tJi' 
 
 D €C /^ 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH
 
 NOVELS BY LEONARD MERRICK. 
 
 Violet Moses. 
 
 The Man who was Good. 
 
 This Stage of Fools. 
 
 Cynthia: A Daughter of the Philistines. 
 
 One Man's View. 
 
 The Actor-Manager. 
 
 The Worldlings. 
 
 When Love Flies out o' the Window. 
 
 Conrad in Quest of his Youth. 
 
 The Quaint Companions. 
 
 Whispers about Women.
 
 THE 
 
 HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 BY 
 
 LEONARD MERRICK 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 LONDON MCMVII
 
 
 Copyright, jgorj, by Leonard Merrick, in the 
 United States of America
 
 Though he had resolved to avoid her, he was there 
 after all — they were sitting in the conservatory. 
 
 " Well, what do you think of a New York dinner 
 dance, Mr. Keith ? " she said. She bore a name that 
 stank in the nostrils of the world ; her father was 
 the devastating trust magnate, the debaucher of 
 politics, the infamous multi-millionaire — Jordan B. 
 Lynch, 
 
 " Mrs. Waldehast is giving me a novel experience — 
 one more." 
 
 "Is it so different from what you call ' small- 
 and-earlies ' in England ? " 
 
 " I haven't been to many ; I'm not a Society per- 
 sonage. Miss Lynch." 
 
 " Artists don't think much of Society, do they ? " 
 
 " Some think of it more than they do of art. I 
 don't mean your artists here, of course, — I don't 
 know enough about them, — I mean our swells at 
 home." 
 
 " I've never grasped the distinction between your
 
 2 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 ' swells ' and our ' dudes ' — I'm not sure if I know 
 what a swell is." 
 
 " Well, I'm probably the only person you know 
 who isn't one." 
 
 " Mr. Keith," exclaimed the girl, " why will you 
 always address me as if we were residing in different 
 planets ? " 
 
 " Merely because we are. Mrs. Waldehast has 
 been wonderfully nice to me ; but this is the only 
 smart house I have been to in New York, and I should 
 never have met you at any mutual friend's in London." 
 He hesitated, and then, as she gave no sign of under- 
 standing him, went on, " It's quite as caddish to 
 harp on one's pecuniary drawbacks as on one's 
 pecuniary advantages, but you may have gathered 
 by this time that — er — that I — that " 
 
 " I have ' gathered,' " she smiled. 
 
 " Thank you," said Keith, " I might have known 
 your intelligence couldn't fail." 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " That's all. Excepting that I'm afraid I have 
 not always addressed you quite as you say. You 
 see you come here a great deal, and so do I, and 
 I've almost forgotten things in moments." 
 
 " Well, forget them now, please. Do you know 
 I think you're horrid — I ask you to talk, and you 
 just speak 1 "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 3 
 
 " You're very kind. What do you ask me to talk 
 about ? " 
 
 " Well, what did you talk about to your friends ? " 
 
 He laughed. " Oh, on the planet that I mustn't 
 remember, we talk about our difficulties when we 
 aren't romancing about our prices. To you, Miss 
 Lynch, we should talk Greek. The dominant adjective 
 is ' hard up.' " 
 
 " But you have some good times ? " 
 
 " Oh yes. At our swaggerest functions — those 
 given by fellows who have more than one room — 
 men even bring their wives. And the wives bring 
 the babies, and put them to sleep on the host's bed. 
 They don't keep a nurse, and they couldn't leave 
 the babies behind alone. Some of the Greek ? " 
 
 She denied it radiantly : " No, that is rather humor- 
 ous." 
 
 " Y-e-s ; I'm told the humour soon wears thin." 
 
 " Well, I'm very glad that Dardy saw that picture 
 of yours when she was in London — she's enthusiastic 
 about your portrait of her ! So am I ; it's splendid. 
 You know, she wondered whether you'd come over 
 when Mr. Waldehast wrote — she didn't know but what 
 it was a lot to ask." 
 
 " It's a very usual thing to ask. And it isn't always 
 as complimentary as we want to think. A woman often 
 sees a half-length somewhere, and sends the man a
 
 4 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 commission, because she appreciated — his model. 
 Lots of our men come over to paint people they have 
 never seen. It's rather a nervous journey." 
 
 " Why, yes, I suppose so — the people may be per- 
 fectly hideous. You must have been glad to see 
 Dardy?" 
 
 " I was. The best thing to be said of portrait 
 painting, as a rule, is that it's the only education 
 anybody is paid to take — it teaches you to search 
 for individuality. A portrait isn't made by paint- 
 ing features — you have to paint the character behind 
 them." 
 
 " Not everyone would say ' thank you ' for that," 
 she remarked. 
 
 " Quite so — and not everyone would be satisfied 
 with my portrait of him. But it doesn't matter, 
 because I don't want to paint portraits. It's awful 
 work ! A portrait painter, nine times out of ten, 
 has to choose between being an artist and a 
 courtier." 
 
 " I think you'd be very unwise to talk like that," 
 she said sharply ; " it's bad business ! I've told you 
 so before." 
 
 " Yes, I know." He flushed. " I suppose I'm not 
 a business man. It was stupid of me to say it." 
 
 " No, you're not to think that ; you'll take that back, 
 please ! It's how I want you to talk — to me — as you
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 5 
 
 really feel ! But I do caution you against talking like 
 it to other people. You ought to make a heap of 
 dollars in New York if you're smart." 
 
 " Oh, I shouldn't have declined any commissions 
 just now — in fact, I've stayed on here in the hope of 
 getting some." 
 
 " You did decline one," she said ; " I asked you to 
 paint me, and you made excuses. Was that the reason 
 — you thought I'd want you to be a courtier ? " 
 
 " I think I begged you to let me paint you, didn't 
 I ? I was very eager to." 
 
 " You offered to make a sketch of me as a gift — that 
 wasn't what I wanted. Anyhow, whether you hate 
 portraits or not, you ought to pretend to gush about 
 them. Dardy's picture should do you good here if 
 you take the right tone. You know, Mr. Keith, I'm 
 ages older than you." 
 
 " Yes. I'm thirty-three ; I suppose you're twenty." 
 
 " It's sweet of you, but I'm more. And I didn't 
 
 mean in years, I meant in Well, you know what 
 
 I meant. Do you think I'm horribly worldly, Mr. 
 Keith ? " 
 
 " Am I meant to tell you the truth ? " 
 
 " Right away ! I can suffer." 
 
 " Then you've amazed me, in moments, by your 
 unworldliness. That was what interested me — you 
 were so unlike what I thought you would be."
 
 6 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " What was that ? " 
 
 " I thought what a fraud it was that you had such 
 a — such a — I'm bound to be blatant — such a beautiful 
 face, for I didn't for an instant suppose that you would 
 have a beautiful mind." 
 
 " You are different from the others," she murmured. 
 " And don't you think it a fraud any more ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Do go ahead ! " 
 
 " I only think it a pity that your life doesn't give 
 a chance to your soul." 
 
 Her eyes were attentive, puzzled. " Religion ? " 
 she hazarded. 
 
 " The religion of ' one who loves his fellow-men.' 
 I think that everybody ought to do all he can for 
 humanity. Of course the influence of most of us 
 doesn't show outside our homes, but wealth is a wide 
 power, and art is a wide power — the painter speaks in 
 every language — I don't think one is entitled to fritter 
 away either one's wealth or one's art." His voice 
 gained courage. " You just lectured me for saying I 
 didn't want to go on with portraits ; I don't want 
 to go on with them, because I hope and pray that it's 
 in me to paint something that will say more." 
 
 " You told me the other day you were ' delighted ' 
 when you got Mr. Waldehast's letter ? " 
 
 " I was delighted because the commission was a
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 7 
 
 valuable one. And I've done my best to deserve it ; 
 I put in as much work as Mrs. Waldehast would allow 
 — and a good deal more than would have been discreet 
 if she weren't a very patient woman — or at least a very 
 amiable one. But a portrait's interest is generally 
 limited to the domestic circle and to other artists. 
 Technic alone never made a great work of art. The 
 goal of art is the soul of the world — the highest art 
 illumines a more inspiring truth than the character 
 of Mr. So-and-so." 
 
 " What kind of pictures do you do ? " 
 
 " I like the symbolic school best, but any subject 
 that uplifts is a great one." 
 
 " Supposing they don't pay so well as Mr. So-and-so ? 
 That's possible, isn't it ? " 
 
 " It's much more than possible ; but my chief aim 
 isn't to make money. The point is, that whatever 
 advantages anyone may have ought to be directed to 
 the noblest ends. It doesn't matter what one's medium 
 is — whether one is a painter, or a priest, or a statesman, 
 or a private citizen — one ought to put forth one's best 
 for the benefit of one's country. That's one's duty to 
 one's country ! It's possible also that I may prove 
 to have nothing but the ideal, that the force mayn't 
 be there. I daresay I sounded vain — you wouldn't 
 think me vain if you knew how frightfully I distrust 
 myself ; I often think that anybody on earth could
 
 8 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 paint as well as I do if he took as much pains. I've 
 no facility ; other men can knock things off in a day that 
 take me a week. I may fail — and I shall be wretched, 
 because I know that, with me, it's art first and patriot- 
 ism afterwards ; but I shall have been a good English- 
 man for all that. And I'd rather fail by being true to 
 my conscience than make a popular success by being 
 false. Am I a bore ? " 
 
 " No, but I haven't chmbed up there yet." 
 
 " I'm grateful you didn't pretend that you had. 
 It's where most people either lie or laugh." 
 
 She frowned. " Do you confide in most people ? " 
 
 " I never confided in any other woman in my life — 
 and in very few men." 
 
 " Oh," her glance approved /'I'll get there in time I 
 You shall talk to me about it again." 
 
 "I'm afraid I shan't have the chance ; I was going 
 to tell you — I'm going back sooner than I intended," 
 
 " Why ? " It was uttered a second late, but the tone 
 was faultless. 
 
 " I think it would be as well." 
 
 " Surely New York is the place for you to be in 
 just now ? " 
 
 " I think on the whole it would be as well to go 
 back," he said. 
 
 " I'm sorry you have to go." 
 
 " Thank you," said Keith in his throat. "I'm very
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 9 
 
 sorry, but I must. I shall often think of my trip to 
 America." 
 
 After the least pause, she said reproachfully, " I hope 
 the prospect is a very brilliant one ? Of course if your 
 business is so urgent, you can't be expected to neglect 
 it for the sake of your friends." 
 
 "I'm not leaving for business reasons," he acknow- 
 ledged. 
 
 " Is there someone in England who's so sweet that 
 you can't bear to be away from her ? " 
 
 " I think that you know there isn't." 
 
 Her head was bent ; she tapped time with her 
 fan to the waltz of " Sammy " in the ballroom. 
 
 " If you aren't running after a girl, I guess you 
 must be running away from one ? . . . Isn't that 
 weak ? " 
 
 " No — necessary. It's quite impossible that I 
 could ever marry that girl, and I've got to reconcile 
 myself to the fact ; I should never reconcile myself 
 to it while I went on seeing her. I can't afford to 
 feel as I've been feeling lately — I've got my work 
 to think about. So the sooner I go the better. I'm 
 not sacrificing any chance by going — don't imagine 
 that ! — no frenzied admirers of my work will miss 
 me. 
 
 " Perhaps the girl will miss you, though," sug- 
 gested Miss Lynch.
 
 10 ■ THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " I haven't the conceit to think so ; I don't want 
 to think so." 
 
 The pearls and Uhes on her breast rose faster. " If 
 I were you I would ! " 
 
 " It's out of the question for me to propose to 
 her, or to say that I care for her," he insisted thickly. 
 
 " If she likes you, she won't think it out of the 
 question. . . . Aren't you going to tell me who it 
 is you're running away from ? " ^ 
 
 He didn't speak. His mouth was set hard. 
 
 " Is it me ? " she whispered. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 She raised her head and looked at him. There 
 was nearly a line of " Sammy " before her voice 
 came — 
 
 " Mr. Keith, I have been called the ' proudest girl 
 in New York,' but I'm going to say an immodest 
 thing right here." The lips trembled, and he saw 
 the throbbing of her throat. " I want you to ask me 
 to be your wife." 
 
 He grabbed both her hands and bowed his face 
 on them. " I can't ! " he said. 
 
 " You've got to." She smiled victoriously. " Betty 
 Lynch doesn't let her millions spoil her happiness." 
 
 " You don't understand. I can't, it's impos- 
 sible ! " 
 
 " You're not — married ? "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH ii 
 
 " Married ? No ! But I couldn't give you a home 
 that you'd live in." 
 
 " And I don't let your foolishness spoil my happi- 
 ness either, that's just why I said what I did ! We 
 need not be anxious about the home." 
 
 " I couldn't stand that, I wouldn't do it ! " 
 
 " I fear I have proposed to you," she murmured, 
 dimpling. " It would be too bad if I were refused." 
 
 " Oh, my dear," said Keith desperately, " I honour 
 and adore you for what you said ! I'd give twenty 
 years of my life to marry you. But I can't. To 
 begin with, your father would, of course, forbid the 
 engagement." 
 
 " My father would never forbid me anything." 
 
 " Then he would give you a million or so, and I 
 should be asked to share it. And I couldn't ! " 
 
 She drew her hands free. " Do you mean," she 
 said coldly, " that you would rather give me up than 
 swallow your pride ? / swallowed some for you just 
 now." 
 
 " It isn't a question of ' pride ' ; I'd put pride in 
 the gutter for you." 
 
 " What else is it ? It isn't love. I don't admire 
 it. It's talking like a man in a book." 
 
 " Don't ! " stammered Keith. " If you knew what 
 I'm feeling ! " 
 
 " I think I do know — you feel more esteem for
 
 12 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 yourself than for me. No man who was really fond 
 of a girl would consent to lose her because she had 
 more dollars than he had. Not if she were as rich as 
 I, and he were as poor as a tramp ! No, human 
 nature doesn't do those things. If he were without 
 a meal, if he hadn't a cent in his pocket or shoes to 
 his feet, and she said what / have said to you, he 
 would try his best to marr}' her if he loved her. It 
 would be his duty, and her due." 
 
 " And so would I," gasped Keith, " if that were 
 all ! " 
 
 " If it were ' all ' ? " Her startled eyes widened 
 at him pitiably, she turned dead- white. " Oh ! 
 you mean you . . . don't approve of my father's 
 methods ? You mean you would think it ... a 
 disgrace ? " 
 
 " For Heaven's sake ! I couldn't live on his money, 
 leave it at that ! I can't talk about it. But I love 
 vou, I love vou, Bettv." 
 
 " Love ? You have thrown my father's reputation 
 in my face, you have told me I am too dishonest 
 for you." 
 
 " You ? You ? Oh, my darling — the money, not 
 you ! " 
 
 " It is the money that keeps me," she said pain- 
 fully. " Oh, I know what they say about the Trust — 
 I read ! I hear of the people ruined, and the broken
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 13 
 
 homes, and — and it doesn't make me feel good when 
 I think about it. But I spend such money. It is 
 the money that buys my frocks, and candies, and 
 flowers ; it is the money that pays for the food I 
 eat and the house I hve in. If you care for me as 
 you \Wsh me to beheve, and yet would rather lose 
 me than let my father make us happy, then you are 
 telling me the money is so shameful that I am a thief 
 to take it." 
 
 " I tell vou I adore vou. I want vou as I never 
 
 ^ ^ »/ 
 
 wanted anything else on earth. I don't reproach you, 
 I don't, I don't ! You were brought up to take it, 
 and — and, besides, what else could you have done ? 
 But /'m different — I'm used to roughing it, and I've 
 got my work — and if I were weak enough to profit 
 by a tyranny that has horrified and revolted me ever 
 since I understood what it meant, I should be a cur, 
 and our ' happiness ' would be no happiness, it would 
 beheU." 
 
 Miss Lynch rose haughtiW. " I had thought that 
 to say to any man what I have said must be as great 
 a humiliation as a girl could know ; my affront to 
 myself is bearable compared with the indignities I 
 have suffered from you." 
 
 " Betty," he cried, " my whole income in a lucky 
 year hasn't been half of what 3'ou spent on the candies 
 and the flowers ; but I'm getting on, I'll do better
 
 14 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 for you one day if you'll only be patient, and I love you, 
 I love you, you might wipe your boots on my heart ! 
 You may think me a madman for asking, but I'd 
 worship you — will you marry me on what I've got ? " 
 " Mr. Keith, you will please take me back to the 
 room," she said.
 
 II 
 
 In his palace in Fifth Avenue, in his splendid study 
 lined with books, none of which he had ever read, 
 an old man sat awaiting Betty's return from the 
 dance. This was Jordan B. Lynch. He had struggled 
 as " Bill Lynch." Towards middle age he had 
 adopted the " Jordan " and curtailed the " Bill." 
 
 He bent smoking moodily over the fire. It was 
 nearly midnight, and a desk in the room was heaped 
 with the letters that had come to his private address 
 during the day. There were desperate letters from 
 men whom the Trust and its radiating forces had 
 broken ; frantic entreaties from destitute women 
 and girls whose husbands, or fathers, or brothers his 
 operations had decoyed to disgrace or death ; indict- 
 ments from philanthropists, warnings from clergymen, 
 who threatened his rapacity with Heaven's wrath. 
 Lynch, however, had not opened any of the letters, 
 nor would any of them be laid before him. 
 
 At the beginning such things had disturbed him. 
 
 Later they had angered him. It was the law of 
 
 15
 
 i6 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 nature for the weak to suffer ; why abuse him for it ? 
 he demanded. Finally, they had come to minister to 
 his pride. These daily budgets of appeals for mercy, 
 these admonitions overflowing the wastepaper-baskets 
 were an emblem of his conquest ; they testified to 
 the triumph of his career, more than his magnificent 
 library that had no literary interest for him, and his 
 famous pictures that he never looked at. As a burden 
 on indigent parents in the black country, he had 
 been a wage-earner as a child ; as an emigrant he 
 had been tortured by the sight of small chances that 
 he was too poor to seize. He had hoarded, scraped, 
 stinted his stomach for years — and been robbed of 
 his first five hundred dollars. He had rinsed glasses 
 behind a bar on a Mississippi steamer, had wrung a 
 bare living from the earth in California ; had planned, 
 climbed, fallen ; set his teeth and sweated ; climbed 
 again ; prospected, speculated, taken, with undaunted 
 eyes, the risk of being dashed to the bottom once 
 more. And, by the grace of grit, he was Jordan B. 
 Lynch, who had the world by its throat — and the 
 world might squeak ! 
 
 Poverty prolonged — grim, gaunt, grinding poverty 
 — brutalises. Of all the cant acclaimed, none is 
 rottener than the pretence that poverty ennobles 
 character. 
 
 But to-night, as he bent smoking over the fire, the
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 17 
 
 weazen old man was not thinking of his conquest, he 
 was thinking of his children. 
 
 He had been fifty when he married, already a menace 
 to two continents ; and when a son came, the piratical 
 financier who hewed his road through the misfortunes 
 of a multitude had taken an innocent delight in pro- 
 viding for his boy a plenitude of the pleasures that he 
 himself had missed. It was the father's caprice, not 
 the mother's, that converted a spacious nursery into a 
 range of mountains, on which bears, formidable in real 
 bearskin, roamed as large as life after one turned keys 
 in them. Jordan B. Lynch's little heir, with a pop-gun, 
 was entertained for an hour by trying to hit them 
 before their clockwork ran down. Of course there were 
 other nurseries. One of them contained an electrical 
 boat which carried the listless child across a painted 
 sea, while he tossed blunted spears at mechanical 
 whales. 
 
 The boy had been bored very young, but to the man 
 the view of such follies had yielded a permanent satis- 
 faction — his own bitter childhood, which he had 
 always remembered with resentment, ceased to chafe 
 him like a bad debt. The advent of a daughter had 
 been a disappointment, for he had wanted another son ; 
 but after the death of his wife it was Betty who became 
 the dearer child. At first she charmed him more 
 because she resembled her mother ; it gratified him that
 
 i8 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 his girl looked of gentle birth. Howard's features were 
 rough-cast, like his own. Later she was his favourite 
 because she showed him the more affection. To his 
 daughter his profusion was even more ebullient than to 
 his son. 
 
 Yet he never said " no " to the boy. His children 
 must have everything — the luxury, the education, the 
 fun that had been withheld from him ! Even because 
 his own youth had been so sordid, he found a covert 
 fascination in their extravagance. When he saw the 
 bills, he smiled wryly, recalling the ferocity of life to 
 himself at their age. The secretaries who corrected his 
 English had been much diverted to see the financial 
 leader engrossed by the lad's first dress suit ; Lynch 
 was reflecting that the first dress suit he had put on 
 himself had been ordered when he was forty. 
 
 In his commercial aspect, corrupt and ruthless, he was 
 a tender father ; and a genius in finance, he lacked 
 foresight in his home. He had lived to deplore his 
 indulgence of Howard, with the quintessence of remorse 
 which many, who are untroubled by a sin, may suffer 
 for a stupidity. The drollery of having a man of 
 fashion for a son had long ceased to tickle the old 
 adventurer. The denseness of Lynch junior to the 
 financial alphabet was a prank of nature's — neither of 
 them was to be blamed for that, continuously galling 
 as the senior found it ; the uppishness might pass ; the
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 19 
 
 blank deficiency of purpose might have permitted 
 optimism in a parent. But Lynch had docketed his 
 son " worthless " when he realised that the young man 
 dissipated without zest ; a profligacy of vehemence 
 would have left hope of reform, a profligacy of lassitude 
 left none. 
 
 He had made no illusions for himself — the crowd who 
 justly reviled him would have been glad to read his 
 thoughts — his only son was a failure ! But there had 
 remained Betty — Betty, whose Fifth Avenue tone 
 was the only music he appreciated — his girl, who wore 
 her frocks like one of the Four Hundred ! The surviv- 
 ing ambitions of his fatherhood were absorbed by her. 
 He had hoped to see her bearing a great name, had 
 dreamed of it. He would give her to no illustrious 
 pauper who meant to scatter her millions and neglect 
 her ; she should choose a noble who was rich already, 
 one who would love her honestly, and whom she'd 
 love. He had imagined the ancestral home, the crest 
 on her carriage, a score of childish details that were 
 sweet to picture because they meant the exaltation of 
 Betty. And now Betty had as good as told him she 
 was fond of some artist ! 
 
 The street bell sounded, and Lynch opened the study 
 door, in the thought that the girl had returned ; but it 
 was Howard who had rung, having forgotten his 
 latchkey.
 
 20 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Hello," he said languidly, seeing Lynch still up, 
 " you're late ! " 
 
 " Hello," said Lynch, " you've early ! " 
 
 It was the first time they had met that day. 
 
 " I know ; why haven't you turned in ? " 
 
 " I'm waiting for Betty." 
 
 " Where's she gone ? " 
 
 " The Waldehasts'. She expected you to take her." 
 
 " Me ? I never said I'd go, did I ? " He lounged 
 into the room, and lit a cigarette. Though he took 
 infinite pains in dressing himself, he did no credit to his 
 tailor ; and the fashion which ordained that his sandy 
 hair should be parted in the centre and plastered behind 
 his projecting ears was not becoming to him " What's 
 the news ? " 
 
 " W-e-11, there is the news of your ' pastoral dinner ' 
 last night," snarled Lynch. 
 
 " Oh ? " He put his hands in his trouser-pockets 
 and smiled impudently over his father's head. 
 
 " I see that the restaurant was ' converted into a 
 meadow.' " 
 
 " The likeness wasn't very faithful, but that was the 
 notion," drawled the young man. 
 
 " The Herald says ' a rivulet of champagne sparkled 
 between banks of orchids.' " 
 
 " I hope the Day was just as picturesque. I never 
 read it, but I have a filial interest in its circulation."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 21 
 
 " You're very humorous," said Lynch, " very Har- 
 vardy and briUiant ! Is it indispensable at dinner in 
 your set for the ladies to ' pick diamonds from a straw- 
 berry bed, as souvenirs ' ? " 
 
 "No. That was an innovation of my own." 
 
 " It was a great scheme ! " 
 
 " So / thought. They did scramble ! I saw all the 
 frenzy of a bargain-sale without being damaged by the 
 crush." 
 
 " You might have done so if you had been earning 
 ten dollars a week behind a counter ! " said his father 
 acridly. 
 
 " Ah," Howard looked disconcerted ; " your repartee 
 — if I may mention it, sir — is vulgar." 
 
 He mixed a generous whisky-and-soda, and there was 
 a long silence. Lynch blinked at the fire, mourning 
 mistakes. 
 
 Warmed by the whisky, Howard grew facetious. 
 " Buck up," he murmured. " I haven't broken you." 
 
 " You have not broken me — in dollars." 
 
 " What ? Oh, in hopes ? Don't be sentimental, 
 governor ; it doesn't suit you. Take it easy ! If you 
 knew how deadly dull hfe is, you wouldn't rag a fellow 
 for trying to get a gleam of fun. Anyhow, I see you 
 gave half a million to the Nixon ville Institute this week ; 
 if you can afford Institutes, you can spare me a 
 dinner."
 
 22 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " My charities do good — to me, they are policy." 
 
 " Well, it does you good that I make a few debts. If 
 / spend it while you scoop it, people won't have so much 
 to howl about. That's policy too ! You don't do my 
 brains justice, you know. My schemes are subtle ; you 
 want to think 'em out. You ought to charge the dinner 
 to your charity account ! " He giggled. " I take 
 Roosevelt's point of view; he doesn't approve of 
 fortunes ' swollen beyond healthy limits.' Nor do I — 
 I'm doing my best to cope with a national evil." 
 
 He emptied his glass, and sauntered towards the door 
 with a nod. " Good-night." 
 
 " Good-night," grunted Lynch. He hesitated. "Say, 
 Howard ! D'ye know anything of that fellow Keith ? " 
 
 " Keith ? " 
 
 " That artist that Betty asked to the house ? He 
 was unable to come, but I have heard her speak about 
 him." 
 
 " Oh ! No ; I've only seen him once. / don't meet 
 him — he's nothing, he's an artist, he's staying in a 
 boarding-house." 
 
 " Is that so ? " 
 
 " He mentioned it himself at the Waldehasts' ; didn't 
 seem ashamed of it, either — doesn't ' know,' I suppose. 
 Why ? " 
 
 " Well, Betty is interested in him. I wondered why 
 she had asked him home, and I taxed her with it."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 23 
 
 " What ? Do you mean she Oh, rats ! She may 
 
 have flirted with him — he's all right to look at, except 
 for his clothes ; she wouldn't understand about them." 
 
 " Well — I guess you are correct," said Lynch, seeing 
 that there was nothing to be learnt. " Good-night." 
 
 It was a long while before Betty came in. As she 
 crossed the room she was almost as pale as she had been 
 when Keith's meaning broke upon her, and the look in 
 her eyes puzzled the old man. But his tone was 
 innocent. 
 
 " Well ? Had a good time, poppet ? " 
 
 " I'm very tired, father," she said in a strained voice. 
 " I'm going right upstairs." 
 
 " I have been saving my last cigar to smoke with 
 you. Can't you spare me five minutes ? " 
 
 She stood by the mantelpiece, a hand clenched on 
 the marble : " I have nothing to say to-night." 
 
 " Howard claims that he never promised to take 
 you — he came in a while ago." 
 
 " Oh ? " 
 
 " Anybody there ? Your friend was there, I guess ? " 
 
 She nodded, with her mouth squeezed. 
 
 He got up, and touched her. 
 
 " He was there, and we talked, and I asked him to 
 marry me ! " said the girl in an outburst ; and she slid 
 crookedly into a chair, and sobbed as if she would break 
 a blood-vessel, with her face laid on the arm.
 
 24 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 Lynch himself was scarcely less moved. Her words 
 dismissed his last hope. The highest expectation of 
 his life had collapsed. 
 
 " W-e-11," he said, " I guess the Queen may do 
 these things. Don't break up like that, poppet ; 
 you've nothing to blush for — he couldn't ask you, 
 that's certain. I ain't going to raise Cain, you know ; 
 if you want to marry him, you've just got to marry 
 him, there's no doubt about it. So dry your eyes, 
 and sit round, and I'll light that cigar — see ? " 
 
 " I am not going to marry him," she answered, 
 raising herself. 
 
 The old man stared at her speechlessly. " What ? " 
 he said at last. 
 
 " He — he made conditions." 
 
 " How's that, he ' made conditions ' ? You offered 
 to marry him, and he ' made conditions ' ? " 
 
 " He said I must marry him on what he had got ; 
 that he wouldn't take anything from you, not a cent ! " 
 
 " Is that all ? " said Lynch, on a laugh. " Don't 
 you fret your eyes red about that ! " 
 
 " It's real, he means it. He thinks our dollars 
 horrible, he said they ' revolted ' him, he said he would 
 rather lose me than touch them. Oh, I am ashamed ! 
 He degraded me ! I sat there feeling like a thief. You 
 don't know what it was ! I loved him, and I couldn't 
 look him in the face — I couldn't defend my own father.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 25 
 
 Oh, if I could have changed places with any decent 
 girl in New York, I might have been so happy to-night ! " 
 
 " Honey ! " he pleaded, trembling over her, " my 
 honey, baby — don't ! " 
 
 " Is it so bad as they say ? Tell me. I've been a 
 coward, I haven't talked, but I'm not blind — you 
 must know I know. I've got to understand now, I've 
 got to know just what I am ! " 
 
 " You're one of the wealthiest girls alive," he fal- 
 tered. " Is that good enough ? " 
 
 " No ! There's not a girl clerking in this cit}^ who 
 has been degraded as your daughter was to-night. 
 I've got to know just what I am, I've got to know if 
 he was justified." 
 
 " Betty," said Lynch, "it is mainly for you I am 
 working — I am not piling up millions for Howard to 
 squander them when I go. You know I have aimed 
 at seeing you an English duchess — I have sometimes 
 even — er — knuckled under, in view of my ambitions 
 for you. Don't ask me if I have justified a man in 
 insulting you." 
 
 " I don't want the millions if they bring me con- 
 tempt — I'm a woman, and I loved him, and I want the 
 right to tell him that he lied ! " 
 
 " Well, of course, of course he lied," said Lynch 
 soothingly. " He doesn't know ; you say he is an 
 artist — what knowledge has he of finance ? I guess
 
 26 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 he has read a leader in the Flag and been stuffed ; why 
 doesn't he read the Day ? See here, there's not a busi- 
 ness going, however small it may be, that hasn't got 
 its smaller enemies : the greenhorn that has opened a 
 little dry-goods store in a village is cursed by the 
 pedlar, who don't need to come around there any 
 more ; the pedlar says the greenhorn is a ' mono- 
 polist, crushing competition.' Even the pedlar is 
 attacked — there is another pedlar in the same 
 district, who growls that the first fellow's pack is too 
 big. Through all commercial and industrial enter- 
 prise, poppet, it is the same thing ; but the larger the 
 pack, the louder the growl." 
 
 " It sounds all right," she admitted weakly ; " but 
 then, I want to believe it ! " 
 
 " You've just got to believe it. Don't you go 
 looking for trouble. In this life it's every man for 
 himself, and the only man who pretends different 
 is the one who's so weak-kneed that he wants some- 
 body else to shove him along. The * wicked mono- 
 polist ' don't monopolise selfishness. See those letters 
 on the desk ! I haven't touched them — I don't hire 
 secretaries in order to pass my day reading what 
 don't concern me — but there are two things I can 
 tell you about them right here. They're all begging 
 letters from strangers, who recognise that if I gave 
 to all the beggars who write me, I'd be selling bananas
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 27 
 
 on the street ; and every stranger has marked his 
 letter ' private,' to get an advantage over the other 
 strangers." 
 
 " Some of them may be deserving, for all that," 
 she said. 
 
 " Have I time to sort them ? Can I neglect business 
 while I convert myself into an investigation bureau ? 
 I do all the good I can, without being unjust to myself 
 and my children. I made a gift of half a million to 
 the Nixonville Institute only this week. My charities 
 are very numerous, and they are my joy as well as 
 my duty. Had your Mr. Keith any comments to 
 make on my charities ? " 
 
 She stirred in the chair restlessly : " No." 
 
 " You're going to tell me just what he said ; I don't 
 allow you to be insulted." 
 
 " He said — well, it was I who said it first : I saw 
 what he meant when he said that he couldn't marry 
 me. But he acknowledged that was his reason ! 
 He said he wouldn't talk about it. He said he thought 
 the Trust revolting, that if he lived on dollars from 
 — from a source he condemned, he would be a ' cur.' 
 He wanted me to marry him on what he has." 
 
 " What's that ? " 
 
 She gave a shrug. " Not much." 
 
 " Is that all he said ? " 
 
 " I think that's all."
 
 28 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Well, forget about him ! Have a good time. I'll 
 send you to Europe with Howard — the London 
 season'll be starting soon — I'll come over myself 
 and fix up that presentation at Court for you. There's 
 nothing smashed. In a year you'll wonder what you 
 saw in him and why you were so wretched." 
 
 " I have never imagined I cared seriously for anyone 
 before," she said. " It's very easy to be cynical about 
 other people's sorrows." 
 
 " As you go through life, poppet, you'll get experi- 
 ence of a bitterer cynic than me, or any other man. 
 That's Time. W-e-11, you know I wasn't keen on your 
 marrying him, and I am a long way from keen to- 
 night, but if you have set your heart on it, go ahead ! 
 Don't worry yourself over trifles ; it would not be 
 a difficult transaction to persuade a man to take an 
 income for nothing, plus the girl he loves." 
 
 " I wouldn't marry him now if he went on his knees 
 to me ! " she said vehemently. " Besides, he meant 
 it, I tell you, he meant every word." 
 
 " I have met cranks already, but I have never 
 met one yet who wasn't amenable to reason through 
 his pocket." 
 
 " You don't know him ! " There was a little un- 
 conscious pride in her voice. 
 
 " No, but I know human nature. . . . See here, 
 when I made your mother's acquaintance, she hadn't
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 29 
 
 a notion who I was — I had gone South incog. The 
 rumpus had begun even then ; there was some of the 
 poppycock talked in those days that there is now. 
 Her father had very high principles, and nothing else 
 — ^he had been crippled by the War ; the twenty 
 thousand that he left to you was all locked up in sugar 
 at that time. He spoke to me about ' the millionaire 
 Lynch and his methods ' as he might have spoken 
 about the devil and all his works. But your mother 
 was very sweet ; I liked her. So one day I said to him, 
 ' I'm Lynch — and I want to marry your daughter.' 
 W-e-11, he adopted another view of my methods ! . . . 
 If you ask me to do so, I will smoke a cigar with Mr. 
 Keith, and he will see that his judgment was erroneous." 
 " ' If I ask you to do so ? ' " she said. " If you 
 were to send for him, I could never lift my head again ! 
 I'll never speak another word to him as long as I 
 live — it doesn't matter whether I forget or not ! " 
 She got up, and righted her hair with a pretence 
 of composure before a mirror. " Don't you think 
 we've stayed here late enough talking about Mr. 
 Keith ? "
 
 Ill 
 
 After he left the dance, Richard Keith walked miles 
 blindly. A few hours earlier he had meant to leave 
 her, had been almost resigned to leaving her, but in 
 the interval the unforeseen had happened : she had 
 said she cared for him, he had insulted her — and she 
 was much dearer to him than she had been a few 
 hours earlier. Before the dance he had thought that 
 there could be nothing more impossible than for him 
 to ask Miss Lynch to marry him. But he had asked 
 her, and now, in spite of her repulse and his distress 
 of mind — in spite of common sense itself — the hope 
 persisted. 
 
 He tried to view the marriage with her eyes, and 
 shrank aghast from the magnitude of her sacrifice. 
 Yet he prayed that she would make it. He wanted 
 it not only for his sake ; because he loved her he 
 wanted it for hers. " I know about the people ruined, 
 and the broken homes ! " The words had been 
 hideous on her lips. Yes, she knew ! Not the whole, 
 not a tithe, she did not see the suicides' blood or
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 31 
 
 their daughters' helplessness — the victims' cries did 
 not pierce the music in the mansions ; from her 
 carriage window she could not read the histories of 
 Magdalens in the street. But vaguely she knew — 
 and he hungered for her to be worthier, he yearned 
 for her to be as noble as she looked. 
 
 Alternately he wondered if he was insane to dream 
 of her consenting, and if he would be justified in 
 pleading to her. Could she be happy as his wife ? 
 Her sacrifice would not abate the suffering — if her 
 shame satisfied her, perhaps his appeal would be 
 grossly selfish ? But he could not think it would be 
 selfish after what she had owned. Though in her 
 presence he felt a pauper, he was indeed a rising 
 man — she would not starve in his arms. The last 
 two years had brought recognition and a banking 
 account. A balance of a few hundred pounds and 
 Mr. Waldehast's cheque for fifteen hundred dollars 
 represented a stately monument on the road of his 
 fife. 
 
 His father had been a clergyman because the Church 
 had called to him, not because there was a living in 
 the family ; indeed, expedience had pointed in another 
 direction. A painfully inadequate stipend had been 
 eked out by a slender private income. The widow 
 had invested the principal in a bubble company, and 
 found herself penniless while the boy was at a student
 
 32 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 hotel in Montparnasse. He had been wrenched 
 from Montparnasse to enter an office in East India 
 Avenue, where her brother-in-law generously paid 
 him more than his services were worth, and un- 
 generously reminded him of it. From the time Keith 
 was nineteen until his mother died he had been bread- 
 winner for them both, and simulated cheerfulness. 
 If the clerk wept for the art student, he wore no 
 mourning for him, nor did he doubt that he would 
 reach his Mistress at the end. The journey would 
 be longer and rougher, that was all ! The widow 
 heard no murmurs. He was an automaton by day 
 and an enthusiast by night ; the cipher in the city 
 office laboured like a hero in the Clapham lodgings. 
 And of course the lady thought it a pity : " He 
 would get a much better position with his uncle if 
 he only took more interest in the business — she was 
 speaking for his own good ! " 
 
 But the inner voice was stronger. He had drawn 
 before he could spell, drawn on his slate, on the walls 
 of his nursery, — and been punished for it, — drawn 
 on the backs of his father's sermons — drawn, as many 
 children lie, because it was an imperative and un- 
 reasoning instinct. It had been instinct that riveted 
 him before the Turner water-colours one day when 
 " Art " was an unknown name, when he knew only 
 that each separate piece of paper seemed to have
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 33 
 
 caught all the light and loveliness of the world. His 
 mother had run into the National Gallery with him, 
 during a visit to London, for shelter from the rain, 
 and the child understood that she thought him a 
 little noodle when she saw his eyes. The clerk under- 
 stood that she thought him a fool when she saw him 
 paint. To the average mind there is nothing sillier 
 than genius before it is renowned. Afterwards, the 
 renown is admired. 
 
 At her death the office had been abandoned that 
 he might have more time to study. His abject 
 poverty had not been sufficiently prolonged to dull 
 his ideals, but he had often been dinnerless and even 
 homeless, and for years the income from his art had 
 not equalled the salary from his clerkship. To-day, 
 if he had not been in love with the daughter of a 
 millionaire, he would have been elated by his pecuniary 
 position ; four to five hundred a year was conspicuous, 
 for his age. Besides, he hoped that his prices would 
 improve much more. Although the man was too 
 truly an artist to seek popular success at the cost 
 of doing inferior work, he was too truly an artist to 
 be indifferent to wealth. Wealth is the master-key 
 to beauty — to travel in beautiful places, to the col- 
 lection of beautiful things. Keith desired riches 
 ardently, though he put his conscience first. 
 
 No, wild it might be to aspire to marry her, but 
 3
 
 34 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 not selfish, he thought, for she cared for him. Since 
 it was for him she cared, he naturally over-estimated 
 the importance of her caring. Lightly as a man thinks 
 of a girl's tenderness for any other man, he is apt to 
 think it an imperishable influence in her life if her 
 tenderness is for himself. Brown and Jones are always 
 -.secretly amused at Robinson's fear that Miss Green 
 ¥ will break her heart if he has to give her up : " Dear 
 old chap, Robinson, one of the best, but his idea that 
 he is an object of profound devotion is rather comic ! " 
 But Brown and Jones similarly exaggerate the feelings 
 that they have inspired in the Misses Pink and White. 
 It is not vanity, it is faith ; the desirable lover accepts 
 the girl's own view of her emotions — and the girl who 
 doesn't imagine her love to be lifelong is not worth 
 marrying. 
 
 It was daybreak when Richard Keith re-entered the 
 boarding-house to which he had fled dismayed after 
 a few weeks' experience of hotel terms ; and a letter 
 from him was brought to Betty when she woke — a 
 long, remorseful, futile letter. It said everything but 
 what she wanted to hear — that he withdrew his 
 objection. 
 
 To most people it is fatally easy to feel convinced 
 of what they wish to believe. Lynch's daughter 
 wished to believe that her wealth was honest. Though 
 Keith was by no means essential to her happiness, she
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 35 
 
 fancied that he was, and a sentimental illusion may 
 create quite as much ferment as an heroic love ; she 
 was suffering violently, and it would have been horrible 
 to her to think that this hurricane of hopelessness 
 sprang from her attachment to an infamous fortune. 
 It was far nicer to believe that her father was traduced 
 by the world and that Keith was wantonly unreason- 
 able. 
 
 She pitied herself passionately. Never in her 
 frivolous life before had she wanted anything so much, 
 and never until now had anything been denied to her. 
 Because it was denied, she wanted it more vehemently 
 still. 
 
 She sent no answer to his letter. The impulse to 
 assuage her pain by mortifying him with a few hurtful 
 lines was very strong, but she felt that silence became 
 her better ; and the thought that, on the whole, it 
 would mortify him even more, enabled her to resist 
 the temptation. 
 
 Nor did she go to the Waldehasts' during the next 
 few days, ardently as she desired to hear about him ; 
 so Keith contrived to see her only when she was driving 
 — when he could not be certain whether he was ignored, 
 or only overlooked. However, she wrote asking Mrs. 
 Waldehast to go to her. They had been friends since 
 their schooldays, and Dardy Waldehast rustled in 
 upon her promptly.
 
 36 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Now, I'm just dying with curiosity," she said, " so 
 you've got to tell me everything ! " 
 
 " I don't know what you mean," said Betty. 
 
 " I've been trying to pump Keith, but I can't get 
 anything out of him." 
 
 " Mr. Keith ? " Her tone implied that the reference 
 to him was irrelevant. " Oh, he hasn't sailed then ? 
 I thought he was leaving New York ? " 
 
 " He is very much in New York at present — he has 
 been living in my rocker, waiting for you to come in." 
 
 " Did he say so ? " 
 
 " Not in words. What's the trouble with him, 
 Betty ? I thought you meant it ? " 
 
 " So I did mean it ; you know very well I meant it ! 
 Dardy, I'm miserable ; he has treated me abominably. 
 He says — he says he wouldn't take a cent with me ! 
 What do you think of that ? " 
 
 Dardy Waldehast's eyes widened. " You don't 
 mean to say that's what you're worrying about ? " she 
 asked. " That sort of thing looks very pretty, but 
 it's not made to wash. He couldn't help it, even if he 
 wanted to, you know that very well — he hasn't got 
 anything." 
 
 " He insists that we should live on what he has got, 
 anyhow. If you think he's trying to fool me, we can't 
 talk. I have refused him ; I am never going to see him 
 any more."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 37 
 
 " But, you flat ! he had to say it ; he couldn't have 
 proposed to you if he hadn't said it. I don't know 
 where your wits have gone, really ! " 
 
 " You don't understand. He won't take it because 
 he's a crank ; he thinks the Trust is wicked. Oh, he 
 made his reasons perfectly plain — my feelings were of 
 no consequence ! Of course he doesn't know any- 
 thing about it — he has probably been misled by a leader 
 in the Flag. He says he wouldn't touch our dollars. 
 He wants me to do without them, and ' give my soul a 
 chance ' — he's strong on my soul, my food doesn't 
 matter ! He expects me to sacrifice all my comfort to 
 his crazy notions. I never heard anything so selfish 
 in my life." 
 
 " Well, I should say ! " exclaimed Mrs. Waldehast. 
 " Is that so ? And I've been feeling real bad for him, 
 feeding him up with tea and candies ! . . . Does it 
 weigh much. Bet ? " 
 
 " Yes; I never liked a man that way before. I'd 
 have done anything for him — and he treats me like 
 this ! I suppose it's life — as soon as a girl cares for a 
 man really, he makes her suffer. They're only fit to be 
 flirted with and made game of. I'd rather have 
 married him than all the dukes in the peerage — and 
 he doesn't mind if I don't have enough to eat ! " 
 
 " Have you told your father ? " 
 
 " Yes. Of course he doesn't want me to marry him.
 
 38 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 but he'd let me — I might have had a heavenly life if it 
 hadn't been for him I My father offered to talk to him, 
 but I can't permit that — making myself so cheap. 
 Besides, it wouldn't do any good. He wants me to go 
 to Europe with Howard." 
 
 " Who — your father does ? Are you going ? " 
 
 *' What's the use of that ? I'll never get over it as 
 long as I live — in Europe or anywhere else. It has 
 broken my heart, I could cry my eyes out." Her 
 voice quivered, " What shall I do, Dardy ? I'm so 
 fond of him. 'Tisn't as if he were silly all through ; it's 
 only just this one point — he's as sensible as anybody 
 else about most things." 
 
 " I wish I hadn't had him at the house so much ! " 
 
 " Oh, it's my own fault — I saw where I was going. I 
 could have pulled up in time if I had wanted to. Now 
 it's too late ! I'll never care for another man as I cared 
 for him. I feel — I feel about him just the way we used 
 to talk before we put our hair up, Dardy," 
 
 Mrs. Waldehast nodded. " Still, of course, that 
 wouldn't last anyhow," she said. " Even if you marry 
 your romance, you lose it — I mean, your husband's 
 quite different from the fellow you used to gaze at the 
 moon about." 
 
 " I expect he's more like it than the other fellows, 
 all the same ! " 
 
 " I don't know; Hal's all right, and I'm quite happy
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 39 
 
 with him, but I do sometimes wonder what became 
 of the Hal I got married to. / don't meet him. I 
 guess there's a bad fairy that flies away with our bride- 
 grooms while we're dreaming on the honeymoon — and 
 when we wake, we just find husbands in their place." 
 
 " You can't console me that way." 
 
 '' No. Well, you'd better talk him round. He's 
 very smitten — you'll only have to cry." 
 
 " I don't see how I can speak to him again — we've 
 quarrelled. Tell me what I can do ! I don't care 
 how much humble pie I eat as long as he doesn't 
 know — don't you ever remind me I said that, or 
 I'U hate you ! " 
 
 " I'd go to Europe if I were you ; I can mention 
 to him what boat you're crossing by. Go by a Cun- 
 arder, a slow one — j^ou'll have time to twist him 
 round your finger before she lands." 
 
