.
 
 d
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES GARVICE 
 
 Author oj "Fiiniiet Holt's : Daughter," "Claire," "Elaine,'' " Her Ransom,' 
 
 "Leslie's Loyalty" " Sweet Cymbeline," " The Snowdrift" 
 
 " Woven on Fate's Loom,'' Etc., Etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE FEDERAL BOOK COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ONE afternoon in early June about the happiest looking 
 girl in all England stood at the entrance of the new lions' 
 house at the Zoological Gardens. 
 
 She stood looking wistfully and longingly, and then 
 glanced with a little sigh of regret at a group of ladies 
 seated under the trees on. tli3 lawn a little way off. She 
 had been seated in the group, listening to the small talk, 
 for nearly half an hour, and that half hour had just 
 meant so much wasted time to her : for she loved, adored, 
 animals of all kinds, wild or tame, and she hated gossip. 
 So she had got up quietly and strolled off knowing full 
 well that to stroll away from your chaperon and guardian 
 is an act of disobedience and wickedness of almost the last 
 degree. With a sigh, she was going back to the group, 
 when, unfortunately for her, the lion the big one with 
 the mane gave a groan and then a roar. This was 
 irresistible ; and the girl, abandoning the proprieties, 
 passed through the doorway, and, with ecstatic enjoyment, 
 sauntered down the house watching the animals. There 
 were not many people in the place, and she almost had it 
 to herself: and no words can tell how she enjoyed it. 
 Sometimes she leaned Avith both elbows on the iron bar 
 which rails off the cages from the promenade ; and now 
 and again she climbed up the steps facing the dens and 
 sat on one of the seats, her elbows on her knees, her chin 
 resting in her gloved hands. 
 
 She was very happy: first, because she was young. 
 Oh ! it is good to be only twenty ! Secondly, because she 
 was perfectly healthy : and thirdly, because she had not 
 eaten of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. That is to 
 
 3
 
 4 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 .say, she was as innocent of all evil as the doves which 
 
 ; in the cages in the South Walk. Alas! how few 
 
 girls of twenty are there who can lay their little white 
 
 hands on their hearts and claim a like ignorance! l>ut 
 
 this ehild of Nature, as her aunt, Lady Pauline Lascelles, 
 
 called her, had been exceptionally brought up as will 
 
 :i presently. 
 
 was so absorbed in the lions and tigers, the black 
 panther with the temper, and the leopard who declined 
 to change his spots, that when she had got to the end of 
 irnivora house, instead of returning to the group, 
 i tight by the splash of the seals, who live just out- 
 wide, passed on, and instantly grew as absorbed in them. 
 Leaning on the bar, she watched the keeper put the in- 
 telligent, soft-eyed little fellows through their stereotyped 
 tricks, and frankly, and with an "Oh! thank you, thank 
 you : how clever, how very clever they are ! " she gave 
 the keeper a shilling from the silver-netted purse which 
 she extracted from the mysterious pocket which ladies 
 favor and no man has ever yet been known to find. 
 
 From the seals she sauntered on to the monkey-house. 
 But the evil-smelling place was too much for her, and, 
 suddenly awakened from her kind of dream, she remem- 
 bered her aunt, and retraced her steps by way of the 
 lions' house. 
 
 she went through it again her pace grew slower, 
 and she lingered just a moment or two before the big 
 lion's Victor's cage. While she was looking at him 
 admiringly, the keeper's private door between the 
 opened, and the keeper came out. He was followed by a 
 gentleman, who paused a moment to look around him, 
 then, passing something into the keeper's hands, nodded, 
 and walked on. 
 
 The keeper pocketed his tip, touched hi.s hat with 
 marked respect, "and looked after the gentleman curiously. 
 
 The young girl looked after him, too, and a littl 
 viously ; for fancy being privileged to go " behind the 
 scenes " at the Zoo ! 
 
 She left the carnivora house, and \\ulkedquiek" 
 ward the lawn; then she stopped and looked round, 
 ratln.-r aghast, for the group had gone from under the 
 trees, and Lady Pauline was not to be seen.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 5 
 
 She was not alarmed, because she was neither nervous 
 nor timid ; and she felt sure she could find her aunt, who 
 was both tall and stately, and not easily hidden. So, al- 
 most as happy as before, she wandered round and about, 
 just pausing on tiptoe, so to speak, before some particu- 
 larly enticing cage, and keeping her eyes on the alert. 
 But after half an hour spent in this way and no aunt in 
 sight, she began to get well, a little grave and serious. 
 
 The Zoo is not exactly a wilderness though there are 
 plenty of wild animals in it and there are numerous 
 keepers of whom one can inquire one's way ; and the 
 girl was not afraid of being lost. But she knew Lady 
 Pauline would be anxious, and as angry as she could ever 
 find it possible to be ; and she was getting vexed with 
 herself. 
 
 Xow as she had a particularly eloquent face eyes, 
 lips and brow which reflected and expressed every pass- 
 ing emotion it was not to be wondered at that, as she 
 stood at the corner of one of the walks, looking from side 
 to side anxiously, she should attract attention. 
 
 A nursemaid, dragging two children behind her, re- 
 marked to the eldest; 
 
 " Look at that pretty lidy ; she's been an' lost her wiy." 
 
 A young man glanced at her, and waited, longing to 
 speak to her and offer assistance ; but he was young and 
 shy, and. he, too, passed on. Then came the gentleman 
 who had come from behind the dens. Pie was walking 
 slowly, with eyes fixed straight before him, and he did 
 not see the girlish figure and the anxious face until he 
 was close upon her and he, too, looked as if he would have 
 liked to pass by. 
 
 But something in the gray-blue eyes, in the delicate 
 lines of the girl's white brow, stopped him against his 
 will. 
 
 lie pulled up, raised his hat, and in a graA-e voice that 
 was not by any means unmusical, said : 
 
 " I beg your pardon. Are you looking for any one ? 
 Can I help you ? " 
 
 The girl did not blush, but turned her eyes upon him 
 with an almost boyish frankness. 
 
 " Oh, thank you ! " she said, rather hesitatingly for 
 how could he help her ? "I have wandered from my
 
 6 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 people, and lost them. I have been searching for them 
 everywhere, but cannot see them." 
 
 The girl as her eyes rested on him placidly, incuriously, 
 saw a well-dressed man, with a handsome face, with dark 
 eyes and hair. There was a suspicion of gray about the 
 temples, and a look of gravity and sadness in the < 
 which, perhaps, struck her afterward. But for the mo- 
 ment she only noticed that he was good-looking and had 
 a distinguished air : and that he seemed rather wearied 
 and a little bored, but too well-bred not to try and < 
 ceal it. 
 
 No voice whispered in her ear " Behold this man : he 
 is your Fate the man who will change the current of 
 your life ; the man whose slightest word, lightest smile, 
 Avill have the power to move your heart to its very 
 depths." 
 
 he smiled at him with her eloquent mouth, with 
 her frank, blue eyes ; and the man looked gravely into 
 the face, scarcely noticing its fascination. 
 
 Where did you leave them ? " he asked. 
 
 'Under the trees on the lawn, by the li<" " she 
 
 replied. " I strolled in there, and wandered farther than 
 T intended ; when I came back they had gone." 
 
 Xo doubt they only left for a time; they may have 
 gone back," he said. 
 
 "Ah. do you think so?" she said, with a touch of re- 
 lief in her voice, a smile in her eyes. " But I can't find 
 it again ! I've gone round and round until I feel as if I 
 were in a maze " 
 
 "I think I know the place you mean : and, if you will 
 allow me, I will take you back to it." 
 
 As they walked on side by side he asked: 
 
 " Is this your first visit to the Zoo * " 
 
 "Yes, my very first. We have always lived in the 
 country. This is my lirst visit to London, and I be.u. 
 aunt to bring me here I had heard and read so much of 
 it. I am so fond of animals. I have a horse of my own, 
 two dogs, three cats, sonic white mice, and a guinea pig. 
 I bought a parrot of a sailor (we. live near a port), but 
 aunt said it talked bad language, so I exchanged it for 
 some Belgian hares." 
 
 ' ; You must have a perfect menagerie," he remarked.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 7 
 
 She laughed. How soon was the man to thrill from 
 head to foot at that laugh ! And yet, now, it affected 
 him not the least bit in the world. It struck him as 
 musical, pleasant that was all. 
 
 "It was awfully hard to part with them. I brought 
 the dogs and the guinea pig, and the white mice ; but I 
 had to leave the rest behind. Oh, there is the place ; but 
 my aunt is not there ! " she broke off. 
 
 The man looked around, as a man does when he has 
 undertaken to do something which he knows will be a 
 nuisance. 
 
 " Perhaps she is searching for you, as you have been 
 searching for her," he said. " We had better go round 
 the gardens. What' is your aunt like ? But you will see 
 her, of course, if we run against her ? " 
 
 " She is tall and stately," said the girl, " and she is 
 dressed in gray, like I am ; but in silk. Oh, of course, 
 I should see her ever so far off ! " 
 
 " Then let us go round," lie said ; " there is no cause 
 for anxiety. 1 ' 
 
 " I am not anxious," said the girl, frankly. " Of 
 course, aunt will be a little angry well, not angry ; she 
 never is ; she couldn't be ; but I know that the carriage 
 was ordered to take us up at one of the gates at six o'clock, 
 and I think I could find it. Are we going through the 
 lions' house ? I hope we can. I've been through twice ; 
 but I should never get tired of it should you? " 
 
 " Eh V " he said, absently. Her voice was musical, but 
 he was not paying much attention to her words. " Oh, I 
 don't know. I go to it very often." 
 
 "I saw you just now," she said, "I saw you come out 
 from the back of the dens with the keeper." 
 
 " Did you V " he said, listlessly. " Yes, I had been round 
 to see a young lion I brought over." 
 
 She stopped dead short, and looked at him, her limpid 
 eyes wide as saucers, and, it must be confessed, her mouth 
 almost as open. 
 
 " A lion you brought over ! You, yourself ! " she ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 He smiled a little wearily and listlessly. 
 
 " There is nothing wonderful in that," he said. " I've 
 just come from Africa ; there are lions there still, strange
 
 8 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 to say. T caught this one after shooting its mother. It's 
 a fine young lion, and doing very well." 
 
 " Oh, how I should like to see it ! " she exclaimed, not 
 shyly or hesitatingly, but frankly, like a girl, a child, if 
 you like, whose wishes have always been granted. 
 
 "Should you? Nothing easier," he said, in the same 
 tone. " The keeper shall show it to you." 
 
 He took her into the house, beckoned to the keeper, 
 who touched his hat as respectfully as before, and, to the 
 girl's delight, led them through the passage between the 
 cages to the back of the dens. 
 
 " Just show us the youngster, keeper," he said. 
 
 " Yes, my lord," said the keeper obsequiously. 
 
 They had passed into a kind of covered yard, in which 
 were standing several huge traveling cages. Some of 
 these were covered with tarpaulin, and from one of these 
 the keeper drew aside the covering and revealed a fine 
 young lion. As the light streamed in upon him he 
 blinked and snarled, showing his white, even teeth, 
 angrily. - 
 
 " Oh, what a beauty ! " exclaimed the girl. " And you 
 really caught it ! Oh, how I envy you ! What a lovely 
 head it has ! " 
 
 As she spoke, she went down on one knee, and, all un- 
 conscious, got a little too close to the cage. 
 
 Every one knows how quickly a cat's claw shoots out 
 after a bird or a mouse. Like a flash of lightning the 
 young lord of the forest darted out his paw at the girl. 
 But the gentleman had caught the vicious look in the 
 animal's eyes, and before the sharp claw could reach her, 
 he had caught her by the arm and drawn her back. He 
 was only just in time to save her, and not in time to save 
 himself: for the sound of rent cloth mixed with the snarl 
 and roar of disappointment which the lion sent forth. 
 
 The keeper struck at the cage, shouted rebukingly and 
 let the tarpaulin down. 
 
 "Hope he didn't catch you, my lord?" he said, with 
 anxious respect. 
 
 The gentleman shook his head and slipped his arm with 
 the torn sleeve behind him. 
 
 " Not at all," he said, quietly. " Show us that young 
 panther, keeper."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 9 
 
 The girl looked from one to the other. She was a 
 little pale. 
 
 " Are you sure it did not touch your arm ? " she said, 
 her sweet eyes fixed upon his face Avith a troubled ex- 
 pression ; " I I thought I heard the cloth tear. Are you 
 sure, please ? " 
 
 " Quite sure," he said, a little wearily. " There is the 
 most dangerous animal in the gardens." He nodded to- 
 ward the panther, who regarded them with a sullen 
 ferocity, and, as he nodded, he took her arm and held her 
 away from the cage. 
 
 The keeper showed them several other animals in the 
 private yard, and now and again the gentleman dropped 
 a word of criticism and advice, which, the girl noticed, 
 the keeper received with marked deference. It seemed 
 to her that her guardian for the time being must be a man 
 of some importance. 
 
 But presently he appeared to remember that they were 
 not very likely to find her people at the back of the lion's 
 den, and, with a nod to the keeper, he led her out again. 
 They walked round and round the most frequented parts 
 of the Gardens for some time, stopping to look at the 
 various cages, and the girl chatted and asked questions 
 with a perfect freedom from shyness. Every now and 
 then she would look up at his face laughingly, and call 
 his attention to some odd bird or quadruped ; and the man 
 would come down out of the clouds and smile gravely. 
 
 He answered all her questions with quiet exactitude, 
 and once or twice volunteered some information. 
 
 " You must know a great deal about animals," she re- 
 marked. " I wish I did ! " and she sighed. 
 
 " I -have traveled a little," he responded. 
 
 " I wish I had ! " she said, with a half smile and a half 
 sigh. " But girls don't travel, do they ? They are so 
 different from men. Now, it wouldn't matter if you were 
 lost instead of me." 
 
 " Xot much," he said. 
 
 " Xo ; you would not be scolded and told -oh, all sorts 
 of things. I don't see aunt anywhere and oh, I am so 
 thirsty ! " 
 
 " Are you ? Why didn't you say so before ? " he 
 asked.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " T didn't think of it before I saw the refreshment place," 
 si ic replied, frankly. 
 
 He led her up the path and put a chair for her at one 
 of the tables under the trees, full in sight of the elephants 
 promenading with their cages of assorted human beings, 
 and ordered tra for t\vo. 
 
 waiter brought it, and set it down with the usual 
 lie in front of the girl, and she poured it out with 
 simple gravity, as if well, as if they were brother and 
 -. -r or man and wife. 
 
 He leaned back in his chair and regarded her with a 
 slight increase of interest. She was certainly very beau- 
 tiful. Her eyes were rather a strange blue the blue that 
 darkens quickly under any swift or deep emotion. Then 
 he looked at her dress, and, seeing its simplicity, pondered 
 over her social position. It was evident that the girl 
 a lady. Her very innocence and frankness proved that, 
 even if her voice and manner had not done so. 
 
 "Do you take sugar?" she asked, lifting her eyes to 
 his so suddenly that he found it i . to drop his own 
 
 critical ones. " Xo ? How strange that seems! I do 
 
 as much as I can get." 
 
 " You can pour the contents of the sugar basin into your 
 cup, if you like," he said. 
 
 "I wonder what the waiter would say! No, I am" go- 
 ing to be content with three lumps. Oh, how nice the 
 is ! I was so very, very thirsty weren't you 
 
 " Yes," he said, simply. He beckoned a waiter, and t< ld 
 him to bring some cake. The girl brightened up at it, and, 
 after helping herself, cut a slice for him. 
 
 -Xot like cake!" she said. "That's strange, too I 
 thought every one liked cake." 1 
 
 ' .Most young people do," he said, with the half- \\vary 
 smile. 
 
 She looked ;,t him with something like actual attention, 
 her cake poised in her hand. 
 
 " Are you old ? " she said. The simplicity of the ques- 
 tion, to say nothing of its frankness, brought* a full-blown 
 smile to his face, and he certainly did not look old at that 
 moment. 
 
 all depends upon what you call old," he said. "I 
 am afraid I should seem to you very aged."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 11 
 
 " Aunt, says that a man is as old as he feels, and a 
 woman as old as she looks." 
 
 " Reckoning on that basis, I am ninety-three," he said. 
 
 She smiled at him with innocent amusement. 
 
 And I ? " 
 
 He looked at her with a listless kind of scrutiny. 
 
 " Seventeen---eighteen ? " 
 
 She put the cake down and stared at him with girlish 
 indignation. 
 
 " How absurd ! " I am nearly twenty." . 
 
 He was surprised, and he looked it faintly. 
 
 Really ? " 
 
 " Yes, really. You are like aunt. She is always telling 
 me that I look like a girl, and imploring me to remember 
 that I am a woman as if it made any difference ! " 
 
 He got out a cigarette case, got it out mechanically 
 then glanced at her, and was putting it away again when 
 she said : 
 
 " Are you going to smoke ? Do, if you wish. I do not 
 mind." 
 
 He lit his cigarette and leaned his elbow on the table. 
 
 " You live with your aunt ? " he said not because he 
 wished to know, but just to make conversation. She 
 nodded over her teacup, and munched her cake for a 
 moment before replying. 
 
 " Yes ; I have lived with her for the past ten years 
 she and I alone together." 
 
 " Then your parents are dead ? " 
 
 " My mother is," she said, quietly, and with a sudden 
 sweet gravity in the lovely face. " I went to auntie when 
 my mother died. My father is alive, and I have a brother 
 he is younger than I am. Aunt adopted me, you know. 
 I had no mother nor sister, and father was traveling about, 
 and I suppose he was glad to get rid of me. Girls are 
 always a nuisance, are they not '? " 
 
 "I don't know not always, I should think. Only 
 sometimes. By the way, you did not tell me your aunt's 
 name?." 
 
 " Lascelles Lady Lascelles," said the girl. 
 
 He raised his eyebrows slightly, as if he recognized 
 the name. 
 
 " And you did not tell me yours," he remarked.
 
 1-2 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " You didn't ask me," she said, simply. " It is Decima 
 Deane. What is yours '; " 
 
 She leaned forward, her chin resting on her now un- 
 gloved hand and regarded him with girlish, friendly 
 curiosity. 
 
 The waiter came up at the moment, and the gentleman 
 put his left hand in his pocket for his purse. He had 
 kept his arm behind his chair during tea, and even now 
 he moved it out of sight again quickly and shuffled his 
 purse to the right hand ; but Decimals, eyes were sharp, 
 as well as beautiful, and she saw the rent in the sleeve. 
 
 She forgot all about his name, and exclaimed: 
 
 M Why, the lion did tear your sleeve ! Oh, did it scratch 
 
 Xo. no,'' he said, rather shortly. "How much, 
 waiter?" 
 
 " Three shillings, sir.'' 
 
 ' That is eighteen pence each," said Decima, taking out 
 her silver chain purse, and she extracted a shilling and 
 sixpence and laid them down on the table. 
 
 The man smiled grimly. It was evident he was the 
 first man with whom she had ever taken tea in public. 
 
 "Put your money back," he said, much amused. 
 
 " Oh, why ? " she asked, with wide eyes. " Why should 
 YOU pay for me ? " 
 
 " I don't know,'' he said ; "excepting that it is usual, 
 and that it would be exceedingly bad form for you to pay 
 for yourself." 
 
 " Now I can't understand that! " she said, with girlish 
 insistence, and just as if she were arguing with a school- 
 fellow. " Why should a gentleman always pay for 
 ladies?" 
 
 " Because it is one of the few privileges we wretched 
 men po.ssi-s." 
 
 "That's absurd!" she laughed. "Besides, we are 
 strangers. And I don't know what aunt would say ! 
 She says that girls'should always be independent : and 
 oh, here she is ! Aunt, how did you Jose me ? " And 
 she sprang up and caught the arm of the tall lady in 
 gray, who approached with stately steps and a grave 
 countenance. 
 
 " My dear Decima, where, where, have you been ?
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 13 
 
 And " as the gentleman rose and removed his hat " and 
 who is this ? " she added, in an anxious undertone. De- 
 cima turned a smiling and grateful face toward her late 
 and temporary guardian. 
 
 " Oh, this gentleman has been helping me to find you, 
 and we could not, though we went everywhere." 
 
 Lady Lascelles glanced at the tea-table, and then at the 
 tall and erect gentleman in front of it, with a gray and 
 stern eye. 
 
 " And I was so thirsty," Decima went on, answering 
 the look, " and he got some tea ; and well, then you 
 came up ! I am so glad ! But I should not have been lost, 
 should I ? I should have gone to the gate where the car- 
 riage was to wait. And, oh, aunt, will you please thank 
 this gentleman for taking so much trouble 
 
 Lady Lascelles touched the girl's arm, as an exhorta- 
 tion to silence, and addressed the gentleman. 
 
 " I am greatly obliged to you for your care of my niece, 
 sir. I am afraid she has given you some trouble. To 
 whom am I indebted ? " 
 
 The gentleman frowned slightly, as if the question 
 were an unwelcome one. From his cigarette case lying on 
 the table he took a card and gave it to her. 
 
 " That is my name," he said, quietly. 
 
 Lady Lascelles started slightly, her face flushing. 
 
 He bowed as if he understood, his lips set tight. 
 
 The stately lady became taller and more stately. With 
 a cold " good-day " she drew Decima's hand over her arm 
 as if the girl suddenly needed protection and was 
 walking her off. But Decima looked back, with a troub- 
 led expression in her eyes and about the expressive 
 mouth, and, swiftly releasing her arm, she ran back to 
 where the gentleman was still standing, a faint, grim 
 smile -of amusement 1 in his eyes. 
 
 " Oh, I haven't thanked you as I ought to ! " she said. 
 " You were so kind and and patient ! And you showed 
 me the private lions, you know and I am so grateful ! 
 and oh, please do not be offended with aunt, but but 
 shake hands." 
 
 She held out her hand and he took it. He did not 
 press it, but let it fall, and with another lifting of his 
 hat walked away.
 
 14 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Lady Lascelles waited, with her lips tightly set, a frown 
 upon her broad brow. 
 
 " Decima, coine, please ! " she said. 
 
 Decima turned to her aunt's side, but looked rather 
 wistfully after the tall, retreating form of the man who 
 had been so coldly treated for his kindness. 
 
 ' Why why were you so angry with him, aont " she 
 asked, just a little piteously. " He was very, very kind, 
 and and what has he done to make you so cross ? " 
 
 ' ; 3Iy dear Decima, you must not ask questions which I 
 cannot answer. It was very wrong of you to permit a 
 gentleman a stranger to walk about the gardens with 
 you. And how could you possibly sit there and take tea 
 with him ? " 
 
 " I was thirsty ! " said Decima, simply. 
 
 Lady Lascelles almost groaned. 
 
 "Decima, you are nothing better than a child, a mere 
 child ! You must never do such a tiling again ! " 
 
 " Why not ? What harm have I done ? " insisted the 
 girl. 
 
 " It is it is not usual ; it is bad etiquette, manners, 
 form, to walk about with a strange man to take tea with 
 him is worse. Any strange gentleman is bad enough. 
 But that man of all men in the wide world ! " 
 
 " Why was it worse to walk about and sit down to tea 
 with him than any one else, aunt ? " Decima asked. 
 
 Lady Lascelles bit her lip. 
 
 " Because my dear girl, you would not understand 
 
 " But, aunt, why ? " 
 
 " Because he is a bad, wicked man : one of the most 
 wicked men in the world." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " ONE of the most wicked men in the world " mean- 
 while walked slowly across the Gardens to the Clarence 
 Gate, and, calling a cab, told the man to drive him to 
 Cavendish Square. Stopping the cab at the house of Sir 
 James Starke, he inquired if the great physician were in, 
 and was shown into the consulting room.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 15 
 
 Sir James Starke had just come in from his rounds, and 
 still had his hat on; he tilted it up with an expression of 
 astonishment at sight of his visitor. 
 
 " Hallo, Gaunt ! " he said. "I didn't know you were in 
 England! How are you? Sit down. Anything the 
 matter?" As he shook hands he' surveyed the wear}', 
 handsome face with the physician's penetrating gaze. 
 
 Lord Gaunt took off his coat and rolled up the sleeve 
 of his left arm. 
 
 " Just cauterize that, will you, Starke ? " he said, 
 -quietly. 
 
 Sir James turned the arm to the light an arm well 
 made and muscular, hard as iron and smooth as marble. 
 
 u Why what is it?" he said. "A dog bite?" No! 
 Cat scratch ? What is it ? " 
 
 ' " A lion scratch," said Lord Gaunt. " Got it at the 
 Zoo, fooling with the cub I brought over. It isn't much, 
 but it felt angry, and well, I've seen a nigger or two go 
 mad with blood poisoning for less than this." 
 
 Sir James nodded gravely, and got the caustic. 
 
 "It's not like you to come to harm in this way, Gaunt," 
 he said. ' ; You miust have been very card 
 
 " Yes, I was," said Lord Gaunt, concisely. 
 
 After he had performed the simple operation, Sir James 
 looked at his patient's face and ran a finger on his pulse. 
 Then he shook his head. 
 
 " Same old game, Gaunt ! " he said gravely. 
 
 Lord Gaunt smiled grimly. 
 
 " Same old game," he said, quietly. 
 
 " Pity ! pity ! " murmured Sir James. " Can't you do 
 something better with your life than waste it ? " 
 
 " I don't know ; I've never asked myself the question. 
 Perhaps I don't waste my life more than you waste yours. 
 It's all a point of view, you know, Starke." 
 
 u My dear fellow ! " expostulated Starke, the great 
 physician. " I work, earn money 
 
 ' And I lounge and laze and spend it. Who shall say 
 which is the wisest ? Life is just a chance for making 
 mistakes " 
 
 Sir James nodded sympathetically. 
 
 " I know ! But but some mistakes are lived down 
 forgotten."
 
 10 HER HEART'S DKSIIJK. 
 
 " Xot my kind," said Lord Gaunt. " Done with this 
 arm V Right. Thanks/ 1 
 
 He rolled down his sleeve and put on his - 
 
 Where- have you come from now?" asked Sir James, 
 regarding him with an admiring and yet pitying rye. 
 For the face and form were handsome and even grand; 
 but the expression of the eye and the mouth was that 
 which makes women, when they see it, sigh and grow 
 sad though they know not why. 
 
 "Africa. Think I'm going back. I should have gone 
 before this, but my man, the steward at Leaf more, lias 
 been worrying me ; says that the place is going to pi 
 and that he wants me to go down there. Let it go to 
 - ! Who cares ? Certainly not I ! " 
 
 " Why not go down there and try and settle down for 
 a time ?"" said Sir James. " Look here, Gaunt ; you know 
 the old story of the machine that would go too iV, 
 
 "I dare say. Stopped all at once, didn't it? And you 
 think I shall stop, like the machine. Well, why not 'i 
 What does it matter ?'' He laughed a grim, short laugh. 
 "You doctors think life's the most important of all 
 things; that's where you make the mistake. No use 
 offering you a fee I suppose ? " 
 
 The famous physician, Sir James Starke, and the 
 famous traveler, Lord (Jaunt, had been at college together 
 though Sir James was much the elder. 
 
 Sir James laughed and shook his head. 
 
 "Go down to Leafmore for awhile, Gaunt." 
 
 " I'll see," said his lordship. 
 
 ., He took up his hat and held it in his hand. Then he 
 said, listlessly : 
 
 " Do you happen to know a Lady Lascelles ? " 
 
 " Lady Pauline Lascelles, do you mean ? " 
 
 "I dare say." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! She is a patient of mine. Why do you 
 ask ? " 
 
 "Oh! for no particular reason. I just met her. Met 
 a niece of hers a Miss Miss singular name ; I've for- 
 gotten it." 
 
 " You mean Decima Deane !" said Sir James, his keen 
 face lighting up. " Oh, yes ! the loveliest, dearest girl 
 in the world ! "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 17 
 
 He laughed and chuckled as at some private joke. 
 
 " What the devil are you laughing at ? " inquired 
 (Jaunt, with languid surprise. 
 
 " Oh ! at the girl," said Sir James. " You know, or, 
 rather, you don't know, that she has been brought up by 
 Lady Lascelles on a system of her own I mean her lady- 
 ship's own. Innocence, absolute innocence and purity, 
 combined with a knowledge of everything, but er but 
 the things most girls know at two-thirds Decima's age." 
 
 " All ! does it answer ? " asked Lord Gaunt, looking 
 into his hat. 
 
 "Well yes. That is to say, the system has produced 
 the sweetest and most fascinating mixture of frankness 
 and innocence ; the audacity of a child and the sweetness 
 of a girl. But how will it answer presently when when 
 the girl suddenly discovers that she is a woman, we shall 
 see. Have you seen much of her ? " 
 
 " About one hour and a quarter," said Lord Gaunt, 
 wearily. " And, judging from Lady Lascelles' manner, I 
 am not likely ever to make up the other three quarters." 
 
 " And weren't you struck with her ? " 
 
 " The aunt ? " 
 
 " Dash it all, no ! The girl Decima ! " 
 
 " Don't know. 'Pon my word, I scarcely noticed her." 
 
 He yawned and took out his cigarette case. 
 
 " Good-by, Starke. I'll think over your advice." 
 
 " And won't take." 
 
 " I daresay not. Good-by." 
 
 He left the house and walked across the park to his 
 flat in Prince's Mansions. Men and woman especially 
 the latter glanced at the handsome, listless face curiously, 
 and now and again the passers-by said something like 
 this to each other : 
 
 " That's the famous Lord Gaunt. Great traveler, and 
 er you know." 
 
 But the famous Lord Gaunt strode on, taking no heed, 
 his eyes fixed before him. 
 
 His flat was on the first floor, and as he entered the 
 vestibule, carpeted with lion and leopard skins, and lined 
 with trophies of the chase, he smelled the scent of a 
 cigarette coming from the library. 
 
 He pushed the thick oak door open, and, standing on
 
 18 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 the threshold, looked at a man lying full length on the 
 saddlebag couch. 
 
 The man rose with a smile and a " Hallo, Gaunt ! " 
 And Lord Gaunt stood stock still, with a face set and 
 white, and said nothing. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE two men stood and looked at each other ; Lord 
 Gaunt white and stern ; the visitor with a pleasant but 
 half-mocking smile. He was a fair man one of those 
 delicately fair men whose age it is so difficult to tell 
 with a good-looking, almost handsome face, with bright, 
 blue eyes, and shapely lips which were not concealed by 
 a mustache, but seemed together with the eyes to say : 
 " Believe me, my owner is the personification of innocence 
 and guilelessness ; he has nothing to conceal, no bad con- 
 science to worry, no remorse to torture him, and so he 
 faces the world with a bland and child-like smile and 
 wishes all men well." 
 
 This is what the face had been trained to say, and it 
 said it with almost invariable success ; only on very rare 
 occasions did the mask slip and the real nature behind it 
 reveal itself ; for, with all his smiling lips and his blue 
 eyes, Morgan Thorpe was as unscrupulous a villain, as 
 false a man, as ever trod this villain-ridden earth. 
 
 He was dressed in a suit of light tweed which fitted 
 his graceful figure to perfection, and as he raised his hand 
 white and well-formed as a woman's and lightly 
 pushed back his heavy hair, which had been ruffled by 
 the silken sofa cushion, a splendid ring shone on the taper 
 finger. 
 
 The two men formed a marked contrast. Lord Gaunt, 
 with his classical face, tragic and almost awe-inspiring 
 in its whiteness and sternness, with his dark eyes lit as 
 1 >y a smouldering fire ; the other man, fair and debon- 
 naire, with the smile of an audacious child or a heartless 
 woman laughing as she wounds. 
 
 It was Morgan Thorpe who spoke first. 
 
 " How do you do ? " he said, in a voice low, soft and 
 musical.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 19 
 
 Lord Gaunt's eyes remained fixed on the pleasant, boy- 
 ish f: 
 
 " You have found me," he said, with that kind of calm 
 which comes to the brave man in supreme moments. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe laughed. 
 
 u My dear fellow ! How curt ! How brusque ! Is this 
 the way in which to receive an old friend who has been 
 searching for you for how many weary months years ?" 
 
 Lord Gaunt placed his hat on the table, and, going to 
 the fern-filled fireplace, leaned his elbow on the mantel 
 and regarded his visitor steadily. 
 
 " How did you find me ? " he asked, as a man asks of 
 the physician how he had discovered the fatal disease. 
 
 Tiie other man dropped back on the couch, stretched 
 out his hand to the cigarette box of sandalwood which 
 stood on the table within reach, took a cigarette and 
 smiled up at Gaunt's stern, set face. 
 
 " My dear Barnard I beg your pardon, I should say, 
 my dear Lord Gaunt ! why do you glare at me so re- 
 proachfully and like a Banquo's ghost ? " he said, with 
 the soft voice pitched in a tone of banter which made 
 Gaunt's teeth close tightly and caused his hands to clinch 
 at his side. " It is I who ought to look black and over- 
 whelm you with reproaches ! Just think of it ! Two 
 years ago " 
 
 Gaunt's face worked, but his voice was stern and cold 
 as he broke in : 
 
 " There is no need to go back to the past " 
 
 " Pardon me ; but I really think there is ! " retorted 
 Morgan Thorpe, stretching himself luxuriously like a cat 
 on a soft hearth-rug. " Your manner is so what shall I 
 say ? inhospitable, not to say repellent that I feel it to 
 be necessary to state the case shall we say the plain- 
 tiff ? " 
 
 Gaunt did not move a limb, or the eyes which rested 
 upon the face upturned to him. 
 
 " What is the case ? " continued Morgan Thorpe, deli- 
 cately knocking the ash from his cigarette on to the in- 
 laid table. " Three years ago " he half closed his eyes 
 and regarded the white-faced man before him through 
 the narrow slits as fr cat regards a wretched mouse lying 
 between her paws "you and I, and another, who shall
 
 20 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 be nameless, were the closest friends. We had met a.s 
 fellow travelers in an Alpine pass Alpine pass sounds 
 quite * novelish,' doesn't it'? I like the sound: Alpine 
 pass ! We spent the night with sundry guides and 
 porters in a snowbound hut. The acquaintance thus 
 pleasantly commenced ripened into a friendship which I 
 trust may continue " 
 
 Gaunt made a gesture of impatience ; but Morgan 
 Thorpe only smiled, as the cat might smile at the con- 
 tortions of the mouse. 
 
 " You are traveling alone and are solitary. I have my 
 sister with me a charming girl, whom to see and to 
 know is to love." 
 
 Gaunt bit his lip and drew a long breath. 
 
 " You see, you learn to know, you love her ! For 
 reasons best known to yourself you travel incog. You 
 state that your name is Edward Barnard, a gentleman 
 of independent means traveling for pleasure and instruc- 
 tion. As Edward Barnard you lay siege to my sister's 
 heart, and you take by storm that precious citadel.'' 
 
 Gaunt shifted one foot, but his eyes never left the 
 smiling, mocking face. As the tortured man on the rack 
 watches the executioner, so he watched Morgan Thorpe. 
 
 " The lady is, of course, virtuous. There is only one 
 road to happiness the path which leads to matrimony 
 and, as Edward Barnard, you take it. You and the 
 beauteous Laura are married at the little English church 
 at Vevey, on what is the dai 
 
 Lord Gaunt remained stonily silent. He was like the 
 figure of the Sphinx in his set calmm 
 
 " Xo matter ; I have the date on the certificate in my 
 pocketbook". You are married, with all the forms and 
 ceremonies prescribed by rigid Law and exacting Church, 
 and you set out for your honeymoon ! Alas, it is a short 
 honeymoon. Before it has scarce begun to wane you 
 
 Gaunt's self-restraint seemed to fail him at this point, 
 and he broke in, with scarcely repressed passion : 
 
 "I discovered that the woman I had married was an 
 adventuress a woman who ' 
 
 " Pardon ! " said Morgan Thorpe, softly, sweetly. 
 " Remember I am the brother and spare me ! Do not let 
 us indulge in recriminations ; it is childish, useless. Let
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 21 
 
 us say that you discovered that there was such an incom- 
 patibility of temper that you found it impossible to live 
 with her. Shall we put it that way ? " 
 
 Lord Gaunt made no response, and the swift and mu- 
 sical voice went on. 
 
 " One day you left your wife, your bride my dear 
 fellow, how could you be so heartless ? with the intima- 
 tion that you did not intend to return. She was heart- 
 broken, desolate ! Xot even the addendum to your letter 
 which informed her that a liberal allowance would be 
 paid to her while she refrained from molesting you con- 
 soled her. Alas ! she loved you." 
 
 Lord Gaunt moved slightly, and a grim smile played on 
 his lips for a moment, to be followed by the set sternness 
 which had dominated his expression hitherto. 
 
 " She loved you. She charged me with the task of 
 following and finding you. I, as her devoted brother, ac- 
 cepted that task. My dear Barnard, these Turkish ciga- 
 rettes of yours are dry very dry ! " 
 
 Lord Gaunt went to the sideboard and got out a spirit 
 case and a siphon, and placed them on the table. 
 
 \Vill you not join me ? " asked Thorpe. " Xo ? Well, 
 I am doing all the talking and talking is thirsty work." 
 
 He sipped the beverage with slow, exasperating slow- 
 ness, and Gaunt watched him with a fierce, burning im- 
 patience. The man's presence, his voice, were an absolute 
 torture. 
 
 " I commenced my search," said Morgan Thorpe. - I 
 try, first, the South of France. It is the winter you will 
 remember but nowhere do I find a handsome man by the 
 name of Barnard you are devilish good-looking, you 
 know, Barnard a hundred pardons Lord Gaunt and 
 then I come to London. As well look for a needle in a 
 bundle of hay as look for a man in this place, I like 
 London ; I love it, excepting when 1 am 011 the hunt for 
 a man. Then it is a beastly maze. At last one day to 
 be particular, we must speak by the card, as Hamlet says 
 what a lot of Hamlets I have seen ! I happen actually 
 to see you you yourself, going into this very house!" 
 
 He laughed softly and blew the smoke from his ciga- 
 rette in a series of rings and watched them with lazy in- 
 terest and amusement as they floated to the ceiling.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 "I rang the hell and knocked as directed, and inquired 
 for ' Mr. Barnard.' No one knew the name. Then I 
 wa tolled again, and inquired again, and descrihed you. 
 And I found that instead of a plain, common 'Mr. Bar- 
 nard/ my sister, my dearly-heloved sister, for whom I 
 would lay down my life, had married no less a personage 
 than my Lord Gaunt." 
 
 Gaunt took up a cigar from the mantel and lit it, but 
 after a moment he flung it among the ferns in the grate, 
 and resumed his old attitude. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe turned on his side into a more com- 
 fortable position. 
 
 " Yes ; I found that my dear sister had married no less 
 a personage than Lord Gaunt Baron of the United King- 
 dom, Earl Gaunt of Ireland, Viscount Bascardine of 
 Scotland, Lord-Lieutenant of Downshire." 
 
 (Jaunt moved his hand spasmodically; but the soft, 
 musical voice went on with' the even flow of the river. 
 
 k - Vfith residences in Devonshire and Scotland, a house 
 in Park Lane, and an Italian palace on the banks of the 
 Arno." 
 
 Gaunt turned from the fern -filled fireplace and strode 
 across the room, then came back to his old place and at- 
 titude, and Morgan Thorpe still watched him as the cat 
 watches the mouse when it ventures a despairing run. 
 
 " This was the man who had married my sister and 
 heartlessly abandoned her! Lord Gaunt, baron, Scotch 
 earl, lord-lieutenant ; in a word, a nobleman of the highest 
 rank, and worth shall we say a million of mo; 
 
 Gaunt took up a cigar again and lit it with the stoicism 
 of desperation. 
 
 " Well ? " he said, grimly. " Having made your di 
 ery, what do you propose to do 't " 
 
 Morgan Thorpe leaned back and closed his eyes. 
 
 " An eminently practical question ! " he murmured. 
 
 " It is the question I have been asking myself ever since 
 I have been here, my dear Barnard pardon !- Lord 
 Gaunt. Two courses are open to me, as a famous stai 
 man might say. I might go to my sister, the mourning 
 bride so to speak, and acquaint her with my discovery. 
 Whereupon she would of course hasten to England and 
 clakn her husband. Ah, my dear Barnard pardon !
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 23 
 
 Gaunt you have no conception of the extent of the love 
 our dear Laura bears for you ! She. would claim her hus- 
 band and insist upon taking her place in the world of 
 rank, and fashion, which, as you know, she would adorn 
 so conspicuously." He smiled up at the white, strained 
 face mockingly. " And I have a very strong conviction 
 that she would make things hum, as our Yankee cousins 
 say.'' 
 
 He" closed his eyes and smiled, as if at some mental 
 picture. 
 
 " The other course, as the famous statesman would say, 
 which presented itself to me was one of caution and er 
 reserve. Nothing is more disagreeable than to live 
 with a person who is completely uncongenial, and I felt 
 that I should be doing you a signal service if I were to 
 conceal your identity and whereabouts from our clear 
 Laura. In other words, my friend, I felt that I should 
 be proving the warm affection I cherish for you if I were 
 to say nothing about my discovery." 
 
 < -Jaunt raised his head. 
 
 " You would betray her trust in you ? " he said. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe smiled and shrugged his shoulders 
 shrugged them so hard that he displaced the cushions and 
 had to rearrange them before replying. 
 
 "As to that what is confidence and wiiat is betraying 
 it V Ethical questions both, my dear Gaunt " 
 
 Gaunt strode across the room again. 
 
 " Where is she ? " he asked hoarsely. 
 
 " At Vevey," replied Morgan Thorpe. " A most charm- 
 ing place but dull, devilish dull. She is there amusing 
 herself as best she can, and awaiting the result of my 
 search. ' I have only to wire ' found him ; come to London ; 
 the Metropole,' and she will be here in less than thirty-six 
 hours." 
 
 Gaunt sank into a chair, then stood up again, as if re- 
 luctant to show any sign of weariness. " On the other 
 hand,-' continued Morgan Thorpe, '- 1 have only to write, 
 * Cannot find him ; believe he has left the country,' and 
 she will remain at that God-forsaken hole, or go to Paris." 
 
 Gaunt looked at him steadily. 
 
 " If she came, she would not find me here," he said, 
 " I shall start for Africa in a few hours' time."
 
 24 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe shrugged his shoulders and laughed 
 softly. 
 
 " My dear Lord Gaunt, she would not care whether she 
 found you or not whether you were here, or baking on 
 Africa's burning sands. She would be quite happy set- 
 ting up her claim to be my Lady Gaunt, Baroness of 
 Gaunt, Countess of Gaunt, of Ireland, Viscountess Bas- 
 eardine of Scotland ! That would be quite enough am; 
 nu'Ut for her." 
 
 (.rau nt went to a bookcase, and stared at a row of books 
 without seeing them. Then he came back to the fireplace. 
 
 ' You mean to blackmail me," he said, with an awful 
 calmness. "How much do you want? Say as quickly 
 Miul shortly as you can for my temper is rough and I can 
 .scarcely hold myself in hand." 
 
 " My dear Barnard ! " jeered the other. 
 
 Lord Gaunt sprang across the room and seized him by 
 the throat, and the soft mocking laughter ceased with gro- 
 tesque suddenness. 
 
 "How much, you devil?" he said, between his teeth. 
 " You and she have me in your power I kmnv it. Xame 
 your price ! " 
 
 Then, ashamed of himself, he flung the man from him 
 and strode away, his own face working, his lips livid, as 
 if it had been himself who had been half choked. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe, struggling for breath, fell his throat 
 tenderly. 
 
 " What what a savage you are ! " he said, huskily. 
 " Xo wonder my poor sister 
 
 " Say no more ! " broke in Gaunt, with an ominous 
 gesture. "Nothing will induce me lo acknowledge your 
 sister as my wife, and you know it. Xame your price 
 the price of your silence 
 
 Morgan Thorpe stood up, and with rather a shaky hand 
 look a fresh drink. 
 
 " You mean my price for concealing your identity? " 
 he said. 
 
 " For holding your tongue yes ? " he said. 
 
 u Well," drawled Thorpe, " suppose we say a couple of 
 thousand pounds ? " 
 
 (taunt looked at him with loathing eyes for a moment; 
 then he went to his writing-table, unlocked a drawer, and
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 25 
 
 took out a check book. He filled in the check, laid it on 
 the table, and pointed to it. 
 
 "That is for a thousand pounds," he said. " I will pay 
 you that every year, so long as I am unmolested by 
 
 " Your wife, Lady Gaunt," said Morgan Thorpe. " I 
 agree ! Leave the matter to me, my dear Barnard tush ! 
 how the old name clings ! I'll undertake to keep her 
 quiet. Xow, shall we dine together V " 
 
 Gaunt opened the door. 
 
 " For God's sake, go ! " he said, very quietly with the 
 quietude of a man goaded almost beyond the point of en- 
 durance. " Go before I do you any harm ! " 
 
 Morgan Thorpe looked at the white face, with its veins 
 .standing out ; at the stalwart, muscular figure, with the 
 strength of a Hercules, and laughed. 
 
 " My dear fellow, I only wanted to be friendly ! But 
 if yen will not Well, so long ! " 
 
 He put his hat on with careful precision, adjusted his 
 necktie in the Venetian mirror beside the door, and then 
 held out his hand. 
 
 Gaunt looked at the hand ; then raised his smouldering 
 eyes to the mocking blue ones, and something in the lam- 
 Itent fire of the eyes of the man he had been torturing, 
 prompted Morgan Thorpe to make his exit without an 
 attempt at another turn of the rack. 
 
 " So long, dear boy ! " he murmured, and passed out. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IF you do not want a girl to get interested in a man, 
 never tell her that he is wicked. To an innocent young 
 girl wickedness is a mystery, and all mysteries are 
 fascinating. 
 
 Decima was very quiet as the carriage, with its fat slugs 
 of horses, boAvled smoothly home to Lady Pauline Las- 
 celles' house in Berkeley Square. As a rule, she looked out 
 of the window with eager efy'es and asked endless ques- 
 tions ; but this evening the gray-blue orbs were dreamy, 
 and there was a little line of disappointment about the 
 mobile lips.
 
 itt HER HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 That very evening at dinner Deciina learned from her 
 aunt tliat her father had sent for her that he needed her 
 
 at home. This information shocked her, it was so sudden. 
 Her la-art ached at the thought of leaving the woman 
 who for the past ten years had been a mother to her. Lady 
 Pauline informed her that her father, who had long been 
 a visionary and a dreamer, was at last sanguine that one 
 of his many inventions was likely to prove a great 
 
 Slier 
 
 It was a tearful parting that occurred the next day 
 ween the aunt and niece. Late in the afternoon the 
 train drew up at Shelton Wold, and Decimal brother 
 met her at the station. Both had grown so during the 
 last ten years that each was astonished at the change in 
 the other. 
 
 A fly was at hand, and as this rolled off from the 
 station, Bobby Deane,the seventeen-year-old brother, told 
 his sister of the many strange things concerning her 
 father's household. 
 
 "We are pestered to death with ignorant and ea: 
 servants" he said, "and we change them aboui 
 other week. AVe have cooks who would not ivi-i.gnixe a po- 
 tato if they met it in the street ; waiting maids who kindly 
 permit us to do all the waiting while they talk with their 
 young men at the back kitchen door. We have just got 
 rid of one young lady who looked upon the wine cup too 
 often, and was found by the unfortunate individual who 
 addresses you, lying under the kitchen dr, .[tiarter 
 
 of an hour before dinner time. We have at present what 
 I believe is called 'a demon breaker;' she has a pleasant 
 but slightly inconvenient habit of collecting all the glass 
 and china on a tray and slipping up on it. We have no 
 tumblers left, and only a coffee cup and a mug. S] : 
 under notice, and I left her in tears, wailing that she had 
 no mother. If she had, sheYl tumble over her, and break 
 her." 
 
 Heeima looked half aghast through her laughter. 
 
 '.My dear Hobby ! My puor Hobby ! And poor father ! '' 
 
 "lie doesn't mind, doesn't care. He is up in the clouds 
 
 all the time. Dreaming, inventing things to make his 
 
 fortune. He doesn't eat he only stokes. I'm not sure 
 
 that he sleeps. At any rate, he's perfectly indifferent to
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 27 
 
 anything and everything ; and the house can go to smith- 
 ereens so that one room his laboratory and study is 
 left standing. See?" 
 
 " Poor Bobby ! And all the time I have been living & 
 life of luxury and ease " 
 
 " Oh, that's all right ! " said Bobby, quickly and gen- 
 erously. " You can't help having a father utterly unlike 
 any other male parent in the world ! no more can I. And 
 I'm jolly glad you've been out of it all this time. In fact, 
 I was dead against the guv'nor sending for you ; but 
 well, he makes up his mind now and again and when he 
 does he makes it up into such a jolly stiff parcel that 
 there is 110 undoing it." 
 
 " I am glad, glad he sent for me," said Decie. " But, 
 Bobby, I I am afraid I don't know much about hoiise- 
 keeping." 
 
 " You couldn't possibly know less or make more of a 
 muddle of the show than we are doing," said Bobbie, en- 
 couragingly. " But, upon my word, I'm sorry for you, 
 Decie ! I'm afraid you won't like the change from 
 how did you put it V a life of luxury and ease with Lady 
 Pauline, to slave-driving at Woodbines." 
 
 " Oh, what a pretty place, Bobby ! " exclaimed Decima, 
 as the fly pulled up at a tall iron gate opening on to an 
 old-fashioned garden in front of a red-bricked, ivy-covered 
 house. 
 
 " Glad you like it. Behold the Woodbines the res- 
 idence of Peter Deane, Esq., and your home, my dear 
 sister." 
 
 Decima jumped out of the fly and went up the path. 
 The door of the house was open, and even as she entered 
 the square, old-fashioned hall, the sound of a falling plate 
 and the crash of the breaking thereof were heard. 
 
 " Sarah Jane's welcome to her young mistress ! " said 
 Bobby, gravely. 
 
 Decima smiled and looked round a little nervously. 
 
 " AYhere is my father ? " she asked, and she moved to- 
 ward the door of the drawing-room. 
 
 " Oh, I'll take you to him. There's only one place in 
 which he can possibly be. Follow me, and mind the 
 step, and the pail which is almost sure to be on it, and 
 over which I break my shin with painful frequency."
 
 28 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 He pushed open a baize door, went down a narrow 
 passage just here Decima heard the parlor-maid explain- 
 ing to the cook how she had dropped the plate. "It 
 slipped out o' my 'and as if it was a piece o' 'ot butter, it 
 did, I do assure you, cook ! " and knocked at a thick 
 oak door, through which, though it was tightly closed, 
 came sundry and various odors, all of them wondrously 
 strange and extraordinarily powerful. 
 
 A voice which seemed to come from a distance, said, 
 impatiently, " Come in ! " and Decima and Bobby entered , 
 
 It was a large room, lined with numerous shelves, on 
 which stood, in a gorgeous litter, books, retorts, instru- 
 ments, plaster casts, models of every description. A 
 small furnace was blazing away in one corner, a forge 
 and lathe were conspicuous in the center of the room. 
 There were, also, a carpenter's bench, and a modeling 
 table, an electro-plating battery and, in short, a collec- 
 tion of tools, models, instruments and general lumber, 
 which would have fitted out a country museum or a, 
 workshop in Bedlam. 
 
 Working at the bench stood a man in his shirt-sleeves ; 
 his hair, long and gray, half falling over his huge fore- 
 head ; he was dressed in a shabby old suit of a fashion 
 ten years back, wore no collar and stood in a pair of thick 
 carpet slippers at least two sizes too large for him. 
 
 Decima stared at him, pale and a little tremulous. She 
 scarcely remembered him! 
 
 'Here's Decima. father!'' said Bobby. 
 
 Mr. I KM 1 up. pushed the hair from his fore- 
 
 head and blinked at the beautiful vision. 
 
 "Decima?" he said. "Decima? Where is she? Has 
 this lady brought her?" 
 
 " This lady " began Bobby; but Decima, with a little 
 cry and a gusli of tears to her eyes, which made her \vay 
 rather uncertain, ran to the strange object and put her 
 arm round his neck. 
 
 " Father, I am Decima. Don't you know me ? " 
 
 "God bless my soul! Is it really?" he said, with a. 
 dreamy amazement. -"How how you've grown!" He 
 looked at her abstractedly for a moment, then he sighed. 
 " You're like your mother " he said " it might be she. 
 
 Decima leaned against the bench and held his hand.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 29 
 
 " I am glad I am like my mother," she said. " I am 
 glad to come home, father." 
 
 " Oh, take care, take care ! " he said, with sudden anxi- 
 ety. " You're leaning against my model the model ! 
 I'm afraid it will break er er thank you ! " He took 
 the model from behind her and drew a breath of relief. 
 ' Not broken ! Thank God ! " he murmured. " And so 
 you're Deci ma " 
 
 But his eyes Avere fixed on the model as he carried it 
 to a place of safety, and not on her. 
 
 And this was Decima's homecoming. And these two, 
 the half-crazy man and the boy, were all she had to pro- 
 tect her from " the dragons by the way ! " 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE first dinner of whicli Decima partook at the 
 Woodbines convinced her that Bobby's statements re- 
 garding the servants had not been exaggerated. It was 
 wretchedly cooked, and served in a slovenly way. At its 
 close Bobby proposed a stroll in the moonlight. A short 
 walk brought them in sight of a gloomy mansion of 
 white stone, faced with white pillars and sentineled on 
 three sides by a number of fir trees . She learned from 
 her brother that this was the habitation of Mr. Theodore 
 Mershon, a keen, dark-eyed little man, who was con- 
 sidered something of a parvenu. 
 
 As brother and sister strolled near the entrance to 
 " The Firs," as the place was designated, the owner, a 
 smooth-faced young man, was standing just inside the 
 gate, smoking a cigar. He took off his hat rather super- 
 ciliously to Bobby, but, seeing a rather handsome lady 
 with him, his manner at once became quite affable. 
 Bobby introduced him to his sister, and Mr. Mershon 
 strove to ingratiate himself into the favor of the young 
 lady. x He spoke of the natural charms of Shelton, of the 
 many delightful spots in the vicinity, and begged the 
 privilege of having Bobby and his father to dinner some 
 night. " Of course the invitation includes Miss Deane," 
 he concluded, with a glance of admiration at Decima. 
 
 Bobby thought this was rather an informal and abrupt
 
 30 HER HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 invitation, and he replied to it by stating that he was not 
 just then prepared to announce his aeeeptanec of it. As 
 brother and sister passed on, Mershon watched them with 
 fascinated interest. 
 
 " What a lovely creature ! " he exclaimed. " Fancy 
 that old maniac having a daughter like tlr 
 
 Brother and sister strolled on, unconscious of the man's 
 admiration, and presently turned du\vn a narrow lane. 
 Suddenly they came upon the entrance to an avenue 
 guarded by a pair of old iron gates. An ivy-covered 
 lodge of red brick stood just inside the gate, and it was 
 so venerable and romantic in appearance that it evoked 
 an exclamation of admiration from Deeima. 
 
 A small wooden gate at some distance from the lodge 
 afforded an entrance through the stone wall that guarded 
 the grounds at this point, and through this Bobby led 
 his sister. They passed along a winding avenue, and a 
 turn of the road presently brought to view the grand and 
 spacious old mansion known as Leafmore. " What a 
 magnificent place ! " exclaimed Deeima. " But the win- 
 dows are all dark. Who lives there ' J . " 
 
 " Xo one. This estate belongs to a man named Gaunt 
 Lord Gaunt. He is enormously rich, it is said, but he 
 has not been here for years. Gossip proclaims that he 
 doesn't bear the best of reputations." 
 
 " Do you mean that he is a bad man ? " . 
 
 " That is the popular impression. Although I have 
 never seen Lord Gaunt, I am well acquainted with his 
 steward, Mr. Bright ; and he says that his master, while 
 he has some faults, is a fine fellow. In fact, Bright as- 
 sured me that Lord Gaunt's conduct was all that it should 
 be until something suddenly happened to change him. 
 What it was he doesn't know. Something with a woman 
 in it, I suppose." 
 
 " A woman ! " said Deeima, musingly. 
 
 "Yes, that is the excuse generally given. But it's no 
 business of ours. Yet it is a pity that such a pretty place 
 should be permitted to go to ruin. I come here frequently 
 to fish in the little stream you see yonder, glistening in 
 the moonlight." 
 
 On the following afternoon at about five o'clock Bobby 
 and Deeima once more visited Leafinory, the brother with
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 31 
 
 the intention of engaging in his favorite pursuit of fish- 
 ing and the sister to enjoy the opportunity of inspecting 
 the attractions of the place by daylight. 
 
 While Bobby prepared his flies, close to the lodge, 
 Decima wandered down the avenue, picking the wild 
 flowers which grew along the border. Bobby was about 
 to start toward the river when he was suddenly aroused 
 by a clinking sound. He looked up and saw a gentleman 
 shaking the big entrance gates. 
 
 Boylike, he watched him for a moment or two with 
 bland enjoyment ; then he shouted, " Hi ! " 
 
 The gentleman looked around, saw the recumbent 
 figure, and said, " Well ? " 
 
 " Gate's locked," remarked Bobby, in his concise fash- 
 ion. " There's a door here" he indicated the lower gate, 
 " if you want to come in." 
 
 " Thanks," said the gentleman, and he came along to 
 the wall, passed through the other gte, and stood beside 
 the lad, looking down at him. 
 
 " That big gate's always kept locked," said Bobby. 
 
 " Indeed ? " said the gentleman. " I am a stranger 
 here ; I didn't know." 
 
 Bobby looked at him casually. 
 
 " Are you going to see the house ? " he said. " It's 
 worth seeing the carving and pictures especially." 
 
 u Are they ?" responded the gentleman. "Do you live 
 here ? " 
 
 " Oh, no that is, not at the house. I live in the vil- 
 lage, but I know it very well." 
 
 After bidding the gentleman good- day Bobby strode 
 off rod in hand, in the direction of the river. As he 
 passed on he shouted to his sister. 
 
 " All right ! " she called back, " I will follow you. 
 Here are the loveliest cowslips ! I must get a bunch." 
 
 " Very well ; follow the track," he shouted back, and 
 went on his way, whistling. 
 
 The gentleman looked after him, then sat down on the 
 bank, took out his cigar case, and lit a cigar. 
 
 The match was still in his hand when Decima came, 
 with light, fleet steps, down the avenue. 
 
 She was arranging her flowers as she came, and did 
 not see him until she was close upon him. Then she
 
 32 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 
 
 paused a moment, and glanced at him, with a faint sur- 
 prise, and was passing on again, when he rose and raised 
 his hat. 
 
 She stopped short, with a slight cry of recognition and 
 astonishment on her lips ; for she saw -that it was the 
 gentleman who had befriended her at the Zoo. 
 
 He had recognized her at the first moment, and his 
 eyes rested on her face inquiringly, as if lie were half 
 curious to see what she would do. 
 
 lie had not long to wait. With a touch of color in her 
 cheeks, and a shy, embarrassed expression in her eyes, 
 Decima looked at him, then looked beyond him, over his 
 head, and passed on without a sign of recognition. 
 
 (iaunt smiled grimly, and stood like a soldier, erect and 
 unbending, his eyes fixed on her, as if the cut direct 
 amused rather than wounded him. 
 
 As she passed on, her lovely face set and cold, she con- 
 tinued the arrangement of her flowers, and perhaps her 
 hand trembled, for it was trying business, this cutting of 
 a man who had been kind to her she let a large number 
 of them slip from her fingers. 
 
 She stopped, and, biting her lip softly, began to pick 
 them up, and Gaunt stepped forward and assisted 
 her. 
 
 As he handed the yellow blossoms to her, he said, very 
 quietly : 
 
 " Have you forgotten me ? " 
 
 The blood rushed to Decima's face. 
 
 ' ; Xo," she said. 
 
 u Xot forgotten me ? And yet you would not bow to 
 me ? Why was that ? " 
 
 Decima looked from side to side. 
 
 " I I cannot tell you," she said. 
 
 " But forgive me ! don't you think you owe me some 
 explanation? Let me put the case the other way. If 
 you had deigned to bow to me, and I had declined to 
 respond, if I had cut you, would you not think an explana- 
 tion due from me ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Decima, her brows coming straight, her 
 lovely eyes growing dark -blue. 
 
 " Be just, then. Do unto others as you would that 
 they should do unto you ! " he said. There was a suspi-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 33 
 
 cion of banter in his tone, and, at the same time, a grim 
 kind of appeal which touched Decima. 
 
 " Must I tell you ? " she said, in a troubled voice. 
 
 " Yes ; I think you ought." 
 
 " Then oh, I wish you would not ask me ! My aunt 
 does not wish me to know you ! " 
 
 "Why? "he asked, very quietly. " I admit that is a 
 sufficient reason for the cut ; but I am curious to know 
 her reason." 
 
 " -Because because you are oh, I cannot tell you ! " 
 she broke off, scarlet to the very neck. 
 
 " Too bad for you to know ? " he said, with a smile. 
 
 Decima hung her head. 
 
 " Thank you," he said, " I am answered. Good-by." 
 
 She turned and went a few steps from him, then she 
 swung round and came back, her innocent soul shining 
 through her eyes. 
 
 "Why are you so wicked?" she said, painfully, as if 
 the question were forced from her. " You were so kind 
 to me." 
 
 His face grew hard and set, then he smiled grimly. 
 
 " That would take a lot of answering," he said. " Wait 
 a moment until I decide whether I can tell you." 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " WAIT until I decide whether I can tell you," said 
 Gaunt. 
 
 And Decima waited, her innocent gray eyes on his face, 
 with a kind of troubled patience. He looked beyond her 
 fixedly with a grave thoughtfulness, and was silent so 
 long that Decima almost thought that he had forgotten 
 her ; then he looked at her with a grim smile. 
 
 " I have decided that I cannot tell you, Miss " he hesi- 
 tated. 
 
 " Deane ! " said Decima. " Decima Deane. You have 
 forgotten my name." 
 
 " I had," he said. " It was unpardonable ; but you see, 
 when a man has need of so much forgiveness, a small 
 shortcoming or two, more or less, scarcely counts. " No ; 
 I can't answer your question, Miss Deane; but, all the
 
 34 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 same, I should like to make a short statement in my own 
 defense." 
 
 He then spoke of the way of the world in condemning 
 trivial faults as great sins ; that it condemned, for instance, 
 social card playing as gambling; friendly intercourse 
 between people of opposite sexes as criminal intimacy ; 
 and he closed with the charitable statement that perhaps 
 Lady Pauline had formed her harsh judgment of him on 
 insufficient evidence. 
 
 His apparent candor won her esteem, and she began to 
 harbor the belief that her aunt had really misjudged this 
 sad-faced man that he was not as black as he had been 
 painted. 
 
 Soon the conversation drifted to the neglected condi- 
 tion of Leafmore and its eccentric master. Decima bluntly 
 and emphatically censured the " heartless owner" of such 
 fine property for his indifference as to its welfare, serenely 
 unconscious that the man she censured was walking 
 beside her. 
 
 They had been strolling toward the river, and as they 
 approached the bank Gaunt saw that Bobby was eagerly 
 trying to catch a playful but extremely cautious trout. 
 After he had made three or four unsuccessful attempts 
 Gaunt begged permission to try his skill. 
 
 To the amazement of Bobby, his first throw showed 
 him to be a skilful angler. In about two minutes the 
 fish was hooked.. 
 
 " Oh, what a splendid fellow ! " Decima exclaimed, as 
 Gaunt brought him to the bank and Bobby slipped the 
 net under him. 
 
