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 JANOc 
 
 au^ 
 
 L161— O-1096
 
 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 a
 
 THE 
 
 QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 A NO VEL 
 
 BY 
 
 S. BARING-GOULD 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 'iMEHALAH,' 'iN THE ROAR OF THE SEA, 
 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLS. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. 
 LONDON 
 
 1894
 
 7 :a -? 
 
 v. T' 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OHAP. 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I.— The Deputation, 
 
 
 1 
 
 II. — How THE Deputation fared, 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 III.— Old Hall Field, 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 IV.— Rab Rainbow, 
 
 
 
 
 37 
 
 V.—*' Hammer " Grice, . 
 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 VI.— The Circus, 
 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 VII.— Rab TO THE Rescue, . 
 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 VIII.— Nuts, . 
 
 
 
 
 79 
 
 IX.— Brother or no Brother ? 
 
 
 
 
 92 
 
 X.— An Orphan, , 
 
 
 
 
 105 
 
 XI.— Ada Button, . 
 
 
 
 
 116 
 
 XII.— Rab's Right, . 
 
 
 
 
 126 
 
 XIII.— No ! No ! No ! 
 
 
 
 
 135 
 
 XIV.— Beggar-My-Neighbour, 
 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 '^ XV.— Again: Beggar-My-Neighbour, 
 
 
 
 155 
 
 XVI.— The Tight-Rope, 
 
 
 
 
 165
 
 THE QUEEN OF LOVE
 
 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE DEPUTATION. 
 
 A SINGLE cab or fly — that was the sole equipage let 
 out on hire in the town of Saltwich. 
 
 It had an arrangement whereby it could appear 
 with a pair on very solemn occasions. Usually it 
 wore shafts, between which shuffled one horse. 
 
 The fly was painted black, and when engaged for 
 a funeral it had a cushion and vallance of black for 
 the box. The interior was lined with a very deep 
 green, so deep that when the black trimmings were 
 on the box it might be thought that the whole vehicle 
 was plunged in the inkiest depths of woe. 
 
 But when the fly was required for a wedding, then 
 the cushions and vallance on the box were of a cheer- 
 VOL. I. A
 
 2 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 ful green, and the interior drapery brightened up 
 into a corresponding smile. 
 
 But the fly was also engaged, occasionally, by such 
 persons as did not keep carriages, to convey them to 
 country houses to make calls. On such occasions the 
 driver assumed a hat with a broad gold band, and a 
 greatcoat with armorial brass buttons ; moreover, the 
 proprietor applied to the side a red lion passant, sur- 
 mounted by a coronet. On being called out for a 
 funeral, the driver wore a hat muffled in crape. When 
 he conducted a wedding-party, he wore a favour of 
 white ribbons. At elections he wore sometimes an 
 orange and blue, sometimes a red rosette, according as 
 he was engaged, along with his cab, by the Liberal or 
 the Conservative parties. 
 
 The driver was out at the precise moment and day 
 and year on which this story opens, lightly touching 
 up his one horse between the shafts, and he wore no 
 distinguishing badge of mirth or woe. The cab con- 
 tained three men in their best suits — the suits in 
 which they attended chapel on Sundays, and appeared 
 on platforms at temperance or missionary meetings. 
 
 The driver, whose face was flexible as gutta-percha, 
 had accommodated his features to his fare. He looked 
 as serious as though engaged in the undertaking busi- 
 ness. His nose was pointed along the axis of the 
 spine of his horse ; nevertheless, his eyes turned into 
 the comers to observe an immense illustrated poster
 
 THE DEPUTATION 3 
 
 representing the achievements of horses, dogs and 
 men belonging to a travelling circus. 
 
 "Stop! Stop!" 
 
 A head emerged from the right side of the cab. 
 The head was that of a man of nearly sixty. He had 
 very dark hair growing thickly over his head and 
 neck, and below his chin. He was closely-shaved on 
 the jaws and about the mouth. His eyes were dark, 
 his face square, his features heavy. 
 
 " Stop ! Stop ! " 
 
 A head emerged from the left side of the cab. The 
 head was covered with sandy hair, the eyes were of 
 a watery blue, the cheek florid. The man was stout, 
 and had a short neck. 
 
 The obedient driver dreAV up. 
 
 Both heads were drawn in. 
 
 Then the dark-haired man addressed a man with 
 the face of a sheep, who sat with his back to the 
 horses. 
 
 "Mr Poles, will you get out, and with your um- 
 brella scrape down that abominable placard? It is 
 indecent ! " 
 
 " Do, please, Mr Poles. It will serve as a protest," 
 said the sandy-haired man. 
 
 "Must I?" asked the gentleman with the sheep's 
 head. 
 
 " Indeed, indeed you must. We will wait for you. 
 Thomas shall not drive on. Consider the privilege,
 
 4 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Poles, of putting away evil. Act up to your name. 
 Be a Phineas; use your umbrella." 
 
 Thus adjured, the sheep-faced man stumbled out 
 over the knees of the dark occupant of the back seat, 
 and proceeded to efface the placard with the ferrule of 
 his umbrella. 
 
 " It's rather large," said he, " and the paste is ad- 
 hesive." 
 
 " Rip it down," advised the fair-haired m.an. 
 
 "Jump and lay hold of the shreds, and you will 
 peel off large pieces," urged the dark man. 
 
 Some boys began to collect and utter protests. A 
 handful of mud thrown by one urchin, who had 
 secreted himself behind the carriage, struck Mr Poles 
 in the small of the back. 
 
 " Poles ! " called one of the inmates of the cab, " you 
 had better return to us. The Moabites are upon us. 
 We will drive on." 
 
 Accordingly, the sheep-faced witness to decorum 
 re-entered the cab. 
 
 "Go on, Thomas," said the dark head at one window. 
 
 "You may drive on," said the sandy head at the 
 other window. 
 
 Meanwhile, a labouring man, standing near the 
 front wheel of the vehicle, asked the driver whom 
 he was conveying. 
 
 "It's a deputation," answered the coachman, with- 
 out turning his head.
 
 THE DEPUTATION 5 
 
 " And what monkey-tricks be this bloomin' deputa- 
 tion after ? " further inquired the workman. 
 
 "It's goin' to protest agin' the circus, and stop it, 
 if it can, from comin' into Saltwich." 
 
 " Thomas ! I said ' drive on 1' " called the dark- 
 haired, interior passenger from the left window. 
 
 " Do you hear ? Drive on ! " said the fair-haired 
 passenger from the right window. 
 
 The labouring man, looking steadily at the face on 
 the left, said, — 
 
 " Oh ! that's Jabez Grice." Then he cauo^ht sio-ht 
 of the sandy-haired man on the right, and said, " So ! 
 Nottershaw is one of this deputation. And Poles," 
 he added, as his eye caught the side-face of the sheep- 
 like man with his back to the horses. 
 
 The driver had described his fare concisely and 
 accurately. He was, in fact, conveying a deputation 
 commissioned by the Seriously-Minded of the town of 
 Saltwich, and that deputation consisted of the quint- 
 essence of that body — the cream, the core of all that 
 was respectable and sedate. Out of rude, common 
 life, the ore was laboriously extracted by the efforts 
 of the various ministers of the several denominations 
 in Saltwich. The fine gold of perfect humanity thus 
 obtained was run into the moulds of the different 
 denominational chapels. But just as an alchemist 
 who sublimates gold draws from it one essential, nay, 
 super-essential drop, so did each congregation of the
 
 6 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Seriously-Minded, on distillation, yield up a quint- 
 essence ; and such drops of superlative excellence were 
 the three gentlemen who formed the deputation — Mr 
 Jabez Grice, foreman of Messrs Brundrith's Salt 
 Works ; Mr John Nottershaw, architect, builder, con- 
 tractor and surveyor ; and Mr Phineas Poles the 
 paperhanger. 
 
 Saltwich was a Cheshire Jerusalem, whither the 
 tribes of the Seriously-Minded went up to deepen 
 their gravity, build up their self-assurance, and 
 sharpen the severity with which they judged their 
 neighbours. 
 
 Unhappily there were tares among the wheat, dross 
 along with the gold — a certain number in the place 
 who could not be purged of their grossness, however 
 vigorously the bellows might be blown and the rakes 
 applied. Resolutely and defiantly they maintained 
 their levity. 
 
 If it had been possible to have accommodated all 
 the Seriously-Minded along one side of the street, and 
 relegated the frivolous to the other side, it would 
 have been satisfactory. But practically this was not 
 feasible. A veritable puss-in-the-corner, or prisoners* 
 bass, was played in Saltwich. Some of the most 
 worldly became for a while grave, and passed over to 
 the side of the sedate ; then some of the seriously-dis- 
 posed relapsed, and were found in the congregation 
 of the frivolous. It was not possible, geographically,
 
 THE DEPUTATION 7 
 
 to circumscribe or distribute the two classes. And 
 yet, to a limited extent, such a separation had been 
 effected, and one portion of Saltwich went vulgarly 
 by the name of Jewry, another by that of Heathen- 
 dom. The eminently serious had succeeded in secur- 
 ing most of the offices of authority and trust in the 
 place, and they had established an outward semblance 
 of gi'avity in the town. The only large hall in Salt- 
 wich was under their control, and no theatrical per- 
 formances, no nigger- minstrelsy, no public dances were 
 ever suffered to take place within its walls. Nothing 
 was tolerated beneath its roof more sportive than a 
 missionary meeting, more entertaining than dissolving 
 views of Palestine. 
 
 A quiver of dismay ran through austere Saltwich 
 when it was blazed abroad on every hoarding, and at 
 every street-corner, that the circus of Signor Giuseppi 
 Santi, with galloping ostriches, naked Indians, per- 
 forming dogs, short-skirted dancers, clowns, trapezists» 
 bounders through fiery hoops, was about to enter the 
 town, erect its booths, and give a performance — and 
 that, moreover, on the very evening upon which the 
 renowned Rev. Dr Tallow of Jericho, U.S.A., was 
 advertised to give an impressive undenominational 
 and awakening exercise in the Town Hall, with the 
 approval of all denominations in Saltwich. 
 
 It was such a privilege to have, for one night, Dr 
 Tallow in their midst. It was so important to give
 
 8 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 him an united, an enthusiastic reception. It was so 
 advisable to impress on the reverend doctor the in- 
 tense seriousness of the inhabitants — and now, on that 
 very day when the Rev. Dr Tallow entered the town 
 at one side, slightly-draped damsels and men in flesh- 
 ings, clowns in paint and powder, and piebald ponies 
 would be entering it on the other side ; and, what was 
 worst of all, at the very time that the Rev. Dr Tallow 
 was to coruscate in his most brilliant periods, pirouette 
 at the apex of his loftiest elocution — at that very time, 
 within a stone's cast of the hall, a circus with painted 
 Jezebels and half -draped Bathshebas, and every de- 
 scription of allurement that the wicked world could 
 offer, would be attracting to it the young and the 
 thoughtless. 
 
 The sting of the consideration lay in the fact just 
 alluded to, that the circus would be planted within a 
 stone's throw of the Town Hall. 
 
 Owing to the frequent and protracted subsidences 
 of the land as the salt rock beneath the town was ex- 
 tracted, the Old Town Hall had gone to pieces, and had 
 sunk half-way up its first floor, and had to be pulled 
 down. Then a New Town Hall had been erected on 
 higher ground, on a space that was considered secure. 
 As there was open ground hard by, the proprietor of 
 the circus had obtained permission from the proprietor 
 of the field to erect his booth thereon, and there dis- 
 play his attractions. It must be allowed that he had
 
 THE DEPUTATION 9 
 
 made his arrangements in complete ignorance of the 
 fact that the Rev. Dr Tallow was to hold forth in the 
 Town Hall that same evening. 
 
 The elect did not feel anxious for themselves. They 
 feared for the wavering. They feared for the young. 
 They feared for the nibblers. They feared for their own 
 sons and daughters, for their domestics and shop-boys. 
 
 The Seriously -Minded put their heads together. 
 "What was to be done ? To postpone the visit of the 
 eminent American preacher would be an acknowledg- 
 ment of defeat. To run Dr Tallow against Signora 
 Muslina was risky. To the Seriously-Minded, of 
 course, no hankering after the circus could occur. 
 They would all be found on the benches or on the 
 platform — but how about their young people ? Would 
 not they take advantage of the absence of their elders 
 to rush to the circus ? 
 
 Again, owing to the proximity of the circus, was it 
 not likely that the strains of Signor Santi's brass 
 band playing the " Rogues' March " might be heard 
 within the hall, and overpower the sighs and groans 
 of the listeners to the reverend doctor ? that " Pop goes 
 the Weasel " might disturb the effect produced by 
 his most impressive applications ? that the cheers and 
 hand-clapping at some dexterous feat of a trapezist 
 or hoop-jumper might distract the attention of the 
 auditors and set them, in their minds, lusting after the 
 vanities of the circus ?
 
 lo THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Accordingly, the various denominations squeezed 
 themselves to produce their finest elixir, and this fine 
 elixir was deputed to see Mr Button, the farmer own- 
 ing his own land, to whom belonged the plot whereon 
 the circus was to be erected, and to induce him to 
 withdraw it from the equestrian troupe.
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 HOW THE DEPUTATION FARED. 
 
 Mr Button was apparently a well-to-do man. He 
 had set up brick gate-posts in alternating bands of 
 white and red, and elaborate cast-iron gates at the 
 entrance to his drive, and had planted his drive with 
 shrubs, which, however, did not thrive vigorously, 
 owing to the fumes from the chimneys of the Salt 
 Works. He had rebuilt his house. It was as square 
 in base as the pyramid of Ghizeh but not so secure, for 
 the whole district of the Weaver Valley rested on 
 beds of salt rock, and as that salt rock was corroded 
 by water, and then sucked out in the form of brine 
 by the steam pumps, the surface of the country sank 
 correspondingly. Mr Button, prepared for this con- 
 tingency, had built his house in the Cheshire fashion, 
 with timber and brick. His foundations consisted of 
 stout oak beams laid on the soil, extending somewhat 
 beyond the lines of his walls. The advantages of this 
 method of construction lay in the fact that, should a 
 
 II
 
 12 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 subsidence take place, his house would not split and 
 fall about his head, but would lurch and settle either 
 sideways or backwards or forwards, bodily, and then 
 it would be possible to escape from it without 
 danger. 
 
 The salt rock of the Cheshire beds is sixty-three feet 
 thick ; the height of Saltwich about forty feet above 
 the sea ; consequently the withdrawal of sixty-three 
 feet of rock threatened, in time, to send that tract of 
 country under sea level. 
 
 Consider yourself in bed and snug on a mattress 
 with a palliasse below, and that some practical joker 
 were to draw the palliasse from under you ; you 
 would sink the full thickness of the withdrawn bed 
 of straw. So, in the Cheshire district, the inhabitants 
 rest above a mattress of marl, lying over a palliasse 
 of salt rock. The manufacturers draw out from 
 under them this bed of rock, and down settle the in- 
 habitants many feet deeper than they were before. 
 Sometimes they descend slowly, sometimes they go 
 down with a jerk. 
 
 The way in which this letting down of the surface 
 of the land is performed is ingenious, and those whose 
 properties are aiFected can obtain no redress. It is 
 not brought about by mining — that is to say, no 
 mining done by pick and shovel. What is done is 
 to sink a shaft to where the brine overlies the rock, 
 and pump it up. As this goes on night and day, so
 
 HOW THE DEPUTATION FARED 13 
 
 night and day the water is washing more of the rock 
 till, the whole being dissolved, the whole has been 
 removed in a solution and sent away in the form of 
 salt. In time Mr Button must expect his entire 
 estate to be submerged; but it would probably last 
 his time. He must have a house to cover him, so he 
 had rebuilt his dwelling-house in such manner as to 
 let him down easily when it did sink. Meanwhile, 
 Mr Button did what he could with his land, and 
 did not do badly. He had a large dairy; he made 
 butter, and would have made cheese, had not the con- 
 sumption of milk and butter in Saltwich been so 
 great that he could do more profitably by selling the 
 raw and partially-manufactured produce of the cow, 
 than by converting it into cheese. And though his 
 land might be going down under his feet, as far as 
 could be judged, his means were rising. He owned 
 a parcel of land, as already said, close to the New 
 Town Hall. Indeed, the site for this New Town Hall 
 had been purchased of him. 
 
 The deputation drove in at Mr Button's entrance. 
 The coachman had descended from the box and had 
 rolled back the new iron gates ; but somehow the 
 catch did not answer, the fact being that the ground 
 had given way since this catch had been set, so that 
 the man was constrained to hold open the valve and 
 call to his horse to proceed. 
 
 The horse dutifully walked forward.
 
 14 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " Way ! " called the driver. 
 
 The horse did not hear the call, or mistook it, for 
 it quickened its pace and began to trot along the 
 drive. 
 
 " Halloo ! you darned crocodile ! " yelled the coach- 
 man, letting go the gate, and running after the cab. 
 Then, considering this objurgation out of keeping 
 with his appearance and the character of his fare, he 
 called " Stay, my dearly-beloved brother ! " 
 
 The horse, offended at the first epithet, and not 
 mollified by the second address, trotted still faster. 
 It did not halt at the door of the house, but trotted 
 on past it, past the shrubs, out into a field, with the 
 deputation behind it, flinging itself about through the 
 windows, grappling at the door handles, shouting 
 remonstrances to the horse in front, and cries to the 
 driver running behind, and was suddenly arrested by 
 a hand on the bit. The arrest was so sudden that 
 Mr Poles was precipitated against the two other 
 members of the deputation. 
 
 " Now, then," exclaimed Mr Button, coming to the 
 door of the cab, " what are you gents after ? Have 
 you taken tickets for the bottomless pit, and are in a 
 desperate haste to be at your destination ? " 
 
 " Oh, sir, will you drag out Mr Poles ? Take him 
 piecemeal if you will. He is smothering us ! " 
 
 Mr John Nottershaw butted at the paperhanger 
 with his head, and managed by brute force to drive
 
 HOW THE DEPUTATION FARED 15 
 
 him back-foremost out at the door, and then he 
 emerged himself in a somewhat rumpled condition. 
 " The horse ran away," he explained. 
 " The horse was curious, no doubt, to see what has 
 happened. Justifiable under the circumstances." 
 " What has happened ? " asked Mr Nottershaw. 
 
 "Come and see for yourselves. What! is that 
 Jabez Grice ? Halloo ! What brings you here ? Let 
 me see — one, two, three of you all in your Sunday-go- 
 to-meeting togs, and coming in the cab also ! What's 
 in the wind? Money? Subscriptions? I've none. 
 I've lost one of my finest Jerseys. Come and see. I 
 had her brought from the Channel Islands ; she cost 
 me a large sum, and now — I can't even get her hide 
 for tanning, or horns and hoofs for gelatine. But, 
 bless me ! what have you driven in the cab for ? " 
 
 Mr Button might well ask ; the distance from Salt- 
 wich was inconsiderable. The fact was that the 
 deputation had engaged the vehicle so as to give 
 weight to their representations. 
 
 " We have not come for money," said Mr Grice with 
 dignity. " We have come as representatives of a large 
 portion of the inhabitants of Saltwich to lay before 
 you our views." 
 
 " Let me lay mine before you first, man," said the 
 farmer. 
 
 " We have a serious cause of complaint." 
 
 "So have I; I've lost my cow. Come along and
 
 i6 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 look at my grievance. You are in the Salt Works, 
 Jabez, and so are to blame, and should indemnify me. 
 But I know better than to look for indemnification 
 to you salt men. Brundrith says, * Prove that I did it 
 and I will pay.' But I can't prove that it was Brund- 
 rith, and not Hewlett or Elson. I go to Hewlett ; he 
 says, * Show that I did it, I'm a mile and a half from 
 your place ; try Elson.' Elson says, ' Convince me it 
 was I — not Brundrith. I am two miles and a half off. 
 We all pump.' There is no redress to be got. I 
 must bite my nails and bear it." 
 
 Several men were in the field standing about a 
 conical gap in the surface, at the bottom of which 
 water or mud was in a condition that looked like 
 ebullition, though in reality it was cold. 
 
 " Don't go too near," said Button ; " the surface is 
 moving, cracking, and more will settle shortly." 
 
 " But where is the cow." 
 
 "There!" answered the farmer, pointing to the 
 cauldron. " All at once the land gave way whilst my 
 Jersey was cropping the grass, and in the wink of an 
 eye she had disappeared. Where is my cow ? You see 
 a hole in the surface where my Jersey was, and she is 
 going down, goodness knows where to, somewhere be- 
 low there in the bowels of the earth ; somewhere, where 
 salt rock was, there is now my Jersey worth forty 
 pounds. That is what comes of your pumping Grice," 
 
 " Well, sir ! It's a great loss — but you must reckon
 
 HOW THE DEPUTATION FARED 17 
 
 that the salt works bring a market to your door. If 
 you lose in one way, you win in another." 
 
 " I know that ; I am sick of this concern/' cried 
 Button. " If anyone would pay me twelve thousand 
 pounds, he should have the whole bag of tricks. I'll 
 tell you what he ought to do — set up a salt work of 
 his own. Why should Brundritli, Elson and Hewlett 
 suck out all the rock from undei' our feet ? Let us 
 suck against them and make what we can out of our 
 own. salt, and that underlying our neighbours. ' Make 
 hay while the sun shines' is the saying. Here we 
 have it — ' Get out the salt whilst you can, and the devil 
 take posterity ! ' " 
 
 " You had best do that yourself, Mr Button." 
 
 " Not I ; I have not the energy nor the experience. 
 Come, Jabez, if you can find the money, you shall 
 have the place, and run against Brundrith and Elson, 
 and make your fortune." 
 
 " I have not the money." 
 
 " Well, mention my offer to those who have. If I 
 were a younger man, I'd suck at one end and Brund- 
 rith at the other, and see which could suck the other 
 do^vn, and suck the wealth to himself." 
 
 " Now," said Jabez Grice, " will you listen to what 
 we have to say ? " 
 
 " By all means ; but come from here — we can do no 
 more than lament over my vanished cow and the field 
 which is going after the cow, and will soon be con- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 i8 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 verted into a flash.* Come along, into the house, 
 and I will listen to what you have to say." 
 
 He led the way to his square residence, the roof of 
 which rose to a point with a block of central chimneys 
 in the midst. The advantage of this arrangement was 
 that the chimneys were propped up on every side. 
 The cabman with his conveyance followed. 
 
 As soon as the party was in the nearly square 
 sitting-room, the deputation opened the subject on 
 which it was commissioned to wait on him. 
 
 " Oh ! about this affair of the circus — I don't see 
 how I'm to get out of it. I've promised the field." 
 
 Mr Nottershaw looked at Mr Grice, and the paper- 
 lianger looked at first one, and then the other. 
 
 " I suppose the agreement is hardly committed to 
 writing ? " said Jabez. 
 
 " No — but a man's word should be as good as his 
 bond." 
 
 *' Well — yes— in ordinary circumstances. But there 
 are occasions when no man is bound. No man is 
 bound to commit a sin." 
 
 " I don't know how, without disgrace, I can get out 
 of a promise." 
 
 Mr Grice rubbed his polished chin. 
 
 " It depends on the wording," he said. " I suppose 
 you promised the field by the Town Hall." 
 
 * A flash is the local term for a sheet of water where once was dry 
 gx'ound.
 
 HOW THE DEPUTATION FARED 19 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Did you specify which Town Hall ? " 
 
 " There is but one. The other has been pulled 
 down." 
 
 " That is true, but the situation still bears the name 
 of Town Hall Field." 
 
 "The flash is there and the ground is full of 
 cracks." 
 
 " I'll tell you what, Button," broke in Nottershaw, 
 " you never did a worse job in your life than encourag- 
 ing these mountebanks. There are two members of 
 the Weaver Trust will be on the platform of the Rev. 
 Dr Tallow, and they won't thank you; they won't 
 propose you for a trustee at the next vacancy, you 
 may be certain, and that won't be far off"— old Whitley 
 is on his last legs. I've heard from a bird who 
 whispers in my ear that you have a fancy to be on 
 the Trust — rather." 
 
 " And then," said Mr Grice, " many of the Serious- 
 Minded get their milk and butter — " 
 
 " And eggs," threw in Mr Poles. 
 
 " Milk, butter and eggs from you ; and it would be 
 a pity — a great pity — to offend them. I don't say it 
 would, but it might, affect your pecuniary interests 
 — there is no knowing ; it would be unreasonable, 
 still there is no knowing ; they might transter their 
 custom to Ruggles, get him to supply them with 
 butter and milk."
 
 20 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 ** And eggs," added the paperhanger. 
 
 " Butter and milk and eggs," said Grice, again 
 accepting the addition. 
 
 " You see, Button," said the builder, " I'm a man 
 of business myself, and I know that it don't do to 
 offend parties which hang together like bees. Honey- 
 bearing they may be, yet sting they can. You'll 
 excuse me, I'm a practical man." 
 
 " But what can I do ? " 
 
 "The matter is clear as rock salt," said Jabez in a 
 peremptory tone. " The Old Town Field is good enough 
 for those ragamuflSns. They shall have that or none. 
 A parcel of tight-rope dancers have no right to pick 
 and choose, to say, ' We will have this site, to the 
 disturbance and annoyance of the Seriously-Minded, 
 and we will not have that, which will incommode 
 nobody worth consideration.' Send them where they 
 will be no nuisance." 
 
 "But," said the farmer with hesitation, "the old 
 field is not safe. It is at the edge of the flash, and 
 the ground is full of cracks, and is slipping in." 
 
 "So much the better — it may deter many from 
 attendance." 
 
 " I don't know what to say," said Button, rubbing 
 his head and looking with keen eyes at Jabez Grice. 
 " You see — it was an understanding." 
 
 " A misunderstanding, you must let them compre- 
 hend. They shall have the Old Hall Field. Nonsense !
 
 HOW THE DEPUTATION FARED 21 
 
 Mr Button, you are not so foolish as to trifle away 
 your interests for the sake of a set of mountebanks ; 
 they shall go beside the flash, and it will do for them ; 
 there will be water there for their horses." 
 
 " It is dangerous." 
 
 " No harm will come to them — they are there for 
 one night only. Look here, Mr Button, you want to 
 sell your scrap of land. I'll speak to Brundrith, he 
 lays great stress on my opinion. I'll advise him to 
 buy, so as to avoid the chance of competition." 
 
 " As you will, gentlemen," said Button. " Let me 
 see, I'll go ofi" to Chester. You must manage for 
 me." 
 
 Still his twinkling eye was on Grice. 
 
 As the deputation prepared to leave, he crooked in 
 his finger and winked at Jabez. He put his finger 
 through his button-hole and held him back. AVhen 
 the other two were out of hearing, he said, — 
 
 " I know there is something behind — do you think 
 I'm a fool? I remember poor Joe Sant — I know 
 him in spite of his Signor, his Giuseppe, his Santi, 
 and all that sort of thing. I suppose, Grice, you 
 don't like that he, your half-brother — " 
 
 " He is not even my quarter-brother." 
 
 " As you will — your reputed brother should appear 
 in tights and spangles when you are haranguing. 
 Well, it would be a scandal. I'll go away, and you 
 shall block every entrance to my field. Settle with
 
 22 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 them that they are to rig up their show in Old Hall 
 Field instead of New Hall Field, beside the flash 
 instead of near your meeting. A nd — mind — remember 
 what you said about Brundrith. I'm sick of living 
 on a sinking soil."
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 OLD HALL FIELD. 
 
 The loss of the field near the New Town Hall did not 
 greatly affect the spirits o£ the equestrian troupe, for 
 it did not seem likely to materially affect their pro- 
 spects. They were of a sanguine disposition, ready to 
 make the best of very adverse circumstances, and the 
 obligation to transfer the scene of their performances 
 from one part of the town to another did not strike 
 them as matter for concern. They were provided 
 with an open space on which to pitch their tents, and 
 this open space was nearer to the densest-populated 
 part of Saltwich than was the site first agreed upon. 
 
 Where they now were was on the fringe of the 
 ragged land near the old portion of the town — old, 
 that is to say, comparatively, for the brine springs of 
 Saltwich had not been discovered before the end of 
 the eighteenth century, and the town had sprung up 
 where had once been green fields. The most ancient 
 buildings were comparatively modern and eminently 
 
 23
 
 24 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 ugly. They consisted of rows of brick cottages, and 
 it was precisely these rows which went locally by the 
 name of Heathendom. 
 
 These rows were regarded by the denominations of 
 the grave, who held Saltwich in their grip, as all but 
 hopeless as a hunting-ground. Its inhabitants were 
 wholly given over to insolent, inconsiderate gaiety. 
 Their levity of conduct was a continual offence to the 
 Seriously-Minded. The noise of Heathendom con- 
 trasted with the quietude of Jewry. The two moral 
 hemispheres of Saltwich were in perpetual feud. Not 
 a window in Heathendom contained a notice that the 
 great American preacher was about to hold forth in 
 the New Town Hall, and not a blank wall in Jewry 
 displayed the attractions of the horsemanship. 
 
 In Heathendom congregated the poachers who 
 ravaged Delamere Forest and provided the hares and 
 rabbits and partridges for the local poulterers, to 
 whom the Seriously-Minded gave their custom, 
 without inquiring too closely whence all this game 
 came. 
 
 Two streets had gone to rack and ruin, rifts had 
 formed in the house- walls, and stacks of chimneys 
 had fallen. The grave regarded this as a judgment 
 on the gay who had inhabited them — whilst them- 
 selves pumping and steaming and sending away and 
 converting into gold the salt rock that underlay 
 these habitations. If the poor were turned out of
 
 OLD HALL FIELD 25 
 
 their houses, or if they were forced to spend half 
 their time in their bedrooms because their sinking 
 kitchens were flooded — what did it represent to the 
 imaginations of the serious of every denomination, 
 who were themselves securely and dryly boused, but 
 a call addressed by Nature herself to the frivolous to 
 mend their ways. 
 
 In Heathendom were crushed and crowded to- 
 gether all such as had been driven out of the 
 condemned and demolished houses; no room was 
 given them in the new and spacious parts of the 
 town, where the houses were of white brick and the 
 windows of red brick, and every house had its little 
 railed garden before its doors and its green Venetian 
 blinds over its windows. 
 
 The portion of open land given up to the 
 equestrians was precisely the site on which the 
 demolished houses and the Old Town Hall had stood. 
 It shelved down to a "flash" — a sheet of water 
 occupying about a hundred acres — that had been 
 formed by the subsidence of the soil. The surface of 
 the field was singularly furrowed, as though at 
 intervals a plough had been run through it. This open 
 space grew but scanty, and that, coarse grass, and had 
 the look as though blighted. It had been covered 
 with buildings for half a century, and now that the 
 buildings were demolished, it had not sufiiciently 
 recovered to resume its aspect of verdant meadow.
 
 26 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Elsewhere, proximity to water would have produced 
 luxuriant vegetation. It was not so here. What 
 grass there was seemed to be dead, the bushes were 
 stunted, and the trees were mere skeletons devoid of 
 leafage. In all directions were strewn torn sardine 
 cases, open empty tins of Ramornie beef, broken 
 marmalade pots, scraps of newspaper, scale from brine 
 pans, decaying rabbit skins, corroded saucepans and 
 perforated kettles, mutton bones, old boots that 
 seemed to have been exploded by dynamite, toothless 
 hair-combs of imitation horn, and from the branches 
 of a dead tree swung an abandoned crinoline, which, 
 having gone out of fashion, had there committed 
 suicide. 
 
