OF CALIF. LIBKARY, LOS ATTOEL POPULAK NOVELS. BY MAY AGNES FLEMING. 1. GUY EARLSCOURT'S WIPE. 2. A WONDERFUL WOMAN. 8. A TERRIBLE SECRET. 4. NORINE'S REVENGE. 6. A MAT) MARRIAGE. 6. ONE NIGHT'S MYSTERY. 7. KATE DANTON. 8. SILENT AND TRUE. 9. HEIR OF CHARLTON. 10. CARRIED BY STORM. 11. LOST FOR A WOMAN. 12. A WIFE'S TRAGEDY. 13. A CHANGED HEART. 14. PRIDE AND PASSION. 15. SHARING HER CRIME. 16. A WRONGED WIFE. 1?. MAUDE PERCY'S SECRET (New). "Mrs. Fleming's stories are growing more and more popular every day. Their delineations of character, life-like conversations, flashes of wit, con- stantly varying scenes, and deeply inter- esting plots, combine to place their author in the very first rank of Modern Novelists." All published uniform with this volume. Price, $1.50 each, and sent free by mail on receipt of price. BY Q. W. CABLETON & CO., Publishers, New York. WONDERFUL WOMAN, BY MAY AGNES FLEMING, AUTHOR OF 'Ovv EAILSCOURT'S Wire," "A TERRIBLE SECRET," ETC.. ETC., E*Cc, NEW YORK: G. W. Carleton &? Co., Publishers. LONDON: S. LOW SON & CO. MDCCCLXXXIV. according to Act of Congress, in the year i $73, bp G. W. CARLETON & CO., the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at WashingM* TROW'S PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING Co., PRINTERS, 205-213 Sait \2tft St., NEW YORK. ARA HAMILTON bi MKMOKV or THK PLEASANT WINTER AFTERNOONS SFKNT WHILST IT WAS BEING WRITTKM, THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY PKDICATKD. 2129503 CONTENTS. CMAPTKK MSB L Katherme , . 9 II. Mrs. Vavasor a* III. Among the Roses 36 IV. Love under the Lamps 43 V. Before Breakfast 47 VL Asking in Marriage 56 VII. The Second Warning 65 VIII. A Letter from New Orleans Si IX. The Third Warning 91 X. Before the Wedding 104 XL The Wedding Night 123 XII. The Telling of the Secret 136 XIII. Mrs. Vavasor's Story 144 XIV. Day of Wrath ! Day of Grief! 154 XV "Dead or Alive" 166 XVI. Before Midnight 179 XVIL " Resurgam" 192 PART II. L La Reine Blanche 207 IL Miss Herncastle 221 IIL Sir Arthur Tregenna 235 IV. At Scarswood 240 V. " Once more the Gate behind me falls" 253 VI. Something very strange 262 VII. " There is many a Slip, " etc 272 CONTENTS. VIII. Redmond O'Donnell ............................... 28* IX. Six Years before .................................. 292 X. An Irish Idyl ...................................... 300 XL Its English Reading ......... , ...................... 314 XII." The Battle of Fontenoy " .......................... 326 XIII. The Mystery of Bracken Hollow ...................... 337 XIV. Under the King's Oak ............................... 353 XV. "As in a Glass, darkly" ............................. 362 XVI. The Story of the Ivory Miniature ..................... 377 XVII. The Scar on the Temple ............................. 391 XVIII. Rose O'DonnelTs Secret ............................ 403 XIX. Knight and Page ................................... 416 XX. A Dark Night's Work ............................ -432 XXI. The Length of his Tether ............................ 437 XXII. After the Masquerade ............................... 445 XXIII." Six Years too Late" .............................. 457 XXIV. A Chapter of Wonders .............................. 474 XXV. The Last Link ..................................... 487 XXVI. Hunted Down ..................................... 497 XXVII. That Night ........................................ 509 KXVIIL " Not I, but Fate, hath dealt this Blow" .............. 524 XXIX. How it ended ..................................... 533 A WONDERFUL WOMAN CHAPTER I. KATHERINE. JHE large, loud-voiced clock over the stables struck nine, and announced to all whom it might concern that the breakfast-hour of Sir John Dangerfield, Bar- onet. of Scarswood Park, Sussex, had arrived. Scarswood Park ! A glorious old place, lying deep down in the green heart of a Sussex woodland ! A glorious old place, where the rare red deer disported amid the emerald glades, and dusky, leafy aisles of the oak and beech ! A vast and stately park, sloping down to the tawny sea-shore, and a vast and stately mansion, its echoing turrets rising high above the tower- ing oak and copper beeches, and its eastern windows sparkling in the red sunlight of this bright September morning like sparks of fire ! Within and without the great house was very still ; a break fast-table, sparkling with crystal, rich with rough old silver, gaj with tall glasses of September roses, and snowy with napery, stood ready and waiting in a spacious room. Through the open windows the sweet, hay-scented morning wind blew, and far off you caught in the summer stillness the soft wash of trie waves on the yellow sands, more than a mile away. At the last chime of the loud-voiced clock the door opened, and Sir John Dangerfieid came into the room, A silver-toned French time-piece on the marble mantel began a tinkling waltz, preparatory to repeating the hour ; the birds, in their gilded cages, sang blithely their welcome ; but the baronet glanced impatiently around in search of something or somebody else. "Not down yet," he said. "That's not like Katherine I 10 KATHERINB. She is not used to dissipation, and I suppose last night's concert has made her lazy this morning. Thomas," to a footman, appearing like a tall plush specter in the doorway " tell Miss {Catherine's maid that I am waiting breakfast. Has the Times arrived ? " "Yes, Sir John." Thomas presented the folded Thunderer to his master, and vanished. Sir John Dangerfield flung himself into an easy-chair, that groaned in every joint with his three hundred pounds of man- hood, and opened the damp London paper, perfuming the room with the smell of printers' ink. He was a tall, portly gentle- man, this Sussex baronet, with a handsome, florid face, and an upright, military bearing. For three months only had he reigned master of Scarswood ; three lives had stood between him and the baronetcy, and, a colonel in the Honorable East India Com- pany's Service, he had, four months before this sunny September morning, about as much idea of ever lording it in Scarswood Hall as he had of ever sitting on the throne of England. Sud- denly, and as if a fatality were at work, these three lives had been removed, and Colonel Dangerfield, of her Majesty's H. E. I. C. S., became Sir John Dangerfield, of Scarswood Park, and, with his daughter and heiress, came back to England for the first time in fifteen years. He was a widower, and Miss Dangerfield, his daughter, his heiress, his idol, had been born in England, and was two years old when her father had first gone out to India, and grown up to be nearly seventeen before she ever set foot upon English soil again. He unfolded his paper, but he did not read. The loud sing- ing of the birds, the dazzling brightness of the summer morning. disturbed him, perhaps. It dropped on his knee, and his eyes turned on the emerald lawn, on the tangled depths of fern and bracken, on the dark expanse of waving woodland terrace, lawn, and coppice, all bathed in the glorious golden light. " A fair prospect," he said " a princely inheritance ! And to think that four months ago I was grilling alive in Calcutta, with no earthly hope but that of retiring one day from the Company's service with chronic liver complaint, and a colonel's half-pay. For myself it would not matter : but for Katharine ! " His face changed suddenly. " If I only could be certain she were dead! If I only could be certain my secret was buried with her ! It never mattered before we were out of her reach ; but since my accession to Scarswood, since my return to Eng- KATHERINE. M (and, that wretch's memory has haunted me like an evil spirit. Only last night I dreamed of her dreamed I saw her evil black eyes gleaming upon me in this room. Paugh ! " A shudder of disgust a look of abhorrence ; then he lifted the paper again and again he dropped it. A door far above closed with a bang ; a fresh young voice caroling like a bird ; the quick patter, patter, patter, of little female feet downstairs the last three cleared with a jump ; and then the door of the breakfast-room was flung wide, and the heiress of Scarswood Park flashed into the room. Flashed I use the word advisedly flashed in like a burst of sunshine like a hillside breeze and stood before her father in fluttering white muslin, pink ribbons waving, brown hair fly- ing, gray eyes dancing, and her fresh, sweet voice ringing through the room. "Good morning, papa !" Miss Dangerfield cried, panting, and out of breath. " Is breakfast ready ? I'm perfectly fam- ished, and would have starved to death in bed if Ninon had not come and routed me out. And how is your appetite, papa?