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 L I B RARY 
 
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 Of ILLINOIS 
 
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 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/royswifenovel01whyt
 
 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 ROY'S WIFE 
 
 j jr.w. 
 
 BY 
 
 G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY 
 
 1878. 
 
 [All Hirjhts reserved.]
 
 §mr 9 ag: 
 
 CLAY AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.
 
 •«3 
 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 I. 
 
 A PINT OF PORT 
 
 1 
 
 II. 
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS 
 
 ... 22 
 
 III. 
 
 NO. 46 
 
 ... 30 
 
 IV. 
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER 
 
 44 
 
 V. 
 
 A woman's REASON ... 
 
 ... 56 
 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 
 SO LIKE A MAN ! 
 WARDEN TOWERS 
 
 ... 69 
 ... 83 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 "0 
 
 X. 
 
 ROYSTON GRANGE 
 STRANGERS YET 
 
 ... 97 
 113 
 
 MRS. MOPUS ... 
 
 125 
 
 XI. 
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY 
 
 139 
 
 XII. 
 
 BURTON BRAKE 
 
 155
 
 VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 XIII. SWEET SYMPATHY 
 
 XIV. SO FAR AWAY 
 
 XV. THE LITTLE RIFT 
 
 XVI. THE MUSIC MUTE 
 
 XVII. BAFFLED 
 
 XVIII. DO YOU REMEMBER? 
 
 XIX. IN THE WILDERNESS 
 
 XX. A BLUE-JACKET 
 
 171 
 
 184 
 203 
 216 
 236 
 
 248 
 265 
 
 282
 
 KOY'S WIFE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A PINT OF POET. 
 
 None of your Scotch pints, dear to hard-headed 
 North Britons of the last century, not even an 
 imperial pint, containing only one-fourth of 
 the former measure, but an hotel pint, in hotel 
 limits, of hotel vintage, at hotel price. Sound, 
 no doubt, though rough and fruity ; strong, 
 full-flavoured, and exceedingly restorative to 
 body and mind. 
 
 An open wine-book propped against an 
 uncorked bottle offers the produce of many 
 European vineyards at the highest possible 
 tariff. In its first page alone the varieties of
 
 2 Rors WIFE. 
 
 champagne and claret might stock the cellar of 
 a duke. But he is a man of unusually trustful 
 nature who drinks wme in a coffee-room at 
 the rate of one hundred and twenty shillings 
 per dozen, and experienced travellers wisely 
 content themselves with pale ale, brandy-and- 
 water, a glass of brown sherry, or a pint of 
 port. 
 
 Neither wine nor wine-card have yet 
 attracted attention from the visitor w T ho 
 ordered both. A waiter, banging hot plates 
 down under his nose, to. serve " a bit of fish," 
 notices nothing remarkable in this unit among 
 many guests. His manners are quiet, he wears 
 a good coat, and drinks wine with his dinner ; 
 the waiter, therefore, considers him a gentle- 
 man. That his face should be weary, his air 
 abstracted, seems but the natural result of a 
 journey by rail from- London to the seaside; 
 and if he thinks of him at all, it is as " a gent 
 from town," good for a shilling or two when 
 he takes his departure, notwithstanding that 
 " attendance " is charged in the bill.
 
 A PINT OF PORT. 3 
 
 The fish has been to London and back 
 since leaving its native shore, and is sent away 
 uneaten ; but the port is sipped, tasted, and 
 approved. The first glass permeates through 
 his tired frame till it tingles at his finger-ends ; 
 with the second, there rises a sensation of 
 renewed vigour and vitality in the whole man ; 
 ere he is half-way to the bottom of the third, 
 a change has come over himself, his surround- 
 ings, his past, his present — above all, his 
 future — that future which looked so blank and 
 uninteresting ten minutes ago. The carpet 
 seems no longer faded, the coffee-room dingy 
 and ill-ventilated. A stout lady at the corner 
 table, dining in solemn silence with two shy 
 daughters and an ungainly son, ceases to be an 
 object of aversion and disgust. Even the old 
 gentleman by the window, who gasps and 
 snorts during the process of deglutition, now 
 excites no stronger feeling than a mild hope 
 that he will presently be seized with some kind 
 of fit, such as shall necessitate his removal 
 up-stairs. The drinker is surprised at his own
 
 4 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 benevolence, and wonders, not without con- 
 tempt, how such an alteration should have been 
 wrought in his nature by warmth, food, and a 
 pint of port ! 
 
 Keneetion has been forced on him in the 
 contrast between present inactivity and the 
 stir of his former life. With nothing to do, 
 plenty of time to do it, and nobody to help 
 him, he has become a philosopher in spite of 
 himself. He has acquired the habit of analyzing 
 his own character and motives, examining them, 
 as it were, from an outside point of view, in a 
 spirit of cynicism, half-scornful, half-indulgent, 
 but wholly without result, his speculations only 
 leading him farther and farther into that 
 labyrinth of which cui bono is the centre and 
 the goal. He is easily depressed : no wonder. 
 But his hopes rise quickly as they fall. When 
 he sat down to dinner he felt a hundred years 
 old, yet ere the most odorous of Cheddar 
 cheeses can be thrust in his face, the world we 
 live in has acquired a new lustre, a fresh 
 interest ; society seems no longer an infliction
 
 A PINT OF PORT, 5 
 
 nor life a mistake. It is his nature to accept 
 the metamorphosis with amusement, curiosity, 
 and mistrust "What an absurdity," he 
 reflects, " is this action and reaction of body 
 and mind, this irregular and spontaneous 
 oscillation that governs the machine called 
 man — a machine in some respects constructed 
 with such elaborate care and precision, in 
 others lamentably ill-suited to the purposes of 
 life ! A steam-engine is not thrown out of 
 gear because we feed its fires with inferior 
 coal, or lubricate its hinges with a cheaper oil 
 than the best by sixpence a gallon ; but the 
 man who invented the steam-engine can be 
 driven into madness in three minutes with as 
 many glasses of brandy, and only half-a-pound 
 of such a cheese as that, for instance, would 
 weigh him down with a depression wanting 
 but a few grains of actual despair. If the 
 master-piece of nature, the lord of creation, 
 had been made with a gizzard, rather than a 
 liver, would he not oftener be lord of himself ? 
 which is more to the purpose ; and woidd not
 
 6 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 that self more seldom prove 'a heritage of 
 woe ' ? I have sat here but five-and-twenty 
 minutes by the coffee-room clock. The waiter 
 thinks I am the same person whose orders he 
 took for dinner, and who told him to remove 
 the fish at once. How little he knows ! That 
 man and I are as different as chalk itself from 
 the very cheese that still pervades the room. 
 He was a pessimist — almost a devil- worshipper ; 
 I am an optimist, and in so far a good Christian 
 that I am at peace with all mankind ! When 
 I drew my chair to this table I felt, to use 
 the expression of an Irish friend, as if 'the 
 back-bone was out of me/ No interest, do 
 energy, no concern for my luggage, no British 
 susceptibility to imposition, scarcely enough 
 spirit available to have resented an insult or 
 returned a blow. Now I have become curious 
 about the locality, the neighbourhood, the shops, 
 the church, the circulating library, the new 
 pier, and the state of the tide. I ascertain by 
 personal inquiry that my portmanteau is safe 
 in No. 5. I cannot be overcharged at present,
 
 A PINT OF PORT. 7 
 
 inasmuch as I have scarcely yet laid the found- 
 ation of a bill, but I am prepared to expend 
 guineas rather than be cheated out of- shillings ; 
 while as for blows and insults, my arm has kept 
 my head ere now. Let the aggressor look out ; 
 I am well able to take care of myself And 
 all this has been brought about by the con- 
 sumption of a pint of port. Great heavens ! 
 can it be possible that my intellect, my sagacity, 
 my nobler qualities, even my courage, are thus 
 dependent on drink! Life was a very dull 
 business half-an-hour ago. The journey, though 
 smooth and easy, had become so slow and tire- 
 some ; the road was exceedingly uninteresting, 
 leading nowhere in particular after all. For 
 me and for my neighbours the way made, like 
 that of an unskilful swimmer, was so out of 
 proportion to the energy expended, the puffing 
 and blowing, the hurry, the effort, and the 
 splash ! We were all, like flies on a window- 
 pane, buzzing to and fro, backwards and for- 
 wards, round and round, never relaxing our 
 efforts, yet never penetrating an impassable
 
 8 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 transparency that kept us from the reality 
 outside. I have envied a man breaking stones 
 on the road, because with a daily duty and a 
 definite purpose he seemed in some measure to 
 fulfil the object of existence, and to be less of 
 a sham and mountebank than myself. I am 
 satisfied now that such reflections were but 
 results of a languid circulation. My pulse — 
 for I felt it when the waiter wasn't looking — 
 beats full and regular, seventy to the minute ; 
 I seem still to have duties, pleasures, perhaps 
 even happiness, in store for one whose scalp is 
 not yet bare, and who can count the grey hairs 
 in his whiskers. Waiter, a toothpick ! " 
 
 " Beg your pardon, sir ; we don't keep 
 them in the coffee-room now, sir." 
 
 " Indeed ! Why not ? " 
 
 "We found it didn't answer, sir. The 
 gentlemen took them away." 
 
 Lost in the field of reflection opened up by 
 such an admission, our visitor might have 
 relapsed into something of his previous 
 despondency, but that his attention was
 
 A PINT OF PORT. 9 
 
 diverted to the laying of a table at the other 
 end of the room with rather more preparation 
 and nicety of arrangement than had been 
 accorded in his own case, though his sense of 
 smell caused him to suspect that the fish he 
 had discarded was brought to the front once 
 more. Spoons and forks, however, had been 
 polished to a dazzling lustre, the tablecloth was 
 very white, and in its centre stood a handful 
 of flowers in a dull glass vase. Surveying this 
 effort, the waiter smiled satisfaction, while our 
 philosopher threw himself back in his chair 
 to see what would come of it with the good- 
 humoured indifference of a man who has dined. 
 What came of it was nothing unusual to 
 the waiter, to the old gentleman, to the mother 
 and daughters, even to the ungainly son — 
 simply a single lady dining later than other 
 inmates of the hotel ; but to the port-drinker, 
 in regular gradations, at a startling rate of 
 progression, a distraction, an amusement, a 
 mystery, an engrossing interest, and an irre- 
 sistible attraction.
 
 io ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 The very rustle of her dress, as it swept 
 the dingy coffee-room carpet, was suggestive 
 of grace and dignity, of a smooth, easy gait, 
 springing from symmetry of form and vigorous 
 elasticity of limb. That horses can go in all 
 shapes is an established maxim of the stable, 
 but when women are good movers it needs no 
 anatomist to assure us that in external structure 
 at least they have been " nobly planned." Even 
 the waiter seemed impressed, smirking and 
 flourishing his napkin with unusual emphasis, 
 while interposing his person between the object 
 of his assiduities and the observer who wanted 
 to see her face. It vexed him that this should 
 be completely averted. As the lady seated 
 herself, he could only detect the turn of a full 
 and shapely figure, a delicate little ear, and a 
 white neck from which the hair was scrupu- 
 lously lifted and arranged, dark and lustrous, 
 tight and trim, in a fashion exceedingly 
 becoming to the beautiful, but trying to the 
 more ordinary of womankind. 
 
 Many a romance has been built on slighter
 
 A PINT OF PORT. n 
 
 scaffolding ; and no young man of half his age 
 and a quarter his experience was more likely 
 to make a fool of himself about a woman than 
 the gentleman in question — John Roy, Esquire, 
 of Royston, a deputy-lieutenant for his county, 
 and a magistrate who had never qualified in 
 the Commission of the Peace. There was 
 nothing uncommon in his history. Eton and 
 the ten-oar — Oxford and the drag — upper 
 division, fifth form, at school, and a degree at 
 college — woodcocks in Albania, lansqueret at 
 St. Petersburg, Hanover for German, Paris 
 for fencing, and home again for real enjoyment 
 of life — then a little Melton, a little Newmarket, 
 a little London, with the prospect of completing 
 this conventional course in a prudent marriage, 
 and such rural vegetation as would tend to the 
 increase of personal weight and prolongation 
 of the family tree. 
 
 Not the best training, perhaps, even for the 
 level path he seemed 'likely to tread in the 
 journey of life. Not the wisest preparation, 
 certainly, for a time when there must be an end
 
 12 ROVS WIFE. 
 
 of business and pleasure; when tobacco shall 
 cease to soothe, and wine to exhilarate ; when 
 dancing waters and June sunshine are to be 
 exchanged for drawn curtains and beef-tea ; 
 when it will need neither the doctor's grave 
 face nor the nurse's vapid smile to tell us that 
 we have done with our accustomed habits, 
 pursuits, and interests; never to greet our 
 guests, ride our horses, nor balance our accounts 
 again ; no more to cherish a grudge, nor indulge 
 a prejudice, nor kindle in the glow of a kindly 
 action on behalf of our fellow-man ! The 
 journey is compulsory, the destination inevit- 
 able, yet how little thought we seem to take 
 for here or hereafter ! 
 
 In Eastern nations every male, whatever 
 may be his rank, is brought up to some kind 
 of handicraft, and so far is made independent 
 of external fortune. In England, we pride 
 ourselves on teaching our sons a smattering of 
 many things, and a thorough knowledge of 
 none. This we call the education of a gentle- 
 man; but surely, in such loose, discursive
 
 A PINT OF PORT. 13 
 
 culture of the mind, we fail to stimulate that 
 power of concentration which can alone remove 
 gigantic obstacles, to encourage that habit of 
 persistency which forms the very back-bone of 
 success, 
 
 John Roy received "the education of a 
 gentleman," and did credit to his nurture as 
 well as another ; but there came a time, before 
 he was turned thirty, when he wished he had 
 been bred a shoemaker, or a stonemason, 
 because of the dull dead pain for which there 
 is no anodyne like the pressure of daily want 
 and the fatigue of daily work. 
 
 The lives of most of us in so far resemble 
 a skein of silk, that they unwind freely and 
 readily enough until they arrive at a knot. 
 Patient, even pleased, we sit in a ludicrous 
 attitude, stiffened by the voluntary fetters that 
 a pair of white hands have fitted deftly round 
 our wrists, and while we smile and look foolish, 
 * lo ! there is a jerk, a quiver, a stop : the pretty 
 lips tighten, the pencilled eyebrows frown, and 
 presently the merry-go-round that went so
 
 i 4 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 swimmingly comes to a dead-lock. So she 
 brings out her scissors to solve the whole 
 difficulty with a vicious little snip, observing 
 calmly, " I began at the wrong end." 
 
 There was a Lady Jane in Roy's life who 
 also began at the wrong end. She chose to 
 fall in love with him because she was idle, 
 because her younger sister was engaged, because 
 he always stood at the same place in the park 
 when she rode there, perhaps because the 
 London season is so insufferably tedious without 
 some definite attraction. Having decided that 
 she would " like him a little," she made up 
 her mind that he should like her a great deal. 
 There was no difficulty in the capture. Hand- 
 some and high-bred, asked everywhere, and 
 sufficiently admired even in London, she had 
 but to look her wishes ; in three days the man 
 was at her beck and call. Such stories have 
 been told so often they are hardly worth 
 repeating. He had never really cared for a 
 woman before, he never cared quite in the 
 same way for a woman again.
 
 A PINT OF PORT. 15 
 
 Men, like animals, take their punishment 
 differently according to their dispositions. Some 
 fret and chafe, and forget all about it ; others 
 turn cowardly and despondent, or sullen and 
 savage, but all lose something of that fire 
 and dash which prompts untried natures to 
 achieve the marvellous in aiming at the 
 impossible. 
 
 Lady Jane, with her new distraction, was 
 very happy for a fortnight, a month, six 
 weeks ! It seemed so nice to be petted, to be 
 worshipped, to have some twelve stone of 
 manhood all to oneself. She felt quite sorry 
 for the othei* girls, plodding along, dismounted 
 as it were, while she rode her hobby in triumph 
 with her delicate nose in the air. Mr. Roy — 
 she wished he had a prettier name than John — 
 was so devoted, so amiable, above all so true. 
 He never gave her the slightest twinge of 
 jealousy (she would have liked him all the 
 better if he had), but told her every hour that 
 she was too good for him ; a princess stooping 
 to a squire, Beauty smiling on the Beast, and
 
 16 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 that he considered himself unworthy to wipe 
 the very dust from her feet. After a while 
 she believed him, as a woman will believe 
 anything, if it is only repeated often enough ; 
 and when she overheard Aunt Julia whisper 
 to mamma that "Jane might do so much 
 better," began to think perhaps Aunt Julia 
 was right. 
 
 " She stopped it before they were regular- 
 ly engaged. Nobody could accuse Jane of 
 behaving badly," — so said her family, — " and 
 if Mr. Eoy had presumed on the high spirits 
 and fascinating manners of a girl who was 
 popular with everybody, he might thank his 
 own folly for his disappointment." 
 
 They allowed, however, that he " behaved 
 beautifully," as did Jane, who returned every- 
 thing he had given her, except some music ; 
 and on the one occasion when they met in 
 society after their rupture, shook hands with 
 him as kindly and calmly as if he had been her 
 grandfather. 
 
 He saw a fresh admirer, with a large rent-
 
 A PINT OF PORT. 17 
 
 roll, put his arm round her waist for a waltz, 
 "and stepped into the street with a strange 
 numb feeling, like a patient whose leg has 
 been cut off — the sensation was akin to relief, 
 yet in some respects, worse to bear than pain. 
 It was characteristic of the man that he never 
 blamed her. " I suppose they are all alike," 
 he said to his cigar, and so, walking home in 
 the rain, made up his mind that this also was 
 vanity ! 
 
 Lady Jane rode in the park pretty regularly 
 till the end of the season, sometimes with, 
 sometimes without, the eligible admirer; but 
 she looked in vain for Mr. Eoy's figure at the 
 accustomed spot ; missing it none the less, 
 perhaps, that she wondered what had become 
 of him, and whether he did not sometimes 
 think of her still ? 
 
 John Roy was the last man to howl. 
 Nobody else should know how hard he was hit. 
 His stronger nature told him that he was 
 meant for something better than to be the 
 puppet of a woman's smile, and, though they 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 smarted intolerably, he had the grace to be 
 ashamed of his wounds. By the time Lady 
 Jane went to Cowes, he was whirling a lasso 
 at wild horses in South America, living on 
 beef and water, burning quantities of tobacco, 
 and spending sixteen hours out of the four- 
 ancl -twenty on a Mexican saddle in the open 
 air. Smoking and riding combined, soon 
 modified the symptoms of his malady ; its 
 cure, though slow, was progressive. In twelve 
 months he felt resigned, and in eighteen, 
 comfortable. After two or three years he 
 came back to Europe, having travelled over a 
 great part of the world, with nothing left to 
 remind him of his pangs but a cynical resolve 
 never to be caught in such a trap again. 
 " Not if I know it ! " says he who has once 
 burned his fingers; but the spark kindles 
 when he does not know it, and the flame 
 consumes him none the less greedily, that he 
 has been dried and seasoned in the heat of a 
 former fire. 
 
 Eoyston was got ready for its owner ; but
 
 A PINT OF PORT. 19 
 
 he only lived there at intervals, trying to do 
 his duty as a landlord for a time, then flying 
 off at a tangent to seek some distraction, in 
 however mild a change, from the weariness of 
 his every- day life. 
 
 Thus it was that a September evening 
 found him in a quiet watering-place on the 
 southern coast, speculating, after a coffee-room 
 dinner, on the beauty of features and sweetness 
 of disposition suggested by the back of a lady's 
 head. Watch as he would, she never turned 
 it so much as an inch. There was the beautiful 
 ear, the white skin, the trim, dark hair, but 
 nothing more. How if the rest of her person 
 should in no way correspond with this exquisite 
 sample? She might squint, she might have 
 lost her teeth, she might wear a wooden leg ! 
 He had heard or read of such disillusions, such 
 disappointments. The uncertainty began to 
 get irksome, annoying, intolerable. Could he 
 not make some excuse to walk across the room 
 yonder, to the chimney-piece, where he would 
 be full in front of her ? To iook at the clock,
 
 20 HOTS WIFE. 
 
 for instance ; the dial of that time-piece being 
 a foot in diameter, and calculated for short- 
 sighted inquirers at ten paces off. He had 
 already moved his chair, "when she rose. 
 " Forty-six, if you please," she said to the 
 waiter in a low, sweet voice, as indicating the 
 number of her apartment, for proper registry 
 of her bill, and so walked smoothly and 
 gracefully to the door. 
 
 Disappointment ! disillusion ! Not a bit of 
 it ! As lovely a face as a man could wish to 
 look at, set on as shapely a form 1 Features 
 not quite classical, only because so soft and 
 womanly; deep grey eyes, fringed with long 
 black lashes; a mouth too large, a chin too 
 prominent, but for the white teeth and perfect 
 curves of the one, the firm and well-cut outline 
 of the other. A complexion delicate rather 
 than pale, a figure somewhat full and tall, a 
 graceful head carried nobly on neck and 
 shoulders ; last, not least, an abundance of 
 dark and silky hair, growing low on the brow, 
 square at the temples, and drawn tight off the
 
 A PINT OF PORT. 21 
 
 forehead to wind in thick shining coils round 
 the skull. 
 
 Mr. Hoy had a habit of talking to himself. 
 " You darling ! " he whispered, as the door 
 closed. " That is the nicest woman I ever saw 
 in my life ! "
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS. 
 
 The smoke-room, as the waiter called it, was 
 empty; our friend felt pleased to find that 
 uncomfortable apartment at his sole disposal. 
 Devoid of drapery, floored with oil-cloth, bare 
 of all furniture but wooden chairs, horse-hair 
 sofas, and spittoons ; this retreat offered few 
 temptations to a smoker, and such guests as 
 were devoted to the practice usually chose to 
 consume their tobacco out of doors. It was a 
 bright night, with a clear sky and a rising tide, 
 yet Roy seemed to prefer the flicker of gas in 
 this dim, desolate apartment, to the fresh briny 
 air and a moon-lit sea. To be under the same 
 roof with her was a strong point ; it would be 
 his own fault if he could not, in some way, 
 make the acquaintance of this fascinating
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS. 23 
 
 stranger before she left the hotel. He was a 
 man of the world, but he had seen a great deal 
 of that world with his own eyes, and travel, 
 no doubt, tends to simplify the character while 
 it enlarges the mind. He did not at once 
 suspect evil of her, because journeying unpro- 
 tected and alone ; nor did he feel that so 
 attractive a woman must be in a false position, 
 without a companion of her own sex. Again 
 and again he rehearsed the little scene that he 
 hoped to bring about next day. The meeting 
 on the stairs, the profound and deferential bow, 
 repeated on the pier, so unobtrusively that to 
 offer a newspaper, a novel, a handful of fresh 
 flowers, would seem a tribute of homage rather 
 than an unauthorized impertinence ; then, by 
 slow degrees, morning greetings, afternoon 
 conversations, perhaps at last a walk by the 
 sea, an explanation of motives, a hint at covert 
 admiration from the first, and so on — and so 
 on — to the end — 
 
 Here a memory of Lady Jane made him 
 catch his breath like the shock of a cold bath.
 
 24 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 There was something of triumph, nevertheless; 
 in the consciousness that he had hoisted the 
 flag of freedom at last, and found, perhaps 
 to-night by the merest accident, far more than 
 he looked for in those young clays of weakness, 
 folly, and despair. How delightful it would 
 be to instal her at Eoyston, to take her to 
 London, to introduce her to Lady Jane ? No. 
 Already he had so far forgotten the ghost of 
 his departed love, that he felt perfectly 
 indifferent whether Lady Jane grudged him 
 his happiness or not ! 
 
 A man must marry some time, he decided. 
 Would he ever see a woman so likely to suit 
 him, supposing, of course, that she proved as 
 charming as she looked ? And why not ? The 
 face was surely an index to the character. 
 Such soft and beautiful hair, too, must 
 necessarily accompany an amiable disposition 
 and well-stored mind. His thoughts were 
 running away with him, galloping headlong 
 down-hill, and had reached altar and honey- 
 moon, when they were suddenly pulled up by
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS. 25 
 
 a consideration that ought to have presented 
 itself sooner. " What if she were married 
 already?" How he cursed his stupidity not 
 to have scrutinized her left hand for the plain 
 gold ring that tells its respectable tale. Yes, 
 of course, she must be married; that accounted 
 for her travelling by herself, her quiet inde- 
 pendence of manner, her dining alone in the 
 coffee-room of an hotel, She came to meet 
 her husband, who would, probably, arrive by 
 the last train, and there was an end of the 
 whole thing ! As he dashed the stump of his 
 cigar into the tireless grate, he could not help 
 laughing aloud to think how quickly he had 
 planned, built, furnished, and annihilated his 
 castle in the air ! Yet passing 46 in the 
 passage on his way to bed he could not help 
 looking wistfully at the closed door, with its 
 painted numerals, wondering the while how he 
 could be such a fool ! 
 
 Koy was an early riser. The habit, acquired 
 in warmer climates than our own, is got rid of 
 with difficulty, even in England, where many
 
 26 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 of us lose something like fourteen hours, or 
 one working day, in the week, by persistently 
 lying in bed till eight o'clock. On his dreams 
 it is needless to speculate ; sleep does not 
 always continue the thread of our waking 
 thoughts, but he turned out at seven, and by 
 half-past was shaking the cold salt water from 
 eyes, ears, and nostrils, as he came up after a 
 glorious "header" and struck out for the 
 open sea. 
 
 He was a fair swimmer, but distances are 
 deceiving for a naked man in the Channel, so 
 that a few hundred yards out and in again 
 were as much as he cared to accomplish before 
 breakfast. Climbing into his machine, he 
 experienced that sensation of renewed vigour 
 in body and mind, which is never so delightful 
 as after the first of our morning dips, if we 
 are prudent enough not to stay in the sea too 
 long! 
 
 Walking home, through the market, with 
 a furious appetite for breakfast, all the 
 despondency of yesterday had vanished, and
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS. 27 
 
 even the infatuation of last night seemed but 
 a dream. 
 
 Boyston was no longer a dull and moated 
 Grange, in which life meant stagnation ; a 
 country gentleman's duties and occupations 
 assumed the importance which everything 
 really possesses that is done heartily and for a 
 good motive. John Roy himself had become 
 an enviable person, with far better luck than 
 he deserved ; and this fresh, quiet Beachmouth 
 a charming little watering-place where he would 
 remain just long enough to enjoy his holiday, 
 and return to homely duties refreshed, in- 
 vigorated, altogether a new man. If No. 46 
 crossed his mind, it was only that he might 
 picture her to himself eating prawns with her 
 legal mate at a coffee-room breakfast, smiling 
 and comely, no doubt, but not half so pretty 
 as she looked the night before. 
 
 Proceeding upstairs to his own apartment 
 he necessarily passed her door. On its 
 threshold rested a dear little pair of boots, 
 left out last night to be cleaned, and brought
 
 28 • ROTS WIFE. 
 
 back this morning, in company with a can of 
 warm water. It was obvious they belonged to 
 a very pretty foot, slim and supple, hollow and 
 arched, that trod, light and even, on a thin 
 sole and a low heel. For a man who admired 
 pretty feet it was impossible to pass these 
 boots without further examination. John Eoy 
 could not resist the temptation, and stooped to 
 pick one up. 
 
 Now the chambermaid, not wishing to go 
 more errands than necessary, had left a letter 
 for No. 46, cunningly balanced on that lady's 
 chaussure : was it quite inexcusable that Mr. 
 Eoy should have turned it over in his hand, 
 or that his heart should have made a great 
 leap when he read the address — 
 
 "Miss Burton, 
 
 Imperial Hotel, 
 
 Beachmouth," 
 
 written legibly enough in a plain, clerk-like, 
 current hand ? Miss Burton ! She was free 
 then, this goddess, unmarried at any rate,
 
 A PAIR OF BOOTS. 29 
 
 though it would be too much to suppose that 
 she could be without suitors. Still, give him 
 a fair field and no favour, why should his 
 chance be worse than another's ? All the folly 
 of last night, that he thought had been washed 
 out by sea-water, came back with a rush ; he 
 lifted one of the little boots in a tender, almost 
 a reverent hand; but for footsteps in the 
 passage he would have defied blacking, and 
 pressed it to his lips. 
 
 Instead of kissing, he dropped it like a hot 
 potato, and hurried off to complete his toilet, 
 with a light tread and a bounding pulse, but 
 the fine appetite for breakfast completely gone.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 no. 46. 
 
 He was just in time. His own scarcely closed, 
 before the cloor of 46 opened, and a bright, 
 handsome face peeped out, followed by a round 
 white arm, that drew letter, boots, and water- 
 can into the room. Miss Burton then desisted 
 from the sleeking of her dark locks, and 
 proceeded to read the following communi- 
 cation : — 
 
 " Monday evening, 
 " Corner Hotel, Corner Street, Strand. 
 
 "My dear Nelly, — 
 
 " You were disappointed. In course 
 you must have been disappointed, though I 
 make no account of disappointments myself, 
 being well used to them. But you are young, 
 which makes it different. Well, my dear, the
 
 NO. 46. 31 
 
 cabman was sulky, and his poor horse lame, 
 and I had very little time to spare, there's no 
 denying it, so we missed the train. Why 
 didn't I come by the next? Ill tell you. 
 The moment I got home, meaning to take a 
 cup of tea and a fresh start, what should I 
 find at the door, but four arrivals, and one of 
 them a family of eight, with a baby not short- 
 coated, bless it, as hungry as a little hawk. 
 Nothing ready, not so much as a mouthful of 
 toast for the lot. Maria is no more use than a 
 post; and when I think of how you would 
 have helped me, my dear, in such a muddle, I 
 could sit down and cry. Why, in your time, a 
 queen might have eaten off the kitchen floor, 
 and now, I declare, I am ashamed for the 
 strange servants to go into the offices. Even 
 them foreign couriers turn up their noses when 
 they pass in and out; and to be untidy, as 
 well you know, is the one thing that makes 
 me mad. However, I am such a one to bustle 
 when I'm really put to it, that I had them all 
 settled and comfortable before the gas was
 
 32 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 turned on ; but it was too late to start for 
 Beachnioutli then. I never believed much in 
 telegraphs since the Government took them in 
 hand, so I thought I'd drop you a line by post, 
 my dear, to tell you all, how and about it. 
 
 " I made sure of beino- off first thins: in 
 the morning, but we're poor blind creatures, 
 the sharpest of us, and half-an-hour back, 
 Fanny, that's the new under-housemaicl, and a 
 precious lazy one she is, comes tapping at the 
 door, and ' If you please, ma'am,' says she, 
 ' Miss Collins is took bad,' says she ; and will 
 you believe it, my dear, there was Maria 
 fainted dead away on the stairs, and forced to 
 be put to bed at once, and a doctor sent for 
 and all ! Till he has been, I don't know what's 
 the matter, nor how long a job it will be, nor 
 when I shall get down and join you, no more 
 than the dead. That's why I'm writing in 
 such a hurry to save the post, so please excuse 
 mistakes, and always believe me, 
 
 Your affectionate aunt, 
 
 Matilda Phipps."
 
 NO. 46. 33 
 
 " P.S. My head isn't worth twopence, I'm 
 that worried and put about. Now I've forgot 
 to say, you'd better keep your mind easy, and 
 stay where you are, — the change will do you 
 good. If things go well, I might be with you as 
 Saturday, at soonest. I can tell you these fine 
 autumn days make me long for a blow of the sea- 
 breezes and a walk by the sea-side ; good-bye." 
 
 After reading the above production more 
 than once, Miss Burton pulled her purse from 
 under the pillow, and counted her money, 
 gold, silver, copper, and a bank-note. She then 
 completed her toilet, took in a breakfast-tray 
 left at the door, disposed of its contents with a 
 healthy appetite, arranged her writing-case on 
 the lid of a trunk, and, in a most uncomfort- 
 able attitude, produced the following reply : — 
 
 " Tuesday morning, 
 " Xo. 46, Imperial Hotel, Beachmouth. 
 
 "Dear Auxt Matilda, — 
 
 " Mind you ask for No. 46 when you 
 arrive. It means me. I'm like a convict, only 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 without a brass ring, and the people of the 
 hotel wouldn't know me by any other name. 
 I hope you will be here soon ; you would enjoy 
 it. From my window I have such a lovely 
 view of the sea, and this morning I was woke 
 by the tide coming in. It sounded so fresh 
 and healthy. I wonder anybody lives away 
 from the sea-side; not but what I was very 
 happy with you in Corner Street. I like to 
 think I am of use, and one is very useful, I 
 suppose, managing an hotel. If poor Miss 
 Collins keeps bad, I will come back whenever 
 you wish. I don't want to be independent, 
 dear auntie, and the money left me by Cousin 
 William I would willingly join to yours, if you 
 thought it a good plan, as I told you from the 
 first. However, in the mean time, we will 
 hope to enjoy ourselves for a fortnight at least, 
 in this beautiful and romantic place. Not that 
 I have seen much of it yet; but directly I 
 have posted this, I mean to be off for a long 
 walk by the sea. It seems like another world, 
 and yet I am sure I don't know why. This hotel
 
 NO. 46. 35 
 
 is comfortable enough, but I could teach them a 
 few things, I dare say, though to be sure we 
 Londoners are apt to expect too much. Country- 
 folks must be a little behindhand, I suppose. 
 How you would laugh if you were to find me 
 settled in the bar, taking the orders and posting 
 the books. Wouldn't it seem like old times ? 
 
 " I was glad you told me to travel first- 
 class, as I had a carriage all to myself, except 
 for two gentlemen, who got out half-way. I 
 never was much of a one to take notice of the 
 men, and though they stared more than was 
 polite, we scarcely exchanged a word. I dined 
 in the coffee-room, where there were very few 
 people. If it wasn't for .the sea, I should be 
 dull enough ; but I hope to have you here in 
 a day or two, when we will take some famous 
 walks, and perhaps, if it is very smooth, go 
 out for a sail. In the mean time I shall stay 
 where I am, dear auntie, till I hear from you 
 again, and remain always, 
 
 Your grateful and affectionat niece, 
 
 Elixop, Burton."
 
 36 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Having stamped her letter, Miss Burton 
 put on a killing little straw hat, armed herself 
 with an umbrella, and sallied forth to the post- 
 office, light of step and blithe of heart, little 
 knowing, like the rest of us, what a day might 
 bring forth. 
 
 It must not be supposed that this lady, 
 though filling a social position no higher than 
 the management of an hotel, owned and 
 superintended by her aunt, was therefore 
 deficient in education, or unrefined in feelings. 
 Her father was a bookseller, her mother a 
 governess. Such a combination inferred a 
 moderate share of education and accomplish- 
 ments. She could play the pianoforte, speak 
 French, calculate figures, order dinner, see that 
 it was properly cooked, check trades-people, 
 manage servants, and wrote, moreover, the 
 most beautiful Italian hand imaginable — clear, 
 precise, and fluent, it seemed no unworthy 
 index of her character. 
 