 The erection of the circus was complete, and highly- 
 coloured pictures representing the troupe performing 
 their most remarkable achievements were displayed 
 in front of it. There was to be a procession of the 
 Queen of Love, drawn in a mother-o'-pearl shell by 
 ostriches, with Cupid on the box. Wild Indians in 
 moccasins, and with scalps flying at their girdles, were 
 to hunt the buffalo. A horse rivalling that of Baron 
 Munchausen would dance on a tea-table without dis- 
 turbing the cups. The Pearl of the Indies, in the 
 lightest of gauze drapery, would bound through a 
 flaming hoop. Performing dogs would drink and 
 smoke and play whist. The Modern Proteus would 
 go through twenty transformations on horseback.
 
 OLD HALL FIELD 27 
 
 The "Tailor of Brentwood" ^ iz.^ 
 
 posters to be a screanung force, Cci l : -e 
 
 the spectators. Rnally, the en^rr: .1 
 
 conclude with a grand, and gorg- _ _ : : : - 
 
 equalled display of the Queen c : L : - : ^ 7 i : i. _ : . r 
 homage of gods, men and beasts. 
 
 Xever, within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, 
 were such attractions offered to the inhabitants of 
 Saltwich. The outside of the great tent was con- 
 templated by the assembled crowd with mixed feel- 
 ings. Some of the eminently serious, who had de- 
 scended — ay, condescended — ^to look at the erections in 
 ?: :bat Dr Tallow must be indeed a 
 
 _ :>ntend with, and wrest from 
 
 > _ ^ _ _: ion sufficient to fill the Xew 
 
 ¥i:-,\\. '1\. y '.:.._- :_..: : Ley stood :n ilr '■■r:_T :: 
 acri :- :. revolution threatened, if it were not 
 
 /!3 were asking leave to visit 
 - r pretending to have innnenza 
 
 L itt:; :. rin from attendancr -..": :i-r 
 
 X^w HaiL School children, instead of rush> ,. e 
 
 V i.ass was dissolved, ran to the field : : ^r 
 
 : _ : the joints in the boarding round thr i^^,. 
 - i ::iemselves in astonishment at the pi;: ires 
 displayed. The supremacy of the grave in S v :':i 
 
 Q* 
 
 .-.-.J ,-^ :.-^^.,_q^ 
 
 ?us looked va- 
 
 i . :: : :. ^ t„: 1 :-.z the comers :^:: 1 iiir 
 
 c j.r -ank to their boots. There v \-.\ e no
 
 2 8 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 overflow at the New Hall. There would be back- 
 sliders — there was no possibility of captures ; some 
 who were infirm in their gravity would be seduced to 
 see the show, and all who might be "brought in" 
 would, to a man, be in the sixpenny seats at the circus. 
 But that was not all. Father and mother could not 
 go together to listen to Dr Tallow, and leave their 
 children at home, for how could they be sure that 
 their little ones would not forsake their beds and 
 steal away to the Old Hall Field ? What missionary 
 boxes would be safe when the fingers of domestics 
 were itching for the money that would entitle them 
 to see dancing dogs, acrobats and ostriches in proces- 
 sion ? How could a serious husband be sure, suppose 
 he left his wife behind to keep guard, that she would 
 not yield to the solicitations of the young people, lock 
 the door and go off with them to the horsemanship ? 
 Or the sedate wife — how could she be certain, when 
 her husband left her at home, under the pretext that 
 he was going to hear the great Jericho preacher, 
 how could she have any well-grounded confidence 
 that he would not turn his back on the New Hall at 
 the first corner, and be found applauding the damsel 
 balancing herself on one toe, and roaring over the 
 jokes of the clown ? What seeds of revolt ! What 
 rifts in domestic confidence were like to ensue from 
 this inauspicious arrival of Signor Santi with his 
 troupe in Saltwich !
 
 OLD HALL FIELD 29 
 
 At a distance of a hundred and fifty yards from 
 the circus and its satellite booths and tents stood a 
 solitary van. It was large, it was long, and was gaily 
 painted. It was carved with wonderful flourishes, all 
 of which were gilt. It had glass windows, partly 
 obscured by muslin blinds and by red curtains. A 
 stove flue projected through the roof. From the door 
 a set of four steps was let down to the level of the 
 soil. 
 
 On the topmost of these steps, with her back to the 
 door, sat a girl of seventeen ; but she was small, child- 
 like for her age, and looked younger by a couple of 
 years. She was engaged in opening and eating wal- 
 nuts. She was delicately formed and graceful, with 
 flowing, golden hair that reached her waist, and very 
 dark eyes and brows. The brows and lashes were, in 
 fact, so dark that many a woman, certainly all of the 
 serious persuasion, would be sure to assert that they 
 were dyed. Had her eyes been blue or grey, then the 
 brows and lashes might indeed have been justly taken 
 to be artificially coloured, but they were not so in this 
 case. Nature is always cunning in her harmonies > 
 and the dark-brown eyes, with a golden sheen in the 
 brown, admirably agreed with the still darker brown 
 of the arched brows and the long lashes. The girl 
 had a roguish look in her face, and dimples in both 
 cheeks, but mainly in that on the left, for she had 
 the trick of smiling more on one side than on the
 
 30 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 other. But though one side of her face might laugh 
 more than the other, it was not so with the eyes, in 
 both of which was an equally merry twinkle. The 
 one- sided ness of her smile gave a peculiar archness 
 and special drollery to her sunny face. 
 
 Standing in front of her, below the steps, looking 
 at her as she ate, with wonder in his great blue eyes, 
 was a youth of one-and-twenty, with very fair hair, 
 an open face, an expression gentle, and without force 
 and strong individuality. Indeed, it may be said that 
 there lay an evidence of constitutional or impressed 
 timidity in the tremulous mouth and the quivering 
 eyes. 
 
 He did not speak ; he contented himself with staring. 
 
 The girl did not resent observation. Every now 
 and then she looked him full in the eyes. Then hers 
 sparkled and the dimples formed in the slightly- 
 flushed cheeks. Whenever she did this, the youth 
 coloured to the roots of his fair hair, and lowered his 
 eyelids abashed. After this silent homage had con- 
 tinued for some while, and the girl was tired of eating 
 and being contemplated in mute admiration, though 
 not tired of the homage, she said, glancing up 
 
 slyly — 
 
 " Are you fond of nuts ? " 
 
 The young man started, alarmed at being addressed. 
 
 " Look," said she ; " you shall share mine." 
 
 She took half a dozen, stepped down to him and
 
 OLD HALL FIELD 31 
 
 thrust them into his pocket. He caught his breath 
 and staofofered back. She resumed her seat on the 
 steps, and continued eating. 
 
 " What ! No teeth to crack them ? " she said. " I 
 will help you again ! " 
 
 Then she removed the upper shells of three, and 
 placed them in a row on the step at her feet. They 
 were fresh, yellow as butter. 
 
 " You are good," said the young man, shuffling from 
 one foot to another ; " but I will not deprive you of 
 them." 
 
 He looked at the tempting nuts. He dared not put 
 his hand so near her as to take one. 
 
 " Will you have one peeled ? " asked the girl, flash- 
 ing a glance at him, and puckering her funny little 
 mouth. 
 
 Without awaiting a reply, she put a nut in her 
 mouth, cracked the shell, then set to work deftly to 
 remove the bitter skin. When the kernel was com- 
 pletely stripped, with a roguish look and her head a 
 little on one side, and the golden hair flowing over 
 one shoulder, she held out her palm, pink as a fan- 
 shell, and with the kernel in it, white as an almond. 
 
 The boy recoiled in alarm. 
 
 " What ! Do you think I am giving you poison ? 
 Oh, silly Adam I I am not Eve offering the forbidden 
 fruit. This is quite harmless. There is no ban on 
 walnuts. I thought you liked them — you looked at
 
 32 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 me in such a manner while I ate. Come ! take and 
 eat, you silly goose ! " 
 
 Shyly the youth drew near, his face burning, his 
 eyes on the ground, and his limbs trembling. He 
 took the kernel so clumsily from the little, rosy palm 
 that he touched the hand. A shock ran through 
 him, and he gasped as though he had dipped his head 
 under water. 
 
 " I thank you," he said. 
 
 '•' Why are you afraid of me ? I am a teeny-weeny 
 mite ; you are a mighty fellow. Adam — " 
 
 " My name is not Adam, but Andrew." 
 
 " Andrew, if I were to put a walnut between my 
 lips, and bid you come up close and bite it away, I 
 believe you would die of terror." 
 
 He could not speak — the proposal made him giddy. 
 
 "No; but for all that I will not give you the 
 chance. Take your three nuts, you toothless creature." 
 
 " I am ashamed ; you have already put some in my 
 pocket." 
 
 " You blush like a girl. We folks always give that 
 we may take. I want something of you." 
 
 - What is that V 
 
 " I want to know your thoughts. What were you 
 thinking about me ? What ideas were slouching about 
 in that stupid head of yours covered with such a shock 
 of tow, as you looked at me eating my walnuts 'i " 
 
 " I was thinking how pretty you were."
 
 OLD HALL FIELD 33 
 
 He reeled as he said this, astonished at himself for 
 having paid a compliment. 
 
 The girl burst into a merry laugh and clapped her 
 hands. 
 
 "We are getting on; this is famous. And your 
 wishes — what are they ? To come to the show and 
 see me in all my glory — the Queen of Love? Well — 
 it costs sixpence for the inferior seats ; reserved seats, 
 one shilling." 
 
 " I don't know — I am engaged." 
 
 '■' Eno^aged elsewhere ? Where to ? " 
 
 He hung his head. 
 
 " What a funny place this Saltwich is," said the girl. 
 
 " Saltwich funny ! It is a very serious place. 
 There are seven chapels in it of different denomina- 
 tions, besides — " 
 
 " Save me from the besides. I mean how funny it 
 is that the place should live and thrive on salt." 
 
 " Yes — if there were no brine springs here, Saltwich 
 would be nowhere ; it has no other manufacture." 
 
 " How do you make salt ? " 
 
 " We boil the brine." 
 
 " Where does the brine come from ? " 
 
 " From the bowels of the earth." 
 
 '' I should like to see salt made." 
 
 " Then," answered the young man eagerly, " come 
 to the works to-morrow and I will show you every- 
 thing." 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 34 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " What are you ? " 
 
 " A waller." 
 
 " What 1 a mason ? " 
 
 " No ; a waller with us means a boiler. I am on 
 the day shift, and have to steam the brine, and rake 
 the salt off as it forms." 
 
 " You are on the day shift ? " 
 
 " Yes — I do not work at night." 
 
 " Then your objection falls through. You are not 
 engaged. You will come to the show." 
 
 "It is not at the works that I am engaged," said 
 the youth, colouring ; " I have to go with my father 
 to a meeting at the Town Hall." 
 
 " What ! to the undenominational hop folks talk of 
 as likely to spoil our attendance ? " 
 
 " It is not a hop." 
 
 " What else can draw folks away ? It must be a 
 dance ; that is the only other attraction I can think of 
 that would take away the people from us. I suppose 
 you Saltwichers love a hop. So would I if I had the 
 chance — which I have not." 
 
 " You do not understand. If I could but persuade 
 you to come to the meeting ; it would do you so much 
 good." 
 
 " I can't — I am engaged — in reality engaged. You 
 can see that on the posters. Come and see me in my 
 cockle-shell. Have you sixpence ? No," said she, 
 correcting herself; "from you I will have more — a
 
 OLD HALL FIELD 35 
 
 shilling — and will reserve you the very best seat of 
 all. Will you have the place ? Give me the shilling." 
 
 " Here." 
 
 He extended a silver coin. 
 
 " And here in return is a ticket. Now, you must 
 and shall come. It will be a grand show — it will be 
 worth a bob to see me alone. I shall go about on two 
 cream horses. I shall jump from the back of one to the 
 back of the other, and all the while I shall look about 
 for you. We have to keep very steady heads when 
 we are performing, or dreadful things may happen." 
 
 " What things ? " 
 
 "If I am not thinking of what I am about, but 
 thinking of you, and why you have not come, then, 
 there is no saying, I may drop between the horses, 
 and go under their cruel hoofs, and there would be the 
 end of poor little Queenie I " 
 
 The thought that this girl would be concerned if 
 he did not appear, that his absence might set her 
 little heart in a flutter of disappointment, was too 
 much for the lad. He put his hands to his head — it 
 was spinning like a teetotum ; then she spread out 
 her arms, shaking the broken nuts over the side of 
 the steps. 
 
 " What is your name ? " she asked. 
 
 *^ Andrew Grice." 
 
 " And I am Queenie Sant," said she. Then putting 
 her head on one side, and throwing a mischievous
 
 36 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 twinkle into her eyes, she said coaxingly — " You will 
 come and see me ? Promise, you good Andrew, and I 
 swear — " 
 
 " Hush, hush ! " 
 
 " I vow and protest I will transform grave Andrew 
 into a very merry Andrew ; also, I will come to your 
 salt works to-morrow. If I do not see you I will not 
 come." 
 
 Then all at once a young man of rough exterior, 
 with a shock of sandy hair on his head, strode to the 
 side of the girl, and before she was aware, had bowed 
 and lightly kissed her cheek. Turning to Andrew he 
 said scornfully, — 
 
 " Stoop, fool, and pick up the nutshells offered ; T, as 
 a man, take what I can snatch, unasked — I — Rab 
 Rainbow."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RAB RAINBOW. 
 
 The girl sprang to her feet alarmed, incensed. The 
 act of Rab Rainbow was so unexpected. Indeed, she 
 had not even perceived the approach of the man. 
 Nor had Andrew Grice observed him, so engrossed 
 had he been in watching the circus girl, though Rab 
 had been there for some little while, leaning his 
 elbow against the van, with his fingers thrust through 
 his light, bushy hair, looking down on the little 
 Queen as she played v/ith, and attracted the young 
 waller. 
 
 Tlie moment she had recovered herself, she sprang 
 through the door into the caravan, and bolted it 
 behind her. 
 
 Rab laughed, and cast himself carelessly on the 
 steps, planting a foot on the ground on each side 
 beyond the steps, thrust his rough cloth cap to the 
 back of his head, and picked up such nuts as w^ere 
 
 37
 
 38 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 not broken, and such fragments of kernel as lay on 
 the step where he sat, ready for consumption. 
 
 Andrew Grice thought it incumbent on him to 
 remonstrate with Rab for what he had done. Rain- 
 bow broke a nutshell, looked up, and asked con- 
 temptuously, — 
 
 " What brings you among the tents of the un- 
 godly?" 
 
 " I can go where I please," retorted the waller, 
 " without asking your leave." 
 
 " What will the daddy say ? " 
 
 " I am my own master." 
 
 " No, you ain't, or weren't. I am surprised to see 
 you among the good-for-naughts, and larking wi' 
 circus-girls. You, Andrew, oh fie I " 
 
 '• I was not larking." 
 
 " Quite right. You haven't the spring and carol of 
 a lark in you." 
 
 Rab Rainbow was a tall, strongly-built young man, 
 with light hair, and features of no regularity of shape, 
 and no special character, but he had a pair of good, 
 clear, grey eyes. He was dressed in a sandy suit, 
 short cut, untidy but not ragged, bulged and patched, 
 and on his legs were breeches and gaiters. The coat 
 was dragged out of shape at the pockets, which were 
 obviously often burdened with heavy weights, or 
 distended beyond their proper size. 
 
 There was a careless good-nature in the man's face,
 
 RAB RAINBOW 39 
 
 and this was all that was attractive about it ; for he 
 was far from handsome in feature, and his complexion 
 was coarse and red. A gamekeeper would at once have 
 set him down for a poacher, and, in fact, Rab s principal 
 employment and amusement consisted in snaring 
 rabbits and shooting pheasants in Delamere Forest. 
 This royal forest at one time extended over 10,000 
 acres, but is now reduced to half that size. There 
 are numerous noblemen's seats in the neighbour- 
 hood with extensive preserves. Five thousand acres 
 of woodland, beside parks and preserves, afforded 
 quite sufficient scope for Rab and those of his 
 trade to pick up a livelihood. The poulterers' shops 
 at Northwich, Saltwich and Winsford were kept 
 supplied with game of all sorts by these free sports- 
 men. 
 
 "It would do you good, Andrew, to come to the 
 circus to-night, and, as you've bought a ticket, 
 come." 
 
 " I don't know. I am — " 
 
 " Yes ; I know. The old ' Hammer ' will take you 
 with him to the undenominational affair. I wouldn't 
 go, if I was you. I'd come here. You've bought a 
 ticket ; it's a sin to waste a shillin*. I know, and you 
 know, just exactly what the American doctor will say. 
 There'll be so many anecdotes, so many illustrations^ 
 so much butterin' of the grave, and so much damning 
 of the gay. I've gone through that sort of thing
 
 40 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 scores of times, and so have you. I hate it. You 
 won't have the chance of horsemanship every week, 
 and you can get serious flummery any day." 
 
 " You should not speak thus," said Andrew, indig- 
 nantly. " If you are a backslider, you need not throw 
 your taunts at those from whom you've slipped away, 
 and who stand where you fell." 
 
 " Yes," said Rab, thrusting his cap further back on 
 his head, "I am a backslider, sure enough. I dare 
 say I'm a worse man for it ; I ain't sure I'm a better. 
 But one thing I do know — I'm a truer man now than 
 I was when I was kickin' in your net." 
 
 "That is because you were never radically and 
 sincerely serious." 
 
 " May be," said Eab, with a shrug of one shoulder. 
 
 '* I don't think these travelling horsemanship people 
 ought to be encouraged," said Andrew. " That is why 
 I don't patronise the show." 
 
 " Why should they not be encouraged ? " asked 
 Rainbow. " Don't you think life wants a little of the 
 salt o' mirth strewn over it to make it taste less flat, 
 and to keep it wholesome ? May be they are just 
 as useful in their way as are you wallers in your 
 fashion." 
 
 "Anyhow, they are generally known to be a dis- 
 reputable set." 
 
 " That's known to you, then, which is hid from me," 
 said Rab, drawing his feet up on the step, and fold-
 
 RAB RAINBOW 41 
 
 ing his arms on his knees. " Look here I YouVe been 
 talkin' to the little lass in here, behind " — he pointed 
 with his chin over his shoulder — " Do you know that 
 she is the daughter of the manager ? Do you think he 
 ain't got fatherly love and care for her ? Rats and 
 mice have it for their little uns. CroWs and jackdaws 
 have it for theirs. You don't allow that mountebanks 
 have what you know the beasts and birds possess. 
 That never enters your serious noddle. You don't 
 think that the Signor, as a father, would guard his 
 child from every mischief, and eat his heart out with 
 grief if ill came to the pretty mite ? No ; that never 
 struck your dull imagination. And the young woman 
 that goes through the fiery hoop, and dances on one 
 toe on horseback — you mayn't suspect she's the wife 
 of the clown, but I tell you she is so. If you'll come 
 this evenin' and look at him instead of her, you'll see 
 him wince every time she goes through the flames, 
 and that he has his eye followin' her, and hands ready 
 to catch her should she fall, all the while that he is 
 crackin' his jokes and makin' grimaces, and cuttin' 
 antics. If you'll come and see that, then you'll learn 
 more of human nature than you will under the Rev. 
 Tallow. And somethin' more you may learn — or, 
 at least, come to suspect — that the clown would not 
 have his wife, for all her muslin skirts and bare arms, 
 do anything but what is fittin' and decent in an 
 honest wife and a good mother. You'll rub your eyes
 
 42 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 when you've learnt that ; and that's what you won't 
 get at the New Town Hall." 
 
 " I am very rejoiced to hear this," said Andrew. 
 
 " I'll tell you somethin' more," said Rab. " These 
 poor creatures in the circus, they paint for an hour, 
 and then wash it all off, and they are natural men 
 and women, as God made them, for the other twenty- 
 three hours. There's folks — I name no names — as 
 wouldn't set their foot inside the hossmanship, who 
 paint, and never get out of paint. They eat in paint, 
 they sleep in paint, they talk and they walk in it. 
 And the coorious sarcumstance is, that everyone else 
 sees it is paint but themselves. There be some such in 
 your show — I don't say all — and the thing that's 
 remarkable about it is, that in your show everyone 
 paints up to deceive his own self first, and he does it 
 thoroughly. That paint, red-lead, gets into the veins 
 and colours his blood ; that paint, white-lead, gets 
 into the head and is converted into brain. I'll tell 
 you what is the great difference between these 
 horsemanship folk and those I speak of — the real 
 difference that goes to the bottom of all. Those who 
 paint in your show deceive themselves first, and then, 
 when that is thoroughly accomplished — with a decep- 
 tion never to be shaken off — then they take in others. 
 The fellows in the circus paint, and they never — 
 not for one moment — deceive either themselves or 
 others."
 
 RAB RAINBOW 43 
 
 " I don't understand you." 
 
 " Don't you ? I don't suppose you do. I'll tell you 
 what the symptoms are. The fellows in your show 
 get to so believe in and worship their own painted-up 
 and false selves, that they think and say that nobody 
 can be right unless he be a reflection of themselves. 
 If they likes beefsteak puddin', then cursed be he who 
 has a fancy for mutton hash. If they walk on the 
 shady side of the street, then may a sunstroke take 
 liim who prefers to go on the south side. They have 
 such a likin' for the smell of a cauldron of biled 
 cabbage, that anathema be to him who likes the scent 
 of the flowering beanfield." 
 
 " I'm not one of that sort," said Andrew, sharply. 
 
 "Ain't you? You're on the highway to it — what 
 did you say just now about these poor horse-riders 
 being a disreputable lot? You have been galled 
 when on horseback yourself, I suppose, and so 
 cannot allow anyone to be respectable who can 
 ride." 
 
 Andrew turned to go away. 
 
 Rab called after him, — 
 
 " I've not done with you yet." 
 
 Andrew halted and reluctantly looked back. 
 
 " You don't often hear what is the opinion formed 
 of you in Heathendom, so it is well to get it when 
 you can. We're a wicked lot, we are, in them red 
 brick cottages, and a wickeder lot was turned out o*
 
 44 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 them that tumbled down. We talk and we laugh 
 and we have our opinions. Whether they be right 
 or wrong, that's for such to say who holds the balances, 
 I've been about in all coorses of life and conditions 
 of men, and my notion is, there's a deal more good 
 everywhere than you serious ones suppose, and 
 there's good just where you don't expect to find it. 
 Human natur' ain't all perfection in Jewry and all 
 corruption in Heathendom. There are bad men, 
 but the paint hides their badness, who'll be to- 
 night gesticulatin' and haranguin' with the Rev. 
 Tallow, and there'll be good and true men and women 
 looking on at the horse-riders, ay, and ridin' the 
 horses tool The human conscience is healthy and 
 sturdy enough, and the fault I find with your Doctor 
 Tallow and the likes of him is, they don't let it alone, 
 but go pricking and poking at it, and whipping up 
 a lather about it like them cuckoo-spittle insects on 
 the young shoots in spring." 
 
 Andrew walked away. 
 
 Rab looked after him with a smile in his grey eyes. 
 
 "The chap ain't bad if let alone," said he. 
 
 As he sat, still smiling and looking after the retreat- 
 ing figure of the young waller, cautiously the window 
 above his head was opened from within, without turn- 
 ing the door on its hinges ; then a delicate arm was 
 thrust out and took up Rab's cap from his head, so 
 lightly, so gently, that he was hardly aware of the
 
 RAB RAINBOW 45 
 
 theft. He put up his hand and rubbed his head, 
 looked about, saw no one, felt behind him, thinking 
 the old bit of headgear had slipped down ; then the 
 cap was dropped on his rough locks again, and pinned 
 into the side was a yellow rose.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Andrew walked home slowly and thoughtfully. He 
 had been brought up in the straightest sect of serious- 
 mindedness; his world had been one overcast by 
 clouds, through which flashed no sun to throw the 
 ripple of life into sparkle and laughter. He had been 
 shown mankind as sharply cleft into two spheres, 
 two camps — that of the good and that of the bad — ever 
 at war, sometimes in active hostility, sometimes with 
 that army to which he belonged drawn within Torres 
 Vedras lines, prepared for attack, awaiting the oppor- 
 tunity of taking the field. Such a view of mankind 
 as this is one which commends itself easily, readily, 
 to such as are children in years, and to those whose 
 hearts never expand with the experience of life. 
 They have no idea of the blending of tints ; the 
 doctrine of equations is beyond the grasp of their 
 intellects. It is a view which has been formulated into 
 a dogma. Men grow to manhood, and pass through 
 
 46
 
 ''HAMMER" GRICE 47 
 
 life and descend into their graves, possessed with the 
 idea that their fellow -men are capable of broad and 
 decided classification — into two hosts ranged against 
 each other in internecine strife; into two states, in 
 which the one is of light, the other of darkness. 
 Humanity may be actually of one blood, but it is not, 
 it never was, of one spirit. Not Adam and Eve, bound 
 in mutual sympathies and loving each other to death, 
 are the parents of the human race, but Cain and Abel, 
 envying, hating, pursuing one another. Humanity 
 is not, as a rule, penetrated by like emotions, moved 
 by like ambitions, is not equally subject to caprices. 
 It is not at one time prone to strive after high ideals, 
 and then to sink to basenesses ; not to be now generous 
 and then mean ; now brave and then cowardly ; now 
 true and then false. Far from it ! All the loftiness, 
 generosity, heroism, truth are to be found in the one 
 army; and all the baseness, meanness, cowardice, 
 falsehood in the other; and should there appear in 
 that other some tokens of what is accounted noble, 
 and great, and liberal, then these are not to be ac- 
 counted in them as intrinsic virtues, but to be 
 esteemed as affectations and unsubstantial phantasms. 
 Teaching such as this is at home under the turban as 
 well as under the triple tiara ; it nestles into the heart 
 under the Pharisee's phylactery and the preacher's 
 gown ; it is a teaching which accommodates itself to 
 every creed and confession.
 
 48 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Jabez Grice was dominated by this teaching. It 
 did not tincture merely, it constituted the very essence 
 of his convictions ; it petrified them to adamant, and 
 rendered them as immutable as the rules of Nature. 
 Jabez, or " Hammer " as he was commonly designated, 
 had reared his son Andrew, a pliant youth, in this 
 same aspect of life. Sometimes such teaching sup- 
 plies to a naturally feeble character that iron which 
 it lacks, but at other times it has a debilitating ten- 
 dency, and takes the lime out of the bones. 
 
 " Hammer " Grice occupied a house in a new row 
 of cottages on a ridge of rising sandstone that ran no 
 risk of settlement, and looked down with a frown on 
 Heathendom. It was tenanted by exemplary indi- 
 viduals, all serious. No. 4 in Alma Terrace (Jewry, 
 such was its slang designation) was the dwelling that 
 was occupied by Jabez Grice. 
 
 From the height of Jewry the very serious sent 
 forth skirmishing parties to hold street preachings in 
 Heathendom, with the hope — a forlorn one — of effect- 
 ing captures. But these parties rarely returned with 
 spoils ; they were usually followed by a groaning, cat- 
 calling mob. 
 
 Heathendom retaliated by suborning men with 
 barrel-organs, that ground off dance tunes, to perform 
 along the length of Alma Terrace, and it sent forth 
 its boys and girls to caper and waltz to these strains, 
 under the horrified windows of Jewry.
 
 "HAMMER" GRICE 49 
 
 Every available engine to annoy or discomfit 
 Heathendom was set in operation by the very serious 
 who, being the respectable, the monied and well-con- 
 ducted of Saltwich, had the command of the forces 
 that could be employed against the disreputable, 
 impecunious and noisy. They had them watched by 
 the police; they harried them through the School 
 Attendance Committee ; they visited them through 
 the Sanitary Officers; they had them dropped upon 
 by the Excise ; they worried them through the rate- 
 collectors. They made it impossible for a son or 
 daughter of Heathendom to escape into respectability 
 through any other door than that of the chapel. 
 Should a young man from this quarter desire a situa- 
 tion in the police, or as a keeper, or in the army, or 
 navy, no respectable man in the superior quarter 
 would give him a character ; and no girl had a chance, 
 for the same reason, of obtaining a situation in a re- 
 putable house. 
 
 Saltwich was a town that had started up in the 
 extensive parish of Scatterley, with a church at 
 a distance of two miles. The Vicarage was occu- 
 pied by a gentle, timid man, fond of collecting 
 moths, an authority on lepidoptera, unable to cope 
 with the difficulties of his position, and without the 
 moral energy to attempt to do so. A good, kind 
 man ; but rather scientific than spiritual. He hunted 
 beetles and moths, rather than souls. He was content, 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 in face of the dominant nonconformity, to be left un- 
 molested to minister to a couple of farmers, a sporting 
 squire, and his own family. No man was of less 
 account in Saltwich than the Vicar of Scatterley; 
 and even had those whom Jewry had banned appealed 
 to him for encouragement, he would not have dared 
 to uphold them, lest, by so doing, he should offend the 
 nonconformists, and the Serious-Minded of all denomi- 
 nations should conspire against him, and wrest from 
 him one of the two farmers to whom he still ministered 
 on sufferance. Over against the Reverend Edward 
 Meek stood the layman, Jabez Grice, the most com- 
 manding power in Saltwich. He was not a man of 
 means or of position. He was foreman at Brundrith's 
 Salt Works on a salary of forty shillings a week, but 
 he was a man of an intense and aggressive personality. 
 Giants are not necessarily great men, nor are mighty 
 men always big in size. A man is not to be measured 
 by the number of stones he weighs, and the number of 
 feet and inches he stands. " Hammer " Grice was of 
 moderate size, solid in structure, and with a firm head 
 planted on a short neck and broad shoulders. He 
 was not contained within the clothes that enveloped 
 him. He filled every room he entered, he filled his 
 own house, he filled all Jewry ; it may almost be said 
 that he filled all Saltwich. Certainly no man in that 
 brine-pumping and steaming town had anything ap- 
 proaching his power. In the factory he was greater
 
 "HAMMER" GRICE 51 
 
 than Brundrith. In political influence he was a greater 
 man than the Member of Parliament ; in chapel, pastor 
 and elders were his humble servants. No committee 
 could be formed without Grice in it, and, when in it, 
 the fellow-members did little else than register the 
 opinions and resolutions of " Hammer." At an election 
 he swept votes together with an irresistible force ; on 
 a platform he could sway his hearers and make them 
 think and feel with himself. He was not an educated 
 man, nor a logical reasoner. He carried his audience 
 with him, not so much by argument as by assertion. 
 No antagonist answered him with impunity. He 
 crushed him under facts, or, at least, statements, or 
 withered him with his scorn. 
 
 He was a man who never hesitated in the formation 
 of an opinion, and who never wavered, when once his 
 opinion was formed. 
 
 Andrew, brought up under this man, of an amiable, 
 pliable disposition, was bent and moulded as his 
 father desired. He saw, heard, felt throuofh his 
 father's organs. His father could not be wrong in his 
 estimates, and could do no wrong. The strength of 
 the superior nature, instead of infusing its vigour into 
 the inferior, sucked from the latter what little force it 
 possessed. 
 
 But Andrew had reached that age when the sap of 
 youth is most vigorous, and he now, for the first time, 
 began to be conscious of, and to feel impatience at, the 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF Jtyrj^'iv;
 
 52 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 restraints that had been put upon him, and which he 
 had worn without a murmur as a child. He thrust 
 from him Rab's sneers at the insincerity of " Hammer " 
 and his colleagues. Andrew knew his father, and 
 knew that he was genuine to the core. There was no 
 question as to his earnestness. That Jabez Grice was 
 one of those who imposed on himself before imposing 
 on others, or who imposed on others because he first 
 thoroughly imposed on himself — this was an innuendo 
 of Rab's not worthy of consideration. 
 
