wk& :/, W&7«n £*>T r />i> f> n % fM L*I5 LIBRA HY OF THE UNIVER5 ITY Of 1 LLl NOIS K7A4c v.l •. -. > * s&r, "• *• "5r ^ *v tea i&JiSbXF-j fsr ■m- ?V/ 4: M \ XV |fc fiEr%s £* »1 WW ♦ f*N '. «wi ^ #v] 'm\7 t.? /W 1 K THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. i. « The Courage BY of H. B. Finlay Knight, Sylvia Fulgent Author oj 1 ' A Girl with a Temper. " Alors. ma sceur, vous pensez que Dieu accepte toutes les voies, et pardonne le fait, quand le motif est bon ? "Qui pourrait en douter, Madame? Une action, blamable en soi, devient souvent meritoire par la pensee qui l'inspire." — Boule de Suif. In Three Volumes. Vol. I. London : Richard Bentley & Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen. 1893. (All rights reserved.) > ^ THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. u) CHAPTER I. HE light had been growing stronger and stronger for some time, and the sparrows which lived in the ivy that covered the walls of the White Hart at Milcote found imore and more to say to each other as the \ sun rose higher in the heavens ; but Lance Lister still lay motionless on his back with I his eyes shut, every ounce of determination : in his nature bent on going to sleep in spite of the sun and the birds. Five hours before he had gone to bed with the same determina- tion, but hitherto it had availed him nothing, VOL. I. I 2 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGEXT. and he had passed the few hours of darkness wide awake. Yet he had tried all the well- known and usual methods of procuring sleep, besides some of his own invention. He had closed his eyes and mouth and breathed throueh his nose till he was almost suffocated. He had repeated several hundred lines of Mr. Pope's translation of the " Iliad," and, when his memory failed, had tried how much he could remember of the original — which was about thirty consecutive lines and a few scattered fragments. He had counted countless dream- sheep passing through a gap in an imaginary hedge, but had given it up, after four hundred and thirteen had passed before his mind's eye, for there really seemed no reason why they should not go on till breakfast-time. Besides — and this was the true cause of his wakefulness — every separate mutton before leaving the field had smiled satirically, and. turning her broadside towards him. had displayed on her woolly flank the legend, " Declined with thanks." written in large red letters. There was a white splash on the darkness of the carpet, and, as the day broke, THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 3 it had grown more and more distinct till it took the shape of a long fat envelope, which, in spite of his efforts to keep his eyes closed, drew them towards it. At last he could read what was written on it. It had originally been addressed, with all politeness, to ''Andrew Merry, Esq., Horse-collar Theatre, Strand," but this had been struck through and his own name (with the prefix of " Mr. ") and address substituted. The lessee had evi- dently not thought it worth while to waste either courtesy or stationery on the producer of so hopeless a work as the "farcical comedy' which the envelope contained. One consequence of this piece of clownish- ness had been that the landlord of the hotel had sought an interview with the unfortunate author and had made him a communication which had not been at all calculated to make him sleep the more soundly. The play in question had been in the hands of this particular manager so long that Lister had made up his mind that it was accepted, and had indulged in the brightest hopes on the strength of this 4 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. delusion, so that the disappointment of seeing it again was doubly severe. Nor was it only his pride that was hurt. Among the pleasing results which he had anticipated from its acceptance had been that of receiving a cheque for a sum of money proportionate to the merit which he saw in it ; and the fact that this was not forthcoming was a matter of considerable moment to him just now. At last the light became so strong, and the little chamber so hot, that Lister found it impossible to remain in bed any longer; so, with a weary impatient sigh, he kicked his blankets in all directions, jumped up and looked at himself in the mirror which stood on a rickety table right in the window. It was a very handsome face which scowled at him from the glass. The complexion of it was as clear and delicate as that of a child ; the eyes, of a blue colour, so deep as to be almost violet, were shaded with long dark lashes, and between the full red lips you caught a glimpse of a line of teeth as white and even as a puppy's. A slight silky moustache, of the colour of a ripe apricot, THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 5 barely redeemed the face from the reproach (if at four and twenty it be one) of being rather that of a woman than of a man, and even the sleepless night, which makes most people little less than hideous, had not detracted from the beauty of it. But a close observer could see that the owner of all these attractions possessed at least an average amount of masculine firmness. The rounded chin, the crimson lips set firmly together, and the almost horizontal line of the lower jaw were signs that anybody who presumed on his pretty red and white complexion to take liberties with Master Lancelot Lister might find that he had sadly mis- calculated the powers of resistance of that fascinating individual. He looked at himself with great dis- approval, and made a contemptuous grimace at his own reflection. " Bah ! " he said. " If anybody wishes to see a picture of a Hope- less Duffer, there's one for him," and he turned from the glass and looked out of the window. But even the smiling landscape, glowing under the first kisses of the July 6 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. sun, excited in him no feeling more agreeable than a sort of sulky wonder that everything in nature should look happy and joyous while so important a person as himself was dis- gusted with all the world. He made a very hasty toilette, put on his boating flannels, and, throwing a towel over his arm, went out of the room, and down the creaking stairs. Although it was so early, the household was already astir, and, as he passed through the hall, a good-looking young woman, with a great apron covering her pink print frock, her sleeves rolled up over her round white arms, and a little muslin cap on her abundant hair, peeped out of the room which he occupied whenever he was in the house, and greeted him with a charming smile. Lister responded to the silent salutation, without smiling in response. " Good morn- ing, Mrs. Bayliss," he said; "you're up in good time." Mrs. Bayliss came out of the room and leaned against the doorpost, not disinclined for conversation. THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. J " Ah," she began, " you've got to be up early in this 'ouse if you want to keep up with the work! I says to Bayliss, only yesterday, I says, ' Well/ I says, ' how you expect the 'ouse to be kept clean and respect- able, and me with only two girls to 'elp me,' I says, ' passes my compre'ension.' And he only laughs and says, ' Why, you're as good as two yourself,' he says. ' As good as two am I,' I says. ' Ah, you'll find that out when I'm dead and gone, killed with the 'ard work/ I says." " It's no great hardship to have to get up early on such a heavenly morning as this," remarked Lister, as she paused for a minute to take breath. " Ah ! it's all very well for you gentlemen to get up and go for your bathe in the river, and then come back and dress yourselves and sit down to your breakfasts without thinking who's 'ad the trouble of getting them for you. But you don't look very fit this morning, Mr. Lister. Surely you aren't going out to bathe without having a little something to eat first ! It's awful bad 8 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. you know. Now you just come in and wait while I get you something." She held the door open, and Lister passed into the room, while his obliging hostess, went with a coquettish toss of her curly head, away into her kitchen. She soon returned with a tumbler of milk in her hand. " It's just this moment come in," she observed. " I got it for Bayliss, because he was going up to town by the early train, and I've put a glass of the old rum in it." Lister drank some of the milk, and then looked up at her smiling. " You're awfully eood to me," he said. " You don't know how sorry I shall be to leave this place." " Has he been at you, then ?" asked Mrs. Bayliss, angrily. " Drat the man ! I told him to keep his tongue quiet." Lister nodded gloomily. u He sent up the bill again last night, with a note saying that he should want my room on Thursday," he said. " I told him I should be able to pay it on the first of the month ; but he didn't seem to believe me." u Believe you, indeed ! ' Mrs. Bayliss said THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 9 with indignation. " And why shouldn't he ? I often says to him, ' Bayliss, nothing'll ever make a gentleman of you/ I says ; ' and if it wasn't for me you'd never have a gentleman in the 'ouse.' I don't see anything to laugh at, Mr. Lister. It's true enough. Have you got his note with you ? " Lister handed her an envelope. " You needn't trouble yourself to read it," he said ; " it's quite formal, I assure you." The young woman took out the letter, read it through with a sneer, and then tore it into a dozen pieces and threw them into the fireplace. " There!" she said triumphantly. "So much for that. You shall stop here as long as ever you choose, and Fll make it right with him." She came closer to him, and looked straight into his eyes, while a saucy smile curved her lips and showed just a glimpse of her little white teeth. " Shan't I be mistress in my own house ? ' she said defiantly. " I'll let him see." Lister made no verbal reply, but, glancing quickly over his shoulder, put his arm round IO THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. her waist and pressed a hasty