he

thanked her, and said that he had obtained a splendid copy. Would she look at it?

De Stancy bowed and departed in a glow of triumph; satisfied, notwithstanding her frigidity, that he had

compassed his immediate aim, which was that she might not be able to dismiss from her thoughts him and his

persevering desire for the shadow of her face during the next fourandtwentyhours. And his confidence

'I fear this Divine Comedy will be slow business for us, captain,' said Dare, who had heard her cold words.

'O no!' said De Stancy, flushing a little: he had not been perceiving that the lad had the measure of his mind

so entirely as to gauge his position at any moment. But he would show no shamefacedness. 'Even if it is, my

At that hour and minute of De Stancy's remark 'the other,' to look at him, seemed indeed securely shelved. He

was sitting lonely in his chambers far away, wondering why she did not write, and yet hoping to

hearwondering if it had all been but a shortlived strain of tenderness. He knew as well as if it had been

stated in words that her serious acceptance of him as a suitor would be her acceptance of him as an

architect that her schemes in love would be expressed in terms of art; and conversely that her refusal of

him as a lover would be neatly effected by her choosing Havill's plans for the castle, and returning his own

with thanks. The position was so clear: he was so well walled in by circumstances that he was absolutely

To wait for the line that would not comethe letter saying that, as she had desired, his was the design that

pleased her was still the only thing to do. The (to Somerset) surprising accident that the committee of

architects should have pronounced the designs absolutely equal in point of merit, and thus have caused the

final choice to revert after all to Paula, had been a joyous thing to him when he first heard of it, full of

confidence in her favour. But the fact of her having again become the arbitrator, though it had made

acceptance of his plans all the more probable, made refusal of them, should it happen, all the more crushing.

He could have conceived himself favoured by Paula as her lover, even had the committee decided in favour

of Havill as her architect. But not to be chosen as architect now was to be rejected in both kinds.

It was the Sunday following the funeral of Mrs. Havill, news of whose death had been so unexpectedly

brought to her husband at the moment of his exit from Stancy Castle. The minister, as was his custom,

improved the occasion by a couple of sermons on the uncertainty of life. One was preached in the morning in

the old chapel of Markton; the second at evening service in the rural chapel near Stancy Castle, built by

Paula's father, which bore to the first somewhat the relation of an episcopal chapelofease to the mother

The unscreened lights blazed through the plateglass windows of the smaller building and outshone the

steely stars of the early night, just as they had done when Somerset was attracted by their glare four months

before. The fervid minister's rhetoric equalled its force on that more romantic occasion: but Paula was not

there. She was not a frequent attendant now at her father's votive building. The mysterious tank, whose dark

waters had so repelled her at the last moment, was boarded over: a table stood on its centre, with an open

quarto Bible upon it, behind which Havill, in a new suit of black, sat in a large chair. Havill held the office of

deacon: and he had mechanically taken the deacon's seat as usual tonight, in the face of the congregation,

Mr. Woodwell was always glad of an opportunity. He was gifted with a burning natural eloquence, which,

though perhaps a little too freely employed in exciting the 'Wertherism of the uncultivated,' had in it genuine

power. He was a master of that oratory which no limitation of knowledge can repress, and which no training

can impart. The neighbouring rector could eclipse Woodwell's scholarship, and the freethinker at the corner

shop in Markton could demolish his logic; but the Baptist could do in five minutes what neither of these had

Thus it happened that, when the sermon was fairly under way, Havill began to feel himself in a trying

position. It was not that he had bestowed much affection upon his deceased wife, irreproachable woman as

she had been; but the suddenness of her death had shaken his nerves, and Mr. Woodwell's address on the

uncertainty of life involved considerations of conduct on earth that bore with singular directness upon

Havill's unprincipled manoeuvre for victory in the castle competition. He wished he had not been so

inadvertent as to take his customary chair in the chapel. People who saw Havill's agitation did not know that

it was most largely owing to his sense of the fraud which had been practised on the unoffending Somerset;

and when, unable longer to endure the torture of Woodwell's words, he rose from his place and went into the

chapel vestry, the preacher little thought that remorse for a contemptibly unfair act, rather than grief for a

When Havill got into the open air his morbid excitement calmed down, but a sickening selfabhorrence for

the proceeding instigated by Dare did not abate. To appropriate another man's design was no more nor less

than to embezzle his money or steal his goods. The intense reaction from his conduct of the past two or three

months did not leave him when he reached his own house and observed where the handbills of the

countermanded sale had been torn down, as the result of the payment made in advance by Paula of money

The mood went on intensifying when he was in bed. He lay awake till the clock reached those still, small,

ghastly hours when the vital fires burn at their lowest in the human frame, and death seizes more of his

victims than in any other of the twentyfour. Havill could bear it no longer; he got a light, went down into his

'MADAM,The recent death of my wife necessitates a considerable change in my professional

arrangements and plans with regard to the future. One of the chief results of the change is, I regret to state,

that I no longer find myself in a position to carry out the enlargement of the castle which you had so

'I beg leave therefore to resign all further connection with the same, and to express, if you will allow me, a

hope that the commission may be placed in the hands of the other competitor. Herewith is returned a cheque

for onehalf of the sum so kindly advanced in anticipation of the commission I should receive; the other half,

with which I had cleared off my immediate embarrassments before perceiving the necessity for this course,

shall be returned to you as soon as some payments from other clients drop in.I beg to remain, Madam, your

Havill would not trust himself till the morning to post this letter. He sealed it up, went out with it into the

street, and walked through the sleeping town to the postoffice. At the mouth of the box he held the letter

long. By dropping it, he was dropping at least two thousand five hundred pounds which, however obtained,

were now securely his. It was a great deal to let go; and there he stood till another wave of conscience bore in

upon his soul the absolute nature of the theft, and made him shudder. The footsteps of a solitary policeman

could be heard nearing him along the deserted street; hesitation ended, and he let the letter go.

When he awoke in the morning he thought over the circumstances by the cheerful light of a low eastern sun.

The horrors of the situation seemed much less formidable; yet it cannot be said that he actually regretted his

act. Later on he walked out, with the strange sense of being a man who, from one having a large professional

undertaking in hand, had, by his own act, suddenly reduced himself to an unoccupied nondescript. From the

upper end of the town he saw in the distance the grand grey towers of Stancy Castle looming over the leafless

trees; he felt stupefied at what he had done, and said to himself with bitter discontent: 'Well, well, what is

That morning the postbag had been brought to Paula and Mrs. Goodman in the usual way, and Miss Power

read the letter. His resignation was a surprise; the question whether he would or would not repay the money

was passed over; the necessity of installing Somerset after all as sole architect was an agitation, or emotion,

However, she went about the house after breakfast with very much the manner of one who had had a weight

removed either from her heart or from her conscience; moreover, her face was a little flushed when, in

passing by Somerset's late studio, she saw the plans bearing his motto, and knew that his and not Havill's

would be the presiding presence in the coming architectural turmoil. She went on further, and called to

Charlotte, who was now regularly sleeping in the castle, to accompany her, and together they ascended to the

'Whom are you going to telegraph to?' said Miss De Stancy when they stood by the instrument.

Miss De Stancy had schooled her emotions on that side cruelly well, and she asked calmly, 'What, have you

'There is no choice in itread that,' said Paula, handing Havill's letter, as if she felt that Providence had

stepped in to shape ends that she was too undecided or unpractised to shape for herself.

'It is very strange,' murmured Charlotte; while Paula applied herself to the machine and despatched the

'Miss Power, Stancy Castle, to G. Somerset, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., Queen Anne's Chambers, St. James's.

'Your design is accepted in its entirety. It will be necessary to begin soon. I shall wish to see and consult you

When the message was fairly gone out of the window Paula seemed still further to expand. The strange spell

cast over her by something or otherprobably the presence of De Stancy, and the weird romanticism of his

manner towards her, which was as if the historic past had touched her with a yet living handin a great

measure became dissipated, leaving her the arch and serene maiden that she had been before.

About this time Captain De Stancy and his Achates were approaching the castle, and had arrived about fifty

paces from the spot at which it was Dare's custom to drop behind his companion, in order that their

Dare was saying, as he had said before: 'I can't help fancying, captain, that your approach to this castle and its

mistress is by a very tedious system. Your trenches, zigzags, counterscarps, and ravelins may be all very well,

and a very sure system of attack in the long run; but upon my soul they are almost as slow in maturing as

those of Uncle Toby himself. For my part I should be inclined to try an assault.'

'I only meant it for your good, and your proper advancement in the world,' said Dare in wounded tones.

'Different characters, different systems,' returned the soldier. 'This lady is of a reticent, independent,

complicated disposition, and any sudden proceeding would put her on her mettle. You don't dream what my

impatience is, my boy. It is a thing transcending your utmost conceptions! But I proceed slowly; I know

better than to do otherwise. Thank God there is plenty of time. As long as there is no risk of Somerset's return

'And professional etiquette will prevent him coming yet. Havill and he will change like the men in a

'That will not be till eighteen months have passed. And as the Jesuit said, "Time and I against any two." . . .

Now drop to the rear,' added Captain De Stancy authoritatively. And they passed under the walls of the

The grave fronts and bastions were wrapped in silence; so much so, that, standing awhile in the inner ward,

'She's at the telegraph,' said Dare, throwing forward his voice softly to the captain. 'What can that be for so

early? That wire is a nuisance, to my mind; such constant intercourse with the outer world is bad for our

The speaker entered to arrange his photographic apparatus, of which, in truth, he was getting weary; and De

Stancy smoked on the terrace till Dare should be ready. While he waited his sister looked out upon him from

an upper casement, having caught sight of him as she came from Paula in the telegraph room.

'Nothing of importance. We are quite well.' . . . . She added with hesitation, 'There is one piece of news; Mr.

Charlotte was concerned to see her brother's face, and withdrew from the window that he might not question

her further. De Stancy went into the hall, and on to the gallery, where Dare was standing as still as a caryatid.

'Well, what does it mean? Has that fool Havill done it on purpose to annoy me? What conceivable reason can

the man have for throwing up an appointment he has worked so hard for, at the moment he has got it, and in

Dare guessed, for he had seen a little way into Havill's soul during the brief period of their confederacy. But

he was very far from saying what he guessed. Yet he unconsciously revealed by other words the nocturnal

'Somerset coming after all!' he replied. 'By God! that little sixbarrelled friend of mine, and a good

'What!' said Captain De Stancy, paling with horror as he gathered the other's sinister meaning.

Dare instantly recollected himself. 'One is tempted to say anything at such a moment,' he replied hastily.

'Since he is to come, let him come, for me,' continued De Stancy, with reactionary distinctness, and still

gazing gravely into the young man's face. 'The battle shall be fairly fought out. Fair play, even to a

rivalremember that, boy. . . . Why are you here?unnaturally concerning yourself with the passions of a

man of my age, as if you were the parent, and I the son? Would to heaven, Willy, you had done as I wished

you to do, and led the life of a steady, thoughtful young man! Instead of meddling here, you should now have

been in some studio, college, or professional man's chambers, engaged in a useful pursuit which might have

made one proud to own you. But you were so precocious and headstrong; and this is what you have come to:

'I think I shall go to my lodgings today instead of staying here over these pictures,' said Dare, after a silence

during which Captain De Stancy endeavoured to calm himself. 'I was going to tell you that my dinner today

will unfortunately be one of herbs, for want of the needful. I have come to my last stiver.You dine at the

De Stancy had walked away; but Dare knew that he played a pretty sure card in that speech. De Stancy's heart

could not withstand the suggested contrast between a lonely meal of breadandcheese and a wellordered

dinner amid cheerful companions. 'Here,' he said, emptying his pocket and returning to the lad's side. 'Take

this, and order yourself a good meal. You keep me as poor as a crow. There shall be more tomorrow.'

The peculiarly bifold nature of Captain De Stancy, as shown in his conduct at different times, was something

rare in life, and perhaps happily so. That mechanical admixture of black and white qualities without

coalescence, on which the theory of men's characters was based by moral analysis before the rise of modern

ethical schools, fictitious as it was in general application, would have almost hit off the truth as regards

Captain De Stancy. Removed to some halfknown century, his deeds would have won a picturesqueness of

light and shade that might have made him a fascinating subject for some gallery of illustrious historical

personages. It was this tendency to moral chequerwork which accounted for his varied bearings towards

Dare withdrew to take his departure. When he had gone a few steps, despondent, he suddenly turned, and ran

'Captainhe's coming on the tenth, don't they say? Well, four days before the tenth comes the sixth. Have

'That day will be worth three months of quiet attentions: with luck, skill, and a bold heart, what mayn't you

'There is something in that; the game is not up after all. The sixthit had gone clean out of my head, by gad!'

The cheering message from Paula to Somerset sped through the loophole of Stancy Castle keep, over the

trees, along the railway, under bridges, across four countiesfrom extreme antiquity of environment to sheer

modernismand finally landed itself on a table in Somerset's chambers in the midst of a cloud of fog. He

read it and, in the moment of reaction from the depression of his past days, clapped his hands like a child.

Then he considered the date at which she wanted to see him. Had she so worded her despatch he would have

gone that very day; but there was nothing to complain of in her giving him a week's notice. Pure maiden

Time, however, dragged somewhat heavily along in the interim, and on the second day he thought he would

The elder Mr. Somerset lived in a detached house in the north west part of fashionable London; and

ascending the chief staircase the young man branched off from the first landing and entered his father's

paintingroom. It was an hour when he was pretty sure of finding the wellknown painter at work, and on

lifting the tapestry he was not disappointed, Mr. Somerset being busily engaged with his back towards the

Art and vitiated nature were struggling like wrestlers in that apartment, and art was getting the worst of it.

The overpowering gloom pervading the clammy air, rendered still more intense by the height of the window

from the floor, reduced all the pictures that were standing around to the wizened feebleness of corpses on

end. The shadowy parts of the room behind the different easels were veiled in a brown vapour, precluding all

estimate of the extent of the studio, and only subdued in the foreground by the ruddy glare from an open

stove of Dutch tiles. Somerset's footsteps had been so noiseless over the carpeting of the stairs and landing,

that his father was unaware of his presence; he continued at his work as before, which he performed by the

help of a complicated apparatus of lamps, candles, and reflectors, so arranged as to eke out the miserable

daylight, to a power apparently sufficient for the neutral touches on which he was at that moment engaged.

The first thought of an unsophisticated stranger on entering that room could only be the amazed inquiry why

a professor of the art of colour, which beyond all other arts requires pure daylight for its exercise, should fix

himself on the single square league in habitable Europe to which light is denied at noonday for weeks in

'O! it's you, George, is it?' said the Academician, turning from the lamps, which shone over his bald crown at

such a slant as to reveal every cranial irregularity. 'How are you this morning? Still a dead silence about your

Somerset told the news. His father duly congratulated him, and added genially, 'It is well to be you, George.

One large commission to attend to, and nothing to distract you from it. I am bothered by having a dozen irons

in the fire at once. And people are so unreasonable.Only this morning, among other things, when you got

your order to go on with your single study, I received a letter from a woman, an old friend whom I can

scarcely refuse, begging me as a great favour to design her a set of theatrical costumes, in which she and her

friends can perform for some charity. It would occupy me a good week to go into the subject and do the thing

properly. Such are the sort of letters I get. I wish, George, you could knock out something for her before you

leave town. It is positively impossible for me to do it with all this work in hand, and these eternal fogs to

'I fear costumes are rather out of my line,' said the son. 'However, I'll do what I can. What period and country

His father didn't know. He had never looked at the play of late years. It was 'Love's Labour's Lost.' 'You had

During the morning Somerset junior found time to refresh his memory of the play, and afterwards went and

hunted up materials for designs to suit the same, which occupied his spare hours for the next three days. As

these occupations made no great demands upon his reasoning faculties he mostly found his mind wandering

off to imaginary scenes at Stancy Castle: particularly did he dwell at this time upon Paula's lively interest in

the history, relics, tombs, architecture, nay, the very Christian names of the De Stancy line, and her

'artistic' preference for Charlotte's ancestors instead of her own. Yet what more natural than that a clever

meditative girl, encased in the feudal lumber of that family, should imbibe at least an antiquarian interest in

it? Human nature at bottom is romantic rather than ascetic, and the local habitation which accident had

provided for Paula was perhaps acting as a solvent of the hard, morbidly introspective views thrust upon her

Somerset wondered if his own possession of a substantial genealogy like Captain De Stancy's would have had

any appreciable effect upon her regard for him. His suggestion to Paula of her belonging to a worthy strain of

engineers had been based on his content with his own intellectual line of descent through Pheidias, Ictinus

and Callicrates, Chersiphron, Vitruvius, Wilars of Cambray, William of Wykeham, and the rest of that long

and illustrious roll; but Miss Power's marked preference for an animal pedigree led him to muse on what he

These thoughts so far occupied him that when he took the sketches to his father, on the morning of the fifth,

'Yes. Have we any pedigree worthy to be compared with that of professedly old families? I never remember

Somerset the elder reflected and said that he believed there was a genealogical tree about the house

somewhere, reaching back to a very respectable distance. 'Not that I ever took much interest in it,' he

continued, without looking up from his canvas; 'but your great uncle John was a man with a taste for those

subjects, and he drew up such a sheet: he made several copies on parchment, and gave one to each of his

brothers and sisters. The one he gave to my father is still in my possession, I think.'

Somerset said that he should like to see it; but halfan hour's search about the house failed to discover the

document; and the Academician then remembered that it was in an iron box at his banker's. He had used it as

a wrapper for some title deeds and other valuable writings which were deposited there for safety. 'Why do

The young man confessed his whim to know if his own antiquity would bear comparison with that of another

person, whose name he did not mention; whereupon his father gave him a key that would fit the said chest, if

he meant to pursue the subject further. Somerset, however, did nothing in the matter that day, but the next

morning, having to call at the bank on other business, he remembered his new fancy.

It was about eleven o'clock. The fog, though not so brown as it had been on previous days, was still dense

enough to necessitate lights in the shops and offices. When Somerset had finished his business in the outer

office of the bank he went to the manager's room. The hour being somewhat early the only persons present in

that sanctuary of balances, besides the manager who welcomed him, were two gentlemen, apparently

lawyers, who sat talking earnestly over a box of papers. The manager, on learning what Somerset wanted,

unlocked a door from which a flight of stone steps led to the vaults, and sent down a clerk and a porter for the

Before, however, they had descended far a gentle tap came to the door, and in response to an invitation to

The manager seemed to recognize her, for he went across the room in a moment, and set her a chair at the

middle table, replying to some observation of hers with the words, 'O yes, certainly,' in a deferential tone.

Somerset, who had seated himself at a table in a somewhat obscure corner, screened by the lawyers, started at

the words. The voice was Miss Power's, and so plainly enough was the figure as soon as he examined it. Her

back was towards him, and either because the room was only lighted in two places, or because she was

absorbed in her own concerns, she seemed to be unconscious of any one's presence on the scene except the

banker and herself. The former called back the clerk, and two other porters having been summoned they

Somerset, somewhat excited, sat wondering what could have brought Paula to London at this juncture, and

was in some doubt if the occasion were a suitable one for revealing himself, her errand to her banker being

possibly of a very private nature. Nothing helped him to a decision. Paula never once turned her head, and the

progress of time was marked only by the murmurs of the two lawyers, and the ceaseless clash of gold and

rattle of scales from the outer room, where the busy heads of cashiers could be seen through the partition

Footsteps were heard upon the cellarsteps, and the three men previously sent below staggered from the

doorway, bearing a huge safe which nearly broke them down. Somerset knew that his father's box, or boxes,

could boast of no such dimensions, and he was not surprised to see the chest deposited in front of Miss

Power. When the immense accumulation of dust had been cleared off the lid, and the chest conveniently

placed for her, Somerset was attended to, his modest box being brought up by one man unassisted, and

His interest in Paula was of so emotional a cast that his attention to his own errand was of the most

perfunctory kind. She was close to a gasstandard, and the lawyers, whose seats had intervened, having

finished their business and gone away, all her actions were visible to him. While he was opening his father's

box the manager assisted Paula to unseal and unlock hers, and he now saw her lift from it a morocco case,

which she placed on the table before her, and unfastened. Out of it she took a dazzling object that fell like a

cascade over her fingers. It was a necklace of diamonds and pearls, apparently of large size and many strands,

though he was not near enough to see distinctly. When satisfied by her examination that she had got the right

The manager closed the chest for her; and when it was again secured Paula arose, tossed the necklace into her

handbag, bowed to the manager, and was about to bid him good morning. Thereupon he said with some

hesitation: 'Pardon one question, Miss Power. Do you intend to take those jewels far?'

'I would suggest that you carry them in some other wayby fastening them into the pocket of your dress, for

The banker slightly shook his head. 'Suppose your carriage gets overturned: you would let it go then.'

'Or if you saw a child under the wheels just as you were stepping in; or if you accidentally stumbled in

Paula removed the necklace from the bag, turned her back to the manager, and spent several minutes in

placing her treasure in her bosom, pinning it and otherwise making it absolutely secure.

'That's it,' said the greyhaired man of caution, with evident satisfaction. 'There is not much danger now: you

Paula replied that she was not alone, and went to the door. There was one moment during which Somerset

might have conveniently made his presence known; but the juxtaposition of the bankmanager, and his own

disarranged box of securities, embarrassed him: the moment slipped by, and she was gone.

In the meantime he had mechanically unearthed the pedigree, and, locking up his father's chest, Somerset also

took his departure at the heels of Paula. He walked along the misty street, so deeply musing as to be quite

unconscious of the direction of his walk. What, he inquired of himself, could she want that necklace for so

suddenly? He recollected a remark of Dare's to the effect that her appearance on a particular occasion at

Stancy Castle had been magnificent by reason of the jewels she wore; which proved that she had retained a

sufficient quantity of those valuables at the castle for ordinary requirements. What exceptional occasion, then,

was impending on which she wished to glorify herself beyond all previous experience? He could not guess.

He was interrupted in these conjectures by a carriage nearly passing over his toes at a crossing in Bond Street:

looking up he saw between the two windows of the vehicle the profile of a thickly mantled bosom, on which

a camellia rose and fell. All the remainder part of the lady's person was hidden; but he remembered that

flower of convenient season as one which had figured in the bank parlour halfanhour earlier today.

Somerset hastened after the carriage, and in a minute saw it stop opposite a jeweller's shop. Out came Paula,

and then another woman, in whom he recognized Mrs. Birch, one of the lady's maids at Stancy Castle. The

A quick arrested expression in her two sapphirine eyes, accompanied by a little, a very little, blush which

loitered long, was all the outward disturbance that the sight of her lover caused. The habit of selfrepression

at any new emotional impact was instinctive with her always. Somerset could not say more than a word; he

She declared that this was an unexpected pleasure. Had he arranged to come on the tenth as she wished? How

Somerset said that he was coming on the very day she mentionedthat the appointment gave him infinite

They entered the shop and talked on while she made a small purchase. But not a word did Paula say of her

'I am having an exciting morning,' she said. 'I am going from here to catch the oneo'clock train to Markton.'

'The Hunt Ball. It was fixed for the sixth, and this is the sixth. I thought they might have asked you.'

'No,' said Somerset, a trifle gloomily. 'No, I am not asked. But it is a great task for youa long journey and a

Her air confessed more than her words. 'I am not so very glad that I am going to the Hunt Ball,' she replied

She lifted her eyes to his for a moment. Her manner had suddenly become so nearly the counterpart of that in

the tea house that to suspect any deterioration of affection in her was no longer generous. It was only as if a

thin layer of recent events had overlaid her memories of him, until his presence swept them away.

Somerset looked up, and finding the shopman to be still some way off, he added, 'When will you assure me

'Not before you have built the castle. My aunt does not know about it yet, nor anybody.'

She nodded again, and directing his attention to the advancing shopman, said, 'Please not a word more.'

Soon after this, they left the jeweller's, and parted, Paula driving straight off to the station and Somerset going

on his way uncertainly happy. His reimpression after a few minutes was that a special journey to town to

fetch that magnificent necklace which she had not once mentioned to him, but which was plainly to be the

medium of some proud purpose with her this evening, was hardly in harmony with her assertions of

He got into a cab and drove to his club, where he lunched, and mopingly spent a great part of the afternoon in

making calculations for the foundations of the castle works. Later in the afternoon he returned to his

chambers, wishing that he could annihilate the three days remaining before the tenth, particularly this coming

evening. On his table was a letter in a strange writing, and indifferently turning it over he found from the

superscription that it had been addressed to him days before at the LordQuantockArms Hotel, Markton,

where it had lain ever since, the landlord probably expecting him to return. Opening the missive, he found to

'Too late!' said Somerset. 'To think I should be served this trick a second time!'

After a moment's pause, however, he looked to see the time of day. It was five minutes past fivejust about

the hour when Paula would be driving from Markton Station to Stancy Castle to rest and prepare herself for

her evening triumph. There was a train at six o'clock, timed to reach Markton between eleven and twelve,

which by great exertion he might save even now, if it were worth while to undertake such a scramble for the

pleasure of dropping in to the ball at a late hour. A moment's vision of Paula moving to swift tunes on the

arm of a person or persons unknown was enough to impart the impetus required. He jumped up, flung his

dress clothes into a portmanteau, sent down to call a cab, and in a few minutes was rattling off to the railway

Once in the train, he began to consider where and how he could most conveniently dress for the dance. The

train would certainly be halfanhour late; halfanhour would be spent in getting to the townhall, and that

was the utmost delay tolerable if he would secure the hand of Paula for one spin, or be more than a mere

dummy behind the earlier arrivals. He looked for an empty compartment at the next stoppage, and finding the

one next his own unoccupied, he entered it and changed his raiment for that in his portmanteau during the

Thus prepared he awaited the Markton platform, which was reached as the clock struck twelve. Somerset

The borough natives had ascended to their upper floors, and were putting out their candles one by one as he

passed along the streets; but the lively strains that proceeded from the central edifice revealed distinctly

enough what was going on among the temporary visitors from the neighbouring manors. The doors were

opened for him, and entering the vestibule lined with flags, flowers, evergreens, and escutcheons, he stood

It was some time before he could gather his impressions of the scene, so perplexing were the lights, the

motions, the toilets, the fulldress uniforms of officers and the harmonies of sound. Yet light, sound, and

movement were not so much the essence of that giddy scene as an intense aim at obliviousness in the beings

composing it. For two or three hours at least those whirling young people meant not to know that they were

mortal. The room was beating like a heart, and the pulse was regulated by the trembling strings of the most

popular quadrille band in Wessex. But at last his eyes grew settled enough to look critically around.

The room was crowdedtoo crowded. Every variety of fair one, beauties primary, secondary, and tertiary,

appeared among the personages composing the throng. There were suns and moons; also pale planets of little

account. Broadly speaking, these daughters of the county fell into two classes: one the pink faced

unsophisticated girls from neighbouring rectories and small countryhouses, who knew not town except for

an occasional fortnight, and who spent their time from Easter to Lammas Day much as they spent it during

the remaining nine months of the year: the other class were the children of the wealthy landowners who

migrated each season to the townhouse; these were pale and collected, showed less enjoyment in their

countenances, and wore in general an approximation to the languid manners of the capital.

A quadrille was in progress, and Somerset scanned each set. His mind had run so long upon the necklace, that

his glance involuntarily sought out that gleaming object rather than the personality of its wearer. At the top of

The whole lucid explanation broke across his understanding in a second. His dear Paula had fetched the

necklace that Charlotte should not appear to disadvantage among the county people by reason of her poverty.

It was generously donea disinterested act of sisterly kindness; theirs was the friendship of Hermia and

Helena. Before he had got further than to realize this, there wheeled round amongst the dancers a lady whose

tournure he recognized well. She was Paula; and to the young man's vision a superlative something

distinguished her from all the rest. This was not dress or ornament, for she had hardly a gem upon her, her

attire being a model of effective simplicity. Her partner was Captain De Stancy.

The discovery of this latter fact slightly obscured his appreciation of what he had discovered just before. It

was with rather a lowering brow that he asked himself whether Paula's predilection d'artiste, as she called it,

for the De Stancy line might not lead to a predilection of a different sort for its last representative which

The architect remained in the background till the dance drew to a conclusion, and then he went forward. The

circumstance of having met him by accident once already that day seemed to quench any surprise in Miss

Power's bosom at seeing him now. There was nothing in her parting from Captain De Stancy, when he led her

to a seat, calculated to make Somerset uneasy after his long absence. Though, for that matter, this proved

nothing; for, like all wise maidens, Paula never ventured on the game of the eyes with a lover in public; well

knowing that every moment of such indulgence overnight might mean an hour's sneer at her expense by the

indulged gentleman next day, when weighing womankind by the aid of a cold morning light and a bad

While Somerset was explaining to Paula and her aunt the reason of his sudden appearance, their attention was

drawn to a seat a short way off by a fluttering of ladies round the spot. In a moment it was whispered that

somebody had fallen ill, and in another that the sufferer was Miss De Stancy. Paula, Mrs. Goodman, and

Somerset at once joined the group of friends who were assisting her. Neither of them imagined for an instant

that the unexpected advent of Somerset on the scene had anything to do with the poor girl's indisposition.

She was assisted out of the room, and her brother, who now came up, prepared to take her home, Somerset

exchanging a few civil words with him, which the hurry of the moment prevented them from continuing;

though on taking his leave with Charlotte, who was now better, De Stancy informed Somerset in answer to a

When they were gone Somerset, feeling that now another dog might have his day, sounded Paula on the

'I cannot dance again,' she said in a somewhat depressed tone; 'I must be released from every engagement to

do so, on account of Charlotte's illness. I should have gone home with her if I had not been particularly

requested to stay a little longer, since it is as yet so early, and Charlotte's illness is not very serious.'

If Charlotte's illness was not very serious, Somerset thought, Paula might have stretched a point; but not

wishing to hinder her in showing respect to a friend so well liked by himself, he did not ask it. De Stancy had

promised to be back again in halfanhour, and Paula had heard the promise. But at the end of twenty

minutes, still seeming indifferent to what was going on around her, she said she would stay no longer, and

reminding Somerset that they were soon to meet and talk over the rebuilding, drove off with her aunt to

Somerset stood looking after the retreating carriage till it was enveloped in shades that the lamps could not

disperse. The ballroom was now virtually empty for him, and feeling no great anxiety to return thither he

stood on the steps for some minutes longer, looking into the calm mild night, and at the dark houses behind

whose blinds lay the burghers with their eyes sealed up in sleep. He could not but think that it was rather too

bad of Paula to spoil his evening for a sentimental devotion to Charlotte which could do the latter no

appreciable good; and he would have felt seriously hurt at her move if it had not been equally severe upon

Captain De Stancy, who was doubtless hastening back, full of a belief that she would still be found there.

The star of gasjets over the entrance threw its light upon the walls on the opposite side of the street, where

there were noticeboards of forthcoming events. In glancing over these for the fifth time, his eye was

attracted by the first words of a placard in blue letters, of a size larger than the rest, and moving onward a few

In a profound study Somerset turned and reentered the ball room, where he remained gloomily standing

here and there for about five minutes, at the end of which he observed Captain De Stancy, who had returned

The gallant officer darted glances of lively search over every group of dancers and sitters; and then with

rather a blank look in his face, he came on to Somerset. Replying to the latter's inquiry for his sister that she

'They have gone home,' replied Somerset, a trifle drily. 'They asked me to make their apologies to you for

leading you to expect they would remain. Miss Power was too anxious about Miss De Stancy to care to stay

The eyes of De Stancy and the speaker met for an instant. That curious guarded understanding, or inimical

confederacy, which arises at moments between two men in love with the same woman, was present here; and

in their mutual glances each said as plainly as by words that her departure had ruined his evening's hope.

They were now about as much in one mood as it was possible for two such differing natures to be. Neither

cared further for elaborating giddy curves on that townhall floor. They stood talking languidly about this

and that local topic, till De Stancy turned aside for a short time to speak to a dapper little lady who had

'Mrs. Camperton, the wife of Major Camperton of my battery, would very much like me to introduce you to

her. She is an old friend of your father's, and has wanted to know you for a long time.'

De Stancy and Somerset crossed over to the lady, and in a few minutes, thanks to her flow of spirits, she and

'It is a happy coincidence,' continued Mrs. Camperton, 'that I should have met you here, immediately after

receiving a letter from your father: indeed it reached me only this morning. He has been so kind! We are

getting up some theatricals, as you know, I suppose, to help the funds of the County Hospital, which is in

'Yes, such an estimable purpose; and as we wished to do it thoroughly well, I asked Mr. Somerset to design

us the costumes, and he has now sent me the sketches. It is quite a secret at present, but we are going to play

Shakespeare's romantic drama, 'Love's Labour's Lost,' and we hope to get Miss Power to take the leading

part. You see, being such a handsome girl, and so wealthy, and rather an undiscovered novelty in the county

'Miss Power going to play herself?I am rather surprised,' said Somerset. 'Whose idea is all this?'

'O, Captain De Stancy'she's the originator entirely. You see he is so interested in the neighbourhood, his

family having been connected with it for so many centuries, that naturally a charitable object of this local

'Naturally!' her listener laconically repeated. 'And have you settled who is to play the junior gentleman's part,

'Not absolutely; though I think Captain De Stancy will not refuse it; and he is a very good figure. At present it

lies between him and Mr. Mild, one of our young lieutenants. My husband, of course, takes the heavy line;

and I am to be the second lady, though I am rather too old for the part really. If we can only secure Miss

When he awoke the next morning at the LordQuantockArms Hotel Somerset felt quite morbid on recalling

the intelligence he had received from Mrs. Camperton. But as the day for serious practical consultation about

the castle works, to which Paula had playfully alluded, was now close at hand, he determined to banish

sentimental reflections on the frailties that were besieging her nature, by active preparation for his

professional undertaking. To be her highpriest in art, to elaborate a structure whose cunning workmanship

would be meeting her eye every day till the end of her natural life, and saying to her, 'He invented it,' with all

the eloquence of an inanimate thing long regardedthis was no mean satisfaction, come what else would.

He returned to town the next day to set matters there in such trim that no inconvenience should result from

his prolonged absence at the castle; for having no other commission he determined (with an eye rather to

heartinterests than to increasing his professional practice) to make, as before, the castle itself his office,

On the tenth he reappeared at Markton. Passing through the town, on the road to Stancy Castle, his eyes were

again arrested by the noticeboard which had conveyed such startling information to him on the night of the

ball. The small bills now appeared thereon; but when he anxiously looked them over to learn how the parts

were to be allotted, he found that intelligence still withheld. Yet they told enough; the list of ladyplayers

That a young lady who, six months ago, would scarcely join for conscientious reasons in a simple dance on

her own lawn, should now be willing to exhibit herself on a public stage, simulating lovepassages with a

stranger, argued a rate of development which under any circumstances would have surprised him, but which,

with the particular addition, as leading colleague, of Captain De Stancy, inflamed him almost to anger. What

clandestine arrangements had been going on in his absence to produce such a fullblown intention it were

futile to guess. Paula's course was a race rather than a march, and each successive heat was startling in its

Somerset was, however, introspective enough to know that his morals would have taken no such virtuous

He passed under the castlearch and entered. There seemed a little turn in the tide of affairs when it was

The wellknown antechambers through which he walked, filled with twilight, draughts, and thin echoes that

seemed to reverberate from two hundred years ago, did not delay his eye as they had done when he had been

ignorant that his destiny lay beyond; and he followed on through all this ancientness to where the modern

He forgot everything in the pleasure of being alone in a room with her. She met his eye with that in her own

which cheered him. It was a light expressing that something was understood between them. She said quietly

After a little more talk, in which she said that her aunt would join them in a few minutes, and Miss De Stancy

was still indisposed at her father's house, she rang for tea and sat down beside a little table.