 She was now near thirty, and had of course 
 received a fair amount of attention. She
 
 NO. 46. 37 
 
 might have counted her offers as tumblers of 
 punch are counted in Ireland, on the fingers of 
 both hands. Hitherto she had escaped without 
 a wound, almost without a scratch. Well-to-do 
 tradesmen sued in vain. A rising artist, a 
 popular actor were rejected, kindly but firmly, 
 and Nelly, in the prime of womanhood, could 
 as yet find nobody exactly to her taste. Mrs. 
 Phipps, the aunt who had taken care of her 
 since her mother's death, began to fear that 
 she was destined for an old maid. Recalling 
 her own youth, and its comparative scarcity 
 of suitors, she wondered how her niece could 
 be so impenetrable, and when, under the will 
 of a cousin deceased, Miss Burton became 
 possessed of a small indej>endent fortune, the 
 elder lady, arguing against her own interests 
 and convenience, urged on the younger the 
 propriety of at last settling in life. 
 
 Nelly did not seem to see it. When she 
 could find leisure, and occasion offered, she 
 was a reader of novels and a dreamer of 
 dreams, though clear-headed and firm of
 
 38 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 purpose. She was also a thorough woman, 
 and cherished deep in her heart those generous 
 impulses of affection and romance which make 
 much of a woman's pleasure in life, and all her 
 pain. She had formed her ideal hero, who in 
 no way resembled the men she was in the 
 habit of meeting in her aunt's private sitting- 
 room, or at the bar of the Corner Hotel, Corner 
 Street, Strand. She had not settled exactly 
 what he was, but had made up her mind what 
 he was not. 
 
 In business? No. A mere idler? No. 
 Young, slim, and genteel? No. Short, stout, 
 and well - to - do ? A thousand times no. 
 Eather, a man of a certain age, a certain 
 standing, who had seen the world, and thought 
 things out, and been unhappy — perhaps about 
 some other woman. She wouldn't mind that, 
 a sore heart was better than none at all ; and 
 —and — she felt if she really loved him, she 
 could console him for anything ! 
 
 When we think of a woman's nature — ■ 
 excitable, imaginative, and in its affections
 
 NO. 46. 39 
 
 wholly unreasonable; when we think of a 
 girl's dreams — tender, unselfish, and thoroughly 
 unattainable — the wonder is, not that here and 
 there we shall find an unhappy marriage, but 
 that any two people, thoroughly disappointed 
 and undeceived, should be able to tolerate each 
 other kindly and comfortably to the end. 
 Even for men there is an awakening from the 
 rosy dream, usually within two years; but 
 they have so many interests and occupations 
 into which the affections do not enter, that 
 they prosper well enough without these super- 
 fluities, and prefer, I believe, the bracing air 
 and enforced activity of the working world, to 
 an oppressive atmosphere and irksome repose 
 in a fool's paradise. But it is far different 
 with their wives. Piece by piece the woman 
 sees her knight stripped of his golden armour; 
 feather by feather does her love-bird moult its 
 painted plumes, and the lower he falls in her 
 estimation, the higher this disappointing mate 
 seems to rise in his own. He kissed her feet 
 while she thought him a prince, he tramples
 
 4 o ROTS WJFE. 
 
 on her now she knows him a clown. After 
 earning an eagle, it does seem humiliating to 
 be coerced by an owl. 
 
 And there is no salvage ; all her cargo has 
 gone down in one ship. Is it wonderful that 
 she looks abroad over the dreary waters, with 
 a blank face and a troubled eye ? Women are 
 deceived over and over again. They like it ; 
 but even the pure gold never rings quite true 
 in their ears when they have once been cheated 
 by the counterfeit coin. 
 
 It seems an ungenerous sentiment, but I 
 think that man is wise who does not allow his 
 wife to know him thoroughly ; who keeps back 
 a reserve of strength, of authority, even of 
 affection, for the hour of need, causing her to 
 feel that there are depths in his character she 
 has not yet sounded, heights she has not scaled. 
 Thus can he indulge and keep alive her feline 
 propensity to prowl, and pounce, and capture ; 
 thus will he remain an object of interest, of 
 anxiety, of devotion ; thus will she continue 
 to see him through the coloured glass of her
 
 NO. 46. 41 
 
 own imagination, and it will be the happier 
 for both, because when affection goes to sleep 
 in security, it is apt to forget all about 
 waking, and those are the most enduring 
 attachments in which the woman loves best of 
 the two. 
 
 In the mean time Nelly has posted her 
 letter, and paid the penny that entitled her to 
 inhale sea-breezes on the pier. 
 
 It is an autumn day — delightful at the 
 sea-side — with a bright sun, a crisp air, and a 
 curl on the shining waters. All the visitors at 
 Beachmouth seem to have turned out, though 
 it is hardly eleven o'clock ; but in the hundred 
 or so of strangers who constitute this accidental 
 population, there are none to be compared with 
 Miss Burton. 
 
 Even the ladies stare at her as she walks 
 on, and admit, frankly enough, that she " has 
 a fine figure for people who admire that 
 style. What a pity she must become coarse, 
 even blowsy, in a year or two ; and after all, 
 it's very easy to be good-looking, with dark
 
 42 jROVS WIFE. 
 
 eyes, and all that quantity of hair, probably 
 false ! " 
 
 The approval of the men, however, is 
 unanimous. One youth, wearing a complete 
 shooting-suit, that will never go out shooting, 
 passes, re-passes, looks, leers, and seems about 
 to speak; but Nelly is used to admiration, 
 considering it, like beef or mutton, unpalatable 
 unless properly cooked, and looking straight 
 before her, gives him to understand by her 
 bearing that she is the last person with whom 
 he may presume to take a liberty. 
 
 Then she establishes herself at the extreme 
 end of the jetty, as far out at sea as she can 
 get, perhaps three hundred feet, and pulling 
 some work from her pocket, gives herself up 
 to the full enjoyment of air and scenery, 
 with no more self-consciousness than the grey 
 gull flapping and fishing not a cable's length 
 from where she sits. Meanwhile, John Eoy, 
 deceived by a dress and a chignon, has walked 
 two miles along the beach in pursuit of a 
 figure that sets his heart beating while he
 
 NO. 46. 43 
 
 overtakes it, but on nearer inspection turns out 
 to be an elderly lady, ordered strong exercise 
 for her health, who meets his disappointed 
 stare with a perfectly unmeaning smile, and 
 a face shining in perspiration under the 
 noon-day sun.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER. 
 
 Events seldom come off exactly as people 
 anticipate ; yet the odds are longer than we 
 think on the success of a man who expends all 
 his energies in pursuit of any one object, great 
 or small. 
 
 The old foxhunter's advice, "Keep your 
 temper, and stick to the line," is a golden rule 
 for the conduct of more serious affairs than 
 bringing " the little red rover " to hand after 
 all the delights and uncertainties of a run. If 
 we carry on the metaphor into a love-chase, we 
 shall find it even more appropriate to the 
 gardens of Venus than the woodlands of Diana. 
 Command of temper is everything in dealing 
 with a woman's caprice, and that undeviating 
 persistency which men call pigheadedness, and
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER, 45 
 
 gods perseverance, seldom fails, sooner or later, 
 to come up with and capture its prey. John 
 Eoy resolved to keep his temper, though he 
 had overrun the line ; and like a thorough 
 woodsman, adapting his tactics to the habits of 
 his game, he determined to " try back " without 
 loss of time. But the pier was deserted when 
 he arrived there, and he sat down to consider 
 his next move, disappointed rather than 
 disheartened. As he told himself, with some- 
 thing of sarcasm, " He was only hotter on it 
 than before." 
 
 The tide would be out in the afternoon. 
 He reflected that no woman, on her first day 
 at the sea-side, could resist the temptation of 
 wetting her feet in the little pools of salt water 
 left, as if on purpose, by its ebb. 
 
 So after luncheon he watched, patiently 
 enough, and having seen his friend of the 
 morning packed into a watering-place fly, felt 
 confident he would be deceived by that staunch 
 pedestrian no more. 
 
 Presently he was rewarded. Not ten paces
 
 46 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 from the rock where he had settled himself. 
 Forty -Six came stepping jauntily by, looking 
 steadfastly seaward while she drank in the 
 fresh briny air with a thirst engendered by 
 long months of London smoke and gas. 
 
 He could not but observe how true were 
 the lines of her undulating figure, how firmly 
 she planted her foot, how nobly she carried her 
 head, how smooth and level was her gait, as 
 she stepped bravely out across the sand. 
 
 ' 'Watch, and your chance comes ! " muttered 
 Eoy, throwing away the cigar he was in the act 
 of lighting ; for an occasion offered itself when 
 least expected, and he seized it without diffi- 
 dence or hesitation. Two children enjoying, as 
 only children can, the delight of wooden spades 
 and low water, had wandered, I need hardly 
 say, to the extreme verge of safety, and far 
 beyond dry rocks, in pursuit of the receding 
 waves. Bare-footed and kilted high above 
 their fat little knees, they shouted, screamed, 
 and splashed to their hearts' content, while the 
 nurse, seated under an umbrella with her back
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER. 47 
 
 to tliem, was lost in the pages of a novel. 
 They were boy and girl, the latter being the 
 younger, and, if possible, the wilder of the 
 two. In her frolics she found herself parted 
 from her brother, and to her young perceptions 
 cut off from society in general by a runlet of 
 water nearly two feet deep. Becoming gradually 
 alive to the horrors of her situation, she grasped 
 her frock tight in both hands, and roared with 
 all her might. The boy, who perhaps was 
 turned four, made some slight offer at a rescue, 
 but the intervening gulf seemed too much for 
 him, and he also set up a hideous outcry, while 
 the nurse read calmly on. 
 
 Nelly loved children. Glancing on each 
 side to make sure she was unobserved, but 
 neglecting in her hurry to look back, she pulled 
 her boots and stockings off in a few seconds, 
 caught up her garments as best she might, and 
 was wading knee-deep to the rescue before 
 John Eoy could interfere. 
 
 How handsome she looked, huofsfins: the 
 frightened child in her arms, and soothing it
 
 4 8 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 with that beautiful instinct of maternity which 
 pervades her whole sex from the first moment 
 they are big enough to handle a doll. 
 
 With hurried apologies and some blushing 
 on both sides — for Eoy was already hard hit, 
 and Nelly had certainly been caught in 
 deshabille — he took possession of the little girl, 
 now completely reassured, and carried her safe 
 to the nurse, studiously turning his back on 
 Miss Burton while she resumed her stockings. 
 " He is a gentleman," thought Nelly, " every 
 inch of him. I dare say he's a good fellow, 
 too, he seems so fond of children." 
 
 Such an introduction was equivalent to a 
 week's acquaintance. With a little shyness, a 
 little hesitation and incoherence of speech, the 
 gentleman and lady managed to communicate 
 their respective names, and to digest the 
 startling intelligence that they were staying 
 at the same hotel, that it was comfortable but 
 might be cleaner, that the sea-air made one 
 hungry, and the roar of the tide kept one 
 awake — all which facts were self-evident, and
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER, 49 
 
 in no way accounted for the low tones, grave 
 accents, or downcast glances with which they 
 were propounded and received. 
 
 It seemed imprudent, too, for people with 
 wet feet, to walk home at an exceedingly slow 
 pace, and halt so repeatedly on the way. 
 
 Each thought the distance had been much 
 longer, and both said so at the same moment. 
 Then came more bowing, more blushing, an 
 abortive attempt at shaking hands, and an 
 imbecile, unmeaning kind of parting, that left 
 John Boy standing in the entrance-hall with 
 his mouth open and his heart in it, while Nelly 
 hurried upstairs to take refuge in 46. 
 
 Her first impulse, though by no means a 
 vain person, was to look in the glass. What 
 she saw there caused her to smile, sigh, and 
 shake her head. Then she sat down on the 
 bed to think. 
 
 Mr. Eoy, on the other hand, turned into 
 the coffee-room, and ordered dinner for seven 
 o'clock, with an indifference to the bill of fare 
 that disgusted and a positiveness that surprised
 
 5o ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 the waiter — securing also a table near the clock, 
 at one end of the room. 
 
 For the next two or three clays, everything 
 "went upon wheels." If people are inclined 
 to like each other and live in the same hotel at 
 a small watering-place it is probable they will 
 meet many times in the twenty-four hours. 
 Twice, at least, between breakfast and dinner 
 on the Pier, without counting accidental 
 encounters on the stairs, in the streets, under 
 the portico of the Circulating Library, by the 
 ebb and flow of the soothing tide, or at sunset 
 on the beach. It is surprising how soon an 
 idea, canvassed, cherished, and combated by 
 turns, takes entire possession of the mind. The 
 first day of their acquaintance Mr. Eoy and 
 Miss Burton felt that a new element of interest 
 had entered into life. The second, they were 
 perfectly happy ; quiet, contented, asking 
 nothing better than to remain undisturbed. 
 The third, both had grown restless, fidgetty, 
 dissatisfied, and a crisis was near. 
 
 It had become an established custom that
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER. 51 
 
 they should meet in their walks, they had even 
 started together from the hotel. On one 
 occasion, however, Miss Burton went out by 
 herself, and took up a position at the extreme 
 end of the Pier. As she stated openly, that 
 this was her favourite resort, it is not surprising 
 Mr. Eoy should have followed with no more 
 delay than was required to run upstairs and 
 get his hat. 
 
 The band had ceased playing, children and 
 nurses were gone home to dinner, these two 
 had the Pier to themselves. Perhaps that was 
 why they became so silent, so pro-occupied, 
 believing they were perfectly happy, yet feeling 
 somewhat ill-at-ease. 
 
 After the first meeting, a hypocritical 
 " good-morning," that had already been 
 exchanged in the hotel corridor, neither spoke 
 for two or three minutes, which seemed like 
 two or three hours. Nelly had forgotten 
 her work, Eoy did not even attempt to 
 smoke, and they sat side by side staring at 
 a grey gull who stuck diligently to his 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
 
 52 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 fishing, without noticing a feather of his 
 wings. 
 
 " Miss Burton, shouldn't you like to be a 
 gull ? " asked Roy presently, with a much 
 more serious face than the question seemed to 
 require. 
 
 "Mr. Eoy, shouldn't you like to be a 
 goose ? " was the reply that naturally presented 
 itself; but Nelly only answered in rather a 
 shaking voice, " Yes, I should, because it can 
 stay at the sea-side as long as it likes." 
 
 "And can't you?" said Roy, taking the 
 alarm. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " I don't live here, you know. I only 
 came down for a visit ; and I have dawdled 
 on, expecting my aunt to fetch me home. I 
 am afraid now she will be prevented. And — 
 and, I think I ought to go back to London 
 at once," — the last in a low tone, looking 
 steadfastly out to sea. 
 
 " Don't you like Beachmouth ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes; very much."
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER. 53 
 
 " Haven't you been happy since you came 
 here ? " 
 
 " Yes ; very happy. I am so fond of the 
 sea- air, and the bathing, and the walks on the 
 sands. I have enjoyed it extremely; I shall 
 be quite sorry to go away." 
 
 "Only for that?" 
 
 Her head was averted. She felt her heart 
 beating fast, and the colour rising 'scarlet to 
 her face. 
 
 « Miss Burton." 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " Miss Burton," he repeated, clearing his 
 voice with a husky little cough, " I hope, I 
 say, I /tope there is something here you will be 
 sorry to leave, besides the bathing and the 
 sands. I cannot expect you to feel about it as 
 I do ; but — but — whether you go or stay, I 
 must tell you the truth. Ever since the first 
 night I saw you at dinner, I — I have thought 
 you the handsomest, and the dearest, and the 
 nicest woman in the world." 
 
 " Lor ! "
 
 54 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Was it a disillusion? He hardly knew. 
 Lady Jane, lie remembered, under similar 
 circumstances, exclaimed, " How can you be so 
 foolish ? " But at any rate he had got the 
 steam on, and it was too late to stop now. 
 
 " I have not much to offer," he continued. 
 "I am many years older than you. I am 
 asking a great deal, with little to give in 
 return. You will say we hardly know each 
 other ; but I should not be the least afraid for 
 the future, if you thought you could learn to 
 like me after a while. Perhaps I ought to 
 have waited longer before speaking, but when 
 you said you were going away it put me off 
 my guard. I could not bear to lose my second 
 chance in life. It is only right to tell you. I 
 know what disappointment is ; I loved another 
 woman once." 
 
 " Only once ? " 
 
 He knew he was winning now, and stole 
 his hand into hers. " Only once," he repeated, 
 " and it was many years ago. If you would 
 be my wife, I would try to make you happy.
 
 DEEPER AND DEEPER. 55 
 
 Do you think, don't you think, Miss Burton, 
 if I tried very hard I might succeed ? " 
 
 "Don't call me Miss Burton. People I 
 like call me Nelly." 
 
 " And you like me ? " 
 
 " Yes, I do." 
 
 " And you will learn to love me in time ? " 
 His arm was round her waist now, and her 
 head rested on his shoulder. 
 
 "I've learned it already. I've loved you 
 ever so long. Ever since the day before 
 yesterday. Let go of me, please, there's 
 somebody coming on the Pier ! "
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 a woman's reason. 
 
 For the last few days Miss Burton had sadly 
 neglected her only correspondent. It was so 
 difficult to write without alluding to the 
 subject that filled her heart, and she had never 
 kept anything from Aunt Matilda in her life. 
 Now she could tell triumphantly and without 
 reserve what a lucky woman she was, and how 
 happy. Dear Auntie would be so pleased and 
 so proud when she learned that her niece was 
 going to be a real lady. I am afraid Nelly 
 called it "a lady of position." How Auntie 
 would admire Mr. Eoy ! his well-cut clothes, 
 his upright figure, his white hands, and his 
 gallant bearing. She would declare he looked 
 like a lord ; and so he did, as there was no 
 earthly reason why he should not. It seemed
 
 A WOMAN'S REASON. 57 
 
 impossible to realise the fact that she, Nelly 
 Burton, was going to belong to this paragon, 
 this phoenix, this king of men ! How she loved 
 him, how she doted on him, now that it was 
 no longer humiliating nor unwomanly to admit 
 her affection ! Every line of his worn face, 
 every turn of his manly figure, every tone of 
 his quiet, decided voice, suggested the breeding, 
 the education, and the unconscious self-respect 
 of a gentlemaru Yes, to the bookseller's 
 daughter, in this consisted his irresistible 
 attraction. He was the embodiment of her 
 ideal, and that ideal had always presented 
 itself as identified with a higher social class 
 than her own. He was the realisations of her 
 dreams, and if she might belong to him, nay, 
 as she mast belong to him, how could she 
 worship him enough ? What an exquisite and 
 subtle flattery was conveyed in this confession 
 that she had fascinated him at once ; that he, 
 who might take his choice, as she implicitly 
 believed, of all the ladies at her Majesty's 
 drawing-room, should have fallen in love with
 
 58 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 her, so he declared, from the moment he saw 
 the back of her head. This was surely love 
 at first sight, of which she had read, and 
 heard, and pondered, but never hoped to 
 experience the charm. It seemed as if nobody 
 had a right to be so happy, and she walked up 
 and down the room in a transport that was 
 only modified by those vague misgivings, that 
 shadowy sense of uncertainty, with which, 
 from the very constitution of our nature, must 
 be tempered all extremes of earthly joy. Then 
 she fell on her knees to thank God, with wet 
 eyes, for her exceeding happiness, and so, in a 
 more composed frame of mind, took out her 
 blotting-book and wrote a letter to her Aunt. 
 
 "Deabest Auntie, 
 
 " I have such a piece of news ! You 
 will never guess, not if you try for a month. 
 You must have wondered why I wrote so 
 seldom, and thought me the most ungrateful 
 minx in the world. No ; you would never 
 think that. But you may have fancied I was
 
 A WOMAN'S REASON. 59 
 
 ill. If so, forgive me for having caused you a 
 moment's anxiety. Dear Auntie, I feel as if I 
 should never be ill again. I am so happy ; so 
 happy ! Do you remember the American 
 gentleman who declared the whole of out-of- 
 doors wasn't big enough to contain his disgust? 
 Well, I feel exactly the same about my 
 happiness. I certainly am the luckiest girl, 
 or rather the luckiest woman, in the universe ! 
 
 " You have often told me I ought to marry, 
 and I always said, Xo. It used to seem such 
 an easy word. But I couldn't have got it out 
 to-day if my life depended on it, and that little 
 syllable once spoken would have made two 
 people miserable for ever. Any how, I can 
 answer for one! But I am keeping you on 
 tenter-hooks, when I ought to make my 
 confession. Dearest Auntie, I am going to be 
 married ! There ! Now the cat is out of the 
 bag ! And to the noblest, the dearest, the 
 kindest, the handsomest of men. To explain 
 it all I must begin at the beginning. 
 
 " The night I came here, it seems such a
 
 60 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 long time ago now, and it isn't really more 
 than a week, I asked to have some tea upstairs, 
 but I saw they didn't want to send it, so I 
 ordered dinner in the coffee-room, smoothed 
 my hair, and went down, not best pleased to 
 think I should find myself alone amongst a lot 
 of strangers. Would you believe it, only three 
 other tables were laid, and I sat with my back 
 to them all, so I had my dinner comfortable 
 without noticing anybody. There was one 
 gentleman I couldn't help seeing, when I got 
 up to go away, and I won't deny that I 
 thought him a fine, straight-made fellow, with 
 white hands, dark eyes, and hair just turning 
 grey, but I didn't notice him much, as you 
 may suppose. However, I do believe there is 
 a fate in these things. The very next day I 
 had an adventure, and Mr. Eoy — that's his 
 name, Auntie, you'll know it better soon — . 
 appeared as the hero. I was down on the 
 sands, you may be sure, and I happened to see 
 a child hemmed in by streams of salt water 
 that would have reached to its poor little neck.
 
 A WOMAN'S REASON. 61 
 
 Such a darling, Auntie, with great blue eyes 
 and beautiful fair hair ! Well, I don't like to 
 think of it even now, but I whipped my boots 
 and stockings off, and waded in at once to this 
 poor little Eobinson Crusoe, thinking nobody 
 was looking, or perhaps not thinking at all, for 
 the child seemed so frightened there was no 
 time to lose. I soon had it in my arms, hiding 
 its dear little face on my shoulder, and there 
 was Mr. Eoy, splashing through the water, 
 clothes and all, to take it from me and carry it 
 to the nurse. I thought I should have 
 dropped, only one never does drop, I felt so 
 put out and ashamed that a gentleman should 
 have caught me without shoes and stockings, 
 like a barefooted gipsy swinging on a gate. 
 Dear fellow ! He has confessed since he 
 watched me all the way from the hotel. I 
 didn't know it then. I suppose I should have 
 been very angry, but I am not angry the least. 
 I shall never be angry with him all my life now. 
 "We walked home together, and though 
 he was very kind and polite, hoping I would
 
 62 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 not take cold with, my wetting, he didn't say 
 much. I never supposed that he thought of 
 me for a moment, at least in that way, till 
 to-day. 
 
 " I'm not going to deny that I admired 
 him, and was foolish enough to wish some- 
 times there could be a chance of our meeting 
 after I left Beachmouth ; but I kept my 
 wishes to myself, and didn't even tell you, dear 
 Auntie, what a silly I could be when I am old 
 enough to know better. And yet, as things 
 have turned out, I wasn't such a great silly 
 after all. 
 
 "You have been married yourself, Auntie, 
 and had lots of followers, I dare say, before 
 you changed your name, so you know how it 
 all comes about. At first it only seemed 
 strange and rather pleasant to meet Mr. Eoy 
 by accident wherever I went ; then I began to 
 think he did it on purpose, and I felt I ought 
 not to encourage him. One day I walked right 
 away into the country, but I couldn't resist 
 turning back at the first milestone when I
 
 A WOMAN'S REASON. 63 
 
 thought of his disappointed face hunting for 
 me all over the beach and the Pier. Then I 
 knew I was beginning to care for him, and 
 I determined to go away from here at once. 
 
 " That was only yesterday ; to-day every- 
 thing is different. I went to the window after 
 breakfast, and watched him out of the house, 
 as I said to myself, for the last time, meaning 
 directly his back was turned to take my own 
 walk in an opposite direction. 
 
 " I cried a little ; I'm not ashamed to 
 confess it now. Wasn't it stupid ? And I 
 shall be thirty next birthday. When he was 
 fairly started I bathed my eyes, put on my hat, 
 and trudged off to the Pier. There was no 
 harm in taking a last look at everything, but I 
 felt very clown, though I had quite made up 
 my mind to go. 
 
 " I wonder how he knew ! I hadn't been 
 there ten minutes before I heard his step. I 
 didn't need to turn my head ; I can tell his 
 walk among a thousand ; and it seemed so 
 natural for him to sit down by me and look at
 
 64 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 the sea, that I could have burst out crying 
 again when I thought it was all for the last 
 time. 
 
 " I don't know how he came to say it, 
 Auntie, but he did say it. I don't know exactly 
 what he said, and if I could repeat it I shouldn't, 
 even to you ; but he confessed he cared very 
 much for me, and asked me to be his wife. 
 That's enough, and more than enough, for me ! 
 
 "Nothing is settled. Most likely it's too 
 great happiness and will never be — that won't 
 influence my feelings. I promised him faithful, 
 and if I am not to belong to him, I'll belong 
 to nobody, and die an old maid. 
 
 " So now I have told you all about it. 
 There is little more to be said. I think I 
 ought to leave this at once. It will be too late 
 to get an answer, or I would ask your advice, 
 though a woman don't want anybody to advise 
 her in such a matter as this. I shall be off by 
 the early train to-morrow morning; you will 
 not be taken by surprise, as this ought to reach 
 you first post. If Mr. Eoy means fair, he will
 
 A WOMAN'S REASON. 65 
 
 soon follow. When I say ' if,' don't suppose I 
 have any doubts. Could I believe he was false, 
 I think I should just pay my penny once more, 
 walk to the end of the Pier, and never come 
 back again ! 
 
 " What a long letter ! Wish me joy when 
 I see you to-morrow, and believe me 
 
 " Always your loving niece, 
 
 " Elinor Burton." 
 
 No date, of course, but crossed, re-crossed, 
 and filled to the edges. When Miss Burton 
 had slipped it into the hotel letter-box she 
 returned to her room, and spent the rest of the 
 evening packing up her clothes. 
 
 John Boy, wandering to and fro like a 
 disturbed spirit, felt grievously hurt and dis- 
 composed that after an interview which had 
 such decided results, he should see no more of 
 his promised wife during the rest of the day. 
 Though a man cultivates less subtle feelings 
 of delicacy than a woman, his better nature 
 told him she was right. Nevertheless, like the 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 rest of us when we are dissatisfied with our 
 gourd, he followed the example of Jonah, and 
 thought he " did well to be angry." 
 
 His wrath however was mollified, and the 
 re-action made him more in love than ever, 
 when going to his room before dinner he found 
 a pretty little note pinned on his toilet-cover, 
 the address of which was written in the clearest 
 and most beautiful characters ever beheld. He 
 kissed it once before reading it, I should be 
 afraid to say how often, after. 
 
 " My dear Sir, or 
 
 " My dear Mr. Koy, or 
 
 "My dear Friend, — What am I to call 
 you ? Do not be surprised that I write a few 
 lines, instead of seeing you before I go, to say 
 good-bye. I cannot explain why, but I feel 
 that after what took place to-day, I ought to 
 return home at once. I hope you will not be 
 hurt, and I am sure you will not be offended. 
 I think, on reflection, it is what you would like 
 me to do yourself. I shall not go down to
 
 A WOMAN'S REASON. 67 
 
 dinner, and I shall leave to-morrow morning 
 for my aunt's house, Corner Hotel, Corner 
 Street, Strand. I wonder whether you will 
 remember the address. Even if you do not, 
 even if I am never to see you again, believe 
 me always so long as I live, 
 
 "Your own 
 " Nelly/' 
 
 " P.S. It is rather an early start. I must 
 be at the station by 7.30." 
 
 She was at the station by 7.30, and so was 
 Mr. Roy. Having ascertained, we need not 
 inquire how, that Miss Burton drank tea with 
 the landlady the previous evening, who after- 
 wards assisted in finishing her packing and 
 saw her safe to bed, he had the good taste to 
 anticipate her at the station instead of accom- 
 panying her from the hotel, and made his 
 farewell on the platform, where indeed at that 
 early hour there were but few lookers-on. 
 
 "And when shall I see you again?" said
 
 68 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 he, after a warm though hurried renewal of 
 certain protestations that he felt had been 
 unjustly curtailed. 
 
 " It depends on yourself/' was the reply, 
 while she gave him both hands with a look of 
 confidence and affection that made her hand- 
 somer than ever. " I shall wait for you at my 
 aunt's — waiting — always waiting — if you never 
 come, I shall wait for you just the same." 
 
 " I hate waiting," said he. " If I had my 
 own way, you shouldn't wait a minute. Why 
 can't I get my ticket and go with you now ? " 
 
 She smiled and shook her head. " Why ? " 
 she repeated. "I'm sure I don't know why. 
 And yet I feel it would put me in a false 
 position; you see it would not be right." 
 
 " I don't see. Why wouldn't it ? " 
 
 " Because it wouldn't ! " And though this 
 was a woman's reason, it seemed to him con- 
 vincing and unanswerable, as based on some 
 instinct of truth deeper and more infallible 
 than all the inductions of philosophy, and all 
 the wisdom of the schools.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SO LIKE A MAN! 
 
 Storm and calm, rain and sunshine, bitter and 
 sweet, action and reaction, are not these the 
 conditions of life ? If the wind is fair to-day, 
 look for it in your teeth to-morrow; what is 
 earned by the right hand, you are bound to 
 spend with the left, and never expect to be 
 four-by-honours in two deals running ! 
 
 Who so happy as an accepted lover? He 
 treads on air, he mounts to the skies, and he 
 soars on the wings of a dove, believing firmly 
 that he has abjured the wisdom of the serpent 
 for evermore. Yet after the first access of 
 transport, every succeeding moment brings 
 him down, nearer and nearer the ground, 
 •till at last he walks about again on two 
 legs, like a husband, or a goose, or any other
 
 70 .ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 biped, having neither energy nor inclination 
 to fly. 
 
 I need not say that John Eoy bade adieu 
 to Beachmouth, betook himself to Charing 
 Cross Station, and proceeded thence to the 
 Corner Hotel, Corner Street, Strand, without 
 loss of time. The • distance was short. He 
 could almost have wished it longer, that he 
 might gain more time to realise the step he 
 had taken. 
 
 Like most English gentlemen, he was a 
 bold fellow enough on a horse, in a row, under 
 any circumstances of risk to life or limb, but 
 he was also sensitive and shy, particularly 
 with inferiors, shrinking from their approaches, 
 as a timid woman shrinks from observation 
 and pergonal address. 
 
 It was not reassurino; to find the hotel 
 
 o 
 
 door blocked up by an arrival, or to be told 
 without hesitation, by a supercilious waiter 
 in yesterday's white neckcloth, that they 
 were full to the garrets, and hadn't a bed' 
 unoccupied, while he volunteered with some-
 
 SO LIKE A MAN! 71 
 
 thing of reproof the further information that 
 this was a private hotel, and if the gentleman 
 expected to find accommodation he should 
 have written to Mrs. Phipps at least a week 
 
 ago. 
 
 "But I don't want a room," said John 
 Roy, out of patience ; " I came here to call on 
 Miss — , I mean, is Mrs. Phipps at home ? " 
 
 ' : Mrs. Phipps is engaged." 
 
 " Go and tell her that a gentleman wishes 
 to see her particularly, and will not detain her 
 five minutes." 
 
 John Roy was peremptory, not to say stern ; 
 but the waiter stood to his guns. 
 
 " Any name, sir ? " as if a man without a 
 portmanteau must also be without a name. 
 
 The visitor wished he had brought a card- 
 case. 
 
 " Mr. Roy," said he, " and be so good as to 
 go at once. I don't choose to be kept waiting 
 half-an-hour on the door-step." 
 
 But Nelly, who was already in the passage, 
 flew to the threshold, and welcomed him with
 
 72 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 such warmth and cordiality as completely re 
 assured the waiter. 
 
 " I knew you would come ! " she whispered. 
 " I have been expecting you all the morning. 
 This way. Mind the step. Don't run against 
 the coal-box. Were so full, we have been 
 driven down-stairs. We generally live in the 
 front dining-room. Now, I'll bring you in, 
 and show you to Auntie/' 
 
 The charm was working again, and at high 
 pressure. So lovely, so loving, so bright, so 
 beautiful, above all, so glad to see him. Who 
 would not have followed such a guide down 
 the darkest passages, the most inconvenient 
 stairs that ever smelt of mould, soap, sawdust, 
 stale coffee, and early dinner ? 
 
 Mrs. Phipps was an excellent woman, no 
 doubt — clear-headed, bustling, full of energy, 
 a capital accountant, sincere, sensible, with a 
 heart of gold — but she was not exactly the sort 
 of person John Roy would have selected for 
 his wife's aunt. 
 
 He had a keen sense of the ludicrous, and
 
 SO LIKE A MAN! 73 
 
 as she came forward, rubbing one hand over 
 the other, to stop in front of him, with a 
 profound curtsey, he took in her exterior at a 
 glance. The dark dress, looking dingier in the 
 obscurity of a room on the basement, lighted 
 from a grating in the pavement outside. The 
 portliness of figure, increasing as it travelled 
 upward to the chin ; the large brooch, the 
 bright gold chain, the jet ornaments twinkling 
 in a solemn head-gear, black, pompous, and 
 funereal as the artificial tresses it surmounted, 
 and the plain oblong face, with just so much 
 resemblance to Nelly as might create a vague 
 and morbid fear lest her bright young beauty 
 should ever turn to this ! 
 
 He made the best of it, and put out 
 both hands. " You are to be my aunt, too," 
 said he. " Miss Burton has told you every- 
 thing of course. I am always going to 
 call her Nelly for the future, and you must 
 learn to look upon me as a relation of your 
 own." 
 
 He was not prepared for the result. Mrs.
 
 74 fiOY'S WIFE. 
 
 Phipps burst out crying, and put her arms 
 round his neck. 
 
 After this little ebullition she became 
 practical enough. "I'm sure it's a great 
 honour," said she, "and a great happiness to 
 us all. It's what I never expected, and yet 
 Nelly do deserve the best that ever wore shoe- 
 leather, and I always said so. She was a good 
 daughter, Mr. Eoy, was Nelly, and a good 
 niece. I'm sure I've reason to know it, and 
 she'll make a good wife to the man who will 
 be kind to her. I can see in your face as 
 you're one of that sort. I'm a plain-spoken 
 woman, Mr. Eoy ; I never had the manners of 
 my niece there, nor yet the education. I've 
 my bread to get, as I may say, by hard and 
 honest work ; but you won't think the worse of 
 us, I hope ; and you won't take it as a liberty 
 if I say, ' God bless you both ! ' and I should 
 like to shake you by the hand, Mr. Eoy, once 
 more." 
 