 "Thank you," said Gaunt, handing the rod back 
 Bobby. 
 
 Bobby laughed. 
 
 " You throw a beautiful fly, sir," he said, 
 staying here ? If so, I'll ask Bright the steward- 
 give you permission to Hallo, here he is ! " he broke off, 
 as a short, thick-set man, with a pleasant, good-humored 
 face, came round the hill. 
 
 "Hi, Bright! how are you? Just look at this 
 This is my sister. Decima, this is Mr. Bright, This 
 gentleman 'caught him Why, what's the matter ? " 
 broke off, for Mr. Bright's face, as he turned to "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 35 
 
 stranger," had grown red with surprise and delight, and, 
 raising his hat, he came forward with an eager exclama- 
 tion of : 
 
 " Lord Gaunt ! " 
 
 For an instant, but an instant only, Gaunt looked 
 annoyed and embarrassed as he shook hands with the 
 steward. 
 
 " How do you do, Bright ? " he said. " Taken you by 
 surprise, you see." 
 
 Bobby stared, then emitted a low whistle and grinned. 
 But Decinia's face wore no smile. It became red for a mo- 
 ment, then very pale, and her eyes sought Gaunt X then 
 hid themselves under their long lashes. 
 
 This man to whom she had been abusing Lord Gaunt 
 was Lord Gaunt himself. Humiliation, shame and con- 
 fusion fell upon her and seized her in their clutches while 
 one could count twenty. Then something like resentment 
 and anger took their place ; and she drew back and turned 
 her face away. But she could hear Lord Gaunt talking 
 steadily and slowly, as if to afford time for the embarrass- 
 ment to pass. 
 
 " Yes, I should have written to say I was coming. 
 Bright ; but, I well I didn't make up my mind until 
 the last moment." 
 
 " Delighted to see you, my lord ! " said Mr. Bright ; 
 " notice or no notice. Of course I should have preferred a 
 short warning. The house Well, I'm afraid the house 
 is scarcely fit to receive you 
 
 " That's all right," said Gaunt. " I shall not stay long 
 half an hour ' 
 
 Mr. Bright looked at Bobby and Decima. 
 
 " This is Mr. Deane, of the Woodbines a neighbor 
 of yours, my lord," he said. 
 
 Lord Gaunt held out his hand to Bobby, upon whose 
 face the grin still flickered. 
 
 " Very glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Deane," he 
 said. 
 
 " Thanks ! " said Bobby. " And I'm glad to be able to 
 thank you for the permission to fish. This is my sister, 
 Decima." 
 
 Lord Gaunt went up to Decima, who stood perfectly 
 still, and without making any response to the introduction.
 
 86 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " I cannot hope for forgiveness this time I " he said, in 
 a low voice unheard by Bobby and Bright, who were a little 
 apart, discussing the strangeness of Lord (Taunt's sudden 
 and unannounced visit. " But you will admit that the 
 temptation to conceal myself was very strong. If Mr. 
 Bright had not turned up"! should have got away without 
 your learning that I was the 'heartless' owner of Leaf- 
 more." 
 
 Here Bright strode up, fortunately interrupting further 
 conversation on a theme that was very distressing to 
 Decima. He requested Lord Gaunt to come up to the 
 Hall, as he had much to say to him. 
 
 Gaunt entreated Decima and her brother to accompany 
 them, and the invitation was eagerly accepted by Bobby, 
 who wished his sister to avail herself of the chance to 
 inspect the art treasures of the Hall, which he himself 
 had seen several times, thanks to the friendliness of Mr. 
 Bright. 
 
 As the four moved from room to room, the two visitors 
 inspecting various objects of interest, Lord Gaunt informed 
 the delighted steward that in four days he intended to 
 return to Leafmore and there take up his abode. 
 
 This sudden change of plan caused Decima to engage 
 in deep reflection. She wondered why Lord Gaunt h id 
 so unexpectedly determined, after such a long aba 
 make his home once more amid the scenes of his youth. 
 She was still further amazed when he declared that it 
 would please him to have Miss Deane join him, from time 
 to time, with her advice in regard to several improvements 
 he intended to make, He urged this upon her so earn, 
 that she gave a rather reluctant assent to do what she 
 could to assist him in the way he had suggested. 
 
 When she reached Woodbines, after her visit to 
 Leafmore, she was far in advance of Bobby, who had 
 lingered behind to properly pack his fishing equipments 
 As she pushed open the door of the laboratory, she was 
 surprised to hear her father's voice. He was talking 
 rapidly, and in excited tones. 
 
 She shaded her eyes for the sunlight poured in after 
 her and dazzled her and the first thing she saw was Mr. 
 Theodore Mershon. 
 
 He was seated on the carpenter's bench, his small,
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 37 
 
 dapper form bent rather grotesquely, his feet resting on a 
 stool, one hand nursing his chin, the other holding a big 
 cigar, the fumes of which filled the room. 
 
 Her father was pacing up and down the room, a model 
 in his hand, his hair ruffled over his head ; and he was 
 talking in excited, rhapsodical fashion. 
 
 " There is a large, an enormous fortune in this idea, for 
 it is a great, and, above all, an original idea. My dear 
 sir, I assure you and I know what I am saying that 
 there is wealth beyond the dreams of avarice in this 
 invention of mine ! Who is this ? " 
 
 " Father ! " said Decima, as he stared at her vacantly. 
 "It is I, Decima." 
 
 Mr. Mershon got off the bench, and removed his hat, 
 which he had worn tilted at the back of his head. 
 
 " How do you do, Miss Deane ? " he 'said, and a faint 
 flush stained his face. "I have taken the pleasure of 
 calling on Mr. 'Deane, and he has been explaining 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " broke in Mr. Deane. " Very kind of Mr. 
 Mr." he hesitated for a moment " Mr. Curzon ' 
 
 " Mershon ! " suggested the owner of the name. 
 
 " Pardon ! Mershon. A gentleman of great intelli- 
 gence, my dear Decima. I have been telling him of my 
 new invention concentrated electricity." 
 
 " A great invention, Miss Deane," said Mershon. " I 
 think very highly of it. In my humble opinion there's 
 money in it a lot of money." 
 
 Mr. Deane wagged his head with proud satisfaction. 
 
 " A gentleman of great experience and intelligence, my 
 dear Decima ! " 
 
 " I am glad," said Decima, looking from one to the 
 other with slightly drawn brows. 
 
 Mr. Theodore Mershon's eyes dwelt on her face. 
 
 " Of course I haven't heard the whole of it," he said. 
 " But your father is going to explain and bring the draw- 
 ings when you come to dine with me on Tuesday, Miss 
 Deane." 
 
 The troubled look grew more distinct on Decima's face. 
 " Are we are we going, father ? " she said. 
 
 " Yes ! yes ! Why not ? " said Mr. Deane, testily. 
 " Mr. Curzon is much interested in the idea are you not, 
 Mr. Curzon ? "
 
 88 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Very much," said that gentleman ; and his small eyes 
 devoured the girl's face. " Awfully ! I'll cut off now, 
 sir. I shall expect you on Tuesday, Miss Deane." 
 
 He held out his hand and it closed over Decima's with 
 a pressure which made something within her rise with 
 resentment. 
 
 She said nothing, not even " good-by," but, after he had 
 gone, stood with downcast eyes as her father, pushing Ids 
 hand through his tangled hair, and, pacing to and fro, 
 muttered : 
 
 " A very sensible, intelligent young man ! He under- 
 stood me. And he is rich. He can help me can help 
 all of us ! With his money and my brains Eli ? What 
 did you say, Decima? Dinner? Already ! " And, with 
 a reluctant sigh, he suffered Decima to lead him out of 
 the room. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1)i:< 'IMA slept soundly that night why should she not? 
 For, as yet, love had not come to trouble her ! but she 
 dreamed, and in her dreams Lord Gaunt and Theodore 
 Mershon were inextricably mixed ; their voices, the one 
 deep and musical, the other sharp and metallic, clnshed 
 together, and once she started uneasily, as if she felt Mr. 
 Mershon's thin, claw-like fingers imprisoning hers. 
 
 As the days passed the improvements at Leafmore went 
 on, and frequently Mr. Bright consulted Decima as to the 
 interior furnishings of the Hall. " The master had busi- 
 ness which called him to the metropolis, and for over a 
 week he was absent; consequently he and Miss Deane 
 did not meet during that time. She was therefore the 
 less reluctant to aid Mr. Bright by her suggestions. 
 
 On Tuesday, according to agreement, the Deanes, father, 
 son and daughter took dinner at the Firs. The house- 
 keeper was introduced by Mr. Mershon as his half-sister, 
 Mrs. Sherborne. She was past middle age, with a thin 
 figure and a pale, sad face; her ruling expression strongly 
 .suggestive of nervousness and timidity. 
 
 Daring the meal Mr. Mershon grew eloquent in descant- 
 ing on his business ventures how he had originated the 
 Great Wheat Mining Company, and cleared a quarter of
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 39 
 
 a million before it went to smash. He also mentioned 
 various other financial achievements of a similar char- 
 acter; and it was plain that if his statements were true, 
 he was a remarkably clever man. 
 
 He extolled Mr. Deane's invention, saying there were 
 untold millions in it if properly handled, and he suggested 
 a scheme by which it could be put upon the market. 
 This pleased the visionary inventor, and as he said good- 
 by to his host, he thought that Mr. Mershon was an un- 
 commonly bright gentleman. 
 
 When the guests had departed, Mr. Mershon announced 
 to Mrs. Sherborne that it was his intention to make Miss 
 Deane his wife, and that he required her to take every 
 opportunity to win the good opinion of the inventor's 
 daughter, and sing his praises to her. 
 
 " But she is so so very young, Theodore," replied Mrs. 
 Sherborne, deprecatingly. 
 
 " Young !" exclaimed Mr. Mershon, his eyes flashing 
 angrily. " I like her all the better for that. D n it, 
 you don't suppose I would be such an ass as to fall in love 
 with an old woman ! And I've fallen in love with her, I 
 tell you ! " 
 
 " She she may not consent, I I mean, she seems to 
 have some will of her own, Theodore ; I have been talk- 
 ing to her " 
 
 " Consent ! Will of her own ! " he said, with a sneer. 
 " You are an idiot ! Do you suppose I'm depending upon 
 her sweet will only ? Not I ! I know a better game than 
 that. She'll consent fast enough. You Avait and see! 
 I've got her tight enough ; or, if I haven't got her already 
 I shall have her in my grip presently." 
 
 From that day his attentions to Decima were marked 
 and they were frequently together. Tie used all his arts 
 to win her esteem, and with delight he saw that she was 
 pleased with his gallantries, which never surpassed the 
 bounds of propriety. ^On the return of Lord Gaunt to 
 Leaf more he was- among the first to witness these atten- 
 tions, and he contemplated them with eyes of jealousy. 
 In Theodore Mershon the nobleman saw a possibly suc- 
 cessful rival, and he, too, lavished much attention upon 
 Decima. They rode together, drove out together, and the 
 Deanes were often welcome guests at the Hall. Lord
 
 40 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Gaunt was delighted to note that Decima was a graceful 
 rider, and he presented to her a half-thoroughbred In 
 named Xero. 
 
 On Decima's first trial of this spirited steed she was 
 eager to test the animal's agility, and she forced him at a 
 thick hedge. Xero bounded forward, and just as lie was 
 about to spring he made a false step, stumbled, and the 
 fair rider was in imminent peril of a fall. But Lord Gaunt 
 was close beside her, and dexterously caught her in his 
 arms. There he held her close to his breast for about two 
 seconds, and then released her and aided her to remount. 
 In those two seconds a dream of happiness Hashed through 
 his brain. 
 
 On the ride homeward he was almost silent, but deeply 
 reflective. Having left his fair companion at Woodbines, 
 he hastened to Leafmore, went direct to his study and 
 lighted a cigar. He could feel the lithe, graceful figure 
 still in his arms, still feel her breath on his cheek. 
 
 Suddenly he flung the cigar in the fireplace and threw 
 his hands above his head with a wild, despairing gesture. 
 
 " Oh, my God ! " he cried. s " Xot that ! Xot that ! " 
 But the prayer came too late, and he knew it. "I love 
 her ! " he cried, as the sweat of his anguish broke upon 
 his brow. " I love her ! I love her ! " 
 
 There was more pain than pleasure in the thought, for 
 there was keen agony in the realization that he, a married 
 man, was in love with Decima Deane! 
 
 " My God ! " he exclaimed, how will this end ? " 
 
 He loved her, and he knew that this was the first real 
 love of his life. The fancy for the woman who bore his 
 name had been merely a fancy, and companionship, d 
 intimacy, had changed that fancy to loathing and contempt. 
 
 Decima alone was the idol of his heart. In her presence 
 he saw charms that no other woman of his acquaintance 
 had ever revealed, and he was comparatively happy when, 
 enjoying her society. 
 
 With some plans in his hand for the construction of a 
 couple of cottages he was about to erect, he called at the 
 Woodbines, intending to show the plans to her, and get 
 her opinion as to the interior arrangements of the dwell- 
 ings. At the time she was adjusting some bunches of ivy 
 and clematis which overhung the porch. Her tresses be-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 41 
 
 came entangled in the process, and he assisted her to re- 
 lease the silky coil. While he was thus engaged a little 
 piece of brown ribbon which had been used to confine her 
 hair, dropped to the ground, unperceived by Decima. 
 
 He secured it, and, holding it in his hand, said : 
 
 " If you don't particularly need this, I'll tie up the plans 
 with it." 
 
 She cheerfully assented, but a few minutes later she 
 observed that the plans were still without a confining 
 circlet. She did not know that the little piece of brown 
 ribbon was at that moment neatly placed in his vest 
 pocket, close to his heart. 
 
 That evening, in the solitude of his own room, having 
 dismissed Hobson, his valet, he stood with the little piece 
 of ribbon in his hand, contemplating it silently. 
 
 ' What a fool I am ! " he exclaimed, at last. " I am 
 living in a fool's paradise, and I shall awake presently to 
 find myself in in the other place. I'll burn this. Yes, 
 I'll burn it and and try to forget her." 
 
 He held the little piece of ribbon to the candle, but he 
 drew it back instantly, with something like a groan on 
 his lips. 
 
 The ribbon slept on his heart that night, and every 
 night, and his heart said to it, " I love her ! I love her ! " 
 and the ribbon murmured back, " I know it." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LORD GAUXT, by many generous acts, won the friend- 
 ship of Bobby Deane, and the latter thought him one of 
 the grandest fellows in the world. Bobby was about to 
 start for London, by the advice of his tutors, to brush up 
 in his French and German, and prepare for his school ex- 
 amination. This movement did not meet the favor of 
 Lord Gaunt, who saw that Bobby's absence would limit 
 his opportunities for seeing Decima, to whom the brother 
 had officiated as a sort of chaperon. 
 
 Still, it was absolutely necessary for the boy to go, to 
 prepare himself for entering the army, and Lord Gaunt 
 could not consistently make any objection. He generously 
 offered to Bobby the free use of his London apartments,
 
 42 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 during his sojourn in the metropolis, stating that he would 
 be doing him a service if he occupied them. He also prom- 
 ised the young man to write for him a letter of intro- 
 duction to the Orient Club, of which Lord Gaunt had long 
 been a member. This letter would undoubtedly secure 
 for him all the privileges of the club, and Bobby was in 
 the seventh heaven of delight as he warmly grasped the 
 nobleman's hand and expressed his acceptance and deep 
 gratitude. 
 
 Decima, who was present on this occasion, also s mani- 
 fested her appreciation of these favors, and artlessly said : 
 
 " I wonder why you are so kind to us all ? " 
 
 It was evident to the nobleman that he could not 
 have discovered a quicker method to intrench himself in 
 Decimals heart. 
 
 On the day succeeding the events just recorded, Bobby 
 was on his way to London. Lord (Jaunt's letter of intro- 
 duction had preceded him ; and, of course, the young man 
 was assured of a welcome. Decima missed the badinage 
 and playful habits of her brother, but she was not at all 
 lonely, for on that very afternoon Lord Gaunt was her at- 
 tendant on an exploring trip through the woodland of 
 Leaf more. It was an accidental meeting, he having seen 
 her strolling along with a little flower basket on her arm, 
 and joined her. 
 
 "Oh, what beautiful lilies ! " she exclaimed, as she no- 
 ticed a massive bunch of these aquatic plants floating near 
 the edge of the adjacent stream. 
 
 " I'll get some of them for you," he said, as he knelt 
 on the bank, and, slipping back the sleeves of his coat and 
 shirt from his left arm. 
 
 Suddenly, as he plunged his arm into the water, and 
 drew up the lilies by their long stems, she caught sight 
 of some black marks or scars on the bare flesh. 
 
 " What are those marks on your arm ?" she asked. 
 
 lie was busy cutting the steins, and was off his guard 
 for a moment. 
 
 "Oli, nothing," he said, pulling down his s! 
 " Caustic marks. I got a scratch or two from a young 
 lion. There are the lilies. And very pretty they are. Let 
 me put them in your basket." 
 
 She stood stockstill, the blood rushing to her face and
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 43 
 
 then away from it again, her eyes fixed on his face with 
 a strange look in them. She remembered the Zoo and 
 the young lion, the swift outstretching of his arm to save 
 her, the sound of the rent cloth. The lion had torn his 
 arm then ! 
 
 For a moment something beat in her heart, a pulsation 
 which almost deprived her of breath. She longed to 
 take the arm, and press her lips to the black marks ; for 
 he had got them in saving her. They should have been 
 on her arm instead of his ! Her eyes grew hot, and filled 
 with tears, and the first thrill of love ran through her 
 veins, though she did not know it. Troubled, perplexed, 
 fighting against this feeling with all a girl's instinctive 
 dread of passion, she held out the basket, then as soon as 
 he had placed the lilies in it, she turned her head away. 
 
 " I must go," she said. " It is late, and good-bv ! " 
 And she left him suddenly, her whole being quivering, 
 lie had not seen her face he had been engaged with the 
 lilies and he suspected nothing of the emotions which 
 had swept over her young heart. 
 
 * * * # * * * 
 
 It was late that very afternoon when Bobby walked into 
 the Orient, walked in with that sense of proud possession 
 which the young man feels in his first club. He made 
 his way through the imposing hall with its solemn por- 
 ters and stately footmen into the handsome smoking-room, 
 and lighting a cigarette, took up a paper not to read, but 
 as a screen from which he could look at the other mem- 
 bers Avho were present ; for Bobby was a stranger, and 
 every one who belonged to the Orient was of interest to 
 him. He knew some by sight, or from their photographs 
 displayed in the shop windows for there were some fa- 
 mous men in the club and he was wondering whether 
 he should get to know any of them personally, when two 
 men entered through the great glass doors. 
 
 Bobby looked at them curiously. One was a tall, fair, 
 very fair man, with a clean-shaven face, handsome, frank- 
 looking blue eyes, and lips wearing a peculiarly pleasant 
 and winning smile. The other was a younger man of 
 Bobby's age with red hair and a pale face. He was plain ; 
 but there was something of suppressed force in the rather 
 sullen-looking face which was noticeable. His eyes were
 
 41 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 somewhat bloodshot, and as he looked from side to side, 
 they had a suggestion of ferocity, of savageness, held in. 
 cheek by their owner which made them still more re- 
 markable. 
 
 Bobby took a second glance at him; then, with an ex- 
 clamation, rose to his feet. For he had suddenly recog- 
 nized the young man as a schoolmate. 
 
 " Hallo, Trevor ! " he said, holding out his hand. 
 
 The young fellow eyed him with a frown for a moment., 
 then he said, without any great display of joy : 
 
 " Hallo, Deane ! Didn't know you were in town." 
 
 "No," said Bobby, in his bright way. "It is a 1< .-.\\y; 
 time since we met." 
 
 "Xot since we left that beastly Rugby," said Tiv 
 gloomily. " Are you staying up for any time ? " 
 
 " For a month or two," said Bobby. 
 
 The fair man stood looking at them with a pleasant. 
 smile in his blue eyes, and on his well-cut lips. 
 
 " A meeting of old friends, Trevor ? " he said, in a 
 soft and musical voice. " Will you introduce me, my 
 dear fellow?" 
 
 Trevor glowered for a moment at the thick Turkey 
 carpet as if he had a grudge against it, then he said, sul- 
 lenly : 
 
 "It's an old schoolmate of mine Mr. Deane. This is 
 a friend, Deane Mr. Thorpe, Morgan Thorpe." 
 
 Mr. Morgan Thorpe held out his hand with a winning 
 smile. 
 
 "Delighted to know any friend of Trevor's!" he said 
 " And very glad to find you are a member of the old club, 
 Mr. Deane!" 
 
 There was something flattering in the speech and its 
 manner which made Bobby flush with pleasure. 
 
 " And what are you doing just on a pleasant A'isit to 
 the little village ?'" asked Mr. Thorpe. "Shall we sit 
 down, Trevor? Mr. Deane, you will join us in a drink ? " 
 
 Bobby said he would have coffee, and it was brought in 
 company with the soda and whiskey for the other men. 
 
 "I'm grinding for the army/' said Bobby. 
 
 " Ah ! I envy you," said Mr. Thorpe, in the same flat- 
 tering way. " Nothing like the service. I was in it for 
 some years."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 45 
 
 " What regiment ? " asked Bobby, who of course knew 
 liis Army List by heart. 
 
 " Xot an English one, alas ! " said Mr. Thorpe, blandly. 
 " I was in foreign service. A free lance, Mr. Deane. A 
 free lance ! I have my brevet-colonelcy ; but, of course, 
 I don't use it here. I am a civilian in England ; but over 
 there " 
 
 He smiled and shrugged his shoulders, Bobby would 
 have asked where " over there " was, but didn't like to. 
 
 " Deane Deane ? Let me see ! Are you one of the 
 Deanes of Leamington ? " continued Mr. Thorpe. 
 
 " Xo," said Bobby. "I live at a place called Leaf- 
 more ! " 
 
 " Ah ! I know the Deanes of Leamington very well. 
 Leafmore ? " he shot a s \viit glance from his blue eyes at 
 Bobby " Leafmore, in Downshire ? I've heard of it. 
 Xow, what shall we do? What do you say to a game of 
 pool ? " 
 
 Bobby had to confess that he didn't play billiards. 
 
 "Never too late to learn, my dear fellow!" said Mr. 
 Thorpe. " I'm a deuced bad player myself, or I'd offer to 
 teach you ; but Trevor is a first-class performer with the 
 stick and the spheres. Come on, Trevor, and give us both 
 a lesson." 
 
 Trevor got up with a kind of reluctance, and they went 
 into the billiard room. Trevor and Thorpe played and 
 Bobby took his first lesson in marking. Thorpe played, 
 as he had said, indifferently, and appeared to take more 
 interest in chatting with Bobby than in the game. He 
 talked well ; Bobby thought he had never met a more 
 charming man, or one more frank and candid, and, really, 
 almost childlike in his genial simplicity. In the course of 
 an hour Bobby felt as if he had known Mr. Morgan 
 Thorpe for years. Trevor said little, but played with a 
 kind of moody absorption, and made some splendid breaks. 
 
 Presently Mr. Morgan Thorpe glanced at his watch. 
 
 " I say ! Time, time ! Dear me, how quickly it has 
 flown. That's thanks to you, Deane ! " He had dropped 
 the " Mr." already ; which was really very friendly of him. 
 " We must be going, Trevor ; we dine early, you know. 
 Oh, by the way, Deane, I wonder whether I could per- 
 suade you to waive ceremony and come and dine with us
 
 46 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 to-night. When I say ' us ' I mean my sister and i : 
 and Trevor, of course. We shall be quite en famille, 
 you know, and I can assure you that my sister will be 
 very pleased to see you. A friend of our dear Trevor's 
 has the surest passport eh, Trevor ? " 
 
 Trevor did not respond with a smile to the simile, but 
 glanced at Bobby, and then sullenly made a red hazard. 
 
 " Thank you," said Bobby. " I shall be much pleased.'' 
 
 " Now, that's very good of you ! " said Mr. Morgan 
 Thorpe, gratefully. " We dine at seven-thirty. Early, isn't 
 it ': But you won't mind, just once in a way ! My sister 
 well, my sister is rather delicate, and goes to bed early. 
 Seven-thirty. How stupid of me ! I had forgotten the 
 addivs- : " 
 
 He took a card from his case, and gave it to Bobby with 
 a charming smile. The card bore this inscription : 
 
 Mr. Morgan Thorpe, 
 31 Cardigan Terrace, S. W. 
 
 Bobby put the card in his pocket, said he would be punc- 
 tual, and the two men left the club. 
 
 When they got outside Trevor said gloomily : 
 
 " Why the devil did you ask him to dinner ? It wasn't 
 necessary. Don't know much of him an old school- 
 mate." 
 
 Morgan Thorpe smiled. 
 
 " My dear fellow, that's no reason why you shouldn't 
 know more of him. I've taken a fancy to him ; have in- 
 deed! Besides, he will be a pleasant addition to our 
 little party." 
 
 Mr. Thorpe hummed a bright little air, and Trevor 
 muttered something under his breath. They walked to 
 Cardigan Terrace, and Thorpe stopped outside Xo 31. 
 
 " Xo use asking you to come in, I suppose ? " he said 
 blandly. 
 
 Trevor looked with a kind of savage wistfulness up 'at 
 the windows, then shaking his head. 
 
 " Xo : I shall be here at seven- thirty." 
 
 " So long, then, dear boy," said Thorpe, and he went up 
 the steps and rang the bell. 
 
 The door was opened by a maid-servant, a middle-aged
 
 HER HEARTS DESIRE. 47 
 
 woman, with the unmistakable face and manner of a 
 Frenchwoman. 
 
 " Where is your mistress ? " he asked, in her language. 
 
 " In the dressing-room," replied the woman, shooting a 
 glance at the departing Trevor. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe went up the narrow stairs ; the houses 
 in Cardigan Terrace are small not to say poky and 
 knocked at the door. A low, clear voice, with a singular 
 metallic ring in it, said : " Come in," and he entered. 
 
 The room was richly hut garishly furnished : the ail- 
 was thick with perfume there was an odor of cheap scent 
 all over the house, by the way and the hangings of rose 
 pink were soiled and stained. At a muslin-covered 
 dressing-table sat a lady. She was in a dressing peignoir 
 also rather soiled over which was a mass of black hair, 
 hung like a torrent. She was small but pretty, more than 
 pretty, for no one had ever looked at her face without be- 
 ing more or less fascinated. The features were small and 
 exquisitely chiseled ; her eyes were black as sloes and 
 remarkably expressive ; they could be sharp and brilliant, 
 and they could be soft and languorous, just as their 
 owner chose. Her face was pale, of that ivory whiteness 
 which sometimes goes with black hair. 
 
 She was beautifully formed, and very graceful, with 
 hands and feet like a fairy. In short, she was a beauti- 
 ful little woman, with the face and the charm of a siren, 
 and with about as much heart. 
 
 She turned the corners of her dark eyes upon her 
 brother for a second, then went on with her occupation, 
 which was the application of rice powder to her beautiful 
 face, and she did it with the delicate touch of a skilled 
 artist. 
 
 " AVell," she said, as he looked down at her with a 
 smile, and there was a world of significance in the 
 word. 
 
 " A new friend is coming to dinner, my dear Laura," 
 he said. 
 
 She looked at him in the glass. 
 
 Who is it ? " 
 
 " A friend of Trevor's," he said. " A young fellow by 
 the name of Deane. Quite a boy a charming boy." 
 
 She made a slight, contemptuous move. ,
 
 48 HER HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 " Ah, do not despise the day of small things, my charm- 
 ing sister ! " he said, lightly. 
 
 " I hate boys ! " she said. " And a friend of Trevor's 
 sulky and sullen and awkward as himself, I supp<- 
 
 " On the contrary, a handsome, nicely-mannered, and, 
 as I have said, quite charming boy." 
 
 " He will be a change, at any rate," she said. " I am 
 getting wearied of that bear 
 
 "Take care you do not let the bear see it!" he said, 
 warningly. " We have not yet got all the bear's skin, iny 
 dear Laura ! " 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 " And is this boy coming only because you have taken 
 a fancy to him '? " she asked, as she drew a thin, exquisi- 
 tely thin, line under her eyes. ^ What who is he '." " 
 
 " Cramming for the army," he said. 
 
 She smiled contemptuously. 
 
 "I know the kind. An allowance of a hundred a year, 
 and promised his dear, good mother down at the parson- 
 age that he wouldn't play. Oh, I know ! " 
 
 "I don't know what his allowance maybe," he said, 
 "but I fancy he will be worth a little attention, my dear 
 Laura." He took up a newspaper which lay with a fan 
 and a lady's silver cigarette case on the couch. " See 
 here." He read aloud : 
 
 " THE GREAT ELECTRIC STORAGE COMPANY, LIMITED, 
 CAPITAL, 100,000, 
 
 Directors : 
 
 Lord Borrow-more, Esq., I mpecunie Castle, 
 Theodore Mershon, Esq., The Firs, Leaf more. 
 Peter Deaue, Esq., Woodbines, Leaf more." 
 
 "See? The son of a man who is in the swim with 
 Theodore Mershon ought to be worth a little attention. 
 You are looking sweet to-night, my dear Laura. What 
 are you going to wear ? That soft yellow dress with the 
 er low neck? Right! He's a nice boy. A nice, frank 
 boy. The sort of boy to fall in love with 
 
 He pointed to the glass in which the fascinating face 
 was reflected and with a soft laugh left the room.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 49 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BOBBY dressed himself with more than his usual care 
 that evening, and brushed his short but wavy hair until 
 it shone like raw silk. It was his first invitation to din- 
 ner since he had been in London, and he was quite in a, 
 small state of excitement about it. 
 
 Punctually at seven-thirty he presented himself at 31 
 Cardigan Terrace and was shown by the French maid into 
 the, small drawing-room. It was the usual London draw- 
 ing-room ; there were a good many colors in it, and it 
 looked rather gay to Bobby after the rather shabby one 
 at home ; but the cretonne Avas rather dirty, and there 
 was an odor of scent and cigarettes which rather sur- 
 prised him. 
 
 The door opened and Mr. Morgan Thorpe entered. lie 
 looked very handsome in evening dress, and he welcomed 
 Bobby most cordially. 
 
 " Delighted to see you, my dear Deane," he said, witli 
 his winning smile. " Trevor is not here yet ; my sister 
 will be down presently. Did I tell you that she is a 
 widow ? Poor girl ! She lost her husband soon after her 
 marriage. It was not altogether a happy union but I 
 must not bore you with our family history ; suffice it that 
 Time has healed her wound and restored something of her 
 old happiness. I think you will like her, my dear Deane. 
 She is a dear girl for she is only a girl still and a great 
 comfort and joy to my life." 
 
 At this moment the door opened and the great comfort 
 and joy of Mr. Morgan Thorpe's life entered. She cer- 
 tainly did look only a girl, and Bobby was startled, not 
 only by her youth, but by her beauty. There was some- 
 thing about her which literally took the boy's breath 
 away. 
 
 At that moment her face wore a pensive expression, and 
 the dark eyes were soft and sad, the red lips half apart. 
 The beautiful dress of yellow, accentuated the clear white- 
 ness of her skin and the black hair and brows. She held 
 a black fan in one hand and a bunch of white flowers in 
 the other. Altogether, she was a vision of grace and
 
 50 HER IIKAKrs DESIRE. 
 
 loveliness calculated to move a more experienced man than 
 Bobby to wonder and admiration. 
 
 "This is our friend Mr. Deane," said Morgan Thorpe. 
 " My sister Mrs. Dalton." 
 
 She laid down the fan and gave her small hand to 
 Bobby, with a smile which showed her white, even teeth 
 to perfection, and said she was glad to see him. Com- 
 monplace words enough, but they sounded wonderful to 
 Bobby, for the gods, when the)' are in good humor, are 
 wont to be lavish of their gifts, and they had bestowed 
 upon this woman not only grace of form and a beautiful 
 face, but a soft and musical voice, which she could play 
 on as a skilled musician plays on his favorite instrument. 
 
 "You find our menage very small, I have no doubt, my 
 dear Deane," said Morgan Thorpe. " We have taken this 
 house furnished, and though it is not all that we could 
 desire, it is large enough for two, and my sister and I 
 possess contented minds, though I must confess that we 
 do find the house rather small after our palazzo in Flor- 
 ence. It was lent to us by our dear friend, the prince." 1 
 
 lie did not say which, but Bobby was duly impressed. 
 
 ; - Ours has been rather a wandering life," continued Mr. 
 Morgan Thorpe, "and though we may have many friends 
 abroad we have very few in London." 
 
 " Mr. Deane will be a host in himself, I am sure,' said 
 Laura, very sweetly and with a slight foreign accent, 
 which made her voice seem still more charming to Hobby, 
 who blushed with pleasure. 
 
 Then Trevor came in. He did not look very much 
 better tempered than when Bobby had parted from him. 
 He gave the two men a nod and a scowl, and, going 
 straight up to Laura, handed her a bouquet. 
 
 "Got them coming along," he said; "thought you'd 
 like to have them." 
 
 She took the flowers and thanked him with a smile, and 
 he sat down beside her and talked in an undertone. The 
 French maid announced dinner. 
 
 "Deane, will you take in my sister?" said Mr. Morgan 
 Thorpe. 
 
 Trevor had already offered his arm and he let it fall to 
 his side and scowled at Bobby as he bore Laura off. 
 
 It was a delightful evening for Bobby, who felt that
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 51 
 
 he was in the presence of an amiable hostess, lovely, art- 
 less and bewitching. At the dinner, at which wine flowed 
 freely, she was most attentive to her new guest, and in- 
 sinuatingly encouraged him in conversation, which re- 
 vealed much of himself and his family. The meal over, 
 Thorpe suggested a game of cards, but as Bobby was 
 rather inexperienced in this form of pastime, the siren 
 entertained him with vocal and piano music while her 
 brother and Trevor, at the other end of the room, amused 
 themselves at ecarte, and the stakes were not light. 
 > The siren had an exquisite voice, and sang Avith almost 
 artistic effect. Bobby was fascinated as he listened. 
 Occasionally between the songs she would wander over 
 to the card players and take her station behind Trevor, 
 leaning on the back of his chair. On these occasions she 
 would sometimes strike her hair with her left hand, and 
 sometimes with her right, all the time keeping up a play- 
 ful chatter, but never once looking at Thorpe. These 
 movements, however, were not lost upon her brother, 
 who regulated his play and wagers according to the signs 
 thus quickly displayed by the siren. It was. a well-un- 
 derstood system of telegraphy, and when Trevor arose 
 from the table he was the loser to a considerable amount. 
 
 At a late hour the guests prepared for departure. 
 Trevor went up to Laura, and, drawing her aside, talked 
 to her in a low voice. She listened with a pensive smile 
 the non-committal smile which a woman knows "how to 
 manage so well. Then she glided from him to Bobby. 
 
 " I hope you will come to see us often," she said in a 
 low voice. 
 
 Bobby tried to murmur his thanks. 
 
 The French maid appeared with a spirit stand. Bobby 
 had some whiskey, though he didn't want it. His brain 
 was in a whirl ; his bright eyes were flashing ; his heart 
 was beating fast. Laura was standing beside him smiling 
 up at him with a friendly almost loving smile. 
 
 " I wonder whether you would come and dine with 
 me '? " he said, looking round with boyish eagerness, his 
 eyes resting, however, on the beautiful face beside him. 
 " I've got rooms at Prince's Mansions. They are not 
 mine really ; they belong to a friend of mine an awfully 
 good fellow Lord Gaunt "
 
 52 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Mr. Morgan Thorpe, who alone heard this, was mixing 
 himself a glass of whiskey. He was just pouring in a 
 small quantity of water, and with an awkwardness 
 .scarcely to be expected of so cool a hand, he let the 
 caraffe slip from his grasp. The water poured over the 
 table, and in the confusion Bobby's speech was almost 
 unnoticed. 
 
 " How clumsy of me ! " exclaimed Morgan Thorpe. 
 " Forgive me, my dear Laura ! AVe shall be delighted, 
 my dear Deane delighted! Must you really be going ? 
 Ah, well ! the happiest hours come to a finish." 
 
 Laura went out into the small hall as the two men put 
 on their light overcoats. Bobby found some difficulty 
 with his, and she helped him with her small white hands. 
 
 " You will come again ? " she said. 
 
 "Yes yes, indeed," said Bobby. "If you will be so 
 good as to ask me." 
 
 He got outside and the cool evening air struck upon 
 his heated brow. He felt as if he had come from an en- 
 Chanted palace, in which a beautiful creature, Avith soft, 
 black eyes, had reigned like a queen of the fairies. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A SKVKUK headache was a painful reminder to Bobby 
 the next morning of the previous evening's dissipation. 
 For, under the witching eyes of the fair hostess he had 
 indulged in stimulants almost recklessly. Late that 
 noon he received a visit from Morgan Thorpe, who viewed 
 Lord Gaunt's apartments with affected delight and curi- 
 osity, as if it were the lirst time he had ever seen them. 
 He advised Bobby to conceal from Mrs. Dalton tl: 
 that the rooms were not his own, for she might hesitate 
 to visit an acquaintance in apartments belonging to 
 another party. They then sauntered to the Orient Club 
 together, and for days afterward they frequently met 
 there. Bobby was surely becoming quite intimate with 
 Morgan Thorpe, and was " seeing life " under an expe- 
 rienced tutor. 
 
 Then followed another dinner at Cardigan Terrace, in 
 which the entertainment of the previous visit was re-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 53 
 
 peated, with a slight variation that Bobby was induced 
 to take part in the card-playing with Trevor and Thorpe. 
 Strange to say, he quit the game a winner to a small ex- 
 tent. 
 
 To make some slight return for the hospitality of his 
 new friends, he invited them to his apartments a few 
 days later, and they sat down to a meal that would not 
 have discredited a man of boundless wealth. Mrs. Pal- 
 ton lavished her smiles upon the young host in such an 
 effective way that Trevor observed the siren with eyes in 
 which fires of jealousy blazed. 
 
 Cards were proposed, but as Bobby said he was with- 
 out them the idea was about to be abandoned when 
 Thorpe suddenly remembered that he had a couple of 
 packs in his pocket. These having been produced, the 
 three men sat down, and were soon engaged in a game 
 which lasted for hours. 
 
 The same system of telegraphy noted heretofore was 
 practised for the benefit of Morgan, Mrs. Dalton stand- 
 ing behind Bobby's chair, exchanging playful banter with 
 the three players. The result was that at the close of 
 the game the artless novice was a debtor to both of his 
 contestants. He owed Trevor fifty-six pounds and Mor- 
 gan Thorpe a hundred and twenty-four. 
 
 As this announcement was made by Thorpe, Bobby's 
 face fell, and he began to utter words of apology to ex- 
 press his inability to meet his losses. 
 
 "I'm sorry ! I'm I'm afraid " he stammered. 
 
 " My dear fellow," said Morgan Thorpe, laughing care- 
 lessly, " I did not suppose you carried so much money in 
 your waistcoat pocket ! No one does. You will do the 
 usual thing, of course ? Just give me an I O U. or, better 
 still, a little bill. Strange, but I have one about me ! " 
 
 He produced a sheet of blue paper partly filled up, and 
 laid it on the table. 
 
 " Sign that, my dear Deane. It is only a matter of form. 
 Between friends, you know. You need not pay until it 
 is convenient : in fact, Trevor and I don't care very 
 much whether you pay or not. We have had such a de- 
 lightful evening. Delightful ! By Jove ! I have never 
 had a more abso-lu-te-ly perfect dinner ! Eh, Laura ? " 
 
 Laura thus appealed to, murmured something in
 
 54 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Bobby'.s oars, and Bobby, taking the stylographic pen 
 which Mr. Morgan Thorpe offered him, signed his name 
 across the blue paper. His head was swimming, his whole 
 being thrilling under the touch of her hand, the music 
 of her murmuring voice. He would have done anything 
 signed anything. 
 
 With a fond and vacuous smile he wrapped her cloak 
 around her. 
 
 " Let me arrange a bouquet for you/' he said, in a 
 husky whisper as he went to the dining-table, and there 
 chose .some flowers which had adorned tl: 
 
 She pressed the bouquet to her lips and looked a 
 it at him witli a sad smile. 
 
 " If we had only met earlier ! " she murmured. 
 
 Bobby went down to the brougham with them, and as 
 she entered she pressed his hand so warmly that he ven- 
 tured to raise her small, white hand to his 15; 
 
 The brougham rattled away, and the divine Laura 
 leaned back with a yawn and a sigh. 
 
 Trevor bent forward, his bloodshot eyes gleaming upon 
 her. 
 
 il..w long is this going to last?" he asked, lioai- 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders, and glanced at her 
 brother. 
 
 " Ask him ! " she said. 
 
 Mr. Morgan Thorpe laughed. 
 
 ' My dear Trevor ! " he said, remonstratingly. - You 
 surely are not jealous ! Of a boy like that!" 'and 'i 
 vor, with a smothered oath subsided. 
 
 Meanwhile Bobby sat at the table with the ranis 
 strewn around him, and thought of the divine Laura. 
 He could feel her perfumed breath upon his cheek, and 
 could hear her voice still ringing in 1: 
 
 He did not remember how much he had lost : did not 
 reflect that he was the son of a poor man, with limited 
 allowance. He only thought of that beautiful face and 
 sweet voice, and reader, did you ever hear the song of 
 The Spider and the Fly '; *
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 55 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FOR weeks thereafter Mr. Deane was amazed by the 
 frequency of Bobby's letters requesting remittances ; but 
 he responded to them with generosity, yet cautioning his 
 son to be prudent. This matter worried the old gentle- 
 man considerably, yet the worriment passed away in the 
 excitement attending the preparations for a grand re- 
 ception at Leafmore Hall, to which he and his daughter 
 were invited. Bobby, too, received an invitation, but he 
 had to forego the pleasure, as he found it inconvenient 
 to leave London. 
 
 The reception was a great success, and Deeima won 
 golden opinions from every one, especially from the Coun- 
 tess of Roborough, an estimable middle-aged lady, an old 
 friend of the Gaunts, who had been persuaded to officiate 
 as hostess. During an interval between the dances a 
 daughter of Lord Ferndale was called to the piano. She 
 was a lovely girl and possessed a voice of rare power and 
 sweetness. She sang with such artistic effect that all 
 ears were entranced. 
 
 " What a beautiful girl ! and what a magnificent voice ! " 
 involuntarily exclaimed Deeima at the close of the song. 
 
 Near the speaker sat Lady Ferndale, although Deeima 
 was unaware of that fact. She was fond and proud of 
 her daughter, and the girlish burst of enthusiasm touched 
 her deeply. 
 
 " Thank you, Miss Deane," she said smiling. " That 
 was a spontaneous tribute, and I am grateful. I am the 
 singer's mother." 
 
 Thus another stanch friend was added to Decima's list 
 of admirers. 
 
 To Deeima there was only one unpleasant feature of 
 the entertainment. That was the persistence of Theo- 
 dore Mershon in seeking every chance to monopolize her 
 company. He even was so precipitate as to ask her hand 
 in marriage, and preceded the offer with a glowing pic- 
 ture of his abundant wealth. 
 
 The proposal was so sudden and so blunt that she was 
 positively startled, and turned pale. 
 
 " Oh, stop ! stop ! " she exclaimed. " You pain me with.
 
 56 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 such an offer, I have given you no encouragement, and I 
 hope you will let the matter end here, at once and for- 
 ever." 
 
 Before Mr. Mershon could recover from his amazement 
 at this decided rebuff, Lord Gaunt fortunately came up 
 to claim Decimals hand for a promised waltz, and in 
 a few minutes Mershon's eyes glowed with rage and 
 hatred as he saw the girl he admired whirling- in the dance, 
 her graceful waist encircled by the arm of Lord Gaunt. 
 
 The couple had not made the circuit of the room more 
 than twice when Lord Gaunt found that his partner's feet 
 failed to keep step to the rhythm of the music, and she 
 Avas a dead weight in his arms. She had fainted. 
 
 They were at that part of the room from which an en- 
 trance led to the fernery. Without attracting attention, 
 he passed through the doorway, holding the lovely, in- 
 animate girl close to his heart. 
 
 They were alone, and he gazed down at the marble- 
 pale faee all his soul in his eyes. His love overmastered 
 him, and he passionately touched his lips to hers. 
 
 "Decimal" he whispered. "My darling! my dar- 
 ling ! " 
 
 His lips were hot with the fervor of passion, and their 
 fire seemed to warm her back to life. She shuddered and 
 opened her eyes and recognized him. 
 
 " I am so glad ! " she murmured, unconsciously. 
 The thought of Mershon's impetuous wooing had caused 
 her to faint, and she recovered from her swoon with the 
 belief that she was in that man's embrace. The loving 
 glances which met hers at once convinced her of the un- 
 reality of her horrid dream; therefore it was with un- 
 usual warmth that she once more exclaimed " I am so 
 glad ! " 
 
 ****** 
 
 The next morning while at breakfast Decima received 
 ti visit from Mr. Bright, who conveyed to her the start- 
 ling intelligence that Lord Gaunt had suddenly and un- 
 expectedly left Leafmore for an indefinite time. 
 
 " I am afraid he is in trouble," continued the steward, 
 "for Ilobson told me that his master acted quite strangely 
 last night, as if he had heard bad news. Anyway, he has 
 gone, and we may not see him again for years."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 57 
 
 A weight seemed suddenly to have fallen upon Deci- 
 ma 's heart. She was speechless as she mechanically 
 walked to the window. The sun was shining brightly, 
 but as she stared wonderingly out at the little garden a 
 cloud passed over the orb of day. Was it typical of the 
 darkness which had come to obscure the brightness of 
 her life ? 
 
 There was another disagreeable surprise for Decima 
 that day. Mr. Mershon met her in the garden some hours 
 later, and informed her that the Electric Storage Com- 
 pany, the stock of which he had been endeavoring to^ 
 float, was likely to prove a financial failure, and that her 
 father, who had risked most of his savings on it, would 
 in such an event be a heavy loser. 
 
 " I cautioned your father," said Mr. Mershon, " not to go 
 into it too heavily, but he seems so certain of the success 
 of the thing that I shouldn't be surprised if he'd sunk a 
 greater portion of his fortune in it." 
 
 Decima regarded him with troubled eyes. 
 
 "And and you think he will lose it?" she said, in a 
 low voice. 
 
 " I shouldn't wonder," he answered. " That's the worst 
 of these inventions ; there's generally a screw loose some- 
 Avhere." 
 
 What shall I do ? " said Decima to herself. 
 
 Mershon picked a leaf off a rosebush, examined it 
 critically and glanced up at her in his covert way. 
 
 " I'm afraid your father's a bit worried about your 
 brother, Miss Decima, isn't he ? " he said. 
 
 Decima stared at him. 
 
 My brother ? " she said. 
 
 " Yes," replied Mershon, picking the leaf to pieces with 
 his long nails. " Seems to have been going the pace. 
 Been writing to your father for more money again ! " 
 
 " Bobby ! " exclaimed Decima. " I I don't under- 
 stand ! " 
 
 " Oli, it's a way young fellows have when they get up 
 to London," said Mershon. " I dare say it isn't serious, 
 -and he'll pull through. Good-morning." 
 
 Decima did not return the adieu, and he came back and 
 .glanced at her again. . 
 
 " So Lord Gaunt's off ! " he said. " Thought he'd cut
 
 58 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 the place all of a sudden, like this. Gone to Africa, I 
 hear." 
 
 The red flooded Decimals face for an instant, then left 
 it pale again. 
 
 Mershon stood with his eyes fixed on the ground. 
 
 " You haven't forgotten what I said to you last night, 
 Miss Decima ? " he said. "Whatever happens, you can 
 rely on my friendship. Good-morning." 
 
 He held out his hand, and Decima just touched it with 
 her fingers ; then she went to her father and asked for an 
 explanation. 
 
 Mr. Deane launched into a torrent of words to prove 
 that his invention was impregnable ; but it is needless to 
 say that they carried no conviction to Decima's mind. 
 
 "And what is this about Bobby, father?" she asked 
 anxiously. 
 
 Mr. Deane paced up and down and tore at his hair. 
 
 "I don't know! I don't understand!" he said, impa- 
 tiently, " Your brother Robert keeps writing for money, 
 and says that he has incurred debts which must be dis- 
 charged at once. I have sent him all the money I can. 
 Yesterday I had a letter from my bankers saying that I 
 have overdrawn my account. Mr. Mershon has been kind 
 enough to lend me a hundred pounds " 
 
 " Mr. Mershon ! " said Decima, faintly. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " responded Mr. Deane. " He is extremely 
 kind. I don't know what I should do without him 
 
 Decima stole out of the lal (oratory, feeling faint and sick. 
 
 CIIAI'TKK XII. 
 
 THAT night she wrote to Bobby. There was not a \vord 
 of reproach in the loving letter ; she only begged him to 
 come home, if only for a day. Not until five days after- 
 ward did she receive a hurried .scrawl from Bobby, saying 
 it was impossible for him to leave London just then, but 
 that he would run down as soon as he possibly could. 
 The letter was so unlike him there was not a touch of 
 Bobby's brightness in it that it filled Decima with dis- 
 may and foreboding. 
 
 The days passed. It seemed to her as if there were
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 59 
 
 forty-eight hours in each of them instead of twenty- four; 
 she felt so lonely and as if something had gone out of her 
 life. She grew pale and listless. 
 
 "When she went for a walk she avoided the gates of the 
 Leaf more Lodge, and if she were compelled to pass them 
 she would not glance up the avenue. 
 
 She tried to forget Lord Gaunt, not as one who has 
 loved and lost, for she did not know that she loved him, 
 would have been startled if the idea had entered her 
 head for a moment ; but she felt that, yielding to Mr. 
 Bright's entreaties, she had done her insignificant best to 
 keep Lord Gaunt among his people and had failed. 
 
 But it was hard to forget a man whose name she was 
 constantly hearing. The village people were always 
 talking of him and deploring his absence. The county 
 families were indignant at his sudden flight, and the local 
 papers shed an inky tear over it. 
 
 Lady Ferndale, the Countess of Roborough, and sev- 
 eral of their friends had called upon Decima, and would 
 have welcomed her into their set, but Decima felt as if, 
 like Lord Gaunt, she hated society. She shrank into her 
 shell, as it were, and the great ladies after awhile gave up 
 the attempt to woo her from it. 
 
 The only persons she saw were Mr. Mershon and Mrs. 
 Sherborne. He came to the Woodbines nearly every day, 
 and Mrs. Sherborne very often accompanied him, and sat 
 with Decima in the drawing-room, while her brother 
 talked to Mr. Deane in the laboratory. 
 
 Mrs. Sherborne watched Decima with a covert scrutiny 
 which made her feel restless and nervous. She was be- 
 ginning to feel as if a net were being drawn round her. 
 
 And yet she could not complain of Mr. Mershon. He 
 was too clever to harass her with attentions, and his 
 manner toward her was one of the deepest respect and 
 deference. 
 
 Sometimes Mrs. Sherborne brought a magnificent bunch 
 of orchids from the Firs, and only sometimes she casu- 
 ally mentioned that Theodore had cut the blooms with 
 his own hands. 
 
 Now and again Decima met Mr. Bright. Indeed, he 
 sought her as of old, and asked her advice and assistance 
 in carrying out the benevolent schemes which he always
 
 60 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 declared she had started, and Decima tried to throw her 
 heart into the work which she had begun so eagerly ; but 
 she seemed to have no heart to throw. Now and again 
 she asked Mr. Bright if he had heard from or of Lord 
 Gaunt, but 'he always replied in the negative, with a shake 
 of the head and a sigh. 
 
 One afternoon she came back from the village feeling 
 tired and listless. She took oft' her things, and then went 
 down to a little room at the back of the house, where she 
 kept her pets. 
 
 It had grown into quite a small menagerie, for, in ad- 
 dition to the guinea pigs and white mice she had brought 
 with her, there were other pets which Lord Gaunt had 
 given her. There were some Belgian hares, a rakish- 
 looking jackdaw, who was quite a linguist in his way, a 
 tame hawk, and a couple of Norwegian rats, to say noth- 
 ing of a tortoise and a case of green lizards. 
 
 Gaunt had given her these from time to time, bringing 
 them up in his poeket and stealing a secret joy in her 
 girlish delight at receiving them. 
 
 As Decima fed and played with her pets, she remem- 
 bered the happy minutes she had spent with Lord Gaunt 
 in the room ; how he had told her the history of each of 
 the animals, and had been coaxed by her into narrating- 
 some of his hunting stories. She could almost see him as 
 he had leaned against the wall, smoking his cigarette, and 
 smiling down at her as she knelt beside one of the ca 
 He had never been anything else but kind to her ever 
 since the first day she bad met him. Now he was gone,, 
 and she should, prehaps, never see him again ! 
 
 She sighed as she took the jackdaw on her hand and 
 stroked his black plumes, and the bird croaked as if in 
 sympathy. 
 
 Suddenly the door opened, and looking round she saw 
 Bobby. She sprang to her feet with a glad cry, and flung 
 her arms round Bobby's neck, the jackdaw flying with a 
 shriek to the ceiling. Then, as she looked up into his 
 face, she drew back with a little cry of alarm and appre- 
 hension. 
 
 Was this Bobby, the bright, laughing-eyed boy, whose 
 every word was a jest this pale young man, with gaunt 
 cheeks and black marks under his eyes !
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 61 
 
 " Bobby ! " she exclaimed. " What is the matter are 
 you ill?" 
 
 The flush rose to his haggard face for a moment, and 
 he averted the eyes which had hitherto met hers so 
 straightly. 
 
 " I am rather seedy, Decie," he said. " It's it's the 
 London life." 
 
 He sat down on one of the cages, and she sat close be- 
 side him, and got hold of one of his hands and pressed 
 nncl dragged at it anxiously. 
 
 " Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" she said. 
 " And, oh, Bobby, you must be ill to look like that ! " 
 
 " I didn't know until this morning that I was coming," 
 he said, ignoring her comment on his appearance. 
 " You're not looking first-rate yourself, Decie," he added, 
 for the sudden flush of excitement had left her face, and 
 its ] tailor was perceptible. 
 
 " I'm all right, Bobby," she said. " But, tell me, is 
 anything the matter ? " 
 
 He looked down at the ground and began to roll a 
 cigarette, and she could see that his hands Avere shaking. 
 
 " There is something the matter, Decie," he said. 
 *' You've got to know sooner or later ; it can't be kept 
 from you, and you'd better hear it from me than any one 
 else we're in trouble, Decie ! " 
 
 Trouble ! Her lips formed the word ; then her woman's 
 courage came to her aid. 
 
 Tell me all everything, Bobby ! " she said. " What- 
 ever it is, we must bear it and meet it ! " 
 
 He lit his cigarette, but it went out again, and he flung 
 it from him with a nervous gesture. 
 
 " It was Mr. Mershon wired for me," he said. 
 
 " Mr. Mershon ! Why should he telegraph to you ? " 
 
 " Because he thought I ought to know that I ought 
 to be here. He was quite right, of course. He met me 
 at the station and told me all about it." 
 
 " All about it ! about what ? Is it is it anything to 
 do with this business this company of father's?" 
 
 Bobby nodded gloomily. 
 
 " Yes," he . said ; " that's it. The affair has come to 
 .smash." 
 
 Decima drew a long breath.
 
 62 1IKK UEAirrs DESIRE. 
 
 "To utter smash!" he said. "I don't understand it 
 all, even no\v, though Mershon tried to explain. There 
 was something wrong in the invention the patent 
 wouldn't hold water I don't quite know what it v 
 Mershon tried not to put the blame on the governor, but 
 he let it out reluctantly." 
 
 Decima sat pale and silent for a moment; tin i 
 murmured : 
 
 " Why did he join Mr. Mershon?" 
 
 "Honestly, I don't think Mershon's to blame," said 
 Bobby. " He was led away by the governor's enthusiasm. 
 Who wouldn't be? You know the way he talks. I don't 
 think Mershon's such a bad fellow, after all. He 1; 
 behaving very well about it. He has lost a lot of money 
 in the affair." 
 
 " I am sorry ! " said Decima ; " very, very sorry ! But 
 Mr. Mershon is a rich man, and it will not matter to him. 
 But it will matter very much to poor father for we are 
 not rich, are we, Bobby? But, never mind " she for. 
 a smile " we will meet it as best we can : we shall have 
 to economize. You will only be able to smoke half as 
 many cigarettes, Bobby," 
 
 She crept closer to him, and laid her head upon his 
 shoulder. It was the only word of reproach she would 
 utter. 
 
 Bobby looked down at her remorsefully, and then away 
 suddenly, as if he could not bear the sight of her brave 
 smile, which touched him more than tears would have 
 done. 
 
 " We shall have to leave the Woodbines, I supp< 
 she said. She stifled a sigh. u Well, never mind; we 
 can go into one of the new little cottages, and live vt-ry 
 quietly and plainly 
 
 Bobby's face worked, and his lips parted, as if he were 
 about to speak ; but his courage failed him, and he got 
 up quickly, his face averted from her. 
 
 " I'll I'll go and change," he said. " We we will talk 
 about it after dinner." 
 
 He hurried out of the room. 
 
 Decima sat where he had left her, her hands clasped in 
 her lap. Although she had not been altogether unpre- 
 pared, the blow had fallen heavily.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 63 
 
 Presently she heard steps coming toward the door, and 
 she thought it was Bobby returning, but the door opened, 
 and Mr. Mershoirs voice said : 
 
 " I beg your pardon, is your brother here ? " 
 
 Decima arose and moved away slightly. 
 
 " lie has just gone-," 1 she said. 
 
 Mershon came into the room, and stood looking at her. 
 
 "I see he has told you, Miss Decima?" he said. 
 
 "Yes," said Decima, with her back turned almost to 
 him. " lie has told me, and I am very sorry ! I am 
 sorry that you should lose so much money through my 
 Father's fault." 
 
 He drew a little nearer. 
 
 " There's no occasion to lie sorry on my account," he 
 said. u I sha'n't miss it. I'm sorry, too for your father." 
 
 Decima sighed. 
 
 "We must bear it," she said. " I have just been tell- 
 ing Bobby that we must leave the Woodbines and live 
 very plainly, like like poor people which I suppose we 
 shall be. There is nothing very hard in that." 
 
 lie looked at her with a curious expression. 
 
 " And and perhaps, if we are very careful," she went 
 on, in a low voice, " we may be able to pay you back some 
 of the money you have lost through us I don't know 
 how much it is." 
 
 Mershon suppressed a smile. 
 
 " I'm afraid your brother hasn't told you all," he said. 
 
 " Yes," said Decima ; " he has told me all. He is bear- 
 ing it bravely ! Poor Bobby ! It will be a struggle for 
 him ; for he will have to manage with a very small al- 
 lowance, I'm afraid. But it will be all right when he 
 gets into the army ; for he is so clever that he is sure to 
 get on." 
 
 " It is evident that he hasn't told you all," said Mershon. 
 " I'm afraid. Miss Decima, that the case is worse than you 
 guess. I didn't know how bad it was myself until I'd had 
 a talk with your father and brother together." 
 
 Decima looked at him with slowly growing appre- 
 hension. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she said, faintly. " How can 
 it be worse ? " 
 
 " Well," he said, with a slight shrug of his shoulders,
 
 64 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " you talk about paying me back, and your brother going 
 into the army, but I'm afraid there's little chance of either 
 event coming off not that I want to be paid back, or 
 should take the money. The fact is, Miss Decima, your 
 father has been going in for this thing neck or nothing 
 what AVC call in the city, lose all or win all. It app< 
 mind ! I didn't know it, or I should strongly have ad- 
 vised him against such foolhardincss that he has put 
 i -very penny he possessed into this confounded thing. 
 And, of course, he has lost it. In fact, I'm afraid he lias 
 made himself liable for more than he has got. lie says 
 he is utterly ruined ! " 
 
 Decima stared at him with wide eyes ; her lips quivered, 
 but no sound came. 
 
 Mershon went and closed the door with his foot ; then 
 he came near to her as near as he dared. 
 
 " Look here, Miss Decima,'' he said. " It's best to face 
 these things straight out, and so I've told you the a" 
 lute truth. Your father's ruined, and your brother will 
 have to give up all idea of the army, and take his chances 
 in the colonies and a deuced poor chance it is, I'm afraid ! 
 That is, unless " 
 
 He paused and looked at her, and then down at the 
 ground, for the terror in her eyes and white face daunted 
 even him for a moment. 
 
 " Unless," he went on. " Well, it all rests with you ! " 
 
 "With me?" 
 
 Her lips formed the words ; they were scarcely audible. 
 
 " Yes, with you ! " he said. " Miss Decima, I'm a 
 straight man. We have to speak out straight in the city 
 and I won't treat you as a child, but as a girl a woman 
 upon whom her father's and brother's happiness and wel- 
 fare depend. This trouble's about as big as it can be. 
 They must go under with it, unless you care to save 
 them ! " 
 
 " I I save them ! " said Decima. 
 
 He jerked his head. 
 
 "Yes! You remember what I said to you the other 
 night at the Leafmore ball. I told you I loved you, and I 
 asked you to be my wife. You said ' No ! ' then, but now 
 I repeat my proposal. If you will say ' Yes,' I will take 
 this trouble off your hands. I will find the money your
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 65 
 
 father's lost ; I will double your brother's allowance and 
 pay his debts " 
 
 " His debts ! " breathed Decima. 
 
 ]\Iershon laughed shortly. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; there are debts ! He has been going the 
 pace ! I'll do more than this I'll keep an eye on your 
 father for the future, and look after him. And I'll make 
 a settlement on you as large as you like." 
 
 In his eagerness he had taken a step or two nearer. 
 Decima drew back until she leaned against the window. 
 Her brain was whirling ; she felt as if she were suffocat- 
 ing, and her eyes were fixed on his shrewd, sharp face as 
 if she were under a spell. 
 
 " ( 'ome ! " he said. " I've made the offer bluntly, be- 
 cause it's business ; but I could put it in another way. 
 I love you, Decima love you with all my heart and soul. 
 I want you more than I've wanted anything before in my 
 life. If you'd said ' Yes ' to me the other night, you'd 
 never have heard anything of this trouble I'd have paid 
 up every penny, and said not a syllable about it. That's 
 my way. But you said ' Xo ! ' and I'm obliged to tell 
 you, and make a bargain with you. You close with my 
 offer, and I'll never refer to it again. No one need know 
 anything about it not even your brother for I can tell 
 him that things have turned out better than we expected. 
 It will be easy to bamboozle him, for he knows as little of 
 business as do the rest of you Do you mind me smok- 
 ing, for I'm a little upset? I see your brother's had a 
 cigarette " 
 
 He lit a cigar, and his hand shook as Bobby's had done, 
 but with a different emotion. Decima put up a shak- 
 ing hand and brushed the soft hair from her forehead. 
 No bird in the fowler's net was more helpless than she 
 was at that moment. ' As Mershon had said to his sister, 
 he had got her tightly. Her father ruined ; Bobby's 
 future absolutely blasted. And by a word, a word of 
 three letters, she could save them. 
 
 She thought of her father, broken-hearted by his fail- 
 ure, cooped up in a laborer's cottage, deprived of his work- 
 shop, of all his dreams ; she thought of Bobby, the bright 
 boy, with his shattered hopes, starving in the colonies, 
 and a shudder swept over her.
 
 66 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 She could save him by the one word, " Yes." 
 