-- and I hope I have not kept you waiting too long and, oh ! wasn't the concert perfectly de licious last night ! " And then two white arms went impetuously around the neck of the Indian officer, and two fresh rosy lips gave him a kins that exploded like a torpedo. Sir John disengaged himself laughingly from this impulsive em- brace. " Gently, gently, Kathie ! don't quite garrote me with tho:.e long arms of yours. Stand off and let me see how you look after last night's dissipation. A perfect wreck, I'll be bound." " Dissipation ! A perfect wreck ! Oh, papa, it was heavenly just that ! I shall never forget that tenor singer who sang Fortunio's song, you know, papa, with his splendid eyes, and the face of a Greek god. And his name Gaston Dan tree beautiful as himself. Don't talk to me of dissipation and a wreck ; I mean to go again to-night, and to-morrow night, and all the to-morrow nights while those concerts are given by the Talbots." She stood before him, gesticulating rapidly, with the golden morning light pouring full on her face. And Miss Katherine Dangerfield, heiress and heroine, was beautiful, you say, as an heiress and heroine should be ? I am aorry to say No. The young ladies of the neighborhood, other- wise English misses with pink and whiie Complexions, and per 12 KATHERINE. feet manners, would have told you Katherine Dangerfield was lanky and overgrown, had sunburnt hands and complexion, too small a nose, and too large a mouth and chin. Would have told you her forehead was low, her complexion sallow, and her manners perfectly horrible. She was boisterous, she was a hoyden, she said whatever came uppermost in her mind, was utterly spoiled by a doting father, and had the temper of a very termagant. They would probably have forgotten to men- tion those young ladies that the sallow complexion was lit by a pair of loveliest dark-gray eyes, that the tall, supple figure of the girl of seventeen gave rare promise of statelv and majes- tic womanhood, that the ever-ready smile, which parted the rosy lips, displayed a set of teeth flashing like jewels. They would have forgotten to mention the wonderful fall of bright brown hair, dark in the shadow, red gold in the light, and the sweet freshness of a voice so silver-toned that all who heard it paused to listen. Not handsome you would never have called her that but bright, bright and blithe as the summer sunshine itself. " Well, papa, and how do I look ? Not very much uglier than usual, I hope. Oh, papa," the girl cried, suddenly, clasp- ing her hands, " why, why, why wasn't I born handsome ? I adore beauty pictures, music, sunshine, flowers, and hand- some men ! I hate women I hate girls vain, malicious mag- pies spiteful and spiritless. Why don't I look like you, papa, you handsome, splendid old soldier ! Why was I born with a yellow skin, an angular figure, and more arms and hands than I ever know what to do with ? Whom do I take after to be so ugly, papa? Not after you, that's clear. Then it musn be after mamma?" Miss Dangerfield had danced over to the great mirror on the mantel, and stood gazing discontentedly at her own image in the glass. Sir John, in his sunny window-seat, had been listening with an indulgent smile, folding his crackling paper. The crackling suddenly ceased at his daughter's last words, the smile died wholly away. " Say, papa," Katherine cried, impatiently, " do I look like mamma ? I never saw her, you know, nor her picture, nor any- thing. If I do, you couldn't have been over and above partic- ular during the period of love's young dream. Do I inherit my tawny complexion, and square chin, and snub nose, and low forehead from the late Mrs. Colonel Dangerfield ? " CATHERINE. j, Her father laid doun his paper, and arose. " Come to breakfast, Katherine," he said, more ccfdly than he had ever spoken to her before in his life, " and be kind enough to drop the subject. Your flippant manner of speaking of of your mother, is positively shocking. I am afraid it ;s true what they say of you here Indian nurses the lack of a mother's care and iiy indulgence, have spoiled you." "Very well, papa ; then the fault's yours and you shouldn't blame me. The what's-his-name cannot change his spots, and I can't change my irreverent nature any more than I can my looks. But really and truly, papa, do I look like mamma ? " " No yes I don't know." " No yes I don't know. Intelligible, perhaps, but not at all satisfactory. When /am left a widow, I hope I shall remem- ber how the dear departed partner of my existence looked, even after thirteen years. Have you no portrait of mamma, then ? " " No ! In Heaven's name, Katherine, eat your breakfast, and let me eat mine ! " " I am eating my breakfast," responded his daughter, testily. " I suppose a person can talk and eat at the same time. Haven't you rather got a pain in your temper this morning papa ? And I must say I think it a little too hard that I can't be told who I take my ugliness from. I'm much obliged to them for the inheritance, whoever they were." Sir John again laid down his paper with a resigned sigh. He knew of old how useless it was to try and stem the torrent of his daughter's eloquence. " What nonsense you talk, my dear," he said. " You're not ugly you don't want your father to pay you compliments, do you, Katherine ? I thought your cousin Peter paid you enough last night to satisfy even your vanity for a month." Katherine shook her head impatiently until all its red-brown Presses flashed again. " Peter Dangerfield wretched little bore ! Yes, he paid me compliments, with his hideous little weasen face close to my ear until I told him for goodness sake to hold his tongue, and not drive me frantic with his idiotic remarks ! He let me alone after that, and sulked ! I tell you what it is, papa if some- thing is not done to prevent him, that little grinning imbecile will be asking me to marry him one of these days mark my words ! " " Very well suppose he does ? " The baronet leaned back 24 CATHERINE. in his chair and raised his paper nervously before his face, " Suppose he does, Kathie what then ? " "What then!" The young lady could but just repeat the words in her amaze and indignation. " What then ! Sir John Dangerfield do you mean to insult me, sir ? Put down that papei this instant, and look the person you're talking to full in the face, and repeat 'what then] if you dare !" "Well, Kathie," the baronet said, still fidgeting with his paper screen and not looking his excited little commanding officer in the face, " Peter's not handsome, I know, nor dashing, but he's a clever little fellow, and my nephew, and in love with you, and will make you a much better husband, my dear, than a much better-looking man. Handsome men are always vain as peacocks, and so deeply in love with themselves that they never have room in their conceited hearts and empty heads to love any one else. Don't be romantic, my dear you'll not find heroes anywhere now except in Mudie's novels. Peter's a clever little fellow, as I said, and over head and ears in love with you." "A clever little fellow! A clever little fellow," repeated Miss Dangerfield, with intense concentrated scorn. "Papa," with dignity, " a few minutes ago you told me to change the subject. / make the same remark now. I wouldn't marry your clever little fellow not to save my own head from the gal- lows or his soul from perdition. Sir John, I consider myself doubly insulted this morning ! I don't wonder you sit there excruciating my nerves with that horrid rattling paper and ashamed to look me in the face. I think you have reason to be ashamed ! Telling your only child and heiress she couldn't do better than throw herself away on a pitiful little country lawyer, only five feet high, and with the countenance of a rat. If it were that adorable Gastoa Dantree now. Oh, here's the post. Papa ! papa ! give me the key." Miss Dangerfield forgetting in a second the late outrage offered her by her cruel parent seized the key, unlocked the bag, and plunged in after its contents. " One two three four ! two for me from India one foi you from ditto, in Major Trevanion's big slap-dash fist, and this - Why, papa, what lady correspondent can you have in Paris ? What an elegant Italian hand ! what thick yellow perfumec* paper, and what a pentimental seal and motto ! Blue wax and 'pensez ct mm.' Now, papa, who can this be from ? " She threw the letter across the table. Wiih her first wordy KA THERINE. 