 But there was something in what Rab had said 
 relative to the vagabond troupe that had stuck in the 
 mind of Andrew, and the poacher's words had fallen — 
 come apt — on thoughts forming in the brain of 
 the young man during his conversation with the 
 Queen of Love. 
 
 He had been drawn against himself into this con- 
 versation. He had stood looking at the girl, wonder- 
 ing at her beauty, and, in his own mind, marvelling 
 that the Creator should have sent such a creature into 
 the world to run to inevitable wreckage. Then, whilst 
 these thoughts were turning in his head, the girl had 
 begun to notice him, and had lured him on, with 
 cleverness and coquetry, into buying a ticket for the 
 performance. She had some self-respect, some grace 
 in her, for she had resented the impudence of Rab 
 Rainbow, had flushed with shame and had fled from 
 his advances. When the girl had disappeared, then
 
 "HAMMER" GRICE 53 
 
 the poacher had spoken with him, and had said words 
 which, if true, were a revelation, such as is wrought 
 by the rending of clouds, and the display of a 
 horizon illumined by sunshine and radiant with 
 colour. 
 
 Was it possible that the daylight was not confined 
 to Goshen, but was diffused also throughout Egypt ? 
 Was it possible that the dew of heaven fell on the 
 herb of the field and forest as well as on cabbages and 
 Brussels-sprouts ? Was it possible that there was 
 sweetness of song, and simplicity of life, and harmony 
 of plumage in the wild bird of the air, as well as in 
 the caged canary and the fowls in the poultry-house ? 
 As Andrew walked from the Old Hall Field, he saw 
 an Italian playing a hurdy-gurdy, with a monkey, 
 dressed in trousers and a scarlet coat, running up the 
 blighted tree, swinging in the wires of the discarded 
 crinoline, then, at a word from his master, taking a 
 tray and going round soliciting coppers. Andrew 
 cast in a trifle ; but, as he did so, a spring of gall 
 welled up in his heart. Had he not been reared by 
 his father much as this monkey had been trained by 
 the Savoyard ? He had been taught to foot it to his 
 father's piping ; he was held by him, chained from 
 going his own way ; he was bidden by him do this and 
 leave that, and he had no option in any matter, and, 
 even as this monkey, he was sent round with mission- 
 ary boxes and collecting cards. His brow coloured,
 
 54 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 and he turned quickly away. He became conscious 
 of straitness, and, for the first time in his life, was 
 inclined to strain his muscles and snap the bandages 
 that were wrapped and knotted about him. 
 
 He had been a good boy — diligent in his work, 
 regular in his hours, quiet in the house, docile before 
 his father, and affectionate to his aunt who lived with 
 his father, kindly, obliging to all. He had tasted 
 nothing more stimulating than ginger-beer, had heard 
 nothing more mirth-provoking than a humorous dis- 
 course at a chapel anniversary ; the social gatherings 
 which he had frequented had been all within the 
 precincts of the Tabernacle or Temperance Hall. He 
 had read nothing more exhilarating than a missionary 
 magazine. Although living in a world in which the 
 knowledge of good and evil (mainly the latter) is 
 pretty generally diffused, and is acquired without the 
 institution of Board Schools, yet Andrew was singu- 
 larly guileless — as white in mind as blameless in con- 
 duct — so completely had he been kept, or had kept 
 himself, w^itliin the circle of the serious. Now man- 
 hood was reached, and with manhood came a con- 
 sciousness of innate power, a craving for independence. 
 The imagination of Andrew began to plume its wings, 
 his will to stiffen itself, and his mind to harbour 
 the thought that it was not well for him always to 
 live in abject subserviency, even to so admirable a 
 father as was his.
 
 "HAMMER" GRICE 55 
 
 On reaching No. 4 Alma Terrace, Andrew knew at 
 once that his father was at home, by the fumes of 
 tobacco that met him as he opened the door. He 
 found " Hammer " seated by the lire reading his paper. 
 Jabez recognised his son's footsteps, but did not trouble 
 to look up, nor did he remove his pipe from his lips to 
 throw him a greeting. Why should he ? They worked 
 in the same factory. Jabez was not one to trouble 
 himself about the amenities of life ; he contented him- 
 self with what was practical, substantial. 
 
 Andrew saw that the table was laid, and he put 
 his hand upon it. In so doing, he threw down a 
 fork. 
 
 " Now then, clumsy ! " called Jabez, without raising 
 an eye from the line he was reading. 
 
 Andrew stooped to pick up the fork, and, in setting 
 it on the table, rattled the cups. 
 
 The father growled. 
 
 " I should like a word, father, if disengaged." 
 
 " 1 am here." 
 
 "I have been to the Old Hall Field. They are 
 there." 
 
 " Who are the They that are there ? " 
 
 "The circus people. They have set up their tents.' 
 
 " We sent them to the Old Hall Field," said Jabez. 
 
 '' It is going to be an unusually good horsemanship." 
 
 " Possibly." 
 
 " I am fond of horses."
 
 56 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " Horses are one thing. Legs and muslin skirts are 
 another." 
 
 " Father, I do not think I shall be able to accompany 
 you to the New Hall to-night." 
 
 '' Indeed." 
 
 Jabez did not raise his eyes from the paper, but 
 Andrew saw his fingers clench the sheet more tightly, 
 and heard him snort. 
 
 " I have so often attended this sort of thing," said 
 Andrew. 
 
 " You have never heard the Rev. Tallow." 
 
 "No; but I have heard the female revivalist, and 
 the negro evangelist, and the pugilistic apostle, and — " 
 
 "And what?" 
 
 " It's always very much the same. I don't feel any 
 call to hear Tallow." 
 
 ^' Well— what more?" 
 
 The words fell from Jabez like lumps of iron. 
 
 " Well, father, and I thought — as a bit of a variety, 
 and as, somehow, I have got a ticket for a reserved 
 seat — that — that I'd go to the circus to-night." 
 
 " So you are going to the circus ? " 
 
 " You don't very much mind, father, do you ? " 
 
 " And where will you go after the circus ? " 
 
 " Well — I shall be home as soon as you." 
 
 " You will not come home at all." 
 
 A pause, during which the frizzle of frying onions 
 in the kitchen could be heard. There was to be beef-
 
 "HAMMER" GRICE 57 
 
 steak for supper. The smell of the onions mingled 
 with the smoke of tobacco. 
 
 "This is what I mean," said Jabez; "you ought 
 before this to have taken lodgings where to stay. 
 You do not stay here. This is not a house in which 
 frequenters of circuses can sit down with chapel-goers. 
 A house divided against itself, No. 4 Alma Terrace 
 shall never be. I give you till half-past seven to 
 remove your clothes. If every rag is not gone by 
 half -past seven, I chuck what remains into the street. 
 Bethulia ! dish up ! " 
 
 " Father, do you mean to turn me out ? " 
 
 " He that heareth not the Church, let him be to thee 
 as a heathen man and a publican." 
 
 " But. father, that's different. Do you mean to say 
 you are the Church ? " 
 
 " Yes, I am ; what else is the Church ? " Jabez put 
 down the paper. " Dish up the steak and onions 
 sharp, Bethulia. I'm hungry ! "
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CIRCUS. 
 
 Rab was in his place on a bench at the circus. He 
 looked about him for Andrew, but could see him 
 nowhere. 
 
 " I thought the fellow had hardly the dare in him," 
 said Rab. 
 
 The benches filled rapidly. It was really question- 
 able whether any would be left in Saltwich to sit 
 under Dr Tallow, so numerous was the attendance at 
 Signer Santi's rival entertainment. 
 
 One thing was, however, noticeable — that the re- 
 served red baize-covered seats did not fill. A good 
 deal of red baize was still exposed. Those who did 
 speckle its surface were not Saltwichers, but country 
 folk, the families of neighbouring gentry. They had 
 sent their children with tutors and governesses, some 
 had even come themselves. A rector was there with 
 wife and ofispring. A schoolmaster from a distance 
 was there with his pupils. 
 
 58
 
 THE CIRCUS 59 
 
 Cheshire is famous for its horses; its heart beats 
 high at racing periods. It is in the full glow of life 
 in the hunting months. There are studs around 
 Delamere Forest. The very high roads are furnished 
 with soft trotting ground at their sides specially 
 adapted for horses taken out to practice. From the 
 stables had come grooms and horseboys in great 
 numbers. The exhibition was, above all others, cal- 
 culated to interest and delight them. Some of the 
 small shopkeepers of Saltwich were present; such, 
 that is, as were not devoted hand and soul to the 
 serious faction, and Heathendom, as far as its finances 
 would admit, was there to man and boy. 
 
 The tent was sustained by a pole in the midst, 
 around which hung a circular chandelier supporting 
 oil lamps. The arena had been strewn with sawdust, 
 which, being slightly damp, exhaled an odour that 
 impregnated the atmosphere. The structure on which 
 the public was to sit, raised stage on stage, was simple 
 to rudeness. The deal boards employed had been as 
 few as was consistent with safety. The whole fabric 
 was temporary and flimsy, but was calculated to 
 sustain any amount of direct pressure exerted verti- 
 cally, when occupied by a crowd of spectators. The 
 boards were not jointed, and there was no flooring 
 under the benches, consequently men who incautiously 
 thrust their hats under their seats, or women their 
 baskets of provisions, had them precipitated to the
 
 6o THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 turf below. A mother screamed because her child 
 had dropped into space, but it was recovered unin- 
 jured, having been caught by its frock. There was 
 an outcry from a woman who, in counting her change, 
 had emptied the contents of her purse over the benches 
 and sixpences were dancing down the stage, and three- 
 penny bits slipping between the joints. Some merri- 
 ment was provoked by a Scatterley farmer who, on 
 taking his place, removed and looked into his hat 
 It was surmised that he thought he was in church, 
 and that he was saying his prayers. 
 
 Vendors went round with oranges and buns ; ginger- 
 beer bottles popped and squirted their contents into 
 faces and over frocks. 
 
 Personal observations were made on all sides, as 
 was inevitable in a place where everyone knew every- 
 one else. 
 
 " My word ! There's Susan Naylor in a new 
 bonnet. Who ever is that with her? She's surely 
 not picked up a fresh young man ? " 
 
 " Well, T declare, if that isn't Tommy Tinker ! And 
 he is in arrears at the shop. He might have paid 
 for his 'backy, and stayed away." 
 
 "There are all the Suggars. Their business must 
 be flourishing. Three whole tickets and eight chil- 
 dren at half-price. That makes five-and-six. I'm 
 astonished they ain't ashamed to show what profits 
 they make out of us labouring people."
 
 THE CIRCUS 6i 
 
 " Well, I never ! There's the Townsends in the re- 
 served seats. What swells they are become ! What 
 makes them strut such peacocks is, that they have 
 come in for their uncle's money. But they'll soon run 
 through that if they go reserved-seating it every 
 day!" 
 
 "Why, surely the Linterns ain't gone to the six- 
 penny places, and they gave champagne at their 
 daughter's wedding ! I call that shabby — worse than 
 shabby; it's positively dirty. I'd stay away, or go 
 reserved if I gave champagne at a wedding." 
 
 The arena was not perfectly smooth. It had been 
 brushed over more than once, but now a sort of ripple 
 was observable on the surface of the sawdust. The 
 manager noticed this and summoned a couple of 
 workmen in white jackets to sweep the arena once 
 more. 
 
 When they had withdrawn, in leaped the clown 
 with his familiar " Here we are again, and how are 
 you, ladies and gentlemen, and all the little ones at 
 home ? " 
 
 He was greeted with applause and laughter. 
 
 The usual dialogue ensued between him and the 
 manager, who cracked his whip, and made the clown 
 jump and rub his shins. It was really astonishing to 
 the spectators how little the jokes of the clown affected 
 the manager. He spoke without a muscle moving; 
 there seemed to be in him neither a sense of humour
 
 62 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 nor a spark of compassion. He laughed at no sally, 
 and spared no stroke of the lash. 
 
 Then entered the little Queen of Beauty, as adver- 
 tised, in her mother-o'-pearl shell drawn by ostriches. 
 The birds and carriage were not by any means equal 
 to what the public had been led to anticipate from 
 the flaming posters. The ostriches were ruffled and 
 frowsy; they wore a distressed air, and walked in 
 ungainly fashion. The car was conspicuously of 
 pasteboard covered with silvered paper, and some- 
 what battered. But the little Queen herself surpassed 
 all that had been promised. She was clothed in white 
 muslin, had a wreath of stars about her head, and 
 held a star-tipped sceptre in her hand. Her golden 
 hair flowed over her fair shoulders in waves of sun- 
 light ; her complexion, perhaps heightened artificially, 
 was brilliant; brighter than stars shone her merry 
 eyes, full of light though dark in colour. 
 
 Rab set his cap on his head, with the yellow rose 
 in front. The Queen was greeted with thunders of 
 applause, a portion of which was contributed by Rab, 
 who stamped and roared, and clapped his hands, till 
 his face was red with exertion. 
 
 As the Queen made the circuit of the arena, her 
 eyes roamed over the benches, and a smile lighted her 
 cheerful face. When her eye rested on the young 
 poacher, he flattered himself that she made him a 
 slight inclination of her sweet head, that a brighter
 
 THE CIRCUS 63 
 
 or more roguish twinkle kindled her eye, and that 
 the dimples of her cheek deepened with a truer smile 
 than that which had been accorded to the general 
 public. 
 
 After that the Queen had retired as she came, Rab 
 saw little of what followed. He was consumed with 
 impatience for the reappearance of the Queen of Love 
 and Beauty. The buffalo hunt passed before him 
 unheeded. He hardly saw the wild Indians. He 
 cared not for the performing dogs of the clown, nor 
 for that buffoon's jests and capers. His eyes were 
 riveted on the door through which the little Queen 
 had disappeared, and through which she was to 
 return. When the curtains of the entrance were 
 raised and a horse issued forth, he hoped it might 
 be that she was to mount, but when some one else — 
 an athlete in fleshings, throwing balls and waving 
 flags — leaped upon the sawdust, and with a skip 
 was on the saddle, then Rab uttered a dissatisfied 
 growl. 
 
 Andrew was not there — Andrew who had been 
 specially invited ; Andrew, who had been privileged to 
 hold converse with the little fairy, who had been 
 offered peeled kernels in her delicate palm, on whom 
 words of favour and beaming smiles had been lavished 
 — Andrew Grice was not there. Where was his 
 heart ? Was he a man of stone ? Had he in his 
 composition neither pluck nor gallantry ?
 
 64 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 If the Queen had offered Rab her empty nutshells, 
 he would have worshipped her hand. If she had 
 invited him to come, he would have spent his last 
 farthing to be present. And this fellow Andrew, 
 had she not told him she desired his attendance, 
 that she would look out for him with her bright eyes ; 
 that, were he to disappoint her, it might even cause 
 her to fall from horseback ? 
 
 Eab's cheeks glowed. He swore, if he saw Andrew, 
 he would beat him for disappointing that little heart. 
 And yet he was glad Andrew was not there. Had 
 young Grice been on the bench, then, perhaps, on him 
 would have fallen the eyes of the little Queen ; to him 
 would have been accorded the nod and smile, and he 
 himself, poor Rab, would have been disregarded. 
 The rose that Queenie had given him, Rab had 
 placed in water till the moment he went to the 
 show then he had donned it with pride, in the hopes, 
 that were not blighted, that by it the pretty circus 
 girl might recognise him. 
 
 Rab's thoughts were diverted from their current — 
 something was wrong. What was it that engaged 
 the attention of the manager ? He was pointing to 
 the central pole, and had summoned the white canvas- 
 jacketed men. The pole was not as it had been set. 
 It was inclined so that the circle of lights touched it 
 on one side. The workmen drove wedges between the 
 base and the soil, and so restored it to uprightness.
 
 THE CIRCUS 65 
 
 Meanwhile Signer Santi amused the spectators l>y 
 an interlude — an exhibition of the sagacity of his 
 famous Arab mare, Black Bess. He made her leap 
 a five-barred gate, he bade her dance on her hind 
 legs ; he summoned her to him, and she came, docile 
 as a lamb. He bade her kneel and throw herself on 
 her side and simulate death, whilst he fired a pistol 
 over her head. Bess knelt as required, but tossed 
 her head, snufied the soil, threw herself down indeed, 
 but, instead of lying prostrate and tranquil, reared 
 herself to her knees, then sprang up again. 
 
 "Bess I What is this? I never knew you dis- 
 obedient before. Down, Bess ! " 
 
 Santi cracked his whip. The Arab hesitated, 
 trotted away, came back, pawed the soil, snufied at 
 it once more, went down on her knees, but again 
 sprang to her four feet and stood before her master, 
 trembling, sweating and snorting. 
 
 Nothing would induce her now to go through her 
 performance; neither threat nor persuasion were of 
 avail, and Santi was forced to dismiss her to the 
 stable. 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen, I never knew Bess like this 
 before. Something has alarmed her. Perhaps the 
 workmen driving the wedges. We will find other 
 animals more tractable." 
 
 He cracked his whip, fired the pistol into the air, 
 and in bounded a pair of cream-coloured horses 
 VOL. I. E
 
 66 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 fastened together by their heads, with white and 
 silver trappings on their backs. 
 
 In another moment the little Queen appeared 
 dancing in, dressed in white muslin strewn with 
 spangles, so that her every movement made her 
 twinkle like a frosted bush on a sunny winter 
 morning. 
 
 She ran to the horses, the clown offered a hand, 
 and in a moment she was in the saddle of one, poised 
 on a single foot, amidst the applause of the public, 
 especially of Rab. 
 
 The manager cracked his whip and trailed the lash 
 along the sawdust in a circle. 
 
 Suddenly, as by an enchanter's wand, absolute 
 stillness was produced in that great concourse of 
 spectators. Santi's arm was as though paralysed as 
 he drew his whip along. The cream- white horses had 
 recoiled ; the clown, with his hands to his head, was 
 looking, mouth open, at the chandelier. 
 
 The only sound heard was the straining and creak- 
 ing of the timber structure occupied by the public, 
 and the strain and creak were like those of a ship 
 labouring in a heavy sea. Then ensued the tinkle 
 and crash of the lamps that smote each other and 
 went to pieces. 
 
 The hush was momentary, and then there rose a 
 great burst of confused noises, first as a gasp, then as 
 a roar. What ensued was a matter of a few moments
 
 THE CIRCUS 67 
 
 only, though it may take a page in which to describe 
 it. 
 
 The central tent pole was seen, in spite of the 
 wedges, to lean, and then to be sinking into the earth. 
 That this was the case was, however, hardly realised 
 at once ; it appeared as though the pole were collaps- 
 ing telescopically. As it gave way, the vast stretch 
 of canvas extended over the circus began to sao-, to 
 flap about and fall together. Simultaneously the 
 lamps broke, some poured forth volumes of smoke ; in 
 others the light reached the oil, ignited it, exploded the 
 receivers and poured down in liquid fire. The specta- 
 tors on one side of the ring witnessed a strange phe- 
 nomenon — they saw the other side lifted up as though 
 a wave were passing under it, whilst those opposite 
 were aware that the further side of the circus, with 
 its benches and the occupants of those benches, was 
 being swallowed up in the earth. The strain on the 
 concentric rings of the structure was more than they 
 could bear, the supports fell, the boards flipped out 
 of their places, and the whole fabric began rapidly to 
 go to pieces. Those spectators who occupied the 
 highest benches were precipitated eight feet to the 
 soil. 
 
 The barrier dividing the arena from the spectators 
 was covered with crimson drapery ; it was parted as 
 though rent asunder by giant hands, and the drapery 
 was torn across. A wave ran along the surface of
 
 68 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 sawdust from side to side, leaving a ripple, then the 
 ripple changed into a rent, the earth gaped and the 
 sawdust began to powder down into the fissure. 
 
 A north-west wind was blowing ; it caught, bustled 
 about the relaxed canvas, and breaking in through 
 some of the gaps, assisted in the confusion by blowing 
 out, or blowing to explosion, lamps hanging at the 
 sides and hitherto unaffected, and by tossing the loose 
 canvas against the benches over which it was falling, 
 and sweeping from them the frightened people. 
 
 In a moment or two the whole fabric would be a 
 wreck, a weltering mass of flapping canvas, dislocated 
 boards, shrieking human beings, plunging horses, 
 flaming oil and fluttering shreds of crimson baize. 
 The terror was general. Men and women fought to 
 escape, regardless of sex and relationship. They fell 
 through the scaffolding ; they beat at and tore a way 
 through the exterior boarding. Screams, entreaties, 
 curses blended with the crashing of timber, the snort- 
 ing of horses, the bellowing of the bison, the yelp of 
 dogs, the pistol-like reports of the tossed canvas, the 
 crash of glass; these together formed a hubbub of 
 sound, pierced at intervals by the shriller shriek of 
 some lost and frightened child, shrill as the whistle 
 of a locomotive. 
 
 Whether it were the vibration caused by the tramp 
 of the horses, or the weight of such a multitude of 
 spectators, or both combined, certain it was that the
 
 THE CIRCUS 69 
 
 crust of earth that overlay a vacuum, caused by the 
 exhaustion of the salt rock, had given way, as had 
 previously other portions of the surface hard by, and 
 the circus and the ground about it were going down 
 into an unfathomed abyss.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 RAB TO THE RESCUE. 
 
 When the earth began to move, to slide from under 
 their hoofs, the two cream - coloured horses linked 
 together, had been thrown into a paroxysm of terror, 
 had leaped, plunged and flung the little Queen, who 
 fell before their heads, on the sawdust. 
 
 Rab saw her danger instantly, and without regard- 
 ing anything else, without questioning what had 
 caused the panic, beat his way with fists and elbows 
 through the rings of spectators that intervened, and 
 who were up and struggling to escape, and leaped 
 the barrier to her rescue. 
 
 The confusion was general before he had reached the 
 arena, and to the experienced eye of an inhabitant of 
 the salt district, there could be no question as to what 
 the phenomenon was that was wrecking the circus. 
 
 As Rab threw himself over the barrier, the manager, 
 Santi, sprang at the heads of the horses. These 
 beasts, in their terror, had managed to snap the 
 70
 
 RAB TO THE RESCUE 71 
 
 thongs that arched their necks and restrained their 
 motions, and now, with heads free, they were plunging, 
 striving to tear themselves apart, and menaced the 
 prostrate girl with their hoofs. Queenie was insen- 
 sible. Rab caught her up in his arms, brushed back 
 her golden hair to see that her face had not been 
 trampled on, and then looked about to determine in 
 which direction he was to escape with her. On all 
 sides the spectators were flying; some were still on 
 the benches, running this way and that, bewildered, 
 unable to find the entrance ; others had fainted, and 
 hung insensible over the seats, but the greater number 
 had got down to the level of the ground, and had 
 found, or were forcing, their way out at the sides. 
 The interior was now dark — dense with whirling 
 volumes of petroleum smoke, shot through with red 
 flames. 
 
 The performing dogs stood, one on a barrel, the 
 other on the barrier of the arena, howling with fear. 
 Rab could see that the cream-coloured horses had 
 gained the mastery, and were dragging Santi, whose 
 hand was entangled in the reins; that the central 
 pole was coming rapidly down with all its broken 
 lamps. 
 
 He could see the fissure in the arena widenino-, 
 like a great mouth that was breaking into a laugh of 
 mockery at the ruin and panic wrought. 
 
 Not a moment was to be lost. He could not tarry to
 
 72 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 disengage the manager, nor reassure the clown, who, 
 in abject terror, had crept into the barrel, where he 
 was sobbing and beating his hands together. He 
 looked about him, assured himself of the direction in 
 which the earth was subsiding, and, bearing the un- 
 conscious girl in his arms, made for the further side 
 of the arena. The rift in the soil was between him 
 and the point he desired to reach, its ugly edges 
 crumbling down into the depth, with now and then 
 whole clots of earth and sawdust dropping in in a 
 mass. It was uncertain whether the foot could find 
 a hold to allow of a leap, and the soil be firm enough be- 
 yond to receive the feet without yielding. But there 
 was no time available for measuring risks and calculat- 
 ing alternatives. Rab leaped the crack successfully, 
 and reached the red-draped barrier precisely where one 
 of the white performing dogs was perched, quivering 
 with fear, and howling. At that same moment, down 
 fell the awning, striking Rab, and precipitating him 
 to the ground, throwing the dog down with him, and 
 enveloping him, his senseless burden, and the wretched 
 hound, in its cumbrous folds. For a moment or two 
 Rab could not move, he was so weighed down and 
 entangfled with the canvas. 
 
 But Rab was a fellow of strength and energy. He 
 laid his burden under the barrier which remained up- 
 right, and which, after a fashion, sustained the fallen 
 awning, and, using both hands, with a knife hacked and
 
 RAB TO THE RESCUE 73 
 
 ripped at the canvas. In places this had caught fire. 
 It huno^ over the wrecked scafFoldino;, like skin on a 
 wasted body, loose about the bones. It flapped in the 
 wind. The air entered below at the torn sides and 
 blew it out in bellies, then it collapsed again. Guys 
 that had been ripped out of the earth, or torn, slapped 
 the canvas, as though some one were lashing it with 
 whips. In the arena it covered everything. The 
 struggling horses were seen leaping under it, the 
 lamps were burning their way through it ; it began to 
 sag down into the rift that was gradually widening, as 
 though the earth, having opened her mouth, were mum- 
 bling and drawing in the cloth thrown over her face. 
 
 Rab left the still unconscious girl under the barrier 
 that served to stay up the canvas, whilst he hacked 
 with his pocket-knife, and tore with his hands at the 
 smothering, all- enveloping cover. He speedily ripped 
 a hole in it. At once the dog leaped on his shoulders 
 and sprang through. Then he felt himself gripped at 
 the heel, and, looking down, saw the painted face of 
 the clown, who had crawled out of the barrel and 
 wormed his way after him, with a dim instinct that 
 by this means he could escape. The man was crying 
 like a little child, and the tears had run the paint off 
 his cheeks ; as he wiped his face, he smeared red and 
 black together, rubbed the artificial eyebrows into a 
 tuft on his nose, and covered his white sleeve with 
 stains.
 
 74 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " Help me, man ! " said Eab. " Lay hold of that 
 end of the rag." 
 
 " I can't do nothing, I'm so shook. Oh, my I is it 
 the end of the world come ? I'll be good. I'll promise 
 to be good. I won't drink no more. I'll take the 
 pledge." 
 
 " You fool ! Stand on your feet and assist me." 
 
 " Oh ! I can't ! Is it the end of all things ? If it 
 is, I'll wear the blue ribbon. I will — I swear I will ! 
 I will ! I will I Oh ! I'll be so good ! I'll read nothing 
 but tracts." 
 
 "Out of the way! Do you see the little Queen 
 there ? " 
 
 " Is she dead also ? Oh, dear ! I'm not fit to die ! 
 I've been accustomed to shave on Sundays." 
 
 "Let go!" The clown had laid hold of Rab's 
 shoulders, and was trying to climb on them so as to 
 escape. " It's the end of nothing save your show, you 
 selfish hound ! Can't you help me with the little 
 Queen ? " 
 
 Eab tore the sailcloth apart. The fresh air blew in 
 on him. Above was the vault of heaven strewn with 
 ten thousand stars. He looked round a moment, 
 scrambling up the canvas over part of the scaffolding 
 that seemed secure. In places, flames were leaping, 
 ghostlike, high in the air above the oil or canvas that 
 was burning. The confused mixture of voices of 
 those outside the heap of wreckage filled his ears —
 
 RAB TO THE RESCUE 75 
 
 the cries, shouts, objurgations, entreaties, orders, all 
 mingled into a general roar. Outside, mothers who 
 had escaped were seeking their children, strayed chil- 
 dren were screaming for their parents, husbands called 
 to their wives. Those spectators who had escaped 
 were mingled with a crowd come down from the 
 town to see the disaster and render help. They en- 
 deavoured to organise parties to search the wreck, and 
 extricate such as were still buried, but no one was 
 in authority, and none would obey self -constituted 
 directors. 
 
 Some of the grooms and stable-boys had run to the 
 subsidiary tent that served as green-room for the per- 
 formers, and where also were those horses prepared 
 to take part in the representation, and were assisting 
 men in fleshings and velvet, the Signora Muslina in 
 gauze skirts, and trapeze men half dressed, to lead 
 away the animals. Wild Indians, talking cockney 
 English, drove the ostriches before them ; a mechanic 
 had shouldered the mother-o'-pearl car, and was carry- 
 ing it to a place of security. The buffalo was pawing 
 the soil, bellowing, and would allow no one near 
 him. 
 
 Rab now stooped and raised the red repp that 
 covered the barrier. Queenie was still unconscious. 
 He threw her over his left shoulder, and proceeded to 
 thrust the coils of canvas under his feet and draw 
 himself up to the surface. The clown persisted in
 
 76 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 dragging at him. He had lost all self-control, and 
 was unnerved. 
 
 The course Rab had elected to take was by no means 
 a safe one. He had to make his way over the fallen 
 sailcloth that covered the scaffolding, some of which 
 stood, some was down, and some was leaning and 
 would yield with the least additional weight. More- 
 over, the wind under the canvas played with it, and 
 made it most precarious where to tread. 
 
 " You go forward," said Rab to the clown, " straight 
 as a line to where yon star shines afore your eyes, or 
 as near a line as sarcumstances admit. Tread away, 
 and I'll follow with my precious burden." 
 
 The white dog jumped about its fellow-performer 
 and barked. The clown put down his hand and 
 patted it. 
 
 " Glad you are saved. Tweedledum," said he. 
 " P'raps it ain't so bad after all." 
 
 A shrill voice outside was heard calling, — 
 
 " Nelson ! honey, dear ! Nelson ! where are you ? " 
 
 " Coming ! coming ! " screamed the clown. Then 
 turning his head over his shoulder, he said to E-ab, 
 " That's the signora. That's Mrs Nelson. She is 
 seeking me." 
 
 A little more confidence came to the poor fellow as 
 he heard the voices of the crowd, and, above all, that 
 of his wife. He could not see the people, for the 
 canvas inclined upwards to the boarded side of the
 
 RAB TO THE RESCUE 77 
 
 circus that was not broken down. As he looked 
 back, he saw behind him the burning mass, and, 
 beyond that, all was blackness — everything had dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 He stepped along. Perhaps it was his costume, the 
 absurd tufts of hair on his head, the high rolls for 
 epaulettes, the out-stufFed thigh pads, but his every 
 attitude was grotesque. He could not put forward 
 a foot to feel if the canvas before him would sustain 
 his weight, but he made an antic, and, as he stepped 
 along, he continued shouting, — 
 
 " I'm coming, my poppet ! I'm coming, my honey ! 
 Your Nelson is safe ! " 
 
 Rab thought he was playing the buffoon. 
 
 " Have done with your merry- Andrew tricks," said 
 Rab. " This is no time for fooling ! " 
 
 "I'm not fooling. I can't help it. I'm doing my 
 best," protested the clown, and he groped along, with 
 the dog dancing at his side. " Coming, poppet ! 
 Coming, sweetheart ! " 
 
 Every step he took, every inhalation of pure air, 
 every strident call from his still invisible wife, served 
 to restore elasticity to the spirits of the clown, and 
 recover his mind of the fears that had oppressed it. 
 He stepped firmer. He beat his breast, and said, — 
 
 " I won't ! I won't ! No ; I won't ! " 
 
 " You won't do what ? " asked Rab, treading at his 
 heels.
 
 78 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " I won't take the pledge. I won't read tracts, and 
 I'll shave just when it suits me — Sabbath included." 
 
 Then he reached the edge of the hoarding, looked 
 over ; a gas light illumined his face — some boys saw 
 him and laughed. 
 
