€¦ · no new thing. chapter xxvi. philip finds out all about it. thanks to the good ofﬁces of...

NO NEW THING

W. E. NORR IS

AUTHOR OF fMATRIMONY’ ‘ MADEMOISELLE DE NERSAC ETC.

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL . III.

L OND ON

SMITH,ELDER

,CO .

,15 WATERLOO PLACE

1883

!All r z gh t s r es erved !

CONTENTS

THE THIR D V O L U M E.

CHAPTER

XXVI . PHILIP FIND S OUT ALL ABOUT IT

XXVII . WALTER GOE S TO A BALL

XXVIII . TOM STANNIFORTH FINDS HIS MATCH

XXIX. PEOOAVI !’

XXX. A FIASCO

TOM STANNIFORTH GIVES SOME TROUBLE

PHILIP BEFORE THE PUBLIC

XXXIII. WALTER’S HASH IS SETTLED

XXXIV. MRS . STANNIEORTE CAN’T CONTROL HER NERVE S 189

HONOURS DIVIDED

XXXVI. REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS

XXXVII . YES AND NO

XXXVIII. AT BORD IGHERA .

XXXIX. LAST WORDS

NO NEW THING .

CHAPTER XXVI.

PHILIP FIND S OUT ALL ABOUT IT .

THANKS to the good o ffices of Signora Tommasini

,Philip found Florence a very delightful

place o f residence . There,as in all other Euro

pean cities to which her avocations led her fromtime to time

,the Sign

‘

ora had a large acquaintance,

and there,as elsewhere

,she led a merry and a

busy life . She only sang three times a week,

and on the alternate nights she either receivedher friends in an easy

,informal manner

,or

,with

that strange hankering after the familiar scenewhich is common to all who make their livelihoodupon the stage

,she went to the Opera

,and

listened to the performances o f her colleagues .Either method o f passing the time was equallyagreeable to Philip

,who loved society in any

shape,and was greatly pleased with the recep

tion accorded to him by the incongruous assemVOL . III. B

2 NO NEW THING .

blage o f young Italian nobles and actors and

professors o f music , and wandering Englishmenwho frequ ented the Signora’s ever - Open salons

,

or j ostled one another in her dingy little box at

the theatre . His voice was extravagantly praised ;and

,as he was generally understood to be a

wealthy amateur,the manager o f the Opera and

others felt no hesitation in assuring him that hewas capable o f outshining Mario . He did not

,

o f course . take any steps for securing theservices of the pro fessors who were so civil tohim . Under existing circumstances

,it did not

seem likely that he would ever be called uponto spend weary hours in practising scales again

,

and the delight o f absolute idleness,which had

always been very dear to him ,was doubly so in

the land which is proverbially the best fitted forits enj oyment .

One or two disagreeable emotions preventedhis happiness

,during the ten days which inter

vened between his arrival and that o f SignorCavestri. from being quite complete . Margaret’stelegram gave him a shock and an uneasy afternoon . The brief episode o f his married life haddropped so far back into the mists of memorythat he had long since ceased to think o f it as apossible source o f trouble

,and it may be supposed

that his feelings towards Hugh Kenyon , whenhe heard o f that Ofificiou s person’s behaviour

,were

PHILIP FINDS OUT ALL ABOUT IT . 3

not o f the most charitable kind . Again,he could

not shake Off a haunting dread o f what Margaretmight say or do upon hearing the true nature Ofhi s business in Italy,

'

and if he could have recalledhis confession five minutes after he had com

mitted it to the’

charge o f the post Of fice,it is

certain that he would have done so . But in duetime a very kind and affectionate letter fromLongbourne set his mind at ease

"

upon both o f

these points ; and he had the j ustice to thankSignora Tommasini for the good advice that shehad given him .

‘ I Shall always come to you infuture when I am in any difficulty,

’ said he andshe answered

,Upon my word

,I think you might

apply to a worse person .

’

In writing to Signor Cavestri Philip hadfound it unavoidable to acknowledge his identity

,and from this it resulted that

,as he was

breakfasting one morning,the ' Signora Ronera

rushed into his room like a whirlwind,enveloped

him in a highly perfumed embrace,kissed him

on both cheeks,and reproached him shrilly for

having concealed the fact of their relationship .

SignoraRonera,when arrayed in her best clothes

,

was not a cousin to be received enthusiasticallyby persons o f fastidious tastes . Her hair

,which

was liberally Oiled,was arranged in a towering

curly mass above her forehead upon the top o f

this was perched a yellow bonnet adorned with!

B 2

4 No NEW THING .

large red roses She wore a silk gown of atartan quite unknown to the highlands o f Scotland ; and She d iffused for many yards aroundher person an Odour o f patchouli powerful enoughto have sickened a fox.

Her heart,she said

,had spoken the moment

that Philip had entered her door . She had feltthat this was no stranger . She had experiencedan irresistible impulse Here she started toher feet

,and Philip

,fearing lest the impulse

might be coming on again,rose hastily

,and

placed the table between himself and his visitor,

as a measure o f precaution .

My dear Signora Bonera he began .

Don’t say Signora Donera ; say Lucia .

’

‘Well,my dear and warm -hearted Lucia

let me implore you not to give way to impulse .You must remember that I am an Englishman

,

and in England we do not give way to impulse ;we dislike it very much . Perhaps you wouldnot mind my mentioning another o f our pecu

liarities . We never kiss o ur cousins . ’‘ Is it possible ? ’

Never,I assure you . In f act

,we consider

it quite a scandalous thing to do . We are no t,

’

continued Philip,speaking slowly

,and watching

the effect o f his words upon the lady,

‘ we arenot in any way a demonstrative people . Whenwe like our cousins very mu ch

,we do no t

PHILIP PIND S OUT ALL ABOUT IT. 5

embrace them,but we endeavour to improve their

circumstances . ’

Signora Ronera nodded , as though to implythat that form o f acknowledging the ties o f consanguinity stru ck her favourably .

But then,

’ Philip went on,

our cousins mustno t be troublesome or intrusive people . Indeed

,

such is ou r eccentricity that,in a general way

,

the less we see of them,the more likely we are

to be liberal towards them . I myself have beenthinking that if I should succeed in establishingmy claim to the Brune estate—a very poo r estateyou will be sorry to hear—it would be one o f myproudest privileges to increase your annual income

,my dear Lucia . After what I have said

,

you will understand that I could only do so

subject to the restriction I have hinted at . In

point o f fact,if I ever saw or heard o f you again

,

I am afraid you would lose your allowance .

Now,what should you say to lire a year ? ’

Signora Bonera,who had shown no signs o f

taking offence at this plain- spoken of fer,shrugged

her shoulders,spread o u t her hands

,and made

a hi deous face . Philip rightly interpreted thi spantomime to mean that the sum was paltry, butthat she would accept it

,if she could not get

more .

Lucia,

’ said he,I fear that you are greedy .

And that is a pity,because it lessens my interest

6 No NEW THING .

in you . You see,there really is ‘ no reason at all

Why I should increase your income .’

When one is ashamed o f one’s relations,one

must pay to get rid of them ,

’ remarked SignoraBonera

,quite good -humouredly.

‘ Just so but as you will not come toEngland

,and as I can very well exist without

visiting Florence again,I can virtually get rid

o f you gratis . There is the post, you will say

Well,I Offer you lire a year not to write

me letters and I consider that a very fair price .Think it over

,my dear Lucia

,and I am sure

you will consider it so too .

’

Philip would hardly have dared to be so impertinent if he had not seen by the woman’

s

manner that impertinence was not likely toaff ront her . She answered him by anothershrug and another grimace

,and then held o ut

her hand to him franklyIt shall be a bargain

,

’ said she ‘ Only youmu st say nothing about it to lo 2 750

,or

Or he will want it all for himself. DO notalarm yourself

,he shall be kept in ignorance .

And,by the way

,when is that estimable uncle

go ing' to make his appearance ? He has already

kept me waiting a week .

’

‘ Eh ! he is an old man ; and what was thehurry ? I had a letter from him this morning

,

saying that we might expect him to -morrow. I


was going to ask you to come in the evening andmeet him ; but since you are so proud

‘ I assure you I am not in the least proud,and I shall be delighted to Spend the eveningwith yo u some other time ; but perhaps lo z io

and I could hold o ur first conference more com

fortably if he would do me the honour to dinewith me here to-morrow .

’

AS you please,

’ answered the accommodatingLucia . And when she was gone Philip beganto think that she had got her promise of a

hundred a year upon tolerably easy terms . Iwould have promised her more

,though, if she

had stuck ou t for it,

’ he said to himself laughing ;

‘ I shouldn’t much care about introducingthese noble Italian relatives to Nellie . Whatwill the Old man be like

,I wonder ? I hope he

won’t kis sme.

’

But when Signor Cavestri was announced,the next evening

,Philip perceived at once that

there was no fear o f his doing anything o f thatkind . He was a dapper

,consequential little

gentleman,with grey hair

,a yed moustache

,

carefully-brushed threadbare clothes,and a

snuff -box . He paused at the door,drew him

s elf up to his full height o f five-foot -six,and

bowed . Then he advanced a few steps,and

bowed again . Finally he held ou t his hand ina s omewhat patronis i ng manner

,and said it gave

8 NO NEW THING .

him infinite pleasure to find himself in the presence o f his Sister’s son . He was so dignified

,so

affable,and declined with such inexorable suavity

to speak a word upon matters o f business untilhe should have eaten his dinner

,that Philip was

charmed with him,and thought to himself that

,

if this relative wanted to be pensioned o ff,he was

playing his cards unskilfully .

‘ He would pass muster anywhere .

“ Myuncle

,the Marchese Cavestri ! —it sounds very

well,and I don’t know why he shouldn’t be a

marchese ; he looks like one , and he is pompousenough to be a grand-duke . I daresay he manufactures Bologna sausages though

,when he ’s

at home .

’ Philip,to Whom any new type o f

humanity was a godsend,was so well entertained

,

during dinner,by studying his uncle

,drawing

him ou t,and taking mental notes o f his pecu

liarities , that he felt no impatience to begin

question ing him upon the subject which he hadbeen brought thither to discuss

,and it was

S ignor Cavestri himself who first introduced it .‘ You wish

,as I understand

,

’ said he,

‘ tohave a proof o f the legitimacy o f your birth . It

gives me much satisfaction to be in a position tofurnish you with that proof. In my presence ,on the 25th o f April

,1853

,Signor Bruno was

married to my Sister,the late Lucia Cavestri

,at

the church o f Sant’ Onofrio,in the city o f

PHILIP PINDS OUT ALL ABOUT IT . 9

Florence .

’ And , having delivered himself o f

this announcement with the air o f one who

challenged contradiction,Signor Cavestri crossed

his legs,threw back his head

,and took snuff .

‘ You said Signor Bruno,I think

,

’ observedPhilip

,his heart beating a little more quickly .

Signor Bruno ; o r,as you would say in

English,Meestare Braoun . He afterwards

,as

you are aware, assumed the title o f CountMarescalchi .

’

The difference o f Bruno and Brown is o f

some importance . I presume there is a registerkept at the church .

’

At Sant’ Onofrio ? Certain ly there is ; andwith your permission we will examine it togetherto-morrow morning . Sincerely rej oiced shallI be

,my dear nephew

,if I can be the means o f

restoring to you your family estates. That:I

have a disinterested wish for your welfare Ihave

,I think

,already Shown

,

’ continued SignorCavestri

,grandiloquently .

‘ I resigned yo unot without a pang

,believe me—to that wealthy

English lady whose name is so extraordinary aone that I will not attempt to grapple with itI resigned you ,

I say, to her, feeling that I wasbeSt consulting you r happiness in so doing . Myown means

,alas ! suffice barely to provide me

With the necessaries o f life ; and for myself,

when I am powerless to offer assistance,I with

10 No NEW THING .

draw—I do not intrude upon those' whom Icannot serve . Thus I saw but little o f yourlamented mother during the last years o f herlife ; and for the same reason I have refrainedfrom even writing to inform myself o f yourhealth and prosperity throughout this longperiod o f separation ’

He did not mention that he and his brotherhad received handsome sums o f money fromMargaret in acknowledgment o f their writtenpromise that they would at no future timeattempt to exercise control over their nephew’seducation or liberty.

Philip said he fully appreciat ed this delicacy,

and Signor Cavestri resumed:‘ It is at the costo f some personal sacrifice that I am here at thismoment ; but it is painful to speak of suchmatters . Poverty is an evil to be borne withfortitude . To conceal it is impossible ; to paradeit is unworthy .

’

‘ Shall I ? ’ thought Philip, ‘Or shan ’t - I?

Really,I think I will.

’ He produced a banknote

,and began hesitatingly:‘ It should be a

matter of cou rse that any expenses incurred on

my behalf—I hope you will allow me toIn another moment the note was in Signor

Cavestri’

s pocket .The old gentleman took it with an air o f

such kind condescension that Philip could not

PHILIP FINDS OU T ALL ABOUT IT . 1 1

help thanking him .

‘ I am sure I am very muchindebted to you

‘ My dear nephew,do not di stress me by

mentioning it . I am entirely at your orders .Early to -morrow morning I will give then ecessary notice

,and at eleven O’clock the

register o f Sant’ Onofrio shall be ready for yourinspection .

’

Shortly after this Signor Cavestri retired,

wishing his entertainer good -night with a

happily -blended mixture o f respect and avuncnlar aff ection . The next morning

,punctually

at the appointed hour,he reappeared ; and

after a short dr ive,whi ch seemed rather a

long one to Philip,the pair were admitted into

the sacristy of the church o f Sant’ Onofrioby a black -browed priest

,who was awaiting

them .

All at once it flashed across Phili p that hehad reached the crowning and decisive momento f his lif e . In one word o f the open volumethere on the old oak table lay

’

all his future,

inexorably predestined and waiting for him .

‘ Either I am somebody,o r I am less than

nobody,

’ he thought . ‘ I am a Brune,or I am

only a doubtful sort of a Brown . I am tohavea fresh start and a fair fortune

,or I am to drop

back into the old life of obscurity and drudgeryand debt

,and to be laughed at for having made

12 NO NEW THING .

a fool o f myself into the bargain . Two wretchedlittle letters o f the alphabet to settle i t all

,one

way or the other ! He positively did no t daret o look ; his heart stood still . The dim sacristy

,

with its Old carved -oak presses,the vau lt -like

chill o f the air,the faint

,musty smell o f dust

and stale incense,the old man and the priest

gazing at him curiously—all these,for one

bewildering instant,seemed part o f a nightmare

which he would have given the world to be ableto shake Off .Then he held his breath and looked—and

broke out into an irrepressible exclamation o f

j oy . There,on the page before him

,in a large

,

distinct handwriting, was the Signature o f

George Brune,

’ surmounting that o f ‘ LuciaCavestri . ’ ‘ And it

’

s all right,by Jupiter ! ’

shouted Philip,unable to control himself;

‘and

I can pay every penny I owe,and Meg shall live

with me,if she will

,and the stage may go to

the devil ! Hurrah ! “ The gates are passed,

and Heaven is won !The priest

,who naturally had not understood

a word o f this excited declamation,looked

s lightly scandalised,and crossed himself

,while

Signor Cavestri took snuff,and laughed a Short

,

dry laugh .

Allow me,my dear nephew

,

’ said he,‘ to

congratulate you in advance upon coming into

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

14 No NEW THING .

question for me to make such a demand uponhim . Besides

,he couldn’t pay .

’

‘ Ah ! ’ said Signor Cavestri,with an ex

pressive dropping o f his head and hoist of hisShoulders .

‘ And now,

’ Philip resumed ,‘ let us take a

copy o f this entry in the register,and be o ff .

I must write to England immediately .

’

He took leave o f his uncle at the churchdoor

,and hurried back to his hotel

,treading

u pon air . He had never known how much hehad desired this thing until it had come into hispossession . He had never known what a weightthose five thousand pounds that he owed toSignora Tommasini had been upon his m ind untilhe saw a near prospect o f his being able toreturn them to her . For he had never dared‘

to think much about it before,and

,as we know

,

he had a remarkable power o f putting awayfrom him all reflections that were disturbing tohis peace .

‘ Dearest Meg,

’ he wrote,

‘ I have been to‘

the church o f Sant’ Onofrio,and there it is in

black and white George Brune and “ LuciaCavestri I know you will give me joy. Youdon’t need me to tell you that Longbourne willbe your home as long as ever you like to makeit so

,and I am quite sure that Nellie will say

the same . Isn ’t it just like the end of a fairy


tale —Longbourne in the hands of the Oldfamily again ; you with all your dreams aboutto be fulfilled nobody a penny the worse ! foro f course I shall not let Mr . Brune suffer anyloss

,beyond what can ’t be helped ! ; and your

unworthy correspondent an independent man !I can hardly believe it all

,and have to keep

looking at the copy o f the register which liesbeside me to convince myself that I am awake .

Now that it is all over,I may tell you in strict

confidence that I never half liked the idea o fexhibiting myself upon the stage ; and you, Iknow

,always hated it . However

,all ’s well

that ends well,

’

&c .

,&c .

It is perhaps hardly necessary to quote theletter at full length . Philip scribbled on forthe best part o f an hour

,and

,with a thrill D f

pleasure and exultation,signed himself

,for the

first time,Philip Brune .

’

On returning from her drive that afternoon,

Signora Tommasini found Mr . Marescalchi extended upon one o f the armchairs in her gaudysalon and as soon as she saw his face

,Ah

she cried,

‘ I know what is the news you havebrought me . ’

‘ I have brought you good news,

’ saidPhilip . At least

,I hope you will think it so .

’

You know I do not think it so,

’ returnedthe Signora

,pettishly I am disappointed and

16 No NEW THING .

disgu sted,and I don’t mind telling you as much .

I wish that meddling old housekeeper had beenhung before she did all this mischief ! Don ’texpect any congratulations from me ; I neve rwas more sorry for anything in my life . Yourcareer is spoilt

,and I have lost my friend .

’

Do yo u know,I am not so certain that I

had a career to spoil and as for your friend,

since you are good enough to call me yourfriend

,I promise you tha t you will never lose

him,if you care to keep him .

’

You couldn’t very well say less than thatbut it doesn’

t alter the fact,unfortunately . Will

you ask me to go and stay with you at Longbourne I Should like to see you attempt sucha thing

"

NO the day will come when yo u willthink that you have done a great deal if youshake hands with me after a concert . I knowwhat English society is . I might be invited t ostay with dukes and duchesses

,and grandees o f

that sort but to a house such as yours will ‘be—never in the world The people amongstwhom you are going to live never heard Of theTommas in i ; or

,if they did

,i t was only as a

woman who sings at the Opera,a person whom

they would rank a little above their upperservants

,and decidedly below the village doctor .

Yo u would not be allowed to know me,if you

wished it ; but you will not wish it . You will


always be what those about you are and youwill become a caricature o f a country squire

,

whereas you might have been a famous singer .It is a thousand pities . Well

,what are you

going to do next‘ I suppose

,

’ said Phili p,smiling

,

‘ that thenext thing for me to do will be to go back toEngland

,bearing my sheaves with me .

’

‘ Your sheaves ? You haven ’t got yoursheaves yet ; and I shouldn

’t wonder if youhad to wait some little time before you did ge tthem . I don ’t know what Mr . Brune and Mrs .Stann iforth and the T est o f them may be inclinedto do but it strikes me that

,if I were in pos

session o f a nice property,you wouldn’t get me

to drop a curtsey and hand it over to you byflourishing the copy o f a register before myeyes . I wonder

,by the way

,whether there

could be any hope of that precious old uncleOf yours having played tricks with theregister

‘ How disagreeable you are exclaimedPhilip

,laughing outright .

‘ My venerable unclemay be capable o f committing forgery—indeed ,

I should not imagin e him to be the man to stickat a trifle—but no one but an Engli shman everwrote that “ George Brune . ! B esides which

,

the ink was quite faded,and there was no trace

o f an erasure . Melancholy as it may be,I am

VOL . III . C

18 No NEW THING .

afraid there is no disputing the genuineness o f

the entry.

’

‘You will have to prove it,though

,and a

good deal more besides,I suspect

,before you

can enter upon your inheritance . Were I inyour place

,I should go and see the English

Consul,and ask him what is the proper course

to pursue . If you ask me my candid Opinion,

I should say you were in for a long lawsuit .’

The Signora was so put ou t that she wouldpredict nothing but unpleasant things andalthough her prophecies were evidently inspiredrather by annoyance than conviction

,Philip’s

exuberant spirits were a little damped by whatShe said

,and he willingly left her when she

‘

exclaimed,after looking at her watch

,that she

had only just time to dress .Are you coming to hear me Sing to -night

She called after him,as he was leaving the room

and Philip answered,

‘ Yes,of course . ’ He did

not,however

,keep his promise . Upon thinking

things over,he decided that it would be j ust as

w ell to follow the Signora’s advice,and see the

B ritish Consul before starting for England andaccordingly he wrote to that official

,stating the

c ircumstances of his case,and inquiring whether

there were any formalities which might be gonet hrough while he was on the spot . He wouldcall on the following afternoon . he added

,for

PHILIP FINDS oUT ALL ABOUT IT . 19

his answer . It took him some little time tocompose this missive

,and when he had finished

it and despatched i t by a messenger , it wasalmost too late to !go to the theatre so

,feeling

an urgent need to talk to somebody about thesubj ect which was uppermost in his mind

,he

strolled o ff to the Via San Giorgio,and spent

the remainder of the evening with his relativesthere .

They,at all events

,did not discourage him .

Signora Bonera was am iable and respectful,her

husband was subserviency itself,and Signor

Cavestri beguiled the time by relating anecdote so f the late Mr . Brune

,whose oddity appeared to

have been equalled only by his arrogance,and

who,as the old gentleman very candidly ad

m itted,had never allowed his wife ’s relations

to come near him after his marriage .

‘ Once,

’ said he,

‘ I was in the neighbourhood o f Naples

,and I thought I would go and

see my sister,who was living at that time in

the villa that her husband had purchased there .I have never been one of those heroes who adoredanger for its own sake ; so I refrained fromentering the house . But I had no t been fiveminutes in the garden when o ut came SignorBruno

,and caught me .

“ What the devil doyou want here says he and before I couldanswer a

’

word,he had gripped me by the

C 2

20 NO NEW THING.

collar,and was pushing me before him towards

the gate . “ Now,let me see your ugly face

here again,he called o u t

,

“ and ! I give youhis very words

,I assure yo u and I will

break every bone in your Skin ! He wouldhave done it

,too ; for though he was a small

m an,he had the strength Of a horse and the

temper o f a fiend . E/I cite animale ! Pardonm e

,my dear neph ew

,for speaking so o f your

father but you will allow that I had provoc ation .

You shall not be treated in that way when

yo u come to see me at Longbourne,’ said Philip .

But Signor Cavestri declared that he wasmu ch too old to think of leaving Italy now andso the evening passed away pleasantly enough .

The foreign custom o f making a light bIeakfast o ff coff ee and rolls immediately after risingwas a very congenial one to Philip ’s tastes . Bymeans o f it

,and o f taking a long time over

dressing,he managed to dawdle away the

morning with little more exertion than if it hadbeen a part o f the night . At half-past twelvehe partook o f a more solid repast , which occupiedhim agreeably for another hour and a half andso

,towards three O ’clock

,he strolled leisurely

away to the Consulate .He was at once shown into the presence o f

Her Britannic Majesty’s representative,who

2 2 No NEW THING .

under my notice . It seems hard,no doubt

,

that such a severe penalty should attach toignorance ; but if people will not take thetrouble to inform themselves o f the law

,they

must sufl‘er for it and the law is that,when a

British subj ect wishes to be married abroad,he

mu st be married under the British flag .

’

Philip dropped into the nearest chair,and

sat speechless . He could hardly believe in thepossibility o f such a grievous stroke o f bad luckas this having befallen him . It would not havesurprised him to have learnt that his father hadgone through a mock marriage

,or that he had

never been married at all ; but that the manshould have intended to act fairly

,and should

have failed t o do so through m ere carelessnessand stupidity

,was Simply heartrending .

‘ Perhaps,

’ he said at last,

‘ they may havebeen married at the Consulate before or afterthe religious ceremony took place .

’

Yes I thought of that,and I have already

made a thorough search . I am sorry to tell

you that no person o f the name o f Brune hasever been married here .

’

‘ Well,I shall not give it up.

’ said Philip,

rising,and addressing his informant as defiantly

as if that Obliging gentleman had been a personal enemy .

‘ If they were not married herethey may have been married somewhere else ;


and I suppose time and place are not o f muchimportance . ’

‘Well,no . A marriage contracted Within

a certain period o f time would serve yourpurpose

,no doubt. Of course you are aware

that subsequent marriage does not legitimisechildren born ou t o f wedlock .

’

With that parting word o f caution ringingin his ears

,Philip stumbled down the staircase

and ou t into the sunny street . The game wasnot up

,he kept repeating to himself

,as he made

his way back to the Lung’ Arno ; there wasNaples

,and there was Rome

,and there were

many other places to be visited before he wouldabandon all hope . In the sequel he did instituteinvestigations in all these cities ; and , indeed ,he has not yet given up a habit of searching thearchives o f any Consulate within reach o f whichhe may happen to find himself ; but never , tothis day

,has any record been discovered of a

marriage between George Brune and LuciaCavestri .Probably

,if Philip had felt any real hope

at the time,he would not have found it necessary

to buoy himself up with so many inward asseverations that !there was no reason to despair.When he reached the hotel

,he shut himself up

in his bedroom,and gave way utterly . It was

to o bad—it really was too bad—he thought, to

24 No NEW THING .

be shipwrecked in this way within sight of port .And he had meant to make such an excellentu se o f his money

,too, and to turn over a new

leaf,and to promo te everybody’s happiness It

was almost a question now whether the humanrace deserved that any trouble should be takento promote its happiness . A world in whichthere could exist such criminals as men whowould no t be at the pains of ascertaining whetherthey were married or no t

,and such laws as

to render a bond f ide marriage no marriage at all ,was indeed a miserable sort of contrivance to calla world ‘ Good heavens how I wish I hadn’twritten that idiotic letter to Meg last night ! ’ heexclaimed .

‘ Of course she will tell everybodyand a precious fool I Shall look when the truthcomes o ut ! I can see that old harridan o f aWinnington grinning from ear to ear at me .I won’t go back and face them all—hangedif I will ! I’ll go and drown myself in the

Arno .

’

Instead Of adopting that extreme measure,

Philip went downstairs,after a time

,and poured

forth his sorrows into the ear of Signora Tommasini

,from whom

,as might have been expected ,

he received but scant commiseration .

‘ The very best thing that could possiblyhave happened to you cried the hard-heartedSignora .

‘ Sant’ Onofrio shall have a pound or

PH ILIP FINDS OUT ALL ABOUT IT . 2 5

two o f the biggest wax candles that money canbuy for this . Now there is some chance of yourenjoying life and making it enj oyable for others

,

instead of being an utterly useless and miserablemember of society, as you were in a fair waytowards becoming .

’

Ob,

'

go on said Phi lip ;‘ if anybody wants

to kick me,now is his time . I shan’t resent it

I am far to o crushed to resent anything . Ihaven’t a grain of spirit left in me .

’

You ought to be ashamed to say so criedSignora Tommasini warmly . Crushed indeed !Crushed because yo u turn ou t to be yourself

,

and not somebody else -crushed because youhave to make your own way in the world

,in

stead Of finding it made for yo u —crushedbecause your talents will not be wasted

,and be

cause a brilliant career is open to you,in the place

Of a wretched,torpid existence among English

rustics Don’t try to make me believe that youare such a poor creature as that . ’

The Signora strode up and down the roomwhile she declaimed , and adorned her discoursewith appropriate gesticulation . Even in thatmoment of deep dej ection

,Philip could not help

watching her with some Slight amusement .What scolding powers you possess said he .

‘ Yo u are a positive virago .

’

The Signora went on scolding for some time ;

2 6 No NEW THING .

but very likely She did not mean the half o f

what She said,and was only scolding with a

view to rousing her friend from his state o f

moral collapse . If so,she was unsuccessful.

Philip sat in a lump on his chair,his arms falling,

his head sunk on his breast,and only smiled

faintly,every now and then

,when the speaker

struck a specially dramatic attitude,or indulged

in some particularly lofty flight o f eloquence .

Had she known him better,she would have left

him alone,in perfect assurance that another

twenty-four hours or so would see the mercuryo f his spirits rising again . She did

,however

,

know him well enough to be aware that,when

scolding would not do,petting might be em

ployed with advantage and so,after a time

,She

changed her tone,sat down beside him

,told him

how very sorry she was for his disappointment,

agreed with him that his case was in many re

spect s a very hard one,and comforted him after

much the same fashion as a nurse comforts ababy . And then some casual visitors droppedin ; and in the course o f about five minutesPhilip was laughing and talking with them quiteas usual .From that day forth Signora Tommasini

b egan to exercise an influence and authorityover him to which he submitted half willingly

,

half apprehensively. It was very.

pleasant,and

PHILIP FINDS OU T ALL ABOUT IT .

saved a deal of trouble,to have things settled

for him,to be told good-humouredly

fi bu t

peremptorily—what he was to do,to' be provided

with a s ingingum aster

,and with occupations as

well as amusements and it was a great blessingto have a resolute friend

,able and willing to deal

with the incensed Cavestri clan in a more or lesssummary style but Philip had an uncomfortable and increasing feeling o f doubt as to whatm ight be the true meaning and nature o f all thisaffection . He was very much afraid indeed thati t was not o f a maternal character . Never aword had he breathed to the Signora of hisengagement to Nellie Brune . He had abstainedfrom telling her at first because , as he said tohimself

,one ’s women friends never do like to

hear o f such things he kept silence now becausehe really dared not Speak . Had his circumstances been other than they were

,he might have

langhed at the notion o f this fat woman ’s beingin love with him

,and might even—such is the

pitilessness of youth—have amused himself byleading her on to make herself ridi culous butthe thought o f the five thousand pounds that heowed her made him feel that this might be nolaughing matter . The memory o f that horriddebt rose up before him in the Silent watches o f

the night,and caused him to groan in spirit .

There were moments when he felt almost ready

2 8 NO NEW THING .

to sacrifice everything—Nellie , Margaret, Longbourne

,and all the past—to marry the Signora

,

and to start afresh in the world under thosenovel conditions . He had made an egregiousfailure o f the old life

,and it seemed to him as

if nothing but worse failure was likely to comeo f a return to it . It was more in accordancewith his system o f philosophy to cast asidefailures than to attempt to convert them intosuccesses .But it was only at night that such gloomy

self-communings forced themselves upon him .

During the day he was merry enough,and had

little difficulty in ridding himself of dull care .After his triumphant letter to Margaret

,he found

it impossible at once to confess the extent of thefiasco ; but he wrote to her evasively, sayingthat he had been too hasty there was a Slighthitch the necessary proofs were not so easy toget at as he had supposed they would be ;he must exercise a little patience

,&c .

And he considered himself justified in so

writing,since he had not yet received answers

from the Consuls at Leghorn,Naples

,and

other places,with whom he had put himself in

communication .

In this state o f enjoyment , tempered byanxiety

,Philip spent several weeks

,during which

time other persons,who have dropped o u t o f

80 NO NEW THING .

CHAPTER .XXVII .

WALTER GOES TO A BALL .

IT is probable that,for the first few months after

Walter’s departure from home,the whole City

o f London did not contain a more thoroughlydisconsolate young man than he . He had knownthat he would dislike sitting upon a high stool

,

that he would find t he persons with whom hewould have to associate uncongenial in mostrespects but the realitv far outdid his expectations . More than once he was sorely tempted tolook back

,like Lot’s wife especially as he was

unable to detect any signs of a Z oar in the distance to compensate him for this toilsome marchthrough a dreary waste o f ciphers . Not onlydid he abominate his work but it must be confessed that he did it badly . He had no head forfigures

,and indeed was not quick at acquiring

any fresh branch of knowledge,nor did he re

ceive the smallest assistance or encouragementfrom Mr . Boulger , a surly, burly old man with ared face

,who seldom spoke to his subordinates

,

WALTER GOES TO A BALL . 31

and,when he did speak to them

,did so in such

a manner that they would willingly have dis

pensed with the attention .