 At that moment why, she knew not she thought of 
 Lord Gaunt. If he were only here to help her, advise 
 her! But he was not la-re; he might he thousands of 
 miles away. She was alone and helpl 
 
 3Iershon eyed her covertly. He knew that sh< 
 struggling ; but he knew that there was no loophole in 
 the net he had drawn round her. 
 
 i - What do you say ? " he said at last. 
 
 Decima seemed to wake as if from a dream, and turned 
 her eyes upon him with a half-dazed, half-appealing 
 gaze. 
 
 ' Why do you hesitate ? " he said. " Give me your an- 
 swer. Say ' Yes,' Decima, and I'll go straight in and tell 
 your father and brother that they needn't worry them- 
 selves any more about this miserable business. Your 
 father can go on playing at making his fortune by inven- 
 tions, and your brother can go into the army and be a 
 general in time. Only say the word, and leave the rest 
 to me." There was silence in the room, broken only by 
 the faint croak of the jackdaw as he preened his feathers. 
 The slim, girlish figure, with its white face and dark- 
 rimmed eyes, leaned by the window. Her heart was like 
 lead, and beat slowly and heavily, as if it were impris- 
 oned by a hand of ice. 
 
 To save them, the dear ones ! 
 
 " Well ! " he said, "what is your answer ? " 
 
 Her hands clenched at her side, the martyr's look cams 
 into her eyes. 
 
 " I must ! I must ! " she breathed. " Yes." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 
 As Decima hesitatingly pronounced the word "Ye 
 Mershon took a step toward her with outstretched arms ; 
 but he noticed a repellent look in her face as she shrank 
 from him. The color died from his cheek and his arms 
 fell to his side irresolutely. He could see that she was 
 not yet prepared to welcome lover-like familial 
 
 As the days passed, and their intercourse became more 
 frequent, her studied reserve curbed his passionate do-
 
 HER HEAET'S DESIRE. 67 
 
 sire, and he was forced to forego the privileges of an 
 engaged man. 
 
 When Bobby heard of Decima's engagement he was 
 amazed, but not at all displeased. He believed Mershon 
 to be both honorable and generous, and inferred that the 
 courtship had developed and progressed during his ab- 
 sence in London. He questioned his sister about it, and 
 to his pointed inquiry she replied that she had willingly 
 become Mershon's plighted bride. 
 
 A few more days elapsed, and then Mershon announced 
 to Decima that he had business which demanded his 
 presence in Italy, in regard to the construction of water- 
 works in one of the Italian cities. He proposed an early 
 marriage, so that he could take her with him to Rome, 
 and thus combine business with pleasure on their matri- 
 monial trip. For a long time she opposed this scheme, 
 but at length his persistence won a reluctant assent. She 
 thought of her father, of Bobby. What did it matter 
 what happened to her, if they were safe and 
 secure ? 
 
 Mrs. Sherborne, who had learned to love Decima, saw 
 that she was not as happy as a prospective bride should 
 be, and inferred from a conversation with her that some- 
 thing was wrong in fact, that she did not love the man 
 she was about to marry. 
 
 " If you do not love Theodore," Mrs. Sherborne said, 
 " better draw back now. He is all very well when things 
 are going as he wants them, ; but when thwarted he is a 
 devil incarnate. My poor child, the discovery that his 
 wedded wife did not love him would enrage him to that 
 extent he would make life a hell for you ! " 
 
 Decima listened in silence gasping for breath. She 
 thought of her father's plight, of Bobby's troubles, and 
 determined to sacrifice herself for their sake. 
 
 " Child ! " exclaimed Mrs. Sherborne, " there is yet time 
 to draw back. Do so at any cost, before it is too late ! 
 Better be lying out there in the churchyard, better be 
 wandering homeless in the streets, than marry a man you 
 do not love ! " 
 
 Decima was pale to the lips, and iiy her eyes there 
 gleamed a look of horror. Yet she managed to say, with 
 a gas.p after each word :
 
 68 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " It is too late ! I have given my word. I must do it. 
 I cannot draw back ! " 
 
 That night proved a sleepless one to Decima. She 
 knew not how to act whether to keep her engagement or 
 break it. 
 
 The next morning she resolved to go to London, to 
 visit her aunt, Lady Pauline. She would be guided by 
 her advice. She did not inform Mr. Mershon of her in- 
 tention, for she feared he would insist upon accompanying 
 her. 
 
 To her dismay, when she arrived at Lady Pauline's 
 residence, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, she 
 learned from a servant that her aunt was not at home 
 that she had gone to Walfield on the previous day. 
 
 This was a great disappointment to Decima, and for a 
 few moments she was in a state of deep perplexity. Then 
 she thought of Bobby, who some days before had returned 
 to the metropolis. 
 
 " My brother is in London,", she said to the servant. 
 "He is living at Prince's Mansions. I will go straight to 
 him ; he will bring me back here to-night. Where is 
 Prince's Mansions ? " 
 
 The servant said she did not know, but that any call- 
 man would find it ; and eventually Decima found her.se If 
 in a hansom, rattling toward the rooms Lord Gaunt had 
 lent Bobby. 
 
 A page opened the door to her, and gazed at her, after 
 the manner of his kind, when she inquired for Mr. Deane. 
 
 "I don't know whether he's in, miss," he said, " but Til 
 step up and see." 
 
 " I will come, too," said Decima. " I am his sister." 
 
 The page opened the outer door of Gaunt's flat, and 
 Decima followed him though the hall into the drawing or 
 sitting-room. 
 
 A tire was burning in the grate ; there was an odor of 
 cigarettes. The page looked around. 
 
 " Mr. Deane ain't here, miss ; but I expect he'll be here 
 directly." 
 
 " Very well," said Decima. " I will wait." 
 
 She sat down in a chair beside the fire and looked round 
 the room. It was beautifully warm, and its luxury and 
 air of taste and refinement struck upon her gratefully.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 69 
 
 She noticed the exquisite pictures, the rare bronzes, the 
 fur rugs of leopard and bear skins. Then she remembered 
 that the room was Lord Gaunt 's : that he had lived there ; 
 and a strange feeling stole over her. 
 
 Presently there came a soft knock at the door, and a 
 maid a neatly-dressed London maid, in black alpaca with 
 a white cap, and long strings entered with some tea 
 things. 
 
 " Wouldn't you like to take your things off, miss ? " she 
 said, respectfully, "and I have brought you some tea." 
 
 Decima assented gratefully, and the maid led her into 
 Bobby's bedroom that is to say, Lord Gaunt's. Decima 
 looked round with a curious feeling as the maid helped 
 her to remove her outdoor things and went for some hot 
 water. 
 
 There was an odor of cigarettes in this room, also. A 
 dress suit of Bobby's lay folded on a chair; a peculiar 
 perfume arose from it it struck Decima unpleasantly. 
 A copy of a sporting paper was on a chair beside the bed, 
 as if Bobby had thrown it down just before going to sleep. 
 There were etchings on the wall, delicate, delightful bits 
 of art, which reminded her of Lord Gaunt, as Bobby's 
 clothes and the cigarette fumes and the sporting paper 
 had reminded her of Bobby. 
 
 She washed her hands and face, and brushed the soft, 
 wavy hair, and went back to the sitting-room. The maid 
 had placed the tea-service on a little table in front of the 
 fire ; and Decima poured herself out a cup, looking round 
 the room, musingly and with intense interest, 
 
 It seemed to her eloquent of Lord Gaunt. Her mind 
 dwelt upon him. He had lived in this room ; had sat in 
 this very chair, perhaps ; had drunk out of this very cup. 
 AVhere was he now ? she wondered. 
 
 She sighed and leaned back. If he had only been here ! 
 She could have told him of her trouble. He could have 
 helped her ; advised her. Now, for the first time, her 
 heart ached with a yearning for his presence. 
 
 She rose, and went round the room, looking at the 
 various articles upon the tables and cabinets. There was 
 a strange mixture a carving in ivory, a bronze medallion ; 
 an illuminated missal lay beside a well-used Persian pipe. 
 Upon the walls hung swords and spears not the orna-
 
 70 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 meats you buy in Wardour Street, but weapons which 
 had been used, and still bore stains of blood. She touched 
 one with her finger and shuddered. 
 
 Yes, the room was eloquent of him. She got round to 
 the mantel at last. It, too, was crowded with bric-a-brac ; 
 but one thing among them attracted and chained her at- 
 tention it was the portrait a cabinet photograph of a 
 woman's face and bust. It was a beautiful face ; more than 
 beautiful fascinating. A dark face, of perfect oval, with 
 dark eyes, which smiled wi tellingly, fascinatingly, as did 
 the small full lips. She wore a low-necked dress very 
 low and the white neck and bust shone snow-like against 
 the dark hair and eyes. 
 
 Decima looked at it, and, as she looked, a strange re- 
 pulsion took possession of her. 
 
 The face was beautiful, fascinating ; but to Decima the 
 beauty was repellent, the witchery unholy. The face 
 jarred upon her, and yet she could not take her eyes from 
 it. It was enclosed in a costly silver frame. She took it 
 in her hand, and studied the face her brows drawn 
 straight. 
 
 Who was it ? Some friend of Bobby's or Lord Gaunt's ? 
 
 While the photograph was in her hand she heard the 
 hall door open, and she raised her head listening expect- 
 antly. Steps came along the hall, a hand turned the handle 
 of the door. 
 
 " Bobby ! ' ' she almost exclaimed aloud, and she put the 
 photograph hurriedly, face, downward, upon the mantel, 
 and went to meet him with a smile on her face. 
 
 The door opened, and a tall figure in a fur coat entered. 
 It was too tall for Bobby, but for a moment she did not 
 recognize him ; then, as he turned from closing the door 
 and presented his face to her, she saw that it was Lord 
 (Jaunt ! 
 
 She shrank back, her outstretched arms falling to her 
 side. He looked at her, stopped short, then, exclaiming : 
 " Good God, Decima ! " came toward her.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 71 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ! " 
 
 He stood stockstill and gazed at her as if she were a 
 ghost, a vision called up by his longing desire for her. 
 He was thin, and his face looked worn and haggard and 
 white against the dark thick fur of his coat ; and there 
 was an expression almost of dread in his eyes as they 
 dwelt on her face. 
 
 He had been in Scotland, far in Sutherlandshire, quite 
 alone, wandering in the wilds, going through the pretence 
 of fishing, shooting, fighting against the mad love which 
 consumed him, as men fight vainly against the flames 
 which spring up afresh against the beating hands. And 
 at last he had acknowledged himself beaten, had resolved 
 to leave England forever. He would go without a word 
 of farewell as he had often gone before and leave no 
 trace behind, him. 
 
 He had booked his passage, the vessel sailed on the 
 morrow ; and he had come to his rooms to get his gun and 
 other weapons necessary for the killing of the big game 
 which he hoped and prayed would divert his mind and 
 help him to kill the memory of his girl-love. 
 
 He should never see her again ! And now, here she 
 stood before him within reach of his hand unless she 
 were indeed only a wraith of herself, a vision, a ghost ! 
 
 His breath it had seemed to cease came again 
 quickly, but he could not speak, though his lips formed 
 her name again. 
 
 The blood had rushed to Decima's face, something 
 warm seemed to run through her veins, a swift, sudden 
 joy leaped in her heart. 
 
 " Lord Gaunt ! Is it really you ? " she said, at last. 
 
 And her voice rang like soft music in his ears. It was 
 the sound he had been thirsting for all these weary, 
 weary weeks. How often, in fancy, had he heard it in 
 the great solitude among the mountains ! 
 
 " Yes, it is I ! " he responded, as if to assure himself 
 that he was awake and not dreaming. " What why are 
 you here ? "
 
 72 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 He did not offer to shake hands did not move toward 
 her, but still stood gazing at her. And she, for her part, 
 stood still also, her hand resting on the back of the 
 chair. 
 
 " I I came to see Bobby," she said. 
 
 He looked round. 
 
 " He is not here ? " 
 
 " Xo," she said. " He is out ; he is coming back pres- 
 ently, they say. Where have you come from ; does he 
 expect you ? " 
 
 "No," he said. "I have come from Scotland from 
 Sutherlandshire." 
 
 Mechanically, slowly, like a man in a dream, he took off 
 his huge fur coat and dropped it on the couch, and came 
 toward the fire. 
 
 Decima looked at him, and saw more plainly as the 
 firelight played on his face, how worn and haggard he 
 looked. 
 
 " Have have you been ill ? " she asked, timidly. 
 
 " 111 ? No ! " he replied. 
 
 He raised his head and glanced at her. He scarcely 
 dared to look long at her lest the desire to take her in his 
 arms should get the better of him. 
 
 " And and you ? You look you are thinner, paler. 
 Have you been ill ? " 
 
 " Xo," she said simply. " I am quite well. What have 
 you been doing all all this time ? " 
 
 " Fishing, shooting," he said. " ' All this time.' Does 
 it seem so long ? " 
 
 " Yes, very long," she replied, with the ghost of a sigh, 
 as she looked at the fire. " How long is it r 1 I I scarce- 
 ly remember. Why why did you go so suddenly, Lord 
 Gaunt ? " 
 
 He caught his breath to keep back the words, "bec;iuso 
 I loved you. Because I should have gone mad if I had 
 .stayed ! " Then he said aloud, with a low, strained 
 laugh : 
 
 " I wanted a change." 
 
 Decima nodded. 
 
 u And have you enjoyed it ? " 
 
 " Very much ! " he said with bitter irony. 
 
 There was silence for a moment. The antique clock,
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 73 
 
 with its figures of relentless Time mowing down the 
 minutes with his scythe, ticked mockingly. 
 
 " And and what is the news from Leafmore ? Is 
 your father well ! " 
 
 "Yes," she said. 
 
 " And and Bright, and the rest ? " 
 
 He put the commonplace question in a dull, mechanical 
 fashion. 
 
 " Yes," she said again. Then she glanced at him. " It 
 has gone on as if as if you had been there. The schools 
 are nearly finished. They look very pretty, and and 
 But you will see them, will you not ? " 
 
 " I don't know," he said, absently. 
 
 He was listening to her voice rather than to her words 
 drinking it in. He was trying to realize that she was 
 liere, close by him, alone alone ! with him. 
 
 " My my movements are rather uncertain." 
 
 " Have you only just come from Scotland ? " she asked, 
 glancing at the fur coat at his tired face. 
 
 " Yes," he said ; " this moment." 
 
 " You must be tired ! Will you let me give you some 
 tea ? " She laughed softly, timidly. " That sounds 
 strange asking you in your own house ! Shall I may 
 I ring for some more water ? " 
 
 " Xo, no," he said, quickly. He did not want the maid 
 any one to come in ; did not want any other voice 
 than hers in the rooms. " That will do." 
 
 "It is quite hot still," she said. She poured out a cup 
 of tea, and carried it to him ; he had not moved or offered 
 to go to the table. He took it from her with a slight in- 
 clination of the head, and his hand, in transferring the 
 cup, just touched hers. He stood holding the cup, as if 
 he had forgotten it. 
 
 " Won't you sit down ? " she said. " I have got your- 
 chair. Will you not come into it ? You see I am forget- 
 ting that this is your room and your chair." 
 
 He shook his head, and drew a chair forward, quite 
 close to the fire and signed to her to take the big one. 
 She sat down, her hands resting in her lap, her eyes fixed 
 on the blaze as it rose and fell fitfully, one moment light- 
 ing up their faces, the next casting them into shadow. 
 
 Gradually the wan look was leaving his face, a light
 
 74 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 began to dawn in his eyes. Her presence, her nearness, 
 was having its effect upon him. He could hear her even 
 breathing, could feel, though he did not look at her, the 
 eyes he loved so passionately glancing at him now and 
 again. She was here here by his side, his dear, sweet 
 girl love. He forgot all else. The' silence did not seem 
 irksome, or embarrassing; it was as if his thoughts 
 spoke, and no lip language were necessary. But at last 
 he said : 
 
 " And so all is going on well at Leaf more ? " 
 
 " Yes," she said, with a slight start. Upon her, too, a 
 kind of peace a lull in the storm had fallen. " Yes ; 
 31 r. Bright has been working very hard 
 
 " Which means that you have also ! " he said in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " And a very great deal has been done. You will be 
 surprised at the change, at the improvement ! Mr. Bright 
 .says that it will be the model village the example for 
 the rest of England. He is very proud of it and the 
 people ah, you should hear what they say ! It would 
 make you very happy, Lord Gaunt ! " 
 
 "Would it?" he said, slowly. "And you are you 
 happy content ? " 
 
 She winced slightly, as one winces when a hand 
 touches, though gently, a wound forgotten for the mo- 
 ment. 
 
 "I am quite content," she said, ignoring the "happy." 
 "Why, have you not done all I Mr. Bright and the 
 people wanted? Yes, quite content and satisfied.' 1 
 
 " Then I am also," he said, gravely. 
 
 u Will you have some more tea?" she asked. "And 
 will you not eat something some bread and butter ? " 
 
 " Only some tea, please," he said. She filled his cup 
 again, and he took it, looking at her as he did so. Was 
 it fancy on his part, or had her lovely face grown less 
 pale, the eyes less sad ? " 
 
 She leaned back and glanced up at the clock. 
 
 "Bobby has not come yet," she said, reflectingly. u I 
 wonder how long ? " Then, as if it had suddenly occurred 
 to her, Oh, Lord Gaunt, had I not better go ? I I must 
 be in your way ! " She said it quite frankly, and her
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 75 
 
 sought his face innocently, as one man's might seek an- 
 other's, and she rose. 
 
 He put out his hand and almost touched her. 
 
 "No, no!" he said. "Do not go. Stay! Bobby will 
 be here directly, no doubt. How long have you been in 
 London ? " He went on as if by talking he could keep 
 her. 
 
 "Only this afternoon," she said. "I have only just 
 come up. I came up suddenly, unexpectedly." Her voiee 
 faltered, and her face grew grave. She remembered it 
 came upon her like a flash the reason for the journey ; 
 and the remembrance clouded over her unconscious joy 
 in his presence. " I found that Aunt Pauline was nob in. 
 London she is at her country house and I came on here 
 to spend the evening with Bobby. I am going to Aunt 
 Pauline's to sleep." 
 
 " I see," he said. " Why did you come up so sud- 
 denly ? " 
 
 She was silent a moment. Why could she not tell 
 him ? And yet she could not. 
 
 "I wanted to see her," she said, in a low voice. 
 
 "Is is anything the matter?" he asked, noting her 
 sudden gravity, the cloud on her face. 
 
 " Yes," she said. " At least something has been the 
 matter. We father -has been in great trouble 
 
 " Trouble ! " he repeated, intently. What trouble ? " 
 
 She sighed. 
 
 " He has lost a great deal of money, and at first we 
 thought, we feared, that But it does not matter, now." 
 Her voice was very still and subdued. "It is all over 
 now all put straight." 
 
 " Why did you not tell me ? " he began almost fiercely. 
 
 Then he stopped as she looked at him with faint sur- 
 prise. 
 
 " I would have told you," she said, simply, not reproach- 
 fully. " But I did not know where you were no one 
 knew." 
 
 " No ; that is true ! Forgive me," he said, almost in- 
 audibly. 
 
 She had been in trouble and in need of him, and had 
 not been able to come to him. What a brute he had 
 been !
 
 76 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 And -you would have come to me ? " he said, rather 
 huskily. 
 
 " Yes," she said, simply, but a little timidly. " There 
 was no one else ; and and you are always so kind. You 
 would have told me what to do, advised me, would you 
 not?" 
 
 "Yes," he said, still more huskily. "I would God 
 knows how gladly ! '' 
 
 " Thank you," she said, and the sweetness of her voice 
 hurt him. " But it does not matter now. It is all over." 
 
 " I am glad," he said ; " and yet sorry that that I 
 hadn't a hand in getting rid of the trouble. Are you sure 
 that it is past done with ' J . " 
 
 " Yes, quite," she said, in the same still voice. 
 
 -She put her hand up before her face, as if the fire were 
 burning it, He rose, and took a Japanese screen from the 
 mantelshelf his hand touched the portrait lying fi 
 downward and gave it to her. And with a murmured 
 thanks she took it and screened her face. 
 
 " How did your father come to lose this money ? " asked 
 Gaunt. 
 
 Decima turned her face as if her thoughts had been 
 wandering from the subject. 
 
 "I don't quite know. It was through some specula- 
 tion, something to do with one of his inventions. Mr. 
 Mt-rshon and he started a company, I think " 
 
 u Mershon ! " Gaunt started, and looked at her ear- 
 nestly. " Was he in it ? How did he ah, I remember ! 
 And your father lost his money ? I can well believe it ! 
 I don't know much of Mr. Mershon, but I should say 
 
 " Oil, hush ! she broke in, looking up at him as if she 
 dreaded the next words. " You you must not say I 
 must not listen to to anything against him ! " 
 
 Gaunt stopped and stared at her with a frown. 
 
 " Why not ? " he said demanded, rather. 
 
 The color rose to her face, then left it pale again. She 
 raised her eyes to his with a world of sad resignation in 
 them. 
 
 " I am going to be his wife," she said, in a low v 
 
 Gaunt did not move fora moment, but sat like one sud- 
 denly turned to stone. Then his face broke up, as it were 
 and he rose and stood before her.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 77 
 
 " Going to be his wife ? " he repeated, hoarsely. His 
 own voice sounded like a muffled bell, the room spun round 
 with him. His love for her, his jealousy, rose about him 
 like a great wave of fire, and swept over him, scorching 
 him as it passed. " You are going to marry him ? " 
 
 She looked up at him with a faint wonder in her sad 
 eyes. 
 
 " Yes," she said, almost inaudibly : for his face, his voice, 
 frightened her. 
 
 He turned from her and walked to the end of the room. 
 Then he came back and stood over her, a tall figure, almost 
 threatening in its aspect. 
 
 " Do do you love him ? " 
 
 She was silent, and his face grew darker, fiercer. " An- 
 swer me ! You can answer me ! Yes or no ! " 
 
 She rose, drawn to her feet by the stress of his emotion, 
 and her answering to it. 
 
 " No ! " her lips formed. 
 
 He drew a long breath. 
 
 ' Then then why " 
 
 lie stopped as if the words choked him. 
 
 She stood downcast and trembling. 
 
 " He he helped us. We should have been penniless. 
 Bobby ' ' 
 
 He saw it all in an instant. 
 
 My God ! " broke forth from his strained lips. " Child ! " 
 he caught her arm in an iron grip " do you know 
 realize what it is you are doing ? Marry Mershon ! 
 You ! " 
 
 His grasp hurt her, but she made no attempt to release 
 her arm as she looked up at him piteously and with faint 
 surprise. 
 
 " Why why are you so angry with me ? " she faltered. 
 M How could I help it ? He said that if if I married him 
 he would pay this money, and and help Bobby. And 
 and I said ' Yes,' at last. I could not have taken this 
 money from him without he would not have given it. 
 And and it does not matter what becomes of me so that 
 they are safe and and happy " 
 
 His grasp tightened, and she winced ; but he was all 
 unconscious of the pain he was inflicting. His own agony 
 was too great. The thought that she wa& to be the wife
 
 78 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 of another man and that man Mershon ! was rending 
 iiis heart in twain ; every nerve was stretched and strained 
 on a rack. And her admission that she did not love the 
 man increased the torture. 
 
 She looked up at him, at his set face and gleaming eyes, 
 with a questioning terror. 
 
 ' Why why are you so angry why do you care so ? " 
 she faltered. 
 
 A shudder ran through him, and the set rigidity of his 
 face relaxed, melted, so to speak. 
 
 " Good heavens, child, don't you know ? " he said, 
 hoarsely. 
 
 In her innocence she drew a little nearer to him. 
 
 " Is it hecause you you like me, because we have been 
 such friends, that you are so sorjy for me ? " she said. 
 " Perhaps " She stopped and smiled a woeful little smile. 
 
 " Go on ! Speak from your heart ; hide nothing from 
 me ! " he commanded, insisted, hoarsely. 
 
 " Perhaps if I had come to you, and and told you of 
 our trouble you would have married me," she said, simply. 
 " I I think you like me, Lord Gaunt. And I could not 
 have taken the money unless I had been your wife, could 
 I?" 
 
 A groan broke from his white lips. Fate was too power- 
 ful for him. He had fled from Temptation but Tempta- 
 tion is fleet of foot, and it had overtaken him, and had got 
 him under its heel. 
 
 " Child ! " he said in a low, thick voice. " Don't you 
 know ? Haven't you seen ? Can you not guess ? I love 
 you ! ' 
 
 She shrank for even in him passion startled and awed 
 her. 
 
 " You love " 
 
 " I love you ! " His voice broke on hers fiercely. " I 
 love you, Decima ! I have loved you from the beginning ! 
 No man ever loved any woman as I love you ! You are 
 the life of my life, the soul of my soul ! Every thought 
 is of you! You hold my heart in the hollow of your 
 hands ! It was because I loved you, passionately, madly, 
 that I left you, fled from you ! " He stopped for breath, 
 and caught her other hand and gripped it fast, as if he 
 feared she would be torn from him there and then.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 79 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DECIMA stood quite still. She did not shrink from him ; 
 she was too overwhelmed by the storm of his passion to 
 realize the meaning of his words. Then, slowly, it came 
 crushing down upon her, caught her as if in an embrace, 
 enveloped her like a sun- warmed cloud. Her heart leaped, 
 then beat heavily a joy beyond the power of poor mor- 
 tal words to him, suffused her. 
 
 All in an instant a veil seemed to have been -torn asun- 
 der and she saw and knew what love means, and that her 
 love, with all it meant, had been given to him long, long 
 ago. The pain of his grasp became an ecstasy. She could 
 have laughed aloud in a new-born joy, delight. But all 
 she did was to gaze up at him as the devotee gazes up- 
 ward at his god the god which had power to deal out 
 misery or joy unspeakable. 
 
 " You love me ! " she said, unconsciously. 
 
 Her voice thrilled through him and dispelled the last 
 remnant of honor that clung to him despairingly. 
 
 " I love you ! " he said. " You are just life to me ! De- 
 cima, if you had not been as innocent as a child, you would 
 have known it ! Think look back ! Do you remember 
 nothing have you seen nothing? Why was I always 
 with you V Why did I stay at Leafmore ? Why did I 
 do all everything you wanted ? Do men act like that 
 unless they are in love ? See ! " He thrust his hand in his 
 bosom, and dragged out the ribbon which had fallen from 
 her hair. " I have worn this next my heart day and night, 
 sleeping or waking. It has never left me. You had worn 
 it!" 
 
 The blood rushed to. her face, her eyes glowed with a 
 pure passion, and she drew still nearer to him. 
 
 His arm went round her waist, and he crushed her 
 against his heart, and, for the first time the first time ! 
 his lips sought hers, and kissed her. 
 
 She did not shrink, but lay in his embrace, her face up- 
 turned flowerlike, to his kisses. 
 
 " You are the whole wide world to me ! " he said, 
 hoarsely. " Life is not worth having without you ! I can- 
 not live without you ! I thought I could ! I have tried
 
 80 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 but you see, you know I cannot ! Decima, child, my 
 dearest, tell me ! Tell me ! Do you love me ? " 
 
 She looked up at him, and the look sent a hot wave over 
 him. Her lips parted but for a moment, no words would 
 come. Then she said in a faint whisper which thrilled 
 him : 
 
 " I love you ! " 
 
 " Decima ! " 
 
 She hid her face against his heart for a moment, then 
 she raised her eyes to his. 
 
 " Yes : I know now ! How how stupid how ignorant 
 I was ! I I must have loved you all through from the 
 very first ! " 
 
 He bent and kissed her hair passionately, yet reverently. 
 Her avowal of love awed him. It was as if he had sud- 
 denly penetrated the sanctum sanctorum, the holy of 
 holies, of some shrine. Her innocence cried aloud to him. 
 
 But his passion deafened him. 
 
 "Decima, since the day we met at Leafmore, I have 
 loved you. Day by day that love has grown until it has 
 become the master passion of my life. I have struggled 
 with and fought against it, but Fate and Circumstances 
 have been too many for me. You know the truth now, 
 and and I am not sorry ! " 
 
 " ' Sorry ! ' Why should you be ? " she said. 
 
 And love lent a sweeter music to her voice, so that he 
 paused and listened before replying. 
 
 " I am not sorry ! For us nothing matters nothing is 
 of consequence but our love. Nothing, no one, shall sep- 
 arate us, Decima ! " 
 
 She smiled up at him, and IKM band stole to his face 
 with a womanly touch which thrilled him. 
 
 " Xo," she said. Then she started. " But but Mr. 
 Mershon ? I have given my word my promise ! " 
 
 Her face grew grave and fearful. Gaunt laughed slow- 
 ly a laugh of scorn and defiance. 
 
 " A word wrung from you cozened by an artful 
 scheme! "he said. "What does it amount to ? He he 
 bought, bribed you ! Bah ! I buy, bribe you ! I'll do all be 
 offered." He laughed and pressed her to him. " And I 
 buy with love, love! ]\Iy child, do you know now what 
 you were about to do V To marry a man you did not love ! "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 81 
 
 " Yes ! " she said. And a shudder shook her, so that 
 she clung tighter to him. "I know now! Oh! how 
 could I ? " 
 
 " Mow could you ? " he exclaimed, with a desperate, 
 reckless laugh. " But that is all over, finished with, dearest. 
 It is I whom you love ! Are you glad, Decima ? Tell 
 me ! " 
 
 She drew a long breath. He was smoothing the ten- 
 drils of her soft hair from her forehead, was looking into 
 her eyes with the hungry, craving look of love. 
 
 " I am glad ! " he said. " And you shall never regret 
 it, dearest never ! While I live I will spend every hour 
 in making you happy. You believe that you trust me ? " 
 
 " Yes, " she breathed. " But, think ! Am I fit to be 
 your Avife " 
 
 The word fell like a bolt from the blue. His wife ! His 
 face went white. But she went on, all innocently : 
 
 " You you are so so far above me. I am only Decima 
 Deane " 
 
 He laughed as he thrust the grewsome specter of his 
 past, of his bonds, away from him. 
 
 " You are, yes, Decima Deane the girl I love the one 
 woman in the world to me.' Oh, my darling, my darling ! " 
 His voice broke. " Decima, tell me : Am I awake or dream- 
 ing ? " 
 
 She raised her head from the pillow of his breast, and 
 kissed him on the lips. 
 
 " Awake ! " she breathed. 
 
 He returned the kiss fourfold. 
 
 " Listen, dearest ! " he said. " To-night we will start 
 for for anywhere ! It does not matter where 
 
 She looked at him with a faint smile at first ; then with 
 as taint a questioning. 
 
 "Start? Why?" 
 
 He met her inquiring eyes ; then looked aside. 
 
 "We must go away together," he said, hoarsely. 
 " There there will be some fuss and and stir. We 
 will go to yes, to Egypt, to Cairo ! " 
 
 " Shall we be married there ? " she asked, her innocent 
 eyes on his face. 
 
 " Married ? " The word echoed on his lips hoarsely. 
 " What what does it matter ? "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 The word again reminded him of his bondage, of the 
 fact that he was married already. lie thrust the remem- 
 brance from him once more. He would not remember it ! 
 
 " You can trust me, dearest ! " he said. 
 
 " Trust you? "she repeated after him, with a 'slight 
 knitting of her brows. "What do you mean? I don't 
 understand." 
 
 " See here, dearest," he said, his eyes falling before the 
 innocent directness of hers, "there are circumstances 
 It may be necessary that Would you come with me? 
 Does it matter whether we are married or n. 
 
 With all her ignorance and innocence of the world and 
 life's miserable mystery, Decima knew something of the 
 sac-redness, the necessity^ of the marriage tie. 
 
 "I I don't understand it is very stupid of me ! " she 
 faltered. 
 
 lie turned white and bit his lip. 
 
 " Suppose I asked you to come with me without being 
 married?" he said, desperately. "Suppose there was 
 some reason why why we could not be married like 
 like other persons? Would you risk dare all; would 
 you trust me, and come with n 
 
 She looked at him with no fear in her eyes nothing 
 but a faint surprise. 
 
 "I would go anywhere with you,'' she said; "I could 
 not refuse ! " She drew a long breath, and smiled up at him. 
 " And why should I not? If we cannot be married, we 
 can be friends just as we have been at Leaf more. I was 
 very happy there ah, very happy ! And I should 
 you every day should I not ? Perhaps Bobby could go 
 with us? But I suppose not. He could not leave his 
 work, could he, even for a time ? " 
 
 Before her absolute innocence Gaunt quailed. 
 
 lie bit his lips and for the first time his eyes fell before 
 her pure gaze. 
 
 'Come come and sit down !" he said, huskily. lie 
 drew her to the big chair, but she signed to him to sit, 
 and sinking on to the thick rug at his iVet, she leaned her 
 arm on his knee, and her head on her arm. Gaunt stroked 
 her hair with a trembling hand, and stared at the fire. 
 Conscience stung and lashed him, but its sting, its whip, 
 fell upon a heart made insensible by passion. If, he
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 83 
 
 argued to himself, lie did not take her away she would 
 marry Mershon ; he knew the pressure which would be 
 brought to bear, knew that she would not be able to 
 withstand it. She would marry a man she did not love ; 
 and from such a hell, such a life in death, surely Gaunt, 
 the man she loved, ought to snatch her at any cost ! The 
 happiness, the misery of her life hung in the balance. 
 
 After all, would the wrong be very great ? He could 
 take her away to some land where she would not be likely 
 to meet any English people ; they could hide themselves 
 under an assumed name ; no breath of shame or reproach 
 should touch her. He would watch over her happiness 
 every hour of his life. And she should be happy. 
 
 And and, perhaps Fate would fake pity on them and 
 kill that other woman, his wife ! Then he would, marry 
 Decima, and and all would be well. 
 
 One knows what an admirable advocate the devil ca'i 
 be ; and now he was pleading with Gaunt, not only for 
 Gaunt, himself, but for the girl he love."!.. He could not 
 let her go. 
 
 " Decima," he said, and his voice sounded so labored 
 that she raised her head and looked at him with some ap- 
 prehension in her eyes, "I I want you to understand. 
 We must go if we go alone ; we could not take Bobby 
 with us. Child, the world everybody will blame me 
 for taking you." 
 
 " It would be wrong ! " she said, thoughtfully. 
 
 " It would be wrong," he said, as if the admission were 
 wrung from him. " That is, in the eyes of the world ; 
 but but I am not so sure I feel that, even if it be 
 wrong, it would be a greater sin to let you go back to 
 to him." 
 
 She shuddered. 
 
 " I could not go back," she said, gravely. " Not now, 
 not now, when I know " She paused, then went on, with 
 a sweet abandon " that I love you ! " 
 
 He bent his head until his lips touched her hair. Then 
 he rose, and, taking her in his arms, put her in the chair. 
 
 " Let me think ! " he said. He began to pace the room, 
 and walked to and fro with quick steps. His blood was 
 at fever heat, and something beat at the back of his brain
 
 84 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 like the crash of a wave against a rock. Now and again 
 he stopped and aimlessly took up some article from the 
 table and looked at it mechanically. One of the things 
 was a quaint Persian dagger, in an exquisitely enameled 
 sheath. He drew the blade, looked at it without seeing 
 it, then replaced it. As he did so, the thing fell from his 
 fingers. As he picked it up and poised it on the table 
 Decima looked around. 
 
 " Why are you so troubled ? " she said in a low voice, 
 full of loving sympathy. 
 
 He came to her, and kneeling beside her took her hands 
 and pressed them against his heart. 
 
 cc Decima, you must leave yourself, your fate, in my 
 hands. You must trust to me. If I let you go now, it- 
 it must be forever ! I shall never see you again 
 
 She uttered a faint cry and stooping looked into his 
 face with terror and grief in her eyes, on her lips. 
 
 " No, no ! " she breathed, " I I could not bear it ! " 
 
 " You see ! " he said. " And if you could not, how then 
 eould I, whose love for you is a thousand times greater 
 than your love for me ! Dearest, I must take you with 
 me to-morrow. ^Ve will have to say good-by to the past ; 
 we will have to begin a new life in a strange place 
 among strange people. "Will you come?" 
 
 A great solemnity fell upon her. 
 
 "I must come!" she said, and the low, swrrt voice 
 thrilled through him. "I must do whatever you ask me. 
 I I could not let you go away from me, ami see you no 
 more. I I think I hope I should die if you did." 
 
 He almost laughed. 
 
 " That settles it ! " he said, with a kind of reckless, des- 
 perate gayety. " Now, see, dearest, you must go back to 
 Lady Pauline's it is too late to start to-night. To-mor- 
 row morning at eight o'clock is that too early ? " 
 
 She smiled at the triviality of the question. "What 
 hour could be too early ? what did it matter ? 
 
 ""Well, then, you must leave the house and take a cab 
 to Charing Cross Station." 
 
 "To Charing Cross Station ?" she repeated, carefully. 
 
 " Yes ; I will meet you there I shall be watching for 
 you. And then well, the rest remains with me ! " 
 
 She leaned back and looked at him with perfect trust
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 85 
 
 and confidence, as a woman looks when she has placed her 
 life in the hands of the man she loves. 
 
 " And when shall we be married ? " she asked. " Will 
 it be soon or shall we have to wait a long time ? " 
 
 His face quivered. 
 
 " It it may not be for a long time," he said, trying to 
 speak calmly. " Until then we shall have to live away 
 away from everybody. You will not even be able to 
 write " 
 
 A troubled, perplexed expression shone in her eyes as 
 they rested on his. She thought, with a pang of pain and 
 remorse, of her father. 
 
 " Why ? Because it will be wrong to to go away 
 with you. Yes, I think I understand ' 
 
 But he knew that she did not fully. He was silent a 
 moment, then he said in a constrained voice : 
 
 " You do not ask me why I cannot marry you now, 
 Decima ? " 
 
 " No," she said, " I am waiting until you choose to tell 
 me." 
 
 " I will tell you some day," he said, thickly. ~" Prom- 
 ise me that that when I do, you will not turn from me, 
 Decima ! Promise me that that when you know you will 
 still love me " 
 
 " I promise ! " she said. " How could I turn from you ? 
 How could I cease to love you ? I shall always love you 
 while life lasts. I couldn't do otherwise, if I tried what- 
 ever happened. Even if if you did not love me 
 
 " Hush ! " he broke in, almost solemnly. " That is 
 impossible ! If you knew 
 
 He glanced at the clock. 
 
 " I am afraid you must go, dearest," he said. " Heavens J 
 What it costs me to let you go to part with you even for 
 a few hours ! " 
 
 She rose, her hands resting on his shoulders, and he 
 kissed her dress as it touched him. 
 
 " It will not be for long ! " she said, with a happy little 
 sigh. " I shall not sleep, I know. I shall lie awake and 
 try and realize what has happened to me. It still seems 
 like a dream " 
 
 " May you never awake from it, dearest ! " he murmured. 
 
 She laughed softly.
 
 86 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " I wonder where Bobby is ? I should like to have seen 
 him to have told him but I am not to tell him ! I 
 forgot ! " 
 
 " Xo," he said. " You must tell no one ! " 
 
 " "My things are in his room," she said. " I will go and 
 get them ' 
 
 As she spoke she looked up and down the mantel as if 
 she were searching for something. 
 
 "I put a long pin a hatpin there," she said. 
 
 Mechanically he searched also, pushing aside the curios 
 and ornaments. In doing so he took up the portrait, ly- 
 ing face downward, and was putting it down again when, 
 as mechanically he glanced at it. 
 
 He did not start, uttered no cry, but he stood stock 
 still and stared at the bewitching face in the silver frame 
 as if he had suddenly fallen under a spell. Gradually a 
 deadly pallor spread over his face, his eyes became dis- 
 tended. 
 
 " \Vho what ! " broke from his set lips. 
 
 Decima had found the pin, and had turned to leave the 
 room. She came back to him and looked over his shoulder. 
 
 " That portrait ? Whose is it?." she asked. 
 
 She had not seen his face. 
 
 His senses seemed to be deserting- him ; he could not 
 remove his eyes from the face which, with its " beauty of 
 the devil," seemed to smile up at him mockingly, derisive- 
 ly. His silence smote her, and she looked at him. A low 
 cry broke from her lips. 
 
 " What what is the matter ? " she murmured. 
 " What is it ? I I found it saw it. Whose portrait 
 is it ? " 
 
 Though he tried to crush the answer down, it would 
 come, as if he had lost control of his voice. 
 
 "It is my wife!" he said, as a man speaks in his 
 sleep. 
 
 She shrank back from him' as if he had struck her. 
 
 Your wife ? " 
 
 The words were scarcely audible, and yet to him they 
 seemed to ring through the room. 
 
 He still gazed at the face. How had it come there? 
 What juggling fiend had conjured the thing up to confront 
 him with it at this moment the moment of his life ?
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. C? 
 
 "Your wife?" Decima repeated. 
 
 And she shrank a step farther away from him. 
 
 " My wife ! " he said, hoarsely, still staring at it. 
 
 Then he lifted his eyes heavily, slowly and looked at 
 her looked and realized that he had spoken aloud that 
 he had told her. 
 
 With an oath, he flung the picture into the fireplace. 
 It fell with a crash as the glass and frame were shattered 
 on the tiles ; then he stretched out his hands toward 
 her. 
 
 " Yes, my wife ! Decima, you know now why I can- 
 not marry you ! I am married already ! " 
 
 " No, no ! " She put up her hands to her ears as if to 
 shut out the words. 
 
 " It is true ! " he said, hoarsely, with a calm more terri- 
 ble than any violence. " I am married to that woman 
 whose portrait lies there. That is why I cannot marry 
 you. Listen for God's sake, don't shrink from me ! " 
 for as he had taken a step toward her, she had drawn 
 back with a gesture of denial. 
 
 " Your wife ! Then then it is not I whom you love 
 you cannot ! It is she ! " 
 
 " Love' her ! " lie laughed with fierce bitterness. 
 " You don't know what you say ! Love ! I hate loathe 
 her ! " 
 
 A cry broke from her lips. 
 
 " But she is your wife ! " 
 
 He made a gesture of despair. How could he tell her 
 make her understand ? 
 
 " Decima, she is my wife, but I hate her ! No man 
 with a spark of manhood could do otherwise. Child, 
 listen don't shrink from me ! Don't don't look so, or 
 I shall go mad ! She is a bad, worthless woman I left 
 her I have not seen her for years ; she is nothing to me 
 nothing, nothing ! Don't you understand ? But that 
 she is my wife, I should have told you of my love long, 
 long ago. Ah, that you understand ! Come to me ! 
 Child, have pity ! " 
 
 He knelt to her, and drew her hands from her face. 
 She yielded, or, rather, she did not resist, but her eyes 
 were fixed vacantly above his head, as if she were trying 
 to understand and to bear the truth.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Decima, now that you know, you will not turn from 
 me " 
 
 " Your wife ! " She drew one hand from his grasp and 
 pressed it against her forehead with a piteous little 
 ture of helplessness and despair. "Oh, why why did 
 you not tell me ? Your wife ! " 
 
 " My God, don't don't repeat it ! " he cried. " Try try 
 
 and forget it ! Decima, you you will not desert iiu- ; you 
 will not draw back ! I cannot live without you! If you 
 turn from me " 
 
 He rose and caught her in his arms, for she had swayed 
 to and fro, as if she were about to fall. But his touch 
 seemed to give her strength to resist him, and after a 
 moment a moment during which he looked into her eyes 
 she recovered from the terrible faintness and drew her- 
 self from his arms. 
 
 'Let let me go all, let me go!" she panted. I 
 will go ! I want to go ! Your wife ! " 
 
 " You shall not go until you have heard me," he said, 
 fiercely. "Child, you don't understand, or you would 
 not torture me. Sit down ! " 
 
 No, no ! " 
 
 ' Ah ! but you must ! You must listen ! Decima ! " 
 
 She stood, her hands clasped tightly, her face upraised, 
 her eyes fixed on vacancy, and her despair almost drove 
 him mad. 
 
 ^"Decima," he began again ; then suddenly he stopped. 
 There was a sound in the corridor. A voice a woman's 
 voice said in clear, metallic toin 
 
 " Thanks, don't trouble ! I know the way. I will go 
 in and wait until he comes in." 
 
 At the sound of the voice Gaunt started and looked 
 over his shoulder as if his senses were playing some 
 fiendish trick on him. Decima heard the Voice, the 
 AM irds, but she did not move. 
 
 " God ! It is she ! " broke from his white lips. 
 
 He caught Decima's arm, but stood as if paralyzed for a 
 moment, then he said, in a hoarse whisper : 
 
 " Go that room ! " and, dashing open the door, half 
 led, half dragged her into the adjoining room. Then he 
 closed the door, .and stood with his back to it and 
 waited !
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 89 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 IT was a long arm of coincidence, guided by Morgan 
 Thorpe's cunning, which had led Laura to Prince's Man- 
 sions that night of all nights. 
 
 Three days before there had been a little dinner at 
 Cardigan Terrace. It was like all the other dinners, per- 
 fect of menu and cozy in character, and as usual Trevor 
 and Bobby were the only guests. 
 
 Now, Bobby had come back from Leafmore with a 
 good resolution. He would see no more of Morgan Thorpe 
 and Laura, for, alas ! it was as " Laura " he habitually 
 thought of her, and not seldom addressed her; so far 
 had poor Bobby gone ! Bobby made this resolve firmly, 
 and he meant to stick to it. But the morning after his 
 resolve, lo and behold, Mr. Morgan Thorpe, arrayed in 
 faultless attire, entered Gaunt's rooms and greeted Bobby 
 as if he were a long lost brother suddenly returned. 
 
 " My dear boy ! " he exclaimed. " Where have you 
 been ? I called the other night, and was filled with 
 alarm when they told me that you had left London. I 
 feared that you had fled from us for good." Which, 
 though he did not intend it, was a particularly accurate 
 way of putting it. I was quite cut up, I assure you, and as 
 to Laura " he paused and smiled at Bobby " well, per- 
 haps I'd better not say how my news affected her. 
 Mustn't tell tales out of school, eh, Deane ? " 
 
 He leaned forward and touched Bobby on the knee, 
 and Bobby grew red and hot. 
 
 " I I had a wire from home and had to run down 
 suddenly." 
 
 Morgan Thorpe glanced at him sharply. 
 
 " Xo bad news, I trust ? " he said. 
 
 " No ! " replied Bobby, after a moment's hesitation. 
 *' At least well, something had gone wrong some busi- 
 ness ; but it's all right now." 
 
 " I'm glad to hear it ! I was afraid one of your people 
 was ill," said Mr. Morgan Thorpe with charming sym- 
 pathy. " And I'm glad you are back. We missed you, 
 my dear Deane, though you were away for so short a
 
 90 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 time. Trevor came and dined with us; but "Well, 
 Trevor is a deuced good fellow, but he didn't compensate 
 us for your absence. I never saw Laura so triste and 
 dull ! You really must come round soon ! What do you 
 say to dining with us to-morrow night V " 
 
 Bobby's good resolution rose and looked at him sternly, 
 and still more red and uncomfortable, he stammered an 
 excuse. 
 
 "Engaged! I'm sorry, and I'm sure Laura will be. 
 "Well, we'll hope for another night." 
 
 Bobby then declared that for the future he had decided to 
 renounce card playing ; and Morgan Thorpe, with shrewd 
 tact commended him for his resolution and said that 
 Laura had urged him to use his influence to that end. 
 
 The young man was grateful for this mark of friend- 
 ship on the part of Laura, and his regard for her was en- 
 hanced. 
 
 " To Laura that will be the best news that I can bring 
 to her that you have decided to cut card playing," re- 
 marked Thorpe. " But you'll come and see her, won't 
 you ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Bobby, stifling a sigh as his good resolu- 
 tion went up the chimney with a moan of reproach and 
 farewell. 
 
 That's all right. So long ! " 
 
 Mr. Morgan Thorpe paused at the door and looked 
 around. 
 
 " Delightful rooms these of yours ! Always strike me 
 whenever I come into them. Lord what is his name? 
 still at that place in the country ? " 
 
 " No,'' said Bobby. " He has gone." 
 
 Morgan Thorpe stopped, with his hand on the handle 
 of the door. 
 
 " Gone, eh ? Where ? Gone for good ? " 
 
 Bobby shook his head rather sadly. "I don't know. 
 He left Leafmore suddenly, and no one knows his where- 
 abouts. I'm half inclined to think he has gone to Africa." 
 
 "To Africa '? '' A faint expression of relief shot for a 
 moment into Morgan Thorpe's frank blue eyes. "Really ! 
 Well, he might go to a worse place. He'll escape the 
 coming winter. v 
 
 With another nod and smile, he took his departure.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 91 
 
 The expression of relief grew more open as he walked 
 away. For Mr. Morgan Thorpe had had an anxious time 
 of it while in London. He had bargained with Gaunt to 
 keep his wife out of England ; but Morgan Thorpe, while 
 making the bargain, had forgotten that his sister possessed 
 that extremely inconvenient thing a will of her own. 
 
 And the divine Laura had not only declined to remain 
 at Vevey or remove to Paris, but had insisted upon going 
 to London. He had not dared to oppose her, for she 
 Avould have grown suspicious. And when the divine 
 Laura was .suspicious Well, Morgan Thorpe's life was 
 not an i-asy one. 
 
 So he had been obliged to let her come, and had spent 
 some part of his days in fear and trembling lest he should 
 run up against Gaunt, and so, in a moment, lose his an- 
 nuity. 
 
 But chance had favored him hitherto, and Gaunt had 
 not seen Laura. 
 
 " Gone to Africa ? " he mused, as he walked club wards, 
 with his pleasant smile on his pleasant, open face, as he 
 smoked a choice Havana. "Well, he may have gone, 
 and my luck may still be with me ; but, on the other 
 hand, he may not and may turn up at any moment. My 
 dear Laura, you will have to clear out ! Yes, I shall have 
 to move you ! But how ? " He pondered for a time ; 
 then he smiled. " If we are going we may as well make 
 a little coup before we start. I'll talk it over with her. 
 Her brain's better than mine at that sort of thing." 
 
 In which Mr. Morgan Thorpe scarcely did himself jus- 
 tice ; for it would have been difficult to find a sharper or 
 more astute scoundrel than himself, even in London, 
 where sharp and astute scoundrels abound and flourish. 
 
 Three days afterwards Bobby received a dainty little 
 note, emitting the peculiar scent, from Mrs. Dalton. 
 
 Why did he not come to see her ? Had she offended 
 him ? If so, why did he not tell her what she had said or 
 done amiss ? And would he come to dinner on Monday 
 and give her an opportunity of explaining and begging 
 his pardon? 
 
 So ran the note, prettily worded and written in a thin 
 Italian hand. 
 
 There was only one answer possible. Bobby wrote,
 
 92 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 and said that he would come and tell her that in no way 
 had she offended him, and that she had always been all 
 that was kind and gracious. 
 
 And he went. She was alone when he entered the 
 drawing-room, and she received him with a half-sad, half- 
 reproachful air. She was beautifully dressed, and had 
 " made-up " a little pale ; her black eyes, which as she had 
 heard his voice outside, had shone with contempt and 
 boredom now beamed upon him softly, almost tenderly. 
 
 "I thought you were never coming, that I we should 
 never see you again ! " she murmured. " Come and sib 
 beside me and tell me what is the matter ? " She touched 
 a chair near the fire and beside her own ; and Bobby- 
 dropped into it feeling as if he had been the crnelest and 
 most hard-hearted of young men. 
 
 " Morgan has told me that you are going to give up 
 cards ! I am so glad," she said, after Bobby had assured 
 her that there was nothing the matter, and that he had 
 not been able to come because he had been "busy." 
 
 " Oh, pray, pray keep to that ! I have seen so much 
 misery through gambling ; and I do hate it so ! Besi< ; 
 she added with an air of innocence which would have done 
 credit to a first-class actress, " you will be able to sit and 
 talk to me while they are playing; for of course, M r. 
 Morgan and Mr. Trevor will play." 
 
 And in this way she talked to him, singing conscience 
 to rest, and the beautiful bewitching face blotted out all 
 remembrance of his resolve not to see her again. 
 
 Then Trevor came in. 
 
 He scowled at Bobby as he nodded to him. 
 
 " Thought you had gone into the country or abroad," 
 he said, sullenly. "Deuced cold!'' He gave a little 
 shudder as he drew nearer the lire. His face was pale 
 and his eyelids were swollen, and inflamed. It struck 
 Bobby that Trevor had been drinking heavily, and Laura 
 shot a glance at him as lie stood gazing at the lire 
 moodily. 
 
 Presently Morgan Thorpe came in. 
 
 "My dearDeane Trevor forgive me! I'm late ! " he 
 said, with his charming smile. " Trevor, how well and 
 fit you look ! - 
 
 Trevor glowered at him sullenly.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 93 
 
 Do I ? Then my looks belie me, for I feel anything 
 but fit. It's this beastly cold weather coming in so. sud- 
 denly." 
 
 " Your dinner will put you right ! " said Morgan 
 Thorpe, brightly. " And there's the bell ! " 
 
 As Laura rose, Trevor bent over her. 
 
 " Let that cub go first to-night," he said. " I'll stay 
 after him, I want to speak to you ! " 
 
 She made a motion of assent and smiled up at him 
 sweetly, confidingly. 
 
 Thorpe was in the best and brightest of humors, and 
 once or twice Bobby thought what that resolution would 
 have cost him if he had stuck to it. They were such 
 pleasant people, the Thorpes ; and Laura was an angel. 
 
 Trevor drank a great deal as usual through his 
 dinner ; and Thorpe plied him with " the earl's wine " as- 
 siduously ; and after a time, his face got flushed and the 
 somber fire burned in his eyes. 
 
 They went into the drawing-room where, as usual, 
 Laura was playing so softly on the piano, and Bobby went 
 and sat down beside her and turned over the music. 
 Morgan Thorpe opened out the card table. 
 
 " Do you play to-night, Deane ? " he asked. 
 
 Bobby shook his head. 
 
 " Xot to-night," he said, reddening. Laura's left hand 
 stole out toward him, encouragingly, sympathetically. 
 
 " Why not ? " demanded Trevor, looking across at him 
 with surprise. 
 
 " Can't afford it," said Bobby, with a touch of his old 
 spirit. 
 
 Trevor sneered. 
 
 "That's a reason no one can meet," he said, with a 
 sneer. " Go on, Thorpe." 
 
 Bobby flushed still more hotly ; but the small hand 
 sought and found and pressed his. The play went on ; 
 Bobby remained beside the piano, or sat on a chair close 
 very close beside Laura's, near the fire. They talked 
 in a low voice, which, low though it was, seemed to annoy 
 and irritate Trevor, and once he turned toward them 
 fiercely and demanded : 
 
 " What on earth are you two whispering and mum- 
 bling about?"
 
 94 HER HEART'S DESIRE, 
 
 Laura laughed softly. 
 
 " Mr. Deane is telling me about his coach, his crammer. 
 He must l>e such a funny man ! Are you winning or los- 
 ing, Mr. Trevor ? The former, I hope. Why don't you 
 give up cards and come and sit around the fire, like good 
 31 r. Deane and me?" 
 
 He swore under his breath. 
 
 " Losing," he said. 
 
 She turned to the fire again, and the play went on. 
 Half an hour later Mr. Morgan Thorpe said affection- 
 ately : 
 
 " Laura, my dear, will you give us a little champagne ? " 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 SHE rose an." got a bottle. Bobby opened it, and she 
 filled the glasses of the players. Then she leaned over 
 Trevor's cards, just dealt, and touched them with the 
 slim taper finger of her left hand ; with her right she 
 smoothed the soft dark hair from her forehead. 
 
 Trevor looked up at her, and caught her hand, held it 
 for a moment, then pressed, it to his lips. Bobby saw the 
 action, but Morgan Thorpe did not, or appeared not to 
 see it. She pouted, withdrew her hand away slowly, and 
 went back to her place. A moment later Trevor flung 
 down his cards. 
 
 " Lost ! " he said. " Was it double or quits ? " 
 
 " It was," replied Morgan Thorpe. " Lucky I played 
 that king, Trevor." 
 
 " Yes." snarled Trevor. " It was almost as if you knew 
 I held the queen."' 
 
 Thorpe laughed. 
 
 "Wasn't it? A mere fluke on my part- a rare piece 
 of luck ! " 
 
 Trevor pushed some bank-notes across the table, drank 
 a draught of champagne, and rose suddenly, very nearly 
 upsetting the table. 
 
 " I'm done for to-night," he said roughly. 
 
 He went towards the fire, and stood glowering at it, his 
 hands thrust in his pockets. 
 
 " And so you don't play, eh, Deane ? " he said, looking 
 down at Bobby with a sneer.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 95 
 
 " Xo," said Bobby, " I've chucked it ! As I said, I can't 
 afford it ! " 
 
 " By Heaven ! it would have been well for me if I'd 
 come to that decision years ago," said Trevor, with a 
 harsh laugh. 
 
 Bobby rose. 
 
 " I must be going," he said. " Are you coming, Tre- 
 vor ? " 
 
 " Xo," replied Trevor, curtly. 
 
 Bobby said good-night " You will come again soon ? " 
 Laura murmured, as she pressed his hand and he left. 
 
 Trevor stood staring at the fire for a few minutes ; 
 then he looked over his shoulder at Morgan Thorpe, who 
 was lighting a cigarette. 
 
 " Thorpe I want to speak to your sister," he said. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe looked over his cigarette, and raised 
 his brows. 
 
 " Certainly, my dear Trevor ! " he said pleasantly. " I 
 efface myself instanter ! " 
 
 When the door had closed upon him, Trevor looked 
 down at the woman sitting over the fire. His eyes were 
 bloodshot ; they, and his red hair, accentuating the pallor 
 of his face. 
 
 " Laura, I want to speak to you," he said. " I'm sick 
 of this." 
 
 She looked up at him with a faint smile. 
 
 " It's about played out as far as I am concerned," he 
 went on in a strained voice. " I can't stand it any longer, 
 and, d n it, what's more, I won't ! " 
 
 " Why use such language what is the matter ? " she 
 murmured. 
 
 " Xever mind my language " he retorted ; " it expresses 
 my feelings ! Laura, you know I love you ; you know 
 that I have loved you bah ! what's the use of saying it ? 
 You know it all ! Will you be my wife '? I want your 
 answer. I'm sick of this game, sick of seeing you flirting 
 with that that d d boy ! If you care for me enough 
 to be my wife, say so. I can't, and I won't, wait any 
 longer." 
 
 His eyes shone redly, his lips were set, and dry, and 
 his voice rasped huskily. For a moment the woman was 
 daunted. She had played this man as an angler plays n
 
 96 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 trout now tightening, now loosening the line. And 
 now that he had come to the surface, lo ! it was not a 
 harmless trout, but a shark, a dragon, with gleaming 
 teeth a thing almost to be feared. She turned pale 
 under the powder, but she smiled tenderly as she mur- 
 mured : 
 
 " You know I care for you Ralph ! '' 
 
 "Do I? " he said. But do I 't I'm not so sure that 
 I do ! Sometimes I have half an idea that you you have 
 been fooling me, that 
 
 The words were broken by his clinched teeth. His 
 face grew red. Then, suddenly, his mood changed, and 
 he flung himself on his knees beside her, and gripped her 
 hands. " Laura, for heaven's sake, tell me the truth ! If 
 you love me, be my wife at once at once! I cannot, I 
 will not, wait any longer. I am half mad with love for 
 you ! I am drifting to the devil, while you you keep me 
 shilly-shallying ! You know that you know that I am 
 on the road to ruin ! Marry me and save me if you 
 love me ! If you do not, then then I will go ! Oh, 
 Laura ! have pity on me ! " 
 
 His upturned face was distorted by his passion, and 
 suddenly his head fell until his face was hidden in her 
 lap his hands gripping her dress. 
 
 There was something terrible in his self-abandonment, 
 terrible and pitiable, and most women would have been 
 both terrified and pitying. But this woman had no heart, 
 and was incapable of pity. The touch of fear which had 
 ;iled her passed away as he surrendered himself to his 
 passion, and loathing and contempt took its place. 
 
 She looked down, with a mmte of contempt, at the 
 bowed, red head, at the clinched hands, upon which the. 
 veins stood out in thick cords; but her voice was exqui- 
 sitely tender and loving as she whispeivd : 
 
 " You know I love you, Ralph, and and I will marry 
 you if you wish it ; if you think it wise to trust your life 
 to mine, so full of sorrows of the past." 
 
 He raised his head, his face transfigured by relief joy, 
 and putting his arm round her, he drew her down to 
 him. 
 
 " Laura, my own ! " he cried, hoarsely. 
 
 She suffered the embrace for a moment ; she even put
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 7 
 
 lier lips to his hot forehead, then she slipped from his 
 arms and rose. 
 
 " Go now, Ralph," she said, caressing his hand, " you 
 you almost frighten me ! " 
 
 " Forgive me, dearest, forgive me ! If you knew how 
 I love you 
 
 " Perhaps I do ! " She smiled sweetly at him, and let 
 her head rest on his breast for a moment. " But Ralph, 
 we we must not be rash. You will wait " 
 
 His face darkened instantly. 
 
 " Wait ! Why should we ? " he began. 
 
 " Foolish boy ! I do not mean for long ; for for a 
 month." 
 
 k - A fortnight ! " he said, eagerly. " Three weeks then ! " 
 
 She made a gesture of assent. 
 
 ' (io now, dearest ! " 
 
 She had to endure his parting embrace with a tender, 
 smiling" affectation of returning it ; but what it cost her 
 AVUS expressed by the cry of disgust which broke from her 
 iips almost before he was out of hearing. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe, coming in, found her crouching over 
 the fire, and wiping her lips, her arms, which his lips had 
 touched, with her handkerchief as if to free them from 
 some stain. 
 
 " Bah ! " she exclaimed, with a gesture of loathing. 
 " Why did you not come in sooner and save me from 
 that that savage ? " 
 
 What is the matter ? " he asked. " Has Trevor " 
 
 " Yes," she said, between her teeth. " He has been 
 making love has asked me to be his wife " she gave a 
 low laugh of derision "and insisted upon an answer! " 
 
 " And what did you say '? " he asked. 
 
 She laughed again. 
 
 Yes ! " 
 
 He started. 
 
 " Great Heaven ! Couldn't you have " 
 
 " Xo I couldn't ! " she broke in, with something like a 
 snarl. She did not look very beautiful at that moment. 
 " I could not put him off. I was yes afraid. He be- 
 haved like a madman. Look at my hair ! I hate all men 
 you are all brutes ! " 
 
 Morgan Thorpe watched her with a cunning intentness.
 
 98 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " This is indeed serious ! '' he said again. " Look here, 
 Laura, this chap isn't like most of the others he's a 
 nasty one to tackle. We shall have to make a bolt for it." 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders indifferently. 
 
 " Yes ; we must fold up our tents, like the Arabs and 
 silently steal away," he said. " It's lucky he didn't break 
 out before." 
 
 "Yes; I suppose you've plucked him pretty well by 
 this time?" she said, callously. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe nodded quite as callously. 
 
 " Pretty near," he assented. " And come to think of it, 
 it's as well that we should make a move. The other boy 
 lias grown shy, and there's no more to be made out of 
 him." 
 
 She yawned with profound indifference. 
 
 " lie's not so bad as the others," she said. "He's only 
 a fool Trevor is a brute and a savage as well." 
 