1 5 the face of the Indian officer had changed a hu.Ti.ed look o( absolute terror had come into his face. His hands tightened over the paper, his eyes fixed themselves upon the dainty missive his daughter held before them, his florid, healthful color faded a dull grayish whiteness crept over his face from brow to chin. " Papa ! " Katherine cried, " you're sick, you're going to have a fit ! Don't tell me ! can't I see it ? Drink this diink it this moment and come round ! " She held a glass of water to his lips. He obeyed mechani- cally, and the color that had faded and fled, slowly crept back to his bearded, sun-browned face. " There ! " said Miss Dan- gerfield, in a satisfied tone, " you hare come round ! And now tell me, was it a fit, or was it the letter ? Tell me the truth, sir ; don't prevaricate ! " " It was one of my old attacks, Kathie, nothing more. You ought to be used to them by this time. Nothing more, I give you my word. Go back to your breakfast, child," he said tes- tily, "and don't stand staring there in that uncomfortable way !" " My opinion is, papa," responded Miss Dangerfield, with gravity, " that you're in a bad way and should turn your attention immediately from the roast beef of old England to water gruel anu weak tea. A fine old English gentleman of your time of day, who has left his liver behind him in India, and who has a Sepoy bullet lodged for life in his left lung, and a strong ten- dency to apoplexy besides, ought to mind what he eats and drinks, and be on very friendly terms with the nearest clergy- men. Aren't you going to read that letter, papa, and tell me who the woman is who has the presumption to write to you without my knowledge? Now where are you going?" For Sir John had arisen hastily, his letters in his hand. " To my study. Kathie. Finish your breakfast, darling, and dor't mind me." He stooped down suddenly and kissed her, with almost passionate tenderness. " My darling ! my dar- ling ! " he said. " Heaven bless and keep you always, what- ever happens whatever happens." He repeated the last words with a sort of anguish in his voice, then turned and walked out of the breakfast parlor be- fore his very much amazed daughter could speak. " Well ! " exclaimed Miss Dangerfield at last, " this does cap the universe, doesn't it?" This question being addressed to vacancy received no reply. " There's a mystery here, and I don't like mysteries out of sensation novels. I have no secretf 1 6 CATHERINE. from papa ^hat business has papa to have secrets from me?" She arose with an injured air, gave the bell a vicious pull, and walked in offended dignity back to her room. The broad; black, slippery oaken staircase went up in majestic sweeps to the regions above. Miss Dangerfield ascended it slowly and with a face of perplexed thought. " It was never an attack don't tell me it was that nasty, vicious, spidery written little letter ! Now what woman wrote that letter, and what business had she to write it ? I shall insist upon papa giving me a full explanation at dinner-time. No woman in Paris or any other wicked city shall badger my pre- cious old soldier into an early grave. And meantime I shall have a gallop on Ilderim over the golden Sussex downs." She entered her room singing the song the handsome tenor had sung at the concert the night before, the melody of whose silver voice, the dusky fire of whose eyes, the dark foreign beauty of whose face, had haunted her romantic seventeen-year- old mind ever since. " Rispondia a chi t' implora ! Rispondia a ".ara a me ! " " How handsome he was, how handsome how handsome ! If ever I marry, it shall be a man a demi-god like that. Peter Dangerfield, indeed ! Nasty little bore ! Still I would rather have him in love with me than have no one at all. I wonder if it is I, myself, he loves, or Scarsvvood Park, and the heiress of eight thousand a year. Ninon ! my green riding-habit, and tell them to fetch Ilderim around. And oh, Ninon, my child, tell that tiresome groom I diwz'/want him perambulating behind me, like an apoplectic shadow. Ilderim and I can take care oi ourselves." " But, mademoiselle Seer John's orders " " Ninon Duclos, will you do as /order you ? I won't have the groom there ! I'm always shocking the resident gentry of this neighborhood, and I mean to go on shocking them. I feel as if I had a spy at my heels while that beef-eating groom is there. Help me on with my habit and say no more about it." Little Ninon knew a good deal better than to dispute Miss Dangerfield's mood when Miss Dangerfield spoke in that tone. Miss Dangerfield had boxed her ears before now, and was very capable of doing it again. Perhaps, on the whole, smart little Ninon rather liked having her ears impetuously slapped by h erts. On the bare downs, treeless and houseless, the lightning leaped out like a twc edged sword. There came the booming KATHER1NE. Ig crash of thander, then a deluge of rain, and the mid-day sum- mer tempest was upon her in its might. The swift, sudden blaze of the lightning in his eyes startled the nervous system of Ilderim. He tossed his little black Arabian head in the air with a snort of terror, made a bound forward and fled over the grassy plains with the speed of an express train. " A runaway, by Jove ! " A man darted forward with the cry upon his lips, and made the agile spring of a wild-cat at Ilderim' s bridle rein. A mo- ment's struggle and then the spirited Arab stood still under the grasp of an iron hand, quivering in every limb, and his mis- tress, looking down from her saddle, met full two of the most beautiful eyes into which it had ever been her good fortune to look. It was Mr. Gaston Dantree, the handsome, silver-voiced tenor of last night's concert, and a flash of glad surprise lit up her face. "Mr. Dantree ! " she cried, "you ! and in this tempest, and at so opportune a moment. How shall I thank you for save for rendering me such very timely assistance ? " " For saving my life," she had been going to say, but thai would have been coming it a little too strong. Her life had not been in the smallest danger she was a thorough horse- woman, and could have managed a much wilder animal than Ilderim. But the knight to the rescue was Mr. Dantree, and last night Miss Dangerfield had looked for the first time into those wondrous eyes of gold-brown light and fallen straight in love with their owner. He was very handsome ; perfectly, faultlessly handsome, with an olive complexion, a low forehead, a chiselled nose, ? thick black mustache, and two dark almond eyes, of "liquid light." Not tall, not stout, not very manly-looking, perhaps, in any way, men were rather given to sneer at Mr. Gaston Dantree's somewhat effeminate beauty. But they never sneered long. There was that in Mr. Dantree's black eyes, in Mr. Dantree's musical voice, in Mr. Dantree's trained muscles, that would have rendered a serious difficulty a little unpleasant. He took off his hat now, despite the pouring rain, and stood before t.