But,if Walter Brune was not dowered with

a large supply o f brains,he possessed no bad

substitute for them in the shape of plenty o f perseverance and a strong will and so

,in process

o f time,he conquered the first difficulties of the

bu siness which he had set himself to learn,and

was rewarded by a grunt or two of approvalfrom his uncle

,who now began to take a little

more notice o f him . Every Thursday he wasinvited to dine at the large

,cold

,and uninhabited

looking house at Clapham where the old bankerhad resided for close upon half a century

,and

where Walter’s young face made an odd contrastto those o f the half-dozen Or so o f elderlygentlemen who usually completed the party .

In private life Mr . Boulger was gruff,but no t

particularly ungracious . He seemed rather tolike talking to his nephew

,and WT

a-iter sometimes had a hope that mention might be made o fhim in his wealthy relative ’s will . As for thepartnership o f which he had once Spoken so confidently, that appeared to be very far o ff indeed .

Mr . Boulger never made the most remote allusion to the subj ect

,and did not hesitate to give

expression to the poor opinion that he had formedo f his nephew’s business capacities .

32 No NEW THING .

You will never make a banker,

’ he said ;‘ you will never make a man o f business at all .It isn’t in you . But it will do you no harm towork . Slave away

,morning and night

,summer

and winter—that ’s what I did at your age,and

you see I am none the worse for it, and a gooddeal the richer . I am an old man now—I go withthe century—and never had a day ’s illness inmy life , s ir, that I can recollect . It

’s your idlepeople who grow sickly ; we busy men haven

’

t

the time . IVhy, I could walk from here toLombard Street and back again now

,and eat

my dinner all the better for it afterwards . ’

It was all very well for Mr . Boulger,who

had been taken into partnership at the age o fthirty

,to boast o f his health and wealth but to

a young man,who had little prospect of the one

to console him for the possible loss o f the other,

the career thus described was scarcely fascinating .

Walter,however

,was not discouraged He

could but do his best,he thought to himself ;

and even if nothing cam e of it at all,hard labour

at least prevented him from brooding over Certain private sorrows o f his own that we know of.Moreover

,he was becoming accustomed to the

life,as every one becomes accustomed at last

to everything in this world and from time ' totime he came across a college friend

,and had a

refreshing talk over old days,which, together

WALTER GOES To A BALL . 33

with those Sunday dinners,during the winter

,

a t Marescalchi’

s club,made him feel that he was

not altogether an outcast from civilisation .

Had it not been for such occasional glimpsesas these of his own world

,he would have led an

existence of complete solitude ; for the Bruneswere not people who had a large acquaintance

,and

Walter had abstained from calling u pon the fewfriends whom he possessed in London

,being

,like

most young men crossed in love,in a temporary

condition o f enmity against the whole o f theother sex. It was therefore with some surprisethat

,on returning to his rooms one evening in

the beginning of June,he found upon his table

a square envelope addressed in a lady’s hand,

which envelope,when Opened

,proved to contain

a formal invitation to dinner from Lady Travers.

Walter’s first impulse was to write a refusal .He was Shy, and he was rather afraid o f themagnificent people whom he supposed that hewou ld meet at Travers House . Besides which

,

he did not wish to have anything to do withany one who had ever borne the name of IVinnington . So he sat down and wrote that Mr

.

Walter Brune regretted that he would be nu

able to dine with Lord and Lady Travers o n theday named . Then he frowned thoughtfullyon this missive for five minutes

,and ended

by tearing it up . It was true that Edith hadV OL . I II . D

34 NO NEW THING .

Shown herself unworthy-o f an honest man ’s loveit was true also that he had himself got over aboyish aff ection so obviously misplaced . Still

,

he would rather like to know what had becomeOf her . He had been too proud to mentionMiss Winnington in his letters home ; but thef act was that he did feel some curiosity uponthis point

,and no doubt Lady Travers would

satisfy it without any questions being put to her .Accordingly

,he took another sheet of paper

,

and wrote that Mr . Walter Brune would havemuch pleasure

,&c . and ten days later

,exactly

as the clocks were striking eight,Mr . Walter

Brune was mounting the great staircase o f

Travers House . If he had learnt nothing elsein the City

,he had at least learnt to be punctual

whence it resulted that he had to spend a quartero f an hour by himself in a vast drawing-room

,

feeling very ho t and uncomfortable , before LadyTravers came in and apologised .

‘ I am afraid,

’she began

,

‘ I have kept youwaiting

,Mr . Brune—or may I not say Walter ?

I have been so accustomed to hear you talkedabout as Walter

,that I can hardly think o f you

by any other name .

’

Walter said that he much preferred to becalled by his Christian name he

,too

,was much

more accustomed to that mode o f address than

t o a more formal one. He added,rather disin


genu ously, that he did not know by whom LadyTravers could have heard him spoken of at all .

By Margaret,o f course

,

’ she answered,

laughing .

‘Who else should have talked to meabout you ?

’

And then she looked so hard at Walter thatthat bashful young man became very red

,and said

it was a hot day for the time o f year What anass She must think me ! ’ he ej aculated inwardlyOf course she knows all about it

,and I believe

she ’s laughing at me . I wish to goodness Ihadn ’

t come .

’

But Lady Travers did not seem to notice hisembarrassment

,and gave him time to recover

himself by talking without intermission untilthe arrival o f other guests obliged her to leavehim . The room was soon full o f people and

Walter lost his self-consciousness in p leasureand curiosity when he found himself close to aknot o f celebrities

,amongst whom were a

Cabinet minister and two foreign ambassadors .He was not introduced to Lord Travers

,afierce

looking old man who Was wheeled into thedrawing-room in a chair

,but who did not appear

at the dinner-table,his gout forbidding him to

touch any o f the delicacies set before his guests .At dinner Walter was placed next to a goodhumoured lady who knew all about him

,having

had a son in the Oxford eleven,and who talked

D 2

36 No NEW THING .

quite knowingly on the subject o f cricket ; SOthat

,upon the whole

,o ur young friend Spent a

pleasant enough evening though he could notquite understand why he should have beenasked .

Going away already ? said Lady Travers,

when he went up to bid her good night . Whyare you in such a hurry I wanted to have achat with vo u about dear old Craym inster bu t

you must come and see me again soon . You

will be almost sure to find me any day betweenfive and six

,and I Shall always be at home to

you . It is so seldom that I meet anybody whobelongs to our part of the world now. I suppose you know that my mother and Edith arein London .

’

Walter said No he had not heard .

‘ Oh, yes they have taken a house in Park

Street for the season . By the way, I have alittle dance next Thursday

,and I shall be so

glad to see you,if you care to come .

’

Walter was completely mystified . IVhy allthis excessive cordialitv And what did LadyTravers mean by talking about her mother ands ister ? One thing was certain

,She could not

be aware o f the circumstances under which hehad seen them last

,and in any case he was

determined not to run the risk o f meeting Edithat this dance . He began some unintelligible

38 NO NEW THING .

him But at this pointWalter called common sense to his aid

,and told himself that he

was not going to believe anything of that sort .He had heard from the girl’s own lips that Shedid not care enough about him to face any trialfor his sake that

,surely

,was conclusive enough

to satisfy anybody . And then he recalled thosefatal words

,and went through the conclusion o f

that melancholy interview at Longbourne oncemore

,as he had done many and many a time

before,when he had been tempted to think that

he had been to o hasty,and that

,after all

,it

might have been nothing but Sheer terror o f

Mrs . Winnington that had induced Edith todismis s him . Nevertheles s

,the more he thought

o f it—and he thought of very little else for the

next few days and nights—the more he becameconvinced that Edith must have taken her sisterinto her confidence

,and surely Lady Travers

would not have been so cruel as to encouragehim unless there were some real ground for

’

encouragement . He made Up his mind that hewould speak to Edith—there could be no harmin his doing that for Mrs . Winnington herselfhad admitted that they must Speak

,if they met

—and then he would very soon find ou t thetru th . In the meantime

,he could not help ad

mitting a delightful suspicion into his mind thatEdith had taken the very first possible means o f


communicating with him that had come withinher reach since their severance . Even if she

only wanted to tell him that She was sorry forhaving treated him with so much heartlessness

,

that would be something . He pictured herseiz ing an opportuni ty to whisper a few hurriedwords of penitence to him in the ball -room

,her

colour coming and going as o f Old,and he

could very easily imagine himself forgivingher. Walter was nothing if not practical ;yet the thought o f a romantic leave -takingand o f two faithful hearts destined to beatfor ever apart was not without its charms for

He nursed these pleasing illusions up to thesupreme moment when he accosted Edith on theThursday evening

,and then was robbed o f them

all at a blow for her start o f su rprise and herface o f consternation sufli cien tly convinced himthat this meeting had been entirely unforeseen byher . She was looking radiantly beautiful she

was exquisitely dressed she wore about herneck the magnificent pearls whi ch had come toMrs . Winnington by inheritance

,and which had

enhanced the charms of each o f her daughters insuccession half a dozen men were pressinground her

,begging for a dance

,and Walter had

time to say no more than‘ How do you do

before he was j ostled beyond speaking distance .

40 NO NEW THING .

Fo r the ‘ little dance ’ to which he had beeninvited was in reality a crowded ball .Five minutes afterwards

,the good -natured

lady who had sat besideW’

alter on the night of thedinner-party said to Lady Travers

,

‘ Would youlike to see a banker’s clerk in a towering rage ?If so

,jus t cast a glance at poor Mr. Brune . Has

the girl o f his heart thrown him over,or is it

only that somebody has trodden on his toe ? ’

Lady Travers hastened to join her youngfriend

,who indeed wa s leaning with his broad

shoulders against the wall , looking as black as athunder - cloud .

What is the matter ? ’

she asked,trying hard

no t to laugh .

Why did yo u make me come here ? returnedhe .

‘ You knew quite well what it was thatinduced me to accept your invitation

,and I

suppose yo u knew,too

,what I should get for my

pains . Well it was a. capital j oke,and I hope

yo u are satisfied Your sister stared a t me asif she had seen a ghost

,when I spoke to her ;

bu t the Shock hasn’t upset her much . You see

she is enjoying herself immensely,dancing with

that curly -headed fellow—whoever he may be . ’‘ My dear IValter

, yo u must no t speak so

loud and you are no t to scold me in my own

house,if you please . If you are so ungrateful and

unreasonable,I shall send you about your busi

WALTER GOES To A BALL .

ness . Can’t you understand that,i f I had told

certain people that yo u were to be here , certainpeople would probably have remained away ? Ihave put your foot on the first step o f the ladderbut I really cannot carry you up upon my Shoulders . Now do

,like a good

,sensible fellow

,watch

your Opportunity and take advantage o f it,and

don’t make me a rebuke to the foolish by standing sulking there till people ask me who youare

,and what is the matter with you .

’

‘ I’

m afraid I was awfully rude,

’ said Walter,

contritely ;‘ you have been very kind to me

I ’m sure I don’t know why—and I beg yourpardon for speaking as I did . But look here

,

Lady Travers,I’m the worst man in the world at

understanding hints . I wish you would tell meplainly whether there is any hope . ’

There is always hope for a man . If a man

does not get what he wants,he has himself to

blame it is only women who are condemned tobe hopeless . Women are very often obliged tosay things that they don

’t mean,and to do things

that they don’t want to do ; they have no choice .However

,there is one thing that a woman can

do she can always throw over a partner infavour o f some one else whom she likes better .’

Fortified by this hint,which

,at all events

,

could not be complained o f on the score o f

obscurity,Walter shouldered his way by degrees

42 No NEW THING .

to the open window,where he could see Edith

talking to the curly-headed youth Whom he hadmentioned so contemptuously

,and hovered about

within a few yards o f her until the music struckup again , when he boldly advanced

,and said

I think this is our dance,Miss Winnington .

’

Edith gave him a scared look,turned pink

and white,and white and pink again

,and at last

answered hurriedly:‘ Oh,no ; I think not . I

think you must have made a mistake .

’

NO mistake at all,

’ returned Walter,firmly

and he off ered his arm,which She took after a

moment o f hesitation .

Oh,no t into the room

,please

,

’

She said,

with a little nervous laugh,as he began to follow

the crowd . I can’t dance with you under theeyes o f my partner

,and mamma would be so

angry if She saw us . It was very wrong of youto claim me in this way

,when you know you

never asked me for a dance at all but perhapsjust for once

,as we are such old friends

‘ Yes let us do wrong for once—as we aresuch old friends

,

’ said Walter,drily .

‘Wherecan we go to get ou t Of this crush

That window Opens on to a balcony ; wemight go o u t there for a fewminutes . Only fora few minutes

,though I ought not to be speak

ing to you at all . How do yo u come to behere


Oh,I assure yo u I was asked . It is very

extraordinary that I should h ave been , nodoubt ; but fashionable society is getting SOdreadfully mixed nowadays

, you know,

’ answeredWalter

,for he had not quite expected to be

greeted after this fashion,and it struck him that

there was a Shade too much of patronage inEdith ’s tone .

I don’t think it is very kind o f you to speaklike that

,

’she said

,in -

a low voice .

They were out upon the balcony now,

and Edith,who had removed her hand from

Walter’s arm,was leani ng over the cushioned

balu strade,looking down upon the passing

vehi cles in Park Lane,and upon the dark trees

beyond .

‘ Kind returned Walter .

‘NO I daresayit is not particularly kind . Perhaps

,ifyo u were

in my place, yo u wouldn

’t be very much disposed to be kind . No I didn’t mean that !Don’t go

,Edith—don ’t be angry with me You

know I would not be unkind to you for thewhole world . Of course my being here is oddI never go anywhere I haven’t been to a Singleball all the time that I have been in London,and I suppose I was a grea t ass to come to thisone. But when Lady Travers told me thatI should meet yo u here , how could I helpmyself

44 No NEW THING .

Edith, who had made a movement as if toreturn to the ball-room

,had resumed her former

attitude,and now stood silent

,with her back

turned to her companion .

IVon’

t yo u at least say t hat you are a littlebit glad to see me he pleaded

,after waiting

in vain for her to Speak .

‘ I am very glad to see you,Walter I

should always be glad to see you ,’she answered

quickly,without looking at him . And we are

old friends, you know though you don’t seem

to like my saying so . I thought you had forgotten me altogether . Yo u never inquiredwhether I was dead or alive when yo u wrote toNellie .’

Yo u did ask Nellie about me,then

‘ I seem to be losing all my old friends,

’

Edith went on,ignoring this interruption .

Nellie will hardly speak to me now I supposeI must have offended her in some way . Are

yo u pleased about her engagement ? I neverthought She cared so much for Philip—didyou

It is not always easy to tell whom womencare for. Nellie is a girl who knows her own

mind,anyhow. She wouldn’t have taken him

unless she had cared for him yo u may be quitesure o f that .’

Wouldn’t she She would have been very

46 No NEW THING .

covery o f Philip ’s D O you believe he is reallyyour cousin

‘ I don’t know what to think . My father believes it . It is a bad look -o u t for u s

,I ’m afraid .

But I can’t discuss Philip now . Edith‘ I don’t want to discuss Philip either ; I

would much rather hear "about you . Are yo ugetting on well ? and do you dislike your workvery much ?

‘ I can ’t say I like it but it give me something to do

,and leaves me little leisure for

thinking—which is a blessing .

’

Do you ever play cricket now ? ’

‘ No I haven ’t the time . Edith,I don’t

want to take an unfair advantage o f you but

you don’t know what a difference it would make

in my life if you could tell me that you stillcared for me

,ever so li ttle ? ’

You said I could not really care for youWhat a lovely night IS it not

,Mr . Lovelace

I came ou t here to get a breath of fresh air itis so stifling indoors . Our dance -and nearlyover ? I am so sorry but if you had beensearching for me high and low

,as you say, you

could not have helped finding me . I only leftthe room a few minutes ago . Good -night

,Mr .

Brune . Are you coming to lunch here on Sunday by any chance ? Oh , I thought perhaps youmight be .

’


And so Edith was led away into the throngby her justly-incensed partner

,and Walter nu

dersto od that he was dismissed for that evening .

If he could have seen Lady Travers,he would

have asked her boldly whether he might callU pon her on Sunday ; but Lady Travers wasnowhere to be discovered

,and the only familiar

face that he came across in the “ course o f hi s

search was that Of Mrs . Winnington,who stared

very hard at him,and gave him an undecided

sort o f bow,as he brushed past her .

It was only just past midnight when heemerged upon Park Lane and as he felt quitecertain that he would not be able to Sleep if hewent home

,he thought he would walk down to

the New University Club,o f which he was a

member,and think things over there with the

help o f a pipe . Turning the corner o f St .J ames ’s Street

,he met a tall pedestrian o f mi li

tary bearing,who peered at him in the light o f

a gas lamp,stopped short

,and then said

,

‘ IS

that Walter Brune And the nex t minutehe was shaking hands with Colonel Kenyon .

‘ It is rather a piece o f good fortun e,my

meeting you ,

’ the Colonel remarked . I heardsomething to -day which I think you ought toknow about . Could you spare me a quarter o fan hourWalter said

,

‘ An hour,if you like

,

’ and pro

48 NO NEW THING .

posed that they Should walk on a few steps tohis club

,where Colonel Kenyon said what he

had to say at greater length than need be reported . In fulfilment o f the

’

re solution whichhe had made some time before

,while at Long

bour,

ne he had been to Conduit Street,and

had heaId from Philip ’s f ormer landlady thewhole history o f Mrs . Marescalchi

’s illness and

death . Thus the mystery was at last solved,

and the only question was whether it would beright that he should make the matter known toMiss Brune

,or not . It was upon this point ,

Hugh said,that he had been anxious to consult

her brother .‘ The business is not quite so bad a one as I

was afraid that it might be ; but in all conscience it is bad enough . Why

,at the very time

he proposed to your sister his wife can hardlyhave been dead a month ! Can you imaginea man being such a heartless scoundrelWalt-er shook his head . He had not spoken

during Colonel Kenyon’s recital,except once

,

when he had ejaculated under his breath,SO

that was what became o f poor little Fanny !What an Odd thing that I should never havesuspected it —and although he looked a gooddeal vexed and distressed

,he had hardly ex

pressed So much indignation as his informanthad expec ted that he would do .


Som'

ebody ought to tell Miss Brune,

’ saidColonel Kenyon

,decisively ;

‘ the more so as

I don’t for one moment believe that the fellowhimself will tell her

,unless he is obliged . I

might write to Margaret ; but the fact o f thematter is that I have given so much off encealready by what I have said from time to timeabout this precious young rascal that—that

,in

short,I would much rather leave it alone . I

think you ,

would be the proper person to writ eto your sister .’

‘ I suppose so,

’ said Walter,doubtfully .

‘ Only,don’t you think it would look rather

like stealing a march upon Philip‘ Stealing a march upon . him ! ’ repeated

Hugh,scornfully.

‘How is one to deal with afellow like that

,unless one steals a march upon

him ? I confess,

’ he went on,with some impa

t ience,

‘ that I can’t understand the weaknessthat all yo u people seem to have for Marescalch i . Here is a fellow who sneaks o ff to Italyto try and do your father o u t o f his property

,

who coolly proposes to your Sister when hehasn ’t a Sixpence to bless himself with

,who

keeps a wife in London on the sly, breaks herheart

,I suspect

,and rushes o ff to engage him

self to somebody else before she is cold in her

grave a fellow who laughs at you , and humbugs you , and tells lies right and left, by.

VOL . III . E

50 NO NEW THING.

George -and upon my word and honour,I

believe you think i t’s all right . If I venture tosuggest to Margaret that it would be as well tolook after him a little more closely

,she turns

her back upon me and now,when I ask yo u to

tell your sister a plain and simple fact which nogentleman in Marescalchi

’

s place would haveconcealed from her

,you talk about stealing a

march upon him ! I must confess that I can ’tmake it o ut . It fairly beats me .’

Walter smiled deprecatingly .

‘ You see,

’

said he,

‘we have known Philip all our lives

,

and—well,it is not very easy to make a

stranger understand how we feel towards him ;but the truth is that one can’t help liking Philip .

I never met anybody yet who didn’t like him .

’

‘ I beg your pardon,

’

said Hugh,with hearty

emphasis ;‘

you have met one man who don’tlike him

,never did

,and never will .

’

Ah,well yo u are the exception that

proves the rule,I .suppo se. I quite agree with

you that it would have been better if Philiphad been more straightforward but then

,again

,

there are lots o f people who would say that am an isn’t bound to tell the whole story o f his

past life as soon as he becomes engaged . Wedon’t know what he may have to say for himselfeither and I am sure you are wrong about hishaving broken ’ Fanny ’s heart . Philip is just


the same now that he used to be at school . Hedoes a heap o f things that he ought not to dobut he never intends to hurt anybody —he nevermeans any harm .

’

Of all the noxious reptiles that crawl theearth

,commend me to the man who doesn’

t

mean any harm called o u t Colonel Kenyon,

whose heat was greatly increased by the other ’smisplaced leniency . Well ; do you mean towrite to your sister

,or don’t you ?

’

‘ Oh, yes , I’ll write

,

’ answered Walter ;there ’s no doubt that She ought to be told .

’

‘ And I sincerely hope and trust,

’said Hugh

,

getting up,

‘ that she will break ofl’ her engage

ment . There’s no saying What she may do,

though,or how she may take it. I don’t

profess to understand women myself.’

They are curious creatures,certainly

,

’

agreed Walter,thinking o f his own experi

ence o f the sex .

‘ Most extraordinary,

’ said Hugh ;‘ most

extraordinary . Well,good night

,Walter If

you could see your way to telling this storywithout bringing my name into it

, you know,

I Should be j ust as well pleas ed .

And,having given this incidental proof that

he understood something o f the nature o f atleast one woman in the world

,Colonel Kenyon

struggled into his great -coat and went away .

E 2

5 2 No NEW THING .

CHAPTER XXVIII .

TOM STANNIFORTH FINDS HIS MATCH .

IF Walter had not been in such a desperatehurry to leave Lady Travers ’

s ball,he might

probably have been called upon to shake handswith an old acquaintance

,in whose movements

he had good reason to be interested . Tom

Stanniforth , in this month of June, when publicbusiness was being rapidly pushed forward andphilanthropic measures were in imminent dangero f b emg shelved by an impatient Legislature

,

was too actively occupied a man to have mucht ime for dancing ; but between twelve and one

o’clock he did manage to hasten Up from Westminster to Travers House, and the first personto whom he spoke

,on his arrival

,was Edith .

‘How late you are ! ’ said she.

‘ I thought

you were not coming .

’

‘ SO did I,I can tell you , at one time . I got

away as soon as I could ; but I was bound no t

to miss the divi s i on . When I saw Torkington

get upon his legs , I gave myself up for los t ; bu t

54 No NEW THING .

somebody now ? It is useless to ask me ; I ammuch to o tired and too hot to move from myseat

,now that I have found one.

’

It will be seen from the above that contactwith the world had rubbed o ff a good deal o fthe shyness with which Edith was afflicted whenwe first made her acquaintance ; but that Shewas still subj ect to timidity

,under certain

circumstances,was plainly Shown when Mrs .

Winnington came sailing up to sayOh

,Mr . Stanniforth

,how kind o f you to

send those lovely flowers ! I hope you willforgive me for no t allowing Edith to bringthem ; but pink and green , you know ! I havesuch a dreadfully sensitive eye for colour ; it isquite a misfortune to me ; and I really could

not let her carry them with that dress on

though She was very angry with me about it .Weren’t you ,

Edith ? ’

And Mrs . Winnington accompanied thisquery with a look which caused her daughterto cast all regard for truth to the winds

,and

to answer,

‘ Yes,mamma

,

’ with the utmostpromptitude .

Miss Winnington has been telling me thatShedoesn’t care for bouquets

,

’ observed Tom .

‘What nonsense ! ’ Mrs . Winnington wasbeginning ; but Tom went on

‘ Nor do I,I must say . SO we are agreed

TOM STANNIFORTH FINDS HIS MATCH . 5 5

I like nothing better than wild flowers myself. ’

‘Well,perhaps bouquets are rather stiff

still you could hardly walk into a ball -roomwith a bunch o f buttercups and daisies in yourhand . By the by

,Mr . Stanniforth

,I want to

tell you how very much interested I was in

reading your speech o f last night . So telling,

and so perfectly unanswerable ! The poor HomeSecretary ! I felt qui te sorry for him ; thoughI suppose you would say that he deserved it all .But I must not keep you from dancing .

!

I am not going to dance,

’ answered Tom .

That is another point upon which you r daughterand I are o f one mind We think it is muchbetter fun to sit still and look on in such weatheras this . ’

It was quite the same thing to Mrs . Winnington whether this couple sat still or danced,provided that they remained together ; so she

only exclaimed playfully,

‘ Oh,you shockingly

lazy people ! ’ and passed on in high goodhumour .

It would occupy rather too much space torecord the gradual process by which Mr . Stanniforth had been brought

,or had brought himself

,

t o the point o f paying serious addresses to Edi thWinnington . When he had been rej ected bythe only woman whom he had ever loved

,he

56 NO NEW THING .

had made up his mind , as a natural consequenceo f that disappointment

,that he would remain a

bachelor for the res t of his days but since thenhe had seen reason to reconsider his determination . His father, who Was growing alarmed lestthe family o f Stanniforth should become extinctin the zenith o f its glory

,and its wealth be dis

tributed among distant collaterals,urged him

frequently and piteously to take a wife withoutfurther loss o f time Tom himself began tothink that it was almost his duty to do so ; andwhile he was still wavering—these considerations alone being not quite weighty enough todecide him —came the news o f Nellie ’s engagem ent to Philip

,which clinched the matter.

There was,o f course

,no good reason for its

doing so,since he had abandoned all idea o f

gaining Nellie ’s love for himself ; but the feelingwas not

,perhaps

,an altogether unnatural o ne.

Thus it came to pass that,when Mrs . Winning

ton let him know o f her arrival in Park Streetby an invitation to dinner

,he not only accepted

this hospitality,but came to the conclusion that

hemight do a great deal worse than accept whatwas delicately offered at the same time ; andfrom that day forth he set himself to prosecutehis suit in the intervals o f business . The Houseo f Oommon

‘

s,the habitual drunkards

,and the

oppressed railway-servants occupied by far'

the

TOM STANNIFORTH FINDS HIS M ATCH . 5 7

most important place in his thoughts ! for herwas firmly resolved to think no more o f Nellie ! ;but there still remained to him

,under the head

o f relaxation, an hour or two o u t o f every dayto be devoted to Miss Winnington

,whom he

considered a very nice girl,and much improved

in manner o f late . He was not in love withher

,and did not attempt to persuade himself

that he was so ; but he believed that he couldmake her happy

,and that

,in a comparative

fashion,she would make him happy too . In

deed,so long as there were habitual drunkards

and other such unfortunates in the land,he was

not likely to be dependent upon domesticity forcomparative happiness .Mr . Stanniforth

,then

,became so marked in

his attentions to the ladies in Park Street thatMrs . i nnington ,

feeling this bird to be well inthe hand

,began to beat the bush in search o f

other and rarer ones,and had fairly good sport

with a few young peers , until their respectivemammas turned upon her, and gave her tounderstand that such poaching would not bepermitted . Edith

,for her part

,gave Mr . Stan

niforth no little encouragement . She had theweakness o f will innate in her father’s family ;but

'

she had also,as many weak persons have , a

considerable power o f passive resistance,when

driven to extremities . Mrs . Winnington could

58 NO NEW THING .

lead her to the water any day with the greatestcase ; but it was not quite so certain that shecould be made to drink . Her present idea wasto temporise ; and this , she thought

,could be

best accomplished by allowing Mr . Stanniforthand others to suppose that she meant to accepthim . She had measured

‘

quite accurately theextent o f his aff ection for her, and knew thatthere would be no difficulty at all in staving o ff

his proposal until the end o f the session . If,in

the meantime,she could u se him as a weapon to

keep other admirers at a distance,there would

be that much,at all events

,gained . And he

was really a very pleasant kind o f man to havefor a friend . He knew all sorts o f people

,and

could provide anything that was required o f himat a moment’s notice

,from a box at one o f the

theatres to places in the ladies ’ gallery o f theHouse o f Commons . He had even

,upon more

than one occasion,procured invitations for Mrs .

Winnington and her daughter from ladies withwhom they were not upon visiting terms ; thoughthis last was a proof o f friendship with whichEdith wou ld willingly have dispensed .

Nobody,however

,need hesitat e about asking

for an invitation for a man and that was why,

after Mrs . Winnington had left Mr . Stanniforthand Edith to entertain one another

,as already

related,the latter broke in upon the re

’

sumé

TOM STANNIFORTH F INDS HIS MATCH . 59

which her neighbour was giving o f the PrimeMinister’s speech

,by saying

You know Lady Cecilia Caroll, don’t you

Oh,yes I know her . ’

I want you to get me a card for her concerton the 5th . Do you think you can manag e it

‘ But I thought you told me that you were

So we are It was not for myself thatI wanted the invitation

,but for a friend of

mine,who was here this evening—Mr. Walter

Brune .

’

‘ What,young Brune from Broom Leas

Dear me,is he in London Well

,I ’ll do what

I can ; bu t I rather expect I shall be snubbed .

Old Lady Cecili a is not the most amiable womanin the world

,and she prides herself upon never

crowding her rooms .‘ I was rather surprised ather

At her asking us P‘ No

,no

,my dear Mis s Winnington

,

’ criedTom

,who may

,nevertheless

,have had some

such thought in hi s mind when he checkedhimself ;

‘ I was going to say that I was sur

prised at her asking me . Do you very particalarly wish for this invitation

I should have liked Walter to have it . Heis very fond o f music

,and I don’t think he

often gets a chance of hearing any ; but pray

60 NO NEW THING .

don’t trouble yourself,if there is any difficulty

about it . ’

He shall have it,

’ answered Mr . Stanniforth,confidently. I can bring pressure to bear uponthe old lady through her son

,who is a red-hot

Radical,and looks up to me with admiring eyes .

Will you give me Brune ’s address,or shall I

send the card to you‘ You can send it to me

,

’ answered Edith ;‘or

,rather

, yo u can give it to me the next timewe meet . And

,Mr . Stanniforth

, you needn’t

mention it to mamma,please . She—doesn’t

much like the Brunes . ’‘ All right ; I won ’t say a word . Do you

ever—ahem l—hear anything o f the Brunesnow

‘ I saw Walter to -night for a few minutes .I hear o f the others through Margaret everynow and then .

’

And are they all quite well down there‘

P

Miss Brune in the seventh heaven o f happiness

,I suppose—that sort of thing

,

’ said Mr .Stanniforth

,with somewhat exaggerated care

lessness .I don’t know about that . She did not seem

to me to be particularly happy when I saw herlast ; but I suppose she ought to be so . Mr.Brune is not much pleased with her engagementI believe . ’

62 NO NEW THING .

Travers was accustomed to honour her with hiscompany in the middle o f the day .

This last consideration likewise preventedher from including her mother in the party .

Lord Travers , who hated a good many people,hated his mother -in-law more than his wife

,his

doctor,and his lawyer all pu t together—which

was saying a great deal . He had not spoken toher for years

,and had long ago given orders that

she was upon no pretence to be admittedinto his house at any time when there could bea possibility o f his meeting her .Mrs . Wi nnington was very forgiving about

it . She went to the large entertainments atTravers House

,and sent Edith to the small ones

,

saying that one really could not bring oneself tocross or contradict poor George

,who was such a

constant suffers ; but that he held views uponreligious subj ects which she felt that she oughtnot to listen to without a protest ; and thereforeit was j us t as well that they should no t oftenmeet . Furthermore , she could not quite approveo f Sunday entertainments for herself, thoughshe was far from condemning others who saw

their way to participating in them .

It may be taken for granted that thisorthodox churchwoman was not missed by anyo f those who assembled at Travers House on

the day in question ; and probably by none o f

TOM STANNIF ORTH FINDS HIS MATCH. 6 3

them was her absence les s regretted than by thedaughter whom she had dropped in Park Laneon her way back from church . It was not oftenthat Edith escaped from her mother’s tendersupervision

,and

'

when she did so,she enj oyed

her liberty to the utmost . She would haveenjoyed this lunchesn -party had it consistedentirely o f elderly spinsters

,instead o f being

composed,as i t was

,principally of very agree

able young men,who vied with one another in

their efforts to amuse her The talk was general,

and was entertaining enough in its way, andthere was a great deal o f laughter

,to which

Edith contributed her fair share . The Old manin the wheeled chair

,at the other end o f the

table,did not act as a damper upon the spiri ts

o f the younger people . He had a few friends o fhis ow n around ‘him who talked to him aboutracing and the prospects of the moors—for hehad been a great sportsman in days gone byand he took no t the slightest notice o f his wife ’sguests .