'First then, when will the working drawings be ready, which I think you said must be made out before the

While Somerset informed her on this and other matters, Mrs. Goodman entered and joined in the discussion,

after which they found it would be necessary to adjourn to the room where the plans were hanging. On their

'That's not settled,I have not agreed yet. I shall not play the Princess of France unless Mr. Mild plays the

This sounded rather well. The Princess was the lady beloved by the King; and Mr. Mild, the young lieutenant

of artillery, was a diffident, inexperienced, rather plainlooking fellow, whose sole interest in theatricals lay

in the consideration of his costume and the sound of his own voice in the ears of the audience. With such an

unobjectionable person to enact the part of lover, the prominent character of leading young lady or heroine,

which Paula was to personate, was really the most satisfactory in the whole list for her. For although she was

to be wooed hard, there was just as much lovemaking among the remaining personages; while, as Somerset

had understood the play, there could occur no flingings of her person upon her lover's neck, or agonized

downfalls upon the stage, in her whole performance, as there were in the parts chosen by Mrs. Camperton,

'What a question! How could I refuse for such an excellent purpose? They say that my taking a part will be

worth a hundred pounds to the charity. My father always supported the hospital, which is quite

'Do you think the peculiar means you have adopted for supporting it entered into his view?' inquired

'It is an interesting way,' she returned persuasively, though apparently in a state of mental equipoise on the

point raised by his question. 'And I shall not play the Princess, as I said, to any other than that quiet young

man. Now I assure you of this, so don't be angry and absurd! Besides, the King doesn't marry me at the end of

the play, as in Shakespeare's other comedies. And if Miss De Stancy continues seriously unwell I shall not

'Comeyes we are! Shall we tell your aunt?' he continued. Unluckily at that moment Mrs. Goodman, who

'No,to the last,' replied Paula hastily. Then her aunt entered, and the conversation was no longer personal.

His serenity continued during two or three following days, when, continuing at the castle, he got pleasant

glimpses of Paula now and then. Her strong desire that his love for her should be kept secret, perplexed him;

Meanwhile news of the forthcoming dramatic performance radiated in every direction. And in the next

number of the county paper it was announced, to Somerset's comparative satisfaction, that the cast was

definitely settled, Mr. Mild having agreed to be the King and Miss Power the French Princess. Captain De

Stancy, with becoming modesty for one who was the leading spirit, figured quite low down, in the secondary

Somerset remembered that, by a happy chance, the costume he had designed for Sir Nathaniel was not at all

picturesque; moreover Sir Nathaniel scarcely came near the Princess through the whole play.

Every day after this there was coming and going to and from the castle of railway vans laden with canvas

columns, pasteboard trees, limp housefronts, woollen lawns, and lath balustrades. There were also frequent

arrivals of young ladies from neighbouring country houses, and warriors from the X and Y batteries of

But it was upon Captain De Stancy and Mrs. Camperton that the weight of preparation fell. Somerset,

through being much occupied in the drawingoffice, was seldom present during the consultations and

rehearsals: until one day, tea being served in the drawingroom at the usual hour, he dropped in with the rest

to receive a cup from Paula's table. The chatter was tremendous, and Somerset was at once consulted about

some necessary carpentry which was to be specially made at Markton. After that he was looked on as one of

the band, which resulted in a large addition to the number of his acquaintance in this part of England.

But his own feeling was that of being an outsider still. This vagary had been originated, the play chosen, the

parts allotted, all in his absence, and calling him in at the last moment might, if flirtation were possible in

Paula, be but a sop to pacify him. What would he have given to impersonate her lover in the piece! But

The eventful evening came. Somerset had been engaged during the day with the different people by whom

the works were to be carried out and in the evening went to his rooms at the Lord QuantockArms,

Markton, where he dined. He did not return to the castle till the hour fixed for the performance, and having

been received by Mrs. Goodman, entered the large apartment, now transfigured into a theatre, like any other

Rumours of the projected representation had spread far and wide. Six times the number of tickets issued

might have been readily sold. Friends and acquaintances of the actors came from curiosity to see how they

would acquit themselves; while other classes of people came because they were eager to see wellknown

notabilities in unwonted situations. When ladies, hitherto only beheld in frigid, impenetrable positions behind

their coachmen in Markton High Street, were about to reveal their hidden traits, home attitudes, intimate

smiles, nods, and perhaps kisses, to the public eye, it was a throwing open of fascinating social secrets not to

The performance opened with no further delay than was occasioned by the customary refusal of the curtain at

these times to rise more than two feet six inches; but this hitch was remedied, and the play began. It was with

no enviable emotion that Somerset, who was watching intently, saw, not Mr. Mild, but Captain De Stancy,

Somerset as a friend of the family had had a seat reserved for him next to that of Mrs. Goodman, and turning

to her he said with some excitement, 'I understood that Mr. Mild had agreed to take that part?'

'Yes,' she said in a whisper, 'so he had; but he broke down. Luckily Captain De Stancy was familiar with the

part, through having coached the others so persistently, and he undertook it offhand. Being about the same

figure as Lieutenant Mild the same dress fits him, with a little alteration by the tailor.'

It did fit him indeed; and of the male costumes it was that on which Somerset had bestowed most pains when

designing them. It shrewdly burst upon his mind that there might have been collusion between Mild and De

Stancy, the former agreeing to take the captain's place and act as blind till the last moment. A greater question

was, could Paula have been aware of this, and would she perform as the Princess of France now De Stancy

He controlled his impatience till the beginning of the second act. The Princess entered; it was Paula. But

was due to the newness of her situation, or to her knowledge that De Stancy had usurped Mild's part of her

lover, he could not guess. De Stancy appeared, and Somerset felt grim as he listened to the gallant captain's

Somerset listened to this and to all that which followed of the same sort, with the reflection that, after all, the

Princess never throughout the piece compromised her dignity by showing her love for the King; and that the

latter never addressed her in words in which passion got the better of courtesy. Moreover, as Paula had

herself observed, they did not marry at the end of the piece, as in Shakespeare's other comedies. Somewhat

calm in this assurance, he waited on while the other couples respectively indulged in their lovemaking, and

banter, including Mrs. Camperton as the sprightly Rosaline. But he was doomed to be surprised out of his

humour when the end of the act came on. In abridging the play for the convenience of representation, the

favours or gifts from the gentlemen to the ladies were personally presented: and now Somerset saw De

Stancy advance with the necklace fetched by Paula from London, and clasp it on her neck.

This seemed to throw a less pleasant light on her hasty journey. To fetch a valuable ornament to lend it to a

poorer friend was estimable; but to fetch it that the friend's brother should have something magnificent to use

as a lover's offering to herself in public, that wore a different complexion. And if the article were recognized

by the spectators as the same that Charlotte had worn at the ball, the presentation by De Stancy of what must

seem to be an heirloom of his house would be read as symbolizing a union of the families.

De Stancy's mode of presenting the necklace, though unauthorized by Shakespeare, had the full approval of

the company, and set them in good humour to receive Major Camperton as Armado the braggart. Nothing

calculated to stimulate jealousy occurred again till the fifth act; and then there arose full cause for it.

The scene was the outside of the Princess's pavilion. De Stancy, as the King of Navarre, stood with his group

of attendants awaiting the Princess, who presently entered from her door. The two began to converse as the

So far all was well; and Paula opened her lips for the set rejoinder. But before she had spoken De Stancy

Somerset stared. Surely in this comedy the King never addressed the Princess in such warm words; and yet

they were Shakespeare's, for they were quite familiar to him. A dim suspicion crossed his mind. Mrs.

Goodman had brought a copy of Shakespeare with her, which she kept in her lap and never looked at:

borrowing it, Somerset turned to 'Romeo and Juliet,' and there he saw the words which De Stancy had

introduced as gag, to intensify the mild lovemaking of the other play. Meanwhile De Stancy continued

Could it be that De Stancy was going to do what came next in the stage directionkiss her? Before there was

time for conjecture on that point the sound of a very sweet and long drawn osculation spread through the

room, followed by loud applause from the people in the cheap seats. De Stancy withdrew from bending over

Paula, and she was very red in the face. Nothing seemed clearer than that he had actually done the deed. The

applause continuing, Somerset turned his head. Five hundred faces had regarded the act, without a

consciousness that it was an interpolation; and four hundred and fifty mouths in those faces were smiling.

About one half of them were tender smiles; these came from the women. The other half were at best

humorous, and mainly satirical; these came from the men. It was a profanation without parallel, and his face

The play was now nearly at an end, and Somerset sat on, feeling what he could not express. More than ever

was he assured that there had been collusion between the two artillery officers to bring about this end. That

he should have been the unhappy man to design those picturesque dresses in which his rival so audaciously

played the lover to his, Somerset's, mistress, was an added point to the satire. He could hardly go so far as to

assume that Paula was a consenting party to this startling interlude; but her otherwise unaccountable wish that

his own love should be clandestinely shown lent immense force to a doubt of her sincerity. The ghastly

thought that she had merely been keeping him on, like a pet spaniel, to amuse her leisure moments till she

should have found appropriate opportunity for an open engagement with some one else, trusting to his sense

At the back of the room the applause had been loud at the moment of the kiss, real or counterfeit. The cause

was partly owing to an exceptional circumstance which had occurred in that quarter early in the play.

The people had all seated themselves, and the first act had begun, when the tapestry that screened the door

was lifted gently and a figure appeared in the opening. The general attention was at this moment absorbed by

the newly disclosed stage, and scarcely a soul noticed the stranger. Had any one of the audience turned his

head, there would have been sufficient in the countenance to detain his gaze, notwithstanding the

He was obviously a man who had come from afar. There was not a square inch about him that had anything

to do with modern English life. His visage, which was of the colour of light porphyry, had little of its original

surface left; it was a face which had been the plaything of strange fires or pestilences, that had moulded to

whatever shape they chose his originally supple skin, and left it pitted, puckered, and seamed like a dried

watercourse. But though dire catastrophes or the treacherous airs of remote climates had done their worst

upon his exterior, they seemed to have affected him but little within, to judge from a certain robustness which

The facemarks had a meaning, for any one who could read them, beyond the mere suggestion of their

origin: they signified that this man had either been the victim of some terrible necessity as regarded the

occupation to which he had devoted himself, or that he was a man of dogged obstinacy, from sheer sang froid

holding his ground amid malign forces when others would have fled affrighted away.

As nobody noticed him, he dropped the door hangings after a while, walked silently along the matted alley,

and sat down in one of the back chairs. His manner of entry was enough to show that the strength of character

which he seemed to possess had phlegm for its base and not ardour. One might have said that perhaps the

shocks he had passed through had taken all his original warmth out of him. His beaver hat, which he had

retained on his head till this moment, he now placed under the seat, where he sat absolutely motionless till the

end of the first act, as if he were indulging in a monologue which did not quite reach his lips.

When Paula entered at the beginning of the second act he showed as much excitement as was expressed by a

slight movement of the eyes. When she spoke he turned to his next neighbour, and asked him in cold level

words which had once been English, but which seemed to have lost the accent of nationality: 'Is that the

His neighbour happened to be the landlord at SleepingGreen, and he informed the stranger that she was

'And who is that gentleman whose line of business seems to be to make love to Power?'

'He's Captain De Stancy, Sir William De Stancy's son, who used to own this property.'

The stranger nodded, and the play went on, no further word being spoken till the fourth act was reached,

when the stranger again said, without taking his narrow black eyes from the stage: 'There's something in that

'Well,' said the landlord, 'I have heard different stories about that, and wouldn't be the man to zay what I

couldn't swear to. The story is that Captain De Stancy, who is as poor as a gallicrow, is in full cry a'ter her,

and that his on'y chance lies in his being heir to a title and the wold name. But she has not shown a genuine

'If she finds the money, and this Stancy finds the name and blood, 'twould be a very neat match between

Nothing more was said again for a long time, but the stranger's eyes showed more interest in the passes

between Paula and De Stancy than they had shown before. At length the crisis came, as described in the last

chapter, De Stancy saluting her with that semblance of a kiss which gave such umbrage to Somerset. The

stranger's thin lips lengthened a couple of inches with satisfaction; he put his hand into his pocket, drew out

two halfcrowns which he handed to the landlord, saying, 'Just applaud that, will you, and get your comrades

The landlord, though a little surprised, took the money, and began to clap his hands as desired. The example

was contagious, and spread all over the room; for the audience, gentle and simple, though they might not

have followed the blank verse in all its bearings, could at least appreciate a kiss. It was the unusual

When the play had ended the stranger was the first to rise, and going downstairs at the head of the crowd he

passed out of doors, and was lost to view. Some questions were asked by the landlord as to the stranger's

individuality; but few had seen him; fewer had noticed him, singular as he was; and none knew his name.

While these things had been going on in the quarter allotted to the commonalty, Somerset in front had waited

the fall of the curtain with those sick and sorry feelings which should be combated by the aid of philosophy

and a good conscience, but which really are only subdued by time and the abrading rush of affairs. He was,

however, stoical enough, when it was all over, to accept Mrs. Goodman's invitation to accompany her to the

drawingroom, fully expecting to find there a large company, including Captain De Stancy.

But none of the acting ladies and gentlemen had emerged from their dressingrooms as yet. Feeling that he

did not care to meet any of them that night, he bade farewell to Mrs. Goodman after a few minutes of

conversation, and left her. While he was passing along the corridor, at the side of the gallery which had been

used as the theatre, Paula crossed it from the latter apartment towards an opposite door. She was still in the

dress of the Princess, and the diamond and pearl necklace still hung over her bosom as placed there by

Her eye caught Somerset's, and she stopped. Probably there was something in his face which told his mind,

'I congratulate you on your performance,' he said mechanically, when she pushed to the door.

'Do you think I knew he was going to introduce it, or do you think I didn't know?' she said, with that gentle

sauciness which shows itself in the loved one's manner when she has had a triumphant evening without the

'No,' she averred, decisively shaking her head. 'It took me as much by surprise as it probably did you. But

Without answering that question Somerset went on. 'Then what he did at the end of his gag was of course a

'Well, I have no right to make observationsyour actions are not subject to my surveillance; you float above

my plane,' said the young man with some bitterness. 'But to speak plainly, surely hekissed you?'

'A miss is as good as a mile, says the timehonoured proverb; and it is not for us modern mortals to question

'How can you be so offhand?' broke out Somerset. 'I love you wildly and desperately, Paula, and you know

'Then why do you, with such knowledge, adopt an air of levity at such a moment as this! You keep me at

arm'slength, and won't say whether you care for me one bit, or no. I have owned all to you; yet never once

'I have owned much. And you do me wrong if you consider that I show levity. But even if I had not owned

'You mean to say that it is not grievous, even if a man does love a woman, and suffers all the pain of feeling

he loves in vain? Well, I say it is quite the reverse, and I have grounds for knowing.'

'Now, don't fume so, George Somerset, but hear me. My not owning all may not have the dreadful meaning

you think, and therefore it may not be really such a grievous thing. There are genuine reasons for women's

conduct in these matters as well as for men's, though it is sometimes supposed to be regulated entirely by

caprice. And if I do not give way to every feelingI mean demonstrationit is because I don't want to.

'Very well,' said Somerset, with repressed sadness, 'I will not expect you to say more. But you do like me a

'Now!' she said, shaking her head with symptoms of tenderness and looking into his eyes. 'What have you just

promised? Perhaps I like you a little more than a little, which is much too much! Yes,Shakespeare says so,

'A fogy like him!half as old again as either of us! How can you mind him? What shall I do to show you

'It is not for me to suggest what you should do. Though what you should permit ME to do is obvious enough.'

She dropped her voice: 'You mean, permit you to do really and in earnest what he only seemed to do in the

Paula was silent. 'No,' she murmured at last. 'That cannot be. He did not, nor must you.'

'You quite resent such a suggestion: you have a right to. I beg your pardon, not for speaking of it, but for

'I don't resent it at all, and I am not offended one bit. But I am not the less of opinion that it is possible to be

premature in some things; and to do this just now would be premature. I know what you would saythat you

would not have asked it, but for that unfortunate improvisation of it in the play. But that I was not responsible

'PaulaPaula! Where in the world are you?' was heard resounding along the corridor in the voice of her

aunt. 'Our friends are all ready to leave, and you will surely bid them goodnight!'

'But how will you get on in repeating the play tomorrow evening if that interpolation is against your wish?' he

'I'll think it over during the night. Come tomorrow morning to help me settle. But,' she added, with coy yet

genial independence, 'listen to me. Not a word more about awhat you asked for, mind! I don't want to go

so far, and I will notnot just yet anyhowI mean perhaps never. You must promise that, or I cannot see

'Very well. And not a word of this to a soul. My aunt suspects: but she is a good aunt and will say nothing.

Now that is clearly understood, I should be glad to consult with you tomorrow early. I will come to you in the

She took him to a little chamfered doorway in the corner, which opened into a descending turret; and

Somerset went down. When he had unfastened the door at the bottom, and stepped into the lower corridor,

she asked, 'Are you down?' And on receiving an affirmative reply she closed the top door.

Somerset was in the studio the next morning about ten o'clock superintending the labours of Knowles,

Bowles, and Cockton, whom he had again engaged to assist him with the drawings on his appointment to

carry out the works. When he had set them going he ascended the staircase of the great tower for some

purpose that bore upon the forthcoming repairs of this part. Passing the door of the telegraphroom he heard

little sounds from the instrument, which somebody was working. Only two people in the castle, to the best of

his knowledge, knew the trick of this; Miss Power, and a page in her service called John. Miss De Stancy

The door was closed, and much as he would have liked to enter, the possibility that Paula was not the

performer led him to withhold his steps. He went on to where the uppermost masonry had resisted the mighty

hostility of the elements for five hundred years without receiving worse dilapidation than half acentury

produces upon the face of man. But he still wondered who was telegraphing, and whether the message bore

Could Somerset have seen through the panels of the door in passing, he would have beheld the room

It was she who sat at the instrument, and the message she was despatching ran as under:

'Can you send down a competent actress, who will undertake the part of Princess of France in "Love's

Labour's Lost" this evening in a temporary theatre here? Dresses already provided suitable to a lady about the

Off went the message, and Paula retired into the next room, leaving the door open between that and the one

she had just quitted. Here she busied herself with writing some letters, till in less than an hour the telegraph

instrument showed signs of life, and she hastened back to its side. The reply received from the agent was as

'Miss Barbara Bell of the Regent's Theatre could come. Quite competent. Her terms would be about

Presently she heard the instrument again, and emerging from the next room in which she had passed the

'Miss Barbara Bell's terms were accidentally understated. They would be forty guineas, in consequence of the

She did not leave the room this time, but went to an arrow slit hard by and gazed out at the trees till the

instrument began to speak again. Returning to it with a leisurely manner, implying a full persuasion that the

'Miss Bell, in stating her terms, understands that she will not be required to leave London till the middle of

the afternoon. If it is necessary for her to leave at once, ten guineas extra would be indispensable, on account

Paula seemed a little vexed, but not much concerned she sent back with a readiness scarcely politic in the

Her impatience for the answer was mixed with curiosity as to whether it was due to the agent or to Miss

Barbara Bell that the prices had grown like Jack's Beanstalk in the negotiation. Another telegram duly

This business being finished, Paula left the chamber and descended into the inclosure called the Pleasance, a

spot grassed down like a lawn. Here stood Somerset, who, having come down from the tower, was looking on

while a man searched for old foundations under the sod with a crowbar. He was glad to see her at last, and

noticed that she looked serene and relieved; but could not for the moment divine the cause. Paula came

nearer, returned his salutation, and regarded the man's operations in silence awhile till his work led him to a

'You mistake me as usual,' she said, in a low tone. 'I am not going to consult you on that matter, because I

have done all you could have asked for without consulting you. I take no part in the play tonight.'

'Somebody else will play for mean actress from London. But on no account must the substitution be

known beforehand or the performance tonight will never come off: and that I should much regret.'

'Captain De Stancy will not play his part if he knows you will not play yoursthat's what you mean?'

'You may suppose it is,' she said, smiling. 'And to guard against this you must help me to keep the secret by

To be Paula's confederate; today, indeed, time had brought him something worth waiting for. 'In anything!'

'Only in this!' said she, with soft severity. 'And you know what you have promised, George! And you

remember there is to be nowhat we talked about! Now will you go in the onehorse brougham to Markton

Station this afternoon, and meet the four o'clock train? Inquire for a lady for Stancy Castlea Miss Bell; see

her safely into the carriage, and send her straight on here. I am particularly anxious that she should not enter

the town, for I think she once came to Markton in a starring company, and she might be recognized, and my

Thus she instructed her lover and devoted friend; and when he could stay no longer he left her in the garden

to return to his studio. As Somerset went in by the garden door he met a strangelooking personage coming

out by the same passagea stranger, with the manner of a Dutchman, the face of a smelter, and the clothes

of an inhabitant of Guiana. The stranger, whom we have already seen sitting at the back of the theatre the

night before, looked hard from Somerset to Paula, and from Paula again to Somerset, as he stepped out.

Somerset had an unpleasant conviction that this queer gentleman had been standing for some time in the

doorway unnoticed, quizzing him and his mistress as they talked together. If so he might have learnt a secret.

When he arrived upstairs, Somerset went to a window commanding a view of the garden. Paula still stood in

her place, and the stranger was earnestly conversing with her. Soon they passed round the corner and

It was now time for him to see about starting for Markton, an intelligible zest for circumventing the ardent

and coercive captain of artillery saving him from any unnecessary delay in the journey. He was at the station

ten minutes before the train was due; and when it drew up to the platform the first person to jump out was

Captain De Stancy in sportsman's attire and with a gun in his hand. Somerset nodded, and De Stancy spoke,

informing the architect that he had been ten miles up the line shooting waterfowl. 'That's Miss Power's

'Yes,' said Somerset carelessly. 'She expects a friend, I believe. We shall see you at the castle again tonight?'

De Stancy assured him that they would, and the two men parted, Captain De Stancy, when he had glanced to

see that the carriage was empty, going on to where a porter stood with a couple of spaniels.

Somerset now looked again to the train. While his back had been turned to converse with the captain, a lady

of fiveand thirty had alighted from the identical compartment occupied by De Stancy. She made an inquiry

about getting to Stancy Castle, upon which Somerset, who had not till now observed her, went forward, and

De Stancy had by this time disappeared, and Somerset walked on to his rooms at the LordQuantockArms,

where he remained till he had dined, picturing the discomfiture of his alert rival when there should enter to

him as Princess, not Paula Power, but Miss Bell of the Regent's Theatre, London. Thus the hour passed, till

On arriving at the castle, Somerset entered by the public door from the hall as before, a natural delicacy

leading him to feel that though he might be welcomed as an ally at the stage doorin other words, the door

from the corridorit was advisable not to take too ready an advantage of a privilege which, in the existing

secrecy of his understanding with Paula, might lead to an overthrow of her plans on that point.

Not intending to sit out the whole performance, Somerset contented himself with standing in a window recess

near the proscenium, whence he could observe both the stage and the front rows of spectators. He was quite

uncertain whether Paula would appear among the audience tonight, and resolved to wait events. Just before

the rise of the curtain the young lady in question entered and sat down. When the scenery was disclosed and

the King of Navarre appeared, what was Somerset's surprise to find that, though the part was the part taken

by De Stancy on the previous night, the voice was that of Mr. Mild; to him, at the appointed season, entered

Before Somerset had recovered from his crestfallen sensation at De Stancy's elusiveness, that officer himself

emerged in evening dress from behind a curtain forming a wing to the proscenium, and Somerset remarked

that the minor part originally allotted to him was filled by the subaltern who had enacted it the night before.

De Stancy glanced across, whether by accident or otherwise Somerset could not determine, and his glance

seemed to say he quite recognized there had been a trial of wits between them, and that, thanks to his chance

The house being less crowded tonight there were one or two vacant chairs in the best part. De Stancy,

advancing from where he had stood for a few moments, seated himself comfortably beside Miss Power.

On the other side of her he now perceived the same queer elderly foreigner (as he appeared) who had come to

her in the garden that morning. Somerset was surprised to perceive also that Paula with very little hesitation

introduced him and De Stancy to each other. A conversation ensued between the three, none the less

animated for being carried on in a whisper, in which Paula seemed on strangely intimate terms with the

stranger, and the stranger to show feelings of great friendship for De Stancy, considering that they must be

The play proceeded, and Somerset still lingered in his corner. He could not help fancying that De Stancy's

ingenious relinquishment of his part, and its obvious reason, was winning Paula's admiration. His conduct

was homage carried to unscrupulous and inconvenient lengths, a sort of thing which a woman may chide, but

which she can never resent. Who could do otherwise than talk kindly to a man, incline a little to him, and

condone his fault, when the sole motive of so audacious an exercise of his wits was to escape acting with any

His conjectures were brought to a pause by the ending of the comedy, and the opportunity afforded him of

joining the group in front. The mass of people were soon gone, and the knot of friends assembled around

'My uncle, Mr. Abner Power,' said Paula suddenly to Somerset, as he came near, presenting the stranger to

the astonished young man. 'I could not see you before the performance, as I should have liked to do. The

return of my uncle is so extraordinary that it ought to be told in a less hurried way than this. He has been

supposed dead by all of us for nearly ten yearsever since the time we last heard from him.'

'For which I am to blame,' said Mr. Power, nodding to Paula's architect. 'Yet not I, but accident and a sluggish

temperament. There are times, Mr Somerset, when the human creature feels no interest in his kind, and

assumes that his kind feels no interest in him. The feeling is not active enough to make him fly from their

presence; but sufficient to keep him silent if he happens to be away. I may not have described it precisely; but

'For which my father was not to blame, since he did not receive them,' said Paula.

'Sir, as I remained away without particular pain, so I return without particular joy. I speak the truth, and no

compliments. I may add that there is one exception to this absence of feeling from my heart, namely, that I do

derive great satisfaction from seeing how mightily this young woman has grown and prevailed.'

This address, though delivered nominally to Somerset, was listened to by Paula, Mrs. Goodman, and De

Stancy also. After uttering it, the speaker turned away, and continued his previous conversation with Captain

De Stancy. From this time till the group parted he never again spoke directly to Somerset, paying him barely

so much attention as he might have expected as Paula's architect, and certainly less than he might have

The result of the appearance, as from the tomb, of this wintry man was that the evening ended in a frigid and

formal way which gave little satisfaction to the sensitive Somerset, who was abstracted and constrained by

reason of thoughts on how this resuscitation of the uncle would affect his relation with Paula. It was possibly

also the thought of two at least of the others. There had, in truth, scarcely yet been time enough to adumbrate

The only private word exchanged by Somerset with any one that night was with Mrs. Goodman, in whom he

always recognized a friend to his cause, though the fluidity of her character rendered her but a feeble one at

the best of times. She informed him that Mr. Power had no sort of legal control over Paula, or direction in her

estates; but Somerset could not doubt that a near and only blood relation, even had he possessed but half the

static force of character that made itself apparent in Mr. Power, might exercise considerable moral influence

over the girl if he chose. And in view of Mr. Power's marked preference for De Stancy, Somerset had many

Somerset was deeply engaged with his draughtsmen and builders during the three following days, and

At his suggestion Paula had agreed to have the works executed as such operations were carried out in old

times, before the advent of contractors. Each trade required in the building was to be represented by a

mastertradesman of that denomination, who should stand responsible for his own section of labour, and for

no other, Somerset himself as chief technicist working out his designs on the spot. By this means the

thoroughness of the workmanship would be greatly increased in comparison with the modern arrangement,

whereby a nominal builder, seldom present, who can certainly know no more than one trade intimately and

But notwithstanding its manifest advantages to the proprietor, the plan added largely to the responsibilities of

the architect, who, with his mastermason, mastercarpenter, masterplumber, and what not, had scarcely a

moment to call his own. Still, the method being upon the face of it the true one, Somerset supervised with a

But there seemed to float across the court to him from the inhabited wing an intimation that things were not

as they had been before; that an influence adverse to himself was at work behind the ashlared face of inner

wall which confronted him. Perhaps this was because he never saw Paula at the windows, or heard her

footfall in that half of the building given over to himself and his myrmidons. There was really no reason other

than a sentimental one why he should see her. The uninhabited part of the castle was almost an independent

structure, and it was quite natural to exist for weeks in this wing without coming in contact with residents in

A more pronounced cause than vague surmise was destined to perturb him, and this in an unexpected manner.

It happened one morning that he glanced through a local paper while waiting at the LordQuantockArms

for the ponycarriage to be brought round in which he often drove to the castle. The paper was two days old,

but to his unutterable amazement he read therein a paragraph which ran as follows:

'We are informed that a marriage is likely to be arranged between Captain De Stancy, of the Royal Horse

Artillery, only surviving son of Sir William De Stancy, Baronet, and Paula, only daughter of the late John

Somerset dropped the paper, and stared out of the window. Fortunately for his emotions, the horse and

carriage were at this moment brought to the door, so that nothing hindered Somerset in driving off to the spot

at which he would be soonest likely to learn what truth or otherwise there was in the newspaper report. From

the first he doubted it: and yet how should it have got there? Such strange rumours, like paradoxical maxims,

generally include a portion of truth. Five days had elapsed since he last spoke to Paula.

Reaching the castle he entered his own quarters as usual, and after setting the draughtsmen to work walked up

and down pondering how he might best see her without making the paragraph the ground of his request for an

interview; for if it were a fabrication, such a reason would wound her pride in her own honour towards him,

and if it were partly true, he would certainly do better in leaving her alone than in reproaching her. It would

In his meditation he stood still, closely scanning one of the jambstones of a doorless entrance, as if to

discover where the old hingehook had entered the stonework. He heard a footstep behind him, and looking

round saw Paula standing by. She held a newspaper in her hand. The spot was one quite hemmed in from

'I have something to tell you,' she said; 'something important. But you are so occupied with that old stone that

'No, look here,' she said, holding up the sheet. It was not what he had supposed, but a new onethe local

rival to that which had contained the announcement, and was still damp from the press. She pointed, and he

'We are authorized to state that there is no foundation whatever for the assertion of our contemporary that a

marriage is likely to be arranged between Captain De Stancy and Miss Power of Stancy Castle.'

Somerset pressed her hand. 'It disturbed me,' he said, 'though I did not believe it.'

'It astonished me, as much as it disturbed you; and I sent this contradiction at once.'

'It was not. His sister has ascertained beyond doubt that he knew nothing of it. Well, now, don't say any more

'I hope the news is as good as the last,' he said, looking into her face with anxiety; for though that face was

blooming, it seemed full of a doubt as to how her next information would be taken.

'O yes; it is good, because everybody says so. We are going to take a delightful journey. My newcreated

uncle, as he seems, and I, and my aunt, and perhaps Charlotte, if she is well enough, are going to Nice, and

'Why, of course you must, considering what you have undertaken!' she said, looking with saucy composure

into his eyes. 'My uncle's reason for proposing the journey just now is, that he thinks the alterations will make

residence here dusty and disagreeable during the spring. The opportunity of going with him is too good a one

She shook her head impenetrably. 'A woman may wish some things she does not care to tell!'

'Are you really glad you are going, dearest?as I MUST call you just once,' said the young man, gazing

earnestly into her face, which struck him as looking far too rosy and radiant to be consistent with ever so little

'I take great interest in foreign trips, especially to the shores of the Mediterranean: and everybody makes a

'But you do feel a little sadness, such as I should feel if our positions were reversed?'

'I think you ought not to have asked that so incredulously,' she murmured. 'We can be near each other in

spirit, when our bodies are far apart, can we not?' Her tone grew softer and she drew a little closer to his side

with a slightly nestling motion, as she went on, 'May I be sure that you will not think unkindly of me when I

am absent from your sight, and not begrudge me any little pleasure because you are not there to share it with

'May you! Can you ask it? . . . As for me, I shall have no pleasure to be begrudged or otherwise. The only

pleasure I have is, as you well know, in you. When you are with me, I am happy: when you are away, I take

'I don't deserve it. I have no right to disturb you so,' she said, very gently. 'But I have given you some

'You have, and yet . . . . But I don't accuse you, dearest. Yes, you have given me pleasure. One truly pleasant

time was when we stood together in the summerhouse on the evening of the gardenparty, and you said you

'Yes, it was a pleasant time,' she returned thoughtfully. 'How the rain came down, and formed a gauze

between us and the dancers, did it not; and how afraid we wereat least I was lest anybody should

'Yes', said Somerset, 'I remember it. But no harm came of it to you . . . . And perhaps no good will come of it

'Do not be premature in your conclusions, sir,' she said archly. 'If you really do feel for me only half what you

'Then we will say no more; because, as you recollect, we agreed not to go too far. No expostulations, for we

are going to be practical young people; besides, I won't listen if you utter them. I simply echo your words,

and say I, too, believe you. Now I must go. Have faith in me, and don't magnify trifles light as air.'

'I THINK I understand you. And if I do, it will make a great difference in my conduct. You will have no

'Then you must not understand me so much as to make much difference; for your conduct as my architect is

perfect. But I must not linger longer, though I wished you to know this news from my very own lips.'

'So early? Does your uncle guess anything? Do you wish him to be told just yet?'

'Now, Georgeyou see I say George, and not Mr. Somerset, and you may draw your own inferencedon't

be so morbid in your reproaches! I have informed you that you may write, or still better, telegraph, since the

wire is so handyon business. Well, of course, it is for you to judge whether you will add postscripts of

another sort. There, you make me say more than a woman ought, because you are so obtuse and literal. Good

Though he saw her again after this, it was during the bustle of preparation, when there was always a third

person present, usually in the shape of that breathing refrigerator, her uncle. Hence the few words that passed

between them were of the most formal description, and chiefly concerned the restoration of the castle, and a

They were to leave by an early afternoon train, and Somerset was invited to lunch on that day. The morning

was occupied by a long business consultation in the studio with Mr. Power and Mrs. Goodman on what

rooms were to be left locked up, what left in charge of the servants, and what thrown open to the builders and

workmen under the surveillance of Somerset. At present the work consisted mostly of repairs to existing

rooms, so as to render those habitable which had long been used only as stores for lumber. Paula did not

appear during this discussion; but when they were all seated in the dining hall she came in dressed for the

journey, and, to outward appearance, with blithe anticipation at its prospect blooming from every feature.