 " All the more reason for giving him the slip," said 
 Morgan Thorpe. " We could clear out in a few days. By 
 a stroke of luck I have not paid the last quarter's rent." 
 He poured out some wine and took it to her, and she 
 drank it at a draught, and he followed her example. " I'm 
 not so sure that the other boy, Deane, is quite exhausted," 
 he said, musingly. " Look here, Laura, here's an idea ! " 
 He came over to the fire and leaned against the mantel, 
 looking down at her. " He won't play any more, I'm cer- 
 tain of that ; but couldn't we run a grand coup V How 
 would it be if you were to work him for a biggish sum, 
 say a couple of hundred pounds;'" 
 
 She yawned. 
 
 ' How?* 
 
 ' It's easy enough ; you can do anything with him." 
 
 'I'm not so sure," she said, reflectively. -He's not 
 such a fool as you think him, and I fancy he is getting a 
 trifle suspicious. I saw him look at me curiously when I 
 was making the sign behind Trevor to-night." 
 
 " Oh ! Then it's time we wound up these operations. 
 But, look here, I'll show you the way to draw that couple 
 of hundred, my dear girl. You go to his rooms one 
 night : Woman in great distress ; tearful ' make-up,' 
 with dark rings round the eyes. You've come to him 
 risking compromising yourself, and all that because
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 99 
 
 you are in great trouble. Threatened with ruin unless 
 you can obtain a couple of hundred pounds. Have come 
 to him because he is the closest, truest friend you have. 
 See ! He can save you by just putting his hand to a little 
 bill. You may not want to use it ; will in all probability 
 return it to him in the morning ; but in any case it will 
 save you from ruin and despair. See ? " 
 
 He rolled off the nefarious scheme fluently, and she 
 listened, with her head on one side, her eyes fixed on the 
 fire. Then she laughed. 
 
 " I dare say I could manage that," she said. 
 
 " Of course," he said, with a laugh. " The boy's in love 
 with you. You take him unawares, give him no time to 
 think ; you can promise him anything seeing that we can 
 start in the morning." 
 
 She yawned. There was no compunction in her na- 
 ture, no sense of shame. She had been an adventuress 
 all her life and a successful one simply because of that 
 absence of compunction and shame. 
 
 -" Very well," she said. " Oh yes ; I can do it easily 
 enough. But, mind, I take that two hundred, Morgan ! " 
 
 His face fell. 
 
 u My dear Laura ! Think of my expenses ! " 
 
 She looked at him with a glint of anger in her eyes. 
 
 " I take that two hundred," she repeated, emphatically. 
 " You have plenty of money ; I know that, and I've won- 
 dered sometimes where you get it. You have had more 
 than you got from Trevor and Deaiie." 
 
 He changed color, and she laughed, contemptuously. 
 " Don't trouble to lie," she said, coolly ; " I shouldn't be- 
 lieve you. And I don't care how you get it. All I know 
 is that I mean to have this haul. And do you know how 
 I am going to spend it ? " 
 
 " Another diamond bracelet? My dear, you might get 
 it on credit " 
 
 " Xo ; I'm going to spend it on detectives. I am going 
 to find out that husband of mine." 
 
 Mr. Morgan Thorpe smiled a sickly smile. 
 
 " Yes ! " she said with sudden fury. " I mean to find 
 him. You've tried or pretended to and have failed. 
 I'm going to try and I mean to succeed ! " 
 
 " My dear, why be angry with me ? I hope you will
 
 100 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 succeed ; though why you should want him, seeing that 
 you hate him like poison 
 
 " Yes, you're right. I hate him like poison ; and that's 
 why I want him ! I'm going to make life a hell for him ! " 
 She rose and stood looking before her with eyes which 
 blazed with a malignant fire ; her lips were parted show- 
 ing her white, even teeth ; her powder showed almost 
 yellow against her white face; her small hands were 
 clinched tightly at her side. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe looked at her with a mixture of fear 
 and admiration. 
 
 " Upon my soul, Laura ! I don't envy him if you do 
 find him ! " he said., with an uneasy laugh. 
 
 She drew a long breath. 
 
 "You'd have no cause to!" she said, significantly, as 
 she moved toward the door. " Tell me when you want 
 me to get that money. Good-night." 
 
 The next morning Mr. Morgan Thorpe began his prep- 
 arations for a sudden and secret flight. Such prepara- 
 tions with gentlemen of Mr. Morgan Thorpe's ehara< 
 are beautifully simple. They consist in getting as many 
 articles on credit as confiding and trustful tradesmen will 
 supply. He bought a nice stock of clothes, some choice 
 cigars, a few but they were costly articles of jewelry ; 
 he borrowed as many five-pound notes as he could from 
 men with whom lie had scraped acquaintance. It was 
 "By Jove, I've left my purse at home! My dear fel- 
 low, will you lend me a few pounds for to-night ! '' And, 
 at last, when the landlord of 31 Cardigan Terrace, wrote 
 demanding the rent by return of post, Mr. Morgan Thorpe 
 informed his sister, that everything was ready for the 
 exodus, and that she might ring off her grand coup against 
 that young fool, Deane. 
 
 She went up to her room after dinner, and locked the 
 door, and in about an hour she came down and presented 
 herself for approval, as it were. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe looked at her as she stood before him 
 and uttered an exclamation of admiration. She was pale, 
 there were dark rings round her eyes ; but her expression 
 was the highest achievement. She looked hunted, ha- 
 rassed, full of despair. 
 
 " By Heaven ! you ought to have gone on the stage,
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 101 
 
 Laura ! " he said fervently. " You ought indeed ! Why, 
 you'd melt a heart of stone Avith that face and that look ! 
 Really, I think I should try for three instead of two 
 hundred ! " 
 
 She laughed, the heartless, callous laugh of the adven- 
 turess. 
 
 " Too high a sum would frighten my bahy," she said. 
 " Call a cab for me, Morgan. Here give me a glass of 
 champagne before I go." 
 
 He gave it to her, still eying her with admiration. 
 
 " Perfect actress ! " he murmured, ecstatically. 
 
 She laughed and nodded exultingly. 
 
 " Oh ! I shall play the part all right. It's easy enough 
 with such an innocent child as he is ! " 
 
 " If Trevor comes, I'll have him told that you're in bed 
 with a headache." 
 
 She arrested the second glass on its way to her lips and 
 exclaimed : 
 
 "Thank Heaven, I shall escape from him! He was 
 here yesterday, and Well, that was a hard part to play. 
 It was as much as I could do to keep from screaming 
 out ; " I hate you hate you ! Take your hands off 
 me ! ' ' 
 
 Morgan Thorpe laughed. 
 
 " By this time to-morrow you will have put a good 
 many miles between you and that too ardent lover of 
 yours, my dear," he said. 
 
 He called a cab, and closely veiled she entered and was 
 driven off. 
 
 As she passed from the house to the cab Trevor came 
 round the corner. He saw her, and recognized her, and 
 he stood still for a moment with astonishment. Then he 
 went on to the house, and knocked. 
 
 " Is Mrs. Dalton at home ? " he asked, as coolly as he 
 could. 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied the French maid, blandly. " But 
 madam is confined to her room with a bad headache." 
 
 She saw him wince and start, saw the blood leave his 
 face slowly. 
 
 " I'm sorry ! " he said, curtly. " Tell her But never 
 mind. Good-night, Marie." 
 
 He went down the steps and walked a few paces.
 
 102 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Then he ran. The cab was still in sight. At the end of 
 the street he hailed and jumped into a hansom. 
 
 " Follow that cab ! " he said. " Keep out of sight if 
 you can. Follow it, and mind you don't lose sight of it ! " 
 
 He crushed an oath between his teeth. 
 
 * * * * * * - * 
 
 (Taunt stood with his back to the door, which he had 
 closed on Decima, and waited. He heard the frou-frou 
 of a woman's dress, the other door' opened, there came 
 the faint perfume which he remembered so well and 
 loathed so bitterly and the woman, his wife, entered. 
 
 The lamp was low, and shaded by a deep crimson 
 shade ; the firelight flickered. In the faint light she did 
 not in the first moment or two of her entrance see him. 
 She moved to the fire, carefully threw back the hood of 
 her fur cape, and held out her hands to the fire, and he, 
 motionless and in silence, watched her. 
 
 He had once loved, or persuaded himself that he had 
 loved this Avoman. He could have laughed aloud with 
 bitter self-scorn and mockery. 
 
 She warmed her hands daintily, glanced at the clock, 
 ya \vned, put up her hands to smooth the hair which the 
 hood had ruffled, then turned and looked round the room, 
 and saw him. 
 
 For a moment she did not recognize him, and uttered 
 a faint cry of surprise. Then, with a shriller, though 
 strangely repressed, cry, she moved toward him, her head 
 projected, her eyes fixed on him. She looked as slit- 
 moved like an exquisitely beautiful snake. She was 
 within a couple of paces before the words : 
 
 "It is you!'' broke fromjier parted lips. 
 
 Gaunt, white and rigid, made a gesture of assent. 
 
 "Yes," he said. " Why are you her 
 
 She drew a long breath, as if she were choking; then 
 she came nearer and stared at him as she broke into a 
 laugh a laugh of triumph, of derision. 
 
 'It is you?" she repeated. "You my husband! 
 Wrll my God! it's too good to be true! You you 
 hi- iv ! How did you come? Why " 
 
 Sin- looked round the room as if amazed and perplexed, 
 and then back at him. Her beautiful face flushed beneath 
 the paint, her eyes shone like stars within the artistically
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 103 
 
 drawn shadows. It was the face of a mask suddenly, 
 hideously, endued with life. 
 
 " This is my home my rooms," he said. 
 
 His own voice seemed to him as if it belonged to some 
 one speaking at a great distance. 
 
 " Your your rooms ? " she repeated, dully. Then her 
 eyes glittered, and she laughed. " Yours ? Then then 
 you are Lord Gaunt ? " 
 
 " I am Lord Gaunt yes," he said, as dully and mechan- 
 ically as before. 
 
 She put her hand to her forehead, and then to her 
 throat, as if the thoughts that were crowding on her 
 were suffocating her. 
 
 " You y< iu are Lord Gaunt '? These rooms are yours ? 
 You are a nobleman a swell and my husband ? " 
 
 " Yes," he said, in exactly the same lifeless tone ; " I 
 am your husband." 
 
 Siie leaned against the back of a chair and breathed 
 heavily ; then she laughed. 
 
 " I have found you found you at last ! And you are 
 Lord Gaunt ! And I am yes, I must be, of (nurse, Lady 
 Gaunt ! Lady Gaunt ! My God ! this was worth living 
 for ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 " IT is worth living for ! " she repeated, with a choking 
 laugh. " To think of it ! " She snatched up a book from 
 the small table near her and dashed her hand on the in- 
 side of the cover which bore his bookplate, with its coat- 
 of-arms above his name and title. " To think that I 
 knew you were the owner here, that I've seen your name, 
 in all these books, and never knew, never guessed ! " 
 
 She paused, breathless with excitement and triumph, 
 Her voice, usually so musical, was thick and vulgar ; the 
 vulgarity of a common nature was bursting through the 
 thin coating of veneer, and she was at that moment, for 
 all her beauty and grace, a virago of the worst type as 
 she confronted him. 
 
 Gaunt stood quite still, his eyes fixed on her with the 
 calmness of despair, the impassivity of disgust.
 
 104 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 - Why did you leave me ? " she demanded, stridently. 
 "Why did you do it?" 
 
 - Can you ask ? " he said very quietly. "Do you think 
 it was possible for me to remain with you when I dis- 
 covered what you were, what and who it was I had 
 married ? " 
 
 The reply infuriated her. She took a step toward him, 
 and stared into his face with the passion of hate burning 
 in her black eyes. 
 
 " You deserted me ! " 
 
 "I left you, yes," he said, as calmly as before. " But 
 deserted in the strict, the legal, sense no. I provided 
 for you " 
 
 A beggarly allowance ! You married me in a false 
 name ! " 
 
 "Xo," he said again, with a touch of weariness in his 
 voice. " Edward Barnard, are two of my names. I con- 
 cealed my family name and title ; yes, that is true. I 
 must have had some presentiment of what you w 
 
 She flung her arms out. 
 
 " The law will reach you ! punish you ! " she hissed. 
 
 He made a slight gesture of indifference. 
 
 " You cannot get rid of me," she exclaimed, with an air 
 of triumph. " You cannot divorce me you would if you 
 could ! " 
 
 ' Xo ! " he said, in exactly the same tone. It was as if 
 he were confronting her passion with the calmness of 
 despair, the indifference of the rock to the howling wave 
 which beats against it in vain. "Do what you will, I 
 should not seek for a divorce. I am content to suffer 
 anything rather than bring shame and disgrace upon the 
 name I bear." 
 
 "You can bring no charge against me ! " she said, de- 
 fiantly. 
 
 He made a gesture of assent. 
 
 " I am glad," he said, with a sigh. " I left you because 
 I discovered what you were before I married you Be 
 silent a moment ! " for she had opened her lips as if about 
 to protest retort. "Put yourself in my place. I loved 
 you, deeming you all that a girl should be, all that a 
 woman should be, who takes the name of an honest man. 
 I found Ah ! why should I tell you ? You know ! "'
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 105 
 
 She flung herself into a chair, and leaning her face on 
 her hand, looked up at him with a mixture of defiance 
 and hatred. 
 
 ' What else could I do but leave you ? " he said. 
 *' What other course was open to a man of honor when 
 he had discovered that he had married an adventuress 
 of the worst, the vilest, type. God knows I loved 
 you " 
 
 She laughed discordantly. 
 
 " Not you ! " she retorted. 
 
 " Yes," he said as calmly as before ; " I loved you. 
 Why else should I have married you? I should have 
 loved you to the end, while life lasted, if I had not 
 learned what you had been. Even then I would have 
 fought against that terrible knowledge, and and re- 
 mained with you, if I had not learned also that you were 
 without a heart, that you had married me for a place in 
 the world, for money " 
 
 He paused and looked gravely at her. All the while 
 he had been talking to her, looking at her, he had been 
 thinking of Decima ; had been contrasting this woman, 
 his wife, the adventuress, with her vile past, contrasting 
 her with the pure-minded girl who had just left him. It 
 was as if an angel of light had flown from his side, and a 
 fiend in woman's shape had taken her place. His heart 
 felt numbed with the misery of despair, with the utter 
 hopelessness of the situation. 
 
 It was as if he had been suddenly awakened from an ex- 
 quisite dream of bliss to find that his hours were numbered, 
 or, worse still, that the rest of his days were to be spent 
 in a darkness and anguish beyond words to describe. 
 
 His hand touched the key of the door behind him and 
 half mechanically he locked it, and moved to the fireplace 
 and looked at her again. 
 
 "I am sorry that you have compelled me to say all 
 this," he said, with a courtesy more galling than any 
 vituperation, any reproach, would have been. "Will 
 you tell me what, having found me, you intend to do ? I 
 suppose you and your brother have made some plans." 
 
 She raised her eyes suddenly. 
 
 " Did Morgan know who you were that you lived 
 here ? " she demanded.
 
 106 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Gaunt looked faintly surprised. 
 
 " Yes," he said, quietly. " Was it not he who betrayed 
 me ? It would be like him, worthy of him. I did not 
 bribe him heavily enough, I supp< 
 
 " You you bribed him ? Then he knew all the time, 
 and kept it from me ! Kept it from me all the while he 
 was pretending to look for you ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Gaum, indifferently ; for what did it matter 
 now ? "I bribed him, as you put it. I paid him to 
 keep the secret of my identity. He discovered it " 
 
 She sprang to her feet. 
 
 44 You are a pretty pair! " she exclaimed, with a hard 
 laugh, 'fr So he has been taking money to to help rob 
 me of my rights ! Oh, I'll be even with him ! " 
 
 "I have do doubt you will," said Gaunt, wearily. 
 " But may I ask you to answer my question ? What do 
 you intend to do ? " 
 
 ' What am I going to do ? " she said, mockingly, taunt- 
 ingly. " Can you ask ? I am going to have my rights ! 
 I am going to live with you 
 
 He made a slight gesture of dissent. 
 
 " You cannot do that," he said, gravely. " I could not 
 live with you ! " 
 
 "You can't help it!" she said, jeeringly. "The law 
 is on my side, and it shall help me ! I'll go to law ! I 
 will go to a solicitor directly I leave here ! He shall 
 claim my right to have your name my proper title 
 Lady Gaunt." 
 
 ' I cannot withhold that from you," he said, with perfect 
 calm . 
 
 ' Xo, and I mean to hold you, too ! " she said, defiantly, 
 gloatingly. " Where a husband is, there a wife has a 
 right to be. You can't cast me off, and you shall not ! 
 I'll have my title, and and half your money " 
 
 " Ah, yes," he said, almost to himself. 
 
 " Yes, and I'll go into the world, the society my rank 
 is entitled to ; and I'll go as your wife by your side. 
 You shall take me and introduce me to all your relations 
 and friends.'' 
 
 He smiled bitterly, coolly, and the smile seemed to 
 madden her. 
 
 " You refuse ? " she said.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 107 
 
 * I refuse, yes," he said, grimly. " You may have all 
 else you demand. The title, the money far more than 
 half of that which belongs to me but no more. I could 
 not face the world by your side 
 
 She laughed stridently. 
 
 " Could you not? We will see! The law will help 
 me ! I will enter an action compel you, yes, compel 
 you, to acknowledge me, and live with me/' 
 
 " You cannot," he said, as if he were stating a simple 
 fact. " I leave England in a few hours ; I shall be be- 
 yond the reach of even your malice ! " 
 
 She sprang from the chair, upsetting it in her violence, 
 and it fell against the small table, overturning it. It 
 came to the ground with a crash, and the bric-a-brac was 
 strewn upon the floor. As she rose to her feet she ut- 
 tered a cry, a cry like that of a- wild beast balked of its 
 revenge. 
 
 Gaunt looked at the overturned table and curios in- 
 differently. A knock came to the door. 
 
 " Did you call, sir ? " asked the maid outside. 
 
 " Xo," said Gaunt, and she went away. 
 
 " Take care ! " said Laura, hoarsely, as she pushed the 
 hair from her forehead. " You don't know what I can 
 do ! You talk of your name -the disgrace and shame ! 
 I can drag it in the dust for you, and, by Heaven ! I 
 will, too! I'll tell the whole story! I'll fill the papers 
 with ' Lord and Lady Gaunt's case ' ; I'll make you a 
 laughing stock throughout England ! " 
 
 " Yes," he said, with a terrible calmness. " You can 
 do that, and I have no doubt you will. But you cannot 
 compel me to live with you. And the world will under- 
 stand why I do not." 
 
 Her face became white, and she ground her teeth. 
 
 " What do I care ?" she said. "I shall have had my 
 revenge. You won't be able to show your face in Eng- 
 land again ; and I I shall live here ; shall be Lady 
 Gaunt, your wife, your ill-used wife 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 ". Yes," he said. " Let that thought console you ; let 
 it content you. I shall say no word, utter no denial." 
 
 The calmness of his acquiescence startled her. She 
 went closer to him, and looked at him keenly.
 
 108 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " You are going away out of England. Are you go- 
 ing alone, I wonder ? " 
 
 For the first time his calmness broke down. It was as 
 if she had found the chink in his armor through which 
 she could thrust an envenomed dagger. She saw the 
 change in his expression, and uttered a cry. 
 
 " Ah ! you are not. There is some other woman ! " she 
 laughed, discordantly. " Don't deny it ! I can see it in 
 your face ! So, that's it ! I can understand now ! " 
 
 She stood before him, her face flushed, her eyes 
 glittering. 
 
 " What a fool I was not to have hit upon it before ! 
 There's another woman ! " 
 
 He had regained his old calmness and met her furious, 
 taunting gaze with impassive sternness. No man could 
 be more impassive, more stonelike, than Gaunt when he 
 chose. 
 
 " You don't deny it ! " she went on, scanning his face. 
 " And, I know that look ! There is some one else ! " 
 
 She came and stood beside him, so close to him that 
 the perfume he hated seemed to suffocate him. He 
 caught his breath, but said not a word ; and his silence 
 increased her fury. 
 
 " You talk of shame and disgrace ! " she said. " You 
 hypocrite ! You you liar ! Shame and disgrace, in- 
 deed ! Yes, you shall have them, and not you alone, but 
 she,, whoever she is ! I'll find it all out. I'll have the 
 best detectives money your money can buy, and I'll 
 drag her through the divorce court." 
 
 He did not move a muscle, but stood regarding her 
 with perfect calm. 
 
 " Who is she ? " she demanded. " You may as well 
 tell me. One of your great lady friends a woman of 
 rank or some common girl ? " She paused for breath and 
 looked round the room. 
 
 As evil chance would have it, her eye fell upon Deci- 
 ma's veil. It had come unfastened from the side of her 
 hat as Decima had entered, and she had taken it off and 
 laid it on the top of a cabinet. 
 
 Laura sprang to it, and, seizing it, held it out to him. 
 
 "Whose is this'? "she demanded, hoarsely. "Why, 
 she's here now this moment ! In your rooms ! "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 109 
 
 She sprang to the door of the inner room, and tore at 
 the handle. Then, when she found it was locked, she 
 turned upon him. 
 
 " She's here in this room. Unlock that door ! Un- 
 lock it ! I'm your wife, and I order you " Her voice 
 broke and failed chokingly. Gaunt watched her or say, 
 rather, that his eyes were fixed on the veil. Remember 
 how he loved Decima, how devotedly he worshiped her 
 innocence and purity. ' He pictured this fury dragging 
 out the girl he loved and covering her with vituperation 
 and abuse ; remember this and bear with him, for he 
 needs all your charity and clemency. 
 
 He sprang forward, and, seizing her by the arm, flung 
 her on to the couch. 
 
 " Silence ! " he said, as he tore the veil from her fingers. 
 " Silence you you desecrate ! " 
 
 He thrust the veil in his breast and stood over her, 
 panting and struggling for the mastery of his passion. 
 " Do what you will," he said at last, when he had re- 
 gained something like cairn. " Do all you have threat- 
 ened. But but go now; leave me ! It is not safe ! " 
 
 His voice rose at the last words ; they could have been 
 heard plainly by anyone who happened to be in the cor- 
 ridor. 
 
 She leaned back, rubbing the arm he had gripped. 
 
 " Go ! go ! " she retorted, defiantly, tauntingly. " No, I 
 will not go ! Why should I ? This is your house, and I 
 am. your wife ! My place is here ! I shall not go ! And 
 you can't compel me ! I am your wife, your wife ! It's 
 that other woman who is hiding here, the other 
 
 She uttered a word that cannot be written, and as it 
 struck his ears Gaunt raised his hand as if to silence the 
 mocking taunting, lips. Then the hand fell to his side, 
 and he said, hoarsely : 
 
 " If you will not go, I will ! Stay where you are ! Do 
 not attempt to follow me ! I I cannot answer for my- 
 self ! " 
 
 He strode to the door and unlocked it and looked at 
 her for a moment. 
 
 " Go ! n she cried, with a strident laugh. " Go to her. 
 I stay. This place is mine mine. I am your wife ! As
 
 110 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 for her shame and disgrace. You .shall have enough of 
 it both of you and to spare, I'll 
 
 Gaunt took up his hat, passed into the inner room, 
 locking the door as he did so. He looked round wildly. 
 The room was empty. Decima was not there. His brain 
 was in a whirl ; he scarcely knew where he was, what lie 
 was doing. All his thoughts were of Decima ; to get her 
 out of the place, out of reach of the demon he had just 
 left. 
 
 He looked round the room again. 
 
 Her hat and jacket were not there. He went hurriedly 
 into the next room a bath and dressing-room she was 
 not there, nor was there any trace of her. 
 
 The room adjoining was a kind of "den," in which he 
 kept his guns and fishing tackle, a bachelor's litter-room. 
 She was not there. He looked round and drew a breath 
 of relief. She must have gone. It was just possible 
 that she had not heard a word of what had passed be- 
 tween him and his wife. Oh, God his wife ! 
 
 He stood for a moment and wiped the sweat from his 
 forehead. He had been calm enough until the last mo- 
 ment or two ; but now his heart was beating furiously, 
 and he was all of a shake. Hut it was because he was 
 thinking of Decima. 
 
 He saw now how mad how bad he had been. He 
 had tempted her, persuaded her to fly with him : he had 
 tempted her to her ruin. In a moment, overwhelmed 
 by his passionate love, he had lured her to her ruin. And 
 she would have come to his lure ! lie saw now. as by a 
 flash of lightning, how bad, how cruel, he had been. 
 
 Thank God ! she had escaped! lie had lost her for- 
 ever, should never see her again ; but no matter, she 
 was saved ! As for him what did it matter what be- 
 came of him ? " 
 
 He sank into a chair, his head bowed in his hands. A 
 terrible blow had fallen upon him ; but the hand of 
 Providence which had dealt it had, at the same time, 
 been stretched out to save her his dear, sweet girl love! 
 
 She had gone. She was safe at Lady Pauline's house 
 in Berkeley Square. Safe from him and his fatal love. 
 
 He was glad, and yet, and yet the thought that she was 
 lost to him, that he should never hold her in his arms
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. Ill 
 
 again, never, perhaps, see her again, filled him with an- 
 guish. He could have borne it all if he had not known 
 that she loved him. But he knew that she loved him. 
 To hear her sweet confession of love ringing in his ears, 
 to feel her kisses upon his lips ! He was almost mad 
 with longing and with remorse. 
 
 He rose presently. It had seemed hours while he was 
 sitting there ; in reality it had only been minutes. He 
 rose and looked round with the numbed feeling of a man 
 waking from chloroform. 
 
 From this room a door led directly on to the corridor. 
 It was always kept locked, but the key was in its place. 
 He went to turn it, but found the door unlocked. Then 
 he understood ; Decima had escaped yes, that was the 
 word, escaped ! this way. 
 
 He drew the key from the lock sharply. It had been 
 in its place so long that it stuck, and, as he jerked it 
 violently, it cut his finger. He did not feel the cut, did 
 not know that his finger was bleeding, until he. saw a 
 spot of blood on the wristband of his shirt. 
 
 With an impatient gesture he put the key in his pock- 
 et, wiped his finger on his handkerchief, and passed into 
 the corridor, locking the door behind him. 
 
 As he went down the corridor he heard voices, and he 
 saw the parlor maid leaning beside the elevator, talking 
 to the porter within it. 
 
 She started guiltily at sight of him, and as the man 
 touched his hat the maid fled hastily. 
 
 Gaunt returned the salutation, and went quickly, down 
 the stairs. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE infuriated Avoman tore at the handle of the door 
 for a moment, then she stopped. There had been some- 
 thing in Gaunt's face, in his eyes, which if it did not 
 exactly frighten her,- warned her that it would not be 
 safe to follow him. 
 
 She left the door and paced up and down the room for 
 a moment or two. 
 
 " Yes, I'll wait. I'll stay here. It's my proper place !
 
 112 HER HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 I'm his wife. lie shall find me here when he comes back - 
 if he does come back; if he doesn't, I'll stay here; I'll 
 drag his name in the dirt : I'll 
 
 She sank on the couch, and rocked herself to and fro. 
 She was choking with passion. But presently the vio- 
 lence of the fit passed, and she rose and went to a mirror 
 and looked at her face. She was burning hot ; the per- 
 spiration had played havoc with her u make-up," and the 
 powder and colors showed in streaks upon her face. She 
 wiped it with her lace handkerchief and smoothed her 
 hair; then she looked round the room searchingly, went 
 to the sideboard and, wrenching the door open, found what 
 she was looking for. She poured herself out a gl 
 brandy, and drank some of it eagerly, greedily ; then she 
 drew a long breath, and, seating herself by the fire, bent 
 forward, her chin resting in one hand, the glass held in 
 the other. 
 
 She emptied the glass presently, then got up and refilled 
 it, and drank again. The neat spirit soothed her, and after 
 a minute or two she raised her head and looked round and 
 laughed to herself. 
 
 "Lady Gaunt!" she muttered. "That sounds nice. 
 I'm a lady of rank ! '' She rose and took a Court Guide 
 from the book-shelf, found the page and read aloud the 
 paragraph headed "Gaunt." "He's all this and I'm his 
 wife ! " she said to herself, gloating over the information, 
 the history of the name, the description of ( Jaunt V 
 dences. "By Heaven! I'll have a good time! I'll enjoy 
 myself with the best of them ! And I'll have my revenge, 
 too ! " Her white, even teeth clinched together viciously. 
 " I'll make him wish he'd never been born ! " She looked 
 over her shoulder towards the door of the inner room and 
 shook the book at it threateningly. "And Morgan I'll 
 be even with him ; I'll cast him off. Not one penny 
 shall he have ! I'll be even with him ! " 
 
 She rose and stretched her arms above her head, with 
 a gesture of relief and satisfaction. 
 
 " To have done with the old life ! To be respectable 
 some one a great lady ! It sounds good good good ! " 
 
 She laughed and flung herself on the couch. The spirit 
 she had taken, and the reaction after the excitement of 
 her fury and passion, were having their due effect upon
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 113 
 
 her, and presently her eyes closed, though she was not 
 asleep. That Gaunt was in love with another woman, 
 that she, Laura, suspected that other woman to be in the 
 rooms, did not fill her with wifely indignation. She only 
 saw in the fact a means of inflicting fresh misery and 
 torture upon him. She could strike at him through this 
 other woman ; that was all she cared about. 
 
 Trevor had dismissed his cab at the corner of the street 
 in which the Mansion stood. He did not need to drive 
 up to the door, for he knew where Laura was going. He 
 got out, paid the cabman, and stood staring down the 
 street at the spot where she had disappeared as she 
 entered the house. 
 
 He was shaking all over, and his brain was whirling. 
 She she who had told him that she loved him, had 
 promised to be his wife had gone, alone, to another 
 man's room! The fact made him sick and giddy. He 
 looked round vacantly. There was a public house at the 
 corner of the street and he walked across to it, asked for 
 a whisky and soda and lit a cigar. The barmaid, as she 
 gave him the drink, noticed his deathly pallor and the 
 bloodshot eyes, noticed also that his hand shook as he 
 raised the glass to his lips, and she concluded he had 
 been drinking. 
 
 "Looks bad, don't he? " she remarked to a fellow bar- 
 maid. 
 
 " Yes," she assented. " Hope he ain't going to stop 
 and make a scene. I do hate a row, and he'd be an ugly 
 customer to get rid of quietly." 
 
 Trevor, though he stayed some time and drank and 
 smoked, was quiet enough. The liquor brought no color 
 to his face, though his eyes grew more bloodshot ; but his 
 hand became steadier, and as he emptied his third glass 
 and went out he nodded mechanically to the two girls, who 
 had been watching him covertly. Flinging his cigar away, 
 he crossed the street and went up the steps of the en- 
 trance to Gaunt's flat. The rooms were on the first floor. 
 As a rule, the porter or a page boy were in the lobby ; but 
 on this occasion they were absent and Trevor went up- 
 stairs without seeing any one or being seen. 
 
 At the door of Gaunt's flat he paused and fought for 
 calmness and self-possession. Then he put out his hand
 
 114 HER IIKAirrs DESIRE. 
 
 to ring the electric bell, but as he did E that tha 
 
 door was ajar. In her sudden flight at Gaunt 's appear- 
 ance the maid had unwittingly failed to close the door 
 after her. 
 
 Trevor smiled grimly. All the better! He could 
 in upon them, upon the faithless woman and the partner 
 of her treachery, and confront them. 
 
 He pushed the door gently, and, passing through the 
 corridor, opened the drawing-room door as gently and fil- 
 tered. He looked round the room, paused for a moment 
 in surprise at its silence, then saw the figure lying on the 
 couch. He closed the door noiselessly, turned th 
 and stole across the room to her. 
 
 Cautious though his movement had been, she heard 
 him, and raising her head, she said : 
 
 " Oh, you have come back, have you ? You've thought 
 better of it " 
 
 Then she saw who it was and broke off with a faint cry 
 of surprise. 
 
 " Oh, it's you ? " she said, contemptuously. 
 
 He stood and glared down at her. 
 
 " Yes, it's I ! " he said. " What what are you doing 
 here ? You didn't expect me ? " 
 
 His voice was thick and harsh, his lips were strained 
 tightly. 
 
 She regarded him with cool insolence, and dropped 
 back, her face pillowed on her hand. 
 
 " I certainly did not ! " she said. " You followed me, I 
 suppose ? " 
 
 " What are you doing here ?" he repeated, as if his mind 
 were absorbed by the question. 
 
 " Followed me, like the mean spy you are ! '' she said. 
 
 4 - What are you " he said again. 
 
 She interrupted him with a curt laugh. 
 
 " What business is that of yours ? " she retorted. 
 
 His hand clinched at his side, and he moistened his lips. 
 
 " You can ask me that?" he said, hoarsely. "You 
 you can ask me that ! Hut I don't want any answer 
 
 "Then why do you ask the question dd. 
 
 " There is no need to tell me," he said. " You are here 
 
 in his rooms alone at night " 
 
 , She shrugged her shoulders and gazed up at him
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 115 
 
 through half-closed lids. The man's misery and rage 
 gave her a kind of satisfaction, pleasure. She was heart- 
 less and cruel,, and the infliction of pain upon this man, 
 whom she hated, came as a relief after all she herself had 
 endured. 
 
 " It looks like it, doesn't it ? " she said. And if I 
 am " 
 
 He put his hand to his head. 
 
 " My God ! " he said to himself, rather than to her. 
 " And you said that you loved me. You promised to be 
 my wife my wife ! " 
 
 She laughed and stretched herself into a still easier, a 
 more indolently careless, attitude. 
 
 " Did I ? It was a mistake. I never meant it. If you 
 hadn't been fool enough to lose your head you'd have 
 seen that ! " 
 
 He looked at her, as if he could not bring himself to be- 
 lieve that he had heard aright. 
 
 " You never " he gasped. 
 
 She smiled up at him. 
 
 " My dear fellow, if you mean that I never loved you, 
 you are quite right. I certainly never did ! " 
 
 lie struggled for breath. 
 
 " Why why did you say " he panted. 
 
 She raised her head upon her hand and looked at him 
 coldly, contemptuously. 
 
 " Oh, for several reasons," she replied. One, because 
 Morgan wished me to keep you in tow, another, because 
 well, you were so mad that night that I was obliged to 
 humor you." 
 
 He put his hand to his throat as if he were choking. 
 
 " Morgan ? " he said. 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 " Yes ; you may as well know the truth. You'd have 
 discovered it sooner or later. You were useful to Morgan, 
 you see." 
 
 He did see. 
 
 " He he has robbed me ! " he said, hoarsely, staring be- 
 fore him vacantly. 
 
 " Well, that's a coarse way of putting it ; but it's your 
 way to be coarse. It's your nature, and you can't help it. 
 If you mean that Morgan with my help always man-
 
 116 HER HEART'S DESIRE, 
 
 aged, to win, you're right. Don't blame me. I was under 
 liis thumb, and had to obey orders. Go and find him and 
 have it out with him. I don't mind," and she laughed 
 heartlessly. 
 
 " You you helped him ! " he said, as if he were half 
 stupefied. 
 
 She nodded and yawned. 
 
 " Yes ; like the good and faithful sister that I am. I've 
 often wondered you haven't detected us. I've seen you 
 look up when I've been bending over you and making 
 signs to him telling him the cards you held." 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " My God ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Don't blame me. Go to Morgan and call him to ac- 
 count." 
 
 " No," he said, " I don't blame you ; you were in his 
 power, under his thumb. But you did it, knowing all the 
 time that I loved you. No ! " broke from his strained 
 lips. "I won't believe it ! Tell me you are joking, that 
 you are only saying it to tease me ! Tell me, Laura ! " 
 
 He flung himself on his knees beside the couch and 
 tried to take her hand, but she whipped it behind her. 
 He gazed at her piteously. He had meant to confront her, 
 charge her with her faithlessness and treachery, and 
 leave her overwhelmed by his scorn ; but the sight 
 of her, of the beautiful face, the graceful figure, had 
 dispelled his rage. Even now that he had heard her 
 confess, boast of, her duplicity and deceit, of the fact 
 that she had helped to swindle and rob him, he could 
 not resist the fascination of her presence, her voice. 
 
 Laura," he said, hoarsely, " I can't believe it ! Xo 
 woman least of all you could do it ! See, dear, I know 
 you are joking. You are saying it to to try me ! " He 
 laughed discordantly. " Well, I haven't risen to it ; you 
 can't take me in ! " 
 
 She looked at him with unconcealed contempt. 
 
 " You must be mad ! " she said. 
 
 " I suppose I am," he said, helplessly. " I I came here 
 I followed you to have it out with you, to break the 
 engagement, to cast you off, but I can't I can't ! Even 
 though I find you here, in Deane's rooms where is 
 he?"
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 117 
 
 He broke off with the abruptness of a man whose mind 
 is in too great a whirl to act consecutively. 
 
 " I don't know," she said ; " I haven't seen him." 
 
 A flash of hope smote across his misery. 
 
 " Then then you did not come to to meet him ? " he 
 said, quickly, with a sharp breath. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I did," she said, coolly. 
 
 " Then it was by that scoundrel's by Morgan's orders ? " 
 he said, clutching at the hope that she had been forced to> 
 coine. 
 
 She nodded Yes ! " 
 
 " Thank God ! " he breathed. " Laura, forgive me 
 forgive all my doubts of you ! I might have known that 
 that you would not have been so false ! Forgive me ! 
 I love you, Laura ! Come away with menow come home. 
 I will protect you from Morgan. We will be married at 
 once ! " 
 
 She shrank from him and stared with cold amazement, 
 
 " Come with you ! marry you ! Why, didn't I just 
 tell you that I didn't care for you ; that I only said what 
 I did, promised to be your wife, because I was obliged ? 
 You must be stark, staring mad ! " 
 
 lie put his hand to his hot brow. Indeed, her confes- 
 sion of her baseness, her treachery, had been forgotten for 
 the moment. 
 
 " Yon didn't mean it," he said, with a ghastly smile. 
 " You are only teasing me, Laura ! Come ! " 
 
 He rose and held out his arms and bent down as if to 
 lift her from the couch. She sat up and pushed him 
 away from her. 
 
 " Go with you ! Marry you ! Not if there wasn't 
 another man in the world ! I hate you ! " 
 
 He looked at her, the smile dying away on his face, his 
 eyes distending. 
 
 You hate me ? " 
 
 " Yes," she said, between her teeth. " I've always hated 
 you from the first. Why, what is there about you to take 
 any woman's fancy ? Look in the glass ! " She laughed 
 heartlessly as she pointed behind him. " And you were 
 always a bear and a savage. Many's the time when 
 you've talked about your love and and touched me that 
 I've had hard work to keep myself from crying out I
 
 118 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 And even Morgan sometimes found it difficult to stand 
 you. If it hadn't been for your money and I suppose 
 that's gone now, or most of it ! " 
 
 " Yes ; it's gone," he said, dully, mechanically. He felt 
 and looked like a man in a dream, a hideous nightmare 
 which paralyzed him. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " For Heaven's "sake, go ! Deane or some one will come 
 in, and there will be a scene ! " 
 
 He did not move, but gazed down at her with his under 
 lip dropping, his e}~es vacant and expressionless. 
 
 " Do you hear ? Why don't you go ? I've answered 
 you plainly enough. I've told you that I hate you, and 
 that nothing would induce me to marry you ! " 
 
 " Xothing would induce you ! " he said after her. 
 
 " No ! Besides ' She yawned and stretched out her 
 arms and looked at the bracelets upon them. " Besides, 
 if I were ever so fond of you, I wouldn't marry you ! " 
 
 "Why not?" he asked, thickly. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " Because I happen to be married already." 
 
 He stared at her, and his lips moved. lie was repeat- 
 ing her words again, striving to grasp, to realize, their 
 meaning. " Married already ? " 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 Yes ! " 
 
 " To to him ? " 
 
 He looked round the room. 
 
 She laughed. It amused her to mystify, deceive him. 
 
 " Yes to him," she said. 
 
 " Secretly ? " he breathed. 
 
 " Yes, yes, of course," she answered, impatiently. 
 
 " All all the time even when you said that you loved 
 rne promised to be my wife ? " 
 
 She made a gesture with her hands, as if she were 
 utterly weary of his questions, his presence. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! Oh, for Heaven's sake, go and leave me 
 alone ! What's the use of staying and worrying me ? I 
 never want to see you again ! " 
 
 She rose and went past him toward the fireplace. Her 
 movement seemed to break the spell, to release him from 
 its benumbing influence. With a low snarl, like that of
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 119 
 
 a wild beast, he caught her by the arm and swung her 
 round to him, 
 
 " You devil ! " he hissed. 
 
 She struggled and uttered a cry. Ha covered her mouth 
 with his hand and forced her on her knees. As he did 
 so, his foot struck against the Persian dagger which lay 
 among the other things which had been overturned. 
 
 He caught it up, jerked the blade from its sheath, and 
 raised it above his head. His hand still covered her 
 mouth, but if it had not, her tongue would have refused 
 its office, for she was paralyzed with terror. She fought 
 and struggled with him, but in vain. He held her in the 
 grip of a vise ; his bloodshot eyes stared into hers, his hot 
 breath scorched her cheek. 
 
 The shining blade was poised above his head for an in- 
 stant or two, then it gleamed downward. There was a 
 low, gurgling cry ; then as he released the blade the body 
 fell away from him in a ghastly heap upon the floor. 
 
 He knelt beside it, looking at the dead face, at the tiny 
 stream of blood which had already ceased to run. For a 
 moment he did not realize what he had done, then, with 
 a groan and a shudder that shook him from head to foot, 
 he bent over her and moaned her name. 
 
 " Laura ! Laura ! Laura ! " 
 
 Time mowed down the fatal moments with its relent- 
 less scythe. It seemed to tick " Murder, murder ! " as 
 they fell. 
 
 Trevor remained on his knees, staring vacantly at the 
 dead, white face for full five minutes, listening to the 
 accusing clock. Then he rose and staggered backward 
 to the fireplace, his eyes still fixed on the face as if they 
 were chained there. 
 
 Another five minutes passed before he realized that he 
 w_as in danger. Some one he, her husband her hus- 
 band ! might come in at any moment. He must fly. 
 
 With the instinct of self-preservation, the mechanical 
 desire to conceal his deed even for a time, he went to the 
 body, slowly, fearful, and, lifting it carefully, laid it on 
 the couch. His eye caught Gaunt's fur coat, and he took 
 it up and covered the body with it. As he drew it over 
 the beautiful face never more beautiful than it was now 
 in the calmness, the placidity of death he shivered as if
 
 120 HER HEART'S DESIRE, 
 
 with cold, and a low moan broke from his livid lips. He 
 drew his eyes away slowly, and, taking up his hat, went 
 slowly and still backward to the door and opened it. 
 
 There was no one in the corridor. A servant was sing- 
 ing in the servant's room. He closed the door softly, 
 very softly as if to avoid awaking the woman on the 
 couch, and passed quickly, and on tiptoe, down the stairs 
 and into the street. 
 
 And it was not until he had reached the crowded 
 thoroughfare at the end that he remembered that no one 
 had seen him enter the house or leave it, 
 
 CHAPTER XX, 
 
 DECIMA found herself standing on the pavement outside 
 the Mansions' ; but she was scarcely conscious of how she 
 got there. She had put on her things mechanically, 
 hurriedly, and had fled from the house with uncertain 
 feet, and at the edge of the larger and busier thorough- 
 fare stood gazing vacantly before her. 
 
 A passing cab hailed her, and she got in. But she did 
 not think to tell the man where she wished to be driven, 
 and he had to ask her twice through the door in the roof 
 before she could reply. At Lady Pauline's door she stood 
 a moment, looking up and down the street with the same 
 expression in her eyes, for she was asking herself whether 
 it was really she, Decima Deane, who was standing there. 
 
 She rang at last and the charwoman let her in. " Oh, 
 it is you, miss ! " she said, garrulously. " I've had a bit of 
 a fire in your room, thinking it would be more comfort- 
 able. Would you like to go up now, or can I get you 
 anything ?" 
 
 " I will go up now," said Decima. 
 
 Something in the girl's voice rather startled the woman, 
 and she turned and looked at her. 
 
 " You seem tired, miss ? " she said. 
 
 "Yes, that is it; I am tired," said Decima, dully. 
 
 She went into the bedroom. A fire was burning 
 brightly ; the woman lit some candles, and looked around 
 tentatively.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 121 
 
 " Is there anything I can get you, miss ? I'm sorry 
 that one of the maids ain't here. Perhaps you'd let me 
 take your boots off for you ? " 
 
 Decima sank into a chair and thanked her, and the wo- 
 man took off the wet boots. 
 
 " Why, miss, you're shivering with cold ! " she said. 
 " Shall I get you a little something ? Lor', I forgot as 
 everything is locked up ! But I could run round the 
 corner and get you some brandy or some port wine." 
 
 Decima forced a mechanical smile to her white, wan 
 face. 
 
 " Oh, no, no ; thank you ! " she said. " I shall be warm 
 directly ; it was kind of you to make so nice a fire and, 
 good-night ! " 
 
 When the door had closed she sank back and shut her 
 eyes. 
 
 What was it that had happened to her ? Let her try 
 and think ! She had been so happy so happy only an 
 hour ago less than an hour ago ! What had happened 
 since then ? 
 
 But only the cause of her happiness came back to her 
 at first. She remembered that Lord Gaunt had come in, 
 that they had sat talking, that his presence had filled her 
 with a kind of gladness and pleasure. And then he had 
 told her that he loved her, and, then, in a strange, mys- 
 terious way, a veil seemed to have been torn aside from 
 lier inner life, and she had realized that she loved him, 
 that she had loved him for oh, ever so long ever so 
 long ! 
 
 The color stole to her white face, her eyes became suf- 
 fused with tears, tears of joy and infinite delight and 
 peace. As she sat there she could hear his voice "I 
 love you, I love you ! " it had said to her. Oh, wonderful, 
 life-giving words ! She could see his face ; it stole between 
 her closed lids and her eyes. The handsome face 'she 
 loved so dearly ! She could feel his kisses upon her lips, 
 upon her hair, and a thrill ran through her, and the touch 
 of color grew to a burning blush. 
 
 He loved her ! He had said so ; his kisses, his eyes, 
 had been even more eloquent, more convincing, than his 
 words. 
 
 Oh, how happy she was ! To be loved by him I
 
 1:1-2 HER HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 ' Every thought is of you ! I love you with all my heart 
 and soul ! You hold my heart iu the hollow of your 
 hand ! " What words they were ! And they were true 
 true ; for he could not speak falsely. 
 
 ITow happy she was ! Was there ever a girl in the 
 world so blessed so fortunate as she ? To be loved 1 >y 
 him! To know that his love- was so great that he kept 
 her ribbon the poor, little faded ribbon ! next his 
 heart, day and night; just because she had worn it in her 
 hair! How happy happy happy! Then suddenly 
 the pang of anguish smote, her. But what had happened ? 
 Why did this terrible weight, this dragging fear and 
 shame, crush out all her happiness? Then she forced 
 herself to remember, and as she recalled the discovery of 
 the portrait, his words, " My wife ! " and all that had 
 passed afterwards, she opened her eyes, and covered 
 them with her hands, and a low cry of misery broke 
 from her white and trembling lips. 
 
 He was married. Another woman was his wife : it 
 was not she, Decima, whom he ought to love, whom he 
 could marry. He belonged to some one else. The beau- 
 tiful woman whose picture he had held in his hands. Oh, 
 Avhat should she do, what should she do? She leaned 
 forward and rocked herself to and fro. The anguish in 
 her heart was like a physical pain, racking and tearing at 
 her. 
 
 She knew what she ought to do. She ought to cease 
 loving him from that moment. It was her duty, her 
 solemn duty, to tear his image from her heart ; to love 
 him no longer, to forget him. But alas for poor human 
 nature ! She found she could not do this. It is only the 
 impossible heroines, in impossible, goody-goody novels, 
 who, when they have discovered that the man they love 
 is unworthy of them, or married to another woman, ; 
 and nobly crush down their love and cast it from their 
 hearts. 
 
 She ought to do it ; but well, she could not. 
 
 Her face burned with shame; her heart grew hot 
 amidst its pain as she realized that, notwithstanding what 
 i-die had learned that evening, notwithstanding that 
 woman was Lord ("Taunt's wife, she loved him still. 
 
 She threw herself on the bed at last, but she could not
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 123 
 
 p. The scene she had gone through passed through 
 her brain, before her eyes again and again ; it was like a 
 scene in a play. 
 
 Toward morning she fell into the deep sleep of exhaus- 
 tion in which Gaunt knelt before her, clutching at her 
 arm, his voice rising and falling in the anguish, of his en- 
 treaty. 
 
 A little after eight o'clock the charwoman knocked 
 at the door and Decima awoke. She tried to rise, but could 
 not. She felt as if her limbs were weighted with lead, as if 
 there was one spot in her brain burning like a hot coal. 
 
 The woman knocked again, and Decima called to her 
 to come in. Her voice sounded weak and strained, and 
 the woman hurried to the bed, with a vague alarm, which 
 grew into definite dismay as she looked at the white face, 
 with the two spots of livid crimson glowing under the 
 glittering eyes. 
 
 " Lor', miss, ain't you well ? " she said, aghast. " You 
 look you look as if you was in a fever, that you do ! 
 You must 'ave got a chill last night." 
 
 Decima eyed her with profound indifference. " Yes, I 
 think I am ill," she said as if she were speaking to some 
 one else, some one who did not matter in the least, was of 
 no' possible importance. "I feel as if I could not move, 
 and and my head is on fire ! " 
 
 The woman was alarmed. 
 
 " I'll I'll go for a doctor," she said, half speaking to 
 herself. "I don't like the looks of you at all, miss." 
 
 Decima smiled indifferently it was a piteous smile ! 
 " Do you think I am going to die ? " she asked, calmly, 
 almost hopefully. 
 
 The woman forced a laugh. 
 
 " Xot you, miss ! " she said. " Lor', it's only a feverish 
 cold as 'ave took 'old of you ! " 
 
 Decima sighed, and turned her head away, and the 
 woman, after looking round helplessly for a moment, 
 stole from the room, and did the most sensible thing she 
 could have done. There was a telegraph office within a 
 few yards, and she wired Lady Pauline and then hurried 
 on to the nearest doctor. 
 
 AVhen she came back Decima was staring at the ceiling 
 with eyes which shone and glittered with fever, and her
 
 1-24 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 hands were clinched on the satin coverlet as if she were 
 holding on to consciousness by a supreme effort of will. 
 
 When Lady Pauline arrived she found the doctor bend- 
 ing over Decima, applying iced bandages to the burning 
 head. He greeted Lady Pauline with a silent nod, and in 
 silence, for a moment, she knelt beside the bed. Then she 
 said, in a tremulous whisper : 
 
 She is very ill ! What is it ? " 
 
 " Brain fever," he said, gravely and aloud. 
 
 There was no need to whisper, for Decima could net- 
 hear. 
 
 " How did she come here ? I know nothing ! " she 
 said, as she took off her bonnet and cloak. lie was her 
 own doctor, and he spoke with the candor which he knew 
 she desired and would approve. 
 
 ' She came last night, about four o'clock, so the char- 
 woman tells me. Then she went out to her brother's 
 and returned about ten. She was quite well on her first 
 arrival, so the woman says, but looked pale and tired 
 when she came in later. 
 
 ' Brain fever ! " said Lady Pauline, calm and on the 
 alert by this time. " I don't understand ! "' 
 
 lie shook his head gravely. 
 
 " Severe brain fever," he said. Absolute candor was al- 
 ways required, demanded, by Lady Pauline, and he knew 
 it. " There was no other trouble. Something was on 
 her mind, something must have occurred between the in- 
 terval of her first arrival and her return to this house." 
 
 Lady Pauline stared at him. 
 
 What could have happened ? " she said. 
 
 "That we have to discover," he said, quietly. '-She 
 must be kept quiet ; but you know the treatment as well 
 as I do, Lady Pauline." 
 
 Lady Pauline had for a time been a hospital nurse in. 
 her younger days. "I'll come back in an hour or two. 
 Keep the ice bandages going, and if she should recover 
 consciousness before I return keep her as tranquil as 
 possible." 
 
 Lady Pauline stood beside the bed with tightly com- 
 pressed lips and aching heart. What had they done to 
 this girl whom she loved with a mother's love? The 
 caar woman stole in presently, and Lady Pauline ques-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 125 
 
 tioned her. She could tell no more than the doctor had 
 already told. Lady Pauline sent her with a telegram to 
 the servants to return, and resumed her place beside the 
 unconscious girl. The doctor came in again, within his 
 time. 
 
 " Something has happened to her, some shock," he said. 
 " I can do nothing for her that you cannot do, Lady 
 Pauline. Absolute quiet, tranquillity ; that is all." 
 
 The hours dragged through. Later, Lady Pauline saw 
 the white eyelids quiver, and presently Decima looked up 
 at her. 
 
 " Aunt Pauline ? " she said, in the thin, strained voice 
 of fever. 
 
 Yes, it is I, Decie, dear ? " 
 
 The burning lips smiled woefully. 
 
 " I am glad you have come very glad, Aunt Pauline ! " 
 
 " Yes, dear ? " 
 
 " Will you please tell Mr. Mershon that I cannot marry 
 him ? " 
 
 Lady Pauline repressed the start. Was the poor child 
 delirious? But Decima smiled again, as if she read the 
 question the doubt. 
 
 " Xo ; I am quite sensible, dear," she said. " I prom- 
 ised Mr. Mershon but you see I didn't know then that 
 I loved him." 
 
 " Him ? Who ? " asked Lady Pauline. 
 
 Decima stared at her as if surprised that the question 
 should be necessary. 
 
 " Lord Gaunt," she said, quietly. 
 
 Lady Pauline could not repress the start now. 
 
 " Lord Gaunt ! " she echoed. 
 
 Decima's hands clutched at the coverlet with feverish 
 violence, but her voice, thin and hollow though it was, 
 was calm and free from delirium. 
 
 "Yes," she said. "Didn't you know? I love him, 
 and " an exquisite smile lit up her face, making its pale 
 loveliness angelic by its intensity " he loves me." 
 
 Lady Pauline permitted a groan to escape her. 
 
 " He loves me," continued Decima. " We shall never 
 see each other again, never. But I cannot marry Mr. 
 Mershon : not even to save father and Bobby ! Poor 
 JBobby ! I am sorry, but I cannot do it ! I could have
 
 123 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 done it if if I had not seen him when was it ? I forget ! 
 AVas it long ago years ago ? But I know that- lie loves 
 me, and I love him. I shall never see him again ; but I can't 
 marry Mr. Mershon, or any one else. It is a pity, i.sirt 
 ii '.' I kit I cannot ! Will you write to him and tell him ? 
 He lives at the Firs, Leafmore " Her mind wander 
 a moment. " Leafmore ! How beautiful it is ! If he 
 would only stay ! The schools the cottages the church ! 
 1 I>\v good he is ! He does all we ask him ! How good he 
 is ! and I love him, love him, love him ! His wife ! No, 
 I can't be his wife ! There is another woman. Oh, why 
 did he make me love him so ? " 
 
 She moved her head from side to side with feverish 
 restlessness ; then, as if with an effort, she came back to 
 full consciousness. 
 
 " Write to to Mr. Mershon at once, Aunt Pauline. Tell 
 him that I cannot cannot ! Ask him not to be angry ! 
 I know I am very wicked. Well, that is all, isn't : 
 love him love him ! Promise, Aunt Pauline ! I am 
 slipping away the light the fire all is growing dim ! 
 I can't see your face, though I know you are there ! 
 Promise ! " 
 
 Lady Pauline bent over her." 
 
 " I promise. He satisfied, dear ! " she said, and Dccima 
 closed her eyes and drew a long sigh of relief. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 LORD GAUNT found himself in the street outside the 
 Mansions, very much in the condition in which Decima 
 had been. 
 
 His brain was in a whirl. For his life had, so to speak, 
 ended. He had lost Decima, the girl-love, who had filled 
 his heart, who had been the one star shining in his 
 darkened life. He had lost her, and it was well ! lie 
 shuddered as he thought of the risk she had run through 
 his overwhelming temptation. If Laura, his wife his 
 wife! had not appeared, what would have happened? 
 Decima would have gone with him, and he would have 
 wrecked the life of the sweetest, the purest of God's 
 creatures !
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 127 
 
 He shuddered again, and an icy blast seemed to sweep 
 over him. He felt cold, and remembered his fur coat at 
 that moment, so absolutely physical was the sensation 
 which assailed him. He could not go back for the coat. 
 He buttoned the shooting jacket and went on. For a 
 time he walked without any thought of the direction he 
 was taking, but suddenly he looked round and found him- 
 self before Lady Pauline's house in the square. He gazed 
 up at the windows ; there was a light only in one ; it 
 must be her room ; she was there. Scarcely knowing 
 what he was doing, he stretched his arms out toward the 
 light and groaned. lie paced up and down for a moment 
 or two, until, indeed, a policeman eyed him suspiciously, 
 and crossed over the road to inspect him more closely ; 
 then Gaunt turned and strode on. 
 
 He had put up for the night at a quiet hotel in St. 
 James', one of those old-fashioned places which men of 
 Gaimfs tastes prefer. It was small, and not by any 
 means gorgeous, but it was exclusive, and more expensive 
 than any of the modern palatial caravansaries. The butler 
 the head waiter was always called the butler met him 
 in the small hall, prepared to help him off with his coat 
 into which the man had assisted him, and was rather 
 surprised at seeing Gaunt without it. 
 
 " I have left my coat at the club, Wilkins," said Gaunt. 
 
 " Yes, my lord ; I will send for it," said Wilkins, 
 promptly ; but Gaunt shook his head. 
 
 " Never mind," he said. " I will pick it up as I drive 
 to the station to-morrow." 
 
 " As he spoke he handed his hat to the man, and Wil- 
 kins, taking it, saw the streak of blood on Gaunt's wrist. 
 
 "Have you cut your hand, my lord V " he asked, lie 
 had known Gaunt ever since he was a boy. 
 
 Gaunt glanced at the stained wrist-band. 
 
 "Eh? Oh! ah! yes, I think I have. No, no; it is 
 nothing. No, I won't have anything, thanks, Wilkins ; I 
 will go straight up ; I am tired. You will have me called 
 at half-past six, please ? " 
 
 He went up to his room, not a large, but an extremely 
 comfortable one, for Morlet's Hotel was the perfection of 
 comfort in all respects, and, locking the door, flung him- 
 self into a chair beside the fire.
 
 128 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Yes, his life was ended. Remorse and love tore at his 
 heart like a couple of vultures. That he who loved her 
 so dearly, so truly, should have tempted her to her ruin ! 
 1 1 is sweet, innocent girl-love, his pure, white angel ! And 
 he should never see her again ! The thought affected him 
 as at that moment its parallel was affecting Decima. He 
 could have borne the parting the eternal parting 
 better if he had not known that she returned his love ; 
 but to know that she loved him actually loved him ! 
 and to have to leave her forever was a torture that nearly 
 drove him mad. 
 
 Incredible as it may seem, he had not yet thought of 
 his wife. There was only room for Decima in his mind 
 and heart. As to what Laura would do he was perfectly 
 indifferent, when he did force himself to think of her. 
 That she would carry out her threat, claim her right as 
 his wifef and drag his name in the mire, was quite pos- 
 sible, and, more, probable ; but what did it matter ? 
 Nothing she could do could affect him. In a few hours 
 he would have left England. It was very certain that he 
 would never return. She might do just what she pleased. 
 He would give her, surrender to her all she claimed ex- 
 cepting himself. His rank, his wealth, the position due 
 to her as his wife, she might have ; but not himself. 
 
 Then his thoughts returned to Decima. She must not 
 marry Mershon. That he felt she would not do ; but he 
 would destroy Mersl ion's power ; he would release the 
 Deanes from the man's clutches. That, at any rate, he 
 could do. 
 
 He went to the writing-table and wrote a letter to 1V1- 
 ford & Lang, the lawyers. It was short and to the point. 
 
 "Ascertain," he said, "the amount in which Mr. IVu-r 
 Deane is indebted to Mr. Mershon, or any persons con- 
 nected with the company started by him and Mr. Mershon, 
 and discharge all his liabilities. I give you absolute carte 
 blanche in the matter, and request that you will carry it 
 through without a day's delay. It will have to be done 
 with tact and discretion, and I leave the mode of doing 
 it entirely to you, insisting only that it shall be done at 
 once." 
 
 He drew a breath of relief as he addressed the envelope. 
 At least he could snatch his dearest from Mr. Mershon's
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 129 
 
 clutches. But, alas ! alas ; that was all he could do ! He 
 could not heal the heart he had broken for that he had 
 broken it the memory of her face, of her eyes, as they 
 rested on him at the moment of their parting convinced 
 him. Yes, that was what his love for her had wrought! 
 He had broken her heart. Perhaps, after all, it would 
 have been better if the other woman had not come in, and 
 he and Decima had gone away together together ! But 
 he put the thought away from him. It was desecration, 
 a sacrilege. He had been mad with passion, with the in- 
 toxication of her presence, her sweet voice, and, more than 
 all, her confession of love. 
 
 He paced up and down the room until dawn ; then he 
 packed the single bag he had with him the rest of his 
 luggage was already on board and, flinging himself on 
 the bed, tried to sleep. But, like Macbeth, he had 
 murdered sleep, and he was still awake when the maid 
 knocked at the door. 
 
 The sight of his face in the glass startled him ; he was 
 shaking like a man suffering from the effects of a drink- 
 ing bout. But the cold bath pulled him together some- 
 what, and he made a pretense of eating the admirably 
 cooked breakfast. Then he got into a cab and was driven 
 to Charing Cross. Waterloo was his station for South- 
 ampton ;/but he had not intended taking Decima to Af- 
 rica ; he was known at Cape Town, was known to the 
 officers of the vessel the Pevensey Castle in which he 
 had booked his passage ; so he had fixed on Egypt as 
 their place of refuge, and he drove to Charing Cross on 
 the chance. She might be there ! 
 
 The clock struck eight as he drove into the station 
 yard. He told the cabman to wait, and then looked for 
 her though he knew that she would not come. 
 
 She had not come. With a sigh and a twitch of his set 
 lips, he got into the cab again, and was driven to Water- 
 loo. He was just in time to catch the train. 
 
 At Southampton one of the Castle officials met him, and 
 conducted him to the vessel. 
 
 " Your luggage and cases are on board, my lord," he 
 said. " Is this all you have ? We start in less than an 
 hour, or thereabouts." 
 
 Gaunt went down to his cabin the best in the vessel
 
 130 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 and found everything arranged comfortably. After a 
 few minutes he went on deck and, lighting a cigar, got 
 into a quiet corner and leaned against the side, apparently 
 watching the bustling crowd, but in reality seeing noth- 
 ing of it. A girl's face, white and terror-stricken, with 
 quivering lips and straining eyes, floated before him ; 
 above the shouts of the men and the chatter of arriving 
 passengers he heard Decima's voice crying, " Your wife ! 
 your wife ! " 
 
 About half an hour before the sailing time Gaunt saw 
 a man come along the gangway carrying a bag in his 
 hand. He was a young man, with red hair and a pale 
 face, with small, bloodshot eyes. The collar of his over- 
 coat was turned up, and. he looked cold and ill. 
 
 He came across the deck and paused by Gaunt and 
 looked round. Gaunt watched him listlessly, scarcely 
 noticing him. Presently the steward came to him and 
 asked him the number of his berth. 
 
 The young fellow hesitated a moment, then he said, in 
 a dull, expressionless voice : 
 
 " I don't know it yet. My name is Jackson ; I wired 
 for a berth this morning." 
 