kiss on her fresh soft lips — and then tried to repeat the assault. Mrs. Bayliss gave a little shriek of out- raged modesty, and sprang away from his arm. " You wretched boy ! ' she said, with the greatest indignation. " How dare you do such a thing ? Suppose any of the girls had come in. If you ever do such a thing again, I'll—Ill " " What will you do ? Box my ears ?' " No ; I'll tell Bayliss, and he shall." The soft glance which accompanied these stout words robbed the threat of all its terrors, and Lister was on the point of putting her determination to the test, when the door was flung open, and a housemaid with a perfect armoury of brushes entered the room. Mrs. Bayliss became in a moment the demure hostess which every- body (except a very few of her particular friends) knew her to be, and said in the most business-like tone — " That's settled, then, Mr. Lister. You've THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. II changed your mind, and you'll stay on for the present." Lister had not the aplomb and self-pos- session of the ex-barmaid. He blushed like a girl, and looked so handsome that Mrs. Bayliss looked at him with even more admiration than before, and very likely wished the servant up to her neck in the river ; while Lister stammered something indistinctly and made his escape from the room. "Great Scott!" he said to himself, as he stopped outside the house to light his pipe. " That was a near thing. I wonder what that girl would have said if she'd seen me kissing ' the missis.' I really must be more careful, or I shall get into some fright- ful row some of these days." He shook his head at his own youthful folly, and set off at a smart pace down a road that bordered the river. His face was more cheerful now, for it was not in human nature — at his age, at least — to be other than happy on so perfect a morning. As he went on his step grew lighter and more 12 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. elastic ; his head went up and his chest out ; he began to whistle softly, and before he had gone half a mile he was swinging down the middle of the dusty road to the inspiriting music of the Riflemen's quick- step. " ' I'm Ninety-five, I'm Ninety-five, And to keep single I'll contrive, Whatever may or mayn't arrive,' " he sang ; and then, breaking off suddenly. he laughed aloud. " I shouldn't be able to keep single long if they were all like madame," he remarked. Then waxing poetical, " Art thou he whom men call " Light o Love " ?' ' A motherly cow, who was looking at him over a gate, appeared to think that the question was addressed to her, and turned away disgusted at his frivolity. Lister picked up a stone and threw it after the solemn beast, and then answered his own question, as he resumed his march. " Ay? said Gazvain, 'for women be so light? As they were in the days of the Round Table, so they are now and ever shall be. It really is too bad of them." THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 1 3 Anybody who heard his words, and saw his expression of disapproval, might have easily supposed that it was Mrs. Bayliss who had kissed him, instead of he her, and if he knew the truth would have accused him of the grossest affectation ; but he would have been wrong, for Lister was not at all an amorous young man, and though his good looks made it incumbent on him to eet through a certain amount of kissing in each year, it was really an amusement for which he cared very little. For about another mile his way lay between tall hedges, all sweet with honey- suckle and dog-roses, which kept off what little breeze there was. It was very hot indeed, and he rejoiced exceedingly when the lane made a sharp turn to the left, and he saw a hundred yards off the silver Thames glittering under the morning sun, and congratulated himself that before long he should be disporting himself in its waters. At the end of the lane, just on the brink of the river, was a cottage where the ferryman lived, and a landing-stage to which were 14 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. moored half a dozen boats of all sizes. The ferryman, a stout old man almost as broad as he was long, and remarkable for speaking with great purity the Cockney dialect of fifty years ago, was engaged in mopping out one of these. He greeted the young man with what sounded like a surly growl, for long exposure to all sorts of weather had made his voice as the voice of a bear. *' Goin' for a bathe, sir?' he asked, noticing the towel that hung over Lister's arm. " Yes, Cooper, I think so. Which boat shall I have ? ' " Well, sir," said Cooper, considering — for he had a reputation for wisdom, and always considered before speaking — "well, sir, you can ave any of 'em as far as that goes, but why don't ye 'ave the punt ? She's a werrv ^ood un, and them boats ain't no crood to bathe out of. You cawn't plunge out pn 'em, and you cawn't climb into 'em arter- wards. Now, with a punt you takes your Yader rififht out in the middle o' the river, THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 1 5 and there you are. And then when you wants to get back, you ain't got no difficulty in clingin' on to 'er, and arter a bit you gets your stummick over the gunnell, and there you are again." " Yes," said Lister, " that's all very well; but if you happen to have a civilized 1 stummick,' it hurts it like fun to scrape it over a gunwale. Let me tell you that, Mr. Cooper." " Well, sir, o' course, if you prefers wadin' through the mud up on to the bank, that's your business," said Cooper ; " but if it was me as was goin' bathin', I'd take the punt if there were fifty boats, and so I tells you. Lance was impressed by the solemnity of his manner, and began to think there was more in the matter than he would have supposed. So, after a minute's hesitation, he said — "All right; I'll have the punt. I shan't do myself any credit in her ; but, as I'm come out for a bath, it won't matter if I come to grief, will it ? " l6 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. The punt was unchained, and Lance skipped into it and clutched the pole that Cooper held out to him. Then she shot straight out from the bank into the middle of the river, and began to driftdown slowly, broadside on. " Better keep up-stream, sir," Cooper shouted. " It's runnin' werry strong over the weir this marnin', and you don't want to be drowned afore you've 'ad your breakfast ; ' and he chuckled grimly, and went into his cottage to get his own. Lance heard his warning, but, affecting to disregard it, pretended that he was going downstream of set purpose. As soon, how- ever, as the old man had disappeared, he dropped his pole into the water very care- fully, and with some difficulty contrived to get the punt's nose to the current. Now, the art of punting, easy as it looks, is by no means one of those accomplishments, such as poker and love-making, that come to a man by nature. In the year eighteen hundred and x it was very little practised, and a man, especially if he w T ere or had been THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. IJ at Cambridge, might pass for a very decent waterman and yet have very little idea of managing a pole and the punt that belongs to it. Lance found it easy enough to stick the former into the mud and push the latter away from it, but the mystery of " cramping" was as yet unknown to him, and he soon had the satisfaction of discovering that he was a duffer at one more thing- than he had supposed when he left his hotel. But he stuck to his work like a man, and after a good deal of waltzing up and down the river managed to get under the bank where there was less current, and then began to work up-stream, avoiding very cautiously the branches of the alders that overhung the water, and exerting himself a great deal to keep the punt from running into the bank, which she threatened to do about three times in every five minutes. He made very fair progress, and in about an hour from the time he had left the landing-stage he had travelled nearly two miles. Right ahead a great chestnut grew close to the edge of the river and threw its branches almost VOL. 1. 2 1 8 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. down to the surface of the water, forming what seemed an impenetrable barrier. Lance tried to steer his punt round it, but she refused to answer to his coaxing, and plunged her nose into the middle of the foliage. A heavy branch struck the puntsman across the face, the floor slipped from under his feet, and he fell backwards with a crash, while his craft glided on under the leaves and came into violent collision with a houseboat which was moored stem and stern on the other side of the tree. "You precious idiot!" said Lance, savagely, as he picked himself up and looked ruefully at his bleeding knuckles, from which he had knocked all the skin in his fall. " You confounded left-handed old tub of a Noah's Ark ! How the mischief came you to do that ? Of all the awkward " He stopped suddenly in his remarks, anil for the second time that morning blushed all over his face ; for at that moment he became aware that a lady was within a few feet of him. A young woman of about his own age, tall and beautifully formed — THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 1 9 " Fulva comas, longaeque manus, et maxima toto Corpore," was standing at the door of the saloon and listening to all he had to say. In the first hasty glance which he caught of her he did not think that she was particularly beautiful or even pretty, but it struck him that she had an air of great distinction, and was evidently not one of those suburban nymphs usually to be found haunting the Upper Thames in the months of July and August. He disengaged his punt as best he could, and then, lifting his straw hat, said politely — " I beg ten thousand pardons ; I hope I haven't done much damage." He looked up at her with that saucy con- fidence which had been begotten in him by the favour with which he was universally regarded by woman-kind, and seized the opportunity to take a closer view of her charms. Her expression at first sight was