WOODKOFFE. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
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 WOODROFFE 
 
 BY 
 
 MES. RANDOLPH 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 GENTIANELLA," "WILD HYACINTH," "IRIS, 
 "LITTLE PANSY," "RESEDA," 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
 " If the earth be as fair as I hear them say, 
 
 These flowers her children are 
 Do they her beauty keep ? 
 
 They are fresh from her lap, I know 
 For I caught them fast asleep 
 
 In her arms an hour ago, 
 With the air, which is her breath 
 Her soft and delicate breath 
 
 Over them murmuring low.'' 
 
 Last Days of Pompeii. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 1883. 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 TO 
 
 FLORENCE THORNEYCROFT 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 PLEASANT DAYS ON LOCH SHELL 
 
 IN AUGUST 1881. 
 
 2803189
 
 WOODROFFE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Young people who have been habitually gratified in all 
 their desires, will not only more indulge in capricious de- 
 sires, but will infallibly take it more amiss when the feel- 
 ings or happiness of others require that they should be 
 thwarted, than those who have been practically trained to 
 the habit of subduing and restraining them, and conse- 
 quently will, in general, sacrifice the happiness of others to 
 
 their own selfish indulgence And therefore I am 
 
 firmly persuaded that indulgence infallibly produces selfish- 
 ness and hardness of heart, and that nothing but a pretty 
 severe discipline and control can lay the foundation of a 
 
 magnanimous character. 
 
 LORD JEFFREY. 
 
 T T was a lovely evening early in July. The 
 * day had been oppressively hot, but a slight 
 breeze had sprung up at sunset, and the air 
 was balmy and heavily scented with the per- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 TVOODROFFE. 
 
 fume of the roses which grew in lavish profusion 
 in the gardens of Woodrofie Manor. The great 
 glory of the sunset had departed, though faint 
 rose-tinted clouds still floated on the deep blue 
 of the summer sky, while in the east the full 
 moon was already high in the heavens, and was 
 beginning to cast deep black shadows, and to 
 turn the rippling river to silver. The garden, 
 which was of considerable extent, was bounded 
 by a balustrade, wreathed with roses, fuchsia, 
 and honeysuckle, and from it the bank fell 
 abruptly to the river, which wound its way 
 through fine woods of oak, beech, and birch. 
 The woods, however, were now all on the oppo- 
 site side of the little river ; those appertaining 
 to the Manor had fallen one after the other in 
 the vain endeavour to satisfy Basil Woodroffe's 
 insatiable demands for money. 
 
 Leaning her elbows on the balustrade, and 
 resting her chin in her hands, stood a tall, 
 slender girl, dressed in white, who seemed to be 
 admiring the landscape bathed in the soft 
 moonlight ; but in reality Constance Woodroffe's
 
 ^YOODROFFE. 3 
 
 eyes, like her thoughts, were very far away. 
 She was musing on the troubles that were fall- 
 ing thick and fast upon the family ; and, instead 
 of the fair and tranquil scene before her, she 
 .saw nothing but clouds and darkness ; lamenta- 
 tion, mourning, and woe. 
 
 AYoodroffe Manor was a fine old place, which 
 had been in the family for centuries. The for- 
 tune, though a comfortable one, was not very 
 large ; still, all the succeeding possessors of the 
 Manor having been careful men, and some of 
 them having married well-endowed maidens, 
 the property, when Edgar Woodroffe, the 
 present squire, came into possession, was of 
 considerable value. It was by no fault of his 
 own that his fortune had become impaired. It 
 is true that he was not a good man of business, 
 and that his views were far from practical ; still 
 his income allowed ample margin for his wants, 
 iind if all had rested with him the Manor might 
 still have been flourishing. Unfortunately he 
 fell violently in love with Lady Diana Feather- 
 .ston, whom he met at the Hunt Ball when .he 
 
 B 2
 
 4 WOODROFFE. 
 
 was about five and twenty, and as his father 
 was dead, and he was his own master, he en- 
 countered no opposition, and married her before 
 he had ever had an opportunity of calmly con- 
 sidering whether she were really suited to him 
 or not. 
 
 There was no positive harm in Lady Diana ; 
 she was absolutely frivolous, but never wilfully 
 wounded anyone, fascinating and most Manning 
 in. manner, but without the slightest depth of 
 feeling or real care for anyone but herself; 
 entirely without resources, and dependent on 
 constant society ; and having never enjoyed the 
 possession of a shilling in her life, her father 
 being an impecunious Irish peer, utterly reckless 
 as to money. Her extravagance was the begin- 
 ning of the troubles at the Manor ; she insisted 
 on spending the season in London, and on 
 'giving balls and parties like everyone else,' 
 which, as she had no experience or idea o 
 management, and Mr. Woodroffe was equally 
 ignorant, were the cause of unnecessarily lavish 
 
 expenditure : and, when at Woodroffe, insisted 
 k
 
 WOODROFFE. 5 
 
 on having the house incessantly filled with 
 guests. 
 
 It was not a life that at all suited Mr. Wood- 
 roffe, who was a man loving ease and quiet ; but 
 he adored his beautiful and brilliant wife too 
 much to deny her anything, and lacked the 
 strength of mind requisite to make her compre- 
 hend that her expenditure far exceeded his in- 
 come. It was in vain that his sister, Miss Lucy 
 Woodroffe, who lived in the village, and was 
 several years older than himself, remonstrated 
 with him, and even once in desperation 
 endeavoured to make Lady Diana 'hear 
 reason.' 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe fidgeted and said he knew 
 Lucy was right, of course they were going a 
 little too fast, but Di was young and gay and 
 had never hitherto enjoyed the pleasures 
 natural to her age : she would soon tire of 
 them, and then they should live so quietly as 
 soon to be able to put all straight again. AVith 
 Lady Diana, Lucy failed even more signally: 
 she utterly refused to discuss the question,
 
 6 WOODROFFE. 
 
 declared that all money matters were men's 
 business, and that, so long as Edgar did not 
 find fault, everything must be all right. It was 
 very kind of dear Lucy to be anxious, but 
 indeed she was disturbing herself about no- 
 thing. Before, however, the affairs got into 
 absolutely irrevocable confusion, Lady Diana 
 died very suddenly of a cold caught at a ball ; 
 and Mr. Woodroffe was left a despairing 
 widower with a twin boy and girl, Basil and 
 Constance, born the year after his mar- 
 riage. 
 
 Miss Lucy came to live at the Manor House to 
 take care of the children, and her careful man- 
 agement did something to dissipate the load of 
 debt contracted during Lady Diana's four years' 
 reign. The estate was entailed, but there was 
 a very small property in an adjoining county 
 which Mr. Woodroffe never visited, and that 
 might easily have been sold. This Miss Lucy 
 urged her brother to part with, but the mere 
 idea of selling land was abhorrent to him ; he 
 preferred paying heavy interest for the money
 
 WOODROFFE. 7 
 
 lie was forced to raise on mortgage, to this 
 much simpler method of freeing himself from 
 some of the incubus of debt that weighed so 
 heavily upon him. Miss Lucy soon saw it was 
 useless to press the matter, and devoted her 
 energies to the saving of every possible 
 shilling, wishing sometimes that her brother, 
 still quite a young man, would retrieve his 
 fortunes by marrying an heiress. 
 
 This aspiration, however, was doomed to 
 disappointment. About four years after Lady 
 Diana's death, Mr. Woodroffe met at a friend's 
 house a young French lady, Mademoiselle De 
 la Vanne of an old Provencal family, and fell in 
 love with her almost as desperately as he had 
 done with her predecessor. 
 
 The two were certainly a contrast. Lady 
 Diana had been tall, fair, brilliant, and sprightly ; 
 Adele De la Vanne was small and slight, with 
 a clear olive skin,*" a profusion of silky, black 
 hair, and large, lustrous brown eyes. The 
 difference in disposition was to the full as 
 strong as in person. Adele was gentle and
 
 8 WOODROFFE. 
 
 loving, fond of her books and her garden, 
 and contented never to leave the Manor. 
 
 Miss Lucy, who was at first violently 
 prejudiced against the idea of her brother 
 marrying a foreigner, was speedily won over by 
 Adele's sweetness of disposition ; and though, 
 despite all entreaties, she once more retired to 
 her own cottage in the village, she was con- 
 stantly at the Manor House, and grew 
 to love her sister-in-law daily more and 
 more. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe was very fond of children, 
 and loved Basil and Constance almost as 
 dearly as her own little girl Yolande, bom 
 within a year of her marriage. Constance, who 
 had never had any playfellow but Basil, and 
 who, being a delicate child, was little able to 
 join in the games in which he delighted, was 
 at the time of her father's second marriage a 
 quiet, reflective girl of seven, far older than her 
 age. There had never been any trouble 
 between her and Miss Lucy respecting her 
 lessons; the child was even -more eager to
 
 WOODROFFE. 9 
 
 leana than tlie aunt was to teach, and she 
 devoured with avidity every book that came 
 in her way, no matter whether it were well 
 suited to her years or not. 
 
 She speedily became quite a companion to 
 her step-mother, who was equally devoted to 
 reading, and Constance knew no greater treat 
 than to sit in the twilight or the firelight, 
 and listen to the tales which Adele told with, 
 infinite spirit of the troubadours in Provence 
 in the days of chivalry, and the Courts of Love, 
 or of the later sufferings of the Valdenses and 
 Camisards. There seemed an infinite fascination 
 for her in the descriptions of the sunny land 
 of Provence, and in the accounts her step- 
 mother gave of a journey she had once 
 enjoyed along the Corniche road, and the 
 beauties of the purple Mediterranean 
 
 ' The mid sea that moans with memories.' 
 
 They were inseparable companions,, and 
 Constance was almost as devoted to the 
 baby Yolande as was her mother.
 
 10 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Unfortunately, Mrs. Woodroffe, attached as 
 she was to her husband's children, knew little 
 or nothing, either theoretically or practically, 
 about the proper method of training them. 
 They loved and "were good with her, and it 
 never occurred to her that anything more was 
 requisite that their characters required sen- 
 sible guidance, strengthening in some particu- 
 lars, and judiciously repressing in others. 
 
 Strangely enough for so sympathetic a wo- 
 man, she had little or no insight into character, 
 and though she never contradicted her sister- 
 in-law, or differed from her openly, she thought 
 her both harsh and mistaken when she pointed 
 out that Constance would be all the better for 
 rousing, and being obliged, now that she was 
 quite strong enough, to take active exercise, 
 instead of being suffered to dream all day long 
 over her books and poetry ; while Basil should 
 be sent to school as the only means of forcing 
 upon his mind how very backward he was com- 
 pared with other boys of his age, and also of 
 controlling the domineering spirit fostered by
 
 WOODROFFE. 11 
 
 having no companions but his sister and the 
 stable-boys, over all of whom he tyrannised at 
 pleasure. To get him away from the stables 
 was one of the reasons why Miss Lucy was so 
 anxious that her nephew should go to school. 
 She knew that flattery was even sweeter to 
 him than to most boys, and dreaded his acquir- 
 ing a taste for IOAV company that it might here- 
 after be impossible to eradicate. 
 
 But Mrs. "Woodroffe, though she smiled and 
 stroked his hair, and listened with perfect amia- 
 bility to all that her sister-in-law said, was really 
 not in the least impressed. Her ideas were so 
 different. In her childhood she had run about 
 among, and been the dearest friends with, all 
 the old French servants at the chateau and 
 their children ; it seemed to her the natural 
 state of things, and she never took the trouble 
 even to try to realise the difference of the situa- 
 tion. She would have seen no harm in Con- 
 stance being as much among the servants as 
 her brother ; but the child was proud, and 
 kept herself aloof in a manner that caused
 
 12 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Basil often to accuse her of giving herself airs. 
 
 In despair of producing any effect on Mrs. 
 Woodroffe, Miss Lucy appealed to her brother ; 
 but Mr. Woodroffe was an indolent man, hating 
 the trouble of making up his mind, and well 
 satisfied to see everything through his wife's 
 eyes ; and he replied lazily that, as to the boy 
 being backward, he was so bright and intelli- 
 gent that he could easily make up for lost time 
 whenever he set to work in earnest ; for his 
 part, he did not see any use in a country gen- 
 tleman being a bookworm, and that Basil was 
 laying in a stock of health, andl earning, which 
 could never be so well acquired in later years, 
 how to ride and to understand all country pur- 
 suits. As to the stable-boys, Avell, of course a 
 boy must have companions, and they were all 
 good, steady sort of lads, and would do him no 
 harm. j 
 
 Miss Lucy really had the matter much at 
 heart, and argued bravely in defence of her 
 views, but only with the result of making her 
 brother uncomfortable, and causing him care-
 
 WOODROFFE. 13 
 
 fully to avoid any opportunity of a tete-a-tete 
 with her, lest she should renew the unwelcome 
 subject ; and she recognised with a sigh that 
 she had done no good, and devoted herself to 
 trying, so far as lay in her power, to counteract 
 what appeared to her injurious in Constance's 
 education. It was entirely due to her that the 
 girl was ah 1 owed to go once a week to Maple- 
 ton, the county town, about seven miles distant, 
 for lessons in dancing and music. 
 
 Mrs. "Woodroffe did not think it at all neces- 
 sary ; they lived a very quiet life, and it was 
 extremely probable that Constance would never 
 have any opportunity of putting her dancing- 
 lessons in practice ; while as to music, she seem- 
 ed really to have a taste for it, and would be 
 sure to play and sing well enough to amuse 
 herself it really was not worth all the trouble 
 of a journey to Mapleton once a week. That 
 trouble Miss Lucy volunteered to take entirely 
 upon herself, and pointed out that, even if Con- 
 stance, when she grew up, never went to a ball, 
 it was desirable that she should know how to
 
 14 WOODROFFE. 
 
 move gracefully, and that it would do her 
 infinite good to meet children of her own 
 age. 
 
 It was indeed Constance's first introduction 
 to any of her neighbours. Her father and 
 mother were both extremely indolent, and 
 rarely accepted any of the invitations sent 
 them, while they still more rarely exerted them-* 
 selves to entertain at home. Woodroffe had 
 thus almost dropped off the county visiting- 
 list, and the family would have been nearly 
 forgotten if it had not been for Miss Lucy, 
 who was of a very sociable disposition, and 
 went everywhere. The very existence of Lady 
 Diana's little daughter had been almost for- 
 gotten when the child first appeared at the 
 dancing-class at Mapleton ; but, when once she 
 was remembered, many invitations to school- 
 room teas and other juvenile delights were ex- 
 tended to her. 
 
 Miss Lucy had rather a struggle to induce 
 her sister-in-law to allow Constance to profit 
 by these" invitations. Mrs. Woodroffe said the
 
 WOODROFFE. 15 
 
 child was very contented, it was better to 
 leave well alone, and much more to the same 
 effect; but she was indolent, and her sister- 
 in-law determined, and so the latter carried 
 her point. 
 
 At first Constance would infinitely have pre- 
 ferred to stay at home. She was quite unused 
 to the company of children, and experienced 
 agonies of shyness and discomfort. But gradu- 
 ally matters began to improve. She made two 
 or three special friends, chiefly girls older than 
 herself, who protected and patronised her, and 
 put her at her ease; and as the shyness wore 
 off she began greatly to look forward to any 
 of the small dissipations which came in her 
 way. They were not numerous, for Maple- 
 shire was not very thickly populated, and of 
 the country houses there were some which had 
 no children ; still there was sufficient intercourse 
 with girls of her own age to prevent the child 
 becoming shy and awkward, and in her aunt's 
 opinion the change did her very marked good. 
 
 Occasionally Basil accompanied his aunt and
 
 16 WOODROFFE. 
 
 sister, but these entertainments were not a 
 source of pleasure to him. Accustomed at 
 home to have absolutely his own way in 
 everything and to domineer over everyone, it, 
 was a rare experience to him to find himself 
 on a level with other children, and not to be 
 the person to whom everyone was to give 
 way. When he found that his choice of a 
 game, or his decision of some disputed point, 
 was not at once considered final, nay, that his 
 utterances were sometimes disputed, or even 
 ignored, he became first sulky, and then quar- 
 relsome ; and Constance, who was always ready 
 to yield to everyone, often lost a large portion 
 of her afternoon's enjoyment because her aunt 
 thought "it expedient to take Basil home before 
 he disgraced himself more than he had already 
 done. 
 
 Young as he was, the boy had the specious 
 
 tongue of a special pleader, and in his account 
 
 at home invariably made himself out the in- 
 
 * jured party. Mrs. Woodroffe, who spoilt him 
 
 terribly, always believed his version, and de-
 
 WOODROFFE. 17 
 
 clared Miss Lucy was hard upon him when 
 she argued, from his inability to endure the 
 slightest contradiction, that it was high time 
 he went t9 school, and learnt that there were 
 other people in the world quite as important as 
 himself. Gradually, however, Basil's name was 
 omitted from the invitations sent to Constance, 
 and then Mr. WoodrofFe at length awoke to the 
 idea that his sister was, after all, perhaps right. 
 The boy was eleven years old it really was 
 time for a school to be thought of ; and, after 
 about six months occupied in talking the mat- 
 ter over, one was at length selected, and Basil 
 taken there after the Easter holidays. 
 
 The first experience of school to a boy spoilt 
 and indulged as Basil had been was naturally 
 a hard one. He was very backward, though 
 he cherished a belief that he knew much more 
 than other boys, and resented bitterly having 
 his deficiencies pointed out. By his own ac- 
 count, everyone, masters and boys, were in 
 league against him, and after little more than * 
 three weeks' absence, he made his appear- 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ance at Woodroffe, having run away from 
 school. 
 
 Left to himself, Mr. Woodroffe would have 
 been sensible, and at once have sent him back 
 again, but the boy's plausible descriptions of 
 his sufferings excited all his step -mother's sym- 
 pathies, and she pleaded for him so earnestly 
 that his father was conquered, sorely against 
 his better judgment. He was steadfastly de- 
 termined, however, that the boy should not 
 remain at home, and at length, after much 
 opposition on Basil's part, in which he was 
 encouraged by his step-mother, it was finally 
 decided that he should go to a clergyman 
 only ten miles off, who received but six pupils, 
 that he should be allowed to have his pony, 
 and that he should come home from Saturday 
 to Monday every alternate week. 
 
 Basil preferred Mottisham Rectory to school, 
 but he still made many efforts to persuade 
 his step-mother that he was ill-used, and to 
 induce her to obtain permission for him to re- 
 turn home to work under a private tutor ; he
 
 WOODROFFE. 19 
 
 should, he assured her, get on much faster, and 
 would work as hard as he possibly could. Mrs. 
 Woodroffe pleaded, but his father was for once 
 firm. He knew perfectly well that at Mr. 
 Lewson's his boy encountered no hardships 
 that were not incidental to every boy's school 
 life, and Basil having run away twice, and 
 having been relentlessly sent back again the 
 moment he made his appearance, learnt to 
 make the best of the inevitable. He did not 
 want for ability, and, not liking to be laughed 
 at by his comrades for his backwardness, he 
 began to exert himself, and soon left them far 
 behind. 
 
 Mr. Lewson was a very clever teacher, and 
 unfortunately thought more of getting his 
 pupils on and passing them for examinations 
 than of the effect his method of teaching might 
 have on their several dispositions. Finding 
 that Basil's vanity was veiy sensitive to praise, 
 he employed it freely, with the Bfifect of firing 
 the boy with the desire to succeed, without at 
 all considering the serious injury that he was 
 
 c2
 
 20 WOODROFFE. 
 
 thereby causing to a weak and vain character. 
 He was proud of Basil, whose brilliant abilities 
 promised to do him credit, and praised the boy 
 till he really believed himself to be the clever- 
 est of created beings, and his efforts began 
 sensibly to relax. Then Mr. Lewson, too late, 
 saw his error, and began a system of alternate 
 praise and reproof that did his pupil little good, 
 though it roused him to the effort that enabled 
 him just to pass his examination. 
 
 Mr. Wo&lroffe had always intended that his 
 son, like himself, should be brought up to no 
 profession. He had never felt the want of one 
 himself. He was quite content to saunter 
 about his woods and fields with the pleasing 
 belief that he was overlooking all that went on, 
 and that the master's eye ' was a very import- 
 ant thing, though, in truth, he knew little or 
 nothing about agricultural matters. An occa- 
 sional day with the hounds in the winter, a 
 leisurely stroll after partridges in the autumn, 
 quite satisfied his views of amusement; and, 
 wanting nothing more himself, he failed to see
 
 WOODROFFE. 21 
 
 why Basil should do so. It was an immense 
 shock to him when the boy proclaimed his de- 
 termination to enter the Army, and demanded 
 a commission in the Guards, rejecting with 
 disdain his father's suggestion that he should 
 live quietly at home. 
 
 ' What ! vegetate all his life at Woodroffe, 
 and see nothing of the world ! Not he ! It 
 would be bad enough in all conscience for Con- 
 stance ; still she was a girl, and dulness didn't 
 matter for women. A man was quite different ; 
 he wanted to see life. He would rather enlist 
 than be buried for ever down in Mapleshire !' 
 
 This hint of enlisting terrified Mrs. Wood- 
 rofte. She loved Basil quite as dearly as if he 
 were her own child, though her affection, 
 owing to its being injudicious, had done him 
 infinite harm ; and the mere thought that he 
 might possibly cany out his threat ensured her 
 warm sympathy in his desire for a com- 
 mission. 
 
 Attacked on both sicfcs, Mr. Woodroffe soon 
 yielded ; he had some years before consented
 
 22 WOODROFFE. 
 
 to his son's name being put down for a com- 
 mission in the Guards, although he had always 
 hoped that the boy would be contented after 
 all to lead the life that had always satisfied him. 
 It was not long before a vacancy occurred ; 
 Basil was gazetted to it, and left home with 
 infinite delight, though somewhat discontented 
 with his allowance, which he considered ought 
 to be at least a thousand, while his father reso- 
 lutely refused to give him more than six 
 hundred. 
 
 As Mr. Woodroffe soon, however, found to his 
 cost, the amount of Basil's nominal allowance 
 was not of the slightest importance, for it never 
 seemed to occur to him to endeavour to keep 
 within bounds. Bills were perpetually being 
 sent to Mr. Woodroffe, and, when he remon- 
 strated with his son, Basil replied with infinite 
 surprise that he really could not help it, he only 
 did what everyone else did, of course no one in 
 their senses could expect him to live on his al- 
 lowance, and much more to the same effect. 
 Even his step-mother, who for some time de-
 
 W)ODROFFE. 23 
 
 fended him, and declared it was natural enough 
 that just at first the dear boy should not quite 
 understand how to manage for the best, and 
 should be a little elated at his new position of 
 independence, was staggered by the sums which 
 he demanded, and by the knowledge, not long 
 delayed, that he was gambling heavily. 
 
 She wrote him letter after letter of earnest 
 pleading remonstrance, and perhaps she had 
 never in all her life shed such bitter tears as 
 when he first answered her playfully, clearly 
 insinuating, however, that she did not in the least 
 understand what she was writing about, and 
 then left her letters unanswered. She really 
 idolised him, and had always believed that she 
 possessed unbounded influence over him, and it 
 was a rude shock to find him bent on following 
 his own way in spite of her. 
 
 But still she did not desert him, was for ever 
 devising new economies to provide money for 
 his debts, and frequently sent him some of her 
 own allowance for his personal expenses. She 
 almost quarrelled with Miss Lucy for the un-
 
 24 WOODROFFE. 
 
 compromising manner in which she denounced 
 his selfishness, and told her it was very strange 
 that she should have so little feeling for her 
 nephew. 
 
 Miss Lucy rejoined that she had quite as 
 much as he deserved, but that she thought it very 
 wrong that he should be aUowed, she might al- 
 most say encouraged, to ruin his father ; and 
 that it was very hard indeed upon his sister that, 
 instead of enjoying the pleasures natural to her 
 
 * 
 
 age, she should be entirely secluded at Wood- 
 roffe, where she heard of nothing but the econ- 
 omies necessary to enable him to continue his 
 career of extravagance. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe would reply that she was glad 
 to say Constance was unselfish, and infinitely 
 preferred his brother's pleasure to her own 
 amusement. If such were not the case, she 
 should feel that she must have grievously failed 
 in her task of training her, it was always a 
 woman's province to give up everything for the 
 men of her house. 
 
 Miss Lucy rejoined that certainly it was sadly
 
 WOODROFFE. 25 
 
 often her fate to- be obliged to do so, but that 
 she still thought that it was wrong, and that 
 Basil's extravagance, which was fully as bad for 
 himself as for others, should be put a firm and 
 decided stop to. If he did not reform, he should 
 be obliged to leave the Guards and live quietly 
 at home. 
 
 But she might as well have talked to the 
 winds. Now as ever Mrs. Woodroffe was 
 determined that Basil should be indulged.
 
 26 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 You must consider that a prodigal course 
 
 Is like the sun's ; but not, like his, recoverable. 
 
 Timon of Athens. Act 3, Sc. 4. 
 
 What man didst thou ever know unthrift, that was 
 beloved after his means. 
 
 Hid. Act 4, Sc. 3. 
 
 /CONSTANCE WOODROFFE, whom we have 
 V left so long contemplating the river in the 
 moonlight, was between three and four and 
 twenty ; she was tall and slight, and inherited her 
 mother Lady Diana's brilliant colouring and 
 luxuriant chestnut hair ; her eyes were violet, 
 with long dark lashes and delicately pencilled 
 eyebrows, and the curve of her lips was particu- 
 larly sensitive and delicate. Her counten-
 
 WOODROFFE. 27 
 
 ance was expressive of extreme gentleness, 
 and this was indeed one of her chief character- 
 istics. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe, when she said that Constance 
 found a pleasure in sacrificing herself to her 
 brother, said less than the truth ; it entered so 
 completely into the girl's idea of the fitness of 
 things that she never even discovered that it was 
 a sacrifice. It seemed to her quite fitting and 
 proper that the best of everything should always 
 be reserved for Basil, that his comfort and con- " 
 venience should be studied, and in short that his 
 wish should be the law of the household. The 
 idea that she herself had any rights never 
 occurred to her ; without ever thinking of the 
 matter theoretically, she was thoroughly imbued 
 with that belief in the inferiority of her sex that 
 renders women so patient and long suffering, and 
 which the lords of creation find so eminently 
 convenient. 
 
 Her younger sister, Yolande, by no means 
 agreed with her. From her birth she had been 
 a somewhat imperious damsel, extremely fond
 
 28 WOODROFFE. 
 
 of her own way, and she utterly rebelled against 
 the idea that Basil's pleasure and Basil's wishes 
 were the only things worthy of consideration. 
 Her mother spoilt him so decidedly that she 
 generally had to give way, but it was never 
 without protest, and it was from Yolande that 
 Basil encountered the only opposition that 
 was ever offered to his wishes at home. 
 
 Her sense of justice was unusually keen, and 
 she "was fond of pointing out to him, in the 
 clearest manner, how very unfair it was that 
 she and Constance should be deprived of all 
 sorts of things they wished for merely for his 
 pleasure. If, during the holidays, Basil wanted 
 the dog-cart to go anywhere, it mattered no- 
 thing that his sisters were going into Mapleton 
 for the dancing-class, or that they were en- 
 gaged to spend the afternoon with some young 
 friends ; Mrs. "Woodroffe always decided that ot 
 course his pleasure must be considered, and re- 
 proved the girls for selfishness and want ot 
 consideration for their brother, if they appeared 
 disappointed.
 
 WOODROFFE. 29 
 
 It was the injustice of the matter far more 
 than the loss of the pleasure itself that roused 
 Yolande's indignation. She was a warm- 
 hearted, impulsive, generous child, who would 
 willingly have given up any pleasure of her 
 own to insure the gratification of another ; but 
 her sense of justice rebelled against being en- 
 tirely ignored and never considered when Basil 
 was at home. 
 
 At the time when this story commences she 
 was between fifteen and sixteen, a brilliant 
 brunette with luxuriant dark hair and lustrous 
 brown eyes. It was clear that she would 
 never be tall, for her figure was already form- 
 ed, and she was often, to her great delight, 
 supposed to be two or three years older than 
 was really the case. 
 
 The education of both the girls had been 
 desultory. Mrs. Woodroffe had an invincible 
 aversion to a governess in the house, her hus- 
 band an even stronger prejudice against school, 
 and the result had been that the girls had 
 never had any very regular instruction, ex-
 
 30 WOODROFFE. 
 
 cepting in the music and dancing, for which 
 Miss Lucy had insisted on taking them to 
 Mapleton. 
 
 Constance, who had a passion for reading, 
 and had devoured books ever since she knew 
 her letters, was fairly well informed, though, 
 owing to never having been grounded in any- 
 thing, she would have fared but ill in even a 
 simple examination ; but Yolande had no turn 
 for learning, and knew about as little as was 
 possible for a girl of her age. She could play 
 a little very little, for she disliked the drudgery 
 of practising, and declared it did not signify 
 * Constance played so well, and could always 
 accompany her,' and sing delightfully in a rich, 
 soft contralto that harmonised admirably with 
 her sister's pure soprano. She could ride when- 
 ever she had a chance, which was not very 
 often, for Basil's constant demands for money 
 caused a yearly increasing rigidity of economy 
 at WoodrofFe Manor; and, which she herself 
 looked upon as her chief talent, she could with
 
 WOODROFFE. 31 
 
 a very few strokes produce the most inimitable 
 caricatures. 
 
 In vain Constance shook her head and said 
 she did not like it, it was not kind ; in vain 
 Aunt Lucy inveighed against the danger of 
 the practice, and warned her niece that there 
 was nothing in the world that made sb many 
 enemies; Yolande was incorrigible, and pos- 
 sessed caricatures innumerable of everyone 
 she had ever met in the course of her sjaort 
 life. 
 
 Aunt Lucy did not feel at liberty to .interest 
 herself quite so much in Yolande as she had 
 always done in Constance. Yolande had her 
 own mother to watch over her, and, though 
 Miss Lucy and her sister-in-law were on the 
 most cordial and affectionate terms, she still 
 felt that Aclele might resent too much inter- 
 ference with her child. With Constance it was 
 of course different; she had supplied, to the 
 best of her ability, her mother's place during 
 the four years of her brother's widowhood, and
 
 32 WOODROFFE. 
 
 had thus acquired a sort of prescriptive right 
 to the child which Mrs. WoodrofFe never 
 disputed. 
 
 During the last few years Mrs. Woodroffe's 
 health had failed a good deal, and she was now 
 more or less of an invalid, though with no very 
 distinct or pronounced ailment. Life at the 
 Manor had always been of the quietest, but 
 necessary economy and Mrs. Woodroffe's health 
 rendered it even quieter than of old, and except- 
 ing in rare morning visits no stranger ever 
 crossed the threshold. 
 
 At one time Mr. Woodroffe, who was a man 
 of somewljat social instincts, would have re- 
 gretted this ; but pecuniary troubles had sad- 
 dened him greatly, and though he still attended 
 to his duties as a magistrate, and was present at 
 any business meeting of the gentlemen of the 
 county, he seemed to shrink from the idea of 
 society, and invariably refused any invitation 
 extended to him, on the plea of his wife's 
 health. 
 
 Had it not been for Miss Lucy's residence in
 
 WOODROFFE. 33 
 
 the village, Constance's life would have been a 
 very dull one. Even as it was, it would pro- 
 bably have been so considered by most girls ; 
 but Constance knew no other life, and was per- 
 fectly contented. She went everywhere with 
 her aunt, who was delighted to chaperon her, 
 and knew everyone in the county, enjoyed the 
 few balls that came in her way exceeding- 
 ly, and had never been in London in her 
 life. 
 
 Indeed she had very seldom been out of 
 Mapleshire, never excepting to pay visits with 
 her aunt. Yolande would occasionally, after 
 one of Basil's rare appearances at home, indulge 
 in ecstatic visions of the delights of London, 
 and draw brilliant pictures of all that would 
 happen if only her father would but take a 
 house and let Constance have ' a real season ;' but, 
 when her castles in the air came to the culmin- 
 ating point of the fairy prince whom her sister 
 was to many, Constance would put her hand on 
 her shoulder with one of her sweet smiles, and 
 say: 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 3'i WOODROFFE. 
 
 ' Then you want to get rid of me, Yo- 
 lande ?' 
 
 And the child would cry : 
 
 ' No, no, Conny ! Darling Conny, you know 
 very well I don't ! I couldn't live without you I 
 Only it would be so delicious to see you with 
 the world at your feet, queening it over every- 
 body. And then Basil wouldn't dare to say you 
 were " fairly good-looking," as he did yester- 
 day!' 
 
 * Foolish child !' was all Constance would say : 
 still she could not help being gratified at 
 her little sister's love and admiration. 
 
 Since he had obtained his desired commis- 
 sion as Guardsman, Basil had vouchsafed very 
 little of his company to his relatives in Maple- 
 shire. He generally spent his leave in visits 
 to his various friends, or in trips to Paris or 
 sometimes to Monaco. 
 
 * Woodroffe was so awfully slow,' was his in- 
 variable answer when a visit home was urged 
 upon him, * the shooting wasn't properly kept 
 up, there were no horses, and even if he did
 
 WOODROFFE. 35 
 
 bring down a couple of screws it was the very 
 outside edge of the country, and the worst 
 hunting in England. It was impossible for him 
 to ask fellows down to stay in such a dismal 
 hole, where there was nothing on earth to amuse 
 them.' 
 
 So his visits were confined to a few days at 
 very distant intervals, rendered more distant by 
 the fact that his father, as was but natural, 
 could not refrain when he saw him from remon- 
 strating with him on his extravagance, and 
 pointing out how irretrievably he was ruining 
 the property. Basil was one of those not un- 
 common characters who love that everything 
 should go smoothly, and cannot endure even a 
 hint of anything disagreeable. When his 
 father's remonstrances reached him by letter, he 
 adopted the easy method of leaving them un- 
 read ; but from verbal representations of the 
 same nature he could not escape ; and as so 
 long as the money he required \vas forthcoming, 
 and he was not annoyed by being lectured 
 about it, and warned that if he went 011 in his 
 
 D2
 
 36 WOODROFFE. 
 
 present course much longer there would be no- 
 thing left to satisfy his demands he cared little 
 or nothing for the trouble and anxiety caused 
 to others, his visits to Woodroffe became more 
 and more rare. 
 
 Mrs. Woodrofle regretted this more than did 
 his father. She could see no fault in Basil, 
 and, when her husband spoke bitterly of his 
 extravagance, always found abundant excuses 
 for him. She failed to see that any injury 
 Avas done to the girls by the constantly in- 
 creasing economy in their style of living. She 
 had everything she required ; her garden, her 
 books, her husband's society, and she did not 
 see what more they could desire. She was 
 apt to be almost indignant when Tfiiss Lucy, 
 in answer to some observation of this descrip- 
 tion, would reply that most girls had, at least 
 occasionally, cheerful society at home, whereas 
 WoodrofFe might be a- convent for all the 
 strangers who ever crossed its threshold. 
 
 * What could they want T she asked, almost 
 peevishly. 'Constance surely went out with
 
 WOODROFFE. 37 
 
 her aunt quite as much as was good for any- 
 body. Yolande was not out yet, so there was 
 no question about her.' 
 
 Neither could she see any hardship in the 
 fact that the estate being settled on Basil, 
 and Mr. Woodroffe having had no power to 
 make a settlement on his second marriage, 
 Yolande's fortune, and indeed her own jointure 
 in the event of her surviving, depended on 
 the savings which Basil's extravagance effec- 
 tually prevented his ever making. 
 
 ' What could it signify T she would say, 
 placidly, when this was represented to her by 
 Miss Lucy, rendered almost rabid by her fool- 
 ish defence of Basil. ' Basil, dear fellow ! 
 would always take care of them. Of course, 
 if she had the misfortune to survive Edgar, 
 he would let her go on living at Woodroffe, 
 and, if she died, Yolande would find a home 
 with him and his wife, when he married.' 
 
 There was no use in talking, as Miss Lucy 
 would observe to herself, as she turned away 
 with an impatient sigh.
 