‘ Here is your card,

’ said Tom Stanniforth.

when luncheon was over and he had an oppor

tunity o f speaking to Edith in private .‘ Ch

,thank you ! ’

she answered gratefullytaking the envelope and slipping it into he:pocket . ‘ I hOpe you didn

’t have a great deal 0 }trouble in getting it .’

64 No NEW THING .

‘ There would be no pleasure in Obliging a

friend,if it did no t cost one a little trouble to

do so,

’ answered Mr . Stann iforth, Who indeed

had carried his point after an interview with LadyCecilia which had been almost to o much evenfor his indomitable good -temper. It is to be avery good concert

,I am told

,if Brune cares for

that kind o f thing . I didn’t fancy he wasmusical . ’

Edith looked rather guilty for a moment, butrecovered herself quickly .

‘ I don’t know thathe is exactly musical

,

’

she replied ;‘ but he likes

music ; all the Brunes do . Nellie delights inin it . ’

‘ Does she Perhaps that was one o f thethings that attracted her to young Marescalchi

,

who is going to be the great singer o f the day, Ihear . When is he expected back from Italy ?

’

‘ I don ’t know . Mr . Stanni forth, yo u saw a

great deal o f Nellie at one time ; I wish youwould tell me whether she really cares f orPhilip, or not .

’

NOW,my dear Miss Winnington , is it likely

that I should know that, if you don’t Have

yo u any reason for doubting it ?’

‘ Yes,I have a reason but it is only a sort

o f a kind o f a reason and Nellie never tells me

anything. I thought perhaps she m ight havebeen more communicative with yo u .

’

TOM STANNIFORTH FINDS HIs MATCH . 6 5

Oh dear, no ! Miss Brune never liked me , Iam sorry to say. Have yo u heard the rumourthat there is a split in the Ministry ? ’

Yes you told me . At least,I don’t quite

remember but I shall read all about it in the

Observer when I go home , I dare say. I nevercan take an interest in politics , and I daren

’t openmy lips when people get upon these subjectslest I should display my appalling ignorance .

’

‘ I am afraid I mus t often have bored yo ubeyond endurance

,

’ said Mr. Stann iforth withtardy compunction .

By telling me o f all those wonderfulschemes o f yours Oh

,no you have not

bored me only I cannot always m ake o ut Whatit is all about . Now

,Nellie takes the greatest

interest in everything of that kind,and has the

Whole Act or Bill,or whatever yo u call it , at

her fingers ’ ends in no time . She was qu iteexcited over that Anti -Vaccination Bill that youu sed to talk about—no ; no t anti-vaccination .

What was it ? ’

The anti-vivisection measure ? ’ suggestedTom wonderingly . The pertinacity with whichMiss Winnington

i

recurred to Nellie’s namepuzzled and rather annoyed him . He did notwant to talk about Nellie ; nor was it agreeableto him to hear comparisons drawn between thegirl Whom he wished and the one whom he

VOL . III . F

66 No NEW THING .

intended to marry .

‘ I find that all the ladiesare with me upon the subject o f vivisection

,

’ hebegan

,by way of gently leading the conversation

towards generalities .But Miss Winnington was not to be baffled .

Nellie certainly would be,

’ said she ;‘ for she

is so devoted to all animals—horses and dogsespecially . I never heard the true history o f

that escape o f hers o u t hunting . Wasn’t it youwho picked her up, and dressed her wounds , andset her upon your own beast ? ’

It was in this wily manner that Mr . Stanni

forth was lured into the beginning of a dialoguelong before the end o f which Edith had foundou t all that she had wanted to do

,and knew as

well as if she had been told it in so many wordsthat her companion’s heart was no longer hisown to dispose o f . For more reasons than one

,

the discovery gave her a good deal Of satisfaction ; and she determined to use it for her own

purposes , feeling no scruple in so doing . For

What business has a man to be paying court toone lady when he is manifestly and ridiculouslyin love with another ? Edith had no manner o f

doubt but that her admirer would throw herover ruthlessly, if Nellie were free and willingto accept his hand and that

,thought she

,was a

game at which two could play .

Before she went away, she found ou tWalter’s

TOM STANNIFORTH FINDS HIs MATCH . 67

address from her sister,and posted the card

which had been given to her for him,writing

the initials E . W . in the corner of the envelopein order to prevent misconceptions . Itwas quitepossible that Walter, who knew so little o f

London life,might be surprised at receiving an

invitation from a total stranger,and might have

the stupidity to decline it .As for Tom Stanniforth

,he left Travers

House,that afternoon, more disposed to be in

love with Edith than he had ever been before .

He was astonished to find how much he hadenj oyed talking to her, and how quickly thetime had passed . She had been lively

,she had

been loquacious,she had actually

,once o r twice

,

been amusing . And she really was a good girl.

How kindly and pleasantly she had spoken aboutNellie and how very seldom it is that you hearone woman praise another in that hearty andunreserved way ! The poor man is hardly to beblamed if he fancied that it was the sunshine o f

his presence that had caused this shrinkingflower to expand so

~ charmingly,and he should

surely be praised ‘ in that he resolved,for the

hundred-and-fi ftieth time , to think thenceforwardmore o f her and less of Nellie .

It was a few days after this that Walterthought the time had come for him to call uponLady Travers

,whom he was fortunate enough

r 2

68 NO NEW THING .

to find sipping her afternoon cup o f tea alone,

and who began to laugh as soon as she saw

him .

‘ Now I do wonder What yo u are laughingat

,

’ said he rather crossly .

I am laughing at you,Walter

,

’

she an

swered ; so now yo u know .

’

Walter sat down,and looked indignant notes

of interrogation .

Don’t you think you are very funny ? ’ askedLady Travers

,still laughing.

I think you are making fun o f me,if that’s

What you mean .~

‘No,I am not ; but Why do you march into

the room in that defiant way,looking as if you

were not to be trifled with and wouldn’t standany nonsense ?

‘ I suppose I look as I feel,

’ replied Walter,

curtly .

Bu t you really must not feel like that . Ofcourse

,if you choose to go at things in a

hammer -and—tongs style,and demand a plain

Yes or No to every question,you will get your

answer . You will get a plain NO,if that will

do for you . If yo u want the answer to be Yes,you must try to be a little more humble .

’

Lady Travers,I will be as hum ble as yo u

please ; I am ready to kneel down in the dust beforeher . But I won’t be played fast and loose with ;

70 NO NEW THING .

‘ I wouldn’t go,if I were you

,

’ said LadyTravers

,calmly . I would display a proper

spirit by remaining away,and sulking like a

great baby,and showing Edith how stupid it

was o f her to move heaven and earth to get aninvitation for you which has been refused tohundreds o f people . That

’

is the way to makeyourself appreciated at your right value .

’

Walter lifted both his hands to his head andrumpled his hair despairingly .

‘ What are youdriving at ? ’ he asked . What would you haveme do ? ’

I would have you remember that it was notEdith who enticed you out of your seclusion .

You have no right to stalk up to her lookinglike an angry turkeyco ck, and ask

“ Why did yousend for me

,if you have nothing to say to me ?

!

You might also remember that you are not yetin a position to marry .

’

‘ I admit all that,

’ answered Walter ;‘ and if

you tell me that I have no right to think’

o f

m arrying Edith I shall not contradict you .

The only right that I do claim is that o f beingtold whether I am to hope or not . I care forEdith a great deal too much to enjoy the chanceo f an occasional fl irtation with her on the sly .

I would rather never see her at all than beallowed

,as a great favour

,to see her sometimes

in that way.

’

TOM STANNIFORTH EIND s HIs MATCH . 71

‘ If I were not the most patient woman alive,

’

cried Lady Travers,

‘ I should wash my handso f you . You are impracticable ! You ought tounderstand that it is not always possible to statethings in such very plain terms as you seem torequire . But I am exceedingly patient ; and Idon’t wish Edith to be as unhappy as—as somepeople are who marry for position and wealth .

You must be aware that that is the sort o f

marriageWhich she will be forced to make,unless

somebody holds out a help ing hand to save her .Now

, you know,Walter

,I like you very much,

in spite o f your bad manners,and I should be

delighted to do anything that I could to obligeyou ; but you won

’t mind my saying that it wasnot out of pure affection for you that I took thetrouble to discover where you lived and to drag

you into society by the hair o f your head . Ithought that you and I could save Edi th betweenus ; and I think so still—though you are mostdiscouraging . How am I to make you understand things ? Try to imagine yourself in Edith ’splace—frightened to death of somebody whom weneed not name

,in daily peril o f receiving an off er

which you could hardly dare tozrefu se, miserablyunhappy at home

,and longing above all things

to escape from it—don’t you think you wouldfeel as if it was not much use to fight againstfate ? But if you knew that there was some one

7 2 No NEW THING .

who cared for you a great deal,and that he was

content to wait patiently for better times andtrusted to you to be patient too

,and if you could

see his face , from time to time , to give you a doseo f courage —then , perhaps you would be able togo on fighting .

"

Ah but will she be content to waitpatiently ? ’

That depends very much upon you,I should

think . I can’t say whether she would or notbut I am afraid she might not

,if yo u were rough

with her and frightened her . You don ’t know,

and you are a great deal too stupid,my poor

Walter,to take in

,how brave and how cowardly

women can be . You yourself,I suppose

,are

afraid o f nothing . You would like to se ttle alldifficulties

,literally and metaphorically

,with

your fists . But we don’

t fight with thoseweapons

,you see

,and they would be of no use

at all to you here . If you must fight,fight in

another sense . Fight your way up in the world:that is what I should do

,if I were a man I

should make up my m ind that I would be a

partner in Bo ulger’

s bank,for instance .

’

That is easy to say,

’ observed Walter .‘ And if it is not easy to do

,let it be done

with diffi culty!’ cried Lady Travers intrepidly .

‘ A man can have anything in the world thathe wants

,if he will only determine to have it .

TOM STAW II I FORTH FINDS nIs MATCH . 7 3

Look at Napoleon ; look at Washington ; andand

‘ And Whittington,thrice Lord Mayor o f

London,

’ said Walter,laughing .

‘Well,if try

ing is any good,I

’

ll try ; you m ay be sure o f

that . And Lady Travers,you ’ll let me see her

as often as you can,won ’t you ?

’

Yes ; but not too often . And yo u are notto take things to o much for granted

,please

,or

to expect her to throw herself into your armsor to look black when she talks to another man .

ll these inj unctions IValter promised thathe would faithfully observe ; and so

,after a little

more good advice,he was dismissed .

74 No NEW THING .

CHAPTER XXIX .

‘ PECCAVI I

MARGARET STANNIFORTH was sitting in thelibrary at Longbourne, enjoying the repose o f

solitude and o f a lovely June afternoon . Shewas enj oying these things , that is , as far as itwas possible to her to do so ; for, unluckilyfor her

,she was not one o f those people who

are good company for themselves . In orderthoroughly to appreciate the charm of beingalone

,persons o f her temperament must be very

happy or very much the reverse ; and at thistime she was neither the one nor the other .

She had,moreover

,various causes for dis

quietude and anxiety,and these were apt to

rise up before her in dismal array when she

had nothing else to do than to think aboutthem . Philip ’s letters had o f late been few andshort ; it was only too clear that things werenot turning ou t in accordance with his wishes ;and what was worse than this was that Nellieappeared

,most unreasonably

,to cherish a grudge

FECCAVI ! 7 5

against him on account o f the course which he hadseen fit to pursue

,and persistently changed the

subj ect when his name was mentioned . It waschiefly on Philip ’s behalf that Margaret felt illat ease ; but

"

there w as another small matterwhich disturbed her peace a good deal in thesedays

,and which was certainly not among the

annoyances to which any one would have sup

posed her likely to be liable .

‘ Exceeding her income l—exceeding fifteenthousand five hundred a year ! ’ exclaimed old

Mr . Stann iforth,when Hugh j ourneyed to Man

chester for the express purpose o f making asingular communication to him Then all Ican say is that she must have a nest o f firs t- classrobbers under her roof !The old gentleman had

,however

,made no

great difli culty about authorising his co -executorto sell out certain securities ; and in this manner the cost o f Mrs . Winnington

’

s residenceand entertainments in Park Street had beendefrayedGiven a proportionate style o f living it is not

much more difficult to exceed fifteen thousandthan fifteen hundred a year ; and poor Margaret

’sfinancial talents were of the slenderest order .During the first days o f her wealth

,when it had

seemed to her that her income was practicallyboundles s

,she had responded liberally to every

7 6 No NEw THING .

appeal for charity that had been made to her,

and she would not now reduce subscriptionswhich were really o u t of all keeping with herresources . Later on

,the charity which begins

at home had been forcibly bIought to her noticeby her mother

,who knew how far money would

go,if any one did

,but who not unj u stifiably

argued that Margaret was quite the richestwoman o f her acquaintance . The expense o f

living at Longbourne this economist assessed atabout one-third o f her daughter ’s income

,leaving

a balance o f at least 9,QOOZ. per annum to be

devoted to the relief o f the deserving . As amatter of fact

,Longbourne cost Mrs . Stanni

forth very nearly double the sum assignedthereto by her mother ; and when to

'

this was

added the maintenance o f such very expensivepersons as Mrs . Winnington herself and PhilipMarescalchi had become

,it will be seen that no t

much margin was left for unforeseen calls .

So it came about that Margaret,instead o f

laying by money,often found

O

herself pinchedfor the want o f it ; and this it was that causedher pangs o f self- reproach

,and

,among o theI

things,made solitude distasteful to her . She

moved about the room restlessly,wondering—as

she had so Often done in the course o f her ratherunhappy life—why responsibilities which she

was utterly incapable o f exercising should have

7 8 No NEW THING .

heaping o f dust upon his head,and began in a

lamentable voice

Where’s the fatted calf, Meg ? Send for thering and the new ga rment

,and let us eat drink

,

and be merry . Walk up,ladies and gentlemen

walk up,and see the show . Here ’s your fine

old genuine prodigal there ’s no deception .

I’ve wasted my substance in a far country,I ’ve

lived among—well,we won ’t push the parallel

too far . Meg,I have come home to confess my

sins . I am no more worthyMargaret laid her hand upon his lips .

‘ Hush ! ’ she said .

‘ I don ’t like to hear youmake fun of the Bible .

’

Fun—I make fun ! groaned Philip . Ohdear

,oh dear you little know how far I am

from being in a jocose humour . I am trying tostave o ff the evil moment, that

’s all . ’

There can be no evil moments now that youhave come back to me safe and sound

,

’ saidMargaret quickly .

‘ Yes that ’s the proper spirit in which toreceive the prodigal . And yet the evil momenthas to be got through . I have made a mess o fit,Meg—a thorough

,complete

,and satisfactory

mess o f it . I was within a hair’s breadth o f

being the owner o f Longbourne ; but the laws

o f England , which look favourably upon the

splitting o f hairs,won’t allow o f their being

FECCAVI 79

swept away altogether ; and so I am - landlessand nameless

,and my parents were never man

and wife,because they forgot that the Union

Jack was flying within a stone ’s throw of thechurch in which they were married .

’

Philip then related how and why he hadfailed to attain the obj ect o f his j ourney toFlorence

,and basked for a while In the warmth

o f affectionate sympathy .

‘ I do think it is most abominably unjust,

’

exclaimed Margaret . ‘What more can peopledo than be married in church ? As if a merecontract made in a Consul’s office could be asimportant as that ! Tom Stanniforth

,who is so

fond of taking up other people ’s grievances,

ought really to bring this one before Parliament . ’

On public grounds,I dare say it might be a

good thing if he did . As far as I am personallyconcerned

,no amount o f Tom Stanniforths or

Acts of Parliament could help me . I am afailure

,Meg and

,what is worse

,I have made

myself into a ludicrous failure . D O you knowthat for some time I was strongly tempted todisappear and never let you hear o f me again

Oh,Philip !

‘ But I thought better o f it, you see. The

prodigal,you know

,thought better o f it when his

money was all gone , and it came to be a case o f

“

80 No NEW THING .

husks or starvation . But I don ’t suppose thathe put things to himself in that coarse way . Ishould imagine

,j udging from analogy

,that what

he said to himself was something more like thisWhat an ungrateful brute I am Here have Ibeen receiving every imaginable kindne ss all mylife

,and scarcely troubling myself to say thank

you for it , thinking o f nothing and caring fornothing but my own gratifi cation

—and now Ihave my reward ! I am ashamed o f myself anddisgusted with myself. I can’t undo the pastbut I will go home and cry peccavi and then , iflny father chooses to turn me o ut o f doors

,let

him do it . I shall not complain .

! So he packshis portmanteau

,and pays his hotel bill

,and o ff

he goes-

to the station without saying a word toanybody

,and—and—here he is

,wishing very

much to make a clean breast o f it,but in oh !

such an awful funk that he doesn’t know how to

begin .

’

Am I so formidable ? ’ said Margaret,smiling

and giving Philip ’s hand an encouraging squeeze .

My dear boy,if you have anything unpleasant

to tell me,tell it me at once and don’

t t hinkthat I shall scold you . I am a great deal toobad myself to condemn my neighbours . Theonly way in which you could really pain mewould be to conceal your troubles from me ;and that you have never done in your life .

’

‘FECCAVI 81

‘ Ah,Meg it is j ust what I have done . I

don’t want to make excuses for myself ; but Ican’t help thinking that it is more difficult to meto be honest than to most people . Walter

,now

,

couldn’t tell a lie to save his life ; if he did , hewould get so red and look so guilty that itwouldn’t be o f the slightest service to him .

‘ ButI don ’t suffer in that way . I can tell a lie withthe utmost facility and that

,I suppose

,is why

I have b een telling you lie s o f a more or lessdirect kind ever since I can remember . ’

Oh,don’t say that exclaimed Margaret .

‘ You had better no t tempt me,

’ answeredPhilip

,with a rather bitter laugh

,

‘or I may

take you at your word . My poor,dear old Meg

,

I could go on throwing dust in your eyes to theend o f the chapter; but I won

’t . I want toturn over a new leaf- upon my soul and honour

,

I do Only,before I can do that

,I must

swallow a dose of nauseous physic ; and if yo uonly knew how I hate the idea o f raising it tomy lips

,you would beware o f interrupting me .

Now,don’t say a word I am going to drink .

’

Philip made a gulp and a grimace,and then said

,

very quickly What Kenyon told yo u was true .I was married for rather more than a year ; andall last winter I lived with my wife in ConduitStreet

,where she died only a few months ago .

VOL . III . G

82 No NEW THING.

She was a girl from a pastrycook’

s shop inOxford .

’

Margaret turned very white ; but she didnot remove her hand from Philip’s shoulder

,

where she had laid it when she sat down besidehim on the sofa .

Oh,how did it happen she exclaimed . I

am sure it was all her fault . ’

In the midst o f all his discomfort and humiliation Philip could not I'epress a short laugh . No

,

it was not her fault,

’ he answered . She was asgood a little woman as ever breathed ; andwell

,I was very fond of her . ’

‘Eonder than o f Nellie asked Margarethastily .

‘ NO " not nearly so fond . At least,I believe

not—I can ’t tell . Will you have the wholetruth ? I don

’

t remember. Oh,dear me

exclaimed Philip,bursting out laughing

,when

I do go in for telling the truth I believe there’sno one like me . I wonder how many men thereare living in this worl’d o f weathercocks whowould have dared to say such a thing as that !It certainly was not very wise to say such

things to Margaret . She tried to look as if shew as no t pained and shocked

,but made an in

different success o f the attempt .‘ I don’t wonder that you did not let me

know about it at first,

’she said .

‘ Of course

‘FECCAVI 83

you could not let me know,and it, is

!

not tellingan untruth to remain silent . Perhaps

,for

everybody’s sake,it was kinder to remain silent

f or a time . I can see how it was you intendedto enlighten me

,and then you put o ff

,and pu t

o ff,as one does . Wasn’t that it ? ’

I was having her educated and made presentable

,

’ answered Phi lip . He perfectly understood that Margaret was arguing with herself

quite as much as she was making excuses forhim and it did not appear to him that she waslikely to get the best o f the argument . Hewould almost rather have been reproached alittle .

Poor thing Margaret said presently .

‘ Yes,you may say

“ Poor thing ! ! now

without a mental reservation . I wonder how e it

would have been had she been still living,and

I had brought her down here to introduce herto you . She used to talk about beyaviour

and if Mrs . Winnington had snubbed her,it is

more than probable that she would have burstou t crying in public . Would you have said

,

“ Poor thing ! ! then ? No ; you would havesaid

,Vulgar little wretch

‘ I hope I should not . ’

‘ VVouldn’

t you ? You would have thoughtit,though ; and so should I

,perhaps . I was

awfully unhappy when I thought that she was

84 No NEW THING .

going to die I don’t know when I have beenso unhappy in my life . But as soon as she was

gone I began to see that whatever is is right .Tell me now—because I should like to knowwhat you really think about it

—was that humannature , or was it only my nature ?

‘ Oh,don’t ! ’ exclaimed Margaret . She did

not at all understand Philip ’s whimsical pleasurein sneering at himself ; nor could she guess thati t was in this m anner that he was accustomedto answer conscience and still the pangs o f

remorse .

There was a long silence,which Margaret

broke by asking,Wasfghers a sudden death ?

’

And then Philip,taking up a different tone

,

related how he had lost first his baby,and

afterwards his Wife,and spoke upon both sub

j ects with so much real feeling that he was quiteforgiven long before he had ceased .

‘ I suppose you have not told Nellie anything about this yet said Margaret .

‘ Gracious goodness ! no . Must I confessmy sins to more than one person ?

‘ But,Philip

,I don’t think that there has‘

been any s in . You have said the worst o f

yourself that possibly could be said and I feelsure that

,if you had chosen

, you might havem ade things sound very differently . One can

no t call it wrong to make a foolish marriage .

’

86 No . NEW THING .

Margaret drew a long breath .

‘ If that issaid she.

‘ Oh ! that is all . You don ’t know how

much it is,though .

’

However much it may be,we will manage

to pay her,

’ said .Margaret briskly .

‘ This is dreadful ! Why don’t you call menames ? Why do you heap coals o f fire uponmy head ? It

’

s—well,it’s five thousand pounds . ’

Philip was staring intently at the groundwhen he made this stai tling disclosure

,and he

consequently did not see bo

ow Margaret’s facefell . Her voice was quite steady and cheerfulas she answered

‘ Five thousand pounds .will not ruin me .But how did you Never mind , though , ifyou would rather not tell me . It is o f noconsequence . ’

Meg, you are to o good for this wickedworld . Of course I will tell you . It isn’t verycreditable

,but you will hardly expect it to be

that . I took to gambling for a time—Heavenknows why I don ’t - and I had a run of themost fearful luck and the long and short of itwas that I found myself all that sum to the bad

,

and I couldn ’t pay . The woman tempted me,

and—I mean thi s good Signora Tommasini,

who is very nearly as foolish as you are , off eredto save me from disgrace and ruin

,and I wasn ’t

PECCAVI 8 7

so rude as to make her speak twice before Ireplied . She said I was to pay her back whenI became a great singer and was earning a grea tsalary but

‘ You could not remain under such an obli

gation to a stranger,’ interrupted Margaret

quickly .

‘ Ah ! there it is . And yet I must be underan obligation to somebody .

’

‘ There can be no question o f obligationsbetween us

,Philip . I simply do for you what

you would do for me if our positions werereversed . I only wish you had applied to me ,instead of to her

,in the first instance . But it

was very kind of her . I think I should like t oknow that Signora Tommasini .

’

‘ I am no t quite sure that you would she i shardly in your line . But she i s a dear

,good

old thing,

all the same ; and she has neverbreathed a syllable about repayment, though Idare say she wants the money as much as anybody else . The first thing that I thought o f

when I read those u seless signatures in theregister at Sant ’ Onofrio was that I should beable to wipe o u t my debt but that was not tobe

,and ever since then I have been unable to

sleep at nights for thinking o f it .’

‘Why did you not write and tell me ?’

asked Margaret reproachfully. You ought to

88 No NEW THING .

have known that I should never think twiceabout giving you anything that you wanted , solong as I had it to give .

’

I did know i t but it was a case o f robbingPeter to pay Paul

,you see ; and, little as you

might suppose it,Meg

,I have still some feelings

o f shame left . I couldn’t bring myself to ask

yo u for more money ; so I lay awake, andbrooded over my sins . I suppose that nobodycan come to a realising sense o f what a sinnerhe is until he takes to lying awake at nights . Itwas that lying awake that showed me howabominably I had behaved to you

,and how I

had deceived you and at last I could stand itno longer. I resolved that I would strike whilethe iron was hot

,come straight home

,and tell

you all about—about the other thing,you know .

And,having resolved upon that

,it seemed best

to make a full confession o f everything—as Ihave done .

’

Thus far,as regarded essentials

,Philip’s

veracity had been'

unimpeachable but he hadbeen guilty o f a slight suppression o f truth inattributing his hurried departure from Florenceto the stings o f an awakened conscience alone .His suspicions with regard to the Signora haddeepened into something very like certainty asthe days had gone on . He had found himselffalling more and more under her sway. Her

‘FECCAVI 89

good-humoured,authoritative trick o f ordering

him to do this and that had extended itself tomatters o f the smallest detail , and, favoured byhis indolence as well as by his sense o f obliga

tion,had reached such a pitch that at last he

felt that he could hardly call his soul his own .

It seemed to him that he was in some sense theSignora’s property

,and she treated him as if he

were so in every sense . Matters came to aclimax one evening when he was driving backfrom the theatre with her

,and when she asked

him in . so many words whether he did not thinkthat it was much better for some men to marrywomen older than themselves . The wretchedPhilip stammered ou t an incoherent reply

,

shrank back into his corner o f the carriage inmortal terror

,and

,as soon as he reached the

hotel,rushed upstairs

,packed his belongings

,

and fled the country precipitately . Such alarmmay seem a li ttle exaggerated, bu t probably Philipunderstood the danger o f the situation better thananybody else could do . He believed that theSignora was capable o f ordering him to marryher

,and he knew that

,under sufficient stress

,

he was capable of consenting to anything .

The wisdom o f the step which he had takenwas at any rate amply justified by the event,when he found himself sitting

,with all his sins

confessed and forgiven,and his troubles as good

90 No NEW THING .

as over . Margaret’s pardon had been so readilyaccorded that he was encouraged to hope wello f his approaching interview with Nellie

,albeit

much disin clined to walk over to Broom Leasforthwith

,as he was urged to do .

Mightn’t I have a night’s rest first hepleaded .

‘ You will rest so much better when yo u

have done your duty . Why put o ff till tomorrow what might be done tod ay

Why do tod ay what might be put o ff t illto-morrow However

,if I must

,I must . ’

Philip go t up , sighed, and moved towardsthe door ; but before he reached it , it wasthrown open

,and Miss Brune herself walked

In .

Margaret and Philip exchanged quick

glances o f dismay bu t the former was equal tothe occasion . She stepped forward

,and kissed

Nellie,who had stopped short

,with a cry o f

surprise,on recognising the new arrival

,and

Here is somebody,

’ said she,

‘ whom you .

would rather see than me , I think . I have .

some letters to write , and I am going to the‘

drawing-room to write them . You c an sendfor me when you want me - or I should rathersay if you want me .

’

But Nellie had seiz ed Margaret by the arm,

and retained a firm grip o f it . ‘ Please do not,

PECCAVI I 91

go away , Mrs . Stanniforth ,’ she said ‘ It was

to see yo u that I came . I have had some verydisagreeable news . ’

And then she looked pointedly at Philip,

with whom she had not shaken hands,and who

promptly made a move in the direction o f thedoor . I ’ll go

,

’ he said ; ‘ only will yo u tell meone thing first :does this disagreeable newsrelate in any way to me ?

Nellie turned her eyes upon him . He didnot look at all like a whipped hound

,as he

ought to have done . His face wore a slightsmile

,a faint expression o f curiosity

,whi ch may

have been genuine or assumed,but which in

either case would have sufficed to harden herheart against him .

‘ Yes,it does

,

’

she answeredshortly .

Margaret glanced apprehensively from oneto the other

,and caught the girl by both hands .

Oh,Nelli e she exclaimed

,I think we know

it all already . It’s about somebody who—whois dead

,is it not ? And Philip has come back

on purpose to tell you everything,and to say

how sorry he is . You won’t judge him untilyou have heard him

,will you ? ’

‘ He can have nothing to say that I shouldcare to hear ,

’ answered Nellie and I dare sayhe will be glad that somebody else has sparedhim the trouble o f an explanation .

’

92 No NEW THING .

‘ I have my dear friend Colonel Kenyon tothank for this

,

’ muttered Philip .

It was Walter who wrote to me,

’ saidNellie , ‘ if that makes any difference . I camehere to tell Mrs . Stanniforth that o f course ourengagement must be at an end . There isnothing more to be said that I know o f .

’

But Margaret thought that there was a greatdeal more to be said .

‘ Dear Nellie,

’she began ,

‘ don ’t be hasty . It is quite natural that youshould be angry

I am no t angry at all ; it is not worth beingangry about

,

’ declared Nellie,who was very

angry indeed . I am glad I found ou t in time,

that is all . ’‘ He was just going to Broom Leas to tell

‘ Because he could not help himself. Hetold you why he had gone to Florence when hecould not conceal it any longer. ’

‘ That has all come to nothing,

’ said Margaret quickly .

‘ Of course it has come to nothing ; I did‘

not believe the story for a moment . And nowthe engagement to which I ought never to haveconsented has come to nothing too . I hope Ishall never hear the subject mentioned again inmy life .’

Margaret was still holding Nellie’s hands, as

94 No NEW THING .

‘ Dear Mrs . Stanniforth,don’t cry ! ‘

ex

claimed the girl,softening suddenly ; he is not

worth it—I mean we are not worth it ; and Ican’t bear to hurt you . I haven’t been quitehonest about this I should have broken o ff theengagement in any case . Perhaps

,as you say, I

should have forgiven Philip at once,if I had loved

him but I don’t love him,and I never have . I

did try—no one knows how I tried—but I wasperfectly miserable the whole time and it wassuch a relief when he went away ! I knew thenthat I never could really marry him ; and I suppose that I ought to have said so . This morningwhen Walter ’s letter came

,I felt as if I had

been reprieved from a sentence o f death . You

see how impossible it would have been for meto do as you wished .

’

This was no t very pleasant hearing for ourirresistible friend in the background

,who had

been a great deal more mortified and crestfallen throughout than he had chosen to ap

pear .

After that,

’ said he,

‘ I think the best thingI can do is to retire gracefully .

’ And he wasou t o f the room before Margaret could say a

word to stop him .

‘ HOW glad I am he is gone ! ’ exclaimedNellie .But Margaret sighed

,Poor Philip oh

,

PECCAVI I 95

peerfellow ! ItWas cruel of yo u to speak o f

him like that when he was still in the room .

’

To this Nellie made no reply and indeed itmust be confessed that

,during the remainder o f

the interview between the two ladies,the

younger displayed a great deal more forbearancethan did the elder . To be magnanimous was

,

perhaps,easier for Nellie

,Who had an excellent

case,than for Margaret

,who had no case at all ;

but it is somewhat trying to a proud and quicktempered girl that her magnanimity should meetwith no recognition . More than once Nelliewas upon the point of making a sharp retort ;but she bit her lips and kept silence

,knowing

how severe was the disappointment which hadfallen upon the kindest o f her friends

,and

feeling that her own conduct in this matter hadnot been quite as straightforward as it mighthave been .

What can I say she exclaimed at length .

I think Philip insulted me by coming straightdown here from his wife’s deathbed

,and asking

me to marry him ; I suppose anybody wouldconsider that an insult . But I don’t want toconvince you that he has behaved badly ; andI’m afraid you can

’t convince me that he hasno t . The best way is to say no more about it .Even if Philip had been able to prove to us thatall this was a calumny

,and that he had never

9 6 No NEW THING .

had a wife,I still could no t have married him .

I understand now that I never could have caredfor him as one ought to care for one ’s husband .

’

‘ It is rather hard upon him that you shouldno t have found that out before you accepted him ,

’

said Margaret .Nellie did not remind her critic of the doubts

which had been made light o f in that very roomat the time alluded to

,nor did she quote certain

words of Margaret’s which remained very vividlyin her memory .

‘ I am quite willing to takemy share o f the blame

,if there is to be any

blame,

’she said humbly ; bu t if I had consulted

you ,you could not have advised me to do any

thing else than break o ff the engagement,now

that I know for certain that I don’t love him .