 " I couldn't forgive him right away — it'd look like 
 jumping at him." 
 
 " You can spare two days to be chilly in — two days 
 last a long while at sea ; they'll seem as long as the 
 winter to him. That'll leave you five or six days to 
 make him do what you want. You'll have trained 
 him up in the way he should go long before you reach 
 Liverpool." 
 
 " It's a heavenly notion," admitted Betty cheer- 
 fully; " it's sweet of you— I hadn't thought of that !
 
 40 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 But I'm not keen on going to Europe with Howard ; 
 I know what it means — I'll never see him there ; 
 he'll leave me in the hotel, looking out of the window. 
 I wish you were going." 
 
 " Me ? We don't go till the Fall." 
 
 " It's much better now than in the Fall. It's 
 perfectly ridiculous going over in the Fall. London's 
 empty in the Fall — so's Paris. They're a dream in 
 the spring. Come with me ! I'll give you a dandy 
 time. Come for a month and buy frocks. You shall 
 come back as soon as I'm engaged." 
 
 " I should have to put off all my parties. And I'd 
 be so scared about the baby." 
 
 " What's the matter with her ? " 
 
 " There's nothing the matter with her, but there 
 might be. With me at sea ! I should go crazy." 
 
 " You can have a marconigram every day about 
 the baby — and a cable every day when we're there. 
 Say you will ! You've been such a pal — I was just 
 broken up when you came in. Do be sweet and see 
 me through ! " She hung round her, smiling, flushed, 
 coaxing like a child. " You'd be such a help — 
 Howard 'd be no good, he's got no tact. Think what 
 it means: it's just my life's happiness I'm begging 
 of you, Dardy ! And we'll go by the Caronia — the 
 staterooms have got the cunningest little electric 
 heaters for one's curling-irons."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 41 
 
 Dardy Waldehast reflected. " Oh, all right then, 
 she said, " I'll go ! Better let your father think you're 
 going away to get over it, hadn't you — leave him 
 easy ? " 
 
 And when Lynch joined them, the girl said, " I've 
 been telling Dardy she's got to take me to Europe. 
 We want to go by the Caronia — the Cunard's so 
 safe." 
 
 " Well now, that's first-rate, Mrs. Waldehast ! " 
 said the financier, relieved ; " that's just what she 
 wants to buck her up. I'll 'phone for a couple of 
 suites for the next trip. I'm real glad you're both 
 going. Would you like to take Howard along ? — he'll 
 do to look after the baggage." 
 
 " Our maids can look after the baggage," said 
 Betty. " A couple of suites and a stateroom for the 
 maids will be enough ; we don't want Howard. Where 
 shall we stay, Dardy ? When you cable for rooms, 
 poppa, you might explain that ' Flowers ' means 
 flowers in the bedrooms ; I'll never forget the last 
 time we arrived — there wasn't a bouquet in a bed- 
 room, it was frightful ! " 
 
 " I'll fix it," assented Lynch, thankful for her 
 brighter tone. He had just been drafting a prospectus 
 that would gull a multitude, but the young women 
 found him gullible.
 
 IV 
 
 After Mrs. Waldehast had told him carelessly that 
 she was to sail with Betty Lynch on the Caronia, 
 Keith hurried to State Street and booked his passage 
 by the boat, rejoicing at his " discovery " ; and at 
 the Metropolitan, later in the evening, Dardy Waldehast 
 threw to Betty, in the opposite box, two httle emphatic 
 nods, which said, "I've done it ! " 
 
 His elation was succeeded by the fear that the 
 girl might not go after all. There were ten days' 
 suspense. The prospect of seeing her constantly 
 during the passage seemed to him too extraordinary 
 to be fulfilled. Something must prevent this maritime 
 heaven I When he drove to the pier at last he was 
 more despondent than excited. A bad night hinted 
 that a caprice had balked him at the final moment, 
 that he was about to put the Atlantic between them. 
 
 The length of deck was chaos, apparently heaped 
 with the luggage of the world. All the women were 
 speaking at once, and every woman was saying 
 " steward " or " grip." Below, in the great dining- 
 
 42
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 43 
 
 saloon, a variety artist queened it at one of the small 
 tables, taking leave of some admirers ; champagne 
 popped to her triumphs in London ; the table was 
 gorgeous with roses and ribbons, the valedictory 
 expressions of regard. He lost himself in a maze of 
 corridors, and captured his stateroom only after it 
 had eluded him three times. There are staterooms 
 which seem never to be twice in the same place. 
 When he returned, order was prevailing. The deck 
 grew clearer, the last adieux were gabbled. Neither 
 Miss Lynch nor Mrs. Waldehast was to be seen. The 
 endless crowd streamed off, instead of on, now — 
 momentarily it looked as if everybody had been a 
 visitor and nobody would be left to sail. Still they 
 were unseen I He gazed forlornly round. And the 
 hotel moved away. 
 
 He saw them, with a heart thump, about an hour 
 later, after the chairs were set out. He knew that 
 Mrs. Waldehast whispered, " Here's Keith," as he 
 approached, for Betty gave a faint start of astonish- 
 ment. But she did not turn her head. The other 
 woman exclaimed, " Why, Mr. Keith ! " with smiHng 
 surprise, and there was a few moments' awkward 
 conversation. His embarrassment at intruding upon 
 Betty, who was monosyllabic and obviously chagrined 
 to find him there, made him very constrained. He 
 envied the composure with which she contrived to
 
 44 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 mask her amazement at meeting him, after the first 
 instant of dismay. 
 
 For the rest of the day they kept to their suites. 
 The moonht deck ungraced was pathetic. 
 
 In the morning they were not at breakfast. It 
 was eleven o'clock before a stir with their chairs and 
 rugs heralded their appearance. Mrs. Waldehast's 
 comment on the weather in passing him was formal — 
 evidently she had been asked to keep him at a dis- 
 tance. As to that, there was a smoking-room ! 
 
 But, after all, it wasn't to admire the smoking-room 
 that he had chosen the Caronia ! He went to luncheon 
 resolved to find his opportunity before the moon 
 could mock him again. 
 
 The afternoon was blank until the tea-cups cir- 
 culated. Then the two ladies settled themselves on 
 the boat deck, but were inseparable until a sudden 
 shower sent everyone scurrying into the lounge. 
 " I think this is where I leave you ? " said the con- 
 fidante. " Well, don't be gone more than a minute 
 or two ! " murmured Betty. Mrs. Waldehast got 
 up and shivered — she went below for a wrap. The 
 girl remained on the divan, absorbed by a magazine. 
 He reached her in three strides. 
 
 " Aren't you going to let me talk to you ? " 
 
 " I don't know why you should want to talk to 
 me," she said, at once startled, proud, and reproachful.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 45 
 
 " It's all I'm here for — I heard you were going." 
 
 " I think it was a great pity you heard. It was 
 very foolish of Dardy to speak about it." 
 
 " I'm very grateful that she did ! . . . You got 
 my letter ? " 
 
 She bent her head silently. 
 
 " I waited in the whole day for your answer. It 
 was a very long day." 
 
 " What answer did you expect ? " The tone was 
 a rebuke. 
 
 " I hoped you'd say that you forgave me for hurting 
 you. Will you ? If you knew how bad I've been 
 feeling " 
 
 " I'd rather not hear about it, please ! " she said. 
 " I wish to forget." 
 
 " Me ? " 
 
 After a second's pause she faltered, " Yes ; what 
 else can I do now ? " 
 
 " You can say you'll marry me — I love you, I 
 love you so much ! Betty, I've felt a brute and a 
 cad for saying what I did to you — I've seen that look 
 in your eyes ever since. Won't you forgive me ? " 
 
 " You told me we couldn't be happy together. 
 What's the good of asking me to forgive you ? " 
 
 " I told you we couldn't be happy on your money. 
 I'm not asking you to marry me on that. If you care 
 for me, can't you — can't you give it up ? "
 
 46 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Oh ! " She made a movement of impatience. 
 " You ask me to marry you one minute, and insult me 
 the next. I think you're crazy ! " 
 
 " You know I don't mean to insult you ; it's much 
 worse for me to have to speak about the money than 
 it is for you to hear. But you've got to understand me. 
 We needn't discuss my reasons any more ; I'd much 
 rather not. It amounts to this : if you marry me, 
 you'll live on what I can make for you ! It's what I 
 implore you to do. If you'll only " 
 
 Dardy Waldehast came back with a cape on. 
 " Hasn't it turned cold ? " she said to Keith, as casually 
 as if she had just been chatting with him. " Feel my 
 hands ! " 
 
 Betty was sorry that she had commanded such a 
 quick return. But the ice was broken now, and, 
 though the brief conversation was different from 
 the one she had forecast, she felt in better spirits 
 for it. 
 
 So did Keith. They talked again in the drawing- 
 room after dinner. Somebody sang Tosti. And after 
 Tosti, the deck was dry, but not dry enough for Mrs. 
 Waldehast. He and Betty sauntered alone. 
 
 She looked at the sky, and paid a compliment to the 
 moon. 
 
 " It's much better than it was last night," he said 
 appreciatively.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 47 
 
 " I didn't notice it last night ; we didn't come up." 
 
 " No — and it gibed ! I had been on the Caronia 
 for seons without getting a word with you. The moon 
 quoted Browning." 
 
 " Carnegie must have found a new field for his 
 libraries ! What did it say ? " 
 
 " ' Never the time, and the place, and the loved one 
 all together.' Oh, I was wretched last night ! The 
 deck was calling for you. . . . Do you know — do 
 you know, I'm almost inclined to wish that I hadn't 
 any principles ! It would make things so much easier. 
 I never thought I could be in a situation where I 
 shouldn't know the right course from the wrong, but — 
 
 but Is a man a selfish beast to try to make a girl 
 
 renounce a fortune for him, or would he be only half 
 a lover to let her go when they care for each other ? 
 ... If I thought you'd regret yielding, I'd say * good- 
 bye ' and try to forget you, as I meant to do ; I would, 
 on my honour ! " 
 
 " Don't you think you may be unjust ? " she asked 
 haltingly. " I told my father what you said ; he said 
 you didn't understand. He said that every business 
 has its enemies. Even if it is a small business, there is 
 always somebody smaller who complains of it and says 
 that it's wicked and tyrannical. My father has always 
 been very good to me. If you knew how kind he has 
 been to me, you wouldn't think he was a bad man.
 
 48 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 When you say what you do, I Well, I don't like 
 
 to hear you speak ill of him ! " 
 
 " I don't want to speak ill of him, Betty. It's 
 because I don't want to hurt you that I can't justify 
 myself to you. My tongue's tied ; I can only say that I 
 condemn — and it sounds like a prig. But I'm not the 
 only person who condemns; you know that, dear, 
 as well as I do." 
 
 " All the world may make mistakes," she pleaded. 
 " You admitted just now that you weren't sure if you 
 were right." 
 
 " I'm not sure if I'm right in asking you to give the 
 wealth up, but I'm quite sure I'm right in refusing to 
 share it. I'll never consent to do that. . . . The truth 
 is, I haven't the courage of my own convictions. I'd 
 rejoice to see you give it up — I'd think you a nobler 
 woman. It makes me sick when I remember that your 
 pleasures are paid for with other people's ruin — 
 but I take fright at the responsibility of asking you to 
 give it up for me. I ask you — and wonder if it's 
 monstrous of me directly afterwards. My view is 
 right, I know it's right ; but then I shouldn't have 
 expressed it to you if I didn't want you to marry me — 
 and perhaps that makes me wrong ! " 
 
 They strolled the length of their promenade before 
 she spoke. 
 
 " I think there'd be nothing gained if we were to
 
 ' •; THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 49 
 
 talk for ever!" she said harshly. "It's just as im- 
 possible for you to understand my father's business 
 as it would be for my father to understand your art. 
 We won't talk about it any more, please." 
 
 " You're angry with me again ? " 
 
 She shrugged a shoulder : " Oh, you have a right to 
 your opinion, I suppose ; I'm not angry with you." 
 
 " That's as cruel a thing as you could say." 
 
 " How can I help hating myself ? " she exclaimed, 
 with a break in her voice. " How do you suppose I 
 must feel ? Do you suppose these things are pleasant 
 to me to hear ? Do you suppose I forget that I needn't 
 have heard them if I hadn't said what I did to you ? 
 You were going away — you'd never have known, /'d 
 have had nothing to be ashamed of ! " 
 
 " Are you sure of that ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Do you remember something you said to me that 
 
 night ? You said, ' I know about the people ruined, 
 
 and the broken homes, and it doesn't make me feel 
 
 good when I think of it.' Are you sure you'll always 
 
 be able to put the thought aside ? Are you sure the 
 
 time can't come when the millions won't be enough — 
 
 when the cries of the people will keep you awake ? I 
 
 don't want to invent a conscience for you, but are you 
 
 positive that you'll never be ashamed ? " 
 
 She paused by the taffrail, with averted face. The 
 4
 
 50 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 subtlety of her sex had gone, and left her helpless. She 
 was no strategist, trying to bend his will now ; she was 
 a girl in love — with swimming eyes, and a lump in her 
 throat, and a nose turning pink. 
 
 " I know just how you think about me," she gulped. 
 " You think I'm fonder of my fortune than of you ! 
 It's not true." 
 
 " Betty ! " 
 
 " I'm not, I'm not ! And I know you're right — yes, 
 I do know it, right down deep — but I don't want to 
 hear about it. He's my father, you see. Take me ! I 
 don't want the dollars, I swear I don't — I only want 
 to be happy ! " 
 
 " O my sweet ! " he stammered. " If there were 
 nobody here ! Betty, I'm holding you, I'm thanking 
 God for you, I'm kissing your feet, and your tears, and 
 your lips — my heart, my love ! " 
 
 " I know I'm not as brave as I ought to be," she 
 quavered, " but I will try ! I want to be just what 
 you'd like. You won't ever be sorry for marrying me, 
 will you — I mean if I make a muss of things ? It 
 won't be that I'm not happy and proud to be your wife, 
 only that I don't know how to set to work. I'll be 
 
 content in ever so poky'a cottage, and — and 1 can't 
 
 cook the dinner, I don't know how, but I'll learn all 
 about art, so that you shan't feel you've married a 
 fool. And you shan't ever paint portraits ! "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 51 
 
 Their hands clung together on the rail. 
 
 " I'd paint portraits all my life for you," said the 
 man reverently, "I'd throw art overboard for you ! 
 I thought I loved you before, but I didn't know what 
 love was — I didn't know what a woman could be ! . . . 
 And you won't have to cook the dinner, my queen, or 
 live in a cottage ; it won't be so bad as all that. I 
 make 
 
 " Sh ! " she whispered, "Never mind what you 
 make — I am so tired of you and me talking dollars." 
 
 The first officer hurried by them, looking the other 
 way. 
 
 " I've made a perfect fright of mysejif," she smiled, 
 dabbing her fingers at her eyes, " and I haven't got 
 a handkerchief." She borrowed Keith's : " You're 
 beginning to provide for me already ! " 
 
 " Betty, when will you marry me ? Will you marry 
 me as soon as we land ? " 
 
 " Oh ! " she laughed, in the glory of surrender. "Are 
 you so afraid I'll change my mind ? " 
 
 "No. But I want to prove to you how much I 
 mean it. . . . Betty ! " 
 
 " Yes, sir ? " 
 
 "You've never called me 'Dick.'" 
 
 " I think ' Richard ' suits you much better ; you 
 aren't ' Dick ' a bit. Do they call you ' Dick ' ? " 
 
 " No — very few people do."
 
 52 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Then / shall— Dick ! " 
 
 " Betty ! " 
 
 " You'll know that name soon ! " 
 
 " Where shall we live ? " 
 
 " Dear," she pouted, '•' let's live in a moonbeam 
 to-night. Don't let's be practical yet — I don't want 
 to be practical any more. It doesn't matter where 
 we live — if I make you happy," 
 
 At the piano somebody sang again. The lyric did 
 not reach her, but the melody harmonised with the 
 music of her mood. Presently the ship's bells jarred, 
 startling them to the remembrance of time. " We must 
 go down to Dardy," she murmured. 
 
 " Will you say ' good-night ' to me first ? " 
 
 Now, where they leant there was no one in view — 
 she saw nothing but him, and the sea, and the stars. 
 He drew nearer still. Her eyes closed. 
 
 Oh, it was worth it, worth it a thousandfold ! She 
 was sure she would think so as long as she lived.
 
 Dardy Waldehast was less optimistic. She divined 
 the engagement directly they returned to the drawing- 
 room, but she attributed capitulation to the wrong 
 side. It was not till she was in Betty's parlour with 
 her, and the steward had left them to their bovril 
 and toast, that she was staggered by the facts. She 
 stared, with her spoon half-way to her mouth. 
 
 " And what do you imagine your father's going to 
 say ? " she demanded. " You don't imagine for a 
 moment he'll allow it, do you ? " 
 
 " I mean to write to him at once ; I'll mail the letter 
 from Queenstown. It's my own life — if I'm satisfied, 
 nobody else has any reason to complain. . . . Oh, put 
 it down and be nice, Dardy — I feel so happy and 
 so good, and I don't want to think about anything 
 horrid ! " 
 
 They sat on the sofa, with their arms round each other. 
 
 " I'd never have believed it of you ! . . . When is 
 it supposed to be ? Is he coming back to New York 
 with us ? " 
 
 S3
 
 54 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " What for ? I won't go back to New York. We'll 
 live in London — we shall be married in London." 
 
 " Will your father come over ? " 
 
 Betty's eyes grew solemn. " I don't know," she 
 said pensively, " I've been wondering. I've got to 
 tell him, you see, that he mustn't settle anything 
 on me — that I've promised not to take it. He can't 
 be expected to be keen on meeting Dick after that ! . . . 
 And even if he did care to come, it'd be rather — 
 rather painful for us all, wouldn't it ? I don't want " 
 — she plucked at her friend's lace — " I don't want 
 to have a father there that Dick feels such things 
 about. How can I ? It'll be Dick's wedding too ! 
 I — I think the church should be quite sweet for us 
 both when he marries me." 
 
 The other woman kissed her, and they sat silent. 
 
 " My father's in the Trust as well," she said at last 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I've, never worried." 
 
 " You did one day, Dardy. Do you remember ? " 
 
 " We were kids then — and thought we were heroines. 
 What's the good of making our lives a misery ? We 
 can't alter it. Besides, I don't believe it's so bad 
 as they say; it's all nonsense. Nobody has a word 
 to say against Hal — and Hal never fussed about my 
 dollars. . . . It's an awful pity — there's not one man
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 55 
 
 in a million who would be such a fool. I don't know 
 why it should happen to you to meet him ! . . . Well, 
 if your father doesn't come over for it, who'll be 
 there ? " 
 
 " Why, you ! " 
 
 " I can't do it, dear — you mustn't let me in for 
 that ! It isn't what I was brought for. He'd be 
 mad with me ! And anyhow, I can't stay more 
 than the month — you don't mean to have it within 
 a month ? " 
 
 " I — I don't know," said Betty ; " yes, I expect 
 we will. I won't want to buy a trousseau. ... I 
 shall write my father all you say ; he can't say it's your 
 fault." 
 
 " I'd never have believed it of you ! " said the 
 other again. " One thing Well ! " 
 
 " What's that ? " 
 
 " Well, of course, it needn't last — you can always 
 have it your own way afterwards. But " 
 
 The girl shook her head, startled. " I wouldn't do 
 that ! " she breathed. " That's over — I'm being real 
 with him." Her gaze remained wide and introspective. 
 " I wish you hadn't said that ! " 
 
 " I'm sorry." 
 
 " You don't know how I wish we hadn't schemed 
 that day ! I hate myself for having shammed to 
 him. It'd be lovely if I hadn't meant him to come.
 
 56 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 and he had just surprised me here as he thinks he 
 has. I'd hke it all to have been quite true." 
 
 Mrs. Waldehast grimaced. " You'll make me envious 
 in a minute — I shall never have those cranky and 
 beautiful emotions any more ! . . . You'd better 
 drink that now, and turn in and dream of him. Pull 
 the bedclothes up high, or your wings'll take cold ! 
 I'm not going to talk sense to you again to-night." 
 
 But she talked to Keith on the morrow. 
 
 '* You know, Mr. Keith," she said, " I feel a great 
 responsibility. Betty's father has trusted her to me, 
 and I can't stand by and see her spoil her life. You 
 must know as well as I do that this won't work — we 
 don't live in a romance." 
 
 The throbbing of the steamer was very loud in his 
 ears. " You think I am behaving badly to her ? " 
 he asked, when he found his voice. 
 
 *' I think you are behaving badly to yourself. 
 Mr. Lynch is devoted to her; he would consent to 
 anything to make her happy. If you refuse to let 
 him help you, you are wilfully turning your back on a 
 fortune." 
 
 " She is prepared to live on less than I can offer 
 her," he pleaded. 
 
 " Prepared ! Have you any notion of what she 
 is used to ? She has had her own account since she 
 was eighteen, and the bank has been told to honour
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 her cheques to any extent. My husband is 
 man, but Betty has spent as much in a year on not. 
 particular as I have spent on my house ; everything 
 soUd has been paid for by her father." 
 
 " For Heaven's sake, don't imagine that I under- 
 value what she's doing," he exclaimed. " It's the 
 grandest thing that a girl ever did for a man. I 
 know that nothing, nothing on my side can be enough 
 to I'll worship her for it. She's brave indeed ! " 
 
 " She's in love ! I don't quarrel with her for that 
 — I'm not much older than she is ; but I'm a 
 married woman, and on this point I'm older than the 
 two of you. While a girl's in love, everything the 
 man says is a law of the Medes and Persians to her, 
 she sees with his eyes ; but afterwards, if she has 
 any more backbone than porridge-and-cream, she 
 begins to sit up and survey for herself again. I 
 can't argue about Mr. Lynch's commercial reputa- 
 tion, I don't pretend to understand finance " — Keith 
 did not miss the reflection — " but I do understand 
 Betty, and I tell you that if you think her conversion 
 to your view is anything but the fizz of the moment, 
 you are making a big mistake. You will spare yourself 
 and her a great deal of unnecessary pain by listening 
 to reason at the start." 
 
 " If you mean ' by taking help from her father,' " 
 he stammered, " I can't do it at the start, or at any
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 ne. Betty thoroughly understands that. I'm 
 ^ if I sound hard." 
 
 He sounded, on the contrary, very weak. It is 
 one thing to have intense convictions, and another 
 to uphold them to strangers. Keith would never 
 have swayed mobs, he was too sensitive to a jeer. 
 He felt like a boy beside her, nervous, shamefaced. 
 
 " Well ! " her gesture was resigned, " you are 
 entitled to your principles, of course ; but I tell you 
 frankly I think that, having the objection that you 
 have, you did very wrong in the first instance to 
 propose to her." 
 
 In the first instance, however, she had proposed to 
 him. 
 
 " Do you mean that I ought to give her up ? " 
 he said unsteadily. " I'm so fond of her, Mrs. Walde- 
 hast — you're a woman, you ought to know how much 
 I mean it ! But if she wished she hadn't married me 
 it'd be terrible ; I'd rather it came to nothing than 
 make her wretched for life. Do you mean that I 
 ought to give her up ? " 
 
 Dardy Waldehast flinched. A vision of Betty 
 assailed her — Betty at white heat, Betty demanding 
 wrathfully "how she dared?" After all, was the 
 responsibihty so great as she asserted ? There would 
 be plenty of time for Lynch to take decisive measures 
 if he chose !
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " I don't mean anything of the sort," she 
 " I mean that you should agree to her father mak^.. 
 a settlement. All she'll bring you, if you don't, i 
 about a hundred pounds a year — her grandfather left 
 her twenty thousand dollars when she was a child. 
 Unless you object to that too ? " 
 
 " It's the first I've heard of it," he said. " But 
 why should I object ? My objection is not to marrying 
 a girl with money, but to living on atrocious money. 
 Surely the difference is plain enough ? " 
 
 " Atrocious " rent veils. But her own father was 
 less prominent, Keith knew nothing of him — it was 
 needless to challenge the word. Her thoughts darted 
 to the scene of which Betty had reminded her — for 
 a primitive moment she was a girl again, revolted, 
 confiding to her friend that she would " run away 
 and go into a store." Yes, she had fancied she was 
 a heroine then ! She regained her composure before 
 the man could notice there was anything amiss. 
 When he turned to her she was back in her world. 
 
 " Well, you mustn't be vexed with me for my 
 opinion ! " she said urbanely ; " I wanted a chat with 
 you because I've a great affection for her, but that 
 doesn't mean that I don't like you.'' 
 
 " I shall always be deeply grateful to you, Mrs. 
 Waldehast," he sighed ; " I only wish you didn't think 
 me so inhuman."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 misgivings had rushed back to him, intensified. 
 
 . was " entitled to his principles," but was he entitled 
 cO force them upon Betty ? Her consent was the 
 " fizz of the moment " ? Then she would live to be- 
 wail it ! For there could be no going back afterwards ; 
 if she accepted the condition, she accepted it for good 
 and all. Was he being fair to her in taking her at her 
 word ? There must be a serious talk between them 
 to-day ! 
 
 But when he was alone with her in her parlour, during 
 the afternoon, he wondered how to broach the subject. 
 His relief was as great as his surprise when she said 
 archly, " So you've been having a bad time ? Well, 
 you aren't going to lose me if you don't want to — don't 
 worry ! " 
 
 " She told you ? " he exclaimed. " You know ? " 
 
 Her laughter brimmed over ; the ingenuousness of 
 Man was comic. " No, she didn't tell me; there are 
 things that don't want telling, they shout for them- 
 selves. I saw you when you were drooping round 
 with her. What is it you're trying to say to me ? 
 Come to momma and 'fess ! " 
 
 " Betty," he said, " I can't joke about it, I'm very 
 much in earnest." 
 
 She put her hands behind her back, and her head to 
 one side : " Are you going to bid me an eternal fare- 
 well ? " she rippled. " It isn't ' the time, and the
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 6i 
 
 place, and the loved one all together ' now, because I 
 don't feel like being pathetic a bit ! " 
 
 " Will you listen to me ? I want you to be serious. 
 Will you, sweetest ? " 
 
 Her sunshine faded. She sat down slowly. "Goon, 
 then," she said, raising big eyes. 
 
 " She's very fond of you. So am I, but perhaps my 
 kind of love is bound to be more selfish than hers. / 
 want you — she only wants to see you happy ; her 
 judgment here is better than mine. . . . It's because 
 she's very fond of you that she spoke. She doesn't 
 think that I've the right to let you do what you pro- 
 mised ; she's sure you'd be sorry for it afterwards. I 
 know you don't think so now, but it's quite true that 
 the time may come when you'll feel that you acted like 
 a madwoman — when you'd give anything on earth to be 
 able to undo the mistake. Remember that you will 
 never be able to undo it 1 You aren't making the 
 sacrifice for six months, Betty, or for a year, but for 
 always. And by and by, the gilt will be off the ginger- 
 bread, and the gingerbread may taste awfully stale, my 
 love. That's all I can say, but I want you to think it 
 over well, and to have a long talk with her." 
 
 " Do you suppose I haven't heard what's she got to 
 say already ? " she replied proudly. "What can she 
 tell you about my feelings ? She can only answer for 
 her own. Is it Dardy Waldehast you want to marry.
 
 62 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 or me ? " Her chin went up. "I daresay all you have 
 said is very honourable and high-minded and well 
 meant, but I find it no compliment. I promised to be 
 your wife ; I am not a little child, to have a gift handed 
 back to her and be told that she doesn't know what she's 
 doing." 
 " Betty ! " 
 
 " I am an American girl, and " 
 
 " You're the dearest girl in the world, but " 
 
 " And I know my own mind. You offend me when 
 you speak to me as if you thought I was a fool. If it's 
 only my face you're in love with, I can't be very much 
 to you ; New York is full of men who're in love with me 
 like that. I imagined your love was for myself." 
 
 " I love every mood of you ! I love you when you're 
 cross with me, and I love you when you cry — and I love 
 you when you laugh and your eyes turn blue and you 
 show that dimple in that cheek ! " 
 
 Betty's chin was still disdainful. But the corner of 
 her lips seemed to promise the dimple's dawn. 
 
 " Of course," she began, in her stateliest tones, " if 
 you are alarmed at the prospect " His interrup- 
 tion couldn't be overlooked. " You don't deserve it ! " 
 she demurred, melting. " Well then ! Don't be unkind 
 to me any more. ... I had something quite important 
 to say to you when you started that foolishness, you 
 silly boy ! "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 63 
 
 " God bless you ! " exclaimed Keith. " I'll never 
 start it again ; it's over ! What is it you were going to 
 say ? " 
 
 She stroked his hair the wrong way. " I have been 
 thinking," she said, " that I can't be mean and keep our 
 news secret ; I must write from Queenstown — or, any- 
 how, as soon as we're in London." 
 
 He nodded. " Of course." 
 
 *' It'd be rather horrid of me to leave people in the 
 dark about it. Besides, Dardy's sure to write to him ! " 
 
 " You mean your father will try to prevent it ? " 
 
 " No, I don't ; I am my own mistress. But " — she 
 hesitated — " it's just possible he may decide to come 
 over for it, though he won't be best pleased. I think 
 I'd rather be married to you quite quietly, with nobody 
 there but her and Do you want any relations ? " 
 
 " I've none that I see much of. Yes, that's how 
 I'd like it to be, that's just what I'd have chosen ! " 
 he said thankfully. " If you're sure you're not doing 
 it merely for me ? " 
 
 " I'd like it best myself. . . . Well, do you think it 
 could be arranged — would it be too soon to please you?" 
 
 " Too soon ? " he queried densely. 
 
 " I couldn't cable ' don't come' ; I can't do that ! 
 Don't you see ? " 
 
 He groped confused among these feminine subtleties. 
 " I'm afraid I'm stupid ? "
 
 64 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 She could not deny it, but there was something of 
 maternal pity in her touch. " The only thing I can 
 do," she explained patiently, " is to say in my letter 
 that I'm marrying you before — before anybody could 
 get there. It'd be quite two weeks before anyone 
 could arrive. Would you care to, are you so impatient 
 as all that ? " 
 
 " I'd like to marry you the day we land ! " he cried, 
 with enthusiasm ; " I'll get a special licence ! I don't 
 know how long it takes, but " 
 
 " That's just what I was wondering," she said. 
 " How do you find out ? " 
 
 " I suppose you ask people," said Keith vaguely. 
 " It never occurred to me to wonder how anybody got 
 married. Evidently it's not difficult." 
 
 " It's always happening, isn't it ? " said Betty. " I 
 expect there are books that tell you. An encyclopaedia 
 wouldn't give it, would it ? " 
 
 " Whitaker 1 " he said, " I should think Whitaker 
 would give it. Perhaps there's one in the smoking- 
 room or the purser's office." 
 
 They rang the bell, and inquired. The steward 
 believed that there was no Whitaker in the smoking- 
 room or the purser's office ; but, gathering that the 
 matter was urgent, he volunteered the fact that the 
 head steward had an old copy in his cabin. 
 
 " Well, go and ask the head steward if he will oblige
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 65 
 
 me by lending it to me for five minutes," said 
 Betty. 
 
 And she and Keith bent their heads together over 
 the index. 
 
 " ' Marriage ' ! " he read triumphantly. " Here we 
 are ! ' Marriage before Registrar ' — they put that first. 
 You wouldn't, though, would you ? " 
 
 " No," she said, " I don't want a stuffy wedding like 
 that. I'd like a little church, quite simple, and very, 
 
 very old, with ivy on it, and But we won't find 
 
 that in the book ! Let's see what comes next ! — We 
 can't attend to business if you try to kiss my 
 fingers, Dick ! — ' British Subjects Abroad,' ' By 
 Banns ' " 
 
 " Banns take three Sundays," he said. " I know ; 
 my father was a clergyman." 
 
 " Is that so ? I never knew that ! I won — I 
 wonder if that's why you're so good ? " 
 
 He laughed, colouring. " * Marriage Licences, Office 
 for ' — page 180 ! Don't these leaves stick ! " 
 
 " They've put it on the same page as the Bankruptcy 
 Department ! " she said indignantly. " Now, isn't 
 that tactless ? You go to Knightrider Street — from 
 ten till four. Well, just Hsten to this ! ' Office for 
 granting marriage licences, and Court of Peculiars ' ! 
 Aren't they rude ? Oh, this is all prosy, let's try back ! 
 . . . ' Certificates ' ! We haven't seen ' Certificates.' 
 5
 
 66 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 I daresay they'll tell us all about it — there are two 
 pages of them," 
 
 Keith took the book. " This is it," he said : " ' Special 
 licences,' that's what I want ! ' Are granted by the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury ' " 
 
 " The Archbishop of Canterbury ! That's just splen- 
 did ! " chirruped Betty. 
 
 " ' Under special circumstances ' " 
 
 " That's us ! " 
 
 " ' For marriage at any place, with or without 
 previous residence in the district, or at any time, et 
 cetera.' Well, they couldn't say more ! " 
 
 " They do " — she leant over his shoulder ; " you're 
 skipping the fees." 
 
 "The fees don't matter twopence." 
 
 " I can't sanction anything approaching extrava- 
 gance," said Betty severely. " I hope I am not marrying 
 an extravagant man? Anyhow, you aren't through 
 yet, there's a ' But.' " She pointed. " ' But the 
 reasons assigned must be such as to meet with his 
 Grace's approval.' Oh ! Do you think the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury would approve of our reasons, Dick, if 
 you put them to him very nicely ? " 
 
 " I don't know," said Keith ; " I've never met him. 
 Wait a minute — ' Licences are of two kinds,' let's try 
 the other ! . . . ' Licence is available as soon as it is 
 issued.' That's sensible. Hello, here's something in
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 67 
 
 italics, though ! Er — ' One of such parties hath had 
 his or her usual place of abode for the space of fifteen 
 days immediately preceding the issuing of the licence 
 within the boundary.' Well, neither of us has ! 
 I've been away for months." The artist's brow was 
 harassed. " It's a very complicated matter, I had 
 better go to a solicitor." 
 
 " There's nothing wrong with fifteen days," she 
 declared. " If you get the licence fifteen days after I 
 write, it'll just suit. I couldn't marry you sooner than 
 that and leave Dardy all alone, after bringing her away 
 
 to please " She stopped, embarrassed. " Oh, Dick ! 
 
 I do wish I had said ' Yes ' at the beginning. I've been 
 so hateful, you don't know. You do forgive me, 
 don't you ? " 
 
 " Forgive you ! You're an Angel from heaven ! " 
 
 " No," she pouted, " you're not to think about me 
 like that, it'd be such a come down for me afterwards. 
 Don't love me for an angel, Dick — I want you to love 
 me for the little cat I am." 
 
 He took her in his arms, and pictured the life they 
 were to lead. He kissed the pout from her lips and 
 the shadow from her eyes. She cooed childish names 
 to him, and they laughed together. 
 
 This was the conclusion of his " serious talk " to her 
 about giving her up.
 
 VI 
 
 She wrote her letter from the Carlton. She began 
 by saying that " Richard had been on the Caronia 
 too," and felt guiltily that her father would have no 
 faith in the implied coincidence. In Lynch's daughter 
 the propensity to manoeuvre was even stronger than it 
 is in most women, but it disturbed her more than it 
 does most women to be found out. " Dollars weren't 
 everything, and she was quite sure she would never 
 repent, and she was going to be married on the 29th. 
 Dardy, of course, would be present. Dardy was very 
 upset, and was writing to him herself." 
 
 It was a difficult letter. Though she phrased it as 
 gently as she could, she had to dwell upon the point 
 that he was to make no provision for her, and she knew 
 that her acceptance of that condition would be crushing. 
 She was uncomfortably conscious also that he would 
 think less of her intelligence for it. She wanted to 
 be alone when the letter was done. Mrs. Waldehast 
 heard without surprise that she " had a headache." 
 
 But an hour afterwards, when Keith called to put the 
 
 68
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 69 
 
 engagement ring on her finger, she was vividly happy 
 again. He had known a night of boyish terrors lest 
 his ring should look paltry to her. Not only was she 
 the one girl in the world, she was Miss Lynch ; and 
 although she had worn no other jewellery than a rope 
 of pearls, it was inevitable that she should compare his 
 gift mentally with the rings of her friends. His anxiety 
 had led him to choose one wildly disproportionate to 
 his position. Her enthusiasm was not feigned when he 
 opened the case. Mrs. Waldehast herself admitted 
 later that it was " just sinfully sweet of him." 
 
 In the evening he took them to the theatre. He 
 had been extending his knowledge of the marriage 
 laws meanwhile, and Betty learnt that the address 
 of his studio, near the Foundhng, was an obstacle 
 in the way of the little church with ivy on it. He 
 had decided to remove to rooms " at Hampstead or 
 somewhere for the fifteen days — it wouldn't be a 
 scrap of trouble." 
 
 They argued the matter in whispers during the 
 progress of the play. She said that she wasn't a 
 baby, and, with the best of bridal egotism, pronounced 
 " one church as good as another." He wasn't to 
 be silly ! When was that studio of his to be exhibited 
 to them ? She was eager to see it. Talking of Hamp- 
 stead, wasn't there a Jack Straw's Castle there? 
 She doted on ruins — she'd hke to go over it one day.
 
 70 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 There were a lot of other " sights " in London that 
 she ought to have seen ; he must remember she was 
 a foreigner. They compared Hsts of their neglected 
 duties, and she was amazed to discover that the 
 Englishman had a worse record than she. Yes, this 
 comedy was quite good ! She liked the Carlton very 
 much, especially the servants ; but the portions in 
 the restaurant were ridiculously big, even as one for 
 two people — she had ordered a lovely dessert, and 
 been unable to touch it when the time came. Dardy 
 expected him to come back with them to supper. 
 He couldn't ? That was horrid. No, they wouldn't 
 go somewhere with him instead ! Well, would he 
 come back and smoke a cigarette in the hall ? It 
 was a very pleasant evening indeed — and the author 
 of the piece, who was in the stalls behind them, felt 
 homicidal. 
 
 The ladies were entertained at the studio on the 
 next afternoon, and Betty was secretly dismayed by 
 its aspect. Flights of stone steps, and a sparsity of 
 comfort after one had toiled to the top, contrasted 
 very badly with the studios of the eminent that she 
 had viewed in Paris. She resolved that the studio 
 when they took a house should be far worthier of 
 the august pictures that she didn't understand. 
 However, the host was so fervidly grateful for the 
 visit that she offered to repeat the boon.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 71 
 
 " I hope you didn't mind, Dardy — he couldn't 
 have given us nicer cakes and candies, could he ? " 
 
 " I mind nothing, except his income, and the absence 
 of an elevator," sighed Mrs. Waldehast. "I'm sure 
 the tea was as humorous as a bad picnic. The 
 dilapidated crone who shuffled in with the cups as 
 big as young wash-bowls was a dream." 
 i There were various things for the lovers to arrange 
 during the next few days. To determine their home 
 before the 29th was impossible, and they resolved to 
 do their house-hunting afterwards ; in the intervals, 
 though, it would be fun to go out and acquire a few 
 necessaries for it — just for an hour sometimes, when 
 Dardy didn't feel like leaving the hotel ! They made 
 two or three such expeditions, and Betty developed 
 shining virtues in the process of qualifying herself 
 for a poor man's wife. 
 
 She impressed upon him at the start that he was 
 to be " very careful." She said, " There must be no 
 more wicked loveliness like this ring ; I mean it, Dick ! 
 It would hurt me. You've got to treat me like a 
 sensible woman." And her plan for coping with his 
 tendency towards extravagance was charming — she 
 forbade him to take out more than a certain amount, 
 and set her dainty face against " cash on delivery." 
 "Now, how much shall it be this morning?" she 
 would say, perpending before she pinned on her hat.
 
 72 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 It might be that they agreed upon twenty pounds, 
 or upon five ; but, whatever the sum was, it had to 
 be the Hmit of the morning's expenditure. Excepting 
 for two shilhngs ; she allowed him two shillings in 
 excess of the sum, for the purpose of ice-creams. 
 
 Then they would sally forth in quest of an essential 
 cabinet, or a dinner service, and come back the happy 
 owners of a superfluous gramophone or a Nankin jar 
 with a branch of almond blossom in it. It did not 
 occur to Betty, to dim her complacence, that they 
 had been less practical to spend the money on a 
 superfluous gramophone than on the essential cabinet. 
 Never did they spend more than he took out ! — and 
 her triumphant air of self-righteousness was beautiful 
 to see. 
 
 Lynch's reply to the news came by cable, and it 
 was brief. He said nothing of his chagrin, nor did 
 he remonstrate ; but plainly he had no belief that 
 his daughter's spiritual elevation would be main- 
 tained : " When you propose to come off the roof, let 
 me know." That was all. It vexed her. She did 
 not ask for her renunciation to be acclaimed, but she 
 wished it to be respected. The reward for being a 
 heroine is the approval of one's own conscience ; still, 
 it is annoying when people don't recognise one's 
 role. 
 The cable absolved Mrs. Waldehast from further
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 73 
 
 responsibility, and she was able to countenance the 
 situation with a lighter heart now. At this stage, too, 
 it occurred to Keith that he ought to manifest the 
 relatives of whom he had spoken. It would probably 
 be the correct course to take, though he contemplated 
 it with some aversion. His uncle had dissuaded him 
 very strongly from resigning the clerkship, and always 
 been sore with him for disregarding the advice, especi- 
 ally so since his progress had proved him right. The 
 gentleman, moreover, had small faith in the possibility 
 of any really good woman being discovered outside the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 Sir Percival— he had been knighted during the last 
 decade— was proud of many things. He was proud of 
 his title, of his great business, which had been quad- 
 rupled since he succeeded to it, of his sons in the firm, 
 and his youngest son, Stanley, who was in Holy Orders ; 
 not least was he proud of his reputation for rectitude, 
 which stood high in the City. But when he boasted— 
 and it was often— one gathered that his noblest deed 
 was to be born an Englishman. 
 
 Like his nephew, he held that every man had a duty 
 to his country, and his patriotism took the form of dis- 
 paraging every country on the Continent . He declined 
 to cross the Channel ; his annual holiday, with a thrifty 
 wife, was spent in Bognor, or some other South Coast 
 spot equally depressing, to which they travelled third
 
 74 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 class. " There is too much want in the world for us to 
 waste money on self-indulgence," he would say. But 
 he did nothing with his money to abate the want. He 
 had admonished his brother for allowing Richard to 
 study art in Paris — first, because art was frivolous ; 
 and second, because Paris was in France. He frowned 
 upon alien improvements, although the insular variety 
 might be impracticable. No " time-saving appliance " 
 emanating from foreign brains was ever favoured by 
 Keith & Sons. The office was one of the last in 
 East India Avenue to adopt the typewriter, and one 
 of the few that still exalted the native mahogany desk, 
 with drawers that took five minutes to lock, over the 
 transatlantic article, in which they fastened auto- 
 matically. Upon America, indeed, Sir Percival was 
 particularly severe ; he regarded its nation as swindlers 
 to a man, and its achievements as an insult to the 
 British Throne. No one could have seemed less likely 
 to favour an engagement to Lynch's daughter. 
 
 Still, one ought to produce relations ! And Mrs. 
 Waldehast had shown a lively interest in the title when 
 she heard it. Keith went to call upon his uncle and 
 aunt. 
 
 They had a large, meagrely furnished house, and 
 utilitarian grounds, in Clapham Park, which was not 
 the Clapham where Keith and his mother had had their 
 lodgings. There are four Claphams. Clapham Park
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 75 
 
 is imposing, Clapham Common is successful, Clapham 
 Road is genteel, and Clapham Junction is low. Clap- 
 ham Park, however, is as awkward a neighbourhood 
 to reach as can be found in the whole of London, and 
 a highly inconvenient place of residence for anybody 
 who doesn't keep a motor car or a carriage. Sir 
 Percival disapproved of motor cars and carriages for 
 those blessed with health. On fine mornings, he 
 walked briskly to the station of the City and South 
 London Railway ; on wet mornings, the livery stables 
 supplied a cab. As to Lady Keith's convenience, " I 
 am grateful to say that my dear wife is vigorous," he 
 would explain piously, " and the Lord gave her legs." 
 Keith overtook the vigorous lady trudging resignedly 
 along the miles which have recently been re-christened 
 " King's Avenue." She had been buying " serviceable 
 things " in Brixton. 
 
 " Well, I never ! " she murmured. "I'm just going 
 in. Your uncle ought to be back by now — I made him 
 promise to come home early to-day, he's been poorly 
 of late. Nothing serious ; he's been suffering with a 
 touch of rheumatic neuralgia. We were afraid it was 
 his heart, but the doctor says it all comes from the same 
 thing. Such a relief to us all ! The damp has been 
 so trying, it's pulled him down terribly." After 
 an appreciable pause, she added, " And how are 
 you ? "
 
 76 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " I'm all right, thanks," he said. " I've been away 
 — in America." 
 
 " Really ? Still painting, Richard ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Keith drily, " I'm still painting." 
 
 " Your uncle often speaks of you," she announced. 
 
 He tried to look flattered. The lady sighed. " And 
 what are you painting ? " she asked, in the tone in which 
 she might have said, " And what are you going to be 
 when you grow up, my little man ? " 
 
 They had reached the gate, and the gardener in- 
 formed them that Sir Percival had returned. They 
 found him in the drawing-room, reading the evening 
 papers. 
 
 " What, Richard ? This is indeed an unexpected 
 honour ! " he exclaimed, with ponderous pleasantry. 
 
 " How are you, sir ? I'm sorry to hear you have 
 been seedy." 
 
 The knight related his symptoms. " Where do you 
 spring from ? " he inquired at last. 
 
 " He teUs me he has been to America," said Lady 
 Keith. " You might touch the bell, Richard ; I'm 
 dying for a cup o' tea." 
 
 " America ? Have you ? A strange country ! " He 
 shook his head heavily, " A very strange country ! " 
 
 " A very wonderful country, sir." 
 
 "Wonderful? Well — y-e-s, yes, I suppose it may 
 even be called ' wonderful.' Scarcely the word I
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH ^^ 
 
 should apply, though, I think, 'Wonderful"' suggests 
 to the mind something worthy of admiration. ' Won- 
 derful ' However ! Help yourself to a cigarette." 
 
 He was smoking a cigar. " What were you doing 
 there ? " 
 
 " I went over to paint a portrait of a Society woman, 
 Mrs. Waldehast. I don't know if you've heard of her?" 
 
 " I think I have heard the name," said Sir Percival. 
 " A profitable commission ? " 
 
 " Very." 
 