 38- WOODROFFE. 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe was a broken and unhappy 
 man. He saw clearly, now that it was too 
 late, the sad effect of his own foolish in- 
 dulgence. He had given tip all control over 
 his son as a child; it was of course vain to 
 hope to recover it as a man. Reasoning, he 
 was forced sadly to confess, was of no avail. 
 Basil was always pleasant and plausible, lis- 
 tened with the greatest apparent attention, 
 agreed in the condemnation freely lavished 
 on his conduct, and promised all that was 
 required of him. He never seemed the least 
 annoyed, sulky, or out of temper at any- 
 thing that was said, no matter how severe; 
 he never attempted either to justify himself 
 or to make any excuses, but, as soon as he 
 returned to London, he resumed his career of 
 extravagance precisely as if nothing had oc- 
 curred. As his father, said bitterly, he was 
 unstable as water, there was no possibility 
 of making the slightest impression upon 
 
 him. 
 
 i 
 It was very bitter to Mr. Woodroffe to
 
 WOODROFFE. 39 
 
 know that the estate that he loved so well 
 was becoming year by year more heavily in- 
 cumbered. His own household expenses had 
 been cut down to the lowest possible amount ; 
 even the garden, one of his wife's great plea- 
 sures, was considerably shorn of its former 
 glories forcing houses, orchid houses, vineries 
 had disappeared one after the other, and with 
 them had of course gone the grand Scotch 
 gardener and his assistants. Only an old man, 
 little above a common labourer, and a boy, 
 were now left to superintend the gardens, 
 their efforts being supplemented in the flower- 
 garden by Constance's and Yolande's amateur 
 labour. 
 
 Perhaps what went to Mr. Woodroffe's heart 
 more than anything was the necessity of -fell- 
 ing the timber. The woods at the Manor 
 were famous in Mapleshire, nowhere were 
 there such grand oaks, beeches, and chest- 
 nuts, and, from the time when the axe began 
 to be busy among them, Mr. WoodrofFe aged 
 rapidly. He loved his trees as only a man
 
 40 WOODROFFE. 
 
 can do who has been brought up under their 
 shade and lived an exclusively country life, 
 and, from the time that they began to fall, 
 he went out much less, and spent great part 
 of his time shut up in his study. 
 
 For the first pretence of 'judicious thin- 
 ning ' had soon to be abandoned. Basil's 
 demands were too considerable and too con- 
 stant to be satisfied by any such half 
 measures, and wholesale destruction was neces- 
 sary to avert another mortgage, which, as 
 Mr. Woodroffe well knew, was the last he 
 would be able to effect. 
 
 It was indeed a sad position for a man proud 
 and fond of his estate, and with a horror of 
 debt and love of fair dealing. He withdrew 
 himself more and more from the outer world, 
 and grew daily more grave and silent at home. 
 The future of his wife and youngest daughter 
 troubled him greatly, and yet he was now in- 
 capable of doing anything for them, for the 
 small -estate in Oakshire had now been sold. 
 He could not', like his wife, rely implicitly on
 
 WOODROFFE. 41 
 
 * Basil's taking care of them.' He gauged his 
 son's character pretty accurately, now that it 
 was too late, and knew that his was a refined 
 selfishness that, while never saying anything 
 unpleasant, or that might seem unkind, would 
 yet never sacrifice the slightest pleasure for 
 the advantage of another. Constance had five 
 thousand pounds, and was therefore to a certain 
 extent provided for, but Adele and Yolande 
 had literally nothing, and Mr. Woodroffe would 
 cover his face with his hands, and give himself 
 up to the bitterest reflections. 
 He never confided in anyone, but Constance 
 heard from her aunt all that the latter knew of 
 > the state of her affairs, and her heart ached for 
 her father, though her own yielding nature and 
 her step-mother's training united, prevented her 
 from blaming her brother. She loved the trees 
 nearly as well as did her father, and it was 
 almost as sore a trial to her as to him to see 
 them fall. 
 
 She was dreaming of the family troubles and 
 of her father's worn, sad looks, as she leant
 
 42 WOODROFFE. 
 
 against the flower-wreathed balustrade over- 
 hanging the river on this lovely July evening, 
 and was sighing, as she often did, over her 
 powerlessness to help or comfort him, when she 
 was startled by Yolande rushing up to her in a 
 sort of whirlwind. 
 
 ' Oh ! Conny, Conny, something so delightful 
 is going to happen. Guess !' 
 
 ' Aunt Lucy has sent up to say she has got 
 off her appointment at Mapleton, and will take 
 us to the picnic to-morrow.' 
 
 ' No, no something much more wonderful. 
 Basil's coming home ! It isn't that that's so 
 delightful, but he's going to bring two friends 
 with him. Only think of having anyone ac- 
 tually staying in the house ! Why, it will make 
 us seem quite like other people.' 
 
 ' You foolish child !' said Constance, laugh- 
 ing. ' But,' her countenance clouding over, 
 * to-morrow is very soon ; there will be so much 
 to arrange ; we are not used to sudden visitors 
 indeed, to visitors at all. Basil should have 
 thought of that, and given us a little more notice/
 
 TTOODROFFE. 43 
 
 ' It wouldn't have been Basil if he had 
 thought of anything but what was convenient 
 to himself,' observed Yolande ; ' I wonder he 
 even condescended to telegraph he wouldn't, 
 if he hadn't thought it might be uncomfortable 
 to arrive unannounced. Besides, you know 
 how differently we always live whenever he is 
 here. I don't suppose it ever occurs to him 
 how we pinch and screw that he may spend 
 money in London not that he would care if it 
 did.' 
 
 ' Yolande dear, you should not say such 
 things it is not kind. I am sure, when Basil 
 is at home, nothing can be more amiable than 
 he always is.' 
 
 ' Oh, yes, I know,' said Yolande ; ' he likes 
 everything to be smooth and pleasant, and 
 wouldn't say a disagreeable thing for the world, 
 but he always contrives to get everything he 
 wants, no matter who may be disappointed to 
 please him. I wish, Conny, you would open 
 those lovely violet eyes of yours a little wider, 
 and see what is really going on. Where is
 
 44 WOODROFFE. 
 
 the use of wearing rose-coloured spectacles, 
 and thinking everyone perfect, whether they 
 are or not? It is very much better to see 
 things as they really are, as Aunt Lucy 
 does.' 
 
 ' When you are older, you will appreciate the 
 rose-coloured spectacles, Yolande dear.' 
 
 * No, I think not. I shall always like to see 
 things as they are, though it may not be so 
 pleasant ; but if everyone did, there would be 
 more justice in the world. But I forgot mam- 
 ma wants you to come in ; she says there is so 
 much to settle.' 
 
 ' Careless child ! why did you not tell me. 
 that before ?' and Constance turned towards the 
 house. 
 
 ' Conny,' said Yolande, hanging on her ami : 
 * do persuade mamma not to make any differ- 
 ence for Basil. It is not just, you know it 
 isn't, even if you won't say so. If we have to 
 economise, and scrape, and save for him, it's 
 only fair that when he comes home he should 
 see what we do for him, and take his share of
 
 WOODROFFE. 45 
 
 it. Instead of that we always kill a series of 
 fatted beasts, calves and others, for the 
 Prodigal Son, who, however, is not a bit 
 repentant. I always did feel so for that eldest 
 son.' 
 
 'Yolande dear, don't be flippant or quote 
 Scripture in that careless way. You know 
 quite well it isn't right. And, whatever you 
 may pretend that you wish to do to Basil, I am 
 sure you would not wish to be inhospitable to 
 those two friends of his. Does he say who 
 they are V 
 
 'Yes. Sir Armine Haverton and Colonel 
 Latreille. Well, no, I don't want to starve 
 them, but I should dearly like to make Basil 
 live quietly here as we do for a month. Oh ! 
 you may shake your head, Conny, but I 
 should! Perhaps at the end of it he might 
 begin to realise that there was some one in the 
 world besides himself!'
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 It is not poverty so much as pretence that harasses a 
 ruined man the struggle between a proud mind and an 
 empty purse the keeping a hollow show that must soon 
 come to an end. Have the courage to appear poor, and you 
 rob poverty of its sharpest sting. 
 
 MRS. JAMESON. 
 
 Tis mighty easy o'er a glass of wine 
 On vain refinements vainly to refine, 
 To laugh at poverty in plenty's reign, 
 To boast of apathy when out of pain. 
 
 The Farewell. CHUUCHILL. 
 
 nONSTANCE found Mrs. Woodroffe lying on 
 ^J the sofa with Basil's telegram in her hand, 
 and considerably disturbed by the intelligence 
 it conveyed. 
 
 'Dear fellow, it is delightful to think of 
 .seeing him,' she said; 'and of course it is
 
 WOODROFFE. 47 
 
 pleasant for him to bring his friends, still I do 
 wish he could have given us a little longer 
 notice. I hardly know how we can get 
 everything ready so as to be nice and comfort- 
 able for him. If he had given us two days! 
 But of course one couldn't expect it : young- 
 men never know or think anything of domestic 
 matters, and it would never occur to him that 
 there could be a difficulty. What are we to 
 do, Constance ? Moss could never send up a 
 dinner fit for Basil, and then there are his 
 friends.' 
 
 ' I don't see why what is good enough for 
 papa shouldn't be good enough for Basil, 
 especially as it is all his fault that we have to 
 put up with Moss !' exclaimed Yolande, hotly. 
 
 'You are a child, and do not understand,' 
 replied her mother, peevishly; 'besides, for 
 some reason you are always unjust and unkind 
 to Basil.' 
 
 ' There is plenty . of injustice,' returned 
 Yolande, her eyes flashing, 'but it is not on 
 my side.'
 
 48 WOODROFFE. 
 
 'Yolande dear,' said Constance, gently, 
 'you should not speak so. Kim away noAv 
 and leave mamma and me to talk things over. 
 I wish,' she continued, when Yolande, still 
 looking very indignant, had left the room, 
 ' that Basil had not asked these people, it makes 
 it so much more difficult. Does he say how 
 long they will stayT 
 
 ' No, only this,' and Mrs. Woodroffe handed 
 her the telegram, which merely stated the 
 fact that he, Sir Armine Haverton, and 
 Colonel Latreille would arrive the next day 
 at 6.30. 
 
 * It gives us the whole day,' said Constance, 
 thoughtfully. 'Aunt Lucy is going to Maple- 
 ton by the 9.15 to-morrow on business, had I 
 not better go with her and see about getting a 
 cook for a few days and ordering the things 
 we want ?' 
 
 'I shall want you at home dreadfully,' said 
 Mrs. Woodroffe, fretfully; 'there will be so 
 much to see to and think of, and Yolande is 
 of no use, especially now that she has got
 
 "WOODROFFE. 49 
 
 this spiteful craze against poor Basil. Still I 
 hardly see what else is to be done ; you know 
 just what to do, and, if we trusted to Lucy, 
 she is as unreasonable as Yolande, and 
 thinks what does for us is good enough for 
 him. Now get a piece of paper and let us 
 write down what is wanted.' 
 
 'Can you give me some money, mamma T 
 asked Constance, when the somewhat lengthy 
 list of articles considered to be requisite for 
 Basil's entertainment was written. 
 
 ' I can give you a little, but I cannot ask 
 your papa just now. I know he is terribly 
 worried. Simmons of the Ashwood Farm has 
 asked for time on account of his long illness, 
 and, though the money will come in the end, 
 still it is a great present inconvenience. What 
 you cannot pay for get at Shenston's, and his 
 bill can come at Christmas.' 
 
 * Papa so dislikes bills in Mapleton.' 
 
 'I know he does, and so do I, but it can't 
 be helped. Oh ! and, Constance, you must go 
 to Sarsnet's and get some fresh ribbons for 
 VOL. L K
 
 50 WOODROFFE. 
 
 yourself and Yolande ; you had better get a 
 becoming hat too. I wish there were time 
 for a new dress, but it is impossible.' 
 
 ' Dear mamma, there is so much that is ne- 
 cessary, surely my hat can wait : the old one 
 will do very well.' 
 
 ' You forget that Basil is not coming alone. 
 It would annoy him if you did not look your 
 best for his friends. Dear fellow, he comes 
 home so seldom, I am sure we ought to do 
 everything in our power to make it pleasant to 
 him.' 
 
 * Of course Basil's room is ready : which shall 
 be got ready for the two others V 
 
 1 Sir Armine had better have the blue-room. 
 No ! stay, the jug of the convolvulus set is 
 broken it will never do for him to see a broken 
 set. Put him in the yellow-room.' 
 
 * But the basin there is gone.' 
 
 'I know, but Yolande has a pretty yellow 
 rose set in her room, and that must go to the 
 yellow-room. Colonel Latreille ha*d better have 
 the ebony-room, that, I know, is all right. Oh,
 
 WOODROFFE. 51 
 
 dear ! I am quite tired with thinking of it all ! 
 Will you go and tell Amelia all about it ? I 
 really cannot see her to-night.' 
 
 Amelia, the sole housemaid remaining in a 
 house which had formerly had full occupation 
 for three, was rather inclined to take Yolande's 
 view of the matter, and to think that Mr. Basil 
 and his friends might be content to take things 
 as they found them ; but neither she nor anybody 
 else about the place could ever resist Constance, 
 and, though she grumbled a little, she promised 
 compliance, and even made a few suggestions 
 of her own. 
 
 Finally Constance went to Yolande's room. 
 There were various things she would be unable 
 to do herself on the morrow that she wanted 
 her sister to undertake, and which she feared it 
 would require some diplomacy to induce her to 
 promise. Also she wanted to break to her that 
 her washing equipage was about to be requi- 
 sitioned, which she feared would be a terrible 
 grievance, as ,she had taken a violent fancy to 
 it at Mapleton, and had bought it out of her 
 
 E 2
 
 52 WOODROFFE. 
 
 own pocket-money, aided by a birthday gift 
 from Aunt Lucy. 
 
 ' Well,' said Yolande, looking up at her sister 
 through the masses of dark hair which she was 
 brushing, 'how many fatted calves are pre- 
 destined to slaughter ? What a time you have 
 been ! I thought you must have fallen asleep 
 downstairs.' 
 
 'Not much chance of that,' said Constance, 
 laughing; 'there has been a great deal too 
 much to talk of and arrange. I am to go into 
 Mapleton when Aunt Lucy does to-morrow.' 
 
 ' May I come too T 
 
 ' I'm afraid it wouldn't amuse you much. 
 I've got to see about a cook, and all sorts of 
 useful but uninteresting stores. Besides, dear, 
 I want you to do a great many things for me at 
 home.' 
 
 ' Now, Conny, if you think I'm going to turn 
 myself into a white slave for Basil, you're very 
 much mistaken.' 
 
 ' I should like his friends to take away a good 
 impression of us and of the place. I only
 
 WOODROFFE. 53 
 
 want you to see to the taking out and wash- 
 ing of the dessert china ; it hasn't been used for 
 ages, and must be terribly dusty, but it is very 
 beautiful, and fine old china gives such a refine- 
 ment to the table. Then I want you to under- 
 take arranging the dessert and the flowers for 
 the table. That is no hardship, Yolande you 
 know you like the work.' 
 
 ' Sometimes, when I'm in the humour, which 
 I foresee I shan't be to-morrow. Well, anything 
 more ?' 
 
 'Well, Amelia will have plenty to do in 
 getting the yellow and ebony-rooms ready. 
 If you will just see to the drawing-room, see that 
 the china is in its proper place and not very 
 dusty, and that the curtains are properly 
 arranged instead of being dragged straight 
 back and looped up in a bunch, and that the 
 table-covers are put on straight, and the anti- 
 macassars clean, and the flowers fresh. It is not 
 so very much, after all, and you see I'm not 
 quite sure when I can get back. Besides all 
 the other things, mamma wants me to go to
 
 54 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Sarsnet's and get some fresh ribbons for us 
 both.' 
 
 * Now, mind !' exclaimed Yolande, eagerly ; 
 'mind, Conny, that mine are yellow and deep 
 enough. Don't bring me straw colour or 
 canary; if you can't get gold, bring orange. 
 Now, have you given me all my orders T 
 
 * Yes, I think so. But oh !' said Constance, 
 flushing a little, ' there is one thing I wanted 
 to say. You know, Yolande, how terribly 
 broken things are, and that there is really 
 hardly a whole set of anything in the house. 
 Sir Armine is to have the yellow-room, and 
 there is no basin ; so mamma thought you 
 would not mind his having your yellow 
 roses; it is only just for a day or two, you 
 know.' 
 
 ' But I do mind exceedingly,' cried Yolande, 
 flushing angrily ; ' you forget, Conny, that it is 
 my own, very own, and the ages it took me to 
 save up my pocket-money to buy it, and the 
 terror I was in every time I went to Mapleton 
 that I should find it was gone I I am not
 
 WOODROFEE. 55 
 
 going to give it up to Sir Armine or anyone else.' 
 
 ' I think you will, dear,' said Constance, put- 
 ting her arm round her and kissing her cheek ; 
 ' I know you are angry with Basil, but, though 
 I don't think you are quite just or kind to him, 
 remember this is not for him. Mamma is send- 
 ing him her pretty rosebuds as usual, and I 
 am sure you are as anxious for the credit of 
 the house, and that our guests should be com- 
 fortable, as anyone can be. Remember, when 
 they are once here, they are our guests, not 
 Basil's.' 
 
 ' But suppose my dear yellow roses get 
 broken,' said Yolande, with, however, signs of 
 yielding in her voice. 
 
 ' I should not think Sir Armine was likely to 
 do them harm, and Amelia is as liable to break 
 them in your room as in his.' 
 
 ' Well, if you have set your heart upon it, I 
 suppose it must be,' said Yolande, with a sigh ; 
 ' it's very unfair of you, Conny ; you know very 
 well I never can refuse you anything, and you 
 shouldn't ask such a thing.'
 
 56 WOODROFFE. 
 
 'Dear child,' said Constance, kissing her, 
 ' you'll be very glad yourself. And now I must 
 go to bed. I shall have to be up early to- 
 morrow to be in time for Aunt Lucy.' 
 
 Miss Lucy was considerably surprised when 
 her niece made her appearance the next morn- 
 ing ; in her heart she felt with Yolande, and 
 would have liked Basil to have fared exactly as 
 his family had to do in consequence of his ex- 
 travagance, but she knew it was of no use to 
 say so, and did not wish to distress Constance 
 unnecessarily. Her advice and assistance were 
 of great use ; a cook was found, engaged and 
 despatched by an early train, before she thought 
 of the business which had brought her to 
 Mapleton, and, when she at length went to it, 
 she left Constance with ample employment in 
 her errands to the various shops. 
 
 ' I hope we shall be able to catch the 4.15,' 
 said the girl, when her aunt re-joined her ; ' I 
 know mamma will fidget if I do not get home 
 before the next train, which is Basil's.' 
 
 ' That would be the most comfortable ; but
 
 WOODROFFE. 57 
 
 we will see what can be clone. What more 
 have you to do 
 
 ' Only to go to Sarsnet's to get some ribbons, 
 and mamma wished me to buy a hat.' 
 
 * Have you had any luncheon T 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' Then no wonder you look so worn and tired. 
 Come with me,' and Miss Lucy carried her off 
 to the chief pastry-cook, and made her have 
 some soup and a comfortable meal. 
 
 'Now for Sarsnet's,' she said, when it was 
 over ; ' you look more fit to choose a hat now, 
 Conny at least, there is more chance of its 
 being becoming.' 
 
 Fidget as Constance would, Miss Lucy was 
 determined that the choice should be deliber- 
 ate, and the consequence was, when the 
 shopping was completed, it was a quarter to 
 five. 
 
 'We are too late,' said Constance, with a 
 sigh ; ' I am so sorry.' 
 
 ' I am not,' replied her aunt ; ' you are not fit 
 to walk home from the station in this heat,
 
 58 WOODROFFE. 
 
 after all you have done here, and, as you know, 
 I could not have the brougham to meet us, as 
 I am to dine at Leronfield. Of course the car- 
 riage is to meet Basil, and you can go home in 
 it comfortably.' 
 
 * But there will be the two strangers.' 
 
 * It will not make much difference whether 
 you are introduced to them a quarter of an hour 
 sooner or later.' 
 
 ' No, perhaps not only Basil might think it 
 would crowd them.' 
 
 * Then he can make room by walking across 
 the fields with me,' replied Miss Lucy, tartly. 
 * Bless me, Conny! it is no wonder the boy 
 is ruined when you all make such a fetish of 
 him as not to be able to think except as 
 you fancy he might wish! I declare Yolande 
 is the only one who has any sense in the 
 matter ! Now that we have some time on 
 our hands, come to the deanery. I shall be 
 glad to see Mrs. Ellerton, and you always like 
 a chat with the girls.' 
 
 It was very pleasant under the branching
 
 WOODROFFE. 59 
 
 lime-trees in the cool deanery garden, where 
 Miss Lucy and her niece found their hostess 
 and her daughters; but Constance was think- 
 ing too much of the number of small things 
 which her step-mother was sure to be wanting 
 her for at home to enjoy herself so much as 
 would otherwise have been the case, and she 
 reminded her aunt before it was absolutely 
 necessary that they ought to be going, so as 
 to be in time for their train. 
 
 ' You were in a great hurry,' said Miss 
 Lucy, who did not like being warned not 
 to be late, as they walked to the station. 
 
 ' Yes,' said Constance, ' if we missed this 
 train, only think how vexed mamma would 
 be!' 
 
 'Well, there is no fear of that. We have 
 more than a quarter of an hour to wait,' said 
 Miss Lucy, almost crossly; but she was soon 
 appeased by the sight of various acquaint- 
 ances, waiting either to go by the train, or to 
 welcome friends arriving by it. 
 
 ' By Jove ! what a lovely girl,' exclaimed
 
 60 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Colonel Latreille, as the train at length drew 
 up at the platform. 
 
 ' Where f exclaimed both his companions, 
 coming to his side of the carnage ; and while 
 Sir Armine echoed : 
 
 ' Lovely indeed !' 
 
 Basil exclaimed, in extreme surprise, 
 
 ' Lovely ! why, that's my sister.' 
 
 ' Well, you certainly never warned us,' said 
 the colonel. ' You were quite right ; it is 
 always best to be taken by surprise.' 
 
 ' It is very odd,' said Basil. ' Of course you 
 fellows mean it; but it never occurred to 
 me that Constance was more than just passably 
 good-looking.' 
 
 'Your standard must be pretty high,' said 
 Colonel Latreille. 
 
 'None so blind as those who won't see,' 
 said Sir Armine. ' I wonder though, Wood- 
 roffe, that you, who so notoriously admire what 
 your looking-glass shows you, should not ad- 
 mire the likeness. Your sister is very like you, 
 only infinitely handsomer.'
 
 WOODROFFE. 61 
 
 ' Well we can't all see alike,' said Basil, 
 pleased that Constance, as a possession of his, 
 should be admired, but astonished at his friends' 
 taste. Constance like him indeed ! He who 
 considered himself one of the handsomest men 
 in the brigade ! It could of course only be 
 their chaff. 
 
 The trio were in a smoking-carriage, and 
 were not seen by Miss Lucy or Constance till 
 they all alighted at the little roadside station 
 at Woodroffe, where Basil introduced his friends, 
 and then went to superintend the bestowal 
 of all their possessions in the carriage and 
 cart. 
 
 His scrutiny of the equipage did not please 
 him. In the time that had elapsed since his 
 last visit, neither horses, liveries, nor carriage 
 had become fresher or smarter looking, and 
 he felt ashamed that his friends should see 
 anything so shabby. He began to regret that 
 he had asked them. He had forgotten in his 
 round of pleasures in London how economic- 
 ally matters were managed at home, and a
 
 62 WOODROFFE. 
 
 terrible fear presented itself that his fastidious 
 friends might find the Manor anything but 
 comfortable. However, he was in for it now, 
 and could only make the best of it by 
 pretending to be unaware of any short- 
 comings. 
 
 Meanwhile, Aunt Lucy having at once started 
 on her walk home, Constance was standing 
 on the platform waiting until the baggage and 
 her parcels were disposed of, and improving 
 her acquaintance with the two strangers. Sir 
 Armine looked little more than a boy, and 
 was fair and fresh-coloured, with close-crop- 
 ped, curly hair, and blue eyes dancing with 
 fun. He looked a perfect picture of a healthy, 
 hearty young Englishman, and as if blessed 
 with an equable and sunny temper. 
 
 Colonel Latreille looked considerably older, 
 his age being really five and thirty; he was 
 very tall and powerfully built, dark, with thick 
 black hair and moustache, and piercing dark 
 grey eyes. In repose his countenance was 
 somewhat stern, but when he became animated,
 
 WOODROFFE. 63 
 
 and more especially when lie smiled, the ex- 
 pression was very pleasing. Constance's man- 
 ner was very quiet and gentle, but she was not 
 troubled with the inconvenience of shyness, and 
 by the time Basil returned to say all was ready, 
 the two were chatting away together in perfect 
 comfort. 
 
 ' I say, Conny,' said Basil, when they were 
 settled in the carriage, ' who was that you were 
 talking to at the Mapleton Station? I never 
 saw him before.' 
 
 'Who do you mean? What was he like?' 
 asked Constance. ' There were so many people 
 we knew to-day.' 
 
 ' Rather a good-looking man, tall and stout, 
 not very young, clean shaven, and with a white 
 wide-awake.' 
 
 * Oh ! that was Mr. Yerulam ; he has been in 
 the county about three years. Surely you 
 must have seen him before. He has bought 
 Caenthorpe.' 
 
 'What, the De Merik's place? I did not 
 know it was sold.'
 
 64 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ' How little attention yon pay to our Maple- 
 shire news !' said Constance, smiling. ' Caen- 
 thorpe and its new owner were the chief topics 
 of conversation when you were last at home, 
 and I am sure we must all of us have written 
 about it. He has pulled down the old house, 
 and built a splendid new one. There is to be 
 a grand house-warming ball in December.' 
 
 ' Do you mean to say he was Goth enough to 
 pull down the Priory 1 ?' 
 
 ' Well, it saved him the trouble by in great 
 measure tumbling down, and I think he would 
 have been very foolish to insist on restoring 
 such an inconvenient house, especially as he 
 could not be expected to be sentimental about 
 it. I believe the new house is very perfect, 
 and the gardens are quite splendid. He met 
 Aunt Lucy and me near the lodge last week, 
 and insisted on taking us all over them. There 
 seemed no end to the glass.' 
 
 ' Verulam !' said Colonel Latreille ' is he the 
 great contractor who seems to turn everything 
 he touches to gold ?'
 
 WOODROFFE. 65 
 
 ' Yes,' said Constance ; ' the quantity of money 
 he has spent in the county is quite amazing. 
 He has quite rebuilt the whole village of Caen- 
 thorp e.' 
 
 ' The prettiest, most picturesque village in 
 the county,' said Basil. 
 
 ' And the most unhealthy,' said Constance, 
 laughing; 'those picturesque ruins were nothing 
 but fever dens.' 
 
 'You are so practical,' said Basil, in a half 
 disgusted tone. 
 
 ' Quite right, Miss Woodroffe,' said Colonel 
 Latreille, as Constance coloured ; ' it is a pity 
 there are not more practical people in the 
 world.' 
 
 'What sort of a fellow is Verulamf asked 
 Basil ' is he received in the county ? Where 
 did you meet him 
 
 1 At Lady Louisa de Vere's. Received ? 
 oh, dear, yes, everywhere with open arms.' 
 
 ( And is he a gentleman 
 
 ' Yes,' said Constance, but there was a scarce- 
 ly perceptible hesitation in her voice. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ' I met him last year in Scotland,' said Sir 
 Armine ; ' he wasn't half a bad fellow, only he 
 had rather a way of, not exactly boasting, but 
 talking of his money, till he made paupers like 
 me feel almost murderous. He didn't mean any 
 harm, but it was aggravating.' 
 
 ' Yes, I know,' said Constance, quickly. 
 
 Colonel Latreille looked at her somewhat 
 curiously. It seemed to him as if the idea to 
 which she had responded was Sir Armine's 
 notion of the aggravation to paupers of hearing 
 wealth constantly vaunted. And yet, what 
 could she know of poverty ? Woodroffe was a 
 rich man for Basil, never giving a thought to 
 what might be the effect of his conduct at 
 home, always lived as if the heir of a man of 
 large and unembarrassed fortune and it was 
 naturally preposterous to imagine that his sister 
 could know more than the name of poverty. 
 How fanciful he was I And yet he could have 
 felt sure that in that lovely and speaking coun- 
 tenance he had read something deeper than 
 mere acquiescence in the fact of Mr. Verulam's
 
 WOODROFFE. 67 
 
 purse-proud boastings. From a reverie on this 
 subject he was abruptly aroused by their arrival 
 at the house. 
 
 Woodroffe Manor was a fine old Jacobean 
 mansion of red brick, weather-stained, and 
 covered in parts with many-hued lichen, and 
 in others with carefully-clipped and tended 
 ivy. The white stone coigns and mullions 
 were nearly as weather-stained as the brick- 
 work, and in many places a keen eye might 
 have perceived that the building was gradu- 
 ally falling out of repair. It had at one time 
 been environed by a moat, but this the 
 present owner's mother had so greatly dis- 
 liked that it had been drained, and was now 
 only a deep and broad expanse of emerald 
 turf. 
 
 The gardens were on the south side of the 
 house, some little way from which the pleasure 
 ground was edged with a balustrade, from 
 which the ground shelved abruptly to the 
 river, on the opposite bank of which lay the 
 grand old woods and rich lands of Caenthorpe,
 
 68 WOODROFFE. 
 
 t 
 
 looking now even more luxuriant than was 
 their wont, in contrast to the bare hill-sides 
 of Woodroffe, almost entirely shorn of their 
 wealth of timber. 
 
 Everywhere, as Colonel Latreille's quick 
 eye at once noted, there was apparent a want 
 of finish that argued a lack either of that 
 exquisite refinement which he was already 
 inclined, almost involuntarily, to associate with 
 anyone belonging to Constance or of means 
 to carry out all that was required. Again 
 his mind reverted to Constance's expression 
 as Sir Armine spoke of Mr. Verulam, and he 
 was so wrapped in speculations as to its 
 meaning that Basil spoke to him twice before 
 he answered. 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe met them in the fine old 
 oak hall, gave his son's friends a hearty 
 welcome, and led them into the drawing- 
 room ; a long, low room with recessed oriel 
 windows, where Mrs. Woodroffe awaited them, 
 and greeted Basil as if he were her own son 
 from whom she had been separated for years.
 
 WOODROFFE. 69 
 
 As Colonel Latreille glanced around at the 
 well-worn and faded furniture, he realised 
 that it was no want of refinement that was 
 to blame for the incompleteness he had no- 
 ticed outside. Everything in the room spoke 
 of taste and refinement, but also he thought 
 of straitened means. After all, he thought, 
 he had perhaps read Constance's countenance 
 .aright.
 
 70 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 There is in souls a sympathy with sounds, 
 And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased 
 With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave ; 
 Some chord in unison with what we hear 
 Is touched within us, and the heart replies. 
 
 The Task. COWPER. 
 
 nnHE dinner-table at Woodroffe presented a 
 -*- very different appearance that evening 
 from that which it generally wore. Yolande 
 had done her part well, and the fine old Chelsea 
 dishes were artistically filled with fruit relieved 
 with sprays of fern, while the table literally 
 glowed with the profusion of crimson, yellow, 
 and blush roses. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe wore her one good evening 
 dress of soft grey silk, trimmed with lace. 
 Its fashion was horribly antiquated, for it was
 
 WOODROFFE. 71 
 
 a relic of the outfit her husband had given 
 her after their marriage, in lieu of the trous- 
 seau which she had had no money to provide ; 
 but it suited her, and her small delicate figure 
 never looked amiss in anything. Yolande 
 had improved her toilette with two bouquets 
 of dark red roses, and the effect, especially 
 to masculine eyes uninstructed in the latest 
 intricacies of fashion, was extremely pleasing. 
 Sir Armine thought her lovely, and chatted to 
 her in his boyish way with infinite contentment. 
 
 The girls were in white, Constance with 
 soft green ribbons and a bunch of blush roses, 
 Yolande with her favourite yellow both in 
 ribbons and flowers. 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe who seldom spoke much, and 
 sat silent and absorbed in apparently melan- 
 choly thoughts, seemed quite revived by the 
 unwonted society; he talked in an animated 
 manner to Colonel Latreille, and looked during 
 dinner less careworn than Constance had seen 
 him since Basil's extravagance had first become 
 the sole topic for his anxious consideration.
 
 72 WOODROFFE. 
 
 It certainly was a very great change from 
 their usually meagre and silent dinners which 
 were only enlivened by Yolande's chatter ; the 
 cook from Mapleton had acquitted herself well, 
 and though Constance was haunted by an un- 
 easy feeling that it would cost more than they 
 ought to spend, still the thing was done now, 
 and she gave herself up to the enjoyment of a 
 very pleasant evening. 
 
 As for Yolande, who was not troubled with 
 her sister's fears, her delight was unbounded. 
 She almost forgave Basil for all the privations 
 he cost them, and forgot her indignation at the 
 injustice which provided this feast in his honour, 
 in her enjoyment of the change and excitement 
 consequent on the arrival of his two friends. 
 
 The member of the party the least pleased 
 was Constance's Skye terrier Ross, who was so 
 unused to visitors that he objected vehemently 
 to any infringement of the usual family seclu- 
 sion, and growled ominously when either of the 
 strangers approached his mistress. 
 
 Basil, who had been rendered apprehensive by
 
 WOODROFFE. 73 
 
 the shabby appearance of the caniage that the 
 appointments of the Manor would not do him 
 credit with his friends, was infinitely relieved and 
 comforted by the excellence of the dinner and 
 the appearance of the table. What could Aunt 
 Lucy mean, he wondered, by the letters she 
 often wrote him, reproaching him for the priva- 
 tions he was inflicting on his family ? There 
 was no trace of privations here, everything 
 was as good as need be. Well ! doubtless it was 
 only talk, old maids were generally cranky and 
 fanciful, and he supposed Aunt Lucy was no ex- 
 ception to the rule. 
 
 ' Do you know what made Basil ask these two 
 friends, Mamma?' asked Constance, when they 
 left the dining-room. 
 
 ' Really I didn't ask,' replied Mrs. Woodroffe, 
 setting herself on her sofa, ' why shouldn't he 
 bring his friends, dear boy ? I'm sure we are 
 delighted to see anyone he likes. How well he is 
 looking !' 
 
 ' I only wondered, because he has never done 
 so before.'
 
 74 "WOODROFFE. 
 
 ' I know why,' said Yolande ; ' Sir Armine told 
 me. There is a great cricket match to-morrow 
 over at Denterfield, and races next day at Sill- 
 hurst. He seemed to take it for granted we 
 were all going, but I know there is no chance of 
 anything so nice.' 
 
 'As you couldn't play cricket, and know 
 nothing about a race, there wouldn't be much 
 use in your going, I should say,' observed her 
 mother. 
 
 ' There would be the sight and the people. I 
 should like it of all things,' cried Yolande. 
 
 ' I can't think how a daughter of mine can 
 have such a taste for dissipation,' said Mrs. 
 Woodroffe, plaintively ; * you, a child not out yet, 
 want to run about in a way that Constance 
 never thinks of!' 
 
 * Conny is older, and has seen more. I want 
 to begin to see/ said Yolande, pouting. 
 
 4 Well, of course, this is quite out of the ques- 
 tion. We know no one who is going, and there 
 are no means of your getting there. I suppose 
 Basil will see about ordering the carriage ; your 
 papa will never think of it.'
 
 WOODROFFE. 75 
 
 'You may quite trust Basil to remember 
 anything for his own pleasure,' said Yo- 
 lande. 
 
 Her mother was about to reproach her angrily 
 when the door opened and the gentlemen 
 appeared. 
 
 ' I am afraid we can do nothing to amuse 
 you,' said Basil to Colonel Latrpille. ' I told 
 you it would be a very quiet visit. You see, 
 my step-mother is rather an invalid, and so they 
 see very few visitors.' 
 
 ' I only hope we are not tiring Mrs. Wood- 
 roffe; as for quietness, what more could anyone 
 desire in this lovely spot"? Miss Woodroffe,' 
 turning to Constance, 'may we ask for some 
 music ? Do not you and your sister sing T 
 
 * You had better not, Constance,' said Basil, 
 patronisingly ; ' Latreille is a tremendous critic. 
 You see,' turning to his friend, * she has never 
 been taught, she has never been in London.' 
 