’

This was unanswerable,and Margaret felt it

to be so ; yet she was not altogether silenced .

She went on fighting,though she knew that the

battle was lost and Nellie listened patientlyand sadly . There came a moment when the twowomen were very near quarrelling for the firsttime in their lives but that passed away . Oneo f them was to o sweet - tempered to allow mattersto come to such extremities

,and the other was

too keenly alive to the pity of their falling ou t

over so unworthy an obj ect They parted atlast with tears and embraces

,but with a cloud

between them o f which both were conscious .

98 No NEW THING .

After a long time Margaret came o u t o f thehouse with red eyes , and walked quickly acrossthe grass towards him .

‘Well,Meg

,

’ he said smiling,as he passed

hi s arm through hers,so it’s all over . Confes

sion made,but absolution deferred ; isn

’t thatthe way Mr . Langley would put it ?

Yo u know that if you needed any absolutionfrom me

, you had it at the first moment,

’

she

answered ‘ but that is not what you want,my

poor boy . It is not against me that you haveoffended—if you have offended . And I can donothing for you .

’

Do you call five thousand pounds nothing ? ’

Oh,that

,

’ said Margaret,who had entirely

forgotten this trifling detail in the more seriou strouble that had overtaken them both

,

‘ that iseasily provided . But, Philip dear, I can give youno hope about Nellie . I have done all that Icould do

,and it has been quite useless .

‘

I amso

very,very sorry .

’

‘What a dear old thing you are ! But youmustn’t be sorry

,Meg ; it can

’t be helped . Itis a bitter pill let us swallow it down and makeno faces . ’

‘ It seems heartless to try and comf ort you,

’

said Margaret presently ;‘ still there always is

comfort—for a man . You will find interests in

‘ PECCAVI 99

the world—occupations—plenty of things todivert your thoughts from the one subject . ’

‘ I think it quite possible that . I may,

’

answered Philip gravely .

‘ And I must reallybe setting to work again in earnest now

,

’ headded

,after a pause .

At the law,do you mean ?

’

I am afraid it wou ld be a long time beforeHobson and Jobson would give me a brief.No I have only the one talent

,and I must not

bury it . Duty points to London and HerrSteinberger and scales

,Meg .

’

‘ But you told me that you really did no t

like the idea o f going on the stage,

’ obj ectedMargaret

, looking up at him with eyes full o f

pity .

‘ I am not sure that I do like it ; but I intend heroically to lump it . I don’t know whatSteinberger will say to me, I

’m sure ; but Ihaven’t altogether wasted my tme at Florence

,

and perhaps he may allow me to try my wingsby a little preliminary flight before the season isover. Anyhow

,I ought not to put o f seeing

him any longer than I can help . D O you stillrise with the lark to attend divine service

,Meg ?

If you do, you may catch a glimpse of me beforeI start to -morrow morning .

’

Couldn’t you stay just a few days with me,Phili p ? ’

100 NO NEW THING .

‘ Do yo u think it would be wise ? When onehas been kicked downstairs, one looks ratherfoolish if one persists in sitting upon the doorstep .

’

I wish you would not say such things .You have not been treated in that way at all . ’

‘ No t by yo u ; but I have been kicked , allthe same ; and I feel uncommonly foolish . Ireally couldn ’t stay here

,Meg . If there were

nothing else to drive me away,the commiseration

o f Mrs . Prosser would be enough in itself. Givea man time to recover his self- conceit a little .

’

It is just possible ,’ said Margaret after a few

minutes,

‘ that I may not be here myself muchlonger . I am rather thinking o f letting Longbourne for a time .

’

‘ Letting Longbourne ! ej aculated Philip .

Since when have you taken that notion intoyour head ?

Oh,I have been thinking o f it for a long

time . I really want a change,and

‘ Meg, I don’t believe a word o f it ! ’ ex

claimed Philip,interrupting her . ‘ You never

dreamt o f letting Longbourne before thIS afternoon ; and you want to cu t down so as to beable to find me that money . But I ’m not goingto take it . Merciful heavens ! I am not quitesuch a despicable fellow as that yet—whateverNellie may think o f me . I may have earned as

102 NO NEW THING .

Langley on the following day,it may be hoped

that he was not too hard upon its perpetrator .To raise a sum of five thousand pounds

,over

and above her current expenses,would have beenat this time as impossible a - feat for Margaret asf or Philip himself to perform . She was indeedable to hand over a cheque for the requiredamount but

,having done so

,it would have

been out o f her power to continue her presentrate o f living without considerably overdrawingher account before the end of the quarter . Theonly solution that suggested itself to her was tostrike ou t the item o f personal expenditure altogether from the budget and no sooner had she

seen Philip drive away from the door with hischeque in his pocket, than she took promptmeasures to carry out this plan . She gave ordersto the astonished Prosser to pay o ff and dismiss her staff o f underlings forthwith ; she wrotethe necessary instructions to the house -agentsin London and then set out with a light heart

,

to walk down to the Rectpry,having a certain

proposition to make which she had reason tohope would be favourably looked upon there .

CHAPTER XXX .

A FIASCO .

THE hall table o f the little house in Park Streetwas almost concealed beneath the shoal of cardsand notes that were laid . upon it every day

,for

Mrs . Winnington had never in her life let slipan opportunity of making a useful acquaintance

,

and was unwearied in her pursuit of such ac

qu aintances when made . It may seem somewhatstrange

,therefore

,that Edith

,who could have

procured half a dozen invitations to balls forWalter in the course of a week

,should have put

herself to considerable pains to get him asked toa private concert

,a class of entertaimnent whi ch

affords few facilities for uninterrupted conversation . Edith , however, had her reasons for adopt n

ing this course . She wanted very much to meetWalter again

,but she did not at all want to

meet him in such a manner as she had done atTravers House . He frightened her with hi sdownright ways ; she saw that

,if he were to

find himself for five minutes alone with her, he

104 NO NEW THING .

would infallibly make a demand to which She

could return but one answer,and that then he

would go away in a huff,and the breach between

them would be complete . But“

at Lady CeciliaCaroll

’

s she would be able to talk to him witha pleasant feeling of security against any foolishoutbreak on his part .Lady Cecilia’s concerts were rather solemn

functions . A concert,

’ that lady was wont tosay, should be a concert . I don ’t ask people tomy hou se to chatter and giggle

,and sit on the

stairs,and talk through the songs . What I

wish is to give them an Opportunity o f hearingthe best music and the best singers in a comfortable room with comfortable chairs in it . I onlyask those who understand music and not many o fthem

,for I won’t have a crowd . The boast was

no t always a truthful one,for it is certain that

a large pi oportion o f the favoured guests knewno m om o f music than they did o f the Chineselanguage ; but that par t o f it which I elated tothe comfort o f the m oms and the excellence ofthe performers was j ustified by facts , and LadyCecilia’s invitations were alway eagerly soughtafter—perhaps because it is a part of humannature to desire anything that is difficult toobtain :perhaps because

,as she herself would

say, with a sardonic grin ,‘ People will go a

long way to hear for nothing what they would

106 No NEW THING .

people who had been forced to sit still andsilent for the last ten minutes were indemnifyingthemselves now by moving about and talkingtheir loudest . Walter pu shed

’

his way throughthem with the ease which a man o f his inchesand breadth o f chest could command

,and perceiv

ing to his great j oy an empty chair besideEdith’s

,unhesitatingly took possession of it .

‘ Oh ! you have come ? ’ said she,allowing

him to hold the tips of her fingers for amoment .

‘ Of course I have come . You asked me,

didn’t you?

‘ It was Lady Cecilia who asked you,I

suppose . But I am glad you have come,be

cause it is such a good concert . ’‘ There was “ E . W.

! in the corner o f theenvelope

,at all events

,

’ said Walter . ‘ SO it’s agood concert

,is it ? I don’t know much about

music myself butHush interrupted Edith in an agony ; for,

indeed,Tom Stanniforth was standing close by,

and Walter’s voice was a loud one.

‘Why, what’s the matter ? ’ asked the aston

ished culprit . Have I said anything awful ? ’

‘ Yes you mustn’t say you don’t know any

thing about music . Everybody is supposed tolike mu sic in this house .

’

‘ Oh,all right ! I’m glad you told me . I

A F IASCO . 107

should like anything so long as I was allowedto sit here . It was awft good o f you to keepa place for me .

’

‘ Oh,I couldn’t have done that ! but you can

stay here for a little it is somebody else’splace .

’

Then somebody else must drag me ou t bythe collar o f my coat if he wants his place again .

Oh ! how do you do,Lady Travers ? ’

You are very kind to notice me,

’ said LadyTravers . ‘ Perhaps

,in order to avoid the scan

dal of the police being called In,I had better

give you my place .

’ And she rose as SheSpoke .

Oh,but

,Lady Travers

,upon my word —I

couldn’

t think of such a thi ng . I was onlyjoking

,I assure you

,

’ protested Walter,qu ite

Shocked .

‘ If you are really sure that you were onlyjoking

,perhaps I may venture to return

,

’ saidshe ;

‘ bu t in the meantime you m ay as wellkeep my chair for me . I want to speak to someone on the other side o f the room .

’

Walt er took her at her word and the firstthing that he did

,after having effected this

change Of position,was to whi sper to Edith

,

‘Andwho is Somebody Else ? ’

‘ Let me see who was it ? Mr . Stanniforth,I

think,

’ she answered,somewhat disingenuously .

108 No NEW THING .

Now,in days gone by

,Walter had guessed

enough o f Mrs .Winn ington’

s designs to be aware,

that Tom Stanniforth was a more or less dangerm

ous person ; therefore his browclouded over atthis careless announcement . But he rememberedhis promise to Lady Travers

,and only said

,I

should like to see Mr . Stanniforth again . Hewas a very good fellow .

’

Yes I think he is very nice,

’ Edithagreed hurriedly . Have you heard from homelately ? ’

‘ I had a letter from Nell the other day . Shesays it is dull work down there now that we areall scattered to the four corners o f the earth

,and

only She and my father are. left to count theempty places . I suppose we shall never be alltogether again as we were in the old days . Jollyold days—oh dear !

I suppose you miss the cricket , and allthat ? ’

‘ Exactly so—the cricket and all that . DO ,

you ever think o f old t imes now ? The new

times are better fun for you ,aren’t they ? ’

Edith sighed and looked down at her fan,

upon which was represented a group of impo ssibly- costumed shepherds and shepherdesses dancing. It was a chef -d

’

oeuvre,painted upon parch

ment,and Signed by Watteau himself.

‘What a pretty old fan said Walter, .

1 10 No NEW THING .

Edith,who had raised her eyes to the dai s

at the end of the room,was in a position to

answer the question .

‘ Oh,Walter look ! ’ she

exclaimed in astonished accents .

I Valter looked,and gave vent to a low

whis tle . By Jupiter he ej aculated under hisbreath . Who would have thought o f hi s turn~ing up like this ? I wouldn’t have written thatletter if I hadn’t supposed he was safe in Italy.

Here ’s a pretty kettle Of fish ! ’

But he gave no explanation of these mutterings in answer to Edith’s inqu iring glance , andthey both turned their eyes towards Philip

,

standing with a roll of music in his hand besideSignora Tommasin i

,who was all ablaze with

di amonds . It was Phili p ’s first appearance in aprofes sional capacity ; it was the first occasionon which he was to exhi bit his talents and giftsto an audience in consideration of somethingmore substantial than applause and this loss o ffi eedom may perhaps have deprived him o f thes elf- confidence which is so essential to successfor in one sense it is easier and far pleasanter t ogive away one ’s possessions than to sell them .

Be that as it may,he was visibly nervous . His

hands shook a little,his cheeks were rather pale

,

and he looked as if he would have liked verymuch to run away .

But Steinberger ,with his legs tucked underhi s

A FIASCO . 111

music stool,was already puni shn the piano ; the

Signora had kicked ou t her train, hoisted up herfat shoulders

,and distorted her features into that

extraordinary grin which,for some inscrutable

reason,is held to be indispensable by all public

singers ; and Si'gnor M . had to take up hi s

allotted burden and trudge,whether he would or

no .

He had still a few mi nutes inwhich to recover himself. First

,Signora Tommasini went

through some astonishing vocal exploits—‘ letting o ff a lot o f fireworks

,

’ as the ignorantWalter said then the two voices blendedharmoniously together for some bars and thencame the trying moment when Phi lip had tointerpret Donizetti alone and unaided . It wasno very formidable achievement that was '

re

quired o f him ; but there was a certain highnote which would have to come ou t before hehad done ; and Philip felt an awful and sickening conviction that come out it would no t . And

,

sure enough,it did not . There was an instant’s

pause,during whi ch the singer suffered the con

den sed agonies Of a lifetime ; then , in despair,he expanded hi s lungs

,and ou t came a note

which was loud enough and clear enough foranybody

,but whi ch

,alas ! was not the note .

A quickly -repressed shudder Shook the Signora’s whole person ; Steinberger made a horrible

112 NO NEw THING .

face,bent over the keys

,lifted his great hands

above his head,and brought them down with a

crash-bang which drowned all subsequent deficienCies, and the performance came to an end witho ut further hitch .

Probably not more than one per cent . o f theaudience knew that anything had gone wrong .

The young debu tant had had a momentarydifficulty

,but he had surmounted it at once ;

and his acquaintances,o f whom there were a

great many among the company,were quite

ready to congratulate him upon his success . Buta very different verdict was given by those whoseapproval was o f more importance .

Gott in Himmel it was the yell o f a wildbeast ! shouted Steinberger

,who was in a furi

o u s passion .

‘ Make such another exhibition o f

yourself,and I wash my hands of you . What

have I always told you ? Why must you runo ff to Italy, and ruin your voice by exerting itto o soon ? You are a hundred—tonsand timesworse now as you were last year !But Philip

,apparently unmoved

,laughed

,

remarked ‘ Better luck next time,

’ and strolleddown into the room

,where Edith was saying to

Walter,

‘ Hasn’t he improved wonderfully ? Ihad no idea he could sing like that . Do youthink he saw us ? ’

I hope not,

’ answered Walter .

114 No NEW THING .

fo r his part,wasvery obviously embarrassed and

uncomfortable . Have you only j ust returned ?I suppose you haven’t been to Longbourne yet ?I just want to speak to somebody for a minute .

Back directly .

’ And Walter tu Ined tail andfled ; nor did he return to Edith

’s side until hehad satisfied himself that Philip was at a safedistance .

Never felt so Small in my life,

’ he declared,

speaking afterwards o f his behaviour upon thisoccasion .

‘ Knowing that,only a few days before

,

I had sent Off a letter robbing him o f his character behind his back

,I couldn’t sit there and pre

tend to be as good friends with him as ever .Nobody could . I simply had to make a bolt forit . ’

Meanwhile Philip,who had perfectly under

stood the meaning Of Walter’s abrupt retreat,

and was no t a little amused by it,had taken

possession o f his friend’s vacant place,and was

m aking polite inquiries after Mrs . Winnington .

‘ Meg tells me she is down with the goutagain

,

’ he said .

‘ You really ought to impressu pon her the duty o f ta!t ing more care Of herself,f or all our sakes .

You have been to Longbourne, then,’ said

Edith . Of course you saw Nellie .

’

‘ I did . I may as well tell you that all isover between Nellie and me . Don’t try to look

A FIASCO . 115

distressed . You know that you think, as everybody else does

,except Meg

,that she is well rid

o f me . At the same time,if you feel disposed

to admire my fortitude,I don’t forbid you to do

s o . In me,Edith

, you see that sublime spectacle

,a good man struggling with adversity . By

a most unkind freak of fortune,I have failed to

establish my right to call myself Brune , and Iam by no means clear that I have no t lost my oldname in - the attempt . I return home in brokenSpirits to be told by Nellie that

,upon further

consideration,she finds that she never cared a

brass farthing f or me . I come up to London,

and make a hi deous fiasco of my first publicappearance . It now only remains for me to berobbed and murdered on my way back to mylonely lodging ton ight

,and the tale o f woe will

be complete .

’

But is thi s really true,Philip ? About

Nellie,I mean .

’

It is too true . I am assuming a light tone,

you will understand , in order to conceal a deepemotion . That also is true

,though yo u don

’tbelieve it . Ah

,well ; let us talk about something

else . Here comes Mr . Stanniforth,looking the

benevolent legislator all over . I wonder whetherhe could be induced to hatch a scheme for thesustenance of unsuccessful public singers at thenational expense .

’

116 No NEW THING .

Tom Stanniforth greeted Marescalchi withall the cordiality that could have been expectedo f him

,and with con siderably more than he felt .

He said:‘ Everybody is prophesying a greatcareer for you . They tell me that we shall behearing you at Covent Garden before this timenext year . ’

‘ Everybody is very kind,

’ answered Philip ;but it is a mistake to prophesy

,and especially

to fix dates . You can ’t go far wrong if youf oretell that the world is coming to an end ; butif you say it will come to an end in 1881 , peopledon’t think much o f yo u in 1882 . I only wishI were as sure o f singing at Covent Gardensome day as you are o f being returned for

Blackport at the next general election buteven that isn

'

t an absolute certainty,I suppose .

Haven ’t you been proposing to lock up allhabitual drunkards

,or something of that sort ?

Some o f your constituents must look upon that asa rather uncalled -for interference with the amusem ents o f the sovereign people

,I should think .

’

‘ That young man is —what shall I say ?

not very far removed from a conceited youngpuppy

,

’ remarked Mr . Stannifo rth,with unusual

severity,as Philip lounged away . For the

truth was tha t the Habitual Drunkards Bill hadbeen very coldly looked upon both at Blackportand in the House o f Commons .

118 No NEW THING .

very long time . Then Philip again came forward

,and sang a pathetic balled with much

effect,and shortly after that the proceedings

terminated . By dint of determin ation andsome exertion o f physical force

,Walter man

aged to be on the doorstep at the right momentto help Edith into her carriage ; but that was allhe got ou t o f the opportunity which had beenprovided for him with so much forethought

,

and o f which he had hoped such great things .Taking it altogether

,it had hardly been a suc

cessful evening ; and perhaps the only one o f o ur

friends who had thoroughly enjoyed it was TomStanniforth. He

,having had a long talk with

Edith during the latter part of the time,had

found her so amiable and kind that he reallybegan to think he might be falling in love withher at last ; and said to himself that, in any case,he would not much longer postpone the Offerwhich he had now quite determined to make .

Tom Stanni forth was SO much a man o f

business that,when he had formed a clear inten~

tion,he was uneasy until he had execu ted it .

In this matter o f his marriage he had Shillyshallied an unconscionably long time

,because he

had not felt perfectly sure o f his own wishes ;but now it seemed to him that he had done allthat was necessary in the way of preliminaries ,and that it would be well to get the whole

A FIASCO. 119

business settled and'

done with, so that he mightbe able to devote his whole mind to habitualdrunkenness for the remainder o f the session .

SO the very next morning he betook himselfto Park Street ; and his air , as he marched intothe little drawing-room

,was so plainly that o f a

man with a purpose,that Edith knew quite well

what had brought him there before he openedhi s lips .As soon as he had made the inquiries which

politeness demanded,and had expressed his

grief at hearing that Mrs . Winnington was stillin a good deal o f pain

,he wasted no more time

in beating about the bush,but went straight to

the point .‘ I don’t know whether you have guessed

what has made me call at this unusual hour,Mi ss

Winnington .

’

Miss Winnington couldn’t im agine .

‘Well,I came because I hoped to find you

alone,and because I wanted to Speak to you upon

a subj ect o f great importance—o f great importance to me

,I mean . I think you must know

a lready what my wishes are,and sometimm I

have ventured to hope that you might not consider me too old and ugly to make a passablehusband . I certainly have no reason to flattermyself that you are what is called in love withme ; but the longer I live the more I become

120 No . NEW THING .

convinced that happy marriages do not dependupon there being love on both Sides . ’

‘ You think there ought to .be love on one

side,then ? ’

Mr . Stanniforth, whose countenance worethe smiling and complacent expression which itwas wont to assume in the House Of Commonsafter he had disposed o f a difficulty, replied thathe would not go so far as to assert even that .Which rather took the wind o ut o f Edith’ssails .

You look very much pleased with yourself,

’

she was provoked into exclaiming .

‘ Are youmuch in the habit o f proposing to people

,that

you know so well how to put your case ? ’

I suppose no man has had less practice atthat kind o f thing than I have

,

’ answered Tom,

still radiant . Fo r,indeed

,it seemed to him

that he ha d put the case very neatly and concisely.

‘ Have you never proposed to anybodybefore ? ’

Mr . Stanniforth made no answer,but looked

down and smiled,as if he thought the question

was hardly a fair one.

Thereupon the pitiless Edith repeated itand he was obliged to speak .

‘Well,if yo u insist upon my telling you ,

’he

said,

‘ I have . Only once,though .

’

No NEW THING .

part in those theatricals at Longbourne ? I can’

t

pretend to be a very good actress myself ; if Ihad been

,I should have accepted you first

,and

told you something afterwards which would havemade yo u wish you were dead .

’

‘ My dear Miss WinningtonI really should—unprincipled as it might

have been . But now, if I do you a good turn

by refusing you,will you do something

: forme ? ’

Tom rubbed his head doubtfully,for he not

unnaturally conj ectured that Edith contemplatedeloping with a detrimental

,and was going to ask

for his assistance in the matter .‘ I hope you won’t think me over caut ious

,

’

he answered,

‘ if I say that I hate making pro ~

mises in the dark . I should be only too glad tobe o f u se to you in any way, Miss Winnington ;but I ’m afraid I couldn’t help you to do anythingthat—that might seem to me likely to bring youunhappiness . ’

‘ Don’t be alarmed,

’ said Edith ;‘ it is nothing

very ou t -o f -the -way that I want you to do forme . It is only—and here she also began toShow signals o f d istress it is only to behaveas if—that is

,not to mention to my mother that

I have refused you , for a few weeks—just till theend o f the season .

’

Oh,I’ll promise that ! answered Tom

A FIASCO . 123

cheerfully,understanding well enough the

reason o f the request ;‘ and I only hope that

,

before the end of the season,some more worthy

man may stand where I hoped to have stood . Iwon’t say anything about my own disappointment . ’

‘ NO ; I don’t think I would

,if I were you

,

’

said Edith drily .

‘ And now let me tell youthat it is all over between Phili p and Nelli e . Iheard it from Philip himself last night ; his ownwords were that she had told him she had nevercared a farthing for him . An d I can’t helpthinking it might be worth your while to tryagain with the lady to whom you proposed at anunknown date .

’

124 No NEW THING .

CHAPTER XXXI.

TOM STANNIFORTH GIVES SOME TROUBLE .

MORE soothing than paregoric,more invigorat

ing than all the waters o f Vichy, Homburg, andKissingen

,were the deep tones of a man’s voice

,

a scending from below,to Mrs . Winnington

,as

she lay outstretched upon the sofa to which herold enemy had pinned her down . For no les sthan an hour and a half had Mr . Stanniforth

been in the drawing -room wi th Edith,and still

he was talking on,as if he never meant to go

away . In a certain sense he never would goaway ; Mrs . Winnington was quite

‘ sure o f that .She knew very well that there is but one errandwhich can excuse a man

'

for presenting himselfdirectly aft er breakfast and staying until theluncheon hour is at hand and although for

some time past she had been in little doubt asto Mr . Stanniforth

’

s intentions,she was too well

acquainted with the slippery ways o f men to bethoroughly comfortable so long as the fatal wordsremained still unspoken . Certain it was that they

12 6 No NEW THING .

she always fought,with a stubborn determination

not to give in ; but when the pain began to go,her spirits also began to droop

‘;

- and just now

she felt very Old and tired and inclined for rest .Had she been in her usual health

,she would

probably have at once set to work to tormentherself with doubts as to whether she might nothave made a more brilliant capture than that o fTom Stanniforth, but now she was disposed to

give thanks for What She had got . Tom Stanniforth was not only a very rich man already

,but

would on his father’s death become one Of therichest commoners in England ; and nowadayswealth was a more important thing than title .Besides

,there was no reason why the one should

no t lead to the other . It was a pity,in some

ways,that he Should be a Radical ; but if the

Radicals were to govern the country for the nexttwenty years

,as everybody said they were sure

to do,they would want to be better represented

in the Upper House than they were at presentand so opportunity might come to the wealthyand deserving . And when Mrs . Winnington reflected that it was within the range of possibilitythat these Democrats might solve the questionby sweeping away the hereditary branchOf the Legislature altogether

,she breathed an

ardent prayer for the preservation of thatbulwark o f the Constitution .

TOM STANNIFORTH GIVES SOME TROUBLE . 127

One Can’t think of everything otherwiseEdith might have remembered that her prolonged interview with Mr . Stanniforth could notfail to be commented upon

,and to be productive

o f some embarrassment to her in the near future .This detail had escaped her while she indulgedin pardonable exultation over her Own adroitnessand her acquisition of a staunch and devotedfriend . That Tom Stanniforth meant to provehimself such a friend he. assured her again andagain . No thing could exceed his gratitude

,

unless it were his profound admiration of the insight which had enabled her to discover what hedid not really know himself. He had quitegiven up thinking about Nellie for a long tiIne,he declared . Well

,he had given up thinking o f

her in that way,at all events ; and as for hope ,

he had abandoned all shadow o f that from thevery first . Even now he could hardly believe—and so forth

,and so forth . It is not necessary

to give a full report o f all the puerilities utteredon this occasion by one who

,through a long

career o f public usefulness,has ever been held to

possess a stock of common sense above the average .

Did Miss Winnington really think there couldbe a chance for him ? he asked ! for about thet wentieth time! . Would it be a good plan

,now

,

if he were j ust to run down to Longbourne fromSaturday to Monday

,and see how the land lay ?

128 No NEW THING.

Miss Winnington did no t think that wouldbe a good plan at all . ‘ I know exactly whatyou would do

,

’she said . If you saw her

,you

would march straight up to her and repeat youroffer in a money -or-your -life sort o f tone

, j ust like—like so many other matter -o f -fact people .And then

,o f course

,she would refuse you again .

Nellie is a great deal to o proud to throw overone man and accept another almost in the samebreath .

’

‘ Yes ; there’s that

,certainly . I didn’t think

o f that‘ And

,besides

,aren’t you rather forgetting

your promise to me ? ’

Dear me ! yes,to be sure ! I do wish

,Miss

Winnington,that there was somebody whom you

wanted to marry,and that there was a difficulty

about it,so that I might be of some assistance to

you .

’

You are very kind,

’ said Edith,laughing

but my ambition, yo u see , is to remain single ,

and there is a diffi culty about that which youcan assist me to overcom e .

’

‘ Just so . Well, yo u may rely upon me to

do my best . Only, you know,

that kind o f

deception can’t be kept up very long .

’

Sufficient unto the season is the evilthereof

,

’ said Edith . And then she began talking about Nellie again

,until three loud

130 NO NEW THING .

like this,and there will be an end o f me—and

it will be ju st as well so . We all o f us have am ission to accomplish

,Mr . Stanniforth

,and

,

when once it is accomplished,the sooner we get

ou t o f other people ’s way the better . I wish Icould feel that I had accomplished mine ! ’

Not being quite sure o f the nature o f them ission referred to

,and fearing that the subj ect

,

if pursued,might develop itself into a perilous

one,Tom made haste to change it .Do you know,

’ he asked,that Longbourne

i s to be let ? ’

Mrs . Winnington clasped her hands,let

them fall upon her knees , closed her eyes , andnodded a great many times

,as signifying that

she could say a good deal,but

,for charitable

reasons,abstained from doing so .

I never was so astonished in my life,

’Tom

went on .

‘ I was walking down Oxford Streetyesterday afternoon

,when I happened to glance

into a house-agent’s window ; and there , as largeas life

,was a photograph o f Longbourne. It is

t o be let for a year ormore , they told me. Whatis the reason o f it ? ’

‘ Ah ! ’ answered Mrs . Winnington,after

more dumb Show,you may well ask the reason

o f it . I don’t kn ow . Poor dear Margaret ! shereally is so very extraordinary . I have had aletter from her

,giving a sort Of explanation of


the step which she has seen fit to take . I cannot say that it is a satisfactory explanation tomy mind

,but Of course she is mistress Of her

own actions .’

She is not—not going to be married,is she ? ’

asked Tom hesitatingly .

‘ Oh no ! it is not so bad—not so serious,I

mean - as that . But it seems that Mr. Langley—a most excellent man

,but rather to o extreme

in hi s views—has been putting notions into herhead ; and now she wants to go into a sort o f

retreat for several months . She is rathermysteriou s about it

,but I imagine that She is

thi nking Of entering some sisterhood for a time ;she always had a leaning towards that kind o f

life . She gives me no address,and her letters

are to be sent to Longbourne Rectory . Why SheShould have thought it necessary to let her houseI cannot understand .

’

‘ But can’t you induce her to reconsider herdecision ? ’ asked Tom

,to whom this explanation

seemed even less satisfactory than it had doneto Mrs . Winnington . People really ought no tto be allowed to disappear in that way ; one can

’ttell what may happen to them . There must besomething under all this that you don

’t knowo f .

’

Mrs . Winnington shrugged her shouldersand spread o ut her hands . ‘ I have protested

,

’

K 2

132 No NEW THING .

said she ;‘ I can’t do more . Speaking quite

f rankly,as between relatives

,I must say that I

think a little more consideration might havebeen shown for m e. AS you know,

I havemade my home with Margaret for many years

,

not wishing that She should be left quite alone ;and the result o f her acting in this precipitatemanner is that in a very short time I shall findmyself without a home to go to . Fortunately

,

it so happens that my health will oblige me toSpend the summer in Germany and Switzerland ;but after that I really don’t know what is tobecome o f us . It is not so easy to find a houseand furnish it in such a hurry

,and I do think

dear Margaret might have considered that . ’

‘ But what does she propose doing herself?She doesn’t intend to remain in retreat all thattime

,I presume ? ’

‘ No ; she speaks of j oining me in the courseo f the summer or autumn

,and o f o ur spending

the winter together somewhere abroad ; but itnever seems to occur to dear Margaret that Imay have plans and engagements of my own .

By the bye,what do you think o f doing this

year ?’

‘ I ? Ch,I haven’

t formed any plan as yet !’

answered Mr . Stann iforth,looking a little guilty ;

for the truth was that he had a plan in his head ,and had called in Park Street for the express

134 NO NEW THING .

but she did manage , while shaking hands withher visitor

,to whisper

,

‘ How s tupid you are !’

which sent him away much disconcerted .

It was Lady Travers who had written a lineto Walter

,telling him to be at the Botanical

Gardens that afternoon,and who had afterwards

mentioned to Edith what she had done . Thelatter had received this intelligence with aproper amount o f outward indifference

,but

with inward satisfaction for she foresaw the approaching day when Mrs .Winnington would oncemore have the full use o f her lower limbs ; andwhen that day came

,there would be a difficulty

in arranging meetings with Walter,if,indeed

,

such meetings did no t have to cease altogether .It was

,therefore

,excessively tiresome that Mr .

Stanniforth should have declared his intentiono f j oining himself on to the party ; but Edithconsoled herself with the hope that Waltermight not be able to get away from the Cityuntil late in the afternoon

,before which time

she thought she could contrive to give her otherfriend a hint to take himself o ff .Fortune

,apparently

,was on her side ; for

when she and her sister drove up to the entranceo f the gardens no Waiter was in sight . Mr .Stanniforth, however , was waiting patiently forthem in a beautifully-fi tting suit o f clothes

,

with a glossy hat,and a flower in his button -hole .


Has anybody noticed the characteristic circumstance that a good Conservative takes instinctively to the wearing of old coats after a certaintim e o f life

,whereas your Radical is always

a smartly -dressed man ? Tom,brilliant and

beaming,advanced to meet the ladies ; and

presently,Lady Travers having stopped to

speak to an acquaintance,he led Edith out Of the

crowd to a comparatively sequestered spot,behind a clump o f rhododendrons

,where two

chairs had been left,as if on purpose for

them .

‘ I am afraid,

’ he began at once,that I made

some mistake this morning. LWhy did you callme stupid ? ’

‘Why did you insist on dragging me hereon such a broiling afternoon ? ’ returned Edith .

You are not at all quick in seeing what peoplewant

,do you know .