 " Good ! I should like to see you have more encour- 
 agement. I'm afraid, though, that pictures " He 
 
 shook his head again. " Well, well, we mustn't cry 
 over spilt milk ! Waldehast ? Wall Street, I think ? " 
 
 " I really don't know," said Keith. " They're very 
 well off, they entertain a great deal. . . . Mrs. Walde- 
 hast is very intimate with Miss Lynch." 
 
 " Lynch's daughter ? " exclaimed his aunt. " I 
 didn't know he had one. Did you see him too ? " 
 
 " Lynch ! " put in Sir Percival sapiently. " The 
 true embodiment of the American spirit ! " 
 
 " Surely, sir ? The outcry against him in America 
 
 is a thousand times stronger than it is here." 
 
 ' ' My dear Richard ' ' — his emphasis was touchy — * ' the 
 Americans who cry out would all act in exactly the 
 same way if they had the power. Commercial integrity 
 is unknown in America — perfectly unknown ! You
 
 78 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 have just given us an instance ; you speak of Society 
 people who are ' very intimate ' with him. Do you 
 imagine that EngHsh people in a similar position would 
 be intimate with a — a notorious scoundrel, a man who 
 has defied the laws of his country, who would be in 
 prison if justice were administered there as fearlessly 
 as it is with Us ? He is — he is However ! " 
 
 " I am not defending Lynch ; I only say that he is 
 not typical." 
 
 " I can tell you of one incident in the career of these 
 Society people's intimate acquaintance," went on Sir 
 Percival, addressing his wife, for the benefit of his 
 nephew. " The Trust had arranged a ' deal ' in B 
 stock, and Lynch ruined a medical man, with whom he 
 was on most cordial terms, by deliberately giving to 
 him, amongst others, the false tip. He advised the 
 man to buy as much B stock as he could, and to buy 
 before noon the next day, or he would have to pay 
 twenty dollars more ; the tip was ' confidential ' ! Of 
 course Lynch counted upon his telling just one friend, 
 and upon the friend telling another, and so forth. The 
 quotation opened firm the next day, nearly every 
 broker seemed to have orders to buy B stock ; but before 
 twelve o'clock it was known that the Trust had been a 
 continuous seller, and was still forcing sales. It was 
 supposed that something was wrong. There was a 
 panic. Every buyer in the morning was a seller at
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 79 
 
 best in the afternoon. The Trust had sold half a 
 million stock by twelve o'clock, and had bought it back 
 before evening at an average of ten points less. In 
 other words, the Trust netted five million dollars, and 
 hundreds of people were ruined in a day to pay for it. 
 Lynch's lie cost the medical man the savings of a life- 
 time, and he was found dead in his consulting room. 
 When someone reproached Lynch for it, he sneered. 
 ' What of it ? In business, everybody for himself ! ' 
 he said." 
 
 The lady signified her horror, and passed the buttered 
 buns, Keith decided not to announce his engagement 
 this afternoon, the conversation had started on unfor- 
 tunate lines; he must make an excuse at the hotel. 
 But when he rose to leave, they would not hear of his 
 going, he was pressed to remain and dine. After all, 
 it would be better to get the announcement over before 
 he went — if he were to stay, there would be three or 
 four hours before him ! He sat down again, and his 
 aunt displayed with reverent hands a stole that she 
 was embroidering for Stanley. She was sorry that 
 Keith hadn't come on the morrow instead, when 
 Stanley was expected. Sir Percival hospitably inter- 
 posed, " However ! " 
 
 It was a dismal household. The two elder boys had 
 married hurriedly, and now that they had escaped, it 
 was duller still. Keith scarcely knew them, but he sat
 
 8o THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 regretting that they were not there. Dinner came 
 when fortitude was at its last inch. 
 
 The adjournment was made in silence. A gloomy 
 parlourmaid stood at attention by the sideboard. Sir 
 Percival, erect, muttered in a deep bass, which had in 
 it something peremptory, " O Lord, relieve the wants 
 of others, and give us grateful hearts." And, having 
 shifted the responsibiUty, tucked in. 
 
 He liked a good port — his prejudices against things 
 Continental stopped short at vineyards — and it was 
 when the port was reached that Keith plucked up 
 courage to impart his news. 
 
 " By the way," he began, " I have something to tell 
 you both : I'm going to be married." 
 
 " Married ? " faltered Lady Keith. Her husband 
 stared. 
 
 " Er — we must congratulate you," he said. 
 
 " Thanks very much. I hope — I should like her to 
 meet you." 
 
 " Oh yes, you must bring the lady to see us one 
 day. Your aunt will be Eh, Emily ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, I'm sure," she said vaguely. 
 
 " An engagement of long duration ? " 
 
 " No, it's very recent. I met her when I was in 
 New York." 
 
 " An American lady ? " He was raising his glass, 
 and it paused midway.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 8i 
 
 " Yes. As a matter of fact, she's the daughter 
 of the man we were speaking about — Lynch. I need 
 hardly say she takes a very different view of things 
 
 from her father. She Nobody could fail to 
 
 admire her in every respect ! She " 
 
 " You're engaged to Lynch's daughter ? " Sir 
 Percival gasped. His mouth remained ajar. He set 
 his wine back on the table, untasted. After a second 
 or two he ejaculated, with mingled awe and incredulity, 
 " You ? " 
 
 " Lynch ? " quavered his wife. " The richest man 
 in the world ? " 
 
 " One of the richest. Of course she doesn't take 
 any money from him now, or later. I stipulated 
 for that. I think, sir " — he threw back his head 
 proudly — "I think very few girls, American or 
 English, could do a greater thing than she is 
 doing ? She won't touch a shilling of his money ; 
 she is content to live on what I can make for 
 her." 
 
 Sir Percival could be heard breathing. " You 
 have stipulated that she shall take no money from 
 him ? " he stuttered. 
 
 " Naturally." 
 
 " Richard ! " cried his aunt. " Why, he could 
 
 give her millions ! " 
 
 " I suppose he could." He was beginning to feel 
 6
 
 82 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 astonished. " Shameful millions ! The amount doesn't 
 affect the question." 
 
 " My — my dear Richard ! " said Sir Percival 
 stertorously. " you astound me ! You are engaged 
 to Lynch's daughter — and you oppose his making a 
 settlement on her, you oppose his taking a course 
 that is only fit and proper ? It's inconceivable ! 
 What — what possible justification have you for such 
 a — such an act of madness ? " 
 
 Dumfounded, Keith looked from the gentleman to 
 the lady. She met him with, " I must say I think 
 you're flying in the face of Providence ! " Her eyes 
 were aghast. 
 
 " Your view is intemperate," continued Sir Percival, 
 in a suaver and judicial tone. " Let us be just ! 
 Above all things, my dear boy, let us be just ! The 
 lady is his child ; it is no more than right that on her 
 marriage with one less richly blessed with worldly 
 possessions her father should provide for her main- 
 tenance in the style she is accustomed to. It is his 
 duty. You do not — if you will allow me to point it 
 out to you — you do not influence him to fulfil the 
 many duties that he neglects already by resisting his 
 fulfilment of one more ! You are marrying her, I 
 take it, from motives of — er — esteem, and so forth ; 
 your sentiments cannot be in any way impugned by 
 your participating in her financial advantages. It
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 83 
 
 devolves upon you to do so. My own sense of honour " 
 — he said it in large capitals — " is, I think, sufficiently 
 well known for my assurance on the matter to have 
 some weight." 
 
 Keith felt very young, and was very contemptuous 
 of himself for being disconcerted. Momentarily he 
 was bending over a ledger again, nervous at the sound 
 of his stately uncle's footstep in the outer office. 
 
 " Do you consider that Lynch's money has been 
 fairly made ? " he asked. " The whole thing resolves 
 itself into that." 
 
 It was the other's turn to be disconcerted. His 
 denunciation of Lynch was awkwardly recent. He 
 sighed. " This takes me back — I recognise your 
 mother ! " he murmured. " How I warned her against 
 those wretched shares ! You remember, Emily ? 
 She also was However ! " 
 
 Keith squared his jaw. Was he to assert himself 
 only to poor little Betty ? 
 
 " I'm afraid we're wandering from the point. The 
 point is that I — in common with the rest of the world 
 — regard Lynch's millions as damned " 
 
 " Hush ! " The knight's white hand expostulated. 
 
 " I beg Aunt Emily's pardon — and yours, if I have 
 shocked you. We say that a fortune which has been 
 acquired by wholesale trickery and oppression is an 
 infamous fortune, that one man has no right to use
 
 84 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 his abnormal wealth to crush a poorer multitude out 
 of existence. In half the States of America he has 
 ground men to their death, and forced women and 
 girls to worse than death " 
 
 " Really, I must remonstrate ! Such allusions are 
 unseemly." His nostrils exhaled virtue. The lady 
 pursed her mouth ; if she had worn a fringe, her eye- 
 brows would have disappeared altogether. 
 
 " And we hold him accursed for it ! " concluded 
 Keith doggedly. " If we admit we were mistaken 
 in thinking such methods evil, then he is owed a 
 world-wide apology; but while we continue to think 
 what we do of them, the man who was willing 
 to profit by the methods would be as culpable as 
 Lynch ! " 
 
 Sir Percival tapped the table, musing. He rose, 
 and forced a smile. 
 
 " Always headstrong, Richard ! " he said, with 
 affectionate regret ; " always self-willed ! " 
 
 The drawing-room was more oppressive than before, 
 and the visitor said " good-night " as early as he 
 could. Lady Keith, who had resumed her reverential 
 stitches for the clergyman, repeated her counsel 
 against " flying in the face of Providence " as she 
 turned a cheek to be saluted. The knight mag- 
 nanimously asked for " Miss Lynch's address, that 
 we may call upon our future niece."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 85 
 
 They called, and toadied her. 
 
 This was Keith's first experience of the advice that 
 people had to give him. 
 
 His second was with Tomlinson. Tomlinson shared 
 a studio in the same block, and had chanced to be 
 presented to Betty and Mrs. Waldehast one day when 
 they came. He was an elderly little failure, with an 
 unobservant manner and acute observation — for 
 everything except landscape, which he painted. 
 Apparently he had been unconscious that the ladies 
 were worth looking at, but the next time he met 
 Keith on the stairs he said timidly, " It was a treat 
 to see those friends of yours. They're the kind that 
 glide and sink." 
 
 " That do what ? " 
 
 " They move and sit down properly — the right 
 sort of women glide and sink ; the others bounce 
 and bump. I should like to see them again." 
 
 " I daresay you will," said Keith. " Come inside 
 and have a drink." 
 
 Tomlinson crept in, with his hands in his trouser- 
 pockets and his pipe between his teeth. With early 
 training, he might have been a successful journalist, 
 or perhaps a detective ; an enthusiasm for art had 
 condemned him to cheerfulness upon a pittance, 
 and other men's whisky. But for a relative some- 
 where, he would have starved.
 
 86 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Done anything with the studies you brought 
 back from America yet ? " he inquired. 
 
 " No, I haven't been working, I'm not in the vein. 
 Are you busy ? " 
 
 TomHnson nodded absently. He had been busy 
 making the round with a couple of sketches and 
 faihng to sell them. His feet ached. Presently he 
 would put the canvases back on the easel and devoutly 
 admire them. Mercifully he did not know that he 
 couldn't paint, and nobody but a dealer would have 
 been brutal enough to say so to his sensitive face. 
 
 " Tomlinson, I'm going to be married." 
 
 Tomlinson smiled pensively. " Well ! " he said, not 
 committing himself. 
 
 " To Miss Lynch, the lady you saw here, I shall 
 be giving this place up as soon as I can. Know 
 anyone who'd like to take it off my hands ? " 
 
 Tomlinson reflected. Not that there was the 
 shghtest prospect of his suggesting a tenant, but it 
 had the air of being " more in the swim" to reflect. 
 " No," he said, " at the moment I can't say I do. 
 When is it to be ? " 
 
 " On the 29th." 
 
 "So soon ! No relation to Lynch, I suppose ? 
 She is an American, I think ? " 
 
 " Yes. She's his daughter." 
 
 " My dear fellow ! " gasped Tomlinson, dropping
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 87 
 
 his pipe. " I say ! I do congratulate you, upon my 
 word. Lynch's daughter ! You aren't joking ? " 
 
 " Oh no, it's right enough." 
 
 " And is he — agreeable ? " 
 
 " Well, I don't exactly know ; it doesn't much 
 matter. I'm marrying her because I'm fond of her, 
 not because her father is a millionaire." 
 
 " Oh, just so, just so ! " said Tomlinson hastily. 
 " Still, a million or two to go on with — what ? 
 ' Giving this place up ' ? " He laughed. " Yes, I 
 suppose you will ! We — we shan't be able to know 
 you soon, eh ? " 
 
 Keith explained, at some length, and Tomlinson 
 listened with dumb attention. Then he chuckled 
 knowingly ; 
 
 " You're pulling my leg ! " he said. 
 
 " I'm perfectly serious. Why should it astonish 
 you ? You know what the Trust is. I think I've 
 heard you rather eloquent on the subject." 
 
 " Oh, as far as that goes All the same, I mean to 
 
 say Well, it's going rather to extremes, isn't it ? " 
 
 " What is ? Not to pocket one's conscience when 
 there's money to be made by it ? " 
 
 " My dear chap ! ' Pocket one's conscience ' ? It 
 isn't a question of anything of the sort. The question 
 is what good do you do ? That's what you've got to 
 look at — what good do you do ? " In view of milli ins
 
 88 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 declined, the gentle, deprecatory little man grew 
 excited, even dogmatic. " Is anybody benefited, 
 does it improve matters in any way ? The Trust 
 goes on whether you're sensible or whether you 
 choose to sacrifice a fortune to a theory. No one 
 will thank you for such a piece of quixotism, no 
 one will have any reason to thank you ! I think 
 I may say my honesty is above the average, but 
 I tell you frankly / should have no scruples." Et 
 cetera. 
 
 Then there was Premlow, whos6 " Shelling the 
 Peas " and " How Does it Suit Me ? " had both been 
 immortalised in Summer Numbers, and framed in so 
 many lodging-houses. Premlow's argument was that 
 one would be more than justified in luxuriating on 
 a scandalous income if one devoted a considerable 
 portion of one's wealth to charities. "A far more 
 practical form of what d'ye call it, my dear boy, 
 than riding the high horse ! " And there was Tracey 
 Wynne, the literary stylist, who ejaculated " Rot ! " 
 And there was the sceptic who was reminded of 
 Carlyle's philosophy when his wife was excruciated 
 with toothache — " It will not be permanent." It was 
 remarkable how the news spread, and with what 
 promptitude many people who had called Lynch's 
 business methods " an outrage on humanity" would 
 have accepted a share of his profits.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 89 
 
 For the honeymoon, Paris had been suggested. 
 Betty had travelled on the Continent much more than 
 Keith, but she had missed, or forgotten, most of the 
 things that he craved to see there. From Rome 
 she had brought only a vague remembrance of the 
 Michael Angelos — " ' The Eternal Separating Light 
 from Darkness ' was one of the frescoes on the ceiling 
 somewhere, wasn't it ? " She had spent a week in 
 Vienna, but was not sure if she had seen Rembrandt's 
 portrait of his mother. In Dresden, the Sistine 
 Madonna had been impressed on her mind chiefly by 
 the fact that it was reproduced on all the postcards 
 in the shop windows. Eager to be a companion, 
 she had told Keith that he must take her to the 
 Louvre and teach her to understand ; he must explain 
 to her why the pictures that he loved best were 
 beautiful. And he had promised, promising himself 
 at the same time not to bore her. Then she decided 
 that she would prefer the country in England — 
 " that would be new to her." She refrained from 
 adding that Paris, visited economically, would also 
 be new to her, and less pleasantly so. They wanted 
 rusticity without discomfort, rural scenes to wander in, 
 and civilised quarters to return to. Finally, an hotel 
 between Tunbridge Wells and the village of Rusthall 
 was chosen. If the weather were kind, the situation 
 would fulfil their requirements perfectly; and if it
 
 90 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 were wayward, they would try the other side of 
 the Channel after all. 
 
 On the evening of the 28th, Betty opened a door and 
 saw her maid packing for her. The wardrobe that was 
 to serve as her trousseau was not particularly extensive, 
 nor was there any valuable lace among it — she had 
 always elected to dress with comparative simplicity, 
 and seldom paid more than thirty or forty guineas for 
 a frock. Having sailed in May, and expecting to be 
 absent only for a month, she had brought scarcely any 
 of her furs, overlooking the fact that she was bound for 
 a country where the winter often began in September 
 and continued into June. The only precious thing 
 among her belongings here was her rope of pearls, and 
 that was worth so great a sum that she felt she would 
 be inconsistent to keep it ; she meant to give it to 
 Dardy Waldehast — she had it in her hands as she 
 watched the maid kneeling before a trunk. The woman 
 was going back to New York at the end of the week, 
 and the thought came to Betty, as she paused 
 there, that she was watching a maid pack for the last 
 time. The task looked more than ever odious. 
 She was about to part with her pearls cheerfully, 
 but it dismayed her to reflect that henceforward 
 she would have to submit herself to the turmoil 
 of packing. However, she would not dwell on the 
 point.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 91 
 
 " I want you to have this, Dardy," she said pre- 
 sently ; " I shan't put it in." 
 
 " What on earth ? " said the other. 
 
 " I don't think it would be fair ; I promised empty 
 pockets — it wouldn't be playing the game to go to 
 him with a property round my neck." 
 
 " I never heard anything to equal you ! It's too 
 beautiful to last. Anyhow, I can't take a gift like that 
 from you. If you're anxious to get rid of it, you had 
 better send it back to your father." 
 
 " What do you propose that my father should do 
 with it — wear it in his hair ? I want you to take it, 
 Dardy ; you will oblige me." 
 
 Mrs. Waldehast shrugged her shoulders : " I'll take 
 it, but I shall give it to him when I arrive. You're a 
 regular simpleton to let it go." 
 
 But Betty did not feel a simpleton, she felt very 
 happy — and very brave. The prospect of the packing 
 was forgotten — it was the eve of her wedding day. 
 " I'd think you a nobler woman," he had said. And she 
 was being nobler ! She triumphed in the consciousness. 
 Oh, she would always live up to his ideal — no doubt 
 one could get used to anything. Besides, — she hated to 
 hear Dardy suggest it, and she never harboured the 
 thought, but she couldn't help its encouraging flight 
 across her reverie in moments, — it was just possible that 
 later on he might change his mind 1 Not that she would
 
 92 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 ever ask him to do such a thing — she was thoroughly 
 sincere ! 
 
 She felt very happy — and very brave. There would 
 be none of the pageantry that she had always pictured 
 for her wedding day — no strings of carriages, no train- 
 bearers and bridesmaids, no dazzle of presents at a 
 reception, no motor car to take her away. But she 
 was marrying the m^ she loved. And after she had 
 kissed her friend " good-night," she knelt, and pleaded, 
 " Help me to be as good as I mean to be ! And if I do 
 find it a little rough sometimes, God, pray don't let 
 Dick guess ! "
 
 VII 
 
 " Loveliest ! " 
 
 " Mmps ? " 
 
 " What shall we do this afternoon ? " 
 
 " It's time you did some real work, lazy-bones. 
 Come out and paint the Happy Valley." 
 
 " I can't paint out of doors this afternoon, the changes 
 are so rapid when it's sunny. Let me do another 
 sketch of you — I haven't painted your dimple yet." 
 
 " It makes one awful conceited to marry an artist — 
 there'll be enough portraits of me soon to fill a gallery. 
 Where shall I sit, Master ? " 
 
 " Here, Most Unique ! " 
 
 Then she would sit in his chair, and stroke his hair 
 the wrong way again, and be tender, or wayward, but 
 always the most wonderful thing that ever wore 
 hairpins and was miscalled " mortal." He had told 
 her on the third day that there were twelve of her, and 
 that he never knew which " Betty " he was to see next. 
 She said she wouldn't allow him to be nice to the " other 
 eleven," but he found it entrancing. He was the 
 
 93
 
 94 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 playmate of a child, and the disciple of a woman ; he 
 was teased by a coquette, and captured her to clasp a 
 wife. 
 
 Aflame, he painted her in a white dinner gown, and 
 in a rose peignoir ; he painted her coiling her hair before 
 the mirror. He painted her with that chin of hers 
 scorning him, and called the sketch, " Mr. Keith, You 
 will please Take Me Back to the Room." " Oh, the 
 disdain of the dearest ! " he cried, and showered kisses 
 on her, rejoicing. 
 
 Also he was the lady's maid of a girl who didn't i'now 
 how to fasten her frocks — and who found it perplexing 
 that her hat, and her gloves, and her sunshade failed to 
 come to her of their own accord. 
 
 The white dinner-gown had been especially madden- 
 ing. It became her so well, and she had wanted to 
 surprise him in it one evening ; she sent him away long 
 before the first gong was beaten, so that she might have 
 plenty of time. It wasn't until she had done her hair, 
 and was approving it in the glass, that she remembered 
 that the bodice fastened down the back. 
 
 She rang for help from the chambermaid, but the 
 woman's fingers seemed to be all thumbs, and at last, 
 when she uttered a triumphant " There ! " after twenty 
 exhausting minutes, it was perceived that she had 
 strained all the hooks into the wrong loops. A tantrum 
 sent her flying to her washhand-stands.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 95 
 
 And the second gong had sounded a long while ago. 
 
 It dashed the bride's pretty intentions to the ground 
 that Keith knocked at the door, and was admitted, look- 
 ing very nice and composed, while she sat deserted 
 on the edge of the ottoman, hot and despairing. 
 
 " Oh, Dick," she exclaimed tearfully, "I'm such a 
 fraud ! " 
 
 " What's the matter ? " 
 
 " I can't fasten this loathsome dress down the back. 
 That Annie's a born fool ! Go and have your dinner, 
 darling — don't wait for me ! " 
 
 " My poor little kiddymalinks ! Let me try if / can 
 button it." 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " I might," he urged ; " I'd be better than Annie." 
 
 " I was laughing at the ' button ' — they aren't 
 buttons, savage, they're little hooks and loops. Well, 
 go on then, try — if you don't want anything to eat." 
 
 It was ^superhuman task. The hidden hooks began 
 on the right-hand side, and, when he was getting in the 
 way of discovering them there, dodged on to the left. 
 The evasive loops were even more infuriating ; it de- 
 manded genius to decide, without fatal experiment, 
 which was the loop and which was the pattern of the 
 lace. Yet his perseverance was likewise superhuman. 
 And wasn't it Olympian to be fastening her bodice ? 
 Although their dinner when they got it had lost the
 
 96 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 bloom of its first youth, they were joyous — and 
 deserved their champagne. 
 
 They had no fault to find with their Eden. In their 
 indolent moods they sauntered, or sat, under the great 
 trees of the grounds. If the thought of shops tempted, 
 they strolled across the common to the Pantiles, where 
 the airs from a modern bandstand did not drown the 
 rustle of a stately past. They bought the print of by- 
 gone belles and gallants, or book-markers and brushes 
 of the native ware. One evening they witnessed 
 "Dick Turpin's Ride to York" in a tent, and when 
 Tom King, the Gentleman Highwayman, cried, " We 
 are pursood ! 'Ark, I 'ear the sound of 'orses' 'ooves ! " 
 Betty was in raptures with the performance. 
 
 Oftenest they turned to the right, past the little post 
 office next door to the hotel, where they sent their 
 telegram to Mrs. Waldehast before she sailed. Then 
 they wandered into Rusthall. Village children who 
 had never smelt the sea ran perilously on the rocks that 
 it had left behind, but after the sand-castles and the 
 children, all was grass and silence, excepting for the birds. 
 
 Betty Hked Rusthall better than " The Wells." She 
 liked the sight of the little ivy-clad church on the 
 edge of the Happy Valley ; and there was the nook 
 that she had found, perched above the sweep of wood- 
 land. She said that they " must often come back 
 there when they grew up."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 97 
 
 " It's just the kind of church I meant ! " she 
 explained once. 
 
 " But we couldn't be more content ! " said Keith. It 
 was the day that he had painted her contemptuous, and 
 the marvel of their marriage was full upon him. The 
 nook was newly magical this afternoon. " To think 
 how nearly I lost you ! To think that I might have been 
 in the studio now " 
 
 " Being industrious ! " 
 
 " Eating my heart out ! I wonder if you'd have been 
 remembering me? I wonder what you'd have been 
 doing now if we hadn't married ? " 
 
 " What time is it in New York ? " 
 
 He looked at his watch : " It's still morning — about 
 twelve." 
 
 " Isn't that funny ! Perhaps I'd have been in bed 
 and asleep, if I had been out late last night." 
 
 " Then you wouldn't have been thinking of me at all. 
 WliUe / was " 
 
 " Stamping up and down the studio and calling 
 for Miss Lynch ! Well, I might have been dreaming 
 about you, you know. Or perhaps I'd have given 
 a thought to you when they brought in my coffee." 
 
 " Had you a wonderful room, Betty ? " 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 " Tell me what it was like." 
 
 " What do you want to know for ? " 
 7
 
 I 
 98 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " How I wish I could give you a room like it ! " 
 
 " Goose 1 Do you think I care ? " 
 
 " Don't you ? " 
 
 " Do I ? " she whispered. 
 
 Their eyes dwelt together, and he grasped her hand. 
 
 Rain clouds had sombred the sky, and the land- 
 scape was purpling. Far afield little curls of smoke 
 wreathed bluely in the haze — the smoke of homes. 
 
 ** I'm afraid there's a storm brewing I " 
 
 But the power of the church survived. She loitered 
 before the gate, as she always did. 
 
 " We'll come here on Sunday morning if you like ? " 
 he said. 
 
 " I'd hke to peep in now," she told him, and he 
 followed her inside. 
 
 It was very quiet and dim there. They waited for 
 a moment by the door, looking towards the east 
 window. 
 
 " It's just the kind of church I meant," she re- 
 peated under her breath. 
 
 He answered with a touch upon her arm, and they 
 crept across the tiled floor together, and paused at 
 the foot of the chancel steps. 
 
 She murmured, ** It's just here we should have 
 stood." 
 
 The man's touch slid from her arm to her hand, 
 and the hand welcomed it. Then, as they moved
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 99 
 
 away, she dropped behind him. When he looked 
 round she was but half-way down the aisle, musing 
 again. 
 
 Her fingers greeted his return, but her gaze still 
 brooded on the window. Presently she faltered, 
 " Dickie, I want to 'fess I I wasn't surprised that 
 day." 
 
 "■' When ? " 
 
 " On the boat. I told her to tell you I was going, 
 Dickie ; I meant to make you give in ! ... I feel so 
 smaU ! "
 
 VIII 
 
 The accommodation at the studio was much too 
 primitive for them to live there even for a few weeks, 
 so on their return to town they stayed at another 
 hotel, and were provided with a fresh list of disappoint- 
 ments by a house agent every day. It was not 
 such a spacious hotel as the one that they had left, 
 nor was it quite so opulent. The other women's 
 appraising gaze at Betty was not always due to the 
 fact that the newspapers had made her marriage 
 famous ; every woman there did not recognise her 
 name, but every startled pair of feminine eyes recog- 
 nised the hang of her skirt. Despjite the hooks and 
 loops, Keith had privately resolved that if he could 
 help it she should never dress more cheaply — the 
 man no longer exists who sees a girl perfectly gowned 
 and, " duped by the subtile simplicity," thinks that 
 her clothes cost ten pounds a year. His ghost still 
 haunts fiction, but the man is in his proper place. 
 
 After various expeditions to Chelsea, where every- 
 thing was either too dear or too nasty, they decided
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH loi 
 
 upon a semi-detached house in St. John's Wood. 
 The street, unspoilt by the railway, was called Sibella 
 Road, and the house was called something grand- 
 iloquent. However, there was the simple remedy of 
 reducing it to a number. A small cheque improved 
 the landlord's taste in wall-papers, and it remained 
 for Mr. and Mrs. Keith to furnish the villa more 
 completely than with a gramophone and a Nankin jar. 
 
 " Nothing happens but the unforeseen " — a proverb 
 that has more truth than most of its companions. 
 When Keith had vaguely imagined himself enlisting 
 among the Benedicts, he had had visions of wanderings 
 and hunts, of delightful " finds " and precious " bits " ; 
 to go to a firm and order en bloc had seemed to him 
 a frenzy of Philistinism ; yet this was just what he 
 and Betty did, for they were eager to be settled as 
 soon as possible. 
 
 There was an establishment in the West End which 
 undertook to equip anything from a cottage to a 
 mansion, and to show in advance precisely what effect 
 the customer would obtain for his money. The report 
 ran that it was merely necessary to state the sum 
 that one meant to spend, and, with the celerity of 
 Aladdin's Lamp, Commercial Enterprise displayed 
 one's future dwelling. Keith meant to spend much 
 more than he could afford — he had felt that to be 
 reasonable in the preparation of Betty's home would
 
 102 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 be an act of barbarity. The painter's profession 
 makes erratic accountants ; the artist who, by a lucky 
 chance, sells a month's work for a hundred guineas 
 is liable to say, " That means nearly thirteen hundred 
 a year," and to live up to it till the writs come in. 
 Three hundred pounds Keith meant to spend, and 
 Betty — to whom it was something in the nature of 
 a revelation that this didn't imply an absence of 
 carpets — protested valiantly that it was " too much." 
 They took a hansom to the establishment. 
 
 The amount sounded less important to him when 
 he mentioned it amid the splendours of the show- 
 room, but the gentleman who received them heard 
 it with respectful interest, and accompanied them 
 part of their way. Their future residence, they learnt, 
 was upstairs ; a lift would bear them to its door. 
 
 The door stood hospitably ajar ; there was no need 
 for them to try whether the antique bell-pull would 
 pull a bell. They entered, smiling, and stole through 
 the tiny hall. Beyond the mimic casements they had 
 glimpses of a canvas garden. No maid was manifest, 
 but their abode stood ready for their coming. Flowers 
 gave them welcome from a table ; books invited from 
 a Sheraton recess beside the hearth. 
 
 They discovered the Best Bedroom. He saw her 
 open with her own hands the wardrobe where she was 
 to hang her sacred things. On the dummy window
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 103 
 
 the morning sun shone bright, and he pictured it shining 
 on her face between those draperies when she woke. 
 Growing bold in domesticity, they chose their pet 
 corners in the drawing-room. " Could you be satisfied 
 here, darling ? " he whispered ; and she nodded surely. 
 " You shall have that chair, Dickie, and this one shall 
 be mine." She sat. " It's good to be at home, my 
 husband ! " she laughed. And in the cardboard house 
 he bent and kissed her. 
 
 They viewed the room where they would sup, where 
 champagne should celebrate the triumph of a picture, 
 and where the queen, in the rose peignoir, should be 
 pampered when tired. And then, just as they were 
 remembering that there were preliminaries to be per- 
 formed, there appeared on the enchanted scene a 
 young and winning hostess. 
 
 Under the lady's graceful guidance they inspected 
 more practically. She hinted that the " leaded panes " 
 which gave on to the painted garden would be " ex- 
 tras " if imitated in Sibella Road. There were one or 
 two such trifling disillusions. For instance, Keith 
 had taken a fancy to the antique brass fire-irons and 
 electric fittings in the room, and those were not in- 
 cluded in the three hundred pounds either. But the 
 charming hostess reminded him that there were prob- 
 ably some other articles here that he would not need 
 at all, and if that were so, the antique brass could be
 
 104 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 had instead. She seemed to take as kind an interest 
 in the happy pair as if she had made up the match, 
 and Betty said afterwards that, dainty as the House 
 on the Landing was, its young hostess was the most 
 dehghtful thing that it contained. 
 
 It was much simpler to furnish than to find two 
 servants. The capital cook and accomplished house- 
 parlour-maid who advertised for employment at such 
 moderate wages had always taken a situation on the day 
 that Betty wrote to the address that was given. And 
 the address always proved to be a registry office, where a 
 booking fee failed to disclose any domestic comparable 
 with the treasures that had simultaneously vanished. 
 But even two servants were obtained at last, and the 
 evening came when the love scene in the cardboard 
 house was re-enacted in Sibella Road. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Keith were at home. 
 
 It was beautiful, next morning, to send him upstairs 
 to the studio after breakfast and kiss him for luck. 
 He had told her that he expected her to come in there 
 as often as she liked, but she was much too clever to 
 have the illusion that frequent visits would make for 
 progress, and she intended that his work-hours should 
 be respected. After she had sat by the window, 
 glancing at the newspaper — which was so stingy with 
 its news of America — it occurred to her to put a few 
 touches to the little drawing-room. Its aspect would
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 105 
 
 be improved by some more cushions and flowers, and 
 the piano needed draping. To buy some of the things 
 before Keith came down would pass the time ! She 
 wondered if there were any good shops close by, and 
 rang on impulse for her hat and shoes. 
 
 It disconcerted her that the ring evoked a frowsy 
 and forbidding cook, who said shortly, " Good-mornin', 
 ma'am. Shall I take the borders ? " 
 
 Betty caught her breath. To her the comic element 
 of the surprise was lacking. The moment was no less 
 grave to the girl than to the man confronting his work 
 overhead. She knew that it was a crisis ; that, under- 
 lying the petty shock, was the test of her fitness to be 
 his wife — and her hopeless inexperience frightened 
 her. But it was Lynch's daughter who, on the brink 
 of disaster, answered, " Yes, please, cook, I have got 
 to see you now." And it was said very well ; so far 
 the cook hadn't found her out. 
 
 " Wliat about lunch and dinner 'm ? " 
 
 Excepting in a restaurant, she had never ordered 
 a meal in her life. 
 
 " We don't want anything elaborate," she said ; 
 " we live very simply." 
 
 "Yes'm." 
 
 " We shall want some hors-d'oeuvres, and a little 
 consomme, and — and some supreme de sole " 
 
 " Some what of sole ? " asked the woman, bridling.
 
 io6 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH '' 
 
 " WTiat might it all be in Henglish 'm ? I was given 
 to understand as it was plain cooking you required," 
 
 " Yes," murmured Betty. " Give us a little ca\-iare, 
 or a few anchovies, and some soup. And we shall want 
 some fish, and so on." 
 
 " How much ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't wish for any waste — say, one portion 
 between two," said Betty laudably, and realised that 
 she had blundered by the stare. 
 
 Here was meanness ! And \nth a dress Hke that on 
 her back ! " One portion between the two ? " stam- 
 mered the cook, agape. 
 
 " Well, you get what you think right." It was dis- 
 tressingly new to her to be timid of a servant. 
 
 " You'll leave the quantities to me, ma'am ? " 
 She smirked. Not meanness after all — only idiocy ! 
 She viewed her harvest. " And will you want a 
 joint ? " 
 
 ** No. We might have a few sweetbreads, and a 
 httle poultr}', and — well, yes, I suppose Mr. Keith 
 would hke some meat. Lamb ! " 
 
 The har\'est demanded labour ; the smirk sub- 
 sided. " And — er — vegetables ? " 
 
 " Why, yes," said Betty, " of course ! " 
 
 " I meant, what are they to be 'ra ? " 
 
 She sighed. " Well, green peas and beans," she 
 said.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 107 
 
 " Both of 'em ? " 
 
 " Well, one or the other. 
 
 c< 
 
 No potatoes 'm ? " 
 
 Oh, of course I want potatoes," gasped Betty; 
 *' do you think I dine without potatoes ? " 
 
 The woman snified. " What about sweets ? '* she 
 asked, with umbrage. 
 
 '* You can make us a macedoine." 
 
 '* A what ? " The tone was grim. 
 
 " What do you suggest ? " inquired the mistress 
 feebly. 
 
 " Would you like a nice rice pudden, or a happle 
 pie ? " 
 
 " I think we will have meringues." 
 
 " Meringues ? Of course, then, you'll border 'em 
 when you go bout ? Hi couldn't hundertake 'em." 
 
 " You will send your fellow-servant. And you will 
 send up some strawberries and pears, please." 
 
 " There's no pears ' in.' " 
 
 *' I don't require them till the evening ; there is 
 plenty of time for them to be in before dinner." 
 
 " They ain't ' in,' " explained the woman curtly, 
 " ain't in season." 
 
 Were there seasons to be considered ? Were there 
 such servants to be endured ? Nothing comic for the 
 girl, indeed ! It was painful, piteous — worse, im- 
 measurably worse, than the studio on one of the days
 
 io8 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 when the hand was but a brush-holder and refused 
 to " speak." 
 
 And there was luncheon to be arranged ; and the 
 knowledge that, with the morrow, the duty would 
 recur. She had no wish to go and buy flowers when 
 the door closed behind a complaint about the kitchen 
 range. 
 
 She sat back, and looked at the room with other 
 eyes. Beyond it she saw the palace in Fifth Avenue, 
 and the mansion that was called a " cottage " in 
 Newport. For the first time she paid a tribute to 
 the silence of their domestic machinery. Now that 
 she came to think about it, it was surprising how 
 everything had arranged itself ! 
 
 In the early afternoon, a headlong rush of rattling 
 traffic, followed by the clatter and crash of cans, 
 shook her from her chair, dismayed. She found 
 that small quantities of milk, from various dairies, 
 were being taken to some of the doors. The violence 
 raged from two o'clock till three, and she wondered 
 at the strange land where a pennyworth of milk was 
 delivered with the frenzy of a revolution. 
 
 Later, she and Keith went for a walk. St. John's 
 Wood did not prove to be a very exhilarating quarter, 
 and the sad Wellington Road offered few attractions 
 as a promenade. She felt no enthusiasm when he 
 mentioned that they might drop in to Lord's and
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 109 
 
 watch the cricket sometimes. Though he had trembled 
 lest the rooms were not large enough for her, or the 
 furniture was not good enough, his misgivings hadn't 
 comprised the thought that she might be dejected 
 by the housekeeping, and he attributed her depression 
 to the hours that she had passed alone. He suggested 
 that she should subscribe to Mudie's on the morrow, 
 and reminded her that he knew one or two men in the 
 neighbourhood whose wives would be glad of her 
 friendship. 
 
 On their return, she changed her frock, and Keith, 
 who had not guessed that she was going to do so, 
 looked rather slovenly beside her smartness when he 
 hooked it. But it was too late to repair his omission now. 
 
 The evening meal was indifferently cooked, and it 
 was abominably served. The maid, who had been 
 merely awkward during the brief luncheon, lost her 
 wits among the unaccustomed courses of dinner. The 
 wife had entered wistful for a few words of praise, 
 but soon she yearned only for the ordeal to conclude. 
 
 The salt had not been smoothed. Bread, in the 
 monstrosity of a " cottage loaf," had been set at a 
 corner of the table, and, in the process of cutting it, 
 there were shot across the cloth enough crumbs for a 
 chicken-run. A spot from the luncheon's gravy 
 proclaimed that the cloth had done previous service; 
 her serviette was tumbled.
 
 no THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " I thought they would know enough to put on 
 others," she exclaimed penitently. 
 
 " These are quite clean, aren't they ? " he said, 
 surprised. 
 
 She kept her eyes down: " Well, yes," she faltered, 
 " I suppose they'll do." She wouldn't let him see it, 
 but it startled her to learn that he didn't expect fresh 
 napery at every meal. 
 
 There were intervals that threatened to be endless, 
 followed by cascades of cutlery, as the flustered servant, 
 in her creaking boots, bustled back with the knives and 
 forks that had been forgotten. She popped the vege- 
 table dishes in front of Betty, and when she was 
 instructed to hand them, breathed heavily on the wrong 
 side. 
 
 " It's an awful change for you, dear," said 
 Keith, during one of the excited colloquies in the 
 kitchen. 
 
 She struggled for a smile : " Oh, it's nothing ! " 
 But the tension was greater for her than he divined, 
 sorry and shamefaced as he was. She could have 
 dined happily on bread-and-butter in a clean field ; 
 this vulgar racket set her nerves quivering. 
 
 " I expect it's my own fault; I've given them too 
 much to do," she murmured, with dry lips. " Perhaps 
 it would be better if we had just one or two things in 
 future ? "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH iii 
 
 " Well, I don't think we need be quite so extensive, 
 certainly," he agreed. He had been thinking that they 
 could not afford it, and unconsciously the thought was 
 in his voice. 
 
 Misery gripped her throat. She stared dumbly 
 through the open window into the back yard. The 
 toilette that she had made weighed on her — she felt 
 ridiculous to be well dressed. Her husband had sat 
 down in a tweed jacket, the table linen was soiled, the 
 servants were unspeakable, it was all revolting — and 
 he hinted to her that it was extravagance 1 
 
 Years of her life she would have given at that instant 
 to be alone, to be free to scream unheard. Down her 
 arms, to her very finger-tips, hysteria was clamouring 
 in her. 
 
 The relief was physical when she rose at last, but 
 though she hurried to her room, she dared not scream. 
 She clenched her hands and beat them hard against the 
 wall instead. 
 
 She could not stay away long. 
 
 Dusk was gathering when she descended. In the 
 half-light the little drawing-room had a melancholy 
 air. Farther down Sibella Road an ancient toper, 
 with a harp, was quavering — 
 
 * " My mother is with the Hangels now. 
 
 She is waiting for me there 1 " 
 
 The feet of the servant pounded along the passage.
 
 112 THi: HOUSE OF LYN'CH 
 
 The clatlw from, tbe Idle 
 ing. A Iqgiibdoos cfci: : .- 
 
 past ei^^. Sbe lec : : ^ 
 
 two homs to be bom r _ t : . . r : _ r . . ; : 
 
 tbat ^ne was tiled.
 
 IX 
 
 She went to bed faint with the fear of the morrow. 
 Like a shy child av<,2.y ir:::. :.:ine and yearning to be 
 "fetched" — like a pnscner ihe rr?: time that a sentence 
 of years knells on his consciousness — she shrank from 
 the terrors of the hfe before her. Of conrse, the 
 servants were exceptionally bad for the wages that they 
 were receiving ; of course it is not nsnal for even a 
 second-class servant to put a loaf on a dinner-table ; 
 and of course that first fuU day was the most poignant 
 of all. But if her husband had not been dearer to her 
 than the man with whom she fell in love, she would 
 have broken down before a week. Not for a single week 
 could she have stood the =:r?.:r.. \A h .:ever the conse- 
 quences, she must have owt-i:. :.:?:".: ::.: .pable. 
 
 Besides, if he really r.-fv-.f:: j. '.. 'v vsTetched she 
 was, she could nc: d ibt that he would yield and 
 consent to her fat'::er s prov-iding for them. It was 
 not the dread of a refusal that tied her tongue, nor was 
 it the shame of confessing herself a failure — it was her 
 
 reluctance to pain him, to stab him by admitting that 
 
 S
 
 114 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 all his efforts for her happiness were so futile that she 
 could not support the change even for a week. She 
 felt that it would be a cruel thing to do. 
 
 "If he really understood ! " Sometimes she 
 wondered if she could have made him understand, if 
 she could have made anybody understand whom usage 
 had dulled to the life's unrest. He and others would 
 say, " Oh, naturally you don't like being poor ; you miss 
 your big house, and your carriage, and your French 
 cook ! " But it wasn't that the villa was little, though 
 the walls' nearness to one another pent her in moments ; 
 it wasn't that she walked to St. John's Wood Road 
 Station, instead of having carriages and motor cars 
 at her command ; it wasn't that her food was cooked 
 by an incompetent slattern, instead of by a famous 
 chef. It was the vulgarity pertaining to small means 
 that crushed her. " What about the kitchen coal 'm ? " 
 " The butcher hasn't called for orders 'm ! " " We're 
 out of hale 'm, and the shops are shut I " There 
 were women in all the villas of the street ; she 
 saw some of them pass the window. They looked 
 complacent, and she envied them. Did they realise 
 the ceaseless preparation behind their curtains ? Did 
 they know that a house where one was for ever arrang- 
 ing never became a home ? 
 
 Within, there was not, during the day, one hour 
 when she could claim peace and feel safe against
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 115 
 
 intrusion. There was not, during the day, one meal 
 when the sight of the table didn't jar upon her, though 
 she could have eaten the cold beef with contentment. 
 The service, and the bathroom — she had not dreamed 
 till now that it could be nauseous to bathe ! The 
 continuous preparation for what was sickening when 
 it came ! And the doors that banged, banged, banged, 
 until every pulse in her was expectant of the next 
 slam ! 
 
 Several pressing invitations had reached them 
 from Clapham Park, and once they had paid a duty 
 visit, but they had always excused themselves from 
 dining there. Lady Keith had, moreover, called at 
 the villa, and attempted gingerly to condole with 
 Betty on " dear Richard's eccentricities." The girl 
 read her like a tale in words of one syllable, and the 
 lady could only gather, to her consternation, that his 
 wife cordially endorsed his views. 
 
 Returning good for evil, she introduced the subject 
 of housekeeping, and was dismayed to learn that 
 nothing here was locked beyond the servants' maw. 
 What an establishment from A to Z 1 
 
 " Oh, my dear, but you ought to have everything 
 under lock and key I " she sighed. " My cook comes 
 to me at half-past nine every morning with a trayful 
 of cups, and I measure out just what is needed for 
 the next twenty-four hours — so much tea, and so
 
 ii6 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 much sugar, and so much rice, and so forth." She 
 had picked up " so forth " from the knight, " I 
 think it is our duty to keep temptation out of our 
 servants' way, and discourage waste. I look forward 
 to my tray ! " 
 
 " I'd rather be dead," said Betty carelessly. 
 
 It was a shocking sentiment — but the speaker 
 might have revelled in millions ! There was nothing 
 to be gained from her ; even if Richard had apos- 
 tatized, their wealth would have yielded not a sovereign 
 to the coffers of Clapham Park ; yet the mere thought 
 of the millions exalted her to a pinnacle, and " Aunt 
 Emily " had only simpered her dissent. 
 
 The girl had not written to her father or brother 
 since her marriage ; her father's cablegram rankled 
 in her memory, and Howard had not shown enough 
 interest in the matter to wish her happiness. To 
 Mrs. Waldehast, however, she had written gaily 
 hitherto ; now she found it difficult to write, though 
 as a rule even formal correspondence was no effort 
 to her. There had been occasion for Keith to com- 
 municate with the landlord, and Betty, the butterfly, 
 had suggested phrases that sounded as business-like 
 as if they had come out of East India Avenue, Her 
 letter from Sibella Road to her friend was accom- 
 plished only after she had wasted a good deal of the 
 new stationery. Her first attempts had been very
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 117 
 
 much out of tune, and " I am perfectly happy," 
 added as an improvement, seemed only to call attention 
 to the flatness of what came before. She was thankful 
 when she finished at last ; the thought of the mail 
 would be no pleasure to her in future, nor was she 
 sorry that the Waldehasts' intended trip to Europe 
 had been postponed. 
 