Next to her came Charlotte De Stancy, still with some of the pallor of an invalid, but wonderfully brightened

up, as Somerset thought, by the prospect of a visit to a delightful shore. It might have been this; and it might

It was in the hall, when they were in the bustle of leave taking, that there occurred the only opportunity for

the two or three private words with Paula to which his star treated him on that last day. His took the hasty

'Telegraphing will be quicker,' she answered in the same low tone; and whispering 'Be true to me!' turned

How unreasonable he was! In addition to those words, warm as they were, he would have preferred a little

paleness of cheek, or trembling of lip, instead of the bloom and the beauty which sat upon her undisturbed

Immediately after this they went to the carriages waiting at the door. Somerset, who had in a measure taken

charge of the castle, accompanied them and saw them off, much as if they were his visitors. She stepped in, a

While the carriages rolled away, he ascended to the top of the tower, where he saw them lessen to spots on

the road, and turn the corner out of sight. The chances of a rival seemed to grow in proportion as Paula

receded from his side; but he could not have answered why. He had bidden her and her relatives adieu on her

own doorstep, like a privileged friend of the family, while De Stancy had scarcely seen her since the

playnight. That the silence into which the captain appeared to have sunk was the placidity of conscious

power, was scarcely probable; yet that adventitious aids existed for De Stancy he could not deny. The link

formed by Charlotte between De Stancy and Paula, much as he liked the ingenuous girl, was one that he

could have wished away. It constituted a bridge of access to Paula's inner life and feelings which nothing

could rival; except that one fact which, as he firmly believed, did actually rival it, giving him faith and hope;

his own primary occupation of Paula's heart. Moreover, Mrs. Goodman would be an influence favourable to

himself and his cause during the journey; though, to be sure, to set against her there was the phlegmatic and

obstinate Abner Power, in whom, apprised by those subtle media of intelligence which lovers possess, he

Somerset remained but a short time at the castle that day. The light of its chambers had fled, the gross

grandeur of the dictatorial towers oppressed him, and the studio was hateful. He remembered a promise made

long ago to Mr. Woodwell of calling upon him some afternoon; and a visit which had not much attractiveness

in it at other times recommended itself now, through being the one possible way open to him of hearing Paula

named and her doings talked of. Hence in walking back to Markton, instead of going up the High Street, he

Mr. Woodwell was not indoors at the moment of his call, and Somerset lingered at the doorway, and cast his

eyes around. It was a house which typified the drearier tenets of its occupier with great exactness. It stood

upon its spot of earth without any natural union with it: no mosses disguised the stiff straight line where wall

met earth; not a creeper softened the aspect of the bare front. The garden walk was strewn with loose clinkers

from the neighbouring foundry, which rolled under the pedestrian's foot and jolted his soul out of him before

Whether Mr. Woodwell was personally responsible for this condition of things there was not time to closely

consider, for Somerset perceived the minister coming up the walk towards him. Mr. Woodwell welcomed

him heartily; and yet with the mien of a man whose mind has scarcely dismissed some scene which has

'I have had a busy afternoon,' said the minister, as they walked indoors; 'or rather an exciting afternoon. Your

client at Stancy Castle, whose uncle, as I imagine you know, has so unexpectedly returned, has left with him

today for the south of France; and I wished to ask her before her departure some questions as to how a

charity organized by her father was to be administered in her absence. But I have been very unfortunate. She

could not find time to see me at her own house, and I awaited her at the station, all to no purpose, owing to

'Yes, that was the trouble of it. Captain De Stancy was there, and quite monopolized her. I don't know what

'tis coming to, and perhaps I have no business to inquire, since she is scarcely a member of our church now.

Who could have anticipated the daughter of my old friend John Power developing into the ordinary gay

woman of the world as she has done? Who could have expected her to associate with people who show

contempt for their Maker's intentions by flippantly assuming other characters than those in which He created

'You mistake her,' murmured Somerset, in a voice which he vainly endeavoured to attune to philosophy.

'Miss Power has some very rare and beautiful qualities in her nature, though I confess I tremblefear lest the

'Sir, it is already! Do you remember my telling you that I thought the force of her surroundings would

obscure the pure daylight of her spirit, as a monkish window of coloured images attenuates the rays of God's

sun? I do not wish to indulge in rash surmises, but her oscillation from her family creed of Calvinistic truth

towards the traditions of the De Stancys has been so decided, though so gradual, thatwell, I may be wrong.'

'I sometimes think she will take to her as husband the present representative of that impoverished

lineCaptain De Stancy which she may easily do, if she chooses, as his behaviour to day showed.'

'He was probably there on account of his sister,' said Somerset, trying to escape the mental picture of farewell

'Yes. Well, we shall see in the Lord's good time; I can do no more for her. And now, Mr. Somerset, pray take

The revelations of the minister depressed Somerset a little, and he did not stay long. As he went to the door

Woodwell said, 'There is a worthy manthe deacon of our chapel, Mr. Havillwho would like to be

friendly with you. Poor man, since the death of his wife he seems to have something on his mindsome

trouble which my words will not reach. If ever you are passing his door, please give him a look in. He fears

Somerset did not clearly promise, and went his way. The minister's allusion to the announcement of the

marriage reminded Somerset that she had expressed a wish to know how the paragraph came to be inserted.

The wish had been carelessly spoken; but he went to the newspaper office to make inquiries on the point.

The reply was unexpected. The reporter informed his questioner that in returning from the theatricals, at

which he was present, he shared a fly with a gentleman who assured him that such an alliance was certain, so

obviously did it recommend itself to all concerned, as a means of strengthening both families. The

gentleman's knowledge of the Powers was so precise that the reporter did not hesitate to accept his assertion.

He was a man who had seen a great deal of the world, and his face was noticeable for the seams and scars on

Hostilities, then, were beginning. The paragraph had been meant as the first slap. Taking her abroad was the

There was no part of Paula's journey in which Somerset did not think of her. He imagined her in the hotel at

Havre, in her brief rest at Paris; her drive past the Place de la Bastille to the Boulevart Mazas to take the train

for Lyons; her tedious progress through the dark of a winter night till she crossed the isothermal line which

told of the beginning of a southern atmosphere, and onwards to the ancient blue sea.

Thus, between the hours devoted to architecture, he passed the next three days. One morning he set himself,

by the help of John, to practise on the telegraph instrument, expecting a message. But though he watched the

machine at every opportunity, or kept some other person on the alert in its neighbourhood, no message

arrived to gratify him till after the lapse of nearly a fortnight. Then she spoke from her new habitation nine

'Are settled at the address given. Can now attend to any inquiry about the building.'

The pointed implication that she could attend to inquiries about nothing else, breathed of the veritable Paula

so distinctly that he could forgive its sauciness. His reply was soon despatched:

The last three words formed the sentimental appendage which she had assured him she could tolerate, and

He spent the remainder of the day in making a little sketch to show what had been done in the castle since her

departure. This he despatched with a letter of explanation ending in a paragraph of a different tenor:

'I have demonstrated our progress as well as I could; but another subject has been in my mind, even whilst

writing the former. Ask yourself if you use me well in keeping me a fortnight before you so much as say that

you have arrived? The one thing that reconciled me to your departure was the thought that I should hear early

from you: my idea of being able to submit to your absence was based entirely upon that.

'But I have resolved not to be out of humour, and to believe that your scheme of reserve is not unreasonable;

neither do I quarrel with your injunction to keep silence to all relatives. I do not know anything I can say to

show you more plainly my acquiescence in your wish "not to go too far" (in short, to keep yourself dearby

dear I mean not cheapyou have been dear in the other sense a long time, as you know), than by not urging

When this was posted he again turned his attention to her walls and towers, which indeed were a dumb

consolation in many ways for the lack of herself. There was no nook in the castle to which he had not access

or could not easily obtain access by applying for the keys, and this propinquity of things belonging to her

served to keep her image before him even more constantly than his memories would have done.

Three days and a half after the despatch of his subdued effusion the telegraph called to tell him the good news

'Your letter and drawing are just received. Thanks for the latter. Will reply to the former by post this

It was with cheerful patience that he attended to his three draughtsmen in the studio, or walked about the

environs of the fortress during the fifty hours spent by her presumably tender missive on the road. A light

fleece of snow fell during the second night of waiting, inverting the position of long established lights and

shades, and lowering to a dingy grey the approximately white walls of other weathers; he could trace the

postman's footmarks as he entered over the bridge, knowing them by the dot of his walkingstick: on entering

the expected letter was waiting upon his table. He looked at its direction with glad curiosity; it was the first

'MY DEAR MR. SOMERSET' (the 'George,' then, to which she had so kindly treated him in her last

'Your letter explaining the progress of the work, aided by the sketch enclosed, gave me as clear an idea of the

advance made since my departure as I could have gained by being present. I feel every confidence in you, and

am quite sure the restoration is in good hands. In this opinion both my aunt and my uncle coincide. Please act

entirely on your own judgment in everything, and as soon as you give a certificate to the builders for the first

'You bid me ask myself if I have used you well in not sending intelligence of myself till a fortnight after I had

left you. Now, George, don't be unreasonable! Let me remind you that, as a certain apostle said, there are a

thousand things lawful which are not expedient. I say this, not from pride in my own conduct, but to offer

you a very fair explanation of it. Your resolve not to be out of humour with me suggests that you have been

'If you only knew what passes in my mind sometimes you would perhaps not be so ready to blame. Shall I tell

you? No. For, if it is a great emotion, it may afford you a cruel satisfaction at finding I suffer through

separation; and if it be a growing indifference to you, it will be inflicting gratuitous unhappiness upon you to

'Please which way would you have it? But it is better that you should guess at what I feel than that you should

distinctly know it. Notwithstanding this assertion you will, I know, adhere to your first prepossession in

favour of prompt confessions. In spite of that, I fear that upon trial such promptness would not produce that

happiness which your fancy leads you to expect. Your heart would weary in time, and when once that

happens, goodbye to the emotion you have told me of. Imagine such a case clearly, and you will perceive

the probability of what I say. At the same time I admit that a woman who is ONLY a creature of evasions and

'Do not write VERY frequently, and never write at all unless you have some real information about the castle

works to communicate. I will explain to you on another occasion why I make this request. You will possibly

set it down as additional evidence of my coldheartedness. If so you must. Would you also mind writing the

business letter on an independent sheet, with a proper beginning and ending? Whether you inclose another

Somerset had a suspicion that her order to him not to neglect the business letter was to escape any invidious

remarks from her uncle. He wished she would be more explicit, so that he might know exactly how matters

stood with them, and whether Abner Power had ever ventured to express disapproval of him as her lover.

But not knowing, he waited anxiously for a new architectural event on which he might legitimately send her

another line. This occurred about a week later, when the men engaged in digging foundations discovered

remains of old ones which warranted a modification of the original plan. He accordingly sent off his

professional advice on the point, requesting her assent or otherwise to the amendment, winding up the inquiry

'Do you suffer from any unpleasantness in the manner of others on account of me? If so, inform me, Paula. I

cannot otherwise interpret your request for the separate sheets. While on this point I will tell you what I have

learnt relative to the authorship of that false paragraph about your engagement. It was communicated to the

paper by your uncle. Was the wish father to the thought, or could he have been misled, as many were, by

'If I am not to write to you without a professional reason, surely you can write to me without such an excuse?

When you write tell me of yourself. There is nothing I so much wish to hear of. Write a great deal about your

daily doings, for my mind's eye keeps those sweet operations more distinctly before me than my bodily sight

'You say nothing of having been to look at the chapelofease I told you of, the plans of which I made when

an architect's pupil, working in metres instead of feet and inches, to my immense perplexity, that the

drawings might be understood by the foreign workmen. Go there and tell me what you think of its design. I

'How I wish you would invite me to run over and see you, if only for a day or two, for my heart runs after you

in a most distracted manner. Dearest, you entirely fill my life! But I forget; we have resolved not to go VERY

FAR. But the fact is I am half afraid lest, with such reticence, you should not remember how very much I am

yours, and with what a dogged constancy I shall always remember you. Paula, sometimes I have horrible

misgivings that something will divide us, especially if we do not make a more distinct show of our true

relationship. True do I say? I mean the relationship which I think exists between us, but which you do not

Away southward like the swallow went the tender lines. He wondered if she would notice his hint of being

ready to pay her a flying visit, if permitted to do so. His fancy dwelt on that further side of France, the very

contours of whose shore were now lines of beauty for him. He prowled in the library, and found interest in

the mustiest facts relating to that place, learning with aesthetic pleasure that the number of its population was

fifty thousand, that the mean temperature of its atmosphere was 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and that the

He waited overlong for her reply; but it ultimately came. After the usual business preliminary, she said:

'As requested, I have visited the little church you designed. It gave me great pleasure to stand before a

building whose outline and details had come from the brain of such a valued friend and adviser.'

'I like the style much, especially that of the windowsEarly English are they not? I am going to attend

service there next Sunday, BECAUSE YOU WERE THE ARCHITECT, AND FOR NO GODLY REASON

AT ALL. Does that content you? Fie for your despondency! Remember M. Aurelius: "This is the chief thing:

Be not perturbed; for all things are of the nature of the Universal." Indeed I am a little surprised at your

having forebodings, after my assurance to you before I left. I have none. My opinion is that, to be happy, it is

best to think that, as we are the product of events, events will continue to produce that which is in harmony

with us. . . . You are too fainthearted, and that's the truth of it. I advise you not to abandon yourself to

idolatry too readily; you know what I mean. It fills me with remorse when I think how very far below such a

'I should like to receive another letter from you as soon as you have got over the misgiving you speak of, but

don't write too soon. I wish I could write anything to raise your spirits, but you may be so perverse that if, in

order to do this, I tell you of the races, routs, scenery, gaieties, and gambling going on in this place and

neighbourhood (into which of course I cannot help being a little drawn), you may declare that my words

make you worse than ever. Don't pass the line I have set down in the way you were tempted to do in your

last; and not too many Dearestsat least as yet. This is not a time for effusion. You have my very warm

As a loveletter this missive was tantalizing enough, but since its form was simply a continuation of what she

had practised before she left, it produced no undue misgiving in him. Far more was he impressed by her

omitting to answer the two important questions he had put to her. First, concerning her uncle's attitude

towards them, and his conduct in giving such strange information to the reporter. Second, on his, Somerset's,

paying her a flying visit some time during the spring. Since she had requested it, he made no haste in his

reply. When penned, it ran in the words subjoined, which, in common with every line of their

correspondence, acquired from the strangeness of subsequent circumstances an interest and a force that

'People cannot' (he wrote) 'be for ever in good spirits on this gloomy side of the Channel, even though you

seem to be so on yours. However, that I can abstain from letting you know whether my spirits are good or

otherwise, I will prove in our future correspondence. I admire you more and more, both for the warm feeling

towards me which I firmly believe you have, and for your ability to maintain side by side with it so much

dignity and resolution with regard to foolish sentiment. Sometimes I think I could have put up with a little

more weakness if it had brought with it a little more tenderness, but I dismiss all that when I mentally survey

your other qualities. I have thought of fifty things to say to you of the TOO FAR sort, not one of any other; so

that your prohibition is very unfortunate, for by it I am doomed to say things that do not rise spontaneously to

my lips. You say that our shutup feelings are not to be mentioned yet. How long is the yet to last?

'But, to speak more solemnly, matters grow very serious with us, Paulaat least with me: and there are times

when this restraint is really unbearable. It is possible to put up with reserve when the reserved being is by

one's side, for the eyes may reveal what the lips do not. But when she is absent, what was piquancy becomes

harshness, tender railleries become cruel sarcasm, and tacit understandings misunderstandings. However that

may be, you shall never be able to reproach me for touchiness. I still esteem you as a friend; I admire you and

Without knowing it, Somerset was drawing near to a crisis in this soft correspondence which would speedily

put his assertions to the test; but the knowledge came upon him soon enough for his peace.

Her next letter, dated March 9th, was the shortest of all he had received, and beyond the portion devoted to

'I am almost angry with you, George, for being vexed because I am not more effusive. Why should the verbal

I LOVE YOU be ever uttered between two beings of opposite sex who have eyes to see signs? During the

seven or eight months that we have known each other, you have discovered my regard for you, and what

more can you desire? Would a reiterated assertion of passion really do any good? Remember it is a natural

instinct with us women to retain the power of obliging a man to hope, fear, pray, and beseech as long as we

'I am now going to own to a weakness about which I had intended to keep silent. It will not perhaps add to

your respect for me. My uncle, whom in many ways I like, is displeased with me for keeping up this

correspondence so regularly. I am quite perverse enough to venture to disregard his feelings; but considering

the relationship, and his kindness in other respects, I should prefer not to do so at present. Honestly speaking,

I want the courage to resist him in some things. He said to me the other day that he was very much surprised

that I did not depend upon his judgment for my future happiness. Whether that meant much or little, I have

resolved to communicate with you only by telegrams for the remainder of the time we are here. Please reply

by the same means only. There, now, don't flush and call me names! It is for the best, and we want no

nonsense, you and I. Dear George, I feel more than I say, and if I do not speak more plainly, you will

understand what is behind after all I have hinted. I can promise you that you will not like me less upon

This brought Somerset some cheerfulness and a good deal of gloom. He silently reproached her, who was

apparently so independent, for lacking independence in such a vital matter. Perhaps it was mere sex, perhaps

it was peculiar to a few, that her independence and courage, like Cleopatra's, failed her occasionally at the

One curious impression which had often haunted him now returned with redoubled force. He could not see

himself as the husband of Paula Power in any likely future. He could not imagine her his wife. People were

apt to run into mistakes in their presentiments; but though he could picture her as queening it over him, as

avowing her love for him unreservedly, even as compromising herself for him, he could not see her in a state

Telegrams being commanded, to the telegraph he repaired, when, after two days, an immediate wish to

communicate with her led him to dismiss vague conjecture on the future situation. His first telegram took the

'I give up the letter writing. I will part with anything to please you but yourself. Your comfort with your

relative is the first thing to be considered: not for the world do I wish you to make divisions within doors.

'I can fear, grieve at, and complain of nothing, having your nice promise to consider my comfort always.'

This was very pretty; but it admitted little. Such short messages were in themselves poor substitutes for

letters, but their speed and easy frequency were good qualities which the letters did not possess. Three days

'You do not once say to me "Come." Would such a strange accident as my arrival disturb you much?'

'I am indisposed to answer you too clearly. Keep your heart strong: 'tis a censorious world.'

The vagueness there shown made Somerset peremptory, and he could not help replying somewhat more

'Why do you give me so much cause for anxiety! Why treat me to so much mystification! Say once,

He awaited for the answer, one day, two days, a week; but none came. It was now the end of March, and

when Somerset walked of an afternoon by the river and pool in the lower part of the grounds, his ear newly

greeted by the small voices of frogs and toads and other creatures who had been torpid through the winter, he

became doubtful and uneasy that she alone should be silent in the awakening year.

He waited through a second week, and there was still no reply. It was possible that the urgency of his request

had tempted her to punish him, and he continued his walks, to, fro, and around, with as close an ear to the

undertones of nature, and as attentive an eye to the charms of his own art, as the grand passion would allow.

Now came the days of battle between winter and spring. On these excursions, though spring was to the

forward during the daylight, winter would reassert itself at night, and not unfrequently at other moments.

Tepid airs and nipping breezes met on the confines of sunshine and shade; trembling raindrops that were still

akin to frost crystals dashed themselves from the bushes as he pursued his way from town to castle; the birds

were like an orchestra waiting for the signal to strike up, and colour began to enter into the country round.

But he gave only a modicum of thought to these proceedings. He rather thought such things as, 'She can

afford to be saucy, and to find a source of blitheness in my love, considering the power that wealth gives her

to pick and choose almost where she will.' He was bound to own, however, that one of the charms of her

conversation was the complete absence of the note of the heiress from its accents. That, other things equal,

her interest would naturally incline to a person bearing the name of De Stancy, was evident from her avowed

predilections. His original assumption, that she was a personification of the modern spirit, who had been

dropped, like a seed from the bill of a bird, into a chink of mediaevalism, required some qualification.

Romanticism, which will exist in every human breast as long as human nature itself exists, had asserted itself

in her. Veneration for things old, not because of any merit in them, but because of their long continuance, had

developed in her; and her modern spirit was taking to itself wings and flying away. Whether his image was

flying with the other was a question which moved him all the more deeply now that her silence gave him

For another seven days he stoically left in suspension all forecasts of his possibly grim fate in being the

employed and not the beloved. The week passed: he telegraphed: there was no reply: he had sudden fears for

'DEAR PAULA,Are you ill or in trouble? It is impossible in the very unquiet state you have put me into by

your silence that I should abstain from writing. Without affectation, you sorely distress me, and I think you

would hardly have done it could you know what a degree of anxiety you cause. Why, Paula, do you not write

or send to me? What have I done that you should treat me like this? Do write, if it is only to reproach me. I

am compelled to pass the greater part of the day in this castle, which reminds me constantly of you, and yet

eternally lacks your presence. I am unfortunate indeed that you have not been able to find halfanhour

'You have always been ambiguous, it is true; but I thought I saw encouragement in your eyes; encouragement

certainly was in your eyes, and who would not have been deluded by them and have believed them sincere?

'There may, of course, be some deliberate scheming on the part of your relations to intercept our letters; but I

cannot think it. I know that the housekeeper has received a letter from your aunt this very week, in which she

incidentally mentions that all are well, and in the same place as before. How then can I excuse you?

'Then write, Paula, or at least telegraph, as you proposed. Otherwise I am resolved to take your silence as a

He despatched the letter, and halfanhour afterwards felt sure that it would mortally offend her. But he had

now reached a state of temporary indifference, and could contemplate the loss of such a tantalizing property

In the interim of waiting for a reply he was one day walking to Markton, when, passing Myrtle Villa, he saw

Sir William De Stancy ambling about his gardenpath and examining the crocuses that palisaded its edge. Sir

William saw him and asked him to come in. Somerset was in the mood for any diversion from his own

'I am much alone now,' said Sir William, 'and if the weather were not very mild, so that I can get out into the

'And my son's. Strange to say, I do not miss her so much as I miss him. She offers to return at any moment;

but I do not wish to deprive her of the advantages of a little foreign travel with her friend. Always, Mr.

Somerset, give your spare time to foreign countries, especially those which contrast with your own in

topography, language, and art. That's my advice to all young people of your age. Don't waste your money on

expensive amusements at home. Practise the strictest economy at home, to have a margin for going abroad.'

Economy, which Sir William had never practised, but to which, after exhausting all other practices, he now

raised an altar, as the Athenians did to the unknown God, was a topic likely to prolong itself on the baronet's

'No,' said Sir William. 'But my son has made use of his leave in running over to see his sister at Nice.'

The current of quiet meditation in Somerset changed to a busy whirl at this reply. That Paula should become

indifferent to his existence from a sense of superiority, physical, spiritual, or social, was a sufficiently ironical

thing; but that she should have relinquished him because of the presence of a rival lent commonplace

Sir William, noting nothing, continued in the tone of clever childishness which characterized him: 'It is very

singular how the present situation has been led up to by me. Policy, and policy alone, has been the rule of my

conduct for many years past; and when I say that I have saved my family by it, I believe time will show that I

am within the truth. I hope you don't let your passions outrun your policy, as so many young men are apt to

do. Better be poor and politic, than rich and headstrong: that's the opinion of an old man. However, I was

going to say that it was purely from policy that I allowed a friendship to develop between my daughter and

Miss Power, and now events are proving the wisdom of my course. Straws show how the wind blows, and

there are little signs that my son Captain De Stancy will return to Stancy Castle by the fortunate step of

marrying its owner. I say nothing to either of them, and they say nothing to me; but my wisdom lies in doing

Somerset had quite time enough to rein himself in during the old gentleman's locution, and the voice in which

he answered was so cold and reckless that it did not seem his own: 'But how will they live happily together

when she is a Dissenter, and a Radical, and a Newlight, and a NeoGreek, and a person of red blood; while

'I anticipate no difficulty on that score,' said the baronet. 'My son's star lies in that direction, and, like the

Magi, he is following it without trifling with his opportunity. You have skill in architecture, therefore you

follow it. My son has skill in gallantry, and now he is about to exercise it profitably.'

'May nobody wish him more harm in that exercise than I do!' said Somerset fervently.

A stagnant moodiness of several hours which followed his visit to Myrtle Villa resulted in a resolve to

journey over to Paula the very next day. He now felt perfectly convinced that the inviting of Captain De

Stancy to visit them at Nice was a second stage in the scheme of Paula's uncle, the premature announcement

of her marriage having been the first. The roundness and neatness of the whole plan could not fail to

recommend it to the mind which delighted in putting involved things straight, and such a mind Abner Power's

seemed to be. In fact, the felicity, in a politic sense, of pairing the captain with the heiress furnished no little

excuse for manoeuvring to bring it about, so long as that manoeuvring fell short of unfairness, which Mr.

The next day was spent in furnishing the builders with such instructions as they might require for a coming

'I am coming to see you. Possibly you will refuse me an interview. Never mind, I am comingYours, G.

The morning after that he was up and away. Between him and Paula stretched nine hundred miles by the line

of journey that he found it necessary to adopt, namely, the way of London, in order to inform his father of his

movements and to make one or two business calls. The afternoon was passed in attending to these matters,

the night in speeding onward, and by the time that nine o'clock sounded next morning through the sunless and

leaden air of the English Channel coasts, he had reduced the number of miles on his list by two hundred, and

On awakening from a fitful sleep in the grey dawn of the morning following he looked out upon Lyons, quiet

enough now, the citizens unaroused to the daily round of breadwinning, and enveloped in a haze of fog.

Six hundred and fifty miles of his journey had been got over; there still intervened two hundred and fifty

between him and the end of suspense. When he thought of that he was disinclined to pause; and pressed on by

Here he considered. By going on to Nice that afternoon he would arrive at too late an hour to call upon her

the same evening: it would therefore be advisable to sleep in Marseilles and proceed the next morning to his

journey's end, so as to meet her in a brighter condition than he could boast of today. This he accordingly

did, and leaving Marseilles the next morning about eight, found himself at Nice early in the afternoon.

Now that he was actually at the centre of his gravitation he seemed even further away from a feasible meeting

with her than in England. While afar off, his presence at Nice had appeared to be the one thing needful for the

solution of his trouble, but the very house fronts seemed now to ask him what right he had there. Unluckily,

in writing from England, he had not allowed her time to reply before his departure, so that he did not know

what difficulties might lie in the way of her seeing him privately. Before deciding what to do, he walked

down the Avenue de la Gare to the promenade between the shore and the Jardin Public, and sat down to

The hotel which she had given him as her address looked right out upon him and the sea beyond, and he

rested there with the pleasing hope that her eyes might glance from a window and discover his form.

Everything in the scene was sunny and gay. Behind him in the gardens a band was playing; before him was

the sea, the Great sea, the historical and original Mediterranean; the sea of innumerable characters in history

and legend that arranged themselves before him in a long frieze of memories so diverse as to include both

Northern eyes are not prepared on a sudden for the impact of such images of warmth and colour as meet them

southward, or for the vigorous light that falls from the sky of this favoured shore. In any other circumstances

the transparency and serenity of the air, the perfume of the sea, the radiant houses, the palms and flowers,

would have acted upon Somerset as an enchantment, and wrapped him in a reverie; but at present he only saw

and felt these things as through a thick glass which kept out half their atmosphere.

At last he made up his mind. He would take up his quarters at her hotel, and catch echoes of her and her

people, to learn somehow if their attitude towards him as a lover were actually hostile, before formally

encountering them. Under this crystalline light, full of gaieties, sentiment, languor, seductiveness, and

readymade romance, the memory of a solitary unimportant man in the lugubrious North might have faded

from her mind. He was only her hired designer. He was an artist; but he had been engaged by her, and was

not a volunteer; and she did not as yet know that he meant to accept no return for his labours but the pleasure

So off he went at once towards the imposing building whither his letters had preceded him. Owing to a press

of visitors there was a moment's delay before he could be attended to at the bureau, and he turned to the large

staircase that confronted him, momentarily hoping that her figure might descend. Her skirts must indeed have

brushed the carpeting of those steps scores of times. He engaged his room, ordered his luggage to be sent for,

Yes, she was quite sure. Two of the hotel carriages had driven them to the station.

This and other inquiries resulted in the information that they had gone to the hotel at Monte Carlo; that how

long they were going to stay there, and whether they were coming back again, was not known. His final

question whether Miss Power had received a letter from England which must have arrived the day previous

Somerset's first and sudden resolve was to follow on after them to the hotel named; but he finally decided to

make his immediate visit to Monte Carlo only a cautious reconnoitre, returning to Nice to sleep.

Accordingly, after an early dinner, he again set forth through the broad Avenue de la Gare, and an hour on the

coast railway brought him to the beautiful and sinister little spot to which the Power and De Stancy party had

He assumed that their visit thither would be chiefly one of curiosity, and therefore not prolonged. This proved

to be the case in even greater measure than he had anticipated. On inquiry at the hotel he learnt that they had

stayed only one night, leaving a short time before his arrival, though it was believed that some of the party

In a state of indecision Somerset strolled into the gardens of the Casino, and looked out upon the sea. There it

still lay, calm yet lively; of an unmixed blue, yet variegated; hushed, but articulate even to melodiousness.

Everything about and around this coast appeared indeed jaunty, tuneful, and at ease, reciprocating with

heartiness the rays of the splendid sun; everything, except himself. The palms and flowers on the terraces

before him were undisturbed by a single cold breath. The marble work of parapets and steps was unsplintered

For want of other occupation he went round towards the public entrance to the Casino, and ascended the great

staircase into the pillared hall. It was possible, after all, that upon leaving the hotel and sending on their

luggage they had taken another turn through the rooms, to follow by a later train. With more than curiosity he

scanned first the readingrooms, only however to see not a face that he knew. He then crossed the vestibule

Here he was confronted by a heated phantasmagoria of splendour and a high pressure of suspense that

seemed to make the air quiver. A low whisper of conversation prevailed, which might probably have been not

The people gathered at this negative pole of industry had come from all civilized countries; their tongues

were familiar with many forms of utterance, that of each racial group or type being unintelligible in its subtler

variations, if not entirely, to the rest. But the language of meum and tuum they collectively comprehended

without translation. In a half charmed spellbound state they had congregated in knots, standing, or sitting

in hollow circles round the notorious oval tables marked with figures and lines. The eyes of all these sets of

people were watching the Roulette. Somerset went from table to table, looking among the loungers rather

than among the regular players, for faces, or at least for one face, which did not meet his gaze.

The suggestive charm which the centuriesold impersonality Gaming, rather than games and gamesters, had

for Somerset, led him to loiter on even when his hope of meeting any of the Power and De Stancy party had

vanished. As a nonparticipant in its profits and losses, fevers and frenzies, it had that stage effect upon his

imagination which is usually exercised over those who behold Chance presented to them with spectacular

piquancy without advancing far enough in its acquaintance to suffer from its ghastly reprisals and impish

tricks. He beheld a hundred diametrically opposed wishes issuing from the murky intelligences around a

table, and spreading down across each other upon the figured diagram in their midst, each to its own number.

It was a network of hopes; which at the announcement, 'Sept, Rouge, Impair, et Manque,' disappeared like

magic gossamer, to be replaced in a moment by new. That all the people there, including himself, could be

interested in what to the eye of perfect reason was a somewhat monotonous thingthe property of numbers

to recur at certain longer or shorter intervals in a machine containing themin other words, the blind groping

after fractions of a result the whole of which was well knownwas one testimony among many of the

At this juncture our lounger discerned at one of the tables about the last person in the world he could have

wished to encounter there. It was Dare, whom he had supposed to be a thousand miles off, hanging about the

Dare was seated beside a table in an attitude of application which seemed to imply that he had come early and

engaged in this pursuit in a systematic manner. Somerset had never witnessed Dare and De Stancy together,

neither had he heard of any engagement of Dare by the travelling party as artist, courier, or otherwise; and yet

it crossed his mind that Dare might have had something to do with them, or at least have seen them. This

possibility was enough to overmaster Somerset's reluctance to speak to the young man, and he did so as soon

Dare's face was as rigid and dry as if it had been encrusted with plaster, and he was like one turned into a

computing machine which no longer had the power of feeling. He recognized Somerset as indifferently as if

he had met him in the ward of Stancy Castle, and replying to his remarks by a word or two, concentrated on

'Quite alone.' There was a silence, till Dare added, 'But I have seen some friends of yours.' He again became

absorbed in the events of the table. Somerset retreated a few steps, and pondered the question whether Dare

could know where they had gone. He disliked to be beholden to Dare for information, but he would give a

great deal to know. While pausing he watched Dare's play. He staked only fivefranc pieces, but it was done

with an assiduity worthy of larger coin. At every half minute or so he placed his money on a certain spot,

and as regularly had the mortification of seeing it swept away by the croupier's rake. After a while he varied

his procedure. He risked his money, which from the look of his face seemed rather to have dwindled than

increased, less recklessly against long odds than before. Leaving off backing numbers en plein, he laid his

venture a cheval; then tried it upon the dozens; then upon two numbers; then upon a square; and, apparently

getting nearer and nearer defeat, at last upon the simple chances of even or odd, over or under, red or black.

Yet with a few fluctuations in his favour fortune bore steadily against him, till he could breast her blows no

longer. He rose from the table and came towards Somerset, and they both moved on together into the

Dare was at that moment the victim of an overpowering mania for more money. His presence in the South of

Europe had its origin, as may be guessed, in Captain De Stancy's journey in the same direction, whom he had

followed, and troubled with persistent request for more funds, carefully keeping out of sight of Paula and the

rest. His dream of involving Paula in the De Stancy pedigree knew no abatement. But Somerset had lighted

upon him at an instant when that idea, though not displaced, was overwhelmed by a rage for play. In hope of

being able to continue it by Somerset's aid he was prepared to do almost anything to please the architect.

'You asked me,' said Dare, stroking his impassive brow, 'if I had seen anything of the Powers. I have seen

them; and if I can be of any use to you in giving information about them I shall only be too glad.'

'Mrs. Goodman, Mr. Power, Miss Power, Miss De Stancy, and the worthy captain. He leaves them tomorrow:

Somerset was silent. Dare continued: 'Now I have done you a favour, will you do me one in return?'

'Yes,' said Somerset; 'but on one condition: that I don't give them to you till you are inside the hotel you are

'Well I am going back to Nice, and I'll lend you the money the instant we get there.'

'But I want it here, now, instantly!' cried Dare; and for the first time there was a wiry unreasonableness in his

voice that fortified his companion more firmly than ever in his determination to lend the young man no

'But,' said Dare, 'I arrived here with a hundred napoleons and more, expressly to work out my theory of

chances and recurrences, which is sound; I have studied it hundreds of times by the help of this.' He partially

drew from his pocket the little volume that we have before seen in his hands. 'If I only persevere in my

system, the certainty that I must win is almost mathematical. I have staked and lost two hundred and

thirtythree times. Allowing out of that one chance in every thirtysix, which is the average of zero being

marked, and two hundred and four times for the backers of the other numbers, I have the mathematical

expectation of six times at least, which would nearly recoup me. And shall I, then, sacrifice that vast

foundation of waste chances that I have laid down, and paid for, merely for want of a little ready money?'

'You might persevere for a twelvemonth, and still not get the better of your reverses. Time tells in favour of

the bank. Just imagine for the sake of argument that all the people who have ever placed a stake upon a

certain number to be one person playing continuously. Has that imaginary person won? The existence of the

'But a particular player has the option of leaving off at any point favourable to himself, which the bank has

'Very well; we won't part as enemies,' replied Dare, with the flawless politeness of a man whose speech has

no longer any kinship with his feelings. 'Shall we share a bottle of wine? You will not? Well, I hope your

luck with your lady will be more magnificent than mine has been here; butmind Captain De Stancy! he's a

'He's a harmless inoffensive soldier, as far as I know. If he is notlet him be what he may for me.'

'Ayif you will.' Somerset, much against his judgment, was being stimulated by these pricks into words of

irritation. 'Captain De Stancy might, I think, be better employed than in dangling at the heels of a lady who

can well dispense with his company. And you might be better employed than in wasting your wages here.'

'Wagesa fit word for my money. May I ask you at what stage in the appearance of a man whose way of

existence is unknown, his money ceases to be called wages and begins to be called means?'