’

You didn’t give me a chance o f s eeinguntil it was too late ; and really I don’t call ithot at all . But

,to be perfectly honest

,I believe

I was thinking rather o f what I wanted myselfthan of what you wanted . Since yesterday I

have been turning over in my mind a projectwhich has occurred to me

,but I would not take

any steps before consulting you ; and that wasreally why I hoped I might see you thi s afternoon . I humbly apologise for my selfishness . ’

136 NO NEw THING .

‘ It is o f no consequence,

’ answered Edith .

What is your project ? ’

‘ It is about Longbourne. How would it beif I were to take the place

,and spend the summer

there ? In that way, you see , I should be livingnear her

,and I might do things by degrees

,as

you suggested . On thinking it over,I quite

agree with you that hurry would be fatal . It

strikes me also that the arrangement might bea convenient one in some ways for Margaret . ’

Edith laughed .

‘ I think everybody wouldknow pretty well what brought yo u ,

’

she said .

Bachelors don ’

t usually take large countryhouses for the summer .

’

But I ’m not exactly like the general run ofbachelors . I have a large country -house o f myown in Staffordshire .

’

‘Which you never inhabit . That seemsrather an Odd reason for taking another one.

’

Oh ! well,it is impossible to round things

Off with such absolute neatness ; one can’t createexactly the situation that one requires . Evensupposing that she did guess why I was at Longbourne

,it wouldn’t so much matter . I shou ld

be very humble and m eek,and never go over to

Broom Leas unless I were asked . I really thinkthe thing might be worked so as to give it an

air Of probability . Margaret wants to go abroad ,but doesn’t care to leave her house In the hands

138 NO NEw THING.

‘ Not as a rule ; but the banks and placesget on very well without them .

’

‘ The poor clerks stay and do the work,I

suppose . How hard that seems !‘ Oh ! they all get their month at one time

or another,I take it . But about my plan:you

think I may venture to write to Margaret,then ?

And you’ll try and persuade your mother to payme a visit in the autumn ? ’

Edith,who was wondering

,at that moment

,

whether Mr . Boulger’

s slaves were allowed tochoose their own time for absenting themselvesanswered. somewhat irrelevantly

,The question

is whether September would be the month .

’

‘ Oh ! September,or October

,or November

,

any time that suited you best . The only thingis

,Miss Winnington

,

’ continued Tom,with a

graver face and some hesitation of Speech,that

by that time I am afraid—or perhaps I oughtrather to say that I hope—and yet I have .nobusiness to hope . What I mean is that I don’tsee how it would be possible to keep yourmother in the dark SO long as to —to Tom

left his sentence unfinished,for

,although he

quite understood the part that Edith wishedhim to play

,it was a little awkward to allude

to it in plain language .

Our agreement was only to hold good upto the end o f the season

, you know,

’she


answered,wi th a faint smile .

‘ I can’t lookbeyond the end o f the season . I hate lookingforward at all

,it always makes me SO miserable

,

’

she added ; and Tom ,glancing up suddenly

,saw

that her blue eyes were swimming in tears .This spectacle distressed him beyond mea

sure .

‘ Upon my soul,it’s too bad ! ’ he ex

claim ed involuntarily ; and then , Mis s Winnington , I do wish I could help you in anyway .

’

You can’t help me,Mr . Stanni forth ; nobody

can help me,

’

answered the girl despairingly ;and the tears overflowed from her eyelids andran down her cheeks .

Now,now

,you mustn’t—you really mustn’t

give way ! ’ cried Tom,in great perturbation .

Keep a good heart,my dear Miss Winningt on ,

and it will all come right in the end . I thinkI can part ly understand what your trouble is ;but nobody can force you to do what you don’twant

'

to do,if you will only stand at bay and

defy them . And—and it can’t last for ever,

you know,

’ added Tom ,forgetting

,in his desire

to console the affl icted one,that he was cheering

her with the prospect of her mother ’s ultimatedemise .

Had he been a little better versed in theways o f women

,he would have known that he

had but to s it still and hold his tongue,and that

140 No NEW THING .

Edith would presently recover herself ; but hewas ignorant Of this fact in physiology

,and SO

he went on with his well-meant efforts at comfort . ‘ Now

,don’t cry

,pray don’t ; it really

isn’t so bad as you think it is —and so forth .

Bending forward in the fervour o f his entreaties,

he grasped Edith’s hand,which was lying pas

s ively on her lap,and which she did no t with

draw .

It was at this most inopportune momentthat Walter emerged from the trees

,and

,halting

abruptly on recognising the couple before him,

became,as it were

,turned to stone .

The effect o f this apparition upon MissW

'

innington was very incomprehensible to TomStann iforth

,who had his back turned to the

intruder . In the twinkling o f an eye she hadsnatched her hand away ; her tears were gone ,a cheerful and guileless smile illumined herf eatures

,and

,except that she was a little red

in the face,there was nothing about her to m

dicate that only a second before she had been a

prey to such poignant emotion .

‘ Oh,here is Mr. Brune " said she. And

she got up,holding ou t her hand

,and saying

,

How do you do , Walter ? in the most matterOf -course manner in the world .

Walter,who had no such aptitudes for self

repression,made a grab at his hat

,growled out

142 NO NEw THING .

I am afraid I can’t help my looks . I mustapologise for having interrupted you ,

and drivenMr . Stanni forth away . As I am going awaymyself directly

,perhaps I had better look for

him,and send him back to you .

’

Edith raised her eyes for a moment toWalter’s face

,and then let them drop again .

and began drilling holes in the turf with the tipOf her parasol . ‘ If you won’t ask me anything

,

’

she said presently,

‘ of course I can’t explain .

’

‘ Really,

’ answered Walter,with a short

,

angry laugh,I don’t think I care particularly

about explanations . You don’

t owe me any ;and if you did

,it would make very little differ

ence . There are some things which even y ou

would find it rather hard to explain away .

’

‘ Even I ! ’ exclaimed Edith,stung by the

injustice o f the innuendo ; I don’t know what

you mean by that .’

‘ I only mean that you are rather clever atexplanations . I don’t much like them myself ;I prefer that there should be nothing to explain .

But I suppose you would not find that at allamusing .

’

You are very rude, and very unfair ! ’

cried Edith .

‘ If this is all I get by—byBy taking some trouble to lead a fool into

displaying his folly, you won

’t do it again ?Well

,I hope you won’t

,I’m sure . I can answer


for one fool who will decline to play the gameany more

,at all events .’

You are quite right,Mr . Brune

,

’ repliedEdith coldly ; you had certainly better give upplaying the game

,

! as you call it,Since you

have no control over your temper .’

‘ I could keep my temper well enough if allthis were play to me

,as it is to you . But what

proves me a fool is that I have been in earnest .It won ’t happen again though

,that’s one thing .

I don’t understand the ways o f the world thatyou live in nowadays

,and it is not at all likely

that I should ever get accustomed to them .

Of course I ought to see that bankers’ clerks areonly an inferior clas s of beings

,who may think

themselves uncommonly lucky if they are flirtedwith

,and that the men to be married are

millionaires,like Stanniforth . But

,unfortu

nately, I don’t see it

,so I am not fit to play the

game,and the sooner I leave the ground the

better . Good-bye,Miss Winnington .

’

Walter bowed with great dignity,and pre

pared to suit the action to the word . He did no t,

however, walk away quite so quickly as he mighthave done , and he must have been li stening veryattentively to have been arrested by the extremelyfaint sound which presently reached his ear .


’ said he,stopping short ;

did you call me ?’

144 NO NEw THING .

No,

’ answered Edith in a chilling tone ; andhe said

,


’ again,and resumed

his deliberate retreat .‘Walter !There was no doubt about the summons this

time ; and Walter promptly faced about andobeyed it . Have you anything to say to me ?

’

he asked .

‘ I only thought that,after what you said

just now,I had better tell you that I am not

going to be married to Mr . Stanniforth. Mr.Stanniforth is going to be married—or at leasthe wishes to be married—to quite anotherperson . It was about her that he had be entalking to me when you came up .

’

IS this true ? ’ asked Walter hoarsely .

I am not in the habit of saying what is nottrue ; but you need not believe me , unless youlike . If you see Kate as you go out

,will you

tell her where I am,please ? I don’t wish to be

left quite by myself among all these people .

’

Oh,Edith

,I beg your pardon ! I quite

forgot that I was leaving yo u alone . Will youforgive me

,just this .

once ? I am so awfullymiserable

,and—well

,you ’ll allow that it was

enough to make any fellow lose his head . Whatwas I to think when I saw the man holding yourhand ? ’

‘ I can forgive you,

’ answered Edith,with a

146 NO NEw THING .

to believe that yo u still cared for me ; and yet itseems to me that I Should be very foolish if Idid believe it . Perhaps I am more dull thanthe rest o f the world ; but 'I do like to havethings put plainly and to knowwhere I am .

’

You are in the Regent’s Park,

’ answeredEdith

,laughing

,

‘ and you are attracting attention by your authoritative manners

,and here

comeKate and Mr . Stanniforth in search o f u s .

D O,please

,try to look like other people for a

little while .

’

Do you know that it is nearly dinner -time ? ’

said Lady Travers . Perhaps Mr . Brune wouldbe kind enough to go and find the carriage forus . ’

And when Walter was gone,she whispered

to Edith:‘What a goose you are not to marryMr . Stannifo rth ! He is worth a doz en o f theo ther .

’

CHAPTER XXXII .

PHILIP BEFORE THE PUBLIC .

IN the whole course o f his life Philip had neverdischarged a debt with more heartfelt satisfactionthan that o f the 5 ,000l. which had been lent himby Signora Tommasini . The Signora

,not at all

affronted by his Unceremonious flight from Italy,

had let him know her address immediately uponher arrival in London ; and the very next morning Philip presented himself, with a neat littlespeech carefully learnt

,and a cheque for 5

,125Z.

enclosed in an envelopeWhat is this

,

’ cried the Signora,indignantly

,

after examining the slip o f paper tendered to

her .Don’t speak like an angry cabman

,

’ returnedPhilip

,laughing . It is y our money, principal

and interest,as per agreement ; and I have been

endeavouring to express some sense o f myObligation ; only you wouldn

’t listen to me . ’‘ I call

.this most unfriendly ,’ said the Sig

nora .

148 NO NEw THING .

‘ Never did I hear the just payment o f a

debt described in those terms before . If thereis any error in the amount , kindly mention it ,and it shall be rectified.

’

‘What nonsense ! Do you take me for aJew money -lender

,that you hand me 125l. more

than I gave you ? I shall certainly not acceptit . ’ And the Signora tore the cheque up

,and

tossed it into her waste -paper basket .‘ That makes a penny more that y ou will

have to accept ,’ remarked Philip

,blandly . My

dear Signora Tommasini,don’t be ridiculous .

Yo u know it was agreed between us that Ishould repay you with reasonable interest ; andOf course the sooner I could repay you thebetter it was for me .

’

‘ I said yo u were to repay me when you hadmade your fortune upon the stage . As for theinterest

,that was rubbish . Yo u cou ld not

have supposed that I meant to drive such abargain as that . ’

And could you have supposed that my selfrespect would have allowed me to accept yourhelp upon any other conditions ? I am sure youcould not—knowing

,as you do

,what a high

sense o f self-respect I possess . ’

‘ I shall not take the interest,

’ replied theSignora . I must take the principal

,I suppose ;

but it is very annoying . You won’t work any

50 NO NEW THING .

rested in his advancement has been alreadyrelated . His failure was made light of bySignora Tommasini

,who declared i t to be due

solely to nervousness ; but Herr Steinberger didnot take this View and grumbled long andloudly at the folly Of trying to make short cu tsto fame . Steinberger had never

,from the first

,

cared much about Philip as a pupil . He was aman who liked to make unexpected hits

,to

take audiences by storm,and strike critics dumb ;

and he knew that this could only be accomplishedby practically ensuring su ccess before the event .In Philip’s case it was hardly possible to do SO .

He was neither poor enough nor ambitiousenough to be patient ; and his voice , unfortunately

,was one o f those uncertain ones which

may be magnificent to -day and less than mediocreto -morrow.

‘ Goot for noting ? ’ cried Steinberger,in

hi s disgust you are really goot for noting ; andit was better you give up all idea o f the stage . ’

Philip made no rejoinder to this and othersimilar outbreaks . He was much inclined toagree with Herr Steinberger . He did no t giveup thinking o f the stage—nor indeed did theirascible German intend that counsel to betaken quite literally—but it was very stronglyborne in upon him that he was good for nothing .

He felt that it was not in him to succeed in

PHILIP BEFORE THE PUBLIC . 15 1

anything bevond a certain point ; he was quitesure that it was not in him to succeed in theteeth o f difficulties ; and , worse than this , hewas aware that it was not in him to care verymuch

,even though he Should fail . Know thy

self ’ is a precept which has a wise sound ; butif it were possible to act upon it

,if we could all

in truth know ou rselve s,how many Of us would

have the courage to go on living ? Philip knewh im self a great deal too well

,and had long since

recognised the futility o f attempting to steer avessel without a rudder . For some years of hislife i t had been amusing to drift, and certainlyhe had drifted in and o u t o f some queer placesbut now the edge o f that form o f enj oyment hadworn Ofl

"

,and the lenient self- disparagement in

which he had been wont to indulge was fastturning into self-contempt—which was by nomeans a change for the better . It was no t so

much that he was oppressed by the memory Ofsins which did no t strike him as specially heinousones

,as that he was beginning to see that his

was an ignoble,obj ectless life

,and that it never

would be anything else . Nellie despised himand—he thought—hated him ; Margaret despised him and loved him:all he could do was

to keep as much as possible o ut o f the way o f

them both henceforth ; and , as’

they happened tobe the only two persons in the world for whom

152 No NEW THING .

he cared a Straw,the future was not a very

bright one to contemplate .Perhaps he would not have troubled himself

much about the future,if the present had been

agreeable ; but it was no t so . For the first timein his life

,Philip was beginning to suffer from

satiety,the disease o f selfish men . He was

leading just the same life that had Seemed tohim so delightful a year before . He had quiteas many friends as ever ; he dined ou t constantly ; great ladies petted him ,

and Bohemiamade him welcome ; but somehow or other theflavour had gone o u t Of it all . In Old days hehad been subj ect to occasional fits o f low spirits ;but now these fits had become almost permanent .He grew so alarmed about himself at last thathe actually consulted a famous physician

,who

told him that he had allowed himself to run

down to o much,and prescribed a strong tonic .

The physician,being only a physician

,and not

a sorcerer,could not tell What was the matter

with his patient ; but Signora Tommasini understood the case better . In a half- friendly

,half

motherly way,she took possession o f this poor

outcast,whose troubles—even including that o f

his rej ection by Nellie—she had wormed out o f

him,one by one. He was rather glad to tell

them to her . He made no Obj ection to movinginto the rooms which she had secured for him

154 NO NEW THING .

‘ No t the least,

’ answered Philip .

‘ I shallcome to grief most likely

,bu t it won’t be through

any nervousness . ’

Then you will not come to grief at all . Atleast

,if you do

, you would come to grief just asmuch next year

,or the year after . We had

much better know the worst or the best at

once !‘ I don ’t envy you your interview with

Steinberger . He ’ll give In,I dare say ; but

he ’ll abuse you like a pickpocket first . Hotweather has no effect on that man ’s energy .

’

In spite o f this prediction,the Signora had

no great difficulty with Herr Steinberger,who

was very busy at the time,and who had almost

abandoned all hope that Philip would prove themeans o f increasing his reputation . When hewas told of the arrangement which it was proposed to make

,he merely grinned hideously

and went Off into a long guttural laugh and,

on being asked for an explanation of his behaviour

,he permitted himself such impertinent

insinuations that the Signora would haveblushed

,if blushing had still been among her

capacities . As it was,she only joined in

St einberger ’s laughter,like the good -natured

soul that She was,and gave him a great push ,

which sent him reeling into the nearestchair .

PHILIP B EFORE THE PUBLIC . 155

You give me leave to do what I please ,then ? ’ said she.

‘ Oh,take him away—take him away ! ’

an swered Steinberger.

‘ I make him a presentto you . Only

,when he is hissed from the stage ,

you will be so kind and not say as he was mypupil . That is all I beg

The day will come when yo u will boast o f

having been his master,

’ retorted the Signora .

She had confidencein Philip ’s future . Sheremembered the time when she herself had beenan aspirant o f whom little was expected, andwhose triumphs had not come all at once . Herown experience led her to trust the Opinion Ofthe public rather than that o f the cognoscentz

'

,

and perhaps she forgot that her voice,if some

what unmanageable at first,had always been an

extraordinarily powerful one .

Philip allowed her to take her own way,

to bustle about and to secure the engagementthat she desired for him . He did as she toldhim

,practised with unremitting zeal for a fort

night,and listened to her sanguin e prophecies

with a smile that was only half incredulous .The continual sight o f so much energy andfaith was perhaps the next best thing to theactual possession o f those enviable gifts .

Where did yo u learn the secret o f remaining eternally young ? he asked her. It would

156 NO NEW THING .

be very amiable o f you if yo u would commu

nicate it to me for I am ‘growing old at such adeuce o f a pace that I expect my dotage tocome on every hour . Pop me into the caldron ,Signora Medea

,and let us see what kind o f a

stew will come o f it .

’

‘ That i s exactly what I am going to do,

’

replied the Signora,with a triumphant laugh .

You want a success . When once yo u havehad that

, you won’

t talk any more nonsenseabout growing Old .

’

And suppose I don’t get the success ? ’

‘ You mus t succeed,

’ replied the resolutelady

,with a stamp Of her foot which sent the

chandelier j ingling .

‘ I believe you will bully me into succeeding

,whether I will or no

,

’ said Philip,laughing

lazily .

It was on a ho t day in July that SignoraTommasini took the débu tant down to Sydenhamin her carriage

,talking incessantly the whole

way to keep his spirits Up. Philip leant backand listened to her

,much amused at these u n

necessary efforts . He was not conscious o f

the smallest timidity,and only felt the least

shade in the world o f excitement . Lately hehad adopted a soothing sort o f fatalistic creed

,

which disposed o f all worry and responsibility.

If he was destined to be a famous man, he

158 NO NEW THING .

Palace on that July afternoon . He had a soft,

caressing method o f enu'

nciation which had itsown effect ; he understood to a nicety the,

amount of patho s ' that the words could be madeto

’

bear he sang without the smallest apparenteffort—f like a nightingale

,

’ as an enthusiasticlady in the front row declared .

Those who were seated further back wereno t so well pleased

,and thought that a little

more eff ort would not have been out of place .The notes that reached their ears were certainlyvery sweet

,but then there were a good many

notes which did not reach them at all . How

ever,the people who had heard all applauded

vigorously ; and those who did not applaud thesinger applauded the song ; and the residueapplauded because others did so and so SignorMarescalchi was called upon to how many times

,

which he did with a grace that was much re

marked and admired .

Then he received the congratulations o f theo ther artists, whose friendship and good -will hehad for a long time enjoyed

,

‘ But yo u mustsing ou t

,

’ said one Of them warningly ;‘ don’t

forget next time that you must sing o u t .

’

Philip shrugged his shoulders .’

He was no t

elated,and he flattered himself that he would

not have been cast down if things had gonedifferently. He was still under the influence o f

PHILIP BEFORE THE PUBLIC . 159

that dreamy impression that he was only fulfilling his

'

part in a fore -ordained programmehe thought that he was as free from emotion o f

any kind as it was possible to be but probablythere was room at the bottom o f his heart for acertain feeling Of self-glorifi cation in that hewas able to view matters so coolly .

After a time he had to advance once more tothe front in company with Signora Tomm asini

,

whose appearance gave the signal for a salvo Ofclapping and stamping, and who curtseyed andbobbed her head as delightedly as if suchovations had been quite a novel experience toher . Signora Tommas in i was idoli sed by themultitude . While She was singing, Philip wasenabled to discern what an amount of vocalpower was required to fill the building.

‘ Heavens,what lungs ! he thought . ‘ I Should

simply burst,like the frog who wanted to be an

ox,if I tried to produce such a sound as that . ’

Perhaps it was consciousness o f his inabili ty toperform the task demanded o f him that causedhim to let :ou t his notes even more softly andlanguidly than he had done before certain itis that he was all but inaudible .

‘ A SignorMarescalchi

,

’ remarked a daily newspaper,

which noticed the concert the following morning

,was announced to share with Signora

Tommasini in the execution o f this charming

160 NO NEW THING.

duo and as a young gentleman,standing beside

her,was Observed to Open and shut his month

at intervals , it must be assumed that the promisewas kept . Had it not been for this Circumstance

,

we should have been inclined to question theexistence o f Signor Marescalchi . ’

‘The criticism,if ill -natured

,was scarcely

exaggerated . Philip sang sweetly and correctly but

,as far as the immense maj ority o f

the crowd facing him was concerned,he might

almost as well have spared himself the troubleOf Singing at all . Now the British public

,which

is a long i suffering public,will stand many

things and if the new aspirant to its favourhad sung false

,it is more than likely that he

would have been pardoned but what the

British public will not stand is to be defraudedOf its j ust due . It has paid its money to hear anoise and a noise Of some sort or kind it willhave

,o r know the reason why . Therefore ;

when Philip ’s graceful pantomime succeededthe Signora’s tremendous chest -notes

,there

arose a murmuring which,if he had stood alone

,

would probably have developed into some still .

stronger expression o f disapproval . Even as itwas

,he contrived to rob the Signora o f her

legitimate reward and he led her away amidsta little desultory clapping which was almostworse than total silence .

162 NO NEw THING .

wards London that he! alluded to what hadoccurred .

Steinberger will be pleased,

’ he rev

marked .

‘ You did not try ! cried the Signora,who

was deeply mortified .

‘ No ; I didn’t try—after the first . You

wouldn’t try to lift up this carriage and walkOff with it under your arm . I saw that thething was impossible so I gave it up .

’

‘ You let everybody see that you werenot trying ! ’ pursued the Signora

,almost in

tears .Yes ; there was some satisfaction in

What satisfaction I don’t understand

There is always something flattering toone ’s self- love in the action o f snapping one’sfingers in a man’s

'

face . You don ’t frightenhim much perhaps ; but at least you are ableto say to yourself that he hasn

’t frightenedou .

’y‘ But you want to make friends o f these

people,not to defy them . If you go on in

thi s way,you will very soon be . irretrievably

ruin ed .

’

‘ My dear Signora , I am no t going on atall—neither in this way nor in any other. I

PHILIP BEFORE THE PUBLIC . 163

am irretrievably ruined already . D O you thinkI like being hi ssed I assure you I like it solittle that I don’t mean to expose myself to therisk o f its happening a second time . You willnever see me at the Opera now

,unless it is

from beyond the footlights . NO ; all that isover and done with , l ike so manV other things .You have done the best that you possibly couldfor me

,and so has Steinberger ; and upon my

word,I beli eve I have done the best that I

possibly could for myself ; but we couldn’t ac

complish the impossible . We have tri ed veryhard to cultivate what doesn’t exist and now

that our eyes are open, we will stop trying,

please .

’

What will you do,then

Ah,that is rather more than I can tell you .

Waterloo Bridge,I think .

’

Don’t laugh at me I shall not be able tolaugh for a week at least . I feel thi s a greatdeal more than yo u do .

’

‘ I don’

t want to be contradictions,

’ saidPhilip

,lighting a cigarette but I doubt that .’

Then,if you feel it, why are you so easily

discouraged‘ Now

,Signora Tommasini

,be honest ; do

you think I shall ever sing respectablyThe Signora sighed . In her heart she did

not think so yet she could hardly bring herselfM 2

164 NO NEW THING .

to admit as much yet ‘ Perhaps we were intoo great a hurry

,

’she said .

You didn ’t think that the other day Youtold me

,as you may remember , that if I failed

now,I should equally fail two years hence and

I haven’t a doubt that you were right . I havehad so many failures lately that I can’t burstinto tears over this one ; but I am crushed byit,nevertheless . In the course o f the present

year I have managed to lose everything in theworld that I cared for and really I don’t seeanything for it now but to get ou t of theworld .

’

The Signora,who had started by being a

little angry with her friend,began to feel Sin

cerely sorry for him . She knew that he wouldno t blow ou t his brains or j ump over WaterlooBridge but She was not so sure that he mightnot take to drink

,or otherwise commit moral

suicide,if a helping hand were not held o u t to

arrest him .

Oh,come

,

’ said she cheerfully ;‘

you neednot put an end to yourself because you haveSung badly at a Crystal Palace concert, noreven because your cousin won’t marry you . Ihave a dozen plans in my head which we musttry yet

,before we give up the game .

’

And she began detailing these famousschemes

,some Of which were a little wild

,as

166 NO NEW THING.

CHAPTER XXXIII .

WALTER’

S HASH Is SETTLED .

WITH July on the wane,and invitations growing

fewer,and the term for which the house in Park

Street had been hired approaching completion,

Mrs . Winnington felt that it was high time forMr . Stanniforth to speak out . That the mancould mean to play her false

,after all that had

passed,She could not believe ; and yet there

were moments when a Sickening suspicion Oftreachery crossed her mind . Why did Mr .Stanniforth studiously avoid meeting her ?Why

,when they did meet

,did he assume so

shamefaced an air What was the meaning o f

the evident embarrassment'

with which he hadtold her that he had decided to take Longbourne for a year ? Mrs . Winnington had noobjection to his taking Longbourne. On thecontrary

,she thought it wou ld be a very com

f ortable sort o f family arrangement,and was

quite disposed,not only to pay him a vi sit in

the autumn,as he had suggested

,but to make

WALTER’S HASH IS SETTLED . 167

the house her head-quarters,as Of Old

,should

her relations with its occupier prove Of a natureto justify her in SO doing . But his manner

,

while giving the invitation,had certainly been

rather odd ; and indeed it was somewhat un s

accountable that he should wish to take Longbourne at all . The more she thought Of it ‘ themore she became convinced that there wassome mystery connected with the affair ; andMrs . Winnington had so much leisure at thistime to devote to the solving o f mysteries thatmore than once in the course o f her speculationsShe was within an ace Of hitting upon the truth .

She had been lying upon her sofa for a wholemorning

,pretending to read the newspaper and

tormenting herself w ith divers disquieting con

j ectures , until at last further silence became impossible to her. ‘ Edith

,dear

,

’ Said she,

‘ Iknow Mr . Stanni forth tells you everything.

Can you gues s what his obj ect is in going toLongbourne ? I feel sure that he must havesome particular Object . ’

Edith started and looked frightened,as she

always did when her mother addressed hersuddenly . It was not

,however

,the first time

that thi s question h ad been put to her,and she

answered,as she had done on previous occasions,

that she supposed Mr . Stanniforth liked the

country.

168 NO NEw THING .

Oh,my dear

,that is no reason at all . He

has a place o f his own, you

"

know and in the.

natural course o f things one would expect‘ him

to be shooting grouse in August.’

It is justpossible that he might be doing this to obligeMargaret . ’

Of course,

’ said Edith,

‘ Margaret wouldmuch rather have him in the house than a

family o f strangers,who would very likely have

children and dogs,and smoke in their bed

rooms . ’‘ But really

,when you come to think of it

,

that is the sort o f thing that no man wouldever do . Kindhearted as Mr . Stanniforth isand I must say that he is the most kindheartedman I ever met—I cannot believe that hewould burden himself with a large countryhouse merely in order to save his sister- in -law

a little trouble . I can’t help thinking thatthose horrid people are at the bottom o f it .NO doubt they have their own reasons for wishing to get him into the neighbourhood again ;and poor Mr. iStanniforth is so determined tothink well o f everybody that a child mightimpose upon him .

’

‘ I don’t think Mr. Stanniforth is easilyimposed upon

,

’ said Edith .

‘ What horridpeople do you mean ?

Oh,those people at Broom Leas

,o f course.

170 NO NEW THING .

me to Hurlingham to -morrow,

’ remarked Edith,

who never expected to be allowed the privilegeOf opening her own letters when her motherwas present, and who was not in the habit of

receiving any that all the world was not wel

come to read .

She was sitting by the open window,pulling

the dead leaves from the smoke-begrimed geraniums that grew in the box outside

,and con

sequently She did not see the startling effectproduced upon Mrs . Winnington by a perusalo f Lady Travers ’

s note . The first intimationthat reached her o f something being wrongwas a gasping sound proceeding from the roomat her back

,and

,turning round

,she beheld

her mother,who was standing erect

,forgetful

o f the gout,and holding an open sheet Of paper

in her hand . Mrs . Winningt on’

s j aw had fallen ,her eyes were '

dilated,

f

and the expression o f

mingled wrath and horror upon her face waso f a nature to strike terror into the stoutestheart .

‘ Edith,

’ said she,in a deep

,tragic voice

what—4 .07m i is thisEdith

,with blanched cheeks and knocking

knees,took the note extended to her and read

it . It ran as follows‘ Come to tea to -morrow afternoon . I shall

not be in until late but probablyWalter Brune,

WALTER’S HASH IS SETTLED . 17 1

whom I have told to be there,will manage to

entertain you during my absence . It will beyour last meeting with him in this house

,I am

afraid ; for I have just been told that we aret o go down to the co untry in the beginning ofnext week . I suppose you w ill be very sorry foryourself ; but I don

’t know that you are moreto be pitied than other people , after all . I wishI could change places with you ,

I knowYour affectionate sister

,

‘ KATE TRAVERS .

’

Edith handed the note back to her mother,

sank down upon a low chair,and waited . She

could not have spoken if it had been to saveher life . Mrs . Winnington remained standingand for the space o f a few minutes there wasSilence

,during which the rattle of the passing

vehicles outside and the ticking of the clock onthe mantelpiece sounded unnaturally distinct .

You have not a word to say for yourself,then,

’ began Mrs . Winnington,at length .

‘ Imay take it that you have been in the habitOf meeting this man at your sister’s house

,and

that you and she have taken advantage o f myillnes s to deceive me in the cruellest way inwhi ch a daughter can deceive her mother . ’

There was another short interval of silenceand then Mrs . Winnington also sat down

,re

marking that she had received her death-blow.

1 72 No NEW THING .

Apparently, however , she had yet a few wordsto say before she died .

‘ For the last twenty years and more,

’ Shegroaned

,I have thought o f nothing but my

children . I have indulged them,I have toiled

for them,I have sacrificed everything that they

might get on in the world and now I have myreward ! My sons hardly trouble themselvesto write to me twice in the course o f the year

,

and my daughters bring disgrace upon me . Ionly hope

,Edith

,that when you come to be Old

and ill, you may be spared the pain o f being

ashamed Of those whom you have loved andtrusted most . ’

Edith made an attempt to speak,but could

get nothing ou t but an inarticulate murmur,

and Mrs . Winnington went on‘How you can have the face to behave as

yo u have done passes my comprehension ! Yourconscience must be seared with a red -hot iron .

To think that while I was lying upon whatmight have been my death-bed yo u were makingappointments with a man to whom I had forbidden you to speak , and whom you perfectlywell knew that you could never marry ! I couldno t have believed that any one—least Of all anychild Of mine—could have been so heartless andwicked ! ’

‘ I never made any appointment with him ,

’

1 74 NO NEw TH ING .

‘You may well ask what you are to do !

I don’t know what may no t have happenedwhile I have been shut up in the house . Verylikely everybody knows about this disgracefulaffair, and you may have ruined your prospects ,as well as broken my heart . I can’t tell youwhat you are to do . One thing

,o f course

,

must be done without delay :the man must bewritten to .

’

Edith got up and seated herself at thewriting- table without a word. By

- and-by shebegan a note

,under her mother’s dictation .

‘ Dear Mr. Brune—My mother desires me totell you

‘ Stop ! ’ said Mrs . Winnington abruptly‘ that will not do . My wishes and authorityevidently count for very little . You must writein your own name

,and tell him in your own

words that he is never to address you,directly

or indirectly,again

,and that

,if he does so

, you

will refuse to recognise him . When you havewritten that

,you can show me the letter . ’

Mrs . Winnington lay down on the sofa andclosed her eyes ; while Edith , with a shakinghead

,but with very little - hesitation, dashed o ff

the following missive

‘ MY DEAR WALTER ,—I have just received anote from Kate

,asking me to tea to—morrow

,

WALTER’S HASH Is SETTLED . 175

and telling me that you will be there . I cannot

go ; and I cannot meet you again there, or anywhere else . You know

,I told you from the

first that we could never be anything more thanfriends ; but nowit will be immssible for useven to be that . I need not give reasons ; but

yo u must see yourself that we could not havegone on meeting as we have done lately . IShall always feel grateful to you for havingthought Of me for so long as you have done ;but I wish you to remember what I said to youat Longbourne, and to understand that it wasthe truth . I am sure that

,after this

,you will

not att empt to see me or speak to me again .