 ' It shows how little you know about Conny, 
 Basil !' exclaimed Yolande, indignantly ; ' why, 
 her singing is famous all over the county ! 
 And as for lessons, she did not go to London,
 
 76 WOODROFFE. 
 
 but Signer Scala came to Mapleton, and she had 
 lessons from him.' 
 
 ' Pray let me hear the result of his teaching, 
 Miss Woodroffe,' said Colonel Latreille ; ' I know 
 Scala well. You could not have had a better 
 master.' 
 
 ' He took infinite pains,' said Constance, and, 
 not being accustomed to make difficulties or to 
 require pressing, she sat down and sang ' Robin 
 Adair.' 
 
 There was no doubt as to Colonel Latreille's 
 enjoyment of the song, or as to the sincerity of 
 his compliments at its conclusion. She then 
 sang ' Norah, my darling,' which Colonel Latreille 
 greatly admired, humming, after she had ceased, 
 the taking refrain. 
 
 ' Then, Norah, my darling, come home to my heart, 
 And never, no never through life will we part.' 
 
 ' This is another by the same composer, Mrs. 
 Vivian,' said Constance ; and she sang ' The lad 
 with the golden hair.' 
 
 The evening passed rapidly away in music, 
 Constance and Yolande singing repeatedly, and
 
 WOODROFFE. 77 
 
 Colonel Latreille occasionally accompanying 
 himself in a ballad. 
 
 Basil hardly knew whether to be pleased or 
 annoyed. It was of course satisfactory that 
 the girls should show to tolerable advantage; 
 it would have been odious to have felt ashamed 
 of them, as he half expected that he should do ; 
 still he hardly liked to be eclipsed by them, 
 and it was certainly mortifying that his 
 opinion of his sister's looks and attainments 
 should be so quietly negatived by his friends. 
 
 He wondered why they both so very de- 
 cidedly admired Constance. She was passably 
 good-looking, he allowed; and very fairly 
 dressed, because there was no pretence about 
 her toilette ; but she had not an atom of style, 
 there was nothing chic about her, and without 
 that no woman could, in his eyes, be entitled 
 to admiration. As for the Likeness which they 
 professed to see between Constance and him- 
 self, there might of course be one of those mys- 
 terious family resemblances which are gener- 
 ally only visible to strangers, but nothing
 
 78 WOODROFFE. 
 
 more ; and Basil cast a glance of considerable 
 satisfaction at his own reflection in the pier- 
 glass, and thought that a girl who was really 
 like him would be a beauty indeed. 
 
 ' I wonder,' said Colonel Latreille the next 
 morning, ' whether you, Woodroffe, would be 
 very angry with me if I cried off this expedition 
 to Denterfield ? It is a blazing hot day, and I 
 should infinitely prefer sauntering about the 
 garden to broiling on a cricket-ground where 
 I shall know no one. I promise you, Miss 
 Woodroffe, I will not be in the way.' 
 
 'I say!' cried Sir Armine, in astonishment; 
 * Latreille, old fellow, you must be ill. Fancy 
 missing such a match as this, when you have 
 the luck to be in the neighbourhood !' 
 
 ' I am not quite such an enthusiast about 
 cricket as you are, Haverton,' returned Colonel 
 Latreille ; * and I have seen a good many more 
 matches. I should really prefer a quiet day here 
 among the roses, if Woodroffe will let me off.' 
 
 'Of course I am glad you should do what 
 you like best,' said Basil, who could hardly say
 
 WOODROFFE. 79 
 
 anything else ; but he felt and looked annoyed. 
 Colonel Latreille had the reputation of being a 
 very fastidious man, and Basil had rather 
 looked forward to the tclat of exhibiting him 
 as his friend and a guest staying at Woodroffe 
 Manor. 
 
 ' Thanks ; a quiet day in the country, 
 with nothing to do, will be quite a novelty 
 and a treat to me. Haverton, you ought to 
 be grateful to me. You will have me for a 
 fresh and appreciative audience on your re- 
 turn.' 
 
 Until luncheon-time Colonel Latreille was 
 invisible. To what part of the house or 
 grounds he betook himself no one knew, but 
 he certainly fulfilled his voluntary pledge to 
 Constance of not being in the way. 
 
 ' I am afraid you must have had a very dull 
 morning,' said Mrs. Woodroffe, when they met 
 at luncheon. 
 
 'No, indeed. I have been enjoying myself 
 by the river. What beautiful woods those are 
 on the opposite bank !'
 
 80 WOOUROFFE. 
 
 < Yes ; they are the Caenthorpe woods ; they 
 are famous in the county.' 
 
 f That is the place you were speaking of 
 yesterday, was it not?' asked Colonel Latreille 
 of Constance. 
 
 ' Yes it belongs to Mr. Verulam.' 
 
 ' Your father has asked him to dine here the 
 day after to-morrow,' said Mrs. Woodroffe. 
 
 ' Mr. Verulam !' exclaimed Constance, in sur- 
 prise ; * I thought papa hardly knew him.' 
 
 ' He thought it was a good opportunity when 
 Basil was at home.' 
 
 V 
 
 After luncheon Yolande called Colonel La- 
 treille to look at some music. 
 
 'You asked if we had any trios,' she said. 
 'Here are all we have; I hunted them out of 
 the big ottoman this morning. Wouldn't it be 
 nice to try some of them this afternoon ? It is 
 too hot to go out yet.' 
 
 'Yolande dear, Colonel Latreille wants to be 
 quiet,' said Constance. 
 
 ' Quiet in so far as escaping driving through 
 dust to sit in the sun, and see what doesn't
 
 WOODROFFE. 81 
 
 specially Interest me,' said the colonel ; ' but if 
 I am not boring you, or keeping you from some- 
 thing you want to do, I should like nothing 
 better than to try these songs.' 
 
 'We should like it very much,' said Con- 
 stance ; ' it will be an unknown excitement to 
 Yolande and me to sing with anyone.' 
 
 The afternoon slipped away pleasantly and 
 quickly, and at five o'clock Yolande said, with 
 a sigh : 
 
 ' Oh, dear ! I must go now, or else the dessert 
 won't be ready. What a bore it is !' 
 
 ' And I must go and cut some roses,' said 
 Constance, rising from the piano. 
 
 ' Can't I help you?' said the colonel; 'surely 
 I can carry a basket or something.' 
 
 ' If you really like it,' said Constance, half 
 laughing. 
 
 ' I shouldn't offer it if I didn't mean it.' 
 
 ' The sun is still very hot,' said Constance, as, 
 having got her hat, they emerged from the 
 window. 
 
 k When you have gathered the roses you had 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 WOODROFFE. 
 
 better come and help me to pick gooseberries,' 
 said Yolande, who lingered behind to put away 
 the music. 
 
 The gathering of the roses, though Constance, 
 entertained by her companion's conversation, 
 unconscionsly lingered over it, did not take very 
 long. Presently she found herself at her favour- 
 ite spot at the parapet overlooking the river, 
 and pointing out to Colonel Latreille the gables 
 of Caenthorpe, and various places of interest that 
 could thence be descried. 
 
 * What a pity,' said he, after a time, * that the 
 woods which evidently grew on this side also 
 should have been cut down. It seems to have 
 been done quite recently, too.' 
 
 * Yes,' said Constance, with a vehement 
 blush, ' it is they were very beautiful. It 
 was a great pity but there were circum- 
 stances ' 
 
 * Of course,' said the colonel, who felt with 
 annoyance that he had made a decidedly 
 mal apropos remark ; ' if there had not, it would 
 never have been done. After all, when a short
 
 WOODROFFE. 83 
 
 time has passed, and the marks of destruction 
 are a little effaced, I am not sure it may not be 
 an improvement to the landscape. Heavy 
 woods on both sides of the river must have been 
 a little monotonous. 
 
 Constance said nothing, but she quite under- 
 stood his intention, and was grateful to him for 
 it. They went on talking for some little time, 
 and she found that he knew several of her 
 friends in the neighbourhood, though he had 
 never been in Mapleshire before. He said some- 
 thing of a half promise he had made to stay in 
 the neighbourhood of Mapleton for the Hunt 
 Ball in January, and she was conscious of a 
 distinct feeling of pleasure at the thought that 
 she might possibly meet him again, that this 
 visit might perhaps not be the end of their 
 acquaintance. 
 
 Suddenly she roused herself, remembering that 
 in all probability there would be various little 
 things that Mrs. Woodroffe would wish her to 
 settle and arrange before dinner, and said she 
 must go in and arrange her roses. 
 
 G2
 
 84 WOODROFFE. 
 
 * Then I shall go and help with the goose- 
 berries, as Miss Yolande invited me to do,' said 
 the colonel, and sauntered off in the direction 
 of the kitchen-garden. 
 
 Yolande had not made any very great pro- 
 gress in her task ; it was very hot, and she was 
 rather lazy, so her basket was far from full. 
 
 ' You have not sped so well as your sister, she 
 has gone in with her roses,' said Colonel La- 
 treille, as he joined her, and began to help in the 
 work. 
 
 ' Ah ! roses are easier and pleasanter to gather 
 than gooseberries,' said Yolande ; ' I don't mind 
 saying so as Conny isn't by to hear me. If she 
 were, she would insist on doing the gooseberries 
 and leaving the roses for me.' 
 
 * You mean that your sister is so amiable ? So 
 I should imagine.' 
 
 * Amiable !' and Yolande raised herself from 
 her stooping position and looked at him ; ' that 
 isn't a good enough word for Conny! She 
 just never thought of herself in all her life !' 
 
 ' You are enthusiastic.'
 
 WOODROFFE. 85 
 
 ( So I well may be ! Conny is better and 
 dearer than anyone who ever lived in all the 
 world, and yet I do really believe she thinks 
 that she is full of faults and that it is very 
 good of anyone to love her. Oh ! you can 
 have no idea what she is ! But I must go on 
 with my work or these weary gooseberries 
 will never be picked,' and with a portentous 
 sigh she resumed her labours. 
 
 ' I wonder,' said the Colonel, picking away 
 diligently : ' that if you dislike it so much 
 it certainly is rather warm work you do not 
 send some one else to do it.' 
 
 ' But there is no one else.' 
 
 f Surely the gardener ' 
 
 ' Oh, he has a great deal more than he can 
 do already. We used to have six gardeners, 
 you can see the place wants quite that number, 
 but, ever since Basil went into the Guards and 
 spent all the money, there has been none for 
 us, and we have only old Thomas, who is 
 nearly crippled with rheumatism, and a very 
 stupid boy.'
 
 86 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ( That seems hard.' 
 
 * That is what I say,' exclaimed Yolande, too 
 interested in the topic which always excited 
 her to remember that she ought not to take 
 a stranger into confidence about private family 
 affairs. ' I don't mind a bit having to do 
 without things, having hardly any servants, 
 and giving up our riding horses, and seeing the 
 garden look like a wilderness, and having 
 wretched dinners, and never seeing anyone 
 at least, I shouldn't mind it one bit if it were 
 necessary; but what makes me so angry is 
 that Basil spends all the money and never 
 gives a care or a thought to all we have to do 
 without. Why should he have anything and 
 we nothing? It is the injustice that makes 
 me indignant! Mamma is very angry with 
 me, and says I am selfish and unfeeling, and 
 don't care for Basil ; but indeed I think it is he 
 who is selfish.' 
 
 * What does your sister say T 
 
 ' Oh, Conny allows there is something in 
 what I say, but declares that when I grow
 
 WOODROFFE. 87 
 
 older I shall know that it is always the 
 privilege of the women of a family to sacrifice 
 themselves for the men, and it is one that all 
 good women glory in. I tell her, if that 
 is the case, I shall never be a good 
 woman, or care to be one. I only want 
 justice.' 
 
 ' Then you want the thing which is the 
 most impossible to get in the whole 
 world.' 
 
 ' The idea of its being a privilege to give 
 up everything to a person who never one 
 bit appreciates it, and takes it all for 
 granted.' 
 
 ' It strikes me, Miss Yolande, that one of 
 your grievances at least is imaginary; you 
 talked of "wretched dinners." Now, last 
 night ' 
 
 'You don't fancy we live like that,' said 
 Yolande, in surprise : ' I wanted to leave every- 
 thing as we always have it. I said it was 
 only fair that Basil, who was the cause of it 
 all, should at any rate share our discomfort.
 
 88 WOODROFFE. 
 
 But our old cook can only just boil a potato, 
 and mamma and Couny wouldn't hear of it. 
 Mamma said I was always unkind to Basil, 
 and Conny said it wouldn't be fair his 
 friends should suffer. So she spent the whole 
 day in Mapleton getting a cook and all sorts 
 of good things.' 
 
 Colonel Latreille felt decidedly uncomfort- 
 able at these revelations. He felt as if he 
 had been doing something dishonourable in 
 hearing so much that certainly was never 
 intended for his ears, and yet it had all come 
 out so naturally that he hardly saw how he 
 could have stopped Yolande without hurting her 
 feelings. He knew that at her age perhaps the 
 deadliest injury that could be inflicted on her 
 dignity would be to even hint that she was a 
 child, and yet that was of course the only 
 excuse for her garrulity to a stranger, and the 
 only reason that he could give for stopping 
 her. 
 
 He fully coincided in her view of the injus- 
 tice of Basil's being permitted to render his
 
 WOODROFFE. 89 
 
 whole family uncomfortable to gratify his own 
 extravagance. He had always thought him a 
 selfish young fellow, and now the accuracy of 
 his judgment was fully proved. Surely, how- 
 ever, he could not be aware of the full extent 
 of the privations which Yolande had recapi- 
 tulated. It would certainly be wiser, when 
 he came home, to allow him to share them, 
 instead of putting on airs of false prosperity, 
 but that was doubtless Mrs. Woodroffe's fault ; 
 she seemed, he thought, rather a weak, silly 
 woman. 
 
 It was very clear now what the 'circum- 
 stances' were that had necessitated the de- 
 molition of the woods, and he remembered 
 Constance's blushing confusion. How un- 
 speakably annoyed she would be, if she knew 
 all that Yolande had confided to him ! Well, 
 she should never hear it from him. 
 
 However, he would guard against any more 
 such confidences, and, to avoid them, he began 
 cross-questioning Yolande about the neigh- 
 bourhood. She told him a good deal, partly
 
 90 WOODROFFE. 
 
 from her own observation when she went to 
 various houses to see girls about her own age, 
 and partly of what Constance told her when 
 she went out with her aunt. 
 
 'If it wasn't for Aunt Lucy,' went on Yo- 
 lande, ' we might just as well live down at 
 the bottom of a coal mine. Papa won't go 
 anywhere. He doesn't even care for the Magis- 
 trates' Meetings now, even if that were of any 
 use to us, and mamma never did care about 
 going out, and now, you know, she can't, for 
 she's generally on the sofa, though Dr. Pearce 
 says she ought to exert herself, and that there's 
 nothing at all the matter with her. Conny 
 says that he is very hard, and that she doesn't 
 think he ever takes into account the differ- 
 ence that, in the course of years, the want 
 of sun here in England makes to anyone born 
 and bred in the southern sun like mamma. 
 She was a Prove^ale, you know. Aunt Lucy 
 takes Conny everywhere, and I suppose when 
 I come out she'll take me too. Oh, I wish the 
 time would come !'
 
 WOODROFFE. 91 
 
 ' It will come soon enough.' 
 
 ' Not for me. I feel so grown up, you 
 know, because I've never been in the school- 
 room, but always lived downstairs. Conny 
 says we're both awfully ignorant, because 
 we've never had a governess, but I'm sure 
 she isn't. She reads and reads all day long, 
 when she can ; and, though of course I don't 
 know German, and Latin, and algebra like 
 the Montfords, I daresay I shall get on fairly 
 well. The Griersons think nothing of music 
 if you don't understand thorough bass and 
 counterpoint, but not one of them can sing or 
 play like Conny.' 
 
 'Very few people can. Your sister's voice 
 is lovely, and she is evidently a finished 
 musician.' 
 
 'I shall tell her what you say,' cried Yo- 
 lande, triumphantly. ' Do you know, she really 
 doesn't believe that her singing is worth hear- 
 ing? Conny never does think she can do 
 anything so well as people who are oh ! ever 
 so much inferior to her ; and, do you know,
 
 92 WOODROFFE. 
 
 she really can do everything that she ever 
 tries. Oh! there is the stable clock striking 
 seven, and I've all these to arrange. I must 
 
 - ^ 
 
 go !' and she flew off with her basket. 
 
 Colonel Latreille followed slowly, thinking 
 
 t 
 
 over all he had heard. How this bright, un- 
 sophisticated child loved her sister ! How per- 
 fect she thought her! And indeed she did 
 seem very charming and loveable. Used as 
 he was to girls who lived at high pressure 
 of excitement, one who, like Constance Wood- 
 roffe, vegetated, as most young ladies would 
 call it, entirely in the country, and was yet 
 perfectly well-mannered, self-possessed, and ap- 
 parently contented, was quite a new experi- 
 ence to him. He began to wonder whether 
 he could find any decent excuse for staying 
 at home the next day instead of going to 
 the races at Sillhurst, and pursuing his study 
 of so interesting a problem; and he strolled 
 back to the house humming, half unconsciously, 
 
 ' Then, Norah, my darling, come home to my heart, 
 And never, no never through life will we part.'
 
 93 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 True lie it said, whatever man it said, 
 
 That love with gall and honey doth abound : 
 
 But if the one be with the other weigh'd, 
 For every drachm of honey therein found 
 
 A pound of gall doth over it redound. 
 
 Faerie Queene. 
 
 T)ASIL and Sir Armine returned very late, 
 *-* but Mrs. Woodroffe insisted on waiting- 
 dinner, though her husband represented to her 
 more than once that it would be much better 
 for them to have something when they came 
 in. She quite resented it as a slight to 'poor 
 dear Basil, who was so seldom at home that 
 it was surely hard if he could not have a 
 little indulgence,' and quite ignored the fact 
 that both her husband and Colonel Latreille 
 were being victimised for Basil's sake.
 
 94 WOODROFFE. 
 
 The two young men appeared to have greatly 
 enjoyed themselves, and talked so fast during 
 dinner of all they had done, seen, and heard, 
 that there was but little opportunity for any 
 other conversation, and Colonel Latreille, his 
 eyes sharpened by Yolande's disclosures, was 
 able to descry signs that she had by no means 
 exaggerated the state of affairs. He observed 
 how sad and careworn Mr. Woodroffe looked, 
 and felt nearly as indignant with Basil as Yo- 
 lande had avowed herself. 
 
 Constance interested him more and more. It 
 was evident, both from what he had observed 
 of her and what her sister said, that she was 
 one of those sweet, gentle-natured women who 
 so irretrievably spoil and ruin the men of their 
 families, but who are still made to be passion- 
 ately loved. Her beauty was exactly of the 
 style which he most admired, her voice far 
 above the average, but it was her soft gentle- 
 ness that most captivated him. 
 
 He quite agreed with the justice of every 
 word that Yolande said ; he despised and felt
 
 WOODROFFE. 95 
 
 angry with Basil for the selfish extravagance 
 that caused his family discomfort and privation, 
 he felt hotly indignant that Constance should 
 not be surrounded by every luxury which heart 
 or fancy could desire ; and yet, what he ad- 
 mired most about her was her unquestioning 
 belief that it was quite right that everything 
 should be sacrificed to her brother's pleasure 
 and advantage. It was his idea of feminine 
 perfection, and probably the majority of his sex 
 would agree with him. 
 
 ' It is a great pity you weren't with us, La- 
 trielle,' said Basil at length; 'it was capital 
 fun, and I'm afraid you must have been bored 
 to death.' 
 
 ' Not at all, I assure you, ' said the 
 Colonel ; ' on the contrary, I enjoyed the quiet 
 and this lovely place so much that I shah 1 ask 
 you to let me off the races to-morrow, and 
 leave me to enjoy another equally charming 
 day.' 
 
 ' Give up Sillhurst Races !' cried Sir Arrm'rm, 
 wonderingly why, I thought you were so hot
 
 96 WOODROFFE. 
 
 upon them, and wanted to see that two-year- 
 old you were talking of.' 
 
 ' But I have changed. That is to say,' turn- 
 ing courteously to Mrs. Woodroffe, ' unless my 
 remaining at home is at all inconvenient to 
 you.' 
 
 ' Not in the least, if you prefer it,' returned' 
 his hostess ; * but I am afraid you must find it 
 very dull.' 
 
 ' I assure you it is very long since I have 
 enjoyed a day so much as to-day.' 
 
 'You are easily pleased,' said Basil, almost 
 contemptuously. f I did not wonder at your 
 missing the cricket match so much, but races ! 
 and you, who know so much about horses, 
 and are so fond of them !' 
 
 * How I wish I could go instead of you !' ex- 
 claimed Yolande. 
 
 * Hush, Yolande !' said her mother, quickly ; 
 * you should not say such things.' 
 
 'Why should not Miss Yolande come with 
 us?' asked Sir Armine, who was very good- 
 natured, and always anxious that everyone
 
 WOODROFFE. 97 
 
 should enjoy themselves. f I'm sure we would 
 take every care of her.' 
 
 ' It is quite impossible not to be thought 
 of !' exclaimed Mrs. Woodroffe, hastily. 
 
 ' Speak for yourself, Haverton,' observed Basil. 
 ' I don't feel at all inclined to have a young 
 lady on my hands, wanting to be taken care of 
 just as one wants to go and look at the horses, 
 or do something else. I fancy you wouldn't 
 like it any better, and would be precious sorry 
 for what you had let yourself in for/ 
 
 Sir Armine began to think it was very pro- 
 bable, still he had seen Yolande's expressive 
 countenance light up with a great longing, and 
 he felt he should like to give her pleasure ; it 
 must, he thought, be an awfully dull life for a 
 pretty girl in such a quiet place. 
 
 ' I'm sure,' he said, very earnestly, to Mrs. 
 Woodroffe, ' if you'd only trust Miss Yolande 
 with us, I'd take every possible care of her.' 
 
 * I am sure you would, Sir Armine ; it is very 
 kind of you, but, as I said before, it is quite 
 out of the question,' said Mrs. Woodroffe, rising 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 WOODROFFE. 
 
 to leave the room. ' Yolande is still quite a 
 child, or she would never have thought of pro- 
 posing anything so impossible.' 
 
 To be called a child was quite as great a 
 mollification to Yolande as it is to most girls 
 of fifteen. Never having been in the school- 
 room, she felt quite grown-up, and could not 
 bear to be reminded that her sixteenth birth- 
 day was still two months distant. But to be 
 called a child before their guests, and apolo- 
 gised for as having suggested something un- 
 usual, was very hard, and the tears were in her 
 eyes as they entered the drawing-room. 
 
 'Really, Yolande,' said her mother, as she 
 established herself on her sofa, ' a child of ten 
 might have known better than to exclaim as 
 you did. How could you possibly go any- 
 where alone with two young men ? And you 
 heard what Basil said as to the trouble you 
 would be.' 
 
 'I never once thought of really going, 
 mamma,' said Yolande, penitently ; ' I only 
 said how pleasant it would be and so it would.
 
 WOODROFFE. 99 
 
 As to Basil, of course he could never think of 
 anything but his own pleasure. Sir Arinine 
 was very kind and good-natured.' 
 
 ' He just said Avhat civility obliged him to do. 
 I am afraid both he and Colonel Latreille must 
 think you have been very oddly brought up to 
 want to go to races.' 
 
 ' I should like to go to anything amusing,' 
 muttered Yolande, retreating to the window to 
 compose herself, while her mother closed her 
 eyes for her usual evening nap. ' Oh, Gonny, 
 do you think there will ever be a chance of 
 getting away from here and seeing the 
 world T 
 
 ' Getting away ! Yolande dear, think what 
 you are saying ; this is home.' 
 
 * I know it is, and a very dull one, too,' re- 
 turned Yolande. ' Of course I know I'm too 
 young for anything yet, but there isn't much 
 even to look forward to. Why, even you, 
 Conny, who've been out five or six years, have 
 seen little or nothing of the world.' 
 
 ' Quite as much as I wish ; I am very happy.' 
 
 H2
 
 100 WOODROFFE. 
 
 * Are you really T said Yolande, with a curi- 
 ous look ; * but then you are always so sweet- 
 tempered and contented. I wish I were like 
 you. Now I am always longing to be in the 
 bustle of the world, to know lots of people, to 
 see everything there is to see, and hear all 
 that is to be heard. And, if I were lovely like- 
 you, I should like to go out every night, and 
 have lots of people in love with me, and all that 
 sort of thing.' 
 
 ' You might not like such a life if you were 
 able to lead it, dear. And, Yolande, as there 
 seems no prospect of your doing so, I wish, 
 darling, you wouldn't dwell upon it. You 
 fancy it infinitely pleasanter than it would be 
 in reality, and it makes you less contented than 
 you would otherwise be. We have a beautiful 
 and happy home, and should be very thankful. 
 If anything more is good for us, be sure it will 
 come in good time.' 
 
 * But then you're an angel, Conny, and con- 
 tent to wait, and I'm not,' Yolande was begin- 
 ning, when the gentlemen came in, and Colonel
 
 WOODROFFE. 101 
 
 Latreille, crossing over to the window, at once 
 begged for some music. 
 
 The next day he saw more of Constance 
 than on the previous one, and every moment 
 he passed in her society added to her charm 
 for him. He was already counting over care- 
 fully all his Mapleshire acquaintances, and de- 
 termining that it should not be his fault if he 
 did not see more of this lovely and fascinating 
 girl. 
 
 Colonel Latreille was generally considered 
 by his friends to be impervious to the darts of 
 Cupid ; he had a great many warm friends of 
 the gentler sex, but no one had ever heard the 
 faintest rumour of his being in love. Perhaps 
 he also believed himself to be invulnerable ; 
 certainly it was something quite new for him 
 to make his plans with any reference to a young 
 lady. And yet he was already meditating on 
 the possibility of obtaining an invitation that 
 would enable him to meet Constance at Mr. 
 Verulam's house-warming ball at Caenthorpe in 
 December.
 
 102 WOODROFFE. 
 
 The more he watched her the greater grew 
 his admiration. She was so absolutely natural 
 and unaffected, and yet her manners were as 
 perfect and as composed as if she had enjoyed 
 all the advantages of mingling with her equals 
 and undergoing the polishing attrition of a 
 London season. She appeared, too, to be ab- 
 solutely unaware of his growing admiration, 
 and this was indeed the case. 
 
 One of the great secrets of Constance's charm 
 was that she never thought about herself at all. 
 She could hardly avoid knowing that she was 
 beautiful, but it is rarely indeed that real 
 beauties are conceited or think much about 
 their own charms; those troubled with self- 
 consciousness on the subject are generally those 
 whose claim to the distinction is doubtful. She 
 received a great deal of admiration and atten- 
 tion whenever she went out with her aunt, but 
 she saw her admirers at not very frequent in- 
 tervals, and she had never had a proposal. 
 Her perfectly calm, quiet manner was rather 
 calculated to charm on intimate acquaintance
 
 WOODBOFFE. 103 
 
 than to fascinate on a first meeting, and though 
 Miss Lucy had more than once thought that her 
 niece had ' made a decided impression,' and had 
 sighed at the impossibility of ' following it up,' 
 nothing had ever come of it. This deeply dis- 
 tressed her aunt, who wished of all things that 
 the girl should marry well and happily, and 
 thus escape from the annoyances and discom- 
 forts of the Manor, which must, as she foresaw, 
 go on increasing. 
 
 But it did not in the least disturb Constance. 
 She had never either been, or fancied herself to 
 be, in love, and, though it might be incorrect to 
 say that she never thought of marriage at all, 
 she certainly thought much less of it than do 
 girls in general. 
 
 Yolande was different ; she was always long- 
 ing for adorers to bow down before her sister's 
 charms, though, had they appeared, she would 
 certainly have been most bitterly jealous, and 
 have thought no one by any means worthy of 
 her. No one had the slightest idea that Conr 
 stance had made a conquest of Colonel Latreille ;
 
 104 WOODROFFE. 
 
 she herself never thought about it, though she 
 was aware that she found him pleasanter than 
 anyone she had ever before known; Yolande 
 would have laughed to scorn the idea of any- 
 one, so old as thirty-five naturally appeared to 
 her, thinking of her darling Conny ; Basil and 
 Sir Armine, if they had thought about the 
 matter at all, would have considered that a man 
 insensible to the charms of London beauties 
 would be little likely to succumb to a simple 
 country girl, whom Basil only regarded as 
 passably good-looking ; and neither Mr. nor 
 Mrs. Woodroffe were likely to see anything, 
 even though it took place before their eyes. 
 
 On the day after the races, which the two 
 young men seemed to have greatly enjoyed, both 
 having won their money, Colonel Latreille's 
 intercourse with Constance was considerably 
 restricted both by the presence of Basil and Sir 
 Armine, and also by the fact that she had a 
 good deal to do in preparing for the guests 
 expected that evening. 
 
 A dinner-party at the Manor was an almost
 
 WOODROFFE. 105 
 
 unknown event ; and Constance, as she per- 
 formed various little duties connected with the 
 preparations, wondered exceedingly why her 
 father should have invited Mr. Verulam, a man 
 of whom he naturally knew very little, for he 
 had only been in the county about three years, 
 and Mr. Woodroffe so seldom went anywhere, 
 excepting to magistrates' meetings, that their 
 opportunities of making acquaintance must have 
 been limited. Mr. Damerel, the clergyman of 
 the parish, with the shy old maiden sister who 
 kept house for him, and Miss Lucy completed 
 the party; Miss Lucy bringing Miss Damerel 
 in her brougham, while the rector walked. 
 
 ' What are you going to wear, Constance T 
 asked Basil, as they were all lounging in the 
 garden before dinner. 'White muslin is all 
 very well in its way, but it becomes slightly 
 monotonous.' 
 
 'I seldom wear anything but white,' said 
 Constance. 
 
 * Conny looks well in anything, but best in 
 white,' said Yolande.
 
 106 WOODROFFE. 
 
 1 Who asked your opinion, baby?' asked 
 Basil, who loved to tease Yolande by calling 
 her a child. 
 
 * Baby !' she replied, with scorn. ' I shall be 
 sixteen in October.' 
 
 ' Still you ought to be in pinafores and short 
 frocks, you know T 
 
 ' Don't mind him, Yolande dear,' said Con- 
 stance gently, seeing that a hot answer was 
 imminent ; * will you go and get me two or three 
 Cardinal Patrizzis from the bush at the end 
 of the kitchen-garden 1 ?' Then, as Yolande 
 disappeared, she said, 'You should not tease 
 her, Basil, you know she has never been shut up 
 in the school-room like other girls, and feels quite 
 grown up. It mortifies her horribly to be 
 called a child.' 
 
 * I know, that's what makes it good fun.' 
 
 * But it is unkind.' 
 
 'Oh, bother! don't make a ridiculous fuss 
 about nothing;' and, lighting another cigar, 
 Basil, who could not bear an insinuation that
 
 WOOEROFFE. 107 
 
 anything he did was not perfect, walked sulkily 
 away. 
 
 Colonel Latreille said nothing, for he felt 
 Constance would prefer the matter not being 
 referred to, and in a few minutes Yolande 
 returned with the roses, and the sisters went 
 towards the house. 
 
 ' Look here, Constance,' said Basil, meeting 
 them in the hall; 'it's of consequence your 
 looking your very best to-night. Put on some- 
 thing better than that raggy muslin, if you've 
 got it. It's all very well for Yolande, but 
 you're too old for the innocence and bread and 
 butter, pet-lamb sort of business.' 
 
 ' Very well, Basil,' said Constance meekly, but 
 as she went on her way upstairs she wondered 
 exceedingly. What could Basil mean by its 
 'being of consequence' that she should look 
 specially well? Why should it signify that 
 night especially ? It never occurred to her how 
 rude it was of him to tell her she was too old 
 for her white muslin. She was so absolutely
 
 108 WOODROFFE. 
 
 free from any pretence, from any desire to look 
 younger or indeed any other than she was, 
 that his unkind speech passed by her without 
 inflicting pain. 
 
 She took out her best dress, rather grudging 
 it for so quiet an occasion, for, to her, best 
 dresses were by no means easy of attainment. 
 It was cream-coloured broche" with trimmings 
 of sapphire velvet and cream lace, and was 
 very becoming to her fair skin and chestnut 
 hair. Yolande coming into her room exclaimed 
 in astonishment. 
 
 ' Conny ! your best gown ! you are gorgeous !' 
 
 ' Basil wished me to be smart.' 
 
 ' If he'd said the same to me, I'd have put on 
 the oldest and dowdiest thing I'd got.' 
 
 ' No, Yolande dear, you wouldn't. The way 
 to be happy is always to do everything you 
 can to please everyone, it is little enough one 
 can do.' 
 
 ' I do not see,' said Yolande, pouting, ' why 
 you and I are to trouble ourselves about 
 pleasing Basil when he never thinks of pleas-
 
 WOODROFFE. 109 
 
 ing us very much the reverse ; it isn't just.' 
 ' Love is better than the strict letter of the 
 law, dear,' said Constance, as they went down- 
 stairs. 
 
 Everyone had arrived and Mr. Yerulam at 
 once came up to greet Constance, and, when 
 she had shaken hands with Mr. and Miss 
 Damerel, established himself at her side. He 
 talked well, and Constance had always thought 
 him pleasant, still she was conscious of a slight 
 feeling of disappointment when she found he 
 was to take her in to dinner instead of Colonel 
 Latreille, who fell to the lot of Miss Lucy. 
 Basil had signified his approbation of Con- 
 stance's dress, which gratified her, though her 
 aunt asked her in surprise why she had made 
 herself so very smart. 
 
 Mr. Verulam talked almost exclusively to 
 Constance during dinner, referring to things 
 she had said in a way that surprised her con- 
 siderably, and evidently endeavouring to find 
 out her fancies and predilections. He made 
 himself even more agreeable than usual, and
 
 110 WOODROFFE. 
 
 when he occasionally joined in the general 
 conversation he was quite free from the tone 
 of assumption which sometimes disfigured his 
 discourse. 
 
 Constance thought him unusually pleasant 
 and responded gaily to his endeavours to be 
 agreeable, totally innocent of any significance 
 in his visit, or of any arriere-pensee as to his 
 attention to herself. But Colonel Latreille, who 
 sat exactly opposite to her, and whose eyes 
 were already quickened by what he did not 
 himself know to be love, saw at once what Mr. 
 Verulam's hopes were, and judged, by the 
 furtive glances that both Basil and his father 
 cast towards the pair, that they wished him 
 success. 
 
 What a shame ! he thought indignantly. 
 Here were two men, her nearest and dearest 
 relations, the very men whose duty it was to 
 preserve her from any juvenile error of judg- 
 ment, anxiously desiring, to all appearance, 
 that she should ally herself with a man her 
 inferior in birth and position, simply for the
 
 WOODROFFE. Ill 
 
 sake of his wealth, of which, as Sir Armine 
 had told them, he was apt to boast. It was 
 absolutely disgusting! And she too did not 
 seem unwilling. Ah! it was doubtless quite 
 true, as he had so often asserted, that nothing- 
 had any chance with a woman against money ! 
 They were all alike, all mercenary and devoted 
 to the pomps and vanities of the world. 
 
 But, even while he was telling himself this, 
 a glance at Constance's face made him heart- 
 ily ashamed of his own thoughts. She looked 
 so pure, so unconscious, so unlike a girl schem- 
 ing for a husband. No, he could not suspect 
 her of being in the plot ; it was a design of 
 her father and brother to marry her to a rich 
 man, Basil doubtless hoping that such an 
 alliance might prove of benefit to himself. It 
 was monstrous ! Could nothing be done to 
 prevent such an outrage ? She was so gentle 
 and yielding that probably she would consent 
 to do whatever was required of her, and her 
 life would be sacrificed that Basil might pursue 
 his course of reckless extravagance.
 