not a very pleasing one, being rather too set for womanly beauty. Her thin dark eyebrows almost met on her forehead ; they were separated only by an almost imper- 20 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. ceptible wrinkle, a tiny frown which seemed habitual with her. Her lips were thin, slightly depressed at the corners, and just shaded with a delicate down, which, though at present little less than adorable, suggested possibilities of future disfigurement to those who were capable of looking forward twenty years. Her hair, so dark as to be almost, if not quite, black, was twisted up into a knot at the back of her head, and displayed the pure outline of the neck on which it was set with a haughty grace. The complexion was clear and colourless, having that ivory ni07'bidezza which lights up so magnificently at night, and is so very rare in England ; and her dark eyes, shining under long silky lashes curved upwards at the ends, had a gleam in them which made one think that under the influence of passion they were capable of expressing a great deal more than they did on ordinary occasions. She was entirely covered, from her square shoulders right down to the ground, with a fleecy white peignoir, which, as she drew it round her, displayed the graceful curves of her body THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 2 1 in a manner which would have been ex- cessively trying to nineteen out of every twenty women who pride themselves on their figures. " I hope I haven't done much damage," Lance repeated apologetically. " No ; I don't think you've done much harm," the girl said, in a cool indifferent voice. " But you should be more careful when you go out in a punt. I don't think you manage it very well. You should get somebody to give you a few lessons." Lance was about to make some more or less impudent rejoinder ; but his nerve failed him. " I came out early on purpose," he said humbly, " because I thought there'd be no- body about for me to damage. I was look- ing about for a good place to bathe. Can you tell me of one ? " The girl looked at him in a cool critical manner, as if he had been a horse, or a dog, and it seemed as if a little spark kindled in the dark depths of her eyes. " Are you a good swimmer ? " she asked, 22 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. with the faintest accent of irony, as if she thought that, his skill in a punt might be the measure of his skill in the water. Lance was but an indifferent performer, and had no objection to confessing it at most times ; but her tone piqued his pride, and he answered boldly, " Not up to champion- ship form, but as good as most men about here, I think." The girl raised her eyebrows slightly, as if she resented his familiarity, and turning away flung him a negligent answer over her shoulder. " The best place to bathe is under the weir just above. They say it's dangerous ; but / never find it so." Then she disappeared through the open door of the saloon, leaving Lance much less pleased with himself than he usually felt after an interview, however short, with a member of the opposite sex. He was so accustomed to being made much of by women, that he honestly felt at a loss to understand this dark girl's manner, and the only explanation that occurred to him was THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 23 that something had happened to annoy her just before he came up. " Distinctly sulky," he murmured, as he took up his pole ; " but, Great Scott ! what a figure ! I don't think there's any violent hurry about that swim. Let's wait and see if she comes out again." He drifted down about fifty yards, and then, pushing his punt into the bank, made her fast, and, lighting a pipe, prepared to pass half an hour or so of complete laziness. But scarcely had he settled himself comfortably, when he saw another punt shoot across stream from the houseboat to the opposite bank. A young man sprang out and made his way along the towpath towards him. " He's going to pitch into me for knocking his paint about," said Lance to himself; " I'll pretend not to see him." And he took a book out of his pocket and began to read osten- tatiously. The young man came down the bank and addressed him politely. " I beg your pardon," he said in a confiden- tial sort of voice. " Would you very much mind moving a little lower down the river ? ' 24 THE COURAGE OE SYLVIA EULGENT. "What on earth for ? ' asked Lance. " Why, the fact is, my sister's waiting to take a swim, and she can't very well do it with a stranger so close to the houseboat. We're not at Trouville, you know." " Did she send you with the message ? ' asked Lance, smiling, and making prepara- tions for departure. " No, no ; of course not. But she said she couldn't do it as long as you were there : and I thought perhaps you'd like to know that you were keeping her waiting." " Oh, of course ; I'll go at once. I hope I didn't startle you just now when I ran into you. I don't think I damaged you much." " It doesn't matter if you did. The old tub doesn't belong to me ; I've only hired her for the season. Sure you don't mind moving ? Thanks ; it's awfully kind of you, I'm sure. Good morning." The attentive brother returned to the houseboat, and Lance once more took up his pole. " She was rather satirical about my swim- THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 25 ming," he said ; " I wonder what sort of a mess she'll make of it herself. I've a great mind to watch her. Better not, perhaps ; it's, a caddish sort of thing to do, and I don't think I should like the way she'd look at me if she caught me." He pushed away from the bank, and was soon floating downstream again ; but, before he had gone far, the demon of curiosity seized him ; he landed hastily, made his punt fast to the bank, and, after hiding his pole in the grass, set out to walk towards the spot where a flagstaff, bearing a broad pennon with the words Reine Margot in red letters, stuck up above the foliage that fringed the bank. Some twenty yards above this spot was a sandy spit with a great poplar growing on it, whose roots extended down into the water and formed a habitation for a colony of water-rats. The bank was fringed with a hedge G f meadowsweet and other wild flowers, and under cover of this Lance, feeling very much ashamed of himself, crept along till he reached the poplar, and 26 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. took up his station behind it till it should please the beauty to show herself. From his hiding-place he had a perfect view of tl houseboat; he could see the blaze of colour on the roof, the more delicate tints of the Indian silk window-curtains, and the polished brass fittings gleaming like gold in the sun. He had not long to wait. The young man who had spoken to him put his head out and looked cautiously up and down the river, then withdrew, apparently to report all clear. The next moment a tall figure, still shrouded in the white peignoir, came out of the saloon and ran up the steps that led to the roof — then stood still for a moment. From his corner Lance could see a pair of slender white hands busy with some strap or fastening round the waist of the skipper's sister — then the shrouding garment slipped from her shoulders and rustled to the roof, and for one minute he saw her clothed only in a dark blue French maillot, looking for all the world like a river-nymph who had made such slight concessions to nineteenth-century prudery as that somewhat abbreviated cos- THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 2 J tume affords. Then she stepped up on the bench, and, placing one bare foot on the the railing that ran round the roof, remained for a moment meditating the plunge; the next she was poised on the iron rod, her arms, bare to the shoulder, stretched out above her head, and the tips of her fingers meeting. Slowly she swayed forward slightly, and then launched herself into the air ; there was a flash as of a kingfisher darting under the dark shadow of a clump of alders — a momentary gleam of long white limbs shoot- ing across the dark background of foliage — and she had disappeared into the stream with the scarcely perceptible splash of a startled otter. Her head came to the sur- face immediately, and she began to swim quickly up-stream, throwing her arm over her head with long rhythmical strokes, steady and measured as if propelled by a steam- engine. As she approached the spot where Lance lay perdu he shrank closer to his friendly tree, and hoped with all his heart that it would not occur to her to look in his direction. But the girl was too much occu- 28 THE COURAGE OE SYLVIA FULGENT. pied with her own amusement to think of anything else, and in a few minutes she had rounded the point and disappeared from his sieht, though he could still hear the measured splash of her arm striking the water. She was soon followed by her brother in his punt, which he manoeuvred with an ease much envied by Lance, and which he sent against the stream at a pace that promised to overtake the swimmer before she had gone much further. This was evidently the end of the exhibi- tion, as far as Lance was concerned, so he rose from his uncomfortable berth behind the poplar, and turned his steps towards the place where he had left his own punt. Suddenly the words of the Naiad, " They say it's dangerous ; but / never found it so," recurred to his mind, and he divined the object of her expedition. She was going up to the weir. Why should not he go there too ? She herself had told him of the place, and could not feel offended if she saw him there — especially if he could manage to get there first. The lock was barely half THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 29 a mile to one going across country ; he could hear the rushing of the weir where he stood. He took his resolution at once, and started across the fields as fast as he could walk, in the direction of the sound. When he arrived at the lock he looked carefully down the river, but nobody was in sight, for his short cut had enabled him to gain on the swimmer and her escort. Cross- ing the