Sincerely yours,

EDITH Va NINGTON.

’

It was thus that Edith wrote her farewell tothe man whom she loved ; and whether she wasa coward or a heroine

,or a little o f both

,for so

writing,shall be decided by the reader

,accord

ing as his or her conception o f human naturemay dictate .Mrs . Winnington was not pleased with the

tone o f the composition,but she allowed it to

pass,perceiving that by no emendations could it

be made to serve its purpose more thoroughly .

‘ I suppose,

’ said she,in icy accents

,

‘ that Imust take your having written this as a proof

176 NO NEW THING .

Of repentance—you had better ring the bell andhave it posted at once

,by the way—a proof o f

repentance ; but for anything I know,your re

pentance may have come to o late to be o f anyu se. You may have lost what you will neverregain .

’

‘ Yes,I have ,

’ answered Edith,alluding to

an Obvious loss o f which her mother was notthinking .

‘ Mamma,

’ she added abruptly ‘ Ihave done as yo u told me now ; I have givenup everything . I shall never marry WalterBrune ; but please to understand , once for all ,that I shall never marry any one else .

’

If such a thing can be imagined as a rabbitin the snake -house at the Z oological Gardensbidding a boa do his worst

,some idea may be

formed Of Edith’s aspect as she announced thisunalterable determination .

‘How dare you Speak in that tone to me ? ’

shouted Mrs . Winnington,in a rage .

‘ Am I,

your mother, to receive orders from you ? Iknow what is best for you

,and I say that you

shall marry a suitable person .

’

‘ I won’t,

’ returned Edith,tremulously de

fiant .

‘ You can ’t make me,and I won’t . ’

‘ I can make you ,and I will ! ’ Mrs . Win

n ington was going to exclaim ; but she checkedherself after the firs t two words

,and adopted

another system o f tactics . ‘ Edith,

’ said she,in

178 No NEW THING .

besides that,she knew full well that no sooner

would Mr . Stanniforth have been proved in

eligible than a substitute would have beenselected and pursued . Therefore she replied

,

with deplorable casuistryI am not at all convinced that Mr . Stanni

forth cares more for me than for other people .

If he ever told me that he did‘ Yes —well cried Mrs . Winningt on

,

eagerly .

If he assured me of that and begged meto marry him

,perhaps then I might think of

it . ’

Instantly Miss Winnington was enfolded inher mother ’s embrace . She was kissed andforgiven and wept over and

,if the truth must

be told,

she wept a little herself—having,

indeed,some reason for weeping .

Upon this touching scene of reconciliation,

in which it must he confessed that one of ourheroines cuts but a poor figure

,we may now

drop the curtain,and proceed to a less aristo

~cratic quarter o f the town,in company with

the postman who delivered the fatal letter at

I Valter

’

s lodgi ngs in the course of the sameevening .

It so chanced that lValter wou ld not in anycase have been able to put in an appearance atTravers House on the following day

,as he had

WALTER’S HASH Is SETTLED . 17 9

been requested to do . For an event had oc

curred in the City the consequences o f whichseemed likely to be serious in more ways than

one. and which must certainly prevent Walterfrom considering his time his own for thepresent . He had been sitting at his desk at thebank

,early in the afternoon

,when the head

clerk had come ou t with a scared face,and had

whispered to him that he was wanted at once inMr . Boulger

’

s private room . On obeying thissummons

,he had found his uncle lying back in

his chair,snoring heavily and complet ely nu

conscious .‘We can’t rouse him . Do you think we

ought to send for a doctor ? ’ asked the headclerk hesitatingly for Mr . Boulger had reducedhis vassals into SO perfect a state o f subordi

nation that he was very nearly in the samepredicament as that King o f Spain who wasburnt to death because nobody dared to takethe liberty o f

’

kno cking his Maj esty down androlling him up in the hearthrug .

Walter did not scruple to take matters intohis own hands but the doctor

,when he came

,

could do very little,and candidly said so . The

Old gentleman was lifted into his carriage,and

his nephew drove with him to Clapham,where

he resigned him to the care Of the housekeeper,

promising to let the other members Of the familyN 2

180 NO NEW THING .

know what had happened,and to return himself

the next day . Then he went back to his rooms ;and if he speculated a little upon the contents o fMr . Boulger

’

s will on his way,I suppose he

only did what most of us would have done inhis place .The truth was that Mr . Boulger had o f late

let fall several hints which were of a nature toencourage speculation upon this subj ect . Hehad made little secret o f the fact that he was aricher man even than he was generally supposedto be

,and he had somewhat ostentatiously

declared that his nephew John should never seea Sixpence of his money . Besides this nephewJohn

,who

,if he had behaved himself

,would

have been the natural person to inherit hisuncle ’s wealth

,there were sundry other Boulgers

o f whom Walter knew scarcely anything but,

as the old gentleman had for m any years beenupon bad terms with them all , it was impossibleto avoid the conclusion that he had fixed uponsome one else to be his heir . Walter was toohonest to pretend to himself that his uncle ’sdeath would cause him any great grief. He didno t want the poor old fellow to die but he did,o f course , want very much to come into a largefortune ; and , as he made his way towards hislodgings in Bloomsbury through the heat anddust o f a July after ,

noon he realised with great

182 NO NEw THING.

thinking about,and I ’ll be hanged if I will

think about her anyResolutions o f this kind are more easily made

than carried ou t,and it would have been strange

if Walter had been able to dismiss Edith fromhis mind as cavalierly as he proposed to do .

Fortunately for him ,however, he had many

other things to think about . He had to puthimself in communication with Mr . JohnBoulger ; he had to write and inform his fathero f the bereavement with which the family wasthreatened ; and he was wanted at Clapham,

where decency seemed to require that the sickman Should have at least one relative in the housewith him.

On the second day Mr . Boulger died,never

having spoken Since his seizure,and Walter

could not help perceiving that the servantsregarded him as the heir . It was to him theycame for instructions as to the funeral and SOforth, and he was a little puzzled how to act,until the arrival o f Mr . John Boulger from the

north o f England relieved him o f all authorityand embarrassment .Mr . John Boulger was a middle -aged man

,

who had probably quarrelled with his uncle inconsequence o f a too great similarity in theirdispositions . He was not particularly cordialin his manner to Walter

,nor

,perhaps

,under the

WALTER’S HASH Is SETTLED . 183

circumstances,could he have been expected to

be so ; but he Seemed disposed to make the bestof an unfortunate business .

‘ The old man has not treated me well,

’ hesaid ;

‘ but I don ’t complain . I didn’t choose totruckle to him

,and he told me plainly that he

meant to disinherit me . If you have beenmore lucky

,I shall not grudge you your luck .

’

I don’t think I have ever truckled to him,

’

said Walter .Well

,it makes no diff erence to me . I

wouldn ’t count too much upon anything, though ,if I were you . It would be just like my uncleto have left every penny to his housekeeper .’

Mr . Boulger was interred with all the pompthat the occasion appeared to call for

,and his

hearse was followed to the grave by many emptycarriages and by a very respectable concourse ofrelations

,of whom Mr . Brune was one. Walter

had thought that his father ought to be present,

and Mr . John Boulger had concurred in thisView . Mr . Brune had j ourneyed up from Crayminster

,and took his place in the drawing -room

at Clapham among the other gentlemen whowere waiting

,with the exaggeratedly careles s

demeanour which every one assumes at suchtimes

,to hear the will read .

His name was among the first mentioned ;His brother- in-law had bequeathed him five

1 84 NO NEW THING .

thousand pounds ‘ as a small token of regard .

’

This legacy gave u 111ve1 sal satisfaction . Itcleared one competitor o ff the field ; it seemedlarge to Mr . Brune

,who had never expected

anything ; and it was too small to be grudgedby anybody . A like amount went to two o f the

Boulger clan,who received the news o f their

good fortune much as a man who has bought ahalf-crown t icket in a State lottery, and hasdreamt o f securing the grand priz e

,receives the

news that he has won twenty pounds . Thenthere was an almost imperceptible pause ; afterwhich the name o f Walter Brune was read ou t

with an emphasis and deliberation which seemedto presage great things . ‘ I give and bequeathto my nephewWalter Brune —another pause o fa second

,during which the ears o f all present

were pricked up the sum o f one hundred andfifty thousand pounds . ’

A profound sensation was caused by‘

thisannouncement . Walter himself did not dare toraise his eyes from the carpet . He was notastonished

,nor

,at the moment

,was he particu

larly delighted . He had felt sure that the oldman had meant to do something o f the kind

,

and the chief sensation of which he was consciouswas the unpleasant one that all these goodpeople mu st be regarding him as a robber andsupplanter . He was so ill at ease that he

186 NO NEW TH ING .

I don ’t know ; but we must presume that theluck o f the Brunes

,which has been on the ebb

for so many years,has turned at last . It

certainly was about time .

’

‘ My luck hasn ’t turned,

’ remarked Waltergloomily .

‘ I wouldn ’t be too sure o f that . I knowwhat you mean—young fellows only mean one

thing when they speak in that lachrymose voice ;but

,if you won

'

t think me to o cynical, I wouldventure to suggest deferentially that money turnsluck in more ways than one .

’

‘ It won’t in my case,

’ answered Walter,

shaking his head . Mine is one o f those hopelesscases which nothing can mend

,and there ’s no

good in talking about it . ’

After that he was easily persuaded to talkabout it ; and , indeed , talked about nothing elsein the hansom which his father presently hailed

,

and which took them to Bloomsbury,where

Edith’s uncompromising letter was submittedto Mr . Brune’s inspection

‘ You see,

’ said Walter,

‘ there ’s no gettingover that . She tells me in black and white thatshe ’ll have nothing more to say to me .’

yMr. Brune laughed .

‘ My dear boy,

’ said he,

‘

you are too literal . Do you mean to say that

you can’t trace the claws o f the old cat in this ?

As I read the letter,it simply means, Mamma

WALTER’

s HASH i s SETTLED . 187

has sworn to shut me up in a dark room,and

keep me on bread and water if ever I speak to

you again ; and so,much as I regret it

,I must

beg you to cease‘

following me about .!

‘ Perhaps that is what it does mean ; butisn’t that equivalent to saying that she caresvery little about me ? ’

‘ I don’t know,I ’m sure . Go and tell her

to -morrow that you have a matter o f seventhousand a year to lay at her feet

,and no

doubt she will give you the desired informationherself. ’

‘ I shall no t do that,

’ said Walter decisively .

‘ I want her to care for me,not for my money ;

and supposing that she did accept me now how

could I tell what her motive might be ? ’

‘ Ah, you are already beginn ing to find ou t

where the shoe o f Dives pin ches . But cheer up ;you are not so tremendously opulent, when all

is said and done,and I have no doubt Edith

could make a much better bargain for herself ifshe chose . I should be sorry to affirm positivelythatMrs .Winningtonwillwelcome you evennow.

’

She won’t have the chance,

’ said Walter.‘ I have been played fast and loose with longenough, and I am sick o f it . I shall nevermarry .

’

‘ If there were the smallest chance in theworld o f your sticking to that resolution,

’

188 NO NEW THING .

answered his father,

‘ I might perhaps hesitateto try and turn you from it ; but as there isnone

,I think you had better marry your first

love—always supposing that she will have

you .

’

Walter said he was convinced that she wouldnot have him ; but that, whether or no, he wouldnot humiliate himself by asking her again andhe adhered to this determination so obstinatelythat his father

,who sympathised with the young

man ’s feeling,though he foresaw that it would

no t be a permanent one,ceased at last to press

the point . In the course o f the evening,how

ever,he suggested a compromise .

‘ I mean to call upon o ur good friend Mrs .Winnington to -morrow

,

’ said he . ‘ Being intown

,you know

,it will be only a proper act

o f politeness to do so ; and if, at the same time,I can find ou t how the land lies

,I suppose you

won’t be very angry with me .

’

Walter,by way o f reply, only shook hands

with his father,who laughed and said

,

‘ Don’tmi stake wounded vanity for pride

,my boy .

You are the least vain man I ever met,so . I

may say that to you . Now go to bed ; andprepare yourself for a disappointment when I

come back and tell you that Edith is engagedto a duke with a larger annual income than thewhole o f your capital. ’

190 NO NEW THING .

Opposite sex was due in no small degree tothe extraordinary behaviour Of Mrs . Stanniforth

,

who,a short time before this had written some

what coldly to inform Hugh that Philip’s engagement to Nellie Brune was broken ofi which

,

’

said she,

‘

you will consider good news nodoubt —and who had at the same time ment ioned that

,as she was about to let her house

for an indefinite period,and could not say

exactly what her address might be at first,she

would be unable to correspond with him quiteso regularly as she had lately done . An urgentwritten request for more precise information hadremained unanswered ; and thus it was thatHugh had arrived at the pardonable conclusionthat women are the very deuce .But

,although he tried hard to be angry

,

he made but a partial succes s of it . He knewthat

,however foolish might be Margaret ’s

motives for desiring to shroud her movementsin mystery

,they would not be selfish ones and

when he learnt that Mrs . Winnington was entertaining fashionable circles in London

,and that

Marescalchi had been seen disporting himself inthe highest o f society

,a painful suspicion crossed

his mind that economy might be found to be atthe root of this sudden wish for change . Hehad heard with much satisfaction o f the collapseo f Philip’s grand scheme for turnn things

MRS . STANNIF ORTH’

S NERVES . 191

topsy-turvy at Longbourne ; bu t this satisfac

tion had been tempered with anxiety ; for,Brune or no Brune

,there Philip remained , an

expens ive encumbrance,who would never earn

a penny for himself to the end of hi s days,and

who,as it appeared , was not a whit abashed by

hi s failure,nor any less extravagant in his tastes

than of yore .Business and his destiny took Colonel Kenyon

up to London in the last days Of July . Businesskept him at the War Office all the morning

,and

his destiny led him in the course o f the afternoon to a place which it had never been one Ofhis habits to frequent on week-days . He waswalking down a certain street

,on his way to hi s

club,when an open church-door

,through which

a sound Of subdued chanting escaped into theouter air

,attracted his attention . He stopped

and peered into the gloom . He thought itlooked very cool and quiet and peaceful inthere

,and

,after hesitating for a moment

,he

took Off his hat and stole softly up the aisle ontiptoe . The service was nearly over

,and Hugh

had not been five mi nutes in church when thecongregation

,which was not a large one

,was

dismissed . He lingered awhile,thinking o f that

morning,nearly a year ago , when he had knelt be

hind Margaret in the little church at Longbourne,and wondering where she was now. Then he

192 NO NEW THING.

turned,with a sigh , to go away, and , behold !

there she was,at his elbow .

She was still kneeling,and her face was

hidden in her hands ; but Hugh knew her atonce

,despite the rather strange garb in which

she was attired . She wore a close -fi tting blackstraw bonnet

,without ornament o f any kind

,

and a long black cloak enveloped her from headto foot .

‘ I thought as much,

’ muttered Hugh to

himself. ‘ This is that Old Jack-in -the-greenLangley ’s doing . Now

,if he has made her take

vows,or any tomfoolery o f that kind

,hang me

if I don ’t go down and wring his Old neck ! ’

Then he remembered where he was,and

moved hastily Off to the porch,where he felt

that he could with more propriety indulge inprofane ej aculations

,while waiting for Margaret .

He had to wait some time . Once or twice hepeeped in to make sure that she had not escapedby some side door ; but she was still there

,in

the same attitude,and motionless ; and Hugh

was made uncomfortable by the verger,who

eyed him at first inquiringly,and then su s

piciou sly, as a responsible person , with valuablechurch plate under his charge

,and a dread o f

swell-mobsmen before his mind,might be excused

for doing .

At length Margaret rose,and made her way

194 NO NEw THING .

hansom,and said

,reassuringly

,

‘Yes , yes I havecome to look after you :and here

’s the cab, you

see, waiting . You’ll be all right now.

’

Margaret laughed rather hysterically . You

think I have gone ou t Of my mind,’ said She

,

‘ but I assure yo u I am perfectly sane . Seeing

you so suddenly startled me , and I began totalk nonsense . Of course you could not reallyhave known that I was here . I caught a badcold when I first came to London

,and I went

ou t too soon after it, and since then I have beent rying to do things which are beyond me ; andthe consequence is that I have broken downaltogether

,and

‘ Never mind about all that,

’ interruptedHugh .

‘ I have come just in tim e to pick youup, you see. Now

,if you ’ll let me help you

into the hansom,we’ll be Off . ’

Margaret submitted without a word . Itstruck her as quite natural that her companionshould take up that authoritative tone

,and she

rather liked it . He,on his side, in the midst o f

all his alarm and distress,was conscious o f a

certain inward exultation at her Obedience . Itseemed as if at last

,after so many years

,he and

she had found their proper respective positions .Where shall I tell the man to drive to ? ’ he

a sked .

This very natural request produced a curious

MRS . STANNIFORTH’

S NERVES . 195

effect upon Margaret . ‘ I dId not think Of that,

’

she murmured , shrinking back into the cornero f the cab .

‘ I am staying at a Nurses’ Institution . Oh

,Hugh

,do you know,

I don’t think Ican go back there !Hugh

,who was standing up with his back to

the horse,uttered an aspiration with regard to

Mr. Langley, whi ch was unheard by Margaret,and which

,it may be hoped , did not shock the

cabman . He stooped down to say cheerfully ,Of course you are no t going back there . I wasonly doubting whether you would like to go toMrs . Winnington, or

Oh,no ! said Margaret, quickly .

‘NO, to be sure Not to Mrs . Winnington .

Then—let me see—where shall we go ? ’

How silly you are !’ exclaimed Margaret

,

half-laughing, half-crying ;‘ why do you talk to

me as if I were an escaped lunatic ? I had bettergo to lodgings somewhere

,I suppose . Don’t

you know Of any ?’

Hugh at once thought o f a certain quiethotel

,much frequented by the clerical digni

taries o f Crayminster, where both he and Margaret had been known from childhood . He gavethis address to the cabman and then sat downbeside Margaret .

You are very good,

’ said she. And aftera pause

,

‘ I ought to explain my ridiculous be0 2

196 NO NEw THING .

haviour . Yo u know I wrote to you that I wasgoing away from Longbourne for a time . Thefact is

,I took a fancy to learn nursing

,SO I

applied to Mr . Langley,who got them to take

me in at this Institution .

’

‘ Brutes muttered Hugh,who was in a

state o f boiling indignation,which he had some

diffi culty in repressing .

‘ SO they have beenstarving you and ill-treating you ,

have they‘ Oh

,dear no ! they have been as kind as

possible ; it was all my own fault . They toldme I was not the least fit for the work

,and I

am afraid they were right . ’

Hugh grunted .

‘ And I suppose it wasthey who made you dress , yourself up in thisthis waterproof thing,

’ said he,looking with

much disfavour at Margaret’s long garment .‘ It isn ’t waterproof

,

’ she answered,with a

little laugh . If it had been , perhaps I Shouldn’t

have got wet through on the first day,which

was the beginning Of all my troubles . Theycouldn ’t let me wear their dress

,you see

,as I

don ’t belong to the order ; but of course theyexpect anyone staying with them to adopt someunremarkable sort of costume ; so I did mybest . I am afraid I have not succeeded verywell in making myself unremarkable

,

’

she addedruefully .

Not very,’

Hugh agreed .

198 NO NEW THING .

fire lighted,though the thermometer stood at

seventy-five degrees in the shade,and bustled

about,opening and shutting doors and windows

in some perplexity as to what ought to be donenext .Margaret sat passively watching him

,too

weary to question his proceedings .‘Where ’s your maid he asked abruptly.

‘ Oh,she is with her friends ! I couldn ’t

bring her with me,you know .

’

‘ I never heard Of such a thing ! Give meher address

,please .

’

And in a few minutes a telegram was on itsway to the young woman in question desiringher immediate attendance upon her mistress .

‘ And now,

’ said Hugh,I think I ’d better

go Off to that in—ahem !—Institution , and getyour things . ’

The Lady Superior who received ColonelKenyon was a stout person

,whose habiliments

closely resembled those worn by the Sisters OfSt . Vincent -de -Pau l . She listened to her visitor’s communication blandly

,and fully con

curred in his Observation that Mrs . Stanniforthought never to have been allowed to go to sucha place at all . It was

,she added

,quite against

their rules to make these irregular arrangements

,and she had only consented to do so in

this instance as a particular favour to one


S NERVES . 199

whom she greatly esteemed . But she smiledin a rather provoking way when Hugh went onto assert that Mrs . Stanniforth had ‘ half killedherself. ’

I think,

’ said‘ she,

‘

you will find that thereis nothing very serious the matter . Mrs . Stanni forth appears to have a very highly- strungnervous temperament

,and I believe She has

been rather upset by what she has seen at thehospital . Probably a

‘

few days ’ rest will be allthat will be required to set her right . ’

God bless my soul exclaimed Hugh,do

you mean to say that you have been taking herto see people’s legs and arms cut Off Well

,

this is outrageous !The Lady Superior continued to smile in a

manner that was at once superior and ladylfli e.

‘When people wish to learn nursing,

’she re

marked,

‘ the first thing they have to do is tolearn to control their nerves . Otherwise theyare not likely to be o f much use Mrs . Stanni

forth,by her Own wish

,has begun with the ordi

nary course but she does not seem to have cometo us with any intention o f persevering in thework

,and

,that being so

,it is o f course better

that she should leave us . Indeed,as I told '

you

before,we should not have received her

,if Mr.

Langley had not made a personal point of it . ’

I shall make a personal point o f giving

200 NO NEW THING .

Mr . Langley a piece o f my mind the next timeI meet him

,

’ cried Colonel Kenyon,disappointed

in his hOpe Of coming to loggerheads with thisurbane lady

,who only smiled again

,and looked

at him as if she thought him a very foolishperson indeed .

His next step was to go o ff for the doctor,who

,as might have been anticipated , was not at

home . He left a message for him,begging him

to call on Mrs . Stanniforth the first thing in themorning

,and then returned to the hotel

,where

he was pleased to find his invalid looking muchmore like herself. There was a faint colour inher cheeks now

,and She had regained something

o f her ordinary serenity Of demeanour but she

scarcely tou ched the dinner which,at her request

,

Hugh shared with her and every time that shecoughed the anxious Colonel became ho t andcold all over .

I can ’t tell yo u how ashamed I feel o fmyself,

’

she said .

‘ I always knew that I wasa poor creature

,but I had no idea Of how bad

I was until they took me to see all thosehorrors . ’ And she shuddered at the recol

lection.

Don ’t speak o f it ! ’ exclaimed Hugh .

‘ Asf or the man Langley

‘ NOW,Hugh

, yo u must not scold poor Mr.

Langley,please . It was I who asked him to

202 NO NEW THING .

had arisen with his co -executor,it would have

been a simple matter for him to sell out . athousand or so o f his own

,and say nothing

about it .‘ Oh

,I dared not do that ! I felt that I was

in disgrace with Old Mr . Stanniforth as It was .And

,besides , I should have had to ask for so

much . I—there was a rather sudden call madeupon me

,

’ added Margaret,hesitatingly .

‘ I see,

’ said Hugh . And presently heinquired

,with all the indiff erence that he

could muster ‘ Which of them was it,this

timeMargaret made no reply SO he repeated his

question,and then she looked up at him depre

catingly.

Must I say?’she asked .

‘ Oh,not unless you like . Only I know it

was one or other Of them ; so you might as welltell me which it was . As a matter of curiosity

,

I should rather like to know .

’

Well,it was Philip

,then . It is SO difficult

to speak to you about Philip,Hugh ; because

you are always sure to be against him,and I

know he has done many foolish things . But weall do foolish things sometimes and what morecan you expect o f any one than that he Shouldsay he is sorry ? ’

You might expect him to be sorry, perhaps .’

MRS . STANNIF ORTH’

S NERVES . 203

‘ SO he was sorry . He was more thansorry he was perfectly wretched

,poor

.

fellow !And if he has s inned

,he has been puni shed .

Even you will allow that the discovery whichhe ‘mad e about his father’s marriage was aterrible blow .

’

Oh,that was a great sell

,no doubt . ’

And then there was his quarrel with Nelli e ,whi ch was worse . I must say that I think hi spunishment has been severe enough . He camehome on purpose t o confess everything to me,poor boy ; and, after all, it was nothing so veryunpardonable that he had to confess . ’

Colonel Kenyon,who considered Marescalchi

altogether unpardonable,held hi s peace while

the history Of Philip’s brief married life,and o f

the gambling debt which he had been so un

fortunate as to incur,was being related . He

held hi s peace,because he did not wish to vex

Margaret ; but it cost him no small effort to doso

, and he changed the subject as soo n as possible by inquiring after Mrs . Winnington

,who

must have been feeling very anxious about you,I should think

,

’ said he .

‘ D id ‘

you tell herwhat you were doing in London ? ’

Oh,no ! ’ answered Margaret ;

‘ I thoughtit better not to let her know that I was in London at all . It would only have spoilt herpleasure and Edi th ’s . ’

204 NO NEW THING .

‘ But where did they think you were ? Ipresume you must have told them something .

’

‘ Well,I gave them a sort Of a hint

,

’ saidMargaret .

Oh,a sort Of a hint And with that they

were quite satisfied,I suppose .

’

Colonel Kenyon had to shut his mouth verytight to keep himself from saying more ; and hewas not sorry when the arrival Of Margaret’smaid gave him an opportunity for retiringwithout further mention of the names o f Philipand Mrs . Winnington . But

,as he walked away

,

he said to himself that if somebody would takethose two persons and throw them neck andcrop into the Thames

,society would be rid o f

two o f its most worthless members .Colonel Kenyon

,who did no t hastily con

demu his neighbou rs,was very thorough in his

condemnation o f them when once he had satisfied himself that they ought to be condemnedin like manner

,being slow to wrath

,his anger

,

if roused,was hardly to be appeased by anything

short Of blood - letting . A night ’s rest,therefore,

brought about no change in his feelings towardsthat ungrateful pair

,and he was still further

incensed,in the course of the morning , by the

doctor,who was pleased to couch his report in a

tone Of gentle remonstrance .

‘ Mrs . Stanniforth really requires careful

206 NO NEW THING .

occasion to alarm Mrs . Winnington but at thesame time she should be made to understandthat the case is one which requires care andattention .

’

Such a verdict as this was not calculated tosoothe Colonel Kenyon ’s ire

,and Margaret had

much ado to keep him from rushing Off to ParkStreet

,with peremptory marching -orders

,before

luncheon .

‘ It is all nonsense about my going abroadat once

,

’ she said ; and I am not at all surethat it would suit my mother to start directly .

At all events,if I have to go

,I am quite Old

enough to go by myself now . I don’t thinkthere is any necessity for your seeing her

,

Hugh .

’

Margaret,in truth

,was beginning to be

afraid Of what Colonel Kenyon might say or do,

when he found himself in Park Street,and

would gladly have gone thither instead Of him,

had she not b een quite as much afraid Of whather mother might say, on receIVIng the con

fession which would have to be made . She

knew that , when once Mrs. Winnington set towork to ask qu estions

,it would be impossible

to conceal the fact that had recentlybeen paid to Philip , and she shrank from theinevitable scene which must follow .

I certainly shall go and see her,

’

Hugh


S NERVES . 207

said resolutely and I should imagine that shewill make her convenience suit yours. At least

,

if she doesn’t However,I have no doubt

She will .’‘ If you do gO,

’ said Margaret,after a pause

,

will you promise me something as a greatfavour ? ’

What is it ?Only to say nothing about Philip . It

would distress me very much if you did,and it

would be rather unfair to him,I thi nk . Perhaps

I shouldn’t have told you as much as I did lastnight

,if I had had all my wits about me .

’

Hugh considered for a moment,and then

said,

‘ Very well ; I won’t mention his name if

I can help it . By the way, where did you saythat Marescalchi was living ? ’

Margaret knew that she had given no information upon this point

,and she was no t

anxious to do SO now. You are not going tosee him

,are you ?

’

she asked apprehensively .

Oh,

’ answered Hugh,in a careless tone

,I

thought I might look him up,perhaps

,if I had

time . But I suppose I can find out his addressat his club .

’

This was,unfortunately

,only too certain

,

and Margaret saw that it would be unwise,as

well as useless,to make a secret o f what could

be so easily discovered ; so she said,

‘He was

208 NO NEW THING .

staying at Johnson ’s Hotel in Berkeley Squarewhen I last heard from him but that is sometime ago now .

’

Hugh took a mental note both o f the addressand o f the circumstance that Philip did no t

trouble himself to write Often to his benefactresssoon after which he picked up his hat and stick

,

remarking that,if he didn’t make haste

,he

Should hardly catch Mrs . Winnington at home .

The last thing that Margaret said to him,

after repeatedly cautioning him against makinga great fuss about a small matter

,was

,You

will be back again soon,won’t you ? ’ and the

Significance o f this query gave Hugh matter forreflection which lasted him throughout his walk .

2 10 NO NEW THING .

while Mrs . Winnington sat staring at him,as

if she had some faint idea that he was going o ut

Of his mind .

Nor was this exasperating conduct the worsto f what Edith bad to endure at the hands o f

her well-meaning friend . From the moment Ofthat meeting with Walter Brune at the BotanicalGardens

,Tom had made up his mind to bring

about the happy union of Miss Winningtonwith the young man whom he hoped someday to call his brother -in -law . This end

,no

doubt,might be achieved in many ways

,it

being evidently only a question Of money bu t

it was important to ascertain,before proceeding

to action,what Walter’s tastes were

,what

career he considered himself best fitted for,and

how a comfortable income could be provided forhim Without wearing too much the appearanceo f a gift . Mr . Stanniforth would have beenbeen very glad

,therefore

,if Miss Winnington

would kindly have taken him into her full‘

confidence, and the nods and winks and oracularspeeches in which he indulged

,by way Of eu

cou raging her thereto, were indeed enough tohave tried the patience of Job . Edith could“not tell him that She had broken O ff all relationswith Walter ; neither could She by any meansm ake him understand that the subject was

painful to her ; and,what With Tom’s pro

HONOURS DIVIDED . 2 11

voking stupidity upon the one hand and h er

mother’ s suspicious acutenes s upon the other,

She began at length to ask herself whether itwould not be a great deal better to hasten theinevitable hour

,to sever the hair which sus

tained the impending sword , and have donewith it .

The courage Of despair came to Edith’s aidone morning, when her mother had been sub

j ecting her to a more than usually severe courseO f interrogation

,and

,with a calmness which

astonished herself,she said

‘ I think I had better tell you that I have‘Iiefu sed Mr . Stanni forth .

’

Mrs . Winnington imm ediately went througha sort Of pantomime of dropping down dead .

Verbal comment would,She felt

,he absurdly

inadequate to the occasion,and for some minutes

she would do nothing but gasp and groan .

When,however

,she did recover the u se“ Of her

tongue,She employed it with all that vigour Of

whi ch she was a mistress . She scolded,She

‘entreated,she wept copiously ; finally She de

clared that Edith was a silly girl who ! did not

know her own mind,and that She herself would

make it her business to console poor Mr. Stanniforth

,and to let him know that his rej ection

was not meant to be taken serIOu Sly.

Thus there was nothing for it but to explainr 2

212 NO NEW THING .

that Mr. Stanniforth stood in no need o f consolation ; and so , by degrees , the whole truthcame ou t

,and Mrs . Winnington received the

crushing intelligence that n ot only was anotherto bear away the priz e

,but that that other ’s

chance o f doing so was the result o f Edith’

s

Ofii ciousness in enlightening the wretched manas to the state o f his own aff ections .

There is no saying what might no t havehappened to the Off ender after this

,if a ring at

the door-bell had not caused an abrupt su s

pension Of hostilities .‘ Not at home ! ’ gasped Mrs . Winnington

,

from the sofa . GO and tell them,not at home ! ’

But either Edith was to o late,or she thought

only Of effecting her own escape ; for the nextmoment Colonel Kenyon was announced

,and

,

striding into the room,beheld the foe with

whom he had come to wage war prostrate uponher sofa

,dishevelled as to her hair

,and very

red and swollen as to her eyes and nose .

‘ How do you do ?’ said Mrs . Winnington .

‘ I don ’t know why they let you come up . Iam not in a state to receive visitors . I am veryill indeed .

’

Oh ! ’ said Hugh,a good deal disconcerted

fo r he felt that the force Of his attack must nowbe greatly weakened . What is the matter with

you ? Gout again ? ’

2 14 NO NEW THING .