\e heiress of Scarswood, looking like the Apollo himself in a snabby shooting jacket. " You do me too much honor, Miss Dangerfield ; I don't really think your lif* was in any danger still it's pleasant to know f was the ont to stop your black steed all the same. Ruthei 7.0 KATHERTNE. a coincidence, by the bye, that I should meet you here just at present, as, taking advantage of last night's kind invitation, I was about to present myself at Scarswood." "And Scarswood is very well worth seeing, I assure you. As it is not more than a quarter of a mile to the gates, suppose you resume your hat and your journey ?" " But, Miss Dangerfield, you will get your death at this pace in this downpour." " Oh, no, I'll not," Katherine answered coolly. " The rain wrill never fall that will give me my death ! You don't know how strong I am. Come, Mr. Dantree, let me see if you can walk as fast as Ilderim." She looked down at him with that brilliant smile that lit her dark face into something brighter than beauty. "Come, Mr. Dantree," she repeated, "let me be cicerone for once, and show you the splendors of Scarswood. It is the khow place of the neighborhood, you know, built by a Danger- field, I am afraid to say how many centuries ago. We came over with William, the what's-his-name, you know, or, perhaps, William found us here when he arrived ; I'm not positive which. We're a dreadfully old family, indeed, and I'm the last daughter of the race ; and I wouldn't be anybody but Katherine Dan- gerfield, of Scarswood Park, for the world ! " She dashed under the huge stone arch of masonry as she spoke, half laughing, wholly in earnest. She was proud of the old blood that flowed so spiritedly in her veins, of this noble mansion, of the princely inheritance which was her birthright. "Welcome to Scarswood, Mr. Dantree," she said, as he passed by her side under the Norman arch. He raised his hat. "Thank you, Miss Dangerfield," he said gravely; and so, still by her side, walked up the drippling elm avenue and into the house. His fatal beauty fatal, though he was but seven-and- twenty, to many women had done its work once more. Her own hand had brought him there, her own voice had spoken hei sentence. Gaston Dantree stood under the roof of Scarswood Hall, and, until her dying hour, this day would stand out dis- tinct from all other days in Katherine Dangerfield' s life. Sir John sat in his library alone, that letter from Paris still crashed in his hand as though it had been a serpent. It seemed a very harmless serpent at first sight ; it only contained these lines, written in an elegant, flowing Italian chirography : KATHERINE. 21 "PARIS, September 23. " MY DEAR SIR JOHN DANGERFIELD : How delightedly my pea writes the title 1 A baronet I Who would have thought it ? And S'.ars- wood Park is yours, and your income is clear eight thousand a year. Who could have hoped it ? And you're back in England, and la petite the lit- tle Katherine. Darling little Katherine ! So full of spirit and liclf-w.U, as she was when I saw her last, and that is fifteen years ago. Ah, mon dieu ! fifteen weary, weary, weary years. My dear baronet, I am coming to see you ; I know you will be enchanted. On the third of October you will send your carriage to Castleford Station to meet the 7. 20 London ex- press and me. And your servant will ask for Mrs. Vavasor. I adapt my names as I do my conversation, to my company ; and, among the aristo- cratic county families of Sussex, let me be aristocratic, too. Adieu, my baronet, for the present ; and allow me to subscribe myself by the old and, alas ! plebeian cognomen of HARRIET HARMAN. " P. S. Tell my pet, Katherine, I am coming. Kiss the darling child for me." He had sat for hours as he sat now, that letter crushed in his hand, a grayish pallor on his face, his eyes looking blankly out at the drifting rain, at the tossing, wind-blown trees. The light- ning leaped forth at intervals, the summer thunder broke over the roof, the summer rain beat on the glass. He neither saw nor heard ; he sat like a man stunned by a great and sudden blow. " And I thought her dead," he muttered once. " I hoped she was dead. I thought, after fifteen years' silence, I was safe ; and now oh, God ! will the wicked wish never be granted ? " He sat there still as he had sat since he left the breakfast table, when the door was flung wide, and Katherine, dripping like a mermaid, stood before him. " May I come in, papa, or have you fallen asleep ? Do you know it is two o'clock, and past luncheon time, and that I have brought home a guest? It's Mr. Dan tree, papa you re- member him, you know and he wants to see the house, and I want_j>0 to be civil to him. He's in the blue drawing-room ; and while I'm changing my habit I wish you would go up and entertain him. Papa!" She broke off suddenly, catching s ; ght of his altered face. " What is the matter ? You look like your own ghost ! " He rose up stiffly, as if his limbs were cramped, crushing the letter more tightly still in his hand. He turned away from the window, so that his face was hidden from her, as he answered : " I am a little cold. Who did you say was waiting, Kather- 22 MRS. VAVASOR ine? Oh, yes; the singing man Gaston Dan tree. By the bye, Kathie, tell Harrison to prepare one of the front chambers for a a lady an old friend of mine who is coming to visit us. She will be here on the evening of the third of October next, and her name is Mrs. Vavasor." CHAPTER II. MRS. VAVASOR. JHE London express, due at Castleford station at 7.20, rushed in with an unearthly shriek, like Sinbad's black monster, with the one red, fiery eye. There were five passengers for the town four men and a woman. The train disgorged them and then fled away, shrieking once more, into the black October night. A wet and gusty autumn evening, a black and starless sky frowning down upon a black and sodden earth. A bitter blast blew up from the sea, and whirled the dead leaves in drifts be- fore it. The station, dreary and isolated, as it is in the nature of stations to be, looked drearier than ever to-night. Far off the lamps of the town glimmered athwart the rain and fog, specks of light in the eerie gloom. The four male passengers who had quitted the train hurried with their portmanteaus, buttoned to the chin, and with hats slouched forward over their noses honest shopkeepers of Castleford, but looking villanously brigandish in the light of the station lamps. Only the female passenger remained, and she came tripping up the platform with a little satchel in her hand, crisp and smiling, to the chief station official. " I beg your pardon, sir ; but can you tell me if the carriage from Scarswood Park is waiting for me ? " She was a beautiful little woman. Two great dark eyes of lustrous light beamed up in the official's face, and a smile that lit up the whole station with its radiance dazzled him. She had feathery black ringlets she had a brilliant high color well, a trifle too high, probably, for some fastidious tastes she had teeth white and more glistening than anything the official had ever seen outside a dentist's show-case she had the tiniest lit MRS. VAVASOR. 33 tie ligure in the world, and she had as far as the official could judge, for the glitter of her whole appearance some three-and- thirty years. With the flash of her white teeth, the sparkle of the black eyes, the glow of the rose-red cheeks, she dazzlM you like a sudden burst of sunlight, and you never stopped to think until afterward how sharp and rasping was the voice in which she addressed you. The carriage from Scarswood? No, it had not that is to say the official did not know whether it had or not. Would the lady be pleased to sit down ? there was a fire in here, and he would go and ascertain. " I certainly expected to find it waiting," the little lady said, tripping lightly after him. " Sir John knows I am coming to- night. He is such an old friend of mine Sir John. It's odd now the carriage isn't waiting tell them when they do come, Mrs. Vavasor is here." "The carriage has come," announced the official on the mo- ment. " This way, madame, if you please." The close carriage, its lamps glowing like two red eyes in the darkness, its horses pawing the ground, its coachman stiff and surly on the box, was drawn up at the station door. The official held the door open she thanked him with a radiant smile, and then Sir John Dangerfield's carriage was flying through the darkness of the wet October night over the muddy high road to Scarswood Park. Little Mrs. Vavasor wiped the blurred glass, and strained her bright black eyes as the vehicle whirled up the avenue, to catch the first glimpse of the house. It loomed up at