 So this ceremony was repeated, and Eoy 
 acknowledged to himself that the good old
 
 SO LIKE A MAN! 75 
 
 woman who had educated his betrothed wife 
 was a thorough lady at heart, although she 
 spoke second-class Eoglish and kept an hotel. 
 
 "You'll take a glass of wine, Mr. Boy," 
 continued his hostess, relapsing into her com- 
 mon-place mood. " I wish I could ask you to 
 stop dinner, but Nelly and me has had our 
 dinner, and you couldn't hardly see to eat it 
 neither in so dark a place as this. I wish I 
 wasn't so put about for room. But what am I 
 to do ? You can't turn people away from the 
 doors, if you keep an hotel." 
 
 " Mr. Eoy never takes wine in the day- 
 time, Auntie," said Nelly, assuming entire 
 charge of his habits, as became a woman 
 engaged for more than twenty -four hours. 
 "We can give him a cup of tea in five 
 minutes, and I'll make it myself ; I know w T hat 
 he likes better than you do." 
 
 But Mr. Boy preferred a walk with Nelly 
 to refreshment of any kind, and the pair were 
 soon strolling arm-in-arm along that romantic 
 thoroughfare, the Strand, discussing trousseaux,
 
 76 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 wedding, honeymoon, their eventual future. 
 What do I know ? What do people talk about 
 when they are going to be married and lead a 
 new life ? 
 
 So the weeks went on. John Koy found 
 himself waking morning after morning with a 
 strange, anxious feeling that he was yet a day 
 nearer his fate, sometimes impatient to get it 
 over, sometimes thinking he could wait as long 
 as he pleased, but never wavering in his 
 loyalty to Nelly, nor allowing, for one second, 
 that he regretted his choice. 
 
 It was the dead time of year. " Not a soul 
 in London," said the souls who met the other 
 souls in the street, yet is the Great City seldom 
 so empty, even of rich and idle, but that ten 
 or twelve can be got together for a dinner- 
 party at short notice. There are people who 
 profess they like these little gatherings better 
 than the crowd and hurry of the season, de- 
 claring that they never enjoy the society of 
 their friends so thoroughly as when " there is 
 nobody in town ! "
 
 SO LIKE A MAN! 77 
 
 In St. James Street and Pall Mall might 
 be found a few lingerers, dull and torpid as the 
 winter flies on a window-pane, but the Park 
 seemed unusually deserted. Perhaps for that 
 reason it was the chosen resort of Mr. Eoy and 
 Miss Burton, who would turn in at Albert 
 Gate, having arrived there, as became a regu- 
 larly engaged couple, in a hansom cab, to walk 
 in the Eide, or sit down and make plans for 
 the future, while she looked in his face with 
 adoring eyes, and he — well — he smoked, and 
 let her look. 
 
 " I like this," whispered Nelly, pressing 
 closer to his side as they returned one day 
 from an hour or two of the above enorossinor 
 occupation. " You and me have got it all to 
 ourselves ! " 
 
 " It," meant that stretch of rugged bricks 
 and rubbish, with a surface of mud just thick 
 enough to splash, which the Government then 
 in office had provided for its tax-payers on 
 horseback, and seemed in so far a solitude 
 when Nelly spoke that its only other occupants
 
 78 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 were a fat man on a cob, and a doubtful- 
 looking lady riding a lame horse. 
 
 "It's very nice," answered John Roy, 
 rather preoccupied, for just then a figure 
 turned into the Ride on a hunting-looking 
 chestnut, at a pace that promised soon to 
 bring him alongside our pedestrians. The 
 easy seat and general outline were not to be 
 mistaken. Roy wished at the moment he had 
 some other lady on his arm. 
 
 The chestnut though going fast must have 
 been well in hand, it was pulled up so quickly 
 at the rails, while a familiar voice exclaimed, 
 " Hulloh, Roy ! In town at this time of year ! 
 Come and dine to-day. I'm off to-morrow 
 morning for Newmarket." Then, as if catching 
 sight of Nelly for the first time, the speaker 
 bowed to his stirrup-iron, and added, " I beg 
 your pardon. I was so glad to see my friend ! " 
 
 It stung Roy to feel there should be an 
 absolute necessity for introducing her on the 
 spot as " Miss Burton — a lady who is going to. 
 do me the honour of becoming my wife." It
 
 SO LIKE A MAN! 79 
 
 stung him still more to notice an instantaneous 
 change of manner, that only a sensitive nature 
 would have detected, while with a second bow, 
 not quite so low, yet somehow more respectful, 
 the other observed, " Then it's no use hoping 
 for you at dinner. Allow me to congratulate 
 you both ! n and cantered off. 
 
 " What a pretty fellow ! n said Nelly, in a 
 tone of undisguised admiration. 
 
 "Most women agree with you," answered 
 Roy, wondering he was not more nettled. 
 " They used to call him the lady-killer in his 
 regiment." 
 
 Her grey eyes opened wide. 
 
 " Did he really kill a lady ? How horrible ! 
 He ought never to be saddled again ! " 
 
 John Roy laughed. " You mean the horse, 
 dear," said he. " I thought it was the man." 
 
 " Oh ! I never looked at the gentleman," 
 answered Nelly. " Who is he ? What's his 
 
 name ? 
 
 " Lord Fitzowen — commonly called Fitz ! " 
 " A lord, is he ? Well, he don't look half
 
 8o ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 so like a lord as you ! What is lie going to 
 Newmarket for ? " 
 
 John Roy did not answer. He was think- 
 ing it would be rather up-hill work to teach his 
 wife all the ins-and-outs, the little technicalities, 
 the very language of that artificial world into 
 which he. was bringing her. They would live 
 in the country, he determined, and come but 
 little to London for the present. A man 
 might be very happy in the country with some 
 hunting, shooting, farming, and such a beauti- 
 ful creature to keep his house. One couldn't 
 have everything. It was a great piece of good 
 fortune that he didn't marry Lady Jane ! 
 
 And Nelly, clinging to his arm, wondered 
 how she could ever have lived without him. 
 His presence was paradise, his absence a blank. 
 All places were alike if she only had him by her 
 side. 
 
 So they were married in due course of time 
 — exactly one month from the day that he 
 proposed to her on Beachmouth Pier. The 
 wedding was quiet enough. No bishop, no
 
 SO LIKE A MAN! 81 
 
 bridesmaids, and a cake of small dimensions 
 from the confectioner's round the corner. 
 The happy couple walked quietly out of the 
 hotel to a neighbouring church. Nelly was 
 given away by her nearest male relation, a 
 retired drysalter residing at Clapham, who felt 
 and looked in a false position throughout. 
 Mrs. Phipps wept plentifully in the rector s 
 pew (absent with his family in Switzerland), 
 and the ceremony was performed by an eccle- 
 siastic, somewhat irreverently mentioned as "a 
 clergyman on a job." One very old shoe was 
 thrown by the upper housemaid when the 
 happy couple left the hotel in a cab, and the 
 waiter remained drunk all day. These were 
 the only festivities. The servants agreed that 
 though Miss Burton had done well for herself, 
 the bridegroom looked old enough to be her 
 father, and the wedding was a tame affair ! 
 
 Nevertheless, it was over, and they were 
 married as irrevocably and completely as if a 
 primate had officiated, and the whole House of 
 Lords had signed the register.
 
 82 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Nelly was supremely nappy ; so, in a 
 calmer degree, was her husband. Both had 
 obtained that to which most people look for- 
 ward as the crowning joy of life, yet it seemed 
 like a dream to read in next day's Times the 
 simple and unpretending notice — 
 
 " Yesterday, at St. "Withold's, by the Eev. Joseph 
 Makeshift — John Roy, Esq., of Eoyston Grange and 907, 
 Piccadilly, to Elinor, sole surviving daughter of Jacob 
 Burton, Esq., late of High Holborn, London." 
 
 " John Roy ? " said one or two friends, 
 gleaning the morning papers with cigars in 
 their mouths — "I have often wondered what 
 had become of him. Used to be rather a good 
 fellow. Only surviving child, too ; looks as if 
 he had picked up an heiress. Great absurdity 
 marrying after forty, and infernal mistake to 
 get cauQ-ht before ! " 
 
 But Nelly's history only began in reality 
 on the day when she felt she was the happiest 
 woman in the world because she stood at the 
 altar as Roy's wife.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WARDEN TOWERS. 
 
 "And you know her, Lord Fitzowen? What 
 an odd person you are ! I believe you know 
 everybody in the world." 
 
 "I thought you said she was out of the 
 world, Miss Bruce. Therefore you were sur- 
 prised I should have made her acquaintance." 
 
 " That's not the question. Where can you 
 have met her ? " 
 
 " Nothing more simple ; walking in the 
 Park with her husband." 
 
 " Before they were married ? " 
 
 u Of course. People don't walk together in 
 the Park after they're married, unless they've 
 had a row." * 
 
 " And he introduced you ? " 
 
 " Why shouldn't he ? Won't you introduce
 
 84 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 me to your husband, Miss Bruce, when the 
 time comes and the man ? " 
 
 She smiled, rather wistfully, " Perhaps you 
 know him already," said she. " And if you 
 don't, I am not sure you are a desirable 
 acquaintance. You might lead him into 
 mischief." 
 
 " Somebody has been maligning me, and 
 to you of all people, in whose good opinion I 
 want so much to stand high. An enemy has 
 done this." 
 
 " Not Mrs. Eoy, at any rate. She couldn't 
 remember having seen you. I said you were 
 here, and asked her. There, Lord Fitz ! There's 
 a come-down ! " 
 
 " Not a bit. Say a see- saw, if you please ; 
 for it's a go-up at the other end. If she had 
 forgotten me, you hadn't ! " 
 
 " How can I forget you when you're staying 
 in the house? Besides, don't flatter yourself 
 that I ever try ! " 
 
 "Then I'll wait for a more favourable 
 opportunity, and we'll talk about something
 
 WARDEN TOWERS. 85 
 
 else. What did you think of your new neigh- 
 bour ? " 
 
 " What did ym?" 
 
 " I thought her — charming •! " 
 
 " How like a man ! As if that conveyed 
 anything. Now I will do you justice, Lord 
 Fitz. I believe you pretend to be stupider 
 than you are, so I wonder you didn't find 
 out something." 
 
 " What was there to find out ? I could 
 see with my own eyes she hadn't a wooden 
 leg." 
 
 " Indeed ! Well, you'll say I am ill-natured, 
 and that one woman always tries to disparage 
 another ; did it not strike you she is hardly 
 quite a lady ? I don't mean to say she drops 
 her h's, but something very like it. She has 
 never lived amongst the people you and I are 
 accustomed to meet, and I think Mr. Roy 
 feels it. He looked very black at her more 
 than once." 
 
 " What a shame ! They haven't been married 
 six weeks. If I had a wife now — never mind
 
 86 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 — I'm not going to commit myself, Miss Bruce. 
 I might say too much." 
 
 " If you had a wife of course you would be 
 just as trying as other husbands, but that's no 
 business of mine. I was going to tell you — 
 when we called, papa and I, as we were bound 
 to do at once, being such near neighbours, we 
 found them at home, and I know she was got- 
 up to receive visitors. In fact, she told me so. 
 She called it " seeing company." She was well 
 dressed, I must say, not too well, and as hand- 
 some as a picture. You seldom see such eyes 
 and hair. But for all that, there's a something. 
 I'm convinced she is not what I call thorough- 
 bred, and yet papa wouldn't allow it. He was 
 completely fascinated, and you know how 
 particular he is." 
 
 " Naturally. If I were your papa, I should 
 be very particular indeed." 
 
 " Nonsense. Don't interrupt. I watched 
 Mr. Roy, and I'm sure he wasn't at his ease. 
 He looked in a fidget every time she opened 
 her mouth. I was sorry for him, and we
 
 WARDEN TO WERS. 8 7 
 
 didn't stay long, though she pressed me to 
 take luncheon, and to take tea, and hoped I 
 wouldn't take cold in the open carriage, and 
 all the rest of it, as kindly as possible." 
 
 "And have you taken cold — I beg your 
 pardon — caught cold ? for if so, you had better 
 not stand here any longer. I shouldn't like 
 your death to lie at my door." 
 
 " You haven't got a door, only a latch-key. 
 But for once you talk sense. So draw my 
 skates a little tighter, and we'll practise the 
 Dutchman's Roll round the island and back 
 again. Are you ready ? Go ! " 
 
 During the performance of this exhibition, 
 which is but a succession of outside edges, 
 neither very speedy nor very graceful, I may 
 take the opportunity of explaining how these 
 young people came to be disporting themselves 
 on some five acres of ice, which milder weather 
 would dissolve into a pretty little lake, forming 
 a principal ornament in the grounds of Warden 
 Towers. 
 
 Sir Hector and Miss Bruce, a widower and
 
 88 HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 an only daughter, had come to reside here, as 
 their neighbours hoped, for a permanence, 
 having taken a long lease of the place, which, 
 notwithstanding its somewhat feudal name, had 
 been hitherto the home of a retired tradesman, 
 whose asthma compelled him to fight for breath 
 in a warmer climate elsewhere. The house, 
 though built with a turret at each end, was 
 handsome and comfortable, the park roomy 
 enough for a gallop, but not so extensive as to 
 admit of feeding deer, and the gardens were 
 exceedingly well laid out. As Sir Hector ob- 
 served, " It was a nice gentlemanlike place in 
 which to drivel away the rest of one's life. If 
 Hester liked it, he would never ask to sleep 
 out of the chintz room in the east tower again. " 
 Hester liked whatever suited papa — that is 
 to say, she turned him round her white fingers 
 as an only daughter does turn the father who 
 has learned to believe her a prodigy of infancy, 
 a paragon of girlhood, and in all respects a 
 pearl among womankind. Sir Hector, though 
 his Christian and surnames sounded so warlike,
 
 WARDEN TOWERS. 89 
 
 was a mild old gentleman of rather convivial 
 habits and an easy temper, even when tortured 
 by gout. He accepted its pains and penalties 
 with a good humour that roused the admira- 
 tion of his friends ; and the moment he re- 
 sumed the use of his hands, or could put his 
 lame feet to the ground, returned to those 
 indulgences that sustained and strengthened 
 his, enemy with a zest only sharper for remem- 
 brance of past discipline and prospect of future 
 pain. 
 
 To be sure, as he used to declare, " It was 
 a pleasure to be ill when one could have 
 Hester for a nurse ; " and it is but justice to 
 say that no temptation could lure this young 
 lady from her post if papa was either threatened 
 or laid up. Many a time she stripped off 
 riding-habit or ball-dress and sent the carriage 
 back from the very door at the first of those 
 symptoms that her experience told her were 
 forerunners of an attack. Many an hour did 
 she pass in darkened rooms, measuring draughts, 
 smoothing pillows, reading to him, talking to
 
 9 o ROVS WIFE. 
 
 him, soothing the sufferer with her presence 
 and the touch of her hand, when other girls 
 were sunning themselves in the looks of their 
 admirers at archery-meeting and picnic, or, 
 more delightful still, enjoying a stirring gallop 
 under soft November skies, over lush November 
 pastures, after the hounds ! 
 
 For in such amusements and pastimes did 
 Miss Bruce take more than a masculine delight. 
 Lithe, straight, and agile, she was a proficient 
 in all those bodily exercises at which ladies 
 are now able to compete on equal terms with 
 the stronger sex. A practised whip, she drove 
 her ponies to an inch ; a capital horsewoman, 
 she rode to hounds (with a good pilot) in the 
 first flight. She danced like a fairy ; could 
 run a quarter of a mile or walk half-a-dozen, 
 without the slightest inconvenience, and even 
 professed, though of this she afforded no actual 
 proof, that she was able to jump a gate or a 
 stile. At any rate, for all her softness of man- 
 ner and grace of bearing, she seemed tough as 
 whalebone, and nimble as a wild deer.
 
 WARDEN TO WERS. 9 1 
 
 In these days of high-pressure education 
 she could not but be full of accomplishments, 
 playing scientific music at sight, singing a 
 second, speaking three or four languages, idiom- 
 atically, ungrammatically, and with a fair ac- 
 cent. She knew how to work embroidery, 
 knit shooting-hose, and send people in to 
 dinner according to their rank without fear of 
 a mistake. On the other hand, she was but a 
 moderate historian, sacred or profane, believed 
 our version of the Bible a direct translation 
 from the Hebrew, remembered the Wars of the 
 Eoses only because of their pretty name, and 
 suffered hopeless confusion about the Ligue 
 and the Fronde. She could not read Shakspeare, 
 she honestly confessed, nor understand Tenny- 
 son, had tried to wade through " Corinne " 
 and found it stitpid, believed she would have 
 liked Sir Walter but for the Scotch dialect, 
 and thought in her heart " Vanity Fair " and 
 the "Loves of the Angels" the two finest 
 works in the language. Of household affairs 
 she had some vague glimmerings, tjie result of
 
 92 JtOY'S WIFE. 
 
 experience in ordering dinner, ' and even be- 
 lieved, because she never tried, that she could 
 do her own marketing. Every Christmas she 
 spent a cheque from papa in soup and blankets, 
 which she gave away with a great deal of 
 method and very little judgment. To sum up 
 all, she was a staunch Protestant, a regular 
 church-goer, and skated to admiration. 
 
 Her cavalier, also, performed handsomely 
 over ice or asphalte, on skates or rollers. Both 
 were members of Prince's Club, nor does it 
 necessarily follow, as nameless slanderers would 
 have us believe, that they were therefore utterly 
 lost to all considerations of honourable feeling 
 and even outward decency. It is difficult to 
 understand why a pastime that brings young 
 people together in a glare of light under the 
 eyes of countless spectators, should have been 
 held up to obloquy as a recognised means of 
 the vilest intrigue ; or why a healthy exercise, 
 exacting close attention under considerable 
 effort, should be supposed to cloak overtures 
 and advances that might be made far less
 
 WARDEN TO WERS. 93 
 
 conspicuously in the crash of a concert or the 
 confusion of a ball-room. 
 
 It seems to me that the black sheep of both 
 sexes must be at a disadvantage when the 
 slightest inclination to either side from a just 
 and equal balance cannot but result in physical 
 downfall. The admirer deposited on his seat 
 rather than his knees may scarcely hope to 
 excite sympathy in his idol, and the idol her- 
 self must be well aware that she can never 
 mount her pedestal again if she comes down 
 from it with a sprawl ! That Miss Bruce was 
 as wicked a young lady as she was a good 
 skater, I emphatically deny. For her com- 
 panion's virtues I will not take upon me to 
 answer with the same certainty. 
 
 Lord Fitzowen, as Mr. Boy said, "com- 
 monly called Fitz," had been about the world 
 for more years than people thought, or, indeed, 
 than he wished them to think. 
 
 He was one of those men, happily not very 
 numerous in his order, who, alter the first 
 blush of youth, seem to have no object in the
 
 94 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 world but to amuse themselves. For this 
 levity of disposition and indifference to the 
 real purposes of life he was perhaps indebted 
 to the joyous temperament that accompanies 
 perfect bodily health. A famous writer of our 
 own day has expressed the startling opinion 
 that if people never found their livers out of 
 order, no great works would be accomplished. 
 This is, perhaps, another way of saying that 
 discontent is the origin of progress. 
 
 As Fitz, from the time he pounded straw- 
 berry messes at Eton till he mixed Hussar- 
 broth (a compound of wmich the substratum 
 used to be red-herrings fried in gin) for his 
 brother subalterns at Hounslow, never knew he 
 had a liver, and hated, besides, every kind of 
 mental exertion, we may presume that nature 
 did not intend him for one of those "weary 
 brothers" who either imprint, or appreciate, 
 " footprints on the sands of time." What he 
 did — rather what he did not do, if we may be 
 allowed such a contradiction in terms — seemed 
 done remarkably well. He was the best idler
 
 WARDEN TO WERS. 9 5 
 
 in society, and this is saying a good deal in 
 London life where the art is cultivated with a 
 diligence that cannot but ensure success. 
 
 Having a title, though an Irish one, a 
 sufficient income, an agreeable person, imper- 
 turbable good-humour, and spirits, as he said 
 himself, " forty above proof," it is no wonder 
 that Lord Fitzowen was welcome everywhere, 
 and an especial favourite amongst women. 
 
 Nevertheless, with an intuitive perception 
 of the fitness of things, denied to the duller 
 sex, they never expected him to marry. " He's 
 delightful, I know, dear," Miss Bruce observed 
 on one occasion in the confidence of five o'clock 
 tea, "but as for anything serious, I should as 
 soon expect a proposal from the beadle at St. 
 George's. It's entirely out of Fitz's line ! " 
 So he made love to them all round without 
 burning his fingers, and persuaded himself 
 that, with many faults, he was yet a man of 
 strong feelings and sincere affections. 
 
 Somehow Fitz always seemed to belong to 
 the prettiest woman present. Although there
 
 96 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 were other guests at Warden Towers, it was 
 characteristic that he alone should be gazing 
 at a winter sunset with his host's handsome 
 daughter after completing the Dutchman's Eoll 
 to the unbounded satisfaction of both. 
 
 "It is time to go in," said Hester, rosy and 
 breathless, looking intently at the red streaks 
 fading into a frosty film behind the island. 
 " How I love this cold, clear weather ! I wish 
 it would last all the year through." 
 
 "You ought to have been an Arctic ex- 
 plorer," laughed Fitz. 
 
 Miss Bruce made no answer, but her eye 
 deepened and the smile faded from her face.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ROYSTOX GRANGE. 
 
 The cold, clear weather soon began to change. 
 The sun went clown red and frosty, but Fitz, 
 looking out of his bed-room window at mid- 
 night, observed a halo round the moon, which 
 he described as "her wig," and by breakfast- 
 time a thaw was proclaimed. Spouts trickled, 
 eaves dripped, birds chirped in the kurels, the 
 distant downs melted into grey, and a soft 
 wind blew gently through the fir plantations 
 on the south of Warden Towers. 
 
 In such a country-house as that over which 
 Miss Bruce presided, the change to "hunting 
 weather " was greeted with a hearty welcome, 
 but at a few miles' distance it produced no 
 little anxiety and discomfiture. The Roys 
 were about to give a dinner-party, the first 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 9 S ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 since they came to live at Koyston Grange. 
 They had consulted the almanac, made, as 
 Nelly said, a a proper arrangement with the 
 moon," and now, if her light should be obscured 
 by clouds, if the roads were axle-deep in soft 
 white mud, if the floods were out, if the rain 
 came down, if everything conspired to baffle 
 their guests and spoil their party, husband and 
 wife agreed "it would be really too provoking." 
 
 They were together in the breakfast-room 
 of Nelly's new home. She locked the tea- 
 caddy, and fitted its key on a steel ring, 
 among many others, with a certain house- 
 wifely care that seemed her second nature ; he 
 paced up and clown between window and fire- 
 place with an impatience that bordered on 
 disgust. 
 
 " If the frost had only lasted over this 
 confounded dinner-party," said he, " it might 
 have rained torrents to-morrow and welcome ! 
 I want to get some hunting next week. Now 
 I wish we hadn't asked the Grantons. She's 
 delicate — very. They'll send an excuse, and
 
 ROYSTON GRANGE. 99 
 
 not come — or they'll come and not go away. 
 If she catches a bad cold, she'll very likely die 
 in the house ! " 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Roy!" exclaimed Nelly (she 
 could not yet bring herself to call her paragon 
 by so simple a name as John). "She can have 
 the pink-room, poor dear ! It is the warmest 
 in the house. And I'm sure I'll nurse her 
 night and day." 
 
 "Nonsense, Nelly!" was the marital re- 
 joinder. " I wish I could teach you not to 
 take everything one says an pied de la lettre" 
 
 " That's French," she answered good- 
 humouredly, "but even in French it saves 
 trouble to say what you mean." 
 
 " What I mean is this. If the Grantons 
 throw us over, you must send all your people 
 in differently. Are you quite sure you won't 
 make a mess of the whole thins; ? " 
 
 She pulled a list from her apron-pocket, 
 written in her own clear, firm hand, and looked 
 wistfully over its contents. 
 
 " I dread that part most of all," she
 
 ioo HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 whispered, with a loving look at him from her 
 deep grey eyes. " The dinner I can superin- 
 tend well enough, and arranging the furniture, 
 and lighting the company-rooms. It's what 
 I'm used to. But I am afraid of the county 
 gentry ; and if once I begin wrong, and march 
 them off out of their proper places, I know I 
 shall get as red as a turkey-cock, and think 
 everybody is looking at me. You see I never 
 had to do with great folks, dear, till I knew 
 you." 
 
 He bit his lip. How could he be angry 
 with this kind and handsome woman, who 
 loved him so well ? Yet it was provoking to 
 be obliged to drill her for these little exigencies 
 of every-day life, it was tiresome to be always 
 in hot water lest she should say or do something- 
 contrary to that unwritten code which it is so 
 impossible to classify or define. Lady Jane 
 would have given him no anxiety on this score. 
 And yet he could not bring himself to wish he 
 had married Lady Jane ! 
 
 "Kemember, dear," he continued kindly
 
 RO YSTON GRANGE. 101 
 
 enough, " I take Miss Granton, because she is a 
 Viscount's daughter, and Fitzowen takes you." 
 
 "Not Sir Hector Bruce?" said Nelly, 
 "He's a much older man. I was always 
 taught to reverence grey hairs. I wish you 
 had more of them." 
 
 " Certainly not," he insisted. " Sir Hector 
 is a baronet, and of early creation ; but Fitz- 
 owen is an Irish peer " 
 
 " What's an Irish peer ? " asked Mrs. Roy. 
 "I shall never take it all in. I thought one 
 lord was as good as another lord, and I still 
 think a baronet of sixty ought to be of more 
 account than a young whipper-snapper not six- 
 and- twenty. But you know best, of course." 
 
 " I suppose I do," he answered drily, and 
 deferred for the present his intention of pilot- 
 ing his wife through the intricacies of Debrett. 
 
 But while he smoked a ci^ar in the stable 
 and consulted with his groom on such inex- 
 haustible topics as the grey's fetlock, and the 
 chestnut's cough, he felt that Nelly's ignorance 
 of conventionalities would be a continual source
 
 102 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 of irritation to his shy and sensitive nature ; 
 that notwithstanding her beauty, her sweet 
 temper, her entire devotion to himself, a woman 
 might have suited him better who was more 
 conversant with his own artificial state of 
 society, that he might even have been wiser 
 not to have married at all. It is but justice to 
 add that he had the grace to be ashamed of 
 such reflections, and dismissed them with a jerk, 
 j ust as he threw away the stump of his cigar. 
 
 Half-an-hour later, while bent on her house- 
 hold avocations, he saw her pause as she passed 
 through the conservatory to tie up a pretty 
 little nosegay prepared for his ov^n button-hole 
 w^hen he should go out. Something of the old 
 thrill he felt on the pier at Beachmouth stirred 
 his heart once more. Her attitudes were so 
 graceful, the curves of her figure so true to the 
 line of beauty, her eyes so deep and soft, her 
 features so exquisitely cut, her locks so dark 
 and glossy, he could not but admit that his 
 wife, iu appearance at least, was the most 
 bewitching woman he had ever seen.
 
 RO YSTON GRANGE. 103 
 
 "As far as looks go," thought John Roy, 
 "she will hold her own with the best, and T 
 can trust .her to be nicely dressed. While 
 dinner lasts it will do well enough, but I know 
 what women are. They'll find her out in the 
 drawing-room, and they'll let her see they've 
 found her out. Nelly will lose her head, and 
 say or do something that will make me feel 
 hot all over. I wish she hadn't asked them ! 
 I wish the cook would get drunk, or the 
 kitchen-chimney catch fire, or something fright- 
 ful would happen to get one out of the whole 
 d cl thing ! " 
 
 But the cook and the kitchen-chimney 
 remained staunch to their respective duties. 
 Delicate Mrs. Granton did not send an excuse ; 
 on the contrary, she was one of the first 
 arrivals, in a remarkably low dress. Sir Hector, 
 Miss Bruce, and Lord Fitzowen, turned up in 
 due course. By eight o'clock the whole party 
 were assembled in the drawing-room. Nelly 
 received them in turn, with exactly the right 
 amount of cordiality, neither too cold nor too
 
 104 . HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 gushing, paired them off, and sent them to 
 dinner with a sinking heart indeed, but a per- 
 fect imitation of high-bred composure, followed 
 them on Lord Fitzo wen's arm with gracious 
 dignity, and Mr. Roy began to breathe freely 
 again. 
 
 " After all," he thought, " D'Orsay was 
 right. A good heart is good manners ready 
 made. Nelly couldn't have done it better if 
 she had been born a duke's daughter ! " 
 
 Soup and fish came and went with the 
 usual soup and fish conversation. Mrs. Gran ton 
 asked her host how the new stoves answered 
 in his hot-houses, and whether he should take 
 Mrs. "Roy to the Hunt ball? The rest told 
 each other that " it was really a thaw, that the 
 frost had been enjoyable enough for skaters, 
 that the change was welcome to those who 
 hunt, and — and — Champagne, if you please," 
 after which the talk became more general and 
 more discursive, not without a few agreeable 
 personalities, and remarks, occasionally much 
 to the point. The whole affair seemed to go
 
 ROYSTON GRANGE. 105 
 
 off smoothly, and though the company were 
 chiefly composed of country neighbours, the 
 entertainment promised to be a success. 
 
 People were well paired, and this was the 
 more fortunate, as our table of precedence, 
 regulating English society, leaves nothing to 
 chance. Mrs. Granton, a pleasant little woman, 
 with a tendency to mild flirtation, liked both 
 her host and her neighbour on the other side, 
 a young guardsman, with good spirits, good 
 appetite, and good looks. Two squires, fast 
 friends of thirty years' standing, whose talk 
 was of short-horns, sat together. The venerable 
 clergyman of the parish placed himself next 
 Miss Bruce, a young lady for whom he pro- 
 fessed the deepest regard, to which she warmly 
 responded, consulting him on his many charities, 
 and speaking of him in all societies as " a dear 
 old thing ! " An unmarried damsel of a certain 
 age, not yet on the retired list, was mated 
 with a veteran admiral, who made up for his 
 weather-worn face and grizzled hair, by that 
 frank and kindly gallantry which women find
 
 106 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 so irresistible, and which, combined with hardy 
 habits and a reputation for personal daring, 
 renders officers of the Royal Navy such uni- 
 versal favourites with the sex. Sir Hector, 
 who sat on the same side of the table as his 
 daughter, sheltered therefore from the warning 
 glances with which she was accustomed to 
 check such imprudences, launched out freely 
 in the matter of savours and sauces, did not 
 rjfuse champagne, and even asked for a glass 
 of old ale after cheese, though, as Hester 
 observed, " Papa knew it was poison to him. 
 Absolutely poison ! " Finally, Lord Fitzowen, 
 who took in his hostess, found himself com- 
 pletely fascinated and enthralled. Her beauty, 
 her good-humour, above all, her simple manners, 
 charmed him exceedingly. They were so wholly 
 different from the artificial graces he was ac- 
 customed to in general society. 
 
 Fitz, though a gentleman, had, I fear, 
 promised himself more mirth than interest in 
 studying the character of John Roy's new 
 wife. He expected her to furnish amusement
 
 J? O YSTON GRANGE. i c 7 
 
 during the evening, food for laughter with 
 Hester on the morrow, and was surprised to 
 find how completely he had been mistaken. 
 
 Quiet and unobtrusive, she seemed yet to 
 take her own place as mistress of the house, 
 with a serene and conscious dignity. While 
 paying courteous attention to her guests, no 
 movement of the servants escaped her vigil- 
 ance. Those deep grey eyes seemed to 
 observe the requirements of all, and the 
 training of her early life, the habit of close 
 attention to trifles, of looking into everything 
 herself, now stood her in good stead. 
 
 Nelly was at high pressure, nevertheless. 
 She had no fear, indeed, of the cook's failures, 
 nor of shortcomings on the part of her well- 
 paid and well-ordered establishment, but she 
 sadly mistrusted herself. 
 
 She had already learned to stand in awe 
 of her husband's fastidious taste ; she dreaded 
 at every moment to offend it by something 
 she might say or do, and she glanced at him 
 from time to time with an obvious timidity
 
 io8 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 that was not lost on her sharp -sighted neigh- 
 bour. "Does he bully her?" thought Fitz. 
 " She seems afraid of him. She's not quite at 
 her ease. Good heavens! If I had such a 
 wife as that, I should worship the very 
 ground beneath her feet ! " 
 
 Like many of his class, our friend was an 
 enthusiast, and at least believed himself capable 
 of romance and self-sacrifice. Some of the 
 greatest follies on behalf of women have been 
 perpetrated by men of the world, at whom that 
 world invariably expresses a well-bred surprise, 
 wondering they should "not have known 
 better," ignoring the recklessness that stands 
 for generosity, and forgetting how its own 
 treadmil becomes at last so wearisome that 
 any change is accepted for an improvement. 
 
 It is a sad reflection, but, as the practised 
 angler well knows, to capture fishes of all kinds 
 there is nothing like a change of bait. So for 
 the human gudgeon novelty has a keen and 
 dangerous attraction. A bit of sweet-briar in 
 the cottager's hedge never seems so fragrant as
 
 ROYSTON GRANGE. ic 9 
 
 after a walk through the duke's conservatories. 
 His Grace himself, when he can get away from 
 his French cook, loves to dine on a simple 
 mutton-chop, and I have always been satisfied 
 that queens and princesses wore the willow for 
 King Cophetua when he placed his crown at 
 the feet of a beggar-maid. 
 
 Lord Fitzowenhad necessarily been thrown 
 into the society of ladies of high rank — had 
 been refused by the great heiress of one season, 
 smiled on by the great beauty of the next, been 
 a little in love, like everybody else, with the 
 handsomest of duchesses, and had neither lost 
 flesh nor spirits nor appetite from the strength 
 of his attachments. But here was a r/ew ex- 
 perience altogether. Apart from her good 
 looks, he had never met any other woman the 
 least like Mrs. Roy, and he studied her with 
 the feeling of admiration and curiosity that a 
 man experiences who, after a night's sleep on 
 a railway, wakes in the streets of a foreign 
 capital that he has never seen before. 
 
 The interest, I must admit, was all on one
 
 no HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 side. Nelly seemed much too pre-occupied to 
 think of anything but her female guests — how 
 she was to get them into the drawing-room — ■ 
 what to do with them when there; whether 
 tea and coffee should be served separately or 
 together, once or twice each ; and if she ought 
 or ought not to press everybody to stay a little 
 longer after the welcome moment when their 
 carriages were proclaimed to be waiting at the 
 door ? 
 
 Fitz could see that his attentions left no 
 impression, and this indifference only made 
 him the more desirous of standing well in her 
 good opinion. 
 
 " I have been presented to you before to- 
 day, Mrs. Roy/' said he, stimulated to exertion 
 by a glass of Chartreuse after ice. " You have 
 forgotten me, but I have not forgotten you." 
 
 " Indeed ! " answered Nelly. " It's very 
 stupid of me ; I hope you'll excuse it. I was 
 never good at remembering faces." 
 