‘ I don’t quite understand what you meanby taking up this tone , Hugh , and, if we werenot such very Old friends

,I should be inclined to

put a stop to it . I certainly do not know dear.

Margaret’s address ; but that is only becauseShe has thought fit to conceal it from me . Imust say that I think Margaret has behavedwith some want o f consideration for me bu t Ihave never hinted that I felt this in writing toher

,nor have I at tempted in any way to inter

fere with her plans . To speak of my not havingthought about her is nonsense . I suppose thatno one but you would have brought such aridiculous accusation as that again st me . Thetruth is that I have been

,and am

,most anxious

to know where she has been all this time . ’‘Well

,

’ said Hugh,conscious that the case

f or the defence was being conducted with someability

,

‘ I can give you the information that

you are SO anxiou s for . She has been in aNurses’ Institution and I am sorry to say thatshe has made herself rather seriously ill . Yes

terday, by a fortunate chance , I happened tomeet her

,and I was able t o persuade her to

leave the place at once . It was not a day toosoon

,I can tell you .

’

‘ A Nurses’ Institution ! you don’t mean to

say SO ! How very extraordinary poor dearMargaret is ! Of course you were quite r ight

HONOURS D IvIDED . 2 15

to take her away—especially if she is going tobe ill . It is nothing catching

,I hope .’

‘ NO you need no t be afraid of going to see

her . It is the Old trouble again . At least,it is

partly that and partly’

nervou s prostration, thedoctor says . ’

Dear me Well,I don’t wonder

,I’m sure

What’

can yo u expect, if people will do suchabsurd and uncalled -for things ?

‘ She had her reasons,

’ answered Hugh,shortly . He was dying to say what thosereasons were ; but he remembered his promiseto repeat nothing Of Philip ’s iniquities

,and

though,for his own part, he thought there was

not a pin to choose between Mrs . Winningtonand the other delinquent

,he could not con

scientiou sly assert that the cost o f the establishment in Park Street was the direct cause OfMargaret’s retrenchment .

‘ As for my going to see her Mrs .Winnington went on

,I don’t know how long it may be

“

before I am able to manage that ; I have no t

been out Of the house for three weeks . But Iwill send Edith . Where is dear Margaret now ? ’

Deliberately and at some length,as his habit

was,Hugh stated the provisional arrangements

which he had made on Margaret’s behalf,gave

an account Of the condition in which he hadfound her

,and reported the course o f treatment

2 16 NO N’

EW THING .

recommended by the doctor . The interviewwas no t passing Off at all in the manner whichhe had anticipated . His firm intention hadbeen to tell Mrs . Winnington plainly that she

was an Old monster of selfishness,and

,if possible

,

to make her thoroughly ashamed o f herself forOnce ; but now he did not quite see his wayto doing thi s . Mrs . Winnington was not in theleast ashamed Of herself

,and spoke with SO much

affection and sympathy o f poor dear Margaretthat it seemed as if all hope o f plain speakingmust be abandoned .

Of course you will prepare to take herabroad directly

,

’ said he,in conclusion

,half

hOping that the old lady would make some Obj ection . And in this she did not disappoint him .

‘ I don’t know about directly,

’

she answered .

I meant to have gone to Homburg as soon as Iwas able to travel ; but things have happenedwhich may oblige me to change my plans . AS

for remaining a whole winter ou t o f England,

that I certainly cannot do ; and I am quitecertain that dear Margaret will not be so nu

reasonable as to expect it o f me . ’

Already Mrs . Winnington had realised thenecessity of discovering a successor for the faithless Stanniforth

,and she felt that it would never

do to waste the bes t part Of a year in wanderingthrough foreign lands .

‘You must remember,

’

2 18 NO NEW THING .

Margaret might even engage a companion ifnecessary . However

,all these matters can be

discussed later ; just now I do not feel up totalking any more . Will you give my best love todear Margaret

,please, and tell her that if She will

come and see me,I shall be so glad ? Edith will

go to her as soon as she has a spare moment .’‘ Very well ; I will give her that message ,

’

answered Hugh,getting up

,and as he went

downstairs,he tried to console himself by reflect

ing that he would probably have done moreharm than good if he had succeeded in picking '

a quarrel with Mrs . Winnington .

But the other ,’ thought he

,

‘ is diff erent:He is a man . I can deal with him

,I think .

’

Hugh did no t ask himself Whether any goodpurpose would be served by his quarrelling withthe other . ’ His feeling was that these twopeople ought really to be made to see themselvesin their true colours

,and that

,if he didn ’t - do

them this service,nobody would . SO

,in full

confidence o f the righteousness Of his purpose,

he marched Off to Berkeley Square,and

,on

hear ing that Mr . Marescalchi was at home,de

clined to send in his card,-saying that he would

go s traight Upstairs . Philip,he thought

,should

not have the chance o f refusing to receive him .

He was not asked to mount any higher than thefirs t floor

,and it added fuel to the flames o f his


indignation to be shown into a spacious sittingroom adorned with much gilding and crimsondamask and many mirrors .

You have dropped into pretty comfortablequarters here

,

’ he remarked,almost before Philip

had had time to say How do you do ?’

Mr . Marescalchi,who had been lying on the

sofa,smoking a cigarette

,resumed his recumbent

attitude . and blew a cloud o f smoke towards theceiling .

‘ They wou ldn’t be bad,

’ he replied,

‘ ifthey were not so execrably furnished .

. It is painand grief to have to sit in such a gaudy room as

this . But one can’t have everything ; and thehotel is tolerably comfortable in other respects . ’

‘ I have no doubt it i s . Tolerably expensivetoo

,I should think .

’

‘ Oh,o f course . You can’t live in a London

hotel during the season for nothing and fromwhat I hear

,I should say that this was about

the most ruinous establishment o f the lot . Still,

when one has the means, you know

Hugh exploded like a bomb .

‘ The means !Deuce take it all

,Marescalchi

,this is rather too

good a joke ! D O you think I don’t know whereyour means come from ? A1e you aware

,Sir

,

that MargaIet has had to pinch and screw,and

put down her establishment,and reduce herself

to—to positive indigence,by George ! in order

to provide you with the means Of lying on your

220 NO NEW THING .

back 0 11 that sofa and . smoking your beastlycigarettes all day ?

‘ They aren’t beastly,really

,

’ said Philip,

m ildly ‘ they ’re the best I can get . Won’t youtry one ? These are no t my rooms

,by the way ;

they are occupied by Signora Tommasini,who

kindly allows me to make use o f them . Imyself am lodged in a humble little apartmentlooking ou t upon the leads

,where the cats sit

and howl at me all night . Yo u would feel quitesorry for me

,if you saw it . ’

Hugh was conscious that,in his haste

,he

had brought matters to something very like ananticlimax but he didn’t care much about that .‘ I don’t know about being sorry for yo u ,

’ hesaid ; I can assure you that it would rej oiceme greatly to think that you were suff ering alittle discomfort . ’

Yo u don’t say so —how very Odd ! There’s

no accounting for tastes but,for my own part

,

I dislike nothing more than to see people uncomfortable . It is very nearly as bad as beinguncomfortable oneself. ’

Is that why you have taken care not to seeMargaret lately ? She has been in discomfort

,

and something more than discomfort, through

you . Well I don’t wonder that yo u have keptout Of her way . It can’t be very pleasant, Ishould think

,to know that vour extravagance

2 22 NO NEW TH ING.

but you’ll allow me to tell you that,in my

Opinion,it is no excuse at all . It is just

possible that Mrs . Winnington may not haveknown that Margaret had been exceeding herincome but you ,

at all events,were well aware

o f the demands that have been made upon her,

and you cannot have had much doubt about thereason o f her giving up her home . The veryleast that you could have done would have beento find ou t what had become o f her . I shallnot appeal to yo u to leave her in peace for thefuture

,for I know that would not be o f the

slightest use ; but you may as well understandthat

,after this

,you will have to keep your

expenditure within the limits o f a fixed annualsum . I have determined to take matters intomy own hands

,and to put a stop to this system

o f wholesale robbery .

’

Colonel Kenyon,

’ said Philip,in a rather

graver tone,

‘

you have always had the worstpossible opinion of me , and you are heartilywelcome to it . Pray believe that your Op inionis a matter of the most absolute indifference tome . More than once you have taken uponyourself to interfere in my affairs in a helterskelter, blundering sort Of way , and I haven

’tcomplained . It is your nature to be like that

,

I suppose,and I don’t quarrel with you for it

,

any more than one quarrels with dogs for de


lighting to bark and bite . Perhaps,however

,

it would be pushing forbearance too far to allowoneself to be called a wholesale robber ; andtherefore I must I espectfully invite you to

retract that expression .

’

Hugh was stroking his moustache with leanbrown fingers which trembled a little . At thisdirect throwing down o f the gauntlet his eyes

glistened .

‘ I won ’t retract a Single word thatI have said

,

’ he replied shortly .

‘You Won’t ? ’ returned Philip,deliberately

swinging his legs Off the sofa,and assuming a

sitting posture,while he looked his visitor

straight in the eyes . ‘ Yo u won’t retract theexpression ? Then we must proceed to extrem it i es , I

’m afraid . I thought perhaps youmight have i nsulted me without quite meaningit,for your temper seems to have got rather ou t

o f hand but,Since you choose to stick to your

words,I can only ask you to give me your

address,so that I may send a friend to call

upon you to -morrow .

’

You young j ackanapes !’ called ou t Hugh

,

do you suppose I am going to fight a duel with

you ? I’ll see you hanged fi rst !

Philip raised his eyebrows . You won’tfight, and you won

’

t retract ? I suppose yo uknow what is generally said o f a man who actsin that way .

’

N0 NEW THING .

‘ I ’ll tell you what,

’ said Hugh,getting up ;

‘ I won ’t fight a duel,because it ’s ridiculous

,

and nobody ever does fight duels in thiscountry ; but if you would like to call me acoward

, you had better do it—and I’ll give you

such a hammering that you won’

t do it againfor a year . ’

Philip did no t take advantage o f this handsome Offer . He looked at his angry antagonistfor a minute with a certain amused curiosity

,

and then burst out laughing .

‘ What a ludicrous position we have go tinto ! he exclaimed .

‘We both look ratherfoolish but

,vanity apart

,I must say I think

you look the more foolish o f the two . Myheight is five foot nine yours

,I suppose

,is

about six foot two or three and in weight andlength o f reach there is probably an even greaterdisproportion between us . Therefore I see

nothing to be ashamed of in acknowledging that,

if it came to a regular ding -dong tussle betweenus

,you could thrash me . But I think it is j ust

possible that there may be something to beashamed Of in insulting a man whom you knowyou can thrash

,and declining to meet him upon

equal terms . ’

The sight Of Kenyon’s face,as he gradually

took in this terse summing up o f the situation,was enough to compensate Philip for worse

22 6 NO NEW THING .

take myself Off the better . Good morning to

you .

’

‘ I don’t want to detain yo u against yourwill,

’ said Philip‘ but as you are here , and as

you will most likely be seeing Meg in the courseOf the day

,I think I might as well tell you

something about myself,which I should have

had to let her know before long . I wonderwhether you could be persuaded to sit down fora f ew minutes and behave like a rational being .

’

Perhaps Philip did not know how veryOffensive this impertinent tone was to the elderman . Hugh w as too crestfallen to resent it .He sat down resig nedly

,and said ‘Well ? ’

I only wish to tell you that I am going tobe married shortly . My fu ture bride is SignoraTommasini

,o f whom I dare say yo u have Often

heard .

’

Hugh could not repress a low whistle . Youdon ’t mean the—the singing woman ! he ej aculated .

‘ I do . And She is fat,and you remember

her when you were a boy,and all that Bu t

she isn ’t a bad sort Of Old woman,all the

same .

’

Probably Philip felt a good deal ashamed o f

himself ; but it is not probable that he realisedthe intensity o f hi s hearer’s contempt for him .

Hugh,however

,had had enough Of making per


sonal criticisms for one day he only remarked,

in a low voice,

‘ This will be a blow to poorMargaret . ’

I suppose,

’ Observed Philip,

‘ you wouldn’tbeli eve me if I were to say that it is partly onMeg’s account that I have decided to take thisstep but it will

,at all events

,be a satisfaction

to you to know that I am o ff her hands . I shallalways be a burden Upon som ebody but I Shallnever’ be a burden upon her any more .

’

Something in the speaker’s voice found i tsway to a soft place in Colonel Kenyon’s heart .I say, Marescalchi ,

’ he exclaimed abruptly,

can’t yo u get ou t o f this ? Are yo u irrevocablycommitted to it ? ’

‘ Oh,dear me

,yes ! ’ answered Philip ;

‘ Iam not sure that the banns haven’t been put upalready . Anyhow

,I’m in for it and

,really

,

do you know,I don’

t mind it nearly as much as

I expected to do . You’ll j ust mention it toMeg

,will youI will tell her

,

’ said Hugh,reluctantly.

‘ In

fact I shall hardly be able to avoid telling her .

But surely yo u must see that yo u ought to goto her yourself. ’

‘ Very well,

’ answered Philip ;‘ it will be

painful for both of us bu t/what must be mu st .

Yo u might also mention to her that I didn’

t

know the reason of her leaving Longbourne.

e 2

228 NO NEW THING .

Or,rather

,no don ’t say anything about that

what does it signify ? NO use asking you tostop and have some lunch

,I suppose ? Good

bye,then .

’

‘ Goodbye,

’ said Hugh . He hesitated for amoment Whether to hold o u t his hand or not ;but finally decided that he would not . And sothe two men parted

,and have never exchanged

words since . Their paths in life diverged fromthat day

,and when they meet now—which does

not often happen they look the other way.

Hugh,walking sadly homewards

,thought to

himself,So that is the end of him ! AS selfish

and cynical a young scoundrel as ever breathed ;and yet

,somehow

,I am sorry for the beggar . ’

But Philip,when he described the Colonel ’s

visit,a few hours later

,to the Signora

,from

whom he had nowno secrets,said

,There never

was a more dear Old high -minded,thick -headed

ss ! It was a case of honours divided,and I

don’t think either of us cared much who wonthe game . He is a gentleman

,that long

,thin

gunner,if he isn’t exactly a man o f the world .

I think Mrs . Stanni forth will end by marryinghim . Which is a pity fo r he will never understand her.

’

230 NO NEW THING .

set it down to my rustic breeding,and also to

the great desire that I had to find yo u at home .’

Mrs . Winnington replied that She was alwaysat home now

,the state of her health not being

such as to allow Of her leaving the house . Sheadded that she was not well enough to see anyone

,and that she wished servants would not be

so stupid .

‘ I see,

’ said Mr. Brune,

‘ that I have beenmost indiscreet and I would go away at once

,

if I had not a matter o f real im portance to u s

both to talk over with you . I daresay yo u mayremember

,Mrs . Winnington , a conversation

which I had with you j ust before Walter lefthome .

’

‘ I do,

’ answered Mrs . Winnington . I amnot likely to forget it

,I can assure vo u . And

,

since you have introduced the subj ect , Mr .Brune

,I think it as well that yo u should know

that my daughter and I have been put to _themost serious annoyance by your son’s conductduring the last few weeks . ’

‘ I am grieved to hear it,but perhaps it

would save time and clear the air if I were tofinish

,what I have to say . When I have done

,

we will sit in j udgment upon Walter,if you feel

inclined that way . You say you have not forgotten our interview at Longbou rne ; SO youwill recollect my telling you at the time that I

REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS . 231

should not be disposed to look favourably uponmy son’s marriage with a penniless girl . ’

‘ Mr . Brune ! ’ exclaimed Mrs . Winn ingt on ,red and wrathful

,

‘ if you have forced your wayinto my drawing-room merely in order to sayimpertinent things

‘ Now,my dear lady

,why will you be In

such a desperate hurry to condemn a man beforethe words are ou t Of his mouth ? What I wasgoing to say was not impertinent on thecontrary

,it was as pertinent as anything could

be . I was about to remark that circumstanceshave caused me to alter my m ind upon thatpoint . I am now ready to withdraw all Oppos itiou to my son’s marriage with vour daughter .’

It is to be feared that that unworthy delightwhi ch Philip took in sti rring up the causelesswrath o f his neighbours must have been heredi tary in the Brune family . Mrs . Winningtonwas so nearly choked by anger that she couldget out no more articulate reply than a sort Ofcrow ; and Mr . Brune

,who was enjoying him

self greatly,went on .

‘ You see,at that tim e there was really no

prospect Of an engagement resulti ng in anything,

except disappointment . I remember to havementioned to you that I should not feel j ustifiedin absolutely forbidding such a thing

,but that ‘

I

did not think it desirable and then,y ou know

,

2 32 NO NEW THING .

you saw Walter himself,and sent him to the

right -about very quickly . All that was quiteas it should be ; but since then a change hastaken place in the condition Of affairs . W

'

alteris now better Off than he was ; indeed I maysay that he is in a position to support a wifeand family comfortably and there is no reasonwhy your daughter and he should not be

married as soon as you please .

’

Never ! exclaimed Mrs . Winnington no,

never in all my life have I But perhaps Ihad better say no more . Mr . Brune

,I must

request you to leave me .’

‘ D irectly,Mrs . Winnington ; but before I

go,may I ask whether you have any obj ection

to Walter as an individual ? ’

‘ The strongest ! The very strongest !‘ Dear

,dear ! how unfortunate ! I was

hoping that it might have been only his povertythat repelled you and

,as he will now be in

receipt Of an income o f from Six to eight thousand a year However

,there is no u se in

talking about what cannot be and,much as I

like and admire Miss Winnington,I am fully

alive to the fact that Walter might do better forhimself in a pecuniary sense . Well ; it onlyremains for me to express my sincere regret andwish you good morning .

’

Please sit down again , Mr . Brune I don ’

t

2 34 No NEW THING .

income covers a multitude o f sins . I quiteenter into your feelings . ’

‘ Excuse me,Mr . Brune

,

’ said Mrs . Winnington ,

not without dignity,but I very much

doubt whether yo u do enter into ' my f eelings .You are so very plain - Spoken 'with me that Ineed not h esitate to speak plainly to vou ,

an‘dto tell you that if I were choosing a husband

f or Edith, I should not' choose your son .

5 '

I

think him a loud and unrefined '

young man , andit seems to me that he is not likely to find himself in that position in society in which I shouldlike Edith to move . But I have always maintained that a parent’s interference ought

m to bekept within certain limits . One has a right toinsist upon birth

,adequate means , and g ood

character .

’

‘ It would be impossible to carry moderationfurther . ’

‘ But beyond that one is perhaps hardly en

titled to go ; and, as I believe that there is nothingagainst your son’s moral character, I feel that Iought no t any longer to oppose Edith ’s choice .

’

I am delighted to hear you speak o f Edith ’schoice as being made . Might I be allowed tosee her before I go ? ’

‘ Oh,certainly

,if you wish it !

’ answeredMrs . Winnington . I Will ring and send forher . ’


Accordingly Edith was summoned,and

presently made her appearance,looking very

pale and frightened . This was not quite whatMr . Brune wanted . He would have been gladto have had a few minutes ’ conversation inprivate with his future daughter-in -law

, butevidently Mrs . Winnington did no t think itnecessary to accord him that privilege ; so herevealed the nature o f his errand ina few plainand direct words

,said as many pleasant things

a s it was possible to say in the freezing presenceOf the lady upon the sofa

,and took his leave

,

having Obtained permission for Walter to calllater in the day .

The latter,who had been awaiting his

f ather’s return with no little impatience,was

so overj oyed when he heard o f his goodfortun e that Mr . Brune felt constrained to re

m ind him that there was no rose without athorn .

‘ Mrs . Winnington is your thorn,

’ said he .

Don’t attempt to Sit upon her ; it wouldn’t be a

success . If you will be advised by me , you willmake u p your mind at once to regard her as oneo f those inevitable evils which time alone canremove, and whi ch it is not o f the slightest u seto fight against . Don ’t fight against her thi safternoon if she insults you

,as She probably will

do . You have won the game,and you can

236 NO NEW THING .

afford to be magnanimous,or

,if you prefer it

,

contemptuous . ’

Walter declared that he was neither goingto quarrel with Mrs . Winnington

,nor to treat

her with contempt . He was determined to

m ake friends with the Old lady,he said

whereat Mr . Brune laughed .

And yet the task did no t prove SO difficult aone as might have been anticipated . The factwas that Mrs . Winnington was no t ill-pleased atthe turn which matters had taken ; and though itwould have been unreasonable to expect o f herthat she should have acknowledged as much toMr . Brune

,she did not mind saying so to Walter .

Full well She knew that Tom Stanniforths didnot grow on every bush

,and if there was any

humiliation in the position o f having to welcometo day the man whom she -would have turnedout of her house yesterday

,she was not con

scious o f it . Her own view o f the case was thatshe had done her duty throughout

,and had now

been rewarded—mot fully,still

,as sufficiently as

could be hoped for in a world where rewardsand punishments have no direct connectionwith desert . She received Walter graciouslyand patronisingly

,and after a time walked up

stairs Without assistance,leaving him and Edith

in possession o f the drawing-room . The dialogue which ensued between these happy lovers

2 38 NO NEW THING .

ready to take her to Homburg as soon as she

likes now. Of course,if dear Edith ’s wedding

is to take place in the autumn,I cannot say how

long I may be able to remain abroad but dearMargaret may certainly count upon me for threeweeks or a month .

’

Hugh,however

,had found ou t that Margaret

did not wish to.

go abroad with her mother so

he answered evasively that he was afraid Homburg would not exactly do . Switzerland

, per

haps,would be a more suitable place . Upon

the whole,he thought that Margaret should

make her plans irrespectively Of Mrs . Winnington’s . He did not care to tell that lady Of the

other wedding which was imminent nor

did he think it necessary to mention what hebelieved to be the true cause o f Margaret ’sdepression . He himself found it difficult tosympathise with his friend in this trouble . Hewas very sorry

,but he could not say much .

The fellow was so absolutely worthless ! Hehad broken the news as gently as he could ; hehad dwelt as little as possible upon SignoraTomm asini

’

s age,and he had carefully abstained

from sayin g a word about sordid motives but

he had not found himself able to make excusesfor Philip . He’ll make them for himself a dealbetter than I Should for him,

’ the Colonel hadthought with a rather bitter laugh .

‘ If anybody

REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS . 2 39

can persuade Margaret that black is white,he

is the man to do it .

’

Perhaps Philip ’s confidence in his persuas ivepowers was not SO great :certain it is that henever came to make those excuses . For threelong days Margaret waited impatiently

,expect

ing every hour to hear his step uponthe stairsbut he failed to redeem his promise

,and upon

the fourth morning a note arrived from him inwhich he stated plainly that he ‘ could no t brin tr

himself to face it .

’

‘What w o u ld be the use,

’ he wrote,

‘Of my

coming to be forgiven—for of course I shouldbe forgiven—and of our trying to persuade ourselves that things can ever be the same again as

they used to be It is wiser to make an endand finish of it at once

,Meg and if you can

get yourself to think of me as if I were dead,

that will -be best . For a great many years Ihave been your lap -dog, and you have beenwonderfully good and kind to me—onlyunfortunately you didn

’t know that all lap -dogsrequire whipping—and now I am going to beSignora Tomm asini

’

s lap - dog. I don ’t thinkyou would care about the divided ownership

,

and I am quite sure that I couldn’t endureit . You will set me down as ungrateful andheartless ; and Colonel Kenyon will confirmyour Opinion

,I have no doubt . SO be it only

2 40 NO NEW THING .

I think you will see,some day

,that the best

proof of gratitude that I could give you was totake myself Off your hands and ou t of your life .

’

In her distress,Margaret Showed these

words to Colonel Kenyon,who read them

,and

shook his head .

‘ I don’

t know what Philip means she said .

‘Why should he talk about forgiveness ? Hehas a right to marry whom he pleases

,and he

has done me no wrong,however sorry he may

have made me .

'

Why Should he mind seeingme

I don’t want to hit a man when he is down,

’

answered Hugh ;‘ but it seems to me that all

that is nothing but tall talk , and that he onlyrefuses to meet yo u because he shrinks from thehumiliation of it . I know nothing aboutSignora Tommas ini ; but one cannot supposethat she would be a person whom you couldreceive upon terms of equality ; and I presumethat he understands that . It sounds a hardthing to say ; but I can

’t help agreeing withhim that it would be best if you could look uponhim as dead .

’

Margaret said very little moref It was notin her power to do as she was advised

,though

doubtless it might be expedient to make apretence at doing so . The total failure o f herlife was very evident to her ; but that did not

242 No NEW THING .

to avail themselves Of ’ Mr . Stanniforth’

s hos

pitality. There was only one absentee,and

probably only one person missed him . Walterdid say one evening that he wished poor OldPhilip could be there to keep them alive butthis remark Was received with such emphaticsilence that it was not repeated ; and in truth,so far as he himself was concerned

,Walter did

not feel that the society in which he spentthe greater part o f his time left anything to bedesired .

AS the result o f many family conclaves,it

had been finally decided that Margaret was toengage a companion to accompany her toSwitzerland, whither Hugh , whom a step in rankhad deprived o f the command o f his battery ando f all present employment , was likewise to travelwith her . An advertisement was accordinglyput in the papers

,which had the effect of bring

ing numerous singular - looking persons down toCrayminster to be interviewed byMrs . Winnington

,and promptly dismissed as altogether

unsuitable . Margaret was beginning to despair,

when an excellent and unexpected substitute fora companion presented herself in the person o f

Miss BruneNellie had been anything but pleased by Mr .

Stanniforth’

s appearance as tenant o f Longbourne and she had thought fi t to give him a

REWARDS AND PUNISHMEXTS . 243

very cool reception the first time that he walkedover to Broom Leas . This

,however

,had no t

prevented him from calling again the next day,

and the next,and every day ; and his manner

had been such as to leave her in no doubt thatit was his intention to repeat ere long the offerwhich he had made without success upon a previo u s occasion . Now Nellie was not ignorant o fwhat had been taking place in London during thepast few months

,and her belief was that she

understood Mr . Stann iforth thoroughly Hewould have been glad to marry Edith if Walterhad not interfered . Failing Edith

,he would

now be willing enough to marry her ; and,failing her

,he would have no Objection she

supposed,to marrying somebody else . One

could no t be exactly angry with the man,since

it was evident that he really meant no Offencebut at the same time it was very disagreeable tobe annoyed by the preliminary courtship inwhich he chose to indulge ; and as there wasapparently no hope o f making him understandthe futility o f that process

,the only th ing to be

done seemed to be to run away from him.

Nellie , therefore , had decided upon paying a longvisit to her aunt Eliz abeth

,an ancient dame who

dwelt far away in the west o f England,and it

was without any idea o f being taken a t her wordR 2

244 NO NEW THING .

that She remarked one morning to Mrs . Stanniforth

,

‘ Ah ! I wish you would carry me O ff to

foreign parts with yo u as your companion . IShouldn ’t ask for any salary .

’

Margaret j umped at the suggestion . Probablyshe was the only person at Longbo urne or

Broom Leas who was still in the dark as to Mr.Stanniforth

’

s purpose,and She was under the

impression that Nellie needed change o f scenealmost as much as she did herself. Had not herclay -footed idol once been Nellie ’s idol too ?The whole matter was arranged

,Mr . Brune ’s

consent had been Obtained,and the travellers

were Off almost before the astounded Tom

Stanni forth could draw his breath .

Looked at in the light of a practical j oke,I

must acknowledge that this is a great success,

’

he said,in rueful accents

,to Edith

,who could

not help laughing at his discomfi ture.

‘ Heream I with a big house on my hands that I don’tknow what to do with

,and I daren’t shut it up

and go away now . I feel exactly like a manwho has taken a moor for the season

,and finds

,

on the morning after his arrival,that all the

birds are dead .

’

‘ Your bird will come back,

’ said Edithconsolingly .

Yes,but when ? And when she does come

back,what chance will there be for me What

246 NO NEW THING .

antiquated French railway system,which delights

to throw stumbling -blocks in the patho f leisurelytravellers

,nor at the horde o f Obj ectionable

compatriots who j ostled them at every haltingplace . Nor did any Of them express a wish toreturn home . The subj ect o f home was

,indeed

,

but little touched upon between them,and the

names o f those Whom they had left there wereseldom on their lips . It would no t have beeneasy to speak o f one without mentioning others

,

whos e recent proceedings,it was felt

,were best

not alluded to . Letters reached them from timeto time—letters from Longbourne and fromHomburg and one morning there came a newspaper containing an account o f the nuptials o f

Signora Tommasini and an elaborate descriptiono f the bride’s dress . Over this Margaret sheda few tears but she was careful to conceal boththe tears and the newspaper from her com

panions . They left her a good deal to herself,

having discovered that that was what she likedbest and on sunny mornings , when Hugh wasstretching his long legs in rambles over the hillsand far away

,and when Nellie had started on

an excursion with some of the acquaintances whoare quite sure to be met with in every hole andcorner o f Switzerland in the month o f August

,

she would sit for hours in the shade , gazing at

White threads o f distant waterfalls,at slopes


shaggy with the dark pines , at silver mists curling among the rocks and snow-fields above them—and thinking

,thinking .

In that silence and peace and solitude her

wounds were gradually healing over—or s o shebelieved . Long before

,in London

,She had

realised the mistakes o f her life but these wereno longer SO painful to her that she could no t

bear to face them . It was best to recognise thetruth . She suppo sed

‘

that her mother and Philipwere rather selfish people . Hugh evidentlythought so ; and Hugh, who was much betterand wiser than she

,was always right. But when

this was admitted,what more was there ‘ to be

said,except that she might have spared herself

some pain if she had admitted it a httle sooner ?To one of them

,at least

,she could no t accuse

herself o f having done any harm ; while'

she

had so greatly injured the other by her foolishfondness that she had assuredly no right whatever to complain o f him for turning away fromher now . And if there was not much comfortin the latter reflection

,she persuaded hers elf

that there was—whi ch is very nearly the samething . Some comfort also she derived from theconviction that her troubles had taught her toappreciate the one faithful friend whose faithfulness and friendship she had always accepted toomuch as a matter o f course

,and whose. gentle

248 NO NEW THING .

attempts to open her eyes She had SO often re

sented . Poor Hugh ! She had never likedhitherto to think Of that Offer of marriage thathe had made her a year before

,but now she did

not mind looking back upon it. Could it betrue

,she wondered

,that he had loved her

,as he

said,before Jack had come ? Probably it was

not quite true ; for men always said that sort ofthing

,and Hugh had evidently put all thought

Of the subject away from him . She was halfsorry that he Should be consoled SO soon ; andyet she could hardly have wished it to be otherwise

,for she was very certain that She could

never have married him .

Hugh,meanwhile

,was hiding his time . He

understood,to some exten t

,

‘

the gradual awakening process through which Margaret was passing ;and

,like a sensible man

,he took long walks

,and

allowed Nature to do her own work in her ownway. One day he took it into his head that hewould like to go up the Finsteraarhorn ; andduring the night o f his absence a terrific thundersto rm broke over the higher peaks , insomuchthat Margaret

,who could get no sleep for think

ing o f the perils to which the adventurousclimber might be exposed

,knocked up Nellie at

one O ’clock in the morning to take her OplIl lOIlas to the advisability o f despatching a searchparty across the glacier . On the following

2 50 NO NEW THING .

give her companions no peace until they hadconsented to go down into the heat and civilisation Of Geneva .

But Geneva evidently would no t do for morethan a day o r two

,and it was soon agreed that

a move should be m ade to Ouchy . This resolution was arrived at on the quay

,whither our

three friends had strolled o ut one evening afterdinner ; and While Hugh was pointing to theplace where Mont Blanc ought to have beenVisible

,a cheery and familiar voice called o u t

behind them,SO here you are What a happy

chance that I should have thought o f takinga walk this evening I meant to have startedfor the Aeggischhorn the first thing in themorning

,after you .

’

Tom !’ exclaimed Margaret in accents of

extreme surprise .

‘What in the world hasbrought you to Switzerland ?

’

‘ The Paris and Lyons Railway and thehabits o f a lifetime ,

’ answered Mr . Stanni fOrthand he might have added

,

‘ the friendly counselso f Edith Winnington .

’ ‘ I almost always do goabroad at this time o f year

, you know,

’ hesaid .

This might or might not be true ; bu t

Margaret could not help concluding, from acertain hilarious self-consciousness on Tom

Stanniforth’

s part,that there was more in

REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS . 2 51

this sudden appearance of hi s than met theeye .