 ' Here we are again ! " shouted the man, and turned 
 a somersault to descend to the crowd. " Poppet, here 
 I am ! " 
 
 Rab followed cautiously and descended slowly. He 
 was greeted with questions, to none of which he re- 
 plied, and with offers of assistance, none of which he 
 accepted. 
 
 He worked his way with his right hand, thrusting 
 men and women aside, till he got through the crowd. 
 Then he made at once for the row of cottages entitled 
 Heathendom, in one of which he lived along with his 
 mother. 
 
 As he reached the door, the girl stirred on his 
 shoulder, attempted to raise herself, and asked, — 
 
 " Father ! where is father ? " 
 
 " Lie quiet, little Queenie," said Rab. " My mother 
 shall attend on you, and I will go back to look for 
 your poor father." 
 
 " Who are you ? " 
 
 " I am the chap to whom you gave the yaller rose. 
 I'll do you no harm. Trust me."
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 NUTS. 
 
 Andrew was not prepared for open revolt against 
 the authority of his father, nor was he ready to 
 undergo major excommunication. In token that he 
 gave way, he tore his ticket and threw the frag- 
 ments into the fender, and his father accepted this 
 act as one of tacit submission. But in heart Andrew 
 was rebellious. " Hammer " believed that he had won a 
 victory and riveted more firmly his domination over 
 his son. He was mistaken ; he had shaken his hold 
 on the lad's conscience. The punishment threatened 
 was out of all proportion to the offence. Andrew's 
 conviction of the justice of his father had received a 
 shock. He questioned his affection for him. 
 
 Andrew asked himself: Was a parent right in 
 treating his son, when arrived at manhood, as the 
 Savoyard treated his monkey? Was a monkey 
 ordained by Nature to wear a red coat, to be con- 
 trolled by a chain, to run up water-pipes, and hold
 
 8o THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 out a begging-box ? Would a monkey be justified in 
 foro conscienticB in breaking his chain, tearing off 
 jacket and breeches, throwing aside his collecting 
 box, and making for the greenwood ? The man and 
 the monkey do not stand to each other in the same 
 relation as father to son. That made a difference. 
 What was lawful in the monkey was, perhaps, not 
 sufferable in the son. In that the monkey was a 
 happier, more privileged being than Andrew. It 
 might assert its liberty without conscientious 
 twinges. 
 
 In another point the monkey stood higher in the 
 scale of happiness than Andrew. It was allowed to 
 run and jump ; it might stand on its head and stretch 
 its little feet to heaven. It might dance and make 
 grimaces ; it might take without scruple anything — 
 nuts — nuts ! — (Andrew's breath came quick) — anything 
 offered it. It was not obliged to go through the 
 routine of missionary, temperance and undenomina- 
 tional as well as sectarian meetings. 
 
 Andrew had been eating his portion of beefsteak 
 and fried onions. He laid down his fork, and lapsed 
 into a brown study. 
 
 " What is up, Andrew ? " asked his father. 
 
 " I was thinking," answered the youth submissively. 
 
 "Thinking of what?" 
 
 " Only that monkeys don't have — taking all into 
 consideration — such a bad time of it."
 
 NUTS 8i 
 
 His father stared, then turned to Beulah, his sister, 
 and said, — 
 
 " I shall be on the platform. I suppose I shall be 
 forced to say a few words." 
 
 " Oh, brother, of course, of course ! What would 
 the meeting be without an address from you ? " 
 
 " I'll do what is right," said " Hammer," bringing his 
 fist down on the table. " I'll do it, even though the 
 Philistines be encamped against me with their host 
 in battle array." 
 
 " The Philistines will not be there, brother." 
 
 " You are right, Beulah, they will not. They will 
 be down at the Old Hall Field, with skipping ropes 
 and butterflies and all the pomps ! I'll speak to- 
 night ! " 
 
 " You always do, father," said Andrew. 
 
 " I do, yes ! " answered Jabez. " Because I always 
 do what I ought to do. Time is up. Get ready at 
 once." 
 
 He rose from table, without looking to see whether 
 his sister and son had finished their meal ; he ordered 
 the table to be cleared. Then he remembered that 
 he had not shaved, fetched hot water, and spent a 
 quarter of an hour in polishing his upper lip and 
 chin. 
 
 When he came downstairs, he found the other 
 inmates of the house ready, and waiting for him. 
 He thrust them forth and locked the door. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 82 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 On the way to the New Hall they caught up and 
 passed small parties of serious people, by twos and 
 threes, walking silently and solemnly to the place of 
 meeting. 
 
 From the lower part of the town pealed the brass 
 band at the circus, and the flaring lights about the 
 booth could be seen, even the black masses of people 
 distinguished, who were crowding to the show. 
 
 " Look there, at the many," said Jabez Grice, sternly ; 
 " see here the few ! I feel like Moses on the mount 
 when he saw the people dancing and feasting. He 
 broke all the commandments, he was in such anger. 
 I could do the same." 
 
 Standing on the steps of the New Hall, and looking 
 on the plain, the booths, the crowd, Jabez hastily, and 
 with a jerk, opened his umbrella, shut it again, and 
 opened it once more. 
 
 " I would," said he, " I would they was all swallowed 
 up alive, like Korah and his company, them and their 
 tents and their wives and their children. It'd be a 
 lesson to some." 
 
 Then he turned and entered the hall and pushed 
 his way to the platform, regardless of his son and 
 sister, whom he left to settle where they pleased. 
 The hall was very new, very white, and very glaring 
 with the gas turned on full. It was but half filled, 
 and the prospect of its filling was scanty. Already 
 the hour for opening had struck, and those on the
 
 NUTS Ss 
 
 platform waited, hoping that more would arrive to 
 replenish the body of the hall. Those who had come 
 set up their greatcoats, mantles and umbrellas on the 
 vacant seats at their sides to disguise, as far as might 
 be, the emptiness. 
 
 On the platform were assembled the notables of the 
 serious world at Saltwich. The chair was to be taken 
 by Mr Nottershaw, architect, surveyor and builder. 
 He stood well with the serious ; it was his interest to 
 do so. He spoke at their meetings, he subscribed to 
 their charities, he appeared in their chapels, he sat on 
 their committees, and he designed and erected for 
 them their public buildings. He had indeed sent his 
 children to the circus, with strict injunctions to sit in 
 the cheap places with the crowd lest they should be 
 recognised. The ministers of seven denominations 
 were here sinking their differences and mutual jeal- 
 ousies. Dr Tallow, large, flat-faced, with bushy whis- 
 kers and very glossy black coat, and very starched 
 white tie, was fanning himself with a printed copy of 
 one of his own sermons. 
 
 As Jabez Grice ascended the platform, applause 
 broke out from every portion of the room. Only the 
 dummies of umbrella and greatcoat did not join in the 
 ovation. 
 
 Andrew found it was impossible for him to collect his 
 thoughts and make them wheel round Dr Tallow like 
 the constellations about the sun. They wandered
 
 84 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 whilst the chairman was introducing the doctor and 
 apologising for the smallness of the audience, with 
 lamentations over the vanity of the minds that pre- 
 ferred circus-riding to the elocutionary gymnastics of 
 the illustrious doctor from Jericho. 
 
 Andrew's mind was absent in the Old Hall Field, 
 though his body was present in the New Hall. His 
 father might command the one, he was powerless to 
 control the other. He found himself listening to hear 
 if he could catch, where he sat, any strains of the brass 
 band wafted in through an open window. He found 
 himself thinking over the programme, and picturing 
 the scenes in the circus after the coloured posters. 
 Was the little Queen now making her entrance in the 
 mother-o'-pearl shell? How radiant, how beautiful 
 she would be ! and he was not there ! She would 
 look round for him — would miss him. She would be 
 offended at his absence — she would not come on the 
 morrow to see the salt works. 
 
 With an effort Andrew screwed his attention to Dr 
 Tallow's discourse, and found that his mind was 
 poisoned against him by the words of Rab — pre- 
 judiced against him by his own disappointment! 
 That was true which Rab had said. He knew all the 
 anecdotes — or others so like them that they were 
 undistinguishable in their common silliness. He 
 knew the illustrations — they were pointless. He 
 could not endure the frothy eloquence. The topic of
 
 NUTS 85 
 
 the discourse was commonplace, the delivery common- 
 place, the voice commonplace ; he had heard it all a 
 thousand times before, and he could find no interest 
 in what he heard now for the thousand and first 
 time. 
 
 He pulled out of his pocket a nut — it was one of 
 those that had been ofifered him by Queenie. He 
 looked at it. He fell into dreams over it. He 
 turned it about. He held it up to the light. He 
 saw in it the dints of her sharp little teeth — it was as 
 though a squirrel had been biting at it. He looked 
 closely at the depressions — No doubt about it at all. 
 Those dints were the dints of teeth — of her teeth. 
 Not considering where he was, what was going on, 
 who was speaking, or whence the speaker came, nor 
 what was the subject of his address, Andrew put the 
 nut into his mouth and cracked it. 
 
 Those near him started. The lecturer paused. 
 Those on benches and chairs in front turned, and, 
 with indignant frowns, stared Andrew in the face. 
 The sensation could hardly have been greater had 
 Andrew discharged a bomb. 
 
 " When that young gentleman has finished his nuts, 
 perhaps I may be allowed to proceed," said the 
 doctor, with withering sarcasm. 
 
 The chairman interfered. 
 
 " There is a time for all things," said he. " If the 
 frivolous choose to crack nuts at such a moment as
 
 86 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 this, under the outpour of such words as we have 
 heard, let him go out from us — he is not of us." 
 
 " Turn him out ! " was shouted from the further 
 side of the hall, by those who had not seen that the 
 culprit was the son of the respected Jabez Grice. 
 Only the dummies of umbrella and greatcoat did not 
 join in the remonstrance. 
 
 Abashed, Andrew took his cap, crept to the door, 
 and slipped forth into the open air. He had as much as 
 promised his father that he would not go to the circus, 
 but he was free to prowl round it. 
 
 After the pause caused by the unseemly disturbance, 
 the preacher caught up the thread of his discourse 
 again and proceeded to draw it to an end. 
 
 Then rose Mr Poles, the paperhanger, to propose a 
 vote of thanks to the American Demosthenes, the 
 Jericho Chrysostom, who had come among them to 
 deepen their seriousness. Mr Poles was a prolix 
 speaker ; his discourse consisted in a series of elocution- 
 ary festoons, and when done, no one could very well 
 say what it had all been about. His place was at once 
 occupied by Jabez Grice, who started to his feet and 
 looked about him, not with diffidence, like Mr Poles, 
 nor tremblingly holding to a chair-back, but planted 
 with his solid feet wide apart, firm, confident, like the 
 Colossus of Rhodes, set to give light to the voyagers 
 on the sea of life ; he spoke, not with a thin, timid, 
 quavering voice, like the paperhanger, but with one
 
 NUTS 87 
 
 rich, resonant and firm. There was nothing apologetic 
 in his manner, his tone, his attitude. He asked to be 
 heard because he insisted on being heard, and because 
 he knew that he would be heard, and heard with 
 avidity. 
 
 " My serious friends," began Jabez, and he eased his 
 arms in his sleeves as he started speaking, and spread 
 his breast ; " it is a proud moment to me to stand 
 before you on this undenominational platform, and to 
 second the vote of thanks proposed to the illustrious 
 stranger — who is yet not a stranger, as his printed 
 volumes are familiar to all the seriously- disposed. It 
 may be said that this undenominational gathering is 
 unprecedented. I ask — What is precedent? Why 
 should we consider precedent ? This is the point to 
 which I will address myself, and I pray you, lend me 
 your attention for two minutes. Precedents, my 
 serious friends, are the rags and tatters in which past 
 ignorance enveloped itself, and which it hands on to the 
 imbecile and weaklings and unreasoning of the present 
 day, that they may cloak themselves in the same, 
 when unable to give an account in the face of the 
 world for what they are asked to do, which they 
 know they ought to do, and yet which they dare not 
 do. Respect for precedent belongs to a condition of 
 mind and to a state of society out of which we have 
 happily grown. We are not men of yesterday. We 
 are men of to-day I "
 
 S8 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Here ensued a burst of applause. 
 
 " We are not concerned with the judgments of the 
 past. Men may have been fools then. If they did, 
 and if they ruled foolish things then, are we to do 
 foolish things to-day ? " 
 
 Cries of " No ! no ! " 
 
 " It is degradation — it is an absurdity for us men 
 of the nineteenth century to be ruled, not by reason, 
 not by conscience, but by precedence. Let each ques- 
 tion that arises be judged on its own merits, and let 
 not the right or wrong of the question be obscured by 
 the haze of precedent. Drag it into the full blaze of 
 light. Discuss it with unengaged minds, and judge it 
 as Heaven gives intelligence ! " 
 
 Cries of "Hear! hear!" 
 
 " In the year 1847 — let me tell you — the legislature 
 of this country considered the introduction of a 
 measure for the abolition of appeal to precedent. 
 And let me tell you, there came up from all parts of 
 Great Britain a petition, signed by seven millions of 
 rational men and women, praying for the abolition 
 of appeal to precedent. With what result ? " 
 
 The audience held its breath. The speaker looked 
 round. 
 
 " With what result ? That the petition was 
 ordered to lie on the table. There were found, my 
 friends, in the legislature and outside of it, men — 
 creatures, I should rather term them, with their tails
 
 NUTS 89 
 
 turned to the present age of light, and their nozzles 
 turned to the past age of obscurity — who raised objec- 
 tions, as such creatures always will, to every salutary 
 alteration. And the measure was defeated on the 
 grounds — on the grounds that there was 7io precedent 
 for rejecting the appeal to precedent." 
 
 The speaker looked round with defiance, his mouth 
 shut, his brows knit, his hands clenched. 
 
 " The English people had said their say — and were 
 silenced. This was in the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century. They sat down and were content. They 
 would not sit down and be content now. Why not ? 
 Because they live further on in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury than did those memorialists. Now, if they say 
 their say, and are not heard, they shout their shout ; 
 and if their shout be not listened to, then they roar 
 their roar; and then heard they are. Heard they 
 must be, for heard they will to be." 
 
 Immense applause, in which only the dummies of 
 umbrella and greatcoat did not join. 
 
 Then some one, far back in the hall, stood up, and 
 said, — 
 
 " May I be allowed to ask some particulars relative 
 to this very remarkable bill brought before the 
 House, of which I had never heard ? May I ask 
 where further particulars may be found ? " 
 
 Jabez Grice was ready at once with an answer. 
 
 " I know," said he, in his loud and resonant tones,
 
 90 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " both whence this interruption proceeds, and what is 
 its object. That gentleman who has put a question 
 to me has deliberately distorted my words — I did not 
 say, I purposely did not say, that this motion was 
 debated in the House. I said that it was considered 
 by the Ministry of the day. I have yet to learn that 
 the deliberations of the Cabinet are recorded in the 
 statutes at large, and the thoughts of the Ministry 
 find their place in the 'Transactions of Parliament.' 
 Let me advise that person who has interrupted with 
 his frivolous question, in future to use his ears, and 
 not allow his imagination play ; let me advise him to 
 cultivate accuracy. I am not bound to meet captious 
 questions. This is not the place in which to dissipate 
 crass ignorance. But enough of this topic, and of 
 this gentleman. I wipe him out of my memory. I 
 return to the point froQi which I was drawn 
 away." 
 
 " Father ! " said Andrew. He was below the plat- 
 form and had laid hold of his father's foot. " Pray, 
 do come. You are greatly wanted. You are wanted 
 immediately." 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Grice impatiently. 
 
 " There has been a terrible accident. A subsidence 
 at the circus." 
 
 " I said it — as I came in at the door I said it," 
 shouted Grice with triumph in his face — in his tone. 
 " I turned on the door-step of this hall and denounced
 
 NUTS 91 
 
 the revellers, and said — ' Let the earth open her mouth 
 and let them go down quick into the abyss.' " 
 
 " Father, I beseech you, come ! Your brother — 
 Santi— " 
 
 " Well ? " 
 Is dying, and crying out for you."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BROTHER OR NO BROTHER? 
 
 "You need not have shouted out that he was my 
 brother," said Jabez, as he walked from the New 
 Hall to Old Hall Field with his son at his side. 
 
 "Father, I did not shout. I thought that I 
 whispered." 
 
 "Well, you whispered loud enough for all on 
 the platform to hear, and interrupted me in the 
 middle of my speech — and a very important speech 
 it was." 
 
 " What was I to say ? There has been a terrible 
 affair. A subsidence where the circus was." 
 
 "That was right enough. I don't object to the 
 subsidence, nor to your telling me of it." 
 
 "Signor Santi is frightfully injured, and is asking 
 for you as his brother." 
 
 "Couldn't you have said he was asking for me, 
 and have stayed there, instead of blurting out what 
 
 92
 
 BROTHER OR NO BROTHER? 93 
 
 followed, instead of proclaiming what is a lie and an 
 insult." 
 
 " I knew nothing of that. I never supposed you 
 would take the matter so, father. The dying man 
 said he had no one in the world to ask for but you, 
 his brother." 
 
 "He is not my brother — never was. My father 
 married again after my mother's death, and took a 
 young widow with her son by her first husband. 
 That was Joe Sant. How can he be my brother 
 when we don't share a drop of blood ? All we ever 
 did share were bed and bread and butter. He is no 
 relation of mine. I have nothing to do with him. 
 He took his road ; I took mine — and his was the 
 broad and evil way." 
 
 " But you are going to see him, father ? " 
 
 " Of course, I am. I'll see him. I do what is right." 
 
 "Hammer" Grice said no more, but strode along. 
 
 At every step he took, he planted his foot on the earth 
 
 as though he were taking possession of the soil for 
 
 ever. 
 
 After he had gone forward some way in silence, 
 he halted and said, — 
 
 *' How has it come about ? A subsidence ? " 
 
 "Yes, father; I suppose the earth wouldn't bear 
 
 the extra weight and the trampling. The Old Field 
 
 has been held to be insecure for some time. But 
 
 I suppose the poor fellows thought it would hold up
 
 94 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 as long as they needed it. Now the deepest point is 
 not under the circus, it is between it and the flash, 
 but the ground has given way, cracked, sunk, and 
 the earth has begun to run, and as it ran, down came 
 the structure, boards and canvas and all." 
 
 "Many killed?" 
 
 " I do not know, father. I was at the meeting as 
 you know. When I went out, I ran down to the 
 Old Field because I learned that something had 
 happened there, and I could hear the screams and 
 the general uproar from the steps of the Town Hall. 
 I know very little more than what I was told when 
 I asked — and then I heard that the manager had 
 been extricated from under the tent, and that he was 
 terribly cut about and crushed. I don't know 
 whether the pole fell across him, or whether he was 
 trodden on by the horses. He has been badly burned 
 also, for there was fire that somehow broke out. 
 Fellows were saying he had been taken to his van, 
 and they had drawn that away out of danger of 
 sinking, and they had sent for a doctor. They told 
 me he was calling for you. He had no one in the 
 world to look to but you, he said, and none to provide 
 for but his daughter." 
 
 '* He has a daughter ? " 
 
 " Yes ; the Queen of Love." 
 
 " The Queen of Love I He is surely not going to 
 saddle me with her! The Queen of Love in my
 
 BROTHER OR NO BROTHER? 95 
 
 serious family ! A hussy with short skirts in 
 Alma Terrace ! " 
 
 He remained stationary, brooding over the pro- 
 spect. 
 
 " That would be a line confusion ! The Queen of 
 Love — with her heathenish ways, her skipping ropes 
 and butterfly habits, and all the pomps — in No. 4. 
 Deliver us ! " 
 
 He strode on. 
 
 Had he any idea of the sudden flutter of bope that 
 stirred, the flash, the blaze, of an opening world of 
 hght and beauty and love, that broke on the imagina- 
 tion of the youth at his side as he said these words ? 
 None whatever — not an inkling^. Jabez Grice had no 
 thought of Andrew at all. He was considering the 
 discomfort, the contrarieties to himself, the scandals 
 that might ensue in his house, were this discordant 
 element to be introduced into his serious family. 
 
 " Perhaps Joe Sant is not so bad after all," said he, 
 drawing a long breath. " He'll move on, and take his 
 precious set of belongings with him. The sooner the 
 better." 
 
 On reaching Old Hall Field, it was found to present 
 a scene of confusion from which it had not besfun to 
 recover. In the nightlight, the circus presented the 
 appearance of a stranded and wrecked hull. Nor was 
 it free from the attacks of wreckers. For it had 
 occurred to a good many of the idle and unscrupulous
 
 96 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 that there were boards in the wreck which could be 
 converted into poultry-houses with very little labour ; 
 that there was red repp and baize enough to make 
 petticoats for whole families, and that there was rope 
 that would come in handy as lines on which to hang 
 clothes after washing day. One or two men were 
 cutting slices out of the canvas, wherewith to make 
 themselves jackets and trousers. 
 
 The police were there, but the number stationed at 
 Saltwich was small, and they were directing search 
 parties among the ruins to save lives, rather than spend- 
 ing their energies in the protection of property. The 
 night was dark ; they could not follow the proceedings 
 of the depredators, though they might suspect that 
 depredations were being carried on. Their first duties 
 were towards such as were still entangled in the 
 canvas, or were lying injured among the fallen wood- 
 work. Apparently very few persons had been seri- 
 ously hurt. Some were bruised; here and there it 
 was reported that bones had been broken. No one 
 was missing — umbrellas, reticules, baskets of refresh-' 
 ments lay about under the boards, and these were the 
 principal losses. Some children were astray, but their 
 violent screams led to attention being directed to 
 them, and, as they were able to give an account 
 of themselves, to their speedy restoration to their 
 homes. 
 
 The clown and Signora Muslina were the principal
 
 BROTHER OR NO BROTHER? 97 
 
 persons who seemed to be in grave distress. They could 
 nowhere find the second performing dog, Tweedledee. 
 They ran about, followed or preceded by Tweedledum. 
 The dog was whining, the signora remonstrating in 
 shrill, harsh tones ; the clown, her husband, screaming, 
 because Tweedledee did not respond to their calls, and 
 could not be seen or heard of on any side. The 
 signora — her proper name was Mrs Nelson, Bell 
 Nelson, in the troupe — had thrown a rug round her 
 bare shoulders, but her spidery and somewhat ex- 
 posed legs, encased in white stockings, under scanty 
 muslin skirts, were everywhere distinguishable, run- 
 ning, jumping, climbing after Tweedledee ; and the 
 heart of the poor signora was sore under the spangles 
 that overlay it, and she had screamed herself hoarse 
 in her distress for the loss of the dear dog. 
 
 The workmen in white jackets belonging to the 
 show, the trapezists, and one of the performers on 
 horseback, the Modern Proteus, the man who balanced 
 balls and waved flags, lent ready help ; so did some 
 of the grooms from the stables, cheerful and obliging. 
 Boys and men went about with lanterns. It was as 
 though a swarm of fireflies had settled down on the 
 Old Hall Field. Some had brought together chips, 
 broken pieces of deal and lumps of coal, and had 
 made a fire, that threw light on the ruined circus and 
 the crowd, wa^vering and interweaving in incessant 
 change around it. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 98 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Andrew led his father in the direction of the gilded 
 and painted van in which lay the injured man. About 
 it were collected the horses, the bison, the ostriches 
 that had been brought away from the endangered 
 tract of land. The animals could not understand the 
 condition of affairs. They made strange noises. The 
 ostriches brayed like donkeys, the horses plunged and 
 kicked out. The routine of their lives was broken 
 in on, and they had lost their sense of obedience. 
 The men who usually attended to them were those 
 in white jackets, and they were engaged elsewhere. 
 Their places had been taken by volunteers from 
 various stables, but these did not understand circus 
 beasts, or the beasts did not understand being handled 
 by strangers. 
 
 Grice entered the van without a word to anyone. 
 The van was divided interiorly into compartments. 
 The first entered was the parlour; it had benches 
 at the sides, stuffed and covered with leather. 
 The windows were hung with pretty curtains. 
 In the middle was a stove, and against one of 
 the sides, under a casement, was fastened a desk, 
 at which the director did all his accounts and 
 correspondence. 
 
 Through a door opposite the entrance, access was 
 obtained to the bedroom. There lay Santi, on his 
 narrow pallet, as complete a wreck as his show. He 
 had been trampled on by the cream-coloured horses,
 
 BROTHER OR NO BROTHER? 99 
 
 crushed by the falling pole, and burned by the over- 
 set lamps. A surgeon had been summoned, and he 
 had stripped off the man's frock coat and waistcoat, 
 and had examined him. One of the acrobats was 
 kneeling at the sufferer's head and holding it on his 
 arm. He was dressed as a wild Indian, painted brown 
 with red lips, and wore moccasins on his legs and a 
 plumed head-dress. 
 
 The surgeon stood up and shook his head. 
 The Indian's brown face turned to him, watching 
 intently. 
 
 " Done for, manager, done for," said the fellow in 
 tones of deep and tender feeling. "You must try 
 and bear it as a man, old fellow. We must all come 
 to it some day. Shall I put your head a little more 
 on one side ? Ai'e you easy ? Or shall I stay you up 
 in my arms, boss ? You are as feeble and helpless as 
 when 3'ou took me up." 
 
 " Thank you, Seth, it will do." 
 " Oh, boss, I wish it was I, crumpled up and done 
 for, and not you. But, old boss, I'm afraid I wouldn't 
 be as ready to go as are you. Boss, when you come 
 to the place where we must all appear, you can hold 
 up your poor achin' head and tell the story o' that 
 there baby boy, Seth — how you took and keared for 
 the horphan, and fed and clothed him, free, gratis, 
 when he could be nort but an expense ; and how you 
 taught him to know right from wrong. And if it
 
 loo THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 please the pigs that I come to where you be going — 
 Lord, it'll be all your doin' ! For what would I ha' 
 been but for you ! " 
 
 Then the Red Indian began to sob, and the tears to 
 stream down his painted cheeks. 
 
 "I've never had none but you, boss, and little 
 Queenie to kear about in the world. Oh, dear ! oh, 
 dear ! and what is to become of her ? " 
 
 " Don't take on, Seth ; you've been a good boy." 
 
 " I do take on, boss ! I can't help it. And you're 
 going to leave us and the hostriches and the 'osses, 
 and that there darned idjot of a buffalo, as won't mind 
 none of us, but your word only. But there, we won't 
 think o' that. Put your hands together. You can't ? 
 That there old arm be broke, is it ? Well, put that 
 right hand up from off your heart, boss dear, and I'll 
 put my left from under your neck against it, and 
 we'll say the prayer together — as you taught me when 
 I was a little creetur." 
 
 Then the Indian lifted the dying man against his 
 breast, and put his palm against that of the other, 
 and with sobs and broken voice repeated, — 
 
 " Meek and mild — look on me — a little child — pity 
 my simplicity" — he wiped his face. "It don't suit 
 altogether ; 'tisn't that I meant. But it comes to my 
 mind first, and yet, old man, you're now weak as a 
 babe, just as I was when you took me up, and keared 
 for me, and taught me them words: and if it ain't
 
 BROTHER OR NO BROTHER? loi 
 
 quite what it ort to be, well, I daresay it will be 
 overlooked." 
 
 " I think I can do better for the poor fellow than 
 that/' said Jabez Grice, stepping forward. " You don't 
 seem to know what you're about. How can you ? 
 Grapes don't come of thorns and figs of thistles." 
 
 " My brother Jabez ! " exclaimed the dying man — 
 and held out the one hand he could command. 
 
 " I am sorry to see you like this, Joe," said Grice. 
 He took his hand, then, turning to all who were 
 present, said, — "He is not really my brother. We 
 are in no ways related." 
 
 The dying manager looked steadily into the face 
 of Jabez. 
 
 " You were always a serious boy," he said ; " I 
 suppose you're serious still." 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Then I'm sure I can trust you. You were a good 
 boy." 
 
 " What is right — that I do — of course. I couldn't 
 do other," answered Grice. 
 
 " I want to speak alone with you." 
 
 The manager was in pain. It was with an effort 
 that he gathered his thoughts; with an effort and 
 manifest suffering that he spoke. His eyes were 
 sunken. They seemed more sunken than they really 
 were, owing to the shadow cast by the strong light 
 of the lamp hanging from the ceiling of the cabin.
 
 I02 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " Must I go, boss ? " asked the Red Indian, from 
 v/hose cheeks much of the paint had come away. 
 
 Santi nodded — then with his hand caught his arm, 
 and said, — 
 
 " Her — my little Queenie. I haven't seen her ! 
 Tell me she is not hurt — tell me where she is. I 
 want to say good-bye to Queenie — Seth, go and 
 find her. Tell her — her father — Bring her to 
 me!" 
 
 His head sank back on the pillow. He breathed 
 with pain. His ribs were crushed on the lungs. 
 
 "I am sorry to say I can be of no more use," 
 observed the surgeon, taking his hat; "if I could, I 
 would cheerfully stay, but as — " 
 
 He left the room with the sentence unfinished. 
 
 Grice waved a sign to his son to leave, and Andrew 
 went outside. 
 
 When left alone with the manager, Jabez said, — 
 
 " I was afraid it would come to this. You never 
 took my warnings when we were young together. 
 I have gone my way — you have gone yours — and 
 now you are struck down in your iniquities." 
 
 " Iniquities — what iniquities ? " asked Santi, faintly. 
 
 "Skipping-ropes and butterflies, and muslin and 
 fleshings, and all the pomps," said Grice, solemnly. 
 
 " I don't know," the dying man gasped. " I've tried 
 to be true and just in all my dealings. If I haven't — 
 I've been sorry. I mayn't have been all I ought to
 
 BROTHER OR NO BROTHER? 103 
 
 have been, and I don't deny it — I don't deny it. I 
 feel it here." He lightly touched his heart — he was 
 breathing painfully. "There was that pictur of a 
 boa-constrictor swallering of a man. I wouldn't have 
 it up — outside the show. I hadn't a boa. Bell 
 Nelson offered to lend me her fur one — and sew it 
 up in canvas and paint it. But I wouldn't — 'twasn't 
 true." He remained silent awhile, breathing with 
 labouring chest. " And I've tried to be just. If I 
 haven't, by mistake it has been — not by intent. That's 
 how I've made so much money." 
 
 " Money ! " repeated Grice in astonishment. 
 "Yes — horses, and skipping-ropes and hoops, and 
 muslin and all that — it has been my profession. The 
 profession ain't amiss. I've made money. And I've 
 always invested my savings every year — for Queenie. 
 Stay — I can't speak." He seemed to lapse into un- 
 consciousness, but rallied. " You were awfully strict 
 and serious as a boy," said the manager, his great 
 eyes turning searchingly on Grice. "Get a pen 
 and paper from my desk. It's — in 'tother place. 
 I can't trust Nelson — he drinks. Seth White is too 
 young — I've no one else but you. I must trust you 
 — for Queenie — little Queenie ! " He turned his 
 head. " I want to see her — to kiss her. Bring 
 my Queenie here. I've worked, and slaved, and 
 put by for her. Bring Queenie. There's a good deal 
 of money."
 
 I04 THE QUEEN Of LOVE 
 
 Grice went into the outer compartment, and re- 
 turned with paper and pen and ink. 
 
 " There is no time to be lost," he said. " Money, 
 you said. A good deal of it. I shouldn't have 
 thought it, brother Joe. My dear brother Joe."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 AN ORPHAN. 
 
 QuEENiE sat in the high-backed chair by the fire in 
 the cottage of the Rainbows. The walls of the 
 chamber were painted sky-blue, and were of appalling 
 brilliancy — the colour affected, possibly, as some con- 
 trast to the red-brick of the exterior. ^ There stood a 
 dresser against the wall, on which were ranged plates, 
 jugs and bowls of Bristol lustre- ware that shone like 
 burnished copper — or as the hair of the little maiden 
 who leaned back in the chair. 
 