lock gate, deserted at this time of the day, he made his way at a much more leisurely pace along the bank of the main stream to the weir, which lay a couple of hundred yards above, and there sat down to think things over. The river was not very high, and the water tumbled over into the lasher with a lazy plunge which was certainly not suggestive of much danger. Only in one place the stream seemed to run at all swiftly, and that was out in the middle of the river. Here and there it divided, one part of it hurrying downwards, while the other curved round in an eddy and came sliding back under the bank, bubbling and foaming and throwing up pieces of driftwood, which floated 30 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. round and round in the mimic whirlpool, dancing and tossing on the tiny waves, and seeming to share in the enjoyment of all living creatures on that brilliant summer morning. Now and again a shoal of small fishes, flying from the jaws of some fresh- water shark who, like the more important beasts of prey, was seeking his meat from God, darted through the shallow water under the bank. A large colony of sand-martins had made their procreant cradles in the high bank on the opposite side of the stream, and those members whose family cares permitted them a little amusement were wheeling and shooting over the surface of the water, utter- ing sharp joyous cries, and apparently prac- tising the evolutions of some complicated bird-quadrille, to which a musical ride was child's play ; while every now and then some anxious young mother would tear herself from the sport and shoot into her nursery window to see how her little ones were getting on. Though it was still early, the sun was burning Lance's back through his flannel THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 3 1 boating -jacket as if it had been noonday, and he was, by reason of his sharp walk, by no means so cool as he had been when sitting behind the tree. A blackbird in the hedge sang sweetly to his mate hidden in a blackthorn close by, and the monotonous note of the sheep scattered about the field supplied an accompaniment to his song. Everything seemed happy, for it was a per- fect summer morning ; and on a perfect summer morning the whole duty of the man who is so fortunate as to find himself on the brink of the Thames anywhere above Windsor is — to bathe. The blackbird in the hedge, the sheep in the field, the lazy ripple of the water, all echoed the same word, and Lance determined that he would bathe without losing any more time in think- ing about it. But, in order that he might not be caught in something even less than — 11 le simple appareil Dune beaute qu'on vient d'arracher au sommeil," he determined to plunge in without un- dressing. It was a piece of folly of which 32 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. nobody who had ever felt the red-hot pincers of rheumatism would have been guilty, but for Lance rheumatism was a pleasure to come. He took off his coat and boating- shoes, and then climbed up the bank till he found himself standing on the very edge of the weir. Then he looked down and did not much like the prospect before him. There was a fall of some six or eigrht feet and the water under the weir looked dark and forbidding — quite a different colour when you were above it. While he was considering whether he had the nerve to plunge in he heard voices, and the punt came round the bend just below. He could see the girl of the Reinc Margot still wrapped in her peig- noir sitting" in it. She must have climbed in so as to save herself for another swim in tr weir pool, and Lance felt that he would be- very much in the way If she caught sight of him, and that his best chance of seeing her dive aeain was to be in the water when she came up. Moved partly by this consideration and partly by his vanity, which whispered to him THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 33 to let her see how unfounded were her doubts of his skill, he took his courage in both hands and walked cautiously along the beam which ran over the weir. The punt was now within fifty yards, and the occupants caught sight of Lance standing up clear against the sky. The young man shouted something to him, but his words were lost in the rush of the water. Lance thought it was to ask him to wait a minute, but he knew that his nerve would not hold out if he did. He fixed his eyes on a little eddy just beyond the fall and took his plunge, straightening his body and throwing up his legs as high as he could, into the cool depths of sixteen feet of water. How deep the weir-pool was, to be sure ! it seemed as if he would never get to the bottom. His eyes were open, but he could see nothing, for the water was full of bubbles that passed by him like a flight of shooting stars. A sudden spasm of nervousness ran through him, and he tried to rise to the surface ; but it seemed as if a powerful hand seized him and held him down. He tried to strike out, but the vol. 1. 3 34 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. water ran so fast that he seemed to get no hold on it ; and then he began to find it difficult to hold his breath any longer. A sharp pain shot through his left shoulder, and his temples felt as if they were going to burst. It flashed across him that if this were not drowning it was something very like it, and he got more frightened still. The pain grew worse, and he was forced to empty his lungs ; this relieved him for the moment, but the next he felt that he must breathe or die. He made one more frantic effort to strike upwards but it was no use — he was being whirled round and round. He opened his mouth convulsively — his mouth was full of water ; he seemed to be floating in a luminous atmosphere, shot with all manner of colours, but chiefly with green ; then he was falling — falling — the colours died away — ***** Where was he ? Why had he so much difficulty in breathing, and why was he lying on his back ? What made the sun and the trees whirl round and round ; and whose voice was it that was saying, ''Confound the fellow! THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 35 he's going off again. Here, Sylvia, hold his head up while I get at my flask " ? * * * * * The whisky which was poured down Lance's throat must have gone straight to the right place, for, as soon as he had swallowed it, he regained his consciousness and struggled to get up and see what it was all about. But this was not so easy, for, though he had been not more than half drowned, he was as weak as a baby. " Better lie still a little longer," said a voice, not unkindly. (i It takes a man a few minutes to pull himself together after such a shave as you've had." " But what's the matter ? " asked Lance, still confused. " Did I fall overboard ? I don't remember." * " Overboard ? Well, yes ; if you call tumbling over a weir falling overboard." Lance now sat up and recognized the man of the houseboat, who was kneeling by him. " I didn't tumble off," he said in a hurt tone. " I dived. I remember now. And when I tried to come up again I couldn't." 36 THE COURAGE OE SYLVIA EULGENT. '* No ; and not very likely you would, with a shirt and flannels on and ever so many tons of water coming dowri on you every minute." " I'm sure I'm extremely obliged to you for pulling me out," said Lance, gratefully. 11 I should have been dead by now, I suppose, if you hadn't been near." "Well, it was my sister who did it really," said the other man, rising and shaking him- self. " I shouldn't have been much good alone ; I'm no better than you are yourself." " Oh, really " began Lance. " You've nothing to be ashamed of. She's a better man than most fellows at other things besides swimming. It was she who noticed there was something wrong, and that you didn't come up. Then we could just see you rolling about in a small whirlpool like a por- poise, and she went down and brought you up to the top, and then we soon had you out. We thought you were drowned at first ; but you very soon came round after I'd emptied the water out of you." The feeling of which Lance was chiefly THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 37 conscious at that moment was one of shame that he should have been rescued by a girl ; and, instead of being grateful to her, he was rather inclined to resent her interference. " What a feeble ass she must think me !' was his first thought. " How did she know I wasn't doing it on purpose ? ' But he smiled very graciously, and said, " I don't know the proper form of thanks to a lady who's just rescued a man from a watery grave, but I hope you'll say everything that's grateful to your sister on my behalf. Pray don't let me keep you any longer ; I think she's waiting for you, and I'm perfectly right again now." He hesitated, and then said shyly, " I hope I'm not taking a liberty, but I should like to know who it is that I'm so much indebted to, in case I should ever " " My name's Fulgent," said the other — " Fulke Fulgent ; and yours ? " " Lister. I'm staying at the White Hart at Milcote." " Ah, so close as that ! Well, I hope we shall meet again before you leave. I'm sorry I can't offer to take you back in my punt ; 3 interjecting a remark from time to time, but quite careless as to whether it was answered or not, and far too much occupied in satis- fying his own thoroughly healthy appetite to notice whether his sister was making as good a breakfast as he was. However, everything comes to an end if one waits long enough, and at last his plenteous meal was finished, and he rose from the table with a sigh of satisfaction. " Thank God for an excellent breakfast," he said piously, by way of grace after meat, "and especially for that friture de Father Thames a la diable, which, by the way, would 58 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. have been none the worse for just five grains less of red pepper ; didn't you think so ? ' u I didn't taste it," said Sylvia, absently. "I'm glad you liked it. It was Captain Vignolles who gave the recipe to Truscot, and showed him how to make it." Fulke was searching for a match