last, a big black shadow in the darkness. Lights gleamed all along its front windows, and the distant sound of music floated out into the night. Mrs. Vavasor's fascinating face was at its brightest the sparkle in her eyes sparkled more than ever. "A party a ball perhaps. Let me see, the third of Octo- ber why la petite 's birthday, of course. Miss Dangerfield, Heiress of Scarswood, is just seventeen to-night. How stupid of me to forget it." She laughed in the darkness and solitude, a little low laugh not pleasant to hear. " I wonder how poor dear Sir John will meet me, and what account he will give of me to his daughter? It couldn't have been pleasant for him to receive my note. I dare say by this time he thought mt dead." She stepped out a moment in the rain, then into the lighted vistibule, then into the spacious entrance hall, where Mrs. Har- 24 MRS. VAVASOR. rison, in a gray silk gown and white lace cap, and all the dig nity of house-keeper, met her courtesy. " Mrs. Vavasor, I think, ma'am ? " Mrs. Vavasor's enchanting smile answered in the affirmative. " Sir John's orders are every attention, ma'am, and he wan to be told the minute you arrived. This way, if you please, and you're to wait here, ma'am, until he comes to you." She led the way upstairs, and threw open the door of a half- lit, elegant apartment, all bright with upholstery, curtains, and carpet of blue and gold. " How very nice," Mrs. Vavasor remarked, glancing pleas- antly around ; " and you are the housekeeper, I suppose, my good soul ? And your young lady is having a party on her birth-night ? How pleasant it must be to be only seventeen, and handsome, and rich, and a baronet's daughter." Mrs. Vavasor laughed that sharp little laugh of hers that rather grated on sensitive ears. " Miss Dangerfield is handsome, no doubt, Mrs. ah " Harrison, ma'am," the housekeeper responded, rather stiffly. "And Miss Katherine is very 'andsome, indeed, in my eyes. I'll tell Sir John you're here, ma'am, at once, if you'll please sit down." But it pleased Mrs. Vavasor to stand she turned up the lamps until the room was flooded with light, then walked over to a full-length mirror and looked at herself steadily and long. "Fading!" she said: "fading! Rouge, French coiffures, enamel, belladonna, and the rest of it are very well; but they can't make over a woman of thirty-seven into a girl of twenty. Still, considering the life I ve led " she set her teeth like a lit- tle lion-dog. " Ah, what a bitter fight the battle of life has been for me ! If I were wise I would pocket my wrongs, forego my vengeance, keep my secret, and live happy in Scarswood Hall forever after. I wonder if Sir John would marry me if I asked him ? " The door opened and Sir John came in. Little Mrs. Vava- sor turned round from the glass, folded her small hands, and stood and looked at him with a smile on her face. He was very pale, and grim as the grave. So for a moment they stood, like two duelists waiting for the word, in dead si- lence. Then the lady spoke : " How do you do, Sir John ? When we parted I remember you found me admiring myself in the glass ; when we met' again, after fifteen years Dieu / how old it makes one feel MRS. VAVASOR. 2 $ you find me before the glass again. Not admiring myself this time, you understand. I sadly fear I have grown old and ugly in all those hard-fought years. But you you're not a day older, and just the same handsome, stalwart soldier I remember you. Won't you shake hands for the sake of old times, Sir John, and say ' you are welcome ' to a poor little woman who has tiavelled all the way from Paris to see you? " She held out her little gloved hand. He drew away with a gesture of repulsion, and crossing to the chimney-piece leaned upon it, his face hard and set, in the light of the lamps. " Why have you come here ? " he asked. "Ah, del! hear him! such a cruel question. And after fifteen years I stand all alone in this big, pitiless world, a poor little friendless woman, and I come to the gallant gentleman who fifteen years ago stood my friend such a friend and he asks me in that cruel voice why I have come ! " " That will do, Mrs. Vavasor this is not a theatre, nor am I an appreciative audience. Tell me the truth, if you can let us have plain speaking. Why have you come here ? What do you want ? " "That is plain language certainly. I have come here be- cause you are in my power absolutely and wholly in my power. And I want to stay here as an honored guest just as long as I please. Is that plain enough to satisfy you, or would you like me to put it still plainer ? " Her deriding black eyes mocked him, her incessant smile set his teeth on edge. Hatred abhorrence were in his eyes as he looked at her. " You want money, I suppose ? Well, you shall have it, though I paid you your price long ago, and you promised to trouble me no more. But you can't stay here; it is simply impossible." "It is simply nothing of the kind. I have come to stay my luggage is down yonder in the hall, and you will tell them presently to fetch it up and show me to my room. I do want money yes, it is the universal want, and I mean to have it. Eight thousand a year and Scarswood Park, one of the finest seats in Sussex. And such an old family ! baronets created by James the First, and knights centuries and centuries before ! How proud your daughter must feel of her ancient name and linkage ! " And Mr;;. Vavasor laughed aloud, her tinkling laugh that struck shrilly on hypersensitive ears. "You will leave my daughter's name out of the question, if a 2(5 MRS. VAVASOR. you please," the baronet retorted haughtily ; " such lips as yoiui sully her name. If you had one spark of womanly feeling, one grain of self-respect left from the life you have led, a woman's heart in your breast, you would never come near her. Ii* Heaven's name go I will give you anything, anything, only thing be more lover-like than they are, Mrs. Vavasor ? " He spoke to her as though he had known her for years &ome rapport made those two friends at once. She looked where he pointed, her smile and glance at their brightest. The waltz had ended ; leaning on her handsome partner's arm, the last flutter of Miss Dangerfield's pnk dress vanishod in the green distance of the conservatory. " I see ; and in spite of appearances, Mr. Dangerfield, I wouldn't mind betting my diamonds, say, against that botan- ical specimen in your buttonhole that Mr. Gaston Dantree, Grecian profile, tenor voice, and all, will NEVER reign lord of Scarswood ; and for you why you know the old rhyme : " ' He either dreads his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, Who fears to put it to the touch, To win or lose it all." " She walked away, with her last words, her ever-mocking laugh coming back to him where he stood. What did the woman mean ? How oddly she looked and spoke. How could she prevent Gaston Dantree marrying Katherine ? But the last advice was good why despair before speaking ? " To win or lose it all ! " repeated Peter Dangerlield, strok- ing his feeble, colorless mustache. " By George ! I will try. She can but say no." There was a call for Mr. Dantree on the instant Mr. Dan- tree was wanted to sing. Mr. Dangerfield stood where he was, and saw the dark-eyed tenor emerge leisurely from the conservatory, and alone. He sat down at the piano ; his slender, shapely hands ficw gver the keys in a brilliant prelude. Everybody was listening now was his time. Katherine was in the conservatory yet. He made his way slowly down the long vista of rooms to where, at the extreme end, the greea brightness of tropic plants gleamed in the lamplight. She still stood where her late companion had left her, in the recess of a window, her robe of pink tissue shining rosily, het 32 MRS. VAVASOR. jewels glancing softly. Tall tropic plants spread their fan-like leaves about her ; the air was rich and faint with exotic odors , and over all the soft, abundant light poured down. Gaston Dantree's song floated in an Irish song, half gay, half sad, wholly sweet and a brooding tenderness lay on the girl's face a great happiness, new and sweet and made it almost beautiful. The rain lashed the windows, the wind of the October night