Somerset turned and left him without replying, Dare following his receding figure with a look of ripe

resentment, not less likely to vent itself in mischief from the want of moral ballast in him who emitted it. He

then fixed a nettled and unsatisfied gaze upon the gamingrooms, and in another minute or two left the

Dare and Somerset met no more that day. The latter returned to Nice by the evening train and went straight to

the hotel. He now thanked his fortune that he had not precipitately given up his room there, for a telegram

from Paula awaited him. His hand almost trembled as he opened it, to read the following few short words,

'Letter received. Am glad to hear of your journey. We are not returning to Nice, but stay here a week. I direct

This tantalizing messagethe first breaking of her recent silencewas saucy, almost cruel, in its dry

frigidity. It led him to give up his idea of following at once to Genoa. That was what she obviously expected

him to do, and it was possible that his nonarrival might draw a letter or message from her of a sweeter

composition than this. That would at least be the effect of his tardiness if she cared in the least for him; if she

did not he could bear the worst. The argument was good enough as far as it went, but, like many more, failed

from the narrowness of its premises, the contingent intervention of Dare being entirely undreamt of. It was

Passing by the telegraphoffice in the Rue PontNeuf at an early hour the next morning he saw Dare coming

out from the door. It was Somerset's momentary impulse to thank Dare for the information given as to Paula's

whereabouts, information which had now proved true. But Dare did not seem to appreciate his friendliness,

And well he might. Five minutes before that time he had thrown open a gulf of treachery between himself

and the architect which nothing in life could ever close. Before leaving the telegraphoffice Dare had

despatched the following message to Paula direct, as a setoff against what he called Somerset's ingratitude

for valuable information, though it was really the fruit of many passions, motives, and desires:

'Have lost all at Monte Carlo. Have learnt that Captain D. S. returns here tomorrow. Please send me one

hundred pounds by him, and save me from disgrace. Will await him at eleven o'clock and four, on the

Five hours after the despatch of that telegram Captain De Stancy was rattling along the coast railway of the

Riviera from Genoa to Nice. He was returning to England by way of Marseilles; but before turning

northwards he had engaged to perform on Miss Power's account a peculiar and somewhat disagreeable duty.

This was to place in Somerset's hands a hundred and twentyfive napoleons which had been demanded from

her by a message in Somerset's name. The money was in his pocketall in gold, in a canvas bag, tied up by

As he leaned in the corner of the carriage he was thinking over the events of the morning which had

culminated in that liberal response. At ten o'clock, before he had gone out from the hotel where he had taken

up his quarters, which was not the same as the one patronized by Paula and her friends, he had been

summoned to her presence in a manner so unexpected as to imply that something serious was in question. On

entering her room he had been struck by the absence of that saucy independence usually apparent in her

bearing towards him, notwithstanding the persistency with which he had hovered near her for the previous

month, and gradually, by the position of his sister, and the favour of Paula's uncle in intercepting one of

Somerset's letters and several of his telegrams, established himself as an intimate member of the travelling

party. His entry, however, this time as always, had had the effect of a tonic, and it was quite with her

De Stancy informed her that such was his intention, and asked if he could do anything for her there.

Then, he remembered, she had hesitated. 'I have received a telegram,' she said at length; and so she allowed

to escape her bit by bit the information that her architect, whose name she seemed reluctant to utter, had

travelled from England to Nice that week, partly to consult her, partly for a holiday trip; that he had gone on

to Monte Carlo, had there lost his money and got into difficulties, and had appealed to her to help him out of

them by the immediate advance of some ready cash. It was a sad case, an unexpected case, she murmured,

To De Stancy there appeared nothing so very extraordinary in Somerset's apparent fiasco, except in so far as

that he should have applied to Paula for relief from his distresses instead of elsewhere. It was a

selfhumiliation which a lover would have avoided at all costs, he thought. Yet after a momentary reflection

on his theory of Somerset's character, it seemed sufficiently natural that he should lean persistently on Paula,

if only with a view of keeping himself linked to her memory, without thinking too profoundly of his own

dignity. That the esteem in which she had held Somerset up to that hour suffered a tremendous blow by his

apparent scrape was clearly visible in her, reticent as she was; and De Stancy, while pitying Somerset,

thanked him in his mind for having gratuitously given a rival an advantage which that rival's attentions had

After a little further conversation she had said: 'Since you are to be my messenger, I must tell you that I have

decided to send the hundred pounds asked for, and you will please to deliver them into no hands but his own.'

A curious little blush crept over her sobered faceperhaps it was a blush of shame at the conduct of the

young man in whom she had of late been suspiciously interestedas she added, 'He will be on the

PontNeuf at four this afternoon and again at eleven tomorrow. Can you meet him there?'

She then asked him, rather anxiously, how he could account for Mr. Somerset knowing that he, Captain De

De Stancy informed her that he left word at the hotel of his intention to return, which was quite true;

moreover, there did not lurk in his mind at the moment of speaking the faintest suspicion that Somerset had

She then tied the bag and handed it to him, leaving him with a serene and impenetrable bearing, which he

hoped for his own sake meant an acquired indifference to Somerset and his fortunes. Her sending the

architect a sum of money which she could easily spare might be set down to natural generosity towards a man

She came back to him again for a moment. 'Could you possibly get there before four this afternoon?' she

asked, and he informed her that he could just do so by leaving almost at once, which he was very willing to

do, though by so forestalling his time he would lose the projected morning with her and the rest at the

'I may tell you that I shall not go to the Palazzo Doria either, if it is any consolation to you to know it,' was

The answer admitted of two translations, and conjectures thereon filled the gallant soldier's mind during the

greater part of the journey. He arrived at the hotel they had all stayed at in succession about six hours after

Somerset had left it for a little excursion to San Remo and its neighbourhood, as a means of passing a few

days till Paula should write again to inquire why he had not come on. De Stancy saw no one he knew, and in

Though opposed to the architect as a lover, De Stancy felt for him as a poor devil in need of money, having

had experiences of that sort himself, and he was really anxious that the needful supply entrusted to him

should reach Somerset's hands. He was on the bridge five minutes before the hour, and when the clock struck

Knowing that the youth was loitering somewhere along the coast, for they had frequently met together on De

Stancy's previous visit, the latter merely said, 'Don't bother me for the present, Willy, I have an engagement.

'When you have given me the hundred pounds I will fly like a rocket, captain,' said the young gentleman. 'I

De Stancy looked hard at him. 'Howdo you know about this?' he asked breathlessly.

De Stancy took the young man by the two shoulders and gazed into his eyes. The scrutiny seemed not

altogether to remove the suspicion which had suddenly started up in his mind. 'My soul,' he said, dropping his

Dare shrugged his shoulders; 'Are you going to hand over the money or no?' he said.

'I am going to make inquiries,' said De Stancy, walking away with a vehement tread.

'Captain, you are without natural affection,' said Dare, walking by his side, in a tone which showed his fear

that he had overestimated that emotion. 'See what I have done for you. You have been my constant care and

anxiety for I can't tell how long. I have stayed awake at night thinking how I might best give you a good start

in the world by arranging this judicious marriage, when you have been sleeping as sound as a top with no

cares upon your mind at all, and now I have got into a scrapeas the most thoughtful of us may sometimes

'I have promised the lady to whom this money belongswhose generosity has been shamefully abused in

some waythat I will deliver it into no hands but those of one man, and he has not yet appeared. I therefore

Dare laid his hand upon De Stancy's arm. 'Captain, we are both warm, and punctilious on points of honour;

this will come to a split between us if we don't mind. So, not to bring matters to a crisis, lend me ten pounds

In a state bordering on distraction, eager to get the young man out of his sight before worse revelations

should rise up between them, De Stancy without pausing in his walk gave him the sum demanded. He soon

reached the postoffice, where he inquired if a Mr. Somerset had left any directions for forwarding letters.

It was just what Somerset had done. De Stancy was told that Mr. Somerset had commanded that any letters

It was now evident that the scheme of getting money from Paula was either of Dare's invention, or that

Somerset, ashamed of his first impulse, had abandoned it as speedily as it had been formed. De Stancy turned

and went out. Dare, in keeping with his promise, had vanished. Captain De Stancy resolved to do nothing in

the case till further events should enlighten him, beyond sending a line to Miss Power to inform her that

Somerset had not appeared, and that he therefore retained the money for further instructions.

Miss Power was reclining on a red velvet couch in the bedroom of an oldfashioned red hotel at Strassburg,

and her friend Miss De Stancy was sitting by a window of the same apartment. They were both rather

wearied by a long journey of the previous day. The hotel overlooked the large open Kleber Platz, erect in the

midst of which the bronze statue of General Kleber received the rays of a warm sun that was powerless to

brighten him. The whole square, with its people and vehicles going to and fro as if they had plenty of time,

was visible to Charlotte in her chair; but Paula from her horizontal position could see nothing below the level

of the many dormered housetops on the opposite side of the Platz. After watching this upper storey of the

city for some time in silence, she asked Charlotte to hand her a binocular lying on the table, through which

'What strange and philosophical creatures storks are,' she said. 'They give a taciturn, ghostly character to the

The birds were crossing and recrossing the field of the glass in their flight hither and thither between the

Strassburg chimneys, their sad grey forms sharply outlined against the sky, and their skinny legs showing

beneath like the limbs of dead martyrs in Crivelli's emaciated imaginings. The indifference of these birds to

all that was going on beneath them impressed her: to harmonize with their solemn and silent movements the

Behind the long roofs thus visible to Paula over the window sill, with their tiers of dormerwindows, rose

the cathedral spire in airy openwork, forming the highest object in the scene; it suggested something which

for a long time she appeared unwilling to utter; but natural instinct had its way.

'A place like this,' she said, 'where he can study Gothic architecture, would, I should have thought, be a spot

The person referred to was the misrepresented Somerset, whom the two had been gingerly discussing from

time to time, allowing any casual subject, such as that of the storks, to interrupt the personal one at every two

'It would be more like him to be here,' replied Miss De Stancy, trusting her tongue with only the barest

Somerset was again dismissed for the stork topic, but Paula could not let him alone; and she presently

resumed, as if an irresistible fascination compelled what judgment had forbidden: 'The strongestminded

persons are sometimes caught unawares at that place, if they once think they will retrieve their first losses;

For a moment Charlotte looked at her with a mixed expression, in which there was deprecation that a woman

with any feeling should criticize Somerset so frigidly, and relief that it was Paula who did so. For,

notwithstanding her assumption that Somerset could never be anything more to her than he was already,

Charlotte's heart would occasionally step down and trouble her views so expressed.

Whether looking through a glass at distant objects enabled Paula to bottle up her affection for the absent one,

or whether her friend Charlotte had so little personality in Paula's regard that she could commune with her as

with a lay figure, it was certain that she evinced remarkable ease in speaking of Somerset, resuming her

words about him in the tone of one to whom he was at most an ordinary professional adviser. 'It would be

very awkward for the works at the castle if he has got into a scrape. I suppose the builders were well posted

with instructions before he left: but he ought certainly to return soon. Why did he leave England at all just

'He should have waited; it would not have been so dreadfully long to May or June. Charlotte, how can a man

who does such a harebrained thing as this be deemed trustworthy in an important work like that of

There was such stress in the inquiry that, whatever factitiousness had gone before, Charlotte perceived Paula

to be at last speaking her mind; and it seemed as if Somerset must have considerably lost ground in her

'My brother will tell us full particulars when he comes: perhaps it is not at all as we suppose,' said Charlotte.

She strained her eyes across the Platz and added, 'He ought to have been here before this time.'

While they waited and talked, Paula still observing the storks, the hotel omnibus came round the corner from

the station. 'I believe he has arrived,' resumed Miss De Stancy; 'I see something that looks like his

portmanteau on the top of the omnibus. . . . Yes; it is his baggage. I'll run down to him.'

De Stancy had obtained six weeks' additional leave on account of his health, which had somewhat suffered in

India. The first use he made of his extra time was in hastening back to meet the travelling ladies here at

Strassburg. Mr. Power and Mrs. Goodman were also at the hotel, and when Charlotte got downstairs, the

Paula had not seen him since he set out from Genoa for Nice, commissioned by her to deliver the hundred

pounds to Somerset. His note, stating that he had failed to meet Somerset, contained no details, and she

guessed that he would soon appear before her now to answer any question about that peculiar errand.

Her anticipations were justified by the event; she had no sooner gone into the next sittingroom than

Charlotte De Stancy appeared and asked if her brother might come up. The closest observer would have been

in doubt whether Paula's ready reply in the affirmative was prompted by personal consideration for De

Stancy, or by a hope to hear more of his mission to Nice. As soon as she had welcomed him she reverted at

'Yes, as I told you, he was not at the place of meeting,' De Stancy replied. And taking from his pocket the bag

De Stancy did this with a hand that shook somewhat more than a long railway journey was adequate to

account for; and in truth it was the vision of Dare's position which agitated the unhappy captain: for had that

young man, as De Stancy feared, been tampering with Somerset's name, his fate now trembled in the balance;

Paula would unquestionably and naturally invoke the aid of the law against him if she discovered such an

'Not very long,' he answered, his instinct to screen the possibly guilty one confining him to guarded

'A young man who has been acting as his clerk. His name is Dare. He informed me that Mr. Somerset could

'He had been with him. They know each other very well. But as you commissioned me to deliver the money

'But perhaps my instructions were not wise. Should it in your opinion have been sent by this young man?

De Stancy murmured that Dare was not commissioned to ask for it; that upon the whole he deemed her

Although De Stancy was distracted between his desire to preserve Dare from the consequences of folly, and a

gentlemanly wish to keep as close to the truth as was compatible with that condition, his answers had not

appeared to Paula to be particularly evasive, the conjuncture being one in which a handsome heiress's

shrewdness was prone to overleap itself by setting down embarrassment on the part of the man she

She put but one other question. 'Did it appear as if he, Mr. Somerset, after telegraphing, hadhadregretted

'That's just how it appears.' The words, which saved Dare from ignominy, cost De Stancy a good deal. He

was sorry for Somerset, sorry for himself, and very sorry for Paula. But Dare was to De Stancy what

Somerset could never be: and 'for his kin that is near unto him shall a man be defiled.'

After that interview Charlotte saw with warring impulses that Somerset slowly diminished in Paula's

estimate; slowly as the moon wanes, but as certainly. Charlotte's own love was of a clinging, uncritical sort,

and though the shadowy intelligence of Somerset's doings weighed down her soul with regret, it seemed to

In the afternoon the whole party, including De Stancy, drove about the streets. Here they looked at the house

in which Goethe had lived, and afterwards entered the cathedral. Observing in the south transept a crowd of

people waiting patiently, they were reminded that they unwittingly stood in the presence of the popular

Mr. Power and Mrs. Goodman decided that they would wait with the rest of the idlers and see the puppets

perform at the striking. Charlotte also waited with them; but as it wanted eight minutes to the hour, and as

Presently she found that De Stancy had followed. He did not come close till she, seeing him stand silent, said,

'If it were not for this cathedral, I should not like the city at all; and I have even seen cathedrals I like better.

'Are you intending to?' said Paula, probing the basemoulding of a pier with her parasol.

'I have nothing better to do, nor indeed half so good,' said De Stancy. 'I am abroad for my health, you know,

and what's like the Rhine and its neighbourhood in early summer, before the crowd comes? It is delightful to

wander about there, or anywhere, like a child, influenced by no fixed motive more than that of keeping near

'Well, love is natural to men, I suppose,' rejoined the young lady. 'But you must love within bounds; or you

'My dear Miss Power, your didactic and respectable rules won't do for me. If you expect straws to stop

currents, you are sadly mistaken! But nolet matters be: I am a happy contented mortal at present, say what

you will. . . . You don't ask why? Perhaps you know. It is because all I care for in the world is near me, and

that I shall never be more than a hundred yards from her as long as the present arrangement continues.'

'We are in a cathedral, remember, Captain De Stancy, and should not keep up a secular conversation.'

'If I had never said worse in a cathedral than what I have said here, I should be content to meet my eternal

'How I like you! Harm, no; but you should have seen how silly I looked. Fancy the inadequacy of the

'Men allow themselves to be made ridiculous by their own feelings in an inconceivable way.'

'True, I am a fool; but forgive me,' he rejoined, observing her gaze, which wandered critically from roof to

clerestory, and then to the pillars, without once lighting on him. 'Don't mind saying Yes.You look at this

thing and that thing, but you never look at me, though I stand here and see nothing but you.'

'There, the clock is strikingand the cock crows. Please go across to the transept and tell them to come out

De Stancy went. When he had gone a few steps he turned his head. She had at last ceased to study the

architecture, and was looking at him. Perhaps his words had struck her, for it seemed at that moment as if he

Next day they went on to Baden. De Stancy was beginning to cultivate the passion of love even more as an

escape from the gloomy relations of his life than as matrimonial strategy. Paula's juxtaposition had the

attribute of making him forget everything in his own history. She was a magic alterative; and the most foolish

boyish shape into which he could throw his feelings for her was in this respect to be aimed at as the act of

He supplemented the natural warmth of feeling that she had wrought in him by every artificial means in his

power, to make the distraction the more complete. He had not known anything like this selfobscuration for a

dozen years, and when he conjectured that she might really learn to love him he felt exalted in his own eyes

and purified from the dross of his former life. Such uneasiness of conscience as arose when he suddenly

remembered Dare, and the possibility that Somerset was getting ousted unfairly, had its weight in depressing

The journey to Baden, though short, was not without incidents on which he could work out this curious

hobby of cultivating to superlative power an already positive passion. Handing her in and out of the carriage,

accidentally getting brushed by her clothes, of all such as this he made available fuel. Paula, though she might

have guessed the general nature of what was going on, seemed unconscious of the refinements he was trying

to throw into it, and sometimes, when in stepping into or from a railway carriage she unavoidably put her

hand upon his arm, the obvious insignificance she attached to the action struck him with misgiving.

One of the first things they did at Baden was to stroll into the Trinkhalle, where Paula sipped the water. She

was about to put down the glass, when De Stancy quickly took it from her hands as though to make use of it

'O, if that is what you mean,' she said mischievously, 'you should have noticed the exact spot. It was there.'

'You ought not to act like that, unless you mean something, Miss Power,' he replied gravely.

'I mean, you should not do things which excite in me the hope that you care something for me, unless you

'The latter part I wholly deny,' she answered, with disregard, after which she went away, and kept between

Since the receipt of the telegram Paula had been frequently silent; she frequently stayed in alone, and

sometimes she became quite gloomyan altogether unprecedented phase for her. This was the case on the

morning after the incident in the Trinkhalle. Not to intrude on her, Charlotte walked about the landings of

the sunny white hotel in which they had taken up their quarters, went down into the court, and petted the

tortoises that were creeping about there among the flowers and plants; till at last, on going to her friend, she

Paula made no secret of them, and Miss De Stancy could see that more than half were written on blue paper,

with diagrams amid the writing: they were, in fact, simply those sheets of his letters which related to the

rebuilding. Nevertheless, Charlotte fancied she had caught Paula in a sentimental mood; and doubtless could

Somerset have walked in at this moment instead of Charlotte it might have fared well with him, so

insidiously do tender memories reassert themselves in the face of outward mishaps.

They took a drive down the Lichtenthal road and then into the forest, De Stancy and Abner Power riding on

horseback alongside. The sun streamed yellow behind their backs as they wound up the long inclines, lighting

the red trunks, and even the blueblack foliage itself. The summer had already made impression upon that

mass of uniform colour by tipping every twig with a tiny sprout of virescent yellow; while the minute sounds

which issued from the forest revealed that the apparently still place was becoming a perfect reservoir of insect

Abner Power was quite sentimental that day. 'In such places as these,' he said, as he rode alongside Mrs.

Goodman, 'nature's powers in the multiplication of one type strike me as much as the grandeur of the mass.'

Mrs. Goodman agreed with him, and Paula said, 'The foliage forms the roof of an interminable green crypt,

'It is a fine place in a thunderstorm,' said De Stancy. 'I am not an enthusiast, but to see the lightning spring

hither and thither, like lazytongs, bristling, and striking, and vanishing, is rather impressive.'

'And in the winter winds these pines sigh like ten thousand spirits in trouble.'

'At the same time I know a little firplantation about a mile square not far from Markton,' said De Stancy,

'which is precisely like this in miniature,stems, colours, slopes, winds, and all. If we were to go there any

time with a highly magnifying pair of spectacles it would look as fine as this and save a deal of travelling.'

'You agree with me on all subjects but one,' he presently observed, in a voice not intended to reach the others.

Onward and upward they went, the same pattern and colour of tree repeating themselves endlessly, till in a

couple of hours they reached the castle hill which was to be the end of their journey, and beheld stretched

'What did you mean by that look of kindness you bestowed upon me just now, when I said you agreed with

me on all subjects but one?' asked De Stancy half humorously, as he held open a little door for her, the others

'I meant, I suppose, that I was much obliged to you for not requiring agreement on that one subject,' she said,

'Not more than that?' said De Stancy, as he followed her. 'But whenever I involuntarily express towards you

'If you mean no more than mere compassion, I wish you would show nothing at all, for your mistaken

kindness is only preparing more misery for me than I should have if let alone to suffer without mercy.'

'I implore you to be quiet, Captain De Stancy! Leave me, and look out of the window at the view here, or at

'Very well. But pray don't extract amusement from my harmless remarks. Such as they are I mean them.'

She stopped him by changing the subject, for they had entered an octagonal chamber on the first floor,

presumably full of pictures and curiosities; but the shutters were closed, and only stray beams of light

'The attendant is about to do it,' said her uncle; and as he spoke the shutters to the east were flung back, and

Some of them stepped out upon the balcony. The river lay along the bottom of the valley, irradiated with a

silver shine. Little rafts of pinewood floated on its surface like tiny splinters, the men who steered them not

Paula stood on the balcony, looking for a few minutes upon the sight, and then came into the shadowy room,

where De Stancy had remained. While the rest were still outside she resumed: 'You must not suppose that I

shrink from the subject you so persistently bring before me. I respect deep affectionyou know I do; but for

me to say that I have any such for you, of the particular sort you only will be satisfied with, would be absurd.

I don't feel it, and therefore there can be nothing between us. One would think it would be better to feel

kindly towards you than to feel nothing at all. But if you object to that I'll try to feel nothing.'

'I don't really object to your sympathy,' said De Stancy, rather struck by her seriousness. 'But it is very

'It must be so, since I CAN feel no more,' she decisively replied, adding, as she stopped her seriousness: 'You

'One thing I shall never pray for; to see you give yourself to another man. But I suppose I shall witness that

'No, Captain De Stancy,' she said shortly, a faint involuntary blush coming into her face as she guessed his

This, and a few glances round at the pictures and curiosities, completed their survey of the castle. De Stancy

knew better than to trouble her further that day with special remarks. During the return journey he rode ahead

She would have been astonished had she heard the conversation of the two gentlemen as they wound gently

'As far as I am concerned,' Captain De Stancy's companion was saying, 'nothing would give me more

unfeigned delight than that you should persevere and win her. But you must understand that I have no

authority over hernothing more than the natural influence that arises from my being her father's brother.'

'And for exercising that much, whatever it may be, in my favour I thank you heartily,' said De Stancy. 'But I

am coming to the conclusion that it is useless to press her further. She is right! I am not the man for her. I am

too old, and too poor; and I must put up as well as I can with her lossdrown her image in old Falernian till

I embark in Charon's boat for good!Really, if I had the industry I could write some good Horatian verses

on my inauspicious situation!. . . Ah, well;in this way I affect levity over my troubles; but in plain truth my

'Don't be downhearted! you are tootoo gentlemanly, De Stancy, in this matteryou are too soon put

offyou should have a touch of the canvasser about you in approaching her; and not stick at things. You

have my hearty invitation to travel with us all the way till we cross to England, and there will be heaps of

'You are very good, my friend! Well, I will try again. I am full of doubt and indecision, mind, but at present I

feel that I will try again. There is, I suppose, a slight possibility of something or other turning up in my

favour, if it is true that the unexpected always happensfor I foresee no chance whatever. . . . Which way do

To Carlsruhe they went next day, after a night of soft rain which brought up a warm steam from the

Schwarzwald valleys, and caused the young tufts and grasses to swell visibly in a few hours. After the Baden

slopes the flat thoroughfares of 'Charles's Rest' seemed somewhat uninteresting, though a busy fair which was

proceeding in the streets created a quaint and unexpected liveliness. On reaching the oldfashioned inn in the

LangeStrasse that they had fixed on, the women of the party betook themselves to their rooms and showed

little inclination to see more of the world that day than could be gleaned from the hotel windows.

While the malignant tongues had been playing havoc with Somerset's fame in the ears of Paula and her

companion, the young man himself was proceeding partly by rail, partly on foot, below and amid the

oliveclad hills, vineyards, carob groves, and lemon gardens of the Mediterranean shores. Arrived at San

Remo he wrote to Nice to inquire for letters, and such as had come were duly forwarded; but not one of them

was from Paula. This broke down his resolution to hold off, and he hastened directly to Genoa, regretting that

Something in the very aspect of the marble halls of that city, which at any other time he would have liked to

linger over, whispered to him that the bird had flown; and inquiry confirmed the fancy. Nevertheless, the

architectural beauties of the palacebordered street, looking as if mountains of marble must have been

levelled to supply the materials for constructing it, detained him there two days: or rather a feat of resolution,

by which he set himself to withstand the dragchain of Paula's influence, was operative for that space of time.

At the end of it he moved onward. There was no difficulty in discovering their track northwards; and feeling

that he might as well return to England by the Rhine route as by any other, he followed in the course they had

chosen, getting scent of them in Strassburg, missing them at Baden by a day, and finally overtaking them at

Carlsruhe, which town he reached on the morning after the Power and De Stancy party had taken up their

quarters at the ancient inn above mentioned. When Somerset was about to get out of the train at this place,

little dreaming what a meaning the word Carlsruhe would have for him in subsequent years, he was

disagreeably surprised to see no other than Dare stepping out of the adjoining carriage. A new brown leather

valise in one of his hands, a new umbrella in the other, and a new suit of fashionable clothes on his back,

seemed to denote considerable improvement in the young man's fortunes. Somerset was so struck by the

circumstance of his being on this spot that he almost missed his opportunity for alighting.

Dare meanwhile had moved on without seeing his former employer, and Somerset resolved to take the chance

that offered, and let him go. There was something so mysterious in their common presence simultaneously at

one place, five hundred miles from where they had last met, that he exhausted conjecture on whether Dare's

errand this way could have anything to do with his own, or whether their juxtaposition a second time was the

result of pure accident. Greatly as he would have liked to get this answered by a direct question to Dare

They went out in different directions, when Somerset for the first time remembered that, in learning at Baden

that the party had flitted towards Carlsruhe, he had taken no care to ascertain the name of the hotel they were

bound for. Carlsruhe was not a large place and the point was immaterial, but the omission would necessitate a

little inquiry. To follow Dare on the chance of his having fixed upon the same quarters was a course which

did not commend itself. He resolved to get some lunch before proceeding with his businessor fatuityof

discovering the elusive lady, and drove off to a neighbouring tavern, which did not happen to be, as he hoped

Meanwhile Dare, previously master of their plans, went straight to the house which sheltered them, and on

entering under the archway from the LangeStrasse was saved the trouble of inquiring for Captain De Stancy

by seeing him drinking bitters at a little table in the court. Had Somerset chosen this inn for his quarters

instead of the one in the Market Place which he actually did choose, the three must inevitably have met here

at this moment, with some possibly striking dramatic results; though what they would have been remains for

De Stancy jumped up from his chair, and went forward to the newcomer. 'You are not long behind us, then,'

'I was,' said Dare, 'but I have been blessed with what I may call a small competency since I saw you last. Of

the two hundred francs you gave me I risked fifty at the tables, and I have multiplied them, how many times

De Stancy immediately looked grave. 'I wish you had lost them,' he said, with as much feeling as could be

'Nonsense, captain! I have proceeded purely on a calculation of chances; and my calculations proved as true

as I expected, notwithstanding a little inandout luck at first. Witness this as the result.' He smacked his bag

with his umbrella, and the chink of money resounded from within. 'Just feel the weight of it!'

'God forbid! As if that would repay me for what you have cost me! But come, let's get out of this place to

where we can talk more freely.' He put his hand through the young man's arm, and led him round the corner

'These runs of luck will be your ruin, as I have told you before,' continued Captain De Stancy. 'You will be

for repeating and repeating your experiments, and will end by blowing your brains out, as wiser heads than

yours have done. I am glad you have come away, at any rate. Why did you travel this way?'

'Simply because I could afford it, of course.But come, captain, something has ruffled you today. I thought

you did not look in the best temper the moment I saw you. Every sip you took of your pickup as you sat

'PoohI can tell you in two words,' said the captain satirically. 'Your arrangement for my wealth and

happiness for I suppose you still claim it to be yourshas fallen through. The lady has announced today

that she means to send for Somerset instantly. She is coming to a personal explanation with him. So woe to

'Send for him!' said Dare, with the stillness of complete abstraction. 'Then he'll come.'

'Well,' said De Stancy, looking him in the face. 'And does it make you feel you had better be off? How about

'Then what did you come here for?' burst out De Stancy. ''Tis my belief you are no more than aBut I won't

call you names; I'll tell you quite plainly that if there is anything wrong in that message to herwhich I

believe there isno, I can't believe, though I fear ityou have the chance of appearing in drab clothes at the

expense of the Government before the year is out, and I of being eternally disgraced!'

'No, captain, you won't be disgraced. I am bad to beat, I can tell you. And come the worst luck, I don't say a

'What! would they strip me?but it is not coming to that. Look here, now, I'll tell you the truth for once;

though you don't believe me capable of it. I DID concoct that telegram and sent it; just as a practical joke;

and many a worse one has been only laughed at by honest men and officers. I could show you a bigger joke

Dare as he spoke put his hand into his breastpocket, as if the said joke lay there; but after a moment he

'Having invented it I have done enough; I was going to explain it to you, that you might carry it out. But you

'So much the better,' said De Stancy. 'I don't like your jokes, even though they are not directed against myself.

'You may have reason to alter your mind,' said Dare carelessly. 'Your success with your lady may depend on

it. The truth is, captain, we aristocrats must not take too high a tone. Our days as an independent division of

society, which holds aloof from other sections, are past. This has been my argument (in spite of my strong

Norman feelings) ever since I broached the subject of your marrying this girl, who represents both intellect

and wealthall, in fact, except the historical prestige that you represent. And we mustn't flinch at things. The

case is even more pressing than ordinary casesowing to the odd fact that the representative of the new

blood who has come in our way actually lives in your own old house, and owns your own old lands. The

ordinary reason for such alliances is quintupled in our case. Do then just think and be reasonable, before you

talk tall about not liking my jokes, and all that. Beggars mustn't be choosers.'

'There's really much reason in your argument,' said De Stancy, with a bitter laugh: 'and my own heart argues

much the same way. But, leaving me to take care of my aristocratic self, I advise your aristocratic self to slip

off at once to England like any hanggallows dog; and if Somerset is here, and you have been doing wrong in

his name, and it all comes out, I'll try to save you, as far as an honest man can. If you have done no wrong, of

course there is no fear; though I should be obliged by your going homeward as quickly as possible, as being

They had reached one side of the SchlossPlatz, nobody apparently being near them save a sentinel who was

on duty before the Palace; but turning as he spoke, De Stancy beheld a group consisting of his sister, Paula,

It was impossible to escape their observation, and putting a bold front upon it, De Stancy advanced with Dare

at his side, till in a few moments the two parties met, Paula and Charlotte recognizing Dare at once as the

'I have met my young photographer,' said De Stancy cheerily. 'What a small world it is, as everybody truly

observes! I am wishing he could take some views for us as we go on; but you have no apparatus with you, I

'You could get some, I suppose?' asked Paula of the interesting young photographer.

Dare declared that it would be not impossible: whereupon De Stancy said that it was only a passing thought

of his; and in a few minutes the two parties again separated, going their several ways.

'That was awkward,' said De Stancy, trembling with excitement. 'I would advise you to keep further off in

Dare said thoughtfully that he would be careful, adding, 'She is a prize for any man, indeed, leaving alone the

substantial possessions behind her! Now was I too enthusiastic? Was I a fool for urging you on?'

'Wait till success justifies the undertaking. In case of failure it will have been anything but wise. It is no light

matter to have a carefully preserved repose broken in upon for nothinga repose that could never be

They walked down the CarlFriedrichsStrasse to the Margrave's Pyramid, and back to the hotel, where Dare

also decided to take up his stay. De Stancy left him with the bookkeeper at the desk, and went upstairs to

He found them in their sittingroom with their bonnets on, as if they had just come in. Mr. Power was also

present, reading a newspaper, but Mrs. Goodman had gone out to a neighbouring shop, in the windows of

When De Stancy entered, Paula's thoughts seemed to revert to Dare, for almost at once she asked him in what

direction the youth was travelling. With some hesitation De Stancy replied that he believed Mr. Dare was

'Those which afford opportunities for the study of the old masters, I believe,' said De Stancy blandly. 'He has

also been to Turin, Genoa, Marseilles, and so on.' The captain spoke the more readily to her questioning in

that he divined her words to be dictated, not by any suspicions of his relations with Dare, but by her

'Has he been to Nice?' she next demanded. 'Did he go there in company with my architect?'

'Has he seen anything of him? My architect Somerset once employed him. They know each other.'

Paula was silent. 'Do you know where this young man Dare is at the present moment?' she asked quickly.

De Stancy said that Dare was staying at the same hotel with themselves, and that he believed he was

'I think I can do no better than send for him,' said she. 'He may be able to throw some light upon the matter of

She rang and despatched the waiter for the young man in question, De Stancy almost visibly trembling for the

result. But he opened the town directory which was lying on a table, and affected to be engrossed in the

Before Dare was shown in she said to her uncle, 'Perhaps you will speak to him for me?'

Mr. Power, looking up from the paper he was reading, assented to her proposition. Dare appeared in the

doorway, and the waiter retired. Dare seemed a trifle startled out of his usual coolness, the message having

'Mr. Dare, we are anxious to know something of Miss Power's architect; and Captain De Stancy tells us you

have seen him lately,' said Mr. Power sonorously over the edge of his newspaper.

Not knowing whether danger menaced or no, or, if it menaced, from what quarter it was to be expected, Dare

felt that honesty was as good as anything else for him, and replied boldly that he had seen Mr. Somerset, De

Stancy continuing to cream and mantle almost visibly, in anxiety at the situation of the speaker.

Paula's interest got the better of her reserve, and she cut in upon her uncle: 'Did he seem in any unusual state,

Dare considered, looked at his pocketbook, and said that it was on the evening of April the twentysecond.

The answer had a significance for Paula, De Stancy, and Charlotte, to which Abner Power was a stranger.

The telegraphic request for money, which had been kept a secret from him by his niece, because of his

already unfriendly tone towards Somerset, arrived on the morning of the twentythird a date which

She seemed to be silenced, and asked no more questions. Dare having furbished himself up to a gentlemanly

appearance with some of his recent winnings, was invited to stay on awhile by Paula's uncle, who, as became

a travelled man, was not fastidious as to company. Being a youth of the world, Dare made himself agreeable

to that gentleman, and afterwards tried to do the same with Miss De Stancy. At this the captain, to whom the

situation for some time had been amazingly uncomfortable, pleaded some excuse for going out, and left the

Dare continued his endeavours to say a few polite nothings to Charlotte De Stancy, in the course of which he

drew from his pocket his new silk handkerchief. By some chance a card came out with the handkerchief, and

fluttered downwards. His momentary instinct was to make a grasp at the card and conceal it: but it had

already tumbled to the floor, where it lay face upward beside Charlotte De Stancy's chair.

It was neither a visiting nor a playing card, but one bearing a photographic portrait of a peculiar nature. It was

what Dare had characterized as his best joke in speaking on the subject to Captain De Stancy: he had in the

morning put it ready in his pocket to give to the captain, and had in fact held it in waiting between his finger

and thumb while talking to him in the Platz, meaning that he should make use of it against his rival whenever

convenient. But his sharp conversation with that soldier had dulled his zest for this final joke at Somerset's

expense, had at least shown him that De Stancy would not adopt the joke by accepting the photograph and

using it himself, and determined him to lay it aside till a more convenient time. So fully had he made up his

mind on this course, that when the photograph slipped out he did not at first perceive the appositeness of the

circumstance, in putting into his own hands the role he had intended for De Stancy; though it was asserted

afterwards that the whole scene was deliberately planned. However, once having seen the accident, he

The card having fallen beside her, Miss De Stancy glanced over it, which indeed she could not help doing.