to light the cigarette which he had placed in his mouth by this time, and did not take any notice of her remark. At last he found one, and the little saloon was soon filled with fragrant smoke. When his cigarette was well under weigh, he held out his case politely to his sister — " Have one, Sylvia ? " he asked carelessly. The girl shook her head. " Not this morning," she said, smiling; "it's too early. I shall be growing into a slave to them, like you, if I don't take care." " Every woman's a slave to something or somebody," Fulke remarked. " Sometimes it's to a husband, sometimes to children, generally to her waist, and sometimes to a want ; but a master of some kind is necessary to female happiness." THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 59 " And who's my master, if you please ? ' asked Sylvia, demurely. "Mr.Fulke Fulgent, perhaps ? " " I don't say every woman is supplied with one at her birth," Fulke said. " You've kept free longer than most girls ; but sooner or later you'll find him — or it. I only hope he'll be a good one, for you're just the sort to hug your chains. Tell me, what do you care most for on earth ? " Sylvia looked out of the window pensively. " I — I'm not sure," she said after a time. " Sometimes I think I used to be happiest out hunting ; but then you want so many things to make up a really good day. And you so seldom get them altogether. No ; on the whole I like swimming better." " And whom do you care for most ? ' " I don't care for anybody now," said Stella rather sorrowfully, " except a graceless boy called Fulke." " Don't you care for Vignolles ? ' asked the boy in question slyly. She shook her head. " No, of course I don't," she said contemptuously. 60 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT, Her brother frowned. " You were talking of hunting just now," he said peevishly. " Do you look forward to much hunting in the future ? " " I don't look forward to anything," she answered ; " it's the only way to keep tolerably happy." " I wish I didn't. I look forward to a writ from my last tailor within a few days, and what I'm to do, unless Mayflower pulls off the Liverpool Cup, I'll be hanged if I know." He stared gloomily at his sister, and the girl, with an exclamation of annoyance, rose from her seat and went and stood at the door, with her back to him. Presently she said, without turning her head, " Come outside, Fulke ; I want to speak to you seriously." He rose with alacrity, and they both left the saloon and stood in the bows of the boat looking down into the clear water which eurofled underneath. Fulke, thcurfi his mind was so full of his own affairs that he could not help making remarks THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 6 1 about them from time to time, hated to look them squarely in the face, and now that he could see by Sylvia's little frown that she meant making him do so, he tried to put off the inevitable moment by talking of other things. " How strong it's running to-day," he said, pitching the end of his cigarette into the river. " That Johnny had a lucky escape this morning. If you hadn't taken it into your head to have an early bath, he'd have been waiting for an interview with the coroner at this moment — that is if they'd got him out yet. Awfully stupid thing of him to do, to jump in in his flannels." " Awfully stupid if you like ; but very plucky," said Miss Fulgent. " I don't think you'd have done it, Fulke." " I'm quite sure I wouldn't," said Fulke, with conviction. " In some things you can spell my name with an N instead of an L, and jumping into a lasher's one of them. What a handsome fellow he is, to be sure ! It would have been a pity to leave him to be drowned, wouldn't it ? I expect some 62 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. girl would have been crying her eyes out by now over him." He looked slyly at his sister, to see whether she had noticed Lance's good looks. " Yes, he's certainly a pretty boy," she said with rather a scornful accent. " If you can see it when he's half drowned, he must be something very beautiful at other times. But, look here, Fulke, I didn't bring you out here to talk of his charms. I want to know all about your affairs. You've been putting me off and putting me off, and giving me hints and half words until I'm tired of it, and now I mean to know everything. So begin." She seated herself in a low deck chair, and folding her hands, put on an air of deter- mination, which considerably impressed her careless brother, who began to like the task of confession less than ever. He threw himself on the deck, and keep- ing his head turned from her, tried with a walking-stick to fish up a bunch of meadow- sweet that was floating by. " Come, go on ; begin," repeated Sylvia, bending her eyes on him. THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 6x " Well, there's not much to say," he said at last. " I'm broke ; that's about all. I've got about a hundred pounds left out of that last bill I did, and I owe — oh, millions. If Mayflower were to win next week, I should be all right for a bit ; but they say she's gone lame, and if she doesn't I don't know where I shall be, and that's the truth. And I'm sure nobody can say I've been extrava- gant. How many men are there who'd let their chambers right through the season, and come down and economize on the river, I should like to know ? " " You don't really think you've saved any- thing by it, do you ? " Sylvia asked. " I don't know. I seem to spend much the same wherever I live ; but I owed a half year's rent for the chambers, and then what that Yankee pays me for three months will just cover it. But then, of course, this houseboat's costing me five guineas a week. / don't know how I'm to get on." He stared hopelessly at Stella, and she gave an impatient sigh. " I suppose you couldn't help a fellow a 64 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. little?' he said, in a hesitating, shame-faced tone. " You know I'll repay you the moment anything turns up — and something's sure to turn up before long." Sylvia shook her head, and sighed again. " It's quite out of the question," she said, regretfully. " I would if I could ; but I've only got the interest on the mother's money now." She might have added. " You've had all the rest." "And that's only one hundred and fifty pounds a year, isn't it ? " " Not so much, now. The dividends have been reduced, and I only got one hundred and thirty pounds last year — and I can't do with less than that." " Of course you're all right," the young man said enviously. " You've always got a home as long as Aunt Marian lives — such as it is. "So have you, if you liked to study her little peculiarities." "//" said Fulke, opening his eyes. "Why I simply couldn't exist in the house. I always fancy I smell incense the moment I go in." THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 65 " And yet you don't see any hardship in my having to do it." " Oh, girls are quite different. Besides you do it from choice. You can marry and get away from it, if you like." Sylvia laughed — but not as if she were much amused. " One can always marry the wrong man," she said. " But you could marry the right one," he answered quickly, looking hard at her. " If you chose to take the trouble, you'd have Vignolles at your feet in a week. You know he's always been spoons on you, ever since he first saw you. Really he's not half a bad fellow. Have you never thought how nice it would be to have five thousand a year ? He must have all that." Sylvia nodded her head. " Very often," she said ; " if only you had to share it with somebody you could be fond of. But if you couldn't — oh ! " She gave an irrepressible shudder — all her maidenhood revolting from the idea of belonging to a man whom she did not love. " Only think of the misery of having to live constantly with somebody VOL. I. K 66 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGEXT. who wasn't sympathique — of discovering fresh faults in him every day — of constantly watching for the habits or the expressions that set your teeth on edge — of feeling that you were expected to be loving and affec- tionate, when all the time you were praying to be left alone — only left alone ; and of feeling a shiver run through you every time your husband put his hand on your arm. You can't conceive that feeling, can you ? Men are so different in those things." " Oh, I shouldn't allow myself to feel like that," said Fulke. "Certainly not, if I had plenty of money to console myself with. Ah, Sylvia, only think what you could do for me. If I could only get my debts paid, and a few hundreds to to on with I — I'd turn over a new leaf. I'd take some chambers and work like a horse. I know I could do well if only I had a fresh start ; but I'm in such an awful hole now, that I can't do any good till I'm out of it. And you know you rather like Vignolles. You always did." " I might like him well enough as lone as he didn't make love to me," said Sylvia, THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 6 J thoughtfully ; " but I can't bear all those little ladylike airs and graces he gives him- self when he's talking to girls. If he'd only treat me as if I were a man, we should get on well enough. In fact, I think I should be fond of him if he were my brother-in-law or my uncle. I told him so when " She stopped suddenly, and Fulke sprang up from the deck. " When what ?" he cried. Sylvia, blushing all over her face, frowned and bit her lip, and turned away in what, for her, was confusion. " Oh, once upon a time," she said, hesi- tating. " When we were talking about There, Fulke, don't ask questions." " Did he ask you to marry him ? " pursued her brother, mercilessly. " No, not exactly. I wouldn't let him." Fulke uttered an exclamation of annoyance. "Oh, Sylvia. You fool ! " he said regret- fully. " Do you think that men like that grow on every tree, and that you've only to put out your hand to pick one off when- ever it pleases you ? " 68 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. " Leave me alone," Sylvia said, with a peevish motion of her