 Though she was at pains to affect good spirits 
 when Keith was present, he was distressfully con- 
 scious of a change in her ; and the women whose 
 complacence she envied, envied the woman whose 
 housemaid " was always whistling on the doorstep 
 in the evening for hansoms." He examined the 
 rooms, trying to conjecture what deficiency must 
 mean the greatest hardship to her. Her toilet- 
 service looked very meagre, and he determined to 
 surprise her with a better one. He was surprised 
 himself to learn the prices, but paid ten pounds for 
 little silver pots and bottles, delighted with his in- 
 spiration. 
 
 " You won't feel such a pauper when you go to 
 your dressing-table now ! " he crowed as she unpacked 
 the parcel. The toilet-service that she had left on 
 her table in New York had been acquired in the Rue 
 Drouot for seventy-five thousand francs, and had 
 once belonged to the Empress Josephine. 
 
 " You angel ! Aren't they sweet ? I am proud
 
 ii8 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 of them ! " she exclaimed. But she felt poorer than 
 before, because the tenderness of his error made the 
 gift pathetic to her. 
 
 How could she say to this man, " I am miserable " ? 
 When he questioned her, she vowed that there was 
 nothing the matter. 
 
 For a long while he had had elusive visions of a 
 picture which had named itself in his mind, " The 
 Harbour of Souls." He saw the misty forms of 
 frail craft floating out of shadow into the whiteness 
 of dawn. Some of the craft had been storm-tossed 
 on the way. Age and youth were among the vague 
 figures ; a girl had sunk under torn sails, but 
 her gaze was calm now. Over all was silence. 
 The light, the still water, the faces, all meant 
 peace. 
 
 The mental impression attracted him powerfully, 
 but the whole scheme remained indefinite because 
 his recent expenses had reduced his capital so much 
 that he feared to begin the sketches for the picture. 
 He knew very well that, if he did so, he would crave 
 to work on it exclusively, and he could not afford the 
 indulgence. Instead, he worked on a canvas that 
 he had blocked in roughly in America, and sold two 
 smaller studies that he had brought back to Vivard, 
 the dealer, a cad in the clothes of a gentleman. It 
 had once happened that an unfamiliar artist, intruding
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 119 
 
 into the sanctity of Vivard's, had been mistaken for 
 a customer till he explained his wants — and the 
 artist had never forgotten his experience of Vivard's 
 two manners. 
 
 Betty had dimly supposed that painters sent nearly 
 all their pictures in cabs to the Academy, or that 
 Vivard, or Kluht, or one of those people, came to the 
 studios and made respectful offers ; to see Keith 
 prepare to go forth with two canvases for sale under 
 his arm had been not a httle startling. But here, 
 the American spirit in her made her dauntless ; she 
 was no snob. While the managing clerk's wife across 
 the way sneered at " such a common business," 
 the multi-millionaire's daughter went to the gate with 
 her husband and wished him luck. 
 
 One afternoon, when they had been in Sibella 
 Road between two and three weeks, the servant 
 came to the studio to tell Keith that her mistress 
 was not at home, and that a gentleman was asking 
 for them. 
 
 *' What name did he give ? " 
 
 " He told me to say it was Mrs. Keith's father, 
 
 sir." 
 
 Keith started ; no visitor could have been less 
 welcome. " Oh I " he said. " All right. Is he in the 
 drawing-room ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; I left 'im in the 'all."
 
 120 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Well, show him into the drawing-room, and say 
 I'll be with him in a few minutes." 
 
 Lynch settled himself on the six-pound settee 
 leisurely, drawing deductions. On the whole, his 
 girl's room was not so bad as he had dreaded, — the 
 aspect of the street had foretokened something meaner, 
 — but it was piteous and impossible. He rejoiced 
 that he had come — she might have been too proud 
 to own her mistake for months. As to this husband 
 of hers, he was doubtless kicking himself for his 
 heroics by now, even assuming that they were more 
 than a manoeuvre at the start. In Betty's interests, 
 though, one must affect to be fooled by him. It 
 would have been refreshing to hear that he had met 
 with an accident and been killed. 
 
 Keith came in. " Mr. Lynch ? I am sorry my 
 wife is out." He did not offer his hand. 
 
 " Well, Mr. Keith ! I am glad to meet you. I 
 have neglected some business to do so." 
 
 " Won't you sit down ? " 
 
 " Thank you. Is Betty well ? " 
 
 " Yes, thanks. I expect she'll be back before 
 very long." 
 
 They regarded each other curiously — the swindler 
 trying to see into the mind of his son-in-law ; his 
 son-in-law loathing the necessity for receiving the 
 swindler with politeness.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 121 
 
 " Mr. Keith, you and I have got to have quite 
 a chat ; I guess we have got to arrive at a friendly 
 understanding." 
 
 " Do you think it's essential for us to introduce any 
 painful subject ? " asked Keith nervously. 
 
 " I shall make a blunt answer to that : if Betty 
 was not married to you, it would not concern me 
 to correct your prejudices. But my daughter cannot 
 continue to be dependent on her husband's profes- 
 sional earnings — we are not playing opera-bouffe. I 
 have too much affection for my child to let her suffer 
 rather than put myself in a humiliating position. I 
 will only ask you to make it as little humiliating 
 to me as your views permit — I am an old man, and 
 a more sensitive one than I allow my enemies to 
 believe." 
 
 Involuntarily Keith liked him better. " My own 
 wish would be to avoid the position altogether," he 
 said gently. 
 
 " I appreciate your meaning. But my girl is dear 
 to you too ; for her sake you will see that it is our 
 duty not to spare ourselves. You have a very re- 
 markable character, Mr. Keith ; I have the very 
 highest admiration for your principles ; but — I shall 
 be candid — I have no admiration for your financial 
 judgment. You have shown me that it is too im- 
 pulsive."
 
 122 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " How ? " 
 
 " By forming a decision before you had an oppor- 
 tunity to investigate the system that you have con- 
 demned. You let yourself be carried away by the side 
 that shouted, and you forgot that it might be the 
 silent side that was right. Now I am going to say 
 to you what it don't interest me to say to any other of 
 my critics : my enterprises are open to your inspec- 
 tion, Mr. Keith — ask me any questions you please, 
 and I will answer them." 
 
 " You pay me a great compliment," said Keith 
 drily, " but, as you may be aware, I am not qualified 
 to examine you on financial matters, even if I wished 
 to do it." 
 
 " Should not examination precede the verdict ? " 
 
 ** Mr. L3mch, the examination has been made by 
 experts, and the verdict returned by the World." 
 
 The heroics were genuine, the man meant it I If 
 Betty had only stood firm 1 But she had given him 
 full swing, so he had to be concihated. There was 
 hatred in Lynch's heart, and good-humour in his 
 smile. 
 
 " Has experience in your own line convinced you 
 that the World's verdict is always sound ? I guess 
 I have heard of great artists much misapprehended 
 by the World ? " 
 
 Keith found no reply.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 123 
 
 " Come, Mr. Keith, I want you to see it my way I 
 Put these difficulties of yours before me, and I will 
 meet them squarely — and not entirely for Betty's 
 sake now. I hke your grit I You haven't cool 
 brains, but you have something more wonderful ; 
 I should be proud to shake your hand before I go, 
 and you have got to do me justice before that can 
 happen. See here, Betty's husband has got to go 
 right top I I hear you are a genius — and everybody 
 has got to recognise it. I don't know much about 
 your profession, but I know something about life. 
 I presume that the artist who can take a big house 
 and entertain big people will get there considerably 
 sooner than the artist who has no dollars to speak 
 for him. I aim at seeing you President of the Royal 
 Academy. What is there between us ? There always 
 have been, and there always must be, a few very rich 
 men ; and there always have been, and there always 
 must be, many more very poor ones. To abuse a 
 millionaire because there are bankrupts on the earth 
 is as unreasonable as to sling mud at Niagara because 
 there are droughts." 
 
 " Nobody but an anarchist, or some other sort of 
 lunatic, would abuse a man merely for being a million- 
 aire, or a multi-millionaire. One reviles methods, not 
 millions." 
 
 " Well, let us get down to business! Between you
 
 124 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 and I there can be a perfect frankness. What are 
 the methods that are worrying you ? " 
 
 "I'd rather not go into details — to Betty's father, 
 and in my own house." 
 
 " It's just strait-laced square dealing that you 
 quit talking generalities and specify your objec- 
 tions." 
 
 " Well, then, I object to a fortune amassed by 
 refusing poorer men the power to live. I find the 
 methods of such a Trust as yours, sir, as devoid of 
 Christianity, and patriotism, and sympathy as the 
 methods of the primeval ages, when Might was Right. 
 And I object to a fortune amassed by plunder, by 
 wholesale trickery, and perjury, and corruption ; by 
 bribing a Press to spread lies broadcast for the snare 
 of the life-earnings of thousands, and the iniquitous 
 enrichment of a few millionaires who have already 
 more millions than they can spend — lies of enormous 
 finds in mines that are worthless, and of enormous 
 profits from shares that are being given a fictitious 
 value by bogus transactions. I object to a fortune 
 that creates defaulters, and suicides, and prostitutes — 
 and I object to my wife battening on them ! " 
 
 He had said it, although his voice had shaken and 
 his pulses had thumped ; and though he was too un- 
 nerved now to look at Lynch, he was glad that it was 
 said. Behind Lynch's impassive features fury was
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 125 
 
 blazing ; and behind the fury was one poignant, pure 
 regret : " That's how he speaks of me to my girl ! " 
 
 It was not a moment when he could afford fury — 
 the moment demanded prompt, grave, and whole- 
 hearted lying. 
 
 " You would be quite right to object," he said 
 smoothly. " So would any honest man ! But why 
 accept this poppycock without investigation ? You 
 repeat the charge that I bribe a section of the Press 
 to spread lies for the snare of investors. Mr. Keith, 
 that charge is itself a lie which a section of the Press 
 was bribed to spread. It was the other side of the 
 game ! " He smiled wistfully. Richard, meeting his 
 gaze, confused, found it deep with reproachful sorrow. 
 If a stranger had entered the room, he would have 
 taken the accuser for a culprit, and the scoundrel for 
 a benefactor whose confidence had been betrayed. 
 " Might is not necessarily Right ? No, sir. But do 
 not imagine that Noise is necessarily Truth. A man 
 cannot make millions without making enemies too. I 
 do not say I am a philanthropist, I shall not pretend 
 to you for a single instant that my notions are as lofty 
 as all your own — the world has been too rough on me 
 . for me to have a wholesale tenderness for the world. 
 You have spoken of ' patriotism.' W-e-11, I am a 
 naturalised American citizen ; but I was born in this 
 grey little island, and as a poor boy I found England
 
 126 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 no more interested in my miseries than I afterwards 
 found America. When I went without shoes, the stones 
 of Lancashire were no gentler to my feet because I 
 trod my native land. When I had empty pockets, 
 the British storekeepers were no more benevolent 
 than the aliens. If I had died of starvation on 
 the street, my death would have caused no more 
 concern to England than to any other country. I 
 do not know what ' patriotism ' means ; I do not 
 allow that any callous parent is entitled to affection. 
 Tenderness deserves tenderness, but I cannot under- 
 stand why an outcast should feel more sentimental 
 about the soil of the land he was bom in than about 
 the planks of the ship if he was born in mid-ocean. 
 You have spoken of ' sympathy.' I have seen no results 
 from it. If you expect advancement from sympathy, 
 I warn you that you are putting your hopes into rotten 
 stock. Sympathy is the emotion that accomplishes 
 nothing. Ambition, love, hate, jealousy, greed, they 
 all hustle, and make history ; sympathy loafs, and 
 makes phrases. It is the weakling of the emotional 
 group. I say these things because I wish to be sincere 
 with you. I do not propose to claim any virtues that 
 I do not possess ; but, Mr. Keith, I do claim, and I 
 have the right to claim, that throughout my career 
 I have never committed a dishonourable act, never 
 wronged man, woman, or child. I will illustrate. I
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 127 
 
 will show you what I mean by the ' other side of the 
 game.' You shall see how a man who has treated 
 his friends and his business associates with the utmost 
 generosity may be attacked by some of the men whom 
 he has served most, and how these very indictments, 
 which arouse indignation against him, are hatched 
 simply to divert the public's dollars into schemes more 
 lucrative to the organisers." 
 
 With a patience that was marvellous he led Keith, 
 step by step, through transactions of magnitude — 
 translating, descanting, yet talking with so much 
 tact that he instructed a novice with the air of con- 
 fiding to a mind as astute as his own. " Till you 
 can crush your opponent, flatter him ! " had been 
 one of the maxims of his life. He had matched his 
 wits against some of the keenest financial intellects 
 of the world, and emerged triumphant; but, in its 
 way, as clever a thing as he had ever done was the 
 task of the next hour, while, without a trace of weari- 
 ness, he reduced the intricacies of Wall Street opera- 
 tions to terms intelligible to a schoolboy, and simul- 
 taneously invented conspiracies and figures to prove 
 his falsehoods. 
 
 And at the end, Keith looked him in the eyes and 
 said, " My wife does not touch a shilling of such 
 money, as God hears ! " 
 
 The average man's self-control would have snapped.
 
 128 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 Lynch desired a conversation with Betty before she 
 had been prepared for it ; to take offence would 
 mean to take leave and give her husband an oppor- 
 tunity to coach her. He indulged in the faintest 
 shrug. 
 
 " We are told, ' The truth is mighty, and will pre- 
 vail,' " he said pleasantly, " but there is no clause 
 re time-limit. I will illustrate further ! " 
 
 Only when she had come in and they were left 
 together did he permit himself the luxury' of vehem- 
 ence. He read her mind in her JBrst evasion, and 
 WTath and protest poured from him as he paced the 
 room. But she would not acknowledge that she was 
 dissatisfied. She spoke of Keith's devotion. She 
 gave instances of his tenderness. She boasted that 
 she had never known what it meant to ask him for 
 money, or to have an empty purse. And at the 
 back of her brain all the while was the longing for 
 him to yield, the regret at hearing that he had been 
 firm. 
 
 " Betty," said L\-nch, " I have been proud of you 
 — don't make me think you a fool, honey. I've got 
 a fool for a son — leave me my daughter ! Have I 
 been so harsh to you that you should pimish me this 
 way ? Can't you feel what it'll mean to me to leave 
 you in a house like this ? I can't stand it. I guess 
 a father has got rights too. 1 loved you when you
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 129 
 
 were a baby, I've been tender to you all your life ; 
 what has this man done, who comes around when 
 you're a woman, to wipe me out in your affections ? 
 You ain't fair with me. I can't do anything if you're 
 dogged — it's waste of time my making a settlement 
 if you won't spend the dollars. It's right here that 
 you have got to put this thing through ! Handle 
 it while his love's fresh. See here, women kick up 
 a rumpus about men having too much power ; but 
 I tell you this, with a lifetime of experience behind 
 me — there's no power on earth like a pretty woman's. 
 Only she's like a horse — she don't know her own 
 strength, or no man could boss her. What you've 
 got to do is to tell him that it don't suit you to play 
 at being crazy any longer. The bigger his love, the 
 safer your position ! He'll climb down." 
 
 " I promised him," she reiterated, " I promised 
 him before we were married. Please don't say any 
 more. It's no good. I can't do it." 
 
 " W-e-11, I am beaten ! I came for nothing. I 
 guess I'll go back by the next boat. Shall I see 
 you again ? Will you come and stay with me till 
 I sail ? " 
 
 " I'll come, of course, but I won't stay." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " I think we understand all each other's reasons, 
 
 poppa," said Betty, smihng crookedly. " If I went 
 9
 
 130 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 to stay with you, it wouldn't make this look much 
 better to me afterwards, eh ? " 
 
 His purpose was detected — but it was his own 
 daughter who had seen through him. Lynch sighed — 
 but patted her hand with approval.
 
 X 
 
 No, she wouldn't stay at the hotel, but the waiters 
 and the table appointments were not without an 
 Influence when she lunched or dined there ; nor 
 was Lynch the person to accept defeat so easily as 
 he had pretended. 
 
 He harped no more on his own feelings, nor on her 
 privations ; he questioned her about Keith's work : 
 and she had never liked her father so well as while he 
 listened to her rhapsodies, with an assumption of 
 growing interest, and made generous remarks about 
 the man who, she gathered, had abused him. " The 
 Harbour of Souls," she declared, would be a great 
 picture one day — by far the most important thing 
 that Richard had ever done — but the day was distant ; 
 naturally, he had other things to do in the meantime ! 
 It was to this that Lynch had been guiding her. Wealth, 
 he exclaimed, would have absolved her husband from 
 the need for doing the " other things " — wealth would 
 have given his genius full play ! As it was — well, of 
 course, marriage was bound to handicap him ; he could
 
 132 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 not hope to be famous so young as if he hadn't a wife 
 to support ! Even the luncheons and dinners pro- 
 vided opportunities, though they fell short of the 
 temptations projected. 
 
 Betty was much too acute to miss the motive for such 
 regrets — she realised, directly they were uttered, that she 
 had been adroitly led to a desired cue — but, for all that, 
 there was sufficient truth in the words for them to stick. 
 
 Though Keith did his best to disguise aversion, the 
 sight of her going forth to visit her father every day 
 was far from being pleasant. He was infinitely relieved 
 one evening, when she had come back, to hear that the 
 date for Lynch's departure was fixed. 
 
 " I suppose you're not sorry to hear it ? " she said. 
 There was a new umbrage in her tone. 
 
 " Have I made any complaint about your going ? " 
 he returned, startled. 
 
 " I haven't noticed much enthusiasm ! " 
 
 " You can hardly expect me to be ' enthusiastic' 
 I shouldn't be enthusiastic about your being out all 
 day, wherever you went." 
 
 She drummed her fingers on the mantelshelf : " If 
 my father came here, I shouldn't have to go to him 
 so often." 
 
 " The house is open to him, Betty." 
 
 " Well, I should hope so — if he chose to come to it 
 after the way you received him ! " she said.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 133 
 
 It was the first hint of dissension. He took a turn 
 about the room — and put an arm round her. 
 
 " I've been afraid of this — don't let it happen ! " 
 
 Her figure was not responsive. 
 
 " I told you the same night that I was sorry I had 
 said so much. But it had to be then, or not at all." 
 
 " It might have been ' not at all.' " 
 
 " It isn't easy to refuse to let a man do things for his 
 own child and to hold back your reason for it. You 
 told me you understood ? " His caress tightened. 
 " You aren't going to be angry with me ? " 
 
 She uttered a little choky cry and clutched at him. 
 " We might have been so comfortable ! " she quavered. 
 
 His heart seemed to stand still. He had failed, 
 then ! The drawing-room that he had thought rather 
 luxurious looked pathetically stupid across her 
 shoulder. There was a long pause. 
 
 She wished he would speak. She wished she hadn't 
 said it. " Oh, Dick ! " 
 
 " I didn't know," said Keith drearily. " I — yes, 
 I've wondered." 
 
 " It's nothing. I didn't mean to tell you ; I meant 
 
 to tell you about something quite different ! But 
 
 Oh, you think me such a sneak, don't you, after I 
 promised ? " 
 
 " I want you to tell me the truth always. Has it — 
 have you been uncomfortable long ? "
 
 134 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " It's so hard ! " 
 
 " I mean, is it only since he came over ? I don't 
 want to deceive myself, but has it been so hard all the 
 time ? " 
 
 " Not at first — I mean, not till we were here. Don't 
 think that, oh no ! " 
 
 " It's this, the house ? You — oh, don't tremble, 
 don't be afraid ! Whom should you speak to, if not 
 me ? Aren't we one ? Why, I want to hear your 
 troubles ; it brings me closer to you to hear your troubles 
 than your pleasures. Tell me everything, just as if 
 you were thinking aloud." 
 
 " It's because I'm a fool. I don't know how to man- 
 age — and the servants see it. They're awful I They 
 make it worse for me. I think of them when I wake up, 
 the first thing ! Dick, they're spoiling our home to me. 
 I'm afraid of them ! " 
 
 He strangled an oath. " Afraid of them ? I'll 
 pitch them out of the house neck and crop to-morrow 
 morning. I'd send them off to-night if it weren't too 
 late ! Why didn't you say so ? Why didn't you come 
 to me about it ? My poor little girl ! " 
 
 " The new ones 'd be just the same. I daresay they 
 don't mean any harm — it's my own fault ; I don't 
 understand." She clung to him tearfully. " Dickie, 
 duckie, you know I loathe going back on what I said, 
 but don't you think we might let poppa do a little for
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 135 
 
 us — just a little ? I don't ask you to take much — I 
 know you'd feel too bad about it — but if we had just a 
 few thousand pounds a year, it'd make everything 
 so different. It would all be lovely then ! It isn't 
 only me — there's you too ; you'd get on so much faster. 
 You could start on your picture right away. If we go 
 on like this, I know very well that by and by you'll 
 be sorry you cared for me. You can't succeed so soon 
 as if you weren't married. I want to be of use to you, 
 I want to be a chum ; I can't be a chum if I'm a burden, 
 and it makes me feel miserable, knowing I could do so 
 much if you'd only let me. It humiliates me to think 
 I'm a drawback to my husband — I never thought I'd 
 be that ! Poppa likes you ; he admires you for your 
 pluck in standing up to him, though he says your ideas 
 about it are quite wrong. If you'd only say ' Yes,' I 
 could tell him in the morning, and he could fix it up 
 before he goes. Think what it would be ! All of a 
 sudden ! In five minutes all the horrors would be 
 over — all our life would be just as beautiful as our 
 honeymoon ! Just a little, Dickie — what is it out of 
 all the millions ? Couldn't we take just enough to make 
 things smooth ? " 
 
 It was one of the moments when man strives, speech- 
 less and voiceless, for words to utter his very soul. 
 What could he answer that would make him seem less 
 than brutal to her ?
 
 136 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " I'd do anything else on earth for you," he stam- 
 mered, and execrated his own triteness. 
 
 To her the blow was as heavy as to him. He wasn't 
 going to yield ! She had not realised till now how 
 it had supported her to beUeve that the remedy was 
 within her reach ; she had not meant to take it, she 
 had only glanced at it sometimes for encouragement. 
 All at once it had vanished — the future was bare. It 
 was to go on like this for years and years ! What he 
 was saying came to her muffled. 
 
 " Don't you see that it doesn't matter whether we 
 take much or Httle ? " he pleaded wretchedly. " It's 
 not the amount that makes it right or wrong ; if it were 
 right of me to say ' Yes ' to a little, it would be wrong of 
 me to draw the line at all. Oh, Betty darhng, you 
 know the broken lives behind this money ! You know 
 what I say about it is true— you've told me that you 
 know ! For God's sake, don't ask me to hold you at a 
 price like that !— it would degrade us, it would poison our 
 love. Our marriage will never be a drawback to me if 
 we play the game honestly— you will be a help, you will 
 be a chum, just as you want to be. It's not you who've 
 been a fool, it's I. I ought to be kicked for giving you 
 housekeeping to do. I ought to have remembered. I 
 hate myself for being such a blockhead ! " 
 
 " Oh, nonsense ! " she said dismally. 
 
 " That's the only thing, isn't it ? You say you were
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 137 
 
 happy before ? If it weren't for that, you wouldn't 
 mind ? " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Well, we'll give the house up ! We'll take a flat 
 where there's a restaurant downstairs. We ought to 
 have done it at the beginning." 
 
 " As if I'd let you be so crazy, when we've only just 
 come in ! " 
 
 " It doesn't matter when we came in, I'm not going 
 to have you made miserable if I can help it. Oh, kiddy, 
 don't think me cruel to you. I know it sounds the 
 cheapest thing in the world to say I'd do anything 
 excepting what you ask, but I can't do that — I can't, 
 I can't ! I'll take you out of the house to-morrow ; 
 you shan't spend another day in it. We'll go to an 
 hotel till we've found what we want — and we'll go to a 
 nice one. Curse the servants ! When I think what 
 you've been going through while I was imagining I had 
 
 done all I could to make you happy, I * Afraid of 
 
 them ' 1 " Pain and rage mastered him. He flung to 
 the electric button, and was sorry that it wasn't a bell- 
 handle that he could wrench. 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " 
 
 " I'm going to give them notice ! " 
 
 " They can't go now." 
 
 " I can give them notice now, though ! What do you 
 suppose I'm made of ? Do you suppose I'm made of
 
 138 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 bricks-and-mortar, that I can bear to see you cry, and 
 have to look Hke a tyrant, and know that it all comes 
 from those ? " 
 
 " Dick 1 " she said urgently, " Dick, don't ! They've 
 never been rude, never. Please ! Don't make a fuss 
 to-night 1 " 
 
 He sat down, trembling. 
 
 The housemaid opened the door : " Yes 'm ? " 
 
 " You've forgotten the syphon," said Betty. 
 
 " It's on the httle table 'm." 
 
 " Oh, is it ? I didn't notice. Very well." 
 
 She had no passion for money as the sententious 
 knight, and his wife, who doled out the sugar, had a 
 passion for it ; she did not worship money for money's 
 sake. Measured by the profusion that she had been 
 taught to take for granted, her requirements had, in- 
 deed, been reduced to the point of heroism — she only 
 asked for peace. The prospect of being relieved from 
 the housekeeping had lightened her mood almost as 
 much as if he had consented to her appeal. Laughter 
 quivered in her voice now, though it was more than a 
 shade hysterical. 
 
 " She little knows what I've saved her from ! " 
 
 Keith could not laugh yet. 
 
 She knelt on a pouf beside him : " You'll make me 
 sorry I told you." 
 
 " You aren't to say that ! I'm thankful — I've never
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 139 
 
 been more thankful for anything in my life. It isn't 
 your telling me that upsets me, it's my own idiocy in 
 needing to be told. You don't know how bitter it is to 
 a man, when he loves a woman, to hear she has had a 
 big trouble that he didn't see. Well, I'll try to make 
 up to you for it I You won't have to think of the 
 servants when you wake to-morrow, kiddy 1 " 
 
 " You reaUy mean it ? I feel awful selfish. I do, I 
 feel a monster 1 " 
 
 " Where's your face, monster ? Don't keep it such a 
 long way off." 
 
 " A flat will cost ever so much more, you know it 
 will," she purred, nestling to him. " With a restaurant 
 downstairs, it'll be perfectly ruinous to you. And 
 where will you work ? " 
 
 " I'll work in my old studio — it's lucky I've still got 
 it." 
 
 " That'll be two rents, then ? Besides this one ! 
 We won't be able to get rid of it in a hurry, you may be 
 sure. And think of the money it has cost — look at the 
 windows, and the wall-papers. Oh, it's wicked ! " She 
 sprang up resolutely. " No, we can't do it. I mean it. 
 I won't do it I " She was quite sincere, she didn't mean 
 to do it. 
 
 " Of course the wall-papers must be considered before 
 you," said Keith ; " what else are wall-papers made for ? 
 Do you mind bringing that cheek back — I'm taking a
 
 140 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 chill. . . . Do you know — is that right, are you 
 comfortable ? — do you know, I'm not sorry to get out 
 of this ? I'm not, upon my word ! " he went on, with 
 rising spirits. " There's something rather depressing 
 about it, I think — perhaps it's a gravel soil." 
 
 " What does that do ? " 
 
 " I don't know exactly, but I know it isn't right. Or 
 perhaps it's a clay soil that isn't right — I know when 
 people take a house there's some sort of soil they don't 
 want. A flat will be ever so much cosier — much better 
 for me, too. I hate the tradesmen banging at the side 
 door all the morning ; and the woman opposite is such 
 an object." 
 
 " She doesn't interfere with us, does she ? " 
 
 " I don't like her profile ; it infuriates me. I'm glad 
 we're going, for lots of reasons." 
 
 " I'd sing for joy, if I didn't feel so mean. Lucky 
 thing for you I feel mean ! " 
 
 " If you talk any more nonsense about feeling 
 ' mean,' I'll shake you. Are you going to be good ? " 
 
 " Mmps." 
 
 " Well, then, let's decide everything. Now I come 
 
 to think of it Why do you always push my hair 
 
 backwards ? " 
 
 " I d'n' know— I like it. Don't be so vain ! Well ? 
 Now you come to think of it ? " 
 
 " Now I come to think of it, I believe flats of that
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 141 
 
 kind are always let furnished. I'm not sure if you can 
 get an unfurnished fiat with catering." 
 
 " What's to become of our furniture, then ? " 
 
 " We might give it to the servants, as a token of 
 appreciation." 
 
 " No, but really ? " 
 
 " Well, I suppose we'd better sell it. By Jove, 
 that'll put us in funds again — we'll go out to dinner on 
 the strength of it. Tread on the carpets carefully 
 to-night and keep 'em new ! " 
 
 " We might find an unfurnished flat, mightn't we ? " 
 said Betty. 
 
 " We might." He pondered. " But there'd be no 
 use for the stair-carpets, anyhow. Nor the rods." 
 
 " No." She also reflected. " And the flat wouldn't 
 be as big as the house — we couldn't get all the things 
 into it." 
 
 " I hadn't thought of that. Well, it's all the more 
 reason why we should sell them — it's no good storing 
 them for years. Besides, when we take a house again, 
 they'd be lost in it." 
 
 " Buckingham Palace ? " 
 
 " No, it's too near the railway line ; we'll want 
 something select. We'll do it properly next time — 
 servants that know their business. I hope the flat 
 won't be too poky, though ! " 
 
 " It can be as poky as it likes, we don't want to play
 
 142 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 hide-and-seek. It doesn't matter how small it is, if 
 you have your studio outside. All we need — why, it 
 oughtn't to cost so much more, after all, ought it ? " 
 
 " I should think we could go West for about the 
 same rent. If we only need a drawing-room and a 
 bedroom " 
 
 " It — it'll have to be more than that," she murmured. 
 
 " We shall take our meals in the restaurant, you 
 know." 
 
 " Still, we'll want a third room " 
 
 " For our luggage ? " 
 
 " No," She slipped a little closer, and her eyes were 
 hidden from him, " We'll want a third room, Dickie — 
 for someone else by and by."
 
 XI 
 
 Realising the vision in the cardboard house, the 
 morning sun shone on her face between the draperies 
 when she woke, but Keith was too busy packing to 
 appreciate that gleam of irony. 
 
 " If we make haste, we can be out of the place and 
 comfortably settled at the hotel before luncheon," he 
 explained. 
 
 She contemplated the confusion with her arms 
 round his neck. Among her charms was the one that 
 no beauty specialist undertakes to restore with a 
 " remarkable preparation " — the charm of waking up 
 lovely. 
 
 " It looks as if it had been raining shirts," she pouted. 
 
 " You should have seen it five minutes ago ! " 
 
 " Do you think we ought to rush it so, really ? 
 Don't you think if we went to-morrow instead " 
 
 " I'll help you with your things ; that's why I wanted 
 to get mine done early. I hope I didn't make a noise ? 
 No, I don't want you to have another day here ; I want 
 to whisk you right out of it. Let's make a dash and 
 
 »43
 
 144 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 get it over ! I'll go round to the agent's directly 
 after breakfast." 
 
 " Hark at my American husband ! All right, we 
 needn't take a heap — we can come back and iinish ? " 
 
 " / can. You take all your clothes now ; you don't 
 cross the door-mat again ! " He returned to the litter, 
 and wrestled with a portmanteau that wouldn't fasten. 
 " Do you know, I've been thinking we had better let 
 the servants stop, after all ; if we leave the house 
 empty, we'll have a burglary, and we aren't insured. 
 I can give them notice, just the same, and tell them 
 why ! " 
 
 " If you give them notice, it's likely to be empty 
 anyhow sometimes — they'll do as they please, with us 
 away." 
 
 " That's true." 
 
 " I think it'd be best to part amiably with them, 
 and let them imagine we're only going for a few days ; 
 if they don't know when to expect us back, they'll 
 have to be careful." 
 
 " Upon my word, they're triumphant to the last ! " 
 He threw the portmanteau viciously. " They're 
 driving us out, and we've got to grin at them when 
 we go. As a matter of fact, you know, I suppose 
 there are things to be done in such cases, but it's a 
 mystery how people learn them ; there ought to be 
 a book published on the subject, ' First Steps to
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 145 
 
 Getting Even with your Servants.' It's these boots 
 that prevent my shutting it ! It's a marvellous 
 thing, I haven't got any clothes, and two trunks 
 aren't big enough to hold them. Very well, just as 
 you like. We'll take it smiling, and " 
 
 " Battle with the baggage bravely ! " she said. 
 " Fix your gaze on the hotel, weary one — it'U be 
 very restful and expensive." 
 
 It was a long while before the moment was reached, 
 but when the last strap had been buckled, and the 
 last " mate " had mopped his brow after lifting a 
 bonnet-box, they recovered something of the honey- 
 moon spirit, as they were rattled towards Kensington 
 in a decrepit four-wheeler. And the hotel looked 
 a haven of repose, as she had predicted ; and Keith, 
 who felt that his plan had been masterly and his 
 execution brilliant, was a lively companion till he 
 insisted on ringing for somebody to remove two 
 prints from the bedroom walls. 
 
 " But they're by Landseer," expostulated Betty ; 
 " the people will think we're crazy." 
 
 " Let them think ! Never be dazzled by names ! 
 
 These things are not pictures, they're brutalities. 
 
 Look at ' Waiting for the Deer to Rise.' Ruffians 
 
 crouching to destroy a splendid animal ! Is there 
 
 anything beautiful in that ? We won't ask if it's 
 
 * ennobhng,' but is there a gleam of beauty in it ? 
 10
 
 146 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 Now look at ' How to get the Deer Home ' ; that's 
 worse art still. The composition is all subordinated 
 to the tortured face of the animal in its death agonies. 
 The subjects are revolting. An artist would never 
 have touched them." 
 
 " Yes," she said, " I see it now. I hadn't thought 
 of it like that." 
 
 So the prints in their maple frames were banished, 
 and the hotel manager was much diverted privately 
 by " these visitors' ignorance, in objecting to pictures 
 which, if they had only noticed it, were by Landseer ! " 
 
 They gave themselves a short holiday. Then they 
 went out to conquer, and came back to quail. In 
 the morning they discovered that they could not 
 " go West for about the same rent " ; and in the after- 
 noon they learnt that they could not go to Clement's 
 Inn either, nor even to Maida Vale. By the following 
 night they had serious doubts whether they would 
 be able to go anywhere, for every microscopic and 
 exorbitant flat that they viewed addressed itself to 
 bachelors only. The quest extended to strange 
 districts, and it was revealed to the innocents that 
 the modern landlord, with a house that would be 
 difficult to let for a hundred a year, calls each of its 
 storeys a " flat," and lets it for three hundred and 
 fifty instead. 
 
 ** The dazzle of the name," said Keith, " there
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 147 
 
 we have it again ! Shakespeare didn't say ' What's 
 in a name ? ' as a writing-man, he saw the value of 
 a name thoroughly. The bosh was Juliet's, who saw 
 nothing but Romeo." 
 
 " Oh, don't improve the occasion," said Betty, 
 " my shoes are pinching. It seems to me we might 
 as well ask for a brace of dodos. By rights, we ought 
 to give the idea up." 
 
 He knew that as well as she. If they had been 
 practical they would have searched for better servants, 
 and returned to Sibella Road. But he loved her — 
 marriage had deepened the man's feelings, too — so 
 he only put her into a hansom, and said, " Well, after 
 all, in a flat there are no rates and taxes to pay ! " 
 
 It is a fatal phrase. 
 
 And there was the determining influence of the 
 " party." Scarcely a fortnight had gone by when 
 the agent in St. John's Wood wrote that the villa 
 could be sub-let to a " party " who was not unwilhng 
 to acquire all the new furniture for considerably less 
 than it had cost. 
 
 " It seems too lucky to be true ! " cried Betty 
 joyously. 
 
 It wasn't. 
 
 Opulent from the sale of the furniture, Keith heard 
 flat rents with fortitude. 
 
 They succumbed to Telemachus Mansions.
 
 148 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 Telemachus Mansions were squeezed into a back 
 street near the hotel, and were accordingly boastful 
 of being Kensington. They boasted also that the 
 tenants " enjoyed the benefits pertaining to a per- 
 fectly appointed home, without the vexations of 
 housekeeping." The rooms had not been constructed 
 to hold many things, but that was all the better for 
 the bank balance ; nor was there a restaurant, as 
 expected, but " meals prepared under the personal 
 superintendence of a skilled chef, and served in the 
 residents' own suites," sounded even pleasanter. 
 There were a liveried porter, and a languid lift. 
 The rent was a hundred and fifty pounds per annum ; 
 the weekly charge for domestic service, a half-guinea 
 per head ; and the cheapest meal, a half-crown per 
 mouth — excepting a cup of tea, with bread-and-butter, 
 in the afternoon, which was offered recklessly for 
 ninepence. 
 
 They moved in towards the close of September, 
 and their first evening in the Mansions was less 
 romantic than their first evening in the villa. It had 
 not been thrilling to Keith to see her open a wardrobe 
 in a shop this time. On the contrary, the whole 
 experience had been very tiring, and it seemed to 
 him that his work had been at a standstill ever since 
 his marriage. Nevertheless, they were cheerful 
 enough, though the dinner of the " personal super-
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 149 
 
 intendence " was tepid, and a fire would have been 
 more exhilarating than a stove ornament. 
 
 At nine o'clock next morning he strode out to the 
 studio near the Foundling, and she was not to expect 
 him back till dusk. Never had a woman sworn more 
 loyally to see only the bright side of things. She 
 played the piano and chose her liveliest music to help 
 her to feel that she was in high spirits. She gazed 
 out of the narrow window, and tried to believe that 
 the mean view was interesting. After the Swiss 
 youth brought in a lukewarm luncheon, she flavoured 
 it by dwelling on the luncheons in Sibella Road. When 
 tedium drove her out into a drizzle, she reminded 
 herself that the walk wasn't aimless, because there 
 was a ton of coal to be ordered. Her intentions 
 were excellent. 
 
 And time, and acquaintances, helped her. Hitherto 
 she had met but few of her husband's friends, and 
 seen nothing of the women who, he had once told 
 her, arrived with their babies and put them to sleep 
 on the host's bed. Now the social circle began to 
 widen. There were painters — a good many painters 
 — and an author or two, and an actor and his wife. 
 On the whole, an interesting set, as their different 
 languages became intelligible to her. In October 
 the actor's wife was jubilant because " Peter " — whose 
 Christian name on the programmes was " Pelham " —
 
 150 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 had been engaged to support Cornelia Warwick in 
 FMora. And in November she was angry with him 
 because he had been dismissed. vShe explained the 
 incident one evening at a gathering in Chelsea. 
 
 " He used to dig his knuckles into her skinny chest 
 and batter her on the sofa till she came off crying 
 every night. She showed him her bruises, and begged 
 him to take care. ' Realistic scene,' he said ; ' can't 
 spoil it ! ' The woman was black and blue — she gave 
 him his notice." 
 
 " How unintelligent of her ! " murmured Tracey 
 Wynne. " More earnestness is what we need in our 
 actors. On the stage, artistic ideals " 
 
 " Artistic ideals anywhere are like measles — if you 
 don't get them over while you're young, you're likely 
 to find them serious," interrupted a journalist. " The 
 road to Rowton House is paved with artistic ideals." 
 
 " I don't want to turn your head, but sometimes 
 I read you," said Keith ; " and you wrote lately that 
 we had ' too many idealists, and too few ideals.' " 
 
 " My dear fellow, a journalist's daily necessity for 
 making new comments on old subjects forces manj'' a 
 clever man to write stupid things." 
 
 " Well, he ought to suffer for them," said Wynne. 
 
 " So he does — he sees them quoted under ' Watch- 
 words of Wisdom ' and shivers with shame." 
 
 " Talking of stupidity and the stage," remarked
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 151 
 
 Premlow, " I met an actress in Bond Street the other 
 day " 
 
 " Where's Bond Street ? " asked Betty. " We are 
 humble." 
 
 The journaHst laughed, and Keith glanced at her 
 proudly. 
 
 " Bond Street," said Wynne, " is where ambitious 
 souls like Premlow promenade, in the hope of being 
 mentioned among ' well-known people to be seen 
 yesterday.' Go on with the story, Premmy — you're 
 a long while coming to the point." 
 
 " Shut up ! Well, as I was talking to her, Viscount 
 Armoury passed " 
 
 " The aristocracy do pet you, Premlow ! " 
 
 " No, but really, listen to this ! I don't know if 
 you've seen him ? — he'd be a first-rate model for a 
 groom. I said to her, ' He doesn't look much like a 
 Viscount, does he ? ' She affected a superior smile — 
 at my naivete, and drawled, ' It depends what you 
 expect a Viscount to look like ! ' It's even betting 
 which of us considers the other the bigger fool now — 
 each of us is going about London thinking that the 
 other has said the silliest thing on record." 
 
 Yes, the acquaintances were helpful for a time, but 
 very soon she was unwilling to visit or receive, and, 
 boxed in the three-roomed fiat during the long days 
 while Keith was away, she was very dull indeed. Often
 
 152 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 he took her to the studio, and in a basket-chair by 
 the fire she was fascinated when effects on the canvas 
 leapt into hfe, under apparently random dabs. As 
 she watched him, alternately retreating and advanc- 
 ing, laying on the pigments with an air of absorption 
 and seemingly erratic brushes, she was reminded 
 once of the picture-bricks of her childhood — a dab 
 could look so meaningless, and, with the next, could 
 mean so much. Yet instinct, rather than any words 
 from him, told her that his heart wasn't in this work, 
 and there were half-hours when she led him to talk 
 of " The Harbour of Souls " — and, indeed, caught 
 much of his feeling for it. Love cannot make an 
 artist, but already love had lifted this clever girl 
 above her earlier standpoint of mentor. She no 
 longer counselled him to be " smart " ; she had begun 
 to understand that he was to be great. Sitting there 
 by the fire, as he painted the kind of thing that went 
 off best, she often secretly reproached herself for 
 their increased expenditure. 
 
 For life in Telemachus Mansions was proving very 
 dear. It had transpired also that " domestic service " 
 did not include attention to " brass, silver, china," 
 and various other articles. In fact, the list of things 
 that the staff repudiated had been so long that, at 
 the first glance, Keith wondered what remained for 
 them to clean. Originally he had arranged for a
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 153 
 
 charwoman to come in once a week, but the flat 
 had accumulated so much dirt under the perfunctory 
 flickings of " domestic service," that soon the arrange- 
 ment was extended to an hour every morning. Like 
 most charwomen, she had " known better days," and 
 on the mornings when Betty stayed at home, Httle 
 Mrs. Mills leant on the broom conversationally, and 
 narrated her misfortunes, which had been chiefly 
 matrimonial and partly fluid. 
 
 She was no saint in tatters, but she was an old and 
 fairly honest drudge, and, far as she was from guessing 
 it, she imparted educative details which were worth 
 the numerous half-crowns that Betty shpped into the 
 scarred hands. The disciple in the art of painting 
 remained a laggard in the science of economy, despite 
 her self-reproaches. Betty was always making beauti- 
 ful resolutions, and always tipping with two half- 
 crowns where other people tipped with twopence. 
 The bent charwoman revealed to the daughter of the 
 millionaire the world of humble hopes. Her con- 
 fidences unroofed slums, and through the rags of the 
 poor, the girl had glimpses of the humanity and 
 motherhood beneath. 
 
 Towards Christmas, she heard from Mrs. Waldehast 
 that Howard had " given everyone a scare, but was 
 convalescent now." She was shocked to read that the 
 scare had been caused by the rupture of a blood-vessel.
 
 154 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 However, there was no reason to be anxious, she was 
 told : " It was probably the best thing that could have 
 happened, for he had been scared himself, and would 
 doubtless live more steadily in consequence." 
 
 She wrote an urgent letter to him, and an anxious 
 one to her father, by the next mail. 
 
 At the narrow window she used to sit thinking of 
 what was to come, and watching the snow flutter. 
 She spent many hours thinking. The novels from 
 Mudie's lay neglected ; under the loudening call of 
 life, she cared less for books. So the new year opened, 
 and the months passed — Keith painting unworthy 
 pictures worthily, to buy peace for his wife ; and the 
 girl rearing castles in the air for the wonder-child who 
 was to call her " Mother."
 
 XII 
 
 The wonder-child lay forgotten in the fender, for the 
 mother claimed all thoughts. Presently she whim- 
 pered, " Where's my baby ? " and someone turned 
 from her to pick it up. " Now would you like a httle 
 son, or a little daughter ? " she was asked jocosely. 
 And she quavered, " I don't mind," for fear of hurting 
 the baby's feelings. " It's a boy ! " they told her ; 
 and she was glad. 
 
 At last, when they came to him, Keith's mouth would 
 make no sound ; they replied to the torture in his eyes. 
 He dropped a touch upon the living bundle — his 
 Universe was beyond the door. 
 
 " You mustn't agitate her, remember ! " 
 
 He was gulping, and shuddering, but nodded sagely. 
 
 His mind had foreseen her radiant with rehef . Her 
 face lay on the pillow like a tired flower. 
 
 " Dickie ! " she bleated. 
 
 In this wise, Richard the Second was bom to his 
 kingdom of the third room. 
 
 15s
 
 XIII 
 
 And when she was well and saw him in it, her mother- 
 hood protested. She had hoped for it to look pretty, 
 and she found it piteous. Her extravagance had run 
 riot in the paraphernalia of infancy ; but the nurse's 
 box encroached on the doorway, her garments bulged 
 from the walls — the child was cradled in a cloak-room ! 
 
 Betty recalled her own nurseries, and resented 
 her babe's. 
 
 " Don't you think we might have some of those things 
 put away, nurse ? " she inquired once. The nurse was 
 an efficient and dignified person, whose wages were 
 thirty pounds a year, and Betty inquired respectfully. 
 
 " Well, ma'am, I'm sure I've done my best. The 
 chest of drawers won't hold everything, and there isn't 
 a wardrobe." 
 
 And there was no space for a wardrobe. 
 
 " I know ; of course a flat is very inconvenient." 
 
 " I suppose you'll be moving before long, ma'am ? " 
 
 It was less a question than a mandate. " It'd never 
 
 do to keep the poor little mite 'ere for good." 
 
 156
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 157 
 
 " You think it wouldn't ? " murmured Betty. 
 
 " Well, you see what it is for yourself, ma'am — 
 there's nowhere to put a thing down. What he'd do 
 when he began to crawl, I'm sure I don't know ! I 
 haven't liked to speak, but, as I said when I came, I've 
 always been used to my two nurseries and an under- 
 nurse. If I'd known what a muddle it was to be, I 
 don't think I should 'ave cared to take the place." 
 
 For an indignant moment Betty burned to tell her 
 that she needn't stay in it. But Baby was so safe 
 with her ! Had not the omniscient " Monthly " 
 herself pronounced her competent ? What would 
 befall him if she left ? 
 
 " We must try to make the best of it for a little 
 while," she answered meekly. 
 