 She was in her white gauze dress, strewn with 
 spangles. At every breath a flash, as of summer 
 lightning, shot over her bosom, in the reflections of the 
 great fire, and an incessant quiver of light was in her 
 thistle-down skirts, produced by the slightest move- 
 ment of her limbs. 
 
 She was recovered from her insensibility, but much 
 shaken, and one ankle was sprained. Her arms were 
 
 105
 
 io6 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 bare ; one was raised, and the hand tlirust behind her 
 head. The little feet were crossed in their white 
 satin shoes, and rested on a hassock. 
 
 Mrs Rainbow had put the kettle on the fire to boil, 
 so as to make Queenie a cup of tea, after which she 
 was to be put to bed. Sheets and blankets were 
 tossed across chair-backs to air, and Rab's mother was 
 on her knees with a pail, scrubbing the floor. 
 
 " Mother ! " said Rab, in a tone of impatience, " why 
 do you set to wash the floor now ? Can't it wait till 
 to-morrow ? " 
 
 "No, it can't," answered the woman, standing up. 
 She was a tall, handsome woman, very untidy in her 
 person, and dressed incongruously, with an old hat on 
 her head that had belonged to her deceased husband, 
 and a tattered jacket of Rab's over her back. " No, it 
 can't," said she. " If you choose to bring dirt in on 
 your boots, I ain't going to let it remain ten minutes. 
 Lor! the work you do bring on me. And never a 
 thought for your old mother." 
 
 Mrs Rainbow was a person of immense energy ; she 
 worked, she verily slaved from morning till night ; 
 and yet was neither tidy herself, nor had her 
 house neat. How, with all the work she did, so little 
 result was visible — that was a marvel to her son. 
 She did a little bartering with vegetables on a hand- 
 cart she ran along herself ; she had a little shop, that 
 is to say, sold lollipops, peppermints, oranges and
 
 AN ORPHAN 107 
 
 ginger-beer ; she kept geese on the common, and fowls 
 in the back-yard. She picked up pennies by this 
 means, and professed that, but for herself, the house 
 never could have been kept going. 
 
 " I'll clean up whenever dirt comes in," said Mrs 
 Rainbow. " The kettle won't boil all at once, nor the 
 blankets get aired of a jiffy." 
 
 Rab was on one knee before the fire, toasting bread, 
 but his eyes were on Queenie. The girl's right hand 
 was resting on her lap. Presently her cheek puckered 
 with a smile, and, raising her finger, she pointed at 
 Rab's cap. 
 
 He at once removed his headgear, put down the toast, 
 and, unpinning the bruised and withered yellow rose, 
 said, — 
 
 '' You gave me this." 
 
 He put his hand into his breast-pocket, and drew 
 forth a much-used letter-case, in which were flies for 
 fishing, and scraps of newspaper relative to races, and, 
 folding the rose in a piece of clean paper, he threw 
 out all the racing notes and flies, placed the rose 
 within, and then put the case into his pocket again. 
 
 " There ! " said he. " I shall not part with this 
 flower till my dying day. Remember that, little Queen 
 of Love. It is the first flower ever given me, and 
 you gave it me when I had been very bold and rude, 
 and by it showed you had forgiven me. When I'm 
 dead, little Queen, then — if I have not taken the
 
 io8 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 yaller leaves underground with me — do me a kindness 
 and strew 'em on my grave." 
 
 " I'll find you a better rose." 
 
 " I want none other. This will do for me. I am 
 sorry I was rude, but Andrew angered me." 
 
 " Who is Andrew ? " 
 
 " Oh, he is a good boy — an uncommon good boy ; 
 and I," Rab shrugged his shoulders, " I'm a shocking 
 bad un." 
 
 " Ah, never was a truer word spoken ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs Rainbow, rising from her slops. " A precious life 
 you have led your old mother, what with your idle- 
 ness, and poachings, and drinkings and skylarkings." 
 
 " Do you drink ? " asked Queenie. 
 
 " Sometimes — always on washing days, and when 
 mother's tongue is loose at the joints." 
 
 " I'll tell you what it is," said Mrs Rainbow. " There 
 will be no toast done at this rate — staring into a gal's 
 face, instead of minding the bread before the fire." 
 
 Rab hastened to resume his operation of toasting. 
 
 " I am sorry you drink," said the girl. 
 
 " So am I," answered Rab. " But I can't help it." 
 
 " That's what our clown says. He'd be a first-rate 
 clown and a good fellow, but he can't keep from the 
 public-house. Father cautioned him over and over — 
 he came fresh to the performances, and was not in the 
 least funny then. He cried. So father has had to 
 lock him up in an old monkey cage he bought of a
 
 AN ORPHAN 109 
 
 menagerie man, who broke because his monkeys all 
 got the influenza. Father locks him up directly we 
 get into a town, and keeps him there till it is time to 
 get ready for the performance. And Bell Nelson, she 
 walks up and down with a switch and has the key. 
 She does not let him out till he is summoned to paint 
 and dress." 
 
 " A very good thing too," said Mrs Rainbow. "I'll 
 treat you the same, Rab ; I'll shut you up in the goose- 
 pen — and serve you right." 
 
 " Does the clown submit ? " asked the young man. 
 
 " He must — and he knows it's for his good. And 
 Bell, she walks up and down and puts her nose between 
 the bars, and gives him her mind. He can't break out 
 as before. It must be after a performance. Father 
 can't keep him all day and all night in the monkey 
 cage — " 
 
 " Now, then ! Now, then ! " shouted Mrs Rainbow. 
 " I don't call that toast. You've got the bread against 
 the bars. I'd like to make a zebra of you as you've 
 been treating that slice." 
 
 " Where is my father ? " asked Queenie. " I want to 
 see him. Is he safe ? " 
 
 '• I brought you away," said Rab. " I really know 
 nothin' more than that you are here." 
 
 " I remember the creamies turned restive, and they 
 made a start." 
 
 " Yes — the earth cracked before them."
 
 no THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " Let me manage toasting the bread. Do, pray, go 
 and ask after my dear father I " said the girL 
 
 " Listen to the voice of nat'ral affection," said Mrs 
 Rainbow, standing up with a scrubbing brush in one 
 iiand and a bar of soap in the other. "Hear her 
 hollering for her father. It's a thousand years since 
 I've heard my son call after his mammy like that, and I 
 reckon it'll be a thousand years more before he comes 
 round to know his duty to his mother." She rubbed 
 her eyes with the soap, then, as that made them sting, 
 with the scrubbing brush. " As for Rab, if I but shows 
 the end of my tongue, off he goes like a cricket before 
 the light — to the public-house." 
 
 A tap at the door, and when the woman opened, she 
 sprang back with an exclamation of terror. A Red 
 Indian, hung with scalps, was in the doorway ; he 
 was dazzled by the light, and asked somewhat hesi- 
 tatingly. — 
 
 " Is the little Queen here ? " 
 
 " It's Seth ! It's Seth I " exclaimed the girl, starting 
 out of her chair, and then, finding her foot give way 
 under, sinking back into it again. 
 
 " Queenie ! Do I hear you ? " said the Red Indian. 
 " I'm terribly grieved ; you must come at once." 
 
 " Oh, Seth, Seth, what is the matter ^^ " 
 
 " I am sorry to say — your father is bad ! " 
 
 The girl uttered a piercing cry, and tried to limp to 
 the door.
 
 AN ORPHAN III 
 
 " You cannot walk," said Rab. " I carried you 
 before ; I will carry you agin. Mother, a shawl." 
 
 The young man carefully, tenderly, folded a great red 
 wrap round the girl, so as to completely cover her, 
 with the exception of her golden hair, which flowed 
 out and over the shawl, and hung on Rab's shoulder 
 like tresses of laburnum on a wall. He bore her lightly 
 along, and the painted Indian stepped at his side. 
 
 " There's a lot of our chaps about the wan as wants 
 to see the boss " — he looked significantly towards the 
 bundle. '* I mean, they've heard the signor ain't quite 
 up to tune, you know, and they're all dying to shake 
 his hand and say a word. But there's a fellow in the 
 wan, as says he's the signor's brother, won't let 'em in, 
 not one of them. They take on dreadful about it." 
 
 " Are all your company safe ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I guess all but Tweedledee." 
 
 '' Who's Tweedledee?" 
 
 " It's one of the performin' dawgs. There's a pair 
 of them ; they belong to the Nelsons, that is, to the 
 clown and to her — the lady as goes through the fiery 
 hoop, you know. The master pays so much a week 
 for their services, and they're uncommon clever dawgs. 
 But Tweedledee's amissin', so the Nelsons are in a 
 pretty stew." 
 
 They had not far to go. 
 
 " Some chap said he'd seen the little Queen carried 
 into one of them cottages," said the Red Indian : " and
 
 112 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 he told me 'twas that of the Rainbows. He — you 
 know who I mean — he's been axing for her. I guess 
 that brother who is there won't deny her admittance." 
 
 " I'll force open the door if he does," said Rab. 
 
 They had reached the van. About the steps stood the 
 members of the company. Some of those in fleshings 
 had succeeded in getting coats to throw over them, as 
 the night was raw. A curious mixture of persons was 
 congregated before the van, in which a man was 
 dying. Every face, as far as could be distinguished 
 by a flaming light, showed signs of distress through 
 the paint that obscured the natural features. A good 
 deal of murmuring, and many a lamentation, broke 
 from the kindly, aflfectionate hearts of these vaga- 
 bonds. 
 
 " He was a master — a good un," said one of the 
 acrobats. " He never swore at a chap on the trapeze 
 till he lost his nerve, as I've knowed some do." 
 
 " Ay ! he was a good chap ! " said another. " Look 
 what he done for that boy Seth." 
 
 " And he paid regular, down on the nail," said a 
 third. 
 
 The clown was stealing away on tiptoe, in the 
 shadow of the van; his wife was aware of the 
 manoeuvre, and went after him, caught him by the 
 roll on one of his shoulders, and dragged him back. 
 
 " For shame, Jim ! for shame ! you unnat'ral beast ! 
 when the dear master's dying ! I know what you're
 
 AN ORPHAN 113 
 
 after ; you han't got no money, but you think you 
 can find chaps as will stand treat." 
 
 " I was going to have another look for Tweedledee," 
 said the clown. 
 
 "No, you wasn't, you was after liquor. I won't 
 have it ! It's fortunate the monkey cage is safe. I've 
 seed it ! That's not swallered up, and I've got the 
 key!" 
 
 "Oh, Bell, dearest Bell, darling, I'm never put 
 in that after a performance." 
 
 " I'll put you in, and keep you in, if you demean 
 yourself, and at such a time as this ! " 
 
 Bab, with Seth at his side, pushed up the steps. 
 Bab did not stay to knock — he opened the door. At 
 once Jabez Grice started to intercept him, but Bab 
 looked him straight in the face, and said, — 
 
 " Here is his daughter." 
 
 Grice drew aside, and allowed Bab, carrying the 
 girl, to enter the inner room, followed by the Bed 
 Indian. Then, at once, the rest of the company 
 pressed in. It was too late to repel them. One of 
 the acrobats had planted himself against the door, so 
 that Grice could not shut it. He hesitated, saw that 
 it was not possible for him now to drive out the 
 crowd, and they came thick on his heels, in all their 
 motley, through the front compartment into the bed- 
 chamber, and there spread out in silence, with folded 
 arms and bowed heads. In the midst, by the bed, 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 114 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 knelt Rab ; he unfurled the red shawl, and let the 
 girl, in her spangles and muslin, flash and twinkle 
 in the eyes of her dying father. 
 
 " Bear up, child, bear up," he whispered. 
 
 The little Queen seemed turned to marble. She 
 could not speak. She could hardly breathe. She 
 could not move. It was all too terrible, too crushing 
 for the childish heart. With great open, dark eyes, 
 full of despair, she looked on her father's drawn face, 
 altered by pain, haggard as she had never conceived 
 his face could become. She put her hands over her 
 eyes to shut out the sight, then withdrew them 
 again. 
 
 Then she caught his one hand extended to her from 
 the bed, and squeezed it frantically to her glittering 
 bosom. 
 
 The eyes of the dying man looked round the tiny, 
 crowded compartment of the van, and sought Grice. 
 Then he withdrew his hand from his daughter, 
 pointed to Jabez, and said, — 
 
 " Listen all ! I trust her to a good man, a good man. 
 You will go to him, Queenie ! " 
 
 He closed his eyes and laid his hand on his bosom. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Seth, stooping over the dying 
 
 man. 
 
 " Meek and mild. 
 Look upon a little child ! " 
 
 The words, broken, faint, tremulous, were the last
 
 AN ORPHAN 115 
 
 the manager, Signer Santi, uttered. To whom did 
 they apply ? To himself rendered helpless as a babe, 
 or to his daughter left an orphan ? 
 
 Then Grice drew between the bed, and the staring, 
 frightened, stupefied Queenie, and said to Eab, — 
 
 " Take her away — it is over." 
 
 Suddenly a wave of gold poured over the poacher's 
 face, dazzling, smothering him. The child had turned, 
 thrown her arms round his neck with a bitter cry, 
 and burst into convulsive sobs. 
 
 ^^
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ADA BUTTON. 
 
 JABEZ Grice was not the man to yield in diflficulties, 
 least of all in such as were of a sentimental nature. 
 When he made up his mind to a course, he neither 
 swerved from it himself, nor endured that any im- 
 pediments be put in his way by others. 
 
 Grice was speedily made aware that the troupe had 
 set their minds on making of the funeral of their 
 manager a grand demonstration. They would attend 
 in a body, and ride the circus horses. Some qualms 
 came over them relative to the propriety of introduc- 
 ing the buffalo and the ostriches in the procession, 
 none whatever as to the suitability of the creamies 
 and a piebald pony. The late director's Arab was to 
 walk, or rather limp, behind his coffin, with the boots 
 reversed slung over the saddle. 
 
 Grice, with decision, put a stop to their scheme. 
 He, and he alone, was responsible for the funeral 
 
 ii6
 
 ADA BUTTON 117 
 
 arrangements. The interment was to take place with 
 the utmost quiet and privacy. None were to attend 
 save those related to the deceased. He would not 
 even inform the troupe of the day when the funeral 
 was to take place. 
 
 To prevent, as far as might be, any unauthorised 
 accession to the ranks of mourners, Grice summoned 
 the members of the company before him in the late 
 manager's van, opened his books and paid ever}^ man 
 and woman what arrears were claimed, and a month 
 in advance, and requested them to make themselves as 
 scarce as possible in Saltwich. The clown put in a 
 demand for compensation for the loss of Tweedledee, 
 but it was so extortionate that Grice refused to listen 
 to it, and the clown was forced to depart, guarded by 
 his wife, with their united salaries alone. 
 
 Jabez was a man of cool head, promptitude and 
 practical knowledge. He resolved to make the best 
 sale he could effect of the horses, vans and properties 
 of the circus. He proposed advertising the whole in 
 London and Mancliester, and if no offer came within 
 a fortnight, to dispose of the various lots, piecemeal j 
 by auction, not at Saltwich, but at Crewe. If any of 
 the old company were prepared with a bid they were 
 welcome to remove the entire concern, only Grice 
 would accept no promises to pay. Let it be clearly 
 understood, he parted with the circus, and all belong- 
 ing to it, cash down. Some of the troupe put their
 
 ii8 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 heads together and considered whether it were pos- 
 sible to put their pockets together as well. But it 
 proved that though they could furnish any amount of 
 undertaking to pay, they were not able, singly or con- 
 jointly, to find the requisite sum for buying the stock. 
 Money-lenders were shy of advancing money to a 
 rambling band whose whereabouts was not always 
 ascertainable. 
 
 The troupe again put their heads together. They 
 felt it a duty to attend their old master to the grave. 
 But there were difficulties in the way of their perform- 
 ing this duty beside those presented by the action of 
 Grice. To attend a funeral necessitated mourning. 
 Now, almost every colour was represented in the 
 private wardrobes of the company but black. The 
 principal acrobat affected blue trousers ; the main per- 
 former on horseback, when in private, wore a very 
 light, snufF-coloured suit and a Stuart plaid waistcoat. 
 Bell Nelson's best gown was of copperas green. If 
 they were all to go into mourning, a great hole would 
 be made in the small available sum they had to main- 
 tain them till they could be re-engaged. Then, again, 
 time was of almost as great importance as money. 
 They must at once seek new situations, and, consider- 
 ing the competition in this, as in every trade, it was 
 possible that those slow in offering themselves might 
 be left out in the cold altogether. The only men 
 really unconcerned about their future were the two
 
 ADA BUTTON 119 
 
 carpenters and a fellow who had attended to the 
 horses. These knew that they would find ready 
 employ anywhere ; and, in fact, the latter was at 
 once engaged to one of the stud stables on the edge 
 of Delamere Forest. 
 
 As yet, Queenie remained in the cottage of the 
 Rainbows. Grice had been unable to receive her into 
 his house, owing to lack of accommodation or of fur- 
 niture, but he made provision for her removal imme- 
 diately after the funeral. 
 
 The troupe had pretty well dispersed before that 
 took place. But Seth White, who had personated a 
 Red Indian, remained. No consideration would in- 
 duce him to leave till after the burial of the man who 
 had taken care of him when a helpless infant. 
 
 The day on which Joe Sant, or Signor Santi as he 
 was professionally called, was taken to his grave was 
 not cheerful. The clouds hung low and were unout- 
 lined, forming one dense, dull canopy of grey, like 
 dirty wadding. Trees, fields, herbs had lost brilliancy 
 of colour. The roads were deep in red mud. There 
 were no showers, nor continuous rain, but large warm 
 drops fell at intervals. Those who carried umbrellas 
 never knew quite whether to unfurl them or not. 
 The hedges were dripping, the birds flew low ; a crow 
 occasionally called, but no song-birds sang. The 
 cattle stood moping in the fields without spirit to 
 gambol, without appetite to browse.
 
 120 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 The air was warm, and dense with minute gnats, 
 and wherever there was garbage, swarms of long- 
 legged flies wavered over the engaging morsels. The 
 gnats were everywhere. They got into the hair, into 
 the ears ; they stung the temples and the wrists, they 
 produced a sense of general irritation. 
 
 The hearse that contained the body of Joe Sant, 
 followed by one mourning coach, was in the road 
 to Scatterley Church, distant two miles, and slowly 
 progressed between hedges rank with docks, and 
 ditches choked with sting-nettles. The same vehicle 
 and the same driver that had conveyed the deputa- 
 tion to Mr Button, to remonstrate with him on the 
 concession, to the mountebanks, of the New Hall 
 Field, were now engaged to transport the mourners 
 to Scatterley. For the occasion, the driver had 
 donned his weeper and drawn his mouth down at 
 the corners. 
 
 Jabez Grice, Beulah his sister, Queenie and Andrew, 
 occupied the interior of the coach. Grice and his 
 sister sat in the back part and held white pocket- 
 handkerchiefs in their hands. Grice had a black 
 suit always ready for such occasions, and Beulah 
 had managed to contrive a bonnet and gown out of 
 pre-existing materials ; but Andrew had to be sub- 
 mitted to a tailor, and a dressmaker had been sent to 
 the Rainbows' cottage with instructions to provide all 
 that was necessary for the girl. Behind the carriage,
 
 ADA BUTTON 121 
 
 unobserved by Grice and his sister, walked Rab Rain- 
 bow and Seth White. They had joined the funeral 
 procession, uninvited and unnoticed, and were dressed 
 up in such scraps of black as they had been able to 
 scrape tos^ether. Queenie, weeping^, half -blinded with 
 tears, raised her heavy eyes, and looking at intervals 
 through the window at her side, saw the figure of Rab 
 lurching along in the rear, his trousers turned half- 
 way up his calves, splashing through the mud, and 
 bespattered by the carriage wheels in front. Horses 
 are slower in their walk than men, and the two who 
 were behind had some difficulty in accommodating 
 their pace to the rate at which hearse and coach pro- 
 gressed. They could have walked the distance in half 
 the time. 
 
 Rab's eyes were never off the carriage window, 
 throuofh which he could see the black figure of 
 Queenie with her golden hair, which even the dulness 
 of the day could not deaden ; he could see how pale 
 she was, how red were her eyes, and his whole frame 
 quivered when he observed how she went into a con- 
 vulsion of weeping behind the white kerchief that 
 veiled her eyes. 
 
 He said nothing to his fellow-mourner all the way, 
 and that way seemed interminable. They passed a 
 red brick barn, with yellow lichen-spotted tiles on 
 the roof, and a boulder of drift granite lying against 
 the wall, with the water from the roof, that should
 
 122 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 have run in a shoot, as it settled or condensed, drip- 
 ping over the stone. 
 
 As the carriage passed the bam, the bell of Scatter- 
 ley Church was heard tolling. 
 
 About Saltwich there were no trees ; the fumes from 
 the brine-boiling works blighted, killed vegetation. 
 But the vapours were comparatively i nocuous at a 
 distance of a couple of miles, and there were flourish- 
 ing plantations of fir, some twelve to twenty feet high, 
 about the parsonage. 
 
 . Here the road made a rapid sweep, and in this 
 sweep the hearse drew up at the churchyard gates. 
 The driver descended from the coach and placed his 
 hand on the door, to prevent those inside from open- 
 ing, till the coffin had been removed from the hearse, 
 the pall thrown over it, and the bearers were ranged 
 in order. 
 
 Presently a nod from the undertaker gave the 
 signal, and the driver raised his hat with one hand, 
 and with the other opened the coach door and let 
 down the steps. 
 
 Grice and Andrew descended first, then his sister 
 and Queenie. 
 
 Now for the first time did Jabez observe the 
 followers. He looked at them deliberately from head 
 to foot, with an air of surprise, as though resenting 
 their presence as an impertinent intrusion. Setli 
 instinctively and apologetically touched his cap.
 
 ADA BUTTON 123 
 
 Rab coloured, bent and turned down his trousers over 
 his muddy boots. 
 
 The church bell had stopped. In the graveyard 
 path could be seen the parson in surplice, book in 
 hand, waiting to read the opening sentences. At 
 that moment round the curve of the road in front 
 dashed a pony carriage driven by a young lady in 
 colours. The road was not broad. The coffin and 
 the hearse perhaps occupied an undue portion of it, 
 so as greatly to reduce .that in which a carriage could 
 pass. 
 
 In the steamy, heavy air, the sound of the bell had 
 been lost. The girl was quite unprepared to encounter 
 a funeral train. The suddenness of the meeting pre- 
 vented her from using her judgment. Instead of at 
 once backing as she ought to have done, though it 
 would have been difficult, she whipped the cob so as 
 to dash past. There was nothing intentional in this 
 exhibition of disrespect. She was confused, and 
 endeavoured to extricate herself from an awkward 
 position in the way that seemed readiest. 
 
 But the horse would not proceed ; he started back, 
 and in so doing threw her on to the front seat. The 
 sombreness of the vehicles, the black of the mourners, 
 the flapping of the sable velvet pall, edged with white — 
 perhaps the savour of death — had frightened the cob, 
 and it was now almost beyond the girl's control. She 
 gathered herself up on her knees on the front seat of
 
 124 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 the open trap, grasped the reins short and lashed 
 savagely at the horse. 
 
 " Go on, you brute, go on ! you shall ! " she said. 
 
 The* bearers drew aside, they were afraid the cob 
 would strike them with his hoofs ; moreover, by so 
 doing only, could room be made for the light carriage 
 to pass. The horse would not obey. Again the girl 
 raised her arm' and beat him, again, and yet again. 
 Her face was white, her thin lips set. There was no 
 token of fear in her countenance, but it was lined 
 with marks of resolution. What she had made up 
 her mind that the horse should do, that she would 
 make the horse do. 
 
 The two men, Eab and Seth, behind the mourning 
 coach, could ill see what was taking place ahead of 
 them, owing to the bend in the road, and they had 
 not ventured to follow close on the authorised 
 mourners. 
 
 One of the bearers stepping forward said, — 
 
 " Miss ! shall I lead him past ? " 
 
 " No thanks, I'll make him obey." 
 
 Again she thrashed the cob. 
 
 " Back him, miss," shouted the undertaker. 
 
 " He shall go on," said the girl ; and then, finding 
 that the beast would not proceed, in the blindness of 
 one in anger, she struck at the coflSn with her whip, 
 and said, — " Take that away. It frightens him ! " 
 
 In a moment Queenie, limping, but forgetful that
 
 ADA BUTTON 125 
 
 she was lame in her boiling indignation at the insult, 
 ran to the little low carriage, snatched the whip out 
 of the young lady's hands, broke it over her knee, and 
 threw the pieces in her face, saying, — 
 
 " May you never have a coffin, never enjoy Chris- 
 tian burial — you hard heart ! " 
 
 Rab and Seth had now thrust themselves forward 
 and seized the bit. They led the foaming, trembling, 
 panting beast past ; and the girl who had been driving, 
 with white, unmoved, or well-controlled face, resumed 
 her place in the back seat, and said no word of apology 
 or excuse. 
 
 " That is Ada Button," said Jabez, aside, to Beulah.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 R A B S RIGHT. 
 
 When the funeral was over, Queenie returned to the 
 cottage in Heathendom. 
 
 The quickly-kindled wrath had as quickly expired. 
 The stroke of the horsewhip across her father's coffin 
 had cut her quivering heart, and, in a spasm of anguish 
 and rage, she had flown to resent it, had snatched the 
 whip from this young lady, broken it and flung it in 
 her face. On her way back in the coach to Saltwich, 
 if her mind reverted at all from her great loss and 
 sense of desolation to the incident at the church- 
 yard gates, it was with a pang of self-reproach. A 
 generous, frank nature, such as hers, would not admit 
 the idea that the act which had roused her anger could 
 have been one of intentional insult, or would not 
 admit it for more than the flash of an instant. There 
 was no malice in the stroke ; it was dealt accidentally 
 in the struggle with the horse. In the moment of 
 explosion of anger, her eyes suffused with tears and 
 
 126
 
 RAB'S RIGHT 127 
 
 dazzled by passion, she had not taken note of the 
 girl in the carriage. She would hardly recognise her 
 again. 
 
 During the return journey, which was performed at 
 a slow trot, Grice and Beulah made no allusion to the 
 incident. 
 
 Queenie was driven on to Heathendom, where she 
 was to pack up her few clothes, and such trifles as she 
 could call her own. The coach was to wait for her 
 and bring her uphill to Alma Terrace. Her sprained 
 ankle was not sufficiently restored to allow of her 
 making the journey on foot. Mrs Rainbow had been 
 kind to Queenie after her fashion — talking incessantly, 
 glorying in her grievances against her son, her neigh- 
 bours, her customers. She was a restless woman, and, 
 not content with being in a perpetual fidget herself, 
 she would allow no one in the house to be quiet. 
 
 Queenie was not sorry to leave. She felt that she 
 could not have endured that woman many weeks. 
 But she was not prepossessed in favour of Jabez Grice, 
 who frightened her with his peremptory manner ; nor 
 of Beulah, in whom there was little to attract if 
 nothing to repel. 
 
 The lonely girl hastily collected her goods and tied 
 them up in a bundle, said farewell to Mrs Rainbow, 
 promised to visit her again, and saw, with surprise, 
 that this rough, restless woman was crying at her 
 departure.
 
 128 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " My word ! Whatever will Rab say at your going ? 
 Rab had made up his mind you would stay here. Rab 
 will be angry with me for letting you go ; and yet it 
 is just as well. Rab is not a fellow to be trusted, and 
 you are not a sort that would do for my boy to be 
 with. I'll tell you the kind of woman he must find — 
 one like that Mrs Nelson, who will lock him up if he 
 misconducts himself. I am sorry you are going for 
 my sake, glad for yours. You are going to tremend- 
 ously respectable people, and we're not that — that's the 
 fact. There's no denying it. Rab won't let us be. 
 I tew from morning till night ; but what can a woman 
 do against a man ? He upsets in one minute what it 
 has taken me a day to order. I'm gJad you are going. 
 This ain't a fit place for a decent girl. You haven't 
 seen Rab drunk yet. Wait till then, and you will 
 pity me the life I lead. Yet — he is my own child, and 
 I can't help myself. I suppose I must go on till he 
 knocks my brains out with the poker. That's what 
 it will come to some day." 
 
 The change to the house of the G rices was a change 
 in every way. All things there wei'e in order, every- 
 thing scrupulously clean. There were some engrav- 
 ings in frames against the wall. Not one of them was 
 an eighth of an inch on one side. There were knitted 
 wool mats on the table ; each was exactly at the same 
 distance from the circumference. 
 
 When Queenie arrived, she found Grice at the table
 
 RAB'S RIGHT 129 
 
 with a book open before him. On one side sat Beulah 
 with her hands folded ; on the other, Andrew in his 
 glossy black suit, the stiffness and newness of which 
 seemed to have entered into his soul, and glossed 
 and stiffened that. A chair was placed over against 
 Jabez. 
 
 "We will seek to improve the occasion," said he. 
 " Will you take that chair ? " 
 
 Chilled to the heart, with a sense as though an iron 
 hoop were put round her temples and was being 
 tightened, Queenie obeyed, and looked with piteous 
 eyes at the great, solid face opposite. 
 
 "Before we begin," said Jabez, "let me call you, 
 Andrew, and you, Beulah, to witness that, on the steps 
 of the New Hall, I shook my umbrella against the 
 Old Field and its skipping-ropes, and butterflies, and 
 pomps." 
 
 " Indeed you did, brother. You always testify ! " 
 said Beulah with a sigh, opening her hands and then 
 closing them again. 
 
 "And I lifted up my voice and prophesied," con- 
 tinued Grice. " I said — Let the earth open her mouth 
 and swallow them up, they and their wives and their 
 children — " 
 
 " And Tweedledee," said Andrew. " Indeed, father, 
 it was only Tweedledee that went down." 
 
 " I have heard enough of Tweedledee," said Jabez 
 Grice, sternly. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 I30 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " Oh, brother ! what a mercy it was no one but the 
 dog went into the hole ! " 
 
 " And that's not certain ; some think he has 
 been stolen and will turn up after all," added 
 Andrew. 
 
 " I said, enough about Tweedledee," said Grice in a 
 loud, commanding tone, and he looked with a dark 
 face at his sister and son. " We will proceed to 
 improve the occasion." 
 
 Grice had conceived that there was something 
 more than coincidence in his denunciation of the 
 circus and its immediate collapse. But the response 
 from Andrew and Beulah did not encourage the view, 
 and he said no more thereon. 
 
 The chair on which the child was seated was of 
 hard wood — a kitchen chair, with a straight back. 
 At the Rainbow cottage she had been accorded the 
 arm-chair. She was weary, she had hardly closed her 
 eyes the previous night. Her mind had been racked 
 with painful thoughts, her heart full of despair, and 
 now she could not collect her ideas to listen to what 
 was being read or spoken. She strove to keep her 
 dark eyes open and fixed on the massive face of 
 Grice ; when so doing she could see and observe 
 nothing save the motion of the black ring of hair 
 about his polished chin. 
 
 Then her mind rambled to Heathendom, and she 
 slightly flushed as she recollected that she had left
 
 RAB'S RIGHT 131 
 
 without saying good-bye to, without leaving a 
 message for, Rab Rainbow. 
 
 Above the mantleshelf was a picture of Cain 
 killing Abel — a chromo-lithograph glazed. Queenie 
 lifted her eyes to that, but the lids were heavy. 
 She could not long maintain them elevated. Her 
 chair had one leg a little shorter than the others, or 
 else the floor was not quite level. Every now and 
 then involuntarily, with a slight movement of the 
 hard chair, in which she could not rest easily, the leg 
 went down and made a slight noise on the oilcloth 
 that covered the boards. Then she heard Grice's 
 voice pause, and she dared not raise her eyes lest they 
 should encounter his fixed on her in reproof. 
 