blew in long, lamentable blasts through the rocking trees : but the storm and darkness without only made the contrast within the more brilliant "Katherine!" She neither saw nor heard him until he was close at her side. She lifted up her dreamy eyes, her trance of bliss over. " Oh, yott, Peter ! What an odious habit you have of steal- ing in upon one like a cat. I never heard you." " You never heard me, Miss Dangerfield ? You need hardly tell me that. You were listening far too intently to Mr. Gas- ton Dantree to hear anything else." " Was I ?" retorted Katherine. They rarely met, those two, except to quarrel. "Well, all I can say is that Mr. Gaston Dantree is very well worth listening to, which is more than I can say for you, cousin Peter." "You mean I'm not a singing man, I suppose, Kathie? Well, I admit my brains do not lie in my throat and lungs." " Nor anywhere else, Mr. Dangerfield." " And when is it to be, Katie ? " Mr. Dangerfield demanded, folding his arms; " when are we all to offer our congratulations ? Such a flirtation as yours, my dear cousin, with this Apollo Belvidere from the Southern States, can have but one end- ing." "And such a flirtation as yours with this pretty Mrs. Vavasor, from nobody knows where, can have but one ending, too, I suppose," responded Katherine, coming up to time bravely. " She is some five or six years your senior, I should think ; but, where true love exists, what does a little disparity of years sig- nify ? A case of love at sight ; was it not, cousin ? " "You might have spared me that taunt, Katherine ; you know very well who it is /am so unfortunate as to love." "Upon my word, I don't. My little cousin Peter, his lovef and hates, are subjects that trouble me very slightly. There I Mr. Dantiee's song is done, and they are playing the Lancers, Suppose we 'eaVe off quarreling and go and have a cousinl) quadrille? ' MRS VAVASOR. 33 " Not yet, Kathie. I can endure this suspense no longer. No, you shall not go ; I will be heard ! To watch you as I have watched you to-night with that man would simply drive me mad ! " "Would it? Then why on earth do you do it? I don't want to be watched, and I don't suppose Mr. Dantree does, either. You mean Mr. Dantree, don't you ? And, Petei 4on't put on that tragic face ; it isn't your style, dear. You're too fair complexioned. And what business is it of yours, and why should it drive you mad ? " " Little need to ask, Katherine. You know only too well because I love you. Kathie, don't look like that ! I love you, and you know it well. I haven't had thoughts or eyes for any living creature but you since you first came here. Ah, Kathie ! Listen to me. Don't laugh, as I see you are going to do. I love you with all my heart better than ever that fel low can do and I ask you to be my wife. Katherine, don't laugh at me, for Heaven's sake ! " But the warning came too late. Katherine broke out into a ringing peal of laughter, that the music happily drowned. Peter Dangerfield, looking desperately in earnest, very, very, yellow, and, with folded arms, stood glaring at her in an un- commonly savage way for so tender a declaration. " I beg your pardon, Peter, but I can't help it. The idea of marrying you only five feet five inches, and an attorney, and my first cousin ! First cousins should never marry, you know. What would papa say, you silly little boy, if he could hear this?" " My uncle knows," the young man answered, with sullen anger ; " I spoke to him a month ago." Miss Dangerfield opened her big, gray eyes. "Oh, you did? That's what he meant, then, that morning after the concert. I remember ; he tried to plead your cause. And you spoke to him first ; and you're a lawyer, and knew no better than that ! No, Peter ; it is not possible. You'n; a uice little fellow, and I think a great deal of you ; and I'd eb almost anything you wanted me, except marry you. That's a L ttle too much, even for such good nature as mine." ''Then I'm tc consider myself rejected ?" "Now, Peter, don't put on that ill-tempered face ; it quite spoils your good looks, and you know you have none to spoil spare, I mean. Well, yes, then ; I am afraid you must con- ** 34 MRS. VAVASOR. aider yourself rejected. I leally should like to oblige you ir. this matter, but you perceive I can't. Come, let us make if up I'm not angry and take me back to the drawing-room for my dance. It is a sin to lose such music as that." 'In one moment, Katherine. Will you answer me this, please ? Is it for Gaston Dantree I am refused ? " " Cousin Peter, I shall lose my temper if you keep on. II there were no Mr. Dantree in the case I should reject you all * the same. You're very well as a first cousin ; as a husband excuse me 1 I wouldn't marry you if you were the only man left in the world, and the penalty of refusing you be to go to my grave an old maid. Is that answer decisive enough ? " " Very nearly ! Thank you for your plain speaking, Kathie." He was white with suppressed anger. "But lest we should misunderstand each other in the least, won't you tell me whether or no Mr. Dantree is to be the future lord of Scarswood Park? Because in that case, for the honor of the family I should en- deavor to discover the gentleman's antecedents. A classic profile and a fine voice for singing may be sufficient virtues in the eyes of a young lady of seventeen, but I'm afraid they will hardly satisfy the world or Sir John." "For the world I don't care that ! For Sir John, whatever makes . me happy will satisfy him. I am trying to keep my tempei, Peter, but don't provoke me too far it isn't safe. Will you, or will you not, take me out for the dance ? I am *ot accustomed to ask favors twice." " How queenly she says it the heiress of Scarswood ! " His passion was not to be restrained now. " And it is for this Yankee singing man this needy adventurer this negro min- Btrel in his own land, that I am cast off? " She whirled round upon him in a storm of sudden fury, and made a step toward him. But rage lent him courage ; he stood his ground. " You little wretch ! ' cried Miss Dangerfield, " how dare you stand there and say such things to me ? How dare you call Gaston Dantree an adventurer ? You, who would not pre- sume to call your soul your own in his presence ! Negro min- strel, indeed ! You wretched little attorney ! One should be a gentleman to judge gentlemen. That's why Mr. Dantree'a beyond your judgment ! Don't ever speak to me again. You're very offer is an insult. To trr'nk that I / would ever marry you, a little rickety dwarf!" And then dead silence fell. MRS. VAVASOR. 35 ] don't uphold th.s heroine of mine her temper is abomina- ble, I allow ; but the moment the last words passed her lips her heart smote her. Peter Dangerfield stood before her white as death, and trembling so that he was forced to grasp a gilded flower stand for support. "Oh, Peter! I am sorry!" she cried out, "I didn't mean that ! I didn't ! I didn't ! forgive it forget it -my temper is horrible I'm a wretch, but you know," suffering a slight relapse, " it was all your own fault. Shake hands, cousin ; and oh, do do do forget my wicked words ! " But he drew back from the outstretched hands, smiling a ghastly smile enough. " Forget them ? Certainly, Cousin Katherine ! I'm not the sort of fellow to bear spite. You're very good and all that, but if it's the same to you, I'll not shake hands. And I won't keep you from dancing that quadrille any longer. I'll not be your partner I don't dance as well as Mr. Dantree, and I see him coming this way now. Excuse me for having troubled you about this presumptuous love of mine ; I won't do it again." Then he turned away, and Gaston Dantree, looking like a picture in a frame, stood in the rose-wreathed entrance arch. " I am sorry, and I have apologized," Katherine said coldly. '' I can do no more." "No more is needed. Pray don't keep Mr. Dantree wait- ing. And I would rather he did not come in here just now." " Come, Kathie," Mr. Dantree called softly. It had come to that then ; it was " Kathie " and " Gaston." He saw him draw her hand under his arm as one having the right, whispei something in her ear that lit her face with sun- shine, and lead her away. Peter Dangerfield