 There were many opportunities for her meekness. 
 The " domestic service " of Telemachus Mansions 
 appeared incapable of rising to a nurse's presence, 
 and certainly it did not rise to her bell. She who 
 had been used to an under-nurse to do her bidding 
 remained with her august thumb on the button un- 
 heeded. The father, being away all day, escaped 
 most of her grievances, though he heard enough to 
 exasperate him, but the mother had to listen to them 
 all. There are no ranker snobs than servants ; and 
 the superior references to " Clarence Gate, where, 
 of course, it was all so different and no expense
 
 158 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 was spared ! " were galling to Betty Keith, nee 
 Lynch. 
 
 So was the woman's important demeanour. As 
 she rose when Betty entered, her bearing intimated 
 that to enter was to intrude. " This really isn't the 
 thing ! " was stamped on her expression. The very 
 attitude in which she waited implied forbearance, 
 and in the nursery Betty was made to feel less a 
 mother than a visitor. 
 
 There was even an afternoon when she was re- 
 proved. Nurse remarked severely, "I'm afraid Baby's 
 not dressed as you would have liked to see 'im, ma'am. 
 Everywhere else the lady has always sent for the 
 baby to be taken to the drawing-room." 
 
 " Well, I don't come to see his frocks," said Betty. 
 
 " No 'm. Everywhere else the lady has knocked 
 at the door before she came in." 
 
 ** I knock too in the morning and at " night — I 
 knock before I come into your bedroom. But in 
 the daytime this is the nursery." 
 
 " I've always been used to my ladies knocking 
 at the night-nursery and day-nursery as well. In 
 Clarence Gate it was always done. Nobody has ever 
 walked in before. While we're on the subject, I may 
 say I 'ave never had a lady want to see the baby 
 quite so often as you do, ma'am. As you know, 
 I 'ave always taken my babies from the month — I
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 159 
 
 am a sole-charge nurse, I know my duties, I'm used 
 to being trusted." 
 
 Again, what would befall him if she left ? The 
 girl dr^w a deep breath. 
 
 " It isn't that I don't trust you, nurse," she said. 
 " I should like you to understand that I trust you 
 very much or you wouldn't be here. But I don't 
 knock at my nursery door, and I see my child just 
 as often as I please. I am not interested to hear 
 about the customs of other mothers." 
 
 She bent over the cot. Would the " notice " 
 crash ? 
 
 Nurse mumbled, and moved to the washhand- 
 stand. After this there was more tolerance in her 
 manner, though her dignity was still impressive. 
 
 Meanwhile, the man was not without his own 
 troubles. In his bank-book the word " Cash " no 
 longer figured, and the numerous entries were all on 
 the wrong side. 
 
 The theory has been advanced that artists should 
 be poor, to yield the utmost from their talent. It is 
 also recommended that geese be roasted alive to 
 enlarge their livers for your pate. Keith's experiences 
 did nothing to support the amiable theory. Pecuniary 
 cares neither improved his quality nor accelerated his 
 speed, though a list of sending-in days was scrawled 
 over the mantelpiece for a motto. Out of the studio
 
 i6o THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 he would tell himself that, to paint recklessly, only 
 will power was essential, and out of the studio he 
 would register oaths to do it ; but the following day 
 would again see him obliterating the work of the day 
 before — plodding with conscientious and uninspired 
 touches. 
 
 When he came home disgusted with himself one 
 evening Betty said — 
 
 " Dick, I've something to ask you : I want you to 
 paint a portrait of Baby." 
 
 " A portrait of Baby ? Yes, I've nothing else to 
 do!" 
 
 " It wouldn't take you long." 
 
 " I'm too hard pressed just now. Besides, there's 
 nothing to paint." 
 
 " Nothing to paint ? " she exclaimed. 
 
 " It's all clothes." 
 
 " I guess / could find something to paint," she 
 said reproachfully. " He's got the sweetest smile 
 I ever saw, and the way his little hands droop is just 
 perfect. Did you ever see eyes like his in a baby 
 before ? " 
 
 " Oh, it's a dear little soul — don't imagine I'm 
 running it down. I had no idea I could get so fond 
 of a baby ; I always thought a child only began to 
 be human when it was two or three years old. But 
 I can't paint it yet, really ! "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH i6i 
 
 " All right," she returned crossly. " I'll have him 
 done at a photographer's instead. It's rather a funny 
 thing, I must say, when his father's an artist ! " 
 
 But in most cases their views about the younger 
 Richard — who had been christened with due pomp — 
 were identical. Once when he lay on her lap Keith 
 announced his intention of giving him boxing lessons 
 before he was sent to school. 
 
 " I shan't let him go till he has learnt," he said ; 
 " then I'll be sure he won't be bullied by young ruffians 
 twice his size. Every boy ought to be taught before 
 he's sent ! " 
 
 " Were you ? " 
 
 " No, afterwards. That's what makes me keen on 
 it ; he shall have the benefit of my experience. If he 
 knows how to defend himself, there'll be no need for 
 him to do it more than once." 
 
 " I wouldn't like him taught by a stranger, though," 
 she said ; " a boxing-master would be too rough." 
 
 " As a matter of fact, they aren't rough — the best 
 men." 
 
 " Well, but for such a little chap " 
 
 " Oh, of course, I shall teach him myself ; I'd like to ! 
 I'll get him a little pair of gloves, and a little suit of 
 flannels " 
 
 " Oh, won't he look a chuck in flannels ! " cried 
 
 Betty. 
 II
 
 i62 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " And take him for half an hour every morning ! 
 There's no occasion for him to learn a great deal, either ; 
 a good lead-off and a quick guard are about all he 
 wants to hold his own." 
 
 At this point the future pugilist whined for his 
 " soother," and Betty, popping the india-rubber into 
 his mouth, cooed to him the strange language in which 
 she had become so suddenly proficient. 
 
 " I wonder if it understands anything of what 
 you mean ? " said Keith, regarding them thought- 
 fully. 
 
 " Mmps ! " affirmed Betty. " Of course he under- 
 stands. Did his father ask such things about him, 
 then, a blessing ? And his liddley teggies hurting 
 all- a- time! There - then - there ! Did-ums-was ? " 
 She swayed gently, with her baby on her bosom. 
 " Cuddley up, and coosha-bye ! " 
 
 The balance at the bank continued to dwindle, and, 
 with it, Keith's store of cheerfulness. In Kensington 
 Gardens the perambulators were fewer now; already 
 many children of more prosperous fathers had been 
 taken to the sea. The desirability of the third room 
 was not increased by the summer heat, and there was 
 an evening when Betty referred to their own departure. 
 " When do you think we might take Baby away ? " 
 she inquired. " It's not doing him any good to be 
 in London this weather."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 163 
 
 Keith knocked out the ashes from his pipe before 
 he answered. 
 
 " I'm afraid we shall have to wait a bit," he said. 
 
 The average woman might have asked '' Why ? " 
 Betty's apprehension was too quick for that, but the 
 average woman would have been much less shocked. 
 Mercilessly as the sense of poverty had pricked since 
 the child's birth, this was its first thrust. The faint- 
 ness of horror was on her as she sat realising that they 
 were too hard up to afford a change of air. 
 
 " I didn't know," she stammered. " Yes, of course, 
 we can go later on." 
 
 " I'm awfully sorry ; we shall be out of the corner 
 soon. I shouldn't have mentioned it if you hadn't 
 spoken of the seaside. It's only temporary," 
 
 " How poor are we ? " 
 
 " Oh, there's nothing for you to look so anxious 
 about ! I'm bound to sell something directly. As 
 soon as I get a cheque, you can go." 
 
 " Won't you go too ? " 
 
 " I don't know about that; I can't spare the time." 
 
 " Well, but — I hadn't any idea, I don't understand. 
 What has happened, what's the reason of it aU ? " 
 
 " The reason ? The reason is I'm not making enough 
 money." 
 
 " But Have we been spending too much ? " 
 
 Keith shrugged his shoulders. " I suppose that's
 
 i64 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 what it amounts to. It's not your fault ; things have 
 got to be paid for ; but everything here costs three 
 times what it's worth. Even when one sells a picture 
 one doesn't see anything out of it." 
 
 He refilled the pipe, and for nearly a minute there 
 was no sound but the rumble on the road. At last 
 she said drearily, " There doesn't seem much to look 
 forward to ! " 
 
 " Oh, I daresay it'll be all right ! " he sighed. 
 
 But she had uttered his own opinion. For a long 
 while he had felt that there wasn't much to look for- 
 ward to. Unless they got rid of the fiat, and led the 
 life primitive in Cornwall — which was out of the ques- 
 tion for her — the best that he could expect was to 
 potboil adequately. Time for good work there would 
 never be ! 
 
 The temperature of the third room grew more op- 
 pressive, and in Kensington Gardens the children 
 played with spades and pails — souvenirs of the sands. 
 As she took her daily walk under the dusty trees, Betty 
 noted them, but she spoke no more of leaving town. 
 
 From New York came the tidings that Howard had 
 been induced to submit himself to a sanatorium in 
 Colorado. She heard that he had really begun to take 
 an interest in his condition, so the news must not be 
 considered bad. On the contrary, the physicians all 
 said that six months of the air, diet, and early hours
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 165 
 
 wouldj effect a cure. The letter was nevertheless 
 startling, for it implied that his present condition was 
 much less satisfactory than she had understood. 
 
 In the heat, nurse's grievances against the staff 
 developed, and at last it was necessary to call Keith's 
 attention to the matter again. 
 
 " Oh, send her away ! " he cried, for he was tired 
 of remonstrating downstairs. " There are plenty of 
 other nurses to be got ! " 
 
 " Not such good ones, though," objected Betty. 
 " Besides, it's no fault of hers, you know that ! " 
 
 " Well, my dear, I can't go down to the kitchen to 
 cook her dinner, and I can't stay at home to run to 
 her bell. I don't understand why she needs to keep 
 ringing it ; it's she who's engaged to look after the 
 baby — the waiters aren't ! " 
 
 " Oh, don't talk foolishness ! " exclaimed Betty 
 angrily. " I've been there myself when she has 
 rung for the bath, and nobody has come for half an 
 hour. She's obliged to ring for something or other 
 twenty times a day." 
 
 " It's not surprising they're sick of coming up, then ! 
 We don't monopolise the staff — we've only one flat ! " 
 
 " ' Flat ' ! " 
 
 " What ? " 
 
 " Oh ! " The gesture with which she turned from 
 him was intolerant.
 
 i66 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " So the flat isn't good enough ? Is that what it 
 means ? " 
 
 " Have I ever said so ? " 
 
 " It sounded like it just now." His voice quivered 
 under the restraint that he was putting on it. 
 
 " And if it did ? That wouldn't be surprising 
 either ! Don't make any mistake, Dick — I don't 
 shut my eyes because I hold my tongue ! If you 
 were in that cupboard that's called a ' nursery ' a 
 little oftener, you'd know what it was like to live 
 in it." 
 
 " If I'm not there oftener, it's because I'm working 
 to pay the rent ! " He walked up and down, trembling. 
 " This is all that woman ! " he broke out vehemently. 
 " I wish we had never seen her ! I won't have her 
 here — she shan't stop ! " 
 
 " Oh yes, she shall," said Betty. " Baby can't do 
 without her." 
 
 " I say she shan't ! She's a firebrand, she's a curse. 
 I've heard nothing but her complaints from the day 
 she came." 
 
 " You have heard ? You haven't heard half." 
 
 " I never come back to the place without hearing 
 that nurse wants something altered, or something dear, 
 or something impossible. As I cross the threshold, 
 it's my greeting." 
 
 " That's a wicked lie."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 167 
 
 " I breathe complaints ! I get up to them, and 
 take them to the studio with me, and come home to 
 more. My head swirls with complaints. I've myself 
 to consider too ; I've my work to think about. 
 The situation's not luxurious enough for her ? Very 
 well, then, she can leave it ! Are we to be brought 
 to ruin because nurse gets her dinner late ? To- 
 morrow she can dine when she likes — it won't be here. 
 I'm going to tell her so now ! " 
 
 " You won't ! " declared Betty. " Don't do it, 
 because you'll have to take it back ! I won't have 
 her dismissed — I refuse to put Baby in the hands 
 of a stranger ! It's bad enough for him as it is. Heaven 
 knows, without risking his life." 
 
 " Risking his life ! Don't you suppose I love the 
 baby as much as you do ? — he means a great deal more 
 to me than you know ! ... I'm sorry for what I 
 said just now — that was an exaggeration." 
 
 " Exaggeration ! Exaggeration is a very delicate 
 name for it." 
 
 " Well, you were less delicate yourself." 
 
 " I said just the truth — I have kept a hundred 
 worries from you ; there have been a hundred worries 
 for me that you have never dreamt of. And to tell 
 me that I have greeted you with complaints every 
 evening is an infamous thing ! " 
 
 " I've told you I'm sorry. Besides, I didn't say
 
 i68 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 they were your own complaints. I know very well, 
 if you're being badgered to death, you've got to speak 
 of it to me. Of course you have ! I hope you always 
 will — I don't want you to keep it to yourself, and feel 
 that you've nobody to talk to. I only say that it 
 gets in the way of the work. I can't paint when my 
 brain's full of bells, and baths, and nurses. I don't 
 see why either of us should go on being bothered 
 by her. I don't see any reason for us to put^ up 
 with it." 
 
 " Baby's the reason. Think how difficult it was 
 to get anyone we could feel confidence in, think of 
 the objects that came — creatures with stutters and 
 squints. To be with a baby — he'd have grown up 
 a Freak ! " 
 
 " I suppose they weren't all physically afflicted ? " 
 " They were all hopeless — all that I saw. If they 
 had their faculties, they hadn't any ' characters ' 
 worth mentioning. I could have gone down on 
 my knees with gratitude when we got this woman. 
 I'd put up with anything rather than lose 
 her ! " 
 
 "Oh, well, keep her, by all means ! I'll see what 
 can be done. It doesn't seem as if bullying them 
 will do any good. I had better try more tips." 
 
 " She comes expensive, I know," said Betty paci- 
 fically.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 169 
 
 " Oh, I daresay another three or four bob a week 
 will settle it ! " he returned. And their difference 
 was mutually ignored. 
 
 But hitherto, after a difference, they had always 
 " made it up " frankly, and kissed.
 
 XIV 
 
 He received a cheque soon afterwards — for a small 
 work that had been exhibited at the New Gallery — 
 but the price was only forty guineas, and the bank- 
 book told such a sensational story that the visit to 
 the sea was none the nearer. At last he was painting 
 with slovenly speed, painting with his teeth clenched, 
 and Vivard, Kluht, Ellsworthy, and the rest of them, 
 saw him often during the weeks that followed. Betty's 
 hundred a year was no appreciable aid to his income. 
 He had to be ready for two rentals, accounts for 
 catering, charges for attendance, and the date of the 
 nurse's wages, to say nothing of incidental expenses. 
 The liabilities fell dizzyingly, and as he ran about 
 London, trying to save the situation, he felt like the 
 juggler with the plates. But he got no applause. 
 
 His position in the market began to waver. The 
 dealers were no longer so certain that he was a good 
 investment. The depression might be temporary, 
 but, on the other hand, he might go the way that 
 many another artist had gone after marriage. For 
 
 170
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 171 
 
 the present, however, they were not unwilhng to 
 invest — at prices ; if he justified their earher ex- 
 pectations, the time was very favourable for acquiring 
 " Keiths " — the work that they bought to-day for a 
 song might be sold a few years hence for large figures. 
 On the whole, they were pleased to see him when he 
 called, though, detecting his necessities, they were 
 much less gracious in their greeting. He waited now 
 at Vivard's before Vivard condescended to recognise 
 that he had come in, 
 
 Mrs. Waldehast had missed the season here, but 
 written that she and her husband would be in Europe 
 in the Fall. They meant to spend a fortnight of 
 their time in London, and they were coming to see 
 Betty directly they arrived. 
 
 Betty awaited them with mingled feehngs : she 
 would be very glad to meet Dardy again, but she 
 wished that the meeting weren't to take place in 
 Telemachus Mansions. Though she had winced at 
 the thought of welcoming her to Sibella Road, the 
 little house had looked much better than the diminutive 
 flat. She hoped that the invitation to dinner would 
 be dechned, and as she arranged flowers on the after- 
 noon that the visit was expected, she was painfully 
 conscious that one couldn't furnish a drawing-room 
 with chrysanthemums. 
 
 Mrs. Waldehast came alone, in a motor carriage
 
 172 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 and a costume that made Betty feel very cheap. It 
 was explamed that " Hal had been detained in the 
 hotel at the last moment." They hugged each other 
 and chattered, and Dardy restrained her glances 
 with commendable tact. 
 
 " It's just lovely to see you again ! " she exclaimed. 
 " How are you ? Hal was dying to come with me, 
 but a man he was to meet on business to-morrow 
 'phoned to say he was bound to go to Paris to-night ; 
 so Hal had to stay behind to meet him now. How's 
 the baby ? I suppose it's the only baby on this 
 side ? Give m.e another kiss, and tell me all about 
 him. Where's your husband ? " 
 
 " Dick's very well ; he's in his old studio, you know 
 — he'll be back before you go. How did you leave 
 everybody at home ? How's Howard getting on ? I 
 never have a letter from him." 
 
 " Oh, I hear Howard's going ahead, putting on 
 weight. He finds the place very dull, of course, but 
 that was just what he wanted to set him right ; he 
 wanted strapping down, and nursing up. The 
 regimen does wonders in these cases. A friend of 
 Hal's last year was much worse than Howard ; and 
 they sent him to a sanatorium for six months, and 
 he came out strong enough to strangle lions before 
 breakfast. Your father seems in low spirits." 
 
 " About Howard ? "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 173 
 
 " I suppose that has something to do with it, but I 
 think it's more you than Howard ; he told me he was 
 glad when I went round — he ' could hear if you were 
 alive ' ! You don't write to him very often, do you ? " 
 
 " What am I to write about ? " 
 
 Dardy Waldehast checked a sigh, and stroked her 
 muff. 
 
 " Are you going to sit in those things for ever? " 
 said Betty. " There was a time when you didn't 
 wait to be asked ! Won't you stay and dine with us ? 
 Perhaps Hal will come too ? You might telephone 
 and find out." 
 
 " I can't stay this evening ; we've some people 
 coming in. Besides, it's just on the cards that Hal 
 might take a notion to run over to Paris with this 
 man — it's a big thing they've got on." 
 
 " Well, you won't go, will you — you aren't going to 
 rush away from London the moment you arrive ? 
 Don't be hateful, Dardy. I haven't seen you for a 
 hundred years." 
 
 " My dearest girl, I hope to see you every day for 
 two weeks. I thought we'd have a day together 
 to-morrow. Can't you come up to me in the morn- 
 ing ? Or why not come back with me this afternoon — 
 you dine with us instead. What time does your 
 husband come in ? " 
 
 " He'll be in in about an hour. But we won't
 
 174 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 dine with you — I'll come in to-morrow some time. 
 Where are you staying ? " 
 
 " The Ritz." 
 
 " Where's that ? " 
 
 " Why, in Piccadilly ! It's the new hotel, just 
 open. You don't mean to say you haven't heard of 
 
 it ? " 
 
 " i_i was thinking of Paris for the moment," 
 said Betty. But Telemachus Mansions were a long 
 way from the Ritz — in another world — and she had 
 not read of its opening. " Wait a minute ; I want to 
 show you Baby ! " 
 
 Curled ready for her to fetch him, his frills protected 
 by a capacious " over-all," he was finishing his bottle. 
 When she instructed nurse to come and take him away 
 in ten minutes, she blushed for herself — she had lived 
 to be proud of exhibiting a trained servant ! 
 
 It had been an anxious question, whether he would 
 be at his best this afternoon. For once he showed off 
 when he was wanted to ! And at the expiration of the 
 ten minutes, nurse's entrance, in her immaculate 
 white, was very satisfactory. The cakes for tea, too, 
 were the daintiest obtainable in High Street, and there 
 were green sandwiches from downstairs, which would 
 be charged for in the bill at fourpence a bite. For a 
 delusive instant Betty fancied that perhaps her home 
 didn't strike Dardy as so dreadful after all. For an
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 175 
 
 instant only. In the next, she felt more abject for the 
 thought. 
 
 The tea lasted until Keith returned, and as he didn't 
 enter the passage discreetly, Dardy said, " Here he is, 
 isn't he ?" so he was compelled to show himself before 
 he could change his clothes. He was shabby and tired 
 when he greeted her ; it occurred to Betty for the first 
 time, while she watched him with veiled nervousness, 
 that he had acquired the air of a failure. 
 
 The conversation became forced and insincere. The 
 lady could ask no intimate questions about his affairs, 
 and the man could ask no social questions about New 
 York. It was a rehef to everyone when the visit 
 ended. Betty would go to the hotel next day ; Keith's 
 work, alas ! prevented him accompanying her. A final 
 spurt of false gaiety, parting kisses, and a trying wait 
 on the landing for the leisurely lift. The upstanding 
 bow in the lady's hat sunk from view — and Betty 
 went into her bedroom and groaned. 
 
 Of course on the morrow it was less awkward. The 
 best affection is susceptible to environment. The 
 discussion of the " big thing " had taken Waldehast to 
 Paris, as foreseen, and in the pale pink-and-white room 
 overlooking Piccadilly the two women were alone. 
 Just at first there was some embarrassment when 
 Dardy said — 
 
 " I'm so mad we couldn't get a parlour on the Park
 
 176 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 side ! Still, it's only for two weeks, so it doesn't matter 
 so much ; we can put up with this ! " 
 
 To Betty's senses, soothed by the restful aspect of 
 the room, "putting up with it" sounded a little 
 arrogant. The hostess recognised her blunder, and her 
 words fell fast to cover it. 
 
 It was not eighteen months ago that they had talked 
 together of the engagement with the utmost freedom, 
 but the time and the marriage had interposed a 
 barrier, and not immediately was it broken. A sentence, 
 a word, something undesigned, and then the delicate 
 ground was reached. Betty had said, " Of course 
 that's between ourselves ! " The rest was easy, 
 
 Mrs. Waldehast had come back from Kensington 
 dismayed. With the best intentions, she implored her 
 not to go on humouring her husband's folly. 
 
 " It's as much for his sake as for yours that I'm 
 speaking," she said ; and though they both knew that 
 it wasn't, the phrase enabled her to continue. " Re- 
 member you've got a child to consider — it's all very 
 rough on the child ! " 
 
 " Oh," sighed Betty, " I don't forget that ! I never 
 dreamed I could be such a devoted mother, Dardy. I 
 just worship my baby. I could eat him up sometimes ! " 
 She added dutifully, " Of course I'm very fond of 
 Richard too." 
 
 " Of course," said Mrs. Waldehast.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 177 
 
 " But I did promise, you know." 
 
 " Rubbish ! " 
 
 " I was old enough to know what I was doing." 
 
 " You were, both of you, old enough to know better. 
 But it's never too late to mend. You've given it a very 
 fair trial, I'm sure, and it hasn't worked. You can't 
 pretend that you're content — you can't pretend that 
 he's content. He's looking ten years older." 
 
 " How do / look ? " 
 
 " You'd look all right if you had a good time again," 
 replied Mrs. Waldehast hesitatingly. 
 
 Betty's eyes dilated : " I didn't know I had changed 
 so much as that ! " she said. " Of course I know what 
 my frock is." 
 
 One night she slept there. London was deluged 
 under a thunderstorm, and after contriving to telephone 
 to Keith and hear that Baby was safe and sound, she 
 had consented to remain. It was delightful to be 
 ministered to, to feel her hair brushed by Dardy's maid, 
 and to lie in luxurious contemplation when the maid 
 had gone — Betty didn't switch off the light for a long 
 while after she was in bed. It was delightful, in the 
 morning, to step through her doorway into a white, 
 spacious bathroom, and when she returned, to be met 
 by a maid once more. She went home early, fearful 
 lest the baby had suffered a catastrophe in her absence ; 
 and the miniature flat in Telemachus Mansions was 
 
 13
 
 178 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 fetid to her as she entered. Though Mrs. Waldehast 
 stayed in London for a fortnight only, the fortnight was 
 influential. 
 
 So far, Keith had managed either to pay the bills 
 or to conceal from his wife that he had not paid them. 
 Now there came a demand from downstairs which he 
 could hope to conceal for no more than twenty-four 
 hours. It blackened the breakfast-table. He slipped 
 the note into his pocket, and she had no suspicion of 
 his burden as he went out ; but he went out weighted 
 with the knowledge that he must find thirty pounds, 
 and that there were occasions when thirty pounds were 
 as difficult to find as thirty thousand. 
 
 The picture that he had to sell was not everybody's 
 money. He was conscious of it when he started. He 
 was more conscious of it still when he drooped down the 
 Haymarket at noon. It was Wednesday, and play-goers 
 were already beginning to assemble at the pit and 
 gallery doors. As he tramped from refusal to refusal, 
 the luckless canvas grew as heavy as his spirit, as heavy 
 as his feet. If he failed, only two courses were open to 
 him : one was to shock Betty by saying that they 
 must pawn her engagement ring ; the other was to 
 humiliate himself to Sir Percival and beg for a loan. 
 Of the two, the less execrable was to face the knight, 
 but he shrank from contemplating either. 
 
 At four o'clock he was back in Pall Mall. He stood
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 179 
 
 among the sauntering clubmen and the carriages, the 
 canvas still under his arm. As a last hope, the Six 
 Bells ! Many a picture had changed hands there for 
 a much larger sum than he was asking. The hostel 
 was distant, but he would have travelled farther for a 
 chance to-day. A horse-bus rumbled with him into 
 Chelsea at last. 
 
 His arrival was ill-timed. Of the men who painted 
 and the men who bought none was to be seen. The 
 billiard-room showed only strangers, the bowling-green 
 was as fruitless as the transplanted mulberry tree. 
 Upstairs, he heard, there was no one but a pilgrim, 
 who had entered to walk in Whistler's footsteps and 
 contemplate Carlyle's chair, " There have been plenty 
 of the people in," said the proprietor sympathetically, 
 " but they've all gone now." 
 
 It must be the loan, then ! From Chelsea to the 
 City. He kept glancing at his watch, fearful lest he 
 did not reach the office before his uncle left. 
 
 He was just too late — the application must be made 
 at the house ! This was even more abhorrent, but 
 anything was preferable to Betty's alarm. 
 
 From the city to Clapham Park. On the journey, 
 he tried to fan faith by remembering that the applica- 
 tion would be his first, and that his indigence was but 
 temporary. 
 
 Never till now had there seemed to be so many
 
 i8o THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 stations on the route, and never before had King's 
 Avenue seemed quite so long. There was small-talk 
 to be endured before he could seize an opportunity. 
 " Would his uncle lend him thirty pounds ? His need 
 was very pressing, and the sum should be repaid in a 
 month or two." 
 
 The knight refused with such blandness that his 
 refusal appeared to ask for gratitude, " The calls 
 upon him lately had been so numerous that they pre- 
 vented his acceding, but affection urged him to point 
 a moral : Richard should apply to his father-in-law. 
 Rightly regarded, his embarrassment was a blessing 
 in disguise, for it indicated the path of duty. To 
 advance the money would, indeed, be a false kindness 
 to him. However ! ... He would stay to dinner ? 
 Well, at least, he would have a glass of sherry ? " 
 
 Keith declined both invitations, and King's Avenue 
 was no shorter as he tramped back. He reached the 
 fiat very late, and Betty had already dined. 
 
 " I've been wondering where you were," she said. 
 " What have you been doing ? " 
 
 " I had to go out to Clapham Park. How's the 
 baby ? " 
 
 " Baby's all right. What did you have to go to 
 Clapham Park f or ? " 
 
 " There was something I wanted to see Sir Percival 
 about."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH i8i 
 
 '*" I wish I had known you were going ; I waited for 
 you for nearly an hour." 
 
 " I'm sorry ; I didn't know, myself," said Keith. 
 She asked no further question, and he rang the bell, 
 and had a stubborn drumstick of a fowl and a strong 
 whisky-and-soda. Half an hour passed before he 
 explained matters. 
 
 " Oh," he began, " there's a bill owing here for rather 
 a lot ; I'm short of about thirty pounds. It has got 
 to be paid to-morrow. It's an awful nuisance, but 
 if you can spare your ring for a month or so, it'll get 
 us out of the hole. It's the only plan I can think of, 
 or you may be sure I shouldn't suggest it." 
 
 " Why, yes," said Betty faintly, " of course ! " 
 " It's an awful nuisance," he repeated. " The 
 gallant knight wasn't any use ; I might have known 
 he wouldn't be ! " 
 
 " Is that what you went to Clapham about ? " 
 " Yes ; I thought it was just worth trying." 
 " Hadn't you thought of the ring then ? " 
 " I had thought of it, but the idea didn't attract me." 
 " Surely it was better to take the ring than go 
 humbling yourself to relations ? " she said. 
 
 " I don't know," sighed Keith ; " it was your 
 engagement ring — engagement rings seem sacred. Be- 
 sides, I didn't want you to know we were so hard up. 
 You're a trump to put such a good face on it, but of
 
 i82 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 course I understand. We shall worry through all 
 right, little woman — don't picture us singing in the 
 streets ! " 
 
 She replied with the ghost of a smile, and for some 
 seconds he smoked in silence. 
 
 " Suppose," she said feebly, " we don't worry through 
 all right ? What then ? " 
 
 " ' Sufficient for the day ' ! " 
 
 " This won't do much good. How long will it be 
 before the next bill comes up ? " 
 
 " Well, they come up every week, don't they ? But 
 we can let them run for a bit again ; I don't suppose 
 we're the only people in the place who don't pay 
 regularly. The rent is the chief bother. If that old 
 humbug But what's the good of talking ! " 
 
 " What did he say ? " 
 
 " Say ? He said there were ' many calls upon him ' 
 — the house won't see any more from me ! It was a 
 ' blessing in disguise ' to be dunned, according to him." 
 
 " How ? " 
 
 " Oh, of course, he advised me to turn to your 
 father. He knew I shouldn't, but it was a good way 
 out." 
 
 " His behaviour to you would be very different if 
 you ever did," she said tentatively ; " eh ? " 
 
 " Yes, I suppose it would," said Keith. 
 
 " It'd be ' my dear nephew, Lynch's son-in-law ' ! "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 183 
 
 " I daresay." His tone dismissed the subject. 
 
 There was another pause — and her voice was abrupt : 
 " Do you ever think of it, Dick ? " 
 
 " Do I ever think of it ? " He turned white. 
 " Good heavens, haven't we done with that ? " She 
 didn't answer. " You've not thinking of it, are you ? " 
 
 he faltered. 
 
 " It's getting worse and worse with us, that's all. 
 There are the dollars, if you like to take them. It'd 
 make my father very happy, and — and everybody 
 else." 
 
 " You ? " 
 
 " Yes, me too," she owned. " It's no use our 
 fooling ourselves — it can't go on much longer." 
 
 " What can't ? " 
 
 " This life we're leading. We've given it a very 
 fair trial — you don't say it's a success, do you ? " 
 
 " No," said Keith, staring at her ; " no, it's not a 
 success. I'm obliged to pawn your engagement ring, 
 so you ask me to sell my conscience." 
 
 " Oh, the ring," she burst out passionately, " the 
 ring is only one thing more ! It's petty and mean of 
 you to pretend that you think it's because of the 
 ring ! It was bound to come, anyhow, sooner or 
 later." 
 
 " It's as well that it's sooner, then," he said 
 sternly.
 
 i84 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " So / think ! I'm sorry it wasn't sooner still. 
 I'm sorry I submitted so long. He's my father, and 
 your attitude is an insult to him ! " 
 
 "Let's be truthful," said Keith. "Your affection 
 for your father isn't very great ; you're not complaining 
 of any insult to your father — you're complaining of 
 your own hardships." 
 
 " Yes, I'm complaining of my own hardships, and 
 my child's ! I don't choose to have him brought up 
 in beggary." 
 
 " And / don't choose to have him brought up in 
 dishonour. Oh, don't let's have another row ! Every 
 artist has his ups and downs ; if you're patient, we 
 shall be all right yet. There was no mistake about 
 it before we married ; you knew what it meant — 
 and you told me I was justified. Don't eat your 
 own words; don't ask me to eat mine." His tone 
 softened. " Won't you be brave, kiddy, and see it 
 out ? " 
 
 " You don't understand," she sobbed. " I want 
 to be good, I do want to be good, but it's so hard. 
 You don't know what it is to me here — the awfulness 
 of it. I know what I said, and I've tried. I have 
 tried ! But I can't bear it any longer, I can't ! " 
 
 Keith sat down helplessly. " Yes, I understand. 
 I don't reproach you — I was cruel to reproach you. 
 I suppose it's natural that you can't bear it."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 185 
 
 " I've done my best. No girl ever meant better 
 than I did. But it has gone on so long." 
 
 " Did you expect me to make a fortune in a year 
 and a half ? " 
 
 " No, but Oh, I don't know ! " 
 
 " Tell me," he urged. 
 
 " I don't know. I suppose I thought it would end 
 the other way." 
 
 " I made my refusal very clear, didn't I ? " 
 
 " I didn't know you'd refuse for ever." 
 
 Keith raised his head. " You hoped to talk me 
 round ? " he asked hoarsely. 
 
 " I — I thought you might change your mind." 
 
 " Oh ! " He sprang to his feet. " Talk straight ! 
 You married, meaning to persuade me ? When you 
 said that you felt I was right, that you'd give the 
 money up, that you were ready to face life with me, 
 it was all a trick ? " 
 
 " No, it was real, I meant it ! It was afterwards 
 I thought you might give in — only afterwards ! " 
 
 He groaned. " What does it matter ? You agreed 
 to marry me, and you wish you hadn't — that's what 
 it amounts to ! I'm not blaming you — of course 
 it was preposterous, everyone said it was preposterous. 
 / was the only fool who believed in it ! ... So you've 
 been miserable all the time ? Well, what's to be 
 done ? "
 
 i86 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " If you'd only let me write to him, we might be 
 as happy as we were at the beginning. You know 
 we've been drifting apart. All our troubles, our 
 quarrels, have come from our poverty — it isn't you 
 and I that have changed to each other, really ; it's the 
 squalor that's crushing our love. I do want to be 
 good, I swear I do; but my sacrifice isn't helping 
 anybody, nobody is any better off for it. If I knew 
 that thousands of people in the world, or even a few, 
 were happier for what I'm suffering, it'd be easier 
 to bear, I'd see something in return. But I can't 
 suffer for a theory ; it isn't fair to ask it of 
 me!" 
 
 " Well, what's to be done ? " he said again. " What 
 you propose is impossible." 
 
 " You won't let him help us ? " 
 
 " No. I don't want to be harsh, — I'm too sorry 
 for you, I feel too guilty for having married you, — 
 but you and I can't live on the money, Betty. Put 
 that thought aside at last, for the thing will never 
 happen." 
 
 " I won't go on as we are ! " she cried ; " I won't go 
 through any more scenes like this. It has got to be 
 altered now — somehow ! " 
 
 " What do you mean by ' somehow ' ? " he ques- 
 tioned slowly. " Do you mean you want to leave 
 me ? "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 187 
 
 " You will make me do it. I have told you just 
 how I feel, I have told you that I can't endure any 
 more. You must choose between your pride and 
 me." 
 
 " And, after all that has been said, from first to 
 last, do you really imagine we should be any happier 
 together on his money ? You must know as well as 
 I do that it would only make the breach between us 
 wider." 
 
 " Well ! " The shrug was reckless. 
 
 " Well, you must do as you please ! " said he. 
 
 " You choose your pride ? " 
 
 " Oh, we won't haggle about words," he said wearily ; 
 " call it ' pride ' if you Hke ! I've done all I could to 
 make you happy, God knows ! But I did you a wrong 
 in marrying you. I understand. I understand your 
 point of view much better than you understand mine. 
 If you want to go, you must go. But what about the 
 baby ? " 
 
 " Baby ? " Her gesture proclaimed. 
 
 " No," said Keith ; " you mustn't do that ! " 
 
 " What ? Do you think I'd leave him ? " she 
 gasped. 
 
 " He's my child too — you've no right to take away 
 my child." 
 
 " I'm his mother ; I'm thinking of him as much as 
 of myself, and more. Is it hkely I'd go without him ?
 
 i88 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 For me to live in luxury, and leave my baby here ? 
 You must be crazed. I wouldn't do it for anything in 
 the world ! " 
 
 " Well, you see I'm fond of him, and / don't mean 
 to part with him either. That I'm too hard up to 
 content my wife is no reason why I should lose my 
 son." 
 
 " It's a queer kind of love you have for him," she 
 retorted. " You don't mind risking his health in there, 
 you don't mind ruining his future ! He might be 
 brought up like a prince — and you ' love ' him so much 
 that you're spoiling his poor little life for the sake of 
 your fads ! " 
 
 " I don't think he will ever tell me I've spoilt it," 
 said Keith shakily. " With my consent, he shall 
 never owe a single advantage to the millions, as a child 
 or as a man. And when he's old enough to judge, I 
 hope he'll thank me for having kept his life clean." 
 
 " You hope he won't be like his mother, don't you ? 
 I hate you ! I can't drag him from you, so I'll have 
 to stay, but I hate you ! If I have to starve with him, 
 I'll stay. He's mine ! " 
 
 " Good-night," said Keith. " I shall sleep at the 
 studio." 
 
 He went to the bedroom, and threw some things into 
 a bag. When he was on the stairs, he remembered the 
 ring, and hesitated. But no, he could send for it in
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 189 
 
 the morning ! Almost at the same moment, he heard 
 her caUing. 
 
 " Here's the ring," she muttered, as he lagged back. 
 She dropped it in his hand, and he was forced to pocket 
 it — and he felt as if he had been whipped across the 
 face.
 
 XV 
 
 The last time he had wakened in this room was on his 
 wedding day. This morning he woke to the knowledge 
 that his wife remained with him because she would 
 not leave her child. He himself counted for nothing 
 in her life ; she had proposed to desert him, only the 
 child prevented her ! What did the future promise ? 
 
 He slunk to the private office of a pawnbroker's as 
 soon as the shops opened, and was dismayed by the 
 latest example of the difference between the purchasing 
 price and the pledging value ; he was offered no more 
 than twenty-five pounds. 
 
 " Twenty-five is no good," he said ; " lend me the 
 rest on my watch, then ! " 
 
 The elegant assistant retired again, and Keith 
 sketched a profile absently on the blotting-pad till he 
 came back. 
 
 " Three pounds ten," he announced, " is the best 
 we can do." 
 
 " I always did get a fiver," said the artist reminis- 
 cently. 
 
 »90
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 191 
 
 " Watches," explained the assistant, " have ' come 
 down ' so ! " 
 
 " Well, I'll put the chain in too," said Keith, and 
 the young man quitted the room once more. 
 
 He was still unsatisfactory on his return. 
 
 " Twenty-five shillings," he said. 
 
 " How much is that altogether ? " 
 
 A rapid pen showed the total to be £29, 15s, 
 
 Keith felt in all his pockets, and brought forth a gold 
 pencil-case, given to him by Betty, and a silver match- 
 box. " m have a match out, I want to light a 
 cigarette," he said. " Will you see if I can have the 
 other five bob on those ? " 
 
 At last the total was correct, and he took a cheque 
 to Telemachus Mansions within an hour. But he did 
 not go up to the flat. He went away, questioning what 
 he was to do for money pending the sale of work. He 
 had to pay in the thirty pounds at the bank before 
 the cheque — an open one — was presented, and sud- 
 denly he wondered if he was the sort of client who was 
 allowed to overdraw his account. The manager's 
 comments on the weather had always been genial 
 across the counter ; he had even offered criticisms 
 of the Academy, mistaken, but well-meant. Wild 
 though the attempt might be, it would cost 
 nothing ! 
 
 Mr. Adams was engaged at present, and confidence
 
 192 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 shrank under delay. It was also embarrassing to the 
 novice to feel that his business was divined by the clerk 
 behind the grating. Presently the brass door-knob 
 turned, and the manager's white head bowed a lady 
 out. " I'm very sorry," he was murmuring. It 
 sounded ominous. 
 
 Keith shook hands with him, and sat down in the 
 chair that the lady had vacated. 
 
 " I want to know if I may overdraw," he blurted. 
 
 The manager smiled. Hope leapt high. 
 
 " Oh, I daresay," he said. " I suppose you'll soon 
 be doing something with a picture, Mr. Keith ? " 
 
 " I may sell something any day." 
 
 " Oh yes, I daresay we can manage that for you. 
 Up to what amount do you " 
 
 " About fifty." His heart stood still. 
 
 Mr. Adams showed no disapproval. " Excuse me 
 just for a moment," he said. 
 
 This was too sunny to last — he would come back to 
 say he couldn't do it ! Well, keep repeating that it 
 would have cost nothing ! 
 
 " That will be all right, Mr. Keith," said the manager 
 musically. 
 
 " If you've been looking at my account, I may tell 
 you I've just given a cheque that'll wipe it clean 
 out." 
 
 Mr. Adams' nods were assuring.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 193 
 
 " I'm tremendously obliged ! " exclaimed Keith, 
 taking up his hat. 
 
 " I'm glad we can convenience you. I only wish 
 everybody would cut it just as short. I always know 
 what they're going to say, but most people make me 
 wait such a long time before they come to the point." 
 
 It was amazing, but it had happened. A minute 
 later Keith trod the street with his monetary care 
 banished. He wished fervently that this idea had 
 occurred to him before he asked Betty for the ring. 
 His impulse was to redeem it at once, but if he did so, he 
 might have to ask her for it again. The reflection 
 determined him to leave it where it was till he received 
 a substantial payment. A bank was certainly a great 
 institution ; how much more complacent than a pawn- 
 broker's ! While there were banks, there seemed no 
 reason why he should ever be hard up ! 
 
 Yes, though the power of fifty pounds would be brief, 
 his monetary care was banished ; many an affliction 
 carries an advantage, even the artistic temperament. 
 But the artistic temperament could not lighten the 
 domestic trouble. He went home to dinner reluctantly. 
 Would she recur to the subject, or were they to dine in 
 silence, or was the occurrence to be ignored ? He 
 decided to say, " Good-evening. How's Baby ? " and 
 await results. 
 
 " Good-evening," he said. " How's Baby ? " 
 13
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 She had been reproaching herself for the " I hate 
 you " all day, and she did her best to answer as usual. 
 Keith, in his turn, rejoined as cordially as indignation 
 permitted. In the heart of each was a hot grievance 
 against the other, and the mutual sham was no triumph 
 of histrionic art. 
 
 " Anybody been ? " he inquired, with an effort. 
 
 " Mrs. Premlow came in this afternoon," she said. 
 
 " Oh ? What has she got to say ? " 
 
 " Nothing particular. She says her husband is very 
 pleased with some picture he's doing." 
 
 " I've seen it ; the thing shrieks," said Keith. " Is 
 that all ? Have you been out ? " 
 
 " I changed my book." 
 
 " What did you get ? " 
 
 " I got Wynne's new one. It's very good as far as 
 I've gone." She picked it up and ruffled the pages. 
 
 At dinner it was no livelier. 
 
 As the hours ticked by, the tension increased. Both 
 were reading, but both questioned what was to be done 
 when he rose to leave again. The man wondered 
 whether she would hint to him that he wasn't to go. 
 The woman wondered whether he would hint to her 
 that he wished to stay. 
 
 With equal aversion, they foresaw the awkwardness 
 of the climax. At a quarter to eleven Keith told 
 himself that he would rise at eleven o'clock ; but when
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 195 
 
 the signal struck, he still faltered. Over the top of her 
 novel, Betty was relieved to see him fill another pipe. 
 
 Now it was a quarter past eleven. It was half-past. 
 The postponement was becoming ridiculous. He got 
 up abruptly. " Well, good-night ! " he said, scarcely 
 glancing at her. 
 
 " Good-night," she said, just turning her head. 
 
 So the custom was established. 
 
 Neither regretted it. Very soon the " good-night " 
 held less awkwardness than the "good-evening." He 
 never forgot that he would not have found her sitting 
 there but for the child in the third room. She never 
 forgot that her child was condemned to the third room 
 by her husband's obstinacy. Every evening Keith 
 asked, " How's the baby ? " and heard that he was 
 well, and stole in to view him sleeping. Every evening 
 he stood by the cot for a minute, in the nurse's presence, 
 like a visitor. 
 
 When a fortnight had passed, he received a different 
 answer to his question. " Baby has a cold." Even 
 affection found nothing portentous in it. This was on 
 Tuesday. 
 
 On Friday, when he returned, Betty met him with a 
 blanched face, and the baby was awake. 
 
 " He seems very feverish and restless ; I've sent for 
 a doctor ! " 
 
 None but the parents of an only child know what
 
 196 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 terror can grip the heart when " Baby seems very 
 feverish." Suddenly the capable nurse appeared a 
 pillar of strength to Keith ; his eyes besieged her with 
 inquiries. 
 
 " I don't think there's anything to be upset about, 
 sir," she said. " But Mrs. Keith '11 feel easier in her 
 mind when the doctor's been." 
 
 " What man did you send for ? Who recommended 
 him ? Did you say he was wanted at once ? " Half 
 a dozen questions leapt from his alarm. 
 
 The doctor was long in coming, and his unconcerned 
 demeanour was affronting when he came ; to him such 
 urgent messages were all in the day's routine. A 
 medical man divides symptoms into the objective and 
 subjective — those that he sees for himself, and those 
 that his patients tell him. And the latter he sub- 
 divides into the Real and the Imaginary. 
 
 But when he made his examination of the child's 
 chest, Dr. Griffiths was graver. The respiration was 
 hurried, and caused pain ; and the temperature was 
 high. He admitted that the case was critical. Forced 
 to put a name to it, he spoke of pleuro-pneumonia. 
 
 " rd like you to bring a physician," gasped Betty, 
 as the words left his lips. 
 
 He was surprised. His practice did not lie among 
 people who suggested consultations so swiftly. He 
 promised himself a half-guinea a visit instead of three
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 197 
 
 and sixpence. Inhuman ? No, human — he also had 
 a homeful of anxieties. 
 
 " Sir Edward Cooper is as good a man as you could 
 have," he said. 
 
 Sir Edward Cooper came on the morrow, and 
 Keith was there to receive him. The distinguished 
 person only corroborated the struggling man's 
 opinion, and made a perfunctory alteration in his 
 treatment ; but he was cheap at the three guineas, 
 for both the father and the mother felt encouraged 
 when he had been. It is among the general prac- 
 titioner's pains and penalties to see these things ; a 
 visit from a title always improves the condition of 
 the patient's friends. 
 