 " You were walking with Roy in the Park. 
 It must have been just before you were married.
 
 RO YSTON GRANGE. 1 1 1 
 
 I was riding and he introduced me. Do you 
 remember now?" 
 
 " I remember your horse ; such a beautiful 
 chestnut. I was always fond of animals. 
 Have you brought it with you to Warden 
 Towers?" 
 
 A little piqued, and feeling rather at a 
 disadvantage, Fitz pulled himself together 
 before answering. 
 
 " He is in a stable at the village. I rather 
 agree with you, Mrs. Roy ; I like beasts on 
 four feet better than on two. May I bring 
 him over some day to renew his acquaintance ? " 
 
 " Thank you/' said Nelly absently. He 
 suspected she had not paid attention to a word. 
 Her faculties were now concentrated on the 
 responsibility of " making the move " to marshal 
 her ladies into the drawing-room. After all 
 she signalled the wrong one, and, observing a 
 cloud on her husband's brows as she passed out, 
 followed the rustling squadron in their retreat 
 with heightened colour and rather a heavy 
 heart.
 
 ii2 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Lord Fitzowen, though he filled a bumper 
 of Mr. Roy's . excellent claret, leaned back in 
 his chair less talkative than usual. His even- 
 ing's entertainment had not turned out as he 
 expected, and he found himself thinking a good 
 deal more of his friend's wife than his friend's 
 wine.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 STRANGERS YET. 
 
 When they had talked enough about poor's- 
 rates, short-horns, the scarcity of foxes, and 
 unpopularity of their Lord- Lieutenant, John 
 Eoy sent his brown sherry round for the last 
 time, and suggested coffee in the drawing-room. 
 Entering behind his guests, he stole an eager 
 glance at Nelly, to see how she was getting on. 
 Yes — it was just as he feared. He had 
 told her particularly to cultivate Mrs. Granton, 
 and there was Mrs. Granton, on a sofa with 
 Miss Bruce, at the far end of the room. The 
 two other ladies of consideration were in close 
 conference over the fire, and his wife sat at 
 a distant table, showing photographs to the 
 mature spinster, who looked more than half 
 asleep.
 
 ii4 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Roy's anxious, jealous temperament was up 
 in arms on the instant. " D — n it ! Nelly/' 
 he whispered, over her shoulder, " don't let 
 them send, you to Coventry in your own 
 house ! " His glance was unkind, and even 
 angry ; she had never before heard him swear ; 
 with a chill, sick feeling at her heart, she 
 realised, for the first time, how wide a differ- 
 ence there is between marriage and love. 
 
 "How can he look at me like that?" 
 thought Nelly, " and at Mrs. Granton as if he 
 could fall down and worship her ? If this is 
 good society, I've had enough of it ! I wish I 
 had never seen Beachmouth. I wish I had 
 never left Auntie and the hotel. I wish — I 
 wish I was dead and buried, and done with 
 once for all, and he'd got another wife, a real 
 lady born, who would suit him better, but 
 could never love him half as well ! " 
 
 If anybody had said a kind word to her she 
 must have burst out crying, but the servants 
 w T ere moving about with tea and coffee, there 
 was an adjournment to the card-tables, and by
 
 STRANGERS YET. 115 
 
 the time eight of the party had settled to whist, 
 and two to beziqtie, she recovered her equanimity, 
 feeling only unreasonably tired and depressed. 
 Nelly disliked cards. Lord Fitzowen had 
 " cut out " at the nearest whist table. I will 
 not take upon me to say that he was dis- 
 appointed when he found his hostess the only 
 other unoccupied person in the room. 
 
 A pianoforte stood near the door into the 
 conservatory, which was well lighted, and 
 looked very pretty with its exotics, rock-work, 
 and fountain in the midst. He asked her to play, 
 and Nelly was too shy to refuse, but her courage 
 failed when she sat down, so they opened 
 music-books, and talked about them instead. 
 
 John Roy, sorting a handful of trumps, 
 turned round to see that his guests were 
 amused. " If you like to smoke, Fitzowen," 
 said he, " nobody minds it in the conservatory 
 — only shut the glass door. Take him, Nelly, 
 and show him how." 
 
 Lord Fitzowen, thus invited, professed 
 great eagerness to see the conservatory, and
 
 n6 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 was careful to close the door of communication 
 with the drawing-room, though nothing would 
 induce him to light a cigar in the presence of 
 his hostess. 
 
 So they walked up and down inhaling the 
 heavy perfume of hot-house flowers, reading 
 their Latin names, and hanging over the gold 
 fish in their basin under the fountain. Finally, 
 they seated themselves at the extreme end, and 
 Mrs. Roy, who felt she ought to say something, 
 observed, " It was very quiet and pleasant, 
 after the heat in the other rooms. She often 
 brought her work here, and sat listening to the 
 fountain, till she fancied she was miles and 
 miles away." 
 
 Fitzowen glanced sharply in her face. No, 
 she was not speaking for effect, and seemed 
 simply to state a fact that led to nothing more. 
 She looked as if she was thinking, deeply too, 
 but of what — of whom ? She baffled him, she 
 puzzled him. This was the most interesting 
 woman he ever met in his life ! 
 
 He had penetration enough to see that she
 
 STRANGERS YET. 117 
 
 was shy, and ill at ease. Diffident people have 
 usually a keen sense of the ludicrous. If he 
 could make her laugh, she would feel more at 
 home with him, and he might hope to obtain 
 her goodwill and friendship — perhaps,, in time, 
 her confidence and regard. 
 
 " I quite agree with you, Mrs. Roy," said 
 he, "I have the same sensations myself; all 
 this wealth of green vegetables seems to raise 
 me into another phase of existence. I feel like 
 a caterpillar, for instance, in a cabbage-leaf, or 
 a sweep on May-day." 
 
 " I don't know about the caterpillar," she 
 answered, with rather a sad smile. " But I 
 dare say the sweeps are very happy on May- 
 day. I often think that you great people, who do 
 nothing but amuse yourselves, are not half so 
 contented as those who work for their bread." 
 
 "Every man to his trade, Mrs. Eoy. I 
 couldn't earn a shilling a day at any employ- 
 ment you can name. I was brought up to 
 amuse myself." 
 
 " And I to work. Yes, you may laugh ;
 
 n8 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 but I was taught from a child to gain an honest 
 livelihood. I'm not ashamed of it. I wouldn't 
 change places with one of those ladies in the 
 next room. Only, I sometimes wish Mr. Boy 
 had been a poor man. He would have felt 
 how hard I tried to make him comfortable," 
 
 "He does not feel it now," thought Lord 
 Fit zo wen — " and this is another of the many 
 wives who consider themselves unappreciated 
 and misunderstood ; " but he was too discreet 
 to put his sentiments into words, and only 
 answered by a look of sympathy and expect- 
 ation. 
 
 She remained silent for a minute, then 
 broke off a sprig of geranium, and continued, 
 more to herself than her companion, — 
 
 " I wonder if people get on better for being 
 exactly alike in character, or in all respects 
 different. I often puzzle over it for hours 
 when I'm sitting here listening to the drip of 
 the fountain, and watching the gold fish. I 
 dare say they're sometimes unhappy too, poor 
 things ! "
 
 STRANGERS YET 119 
 
 " Fish are always discontented," he answered 
 gravely. " But with regard to the previous 
 question. I am convinced that husbands and 
 wives ought to be as different as — as — chalk 
 from cheese. The man is the chalk, of course, • 
 and the woman the cheese. " 
 
 " I'm glad to hear you say that," replied 
 Mrs. Eoy. " Only, perhaps you are not the 
 best judge, being a bachelor." 
 
 " How do you know I'm a bachelor ? " 
 
 She blushed in some trepidation, lest she 
 should have stumbled into another solecism. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," she faltered. " I — I 
 was not aware. I had not heard of your 
 being married. I hope I have said nothing 
 
 wrung." 
 
 He laughed merrily. " Don't be alarmed, 
 Mrs. Eoy. I am still a beast untamed, a 
 gentleman at large, a virgin page, whatever you 
 choose to call it. When my time does come, 
 I hope the lady will be most unlike myself ! " 
 
 " I dare say she will be very nice," observed 
 Nelly simply. "But, whatever you do, Lord
 
 120 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Fitzowen, don't marry a woman below your 
 rank in life ; partly for your own sake, but a 
 great deal more for hers ! " 
 
 His tone was much graver, and he looked 
 in the face of his hostess with an expression of 
 sincere respect and regard, while he answered, — 
 
 "Pardon me, Mrs. Eoy. There I cannot 
 agree with you. A man is seldom fortunate 
 enough to marry his ideal, but, at least, he 
 should try. Shall I tell you mine ? A woman 
 of character, a woman of energy — not afraid to 
 take her part in the business of life, nor 
 ashamed to acknowledge it ; despising only 
 what is base, and hating only what is wrong. 
 The less she knows of that artificial game we 
 call society, with its unworthy interests and 
 petty artifices, the better. Frank, natural, and 
 simple, I should like her all the more for utter 
 ignorance of the great world, and a complete 
 indifference to its ways. Now I've told you 
 my notion of a wife, Mrs. Eoy. Of course she 
 must be handsome, and have black hair like 
 yours — but that has nothing to do with it."
 
 STRANGERS YET 121 
 
 Her heart beat faster. He had described a 
 character the very counterpart of her own, and 
 he was an acknowledged judge of human 
 nature, a thorough man of the world, occupy- 
 ing even a higher position than her own 
 husband. Perhaps she had deceived herself, 
 after all, and magnified mole-hills into moun- 
 tains, from sheer anxiety lest she should fall 
 short of the standard required by that paragon. 
 She looked in Fitzowen's frank, handsome face, 
 and felt that here was a friend in whom she 
 could confide, a counsellor on whom she could 
 rely. Versed in worldly ways, but untainted 
 by worldly duplicty ; wise, good-natured, and 
 experienced, he would point out the path to 
 follow, the difficulties to be avoided ; in a 
 word, would teach her to retain her hold on the 
 affections of Mr. Roy. 
 
 She pulled to pieces the bit of geranium 
 in her hand, as if absorbed in that occupation, 
 but stole an anxious look at him from under 
 her long eyelashes the while. 
 
 "You — you are an old friend of my hus-
 
 122 Jtors WIFE. 
 
 band's, are you not ? " she asked in a low, 
 uncertain voice. 
 
 He had a scale of friendship, regulated on a 
 tariff of his own. " I would lend him a fiver," 
 he thought, " if he wanted it ; perhaps a pony. 
 Certainly not a monkey." But though there is 
 a wide margin between twenty-five pounds 
 and five hundred, he felt justified in answering, 
 " Yes, a very old friend," bravely enough. 
 
 " Lord Fitzowen," she continued. " If I 
 tell you something in confidence, will you 
 promise not to repeat it to a soul ? " 
 
 " Honour among thieves, Mrs. Roy. You 
 and I are not thieves, and you may trust me as 
 you would your solicitor ! " 
 
 " I would rather trust you as my husband's 
 friend, and I will. You know, or perhaps you 
 do not know, that till we married I never lived 
 among the sort of people I meet now every day. 
 I was respectably brought up, and well-educated, 
 Lord Fitzowen, but my father was a trades- 
 man, and my mother a governess. I am not 
 ashamed of them, far from it, only in such a
 
 STRANGERS YET 123 
 
 station it was not to be expected, of course, that 
 I could acquire the manners and habits of the 
 class I have to mix with now. I try to learn 
 day by day, but it is such uphill work, and I 
 have nobody to teach me ! " 
 
 " They had much better learn of you. I 
 beg pardon for interrupting ! " 
 
 " If I ask Mr. Eoy, he is vexed, and I can- 
 not bear to see him cross. He seems to expect 
 one to know things by instinct. I am dread- 
 fully put about by little difficulties that you 
 would think the merest trifles. But they are 
 no trifles to me ! It's like not knowing how to 
 spell a word when you write a letter, and 
 having no dictionary." 
 
 " Shall I be your dictionary ? " 
 
 "Will you? It's what I wanted to ask, 
 only I didn't quite know how. It would be 
 a great relief, for sometimes, I do assure you, I 
 feel at my wits' end. Now I will consult you, 
 if you don't mind." 
 
 " Mind ! I would do anything in the world 
 for you — and for him."
 
 i2 4 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 " Thank you, Lord Fitzowen. Don't think 
 me ungrateful because I say little about it. I 
 feel your kindness deeply all the same. Now 
 we'll go back to the drawing-room. The 
 whist-players will be wondering what can have 
 kept us so long." 
 
 "One moment, Mrs. Eoy. Have you any 
 reason to believe there's a ghost somewhere 
 loose about the garden ? " 
 
 " A ghost ! Good gracious. Why ? " 
 
 " Simply, that for the last ten minutes I 
 have seen a pale, unearthly face pressed against 
 the glass, glaring at us from outside. Square, 
 flat, hard-featured, and not a pretty face by 
 any means." 
 
 Nelly's spirits were rising. " Square, flat, 
 hard-featured," she repeated with a laugh, 
 " and not a pretty face by any means. Oh ! 
 then I shouldn't wonder if it was Mrs. Mopus ! "
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MRS. MOPUS. 
 
 "Who is Mrs. Mopus?" but there came no 
 answer to his question, for already the rubbers 
 had been lost and won; the carriages were 
 announced. A table was set out with brandy, 
 seltzer, ice, lemons, and cold water, the modern 
 substitute for stirrup-cups of former days ; and 
 Lord Fitzowen's hostess was too much engrossed 
 with the ceremonies of leave-taking to spare 
 him any further attention. Nevertheless, when 
 it came to his turn to wish her goocl-night, she 
 gave him her hand with such marked cordiality, 
 as to excite the observation even of Mr. Roy. 
 
 " How do you like our friend Fitz, Nelly ? " 
 asked her husband, yawning his way upstairs. 
 " You had every opportunity to-night of form- 
 ing an opinion.' '
 
 126 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 " I think him very nice," answered Nelly, 
 with a bright smile. 
 
 " Most women do," he replied drily, and 
 shut his door. 
 
 Almost at the same moment, in the obscurity 
 of a closed landau, Miss Bruce asked Lord 
 Fitzowen the same question about Mrs. Koy. 
 Fitz did not respond quite so frankly. 
 
 " Wants knowing, I should say," was his 
 verdict. " Very quiet, very reserved. A cha- 
 racter like my own, I think. Born to blush 
 unseen ; and bloom brightest in the shade." 
 
 "You ought to blush unseen in that 
 corner," laughed Hester, " for being such a 
 humbug ! If you're both so shy and reserved, 
 Lord Fitz, perhaps you will tell me what you 
 found to talk about for a good hour in the 
 conservatory ? " 
 
 But Lord Fitz made no answer. He was 
 still ruminating on the last question he asked 
 his hostess, "Who is Mrs. Mopus?" 
 
 Mrs. Mopus was neither more nor less than 
 the housekeeper at Eoyston Grange, and in
 
 MRS. MOP US. 127 
 
 that capacity regarded John Boy's new wife 
 with no small amount of jealousy and ill-will. 
 So long as her master remained a bachelor, 
 visiting his home, at long intervals, to bring 
 with him a houseful of bachelors like himself, 
 with their valets, she found the selection ex- 
 ceedingly to her taste. In his absence, she 
 was an independent sovereign ; when he came 
 back, a lady patroness, presiding over an agree- 
 able little circle of gentlemen's gentlemen, with 
 whom her word was law, particularly at supper- 
 time. 
 
 She bad great opportunities for peculation, 
 of which she availed herself moderately, but 
 with scrupulous regularity ; could engage or 
 discharge housemaids, laundry -maids, and kit- 
 chen-maids at will, won a series of triumphs 
 over the successive cooks who came and went 
 like the slides of a magic-lantern ; and after a 
 protracted contest with the Scotch gardener, 
 found herself unquestioned mistress of Royston 
 Grange. 
 
 She was a widow, with one good-for-nothing
 
 128 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 son, alive or dead in Australia, of whom she 
 possessed no other memento than an ill-looking 
 photograph. Energetic, resolute, and perse- 
 vering, had she been ten years younger, she 
 would surely have tried to marry Mr. Roy ; 
 but the looking-glass told her such a scheme 
 was hopeless, and she gave it up almost as 
 soon as it crossed her mind. 
 
 When she learned he was going to take a 
 wife, she respectfully tendered her resignation, 
 knowing well it would not be accepted. John 
 Eoy (so like a man !), hating all trouble of a 
 domestic nature, begged her, of course, to 
 remain, and for a time she speculated on the 
 chance of his bride being a young, inexperienced 
 woman, whom with her cunning and audacity 
 she mi^ht turn round her finger like the rest 
 of the household. It was a serious blow to 
 discover that the new Mrs. Roy seemed as 
 practised an adept in the science of house- 
 keeping as herself, knowing the due consump- 
 tion of butcher's meat to a pound, of coals and 
 sugar to a lump, that she would no more
 
 MRS. MO PUS. 129 
 
 submit to stealthy pilfering than to open 
 robbery, and was resolved, in accordance with 
 one of the first instincts of womanhood, to be 
 mistress in her own house. 
 
 Mrs. Mopus did not yield without a struggle, 
 but in the very first trial of strength found 
 herself so ignobly defeated, less by Nelly's 
 quiet dignity of manner than her intimate 
 knowledge of the subject in question (a supply 
 of sandpaper and soap for the housemaid's 
 closet), that she determined in future to avoid 
 coming to conclusions with her new mistress, 
 preferring rather to watch and wait till oppor- 
 tunity offered, and then do her the worst turn 
 that lay in her power. 
 
 She had no little knowledge of the world 
 and its ways. John Eoy, who took her from a 
 recommendation, and not a character, was quite 
 satisfied with her own account of how the 
 intervening time — some seven or eight years — 
 had been spent since she left her last situation. 
 She professed to have been in business as a 
 fancy stationer, and to have failed — of course
 
 i 3 o ROTS WIFE. 
 
 through the rascality of an agent; but the 
 valet of one of Mr. Eoy's shooting friends could 
 have told him a different story. She had been 
 keeping a small public-house of no good repute 
 near Croydon, which this worthy frequented 
 when attending certain suburban steeplechases, 
 where he was in the habit of wagering freely 
 with his late master's money. He prided him- 
 self, however, on being no less a man of honour 
 than a man of the world, and gave her to 
 understand, doubtless for some practical equiva- 
 lent, that he had no intention of showing her 
 up. Still, she felt that her position was in- 
 secure, her tenure uncertain — more so than 
 ever since the arrival of Mrs. Eoy, and she 
 cherished for her new mistress that good-will 
 which animates the bosom of one woman for 
 another who has thwarted, supplanted, and 
 found her out. 
 
 After their supper in " the room," as it was 
 called — an elaborate meal, of which every upper 
 servant felt bound in honour to promote the 
 hilarity and comfort — Mrs. Mopus had con-
 
 MRS. MOP US. 131 
 
 tracted a habit of walking out of doors for 
 half-an-hour or so in all weathers and under 
 all circumstances, protesting that she could not 
 get to sleep without this taste of fresh air after 
 the labours of the day. Her real reasons were, 
 perhaps, not entirely sanitary. It might be 
 convenient thus to withdraw for a stated portion 
 of time daily from the observation of the house- 
 hold, and no questions asked ! When first she 
 established the practice she was narrowly 
 watched, no doubt, by her fellow-servants, but 
 in the course of a few months, when nothing 
 came of these nightly wanderings, they ceased 
 to regard them, and Mrs. Mopus found herself 
 free to steal about the gardens and shrubberies 
 wherever she pleased, unnoticed in the dark. 
 
 It was thus she held private interviews 
 with the butcher to accommodate certain serious 
 differences concerning the heavy overcharges 
 on which he tried to put her off with a shabby 
 ten per cent., and it was thus, too, that she 
 clandestinely met a neighbouring farmer, sixty 
 years of age and given to inebriety, who made
 
 132 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 honourable proposals of marriage, broken off 
 prematurely by his being sold-up on quarter- 
 day. 
 
 When there was company at Eoyston 
 Grange, it was her habit in these nightly 
 prowlings to peer through its panes into the 
 conservatory. It amused her to watch the 
 young men who adjourned there for coffee 
 and tobacco, moving about among the flowers, 
 like tropical birds, in their gorgeous smoking- 
 costumes. She was edified, too, by the freedom 
 of their conversation, picking up occasional 
 scraps of scandal, concerning great people in 
 London, or country neighbours nearer home, 
 of which she would otherwise have remained 
 ignorant. Collating their version of such affairs 
 with that of their valets, she formed her own 
 conclusions, and revolved them in her mind for 
 future use. It was one of her maxims that the 
 knowledge of a fellow-creature's secret (for evil) 
 was as good as a bank-note. The time was 
 sure to come when either he would pay to 
 keep it quiet, or somebody else to find it out.
 
 MRS. MOPUS. 133 
 
 But her observations had hitherto been 
 confined to the male sex. It seemed a great 
 piece of luck to detect, on this night of the 
 dinner-party, a lady sitting alone with a gentle- 
 man in the conservatory ; a greater, to discover 
 that lady was Mrs. Roy. Their conversation, 
 indeed, might have been published in the first 
 column of the Times ; but there is no dialogue 
 so innocent that it will not bear misconstruc- 
 tion, and the listening housekeeper overheard 
 enough to lay the foundation of such a plot as 
 she hoped would undermine the life's happiness 
 of her mistress, estrange her from her husband, 
 and drive her at last ignominiously from her 
 home. If she had any scruples of pity, they 
 were blown into air by Nelly's last remark 
 while she entered the drawing-room — " Not a 
 pretty face, by any means. Oh ! then I shouldn't 
 wonder if it was Mrs. Mopus ! " 
 
 "And Mrs. Mopus will be even with you 
 yet, before she's done 1 " muttered the house- 
 keeper, as she crept back through the laurels, 
 shaking with suppressed passion. " What are
 
 134 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 you, my fine lady, I should like to know, for 
 all your stylish looks and your black hair? 
 Why, you're no better born than myself, and 
 no better brought up ! If you'd been a real 
 lady, a lady of quality, you'd have kept your 
 own place in the drawing-room, like a lady, 
 and not come poking your nose into the linen- 
 closets and the store-room with me. Lady, 
 indeed ! If that young gentleman, and he is a 
 gentleman, and a lord into the bargain, knew 
 what I do, he wouldn't be so keen to follow up 
 and down, like a dog at your heels. And Mr. 
 Eoy, too, I'd like to hear what he would say 
 to such goings on. He shall know them, too, 
 that he shall, before he's twenty-four hours 
 older. I've been a faithful servant to him and 
 his for many a long year, and I'm not going to 
 see him put upon now. Not a pretty face, and 
 you wouldn't wonder if it was Mrs. Mopus ! 
 Yes, it is Mrs. Mopus, and that you shall find 
 out, my fine madam, to your cost ! " 
 
 She was so angry that she went straight to 
 her bed-room, and sat by the light of a single
 
 MRS. MOPUS. 135 
 
 tallow-candle, cogitating her plans far into the 
 night. 
 
 Mrs. Koy, meanwhile, unconscious of coming 
 evil, congratulated herself on the success of her 
 dinner-party, and her own observance of those 
 formalities she had so dreaded for more than a 
 week. 
 
 " I never made a single mistake, did I ? " 
 she asked next morning at breakfast, peeping 
 triumphantly round the tea-urn at her husband. 
 
 " Not many," he answered. " You made 
 the move after dinner to the rector's wife 
 instead of Mrs. Granton, and you didn't half 
 take notice of that tiresome old Lady Meadow- 
 bank." 
 
 Nelly's face fell. "I'm so sorry, dear," 
 said she. " It's nice of you to want to be kind 
 to her, poor woman, for she's a widow." 
 
 " Oh ! it's not for that," he answered sharply. 
 " You never seem to understand things, Nelly. 
 She owns the best Covert in the country." 
 
 Mrs. Eoy looked rather sad, and held her 
 tongue.
 
 136 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 A few such conjugal amenities, a few 
 lectures on the proprieties from Mr. Roy, 
 followed by silent tears, the bitterer that she 
 was heartily ashamed of them, and Nelly began 
 to lose confidence in herself, to dread the very 
 tingle of the door-bell that announced visitors, 
 and to make more conventional mistakes than 
 ever in sheer nervousness, and anxiety lest she 
 should do wrong. 
 
 If, as has been said, the great secret of 
 oratory is to entertain a thorough contempt 
 for one's audience, so the art of shining in 
 society cannot be successfully cultivated under 
 feelings of diffidence, and mistrust of one's 
 own position or one's own powers. Mrs. Roy 
 would glance anxiously at her husband before 
 she spoke, say the wrong thing when she did 
 speak, or stop short in the middle of a sentence, 
 as if conscious of her blunders, and waiting his 
 instructions to go on — then he would shoot 
 angry glances ht her, which made matters 
 worse ; and once, after a certain luncheon to 
 which some neighbours arrived unexpectedly,
 
 MRS. MO PUS. 137 
 
 he reproached her for her awkwardness, her 
 timidity, above all her silence, and told her — 
 positively told her — " he couldn't bear to see 
 her sitting at the top of his table, mum like a 
 fool ! " 
 
 The last feather fairly broke the back of her 
 self-respect. She began to long for sympathy, 
 for help, instruction, and advice. If Lord 
 Fitzowen would only come, she thought lie 
 might tell her what to do ; he was so kind, so 
 considerate, so ready to share with her his 
 experience and knowledge of the world. That 
 very afternoon Lord Fitzowen did come. She 
 saw him ride past the windows while she was 
 sitting disconsolately at tea, and ran to the 
 glass before he was announced, to smoothe her 
 hair, and make sure her eyes did not look as if 
 she had been crying. 
 
 John Roy, marking trees for thinning, met 
 his visitor in the park. " Fd come back with 
 you," said he, wiping his bill-hook on the 
 hedger's gloves he wore, " only I've got so wet 
 amongst all this underwood. But go up to the
 
 138 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 house; you'll find Nelly at home. She'll be 
 glad to see you ; she's rather in the dumps, it 
 will do her good." And he returned to that 
 most engrossing of all occupations, chopping in 
 one's own plantations, while Lord Fitzowen 
 cantered over the grass to pass his visit of 
 ceremony to Mrs. Roy.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY. 
 
 She received him with a bright smile, that 
 faded to a look of womanly concern when he 
 gave her his left hand. 
 
 "Why, you've got your arm in a sling," 
 said she. " What is it ? Nothing serious, I 
 hope. You've had a tumble from your horse." 
 
 John Roy would have told her she used the 
 wrong expression. A good rider falls with his 
 horse, a bad one tumbles off. Fitzowen answered 
 carelessly, " It serves me right for hunting be- 
 fore the frost was quite gone. I've put my 
 shoulder out. It's nothing to signify, and 
 luckily I didn't hurt your friend, the chestnut." 
 
 " If you had not hurt yourself it would be 
 more to the purpose. Did you ride him 
 here?"
 
 140 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 "How could I, Mrs. Roy? He was out 
 hunting yesterday. No. I came over on one of 
 Miss Bruce's ponies." 
 
 She jumped to conclusions like a very 
 woman. Of course ! she ought to have seen it 
 long ago. How stupid she had been ! Mr. 
 Roy was quite right when he said she was not 
 fit to find her way about in general society. 
 Miss Bruce and this young nobleman were 
 lovers, and in all probability engaged. She 
 might confide in Lord Fitzowen now without 
 the slightest reserve or afterthought. It was 
 fortunate — providential ; and yet she could not 
 help reflecting that Hester seemed unlike the 
 sort of person he had described as his ideal of 
 a wife. 
 
 " I see," she observed after a pause. " Of 
 course you would." 
 
 " What do you see ? " he asked ; " and of 
 course I would what ? " 
 
 " Of course you will have some tea. Shall 
 I make it for you ? Not so well as Miss Bruce, 
 but the best I can."
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY. 141 
 
 " I didn't come here to talk about Miss 
 Bruce," said he, subsiding into a low chair 
 while she handed him his tea. " I am more 
 interested at this moment in Mrs. Roy. Has 
 she had many visitors ? Has she given any 
 more dinner-parties? And what has become 
 of the ghost ? " 
 
 " The ghost ? " 
 
 "Yes. Don't you remember the ghost I 
 saw looking into the conservatory ? " 
 
 " Do you believe in ghosts ? " 
 
 "Implicitly." 
 
 " And in spirit-rapping ? " 
 
 " I think so, though they never come to 
 rap at my door. I believe in everything, Mrs. 
 Roy. That is to say, I believe in one thing as 
 much as another." 
 
 She looked grave. 
 
 " I don't like to hear you speak so, and you 
 don't mean it, I know. Lord Fitzowen, do 
 you remember what I told you the other night 
 about the ways of society ? I cannot under- 
 stand them. Have people no likings, no
 
 142 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 affections, no feelings, above all, no standard 
 of right and wrong ? or do they simply make a 
 point of never saying what they mean ? You 
 have lived in the great world ; you belong to it 
 yourself. Perhaps you will explain." 
 
 " I will if I can," he answered. " You 
 know I promised to be your dictionary." 
 
 " It was kind of you, if you meant it. I 
 have thought so very often. I do indeed 
 require a dictionary more than most people." 
 
 " Then being yours, I shall at once turn 
 over a new leaf/' 
 
 " Most men in your position ought to do 
 that," she answered, still thinking of Miss 
 Bruce. "But will you be serious for a 
 moment, if I ask you a question ? " 
 
 " To please you, I will. For no other con- 
 sideration on earth." 
 
 "Then tell me why it is that only poor 
 people and servants are ever in earnest about 
 anything. Mr. Eoy is as bad as the others. 
 You are all alike, and it seems to me you don't 
 speak English. If it pours with rain, you call
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY. 143 
 
 it ' moistish ; ' if the sun shines, you admit ( it's 
 not half a bad day/ When young Mr. Slow- 
 man's horse ran away, and I said it was a 
 great mercy he wasn't killed, Mrs. Granton 
 added, ' and a great pity, too,' and all the com- 
 pany laughed. The Browns have lost every 
 shilling they possessed, but Mr. Roy only 
 thinks ' it's rather a bore for Brown ! ' Even 
 when that horrid woman left her husband the 
 other day, and it got into all the newspapers, 
 nobody seemed to consider the wickedness, but 
 everybody exclaimed, ' How could she be such 
 a fool ! ' Are you really without heart and 
 principles, or do you think it good manners to 
 appear so ? " 
 
 " There is affectation in every class, Mrs. 
 Roy," answered Fitz, plunging boldly into the 
 question, as knowing he must soon be out of 
 his depth ; " and all affectation is vulgarity 
 more or less. In our horror of one extreme, 
 we fall into the other ; and for fear we should 
 seem dramatic, we cease to be real. So we are 
 vulgar, too, in our way. And yet what would
 
 i 4 4 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 you have ? It would never do for us to go 
 about proclaiming our likes and dislikes — our 
 hopes, feelings, and opinions. We should be 
 ridiculous ; worse than that — tiresome. So we 
 agree to play with counters instead of money, 
 and it comes to the same thing when you are 
 used to the game. Why, if I was to tell you 
 what I am really thinking at this moment, how 
 do I know you wouldn't ring the bell and have 
 me turned out of the house ? " 
 
 She drew herself up, and looked quite 
 capable of acting precisely as he described ; but 
 before her pride could take offence, he rattled 
 on into smooth water again. 
 
 " I don't care — I'll risk it with you, and run 
 my chance. I was thinking what a flat my 
 friend Roy is to be working like a slave up to 
 his middle in dripping underwood when he 
 might be sitting warm and dry by this com- 
 fortable fire in the best of company, over an 
 excellent cup of tea. You haven't rung the 
 bell yet, so I would go on, only I have nothing 
 more to say."
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY. 145 
 
 " You have said quite enough," she answered 
 laughing, " when you presume to call Mr. Roy 
 'a flat/ But he never takes tea now, as he 
 used ; and gentlemen seem to find a charm that 
 is perfectly unaccountable in chopping their 
 own trees." 
 
 " I am so glad I never had any trees. Not 
 that it matters, for I suppose I should have cut 
 them all down. But you are making me forget 
 everything it is my duty to remember. Now 
 what do you think brought me here this after- 
 noon r 
 
 Xobody so good-looking as Nelly could be 
 less of a coquette. Still it was not in woman's 
 nature to suppress the obvious rejoinder — 
 
 " I suppose it was in order to pay rue a 
 visit." 
 
 " Not a bit. You like people to be rude 
 and sincere, so now I will tell you the truth. I 
 made it an excuse to pay you a visit, that I 
 freely admit, but I came charged with a mes- 
 sage from Miss Bruce. The hounds meet to- 
 morrow three miles from this house. She is 
 
 VOL. L L
 
 146 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 not going to ride, and would call for you in the 
 carriage if you choose to come. It is a 
 favourite place, and I think I can promise you 
 will be amused." 
 
 Nelly's grey eyes sparkled. " I should 
 like it of all things," she answered. " Do you 
 know I have never seen a hunt in my life ? 
 Only I'm afraid it's cruel," she added as an 
 afterthought. 
 
 "You must not say, 'seeing a hunt.' 
 Your dictionary tells you to call it * going out 
 hunting ; ' and as for being cruel, it's, it's — in 
 fact, it's quite the reverse. Then I may tell 
 Miss Bruce you will drive with her? " 
 
 " I must ask Mr. Roy. I will, most cer- 
 tainly, if he has no objection." 
 
 " What objection could he have ? I suppose 
 he's not afraid to trust you with Miss Bruce." 
 
 " If you are not, I don't see why he should 
 be," answered Nelly, still harping on her own 
 erroneous conclusion. 
 
 He looked mystified, but proceeded to the 
 practical details of their expedition.
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY. 147 
 
 " Then she will be at your door at half-past 
 ten. Don't ask her to get out, because she will 
 be wrapped up for all day ; and if you take my 
 advice, you will put on your warmest clothes 
 too. It's sure to be cold crossing the downs. 
 You must go by the old Roman Road. I dare 
 say you don't know the shortest way out of 
 your own woods. Where's the Ordnance Map ? 
 I can show you in five seconds." 
 
 Now the Ordnance Map, notwithstanding 
 that it was referred to three or four times every 
 day, hung, for greater convenience, in the most 
 remote corner of the library ; so Mrs. Roy and 
 her visitor adjourned there forthwith ; the 
 latter, as his hostess piloted him across the 
 darkening hall, professing grave apprehensions 
 lest they should meet the ghost ! 
 
 It was already dusk. John Roy, in his wet 
 clothes, made the best of his way home, follow- 
 ing a narrow path through some thick-growing 
 evergreens that led direct to the house. Here 
 he came into collision with an advancing form, 
 shadowy and indistinct enough, but far too
 
 148 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 substantial in its proportions for a disembodied 
 spirit of any kind. 
 