 112 WOODROFFE. 
 
 If Colonel Latreille had been told a week 
 before that he would sit swelling with indig- 
 nation at the thought that it was wished to 
 marry a lovely girl to a very rich man, who, 
 though the architect of his own fortunes, had 
 the manners and outward seeming of a gen- 
 tleman, he would have laughed the idea to 
 scorn, and have said that the young lady 
 deserved congratulation rather than sympathy, 
 that wealth and luxury were ah 1 that women 
 cared for, that at any rate it could by no 
 possibility be any affair of his. And yet he 
 was now burning with indignation, and devising 
 means by which the 'base plot' might be 
 frustrated ! 
 
 It was really some time before the actual 
 meaning of his feelings dawned upon him. 
 He was in love ! He, Bernard Latreille, who 
 had never before given a thought to any 
 woman beyond a moment's passing admiration, 
 was absolutely and undoubtedly in love with 
 this country girl whom he had only known 
 for three days! Well, why should he be
 
 WOODROFFE. 113 
 
 proof against that passion to which far wiser 
 men than he had succumbed ? 
 
 But it was ridiculous to suppose that be- 
 cause he had fallen in love with her she had 
 given him a thought; the three days, that 
 had sufficed to kindle his passion and fan it 
 to burning heat, had probably only enabled 
 her to think of him as a man who cared for 
 music 1 and sang tolerably, and who seemed 
 to prefer sauntering about a shady garden to 
 going to races. And he was to leave the 
 next day, and in the ordinary course of events 
 might never see her again ! That was a 
 thought not to be endured he must see her 
 soon, often! Though no millionaire like Mr. 
 Verulam, he had a very fair fortune, quite 
 enough to recommend him as an acceptable 
 suitor to the parents of any young lady in 
 spite of his frequently asserted belief in the 
 mercenary nature of all women, he never 
 thought of his wealth as a temptation to 
 Constance if he could only find the oppor- 
 tunity, what was to prevent his winning her? 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 WOODROFFE. 
 
 The opportunity was the first thing to be 
 considered. 
 
 It may be imagined that, with these dis- 
 turbing thoughts agitating his mind, Colonel 
 Latreille did not prove himself a very amusing 
 companion to Miss Lucy, who wondered what 
 Constance -could have found in him to make 
 her call him so agreeable as she had done 
 when she came down to the cottage- that 
 morning. However, she philosophically sup- 
 posed that he did not care to talk to an old 
 woman, and talked to Basil whom she had not 
 seen since his return home, and who was in 
 an unwontedly gracious humour. 
 
 After the ladies left the room, Colonel La- 
 treille engaged Mr. Verulam in conversation, - 
 and made himself so agreeable that he re- 
 ceived an invitation to stay for a week at 
 Caenthorpe in September for partridge shoot- 
 ing, Mr. Verulam also expressing a hope that 
 both he and Sir Armine would stay with 
 him for his ball in December. He talked 
 .somewhat grandly of Caeuthorpe, quite enough
 
 WOODROFFE. 115 
 
 o to make Colonel Latreille understand the 
 aggi'avation of which Sir Armine had com- 
 plained, but still he could hardly be said to 
 be positively loud or boastful. 
 
 When Colonel Latreille told Constance of 
 the double invitation he had received, and 
 that his farewell to Mapleshire would be only 
 au revoir, it seemed to him that she looked 
 pleased, but she was almost immediately en- 
 grossed by Mr. Verulam, and he was left to 
 reflect ruefully on his rival's superior advant- 
 ages in being always on the spot.
 
 116 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The wise and active conquer difficulties, 
 By daring to attempt ; sloth and folly 
 Shiver and sink at sights of toil and hazard, 
 And make the impossibility they fear. 
 
 The Ambitious Step-mother. HOWE. 
 
 ll/TR. VERULAM, although he was, as he 
 -^'*- was somewhat fond of proclaiming, the 
 ' architect of his own fortunes,' had not quite 
 one of the sensational histories which are sup- 
 posed to be common to that class. He had 
 not walked barefoot to London with the tra- 
 ditional half-crown in his pocket, nor had he 
 begun by sweeping out the shop of a master 
 who subsequently took him into partnership, 
 and left him his whole fortune. He had not
 
 WOODROFFE. 117 
 
 had to work to the neglect of all education 
 in his childish years, nor had a craving for 
 knowledge caused him to consume the mid- 
 night oil in his endeavours to acquire infor- 
 mation. His father was a grocer, the owner 
 of a small but paying business in Wooltown, 
 and asked nothing better than that his son, 
 his only child, should succeed him in his busi- 
 ness, and live, as he had done, contented with 
 small profits and quick returns, and perfectly 
 satisfied with the station in life in which Pro- 
 vidence had been pleased to place him. And 
 very probably young Walter Verulam might 
 have been contented to follow in his father's 
 footsteps, if he had not had an ambitious mother 
 who decreed otherwise. 
 
 Mrs. Verulam had been the superficially 
 educated daughter of a farmer, who having 
 spent more money on his hunters and his 
 wife's dresses than on his farm, and having 
 paid infinitely more attention to the quota- 
 tions of Tattersall's than to those of Mark 
 Lane, had found himself one day a hopeless
 
 118 WOODROFFE. 
 
 bankrupt, and, unable to bear his trouble, had 
 died of a broken heart, leaving his wife and 
 daughter penniless and helpless. 
 
 In her sore need, Arabella Cording was 
 thankful to marry the honest grocer, who had 
 wooed her for some time, but whom she had 
 hitherto considered as quite beneath her notice. 
 She never could forget the ' old days,' as she 
 was fond of calling them, when the gentle- 
 men her father met in the hunting-field used 
 to call at the farm to talk about horses or 
 other such matters, and used to talk to her, 
 as she fondly believed, as their equal. And 
 she could never forget the two blissful occa- 
 sions on which she had attended the Duchess 
 of Myrtleshire's annual county ball, and sighed 
 bitterly to think that those happy days of 
 splendour were past ; for the invitations, sent 
 as a matter of course to the family of a ten- 
 ant, were naturally not extended to the small 
 tradesmen of the town. 
 
 Mrs. Verulam was really grateful to her 
 husband for .the asylum he had afforded her,
 
 WOODROFFE. 119 
 
 and the unvarying kindness which he showed 
 to her and her mother; but she was a vain, 
 silly woman, and could not help showing 
 that she thought herself infinitely above him, 
 and looked down on him, his friends, and his 
 business. 
 
 In this folly she was greatly encouraged 
 by her mother, and John Verulam, kind as 
 he was, could not help a certain feeling of 
 relief when Mrs. Cording died, rather sud- 
 denly, about three years after his marriage. 
 He hoped that, now that there was no one 
 to encourage her in her silly fancies and airs 
 of gentility, his wife might become more con- 
 tented with her lot, and learn to adapt her- 
 self to her circumstances ; but Mrs. Verulam's 
 follies were too deeply ingrained in her nature 
 to be easily laid aside, and she not only in- 
 sisted on considering herself ' genteel ' and 
 above her neighbours, but inculcated the same 
 foolish belief on her son. 
 
 John Verulam counteracted her teaching to 
 the best of his power, but it was far from being
 
 120 WOODROFFE. 
 
 an easy task. He would have sent the boy to 
 the humble day-school which he had himself 
 attended, and where, as he said, he had learnt 
 quite enough for his station in life ; his wife, 
 however, insisted that her son, should be sent 
 to the grammar-school, and never lost an op- 
 portunity of urging him to rise in life and ' be- 
 come a gentleman.' She was never tired of 
 holding up to him the people who, from an 
 even lower origin than his, had made large 
 fortunes, and ' married into the aristocracy.' 
 
 Her husband was much annoyed at such dis- 
 course, and would desire her almost impera- 
 tively to be silent, and ' not to put nonsense 
 into the lad's head ;' but, though quiet for the 
 moment, she invariably returned to the subject, 
 and it was kept constantly before young Wal- 
 ter's mind. 
 
 The boy's character partook of that of both 
 his parents; he was honest, straightforward, 
 and truthful, like his father, and would proba- 
 bly greatly have resembled him, if his mother 
 had not so persistently inflamed the ambition
 
 WOODROFFE. 121 
 
 which lie inherited from her. Under her in- 
 spiration he had imbibed a determination that 
 it should not be his fault if he did not become 
 one of the ' merchant princes ' of England. He 
 was a youth of good average abilities, though 
 he never particularly distinguished himself at 
 school : but he had a plodding industry, a 
 dogged determination, and a keen shrewd- 
 ness that stood him in good stead in after- 
 life. 
 
 To his father's sore disappointment, the boy, 
 when he left the grammar-school, declined alto- 
 gether to enter the shop. His mother was most 
 vehement against it, but that was not his sole 
 reason. He felt, he said, that he had better 
 begin as he meant to go on, that a hum- 
 drum life in Wooltown would never suit him, 
 that he wanted to get on, and at the same time 
 to see something of the world. He thought, 
 therefore, he had better go to London, for he 
 should never be happy unless he got a good 
 start in life ; if he did, it should not be his fault 
 if he did not make the most of it.
 
 122 WOODROFFE. 
 
 It was a bitter grief to John Veralam ; he 
 took a pride in the business which he had in- 
 herited from his father, and which it was now 
 plain he was not destined to see descend to his 
 son. But he did not combat the lad's wishes. 
 He well knew that his ideas had been inspired 
 by his mother, and that if he held out, and 
 endeavoured to enforce his own views, she 
 would make him think himself hardly used, and 
 encourage him to be discontented. So, with a 
 sigh, he put aside his own modest ambition -of 
 seeing his business continued by his son in his 
 own upright, honest way, and set himself earn- 
 estly to the task of finding the sort of opening 
 the boy wanted. 
 
 Before very long Walter was established as a 
 clerk in the house of Mr. Marchmont, the great 
 contractor, and left Wooltown with a light 
 heart, rejoicing in the fortunate chance that 
 gave him so excellent an opening. He did 
 not feel the parting from his parents very 
 much ; he was of a somewhat cold and phleg- 
 matic disposition, and, his own affairs being
 
 WOODROFFE. 123 
 
 always of far more importance to him than 
 anything else, he was thinking infinitely more 
 of all that was before him than of those whom 
 he was leaving behind. 
 
 The advice given by his father was excel- 
 lent always to work for his employer as ear- 
 nestly as if it were for himself, to owe no man 
 anything, to avoid bad or even gay company, 
 to obey his superiors implicitly, and to remem- 
 ber as a golden rule to hold his tongue and 
 keep his ears open. His mother's counsel was 
 to ingratiate himself as much as he could with 
 the heads of the house, to avoid intimacy Avith 
 his fellow-clerks, for he would never be able to 
 shake them off when he began to rise in the 
 world, as, with determination and perseverance, 
 he was sure to do ; never to lose a chance of 
 making the acquaintance of anyone who might 
 by any possibility prove useful to him ; always 
 to remember that, when he succeeded, he would 
 live among gentlemen, so he must try to ac- 
 quire their ways, and learn to think and talk as 
 they did, so that hereafter no one should call
 
 124 WOODROFFE. 
 
 him vulgar ; and above all to keep silence about 
 himself, so that no one need know that he was 
 only a shopkeeper's son. 
 
 Walter took the advice of both parents : he 
 was by nature steady and honest, and would 
 have considered it to be robbing his master 
 quite as much to waste his time as to steal his 
 money ; he had no expensive tastes, and con- 
 trived not only to keep out of debt, but to save 
 weekly out of his salary and his father's allow- 
 ance, which he purposely made a small one, 
 lest the boy should grow extravagant and care- 
 less in money matters. 
 
 He need not have been apprehensive. 
 Walter had the fixed aim before him of becom- 
 ing a ( merchant prince,' a title which had 
 taken his youthful fancy, and he hoarded every 
 penny he could till he began to invest in small 
 but safe ventures. His adviser was the head 
 clerk, of whom, as he was a person of nearly 
 as much importance as the Messrs. Marchmont 
 themselves, he thought it prudent to make a 
 friend. Mr. Spruce regarded Walter with
 
 WOODROFFE. 125' 
 
 infinite approval, he had seldom, he told Mr. 
 Marchmont, seen so thoroughly promising a 
 young man, and he gave the young fellow the 
 best advice he could, not only as to his small 
 investments, but also as to the studies 
 that would be useful to him in his pro- 
 fession. 
 
 Walter not only listened to the advice, he 
 followed it implicitly ; and five years from the 
 time of entering Messrs. Marchmont's house he 
 found himself a thoroughly trusted clerk, 
 and also the proprietor of a very nice little 
 sum of money. It was, as Sir Armine Haver- 
 ton had said of him in after years, as if 
 everything which he touched turned into gold. 
 One or two small speculations on which he 
 ventured on his own judgment, and at which 
 the prudent Mr. Spruce had shaken his head, 
 had turned out mines of wealth ; and the head 
 clerk was so impressed by the shrewdness he 
 had shown, as sometimes to honour his junior 
 by asking his opinion. 
 
 With the clerks of his own standing Walter
 
 126 WOODROFFE. 
 
 was far from being a favourite. Mindful of 
 his mother's advice he had never made friends 
 of them, and they resented what they called 
 his * airs ;' but as he was always perfectly civil 
 and they could find no tangible fault with 
 what he either did or left undone, they were 
 forced to leave him alone, though they were 
 one and all exceedingly jealous of his favour 
 with Mr. Spruce. 
 
 Once every year Walter went home fo* a 
 few days' holiday, and each tune his father, 
 became more reconciled to the mode of life his 
 boy had chosen. It was clear the young man 
 had known the line that would suit him, 
 he had been thoroughly satisfactory, with 
 never a word of complaint against him, 
 and he seemed perfectly happy and satis- 
 fied. 
 
 Walter never said a word about his invest- 
 ments : he 'knew his father was nervous about 
 such matters, and feared that, if he once knew 
 that he had speculated, he might so tie up his 
 money at his death that it would not be avail-
 
 WOODROFFE. 127 
 
 able for the great purposes to which he destined 
 it. He was by no means looking forward to 
 his father's death, but he felt that when that 
 event did occur in the inevitable course of 
 nature, he should prefer to receive his fortune 
 free and unfettered. 
 
 If the father was pleased with his son, his 
 mother was even more so. Walter at three 
 and twenty was a tall, handsome young fellow, 
 and he had made the most of such advantages 
 as he had been able to obtain. Mr. Spruce 
 frequently had him at his house, and though 
 the people he met there were not the fashion- 
 able set in which it was the darling wish of his 
 mother's heart that he should mingle, still 
 he made acquaintance with a society far 
 superior to any in which he had before 
 moved. 
 
 Some of those who met him at Mr. Spruce's 
 and found him apparently a quiet modest 
 young man, who preferred listening to talking, 
 but who, when he did speak, had plenty that 
 was eminently sensible to say, asked him to
 
 128 WOODROFFE. 
 
 their houses; and in some of these he met 
 people whose aristocratic names rejoiced his 
 mother's heart. He was quiet but very 
 observant, and his manners were speedily 
 modelled on those he saw in the circles 
 above him. 
 
 It was when he was about eight and twenty 
 that his father died very suddenly. Walter was 
 sorry certainly, but by no means so over- 
 whelmed with grief as not to speculate, on his 
 way down to Wooltown, on what his father's 
 means would prove to have been. The old man 
 had always been extremely reticent on this 
 point, never giving either his wife or son the 
 slightest inkling of what his possessions might 
 be. He had always lived in the most frugal 
 manner ; it was therefore an extreme surprise to 
 them both to find that he died worth nearly 
 40,000. Half of this was placed in the hands 
 of trustees for the benefit of his wife ; on her 
 death or re-marriage it, like the rest of the 
 property, went absolutely to his son. The 
 business had been sold about a year before, when
 
 WOODROFFE. 129 
 
 first the old man felt symptoms of his health 
 failing, so there was no business to detain 
 Walter in Wooltown. 
 
 He had taken it for granted that his mother 
 would continue to live in the house to which 
 his father had removed on quitting the shop.; 
 but he soon found that she had set her heart OJL 
 moving to London and living with him. This 
 by no means suited his views. No word ha'd ev,er 
 passed his lips respecting his origin, he did not 
 wish it to be known that he was the son of a 
 small shopkeeper in an obscure country town : 
 even Mr. Spruce, with whom he was more 
 familiar than anyone else, knew nothing of 
 his parentage, and since he had been associa- 
 ting with those above him in station, and anxi- 
 ously studying their manners so as to form his 
 own upon them, he had learnt that all the airs 
 and graces which his mother believed to be the 
 finest and most ladylike of manners, were sim- 
 ply affected and vulgar. 
 
 He was not precisely ashamed of her, he was 
 fond of her in his own way, but he felt that she 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 WOODROFFE. 
 
 would be a drag upon him, more especially as 
 being very fond of society, and having had but 
 little opportunity of indulging her tastes hither- 
 to, she would be by no means satisfied to re- 
 main at home, but would expect to accompany 
 him into circles where he would be very un- 
 willing to introduce her. 
 
 But he was not to be so tried. He persuaded 
 his mother that, for the six months that her 
 house at Wooltown was on her hands, it would 
 be better for her to reside there, as it would 
 give him more time to find a suitable abode for 
 her in London. She agreed, somewhat reluct- 
 antly, and before the six months had expired she 
 lay by her husband's side, having died almost 
 suddenly of acute bronchitis. Thus Walter 
 Verulam's connection with Wooltown was en- 
 tirely severed : and at little more than twenty- 
 eight he found himself uncontrolled master of 
 nine and thirty thousand pounds, in addition to 
 his own savings, and, a great point in his es- 
 timation for a man who wished and meant to 
 rise, absolutely devoid of either relations or old 
 friends.
 
 WOODROFFE. 131 
 
 It was now, he thought, time to aspire to a 
 liigher position than that of a clerk, and, with 
 the good fortune that attended him throughout 
 his career, he had no sooner come to this deter- 
 mination, and begun to look for an opening, than 
 a most suitable one presented itself to him. At 
 the table of one of the friends to whom he had 
 been introduced by Mr Spruce, he met a Mr. 
 Longden, whose name was known to him as a 
 contractor and a rival of the firm in which he 
 was himself a clerk, and that gentleman, who 
 had taken a fancy to the shrewd, silent young 
 man, told him one day that he was thinking of 
 taking a partner. 
 
 ' I want a young, energetic man who knows 
 what he is about,' he said one evening ; ' some 
 one who has been in a good school, and is not 
 likely to be rash or make mistakes. Does anyone 
 occur to you who would fulfil my requirements ? 
 I should say the amount of capital the new 
 partner must bring into the business is 30,000.' 
 
 Walter Yerulam said nothing at the moment, 
 though it at once struck him that here was an 
 
 K2
 
 132 WOODROFFE. 
 
 opportunity such as might never again occur. 
 But he did not wish to seem too eager, and, be- 
 sides, he thought any communication on the 
 subject had better be in writing. But that 
 night when he went home he sat down and 
 wrote to Mr. Longden, hoping that he would 
 not consider him very presumptuous if he said 
 that no one struck him as so fully answering 
 the description he had given of his requirements 
 as himself. He continued that he had been 
 anxiously looking out for some opening of the 
 kind ever since his parents' death had given 
 him the command of a certain amount of 
 capital, that he had never ventured to hope for 
 so great a piece of good fortune as he should 
 esteem it to be associated with so well-known 
 and respected a firm as that of Longden, but 
 that he trusted it would not be considered very 
 presuming in him to offer himself after what Mr. 
 Longden had said that evening. 
 
 To say that Mr. Longden was astonished 
 would give but a faint idea of his feelings : he 
 was almost stupefied with surprise. His first
 
 WOODROFFE. 133 
 
 impulse was to go and see Mr. Spruce, and ask 
 him if he thought the young man was sane ; but 
 he observed that Walter especially begged that 
 until matters were settled one way or the 
 other nothing might be said to any member of 
 the Marchmont firm, as it would . place him in 
 an awkward position. 
 
 He read the letter again, and, his first astonish- 
 ment beginning to wear away, he began to ask 
 himself whether, if young Verulam were not 
 dreaming when he said he was possessed of the 
 required sum, he could find anyone better suited 
 to his purpose. Spruce, who was as sharp a 
 fellow as any he knew, and far from easy to 
 satisfy, thought very highly of the young man ; 
 he had more than once heard him make some 
 very shrewd observations, he was gifted with 
 the useful power of holding his tongue, 
 and certainly at Marchmont's he had been 
 brought up in an excellent school. He really 
 thought he could hardly do better. And the 
 result of his cogitations was a note sent to 
 Walter Verulam, asking him to dine quietly at
 
 134 WOODROFFE. 
 
 the ' Travellers' ' that night, and talk the matter 
 over. 
 
 When Walter read that note, and wrote his 
 acceptance, he felt that virtually all was 
 settled, that he might give Mr. Marchmont no- 
 tice, and be from that day his own master. 
 But he made no sign, took Mr. Marchmont's 
 orders as respectfully as ever, and did not allow 
 the slightest manifestation of the elation he felt 
 to escape him. It was with a smile that, as he 
 dressed for dinner, he slipped his banker's book 
 into his pocket; he was determined that Mr. 
 Longden should have ocular demonstration that 
 he was possessed of the requisite money : he 
 could easily believe that at first he had doubted 
 it. 
 
 The interview was in every respect satisfac- 
 tory : now that there was a topic on which it 
 was necessary to talk, Mr. Longden found that 
 his companion, though not wasteful of his 
 words, could speak very fully and to the pur- 
 pose. The more he heard the better pleased he 
 was, and before they separated all preliminaries
 
 WOODROFFE. 135 
 
 were agreed upon, and it was settled that 
 Walter should give Messrs. Marchmont notice 
 the next morning, and that the deed of partner- 
 ship should be drawn up as speedily as 
 possible. 
 
 Messrs. Marchmont were very angry at losing 
 so good a clerk, more especially when they found 
 that he was to be taken into partnership by 
 their rival ; and Mr. Spruce, though he said no- 
 thing, felt hurt that Walter had never confided 
 to him what a large fortune he had inherited ; 
 but the firm had nothing to complain of, and 
 had no opening present or prospective for a 
 new partner, and they wisely considered that 
 Mr. Verulam, partner in the prosperous firm of 
 Longden and Verulam, might be a danger- 
 ous person to offend : they therefore parted 
 friends. 
 
 Mr. Longden was in the habit of saying after- 
 wards that * the luckiest day of his life was 
 that on which he asked Verulam whether he 
 knew anyone who would suit him as a partner ;' 
 from that moment everything prospered with
 
 136 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Mm. Mr. Verulam appeared to have a truly 
 Midas-like gift of turning everything he touched 
 into gold ; every speculation prospered, thanks, 
 the envious said, to luck, he averred because 
 he never undertook anything unless sure that 
 he could make it a success, and always gave it 
 personal supervision. 
 
 The nature of their business rendered it im- 
 perative that one of the partners should travel 
 a great deal, and this duty devolved, much to 
 his satisfaction, upon Mr. Verulam. He always 
 looked forward to the time when he was to 
 reap the reward of his labour: when, having 
 acquired sufficient wealth, he might settle him- 
 self down in a large country place, and become 
 one of the ' landed aristocracy ;' and he felt that 
 seeing foreign countries and mixing with their 
 inhabitants opened his mind, and gave breadth 
 and elasticity to his views. 
 
 In London he went as much into society as 
 was compatible with his untiring devotion to 
 business. Lady Selina, Mr. Longden's wife, 
 was delighted to introduce him, and the rich
 
 WOODROFFE. 137 
 
 and handsome Mr. Verulam was warmly wel- 
 comed in c: 'des the very name of which 
 would have convulsed his mother with 
 rapture. 
 
 Ten years after their entry into partnership, 
 Mr. Longden retired, partly from failing health 
 and partly from a wish for repose. He retained 
 no interest in the firm, which henceforth was 
 known as Verulam only, and continued as 
 prosperous as ever. About eight years after 
 the time that the firm passed into his sole pos- 
 session, Mr. Verulam found what he had long 
 been seeking, an estate precisely after his own 
 heart ; Caenthorpe came into the market owing 
 to the ruin of its owner, Mr. De Merik, at 
 Monaco, and its new possessor at once set to 
 work to render it and the whole estate as nearly 
 perfect as possible. 
 
 He had long since determined that, if at the 
 age of fifty he had realised a certain very large 
 sum, he would retire entirely from business, 
 and, as he had very considerably surpassed it 
 at forty-eight, he was, at the time when we
 
 138 WOODROFFE. 
 
 first make his acquaintance, taking steps to 
 sever his connection with what had been the 
 pursuit of his whole life.
 
 139 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The heart that passion never fired 
 Of other's love can nothing tell. 
 > How can I teach you what's inspired, 
 Unless you are inspired as well. 
 
 LORD HOUGHTON. 
 
 But och ! mankind are unco weak, 
 
 And little to be trusted ; 
 If self the wavering balance shake, 
 
 It's rarely right adjusted. 
 
 BURNS. 
 
 /^AENTHORPE was in every respect exactly 
 ** the place Mr. Verulam wanted ; a fine 
 park, splendid timber, a house so dilapidated 
 that it was absolutely necessary to pull it down, 
 and erect precisely what he required, within a 
 convenient distance of a good town, and not
 
 140 WOODROFFE. 
 
 too far from London; but there was another 
 reason why he considered its coming into the 
 market just as he was in search of an estate as 
 another instance of his usual good-fortune. He 
 was sufficiently well acquainted with the world 
 to know that county society is often far more 
 exclusive than that of the metropolis ; he had 
 seen instances of men, well received and wel- 
 comed in London, who had, nevertheless, never 
 been able to make their way in the counties 
 where they had settled themselves ; and, though 
 neither shy nor diffident, he would yet in some 
 counties have felt somewhat uncertain as to his 
 reception. But in Mapleshire he had no fears, 
 for the principal magnates of the county were 
 already known to him. 
 
 Lady Louisa De Vere was a sister of Lady 
 Selina Longden, who had been his social 
 sponsor, and was of course intimately ac- 
 quainted with him indeed she entertained 
 hopes, of which he was not absolutely unsus- 
 picious, that her eldest daughter might be 
 solicited to become the mistress of Caenthorpe.
 
 WOODROFFE. 141 
 
 To Lord Mapleshire, a somewhat impoverished 
 peer with a large family, he had been of some 
 service in recommending safe investments at a 
 satisfactory rate of interest, and also in assist- 
 ing two of his sons indeed one of them was 
 now a clerk in his house. 
 
 The Bishop of Mapleton had met him several 
 times at Mr. De Vere's and Mr. Longden's 
 tables, and had obtained from him substantial 
 assistance as to a nephew whose career greatly 
 perplexed him until Mr. Verulam found the 
 young man a situation exactly suited to him 
 in a house in India, and, with these influential 
 acquaintances, he felt that his position in Maple- 
 shire was at once secured. 
 
 He was retiring gradually from the business, 
 partly to break himself slowly to the loss of 
 what had hitherto been his absorbing occupa- 
 tion, partly to supervise for a time the young- 
 men who were to succeed him. These were 
 Mr. Longden, the second son of his former 
 partner, and Mr. Spruce, the only son of the 
 head clerk who had befriended him when he
 
 142 WOODROFFE. 
 
 began life as a clerk in the Marchmonts' 
 house. He had taken the young man as a 
 clerk as soon as he was old enough, had 
 watched him carefully, and given him special 
 instruction, and had felt perhaps as genuine 
 an emotion as it was in his nature to experience 
 when the young man's father, on his opening 
 to him his intentions respecting the future 
 partnership in the firm, had wrung his hand 
 and thanked him with tears in his eyes for 
 doing for his son what he could never himself 
 have hoped to accomplish. 
 
 While Caenthorpe was in process of re-build- 
 ing, and the gardens were being elaborated 
 under the best advice, and regardless of ex- 
 pense, Mr. Verulam found plenty to occupy 
 him during the time he spent in the country : 
 and when the suspicion occurred to him that, 
 when everything was finished, he might find 
 the time hang somewhat heavy upon his hands, 
 he put the idea away from him. He natur- 
 ally knew nothing whatever of field sports, 
 and he devoted a considerable time to the
 
 WOODROFFE. 143 
 
 enlightenment of the ignorance of which he 
 was fully aware, reading innumerable books 
 on the subject to avoid the danger of being 
 betrayed into the use of a wrong expression, 
 and listening attentively to the conversation 
 of sportsmen when he was in their company. 
 He took counsel with Lord Mapleshire respect- 
 ing keepers, coverts, and all such matters, and 
 delighted Mr. Varstone, the master of the 
 hounds, by the munificence of his subscrip- 
 tion. Having never ridden in his life, he pru- 
 dently determined not to attempt hunting, but, 
 from the moment when he had decided on 
 the possession of a country place, he had been 
 taking lessons in both riding and driving, and 
 by the time he arrived at Caenthorpe was 
 able to acquit himself creditably both in the 
 saddle and on the box. He also practised 
 shooting perseveringly, though this was a posi- 
 tive penance to him, as he had from child- 
 hood had a violent dislike to fire-arms. But, 
 when his mind was once made up, his will 
 was like iron, and, despite his natural repug-
 
 144 WOODROFFE. 
 
 nance, he persevered until he had made him- 
 self a fairly good shot. He felt that, though 
 he should of course never be likely to dis- 
 tinguish himself in country pursuits, he should 
 at any rate be able to pass muster, and should 
 not be described as * a City fellow who shot 
 like a muff, and rode like a tailor.' 
 
 Lord Mapleshire made him a magistrate at 
 once, and, as he attended regularly, and took 
 great pains to acquaint himself with all his 
 duties, he did not find that time hung heavy 
 on his hands. 
 
 Ever since Mr. Verulam's purchase of Caen- 
 thorpe was known, speculation had been rife 
 in the county as to whom and when he should 
 marry. That a man who had bought such 
 a place and built so magnificent a house 
 must want a wife to make his establishment 
 perfect, was of course a foregone conclusion. 
 Caenthorpe without a mistress would only be 
 half complete. It was all very well for Lady 
 Selina Longden to come down to do the hon- 
 ours, as she had promised to do, on the occasion
 
 WOODROFFE. 145 
 
 of the great house-warming ball in December, 
 but that was only a temporary expedient, and 
 Mapleshire felt that it would be defrauded 
 of its rights, if a mistress were not speedily 
 installed at the Priory. AK4he eligible young 
 ladies in the county were freely canvassed. 
 Mr. Verulam's age was not accurately known, 
 and he was vaguely believed to be 'some- 
 where about forty,' instead of forty-nine, as 
 was really the case. He was a tall, fine-looking 
 man, with clear cut, well-formed features, and 
 piercing light-blue eyes; the lightness of their 
 colour, and the somewhat too great length of 
 his upper lip being the chief defects of his 
 face. 
 
 Lady Mary and Lady Alice Mapleton were 
 both spoken of, but it was generally thought 
 that Lady Mapleshire, who was very proud, 
 would not like her daughters to many anyone 
 who was the architect of his own fortune, and 
 had probably never possessed a grandfather. 
 Miss De Vere was pronounced too old and 
 plain, though it was added that Lady Louisa 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 WOODROFFE. 
 
 would leave no stone unturned to secure such 
 a prize as a son-in-law. The dean's daughters 
 were ' nice girls, but had not seen enough of 
 the world ; the master of Caenthorpe would 
 require a wife who had been accustomed to 
 entertaining, and who could at once take her 
 proper place.' And so county opinion was in- 
 clined to pronounce that probably the future 
 mistress of the Priory would be imported from 
 London, and though various mammas still pri- 
 vately nourished hopes for their own Evelyns 
 or Ediths, and omitted no opportunity of show- 
 ing civility to the important sultan, there was 
 a general impression that the future bride 
 would in all probability first appear above the 
 Mapleshire horizon on the night of the house- 
 warming ball. 
 
 Meanwhile the object of so many hopes and 
 speculations had already made up his mind. 
 Love-making had not come much in Mr. Veru- 
 lam's way during his earlier years, and, if it 
 had done so, he would have put it away from 
 him. He had always had his eyes steadily fixed
 
 WOODROFFE. 147 
 
 on the future which he meant to achieve, and 
 nothing would have tempted him to do any- 
 thing" that might imperil his ideal. He was by 
 no means impressionable, and it so happened 
 that he had never been greatly tempted ; but, 
 even if he had been, it is probable that his iron 
 will would have enabled him to resist. He had 
 often noticed how men who, like himself, had 
 risen from the people, Avere in their later life, 
 when they had reached the zenith of their 
 greatness, hampered and put to confusion by 
 the wives whom they had married in their early 
 days, when they had perhaps not dreamt of the 
 heights to which they were ultimately to rise. 
 They had risen, and by their constant inter- 
 course with the world had generally grown to 
 a certain extent polished, but their wives had 
 remained at the level at which they married, 
 and were terribly unsuited to the life which 
 their husbands wished to lead. 
 
 Mr. Verulam had very early determined that 
 no such blunder should be his ; he would 
 achieve his greatness first, and then, when he
 
 148 WOODROFFE. 
 
 was free to choose when his position was such 
 that few would be inclined to say him nay he 
 would select a lady who would do credit to his 
 taste and wealth. If the thought that he might 
 then be married for his money rather than for 
 -himself ever occurred to him, it did not influ- 
 ence his determination ; he had veiy little opin- 
 ion of women, and would probably have said 
 that a sensible woman, who knew the value of 
 money and of a good establishment, was far 
 more likely to make a good wife, suited to his 
 requirements, than a romantic girl, who would 
 rave about love, and expect the ordinary food 
 of life to be formed of honey and roses. 
 
 Yet, in spite of his eminently practical and 
 common-sense way of viewing things, Mr. Veru- 
 lam had fallen desperately in love at first 
 sight. 
 
 It was at Lady Louisa De Vere's that he had 
 first met Constance Woodrofle, and that even- 
 ing, as he drove home, he acknowledged to 
 himself that he had met his fate. He had taken 
 Miss De Vere in to dinner, and she, knowing
 
 WOODROFFE. 149 
 
 the views which he always expressed as to the 
 superiority of unemotional, common-sense wo- 
 men, was talking in a hard, practical, brilliant 
 manner that she felt certain must attract him ; 
 he generally paid her compliments when she 
 was more than usually cynical. But she did 
 not make the usual impression that night : Con- 
 stance sat on the other side, and, to Miss De 
 Vere's indignation, she found that her hoped-for 
 prey was always turning from her sparkling- 
 speeches to listen to some remark from * that 
 uninteresting chit.' 
 
 Miss De Vere was past thirty, talked in a 
 somewhat pronounced manner, and was apt to 
 call those less advanced in views dull and un- 
 interesting. There was nothing very remark- 
 able in Constance's utterances, but something 
 either in them or in her fascinated Mr. Verulam, 
 and he went home that night thoroughly in 
 love for the first time in his life. 
 
 This interview had taken place more than a 
 year before the time when this story opens, and 
 his opportunities for meeting Constance had not
 
 150 WOODROFFE. 
 
 been very frequent. He had made the acquaint- 
 ance of Mr. Woodroffe on the beach, and return- 
 ed with praiseworthy promptitude the visit 
 which that gentleman paid to Caenthorpe, but 
 after that the acquaintance languished. The 
 Woodroffes did not entertain, and until Caen- 
 thorpe was finished its owner could not invite 
 them. The county gaieties were few and far 
 between ; it did not often happen that Constance 
 and he were asked to dinner on the same day, 
 and of course at the balls she was surrounded 
 by younger men. Mr. Verulam had a whole- 
 some dread of ridicule, and was not likely to 
 begin waltzing at his time of life, but he 
 watched Constance with increasing admiration, 
 and made himself agreeable and useful to her 
 aunt. 
 