 But no improvement was to be noted in the baby 
 during the next two days, though, at Betty's request, 
 the visit was repeated. Keith left the flat very late 
 now, and was there again before breakfast. He 
 spent the days pacing the sitting-room and tiptoeing 
 to the nursery for reports. Betty, hollow-eyed for 
 lack of sleep, was no comrade in the crisis. The cold 
 from which the illness had developed was attributed 
 to the fact that it was difficult to ventilate the nursery 
 without exposing the child to a draught. The thought 
 seethed in her. If Baby were to die ! She was 
 sorry for Keith's trouble, she spoke every word that 
 was true to sustain his hope, but she blamed him
 
 igS THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 furiously. The mutual grief did nothing to draw 
 them to each other's arms. 
 
 No, the husband and wife did not kiss again with 
 tears. She who became strangely devoted was the 
 domineering nurse. She had a nature that put forth 
 its flowers in shadow. The arbitrary snob, who 
 had hitherto found nothing good enough, was now a 
 self-abnegating soul who found nothing too bad. 
 Untiring, unselfish, she bloomed with new virtues 
 hourly. Finally, her tone was even gentle to the 
 waiters. 
 
 On the third morning, when Keith arrived he 
 heard in the hall that Dr. Griffiths had been sent for 
 in haste, and was still upstairs. The lift-lad was 
 not in attendance yet ; Keith reached the fiat breath- 
 less. 
 
 Betty and the doctor were in the sitting-room. 
 
 " What's happened ? " 
 
 " He's worse ! Dr. Griffiths has just seen him," 
 
 " The breathing is very oppressed," explained the 
 doctor ; "I'm sorry to say there has been further 
 effusion in the night." 
 
 " Effusion ? " It conveyed nothing. 
 
 " I was just going to tell Mrs, Keith that we should 
 have to draw off some of this fluid — to tap the chest, 
 I mean. We ought to have it done as soon as possible 
 — to-day."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 199 
 
 " An operation ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Is it dangerous ? " 
 
 Dr. Griffiths hesitated. 
 
 " I should prefer it to be done by a specialist," he 
 parried. 
 
 " Yes, yes," said Keith, " of course ! " 
 
 " I want to understand, please," panted Betty. " I've 
 got to know just what we're risking." 
 
 " It sometimes causes syncope." 
 
 " And ? " She pressed hard. 
 
 " With a skilful " 
 
 " And — death ? " she whispered. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Who's the best man ? " she wailed. " I want 
 the best ! " 
 
 " Wait ! " exclaimed Keith. " Before we risk the 
 operation, what's the risk of not operating ? " 
 
 " You'd be taking a greater responsibility still. 
 To be candid, I must say that such an operation is 
 unusual, and something of a forlorn hope. On the 
 other hand, you can see, by his dusky colour and 
 dilated nostrils, how desperately bad the poor little 
 thing is. If nothing is done, your child hasn't many 
 hours to live." 
 
 " You won't mind my sajdng that we must have 
 that confirmed before we decide ? I'd like a second
 
 200 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 opinion, I'd like Cooper to see him again this 
 morning." 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Who's the best man, doctor ? " she moaned. 
 " Is there anyone you have absolute faith in ? " 
 
 " The man to get, of course, if you can afford to 
 have him, is Mr. Wimble, of Bart's. He's expensive — 
 and there's the question if he would operate to-day." 
 
 " The expense doesn't matter," she declared. Her 
 eyes met Keith's and challenged him. 
 
 " What's his fee ? " he asked hoarsely. 
 
 " Wimble never operates under a hundred guineas." 
 
 Would the bank grant another overdraft ? 
 
 " I'll telephone to Cooper now," he stammered. 
 His face was ashen. " I'll see if he can come at once," 
 
 Sir Edward undertook to be with them at half-past 
 ten, and Dr. Griffiths arranged to return. Keith 
 followed Betty to the nursery. Beside the cot the 
 nurse was crying — he was sensible of the wonder of it, 
 even in the desperation of his strait. As he watched 
 the little life labouring for breath, as he suffered with 
 it, as he prayed God for it to be spared, he still 
 heard the menace of his wife's words : " The expense 
 doesn't matter ! " 
 
 The bank had scarcely opened when he was with 
 the manager again. This time there was no amaze- 
 ment, the answer was but what he had expected even
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 201 
 
 while he pleaded. Mr. Adams was regretful — the 
 account did not justify consent. 
 
 One hope remained — Cooper might avert the 
 operation. 
 
 Griffiths' brougham drew up at the Mansions 
 punctually. The physician's motor car heralded his 
 advent soon afterwards. 
 
 " The expense doesn't matter ! " Still Keith heard 
 it, as he waited for the pronouncement. It " didn't 
 matter " ? No, not to her — to her there would be no 
 bitterness, no shame. But to him ! His resolve to 
 be cast aside, his vaunt of three weeks since annulled 
 in degradation — his son to be saved by Lynch's 
 aid? 
 
 The men came back. 
 
 "Operate! It'll ward off immediate danger. 
 Wimble, by all means ! " 
 
 A hundred guineas, or his child's life — his child's 
 life, or apostasy to save it ! 
 
 Apostasy ! And his torture made no illusions. 
 He did not strive to think that he would yield because 
 the mother had the right to claim it, he did not palter 
 with any subtilties of right and wrong — his breaking 
 spirit owned that he would yield because he loved his 
 boy. 
 
 There followed stereotyped phrases of encourage- 
 ment, an assurance that the best arrangements should
 
 202 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 be made without delay. An envelope was slipped 
 into pearl - grey gloves. The lift descended. The 
 motor car and brougham had gone. 
 
 She turned from the window with a slip of paper 
 in her hand. 
 
 " I suppose you know I'm going to cable to my 
 father for this money ? " she said in a hard voice. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You can ask the surgeon to wait a few hours for 
 his fee ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Here's what I've written." 
 
 He read, " Child dangerously ill. I want a hundred 
 guineas to-day. — Betty." 
 
 " Will you copy it on a form when you go out, and 
 send it so that he gets it about eight o'clock in New 
 York ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 He went out and copied the appeal to Lynch.
 
 XVI 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " Well, that's all right, sir ! " 
 
 " Successful ? " 
 
 " Quite." 
 
 " Thank God ! " There was something like a sob 
 in his voice. " I'm immensely grateful to you ! " 
 
 " The more urgent symptoms are much relieved, 
 and he may be as well as ever in a week or two. Let 
 us hope so ! Keep him quiet. But your excellent 
 nurse knows just what's to be done." 
 
 " Have something before you go ! Dr. Griffiths, 
 a whisky-and-soda ? " He spoke to Wimble apart. 
 " I've dated this cheque for the day after to-morrow. 
 You won't mind holding it over ? " 
 
 " With pleasure." 
 
 The tension was past. The surgeon's bag was no 
 longer an object of terror. He and Griffiths were 
 animated. Betty had shaken their hands, and was 
 crying with relief. Then they went, and she gazed 
 at Keith, and froze. Her impulse had asked for him 
 
 ao3
 
 204 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 to clasp her in his arms, to echo her joy — and she saw 
 a grey-faced man bowed with humiliation. She made 
 no allowances. The baby was safe, and the father 
 could think only of his own defeat ! That was how it 
 seemed to her, and she felt him to be egoistic and cold. 
 Dimly he was conscious of his deficiency in her eyes — 
 acutely he was conscious of his solitude — but he had 
 suffered too many emotions since morning to be 
 able to simulate one now. Her anguish during the 
 ordeal, her prayers, her hysterical thanksgiving, all 
 these things he had shared. But once more he stood 
 alone ; there was none to share the burden of his self- 
 reproach : "I couldn't pay to save my own child's 
 life ! " 
 
 Lynch cabled five hundred pounds. The boy's 
 condition improved daily, the nurse regained her 
 dignified demeanour, and by Dr. Griffiths' advice, Betty 
 decided to go with them to Bournemouth for a month. 
 
 Keith was staying at home. Poor effort at inde- 
 pendence ! His wife had written for accommodation 
 at the best hotel, she had bought new clothes for the 
 baby, and ordered new costumes for herself ; already 
 she had spoken of renting a larger and expensive 
 room in the Mansions for a nursery. But he wasn't 
 going with her to the seaside ! 
 
 How could it end ? He put the question to himself 
 hourly after the departure was made. Night after
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 205 
 
 night he sat alone in the flat, remembering the com- 
 pact and viewing its collapse. The thing that he 
 had sworn should never be, had come to pass — they 
 were being supported by Lynch' s money ! A debt 
 that might be discharged ? To say so would be 
 sophistry ! Long before this sum could be repaid 
 there would be another and another — and soon a 
 settlement, offered and accepted. The man looked 
 the truth in the eyes. The thing had come to pass ! 
 
 What was his duty ? To forbid ? It would be 
 idle. Besides, had he the right to forbid, after what had 
 happened ? Hadn't he forfeited the right ? She, at 
 least, might say so. To submit ? That would mean 
 continuous ignominy, as the price of holding his wife 
 and child. And his child's recovery he owed, under 
 Heaven, to Lynch's purse, and his wife had wished for 
 a separation. Now, of course, she might be satisfied 
 to remain, but her victory made her love no deeper. 
 
 Was it worth while to sink to it all, was it good 
 enough ? He knew that what he shrank from most 
 was, not parting from the later Betty, but from the 
 boy ; it was the boy that made a coward of him. But, 
 again, was it good enough ? Of the two evils, the 
 lesser might be the wrench. It might, it would, be 
 less awful to lose at once than to lose by slow degrees ; 
 less bitter to resign his claim than to see his child 
 estranged with Lynch's finery, bedizened with Lynch's
 
 2o6 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 trinkets, fostered, and pampered, and misled with 
 Lynch's wealth. 
 
 And he himself would have to share it ! The chair 
 that he sat on, and the servant behind it, and the food 
 that he swallowed, would be paid for by Lynch. A 
 daily degradation. For what ? He had meant to 
 keep his son unsmirched by guilty dollars, and he had 
 failed. Then let the mother take him, as she had 
 asked — let them go ! 
 
 He did not come to the conclusion in a night or in 
 a week — or, more exactly, he came to it every night, 
 and then pondered from'.the starting-point again. But 
 he came to it at last definitely, assisted by a letter, in 
 which Betty alluded to her return and the necessity 
 for the new arrangement. 
 
 " I am coming down to see you," he wrote, and he 
 went. 
 
 She was out when he arrived, and he waited for her 
 in her sitting-room on the first floor. He noted the 
 extravagance of flowers, and the peaches on the side- 
 board. Details as they were, they hardened him in 
 his resolve. It hardened him in his resolve when she 
 entered, careless and fashionable, a beauty without 
 a scruple, her conscience asleep again. 
 
 " You never told me what train you were coming 
 by, or I'd have been in," she said. " Have Baby and 
 nurse come back yet ? "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 207 
 
 " I haven't seen them," said Keith. " Is he quite 
 strong now ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, he's splendid." 
 
 She unpinned her hat, and put it aside ; and hummed 
 a Httle, to disguise her nervousness, as she drew off her 
 gloves. The man turned to the window, and stood 
 staring at the sea before he spoke. His opening sen- 
 tences had evaporated. 
 
 " Betty ! " 
 
 " Yes ? " She tried to sound surprised at the tone. 
 
 " You remember what I said before he was ill ? " 
 
 " What ? " 
 
 " I had to take it back ; his life was at stake — I sent 
 that cable for you." 
 
 " You sent it for yourself too ; you love him, don't 
 you ? " 
 
 " Yes. I sent it for myself as much as for you. But 
 I only asked for the surgeon's fee. That might have 
 been a loan. Do you think that my failure, my shame 
 — for I was sick with shame, and you knew it — do you 
 think it justified you in squandering whatever your 
 father was willing to send ? Do you think it justified 
 you in living as you're living now — as you talk of living 
 when you come back ? You know perfectly that if I 
 took the room you speak of, I couldn't pay for it. 
 You know our expenses are too heavy already ; how 
 do you propose that we should meet more ? We must
 
 2o8 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 understand each other ; I want to know if you're 
 counting on his help for the future ? " 
 
 " What if I am ? I should have thought common 
 gratitude would have removed your prejudice, after 
 what he has done." 
 
 " I expected you would say that," he said. " It 
 sounds very well, li you were a fool, I might even 
 think you were deceived by it. So you are counting 
 on his keeping us ? " 
 
 " Haven't we had a lesson, didn't we nearly lose 
 Baby ? " she exclaimed. " H he had had a proper 
 room, it'd never have happened ! " 
 
 " Who says so ? " 
 
 " Nurse says so. She knows what she's talking 
 about." 
 
 " And supposing you hadn't a rich father ? What 
 would you do then ? Yes, I do love the child too, and 
 his health's just as much to me as it is to you, and I'll 
 make any change for him that I can. But it isn't 
 for the child's health that you're spending twenty or 
 thirty pounds a week here, or wearing that frock. I 
 say we've got to understand each other. I must know 
 what you intend to do. If you mean this kind of 
 thing to go on, it means the end of our life together." 
 
 She stood by the mantelpiece, her head bent. " You 
 haven't made it a very happy life lately, anyhow, 
 have you ? " she muttered.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 209 
 
 " I ! If a woman speaks to her husband as you 
 spoke to me, she has either got to tell him she's sorry, 
 or accept the situation." 
 
 " A woman doesn't say she's sorry to a block of 
 wood," said Betty, with dry lips. 
 
 " And a man doesn't feel demonstrative towards a 
 woman who only remains with him because she doesn't 
 want to leave the baby. If I had let him go with you, 
 you wouldn't be here. Well, I take back another thing : 
 I take back my refusal — if he's to be brought up on 
 your father's money, it shaU be in New York ! " 
 
 She faced him in a flash, erect and white. 
 
 " You'U never say that to me again ! " 
 
 " I ask you to choose." 
 
 " You've told me I may go, and to take him with 
 me. Very well. I'll do it 1 " 
 
 " Oh, play straight ! " he cried. " The decision 
 rests with you, not me — don't let's have any humbug 
 about it ! If you go, it's because I'm a poor man ; if 
 you stay, you must act fairly to me. I've come down 
 to ask you which it's to be." 
 
 " I am going." 
 
 " All right. I daresay your father will be very glad 
 
 to have you back. Perhaps he'll be able to work a 
 
 divorce for you — I've no doubt he'll try. . . . That's 
 
 all, then ? " 
 
 "That's all." ... 
 
 14
 
 210 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 There was a long pause. The result was only what 
 he had feared, but now that it had come, he found 
 himself unprepared and dazed. His feeling was not 
 poignant — he had been much more moved by many 
 a play ; the thing seemed unreal — far more unreal than 
 a play ; dimly he was surprised that he didn't suffer. 
 It was strange — their lives were dividing, and he felt 
 no pain ; there was none of the chokiness, the protest 
 that he had known in anticipation. He was living the 
 scene apathetically, as he might have lived it in a 
 dream. 
 
 In her, emotions clashed and sobbed — misery, and 
 indignation, and self-contempt. If he had thrown 
 his arms round her, she knew that she would have wept 
 her heart out and promised all he asked — and simul- 
 taneously she wondered whether she could have kept 
 her word. 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon, sir ! " The nurse came 
 in, carrying the child. " I didn't know you were here." 
 " Good-afternoon," he said. " Well, Baby ? " He 
 touched a cheek gently. " Are you coming to me ? " 
 
 " Has he had a nice time, nurse ? " asked Betty, 
 her face averted. 
 
 " Oh yes, ma'am. He had a little sleep, too, while he 
 was out. Didn't he, a pet ? " 
 
 " Are you coming to me ? " repeated Keith. " Your 
 father has to go to town again at once."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 211 
 
 He held the child, and kissed him. His son had 
 scrambled and leapt to reach his arms a hundred times, 
 and gurgled with satisfaction when there ; but to-day 
 there was a wail to be set free. Perhaps the kiss had 
 been too hard. Trivial as it was, the wail distressed 
 the man. He gave him back to the nurse, abashed. 
 
 " Well," he picked up his hat, and glanced towards 
 Betty, " if I hurry, I shall just manage to catch that 
 train ! " he said, with laboured carelessness. " Good- 
 bye." 
 
 " Good-bye," she answered. 
 
 In the mirror, she watched him open the door. The 
 door shut. 
 
 " I don't know why Baby should cry for once when 
 his father kisses him ! " she gasped resentfully.
 
 XVII 
 
 Every day now, as she watched the Channel curling on 
 the shore, she thought of the Atlantic, that was so sadly 
 wide. " I am going to New York, on a visit to my 
 father ; I should like you to go with me," she had told 
 the nurse ; and though nurse was frankly appalled by the 
 casual mention of such anundertaking, she had, after con- 
 sideration, assented. And not altogether ungraciously. 
 
 So there was nothing to cause delay, nothing to pre- 
 vent the passages being booked at once, excepting 
 
 What ? Betty asked herself why she hesitated, and 
 shirked the answer. From Keith she expected to hear 
 no more. Now, at last, she realised fully that she could 
 never compromise between him and wealth. And she 
 had made her choice, and she had been given the boy. 
 Then why did she wait ? She said finally that she 
 waited because she was a coward, too weak to take a 
 decisive step. For shame ! Her chin disdained her 
 tears. Impulse lost patience with such folly. 
 
 She wished that Lynch were in Europe. The dis- 
 order of the docks, the farewells among strangers, the
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 213 
 
 nurse's protesting eyebrows, all added pangs to her 
 loneliness. And there was no exhilaration in her mood 
 afterwards, when her nervousness for the boy was past, 
 and she sat cloaked in her deck-chair, gazing at the 
 desolate sea. She thought of the last time that she had 
 been on an Atlantic boat. Almost all that mattered in 
 her life seemed to have happened since then ! Did 
 it seem ages back, that emotional trip, or not so long 
 ago as it was ? Both, alternately. She recalled the 
 conferences with Dardy, their scheme to get her own 
 way. Reviewing those days, the girl that she had been 
 looked strange to her ; she had not recognised till now 
 that she had altered so much. 
 
 Her mind dwelt on the evening when she promised 
 to marry. Common sense would have declared that it 
 must be painful to think of that now, but it was sweet ; 
 she thought of it more often than of any later occur- 
 rence. How pretty it had been ! Dardy had once said, 
 " There's a bad fairy that flies away with our bride- 
 grooms while we're dreaming on the honeymoon — and 
 when we wake, we just find husbands in their place." 
 Yes, Richard had altered too since their marriage ! 
 
 If he had remained the same Time was a brutal 
 
 thing, " a cynic," her father had called it ! If Richard 
 had remained the same, she could have kept her word to 
 him — perhaps. It wouldn't have seemed so hard if he 
 had remained her bridegroom. Still Oh, after all,
 
 214 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 she didn't know that she blamed him — or herself. It 
 was the sin of circumstances ; the circumstances had 
 been cruel. 
 
 The voyage was long, though she felt no impatience 
 to arrive. Society worried her. The women who talked 
 to her struck her as vapid, after women who had 
 professions, or took an interest in the professions of 
 their husbands. She observed newly that the ordinary 
 woman's interest in her husband's calling is limited to 
 its financial results. She didn't want to chatter inani- 
 ties, or to play games. When the child wasn't with her, 
 she protected herself for the most part with a book, 
 of which she read but little. On the third afternoon, 
 the lady-killer among the passengers attempted to 
 storm the fortress — and for the rest of the trip, he dis- 
 appeared into the smoking-room when she came on deck. 
 One evening at dinner she asked the captain " how far 
 they were from home," and she only noticed afterwards 
 that she had said " home," instead of " England." 
 
 She rose without eagerness on the morning that they 
 were to land. America was near ; field glasses were 
 numerous. Everybody else was excited. Americans 
 saw the dear ground of their birth, or their adoption, 
 again ; foreigners saw the Tom Tiddler's ground of 
 their expectations. 
 
 Lynch flung his arms about her with a sob, and 
 hugged her before the world ; and she drooped to him,
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 215 
 
 and reproached herself for not being glad enough to 
 see him. Sayings that she had paid small heed to 
 when they were uttered had crowded back to haunt 
 her, and she thought guiltily of her husband's com- 
 ment, " Your affection for your father isn't very 
 great." He was crying, unashamed, and for the first 
 time she knew it was pathetic that, worthily or un- 
 worthily, the love of an adult is given, and cannot be 
 earned. 
 
 " Oh, honey, it's good to look at you ! " he reiterated. 
 " Is that the baby ? Scott, how he's grown ! How 
 are you, how are you, my girl ? " 
 
 It was queer to be jolted again over the rough roads 
 of the neighbourhood — to see its crude ugliness widen 
 and brighten into the New York that was familiar. It 
 was queer to be sitting in a carriage again, to mount 
 the steps of the house, to breathe the warm air as she 
 entered. There were flowers, flowers everywhere, 
 to greet her, masses of them, blooming in the great 
 hall, and in the drawing-room, and at every turn. 
 " You could never have enough of flowers," laughed 
 the old man ; " I told them there was to be heaps of 
 flowers to-day — for you ! And your own nurseries 
 are ready for your boy ! I've got some real fine toys 
 for him there — you'll see. I guess he's too young to 
 play with them yet, but it livened me up to get 'em, 
 and he'll grow."
 
 2i6 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " You're good to me ! " she faltered, moved. 
 " Somebody had better show nurse where the rooms 
 are. WTiere are you, nurse ? " 
 
 Nurse was hovering on the threshold, and she came 
 forward — but no longer recognisable. Her dignity 
 had gone. Awe transfigured her. Her mouth was 
 open, her cheeks were bloodless, her eyes started from 
 her head ; when she spoke, her voice was but a rever- 
 ential whisper. 
 
 " You had better take Baby upstairs now, nurse — 
 they'll show you the way." 
 
 " Yes, madam," she said huskily. 
 
 Unrecognisable still, she crept through the fantastic 
 nurseries when Betty followed her. Supported by 
 ivory, cradled in gold, and canopied with rare lace, 
 the babe lay engrossed by his sixpenny " soother " ; 
 and the mother, viewing him, wished that he were old 
 enough to appreciate. She craved to hear her child 
 approve the difference ; it would have encouraged her 
 to witness his delight. Amid the pomp, the babe lay 
 engrossed by his "soother" — just as tranquil he had 
 lain in London. 
 
 She went down to her o\^'n rooms, and the majesty 
 of them startled her now. Yet, hke the child, she was 
 failing to enjoy. It was exquisite, it was imperial, 
 but it was not " home." She had contemplated more 
 gaily the bedroom in the Kensington Hotel. On the
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 217 
 
 table was the toilet-service that she had left behind, 
 and as she gazed at it her bosom heaved, her eyes 
 grew wide. She sat do\vn, and rested her brow on 
 her hands. 
 
 By and by Mrs. Waldehast ran in to welcome her, 
 and her spirits rose ; but Dardy could not stay to 
 dinner, and the evening was passed alone with L}mch. 
 While he exulted over her return, Betty was thinking 
 how perfect it would be if Keith too were present, 
 and they were all three happy together. 
 
 " It's like old times to see you there," Lynch 
 kept saying, " like old times 1 " He rubbed his 
 harsh, yellow hands together, rejoicing. " You won't 
 want to talk much about it yet ? " he asked 
 wistfully. 
 
 " Tell me more about Howard," she said. " How 
 long is he going to stay there ? I'd like to go to see 
 him." 
 
 " He was writing about coming back a while ago ; 
 they were very pleased with his progress. But he's 
 been worse again since then — more hjemorrhage. I'm 
 afraid for Howard ; it don't seem to be doing him the 
 good that was expected. I guess he'U never be alto- 
 gether right again." 
 
 " Do you mean he'U always be an invalid ? " she 
 asked, dismayed. 
 
 "I'm afraid," he repeated, \vith slow nods, " I begin
 
 2i8 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 to think we were too late finding out he was sick. . . . 
 It's made me look back, you know, his being like this ! 
 He hasn't been much of a son, late years, but I used 
 to have lots of hopes when he was younger. It's made 
 me look back ! That's one reason why I'm so glad to 
 have your boy." 
 
 " You've been dull, all alone," she said pityingly. 
 
 " Yes, it's been lonesome. This house ain't much 
 good to me, you know — two rooms are about all / want 
 now. But I guess I'll buck up now you're back ! I'm 
 going to give you a dandy time, make you forget your 
 troubles." 
 
 She sighed. 
 
 " How did you come to quit, Betty ? " 
 
 " It was the same thing. I had asked him before — 
 and he wouldn't ! " 
 
 " Didn't mind your going ? " 
 
 " He said himself it must be one thing or the 
 other." 
 
 " The child's illness didn't bring him down ? " 
 
 " He consented to the cable. Of course he wouldn't 
 if he could have helped it." 
 
 " It scared me some when I got it. You were 
 broken up, eh ? " 
 
 " It was awful ! . . . You see, he said the hundred 
 guineas we asked for might have been a loan — he said 
 I had no right to have taken more. It was a blessing
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 219 
 
 you were here. I don't know what we'd have done 
 if you had been away." 
 
 " I had fixed that ; whenever you cabled for dollars, 
 you'd have got 'em, if I was in New York or not." 
 He groaned. " What a pity, poppet, what a pity ! 
 Still, we'll ease it up ; I'll fix that for you too." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " What do I mean ! I mean I'll make you a free 
 woman. You don't suppose I'm going to see your 
 whole life ruined by that dog ? You shall divorce 
 him." 
 
 She shivered. 
 
 " He said you'd try ! " 
 
 " Is that so ? Well, I guess his judgment was 
 right for once. I'll do more than ' try ' ! I'll have 
 a chat with Dorfman to-morrow." 
 
 " I don't think I want you to go to a lawyer yet." 
 
 " Why not ? " He peered at her shrewdly, alarmed. 
 
 She didn't speak. 
 
 " Why not ? " he said again. " Don't tell me 
 you're weak about him still ? You'll never be so 
 crazy as that ? " 
 
 " Isn't it all over between us ? " she said in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " I want to see a divorce. It was ' all over ' once 
 before. 'Tisn't two years ago you told me here you'd 
 never speak to him again as long as you lived — and
 
 220 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 the next I heard about it was that you were going to 
 be married. See here, if I work it for you, there'll 
 be no such great harm done after all. You've had 
 two rough years, but you can cut your losses — you 
 can marry an English aristocrat all the same. The 
 boy won't get the title, but he'll have plenty of dollars 
 — /'ll see to that — and you'll be just as fond of the 
 heir." 
 , " Don't," she begged, " don't 1 I can't bear it." 
 
 " What's wrong ? He'll be your son as well, won't 
 he ? And by a better man I You can love two 
 children, can't you ? " 
 
 " I should never marry, whatever happened," 
 
 " You have heaps of time to change your views. 
 You'll meet a man that's good enough one day." 
 
 " I'd never give my child a stepfather in any case. 
 And I should never want to," 
 
 " When you like the man, you'll think different. 
 It doesn't pay to make too many sacrifices for your 
 children ; they grow up, and you're liable to get 
 left. When your boy was old enough to quit you 
 for some girl, and you were too old to get the man 
 back, I guess you'd say you had done a poor deal. 
 One of these days you're going to be keen on marry- 
 ing, and I mayn't be here to hustle for you then. 
 Get your divorce while I'm with you to engineer the 
 evidence. Anyhow, you're better off free."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 221 
 
 But the subject was abhorrent to her, and though 
 he harped on it all the evening, and recurred to it 
 many times during the next few days, she would not 
 agree to his going to his sohcitor. 
 
 He, on his side, would not agree to her leaving him 
 to travel to Howard so soon, and the days glittered 
 with new colour. If she had found no excitement in 
 the dazzling change, she would have been more than 
 human ; she would have been more than human if 
 there had not been hours in which she laughed, and 
 thrust remembrance from her when it clawed. Lynch 
 had opened an account for her at his bank, and once 
 more her means were unlimited ; once more she ordered 
 lavish entertainments, and went to others. Ostensibly 
 she was staying with her father for two or three months, 
 and the circumstances of her marriage had been 
 sufficiently sensational for acquaintances to spare 
 her tactless questions. Her New York was curious, 
 but discreet. 
 
 Soon it was only to Dardy that she spoke of Keith, 
 and she did not speak very often of him to her. In 
 their first long talk, Dardy had also counselled her to 
 divorce him, and it had been difficult to explain why 
 she shuddered at the idea. 
 
 Why was it that she shuddered ? Well, it would 
 mean perjuring herself. Though she had been reared 
 in a " world " where no one was expected to utter the
 
 222 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 truth when it was against his interests, the last two 
 years had shown her that there was another " world," 
 where people esteemed 'cuteness less and honour more. 
 That was one reason. Also, she knew instinctively 
 that she would feel worse afterwards than she did 
 now, more contemptuous of herself — more blank. 
 
 Oh, but she didn't want to think about it ! She would 
 have the carriage round and go and scatter some more 
 dollars. She'd make up a luncheon party for Sherry's, 
 and go to see a musical comedy in the evening, and have 
 a good time afterwards at the Zeislers' ball. . . . Only, 
 one couldn't have a very good time when the right 
 man wasn't there ! Idiot ! Was she going to squander 
 her youth regretting ? She had pined in her cage, 
 and now she was sentimentalising when she had 
 escaped. " Betty," she advised herself earnestly, " for 
 the love of sense, be consistent, my dear ! You've 
 got what you wanted, and still you aren't happy. 
 Nobody but me would have any patience with you ! " 
 
 Was she already forgetting the waiter with the 
 grubby shirt-front ? The chilly entrees, stiffening in 
 their gravy ? The stodgy white sauce for the flabby 
 fish, and the same stodgy white sauce, in another 
 tureen, for the Appendicitis pudding ? More than all, 
 was she forgetting the third room ? No, memory 
 displayed them to her — in the theatres, in the 
 shops, in the whirligig of waste that was her life.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 223 
 
 It had been shocking, odious, bitter ! She wouldn't 
 idealise the execrable because it was past ! But 
 she had been unjust to Richard ! This she came to 
 see now. Once she said so to Dardy, when they were 
 driving. 
 
 " You know, he did all he could for me, but make the 
 one concession," she said. " He gave me every mortal 
 thing I asked, outside that. If he hadn't indulged me 
 so much, we should still be together." 
 
 " How do you make that out ? " 
 
 " He would have had plenty of money for Baby's 
 illness, and we shouldn't have had to cable. It was 
 the cable that brought about the separation — brought 
 about the climax, anyhow. And it wasn't his fault 
 that we had to send it, it was the fault of my extrava- 
 gance." 
 
 " It's lucky you were extravagant, then ! It's no 
 good, I can't pretend I'm sorry you're here, Betty. 
 Only I do want you to see the business through ! It 
 isn'tthrough like this — you're not maid, wife, nor widow. 
 Besides, he can't oppose a divorce ; it's only fair to you 
 that he should let you get it." 
 
 " I can't see that I've any claim on him that way," 
 said Betty. " Between you and me, I think he's got 
 more to complain about than / have ; I've got Baby." 
 
 " Men aren't wrapt up in babies the same as we are." 
 
 " Dick was wrapt up in ours."
 
 224 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " And he has his profession. He'll be able to take 
 it easier now ; his expenses will be less without 
 you." 
 
 " That's true," said his wife mournfully. " He'll do 
 better work now I'm gone. He had to paint down for 
 me ; I was a drag on his genius from the start." 
 
 Dardy Waldehast's nose turned to one side. 
 
 " I never heard he was a ' genius ' before ! " 
 
 " You never heard anything about art at all, that's 
 why ! You don't know a picture from a frying-pan, 
 excepting by their prices." 
 
 " Thank you." 
 
 " No, and you don't." 
 
 " And how much have you learnt about ' art ' in five 
 minutes ? " 
 
 " Dardy," she said, touching her friend's hand, 
 " since I went away I've learnt more about art, and 
 about Real Life, than all the women at the dance last 
 night lumped together." 
 
 " Better take care you don't bust ! " said Dardy 
 pleasantly. 
 
 " Oh, you may chip me, but it's true ! I'm beginning 
 to see how much I did learn. I'm beginning to see 
 how much I lacked — lack. I've had no ideals." 
 
 " If you have any more virtues, you'll be impossible." 
 
 " Every one of those women, Dardy, had something 
 higher than / have ! "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 225 
 
 " I thought you just said they were infants by 
 comparison ? " 
 
 " I'm talking about the women in the studios and 
 the attics they called ' flats.' They weren't all clever, 
 but they all lived for something they expected to do, 
 or to see their husbands do. They all had an aim in 
 life. I've no aim, except to make my baby happy 
 — and perhaps I haven't gone the right road to do 
 that." 
 
 " I don't know what there is to worry you about the 
 baby." 
 
 " I'm not worrying. But I've wondered once or 
 twice." 
 
 " Wondered what ? " 
 
 " Well, suppose he grows up like Richard ? The 
 dollars won't compensate him for the disgrace." 
 
 " Disgrace ? " 
 
 " He'll think it a disgrace if he's like his father. 
 He'll be brought up an American, and he'll love his 
 country with all his heart and soul. He'll want to 
 paint for it, or to legislate for it, or to fight for it, or to 
 work for its glory somehow ; America will be a Religion 
 to him. That's how Richard feels about England. 
 A boy who felt the same way about America wouldn't 
 be very grateful to me for having suckled him on his 
 nation's blood. He'd tell me that he would rather have 
 been poor." 
 15
 
 226 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 After a stare of dismay, the other woman said 
 encouragingly — 
 
 " I don't suppose he will be like your husband ; he'll 
 grow up to take a different view of things." 
 
 Betty's eyes were more mournful still : " Y-e-s." 
 
 " And, anyhow," continued Dardy, " isn't that tall 
 talk rather rats, considering ? You're going grand 
 slam on ' the nation's blood ' yourself, you know ! I 
 don't want to rub it in, but your father has made it very 
 soft for you. It's a bit thin to spout heroics and go a 
 splurge in the dollars at the same time." 
 
 " Don't you think I know it ? " exclaimed Betty. 
 " I'm the meanest skunk that ever lived ! I know 
 that ! I know my father deserves to be loved by me, 
 at any rate, and I'm ashamed that I don't love him 
 more, and I've hated myself for it since I've been back. 
 But you can't force your love, and you can't quell 
 your love ; you've got to take it as it is, like the sun 
 in the sky. I'm a fraud. I want to be good, and I 
 haven't got the grit, that's what's the matter with me ! 
 When I do right, I'm miserable ; and when I'm wicked, 
 I'm not at peace either. There's no place in the world 
 for such a shilly-shally to be happy in ! " 
 
 " You were all right before you met this man — you 
 had none of these crazy notions then." 
 
 " That isn't so ; you know it isn't. I've had the 
 thoughts always. He only strengthened them. But
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 227 
 
 they usedn't to come top so often. They didn't come 
 top so often even when I was with him. While I was 
 hankering after the dollars, I didn't seem to feel they 
 were so guilty. But now I've got them again, and I'm 
 
 spending them, and Oh, Dardy, the truth's 
 
 beastly close ! "
 
 XVIII 
 
 Gone ! No letter from her, no line. For weeks he 
 had nursed hope of an olive twig, the merest hint. 
 Gone — marriage, fatherhood, every aim but art that 
 he had known during the two years that counted 
 most ! Once he had lived alone and asked for nothing 
 better ; to-day his spirit listened for her voice, and 
 waited for his child's in every waking hour. Once he 
 had called it peace to be alone ; to-day he called it 
 desolation. 
 
 Wrench up a life by its roots and bid it bear flowers ! 
 Only his art remained, and as yet he could not paint. 
 
 The flat was shut. He would never enter it again. 
 If he could find someone to relieve him of its burden, 
 he would try to work in the country. In the mean- 
 time, the additional expense of accommodation there 
 forbade the plan. He stayed in London, and lived at 
 the studio. 
 
 Gone ! Wretched as he was, he did not delude him- 
 self. He was not longing for the woman that she had 
 become, but he was in love with the woman that she 
 
 3X8
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 229 
 
 used to be — or seemed to be ; had briefly been ! 
 Remembrance gave her back to him in many scenes, 
 and all were early scenes. Sometimes he communed 
 with her in dreams, and woke with the magic of her 
 presence still clinging to his senses. To wake was to 
 lose again. And the Betty he had just seen lived in 
 his dreams only now ! He knew that bereavement 
 by change was more poignant than bereavement by 
 death. 
 
 He spent the evenings smoking alone, or roaming 
 about the streets. To his club he had gone seldom 
 since his marriage, and now he shunned it rigidly. 
 Nothing would induce him to allude to the circum- 
 stances — let time reveal them ! Everybody had told 
 him he was a fool at the beginning, and, among them- 
 selves, men would say worse of him henceforward. 
 Such sympathy as people had to spare would of course 
 be given to her — the victim of his high-flown ideas. 
 Well, Heaven knew she was welcome to it ! For that 
 matter, he would far rather she received sympathy 
 than blame. Yet he felt it to be a little hard that, 
 suffering as he was, he must figure in the world's eyes 
 as a husband without affections, a brute who had 
 sacrificed his wife and child on the altar of his 
 vanity. 
 
 We judge humanity by the few humans we have 
 known. Keith had known none to say to him, " You
 
 230 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 are right." No man had owned, " You are practising 
 only what we preach — to be consistent, we should all 
 have to do the same ! " On the contrary, Lynch's 
 censors had counselled his son-in-law to take his money. 
 Keith had no hope that the world would be just. 
 
 Of course he said that he didn't care, that his plight 
 was too black to be darkened ; but we all want justice, 
 and he did care. When necessity drove him to an 
 easel at last, work, by very slow degrees, yielded his 
 only solace. The sketches of his wife which he had 
 removed from the flat faced him on the walls — Betty 
 in a white dinner-gown, and in a rose peignoir, and 
 coiling her hair before a mirror ; Betty saying, " Mr. 
 Keith, You will please Take Me Back to the Room." 
 — each of them a reminder and a pang ! The sight of 
 them hurt him so much that he huddled them all into 
 a corner one day ; but their banishment hurt him so 
 much that he put them back again. 
 
 And meanwhile his wife too was lonely, although 
 she lived in crowds. If Dardy had said, " It's thin to 
 spout heroics while you're spending the dollars, so 
 give up the dollars," Betty would have had a com- 
 panion. But Dardy said, " So give up the heroics ! " 
 It was painful to discover that Dardy and she weren't 
 such chums as they had been. Like the women on 
 the boat, the friend of her girlhood seemed very limited 
 now. When Betty was earnest, Dardy was bored;
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 231 
 
 and when Dardy was vivacious, the subject was not 
 very interesting to Betty. 
 
 When she had been back a month, she insisted on 
 going to see Howard without further delay. Lynch 
 professed to be unable to leave New York just then, 
 and she travelled to Colorado with her maid. 
 
 In truth, she had been less eager to see Howard than 
 to withdraw from the social whirl, and here again she 
 reproached herself for coldness. It was queer that 
 the only real love that she had felt had been given to 
 the husband whom she had deserted and the son 
 who might live to condemn her ! 
 
 " I've had the thoughts always — he only strengthened 
 them." It was true. She wondered if, without his 
 influence, they would have grown to daunt her as 
 they did to-day. Most likely not — she would have 
 become callous, like Dardy ! But she had met him 
 while she was still impressionable. Now they were 
 supreme. 
 
 And also she had come to see that the shame of the 
 money was not her only shame — she saw that, even if 
 her luxury had been honest, it would have been in- 
 sufficient to content her apart from him. In the 
 solitude of the night had she made these meditations ? 
 She had made them no less often in the crowds where 
 bands were playing. The perception of her mind 
 and soul's development had come to the woman at all
 
 232 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 hours. It had trespassed upon ballrooms and in- 
 truded into restaurants. 
 
 And while she travelled to her brother, she thought 
 what the landscape would have meant to Keith. 
 
 The journey was very tedious to her — and she re- 
 flected that to him it would have been a novelty to 
 travel in such a train. They reached Fernando 
 Prospect on Tuesday, many hours late. It was ten 
 o'clock in the evening when they entered the ram- 
 shackle station, but the conveyance was waiting to 
 take her to the hotel. A warm wind raged, as if to 
 sweep the little town to ruins. She saw a belated 
 fruit-seller clinging breathlessly to palings for support ; 
 her stall had been overturned, and the road was 
 ruddy with fruit. Sweeping and volleying, the wind 
 fought the carriage as the horses ploughed forward. 
 It looked to her a strange spot for the cure of 
 phthisis. 
 
 At the hotel she learnt that the wind was " dropping 
 now," and she wondered what its force had been 
 originally. 
 
 Early next day she was at the sanatorium, and in 
 the reception-room it was broken to her that the case 
 was hopeless — Howard was dying fast. She was told 
 that a letter had been posted to Lynch just before the 
 receipt of the telegram announcing her departure. 
 Even under the shock, she realised that, from mer-
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 233 
 
 cenary considerations, much of the truth had been 
 withheld hitherto — that the patient had been too 
 profitable to be rehnquished. But it was no time to 
 make reproaches. 
 
 The wasted face that turned to her on the pillow 
 was a sermon on the wasted life. 
 
 " Ah, Betty," he said tonelessly. 
 
 The nurse left her alone with him, and she drew a 
 chair to his side. Beyond the bed, all was sweet air 
 and flowers. Colorado was fair this morning. Her 
 view was a peaceful yellow world — that, and the 
 gaunt face of the dying man. 
 
 He did not know that he couldn't recover ; he talked 
 of " getting out of this hole before long — coming 
 back." Often as he dwelt on his symptoms, she 
 noticed that he never spoke of the " disease " — it 
 was always the " illness." Yet he seemed to under- 
 stand that he could never again be quite as other 
 men, and his first allusion to her marriage was coupled 
 with a lament for himself. 
 
 " We've both made a mess of it, old girl," he said, 
 " eh ? " 
 
 Fits of coughing interrupted his speech and left 
 him very tired. He had had a bad night, so she had 
 been advised not to stay long. But she returned in 
 the afternoon. 
 
 He had become very peevish and exacting, and she
 
 234 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 admired the gentleness with which the nurse answered 
 when he grumbled at her. Was she so kind 
 when no one else was there ? Betty asked. Yes, he 
 had praise for his nurse — strange praise on Howard's 
 lips : " She's a real good woman ! " he said. She was 
 young, and refined — many less attractive girls ex- 
 pected to make great matches. Though there was 
 nothing singular about her, she was extraordinary to 
 Lynch's daughter, who contrasted the arduous life 
 with her own. 
 
 " You have a great deal to do, nurse," she re- 
 marked on the morrow. Howard was sleeping, and 
 they were together in the adjoining parlour. 
 
 Nurse Emery looked gratified. 
 
 " I wonder you think so — what you see isn't much ! 
 The visitors don't see the work. As a rule, visitors 
 think a nurse's life is very ' pretty.' " 
 
 " I think it must be terrible," said Betty. " Are 
 you an enthusiast ? " 
 
 " I would rather do this than anything else I am 
 capable of." 
 
 " I meant, did you go in for it just for the love of it ? 
 I know there are girls who do." 
 
 The head-shake was prompt and cheerful. 
 
 " Oh no, Mrs. Keith ; I'm not a heroine — I had to 
 make a living, and I chose the way I liked best, that's 
 aU."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 235 
 
 "Does it lead to anything? — is there anything to 
 look forward to ? " 
 
 " Why, no ; I expect I'll be nursing as long as I'm 
 strong enough." 
 
 " And yet you seem so contented ? " said Betty 
 wistfully. 
 
 " Well, I've got to make a living somehow," re- 
 peated the girl ; " whatever I did, it'd mean work. 
 And this way, I'm helping other people at the same 
 time. That keeps one's heart up; there's some 
 pull about that ! " 
 
 " Yes," murmured Betty, " there must be some 
 pull about that ! " But she wasn't so sure of her 
 being no heroine. 
 
 She went each morning to the sanatorium. She 
 sat daily in her brother's rooms, overhanging the 
 yellow, smiling landscape, that looked so remote 
 from death — sat learning to be patient, recalling 
 his childhood, enduring his hopes. 
 
 His body was taken to New York.
 
 XIX 
 
 The old are frightened when the young die. Though 
 Lynch's love for his son had grown less as the boy grew 
 older, his consternation was deep — far too deep for 
 Betty to startle him with the thoughts thronging her 
 mind. 
 
 She lived very quietly now, and the retirement was 
 welcome to her. But retirement could not still her 
 memories of Keith, it could not pacify her conscience. 
 She had failed. She was bringing up his child on the 
 wealth that he condemned, and she revolted at the 
 knowledge. 
 
 Defenceless, for she had admitted his right to con- 
 demn ! She had chosen evil seeing it to be evil, chosen 
 it with her eyes open, understanding all — except the 
 latent truth within herself. 
 
 They owed it to this wealth that their child lived ! 
 
 Inscrutable ! It might be that the very dollars which 
 
 saved him had cost the life of another. Well, if it was 
 
 heinous so to save one's child, she took the sin upon 
 
 her soul, as Keith had done, without repentance ! But 
 
 236
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 237 
 
 afterwards ? No obscurity there ! The facts blazed 
 fiercely. Not gratitude nor necessity could be her 
 plea. She had sinned because she was a coward. She 
 had pillaged for her own ends. 
 ) From Lynch she must at present withhold her inten- 
 
 tion, and she had to unburden her mind to someone. 
 
 " I mean to go back," she said to Dardy two or three 
 weeks after the funeral. 
 
 " I thought you would ! " said Dardy, with a shrug. 
 " What good do you think that will do ? " 
 
 " For one thing, it will make me happier." 
 
 " It won't last any longer this time than it did before 
 — it won't last so long ! " 
 
 " I mean it to last all my life this time. And it will 
 — it's different now." 
 
 " I don't see where the difference comes in." 
 
 " Before, I had no idea what it would be like ; now, I 
 know just what I've got to expect." 
 
 " And you know you weren't able to stand it ! Why 
 should you stand it any better now ? It's easy to be 
 courageous while you're safe. Wait till you get back — 
 you'll find it all as impossible as ever ! ... If you had 
 let your father do as he wanted, you'd have spared 
 yourself all this kind of thing. Get comfortably 
 divorced, and you'll know where you are — you'll feel 
 settled then. And much better for your husband too ! 
 He'd know this resolution of yours wouldn't wash. It's
 
 238 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 a muddling sort of life for a man to have a wife always 
 saying ' Farewell for ever,' and ' Here I am again ! ' 
 If you returned to him to-morrow, you don't suppose 
 he'd believe in your promises ? " 
 
 " No," said Betty, " he couldn't believe in them a 
 little bit ; I've given myself away too much for that. 
 No, I've thought all that out ! If I went back to him 
 now, it'd be a big mistake — he'd have no faith in me, 
 and I'd have no right to expect it. It'd be a sham 
 homecoming, and that would be horrible ! But it 
 isn't what I mean to do. I mean to educate myself 
 first." 
 
 " What ? " 
 
 " I have got to live hke that alone. Then when I go 
 back to him, there'll be no doubts to spoil our meeting. 
 I intend to go to him as a wife who has proved herself ; 
 I am going to be able to say, ' I have done it, so I know 
 that I can do it ! ' Only it'd be cruel to leave here so 
 soon after Howard's death — I must wait a month or 
 two." 
 