 Where was Rab ? How was it that she had not 
 been able to say a farewell to him ? 
 
 Then she remembered that the carriage had 
 returned to Saltwich at a very different pace from 
 that at which it had gone to Scatterley. If Rab 
 was walking he had been left some way behind, and 
 he could not arrive at home till after she had left. 
 
 Would he be so very cross at her having gone 
 away? She could not have endured to remain 
 longer in that house. Rab was a warm-hearted 
 fellow, but he was no companion for her. He was 
 rough, violent, wild. His mother spoke ill of him, 
 and who would be more inclined to condone a lad's 
 faults than his mother ?
 
 132 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 This house into which she had been brought — 
 would that be more tolerable than the Rainbows' 
 cottage ? Queenie loved tidiness and cleanliness — 
 she was accustomed to both. Her father's house on 
 wheels had been the perfection of neatness. But 
 how different it had been from this house in Alma 
 Terrace. The little compartments of the van had 
 been cosy. By no mental effort could she conceive of 
 cosiness in the room where she now was. This 
 improving discourse surely would not go on inter- 
 minably I It might last for half an hour. Her head 
 was spinning — possibly it might last an hour. Then 
 she would be suffered to go to bed. She was sleepy, 
 worn out. What sort of room were they going to 
 give her? What sort of bed? Would Mr Grice 
 come up with his great book and read her to sleep ? 
 
 Her thoughts were becoming confused. She looked 
 again at the picture of the first fratricide, and in her 
 bewildered brain thought that the parts had become 
 reversed, and that Abel was slaughtering Cain, and 
 was knocking him about the head with a great 
 volume. First he knocked his head to one side, then 
 to the other, then he knocked it up with a blow 
 under the chin, then he knocked it down with a 
 blow on the crown. 
 
 Queenie's eyes sank to the floor, became dazed, and 
 still saw Abel pounding at Cain with the big book. 
 
 She was losing consciousness. To recover herself
 
 RAB'S RIGHT 133 
 
 she leaned forward, and in so doing altered the centre 
 of gravity of the chair. As the short leg came down, 
 there went a shock through her, and for a moment 
 she was roused. Before her on the table was a wool 
 mat, raised in little flounces of alternate violet and 
 green and red, and at the tip of each little flounce 
 was one steel bead. She timidly put forth a hand to 
 this mat, and took one of the beads between her 
 fingers. She felt its angles, she tried to count them, 
 but could never tell at which she had begun. She 
 was hanging on to consciousness by this one steel 
 bead. 
 
 Meanwhile Andrew was watching the poor little 
 girl, white, frail, battling with herself; now with 
 her great eyes wide open, then with them closed, 
 the long, dark lashes sweeping the cheek. 
 
 What a little nose she had ! Just a bit turned up, 
 just as though it were drawing itself away to allow 
 the lips to be kissed. Andrew blushed as this 
 thought entered his mind. 
 
 The golden head had sunk. The chin was buried 
 in the black folds over her bosom. He saw the 
 reflection of the lamp that had been kindled play in 
 waves of fire over the bowed head. The hand had 
 ceased to turn the steel bead. Then the arm fell, and 
 the slender figure of the girl sank together in the chair. 
 
 " Andrew ! " said his father peremptorily, " where 
 are your eyes ? "
 
 134 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 The young man recovered himself, and looked at 
 the table. 
 
 " Andrew, you'll get no improvement looking at 
 a girl, instead of listening to me. A backslider, a 
 backslider you will be. Never was there an occasion 
 such as this ! What have I been speaking about ? " 
 
 Andrew looked at the sleeping girl, then at his 
 aunt, helplessly. 
 
 " I'm sure, father, I don't know." 
 
 " You don't know ! On such an awful occasion as 
 this ! And you cracked nuts when the most famous 
 orator from beyond the Atlantic was haranguing on 
 the undenominational boards." 
 
 Then ensued a violent blow at the front door. It 
 was opened from without, and a voice was heard. 
 
 " Where is Grice ? Where is ' Hammer ' ? I demand 
 my rights. He has taken her away. She is mine. 
 I will have my rights." 
 
 Rab, flushed, partly with anger, partly with drink, 
 stood before them. 
 
 " I have come to claim her. She is not yours ; she 
 is mine. Give me my rights."
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 NO ! NO ! NO ! 
 
 Jabez Gkice rose slowly from his chair and walked 
 with decided step towards the excited and angry 
 youth. 
 
 " You go outside at once ! " said he. 
 
 Rab looked round the room uncertainly, and 
 encountered the dreamy eyes of Queenie, who had 
 been awakened from her sleep, but had not collected 
 her faculties, and did not understand what was 
 taking place. 
 
 " Go out quietly," said Jabez ; " do not force me to 
 throw you out." 
 
 " Throw me out ! " repeated Rab, and looked at the 
 massive man before him. 
 
 It was by no means certain that, in a trial of 
 strength, the young man would come best off. He 
 had youth and agility on his side, the other weight 
 and coolness. 
 
 135
 
 136 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Rab said sullenly, — 
 
 " I will leave the house if you will come into the 
 garden. I do not wish to frighten her J' 
 
 He pointed with his elbow towards the girl. 
 
 "Very well," said Jabez, and strode forward, the 
 young man backing before him, till he was through 
 the door, and in the little garden in front of 
 the house. " Now I am at your service," said 
 " Hammer." 
 
 " You know who I am ? " asked Rab. 
 
 " I have seen you before. Rainbow. What do you 
 want with me ? " 
 
 " Only a word, ' Hammer.' Stand where the light 
 from the window falls on you, that I may see your 
 face. That will do." 
 
 He put out his hand and moved Grice into a 
 position where shone a streak of lamplight. 
 
 " You must give her up." 
 
 " Give whom up ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ! do not pretend not to understand me. 
 You know whom I mean — the Queen of Love." 
 
 "I know no Queen of Love. If you mean Miss 
 Sant, I will trouble you to speak of her in proper 
 terms." 
 
 " As if I did not know her before you did ! Did 
 she ever give you a yaller rose ? Have you ever 
 carried her in your arms ? Did you ever save her 
 from death?"
 
 NO! NO! NO! 137 
 
 " She is under my protection, and I will protect her 
 from drunken and profligate ruflSans." 
 
 " And who will protect her from you ? " asked 
 Rab. " I do not trust you." 
 
 "Not trust me?" 
 
 Jabez rose an inch and expanded two. That 
 disreputable fellow did not trust him — him whom 
 all Saltwich trusted, him whom it delighted to elect 
 to committees, whom it made treasurer to clubs, 
 secretary to societies, whom the member trusted at 
 an election, whom the shareholders trusted to let the 
 pews in the chapel, whom Brundrith trusted in the 
 conduct of the Salt Works ! It concerned Jabez 
 little that this lout should not share the general 
 confidence. What was the opinion of one man, and 
 he a ne'er-do-weel, against the current of estimation 
 in which he stood ? 
 
 " Do you know what I did ? " asked Rab. " I saved 
 little Queenie's life. She got her life fust from her 
 parents. She got her life agin from me. Therefore I 
 have now the right over her that once had father and 
 mother. But for me she would ha' been trampled 
 under foot, crushed by the tent pole, would ha' been 
 burnt by the oil, smothered in the canvas, perhaps 
 swallered up in the ground. I saved her. I saw 
 her fall from the horses. When everyone else was 
 flyin' — all thinkin' of themselves, how to escape the 
 staggerin' tent and the gapin' earth, then I sprang
 
 138 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 to where Queenie lay. I took her up. I carried her 
 away." He pulled out his clasp knife and opened it. 
 " Look at this — with this I cut a way out in the 
 great smash up. I carried her through and over it 
 all, and never let go till I had brought her to my home. 
 So she is mine ! " 
 
 The fellow, in his excitement, gesticulated with the 
 knife. 
 
 " Shut that and put it away ! " said Jabez. " A 
 tongue suffices wherewith to talk." 
 
 " I did all that," said the young man, obeying the 
 command. " And so I say that she belongs to me who 
 gave to her her sweet life. But for me she'd have 
 been buried to-day alongside of her father. If she 
 has eyes wherewith to see — she owes 'em to me. 
 If she can still speak and hear — it is because of me. 
 I gave her speech and hearin', after they had gone 
 from her." 
 
 " You behaved, no doubt, in a courageous and un- 
 selfish manner," said Grice. " But, after all, you did 
 only what was your duty, what any other man, worth 
 the name of a man, would have done." 
 
 " Who did it but I ? Every one else was thinkin' 
 how to get out. No one had a care for the poor 
 little Queen of Love, that lay as one dead on the saw- 
 dust. No one else jumped the barrier. The clown 
 was concerned only for his dog. The Queen is mine, 
 and I will have her back."
 
 NO! NO! NO! 139 
 
 " This is absurd. The girl remains with me. I am 
 her guardian." 
 
 * Who made you that ? " 
 
 " Her father — my brother." 
 
 Rab was silent, for a moment perplexed. 
 
 " You gave her to me," he said after a while. 
 
 " I — I gave her to you ? " 
 
 " Yes — when her father was dying you said, ' Take 
 her away ! ' " 
 
 Grice laughed. 
 
 " You have been drinking, or you would not talk 
 such nonsense. If you have any charge to make for 
 what you have done, put it down on paper and bring 
 me your account. If the bill be reasonable I will 
 settle it, and so have done with you. 
 
 Rab did not hear or pay attention to these words. 
 He proceeded : — 
 
 "She threw her arms round me when her father 
 was dead. She knew she had no one else to go to — 
 none who would so care for her and protect her so 
 jealously as I — and she threw herself then round 
 my heart, and none can tear her away from that 
 hold." 
 
 " I am ready to praise and reward you for what 
 you have done." 
 
 "I don't want your reward and I despise your 
 praise," retorted Rab. " Give me up my Queenie — I 
 must take her back."
 
 I40 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 "I do not acknowledge any right in you over 
 her." 
 
 " You think I am a good-for-nothing chap. Well, 
 I won't say but I have been a bit wild. I'm not to be 
 trusted with the little Queenie — there, you don't know 
 me. I'd never hurt a hair of her head, never look at 
 her but as to my Queen ; I'd watch about her that no 
 harm should come to her. I'd think how I might 
 make her happy, I'd work to find her all she wanted. 
 She'd be safe enough with me. I'm not so sartain 
 she'll be cared for and considered the same way by 
 • you. Yes, I've not been good for much, and mother 
 always says I'm a trial to her. She's gone the wrong 
 way to work to mend me. But Queenie can do with 
 me what she wills. There is my sister married 
 respectably to one o' the head-rangers in Delamere, 
 and my brother-in-law — it's a lot of trouble and 
 vexation I've given him, sure enough — he always says 
 he'll get me an under-keeper's place if I like to take 
 it. I've loved my freedom too much to accept that. 
 But now, give me back little Queen of Love and I'll 
 take the place he oflfers, and I'll live as decent as a 
 chap can. I won't drink, I won't swear." 
 
 " It is of no use your talking, Rainbow. Promises 
 are the most untrustworthy of coin. Performance is 
 the sterling metal." 
 
 " Then try me ? " 
 
 " I have nothing to do with you. The child is my
 
 NO! NO! NO! 141 
 
 ward and I shall act as her guardian. Neither you 
 nor any one else shall take her away." 
 
 " Let me see her," said Rab. 
 
 " Here am I," said Queenie, standing in the doorway 
 with her lame foot resting against the other, and her 
 hand to one of the jambs for her support. " What do 
 you want with me, Rab ? " 
 
 " Come here ! Come to me, little one 1 " said the 
 young fellow passionately, extending both his arms. 
 
 " I cannot, Rab, I am lame." 
 
 "Lean on me. I cannot speak before 'Hammer.' 
 Let me take you ten steps — one to me, eight up and 
 down, and one back — if go from me you must. Lean 
 your hand on my shoulder. I will hold you up, and 
 we will have it out, with no ' Hammer ' Grice standing 
 by." 
 
 She let go the door-post and stepped to him at 
 once. 
 
 " You see 1 " shouted Rab, " Queenie ain't afraid of 
 me. Queenie can trust me — the good-for-naught." 
 
 He put his arm round her waist and the girl rested 
 her hand on his shoulder. 
 
 "Go in," said he to Jabez Grice. "We two don't 
 want none to hearken — what is between her and me is 
 for us alone, and we want none to look on." 
 
 He waited till Grice had retired into the house, but 
 Jabez would not shut the door. 
 
 " Now throw your weight upon me. Queen of Love,"
 
 142 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 said the young poacher. " Those people in there will 
 make you serious; they'll take the laugh from your 
 lips, and wipe the light out o' your eyes. They 
 won't make you happy. Do not go back to them. 
 One. When you've done the eight little trips, let me 
 take you up in my arms and carry you away." 
 
 Pausing on one foot, leaning on his shoulder, the 
 girl turned her head and answered, — 
 
 " Indeed, Rab, that cannot be. My father gave me 
 to them. It was his wish — I must obey him." 
 
 " Two ! " said the young man. " It must out. 
 Thunder and blazes ! I can't be silent. I love you, 
 Queenie, I cannot bear to hold it in no longer. I love 
 you ! " 
 
 " You have been good to me," replied the girl, slightly 
 loosening her hold of his shoulder. "I must always 
 thank you for what you have done for me." 
 
 " Thanks ! I want no thanks 1 ' Hammer ' says I 
 did what any other man would do. ' Hammer ' offered 
 me money, gave me praise. I threw them away. I 
 want love ! Three." 
 
 " Oh ! Eab, don't tease me. I am only a little girl. 
 I give you my gratitude." 
 
 " I am not content with that. Four ! See I I mean 
 all fair and right. Lord ! If anyone had said last 
 week that Rab Rainbow would lose his wits because 
 of a girl, I'd not have believed him. I would have 
 said, 'Let the hares first run after the sportsman,
 
 NO! NO! NO! 143 
 
 and the sun rise in the west.' I can't help it, it 
 is so 1 " 
 
 " Do not tease me, Rab dear ; let me alone. You are 
 asking what I cannot give. I am a child. Then 
 think, Rab, you have no honest profession. You do 
 nothing to earn a livelihood. You idle about, you 
 drink, you swear, and poach ! " 
 
 " Five. Do not let go your hold of me. I have a 
 will. I will mend my idle, my evil ways. I will get 
 work, honest work ; I will work hard. I will never 
 enter a public-house again." 
 
 " I would do much for you, Rab." 
 
 " Then be mine. Six. I will go to the parson to- 
 morrow and put in the banns, then you needn't stay 
 in this house." 
 
 " No, Rab, no ! Don't tease me. I can't help it ; I 
 must say it — No I " 
 
 " Seven. You cast me from you ? " 
 
 " I do not that. I shall ever regard you as a dear 
 friend, ever respect you, if with a good will you mend 
 your ways. Will not that suffice ? Do not tease me. 
 I am a child. I cannot hold to you closer than I do 
 now." 
 
 " Then let us go through the world as we are." 
 
 She loosed her hold altogether and stumbled to the 
 rails of the little garden and hung to them. 
 
 " Let me alone, Rab ; you are too good to torment 
 me. I give you what I can — my friendship."
 
 144 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 He stood in front of her, and folded his arms and 
 looked hard at her. 
 
 " There will mischief come of this. I cannot help 
 it. I am a fellow who must have his way. There 
 will come mischief of this somehow. How, I know 
 not, but I feel it, like a thunderstorm comin' on. Oh, 
 Queenie ! do you put me from you ? That will be 
 bad for some — bad — worst of all, for me ! "
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 BEGGAR- MY-NEIGHBOUR 
 
 QUEENIE was not uncomfortable in No. 4 Alma Ter- 
 race. On the contrary, she was well lodged, well 
 clothed, and well fed ; and were human happiness 
 assured by these three points of satisfaction, she 
 would have been content. She had no longer to 
 endure the irritation of the fussy interference of Mrs 
 Rainbow, was no longer maddened by her incessant 
 chatter; thus her overstrung nerves were given the 
 repose they needed. And precisely so long as that 
 was necessary was No. 4 Alma Terrace a place suit- 
 able for her. But no sooner had she recovered from 
 her depression, than she found No. 4 Alma Terrace 
 to be a place too strait for her, and its atmosphere 
 not at all congenial. 
 
 As George Herbert well said, everlasting droppings 
 young hearts can leastwise bear, and Queenie's mind 
 was not one of the harebell order, but rather of that 
 VOL. I. K
 
 146 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 of the daisy, that holds up its face and drinks in the 
 snn. 
 
 The twinkle came back into her eye, her droll little 
 mouth began to curl on one side, all the flash and 
 ripple returned to her glowing hair, and a tinge of 
 colour painted her cheek. As there is spirit in wine, 
 so was there fire in her blood ; and in No. 4 Alma 
 Terrace not only was alcohol forbidden in all drinks, 
 but the life-blood was supposed to flow without passion, 
 to produce no intoxicating effect when it rushed to 
 heart or brain. Queenie had nearly the entire day to 
 herself, for Jabez Grice and his son went to their work 
 early, usually before six, and returned after four in 
 the afternoon, when the pans had been cleared of 
 their salt, or, if the boiling continued night and day, 
 they returned when the day gang left and the night 
 gang came on. 
 
 Only Beulah was in the house with Queenie for 
 ten hours, and Beulah, though a good woman, was 
 not an interesting one. She sighed over her work, 
 not because she had a grief at heart, not because the 
 work was too much for her, but because to sigh 
 became her profession as an eminently-serious woman. 
 She was a machine, performing her household duties 
 regularly and well ; she had but one absorbing idea, 
 which was that her brother was the best and greatest 
 of men. Queenie, unable to endure solitude, accom- 
 panied Beulah about the house, assisted her in her
 
 BEGGAR - MY - NEIGHBOUR 147 
 
 work, tried to make the good woman laugh, attempted 
 a romp, and failed in all her attempts. Of entertain- 
 ment to be got out of Beulah, there was none. 
 
 When Andrew and his father returned to the house, 
 the girl tried her powers on the elder man. She 
 drew a stool to his feet, and sat there whilst he read 
 and smoked, pleaded for a whifF of his pipe, a peep 
 at the pictures in his magazine. A little adroit 
 flattery, a little coquettishness got him to unbend for 
 a while, and make some clumsy attempts at humour, 
 but he always became doubly grave and absorbed in 
 his reading after such relaxation. Jabez was, how- 
 ever, not much at home. He returned from the Salt 
 Works to " fettle " a bit, put on his better suit, and 
 then went forth to a committee meeting, or a politi- 
 cal debating society, or else occupied himself with 
 accounts at home, when no noise, no talking, hardly 
 a whisper was tolerated in the room. 
 
 Andrew formed a more congenial companion for the 
 mr\. He was at home when his father was out, and 
 then she had the field to herself. She liked Andrew ; 
 not only was he a very good-looking fellow, but his 
 simplicity, his shyness, his ignorance of all the brighter 
 side of life, amused and stimulated the little creature. 
 She delighted in saying startling things, expressing 
 novel opinions, telling droll anecdotes that made 
 Andrew's eyes open and his mouth drop. She was 
 to him a daily astonishment. She bewildered whilst
 
 148 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 fascinating him. He was in a flutter of doubt whether 
 he was not wrong in liking her, wrong in listening 
 to her, wrong in allowing her to lead him on to trifle 
 and play and waste time, which is too precious to be 
 spent otherwise than in getting up missionary statis- 
 tics, or assimilating food for serious meditation. 
 
 She had extracted from him the story of the nuts 
 at the undenominational meeting, and was incessantly 
 poking fun at him thereupon, sometimes before his 
 father, usually when they were alone together. 
 
 She had not been a fortnight in the house before 
 she had upset the salt — put the fat in the fire. The 
 occasion was this : — 
 
 " Where are you off" to, Andrew ? " she asked, one 
 evening, when the youth came down, dressed to go out. 
 
 " There's a lecture on Behemoth, at the Young Men's 
 Serious Association." 
 
 " Behemoth — who is he ? " 
 
 " It is an animal." 
 
 " I never saw it in any menagerie." 
 
 " No ; I don't think it has ever been caught. I 
 question if it has ever been seen." 
 
 " Never mind about Behemoth. If there were one 
 alive, and the lecturer would show him in a bath, 
 like a talking seal, and if it would say papa and 
 mamma, I'd go. But' only to hear a lecture — 
 bah!" 
 
 " I think my father would wish me to attend."
 
 BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR 149 
 
 "He has not ordered you to go and hear about 
 Behemoth ? " 
 
 " No ; not exactly. He takes it for granted that I 
 will go." 
 
 " Don't." 
 
 '• I may never have another opportunity of hearing 
 and learning about Behemoth." 
 
 "What does that matter? If he has never been 
 caught, never seen nor heard nor smelt, I don't sup- 
 pose the lecturer knows much that is reliable about 
 the animal. You stay with me. Aunt Beulah will go 
 to Behemoth, and we will have rare larks together 
 I'll teach you something better than about Behemoth.' 
 
 " What's that ? " 
 
 " You won't tell ? " 
 
 " Honour bright." 
 
 Queenie crept to his side and whispered, — 
 
 " Beggar-my-neighbour." 
 
 " Beggar-my-neighbour ! I never heard of it." 
 
 "Now, Andrew, choose — Behemoth or beggar-my- 
 neighbour." 
 
 She put herself in a coaxing attitude, with her head 
 on one side, her eyes half closed, full of malice, and 
 the dimples deepening every moment in her delicate, 
 rosy cheeks. 
 
 Andrew threw his cap inta the corner of the room. 
 
 " Beulah is gone already," said he. 
 
 " So much the better ; we'll make a night of it."
 
 I50 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 After a little consideration — " Andrew, have you any 
 money ? " 
 
 " Yes ; a few coppers." 
 
 " So have I. I have that very shilling you gave 
 me for the ticket you never used. Go out and buy 
 some chestnuts, toffee and ginger-pop. We'll toast the 
 chestnuts, suck the toffee and be jolly. Blow Be- 
 hemoth ! " 
 
 " Queenie ! for shame ! Don't say such awful 
 words." 
 
 " It's not swearing," protested the girl. " Now run 
 and get the chestnuts, toffee and pop. I'll get the 
 other things ready." 
 
 " What things ? " 
 
 " Cards, Andrew — cards." 
 
 The young fellow was aghast. 
 
 " Cards are sinful," he said, when he recovered from 
 liis dismay. " I can't stand this ; I'll go to Behemoth." 
 
 " You shall not go, Andrew. Behemoth has already 
 been trotted out. It would be bad manners and bad 
 example to go late." 
 
 Then she used all her witchery to appease his 
 alarm, to satisfy his conscience, and to excite his 
 curiosity. 
 
 The lamp was lighted, the fire was burning, and on 
 the hob the chestnuts were toasting. Now and then 
 one popped and shot across the room. Then there 
 ensued a scramble for it, and they knocked heads to-
 
 BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR 1 5 1 
 
 gether under the table ; or, as it burnt the hands of 
 Queenie when she pounced on it, she tossed it to 
 Andrew, who also let it go. 
 
 " We'll have a feast after the first round," said the 
 girl, and she rapidly dealt out the cards. 
 
 " Mind, four for an ace." 
 
 " What's an ace ? " 
 
 " A one, softie ! Three for a king, two for a queen, 
 one for a jack." 
 
 " A jack ? " 
 
 "Yes, that little fellow with legs. The king has 
 none and has a golden crown. Look — the queen has 
 got a yellow rose, and I gave one" — she checked 
 herself and coloured. 
 
 " To whom ? Not to me." 
 
 " No — not to you — I'll give you one when I get it, 
 but I have no rose-garden. Now begin." 
 
 For the first time in his life Andrew played a 
 game of chance. Beggar-my-neighbour is not an 
 engrossing game to experienced card-players, but to 
 children, to a youth who had never touched card- 
 board before, it is what a bull-fight is to a Spaniard, 
 a gladiatorial show to a Roman, what roast pig was 
 to the first Chinaman who tasted it. Andrew's 
 cheeks flamed, he shouted, he grabbed at the cards 
 when he made a set, he trembled when his pictures 
 were swept away. He stood up in his excitement, 
 watcliing Queenie's cards; he sat down with a
 
 152 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 bounce. He held his breath whilst Queenie counted 
 out, " one — two — three, jack " to his ace. He groaned 
 and flung himself back in his chair, when against her 
 knave he w^as able to produce only a three. 
 
 Then there came a run of luck as^ainst him, and he 
 was reduced to one picture card. But that one 
 retrieved his fortunes. He cleared Queenie's hand 
 out, and had started up with a cry of " Beggared ! " 
 when the door opened and in the doorway stood 
 " Hammer " Grice. 
 
 Mr Grice had been at the lecture, and was appointed 
 to speak a few words after it. But he found that he 
 had left a little book behind him in which he kept 
 notes, and there were some notes in it relative to 
 Leviathan, who was held to be first cousin to 
 Behemoth, and he returned hastily to No. 4 Alma 
 Terrace for his little book. He stood lookino- at the 
 card-players with astounded gaze. That this should 
 take place in his house ! That his son should be 
 found with cards in his hands ! But time was 
 precious ! 
 
 "Humph!" said "Hammer," and without another 
 Avord he seized the pack from the unresisting hand 
 of his son, and put it in his pocket. Then he went 
 upstairs, found and pocketed his book of notes. 
 Having done this he left the house. 
 
 " Now for the chestnuts and pop," said Queenie. 
 Andrew was too full of dismay to be able to speak.
 
 BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR 153 
 
 He dreaded the consequences too greatly to enjoy the 
 toffee. 
 
 Had the matter ended there, it would have been 
 bad enough, but there was a sequel that aggravated it. 
 
 Having returned to the meeting and heard the last 
 words of the lecturer relative to Behemoth, Jabez 
 Grice rose to thank the lecturer ; and in the course 
 of what he had to say, observed that there were a 
 few facts relative to Leviathan which he had culled 
 in his reading, facts which threw a flood of light 
 upon the manners and habits of Behemoth. 
 
 Thereupon he put his hand into his pocket, and 
 drew forth, before a hall full of attentive listeners 
 and eager observers — a pack of cards. Still talking, 
 and not noticing what he had done, Jabez proceeded 
 to say that he would open his notes and read. 
 
 Then all at once he saw, staring him in the face, a 
 knave of spades. 
 
 The shock was too great for even his iron nerves ; 
 his hand trembled, his fingers involuntarily relaxed, 
 and away shot the cards, flying over the platform 
 and snowing upon the audience in the front rows. 
 
 But Jabez Grice was not the man to be thrown off 
 his balance for more than a moment by an accident 
 so untoward. 
 
 Rapidly recovering his equanimity, in spite of the 
 titters and commotion produced by the showered 
 pack, he said solemnly, —
 
 154 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " The seed of Behemoth. Out of such as this pro- 
 ceeds that monster, Play, which consumes our people 
 from the highest to the lowest." 
 
 When he came home, it was with his great mouth 
 set hard, and his brows lowering. 
 
 Queenie saw that a storm was going to break. 
 
 " Oh, uncle," said she, " we have kept some roast 
 chestnuts for you — and — and, as to the cards, we 
 were only playing at beggar-my-neighbour."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 AGAIN : BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUE, 
 
 " xluNTiE ! there's a nice little carriage at the door." 
 
 Beulah went slowly to the window. 
 
 " It is Ada Button ; she who whipped your father's 
 coffin." 
 
 There was no necessity for this reference to the 
 past. Queenie would not have recognised either the 
 girl who was driving, or the cob she drove. 
 
 There is more mischief done in the world by 
 stupidity than by malice. Beulah was wholly devoid 
 of gall, but she was stupid to her finger-tips, and, 
 because stupid, she said words that never ought to 
 have been spoken, stirred a painful topic that should 
 not have been retouched. 
 
 Had little Queenie been resentful and morose — one 
 to harbour wrongs and to seek revenge — this revival 
 of an ugly and distressing incident would have roused 
 her passions. But the little horsemanship girl was
 
 156 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 of a gentle, forgiving nature, and already, on her way 
 home from the funeral, had reproached herself for 
 having resented an act which her sound sense told 
 her must have been accidental. 
 
 Instead of flying into a fit of anger or turning 
 sullen, Queenie said calmly, — 
 
 " That is she — is it ? I am glad she is come. She 
 has got no whip, only a stick — who is the saddler 
 here in Saltwich ? " 
 
 " She wants to come in," said Beulah. " There is 
 no one to hold the horse." 
 
 " I will do that," said the girl. " I have not patted a 
 horse, I have not spoken to one, since I came here, 
 and I love horses." 
 
 Without another word Queenie hopped out at the 
 door and went to the carriaere. 
 
 " Shall I hold the cob, miss ? " she asked. 
 
 " Thank you — for a minute." 
 
 Miss Button looked hard at the girl, and Queenie 
 stared at her. 
 
 Ada Button was tall, with very dark hair and eyes, 
 the latter hard as polished stone and as cold. She 
 had a white face, regular, with thin lips. Altogether 
 she would have been handsome, had not the lower 
 portion of her face been too sharp and the mouth too 
 large for beauty. The face was as stony as the eyes. 
 She had no colour in her cheeks, her lips were too 
 narrow to show strips of rose, and the only tinge of
 
 AGAIN: BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR 157 
 
 pink discernible in her face was about the nostrils. 
 She had long, narrow hands, and Queenie saw that 
 she had also singularly straight, narrow feet. She 
 observed this as Ada stepped out of the carriage. 
 
 " You want to see Aunt Beulah ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes ; I want to see Miss Grice. Will you drive 
 the cob up and down ? He is warm, and the wind is 
 cold. You, I suppose, are the — the — I don't know the 
 name — but you were — " 
 
 " The merry little wandering Queen of Love — now 
 I am the moping, sitting-at-home Miss Muffet." 
 
 " I suppose you find a change. Dull, perhaps ? " 
 
 " Awful ! " Then thinking she had said an un- 
 gracious thing, she added, " They are very kind, but 
 No. 4 Alma Terrace is not a circus. It is not even a 
 menagerie, for they are all of one kind here, and no 
 monkeys, no parrots, only solemn owls. They have 
 been very good to me ; it's no fault of theirs that they 
 are not comic. It's their misfortune." 
 
 Ada Button put the reins into Queenie's hands, and 
 entered the house. The circus girl went to the horse's 
 head and talked to him, coaxed him, and whispered 
 secrets into his ear. The horse flicked his ears, turned 
 his head and rubbed his nose against her cheek, 
 
 " I knew we should be friends," said the girl ; " all 
 horses like me. And I'll speak a word for you to 
 your mistress when she comes out, if she gives me the 
 opportunity."
 
 158 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 Then she hopped into the carriage. 
 
 A quarter of an hour later, when Ada Button issued 
 from the house, she looked up and down the terrace, 
 but could not see the carriao-e. 
 
 " Come inside again," said Beulah ; " she's driving 
 about to prevent the horse catching cold." 
 
 " She is doing more than drive about," said Ada in 
 a hard tone. 
 
 At that moment Queenie was visible flourishing a 
 whip; when she saw that the mistress of the little 
 trap was waiting, she cracked the lash without touch- 
 ing the horse, and came on at a trot. When she drew 
 up, it was with a smiling face and merry eyes. 
 
 " There ! " said she, " I did wrong the other day. I 
 have bought you a new whip. It cost three-and-six. 
 Take it. I broke the other. But the cob does not 
 want one, he goes very well with a word." 
 
 Ada Button drew back. 
 
 "You never intended it," said Queenie. "It was 
 quite accidental that you struck father's coffin with 
 your lash." 
 
 "Of course, I knew nothing about him, nothing 
 about you. I did not know there was a funeral when 
 I came round the corner. I did not hear the bell. 
 My cob dashed up, and shied." 
 