The smile that had previously hung upon her lips was arrested as if by frost and she involuntarily uttered a

Paula, who had been talking to her uncle during this interlude, started round, and wondering what had

happened, inquiringly crossed the room to poor Charlotte's side, asking her what was the matter. Charlotte

had regained self possession, though not enough to enable her to reply, and Paula asked her a second time

what had made her exclaim like that. Miss De Stancy still seemed confused, whereupon Paula noticed that

her eyes were continually drawn as if by fascination towards the photograph on the floor, which, contrary to

his first impulse, Dare, as has been said, now seemed in no hurry to regain. Surmising at last that the card,

It was a portrait of Somerset; but by a device known in photography the operator, though contriving to

produce what seemed to be a perfect likeness, had given it the distorted features and wild attitude of a man

advanced in intoxication. No woman, unless specially cognizant of such possibilities, could have looked upon

it and doubted that the photograph was a genuine illustration of a customary phase in the young man's private

Paula observed it, thoroughly took it in; but the effect upon her was by no means clear. Charlotte's eyes at

once forsook the portrait to dwell on Paula's face. It paled a little, and this was followed by a hot

blushperceptibly a blush of shame. That was all. She flung the picture down on the table, and moved away.

It was now Mr. Power's turn. Anticipating Dare, who was advancing with a deprecatory look to seize the

photograph, he also grasped it. When he saw whom it represented he seemed both amused and startled, and

'I am very sorry,' began Dare in a low voice to Mr. Power. 'I fear I was to blame for thoughtlessness in not

destroying it. But I thought it was rather funny that a man should permit such a thing to be done, and that the

'In you, for purchasing it,' said Paula with haughty quickness from the other side of the room. 'Though

There was silence in the room after this, and Dare, finding himself rather in the way, took his leave as

unostentatiously as a cat that has upset the family china, though he continued to say among his apologies that

Of all the thoughts which filled the minds of Paula and Charlotte De Stancy, the thought that the photograph

might have been a fabrication was probably the last. To them that picture of Somerset had all the cogency of

direct vision. Paula's experience, much less Charlotte's, had never lain in the fields of heliographic science,

and they would as soon have thought that the sun could again stand still upon Gibeon, as that it could be

made to falsify men's characters in delineating their features. What Abner Power thought he himself best

knew. He might have seen such pictures before; or he might never have heard of them.

While pretending to resume his reading he closely observed Paula, as did also Charlotte De Stancy; but

thanks to the selfmanagement which was Miss Power's as much by nature as by art, she dissembled

'It is a pity a professional man should make himself so ludicrous,' she said with such careless intonation that it

was almost impossible, even for Charlotte, who knew her so well, to believe her indifference feigned.

'Yes,' said Mr. Power, since Charlotte did not speak: 'it is what I scarcely should have expected.'

'O, I am not surprised!' said Paula quickly. 'You don't know all.' The inference was, indeed, inevitable that if

her uncle were made aware of the telegram he would see nothing unlikely in the picture. 'Well, you are very

silent!' continued Paula petulantly, when she found that nobody went on talking. 'What made you cry out "O,"

'It was a stupid fuss to make before such a person. One would think you were in love with Mr. Somerset.'

'What did you say, Paula?' inquired her uncle, looking up from the newspaper which he had again resumed.

'Nothing, Uncle Abner.' She walked to the window, and, as if to tide over what was plainly passing in their

minds about her, she began to make remarks on objects in the street. 'What a quaint beinglook, Charlotte!'

It was an old woman sitting by a stall on the opposite side of the way, which seemed suddenly to hit Paula's

sense of the humorous, though beyond the fact that the dame was old and poor, and wore a white

Paula seemed to be more hurt by what the silence of her companions implieda suspicion that the discovery

of Somerset's depravity was wounding her heartthan by the wound itself. The ostensible ease with which

she drew them into a bye conversation had perhaps the defect of proving too much: though her tacit

contention that no love was in question was not incredible on the supposition that affronted pride alone

caused her embarrassment. The chief symptom of her heart being really tender towards Somerset consisted in

her apparent blindness to Charlotte's secret, so obviously suggested by her momentary agitation.

And where was the subject of their condemnatory opinions all this while? Having secured a room at his inn,

he came forth to complete the discovery of his dear mistress's haltingplace without delay. After one or two

inquiries he ascertained where such a party of English were staying; and arriving at the hotel, knew at once

that he had tracked them to earth by seeing the heavier portion of the Power luggage confronting him in the

hall. He sent up intelligence of his presence, and awaited her reply with a beating heart.

In the meanwhile Dare, descending from his pernicious interview with Paula and the rest, had descried

Captain De Stancy in the public drawingroom, and entered to him forthwith. It was while they were here

The incident at the railway station was now reversed, Somerset being the observed of Dare, as Dare had then

been the observed of Somerset. Immediately on sight of him Dare showed real alarm. He had imagined that

Somerset would eventually impinge on Paula's route, but he had scarcely expected it yet; and the architect's

sudden appearance led Dare to ask himself the ominous question whether Somerset had discovered his

'There is no more for me to do here,' said the boy hastily to De Stancy. 'Miss Power does not wish to ask me

De Stancy, who had also gazed with dismay at Somerset's passing figure, though with dismay of another sort,

was recalled from his vexation by Dare's remarks, and turning upon him he said sharply, 'Well may you be in

'You have been doing a foolish thing, and you must suffer its inconveniences.Will, I am sorry for one

thing; I am sorry I ever owned you; for you are not a lad to my heart. You have disappointed

'I have acted according to my illumination. What can you expect of a man born to dishonour?'

'That's mere speciousness. Before you knew anything of me, and while you thought you were the child of

poverty on both sides, you were well enough; but ever since you thought you were more than that, you have

led a life which is intolerable. What has become of your plan of alliance between the De Stancys and the

'If the man had not gone upstairs, you wouldn't have complained of my nature or my plans,' said Dare drily.

'If I mistake not, he will come down again with the flea in his ear. However, I have done; my play is played

out. All the rest remains with you. But, captain, grant me this! If when I am gone this difficulty should

vanish, and things should go well with you, and your suit should prosper, will you think of him, bad as he is,

who first put you on the track of such happiness, and let him know it was not done in vain?'

'Very wellas soon as ever I can afford it. Now I am up and away, when I have explained to them that I

Dare fetched his bag, touched his hat with his umbrella to the captain and went out of the hotel archway. De

Stancy sat down in the stuffy drawingroom, and wondered what other ironies time had in store for him.

A waiter in the interim had announced Somerset to the group upstairs. Paula started as much as Charlotte at

In a few seconds the door was thrown open for Somerset. On receipt of the pointed message he guessed that a

change had come. Time, absence, ambition, her uncle's influence, and a new wooer, seemed to account

sufficiently well for that change, and he accepted his fate. But a stoical instinct to show her that he could

regard vicissitudes with the equanimity that became a man; a desire to ease her mind of any fear she might

entertain that his connection with her past would render him troublesome in future, induced him to accept her

'How do you do, Mr. Somerset?' said Abner Power, with sardonic geniality: he had been far enough about the

world not to be greatly concerned at Somerset's apparent failing, particularly when it helped to reduce him

Miss De Stancy faltered a welcome as weak as that of the Maid of Neidpath, and Paula said coldly, 'We are

rather surprised to see you. Perhaps there is something urgent at the castle which makes it necessary for you

'There is something a little urgent,' said Somerset slowly, as he approached her; 'and you have judged rightly

that it is the cause of my call.' He sat down near her chair as he spoke, put down his hat, and drew a

notebook from his pocket with a despairing sang froid that was far more perfect than had been Paula's

'Perhaps you would like to talk over the business with Mr. Somerset alone?' murmured Charlotte to Miss

'Not in the least,' replied he, bestowing a penetrating glance upon his questioner's face, which seemed

however to produce no effect; and turning towards Charlotte, he added, 'You will have the goodness, I am

He spread some tracings on the table, and pointed out certain modified features to Paula, commenting as he

went on, and exchanging occasionally a few words on the subject with Mr. Abner Power by the distant

In this architectural dialogue over his sketches, Somerset's head and Paula's became unavoidably very close.

The temptation was too much for the young man. Under cover of the rustle of the tracings, he murmured,

'Paula, I could not get here before!' in a low voice inaudible to the other two.

She did not reply, only busying herself the more with the notes and sketches; and he said again, 'I stayed a

'But it is not the least concern of mine where you stayed, is it?' she said, with a cold yet disquieted look.

Paula concluded her examination of the drawings and turned from him with sorrowful disregard. He tried no

further, but, when she had signified her pleasure on the points submitted, packed up his papers, and rose with

the bearing of a man altogether superior to such a class of misfortune as this. Before going he turned to speak

'You will stay and dine with us?' said the former, rather with the air of being unhappily able to do no less than

ask the question. 'My charges here won't go down to the tabled'hote, I fear, but De Stancy and myself will

Somerset excused himself, and in a few minutes withdrew. At the door he looked round for an instant, and his

eyes met Paula's. There was the same milesoff expression in hers that they had worn when he entered; but

there was also a look of distressful inquiry, as if she were earnestly expecting him to say something more.

This of course Somerset did not comprehend. Possibly she was clinging to a hope of some excuse for the

message he was supposed to have sent, or for the other and more degrading matter. Anyhow, Somerset only

A moment after he had gone, Paula, impelled by something or other, crossed the room to the window. In a

short time she saw his form in the broad street below, which he traversed obliquely to an opposite corner, his

head somewhat bent, and his eyes on the ground. Before vanishing into the Ritterstrasse he turned his head

and glanced at the hotel windows, as if he knew that she was watching him. Then he disappeared; and the

only real sign of emotion betrayed by Paula during the whole episode escaped her at this moment. It was a

slight trembling of the lip and a sigh so slowly breathed that scarce anybody could hearscarcely even

Charlotte, who was reclining on a couch her face on her hand and her eyes downcast.

Not more than two minutes had elapsed when Mrs. Goodman came in with a manner of haste.

Without answering, she asked, 'Whom, of all people on earth, do you think I have met? Mr. Somerset! Has he

'Yes, he has been here,' said Paula. 'He is on the way from Genoa home, and called on business.'

'O, that's unfortunate! Surely we could get him to come. You would like to have him here, would you not,

Paula sedately: 'It is a mistake to suppose that I ever particularly liked the gentleman mentioned.'

Mrs. Goodman, who had been growing quietly indignant, notwithstanding a vigorous use of her fan, at this

said. 'Fie, fie, Paula! you did like him. You said to me only a week or two ago that you should not at all

'It is a mistake,' repeated Paula calmly. 'I meant the other one of the two we were talking about.'

Knowing this to be a fiction, Mrs. Goodman made no remark, and hearing a slight noise behind, turned her

head. Seeing her aunt's action, Paula also looked round. The door had been left ajar, and De Stancy was

standing in the room. The last words of Mrs. Goodman, and Paula's reply, must have been quite audible to

They looked at each other much as if they had unexpectedly met at the altar; but after a momentary start

Paula did not flinch from the position into which hurt pride had betrayed her. De Stancy bowed gracefully,

'I am eternally grateful to you for avowing that I have won favour in your sight at last,' he whispered.

She acknowledged the remark with a somewhat reserved bearing. 'Really I don't deserve your gratitude,' she

'I know you did notthat's why the avowal is so sweet to me. Can I take you at your word?'

'Then your preference is the greatest honour that has ever fallen to my lot. It is enough: you accept me?'

The conversation being carried on in low tones, Paula's uncle and aunt took it as a hint that their presence

could be spared, and severally left the roomthe former gladly, the latter with some vexation. Charlotte De

'And to what am I indebted for this happy change?' inquired De Stancy, as soon as they were alone.

'You shouldn't look a gifthorse in the mouth,' she replied brusquely, and with tears in her eyes for one gone.

'You mistake my motive. I am like a reprieved criminal, and can scarcely believe the news.'

'You shouldn't say that to me, or I shall begin to think I have been too kind,' she answered, some of the

archness of her manner returning. 'Now, I know what you mean to say in answer; but I don't want to hear

more at present; and whatever you do, don't fall into the mistake of supposing I have accepted you in any

other sense than the way I say. If you don't like such a limitation you can go away. I dare say I shall get over

'Go away! Could I go away?But you are beginning to tease, and will soon punish me severely; so I will

make my escape while all is well. It would be presumptuous to expect more in one day.'

On leaving the hotel, Somerset's first impulse was to get out of sight of its windows, and his glance upward

had perhaps not the tender significance that Paula imagined, the last look impelled by any such whiff of

emotion having been the lingering one he bestowed upon her in passing out of the room. Unluckily for the

prospects of this attachment, Paula's conduct towards him now, as a result of misrepresentation, had enough

in common with her previous silence at Nice to make it not unreasonable as a further development of that

silence. Moreover, her social position as a woman of wealth, always felt by Somerset as a perceptible bar to

that full and free eagerness with which he would fain have approached her, rendered it impossible for him to

return to the charge, ascertain the reason of her coldness, and dispel it by an explanation, without being

suspected of mercenary objects. Continually does it happen that a genial willingness to bottle up affronts is

set down to interested motives by those who do not know what generous conduct means. Had she occupied

the financial position of Miss De Stancy he would readily have persisted further and, not improbably, have

Having no further interest in Carlsruhe, Somerset decided to leave by an evening train. The intervening hour

he spent in wandering into the thick of the fair, where steam roundabouts, the proprietors of waxwork

shows, and fancystall keepers maintained a deafening din. The animated environment was better than

silence, for it fostered in him an artificial indifference to the events that had just happenedan indifference

which, though he too well knew it was only destined to be temporary, afforded a passive period wherein to

store up strength that should enable him to withstand the wear and tear of regrets which would surely set in

soon. It was the case with Somerset as with others of his temperament, that he did not feel a blow of this sort

immediately; and what often seemed like stoicism after misfortune was only the neutral numbness of

He walked round and round the fair till all the exhibitors knew him by sight, and when the sun got low he

turned into the ErbprinzenStrasse, now raked from end to end by ensaffroned rays of level light. Seeking his

Heidelberg with its romantic surroundings was not precisely the place calculated to heal Somerset's wounded

heart. He had known the town of yore, and his recollections of that period, when, unfettered in fancy, he had

transferred to his sketch book the fine Renaissance details of the OttoHeinrichsBau came back with

unpleasant force. He knew of some carved cask heads and other curious woodwork in the castle cellars,

copies of which, being unobtainable by photographs, he had intended to make if all went well between Paula

and himself. The zest for this was now wellnigh over. But on awaking in the morning and looking up the

valley towards the castle, and at the dark green height of the Konigsstuhl alongside, he felt that to become

vanquished by a passion, driven to suffer, fast, and pray in the dull pains and vapours of despised love, was a

contingency not to be welcomed too readily. Thereupon he set himself to learn the sad science of

renunciation, which everybody has to learn in his degreeeither rebelling throughout the lesson, or, like

Somerset, taking to it kindly by force of judgment. A more obstinate pupil might have altogether escaped the

Resolving to persevere in the heretofore satisfactory paths of art while life and faculties were left, though

every instinct must proclaim that there would be no longer any collateral attraction in that pursuit, he went

along under the trees of the Anlage and reached the castle vaults, in whose cool shades he spent the

afternoon, working out his intentions with fair result. When he had strolled back to his hotel in the evening

the time was approaching for the tabled'hote. Having seated himself rather early, he spent the few minutes

of waiting in looking over his pocketbook, and putting a few finishing touches to the afternoon performance

whilst the objects were fresh in his memory. Thus occupied he was but dimly conscious of the customary

rustle of dresses and pulling up of chairs by the crowd of other diners as they gathered around him. Serving

began, and he put away his book and prepared for the meal. He had hardly done this when he became

conscious that the person on his left hand was not the typical cosmopolite with boundless hotel knowledge

and irrelevant experiences that he was accustomed to find next him, but a face he recognized as that of a

young man whom he had met and talked to at Stancy Castle gardenparty, whose name he had now

forgotten. This young fellow was conversing with somebody on his left handno other personage than Paula

herself. Next to Paula he beheld De Stancy, and De Stancy's sister beyond him. It was one of those gratuitous

encounters which only happen to discarded lovers who have shown commendable stoicism under

It seemed as if the intervening traveller had met the other party by accident there and then. In a minute he

turned and recognized Somerset, and by degrees the young men's cursory remarks to each other developed

into a pretty regular conversation, interrupted only when he turned to speak to Paula on his left hand.

'Your architectural adviser travels in your party: how very convenient,' said the young tourist to her. 'Far

Somerset, who had no distractions on the other side of him, could hear every word of this. He glanced at

Paula. She had not known of his presence in the room till now. Their eyes met for a second, and she bowed

sedately. Somerset returned her bow, and her eyes were quickly withdrawn with scarcely visible confusion.

'Mr. Somerset is not travelling with us,' she said. 'We have met by accident. Mr. Somerset came to me on

'I must congratulate you on having put the castle into good hands,' continued the enthusiastic young man.

To include Somerset in the conversation the young man turned to him and added: 'You carry on your work at

The frigidity of his manner seemed to set her at ease by dispersing all fear of a scene; and alternate dialogues

of this sort with the gentleman in their midst were more or less continued by both Paula and Somerset till

'Miss Power,' said Somerset, in a low voice that was obscured by the rustle, 'you have nothing more to say to

'I think there is nothing more?' said Paula, lifting her eyes with longing reticence.

'Then I take leave of you; and tender my best wishes that you may have a pleasant time before you! . . . . I set

It was the first time that she had addressed Somerset with a meaning distinctly bitter; and her remark, which

had reference to the forged photograph, fell of course without its intended effect.

'No, Miss Power,' said Somerset gravely. 'But with a deeper sense of woman's thoughtless trifling than time

'I mean, do you not forget many things?' (throwing on him a troubled glance). 'A woman may feel herself

They parted amid the flowering shrubs and caged birds in the hall, and he saw her no more. De Stancy came

up, and spoke a few commonplace words, his sister having gone out, either without perceiving Somerset, or

The De Stancys and Powers remained in Heidelberg for some days. All remarked that after Somerset's

departure Paula was frequently irritable, though at other times as serene as ever. Yet even when in a blithe

and saucy mood there was at bottom a tinge of melancholy. Something did not lie easy in her

undemonstrative heart, and all her friends excused the inequalities of a humour whose source, though not

De Stancy had long since discovered that his chance lay chiefly in her recently acquired and fanciful

predilection d'artiste for hoary mediaeval families with ancestors in alabaster and primogenitive renown.

Seeing this he dwelt on those topics which brought out that aspect of himself more clearly, talking feudalism

and chivalry with a zest that he had never hitherto shown. Yet it was not altogether factitious. For,

discovering how much this quondam Puritan was interested in the attributes of longchronicled houses, a

reflected interest in himself arose in his own soul, and he began to wonder why he had not prized these things

before. Till now disgusted by the failure of his family to hold its own in the turmoil between ancient and

modern, he had grown to undervalue its past prestige; and it was with corrective ardour that he adopted while

Henceforward the wooing of De Stancy took the form of an intermittent address, the incidents of their travel

furnishing pegs whereon to hang his subject; sometimes hindering it, but seldom failing to produce in her a

greater tolerance of his presence. His next opportunity was the day after Somerset's departure from

Heidelberg. They stood on the great terrace of the SchlossGarten, looking across the intervening ravine to

the northeast front of the castle which rose before them in all its customary warm tints and battered

'This is a spot, if any, which should bring matters to a crisis between you and me,' he asserted

goodhumouredly. 'But you have been so silent today that I lose the spirit to take advantage of my

She inquired what privilege he spoke of, as if quite another subject had been in her mind than De Stancy.

'O,' she said. 'Well, I've been thinking of that. But I do not feel myself absolutely bound by the statement I

made in that room; and I shall expect, if I withdraw it, not to be called to account by you.'

'If you recede from your promise you will doubtless have good reason. But I must solemnly beg you, after

raising my hopes, to keep as near as you can to your word, so as not to throw me into utter despair.'

Paula dropped her glance into the ThierGarten below them, where gay promenaders were clambering up

between the bushes and flowers. At length she said, with evident embarrassment, but with much distinctness:

'I deserve much more blame for what I have done than you can express to me. I will confess to you the whole

truth. All that I told you in the hotel at Carlsruhe was said in a moment of pique at what had happened just

before you came in. It was supposed I was much involved with another man, and circumstances made the

supposition particularly objectionable. To escape it I jumped at the alternative of yourself.'

'If after this avowal you bind me to my words I shall say no more: I do not wish to recede from them without

'What a caprice! But I release you unconditionally,' he said. 'And I beg your pardon if I seemed to show too

much assurance. Please put it down to my gratified excitement. I entirely acquiesce in your wish. I will go

away to whatever place you please, and not come near you but by your own permission, and till you are quite

satisfied that my presence and what it may lead to is not undesirable. I entirely give way before you, and will

endeavour to make my future devotedness, if ever we meet again, a new ground for expecting your favour.'

Paula seemed struck by the generous and cheerful fairness of his remarks, and said gently, 'Perhaps your

departure is not absolutely necessary for my happiness; and I do not wish from what you call caprice'

'Well, whatever it is, I don't wish you to do anything which should cause you real pain, or trouble, or

'But I reserve to myself the right to accept or refuse your addressesjust as if those rash words of mine had

'I must bear it all as best I can, I suppose,' said De Stancy, with melancholy humorousness.

'And I shall treat you as your behaviour shall seem to deserve,' she said playfully.

'Yes; I am willing to give you that pleasure, if it is one, in return for the attentions you have shown, and the

She walked on and discovered Mrs. Goodman near, and presently the whole party met together. De Stancy

did not find himself again at her side till later in the afternoon, when they had left the immediate precincts of

The carriage, containing only Mrs. Goodman, was driven a short way up the winding incline, Paula, her

uncle, and Miss De Stancy walking behind under the shadow of the trees. Then Mrs. Goodman called to them

Paula seemed seized with a spirit of boisterousness quite unlike her usual behaviour. 'My aunt may drive up,

and you may walk up; but I shall run up,' she said. 'See, here's a way.' She tripped towards a path through the

bushes which, instead of winding like the regular track, made straight for the summit.

Paula had not the remotest conception of the actual distance to the top, imagining it to be but a couple of

hundred yards at the outside, whereas it was really nearer a mile, the ascent being uniformly steep all the

way. When her uncle and De Stancy had seen her vanish they stood still, the former evidently reluctant to

forsake the easy ascent for a difficult one, though he said, 'We can't let her go alone that way, I suppose.'

They then followed in the direction taken by Paula, Charlotte entering the carriage. When Power and De

Stancy had ascended about fifty yards the former looked back, and dropped off from the pursuit, to return to

the easy route, giving his companion a parting hint concerning Paula. Whereupon De Stancy went on alone.

He soon saw Paula above him in the path, which ascended skyward straight as Jacob's Ladder, but was so

overhung by the brushwood as to be quite shut out from the sun. When he reached her side she was moving

She replied that it was of no consequence; that she should meet him at the top, she supposed.

Paula looked up amid the green light which filtered through the leafage as far as her eyes could stretch. But

the top did not appear, and she allowed De Stancy to get in front. 'It did not seem such a long way as this, to

He explained that the trees had deceived her as to the real height, by reason of her seeing the slope

foreshortened when she looked up from the castle. 'Allow me to help you,' he added.

They went on again; but no Konigsstuhl. When next De Stancy turned he found that she was sitting down;

immediately going back he offered his arm. She took it in silence, declaring that it was no wonder her uncle

De Stancy did not explain that Mr. Power had said to him at parting, 'There's a chance for you, if you want

one,' but at once went on with the subject begun on the terrace. 'If my behaviour is good, you will reaffirm the

'It is not fair to begin that now!' expostulated Paula; 'I can only think of getting to the top.'

Her colour deepening by the exertion, he suggested that she should sit down again on one of the mossy

boulders by the wayside. Nothing loth she did, De Stancy standing by, and with his cane scratching the moss

'This is rather awkward,' said Paula, in her usual circumspect way. 'My relatives and your sister will be sure

She was not at the top, but she took advantage of the halt to answer his previous question. 'There are many

points on which I must be satisfied before I can reaffirm anything. Do you not see that you are mistaken in

clinging to this idea?that you are laying up mortification and disappointment for yourself?'

'And you prefer having it late to accepting it now? If I were a man, I should like to abandon a false scent as

'O no,' she magnanimously assured him, bounding up from her seat; 'I adhere to my statement that you may

stay; though it is true something may possibly happen to make me alter my mind.'

'Captain De Stancy! Is this fair? I am physically obliged to hold your arm, so that I MUST listen to what you

'No, it is not fair; 'pon my soul it is not!' said De Stancy. 'I won't say another word.'

He did not; and they clambered on through the boughs, nothing disturbing the solitude but the rustle of their

own footsteps and the singing of birds overhead. They occasionally got a peep at the sky; and whenever a

twig hung out in a position to strike Paula's face the gallant captain bent it aside with his stick. But she did

Paula, panting, broke the silence: 'Will you go on, and discover if the top is near?'

He went on. This time the top was near. When he returned she was sitting where he had left her among the

leaves. 'It is quite near now,' he told her tenderly, and she took his arm again without a word. Soon the path

changed its nature from a steep and rugged watercourse to a level green promenade.

Before them rose the tower, and at the base they beheld two of their friends, Mr. Power being seen above,

'No, I take no interest in it. My interest has turned to fatigue. I only want to go home.'

He took her on to where the carriage stood at the foot of the tower, and leaving her with his sister ascended

the turret to the top. The landscape had quite changed from its afternoon appearance, and had become rather

marvellous than beautiful. The air was charged with a lurid exhalation that blurred the extensive view. He

could see the distant Rhine at its junction with the Neckar, shining like a thread of blood through the mist

which was gradually wrapping up the declining sun. The scene had in it something that was more than

melancholy, and not much less than tragic; but for De Stancy such evening effects possessed little meaning.

He was engaged in an enterprise that taxed all his resources, and had no sentiments to spare for air, earth, or

'Yes; I dare say it is,' said De Stancy. 'Time has been when I should have held forth upon such a prospect, and

wondered if its livid colours shadowed out my own life, et caetera, et caetera. But, begad, I have almost

forgotten there's such a thing as Nature, and I care for nothing but a comfortable life, and a certain woman

It was quite true that De Stancy at the present period of his existence wished only to escape from the

hurlyburly of active life, and to win the affection of Paula Power. There were, however, occasions when a

recollection of his old renunciatory vows would obtrude itself upon him, and tinge his present with wayward

bitterness. So much was this the case that a day or two after they had arrived at Mainz he could not refrain

from making remarks almost prejudicial to his cause, saying to her, 'I am unfortunate in my situation. There

are, unhappily, worldly reasons why I should pretend to love you, even if I do not: they are so strong that,

'I don't want to know what such reasons are,' said Paula, with promptness, for it required but little astuteness

to discover that he alluded to the alienated Wessex home and estates. 'You lack tone,' she gently added: 'that's

These remarks passed under a tree in the public gardens during an odd minute of waiting for Charlotte and

Mrs. Goodman; and he said no more to her in private that day. Few as her words had been he liked them

better than any he had lately received. The conversation was not resumed till they were gliding 'between the

banks that bear the vine,' on board one of the Rhine steamboats, which, like the hotels in this early summer

time, were comparatively free from other English travellers; so that everywhere Paula and her party were

received with open arms and cheerful countenances, as among the first swallows of the season.

The saloon of the steamboat was quite empty, the few passengers being outside; and this paucity of voyagers

Paula saw him approach her, and there appearing in his face signs that he would begin again on the eternal

'You thought, "Here's that absurd man again, going to begin his daily supplication."'

She continued looking through the windows at the Lurlei Heights under which they were now passing, and he

'May I stay here with you?' he said at last. 'I have not had a word with you alone for fourandtwenty hours.'

'You have said such as that before. I wish you would say "loving" instead of "cheerful."'

'Yes, I know, I know,' she responded, with impatient perplexity. 'But why must you think of meme only?

Is there no other woman in the world who has the power to make you happy? I am sure there must be.'

'Then look for her; and believe me when I say that you will certainly find her.'

'Captain De Stancy, I have long felt for you,' she continued, with a frank glance into his face. 'You have

deprived yourself too long of other women's company. Why not go away for a little time? and when you have

found somebody else likely to make you happy, you can meet me again. I will see you at your father's house,

They stood in silence, Paula apparently much interested in the manoeuvring of a raft which was passing by.

'Dear Miss Power,' he resumed, 'before I go and join your uncle above, let me just ask, Do I stand any chance

'Yes; it's that again! I unfortunately raised your hopes because I was a foolwas not myself that moment.

Now question me no more. As it is I think you presume too much upon my becoming yours as the

'Your argument would be reasonable enough had I led you to believe I would listen to youand ultimately

accept you; but that I have not done. I see now that a woman who gives a man an answer one shade less

peremptory than a harsh negative may be carried beyond her intentions, and out of her own power before she

She looked steadfastly at him with a little mischief in her eyes. 'You DO care,' she said.

'Then why don't you listen to me? I would not persevere for a moment longer if it were against the wishes of

'Yes; he takes, of course, a practical view of the matter; he thinks it commends itself so to reason and

common sense that the owner of Stancy Castle should become a member of the De Stancy family.'

'Yes, that's the horrid plague of it,' she said, with a nonchalance which seemed to contradict her words. 'It is

'Well, you are younger than I, and perhaps that's a natural wish. But to me it seems a felicitous combination

not often met with. I confess that your interest in our family before you knew me lent a stability to my hopes

'My interest in the De Stancys has not been a personal interest except in the case of your sister,' she returned.

'It has been an historical interest only; and is not at all increased by your existence.'

'No, I am not aware that it is diminished,' she murmured, as she observed the gliding shore.

'Well, you will allow me to say this, since I say it without reference to your personality or to minethat the

Power and De Stancy families are the complements to each other; and that, abstractedly, they call earnestly to

Paula, who was not prudish when a direct appeal was made to her common sense, answered with ready

candour: 'Yes, from the point of view of domestic politics, that undoubtedly is the case. But I hope I am not

'I hope not; or that I am either. Still the social idea exists, and my increased years make its excellence more

The ice once broken on this aspect of the question, the subject seemed further to engross her, and she spoke

on as if daringly inclined to venture where she had never anticipated going, deriving pleasure from the very

strangeness of her temerity: 'You mean that in the fitness of things I ought to become a De Stancy to

'And that I ought to strengthen mine by alliance with the heiress of a name so dear to engineering science as

'But you are not seriously displeased with me for saying what, after all, one can't help feeling and thinking?'

'No. Only be so good as to leave off going further for the present. Indeed, of the two, I would rather have the

other sort of address. I mean,' she hastily added, 'that what you urge as the result of a real affection, however

unsuitable, I have some remote satisfaction in listening tonot the least from any reciprocal love on my side,

but from a woman's gratification at being the object of anybody's devotion; for that feeling towards her is

always regarded as a merit in a woman's eye, and taken as a kindness by her, even when it is at the expense of

She had said, voluntarily or involuntarily, better things than he expected, and perhaps too much in her own

They passed St. Goar and Boppard, and when steering round the sharp bend of the river just beyond the latter

'You must make allowances, please,' she said; 'I have always stood in need of them.'

'I don't doubt it,' she said quickly; but Paula was not to be caught again, and kept close to the side of her aunt

while they glided past Brauback and Oberlahnstein. Approaching Coblenz her aunt said, 'Paula, let me

'You'll have plenty of offers if you want them, without taking trouble,' said the direct Mrs. Goodman. 'Your

existence is hardly known to the world yet, and Captain De Stancy is too near middleage for a girl like you.'

Paula did not reply to either of these remarks, being seemingly so interested in Ehrenbreitstein's heights as

It was midnight at Coblenz, and the travellers had retired to rest in their respective apartments, overlooking

the river. Finding that there was a moon shining, Paula leant out of her window. The tall rock of

Ehrenbreitstein on the opposite shore was flooded with light, and a belated steamer was drawing up to the

'We should have come by the last boat, so as to have been touched into romance by the rays of this moon, like

She looked towards the spot whence the voice proceeded, which was a window quite near at hand. De Stancy

was smoking outside it, and she became aware that the words were addressed to her.

'There are no English in this hotel except ourselves. I thank you for what you said today.'

She shut the window decisively, possibly wondering if De Stancy had drunk a glass or two of Steinberg more

than was good for him, and saw no more of moonlit Ehrenbreitstein that night, and heard no more of De

Stancy. But it was some time before he closed his window, and previous to doing so saw a dark form at an

None of the speakers knew that a little person in the room above heard all this outofwindow talk.

Charlotte, though not looking out, had left her casement open; and what reached her ears set her wondering as

It is not necessary to detail in full De Stancy's imperceptible advances with Paula during that northward

journeyso slowly performed that it seemed as if she must perceive there was a special reason for delaying

her return to England. At Cologne one day he conveniently overtook her when she was ascending the hotel

staircase. Seeing him, she went to the window of the entresol landing, which commanded a view of the

'I have been very uneasy,' began the captain, drawing up to her side; 'and I am obliged to trouble you sooner

Paula turned her eyes upon him with some curiosity as to what was coming of this respectful demeanour.

He then informed her that he had been overhauling himself since they last talked, and had some reason to

blame himself for bluntness and general want of euphemism; which, although he had meant nothing by it,

must have been very disagreeable to her. But he had always aimed at sincerity, particularly as he had to deal

with a lady who despised hypocrisy and was above flattery. However, he feared he might have carried his

disregard for conventionality too far. But from that time he would promise that she should find an alteration

by which he hoped he might return the friendship at least of a young lady he honoured more than any other in

This retrograde movement was evidently unexpected by the honoured young lady herself. After being so long

accustomed to rebuke him for his persistence there was novelty in finding him do the work for her. The guess

Still looking across the river at the bridge of boats which stretched to the opposite suburb of Deutz: 'You need

not blame yourself,' she said, with the mildest conceivable manner, 'I can make allowances. All I wish is that

'I comprehend,' he said thoughtfully. 'But since, by a perverse fate, I have been thrown into your company,

'Since I have so much reason to be dissatisfied with myself,' he added, 'I cannot refrain from criticizing

elsewhere to a slight extent, and thinking I have to do with an ungenerous person.'

'In this way; that since you cannot love me, you see no reason at all for trying to do so in the fact that I so

deeply love you; hence I say that you are rather to be distinguished by your wisdom than by your humanity.'

'It comes to this, that if your words are all seriously meant it is much to be regretted we ever met,' she

Without a remonstrance he went on, saying with dejected whimsicality as he smiled back upon her, 'You

It was resolved to prolong the journey by a circuit through Holland and Belgium; but nothing changed in the

attitudes of Paula and Captain De Stancy till one afternoon during their stay at the Hague, when they had

gone for a drive down to Scheveningen by the long straight avenue of chestnuts and limes, under whose

boughs tufts of wild parsley waved their flowers, except where the buitenplaatsen of retired merchants blazed

forth with new paint of every hue. On mounting the dune which kept out the sea behind the village a brisk

breeze greeted their faces, and a fine sand blew up into their eyes. De Stancy screened Paula with his

umbrella as they stood with their backs to the wind, looking down on the red roofs of the village within the

sea wall, and pulling at the long grass which by some means found nourishment in the powdery soil of the

When they had discussed the scene he continued, 'It always seems to me that this place reflects the average

mood of human life. I mean, if we strike the balance between our best moods and our worst we shall find our

average condition to stand at about the same pitch in emotional colour as these sandy dunes and this grey

'I have no other standard,' said De Stancy; 'and if my own is wrong, it is you who have made it so. Have you

'My dearest life!' Paula's eyes rounding somewhat, he corrected the exclamation. 'My dear Miss Power, I will,

'Pray spare yourself the effort,' she said drily. 'What has that one fatal step betrayed me into!. . . Do you

seriously mean to say that I am the cause of your life being coloured like this scene of grass and sand? If so, I

'There's a still shorter one more to the purpose. Frankly, I believe you suspect me to have some latent and

unowned inclination for youthat you think speaking is the only point upon which I am backward. . . .