stood alone. He watched them quite out of sight his teem set, his face perfectly colorless, and a look in his small eyes bad to see. " I have read of .men who sold their souls to the devil for a price," he said, between his set teeth. " I suppose the days for such bargains are over, and souls are plentiful enough in the kingdom of his dark majesty, without paying a farthing. But if those days could come again, and Satan stood beside me, I would sell my soul now for revenge on you ! " " Are you sure you have one to sell ? " a clear, sharp voice close behind him said. " I never thought lawyers were troubled with those inconvenient appendages hearts and souls Well, if you have, keep it ; it's of no use to me. And I'm not 3 <5 AMONG 1HE ROSES. Satan, either, but yet I think for a fair price / can give yon your revenge." He whirled round with a stifled exclamation, and saw at kit elbow Mrs. Vavasor. CHAPTER III. AMONG THE ROSES. jHE stood beside him, her ceaseless smile at its bright est on her small face, looking like some little female Mephistopheles come to tempt a modern Faust. He put up his eye-glass to look at her. What a gorgeous little creature she was ! It was his first thought. In the dim yellow light of the conservatory, the amber silk glittered with its pristine lustre, the yellow roses she wore made such an admirable foil to her dead black hair. " What the deuce brings me here ? Don't trouble yourself tc ask the question, mon ami, your face asks it for you. I've been eavesdropping," in her airiest tone; " not intentionally, you understand," as the young man continued to stare speech- lessly at her through his eye-glass. " Entering the conserva- tory by the merest chance, I overheard Miss Dangerfield's last words to you ; * a little more than kin, and less than kind,' were they not ? Permit me to congratulate you, Mr. Dangerfield." " Congratulate me ! " Mr. Dangerfield repeated, dropping his double-barrelled eye-glass and glowering vengefully at the fair creature by his side. " In Heaven's name, on what?" " On having escaped becoming the husband of a termagant. Believe me, not even Scarswood and eight thousand a year would counterbalance so atrocious a temper as that." " Eight thousand a year would counterbalance with me even a worse temper than that, Mrs. Vavasor," the lawyer answered, grimly. " I am only sorry I am not to have the opportunity of trying. Once my wife, 1 think I could correct the acidity of even Katherine Dangerfield's temper and tongue." " No you could not. Petruchio himself would fail to tame this shrew. You see, Mr. Dangerfield, I speak from past experience. I know what kind of blood flows in oui spirited Katherine's veins." THE ROSES. 37 w Very good blood, then, I am sure very good temj ered* too, in the main at least on the father's side." " Ah ! On the father's side ! " The sneer with which tris was said is indescribable. " May I ask if you knew her mother, Mr. Dangerfield ? " m "Certainly I did a deucedly fine woman, too, and as ami able as she was handsome. Colonel Dangerfield Sir John was colonel then married a Miss Lascelles, and Kz therine wa- OO.TI in this very house, while they were making their Chris! mas visit. You may have known her father and mother you certainly seem to know Sir John suspiciously well but don't tell me Katherine took her tantrums from either of them ] know better." Mrs. Vavasor listened quietly, adjusting her bracelets, and burst out laughing when he ceased. "I see you do you know all about it. How old was Kath- erine when her father and mother left England for India ? " " Two or three years, or thereabouts. It seems to me being so well acquainted, and all that, as you say you ought to know yourself. Was it in England or India you came to know the Governor so well ? " "In neither, Mr. Dangerfield." "Or does your acquaintance extend only to the baronet? Gad ! he looked like an incarnate thunder-cloud when present- ing you. His past remembrances of you must be uncommonly pleasant ones, I should say. Did you know the late Mrs. Colonel Dangerfield, Mrs. Vavasor ? " " I knew the late Mrs. Colonel Dangerfield, Mr. Danger- field." " And yet you say Katherine takes her temper from he; mother. My late aunt-in-law must have greatly changed, then, from the time I saw her last." " I repeat it," Mrs. Vavasor said, tapping her fan. " Kath- erine inherits her most abominable temper from her mother, the only inheritance her mother ever left her. And she looks like her wonderfully like her so like," Mrs. Vavasor repeated in a strange, suppressed voice, " that I could almost take her for a ghost in pink gauze." " Like her mother! " cried Peter Dangerfield. " I beg your pardon, Mrs. Vavasor, but you must be dreaming. She is no more like her mother than I am. The late Mrs. Dangerfield was a handsome woman." " Which our spirited heiress never will be. I agree with you, 38 AMONG THE ROSES. Mr. Dangerfield ; and yet you told me you were in love witfc her, and wanted to marry her." "I meant what I said," the young man responded, sullenly ' I d0 want to marry her." " Or her fortune which ? " "I don't see that that's any business of yours, Mrs. Vavasor, wid I don't see what I am standing here abusing Katherine to you for. You don't like her, do you ? Now what has she evei done to you ? " "Nothing whatever /haven't seen Katherine until to-night for fifteen years. She was two years old then a little demoi- selle in pantalettes, and too young to have an enemy." " Yet you are her enemy, Mrs. Vavasor, and you sit at her table and eat her bread and salt. And you speak of her mother as if you detested her. Is it for the mother's sake you hate the daughter ? " " For the mother's sake." She repeated the four short words with a concentrated bitterness that rather repelled her compan- ion. " And you hate her for her own, Mr. Danger-field." She laid her little hand suddenly and sharply on his arm, and sent the words in his ear in a sibillant whisper. " We both hate her ; let us make common cause together, and have our revenge." Peter ^angerfield threw off the gloved hand that felt unpleas antly like i. steel manacle on his wrist. " Don't be melodramatic, if you please, Mrs. Vavasor. Re- venge, indeed. And I a lawyer. You would make an uncom- monly good first actress, my dear madam, but in private life your histrionic talents are quite thrown away. Revenge ! bah ! Why the vendetta has gone out of fashion even in Corsica. We don't live in the days of the handsome Lucrezia, when a per- fumed rose or a pair of Jouvin's best kids sent one's adversary to glory. There is no such word as revenge in these latter days, my dear madam. If one's wife runs away from one with some jther fellow, we don't follow and wipe out our dishonor in his blood ; we simply go to Sir Creswell and get a divorce. If we runaway with some other fellow's wife, that other fellow sues us for damages, and makes a good thing of it. Believe me, Mrs. Vavasor, revenge is a word that will soon be obsolete, except on theatrical boards. But at the same time I should like to know what you mean ? " " What is that you sing me there ? " Mrs. Vavasor cried, if the French idiom she used when excited. " While the world lasts, and men love, and hate, and use swords and pistols, re AMONG THE ROSES. 