 " You're going to live like that alone ? " cried Dardy. 
 " How ? What are you going to live on — * genteel 
 poverty ' from your father ? If you can accept a Uttle, 
 you can accept a lot — the dollars aren't any purer taken 
 in small quantities." 
 
 " I am not going to have anything at all from my 
 father — I shall manage on my own money. If I live in
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 239 
 
 England — and I want to be in England — it'll mean 
 
 nearly two pounds a week. There are plenty of 
 
 women there who live on less." 
 
 Dardy Waldehast opened her mouth as if to exclaim, 
 
 but regarded her friend in helpless silence. At last she 
 
 said feebly — 
 
 " Two pounds a week ? " 
 
 " Plenty of women there live on less," repeated 
 
 Betty. " Why shouldn't / ?— I'm not a fool." 
 
 " Women ! What sort of women ? There are 
 
 women who tell fortunes with birds on the side-walk. 
 
 What's that got to do with you ? You must be out of 
 
 your head ! You don't know how to tell fortunes 
 
 with birds or live on two pounds a week, do you ? " 
 " No, no better than you, Dardy. But I'm going to 
 
 learn — not how to tell fortunes with birds, I have no 
 use for the accomplishment — but how to make myself 
 a real wife for the man I married. That's the object of 
 my life — and I'll put up with some pretty rough times 
 to succeed. Don't make a mistake : I'm quite aware 
 what two pounds a week will be to me ! I was fright- 
 ened on ten — on two, I shall feel as lost as both the 
 Babes in the Wood at the start. But I know that shoals 
 of women do contrive on that — and gentlewomen — 
 and what they are capable of doing, I will become 
 capable of doing. I don't choose to remain inferior to 
 any woman living ; I don't choose to lose my husband
 
 240 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 and my self-respect because other women know more 
 than I do." 
 
 Dardy groaned. 
 
 " You'd be less demented to go right back to him ! 
 You in London, on two pounds a week ? Hanging out 
 the washing on the tenement balcony ? " 
 
 " I'm not going to live in London ; I'll go to the 
 country, where it's cheaper, and the air will be better 
 for Baby. I'll have rooms in a village. Why, we knew 
 people who looked forward to rooms in a village some- 
 where — it was their Newport, they were ' lucky ' the 
 summer they could afford to go." 
 
 " Some people are lucky the summer they go hopping. 
 It all depends what you're used to. Your plan's farce. 
 The baby prevents it right away — your nurse wouldn't 
 stay with you." 
 
 " Of course she won't stay — I won't be able to pay 
 her wages. I'll take nurse back to England, but we 
 shall part in town." 
 
 " You're going to be his nurse yourself ? " 
 
 " I'm going to be his Mother. That's just part of 
 the education. I've adored my baby, but I haven't 
 done anything worth a cent for him. Well, I'm going 
 to begin. And he'll love me better for it soon, too ! 
 I had my first lesson last night ; she thought it was a 
 caprice, but it would never do for him to be left de- 
 pendent on me while I could only kneel down and
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 241 
 
 worship when he was dressed to kill. Dardy, I tell you 
 he seemed more my own son in the five minutes 
 that I was splashing his little chuck of a body in 
 that bath last night than he had done in all the 
 months since he was born ! I was covered up in 
 nurse's big apron, and he rolled on my lap like a little 
 wet cherub, and I couldn't dry him for joy ! " 
 
 " Betty, it won't work ! " 
 
 " It has to work. The only thing I'm wondering 
 is how I'm going to take him out — I'm not keen on 
 pushing a baby-carriage. But perhaps in the country 
 I could get a girl to come and do that for a trifle. I'd 
 go with her to see that nothing happened." 
 - " Are you proposing to make your own bed and 
 cook your own dinner too ? " 
 
 " No ; in English ' apartments ' there's a ' landlady ' 
 who does that." 
 
 " Just as well to be thorough while you're about it, 
 don't you think ? " said Dardy drily. 
 
 " I mean to be thorough. My aim is to learn what 
 I need to know. If I learn how to content myself on 
 two pounds a week, I'll have done all that's necessary, 
 and more — he never asked me to live on so little." 
 
 " And how long do you give yourself to learn it ? " 
 
 " Well, I can't say that. I expect it'll be hard." 
 
 " Yes, I should say it would ! You've been wasting 
 
 dollars all your life, Betty — you don't imagine you can 
 16
 
 242 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 become somebody else because you want to ? Your 
 intentions are all right — I appreciate them, from a 
 distance — but you can't dye your nature another colour 
 in a few months with a course of noble intentions." 
 
 " I'm not thinking of a few months," said Betty 
 pensively ; " I'm hoping I may get used to it in about 
 a year. When I go, there'll be another dividend towards 
 the passage money — and I'll travel cheap. A year's 
 a long time. Say there were three months to despond 
 in, and three to begin to lift my head up; then I'd 
 have six months left to get cheerful. I don't think 
 that's too sanguine ? " 
 
 " Aren't you overlooking that you had about twice 
 as long to get cheerful — and couldn't do it ? On more 
 than two pounds a week ! " 
 
 " Yes — I mean ' no.' I'm not overlooking it ; I've said 
 that myself ! But I have altered through good inten- 
 tions — and perhaps more through bad mistakes. It 
 may be just as well that I came back — if I hadn't come 
 back I might always have craved for it. I've realised 
 myself here. I shall never crave any more, because 
 I've found it doesn't make me happy now I've got it. 
 And that ' twice as long ' was education too. I know 
 now it wasn't all wasted, though it seemed to be. 
 And there's another thing on top of that : I had Dick 
 to indulge me before, and I wasn't earnest enough to 
 say, ' Don't do it.' This time I shall stand alone ; this
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 243 
 
 time there can't be any compromise in any moment — 
 I've either got to learn the lesson, every line of it, or 
 be ashamed as long as I live. I'm fighting for the Right. 
 Why, I'm so sure I'll win at the finish, that the worst 
 part of it all won't be the struggle — it'll be letting Dick 
 think that I'm still here without a conscience. I can't 
 help that ! I daren't let him hear from me till I'm 
 through, however long it takes." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Because it'd be the end of my plan — he'd make 
 me go back to him before I ought, and before he truly 
 wanted me again. He shall have faith in me before 
 I go ! I don't allow my husband to ' rescue ' me out 
 of pity. He's got to come and want me as he never 
 wanted me in all his days — to be in love with my soul 
 as well as my face ; he's got to feel that I'm just the one 
 thing in this world that could make life worth living 
 for him." The dimple confirmed the chin — " And 
 then it'll be good enough ! " 
 
 Dardy was glad that the news wasn't to be broken 
 to Lynch yet — in a month or two the fervour might 
 subside. But she shuddered. Though she had 
 scoffed at the project and called it " farce," something 
 in her — an instinct of her earlier self — had been im- 
 pressed. The earlier self believed, so the later woman 
 was alarmed. 
 
 It was more than two months before the night that
 
 244 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 Betty broached the matter to her father. He brooded 
 less on Howard's death. The fascmation of finance, 
 the subject of her divorce, were again dominant in his 
 mind. She felt that it must be now or never that she 
 told him. But it punished her to deal the blow. With 
 her deeper comprehension of herself, she entered more 
 fully into the feelings of others. At once less artful 
 and less shallow than she had been, she understood 
 what the parting would be to him. Development is 
 the gift of Events, not of Time. The girl had gone 
 who only two years ago had told him carelessly that 
 she meant to take a trip to Europe, when she meant 
 to meet her lover on the steamer. The Betty of to-day 
 could have done that no more than she could have lost 
 sight of her purpose to chatter about curling-irons in 
 the stateroom. 
 
 " Father," she said, " I have got to say something 
 that will make you feel bad. I am missing my 
 husband." 
 
 It seemed to Lynch that his heart sank slowly till it 
 lay a weight in his stomach. He blinked at her silently. 
 
 Then he said — 
 
 " You ain't missing him, honey ; you've got the 
 hump, that's all. It's natural — you can't have any 
 gaiety now. We'll put that to rights before long, 
 though ; hold on a bit ! " 
 
 " It isn't that ! I'm thankful to have no gaiety ;
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 245 
 
 I've been missing him from the day I sailed. It was 
 
 more than a little to get away from the gaiety that I 
 
 went to Fernando Prospect. You see — you see, I love 
 
 him ! That's the whole story." 
 
 " What's the good of loving him when he won't climb 
 
 down ? I want you to be happy, you know that, but it 
 
 don't rest with me. When you told me, at the start, 
 
 you thought so much about him, I said, ' Well, you 
 
 shall marry him, then ! ' Didn't I ? It wasn't what 
 
 I aimed at for you, but I knuckled under. I'm ready 
 
 to knuckle under now, but what can I do ? If it was 
 
 him that was talking, instead of you, I'd soon fix things ; 
 
 but if you make the move, it isn't easy to make the 
 conditions." 
 
 " I don't want any conditions," she said. " That's 
 the part that's going to hurt you most, but I've got to 
 say it — I know he's right." 
 
 He didn't start, but his gaze widened at space. 
 Again there were seconds before he spoke. 
 
 " See here, he has put his principles first, not you. 
 Some people might deduce that he's not attached to 
 you — I don't now, I've lived too long ! But, in your 
 own interests, try to answer this straight — is he as fond 
 of you as you are of him ? If that's so, we'll get him 
 over on some pretext — cable him you're sick — and I'll 
 fix matters then, or you may call me a fool." 
 
 She demurred in a low voice, " I don't want them
 
 246 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 ' fixed.' I mean it to end his way. That's real. No 
 one can alter it. It'll pain us both for nothing if you 
 try. I've meant it for months, but I couldn't tell you 
 before. Father, it has got to be ! " 
 
 Lynch put out his hand mechanically for a cigar, 
 and bit off the point, and struck a match — all slowly, 
 still with the unseeing stare. The match burnt to his 
 fingers before he thought to raise it. He let it fall — 
 and took the cigar from his mouth. 
 
 " W-e-U ! "he said submissively. 
 
 " I want to go at once. I'm going to stay in the 
 country there first — I have got to learn how to do 
 better before I meet him. I want you to send me the 
 interest on my own dollars to live on." 
 
 " Are you remembering what it is ? " 
 
 " Yes. I'm going to send nurse away ; I'm going to 
 live like a poor woman. I shan't write to him while 
 I'm there ; I must qualify myself for our life together 
 first. If you find out where he is and give him my 
 address, you'll ruin the only chance of happiness that 
 I have left. It would be no use my going to him till 
 I'm ready." 
 
 " If you can live on ten dollars a week, you're ready 
 now," moaned Lynch. 
 
 " No, I'll find it very rough on ten dollars a week 
 for a long time. I shan't be ready till I find it smooth." 
 
 " Betty," he sobbed shrilly, " I can't bear you to do
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 247 
 
 it ! " Tears gushed from his eyes. " You're all I've 
 got now. For God's sake ! " 
 
 " I must," she said. 
 
 " Don't quit me like that — to know you're in want. 
 Think what I'll feel ! " The next instant the bent 
 figure shot upright, he stood erect, livid, terrible in 
 fear. " What when you get it all ?" he gasped ; " when 
 I die ? " 
 
 She slowly shook her head. 
 
 " You must ! " The man was a tempest, raving, 
 overwhelming her. " When I'm dead, it'll be yours 
 now, all — you must ! " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Do you know what you're saying ? There's no one 
 else — you must ! " 
 
 " I can't, I wouldn't ! Don't leave it to me." * 
 
 " Who then ? " 
 
 " The nation ! "" she begged. " Make amends ! " 
 
 " Amends ? " he screamed. " For what ? To Hell 
 with the nation ! My life's work to my flesh and 
 blood ! " 
 
 " I'd do what's right. Why not you — it'll cost you 
 nothing ? If you leave it to me, I'll never touch it, I 
 swear to Heaven I won't ! Then why not you ? Do 
 it yourself. Why not ? Let them say, ' At the end 
 he did good ' ! " 
 
 " Do I care what they say ? Did I ever care ? Shall
 
 248 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 I care when I'm dead ? My life's what matters — what's 
 my life if I know you'll refuse the dollars when I'm gone ? 
 It's the work of sixty years you talk of wasting. Betty, 
 you'll be one of the richest women on earth — kings and 
 queens '11 envy you ! He won't ask you to refuse 
 when I'm gone — it's me, my name, that's the trouble. 
 When I'm gone, he'll ' forget ' where it all came from. 
 Pay a million pounds to charities — nobody '11 criticise 
 the rest. A million — all the world '11 ' forget ' for it ! " 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 " You shall ! " he shrieked. " It's my lifetime you're 
 pitching away. Pay two millions, three millions — pay 
 ten millions if you like — you can be called a ' Saint ' 
 for ten millions ! You shall keep the rest — you shall ! " 
 
 " No ! " she cried, and he struck, frenzied, at her 
 white face. 
 
 Their eyes met aghast. He dropped into a chair, a 
 quivering, shrunk old man. 
 
 " I didn't know I was going to do it ! I didn't 
 know ! " 
 
 Her arm went round his neck. " It doesn't matter 
 — I understand ! " 
 
 "I've struck you ! I've struck my girl ! Betty, my 
 honey, forgive me!" — He fondled her hand convul- 
 sively. — " I've struck my girl ! Lovey, I didn't know 
 what I was doing, I'm broken up. Betty, you'U take 
 it back ? Have mercy ! Think what it means to
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 249 
 
 me ! My brains, my schemes for nothing — ruin, from 
 you!" 
 
 " I can't take it back," she groaned, " you know, 
 you know I can't ! " 
 
 " I know ? I wish I'd died before you could tell me ! 
 What have I to hope for, what's left ? All the work 
 of my life scattered ! Have you got no feeling ? " 
 His sobs tore his chest. " O my God, I never was 
 hard in my home, but it has always been my children 
 who've made me suffer ! "
 
 XX 
 
 It had been a pitiful leave-taking. She had instructed 
 
 the bankers to close her account, and to transfer the 
 
 balance to her father's ; she had set her foot upon the 
 
 narrow way. But she wore no crown of righteousness 
 
 to mark her dignity, she knew no glow of virtue to 
 
 light her path. As she had said, she understood — and 
 
 to understand was to suffer. She knew that he ranked 
 
 her now, must always rank her, among his enemies — 
 
 and of all his enemies the worst. In his eyes, she was 
 
 without defence ; she was a daughter who had repaid 
 
 devotion by a callous wrong. When she had been weak, 
 
 his home, his fortune, his arms, all had been open to 
 
 her ; now that she had gained strength, she had laid 
 
 waste the achievement of his life. 
 
 Perforce ! She had had to deny his plea, or sin 
 
 towards her conscience, and her husband, and her boy. 
 
 Now she realised what Keith had suffered in denying 
 
 her own plea. But it seemed to her very cruel that she 
 
 could not do what was right without breaking a heart. 
 
 She was not the woman to view herself as an appointed 
 
 350
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 251 
 
 instrument of Retribution — she was only a very human 
 woman, trying to be good — and she sorrowed to feel 
 that, not by the vengeance of the multitudes, not by 
 the Hand of God, could her father have been stricken 
 more utterly than by this inevitable blow that was 
 dealt by her. He was left to contemplate millions 
 that were useless, a dominion that had crumbled, a 
 palace that was void. Beggary itself would have been 
 more merciful if it had spared him his child. The 
 havoc was complete. 
 
 It was early April when she arrived in England. 
 Until it was settled where she was to live, she must 
 retain the nurse, for she could not take the baby with 
 her when she looked for country rooms. For the 
 interval she had thought of a boarding-house in Blooms- 
 bury; but even heroism may shrink from English 
 boarding-houses — especially London boarding-houses. 
 Besides, she might need to stay in town only for a night 
 or two ! The reflection consoled her for the compara- 
 tive extravagance of a cheap hotel — where she avoided 
 the nurse's eyebrows. 
 
 Only in a village could she hope for her income to 
 suffice, and her mind had turned to the one village 
 that she knew. The weather next day was favourable 
 — if the morning had been wet, she was afraid that she 
 might have been cowardly enough to postpone her 
 quest. She left the hotel after breakfast, and took a
 
 252 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 motor 'bus to Charing Cross, and a second-class return 
 ticket to Tunbridge Wells. Up to the last minute she 
 had meant to travel " third," but the resolution forsook 
 her at the booking office, and she promised herself to 
 atone for the indulgence by lunching on sponge-cakes. 
 
 And in Tunbridge Wells the sun shone too. 
 
 It was a black-robed, grave-faced Betty who walked 
 across the common into Rusthall, and met at every 
 step the gossamer Betty of the honeymoon. It was 
 a new and nauseous task to knock at cottage doors, 
 where dirty children swarmed, and ask, " What have 
 you to let ? " It was appalling to discover that the " un- 
 sophisticated villagers " referred to the " season," and 
 " extras," and glibly mentioned " guineas." A milk- 
 man rested his pails and recommended her to try Bon 
 Repos in Paradise Road, and she gave him sixpence, 
 and reproached herself for it all the way there. (It 
 must be twopence in future; she must never forget 
 that again !) But the dumpy villa was so much 
 superior to the costly cottages that she feared the 
 milkman had been deceived in her position. She 
 rang the brass bell diffidently. 
 
 A servant advanced along the passage — oh, the place 
 was beyond her means, she might have known it ! 
 
 Would she step inside ? 
 
 Amazing that a white woman could make a room so 
 hideous !
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 253 
 
 The householder entered, wreathed in beams, and 
 beads. 
 
 " Apartments ? " Her beam subsided. " Oh no, 
 I never let apartments ! " She seemed rather hurt 
 by the suggestion. " I only take P.G.'s." 
 
 " I beg your pardon ? " said Betty. 
 
 " P.G.'s," said the lady ingratiatingly, " er — paying 
 guests." 
 
 " Thank you. I am so sorry to have troubled you 
 for nothing." 
 
 It was a miserable day. There were moments when 
 she sat on a bench and could have cried with disappoint- 
 ment and fatigue. She had pictured herself arranging 
 the matter soon, and peeping at the Happy Valley 
 before she returned ; but the hours went by, and the 
 sun went down, and still the multi-millionairess in 
 posse was homeless on the common. 
 
 At the baker's, where she had had her frugal luncheon, 
 she had a late tea, and the baker's daughter, on hearing 
 her difficulties, recommended her to try Mrs. Purdie, 
 at 3 Fuchsia Terrace. Mrs. Purdie proved to be a 
 large, untidy, cheerful woman who offered an airy 
 bedroom and a little ground-floor parlour, with the 
 use of the harmonium, for fourteen shillings a week. 
 She explained that she had never taken lodgers yet, 
 but that her neighbour, Mrs. Wright, was " putting her 
 in the way of things — and you'll be quite comfortable
 
 234 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 with me, my dear ! " At this stage, cheerfulness was 
 welcome, and criticism was not acute. Betty settled 
 to go to her on the following afternoon. 
 
 So on the morrow the nurse — bound for her parents', 
 in Felixstowe — ^kissed the baby " good-b\-e " ; and she 
 kissed him with so much emotion that Betty's mouth 
 quivered in parting from her. " Fll give you a per- 
 fectly splendid ' character ' when I'm written to, 
 nurse," she said, " you may rely on that ! You quite 
 understand that vou're not lea\'ing me because I don't 
 appreciate you ? " She was conscious, however, that 
 "Fuchsia Terrace'' did not sound an inipressive 
 address. And then the nurse's luggage was put on a 
 cab ; and then the other luggage was put on a cab ; 
 and last, Betty and her baby went forth together. 
 
 As she carried him down the steps, his solemn eyes 
 seemed to question her ; but, as well as if he could 
 express himself, she felt that he agreed with her during 
 the drive. 
 
 " You know we're doing the square thing," she 
 prattled, " so you'll make it as Hght as you can for 
 momma, won't you, Ducksums ? Don't cry till we get 
 there, if you can help it. When we're alone, we can 
 have a good howl together, but we'll keep up our pluck 
 in front of strangers, my son 1 And you shan't ever 
 miss your nursie — your mother'll be as good, and 
 better, to you all day long ! "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 255 
 
 He was hea\^' for his age ; her arms ached amid 
 the confusion of Charing Cross. " Her bab\- and her 
 baggage give momma plenty to watch, don't they, 
 Richard mine ? " she murmured. " Patience, sonny, 
 we'll get through in time ! There are green trees at 
 the end, Richard — trees, and the Happy Valley ! " 
 ' Well, he was only a year old ! If he did fret a httle, 
 could she be surprised ? "Is it that ' Second ' on the 
 door, m\- sweetheart ? " she cooed. " To-day it'd have 
 been * Third,' if I hadn't taken you; but I couldn't be 
 mean to you after luxuriating vesterdav mvself. Look 
 on the bright side, Belovedy — we've got the dust}' 
 compartment to ourselves, and that's much to be 
 thankful for ! " 
 
 In the fly that took them into Rusthall he fell asleep 
 on her breast, and he wept at being wakened. Their 
 arrival was noisy \\-ith his displeasure, and the cheerful- 
 ness of Mrs. Purdie, and the excitement of anaemic and 
 unsuspected offspring. Mrs. Purdie bawled that the 
 table was set for tea. The fact was obvious, but she 
 dwelt upon it. She was astonished to hear that he 
 had a bath ever}- night — her neighbour, Mrs. Wright, 
 had told her not to supply a bath oftener than once 
 a week. Still, the warm water was pro\'ided, and 
 Betty dried him \\ith the sohtarj' towel that was 
 displayed. 
 
 WTien he slept again, she went do\s-n to the sitting-
 
 256 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 room, leaving both doors open, that she might hear him 
 if he wailed. The flight of stairs between them was 
 short, but she regretted that the two rooms weren't 
 on one floor. She sat by the window and watched the 
 common fade, until the moon rose. And then Mrs. 
 Purdie shut out the moon and brought in a malodorous 
 lamp and the supper. 
 
 " I'd clean forgot about you sitting in the dark ! 
 You must holler out if you want anything, my dear. 
 There, I've got a nice bit o' steak for you ! It's caught 
 a bit just 'ere " — she drew a deprecating and dirty 
 finger over half of it — " but it's beautiful and tender ! " 
 The finger was poked into the middle of the steak three 
 times. 
 
 Silence surprised her ; she said, " You're feeling a bit 
 done up after your journey, p'raps ? Your supper '11 
 do you good ! " 
 
 " I don't think," said Betty, very faintly, " that I am 
 hungry ; I think I'd like a biscuit instead." 
 
 " You didn't say nothing yesterday about getting 
 biscuits, did you ? Still, it's only at the corner ; I 
 daresay I can run out for you directly ! Anything you 
 want to be comfortable, that's it — you've only got to 
 say ! What would you like — an arrowroot ? " 
 
 " Any kind will do, thank you — whatever they keep. 
 Oh, and Mrs. Purdie, I should like some towels, please. 
 Don't take them up now — you might wake him. I'll
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 257 
 
 take them myself when I go to bed, if you'll give them 
 tome." 
 
 " There's a towel up there," said the woman, staring. 
 " You don't want another, do you ? " 
 
 " Why, yes ! One towel between Baby and me isn't 
 very convenient." 
 
 " Well, I dunno ! " She considered. " Mrs. Wright 
 says that one towel to each room is all that can be 
 expected. It's all Mrs. Wright's in the 'abit of giving, 
 and she's been letting this ten years. . , . Well, then, 
 what's the odds ? You shall have another ! Have it, 
 my dear, and feel at 'ome ! Now, don't leave the steak 
 like that — you draw up and make a good supper, do ! " 
 
 But she couldn't look at the steak, and the grocer's 
 was shut, so she supped on bread and what was called 
 " butter." Sounds indicated that Mrs. Purdie and 
 the anaemic children supped about ten o'clock on the 
 contents of a tin. The typical Englishwoman of the 
 lower middle class is the stupidest thing on two legs ; 
 she spends her life in a kitchen without learning the 
 rudiments of cookery, and she has a baby every year 
 without learning the first rules for rearing a child. 
 
 " Ducksums," said Betty next day, after uneatable 
 bacon, " this place is impossible. We've made a blunder, 
 and the sooner we recognise it the better. Never 
 waste time, Richard — we don't get much. That's a 
 motto from your American mother ! What we have 
 17
 
 258 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 to decide is how we're to find other rooms. I can't 
 leave you behind, and your carriage is no good without 
 a girl to wheel it — and you can't travel around the 
 county on my back. My son, take your soother out 
 of your mouth, and attend to business ! " 
 
 " Momma ! " said the baby. It was his vocabulary. 
 
 " That's so — it's for momma to do ! Well, we'll go 
 to the first store that sells newspapers, and see what 
 the advertisements have to tell us. We'll rest on the 
 seats if momma's arms get tired." 
 
 But the local paper was exhibited among the baskets 
 of boots and condensed milk at the corner, so there 
 was no need to rest with him on a seat. 
 
 She unpacked her writing-case and some of his toys, 
 and forced up the window as high as it would go ; and 
 put the bed pillows on the linoleum floor, for him to 
 play upon. (The horse-hair couch boasted only a 
 horse-hair bolster.) When he consented to spare her, 
 she spread the newspaper on the scarlet tablecover, 
 and studied the Apartments column. 
 
 Eureka ! One advertisement had been framed to 
 meet her wants. 
 
 " Quaint, attractive sitting-room and bedroom, 
 with attendance (silent) offered in farmhouse, at 
 nominal terms. Pure air, exquisite scenery. Peace 
 within and without. — J. M., Mulberry Farm, Atherall, 
 pear Hammick, Tunbridge Wells."
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 259 
 
 She wrote to " J. M." eagerly, and carried " Duck- 
 sums " to the pillar box. 
 
 During the next two days he took the air on the 
 nearest bench, and her mainstay was new-laid eggs, 
 which a tradesman " obliged her with." Then came 
 a reply signed " John Mellish." Mr. Hellish stated 
 that the rent would be fifteen shillings a week — " un- 
 distorted ; I have acquired no skill in vitiating my 
 agreements by the addition of ' Extras.' " He did 
 not keep a maidservant, but his niece acted for him 
 as working housekeeper. If Mrs. Keith would gra- 
 ciously make an appointment to view the rooms, a 
 trap should meet her at Hammick Station. 
 
 So she made an appointment. And she had to hire 
 a fly from the Unicorn for two shillings to take her 
 and "Ducksums" into Tunbridge Wells. But on the 
 Hammick platform was Mr. Mellish. 
 
 " Mrs. Keith ? " 
 
 She saw a spare man, with a shock of silver hair and 
 a threadbare velveteen jacket. As he swept off his 
 hat, his finger-nails testified that his labour on the farm 
 was practical; but the clean-shaved, ascetic face sug- 
 gested the study, not the soil. 
 
 " I have to apologise," he said, lifting the baby into 
 the trap, " for my niece's absence — she was summoned 
 to town to-day. But I have done my best ; a friend 
 of ours, a lady from Crowborough, will show you over
 
 26o THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 the place. And my niece returns to-night, so the 
 rooms would be available whenever you cared to 
 come." 
 
 " I'd like to come to-morrow, if I come at all," said 
 Betty. " I'm sorry to hear I can't see your niece, 
 though ; so much depends on the — I shall be so much 
 dependent on her." 
 
 " You'll find her a very tactful and willing woman, 
 I assure you. If you speak to her, she will answer 
 intelligently ; if you don't address her, she will be quiet. 
 You may think I am exaggerating, if you have had 
 any lengthy experience of apartments, but my niece 
 can positively clear your dinner table without jarring 
 your nerves." ^ 
 
 " It sounds very nice," she said. " I hope my little 
 son won't make too much noise for your own 
 nerves." 
 
 "Ah," said Mr. Mellish — his gestures were courtly 
 — " I was alluding to ' noise ' — a child's voice is music. 
 That reminds me ! I must warn you that I sometimes 
 play in the evening ; the piano, which is a poor thing, 
 would be audible in your room. I don't know if you 
 would object to that ? " 
 
 " Oh, a piano wouldn't disturb me at all." 
 
 " I am so relieved. Not that I play often ; I have 
 no time. Nor, for that matter, have I an}^ gift — as 
 an instrumentalist." He waited for her to ask a
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 261 
 
 question, but as she didn't, he added, " I simply strum 
 my compositions for my own pleasure ; I seldom pre- 
 sume to mar the work of other men." 
 
 " You compose ? " she exclaimed. " Now is that 
 so ? That is very interesting." 
 
 " Oh ! " Having dragged the fact in, his gesture 
 dismissed it as beneath mention. He descanted on 
 music in general. There was apparently no composer 
 living, or dead, in whose work he was not steeped. 
 He condemned, he extolled, he advanced new and — 
 he informed her — " revolutionary " theories. How 
 much of his oration was brilliance, and how much of 
 it sheer eccentricity, she was unable to judge ; but if 
 the boy had not become restive before they reached 
 the house, she would have thought it worth while 
 taking the journey merely to meet so remarkable a 
 farmer. 
 
 And, compared with the scarlet tablecover and the 
 horse-hair couch, the rooms were ideal. A little shab- 
 bier than she had expected, perhaps, but relatively a 
 discovery and a joy. She wished that she were in- 
 stalled in them already while the visitor was showing 
 them to her. And afterwards Mr. Mellish gave them 
 tea, and heated some milk for the baby — a distin- 
 guished figure, entering in the velveteen jacket, with 
 the saucepan. It was very restful at tea ; it was blessed 
 to feel that her escape from Fuchsia Terrace was
 
 262 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 planned. Her thankfulness was deep, in the basket- 
 chair overlooking the orchard. 
 
 " Then it is understood ? " he asked, during the 
 drive back ; "we may expect you to-morrow — or 
 shall we say ' Saturday ' ? " 
 
 " Well, I'm anxious to get out my present place 
 immediately, Mr. Mellish ! Still, if to-morrow wouldn't 
 be convenient to you " 
 
 " I've been thinking that another day would give my 
 niece more time to have everything in order for you," 
 he explained, " that is all." Yet he seemed anxious 
 that she should agree to Saturday, so she did so. 
 
 He begged her to let them have a postcard, that the 
 trap might be waiting. He murmured final hopes 
 that she would be very comfortable, and went with 
 her into the station. She had only " taken apartments." 
 It sounded a trivial thing — it would have sounded 
 trivial to herself the previous week — but the woman 
 who foresaw a long year in apartments hugged her 
 baby close, as the train started, and thanked Heaven 
 to have " found a home." 
 
 Mrs. Purdie was incapable of crediting the news. 
 That the lady — or any other lady — could wish to 
 leave her, she regarded as impossible. 
 
 " I am going," repeated Betty, " that is all I have 
 to say. You have had my notice." 
 
 " Now don't you talk nonsense, my dear ! " said
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 263 
 
 Mrs. Purdie, emphatically cheerful, " You'll be all 
 right when you've shaken down, don't you worry 
 about that ! " 
 
 And if misgivings assailed her later, she hid them 
 with rare art. Her buoyancy did not desert her till 
 that wet Saturday morning, when the cot was again 
 sewn in its canvas wrappings, and she had been into 
 the bedroom and beheld the trunks strapped. Then 
 she complained. 
 
 She said, " You know you took the rooms telling me 
 you were going to be here for months. I expected to 
 have you right through the summer, you know ! " 
 
 " Well, you can't expect me to stay if I don't want 
 to ? I didn't pledge myself to stay a day longer than 
 it suited me, did I ? " 
 
 " I don't know nothing about that," said Mrs. 
 Purdie. " Mrs. Wright says it's a ' very 'eavy loss, 
 and you ought to make it up to me ' — she says she never 
 heard the like ! Mrs. Wright says I ought to 'ave 
 four months' money off you." 
 
 " Well, you can tell Mrs. Wright you didn't get it," 
 said Betty. 
 
 " Oh, well ! " She produced the bill. " Come on, 
 there you are ! I've charged you a week's money, 
 instead of notice — you can't grumble at that, can you ? 
 I don't suppose you can afford to pay no more ? " 
 
 " That's so," said Betty, " I can't afford to pay so
 
 264 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 much. But I know that's just. There's a pen, Mrs. 
 Purdie — will you kindly give me a receipt ? " 
 
 And then the cab from the Unicorn ground on the 
 pebbles, and the trunks were bumped down the narrow 
 stairs. 
 
 The rain pelted, and the " changes " to-day were 
 numerous, and the porters were dolts. But though 
 she missed the nurse in every moment, she was not 
 discouraged. She was bound for the quaint, attractive 
 rooms, and the tactful woman, and the silent service ! 
 " With an orchard, Ducksums ! " she said, " Think 
 of the orchard when the sun shines ! " 
 
 The sight of Mr, Mellish was as welcome as if he had 
 been an old friend. 
 
 " We've got here at last ! " she exclaimed. " How 
 d'ye do ? " 
 
 But somehow Mr. Mellish was less enthusiastic now. 
 
 " I am sorry," he said, clearing his throat, " to have 
 to tell you, Mrs. Keith, that unfortunately there has 
 been a Httle difficulty since I had your card — quite 
 a temporary difficulty, a hitch ! My niece has been 
 delayed in town." 
 
 She stood staring at him on the wet platform, with 
 the baby in her arms, and the trunks, and the bassin- 
 ette, and the perambulator strewn round her. 
 
 " Well, it was your duty to telegraph to me ! " she 
 cried. " What do you imagine I am going to do,
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 265 
 
 arriving at the edge of the world, with nowhere to 
 go?" 
 
 " I have arranged for that, I have arranged for that," 
 he said hurriedly. " I have taken rooms for you in 
 the meanwhile — just for a week. I am sure, for a 
 week, you won't mind putting up with them ? Pear 
 Cottage is primitive, but you will find the people very 
 kindly, very kindly, and you'll pay only twelve shillings 
 there. They quite understand the position; I have 
 explained." 
 
 " Oh ! " It was a relief to learn that there would 
 be a roof to shelter her. " Well, please give the address 
 to the porter — I don't think all these things will go in 
 the trap." 
 
 She persuaded the porter to follow at once, but she 
 was very disappointed and very vexed ; and as Mr. 
 Mellish touched up the mare, she said, " Can you assure 
 me that it will be only for a week ? I can't undertake 
 to wait indefinitely." 
 
 " A week precisely 1 " he declared. " To-day week the 
 rooms '11 be vacant again, and she'll have come back." 
 
 " Oh ? " said Betty. " You have let the rooms to 
 somebody else, then, after letting them to me ? " 
 
 He looked embarrassed. 
 
 " Just for a week ! " he admitted. " Because my 
 niece could not return — merely for that reason. The 
 present occupants are a gentleman and his wife —
 
 266 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 to them her absence is no drawback. To you, of course, 
 it is — er — necessary that a woman should be living on 
 the premises. So, in the meantime, having this offer — 
 quite unexpectedly — I let the rooms." 
 
 She suspected that he had let them because the 
 gentleman and his wife were more profitable, but he was 
 so extremely courteous, and so highly talented, that she 
 was reluctant to think ill of him. 
 
 She was reluctant to think ill of him even when she 
 saw the make-shift. Opposite the farm gate, across a 
 patch of ragged grass, a little dilapidated cottage dripped 
 among vegetables. The broken path was a rivulet ; 
 the door opened into a kitchen ; its floor was bricks. 
 
 " Where is the parlour ? " she asked. But it was a 
 reproach rather than a query ; already she knew that 
 there was no parlour. 
 
 " You will have this practically to yourself," he said 
 deprecatingly. " The accommodation is very limited 
 in Atherall, of course, or I would have done better for 
 you. But during the week you will have this practi- 
 cally to yourself — the Duplocks will leave it to you as 
 much as possible. I expect Mrs. Duplock is busy at the 
 back with the poultry — if you will excuse me, I'll call 
 her in ! " 
 
 She came in as he spoke, a gaunt, hard-featured 
 woman, weather-beaten, and bowed with outdoor 
 toil.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 267 
 
 " 'Afternoon, sir ! " 
 
 " This is the lady, Mrs. Duplock." 
 
 " 'Afternoon, marm ! " 
 
 "I've told Mrs. Keith that you will make her as 
 comfortable as you can while she's with you. They are 
 bringing her luggage up. Oh "—he turned to Betty 
 — " Saturday is a bad day for meat in the village ; 
 will you allow me to send you in one of my fowls for 
 dinner to-morrow ? And I have a modest library — 
 if you will let me lend you some books, they might 
 help to pass your time." 
 
 " Thank you very much," she murmured, " it's very 
 kind of you. Perhaps Mrs. Duplock will show me 
 my room ? I want to change my child's clothes 
 directly the things come — I'm afraid of his taking 
 cold." 
 
 " Then I'll leave you now. But if there's anything 
 more I can do to — to repair the unfortunate occurrence, 
 pray give me the privilege ! Mrs. Duplock will come 
 across at any moment that you wish to send to me, I'm 
 sure." 
 
 " Thank you very much," she said again, and Mrs. 
 Duplock led the way to a bedroom. 
 
 " This bean't the one for you and the little 'un," 
 she said, with a broad drawl, " this be mine and my 
 husband's." A second door, with a bobbin latch, 
 opened out of it. " This be yours ! "
 
 268 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Oh ! " faltered Betty. " I have to pass through 
 your room to go to my own ? " 
 
 " Yes, but we shan't mind, because we shan't be here; 
 we're up before five in the mornings. And I expect 
 you go to bed betimes ? " 
 
 " What do you call ' betimes ' ? " She was tearing 
 off the damp pelisse. 
 
 " Well, I suppose you won't be later than a quarter 
 to nine ? " A four-poster nearly monopolised the 
 floor, and she thumped the mountainous bedding with 
 a proud fist. " You'll lay on two of the finest feather 
 beds in the village, marm ! They was my mother's 
 before me. And her mother's before that. More than 
 thirty children have been born on this bed. And 
 nine folks have been laid out on it." 
 
 When the porter arrived, the trunks couldn't be 
 coaxed up the staircase, so Betty unpacked necessaries 
 in the kitchen. A wood fire burnt there cheerfully. 
 She cut the stitches in the canvas wrapping with a knife 
 that she found in the scullery, and aired the baby's 
 sheets and blankets before the blaze. Mrs. Duplock 
 helped her to carry the bassinette, and to erect it 
 between the historic bed and a box, which served for a 
 wardrobe and a chest of drawers. 
 
 It was a very grubby Betty who washed at an 
 elementary washhand-stand, with mottled soap. 
 
 Tea was sustaining, and " Ducksums " evinced a
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 269 
 
 lively interest in the chickens that ran about the 
 kitchen. At last, when she had put him into his little 
 night-shirt, she went down to the fire again, and was 
 invited to the wooden arm-chair with a chintz cushion. 
 She put her feet on the fender, and wondered at being 
 there. Dusk gathered. The cabbages through the 
 window silvered, and grew vague. Mrs. Duplock lit 
 a feeble lamp, and ironed some washing on the table. 
 Her husband came in heavily — even gaunter than she, 
 older, still more weather-beaten — bent double beneath 
 a load. He pulled off his cap first, and slid the barley- 
 meal to the ground. It struck the bricks with a 
 thud that told its weight. 
 
 " 'Evening, marm ! " His trembling hand wiped 
 the sweat from his forehead. 
 
 " Good-evening, Mr. Duplock," she said. 
 
 " I'm doo-ing your shirt, Joe," said the woman. 
 
 "Solse-e." 
 
 He said no more. He sat on a chair just inside the 
 door, and unlaced his boots. Betty felt that her 
 presence constrained him ; it occurred to her, with new 
 pity, that the kitchen was these people's home, and that 
 the inconvenience was not hers alone. But that eggs 
 were to be boiled soon for her supper, she would have 
 gone to bed at once. 
 
 Still the pair were dumb. She stole another glance 
 at him, and then — it was the weary resignation of his
 
 270 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 legs — she knew that timidity was not his only trouble. 
 She realised that the man was dog-tired from his 
 shoulders to his feet, and that she was in his 
 chair. 
 
 " Why, Mr, Duplock, I beg your pardon ! " she 
 exclaimed, rising. " Please go and sit there ! " 
 
 He looked at her, abashed. 
 
 " I wouldn't think of it, marm." 
 
 " But it's your place, you know it is." 
 
 He stammer-ed. " As to that " 
 
 " You go and sit there right away," she said, " where 
 you can be comfortable ! " 
 
 They changed seats — the man sheepish, tongue-tied 
 — and his wife turned her grey head an instant from 
 her ironing. 
 
 Away over the fields a clock chimed nine as Betty 
 undressed in the room without a wardrobe, or a chest 
 of drawers, or a key. But " Ducksums " was sleeping 
 like a top, and after she had blown out the candle, 
 almost the next thing she knew was that she had slept 
 sound herself. 
 
 When she was called, the sky was fair, and the Dup- 
 locks had long since breakfasted. After they came 
 back from church, she sat down to dinner with them. 
 No reference was made to the arrangement, but the 
 social barrier that the cottagers had drawn across their 
 kitchen table left them little space to move. For
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 271 
 
 them and their boiled bacon and cabbage, one narrow 
 end ; for the gentry and the fowl, the rest ! 
 
 Betty said, " Why, I think some of this fowl would 
 go very well with your bacon, Mrs. Duplock, wouldn't 
 it? " 
 
 " Oh, well, then," said Mrs. Duplock, " you must 
 accept a bit of our bacon with your fowl." 
 
 But Mr. MelHsh's offering proved to be so tough that 
 it was no good to anybody, and Betty dined on bacon 
 and cabbage. 
 
 " I'm glad I ' invited ' you before I began to carve ! " 
 she laughed; " I didn't know we couldn't eat it, did I ? " 
 
 "As if such a lady as you-u would do a thing like 
 that ! " said Mr. Duplock devoutly. They were the 
 only words he had spoken since he asked a blessing. 
 
 She found the three-pronged fork difficult to use, 
 and tried hard not to mortify them by awkwardness. 
 Her host and hostess were extremely cramped, and 
 they tried, with fine courtesy, to conceal their dis- 
 comfort. 
 
 She began to respect the Duplocks. She proceeded 
 to like them. It was in a very deprecatory voice that 
 she said on Tuesday morning to the woman — 
 
 " Mrs. Duplock, Baby is being eaten up — the room 
 must be in a terrible state. I'm sure you don't know 
 it!" 
 
 " Oh, there now ! " said Mrs. Duplock, " the poor
 
 272 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 lamb ! But, marm, they come from the chickens — 
 it bean't what you think; indeed it bean't ! " 
 
 " I don't think it's — it's what I think if you tell me 
 it isn't I " said Betty. " But he's been tearing himself 
 to pieces all night. I don't know what I'm to do ! " 
 " Of course this is not right for you, I know it ain't ! 
 But don't think there's any want o' soap-and-water 
 in the place, marm, I kearn't bear you to think that — 
 it's all them chickens ! And I'm going to get some- 
 thing off my mi-ind ! " She was peeling potatoes 
 outside the window, and she banged the knife handle 
 on the sill. " I'd no right to 've asked twelve shillings 
 from you — and what's more, I bean't going to take 
 it 1 But he told me you was a lady who'd pay any- 
 thing I asked." 
 
 " What ? Mr. MelHsh told you that ? " 
 " Yes. It's not fit for you — if I'd known the sort 
 you was, I dursen't have took you. All we take is 
 holiday children." 
 
 " Don't they object to the — the chickens ? " 
 " Lor' bless you, they've got worse than that where 
 they come from ! That's all we take — holiday children 
 for j&ve shillings, and we feed 'em for it besides. I do 
 feel ashamed of having imposed on you — I don't forget 
 how you gave up his chair to my old man when he come 
 in tired ! You go down to the village and get a lotion 
 for the little 'un — I'll watch 'im while you're gone.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 273 
 
 as safe as if he was my own. It's all them chickens, 
 marm, but how you're to put up with it for a fortnight, 
 I dunno ! " 
 
 " Only for a week, Mrs. Duplock, not a fortnight ! " 
 
 " Mr. Mellish, he told us you'd be here for a fort- 
 night." 
 
 " Oh, did he ? " said Betty, her eyes darkening. 
 " I didn't know, that's news to me ! Well, I'll be very 
 glad to accept your offer." 
 
 As she crossed the road, he came out to greet her. 
 She had not seen him since her arrival, so subduing 
 her temper, she began very formally — 
 
 " I have to thank you for the book you sent across, 
 Mr. Mellish — and for the fowl." 
 
 " Oh," his gesture was airy, " a trifle, nothing — 
 three and sixpence ! I'm glad to see you, Mrs. Keith 
 — I have to plead for your forbearance. The people 
 with me have just asked to stay for another week. 
 Naturally, the terms I am receiving from them are 
 higher than those I asked from you. Now, will you 
 convenience me by remaining at the cottage for one 
 week longer ? " 
 
 " I am sorry," she said, " but I do not find it a fair 
 proposal." 
 
 " Oh, you mustn't say that," he exclaimed. " I am 
 
 not accustomed to be told I am unfair ! I presume 
 
 I have the right to let my own apartments to the best 
 18
 
 274 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 advantage ? In any case," the gestures were more 
 vehement, " my niece cannot be with me till then, 
 so I can't receive you till then. I must ask you 
 to wait till Saturday week. Our arrangement has 
 depended on my niece's return — I must hold you to 
 our arrangement ! " 
 
 There was the contingency of her being unable to find 
 any other rooms sooner — the risk that plain speaking 
 might condemn her to the chickens for a longer term 
 still. She recognised it, wrathful as she was — and 
 decided to keep the farm door open till she was in 
 a position to slam it. 
 
 " W-e-U, it'll be rather inconvenient for me," she 
 murmured, assuming weakness. 
 
 He took leave of her, vain of his mastery. 
 " Mrs. Duplock," she volleyed, when she went in 
 with the lotion, " I don't go to the farm, for five 
 minutes, if I can help myself. But I can't stay here. 
 Now I want somewhere to live — and you must find it 
 for me. Nothing on this earth will drive me into that 
 man's house except the chickens at the last moment ! " 
 Mrs. Duplock had never heard an American at high 
 speed before ; she looked breathless. 
 
 " Well, I haven't liked to speak, marm," she said, 
 " but Mr. Mellish bean't liked in the village — he do 
 some rare shabby things." 
 
 " Where's his niece ? Is there a niece at all ? "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 275 
 
 " Yes, he's got a niece, but she hasn't been here for 
 four months." She added impartially, " Maybe he 
 has hopes to get her back, you know ! " 
 
 " Mrs, Duplock, what am I to do ? I must have other 
 rooms. Where am I to go ? I don't know how to find 
 them. You don't know how hard it is to find lodgings 
 to live in, I feel as if I had been travelling round Kent 
 for years ! " 
 
 " You poor lamb ! " said Mrs. Duplock, " begging 
 your pardon ! But there be nothing fit for you in 
 Atherall — you'd best go to Hammick." 
 