 Interested as he was in Constance, it did not 
 take Mr. Verulam long to become au fait of all 
 the circumstances of her family. One outcome 
 of his knowledge was that he proceeded to get 
 all the mortgages of the Manor into his own 
 hands. If, when he proposed for Constance, her
 
 WOODROFFE. 151 
 
 father showed any disinclination to the match, 
 or signified that he had other views for his 
 daughter, or in any manner threw obstacles in 
 the way on the score of birth, it might be 
 very useful to have these mortgages in his 
 hands as a way of bringing him to reason. It 
 was not a very high or gentlemanlike view, 
 but Mr. Verulam prided himself upon being 
 practical before ah 1 else, and in matters of deli- 
 cacy of feeling or perception neither his birth 
 nor breeding were likely to have enlightened 
 him. He had been so prosperous all his life, 
 had so uniformly succeeded in everything 
 which he undertook, that he entertained little or 
 no doubt that when he proposed to Miss Wood- 
 roffe she would readily accept him ; still he was 
 accustomed to consider all chances, and never 
 to neglect anything calculated to insure success, 
 and had therefore made himself, as he consider- 
 ed, master of the situation by securing the 
 mortgages. 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe was aware that the mortgages 
 had passed into the hands of his wealthy neigh-
 
 152 WOODROPFE. 
 
 bour, but he had naturally not the smallest ink- 
 ling of the reason which had induced him to 
 acquire them. He never went into society with 
 his daughter, and had never 'seen her and Mr. 
 Verulam together ; and even if he had done so, 
 on the few occasions when they had met, he 
 would hardly have received much enlighten- 
 ment. Mr. Verulam was always studiously 
 polite to him when they met at magistrates' 
 meetings, or on the other public occasions 
 which were the only times that he emerged 
 from the grounds of the Manor House ; and it 
 was merely an impulse of wishing for once to 
 show hospitality to a new-comer to the county 
 that made him take the opportunity afford- 
 ed by Basil's visit to ask him to dinner. 
 
 But Basil, when he heard that Mr. Verulam 
 had been invited, lost no time in opening his 
 father's eyes. 
 
 ' Verulam,' he said : * the new fellow at Caen- 
 thorpe ? He's awfully rich, I hear. What sort 
 of a man is he 
 
 ' Really I know very little of him,' said Mr.
 
 WOODROFFE. 153 
 
 Woodroffe, indifferently. ' I meet him occasion- 
 ly, and he is always very civil. He has a very 
 clear head, and is an excellent magistrate. I 
 must say, though, I wish he had not got all my 
 mortgages into his hands. Of course, it is 
 really no worse than other people holding 
 them, still it is pleasanter that one's neigh- 
 bours should not know one's, difficulties.' 
 
 ' Got all the mortgages, has he ?' said Basil, 
 eagerly ; then he continued, slowly and thought- 
 fully : ' Do you think there is anything between 
 him and Conny ?' 
 
 ' Between Mr. Verulam and your sister V 
 cried Mr. Woodroffe, in astonishment. 'Not 
 that I am aware of. What makes you 
 aakf 
 
 'He seemed to be very attentive to her on 
 the platform at Mapleton, and when we talked 
 of him afterwards she certainly hesitated and ' 
 blushed.' 
 
 This was Basil's version of Constance's slight 
 hesitation when he asked her if Mr. Verulam 
 were a gentleman.
 
 154 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ' I have no idea of anything of the sort,' said 
 Mr. Woodroffe, rising, and walking up arid 
 down the room in evident perturbation ; < if I 
 had even suspected anything of the kind, no- 
 thing should have induced me to ask him 
 here !' 
 
 * Why not ?' said Basil, quietly. ' Surely it 
 would be a very good thing.' 
 
 ' A good thing,' exclaimed his father, indig- 
 nantly : ' what do you mean ? Would you 
 have your sister marry a man who, though he 
 may be rolling in wealth, is a mere nobody ? 
 He is what he is pleased to call himself the 
 " architect of his own fortune," and we all know 
 what that means, that he rose from the 
 gutter.' 
 
 ' It is much wiser to look at the present 
 than the past,' said Basil, philosophically: 'it 
 is a matter of everyday occurrence that blood 
 should ally itself with gold, and Haverton 
 says this man is in a very good set in London. 
 He has been quite received in the county, 
 Constance says.'
 
 WOODROFFE. 155' 
 
 * Yes, I believe so, but that is a veiy differ- 
 ent thing from receiving him into one's 
 family. I really wonder, Basil, you can talk 
 calmly of the mere possibility of such a 
 thing.' 
 
 ' My dear father, you have been buried down 
 here at the Manor so long that you don't 
 realise how completely the views of the 
 world have changed. Money is every- 
 thing now. It would be a splendid marriage 
 for Conny.' 
 
 ' I cannot see it in that light.' 
 
 ' And only think what a great thing it would 
 be to have all the mortgages in your son-in- 
 law's hands. It would almost be equivalent to 
 extinguishing them.' 
 
 'Hardly, I think,' said his father, with a 
 weary smile ; ' even if your suppositions are 
 corect, Mr. Verulam does not strike me as a 
 man likely to become so infatuated as to think 
 Constance worth the sacrifice of a large and 
 safe investment. If he had been prone to such 
 weaknesses, the fortune of which he boasts
 
 156 WOODROFFE. 
 
 of being the architect would hardly be so 
 colossal.' 
 
 ' Still he could hardly be a troublesome 
 creditor. And really Conny has greatly 
 improved; she is very fairly good-looking 
 now.' 
 
 This slight acknowledgment of his sister's 
 good looks was entirely owing to Sir Armine 
 and Colonel Latreille's openly-expressed ad- 
 miration. 
 
 ' Good-looking !' said his father, smiling : 
 ' she is rather more than that, I think. 
 Why, she is considered the beauty of the 
 county.' 
 
 ' There is so little competition in the county,' 
 said Basil, carelessly : ' I don't remember more 
 than two even passably pretty girls in Maple- 
 shire. It is only in London that people 
 find their level in looks as in everything 
 else.' 
 
 ' And you really mean to say you see no 
 objection 1 ?' 
 
 * On the contrary, with her birth and his
 
 WOODROFFE. 157 
 
 wealth it would be all right. She would have 
 a splendid position both here and in London, 
 and it would be an immense advantage to 
 Yolaiide.' 
 
 ' Then what do you want me to do ? Mind, I 
 don't in the least agree with you, and think 
 the idea horrible.' 
 
 ' Only to send Constance in to dinner with him, 
 and give him a chance of making himself 
 agreeable.' 
 
 'Well, I will see,' and Basil, quite satisfied 
 with the seed he had sown, went off to find 
 his step-mother. 
 
 He well knew that, however much his father 
 might dislike an idea at first, his resistance was 
 invariably to be overcome by perseverance ; and 
 from the moment he had heard that Mr. 
 Verulam held the mortgages, he had decided 
 that it would be greatly to his own advantage 
 the only point in the least interesting to Basil 
 that he should if possible be induced to 
 become one of the family. He had broken 
 the matter to his father, whose prejudices
 
 158 WOODROFFE. 
 
 -would, he knew, be shocked: well, of 
 course if he did not want money awfully no 
 man would like one of his own womankind to 
 marry a nobody, who probably was both 
 ignorant and careless whether he had ever had 
 a grandfather. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe was the next person to be 
 Avon, and that he knew would be very easy 
 when he explained to her plausibly, as he well 
 knew how, that it would be for his bene- 
 fit. She again would bring her influence 
 to bear on his father, and all would go 
 smoothly. 
 
 Of any difficulty with Constance he never 
 once dreamt: girls were always dying to be 
 married ; buried down in Mapleshire she could 
 never have had a chance of falling in love 
 with anyone, as there was happily no curate at 
 Woodroffe, and she would of course jump at 
 the idea of becoming rich, escaping from the 
 deadly dulness of the Manor and seeing the 
 world. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe listened attentively to his
 
 WOODROFFE. 159 
 
 scheme, and to her he said more about his em- 
 barrassments than he had chosen to say to his 
 father. He confided to her that he was again 
 ' very hard up,' that unless something * turned 
 up ' soon he greatly feared he should be obliged 
 to apply to his father again. 
 
 ' Oh, Basil ! and I know he said the next time 
 will be the last, for that would be the very last 
 farthing he could raise ! And indeed we cannot 
 economise any more than we do, everything is 
 cut down as low as I can. If the carnage horses 
 were not so old that your father won't sell 
 them, the carnage would have been given up 
 before this.' 
 
 Not the slightest compunction for all the dis- 
 comfort produced by his conduct disturbed 
 Basil ; he merely said, 
 
 ' Well, you never cared for driving, so 
 the old screws might as well be shot at 
 once.' 
 
 ' So wise and practical of him !' Mrs. Wood- 
 roffe observed afterwards, instead of 'how 
 selfish.'
 
 160 WOODROFFE. 
 
 'And you really think this is not all your 
 fancy about Couny and Mr. Verulam,' she asked 
 presently ; ' it is very strange Lucy should 
 never have said a word about it.' 
 
 ' I do not say that there is absolutely any- 
 thing yet, but I think he is struck with her. Of 
 course it will be a great marriage for her, but it 
 would be a very good one for him too. He might 
 many plenty of girls of higher rank, but anyone 
 in the county he has settled in would be a 
 better thing for him.' 
 
 ' Yes, to be sure.' 
 
 ' Then you will throw them together as much 
 as you can T 
 
 'You may be sure I will do everything I can. 
 Must you really go on Saturday T 
 
 ' Yes, I'm on guard on Sunday for Mal- 
 leson.' 
 
 ' Well, dear, it is always a pleasure to see you. 
 I wish you came oftener now in your long 
 leave.' 
 
 < Oh !' impatiently ; ' I've got more invitations 
 than would last it out twice over ; you see it is
 
 WOODROFFE. 161 
 
 so slow here without horses, and now there is 
 no shooting.' 
 
 'Yes, of course it is. I can't wonder you 
 don't come,' answered Mrs. WoodrofFe, who 
 always chose to be blind to the fact that all the 
 privations experienced at the Manor were en- 
 tirely due to Basil's own extravagance, and 
 spoke as if he were sorely to be commiserated 
 for what was really his own fault. It was one 
 of Yolande's high crimes and misdemeanours 
 that she never lost an opportunity of pointing 
 out that, if any one was to be pitied, it certainly 
 ought not to be Basil. 
 
 ' Then you'll try and make my father see it 
 in the right light,' he said, turning as he was 
 about to leave the room ; ' it would really be 
 everything to me, for of course Verulam could 
 never press for the mortgages if he married 
 Conny, and the estate would be virtually clear. 
 It would be a grand thing for her, and she 
 would be able to give Yolande a chance in 
 London. It would be a good thing all 
 round.' 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 WOODROFFE. 
 
 'I'll speak to your father,' Mrs. Woodroffe 
 said ; and Basil went away well contented, for 
 he knew by long experience that when she 
 spoke she invariably had her own way.
 
 163 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Let no one say that there is need 
 
 Of time for love to grow ; 
 Ah no ! the love that kills indeed 
 
 Despatches at a blow. 
 
 LORD HOLLAND. 
 
 MISS LUCY WOODROFFE had very sharp 
 "* eyes, and saw more of what was going on 
 around her than most people ; but she was also 
 extremely discreet, and kept her own counsel 
 very carefully. It had struck her, on the few 
 occasions when Constance and Mr. Verulam 
 had met, that he seemed attracted by her niece ; 
 and she had wondered more than once whether 
 it were possible that he fancied that, at his age, 
 he could make himself acceptable to a young 
 
 M 2
 
 164 WOODROFFE. 
 
 lovely girl like Constance ; but the meetings 
 had not been frequent, and she had thought 
 little about the matter. 
 
 She was excessively surprised when she 
 heard that Mr. Verulam had been asked to 
 dine at the Manor; if her brother wished to 
 show hospitality to anyone, there were, she 
 thought, many of his old friends who might 
 have been more suitably selected than the new 
 master of Caenthorpe ; still she supposed that it 
 really was more idleness than anything else, 
 that her brother had met him on the Bench, 
 and had thought it less trouble to give him a 
 verbal invitation than to write and ask anyone 
 else to come and meet his son's guests. 
 
 But when she saw the assiduous court paid 
 to the new-comer by both Basil and his father, 
 and noticed how her sister-in-law exerted her- 
 self to be agreeable to him, she was fairly 
 astonished. Was it possible, she asked herself, 
 that her brother, one of the proudest of men, 
 one who had always valued birth so infinitely 
 above wealth, should absolutely wish to sacri-
 
 WOODROFFE. 165 
 
 fice his lovely child on the altar of Mammon ? 
 She was quite sure that Constance was abso- 
 lutely unconscious of the attraction which her 
 aunt had ^already perceived that she possessed 
 for Mr. Verulam ; it was true she talked pleas- 
 antly and evidently entertained him, but then 
 the girl always made a sort of matter of con- 
 science of making herself as agreeable as 
 possible to anyone who took her in to 
 dinner. 
 
 Besides, no one could deny that Mr. Verulam 
 talked well. He had several times fallen to 
 Miss Lucy's lot at dinner, and, being a very 
 intelligent woman, she had quite appreciated 
 his shrewd, clever conversation. Still she did 
 not think his was the sort of mind to be very 
 sympathetic to Constance ; he was eminently 
 practical and common-sense, so much so as to 
 be not infrequently somewhat hard, while 
 Constance was romantic, not to say visionary, 
 in her views. 
 
 Besides, Miss Lucy, who was lynx-eyed in 
 the detection of a love affair, had a strong sue-
 
 160 WOODROFFE' 
 
 picion that her niece felt some interest in 
 Colonel Latreille, else why did she blush sa 
 very becomingly whenever she accidentally 
 caught his eye? and it was to be presumed 
 that the interest was mutual, for he kept his 
 eyes fixed upon her, and hardly spoke at 
 all. 
 
 Miss Lucy sighed as she thought how little 
 chance there was of the two young people 
 meeting again. Doubtless Colonel Latreille 
 took it for granted that life at the Manor went 
 on much as it did in other country houses, 
 and, when he found that he was not invited 
 again, would take it as a sign either that the 
 young lady was indifferent to him, or that,, 
 for some reason or another, his suit was not 
 approved. How was Constance ever to marry ? 
 She certainly was most unfortunately situ- 
 ated. 
 
 This was a favourite subject of meditation 
 with Miss Lucy, who, although perfectly happy 
 and contented as an old maid herself, was yet 
 always very eager that every girl of her ac-
 
 WOODROFFE. 167 
 
 quaintance should many. Her belief that there 
 was * something between ' the young people 
 was increased by the flash of pleasure that 
 lit up Constance's face when, after Mr. Verulam 
 had taken his departure, Colonel Latreille men- 
 tioned the invitation he had received to Caen- 
 thorpe. Well, then, they would meet again; 
 and Miss Lucy began forthwith to build castles 
 in the air of a possible wedding, and asked 
 Basil privately several questions respecting his 
 friend's fortune and position. 
 
 Constance, when she was alone in her own 
 room, and sat down to think over the events 
 of the evening, was very greatly puzzled at 
 what had occurred. Why had her father been 
 so very marked in his civility to Mr. Verulam ? 
 why had Mrs. Woodroffe exerted herself to 
 talk to him, and always drawn her into the 
 conversation, even when she was talking to 
 some one else ? why had Basil said it was of 
 importance that she should look her best ? 
 And, above all, why had Colonel Latreille 
 looked at her so earnestly and strangely that
 
 168 WOODROFFE. 
 
 she had felt herself colour whenever their eyes 
 met? 
 
 The true meaning of it all never dawned on 
 Constance. She was not at all inclined to 
 fancy that people were in love with her, and 
 certainly the notion of Mr. Verulam as a possi- 
 ble lover had never presented itself to her mind. 
 Tlie more she wondered the less she under- 
 stood, and she soon turned to a pleasanter 
 topic, the thought that she should probably see 
 Colonel Latreille again when he came to Caen- 
 thorpe. He was so very agreeable, she was 
 very glad indeed to think that their acquaint- 
 ance was not to end abruptly as it would pro- 
 bably have done but for Mr. Verulam's invita- 
 tion ; for, though he had talked of some half 
 engagement to stay in Mapleshire for the Hunt 
 Ball, it seemed very uncertain, and at any rate 
 January was a long time off. She hoped that 
 Mr. Verulam would ask them to dinner during 
 his shooting-party. 
 
 Both girls felt very sorry next morning when 
 the guests took their departure. Yolande in-
 
 WOODROFFE. 169 
 
 deed said many things that her mother resented 
 about Basil, and wondered how long it would 
 be before he honoured them with another visit. 
 When he did, she hoped he would bring friends 
 with him: he was infinitely pleasanter than 
 when he came alone and grumbled all day at 
 there not being things which only his extrava- 
 gance prevented their enjoying. 
 
 It was all undeniably true, but it irritated 
 Mrs. Woodroffe, who chose to consider Basil 
 faultless, and Constance interfered once or twice 
 to beg her sister to be silent. 
 
 * Why will you say such things of Basil, 
 YolandeT she said, as they walked down to 
 the village to Miss Lucy's cottage. ' You know 
 how it always vexes mamma.' 
 
 ' Yes, I know,' said Yolande, ' and of course I 
 oughtn't, but somehow, Conny, I can't help it. 
 It's not, as you know well enough, that I care 
 so much for going without things, it's the injus- 
 tice that makes me so angry. I don't mind one 
 bit how hard a thing is if it is only just.' 
 
 ' We cannot choose our own trials,' said
 
 170 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Constance, gravely; 'if we could select our 
 cross, it probably would not be the one best for 
 us.' 
 
 'You are always so good, Conny,' said 
 Yolande, with a sigh ; ' but I can't see that it 
 is wrong to be angry with injustice. It is 
 wrong.' 
 
 'We cannot, set the world to rights,' said 
 Constance ; ' there will always be a great deal 
 that we think wrong. What we ought to do 
 is always to try to do right ourselves.' 
 
 'Aunt Lucy thinks with me,' said Yolande, 
 'and she is older and knows the world. She 
 says it is a thousand pities papa has always 
 given up everything for Basil.' 
 
 'We ought not to criticise papa's conduct,' 
 answered Constance ; ' we may be quite sure he 
 knows better what it is wise and right to do 
 than we possibly can.' 
 
 Yolande was silenced, but not convinced. 
 She was of a far more eager and passionate 
 temperament than her sister, and felt things 
 more warmly, though perhaps not with such
 
 WOODROFFE. 171 
 
 depth and permanence. The warm southern 
 blood inherited from her mother ran rapidly 
 in her veins, and made her quick to perceive 
 and resent the injustice which seemed to her 
 ardent youth one of the greatest of crimes. 
 
 The young are generally somewhat merciless 
 judges, knowing but little of the numberless 
 difficulties and under-currents that render the 
 management of the world so heart-breaking a 
 task, judging only by what appears on the 
 surface and dealing out stern justice according 
 to their very limited lights. 
 
 Yolande was no exception to the general 
 rule, and was rendered more vehement by the 
 natural warmth of her temper and by the 
 endurance of the numerous discomforts, which, 
 what she regarded as the unjust indulgence 
 shown to Basil, entailed on the family at the 
 Manor. She had grown up with little of the 
 supervision generally bestowed on young girls, 
 and had lived so entirely with the family circle 
 that she had never been absolutely a child. 
 She loved Constance very dearly, and consid-
 
 172 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ered her absolutely perfect, but she thought, 
 nevertheless, that her sister was, if possible, too 
 amiable, and lacked the spirit necessary to make 
 a stand against the injustice of the world. 
 
 Colonel Latreille, as the train bore him to- 
 wards London, felt more and more convinced 
 that, for the first time in his life, he had left 
 his heart behind him. He found himself 
 recalling Constance's every word and look, 
 turning them over and over in his mind in 
 the hope of finding some encouragement for 
 the belief that he was not indifferent to her, 
 and then indignant at his own absurdity and 
 presumption in imagining that she could pos- 
 sibly have learnt to care for him in three 
 days. 
 
 It seemed to him now that he had by no 
 means made the most of his opportunities, that 
 he might have said a great deal more, and 
 even shown something of his feelings, but it 
 was too late. He must wait for the occasion 
 of his visit to Caenthorpe, to which he was 
 already beginning to look forward with fever-
 
 WOODROFFE. 173 
 
 ish anxiety. It was true tie feared that his 
 prospective host had already entered the lists 
 against him, still he could hardly bring him- 
 self seriously to dread him as a rival. It 
 could scarcely be that a delicate, dreamy girl 
 like Constance should fall in love with a 
 prosaic man of business, old enough to be 
 her father ; and, such being the case, what 
 was there to fear? 
 
 It was true that both Mr. Woodroffe and 
 Basil had appeared almost feverishly anxious 
 to propitiate Mr. Verulam, and to throw Con- 
 stance in his way, but in these days girls' 
 inclinations were not forced, and, if only he 
 could win her consent, he need surely fear 
 no opposition. It was true that his wealth 
 could not for a moment be compared with 
 Mr. Verulam's, and he had no splendid place 
 like Caenthorpe, but he had a very fair for- 
 tune, and in birth had by far the advantage 
 of his rival. If only he could win Constance 
 herself, he did not think there would be any- 
 thing else to fear.
 
 174 WOODROFFE. 
 
 But had he a hope of Constance? That 
 was the point on which he incessantly tor- 
 mented himself. Even after Yolande's revela- 
 tions of the way in which they Tisually lived, 
 he was very far indeed from realising how 
 very quiet Constance's life really was. 
 
 Country life as he always saw it and knew 
 it to exist among his acquaintance, meant a 
 constant succession of guests staying in the 
 house, varied by visits to friends; and, hav- 
 ing found everything at the Manor extremely 
 comfortable, he hardly gave a second thought 
 to Yolande's description which at the time 
 had somewhat staggered him of the efforts 
 that had been made to receive Basil and his 
 friends properly, but took it for granted that, 
 though the Woodroffes never went to Lon- 
 don, they had their full share of county 
 society. 
 
 And he thought with a bitter jealousy of 
 the men who stayed often at Woodroffe Manor, 
 and of course knew Constance well, so in- 
 finitely better than he could hope to do with
 
 WOODROFFE. 175 
 
 his restricted opportunities. It would be two 
 months before the Caenthorpe shooting party 
 was to assemble, and during that time how 
 many people would have had the felicity of 
 being frequently in her company ! And, being 
 by this time in a desponding mood, he con- 
 sidered that even when at Caenthorpe his 
 opportunities of seeing her would be but 
 slight. He was asked to shoot, and it would 
 look marked and peculiar if he absented him- 
 self to pay a morning visit, and, even if he 
 did so, he would probably only see her in 
 the drawing-room with Mrs. Woodroffe, when 
 she did not talk so unreservedly as when 
 they were together in the garden. Perhaps 
 he might see her at dinner, but even then 
 the chances were great against his sitting next 
 her. 
 
 In short, Colonel Latreille was very thorough- 
 ly in love, and, having no previous experience 
 of the tender passion, was infinitely more per- 
 turbed and wretched than would otherwise 
 have been the case.
 
 176 WOODKOFFE. 
 
 For some time after their visit to the Manor, 
 Basil was somewhat surprised by the assiduous 
 manner in which Colonel Latreille cultivated 
 his acquaintance. Hitherto they had not seen 
 a very great deal of each other, though in 
 the same battalion, and he hardly knew why 
 he had invited him to Woodroffe, excepting 
 that he happened to be present when he asked 
 Sir Armine, and it seemed civil to include him 
 in the invitation. 
 
 But now he found him his constant com- 
 panion, and was rather puzzled as to the 
 reason, for the idea of Constance never oc- 
 curred to him. In his mind her fate was 
 very satisfactorily settled: Mr. Verulam had 
 most obligingly fallen in love with her, and 
 it would be an immense convenience to feel 
 that all the mortgages were in the hands of 
 his brother-in-law, even if the latter did not 
 see the propriety of cancelling them. 
 
 If Colonel Latreille hoped to hear tidings 
 of Constance by constantly associating with 
 her brother he was doomed to disappointment.
 
 WOODROFFE. 177 
 
 Basil seldom, if ever, wrote to his family, and 
 received their letters with so little interest 
 that they frequently lay for days unopened 
 on his table. 
 
 With the shyness of a man really in love, 
 Colonel Latreille hesitated to ask point-blank 
 the questions he longed to have answered : 
 and Basil, to whom everything at Woodroffe 
 was supremely uninteresting, never fathomed 
 his motive in talking so constantly about 
 Mapleshire. 
 
 In answer to cautious questions as to the 
 well-being of his family, he answered carelessly 
 that he supposed they were all right, he had 
 not heard for some time, but no news was 
 always good news and laughed outright at 
 the supposition hazarded that he would spend 
 his winter leave at the Manor. 
 
 'Not I indeed, my dear fellow! The Ma- 
 pleshire never have much sport; besides, now 
 that my father does not hunt himself, all the 
 stable establishment has gone to the bad. 
 Besides, he has let down the shooting now 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 WOODROFFE. 
 
 and they never see a creature ; I should be 
 moped to death.' 
 
 * It must be very dull for your sister,' 
 Colonel Latreille contrived to say, his heart 
 beating at even thus mentioning Constance. 
 
 * Oh ! I don't know,' replied Basil, care- 
 lessly ; ' she's never seen anything else, you 
 know. Besides, women are so different ; give 
 them some crewel work, and a few school- 
 children and old women to bully and tyran- 
 nise over, and it's all they want. I shall go 
 to Melton I daresay for a little, and after 
 that I've heaps of shooting engagements.' 
 
 Colonel Latreille felt disgusted with his 
 selfishness, but one part of his speech had 
 given him infinite satisfaction : ' they never 
 see a creature.' It recalled all that Yolande 
 had said of the quietness of their life, and 
 gave him a hope that perhaps Constance's 
 heart was still unoccupied. 
 
 While Colonel Latreille was thus agitated 
 by hopes and fears, Mr. Verulam was calmly 
 pursuing the even tenor of his way, without
 
 WOODROFFE. 179 
 
 any disturbing doubts as to the ultimate at- 
 tainment of his desires. He had, not un- 
 naturally, a very high appreciation of the 
 power and the value of money it had been 
 the chief object of his life, the great lever of 
 his wonderful success and it seemed to him 
 too improbable to be thought of that the 
 daughter of an impoverished gentleman, whose 
 estate was practically in his possession, should 
 refuse the wealth and position which were 
 his to offer. 
 
 Of the difference in position between him- 
 self and Miss Woodroffe he did not think 
 much ; he had always sedulously guarded the 
 secret of his own origin, and believed it to 
 be known to none, and he was well aware 
 that he would be willingly accepted as a 
 husband by various damsels of high rank for 
 the sake of the wealth and luxury which 
 were his to bestow. 
 
 Like his class in general, he prized rank far 
 above birth, and it would have been hard to 
 make him comprehend that the Woodroffes, with 
 
 N2
 
 180 WOODROFFE. 
 
 their long and unstained pedigree, thought them- 
 selves the equals, if not the superiors, of a 
 very large proportion of the peerage. In his 
 heart he almost believed that the condescension 
 was on his side; was he not giving up the 
 possession of a titled wife, which would have 
 been the very crown and symbol of his success, 
 merely because this fair, violet-eyed girl had 
 charmed him ? He would not care even if she 
 refused him at first : he was, he felt sure, certain 
 to obtain his will in the end. Her father and 
 brother must both feel the importance of con- 
 ciliating one who, like himself, had them abso- 
 lutely in his power, the girl's scruples and 
 objections, if she had any, would be quickly 
 disposed of, and he should obtain the object of 
 his desires. 
 
 He was not of a sensitive or delicate nature ; 
 if he obtained Constance, he would trouble him- 
 self but little whether the marriage were of her 
 own free will or on compulsion : she would 
 be his, and that was all for which he 
 cared.
 
 WOODROFFE. 181 
 
 It had been very evident to him that night at 
 the Manor that everyone was on his side; he 
 even fancied that Constance herself distinguish- 
 ed him ; he should have no trouble, and every- 
 thing would, as usual, arrange itself according 
 to his wishes. He had by no means a high 
 opinion of women; he had, during his earlier 
 life, had but little intercourse with them, and, 
 though since his introduction to society he had 
 of course become more or less acquainted with 
 a large number of ladies, he knew them but in 
 the most superficial manner. 
 
 Lady Selina Longden and her sister, Lady 
 Louisa de Vere, the two with whom he was 
 most intimate, were both essentially worldly 
 women, who believed themselves and taught 
 their daughters to consider that a rich husband 
 and a good establishment were the only things 
 to be considered in matrimony; and it was 
 hardly wonderful that Mr. Verulam, knowing 
 no counteracting influence, should have con- 
 sidered them as fair types of their class, and 
 have believed that riches, luxury, and plenty
 
 182 WOODROFFE. 
 
 of amusement, were all that a girl required 
 to reconcile her to the idea of married 
 life. 
 
 He had a supreme contempt for feminine 
 reasoning powers, considered that in gratitude 
 for being sheltered from the troubles of life, 
 and given plenty of money to spend on dress 
 and trifles, women owed their husbands blind 
 and unquestioning obedience on all points, and 
 regarded romance and sentiment as absurdities 
 about which silly girls liked to talk nonsense, 
 but which could by no possibility have any 
 bearing whatever on the realities of life. 
 
 He had made up his mind not to propose to 
 Constance till after his house-warming ball was 
 over: it would somewhat alter the elaborate 
 arrangements which he had made with so much 
 care and thought, if he were to appear as an 
 engaged man upon the occasion. He wished.it 
 to go off with all possible dclat, and Lady Selina 
 Longden might very possibly not exert herself 
 so much for him if she knew that her niece 
 Georgie de Vere's hopes of becoming mistress
 
 WOODROFFE. 183 
 
 of Caenthorpe were doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 Meanwhile he would see as much as possible 
 of Constance, call at the Manor -frequently, 
 though not so often as to excite remark in the 
 neighbourhood, and find excuses for inviting 
 her to Caenthorpe, so that she might be well 
 acquainted with the grandeur about to be offer- 
 ed for her acceptance. Everything seemed to 
 him to be arranging itself exactly as he could 
 wish, and he felt perfectly satisfied with every- 
 thing and everybody. 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe was the very reverse of con- 
 tented. He was a sensitively proud man, and, 
 if left to himself, would have infinitely pre- 
 ferred utter ruin to the thought of sacrificing his 
 beautiful eldest daughter to a man, according to 
 his ideas, so unsuitable in position, notwith- 
 standing his wealth. But he was an indolent- 
 minded man, weakly willing to be led and per- 
 suaded ; Basil had not only out-talked him him- 
 self, but had enlisted Mrs. Woodroffe on his 
 side, and against the two Mr. Woodroffe was
 
 184 WOODROFFE. 
 
 helpless. He even began lazily to think that 
 it was doubtless all for the best : he could do 
 nothing for his girls, and if Constance were but 
 well that is to say, wealthily married, it would 
 ease his mind respecting Yolande. She would 
 in case of his death be sure of a home with her 
 sister until she followed her example and married 
 well, which she had but little chance of doing 
 at the Manor House. 
 
 It would be an unspeakable relief, too, to feel 
 that the estate was once more clear, and Mr. 
 Woodroffe, always of a somewhat sanguine turn 
 of mind, quite persuaded himself that it was 
 fully to be expected that Mr. Verulam would 
 be willing to purchase the honour of the Wood- 
 roffe alliance by a prompt resignation of his 
 claims against the property. In short, he had 
 been fairly horrified at first by Basil's proposi- 
 tion, but, finding what substantial advantages 
 it possessed, he was rapidly learning to look 
 upon it with toleration, or even approval. 
 
 Like Mr. Verulam, it never occurred to him 
 to apprehend any serious opposition on Con-
 
 WOODROFFE. 185 
 
 stance's part : all girls were anxious to be mar- 
 ried, and unless they had contrived to fall in 
 love, which Constance had never, he thought, 
 had the opportunity of doing, all men must be 
 the same to them. To be sure, Mr. Verulam 
 was a little old, but that seemed to him rather 
 an advantage than otherwise ; he was the more 
 likely to make a steady and attentive husband, 
 instead of being always occupied with his own 
 amusements. 
 
 In short, Mr. Woodroffe, having once been 
 persuaded that the marriage would be advan- 
 tageous, proceeded immediately to consider it 
 desirable, and not unnaturally regarded matri- 
 mony generally from the prosaic point of view 
 of a middle-aged man who had outlived and 
 forgotten his own romance, rather than from 
 that of a somewhat dreamy and sentimental 
 girl.
 
 186 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Ten thousand fears 
 
 Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views 
 Of horrid rivals hanging on the charms 
 For which he melts in fondness, eat him up 
 With fervent anguish and consuming rage. 
 
 Spring. THOMSON. 
 
 T IFE in Mapleshire went on as quietly as 
 -^ usual. A few lawn-tennis meetings and 
 garden-parties, with one or two dinners, formed 
 the sum of dissipation, until the shooting-parties 
 assembled in the winter, and one or two balls 
 were given. Constance accompanied her aunt 
 to such entertainments as there were, and Miss 
 Lucy, her eyes sharpened by what had occurred 
 at the Manor in July, watched Mr. Verulam
 
 WOODROFFE. 187 
 
 keenly, and her observations left no doubt 
 in her mind that he was doing his best to 
 make himself agreeable to her niece. The girl 
 seemed so perfectly unconscious that her aunt 
 thought it best to leave her undisturbed ; but 
 she could not help speaking to her sister-in- 
 law. 
 
 ' Adele, I don't know if you will be surprised, 
 but I really believe Mr. Verulam has fallen in 
 love with Conny.' 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe looked up indolently from her 
 sofa. 
 
 * Well, Lucy, why should he not ? I am sure 
 you must allow she is very attractive.' 
 
 ' She ! my dear Adele, who ever doubted it ? 
 But that is all the less reason that an old man 
 should expect to win her.' 
 
 f An old man ! Why, Lucy, Mr. V erulam is 
 in the prime of life.' 
 
 ' He must be fifty.' 
 
 * Well, and if he is ? He is very handsome, 
 quite young in his manners and habits ; and 
 only just consider the position his wife will
 
 188 WOODROFFE. 
 
 have unlimited wealth and one of the finest 
 places in the county.' 
 
 ' All that would not weigh in the least with a 
 girl like Conny.' 
 
 ' Indeed, Lucy, I hope she is not quite so 
 foolish as you seem to think her.' 
 
 ' Adele ! you don't mean to say you wish for 
 this marriage ? Surely Edgar would never 
 tolerate it. A man of whose origin nothing is 
 known, who is merely rich by the good fortune 
 of trade, could surely hardly hope to mate with 
 a Woodroffe !' 
 
 'Ah! all ideas of that sort are exploded 
 now,' said Mrs. Woodroffe, somewhat un- 
 easily. 
 
 She had heard all this side of the question 
 from her husband, when he had talked it over 
 in all his first indignation at Basil's proposal, 
 and she was quite aware that Miss Lucy was a 
 far tougher opponent than he, and was besides 
 by no means so willing to be convinced that 
 anything that was to Basil's advantage must 
 be done, no matter at what cost to anyone
 
 WOODROFFE. 189 
 
 else. So after a somewhat embarrassed pause 
 she continued : 
 
 ' You know money and birth make alliances 
 every day now.' 
 
 ' I know such things are done, but I do not 
 know that that makes it any better. Do you 
 mean to say, Adele, that you and Edgar would 
 like such a marriage? Such an idea would 
 never have occurred to me if it had not been 
 for the fact of Edgar's having asked him to 
 dinner when Basil and his friends were here, 
 and for the extraordinary pains he took to be 
 civil to him and to throw him in Conny's 
 way.' 
 
 ' Well, you know Conny has very few oppor- 
 tunities, and such a marriage would be a great 
 thing for her.' 
 
 * A great thing ! I must say I cannot see it. 
 Wealth is very charming, doubtless, still for a 
 Woodroffe to marry a nobody ! My father 
 would rather have seen me in my coffin 
 than heard of my doing such a thing.' 
 
 ' Possibly the occasion did not arise,' said
 
 190 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe, who cordially despised spin- 
 torhood as is the wont of weak, vain women, 
 and never could help a disparaging reflection 
 on her sister-in-law's unmarried state : ' I am 
 sure you know very well, Lucy, we are only 
 anxious to do the best we can for Conny, and 
 this would be a great marriage, besides doing 
 so much for Basil.' 
 
 ' For Basil ? Why, what can he have 
 to do with it?' asked Miss Lucy, in sur- 
 prise. 
 
 ' Well, I oughtn't to tell you. I'm sure 
 Edgar wouldn't like it, but as you have observ- 
 ed Mr. Verulam's attejitions I think you had 
 better know, for you may be able to help. 
 You know how heavily the property is mort- 
 gaged : well, it seems somehow or another 
 Mr. Verulam has got all the mortgages in his 
 hands, and if he marries Conny of course you 
 know he will never press them, and so it would 
 let Basil get the estates clear. You see what 
 a grand thing it would be !' 
 