shoulders. " I won't be scolded by a boy like you. I don't want to marry anybody." " But you must be married some day. You don't want to die an old maid, do you ? ' Sylvia's shoulders expressed complete in- difference. " And — and there's another thing. Aunt Marian's getting pretty old. She can't live very many years anyhow, and what would you do if she were to die suddenly ? ' " I should live on my private means," said Sylvia, pompously. " On a hundred and twenty pounds a year ? I should like to see you." There was a long pause, and Fulke re- turned to his sport of fishing for the hand- fuls of grass which floated past, borne by the stream from some riverside meadow where they were getting in the hay harvest. At last. " Give me a cigarette," said Sylvia, suddenly. " I wish you'd never taught me to smoke, you horrid boy. When- ever I'm thinking seriously I feel as if I THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 69 must have one, and you encourage me in the habit." He handed her his case, smiling, then struck a match, and gave it to her. " I'm charmed to think that I've been the means of instructing you in so indispensable an accom- plishment," he said, with a formal bow, and they both burst out laughing. " Is it indispensable?' asked Sylvia, ex- pelling a long spiral of blue smoke from her lips, and watching it drift to leeward and gradually melt away and disappear under the eaves of the roof. " So I'm told — if you wish to be in the movement. Lady Hinkley smokes six cigar- ettes a day, neither more nor less. She's the only real woman of fashion I know, so I have to judge by her." " Do you call her a woman of fashion ? ' asked Sylvia, contemptuously. " Why, she used to be — what was it ? " " I don't know," said Fulke, dryly. " She was one of those women who threw her cap over the windmill, and found it come down a coronet." JO THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. " Did she ever ask you about me ? " asked Sylvia. " She used to be fond of me when I was a child." " Yes. The last time I saw her she asked where you were living, and when I told her it was with Aunt Marian, she said, ' What a Pity! " " I should like to see her again," Sylvia said thoughtfully ; " but it's no use trying to know people of that kind as long as you live at Spring Hill." " Not the smallest," Fulke assented ; and there was another pause. Sylvia smoked her cigarette quickly, as if it were a dose of medicine which had to be got through with as little waste of time as possible. " It's much more for your own sake than for mine that you want me to marry, isn't it ? " she said suddenly. " Now, be open and straightforward, Fulke. Tell me what good you expect it would do you if I were engaged to Captain Vignolles to-morrow ? ' " All the good in the world," he replied without hesitation. " I could get that bill THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. J I renewed for six months ; I could get him to take over the mortgage on Summerhayes, and allow me a little out of the rents. Even now there's at least a hundred a year over and above the interest, but Mordaunt and Lascelles always manage to swallow it up with some dodofe or other." " That's not very gentleman-like," said Sylvia. "One would expect better treatment from people with such names." " Names, indeed ! " Fulke replied with huge contempt. " Who goes by names now- adays ? Their real names are Mordecai and Lazarus, and you bet they live up to them. They're doing all they can to get the interest in arrear, so that they may have a decent excuse to sell the property, and that's the last bit of the old land we've got left. When that's sold you won't find the name of Fulgent in the ' Landed Gentry ' any more, and we shall be plebeians after two hundred years of aristocracy. What does it matter, after all ? It's bound to come, if neither of us will make a few sacrifices for the family." Then Sylvia grew very angry with her pet 72 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. brother. A lovely crimson flush appeared under her darkly pale skin, and her eyes sparkled like diamonds. With an impatient gesture she threw what was left of her cigarette, if not at, certainly in the direction of, the figure lounging on the deck, and spake with her tongue. She pointed out to Fulke in the most unmistakable lan^ua^e that he had always been a spoiled boy; that she had always been sacrificed to him ever since she was four years old and he was three ; that he had never done a single day's work in his whole life ; that he had been taken away from Winchester because he complained of being bullied ; that his tutor had refused to keep him because he only made the other lads idle, so that he had been unable to go up for Sandhurst ; that it had been with the greatest difficulty that his colonel had been got to sign his certificates when he went up for the Line from the Militia; and that, when he did at last eet before the examiners, he had made a most painful exhibition of himself. Proceeding with her biographical sketch, she displayed THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. J$ a knowledge of his life which he was much surprised to find that she pos- sessed. She reminded him that he had lost seven hundred pounds in one night at a certain club of no particular reputa- tion for respectability, and was not disposed to soften her censure when he pleaded humbly that he had had his pocket picked. With an apology for referring to herself, she asked him what he had done with the thousand pounds she had given him before he came of age, a question to which he could give no answer worth recording. Her perora- tion consisted of a statement that he had spent or muddled away more than twelve thousand pounds before he was five and twenty, that he was absolutely incapable of earning a hundred a year if he had a dozen brothers-in-law to help him, and that her advice to him was to go down to Alder- shot and enlist in the first regiment ordered for India. About this time her eyes began to sparkle with something other than passion, something: which came out on to her lon^ dark lashes and shone there, and though she 74 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. hastily turned away to conceal her tears, it was not before Fulke, whose mouth had been growing sulkier and more set at each fresh accusation, had seen them. The sight of those glittering drops moved him out of his resentment at her plain language, for he was fond of his sister in his own selfish way, and it was very seldom indeed that he had ever seen her crying. " I know I'm all you say, Sylvia," he said penitently. " I've been a regular Juggins, with the biggest capital J you can find. It all came of losing my father before I was old enough to know anything about the world. If I'd got that money to come into now, I should know how to use it. You're wrong if you think I haven't learned wisdom from adversity. If I could only get a fresh start — that's what I want." The two or three tears which Sylvia had shed were dry by now, and she was examin- ing the hem of her handkerchief with great interest. "It wasn't half so much for myself, though, as for you that I made that suggestion, " THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 75 went on the tempter. " I shall get on somehow and somewhere. It won't be in England, though ; and I shouldn't like to leave you behind with nobody to look after you. A girl's not fit to be left alone — not such a handsome girl as you are, at least." " 1 don't think you need be afraid for my safety," Sylvia said ironically. " Why shouldn't we go away together ? My money would be enough to keep us out of the workhouse — if there are such things out of England." Mr. Fulgent smiled, though he did not let her see it. From what he had heard of the colonies, he fancied that he could lead a not unenjoyable life in some one of them ; but he did not want his sister with him. Not even a hundred and thirty pounds a year to be divided between two people was enough tempt him. He assumed a look of loving protection, and said tenderly — " My dearest girl, you don't know what you're talking about. I should have to rough it in a way you've no idea of. The only thing I'm any good at is riding, and I y6 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. should have to go up the country and get on some of those cattle stations as an over- seer or something of that sort. I know a man — you remember him, Spilsby, who was in the 12th Lancers — who went broke over Bobtail's Cambridgeshire, and had to go out there. He's doing quite well now, so his brother told me the other day. He had fever twice though," he added, with an air of great candour, "and was nearly starved to death before he could find a berth to creep into." " Well," said Sylvia impatiently, shaking her head, as if to shake the worry out of it, " don't let us talk any more about it this morn- ing. You're not starving now, at all events. What are you going to do to-day ? ' " I told Vignolles I'd wait in for him," said Fulke, only too glad to dismiss the subject of his difficulties from his mind. "He said he'd stroll down after breakfast — his breakfast. I told him you'd be here," he added in a significant tone, and the girl laughed contemptuously — her brother's little plot was such a very transparent one. THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. J J " I say, Sylvie dear," he went on in a coaxing tone, " you'll be civil to him, won't you ? He really is an awfully good fellow." These words " Sylvie dear " were a relic of childhood which, coming from her brother's lips, Miss Fulgent could never resist. When she heard them she could see, as one sees a landscape in a flash of lightning, the old house at Stretton and two children at play, of whom one was herself — sometimes it would be in the long picture-gallery, where they used to run races and play at ninepins, sometimes in the big old library, where they played at hide-and-seek on wet days ; some- times they would be romping with the dogs on the lawn, while the long-dead mother sat supported by cushions in a garden-chair and smiled feebly on