39 venge will never go out of fashion. And you hate your cousin hate her so that if looks were lightning she would have fallen at your feet ten minutes ago. ' A little rickety dwarf! " She laughed her shrill, somewhat elfish laugh. " Not a pleasant name to be called, Mr. Dangerfield." His face blackened at the remembrance, his small, pale eyef shot forth that steely fire light blue eyes only can flash. " Why do you remind me of that ? " he said hoarsely. " Sh* 1 did not mean it she said so." "She said so she said so ! " his companion cried, scornfully. "Peter Dangerfield, you're not the man I take you for if you endure quietly such an insult as that. And look at her now, with Gaston Dantree, that penniless tenor-singer, with the voice of an angel and the face of a god. Look how she smiles up at him. Did she ever give you such a glance as that ? See how he bends over her and whispers in her ear. Did she ever listen to you with that happy face, those drooping, downcast eyes ? Why she loves that man that impoverished adventurer ; and love and happiness make her almost beautiful. And she called you a rickety dwarf. Perhaps even now they are laughing over it rather as a good joke." " Woman ! Devil ! " her victim burst out, goaded to frenzy. " You lie ! Katherine Dangerfield would stoop to no such base- ness as that ! " "Would she not ? You have yet to learn to what depths ol baseness women like her can stoop. She has bad, bitter bad blood in her veins, I tell you. She comes of a daring and un- scrupulous race. Oh, don't look at me like that I don't mean the Dangerfields. And you will bear her merciless taunt, and stand quietly by while she marries yonder handsome coxcomb, and go and be best man at the wedding, and take your hat ofl forever after when you meet Gaston Dantree, Lord of Scars- wood Park. Bah ! Peter Dangerfield, you must have milk and water in your veins instead of blood, and I am only wasting my time here talking to you. I'll detain you no longer. I wish you good-evening." She had goaded him to the right point at last. As she turned to go he caught her arm fiercely and held her back. " Stay ! " he cried hoarsely ; " you shall not go ! You do well to say I hate her. And she shall never marry Gaston Dantree if I can prevent it. Only show me the way how ! Onlj show me ! " he exclaimed, breathless and hoarse, " and see whether I have blood in my veins instead of milk and water 40 AMONG THE ROSES. ft man's passions in my heart though it be the heait of a rickety dwarf!" Ah ! that blow struck home. " Look at them once again, Mr. Dangerfield, lest your bravf resolutions should cool look at Katherine Danger^ld and bei lover now'' The baronet's daughter was waltzing again she had a pas- sionate love of dancing, and floated with the native grace of a Bayadere. She was waltzing with Dantree, her long rose-wreathed brown hair floating over his shoulder, her happy face uplifted as she whirled down the long vista in his arms to the intoxicating music of the " Guard's Waltz." "You see!" Mrs. Vavasor said significantly; "he who runs may read, and he who stands still may understand. His melan- :holy tenor voice, his lover-like sighs, his dark, pathetic eyes have done their work Katherine Dangerfield is in love with Gaston Dantree ! It is a very old story : a lady of high degree has 'stooped to conquer.' Sir John won't take it, I dare say ; but could Sir John refuse his idolized darling anything ? If she cried for the moon she would have it. And she is so impetuous, dear child ! She will be Mrs. Gaston Dantree in the time it would take another young lady to decide the color of the brides- maid's dresses." " She shall never be Mrs. Gaston Dantree if I can prevent it ! " Peter Dangerfield cried, vehemently, his pale blue eyes filled with lurid rage. "Yes, but unhappily there is the rub if you can prevent it. You don't suppose now," Mrs. Vavasor said, thoughtfully, " this Mr. Dantree is in love with her ? " " I know nothing about it. He looks as though he were, at least and be hanged to him ? " "That tells nothing. She is the heiress of Scarswood, and Mr. Dantree like yourself, I haven't a doubt is in love with that. I wonder if either of you would want to marry her if she hadn't a farthing if her brown hair and her fine figure were her only fortune ? " " 1 can answer for myself I would see her at the deuce first ! " " And unless I greatly mistake him, Mr. Dantree would also. How she looks up at him ! how she smiles ! her infatuation it patent to the whole room. And after her, you are the heir-at- law, Mr. Dangerfield." AMONG THE ROSES. 4 1 " I don't see what that's got to do with it," the young man retorted, sulkily. " I am likely to remain heir-at-law to the end of my days, for what I see. The governor will go off the hooks, and she will marry, and there vill be a son half-a-dozen of 'em, most likely and my cake is dough. I wish you wouldn't talk about it at all ; it's of no use, a man howling his life out foi what he never can get'' " Certainly not for what he can't get; but I don't perceive the ' can't get ' in this case. Three people stood between Colo- nel Dangerfield and the title six months ago, and they as you express it in the elegantly allegorical language of the day ' went off the hooks ; ' and lo ! our Indian officer, all in a moment, steps into three pairs of dead men's shoes, a title, and a fortune. Scarswood may change hands unexpectedly before the year ends again." "Mrs. Vavasor if that be your name /don't understand you. What's the use of badgering a man in this way ? If you've got anything to say, say it. I never was any hand at guessing riddles. What the deuce do you mean ? " Mrs. Vavasor laughed gayly. " Forcible, but not polite ! Did you ever have your fortune told, Mr. Dangerfield ? I have some gypsy blood in my veins. Give me your hand, and I'll tell it, without the proverbial piece of silver." He held it out mechanically. Under all this riddle-like talk, he knew some strong meaning, very much to the point, lay. What could she mean ? Who could she be ? She took his thin, pale, cold hand, and peered into the palm, with the prettiest fortune-telling air imaginable. "A strangely, chequered palm, my gentleman ; all its strange future to come. I see a past, quiet and uneventful. I see a character, thoroughly selfish, avaricious, and unprincipled. No, don't take vour hand away ; it will do you good to hear the truth once in a way, Mr. Dangerfield. You can hate with tiger- ish intensity ; you would commit any crime under Heaven for money, so that you were never likely to be found out. You care for nabody but yourself, and you never will. A woman stands in your path to fortune a woman you hate. That ob- stacle will be removed. I see here a ruined home ; and over min and death you step into fortune. Don't ask me how. The lines don't tell that, just yet ; they may very soon. You are to be a baronet, and the time is very near. How do you like your fortune, Sir Peter Dangerfield, that is to be ? " ^ 2 AMONG THE ROSES. She dropped his hand and looked him full in the face, itrearo ing fire in her black eyes. " Hush-h-h ! for Heaven's sake ! " he whispered, in terror. " If you should be overheard ! " " But how do you like it ?" "There can be no question of that. Only T don't under- stand. You are mocking me. What you predict can never happen." "Why not?" " Why not ! why not ! " he exclaimed, impatiently. " Yea don't need to ask that question. Katherine Dangerfield stands between me ; a life as good better than my own." The little temptress in amber silk laid her canary-colored glove on his wrist and drew him close to her. "What I predict will happen, as surely as we stand here. Don't ask me how ; I can't tell you to-night. There's a secret in Sir John Dangerfield' s life a secret I have been paid well to keep, which I have kept for fifteen years, which no money will make me keep much longer. I have a debt of long stand- ing to pay off a debt of vengeance, contracted before Kather- ine Dangerfield was born, which Katherine Dangerfield yet must pay. What will you give me if within the next three months 1 make you heir of Scarswood ? " "You?" " I !" " It is impossible ! " " It is not ! " She stamped her foot. " Quick ! TeU me ! What will you give ? " " I don't understand you." " I don't mean that you shall yet Will you give me ten thousand pounds the day that makes you through me, mind lord of Scarswood ? Quick ! Here come our lovers. Yes or no?" "F." " It is well. I shall have your bond instead of your promise soon. Not a whisper of this to a living mortal, or all is at an end. We are sworn allies, then, from this night forth. Shake hands upon it." They clasped hands. H? shivered a little, unprincipled though he was, as he feti the cold, steely clasp of her gloved fingers. She glanced up, a flash of triumph lighting her eyes, to where Katherine Dan- gerfield, still leaning on her handsome lover's arm, approached LOVE UNDER THE LAMPS. 43 "Now, then, my baronet's daughter my haughty little heiress look to yourself! I am a woman who never yet spared friend or foe who stood in my path. V