 The steward consulted his list. 
 
 " Ah, yes, ' Jackson.' That's right, sir. I got the wire. 
 I'm afraid you won't think the cabin first-rate, but it was 
 short notice, you see." 
 
 Mr. Jackson nodded. 
 
 " I didn't know I was going till last night," he said. 
 "Important business over there sprung on me suddenly." 
 
 The steward nodded. A great many persons had of 
 late had important business sprung upon them from 
 Africa, and had been compelled to rush over there sud- 
 denly, and at short notice. 
 
 4 > Xo. 63, sir," he said. " If you'll corne down I'll show 
 you." 
 
 "Thanks," said Mr. Jackson. "When when do we 
 start ? " 
 
 "Almost immediately, sir," said the steward, bustling 
 ahead. 
 
 The young fellow glanced toward the quay, and round 
 the deck, then followed him below. 
 
 The bustle and confusion increased j then suddenly the
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 131 
 
 signal sounded for the departure from the vessel of those 
 who were not going on the voyage, and the usual parting 
 of relatives and friends took place, and the visitors hurried 
 ashore. A few minutes later the vessel started, and amid 
 cheering and handkerchief- waving, slowed from the quay. 
 Gaunt still remained in his quiet corner, and presently he 
 saw the red-headed Mr. Jackson come up from the saloon. 
 He stood at the entrance for a moment or two, then came 
 across the deck and looked gloomily and yet vacantly at 
 the now fast- receding quay ; as he did so he took out a 
 cigar-case and absently put a cigar between his lips. It 
 was evident that his match-box was empty, for he dropped 
 it into his pocket again and looked round. 
 
 Gaunt was standing near and silently extended his box. 
 Mr. Jackson took it and lit a match, and Gaunt noticed 
 that the man's hand shook. He looked across the lighted 
 match as he held it to his cigar, and caught Gaunt's eye, 
 and as if he knew that Gaunt had noticed the shaking of 
 the hand, he said, rather reluctantly : 
 
 " Cold this morning ! " 
 
 Gaunt nodded. He was not in the humor for conver- 
 sation. 
 
 " Beastly cold ! " said Mr. Jackson, with a faint shudder 
 " But I'm somewhat nervous and and feel it more than 
 I should otherwise do, I suppose." 
 
 He was silent for a moment, then he asked, carelessly : 
 
 " Do we stop at Madeira, do you happen to know ? I've 
 had to start suddenly important business at the Cape- 
 only heard last flight and so I don't know." 
 
 "No; this is not 'one of the regular vessels. We stop 
 at the Canaries." 
 
 The young fellow nodded. 
 
 " Ah, thanks ! " he said in a low voice. 
 
 Gaunt moved away, and presently went down to his 
 cabin to avoid any further talk. His heart was aching 
 as badly as any on board aching with an agony beyond 
 words. He was leaving England and Decima forever ! 
 Farewell love and all hope in life ! Despair stretched 
 darkly before him.
 
 132 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ABOUT an hour after Trevor had stolen from the Prince's 
 Mansions, the parlor maid glanced up at the clock in tho 
 kitchen. 
 
 " I suppose his lordship isn't coming back to-night, or 
 he'd have told me to get a room ready ? " she remarked 
 to the cook, who yawned in sympathy ; " and yet he's left 
 his coat." 
 
 " Perhaps he's come back and got it," suggested the 
 cook. 
 
 " Xo, or I should have heard him, for I've been listen- 
 ing. I wonder when Mrs. Dalton left ? I didn't see her 
 go, and his lordship didn't ring. She and Mr. Deane's 
 sister must have gone together, I suppose. Now there's 
 u pretty girl, if you like, cook ! and the image of her 
 brother. We've had quite a lot of visitors to-night," and 
 she laughed. 
 
 " Perhaps they're in the drawing-room now ? " said the 
 cook. 
 
 Jane shook her head. 
 
 " No, it's all quiet. I went and listened at the door 
 just now, and, not hearing anyone, I knocked and looked 
 in. There was no one there. I got a start, though," 
 she added, with a smile. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Well, his lordship had thrown his fur coat on the 
 sofa, and it looked for all the world as if somebody was 
 lying there," replied Jane. She yawned again. ' Well, 
 I think we'd better go to bed ; it's no use sitting up for 
 Mr. Deane. I expect he's at Cardigan Terrace, and if so 
 lie won't be home till the small hours." 
 
 "Better see to the drawing-room fire, hadn't you?" 
 said the cook as she turned down the page of her novel ; 
 but Jane shook her head. 
 
 " Oh, it don't matter. Mr. Deane always goes straight 
 to bed when he comes in ; I hear his door shut." 
 
 The two women went to bed after a little more talk, 
 and the place was wrapped in silence. Bobby was not an 
 early riser few young persons are ; it is the middle-aged
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 133 
 
 and the old who find it easier to get up than to lie think- 
 ing and if Bobby got his breakfast by ten o'clock he was 
 quite suited and satisfied. Lord Gaunt's servants had an 
 easy time of it in that respect. 
 
 It was past nine when Jane went into the drawing-room 
 to light the fire. The electric lamp was still burning, and 
 she looked over her shoulder and called to the cook. 
 
 " Mr. Deane hasn't come in yet," she said. " I wonder 
 where he is ? " 
 
 The cook grumbled incoherently. 
 
 " I suppose I had better get breakfast all the same ? " 
 she said. " If I don't he'll come rushing in, and want it 
 all of a hurry. It always happens like that." 
 
 Jane laughed, turned out the lamp and drew back the 
 curtains. As she did so, she was conscious of a faint per- 
 fume ; she knew it very Avell, for it Avas the scent that 
 always hung about Mr. Deane's clothes when he had been 
 at Cardigan Terrace. But it was stronger than usual in 
 the room this morning. 
 
 She opened the window, and laid and lit the fire, pick- 
 ing up the shattered photograph, then began to sweep the 
 room, but her eyes fell on the costly coat on the sofa. 
 
 " I'd better take it into the bedroom," she said to her- 
 self, "or it will be smothered with dust. Lor', how care- 
 less gentlefolk are of their things ! " 
 
 A moment afterward a shriek rang through the place, 
 and the cook, rushing into the room whence the cry had 
 proceeded, found her fellow-servant leaning against the 
 table, with the coat at her feet, and her eyes staring at 
 something on the sofa. 
 
 " Good heavens, Jane, what is the matter ? " 
 
 Then she, too, screamed, and the two women stood 
 clinging to each other and staring at the motionless figure 
 with terror in their eyes. 
 
 Their cries, repeated again and again, brought the por- 
 ter and the page into the room, followed by two or three 
 occupants of the other flats ; among the latter was a re- 
 tired army doctor, who, taking in the situation at a glance, 
 pushed his way to the couch and examined the body. 
 
 " She is dead ! " he said, gravely. " Who are the ser- 
 vants here ? Ah ! Do you know the lady '? Who is 
 she ? "
 
 134 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Jane, half fainting, gasped out the name. 
 
 "It's Mrs. Dalton Mr. Thorpe's sister! She came 
 here last iiight ! " 
 
 She broke into terrified sobs. 
 
 "Alone?" asked the doctor. "But stop better not 
 answer ! Let some one go for the gentleman, Mr. Thorpe. 
 Here, boy, take a cab and bring him !" lie thrust the 
 page-boy from the room, and turned to the porter as he 
 did so. " And you go for the police." 
 
 In a very short time two policemen were on the scene. 
 They cleared the room and mounted guard beside the 
 body. 
 
 " We've sent to Scotland Yard for a detective," one 
 said to the doctor. 
 
 He arrived before Morgan Thorpe, and at once, with 
 the saiif/froidoi experience, took p< esession of - the case," 
 and with notebook in hand he was questioning the s< 
 ants when Morgan Thorpe burst in. 
 
 He was white as death, but the pallor increased to liv- 
 dity as he bent over the body and gazed at the beautiful 
 face, now placid with the rest and peace of death. 
 
 " You know her identify her ? " asked the detective. 
 " Of course, I warn you that anvthing you sav vou un- 
 derstand?" 
 
 -Yes. sho is is my sister !" said Thorpe, leaning 
 against the table and staring at the dead woman. My 
 si.-uer, yes !" 
 
 "You knew she had come he: 
 
 Thorpe nodded. 
 
 "Why did she come here? Whom did she come to 
 see ? " 
 
 " Deane," replied Thorpe. 
 
 In that moment falsehood, evasion, were impossible. 
 
 <; Deane who is he ? " 
 
 " He lives here in these rooms," said Thorpe. "My 
 ('<>(! ! I thought she was at home in her room. I came 
 back late last night from the club it was early this 
 morning. Her door was closed. I I thought she \\ as in 
 bed ! I went to my room, and and I was in bed when 
 they fetched me ! Who who has done it ? She has 1 . 
 murdered ! " 
 
 " I'm afraid so," said the detective, grimly. He looked
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 135 
 
 ut the Persian dagger, which lay on the floor as it had 
 dropped from Trevor's hand. " That did it : don't touch 
 it, please," he added, though any of those present would 
 have died rather than do so. " Why did she come here 
 to see Mr. Deane a lady alone you know ? " 
 
 Thorps moistened his parched lips. 
 
 " For God's sake ! give me something brandy ! " 
 
 The detective nodded, and the doctor poured out a glass 
 of brandy for Thorpe. He drank it at a draught. 
 
 " I'll tell you all I know. She she " He shuddered. 
 " She came here to to get some money from him." 
 
 The detective made a note. 
 
 " Go on," he said, gravely. " Came to threaten him ? " 
 
 " No, no only only persuade," said Thorpe. " Oh, 
 Laura ! Laura ! " 
 
 The detective turned to the trembling, shrinking serv- 
 ants. 
 
 " Where is Mr. Deane ? " he asked. 
 
 "I I don't kno\v, sir ! " said Jane, with a terrified sob. 
 " He he hasn't been home all night." 
 
 " How do you know that V " demanded the detective, 
 quietly. 
 
 The girl looked round with a bewildered air. 
 
 " He hasn't so far as I know." 
 
 The detective nodded. His sharp eye had caught the 
 shattered portrait frame, where Jane, all unsuspectingly 
 she thought that it had been accidentally knocked off 
 the mantel-piece had placed it on the table. He took it 
 up. 
 
 " Portrait of the deceased. Whose is it ? " 
 
 " Mr. Mr. Deane's, sir," sobbed Jane. " He he put 
 it on the mantelshelf the other day." 
 
 It all seemed so plain to the shrewd detective. The 
 woman had come to threaten or cajole this Mr. Deane, a 
 quarrel had ensued ; the broken portrait, the dagger. It 
 was all quite plain ! 
 
 " Give me a description of Mr. Deane, will you ? " he 
 said. 
 
 Thorpe, with his hand to his heart, tried to describe 
 Bobby, and the detective took notes. 
 
 " You can go into the kitchen," he said to the servants. 
 " But don't leave the place, please."
 
 136 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 It's quite evident who's to blame here," he said to the 
 army doctor, who stood grave and attentive. " I'll get a 
 warrant for this Mr. Deane." 
 
 Thorpe overheard, and looked up with a bewildered ex- 
 pression. 
 
 " Deane Dearie did not do it," he said, feebly. He- 
 he isn't capable of it ! Oh, my God ! why did I let her 
 come ? It isn't Deane ! " 
 
 But the detective smiled a superior smile. " His ex- 
 perience had convinced him that, as a rule, there was very 
 little mystery about a murder. It was only in novels that 
 there was any doubt as to the criminal who had commit- 
 ted the deed. 
 
 He went to the door of the inner room and tried it. 
 
 " Locked," he said to one of the constables. " Go round 
 and see if the key's inside." 
 
 The man went round and unlocked the door, and the 
 detective passed through the suite of rooms, noting every- 
 thing with his sharp eyes, and re-entered the drawing- 
 room by the passage. 
 
 " He got off through those rooms," he said to the doctor. 
 
 " The the scoundrel ! " he gasped in response. " You 
 you will l>e able to get him ? " 
 
 The detective smiled confidently. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; crime's, too recent for him to escape. Ill 
 have him under the hue and cry in half an hour." 
 
 Leaving the policeman in charge, he went back to 
 Scotland Yard, and in a few minutes a fairly accurate de- 
 scription of Bobby was being flashed over the country. 
 
 Then the detective, with other officials, returned to the 
 Mansions two hours later. Morgan Thorpe was still 
 there, seated in a chair, his head in his hands. He had 
 finished the decanter of brandy, and was looking half 
 stupefied. 
 
 As they entered he looked up in a bewildered fashion. 
 
 " Have have you found him ? " he demanded, hoarsely. 
 
 " Xo," said the detective, but we shall have him pres- 
 ently without a doubt. He can't have got far." 
 
 At this moment the door was flung open and Bobby 
 and an elderly man entered in hot haste. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe sprang to his feet. 
 
 " Deane ! " he exclaimed.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 137 
 
 The detective stepped behind Bobby and shut the 
 cloor. 
 
 " Mr. Deane, I think ? " he said, politely. " I arrest 
 
 But Bobby had sprung to the sofa and stood white and 
 shuddering before the white sheet with which they had 
 reverently covered the dead woman. 
 
 " It it is not true ! " he cried. " Oh, it can't it can't 
 "be ! Thorpe ! " he flung his hands out in appeal, " tell 
 me it isn't true ! " 
 
 Thorpe stared at him. 
 
 " She's dead murdered ! " he gasped, with hanging 
 underlip. " Murdered here last night in your rooms ! " 
 
 My God ! " cried Bobby. 
 
 The detective laid a hand on his shoulder. 
 
 ' Mr. Deane, I arrest you on a charge of wilful murder." 
 
 1 Jol >1 >y turned his eyes upon him, too stunned to speak ; 
 but the elderly gentleman beside him said with agitation : 
 
 " There is some mistake. If the poor creature wa.s 
 murdered last night Mr. Deane is certainly not the crim- 
 inal, for he spent all last evening at my house at Putney ; 
 he came to dine, with two other gentlemen also pupils 
 of mine and remained the night. I the other guests, 
 the servants can prove this." 
 
 The detective was staggered. 
 
 " She came to see him. She was found covered by 
 your coat ; " he indicated the fur coat." 
 
 "Mine? Xo ! " said Bobby. 
 
 The detective looked round at the servants sharply. 
 
 " Whose coat is tins ? " he asked, sternly. 
 
 Jane gasped for breath. 
 
 " My master's Lord Lord Gaunt's ! " she said at 
 last. 
 
 The detective frowned. 
 
 ' ; When did you see Lord Gaunt last ? " he asked 
 quickly. 
 
 " Last night about ten he passed me in the corridor." 
 
 " He was here, then ? " 
 
 She nodded spasmodically. 
 
 Yes, I let him in." 
 
 " Did he wear that coat ? " 
 
 She nodded and fell to sobbing.
 
 138 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Yes, he came in it ; he left without it ; but hut if 
 you think that his lordship did it, you're wrong wrong. 
 He couldn't ! " 
 
 The detective turned swiftly upon Morgan Thorpe. 
 
 "Did your sister know Lord Gaunt?" he asked. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe got up, and steadied himself by the 
 back of the chair. 
 
 "My God ! it's no use keeping it back !" he said, as if 
 to himself: " Gentlemen, my poor sister was Lord 
 Gaunt's wife ! " 
 
 " His wife ! You described her as Mrs. Dalton." 
 
 " She was his wife ! " said Thorpe, with a kind of 
 dogged sullenness. '.'They they were separated. lie 
 left her. They must have met by accident here last 
 night." 
 
 One of the Scotland Yard officials drew the detective 
 aside. 
 
 " You've made a mistake this time," he said, in a low 
 voice. "The man you want is this Lord Gaunt ! Hurry 
 up ! You've lost a lot of time as it is." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE detective was staggered, and looked round rather 
 sullenly. His professional reputation was a high one, and 
 he felt his mistake acutely. 
 
 " What hotel does Lord Gaunt use ? " he asked of the 
 servant. 
 
 " He always goes to Morlet's when the rooms arc 
 being done up, or he can't sleep here for any reason," 
 said Jane, weeping. " But it isn't his lordship " 
 
 The detective left the room and got into a cab. 
 
 " Lord Gaunt in ? " he inquired, carelessly, of Wilkins. 
 
 " His lordship left us early this morning, sir," was the 
 reply. 
 
 The detective had quite expected this answer. 
 
 " Do you know where I can find him ? " he inquired as 
 carelessly. 
 
 Wilkins looked surprised. 
 
 " His lordship left for Africa this morning," he said. 
 " The vessel must have started by this time. We sent
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 139 
 
 hi* lordship's luggage 011 yesterday to the Pevensey 
 Castle." 
 
 The detective nodded and bit his lip. Then he stood 
 for a moment pondering. Surely Lord Gaunt would not 
 have been such a fool as to shut himself up in a vessel 
 which could be stopped by a cable at Madeira ! 
 
 " Went in a cab, I suppose ? " he said. 
 
 "Yes, sir ; a hansom. His lordship only had a bag." 
 
 " Just so.' Did you happen to hear what direction he 
 gave the cabman ? I've got important business with his 
 lordship and want to catch him before he starts, if I can." 
 
 He said, ' Charing Cross Station,' " said Wilkins. " I 
 happened to hear him." 
 
 The detective's face cleared. Of course ! Gaunt would 
 leave his luggage to go by the Cape vessel and himself 
 make for the Continent. The detective saw the move in 
 an instant. 
 
 " Thanks ! " he said, and he jumped into his cab and was 
 driven to Charing Cross. There he wired a description 
 of Lord Gaunt to the police at Southampton and Dover 
 and instructed them to stop him. A Continental train 
 happened to be due, and the detective, pretty well as- 
 sured that he was on the track of the fugitive, went down 
 to Dover by it. 
 
 The Southampton telegram arrived exactly one hour 
 after the Pevensey Castle had sailed. 
 
 Meanwhile the police at the Mansions were gathering 
 information from the servants and other persons ; and 
 very soon the fact of Decima's visit on the previous even- 
 ing came out. 
 
 Bobby was amazed and horrified. 
 
 " Yes, she is my sister," he said. " She must have 
 come to see me, as Jane says. She could not have come 
 to meet Lord Gaunt ! " for the inspector had ventured to 
 suggest this. 
 
 " Where should we be likely to find Miss Deane ? " he 
 asked, significantly. 
 
 Bobby shook his head. He was confused and bewil- 
 dered. 
 
 " She may be with her aunt, Lady Pauline Lascelles, 
 or she may have gone back home. I cannot understand ! 
 I will go round to Lady Pauline's."
 
 140 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 The inspector nodded. 
 
 " One of my men will go round with you," he said, 
 gravely. 
 
 Bobby started. 
 
 " You you don't think you don't dare to suspect my 
 sister" he began ; and the inspector responded quietly : 
 
 " Well, the young lady was here last night, Mr. Deane. 
 I will ask you to see that she does not leave London just 
 yet. She will be sure to be wanted, you see." 
 
 Bobby went round to Berkeley Square accompanied :>y 
 a detective, and Lady Pauline came down to the drawing- 
 room to them. 
 
 " A terrible thing has happened, Lady Pauline,'' said 
 Bobby, whose white face and quivering lips had startled 
 her. " A lady has been found dead murdered in 
 my that is, Lord Gaunt's rooms ; and and is Decima 
 here ? " 
 
 " Yes, she is here," said Lady Pauline, gravely. " She 
 is very ill with brain fever." 
 
 Bobby uttered an exclamation. 
 
 "I must see her, Lady Pauline. I must ! They 
 it is said that she was at my rooms last night, and 
 and " 
 
 Lady Pauline's strength of mind came to her aid. 
 
 " In the rooms where this poor lady lias been found ': ' 
 she said. " Yes, I know that she went to your rooms ; 
 the woman in charge of the house told me so. But 
 she stopped, struck silent by the expression of Bobby's 
 face. 
 
 " Tell me all you know," she said, gravely and calmly. 
 
 Bobby, in hurried and agitated accents, told all that he 
 knew. 
 
 " It is dreadful to think, to suggest, that Decima is 
 mixed up in this ! " he said. " She cannot possibly know 
 anything about it. Oh, let me see her ! '' 
 
 " You may see her," said Lady Paulino, " but you can- 
 not learn anything from her. She is quite unconscious. 
 Here is the doctor." She heard his step coming down 
 the stairs, and called him in. 
 
 "Miss Deane is ill, very ill," ho said, quietly. -She 
 may remain unconscious for some time, possibly for da vs. 
 You may see her, yes ; you can do no harm."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 141 
 
 Bobby went up and stood and gazed at the white face 
 with the staring eyes ; then he came down again, and 
 looked helplessly round him. 
 
 " We may as well go, sir," said the detective. " Lady 
 Pauline will let us know when Miss Deane is well enough 
 to be asked any questions." 
 
 They returned to Prince's Mansions, and the detective 
 made his report to the inspector. He nodded gravely 
 and drew Bobby aside. 
 
 " Miss Deane will be an important witness," he said. 
 "I may as well tell you, Mr. Deane mind, I don't speak 
 officially that we do not suspect Miss Deane ! " 
 
 " Suspect ! " exclaimed Bobby, indignantly. 
 
 The inspector raised his eyebrows. 
 
 " Well, she was here, you see ; and any one present in 
 these rooms last night might fall under suspicion ; but it 
 seems to me that the case against Lord Gaunt is as clear 
 as noonday." 
 
 " Lord Gaunt ! " said Bobby, chokingly. " He is incap- 
 able of it." 
 
 The inspector shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " That's what one so often thinks," he said. " How- 
 ever, we shall soon see. Our man will have overtaken 
 him by this time, T. should think." 
 
 They had removed the body, but Morgan Thorpe had 
 still lingered. The shock and the brandy he had con- 
 sumed had rendered him a pitiable spectacle. 
 
 " Come come home with me ! Don't leave me alone, 
 Deane, for God's sake ! " he said, clutching at Bobby's 
 arm and quite forgetting his recent plot to rob him. 
 
 " I will see you home," said Bobby, passing his hand 
 across his brow. " I don't know what to do where to 
 turn. I ought to go home and tell my father of all this 
 not that it would be of any use ! but I can't leave my 
 sister. Yes, I will go home with you." 
 
 They went to Cardigan Terrace and Bobby looked round 
 the familiar room with a shudder ; he could almost see 
 the small, exquisitely dressed figure sitting at the piano. 
 
 There was a letter on the mantel shelf, and Morgan 
 Thorpe took it up, and opened the envelope with shaking 
 fingers. But he was incapable of reading it and he held it 
 out to Bobby.
 
 142 HER HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 " Read it, Deane," he said, and he made for the liquor 
 stand on the sideboard. 
 
 " It is from Trevor," said Bobby, and he read the note 
 aloud ; 
 
 ' ' DEAR THORPE: I feel played out and shall run over to the Con- 
 tinent for a change ; may stay soine time. I was sorry to hear 
 that Mrs. Dalton had a bad headache when I called to say ' g 
 by.' I am starting in half an hour. I packed this morning. Al 
 ways do things suddenly, don't I ? Remember me to Deane and 
 all the rest. Yours, 
 
 " RALPH TREVOR." 
 
 Thorpe moaned in a maudlin "way. " Poor old Trevor ! 
 He will be awfully cut up when he hears of of it ! He 
 was very fond of her, Deane ! My poor Laura ! " He 
 drew the hand which held the tumbler of brandy-and-soda 
 across his eyes. " I can't realize it yet ! What a loss for 
 me ! She was so so clever ! I shall never get on with- 
 out her ! So Trevor's gone ! It seems as if everybody had 
 gone ! You'll .stand by me, Deane. You you may hear 
 all sorts of things about me, but you you won't believe 
 them, Deane ! I've always had a liking for you, my dear 
 boy, always " 
 
 " Better not drink any more," said Bobby ; but Thorpe 
 shook his head. 
 
 " It's the only thing that will keep me up ! To think 
 that Laura's dead ; butchered and by that beast, Gaunt ! 
 I always hated him. A stuck-up, sneering beast ! ^ 
 I always hated him, and so did she ! " 
 
 " And they were married ? " said Bobby, with a sharp 
 pang of remorse for his own folly. 
 
 Thorpe nodded. 
 
 " Yes ; don't bear any malice, because I kept it from 
 you, dear boy. It was her secret, not mine, and she was 
 so sensitive ! My poor Laura ! But he shall hang for it I 
 He shall hang for it ! " 
 
 Bobby shuddered. 
 
 " I don't believe he did it, I can't ! " he said. " I know 
 Gaunt. As I've said a score of times, he isn't capable of 
 it. It's just that. Some things are impossible to some 
 men, and and murder is impossible to Lord Gaunt ! " 
 
 " Then who did it ? " demanded Thorpe, with a hie-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 143 
 
 cough. " Tell me that ! Isn't the evidence against him 
 as strong as can be ! " 
 
 Bobby shook his head. The evidence might be as strong 
 as it could be, and yet it did not convince him. 
 
 After he had seen Thorpe led away to bed speechless- 
 ly drunk he left the house. The subtle, familiar per- 
 fume in the room seemed to follow him, and the dead 
 woman's face and voice haunted him. 
 
 On his way to Lady Pauline's he bought the second 
 edition of an evening paper no evening paper ever owns 
 to a first edition and, while he waited in the drawing- 
 room, read the account. " The Tragedy at Prince's Man- 
 sions ! " it was headed, and there were " scare " lines at 
 intervals of the report. 
 
 His heart sank as he read the smooth and yet graphic 
 statement. 
 
 The murdered woman was, as it set forth, the wife of 
 Lord Gaunt. . Here followed all his names and titles. 
 He had married her, with a suppression of his rank, and 
 had, very soon after the ceremony, which had taken place 
 in Switzerland, separated from her, going on the travels 
 which had made him, with a certain section of the public, 
 famous. The deceased lady had gone to his rooms 
 whether by appointment or not, the report could not say 
 and it was proved by the statement of the servants 
 that she had met Lord Gaunt in these rooms. Lord Gaunt 
 had been seen to leave them without his overcoat ; the 
 murdered woman had been found lying dead on the couch, 
 and covered by this same overcoat. The antique dagger 
 with which the deed had been committed had been found 
 lying near the body. Lord Gaunt had disappeared. 
 
 This in brief was the substance of the account, although 
 the full report occupied nearly a page of the paper. 
 
 Well might Bobby's heart sink as he read it. His own 
 name, and alas and alas ! Decima's, occurred several 
 times. He stifled a groan and crammed the paper into his 
 pocket as Lady Pauline entered. 
 
 " Decima is still unconscious ! " she said. She was calm 
 and self-possessed, with the calmness and self-possession 
 of Christian fortitude. " The doctor says she may may 
 live, but that it will be some time before she will be able 
 to tell us anything. Is there any later news ? "
 
 144 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Bobby produced, the paper. 
 
 " Yes : I have read it. I know or, rather, I know of 
 Lord Gaunt. I am not surprised to hear that he is mar- 
 ried ; nothing I could hear of him would surprise me ; but 
 I do not think that he is guilty 
 
 " He is not ! He is not ! " said Bobby. 
 
 Lady Pauline regarded him coldly. 
 
 " And you knew this unfortunate woman ? " she said. 
 
 Bobby hung his head. 
 
 " I will not reproach you, but if I may say a word in 
 season" 
 
 " There's no need," said poor Bobby. " Fm punished 
 badly enough as it is. All iny thoughts are of Decima. 
 To think that she is mixed up in this ! " 
 
 Lady Pauline inclined her head gravely. 
 
 " Who is Mr. Mershon ? " she aske/L 
 
 Bobby started. 
 
 " Mr. Mershon ! He is the man Decima is engaged to," 
 he said. 
 
 " Please write to him that I wish to see him," said Lady 
 Pauline. "You would like to see her? She will not 
 know you ; she is quite unconscious." 
 
 Bobby went up to Decima's room, and gazed at her 
 piteously, as he had done before. 
 
 As he left the house the special editions of the evening- 
 papers were being bawled through the streets and the rau- 
 cous voices of the newspaper boys were shouting, " 'Orrible 
 murder ! Tragedy in 'igh life ! " 
 
 All England was ringing with the news of the murder, 
 and the consternation and excitement in Loamshire, and 
 round about Leafmore, especially, were intense. Crowds 
 gathered round the gates of Leafmore and stared up the 
 avenue Heaven alone knows why ! as if they expected 
 to glean something of the grim tragedy from a glimpse 
 of the house. 
 
 Bobby had wired to Bright, and he had dashed off with 
 the news to Mershon, to beg him to help break it to Mr. 
 Deane. 
 
 Mershon was startled, but more indignant at Decima's 
 connection with the affair than horrified at the tragedy 
 itself. 
 
 " Always thought there was something queer about
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 145 
 
 Lord Gaunt," he said. " Yes, he's just the man to shoot 
 or stab his wife if he didn't like her I beg your pardon," 
 for Bright had reddened and exclaimed indignantly. " Of 
 course you think he's innocent '? " 
 
 "How could I think otherwise?" said Bright, warmly. 
 " Lord Gaunt is not guilty ! " 
 
 " All right," said Mershon, grimly, and with a shrug 
 of his shoulders. " To tell you the truth, I don't very 
 much care whether he is or whether he isn't of course, 
 I hope he isn't ; what I'm thinking about is Decima Miss 
 Deane. What I want to know is : Why did she bolt up 
 to town and why did she go round to his rooms ? " 
 
 " Miss Deane went to see her brother, I imagine," said 
 Bright. " She could not know that Lord Gaunt would be 
 there that he was in London. None of us not even I 
 have known anything of his movements. It is terrible 
 that Miss Deane's name should appear in the affair." 
 
 " I should think so," said Mershon, moodily. " It's jolly 
 hard on me, I know ! " 
 
 "I am going round to Mr. Deane to tell him," said 
 Bright. " Will you come with me ? I shall go straight 
 from there to London, of course. Lord Gaunt will want 
 me, and if he did not " 
 
 " I'll go with you," said Mershon. 
 
 He accompanied Bright, and ordered the carriage to 
 follow them to the Woodbines. 
 
 They found Mr. Deane in the laboratory, and broke the 
 news. He was startled but by no means overwhelmed, 
 though distressed in a confused and bewildered way at 
 the fact that Decima was concerned in the matter and was 
 ill. 
 
 " I am thankful she is with Lady Pauline," he said. 
 " It it would be of little use my going up to her 
 
 He glanced wistfully at the ridiculous model he was at 
 work upon. 
 
 " No, no," said Mershon, gnawing at his cigar. " I'm 
 going ; you'd better leave it to me. The old fool doesn't 
 realize it," he said to Bright, as they passed out. " He 
 doesn't see that this will bring a lot of/scandal upon my 
 head." 
 
 The following morning Mershon presented himself at 
 Lady Pauline's.
 
 146 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Her first thought as she looked at him was, "How does 
 it happen that Decima my Decima is engaged to this 
 man ! " For Mr. Mershou, pale and sullen with anxiety 
 and resentment at the state of things, was not pivp< 
 ing, and Lady Pauline's cold and stately manner of re- 
 ceiving" him did not tend to put him at his ease. 
 
 " My niece is very ill, Mr. Mershou," she said, as she 
 motioned him to a chair ; " very ill, indeed. But you have, 
 no doubt, heen informed ? " 
 
 " It she too ill to see me ? " he broke in. 
 
 "Much too ill," replied Lady Pauline, "and I think it 
 best to be quite candid, Mr. Mershon even if she were 
 well enough, I do not think the interview would be desir- 
 able." 
 
 "Not not desirable?" he repeated, staring at her. 
 " Why why, she's engaged to me ! " 
 
 " She was, so she has informed me," said Lady Pauline. 
 
 " Was ! " echoed Mershon. " What do you mean ? I 
 don't understand ! " 
 
 " I am glad you have come to see me so soon," she said. 
 "It is only right that you should know, at the earliest 
 possible moment, that my niece desires to withdraw from 
 her engagement to you, Mr. Mershon." 
 
 Mershon started from his chair and reddened. 
 
 " Wants to to break it off ! " he said, huskily. " Why ? 
 Why should she want to break it off ? " 
 
 With her usual directness and strict regard for truth, 
 Lady Pauline answered, gravely : 
 
 " My niece does not love you." 
 
 Mershon's pallor was startling. Then he laughed 
 uneasily. 
 
 " I think I understand ! " he said. " She she thinks 
 this scandal that I shall be angry and cut up about it. 
 Well, so I am, but it won't make any difference to me, of 
 course. I don't like it ; no man would like to have his 
 future wife mixed up with such an awful business as 
 this; and and some fellows would want to drawback; 
 but I'm not that kind of a man. Tell Decie that I stand 
 by my word ; yes, that I say that even now, Avhen I don't 
 know why she went to Gaunt's rooms, or whether she 
 expected to see him or not. Just tell her that, Lady 
 Pauline."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 147 
 
 Lady Pauline rose. The man's vulgarity and mean- 
 ness simply amazed her. Why why had Decima prom- 
 ised to marry a person who was not even a gentleman ? 
 
 "I will tell my niece what you say, certainly," she said. 
 " But it may be some time before she is well enough to 
 receive your message, and I think I may assure you that 
 it will not have the effect upon her which you expect and 
 desire. She will not marry you, Mr. -Mershon." 
 
 He reddened and plucked at his gloves. 
 
 " She she was off her head she didn't know what 
 she was saying when she told you she wanted to" break 
 off the engagement," he stammered. 
 
 " On the contrary, she was quite conscious, and her 
 words were perfectly lucid and final," said Lady Pauline. 
 "I fear I- cannot remain away from her any longer, 31 r. 
 Mershon." 
 
 She rose and Mershon, almost too furious to mutter 
 the conventional adieu, left the house. 
 
 Had there been anything between Decima and Gaunt? 
 he asked himself. His jealousy rose and tore at him 
 vulture fashion as he thought of Gaunt's and Decima 's 
 friendship, of the way in which she had helped to restore 
 the Hall, and carry out Bright's plans. And then, she 
 had come up to London all of a sudden, and had gone to 
 Gaunt's rooms ! A fierce hatred and suspicion of Gaunt 
 took possession of him. 
 
 He went straight to his lawyer a sharp city attorney, 
 who had acted for Mershon in many risky cases. 
 
 " Terrible affair this, Mr. Mershon," he began, for he 
 knew of Mershon's engagement to Miss Deane, who was 
 mixed up in the " Murder in Prince's Mansions," and he 
 suspected that Mershon had come to consult him, and he 
 was right. 
 
 " Yes," said Mershon, abruptly. " Look here, Gilsby ; 
 I'm in this, after a fashion. I want you to act for me. 
 Of course this fellow, Lord Gaunt, is the murderer." 
 
 Mr. Gilsby looked rather startled. 
 
 " Well the evidence " 
 
 "Is enough to hang any man," broke in Mershon. 
 " When's the inquest ? " 
 
 " To-morrow, I should imagine ; I can ascertain." 
 
 " Do so. And see here, brief one of the sharpest com-
 
 148 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 mon-law barristers ; get the best Old Bailey man 3*011 cau ; 
 let him represent me at the inquest." 1 
 
 M r. Gilsby nodded and waited. 
 
 " If that man Gaunt did it he ought not to get off," 
 continued Mershon, avoiding the lawyer's eyes. - lie's a 
 swell, a ' noble lord,' and all that, and they his friends 
 will move heaven and earth to get him off. Xow, I say 
 that it would be a miscarriage of justice if they suc- 
 ceeded. A man who'd stab a woman in cold blood is er 
 er ought to be hanged." 
 
 "Certainly, certainly!" assented Mr. Gilsby. "But 
 you need have no fear, Mr. Mershon ; the Treasury will 
 prosecute " 
 
 " I know all that, d n it ! " broke in Mershon, 
 
 fiercely. " But I want to help. Get the best man you 
 can, and let him appear at the inquest, and and see that 
 there's no attempt to hoodwink and bamboozle the jury. 
 See ? " 
 
 The sharp city attorney did see. He nodded, and rang 
 a bell. 
 
 " Boskett is your man, Mr. Mershon." he said, quietly. 
 " I'll brief him. And you think Lord Gaunt is guilcy ? " 
 
 " I'm sure of it," snapped Mershon. " I'm staying at 
 the Grand," he added, as he flung on his hat and left the 
 office. 
 
 Mr. Gilsby looked at the closed door thoughtfully. It 
 opened again suddenly and Mr. Mershon once more strode 
 in. 
 
 " You've got all those bills of Mr. Deane's, haven't you ? " 
 he inquired. 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Right. I may want to recover on them. May want 
 to do so all in a hurry. If I wire Act,' you'll drop 
 down on Deane. See ? " 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE inquest was held on the following day. The 
 room was crowded with lawyers, reporters, and as many 
 of the curious public whicli could force and squeeze their 
 way in. Not for many years had so sensational and " in-
 
 PIER HEART'S DESIRE. 149 
 
 teresting " a murder been committed, and the world was 
 watching the development of events, and waiting for 
 every detail, with an eagerness which even the most en- 
 terprising of the newspapers conld not satisfy. And 
 some of them, it must be admitted, had done their best. 
 Short and charmingly inaccurate biographies of Lord 
 Gaunt had appeared, together with portraits hideously 
 unlike him. 
 
 Some of the sketches of his life represented him as a 
 man who had spent most of his days in the society of 
 savages, and was therefore just the man to commit a 
 peculiarly ferocious murder. 
 
 Bobby and Bright had almost to fight their way into 
 the room, and it was some minutes before they could 
 reach the solicitor's table, where Mr. Pelford, the head of 
 the firm of Gaunt's lawyers, was sitting beside the famous 
 counsel, Sir James Letson, whom Pelford & Lang had 
 retained. 
 
 Mr. Pelford nodded to Bright. 
 
 " We've got Sir James, you see, Mr. Bright," he said, 
 in a hurried undertone. " And everything will be done 
 that can be done for Lord Gaunt ; but " he shook his 
 head gravely " the case looks very bad. Do you see that 
 Mr. Boskett is here ? " he glanced toward that eminent 
 gentleman. " lie appears for Miss Deane." 
 
 Bobby started. 
 
 " I I did not engage him," he said. " I never thought 
 of it ! " 
 
 " He is instructed by Mr. Gilsby," said Mr. Pelford, in 
 rather a dry voice. "He is Mr. Mershon's solicitor. Mr. 
 Mershon is just behind that partition you cannot see him 
 from here. Yes, the case looks serious but Well, Sir 
 James will do all that can be done, rest assured." 
 
 After the usual preliminaries, the police began to call 
 their witnesses, and as one after the other appeared and 
 told his or her story Mr. Bright's anxious face grew more 
 a-xious and careworn. Brick by brick, as it were, the 
 solicitor for the Treasury was building up the case against 
 Lord Gaunt. 
 
 First came the page, who told how he had let in, first, 
 Miss Deane ; then Jane, who had admitted Lord Gaunt 
 and the deceased.
 
 150 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Is Miss Deane here ? " asked the coroner. 
 
 Mr. Boskett rose with the leisurely air which masked 
 his terrible keenness. 
 
 " I appear for Miss Deane, sir," he said.- 
 
 " I doubt your locus standi" interrupted the coroner, 
 " but go on." 
 
 Thank you, sir," said Mr. Boskett. " I have at present 
 only to state that Miss Deane is very ill, and quite unable 
 to be here. She is, in fact, unconscious, and I produce the 
 doctor's certificate." 
 
 He handed it in and sat down. The coroner read it 
 and nodded gravely for the witness to proceed. 
 
 Jane told her story very well. She had taken tea in 
 for Miss Deane, and she had not seen her since. She was 
 there in the room when Lord Gaunt had entered, and 
 Jane had heard their voices talking together. Then the 
 deceased had arrived. No, she did not usher her into the 
 drawing-room. The lady inquired for Mr. Deane, and, 
 on being told that he was not In, she had said she would 
 go and sit down and wait for him, and as .she knew the 
 way, Jane need not trouble. She had not seen the de- 
 ceased and Lord Gaunt together, but she had heard them 
 talking, and once here she hesitated, but only for a mo- 
 ment they were speaking so loudly, there was a kind of 
 cry that she knocked at the door, thinking she was 
 called. 
 
 She had not 'entered. A little later it might have 
 been half an hour Lord Gaunt had come dovm the corri- 
 dor from one of the other rooms, and passed her, on his 
 way out. She was talking to the porter in the lift. 
 Lord Gaunt had no overcoat. She had felt ashamed at 
 being caught gossiping, and had run away into the kitchen. 
 No one else came that night. They waited for Mr. Deane 
 until past eleven, then went to bed. She had looked into 
 the room to see to the fire, but had not noticed any one 
 there, or seen anything unusual. In the morning she 
 found the deceased lying on the couch as the doctor had 
 described. She was dead, there was a wound above her 
 heart, and the dagger which the policeman showed her 
 now was lying on the floor. The portrait was lying 
 smashed in the fireplace. The deceased was covered 1/v 
 a fur coat. Yes, it was the master's, Lord Gaunt ; but
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 151 
 
 she was certain, quite, quite certain, that he could not 
 have done it ! 
 
 The coroner stopped her with uplifted hand. The solici- 
 tor for the Treasury asked a few questions of small details, 
 and then Sir James rose. 
 
 " You heard no cry for help, no screaming or shriek- 
 ing ? " 
 
 " Xo, sir ! Only the poor lady talking loudly. Lord 
 Gaunt's voice was quiet like." 
 
 " The deceased asked for Mr. Deane ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Have you ever seen the deceased before ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Jane. " She had dined with Mr. Deane 
 at a dinner party, with Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Trevor." Xo, 
 she had never before seen Lord Gaunt with the deceased. 
 Did not know that he was married didn't quite believe it 
 even now. 
 
 Mr. Boskett got up, and in the softest and blandest of 
 voices, asked : 
 
 " Xow, will you tell us don't be afraid ! you heard 
 voices at various times that evening ? Did you hear Miss 
 Deane's voice after mind, after the deceased had en- 
 tered the room ? " 
 
 " Xo," said Jane. " There were only two voices after 
 that, the deceased's and Lord Gaunt's." 
 
 " And you did not see Miss Deane leave the Mansions ? 
 She might have left a few minutes after the deceased had 
 entered ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. I think she must, because I didn't see her 
 go afterward, and, of course, I was waiting to be rung for 
 to let the visitors out as usual." 
 
 " And Miss Deane asked for her brother, and not for 
 Lord Gaunt ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir. I'm sure the young lady doesn't know 
 anything about it. She is the sweetest " 
 
 The coroner stopped her again, and Mr. Boskett, with 
 an encouraging smile, and a glance at the jury, murmured 
 audibly : 
 
 " Xo one suspects her ! " 
 
 Then aloud he said : 
 
 " Xow, tell me. You found the inner door of the 
 drawing-room locked ? On the bedroom side ? "
 
 152 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 "And no one entered the drawing-room, so far as 
 you know, after the deceased ? You must have heard 
 them " 
 
 Sir James rose. 
 
 " Really, that is scarcely a fair question ! " he said. 
 
 " WQ want all the information we can get," remarked 
 Mr. Boskett, blandly. 
 
 The coroner nodded and Jane said : 
 
 " No ; no one had come in afterwards." 
 
 " And now, did you notice anything peculiar in Lord 
 Gaunt's manner when he passed you in the corridor on 
 his way out ? " 
 
 Jane hesitated, 
 
 " His lordship looked upset and and worried, sir." 
 
 " Anything peculiar about his dress ? Think." 
 
 " She knows something," whispered Mr. Pelford to Sir 
 James. 
 
 Sir James did not move a muscle. Jane hesitated and 
 looked distressed. 
 
 " Come, speak out," said Mr. Boskett, gently and per- 
 suasively, and Jane, with a kind of sob, said : 
 
 " There there was blood on his wristband." 
 
 A thrill ran through the crowd. Mr. Boskett glanced 
 at the jury in a casual kind of way. 
 
 The porter was next called, and gave his evidence 
 clearly. So far as he knew, no one had entered Lord 
 Gaunt's flat after the deceased. 
 
 Yes ; Lord Gaunt had looked haggard and upset, and 
 he, the porter, had noticed the blood stain on the wrist- 
 band. 
 
 So also had Wilkins, the butler, from Merlet's. He 
 carried the grim story a point further by telling how he 
 had sent on the luggage to Southampton, but had heard 
 Lord Gaunt, when leaving in the morning, direct the cab- 
 man to drive to Charing Cross. Had remarked that 
 Lord Gaunt did not wear his fur coat when he returned 
 the preceding night, and had been informed by Lord 
 Gaunt that he had left it at his club. 
 
 The crowd exchanged glances and murmured signifi- 
 cantly. 
 
 Then Mr. Morgan Thorpe was called. He was a pit-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 153 
 
 eons spectacle. His usually pleasant and youthful face 
 was haggard and drawn ; his eyelids were swollen, and 
 his lips tremulous and pale. He had been drinking, but 
 not enough to steady his shaking hands and voice. As 
 he raised his eyes and glanced round the court with a 
 shrinking look, Bobby could scarcely believe that it was 
 the same man who only a few days ago had swaggered and 
 riffled it with such self-assurance. Every answer had to 
 be dragged out of him. Yes, the deceased was his sister. 
 She was married secretly to Lord Gaunt, who married 
 her under the name of Barnard. Had not known Bar- 
 nard's real name and title. His sister and her husband 
 had separated soon after the marriage, and she had lived 
 with him, the brother, since that time. Her husband had 
 disappeared, quite disappeared. She had not seen him to 
 his, Morgan Thorpe's knowledge, between the hour of 
 their parting and the night of the murder 
 
 Sir James looked up. 
 
 " Do not use the word ' murder,' Mr. Thorpe," he said 
 sharply ; " the jury have not yet given their verdict." 
 
 Morgan Thorpe glared at him resentfully. 
 
 " It was murder foul and cowardly murder 
 
 " Silence ! " said the coroner, sternly. " Confine your- 
 self to a statement of what you actually know." 
 
 Sir James rose. 
 
 " You say, Mr. Thorpe, that so far as you are aware 
 your sister did not know the whereabouts of Lord 
 Gaunt ? " 
 
 " She did not I swear it." 
 
 " You knew she was going to Prince's Mansions the 
 night of the 6th ? " 
 
 Thorpe hesitated. Could he venture to deny it ? A 
 he paused, Sir James carelessly picked up a blue paper 
 from the table, and Morgan Thorpe's eyes dropped. 
 
 " I knew it." 
 
 Sir James handed him the bill. 
 
 " This was found in the pocket of the deceased. It is 
 a bill, unsigned, for two hundred pounds. Can you ex- 
 plain it?" 
 
 Thorpe glanced at Bobby, and his face went white. 
 
 " My my poor sister was in want of money. She - 
 she thought Mr. Deane would lend it to her "
 
 154 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 His voice grew inaudible. Bobby hung his head as 
 every eye in court was directed to him. 
 
 " May I take it that you sent her on this errand ? " .said 
 Sir James. 
 
 Morgan Thorpe raised his head and stared at him in- 
 solently. 
 
 " You may take it as you please," he said, defiantly. 
 
 " That is sufficient," said Sir James, gravely. 
 
 Mr. Boskett rose. 
 
 " One moment, Mr. Thorpe. Were you aware of the 
 real name and rank of the deceased's husband? Oh, 
 don't hesitate, please ! " he added, with the first note of 
 sharpness in his voice, and Thorpe nodded. 
 
 " Yes ? And you kept your knowledge from your 
 sister ? " 
 
 Thorpe looked round like a hunted animal seeking for 
 some means of escape. 
 
 I I did. I thought it best." 
 
 Mr. Boskett turned his glittering eyes upon him. 
 
 "Did not Lord Gaunt undertake to pay you a sum of 
 money to keep his identity secret ? Answer, please." 
 
 The reply was scarcely audible. 
 
 " Good. Now, Mr. Thorpe, you remember a certain 
 scandal in Paris in the summer of 18 . A scandal in 
 which a lady was concerned. AVas not that lady your 
 sister ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Morgan Thorpe, and Mr. Boskett turned to 
 the jury. 
 
 "I regret to have to allude to this matter, but I desire 
 to show the cause of Lord Gaunt's desertion of his 
 
 wife " 
 
 " Not desertion ! " said Sir James, quickly. 
 
 " Separation, if you like ! " said Mr. Boskett. " In a 
 word, Mr. Thorpe, did not Lord Gaunt separate from his 
 wife because he discovered certain facts in connection 
 with her life before her marriage ? " 
 
 Morgan Thorpe moistened his lips. 
 
 " If any one has been saying " he began, but the coro- 
 ner interrupted him. 
 
 " Painful as this question must be to you, Mr. Thorpe, 
 you must answer it." 
 
 " Well, yes so he said," replied Thorpe.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 155 
 
 " And these facts you concealed from him ? Did you 
 conceal from him this other fact, that j^ou had suffered 
 three months' imprisonment for fraud, committed faro 
 years before you made his acquaintance ? " 
 
 " Where did he get all this ? " asked Sir James, testily, 
 of Mr. Pelford, while the court was waiting on Thorpe's 
 reply. 
 
 " If I am to submit to have all my past life raked up 
 for the amusement of a crowd " panted Morgan Thorpe. 
 
 " Answer, sir ! " said the coroner, sternly, and Thorpe's 
 livid lips formed the " Yes." 
 
 " Did you conceal the identity of her husband and his 
 whereabouts from the deceased because you feared his 
 violence if they should meet?" asked Mr. Boskett, in 
 gentle tones. 
 
 It was scarcely a permissible question, and Sir James 
 was on his feet in a moment, but Thorpe had got his an- 
 swer out before he could be stopped. 
 
 " Yes : I did ! " he said, with a suppressed eagerness. 
 " Gaunt was a violent man. One of the hottest-tempered 
 men I have ever met. I wanted to protect my poor 
 sister " 
 
 The coroner stopped him, but it was too late. The jury 
 had got the impression Mr. Boskett had desired to give 
 them. 
 
 " I have finished with you," he said, with that air of 
 satisfaction which a clever counsel can make so telling. 
 
 One or two other witnesses were called, and the two 
 doctors who had been summoned after the discovery of 
 the body were recalled by Mr. Boskett. 
 
 " I wish to ask these gentleman a question, sir," he 
 said to the coroner. " The young lady, Miss Deane, who is 
 now, I regret to say, lying unconscious, and seriously ill, 
 is unfortunately connected with this case by one of those 
 accidents to which we are all liable. I do not think that 
 the slightest suspicion has been directed toward her ; but, 
 nevertheless perhaps because I feel it my duty to pro- 
 tect her from any future suspicion I desire to ask a 
 question on her behalf. I ask you, sir," he turned to the 
 first doctor, " if, in your opinion, it would be possible for a 
 young girl to have lifted and placed the body on the couch, 
 as it was discovered ? "
 
 156 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Xo, certainly not,*' Avas the reply, and the second doctor 
 repeated the ansAver. 
 
 Then the coroner wound up, and, as with the skill of 
 experience he linked the evidence together, Bright and 
 Bobby felt as if a chain were being Avound round (Taunt. 
 The crowd listened Avith breathless attention to every 
 Avord, and when he had finished, turned their eyes upon the 
 jury with hungry impatience. 
 
 The jury did not leave the box, but gathered together, 
 and whispered for a few moments, then pronounced the 
 verdict. 
 
 They found " Edward Barnard Gaunt, Earl of Gaunt, 
 guilty of the wilful murder of his wife Laura." 
 
 Mr. Bright rose, Avhite and trembling ; Bobby let his 
 head fall in his hands. Some one touched him on the arm, 
 and, looking up, he saw Mershon beside him. He was 
 pale, saA 7 e for a red spot on each cheek, and his small eyes 
 shone vindictively. 
 
 " A clear case," he said, Avith a note of satisfaction in 
 his thin A'oice. " He did it right enough. And they'll 
 have him presently. They've cabled to stop the ship at 
 the Canaries." 
 
 Bobby shrank from him Avith a look of horror. 
 
 " I I don't believe it," he said, his voice breaking. 
 " Gaunt is as innocent as as I am." 
 
 Mershon shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " All right ! Let him come home and proA r e it ! " he 
 said, sullenly. 
 
 He went oA r er to Mr. Gilsby, Avho Avas talking to 
 Mr. Boskett Mr. Boskett cheerfully triumphant and 
 clutched him nerA'ously by the arm. 
 
 " They'll get him, eh, Gilsby ? He can't escape, can 
 he ? " 
 
 Mr. Gilsby smiled assuringly. 
 
 " Oh, no, certainly not. Quite impossible. You may 
 make your mind easy on that point, Mr. Mershon. They'll 
 bring him back in a feAV days." 
 
 Mershon drew a breath of satisfaction, and hurried out 
 of court. 
 
 Mr. Boskett glanced after him, and raised his eyebrows 
 questioningly. 
 
 Mr. Gilsby smiled.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Both fond of i. Deaue," he said answering the 
 
 unspoken question. ' You'll bitterly disappoint my client 
 i fail to get a conviction, Mr. Boskett. But that's a 
 certainty, I supp' 
 
 Mr. Boskett only smiled in reply. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE Pevensey Castle went on her way. There were a 
 number of passengers, and the usual amusements and 
 entertainments were arranged and successfully carried 
 out ; and there was a good deal of laughter and merry- 
 making on board the big ship. 
 
 But Gaunt took no part in the quoit playing, the con- 
 certs or the dances. He craved for solitude, and he 
 avoided his fellow-passengers and spent most of his time 
 in solitary pacing of the least frequented part of the deck 
 or shut up in his cabin. 
 
 emed to him as if his heart would never cease to 
 ache with the longing for the girl-love whom he had so 
 nearly wronged, and whom he should never see again. 
 Decima was always before him, always in his thought, 
 and as he imagined and he could so easily picture it ! 
 her sorrow and horror at his conduct, he felt almost too 
 lied to live. 
 
 And yet he had not sinned wilfully. He had gone to 
 Scotland to avoid her ; he had been on his way to Africa 
 to put a still greater distance between them, when Fate 
 had led her to his rooms ! 
 
 There was one other passenger who took no part hi the 
 pastimes of the vessel this was Mr. Jackson. 
 
 He, like Gaunt, spent his time pacing the deck, but in 
 another part than that which Gaunt so restk - 
 But when down below Mr. Jackson did not confine him- 
 self to his cabin, though he spent some time there. He 
 was very often in the smoking saloon, or in the purser's 
 canteen ; and there was always a glass of champagne or 
 brandy-ancl-soda before him. He drank a great deal, but 
 he was never intoxicated ; indeed, liquor seemed to take 
 little or no effect upon him. 
 
 For some days he avoided his fellow-passengers, only
 
 18 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 speaking when lie was obliged, and then only in monosyl- 
 lables. People on board a ship are always curious about 
 their fellow- voyagers, and there was a general idea that 
 Mr. Jackson had lost all his money in Africa ; but this 
 idea was dropped when Mr. Jackson one evening joined 
 the inevitable card party, and took a hand at poker. 
 
 He played every night ; indeed, whenever play was 
 going on, and he did not seem to care how high the stakes 
 Avere. Xor did he seem to care very much whether he 
 won or lost. 
 
 It cannot be said that he added much to the geniality 
 of the party, for he rarely spoke, and never laughed or 
 even smiled. The other players regarded him rather 
 curiously, and with a certain amount of doubt, for there 
 was something peculiar and uncanny about his manner 
 and appearance. His face was so unnaturally pale, his 
 eyes so unpleasantly red and bloodshot, and he had a 
 singular trick of looking up suddenly in the midst of a 
 game with a vacant stare, as if he were seeing something, 
 or hearing something, that was not perceptible to the 
 others, and once or twice he had laid down his cards and 
 risen from his chair as if he had forgotten that the game 
 was in progress. 
 
 " Our friend, Mr. Jackson, has something on his mind," 
 remarked one of the players one evening, after Jackson 
 had left the saloon. He had walked out with a perfectly 
 unmoved countenance, as impassive as a stone mask, though 
 he had won a considerable sum. 
 
 "It's drink, I think," said another. "He drinks like a 
 fish. Why, how many glasses do you think he's put 
 down while he's been sitting ho; 
 
 ' And the extraordinary thing is that it never seems to 
 have any effect on him," remarked a third. " Why, most 
 of us would have been under the table if we had drunk 
 half that young fellow has mopped up ! You meet some 
 queer characters on board a ship, don't you ? " 
 
 Now and again Gaunt met or came across Mr. Jackson 
 and Jackson would always eye him sideways and give him 
 a nod, which Gaunt returned in an absent-minded way. 
 One evening Gaunt was pacing up and down on his 
 favorite part of the deck, thinking, of course, of Deeima, 
 when he saw Jackson coming toward him. The moon
 
 PIER HEART'S DESIRE. 159 
 
 was shining brightly, and Gaunt could see the young fel- 
 low's face quite plainly. It was working spasmodically ; 
 the lips were moving as if he were talking to himself, and 
 his hands were clenched at his side. Gaunt stopped, half 
 mechanically, and in the shadow of a deckhouse absently 
 watched the man. 
 
 Jackson brought up his walk within a few yards of 
 Gaunt, and, leaning over the vessel's side, stared out to 
 sea with bloodshot eyes. Suddenly he put one foot on 
 the gunwale, then, clinging with his hand to a stanchion, 
 drew up the other foot and stood in imminent danger 
 of falling over. 
 
 It looked to Gaunt as if the man were meditating 
 suicide, and Gaunt sprang forward, seized him by the arm 
 and dragged him down to the deck. 
 
 " What are you doing ? " he asked. 
 
 Mr. Jackson eyed him vacantly for a moment, then he 
 said, without a smile : 
 
 " I wanted to see if I could stand there without falling 
 over." 
 
 " Rather a dangerous experiment, wasn't it ? " said 
 Gaunt. 
 
 Jackson looked up at him with a kind of sullen defiance. 
 
 " Anyhow, it's no business of yours ! " he said. 
 
 Gaunt smiled grimly. 
 
 " I suppose not," he said. " But I am not sure. If I 
 had allowed you to fall over, you would in all probability 
 have been drowned, and I should have been accessory to 
 your suicide. I might have been charged with your 
 murder." 
 
 At the word " murder " Mr. Jackson started and shud- 
 dered, and looked at Gaunt with a half-suspicious, half- 
 angry stare. 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " he said. 
 
 " Exactly what I say," said Gaunt. 
 
 He saw that the young fellow had been drinking, and 
 a kind of pity stole into Gaunt's breast ; his own sorrow 
 made him very tender toward the weakness and folly of 
 his fellow-men. 
 
 " Better go down to your cabin," he said, " and don't 
 drink any more to-night." 
 
 " I'm not drunk," said Jackson, sullenly.
 
 160 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " No, but you've had enough," said Gaunt. 
 
 There was a touch of sympathy in his tone, which ap- 
 peared to affect the young fellow. 
 
 " I'm devilish wretched," he said. 
 
 " My dear fellow," remarked Gaunt, " if all the men 
 who were ' devilish wretched ' flung themselves into the 
 sea, how many passengers do you think would remain on 
 board the Pevensey Castle ? " 
 
 Jackson looked at him curiously. 
 
 " You don't look particularly cheerful," he said. 
 
 Gaunt froze instantly. 
 
 " Better go down to your cabin," he said. " I will see 
 you down." 
 
 " Oh, it's all right," said Jackson, with a distortion of 
 the lips which might pass for a smile. " I sha'n't try the 
 experiment again." 
 
 " Don't ! " said Gaunt, quietly. " Nothing in this world 
 is so bad that it might not be worse." 
 
 " That's a lie ! " remarked Jackson, laconically. 
 
 Gaunt made no response, but accompanied the young 
 fellow as far as the saloon stairs, and waited until he had 
 entered his cabin. 
 
 The next morning Mr. Jackson passed him on deck 
 with a casual kind of nod. But after Gaunt had passed, 
 Jackson looked after him with a curious expression on 
 his face. 
 
 There were a half-dozen children on board, and though 
 Gaunt had avoided his fellow-passengers some of these 
 children had not so much attracted his attention, but 
 forced themselves upon it, for there was something about 
 Gaunt which exerted a magnetic influence upon animals 
 and children. Decima had felt it that first day of meet- 
 ing him at the Zoo. 
 
 One little girl, a pale-faced little thing, whose mother 
 was taking her to Africa in the hope of snatching her 
 from the Demon Consumption, had on several occasions 
 contrived to attract his attention, and once or twice Gaunt 
 had stopped in his pacing and spoken to her ; and the 
 child had looked so pleased that he had got into the 
 habit of pausing beside her deck-chair and talking to her 
 about the ship's log, the absence of any toys on board, 
 her own complicated ailments. He would draw the wool
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 161 
 
 shawl across her chest, or carry her and the chair bodily 
 into the sun and out of the wind. He rarely spoke to 
 the mother, who was rather afraid of the grim-looking 
 gentleman, but Maude did not share her mother's fear 
 and shyness, and talked to Gaunt with the frankness of 
 childish innocence. 
 
 Gaunt loved all children, and the child's liking for 
 him brought him some kind of consolation in his misery. 
 There was a look or he fancied there was a look in 
 her pale face which reminded him of Decima. Perhaps, 
 he thought, Decima looked like that when she was a child. 
 He knew, as well as the ship's doctor knew, that the lit- 
 tle one was doomed, and his heart was full of sympathy 
 for the anxious mother. The child told him all about 
 herself, and often plied him with questions about him- 
 self. 
 
 " Why do you always walk about alone ? " she asked, 
 one evening-. 
 
 " Well, I like it," he said. " Xow, if you were able to 
 walk about with me, Maude 
 
 " I wish I was ! " she said, in her thin voice. " I often 
 watch you when you think I'm not looking, and I see 
 that you are always thinking, thinking. Mamma says that 
 she's sure you've something on your mind. Have you? " 
 
 "A very great deal, Maude,"' said Gaunt, with a smile. 
 
 " And you're not going to Africa because you're ill and 
 going to die ? " said the child. 
 
 " I hope none of us are going to Africa to die," he said. 
 
 " Oh, I am," ' she remarked, confidently. " Mamma 
 thinks I am going to get better, but I know I am not. 
 Something inside me seems to tell me so." 
 
 " We'll hope for the best, Maude," said Gaunt. 
 
 " Oh, yes," she assented, cheerfully, " but it isn't much 
 use hoping. And now you're going to walk on the upper 
 deck by yourself, with your arms behind your back and 
 your ' thinking ' face on. I wish I could come with you, 
 then p'r'ps you wouldn't think so much ; but I can't 
 walk." 
 
 " You shall come all the same," said Gaunt ; " I'll carry 
 you." 
 
 " Will you, really ? I'm very heavy, you know ! " 
 
 With a glance, which asked permission, at her mother,
 
 K>2 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Gaunt lifted her in his arms, drew the shawl closely 
 round her, and carried her to the upper deck. 
 
 She was -wonderfully delighted, and prattled to him in 
 her childish, artless way. 
 
 " You must be very strong to carry me like this ! " she 
 said ; " but perhaps you are used to it ? " 
 
 He thought of the night he had carried Decima, and his 
 lips set tightly. 
 
 " No, I've not had much practice in this kind of thing ; 
 but you're not very heavy, and I like carrying you." 
 
 " And I like you to carry me," she said. " I think you 
 are a very kind gentleman." 
 
 " Thank you, Maude," said Gaunt. " That was a very 
 nice thing to say." 
 
 Presently he knew by the way in which her head lay 
 on his breast that she was asleep, and he carried her 
 down to the saloon to her mother. 
 
 "Thank you, my lord," the lady said, as he placed her 
 little one in her arms. " You must have a kind heart to 
 be so kind to my child." 
 
 " I'm fond of children," said Gaunt. 
 