their gambols. But what- ever corner of the place it was that came back to her remembrance there was also her little brother, as she used to call him when she herself could almost have crept into a keeper's pocket ; that impudent, idle, mischievous little scapegrace whom she had loved with something of a mother's affection, /8 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. and whom, quite as idle and perhaps still more mischievous at five and twenty, she loved still very little less than she had done in those far-off childish days. All the ill- humour and perplexity vanished from her face and were at once replaced by a smile of ' r reat fondness. "Am I not always civil to everybody?' she demanded. " Oh, invariably — especially to me," said Fulke, laughing. " You don't count as anybody. What's the use of having a brother if you mayn't scold him when he deserves it. Don't go away ; I shall be back directly." Sylvia disappeared into the saloon, and in a minute or two Fulke heard her voice in a joyous cry. "What is it?" he asked. "Have you found a ten-pound note ? because, if so, it's mine." She came to the door with a foil in her hand, and saluted with all the grace and precision of a maitrc tfarmes. " You dear boy," she said, " to bring these THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 79 things down here. Did you bring a pair of masks ? " " One wouldn't be of much use in these parts," said Fulke. " Truscot will get them for you, if you would like me to give you a lesson. Come on, it'll do me good ; and Fit give you some work to do, Miss Sylvia." I& CHAPTER IV. RIGHT Phoebus — as the sun is still oc- casionally called by sporting writers — had now reached the highest point on the road on which he drives his coach during the summer months, and was just pulling his team together before launching it down the lonor incline that ends in the western waves. In other words, it was high noon — and a blazing hot day. Few of those mortals, for whose benefit the daily journey is performed, felt the heat more unpleasantly than a gentleman who was making his way across an endless field, steering his course towards the flag staff which showed the moorings of the Rcine M argot. Yet he was dressed with scrupulous care and a due regard for the THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT, 8 1 season of the year. He was clothed en- tirely in white, and his costume was in the extreme height of aquatic fashion. His coat and trousers were of the finest sersfe, his shirt and socks of the most delicate silk, and his tan shoes were polished to quite a bewildering degree of brilliancy. His tie and the ribbon on his straw hat were mauve, with a small stripe of the faintest and most delicate flesh colour, which matched the carnation which he wore in his button- hole. At the first glance, particularly if it had fallen on him when he was standing still, you would have taken him for six and twenty ; but a second and closer inspection would have shown a good many silver threads in his black hair, especially where it had been brushed back from his temples, while the network of deep lines, which had been unmistakably traced by the pencil of Time, round his dark hazel eyes, were quite inconsistent with the comparatively tender age which had at first been suggested to your mind. His step had none of the VOL. i. 6 82 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. elasticity of a young man's, and, although from time to time he straightened his back, threw up his head, and put down his foot more firmly, it was manifestly with rather a painful effort that he did so ; and the moment the effort was relaxed his shoulders fell, his chest contracted, and his head drooped for- ward into the position that seemed habitual to him. Notwithstanding, however, that he was evidently much distressed by the heat, he plodded bravely on, only stopping from time to time to take off his hat and wipe his forehead with a dainty (hateful, but inevitable word!) lawn pocket-handkerchief, which smelt sweeter than the honeysuckles in the hedge, and which would have matched a teagown all lace and satin much better than it matched his straw hat and tan shoes. At last he arrived, panting, at the end of the long foot- path across the field, and could see through an opening in the foliage the blue-and-white broadside of the houseboat, pierced with four windows and gay with flowers. He was so out of breath that he Hung himself THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT, 8 3 o on the grass to recover a little coolness before presenting himself in the guise of a visitor to the critical eyes of the skipper's sister. For Edmund Vignolles, as may have been guessed from the foregoing description of his person and attire, was a man who thought a great deal of his appearance, and knew that nothing is so unbecoming to the complexion as the effects of a sharp walk on a hot day. Also, although he was rather an effeminate person than not, he had sufficient manliness to be ashamed of his effeminacy, and would not for all the world have had it thought that so simple a thing as a walk of a mile could put him into such a state of discomposure as that in which he now found himself. A little breeze came over the river and fanned his over-heated brow deliciously ; the bees kept up a continual murmur ; the wash of the weir sounded sweetly in the distance, now loud, now low, as the wind came in little gusts or died down altogether for the moment. Everything conspired to make him feel drowsy ; his eyes closed, and his head 84 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. fell back, when suddenly there sounded from the inside of the boat the stamping of feet and the clink of steel, and now and then a sharp exclamation. Presently the warlike noise ceased, and for two seconds there was silence ; then a sound as of some metal instrument thrown violently on the floor, and a burst of feminine laughter, followed by a scrap of dialogue. " Don't be so ill-tempered, Fulke. I'm ashamed of you." " I'm not ill-tempered. I dropped it by accident." " Well, pick it up again, then. You're awfully out of practice, you know. Now, I'll give you a short lesson, and then we'll have another assault. Now then — En garde — disengage — lunge ! " Again the steel clashed and clinked, and the teacher rattled out a rapid string oi words of command. "Now, attend. Parry carte. Parry tierce. Very good ! One, two, three. No. Engan again. One, two, three. That's better ; you're getting quicker every time. Parry. THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 85 Riposte in tierce. Ah ! Now fendez-vous. Parry this ! " " Seems as if the dear boy were getting more than he wanted," said Mr. Vignolles. '" What an amazon it is, to be sure. I must see how she looks en tenne de combat." He rose, and, after dusting his trousers very carefully, stepped delicately down the bank and sprang across at least three feet of water on to the deck of the houseboat, and then peeped through the window into the saloon. The sight before him was more curious than pretty perhaps, but not without interest to any one who admired the female form in vigorous action. All the furniture had been taken out or piled against the walls, and there was thus left in the middle an open space of some sixteen feet by nine. In this champ clos a desperate duel was being fought, between a pair of combatants of opposite sexes — the lady excelling her male adversary in grace, quickness, and science, as much as he excelled her in strength and weight, which latter excellence, however, is of much less moment in a fight 86 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. with swords than in a set-to with nature's weapons. Sylvia was dressed — but no ! we refuse to describe that fearful costume. The lesson which she had been giving to her brother seemed to have ended in a regular or rather an irregular set-to, for there was some very loose play going on. Fulke seemed piqued by his sister's superiority, and, determined to wipe out the remembrance of his defeat, was attacking her with as much fire and determination as if she had been a man, while she, with the utmost coolness and ease, defended herself against all his assaults, and put by his furious lunges with scarcely an effort. But at last she began to tire, for in spite of her skill he was giving her a great deal of work, and her parries and ripostes were executed with less quickness. Perceiving this, Fulke redoubled his exertions, and the clink of the swords became as unceasing as blows of a hammer on an anvil. Several times she was nearly hit, but she still kept on her defence without making any counter-attack, threatening from THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. Sy time to time, now his face and now his breast, but never letting herself go. Fulke seemed to fence better the longer he went on. He tried all manner of feints and tricks, but all to no purpose. Wherever his point went, there was Sylvia's blade ready to turn it aside, and he began to lose his temper. At last he delivered a thrust a fond with such quickness that Sylvia was unable to parry it altogether and the point grazed her arm. Had there been no button on it, she would have had a nasty scratch which would have given a boulevardier an excuse for wearing his arm in a sling for a fortnight, and something to brag about for the rest of his life. She hastily acknowledged the hit. " Touche" she cried ; and then, thinking she had sufficiently flattered her brother's vanity, attacked in her turn. Her point flew like circular lightning round Fulke's blade. She made a rapid feint in tierce and as he left himself uncovered for an instant in his effort to parry it, she recovered her sword and lunging straight forward in a flanconnade 88 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. irresistible in its rapidity, hit him right under the arm with such force that the elastic steel bent like a bow, and snapped in two. " There's no necessity to acknowledge that hit," said Fulke, looking rather foolish as he tore off his mask and panted like a hunted dog. " What an