 On one side a scream was suppressed, on 
 the other an oath was not ; but Mrs. Mopus, 
 perhaps because she expected him, recognised 
 her master before the familiar voice broke out 
 with — 
 
 " Who the devil are you ? And what are 
 you doing here ? " 
 
 " It's only me, sir," she answered softly. 
 "I thought you would be coming home this 
 way, and I slipped out to meet you, Mr. Roy ; 
 that's the truth. It's right that somebody 
 should be careful of your health, you that 
 never thinks of yourself. I said you'd be as 
 wet as a sop, and so you are; but you wouldn't 
 go and change, not if it was ever so, unless I 
 begged and prayed it of you, as I always used. 
 I've done my duty by you, Mr. Roy, for a 
 many years, and I'll do it still ; whether others 
 does or doesn't, it won't alter me." 
 
 "I believe you have a regard for me, 
 Mopus," he answered kindly. "But you are
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY. 149 
 
 always over- anxious, and make a fuss about 
 nothing." 
 
 " Old servants will, sir," she replied. " We 
 know when we've got a good master, Mr. Roy. 
 I've laid down dry things to air at your 
 dressing-room fire, sir. That valet of yours is 
 no more use than a post. No doubt Mrs. Roy 
 would have seen to it herself, but she's engaged 
 in the drawing-room with a visitor." 
 
 "Is he not gone yet?" escaped from John 
 Roy's lips, with an involuntary expression of 
 surprise. 
 
 " I don't know, I'm sure," answered the 
 housekeeper. " It's no business of mine, sir, to 
 watch the gentlemen as comes to visit your 
 lady. I keep to my place, I hope, Mr. Roy, 
 though, of course, my thoughts are my own." 
 
 "Thoughts! What do you mean by your 
 thoughts ? " 
 
 " Well, sir, you mustn't pay much attention 
 to what I say ; I'm a little upset this afternoon 
 with one thing and another, and I can't forget 
 you've been a kind master to me for many a
 
 i 5 o ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 long day. Get into the house, sir, as quick as 
 you can, and change from head to foot." 
 
 Now the shortest way into the house was 
 by the drawing-room windows, of which the 
 shutters had not yet been closed for the night ; 
 and past these windows Mrs. Mopus thought 
 well to follow in her master's wake, though her 
 own dominions lay in another wing. Suddenly 
 she came alongside, and addressed him in a 
 troubled whisper. " I ask your pardon," said 
 she — " I've deceived you, sir, regarding the 
 gentleman who came to visit Mrs. Roy. He 
 must be gone long ago. See, there's nobody 
 left in the drawing-room, and the fire is nearly 
 out." 
 
 " All right, Mopus," he answered, shutting 
 the house-door ; but he muttered to himself as 
 he tramped up-stairs, " That woman must be 
 going out of her senses. What can it signify 
 to me whether there's anybody in the drawing- 
 room or not ? " 
 
 Nevertheless, during the process of undress- 
 ing, her words and manner recurred to him
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY. 151 
 
 more than once, always with increasing un- 
 easiness and a vague feeling of suspicion. 
 
 Bid she mean anything ? If she meant 
 anything, why couldn't she speak out? Was 
 there anything to mean ? Anything wrong 
 going on in the household that he ought to 
 know? She seemed to imply as much. No 
 doubt it would come out in good time — to- 
 morrow or next day. He need not worry 
 himself. Nelly would see to it, and put every- 
 thing right. Then he started in his slippers, 
 and rushed to the window. The clatter of 
 hoofs could be heard from the stable-yard, and 
 Fitzowen's good-humoured voice conversing; 
 with the helper who led his pony out. 
 
 For one moment the room seemed to turn 
 round, the next, he muttered, "It's impossible ! " 
 and resumed his dressing calmly and method- 
 ically as before. But the " it " was not so 
 easily shaken off; and after attending him 
 through the successive stages of his toilet, 
 accompanied him down-stairs to assist at a tete- 
 a-tete dinner with his wife.
 
 152 .ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Nelly was brilliant, and seemed in better 
 spirits than usual. She looked forward with 
 pleasure to her expedition on the morrow, and 
 felt gratified by Lord Fitzowen's kindness in 
 coming to suggest it to-day. John Roy, on 
 the other hand, ate little and spoke less ; but, 
 contrary to his usual habits, which were strictly 
 temperate, drank two or three glasses of wine 
 in quick succession. 
 
 It is one of the drawbacks to matrimony, 
 that two people are seldom precisely in the 
 same humour, at the same time. Should the 
 husband be helped twice to mutton, the wife is 
 pretty sure to send her plate away untouched. 
 If he is inclined to talk, she probably has a 
 headache, and the lady is prone to broach sub- 
 jects involving personal discussion when the 
 gentleman wants to go to sleep. While the 
 servants were in the room, Nelly did her best, 
 but it is hard to keep the shuttlecock of 
 conversation going with only one battledore, 
 and, as she originated topic after topic, they 
 fell successively to the ground. At last, when
 
 A WALKING DICTIONARY. 153 
 
 dessert was placed on the table, and the door 
 shut for the last time, she made a great effort, 
 and asked her husband, point-blank, " What 
 was the matter ? " 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 It was a discouraging reply, and she con- 
 tinued timidly — 
 
 "You seem out of spirits, dear, and you 
 scarcely ate a morsel. Either you didn't like 
 your dinner, or else you're not well." 
 
 " The dinner was no worse than usual," he 
 answered ungraciously ; " and I don't see why 
 you should say I'm not well, because I can't 
 jabber about nothing, with three servants in 
 the room. A man needn't ask his wife to 
 excuse him, I suppose, whenever he feels tired?" 
 
 " Or cross," she replied hastily, for his tone 
 cut her to the quick. 
 
 " Or bored," was the unkind rejoinder. " I 
 think that's nearer the mark ! " 
 
 Her eyes filled with tears, and after five 
 minutes of painful silence she left the room. 
 
 But in less than half an hour her sweet and
 
 154 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 generous temper re-asserted itself. When tea 
 came she gave him his cup with as bright a 
 smile as usual, drew his arm-chair to the fire, 
 and handed him the newspaper as if no cloud 
 had ever come between them. Even bent her 
 beautiful head over him to whisper softly that 
 she "had spoken in haste, and begged his 
 pardon, because she was in the wrong." 
 
 John Roy's heart smote him, and for a 
 moment he esteemed her as "excellent a wench" 
 as ever Othello thought Desdemona : but again 
 there came between them the vague and un- 
 acknowledged shadow cast by the inexplicable 
 bearing of his housekeeper, and he could not 
 refrain from asking himself over and over again, 
 though not without a certain bitter self- con- 
 tempt, " What could Mrs. Mopus mean ? "
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BURTON BRAKE. 
 
 "Not going to -ride!" exclaimed Miss Bruce, 
 who was presiding over half-a-dozen guests at 
 the breakfast-table, as Lord Fitzowen appeared 
 in his usual morning dress, with one arm still 
 disabled and in a sling. "I thought your 
 shoulder was better ; this is a disappointment. 
 Consider, Lord Fitz, your new friend Mrs. Hoy 
 won't see you in a red coat." 
 
 " Don't hit a fellow when he's down, Miss 
 Bruce," answered his lordship, walking to a 
 well- covered side- table. "I'm hardly man 
 enough to ride my brown horse with both 
 hands ; he would have it all his own way if I 
 tried to steer him with one. No j if you'll 
 have me, I'm going to drive with you?' 
 
 " I understand ! " replied Hester. " Yes,
 
 156 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 you shall come with us if you feel equal to 
 taking care of two ladies. It's very touching, 
 I must say, when I think of all you are giving 
 up. Burton Brake's the only good place on 
 that side of our country." 
 
 " I would give up anything for the pleasure 
 of driving with you, Miss Bruce." 
 
 " And Mrs. Roy, Lord Fitz. Your memory 
 is very short, you seem to have forgotten Mrs. 
 Roy." 
 
 " John Roy's new wife ! " exclaimed one of 
 the red- coats, stretching a scarlet arm out for 
 toast. " Is she going with you, Miss Bruce ? 
 They tell me she is as handsome as paint; but 
 nobody knows where she came from. Wasn't 
 she an actress, or a shop- woman, or some- 
 thing?" 
 
 " Ask Lord Fitzowen," said Hester. 
 
 " Actress ! shop- woman ! Nothing of the 
 kind," replied that nobleman, provoked to feel, 
 for the first time since he left Eton, as if he 
 was going to blush. "She is as ladylike a 
 person as ever you saw. Amiable, accomplished,
 
 B UR TON BRAKE. 1 5 7 
 
 well-mannered, and — and — that's all I know 
 about her." 
 
 It seemed a lame conclusion, provoking 
 general laughter, during which the carriage 
 was announced, and as a couple of hacks had 
 been trampling the gravel before the windows 
 for the last ten minutes, it was voted time to 
 be off. 
 
 So early a start did not seem necessary 
 from Royston Grange, which was some miles 
 nearer the place of meeting. Its master could 
 therefore enjoy two rather unusual luxuries on 
 a hunting morning, a leisurely toilet and an 
 unhurried breakfast. In his red coat, white 
 leathers, top-boots, and bright spurs, all well- 
 cleaned and well put on, John Roy looked no 
 unfavourable specimen of the English gentle- 
 man, and we may be sure Nelly thought so 
 too. She had not yet seen him often enough 
 in this striking attire, for the admiration, mixed 
 with wonder, which it produced to have palled 
 on her unaccustomed eyes ; though she was less 
 impressed than a certain damsel totally unused
 
 158 &OVS WIFE. 
 
 to the society of sportsmen who married a 
 friend of my own many years ago. 
 
 If this lady ever heard of fox-hunting, she 
 had no idea that any special dress Avas required 
 for that amusement. Hitherto she had only 
 seen a scarlet coat on the back of a British 
 soldier or a royal footman. Language is 
 powerless to convey her feeling of terror and 
 dismay when in the third week of their honey- 
 moon, on the first Monday in November, her 
 husband came down to breakfast gorgeous from 
 head to foot in full hunting costume. 
 
 She felt she was bound for life to a mad- 
 man ; an illusion that the experience of many 
 succeeding Novembers failed entirely to dispel. 
 " I like you so much in your red coat," said 
 Nelly, with her frank bright smile, as Mr. Roy, 
 moving more stiffly than usual, took his place 
 at the breakfast- table. " Only I wish, I do 
 wish hunting was not so dangerous ! " Every 
 man in his heart would be thought " prodigal 
 of his person," but he was too honest not to 
 admit, though he went straight enough when
 
 B URTON BRAKE. 1 5 9 
 
 the hounds ran, that with good horses, well- 
 ridden, he reduced the risk of crossing a country 
 to a minimum. 
 
 " Wait till you've been out and seen us 
 ride, Nelly," he answered pleasantly, "you'll 
 never think it dangerous again." 
 
 Last night's ill-humour had vanished ; com- 
 ing clouds were as yet below the horizon. He 
 felt in high spirits, anticipating no little enjoy- 
 ment from the day's sport. If he was pleased, 
 she was happy, and while she pinned a hot- 
 house flower in his button-hole and gave him a 
 parting kiss, she felt as if the old days had 
 come back once more. The old days ! how old 
 were they, after all ? She could count the 
 intervening time by weeks, and yet there 
 seemed a break, a gap, a gulf between then 
 and now. 
 
 As his distance from the meet was but 
 three miles, Mr. Roy rode from the door on the 
 hunter he intended to keep out all day. Nelly 
 watched man and horse till they disappeared 
 with a swelling heart. How she admired her
 
 160 [ ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 husband, how she loved him ! Surely she had 
 everything she wanted in the world — what 
 was this vague misgiving ? this shadowy fore- 
 boding of evil, that haunted her at every turn ? 
 
 There was no time for such speculations. 
 Already an open carriage might be seen bowling 
 along the avenue, and Mrs. Roy, with innate 
 good-breeding, flew up-stairs to put on her 
 things, that she might not keep Hester waiting 
 at the door. 
 
 It was no unpleasant surprise to find Lord 
 Fitzowen, buttoned up in an Ulster coat, occu- 
 pying the front seat of the barouche. With 
 her usual frankness, Nelly told him so, and 
 wondered why Miss Bruce should look more 
 amused, and his lordship more pleased, than 
 the occasion seemed to warrant. 
 
 But she had never been out hunting before, 
 even on wheels, and all other feelings were 
 soon lost in the novelty and excitement of the 
 situation. 
 
 " It was like taking a child about," said 
 Hester describing their drive the same afternoon
 
 B URTON BRAKE. 1 6 1 
 
 to Sir Hester at tea. " I mean to be fonder of 
 Mrs. Roy than anybody in the county. She 
 is a dear thing, Papa, so fresh, so honest, and 
 so charmingly unsophisticated ! When we 
 overtook the hounds in the Fosse Road, she 
 actually clapped her hands with delight. We 
 couldn't help laughing, and she did look 
 perfectly beautiful when she blushed. I am 
 sure Lord Fitz thought so too ! " 
 
 Miss Bruce was right, his lordship enjoyed 
 his day's hunting even more than his com- 
 panions, though it must be confessed that some 
 of Mrs. Roy's questions on the noble science 
 puzzled him exceedingly. 
 
 Like most ladies, she seemed interested in 
 riding rather than hunting, in horses rather 
 than hounds. It was no easy matter to satisfy 
 her shrewd and inquiring mind, as to the 
 powers of a good hunter, and what fences 
 should or should not be attempted in the 
 hurry of the chase. Did not Mr. Eoy's 
 bodily safety depend on the solution of such 
 problems ? 
 
 VOL. L M
 
 i62 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 Pointing to some strong ash rails nearly 
 five feet high, with a wide ditch on the landing 
 side into the road, along which they were 
 driving — " Could your horse leap that, Lord 
 Fitzowen," she asked ; " or would it be impos- 
 sible ? I hope it would ! " 
 
 He felt constrained to admit, however 
 forbidding this obstacle might appear, there 
 were many good hunters that, properly rid dew, 
 could clear it without a mistake. 
 
 " Then if you came to it, you would go 
 over, of course ? " she continued, looking 
 anxiously in his face. 
 
 Hester's mirthful eyes were on him, and he 
 was obliged to tell the truth. 
 
 "I would rather go round by W ar cl en 
 Towers," said he. " I would rather lose the 
 best run that ever was seen. I would rather 
 never go out hunting again ! " 
 
 " But why, if it's not impossible ? " 
 
 "Why? Mrs. Eoy. Why? Well, I 
 suppose, because I am afraid ! " 
 
 She looked immensely relieved, and seemed
 
 BURTON BRAKE. 163 
 
 able now to turn her attention with unalloyed 
 enjoyment to the business of the hour. 
 
 This commenced from the moment they 
 arrived at the place of meeting. Such of 
 the county gentlemen as had not yet been 
 introduced, reined in their horses and made 
 their bows, as gracefully as bridles and hat- 
 strings would permit. Miss Bruce was a 
 general favourite, but her companion seemed, 
 to-day, the centre of attraction ; and many 
 glances of unqualified admiration, from sports- 
 men of all ages and sizes, were launched at the 
 open carriage where sat " Koy's new wife." 
 
 She looked about for her husband in vain. 
 He came by a shorter way than the party in 
 the carriage, and, as he rode slowly, arrived 
 only when the hounds moved off for the covert. 
 He quickened his pace then, and stole quietly 
 down to a certain corner, which experience 
 taught him was the likeliest place for a good 
 start. 
 
 Burton Brake, a straggling covert of brush- 
 wood and black-thorn, on the side of a bill, lay
 
 1 64 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 immediately tinder a wide tract of downs. It 
 was a favourite resort of foxes ; and, for some 
 unexplained reason, they usually went away 
 from it at the low side, to make a distant point 
 across the Vale. This was a flat, strongly- 
 fenced district, consisting chiefly of grass, 
 without a canal, or a river, or a railroad, or_ 
 even an impracticable brook. Its farm-houses 
 were few and far between ; its enclosures large, 
 and wire was unknown. In good scenting 
 weather, it afforded almost the certainty of a 
 run, and, if he had a choice, a man did not 
 bring his worst horse to Burton Brake ! 
 
 " He's away ! " exclaimed Miss Bruce, as 
 the quick notes of a horn came wafted up the 
 hill on the light easterly breeze. 
 
 "Who?" asked Nelly, shaking with ex- 
 citement. 
 
 " The fox, my dear, of course. Look ! I 
 can see the leading hounds. There, to the left 
 of the tall ash. Three or four specks of white 
 in that large green field. They're all coming 
 though, and the huntsman, and a black coat,
 
 B URTON BRAKE. 165 
 
 and four, five, six, red ! Now they're at the 
 fence. Capital ! One down, I'm afraid ; and 
 he's let his horse go ! Oh ! I wish I was on 
 Safeguard! They're going to have the best 
 run that ever was seen ! " 
 
 Fortunately for Nelly's peace of mind, the 
 fallen sportsman wore a dark coat, and, 
 therefore, could not be her husband. She 
 fancied, indeed, that she made him out amongst 
 the half-dozen riders who were nearest the 
 hounds. 
 
 Somehow it seemed less dangerous than she 
 had supposed, and infinitely better fun. Her 
 companions, too, were as eager for the sport as 
 if they had never been out hunting before. 
 Already they were consulting as to the best 
 line for a carriage to travel in the direction of 
 the chase. 
 
 " Into the Fosse again, Peter," said Lord 
 Fitzowen to the coachman. " Then to the 
 right and keep on the high ground. If they 
 turn to the downs, we shall command them 
 all the time."
 
 166 fiOY'S WIFE. 
 
 "No, no, Lord Fitz," protested Hester: 
 u He went away like a good fox, and with this 
 wind he'll make his point for Brierley Bottoms. 
 We had a nice gallop over the same line three 
 weeks ago. There — I can see them bending to 
 the left. Into Marigold Lane, Peter ! down to 
 Burton-Hayes, and if we don't come up with 
 them at the Purlieus, make for Brierley Steeple 
 as fast as you can ! " 
 
 So Peter started his horses at so smart 
 a trot as soon became a canter, using such 
 dispatch, indeed, in Marigold Lane, notwith- 
 standing its ruts and inequalities, as to overtake 
 divers second -horsemen, a colt-breaker, a boy 
 on a pony, and several more laggards of the 
 chase. 
 
 "Do you think we shall ever see them 
 again?" asked Nelly, straining her eyes to 
 scan the extreme distance, eight or nine miles 
 off. " I should like to know what becomes of 
 the fox, only I hope they won't kill it, poor 
 thing ! " 
 
 U I hope they will!" replied Miss Bruce.
 
 BURTON BRAKE. 167 
 
 " Why, my dear Mrs. Koy, that's the one thing 
 that makes a good run perfect. Look out ! 
 Lord Fitz. If they're coming to the Purlieus 
 you ought to see something of them at the 
 next turn." 
 
 " By Jove ! There they are ! Miss Bruce, 
 you're a witch. No. You're a capital judge 
 of hunting. They're checked, I do believe. 
 They're all standing still in the lane. Bravo ! 
 They've hit it off again. Look ! Mrs. Boy. 
 Do you see the sheep running ? That's the line 
 of the fox. The hounds are right ! He's crossed 
 the brook. Now we shall have some fun ! " 
 
 " It's practicable enough," said Hester. " I 
 jumped it on Gondolier last season." 
 
 " They don't seem to think so ! Hurrah ! 
 Three fellows are going to have it, four ! five ! 
 Well done ! There are two over, and one, I 
 think, in for all day ! " 
 
 Even at so long a distance Nelly's loving 
 eyes had recognised her husband. He was 
 safely landed on the right side, yet she turned 
 pale to realise the risk he had run.
 
 168 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 " One of those is Mr. Roy/' she observed 
 softly. " How beautifully he rides 1 " 
 
 " I didn't know he was out," commented 
 Lord Fitzowen. " I never saw him at the 
 Meet. You're quite right, Mrs. Roy, he can 
 ride when he likes. He's going like a bird 
 to-day!" 
 
 He was going well. A skilful horseman, 
 experienced in the sport, riding a practised 
 hunter that answered every turn of his hand, 
 every pressure of his limbs, he found no 
 difficulty in keeping close to the pack. Fence 
 after fence, and field after field, were disposed 
 of with the ease and confidence attained by a 
 combination of good nerves, good riding, good 
 condition, and good blood. 
 
 He went in and out of the lane not twenty 
 yards from his wife, but so intent was he on 
 the hounds, and the management of his horse, 
 that he saw neither the carriage nor its 
 occupants. 
 
 Nelly watched him with her heart in her 
 eyes. The others, under pressure of that
 
 B URTON BRAKE. 169 
 
 mysterious law which compels everybody, out 
 hunting, to get somewhere else in a tremendous 
 hurry, were giving Peter many contrary 
 directions, that caused him, however, to put 
 his horses into a gallop, and make for a turn- 
 pike road with the utmost dispatch. 
 
 Over its harder surface, those who hunted 
 on wheels were able to hold their own with the 
 riders. They overtook, indeed, more than one 
 defeated sportsman, disappointed that his horse 
 could not gallop on for ever, or so far behind, 
 that he had pulled up in disgust; but, in 
 either case, plunged in the lowest depths of 
 misery, just as the first flight were raised to 
 the seventh heaven of enjoyment. 
 
 " There's Brierley Steeple ! " exclaimed 
 Hester, pointing to the distant spire, with a 
 taper gloved hand. " It's down-hill all the 
 way to the village, and a capital road. I'll 
 never pilot anybody again, if we don't come 
 up with them now ! " 
 
 But though Miss Bruce was right, and her 
 knowledge of fox-hunting did not mislead her
 
 170 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 when she named Brierley Bottoms as the 
 probable conclusion of the chase, it had come 
 to a triumphant termination long before she 
 could arrive at that rough and broken ravine. 
 The fox had been eaten, the huntsman praised, 
 the chosen few had exchanged enthusiastic 
 compliments and congratulations. When the 
 carriage stopped amongst them, they were 
 already lighting their cigars, and preparing to 
 go home.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY. 
 
 After a storm comes a calm ; after keen 
 excitement, a re-action, partly welcome for its 
 repose, partly saddening for its depression. 
 He who has been so fortunate as to go from 
 end to end of a run with fox-hounds, to his 
 own satisfaction, feels, strange to say, as if he 
 had performed a good action. The past, which 
 is perhaps capable of affording more definite 
 pleasure than either the present or the future, 
 seems truly delightful, till his blood cools 
 down. Then he comes back into the world of 
 reality, somewhat chilled and dispirited, as 
 everybody, after childhood, must be, on first- 
 waking up from a dream. 
 
 John Roy caught sight of the carriage 
 containing Nelly and her friends, as he put his
 
 172 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 horse into a trot on the firm surface of the high 
 road — pleased to find, that after standing about 
 for a quarter of an hour, the good animal, 
 notwithstanding its exertions, was neither stiff 
 nor lame. He was disposed to be praised, and, 
 so to speak, patted on the back for his prowess, 
 considering with reason that he had acquitted 
 himself more than creditably in a manly 
 exercise. It was as if cold water had been 
 poured down his back to observe Lord Fitz- 
 owen, gesticulating on the front seat of the 
 barouche, opposite his wife. He had not once 
 thought of Fitz all the morning, nor, truth to 
 tell, of Nelly, for more than fifty minutes. A 
 wife's image is the last that occurs to a man while 
 hounds are running hard — the juxtaposition of 
 these two reminded him of them in the most 
 unwelcome manner. He felt cross and put 
 out — all the more that he was unable to explain 
 why — and did not care if one of the offenders, 
 or both, should be made aware of his ill-humour. 
 Hester, in a high state of excitement, was 
 the first to accost him.
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY. 173 
 
 " What a good gallop, Mr. Eoy ! How I've 
 been envying you ! "We went very well, 
 considering we were in a carriage, and kept 
 you in sight all the time ! " 
 
 Of course the ruder he meant to be to his 
 wife, the more politeness he showed Miss Bruce. 
 
 " You ought to have been on Safeguard or 
 Gondolier," said he, with a most amiable smile. 
 " It would have suited you exactly. Five-and- 
 forty minutes, only one check, lots of jumping, 
 and not above half-a-dozen fellows with the 
 hounds." 
 
 Nelly tried in vain to catch his eye. 
 
 "We saw you," she exclaimed eagerly. "I 
 was so frightened when you came to the river 
 — the brook, I mean — Lord Fitzowen won't let 
 me call it a river. How brave of you to leap 
 it ! I shut my eyes for fear you should be 
 drowned, and when I opened them, there you 
 were, safe over — the dear horse ! I'm not 
 afraid of horses. I should like to stroke his 
 nose ! " 
 
 Pained, disappointed, she looked imploringly
 
 174 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 in her husband's face, while he left her unnoticed, 
 to continue his conversation with Miss Bruce. 
 
 " We never touched the Purlieus. He was 
 too hot to go in, and he left Burton Hayes 
 half-a-mile to the right, so that it was almost 
 straight, and grass every yard. From Burton 
 Brake to Brierley can't be less than nine miles 
 on the map — we must have come fully eight 
 as the crow flies. It has been a real good thing. 
 As far as I can make out, it's the same line 
 you went three weeks ago, before the frost. 
 No doubt it was the same fox, but he'll never 
 show you a run, Miss Bruce, any more." 
 
 ''I'm sorry they've killed it!" exclaimed 
 Nelly, addressing herself to Lord Fitzowen, as 
 nobody else seemed inclined to listen. " The 
 poor fox ! Think how happy he was this 
 morning before we came. Curled up, fast 
 asleep, among the bushes, like one's own dog 
 on the hearth-rug. It does seem hard. Why 
 must the pleasure of one creature be the pain 
 of another ? Why is there so much misery in 
 the world?"
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY. 175 
 
 Such questions involved a train of deeper 
 thought than Lord Fitzowen was in the habit 
 of following out, and he answered vaguely — 
 
 " Yes, of course. It's a great pity, and all 
 that. Still, you know, Mrs. Roy, when you 
 go to find a fox, you must let the hounds hunt 
 him, you know, and kill him if they can. It's 
 wonderful how often they can't ! " 
 
 She was trying to catch her husband's eye. 
 What was there wrong ? Why wouldn't he 
 speak to her ? She made one last despairing 
 attempt. 
 
 "Mr. Eoy," she said timidly, "couldn't — 
 couldn't the servant take your horse, and you 
 ride home in the carriage with us ? " 
 
 He turned hot all over, feeling also that 
 "he did well to be angry" now. These 
 solecisms were intolerable ! To offer him a 
 seat in another lady's carriage was bad enough, 
 but to propose he should ride in it ! The 
 woman would drive him mad ! 
 
 Drawing his horse out of reach, for she 
 was trying to pat its neck, he disposed of her
 
 176 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 ill-timed suggestion with the coldest of looks 
 and in the unkindest of tones. 
 
 " I need not thank you for an invitation," 
 said he, "that is not yours to give, and as I 
 am rather wet, I prefer riding my horse to the 
 drive you are good enough to offer me in a 
 carriage that is not your own ! " Then he took 
 off his hat to Miss Bruce and disappeared. 
 
 Nelly was cut to the heart. Her eyes 
 filled with tears. She had some difficulty in 
 preventing their falling on her hands, and she 
 was truly grateful to Lord Fitzowen when he 
 diverted Hester's attention with an announce- 
 ment that one of the horses was going lame. 
 By the time the carriage could be stopped, and 
 a pair of legs and feet carefully examined, to 
 account for an infirmity that did not exist, 
 Mrs. Roy had recovered her composure, and 
 Fitz had earned an eternal claim to her 
 gratitude and goodwill. 
 
 People are never so susceptible of kindness 
 as when wounded by their nearest and dearest ; 
 nor is any gleam of sunshine so pale and
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY. 177 
 
 watery, but that we welcome it on a wet 
 day. 
 
 Nelly seemed sadly out of spirits during 
 the rest of the drive. Miss Bruce, with a 
 woman's quickness of perception, did not fail 
 to detect something wrong. Lord Fitzowen 
 accounted for feminine uneasiness of mind and 
 body on a theory of his own. It originated, 
 he believed, in a disorder peculiar to the sex, 
 called " nerves," of which the seat, causes, and 
 remedy were as yet undiscovered by science, 
 and with which all the resources of medicine 
 were powerless to contend. 
 
 But when they had dropped Nelly at her 
 
 own door, declining the refreshment of tea, 
 
 which she nearly omitted to offer, his anxiety 
 
 prompted him to ask Hester whether she 
 
 thought Mrs. Eoy was as strong as she looked ? 
 
 "People ought not to tire so easily, Miss 
 
 Bruce? " he observed gravely. " No lady can 
 
 be well who is completely exhausted after a 
 
 few hours' drive in an open carriage. Why, 
 
 she hardly spoke a word all the way back ; and 
 vol. 1. N
 
 178 KOY'S WIFE. 
 
 did you observe how pale she was ? Depend 
 upon it she's got nerves ; nothing else punishes 
 them like that. It's a most distressing malady, 
 worse than measles, and they don't get over it 
 for weeks." 
 
 " Very likely," answered Hester. " You 
 seem to know all about it. I never had them 
 myself, and I hope I never shall. Now you 
 are to go on with the carriage, Lord Fitz, and 
 tell Papa I shall be home in half-an-hour. No, 
 I rather like the walk, and I'm not afraid of 
 crossing our own park by myself at any hour 
 of the day or night. Besides, I shall be back 
 long before dark." 
 
 " Mayn't I come with you ? " 
 
 " Certainly not ; you turn my dear old 
 ladies into ridicule, and I won't have it." 
 
 " But if I promise to be on my best 
 behaviour ? " 
 
 " Your best behaviour is anybody else's 
 worst ! I can't trust you directly my back is 
 turned. You're capable of making faces at 
 them, or any other enormity, if you're not
 
 SWEET SYMPATHY. 179 
 
 watched every moment. No, Lord Fitz, do as 
 I bid you, and mind you tell Papa I shall not 
 be late." 
 
 So Miss Bruce got out of the carriage, to 
 the great delight of such villagers of Nether- 
 Warden as chanced to be at their doors or in 
 the street, and passing through a spacious 
 walled garden, disappeared on the threshold of 
 an old red-brick house, that professed to have 
 been built in the reign of George II., and 
 looked as if it had never been repaired nor 
 altered since. 
 
 Lord Fitzowen proceeded homewards in the 
 carriage ; but he, too, preferred to alight and 
 walk the last half-mile of his journey, finding 
 himself, for the first time in his life, so 
 perplexed in mind as to feel disposed for 
 solitary reflection. 
 
 This young nobleman's course had been 
 hitherto shaped over smooth water and before 
 a fair breeze. He had scarcely yet had any 
 nut to crack harder than a letter to a lawyer, 
 or felt any deeper interest than the lameness of
 
 i So ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 a horse. .The world had been a pleasant place 
 enough ; several people seemed to be put in it 
 on purpose to serve, and a few to amuse him. 
 There might be a certain sameness and want of 
 excitement about life, but if the roses offered 
 little fragrance, the thorns were by no means 
 sharp, and altogether it did very well. What 
 had come to him now, that thus had altered 
 the whole trim and bearings of his character, 
 opening his eyes, as it were, to the knowledge 
 of good and evil, scattering his Epicurean 
 philosophy to the winds ? Things to which he 
 had attached a high value seemed all at once of 
 no importance, and illusions that he used to 
 consider the wildest and emptiest of dreams, 
 sprang into glowing life and reality, as at the 
 touch of a magic wand. " Is it my mind," he 
 thought, "that is affected, or — or is it my 
 heart ? Let me light a cigar, and look at the 
 case fairly as it stands. Have I not everything 
 a man can reasonably require to make him 
 happy? Good health, good digestion, good 
 manners, without vanity, a good appearance,
 
 S WEET S YMPA THY. 1 8 1 
 
 and good horses, if they were only sound ? 
 What more can a fellow want, in such a position 
 as mine, and amongst the people with whom I 
 live ? Is this strange sense of longiug, half 
 sweet, half bitter, and wholly inexplicable, only 
 a craving for some new excitement, or is it an 
 effort of the spirit, the soul, the divince particula 
 aura, the higher part of one's nature, to assert 
 its individuality, and free itself from the 
 material surroundings, with which we encumber 
 it too much ? It is not enough for the happiness 
 of a thinking being to eat, drink, and smoke, 
 ride a run, shoot a covert, play a cricket-match, 
 and talk about it afterwards, from day to day, 
 and year to year, till some fine morning the 
 clock stops, the doctor can't wind it up, the 
 umpire gives one ' out,' and so ' Bon soir, la 
 compagnie ! ' Why do I feel at this moment as 
 if the finish would be less unwelcome, while 
 yet life seems sweeter than usual ? I know 
 why, but I cannot bear to confess it even to 
 myself. I never thought I should come to this ! 
 That I, of all people, should be haunted by tags
 
 i82 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 and ends of verses, should be able to understand 
 what a fellow means when he says — 
 
 ' A livelier emerald twinkles in the grass, 
 A softer sapphire melts upon the sea.' 
 
 I shall be writing poetry myself next. Already 
 I can make * ass ' rhyme to ' grass,' and ' me ' 
 to ' sea/ 
 
 " A sensible man would slip his cables, would 
 cut and run, while there was a chance of escape. 
 I am not a sensible man j I doubt very much 
 if I want to be saved from my own destruction. 
 I think I'd rather not. My visit comes to an 
 end to-morrow, but Sir Hector is sure to ask 
 me to stay another week. I shall stay another 
 week, I know, and I shall see Mrs. Eoy again — ■ 
 perhaps once, certainly not more than twice. 
 Never mind, once is better than nothing. It's 
 no use trying to deceive oneself. I love the 
 very ground that woman walks on — but in all 
 honour, and respect, and regard. I shall never 
 let her find it out, though women are very 
 quick to see things. At any rate, I shall never 
 tell her so. It would be an insult — an outrage.
 
 S WEET S YMPA THY, 183 
 
 But I am sure she is not happy. He does not 
 half appreciate her. There can be no harm in 
 my thinking of her, watching over her, serving 
 her, and worshipping her in secret, as a true 
 knight worshipped his mistress in the olden 
 time ! " 
 
 Arriving at this wise conclusion and the 
 hall-door in the same moment, our modern Sir 
 Galahad threw away his cigar, and stalked into 
 the house, perfectly satisfied with his own 
 special pleading, and the integrity of his 
 relations towards Mrs. Roy.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 
 
 Two gaunt women, so like each other that 
 Lord Fitzowen christened them Gog and 
 Magog, rose simultaneously when Hester 
 entered the room. It was pleasant to see the 
 smile of affection that brightened those grim 
 faces while they kissed her forehead, and 
 offered their own brown, leathery cheeks to be 
 saluted in return. 
 
 The Miss Brails, or rather the Misses Brail, 
 as they preferred to be called, were two 
 spinsters, long resident in Nether- Warden, of 
 whom Miss Bruce had made an easy conquest 
 from the first week she came to live at the 
 Towers. Unlike most old ladies, they owned 
 no pets, never having possessed anything of 
 the kind indeed but a bullfinch that moulted
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 185 
 
 and died ten days after purchase. Their new 
 neighbour, therefore, seemed to infuse an 
 element of affection, mirth, and gladness into 
 their lives, of which, having little experience, 
 they valued the novelty no less than the 
 intrinsic delight. Said Gog to Magog, " We 
 couldn't love that dear girl better if she was a 
 daughter of our own." Answered Magog, 
 unequal to realise the supposed relationship, 
 " Not half so well, my dear. Hester seems like 
 a daughter and a niece and a sister all in one." 
 