 " There is your whip." 
 
 Looking into Ada Button's cold, inflexible face, 
 Queenie noticed a dark mark on the cheek bone
 
 AGAIN : BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR ' 159 
 
 " I hope I did not hurt you when I threw the bits 
 of stick in your face." 
 
 " You struck and bruised me." 
 
 " I am very sorry ; I am, indeed. If you will let 
 me, I will kiss your cheek where I bruised it." 
 
 Ada shrank away. She answered coldly, — 
 
 "You are good — the injury is nothing. I will not 
 trouble you." 
 
 Miss Button entered the carriage and drove away. 
 
 Queenie looked after her, shook her head and 
 said, — 
 
 " There's not much fun in her, poor thing. But she 
 can't help it. Aunt Beulah, now I'm beggared. I 
 haven't any money left. The saddler wanted four 
 shillings, but I had only three-and-six ; as it was 
 ready money, he took it. I must ask uncle for 
 more." 
 
 " Ask for more ! What can you require money 
 fur ? " 
 
 " Y'ou see — I bought a whip." 
 
 When, somewhat later, Jabez Grice returned from 
 the Salt Works, and seated himself by the fire, lit his 
 pipe and took his newspaper, Queenie placed herself 
 on a stool near him, and gradually sidled to his knee, 
 laid both her hands on it, and her chin on her hands, 
 and so looked up. 
 
 The newspaper was between her and the face of 
 Grice, but Jabez was well aware that the twinklino-
 
 i6o THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 eyes were jfixed on him athwart the sheet — it was as 
 though the fire from them shot through the paper. 
 
 For some while he pretended to ignore her, but the 
 consciousness that she was looking and waiting took 
 off his attention from a speech in the House that he 
 was reading. Then, with her forefinger, Queenie 
 began to scratch slightly at his knee, just sufficiently 
 to tickle and tease. 
 
 " Well ! " said Grice, raising his paper. " What's 
 up?" 
 
 " It's all up with my pocket-money, uncle." 
 
 " Didn't know you had any." 
 
 " Yes, my dear father was so good. He always put up 
 a nest-egg in my pocket. It was never quite empty." 
 
 " You want no money." 
 
 " Indeed, uncle, I do." 
 
 " Yes, indeed, to buy chestnuts and ginger-beer and 
 playing cards. Chestnuts are harmless — ginger-pop 
 is — well it makes for seriousness — but cards are 
 wicked." 
 
 " Set the cards against the pop, uncle, and we are 
 squared ofi*." 
 
 " You are best without money. Don't bother me." 
 
 He lowered the paper. 
 
 Queenie was quiet for a few minutes, and then she 
 began to scratch his knee again. 
 
 " Come, will you leave my knee-cap alone ? " 
 
 " Uncle, I spent three-and-six on a whip."
 
 AGAIN : BEGGAR - MY - NEIGHBOUR i 6 1 
 
 " Where is it ? I'll lay it across your shoulders." 
 
 " I gave it to Miss Button in place of that I broke." 
 
 " It is well ; now you cannot get into mischief with 
 money. No more cards." 
 
 " No, uncle, but I should like to have a little money. 
 I'm fond of brandy-balls." 
 
 " Brandy— what ? " 
 
 " I do not think there is brandy in them — only 
 peppermint. Some people call them humbugs." 
 
 "You are better without them. They wiU upset 
 you. And besides, I don't choose to have you running 
 about the town into all the shops." 
 
 " Oh, uncle, I cannot run ; you know I've sprained 
 my ankle." 
 
 " Well, hopping about. If you have no money, you 
 will be forced to stay at home ; at all events, have no 
 excuse for going out." 
 
 " Uncle," said Queenie, and now she laid her cheek 
 on the hands that were crossed on his knee, and 
 her golden hair flowed down over his leg. Her 
 roguish eyes were peering up at him sideways. 
 " Uncle, you have sold the circus horses ? " 
 
 " Yes " — answered reluctantly. 
 
 " Did you sell them well ? " 
 
 "Middling." 
 
 "For how much? They cost father pots of 
 money." 
 
 " I really do not carry details in my head." 
 VOL. I. L
 
 i62 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " And the vans ? Our beautiful van with the 
 paintings and the gilded work ? Is that sold, too ? " 
 
 " It is on the way to be sold." 
 
 " Will it fetch a tidy price ? " 
 
 " Middling only." 
 
 " And all the properties, have you sold them ? " 
 
 " Yes, in a lump." 
 
 "Did they go off well?" 
 
 " Miserably — old rags." 
 
 " How much did you get for all together ? " 
 
 " I really cannot say. The expenses were heavy. 
 I had to pay off all the troupe, and there was the 
 keep of the horses and other beasts till the sale, 
 the advertising, and so on. You do not understand 
 these matters. Take yourself off. Don't peer up at 
 me from under my paper. Don't tickle my knee." 
 
 " But I do understand, uncle, and I'm awfully 
 interested in the matter." 
 
 "Indeed! Why so?" 
 
 " Because it's my money." 
 
 " Your money ! " Jabez Grice dropped the paper 
 on his knees ; in so doing he covered the little head. 
 He noticed this and drew the paper aside. "Your 
 money ! Fiddlesticks ! " 
 
 "I suppose it is mine. Didn't father leave it to 
 me ? I'm his child." 
 
 Grice was silent. His mouth closed and his brow 
 contracted. Then he said slowly, —
 
 AGAIN: BEGGAR-MY-NEIGHBOUR 163 
 
 " Understand this, once for all. I am your guardian. 
 Your father put you unreservedly into my hands. 
 Nothing is yours but what I choose to let you have — 
 and mind this, I don't let you have anything which I 
 am quite sure will not be spent profitably and in such 
 a manner as my conscience will allow. I am respon- 
 sible for your money — I am responsible for you. If 
 you wanted to buy a box of matches wherewith to 
 set fire to your clothes, do you suppose I would let you 
 have it ? There is something much more precious 
 than your clothes. I must take care that the money 
 I have in trust — mind me — in trust, is not so spent 
 as to imperil your happiness in this world and the 
 next." 
 
 " Five bob, uncle ? " coaxingly. 
 
 " I do not mind a trifle, but not such a sum as that ; 
 and mind — no cards ! " 
 
 " Pop, uncle, pop ! " 
 
 Then he gave her a couple of shillings, and resumed 
 his paper. 
 
 She turned her head on his knee and looked into 
 the fire. Thus she did not irritate him. She had, 
 moreover, ceased to scratch at his knee. 
 
 Presently he said, raising his paper, — 
 
 " You are laughing, or crying — which is it ? You 
 shake my knee, and that shakes the paper, and I 
 cannot read." 
 
 " I am laughing, uncle."
 
 1 64 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " What at ? " 
 
 " At you and me." 
 
 " Indeed ; what is there in me to feed your mirth ? " 
 
 " Oh, uncle, we are playing at beggar-my-neighbour, 
 you and I — and I am rather afraid I'm going to be 
 cleared out ! "
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE TIGHT-ROPE 
 
 The day was Sunday, the time evening. 
 
 Jabez Grice was upstairs washing and burnishing 
 himself for chapel. For this process strong yellow 
 soap and a rough towel were employed. After the 
 process a veritable gloss was over his forehead, cheeks, 
 chin, as though he had been gone over with beeswax 
 and turpentine — even his nose shone. Beulah was 
 arranging herself in her best gown and bonnet, both 
 sober in colour, and getting her hands with difficulty 
 into gloves. 
 
 Andrew was ready first. He came down into the 
 sitting-room, in the grate of which no fire burned on 
 the Sunday, to economise labour. Queenie was there 
 standing on one toe. 
 
 "Andrew," said the girl, "put down your ear. I 
 want to whisper something — a secret. You won't 
 tell?" 
 
 165
 
 i66 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " No ; I can keep a secret." 
 
 "Put your ear lower. My ankle is better — is all 
 right." 
 
 " I am very glad to hear it. Next Sunday you can 
 accompany us to Little Bethel." 
 
 Again Queenie put up her mouth. 
 
 "Bend your ear again, Andrew. You don't know 
 all." 
 
 " What more ? " 
 
 " I am shamming." 
 
 " Oh ! Queenie, what for ? " 
 
 " I don't want to go to chapel." 
 
 Andrew pulled himself upright, and drew from 
 her. He was shocked. She knew that what she 
 had said would shock him. That was precisely why 
 she said it. 
 
 Presently, down came Mr and Miss Grice in full 
 plumage, with hymn books in their hands. 
 
 " You will find improving literature in that cabinet," 
 said Jabez to his niece. " There are some volumes of 
 sermons, a book on prophecy, and — some missionary 
 reports. Occupy yourself seriously and profitably 
 until we return. It is most unfortunate that your 
 ankle is so bad." 
 
 Queenie looked out of the corner of her eyes at 
 Andrew, and a dimple formed in her cheek. He be- 
 came uneasy and shufiied with his feet. 
 
 "Now and then, Queenie," said Beulah, "look at
 
 THE TIGHT-ROPE 167 
 
 the kitchen fire ; see that it is all right, and that there 
 is enough water with the potatoes that are boiling." 
 
 "She can take her books with her, and read in the 
 kitchen," said Grice. " Mind, child, no wasting of 
 time. Use the hours in which you might have been 
 with us in something that will do you good." 
 
 Then the three left. As Jabez departed, he turned 
 the key in the front door, and then carried it off in 
 his pocket. 
 
 " I declare, he has locked me in ! That is mean ! " 
 said the girl. " I don't care. I can get out by the 
 back yard if I choose, or through the parlour window. 
 And I will ! " 
 
 As soon as she thought Grice was well on his way 
 to Bethel she threw up the sash and jumped out into 
 the garden in front. The height was but three feet. 
 Then she went forward and sat on the dwarf wall 
 supporting the railings that enclosed the garden, and 
 watched the good people of Alma Terrace go by with 
 their hymn books in hand. After a while the flow of 
 the seriously-disposed ceased. Alma Terrace settled 
 into silence as of death. There was hardly an inmate 
 of the row left behind. Then up came the lamp- 
 lighter. A gas lamp was in the road immediately in 
 front of No. 4, and the lighter halted at it and turned 
 the tap. 
 
 He observed the girl and nodded, paused and said, — 
 " Well, little miss, left alone ? "
 
 i68 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " Yes — but it's my own doing." 
 
 " Waiting for somebody ? " asked the lamplighter in 
 a sly tone, winking with an eye and with his lighter 
 at once. 
 
 " I don't want somebody. I want everybody," an- 
 swered she. " It's deadly dull here." 
 
 " I suppose it is." 
 
 ••Awful!" 
 
 *' Well, I'm sorry I can't stay to keep company with 
 you." 
 
 "You're very kind. I'm Queen in name, but a 
 queen without power. Do you know what I would 
 do if I were a real queen '^ " 
 
 " Raise me to share your throne ? " 
 
 " Not quite that, lamplighter. I'd turn this terrace 
 into a grand parade, like that at Scarborough. And 
 I'd have smart ladies and gentlemen to march up and 
 down ; and a shooting-gallery, and a photograph 
 booth, and donkeys to ride, and goat carriages, and 
 soldiers, and everything that is beautiful. Would it 
 not be sweet ? " 
 
 " That would not suit the Alma Terrace people ; they 
 would go off in a swarm and take you with them. 
 Now, good-bye. We'll have another talk together next 
 time I come round. I've got twenty-six more lamps 
 to light before half -past seven." 
 
 No. 8 Alma Terrace was the most aristocratic in the 
 whole row — it maintained a whole servant. In the
 
 THE TIGHT-ROPE 169 
 
 other houses charwomen appeared occasionally to help 
 in the washing, or at a spring cleaning, but No. 8 
 rejoiced, and puffed itself up with pride, at being in 
 a position to maintain a salaried domestic. This 
 domestic, Mary Jane, had, so she informed her 
 mistress, received a letter to say that her grandmother 
 was dying, and she had asked leave to go that evening 
 and receive the last blessing of the expiring and 
 venerable dame. 
 
 After the departure of the lamplighter, the milkboy 
 from Button's came that way in very dapper get-up, 
 with a check waistcoat and a spotted tie, and put his 
 fingers into his mouth and whistled outside No. 8. 
 Thereupon Mary Jane sallied forth in all the gay 
 colours she could muster, and went off accompanied 
 by the milkboy, no doubt to see her dying grand- 
 mother. 
 
 Now Alma Terrace was completely lifeless, and 
 Queenie was tired of sitting on the dwarf wall and 
 peering between the rails, so she scrambled through 
 the window again into the parlour. 
 
 How could she amuse herself ? She had the house 
 — she had the whole of Alma Terrace — she had all 
 Jewry to herself. 
 
 She put chairs round the table, and proceeded to 
 jump over them, and continued doing this till out of 
 breath. Then she threw herself down in her uncle's 
 chair and panted, —
 
 I70 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " What am I to do ? " 
 
 Should she pull out the serious books, make a circus 
 of them on the table, catch black beetles in the 
 kitchen, and make them run in the improvised 
 circus? No, black beetles smell — are disgusting 
 creatures. If she could be sure of crickets, she would 
 do it. But crickets are not common, nor are they 
 easily captured. 
 
 She jumped out of the chair, weary of inaction, 
 ascended the stairs, went into Aunt Beulah's room, 
 dressed herself up in the garments Miss Grice had 
 just taken off, and began to pirouette, curtsey, dance, 
 and make grimaces before the looking-glass. It was 
 infinitely comical in Aunt Beulah's cap, in her stiff 
 gown, and with a certain affectation of the old 
 woman's manner, to go through this outrageous 
 pantomime. 
 
 Queenie tired of this amusement. There was no 
 one present to see how droll she was, and it palled on 
 her. She resumed her own gown, went to her box 
 and pulled out her spangled dress — that in which she 
 had last ridden ; that in which she had been rescued 
 by Rab. 
 
 Then a wave of desolation swept over her heart, 
 and the tears came into her eyes. Oh ! the merry 
 days of the circus ! Oh ! the genial, good-hearted 
 company that had composed the troupe. That funny, 
 tiresome clown, and the routine of locking him up in
 
 THE TIGHT-ROPE 171 
 
 the monkey cage. The severe and censorious Mrs 
 Nelson — severe and censorious only to her husband, 
 gushing with tenderness to her. And Seth — that 
 vulgar, good, stupid lad. And her father, so cheerful, 
 so fond of her, so exact in all his dealings, so beloved 
 by all who came in contact with him. 
 
 Tears fell among the spangles. 
 
 Then Queenie jumped up. 
 
 " I must not be out of heart," she said. " If I'm not 
 jolly now when they're all out of the house, when can 
 I be jolly ? But Andrew is not a bad fellow ; one can 
 get fun out of him." 
 
 She seated herself on her bed and considered, with 
 her finger to her cheek. How was she to kill time 
 till the return of the Grices ? 
 
 Queenie thrust both her hands into her hair and 
 held her head as though afraid it were going to 
 roll away from her, so full was it of lively, quick- 
 silver thoughts ; and that poor little body, in its 
 black gown, must remain imprisoned in No. 4 Alma 
 Terrace. 
 
 What nonsense it was of Uncle Grice to lock the 
 door ! Did he think that it would not be possible for 
 her to get out through the window ? Or did he lock 
 it so as to prevent anyone coming in ? Who but Rab 
 was to come ? She would hardly have let him in 
 by the door, and she most assuredly would not admit 
 him by the window.
 
 172 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " I do wonder," said Queenie, " when I am a little 
 more grown up and am wiser, whether I shall be able 
 to earn my own livelihood, and so not have to stay 
 always in deadly dull Alma Terrace ? I could go 
 jumping about on the flat saddles upon horses in a 
 circus. There's no great art in that. I wonder 
 whether I could dance on a tight-rope ? That would 
 be an accomplishment." 
 
 It occurred to her that there was a very stout cord 
 in an outhouse in the back yard. 
 
 There would be no harm in trying if she could 
 steady herself — she had run round on the barrier 
 about the circus often, and had not tumbled. Why 
 would it be more difficult on a rope, and on one 
 stretched in a direct line ? 
 
 There would be no harm in trying. If she failed, 
 she failed. If she could manage it, then she might 
 practise again till perfect. 
 
 But where could the rope be strained ? 
 
 There was the lamp-post, there were the railings. 
 It could be fastened across the garden, and at no great 
 elevation above the grass, so that she would incur no 
 risk. But how make it firm at the other end ? Alma 
 Terrace was deserted, and would be a solitude till the 
 chapels disgorged — and that would not be for an 
 hour. 
 
 She descended from her room, went to the out- 
 house and dragged the rope indoors, into the parlour.
 
 THE TIGHT-ROPE 173 
 
 She went to the window, drawing it after her. Yes, 
 the lamp-post would serve famously as a strainer. It 
 was not possible to fasten the other end to the water- 
 pipe that drained the rain from the roof. She could 
 not have passed the cord between it and the brick 
 wall. If there was anything in tlie room to which 
 she might fasten the rope, then it would pass over the 
 window-sill, and that would be like the bridge of a 
 fiddle — help to hold the cord in position, and precisely 
 at the right height above the soil. The chiffonier 
 would not answer ; it occupied the space between the 
 window and the wall. 
 
 Of course — the bars of the grate. There was no 
 fire burning! Nothing could serve her purpose 
 better. There were three strong steel bars; she 
 would make a noose and attach the rope to them. 
 They would never give way; then the line would 
 pass under the table and out at the window that was 
 immediately opposite the fireplace, and so in direct 
 course to the lamp-post. She went down on her 
 knees and fastened the cord to the bars of the grate, 
 crawled with it under the table, popped out with the 
 end in her hand over the window-sill, and heard an 
 exclamation of — " Queen of Love ! " 
 
 " Oh, Kab ! This is famous ! Oh, I am so glad ! " 
 She dropped her end of rope, and ran through the 
 garden to the young poacher and shook hands with 
 him athwart the railings.
 
 174 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 " Queenie ! I thought you might be at home, and 
 I have brought you something." 
 
 " You good Rab. What is it ? " 
 
 " Your silver wings ! They were bent and bruised. 
 You left them at mother's ; I have been trying my 
 hand at them." In a low and doubtful tone — "It 
 was a labour of love, Queenie, " then, in his ordinary 
 voice he proceeded, — "I straightened the wires and, 
 with the help of mother's needle and flat-iron, I have 
 got them to look as well as they did when on your 
 back." 
 
 " Oh I you dear Rab, you are a beauty ! " 
 
 "I am neither one nor the other — not to you," 
 said the young man in a tone of dissatisfaction. " I 
 wish I were. But I thought I might give you a 
 pleasure, and it kept my hands out of mischief. So 
 I have put them to rights, and here they are ! " 
 
 He held out the little wings, and fluttered them in 
 the night air, and in the light from the gas lamp. 
 
 " Oh, Rab, you are a good old boy ! " She took her 
 wings and capered for joy. " Rab, I want you to 
 help me. I can't do what I wish myself. I am 
 going to try a little tight-rope dancing. I have 
 fastened the cord inside — it is quite firm, a slip-knot 
 to the steel bars of the grate — but I do not think I 
 should be strong enough, alone, to make the other 
 end firm to the lamp-post." 
 
 " I will do that for you, as well as I can. Pass me
 
 THE TIGHT-ROPE 175 
 
 the poker and I'll use that as a twister. I'll get the 
 cord taut." 
 
 "Rab, it wouldn't be proper for me to go on the 
 tight-rope in my mourning black — would it ? " 
 
 " I suppose not ; put on the wings." 
 
 "I'll do more. Whilst you are tightening the 
 cord, I'll go up and dress in my spangles and muslin. 
 I have got a balancing-pole out of the back yard — one 
 of the stretchers Aunt Beulah uses for the line on 
 which she hangs the clothes after Monday's washing." 
 
 Queenie departed, and was absent for about a 
 quarter of an hour, during which time Rab had done 
 his utmost to strain the rope. 
 
 When she returned to the parlour, she was in her 
 muslin, and had adjusted the wings to her back. A 
 lamp burned in the little front sitting-room. The 
 girl had to stoop under the sash to get through the 
 window. Outside, there was a ledge on which she 
 could stand upright. 
 
 " Is all ready, Rab ? " 
 
 " As ready as I can make it." 
 
 " Rab, I shall never do it without music." 
 
 " I cannot get together a band." 
 
 " You can whistle, and hammer on a tea-tray." 
 
 " I haven't got a tray." 
 
 " You shall have one in a minute." 
 
 Queenie dived back into the parlour, and presently 
 reappeared with Aunt Beulah's best japanned tray ;
 
 176 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 she jumped into the garden, ran across the sod, and 
 passed the tray out to the young man, who at once 
 seated himself on the dwarf wall, and began to pipe 
 between his lips, and strike his knuckles against the 
 metal. 
 
 The girl ran back to the window, assumed her 
 balancing-pole and mounted the ledge. 
 
 She took one step. Then a second. 
 
 The rope bowed under her. She righted herself; 
 took a third, then quickly another, and down she 
 went with the rope upon the sward. 
 
 The fall was inconsiderable. She was not in the 
 least hurt. 
 
 "Oh, Rab," said she, "something has given way. 
 I have not pulled over the lamp-post? No — nor 
 broken the rails. It must be at the other end." 
 
 She went to the window, and, leaning her elbows 
 on the sill, looked in. The rope lay loose on the turf 
 of the garden, slack over the window sill, and limp on 
 the floor of the parlour. 
 
 She turned her head over her shoulder, and signed 
 to Rab to come to her. 
 
 He opened the garden gate, and joined her at the 
 window, put his hand over his eyes and looked in. 
 
 " Rab," said Queenie solemnly, " here's a go ! " 
 
 " Rather I " responded he, gravely. 
 
 " What is to be done ? " 
 
 " Nothing"
 
 THE TIGHT-ROPE 177 
 
 " I shall catch it." 
 
 " He will not dare to strike you ? " 
 
 " Oh no ! — not that, but he will look — awful ! And 
 he will speak — awful ! I should prefer smacks." 
 
 What Rab and Queenie saw was this — the strain of 
 the rope, with the additional weight of the girl, had 
 not indeed broken the bars, but had pulled the entire 
 grate out of its place, over the fender, and had preci- 
 pitated it into the middle of the room, which was 
 strewn with coal; whilst the hearth was cavernous, 
 ruinous. A mass of broken bricks, mortar and soot 
 was heaped on it and scattered over the hearth- 
 rug. 
 
 The two young people looked at the wreckage in 
 dismay. What Rab had said was true — nothing 
 whatever could be done by them, nothing could be 
 done till the morrow, and then masons must be 
 called in. 
 
 The two were both leaning on the sill, looking into 
 the room — Rab in his rough and untidy fustian, his 
 shabby cap at the back of his head, gaiters on his 
 calves. Queenie was in her fairy costume, the wings 
 fluttering at her back. 
 
 Thus they stood dismayed at what had been done, 
 and both dreading the consequences ; Rab regretting 
 that he could not relieve his little companion of them, 
 when they were startled by voices in their rear on the 
 pathway before the terrace. 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 178 THE QUEEN OF LOVE 
 
 The congregations in the chapels had dissolved, all 
 the serious were on their way home. 
 
 Those who came first were arrested — some by the 
 cord stretching from the lamp-post to the rail, others 
 by the astounding picture before them at the parlour 
 window of No. 4 ! — save the mark, of No. 4 ! 
 
 So astonished were they that they could not speak. 
 More arrived, a little knot was formed and increased. 
 
 Then came Jabez — he looked, dashed the garden 
 gate open, strode through to the window, grasped 
 Queenie by the shoulder, and said in quivering tones, — 
 
 " What is the meaning of this ? Good Heavens ! if 
 I had taken a rhinoceros to my bosom it might have 
 proved more inconvenient, it could not have occasioned 
 one-thousandth part of the scandal caused by this 
 dreadful girl ! " 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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 NEW VOLUMES. Crown Zvo. zs. 6d. 
 
 WOMEN'S WORK. By Lady Dilke, Miss Bulley, and 
 Miss Abraham.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 5 
 
 TRUSTS, pools AND CORNERS. As affecting Commerce 
 and Industry. By J. Stephen Jeans, M.R.I., F.S.S. 
 
 THE FACTORY SYSTEM. By R. Cooke Taylor. 
 
 THE STATE AND ITS CHILDREN. By GERTRUDE 
 
 Tuckwell. 
 
 Classical Translations 
 
 N£:pv vol umes. 
 
 Crown Zvo, Finely printed and bound in blue buckram, 
 
 LUCIAN — Six Dialogues (Nigrinus, Icaro-Menippus, Cock, Ship, 
 Parasite, Law of Falsehood). Translated by S. T. Irwin, M.A., 
 Assistant Master at Clifton ; late Scholar of Lincoln College, 
 Oxford. 
 
 SOPHOCLES— Electra and Ajax. Translated by E. D. A. 
 MoRSHEAD, M.A., late Scholar of New College, Oxford ; Assistant 
 Master at Winchester. 
 
 TACITUS— Agricola and Germania. Translated by R. B. 
 TowNSHEND, late Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 CICERO— Select Orations (Pro Milone, Pro Murena, Philippic II., 
 In Catilinam). Translated by H. E. D. Blakiston, M.A., Fellow 
 and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford. 
 
 Fiction 
 
 E. F. Benson. THE RUBICON. By E. F. Benson, Author of 
 *Dodo.' 2 vols. Crown Svo. 2is. 
 The announcement of a new novel of society by the author of the brilliantly 
 successful ' Dodo ' will excite great interest, and it is believed that ' The 
 Rubicon ' will prove to have as much fascination as its predecessor. 
 
 Stanley Weyman. UNDER THE RED ROBE. By Stanley 
 Weyman, Author of *A Gentleman of France,' etc. With I2 
 Illustrations by R. Caton Woodville. 2 vols. Crown Svo. 2is. 
 
 Mr. Weyman's fine historical tales have placed him in the front rank of novelists, 
 and this stirring story of Richelieu and the Huguenots will not lessen his repu- 
 tation.
 
 6 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Mrs. Oliphant. THE PRODIGALS. By Mrs. Oliphant. 
 
 2 vols. Crown Svo. 21 s. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say much about a new story from Mrs. OHphant's 
 graceful pen. The present one is a charming and pathetic study. 
 
 Baring Gould. THE QUEEN OF LOVE. By S. Baring 
 Gould, Author of 'Mehalah,' 'Cheap Jack Zita,' etc. 3 vols. 
 Crown Svo. 31^. 6d. 
 A story of the Cheshire salt region — a new district for the exercise of Mr. Baring 
 Gould's original and powerful gifts. 
 
 Gilbert Parker. THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE. By 
 Gilbert Parker, Author of * Pierre and His People,' *Mrs. - 
 Falchion,' etc. Crown Svo. ^s. 
 A story with a powerful and pathetic motive by a writer who has rapidly made his 
 way to the front. 
 
 Richard Pryce. WINIFRED MOUNT. By Richard Pryce, 
 Author of 'Miss Maxwell's Affections,' * Time and the Woman,' 
 etc. 2 vols. Crown Svo. 21s. 
 A story of society by Mr. Pryce, whose clever pen has the lightness and ease of 
 Octave Feuillet. 
 
 C. SmitL A CUMBERER OF THE GROUND. By Con- 
 stance Smith, Author of 'The Riddle of Lawrence Haviland.' 
 
 3 vols. Crown Svo. 31^. dd. 
 
 Carew. JIM B. : a Story. By F. S. Carew. Cr. Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 S. O'Grady. THE COMING OF CURCULAIN. By Standish 
 O'Grady, Author of * Finn and His Companions,' ' The Story of 
 Ireland,' etc. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 Curculain is one of the great legendary heroes of the Irish, and the adventures 
 of his early life are told by Mr. O'Grady in his brilliant and fascinating manner. 
 
 NEW AND CHEAPER EDITIONS 
 
 Marie Corelli. BARABBAS : A DREAM OF THE WORLD'S 
 TRAGEDY. By Marie Corelli, Author of • A Romance of Two 
 Worlds,' 'Vendetta,' etc. Seventh Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 A cheaper edition of a book which aroused in some quarters more violent hostility 
 than any book of recent years. By most secular critics the authoress was accused 
 of bad taste, bad art, and gross blasphemy ; but in curious contrast, most of the 
 religious papers acknowleged the reverence of treatment and the dignity of 
 conception which characterised the book. Of this cheaper issue the fourth, fifth, 
 and sixth editions were sold on publication.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 7 
 
 Baring Gould. CHEAP JACK ZITA. By S. Baring Gould. 
 Crown Svo. 6s. 
 A cheap edition of a story which has been recognised as Mr. Baring Gould's most 
 original effort since ' Mehalah.' 
 
 Fenn. THE STAR GAZERS. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 Crown Svo. p. 6d. 
 An exciting story with many sensations, and a complex plot. 
 
 Esm§ Stuart. A WOMAN OF FORTY. By Esme Stuart. 
 
 Croxvn Svo. 3^. 6d. 
 Pathetic in motive, with an admirably worked out plot, and without overmuch 
 analysis of character, the book has won much praise and many readers. 
 
 Educational 
 
 Davis. TACITI GERMANIA. Edited with Notes and 
 Introduction. By R. F. Davis, M.A., Editor of the ^Agricola.' 
 Small crown Svo. 
 
 Stedman. GREEK TESTAMENT SELECTIONS. Edited 
 by A. M. M. Stedman, M.A. Third and Revised Edition. 
 Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Stedman. STEPS TO FRENCH. By A. M. M. Stedman, 
 M.A. iSmo. 
 An attempt to supply a very easy and very short book of French Lessons. 
 
 Stedman. A VOCABULARY OF LATIN IDIOMS AND 
 PHRASES. Fcap. Svo. 
 
 Maiden. ENGLISH RECORDS : A Companion to English 
 History. By H. E. Malden, M.A. Crown Svo. 
 
 PRIMARY CLASSICS 
 
 A series of Classical Readers, Edited for Lower Forms with Introduc- 
 tions, Notes, Maps, and Vocabularies. 
 
 Herodotus. THE PERSIAN WARS. Edited by A. G. Liddell, 
 M.A., Assistant Master at Nottingham High School. \S7n0. \s. 6d. 
 
 Livy. THE KINGS OF ROME. Edited by A. M. M. 
 Stedman, M.A. iSmo. Illustrated. \s. 6d. 
 
 Caesar. THE HELVETIAN WAR. Edited by A. M. M. 
 Stedman, M.A. iSmo. is.
 
 8 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 il^etxi ant) IRecent ©ook0 
 Poetry 
 
 Rudyaxd Kipling. BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS; And 
 
 Other Verses. By Rudyard Kipling. Seventh Edition, Crown 
 8vo. 6s. 
 
 A Special Presentation Edition, bound in white buckram, with 
 extra gilt ornament, ys. 6d. 
 
 ' Mr. Kipling's verse is strong, vivid, full of character. . . . Unmistakable genius 
 rings in every line.' — Times. 
 
 ' The disreputable lingo of Cockayne is henceforth justified before the world ; for a 
 man of genius has taken it in hand, and has shown, beyond all cavilling, that in 
 its way it also is a medium for literature. You are grateful, and you say to 
 yourself, half in envy and half in admiration : " Here is a dook ; here, or one is a 
 Dutchman, is one of the books of the year." ' — National Observer. 
 
 ' " Barrack-Room Ballads '" contains some of the best work that Mr. Kipling has 
 ever done, which is saying a good deal. " Fuzzy- Wuzzy," "Gunga Din," and 
 " Tommy," are, in our opinion, altogether superior to anything of the kind that 
 English literature has hitherto produced.' — Athenceum. 
 