 He went up on deck again. A fog was coming on, and 
 he watched it rolling up, from the horizon. He was think- 
 ing, not of the child, but of Decima. Where was she 
 now? What would happen to her? She would not 
 marry Mershon. " But there would be some one else. 
 Some one, please God, worthy of her. His heart ached 
 with anguish as he thought that he had no right even to 
 protect her. He was startled by a voice near him. It 
 was Mr. Jackson's. 
 
 "The fog's coming on thick," he said, in the dull, ex- 
 pressionless tone which was habitual to him. 
 
 Gaunt assented. 
 
 " How far off are the Canaries ? " asked Jackson. 
 
 " About two days' sail, I should think," replied Gaunt. 
 
 Jackson moved away, and Gaunt paced up and down. 
 Presently he almost ran against the captain. 
 
 " Thick fog ! " he said. 
 
 The captain grunted and passed on. 
 
 During the night the fog increased. Gaunt, coming on 
 deck the next morning, found the vessel steaming in an 
 impenetrable vapor, as dense as a blanket. Every now
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 163 
 
 and then she almost came to a standstill. The captain's 
 bell seemed to ring incessantly ; the mate's voice was 
 heard at intervals, gravely and sternly giving orders. 
 Gaunt knew that they were nearing a dangerous coast, 
 but the other passengers, less experienced and informed, 
 displayed no great interest and felt no anxiety. They 
 grumbled at the fog, grumbled at the captain as if he 
 were answerable for it, grumbled at each other ; but there 
 was no anxiety. 
 
 Gaunt himself was not apprehensive until the evening 
 of the second day's fog. Then as he was pacing the for- 
 ward deck he overheard the captain remark to the first 
 mate : 
 
 " Better stop the engines ! " 
 
 Gaunt had crossed the ocean too many times not to 
 know what this meant. 
 
 The vessel had lost her reckoning ; the captain did not 
 know where he was. 
 
 Gaunt went down to the saloon. Some one was bang- 
 ing away at the piano ; there was the usual laughing and 
 talking. Some of the young people were, under the 
 shelter of the music, flirting boldly ; they all looked happy 
 and free from care. 
 
 Then suddenly that peculiar noise of the screw, to 
 which the ocean traveler so soon becomes accustomed, 
 ceased. 
 
 Every voice was silent; the young lady at the piano 
 stopped playing ; every one glanced at his neighbor in- 
 terrogatively. 
 
 Before any question could be asked, the captain came 
 into the saloon. There was an easy smile on his face, 
 and, when a particularly nervous gentleman exclaimed : 
 " The screw's stopped ! What's the matter, captain ? " 
 he nodded carelessly and replied : 
 
 " Giving the stokers a rest. Go on with your playing, 
 Miss Brown ; we shall be off again directly ! " 
 
 But the fog increased, and the engines did not start. 
 
 Gaunt went on deck, and found the captain in close 
 confab with the mate. 
 
 " Anything wrong, captain ? " asked Gaunt, quietly. 
 
 The captain was about to make a brusque reply, but as 
 he glanced at Gaunt's face he seemed to change his mind.
 
 164 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Yes, my lord," he said. " We've lost our reckoning. 
 This fog has caught us, fairly caught us." 
 
 " Is there anything I can do ? " asked Gaunt, " but, of 
 course, there is not." 
 
 The captain shook his head, " Xo." Then he said, as 
 if with an after-thought, " Well, yes ; you can go below 
 and keep 'em easy till we get out of this. It may lift 
 directly." 
 
 But he looked into the fog doubtfully. 
 
 Gaunt, after a glance at the thick vapor through which 
 one could not see a yard, went back to the saloon. 
 
 Miss Brown had ceased playing, and silence had settled 
 upon the lately light-hearted crowd. Gaunt went to the 
 piano and struck a chord. 
 
 " Have you ever heard this song ? " he said. 
 
 Everybody turned to him with expectation and surprise. 
 
 He was no musician, and he had not touched a piano 
 for years; but in his younger days he had been able to 
 play an accompaniment. He played and sang the Jiuk 
 song in " The Trial by Jury." 
 
 He scarcely knew what he was singing, but the audi- 
 ence applauded vociferously ; all the more vociferously 
 because this usually stern and reserved man had conde- 
 scended to make an effort for their amusement. 
 
 " Encore ! Encore ! Give us another ! " they cried. 
 
 Gaunt puzzled his brains, and after dint of thinking 
 remembered another song. It was absolutely necessary 
 that this crowd of timid Dassengers should be prevented 
 from knowing and thinknig of the peril that lay so near 
 them. 
 
 He played and sang and little Maude stole up to the 
 piano and leaned against him admiringly and confidingly. 
 
 "You are a clever man!" she said in her childish 
 treble. 
 
 Gaunt rose up from the piano and inducted a more 
 skilful performer. 
 
 " Let us have something with a chorus," he said, with 
 a gayety that surprised his hearers, who had hitherto re- 
 garded him as the most grim and unsociable of men. 
 
 A young lady went to the piano and began the accom- 
 paniment to a comic song one of the young men essayed 
 to sing.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 165 
 
 Gaunt heard the stern voice of the captain issuing 
 orders, and the tramp of the crew as they obeyed. 
 
 The song proceeded, the chorus was being roared, when 
 suddenly there came a peculiar shock and sound which 
 struck the singers dumb. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 No one knew what had happened, but through every 
 man and woman there had run something which had sent 
 cold fear and dread to every heart. They sprang to 
 their feet and looked wildly at each other for a moment 
 in silence, then the first shriek rose from a woman's lips 
 and was instantly followed by others. 
 
 There was a rush for the saloon door. That terrible 
 thing, Panic, had taken hold of them, and men and women 
 fought for the narrow doorway, some of the former for- 
 getting their manhood in their terror and pushing the 
 women aside. 
 
 Gaunt stood near the door ; he heard the captain as he 
 passed the upper deck door pause and say calmly and 
 sternly : 
 
 " Oblige me by keeping the passengers in the saloon, 
 my lord." 
 
 Gaunt closed the door, and stood with his back to it. 
 The ship was rocking hideously, like a living thing in 
 pain, and some of the women fell to the ground or were 
 thrown there by the mad rush of the men for the door. 
 Gaunt stood firm and square, with his legs apart. 
 
 " We must remain where we are," he said. " We must 
 obey the captain's order. There may be no danger ; we 
 should certainly not better things by crowding on the 
 deck and hindering the men." 
 
 Some of them fell back, but one or two of the men still 
 pressed on him, and the nearest caught him by the collar 
 of his coat. 
 
 " Who are you to stand in our way ? " he demanded, in 
 a voice thick with the frenzy of terror. " Stand aside ! 
 We're not going to be huddled up down here ! " 
 
 " Yes, stand aside ! " said one or two others, advancing 
 threateningly.
 
 166 HEP, HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 Gaunt saw that it was necessary to make an example, 
 and he promptly knocked the first speaker down. 
 
 " Please understand," he said, " that not one of us will 
 leave the saloon until we have the captain's permission." 
 
 The man picked himself up, and the rest fell back a 
 pace. Gaunt's calmness and firmness were making them 
 ashamed of themselves. Gaunt deliberately shot the bolt 
 in the door, and leaned against it. 
 
 " Look to the ladies ! " he said to the men. " The 
 trouble may be over in a few minutes. We have a good 
 captain and a good crew, and we can rely upon them to 
 do their utmost for us ! " 
 
 His quiet words, his perfect self-possession, had their 
 due effect upon the women. They ceased shrieking and 
 screaming, but huddled together, crying and moaning in 
 a subdued fashion. 
 
 Gaunt went on talking, doing his best to reassure them. 
 Presently little Maude ran from among the women and 
 came to his side, and stole her hand into 1 
 
 ' I'm not afraid," she said. " Least I am afraid, but I 
 won't cry, Lord Gaunt ! " 
 
 He put his hand upon her head. 
 
 "That's right, Maude, dear," ho said. "There's not 
 much use in crying, is there? And it's very likely that 
 AVC shall all be laughing again present !y." 
 
 The A'essel still rocked in the same curious way, and 
 the peculiar motion told Gaunt what had happened. 
 
 The Pevensey Castle had drifted onto a rock or a sand- 
 bank and Avas SAvaying to and fro on a pivot as the s 
 struck her. 
 
 Ages seemed to pa'ss Avhile he stood there, holding the 
 crowd by the poAver of his eye and voice, but presently 
 he heard the captain's step on the stairs, and he opened 
 the door and admitted him. The captain took in the 
 situation at a glance. 
 
 " Thank you, my lord ! " he said, calmly and quietly, as 
 if he Avere thanking Gaunt for passing the salt. Then he 
 looked round. " Ladies and gentlemen," he said : " \\< 
 struck on a sandbank." He held up his hand as a cry of 
 terror arose. " There's no need to be alarmed. Tru 
 no need for a single soul to come to harm. I al v. 
 think it best to tell the truth, and the Avhole truth, and
 
 HER HEAET'S DESIRE. 167 
 
 here it is : We're on the coast of Mogador, and not very 
 far from the harbor. The boats are ready, and I'll have 
 you all put ashore as comfortably as possible that is, if 
 you obey orders. Now, you will please come on deck a 
 dozen at a time ; a dozen and no more. Lord Gaunt will 
 be kind enough to point out each lot and see that the 
 order is carried out. May I trouble you so far, my 
 lord ? " 
 
 Gaunt nodded. 
 
 " Very good," said the captain, calmly. " Then I can 
 return to my place on deck." 
 
 He put a revolver in Gaunt's hands and went up 
 again. 
 
 The crowd watched Gaunt with eager eyes, and almost 
 seemed to cease breathing as he pointed out the first 
 dozen, nine women and three men. 
 
 " The men will take charge of the ladies," he said, " and 
 help them into the boat." 
 
 If any of the men felt inclined to disobey him hi.s com- 
 plete self-possession and perhaps the sight of the revolv- 
 er in his hand, would have restrained them. The first 
 dozen were marshaled out of the cabin to the deck. The 
 others, waiting anxiously, could hear the mate giving 
 orders, and the sailors' " Ay, ay, sir ! " as the boat was 
 launched. 
 
 The captain called out, " Next lot ! " and a second 
 dozen were dispatched. And so it went until only ten 
 remained. Gaunt had intended sending little Maude and 
 her mother in one of the earlier, batches, but the child 
 had clung to him and begged to remain. 
 
 " Let mamma and me go with you ! " she said. " I 
 know we shall be quite safe then." 
 
 As the turn of the last lot came Gaunt picked up the 
 child with his left arm, leaving his right free for the re- 
 volver, and led the way up on deck. The fog was still 
 thick, but the ship was brilliantly lit by the electric light, 
 and Gaunt looked round upon a scene of admirable order. 
 All the boats had gone save two, and they were ready to 
 be launched at the word of command. 
 
 The captain and his officers stood as calmly, and spoke 
 as quietly as if nothing whatever was the matter, and 
 the crew were carrying out their orders with cheerful
 
 168 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 alacrity. The last boat but one went off with its living 
 freight ; it consisted of a number of the crew, as well as 
 some of the passengers. Each boat, as it left the rock- 
 ing ship, sent up a cheer, which was returned by those 
 remaining on deck. " Now, my lord," said the captain, 
 as the last boat was launched. 
 
 Gaunt helped the women into their places. He put 
 Maude's mother in, and she held out her arms for the 
 child. 
 
 " Good-by, little one ! " he said, and he kissed her. 
 
 She wound her arms round his neck and looked up at 
 him imploringly. 
 
 " Oh, not ' good-by,' " she said. " You're coining ; 
 you're coming ? I won't go without you ! " 
 
 " Presently ! presently ! " said Gaunt. He kissed her 
 again, loosened her hold gently and as gently placed her 
 in her mother's arms. 
 
 There was only one place in the boat remaining. 
 Gaunt looked up the gangway. Besides himself, there 
 were only two men left on the deck. One was the cap- 
 tain, and the other, to Gaunt's surprise, was Jackson. 
 The young fellow was very pale, and his lips were apart 
 as if he were breathing hard. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen," said the captain. " One of you get 
 in, please. The quicker you are away the better." 
 
 Gaunt stood aside and motioned to him. 
 
 " You go, captain," he said. 
 
 " Thank you, my lord," said the captain quietly. " I 
 stand by the ship." 
 
 Gaunt went up the steps quickly and laid his hand 
 upon Jackson's shoulder. 
 
 " Off with you ! " lie said. 
 
 " Do you mean it ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Gaunt, as quietly as before. " I am going 
 to stay with the captain." 
 
 " The d d ship will be in pieces before the morning," 
 panted Jackson. " It's certain death to stick by 
 her ! " 
 
 He had been drinking heavily, and his eyes were blood- 
 shot and staring, and the sweat stood in huge drops on 
 his forehead, but he was quite sober, and fully realized 
 the peril and the chance of escape.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 169 
 
 " All the more reason you should go," said Gaunt, 
 quickly, but in a low voice. 
 
 Jackson still hesitated, and Gaunt, knowing the danger 
 of delay, gripped him by the arm and drew him down 
 the gangway and almost forced him into the boat. 
 
 " 5ly God ! " murmured Jackson, brokenly, and he let 
 his head fall into his hand as he sank into the seat. 
 
 The boat got clear, and as she moved away the last 
 cheer arose, and Gaunt and the captain responded to it, 
 and waved their caps. She was lost to sight in a minute, 
 and the captain and Gaunt, after straining their eyes 
 after her, turned instinctively and looked at each other. 
 The captain held out his hand. 
 
 " You are a brave man, my lord ! " he said, and for the 
 first time there was a slight tremor in his voice. 
 
 Gaunt smiled as he shook the hand. 
 
 " One might finish up in a worse way than this, cap- 
 tain," he said. " I suppose there's not much chance for 
 us?" 
 
 The captain shook his head. 
 
 " Xot much, my lord," he said ; " the wind's getting 
 up; there's a hole in her bottom don't you hear the 
 water coming in ? She'll heel over before long " There 
 was no need to finish the sentence. " It's a pity ! " he 
 added, after a moment, " a pity ! She was a fine vessel, 
 and I'm fond and proud of her." 
 
 His voice broke slightly, and he moved away, as if he 
 did not like Gaunt to see his emotion. 
 
 Gaunt made his way with some difficulty to the bow, 
 and, leaning against the bulwark, looked into the fog. 
 A strange feeling of peace and rest was stealing over him. 
 As he had said, one might make a worse finish than this. 
 It had been no great sacrifice on his part, the surrender 
 of the place in the boat to Jackson, for he had not the 
 least desire to prolong a life which was now a burden to 
 him. To such men as Gaunt, life is only precious while 
 it holds the possibility of hope and love. He was sorry 
 for the poor ship, sorry for the captain's grief, and still 
 more sorry that so brave a man should perish ; but for 
 himself he had no regret, no desire to escape the end. 
 
 Indeed, he did not think of himself, but of Decima. 
 As he gazed into the fog his memory and imagination
 
 170 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 were limning upon its gray surface the scenes in which 
 he had acted with her. He recalled their first meeting 
 at the Zoo ; the day they had met by the stream ; the 
 many times they had been together at the Hall ; the 
 night of the ball, when he held her in his arms, and 
 lastly, the night of their parting, when he had told her 
 of his love and she had whispered her confession of her 
 love for him. 
 
 lie could hear her voice, like weird music, infinitely 
 sweet and infinitely sad, coming through the roar of the 
 waves, the grating and grinding of the doomed ship ; he 
 could feel her kisses warm upon his lips, feel her arms 
 about his neck, her heart beating against his. 
 
 Memory is a strange thing, and at that moment there 
 came back to Gaunt's mind some verses which he had 
 read many years ago, and which he had not thought of 
 since : 
 
 " There is no hope," the curlew moans ; 
 
 " She is not thine she ne'er can be ! " 
 " No hope ! '* the murmuring sea intones ; 
 
 " No hope ! " the wind sighs, mockingly. 
 
 " O, love ! though miles may stretch between. 
 
 Us twain, I see thy face, thy form : 
 Thou dvrell'st within my heart, my Queen ; 
 
 And on my lips thy kiss is warm. 
 
 " Oh, love my love ! for some short space 
 
 Think of me, in this lonely spot, 
 Haunted by your dear voice and face ; 
 
 And, oli, my love, forget me not ! " 
 
 " Forget me not ! " What right had he to wish that 
 she should remember him ? His very love for her had 
 fallen like a blight upon her young life. Xo ! Rather 
 let him wish that she should forget him. And surely 
 she would do so. She was young ; her life still stretched 
 before her. Her love for him would gradually wane and 
 die ; some other man would come and stir her heart with 
 love again. But let him be whom he may, though he 
 were a thousand times worthier of her than he AY as, he 
 would not love her with more passionate and devoted 
 love than that which had burned like a pure name in 
 Gaunt's heart. 
 
 He pictured her the wife of another man with a keener
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 171 
 
 anguish than any fear of approaching death could have 
 aroused, but yet with no bitterness, for as he thought of 
 her his lips moved in a fervent prayer for her happiness. 
 
 God bless you, my dearest, my dearest ! " he mur- 
 mured. " May my mad love never cast its shadow over 
 your future happiness ! " 
 
 The captain came up to him. 
 
 She is filling fast ! " he said. " She will go over 
 presently." 
 
 (4 aunt nodded. 
 
 " All right," lie said. 
 
 The captain took out his pipe. 
 
 " Have you any tobacco ? " he asked. 
 
 Gaunt handed him his pouch ; then he filled his own 
 
 They stood side by side, smoking in silence. Suddenly 
 a big wave, which seemed mountains high struck the 
 side ; the vessel heeled over, and Gaunt was thrown on 
 his back. When he looked up, half blinded by the spray, 
 he could not see the captain. The brave man had gone. 
 
 Another wave smote the doomed vessel, and Gaunt 
 felt himself swept against the deck-house so violently 
 that he was half stunned by the contact. A spar from 
 the rigging lay, across his chest and instinctively he 
 clasped it. He lay thus, for it was impossible to stand 
 for some minutes ; then there came another wave, and, 
 still grasping the spar, he was swept overboard. How 
 long he retained consciousness after he had been dashed 
 into the sea cannot be told. To swim was impossible ; 
 the ground swell was too violent, Mechanically he still 
 clung to the spar. The tide was setting out to sea, and 
 as he floated he saw that the fog was gradually lifting, 
 and as he was borne on the top of a wave he looked 
 round for the vessel. She had disappeared. 
 
 Gaunt prayed for death at that moment, for this ter- 
 rible solitude in the midst of the roaring waves was in- 
 finitely worse than death. Then his senses left him, and 
 with "Decirna" upon his lips, he relaxed his hold of the 
 
 spar. 
 
 ******* 
 
 When he came to he found, to his amazement, that he 
 was lying in a comfortable berth in a luxurious cabin.
 
 172 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Two men were standing beside him. They exchanged 
 a look, and nodded, as Gaunt opened his eyes. Gaunt 
 looked around and sighed. At that moment he was not 
 particularly glad to come back to life. 
 
 " All right, now '? " said one of the men who was watch- 
 ing him. He was a young fellow, with a pleasant face 
 and a pleasant smile. He was dressed in yachting cos- 
 tume, and was smoking a cigarette. 
 
 " Where am I ? " asked Gaunt, with an effort. 
 
 " On board the Sea Wolf," replied the young fellow. 
 "My yacht. We picked you up early this morning. 
 You've been wrecked, I suppose ? " 
 
 Gaunt nodded. 
 
 " Better not let him talk yet awhile," broke in the sec- 
 ond man, 
 
 " All right, doctor," assented the young fellow, cheer- 
 fully. "You goto sleep if you can," he said to Gaunt. 
 " You'll be all right after a snooze. We'll leave you 
 quiet." 
 
 Gaunt closed his eyes again and slept. When he 
 awoke, he found the young fellow standing beside him 
 with a basin of broth. 
 
 " Get outside this ! " he said. " The doctor he's a 
 friend of mine, and has come this trip with me says 
 that you'll pull through all right." 
 
 " Thanks ; I've no doubt I shall," said Gaunt, not very 
 cheerfully. " May I ask to whom I am indebted ? " 
 
 " Oh, that's all right," replied the young man. " My 
 name's Dobson. I'm taking a cruise in this yacht of 
 mine. We lost our reckoning in that fog and it's lucky 
 we did, or we shouldn't have come across you ! " 
 
 "I was a passenger on board the Pevensey Castle,'* 
 said Gaunt. " She drifted on a sandbank." 
 
 He spoke with difficulty, and Mr. Dobson had sense 
 enough to stop him. 
 
 " All right," he said. " Tell us all about it when you're 
 more fit. Try and go to sleep again. There's nothing 
 like sleep for your case, so the doctor says. I've brought 
 you some books and papers, if you can't manage to sleep.'* 
 
 He left the cabin, and Gaunt tried to sleep ; but his 
 head ached too much, and presently he took up one 
 of the papers.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 173 
 
 He turned it over mechanically, and was putting it 
 down again, when his eye was caught by a heading in 
 large type. 
 
 " The Tragedy at Prince's Mansions ! Verdict of Wil- 
 ful Murder Against Lord Gaunt ! " 
 
 He read the account in a kind of stupor, and had the 
 paper still in his hand when Mr. Dobson re-entered the 
 cabin. 
 
 "How have you been getting on?" he inquired. 
 " Been reading the paper ? That's right ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Gaunt, quietly, " I have been reading the 
 account of the murder at Prince's Mansions." 
 
 " Ah, terrible affair, that," put in Dobson. " They 
 haven't got that Lord Gaunt yet, more's the pity ! " 
 
 " No ? " said Gaunt, raising himself on his elbow. " I 
 am Lord Gaunt, Mr. Dobson. How soon can you take 
 me back to England ? " 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Tun news of the wreck of the Pevensey Castle did not 
 reach London until some days after the sad event ; but 
 when it did it created a sensation only inferior to that 
 which had been caused by the murder in Prince's Man- 
 sions. 
 
 The boats had reached the harbor of Mogador in safety, 
 and the rescued passengers had given full and touching 
 account of the foundering of the ill-fated vessel and the 
 heroic conduct of the captain and Lord Gaunt. That 
 they had both been drowned no one seemed to entertain 
 any doubt, and on the principle of speaking nothing but 
 good of the dead, Lord Gaunt's crime was forgotten for 
 the moment in admiration for his heroism. 
 
 The papers came out with the whole story, and leaders 
 were written, dilating, with editorial unction, upon the 
 dramatic aspect of the affair and the poetical justice 
 which had been dealt out to, as the writers called him, 
 *' this unfortunate nobleman." They, all of them, how- 
 ever, failed to inform their readers what the captain had 
 done to deserve death. But that was a mere matter of 
 detail.
 
 174 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 To Decima, lying white and wan in the darkened room, 
 no tidings of the outside world were permitted to reach. 
 She had recovered consciousness, but she lay 'twixt life 
 and death, in that condition of mind and body which re- 
 sembles stupor. All danger, however, was past ; her 
 youth and strength had fought the battle for her, and 
 won it, and as the doctor said, it was only a question of 
 time and careful nursing. For the latter, Lady Pauline 
 could be relied on, and gradually the vacant expression 
 of Decie's eyes changed to one which, although it was 
 sadder, displayed some faint interest in life. 
 
 On the day the news of the loss of the Pevensey Castle 
 and Lord Gaunt's death was running like wildfire through 
 the land, Decima turned to Lady Pauline and said : 
 
 " I suppose I am not going to die, Aunt Pauline ? " 
 
 Lady Pauline took the snow-white hand and patted it 
 softly. 
 
 " I hope not, dear," she said. " Xo ; you have been 
 very ill, but you are quite out of danger now. I hope 
 that in a few days I shall be able to take you down- stairs. 
 And then we will go to "Walfield. You would like to go 
 there, would you not ? " 
 
 Decima thought for a moment, then she replied : 
 
 " I think I would rather go home. Father must miss 
 me. And Bobby will be coming home, and and it is 
 more comfortable for him when I am there." 
 
 " "We will see," said Lady Pauline, gently. " We will 
 ask the doctor." 
 
 Decima" was silent for a moment, then she turned her 
 eyes away and asked : 
 
 " Have you seen Mr. Mershon, aunt ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Lady Pauline. " I have seen him, and 
 I have told him what you wished him to be told." 
 
 Decima breathed a sigh of relief. 
 
 "Thank you, Aunt Pauline. I I am afraid he was 
 very angry, was he not ? " 
 
 " He was," said Lady Pauline, laconically. " But we 
 will not talk of Mr. Mershon, dear, I trust that he has 
 gone out of your life from henceforth." 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes ! " she cried. " I I could not marry 
 him!" She shuddered. "He was very kind, and I I 
 am grateful to him, but I could not marry him' now ! "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 175 
 
 She turned her head away and closed her eyes, and 
 Lady Pauline, who thought she was asleep, looked at the 
 white face sadly. How much longer could the story of 
 the murder and Lord Gaunt's death be kept from Decima, 
 and what would be its effects upon her? She must know 
 sooner or later ; the air was full of it, the newspaper 
 boys were yelling it through the streets. 
 
 Later in the day Bobby came in. He was terribly up- 
 set, and scarcely master of himself. 
 
 " You've heard the news, Lady Pauline ? " he said, as 
 he entered the drawing-room. He had never been able 
 to address her as "aunt." 
 
 " Yes," she said. " It is terrible, and yet " 
 
 " I know," said Bobby, with a kind of groan. " You 
 are thinking that he has escaped a trial for murder, and 
 and, perhaps the conviction ? " 
 
 Lady Pauline nodded and sighed. 
 
 " He never did it ! " said Bobby, fervently. 
 
 " No, I don't think he did. But we need not discuss 
 that, Robert. I was thinking of Decima." 
 
 Bobby drew a long breath. 
 
 " She will hear of it directly she gets about again," he said. 
 
 "Yes," said Lady Pauline. "That is inevitable. It 
 will be better that she should hear it from us." 
 
 " All, yes ; but who's to tell her?" he demanded. 
 
 ' I and you," she said, with her usual courage. " She 
 will bear it better coming from us than from strangers. 
 I think she will be strong enough to-morrow. Will you 
 come in the afternoon, please ? I asked her this morning 
 whether she would like to go to Walfield, but she seemed 
 to want to go home." 
 
 " To father, yes," said Bobby. " That's like Decima ; 
 she thinks of everyone before herself. Father will want 
 her, too, for he's in trouble again." 
 
 " What trouble ? " asked Lady Pauline. 
 
 Bobby groaned. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Mershon lias cut up rough. It's that con- 
 founded I beg your pardon, Lady Pauline ! " 
 
 " There's no need for profane expressions, Robert," she 
 said. " But go on." 
 
 "It's that unfortunate company, the Electric Storage, 
 you know."
 
 176 PIER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " I don't know, but no matter." 
 
 " It seems that the guv'nor is indebted to Mr. Mershon ; 
 it's rather a large sum, andMershon's lawyer, Mr. Gilsby, 
 has written to the guv'nor well, demanding payment. 
 Father has given Merslion bills, you know.'' 
 
 Lady Pauline sighed. 
 
 "I will help your father to the best of my ability, 
 Robert," she said. "I must go up to Decinia now. 
 Come to-morrow, and if she is strong enough we will tell 
 her about about Lord Gaunt." 
 
 Bobby left the house and went home ; he w r as staying 
 at a quiet hotel. Prince's Mansions were impossible for 
 him under the circumstances, and he bought the special 
 editions of the evening papers and read every line of the 
 account of the shipwreck and " Lord Gaunt's heroic con- 
 duct," and his heart was filled with sorrow for the death 
 of the man whom he had admired and loved so much. 
 
 The next day he went to Berkeley Square. Lady 
 Pauline came to him with a grave but determined ex- 
 pression on her face. 
 
 " She is much better," she said. " I have considered 
 the question from all points of view, and I have decided 
 that she ought to be told as soon as possible. You may 
 come up now, but you will be careful, Robert ? " 
 
 Bobby went up to Decima's room. She was propped 
 up by pillows, and looked very white and frail, but she 
 smiled as he entered the room, and wound her arms round 
 his neck. 
 
 " I am quite well now, Bobby," she said, " and Aunt 
 Pauline thinks I shall be able to go home in a few days. 
 How is father? And do you think you will pass your 
 exam, this time, dear ? " 
 
 Bobby kissed her, and so hid his face for a moment. 
 Lady Pauline stood on the other side of the bed, grave 
 and self-possessed. 
 
 "Robert has something to tell you, Decie," she said. 
 " Are you sure you are strong enough to bear it ? It is 
 sad and painful news ; but we think it will come better 
 from us who love you, than in any other way." 
 
 Decima looked from one to the other. 
 
 " Sad, painful ? " she said. Then she sighed. " Yes, 
 tell me, please, Bobby ! "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 177 
 
 Slowly and hesitatingly, and with many pauses, he told 
 her of the murder, and as she listened her face grew 
 whiter and her horror expressed itself in her eyes. 
 
 " Oh, poor lady ! poor lady ! " she breathed. " I I 
 saw her portrait. She was his wife ! Oh, Bobby ! " 
 
 " And and at the inquest they brought a verdict of 
 wilful murder against Lord Gaunt," he said, thickly. 
 
 Decima raised herself on her elbow. 
 
 " Against against Lord Gaunt ! They could not ! " 
 she cried. " Murder ! He could not have done it ! I I 
 know that he could not ! Where is he ? What does he 
 say ? Oh, wait a moment ; my head is burning ! Aunt 
 Pauline, you do not believe it ? " 
 
 " No, no ! " said Lady Pauline. " I do not think him 
 guilty." 
 
 " Thank you, oh, thank you, auntie ! " said Decima, 
 faintly. " Tell me, tell me it all again ! Let me think ! " 
 
 She put her hand to her brow and closed her eyes. 
 
 Bobby went over it all again. It was an easy task, for 
 he had been thinking of nothing else for days past. 
 
 " No," said Decima, with an energy which astonished 
 Bobby and Lady Pauline. " It is impossible ! I I know 
 Lord Gaunt ! He could not have done it ! " 
 
 She covered her eyes with her hands for a moment, then 
 she -dropped them and looked from Lady Pauline to 
 Bobby. 
 
 " He could not ! Besides, would he have left his coat? 
 Oh, how can any one think he would have done it ? " 
 
 Bobby held his breath. Lady Pauline saturated a 
 pocket-handkerchief with cologne and bathed Decima's 
 brow. She waved it aside impatiently. 
 
 " I am not going to faint. I am quite strong ! Where 
 is Lord Gaunt ? What does he say ? " 
 
 Bobby held his breath. 
 
 " Lord Gaunt Decie, dear, you'll be brave, won't you ? 
 Lady Pauline and I think you ought to hear it from us, 
 not by chance, and from strangers 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " she broke in, with a moan. " Tell me 
 tell me ! It would be cruel to keep it from me. I I 
 want to know ! " 
 
 " Gaunt went by the Pevensey Castle on the morning 
 after after the murder."
 
 178 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 u Yes," breathed Decima. " He said he was going to 
 Africa ! Well ? Oh, tell me all ! I can bear it : indeed, 
 I can ! " 
 
 And and," faltered Bobby, " the vessel was lost. It 
 foundered off the coast of Africa 
 
 Decima raised herself and looked at him, with some- 
 thing in her eyes which Bobby will never forget while 
 life lasts. 
 
 " And Gaunt give her something, Lady Pauline ; 
 brandy, or or something ! " he broke off. 
 
 But Decima waved a refusal of the offered glass. 
 
 " Tell me tell me everything ! " she panted. 
 
 Bobby struggled with the choking feeling in his 
 throat. 
 
 " Gaunt and and the captain remained on board after 
 the rest had left, and and and Gaunt 
 
 Decima fell back on to the pillows, and for a minute or 
 two remained motionless and speechless ; then she opened 
 her eyes, and the hopeless misery and despair in them 
 brought the tears to Lady Pauline's eyes. 
 
 " And and he is dead ! " came from Decima's white 
 lips. 
 
 Bobby bowed his head. 
 
 " Yes, I am afraid they all think he was lost. He 
 he behaved like a hero. I'll I'll read the newspaper ac- 
 count to you when you are able." 
 
 " Xow ! now ! " she said, in a hollow whisper, and 
 Bobby, as if he could not resist her, drew out the paper 
 and read the account. Decima listened, with fixed eyes 
 and bated breath, to the statement of one of the passengers, 
 who had left the wreck in the last boat. 
 
 " You see," said Bobby, struggling with the choking 
 in his throat, " he gave up his place in the boat to that 
 man, Jackson. He kept the passengers in order, and 
 and stood by the captain till till the last ! Decie, it 
 it is just what Gaunt would do, isn't it?" 
 
 She opened her eyes upon him, with a wild despair. 
 
 "Yes, it is like him!" she said. "It is just what he 
 would do ! ! Oh oh, how I wish I had been there ! How 
 I wish I had been the little child he kissed ! " 
 
 " Decie ! " murmured Lady Pauline. 
 
 Decima turned upon her.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 179 
 
 " Yes, I wish I had been there ! I wish I had died with 
 him ! " 
 
 Then she closed her eyes, and was silent for a moment 
 or two, so long that Lady Pauline thought she had fainted 
 and went to a table for a restorative, but suddenly Decima 
 opened her eyes and said, with feverish emphasis : 
 
 " He is not dead ! I know it ! He is not dead ! If he 
 were I I should feel it ! No, he is not dead ! " 
 
 Presently she asked them to leave her alone. 
 
 " You will try and bear your burden, dear ? " said Lady 
 Pauline, as she bent over her and kissed her. " We 
 deemed it best to tell you, better that you should hear it 
 from us who love you." 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " said Decima, with a sigh, and a weary 
 movement of the thin hand. " You were right to tell me, 
 Aunt Pauline, but but I want to think. I have not re- 
 alized it yet ; it is like one of the dreadful dreams that 
 came to me when I was ill : I want to think and oh, 
 if I could only cry ! Aunt Pauline, my heart is broken ! 
 But I will try and bear my burden ! " 
 
 "Pray for strength, dear," whispered the good woman ; 
 but Decima shook her head. 
 
 " I can't pray ! " she said, miserably and with no irrev- 
 erence. " I could only pray to die and that would be 
 wicked." 
 
 " Yes, Decima. Life and death are in His hands ! " 
 said Lady Pauline, and she and Bobby left the stricken 
 girl alone. 
 
 Decima did not close her eyes ; she could see the figure 
 which had been first and foremost in her life, with eyes 
 wide open. And she went over all Lady Pauline and 
 Bobby had told her of the murder, and of Gaunt's life 
 and Gaunt's death. 
 
 Not for an instant did the possibility of his guilt enter 
 her mind. She knew him the innermost heart and soul 
 of the man too well to permit the faintest touch of doubt 
 as to his innocence. Some other hand had done the deed ; 
 whose, mattered very little to Decima at that moment, 
 for all her mind and heart were concentrated upon the 
 fate of the man she had loved, and would love with all 
 the strength of her woman's soul, until death. 
 
 Not one minute detail of the shipwreck had escaped
 
 180 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 her, and she pictured Gaunt keeping order in the cabin, 
 standing on the deck with a child in his arms, giving up 
 his place in the boat to that other man, and then waiting 
 and watching with that calm self-possession, which was 
 Gaunt's birthright, for the end. 
 
 And they thought this man who had given his life for 
 others capable of murder ! 
 
 It may have been wicked of him to make her love him, 
 ah ! he had not made her love him ! It was wicked to 
 ask her to go away with him, the husband of another 
 woman ; but was not some of the blame hers ? And how 
 nobly he had atoned ! 
 
 She tried to picture him lying dead upon some wild 
 shore, and a craving envy of his fate took possession of 
 her. 
 
 "If I had only been there to die with him ! " broke 
 from her trembling lips. " Oh, my love ! my love ! How 
 shall I live without you how shall I ? " 
 
 The tears came at last to ease her aching heart, and 
 they were running down her face unheeded when Lady 
 Pauline came back to her. 
 
 She slept that night and dreamed. She saw Gaunt 
 standing on the deck watching the last boat leave the 
 ship's side ; she saw him with the child in his arms, but 
 in every vision of him he was alive, and her imagination 
 could not conceive of him as dead. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THREE days afterward they took Decima home to the 
 Woodbines, Lady Pauline went with her, and she bore 
 the journey very well. 
 
 Her father received them in a kind of stupor. 
 
 " Dear, dear ! how pale and thin she is ! " he said to 
 Lady Pauline. " I'm I'm afraid she has been ill ! There 
 seems to be nothing but trouble ! I don't know whether 
 you know poor Lord Gaunt, Pauline 
 
 He stopped and tugged at his hair in a bewildered way. 
 " Most terrible affair most terrible ending ! I I scarce 
 know the details, though Bobby, who appears to have 
 been mixed up in the business in some extraordinary 
 fashion, which I cannot understand, has been endeavoring
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 181 
 
 to tell me. It is difficult to believe that a man of his 
 position and culture can have been guilty of a peculiarly 
 brutal murder; but Mr. Mershon is convinced of his 
 guilt and the verdict of the coroner's inquest He 
 
 stopped and looked about him helplessly. " And Mr. 
 Mershon tells me that that Decima has broken off her 
 engagement to him. Is that so ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Lady Pauline. 
 
 Mr. Deane ruffled his hair again, and edged to the door. 
 
 " I'm I'm afraid Mr. Mershon feels it rather acutely. 
 You you know that there have been business relations 
 between us ? " 
 
 "Yes," said Lady Pauline, in her direct way. "You 
 have lost a great deal of money, have you not, Peter?" 
 
 " Yes ; I'm afraid so. I scarcely know. I thought that 
 the loss had been recouped, or or provided for in some 
 way ; but Robert tells me that that it is not so, and that 
 I am still liable." 
 
 " I may be able to help you," said Lady Pauline. 
 
 Bobby, who had entered the room in time to hear the 
 last part of the conversation, shook his head gloomily. 
 
 " Xo," he said. " It is too large a sum. I'm afraid we 
 are up a tree, Lady Pauline. I've just seen Mr. Mershon ; 
 he wants to see Decima. I told him that she wasn't fit, 
 and, well, I hinted that it wouldn't be the least use his 
 seeing her. Decie knows her own mind, and once it's 
 made up Ah, yes, it's all over between Mershon and 
 her. And, well, I'm glad it is, though," he added, inaud- 
 ibly, " there will be the devil to pay over these bills ! 
 But I don't seem able to think of anything but poor 
 Gaunt!" he said, aloud. "I've just met Bright. He's 
 terribly cut up ; but somehow he can't bring himself to 
 believe that Gaunt is dead. The next in succession is a 
 cousin of Gaunt's. He is traveling abroad just now, but 
 Pelford & Lang have written to him. There's no end of 
 excitement in the village. Gaunt was more popular than 
 one would have thought, and some of the women cried 
 when they talked to me about him. One and all abso- 
 lutely decline to believe him guilty of of They are all 
 very sorry for Decie's illness. She's the Lady Bountiful 
 of the village, you know." 
 
 Lady Pauline inclined her head.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " And and it was she who egged Gaunt on to under- 
 taking all the improvements that have been made. Poor 
 Gaunt ! " 
 
 Bobby's eyes filled with tears as he turned from the 
 foom. 
 
 i The next morning Decima came downstairs. She was 
 very pale and thin, and very weak still, and she looked 
 but the ghost of herself as she sat in a low chair by the 
 fire. 
 
 " Are you sure you are strong enough to leave your 
 room, Decima ? " asked Lady Pauline ; and Decima had 
 turned her face to her with a shadowy smile. 
 
 " Yes, aunt. I I want to take up my life again, as 
 as if nothing had happened. They father and Bobby-- 
 need me." Her voice broke for a moment. " I cannot lie 
 there and think, think any longer ! I want something to 
 do, something that will help me to forget. But, ah ! no, 
 no, I shall never forget ! " 
 
 How could it be possible for her to forget the man Avho 
 had loved her and whom she had loved with all her heart 
 and soul ; or cease to remember with anguish that he had 
 gone to his death with the charge of murder hanging over 
 him ? 
 
 In the afternoon, as she was standing at the window look- 
 ing sadly at the bare trees swaying in the wind, she saw 
 Mr. Mershou open the gate and come up the path. 
 
 Her hand went to her heart, and she looked around as if 
 for help. Lady Pauline had gone to the village with 
 Bobbj 7 . There was no one to help her. Well, it was 
 part of her burden, and she must carry it. She rang the 
 bell. 
 
 " Tell Mr. Mershon I will see him," she said. 
 
 She did not go back to her chair, but stood by the win- 
 dow waiting; and the light was full upon her face as he 
 entered. To him she looked more lovely than ever, with 
 the sadness in the violet gray eyes and the ethereal pal- 
 lor of the girlish face. His eyes fell before hers as she re- 
 garded him steadily, and his hand shook as he took the 
 one she held out to him. For a moment he lost his pres- 
 ence of mind, and no word of the speech he had prepared 
 would come. Then, with an effort, he mastered his emo- 
 tion, and said, almost abruptly :
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. , 183 
 
 " You're better, Decima '? I'm very glad ; I I wanted 
 to see you. I've had tin anxious time, and and you're 
 sure you're better ? " he broke off, raising his eyes for an 
 instant to the white face. % 
 
 " Yes," said Decima. " I'm sorry you should have been- 
 anxious, and I am glad you have come." .'> 
 
 " Of course I should come the very first moment," he' 
 said. At sight of her all his passion revived, and he felt 
 that he would move heaven and earth to keep her. " Of 
 course they *Lacly Pauline told me, gave me your mes- 
 sage ; but I needn't say, Decima, that I didn't attach any 
 importance to it. You you ; very likely you didn't 
 know what you were saying when you sent me word that 
 you wanted to break with me." 
 
 " Yes," said Decima. " I was quite conscious, Mr. 
 MershonJ" 
 
 Her voice was low, but its steadiness surprised even 
 herself. 
 
 " You were '? " he said huskily. " Then then I suppose 
 you said what you did because you thought I should be an- 
 noyed, riled, at your being mixed up with with this af- 
 fair of Lord Gaimt's ! Of course, I it was very natural 
 that I should want an explanation ; that I should want 
 to hear all about your visit to his rooms and and what 
 took place between you." 
 
 " Yes," said Decima, quite calmly. " It was your right. 
 It is so no longer. But," she went on as-he opened his 
 lips. " I will tell you, because you will then see how 
 how impossible it was that I should have refrained from 
 sending you my message. I went to see Bobby." 
 
 " I know," he said, eagerly. 
 
 " And Lord Gaunt came in." 
 
 A.s she spoke his name her eyes closed for an instant, 
 and her hand slid along the edge of the wall as if she were 
 striving some support. 
 
 "And you were together there," he said, nodding 
 gloomily. " What what passed between you ? Don't 
 tell me if you don't like. I'm content to let bygones be 
 bygones, Decima." 
 
 " I will tell you," she said. Her lips were quivering, 
 but she steadied them. " Lord Gaunt told me that he 
 loved me."
 
 184 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Mershon started, and his face became black. 
 
 " The villain ! " he muttered. 
 
 Decima's face grew crimson, and her eyes flashed. She 
 turned away as if she would not say another word ; then, 
 suddenly, she faced him again. 
 
 " He told me that he loved me. And I " Her voice 
 
 broke for an instant, but she went on painfully. " I knew 
 that I loved him, for a long time. I shall love him while 
 life lasts ! " 
 
 There were no tears in her eyes, "and they met his furi- 
 ous gaze unflinchingly, almost as if she did not see him, 
 or had forgotten his presence. 
 
 " And you can tell me this ! " he stammered, huskily; 
 *' You can confess that you love a man who was married 
 already a man who has committed a dastardly murder !" 
 
 Decima's hand went to her heart. 
 
 " He did not do it ! " she said. " I know it ! " 
 
 Mershon sneered. 
 
 " Oh, I've no doubt they have kept the story from you, 
 or as much of it as they could ; you haven't read the 
 evidence." 
 
 " Yes, every word," she said. There was a strange light 
 in her eyes, and her voice seemed to have gained a sudden 
 strength. " Every word ; and still I say that he was 
 innocent ! I know it ! " 
 
 He glanced at her angrily. 
 
 " It is a lucky thing for him that he escaped having to 
 face a jury," he said, with a sneer. 
 
 Her lips quivered, and her eyes closed, and a low ex- 
 clamation of anguish broke from her involuntarily. 
 
 " Even even if he had lived and they had found him 
 guilty ; even if I were convinced that he had done it 
 
 She stopped and looked beyond him, as if she did not 
 see him. 
 
 " Well ? " he demanded. 
 
 She lowered her eyes to his face. 
 
 " I should love him still ! " came slowly from her white 
 lips. 
 
 Mershon's rage and jealousy overmastered him. 
 
 " You must be mad ! " he said, hoarsely. " After that 
 shameless confession there's nothing for me but to take 
 myself oft' ! "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 185 
 
 He snatched up his hat and looked toward the door ; 
 then his eyes seemed drawn toward her unwillingly. " I 
 - I suppose you have counted the cost of of this rupture 
 of our engagement?" he stammered. " You don't forget 
 that your father owes me a large sum of money ? Perhaps 
 your brother your precious brother," he sneered, " has 
 made the consequences pretty plain to you ? " 
 
 She looked at him as if she were trying to attend, to 
 understand. 
 
 " I see you do," he said. " Well, of course, I stand to 
 my word, and I expected you to stand by ypurs. I under- 
 took in the event of your marrying me to assume your 
 father's liablities and to provide for your brother ; as the 
 marriage is off as you break the engagement, and and 
 insult me by the statement you have just made, you 
 can't expect me to carry out my part of the contract. 
 You understand enough of business to comprehend that ? " 
 
 "Yes, I understand," she said in a low voice. "I am 
 sorry yes, I am sorry that I cannot marry you. But 
 I cannot ! It would have been hard before, but now " 
 
 She turned away, as if she felt that it would be impos- 
 sible for him to understand what that now meant ; and 
 Mershon, with an almost audible oath, left the room. 
 
 His dogcart was waiting for him, and he leaped into it 
 and drove home to the Firs at a gallop. As he tore up 
 the steps and entered the hall, his sister came out from 
 the drawing-room. She held a telegram in her hand, but 
 in his fury he did not see it. 
 
 . " Where are you going ? " he demanded, for she had on 
 her outdoor things. 
 
 " I I was going to the Woodbines to to inquire for 
 Decima to see if she were well enough to see me ? " she 
 faltered. 
 
 " Then you won't do anything of the sort ! " he snarled. 
 *' You won't go there again ! Do you hear ? " 
 
 " What what has happened, Theodore ? " she asked, 
 timidly. 
 
 " The engagement is broken off," he said, huskily, as he 
 flung his hat aside, and drew his hand across his sweat- 
 covered brow. " She's she's behaved shamefully ! She's 
 disgraced herself ! She's not fit for a decent man to 
 marry. She "
 
 1H- HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 The words seemed to choke him and he broke off with 
 an oath. 
 
 But I'll punish her ! I'll punish her ! I've got that old 
 fool of a father of hers under my thumb and that young 
 ruffian, the brother ! I'll punish her through them." Yes, 
 by God ! I'll have them turned out into the street within 
 a week ! I've told Gilsby to act ! " 
 
 " Oh, Theodore ! " she faltered. " Poor child poor 
 child ! You will not ! " 
 
 "Won't I?" he broke in, with a malignant sneer. 
 "Poor child ! A pretty child ! To admit, to boast, that 
 if if that beast were proved guilty she'd love him still ! 
 What ! do you think I'm a dog, a cur, to be kicked aside 
 and not resent it ? I'll have my revenge ! I'll turn them 
 into the street. What the devil are you crying and 
 trembling at ? Here what's that V " 
 
 He snatched the telegram from her hand and tore 
 open the envelope. 
 
 She was going back to the drawing-room, when she 
 heard him utter a cry, a cry of rage and baffled fury, and 
 she turned back. 
 
 Mrrshon was leaning against the wall glaring at the 
 telegram. He raised his head presently, and his lips 
 moved, but no sound came. The telegram fell from his 
 hand, and, in fear and trembling she went forward and 
 picked it up. He did not prevent her, and she read the 
 wire. It was from Mr. Gilsby, the lawyer, and it ran 
 thus : 
 
 " All D. 's bills met. Some one has undertaken to 
 discharge all his liabilities. Will write." 
 
 Mershon seemed to awaken from his stupor, and snatch- 
 ing the telegram from her, he went upstairs. She 
 watched him for a moment, then her lips moved and she 
 breathed softly : 
 
 "Thank God!" 
 
 Mershon as he went unsteadily up the stairs, holding by 
 the balustrade, and stumbling now and again like a man 
 smitten with palsy, had no need to ask who the " some 
 one" was. He knew that Gaunt had stretched out a 
 hand from the grave as it were, to shield and protect the 
 girl he loved.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. Is? 
 
 On the evening of the same day Mr. Pelford was ar- 
 ranging his papers on his desk, preparatory to going home. 
 
 He had had a particularly hard day, and looked tired 
 and \vorried, and as the door opened and his partner Mr. 
 Lang, put his head round it, Mr. Pelford glanced up with 
 a frown. . 
 
 " Xearly ready ? " asked Mr. Lang. 
 
 They both had handsome houses at Dulwich, and when 
 practicable and convenient, journeyed homeward to- 
 gether. 
 
 " Yes, I think so," replied the senior partner with a 
 sigh. " I'll just indorse these letters. Xo news, I sup- 
 pose?" 
 
 " News " had come to mean to Messrs. Pelford & Lang 
 tidings of their client, Lord Gaunt. 
 
 Mr. Lang shook his head. 
 
 " Xo ; none. I'm afraid that it is hopeless to expect 
 any now. He must have been lost." 
 
 Mr. Pelford nodded and sighed. 
 
 " Poor fellow ! Though, after all, I'm afraid one ought 
 to feel more relief than regret at his death. lie might 
 have ended so so much worse." 
 
 Mr. Lang assented with a gesture. 
 
 " I've written to young Lord Xaseby, the next heir 
 Lord Gaunt, I suppose he is now; but I'm doubtful 
 whether my letter will reach him. What a singular thing 
 it is this love of travel and wandering running through 
 the family ! Oh, and, Lang, that fellow, Thorpe, has been 
 sgain to-day ! " 
 
 " Oh ? What did you do ? " 
 
 'Well, I'm afraid it was weak," replied the senior part- 
 ner, apologetically, "but I advanced him some money to 
 take him out of the country." 
 
 " You did ! " 
 
 ' ; Well, yes ! You see, if Lord Gaunt I mean our 
 Gaunt should turn up ; but that's impossible. Anyway, 
 the next Gaunt will be glad to get rid of the fellow. lie 
 has spent the time since the inquest going the round of 
 any of the clubs that would admit him and telling the 
 story of his and his sister's wrongs." 
 
 " In exchange for free drinks, I suppose ? " said Mr. 
 Lang.
 
 188 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Er yes. So I gave him enough to take him to Monte 
 Carlo." 
 
 " Where it is to be hoped he will remain ! " remarked 
 Mr. Lang. 
 
 Mr. Pelford indorsed the last letter, rose with a sigh 
 and took his overcoat from the peg behind the door. 
 
 " Did you see Mr. Gilsby ? " he inquired, with an accent 
 on the name which Mr. Gilsby would not have enjoyed 
 hearing. 
 
 " Yes ! " Mr. Lang smiled. " I never saw before in my 
 whole life a man sorry at receiving money ! And Mr. 
 Gilsby was very sorry, there is no doubt of that. It is 
 evident that that man Mershon was bent on ruining the 
 Deanes." 
 
 Mr. Pelford shrugged his shoulders with a little weary 
 gesture. He had had a hard day, and any reference to 
 Lord Gaunt's affairs reminded him of the trouble and 
 anxiety the murder in the Prince's Mansions had caused 
 him. 
 
 " The whole affair is a mystery," he said ; " but it is 
 very evident that Mr. Mershon hated poor Lord Gaunt." 
 
 "And of course the young lady, Miss Deane, was the 
 reason," said -Mr. Lang. "There are your gloves on that 
 deed case." 
 
 " Oh, thanks, thanks ! I feel so worried ! Are you 
 ready ? If so I'll turn out the g 
 
 He had his hand on the key when they both heard a 
 step on the stairs. All the clerks had gone, and the two 
 principals were alone in the office. 
 
 Xow, who can that be?" said Mr. Pelford, testily. 
 " Whoever it is I shall not stay. We shall lose our train." 
 
 The footsteps stopped outside the door and there came 
 a knock. 
 
 " Open the door, Lang, and tell them that we cannot 
 stay," said Mr. Pelford. 
 
 Mr. Lang opened the door. Then he uttered an ex- 
 clamation and fell back, and (Taunt walked in. 
 
 Mr. Pelford dropped his hat on the desk and it rolled, 
 unheeded to the floor. 
 
 " Lord Gaunt ! " he gasped, and he stared and gaped at 
 the tall figure and haggard face. 
 
 " How do you do, Mr. Pelford ? " said Gaunt, quietly '
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 189 
 
 very quietly with that self-possession and sang-froid 
 which had often astonished his legal advisers and not 
 seldom puzzled and annoyed them. " How do you do, 
 Mr. Lang ? I am afraid I am late " 
 
 " Good God ! my lord, do you know ! When did you 
 come ? Where ? " demanded Mr. Pelford. 
 
 Gaunt stood on the other side of the table. 
 
 " One moment," he said ; " I want to ask you a question. 
 Is Miss Deane in London ? " 
 
 " Miss Deane ! " echoed Mr. Pelford, amazed at the 
 question at such a moment. 
 
 " Yes ; where is she ? " 
 
 " Er er Miss Deane is is at home, at Leafmore, I 
 believe. But, oh, Lord Gaunt, where did you come from ? " 
 
 " Is she well ? " broke in Gaunt, almost sternly. 
 
 The lawyers stared at him. 
 
 "Er er yes. That is she is better. She has been 
 ill." Gaunt's face worked. " But she is better. She is at 
 home. But but, good God ! my lord, where have you 
 come from? What why 
 
 "From Southampton," said Gaunt, quietly, vouchsafing 
 the information now that he had learned something of 
 Decima. 
 
 " From Southampton ! " gasped Mr. Pelford. " Then 
 then you were saved ? You are alive ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Gaunt, as quietly as before. " I was picked 
 up by a yacht, the Sea Wolf, and the owner kindly 
 turned back and landed me in England." 
 
 The two partners exchanged glances, the sharp, legal 
 glance. 
 
 " Then then, perhaps you do not know that is you 
 have not learned that that " 
 
 Gaunt regarded him gravely. 
 
 " Yes," he said, " I saw the account in a newspaper on 
 board the yacht. You said that Miss Deane was better. 
 Do you mean that she is out of danger ? I gathered that 
 she had been very ill ? " 
 
 Mr. Pelford ignored the question. 
 
 "Then then you know that that Won't you sit 
 clown, my lord ? Lang, there is a small flask of brandy 
 in the corner of the safe ; perhaps his lordship "
 
 190 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Gaunt declined the small flask of brandy which Mr, 
 Lang proffered. 
 
 " I know," he said. 
 
 " That that a murder was committed and that " 
 
 Mr. IV! ford could not go on. 
 
 " That I am deemed guilty, yes, yes," said Gaunt, as 
 quietly as before. " I did not do it. "Who did ' J . " 
 
 Mr. Pelford sank into his chair. He had, he thought, 
 grown accustomed to the Gaunt sang-froid, but he felt 
 that lie was mistaken ; this surpassed all his previous ex- 
 perience. 
 
 " You you did not ? " he stammered. 
 
 " Xo ! " said Gaunt, not sternly, but quite coolly and 
 gravely. "I may be a fool, but I am not fool enough to 
 commit a murder and then cover my victim with my own 
 coat." 
 
 Mr. Pelford gasped for breath. 
 
 " IJut but you are aware my lord, that there is a ver- 
 dict of wilful murder against you ; that that there is a 
 warrant for your arrest?" he stammered. 
 
 "Yes," said Gaunt, quietly. "And I have come back 
 to meet the charge. There was a policeman outside as I 
 came up. Shall I call him ? " 
 
 He went to the window, but Mr. Lang seized him by 
 the arm and drew him back. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 MR. LAXG dragged Gaunt from the window and almost 
 forced him into a chair. 
 
 " For God's sake, don't don't do anything rash, Lord 
 Gaunt ! " he said. " Give us time to to think, to con- 
 sider ! " 
 
 Doth partners were very much agitated and not without 
 reason. It was as if a ghost had walked into the room. 
 
 Gaunt shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " It must be sooner or later ; why not to-night ? " In 
 
 His coolness and indifference almost exasperated Mr. 
 Pelford. 
 
 "You do lint ajiurar to realize the gravity of your
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 191 
 
 tion, Lord Gaunt ! " he said agitatedly. " Perhaps it will 
 help you to do so when I say gravely and emphatically 
 that that we are sorry to see you here." 
 
 " You cannot be more sorry than I am," said Gaunt, 
 quietly. " It would be better for me if I were lying at the 
 bottom of the sea,. But I am alive, and on land and the 
 music had to be faced." 
 
 He spoke almost cheerfully. Xow that he had heard 
 that Decima was safe at the Woodbines and better, noth- 
 ing else seemed to matter much ; certainly nothing that 
 concerned himself. 
 
 " I can't understand how you have been able been per- 
 mitted to reach us ! " said Mr. Pelford. 
 
 Gaunt shook his head. 
 
 " I suppose the police have given me up for dead," he 
 said. " I expected to find some one waiting to arrest me 
 at Southampton ; but I was not stopped or interfered with. 
 I had some difficulty in getting here, for the owner of the 
 yacht a good fellow wanted to carry me off to some 
 place where there was no extradition treaty. He thinks me 
 innocent, notwithstanding the evidence." 
 
 " I wish he had ! " exclaimed Mr. Pelford. " Seriously, 
 Lord Gaunt, the evidence is is " 
 
 " Very strong! " said Mr. Lang under his breath. 
 
 Gaunt looked from one to the other. 
 
 "Do you mind my smoking? Thanks." He lit a 
 cigarette. " I have read it all ; there was a newspaper, 
 several, on board the Sea Wolf, and I got all I could at 
 Southampton. Yes, it is black enough." He paused. 
 " I suppose nine persons out of ten, ninety-nine out of a 
 hundred, would consider me guilty ? " 
 
 Mr. Pelford was a truthful man, and did not reply. 
 
 " May I ask if you do ? " 
 
 Gaunt put the question quietly and without a trace of 
 resentment. 
 
 Mr. Pelford looked at him in silence for what seemed a 
 long time ; then he said : 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 " Thanks," said Gaunt. " No, I am not guilty ; and yet 
 all the evidence is true and unstrained, I suppose many a 
 man has been hanged on less ? " 
 
 Mr. Lang shuddered.
 
 192 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 u For God's sake, don't don't take it so coolly, Lord 
 Gaunt! " he said. 
 
 Gaunt was silent for a moment, then he asked, as if his 
 thoughts had taken quite another direction : 
 
 " Did you attend to that matter of Mr. Deane's ? Dis- 
 charge his debts ? " 
 
 "Yes, yes! " said Mr. Pelford, almost impatiently. 
 "We carried out your instructions, my lord. Mr. 
 Deane's liabilities are discharged, provided for, at any 
 rate." 
 
 " Thank you," said Gaunt. " And now, gentlemen, I 
 am at your disposal. I am rather tired ; I have not 
 slept much of late." 
 
 The partners conferred in whispers, then Mr. Pelford 
 said : 
 
 " Is there any place in which you could spend the 
 night undisturbed, Lord Gaunt? Will you come home 
 with one of us ? " 
 
 Gaunt thought for a moment. 
 
 " Thank you very much ; but I don't think that would 
 be very wise of you. Wouldn't it be rather unprofes- 
 sional harboring a criminal ? I don't know anything of 
 the law regarding such matters, but I've an idea that 
 you would run the risk of unpleasantness. No ; thanks ! 
 I'll go to Morlet's. They know me, and " he smiled 
 " will give me shelter for to-night. To-morrow I will 
 give myself up after breakfast, if I'm permitted to get 
 through that meal in liberty." 
 
 The partners assented to this. 
 
 " We have got Sir James, Lord Gaunt," said Mr. Pel- 
 ford, " and I need scarcely say that he will do all he can. 
 He is the very best man. By the way, Mr. Boskett ap- 
 peared against us at the inquest. lie was retained by 
 Mr. Mershon." 
 
 Gaunt had heard of the famous Old Bailey barrister. 
 He smiled grimly. 
 
 " I understand," he said. 
 
 " But do you ? " demanded Mr. Pelford, desperately. 
 " Do you realize the the awful position in which you 
 stand, Lord Gaunt ? " 
 
 Gaunt got up from the chair and lit a fresh cigarette. 
 
 " I think so," he said. " At any rate, I know that you
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 193 
 
 will do your best for me, Mr. Pelforcl ; and I am grate- 
 ful. I will go now. You said that Miss Deane was 
 was better?" 
 
 " Yes, yes," replied Mr. Pelford, impatiently. " We 
 will go with you to the hotel." 
 
 " Xo, do not," said Gaunt. " You are better known 
 than I am, and might attract attention, and, candidly, I 
 should like to spend to-night in a comfortable bed, even if 
 I do not sleep. Good-night. Come to me in the morning. 
 If I am arrested before you come I will send for you." 
 
 He shook hands with them and went with his light, 
 firm step down the stairs. 
 
 The two lawyers gasped at each other in blank dismay. 
 
 "I always said that there was madness in the family ! " 
 exclaimed Mr. Pelford. " He takes it as coolly as if if. 
 it Avere a case of ' a month or forty shillings ! ' ' 
 
 " I don't believe he did it ! " remarked Mr. Lang. 
 
 "Then who did? " retorted Mr. Pelford ; and Mr. 
 Lang could not answer. 
 
 Gaunt went clown into the street. His coolness and 
 sang-froid had been quite free from affectation. Now 
 that Decima was better, it did not in the very least de- 
 gree matter what became of him. The lamps had been 
 lit, and the streets of the largest and wealthiest city in 
 the world were wrapped in their usual gloom. That 
 same gloom which is one of the things which fill the 
 intelligent foreigner, visiting our land for the first time, 
 with amazement and dismay. 
 
 It was rather a long walk from Pelford & Lang's office 
 to Morlet's, but Gaunt welcomed it. It gave him time 
 to think. Mr. Dobson, notwithstanding the evidence 
 against Gaunt, had been so assured of his innocence that 
 he had tried, with flattering eagerness, to dissuade Gaunt 
 from returning to England and giving himself up ; but 
 Gaunt had refused to be dissuaded. The Gaunts, what- 
 ever their sins and, as a family, they were peculiarly 
 rich in this respect had never lacked courage, and Gaunt 
 had resolved to " face the music." 
 
 He insisted upon Mr. Dobson making for Southampton, 
 and Mr. Dobson had at last, driven to it by entreaties 
 and arguments, consented. 
 
 As to the result of his surrender Gaunt was perfectly/
 
 194 HER IIEAirrs DESI1JE. 
 
 indifferent. He was weary of the game which wo Ia1>el 
 " life," and though he would have preferred to finish it 
 >me other place than on the scaffold, he did not care 
 very much so that it were finished. He had lost Decima 
 forever, and for him life with all i 
 over. 
 
 Leaving Pelford & Lang's offices, he walked slowly and 
 thoughtfully toward Morlet's hot 
 
 A> he turned the corner hy 1 Jerry 5 
 ran against a man who was slouching' along tl. 
 nii-iit. The man wa.s walking with a peculiar, dragging 
 gait, and had his coat collar turned up, and his hands 
 thrust in his pockets. For an instant it struck Gaunt 
 that there was something familiar to him in the manner 
 of the man, and as he, Gaunt, muttered " Pardon ! " he 
 looked after him. The man made no response and Gaunt 
 walked, on. 
 