 ' For Basil, perhaps, not Constance.'
 
 WOODROFFE. 191 
 
 ' You never liked Basil.' 
 
 ' You should not say that, Adele, I always 
 have been and ever shall be anxious for any- 
 thing that may be for his real welfare. But I 
 do not consider it so that he should always be 
 encouraged in a career of wilful and selfish 
 extravagance, and when a sacrifice should be 
 made it should be of his sister and not of 
 himself.' 
 
 ' How you talk, Lucy ! Sacrifice indeed ! 
 What sacrifice is there, pray, in becoming the 
 mistress of a place like Caenthorpe 1 ? I am 
 sure many girls would give their eyes for such a 
 chance.' 
 
 ' Very likely, but Constance is above the 
 common run of girls.' 
 
 'Even if she did not care for herself, she 
 ought to be thankful to be able to help 
 her father and Basil. There is so little a 
 woman can do.' 
 
 ' Very little, only sacrifice her whole life and 
 all that makes it worth having. If anyone is 
 to be sacrificed, should it not be Basil himself?'
 
 192 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ' \Yhat do you mean ?* 
 
 'If he has spent so much on his selfish 
 amusement that money is so absolutely neces- 
 sary, why should he not be the one to marry 
 for it. No doubt he could easily pick up a 
 city heiress.' 
 
 * Lucy, how can you talk so ? Basil the most 
 fastidious creature in the world ! He would 
 die of a vulgar wife !' 
 
 ' He is not a bit more refined than Conny, 
 and a man suffers infinitely less from an 
 uncongenial wife than a woman from an 
 unsuitable husband. He is so much more 
 free, he can see as much or as little of her as he 
 likes.' 
 
 ' I cannot think why you have taken this 
 extraordinary aversion to Mr. Verulam ! I am 
 sure he is very gentlemanlike.' 
 
 * Gentleman?^, I grant you, Adele, but not 
 a gentleman ; there is a great difference. In- 
 deed I have no aversion to him, I think him 
 rather a pleasant person to meet ; he talks well, 
 and has good manners, though they always
 
 WOODROFFE. 193 
 
 eeem to me to be acquired rather than natural. 
 But a man who boasts of " being the architect 
 of his own fortune " is no match for a Wood- 
 roffe, and he is the last man in the world likely 
 to make a sensitive, romantic girl like Conny 
 happy.' 
 
 ' It is a thousand pities she is romantic,' said 
 Mrs. Woodroffe, peevishly. * Really, Lucy, it is 
 too bad of you to encourage her.' 
 
 ' I !' said Miss Lucy, in surprise ; ' why, 
 Adele, this is quite a new accusation. How 
 often you have complained of my making her 
 too practical, and trying to turn her attention 
 to less sentimental matters than the pretty 
 stories you told her oi Provence and the 
 troubadours !' 
 
 ' But now you are fighting against us, and 
 it is so important. Think of poor, dear 
 Basil.' 
 
 ' It would have been much better for him if 
 you had not thought of him so much. He 
 would have been a better man if he had not 
 been so terribly spoilt,' said Miss Lucy. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 WOODROFFE. 
 
 'There are some dispositions it is impossible 
 to spoil,' said Mrs. Woodroffe, who was not a 
 wise woman, and had always been fairly in- 
 fatuated about her step-son. 
 
 * Well, I don't mean to go over all the old 
 ground, Adele,' said Miss Lucy, with a weary 
 sigh ; f we have argued about Basil many a 
 time and oft, and are never any the nearer to 
 agreeing. But I do implore you to pause 
 before you sacrifice Conny's young life to 
 what could at best be a loveless mar- 
 riage. Even if she never cared for anyone 
 else ' 
 
 ' Do you mean that she -does care for any- 
 one?' asked Mrs. Woodroffe, raising herself 
 from her sofa in her eagerness. ' Oh ! Lucy, 
 why have you never told me ? Who is it ? 
 Oh, dear ! I am afraid this will make a terrible 
 complication.' 
 
 ' You are rather too quick, Adele,' returned 
 her sister-in-law, who felt less inclined than 
 ever to mention her first suspicions of an 
 attachment between Constance and Colonel
 
 WOODROFFE. 195 
 
 Latreille ; ' I only said, or was going to say, 
 that, even if she never cared for anyone else, 
 you could hardly expect her to be fascinated 
 by or to love Mr. Veralam.' 
 
 ' It would be a great marriage,' said Mrs. 
 Woodroffe ; ' and, as to love, that always 
 conies when once people are married.' 
 
 ' My dear Adele, I am afraid that is a dan- 
 gerous fallacy.' 
 
 ' I really think, Lucy,' said Mrs. Woodroffe, 
 with a toss of her head, ' that I ought to know 
 a little more about the matter than you can 
 by any possibility do. If Constance were once 
 married to Mr. Verulam, and mistress of Caen- 
 thorpe, she would be as fond of him as possible 
 in three months.' 
 
 Miss Lucy shook her head. 
 
 ' I doubt it, Adele.' 
 
 ' Well, I am quite sure of it. And I do beg, 
 Lucy, that you will not set Conny against 
 him. I'm sure his taking a fancy to her is 
 the greatest blessing when one thinks of what 
 it will be for Basil. Poor, dear fellow! he
 
 196 WOODROFFE. 
 
 may start quite clear again and enjoy him- 
 self.' 
 
 'Do you feel so very sure of Mr. Verulam's 
 generosity ? I confess I should not.' 
 
 'No, you seem quite prejudiced against 
 him; I can't think why. But both Edgar 
 and Basil think that he would cancel the 
 mortgages at once; it would be a mere no- 
 thing, you know, to a rich man such as he 
 is ; or, even if he did not do that, he could 
 never press for the interest. Now do prom- 
 ise, Lucy, not to influence Conny against 
 him.' 
 
 ' You may depend upon me, Adele ; I shall 
 say nothing either one way or the other ; but 
 I deplore the project, and am bitterly sorry 
 that you should meditate so cruelly sacrificing 
 the child for Basil's sake. However, we shall 
 never agree, and I will say no more,' and, 
 after conversing for a little while on casual 
 topics, Miss Lucy took her leave, and 
 walked slowly and thoughtfully back to the 
 village.
 
 WOODROFFE. 197 
 
 'I wonder,' she mused, 'how it is possible 
 for anyone to see things in so absolutely dis- 
 torted a manner as A dele does ! She really 
 believes that Basil is perfect, instead of being 
 an unusually selfish and extravagant young man. 
 She is quite ready to sacrifice poor gentle 
 Constance, and I really believe thinks she 
 ought to be thankful for the chance of im- 
 molating herself for her brother ! If I am 
 right about her and Colonel Latreille, how I 
 wish he would bring matters to a rapid con- 
 clusion when he comes to Caenthorpe ! If she 
 had once accepted him, it would put an end 
 to all fear of Mr. Verulam. How Edgar can 
 tolerate the idea ! He is as sensitive as anyone 
 as to whether a man is really a gentleman 
 or not, and, despite Mr. Verulam's studiously 
 polished manners, there is something wanting. 
 I wish I knew something of his antecedents 
 that might open Edgar's eyes. But, if I did, 
 Adele's infatuation that everything must give 
 way to Basil would doubtless carry the day 
 against me. Ah ! they always say that old
 
 1 98 \VOODROFFE. 
 
 maids' children are perfect, but I declare, if 
 I had been a mother, the girls should not 
 have been sacrificed to their brothers, and 
 the boys should have learnt to give up to 
 them. 
 
 ' I remember, though, saying that once to- 
 dear old Mrs. Germaine, when she was de- 
 ploring how terribly Basil was spoilt, and she 
 said, " Ah, my dear ! very good indeed for 
 the boys, but terribly hard on the girls. They 
 would grow up in a fool's paradise, and wake 
 up when they married with all their lessons 
 of self-effacement and self-sacrifice to learn." 
 And she had twelve children, and was a very 
 sensible woman, so probably she was right. 
 Well ! there is nothing I can do. I have 
 promised Adele not to interfere, and I know 
 it will be rather hard work to keep my 
 promise.' 
 
 And meanwhile Mrs. Woodroffe, left alone 
 on her sofa, was thinking : 
 
 'How violently prejudiced Lucy is against 
 Mr. Verulam ! I suppose she thought that per-
 
 WOODROFFE. 199 
 
 haps he might take a fancy to her ; she harped 
 so much upon the age. How absurd ! And 
 yet I do not know. She really has kept her 
 looks wonderfully well. Still elderly men 
 rarely marry old maids. But I am sure that 
 is the reason she was so angry about it, 
 and said such spiteful things about poor 
 Basil.' 
 
 How angry Miss Lucy would have been 
 could she only have known of what she was 
 suspected ! She had had her romance in 
 youth, but it had not had a happy termina- 
 tion, and any thought of matrimony had long 
 since departed from her. It is well indeed 
 for the peace of society that we cannot 
 always read the thoughts of our friends and 
 relatives. 
 
 A few days before the end of August an 
 invitation arrived for Mr. and Mrs. Wood- 
 roffe and Constance to dine at Caenthorpe. 
 Mrs. Woodroffe, not connecting Constance in 
 any way with Colonel Latreille, and indeed 
 quite oblivious that he was likely to be a
 
 200 WOODROFFE. 
 
 guest at Caenthorpe, observed with infinite 
 satisfaction the very evident glow of pleasure 
 with which the girl heard of the invitation. 
 She took it to mean, what she wished that 
 it should do, a willing acceptance of Mr. 
 Verulam's advances, and, greatly to the sur- 
 prise of her husband and daughter, she de- 
 clared her intention of herself accepting the 
 invitation, although it was years since she 
 had considered herself well enough to dine 
 out. 
 
 'Are you sure it will not be too much for 
 you, mamma ?' asked Constance. ' You know 
 you are so easily tired.' 
 
 'I daresay I shall be tired,' replied Mrs. 
 Woodroffe ; ' but I could not possibly refuse 
 Mr. Verulam's first invitation, and must make 
 the effort. When he knows me better, he 
 will understand. I could not do such a thing 
 often, but the first time he might consider it a 
 slight, and that would never do.' 
 
 Constance wondered why Mr. Verulam should 
 be more considered than all their old friends
 
 WOODROFFE. 201 
 
 in the county, whom her step-mother had for 
 years declared herself too much of an invalid 
 to visit, even in the morning. However, she 
 said nothing, and supposed Mrs. WoodrofFe 
 felt better and stronger, and that she was 
 curious to see all the improvements that had 
 been made at Caenthorpe. 
 
 For herself she was quite innocent of the 
 hopes and speculations of which she was the 
 object, and gave herself up to pleasant anticipa- 
 tions af again meeting Colonel Latreille, and 
 of perhaps going in to dinner with him. She 
 could not at all understand Mrs. Woodroffe's 
 feverish excitement, or her extreme anxiety 
 respecting the toilettes to be worn. Had there 
 been time she would have insisted on Con- 
 stance having a new dress for the occasion, 
 but, fortunately, as the girl thought, as 
 she wished for a new ball-dress instead, the 
 shortness of the invitation rendered it im- 
 possible. 
 
 Colonel Latreille took care to be in the draw- 
 ing-room early on the night when he heard the
 
 202 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Manor House party were coming to dinner, and 
 was rewarded by the bright blush and the look 
 of pleasure with which Constance welcomed his 
 appearance. 
 
 Mr. Verulam had desired him to take her in 
 to dinner, and had directed him to place her on 
 his own left hand ; but Miss de Vere, who went 
 in before them, took possession of that place, 
 and Mr. Verulam felt he could not ask her 
 Jto move, although it quite upset his arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 Colonel Latreille was not sorry; he felt he 
 should have Constance much more to himself 
 than in any other position. 
 
 I hope Mr. Verulam will forgive me,' he 
 said. * Bear me witness, Miss Woodroffe, that 
 I tried to obey orders, and place you next him, 
 but Miss de Vere was too quick for me.' 
 
 ' I am sure he cannot care in the least,' said 
 Constance, with such perfect simplicity that it 
 was quite evident to her companion that her 
 eyes had not as yet been opened to her host's 
 intentions.
 
 WOODROFFE. 203 
 
 This was a relief; evidently Mr. Verulam 
 had not made all the use of his opportunities 
 which the colonel would have done in his 
 place. 
 
 'And how is your sister? She is not here 
 to-night.' 
 
 ' Hardly,' said Constance, laughing : ' Yolande 
 is not quite sixteen yet.' 
 
 * She seems more.' 
 
 'How delighted she would be to hear you 
 say so ! Her youth is a very sore point with 
 her at present.' 
 
 ' Ah ! it will not be so long. She will soon 
 sigh for what she now despises/ 
 
 ' I never can see why people should mind 
 growing old,' said Constance. 
 
 ' Ah ! you have not been tried. I know I 
 would very gladly go back some years.' 
 
 'You!' said Constance, in a surprised tone 
 ' you cannot pretend to call yourself old ; and 
 besides, if you were, what would it signify? 
 Age does not matter for a man, whatever it 
 may do for a woman.'
 
 204 WOODROFFE. 
 
 She did not think him old : that, at any rate, 
 was a comfort ; but in a moment, with the 
 ingenious power of self-tormenting of a man 
 really in love, he thought, 'Can she be so 
 tolerant of age because Verulam is old 1 ? 
 Is she ready to sell herself for wealth and 
 luxury?' 
 
 It was with an effort that he said, 
 
 ' You are charitable, Miss Woodroffe. Gene- 
 rally young ladies are very severe upon age.' 
 
 * I am not so very juvenile myself,' returned 
 Constance, laughing ; * all things, you know, 
 are comparative. I believe Yolande regards 
 thirty as the first stage of decrepitude, while I, 
 who am almost four and twenty, consider five 
 and thirty the prime of life.' 
 
 Exactly his age ! Was it possible she knew 
 it, and wished to pay him a delicate compli- 
 ment? No, she looked too perfectly uncon- 
 cerned and guileless. 
 
 * It seems a long time since my pleasant visit 
 to Woodroffe Manor.' 
 
 ' Yes, it does ;' but as soon as she had said it
 
 WOODROFFE. 205 
 
 Constance blushed, and felt sorry she had ac- 
 knowledged it ; it seemed as if' she had missed 
 him, and she was too painfully conscious of 
 having done so to wish to confess it. He saw 
 the blush and confusion with much pleasure, 
 and continued 
 
 ' I don't know when I ever enjoyed three 
 days so much.' 
 
 ' I am very glad indeed ; but you are easily 
 pleased. I am sure we did nothing to amuse 
 you.' 
 
 'That was just it; you let me be quietly 
 with you and enjoy myself: what could one 
 want more ? I shall never forget the garden 
 at WoodrofFe.' 
 
 ' It is looking lovely now.' 
 
 ' I wonder if I shall be able to come over ? 
 I fancy Mr. Verulam is rather autocratic about 
 his shooting, and might not like the defalcation 
 of a gun. But, if there is an off day, may I 
 come f 
 
 ' We shall be very glad to see you.' 
 
 ' Will you be glad to see me T with a very
 
 206 WOODROFFE. 
 
 marked emphasis. ' I wish. I could hope so/ 
 ' I don't know why you should doubt it,' said 
 Constance, in an agony of blushes, as the ladies 
 rose to leave the room. ' Of course, I shall be 
 glad to see any friend of Basil's.' 
 
 But though she thought she had masked her 
 feelings by this observation, she left a very 
 considerable degree of elation behind her in 
 Colonel Latreille's mind when she left the 
 dining-room. He gleaned sweet encourage- 
 ment from her blushes, and gave himself up 
 after departure to such blissful dreams that he 
 had to be twice addressed before he remem- 
 bered to pass the claret. 
 
 Mr. Verulam had been watching Constance 
 during dinner, and was but little pleased by 
 what he saw. He regarded his advances as ' a 
 great thing' for the daughter of so impover- 
 ished a house as that of Woodroffe, and consid- 
 ered that he had shown his preference so 
 plainly that the young lady could have no 
 doubt of his intentions, and ought therefore to 
 have shown herself thankful for her good for-
 
 WOODROFFE. 207 
 
 tune, and not willing to be gracious to anyone 
 else. And yet she had been blushing and 
 smiling to Colonel Latreille as if he were a 
 favoured suitor. 
 
 Mr. Verulam was hardly what could be called 
 jealous : he felt too positively certain of success. 
 Even if Constance were so foolish as to prefer 
 that somewhat supercilious guardsman to him- 
 self, he yet felt serenely satisfied that he was 
 master of the situation. Colonel Latreille might 
 be, veiy likely was, what would be considered 
 a good match, but he did not hold the Wood- 
 roffe mortgages, and he considered that his 
 possession of those securities rendered his own 
 suit perfectly secure. 
 
 He had little or no delicacy of feeling, and 
 provided he- obtained his wishes, and succeeded 
 in gaining Constance for his wife, he was, or at 
 least believed himself to be, indifferent as to 
 whether he won her heart or not. But when 
 he saw her smiling on Colonel Latreille he did 
 not like it. It was not that he cared very 
 much for his own sake, but it annoyed him that
 
 208 WOODROFFE. 
 
 others should see that anyone was preferred 
 before him by the maiden whom he conde- 
 scended to honour with his preference. Miss de 
 Vere found him that evening somewhat cap- 
 tious, and far from so easy to talk to as 
 usual. 
 
 The evening in the drawing-room pleased 
 him little better. He asked Constance to sing, 
 but he was not prepared for the duets that 
 afterwards ensued between her and his rival, 
 and still less for the Colonel's rendering of 
 'Drink to me only with thine eyes,' which he 
 gave with infinite expression, causing Constance 
 to blush most becomingly as she accompanied 
 him. 
 
 In short Mr. Verulam, though not absolutely 
 jealous, felt extremely injured, and addressed 
 * Mrs. Woodroffe in a cold and dignified manner 
 that terrified her, and made her fear that he 
 would give up his suit in disgust, and that the 
 chance of saving Basil would thus be irrevoca- 
 bly lost. 
 
 She determined to speak seriously to Con-
 
 WOODROFFE. 209 
 
 stance the next day, and interfered as much as 
 possible to prevent any further conversation 
 between her and Colonel Latreille, assuring him 
 when he said something about coming over to 
 the Manor, that of course they expected nothing 
 of the kind, that they quite understood that he 
 would be engaged in shooting every day, and 
 were sure Mr. Verulam would not at all like to 
 spare a gun. Besides, they were so constantly 
 out this lovely weather that it would be a 
 thousand pities that he. should take the trouble 
 to come over only, in all probability, to find 
 them out. 
 
 Her nervous anxiety to impress all this upon 
 him made Colonel Latreille, who fully compre- 
 hended her object, smile to himself; but it did 
 not prevent his seizing an opportunity, as they 
 were taking leave, to whisper to Constance that 
 he hoped to present himself at the Manor before 
 his departure. 
 
 VOL. I. .
 
 210 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Persuasion hung upon thy lip, 
 And sly insinuation's softer arts 
 In ambush lay about thy flowing tongue. 
 
 The Grave. BLAIR. 
 
 r\ EORGiE,' said Lady Louisa de Vere, 
 ^ going into her daughter's room after 
 they reached home that evening ; ' we must 
 ask Colonel Latreille to stay here.' 
 ' What in the world for f 
 ' I suppose you were too much occupied 
 with your own affairs to notice him, though 
 indeed he has a very important bearing upon 
 them. You know I told you that day at 
 
 Arnoldhurst that I thought Mr- Verulam was 
 
 z 
 captivated by Constance Woodroffe T
 
 WOODROFFE. 211 
 
 ' A silly blushing girl like that ! I said, 
 and I say again, utterly impossible.' 
 
 ' " 11 11 y a rien qui arrive que Vimprevu" as I 
 need hardly remind you. Mr. Verulam, what- 
 ever you may think, is I will not say in 
 love that is too romantic a word for such 
 an impersonation of strict etiquette and bank 
 notes : but bent on marrying Constance 
 Woodroffe.' 
 
 ' What makes you so sure ?' 
 
 ' I heard him tell Colonel Latreille to place 
 her by him, and when you took the place, and 
 he had not the savoir-faire to know how to 
 dislodge you, he looked furious. I am sure 
 he has a bad temper.' 
 
 ' Very likely, people of that sort generally 
 have. But go on. What has Colonel Latreille 
 to do with it"?' 
 
 * He is in love with the girl, and to judge 
 by her face she returns it.' 
 
 ' Mamma ! Bernard Latreille in love ! Why, 
 it has always been his boast that he has 
 never known what love is!' 
 
 p2
 
 212 WOODROFFE. 
 
 'No matter; he knows now, and at five- 
 and-thicty the attack is generally severe. Ho 
 is very musical, and you must allow her sing- 
 ing is lovely.' 
 
 ' Yes, I suppose that must be the attrac- 
 tion.' 
 
 ' So we had better have him here, ask her 
 over, and give him every opportunity.' 
 
 'But if you really think she has a chance 
 of Caenthorpe, it will not be much use.' 
 
 ' My dear, having fascinated Colonel Latreille, 
 I hardly think she is likely to fall in love 
 with Mr. Verulam.' 
 
 ' Love !' and Miss de Vere's tone was most 
 scornful ; ' what in the world . has that got 
 to do with it? Do you think / am in love 
 with the. stiff pompous old creature, though 
 I would marry him, or more properly Caen- 
 thorpe, to-morrow. Is a girl brought up in 
 poverty like Constance Woodroffe likely to 
 refuse such a prize?' 
 
 ' Her parents will not be at any rate. I 
 saw Mrs. Woodroffe was much put out by
 
 WOODROFEE. 213 
 
 the good understanding between her and the 
 Colonel. I doubt the girl's being even aware 
 of Mr. Verulam's intentions, and I want her 
 safely engaged to Colonel Latreille before 
 she discovers them.' 
 
 ' Then what do you mean to do ?' 
 
 'I thought of getting up an amateur 
 concert. There is a debt, you know, on the 
 County Hospital, and it will be a very good 
 sounding object. We might have a party for 
 a sort of preliminary rehearsal the week after 
 next. Mr. Verulam has his house full this 
 week, and will be away all next in Shrop- 
 shire, so there is no danger of his being often 
 at the Manor. I will write to Colonel Latreille 
 to-morrow, and as soon as I have got his 
 answer drive over and secure Constance.' 
 
 ' It seems a good plan.' 
 
 ' At any rate it is the best I can think of. 
 And really it is doing the girl a great kind- 
 ness ; Colonel Latreille is an excellent parti 
 and very nice.' 
 
 ' Very,' said Miss de Vere, with a slight sigh,
 
 214 WOODROFFE. 
 
 for, before she had realised the Colonel's im- 
 penetrability, she had herself entertained great 
 hopes of fascinating him, not comprehending 
 that fastness and sharpness were abhorrent to 
 him in a woman: 'oh, it is all charming if 
 you are not mistaken in thinking that he is 
 fascinated. However, if the appearance of it 
 disenchants Mr. Verulam it is all we want.' 
 
 ' Read this, Georgie,' said her mother, the 
 next morning ; ' I think it will do.' 
 
 ' DEAR COLONEL LATREILLE, 
 
 ' The delightful treat which you and 
 Miss Woodroffe gave us last night has revived 
 a project which my daughter and I have often 
 talked over for giving an amateur concert at 
 Mapleton, the proceeds of which might help in 
 wiping off a sad debt which exists on our Coun- 
 ty Hospital. I think it might take place in 
 three weeks to a month from now, but mean- 
 while, when you leave Caenthorpe on Monday, 
 will you come to us for a week and talk mat- 
 ters over? I shall ask Miss Woodroffe at the
 
 WOODROFFE. 215 
 
 same time, for I am sure, whoever else we may 
 secure, you will be our stars. If you cannot come 
 next week, will you come the week after ? I 
 send this over to save a post, but fear you will 
 not be at home to answer it. The Caenthorpe 
 shooting is far too good to be neglected. 
 ' Sincerely yours, 
 
 * LOUISA DE VERB. 
 
 'P.S. Please do not say anything of my 
 project till it is further advanced.' 
 
 ' Yes, it will do very well,' said Miss de Vere, 
 and a groom was despatched to Caenthorpe, 
 who returned, however, without an answer : ' the 
 gentlemen were all out shooting.' 
 
 The note puzzled Colonel Latreille. He had 
 been quite aware of the favourable dispositions 
 which Miss de Vere had at one time entertained 
 respecting himself, and his eyes were also open 
 to her present designs on Mr. Verulam. Was 
 he being asked to Ashford as a ' second string' 
 for the daughter of the house, or had Lady 
 Louisa seen his devotion to Constance, and did
 
 216 WOODROFFE. 
 
 she offer him assistance so as to get Constance 
 out of her daughter's way ? 
 
 He knew Lady Louisa far too well not to be 
 sure that there was some selfish object in what- 
 ever she did. He could not decide on the mo- 
 tive, but he was very grateful for the excellent 
 opportunity this would give him for meeting 
 Constance, and wrote at once accepting, not 
 for the ensuing week, for that he had an en- 
 gagement in Northumberland, but for the week 
 after ; and he determined that, if he could not 
 get free before, he would make his way to the 
 Manor on Sunday and tell Constance how he 
 was looking forward to their meeting. 
 
 f That is all right,' said Lady Louisa, passing 
 the letter over to her daughter ; ' now we must 
 set to work in earnest. Whom shall we have ? 
 Captain Danvers is a good basso, write to him 
 from me. Mary Leeson is a splendid pianist, and 
 her sister has got that zither. I think it hideous, 
 but it will be a novelty in Mapleton. Lady 
 Caroline Gorman must be our contralto, and we 
 can fill in with others later. Just write the
 
 WOODROFFE. 217 
 
 notes and I will drive over to the 
 Manor.' 
 
 ' Shall I come too f 
 
 ' No, I think you had better not.' 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe's intention of speaking to 
 Constance and awakening her to a sense of Mr. 
 Verulam's wishes, had been frustrated by her 
 husband. In his secret heart Mr. Woodroffe 
 hated the thought of such a marriage, and was 
 bitterly ashamed of having promised Basil to do 
 his utmost to further it. He felt that it would 
 be really an unspeakable relief to him if his 
 daughter took her destiny into her own hands 
 by engaging herself to anyone before Mr. 
 Verulam had had an opportunity of proposing 
 for her. Once engaged, he felt that he should 
 have something definite to hold to, and could 
 sturdily refuse to interfere ; but he distrusted his 
 own resolution, and knew that, if Mr. Verulam 
 came to him first, the thought of the possibility 
 of freeing the estate for Basil would be too 
 great a temptation for him. 
 
 So when Mrs. Woodroffe spoke of Colonel
 
 218 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Latreille's attentions, which he too, though 
 generally unobservant, had noticed, and de- 
 clared her intention of ' speaking to Conny and 
 opening her eyes about Mr. Verulam,' he posi- 
 tively forbade it, and desired her * to let the girl 
 alone, and leave matters to settle themselves, 
 interference always did harm.' His wife argued 
 and pleaded, declaring what a terrible thing it 
 would be if ' such a chance for poor dear Basil ' 
 were thrown away, but he stood firm, and she 
 was obliged reluctantly to promise silence. 
 
 The girls could not conceive what was the 
 matter with Mrs. Woodroffe the next day, she 
 was so extremely irritable and difficult to please, 
 and this was most unusual, as a gentle peevish- 
 ness was generally her least amiable frame of 
 mind. She declared she was nol in the least 
 tired, but was not to be persuaded to be pleased 
 with anything. She harped constantly on the 
 beauties and luxuries of Caenthorpe, remarked 
 over and over again what a lucky woman it 
 would be that Mr. Verulam married, required 
 Constance's opinion respecting every detail
 
 WOODROFFE. 219 
 
 of the house, furniture, and dinner, and in 
 short could not prevent herself from con- 
 stantly hovering round the subject which 
 her husband had forbidden her to ap- 
 proach. 
 
 But she might have said a great deal more 
 without enlightening Constance, who never 
 thought of Mr. Verulam or his possessions in 
 connection with herself, and whose mind was 
 besides fully occupied with thoughts of Colonel 
 Latreille. How she wondered if he would be 
 able to come over as he had said he would, and 
 if so whether there would be any chance of a 
 stroll in the garden. Of course if he sat all the 
 time in the drawing-room he would talk chiefly 
 to Mrs. WoodrofTe, and the conversation would 
 be either about Basil, or the beauties and 
 glories of Caenthorpe. 
 
 Constance had not yet arrived at saying 
 even to her own heart that she was in love 
 with Colonel Latreille, indeed she hardly knew 
 it; but her pulses thrilled and her cheeks 
 flushed as she recalled some things that he had
 
 220 WOODROFFE. 
 
 said, and she longed, as she had never yet 
 longed for anything in her life, to see him 
 again. 
 
 When Lady Louisa drove over the next 
 day to pay her visit and make the request 
 which would, as she hoped, destroy Mrs. 
 Woodroffe's cherished scheme, she was greatly 
 struck, not having been at the Manor 
 for a considerable time, with the air of 
 dilapidation - and poverty apparent every- 
 where. 
 
 ' Things must really be very bad with them ! 
 What a great thing marrying Colonel Latreille 
 will be for her!' thought Lady Louisa, as she 
 marked all the signs of want of money so 
 apparent to her searching eye. 
 
 * It was such an unexpected pleasure to 
 meet you the other night,' she said, when ob- 
 servations on the weather and inquiries after 
 health had been exhausted : ' I hope it is a 
 sign you feel stronger and mean to let your 
 friends see something of you. Can we persuade 
 you and Mr. Woodrofie and Constance to come
 
 WOODROFFE. 221 
 
 to us on Monday week and stay till the follow- 
 ing Monday. 
 
 Nothing was further from Lady Louisa's wish 
 than that Constance should be accompanied by 
 her parents, but she considered herself bound 
 to ask them. It was with considerable satis- 
 faction that she heard Mrs. Woodroffe declare 
 herself quite unequal to the exertion, and. 
 found that she declined for her husband, ' who 
 never would stay anywhere.' 
 
 ' Then you must be very kind and let us 
 have Constance alone,' said Lady Louisa ; ' the 
 fact is, Mrs. Woodroffe, that, besides the pleas- 
 ure of having her, we want her to do us a 
 great favour. We are thinking about getting 
 up an amateur concert for the County Hospital, 
 and the party the week after next is a sort of 
 mustering of our forces. When we heard 
 Constance sing on Tuesday, Georgie and I 
 both felt that we must have her. We hope 
 to have Captain Danvers, who has a won- 
 derful bass voice ; Mr. Berington, whose tenor 
 will suit her voice admirably; Lady Caroline
 
 222 WOODROFFE. 
 
 
 Gorman, who is a splendid contralto ; and Mary 
 and Lizzie Leeson who are excellent musicians. 
 I really think we shall do well, and of 
 course we can always command a few minor 
 lights.' 
 
 ' I am sure Constance would like it very 
 much staying with you, I mean,' said Mrs. 
 Woodroffe, who, hearing no mention of Colonel 
 Latreille, was quite unsuspicious of danger, 
 and who, having fathomed Miss de Vere's 
 designs on Mr. Verulam, felt tolerably certain 
 that he would be a frequent guest at Ashford, 
 even if not actually staying in th.e house : ' but 
 about the concert, I don't know what Mr. 
 Woodroffe will say.' 
 
 * I'm sure he cannot object to anything with 
 so good a motive. Only think what a boon it 
 would be to the hospital to be freed from that 
 dreadful incubus of debt ! And there is really 
 nothing objectionable in it everyone does it 
 now. But even if he objects to that though 
 I feel sure he will not if you tell him what
 
 WOODROFFE. 223 
 
 good it is to do, pray do not let that deprive 
 us of the pleasure of Constance's visit. Let 
 her come to us on Monday, the 20th, for a 
 week. Even if Mr. Woodroife should prove 
 obdurate, her singing will be an immense pleas- 
 ure to all our musical party, and we shall so 
 enjoy having her.' 
 
 ' I am sure she will be delighted to come. 
 She is out just now.' 
 
 ' And she must come to us again for the 
 concert whether she sings or not. Really I do 
 not know when I have heard so lovely a voice ! 
 How well she sang with Colonel Latreille, 
 whose voice is charming too. AVe asked him 
 to come to us when he left Caenthorpe, but 
 unluckily he has engagements in Northumber- 
 land." 
 
 This announcement greatly pleased Mrs. 
 Woodroffe. Northumberland was a long way 
 off, and it was hardly probable that the man 
 she dreaded would return to Mapleshire before 
 Mr. Verulam, who had surely nothing to wait
 
 224 WOODROFFE. 
 
 for, had proposed and been accepted. It was 
 with more cordiality than she had yet shown 
 that she turned to her husband, who had 
 just then entered the room, and ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 ' Oh, Edgar, I am so glad you have come in ! 
 Lady Louisa has asked Conny to stay at Ash- 
 ford for a week on the 20th, which 1 am sure 
 we are delighted she should do, but there 
 is something I did not like to answer without 
 you.' 
 
 ' The truth is, Mr. Woodroffe,' said Lady 
 Louisa, in her most fascinating manner; 'you 
 see me here to-day as a suppliant. Georgie 
 and I have set our hearts on an amateur con- 
 cert at Mapleton to clear off the debt on the 
 County Hospital, and your daughter's lovely 
 voice would be simply invaluable to us. Mrs. 
 Woodroffe seemed to fear you would object, 
 but if you will only consider a little I am sure 
 you will not. There will be no professionals ; 
 only our own party. We even hope to dis- 
 pense with an accompanyist, for Lady Mary
 
 WOODROFFE. 225 
 
 Leeson is such a splendid musician. And only 
 think of the boon of getting that long-standing 
 debt paid off.' 
 
 ' But it will be a public concert, I suppose,' 
 said Mr. Woodroffe, hesitating. 
 
 He lived too little in the world not to be 
 startled at the thought of ladies exhibiting 
 their talents on a platform to a paying audience 
 privileged to applaud or condemn, even in 
 the cause of charity. Such -things were 
 not customary when he saw anything of 
 society. 
 
 ' Public ! Yes, of course, or it would not do 
 the hospital much good. But all the county 
 people will fill their houses for it, and it will 
 really be nothing more than singing before 
 several country-house parties instead of one. 
 You know it is quite the fashion now, Lady 
 Caroline Gorman, who will I hope be one of our 
 party, sings constantly at charity con- 
 certs in London ; so kind and dear of her, is it 
 notf 
 
 'But Constance has never been accus- 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 WOODROFFE. 
 
 tomed to anything of the kind. 1 am afraid 
 she Avill be too shy to be of much use to you,' 
 stammered Mr. Woodroffe, whose great misfor- 
 tune through life had been his utter incapacity 
 to say 'No.' He disliked the thought of this 
 concert greatly, and, if not brought face to 
 face with Lady Louisa, would have re- 
 fused his consent, but as it was he was 
 powerless. 
 
 ' Shy ! no one with that perfect voice could 
 be so ; it is only inferior performers who ever 
 are. Only promise me your consent, and do 
 not terrify her by any dreadful predictions of 
 the awfulness of singing on a platform, and 
 she will be as much at her ease as in your own 
 drawing-room. I promise, if she is very much 
 terrified when she is with us the week after 
 next, not to press it, but she will not be unless 
 you suggest it to her. Promise you will 
 not.' 
 
 ' I will say nothing, ' said Mr. Woodroffe, 
 thus tacitly giving his permission to the concert,
 
 WOODROFFE. 227 
 
 which Lady Louisa observed, and was too wise 
 to say any more on the subject. She talked 
 pleasantly for a little while on general subjects, 
 contrived to insinuate that Mr. Verulam was a 
 constant guest at Ashford, and departed, leav- 
 ing Mrs. Woodroffe divided between pleasure 
 that Constance should stay in a house where 
 she was sure to meet him, and fear that Lady 
 Louisa's experienced tactics would achieve his 
 capture by her own daughter. 
 
 ' I wish I had not come in,' said Mr. Wood- 
 roffe, when the visitor had taken her depart- 
 ure : 'it is always impossible to resist 
 Lady Louisa, she takes such possession of 
 one; but I don't at all like this concert 
 scheme.' 
 