'Your sister and my aunt are gone under the wall. I think we will walk towards them.'

'You had made me hope,' he continued (his thoughts apparently far away from the rain and the wind and the

possibility of shelter), 'that you might change your mind, and give to your original promise a liberal meaning

in renewing it. In brief I mean this, that you would allow it to merge into an engagement. Don't think it

presumptuous,' he went on, as he held the umbrella over her; 'I am sure any man would speak as I do. A

distinct permission to be with you on probationthat was what you gave me at Carlsruhe: and flinging

'That I am artistically interested in your family history.' And she went out from the umbrella to the shelter of

De Stancy could not but feel that his persistence had made some impression. It was hardly possible that a

woman of independent nature would have tolerated his dangling at her side so long, if his presence were

wholly distasteful to her. That evening when driving back to the Hague by a devious route through the dense

avenues of the Bosch he conversed with her again; also the next day when standing by the Vijver looking at

the swans; and in each case she seemed to have at least got over her objection to being seen talking to him,

Scenes very similar to those at Scheveningen and on the Rhine were enacted at later stages of their desultory

journey. Mr. Power had proposed to cross from Rotterdam; but a stiff north westerly breeze prevailing Paula

herself became reluctant to hasten back to Stancy Castle. Turning abruptly they made for Brussels.

It was here, while walking homeward from the Park one morning, that her uncle for the first time alluded to

the situation of affairs between herself and her admirer. The captain had gone up the Rue Royale with his

sister and Mrs. Goodman, either to show them the house in which the ball took place on the eve of Quatre

Bras or some other site of interest, and the two Powers were thus left to themselves. To reach their hotel they

passed into a little street sloping steeply down from the Rue Royale to the Place Ste. Gudule, where, at the

moment of nearing the cathedral, a wedding party emerged from the porch and crossed in front of uncle and

'I hope,' said the former, in his passionless way, 'we shall see a performance of this sort between you and

'It is diplomatically, as I may say, such a highly correct thingsuch an expedient thingsuch an obvious

''Twould be a thousand pities to let slip such a neat offer of adjusting difficulties as accident makes you in

this. You could marry more tin, that's true; but you don't want it, Paula. You want a name, and historic

whatdotheycallit. Now by coming to terms with the captain you'll be Lady De Stancy in a few years:

and a title which is useless to him, and a fortune and castle which are in some degree useless to you, will

'I've thought it overquite,' she answered. 'And I quite see what the advantages are. But how if I don't care

one atom for artistic completeness and a splendid whole; and do care very much to do what my fancy inclines

'Then I should say that, taking a comprehensive view of human nature of all colours, your fancy is about the

Paula laughed indifferently, and her uncle felt that, persistent as was his nature, he was the wrong man to

influence her by argument. Paula's blindness to the advantages of the match, if she were blind, was that of a

This was in some measure proved the next morning. When Paula made her appearance Mrs. Goodman said,

'Dear me,' said she blandly, though a quick little flush ascended her cheek. 'I had nearly forgotten him!'

The letter on being read contained a request as brief as it was unexpected. Having prepared all the drawings

necessary for the rebuilding, Somerset begged leave to resign the superintendence of the work into other

'His letter caps your remarks very aptly,' said Mrs. Goodman, with secret triumph. 'You are nearly forgetting

'Yes,' said Paula, affecting carelessness. 'Well, I must get somebody else, I suppose.'

They next deviated to Amiens, intending to stay there only one night; but their schemes were deranged by the

sudden illness of Charlotte. She had been looking unwell for a fortnight past, though, with her usual

selfabnegation, she had made light of her ailment. Even now she declared she could go on; but this was said

overnight, and in the morning it was abundantly evident that to move her was highly unadvisable. Still she

was not in serious danger, and having called in a physician, who pronounced rest indispensable, they

prepared to remain in the old Picard capital two or three additional days. Mr. Power thought he would take

advantage of the halt to run up to Paris, leaving De Stancy in charge of the ladies.

In more ways than in the illness of Charlotte this day was the harbinger of a crisis.

It was a summer evening without a cloud. Charlotte had fallen asleep in her bed, and Paula, who had been

sitting by her, looked out into the Place St. Denis, which the hotel commanded. The lawn of the square was

all ablaze with red and yellow clumps of flowers, the acacia trees were brightly green, the sun was soft and

low. Tempted by the prospect Paula went and put on her hat; and arousing her aunt, who was nodding in the

next room, to request her to keep an ear on Charlotte's bedroom, Paula descended into the Rue de Noyon

While she walked round, two or three little children in charge of a nurse trundled a large variegated ball along

the grass, and it rolled to Paula's feet. She smiled at them, and endeavoured to return it by a slight kick. The

ball rose in the air, and passing over the back of a seat which stood under one of the trees, alighted in the lap

of a gentleman hitherto screened by its boughs. The back and shoulders proved to be those of De Stancy. He

turned his head, jumped up, and was at her side in an instant, a nettled flush having meanwhile crossed

'I thought you had gone to the Hotoie Promenade,' she said hastily. 'I am going to the cathedral;' (obviously

uttered lest it should seem that she had seen him from the hotel windows, and entered the square for his

'The Roundheads were your ancestors, and they knocked down my ancestors' castle, and broke the stained

glass and statuary of the cathedral,' said De Stancy slily; 'and now you go not only to a cathedral, but to a

'In a foreign country it is different from home,' said Paula in extenuation; 'and you of all men should not

reproach me for tergiversationwhen it has been brought about byby my sympathies with'

'Well, you know what I mean,' she answered, with considerable anxiety not to be misunderstood; 'my liking

for the old castle, and what it contains, and what it suggests. I declare I will not explain to you furtherwhy

Paula's show of petulance was perhaps not wholly because she had appeared to seek him, but also from being

reminded by his criticism that Mr. Woodwell's prophecy on her weakly succumbing to surroundings was

She moved forward towards the gate at the further end of the square, beyond which the cathedral lay at a very

short distance. Paula did not turn her head, and De Stancy strolled slowly after her down the Rue du College.

The day happened to be one of the church festivals, and people were a second time flocking into the lofty

monument of Catholicism at its meridian. Paula vanished into the porch with the rest; and, almost catching

the wicket as it flew back from her hand, he too entered the highshouldered edificean edifice doomed to

labour under the melancholy misfortune of seeming only half as vast as it really is, and as truly as

whimsically described by Heine as a monument built with the strength of Titans, and decorated with the

De Stancy walked up the nave, so close beside her as to touch her dress; but she would not recognize his

presence; the darkness that evening had thrown over the interior, which was scarcely broken by the few

She received the intelligence without surprise, and he knew she had been conscious of him all the way.

Paula went no further than the middle of the nave, where there was hardly a soul, and took a chair beside a

solitary rushlight which looked amid the vague gloom of the inaccessible architecture like a lighthouse at the

'Suppose we go into the choir,' said De Stancy presently. 'Nobody sits out here in the shadows.'

Before another minute had passed the candle flame began to drown in its own grease, slowly dwindled, and

'I suppose that means I am to go into the choir in spite of myself. Heaven is on your side,' said Paula. And

rising they left their now totally dark corner, and joined the noiseless shadowy figures who in twos and threes

Within the choir there was a blaze of light, partly from the altar, and more particularly from the image of the

saint whom they had assembled to honour, which stood, surrounded by candles and a thicket of flowering

plants, some way in advance of the footpace. A secondary radiance from the same source was reflected

upward into their faces by the polished marble pavement, except when interrupted by the shady forms of the

When it was over and the people were moving off, De Stancy and his companion went towards the saint, now

besieged by numbers of women anxious to claim the respective flowerpots they had lent for the decoration.

As each struggled for her own, seized and marched off with it, Paula remarked'This rather spoils the

'No, Captain De Stancy! Why will you speak so? I am far too much otherwise. I have grown to be so much of

your way of thinking, that I accuse myself, and am accused by others, of being worldly, and halfandhalf,

They were now walking down the nave, preceded by the sombre figures with the pot flowers, who were just

visible in the rays that reached them through the distant choir screen at their back; while above the grey night

Milly was one of the maids, and Champreau the courier and valet who had been engaged by Abner Power.

They had been sitting behind the other pair throughout the service, and indeed knew rather more of the

Hastening on the two latter went out, and walked together silently up the short street. The Place St. Denis was

now lit up, lights shone from the hotel windows, and the world without the cathedral had so far advanced in

nocturnal change that it seemed as if they had been gone from it for hours. Within the hotel they found the

The common interest of De Stancy and Paula in the sufferer at once reproduced an ease between them as

nothing else could have done. The physician was again called in, who prescribed certain draughts, and

recommended that some one should sit up with her that night. If Paula allowed demonstrations of love to

escape her towards anybody it was towards Charlotte, and her instinct was at once to watch by the invalid's

couch herself, at least for some hours, it being deemed unnecessary to call in a regular nurse unless she

'But I will sit with her,' said De Stancy. 'Surely you had better go to bed?' Paula would not be persuaded; and

thereupon De Stancy, saying he was going into the town for a short time before retiring, left the room.

The last omnibus returned from the last train, and the inmates of the hotel retired to rest. Meanwhile a

telegram had arrived for Captain De Stancy; but as he had not yet returned it was put in his bedroom, with

Paula sat on with the sleeping Charlotte. Presently she retired into the adjacent sittingroom with a book, and

flung herself on a couch, leaving the door open between her and her charge, in case the latter should awake.

While she sat a new breathing seemed to mingle with the regular sound of Charlotte's that reached her

'I have just come from thereI could not stay. Something has occurred to my mind about this affair.' His

strangely marked visage, now more noticeable from being worn with fatigue, had a spectral effect by the

'This marriage. . . . Paula, De Stancy is a good fellow enough, but you must not accept him just yet.'

'Do you hear? You must not accept him,' repeated her uncle, 'till I have been to England and examined into

'Yes'tis new,' he murmured, relapsing into his Dutch manner. 'You must not accept him till something is

made clear to me something about a queer relationship. I have come from Paris to say so.'

'Uncle, I don't understand this. I am my own mistress in all matters, and though I don't mind telling you I

have by no means resolved to accept him, the question of her marriage is especially a woman's own affair.'

Her uncle stood irresolute for a moment, as if his convictions were more than his proofs. 'I say no more at

'Very well. Good night.' And then he left her. In a short time she heard him go down and out of the house to

With a little shrug, as if she resented his interference in so delicate a point, she settled herself down anew to

One, two, three hours passed, when Charlotte awoke, but soon slumbered sweetly again. Milly had stayed up

for some time lest her mistress should require anything; but the girl being sleepy Paula sent her to bed.

It was a lovely night of early summer, and drawing aside the window curtains she looked out upon the

flowers and trees of the Place, now quite visible, for it was nearly three o'clock, and the morning light was

growing strong. She turned her face upwards. Except in the case of one bedroom all the windows on that side

of the hotel were in darkness. The room being rather close she left the casement ajar, and opening the door

walked out upon the staircase landing. A number of caged canaries were kept here, and she observed in the

dim light of the landing lamp how snugly their heads were all tucked in. On returning to the sittingroom

again she could hear that Charlotte was still slumbering, and this encouraging circumstance disposed her to

go to bed herself. Before, however, she had made a move a gentle tap came to the door.

Paula opened it. There, in the faint light by the sleeping canaries, stood Charlotte's brother.

'That's a blessing. I have not been to bed. I came in late, and have now come down to know if I had not better

Up to this point they had conversed in the doorway of the sittingroom, which De Stancy now entered,

crossing it to Charlotte's apartment. He came out from the latter at a pensive pace.

'She is doing well,' he said gently. 'You have been very good to her. Was the chair I saw by her bed the one

'And why not? I do not wish to hide from you any corner of my breast, futile as candour may be. Just

Heaven! for what reason is it ordered that courtship, in which soldiers are usually so successful, should be a

'Your lack of foresight chiefly in indulging feelings that were not encouraged. That, and my uncle's indiscreet

permission to you to travel with us, have precipitated our relations in a way that I could neither foresee nor

avoid, though of late I have had apprehensions that it might come to this. You vex and disturb me by such

'Not more than you vex and disturb me. But you cannot hate the man who loves you so devotedly?'

'I have said before I don't hate you. I repeat that I am interested in your family and its associations because of

its complete contrast with my own.' She might have added, 'And I am additionally interested just now

Paula hesitated; from the moment De Stancy confronted her she had felt that this nocturnal conversation was

to be a grave business. The cathedral clock struck three. 'I have thought once or twice,' she said with a naivete

unusual in her, 'that if I could be sure of giving peace and joy to your mind by becoming your wife, I ought to

endeavour to do so and make the best of itmerely as a charity. But I believe that feeling is a mistake: your

discontent is constitutional, and would go on just the same whether I accepted you or no. My refusal of you is

'O no,' she murmured, with a sense that the place was very lonely and silent. 'If you think it otherwise, I

'My darling; my Paula!' he said, seizing her hand. 'Do promise me something. You must indeed!'

'Captain De Stancy!' she said, trembling and turning away. 'Captain De Stancy!' She tried to withdraw her

fingers, then faced him, exclaiming in a firm voice a third time, 'Captain De Stancy! let go my hand; for I tell

'Good God!' he cried, dropping her hand. 'What have I driven you to say in your anger! Retract itO, retract

'I won't be compelled!' she interrupted with vehemence. 'I am resolved not to be yoursnot to give you an

answer tonight! Never, never will I be reasoned out of my intention; and I say I won't answer you tonight!

I should never have let you be so much with me but for pity of you; and now it is come to this!'

She had sunk into a chair, and now leaned upon her hand, and buried her face in her handkerchief. He had

'You stab me with your words,' continued De Stancy. 'The experience I have had with you is without parallel,

'That may mean anything,' he said, with a perplexed, passionate air. 'Well, mine is a fallen family, and we

'The De Stancys. Here am I, a homeless wanderer, living on my pay; in the next room lies she, my sister, a

poor little fragile feverish invalid with no social positionand hardly a friend. We two represent the De

Stancy line; and I wish we were behind the iron door of our old vault at SleepingGreen. It can be seen by

'Captain De Stancy, it is not like that, I assure you,' sympathized Paula with damp eyelashes. 'I love Charlotte

too dearly for you to talk like that, indeed. I don't want to marry you exactly: and yet I cannot bring myself to

say I permanently reject you, because I remember you are Charlotte's brother, and do not wish to be the cause

'My dear life, what is it you doubt in me? Your earnestness not to do me harm makes it all the harder for me

'Well, I have not positively refused!' she exclaimed, in mixed tones of pity and distress. 'Let me think it over a

little while. It is not generous to urge so strongly before I can collect my thoughts, and at this midnight time!'

He then offered to sit up in her place for the remainder of the night; but Paula declined, assuring him that she

He had already crossed the landing to ascend to his room, when she stepped after him, and asked if he had

Paula explained that it was put in his room, that he might see it the moment he came in.

'It matters very little,' he replied, 'since I shall see it now. Goodnight, dearest: goodnight!' he added

She gravely shook her head. 'It is not for you to express yourself like that,' she answered. 'Goodnight,

He went up the stairs to the second floor, and Paula returned to the sittingroom. Having left a light burning

De Stancy proceeded to look for the telegram, and found it on the carpet, where it had been swept from the

table. When he had opened the sheet a sudden solemnity overspread his face. He sat down, rested his elbow

Captain De Stancy did not remain thus long. Rising he went softly downstairs. The grey morning had by this

time crept into the hotel, rendering a light no longer necessary. The old clock on the landing was within a few

minutes of four, and the birds were hopping up and down their cages, and whetting their bills. He tapped at

'Yes, but the telegram,' he said hurriedly. 'I wanted to let you know first thatit is very serious. Paulamy

father is dead! He died suddenly yesterday, and I must go at once. . . . About Charlotteand how to let her

'You think we had better not tell her just yet?' said De Stancy anxiously. 'That's what I want to consult you

They continued the discussion for some time; and it was decided that Charlotte should not be informed of

what had happened till the doctor had been consulted, Paula promising to account for her brother's departure.

De Stancy then prepared to leave for England by the first morning train, and roused the nightporter, which

functionary, having packed off Abner Power, was discovered asleep on the sofa of the landlord's parlour. At

halfpast five Paula, who in the interim had been pensively sitting with her hand to her chin, quite forgetting

that she had meant to go to bed, heard wheels without, and looked from the window. A fly had been brought

round, and one of the hotel servants was in the act of putting up a portmanteau with De Stancy's initials upon

'I was anxious to see you off,' said she, 'since neither of the others is awake; and you wished me not to rouse

'Quite right, you are very good;' and lowering his voice: 'Paula, it is a sad and solemn time with me. Will you

grant me one wordnot on our last sad subject, but on the previous onebefore I part with you to go and

'Then have you thought over my position? Will you at last have pity upon my loneliness by becoming my

She gave him her hand: he held it a few moments, then raised it to his lips, and was gone.

When Mrs. Goodman rose she was informed of Sir William's death, and of his son's departure.

'Then the captain is now Sir William De Stancy!' she exclaimed. 'Really, Paula, since you would be Lady De

'Only entering in my diary that I accepted him this morning for pity's sake, in spite of Uncle Abner. They'll

On the evening of the fourth day after the parting between Paula and De Stancy at Amiens, when it was quite

dark in the Markton highway, except in so far as the shades were broken by the faint lights from the adjacent

town, a young man knocked softly at the door of Myrtle Villa, and asked if Captain De Stancy had arrived

from abroad. He was answered in the affirmative, and in a few moments the captain himself came from an

Seeing that his visitor was Dare, from whom, as will be remembered, he had parted at Carlsruhe in no very

satisfied mood, De Stancy did not ask him into the house, but putting on his hat went out with the youth into

the public road. Here they conversed as they walked up and down, Dare beginning by alluding to the death of

Sir William, the suddenness of which he feared would delay Captain De Stancy's overtures for the hand of

'Well done. I congratulate you.' The speaker was about to proceed to further triumphant notes on the

intelligence, when casting his eye upon the upper windows of the neighbouring villa, he appeared to reflect

'Tomorrow,' De Stancy replied. 'It would be advisable for you not to come near me during the day.'

'I will not. I will be a mere spectator. The old vault of our ancestors will be opened, I presume, captain?'

'I must see itand ruminate on what we once were: it is a thing I like doing. The ghosts of our deadAh,

They stood still; but the road appeared to be quite deserted, and likely to continue so for the remainder of that

'Will the late Sir William's death delay the wedding much?' asked the younger man curiously.

De Stancy languidly answered that he did not see why it should do so. Some little time would of course

intervene, but, since there were several reasons for despatch, he should urge Miss Power and her relatives to

consent to a virtually private wedding which might take place at a very early date; and he thought there would

'There are indeed reasons for despatch. Your title, Sir William, is a new safeguard over her heart, certainly;

'I don't mean to lose her!' said De Stancy. 'She is too good to be lost. And yetsince she gave her promise I

have felt more than once that I would not engage in such a struggle again. It was not a thing of my beginning,

though I was easily enough inflamed to follow. But I will not lose her now.For God's sake, keep that secret

you have so foolishly pricked on your breast. It fills me with remorse to think what she with her scrupulous

notions will feel, should she ever know of you and your history, and your relation to me!'

Dare made no reply till after a silence, when he said, 'Of course mum's the word till the wedding is over.'

Sir William De Stancy drew a dejected breath at the tone of the answer. They conversed but a little while

longer, the captain hinting to Dare that it was time for them to part; not, however, before he had uttered a

hope that the young man would turn over a new leaf and engage in some regular pursuit. Promising to call

upon him at his lodgings De Stancy went indoors, and Dare briskly retraced his steps to Markton.

When his footfall had died away, and the door of the house opposite had been closed, another man appeared

upon the scene. He came gently out of the hedge opposite Myrtle Villa, which he paused to regard for a

moment. But instead of going townward, he turned his back upon the distant sprinkle of lights, and did not

Here he pulled the wooden acorn beside the arch, and when the porter appeared his light revealed the

'I beg your pardon, Mr. Power,' said the porter with sudden deference as he opened the wicket. 'But we wasn't

expecting anybody tonight, as there is nobody at home, and the servants on board wages; and that's why I

'No matter, no matter,' said Abner Power. 'I have returned on sudden business, and have not come to stay

longer than to night. Your mistress is not with me. I meant to sleep in Markton, but have changed my mind.'

Mr. Power had brought no luggage with him beyond a small hand bag, and as soon as a room could be got

The next morning he passed in idly walking about the grounds and observing the progress which had been

made in the works now temporarily suspended. But that inspection was less his object in remaining there

than meditation, was abundantly evident. When the bell began to toll from the neighbouring church to

announce the burial of Sir William De Stancy, he passed through the castle, and went on foot in the direction

indicated by the sound. Reaching the margin of the churchyard he looked over the wall, his presence being

masked by bushes and a group of idlers from Markton who stood in front. Soon a funeral procession of

simplealmost meagre and threadbare character arrived, but Power did not join the people who followed

the deceased into the church. De Stancy was the chief mourner and only relation present, the other followers

of the brokendown old man being an ancient lawyer, a couple of faithful servants, and a bowed villager who

had been page to the late Sir William's fatherthe single living person left in the parish who remembered the

De Stancys as people of wealth and influence, and who firmly believed that family would come into its rights

ere long, and oust the uncircumcized Philistines who had taken possession of the old lands.

The funeral was over, and the rusty carriages had gone, together with many of the spectators; but Power

lingered in the churchyard as if he were looking for some one. At length he entered the church, passing by the

cavernous pitfall with descending steps which stood open outside the wall of the De Stancy aisle. Arrived

within he scanned the few idlers of antiquarian tastes who had remained after the service to inspect the

monuments; and beside a recumbent effigythe effigy in alabaster whose features Paula had wiped with her

handkerchief when there with Somersethe beheld the man it had been his business to find. Abner Power

'Mr. Powerso it is!' said the youth. 'I have not seen you since we met in Carlsruhe.'

'You shall see all the more of me now to make up for it. Shall we walk round the church?'

They walked round; and Abner Power began in a sardonic recitative: 'I am a traveller, and it takes a good deal

to astonish me. So I neither swooned nor screamed when I learnt a few hours ago what I had suspected for a

week, that you are of the house and lineage of Jacob.' He flung a nod towards the canopied tombs as he

Dare cursorily glanced round. Nobody was near enough to hear their words, the nearest persons being two

workmen just outside, who were bringing their tools up from the vault preparatively to closing it.

Having observed this Dare replied, 'I, too, am a traveller; and neither do I swoon nor scream at what you say.

But I assure you that if you busy yourself about me, you may truly be said to busy yourself about nothing.'

'Well, that's a matter of opinion. Now, there's no scarlet left in my face to blush for men's follies; but as an

alliance is afoot between my niece and the present Sir William, this must be looked into.'

Dare reflectively said 'O,' as he observed through the window one of the workmen bring up a candle from the

'The marriage is desirable, and your relationship in itself is of no consequence,' continued the elder, 'but just

look at this. You have forced on the marriage by unscrupulous means, your object being only too clearly to

'Mr. Power, you mock me, because I labour under the misfortune of having an illegitimate father to provide

'You might deserve it if that were all. But it looks bad for my niece's happiness as Lady De Stancy, that she

and her husband are to be perpetually haunted by a young chevalier d'industrie, who can forge a telegram on

occasion, and libel an innocent man by an ingenious device in photography. It looks so bad, in short, that,

advantageous as a title and old family name would be to her and her children, I won't let my brother's

daughter run the risk of having them at the expense of being in the grip of a man like you. There are other

suitors in the world, and other titles: and she is a beautiful woman, who can well afford to be fastidious. I

shall let her know at once of these things, and break off the businessunless you do ONE THING.'

A workman brought up another candle from the vault, and prepared to let down the slab. 'Well, Mr. Power,

'Of course. I am soon going over myself, and will bring you anything you require.'

Power looked at his watch. 'One, two, three, four hours,' he said. 'I leave Markton by the seven o'clock train

'I shall go at once to my niece and tell her the whole circumstancestell her that, by marrying Sir William,

she allies herself with an unhappy gentleman in the power of a criminal son who makes his life a burden to

him by perpetual demands upon his purse; who will increase those demands with his accession to wealth,

threaten to degrade her by exposing her husband's antecedents if she opposes his extortions, and who will

make her miserable by letting her know that her old lover was shamefully victimized by a youth she is bound

to screen out of respect to her husband's feelings. Now a man does not care to let his own flesh and blood

incur the danger of such anguish as that, and I shall do what I say to prevent it. Knowing what a lukewarm

'Neither do I want to break off the match, though I am ready to do it. But you care about your personal

freedom, and you might be made to wear the broad arrow for your tricks on Somerset.'

'I am a hard man. You will find me one. Well, will you go to Peru? Or I don't mind Australia or California as

alternatives. As long as you choose to remain in either of those wealthproducing places, so long will

'Mr. Power, I am overcome. Will you allow me to sit down? Suppose we go into the vestry. It is more

They entered the vestry, and seated themselves in two chairs, one at each end of the table.

'In the meantime,' continued Dare, 'to lend a little romance to stern realities, I'll tell you a singular dream I

had just before you returned to England.' Power looked contemptuous, but Dare went on: 'I dreamt that once

upon a time there were two brothers, born of a Nonconformist family, one of whom became a

'When the first went abroad in his profession, and became engaged on continental railways, the second, a

younger man, looking round for a start, also betook himself to the continent. But though ingenious and

scientific, he had not the business capacity of the elder, whose rebukes led to a sharp quarrel between them;

and they parted in bitter estrangementnever to meet again as it turned out, owing to the dogged obstinacy

and selfwill of the younger man. He, after this, seemed to lose his moral ballast altogether, and after some

eccentric doings he was reduced to a state of poverty, and took lodgings in a court in a back street of a town

we will call Geneva, considerably in doubt as to what steps he should take to keep body and soul together.'

Abner Power was shooting a narrow ray of eyesight at Dare from the corner of his nearly closed lids. 'Your

dream is so interesting,' he said, with a hard smile, 'that I could listen to it all day.'

'Excellent!' said Dare, and went on: 'Now it so happened that the house opposite to the one taken by the

mechanician was peculiar. It was a tall narrow building, wholly unornamented, the walls covered with a layer

of white plaster cracked and soiled by time. I seem to see that house now! Six stone steps led up to the door,

with a rusty iron railing on each side, and under these steps were others which went down to a cellarin my

'Sitting lonely and apathetic without a light, at his own chamberwindow at night time, our mechanician

frequently observed dark figures descending these steps and ultimately discovered that the house was the

meetingplace of a fraternity of political philosophers, whose object was the extermination of tyrants and

despots, and the overthrow of established religions. The discovery was startling enough, but our hero was not

easily startled. He kept their secret and lived on as before. At last the mechanician and his affairs became

known to the society, as the affairs of the society had become known to the mechanician, and, instead of

shooting him as one who knew too much for their safety, they were struck with his faculty for silence, and

'Next, like friend Bunyan, I saw in my dream that denunciation was the breath of life to this society. At an

earlier date in its history, objectionable persons in power had been from time to time murdered, and curiously

enough numbered; that is, upon the body of each was set a mark or seal, announcing that he was one of a

series. But at this time the question before the society related to the substitution for the dagger, which was

vetoed as obsolete, of some explosive machine that would be both more effectual and less difficult to

manage; and in short, a large reward was offered to our needy Englishman if he would put their ideas of such

Abner Power nodded again, his complexion being peculiarwhich might partly have been accounted for by

'He agreed, though no politician whatever himself, to exercise his wits on their account, and brought his

machine to such a pitch of perfection, that it was the identical one used in the memorable attempt' (Dare

whispered the remainder of the sentence in tones so low that not a mouse in the corner could have heard.)

'Well, the inventor of that explosive has naturally been wanted ever since by all the heads of police in Europe.

But the most curiousor perhaps the most natural part of my story is, that our hero, after the catastrophe,

grew disgusted with himself and his comrades, acquired, in a fit of revulsion, quite a conservative taste in

politics, which was strengthened greatly by the news he indirectly received of the great wealth and

respectability of his brother, who had had no communion with him for years, and supposed him dead. He

abjured his employers and resolved to abandon them; but before coming to England he decided to destroy all

trace of his combustible inventions by dropping them into the neighbouring lake at night from a boat. You

'No, I suffer from attacks of perspiration whenever I sit in a consecrated edificethat's all. Pray go on.'

'In carrying out this project, an explosion occurred, just as he was throwing the stock overboardit blew up

into his face, wounding him severely, and nearly depriving him of sight. The boat was upset, but he swam

ashore in the darkness, and remained hidden till he recovered, though the scars produced by the burns had

been set on him for ever. This accident, which was such a misfortune to him as a man, was an advantage to

him as a conspirators' engineer retiring from practice, and afforded him a disguise both from his own

brotherhood and from the police, which he has considered impenetrable, but which is getting seen through by

one or two keen eyes as time goes on. Instead of coming to England just then, he went to Peru, connected

himself with the guano trade, I believe, and after his brother's death revisited England, his old life obliterated

as far as practicable by his new principles. He is known only as a great traveller to his surviving relatives,

though he seldom says where he has travelled. Unluckily for himself, he is WANTED by certain European

Dare raised his eyes as he concluded his narration. As has been remarked, he was sitting at one end of the

vestrytable, Power at the other, the green cloth stretching between them. On the edge of the table adjoining

Mr. Power a shining nozzle of metal was quietly resting, like a dog's nose. It was directed pointblank at the

Mr. Power nodded placidly, his hand still grasping the pistol behind the edge of the table. 'As a traveller I

always carry one of 'em,' he returned; 'and for the last five minutes I have been closely considering whether

your numerous brains are worth blowing out or no. The vault yonder has suggested itself as convenient and

snug for one of the same family; but the mental problem that stays my hand is, how am I to despatch and

''Tis a strange problem, certainly,' replied Dare, 'and one on which I fear I could not give disinterested advice.

Moreover, while you, as a traveller, always carry a weapon of defence, as a traveller so do I. And for the last

threequarters of an hour I have been thinking concerning you, an intensified form of what you have been

thinking of me, but without any concern as to your interment. See here for a proof of it.' And a second steel

nose rested on the edge of the table opposite to the first, steadied by Dare's right hand.

They remained for some time motionless, the tick of the tower clock distinctly audible.

'Well, 'twould be a pity to make a mess here under such dubious circumstances. Mr. Dare, I perceive that a

mean vagabond can be as sharp as a political regenerator. I cry quits, if you care to do the same?'

'Then we do nothing at all, either side; but let the course of true love run on to marriagethat's the

Dare retired to the church and thence to the outside, where he idled away a few minutes in looking at the

workmen, who were now lowering into its place a large stone slab, bearing the words 'DE STANCY,' which

covered the entrance to the vault. When the footway of the churchyard was restored to its normal condition

Abner Power walked back to the castle at a slow and equal pace, as though he carried an overbrimming

vessel on his head. He silently let himself in, entered the long gallery, and sat down. The length of time that

he sat there was so remarkable as to raise that interval of inanition to the rank of a feat.

Power's eyes glanced through one of the windowcasements: from a hole without he saw the head of a tomtit

protruding. He listlessly watched the bird during the successive epochs of his thought, till night came,

without any perceptible change occurring in him. Such fixity would have meant nothing else than sudden

death in any other man, but in Mr. Power it merely signified that he was engaged in ruminations which

necessitated a more extensive survey than usual. At last, at halfpast eight, after having sat for five hours

with his eyes on the residence of the tomtits, to whom night had brought cessation of thought, if not to him

who had observed them, he rose amid the shades of the furniture, and rang the bell. There were only a servant

or two in the castle, one of whom presently came with a light in her hand and a startled look upon her face,

which was not reduced when she recognized him; for in the opinion of that household there was something

He ate a late meal, and retired to bed, where he seemed to sleep not unsoundly. The next morning he received

a letter which afforded him infinite satisfaction and gave his stagnant impulses a new momentum. He entered

the library, and amid objects swathed in brown holland sat down and wrote a note to his niece at Amiens.

Therein he stated that, finding that the AngloSouthAmerican house with which he had recently connected

himself required his presence in Peru, it obliged him to leave without waiting for her return. He felt the less

uneasy at going, since he had learnt that Captain De Stancy would return at once to Amiens to his sick sister,

and see them safely home when she improved. He afterwards left the castle, disappearing towards a railway

station some miles above Markton, the road to which lay across an unfrequented down.

It was a fine afternoon of late summer, nearly three months subsequent to the death of Sir William De Stancy

and Paula's engagement to marry his successor in the title. George Somerset had started on a professional

journey that took him through the charming district which lay around Stancy Castle. Having resigned his

appointment as architect to that important structurea resignation which had been accepted by Paula

through her solicitorhe had bidden farewell to the locality after putting matters in such order that his

successor, whoever he might be, should have no difficulty in obtaining the particulars necessary to the

completion of the work in hand. Hardly to his surprise this successor was Havill.

Somerset's resignation had been tendered in no hasty mood. On returning to England, and in due course to the

castle, everything bore in upon his mind the exceeding sorrowfulness he would not say humiliationof

continuing to act in his former capacity for a woman who, from seeming more than a dear friend, had become

So he resigned; but now, as the train drew on into that once beloved tract of country, the images which met

his eye threw him back in point of emotion to very near where he had been before making himself a stranger

here. The train entered the cutting on whose brink he had walked when the carriage containing Paula and her

friends surprised him the previous summer. He looked out of the window: they were passing the wellknown

curve that led up to the tunnel constructed by her father, into which he had gone when the train came by and

Paula had been alarmed for his life. There was the path they had both climbed afterwards, involuntarily

seizing each other's hand; the bushes, the grass, the flowers, everything just the same:

When they came out of the tunnel at the other end he caught a glimpse of the distant castlekeep, and the

wellremembered walls beneath it. The experience so far transcended the intensity of what is called mournful

pleasure as to make him wonder how he could have miscalculated himself to the extent of supposing that he

On entering Markton station he withdrew into a remote corner of the carriage, and closed his eyes with a

resolve not to open them till the embittering scenes should be passed by. He had not long to wait for this

event. When again in motion his eye fell upon the skirt of a lady's dress opposite, the owner of which had

'Ah indeed!' he exclaimed as he looked up to her face. 'I had not a notion that it was you!' He went over and

'I am not going far,' she said; 'only to the next station. We often run down in summer time. Are you going

'I am going to a building further on; thence to Normandy by way of Cherbourg, to finish out my holiday.'

After saying that Somerset asked himself why he should mince matters with so genuine and sympathetic a

girl as Charlotte De Stancy? She could tell him particulars which he burned to know. He might never again

have an opportunity of knowing them, since she and he would probably not meet for years to come, if at all.

'Have the castle works progressed pretty rapidly under the new architect?' he accordingly asked.