 Presently he heard footsteps behind him. 
 
 A detective,-' lie said to himself. "I shall not sleep 
 in a comfortable bed to-night, after all." 
 
 He walked on. The footsteps behind him grew close, 
 and Gaunt, almost at the entrance to Morlet's pulled up 
 short, and glanced round. The man who had been follow- 
 ing him pulled up as shortly and the two looked at each 
 other in the light of the street lamp. 
 
 Gaunt recognized the "shadow," and was the fir- 
 speak. 
 
 " Jackson ! " he said. 
 
 The man started, hung his head, then raised i: 
 looked at Gaunt with a dull, vacant intensity. 
 
 "Why, it is you, Jackson!" said Gaunt. ' How did 
 you come here ? I'm glad to see you ! " 
 
 Mr. Jackson's lips moved as if he found it difficult to 
 articulate. 
 
 "I I thought it was you, and so sol followed," he 
 said. " I landed at Portsmouth this morning. I only 
 reached London this afternoon." 
 
 Now there is no one for whom you feel a keener in- 
 terest than the man whose life you have saved at the risk 
 of your own; and Gaunt, notwithstanding his natural 
 reserve, felt pity toward this waif and stray. So, ho 
 regarded Jackson with a frank smile of welcome.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 195 
 
 " I read of your safe landing at Mogador," he said. 
 
 Jackson nodded, and looked from side to side in an ab- 
 stracted fashion. 
 
 " Yes ; they took us to the Canaries, and the mail 
 steamer brought us back to England." 
 
 " But you wanted to go to Africa ? " remarked Gaunt. 
 
 Jackson gazed up at the leaden London sky, and then 
 at the nearest lamp. 
 
 "Yes, I did. But it didn't matter." 
 
 " Not matter ! " said Gaunt. He looked at the man 
 attentively. Jackson seemed thinner than he had been 
 on. board the Pevensey Castle. His face was white, his 
 eyelids red and swollen, and his bearing and manner 
 those of a man who has been drinking heavily, or is very 
 ill. 
 
 u Xo," .said Jackson, dully ; " it didn't matter." 
 
 " Where are you going ? " asked Gaunt. 
 
 It seemed to him that, having saved the man's life he 
 was, in a sense, responsible for his future welfare. 
 
 " I don't know," said Jackson, indifferently. 
 
 " You'd better come with me," said Gaunt. " I am 
 going to Morlet's Hotel. They'll be able to find a room 
 for you, I dare say. You look you look tired." 
 
 " I am wet, and I am tired," said Jackson. 
 
 They went up the highly-respectable steps of Mor- 
 let's, and the highly respectable Wilkins met them at 
 the door ; it is scarcely necessary to say that the highly- 
 respectable Wilkins sustained a severe shock at the sight 
 of Lord Gaunt. 
 
 " My my lord ! " he gasped. 
 
 Gaunt nodded and smiled at him. 
 
 " All right, Wilkins," he said, easily. " I want a room 
 a couple of rooms one for my friend here, for to-nigltt 
 only. You are looking well, Wilkins. Can I have my 
 old room ? " 
 
 If Lord Gaunt had been ten times the criminal the 
 world believed him to be, Wilkins could not have re- 
 sisted that smile or the tone which accompanied it. He 
 led the way in a solemn and impressive silence. 
 
 " You'll give us some dinner anything, Wilkins," said 
 Lord Gaunt, as easily as before : and Wilkins, all in a 
 flutter, could only bow and respond with :
 
 196 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Certainly, my lord ! " 
 
 (-iaunt waited until the man Jackson had been con- 
 ducted to his room, then went to his own and washed. 
 
 When he came down, Jackson was standing before the 
 fire, and Gaunt saw, more plainly than lie had seen in the 
 street, the wasted and woebegone countenance of the man 
 he had saved from a watery grave. 
 
 The dinner was served an admirable dinner, consider- 
 ing the shortness of the notice; but neither of the two 
 men could do it justice. Gaunt was thinking of Decima. 
 and the charge that hung over his head, and Jackson also 
 appeared to be over- weighted by trouble. 
 
 "A good dinner wasted," said Gaunt, with an attempt 
 at cheerfulness. " There is a reason for my \vant of ap- 
 petite, but I don't know of any for yours, Mr. Jackson. 
 Will you have some of this souffle ? " 
 
 " Xo, thanks ! " said Jackson. " I I should like some 
 brandy." 
 
 Gaunt signed to Wilkins, and he brought the desired 
 spirit. Jackson drank half a tumbler off. 
 
 ' What's the reason you can't enjoy your dinner ? " he 
 -asked, regarding Gaunt with lack-lustre eyes, round 
 which were rims as red as if they had been painted. 
 
 Gaunt smiled grimly. 
 
 " Well, I suppose because it is the last I shall eat in 
 liberty freedom for some time," he replied. 
 
 " What do you mean? " demanded Jackson. 
 
 Gaunt lit a cigarette. 
 
 " You know my name ? " he asked. 
 
 Jackson nodded. 
 
 ' And have read the papers the newspapers ? " 
 
 Jackson shook his head. 
 
 Xo ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " said Gaunt, reluctantly. " If you had, it would 
 have saved me an explanation. I am Edward Barnard 
 Gaunt, and I am charged with the murder of of my wife 
 at Prince's Mansions."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 197 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 JACKSON- set down the glass untasted which he had 
 been raising to his lips. His manner was so indicative of 
 surprise, amazement, that Gaunt stared at him. 
 
 " Do you mean to say that you have not seen a paper 
 a London paper ? " he asked. 
 
 Jackson moistened his lips with his tongue. 
 
 " Xo," he said ; " I I haven't seen a paper. I I know- 
 nothing about it. There was no paper on board the ship 
 that took us off from Mogador." 
 
 Gaunt sighed. 
 
 " It's soon told," he said. " A woman was murdered at 
 one of the flats at Prince's Mansions What is the- 
 matter ? " he broke off, as Jackson half rose from his seat. 
 
 " Xothing nothing ! " said Jackson, with the hollow 
 cough which Gaunt had noticed several times during the 
 meal. 
 
 " She was murdered stabbed with a Persian dagger. 
 The dagger was mine. The coat thrown over her a fur- 
 coat, easy to identify was my coat ; and " he paused 
 " the woman was my wife ! " 
 
 " Yours ! " ejaculated Jackson. 
 
 He gripped the table with both hands and stared at 
 Gaunt with his hollow, bloodshot eyes, with a gaze half 
 of amazement, half of terror. 
 
 "Yes, mine!" said Gaunt, leaning back in his chair 
 and gazing moodily at the tablecloth. " She was my 
 wife. I married her, thinking her all that was good and 
 pure, and innocent. I loved her. But that's a different 
 part of the story. The salient facts are that she was 
 found murdered in my rooms. That I had been 
 there ! " 
 
 " You ! You had been there ! " ejaculated Jackson. 
 
 " Yes," said Gaunt: He had almost forgotten his au- 
 ditor and was communing with himself. "I had been 
 there- She came in while I was there, and there was a 
 scene. I dare say I threatened her God knows she 
 tried me hardly enough ! and I was very likely over- 
 heard by the servants. In short, Mr. Jackson, the evi-
 
 198 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 deuce is very black against me. I tell you all this be- 
 cause yon may object to continue an acquaintance with a 
 man who lies under so heavy a charge, and whom you 
 will probably think guilty.'' 
 
 Jackson leaned back in his chair and with his head 
 sunk between his shoulders, coughed appallingly and 
 stared at Gaunt. 
 
 " If you'd like to say ' Good-by ' and go to another 
 hotel/' said Gaunt, " pray do so. I shall not be offended, 
 or deem your desire to cut my acquaintance an unreason- 
 able one." 
 
 i - She was your wife ? " said Jackson, in a hollow voice, 
 and apparently ignoring Gaunt's suggestion. " Your 
 wife ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Gaunt, with a sigh. " And, when I think 
 of her lying dead, I can only remember that I once loved 
 her, and I can forgive her all the misery she caused me." 
 
 Again he spoke more to himself than to Jackson, who, 
 sunk deeply in his chair, looked a ghastly object, and 
 scarcely capable of understanding the case, but presently, 
 without taking his bloodshot eyes from Gaunt's face, he 
 said : 
 
 " If the evidence against you is so strong, why, in the 
 devil's name, did you come back ? You might have got 
 off in that yacht, and there would have been no more 
 bother." 
 
 Gaunt raised his eyebrows slightly. 
 
 " If I had been guilty, I suppose that is what I should 
 have done," he said ; " but I am innocent. Of course I 
 do not insist upon your believing me " 
 
 Jackson made a movement with his hand. 
 
 - And, being innocent, of course, I have come back to 
 face the thing. What else could I do ? " he added 
 simply. 
 
 Jackson's eyes wandered round the room, then returned, 
 with their fixed stare, to Gaunt's face. 
 
 " You take it coolly ! " he said, hoarsely, and with an 
 oath. " Suppose suppose they find you guilty ?" 
 
 " Then I shall not be the first man who has suffered 
 innocently," said Gaunt, gravely. 
 
 Jackson got up from his chair with difficulty, and went 
 and leaned against the mantel. The short journey
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 199 
 
 brought on his cough again, and he bent double, and put 
 his handkerchief to his lips. As he took it away Gaunt 
 saw that there was blood upon it. 
 
 "I'm afraid you're very ill, Mr. Jackson," he said. 
 " Don't you think you had better go to bed, and let me 
 send for the doctor V " 
 
 Jackson waved the suggestion away impatiently. 
 
 " I'm all right," he said, sullenly. " Who who did 
 this murder ? " he asked, hoarsely. 
 
 Gaunt shook his head. 
 
 "I have not the least idea. I know nothing of my 
 wife's life since I left her, or her recent movements, and 
 I suppose the police are so assured of my guilt that they 
 didn't deem it necessary to" look in any other direction." 
 
 A curious gleam shot for a moment into Jackson's 
 eyes as he bent over the fire. 
 
 " The police are fools ! " he said. " I suppose any one 
 could have got into the flat, the room ? What's the name 
 of the Mansions ? " he asked, with a cunning glance at 
 Gaunt. 
 
 " Prince's Mansions," said Gaunt. " I do not think so, 
 The servants would have seen any one enter." 
 
 Jackson smiled ; his back was to Gaunt. 
 
 "If I'd been the detective in charge of the case, I 
 should have raked up her past life ; I should have found 
 out what friends she had : who she'd quarreled witli 
 lately. They're fools ! " 
 
 He turned round and looked at Gaunt ; his face was 
 flushed with a kind of childish satisfaction, and ho began 
 to laugh in a meaningless fashion, but the laugh was cut 
 short by the awful hacking cough and again the hand- 
 kerchief was stained with blood. 
 
 " Look here, Jackson," said Gaunt, " I must insist upon 
 your going to bed, and having the doctor. You see, I 
 somehow feel responsible for you, having brought you 
 here." 
 
 " Yes, I know," said Jackson. " You saved my life ; 
 you gave up your place in the boat " 
 
 " I wasn't thinking of that," said Gaunt quickly. 
 
 " Xo, but I was ! " broke in Jackson, in a hollow voice. 
 " I am bad, I know ; but you don't suppose you're the 
 only man who isn't afraid of death, do you ? Perhaps
 
 200 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 I've got as much pluck as you have," he added, with a 
 kind of defiance. 
 
 ' My good fellow, I don't doubt your courage," said 
 Gaunt. "And, as to being afraid of death, life isn't 
 such a desirable thing for most of us that we should cling 
 to it very desperately. But j^ou're a young man, Jackson, 
 and have got all the world before you, and you ought to 
 take better care of yourself." 
 
 Jackson stared at him gloomily. 
 
 " You're young yourself," he said, " and rich. I sup- 
 pose " Gaunt shrugged his shoulders " and a noble- 
 man. What's the matter with life that you should get 
 so d d anxious to lose it? " 
 
 Gaunt smiled grimly. 
 
 " Life is just what we make of it, Jackson," he said. 
 *' I've made a mess of mine and, candidly, I am exceed- 
 ingly sorry that the Sea Wolf happened to lose her way 
 in the fog that night. But I won't bore you any longer 
 with the story of my griefs and sorrows," he added, with 
 a smile. He rose as he spoke, poured out a glass of the 
 Morlet port it was excellent wine and carried it to 
 Jackson. " Drink that,'' he said. I don't think it will 
 hurt you ; then go to bed. I'll send for my doctor to- 
 morrow ; he's a clever fellow, and will put you right, I 
 hope." 
 
 Jackson took the glass and drank the wine, looking 
 steadily at Gaunt as he did so. 
 
 " Don't trouble to send for your doctor," he said. " He 
 couldn't do any good. I'm past tinkering : I know that. 
 I've led the devil's own life for some time past, and that 
 night in the fog off Mogador put the finishing touch." 
 
 He set the empty glass down on the mantel-shelf and 
 moved to the door. He was a young man, as Gaunt had 
 said, but he looked a very old one, and very bad and 
 feeble at that, as he shuffled along, with his red head 
 bowed on his breast and his hands hanging limply at his 
 .side. 
 
 At the door he paused, and looked round the room and 
 then at Gaunt. 
 
 " Good -night," he said. "I haven't forgotten what' 
 you've done for me. You're a brave man, Lord Gaunt, 
 and I d n it, I admire you."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 201 
 
 " Thanks," said Gaunt, with a smile. " Good-night, or 
 rather good-by. I expect I shall be gone before you come 
 down to-morrow. Don't hurry up, but take a long rest. 
 Oh, by the way ! Do you happen to want any money ? 
 If so " 
 
 He took out his purse. He still felt as if, having saved 
 the man's life, he was in a sense responsible for his welfare. 
 
 Jackson's face grew red, then livid, and he looked at 
 Gaunt with a curious expression in his bloodshot eyes. 
 
 "I've got plenty of money," he said, brusquely. 
 *' Good-night ! " and he left the room. 
 
 Gaunt was not sorry to lose him for though he had 
 saved the man's life and was anxious to befriend him, he 
 did not like him, but perhaps for that very reason he 
 felt that he must look after him, and do the best for him. 
 It was like Gaunt to think of another man, even in the 
 midst of his own terrible trouble. 
 
 He drew his chair to the fire, and lit a pipe, and is it 
 necessary to say ? began to think of Decima. 
 
 He spent a couple of hours in the delightful occupation 
 of thinking how exquisite a thing life would have been 
 if he had met his girl-love years ago ; if he had not mar- 
 ried ; if Life is made up of " ifs." He sighed, rose 
 and stretched himself and went out into the hall. 
 
 Wilkins was standing there as if waiting for him. 
 
 " Well, Wilkins," he said cheerfully. " I suppose you 
 know whom you have been harboring ? " 
 
 Wilkins colored, then became pale. 
 
 " I'll never believe you did it, my lord ! " he said, with 
 agitation. 
 
 " Thank you," said Gaunt. " As a matter of fact, I 
 didn't. Have me called early to-morrow, Wilkins, will 
 you? I should like to have my breakfast before the 
 police come." 
 
 " Certainly, my lord," said Wilkins, with a gasp. " I 
 'ope your lordship don't blame me ? I had to give evi- 
 dence." 
 
 Gaunt smiled rather wearily. 
 
 " I don't blame any one but myself," he said. " Good- 
 night." 
 
 He was very tired, and he slept soundly. He dreamed 
 of Decima that night ; as he had dreamed how often !
 
 202 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 He thought lie saw her standing at a distance from him 
 and smiling at him. But she was a long way off, and 
 though he stretched out his hands toward her, he could 
 not reach her. 
 
 He came down to breakfast the next morning as calm 
 and self-possessed as usual. Wilkins \vas waiting as if 
 nothing were the matter. 
 
 " Where is Mr. Jackson ? " asked Gaunt. 
 
 Wilkins coughed. 
 
 " He left the hotel early this morning, my lord," he said. 
 
 Gaunt shook his head. 
 
 " I'm afraid he was not fit to go out," 
 
 " Xo, my lord," said Wilkins. " I heard the gentleman 
 coughing all night ; it was something dreadful." 
 
 " Take care of him, if he comes 1 ack," said Gaunt. " He 
 ought to be in bed, and under a doctor's care." 
 
 Gaunt ate his breakfast, and he was lighting a cigarette 
 when Wilkins announced two gentlemen. They were Mr. 
 Pelford and Mr. Burns, the detective in charge of the c. 
 
 Mr. Pelford was very pale and evidently struggling 
 with his agitation. 
 
 " This is Mr. Burns, Lord Gaunt," he said, the detec- 
 tive." 
 
 Gaunt nodded, and Mr. Burns looked at him keenly. 
 
 " Sorry to disturb you, my lord," he said. 
 
 " Xot at all," said Gaunt. " I'm afraid I've given you a 
 great deal of trouble, Mr. Burns : quite unwittingly. 
 Will you take a cup of coffee ? Xo ! A cigarett 
 
 He handed his cigarette case. 
 
 Mr. Burns was rather staggered. He had had a large 
 experience with criminals, small and great, but he had 
 never met with one quite so cool as this. 
 
 " I'm afraid I have an unpleasant duty to perform, my 
 lord," he said. 
 
 " Most duties are unpleasant, Mr. Burns," said Gaunt. 
 " You have come to arrest me I suppose." 
 
 "I'm afraid so, my lord," said the detective. "I need 
 not warn your lordship that I shall be obliged to use 
 anything you may say against you." 
 
 " Quite so ! " said Gaunt. ' Wilkins, may I trouble 
 you to get my hat and coat ? " 
 
 " I wish to remark," said Mr. Pelford, with an agita-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 203 
 
 tion in strong contrast to Gaunt's coolness, " that Lord 
 Gaunt has come back to England of his own free will, and 
 with some difficulty, to meet this charge." 
 
 " I quite understand that," said Mr. Burns. " I've got 
 a brougham outside. We shall drive straight to Hollo- 
 way." 
 
 It was a long drive to Hdlloway, but they reached it at 
 last, and the governor of the prison received his famous 
 charge courteously. As Gaunt was only a " suspect," and 
 had not yet even been examined, though committed on 
 the coroner's warrant, the governor was able to allot him 
 fairly comfortable quarters, and Gaunt found himself in a 
 fairly large and decently furnished room. 
 
 " This is quite luxurious," he said. 
 
 The. governor smiled apologetically, and Mr Pelford 
 looked around with a sigh. Presently he was alone with 
 Gaunt. 
 
 " Is there anything that you can tell me anything that 
 will help us, Lord Gaunt ? " he said. 
 
 Gaunt seated himself on the bed and shrugged his 
 shoulders. 
 
 " I'm afraid not, Mr. Pelford," he said. " If I were to 
 go over it all, I should only repeat the evidence against 
 me. I cannot deny that I was at Prince's Mansions the 
 night of the the murder ; that the poor woman, my wife, 
 came in while I was there ; that I had a scene with her 
 a scene which is engraved on my memory, and I fear 
 will never leave it and that I left her storming against 
 me. It was my coat that was found covering her ; it was 
 my dagger with which she was stabbed. Against these 
 facts my bare assertion that I did not kill her will weigh 
 but very little, I am afraid." 
 
 Mr. Pelford went to the window, heavily barred, and 
 stared out into the prison courtyard. 
 
 The case looked very black. 
 
 He remained with Gaunt for half an hour, talking over 
 the thing, until Gaunt was weary and sick at heart ; then." 
 he went and Gaunt was left alone. 
 
 He was almost glail of the quietude. He was free to 
 think of Decima. 
 
 Certain privileges, which to a free man would seem of 
 very little worth, but which to a prisoner are valued ex-
 
 204 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 ceedingly, were permitted him. His meals were sent in 
 by the nearest hotel ; there was a goodly supply of news- 
 papers and magazines. But Gaunt could not read and he 
 could not do justice to the dishes which had been so con- 
 siderately supplied. 
 
 The short winter day was drawing to a close, when 
 there came a knock at the door and the governor entered. 
 
 " There are some visitors for you, Lord Gaunt,'' he said. 
 
 Gaunt rose from the bed on which he was lying. 
 
 " Oh, very well," he said, 
 
 He thought it might be Mr. Pelford or Mr. Lang ; but 
 the governor ushered in Mr. Bright and Bobby. 
 
 For the first time Gaunt's self-possession forsook him, 
 and he could not speak as Bobby rushed forward and took 
 his hand ; but he recovered his usual sang-froid in a 
 moment or two. 
 
 " This is good of you, Bobby ! " he said. 
 
 " We got a wire this morning," gasped Bobby ; " and 
 Bright and I came up ! " 
 ' Gaunt shook hands with Bright. 
 
 " I'm fated to be a trouble to you, Bright," he said. 
 
 Bright could not find his voice for a moment, then he 
 panted : 
 
 " Thank God, you are alive ! Oh, what is to be done, 
 my lord ? " 
 
 Gaunt shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Not very mu^h, I'm afraid, Bright," he said. Then 
 he turned to Bobby quickly : 
 
 " Is your sister, Miss Deane, quite well ? " 
 
 " Yes yes ! " replied Bobby. " She's all right, She' 
 here with Lady Pauline ! ? ' 
 
 Gaunt winced, and the color left his face. 
 
 " Here ! Xot here in the prison ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Bobby. " She would come ; nothing could 
 stop her." 
 
 " I am sorry ! " said Gaunt, gravely. " "Will you not 
 take her back, Bobby ? " 
 
 Bobby shook his head. 
 
 " No," he said. " It wouldn't be any use asking hei\ 
 You don't know Decima ! " 
 
 Do I not?" thought Gaunt. 
 
 " The moment we got the telegram," said Bobby, " she
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 205 
 
 insisted upon coming up. She said she'd been there at 
 the Mansions, that night, and she might help you." 
 
 " I know," said Gaunt, quietly. " That your sister was 
 there is my greatest trouble. That she should be mixed 
 up with this affair, that her name should be mentioned in 
 connection with it, causes me greater grief than anything 
 else. Will you tell her that I am deeply grateful to her 
 for coming, but that I I 
 
 " Tell her yourself," said Bobby. " She's outside in the 
 corridor waiting." 
 
 Gaunt sank on the bed and remained silent for a minute 
 or two. Heaven alone knew how he longed to see her ; but 
 Heaven alone knew how keenly he desired that she should 
 not be in any way associated with his trouble. 
 
 " I play this hand alone," he said to Bobby with a sad 
 smile. " Tell your sister that I am sorry she came ; that 
 I am grateful to her ; but that I shall be glad if she will 
 go back home and forget that such a person as I ever 
 existed." 
 
 "I'll tell her," said Bobby, "but " 
 
 They talked, Bright and Bobby, one against the other. 
 Of course they assured Gaunt of their belief in his inno- 
 cence, and their assurance that his innocence would be 
 proved. They were both very excited and very agitated ; 
 but Gaunt was quite cool and self-possessed. As a matter 
 of fact, he was thinking of Decima ; that she was there, 
 near him, in the corridor !, Bobby and Bright would have 
 remained for any length of time, but at last Gaunt dis- 
 missed them. 
 
 Bright and Bobby, as agitated as when they had en- 
 tered, left the cell, and Gaunt paced up and down. 
 
 Presently he heard a knock; the warder opened the door. 
 
 " A lady to see you, my lord," he said. He stood aside 
 and Decima entered. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 DECIMA came in and they stood looking at each other 
 in silence. Gaunt could not have spoken or moved if his 
 life had depended upon his doing so. And as he looked 
 at her he saw, with a pang of remorse, the change that 
 had taken place in her.
 
 206 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 The face, the form, were girlish still ; but on the face 
 was an expression which only comes to those who have 
 passed the brook which divides girlhood from woman- 
 hood ; and in the lovely eyes was a look which told him 
 all too plainly how much she had suffered. 
 
 But to the man whose heart ached with love for her, 
 how beautiful she was ! How her presence seemed to 
 bring a ray of sunlight, a glow of warmth into the cell! 
 And yet he would have done much to prevent her coming. 
 It seemed to him that she suffered desecration by breath- 
 ing the prison air, as if her purity were polluted by her 
 surroundings. 
 
 He would have liked to take her in his arms and carry 
 her outside, far away from the hateful, degrading place. 
 
 She looked at him steadily, with a grave sadness Avhich 
 he had never seen before in her eyes, and it smote him 
 with an added remorse. He had found her an innocent, 
 light-hearted girl ; it was he and his love that had robbed 
 her youth of its brightness and its faith, and its innocence. 
 
 lie met her gaze for an instant, then his eyes fell. She 
 sighed. She had not offered him her hand he had 
 noticed that and she stood apart from him as she spoke. 
 
 "I came at once directly I heard," she said. 
 
 Her voice thrilled through him, and yet how low and 
 grave it was ; how different to that he remembered! 
 Was it Decima who was speaking, or an angel who had 
 Avon her way to Heaven through the ordeal of sorrow and 
 suffering '? 
 
 ' 1 am sorry ! ' he said, hoarsely. " You you should 
 not have come ! This this is no fit place for you ! " 
 
 Commonplace words enough, but she knew the feeling, 
 the emotion, which they masked. 
 
 " Ah, yes ! " she said, with a faint smile. " They said 
 at first I must not come ; but when I explained 
 She stopped. " I knew you were not dead ! " Her voice 
 broke. " I I felt that you were not. But but I was 
 glad when I heard ! " Her eyes filled with tears, but .->he 
 checked them. " Aunt Pauline came with me. ' She is in 
 the corridor." 
 
 "I will ask her to come in," he said, scarcely knowing 
 what he said. 
 
 " No ; do not. I told her that I wished to see you alone.'*
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 207 
 
 He bowed his head. 
 
 " Why r 1 I am sorry you have come ! It it hurts me 
 to see you here in this place." 
 
 " I know," she said, simply, as if she understood him 
 fully. 
 
 " All through this this awful business I have had one 
 paramount desire that you, that your name, should not 
 be connected with it ! I have brought you unhappiness 
 enough, surely ! You might have been spared this crown- 
 ing misery ! " 
 
 " I knew that you would think as you do, and that is 
 why I came," she said in the same sweet, low voice. 
 
 He looked at her in helpless pain. 
 
 " I know that you would rather suffer anything, run any 
 risk than that I should appear." 
 
 " Yes ! " he said. " God knows I would ! It seems to 
 me that nothing else matters ! " 
 
 " Oh, do not say that ! " she broke in, with a catch in 
 her voice. "Do not say that, when when so much is at 
 stake your liberty, your safety " 
 
 " You must not think of them ! " he responded, quickly. 
 " I have brought it all on myself." 
 
 " Ah, no, no ! " she cried. Xot that ! You did not do 
 it you are innocent ! " 
 
 " Of the crime with which I am charged yes ! " he said ; 
 " but "- bitterly " I am guilty of having wrecked your 
 life of having caused you unhappiness." 
 
 She shook her head slightly, with a faint smile that was 
 infinitely sad. 
 
 " Xo ; it it was my fault. If you had never seen me " 
 
 " Don't ! " he broke in, hoarsely. " You know that no 
 shadow of blame can rest on you. None none whatever. 
 No punishment I might suffer for anything I have done, 
 or not done, could atone for the wrong I have done you. 
 It is that thought that makes me say and feel that noth- 
 ing that can happen to me can matter in the very least. 
 I have only one desire, and that is that you should come 
 to forget me, and all that concerns me ; I dare not hope 
 that you will eves forgive " 
 
 Her head dropped, then she looked at him. 
 
 " I have forgiven ! " she said, simply. " It it was not 
 hard. If if you had not cared for me "
 
 208 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 He uttered a broken exclamation ; but she went on 
 calmly, sadly, her eyes meeting his bravely, with a kind 
 of sad resignation " You you would not have asked me 
 have wished me to go with you." 
 
 " That that does not palliate " he said, hoarsely. 
 
 " Ah, yes ! " she said, and all the woman spoke in her 
 tone. " Yes, I remember that, when when I remember 
 that mgln." 
 
 A faint color passed over her pale face quickly. 
 
 He hung his head. 
 
 " That is like you," he said, humbly, gratefully. " It 
 was like you to come here to tell me this. And God 
 knows how great a comfort to me it is ! It will lighten 
 the burden of my remorse. And and you will go now ; 
 you will not appear take any part in this business ? " 
 
 " I must," she said in a low voice, but with a touch of 
 firmness which was a full tribute to Lady Pauline's 
 teaching. 
 
 " I know that you would rather run any risk to spare 
 me, and it is because of that I have come to tell you that 
 you must not let any thought of my comfort stand in the 
 way of helping you. I was there that night ; I may be 
 able to tell them something that may help to prove your 
 innocence 
 
 He raised his head with a movement indicative of repu- 
 diation. 
 
 " You must not ! " he said. " I I could not bear to see 
 you in court before the public, with every eye upon you. 
 I would rather " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Tell me how I can help you," she said, breaking in 
 upon his speech gently but firmly. " If I tell them all all 
 I know ; all that happened, it may be of use 
 
 He groaned and turned aside, that she might not see the 
 agony on his face. 
 
 " It would not help me ! " he said, almost brusquely ; 
 for it was difficult for him to speak. " It would not help 
 me at all. And if it would, I could not let you do it 
 There there is enough evidence without yours 
 
 He stopped, for she had shuddered, and her face had 
 grown even paler. 
 
 " Do you mean ? Ah, no, no ! They could not 1 God
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 209 
 
 would not let them find you guilty ! He could not, could 
 not ! " 
 
 She began to tremble. With an effort, she mastered 
 her emotion, and was calm again. 
 
 " Something will be discovered, she said, struggling 
 to steady her voice. " It must be ! The person who 
 who is guilty will be found." 
 
 " Yes ; yos ! " he said, with an assumption of confidence. 
 " Xo doubt he will be. The the police are clever, and " 
 
 " Are you only saying it to give me courage ? " she asked, 
 scanning his face anxiously. 
 
 lie forced a smile. 
 
 " We will hope for the best," he said. " My lawyers 
 will do their utmost on my behalf. You have been 
 yen- ill? " 
 
 He broke off abruptly, and with an infinite remorse and 
 grief in his voice. 
 
 " Yes ; I have been ill," she said. " But I am quite well 
 and strong now. If if I could only be sure you were safe ! " 
 
 " Do not think of me ! " he said, quickly. " But if you 
 must, remember that you cannot help me ; that if you were 
 dragged into the business it would only increase my un- 
 happiness." 
 
 " You think of me always of me ! Not of yourself ! " 
 she said almost to herself. " Never of yourself." 
 
 "Do I not?" he said, bitterly. "When have I not 
 thought of myself and my selfish desires ? " 
 
 She looked at him with a wistful tenderness. 
 
 " Shall I tell you ? When you strove to make the poor 
 people at Leafmore happier and more contented ; when 
 you when you went away lest lest you should say to 
 me what you said that night. When you gave up your 
 place in the boat to another man. Ah, yes ! I have heard 
 it all ; and and my heart has swelled with pride ! And 
 that is not all. You were not thinking of yourself when 
 you sent the money to save father and Bobby and me ! " 
 
 Gaunt reddened, and bit his lip. 
 
 " You know ? Who told you ? " 
 
 " No one ! " she said. " But do you think I could not 
 guess ? " 
 
 He looked aside for a moment. Then he said, with sad 
 bitterness :
 
 1>10 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 ' And now, I suppose, you will refuse it refuse any- 
 thing, ever so small a thing from my hands?" 
 
 ' Xo,""she said, simply. " I will not. I know that - 
 that it would pain you. I wanted to refuse, until until 
 I thought it all over ; then I saw that it would be wrong 
 to do so. It would have been, as if as if I had refused 
 to to forgive you." 
 
 lie stretched out his hands. 
 
 - <;<>d bless you, Decimal " he said, in a broken voice. 
 "You have found the way to ease my heart of its load! " 
 
 "I know!" she said, as simply as before. " Some day 
 we shall pay it back. Aunt Pauline But I will not let 
 you think me ungrateful and churlish." 
 
 He could not speak for a moment : the exquisite sweet- 
 ness of her reasoning overcame him as nothing else could 
 have done. 
 
 " There is no one like you ! " he said, at last, with a 
 kind of reverential despair. " No one ! All, how could I 
 help loving you? Ah, forgive me ! " for she had winced 
 and shrank back slightly enough but he had perceived it. 
 "Forgive me ! " 
 
 There was a world of grief and remorse in his voi 
 his face. For he felt at that moment that, though the 
 old barrier had been removed, his conduct had raised a 
 new one. He loved her still, and she might love him still, 
 hut the gulf yawned between them, and he himself had 
 dug it. 
 
 Lady Pauline came to the door. She inclined her head 
 to Gaunt, but addressed Decima : 
 
 "Are you ready, Decima V The time has expired." 
 
 "Yes, aunt," said Decima, and with a sigh. 
 
 " I have to thank Miss Deane for coming here, 
 Pauline," (Jaunt said as steadily as he could. " I have as- 
 sured her that she cannot help me by by appearing in 
 court ; that I most earnestly entreat her not to do so ! ' 
 
 Lady Pauline inclined her head again. 
 
 " My niece has only clone her duty in coming to you, 
 Lord Gaunt," she said in even tones, " a duty which I 
 could not refuse to recognize." 
 
 lie bowed with his old courteousness. 
 
 " Knowing all "he paused. 
 
 Yes," she said. " My niece has told me everything.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 211 
 
 " You will not need any assurance of my remorse ; will 
 not doubt my assertion that there is nothing I would not 
 do or suffer to spare her a moment's unhappiness dis- 
 comfort ? " Lady Pauline regarded him solemnly. 
 
 " I believe in the sincerity of your desire to spare her, 
 Lord Gaunt," she said; "but it is part of our punishment 
 that we are helpless to avert the consequences of our mis- 
 deeds from falling upon those who are innocent, and whom 
 we most desire to shield." 
 
 " That is so," said Gaunt simply, and the commonplace 
 assent was more eloquent of his pain and misery than a 
 more ornate response would have been. 
 
 " Aunt ! " murmured Decima, appealingly. 
 
 " We will go," said Lady Pauline. " It is only fair 
 and just that I should assure you of my conviction of 
 your innocence of the awful crime laid to your charge, 
 Lord Gaunt," she added. 
 
 Gaunt inclined his head. " Thank you, Lady Pauline. 
 Yes, I am innocent of that! " he said, quietly. 
 
 Lady Pauline went outside again, and Decima, who had 
 been standing with an expression of pain in her lowered 
 eyes, raised them to Gaunt's face. 
 
 " Good-by ! " she said in a low voice. 
 
 She did not hold out her hand, and that she did not 
 do so hurt him. He did not know that she dared not run 
 the risk of touching him ! 
 
 " Good-by ! God bless and keep you ! " he said, almost 
 in a whisper. 
 
 Her eyes rested upon his with an infinite sadness and 
 tenderness, then she drew them away slowly, and with a 
 sigh left the cell. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 WHEX- Decima had left the cell, taking all the light and 
 warmth with her, as it seemed to Gaunt, he sat on the 
 bed with his face in his hands, thinking of every word she 
 had said, recalling the sweet face, with its new expression 
 of sadness and resignation. 
 
 He asked himself why Fate had sent him across her 
 path, why Heaven permitted one of its angels to suffer as 
 she had suffered, simply through loving him.
 
 212 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 Alas ! This kind of question is not only futile, but re- 
 coils upon the questioner. Why the innocent should 
 suffer with the guilty ; why the woman should suffer 
 through her love for the man, are interrogations which 
 remain unanswered, even by theologians, who are sup- 
 posed to know everything, 
 
 Gaunt was so engrossed in thinking of Deciina that he 
 could scarcely turn his attention to his own affairs, 
 though in all truth they were grave and serious enough. 
 
 Mr. Pelford brought Sir James, the great counsel, the 
 next morning, and they went over the whole story and 
 examined the evidence with a minuteness which wearied 
 Gaunt. Perhaps he permitted this weariness to be seen, 
 for Sir James got rather sharp. 
 
 " Look here, Lord Gaunt," he said, impressively, and 
 no man could be more impressive than Sir James, when he 
 liked. " I'm afraid you don't realize your position." 
 
 " That's what I say ! " exclaimed Mr. Pelford. 
 
 "The evidence is very strong. The trial will take 
 place in about three weeks. Unless we can discover the 
 criminal, the perpetrator of this murder. I well, I 
 should not like to answer for the result. Of course I 
 could have the trial put off." 
 
 " Pray do not ! " said Gaunt. " Three weeks of sus- 
 pense will be quite long enough. If you do not discover 
 him in that time, he will remain undiscovered. I can 
 give you no assistance beyond that which may be supplied 
 by my statement of what occurred on the night I met my 
 Avife. Please don't think me indifferent or ungrateful 
 for the effort you are making on my behalf. I have no 
 desire to figure as the first Gaunt who had been hanged, 
 I assure you ; but I feel quite helpless, and when I am in 
 that condition " 
 
 He made a little weary gesture with his hand. 
 
 Sir James shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " We will do all we can. We must find out all that is 
 possible to be discovered concerning the unhappy lady's 
 movements since she parted from you. You know no de- 
 tails of her life of late, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Absolutely nothing," said Gaunt, " excepting that she 
 was living with her brother." 
 
 " We will send over to Monte Carlo," said Mr. Pelford.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 213 
 
 " We will get all the information we can out of him, but 
 we will not bring him over till the last moment ; for the 
 man makes a nuisance of himself." Then they went, and 
 Sir James used strong language, outside the prison. 
 
 A little later Gaunt had a visit from Bobby ; and Gaunt 
 was glad to see him at any rate. 
 
 " Your sister has gone home ? " he asked anxiously. 
 
 " Yes," replied Bobby. 
 
 "It was good of her to come," said Gaunt ; "but you 
 must not let her come again. This in not a fit place for 
 her. You will take care of her, Bobby ? " he added in a 
 low voice, and turning his head away. 
 
 " Aunt Pauline will do that," said Bobby. " I can't 
 leave London till after after the trial. I want to see 
 you every day. I'm wretched when I'm not here ! " 
 
 Gaunt put his hand upon the boy's shoulder. "You 
 are indeed that ' friend in need," Bobby," he said. 
 
 Bobby's eyes grew moist. 
 
 " Is there nothing I can do for you ? " 
 
 Gaunt shook -his head. Then he said, as if he were glad 
 to find something : 
 
 " Yes ! The night I arrived in London, I met a man, a, 
 fellow-passenger on the unlucky Pevensey Castle. The 
 poor fellow was in a wretched plight, and I took him to 
 the hotel with me. He seemed fearfully ill seriously 
 ill, I should say, but he left the hotel the next morning 
 before breakfast. I don't like the man, but I feel a. 
 strange interest in him, and I wish you'd go down to the 
 hotel and see whether he has turned up again." 
 
 Only too glad of something to do, Bobby went off to 
 Morlet's. He came back with the information that noth- 
 ing more had been seen of Mr. Jackson. lie had paid his 
 bill before leaving, and had not returned to the hotel. 
 
 " I'm almost glad to get rid of him," said Gaunt ; " but 
 I hope no harm has come to him. He was dreadfully ill.'* 
 
 " It is the man you rescued isn't it? " asked Bobby. 
 
 " You can scarcely call it that," said Gaunt ; " he took 
 his chance in the boat with the rest." 
 
 " You gave up your place to him," faltered Bobby. 
 
 " Willingly enough ! " remarked Gaunt, indifferently. 
 
 " I'm going off now, to help Pelford," said Bobby, as
 
 214 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 he took his leave. " We're going to leave no stone un- 
 turned. We must find the guilty man ! " 
 
 " And you will, I am sure, if he is to be found ! " said 
 Gaunt, gratefully. 
 
 As the day of the trial approached Decima spent more 
 of her time in her own room, and Lady Pauline began to 
 dread that the girl would break down. But the de- 
 termination to appear at the trial and help Lord Gaunt, 
 if it were possible for her to help him, supported Decima. 
 
 The day of the trial arrived. The court was crowded, 
 not only with the general public, but with many distin- 
 guished persons, for the interest in the case had revived 
 and become intensified by the added romance of the ship- 
 wreck and Lord Gaunt's heroic conduct. 
 
 The public is as fickle as the wind. It had all along 
 regarded Lord Gaunt as guilty, and at first had been 
 deeply incensed against him ; the public always is when 
 the wrongdoer happens to be a person of rank. But al- 
 though Lord Gaunt was still deemed guilty, popular feel- 
 ing had swung round. After all, the unhappy woman had 
 been a " bad lot." And then again she had been Lord 
 Gaunt's wife, and with Englishmen there still lingers a 
 trace of the old feeling though they will not admit it 
 that a man has a right to do what he chooses with his 
 wife. 
 
 And then the story of Gaunt's unselfish conduct on 
 board the Pevensey Castle had touched the public in its 
 tenderest part its sentiment. It argued that a man who 
 could so cheerfully risk his life for his fellow man ought 
 certainly not be hanged though it should be proven that 
 he did kill his wife in a heat of passion. 
 
 So the court was crammed, and the sentiment which an- 
 imated most of those present was that of sympathy with 
 the accused, and the feeling grew much stronger when 
 Lord Gaunt stepped into the dock. 
 
 Gaunt was a good-looking man, but he possessed that 
 which is more valuable to a man than regularity of fea- 
 ture that peculiar air which we call " distinguished," and 
 which ahvays impresses the individual or the crowd. 
 
 lie was pale, of course, but he was perfectly calm, and 
 though grave, did not appear at all anxious. Every eye 
 was turned upon him, and he met the concentrated gaze
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 215 
 
 that gaze which fills most of us, even under the most 
 favorable circumstances, with nervous terror. Gaunt met 
 it quite steadily. Only for one moment did his eyes falter 
 and the expression of his face change ; it was when his 
 eyes rested upon the sweet pale face of the girl who, clad 
 in Quakerish simplicity, sat beside Lady Pauline in an in- 
 conspicuous part of the court. 
 
 Decima met his glance, saw the color rise to his face, 
 then leave it again ; saw his lips twitch as if with a sud- 
 den pang of pain, and her own eyes filled with hushed 
 tears, and her lips quivered. He turned away instantly, as 
 if he could not bear to see her there ; and she understood. 
 
 The venerable judge on the bench had been a friend of 
 Lord Gaunt's father ; among the titled and distinguished 
 people present were many who knew Gaunt personally ; 
 all of them knew him by repute as a famous traveler, and 
 a man absolutely without fear. The women sighed as 
 they looked at him ; the men exchanged glances of pity. 
 
 " Marriages are made in Heaven ! Oh, are they ? " re- 
 marked one man to another. " Just look at that chap ! 
 I suppose there isn't a better fellow in the world than 
 (Taunt. I was at Eton with him, and I've known him all 
 my life. He's as straight as a dart, and got the pluck of 
 the very devil. He wouldn't hurt a fly in cold blood, and 
 he thinks nothing of risking his life for some stranger on 
 board the same ship. And yet that fellow's whole life is 
 made miserable because he stood up before a parson for 
 ten or twelve minutes, and remarked that he took a certain 
 woman for his wife. Not only is his whole life made mis- 
 erable, but he's going to be scragged because, driven pretty 
 well mad, I dare say, by the woman, he puts an end to her ! " 
 
 " Yes," assented his friend. " Matrimony is the very 
 deuce. But the ' New Woman' is going to abolish it, isn't 
 she ? If so, I shall vote for her all the time. I suppose 
 there's no doubt about Gaunt's having done this ? " 
 
 The other man shook his head. " I'm afraid not," he 
 said. And it was the general opinion. 
 
 The attorney-general was neither bitter nor vindictive, 
 but his speech was necessarily a strong argument for the 
 conviction of the prisoner, and all who heard it, even be- 
 fore the witnesses were put in the box, felt that the case 
 was very black against Gaunt, and as the evidence was
 
 216 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 skilfully marshaled by the prosecution, every one in court 
 was convinced that unless Sir James, the counsel for the 
 prisoner, was in possession of some very strong evidence 
 to meet that of the prosecution the verdict would be one 
 of Guilty." 
 
 Gaunt sat erect, with his hands resting lightly on the 
 edge of the dock, or now and again he leaned against the 
 partition, with folded arms. He was not indifferent as 
 to the result of this wordy war between the legal gentle- 
 men who were fighting for and against him, but he was 
 thinking, not so much of the coming verdict, but of the, 
 white-faced girl who sat with tightly-compressed lips and 
 downcast eyes, which now and again she raised to his 
 with a glance of infinite compassion and infinite sorrow. 
 
 The short day was drawing to a close, or, rather the 
 light in the badly-windowed court was fading, when the 
 case for the prosecution closed. As the last witness left 
 the box, the audience for they resembled the audience 
 in a theater, in the closeness of their attention, and their 
 eagerness to grasp every detail the packed crowd drew 
 a long breath. 
 
 Just below the dock stood a little group of Gaunt's 
 friends. There were Bobby, and Bright, and Mr. Lang. 
 They all turned and looked up at Gaunt with a smile 
 which they endeavored to make encouraging ; but Gaunt 
 saw behind the smile their anxiety and apprehension. 
 The attorney-general and Mr. Boskitt between them, 
 aided by the evidence, had for the present convinced the 
 jury of the prisoner's guilt. 
 
 Sir James rose, with his well known air of quiet assur- 
 ance and complete confidence in his client's innocence, and 
 he spoke as if no man in his senses, certainly not tin- 
 twelve intelligent gentlemen in the jury box, could for 
 one moment be induced to believe mat such a man as 
 Lord Gaunt could be guilty of so cowardly a crime as the 
 .murder of a defenseless woman even though that woman 
 were his wife. 
 
 It was a magnificent speech, and it brought the tears to 
 the eyes of many of the listeners. But though the jury 
 might feel inclined to weep at the eloquent description of 
 Lord Gaunt's ruined life, wrecked by his unfortunate
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. <*Vt 
 
 marriage, Sir James' speech had not, they felt, disposed 
 of the evidence against the prisoner. 
 
 Sir James called witness after witness, and they one 
 and all testified to the noble character of the prisoner, 
 and declared their conviction that he was incapable of 
 the crime with which he was charged. The evidence in- 
 tensified the sympathy of the listeners, but, alas ! it did 
 not prove Lord Gamit's innocence. Everything that 
 could be proved in his favor was brought forward by Sir 
 James, but how little it was, how small it appeared against 
 the black mass of evidence which the attorney-general 
 had brought against the accused ! 
 
 Two men, standing not very far from each other in a 
 corner of the court, felt as if the verdict had been already 
 pronounced, and both their faces flushed with the antici- 
 pation of vindictive satisfaction. Both Mershoii and 
 Morgan Thorpe were thirsting for that one word 
 *' Guilty," and as they glanced at the grave face of the 
 foreman of the jury they could almost fancy that the 
 word, the fatal word, was already forming on his lips. 
 
 Gaunt himself was convinced that there was no hope. 
 As the attorney-general began his reply to the defense, 
 Gaunt dre\v himself up, and gripped the edge of the clock 
 firmly. If Lady Pauline would only take Decima away. 
 
 As if she had heard his unuttered prayer, Lady Pauline 
 at that moment whispered : "Come away now, Decima ! " 
 
 But Decima shook her head and her hands strained to- 
 gether still more closely in her lap. 
 
 What was it the attorney-general was saying, " knock- 
 ing," as one of the barristers whispered, "knocking with 
 every word a fresh nail in the prisoner's coffin V" 
 
 " The evidence against the prisoner is overwhelming. 
 The unhappy woman was stabbed in his rooms. She 
 Avas found covered by his coat. The weapon with which 
 the deed was done was his. Xo one else, no other man, 
 entered that awful room that night." 
 
 At this point of his terrible eloquence he had paused, 
 for there had come from the back of the court a hoarse 
 and derisive laugh. 
 
 The attorney-general repeated the last words, " No 
 other man entered that room that night ! " 
 
 The laugh was repeated also.
 
 218 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 The attorney-gene ml stopped and looked round indig- 
 nantly ; the usher cried Silence ! " The judge looked 
 up sternly from his notes ; some of the ladies laughed hys- 
 terically. There was a confusion at the back of the court, 
 from which the strange sound had proceeded; a man's 
 voice, thin and feeble, yet penetrating, came across the 
 crowded room, as if he were addressing the judge. 
 
 The judge held up his hand. 
 
 - silence ! " he commanded ; then as the silence fell he 
 said, ' What is the meaning of this disturbance ? Bring 
 that disorderly person forward." 
 
 A policeman, drawing a man with him, pushed his way 
 through the crowd. The man was pale and emaciated, 
 and the effect of his pallor Avas increased by his red hair 
 and bloodshot eyes. 
 
 " Trevor ! " exclaimed Thorpe under his breath. 
 
 " Jackson ! " thought Gaunt. " Has he gone mad ? What 
 will they do with the poor devil ? " 
 
 But if Jackson were mad he concealed his insanity 
 with admirable art. Of all present he was the most calm, 
 saving, perhaps, the judge and the prisoner. 
 
 "Why have you made this disturbance V" asked the 
 judge, sternly. 
 
 Trevor looked up at the bench and then around the 
 court. 
 
 " I laughed ! " he said. His tone was respectful enough, 
 but it was suggestive of a kind of sullen contempt. He 
 was breathing painfully, and his head was thrust forward, 
 as if he were too weak to stand upright. " I laughed at 
 the attorney-general's speech," he continued. " He said 
 no other man besides Lord Gaunt went into the room 
 that night, and I happen to know that one did.' 1 
 
 Sir James rose quickly, and turned to Mr. Pelforcl. 
 
 " Who is it ? " he demanded. 
 
 Mr. Pelford shook his head. 
 
 " I cannot tell you ! " he replied with agitation. 
 
 The judge held up his hand to still the murmur which 
 had arisen. 
 
 " Do you offer yourself as a witness ! " he asked. 
 
 Trevor nodded, and coughed. He was got into the wit- 
 ness box amidst intense excitement. 
 
 The attorney-general rose.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 219 
 
 "My lord, I need scarcely say that I am quite ignorant 
 that I know nothing of this person, nor of the evidence 
 which he is about to give ! " 
 
 Sir James rose. 
 
 "My lord," he began in anything but his usual sei, 
 sessed manner, "I am as ignorant of this person ai 
 evidence as my learned friend ; but my client, the pri. 
 at the bar, is desirous that the truth and all the 
 shall be told respecting this terrible tragedy." 
 
 There was a murmur of applause, which was instantly; 
 suppressed. 
 
 " I myself will examine the witness," said the judge r 
 " But perhaps it will be still better that we should permit 
 him to make his statement." 
 
 The two eminent counsel bowed in concurrence. 
 
 " You say," said the judge, " that a man, other than the 
 prisoner, entered his rooms at Prince's Mansions the night 
 of the murder. Tell us what you know of the case and 
 remember that you are under your oath." 
 
 Trevor leaned over the edge of the box. 
 
 " I say that a man entered Lord Gaunt's rooms that 
 night. He called at the house in Cardigan Terrace and 
 inquired for Mrs. Dalton." 
 
 A fit of coughing checked him for a time ; when he had 
 recovered from it he resumed, with difficulty, and still 
 more hoarsely, " The man was told that Mrs. Dalton was 
 confined to her room with a headache. He was turning 
 the corner of the street when he saw her leave the house 
 and get into a cab. He wanted to know where she was 
 going ; he called another cab and followed her " 
 
 The attorney-general arose. He was going to say that 
 this was not evidence ; but the judge held up his hand 
 and the attorney-general resumed his seat. 
 
 Trevor had not glanced at him, but waited stolidly un- 
 til the judge signed to him to go on. 
 
 " He saw her go into Prince's Mansions. He thought 
 she had gone to visit a man who lived there a man he 
 knew. He went into a public house and got a drink- 
 several then he Avent down to the Mansions. He meant 
 to ring the bell, but he found the door ajar, and he went 
 in. There was no one in the corridor ; he went into the 
 drawing-room. Mrs. Dalton was there alone."
 
 220 TIEIJ HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 At this point the excitement in the court became so 
 intense that a murmur arose which rendered the voice of 
 the witness almost inaudible. Heads were craned forward 
 in his direction, every eye was fixed upon him. Tiv 
 seemed utterly indifferent still. 
 
 'She was alone. The man and she had some talk. 
 He loved her; he was jealous. A few nights before she 
 had promised to marry him. That night, in Lord Gaunt's 
 rooms, she laughed at the man ; she told him that she 
 was married already ; had been married all the time, and 
 had been fooling him. More than that, she had been help- 
 ing her brother to rob him. The man went mad, for a 
 moment and he stabbed her ! " 
 
 A cry escaped the crowded court. Dec i ma's hands 
 were stretched out toward Gaunt for an instant, then 
 clasped on her bosom. Trevor was quite unmoved by the 
 excitement surging around him, and he went on in a hol- 
 low and impassive vo: 
 
 " There was a foolish kind of dagger lying on the 
 ground near him, and he caught it up and stabbed her 
 with it. She was dead in an instant ; it must have gone 
 straight into her heart. He laid her on the sofa, and 
 covered her with a fur coat he found lying there. Then 
 he left the rooms, and by luck no one saw him." 
 
 A lit of coughing seized him again at this point, lie 
 went on after a moment or two, holding his blood-stained 
 handkerchief in his wasted and twitching hand. 
 
 " No one saw him and he got away. No one would 
 ever have suspected him, and an innocent man would 
 have suffered. But certain things happened. The inno- 
 cent man saved the real murderer's life. The cabman 
 who drove him to the street in which the Mansions are. is 
 in court." He glanced toward the end of the room. ' So 
 is the barmaid who served him with the liquor. They 
 have not come forward before because the cabman 
 thought the case was clear against Lord Gaunt, and 
 didn't want to be troubled, and the barmaid Well she 
 had no reason to connect the man with the case." 
 
 He paused, struggling for breath. 
 
 Sir James rose. He was very pale, and his usually 
 firm voice shook during the first few words. 
 
 " All through this statement you have spoken of the
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 221 
 
 man.' You have charged some one with the murder of 
 Lady Gaunt. I ask you the name of the man you thus 
 charge ! " 
 
 Trevor put his handkerchief to his mouth and wiped 
 his blood-stained lips. " Ralph Trevor," he said in a hol- 
 low voice. " I am the man." 
 
 No one who was present in court has ever been able to 
 give a clear and connected account of what followed, 
 though every one had a confused impression of seeing 
 and hearing several witnesses in the box after Trevor had 
 been carried out. But the impression is blurred by that 
 which followed, when the jury, without leaving their 
 seats, returned a verdict of " Not Guilty ! " and the 
 judge in a few faltering words of sympathy, pronounced 
 Lord Gaunt a free man. 
 
 The officials found it utterly impossible to check the 
 roar of applau.sc with which the crowd received the ver- 
 dict, and the judge's expression of sympathy, and Gaunt 
 found himself carried, swept us it were, into the open air, 
 a free man indeed ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 EKJIITKKX months after the acquittal of Lord Gaunt 
 and the death of Ralph Trevor he died in prison within 
 a week of the trial there was a garden party at Lady 
 Roborough's. 
 
 It must be confessed that the usual garden party is a 
 deadly, dull affair who has not suffered at it ? but 
 Lady Roborough's was an exception to the dreary rule. 
 She was a clever old lady, far too clever and good-natured 
 tt > get together a mob of people and permit them to bore 
 themselves to death through the hottest and most trying 
 part of a summer's day. At Roborough you were sure to 
 find plenty of shade the gardens were the pride of the 
 county and plenty of amusement. There were four 
 capital tennis courts, for instance, a wonderful bowling 
 green, a lake with boats, tents with an unlimited supply 
 of tea, ices and more solid refreshments, a first-rate band, 
 not too loud, in the open air, and music in the drawing- 
 room, if the day should be wet as it sometimes is in 
 England and there were shrubberies and shady walks
 
 2- HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 in which one could flirt or smoke the surreptitious ciga- 
 rette in safety. 
 
 Lady Roborough, looking scarcely a day older, moved 
 about the grounds, applauding the tennis players, con- 
 niving at the flirting, cautioning the boating parties to 
 " be careful," and seeing that no one went without the 
 precious cup of tea. Now and againyshe persuaded her- 
 self to take a rest, and seated just inside the big marquee, 
 whence like a general she could survey her toives, she 
 indulged in a little gossip with some of the older 
 guests, who liked the shaded tents better than the tennis, 
 the boats or even the shrubbei 
 
 " A great success, as usual, my dear," remarked Lady 
 Ferndale, who sat next her. 
 
 " Everybody seems very happy, at any rate, they ap- 
 pear to be amusing themselves," admitted Lady Ro- 
 borough. " The next best thing to being young is to be 
 old enough to like to watch young people." 
 
 Lady Ferndale smiled. 
 
 "You must be enjoying yourself, then," she said, "for 
 there are plenty here. How pretty some of the girls are ! 
 Do you think any of us were half as good-looking ? " 
 
 " I can answer for one, my dear," responded Lady 
 Roborough, touching her friend's arm affectionately. 
 ' But there are some very good-looking young people 
 here this afternoon. If I were inclined to be vulgar 
 which, by the way, I very often am I should say it was 
 quite a ' Beauty Show ! ' ' 
 
 "How awful!" exclaimed Lady Ferndale; but she 
 laughed. "I wonder where that impressionable man, 
 my husband, is. I have not seen him for the last hour. 
 I suppose he is flirting with some of your pretty girls. 
 Really, I am inclined to feel jealous! " 
 
 She pretended to sigh, and Lady Roborough smiled. 
 
 " You need not be, my dear," she remarked. " Lord 
 Ferndale is delightfully general in his admiration. There 
 is always safety in numbers, you know." 
 
 " Yes, that is my only consolation ! " said Lady Fern- 
 dale, with mock gravity. "Though Edward has concen- 
 trated his attention upon Miss Deane of late. Is that he 
 talking to her no\\ ''. H 
 
 Lady Ferndale was short-sighted.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 223 
 
 Lady Roborough put on her eyeglasses, and surveyed 
 Decima and her male companion. 
 
 " No that is young Illminster," she said. 
 
 There was a certain significance in her tone, and Lady 
 Fernclale glanced at her. 
 
 " What a sweet girl she is ! " she said, musingly. 
 " Xo\v, I really don't think any of us were quite so lovely 
 as she is," she added. 
 
 " I suppose she is. Oh, yes, of course she is," assented 
 Lady Roborough, "but to tell you the truth, I never 
 think of her prettiness when I am with her. There is 
 something about her that * passeth show,' as_ our friend 
 Hamlet says." 
 
 " I know," said Lady Fernclale. " She fascinates me, 
 and I quite sympathize with Edward ; indeed, I'm rather 
 more in love with her than he is." 
 
 " And yet," said Lady Roborough, still looking toward 
 Decima, " there are girls who are as beautiful, and cer- 
 tainly more clever and accomplished. For instance, you 
 scarcely ever heard her say anything brilliant or witty." 
 
 " I don't know that I particularly care for brilliant or 
 witty girls," interpolated Lady Fernclale. 
 
 " And she has few accomplishments. Her charm is a 
 nameless one, or difficult to describe. It must be do 
 you think it is her 'goodness?' she asked, doubtfully. 
 
 " Sometimes I think it is. She is awfully good ; you 
 know she was Lady Pauline's ward or charge. And yet 
 there isn't a trace of the Pharisee in her." 
 
 " Perhaps it is her gentleness," suggested Lady Fern- 
 dale. " So few girls have that nowadays. I'm afraid it's 
 rather unfashionable. Girls like to be thought fast and 
 * smart.' Dear me, how I hate that word ! and are 
 ashamed of possessing that inconvenient thing a heart. 
 Sometimes I'm inclined to think that in the next genera- 
 tion or two it will be only the men who will be capable of 
 the ' emotions.' Now Decima Deane is like a sensitive 
 leaf." 
 
 " Too sensitive, I'm afraid," said Lady Roborough. 
 
 " Ah, yes ! and yet how admirably self-contained and 
 self-possessed she is ! I like to sit and watch her face 
 it is like a mirror, and yet so grave and calm, and what 
 do you call it ? not impassive, but ;)
 
 C-J4 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " All serene," suggested Lady Roborough. 
 
 Lady Ferndale laughed. 
 
 " That sounds like slang ! " she said. u But I see you 
 know what I mean. She looks to me like one of those 
 rare lilies which have stood the strain of wind and rain, 
 and though they still stand erect, show something of the 
 ordeal through which they have passed." 1 
 
 " There is nothing faded about our lily, though," said 
 Lady Roborough. " She is still a girl, and as fresh as a 
 newly-opened blossom." 
 
 "Yes. Is she quite well now?" asked Lady Ferndale. 
 "She was so very ill, and looked so pale and frail for so 
 long that I began to fear that the lily would not hold up 
 its head again." 
 
 " She is better quite well, I think. She is really very 
 strong ; indeed, she must be, or she would not have pulled 
 through. She was playing tennis just now a hard game, 
 and she was on the winning side." 
 
 " I wonder she has not married," said Lady Ferndale. 
 "I am glad her engagement with that man, Mr. Mershon, 
 was broken off. What has become of him do you 
 know?" 
 
 Lady Roborough shook her head. 
 
 " Xo ; he left The Firs more than a year ago. It is for 
 sale, you know. I don't know what has become of him, 
 but I think I heard that he had settled in some place on 
 the continent. Yes," she went on, after a pause, " it is 
 strange that Decima does not marry. She has had one or 
 two offers during the last twelve months, I know, though 
 she you know her ! has, of course, not told me of them." 
 
 "And there will be a third directly," said Lady Fern- 
 dale. "That is Lord Illminster with her, is it not ?" 
 
 " Yes. Oh, yes, he will propose to her. He is dying 
 to do so, for he is very much in love with her. It is an 
 open secret ; indeed, he has told me, and he has asked me 
 to help him. But I declined. Decima is not like most 
 girls ; and one feels that one would be treading on very 
 delicate ground if one ventured to play the part of match- 
 maker with her." 
 
 Lady Ferndale nodded sympathetically. 
 
 " I should not like to venture I could not ! Do you 
 think she will accept him ? "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 225 
 
 I don't know. Sometimes I think she may ; at others 
 I think not." 
 
 " That's very non-committal, my dear ! " responded Lady 
 Ferndale, with a smile. 
 
 " It expresses what I feel exactly. But Decima, with- 
 out meaning it, of course for she is simplicity itself is 
 rather deceptive. For instance, sometimes she will be 
 quite quite friendly to Lord Illminster, and he will go 
 about looking as happy as a sandboy ; and presently he 
 will come to me and make a dolorous moan, and complain 
 that Miss Deane has either passed him in the road with a 
 cold bow, or answered him so absently, with such a pre- 
 occupied and dreamy manner, that he is sure there is no 
 hope for him." 
 
 " Poor fellow ! How I pity him ! Imagine being really 
 in love with Decima Deane ! How a man could suffer ! " 
 
 " Oh, he suffers badly enough," assented Lady Robor- 
 ough, placidly. " But I don't feel for him so much. I 
 think of Decima. I want her to be happy." 
 
 " And she is not now ? " 
 
 Lady Roborough looked doubtful, and rather sad. 
 
 " I don't know. I'm afraid not. That absent, dreamy 
 look, which makes poor Lord Illminster so wretched, is 
 too often on her face. It comes quite suddenly, just after 
 she has been talking and laughing quite brightly, as if she 
 had suddenly remembered something. The expression 
 passes quickly enough sometimes, but it has been there 
 and one cannot forget it." 
 
 " Wasn't wasn't there something between her and 
 Lord Gaunt ? " said Lady Ferndale, hesitatingly. 
 