‘ I do wonder,

’

she said to Hugh,later in the

evening,when Nellie had gone to bed and Mr .

Stanniforth had likewise retired,after . in the

most matter -o f - course way declaring his intention of accompanying the party to Ouchy—‘ I

do wonder what can have made Tom think o f

j oining us . ’

Ah " said Hugh,

‘ what could it havebeen ? ’

You don ’t mean to sayColonel Kenyon began to laugh .

‘ Isn ’t itan extraordinary thing

,

’ said he,

‘ that I,an

innocent old bachelor,should always be the one

to enlighten a person o f your experience as tothe love -making that is going on under yournose Didn’t I tell you about young Brune andEdith long ago ? And now yo u see that therewas another little affair in progres s to whichyou were blind .

’

‘ Oh,but

,

’ answered Margaret,anxious to

vindicate her character for insight,

‘ I was notaltogether blin d ! That is

,I thought at one

time that he admired her a good deal ;only

‘ Only y ou were determm ed at that timethat Miss Brune ’s affections were to be otherwis e engaged—not to speak of his . People have

7

2 52 NO NEW THING .

a troublesome way of choosing for themselves,

thoughf‘ I am not sure that Nellie has chosen said

Margaret .‘ Well

,we shall see . We may get some

amusement out o f watching them—you and I .

’

2 54 NO NEW THING .

he was wanted or not ; but what angered herfar more than this free -and -easy conduct wasthe good -humoured satisfaction o f hi s face

,which

seemed to say,as plainly as if the words had

been spoken,that he was qui te confident o f

Obtaining what he came to Switzerland to seek .

She was also much displeased with Mrs . Stanniforth and Colonel Kenyon

,who

,after the first

hour,kept on making the most desperate efforts

to leave her alone with her persecutor . Theseefforts she was determined to defeat

,and indeed

did defeat though at the cost o f some personalloss o f dignity, and o f a considerable increase inthe general absurdity o f the Situation . Nothing

,

she resolved,should induce her to quit Mrs .

S tanni forth’

s Side for a moment . If Margaretexpressed a wish to go forward and enj oy theview which was partly hidden from the first

class passengers by an awning,Nellie at once

became fired by a similar ambition in the samem anner she shifted about a dozen times fromthe sunshine to the shade and back again andwhen at last Margaret

,in despair

,said that she

was tired,and would go and lie down in the cabin

for a little,Nellie immediately discovered that

she also was tired, and would like to lie down ;The other passengers must have thought thatthese four people were playing a game of follow

my- leader when they saw the elder lady per

YES AND NO . 2 55

petu ally starting up and walking quickly away,followed III hot haste by the younger, who , In

her turn,was pursued by the two men .

But such tactics were,at best

,but a sorry

makeshift,and evidently could no t be perse

vered in for long. They were so far successfulthat Mr . Stann iforth did not get a single opportunity for private conversationwith Miss Bruneon board the steamer ; but once on shore it waseasier for him to achieve his purpose

,aided as

he was by two unsolicited confederates,and be

fore the day was over Nellie had walked unsu s

pectingly into a trap which was laid for herwithout any collusion on the part o f her en

snarers . Margaret went into her own room to

rest immediately on arriving at the hotel,and

Miss Brune thought there could be no danger inassenting to Colonel Kenyon’s proposition thatthey should stroll up and have a look at Lausannebefore dinner . It was

,of course

,inevitable that

Mr . Stannifo rth should accompany them but thatshe did no t mind

,so long as there was a third

person present . What she had omitted to takeinto account was the malevolence o f ColonelKenyon

,who

,as soon as they had reached the

top of the hill, said suddenly‘ By

-the -bye,I have got to go to the bank

ers’

, and I am afraid they may keep me sometime You had better not wait for me ; I

’ll

2 5 6 No NEW THING .

follow y ou down,when I ’ve finished my busi

ness . ’

‘ Oh,but we would much rather wait ! ’

objected Nellie ‘ it can ’t take more than fiveminutes to change a few circular notes . Or

,

perhaps,

’

She added,

‘ if Mr . Stann iforth is in ahurry

,he would walk on

,and I might wait . ’

I’ll do anything I ’m told,except Walk back

alone , ’ said Mr . Stann iforth accommodatingly .

Oh,you must really both Of you go !

Couldn ’t think o f keeping you,

’ cried the perfidiou s Hugh

,hurrying away to avoid further

argument .Thus brought to bay

,Nellie recovered her

courage . She reflected that it Should be qu itewithin her power to hold Mr . Stanniforth at adistance

,and perhaps

,after all

,he would have

the good taste not to seize this very early cc

casion o f saying what she was afraid he meantto say sooner or later . Nevertheless

,his first

remark disconcerted her a little .

‘ You must all have been rather surprisedat my coming abroad after having taken Longbourne with the expre ss intention o f spendingthe summer there .

‘ Did you express an intention Of spendingthe summer there ? ’ she asked .

‘ But Of course

you were not bound to do so, unless you liked .

’

258 NO NEW THING .

make that proposal at_all. For , after w ath Isaid to you in November last

, yo u must havethought it rather extraordinary in me to do so .

’

‘ I did not know that yo u had done SO,’

answered Nellie,who was now posting down

the hill at a great pace ;‘ and if I had

,I should

not have thought it extraordinary—no t ‘

\I’

D the

least extIaordinary. And I hate explanations . ’

You will listen to minef though, I hope .I won’t m ake it long, and I should get throughit so much more quickly if I might Sit stillinstead o f running . Here is a bench . Won’t

yo u sit down for a few minutes , Miss Brune ,and let me say what I have to say ?

‘AS you please ,’ said Nellie despairingly .

She seated herself at one end of the benchpointed o u t to her, and laid down her sunshadelengthways beside her

,so that only a small

space was left at the Opposite extremitv forMr . Stanniforth.

Of this he uncomplainingly availed himself,

and began‘ I will confes s at once that I acted very

foolishly,and that

,if I had been left to myself

,

I should have committed a mistake which Ishould have regretted for the rest o f my life .

My only excuse is that I had a sort o f idea thatit would be necessary for me to marry sometime or other . My father went on bothering

YES AND NO . 59

me about it,and I saw that it was a ca se o f

giving in then,or next year, or the year after,

and I thought Miss Winnington was a verynice

,amiable girl

,and

Really,Mr . Stanniforth,

’ interrupted Nellie,

half laughing,you need not make all these

excus es . I have no doubt that you and yourfather were quite right ; but I can

’t see whatconcern this is o f mine .

’

Well,I wanted just to explain to you how

it happened . The woman whom I loved wasengaged to be married to another man

,and I

didn’t much care whom I married myself,so

long as she was not a t ermagant . So,as I told

you ,I proposed to Miss Winnington

,who not

only refused me,but in the kindest way pointed

o u t to me what a fool I had been to ask her. Shegot the truth ou t o f me !which was the more easyas she had guessed it all beforehand ! , and thenshe told me that your engagement to Marescalchiwas at an end after which she strongly advisedme to try again . And so—here I am .

’

You and Edith seem to have thought thatwhat you call

“ trying again was a very simplem atter

,

’ Observed Nellie Q

No,indeed ! I did not think that it would

be a simple matter to succeed but Of coursewhat I had to do was Simple enough . Whatm ore can I do than come and ask you whether I

2 60 NO NEW THING .

may hope ? I told you last November—and Iam sure you don ’t think that I would tell a lie—that I had never loved anyone but you . Ihave no t changed since then .

’

‘ You seem to forget that you have been allbut engaged to somebody else since then .

’

‘ NO,I don ’t . And you have been quite

engaged to somebody else .

’

‘ Mr . Stanniforth,I never met anyone the

least like you ! Yo u Speak as if my case werethe same as yours . I said to you that day

,

that—that‘ You said No that day .

’

Very well ? ’

‘ And are you going to sayNOnow ? If yo uare

,say it quickly , and I will promise never to

persecute you again . I know you are too honestto trifle with me .

’

After all,it was Hugh who got down the

hill first:He had been sitting for a long timein the garden Of the hotel when Tom Stann iforth

j oin ed him with a radiant countenance , and saidhe had come to be congratulated.

It ’s all right,my dear Kenyon

,and I ’m the

happiest man in Europe . I can hardly believeit ’s true !

Oh ! ’ said Hugh , with a calm smile,

‘ Icould have told you long ago that it was goingto be all right . ’

2 62 NO NEW THING .

o ld friend,it can’t be . I love you more than

I do anybody in the world—more than Philip,

or anybody ; and I have thought a great dealabout it

,and tried to persuade myself that it

might be possible ; and then—I found that itwas not possible . I can ’t at all tell you howsorry I am

,and there is not much use either in

saying that one is sorry . I wish with all myheart that I could avoid giving you pain ; but Ican ’t help it

,can I ? It isn’t my fault that

that I can’t forget . ’

‘ I don’t ask you to forget,

’ cried Hugh,

eagerly .

‘ I don ’t expect it ; I don’t Wish it .

Yo u can’

t love me as I love you,o r as yo u

loved poor Jack :that,I know

,is impossible .

I don’t say that I didn’t hope it might be other

wi se years ago ; but as one grows older onelooks at life in a very different way . Marriageisn’t all romance

,Margaret

,and we know that

boy and girl love can’t last for ever . Think o f

all the happy middle -aged and Old couples

you know,and ask yourself whether it is pos

sible that they can be “ in love ! with oneanother . If I didn’t feel certain that I couldmake yo u happy , do yo u suppose that I shouldwish yo u to marry me You see

,Margaret

,I

have watched you so long,and I have thought

about yo u for SO many years , that now, I believe,I know you better in some ways than you know

YES AND NO . 2 63

yourself. Yo u are not fit to live alone . Somewomen can do it but you are not one o f them .

Yo u need some one to look after you , and yo uneed , just as much, some one to look after . Iwan t to save yo u from the dreadfii l loneliness O fyour life . Try to thi nk o f it in that way .

’

‘ Ah ! ’ she said ;‘ I have thought of it in

that way. Yo u need not speak to me of theloneliness of my life for you cannot realise itmore clearly than I do . It frightens me tothi nk of the future . Hitherto I have alwayshad some one to think about ; but that is all

over now,and naturally

,as time goes on I

shall be more and more alone . And I know .

too,that I am not fit to live alone . Ever since

I have been my own mistress I have been doingnothing but weak and foolish things

,and I

suppose it will always be the same . I am

unstable as water—except,perhaps

,in one

thing,

’ she added,recollecting herself. I have

always been true to Jack ; and I could not befals e now

,if I would . Oh ! I know all that

there is to be said about second marri ages . Ihave said it all to myself scores o f times ; but Ican’t bring myself to think about them in the

way that people generally do , I mus t believeeverything or nothing ; and if I am to believethat we don ’t lose o ur identity when we die , andthat we shall rise again at the last day with o ur

2 64 NO NEW m e .

bodies,then I must know for certain that it

would make Jack sorry and angry to think that Ibelonged to another man as much as to him .

You are laughing at me . It sounds ridiculous,

I know,and I would not have said this to any

one else ; but I would rather tell you the truth ,even if it does seem absurd .

’

I was not Iaughing,

’ said Hugh and indeedthere was little mirth in his smile .

He could not tell her what was passingthrough his mind . He had known Jack Stanniforth intimate—a j olly

,light -hearted fellow

,

fond o f sport,fond o f a good dinner

,fond o f

most o f the good things of this world,and no t

at all given to troubling himself with thoughtso f another . It was as certain as anything couldbe that Jack would have turned out a very goodhusband

,as husbands go

,bu t that he would no t

have been in love with his wife for a twelvemonth

,and that his ways would not have been

her ways,nor his pleasures her pleasures . Had

he lived but for a few years after his marriage,it was probable that his widow would haveretained a very different impression o f him andhis wishes . But Jack had spoilt everything bydying before his honeymoon was well over ;and it would be cruel as well as useless totellMargaret now that her ideal had no existenceand had never had any . So Hugh said nothing,


and we shall not love each other the less be~

cause—becauseBecause you don ’t love me enough to marry

me ? ’

No, not that ; but because I am not free tomarry you , or anybody . And surely there isnothing in this that need part us . You know,

you said yourself that we were not like a girland boy ; the love that we have for each other isthe love o f friends ; and we are old and greyheaded now . We can go on as we have alwaysdone

,can ’t we

,Hugh ?

She was so eager to insist upon this view ofthe case that Hugh would not disclaim the sobercharacter o f the passion attributed to him .

Neither this nor anything else shall part us,with my consent

,

’ he said,trying to put on a

cheerful face and we may certainly be f riends ,a lthough I am afraid you can hardly call yourself old yet . ’

‘ I am grey,at any rate

,and I feel as old

as Methuselah . I wonder whether we shalllive to '

be quite old people . Sometimes I thinkthat I shall die veryNonsense you are getting strong and well

as fast you can . You look a hundred per cent .better than when you left England . Whatmade you say that ?

‘ I don’

t know. I don’t f eel as if I were

YES AND No . 2 67

getting stronger at all,and we are not a long

lived family, you know. But there is nothing

particular the matter with me that I am aware o f . ’

Any allusion to the delicate state o f Mar

garet’

s health was sure to alarm Hugh im

moderately ; and perhaps she may have knownthis

,and been no t unwilling to take advantage

o f so good an opportunity for changing thesubject . She allowed him to wrap a thickshawl round her

,though the afternoon was ho t

and airless,and presently yielded to his en

treaties that she would go indoors and lie downtill dinner - time .

It was just as well for Colonel Kenyon thathe should have other things to think o f

,besides

hi s great disappointment ; and indeed Margaret’s

condition was such as to give some real cause foranxiety . For several days the poor Colonel wasfidgety and miserable , and Tom Stanniforth

unwittingly planted a dagger in his heart bysaying , ‘ Do you know,

Kenyon,I don ’t like

Margaret’s looks at all . To me she has all theappearance o f a woman going into a decline . ’ Itis true that Tom immediately ate his words

,

when he was asked savagely what he meant bythat ; but he could no t do away with the sinisterimpression produced by them

,and from that

day forth Hugh’s peace o f mind was a thing ofthe past .

268 No NEW THING .

August passed into September with a

rapidity quite unprecedented in the recollectiono f Mr . Stanniforth and Miss Brune

,and before

they knew where they were,September also was

on the wane,and the formation o f some sort o f

plan for the future became a matter the consideration of which could no longer be deferred .

Tom ’s suggestion that Edith ’s wedding -day,

which was fixed for the middle o f the succeedingmonth

,might appropriately be made the occasion

o f another similar ceremony,was scouted as o ut

o f all reason and he withdrew it,with suitable

apologies,when its absurdity was made manifest

to him . He pulled a rather long face,howev er,

0 11 hearing Nellie ’s alternative proposition,which

dealt in vague terms with a possible date in thenext spring or summer

,by which time

,it migh t

be hoped,Mrs . Stanniforth would be back in

England . Nellie was determ ined, she said, thatMrs . Stanniforth should be at her wedding, andshe could decide upon nothing until she knewwhat Mrs . Stannifo rth’

s movements were likelyto be .

The course o f Mrs . Stanniforth’

s movementswas settled for her only too speedily for,

lingering ou t of doors one evening when thedew was falling

,she caught cold and this

brought on a return o f her cough , a week inbed

,a visit from two doctors , and a peremptory

2 70 No New f

rame .

Brune ’s consent having been granted,Colonel

Kenyon was able to .give marching orders to

the small party under his command , o f which,it need hardly be said Tom Stanniforth haddecided to form one.

CHAPTER XXXVIII .

AT BORDIGHERA.

THE sunny,sheltered strip o f coast where

Doctor Antonio lived and loved,and where so

many English p eople go every year to die,is

hardly what i t u sed to be . Few things arewhat they used to be . As for the Riviera

,it is

beautiful still,since the colour cannot be taken

o ut o f the sea and sky, nor the hills cartedaway ; but whatever can be accomplished byman

,in the shape of hideous railway embank

ments and monster hotels , towards lessening itsbeauty has been conscientiously and thoroughlydone . The hotels are fu ll too , and the railwaybrings many travellers—which circumstancesare looked upon in the light o f additional attraetions by some people . Attractiveness is

,after all

,

a term dependent entirely upon the beholder,

no t upon the thing beheld ; and to Nelli e Brune ,for one

,this rather dusty

,overcrowded

,and

conventionalised region appeared a paradise .

Hugh secured a villa for Margaret on the

72 No NEW THING .

outskirt s o f Bordighera ! a spot which it may behoped that the spirit o f Doctor Antonio isdebarred from revisiting ! , and there three of theparty ensconced themselves fo r the winter

,Mr .

Stanniforth taking up his quarters in an hotelhard by. In the month o f November Mrs .Winnington redeemed her promise

,and appeared

u pon the scene , full o f sympathy and maternals olicitude but Mrs . Winnington did not likeBordighera and did no t like the villa ; and someo f the inmates of the villa

,as we know

,did not

like her . Nor,i f the truth must be told

,was

her behaviour towards them of a nature toencourage forgiveness or forgetfulness o f bygonepassages of arms . Edith

,to be sure

,was

m arried and settled,and the once - coveted

S tanni forth might well be allowed to go his ownway with the contempt and pity which hem e1 ited . Still it could not but be painful to aright thinking person to witness the triumph ofthat Brune girl whose wealth , alas ! must soonbe ten times as great as Edith ’s and whoseafiectat ion of being desperately enamoured o f aman old enough to be her father was really inthe worst possible taste . Mrs . Winnington , inshort

,snapped and snarled a good deal

,and

everybody breathed m ore freely when an evento ccurred which

,in her opinion

,called for her

prompt return to England .

2 74 No NEW THING .

o ught to go to poor Kate . It is dreadful tothink of her being quite alone ; and I am sureshe would wish me to come

,though she might

not quite like to ask it,which would account for

her not having written,you know . It is difficult

t o see one ’s duty . Now,Hugh

,tell me candidly

d o you think dear Margaret would be hurt if Iw ere to leave her

‘ I am quite sure she wouldn’t,

’ respondedHugh heartily

Well,I don ’t know that you need be so

very positive about it . Of course nothing buta feeling that it was an imperative duty to bewith Kate would induce me to go and perhaps

,

after all,I am more wanted here .

’

‘ Oh,I think yo u ought to go ,

’ said Hughwho knew per fectly well that Mrs . Winningtonm eant to go . Think of poor Lady Travers allby herself. There are three of u S here

,you see

,

t o take care o f Margaret. ’

Yes,that is very true and you could

'

tele

graph for me at any moment,if it were necessary .

But dear Margaret is so much better now thatI hope she will soon be quite herself again .

’

Quite herself again ,’ Hugh echoed .

So Mrs . Winnington went ; and it is to behoped that Lady Travers was as eager to welcomeher as some other people were to speed her onher way. Her last words to Hugh

,who saw her

AT BORDIGHERA . 2 75

into the railway carriage,were to the efi

'

ect that,

sin ce dear Margaret was so much better,she

thought she would not come back unless she wassent for.That Margaret was much better was an

article of faith with the three friends whowatched her day by day . They declared thi s

,

indeed,so often and in such decided terms as

to suggest a suspicion that they were trying toconvin ce themselves and one another o f thetruth o f their asser t-ion . They di d not convince Margaret

,who knew that she would

never be better ; but she was resolved not tosay so yet . The time would come

,she thought

,

when,for a reason o f her own

,she would be

obliged to tell the truth to Hugh ; but thattime might be m any

’

months distant,and for

the present it was far better to wear a smilingface

,to laugh at Hugh’s old -womanish pre

cautions,and to encourage the others with hopes

which could never be fulfilled .

A very little encouragement o f that kindwill generally be found to suffice . Death

,from

the contemplation of which humanity has alwaysshrunk

,has become a somewhat specially re

pugnant subj ect to a generation penetrated withmore or less conscious agnosticism and, besides ,no sensible person wishes to meet trouble halfway . Tom and Nellie were easily persuaded to


look on the brightest side of things,and even

Hugh,who was more observant and less sanguine

,

would not admit to himself that anything worsethan a rather prolonged period of anxiety was instore for him .

“

So they went on saying she wasbetter until it was impossible to say that anylonger

,and then they said she was no worse

,

and then that she would be better when thespring came .

It was after Hugh had made use of thelatter formula

,one rainy day in January

,that

Margaret at length spoke to him openly .

‘ Idon ’t think I shall be here when the springcomes

,

’ she said,

‘ and I know you don ’t thinkso either

,Hugh . Please don ’t contradict me:

we must make up our minds to it,and it is no

such great misfortune,after all . There is no

need to say anything to the others but I mustsay this to you, because there is something thatI want you to do for me . I wonder whether

you will mind‘ Mind ! As if yo u did not know that I

would do anything for you ! But,Margaret

,

I don’t think you are any worse than yo u werea week ago

—I don’t really . The weather isbad now

,and you are feeling down . When the

sun comes o u t again, yo u will see ! We shallbe laughing at these dismal notions when the

spring comes .’

NO NEW THING.

he should have taken up that idea . He wishesto spare me pain

,I fancy .

’

Hugh fancied that he knew Marescalchi a littlebetter than that . To him it was as clear asdaylight that

,since Philip could no longer get

anything ou t o f his benefactress , he no longercared to be troubled With her . But this

,o f

course,he did not say . He merely observed,

You are not asking him to see you now andthen though ; you are only asking him to comeonce . He could scarcely refuse to do that

,I

suppose .

’

‘ He will not believe that I am so ill . Hesays I have allowed myself to get depressedjust as you say, you know—and that I shall beall right again soon . I am afraid he might notbe convinced even if I wrote a third time ; butif you told him that I was—dying, I don’t thinkhe could doubt anymore . And , Hugh, we mustnot put it o ff too long .

’

The task laid upon Colonel Kenyon was onewhich did not come very easily to that honestman ; but he discharged himself o f it to the besto f his ability

,trying to infuse a friendly tone

into his letter,and to avoid all allusions which

might seem to savour o f reproach . He couldnot bring himself to say that Margaret wasdying

,but he did say that she believed herself

to be dying and,whether this be so or no

,

’ he

AT BORDIGHERA . 2 7 9

added,there can be no question that you must

comply with her wish,and come to her . Let

me have a line by return o f post to say when wemay expect you ; unless you decide to tele

graph , and start at once, which would be better,I think .

’

Philip did not adopt the latter course ; butthe return post brought a somewhat lengthyreply from him . He said that Colonel Kenyon’sletter had grieved him more than any words o fhis could express . Although, for everybody

’

s

sake,he had thought it best to break o ff all

direct communication with Mrs . Stanniforth,he

was sure that neither she nor Colonel Kenyonwould suppose that he could ever forget herkindness to him

,or that she was no t constantly

in his thoughts . He had quite hoped that thewarm South would restore her to health again

indeed,I hope this still

,and so

,as I am

glad to see by your letter,do you . She has

always fancied that she would not live long,and

my own impression is that She is out o f healthand spirits

,and has allowed this idea to get too

much o f a hold upon her. Now,as to my going

ou t to Bordighera . Of course,since she wishes

it,I will try and manage to do so . It will be a

trial to me,as you will easily understand

,when

you remember o f whom your party consists ;but that

,as our dear Mrs . Winnington used to

NO NEW THING .

say,is no t the question . I have

,however

,a

difficulty about leaving London at the presentmoment . ’ And then followed a long and ratherincoherent statement

,the upshot o f which

appeared to be that Mr . Marescalchi had pledgedhimself to sing at more than one impendingconcert

,and that he did not quite see how he

was to break his engagements .Hugh ground his teeth in impotent rage

when he reached the end of this disingenuouscomposition . He had been sitting in Margaret’sroom when the letter had been brought to him

,

and she guessed its purport at once from hisf ace .

He is not coming ! she exclaimed ;‘ I know

he is not coming I

Yes,yes ; he wi ll come . Oh

,yes ; he will

come,

’ answered Hugh soothingly . He glancedat the fire

,wondering whether he could venture

to toss the letter into the flames before she

a sked to see it ; but she was to o quick for him .

‘ Give it to m e l’ She exclaimed excitedly ;

and he dared not refuse,lest he should increase

her agitation .

A week had wrought a great change inMargaret . The little strength which she hadhad seemed suddenly to have deserted her

,so

that She could no longer even rise from her sofawithout help, and she had become peevish and

282 No NEW THING .

gram but it produced no result . Margaret wasright . Philip never came . After a few daysanother letter arrived from him

,in which he

said plainly that,upon further consideration

,he

had decided no t to comply with Margaret’s wish .

He was sure she would agree with him that,

under all the circumstances,he was better away .

And then he repeated a good deal of what hehad said before

,and wound up by declaring

that,while there was life

,he

,for his part

,would

never abandon hope .

It was in Margaret ’s presence,as before that

Hugh ’s daily batch of letters was delivered tohim

,and

,as before

,she asked to be shown the

one which she knew was among them Hughhanded it to her Silently and not without trepidation ; but he had no reason to fear any recurrence of her former outbreak

,which indeed had

been due as much to physical as to mentalcauses . She was calmer now

,as well as more

reduced in strength and it was without anybitterness of intention that she said presently

‘ After all,I think Philip is right ; he is

better away .

’

Hugh looked at her with inquiring eyesand she went on , a little wistfully

‘ I shouldlike to have seen him once more but perhapshe knows best —certainly it would have beenuncomfortable both for him and for Nellie, if

AT BORDIGHERA . 283

he had come . And it is always sad to saygood -bye . Hugh

,I am afraid I spoke very nu

kindly to you the other day .

’

You didn’t mean it,my dear . I quite

understood . Don ’t trouble to think about that,

’

answered Hugh,who

,however

,had been far

more deeply wounded than he chose to show .

No,I didn ’t mean it . Poor old Hugh

it was very hard upon you that you should havebeen worried for so many years with the vagarieso f a woman for you don’t knowhow to treatwomen at all you take them much too seriously .

It is nearly over now,though . I wonder whether

we shall ever meet again !‘ If I were not as certa in of that as I am of

my own existence,I would go and drown my

self to-morrow ! ’ cr1ed Hugh,endeavou 1'mg, - as

many honest people do,to replace faith by vehe

mence of assert ion .

Ah,no ! I have been a burden to you and

after a time you won ’t wish to have your burdenback again . It has been a great blunder . ’

What has been a blunder Hugh asked .

My life,I mean . And yet

,if it were all to

do over again , I should be just as weak , j ust asblind , and just as obstinate .

’

In all your life,

’ said Hugh,

‘

you have donenothing to be ashamed of and surely there canbe very few people who can say that . ’

284 No NEW THING .

‘ But o f course I can’t say that . Even if Ihad nothing else to be ashamed o f

,it would be

bad enough to have murmured and grumbled asI have done . My life has not been an unhappyone really . I had a few months o f perfect

,abso

lute happiness,and I have been very happy

during the last twelve years too ; only I havealways had a silly kind of feeling that I oughtnot to acknowledge it . All my misfortunes havecome upon me through my own fault and in asort of way I foresaw them . Everybody knowsthe result of being too indulgent . It is no new

thing that has happened to me .

’

All that you have thought of has been howto please those whom you loved

,

’ said Hugh,

‘ and they have made use of you,and turned

their backs upon you when they could makeuse of you no longer. That is no new thing

,I

suppose .

’

He knew that it grieved her to hear theabsent spoken of in that tone he knew thatshe reproached no one

,except herself

,and that

among the results o f over - indulgence she hadnot meant to include ingratitude but the painand bitterness in his own heart were so greatthat he could not altogether conceal them .

He left her by-and-by, and went sadly

downstairs into the brilliant sunshine outsideand

,as he wandered among the orange -groves,

286 No NEW THING .

CHAPTER XXXIX .

LAST WORDS .

LONGBOURNE is once more possessed and in

habited by a Brune . Tom Stanniforth,

on

succeeding to the property,would gladly have

made a free gift o f it to his brother-in -law butto this the latter would in no wise agree

,and

eventually a compromise was arrived at,Tom

consenting to accept as purchase-money thebalance o f the sum paid by his father, afterdeducting that obtained from the Craym insterand Craybridge Railway, which he said he hadat length become convinced was fairly due tothe original owner of the soil . Mr . Brune Shookhis head over this arrangement

,which he con

s idered a very one- sided bargain ; but Mrs .Tom Stannif orth is extremely angry if anyonehints that her husband displayed generosity inthe matter or deserves ‘any credit

,beyond that

small amount which may be claimed by one whorepairs

,somewhat tardily

,an act of flagrant

injustice . She boasts,not without reason

,that

she has held but one and the same opinion upon

LAST WORDS . 287

the subj ect all her life ;‘ and

,

’ says she,

‘ theproof that I was right is that Tom

,who has the

greatest contempt for my judgment in everything

,has admitted it . ’

It may be that Mr . Stanniforth has a contempt for his wife ’s judgment but it is certainthat he never commi ts himself to any enterprisenowadays without consulting her and there arepeople who say that the member for Blackporthas sadly deteriorated

'

since his marriage . As,

however,these people belong to the class whi ch

thrives upon the credulity of the benevolent,

their verdict need not be taken as conclusive .Mr . Stann iforth is not less benevolent than ofyore ; but he is a little less keen about legislatingfor the benefit of aggrieved sections of the community and he is so very rich

,so hard-working

,

and has so large a store of varied informationand experience

,that Nellie

,who is ambitious

,

thinks his benevolence ought to be devoted tothe service o f his countrymen at large

,and is

determined that he Shall be a cabinet mini sterbefore he dies . In the meantime

,he is very

well satisfied with his lot as an independentmember

,and is in no great hurry to exchange it

for the shackles o f office .Mrs . Winnington is still on the look-ou t for

a house . Until she discovers one—and everybody knows the difficulty o f finding a thoroughly

2 88 No NEw THING .

suitable home,and how foolish it is to decide

hastily in a matter o f so much importance—Sheis compelled to yield reluctantly to the solicitations o f her daughters

,and to divide her time

between Edith and Lady Travers . Longbou rne,she says

,is full of painful associations for her

but a sense o f duty—which,after all

,is your

only true support in the midst o f the trials anddifficultie s o f life—enables her so far to overcomeher feelings as to spend something very like six

months ou t of the year there .

Prosser remains among the fixtures at Longbourne

,and rules Edith as she ruled her pre

decessor . She is not ill-disposed towards hernew mistres s though she is often heard to say,

with a sigh,that things is not what they was

in poor dear Mrs . Stanniforth’s time .

One day,not long ago

,a travelling carriage

,

arriving from the direction of Genoa,drew up

at the door o f the principal hotel at Bordighera,

and out of it stepped a stout,cheerful- looking

lady and a remarkably handsome young man,

who,while their luggage was being carried in

,

took occasion to inquire where the cemetery wassituated . Presently they were seen to start on

their way thither, the stout lady talking volubly ,while the young man sauntered along beside her

,

smoking a cigarette,and not

,apparently

,paying

much attention to her remarks .

2 90 No NEW THING .

The Signora burst into one of her jollyl aughs

,and said ‘What indeed ? ’

Then they both became silent and serious ;for they had reached the cemetery . They soonfound the white marble monument o f whichthey were in search

,and stood for some minutes

looking at it . The flat stone was almost hiddenby masses o f cu t flowers which had evidentlybeen placed there recently ; and , as they wentaway

,Philip had the curiosity to ask the old

gravedigger at the gate who it was that hadpaid this graceful tribute to the memory o f theEnglish lady .

Eh ! said he,with a j erk o f his shoulders

who should it be There is only one to do it .And who is that Philip asked .

Upon which the old man replied vaguelythat it was ‘

quel s ignore che m'

ene sempre.

’ Do

yo u not know him ? ’ he went on .

‘ He comeshere once

,and sometimes twice

,every winter

a tall gentleman with a long nose,who walks

like this . ’ And the Old fellow thrust his headforward

,stuck his hands in his pockets

,and took

two or three exaggeratedly long strides .‘ By Jove ! it ’s old General Kenyon ,

’ saidPhilip .

‘What born ac tors these people are l

I say—I don’t think i t’s much good our stoppinghere till to -morrow. Suppose we take the trainon to Monaco

LAST WORDS . 2 91

So Signor and Signora Marescalchi Slept atMonte Carlo that night

,and the former enj oyed

an exciting evening at trenz‘e et quarante for hiswife allows him to lose a certain sum at the publictables

,it having been agreed between them that

he shall forswear all forms Of private gambling.

Everybody has his little vices,

’ says theSignora good -humou redly ;

‘ but I believehusband has fewer than most men .

’

THE END .

€¦ · no new thing. chapter xxvi. philip finds out all about it. thanks to the good ofﬁces of...

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