'Yes,' said Charlotte in her hastethen adding that she was not quite sure if they had progressed so rapidly as

before; blushingly correcting herself at this point and that, in the tinkering manner of a nervous organization

'Well, I should have liked to carry out the undertaking to its end,' said Somerset. 'But I felt I could not

consistently do so. Miss Power' (here a lump came into Somerset's throat so responsive was he yet to

her image)'seemed to have lost confidence in me, andit was best that the connection should be severed.'

Charlotte waited again as if to accumulate the necessary force for honest speaking at the expense of

She looked up at him in quite a frightened waylittle as there was to be frightened at in a quiet fellow like

him in this sad time of his lifeand said, 'Yes: some telegramI thinkwhen you were in trouble? Forgive

Somerset began reflecting on what messages he had sent Paula, troublous or otherwise. All he had sent had

been sent from the castle, and were as gentle and mellifluous as sentences well could be which had neither

articles nor pronouns. 'I don't understand,' he said. 'Will you explain a little more as plainly as you

Somerset shook his head. 'No,' he murmured, with the composure of a man who, knowing he had done

nothing of the sort himself, was blinded by his own honesty to the possibility that another might have done it

for him. 'That must be some other affair with which I had nothing to do. O no, it was nothing like that; the

So timid was Charlotte in Somerset's presence, that her timidity at this juncture amounted to

blameworthiness. The distressing scene which must have followed a clearing up there and then of any

possible misunderstanding, terrified her imagination; and quite confounded by contradictions that she could

'Yes,' Charlotte murmured. 'It is sooner than it ought to be by rights, considering how recently my dear father

died; but there are reasons in connection with my brother's position against putting it off: and it is to be

Still there was nothing wonderful in such promptitude: engagements broken in upon by the death of a near

relative of one of the parties had been often carried out in a subdued form with no longer delay.

Charlotte's station was now at hand. She bade him farewell; and he rattled on to the building he had come to

inspect, and next to Budmouth, whence he intended to cross the Channel by steamboat that night.

He hardly knew how the evening passed away. He had taken up his quarters at an inn near the quay, and as

the night drew on he stood gazing from the coffeeroom window at the steamer outside, which nearly thrust

its spars through the bedroom casements, and at the goods that were being tumbled on board as only shippers

can tumble them. All the goods were laden, a lamp was put on each side the gangway, the engines broke into

a crackling roar, and people began to enter. They were only waiting for the last train: then they would be off.

Still Somerset did not move; he was thinking of that curious half told story of Charlotte's, about a telegram

to Paula for money from Nice. Not once till within the last halfhour had it recurred to his mind that he had

met Dare both at Nice and at Monte Carlo; that at the latter place he had been absolutely out of money and

wished to borrow, showing considerable sinister feeling when Somerset declined to lend: that on one or two

previous occasions he had reasons for doubting Dare's probity; and that in spite of the young man's

impoverishment at Monte Carlo he had, a few days later, beheld him in shining raiment at Carlsruhe.

Somerset, though misty in his conjectures, was seized with a growing conviction that there was something in

He felt an insurmountable objection to cross the water that night, or till he had been able to see Charlotte

again, and learn more of her meaning. He countermanded the order to put his luggage on board, watched the

steamer out of the harbour, and went to bed. He might as well have gone to battle, for any rest that he got. On

rising the next morning he felt rather blank, though none the less convinced that a matter required

investigation. He left Budmouth by a morning train, and about eleven o'clock found himself in Markton.

The momentum of a practical inquiry took him through that ancient borough without leaving him much

leisure for those reveries which had yesterday lent an unutterable sadness to every object there. It was just

before noon that he started for the castle, intending to arrive at a time of the morning when, as he knew from

experience, he could speak to Charlotte without difficulty. The rising ground soon revealed the old towers to

While halting here on the knoll in some doubt about his movements he beheld a man coming along the road,

and was soon confronted by his former competitor, Havill. The first instinct of each was to pass with a nod,

but a second instinct for intercourse was sufficient to bring them to a halt. After a few superficial words had

'I have,' said Havill; 'but little to my advantage. I have just heard that my commission is to extend no further

than roofing in the wing that you began, and had I known that before, I would have seen the castle fall flat as

Jericho before I would have accepted the superintendence. But I know who I have to thank for thatDe

Somerset still looked towards the distant battlements. On the scaffolding, among the whitejacketed

'I can't help myself. He is Mr. Dare; and having been recommended by a higher power than I, there he must

'It is very odd,' murmured Somerset, 'but that young man is the object of my visit.'

'Since I call no man master over that way I will inform you.' Havill then related in splenetic tones, to which

Somerset did not care to listen till the story began to advance itself, how he had passed the night with Dare at

the inn, and the incidents of that night, relating how he had seen some letters on the young man's breast which

long had puzzled him. 'They were an E, a T, an N, and a C. I thought over them long, till it eventually

occurred to me that the word when filled out was "De Stancy," and that kinship explains the offensive and

'But, good heavens, man!' said Somerset, more and more disturbed. 'Does she know of it?'

'You may depend she does not yet; but she will soon enough. Harkthere it is!' The notes of the castle clock

'Yes. Didn't you know it was the wedding day? They were to be at the church at halfpast eleven. I should

have waited to see her go, but it was no sight to hinder business for, as she was only going to drive over in

'My errand has failed!' said Somerset, turning on his heel. 'I'll walk back to the town with you.'

However he did not walk far with Havill; society was too much at that moment. As soon as opportunity

offered he branched from the road by a path, and avoiding the town went by railway to Budmouth, whence he

To return to Charlotte De Stancy. When the train had borne Somerset from her side, and she had regained her

self possession, she became conscious of the true proportions of the fact he had asserted. And, further, if the

telegram had not been his, why should the photographic distortion be trusted as a phase of his existence? But

after a while it seemed so improbable to her that God's sun should bear false witness, that instead of doubting

both evidences she was inclined to readmit the first. Still, upon the whole, she could not question for long the

honesty of Somerset's denial and if that message had indeed been sent by him, it must have been done while

he was in another such an unhappy state as that exemplified by the portrait. The supposition reconciled all

differences; and yet she could not but fight against it with all the strength of a generous affection.

All the afternoon her poor little head was busy on this perturbing question, till she inquired of herself whether

after all it might not be possible for photographs to represent people as they had never been. Before rejecting

the hypothesis she determined to have the word of a professor on the point, which would be better than all her

surmises. Returning to Markton early, she told the coachman whom Paula had sent, to drive her to the shop of

Ray's establishment consisted of two divisions, the respectable and the shabby. If, on entering the door, the

visitor turned to the left, he found himself in a magazine of old clothes, old furniture, china, umbrellas, guns,

fishing rods, dirty fiddles, and split flutes. Entering the right hand room, which had originally been that of

an independent house, he was in an ordinary photographer's and print collector's depository, to which a

certain artistic solidity was imparted by a few oil paintings in the background. Charlotte made for the latter

department, and when she was inside Mr. Ray appeared in person from the lumbershop adjoining, which,

Charlotte put her question simply enough. The man did not answer her directly, but soon found that she

meant no harm to him. He told her that such misrepresentations were quite possible, and that they embodied a

form of humour which was getting more and more into vogue among certain facetious persons of society.

Charlotte was coming away when she asked, as on second thoughts, if he had any specimens of such work to

'None of my own preparation,' said Mr. Ray, with unimpeachable probity of tone. 'I consider them libellous

myself. Still, I have one or two samples by me, which I keep merely as curiosities.There's one,' he said,

throwing out a portrait card from a drawer. 'That represents the German Emperor in a violent passion: this

one shows the Prime Minister out of his mind; this the Pope of Rome the worse for liquor.'

'Yes,' he said, 'but I prefer not to exhibit them unless you really ask for a particular one that you mean to buy.'

'O, I beg pardon, miss. Well, I shouldn't myself own such things were produced, if there had not been a young

man here at one time who was very ingenious in these mattersa Mr. Dare. He was quite a gent, and only

Charlotte had no wish to hear more. On her way home she burst into tears: the entanglement was altogether

too much for her to tear asunder, even had not her own instincts been urging her two ways, as they were.

To immediately right Somerset's wrong was her impetuous desire as an honest woman who loved him; but

such rectification would be the jeopardizing of all else that gratified herthe marriage of her brother with

her dearest friendnow on the very point of accomplishment. It was a marriage which seemed to promise

happiness, or at least comfort, if the old flutter that had transiently disturbed Paula's bosom could be kept

from reviving, to which end it became imperative to hide from her the discovery of injustice to Somerset. It

involved the advantage of leaving Somerset free; and though her own tender interest in him had been too well

schooled by habitual self denial to run ahead on vain personal hopes, there was nothing more than human in

her feeling pleasure in prolonging Somerset's singleness. Paula might even be allowed to discover his wrongs

when her marriage had put him out of her power. But to let her discover his illtreatment now might upset

the impending union of the families, and wring her own heart with the sight of Somerset married in her

Why Dare, or any other person, should have set himself to advance her brother's cause by such unscrupulous

blackening of Somerset's character was more than her sagacity could fathom. Her brother was, as far as she

could see, the only man who could directly profit by the machination, and was therefore the natural one to

suspect of having set it going. But she would not be so disloyal as to entertain the thought long; and who or

what had instigated Dare, who was undoubtedly the proximate cause of the mischief, remained to her an

The contention of interests and desires with honour in her heart shook Charlotte all that night; but good

principle prevailed. The wedding was to be solemnized the very next morning, though for beforementioned

reasons this was hardly known outside the two houses interested; and there were no visible preparations

either at villa or castle. De Stancy and his groomsmana brother officerslept at the former residence.

De Stancy was a sorry specimen of a bridegroom when he met his sister in the morning. Thickcoming

fancies, for which there was more than good reason, had disturbed him only too successfully, and he was as

full of apprehension as one who has a league with Mephistopheles. Charlotte told him nothing of what made

her likewise so wan and anxious, but drove off to the castle, as had been planned, about nine o'clock, leaving

That clearing Somerset's reputation from the stain which had been thrown on it would cause a sufficient

reaction in Paula's mind to dislocate present arrangements she did not so seriously anticipate, now that

morning had a little calmed her. Since the rupture with her former architect Paula had sedulously kept her

own counsel, but Charlotte assumed from the ease with which she seemed to do it that her feelings towards

him had never been inconveniently warm; and she hoped that Paula would learn of Somerset's purity with

merely the generous pleasure of a friend, coupled with a friend's indignation against his traducer.

Still, the possibility existed of stronger emotions, and it was only too evident to poor Charlotte that, knowing

this, she had still less excuse for delaying the intelligence till the strongest emotion would be purposeless.

On approaching the castle the first object that caught her eye was Dare, standing beside Havill on the

scaffolding of the new wing. He was looking down upon the drive and court, as if in anticipation of the event.

His contiguity flurried her, and instead of going straight to Paula she sought out Mrs. Goodman.

'You are come early; that's right!' said the latter. 'You might as well have slept here last night. We have only

Mr. Wardlaw, the London lawyer you have heard of, in the house. Your brother's solicitor was here

yesterday; but he returned to Markton for the night. We miss Mr. Power so muchit is so unfortunate that he

should have been obliged to go abroad, and leave us unprotected women with so much responsibility.'

'Yes, I know,' said Charlotte quickly, having a shy distaste for the details of what troubled her so much in the

Charlotte assented. 'I have to tell her something,' she said, 'which will make no difference, but which I should

like her to know this morningat once. I have discovered that we have been entirely mistaken about Mr.

Somerset.' She nerved herself to relate succinctly what had come to her knowledge the day before.

Mrs. Goodman was much impressed. She had never clearly heard before what circumstances had attended the

resignation of Paula's architect. 'We had better not tell her till the wedding is over,' she presently said; 'it

'Yes, it will be right if we tell her afterwards. O yesit must be right,' she repeated in a tone which showed

that her opinion was unstable enough to require a little fortification by the voice. 'She loves your brother; she

must, since she is going to marry him; and it can make little difference whether we rehabilitate the character

of a friend now, or some few hours hence. The author of those wicked tricks on Mr. Somerset ought not to go

'That's what I think; and what right have we to hold our tongues even for a few hours?'

Charlotte found that by telling Mrs. Goodman she had simply made two irresolute people out of one, and as

Paula was now inquiring for her, she went upstairs without having come to any decision.

Paula was in her boudoir, writing down some notes previous to beginning her wedding toilet, which was

designed to harmonize with the simplicity that characterized the other arrangements. She owned that it was

depriving the neighbourhood of a pageant which it had a right to expect of her; but the circumstance was

Mrs. Goodman entered Paula's room immediately behind Charlotte. Perhaps the only difference between the

Paula of today and the Paula of last year was an accession of thoughtfulness, natural to the circumstances in

any case, and more particularly when, as now, the bride's isolation made selfdependence a necessity. She

was sitting in a light dressinggown, and her face, which was rather pale, flushed at the entrance of Charlotte

'I knew you were come,' she said, when Charlotte stooped and kissed her. 'I heard you. I have done nothing

The question was put without thought, but its aptness seemed almost to imply an intuitive knowledge of their

'Well, now, Clementine shall dress you, and I can do with Milly,' continued Paula. 'Come along. Well,

'And have not you slept well either, aunt? You said nothing about it at breakfast.'

'O, it is nothing,' said Mrs. Goodman quickly. 'I have been disturbed by learning of somebody's villainy. I am

going to tell you all some time today, but it is not important enough to disturb you with now.'

'I don't think it is quite fair,' said Miss De Stancy, looking from one to the other in some distress. 'Mrs.

'He's dead!' cried Paula, sinking into a chair and turning as pale as marble. 'Is he dead?tell me!' she

'I have been feeling that I ought to tell you clearly, dear Paula,' declared her friend. 'It is absolutely false

about his telegraphing to you for moneyit is absolutely false that his character is such as that dreadful

picture represented it. Therethat's the substance of it, and I can tell you particulars at any time.'

But Paula would not be told at any time. A dreadful sorrow sat in her face; she insisted upon learning

When it was all explained she said in a low tone: 'It is that pernicious, evil man Dareyet why is it

he?what can he have meant by it! Justice before generosity, even on one's weddingday. Before I become

any man's wife this morning I'll see that wretch in jail! The affair must be sifted. . . . O, it was a wicked thing

to serve anybody so!I'll send for Cunningham Haze this momentthe culprit is even now on the premises,

I believeacting as clerk of the works!' The usually wellbalanced Paula was excited, and scarcely knowing

'Don't act hastily, Paula,' said her aunt. 'Had you not better consult Sir William? He will act for you in this.'

'YesHe is coming round in a few minutes,' said Charlotte, jumping at this happy thought of Mrs.

Goodman's. 'He's going to run across to see how you are getting on. He will be here by ten.'

She had scarcely done speaking when the prancing of a horse was heard in the ward below, and in a few

De Stancy entered saying, 'I have ridden across for ten minutes, as I said I would do, to know if everything is

easy and straightforward for you. There will be time enough for me to get back and prepare if I start shortly.

As Paula did not immediately answer Mrs. Goodman beckoned to Charlotte, and they left the room together.

'A man has to be given in charge, or a boy, or a demon,' she replied. 'I was going to do it, but you can do it

'It is Darethat young man you see out there against the sky.' She looked from the window sideways

towards the new wing, on the roof of which Dare was walking prominently about, after having assisted two

of the workmen in putting a red streamer on the tallest scaffoldpole. 'You must send instantly for Mr.

'My dearest Paula,' repeated De Stancy faintly, his complexion changing to that of a man who had died.

'Please send for Mr. Haze at once,' returned Paula, with graceful firmness. 'I said I would be just to a wronged

man before I was generous to youand I will. That lad Dareto take a practical view of ithas attempted

to defraud me of one hundred pounds sterling, and he shall suffer. I won't tell you what he has done besides,

for though it is worse, it is less tangible. When he is handcuffed and sent off to jail I'll proceed with my

'Consider!' said Paula, with indignation. 'I have considered. Will you kindly ring, Sir William, and get

Thomas to ride at once to Mr. Haze? Or must I rise from this chair and do it myself?'

Paula rose determinedly from the chair. 'Since you won't do it, I must,' she said.

'You must not ring the bell for that purpose,' he said with husky deliberateness, looking into the depths of her

'It wants two hours to the time when you might have a right to express such a command as that,' she said

'I certainly have not the honour to be your husband yet,' he sadly replied, 'but surely you can listen? There

exist reasons against giving this boy in charge which I could easily get you to admit by explanation; but I

would rather, without explanation, have you take my word, when I say that by doing so you are striking a

'You are jealous of somebody or something perhaps!' she said, in tones which showed how fatally all this was

telling against the intention of that day. 'I will not be a party to baseness, if it is to save all my fortune!'

The bell was answered quickly. But De Stancy, though plainly in great misery, did not give up his point.

Meeting the servant at the door before he could enter the room he said. 'It is nothing; you can go again.'

Paula looked at the unhappy baronet in amazement; then turning to the servant, who stood with the door in

'Yes, James, leave the room,' she calmly said, sitting down. 'Now what have you to say?' she asked, when

they were again alone. 'Why must I not issue orders in my own house? Who is this young criminal, that you

value his interests higher than my honour? I have delayed for one moment sending my messenger to the chief

She remained still as death while one might count ten; then turned her back upon him. 'I think you had better

De Stancy walked a few paces, then said in a low voice: 'Miss Power, I knewI guessed just now, as soon as

it beganthat we were going to split on this rock. Welllet it beit cannot be helped; destiny is supreme.

The boy was to be my ruin; he is my ruin, and rightly. But before I go grant me one request. Do not prosecute

him. Believe me, I will do everything I can to get him out of your way. He shall annoy you no more. . . . Do

'Once moream I to understand that no marriage is to take place today between you and me?'

Sir William De Stancy left the room. It was noticeable throughout the interview that his manner had not been

the manner of a man altogether taken by surprise. During the few preceding days his mood had been that of

the gambler seasoned in illluck, who adopts pessimist surmises as a safe background to his most sanguine

She remained alone for some time. Then she rang, and requested that Mr. Wardlaw, her father's solicitor and

friend, would come up to her. A messenger was despatched, not to Mr. Cunningham Haze, but to the parson

of the parish, who in his turn sent to the clerk and clerk's wife, then busy in the church. On receipt of the

intelligence the two latter functionaries proceeded to roll up the carpet which had been laid from the door to

the gate, put away the kneeling cushions, locked the doors, and went off to inquire the reason of so strange a

countermand. It was soon proclaimed in Markton that the marriage had been postponed for a fortnight in

consequence of the bride's sudden indisposition: and less public emotion was felt than the case might have

drawn forth, from the ignorance of the majority of the populace that a wedding had been going to take place

Meanwhile Miss De Stancy had been closeted with Paula for more than an hour. It was a difficult meeting,

and a severe test to any friendship but that of the most sterling sort. In the turmoil of her distraction Charlotte

had the consolation of knowing that if her act of justice to Somerset at such a moment were the act of a

simpleton, it was the only course open to honesty. But Paula's cheerful serenity in some measure laid her own

troubles to rest, till they were reawakened by a rumourwhich got wind some weeks later, and quite

drowned all other surprisesof the true relation between the vanished clerk of works, Mr. Dare, and the

'I have decided that I cannot see Sir William again: I shall go away,' said Paula on the evening of the next

day, as she lay on her bed in a flushed and highlystrung condition, though a person who had heard her

words without seeing her face would have assumed perfect equanimity to be the mood which expressed itself

with such quietness. This was the case with her aunt, who was looking out of the window at some idlers from

Markton walking round the castle with their eyes bent upon its windows, and she made no haste to reply.

'Those people have come to see me, as they have a right to do when a person acts so strangely,' Paula

Paula replied in the tone of one who was actuated entirely by practical considerations: 'Out of England

certainly. And as Normandy lies nearest, I think I shall go there. It is a very nice country to ramble in.'

'Yes, it is a very nice country to ramble in,' echoed her aunt, in moderate tones. 'When do you intend to start?'

Mrs. Goodman expostulated against such suddenness. 'It will redouble the rumours that are afloat, if, after

'That's a contingency which I am quite willing to run the risk of. Well, it would be rather sudden, as you say,

to go to night. But we'll go tomorrow night at latest.' Under the influence of the decision she bounded up

like an elastic ball and went to the glass, which showed a light in her eye that had not been there before this

The evening and the next morning were passed in writing a final and kindly note of dismissal to Sir William

De Stancy, in making arrangements for the journey, and in commissioning Havill to take advantage of their

absence by emptying certain rooms of their furniture, and repairing their dilapidationsa work which, with

that in hand, would complete the section for which he had been engaged. Mr. Wardlaw had left the castle; so

also had Charlotte, by her own wish, her residence there having been found too oppressive to herself to be

continued for the present. Accompanied by Mrs. Goodman, Milly, and Clementine, the elderly French maid,

who still remained with them, Paula drove into Markton in the twilight and took the train to Budmouth.

When they got there they found that an unpleasant breeze was blowing out at sea, though inland it had been

calm enough. Mrs. Goodman proposed to stay at Budmouth till the next day, in hope that there might be

smooth water; but an English seaport inn being a thing that Paula disliked more than a rough passage, she

would not listen to this counsel. Other impatient reasons, too, might have weighed with her. When night

came their looming miseries began. Paula found that in addition to her own troubles she had those of three

'Paula, Paula,' said Mrs. Goodman from beneath her load of wretchedness, 'why did we think of undergoing

A slight gleam of humour crossed Paula's not particularly blooming face, as she answered, 'Ah, why indeed?'

'Well, I would do anything for that young man short of personal martyrdom; but really when it comes to

'Well, I am open to criticism just now, I am sure,' said her aunt, with a green smile; and speech was again

The morning was bright and beautiful, and it could again be seen in Paula's looks that she was glad she had

come, though, in taking their rest at Cherbourg, fate consigned them to an hotel breathing an atmosphere that

seemed specially compounded for depressing the spirits of a young woman; indeed nothing had particularly

encouraged her thus far in her somewhat peculiar scheme of searching out and expressing sorrow to a

gentleman for having believed those who traduced him; and this coup d'audace to which she had committed

herself began to look somewhat formidable. When in England the plan of following him to Normandy had

suggested itself as the quickest, sweetest, and most honest way of making amends; but having arrived there

she seemed further off from his sphere of existence than when she had been at Stancy Castle. Virtually she

was, for if he thought of her at all, he probably thought of her there; if he sought her he would seek her there.

However, as he would probably never do the latter, it was necessary to go on. It had been her sudden dream

before starting, to light accidentally upon him in some romantic old town of this romantic old province, but

she had become aware that the recorded fortune of lovers in that respect was not to be trusted too implicitly.

Somerset's search for her in the south was now inversely imitated. By diligent inquiry in Cherbourg during

the gloom of evening, in the disguise of a hooded cloak, she learnt out the place of his stay while there, and

that he had gone thence to Lisieux. What she knew of the architectural character of Lisieux half guaranteed

the truth of the information. Without telling her aunt of this discovery she announced to that lady that it was

But though her aunt was simple, there were bounds to her simplicity. 'Paula,' she said, with an undeceivable

air, 'I don't think you should run after a young man like this. Suppose he shouldn't care for you by this time.'

It was no occasion for further affectation. 'I am SURE he will,' answered her niece flatly. 'I have not the least

fear about itnor would you, if you knew how he is. He will forgive me anything.'

'Well, pray don't show yourself forward. Some people are apt to fly into extremes.'

Paula blushed a trifle, and reflected, and made no answer. However, her purpose seemed not to be

permanently affected, for the next morning she was up betimes and preparing to depart; and they proceeded

almost without stopping to the architectural curiositytown which had so quickly interested her. Nevertheless

her ardent manner of yesterday underwent a considerable change, as if she had a fear that, as her aunt

suggested, in her endeavour to make amends for cruel injustice, she was allowing herself to be carried too far.

On nearing the place she said, 'Aunt, I think you had better call upon him; and you need not tell him we have

come on purpose. Let him think, if he will, that we heard he was here, and would not leave without seeing

him. You can also tell him that I am anxious to clear up a misunderstanding, and ask him to call at our hotel.'

But as she looked over the dreary suburban erections which lined the road from the railway to the old quarter

of the town, it occurred to her that Somerset would at that time of day be engaged in one or other of the

mediaeval buildings thereabout, and that it would be a much neater thing to meet him as if by chance in one

of these edifices than to call upon him anywhere. Instead of putting up at any hotel, they left the maids and

baggage at the station; and hiring a carriage, Paula told the coachman to drive them to such likely places as

'What are you going to do when you find him? Tell him point blank that you are in love with him?'

They first visited a large church at the upper end of a square that sloped its gravelled surface to the western

shine, and was pricked out with little avenues of young pollard limes. The church within was one to make any

Gothic architect take lodgings in its vicinity for a fortnight, though it was just now crowded with a forest of

scaffolding for repairs in progress. Mrs. Goodman sat down outside, and Paula, entering, took a walk in the

form of a horseshoe; that is, up the south aisle, round the apse, and down the north side; but no figure of a

melancholy young man sketching met her eye anywhere. The sun that blazed in at the west doorway smote

'This is not all the old architecture of the town by far,' she said to her aunt with an air of confidence.

He was not at St. Jacques'. Looking from the west end of that building the girl observed the end of a steep

narrow street of antique character, which seemed a likely haunt. Beckoning to her aunt to follow in the fly

She was transported to the Middle Ages. It contained the shops of tinkers, braziers, bellowsmenders,

hollowturners, and other quaintest trades, their fronts open to the street beneath stories of timber

overhanging so far on each side that a slit of sky was left at the top for the light to descend, and no more. A

blue misty obscurity pervaded the atmosphere, into which the sun thrust oblique staves of light. It was a street

for a mediaevalist to revel in, toss up his hat and shout hurrah in, send for his luggage, come and live in, die

and be buried in. She had never supposed such a street to exist outside the imaginations of antiquarians.

Smells direct from the sixteenth century hung in the air in all their original integrity and without a modern

taint. The faces of the people in the doorways seemed those of individuals who habitually gazed on the great

She inquired of a coppersmith if an English artist had been seen here lately. With a suddenness that almost

discomfited her he announced that such a man had been seen, sketching a house just belowthe 'Vieux

Manoir de Francois premier.' Just turning to see that her aunt was following in the fly, Paula advanced to the

house. The wood framework of the lower story was black and varnished; the upper story was brown and not

varnished; carved figures of dragons, griffins, satyrs, and mermaids swarmed over the front; an ape stealing

apples was the subject of this cantilever, a man undressing of that. These figures were cloaked with little

She examined the woodwork closely; here and there she discerned pencilmarks which had no doubt been

jotted thereon by Somerset as points of admeasurement, in the way she had seen him mark them at the castle.

Some fragments of paper lay below: there were pencilled lines on them, and they bore a strong resemblance

to a spoilt leaf of Somerset's sketchbook. Paula glanced up, and from a window above protruded an old

woman's head, which, with the exception of the white handkerchief tied round it, was so nearly of the colour

of the carvings that she might easily have passed as of a piece with them. The aged woman continued

motionless, the remains of her eyes being bent upon Paula, who asked her in Englishwoman's French where

the sketcher had gone. Without replying, the crone produced a hand and extended finger from her side, and

Paula went on, the carriage following with difficulty, on account of the obstructions in the thoroughfare. At

bottom, the street abutted on a wide one with customary modern life flowing through it; and as she looked,

By the time that Paula had reached the bottom Somerset was a long way to the left, and she recognized to her

dismay that the busy transverse street was one which led to the railway. She quickened her pace to a run; he

did not see her; he even walked faster. She looked behind for the carriage. The driver in emerging from the

sixteenthcentury street to the nineteenth had apparently turned to the right, instead of to the left as she had

done, so that her aunt had lost sight of her. However, she dare not mind it, if Somerset would but look back!

He partly turned, but not far enough, and it was only to hail a passing omnibus upon which she discerned his

luggage. Somerset jumped in, the omnibus drove on, and diminished up the long road. Paula stood hopelessly

She turned and waited, the two or three children who had gathered round her looking up sympathizingly in

her face. Her aunt, having now discovered the direction of her flight, drove up and beckoned to her.

'Yes!' exclaimed Paula, with tears of vexation in her eyes. 'It isn't every man who gets a woman of my

position to run after him on foot, and alone, and he ought to have looked round! Drive to the station; I want to

On reaching the station she asked the bookingclerk some questions, and returned to her aunt with a cheerful

countenance. 'Mr. Somerset has only gone to Caen,' she said. 'He is the only Englishman who went by this

train, so there is no mistake. There is no other train for two hours. We will go on thenshall we?'

'I am indifferent,' said Mrs. Goodman. 'But, Paula, do you think this quite right? Perhaps he is not so anxious

A momentary dismay crossed her face, but it passed, and she answered, 'Aunt, that's nonsense. I know him

well enough, and can assure you that if he had only known I was running after him, he would have looked

round sharply enough, and would have given his little finger rather than have missed me! I don't make myself

so silly as to run after a gentleman without good grounds, for I know well that it is an undignified thing to do.

Indeed, I could never have thought of doing it, if I had not been so miserably in the wrong!'

That evening when the sun was dropping out of sight they started for the city of Somerset's pilgrimage. Paula

seated herself with her face toward the western sky, watching from her window the broad red horizon, across

which moved thin poplars lopped to human shapes, like the walking forms in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. It

She still persisted in her wish to casually encounter Somerset in some aisle, ladychapel, or crypt to which he

might have betaken himself to copy and learn the secret of the great artists who had erected those nooks. Mrs.

Goodman was for discovering his inn, and calling upon him in a straightforward way; but Paula seemed

afraid of it, and they went out in the morning on foot. First they searched the church of St. Sauveur; he was

not there; next the church of St. Jean; then the church of St. Pierre; but he did not reveal himself, nor had any

verger seen or heard of such a man. Outside the latter church was a public flowergarden, and she sat down

to consider beside a round pool in which waterlilies grew and goldfish swam, near beds of fiery

geraniums, dahlias, and verbenas just past their bloom. Her enterprise had not been justified by its results so

far; but meditation still urged her to listen to the little voice within and push on. She accordingly rejoined her

aunt, and they drove up the hill to the Abbaye aux Dames, the day by this time having grown hot and

The church seemed absolutely empty, the void being emphasized by its grateful coolness. But on going

towards the east end they perceived a bald gentleman close to the screen, looking to the right and to the left as

if much perplexed. Paula merely glanced over him, his back being toward her, and turning to her aunt said

'That's just what I am wondering,' said the old gentleman, abruptly facing round, and Paula discovered that

the countenance was not unfamiliar to her eye. Since knowing Somerset she had added to her gallery of

celebrities a photograph of his father, the Academician, and he it was now who confronted her.

For the moment embarrassment, due to complicated feelings, brought a slight blush to her cheek, but being

well aware that he did not know her, she answered, coolly enough, 'I suppose we must ask some one.'

'And we certainly would if there were any one to ask,' he said, still looking eastward, and not much at her. 'I

have been here a long time, but nobody comes. Not that I want to get in on my own account; for though it is

thirty years since I last set foot in this place, I remember it as if it were but yesterday.'

'Naturally. But I am looking for a young man who is making sketches in some of these buildings, and it is as

likely as not that he is in the crypt under this choir, for it is just such outoftheway nooks that he prefers. It

is very provoking that he should not have told me more distinctly in his letter where to find him.'

Mrs. Goodman, who had gone to make inquiries, now came back, and informed them that she had learnt that

it was necessary to pass through the HotelDieu to the choir, to do which they must go outside. Thereupon

they walked on together, and Mr. Somerset, quite ignoring his troubles, made remarks upon the beauty of the

architecture; and in absence of mind, by reason either of the subject, or of his listener, retained his hat in his

hand after emerging from the church, while they walked all the way across the Place and into the Hospital

One of the Sisters now preceded them towards the choir and crypt, Mr. Somerset asking her if a young

Englishman was or had been sketching there. On receiving a reply in the negative, Paula nearly betrayed

herself by turning, as if her business there, too, ended with the information. However, she went on again, and

made a pretence of looking round, Mr. Somerset also staying in a spirit of friendly attention to his

countrywomen. They did not part from him till they had come out from the crypt, and again reached the west

front, on their way to which he additionally explained that it was his son he was looking for, who had

arranged to meet him here, but had mentioned no inn at which he might be expected.

When he had left them, Paula informed her aunt whose company they had been sharing. Her aunt began

expostulating with Paula for not telling Mr. Somerset what they had seen of his son's movements. 'It would

'I was not bound to ease his mind at the expense of showing what I would rather conceal. I am continually

It was indeed almost evening twilight in the streets, though the graceful freestone spires to a depth of about

twenty feet from their summits were still dyed with the orange tints of a vanishing sun. The two relatives

dined privately as usual, after which Paula looked out of the window of her room, and reflected upon the

events of the day. A tower rising into the sky quite near at hand showed her that some church or other stood

within a few steps of the hotel archway, and saying nothing to Mrs. Goodman, she quietly cloaked herself,

and went out towards it, apparently with the view of disposing of a portion of a dull dispiriting evening. The

church was open, and on entering she found that it was only lighted by seven candles burning before the altar

of a chapel on the south side, the mass of the building being in deep shade. Motionless outlines, which

resolved themselves into the forms of kneeling women, were darkly visible among the chairs, and in the

triforium above the arcades there was one hitherto unnoticed radiance, dim as that of a glowworm in the

grass. It was seemingly the effect of a solitary tallowcandle behind the masonry.

A priest came in, unlocked the door of a confessional with a click which sounded in the silence, and entered

it; a woman followed, disappeared within the curtain of the same, emerging again in about five minutes,

followed by the priest, who locked up his door with another loud click, like a tradesman full of business, and

came down the aisle to go out. In the lobby he spoke to another woman, who replied, 'Ah, oui, Monsieur

Two women having spoken to him, there could be no harm in a third doing likewise. 'Monsieur l'Abbe,' said

Paula in French, 'could you indicate to me the stairs of the triforium?' and she signified her reason for wishing

'Ah, he is a friend of yours, the Englishman?' pleasantly said the priest, recognizing her nationality; and

taking her to a little door he conducted her up a stone staircase, at the top of which he showed her the long

blind story over the aisle arches which led round to where the light was. Cautioning her not to stumble over

the uneven floor, he left her and descended. His words had signified that Somerset was here.

It was a gloomy place enough that she found herself in, but the seven candles below on the opposite altar, and

a faint sky light from the clerestory, lent enough rays to guide her. Paula walked on to the bend of the apse:

This was a candle stuck at the end of a sharpened stick, the latter entering a joint in the stones. A young man

was sketching by the glimmer. But there was no need for the blush which had prepared itself beforehand; the

Paula could have cried aloud with disappointment. Cockton recognized Miss Power, and appearing much

surprised, rose from his seat with a bow, and said hastily, 'Mr. Somerset left to day.'

'Yes, yesyou know, of course, that he has been my architect. Well, it happens that I should like to see him,

Cockton looked at the point of his pencil, and with a hesitating motion of his lip answered, 'Mr. Somerset said

'He said he was sick and tired of holy places, and would go to some wicked spot or other, to get that

consolation which holiness could not give. But he only said it casually to Knowles, and perhaps he did not

'Yes, Miss Power, and Bowles. Mr. Somerset has been kind enough to give us a chance of enlarging our

Paula said a few other things to the young man, walked slowly round the triforium as if she had come to

examine it, and returned down the staircase. On getting back to the hotel she told her aunt, who had just been

'No. But I am sick and tired of holy places, and want to go to some wicked spot or other to find that

'For shame, Paula! Now I know what it is; you have heard that he's gone there! You needn't try to blind me.'