 'Perhaps after all it may fall through,' said 
 his wife : ' she has only just set about it, and 
 may not be able to collect the performers. 
 Besides, even if it comes to pass, it is only 
 once in a way, and, as she said, the county 
 people will almost fill the room. At any rate 
 
 Q2
 
 228 WOODROFFE. 
 
 the visit will be very pleasant for Conny, an d 
 you heard what Lady Louisa said of how 
 much they see of Mr. Verulam. That 
 is an advantage ; it brings them together 
 naturally.' 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe only gave a dissatisfied sort 
 of grunt and left the room. 
 
 Constance was delighted on her retnrn from 
 Miss Lucy's cottage to hear of the visit before 
 her, and Yolande, though she groaned at the 
 thought of being a whole week, a longer time 
 than had ever before been the case, without 
 her sister, was unselfish enough to join in her 
 enjoyment. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe at once declared that two 
 new dresses at least were absolutely requi- 
 site, and it was settled that it Avas no 
 use to go to Mapleton the next day, 
 which was Saturday, but that a note should 
 be written to the dressmaker and an ex- 
 pedition made with Aunt Lucy on the 
 Monday. 
 
 'I wish you would have a deep yel-
 
 WOODROFFE. 229 
 
 low for your evening dress,' said Mrs. Wood- 
 roffe. 
 
 ' Mamma !' Constance looked up in amaze- 
 ment : ' you must be thinking of Yolande ! 
 No one so fair as I am can wear dark 
 yellow.' 
 
 ' That is an old-fashioned delusion,' said 
 Mrs. Woodrofie, pettishly : ' I assure you Mr. 
 Veralam was only saying the other night how 
 wonderfully the yellow curtain behind you 
 became you.' 
 
 ' Mr. Verulam ! I should doubt his taste 
 being very reliable,' said Constance, care- 
 lessly. 
 
 <I don't see why you should say 
 that. I am sure the house is quite beau- 
 tiful!' 
 
 ' Yes, but I should think it was rather 
 thanks to the upholsterer than to himself. 
 Everything is so absolutely correct and in 
 keeping that it looks as if it had been done 
 by some one used to doing the work almost 
 mechanically.'
 
 230 WOODROFFE. 
 
 'You really are very provoking,' ex- 
 claimed Mrs. Woodroffe, in so peevish a tone 
 that both girls looked at her in aston- 
 ishment. 
 
 < I wonder,' said Yolande, thinking it would 
 be a good thing to turn the conversation 
 which seemed to excite her mother so 
 strangely: 'I wonder if Lady Louisa has 
 asked Colonel Latreille. I am sure he would be 
 a host in himself, and his voice goes so beauti- 
 fully with Conny's.' 
 
 ' Nonsense !' said her mother, angrily : ' his 
 voice does not suit hers a bit better than any 
 other tenor will. I cannot say I like Colonel 
 Latreille, he is a very forward person, and I 
 quite wonder that dear Basil, who generally 
 has such good taste, should have brought him 
 here. Pray don't talk of him again. Lady 
 Louisa said she had asked him to stay at 
 Ashford next week, but that he was going to 
 Northumberland.' 
 
 The visit to Ashford suddenly seemed less
 
 WOODROFFE. 231 
 
 fascinating to Constance than it had done the 
 minute before. Half unconsciously she had 
 been cherishing a hope that Lady Louisa 
 would not allow such a valuable auxiliary to 
 escape her, and looking forward to staying in 
 the same house with Colonel Latreille, and im- 
 proving her acquaintance. Now that these 
 hopes were crushed, she realised how fervent 
 they had been, and for the moment all interest 
 in the concert, the visit, or her new toilettes 
 was at an end. She wished Yolande would 
 not debate the pros and cons of her dresses 
 so earnestly ; after all, what did it signify what 
 she wore ? No one for whom she cared would 
 be there to see. And then she awoke with a 
 start to the knowledge that she was 
 thinking a great deal of Colonel Latreille, 
 and her heart whispered that this was 
 love. 
 
 The revelation came upon her as a desperate 
 shock, so great a one indeed that she felt she 
 must be alone to compose herself, and hastily
 
 232 \VOODROFFE. 
 
 rising she left the room just as Mrs. Woodroffe 
 began once more to advocate the choice of 
 deep yellow. 
 
 ' Dear me ! whatever is the matter with 
 Conny V exclaimed Mrs. Woodroffe, peevishly : 
 ' she seems quite upset about something ! I 
 really believe it is because I want her to wear 
 yellow instead of being everlastingly dressed 
 in white or blue ! Still it is not like her to 
 rush out of the room while I am speaking. 
 Has she finished her letter to Miss Marshall ? 
 Let me see what she has said. Ah ! well, 
 perhaps that will do; she thinks of a pretty 
 shade of brown for evening that ought to 
 throw up her bright fair colouring well, and 
 rifle green for morning. You had better put 
 it in the letter bag, Yolande, and then leave 
 me quiet a little. I declare Lady Louisa's 
 visit and all this discussion have tired 
 me to death. I must try to get a 
 little sleep before dinner, or I shall be 
 quite ill.'
 
 WOODROFFE. 233 
 
 Yolande put the letter in the bag and then 
 went upstairs, bu# she did not attempt to 
 enter her sister's room. Young as she was, 
 something in Constance's face when Colonel 
 Latreille's refusal of Lady Louisa's invitation 
 was mentioned, had struck her, and it had at 
 once flashed upon her how he had remained 
 at home each day instead of accompanying 
 Basil and Sir Armine. Of course he had fallen 
 in love with Conny at first sight that 
 was nothing wonderful, how could he 
 help it? and she reciprocated his feel- 
 ing. 
 
 Yolande felt thoroughly miserable, and yet 
 furious with herself for being so ! What a 
 horrible, despicable, selfish creature she must 
 be not to rejoice at the thought of anything 
 that would be for her sister's happiness ! For 
 of course if Colonel Latreille loved Conny 
 he would come back again from Northum- 
 berland. 
 
 But as she thought of what the Manor would
 
 234 WOODROFFE. 
 
 be without her darling sister she laid her 
 head on her folded arms on the table 
 and sobbed as if her heart would 
 break.
 
 235 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Such is the power of that sweet passion, 
 That it all sordid baseness doth expel, 
 And the refined mind doth newly fashion 
 Unto a fairer form, which now doth dwell 
 In his high thought, and would itself excel ; 
 Which he, beholding still with constant sight, 
 Admires the mirror of so heavenly light. 
 
 Hymn in honour of Love. SPENSER. 
 
 COLONEL LATREILLE found it by no 
 ^-' means an easy matter to pay the visit 
 to the Manor on which he had set his heart. 
 It almost seemed as if Mr. Verulam suspected 
 his design, so persistently did he frustrate any 
 attempt made by his guest to absent himself 
 from Caenthorpe. Certainly the shooting was 
 excellent, and in a general way Col'onel
 
 236 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Latreille would have been ready and willing 
 to devote himself to it as systematically as 
 his host could desire, but now he heartily 
 wished the partridges less numerous when 
 he found it impossible to compass the 
 visit that he so very much longed 
 for. 
 
 On the Saturday he made an attempt to 
 excuse himself by some plea of a blistered 
 foot, but his host would not hear of his losing 
 the sport, and provided him with the best 
 and quietest of shooting ponies. Colonel 
 Latreille cursed the fate that gave him such a 
 model host carefully provided against every 
 emergency, but while he felt obliged to keep 
 up the pretence and sit on Brownie's back 
 when he would far rather have been striding 
 with the others across the stubbles, he ar- 
 ranged his plan of action for the morrow. 
 On Sunday he could not be required for 
 shooting, and it must be easy to slip away 
 unobserved and walk over to the 
 Manor.
 
 WOODROFFE. 237 
 
 Of course it would be expected of him to 
 make his appearance at church in the morn- 
 ing ; Mr. Verulam was just the sort of man to 
 be most punctilious about his guests doing so, 
 as having a good appearance in the village. 
 Well, there would be plenty of time after 
 luncheon, and he had better proclaim that 
 evening the good that a day's rest had done 
 his foot. 
 
 As he had anticipated, Mr. Verulam evi- 
 dently considered it as appertaining to his 
 state that all his guests should appear in church, 
 and one or two, who had intended lounging 
 lazily in the gardens, were given quietly to 
 undertsand that such was his wish. They 
 grumbled a little, and there were suggestions 
 of insubordination, but Mr. Verulam had a 
 way of invariably carrying his point, and was 
 apt to say that he had never yet failed in 
 anything great or small that he had once 
 determined upon, and all his guests found 
 themselves seated in due time in the church 
 which he had just restored. It was beautifully
 
 238 WOODROFFE. 
 
 done in the most perfect taste. Mr. Verulam 
 was quite aware that he himself knew nothing 
 about the matter, so he was wise enough to 
 put the church into the hands of the best 
 ecclesiastical architect of the day, with 
 the injunction to do everything as com- 
 pletely as possible, and to spare no ex- 
 pense. 
 
 The result was excellent, and Mr. Verulam, 
 having learnt all about the matter while it 
 was in progress, now quite ignored the 
 architect, or spoke of him as ' the man who 
 was recommended to me as being best able to 
 cany out my views.' However, few knew the 
 real state of the case, and those who did, did 
 not care to disturb his self-gratulation, so 
 he generally persuaded others, as he had almost 
 done himself, that the whole was owing to his 
 own taste. 
 
 The moment luncheon was over, Colonel 
 Latreille disappeared. He had heard Mr. 
 Verulam say something of an expedition to the 
 farm to see his herd of Alderneys, and did
 
 WOODROFFE. 239 
 
 not at all wish to be included in it. So, 
 almost before his host had left the dining- 
 room, he had slipped out through the con- 
 servatory, and was on his way to Wood- 
 roffe. 
 
 The distance was longer than it seemed, for 
 he had to walk some way down the river 
 before he came to a bridge, and then the lane 
 wound considerably that led to Woodroffe 
 village. Colonel Latreille congratulated him- 
 self on possessing a good eye to country, for 
 the turnings were numerous and unfurnished 
 with any direction-posts, and were sufficient 
 completely to bewilder an experienced traveller. 
 He arrived, however, at the village without 
 a mistake, just as the five minute warning bell 
 was beginning to ring, and reached the church 
 porch just as Constance and Yolande appear- 
 ed from the other side. 
 
 Constance had quite given up all hope of 
 seeing Colonel Latreille; evidently the visit 
 of which he had spoken had either been 
 impossible or he did not care to pay it. So
 
 240 WOODROFFE. 
 
 when she met him thus suddenly her look of 
 delight and brilliant blushes gave him infinite 
 satisfaction, though the next moment she 
 was furious with herself for having, as 
 she feared, betrayed her secret, and 
 her manner became cold and con- 
 strained. 
 
 Colonel Latreille . understood it all, and 
 was by no means discouraged, though 
 Yolande wondered why Conny, who she 
 was sure liked him, should be so cold 
 and stiff; it was not like her usual 
 manner. 
 
 Constance presided at the organ, and the 
 music was certainly far above the ordinary 
 average of a village choir in perfection, 
 though all was studiously simple. She and 
 Yolande had the complete charge, for both Mr. 
 Damerel and his sister were somewhat indolent 
 and utterly unmusical. Colonel Latreille sat 
 with Yolande and Miss Lucy, and could watch 
 Constance as she played ; but it must be con- 
 fessed that he found the worthy rector's mild
 
 TVOODROFFE. 241 
 
 and wordy discourse decidedly tedious, and 
 looked forward impatiently to the moment 
 when they might find themselves once more in 
 the open air. 
 
 At length the wished-for moment came, and 
 Constance, who had taken longer than usual 
 to lock the organ and gather together her 
 music, emerged from the church to find the 
 little group awaiting her. Miss Lucy had 
 invited the colonel to tea, saying that the girls 
 always drank it with her on Sunday, and 
 though sorry to lose the pleasant saunter up 
 to the Manor, and the chance of a Ute-a-tcte 
 stroll in the garden of which he retained so 
 delightful a recollection, he was of course 
 pleasasi to accept. 
 
 Miss Lucy was cordially pleased to see him. 
 It looked, she thought, as if Constance had 
 made an impression, and she greatly desired to 
 see her happily married. She had taken a 
 very great fancy to Colonel Latreille, and in 
 the course of conversation, after his first visit 
 to Mapleshire, had heard that his character stood 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242- WOODROFFE. 
 
 very high and that he had a very comfortable 
 fortune. Apart from "her firm belief that 
 married life was the happiest for a woman, 
 she wanted to preserve her niece from any 
 danger of being persuaded into many ing- 
 Mr. Verulam, and also to know that 
 she was safely shielded from the life of 
 poverty that must be hers if she remained 
 single. 
 
 Altogether she was in great spirits, and 
 only annoyed and puzzled by Constance's 
 cold and reserved manner. She had thought 
 the night she dined at the Manor that she cer- 
 tainly liked Colonel Latreille : why should she 
 be so quiet now and leave all the conver- 
 sation to her and Yolande. 
 
 Miss Lucy's cottage was of the tiniest, but 
 very bright and pretty, though most inexpen- 
 sively furnished. Flowers formed its chief 
 ornament, and the roses grew as luxuriantly 
 as in the Manor garden, and mingled with" the 
 many flowering creepers which made the cot- 
 tage a perfect bower.
 
 WOODROFFE. 243 
 
 ' Have you heard any particulars of this 
 famous concert of Lady Louisa's, Miss Wood- 
 roffeT asked Colonel Latreille, when they 
 were comfortably established in the broad 
 verandah, ' I am so glad to hear that you are 
 to be one of us.' 
 
 ' One of us !' then he would be at Ashford ! 
 He was not going to Northumberland! Mrs. 
 WoodrofFe must have misunderstood, or else 
 he had been persuaded to change his mind! 
 Constance's countenance brightened in a way 
 that delighted her lover, surprised her aunt, 
 and almost brought the tears to Yolande's 
 eyes, though she drove them bravely back and 
 hated herself for having even wished to 
 shed them. It was in a voice with a 
 totally different ring in it that Constance 
 answered : 
 
 ' I daresay you know more than I do. 
 I am to go to Ashford next week for 
 what Lady Louisa called a rehearsal party, 
 and she mentioned one or two people 
 
 B 2
 
 244- WOODROFFE. 
 
 she hoped to have there, but I have heard no 
 particulars.' 
 
 ' Neither have I ; it is apparently a very- 
 sudden thought, and doubtless still much in 
 the clouds.' 
 
 He smiled to himself as he thought of the 
 motive which he shrewdly suspected lay at the 
 bottom of the project. 
 
 ' Do you know when the concert is to 
 be?' 
 
 'No, and I doubt whether Lady Louisa 
 herself does yet. Are you coming too, Miss 
 Yolande?' 
 
 'No,' and Yolande's countenance feJL 
 ' I am not out, you know. Oh ! how I wish 
 I were.' 
 
 ' I wish you could come. No voice 
 will suit your sister's so well as 
 yours.' 
 
 'Lady Louisa spoke of Lady Caroline 
 Gorman as a splendid contralto,' said Con- 
 stance. 
 
 * Has she secured her ? It is a grand voice,
 
 WOODROFFE. 245 
 
 but not in the least sympathetic. It will not 
 suit you,' and he gave her a look that brought 
 the colour to her cheeks, and she was glad 
 to drop her glove as a pretext for stooping 
 to hide them. 
 
 Of course there was no opportunity of 
 private conversation : Constance hardly knew 
 that she wished it. To talk in Aunt Lucy's 
 verandah was somehow very different from 
 conversing in the drawing-room at the Manor. 
 Mrs. Woodroffe would only have talked of 
 Basil's perfections or the beauties of Caen- 
 thorpe, and of both subjects Constance felt 
 that she had heard considerably more than 
 she at all desired. Besides, Mrs. Woodrofle 
 had declared her dislike to Colonel Latreille, 
 and, having very little self-control, might 
 not improbably have shown it, which would 
 have been very embarrassing. And then 
 they were to meet again in a week, and 
 spend several days in the same house ! 
 Oh! everything was arranging itself de- 
 lightfully.
 
 246 WOODROFFE. 
 
 At last the rapidly lengthening shadows 
 aroused Colonel Latreille to the necessity of 
 making the best of his way back to Caen- 
 thorp e, if he meant to be in time for 
 dinner. 
 
 ' Good-bye, Miss WoodrofTe,' he said, giving 
 Constance's hand a lingering pressure that 
 made her heart beat : ' I shall live upon the 
 thoughts of next week' (this in a very low 
 tone). ' Will you make my excuses to Mrs. 
 Woodroffe for not having been able to call at 
 the Manor? I fully hoped to do so, but Mr. 
 Verulam is by no means a person to allow his 
 arrangements to be disturbed, and he was stern 
 in his determination that no one should shirk 
 an hour's shooting. I was on my way as 
 you know to-day, but of course I could 
 not resist so tempting an invitation as 
 this.' 
 
 ' And you had no wish to do so,' was Miss 
 Lucy's unspoken observation. 
 
 ' I will be sure to tell mamma,' said 
 Constance, rising. 'Come, Yolande, we
 
 WOODROFFE. 247 
 
 shall be quite late. Good-bye, Aunt Lucy, 
 I Avill be in good time for the train 
 to-morrow.' 
 
 ' The train ? May we possibly be 
 fellow-travellers'?' asked Colonel Latreille 
 eagerly. 
 
 * We are only going as far as Mapleton,' 
 said Constance : ' we are going by the 
 9.55.' 
 
 ' We all do the same. I am going to 
 Northumberland, Mr. Verulam to Lancashire, 
 and the rest of the party to the four corners 
 of the earth. Then it is only au revoir till 
 to-morrow.' 
 
 * It is good-bye to me,' said Yolande, 
 dolefully. 
 
 ' I wish it were not,' as he shook 
 hands. 'I wish you were coming to 
 Ashford.' 
 
 1 Don't put such ideas into the child's head, 
 pray,' said Miss Lucy : * she is infinitely too 
 precocious already.' 
 
 Constance and Yolande walked home
 
 248 WOODROFFE. 
 
 together almost in silence. The elder sister 
 was recalling all that had been said, and also 
 the glances and the pressure of the hand that 
 had perhaps a deeper and sweeter significance, 
 and indulging in happy anticipations of the 
 week to be spent at Ashford, and of all that 
 might occur there. 
 
 The younger was meditating on much the 
 same subject : trying not to hate the man who 
 would, she felt sure, take her darling sister 
 from her, and to rejoice that dearest Conny 
 would be happy. For she never doubted 
 about Constance's feelings, she knew every 
 change of her countenance too well for that, 
 and the sparkling eyes and blushing cheeks 
 had told her plainly that her heart was 
 touched. 
 
 ' How late you are !' exclaimed Mrs. Wood- 
 roffe, as they entered the drawing-room : 
 * wherever have you been dawdling all this 
 time?' 
 
 * We went to tea with Aunt Lucy as usual,' 
 answered Yolande, 'and Colonel Latreille
 
 WOODROFFE. 249 
 
 walked over from Caenthorpe, and some- 
 how we stayed talking longer than 
 usual.' 
 
 ' Colonel Latreille !' in a tone of infinite 
 annoyance. 
 
 ' He was on his way to call here, mamma,' 
 said Constance, fancying that her step-mother's 
 irritation arose from a call, which she perhaps 
 considered due from a late guest, not having 
 been paid ; ' but he met us at the church 
 door and came in to service, and then Aunt 
 Lucy asked him to tea. He begged me to 
 make his excuses to you, and say he 
 should have called before, but that Mr. Veru- 
 lam would not let him miss one day's 
 shooting.' 
 
 ' I am sure I am greatly obliged to Mr. 
 Verulam ! I have no wish to see Colonel 
 Latreille again, I consider him very forward, 
 and I beg you will neither of you ever men- 
 tion him again ! Remember, 1 do not wish to 
 hear his name.' 
 
 Naturally after such a command neither of
 
 250 WOODROFFE. 
 
 the girls said a syllable respecting Colonel 
 Latreille's intended visit to Ashford, or his 
 participation in the concert. This was from 
 no intentional deceit on Constance's part. She 
 was totally unaware of any special reason 
 why Mrs. Woodroffe should be annoyed by 
 the mention of Colonel Latreille's name, and, 
 being accustomed to her great capriciousness, 
 was not particularly surprised at her having 
 suddenly conceived a violent aversion to a 
 person whom she had at first appeared to 
 like. 
 
 She was far indeed from having any idea of 
 the commotion which the simple announce- 
 ment of Colonel Latreille's intended presence 
 at Ashford would have caused in Mrs. Wood- 
 roffe's mind, and quietly acquiesced in the 
 whim which forbade the mention of his name. 
 Her step-mother's moods had become so change- 
 able since she had assumed the role of a quasi- 
 invalid, that she felt little apprehension that 
 her dislike would continue if well, if any- 
 thing came of that visit at Ashford. For Con-
 
 WOODROFFE. 251 
 
 stance felt a strong conviction that Colonel 
 Latreille not only cared for her but had meant 
 her to understand that he did so, and if 
 that were the case a week together might afford 
 him the opportunity of giving his thoughts 
 words. 
 
 Colonel Latreille, found himself received 
 somewhat stiffly by his host when he made 
 his appearance before dinner. Mr. Verulam 
 had no idea of the laissez-faire that con- 
 stitutes the true success of a country house 
 party. He considered it the duty of both 
 host and guests to be en evidence during the 
 entire day. 
 
 Nothing would have induced him to absent 
 himself from his guests for more than the 
 briefest possible period, and even then not 
 without elaborate apologies. And he expect- 
 ed that the attention should be reciprocated, 
 and that those staying under his roof should 
 not attempt to find means of amusement 
 for themselves, but should rest contented 
 with those which he provided. So he felt
 
 252 WOODROFFE. 
 
 positively injured that Colonel Latreille should 
 have absented himself from the inspection of 
 the Aldemey herd and the Clydesdales, which 
 had been marked out as the entertainment 
 for the afternoon, and have disappeared 
 without a word. 
 
 ' I hope,' he said, somewhat stiffly, ' that 
 it was through no inadvertence on my part 
 that we were deprived of the pleasure of 
 your company when we went down to the 
 farm this afternoon? We waited a consider- 
 able time and I sent up to your room, 
 but you were nowhere to be found, so 
 we were reluctantly obliged to go without 
 you.' 
 
 ' I am very sorry indeed you should have 
 taken so much trouble,' replied Colonel La- 
 treille ; ' the afternoon was so lovely that I 
 was tempted to walk over to Woodroife. 
 I wish now I had let you know. I never 
 dreamt of being waited for.' 
 
 'I always strive,' this with proud humility, 
 *to show all the courtesy in my power to
 
 WOODROFFE. 253 
 
 every guest under my roof, and I should 
 have considered myself deficient in my duty 
 as a host, had I neglected any endeavour 
 to include you in our walking party. I 
 hope you found the family at the Manor well ? 
 Mrs. Woodroffe seems very delicate.' 
 
 ' As it happened I never reached the 
 Manor. As I got to the village I met the 
 two young ladies at the church .door, ancl 
 after service we all had tea at their aunt's 
 cottage.' 
 
 Mr. Verulam said nothing, but he cleared 
 his throat in a manner which indicated dis- 
 approbation. Colonel Latreille imagined that 
 he Avas jealous of the privileges which he 
 had enjoyed that afternoon, but he was very 
 far from fathoming his host's actual state of 
 mind. 
 
 Mr. Verulam had it not in him to be 
 jealous of any human being, not because he 
 was in any way superior to that wretched- 
 ly mean passion, but from his perfect self- 
 satisfaction and overweening vanity. By
 
 254 WOODROFFE. 
 
 nature well pleased with his own doings, 
 his unfailing success had very naturally en- 
 couraged the feeling, which he certainly 
 entertained, that he could never fail to ob- 
 tain anything for which he really wished. 
 And as he really desired to make Constance 
 Woodroffe his wife, and was besides well 
 aware of the strong pressure which in case of 
 need he could bring to bear, he had no 
 thought of jealousy of a rival who, he felt 
 sure, could not have a chance with him. 
 
 But he thought that the informal tea- 
 drinking at the cottage instead of the Manor 
 savoured somewhat of familiarity, and felt 
 aggrieved that Constance should have done 
 anything incompatible with the cold, stiff 
 dignity which he considered incumbent on a 
 woman. 
 
 He had imbibed his first ideas of the 
 canons of polite society from Lady Selina 
 Longden, a cold, harsh woman, without a 
 spark of either cleverness or fun herself or
 
 WOODROFFE. 255 
 
 toleration for them in others. Having no 
 daughters of her own, she had no interest 
 in or sympathy for girls, and expected of 
 them a demeanour as cold and hard as if 
 youth and cheerfulness were foreign to their 
 nature. Never in her life had she had a 
 real friend or experienced a genuine emotion, 
 except of satisfaction when Mr. Longden's 
 business prospered, or when Mr. Verulam took 
 her son into partnership. 
 
 But, such as she was, Mr. Verulam took 
 her as the model of all that a high-born 
 lady ought to be, and he fully intended 
 impressing upon Constance, when they were 
 married, that he wished her to resemble 
 Lady Selina as closely as possible. He felt 
 sure that the tea-party at the cottage must 
 have been far too pleasant to have met 
 with Lady Selina's approval, and this, joined 
 to his displeasure that Colonel Latreille 
 should have dared to choose his own occu- 
 pation for the afternoon, instead of obedient-
 
 256 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ly accepting the entertainment proVided for 
 him, made him very stiff and cold during 
 the whole evening. 
 
 He was destined, however, to receive a consid- 
 erable shock. The mention of the Manor made 
 one of the party refer in terms of the highest 
 praise to Constance's voice, and Colonel Latreille 
 assenting remarked what a star she would prove 
 at the Mapleton concert. Mr. Verulam looked 
 up in surprise. 
 
 * Miss Woodroffe is to sing at what concert 
 did you say V he inquired. 
 
 Colonel Latreille explained, observing that 
 he was invited to Ashford for the rehearsal 
 party. 
 
 ' I can scarcely imagine,' observed Mr. Veru- 
 lam, in his stiffest and most pompous manner, 
 * that this concert will ever take place. Lady 
 Louisa is, as I am well aware, occasionally some- 
 what impetuous, but I hardly think she will on 
 reflection carry out this extraordinary, I may say 
 this unfortunate, conception. And, even if she 
 does, I feel convinced that Mr. and Mrs. Wood-
 
 WOODROFFE. 257 
 
 roffe will see the impropriety of allowing Miss 
 Woodroffe to appear.' 
 
 'Consent has been given, I believe,' said 
 Colonel Latreille, carelessly. 
 
 He was under the impression that it was jea- 
 lousy of him and of his opportunities and advan- 
 tages that made Mr. Verulam so stately and so 
 grim. 
 
 ' Impropriety, Verulam !' cried Sir John Lose- 
 ly, the man present who was best acquainted 
 with his host ; ' why, man alive, what are you 
 talking about ? It is the most fashionable 
 thing out for everyone to sing at charity con- 
 certs, only they seldom have such voices as Miss 
 Woodroffe worse luck for the audience !' 
 
 ' I still adhere to my opinion, Sir John,' said Mr. 
 A^erulam, pompously ; ' that there is a very grave 
 impropriety in a charming young lady, such as I 
 am sure we all must consider Miss Woodroffe to 
 be, appearing as a public singer. Of course there 
 are ladies, many of them I am sure well known 
 to us, who do so, and their motives are doubtless 
 excellent ; still none of us would, I think, consider 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 WOODROFFE. 
 
 the position desirable for a relative of his own. 
 If in a weak moment Mr. Woodroffe has con- 
 sented, which I could hardly credit if Colonel 
 Latreille did not vouch for the fact, I am sure he 
 will retract the permission when the subject is 
 fairly represented to him.' 
 
 ' That means,' thought Colonel Latreille, ' that 
 our worthy host intends to give him his valuable 
 opinion on the matter. Well ! he is to be away 
 all this week, and if I know him well he will 
 hardly enter on the matter in writing, so we 
 shall have our own practising week, and by the 
 time that is over I hope to be in a position to be 
 utterly indifferent to anything that he may say 
 or do.'
 
 259 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue ; 
 But, like a shadow, proves the substance true. 
 Essay on Criticism. POPE. 
 
 With that indignant envy, which grows pale 
 And sickens, even if a friend prevail ; 
 Which merit and success pursue with hate, 
 And damns the worth it cannot imitate.' 
 
 Rosciad. CHURCHILL. 
 
 A SHFORD was one of those houses where, for 
 ** no particularly obvious reason, everyone 
 immediately feels at home. Lady Louisa under- 
 stood the duties of a hostess to perfection ; her 
 guests always had everything they wanted, and 
 could amuse themselves as they pleased, without 
 being required to decide at breakfast time upon 
 everything that they would do during the day. 
 
 S2
 
 260 WOODROFFE. 
 
 There were always the most luxuriously com- 
 fortable chairs in every position required, and 
 singularly enough they were generally so placed 
 as to enable their occupants to enjoy the pleas- 
 ures of a tete-a-tete, without being so far removed 
 from the rest of the company as to be in any 
 way conspicuous. The great hall, which was 
 more used as a sitting-room than any other in 
 the house, was open to the roof, and had a gal- 
 lery round it on which the bed-rooms opened. 
 This was a constant source of disquietude to 
 nervous elderly ladies, apprehensive that their 
 not always charitable remarks on their friends 
 might reach ears for which they were by no 
 means intended ; and a medium of infinite satis- 
 faction to the ladies' maids, who were able 
 thence to watch the dancing in the evening, and 
 discuss and appraise the various toilettes to their 
 heart's content. It was in this apartment that 
 tea was always served, and it was there that 
 Constance found the party assembled when she 
 reached Ashford on the 20th of September. 
 It was the first time that Constance had
 
 WOODROFFE. 261 
 
 ever seen the place. Mrs. Woodroffe had for 
 several years almost entirely given up paying 
 morning visits, on the plea that long drives 
 were far too fatiguing for her in her delicate 
 state of health: and Lady Louisa, until she 
 conceived that the girl might be useful to her 
 own schemes, was j not inclined to ask anyone 
 so extremely pretty as a contrast to her own 
 decidedly plain daughter. But now there 
 was a very strong motive for inviting her, 
 and Constance found herself warmly welcomed 
 with the charming manner that no one knew 
 better than Lady Louisa how to assume. 
 The party was a -very large one, and Con- 
 stance felt almost bewildered at the number 
 of introductions. Apparently a vast amount 
 -of musical talent had been collected, for at 
 .each name Lady Louisa made some graceful 
 allusion to the talent of the performer, while 
 Constance's blushes grew- quite painful under 
 the constant references made to the beauty of 
 her voice. 
 
 She had noticed as soon as she had entered
 
 262 WOODROFFE. 
 
 the room that Colonel Latreille was not present,, 
 and no mention being made of him she began 
 to wonder whether anything could have 
 occurred to prevent his coming. If it had ! 
 and a feeling of blank disappointment came 
 over her which caused her to sit almost 
 entirely silent in the general buzz of conver- 
 sation. The talk was at first chiefly musical ; 
 it seemed as if every song that had ever been 
 written was being canvassed, and there were 
 not wanting signs of probable diver- 
 gence of opinion among the various per- 
 formers. 
 
 'I have put you into the room next to 
 Georgie as you are alone,' said Lady Louisa, 
 as she showed her young guest her room : 
 ' please do not hesitate to tell her if there is 
 anything you require. This bell rings upstairs 
 for your maid/ 
 
 Constance said she had no maid, and, in 
 answer to Lady Louisa's offer of the services 
 of her own abigail, declared that she was very 
 much obliged, but was so much accustomed to
 
 WOODROFFE. 263 
 
 do everything for herself that she should 
 greatly prefer being left without assistance, 
 and her hostess departed, thinking Avhat a 
 great thing she was doing for the girl in 
 giving her the chance of marrying a wealthy 
 man like Colonel Latreille, and escaping from 
 the terrible poverty which evidently existed 
 at the Manor. 
 
 To Lady Louisa poverty that deprived a lady 
 of the power of having a maid, was more 
 absolutely dreadful than the starvation of 
 which she read in the newspapers ; for the one 
 was tangible to her comprehension, the 
 other was very shocking, of course, but 
 perfectly vague and never thought of. It 
 was with the self-satisfied glow of having 
 done a really charitable action that she went 
 to dress. 
 
 Constance's apprehensions respecting Colonel 
 Latreille Avere soon set at rest, for he was the 
 first person to greet her when she entered the 
 drawing-room, and was desired by his hostess 
 to take her in to dinner. Glancing in their
 
 264 WOODROFFE. 
 
 direction once or twice, Lady Louisa was quite 
 satisfied with the success of her scheme ; they 
 were so absorbed in each other's conversation 
 that there seemed to her to be very little 
 doubt of their feelings. She resolved that 
 towards the end of the week she would have 
 Mr. Verulam over to dinner in order that he 
 might see how futile were his hopes of Con- 
 stance, and realise that he had better 
 turn his eyes in a more appreciative direc- 
 tion. 
 
 After dinner, began the great discussion as 
 to the concert, and Constance perceived that 
 a little foreign-looking man was the 
 great authority and referred to by every- 
 one. 
 
 ' Who is he T she asked Colonel Latreille : ' he 
 was not here when I arrrived.' 
 
 ' No, he came by the same train I did. He 
 is Herr Blitz the accompanyist, and general 
 manager of the whole concern. Make friends 
 with him, for he is a very curious-tempered 
 little man, really very kind, but extremely
 
 WOODROFFE. 265 
 
 peppery and cantankerous, and if you don't 
 pay attention to some of his whims he will 
 give you a great deal more trouble than is 
 necessary. But I need hardly tell you this. 
 I am sure your natural tendency is always to 
 soften and smooth everyone you come in 
 contact with.' 
 
 'Constance, my dear,' said Lady Louisa, 
 coming up at that moment ; ' I want to present 
 Herr Blitz to you. He is our commander- 
 in-chief, and he wants to have a review of his 
 forces.' 
 
 Constance bowed with a soft shy smile 
 that at once propitiated the choleric little 
 maestro. 
 
 'Miladi tells me,' he said, seating himself 
 by her, ' that you are a wonder, a prodige. 
 Grant that I hear you. You sing Italian ? 
 Bravura? All kinds? Yes?' 
 
 'Indeed,' said Constance, alarmed to find 
 that her hostess had been giving so high 
 an idea of her powers ; ' indeed Lady Louisa 
 has been too kind. I do sing, I love music,
 
 266 WOODROFFE. 
 
 and have studied as much as I can, but 
 you must not talk as if I were a great 
 performer.' 
 
 ' We shall see,' a pause ; ' cau you sing 
 "Sovra il sen?'" 
 
 ' From " Sonnambula " ? oh yes.' 
 
 ' Come, let me hear you.' 
 
 ' But,' and Constance looked round in dismay; 
 ' it is not for me to begin, there are so 
 many ' 
 
 ' Ah bah ! point de facons ! I know all 
 their voices as my ABC. Do I not ac- 
 company them here, there, everywhere '.' 
 But you are new to me come!' and, almost 
 before she knew what was happening, she 
 was standing at the piano. 
 
 For a moment she was decidedly nervous, 
 not about her own singing for she was sin- 
 gularly free from self-consciousness, and 
 thought too little of the effect she might 
 possibly be producing to be shy, but at the 
 idea of being accompanied, which she had 
 never before been. She had been about to
 
 WOODROFFE. 267 
 
 seat herself at the piano, but Herr Blitz had 
 put her aside like a little child. 
 
 'You cannot sing and play too; that is 
 my part,' he said, and began to play and 
 in a few moments Constance forgot the 
 strangeness of the situation, threw her whole 
 energies into the c song, and never remem- 
 bered she was singing to a room-full of 
 strangers till the plaudits that greeted her at 
 the end aroused her to a recollection of where 
 she was. 
 
 Herr Blitz was in raptures, and poured 
 forth rapid compliments, relapsing into Ger- 
 man, Italian, and French as was his wont 
 when excited, but more than all his praises 
 Constance valued Colonel Latreille's quiet 
 whisper. 
 
 * Bravo, Miss Woodroffe ! you have sur- 
 passed yourself! Even I did not think 
 you would have given that difficult song so 
 perfectly.' 
 