 Miss Bruce returned their attachment with 
 a warmth and cordiality that puzzled even 
 Sir Hector, who knew his child's character 
 better than anybody. 
 
 " I don't wonder at the old ladies," said he 
 to Lord Fitzowen one day after dinner. 
 " That's not surprising. Everybody likes 
 Hester. One might as well say one didn't 
 like this '64 claret ; but what she can see in 
 them, that beats me, I own. And I used to 
 think I understood women as well as most 
 people."
 
 186 HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 A great many men think the same : always 
 the more persistently the less they kDOw of the 
 gentler and subtler sex. 
 
 Perhaps only Hester could have told him 
 why she loved Gog and Magog so dearly. It 
 is my opinion, however, that she admitted her 
 reasons even to herself with great reservation, 
 and would have died a hundred deaths rather 
 than confide them to another. 
 
 " No. I've not come to tea," explained the 
 visitor, as one hostess felt for her keys, and the 
 other bustled into the passage with the words 
 " Hot buttered toast " on her lips. " It's hours 
 too early. Besides, I must go back and make 
 his for Papa. I can't stay a moment. I only 
 rushed in, on my way home, to see that you 
 were both alive. I haven't been here for two 
 whole days." 
 
 " Take off your hat and warm your feet," 
 said Gog, while Magog wheeled an arm-chair 
 to the hearth-rug. " It does our very hearts 
 good to see you," continued both spinsters 
 in a breath. "Don't stay a moment more
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 1S7 
 
 than you ought, but as long as ever you 
 
 can. 
 
 After they had settled her comfortably 
 before the fire, there was a pause in the 
 conversation, borne somewhat impatiently by 
 the young lady, who broke it at last with the 
 single monosyllable, — 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 Goo; and Mago^ looked in each other's faces, 
 and began simultaneously, " Good news, my 
 dear. The best of Dews. You tell her, sister, — 
 No. I will. Dear, dear, it seems like a dream. " 
 
 " Not both at once," protested Hester, 
 trying bravely to smile, though her face was 
 very pale, and her heart beat fast. 
 
 " We've seen a letter," said Gog. 
 
 " A <s7^-letter, my dear," interrupted 
 Mao;o£. 
 
 " A letter is a letter," observed Miss Bruce, 
 " whether it comes by land or sea. Is the 
 expedition on its way home, and — and — Are 
 they all safe?" 
 
 She was a brave girl; but, do what she
 
 i88 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 would, her voice trembled, and her very lips 
 turned white. 
 
 " We have scarcely thought about all of 
 them," answered Magog, blowing her nose 
 because tears were in her eyes. *' It's enough 
 for us that Coll. has been preserved/' 
 
 "We are selfish creatures," added Gog. 
 " But we have only one nephew left on earth, 
 and he can't be the same thing to other people 
 that he is to us." 
 
 Miss Bruce seemed to doubt the position, 
 but this was no time to dispute it, and she 
 could only exclaim, " Then he has got back 
 alive. Thank God ! " 
 
 " Thank God ! " repeated the spinsters 
 reverently, and all three women kept silence 
 for the space of nearly thirty seconds ! 
 
 " When — when is he coming to see you ? " 
 faltered Hester, whose feminine imagination 
 had already overleapt weeks and months, 
 leagues of blue water, duty on board ship, 
 Admiralty leave, and all other practical 
 obstacles at a bound.
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 189 
 
 " Oh ! my dear, we mustn't think of such 
 a treat yet," answered Magog. "He writes 
 from Spitzbergen — you know, that's some place 
 in the arctic regions, but it's nothing to do with 
 the North Pole. You understand, my sister 
 found it on the map, and it looks a long way 
 off even there. But it is always a stage on the 
 homeward journey; and as I told her this 
 morning, it does not seem so presumptuous to 
 hope we shall see him back now." 
 
 "In a month or six weeks at farthest," 
 said Gog, whose late geographical researches 
 gave her opinion considerable weight. " They 
 have put in to refit, as he calls it, for it seems 
 they couldn't get good butcher's meat nor 
 vegetables, nor anything wholesome to eat up 
 there. I fancy it's a wild, dismal kind of 
 place ; but Coll. never complains, put him 
 where you will, never did from a boy. There's 
 his letter, my dear young lady. You can read 
 it for yourself. Doesn't he write a fine, clear, 
 bold hand for a sailor ? I began to teach him 
 before he could speak plain. What a to-do he
 
 190 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 made with his pen ! His mother said she 
 never saw so many blots on one page in her 
 life before. Ah ! she was glad enough to get 
 that dirty piece of paper you have in your 
 hand : but I dare say she never thought who 
 set him his first copy, and in my opinion she 
 ought to have sent it on to my sister and me 
 without losing a post ! " 
 
 Hester did not answer. She was far away 
 among floes and icebergs and eternal snow, 
 with the writer of those flimsy, close-written 
 pages, that had reached her from regions which 
 to us who sit at home at ease are as another 
 world. The very paper seemed redolent of tar, 
 tobacco, salt water, perilous adventure, and the 
 discipline of a man-of-war, as she held it near 
 her face, partly to conceal her agitation, partly 
 to decipher the clear, fine characters, faded 
 somewhat in their transmission through so 
 many climates, over so wide an expanse of sea. 
 She made it all out, nevertheless, though her 
 own brimming eyes failed her more than once 
 ere she came to an end of the following sketch
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 191 
 
 from a sailor's life in search of the North 
 Pole :— 
 
 "H.M.S. Aurora, off Spitzbergen. 
 
 " Dearest Mother, — I wrote you at some 
 length nearly a year ago. You will be expect- 
 ing another letter soon, but when you get this, 
 the Expedition will be well on its way home. 
 I shall hope to see you and all my kind friends 
 in old England once again before next spring. 
 We shall come back with flying colours. If we 
 have failed in our great object (and between 
 you and me, I don't think the plank wall ever 
 be sawn that shall float our flag under the 
 North Pole), still we have made many important 
 discoveries, and smoothed the way for all who 
 wish to follow in our wake, and fetch the 
 extreme point at which we were turned back. 
 If they can make more northing, let 'em ! I 
 for one will give them three cheers. 
 
 " Our skipper has proved himself a trump. 
 I always told you he would, and I should be 
 afraid to say whether officers or men have done
 
 i 9 2 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 their duty most thoroughly and ungrudgingly. 
 I never heard a wry word nor a complaint, and 
 that is something to say, mother, when you are 
 boxed up with your mates, and nothing but 
 your mates, for eleven months at a spell. Jolly 
 cold, too, I can tell you, more than half your 
 time. Our ship's surgeon is as good a chap as 
 ever broke a biscuit. I showed him to you at 
 Portsmouth when you came on board the 
 Scorpion, and I remember you thought him 
 very young. He looks older now, and so do I ; 
 but ours has been a roughish job, and if he 
 hadn't been wiser than he looked, some of us 
 must have been disrated that time when the 
 lime-juice gave out. We've had no sickness 
 since, and, thank God, we hope to land the 
 whole ship's company, man for man, with a 
 clean bill of health, able and willing as when 
 they came on board. But it was close shaving 
 with some of us, now and again ; for it's not 
 easy, you know, in these high latitudes to 
 make fair weather of it all your time. A 
 pleasure- trip is one thing, and a voyage of
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 193 
 
 discovery another. I had rather a squeak for 
 it myself, and I thought my mate — as fine a 
 young fellow as ever stepped — must have left 
 his bones, for he had very little else to leave, 
 many a league within the Arctic Circle. It's a 
 long story, what we call a yarn at sea, but you 
 would like to know, and I will tell you all 
 about it. 
 
 " After we had taken up a warm berth, and 
 made the ship snug for the winter amongst the 
 ice, we were told off in exploring parties, well 
 found in dogs, sledges, and rations to cruise 
 about here, there, and everywhere, by compass, 
 you understand, but always creeping, inch by 
 inch, towards the north. When it came to my 
 turn of duty I had the command of one of 
 these — six in number, all told — three fore-top- 
 men, a gunner's mate, the ship's carpenter, and 
 myself. I need not tell you how many days 
 we were absent, nor how little way we made 
 in proportion to the labour and the hardship, 
 and at last the bodily suffering we had to 
 undergo. Our blue-jackets don't sing out 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 before they're hurt, nor yet for some little 
 time after, I fancy ; and mine were as smart a 
 lot of men as you could pick from the whole 
 ship's company. But flesh and blood can't 
 make it out in such stress of weather as we had 
 to face, when the stores get low, and at last we 
 were forced to separate. I sent three of the 
 men back to the ship, carrying with them the 
 fourth, who was disabled, on the only sledge 
 left. The other had been burnt for firewood, 
 and the dogs — don't turn sick, mother — killed 
 and eaten, long ago. I pushed on one more 
 day's march with the carpenter, however, to 
 take the bearings of a long, low spit of land 
 that wasn't down in any of our charts, and I 
 thought, God forgive me ! what a fine thing it 
 w T ould be for this unknown promontory to be 
 called ever after by my own name, Cape 
 Collingwood, we'll say, or, perhaps, Cape Brail ! 
 Well, if this was vanity I took my punishment 
 for it smart and soon. We never made it out 
 after all. There were great fissures in the ice 
 to be weathered, and for every cable's length
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 195 
 
 ahead we were bound to walk, or, I shall say 
 to roll and tumble, like a brace of black fish, 
 for a league. • The third day it came on to blow 
 a whirlwind, — of snow, mind you. We lost 
 our bearings, we lost our own backward track, 
 we knew that of our mates must have been 
 covered long ago. There was nothing for it 
 but to steer by compass, in hope of making the 
 ship before our strength gave out completely 
 from fatigue and starvation. 
 
 " Till I overhauled the ship's log afterwards, 
 I could not have told you how many days we 
 were out, drifting over the ice, without a 
 morsel of food. We lost count of them, for as 
 we got weaker in our bodies we turned queer 
 in our heads. Giddy and snow-blind, one of 
 us would fall now and again, unable to see 
 where he set his feet, and it was a job for his 
 mate to put him back on his pips. Had both 
 been down at once, we should never have got 
 up any more. 
 
 "At last the carpenter turned silly alto- 
 gether. He plodded on soberly enough, but
 
 196 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 wandered in his talk, jawing incessantly of the 
 garden at home, and the bee-hives. What 
 should make a man think of bee-hives at the 
 North Pole ? — and running water — he heard it 
 behind him, he declared, and must go back to 
 see for himself. Then I had to pinion his arms 
 and force him to keep with me. It wasn't 
 much of a struggle, we were as weak as two cats ; 
 still we kept walking on, like men in a dream. 
 " It seemed lonely enough, but we didn't 
 ask for company ; at least, not for the company 
 that dropped in on us when we were at our 
 lowest and worst. I've heard of a man being 
 followed step for step by a ghost. I don't 
 know how he liked it, but I think no ghost 
 could have followed quieter, softer, with a more 
 stealthy even noiseless foot than the creature 
 that was waiting on us, sometimes forty, some- 
 times twenty, sometimes not more than ten 
 paces in our wake. There is no animal so 
 patient, so wary, so sagacious, and so per- 
 severing as the white arctic bear, when he has 
 made up his mind for a meal.
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 197 
 
 " I couldn't hear him, he stepped so smooth 
 and silent, pace for pace, with ourselves ; but 
 somehow, before I turned and saw him, I felt he 
 was there ! 
 
 " The brute knew well enough we must 
 soon sink from fatigue. He could finish us off 
 then without risk or trouble, so was quite 
 content to wait, and eat us up at his leisure. 
 
 " I don't think the carpenter knew anything 
 about this ugly consort. He kept rambling on 
 with his bee-hives and his running water. 
 When he spoke loud, the bear would fall back 
 a little ; when his voice sank, it came on with 
 longer strides. At last I fancied I could hear 
 its breathing, and the fall of its flat, soft paws 
 on the snow. 
 
 " My mate stumbled and came down. We 
 were both so weak that with all my exertions 
 I could not get him up again. Faint and 
 breathless I rested for a minute by his side. 
 The bear reared itself on end, as if to see what 
 it could make of us, and, finding both motion- 
 less, came on steadier than before.
 
 i 9 8 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 " I had a single-barrelled gun, loaded with 
 slugs. I kept them for the chance of a seal. 
 It would have been sheer madness to use such 
 a charge except at close quarters, and I lay 
 quiet like a dead man behind my mate's body, 
 with my finger on the trigger. 
 
 " How I cursed the creature's cunning, and 
 the time it kept me in suspense, while it 
 stopped and snuffed and walked in circles 
 round us, as if it had some suspicion of the 
 trick. My mate was very drowsy, and I knew 
 well that if once he went to sleep it would all 
 be over. Forty winks in such a cold as that 
 means never unbuttoning your eye-lids again ! 
 
 " But the beast was hungry — famished. I 
 could see threads of slaver waving over its 
 breast and paws. After a minute or two it 
 could resist no longer, and stole softly on to us, 
 stirring the carpenter with its nose, as if to 
 make sure he was really dead. 
 
 " Then I pulled. The muzzle of my gun 
 was close under its shoulder, and the charge 
 passed through its heart like a bullet. I jumped
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 199 
 
 up among the smoke, and used all the strength 
 I had left to haul my mate out of reach, lest it 
 should strike him in the death-flurry; but the 
 creature made a decent end enough, going off 
 quiet and easy, like a Christian. 
 
 "'Turn and turn about,' says I, 'you 
 meant to eat us; but I think we shall more 
 likely eat you ! ' Don't call me a cannibal, 
 mother; I was forced to drink some of the 
 blood warm, to put strength in me, before I 
 could turn to and recover my mate. He was 
 nearly gone. Five minutes more would have 
 done his business ; but he came to, and he 
 pulled through, even at this moment I could 
 hardly tell you how or why. 
 
 " We camped out by the carcase, and fed 
 on it till our strength came back. I don't 
 know how long. We had been seventeen days 
 out, when we returned to the ship. I was 
 proud of what the skipper said to me, and 
 the men gave us three cheers as we came up 
 the side. 
 
 "This is a long story, mother, but I've
 
 2oo ROTS WIFE. 
 
 plenty like it in store for you when we meet. 
 I will say no more now, for I have come to the 
 end of my paper, and it won't be many weeks 
 before you will welcome back, like a bad shilling, 
 your affectionate son, Collingwood Brail. 
 
 "P.S. Please send this on, for my good 
 aunts to read. If it saves trouble, they need 
 not mind showing it to anybody they please/' 
 
 She would have liked to go over it all again, 
 particularly the postscript, which, some strange 
 intuition taught her, contained an exceedingly 
 roundabout message for herself; but a woman's 
 first impulse in such cases is to conceal the 
 truth, and she returned the precious sheets 
 with the utmost calmness she could assume. 
 
 " I was sure you would be pleased to hear," 
 said Magog, pocketing the document. " You 
 have always interested yourself in him for our 
 sake, and, indeed, if you knew Coll. better, I 
 believe you would like him for his own." 
 
 Many things might be less improbable, for 
 which reason, perhaps, Miss Bruce did not
 
 SO FAR AWAY. 201 
 
 think it worth while to pursue the subject, but 
 bade the old ladies a hasty farewell, kissing 
 each of them with even greater cordiality than 
 before. 
 
 As Gog observed to her sister, when the 
 door closed on their charming visitor, " That 
 girl grows handsomer every day. Did you see 
 what a beautiful colour she had just now, as 
 she went out ? " 
 
 " It's unwholesome for people to sit over 
 the fire," answered practical Magog ; "I only 
 hope she may not take cold on her way home." 
 
 Sir Hector, too, thought his daughter 
 seemed in unusual spirits when she gave him 
 his tea. The day's doings, the drive out, the 
 drive back, above all the run from Burton 
 Brake, were detailed with more than her 
 customary gaiety and playfulness. Lord Fitz- 
 owen, sitting alone with his host after dinner, 
 found his own account completely forestalled. 
 Even the abruptness with which Mr. Roy 
 " snubbed his poor wife " seemed to have been 
 duly reported, and if Fitz grew somewhat
 
 202 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 prolix over this unpleasant episode, it was more 
 for his own satisfaction than the information 
 of his friend. 
 
 Before they adjourned to the drawing-room, 
 however, Sir Hector changed the conversation 
 by warmly pressing his guest to defer the 
 departure fixed for next day, and remain at 
 least a week longer at Warden Towers, an 
 invitation Lord Fitzowen accepted gratefully. 
 " It would be rude to decline," he thought, 
 " when they make such a point of it, and, after 
 all, I should be just as great a fool about her 
 anywhere else as here ! "
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE LITTLE RIFT. 
 
 Johx Roy, like most men who can command a 
 choice of apartments, had selected the most 
 uncomfortable room in the house for his own. 
 Here he smoked, sulked, wrote his letters, and 
 brooded over his wife's " want of manner " in 
 complete privacy, for even Nelly had been 
 made to understand that, unless by special 
 invitation, her presence was unwelcome in this 
 retreat. It saddened her to reflect for how 
 many hours in the day her husband preferred 
 to be alone. She was beginning to wonder 
 whether he had done wisely in marrying her ; 
 to feel, w T ith much bitter heart-searching and 
 humiliation, that she was a clog round his 
 neck ; and, indeed, though he ought to have 
 been ashamed to confess it, John Roy told
 
 2o 4 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 himself the same story over and over again. 
 He compared her with the women he used to 
 meet in London society during his early life, 
 and was so bad a judge as to rate her their 
 inferior because her nature was different from 
 theirs. Yet he would have felt indignant to 
 be told he was the sort of man who could 
 prefer a camelia to a garden- rose. 
 
 Though one tried hard to conceal it from 
 herself, and the other from the world, both 
 were conscious of a breach between them that 
 widened day by day, rendering the husband 
 irritable, captious, and aggressive, the wife 
 nervous, silent, and depressed. 
 
 He could not but observe her fading colour 
 and weary, heavy eyes, that seemed afraid to 
 meet his own. When people came to call, she 
 would brighten up ; which provoked him ex- 
 ceedingly, although this improvement in her 
 spirits was partly the result of a wish to please 
 him by taking her share in general conversation, 
 partly the natural protest of youth and health 
 against despondency. With none of her visitors
 
 THE LITTLE RIFT 205 
 
 did she seem so much at ease as with Lord 
 Fitzowen, and Mr. Roy had already asked 
 himself why, more than once. " Hang him ! 
 he's never out of the house ! " was the form 
 into which he put his reflections, seeing that 
 ere the run from Burton Brake was a week old 
 his lordship had already called twice. 
 
 So John Roy sat after breakfast in his own 
 den, revolving these unpleasant thoughts behind 
 the Field or "Country Gentleman's Newspaper," 
 making believe to read its innumerable columns 
 with their miscellaneous contents. " Come in ! " 
 he exclaimed impatiently, as a hesitating knock 
 announced an interruption. He thought it 
 was Nelly, and felt so vexed with her that he 
 determined to let her see that he would rather 
 be alone. 
 
 It was not his wife, but Mrs. Mopus, who 
 shut the door carefully, set her back to it, and 
 stood there, pale, panting, with one hand 
 pressed against her side. 
 
 He was prepared to be angry, yet he showed 
 no irritation towards his housekeeper as he laid
 
 206 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 down the newspaper and asked quietly " What 
 he could do for her ? " 
 
 " Can I speak a word with you, sir ? " said 
 Mrs. Mopus, advancing to the middle of the 
 room and looking about, as if for a soft place 
 to faint away. "I'm sure I beg your pardon, 
 sir. You'll forgive me, Mr. Roy. It's not of 
 my own free will I come here to-day." 
 
 " Then why are you standing there ? " was 
 the natural rejoinder, but certain catch ings of 
 the breath, which his experience of women had 
 taught him to mistrust, prevented its utterance, 
 and he was content to observe, courteously — 
 
 " Compose yourself, Mrs. Mopus ; you have 
 generally a good reason for everything you do." 
 
 To beg of a lady that she will " compose 
 herself" seldom produces the desired effect 
 until after many repetitions and much soothing, 
 by implication, no less than in set terms. Mrs. 
 Mopus thought well to gasp, roll her eyes, and 
 wrap both hands in her black silk apron, till a 
 shower of tears came to her relief, and she found 
 voice to explain between the sobs —
 
 THE LITTLE RIFT. 207 
 
 " Oh ! sir, you won't judge hardly of me 
 for my attachment to you and yours. Indeed, 
 Mr. Roy, when I think of harm that's likely to 
 overtake you, I'm that upset I can hardly look 
 in your face and warn of you in time, if indeed 
 it's not too late already ; but they do say 
 fore -warned is fore-armed, and though you 
 was to turn me out of doors this moment, 
 without a character or a month's notice, 
 you should never be left in ignorance by me. 
 Xo, not if I was to die for it the next minute. 
 There ! " 
 
 " I have assured you very often, Mopus, 
 that I am convinced of your regard," he 
 answered kindly. " But if you and I are to 
 understand each other, I must beg you to speak 
 out and tell me what is the matter." 
 
 " Mr. Boy, do you never think of the times 
 when you was unmarried ? A free, well-spoken, 
 handsome young gentleman as any lady might 
 be happy to call her own, if she was the highest 
 in the land \ " 
 
 " Well, what of that ? I made my choice
 
 2o8 . ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 and married once for all — good or bad, it's too 
 late to repent now." 
 
 " Good or bad, sir. You never said a truer 
 word. When I think of them as would have 
 been proud to take your name, and her as has 
 it this day, but doesn't seem to value it not one 
 halfpenny, it makes me that mad — that — well 
 — that it sets me on to come into this room, 
 though I am only a servant, and speak with 
 you, fair and equal, Mr. Roy, like a friend." 
 
 " You are a friend, Mopus. I am ready to 
 hear all you have to communicate." 
 
 "Mr. Roy, you'll excuse me, the lady that 
 you have made my mistress and your wife 
 didn't ought to be neither the one nor the 
 other." 
 
 "Take care what you say, Mrs. Mopus. 
 Is this only an expression of opinion, or is it an 
 accusation to which you can bring proof?" 
 
 His voice shook, and he was fain to turn 
 his head, that she might not see how his 
 countenance changed. A hundred conflicting 
 feelings were at work in his heart. Could this
 
 THE LUTLE RIFT 209 
 
 woman show him a way to the freedom he had 
 of late desired too earnestly ? and if so, would 
 he consent to pay the price ? To give up 
 Nelly did not seem so difficult, but that she 
 should cease to care for him was another matter 
 altogether. The bare suspicion struck him with 
 a sense of keen and numbing pain. Eelease 
 might be bought too dear. What if the blow 
 were so roughly dealt that in striking away the 
 fetter it should break the bone ! 
 
 Mrs. Mopus eyed him narrowly. She had 
 studied his temper all those years to little 
 purpose if she could not play on it now, like 
 an instrument of music, to wake whatever chord 
 she pleased. 
 
 " Mr. Roy," she said, coming a step nearer, 
 " I wish to give up my situation." 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Mopus ? " he asked, with some 
 discomposure, surprised, no doubt, by the 
 unexpected nature of her attack. 
 
 " Because, sir, it is not my place as a servant 
 to speak so free as I could wish. When you 
 have discharged me, Mr. Roy, I cease to be a 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 210 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 servant, and my words will come easier, as I 
 said before, from the lips of a humble friend." 
 
 " Nonsense ! I am not going to lose you 
 for any such foolish fancies. You don't want 
 to leave, my good woman, and I don't want to 
 part with you ; I am tired of assuring you that 
 I feel you have my interest at heart. If you 
 know anything that affects my welfare, it is 
 your duty to inform me frankly and without 
 reserve." 
 
 " You'll promise not to be angry with me, 
 sir. I wouldn't offend you for more than I can 
 say. 
 
 " I promise." 
 
 "And you'll never disclose who it was as 
 told you, nor mention my name, nor let 
 anybody know that you and me has been 
 talking secrets together on such a matter as 
 this?" 
 
 He nodded impatiently. 
 
 Mrs. Mopus seemed well accustomed to 
 plotting. She peered cautiously into the 
 passage to make sure nobody was listening,
 
 THE LITTLE RIFT, 211 
 
 shut the door softly, and came close to her 
 master's chair. 
 
 "It's about your lady, sir," she whispered. 
 " Have I your good leave, Mr. Koy, to speak 
 my mind ? " 
 
 " Go on ! " 
 
 " She's not a lady as ought to be at the 
 head of your house, sir. I pass over her inter- 
 ference with the upper servants and the 
 tradespeople, her pryings about in the kitchen, 
 the scullery, the offices, even to the soft-water 
 pump in the back yard. I am willing to 
 believe it's the faults of her bringing-up ; that's 
 neither here nor there. But she doesn't respect 
 you, Mr. Roy : she doesn't think as much of 
 you as she ought. She has a free way with 
 the gentlemen, that isn't becoming in your 
 lady, and with one in particular, I don't name 
 no names, but I've seen it from the time he 
 came here first. I've kept it down, Mr. Roy, 
 till I thought I should have suffocated, but 
 now you've asked me, sir, and it's come out at 
 last plump and plain ! "
 
 212 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Vexation, perhaps, would express the nature 
 of her listener's feelings better than surprise ; 
 yet with the common impulse of humanity to 
 be convinced of its own worst suspicions, he 
 came to the point at once and spoke out 
 peremptorily enough. 
 
 " Let us understand each other, Mrs. Mopus. 
 You have said too much or too little. You 
 have observed freedom of conduct on the part 
 of my — of Mrs. Roy, in respect to a certain 
 person. I insist on knowing who this person is." 
 
 "Well, sir, if I must speak out, it's that 
 there Lord. He's in the house now." 
 
 John Koy glanced at the clock on his 
 chimney-piece. Half-past eleven. This was a 
 morning visit with a vengeance ! If the woman 
 spoke truth in the present instance she was 
 probably right all through. 
 
 " You are sure of what you say ? " he asked, 
 rising from his chair with some vague idea of 
 imm ediat e a ction . 
 
 " Satisfy yourself, Mr. Roy," was the 
 answer. " They're in the conservatory feeding
 
 THE LITTLE RLFT. 213 
 
 the gold fish at this moment. I see them 
 through the back-staircase window as I come 
 down to you." 
 
 He was so angry he could hardly trust 
 himself to speak. 
 
 " Enough, Mrs. Mopus," he muttered, " I 
 shall not forget your services; "and regardless 
 of her entreaties that he would calm himself, 
 would do nothing rash, he hurried out of the 
 room and up the back-staircase aforesaid to 
 confront the culprits in the conservatory, and — 
 and — What further steps was he to take when 
 he got there ? 
 
 This consideration caused him to pause ere 
 he had threaded two dark passages on the way 
 to his destination. He could neither kick, nor 
 shoot, nor turn a gentleman out of the house 
 for paying his wife a visit afcer breakfast rather 
 than after luncheon, nor would any social code 
 hold him justified in making two persons 
 responsible for a serious offence because they 
 gave his gold fish their dinners before twelve 
 o'clock in the day !
 
 2i 4 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 He stopped — he hesitated — he went on 
 again, still towards the conservatory, but much 
 slower than before. It would be rather tame, 
 he thought, to walk in with outstretched hand, 
 and say, " How d'ye do, Fitzowen. Won't you 
 stay to luncheon ? " but there seemed nothing 
 else for it, so irresistible are our bonds of 
 custom, our usages of society. The verdict of 
 the world is dead against a man who " puts 
 himself in the wrong," and it is amusing to 
 watch how, even as two practical fighters shift 
 and traverse to get their backs to the sun, so 
 in a personal difference, or an angry corre- 
 spondence, the belligerents by dint of argument, 
 reply, and rejoinder, find at last the position 
 completely inverted, and each occupying his 
 adversary's ground. 
 
 " I had better seem to suspect nothing," 
 said John Eoy to himself. " I must watch 
 them, and draw my own conclusions un- 
 observed." 
 
 His hand was on the conservatory door, he 
 had no intention of eavesdropping; nothing
 
 THE LITTLE RIFT 215 
 
 would have induced him so far to lower hiraseif 
 in his own esteem ; but he paused an instant 
 to compose his features and pull himself 
 together, as it were, for the ordeal. In that 
 instant his wife's low sweet voice, deepened 
 and softened by emotion, struck on his ear. 
 
 " I am horribly afraid of offending Mr. 
 Koy," she said ; " but I can trust you un- 
 reservedly, and will always do whatever you 
 think best ! "
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 
 
 It was the old story. Neither in conversation 
 nor in literature can you rightly interpret a 
 sentence without the context. Mrs. Eoy's 
 compromising words did but conclude a con- 
 ference of which, as far as she was concerned, 
 loyalty to her husband had been the one 
 predominant motive. 
 
 Sir Hector was confined to his room by 
 gout, the other guests had departed; it was 
 impossible for Lord Fitzowen to remain at 
 Warden Towers alone with Miss Bruce, and, 
 sorely against his inclinations, he felt that in 
 common decency he must return to London by 
 the afternoon train. All this he explained at 
 great length, while excusing himself for paying 
 Mrs. Roy so early a visit to wish her good-bye.
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 217 
 
 Perhaps he cherished some vague hope of an 
 invitation to Eovston Grange. If so, it was 
 speedily dispelled; for though Nelly assured 
 him frankly enough that she was sorry he must 
 go away, she added in the same breath, " We 
 shall all be better for a little rest. I am a 
 very quiet person, Lord Fitzowen, and we've 
 had so much dining out lately and so many 
 visitors, it will seem quite a relief to be 
 alone." 
 
 This was a damper, and he felt it. She 
 spoke as if she would be glad to get rid of him. 
 Fitz rather lost his head, and became so earnest 
 that she took the alarm. 
 
 " I shall be wretched to go, Mrs. Roy. I 
 never was so happy in my life as for this last 
 fortnight, and I have you to thank for it." His 
 voice trembled with that suppressed feeling 
 which no woman is too inexperienced to 
 understand. 
 
 " You have already thanked me by coming 
 to say good-bye," she answered rather stiffly. 
 " Besides, I don't like to be thanked, Lord
 
 218 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Eitzowen, when I have done nothing to 
 deserve it." 
 
 She meant him to " keep his distance," and 
 spoke more gravely than usual, but the warmest 
 expressions of good- will would not have been 
 calculated to rivet his fetters so securely. It 
 is in these ups and downs, these sudden 
 changes, that men become malleable, as the 
 glowing iron is plunged in cold water that it 
 may be tempered into steel. 
 
 He skipped back to safe ground with 
 praiseworthy agility. " I like this country so 
 much," he said, " and the hunting and my host 
 and hostess. Don't you think Miss Bruce a 
 very nice girl, Mrs. Eoy ? " 
 
 "I do indeed," she answered, wondering 
 how she could have been so stupid as to forget 
 that, of course, this was the cause of Lord 
 Fitzowen's unwillingness to depart, and resolved 
 to make him amends for her previous mis- 
 conception. " I like her exceedingly. Not so 
 well as you do, I dare say, but very much 
 indeed. She must be sorry to lose you, though
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 219 
 
 I suppose we shall have you back before 
 long." 
 
 He stared. Did she want him back ? It 
 was but a moment since she had seemed glad 
 he must go away. He would have given a 
 good deal to read her thoughts, and after all 
 she was only hoping he wouldn't stay to 
 luncheon, and wondering whether she ought to 
 ask him or not ! 
 
 " One hates saying good-bye," he continued, 
 " and yet there is a melancholy satisfaction in 
 it, too. Let us go and look at the gold fish, 
 Mrs. Eoy. I should not be easy if I went away 
 without taking leave of my earliest friends." 
 
 So they strolled into the conservatory, 
 where his lordship, who was not usually so 
 diffident, debated in his own mind whether he 
 dared ask her to give him a sprig of geranium. 
 Had he done so, she would have complied with 
 a readiness that showed how little importance 
 she attached to the gift, but his courage failed 
 him, and he preferred not to run the chance of 
 a refusal, perhaps of another rebuff.
 
 220 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 He was sinking deeper and deeper at every 
 step. Had Fitz been wise, he would never 
 have risked this last interview, but would have 
 started for London with his valet and port- 
 manteaus b) T the twelve o'clock train. 
 
 He looked at the gold fish in silence, almost 
 wishing he was one of them that he might not 
 be going away, then turned to Mrs Roy and 
 said, with something of a sigh — 
 
 " You will miss your dictionary a little, 
 won't you, when it is out of reach on the 
 shelf?" 
 
 "I shall indeed," she answered kindly. 
 " I am bad at thanking people, Lord Fitzowen, 
 but I am not ungrateful. I shall never forget 
 how friendly and considerate you have been 
 with me. Though I don't say much, I feel 
 things, I can tell you." 
 
 " Whenever you are in any way at a loss, 
 Mrs. Eoy, you have only got to speak the 
 word. I would come from the other end of the 
 world to be of the slightest use. You may 
 want advice now and then about those absurd
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 221 
 
 trifles in which my whole life has been 
 spent." 
 
 "I feel dreadfully ignorant sometimes, 
 Lord Fitzowen, I confess. I don't mind for 
 myself, but it vexes my husband. He seen \ 
 so annoyed with things that I should not have 
 thought of the slightest importance." 
 
 He took her hand. " Then we will make a 
 bargain," said he. " You shall be the conjurer 
 and 111 be the Jack-in-the-box. Touch a spring 
 and up he comes ! When you've done with 
 him, shut down the lid. Seriously, make any 
 use of me you please when you don't want to 
 trouble our friend. I dare say he hates being 
 bothered. Most men do. I like it. Suppose 
 you are in a dilemma, a social difficulty of any 
 kind, consult me as if I was your cousin, or 
 your brother, or your solicitor. I don't manage 
 my own matters well, but I can give other people 
 better advice than anybody 111 the world." 
 
 There was no resisting the hearty off-hand 
 manner, the frank genial tone. Xelly thought 
 she had discovered a wise counsellor, a true
 
 222 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 friend, and accepted his somewhat vague offer 
 with the grateful little speech that so offended 
 her husband's ears as he came in. 
 
 There was an awkward silence. Mrs. Roy 
 looked and felt in a false position, though she 
 could not have explained why. The master of 
 the house seemed by no means master of the 
 situation. Even his lordship, though more 
 used to the kind of thing, was obviously 
 ill-at-ease. He took the initiative, however, 
 by putting out his hand and informing his 
 host he had ridden over to say " Good-bye." 
 
 " Among the flowers," answered John Roy, 
 looking round him with something of sarcasm, 
 while he exchanged a farewell with his visitor 
 readily enough. It was no prolonged ceremony, 
 and before Nelly's flushed cheeks had faded to 
 their usual tint, Lord Fitzowen vanished, 
 leaving husband and wife alone with the gold 
 fish. 
 
 These could not be more mute than John 
 Eoy. He shrugged his shoulders, put on that 
 expression of contempt she most dreaded, and
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 223 
 
 would have retired without a word, but that 
 Nelly's heart was full to overflowing, aud the 
 appeal rose spontaneously to her lips — 
 
 "What have I done to deserve this? Why 
 are you so cross with me, Mr. Eoy ? " 
 
 "Ask yourself." 
 