 " Can you tell me of anything there ? " 
 
 " I dunno no one I could exactly recommend you to 
 in Hammick. If it had been Rusthall now, I could have 
 told you of a ni-ice place. But I suppose Rusthall's 
 too far for you ? " 
 
 " Why, Rusthall is what I'd like best ; that's where 
 I've come from ! But I didn't see any ' nice place,' " 
 
 " I've heard of ladies being very satisfied at Mrs, 
 Hyder's. And I'm told you get what you pay for with 
 her." 
 
 " Is she dear ? " asked Betty. " I can't afford more 
 than fifteen shillings a week." 
 
 " Well, I can't say. I expect Mrs, Hyder 'd want 
 a tidy sum. If you'd like to go and see it, and don't 
 want to take the little 'un so far, I can do with 'im. 
 It's the 'ouse in the 'oUow, agen the poplars."
 
 276 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 And when she had interviewed Mrs. Hyder, Betty was 
 confident of being comfortable there. Her relief had 
 been intense when Mrs. Hyder abated a half-crown 
 and said, " Well, for such a long while, we'll say 
 fifteen shillings, then ! " The sitting-room was tiny 
 — the ground-floor "drawing-room " was already let, 
 and for double the terms — and she overlooked the 
 kitchen garden, instead of the lawn. But the window 
 opened on to a ladder staircase, and below there was a 
 little red path, just wide enough for one, dividing the 
 vegetables from the pink and white apple and plum 
 trees. 
 
 She returned to the cottage rejoicing. This time, 
 Mrs, Duplock stitched the cot in the canvas. Mrs. 
 Duplock said her " old man would drive the lady to the 
 station in their cart on the morrow." Mrs. Duplock 
 received the fortnight's rent that she had been led 
 to expect — and cried when she took it. 
 
 " It don't seem right," she quavered, " it don't 
 indeed ! But it'd be going agen Providence to refuse 
 twelve shillings, wouldn't it, when you're that good 
 as to offer it ? Us with another bird dead only last 
 night ! " Two large tears trickled down her bony 
 nose. " Me and Duplock be going to see you safe into 
 the train, marm. We've been talking of it over — 
 when Mr. Mellish hears what you mean to do, I dunno 
 what he'll say, I'm su-ure ! "
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 277 
 
 And, their work sacrificed, the couple appeared 
 next morning as a bodyguard. The man had put on a 
 jacket. The woman wore her best clothes, to sit beside 
 the " gentry." A pink rose brightened the antique 
 bonnet; the watchful, hard-featured face was framed 
 in ribbons of the ancient brown which Fashion's wheel 
 was to make chic a few months later. 
 
 Not till the cart was at the door did Betty announce 
 her intention to Mr. Mellish. He was grooming his 
 mare as she crossed the road, and she called to him 
 over the gate. 
 
 " I have brought the book you kindly lent me," she 
 said, when he came out, " and the three and sixpence. 
 I have to wish you ' good-day.' I am just going." 
 
 He looked beyond her to the cart, and gasped — an 
 excited figure on the ragged grass plot. The book fell. 
 
 " Going ? What do you mean ? " he stuttered. 
 " You can't go ; you mustn't leave me in the lurch like 
 this ! What do you mean ? " 
 
 " It's very simple ; I mean I have taken other 
 apartments." 
 
 " Oh, ho, ho ! " he said violently. " We shall soon 
 see if it's so simple ! You'll find it's not so simple as 
 you think. You have engaged my rooms. I don't 
 allow you to break a contract. I have my claim ! " 
 
 The Duplocks stood close at hand, apprehensive and 
 alert, the woman holding the baby.
 
 278 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Will you please put the baggage in, Mr. Duplock ? " 
 said Betty, turning. 
 
 " You are not going ! " declaimed Mr. Mellish, with 
 dramatic gesticulation. " Even at this eleventh hour, 
 madam, you do not go ! The rooms have been re- 
 served at your request ; I'm a man of business, I'll have 
 my rights, I'll not be robbed ! " 
 
 His gestures were so uncontrolled that for a moment 
 she lost her nerve and was mute. Then she threw 
 up her chin and fronted him steadily. 
 
 " Mr. Mellish," she said, " when you have done 
 screaming, let us understand each other ! You let 
 your rooms to me by a falsehood about your niece. 
 And you delayed me till Saturday because you had a 
 chance of doing better in the meantime. And when 
 the other chance came off, you asked me to wait your 
 convenience in a kitchen. Do you imagine I have 
 arrived here from a kindergarten ? " 
 
 " Oh," he shouted, " they may be common people, 
 but they will do all they can, and " 
 
 " They are not common people, they are much 
 superior to you, but their house is not suitable." 
 
 " You are not going ! " he stormed. He beat his 
 fist on his palm under her face. " Mark that ! " 
 
 " There is just one thing that might detain me," 
 she said through her teeth. " If the hand you are 
 brandishing happens to touch me, I shall remain to
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 279 
 
 give you in charge of the village policeman. Now 
 out of my way, Mr. Mellish — and the next time you 
 hope to cheat a woman because she hasn't her husband 
 with her, don't choose an American ! " 
 
 Then she climbed on to the plank in the cart, beside the 
 brown bonnet strings and the rose. And Mrs. Duplock, 
 giving " Ducksums " to her, said, " Lor', marm, there 
 was one moment when you looked as if you was standing 
 up dead ! "
 
 XXI 
 
 It was peaceful, overlooking the plum trees. After 
 Fuchsia Terrace, and the kitchen, there was much to 
 be said for the abode. She surprised herself soon, in 
 this tiny room, by feeling so grateful for it. " Duck- 
 sums " did not give her much time to be idle during 
 the day, and there was no piano for brief respites, nor 
 were there books for the evening. But the red path 
 by the fruit bloom was pleasant, and there was a seat 
 near the crocuses on the little lawn. 
 
 Mrs. Hyder recommended a gawky girl in a pinafore, 
 from the vicinity of the Toad Rock, to push the peram- 
 bulator, and Betty bought a new sixpenny-halfpenny 
 hat for her, and walked beside her twice a day over 
 the common. The Happy Valley was still there — 
 and the favourite nook was again favoured The girl 
 and " Ducksums " didn't see them, but the spot where 
 they sat was full of memories. Last time, there had 
 been no " Ducksums " ! 
 
 Ignorant of such reflections, he waved his hand to 
 a far meadow, sprinkled with white lambs. 
 
 «8o
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 281 
 
 In this new life, where her only companions were 
 her baby boy, and Queenie from the Toad Rock, 
 Betty found herself taking an interest in her fellow- 
 lodger. Attention was first drawn to her by peals 
 of laughter in the garden between five and six o'clock 
 in the afternoon, and the ladder staircase had yielded 
 a view of a young girl playing hide-and-seek with a 
 child about twelve years old. Between six o'clock 
 and seven, however, the young girl was discovered 
 to be a very pretty woman, and she had brought out 
 a work-basket and was mending things. The absorp- 
 tion with which she mended things was so great a 
 change from the merriment with which she played 
 hide-and-seek, that Betty looked at her astonished. 
 After supper, there had been another glimpse of her, 
 through the drawing-room window — the lamplight 
 showed her, with a furrowed brow, nibbling a pen- 
 holder at a table strewn with papers. 
 
 Curiosity in the Chameleon ascertained that she was 
 the child's mother, and " an authoress," and that her 
 name was " Mrs. Norbury." 
 
 Every morning Betty saw Mrs. Norbury leave the 
 house with her little daughter swinging a school- 
 satchel. The length of time that she was gone sug- 
 gested that the school was in Tunbridge Wells. Every 
 afternoon she went out to bring the child back, and 
 in the interval, the table had been strewn with papers
 
 282 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 again. Betty observed that the main features of the 
 programme never varied. At half-past four, a music 
 lesson. From five to six, the games. From six to 
 seven, the work-basket. After supper, once more the 
 pen ! 
 
 What kind of woman was this, who lived like a 
 machine, and could romp like a young girl ? 
 
 One afternoon " Ducksums " introduced them. He 
 was learning to stand, and exaggerating his stability, 
 and Mrs. Norbury picked him off the daisies. The 
 little girl, it transpired, had been on tiptoe for a week 
 to " know the baby," and the women talked while they 
 watched them. 
 
 " What a pretty little frock that is ! " remarked 
 Betty. 
 
 Mrs. Norbury beamed. 
 
 " Do you think so, really ? I am glad. I had to 
 run it up for her in a couple of days." 
 
 " You don't mean to say you made that yourself ? " 
 
 " That ? Yes, and all her others too ! I make 
 everything she wears — except her shoes and stockings." 
 
 Betty opened amazed eyes at her. 
 
 " Are you sure you quite believe me ? " said the 
 prodigy, laughing. 
 
 " Why, yes, of course ! " laughed Betty. " I was 
 only wondering what your frightful fault can be." 
 
 The other woman looked puzzled. 
 
 /■/
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 283 
 
 " You seem too perfect to be true ! " 
 
 At this, the prodigy blushed as brightly as if she had 
 been seventeen. 
 
 " But it's so simple if you know how," she said. 
 " The only difficulty is to find the time." 
 
 " Well, so I should say, seeing that you write as 
 well. I don't know how you do so much — I've been 
 wondering ever since I came." 
 
 " I've really got it easier now than I've ever had it 
 before ! — I mean, than I've ever had it since my 
 husband died. I've done everything for Muriel since 
 then, and she used to be delicate." 
 
 " She's all right now, isn't she ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ! The sea air and the country have done 
 just what we hoped — we left town when she was five. 
 But till we came to this place, she was only allowed to 
 go to school in the morning — I had scarcely taken her 
 when it was time to go and fetch her. That was rather 
 whizzling. You see, I never write in front of her ; it'd 
 be bad for the work, and — what's more important 
 still — it'd be bad for the child, to have a dummy 
 mother driving a pen. Besides, I have to bring 
 her up." 
 
 " But she seems such a good little thing — there can't 
 be much ' bringing up ' to do ? " 
 
 " Good ? " said the other, in a deep, hushed voice — 
 she sounded as if she were saying prayers. " Yes 1
 
 284 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 She makes me feel ashamed sometimes. But there's 
 the good to be helped along, and the failings to be 
 ' thrown out of the window.' She and I work together 
 at that. We ' throw another failing out of the window ' 
 every term ! " The smile that lit her face was very 
 girlish. 
 
 This year, the English climate was even more 
 eccentric than usual, but when the sky was kind and 
 the ground was dry, the women met nearly every 
 afternoon in the play hour. Sometimes Betty joined 
 in the games and romped with the best. And when 
 the Easter holidays began, she often took Muriel for 
 walks with Queenie and " Ducksums," and left the 
 mother free at the table. 
 
 By the time the hyacinths and tulips came up, the 
 women were good friends. Mrs. Norbury, it seemed, 
 always sauntered in the garden for ten minutes after 
 her evening's work. 
 
 " Why don't you come out too ? " 
 
 " I don't like to go so far away from Baby, in case he 
 wakes." 
 
 So, in future, Mrs. Norbury always sauntered to the 
 kitchen garden instead, and they generally sat and 
 talked on the ladder staircase under the open window. 
 
 Betty learnt that her pen provided her only income, 
 and that she had ambitions, and no prospect of ful- 
 filling them.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 285 
 
 " I can't afford to go in for the kind of work I'd 
 love," she explained once, as they nibbled chocolate 
 on the steps together ; " I couldn't educate Muriel, I 
 couldn't do anything by it ! " 
 
 " Have you tried ? " 
 
 " Yes, I've had two little plays produced in London. 
 The second one did me a lot of good, so far as kudos 
 goes ; all the best-known dramatic critics gave it really 
 magnificent notices, with a single exception — he dis- 
 missed it with a sneer. But I didn't make any money 
 by it — and the other stuff keeps us. I'm not proud of 
 being a serial writer, but we've got to live." 
 
 " I think you ought to be very proud indeed ! I'd. be 
 very proud if I could do what you're doing. I have 
 about twopence a week to live on, and I'm spending 
 twopence-halfpenny." She sighed. " And I can't 
 earn a cent. Anyhow, what's the professional dis- 
 tinction between writing serials and writing novels ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Keith 1 A serial is pot-boiling, and a novel's 
 a book." 
 
 " Oh, I see ! Every long story that hasn't cloth 
 covers is a ' pot-boiler ' ; and every long story that has, 
 is called a ' novel.' I say, I do wish you'd give me 
 a few hints — I want to flatten my expenses a little. 
 The Hyders are quite fair, I think ; but I don't seem 
 to do as well as I ought. Do you go to the trades- 
 people yourself ? "
 
 286 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " Not unless I'm obliged to. And it doesn't matter 
 here. Perhaps you don't order so well as you might." 
 
 " How do you mean ? I order a joint, and eat it 
 cold till I'm sick of seeing it." 
 
 " Oh, my dear ! But of course, I know — I used to 
 live like that myself ! If you like, I'll show you my 
 week's bills — then you'll see just what I do." 
 
 " You are a trump ! " exclaimed Betty. " I'd shine 
 that way in no time. But I expect you cater more 
 extensively than I do, you know — you spend a lot on 
 frocks, too, don't you ? " 
 
 " Good gracious, no ! " But she looked highly 
 delighted, " I make most of them myself. Why, 
 your mourning must have cost I don't know how 
 much ! " 
 
 " Oh, well," said Betty, " but I don't go to the same 
 places now ! I know I'm always seeing you in new 
 things." ^ 
 
 " Not new ones ! I turn them, and bring a blouse 
 up to date, when I've time." 
 
 " For pity's sake, how do you bring a blouse up to 
 date ? " 
 
 " Why, the sleeves chiefly — it's the sleeves that are 
 always changing. See this muslin thing ! " She 
 laughed gleefully. " This'll be its fourth summer. 
 The sleeves hung wide at the wrists the first year. I 
 turned them upside down the next — took the wide
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 287 
 
 ends up to the shoulder, and puffed it down to the 
 elbow, and added a fitting lace sleeve to the wrist. 
 Last year, I only had to throw away the lace half and 
 stick on a frill. This year, I stuck on an embroidery 
 cuff instead." 
 
 Betty contemplated the stars. 
 
 " And next ? " she faltered. 
 
 " Next year I shall take the skirt, and what's left 
 of the blouse, and make a sweet little frock, all frills, 
 for Muriel." 
 
 " You are a liberal education ! " said Betty, after 
 a long pause. " You may have a piece more chocolate. 
 When may I come and study those bills of yours ? " 
 
 And there was nothing, even the science of economy, 
 that Betty wasn't capable of mastering if she bent 
 her mind to it. 
 
 Another scene : after the scarlet runners flowered. 
 In this scene Mrs. Norbury's Frightful Fault was 
 revealed, and Betty received an Astounding Object 
 Lesson. 
 
 It was announced that Mrs. Norbury was going 
 to spend twelve pounds on clothes, all at once ! 
 
 " But I thought you made all your things yourself, 
 Madge ? " 
 
 " Now that's a nice accusation ! " complained the 
 other. " I told you I made ' most of them ' ! So I 
 do — and I pat myself on the back when they're done,
 
 288 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 and while I'm wearing them. But — hut, dear — once 
 a year I give myself a treat ! " 
 
 " The creature's human," said Betty. 
 
 " I go shopping up West with fifteen pounds — when 
 I've managed to save it. And I get one good, well-cut 
 costume. Of course, no furbelows — it's the cut that 
 gives me the unholy joy, because I know I'm properly 
 dressed. Then there must be a hat to go with it — 
 the gloves, the silk petticoat, the shoes, the stockings, 
 just a complete rig-out, to feel happy when I call on 
 friends in town, and to impress the editors. Now, 
 here are some patterns ! What are they wearing ? 
 And where do you think I can cut down the prices on 
 this list ? Do help me, Betty ! This year I've only 
 got twelve pounds to fly with ! " 
 
 Betty, as adviser upon " cutting down the prices " ! 
 It was quickly evident that there was no experience 
 to be drawn upon. But goodwill she had, and her 
 acute intelligence, and the thirst to learn — the domin- 
 ating purpose that was already dwarfing hardships 
 and re-creating her. And with all her brain she worked ! 
 Both women worked — for an anxious hour and a half 
 — reducing, debating, despairing. And finally they 
 leant back in their chairs with triumphant smiles, for 
 they had solved the problem with eleven pounds 
 nineteen and sixpence ! 
 
 When they separated, the other woman, who realised
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 289 
 
 that her friend must have once shopped lavishly, said, 
 " You have been a brick ! I'm afraid my trumpery 
 purchases must have bored you no end." 
 
 And the experience had taught her so much that, 
 for once in her life, Betty stood without words for a 
 reply. She simply shook her head at the other woman, 
 and kissed her. 
 
 From Lynch personally she had heard nothing since 
 she wrote giving him this address ; there had merely 
 been the necessary acknowledgment from his solicitor. 
 Nor among the notices of the art exhibitions had she 
 been able to find any picture of her husband's men- 
 tioned. But for a solitary letter from Dardy, it was 
 as if the world had been left behind. The stir of a 
 village woke her to her child, the scent of the earth 
 gave her greeting when she rose, the night wind whis- 
 pering in the fruit trees was her lullaby. 
 
 Not once had she repented the choice that she had 
 made. She had had to struggle hard in these three 
 months, but the struggle had been to eke out her 
 means, never to sustain her resolve. She knew no 
 temptation to abandon it. The sun broke upon it 
 and the sun set upon it, and the moon idealised it, 
 dauntless and unquenchable. 
 
 And, thanks to friendship, the struggle had grown 
 less. By slow degrees it had become needless for her 
 to consult daily the items and prices that were her 
 19
 
 290 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 lesson books. And by slower degrees the conscious- 
 ness of poverty ceased to oppress her. There were 
 many hours in which enjoyment was supreme. Not 
 the hours in which she trudged beside the scarecrow 
 hireling, abject to all beholders ; but hours of a mother's 
 duties, and of a woman's rest — when the flare of the 
 scarlet runners had paled in the twilight — hours of 
 a mother's worship. It was sweet terror to strain 
 towards his tottering feet — breathless, to clutch at 
 him, exultant, when he had almost reached her. It 
 was a new miracle to mark the dawn of another word 
 upon his lips, and teach him the word that he was to 
 say to Keith. 
 
 Under the window the plums turned purple. The 
 earliest apples ripened. And " Ducksums," defying 
 the two pounds a week, had grown out of all his 
 petticoats, 
 
 Mrs. Norbury viewed a heap of them in Betty's room 
 one day, and said, " Why, you've got enough here for 
 half a dozen children — you don't need to buy any 
 stuff at all ! You can chop some of these up to make 
 the alterations." 
 
 " Is that so ? Well, that's just lovely ! But I'm 
 such a duffer, I don't know the way ! " exclaimed 
 Betty. And the next moment she stared at the land- 
 lady's daughter approaching with an orange-coloured 
 envelope in her hand.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 291 
 
 " Regret to inform you your father passed away 
 last night from heart failure. No pain. By his in- 
 structions, funeral must take place at Greenwood 
 within five days, rendering your attendance impossible. 
 I place my services entirely at your disposal. Please 
 cable your wishes, and accept my sincerest condolence. 
 
 — DORFMAN." 
 
 " Bad news ? " asked Mrs. Norbury. 
 
 " My father's dead," said Betty chokily. 
 
 And her head went down on the other woman's 
 shoulder, and they sat so for a long time without a 
 word.
 
 XXII 
 
 By and by she sent a reply, begging the lawyer to act 
 for her in her absence. She cabled from the little 
 telegraph office next door to the hotel where she had 
 once spent such blindly happy weeks. But she shrank 
 from appealing to him about the flowers that she 
 wished laid on the grave. About those she cabled to 
 Dardy. 
 
 On the morrow came another message, assuring her 
 that all should be done as the dead man had desired ; 
 and after that was silence. 
 
 Mrs. Norbury had said, " You'll want to go away ? 
 You know you can leave Baby with me ? " 
 
 " I'm sure you'd let me ! But I shan't be going 
 away — my father was in America ; I couldn't get there 
 in time. I feel so awful I " 
 
 " I'm sorry." 
 
 " We weren't friends — that makes it worse." 
 
 " Poor girl ! " 
 
 " I'm afraid you must think sometimes I'm very 
 
 reserved with you ? I daresay you've wondered ? 
 
 292
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 293 
 
 But I can't talk about my affairs. It isn't that I'm 
 not fond of you, Madge, but I can't 1 " 
 
 " I've never thought anything of the kind. I 
 haven't wondered at all, except " 
 
 " Except what ? " 
 
 '-^ Well, you told me your husband was alive — I've 
 wondered sometimes whether you got on together." 
 
 " No, that's right ; we didn't get on together. But 
 it wasn't his fault. My father was a rich man, and my 
 husband wasn't — and I was extravagant. That was 
 the trouble. But I'm going to do better next time ! 
 That's why I want to know things ; I don't want to be 
 such a useless fool any more." 
 
 They were anxious days that followed, and the 
 silent evenings were heavier still. Brooding in the 
 little lamp-Ut room, or pacing the narrow path in 
 the darkness, she faced one overwhelming question. 
 The fear of the milHons, of the vastness of their re- 
 sponsibility, weighted her soul. " You'll be one of the 
 richest women on earth I " She quailed at the thought. 
 All her ambitions were absorbed by her plan for 
 happiness and home — she prayed to escape the burden 
 of this complication in her life. 
 
 Her mind groped among conjectures. Dick must 
 have read of the death ; he pictured her in New York 
 still ! But if this mountain of wealth descended on 
 her ? Then she could no longer be economising un-
 
 294 / THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 known in a village ; the Press of America and Europe 
 would flame with her relinquishment. Must he learn 
 her whereabouts then ? Would he come to her ? 
 
 She said to her friend at last, " I wish I could alter 
 those things we were talking about — it'd give me 
 something to do in the evening." And while she 
 trembled before the magnitude of the inheritance, she 
 took a lesson in lengthening her baby's clothes. 
 
 " Not so fast ! " she pleaded. " Show me ! I want 
 to see how you do it, I want to learn ! " 
 
 And it was, " All right ; I'll cut out a pattern of the 
 bodice. . . . Now lay it on the material — I should 
 think three inches all round would do for him. Now 
 stick in the pins ! . . . Now cut ! Not so close — 
 you've got to think of the turnings ! " 
 
 Then, hindering the thought of the " turnings," the 
 news of the millions flashed. 
 
 A reference to the funeral ; next, " By the will you 
 inherit everything your father possessed, which I 
 estimate to have a value of two hundred miUion dollars. 
 Your presence desirable. I await your instructions. — 
 
 DORFMAN." 
 
 Forty million pounds ! 
 
 Two Continents were talking of her. Crowned Heads 
 would flatter her. The world would prostrate itself 
 before her feet. The woman gazed over the kitchen 
 garden with her child's " mending " in her hand.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 295 
 
 The work was postponed : " We'll do it after tea, 
 Madge, if you can spare the time ! " 
 
 She was left to her thoughts, and to her answer. For 
 days a word had eluded her. " Distribute " ? No ! 
 She borrowed a dictionary, and read under D until 
 " Disintegrate " leapt out. 
 
 " Ducksums " played beside her while she scribbled, 
 while she discarded sheets of paper. 
 
 The cablegram was written. She read it through, 
 her baby scrambling in her lap — 
 
 " Make immediate formal request on my behalf to 
 President of Republic, to nominate Committee for the 
 purpose of administering the whole of my father's 
 fortune to such Charities, American and European, as 
 they think deserving. I stipulate that the whole be 
 disposed of within two years. My unalterable intention 
 is that the fortune be disintegrated, and my desire is as 
 far as possible to benefit all those who have suffered 
 in the process of its amassment. With these excep- 
 tions : Pay promptly ten thousand pounds to Joe 
 Duplock, Pear Cottage, Atherall, near Hammick, 
 Tunbridge Wells. Fifty thousand pounds to Nurse 
 Emery, Fernando Prospect Sanatorium, the nurse who 
 attended my brother daily during my stay. Fifty 
 thousand pounds to Madge Norbury, of this address. 
 Send all documents to me here for signature. — Keith." 
 
 Once more, she pondered if these three gifts were 
 inconsistent with her aim. She denied it. Throngs 
 would benefit whom the Trust had never harmed ;
 
 296 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 among them, why not four strugghng lives whose 
 worth she knew ? Truly their wants could have been 
 relieved by humbler grants, but that point she was not 
 the woman to discern. When Betty gave, she gave 
 " enough." 
 
 Over the common, unregarded, she went with her 
 answer, that was to thrill the world. 
 
 " Six pounds, fifteen," said the clerk in charge. 
 
 " So much ? " she exclaimed. " I don't know if I 
 have it here." 
 
 " There are a hundred and thirty-five words." 
 
 " Oh, well," — she emptied the purse, — " it has to go ! 
 Will you send it for me at once, please ? " 
 
 A minute she lingered, listening. She stood gather- 
 ing her scanty change, as the apparatus ticked away her 
 millions to the Poor : no girl, swept headlong by an 
 impulse — a woman completing a resolve. Her stead- 
 fast eyes were solemn as she listened. Her mind beheld 
 the ruin of the dead man's earthly hopes ; yet her spirit 
 viewed some shadow lifted from his soul. If, from 
 the Infinite, her act were seen, millions looked lesser 
 there — and pity, most. From the Great Beyond, 
 he would not condemn. 
 
 Peace flooded her heart as she turned away. Many 
 a still evening there had been, the same, but none like 
 it unto her. The flush of the sky, the tendernesss of the 
 hour, all Nature breathed a promise. Care was behind
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 297 
 
 — ahead, the sweet fulfilment of her plan ! Her step was 
 buoyant on the grass. Clearer than the village lights 
 that sprang into the gloaming, she saw the light of 
 Home. Nearer than the poverty that she re-entered, 
 she found the wealth of joy. The lamp-lit room was 
 mean, but her friend was in it ; the hill had been steep, 
 but its height was climbed. 
 
 For the People, her husband, and her boy — God, 
 and herself ! 
 
 Back to the lesson ! 
 
 " Tack it together. . . . You've got the shoulder 
 seam crooked. . . . That's it. That's right. Now— 
 stitch ! "
 
 XXIII 
 
 It occurred to her afterwards that, instead of "on 
 my behalf " in the cablegram, she might have said, 
 " for me," and so saved a shilling. Probably she 
 might have saved more shillings than one ! She 
 had just resigned millions cheerfully, but she could not 
 help thinking of that six pounds, fifteen. 
 
 It annoyed her therefore to receive a reply which 
 put her to further expense — 
 
 " Most earnestly counsel consideration. The course 
 you contemplate is open to you always. No need for 
 haste. Confer with me before you act. If you cannot 
 come here, I will go to you." 
 
 She condensed her rejoinder with care, and it ran — 
 
 " You have received definite instructions. Please 
 cable immediately whether you will fulfil them." 
 
 To this a final warning — 
 
 " Your wishes shall be obeyed. Legal formalities, 
 however, cannot be completed before two months. 
 
 After that, revocation impossible." 
 
 298
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 299 
 
 She did not know whether it was true that legal 
 formalities would take so long, or whether time for 
 consideration was being discreetly imposed upon her, 
 but she resigned herself to the delay, and the weeks 
 stole by. 
 
 A child from the village sauntered no more into the 
 drowsy garden with tidings from a distant land. The 
 woman who was to be world-famous during a nine days' 
 wonder trod the roads of Rusthall unremarked, and 
 continued her daily parsimonies. The woman who 
 was to be astounded by news that would metamor- 
 phose her life, continued to be nurse, author, dress- 
 maker, and the playmate of her child. The colours 
 of the common changed and the colours of the garden, 
 and, one by one, Ducksums' petticoats were lengthened. 
 But in the routine of the women nothing changed. 
 Their days were as before. 
 
 And meanwhile, as Betty had supposed, Keith 
 believed her to be still in New York. He imagined 
 her sustained by Mrs. Waldehast, condoled with by 
 Society, urged by confidants more strongly than ever 
 to sue for her freedom. He had been prepared for 
 her to do that earlier, and given thanks for the silence. 
 The silence hinted that some feeling for him remained. 
 As well as if he had been present, he knew the advice 
 that was urged upon her — yet she struggled against 
 it, she would not agree to divorce him.
 
 300 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 Time had softened his memory of their dissensions ; 
 perhaps the joy of accompHshing good work had 
 softened it even more. It was no longer for his bride 
 alone that he sorrowed — he longed also for his wife. 
 He reproached himself for harshness, for lack of 
 patience ; sometimes it seemed to him that he had 
 been merciless. H his means had improved, he would 
 have written to her ; a score of impulses had seized him 
 to write, even as it was. But when the pen was in 
 his hand, what could be said ? She had drooped under 
 the poverty, and he was still as poor. Only if his 
 picture fulfilled his expectations would there be any- 
 thing to say. H " The Harbour of Souls " succeeded, 
 he would implore her to return ! 
 
 Not to effect a reunion had he begun the picture — 
 the man was an artist, and he painted because he must 
 — but he had thought of her homecoming when he set 
 his palette in the early morning, and he had thought 
 of her homecoming when he washed his brushes at 
 the close of day. And while the picture grew — while 
 every mail might bring the news he dreaded, and every 
 mail still withheld it — Keith had trembled for the 
 result of that contention in New York, the contention 
 in which unknown people fought against his dearest 
 hope. 
 
 Then the hope had been slain by other means : he 
 had read of her brother's death, and of her father's —
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 301 
 
 and he fancied his wife reigning in the great house 
 that she had quitted, mistress of the colossal fortune 
 that she meant to sign away. And, in spite of this, 
 the canvas had claimed him still. The picture of the 
 homecoming had faded, but the picture on the easel 
 had progressed. He had painted through every hour 
 of light, painted, and painted out, and painted again. 
 And now the work of ten months was finished, and the 
 victory that he had prayed for all his life had come. 
 " The Harbour of Souls " had been bought by the 
 Chantrey Bequest — on Keith had been bestowed the 
 highest recognition that can be granted to any painter 
 in England. And, being an artist, he exulted ; and, 
 being a man, he mourned. From the summit of 
 success he raised his arms to wife and child, to make 
 the joy complete. 
 
 Redirected from Telemachus Mansions, a letter was 
 delivered at the studio. And the first words startled 
 him, and he turned to the signature — and the signature 
 was strange, and he read the first words again — 
 
 " Dear Sir, — Since I came back with Mrs. Keith 
 from America in April, Mother has been ailing, and 
 I have been keeping house for Father in Felixstowe. 
 But now I am going to take a place again, and I should 
 be much obliged if Mrs. Keith would kindly send the 
 Character she promised. The lady that I am going to 
 has written to Rusthall, but her letter was returned 
 from 3 Fuchsia Terrace, marked ' Gone Away,' so
 
 302 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 I am taking the liberty of writing to you, hoping you 
 will send this on to Mrs. Keith if she is not at home. 
 Hoping Baby is well. — Yours respectfully, 
 
 " Harriet Fry." 
 
 The nurse ! And Betty had " come back in April " ! 
 His mind ran riot. What could it mean except 
 that 
 
 But why strive to conjecture what it meant when he 
 might be able to ask her, face to face ! Rusthall ! 
 Perhaps she was in Rusthall now ? At least he should 
 contrive to find her ! He crushed the letter in his 
 pocket, and sped down the flights of steps. 
 
 Among the decayed four-wheelers on the hopeless 
 Foundling rank, a mouldering hansom stood. 
 
 " Charing Cross — as quick as you can go ! " he cried. 
 And its quickest was a crawl to his impatience, and 
 he beat the stuffy cushion with his fist. 
 
 And while he leant over the doors of the doddering 
 cab, a placard struck his senses and the wonder of the 
 hour was hurled. 
 
 " Lynch's Daughter Gives Up Her Fortune ! " 
 
 As he jumped, the board was passed. 
 
 " Forty Millions To The Poor ! " The proclamation 
 fluttered at a street corner, strident voices yelled it to 
 the crowd. 
 
 " Stop ! " he called, and a grimy hand shoved evening 
 papers to his clutch.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 303 
 
 " This is a bit of all right, guv'nor ? " exclaimed the 
 vagrant. " Gord bless the lady ! " 
 
 " God bless the lady ! " echoed her husband. 
 " There's a sovereign — keep the change." 
 
 " Strike me pink, the world's gone barmy ! " gasped 
 the man, and the cab jerked on. 
 
 But the lines were few ; just the sensational fact was 
 cabled : " Lynch's Daughter Gives Up Her Fortune ! " 
 That was all, but that was ever5rwhere. Contents bills 
 blazoned it, newsboys bellowed it, London resounded 
 with her deed. At the station he seized more papers, 
 in the hope of learning where she was, and scanned 
 them while he waited for his train. No hint ! 
 
 In the compartment, all the men were talking of her. 
 The journey among strangers chattering her name 
 seemed eternal. If it failed ? He hungered to dis- 
 cover her. He wanted to kneel at her feet, to bow his 
 head on her knees. He famined to reach her. And 
 she might not be in England, after all ! Perhaps while 
 his nerves strained for Rusthall, she was looking from 
 a window in New York ? 
 
 Tunbridge Wells at last ! In the twilight, he was 
 rattled over the road on which they used to stroll 
 together to the Pantiles, past the walls of the hotel 
 where they had stayed. Fuchsia Terrace was un- 
 familiar ; when the stoppage of the fly announced it, 
 his throat grew tight that she had known its ignominy.
 
 304 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 A slattern advanced, with a trail of unhealthy 
 children. 
 
 " Is Mrs. Keith here ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Keith ? " She tossed a frowzy head. " Oh 
 no!" 
 
 " She did lodge here, didn't she ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Keith left months ago." 
 
 " Do you happen to know where she went ? I'm 
 very anxious to find her. It's most important that I 
 should see her at once." 
 
 " I couldn't say, I'm sure." 
 
 " Can you tell me if she is still in Rusthall ? " 
 
 " I couldn't say, I'm sure," repeated the woman. 
 
 He brought out some shilhngs and rejoiced the 
 unhealthy children, none of whom said " Thank you." 
 
 The woman hesitated. 
 
 " I couldn't say for rights where she's staying, but 
 I've seen her about, once or twice, since she left me." 
 
 " Lately ? " 
 
 " I suppose the last time I see her might ha' been a 
 fortnight ago." 
 
 " Thank you very much ! " 
 
 He rushed back to the fly, and told the man to drive 
 to the post office. At the post office, he astonished the 
 girl at the desk by taking off his hat to her. Could she 
 favour him with the address of a lady in the neigh- 
 bourhood named Mrs. Keith ?
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 305 
 
 " Mrs. Richard Keith ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Richard Keith ! " he stammered. 
 
 " She's living at Hyder's — over there, the house by 
 the poplars," said the girl graciously, and was sorry 
 that the gentleman went out in such a hurry. 
 
 By the poplars, a high gate ; through the gate, a 
 darksome path. Six strides, and he had reached the 
 door. 
 
 " Mrs. Keith ? " 
 
 " Who shall I say, sir ? " 
 
 " ' Her husband,' please," he answered. And a girl 
 beyond cried, " Mrs. Keith's in the drawing-room, 
 mother ! " He was left standing in the porch. 
 
 Into the light of the little hall a lady hastened, with 
 friendly, smiling eyes. 
 
 " Your wife just went upstairs, Mr. Keith," she said ; 
 " I'll show you the way." 
 
 " I shall be grateful." 
 
 But, instead of inviting him to enter, the lady led 
 him round the house to a kitchen garden. And at a 
 stair-head was an open window, shining yellow on the 
 night. 
 
 " Your wife's up there," she murmured, and was 
 gone. 
 
 He mustn't frighten her ! The thought thrust him 
 
 back in time. 
 
 " Betty ! " he whispered, trembling. 
 20
 
 3o6 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 Only the fruit boughs rustled in the breeze. 
 
 " Betty ! " he called. And a figure came between 
 the lamp-glow and the dusk. 
 
 " Betty 1 " 
 
 It was Her wondering face that bent in the darkness ! 
 It was Her wondering voice that broke with his 
 name ! 
 
 She flung out her hands to him. 
 
 And he stumbled up the staircase and caught her in 
 his arms. 
 
 And afterwards he didn't know what he had said, or 
 what she had said in the first few moments, but, " If you 
 go on being so penitent, I shall begin to think you must 
 have treated me very badly 1 " she was smiling. And 
 love and girlhood were in her smile, and her dimple 
 was sunning in her cheek. And would any other 
 woman, with big tears splashing, have laughed, " I 
 always did stroke your hair the wrong way, didn't I ? 
 You've got to put up with it," ? 
 
 Then she was exclaiming, " I've got so much to tell 
 you, but I can't get a word in sideways I How did you 
 find me ? " 
 
 And when he began to say how he had found her, 
 memories sprang, interrupting — and called other 
 memories — and he had to begin again — 
 
 " Nurse " 
 
 " Dickie!" — she beat feeble hands on him — "why
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 307 
 
 do you keep saying ' Nurse ' ? What has nurse got to 
 do with it ? " 
 
 " She wrote to me — she wants a ' Character,' and 
 doesn't know where you are. But she said you had 
 gone to Rusthall." 
 
 ** Oh ! Now you're rewarded for not sending her 
 away when you wanted to — look how nice it is for you ! 
 Yes ? Well ? Go on, tell me all ! Oh, if you were a 
 woman you'd have told me everything in ten seconds 
 — everything that has happened to you — only you 
 couldn't have told me anything that was half so lovely 
 to hear ! Go on, Dickie ; never mind what you say — 
 just hold me tight and talk I " 
 
 " I got her letter this afternoon, and I tumbled into 
 a cab ; and on the way to Charing Cross I saw the news, 
 what you've done " 
 
 " You know ? " 
 
 " Know ? All London's shouting it ! And I 
 stopped the cab to get a paper, and the man said, 
 ' God bless the lady,' and / said, ' God bless the lady,' 
 
 and — and It is ' God bless the lady ' I Betty, 
 
 you're an Angel! You're the greatest woman on 
 earth ! " 
 
 " O — oh," she cooed. '^ And then, and then, and 
 then ? Well ? " 
 
 " Well, then I went to Fuchsia Terrace. — My heart, 
 what a place for you ! How could you go there, kiddy ?
 
 3o8 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 — And she told me she had seen you since you left; 
 and I went to the post office, and they gave me your 
 
 address, and Betty, has it been very awful 
 
 for you ? You've been living on that hundred a 
 year ? Why didn't you tell me what you were 
 doing ? *' 
 
 " My ! " she mocked him with dismay ; " that 
 reminds me — you've come much too soon ; you're all 
 * out of the picture ' ; I meant to be here for a year 
 before you knew what I was doing ! I ought to send 
 you away again. I'm learning to be a proper wife to 
 you ! Dardy said I couldn't, but I am. How do you 
 
 suppose that Baby's Well ! " Her radiant face 
 
 grimaced at him. " You're a fine father, you haven't 
 asked about your son yet ! " 
 
 " How's our son, my wife ? " 
 
 " How is he ? He is unique. He's asleep in there. 
 Come and look ! " 
 
 They crept to the cot, and stood silent. After a 
 minute she whispered, " He can walk ! He topples 
 sometimes, but no other baby ever toppled so well." 
 Next, " Come back, or we shall wake him ! . . . I've 
 got something to tell you. How do you suppose 
 his clothes have been made big enough ? I did them 
 myself, to save buying new ones. A woman down- 
 stairs showed me how — I'm just great at altering 
 clothes to-day ! " She popped a pink linger to his lips :
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 309 
 
 " I don't know if the needle has roughened my finger 
 for you — feel ! " 
 
 And then Miss Hyder appeared with a potato pie ; 
 and Betty whispered to him, " If I had known I'd have 
 company to supper, I'd have saved some rice pudding !" 
 
 He watched her cut the loaf. She cut it with 
 amazing skill — and chid him for " daintiness " because 
 he was so sick with love that he couldn't eat. But she 
 was no better herself. 
 
 On the path where he had called to her the moon 
 shone now, and from their chairs the kitchen garden 
 was enchanted. She wanted to hear how it was that 
 he hadn't " come in at the door, like anybody else," 
 and laughter rippled when he told her of his guide. 
 " There was the touch of the dramatist about that — 
 she writes plays, you know ! What are you painting 
 now, Dickie ? How's the work ? " 
 
 " Sweetheart," he answered, " take some potato pie 
 — it's your last chance ! " 
 
 Her chair feU back, she was beside him in a flash, 
 her hands on his shoulders : " What have you done ? " 
 
 " I've finished ' The Harbour of Souls.' " 
 
 For an instant, though her lips smiled, her gaze was 
 wistful — she hadn't been there to see ! 
 
 " Good ? " she faltered. 
 
 " Sold for a thousand guineas ! " 
 
 " A thousand guineas ? Not Vivard ? "
 
 310 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " The Chantrey Bequest I " 
 
 " Dick ! " No shade on her rapture now — she 
 clung to him, breathless, eager, triumphant. It was 
 the moment of his life, and hers. " The ' Chantrey 
 Bequest ' means fame ? " 
 
 " It means the biggest thing that could possibly 
 have happened to us I They've invited me to exhibit 
 it at the Academy next year. The public '11 say 
 it's magnificent, incomprehensible, or rotten; but 
 they'll flock to see it, and they'll talk about it, 
 because the Chantrey Bequest has bought it. From 
 the Academy it'll go to the permanent collection at 
 the Tate Gallery." 
 
 " Permanent ? When Baby grows up ? " 
 
 " Always — it's bought for England, it's the property 
 of the Nation 1" Tears sprang to his eyes. ";MyGod, 
 I'm proud of the honour 1 And yet, when I think of 
 yours, this thing that / have done seems too petty to 
 talk about. But it isn't the honour only, loveHest, it 
 means the end of the struggle, it means I'm ' made.' 
 After this, my prices are whatever I choose to ask. I 
 can give you a pretty home, and peace of mind. I can 
 take you away from here to-morrow morning — to 
 London, Paris, Rome, wherever you'd like to go. If I 
 painted more quickly, we could have six or seven 
 thousand a year now ; even doing my best work, we 
 can be sure of three or four. You've only to say
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 311 
 
 what you want to make you quite happy — only tell me 
 what I'm to do I " 
 
 " You are to do — your best work," she told him. 
 " That's what we're going to live for, Dickie, to do our 
 best I Oh, I am glad for you, glad, glad 1 Yes, you 
 shall take me early to-morrow, and the first thing I'm 
 to see is your picture. Talk to me about it ! When 
 did you begin it — how long ago ? " 
 
 " I began it soon after you went. And I've been 
 at work on it ever since." 
 
 '^ How did you manage, Dick — you've been hard 
 up? " 
 
 " About two bob a day — I did a sketch now and then 
 to keep me going, but I didn't do many — I couldn't 
 spare the time. And I thought of you while I was 
 painting — I meant to beg you to come home if I made 
 a hit. And all the time, I was afraid of the mail ! " 
 
 "The mail?" 
 
 " Afraid they'd persuade you to get rid of me before 
 the thing was done." 
 
 " Oh, my dear," she moaned, cHnging to him, " my 
 dear I " 
 
 " All the time I thought of you, Betty, I wanted you 
 so much, my love I If I had guessed I TeU me, what 
 do you do here — you've no nurse at all ? " 
 
 " I've Queenie." 
 
 " Who's Queenie ? "
 
 312 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 " She's a child who comes to wheel Baby's carriage 
 for me. She's about fourteen, but it doesn't seem to 
 be too heavy for her, and she's very elated by the 
 eighteenpence a week. We go out every morning and 
 afternoon if it's fine. Sometimes we go to the Happy 
 VaUey." 
 
 " My poor Httle girl ! " 
 
 " No, you aren't to say that ; it hasn't been so rough 
 as you think ! I've got quite used to it. There's 
 always something to do, to keep me from being dull, 
 and it doesn't seem a rush any more, as it did at the 
 start. When I come back, there's dinner, and then 
 Baby goes to sleep. And then we play, and go for 
 another walk — I think I like our afternoon walks best. 
 I've found such pretty bits, I'd like to show you ! 
 Then there's tea. And I give him his bath. And after 
 supper " 
 
 The landlady's daughter knocked again, with a 
 basket of clean washing. 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Keith, Mrs. Tobitt says would you very 
 kindly oblige her with the money to-night, instead of 
 on Monday ? " 
 
 " What, this week too ? " said Betty gaily. " Oh, 
 that husband of hers ! Will you wait while I count 
 them, then. Miss Hyder ? You might clear away 
 while I'm doing it, please." 
 
 Wondering, he saw her lift the things on to the sofa.
 
 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 313 
 
 and arrange them in neat little stacks, and compare 
 them with the list. As naturally as if she had been 
 doing it all her life, she checked the bill, and produced 
 two and ninepence, and pencilled in the book that a 
 pair of Baby's socks was missing. Amazement pos- 
 sessed him as he watched her. 
 
 " And after supper," she went on, as if nothing had 
 happened, when they were alone, " I've got his frocks 
 to mend. I'm terribly vain of mending frocks ! And 
 there's my friend downstairs — we sit on those steps 
 and talk every evening, before we go to bed. It's so 
 beautifully still ; there isn't a sound, except a church- 
 clock that chimes protectively. I — I don't know " 
 
 She looked round, hesitating. " Don't imagine I won't 
 enjoy a good time on the Continent, but I'm not sure 
 I'm so keen on saying ' good-bye ' to aU this in 
 quite such a hurry. I'd like to go and feast on 
 your picture before breakfast to-morrow, but don't 
 you think we might come back for two or three 
 days ? " 
 
 " You want to ? " he asked, marvelling. 
 
 " If you won't think it silly ? It's difficult to put 
 
 into words, but You see this has been my home for 
 
 a long while, and I've felt so much here ! " Her voice 
 trembled. " I'd like time to — to look at it, and look 
 back at it, before I go. 'Tisn't that I don't want to go 
 to you, my love. It's because I love you, because I've
 
 314 THE HOUSE OF LYNCH 
 
 tried so hard to be better for you here, that the place 
 means so much to me." 
 
 " Kiddy ! " he said chokily. Her palm lay upturned 
 in her lap, and his hand closed on it. 
 
 " You don't mind ? " 
 
 " It's what I'd choose ! I'd like to go with you for 
 the walks — ' Queenie ' shall take us all. I'd like 
 to watch you while you sew the things, I'd like to live 
 just the life that you've been living, my dearest dear ! 
 Never mind how long — even if it's only a few days, 
 it'll always make the time we've been apart seem 
 shorter to me afterwards." 
 
 " That's what I thought," she murmured — " we 
 shall have been together here. And we couldn't be 
 more than happy anywhere ! " 
 
 So they saw " happiness " — to be together. 
 
 Printed by Morrison & Gibb Limited, Edinburgh
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 JAM 4 
 
 i972 
 
 
 
 r . C p 
 
 r, ifV7 ' '^; 
 
 
 
 IJC 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN US A.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL UBRARY rAaLITY 
 
 AA 000 602 800 5