'I don't care where he's gone!' cried Paula petulantly. In a moment, however, she smiled at herself, and added,

'You must take that for what it is worth. I have made up my mind to let him know from my own lips how the

misunderstanding arose. That done, I shall leave him, and probably never see him again. My conscience will

The next day they took the steamboat down the Orne, intending to reach Etretat by way of Havre. Just as they

were moving off an elderly gentleman under a large white sunshade, and carrying his hat in his hand, was

seen leisurely walking down the wharf at some distance, but obviously making for the boat.

Nobody knew more, but as leisure was the order of the day the engines were stopped, on the chance of his

being a passenger, and all eyes were bent upon him in conjecture. He disappeared and reappeared from

behind a pile of merchandise and approached the boat at an easy pace, whereupon the gangway was replaced,

and he came on board, removing his hat to Paula, quietly thanking the captain for stopping, and saying to

It was Mr. Somerset the elder, who by degrees informed our travellers, as sitting on their campstools they

advanced between the green banks bordered by elms, that he was going to Etretat; that the young man he had

spoken of yesterday had gone to that romantic wateringplace instead of studying art at Caen, and that he

Paula preserved an entire silence as to her own intentions, partly from natural reticence, and partly, as it

appeared, from the difficulty of explaining a complication which was not very clear to herself. At Havre they

parted from Mr. Somerset, and did not see him again till they were driving over the hills towards Etretat in a

carriage and four, when the white umbrella became visible far ahead among the outside passengers of the

coach to the same place. In a short time they had passed and cut in before this vehicle, but soon became

aware that their carriage, like the coach, was one of a straggling procession of conveyances, some mile and a

In descending the long hill shaded by limetrees which sheltered their place of destination, this procession

closed up, and they perceived that all the visitors and native population had turned out to welcome them, the

daily arrival of new sojourners at this hour being the chief excitement of Etretat. The coach which had

preceded them all the way, at more or less remoteness, was now quite close, and in passing along the village

street they saw Mr. Somerset wave his hand to somebody in the crowd below. A felt hat was waved in the air

in response, the coach swept into the innyard, followed by the idlers, and all disappeared. Paula's face was

crimson as their own carriage swept round in the opposite direction to the rival inn.

Once in her room she breathed like a person who had finished a long chase. They did not go down before

dinner, but when it was almost dark Paula begged her aunt to wrap herself up and come with her to the shore

hard by. The beach was deserted, everybody being at the Casino; the gate stood invitingly open, and they

went in. Here the brilliantly lit terrace was crowded with promenaders, and outside the yellow palings,

surmounted by its row of lamps, rose the voice of the invisible sea. Groups of people were sitting under the

verandah, the women mostly in wraps, for the air was growing chilly. Through the windows at their back an

animated scene disclosed itself in the shape of a roomfull of waltzers, the strains of the band striving in the

ear for mastery over the sounds of the sea. The dancers came round a couple at a time, and were individually

visible to those people without who chose to look that way, which was what Paula did.

Her exclamation had its origin in what she had at that moment seen within, the spectacle of Mr. George

Somerset whirling round the room with a young lady of uncertain nationality but pleasing figure. Paula was

not accustomed to show the white feather too clearly, but she soon had passed out through those yellow gates

and retreated, till the mixed music of sea and band had resolved into that of the sea alone.

'Well!' said her aunt, half in soliloquy, 'do you know who I saw dancing there, Paula? Our Mr. Somerset, if I

'It was likely enough that you did,' sedately replied her niece. 'He left Caen with the intention of seeking

distractions of a lighter kind than those furnished by art, and he has merely succeeded in finding them. But he

has made my duty rather a difficult one. Still, it was my duty, for I very greatly wronged him. Perhaps,

however, I have done enough for honour's sake. I would have humiliated myself by an apology if I had found

him in any other situation; but, of course, one can't he expected to take MUCH trouble when he is seen going

The coolness with which she began her remarks had developed into something like warmth as she concluded.

'He doesn't know her! The idea of his dancing with a woman of that description! We will go away tomorrow.

'He is carrying out his programme to the letter. He plunges into excitement in the most reckless manner, and I

tremble for the consequences! I can do no more: I have humiliated myself into following him, believing that

in giving too ready credence to appearances I had been narrow and inhuman, and had caused him much

misery. But he does not mind, and he has no misery; he seems just as well as ever. How much this finding

him has cost me! After all, I did not deceive him. He must have acquired a natural aversion for me. I have

allowed myself to be interested in a man of very common qualities, and am now bitterly alive to the shame of

having sought him out. I heartily detest him! I will go backaunt, you are rightI had no business to come.

When she rose the next morning the bell was clanging for the second breakfast, and people were pouring in

from the beach in every variety of attire. Paula, whom a restless night had left with a headache, which,

however, she said nothing about, was reluctant to emerge from the seclusion of her chamber, till her aunt,

discovering what was the matter with her, suggested that a few minutes in the open air would refresh her; and

The clatter of the big breakfast within was audible from this spot, and the noise seemed suddenly to inspirit

Paula, who proposed to enter. Her aunt assented. In the verandah under which they passed was a rustic

hatstand in the form of a tree, upon which hats and other bodygear hung like bunches of fruit. Paula's eye

fell upon a felt hat to which a small blockbook was attached by a string. She knew that hat and blockbook

well, and turning to Mrs. Goodman said, 'After all, I don't want the breakfast they are having: let us order one

She led on to where some little tables were placed under the tall shrubs, followed by her aunt, who was in

turn followed by the proprietress of the hotel, that lady having discovered from the French maid that there

'Is the gentleman to whom that sketchbook belongs staying here?' Paula carelessly inquired, as she indicated

'Ah, no!' deplored the proprietress. 'The Hotel was full when Mr. Somerset came. He stays at a cottage

Paula had taken her seat under the fuchsiatrees in such a manner that she could observe all the exits from the

salle a manger; but for the present none of the breakfasters emerged, the only moving objects on the scene

being the waitresses who ran hither and thither across the court, the cook's assistants with baskets of long

bread, and the laundresses with baskets of sunbleached linen. Further back towards the innyard, stablemen

were putting in the horses for starting the flys and coaches to Les Ifs, the nearest railwaystation.

'Suppose the Somersets should be going off by one of these conveyances,' said Mrs. Goodman as she sipped

Nevertheless she looked with some misgiving at the nearest stableman as he led out four white horses,

harnessed them, and leisurely brought a brush with which he began blacking their yellow hoofs. All the

vehicles were ready at the door by the time breakfast was over, and the inmates soon turned out, some to

mount the omnibuses and carriages, some to ramble on the adjacent beach, some to climb the verdant slopes,

and some to make for the cliffs that shut in the vale. The fuchsiatrees which sheltered Paula's

breakfasttable from the blaze of the sun, also screened it from the eyes of the outpouring company, and she

sat on with her aunt in perfect comfort, till among the last of the stream came Somerset and his father. Paula

reddened at being so near the former at last. It was with sensible relief that she observed them turn towards

the cliffs and not to the carriages, and thus signify that they were not going off that day.

Neither of the two saw the ladies, and when the latter had finished their tea and coffee they followed to the

shore, where they sat for nearly an hour, reading and watching the bathers. At length footsteps crunched

among the pebbles in their vicinity, and looking out from her sunshade Paula saw the two Somersets close at

The elder recognized her, and the younger, observing his father's action of courtesy, turned his head. It was a

revelation to Paula, for she was shocked to see that he appeared worn and ill. The expression of his face

changed at sight of her, increasing its shade of paleness; but he immediately withdrew his eyes and passed by.

Somerset was as much surprised at encountering her thus as she had been distressed to see him. As soon as

they were out of hearing, he asked his father quietly, 'What strange thing is this, that Lady De Stancy should

'Lady De Stancythat young lady?' asked the puzzled painter. He proceeded to explain all he knew; that she

was a young lady he had met on his journey at two or three different times; moreover, that if she were his

son's clientthe woman who was to have become Lady De Stancyshe was Miss Power still; for he had

seen in some newspaper two days before leaving England that the wedding had been postponed on account of

Somerset was so greatly moved that he could hardly speak connectedly to his father as they paced on

together. 'But she is not ill, as far as I can see,' he said. 'The wedding postponed?You are sure the word

'No, it was postponed. I meant to have told you before, knowing you would be interested as the castle

Somerset the elder, though not of penetrating nature, began to see that here lay an emotional complication of

some sort, and reserved further inquiry till a more convenient occasion. They had reached the end of the level

beach where the cliff began to rise, and as this impediment naturally stopped their walk they retraced their

steps. On again nearing the spot where Paula and her aunt were sitting, the painter would have deviated to the

hotel; but as his son persisted in going straight on, in due course they were opposite the ladies again. By this

time Miss Power, who had appeared anxious during their absence, regained her selfcontrol. Going towards

'Why have you been doing that?' said Somerset, in a voice which he failed to keep as steady as he could wish.

'BecauseI want some architect to continue the restoration. Do you withdraw your resignation?'

For the moment they had ignored the presence of the painter and Mrs. Goodman, but Somerset now made

'When will you be able to resume operations at the castle?' she asked, as soon as she could again speak

'As soon as I can get back. Of course I only resume it at your special request.'

'Of course.' To one who had known all the circumstances it would have seemed a thousand pities that, after

again getting face to face with him, she did not explain, without delay, the whole mischief that had separated

them. But she did not do itperhaps from the inherent awkwardness of such a topic at this idle time. She

confined herself simply to the above mentioned businesslike request, and when the party had walked a few

'I hope you have explained your mistake to him, and how it arose, and everything?' said her aunt when they

'Did you, too, think he looked ill? But he danced last night. Why did he dance?' She turned and gazed

'I don't know why he danced; but if I had known you were going to be so silent, I would have explained the

Paula's avoidance of tables d'hote did not extend to the present one. It was quite with alacrity that she went

down; and with her entry the antecedent hotel beauty who had reigned for the last five days at that meal, was

unceremoniously deposed by the guests. Mr. Somerset the elder came in, but nobody with him. His seat was

on Paula's left hand, Mrs. Goodman being on Paula's right, so that all the conversation was between the

Academician and the younger lady. When the latter had again retired upstairs with her aunt, Mrs. Goodman

expressed regret that young Mr. Somerset was absent from the table. 'Why has he kept away?' she asked.

'I don't knowI didn't ask,' said Paula sadly. 'Perhaps he doesn't care to meet us again.'

'Wellwhy didn't the old man give me an opportunity?' exclaimed the niece with suppressed excitement. 'He

would scarcely say anything but yes and no, and gave me no chance at all of introducing the subject. I wanted

to explainI came all the way on purposeI would have begged George's pardon on my two knees if there

Though she slept badly that night, Paula promptly appeared in the public room to breakfast, and that not from

motives of vanity; for, while not unconscious of her accession to the unstable throne of queenbeauty in the

establishment, she seemed too preoccupied to care for the honour just then, and would readily have changed

places with her unhappy predecessor, who lingered on in the background like a candle after sunrise.

Mrs. Goodman was determined to trust no longer to Paula for putting an end to what made her so restless and

self reproachful. Seeing old Mr. Somerset enter to a little side table behind for lack of room at the crowded

centre tables, again without his son, she turned her head and asked point blank where the young man was.

Mr. Somerset's face became a shade graver than before. 'My son is unwell,' he replied; 'so unwell that he has

'I hope so too. The fact is, he has overdone himself a little. He was not well when he came here; and to make

himself worse he must needs go dancing at the Casino with this lady and thatamong others with a young

American lady who is here with her family, and whom he met in London last year. I advised him against it,

but he seemed desperately determined to shake off lethargy by any rash means, and wouldn't listen to me.

Luckily he is not in the hotel, but in a quiet cottage a hundred yards up the hill.'

Paula, who had heard all, did not show or say what she felt at the news: but after breakfast, on meeting the

landlady in a passage alone, she asked with some anxiety if there were a really skilful medical man in Etretat;

and on being told that there was, and his name, she went back to look for Mr. Somerset; but he had gone.

They heard nothing more of young Somerset all that morning, but towards evening, while Paula sat at her

window, looking over the heads of fuchsias upon the promenade beyond, she saw the painter walk by. She

immediately went to her aunt and begged her to go out and ask Mr. Somerset if his son had improved.

'He has only gone round to the front,' persisted Paula. 'Do walk that way, auntie, and ask him.'

Thus pressed, Mrs. Goodman acquiesced, and brought back intelligence to Miss Power, who had watched

them through the window, that his son did not positively improve, but that his American friends were very

Having made use of her aunt, Paula seemed particularly anxious to get rid of her again, and when that lady

sat down to write letters, Paula went to her own room, hastily dressed herself without assistance, asked

At the upper end of the lane she saw a little house answering to the description, whose front garden,

windowsills, palings, and doorstep were literally ablaze with nasturtiums in bloom.

She entered this inhabited nosegay, quietly asked for the invalid, and if he were well enough to see Miss

Power. The woman of the house soon returned, and she was conducted up a crooked staircase to Somerset's

modest apartments. It appeared that some rooms in this dwelling had been furnished by the landlady of the

inn, who hired them of the tenant during the summer season to use as an annexe to the hotel.

Admitted to the outer room she beheld her architect looking as unarchitectural as possible; lying on a small

couch which was drawn up to the open casement, whence he had a back view of the window flowers, and

enjoyed a green transparency through the undersides of the same nasturtium leaves that presented their faces

When the latch had again clicked into the catch of the closed door Paula went up to the invalid, upon whose

pale and interesting face a flush had arisen simultaneously with the announcement of her name. He would

have sprung up to receive her, but she pressed him down, and throwing all reserve on one side for the first

time in their intercourse, she crouched beside the sofa, whispering with roguish solicitude, her face not too far

from his own: 'How foolish you are, George, to get ill just now when I have been wanting so much to see you

again!I am so sorry to see you like thiswhat I said to you when we met on the shore was not what I had

Somerset took her by the hand. 'Then what did you come to say, Paula?' he asked.

'I wanted to tell you that the mere wanton wandering of a capricious mind was not the cause of my

estrangement from you. There has been a great deception practisedthe exact nature of it I cannot tell you

plainly just at present; it is too painfulbut it is all over, and I can assure you of my sorrow at having

'There is nothing I shall value so much as that. It will make my work at the castle very pleasant to feel that I

'And you have been provoking; but never so provoking as now. I wouldn't for the world tell you the whole of

my fancies as I came hither this evening: but I should think your natural intuition would suggest what they

'It does, Paula. But there are motives of delicacy which prevent my acting on what is suggested to me.'

'Delicacy is a gift, and you should thank God for it; but in some cases it is not so precious as we would

'O, George Somersetbe cold, or angry, or anything, but don't be like this! It is never worth a woman's

while to show regret for her injustice; for all she gets by it is an accusation of want of delicacy.'

'Indeed I don't accuse you of thatI warmly, tenderly thank you for your kindness in coming here to see me.'

'Well, perhaps you do. But I am now in I cannot tell what moodI will not tell what mood, for it would be

confessing more than I ought. This finding you out is a piece of weakness that I shall not repeat; and I have

only one thing more to say. I have served you badly, George, I know that; but it is never too late to mend; and

I have come back to you. However, I shall never run after you again, trust me for that, for it is not the

woman's part. Still, before I go, that there may be no mistake as to my meaning, and misery entailed on us for

want of a word, I'll add this: that if you want to marry me, as you once did, you must say so; for I am here to

It would be superfluous to transcribe Somerset's reply, and the remainder of the scene between the pair. Let it

suffice that halfanhour afterwards, when the sun had almost gone down, Paula walked briskly into the

hotel, troubled herself nothing about dinner, but went upstairs to their sittingroom, where her aunt presently

found her upon the couch looking up at the ceiling through her fingers. They talked on different subjects for

some time till the old lady said 'Mr. Somerset's cottage is the one covered with flowers up the lane, I hear.'

'Indeed!' replied Mrs. Goodman. 'Well, I thought this might be the end of it: you were determined on the

point; and I am not much surprised at your news. Your father was very wise after all in entailing everything

so strictly upon your offspring; for if he had not I should have been driven wild with the responsibility!'

'And now that the murder is out,' continued Paula, passing over that view of the case, 'I don't mind telling you

that somehow or other I have got to like George Somerset as desperately as a woman can care for any man. I

thought I should have died when I saw him dancing, and feared I had lost him! He seemed ten times nicer

than ever then! So silly we women are, that I wouldn't marry a duke in preference to him. There, that's my

honest feeling, and you must make what you can of it; my conscience is clear, thank Heaven!'

'No,' continued the young lady, still watching the sleeping flies on the ceiling. 'It is left unsettled between us,

while I come and ask you if there would be any harmif it could conveniently be before we return to

'On the contrary, aunt. In matrimony, as in some other things, you should be slow to decide, but quick to

execute. Nothing on earth would make me marry another man; I know every fibre of his character; and he

knows a good many fibres of mine; so as there is nothing more to be learnt, why shouldn't we marry at once?

On one point I am firm: I will never return to that castle as Miss Power. A nameless dread comes over me

when I think of ita fear that some uncanny influence of the dead De Stancys would drive me again from

him. O, if it were to do that,' she murmured, burying her face in her hands, 'I really think it would be more

'Very well,' said Mrs. Goodman; 'we will see what can be done. I will write to Mr. Wardlaw.'

On a windy afternoon in November, when more than two months had closed over the incidents previously

recorded, a number of farmers were sitting in a room of the LordQuantockArms Inn, Markton, that was

used for the weekly ordinary. It was a long, low apartment, formed by the union of two or three smaller

rooms, with a bowwindow looking upon the street, and at the present moment was pervaded by a blue fog

from tobacco pipes, and a temperature like that of a kiln. The body of farmers who still sat on there was

greater than usual, owing to the cold air without, the tables having been cleared of dinner for some time and

Besides the farmers there were present several professional men of the town, who found it desirable to dine

here on marketdays for the opportunity it afforded them of increasing their practice among the agriculturists,

many of whom were men of large balances, even luxurious livers, who drove to market in elegant phaetons

drawn by horses of supreme blood, bone, and action, in a style never anticipated by their fathers when

The buzz of groggy conversation was suddenly impinged on by the notes of a peal of bells from the tower

hard by. Almost at the same instant the door of the room opened, and there entered the landlord of the little

inn at SleepingGreen. Drawing his supply of cordials from this superior house, to which he was subject, he

came here at stated times like a prebendary to the cathedral of his diocesan, afterwards retailing to his own

humbler audience the sentiments which he had learnt of this. But curiosity being awakened by the church

bells the usual position was for the moment reversed, and one of the farmers, saluting him by name, asked

'My mis'ess out yonder,' replied the rural landlord, nodding sideways, 'is coming home with her fancyman.

They have been agaying together this turk of a while in foreign partsHere, maid!what with the wind,

and standing about, my blood's as low as waterbring us a thimbleful of that that isn't gin and not far from

'It is true, then, that she's become Mrs. Somerset?' indifferently asked a farmer in broadcloth, tenant of an

estate in quite another direction than hers, as he contemplated the grain of the table immediately surrounding

'Trueof course it is,' said Havill, who was also present, in the tone of one who, though sitting in this

rubicund company, was not of it. 'I could have told you the truth of it any day these last five weeks.'

Among those who had lent an ear was Dairyman Jinks, an old gnarled character who wore a white fustian

coat and yellow leggings; the only man in the room who never dressed up in dark clothes for marketing. He

now asked, 'Married abroad, was they? And how long will a wedding abroad stand good for in this country?'

'Will it? Faith; I didn't know: how should I? I thought it might be some new plan o' folks for leasing women

now they be so plentiful, so as to get rid o' 'em when the men be tired o' 'em, and hev spent all their money.'

'He won't be able to spend her money,' said the landlord of SleepingGreen. ''Tis her very own

'O nation! Then if I were the man I shouldn't care for such a oneeyed benefit as that,' said Dairyman Jinks,

'It is sufficiently near the truth,' said Havill. 'There is nothing at all unusual in the arrangement; it was only

settled so to prevent any schemer making a beggar of her. If Somerset and she have any children, which

probably they will, it will be theirs; and what can a man want more? Besides, there is a large portion of

property left to her personal usequite as much as they can want. Oddly enough, the curiosities and pictures

of the castle which belonged to the De Stancys are not restricted from sale; they are hers to do what she likes

with. Old Power didn't care for articles that reminded him so much of his predecessors.'

'Hey?' said Dairyman Jinks, turning back again, having decided that the conversation on his right hand was,

after all, the more interesting. 'Wellwhy can't 'em hire a travelling chap to touch up the picters into her own

'Ah, here they are? I thought so,' said Havill, who had been standing up at the window for the last few

As he spoke a carriage drew up to the hoteldoor, followed by another with the maid and luggage. The

inmates crowded to the bowwindow, except Dairyman Jinks, who had become absorbed in his own

'They are going to stay here tonight,' said Havill. 'They have come quite unexpectedly, and the castle is in

such a state of turmoil that there is not a single carpet down, or room for them to use. We shall get two or

'Two little people like them will be lost in the chammers of that wandering place!' satirized Dairyman Jinks.

'They will be bound to have a randy every fortnight to keep the moth out of the furniture!'

By this time Somerset was handing out the wife of his bosom, and Dairyman Jinks went on: 'That's no more

Miss Power that was, than my niece's daughter Kezia is Miss Powerin short it is a different woman

'There is no mistake about the woman,' said the landlord; 'it is her fur clothes that make her look so like a

caterpillar on end. Well, she is not a bad bargain! As for Captain De Stancy, he'll fret his gizzard green.'

'He's the man she ought to ha' married,' declared the farmer in broadcloth. 'As the world goes she ought to

have been Lady De Stancy. She gave up her chapelgoing, and you might have thought she would have given

up her first young man: but she stuck to him, though by all accounts he would soon have been interested in

''Tis woman's nature to be false except to a man, and man's nature to be true except to a woman,' said the

landlord of SleepingGreen. 'However, all's well that ends well, and I have something else to think of than

newmarried couples;' saying which the speaker moved off, and the others returned to their seats, the young

pair who had been their theme vanishing through the hotel into some private paradise to rest and dine.

By this time their arrival had become known, and a crowd soon gathered outside, acquiring audacity with

continuance there. Raising a hurrah, the group would not leave till Somerset had showed himself on the

balcony above; and then declined to go away till Paula also had appeared; when, remarking that her husband

seemed a quiet young man enough, and would make a very good borough member when their present one

Among those whose ears had been reached by the hurrahs of these idlers was a man in silence and solitude,

far out of the town. He was leaning over a gate that divided two meads in a watery level between Stancy

Castle and Markton. He turned his head for a few seconds, then continued his contemplative gaze towards the

towers of the castle, visible over the trees as far as was possible in the leaden gloom of the November eve.

The military form of the solitary lounger was recognizable as that of Sir William De Stancy, notwithstanding

the failing light and his attitude of so resting his elbows on the gate that his hands enclosed the greater part of

The scene was inexpressibly cheerless. No other human creature was apparent, and the only sounds audible

above the wind were those of the trickling streams which distributed the water over the meadow. A heron had

been standing in one of these rivulets about twenty yards from the officer, and they vied with each other in

stillness till the bird suddenly rose and flew off to the plantation in which it was his custom to pass the night

with others of his tribe. De Stancy saw the heron rise, and seemed to imagine the creature's departure without

a supper to be owing to the increasing darkness; but in another minute he became conscious that the heron

had been disturbed by sounds too distant to reach his own ears at the time. They were nearer now, and there

'The bells began ringing because she and he were expected, and my thoughts naturally dragged me this way.

Thank Heaven the battery leaves Markton in a few days, and then the precious place will know me no more!'

'I have heard of it.' Turning to where the dim lines of the castle rose he continued: 'Well, there it stands.'

'O no; you have got me, and I am a treasure to any man. I have another match in my eye for you, and shall get

you well settled yet, if you keep yourself respectable. So thank God, and take courage!'

'Ah, Willyou are a flippant young foolwise in your own conceit; I say it to my sorrow! 'Twas your

dishonesty spoilt all. That lady would have been my wife by fair dealingtime was all I required. But base

attacks on a man's character never deserve to win, and if I had once been certain that you had made them, my

course would have been very different, both towards you and others. But why should I talk to you about this?

If I cared an atom what becomes of you I would take you in hand severely enough; not caring, I leave you

'Thank you kindly, captain. Well, since you have spoken plainly, I will do the same. We De Stancys are a

wornout old partythat's the long and the short of it. We represent conditions of life that have had their

dayespecially me. Our one remaining chance was an alliance with new aristocrats; and we have failed. We

are past and done for. Our line has had five hundred years of glory, and we ought to be content. Enfin les

'Speak for yourself, young Consequence, and leave the destinies of old families to respectable philosophers.

This fiasco is the direct result of evil conduct, and of nothing else at all. I have managed badly; I

countenanced you too far. When I saw your impish tendencies I should have forsworn the alliance.'

'Don't sting me, captain. What I have told you is true. As for my conduct, cat will after kind, you know. You

should have held your tongue on the wedding morning, and have let me take my chance.'

'Is that all I get for saving you from jail? GadI alone am the sufferer, and feel I am alone the fool!. . .

'Part we will, thentill we meet again. It will be a light night hereabouts, I think, this evening.'

Dare went his way, and after a while De Stancy went his. Both were soon lost in the shades.

The castle tonight was as gloomy as the meads. As Havill had explained, the habitable rooms were just now

undergoing a scour, and the main block of buildings was empty even of the few servants who had been

retained, they having for comfort's sake taken up their quarters in the detached rooms adjoining the entrance

archway. Hence not a single light shone from the lonely windows, at which ivy leaves tapped like

woodpeckers, moved by gusts that were numerous and contrary rather than violent. Within the walls all was

silence, chaos, and obscurity, till towards eleven o'clock, when the thick immovable cloud that had dulled the

daytime broke into a scudding fleece, through which the moon forded her way as a nebulous spot of watery

white, sending light enough, though of a rayless kind, into the castle chambers to show the confusion that

At this time an eye might have noticed a figure flitting in and about those draughty apartments, and making

no more noise in so doing than a puff of wind. Its motion hither and thither was rapid, but methodical, its

bearing absorbed, yet cautious. Though it ran more or less through all the principal rooms, the chief scene of

its operations was the Long Gallery overlooking the Pleasance, which was covered by an ornamental

woodandplaster roof, and contained a whole throng of family portraits, besides heavy old cabinets and the

like. The portraits which were of value as works of art were smaller than these, and hung in adjoining rooms.

The manifest occupation of the figure was that of removing these small and valuable pictures from other

chambers to the gallery in which the rest were hung, and piling them in a heap in the midst. Included in the

group were nine by Sir Peter Lely, five by Vandyck, four by Cornelius Jansen, one by Salvator Rosa

(remarkable as being among the few English portraits ever painted by that master), many by Kneller, and two

by Romney. Apparently by accident, the light being insufficient to distinguish them from portraits, the figure

also brought a Raffaelle VirginandChild, a magnificent Tintoretto, a Titian, and a Giorgione.

On these was laid a large collection of enamelled miniature portraits of the same illustrious line; afterwards

tapestries and cushions embroidered with the initials 'De S.'; and next the cradle presented by Charles the

First to the contemporary De Stancy mother, till at length there arose in the middle of the floor a huge heap

containing most of what had been personal and peculiar to members of the De Stancy family as distinct from

Then the figure went from door to door, and threw open each that was unfastened. It next proceeded to a

room on the ground floor, at present fitted up as a carpenter's shop, and kneedeep in shavings. An armful of

these was added to the pile of objects in the gallery; a window at each end of the gallery was opened, causing

a brisk draught along the walls; and then the activity of the figure ceased, and it was seen no more.

Five minutes afterwards a light shone upon the lawn from the windows of the Long Gallery, which glowed

with more brilliancy than it had known in the meridian of its Caroline splendours. Thereupon the framed

gentleman in the lace collar seemed to open his eyes more widely; he with the flowing locks and turn up

mustachios to part his lips; he in the armour, who was so much like Captain De Stancy, to shake the plates of

his mail with suppressed laughter; the lady with the threestringed pearl necklace, and vast expanse of neck,

to nod with satisfaction and triumphantly signify to her adjoining husband that this was a meet and glorious

The flame increased, and blown upon by the wind roared round the pictures, the tapestries, and the cradle, up

The best sittingroom at the LordQuantockArms in Markton was as cosy this evening as a room can be

that lacks the minuter furniture on which cosiness so largely depends. By the fire sat Paula and Somerset, the

former with a shawl round her shoulders to keep off the draught which, despite the curtains, forced its way in

on this gusty night through the windows opening upon the balcony. Paula held a letter in her hand, the

contents of which formed the subject of their conversation. Happy as she was in her general situation, there

'MY EVER DEAR PAULA (ran the letter),Your last letter has just reached me, and I have followed your

account of your travels and intentions with more interest than I can tell. You, who know me, need no

assurance of this. At the present moment, however, I am in the whirl of a change that has resulted from a

resolution taken some time ago, but concealed from almost everybody till now. Why? Well, I will

ownfrom cowardicefear lest I should be reasoned out of my plan. I am going to steal from the world,

Paula, from the social world, for whose gaieties and ambitions I never had much liking, and whose circles I

have not the ability to grace. My home, and restingplace till the great rest comes, is with the Protestant

Sisterhood at . Whatever shortcomings may be found in such a community, I believe that I shall be

'Whatever you may think of my judgment in taking this step, I can assure you that I have not done it without

consideration. My reasons are good, and my determination is unalterable. But, my own very best friend, and

more than sister, don't think that I mean to leave my love and friendship for you behind me. No, Paula, you

will ALWAYS be with me, and I believe that if an increase in what I already feel for you be possible, it will

be furthered by the retirement and meditation I shall enjoy in my secluded home. My heart is very full,

deartoo full to write more. God bless you, and your husband. You must come and see me there; I have not

so many friends that I can afford to lose you who have been so kind. I write this with the fellowpen to yours,

that you gave me when we went to Budmouth together. Goodbye!Ever your own sister, CHARLOTTE.'

Paula had first read this through silently, and now in reading it a second time aloud to Somerset her voice

faltered, and she wept outright. 'I had been expecting her to live with us always,' she said through her tears,

'It is a pity certainly,' said Somerset gently. 'She was genuine, if anybody ever was; and simple as she was

'I am the more sorry,' Paula presently resumed, 'because of a little plan I had been thinking of with regard to

her. You know that the pictures and curiosities of the castle are not included in the things I cannot touch, or

impeach, or whatever it is. They are our own to do what we like with. My father felt in devising the estate

that, however interesting to the De Stancys those objects might be, they did not concern us were indeed

rather in the way, having been come by so strangely, through Mr. Wilkins, though too valuable to be treated

lightly. Now I was going to suggest that we would not sell themindeed I could not bear to do such a thing

with what had belonged to Charlotte's forefathersbut to hand them over to her as a gift, either to keep for

herself, or to pass on to her brother, as she should choose. Now I fear there is no hope of it: and yet I shall

'It can be done still, I should think. She can accept them for her brother when he settles, without absolutely

'It would be a kind of generosity which hardly amounts to more than justice (although they were purchased)

from a recusant usurper to a dear friendnot that I am a usurper exactly; well, from a representative of the

new aristocracy of internationality to a representative of the old aristocracy of exclusiveness.'

'I suppose I am what poor Mr. Woodwell saidby the way, we must call and see himsomething or other

that's in Revelation, neither cold nor hot. But of course that's a sub speciesI may be a lukewarm anything.

What I really am, as far as I know, is one of that body to whom lukewarmth is not an accident but a

provisional necessity, till they see a little more clearly.' She had crossed over to his side, and pulling his head

'Why, Mr. Woodwell said you were that too! You carry your beliefs very comfortably. I shall be glad when

'I am going to revise and correct my beliefs one of these days when I have thought a little further.' She

suddenly breathed a sigh and added, 'How transitory our best emotions are! In talking of myself I am

heartlessly forgetting Charlotte, and becoming happy again. I won't be happy tonight for her sake!'

A few minutes after this their attention was attracted by a noise of footsteps running along the street; then a

heavy tramp of horses, and lumbering of wheels. Other feet were heard scampering at intervals, and soon

somebody ascended the staircase and approached their door. The head waiter appeared.

Somerset jumped up, drew aside the curtains, and stepped into the bowwindow. Right before him rose a

blaze. The window looked upon the street and along the turnpike road to the very hill on which the castle

stood, the keep being visible in the daytime above the trees. Here rose the light, which appeared little further

off than a stone's throw instead of nearly three miles. Every curl of the smoke and every wave of the flame

Paula had risen from her seat and joined him in the window, where she heard some people in the street saying

that the servants were all safe; after which she gave her mind more fully to the material aspects of the

The whole town was now rushing off to the scene of the conflagration, which, shining straight along the

street, showed the burgesses' running figures distinctly upon the illumined road. Paula was quite ready to act

upon Somerset's suggestion that they too should hasten to the spot, and a fly was got ready in a few minutes.

With lapse of time Paula evinced more anxiety as to the fate of her castle, and when they had driven as near

as it was prudent to do, they dismounted, and went on foot into the throng of people which was rapidly

gathering from the town and surrounding villages. Among the faces they recognized Mr. Woodwell, Havill

the architect, the rector of the parish, the curate, and many others known to them by sight. These, as soon as

they saw the young couple, came forward with words of condolence, imagining them to have been burnt out

of bed, and vied with each other in offering them a lodging. Somerset explained where they were staying and

that they required no accommodation, Paula interrupting with 'O my poor horses, what has become of them?'

'The fire is not near the stables,' said Mr. Woodwell. 'It broke out in the body of the building. The horses,

'I can assure you, you need not be alarmed, madam,' said Havill. 'The chief constable is here, and the two

town engines, and I am doing all I can. The castle engine unfortunately is out of repair.'

Somerset and Paula then went on to another point of view near the gymnasium, where they could not be seen

by the crowd. Threequarters of a mile off, on their left hand, the powerful irradiation fell upon the brick

chapel in which Somerset had first seen the woman who now stood beside him as his wife. It was the only

object visible in that direction, the dull hills and trees behind failing to catch the light. She significantly

pointed it out to Somerset, who knew her meaning, and they turned again to the more serious matter.

It had long been apparent that in the face of such a wind all the pigmy appliances that the populace could

bring to act upon such a mass of combustion would be unavailing. As much as could burn that night was

burnt, while some of that which would not burn crumbled and fell as a formless heap, whence new flames

towered up, and inclined to the northeast so far as to singe the trees of the park. The thicker walls of

Norman date remained unmoved, partly because of their thickness, and partly because in them stone vaults

The tower clock kept manfully going till it had struck one, its face smiling out from the smoke as if nothing

were the matter, after which hour something fell down inside, and it went no more.

Cunningham Haze, with his body of men, was devoted in his attention, and came up to say a word to our two

spectators from time to time. Towards four o'clock the flames diminished, and feeling thoroughly weary,

On their journey they pondered and discussed what course it would be best to pursue in the circumstances,

gradually deciding not to attempt rebuilding the castle unless they were absolutely compelled. True, the main

walls were still standing as firmly as ever; but there was a feeling common to both of them that it would be

well to make an opportunity of a misfortune, and leaving the edifice in ruins start their married life in a

mansion of independent construction hard by the old one, unencumbered with the ghosts of an unfortunate

'We will build a new house from the ground, eclectic in style. We will remove the ashes, charred wood, and

so on from the ruin, and plant more ivy. The winter rains will soon wash the unsightly smoke from the walls,

and Stancy Castle will be beautiful in its decay. You, Paula, will be yourself again, and recover, if you have

not already, from the warp given to your mind (according to Woodwell) by the mediaevalism of that place.'

'And be a perfect representative of "the modern spirit"?' she inquired; 'representing neither the senses and

understanding, nor the heart and imagination; but what a finished writer calls "the imaginative reason"?'

'Very well, I'll keep straight on; and we'll build a new house beside the ruin, and show the modern spirit for