 "No. I ask you. We have not been 
 married a year — nothing like it — and already 
 you are tired of me, and you wish I was dead. 
 You do — you do — and so do I. Anything 
 would be better than this. You hate me, you 
 avoid me. I never see you from day's end to 
 day's end, and when we are alone together — 
 which we never are — you won't speak to 
 me. I am a clog, an encumbrance, a wet 
 blanket ! I can't imagine what it is I have 
 done, or not done. Where are mine accusers ? 
 You ought to tell me. I've a right to 
 know." 
 
 "When you can talk sense/' he answered, 
 "perhaps we may come to some understanding. 
 I confess it seems hopeless now." 
 
 " You used to think different. You told
 
 224 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 me at Beaclimouth I was the most sensible 
 woman you ever met." 
 
 " That was not saying much. I never had 
 a high opinion of your sex. It does not 
 improve on acquaintance." 
 
 "If you think that, it's cruel to tell me. 
 If you don't think it, you oughtn't to say so. 
 You can be all smiles and good-humour with 
 other ladies. You don't call them a pack of 
 fools to their faces. I used to believe you 
 cared for me, or else why did you make me an 
 offer ? It would have been a long time before 
 I asked you ; and now you seem to like other 
 people so much better than me ! " 
 
 "Two can play at that game." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she flashed out. 
 "Mr. Eoy, I require you to explain yourself." 
 
 He set his lips tight, and spoke in cold, 
 cutting syllables. 
 
 " Then I will explain myself. When a lady 
 receives one of her husband's friends day after 
 day, and at all hours, as you receive Lord 
 Fitzowen, it is rather too good a joke that she
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 225 
 
 should reproach that husband with want of 
 attention to herself." 
 
 The tears came to her eyes ; he must care 
 for her a little, she reflected, or it would not 
 matter to him how often Lord Fitz chose to 
 call, or how long he stayed, but womanly 
 pride and what is called "proper feeling" 
 prompted her to affect a deeper indignation 
 than she felt. 
 
 "Mr. Roy," she said, looking him full in 
 the face, " do you assert what you know, or 
 are you making these accusations against me to 
 put yourself in the right ? " 
 
 " I make no accusations," he replied, in the 
 same hard tone. " It's not worth while. I 
 simply use my own faculties like other people. 
 Things are not likely to escape my observation 
 that have become the talk of my servants in 
 the kitchen arid the hall." 
 
 She turned pale to her lips. "The 
 servants ! " she repeated. " Do you mean to 
 tell me, Mr. Hoy, that you have been discussing 
 with your servants the conduct of your wife ? " 
 
 VOL. L Q
 
 226 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 He was getting very angry, he felt so 
 completely in the wrong; therefore he affected 
 to take high ground. 
 
 " I decline to enter into that subject," said 
 he, " though you may choose to disregard both, 
 there are people who respect my character and 
 value my happiness. It is all very well, Mrs. 
 Eoy, to carry things with a high hand, to affect 
 injured innocence, virtuous indignation, and 
 so forth, but nobody shall make me believe that 
 lady's conduct is irreproachable on whom her 
 very domestics cry shame. Even if I had not 
 eyes and ears of my own, I can trust my 
 informant, and what I say I mean ! " 
 
 Her sweet and gentle temper was roused at 
 last. She moved to the door. 
 
 " Then if that is the position I occupy in 
 your house," she exclaimed, " the sooner I leave 
 it the better ! " 
 
 " I wish you had never come into it ! " 
 
 The action was over. Completely disabled 
 by this last shot, poor Nelly struck her flag, 
 and went down. She made no attempt at
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 227 
 
 reply. She did not burst into tears, nor go off 
 in hysterics, nor faint dead away, which is the 
 best resource of all, as placing the adversary in 
 such a position that he can neither run nor 
 fight. She only paced slowly out of the 
 conservatory, across the hall, and up the stair- 
 case to her own room, faltering and stumbling, 
 though it was broad daylight, like a blind 
 woman, or one who walks in a dream. 
 
 John Boy turned to the gold fish, and made 
 them a little speech. " I have given her a 
 piece of my mind at last," said he, somewhat 
 ashamed of himself, yet with a certain amount 
 of relief at having blown off the steam. "A 
 man should begin as he means to go on, and 
 she will be none the worse for the lesson. That 
 it may take proper effect, I shall not see her 
 again till dinner-time. My horse is at the 
 door. I may as well have luncheon with the 
 Grantons, and ride round by Warden Towers 
 afterwards, to find out if this young lord is 
 really gone." 
 
 Nelly, kneeling by her bedside, crying
 
 228 ROVS WIFE. 
 
 bitterly with her face smothered in the 
 counterpane, heard his horse's hoofs crunching 
 the gravel, and the click of the gate as he 
 turned into the park. 
 
 She went to her window and watched him, 
 hiding behind the curtain. She had often seen 
 him ride away in the same direction, but never 
 so indistinctly as now, through a mist of tears. 
 
 Then she bathed her eyes, smoothed her 
 hair, looked at a time-table, rang the bell, and 
 ordered the carriage to be at the door in twenty 
 minutes. 
 
 "If I had a baby," thought Nelly,- "I 
 couldn't go. I should neither have the heart 
 to leave it, nor to take it away from Mr. Eoy. 
 How lucky for him. He will be happy at last. 
 He won't miss me one bit. He can live among 
 the people he likes without a wife that he is 
 ashamed of at every turn. And yet I did try 
 hard to be all he wished ! Oh ! my darling, 
 my darling ! I do believe my heart is breaking, 
 but I will never see you again ! " 
 
 Mr. Koy did not enjoy his luncheon. The
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 229 
 
 Grantons were pleasant as usual. Her two 
 pretty sisters, lately imported by the hostess, 
 did the agreeable with the vivacity shown by 
 young ladies at that most cheerful of meals. 
 But, somehow, it was all flat and insipid. 
 When his horse was brought round, he departed 
 in worse spirits than he arrived, conscious he 
 had made no favourable impression on the 
 strangers, but utterly careless of their opinion, 
 good or bad. 
 
 " Talking him over " ere he was fairly in 
 the saddle, these did not scruple to express 
 unqualified disappointment. Mr. Roy was 
 older, greyer, stupider, than they had been led 
 to expect, yet each told herself there was 
 something interesting about the man, something 
 strange, mysterious, peculiar, that she would 
 like to fathom and find out. 
 
 At Warden Towers, Sir Hector was in his 
 room, and Miss Bruce in the village, so he did 
 not get off. " Was Lord Fitzowen still with 
 them ? " he asked carelessly, turning to go away. 
 
 " No ; his lordship left after luncheon.
 
 2 3 o ROTS WIFE. 
 
 His lordship's letters were to be forwarded to 
 London. He (the butler) did not think his 
 lordship would be back again during the 
 hunting season.'' 
 
 Eiding home in the fading twilight, John 
 Eoy began to wonder if he had not judged 
 Nelly too hastily in one particular, perhaps too 
 harshly in all. There is something in the 
 action of a good horse under a man, especially 
 at a gallop, that, possibly through its effect on 
 the liver, seems to clear and stimulate his brain. 
 Ere he rode into his own stable-yard, our friend 
 had resolved to be forgiving and magnanimous, 
 to read his wife a long lecture on that ignorance 
 of conventionalities to which he was willing to 
 attribute her late misdeeds, and graciously to 
 overlook the past in consideration of the 
 amendment she was sure to promise for the 
 future. Then he would proceed comfortably 
 to dinner, and slumber placidly afterwards, 
 having dismissed the whole subject from his 
 mind. 
 
 Wet and muddy, he went to dress at once,
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 231 
 
 rehearsing during his toilet the discourse he 
 intended to deliver, and descending in half an 
 hour or so to the drawing-room, where he 
 expected to find his wife at her needlework, 
 bright with her usual welcome, and ready to 
 offer the cup of tea she had kept hot in case it 
 should be wanted. But here were neither wife 
 nor tea. The fire had burned low and only 
 one lamp was lit. His drawing-room had never 
 looked so cheerless. Nelly must be upstairs, 
 of course. How tiresome ! Perhaps, though, 
 she had taken his displeasure to heart and 
 was really unwell. Poor dear ! She certainly 
 seemed fond of him, he would go to her room 
 and make it all right without delay ! Once, 
 twice he tapped at the door. No answer. So 
 he opened it without ceremony, and walked in. 
 Here, too, the fire was low and the room nearly 
 dark, but he could make out that it was 
 unoccupied. More, an empty wardrobe stood 
 open, and though several trinkets remained on 
 the dressing-table, Nelly's ivory hair-brushes, 
 with her monogram, his own gift, were gone.
 
 232 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 He turned sick at heart, though he told 
 himself there was no cause for discomposure ; 
 but he ran downstairs again, nimbly enough, 
 to ring the drawing-room bell with considerable 
 violence. 
 
 The butler had gone to dress, and it was 
 answered by a footman. 
 
 "Where is Mrs. Roy?" he asked, trying 
 to speak in his ordinary voice. 
 
 "Mrs. Roy, sir? Mrs. Roy is gone, sir." 
 
 " Gone ! What do you mean ? Gone 
 where ? " 
 
 The man looked surprised. " Mrs. Roy 
 ordered the carriage at half-past two, sir. It 
 took her to the station, and I understand she 
 went to London by the afternoon train." 
 
 He fairly gasped. But in whatever attitude 
 he goes down, a man is bound to fall decently, 
 like Julius Caesar, before his own household; 
 so he muttered something incoherent about 
 " bad news," and " he thought she would have 
 waited for a later train," but his manner was 
 sorely troubled, his voice came thick and
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 233 
 
 indistinct. The footman retired calmly, less 
 concerned than might be supposed. I imagine 
 our domestics are not easily affected by such 
 symptoms of mental disorder. Judging from 
 analogy, they account for them in the charitable 
 supposition that " Master is a little the worse 
 for drink. " 
 
 Put him face to face with an emergency, 
 John Eoy had courage and presence of mind 
 enough. Both were now supplemented by a 
 strong sense of indignation and ill-usage. 
 
 " Gone to London by the afternoon train ! " 
 he muttered, walking up and down his deserted 
 drawing-room in momentary expectation that 
 dinner would be announced. " Of course ! I 
 see it all ! And that scoundrel, too. They 
 were found out too soon, and she did not dare 
 face me again. But he shall, and pretty close 
 too, if we have to travel a thousand miles for 
 it. Steady now ! I must look at this business 
 as if I were acting for some one else. The 
 first point is to avoid anything like a show-up 
 before the servants. I can do nothing to-morrow
 
 234 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 till the post comes in, then I shall go to 
 London by the twelve o'clock train, and find 
 a friend at once. Who is there I can ask to 
 see me through such a three-cornered business 
 — for I mean to shoot Fitzowen as sure as he- 
 stands there ? " 
 
 This was a knotty problem, involving some 
 consideration. He had not settled it when he 
 went to dinner, and resolved during the 
 progress of that ceremony, which he sat 
 through with praiseworthy endurance, to decide 
 nothing till he had visited his club, and seen 
 which of his old friends were in town. 
 
 But with all his anger, all his resolution, 
 there were moments during that long cheerless 
 evening when his heart smote him sore. The 
 image of Nelly would pass before him, as he 
 used to watch her moving about the very room 
 in which he sat, busy with some little arrange- 
 ment for his comfort and convenience, or, dearer 
 still, as he remembered her at Beachmouth 
 during that brief courtship, when she had 
 seemed to him a very paragon of womankind,
 
 THE MUSIC MUTE. 235 
 
 do less for beauty of character and person than 
 for the adoration she lavished on himself. 
 
 Of all blessings, a wife is, perhaps, that of 
 which a man becomes most sensible in its loss. 
 John Roy could not help suspecting that he 
 had not himself been entirely without blame ; 
 that a little patience, a little consideration, a 
 little forbearance might have preserved to him 
 the affections of her fond and gentle nature, 
 true and tender as when they watched the 
 sea-gulls together on the southern coast, and 
 thought nothing could ever come between 
 them this side the grave.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 BAFFLED. 
 
 For one who has ever lived long enough in 
 London to make it a home, there is something 
 in the stir and bustle of its streets, the shifting 
 variety of its faces, the very tread of busy feet 
 on its pavement, that brings his mind, as it 
 were, to its proper bearings, causing him to 
 appraise himself, his affairs, and his interests 
 at their real value, and reminding him that 
 any one individual, though the centre of his 
 own circle, is but an insignificant unit in the 
 great scheme. 
 
 Before John Roy had rattled through half- 
 a-dozen streets, and shaved as many lamp-posts, 
 in a hansom cab, he began to take a clearer 
 view of his position, and to suspect that he 
 might have been in a greater hurry than
 
 BAFFLED. 237 
 
 behoved a man of his experience, who had seen 
 so much of life. It was unwise thus to jump, 
 without inquiry, to conclusions. It would 
 have been better to put his pride in his pocket, 
 and get what information he could from the 
 railway officials at his own station concerning 
 his wife and her supposed travelling-companion, 
 before he rushed up to London, breathing blood 
 and gunpowder, on an expedition that might 
 turn out a fool's- errand after all ! 
 
 Such reflections came too late. He had 
 arrived in towm by the early train for a 
 particular purpose, and he must carry it 
 through. Obviously, the first thing to be 
 done was to dress at an hotel and go down at 
 once to his club. 
 
 Yet, for all his knowledge of the world, it 
 seemed strange to this man, whose mind was 
 preoccupied with matters of life and death, 
 that half-a-dozen acquaintances whom he had 
 not seen for years should greet him, as if they 
 were in the habit of meeting every day, with 
 a careless nod and a growl at the east wind.
 
 2 3 3 ROY'S WIZE. 
 
 Truly, your London welcome is the reverse of 
 gushing, and an earthquake would hardly 
 affect the well-bred placidity of St. James's 
 Street if it took place east of Temple Bar. 
 
 Club usages and club manners are of 
 themselves. In other phases of life men may 
 seem pleased with the society of their friends, 
 and even interested in their welfare ; but as 
 soon as they have passed the hall-porter and 
 received their letters, such exuberance of 
 natural feeling is at once discarded. As a 
 huntsman puts on his kennel-coat w T hen he 
 goes amongst his hounds, so the members of 
 these social institutions think well to clothe 
 themselves from head to foot in an indifference 
 which, but for its exceeding carelessness, would 
 not be far removed from disgust. 
 
 Like most reserved people, John Roy was 
 somewhat impressionable. It is not too much 
 to say that he felt both discouraged and 
 disheartened as, entering the morning-room of 
 the Junior Amalgamated, he scanned nervously 
 the array of hats and newspapers representing
 
 BAFFLED. 239 
 
 the members of that exclusive association. 
 Where all faces were hidden it was difficult to 
 identify a friend, and his spirit sank, while he 
 reflected how severely he must put that friend's 
 attachment to the test. Shy, awkward, and 
 perplexed, he walked stiffly to the fire-place, 
 feeling, like a thorough Englishman, that his 
 present ordeal was the most unpleasant part of 
 the whole business. A true Briton stands fire 
 better than inspection, quailing pitifully before 
 a battery that consists of impassible faces and 
 calm, inquiring eyes. 
 
 On the hearth-rug he brushed against a 
 gentleman in an easy-chair, completely hidden 
 behind the broad sheet of the Times. Turning 
 to apologise, he found himself face to face, 
 of all people in the world, with Lord Fitzowen. 
 
 It would feebly express John Boy's dis- 
 comfiture to say you might have knocked him 
 down with a feather. He stood with his mouth 
 open in dumb surprise. 
 
 The other nodded, yawned, rose and 
 stretched himself.
 
 240 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 "How dye do, Eoy?" said he. "Why 
 didn't you come up yesterday with me and 
 St. George there ? I found him at the station. 
 I suppose you won't go away again now. Have 
 you brought Mrs. Eoy ? " 
 
 No man could put on this assumption of 
 complete innocence had he been the cleverest 
 actor that ever wore paint : besides, " St. 
 George there," who was in the room, could 
 have attested the veracity of Fitzowen's state- 
 ment, and John Roy felt utterly at a loss. 
 There was nothing for it but to regain his 
 composure as best he might, and shake by the 
 hand the man he had meant to shoot through 
 the head, with such overdone cordiality as 
 should serve to cover his own confusion. 
 
 " It's only a flying visit," he stammered. 
 " Business and that kind of thing. Goingr 
 down again this evening. Town rather empty 
 still. Nothing to keep one here just now." 
 
 " Nonsense ! Stay till to-morrow. Dine 
 with me quietly — en gar con. Nobody but 
 St. George. I've a box at the Deucalion.
 
 BAFFLED. 241 
 
 We'll see the f Ugly Duck/ It's rather a 
 good burlesque, and bring What's-her-name 
 back to supper. It wouldn't be bad fun." 
 
 Such evidence being circumstantial, and 
 therefore of the best kind, became more con- 
 clusive with every word. It was beyond all 
 bounds of probability that a gentleman who 
 had run away with his friend's wife less than 
 twenty-four hours ago, should be entertaining 
 bachelors at dinner, asking actresses to supper, 
 and otherwise partaking of those amusements 
 on which feminine influence of any kind puts 
 an immediate extinguisher ; nor was it credible 
 that he should calmly invite the injured 
 husband to participate in such demonstrations 
 of independence and self-government at a 
 moment's notice, without any hesitation or 
 embarrassment whatsoever. Again John Roy 
 excused himself, though in his heart half 
 tempted to accept, so completely had the 
 atmosphere of London changed his sentiments 
 in the space of two hours. 
 
 "I see," said Fitz, laughing good- 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 humouredly ; " Mrs. Roy won't stand it ! 
 Quite right. Give her my kind regards. After 
 all, you have the best of it. There is some- 
 thing very superior and respectable in being a 
 married man ! " 
 
 With whomsoever Nelly had run away, the 
 culprit was clearly not Lord Fitzowen. 
 
 John Roy walked out of the Junior 
 Amalgamated a good deal easier of mind than 
 he walked in ; yet, strange to say, conscious 
 that his displeasure against his wife was 
 stronger now than while he believed her 
 criminal conduct had estranged her from him 
 for ever. She seemed a belligerent then, 
 declaring open war, now she was only a vassal 
 who had rebelled. 
 
 Turning matters over in his mind, he made 
 sure she had taken refuge with her aunt. He 
 would go to Corner Street at once, and bring 
 her back, but in such a manner as to make her 
 feel the whole weight of his dissatisfaction, and 
 prevent her from ever having recourse to such 
 refractory measures again.
 
 BAFFLED. 243 
 
 He was soon at the Corner Hotel : it had 
 never appeared so close, dirty, and uncomfort- 
 able before. Again came over him the 
 unworthy feeling that he had descended too 
 low in his choice, and that from the very 
 beginning his marriage was a mistake. 
 
 This untoward mood seemed only aggravated 
 by his reception. Mrs. Phipps, in the dingiest 
 of caps, no sooner heard his name than she 
 rushed at him open-armed, then curtsied and 
 looked foolish, seeing that he eluded her 
 embrace. 
 
 This good lady's face was browner and 
 more oblong than ever, her dress more faded, 
 her forehead more shiny, her general appear- 
 ance, he thought, had changed sadly for the 
 worse. 
 
 " Why you're quite a stranger, Mr. Roy," 
 she exclaimed : " now do set down and rest 
 yourself. You'll take a glass of wine, I hope. 
 But first and foremost, how's Nelly ? You've 
 brought her with you, in course ? " 
 
 He was taken aback, and looked it.
 
 244 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 " Nelly ! " he repeated. " Is she not with you ? 
 I came here to look for her." 
 
 Mrs. Phipps dropped into an arm-chair with 
 a plump that spoke volumes for her confidence 
 in its strength. 
 
 " You come here to look for her ! " she 
 gasped. " Oh, Mr. Eoy, whatever do you 
 mean r 
 
 He was vexed beyond measure. " Mrs. 
 Eoy has chosen to leave her home, madam," 
 he answered harshly, " and were she not dead 
 to all proper feeling she would have come 
 straight here. Had- I found her under your 
 protection, I might have been prevailed upon 
 to look over such conduct in consideration of 
 promised amendment for the future. But she 
 has taken her own line, and I shall now feel 
 justified in taking mine." 
 
 " Mr. Eoy, you drove her to it ! " 
 
 " I have no wish to exchange recriminations, 
 Mrs. Phipps. If you choose to support your 
 niece in her outrageous defiance of all social 
 laws, of the customs, even the decencies of
 
 BAFFLED. 245 
 
 life, that is your affair. I shall decline to 
 communicate with either of you, except through 
 a solicitor." 
 
 " You drove her to it, Mr. Koy ! If it was 
 my last breath, I'd say it. When she left this 
 house to get married — and a black day it 
 seems to have been — there wasn't a better 
 behaved young woman in all London than 
 Nelly, nor a better principled, nor a better 
 brought-up. There may be faults on both 
 sides. I'm not a-going to say as there isn't. 
 But when you come to leaving a home like 
 yours, and going out alone into the wide 
 world, nobody shall persuade me but what 
 I told you before is gospel truth, and you 
 drove her to it, Mr. Eoy. You did, as sure as 
 you stand there ! " 
 
 Mrs. Phipps, who loved her niece, seemed a 
 thorough woman, insensible to argument, but 
 staunch in her affections. It was no use 
 disputing the point, and John Koy was forced 
 to content himself with as dignified a retreat 
 as could be made under the circumstances, for
 
 246 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 his hostess followed him, even to the street- 
 door, with a volley of reproaches that gathered 
 violence and incoherence at each successive 
 discharge. The storm no doubt was succeeded 
 by a torrent of tears, and the poor woman 
 herself, in the midst of her dismay and anxiety, 
 regretted bitterly that she had " spoke up," as 
 she called it, with so much freedom, but her 
 visitor had placed a quarter of a mile between 
 them before this inevitable reaction, and it was 
 too late to call him back. 
 
 He felt sadly perplexed. Nelly was gone, 
 there could be no doubt, but where? If she 
 had fled with Lord Fitzowen, he would have 
 known how to act. If she had taken sanctuary 
 in her aunt's hotel, he could have extricated 
 her from that unsavoury refuge, with a certain 
 loss of dignity, perhaps, but an undoubted 
 accession of authority for the future. In either 
 case his course would have been clear. But 
 now she had baffled him completely. How 
 could he return to Koyston Grange without his 
 wife ? How reply to the inquiries of a whole
 
 BAFFLED. 247 
 
 neighbourhood that she had gone away from 
 him, he didn't know where? He must have 
 time for consideration. He ought not to be in 
 a hurry. To-morrow or next day something 
 might turn up. He had better stop in London, 
 he thought, wishing heartily that he had never 
 left it.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 BO YOU EEMEMBER? 
 
 What should he do with himself in the mean 
 time? He looked at his watch. It was a 
 little after four. The Academy had not yet 
 opened, Hurlingham was too far off, Prince's 
 was sure to be empty at this hour, and with 
 the thermometer scarcely ten degrees above 
 freezing, nobody would be in the Park. There 
 was still a long blank to fill up before the 
 earliest possible dinner, and the only choice of 
 pastime lay between a visit to Christie and 
 Manson's and a Turkish bath. 
 
 He had almost decided in favour of the 
 latter, when a Victoria pulled up with a jerk 
 so close to the kerbstone, that its stiff leathern 
 wing brushed his elbow, while a lady bent on
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER? 249 
 
 shopping, and enveloped in furs, landed on the 
 pavement under his very nose. 
 
 " Good gracious, Mr. Roy ! " exclaimed a 
 voice that had haunted him for many a weary 
 day since he heard it last, that he had not quite 
 forgotten even now. " Is it you or your ghost ? 
 What ages since we met? I can't say how 
 glad I am to see you again ! " 
 
 It was Lady Jane, and nobody else ! The 
 Lady Jane of whom he had taken leave long 
 years ago, under the elms in Kensington 
 Gardens, with a few hurried words of sorrowing 
 kindness and good-will, sorely curtailed because 
 of that matron's proximity to whom Jane had 
 been temporarily intrusted, and who " stood 
 in" with the lovers, but only to a limited 
 extent. 
 
 Now, the one was a prosperous widow, 
 already out of black, the other, a husband, 
 whom we may term unattached, smarting 
 ■under a sense of conjugal ill-usage, and dis- 
 posed to separate himself conclusively from his 
 wife.
 
 250 ZOTS WIFE. 
 
 Lady Jane could not but feel gratified by 
 tbe confusion of his manner while he returned 
 her greeting. Though a woman's empire have 
 been swept away ever so completely, she likes 
 to think that its glories are not wholly forgotten. 
 What is it all but a dream? an illusion of 
 which, perhaps, memory is the sweetest and 
 most substantial charm ! 
 
 " I — I hope you're quite well," stammered 
 the gentleman, "I didn't know you were in 
 town." 
 
 " How should you ? " she answered kindly, 
 and with perfect self-possession. "It is a 
 century since you and I have forgotten each 
 other, or — tried to, at any rate." 
 
 The last very faintly, and with a downward 
 look that used to be most effective. " When 
 at close quarters, aim low ! " was her maxim, 
 and Lady Jane's fire could do execution 
 still. 
 
 "Do not say forgotten," he replied, trying 
 to recover himself, as behoved a man-of-the- 
 world. "It's not so very long, after ali, and
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER} 251 
 
 to look at you it seems as if we had been 
 walking together only last week ! " 
 
 "You always used to natter one," she 
 answered coquettishly. " Now, will you come 
 and see me ? Don't say no, for the sake of old 
 times." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 "Any day. To-day, if you like. I am 
 always in at five. I am on my way home 
 now. Twenty-seven in the next street. I 
 shall expect you in a quarter of an hour." 
 
 There were but a few minutes to talk, 
 and they passed quickly enough. He walked 
 like a man in a dream. He felt as if his 
 Mexican life, bis return home, his vegetation at 
 lloyston Grange, even his marriage to Miss 
 Burton, were fancies of the sleeper that had 
 disappeared with morning light. Yes, he was 
 awake now, and nothing seemed real but Lady 
 Jane. 
 
 Very real, too, and more substantial than 
 of old. Face and figure were both rounder 
 and fuller than when last they parted, all those
 
 252 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 years ago ; but, like many English beauties, 
 his first love's maturity was handsomer than 
 her girlhood, and, had it been otherwise, what 
 matter? The charm was in her eyes and 
 voice still, it woke up feelings that had only 
 slept while he believed them dead. John Roy 
 began to think that, without knowing it, he 
 might have been in love with two women at 
 once all the time. 
 
 " Lady Jane at home ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir," and mounting a dark staircase, 
 pervaded by a heavy odour of hot-house plants, 
 he found himself bowing over her ladyship's 
 white hand, with more of deference and even 
 devotion than is absolutely essential to polite- 
 ness in a mere morning call. 
 
 But he began to talk about the weather 
 nevertheless, forgetting, in his perturbation, 
 that when conversing with a lady, it is only 
 good manners, and saves a deal of trouble 
 besides, to let her " make the running " from 
 end to end. 
 
 She wasted little of her energies on the east
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER ? 253 
 
 wind. Before his tea was cool enough to drink, 
 she asked him pointedly whether he found her 
 much altered, and wondered that he recognised 
 her at once ! 
 
 " I should have known you anywhere," he 
 answered. " Do you think I forget so easily?" 
 
 The cream-jug in her hand shook a little, 
 perhaps by accident. 
 
 " What is all one's life," she returned, " but 
 trying to forget? It's the lesson everybody 
 has to learn. I fancy it comes harder to 
 women then men." 
 
 " You succeeded pretty easily. You didn't 
 want much teaching, perhaps you've a natural 
 talent independent of education." 
 
 " Why do you say that ? It's unkind. If 
 I wanted to be rude, I should say, it's untrue. 
 How can you tell what I have thought, or not 
 thought, done, or not done, since — since we 
 both were young and foolish. You've not 
 taken much trouble to find out." 
 
 She had ingeniously turned the tables, and 
 put him on his defence. He lookod foolish,
 
 254 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 and replied vaguely, " did you ever expect to 
 see me again ? " 
 
 "No. But I hoped it?" 
 " Lady Jane, were you really glad to meet 
 me? Do you mean that you still — that you 
 
 still " 
 
 " Let me give you some more tea. No ? 
 Well, sit clown again, don't go away yet. I 
 want you to tell me all about your wife." 
 
 His face fell, and he fidgeted in his chair. 
 With a woman's tact she saw there was 
 something wrong, and continued in the same 
 easy confidential tone — 
 
 " I was pleased — yes — I think I was really 
 pleased to hear of your marriage. I had a 
 great mind to write and congratulate you." 
 "Why didn't you?" 
 
 "Well, there were reasons. If my poor 
 husband had been alive, I should have clone it 
 frankly enough. Matrimony is the best and 
 happiest state for people, after all." 
 
 "I am glad you found it so. It is not 
 everybody's experience. I am rather of Dr.
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER ? 255 
 
 Johnson's opinion, that marriages would turn 
 out better if they were arranged by the Lord 
 Chancellor/' 
 
 " Mine was. At least we could do nothing 
 without his consent. My poor husband did 
 not come of age till he was five-and-twenty. 
 It made a great many complications, and at 
 one time I very nearly changed my mind/' 
 
 " But it answered ? You were happy 
 together, I suppose ? " 
 
 " We got on very well. Yes — I can't say 
 it answered badly. He did everything I told 
 — I mean, I asked him. Still, Mr. Eoy, when 
 people are to pass their whole lives together, 
 it's a fearful risk. However little one expects, 
 one is sure to be disappointed." 
 
 " But you married a man in your own 
 station; that is a great point. You never 
 could have borne with somebody you were 
 ashamed of. Mr. cle Banier came of a very old 
 family, I believe ? " 
 
 " Very. But — but his father was in trade 
 all the same. No ; I shouldn't say the de
 
 256 HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 Earners were exactly in our own set. Do you 
 think that matters so much ? " 
 
 " I think it is the most important consider- 
 ation of all." 
 
 " What ? More important than that people 
 should like each other? You used not to be 
 so practical. Do you remember our argument 
 on that very subject at Lady Yorkminster's 
 ball?" 
 
 " Do you ? " 
 
 " Every word of it. I could tell you the 
 very names of the couples that passed us on 
 their way to the tea-room. I could tell you 
 the number of the dance we sat out. I believe 
 I've got my card still. You had a white flower 
 in your button-hole, and I wondered whether 
 it was given you by my cousin Blanche." 
 
 ""What a memory you have. Is it of the 
 head, or the heart ? " 
 
 " Nonsense. Tell me about yourself. When 
 did you come to town ? Where are you staying ? 
 I am dying to know Mrs. Roy." 
 
 He. hesitated ; but she looked so kind, so
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER! 257 
 
 sympathising, and withal so handsome, that he 
 took the plunge. 
 
 " Lady Jane," said he, " I don't mind your 
 knowing the truth. The fact is we — we — 
 don't get on very well together, and Mrs. Hoy 
 is not with me at present." 
 
 She tried to seem sorrowful and com- 
 miserating, but there was a latent sparkle in 
 her blue eyes, a something of satisfaction in 
 her tone, while she answered, " I am so grieved 
 to hear it. Don't you think, Mr. Roy, if you 
 tried patience and kindness, she might be 
 brought to reason? I can't understand 
 anybody quarrelling with^o^/" 
 
 There is an esprit de corps in the sex which 
 prompts every woman ostensibly to stand up 
 for another. It takes but little persuasion, 
 however, to satisfy her that the erring sister is 
 wholly in the wrong. 
 
 "I have my faults," he answered, "but I 
 don't think I am inclined to be hasty or 
 unreasonable. Lady Jane, I will trust you 
 entirely, and I feel sure you will not abuse my
 
 258 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 confidence. In the first place, were you 
 surprised to hear of my marriage ? " 
 
 "A little. I thought — I thought — Never 
 mind what I thought." 
 
 " Well, it seems to be one's fate to make 
 some great mistake in life sooner or later. I 
 wonder whether the lady I chose, was the least 
 the sort of person you would have expected me 
 to marry. I did a foolish thing, and now I 
 have to pay for it." 
 
 Sympathy and curiosity, two very strong 
 motives, prompted her ladyship to discharge a 
 volley of inquiries, but she possessed a large 
 share of that discretion which is only acquired 
 in the uninterrupted training of society, and 
 contented herself with a kindly glance and a 
 sigh of commiseration. 
 
 "My wife," he continued, "though well- 
 born and well-educated, is not — is not exactly ' 
 one of the people you are accustomed to meet. 
 In short, she don't quite understand the ways 
 of society. You see, she has never lived much 
 in the great world."
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER? 259 
 
 " Has she been presented at Court ? " 
 interrupted Lady Jane earnestly. " That is 
 where the line should always be drawn. I 
 heard she had not" 
 
 " Then you did hear about my marriage ? " 
 
 " Of course. I was interested, and I asked. 
 Can you wonder ? " 
 
 " I never wonder. Still, there is such a 
 thing as an agreeable surprise. I thought I 
 had passed out of your life, and that even my 
 name never came into your head." 
 
 " You thought nothing of the kind. Do 
 you suppose a woman gives up her — her 
 friendships in that way, even under the hardest 
 pressure, without scruple or regret? How 
 little you understand us ! "Well, well — that's 
 over and done with now ! Let me hear all 
 about it, Mr. Roy. Were you very much in 
 love?" 
 
 "With Lady Jane? Yes; I am sure I 
 told her so often enough." 
 
 " And she believed you. One need not be 
 ashamed of the truth now. But you understand
 
 2 6o HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 what I mean. Were you very much in love 
 with your wife when you proposed to her — let 
 me see, only the end of last summer ? or was 
 it one of those scrapes men get into from 
 sheer laziness, and want of moral courage to 
 say, No ? " 
 
 He had chivalry enough to scorn the 
 loophole she left for his escape. 
 
 " Yes, I was in love with her," he answered 
 rather sadly. "I thought she would have 
 made me happy. Never mind, I can do 
 without her. I dare say it's all for the 
 best." 
 
 " Poor Mr. Roy ! " murmured her ladyship, 
 "lam sorry. You know I am, don't you ? " 
 
 " I know you have a kind and sympathising 
 nature, Lady Jane," he answered, putting on 
 his gloves as with intention of presently taking 
 leave ; " that is why I am inflicting my troubles 
 on you now. It's not a long story, and I will 
 begin at the beginning. Last summer I went 
 to Beachmouth, simply because I was bored at 
 home, meaning to have a dip in the sea, spend
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER ? 261 
 
 Sunday, and go back. Lady Jane, I stayed 
 there three weeks." 
 
 "You found the Sundays so amusing, I 
 conclude." 
 
 " Every day was a holiday. Each seemed 
 brighter than the last. I never was so happy 
 in my life. Never — but once." 
 
 " I am not going to ask you when that 
 was. Go on." 
 
 "The very first evening I was struck by 
 the appearance of a lady staying at the hotel ; 
 and next day, through the merest accident, I 
 succeeded in making her acquaintance. I 
 found her frank, pleasant, unaffected, and 
 handsomer even than I thought." 
 