 There was no limit to the grand predic- 
 tions which Herr Blitz now made respecting
 
 268 WOODROFFE. 
 
 the concert, and he talked so much of the 
 wonderful effect to be produced by such 
 voices as those of Constance and Colonel 
 Latreille, either singly or in unison, that Lady 
 Louisa quickly perceived that there was dan- 
 ger of his wounding the susceptibilities of the 
 other performers, and she hastened to inter- 
 pose with a suggestion that they had had a 
 great treat but must not fatigue Miss Wood- 
 roffe, and that perhaps the young people would 
 like to dance. 
 
 There were few evenings at Ashford when 
 guests were staying there that did not end in 
 dancing, and, though Herr Blitz thought it a 
 terrible waste of precious time, he resigned 
 himself to the inevitable, and played dreamy 
 German valses in the most indefatigable 
 manner. 
 
 When Constance went to her own room 
 that night she was very happy. It was, she 
 thought, almost impossible to doubt that 
 Colonel Latreille cared for her : if he did not, 
 he could hardly have singled her out in so
 
 WOODROFFE. 
 
 marked a manner. It seemed almost too much 
 happiness ! 
 
 But she need not now reproach herself for 
 having allowed herself to fall in love with 
 him even in the solitude . of her own room 
 she covered her face with her hands to hide 
 her burning blushes it was a natural feeling, 
 and doubtless a species of electric sympathy 
 had revealed it to her. The thought of the 
 week to be spent together became more and 
 more delightful, and when she slept it was to 
 enjoy dreams even more blissful than were her 
 waking thoughts. 
 
 After breakfast the next morning Herr Blitz 
 declared that business must be attended to, 
 and submitted the rough sketch of a pro- 
 gramme he had written out. Constance, 
 quite unused to such scenes, was fairly 
 amazed at the discussion that ensued. She 
 had quietly and at once accepted the songs 
 assigned to her, though a little startled at 
 their number and difficulty : it did not appear 
 to her that she had any choice in the-
 
 270 WOODROFFE. 
 
 matter ; she had agreed to come and help 
 Lady Louisa, and her business was to do 
 her best and not make difficulties; but she 
 soon found that she was the only person who 
 took that view of the matter. 
 
 No one, with the exception indeed of Colonel 
 Latreille, was satisfied with what was selected 
 for him or her, everyone wished for totally differ- 
 ent songs, or, when they had gained that point, 
 that their appearance should be in a perfectly 
 different part of the programme. Some thought 
 too much work was expected of them, some 
 complained they had too little chance of distin- 
 guishing themselves ; ' it was so like Herr Blitz 
 to sacrifice everyone to a new star, he would 
 quite spoil the whole concert,' and in short 
 everyone thought of themselves and their own 
 perfections, and no one of the ensemble of the 
 concert or what Lady Louisa's wishes might 
 be. 
 
 Constance was amazed to see how coolly 
 Herr Blitz took it all ; how he pacified one irrit- 
 able lady with a compliment, and soothed
 
 WOODROFFE. 271 
 
 another with predictions of success attained 
 with but little trouble in the way of rehearsal ; 
 while he changed some few insignificant details, 
 and smoothed the ruffled plumes of Mr. Bering- 
 ton, who, considering himself the great amateur 
 tenor, was jealous of the prominence given to 
 Colonel Latreille, by changing two of their 
 songs greatly in fact to the advantage of the 
 latter. 
 
 She was unaware that such diplomacy was 
 his metier, that he spent the greater part of his 
 time in making such arrangements, and that he 
 had composed his programme with a special 
 view to portions of it being altered. But she 
 was greatly distressed when she understood 
 that some of the company thought that she was 
 too much favoured, and were annoyed at her 
 being so brought forward ; and would at once 
 have expressed her willingness to withdraw, if 
 Colonel Latreille had not prevented it. 
 
 ' Leave it all to Blitz,' he said ; * he will make 
 everything right.' 
 
 'Yes, but it seems so hard to spoil the concert
 
 272 WOODROFFE. 
 
 as Lady Caroline Gorman thinks will be the 
 case. And indeed he has given me a great 
 many songs.' 
 
 ' Is it too much for you ? Are you afraid of 
 the work T 
 
 ' Oh, no ! I shall like it, only you heard 
 what was said just now I cannot bear anyone 
 to think that I want to put myself forward ; in- 
 deed I do not.' 
 
 ' I am quite sure of that, and, as the whole 
 arrangement is Blitz's, no one can think you 
 have anything to do with it ; pray don't distress 
 yourself,' as she still looked disturbed. 
 
 ' I don't like it,' said Constance, looking up at 
 him confidingly ; but if you think I had better 
 say nothing ' 
 
 ' I am quite sure you had better not.' 
 
 ' Very well, then I will do as you advise,' in a 
 trustful tone that gave her companion infinite 
 pleasure. 
 
 Every hour he spent in her society increased 
 his love for Constance. She was so soft in 
 manner, so gentle, so unlike the fcist girls of
 
 WOODROFFE. 273 
 
 whom he saw so many. She was well informed 
 without being pedantic, never striving after 
 clever talk, though her conversation was seldom 
 frivolous, and always ready, not only to say, 
 but evidently to think, kind things of others. 
 He noticed that one or two of Lady Caroline 
 Gorman's most sarcastic speeches glanced harm- 
 lessly past her, it never occurred to her that 
 anything illnatured could possibly be intend- 
 ed, and therefore she paid no attention to 
 them. 
 
 As he sat that morning listening, while she 
 tried over some of the selected songs with Herr 
 Blitz, he was thinking how unspeakably fortu- 
 nate it was that he had, he really hardly knew 
 why, accepted Basil Woodroffe's invitation to 
 the Manor. There must have been a special 
 Providence in it, it must have been decreed that 
 he was there and then to meet his fate, and the 
 saying that * marriages are made in heaven/ 
 commanded in his mind an assent such as it had 
 never done before. He pictured Constance as 
 she would look in his fine old home, how her 
 
 VOL, I. T
 
 274 WOODROFFE. 
 
 taste would mitigate the stiffness which his 
 mother had introduced into it, and bring out 
 all the capabilities of the place. 
 
 The thought of his mother brought the only- 
 jarring element into his musings. Lady Susan 
 Latreille always professed to wish that her only 
 son should marry, but in reality she infinitely 
 preferred reigning supreme at Latreille Court 
 to retiring gracefully to her dower-house in 
 London. Bernard Latreille was quite unaware 
 of the many schemes she had laid, whenever 
 she had had any reason to suppose that he gave 
 the slightest preference to one young lady over 
 another ; but he knew that, in spite of all she 
 said, it would be a bitter mortification to her to 
 resign her place as mistress of the Court. 
 
 And yet it must be. He loved Constance far 
 too well to subject her to the trial of a divided 
 empire, and such he was sure must prevail if 
 his mother was to remain under his roof, she 
 would insist on retaining command, and his 
 wife would be a mere cypher; and, though
 
 WOODROFFE. 275 
 
 her sweet temper might endure it, he knew 
 that his would not. Well ! Lady Susan had 
 had a long spell of sovereignty, her jointure 
 was ample and her house in Eaton Square 
 everything she could require ; she was in no 
 way to be pitied, yet he felt that she would 
 not receive the announcement of his in- 
 tentions well, and would contrive to make it 
 appear that she was excessively ill- 
 used. 
 
 Well! if she chose to think so she must! 
 He had certainly shown no undue haste in 
 dispossessing her, and was of an age to know 
 his own mind. He had every right to please 
 himself, and as he sat listening to and watch- 
 ing Constance, he built lovely castles in the 
 air of the happy life which they would lead 
 together. He forgot all about Mr. Verulam, 
 and the aspirations of which he more than sus- 
 pected him in regard to Constance ; he felt 
 sure that she cared for him, and that certainly 
 seemed all that there was in the world to care 
 for. 
 
 T2
 
 276 WOODROFFE. 
 
 There would during that week he felt be but 
 little opportunity of getting her to himself; 
 the whole party would be perpetually pervaded 
 by the indefatigable spirit of Herr Blitz, and 
 rehearsing and musical discussions would be 
 the order of every day. But on Sunday his 
 hour would come. He well knew the manifold 
 opportunities always afforded by country-house 
 Sundays, when everyone disperses as seemeth 
 them good without any special and apparent 
 reason, and he gave himself up to a delicious 
 dream of drawing Constance away to a seclud- 
 ed spot near the lake, and there breathing in 
 her ear all his adoration and listening in rap- 
 ture as she whispered that she returned it. So 
 absorbed was he in his pleasant dreams that 
 he was only aroused by hearing Lady Caro- 
 line say spitefully, 
 
 * I really don't see why we were any of us 
 asked. The concert is Miss Woodroffe, and 
 Miss Woodroffe only, and our presence is a 
 mere piece of supererogation. Come, 
 Mary, you're not wanted here any more than
 
 WOODROFFE. 277 
 
 I am. Let us go and have a row on the 
 lake.' 
 
 ' My dear Lady Caroline,' interposed Colonel 
 Latreille, ( pray do not say you are not want- 
 ed! What should we do without our Adal- 
 gisa ? and what would become of " Deh ! 
 con te " without you ? And pray who is to 
 take the contralto in " Bel siccome un angelo," 
 if you desert us? Blitz will want us all 
 directly.' 
 
 'He only wants us as foils to Miss Wood- 
 roffe. I am not used to this sort of thing, 
 and so I shall tell Lady Louisa.' 
 
 ' Surely you do not think Blitz's moods of 
 any consequence? With your experience of 
 him you must know he is always devoted for a 
 time to a new voice, but he always comes 
 back. You surely don't suspect him of desert- 
 ing you V 
 
 ' I'm sure I don't care anything about him, 
 but I am not used to be asked to come down 
 and sing and then be put so completely on one 
 side.'
 
 278 WOODROFFE. 
 
 * I shall speak to Blitz.' 
 
 'No, by no means! Indeed, Colonel 
 Latreille, I beg you will do nothing of the 
 kind. I assure you I don't care in the 
 least.' 
 
 But Colonel Latreille knew better; and, 
 anxious to make everything as smooth and 
 pleasant as possible for Constance, he had a 
 private conference with the little conductor; 
 in consequence of which modifications were 
 introduced that had the effect, if not of quite 
 pleasing all parties, of rendering the young- 
 ladies more gracious. 
 
 Herr Blitz kept them all very hard at work, 
 and Colonel Latreille found even fewer oppor- 
 tunities of love-making than he had anticipa- 
 ted, but whenever it was possible he was at 
 Constance's side, and they were both exceed- 
 ingly happy. 
 
 Lady Louisa watched with infinite satis- 
 faction the success of her plot, and congratu- 
 lated herself on the manner in which every- 
 thing was arranging itself according to her
 
 WOODROFFE. 279 
 
 wishes. When Mr. Verulam came to dinner on 
 the Friday, the evening on which it had been 
 decided to have a sort of rehearsal of the con- 
 cert, he would, she flattered herself, see that it 
 was absolutely useless for him any longer to 
 entertain hopes of Constance, and, being a 
 sensible man, he would soon learn to console 
 himself. Georgie might be trusted to pay him 
 every attention, and she should owe Constance 
 a debt of gratitude that the handsomest wed- 
 ding present could hardly repay. She took 
 care to place Mr. Verulam where he would be 
 exactly opposite Constance and Colonel 
 Latreille, and might observe how per- 
 fect was the understanding between 
 them. 
 
 Mr. Verulam watched them closely, and at 
 the end of dinner his decision was taken : 
 he must be more rapid in his movements 
 than he had intended, and speak to Mr. 
 WoodrofFe at once. Of course, even if Con- 
 stance went so far as to engage herself to 
 this supercilious guardsman, his own influ-
 
 280 WOODROFFE. 
 
 ence must eventually carry the day; it was 
 not likely that her father would allow her 
 to refuse the man who held all his mort- 
 gages. 
 
 But it would make a talk and scandal 
 which would be very disagreeable to him, 
 if his future wife accepted anyone else only 
 to throw him over again : it therefore be- 
 hoved him to quicken his movements. And, 
 being a man who disliked of all things to 
 have any arrangements which he had made 
 disturbed, he felt considerably ruffled and 
 injured. This feeling was not decreased by 
 the difficulty which he found in approaching 
 Constance after dinner; it really seemed as if 
 she purposely avoided him, and though this 
 was not in fact the case it annoyed him as 
 much as if it had been. 
 
 The rehearsal went very well, and Hen- 
 Blitz was delighted. It was not till it was 
 over that Mr. Verulam found an opportunity of 
 speaking to Constance. 
 
 'You have given us all a great treat,
 
 WOODROFFE. 281 
 
 Miss Woodroffe,' lie said : ' I hope, however, 
 that you have reconsidered your decision re- 
 specting the public concert. 
 
 'Reconsidered it?' said Constance, looking 
 very much surprised. ' No ! why should I T 
 
 ' A public concert is in my opinion a most 
 improper place for a young lady to appear.' 
 
 Constance looked at him in surprise : such 
 a speech seemed to her most impertinent. 
 
 ' Both my father and my mother have 
 consented,' she said, very coldly. 'If they 
 make no objection, surely no one else has a 
 right to do so.' 
 
 'Excuse me, Miss Woodroffe, but I object 
 very much.' 
 
 'You!' exclaimed Constance, in such ex- 
 treme surprise that even Mr. Verulam could 
 not help perceiving that it was perfectly 
 genuine, and that she had not the least 
 idea of his meaning. He was about to 
 explain himself, when Lady Louisa, observing 
 that something which she did not quite under- 
 stand was going on, thought it desirable to
 
 282 WOODROFFE. 
 
 interrupt the tete-a-tete and came up to beg' 
 * dearest Constance, if not quite too tired, 
 would give them just one more song?' 
 
 Constance was very thankful for the in- 
 terruption : it seemed to her that Mr. Veru- 
 lam must either be mad or have partaken 
 too freely of his host's claret, or he could 
 never have spoken so strangely as he had 
 done, and she gladly moved to the piano 
 and began, at Colonel Latreille's request, 
 ' Robin Adair,' the first song he had ever 
 heard her sing. After it was over she took 
 good care that the master of Caenthorpe 
 should have no opportunity of speaking to 
 her apart.
 
 283 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Spendthrift alike of money and of wit, 
 Always at speed, and never drawing bit. 
 
 Table Talk. COWPER. 
 
 THE next morning Mr. Verulam drove over 
 to the Manor and requested an interview 
 with Mr. Woodroffe. Somehow, great as 
 were, in his belief, the advantages which he 
 had to offer, he did not, when the moment 
 arrived, feel it so easy as he had antici- 
 pated to make known his wishes: and some 
 minutes were spent in observations on the 
 weather, and on a case that had come be- 
 fore the magistrates two or three days pre- 
 viously, before he said :
 
 284 , WOODROFFE. 
 
 ' Mr. Woodroffe, as I have no doubt you 
 suppose, I have a motive in soliciting an in- 
 terview with you so early in the day it is 
 of importance and I did not wish to post- 
 pone it. I come as a suitor for the hand 
 of your daughter, Miss Woodroffe.' 
 
 The blow had fallen. Poor Mr. WoodrofFe 
 felt as if sentence of doom had been pro- 
 nounced upon him, and as if he had never 
 before realised how unspeakably distasteful 
 such a connection would be to him. There 
 was an indescribable air in Mr. Verulam's 
 pomposity that seemed, to his sensitive fancy, 
 to say : 
 
 < I know you are at your wit's end for 
 
 
 
 money, you are at this very moment appre- 
 hensive of fresh demands from your son. I 
 hold all the mortgages on your estate and 
 could at any moment foreclose. You have 
 no escape. I ask for your daughter, and 
 you have no alternative but to give her to 
 me.' 
 
 There rose up before him a vision of all
 
 WOODROFFE. 285 
 
 the ye^rs that he had weakly yielded to 
 Basil and to his wife, and for the first 
 time the sense of how wrong he had been 
 really dawned upon him. But it was too 
 late the folly had been committed. Nothing 
 remained but to pay the penalty. 
 
 Even now what he thought most of was 
 the degradation of a Woodroffe marrying so 
 infinitely beneath her ; the injustice of Con- 
 stance's life being sacrificed for her brother's 
 faults hardly struck him. He felt, of course, 
 that ultimate consent was inevitable, but he 
 could not resist the impulse to struggle a little 
 against his fate, and he therefore replied, some- 
 what coldly, 
 
 1 I confess, Mr. Verulam, your suggestion is 
 a surprise to me. May I ask if you have my 
 daughter's sanction to your request T 
 
 Mr. Verulam knew perfectly well that Mr. 
 Woodrofie was only fencing, and was far too 
 certain of ultimate success to resent it. It 
 hardly occurred to him that his suit was really 
 unwelcome, under the circumstances he could
 
 286 WOODROFFE. 
 
 scarcely conceive that that was possible ; he 
 imagined that Mr. Woodroffe was only anxious 
 to make the best possible terms. So he 
 answered, blandly, 
 
 ' No, I have not yet spoken to Miss Wood- 
 roffe. 1 may be old-fashioned in my views, 
 but I preferred to assure myself first of your 
 consent. It was not my intention to have 
 
 spoken quite so soon, but circumstances I 
 
 may say I dined at Ashford last night, and the 
 marked attention that Colonel Latreille paid 
 Miss Woodroffe determined me to lose no time 
 in requesting your permission to pay my 
 addresses to her.' 
 
 'I cannot force my daughter's inclinations,' 
 said Mr. Woodroffe, hastily ; ' should she prefer 
 anyone else to you I will not interfere.' 
 
 Mr. Verulam's brow began to lower, but he 
 preserved a studiously amiable manner and 
 tone of voice. 
 
 ' I quite understand that, of course,' he said, 
 'the days are, as we all know, past, when 
 young ladies were forced to marry against
 
 WOODROFFE. 287 
 
 their will, still I hope for not only your 
 sanction but your support, and I confess I feel 
 very hopeful as to the result. And, speaking 
 confidentially as we are now, a few business 
 details may not be out of place. You may 
 perhaps have heard that I have retired from 
 business that is the case. I have been with- 
 drawing my capital very gradually so as in no 
 wise to injure my successors, but the process is 
 now all but completed, and in another month 
 all my fortune will be free and securely 
 invested to excellent advantage. Miss Wood- 
 roffe's fortune would of course be settled upon 
 herself, and I should be prepared to secure to 
 her a jointure of 10,000 a year.' 
 
 'Nothing could be handsomer,' said Mr. 
 Woodrofie, very coldly, ' but does it not strike 
 you that all this is very premature ? All must 
 depend on Constance's wishes, and these you 
 say you have not ascertained. Of course you 
 have my consent to trying your fate with her, 
 but I cannot in the least predict to you what it 
 will be. Of one thing I feel pretty certain, that
 
 288 TVOODROFFE. 
 
 the thought of money will have little or no 
 weight with her. But of course nothing could 
 be further from your wish than that it should. 
 I really beg your pardon.' 
 
 Mr. Verulam dimly felt that this was meant 
 to be satirical, but he would not allow his 
 temper to be roused, and replied, 
 
 ' I should be sorry to be supposed to impute 
 mercenary motives to Miss WoodrofFe nothing 
 could be further from my thoughts. But it is 
 of course desirable that you should quite 
 understand me, and I do not think even she 
 would be blind to some of the advantages.' 
 
 'May I ask to what you refer?' said Mr. 
 Woodroffe, coldly. 
 
 He knew he was helpless, that the meshes of 
 the net were closing slowly though surely round 
 him, yet he could not resist some last struggles 
 of apparent independence. 
 
 * You are, of course, aware,' said Mr. 
 Verulam, drawing his chair somewhat nearer, 
 as if about to discuss something extremely 
 confidential, ' that I hold all the mortgages on 
 your estate T
 
 WOODROFFE. 289 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe sighed rather than said : 
 < Yes.' 
 
 Somehow the humiliation seemed greater now 
 that it was put into words by his companion 
 than while it remained, known of course, but 
 unspoken between them. 
 
 ' You are paying interest,' continued Mr. 
 Verulam, ' at the rate of four and a half per 
 cent. In the event of Miss Woodroffe doing 
 me the honour to accept me, I should at once 
 reduce the interest to two per cent. What I 
 may be inclined to say respecting them in the 
 future, I decline at present to state, but I do 
 not think you would find me illiberal. For- 
 give my referring to so unpleasant a topic, but 
 it was of course necessary if we are to 
 understand one another, .and I think your 
 daughter would like to feel that she 
 was assisting to reduce your embarrass- 
 ments.' 
 
 'Do you wish me to plead your cause for 
 you asked Mr. Woodroffe. 
 
 Mr. Verulam hesitated : he would have liked 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 WOODROFFE. 
 
 very much that Mr. Woodroffe should point 
 out all the advantages of the match to his 
 daughter, that he should then write her a 
 formal letter of proposal, and that she should 
 accept him without any further fuss or 
 trouble ; but he supposed it Avould not do, that 
 a girl would consider it too prosaic and com- 
 mon-place : he must resign himself, he feared, 
 to a certain amount of love-making. So he 
 answered : 
 
 ' Hardly that, but I shall be glad if you will 
 tell her what I have said. I should not at all 
 wish to approach the subject of money with 
 her, and yet I should like her to be in posses- 
 sion of my views.' 
 
 ' You may rely on my laying them 
 before her. But as I said before, Mr. Verulam, 
 I cannot undertake to control her inclina- 
 tions. Her choice shall be absolutely un- 
 fettered.' 
 
 The determined tone in which Mr. Wood- 
 roffe said this was perhaps unconsciously 
 assumed to disguise from himself the fear that
 
 WOODROFFE. 291 
 
 lie should be unable to cany out his good 
 intentions. Mr. Veralam divined this, and 
 replied : 
 
 * Of course. I only ask your sanction, and 
 your and Mrs. Woodroffe's kind influence. Do 
 you think I may venture to hope for her good 
 wishes T 
 
 ' You had better ask her yourself,' said Mr. 
 Woodroffe, who knew only too well that his 
 wife would welcome the wooer with feverish 
 eagerness. ' Will you come into the drawing- 
 room and see her now?' 
 
 Mr. Verulam gladly consented, and Mr. 
 Woodroffe, after taking him to the drawing- 
 room, made some excuse as to business 
 and withdrew. He felt he could not bear to 
 hear the whole matter re-discussed just 
 yet. 
 
 From Mrs. Woodroffe Mr. Verulam obtained 
 all the sympathy he could desire, and she 
 eagerly promised to do everything in her 
 power ' to make Conny see it in the right 
 light' 
 
 u2
 
 292 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Perhaps in his secret heart he scarcely liked 
 the idea that so much persuasion should be 
 supposed to be required, but he comforted him- 
 self with the thought that if he got what he- 
 wanted it did not greatly signify by what 
 means it was obtained. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe begged him to come over 
 to luncheon on Wednesday, and it was tacitly 
 understood that, before his arrival, all his 
 advantages would be set before Constance, and 
 that his courtship would then formally com- 
 mence. Mr. Verulam took his leave, cer- 
 tain that he left one firm friend at the 
 Manor. 
 
 So excited was Mrs. Woodroffe by this com- 
 munication that she was roused to leave her sofa 
 and go to her husband in the library, a thing 
 she very seldom - did. She found him 
 with his head resting on his folded 
 arms in an attitude of the deepest dejec- 
 tion. 
 
 * Well, Edgar ! so it has all come 
 right !'
 
 WOODROFFE. 293 
 
 ' Right ! with a groan, ' right that a Wood- 
 roffe should many a man who is a nobody I 
 You have curious views of what is right, 
 Adele.' 
 
 ' You know what I mean, Edgar, 
 it will be such a good thing for dear 
 Basil.' 
 
 ' I begin to see now that Lucy has been 
 right all along and we have been wrong. 
 If we had not indulged him so much, no 
 such sacrifice would have been neces- 
 sary.' 
 
 ' I should like to know what Lucy could 
 know of how to manage children,' said Mrs. 
 Woodroffe, scornfully : ' we all know what 
 models old maids' children always are! And 
 as to sacrifice ! Conny is the luckiest girl in the 
 world to have the chance of being mistress 
 of Caenthorpe ! She will be the envy of the 
 county.' 
 
 ' Suppose she cares for some one else. 
 Mr. Yerulam confessed he spoke sooner than 
 he should otherwise have done because Colonel
 
 294 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Latreille was paying her so much attention last 
 night. I confess he is a man I should infinitely 
 prefer as a son-in-law.' 
 
 ' But it would not be the same thing ! he does 
 not hold the mortgages ! it would be of no use 
 to Basil !' exclaimed Mrs. WoodrofFe. ' 1 cannot 
 think how Conny can be so deceitful ! She has 
 never once mentioned Colonel Latreille's name 
 as being at Ashford, and yet she knows how 
 much 1 dislike him.' 
 
 'Why?' 
 
 ' Why ? because I was afraid of his putting 
 love-rubbish into her head, and preventing her 
 marrying Mr. Verulam. I told you so the night 
 we came back from Caenthorpe.' 
 
 'And I most particularly desired you to say 
 nothing whatsoever to her on the sub- 
 ject.' 
 
 ' Well, I did not indeed. I only said I did not 
 like Colonel Latreille, that I thought him very 
 forward, which I do, and did not wish to hear 
 any more about him.' 
 
 'Which naturally enough supplies the
 
 WOODROFFE. 295 
 
 reason why she has not mentioned his being at 
 Ashford.' 
 
 * But it is very sly of her. She must know 
 we should object to her meeting him. I am 
 sure, if Lady Louisa had not told me he had 
 refused her invitation because he was to be 
 in Northumberland, she should never have 
 gone.' 
 
 ' I have no objection to her meeting him. If 
 she came back on Monday engaged to him it 
 would be a relief to my mind, I declare !' 
 
 ' Edgar ! how can you 1 ?' 
 
 * Because I know my own weakness, A dele. 
 If the girl were engaged, I should have some- 
 thing to hold to and could trust myself. But, 
 if she is not, I know that with all my desire 
 not to influence her I shall be unable to 
 help doing it. The temptation is too 
 great.' 
 
 'Well, I cannot see why you should make 
 all this fuss,' said his wife, impatiently ; ' do 
 just look at it in the common sense way of 
 being the very best thing that could happen for
 
 296 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Conny herself and all of us. If only that tire- 
 some Colonel Latreille had stopped in North- 
 umberland ! However, perhaps after all he was 
 only amusing himself.' 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe did not pursue the argument. 
 As he had bitterly said, he knew his own weak- 
 ness, and felt that he should never be able to 
 resist the temptation of the decreased mort- 
 gage interest and all the pressure that would 
 be brought to bear upon him. He felt, as sure 
 as if the deed were already done, that Con- 
 stance would marry Mr. Verulam whatever her 
 own wishes might be, and that, instead of pro- 
 tecting her in the exercise of her free choice, 
 he should be accessory to her decision. 
 
 He despised himself bitterly for his weakness, 
 and yet he felt absolutely helpless; he knew 
 that, if he wavered, his wife would leave him no 
 peace and that Basil would overwhelm him 
 with reproaches. And indeed it was rather of 
 the derogation of the dignity of the family that 
 he thought than of Constance herself; he was 
 not given to thinking much of feelings, and had
 
 WOODROFFE. 297 
 
 a good deal of the average masculine belief 
 that all girls were anxious to be married, and 
 were generally delighted to take the first suitor 
 who presented himself, if he were rich 
 enough. 
 
 Well ! there was no doubt about Mr. Veru- 
 lam's wealth. It would certainly be a grand 
 position for Constance, and very charming to 
 have her settled so near ; it would be a great 
 advantage to Yolande to have her sister to go 
 out with, and when he died, and just then he 
 felt that the morning's work had aged him by 
 ten years at least, and that he was old and 
 feeble, with no provision made for his widow 
 and child, he might comfort himself with the 
 certainty that they would be taken care of, 
 which he could not feel if they were left ex- 
 clusively to Basil's care. But still he realised 
 what a relief it would be to him if Constance, 
 when she came home, were engaged to Colonel 
 Latreille, and he were able to announce to Mr. 
 Verulam that his offer had been made too 
 late.
 
 298 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Mrs. Woodroffe was too excited to be able to 
 rest quietly ; and, though she did not in the 
 least intend to take Yolande into her confidence, 
 she talked so much of Caenthorpe and Mr. Veru- 
 lam that the girl began to have a startled sus- 
 picion of the state of the case. But of course she did 
 not know the weighty reasons that made her 
 mother anxious for such a marriage, and it did 
 not discompose her in the least. 
 
 Of course it was very natural that Mr. Veru- 
 lam or anyone should fall in love with Conny, 
 Yolande honestly believed her darling sister to 
 be absolutely peerless, but that she should ever 
 think of such an old man, was of course out of 
 the question. Besides, was she not in love with 
 Colonel Latreille ? and Yolande gave a deep sigh 
 as she reflected that perhaps, when Constance 
 came on Monday, she would announce that she 
 was engaged and about to leave the Manor for 
 ever. 
 
 As soon as she returned from the library, 
 Mrs. WoodrofFe began to interrogate her 
 daughter.
 
 WOODROFFE. 299 
 
 'Yolande, has Conny said anything to you 
 of Colonel Latreille being at Ashford 
 
 1 Oh, yes ! And we know he was to be 
 there. He said so the Sunday he drank tea 
 at Aunt Lucy's.' 
 
 ' I really can't think,' exclaimed Mrs. Wood- 
 roffe, peevishly, ' how you could both be so 
 deceitful as not to tell me such a thing !' 
 
 * Mamma !' said Yolande, in infinite surprise ; 
 ' you forbade us to mention his name again.' 
 
 ' Of course, 1 did not wish you to be always 
 chattering about a forward man whom I 
 particularly dislike, still I ought to have been 
 told ! It is very sly of Constance, she has 
 carefully avoided mentioning him.' 
 
 ' Conny is not sly !' cried Yolande, indig- 
 nantly, ' you know quite well, mamma, that 
 she is not, and that it was because you said 
 we were never to mention him that she has 
 left him out.' 
 
 ' What has she said to you T 
 
 ' Oh, only about how much they have been 
 practising together; and how cleverly he
 
 300 WOODROFFE. 
 
 managed something she Avanted with Hen- 
 Blitz, to prevent the others being so jealous of 
 her.' 
 
 Yolande had rare discretion for her age; 
 she breathed not a word of her certainty that 
 Colonel Latreille and her sister were in love 
 with each other ; as her mother seemed to have 
 taken such a strong and unaccountable 
 prejudice against him, she felt that the less that 
 was said the better, until Constance was at 
 home to say it for herself. 
 
 The next morning Mr. WoodrofFe received a 
 letter which caused him to shut himself up 
 alone in the library for the entire day, refusing 
 admittance even to his wife. Yolande confided 
 to Aunt Lucy after church that she was afraid 
 that Basil was troublesome again, the letter 
 was in his handwriting, and before papa had 
 half read it he had got up and almost staggered 
 out of the room, looking as white as a sheet. 
 
 Miss Lucy shook her head and sighed, not 
 only for her brother's sorrow, but because she 
 feared that any further pecuniary embarrass-
 
 WOODROFFE. 301 
 
 ment must more securely rivet the chains by 
 which Constance was to be bound to Mr. 
 Verulam. 
 
 Yolande was right ; it was indeed a letter 
 from Basil that had so disturbed his father. 
 Basil wrote very coolly to say that he must 
 within a week have 5,000. He had had a 
 bad Leger week, but might perhaps have 
 tided over that if he had not gone to stay 
 afterwards at a house in Yorkshire where they 
 had played baccarat very high, and where he 
 had had the worst possible luck. 
 
 It was very unfortunate, of course, and he 
 was really very sorry, still it would have been 
 worse if there had not been old Verulam ready 
 to many Constance and set everything straight 
 again. He could not think why he had not 
 yet heard of the thing being settled, it was 
 two months since he had left it all in very 
 good trim ; he hoped they were not being 
 careless about the matter; there were many 
 girls prettier than Constance, and old Verulam 
 might change his mind if he saw a face that
 
 302 AYOODROFFE. 
 
 pleased him better. The sooner the affair was 
 settled and announced the better. 
 
 It was a thoroughly heartless letter, and so 
 Mr. Woodroffe felt. His first impulse was to 
 refuse to raise the money, it was the very 
 utmost shilling with which the estate could 
 possibly be burdened, and to leave Basil to 
 face the position of being unable to meet his 
 debts of honour as best he might. 
 
 But even as he felt this he well knew that 
 he was incapable of carrying it out. He could 
 not bear the thought of his boy being dis- 
 graced, and he began to regard, with a thank- 
 fulness in which even the day before he could 
 not have believed, the hope of succour held 
 out by Constance's marriage. In face of the 
 possible disgrace of a Woodroffe not being able 
 to pay his debts of honour, it was comparatively 
 a small thing that one of them should marry 
 beneath her. 
 
 After all, as his wife said, it was done every 
 day, and at any rate there was no use fretting 
 about what was now clearly inevitable. Even if,
 
 WOODROFFE. 303 
 
 as he had hoped the day before, she returned 
 from Ashford engaged to Colonel Latreille, the 
 marriage must by some means be broken off. 
 Their only hope now lay in Mr. Verulam he 
 must even appeal to him about this fresh 
 mortgage, it was the only hope of obtaining 
 the money by the time Basil required it. 
 
 Very bitter was Mr. Woodroffe's repentance, 
 as he sat in his study during that long miserable 
 Sunday, over his foolish and mistaken indul- 
 gence of his son. He felt, what it is the bitter 
 punishment of so many to feel, that he was 
 himself to blame for his son's faults ; that his 
 foolish indulgence and weak submission to all 
 his whims were responsible for Basil's selfish- 
 ness, extravagance, and folly. If all were but 
 to begin over again ! and he sighed heavily 
 as he thought how useless was the 
 wish. 
 
 About six o'clock he crept slowly from the 
 library, and going into the drawing-room 
 put the letter silently into his wife's 
 hand.
 
 304 WOODROFFE. 
 
 Even Mrs. Woodroffe was startled as she 
 read: 
 
 ' Five thousand pounds ! oh, Edgar !' 
 
 ' Yes,' gloomily ; ' he does not abate his de- 
 mands, does he ? It is the very last shilling the 
 estate will carry. Perhaps, when he realises 
 that, it may make him pause.' 
 
 f As he says, how providential it is that Mr. 
 Verulam has taken this fancy to Conny ! Of 
 course he can do nothing less than cancel the 
 mortgages.' 
 
 ' I really don't see how such a thing can be 
 expected of him. His reducing the interest by 
 more than half is an enormous boon. I can 
 hardly expect him to do more.' 
 
 ' Oh, but of course he must ; where is the use 
 of his being so rich if he does not 
 
 ' He may not improbably prefer to spend his 
 money on himself and his own pleasures, rather 
 than on a selfish, extravagant fellow like Basil.' 
 
 ' Oh, Edgar ! don't speak so harshly of the 
 dear boy ! You mustn't turn against him like 
 Lucy.'
 
 WOODROFFE. 305 
 
 ' I wish Adele we had listened to Lucy. She 
 has been right all along, and we have been 
 terribly wrong. We have ruined Basil by our 
 weak and wicked indulgence, and we should 
 not wonder that we have to bear the bitter 
 consequences.' 
 
 It was still far from having dawned upon Mr. 
 Woodroffe that it was his daughter who would 
 really be the scape-goat, and not him- 
 self. 
 
 ' How unjust you are !' exclaimed Mrs. 
 Woodroffe, bursting into tears; 'no one ever is 
 just to poor, dear Basil. What has he done that 
 every young man does not do? If he has 
 sometimes spent a little more money than he 
 ought, does not everyone else do the same? 
 And you see what he says, " he had such a run 
 of ill-luck I" It is not even as if it were his own 
 fault, poor, dear fellow I' 
 
 Mr. Woodroffe knew of old that there was 
 no use arguing with his wife : besides, it was 
 too late now for argument to be of any use. 
 All the harm was done, there was nothing left 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 WOODROFFE. 
 
 but to consider the remedy, and that of course 
 was Constance. So with a deep sigh he took up 
 the letter and shut himself up once more in the 
 library to meditate on his answer, and also on 
 the best method of breaking to Constance on 
 the morrow Mr. Verulam's proposal 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY DUNCAN MAODONALD, BLENHEIM HOUSE.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000133356 6