 " I don't know. They were very much together she 
 helped him in the village. Indeed, all the great improve- 
 ment But you know all about that as well as I do. But 
 Lord Gaunt was so much older, and was married though 
 we did not know it. Oh, no, there was nothing how 
 could there be ? " 
 
 " There was something said hinted at the trial ! " 
 
 " Oh, no ! She chanced to call upon her brother when 
 Lord Gaunt went to his rooms that night. There was 
 some suggestion, some hint of a love affair between them ; 
 but it must have been groundless. Otherwise why is he 
 not here ? "
 
 y, HER HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 "Yes; nothing has n of him since the trial," 
 
 remarked Lady Ferndale. 
 
 No,*' said Lady Rohorough. " He is abroad in A : 
 one reads about him every now and then. I don't sup- 
 pose he will ever come back to England." 
 
 " So Edward says. What a pity it is that a place like 
 Leafmore should be shut up ! There seems a Fate in it. 
 \uw, I pity Lord Gaunt. I liked him so much." 
 
 So did we all, and we all pity him," said Lady Robor- 
 ough, with a sigh. "But what will you? There is one 
 great mistake which a man cannot commit an unfortu- 
 nate marriage; and he can never dodge the consequei \ 
 It is the one piece of folly which is always attended by its 
 Nemesis." 
 
 " Poor Lord Gaunt ! And Decima lives all alone with 
 her father. Lady Pauline has gone, has she not ': " 
 
 "Oh, yes, some time ago. Yes. Decima is alone with 
 her father. Her brother is at Sandhurst, He passed last 
 March. He worked terribly hard, and won his way back 
 into all our hearts before he left." 
 
 " It must be a great responsibility for her," said Lady 
 Ferndale. "Mr. Deane is more absorbed in his fads than 
 over, isn't he '-. I saw him for a few minutes, once, when 
 I called, and I think he was scarcely conscious of my 
 presence." 
 
 " Yes, it is a great responsil >ility," said Lady Roborough. 
 " But Decima is not the girl to .shirk it. Xo daughter 
 could be more loving and devoted." 
 
 ' What a wife some happy man will have ! I hope he 
 will be Lord Illminster : he is a line young fellow, and it 
 would be a good match." 
 
 - ITush, she is coming ! " said Lady Roborough, warn- 
 ingly, as Decima came alone across the lawn, with her 
 racket in her hands. " Well, my dear, what have you 
 done with Lord Illminster ? " asked the old lady. " Come 
 into the shade." 
 
 She took Decima's hand and drew her into the chair 
 beside her, and kept the small hand, and patted it cai 
 ingly. Every one felt a strong temptation to pat and 
 caress the girl. 
 
 "Lord Illminster lias gone to play tennis," said Decima. 
 " I was down for the set, but I felt rather tired, and knew
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 227 
 
 he would lose if I played ; so I asked him to get a stronger 
 partner." 
 
 " For which he was very grateful, I'm sure," remarked 
 her ladyship, dryly. 
 
 "Oli, yes,'' said Decima, innocently. "He play 
 well ; it would have been a pity to make him lose his set." 
 
 Yes, a great pity," assented Lady Roborough as dry- 
 ly as 1%fore. " Will you have some tea, my dear? " 
 
 She looked round for one of the neat maid-servants who 
 were in attendance, but Decima rose. "I'll get a cup. 
 And may I bring some for you and Lady Ferndale? " 
 
 "Isn't that like her ! " said the old lady, when Decima 
 was out of hearing. " You can never, by any chance, 
 tempt her to think of herself only. Thank you, my dear," 
 as Decima came back with the maid bearing the tray. 
 "And have you been enjoying yourself?" 
 
 " Yes, very much," said Decima, with her soft, bright 
 smile. "It is so lovely here, and every one is so happy 
 that it makes one happy just to be with them. And I 
 have been on the lake." 
 
 " Yes ? Who rowed you, dear ? " 
 
 " Lord Illminster," said Decima, as innocently and 
 unconsciously as before. " And I played two sets, and 
 Lord Illminster tried to teach me bowls, but I was very 
 stupid and awkward " 
 
 "Yes, I hope he wasn't angry." 
 
 " Angry ? Lord Illminster ! " Decima laughed. " Oh, 
 no ; I don't think he could be ; he is always so patient and 
 kind." 
 
 " And when did you hear from your brother, Decima?" 
 asked Lady Roborough, changing the subject with sus- 
 picious abruptness. 
 
 " Oh, yesterday. Such a delightful letter ! It was 
 almost as if Bobby were talking. I don't think any one 
 in the world can be funnier than he is, when he chooses. 
 Yes, it was just like hearing him talk. And he is so pop- 
 ular, one can see ! Let me try and remember some of 
 the things he says but you want to hear him say them." 
 
 She stopped suddenly and rather shyh 7 , for she was 
 always rather carried out of herself when Bobby was on 
 the tapis. A young man had sauntered up behind the 
 three ladies.
 
 II EH HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 " Weren't you speaking of Lord (Taunt just now, Lady 
 Ferndale, and asking if any one had heard of him ? I 
 happened to hear you mention his name, and I thought 
 you would like to know "' 
 
 Lady Roborough looked up at his face quickly, and with 
 the expression which a lady's face wears when she wishes 
 to silence the speaker ; but the young man wai-L rather 
 shortsighted, and did not notice her look. Alas ! Tie was 
 young, and with most of us it is not until we have 
 reached "forty year," that we learn the full significance 
 of a lady's glance ! " 
 
 " I've just heard of him," he went on, fully convinced 
 that he was making himself agreeable, and imparting 
 keenly-desired intelligence. "One of the men of L 
 ploring party you know Lord Gaunt is exploring the 
 source of the Oawanji;'" 
 
 " Yes, oh. yes, we know," said Lady Roborough, rather 
 curtly, very curtly, for her; but he blundered on. He 
 Avas not a native of the place, but only a visitor at one of 
 the neighboring houses, and had probably not heard the 
 name of the young lady who sat so quietly beside the two 
 old ladies, and had certainly never heard of it in connec- 
 tion with Lord Gaunt. 
 
 "This man dined at the Travelers', the club you 
 know 
 
 " We've all heard of the Travelers', Mr. Jones," said 
 Lady Ferndale, coldly. . 
 
 " Yes," Mr. Jones fixed his eyeglass. " In fact, we were 
 giving him a little dinner in honor of his return. lie 
 came home on sick leave, you know. He told us a lot 
 about the expedition, but nearly all his talk was ot Lord 
 Gaunt. It seems that the party had a particularly rough 
 time of it; no end of perils and privations, you know. I 
 forget how many days they were without food and water ; 
 and once or twice they had had to fight their way through 
 friendly tribes natives, you know ; and they can fight. 
 And he says that L6rd Gaunt is a a regular 1 'rick. That 
 was his word, you know, and according to him it is just 
 the right one." 
 
 '3dady Roborough glanced at Becima. She was leaning 
 hack in her chair, and her face was pale ; but her eyes were 
 not downcast, but fixed before her, and the dreamy ex-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 229 
 
 pression Lady Roborough had spoken of was in them. 
 She seemed as if she were far away, as if she were 
 scarcely listening. 
 
 " He says," continued Mr. Jones, who was enjoying him- 
 self exceedingly, " that Lord Gaunt is simply worshiped 
 by them all ; certainly he the man who has come back is- 
 mad enough about him ! and that whenever there is any- 
 thing in the way of hard times or fighting, Lord Gaunt 
 always takes the lion's share. He says that in his opinion 
 Lord Gaunt doesn't know what fear is. Always in the 
 front when they were attacked, and never down on 
 his luck for a moment! He says that Lord Gaunt 
 marched at the head of his party for three days with a 
 wound in his thigh that would have sent any other man 
 to hospital for three months ". 
 
 Lady Roborough broke in at this point, with a kind of 
 desperation. 
 
 " Oh, thank you very much, Mr. Jones ! " she said, 
 sweetly too sweetly. " It's very good of you to tell us 
 this, but but would you be so kind as to go over to the 
 band and ask them to play again ? " 
 
 Mr. Jones looked rather bewildered at this decapitation 
 of his little story, but he bleated blandly : 
 
 " Certainly ! certainly ! Delighted, Lady Roborough ! " 
 and took himself off. 
 
 Decima sat a full minute without moving ; then her lips 
 parted, and a long sigh escaped them softly so softly that 
 only Lady Roborough heard it and she glanced at the 
 watch at her waist a present from Bobby. 
 
 " It is time for me to go, Lady Roborough," she said, 
 and she spoke quite naturally, and even with a smile. 
 " My father always likes me to be home a little before 
 dinner, and indeed," smiling, " if I were not, he would not 
 get dressed ! " 
 
 "And what is the wonderful invention, Decima?" 
 
 Decima smiled again, but only for an instant, as she 
 replied, gently : 
 
 " It is something for extinguishing fires, I think. I 
 don't know quite ; but I think it is a kind of shell which 
 you throw into the flames, and it explodes." 
 
 " Sounds as if it were more likely to cause fire than to 
 quench it," remarked Lady Roborough. " Tell them to
 
 230 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 bring a carriage round for Miss Deane, please," she 
 to one of the servants. 
 
 " Oh, no ! I can walk," said Decima. 
 
 "I've no doubt you can; but you won't, my dear," said 
 Lady Roborough, dryly. " My dear Decima, you are too 
 accustomed to having your own way. And so you grow 
 selfish and self-opinionated." 
 
 A look of alarm and penitence began to steal over the 
 sweet face, and Lady Roborough exclaimed : 
 
 " You little goose ! " and drawing the face down to her, 
 kissed it tenderly. 
 
 As she leaned back in the carriage Decima closed her 
 eyes, and pictured Gaunt fighting his way at the head of 
 the weary and fever-stricken expedition ; thought of him 
 " suffering in silence and in strength," and her lips mur- 
 mured his name and a prayer for him, as the tears stole 
 down her cheeks. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 OXE evening a fortnight later Decima dined at the 
 Ferndales.' It had not been a dinner party or she would 
 not have gone without her father. The Ferndales v. 
 very fond of her who was not ! and she had spent a 
 very enjoyable evening ; Lady Ferndale had made much 
 of her and Lord Ferndale had exerted himself to amuse 
 her. Their daughter was married, and the Ferndales 
 Avere quite ready and anxious to take her into their girl's 
 absent place. They had pressed her to stay the night, 
 but she had come home because she kne\v that even if 
 her father did not miss her that he could not be left. 
 
 She saw the light burning in his Avorkroom as she Aveut 
 up the path, and she went straight to him. 
 
 lie had not dressed for dinner that night, and he looked 
 more untidy and dusty eA r en than usual. Two gas 
 Avcre flaring away, and he Avas standing at his bench fill- 
 ing some glass tubes with a liquid Avhich he poured from 
 an iron retort. 
 
 " Have you not finished, father ? " she said. " It is A r ery 
 late, dear ! " , 
 
 "Is it?" he said, pushing his unkempt hair aside; "I 
 didn't knoAV. I've been busy A r ery busy. This is a
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 231 
 
 wonderful idea of mine, Decima ! Wonderful ! It sur- 
 passes anything I have hitherto done. It will simply revo- 
 lutionize the present system of dealing with fires." 
 
 "I am very glad, dear," said Decima. "But will you 
 not go to bed now ? Let me turn out the lights." 
 
 " Presently presently ! " he said. " This invention of 
 mine is simplicity itself. Of course, there are plenty of 
 hand grenades, and er glass bombs in the market ; but 
 this is something quite new, and its action is totally dif- 
 ferent to that upon which the others depend. You see 
 this tube ? It contains a fluid which of course, is my 
 secret; it's marvelous that I should hit upon it! It pos- 
 sesses most extraordinary qualities." 
 
 " It smells very strange and and rather nasty," said 
 Decima. " I hope it isn't dangerous, dear ! " 
 
 " Dangerous !" he said impatiently. "Oh, no! That 
 is, it could only be dangerous in the hands of ignorant 
 persons, but I intend to have full directions for its use 
 pasted on each tube. All you have to do in the event of 
 fire, is to throw one of the tubes, not at the flames there 
 might be some small danger then, I admit not at the 
 flames but at the point which they would reach if they 
 remained unchecked. A slight explosion then takes place, 
 the flames are dispersed, choked, so to speak, and your 
 fire, however fierce, is extinguished. I have been making 
 gome experiments to-night I will show you ' 
 
 He was about to light a roll of paper at the gas jet, but 
 Decima held his arm. 
 
 " Not to-night and in the crowded room, father ! " she 
 pleaded. " Show me to-morrow in some safer place, in 
 the open air. Go to bed now, dear, you look tired." 
 
 " I am not at all tired," he said, " and there is not the 
 lest need for apprehension or alarm, as I could prove to 
 you in a moment. But I will show you to-morrow. Wait 
 one moment," he added, as Decima turned out one of the 
 gas-jets. lie began to put the evil-smelling things aside, 
 but paused and' pushed his hand through his hair. " There 
 was something I wanted to tell you," he said ; " I can't 
 think what it was. It was important, too. Dear me ! I 
 can't remember for the moment." He stared at her 
 vacantly, then went on as if he had suddenly remembered. 
 " Ah, yes ! Lord Illminster called this afternoon."
 
 IIEi: HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 "Lord Illminster?" said Decima, with some surprise. 
 "Why did he call;' lie has never been here before. 
 What did he want?" 
 
 His eyes and hands wandered toward the precious 
 tubes, and Decima had to repeat her question. 
 
 "Eh? "he said. u Ah, yes ! He came, t <u as 
 
 well as me ! " 
 
 " To see me ?" said Decima. "Oh, about the archery 
 meeting, I suppose? ljrd Illminster asked me to help." 
 
 Xo ; it wasn't about archery." said Mr. Deane ; -at 
 least, I don't think he mentioned the word 'arch' 
 he may have done ; it's quite possible. lie talked a 
 deal, and seemed a remarkably pleasant and well-informed 
 young man. When I say ' well-informed,' I mean on 
 general subjects. I could not get him to understand any 
 of my inventions. But he admitted very modestly that 
 his scientific education had been neglected. Xo ! the 
 purport of his visit was to ask me if I would give my 
 consent to his proposing to you." 
 
 " Father ! " exclaimed Decima, her face growing red for 
 a moment. 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Deane, as if they were discussing an 
 unimportant detail. " You seem surprised. Were you 
 not aware of his intentio; 
 
 k - Xo ! " said Decima, more to herself than to him. "I 
 never thought never suspected 
 
 " He made his request in an extremely nice manner," 
 said Mr. Deane, turning to the bench, and arranging some 
 tools absently ; " and I am quite sure that he is very much 
 in earnest. As I've said, he seems to me an exceedingly 
 pleasant and agreeable young man." 
 
 " What what did you say, father ?" faltered Decima. 
 
 "Oh, I gave my consent,'' he said. 
 
 " Oh, father ! " she breathed. " Why did you how 
 could you? I 
 
 ' Why not ? " said Mr. Deane, staring at her. " Surely 
 you can have no objection to him, Decima ? He is young, 
 and I think from what little I saw of him, good-looking. 
 He is an earl or is the Illminster\s a barony? I forget. 
 And I think he said that the estate was a large one. and 
 that there would be proper settlements. In fact, I in- 
 ferred from his remarks, that he would leave that detail
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 233 
 
 to the lawyers. I told him that it was quite unimpor- 
 tant, because this invention of mine would place you far 
 beyond the need of any settlement that, in fact, you 
 would probably be one of the richest heiresses in England. 
 He is coming to-morrow to see you ; and, really, Decima, 
 I think you might do well to accept him. You are still 
 young, absurdly young, but not too young to be married ; 
 and now that you have broken your engagement with 
 Mr. Mershon -" His mind wandered, and he rumpled 
 his hair, and stared at her vacantly. " Yes, I should ad- 
 vise you to accept Lord Illminster. 
 
 Decima was pale now, and her face was very sad. 
 
 " I I cannot, father ! " she said, in a low voice. 
 
 " No ? " he said, calmly. Why not ? " 
 
 " I do not love care for him," she said. " He is very 
 good and kind but I could not marry him. I shall 
 never marry any one." She smiled wanly. "I am 
 always going to stay with you, dear, and take care of 
 you." 
 
 " That's absurd," he said, pettishly. " You speak as 
 if I were a child and incapable of taking care of myself 1 
 And, as a matter of fact, I don't suppose there is a more 
 practical man in the world than I am. You had better 
 tell Lord Illminster, when he comes to-morrow that you 
 accept." 
 
 " I will tell him No, I will write to him. Come now, 
 father." 
 
 She extinguished the other gas-jet, after looking round 
 carefully, and led him away. He maundered up and 
 down the drawing-room for some time, talking, not of 
 Lord Illminster and his proposal, which he had already 
 completely forgotten, but of his last invention for the 
 extinction of fire, but after awhile Decima got him up to 
 his room and in the solitude of her own was free to think 
 of Lord Illminster's proposal. She had had no suspicion 
 of it. . She regarded herself as so different from other 
 girls, as one to whom marriage was an impossibility, that 
 she had unconsciously felt that others also must so re- 
 gard her. She had loved one man with all her heart and 
 soul, and though she could never be his wife, she must go 
 on loving him while life lasted. She should probably 
 never see him again, but she was his still. She was sorry
 
 34 UEK IIEAirrs DESIRE. 
 
 for Lord Illminster; sorry tluit she, all unwittingly, had 
 been so friendly with him. 
 
 She wrote a short letter to Lord Illminster, a letter of 
 iisal, touched in the gentlest phrases ; but definite. 
 She could not have slept with the letter unwritten, and 
 having written it she dismissed him from her mind and, 
 with her last waking thoughts, thought of the man she 
 loved, but whom she should never niarrv 
 
 ******* 
 That same evening Mr. Bright happened to be at Leaf- 
 more station. He was going to the 'next one down the 
 line to see one of the tenants, and he was get; ing into the 
 train when he stopped and started back, for Lurd < Jaunt 
 alighted from the first-class carriage next that which 
 Bright was about to enter. 
 
 Bright stared at him speechlessly as the train slowed 
 away from the station. 
 
 " Lord Gaunt ! " he gasped. 
 
 Gaunt extended his hand with a smile. He was thin 
 and very brown, but he looked well and extremely ti;. 
 if the privations under which he had gone had not told 
 upon the Herculean strength which seemed the birthright 
 of his race. 
 
 < Surprised you, eh, Bright ? " said Gaunt, as Bright 
 wrung his hand. 
 
 "I'd not the least idea !" stammered Bright, over-' 
 whelmed with astonishment and delight. 
 
 "I meant to writ,-," said Gaunt, but I only had time 
 to catch the train."* 
 
 'When did yon come back and are yon quite well*" 
 asked Bright. " I'm so confused ! " 
 
 Gaunt smiled and laid his hand upon Bright's shoulder. 
 "I reached London last night, and I'm perfectly well, 
 thanks. You're looking very well, Bright, I'm glad 
 
 " There's no carriage," said Bright, confusedly. " Shall 
 I get a By?" 
 
 " Don't trouble," said Gaunt. " I want to go to the Hall 
 to get my old rifle and one or two other things : we'll walk, 
 if you don't mind. I've been cooped up in the train and on 
 board ship so long that I shall be glad to stretch my 
 legs." 
 They left the station and proceeded in the direction of
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 235 
 
 Leafmore, Bright wiping his brow, and now and again 
 looking from right to left in a bewildered way. 
 
 This is such a surprise, Lord Gaunt," he said. " But 
 I needn't tell you how glad I am to see you how glad 
 they will all be to see you back safe and sound. Of course 
 we have read all about the expedition in the papers. It's 
 been a wonderful success ! " 
 
 " Well, I suppose it has," said Gaunt, quietly. _ " We 
 have traced the river to its source, and connected it with 
 a couple of lakes big enough to hold the navies of the 
 world, and we have opened up a new channel for British 
 commerce. Oh, yes, it has been a success, I suppose." 
 
 " And now I hope you have come home to settle down, 
 Lord Gaunt," said Bright, earnestly. You have done 
 quite enough for your country, and I trust you will rest 
 upon your laurels." 
 
 Giuint smiled rather wearily. 
 
 I've only come back for a few things, Bright," he said. 
 I return to Africa by the next vessel. Where can I stay 
 to-night? I should like to sleep at the Hall, if I can." 
 
 " Certainly certainly ! " replied Bright, There are 
 some servants there, and the place is in order. I thought 
 it possible that you might come back at any moment, and 
 I have been prepared ; but you won't think of leaving us 
 again, Lord Gaunt ? " 
 
 I must," said Gaunt. " I'm sorry." 
 
 Bright sighed. As they reached the village, Gaunt 
 looked round with evident interest. 
 
 You have completed all the improvements, Bright, I 
 see," he said. " There are the new schools and the cot- 
 tages. They look comfortable." 
 
 " Yes, my lord," said Bright. Everything has been 
 done, I hope, as you wished it, and I need not say that the 
 people are very grateful. The place is quite changed. 
 It is a model village. And we have to thank you and Miss 
 Deane for it." 
 
 At the mention of Decima's name, Gaunt winced, his 
 face grew grave, and he was silent for the rest of the way 
 
 Their appearance at the Hall created a sensation and a 
 commotion. Gaunt spoke to some of the old servants, 
 and with Bright went straight to the library. 
 
 " Xow, just tell me all the news, Bright," he said.
 
 .136 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 " Don't forget that I've only just landed, that I am a 
 stranger in the land. How is everybody ? How is how 
 are the Deaiies ? How is Miss Deane ? " 
 
 He turned away to the window as he spoke. 
 
 " They are very well," replied Bright. " Bobby is at 
 Sandhurst 
 
 " I am very glad," said Gaunt. " He will make a capi- 
 tal soldier. And Miss Deane ? " 
 
 His face was still turned away. 
 
 " She is very well," answered Bright. " I saw her this 
 morning. She is still the guardian and ministering angel 
 of the place." 
 
 Gaunt nodded. 
 
 "And and is still unmarried?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Bright, with a smile : " but that's en- 
 tirely her fault. She has had two offers, to my knowledge. 
 But I don't think she will remain single long." 
 
 Gaunt sank into^ a chair and sat with downcast eyes. 
 
 " Why do you think so ? " he asked, moving the books 
 011 the table mechanically. 
 
 " I. think she will be Lady Illminster before long," said 
 Bright. " His lordship has been paying her a great deal 
 of attention lately, and it is evident that he is very much 
 in love with her." 
 
 " Illminster ? " said Gaunt, looking up quickly, and with 
 a tightening of the lips. " Who is he ? I forget. What 
 sort of a man is he ? " 
 
 " He came into his title on the death of his uncle 
 since you left. He is a very nice young fellow and in 
 every way desirable." 
 
 " I am very glad," said Gaunt in a low voice. " And 
 you think that Miss Deane will accept him 't " 
 
 " I think so," said Mr. Bright. 
 
 Then he began to talk about the estate. Gaunt lis- 
 tened, but absently, and presently he rose and said : 
 
 " I think I will go and change, Bright. It will be quite 
 pleasant to get into evening dress. You will dine with 
 me to-night ? " 
 
 Mr. Bright accepted. Gaunt rose and left the room, 
 and Mr. Bright went and interviewed the cook. The re- 
 sult was a very nice little dinner, which Mr. Bright 
 would have enjoyed if Lord Gaunt had displayed any in-
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 237 
 
 terest in it ; but Gaunt seemed to have little or no appe- 
 tite. He seemed disinclined to talk, though quite will- 
 ing to listen to all that Mr. Bright had to say. When- 
 ever Mr. Bright referred to the Deanes, Gaunt was at- 
 tention itself, but other subjects attracted little of his 
 attention. Bright endeavored to draw Lord Gaunt on 
 the subject of the exploration, but Gaunt courteously re- 
 fused to be drawn. He made light of the privations and 
 perils which the expedition had gone through, and said 
 nothing of his own share in the undertaking. Any one 
 listening to him would have thought that the affair was 
 quite a commonplace business unworthy of notice. 
 
 Bright at last said " Good-night." 
 
 " I shall see you in the morning, Lord Gaunt," he said. 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Gaunt. " But I shall go by the early 
 train." 
 
 When Bright had gone, Gaunt left the room, and went 
 on the terrace with a cigarette. She was going to be 
 married to Lord Illminster ! And why not ? lie hoped 
 that the young fellow was all that Mr. Bright had de- 
 scribed him. He hoped that he would be worthy of her. 
 Ah, no ! No man could be worthy of his girl-love of 
 his Decima ! 
 
 Pie went clown the steps from the terrace, and saunt- 
 ered through the park into the road. From there he 
 could just see the chimneys of the Woodbines. 
 
 She was there asleep, and he was here. But what a 
 wide gulf yawned between them ! 
 
 And she was going to be married ! Ah, well, that was 
 quite right. It was as it should be. She was young and 
 beautiful, and this young fellow Well, it was right 
 that she should marry one who was young and well- 
 favored. A wave of bitterness swept over him. He tried 
 to crush down the love of her that rose in his heart. lie 
 would go in the morning; he would not see her. lie 
 would go back to Africa to meet the death which would 
 come sooner or later sooner, he hoped. 
 
 As he turned away toward the hall he saw a sharp 
 light spring into the sky. It seemed to come from the 
 spot at which he had been gazing, from the Woodbines. 
 
 He stopped and looked earnestly in the direction of the 
 light. It grew and expanded, and there was the sound
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 of an explosion. He ran up the hill, and looked earnestly, 
 anxiously, in the direction of the flames, for there were 
 flames now and the sky was red above the spot from 
 Avhich they sprang. 
 It was a fire arid at the Woodbines ! IK- set off running. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 GAUXT ran across the lawn, and climbing the park 
 fen re, got into the road. As he went he was hoping that 
 it might not be the Woodbines, but a hayrack or rick 
 near it, but when he had gone another hundred yards or 
 so, he saw that it was the Deanes' house that was on fire. 
 
 Several other persons were running in the same direc- 
 tion, and by the time he had gained the front gate a 
 crowd had collected, and was shouting and rushing about 
 excitedly. 
 
 (Taunt pushed his way through and caught a man, the 
 nearest to him, by the arm. 
 
 " Are they all out safe ? " he asked. 
 
 Before the man could reply, Mr. Bright came run- 
 ning down the path from the burning ho'i 
 
 Is that you, Lord Gaunt?" he panted, then turned 
 and addressed the crowd. " Some of you run down to 
 the farm and bring up a ladder the longest you can 
 find ; bring two, and some rope. Has any one gone for 
 the engine ? " 
 
 " Yes yes, sir ! " replied a voice. 
 
 " Are they all out, Bright ? " demanded Gaunt. 
 
 lie spoke quietly and calmly enough, but he looked 
 from Bright to the house with a terrible anxiety. 
 
 ' 1 I don't know! I have only just arrived," replied 
 Bright. "I saw you get over the fence. The servants 
 are out and safe. I saw them just now there they are, 
 and Mr. Deane he was here just now." 
 
 ' And Decima Miss Deane? " said Gaunt impatiently. 
 
 Mr. Bright shook his head. 
 
 " I haven't seen her ! Has any one seen Miss Deane ?'' 
 he shouted. 
 
 There \vas a silence as the crowd looked from one to 
 the other ; then the cook pushed her way up to Bright, 
 wringing her hands and crying.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 239 
 
 " Oh, where is the young mistress where is Miss 
 Decima?" sbe wailed. "I can't find her! We we 
 thought she had come out with us ; but I can't find her 
 in the crowd." 
 
 Gaunt took her by the shoulder. 
 
 " Don't be afraid," he said, quietly. " Tell me which 
 room ? " 
 
 The girl stopped wailing and crying for a moment. 
 
 " The back room at the top, my lord. Miss Decima 
 is sleeping there for a night or two ; her own. room is 
 being done up." 
 
 " Show me ! " said Gaunt, quickly. She ran round to the 
 back of the house and pointed to a window of the top room. 
 
 " That's it, my lord ! Oh my poor young mistress ! " 
 
 The night had grown, dark and a slight drizzle had 
 commenced. The fire had not reached the back of the 
 house as yet, though it was spreading rapidly, and he 
 could not see anything at the window. He noticed that 
 there were iron bars to it ; the room had been used as a 
 nursery by a former tenant. 
 
 Gaunt shouted " Decima ! " but no answer came, and 
 he ran round to the front again. The house was an old 
 one, and having been built when timber was cheap and 
 jerry building unknown, there was plenty of wood in it. 
 The flames had caught at the thick beams and quarterings, 
 and the whole front of the house was a sheet of flame. 
 
 One of the men had brought an axe and had broken in 
 the front door, and the draught was driving the fire up 
 the staircase and through the lower rooms fiercely. 
 
 But Gaunt did not hesitate a moment. Decima might 
 have escaped and be safe somewhere in the crowd, but he 
 would not leave it to chance. He meant going into the 
 house. Putting his arm up before his eyes he ran to- 
 ward the door. 
 
 Bright saw him, and sprang forward. 
 
 " Where are you going, my lord ? " he demanded. " You 
 can't go inside it's impossible ! " 
 
 "Have you found Miss Deane?" asked Gaunt, over 
 his shoulder. 
 
 " Xo ! " said Bright. " But you can't go in it's certain 
 death ! " 
 
 Gaunt broke from him, and ran into the house. A
 
 240 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 volume of flame and smoke surrounded him and shut 
 him from Bright's sight. The crowd roared with excite- 
 ment and yelled, " Come back ! Come back ! " and 
 some of the women screamed. Gaunt with his face 
 covered by his arm, blundered to the bottom of the stair- 
 case and looked up. The flames had traveled through 
 the first floor and were licking round the balustrade 
 the landing; the smoke was so thick that he could see 
 nothing but the flames. 
 
 " Decima ! " he called, " Decima ! '' 
 
 There was no answer, and half blinded and suffocated, 
 he was about to rush up the stairs when they fell away 
 from the landing with a dull crash. 
 
 The smoke and dust rendered it impossible for him to 
 see anything for a moment and well-nigh stifled him, but 
 presently he thought he heard a voice above the roar of 
 the fire, and the crackling of the woodwork, and opening 
 his eyes he saw a white figure standing on the landing 
 above him. 
 
 " My God ! " he said, under his breath, and for a second 
 he was paralyzed by fear for the first time in his life ! 
 It was only for a second, the next he was himself again. 
 
 " Decima ! " he cried to her, " Decima, can you see 
 hear me ? " 
 
 A tongue of flame shot up between them, and they 
 could see each other plainly. He saw her start and hold 
 out her arms to him, heard' her cry upon his name, and 
 he held out his arms to her, intending to tell her to jump. 
 He checked the command that sprang to his lips. In the 
 uncertain light, in her terror, she might miss him or jump 
 short, and if she did so she would inevitably injure herself. 
 
 " Decima, can you hear me ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes ! '' she cried back to him, and her voice, 
 though quick and trembling, was free from the frenzy of 
 terror. " Go back ! Oh, go, go ! You cannot save in;.- ! "' 
 
 He laughed fiercely. 
 
 "Can I not.? I can, and I will, save you! Do not be 
 afraid. Go back. Look ! Are the stairs above you safe yet ? " 
 
 She glanced upward. " Yes ; I I think so ! Oh, yes. 
 Pray, pray, go ! The fire is all round you ! I can see it ! " 
 
 "Go up to the top room the one at the back!" he 
 shouted. " Let me see you go ! Quick ! ''
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 241 
 
 She paused a moment, and looked down at him. 
 Surely, it was not terror on the white face which the 
 flames lit up so plainly, not terror alone, but an inde- 
 finable tenderness and joy ! 
 
 " Go I " he repeated, almost sternly. " There is not a 
 moment to lose ! I will save you ! Go to the window, 
 but do not break it the draught " 
 
 She understood, and with another glance at him sprang 
 up the top stairs. 
 
 Gaunt turned and fought his way through the flames 
 and smoke into the open air. Half a dozen men seized 
 him and dragged him away from the house, and beat out 
 the sparks and spots of fire which smouldered in his 
 clothes. His face was black, his hair scorched, and he 
 was almost blinded by the smoke. 
 
 - All right ! " he said, shaking himself free from the 
 anxious, kindly hands. " She is safe as yet. The 
 ladder?" 
 
 " It's here ! "' cried Bright. " Are you hurt ? " 
 
 " No ! no ! Take it round to the back the window 
 with the bars! Quick! " said Gaunt. 
 
 He was cool and self-possessed, but his lips trembled. 
 
 They tore round to the back with the ladder, and set 
 it up against the house, but the ladder would not caiite 
 reach the window. 
 
 Gaunt looked up. Some ivy was growing against the 
 side, and he thought he could manage to reach the 
 window. 
 
 He sprang to the ladder, but Bright and some of the 
 other men grabbed at him. 
 
 " Xo, no, you can't do that, my lord ! Wait, for God's 
 sake, wait until we've tied the smaller ladder on to this 
 one ! " 
 
 " You can do that when I'm up! " said Gaunt, quietly. 
 " I can reach the window by the ivy. Let me go, please ! " 
 
 He pushed Bright aside and tore off his coat, with his 
 foot on the ladder. Then he ran up. They held the 
 ladder firmly, and gazed up at him with white, scared 
 faces. When he had gained the top rung, he twisted his 
 hands in the ivy as high above his head as possible, and 
 drew himself up. For a moment or two he hung by this 
 frail support, and the crowd, as they stared up at him,
 
 :M-2 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 gave a kind of sob and gasp. Then they saw him loosen 
 one hand and reach for the window sill. 
 
 " He'll never do it ! " exclaimed a voice below. " He'll 
 fall drop like a stone! Some one get some blai 
 something to catch him ! " 
 
 But Gaunt's strength was Herculean, and it was backed 
 by that cool courage which has made the Englishman 
 muster of half of the world. He raised himself inch by 
 inch, got a grip with his other hand, and presently bad 
 one knee on the window sill. The crowd sent up a 
 wild cheer ; but there was terror and apprehension in it 
 as well as admiration. 
 
 Fortunately the sill was one of the wide, old-fashioned 
 ones, and Gaunt found it possible to kneel on it. As he 
 did so, he saw Decima. There was only the gla- 
 tween their two faces; hers white and strained with 
 terror for him, not for herself his black and gaimed 
 with smoke. 
 
 He smiled at her encouragingly, and spoke her name. 
 Then he gripped one of the bars, and tore it away, and 
 with a cry of warning to those below, flung it down. 
 The second bar came away as easily, but the last held 
 fast. It had been nailed with clamp nails, and iv- 
 all his efforts for a time ; and he could not put forth all 
 his strength for fear of losing his balance and falling. 
 Every moment was precious. 
 
 He saw a gleam of light behind Decima, and knew 
 that it was -the flames which had reached the top story, 
 and would take hold of the room itself presently. Cling- 
 ing to the side of the window, he exerted all the fo: 
 dared, and the bar came away suddenly, so suddenly, that 
 he staggered and swayed ; and the spectators beneath 
 groaned and shouted warningly. 
 
 ' Open the window now !" he said to Decima. 
 
 With trembling hands she obeyed, and the next instant 
 he was in the room, and she was in his arms. For a 
 space she hid her face on his breast, and a convulsh 
 shook her ; then, with her hands clinging to his shoulders, 
 she looked up at him. 
 
 " You will be killed ! Oh, why have you done it- 
 risked " 
 
 His eyes met hers calmly, with even a smile, but he did
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 243 
 
 not kiss her, though he held her tightly for this second 
 or two. 
 
 We shall be all right," he said, quietly. " Don't be 
 afraid ; do just as I tell you ! " 
 
 " I am not afraid with you I am not afraid now ! " 
 she panted. "Is it really you? Or am I dead and 
 and ? " 
 
 She gazed up at him with wide-open eyes, and her 
 hands touched him, pressed upon his shoulders, as if she 
 wished to assure herself of the reality of his presence. 
 
 " You are not dead and not going to die, please God ! " 
 lie said, quietly. " Now, you will do as I tell you. Come 
 to the window don't look down. Stand there, with your 
 face toward me ! " 
 
 She obeyed. He sprang to the bed, and tearing off the 
 clothes, tied the sheets and counterpane together into a 
 rope. The end of this he passed under her arms, and 
 knotted securely. 
 
 " Oh, what what are you going to do ? " she breathed. 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 " Let you down into safety," he said. 
 
 " Get up on to the- window." He lifted her on to the 
 sill. "Now kneel down. Good! Hold my arm. Now 
 shut your eyes and do not open them until you are safe 
 on the ground beneath." . 
 
 He leaned forward from the window to tell those below 
 what lie was about to do ; but there was no need : Mr. 
 Bright had guessed at it, and he and another, a strong 
 young fellow, were already on the ladder, waiting to 
 receive her. 
 
 " Now, let go your hands," said Gaunt in Decima's ear. 
 "Don't open your eyes, and do not cling to anything. 
 Just let yourself go. Can you do it ? Ah, but you can ! 
 You will be brave ! " 
 
 " I will do anything, everything you tell me ! " she 
 panted. "But you?" 
 
 " Xever mind me. I am all right," he said, impatiently. 
 " Are you ready ? " 
 
 She opened her eyes and looked at him ; the look which 
 a woman gives the man she loves, the man who is coolly 
 and calmly risking his life to save hers ; the look no pen, 
 however graphic and eloquent, can hope to describe ; then
 
 244 HER HEARTS DESIRE. 
 
 she closed her eyes again, and gradually loosening her 
 hold, folded her arms across her breast. 
 
 Gaunt lowered her slowly and gently. Her slight 
 figure swayed to and fro, but he set his feet against the 
 wall and steadied the linen rope, and so lowered her 
 gently until she was grasped by the eager hands out- 
 stretched for her. 
 
 A wild, enthusiastic cheer rose hoarsely from a hun- 
 dred throats, the women shrieked with relief and joy; 
 and Gaunt, as he saw her surrounded and darted at by 
 the crowd, smiled and drew a long breath of relief and 
 gratitude. 
 
 She was safe ! 
 
 " Come down ! Come down ! " rose the shout from 
 very voice. " Quick ! The fiiv ! 
 
 He put his knee on the sill and looked over. As he did 
 so, a tongue of flame shot out from a window beneath him. 
 The fire had reached the back of the house. Decima had 
 been only just in time. She was safe, and the thought, 
 the joy of it, filled Gaunt with a kind of exhilaration. He 
 had conducted and carried through many a forlorn hope, 
 but no success had ever given him such satisfaction as this. 
 
 " Come down ! " shouted the crowd, and one man in his 
 excitement screamed out an oath. 
 
 Gaunt stepped on to the sill, and was about to lower 
 himself, but the flames beneath him curled round the lad- 
 der, and he saw that it had caught fire. He hesitated: 
 the crowd groaned and yelled. He saw Decima her 
 figure in its white dressing-robe, lit up by the flames 
 hreak from a group of women and spring to the foot of 
 the ladder. She stood with her face and arms uplifted to 
 him, and he could almost fancy that he saw her lips move. 
 He heard the burning ladder crackle, and hiss as the 
 fiames licked it. Then he did the only foolish thing he 
 had done. He left the window and ran to the door of the 
 room. But the fire had obtained a firm hold of the upper 
 landing and no one could hope to pass through it and live. 
 He returned to the window and without any further hesi- 
 tation lowered himself by the ivy to the ladder and began 
 to descend. But the few seconds they were scarcely 
 more than five had permitted the flames to eat through 
 the ladder, and his weight broke it off at the burned part. 
 
 -
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 245- 
 
 He fell, clutching the sides of the ladder, but his weight 
 was too great for the strain, and he came down to the 
 ground, with a dull, heavy thud, which smote every soul 
 with horror and pity. 
 
 He was conscious for a moment and in that space of 
 time he knew that a white-robed figure was kneeling be- 
 side him, that its hands were holding him to its bosom,, 
 then all became a blank. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 A WEEK later Gaunt was lying on his bed, in his room 
 at the Hall. 
 
 It was the room in which his father, his grandfather 
 and how many generations of Gaunts ! had been born, 
 and had died. It Avas a bright, sunny day, but the blinds 
 were drawn and the nurse and doctor spoke in whispers 
 as they stood by the bed and looked at the scorched and 
 maimed figure lying so still and helplessly on it. 
 
 Gaunt opened his eyes, and looked from one to the 
 other. Pie was very thin and felt as weak as a baby. He 
 tried to move his arm, but with a dull kind of surprise 
 found that he could not do it. Both arms were bound in 
 splints and wadding ; he was swathed, so to speak, in 
 cotton wool, and felt and looked like a mummy. 
 
 Across his - chest, and about his arms was a stinging, 
 aching pain which puzzled him. For a moment he thought 
 he was in Africa and wounded by an assegai, and as he 
 looked at the doctor he said, in the thin tones of extreme 
 weakness and yet with a smile : 
 
 " What's happened ? Have they beaten us ? " 
 
 The doctor didn't understand, but he laid a soothing- 
 hand on the hot brow. 
 
 " Better, I hope, my lord ! " he said. 
 
 Gaunt tried to nod, but his head was as heavy as lead, 
 and he felt as if even his tongue were burned with the 
 rest of him. 
 
 " Have I been ill ! Where am I ? Ah, yes ! Is is- , 
 she safe ? " 
 
 The nurse she was a woman of the village, who had 
 been through one of the London hospitals, and happening-
 
 :M!> HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 home for a holiday, had begged to be permitted to 
 nurse him the nurse understood. 
 
 " Yes, my lord/' she said. "Miss Deane is all right. 
 Quite right ! " 
 
 Gaunt tried to nod. "Thank God ! " he murmured to 
 himself. " Have I been ill long V " he asked. 
 
 "It's a week since the tire," said the doctor. '-You 
 have not been quite conscious since then." 
 
 Gaunt tried to glance at his swollen and impri- 
 arms. 
 
 " What is the matter with me?" 
 
 The doctor knew his man and did not evade the question. 
 
 "One arm broken," he said, cheerfully, '-and the > 
 burned, in fact, you were scorched and burned pretty 
 liberally." 
 
 ' The fire ? Ah, yes I remember ! " >;iid Gaunt. It 
 
 bad fire. Any liv< Deane i 
 
 hurt, ill ? " 
 
 Miss Deane is all right, thanks to you,*' said the doc- 
 tor, with a slight catch in 1 : there were no 
 lives lost. Mr. Deane nearly came to grief. II 
 anxious to rescue some invention, some model or 
 and ran into the house after it ; but the men dragged him 
 out and he was not burned." 
 
 Gaunt nodded. 
 
 " I'm glad. I low how did it occur 
 
 The doctor shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "Something caught fire and exploded. Some prepara- 
 tion of Mr. Deane's, I believe," ironically, " that it was the 
 compound which he was inventing for the extinction of 
 lire.' 1 
 
 Gaunt smiled. 
 
 ' And they're all safe? The servants and al! 
 
 " Yes ; quite safe. You are the only one who has 
 suffered." 
 
 "That's all right," said Gaunt, with quiet satisfaction. 
 " I fell from the ladder, I suppose ? I remember now. 
 I'm rather thirsty." 
 
 The nurse gave him some water. 
 
 "Thanks. The house the Woodbines must be re- 
 built. I should like it to be rebuilt as soon a 
 and as much like the old one "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 247 
 
 " Plenty of time for that, my lord," said the doctor. 
 " We must not let you worry yourself about that or any- 
 thing else at present. Are you in any pain ? " 
 
 " Nothing to speak of," said Gaunt, though the aching 
 of the burned muscles made him catch his breath even as 
 he spoke. " I suppose I shall pull through ? " he asked, 
 quietly. 
 
 The doctor smiled, but it was an uncertain and pain- 
 fully professional smile. 
 
 " I hope so, my lord," he said. 
 
 Gaunt looked at him calmly but searchingly. 
 
 " There's a doubt, eh V " he said. " Well, I am sure you 
 will do your best, doctor." 
 
 He was silent for a minute or so ; then he said, with an 
 affectation of indifference : 
 
 " I've been unconscious, haven't I ? " 
 
 " This is the first time you have been really conscious," 
 said the doctor. 
 
 " Yes ? I I fancied you know one fancies things 
 when one is off one's head ? that there was some one else 
 here besides you two. Thank you, nurse, that's more com- 
 fortable ! " 
 
 The nurse had raised the pillows slightly. The nurse 
 and the doctor exchanged glances, and it was she who 
 answered. 
 
 " It wasn't fancy only, my lord. Miss Deane has been 
 to see you ; in fact ' She hesitated, but Gaunt's eyes 
 were fixed on her and she went on. " Well, she did say 
 that we were not to tell you, my lord, but Miss Deane has 
 been here all the time, helping to nurse you." 
 
 A slight flush rose to the white face. 
 
 " I thought so," he said, quietly. " Any one else been 
 here ? " 
 
 " Mr. Bright and Mr. Robert, Miss Deane's brother," 
 said the nurse. " He came down from Sandhurst. He's 
 down-stairs now." 
 
 " Is he ? " said Gaunt. " I should like to see him ! " 
 , " Xot just at present. Later in the day, after you have 
 had some sleep," said the doctor, decisively. 
 
 Gaunt nodded and closed his eyes. 
 
 " Very well," he said ; " I'm under orders, and must 
 obey."
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 He slept or seemed to sleep for about an hour, then lie 
 opened his eyes. 
 
 Ask Mr. Robert to come up," he said to the nurse, and 
 Bobby entered the room. 
 
 " Ah, Bobby, how are you ? " said Gaunt. ' S, >rry I can't 
 .shake hands ! How is your sistc. 
 
 Bobby bent over the white wasted face, with its 
 scorched hair and too brilliant eyes. 
 
 " Decimals all right," he said. " She she's down-stairs." 
 
 There was a suspicious moisture in Hobby's bright 
 
 "I she I want to thank you, Lord Gaunt ! " he stam- 
 mered, but Gaunt cut him short. 
 
 "That's all right, Bobby ! All's well that ends well. 
 She's safe and not hurt, they tell me. And that's the 
 principal thing. We'll build' up the house again." A 
 .spasm of agony silenced him for a moment, but still he 
 smiled. " And and we must persuade your father to 
 drop the fire-extinguishing business. And how do you 
 like Sandhurst ? Tell me all about it," 
 
 But Bobby could not talk of himself or Sandhurst. 
 
 " You saved her life ! " he said, brokenly. 
 
 "Why not?" asked Gaunt, with a quiet smile. 
 *' Wouldn't you have done the same ? Very well, then ! 
 How well you are looking ! Nice place, Sandhurst ! We 
 shall see you a colonel, commanding one of her majesty's 
 regiments presently, Bobby!" His voice broke, for an- 
 other spasm of pain had caught hold of him. " I I 
 want to send a message to your sister. Tell her Are 
 you listening? I want you to remember the exact words, 
 please ! Tell her that I'm not in the least pain ! Don't 
 forget ! " 
 
 Bobby nodded, and went away ; he could not have 
 spoken to save his life. 
 
 The doctor came up to the bedside, and Gaunt smiled 
 up at him. 
 
 ' Am I going to die, doctor ? " he asked, coolly. " Th 
 a funny feeling about my heart." 
 
 The doctor grew grave, and bent his ear to (Taunt's 
 breast. 
 
 It's the shock," he said under his breath. "You 
 very badly burned, Lord Gaunt." 
 
 " I know," said Gaunt. " I asked you because if you
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 249 
 
 think there's a chance of joining the majority, I I well, 
 J should like to see Miss Deane." 
 
 The doctor was silent for a moment, then he said : 
 
 "I will tell her, my lord." 
 
 " Thanks," said Gaunt, cheerfully. 
 
 He lay quite still after the doctor had left the room, 
 and the nurse, watching him, thought he had gone to 
 sleep, but when the door opened Gaunt opened his eyes 
 and a faint flush rose to his white face, for Decima had 
 entered with the doctor. As she came to the side of the 
 bed Gaunt said : 
 
 " Will you two clear out for a few minutes ? " 
 
 They went out, and Decima was alone with him. 
 
 She knelt beside the bed and looked at him. The light 
 was waning, and he could not see the expression on her 
 face, in her eyes ; but her sweet presence thrilled through 
 him. 
 
 " I I wanted to see you, to thank you ! " he said, in a 
 low voice. 
 
 She raised her eyes. 
 
 " To to thank me me ? " she whispered. 
 
 " Yes," he said, in a thin voice, which for all its feeble- 
 ness had nothing morbid in it. " They have told me that 
 you have helped to nurse me. That is so, isn't it ? It 
 was like you, Decima. You see I call you Decima ! 
 You you will not be offended angry ? " 
 
 She looked at him in speechless sorrow and anguish. 
 
 " I I wanted to see you, to bid you well, to wish 
 you Good-by.' I'm afraid our friend, the doctor, doesn't 
 think any great things of me." 
 
 She hid her face in the coverlet for a moment, but 
 raised it again and looked at him. 
 
 " And I wanted to ask you to hear Decima, do you 
 think you can that you can forgive me ? " 
 
 She fought for calmness prayed for it. She had been 
 warned that she must not excite him. 
 
 " Forgive ! You ask me that ! You who have saved 
 my life ! Who may be dying ? " 
 
 " That's nothing " he said, quietly. " Any fireman at 
 thirty shillings a w r eek, would have done all I did, and 
 less clumsily. That's that's nonsense." The pain 
 caught hold of him and silenced him for- a moment, then
 
 250 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 lie went on. "I I meant for what what I said to you 
 that night for what I asked you to do, Decima ! " 
 
 u Yes ; I I forgive ! " she said. 
 
 " Thank you, dearest ! You see, I take advantage of 
 my situation! But all, Decima, you are 'dearest' to 
 me. I love but I didn't mean to speak of that. Decima, 
 I have hrard of your engagement." 
 
 She started slightly, but said nothing. 
 
 " I've heard of young Illminstcr. I knew his uncle. A 
 good sort. I hope he'll make you a good husband, 
 Decima ! He's lie's a lucky young fellow ! I I should 
 like to see him ; but I don't suppose they'd let me. As 
 if it mattered ! And and Decima, I've made a little 
 will." He smiled. Don't be afraid. I've not left you 
 anything worth speaking of. I know you'd only refuse it. 
 No ; only a trifle. Some pearls and things. You'll wear 
 the diamonds on your wedding day. Promise, Decima ! " 
 
 She was silent for a moment; then she said, almost in- 
 audibly : 
 
 " I promise." 
 
 " Thanks ! They they were my mother's. This this 
 is rather a mournful business, and and it may be absurd 
 and grotesque, too, for I may pull through, after all, 
 though I fancy not, for the doctor smiled, and when they 
 smile I've just seen Bobby. I've left him my guns and 
 some other things. How dark it is getting, Decima ! I 
 ran say this now, because well, because you are going to 
 marry young Illminster, and be happy. Yes, be happy, 
 dearest! That has always been my wish; just that you 
 should be happy ! God knows I have not helped you to 
 happiness ! .My love hitherto has only made you wretched. 
 < : od forgive me ! But how I have loved you ! " 
 
 He drew a long breath and looked at her as if he were 
 trying to impress her every feature upon his memory that 
 he might carry it with him wherever he was going. 
 
 "How I have loved you ! Life is short let one ! 
 happy as one may life is short. Soon and yet not for a 
 long time, I hope, dearest you will cross the river that 
 divides !ife from death, and we shall meet. We shall meet 
 with hearts bare to each other's gaze, and there 
 you will know how I have loved you! "
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 251 
 
 He looked at her with a brave smile, but Decima could 
 not see it for tears. 
 
 She bent over him. 
 
 " You you are wrong ! " she breathed, scarcely know- 
 ing what she said. " Lord Illminster he I I am not 
 going to marry him. I am not going to marry any 
 one " 
 
 She wiped the tears from her eyes hastily, for they 
 obscured her sight, and his face was precious to her ! 
 
 u Xot going to marry ! Why not ? " he asked, in his 
 thin voice. " Xot marry Illminster ? They told me 
 why not ? " 
 
 " Because because " Her voice broke and her head 
 bent lower ; " because I do not love him. I I love some 
 one else." 
 
 Her head sank until her face was hidden upon his arm. 
 
 His eyes grew wider and he frowned. 
 
 " Who is this some one else, Decima ? " he said, slowly, 
 for his pain had gotten hold upon him again. 
 
 " Can't can't you tell ? " she whispered. " Oh, my 
 dearest" She cast aside her trembling shyness, and bent 
 over him, love pouring from her eyes, vibrating in her 
 voice. " Oh, don't you know ? Did you think that I 
 should cease to love you ? Did you think that I should 
 change alter V You know that I loved you ; do you 
 think that I should not love you now now that you have 
 risked your life for me ? " 
 
 " Decima ! " he breathed, wondering, scarcely daring to 
 think that he was awake and not dreaming. 
 
 " Yes, I love you," she breathed. " I have loved you 
 all through it was wicked, I know, but I cannot help it ! 
 There is no one else ! There could not be ! You must 
 not die ! Ah, you must not or I must die, too ! I could 
 not live without you, dearest ! I could not, because I 
 love you better than life itself." 
 
 A light shone in Gaunt 's eyes ; his lips trembled. He 
 tried to move ; but he could not : he was bound and 
 swathed too scientifically, securely. 
 
 " I can't move ! " he exclaimed. " I can't put my arm 
 round you ! Oh, my love my love ! " 
 
 Blushing over face and neck, she put her arms round 
 him and pressed him to her bosom, and bent lower and
 
 L'.-)ii HEP, HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 lower, until her lips touched his, and when they had thus 
 touched, they clung with a kiss in which even her great 
 love found expression. 
 
 ## #*#*=:-= 
 
 Her arms were still round him when the doctor came 
 into the room, and she looked round with a strange look 
 in her lovely eyes. It was the look which the lion 
 wears when she is protecting her cub, the mother when 
 she holds her best-loved against her bosom and so dares 
 death itself!" 
 
 The doctor looked at her and then at Gaunt. 
 
 " Has he fainted ?" he asked, in a grave whisper. 
 
 Decima held the dear head still closer yet, how gently I 
 to her bosom. 
 
 YOU you had better go, my dear young lady," said 
 the doctor, gravely. 
 
 But Gaunt opened his eyes. 
 
 "Let her stay, doctor !" he said, with a smile. "I'm 
 not going to die. Men don't die when they have so much 
 to live for, and I well, I'm going to live ! '' 
 
 And he did. Much to the surprise of the doctors, Gaunt 
 " turned the corner " that day, soon became convalescent, 
 and regained his health and all his old strength with 
 remarkable rapidity. 
 
 As Lady Roborough remarked : 
 
 "The Gaunts always did the unexpected," and she add- 
 ed, to Decima, that this particular member of the family 
 was the most obstinate of men. " If he has made up his 
 mind to live, and make you happy, you may depend upon, 
 it he will do so." 
 
 He displayed his obstinacy not only in getting well, but 
 in the matter of an early marriage. Decima pleaded k * for 
 time," of course ; but Gaunt would scarcely listen to the 
 plea, and she was so grateful to him for not dying that 
 she yielded. 
 
 They were married within the month, and for a time, 
 for nearly a year, in faet, disappeared from the sight, 
 though not the memory, of their friends and wandered 
 about the Continent, far off the beaten tracks, staying at 
 some little old-world town, or lingering beside one of the 
 smaller Italian lakes whose shores the tourist has not yet 
 troubled with his check suit and camera.
 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 253 
 
 They ought to have been bored to death, but, strange 
 to say, they were not. Their love had been tried in a 
 very fiery furnace, and had stood a test even more severe 
 than a prolonged honeymoon, and it was not because they 
 were tired of wandering, or of each other, that at last one 
 day, early in summer, they turned homeward. 
 
 That Leafmore was glad to see them goes without say- 
 ing, and the people showed their delight at the return of 
 " my lord and lady " in the usual way. There were 
 triumphal arches and a brass band, and the whole village 
 turned out to meet and greet them, and escorted them to 
 the Hall, with cheers which drowned the music of the 
 band. To those who know the power and volume of a 
 country brass band this will convey a fairly accurate idea 
 of the heartiness of the cheers. 
 
 Having reached home, Gaunt and Decirna would have 
 liked to settle down into a life as closely resembling their 
 quiet honeymoon as possible, but Decima was too wise to- 
 yield to the desire. 
 
 " Yes," she said, stifling a sigh, as she regarded the lit- 
 tle heap of invitations which very soon appeared beside 
 the breakfast plate. " We must go, of course. I must 
 not forget that you do not belong to me altogether." 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! " he said. " And to whom also do I be- 
 long, pray ? " 
 
 " To these, and these, and these," she said, turning over 
 the notes from the Roboroughs and the Ferndales and the 
 rest. " We must do our duty, dearest. Besides " she hesi- 
 tated, and looked at him wistfully. 
 
 " Out with it," he said, with a smile. " I was thinking 
 what a nice, quiet time we would have down here, you 
 and I ; but if you've got an idea that it's your Duty- Duty 
 with a capital D to drag me into a round of dinner par- 
 ties, I'm quite certain that you'll do it. But go on. What 
 were you going to remark ? " 
 
 " I was going to say that I didn't want you to get 
 tired of me of living a sort of Darby and Joan exist- 
 ence." 
 
 Gaunt laughed, witli an affectation of mockery. 
 
 " My dear Decima, that's a little too thin ! As if I didn't 
 know that you are dying to gad about among these peo- 
 ple, and be petted and made much of as if there were
 
 251 TIER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 any special merit in being pretty to look at and having 
 * mousy ' ways which get over people." 
 
 She rose and put her arms round his neck and her finger 
 on his lips. 
 
 " You'll have the servants come in and see you ! '' he 
 said pretending to be alarmed. 
 
 " And if they do? " she retorted. " They all know I'm 
 weak enough to be in love with you still." 
 
 They did the round of dinner parties, and as Gaunt 
 had prophesied, Decima was petted and made much of. 
 In due course they returned the hospitality extended to 
 them, and dinners and dances, garden parties and im- 
 promptu luncheons for a time " rule firm" at Leafmore. 
 
 It was after one of these quiet lunches, which was eaten 
 in the dining-room and on the terrace indifferently, that 
 Decima, who was seated on the lawn beside Lady Robor- 
 ough and Aunt Pauline that lady had long ago forgiven 
 (Taunt, and had grown absurdly attached to him saw a 
 fly coming up the drive. 
 
 "Who are these, deary" asked Lady Roborough. 
 'More visitors? If so, it is to be hoped there is some 
 luncheon left." 
 
 " I don't know whom it can be," said Decima, looking^ 
 at the middle-aged and rather nervous-looking lady and 
 the very pretty little girl who sat beside her in the ; 
 riage. 
 
 At this moment Gaunt, followed by Lord Ferndale and 
 the other gentlemen, came down the terrace and joined 
 the ladies. 
 
 " There is some one coming who is it ? '' said De 
 
 Before she could finish the girl in the carriage caught 
 sight of Gaunt, jumped up, called to the driver to si 
 and, getting out, ran quickly across the lawn and sei: 
 Gaunfs hand with a cry of innocent delight. 
 
 Gaunt looked down at her for an instant or two, in. 
 doubt and uncertainty, then he, too, cried out, and as de- 
 lightedly : 
 
 " Why, Maude ! Is it possible ? " 
 
 " Yes ! '" she responded, clinging to his hand and 
 
 ding at him, and then back at her mother, who w; 
 
 :ng her more slowly and timidly. "And YOU 
 
 to see me? You don't mind my coining, 

 
 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 255 
 
 " Glad ! I should think so ! " said Gaunt. " Ho 
 you do, Mrs. Watson?" he added, extending his hand 
 to her mother. 
 
 " There ! I said so ! " exclaimed Maude. " Mamma 
 said we ought not to come; that we ought to wait that 
 it wasn't good manners ; but I knew you wouldn't mind 
 that you'd be glad to see me. And oh, I did so want 
 to see you ! '' 
 
 Gaunt, all aglow with pleasure, turned to Decima and 
 -the others. 
 
 "This is Mrs. Watson and little Maude, my fellow 
 ngers on the poor Pevensey Castle, Decie- " 
 
 But Decima had guessed their identity before this, and 
 had given an eager hand to the rather embarrassed lady. 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad to see you ! So very glad ! '' 
 Decima, with "the Decima voice and smile," as Lady 
 Roborough called it. " Oh, let her come to me, Edward ! " 
 she said, wistfully, and she drew the child to her eagerly. 
 
 " I ought to apologize for this this intrusion," said 
 Mrs. Watson, nervously ; " but but we are in England 
 on a visit, and Maude insisted upon coming." 
 
 And you very properly and kindly yielded," said 
 Gaunt, gratefully. " It was very kind of you, and if I 
 tried I couldn't tell you how glad I and my wife this is 
 my wife, Mrs. Watson are to see you ! " 
 
 " I said so, mother ! " said Maude, nodding triumphantly. 
 
 " How well she looks ! " said Gaunt, a few minutes 
 later, and speaking in an undertone, so that Maude, who 
 was the center of a group of ladies, to whom she was 
 trying to talk all at once, might not hear. Her mother's 
 face flushed with gratitude and happiness. 
 
 " Yes, she is quite well ! It was Africa. Oh, it is a 
 wonderful country, and and I can never be too thank- 
 ful ! She is all the world to me, Lord Gaunt. But if it 
 had not been for you, we should never have reached 
 Africa, and Maude " 
 
 " Mamma's trying to thank him," said Maude at that 
 moment " As if she could ! Besides, he doesn't like 
 being thanked I know that ! " 
 
 " Come, Maude," said Mrs. Watson. " We will go 
 now. Lady Gaunt " 
 
 " Indeed, you will not ! " said Decima, with gentle stern-
 
 256 HER HEART'S DESIRE. 
 
 ness. " You are not going for a long time oh, a very 
 long time. You are going to stay with us, are you not, 
 Maude ? " 
 
 Maude looked from Gaunt to Decima, then nodded and 
 smiled ecstatically. 
 
 " Oh, yes yes ! Please, mamma ! " she said, beseech- 
 ingly, and Gaunt rendered any discussion futile by send- 
 ing for" their luggage. 
 
 A little later, when the other guests had gone, with 
 the exception of Lady Roborough, who was staying in 
 the house. Decima and she were sitting at tea with 
 Mrs. Watson, on the terrace, Maude was on Gaunt's 
 knee, and Mrs. "Watson was telling the other two ladies 
 of the child's marvelous recovery. 
 
 "And how well you look how well and strong!" 
 Maude was saying to Gaunt. " We read all about the 
 lire, and what you did, and mamma said she was afraid 
 you'd die ; but I said, no : that you were too strong. Do 
 you remember how you used to lift me, chair and all, just 
 as if I were a baby like your dear little one in the 
 nursery upstairs ? " 
 
 "You're a very big baby now, Maude," remarked 
 Gaunt. 
 
 " Yes, am I not ? And I'm so strong, too ! Oh, do you 
 think I ought to have any more cake? Well, just this 
 piece. What a pretty lady Lady Gaunt is ! " she said, 
 after n quiet munch. 
 
 "Yes, I think so, too. I'm glad you agree with me." 
 
 " And how how happy, how very happy she looks ! " 
 remarked Maude, contemplating Decima thoughtfully. 
 
 "Yes, I think she's fairly happy, Maude," he assented. 
 " I don't beat her very often. Yes, I fancy she's happy ! " 
 
 " I know why ! " said the child, with a quiet laugh. 
 
 Lady Roborough heard her and looked round 
 
 " Because she hath ' her heart's desire,' " she quoted 
 to Gaunt. 
 
 Maude looked from one to the other, rather puzzled 
 for a moment or so. Then she smiled up at Gaunt 
 triumphantly, as if she had guessed the riddle. 
 
 " She means you ! " she said, shrewdly. 
 
 [THE END]