 " Dark or fair ? " 
 
 "Dark, with beautiful black hair." 
 
 " How odd ; you never used to admire dark 
 women. Well, how long did this seaside 
 romance go on before — excuse me, Mr. Roy — 
 before you made a fool of yourself? " 
 
 " Not long. We met half-a-dozen times a 
 day. I thought she seemed to like me, and
 
 262 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 soon hardened ni) T heart to ask whether she 
 really did or not. Then she told me all about 
 herself, making; no secret of her birth and 
 bringing up. Her father was a bookseller, and 
 her aunt kept an hotel." 
 
 " Mr. Roy, how could you ? " 
 
 "I could and I did. We were married in 
 London, and I carried her off to Eoyston 
 Grange, firmly persuaded that with a few 
 hints, and a little practice among our country 
 neighbours, she would make as good a lady as 
 if she had been registered in the Stud-book — I 
 beg your pardon ; I mean the Peerage." 
 
 " They never do. You see it didn't 
 answer." 
 
 "That was no fault of mine. I took the 
 greatest pains — explained everything, rehearsed 
 everything. She wasn't obstinate, she wasn't 
 exactly stupid ; but somehow she seemed 
 unable to take it in. After a time she lost her 
 spirits, grew pale and silent ; but declared 
 there was nothing the matter, even while she 
 looked up from her work with eyes full of tears."
 
 DO YOU REMEMBER! 263 
 
 " Poor tiling ! Perhaps she was unhappy.*' 
 
 "She was unhappy, Lady Jane, but not, 
 about me. Yesterday, at a moment's notice, 
 she left her home during my absence, as far as 
 I can learn, without a companion of any kind." 
 
 Lady Jane pondered. "Have you reason 
 to suspect that she — that she cares for anybody 
 in particular ? " 
 
 " I had, and now I have not. I am puzzled 
 — I am at my wits' end. She left no letter, 
 no message. I am not even sure that she is 
 in London. A man can't well advertise for 
 his wife — can't have her cried like a lost 
 dog. Lady Jane, what would you advise me 
 to do?" 
 
 "Nothing!" answered her ladyship with 
 decision. "That is always safe. Go about 
 among your Mends — show yourself everywhere. 
 If people ask after Mrs. Roy, say you have 
 come up to take a house, and she is to join 
 you in London. Then they will insist on their 
 own favourite- situation, and that changes the 
 subject. In the mean time confide in nobody
 
 264 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 but me. You may be sure I have your welfare 
 at heart. When shall I see you again ? Come 
 and dine here to-morrow. My sister is in 
 town ; I'll ask her to meet you, and we will 
 go to the French Play. Good-bye, Mr. Roy, 
 but not for quite so long as last time. 
 To-morrow, at half-past seven. Don't forget." 
 He bent over the hand she gave him till 
 his lips almost touched her rings, and walked 
 down-stairs, thinking the world a much better 
 place to live in than it seemed an hour or 
 two ago.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 Like Hagar in her banishment, Nelly felt 
 utterly desolate and forlorn when she turned 
 her back on the home that had once seemed 
 such a paradise, in which but a few weeks ago 
 she had promised herself long years of wedded 
 happiness and love. Like Hagar, too, she was 
 faint and weary from physical exhaustion. 
 Mr. Roy's displeasure had taken away her 
 appetite for breakfast, and she forgot all about 
 luncheon, though it was ready on the table 
 when she went away. It cost her a painful 
 effort to preserve composure before the servants 
 at the hall-door, and she parried with difficulty 
 the curiosity of her maid, who could not 
 understand why Mrs. Roy had packed a trunk 
 with her own hands, or how that lady could
 
 266 jROrS WIFE. 
 
 possibly dispense with her ministrations for a 
 single night. 
 
 At the station, too, where she arrived long 
 before the train, her footman seemed exceed- 
 ingly loth to be dismissed with the carriage as 
 ordered, and proposed, though hardly in good 
 faith, to return on foot the whole way, rather 
 than not see Mrs. Roy's luggage into the guard's 
 van with his own eyes. When these objections 
 had been overruled, and the trot of the dear 
 horses died out on the far high road, our 
 outcast felt very forlorn indeed. Behind her 
 was the still fondly beloved patriarch on whom 
 she could not bear to think ; before her a 
 future too vague and gloomy to contemplate ; 
 while about her brooded the desolate silence of 
 an unfrequented railway station. 
 
 Poor Hagar turned into the ladies' waiting- 
 room to cry. No doubt if did her good, but 
 looking in the glass over the fireplace, she 
 could not but observe that her eyes were 
 swollen and her nose was red. 
 
 Presently a spectral arm, shot out from the
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 267 
 
 signal-post, denoted the arrival of her train. 
 It was time to emerge and take a ticket. She 
 shrank back to her hiding-place, nevertheless, 
 in considerable vexation and dismay when she 
 caught sight of Lord Fitzowen on the platform, 
 laughing and talking with a young man of his 
 own age, in dress, manners, and appearance an 
 exact counterpart of himself. 
 
 " Of all people on earth," thought Nelly, 
 " this is the last I wanted to meet. How can 
 I explain to him why I am here and where I 
 am going ? Besides, I look perfectly hideous. 
 He is sure to see I have been crying. Good 
 gracious ! If he was to ask me the reason, and 
 1 couldn't keep from bursting out again ! 
 What would his friend think? What would 
 he think himself? No. Here I shall stay till 
 I've seen them safe off. After all that has 
 passed, rather than travel by the same train 
 with Lord Fitzowen, perhaps in the same 
 carriage, I would never go near London 
 
 again ! 
 
 So she flattened her face against the
 
 268 HOY'S WIFE, 
 
 window, and watched the two gentlemen into 
 a first-class compartment labelled "Smoking" 
 with eager eyes and a beating heart, waiting 
 impatiently enough, till the train panted on, 
 and disappeared. 
 
 Then she drank some water from a dusty 
 carafFe, sat down, and collected her energies to 
 think out the whole situation. Once, in 
 momentary weakness, she half resolved to 
 walk back on foot to Royston Grange, and be 
 reconciled with its master ; but her heart was 
 still too sore, and she dismissed the idea almost 
 as soon as it arose. 
 
 Consulting a time-table, aided by a sympa- 
 thising railway porter, she made up her mind 
 to go down the line to a certain junction some 
 thirty miles distant, where she could meet a 
 late express, that, from inability to keep its 
 time, was called, iu contumely, The Flying 
 Dutchman, and so proceeding to London arrive 
 there in the middle of the night; but this 
 intricate plan of operations she was unable to 
 carry out. At the hour when she should have
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 269 
 
 been taking her seat in The Dutchman she was 
 in bed at an hotel, where she had resorted 
 to get some tea, with a headache that 
 incapacitated her from standing or even sitting 
 upright. 
 
 "What does it matter?" thought poor 
 Nelly. " Nobody expects me ; nobody cares 
 if I am alive or dead ! Auntie has got 
 accustomed to do without me, and nothing 
 would please Mr. Eoy better than to be quite 
 sure he would never hear of me again. " 
 
 She did them both injustice. Mr. Eoy 
 was seeking her in London before her headache 
 allowed her to get out of bed ; and when, 
 on the second day after her departure from 
 Eoyston Grange, she arrived at the Corner 
 Hotel, it needed but one look in her relative's 
 face to be assured of Auntie's overpowering 
 anxiety and her delight at the wanderer's 
 return. 
 
 "So he came here to find me? "repeated 
 Nelly for the twentieth time, when she had 
 taken her bonnet off and settled down in her
 
 270 XOY'S WIFE. 
 
 own old place. " Did he look disappointed ? 
 Did he seem sorry, Auntie, or what ? " 
 
 " Sorry? " returned Mrs. Phipps — a practical 
 person, who called spades and everything else 
 by their right names. " Not a bit ! Angry, 
 if you like. There was a precious blow-up ! I 
 can tell you. I gave him a piece of my mind, 
 and he went away in a huff." 
 
 "He'll come again," said Nelly. "He 
 must, if he's in earnest. Don't you think, 
 Auntie, he is sure to come again ? " 
 
 "I hope not," replied her aunt. "You're 
 better without him, my dear. I never thought 
 much of them consequential, stuck-up ways of 
 his. When he made you a lady, why didn't 
 he treat you as such? No, no, you're better 
 without him, Nelly, depend upon it. You've 
 got a comfortable home here as long as you 
 like to stay, and for my part I hope he will 
 never darken our doors again." 
 
 Nelly did not quite agree, yet she often 
 asked herself how she would decide if her 
 husband were to propose that she should come
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 271 
 
 back and live with him once more. Hurt, 
 vexed, humiliated, she could yet have forgiven 
 him only too readily; but, because she loved 
 him so dearly, it seemed better that she should 
 never see him again. As the nightingale is 
 said to lean her breast against a thorn ; as the 
 horse, most assuredly, in his gallant, generous 
 nature, presses down and crouches on the stake 
 that drains his life-blood away, so does woman 
 seem to derive some mysterious and morbid 
 gratification while hugging her keenest sorrows 
 tight to her bosom, and immolating herself at 
 the altar of an unworthy idol, that looks down 
 on the sacrifice calm, pitiless, and imperturbable, 
 with a stony smile. But whatever might have 
 been her decision, she would have liked at 
 least the option of refusing. And day by day 
 Nelly's step became heavier, the colour faded 
 from her cheek, as visitor after visitor poured 
 into the hotel, but no Mr. Eoy. 
 
 He was differently employed. Putting off, 
 from week to week, his intention of go- 
 ing back, he left Mrs. Mopus, much to her
 
 272 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 contentment, in sole command at Royston 
 Grange, while he amused himself with the 
 gaieties of early spring in London, and devoted 
 his spare time to the dangerous society of Lady 
 Jane. 
 
 It was not long before people began to talk. 
 " So sorry we could not come to you, my dear, 
 we dined with Lady Jane de Banier. Who 
 had you ? Mr. Roy, of course ! It's really 
 getting ,too barefaced. She has not been a 
 widow eighteen months, and there she is, 
 flaunting about in colours, and I don't know 
 what all, with a married man ! It's true, my 
 dear, I assure you. There's a wife hidden 
 away somewhere in the country. Lord Fitz- 
 owen has seen her, and declares she is perfectly 
 beautiful. Jane ought really to be spoken to. 
 One must draw a line ; and if nobody else 
 has courage to give her a hint, I will do it 
 myself? " 
 
 So Jane was spoken to, with the usual 
 rasult. She resented such interference warmly, 
 and became only the more engrossed with her
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 273 
 
 present fancy, that it was represented as 
 injurious to the future of her children, and 
 hazardous to her own good name. " I suppose 
 you would have me go about in a yash-mak, 
 with a guard of what-do-you-call-'ems," pro- 
 tested her ladyship, tossing her head in high 
 dudgeon. " Thank you, I'd rather not ! I 
 am a Christian woman in a Christian country, 
 and I think I am the best judge of my own 
 conduct." 
 
 Then she had a quiet little cry, and sat 
 down to write an incoherent note to Mr. Boy, 
 entreating him not to come near her again, 
 which brought him to her door in a violent 
 hurry within half an hour of its delivery. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that 
 although her friends expressed great dissatis- 
 faction among themselves, they dined with her 
 readily enough, notwithstanding the obnoxious 
 Mr. Hoy, issuing their own invitations to the 
 imprudent couple freely in return, so as to 
 afford them every opportunity of meeting at 
 home and abroad. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 Ere long the one was never asked to any- 
 thing without the other, and an easy-going 
 world made up its mind to recognise this 
 indiscreet renewal of former intimacy as "an 
 established thing." 
 
 Society has compiled a code of its own for 
 which it is answerable to itself, and has ruled 
 that " one person may steal a horse while 
 another must not look at a halter." The 
 principle is sufficiently elastic, and it has been 
 so liberally extended of late that the horse- 
 stealers are increasing every day. I do not 
 mean to infer Lady Jane was one of these. 
 Her conduct, though imprudent, originated in 
 the only natural and healthy impulse of her 
 artificial life. In girlhood she had liked John 
 Roy honestly enough — had loved him, indeed, 
 in so far as she was capable of that unworldly 
 sentiment. She gave him up perhaps too 
 readily, but who knows what amount of 
 pressure was put on her in her own family? 
 The female department has its secrets in the 
 households of Mayfair as of Stamboul. I dare
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 275 
 
 say she often lay awake crying, and envied the 
 sweeps or the milkman when her mamma 
 thought she was sound asleep. I dare say, 
 while she stood at the altar in that love of a 
 wedding dress {corsage Louis Quatorze), she 
 glanced approvingly at her bridegroom, who 
 was as spruce as a new pin, and admitted that 
 she liked him better than anybody in the 
 world — " bar one ! " 
 
 So she made Mr. de Banier a good wife 
 enough, managing his house, ordering his 
 dinner, and contradicting him no more than 
 was absolutely necessary before his servants or 
 his guests. She nursed him, too, kindly and 
 tenderly through his last illness, and, perhaps, 
 never felt so attached to him in her life, as the 
 day the doctor gave him over. 
 
 For weeks after the funeral she refused to 
 see a soul, going softly about the house with a 
 pale face and red eyes ; so that the very maids 
 declared they " never thought her ladyship had 
 been one to take on like that ! " And she put 
 up a monument to his memory, unequalled in
 
 276 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 hideousness, that cost the best part of a 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 When she found herself a rich widow, still 
 handsome, in the prime of life, was she to be 
 wholly debarred from those pleasures of the 
 heart, she had given up so dutifully to obey 
 papa and mamma? Lady Jane thought not. 
 She saw men in society every clay on whom 
 she mioht have set her affections with the 
 certainty of a return ; but she had always been 
 fastidious, and now seemed more than ever 
 hard to please. This one was vulgar, the other 
 overbearing, a third hunted, a fourth smoked, 
 and the vacant situation had not yet been 
 filled on the afternoon when she went out 
 shopping in her Victoria, and met Mr. Roy. 
 
 She experienced a want in life, which the 
 society of her children — two slips of girls and 
 a fat-headed little boy — proved quite inadequate 
 to supply. There are women for whom the 
 interests of a nursery can be the end and aim 
 of existence ; but Lady Jane, though a kind, 
 even an indulgent mother, was not one of
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 277 
 
 these. She had dreamed her dreams, as the 
 most practical of us will ; had even imagined 
 an ideal of her own, an impossible person, full 
 of antagonistic qualities, good and bad ; which 
 misty phantom she dressed in the remnants of 
 her old, worn-out attachment, and believed 
 that it reminded her of Mr. Roy — was it likely 
 that she should let him go, when he came once 
 more within range of her attractions, — a lonely 
 man, ill-used, disappointed, with a history, 
 and, perhaps, none the less desirable that he 
 hung just out of reach, and was not exactly 
 free. 
 
 I am little surprised, for one, that she 
 should have asked him to tea, and then to 
 dinner, and afterwards to come and see her 
 whenever he liked. Finally, that she made 
 her servants understand she was always at 
 home to Mr. Roy, and to nobody else when he 
 called. 
 
 " Love is of man's life a thing apart," says 
 Byron. I fear that with the ruder and leas 
 sensitive half of our species, this delightful
 
 2 7 3 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 fallacy requires certain favourable conditions, 
 both of body and mind, to become the one 
 engrossing occupation of both. Love-in-idle- 
 ness, however, is a plant that needs but little 
 care or culture to arrive at rich maturity. 
 Like the young trees of the thrifty Scotsman, 
 it is growing while we are sleeping; and a 
 man who has nothing to do finds plenty of 
 time for folly when the occasion offers. 
 
 John Roy, neglecting his duties as a country 
 gentleman and landowner, living vaguely from 
 hand to mouth, as it were, at a London hotel, 
 undecided how to act, with no certain task for 
 to-day, no definite intentions for to-morrow, 
 was of all people in the world the most likely 
 to drift into some egregious absurdity, from a 
 mere sense of helplessness and discouragement, 
 a morbid conviction that it was impossible for 
 him to keep straight, and even if he did, by 
 painful self-denial, succeed in following the 
 right road after all, what was the good ! 
 
 But he was by no means happy ; his self- 
 love had been grievously wounded ; and Lady
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 279 
 
 Jane's continued preference, however flattering, 
 could not heal the sore. It was pleasant, no 
 doubt, and not very expensive, to send her 
 bouquets, and paper-cutters, and stalls at the 
 French Play. He experienced a certain 
 excitement in watching for her appearance at 
 a party, in catching her eye across a room, with 
 the consciousness that there was a something 
 between them in which the bystanders had no 
 share ; and in putting her affectionately into 
 her carriage when she went away. Still there 
 was also a sense of sameness about the whole 
 affair, he was going over the old ground that 
 had been traversed often enough before ; and 
 a path even of roses may become wearisome 
 when it has to be trodden again and ao;ain. 
 We catch ourselves saying precisely the same 
 things to Mary that we said to Jane ; Susan's 
 pressure of the hand is exactly like poor 
 Henrietta's ; and how can we send cut flowers 
 to Margaret without repeating the message 
 that used to be forwarded with her posies to 
 Kate? Sometimes he admitted that, even if
 
 2 So ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 he had married Lady Jane, he might have got 
 tired of her. Did he ever feel tired of Nelly ? 
 No ! A thousand times no ! Annoyed, irritated, 
 provoked, fancying he wished he had never 
 seen her ; but weary of her ? Certainly not. 
 In his married life there had been nothing 
 irksome, nothing out of character, nothing of 
 that continued sense of effort which is so 
 exhausting to a man in a false position, and 
 which made him feel something akin to relief, 
 rather than disappointment, on those rare 
 occasions when he passed an afternoon without 
 dancing attendance on Lady Jane. 
 
 How could he be happy while continually, 
 at war with himself? Now he would seek 
 Nelly out, no matter where she was hiding, 
 humble himself at her feet, and entreat her to 
 return to a home that should never be entered 
 but by their own two selves. Anon he resolved 
 to take legal measures for a separation, nay, 
 move heaven and earth for a divorce, that he 
 might put an end to this unsatisfactory state 
 of things by a marriage with Lady Jane. And
 
 IN THE WILDERNESS. 281 
 
 still he lived on from day to day, settling 
 nothing, doing nothing, alternately making 
 and breaking resolutions of amendment, but 
 calling, nevertheless, at Xo. 27 as persistently 
 and nearly as often as the penny post.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A BLUE-JACKET. 
 
 In the mean time Nelly settled down to her 
 former habits at the Corner Hotel, much to 
 the gain of that establishment in matters of 
 cleanliness and comfort. Mrs. Phipps, who 
 had missed her sadly, while protesting against 
 her own selfishness, could not but rejoice to 
 have her back, estimating at its real value her 
 niece's supervision of a continually changing 
 household. Mrs. Koy, who now chose to call 
 herself Mrs. John, as a compromise between 
 the assertion of a married woman's dignity 
 and the independence of an alias, resumed 
 without a murmur the old leathern stool on its 
 three high legs, the folio volumes ruled in red 
 ink, the long quills, the bunches of keys, and 
 other appliances of that authority which was
 
 A BLUE-JACKET. 283 
 
 exercised from her seat of government, a glass 
 cage off the entrance-hall, secluded from the 
 light of day. 
 
 Servants and tradespeople saw little differ- 
 ence in her demeanour. Punctual, exact, 
 methodical, always decided, while always 
 courteous, she might be graver in manner and 
 slower in gesture than of old, but that was 
 all. " Mrs. John had known trouble," they 
 observed, " along of a good-for-nothing 'usband." 
 Such a calamity, being in no way remarkable, 
 demanded little pity and less surprise. Only 
 her aunt looked below the surface. Mrs. 
 Phipps, vexed and saddened, told herself that 
 Nelly was breaking her heart for an unworthy 
 object, as she phrased it, " out of sheer 
 nonsensical trumpery and trash." 
 
 It was not long before the good woman 
 boiled over and spoke out. 
 
 " You'll do yourself a mischief, my dear," 
 she expostulated, when, coming down to 
 breakfast earlier than usual one morning, she 
 found Nelly reading the Bible, bathed in tears.
 
 284 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 "I wonder as you haven't more pride, I do. 
 If it was me, I'd never so much as waste a 
 thought on a man who could conduct himself 
 like Mr. Roy, except to thank my stars I was 
 well rid of him. I've no patience with you, 
 nor him neither. A haughty, arbitrary, 
 unfeeling, unprincipled Herod. That's what 
 he is, and I wish he may be punished like 
 Herod, and worse ! " 
 
 " Why should you blame him, Auntie," 
 answered Nelly, "if I don't? Didn't he come 
 here after me, and couldn't I go back to him 
 any moment if I chose ? But I do /it choose. 
 It would only be misery for him and for me. 
 Think what a dreadful thing for a man to be 
 ashamed of his wife." 
 
 "Ashamed, Nelly! How can you speak 
 so random? There's shame enough, I'll not 
 deny it, but none on our side. In my opinion, 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Queen, 
 or the Lord Mayor, or somebody should have the 
 power of undoing such a marriage as yours, just 
 as if you had never been asked in church at all."
 
 A BLUE-JACKET. 285 
 
 " Suppose I don't wish it undone ? " 
 
 " Suppose the moon was made of green 
 cheese ! You ought to wish it, you ought to 
 insist on it; and if I had to pay twenty 
 lawyers, twenty times over, I'd spend my last 
 shilling, but I'd see you righted. You've no 
 spirit, Nelly, no more hadn't your poor mother. 
 I only wish it was me. If they could keep me 
 down like that, I'd let 'em." 
 
 "It's no use worrying, Auntie. People 
 think so different. Why are both of us to be 
 miserable ? Surely one's enough. I dare say 
 I expected too much. I have been disappointed, 
 and must bear it the best I can. I've always 
 got you left, and a happy home here, haven't I, 
 as loug as I like?" 
 
 " Happy home, indeed ! Yes, it was a 
 happy home before I let you go to that sinful 
 place Beachmouth, and I wish the sea would 
 rise to-night and wash clean over it, I do ! 
 Forgive and forget, says they, but I am one of 
 them that can't forgive, and won't, even though 
 I might forget. Nelly, Nelly, how can you
 
 286 .ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 look me in the face and mention the word 
 happy, with your eyes as red as a chimney- 
 sweep's, and all your beautiful colour gone ? " 
 
 "Nobody is quite unhappy who is doing 
 right, Auntie. I may be a little low, and out 
 of spirits now, I don't deny it ; but perhaps 
 it's my own fault, thinking too much of things 
 that cannot be helped. It will wear off after a 
 time. Don't distress yourself about me. And, 
 Auntie dear, if Mr. Koy should come and ask 
 to see us, don't you fly in his face and be so 
 short with him as you were last time, for my 
 sake." 
 
 " Why, Nelly, you are not going to say 
 you'd go back ? " 
 
 " No, dear. I hardly think I should if he 
 asked me ever so. But we won't speak of 
 that. Who can tell what is going to happen, 
 or where we may all be this day week? I 
 don't care to look forward much. I'm quite 
 content to stay as I am, only if you see me 
 rather down sometimes don't you take notice. 
 I'm such a silly that a word of kindness sets
 
 A BLUEJACKET. 287 
 
 me off crying in a moment, and I can't 
 stop." 
 
 " Crying, indeed ! " concluded Mrs. Phipps. 
 " I'd set some folks crying to a pretty tune if 
 I had my way. There, Nelly, you could 
 always coax your old aunt to do whatever you 
 asked, from the time you was in short frocks. 
 I'll say no more ; and if I could only see you 
 look a little brighter, with a bit of colour 
 in your cheek, there wouldn't be a happier 
 woman than me between here and St. 
 Paul's ! " 
 
 So the good lady retired to the basement, 
 where she could forget her vexation anions 
 those domestic implements she delighted to 
 see in use ; while Nelly ruled another column 
 in the ledger, and made out their week's bill 
 for a family on the second floor, with unfailing 
 accuracy of mind and finger, but with a heavy 
 heart longing to be far away. 
 
 " Quite a superior person that Mrs. John," 
 said the ostensible head of the family on the 
 second floor to its actual ruler. " So quiet, so
 
 288 HOY'S WIFE. 
 
 ladylike, and — handsome, I should say, my 
 dear ; shouldn't you ? " 
 
 " I hardly looked at her," replied his wife, 
 whose feminine eye had scanned every feature 
 of Nelly's face, every article of her clothing, 
 with critical inspection. "Possibly she may 
 be attractive to people who admire that style. 
 I confess I cannot interest myself about a 
 barmaid ! " 
 
 " Of course not, my dear," was the meek 
 rejoinder, equally sincere. " I only caught a 
 glimpse of her by accident. I dare say I was 
 mistaken. Can I do anything for you in the 
 Haymarket ? I thought of going as far as the 
 Club." 
 
 Must I admit that he lingered in the 
 passage, asking for letters he had no reason to 
 expect, so as to have another look at Mrs. John, 
 if only through the blurred and dingy panes of 
 her glass cage ? 
 
 Nor was this worthy gentleman, a round- 
 about person of mature age, under strict 
 control of his wife, the only visitor who
 
 A BLUE-JACKET. 289 
 
 appreciated her attractions. Every stranger of 
 the male sex coming to engage rooms, whether 
 he went away disappointed or remained 
 rejoicing, paid his tribute of respectful tones 
 and admiring glances to the pale, sad, hand- 
 some woman who seemed to superintend this 
 establishment. Friends of Mrs. Phipps, sud- 
 denly remembering they had been shamefully 
 negligent, began to make afternoon calls with 
 increasing frequency, lingering and loitering in 
 hopes of being invited to tea, until some of the 
 more persistent discovered that the aunt 
 presided alone over this agreeable refreshment, 
 and the niece was satisfied with a solitary cup 
 and plate in her glass house. She kept them 
 at a distance all alike, and if not unconscious 
 of their admiration, accepted it with calm 
 disgust, as a necessary adjunct to the situation, 
 like blacks in a milk -jug or beetles on the 
 kitchen floor. 
 
 So the weeks dragged on. Easter set in, as 
 usual, with sleet and snow ; the sweeps were 
 too cold to dance with any attempt at 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 merriment on May-day; and her Majesty's 
 drawing-room was held in a pouring rain, that 
 ladies clothed in virtue and loyalty, but other- 
 wise most insufficiently clad, only hoped might 
 be the forerunner of a thaw. 
 
 Everything seemed dismal enough. Trades- 
 men " supposed we should have a dull season," 
 there was no news at the clubs, and those 
 who make dinner-conversation asserted incre- 
 dible statistics of houses to let, and coachmen 
 out of place. 
 
 But people thronged into town, nevertheless. 
 The authorities seized this opportunity to pick 
 up the principal thoroughfares, so that London, 
 in its main streets, became impassable for many 
 hours of the day. Only by exercise of exceed- 
 ing patience and dexterity, could the driver of 
 a four-wheeled cab thread his way along the 
 Strand, and when one of these vehicles stopped 
 at the door of the Corner Hotel, Corner Street, 
 the cabman grinned his thanks for an extra 
 shilling, as having obeyed his fare's injunctions 
 to "steer small."
 
 A BLUE-JACKET. 291 
 
 Mrs. Phipps happened to meet this fresh 
 arrival in the entrance. At the first glance 
 she made a bounce that seemed to lift her a 
 foot from the ground, and it is no reflection on 
 her sense of propriety to affirm that she 
 resisted with difficulty a strong impulse to 
 fling her arms round his neck and hug him to 
 her breast. 
 
 "What cheer, Mr. Brail?" she exclaimed, 
 between laughing and crying, in the exuberance 
 of her welcome. " What cheer ? as you taught 
 us to say before you sailed, and now I can't 
 believe my eyes to see you back, and you 
 looking so well and hearty, not a pin the 
 worse ! " 
 
 "The worse ! " he repeated, taking both her 
 hands ; " why should I be the worse ? Such a 
 welcome as a man seems to get from all hands 
 when he sets his foot on shore might bring him 
 into port again though he had cleared out for 
 the other world. England, home, and beauty, 
 Mrs. Phipps — that's the ticket ! This is home,
 
 292 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 and you are beauty. Now can you give me 
 abed?" 
 
 " Ah ! you're the same man still ! I'm sure 
 I wonder how you keep your head on without 
 somebody to hold it down ! It wouldn't have 
 been you, of course, to have thought of writing 
 beforehand." 
 
 " I knew you would like a pleasant 
 surprise, my clear lady. I must have a bed 
 here in the old shop, and that's all about it ! " 
 
 She looked affectionately in his frank, open 
 face, tanned by exposure to the colour of 
 mahogany, contrasting well with his short, 
 crisp, light-brown hair, bearing sailor written 
 on every line, and in thorough keeping with 
 his square, sinewy figure, his loose, powerful 
 limbs. 
 
 "I'm full," she said, "up to the attics. I 
 sent away a French family not an hour ago, 
 but I would rather turn out myself, and sleep 
 on the kitchen-dresser, than not make room 
 for you. Where is your luggage ? your traps,
 
 A BLUE-JACKET. 293 
 
 as you call them. Leave them there in the 
 passage, while I go and ask Nelly what's to be 
 done." 
 
 " Nelly ! Miss Burton ! Is she here still ? 
 Not spliced yet, nor you neither, Mrs. Phipps ! 
 That's even more extraordinary ! If I'd known 
 you were going to keep single for my sake, 
 I would never have staid away all this time, 
 cruising after the north pole ! " 
 
 " Go along with you ! " she answered, 
 pushing him into her sitting-room. " You're 
 no better than you always was, and you'll 
 never mend your ways now ; but bad as you 
 are, I've lain awake many a stormy night 
 thinking of you, and I am more than pleased, 
 young man, I am humbly thankful to see you 
 back at home once more ! " 
 
 Colling wood Brail, Esq., Lieutenant in the 
 Royal Navy, lately of her Majesty's ship 
 Aurora, paid off after the Arctic Expedition, 
 had frequented this Corner Street Hotel since 
 the time when he used to run up from
 
 294 ROY'S WIFE. 
 
 Portsmouth on a week's leave, as mischievous 
 a midshipman as ever nibbled a biscuit, or cut 
 a brother reefer's hammock down by the head. 
 His frank boyish manners and kindly dis- 
 position wound themselves round the heart of 
 his landlady, who darned his stockings, mended 
 his shirts, and overhauled his kit generally on 
 so many occasions that she began to consider 
 him almost as a son. Once when, after a long 
 stare at the monument to Sir John Franklin 
 near the Duke of York's column, he found his 
 pocket picked of every shilling he possessed, 
 she insisted on keeping him till his leave 
 expired, without sending in her bill, and then 
 lent him a five-pound note to take him back to 
 his ship. She was fond of relating how, in 
 process of time, he returned the amount of his 
 debt in full, not forgetting gratuities to the 
 servants, by the hand of a staid messmate, who 
 did not conceal, perhaps, that the scraping of 
 such a sum together out of daily pay was 
 indeed, as young Brail described it, " a tight
 
 A BLUE-JACKET. 295 
 
 fit." After he was " made " he wrote to her 
 from the Tagus, — she had not an idea where 
 it was, but prized her ship-letter all the 
 more, producing it with great importance at 
 tea-parties and such occasions of festivity, 
 where it formed the principal topic of con- 
 versation. 
 
 " It's not out of sight out of mind with the 
 blue-jackets," she would say, wiping her eyes ; 
 " and the warmest hearts you will find in this 
 world of ours, take my word for it, are the 
 hearts of oak ! " 
 
 Many a time when a gale of wind swept 
 over London, bringing showers of soot and 
 dirt, with here and there a chimney-pot 
 crashing into the street, her blood ran cold to 
 realise the dangers her young sailor-friend must 
 encounter ten thousand miles off, where, 
 perhaps, he was pacing the deck impatient, in 
 a dead calm, whistling for the breeze. 
 
 She could never be brought to understand 
 this, entertaining a profound conviction that
 
 296 ROTS WIFE. 
 
 day and night a seaman was always battling 
 for life, and regarded every member of the 
 profession as a hero and martyr, with a turn 
 for conviviality and light comedy, that ren- 
 dered him the pleasantest companion in the 
 world. 
 
 Next to her niece there was nobody for 
 whom she entertained so strong a personal 
 regard as Collingwood Brail. 
 
 And the man deserved it. Every inch of 
 him was gentleman and sailor — the finest 
 combination in the world. Plain and down- 
 right in conversation, but of a pleasant 
 good-nature that made it impossible to be 
 rude, he would differ with you frankly, but 
 never put you in the wrong ; utterly devoid of 
 affectation in dress, manner, and sentiments, 
 he was scrupulously courteous and polite, 
 without yielding a jot of his own independence 
 or self-respect. Exceedingly deferential to 
 women, he did not seem to infer that they 
 belonged to a different order of beings either 
 above or below his own, and to offend one by
 
 A BLUE-JACKET. 297 
 
 word or deed would have appeared to him no 
 less unmanly than to hurt a child. As in 
 person he was strong without being clumsy, 
 active without being restless; so, morally, he 
 possessed good sense without pomposity, and 
 courage without bravado. 
 
 Then, besides these solid qualities Mr. Brail 
 had a hundred trifling accomplishments, due to 
 his nautical training, invaluable in social life. 
 Nobody organised a pic-nic, even to the 
 tying-up of the hampers, with such facility and 
 such success. It seemed as if he could turn his 
 hand to anything, whether it were picketing 
 the horses, lighting a fire in the copse wood, or 
 washing plates and dishes when all was done, 
 and he had danced a hornpipe in and out the 
 crockery without damage to a single article. 
 In a country house, too, he was never late for 
 breakfast, never sleepy at night, dressed 
 quicker, and turned out neater, than any 
 dandy in the company; shot well if he was 
 asked, fished if they wanted him, rode to 
 hounds with unbounded nerve, if little judg-
 
 298 HOTS WIFE. 
 
 ment, and under any conditions would have 
 thought it as disgraceful to confess he was a 
 pickpocket as to admit he was bored ! 
 
 With the success he achieved in his own 
 profession we have nothing to do, but it is easy 
 to understand how such a character would be 
 welcome everywhere to men, and exceedingly 
 popular with women. When Mr. Brail paid 
 one of his visits to Corner Street as a lieutenant 
 of a year's standing, he found no difficulty in 
 obtaining his share of those gaieties which are 
 supposed to enliven the London season. It 
 was at a flower-show in the Horticultural 
 Gardens that our light-hearted sailor lost his 
 liberty for good in a casual introduction to 
 Miss Bruce. Never before had he found 
 himself unequal to such social occasions, or 
 utterly undone and consumed by a pair of 
 bright eyes that only meant to enliven and to 
 warm. It was all up with him in less than 
 ten minutes. A handsome girl bending over 
 the azaleas; a crafty old lady enjoying his
 
 A BLUE JACKET. 299 
 
 discomfiture ; an introduction ; a bow ; a walk 
 to the next tent, and lie was a free man no 
 longer. To use his own words, " He hauled 
 down his colours at the first shot, and for that 
 kind of service never had the heart to hoist 
 them again ! " 
 
 END OF VOL. 1.
 
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 CLAY AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOI8-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 056541193 
 
 
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