eye you've got, Sylvia. I could have sworn I was holding your blade when I felt it strike me. It's a good thing for me it was only play — your point would have gone right through me." Sylvia made no reply to this compliment ; she had just caught sight of the smiling face at the window, and was shaking the hilt of the broken foil threateningly at the owner of it. " Did you know there was a witness of your defeat ? " she said to Fulke. " Look ! there he is peeping in through the window now. Avenge yourself on him, while I make myself look respectable." And she began to disentangle her mask from the loose coils of her hair in which it had got caught. At the same moment Vignolles appeared in the doorway with his hands joined in a THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 89 pretty penitent attitude, like a saint in a stained-glass window. " Mea culpa, mea culpa. Confiteor" he simpered. " Don't punish me by going away, Miss Fulgent. I really had an in- vitation to come here this morning, and I didn't dare interrupt you. You look like Joan of Arc at six stone ten." " I'm not at home," said Sylvia, turning her back and struggling with the spring of the mask. " I shall be visible in ten minutes, and in the mean time you can amuse yourself with picking up the pieces of Fulke. I thought I must give him a lesson after he'd pinked me in the arm." She disappeared into her cabin, mask and all, and Fulke got out of his fencing glove and thick leather jacket, and tore open his flannel shirt. " Look here," he said, pointing to a red mark on his right breast, " right through the lungs. That Johnny in the Three Muske- teers — what's his distinguished name ? Athos — couldn't have done it better. My word ! it is hot. She's as quick as a wild- 90 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. cat and as active as a monkey. I must have something to drink or I shall die. What will you have, old chappie ? Some whisky and soda while my man makes a cider-cup." " I'll have some soda-water, please, and — yes, a lemon in it," Vignolles said thought- fully. " You haven't got any cold tea, I suppose ? " " Good lord ! no. What on earth's the matter with you ? " " I've been seeing doctors," said Vignolles, " and I've had a nasty jar. It seems there's something wrong with one of my lungs, and something else inside me isn't at all as it should be. Old Harvey Smith didn't spare my feelings. He told me I'd begun life much too early, and I must take a regular pull at myself if I wanted to make old bones. Did you ever hear such an expression ? ' 11 Never," said Fulke, pressing the electric bell ; " but it's a deuced picturesque one. It just describes what I feel like at this moment. Whisky and soda," he went on as his servant came to the door — "in a bucket, and some lemon-squash — in a tumbler." THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 9 1 " How well your sister fences ! " said Vignolles, taking up a foil and making a feeble awkward lunge at a sofa cushion. 11 Where did she learn — in Paris ? " " Yes, at first ; but it was Casani who really taught her. She does everything of that sort well. It's a thousand pities she isn't a man. She's got all the brains and all the pluck of the family, and it'll be all thrown away. What she'll do with it I'm sure I don't know." "Why, what should she do but marry, like everybody else ? " said Vignolles, quickly. "You wouldn't have her go in for the County Council, would you ? " Fulke shrugged his shoulders and sighed "We've got no money now, you know," he said. " That's horribly against a girl nowadays ; and, besides, living up at that hole where my aunt will live, she never sees anybody but parsons and a few old fogies. Ah, at last ! " The servant came in with refreshments, and handed Vignolles his innocuous tumbler, while Fulke seized eagerly upon his larger 92 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. one, and poured the whole of the contents down his throat before his guest had taken his first delicate sip, then gave a long sigh of relief. " Blessed be the man who invented soda- water," he remarked piously, "and the name of the deity who first taught men to make whisky. I shall make Sylvia fence with me every morning while she's staying here. The thirst which it causes is beyond all price. Well, young woman, how do you feel after your exertions ? " It was difficult to recognize in the demure piece of womanhood that came out of an inner cabin the fiery duellist of twenty minutes ago. Conscious that masculinity is the last shift of women who have failed as such, and that in male eyes a little of it goes a very long way, Sylvia had taken great pains to efface every trace of her late amuse- ment. Her hair was as neat as if she had been going to a dinner-party, and a touch of powder on her glowing cheeks had subdued the flush of battle to a becoming tint ; her eyes still sparkled, but it was in quite a THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 93 feminine way. The short apology for a petticoat had been replaced by a white flannel skirt, which descended in straight severe folds and only stopped an inch, or at most two inches, from the deck ; her short jacket, thrown wide apart, displayed a great soft piece of Indian silk of a colour between white and yellow, which was fastened, where her round throat began to lose its name, with a small diamond, and descended thence in soft curves to a silver-mounted leather belt, drawn half an inch tighter than usual and supporting a silver chatelaine heavy with feminine playthings. The looseness of the silk suggested a fulness of the bust which had nothing in the least masculine about it. She seated herself in a deck-chair, and crossing her feet displayed a pair of low- cut tan shoes and a glimpse of old-gold coloured stockings drawn tight round slender ankles, which seemed incapable of supporting their owner in anything more laborious than a waltz. " Now I'm ready to receive company," she said, and turning to Vignolles, simper- 94 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. ing before her, asked, in an affected tone, " Have you been here long, Captain Vig- nolles ? I'm so sorry I was out when you called." Vignolles was one of those men whose voice and manner undergo a total change when they address a woman — especially if she be young and good-looking — and who therefore are generally not quite so popular among women as persons who are less glaringly anxious to be so. " Now you know," he said, with a little laugh and a little wag of his forefinger, " it's very naughty to tell fibs. Who was the young lady I saw just now through the window, I wonder ? " " I don't know, I'm sure," said Sylvia, languidly fanning herself with her straw hat. " What was she like ? Fulke, who was the girl that Captain Vignolles saw through the window just now ? ' "A relation of mine," said Fulke. "It was a young woman that I was giving a fencing lesson to ; a coxy little thing who thinks she knows something about the eame. THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 95 I let her beat me at it just to keep her in a good humour." "And I suppose she had on that horrid fencing costume, and was the colour of beet- root in a salad. Didn't she look hideous, Captain Vignolles ? " "She looked charmin', positively charmin'," said Vignolles, gallantly. ' " You know, that sort of thing is so becomin' to some girls. The day's gone by for what I call effeminate women. It isn't the style any more, you know. We don't think anything of a woman now unless she can beat us at our own games." "And what is your particular game ?" said Sylvia, with the faintest accent of lazy con- tempt in her voice, as she looked under her eyelashes at the frail limbs and small delicate hands of her visitor. " Football ? " " Oh no ; not football — that's so very rough," said Vignolles. " That'll always be a game for men — great strong men. But lawn tennis, and rowin', and skatin' ' " And fencin' ? " interjected Sylvia. " Yes, and fencin'," said he, not noticing 96 THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. that she was mocking him ; " and everything that doesn't require strength so much as skill — and paintin', and — oh, lots of things." 11 And you don't mind being beaten by girls ? " " Well, you know, they can't really beat us. We let them think they can ; but if a man really puts out his strength, why, where are they ? " "Where, indeed!" said Sylvia, laughing slily. " I'm glad I know how much we ov to your sense of chivalry." Fulke was not joining in this intellectual conversation. He was sitting with a pipe in his mouth on the edge of the roof, on which he had climbed, being, in spite of his five and twenty years, a mere boy in some respects, and having a certain boyish light- heartedness which led him, when he was at liberty to please himself, to climb on to situations which he might have ascended by mechanical means, and to perch himself on places which had not been designed for seats. He looked at Sylvia with greater admiration than young men usually permit THE COURAGE OF SYLVIA FULGENT. 97 themselves to feel for their own sisters ; he took in every detail of her costume ; he wondered whether the charm of the manner in which she turned her head was due to a natural grace of movement or the result of study before a looking-glass, and he an- nounced to himself, as a discovery which did some credit to his penetration, that she was the best looking girl he had seen for a long time. " If I think that, who am her brother," he thought, " I don't think there's much doubt that other fellows must too. Oh, I don't think there's much doubt about it. If she'll only be decently civil to him she'll have it all her own way. Well, I think I've done all I can for the present, and I'll leave her to work the oracle alone. It's my first attempt at match-making, and I'm more likely to spoil it by doing too much than too little." He swung himself down to the deck, alighting within an inch of Vignolles' dainty feet, and announced that he was goine to take the punt down to the ferry to ask Cooper about some lines, and, well knowing VOL. 1. 7 9