 ' These ballads are as wonderful in their descriptive power as they are vigorous in 
 their dramatic force. There are few ballads in the English language more 
 stirring than "The Ballad of East and West," worthy to stand by the Border 
 ballads of Scott' — Spectator. 
 
 'The ballads teem with imagination, they palpitate with emotion. We read them 
 with laughter and tears ; the metres throb in our pulses, the cunningly ordered 
 words tingle with life ; and if this be not poetry, what \%V— Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 Henley. LYRA HEROICA : An Anthology selected from the 
 
 best English Verse of the i6th, 17th, iSth, and 19th Centuries. By 
 
 William Ernest Henley, Author of * A Book of Verse,' 'Views 
 
 and Reviews,' etc. Crown Svo. Stamped gilt buckram^ gilt topy 
 
 edges uncut. ()S. 
 
 Mr. Henley has brought to the task of selection an instinct alike for poetry and for 
 chivalry which seems to us quite wonderfully, and even unerringly, right.' — 
 Guardian. 
 
 Tomson. A SUMMER NIGHT, AND OTHER POEMS. By 
 
 Graham R. Tomson. With Frontispiece by A. Tomson. Fcap. 
 
 Svo. 3J-. 6d. 
 
 An edition on hand-made paper, limited to 50 copies, los. 6d. net. 
 
 ' Mrs. Tomson holds perhaps the very highest rank among poetesses of English birth. 
 This selection will help her reputation.'— ^/at>t and White. 
 
 Ibsen. BRAND. A Drama by Henrik Ibsen. Translated by 
 William Wilson. Crown Svo. Second Edition. 35. (>d. 
 
 'The greatest world-poem of the nineteenth century next to "Faust." "Brand" 
 will have an astonishmg interest for Englishmen. It is in the same set with 
 "Agamemnon," with " Lear," with the literature that we now instinctively regard 
 as high and holy.' — Daily Chronicle.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 9 
 
 "Q." GREEN BAYS: Verses and Parodies. By " Q.," Author 
 of ' Dead Man's Rock ' etc. Second Edition. Fcap. 2>vo. 3^. 6d. 
 'The verses display a rare and versatile gift of parody, great command of metre, and 
 a very pretty turn of humour.' — Times. 
 
 "A.G." VERSES TO ORDER. By"A. G.» Cr.Zvo. 2s.ed. 
 net. 
 A small volume of verse by a writer whose initials are well known to Oxford men 
 ' A capital specimen of light academic poetry. These verses are very bright and 
 engaging, easy and sufficiently witty.' — St. James's Gazette. 
 
 Hosken. VERSES BY THE WAY. By J. D. Hosken. 
 Printed on laid paper, and bound in buckram, gilt top. 5^. 
 A small edition on hand-made paper. Price 12s. 6d. net, 
 A Volume of Lyrics and Sonnets by J. D. Hosken, the Postman Poet, of Helston, 
 Cornwall, whose interesting career is now more or less well known to the literary 
 public. Q, the Author of 'The Splendid Spur,' etc., writes a critical and 
 biographical introduction. 
 
 Scott. THE MAGIC HOUSE AND OTHER VERSES. By 
 Duncan C. Scott. Extra Post Sz>o, bound in buckra?n. ^s. 
 
 Langbridge. BALLADS OF THE BRAVE : Poems of Chivalry, 
 Enterprise, Courage, and Constancy, from the Earliest Times to the 
 Present Day. Edited, with Notes, by Rev. F. Langbridge. 
 Crown Svo. Buckram p. 6d. School Edition, 2s. 6d, 
 ' A very happy conception happily carried out. These "Ballads of the Brave" are 
 intended to suit the real tastes of boys, and will suit the taste of the great majority. 
 —Spectator. ' The book is full of splendid things.'— IVortd. 
 
 General Literature 
 
 Collingwood. JOHN RUSKIN : His Life and Work. By 
 W. G. Collingwood, M.A., late Scholar of University College, 
 Oxford, Author of the 'Art Teaching of John Ruskin,' Editor of 
 Mr. Ruskin's Poems. 2 vo/s. Svo. 321. Second Edition. 
 This important work is written by Mr. Collingwood, who has been for some years 
 Mr. Ruskin's private secretary, and who has had unique advantages in obtaining 
 materials for this book from Mr. Ruskin himself and from his friends. It contains 
 a large amount of new matter, and of letters which have never been published, 
 and is, in fact, a full and authoritative biography of Mr. Ruskin. The book 
 contains numerous portraits of Mr. Ruskin, including a coloured one from a 
 A 2
 
 10 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 water-colour portrait by himself, and also 13 sketches, never before published, by 
 
 Mr. Ruskin and Mr. Arthur Severn. A bibliography is added. 
 ' No more magnificent volumes have been published for a long time, . . .'—Times. 
 ' This most lovingly written and most profoundly interesting book.' — Daily News. 
 ' It is long since we have had a biography with such varied delights of substance 
 
 and of form. Such a book is a pleasure for the day, and a joy for ever.' — Daily 
 
 Chronicle. 
 ' Mr. Ruskin could not well have been more fortunate in his biographer.'— G/tf^^. 
 'A noble monument of a noble subject. One of the most beautiful books about one 
 
 of the noblest lives of our century.' — Glasgmv Herald. 
 
 Gladstone. THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC ADDRESSES 
 OF THE RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. With Notes 
 and Introductions. Edited by A. W. Hutton, M.A. (Librarian of 
 the Gladstone Library), and H. J. Cohen, M.A. With Portraits. 
 %vo. Vol. X. I2s. 6d. 
 
 RusseU. THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLING- 
 WOOD. By W. Clark Russell, Author of ' The Wreck of the 
 Grosvenor.' With Illustrations by F. Brangwyn. Svo. iSs. 
 ' A really good book. ' — Saturday Review. 
 
 ' A most excellent and wholesome book, which we should like to see in the hands of 
 every boy in the country.' — Si. James s Gazette. 
 
 Clark. THE COLLEGES OF OXFORD : Their History and 
 
 their Traditions. By Members of the University. Edited by A. 
 
 Clark, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College. 8w. \2s. 6d. 
 'Whether the reader approaches the book as a patriotic member of a college, as an 
 
 antiquary, or as a student of the organic growth of college foundation, it will amply 
 
 reward his attention.' — Times. 
 'A delightful book, learned and lively.' — Academy. 
 * A work which will certainly be appealed to for many years as the standard book on 
 
 the Colleges of Oxford.' — Athenceum. 
 
 Wells. OXFORD AND OXFORD LIFE. By Members of 
 the University. Edited by J. Wells, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of 
 Wadham College. Crowti 2>vo. 3^. 6d. 
 This work contains an account of life at Oxford— intellectual, social, and religious— 
 a careful estimate of necessary expenses, a review of recent changes, a statement 
 of the present position of the University, and chapters on Women's Education, 
 aids to study, and University Extension. 
 * We congratulate Mr. Wells on the production of a readable and intelligent account 
 of Oxford as it is at the present time, written by persons who are, with hardly an 
 exception, possessed of a close acquaintance with the system and life of the 
 University.' — A thenceutn.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List ii 
 
 Perrens. THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE FROM THE 
 TIME OF THE MEDICIS TO THE FALL OF THE 
 REPUBLIC. By F. T. Perrens. Translated by Hannah 
 Lynch. In three volumes. Vol. I. Svo. 12s. 6d. 
 This is a translation from the French of the best history of Florence in existence. 
 This volume covers a period of profound interest— political and literary— and 
 is written with great vivacity. 
 This is a standard book by an honest and intelligent historian, who has deserved 
 well of his countrymen, and of all who are interested in Italian history.'— iJ/««- 
 chester Guardian. 
 
 Browning. GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES : A Short History 
 of Mediaeval Italy, A.D. 1250- 1409. By Oscar Browning, Fellow 
 and Tutor of King's College, Cambridge. Second Edition. Crotvn 
 Svo. ^s. 
 
 * A very able hooV.'— Westminster Gazette. 
 
 'A vivid picture of medaeival Italy. 'Standard. 
 
 O'Grady. THE STORY OF IRELAND. By Standish 
 O'Grady, Author of ' Finn and his Companions.' Cr. Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 ' Novel and very fascinating history. Wonderfully alluring.'— C<?r/^ Examiner. 
 
 'Most delightful, most stimulating. Its racy humour, its original imaginings, its 
 perfectly unique history, make it one of the freshest, breeziest volumes.'— 
 Methodist Times. 
 
 'A survey at once graphic, acute, and quaintly written.' — Times. 
 
 Dixon. ENGLISH POETRY FROM BLAKE TO BROWN- 
 ING. By W. M. Dixon, M.A. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 A Popular Account of the Poetry of the Century. 
 
 ' Scholarly in conception, and full of sound and suggestive criticism.'— 7'/w«. 
 ' The book is remarkable for freshness of thought expressed in graceful language.'— 
 Manchester Examiner, 
 
 Bowden. THE EXAMPLE OF BUDDHA: Being Quota- 
 tions from Buddhist Literature for each Day in the Year. Compiled 
 by E. M. Bowden. With Preface by Sir Edwin Arnold. Third 
 Edition. i6mo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Ditchfield. OUR ENGLISH VILLAGES : Their Story and 
 their Antiquities. By P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.R.H.S., Rector 
 of Barkham, Berks. Post Svo. 2s. 6d. Illustrated. 
 ' An extremely amusing and interesting little book, which should find a place in 
 every parochial \\hrary.'— Guardian.
 
 12 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Ditchfield. OLD ENGLISH SPORTS. By P. H. Ditch- 
 field, M.A. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. Illustrated. 
 •A charming account of old English S'poxts.'— Morning Post. 
 
 Massee. A MONOGRAPH OF THE MYXOGASTRES. By 
 
 George Massee. With 12 Coloured Plates. Royal Zvo. iSs.net. 
 
 • A work much in advance of any book in the language treating of this group of 
 organisms. It is indispensable to every student of the Mxyogastres. The 
 coloured plates deserve high praise for their accuracy and execution.' — Nature. 
 
 Bushill. PROFIT SHARING AND THE LABOUR QUES- 
 TION. By T. W. Bushill, a Profit Sharing Employer. With an 
 Introduction by Sedley Taylor, Author of ' Profit Sharing between 
 Capital and Labour.' Crown Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 John Beever. PRACTICAL FLY-FISHING, Founded on 
 Nature, by John Beever, late of the Thwaite House, Coniston. A 
 New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author by W. G. Collingwood, 
 M.A., Author of *The Life and Work of John Ruskin,' etc. Also 
 additional Notes and a chapter on Char-Fishing, by A. and A. R. 
 Severn. With a specially designed title-page. Crown Svo. 3^'. 6d. 
 A little book on Fly-Fishing by an old friend of Mr. Ruskin. It has been out of 
 print for some time, and being still much in request, is now issued with a Memoir 
 of the Author by W. G. Collingwood. 
 
 Theology 
 
 Driver. SERMONS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. By S. R. Driver, D.D., Canon of 
 
 Christ Church, Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of 
 
 Oxford. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 'A welcome companion to the author's famous * Introduction.' No man can read these 
 discourses without feeling that Dr. Driver is fully alive to the deeper teaching of 
 the Old T&stzment.'—Gtcardmn. 
 
 Cheyne. FOUNDERS OF OLD TESTAMENT CRITICISM: 
 Biographical, Descriptive, and Critical Studies. By T. K. Cheyne, 
 D.D., Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at 
 Oxford. Large crown Svo. ys. 6d. 
 
 This important book is a historical sketch of O.T. Criticism in the form of biographi- 
 cal studies from the days of Eichhorn to those of Driver and Robertson Smith. 
 It is the only book of its kind in English. 
 * The volume is one of great interest and value. It displays all the author's well- 
 known ability and learning, and its opportune publication has laid all students of 
 theology, and specially of Bible criticism, under weighty oh\\ga.t\on.'—Scotsnian. 
 ' A very learned and instructive -worV.'— Times.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 13 
 
 Prior. CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Edited by C. H. Prior, 
 M. A., Fellow and Tutor of Pembroke College. Crown %vo. 6^. 
 
 A volume of sermons preached before the University of Cambridge by various 
 preachers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Westcott. 
 
 ' A representative collection. Bishop Westcott's is a noble sermon.' — Guardian. 
 
 ' Full of thoughtfulness and dignity.' — Record. 
 
 Bume. PARSON AND PEASANT: Chapters of their 
 
 Natural History. By J. B. Burne, M.A. Cr.%vo. $5. 
 ' " Parson and Peasant " is a book not only to be interested in, but to learn something 
 from — a book which may prove a help to many a clergyman, and broaden the 
 hearts and ripen the charity of laymen.' — Derby Mercury, 
 
 Cunningham. THE PATH TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE: 
 Essays on Questions of the Day. By W. Cunningham, D.D., 
 Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Economics at 
 King's College, London. Crown Svo. 4s. 6d. 
 Essays on Marriage and Population, Socialism, Money, Education, Positivism, etc. 
 
 James. CURIOSITIES OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY PRIOR 
 TO THE REFORMATION. By Croake James, Author of 
 * Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.' Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 ' This volume contains a great deal of quaint and curious matter, affording some 
 "particulars of the interesting persons, episodes, and events from the Christian's 
 point of view during the first fourteen centuries." Wherever we dip into his pages 
 we find something worth dipping into.' — /o/m Bull. 
 
 Lock. THE LIFE OF JOHN KEBLE. By Walter Lock, 
 M.A. With Portrait from a painting by George Richmond, R.A. 
 Crown 2>vo. Buckram 5^. Fifth Edition. 
 ' A fine portrait of one of the most saintly characters of our age, and a valuable con- 
 tribution to the history of that Oxford Movement.' — Times. 
 
 Kaufmann. CHARLES KINGSLEY. By M. Kaufmann, 
 M.A. Crown Svo, Buckram, ^s. 
 A biography of Kingsley, especially dealing with his achievements in social reform. 
 'The author has certainly gone about his work with conscientiousness and industry.'— 
 Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 
 
 Oliphant. THOMAS CHALMERS : A Biography. By Mrs. 
 Oliphant. With Portrait. Crown Svo. Buckram, $s. 
 ' A well-executed biography, worthy of its author and of the remarkable man who is 
 its subject, Mrs. Oliphant relates lucidly and dramatically the important part 
 which Chalmers played in the memorable secession.'— r/w«.
 
 14 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Leaders of Religion 
 
 Edited by H. C. BEECHING, M.A. With Portrait, crown Svo. 25. 6d. 
 
 A series of short biographies of the most prominent leaders . ^ 
 
 of religious life and thought. O /l^ 
 
 The following are ready— ^J ^-^ 
 
 CARDINAL NEWMAN. By R. H. Hutton. 
 
 • Few who read this book will fail to be struck by the wonderful insight it displays 
 into the nature of the Cardinal's genius and the spirit of his life.' — Wilfrid 
 Ward, in the Taitet. 
 
 ' Full of knowledge, excellent in method, and intelligent in criticism. We regard it 
 as wholly admirable.' — Academy. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY. By J. H. Overton, M.A. 
 
 ' It is well done : the story is clearly told, proportion is duly observed, and there is 
 no lack either of discrimination or of sympathy.' — Manchester Guardian. 
 
 BISHOP WILBERFORCE. By G. W. Daniel, M.A. 
 CHARLES SIMEON. By H. C. G. Moule, M.A. 
 CARDINAL MANNING. By A. W. Hutton, M.A. 
 Other volumes will be announced in due course. 
 
 WORKS BY S. BARING GOULD. 
 
 OLD COUNTRY LIFE. With Sixty-seven Illustrations by 
 W. Parkinson, F. D. Bedford, and F. Masey. Lar£-e Crown 
 SvOf cloth super extra^ top edge gilt, \os, 6d. Fourth and Cheaper 
 Edition. (iS, 
 ' Old Country Life," as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy life and move- 
 ment, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be excelled by any book to be 
 published throughout the year. Sound, hearty, and English to the core.' — World. 
 
 HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. Third 
 
 Edition. Crown 2>vo. 6s. 
 ' A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume is delightful 
 reading. ' — Times. 
 
 FREAKS OF FANATICISM. Third Edition. CrownZvo. 6s. 
 
 ' Mr. Baring Gould has a keen eye for colour and effect, and the subjects he has 
 chosen give ample scope to his descriptive and analytic faculties. A perfectly 
 fascinating hook.'— Scottish Leader,
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 15 
 
 SONGS OF THE WEST : Traditional Ballads and Songs of 
 the West of England, with their Traditional Melodies. Collected 
 by S. Baring Gould, M.A., and H. Fleetwood Sheppard, 
 M.A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. In 4 Parts (containing 25 
 Songs each), Parts /., //., ///., 3^. each. Part IV., 5^. In one 
 Vol., roan, 155'. 
 'A rich and varied collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic tancy.'— Saturday 
 Review. 
 
 YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. 
 
 Fourth Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 STRANGE SURVIVALS AND SUPERSTITIONS. With 
 Illustrations. By S. Baring Gould. Crown 8vo. Second Edition. 
 6s. 
 
 A book on such subjects as Foundations, Gables, Holes, Gallows, Raising the Hat, Old 
 Ballads, etc. etc. It traces in a most interesting manner their origin and history. 
 
 ' We have read Mr. Baring Gould's book from beginning to end. It is full of quaint 
 and various information, and there is not a dull page in it. '—Notes and Queries. 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAESARS: The 
 
 Emperors of the JuHan and Claudian Lines. With numerous Illus- 
 trations from Busts, Gems, Cameos, etc. By S. Baring Gould, 
 Author of ' Mehalah,' etc. Second Edition. 2. vols. Royal %vo. ^os. 
 ' A most splendid and fascinating book on a subject of undying interest. The great 
 feature of the book is the use the author has made of the existing portraits of the 
 Caesars, and the admirable critical subtlety he has exhibited in dealing w^ith this 
 line of research. It is brilliantly written, and the illustrations are supplied on a 
 scale of profuse magnificence. ' — Daily Chronicle. 
 ' The volumes will in no sense disappoint the general reader. Indeed, in their way, 
 there is nothing in any sense so good in English. . . . Mr. Baring Gould has 
 presented his narrative in such a way as not to make one dull Tpage.'— A t/uftisurn. 
 
 MR. BARING GOULD'S NOVELS. 
 
 •To say that a book is by the author of " Mehalah " is to imply that it contains a 
 storj' cast on strong lines, containing dramatic possibilities, vivid and sympathetic 
 descriptions of Nature, and a wealth of ingenious imagery.' — Speaker. 
 
 ' That whatever Mr. Baring Gould writes is well worth reading, is a conclusion that 
 may be very generally accepted. His views of life are fresh and vigorous, his 
 language pointed and characteristic, the incidents of which he makes use are 
 striking and original, his characters are life-like, and though somewhat excep- 
 tional people, are drawn and coloured with artistic force. Add to this that his 
 descriptions of scenes and scenery are painted with the loving eyes and skilled 
 hands of a master of his art, that he is always fresh and never dull, and under 
 such conditions it is no wonder that readers have gained confidence both in his 
 power of amusing and satisfying them, and that year by year his popularity 
 widens.' — Court Circular.
 
 i6 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA : A Tale of the Cornish Coast. 
 New Edition, 6^. 
 
 MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. Third Edition. 6s. 
 
 A powerful and characteristic story of Devon life. The 'Graphic' speaks of it as a 
 tiovel of vigorous humour and sustained power ; the ' Sussex Daily News ' says 
 that the swing of the narrative is splendid', and the 'Speaker' mentions its 
 bright imaginative power, 
 
 CHEAP JACK ZITA. By S. Baring GouLD. CrownZvo, 6s. 
 
 A Romance of the Ely Fen District in 1815. 
 
 'A powerful drama of human passion.' — Westminster Gazette. 
 
 'A story worthy the author.' — National Observer. 
 
 ARM I NELL : A Social Romance. New Edition. Crown Zvo. 
 Zs. 6d. 
 
 URITH: A Story of Dartmoor. Third Edition. CrownZvo. zs.6d. 
 
 'The author is at his best.' — Times. 
 
 ' He has nearly reached the high water-mark of " Mehalah." '—National Observer. 
 
 MARGERY OF QUETHER, and other Stories. Crown Zvo. 
 Zs. 6d. 
 
 JACQUETTA, and other Stories. Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 Fiction 
 
 SIX SHILLING NOVELS 
 
 Corelli. BARABBAS : A DREAM OF THE WORLD'S 
 TRAGEDY. By Marie Corelli, Author of ' A Romance of Two 
 Worlds,' 'Vendetta,' etc. Seventh Edition. Crown %vo. 6s. 
 Miss Corelli's new romance has been received with much disapprobation by the 
 secular papers, and with warm welcome by the religious papers. By the former 
 she has been accused of blasphemy and bad taste ; ' a gory nightmare' ; ' a hideous 
 travesty'; ' grotesque vulgarisation ' ; ' unworthy of criticism' ; ' vulgar redun- 
 dancy'; 'sickening details' — these are some of the secular flowers of speech. 
 On the other hand, the 'Guardian' praises 'the dignity of its conceptions, the 
 reserve round the Central Figure, the fine imagery of the scene and circumstance, 
 so much that is elevating and devout ' ; the ' Illustrated Church News ' styles the 
 book ' reverent and artistic, broad based on the rock of our common nature, and 
 appealing to what is best in it ' ; the ' Christian World ' says it is written ' by one 
 who has more than conventional reverence, who has tried to tell the story that it 
 may be read again with open and attentive eyes ' ; the ' Church of England 
 Pulpit' welcomes 'a book which teems with faith without any appearance of 
 irreverence.'
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 17 
 
 Benson. DODO: A DETAIL OF THE DAY. By E. F. 
 
 Benson. Crown 2,vo. Thirteenth Edition. 6s. 
 A story of society by a new writer, full of interest and power, which has attracted 
 by its brilliance universal attention. The best critics were cordial in their 
 praise. The ' Guardian ' spoke of ' Dody ' as unusually clever and interesting \ 
 the ' Spectator ' called it a delightfully -witty sketch of society \ the ' Speaker ' 
 said the dialogue was a perpetual feast of epigram and paradox ; the 
 ' Athenaeum ' spoke of the author as a writer of quite exceptional ability ; 
 the ' Academy ' praised his amazing cleverness ; the ' World ' said the book was 
 brilliantly written \ and half-a-dozen papers declared there was not a dull page 
 in the book 
 
 Norris. HIS GRACE. By W. E. NORRis, Author of 
 ' Mademoiselle de Mersac' Third Edition. Crown %vo. 6s. 
 
 An edition in one voliune of a novel which in its two volume form quickly ran through 
 two editions. 
 
 ' The characters are delineated by the author with his characteristic skill and 
 vivacity, and the story is told with that ease of manners and Thackerayean in- 
 sight which give strength of flavour to Mr. Norris's novels No one can depict 
 the Englishwoman of the better classes with more subtlety.' — Glasgow Herald. 
 
 ' Mr. Norris has drawn a really fine character in the Duke of Hurstbourne, at once 
 unconventional and very true to the conventionalities of life, weak and strong in 
 a breath, capable of inane follies and heroic decisions, yet not so definitely por- 
 trayed as to relieve a reader of the necessity of study on his own behalf.' — 
 A thenauin. 
 
 Parker. MRS. FALCHION. By Gilbert Parker, Author of 
 * Pierre and His People.' New Edition in one volume. 6s. 
 Mr. Parker's second book has received a warm welcome. The ' Athenaeum ' called 
 it a splendid study of character 'y the ' Pall Mall Gazette ' spoke of the writing as 
 but little behind anything that has been done by any writer of our tinw, the 
 ' St. James" called it a very striking and admirable novel \ and the 'West- 
 minster Gazette ' applied to it the epithet of distinguished. 
 
 Parker. PIERRE AND HIS PEOPLE. By Gilbert 
 Parker. Crown Svo. Buckram. 6s. 
 ' Stories happily conceived and finely executed. There is strength and genius in Mr. 
 Parker's style.' — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 Anthony Hope. A CHANGE OF AIR: A Novel. By 
 Anthony Hope, Author of * Mr. Witt's Widow,' etc. i vol. 
 Crown Svo. 6s. 
 A bright story by Mr. Hope, who has, the Athencezim says, 'a decided outlook and 
 
 individuality of his own.' 
 ' A graceful, vivacious comedy, true to human nature. The characters are traced 
 with a masterly ha.ndL.'— Times.
 
 1 8 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 Pryce. TIME AND THE WOMAN. By Richard Pryce, 
 
 Author of • Miss Maxwell's Affections,' 'The Quiet Mrs. Fleming,' 
 etc. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ' Mr. Pryce's work recalls the style of Octave Feuillet, by its clearness, conciseness, 
 its literary ttsttvt.'—Aihenaum. 
 
 Gray. ELBA. A Novel. By E. M 'Queen Gray. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 * A charming novel. The characters are not only powerful sketches, but minutely 
 and carefully finished portraits.' — Guardian, 
 
 Marriott Watson. DIOGENES OF LONDON and other 
 Sketches. By H. B. Marriott Watson, Author of 'The Web 
 of the Spider.' Crown Svo. Buckram. 6s. 
 
 ' By all those who delight in the uses of words, who rate the exercise of prose above 
 the exercise of verse, who rejoice in all proofs of its delicacy and its strength, who 
 believe that English prose is chief among the moulds of thought, by these 
 Mr. Marriott Watson's book will be \f tlcovMA.'— National Observer. 
 
 Gilchrist. THE STONE DRAGON. By Murray Gilchrist. 
 
 Crown Svo. Buckram. 6s. 
 A volume of stories of power so weird and original as to ensure them a ready welcome. 
 •The author's faults are atoned for by certain positive and admirable merits. The 
 
 romances have not their counterpart in modern literature, and to read them is a 
 
 unique experience.' — National Observer. 
 
 THREE-AND-8IXPENNY NOVELS 
 
 Norris. A DEPLORABLE AFFAIR. By W. E. NORRIS, 
 Author of • His Grace. ' Crown Svo. 3 j. 6d. 
 
 'What with its interesting story, its graceful manner, and its perpetual good 
 humour, the book is as enjoyable as any that has come from its author's pen.'— 
 Scotsman. 
 
 Pearce. JACO TRELOAR. By J. H. Pearce, Author of 
 ' Esther Pentreath. ' New Edition. Crown Svo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 A tragic story of Cornish life by a writer of remarkable power, whose first novel has 
 
 been highly praised by Mr. Gladstone. 
 The 'Spectator' speaks of Mr. Pearce as a writer of exceptional power \ the 'Daily 
 
 Telegraph ' calls it Powerful and picturesque \ the ' Birmingham Post ' asserts 
 
 that it is a novel of high quality.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 19 
 
 Esm6 Stuart. A WOMAN OF FORTY. By Esui Stuart, 
 Author of 'Muriel's Marriage,' *Virginie's Husband,' etc. New 
 Edition. Crown Svo. $s. 6d. 
 'The story is well written, and some of the scenes show great dramatic power.'— 
 Dailj> Chronicle. 
 
 Fenn. THE STAR GAZERS. By G. Manville Fenn, 
 Author of • Eli's Children,' etc. New Edition. Cr. Svo. 3^. 6d. 
 ' A stirring romance.' — Western Morning News. 
 
 ' Told with all the dramatic power for which Mr. Fenn is conspicuous.' — Bradford 
 Observer. 
 
 Dickinson. A VICAR'S WIFE. By Evelyn Dickinson. 
 
 Crown Svo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 Prowse. THE POISON OF ASPS. By R. Orton Prowse. 
 Crown Svo. y. 6d. 
 
 Lynn Linton. THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVID- 
 SON, Christian and Communist. By E. Lynn Linton. Eleventh 
 Edition. Post Svo. is. 
 
 3/6 
 
 Methuen's Novel Series 
 
 A series of copyright Novels, by well-known Authors, 
 bound in red buckram, at the price of three shillings and 
 sixpence. The first volumes are : — 
 
 1. JACQUETTA. By S. Baring Gould, Author of ' Mehalah, 
 
 etc. 
 
 2. ARM I NELL : A Social Romance. By S. Baring Gould 
 
 Author of ' Mehalah,' etc. 
 
 3. MARGERY OF QUETHER. By S. Baring Gould. 
 
 4. URITH. By S. Baring Gould. 
 
 5. DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. With Portrait of 
 
 Author. By Edna Lyall, Author of ' Donovan,' etc. 
 
 6. JACK'S FATHER. By W. E. Norris. 
 
 Other Volumes will be announced in due course.
 
 20 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 HALF-CROWN NOVELS 
 
 A Series of Novels by popular Authors^ tastejully 
 bound in cloth. 
 
 2/6 
 
 I THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
 
 2. DISENCHANTMENT. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
 
 3. MR. BUTLER'S WARD. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
 
 4. HOVENDEN, V.C. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
 
 5. ELI'S CHILDREN. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 
 6. A DOUBLE KNOT. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 
 7. DISARMED. By M. Betham Edwards. 
 
 8. A LOST ILLUSION. By Leslie Keith. 
 
 9. A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. Clark Russell. 
 
 10. IN TENT AND BUNGALOW. By the Author of * Indian 
 
 Idylls.' 
 
 11. MY STEWARDSHIP. By E. M'QuEEN Gray. 
 
 12. A REVEREND GENTLEMAN. By J. M. Cobban. 
 
 13. THE STORY OF CHRIS. By Rowland Grey. 
 
 Other volumes will be announced in due course. 
 
 Books for Boys and Girls 
 
 Baring Gould. THE ICELANDER'S SWORD. By S. 
 
 Baring Gould, Author of 'Mehalah,' etc. With Twenty-nine 
 Illustrations by J. Moyr Smith. Crown Zvo. 6s. 
 A stirring story of Iceland, written for boys by the author of ' In the Roar of the Sea. 
 
 CuthelL TWO LITTLE CHILDREN AND CHING. By 
 
 Edith E. Cuthell. Profusely Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
 gilt edges. (>s. 
 Another story, with a dog hero, by the author of the very popular ' Only a Guard- 
 Room Dog.' 
 
 Blake. TODDLEBEN'S HERO. By M. M. Blake, Author of 
 * The Siege of Norwich Castle.' With 36 Illustrations. Crown 
 Svo. 5J. 
 A story of military life for children.
 
 Messrs. Methuen's List 21 
 
 CutheU. ONLY A GUARD-ROOM DOG. By Mrs. Cuthell. 
 With 16 Illustrations by W. Parkinson. Square Crown %vo. 6.f. 
 
 ' This is a charming story. Tangle was but a little mongrel Skye terrier, but he had a 
 big heart in his little body, and played a hero's part more than once. The book 
 can be warmly recommended.' — Standard. 
 
 Collingwood. THE DOCTOR OF THE JULIET. By Harry 
 
 COLLIXGWOOD, Author of 'The Pirate Island,' etc. Illustrated by 
 Gordon Browne. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ' "The Doctor of the Juliet," well illustrated by Gordon Browne, is one of Harr^' 
 Collingwocx^'s best efforts.' — Morntng^ Post. 
 
 Clark Russell. MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE. By 
 W. Clark Russell, Author of * The Wreck of the Grosvenor,' etc. 
 Illustrated by Gordon Browne. Crown Hvo. 2^. 6d. 
 
 'Mr. Clark Russell's story of "Master Rockafellar's Voyage "will be among the 
 favourites of the Christmas books. There is a rattle and " go " all through it, and 
 its illustrations are charming in themselves, and very much above the average in 
 the way in which they are produced.' — Guardian, 
 
 Manville Fenn. SYD BELTON : Or, The Boy who would not 
 
 go to Sea. By G. Manville Fenn, Author of * In the King's 
 
 Name,' etc. Illustrated by Gordon Browne. Crown Hvo. ^s. 6d. 
 
 ' Who among the young story-reading public will not rejoice at the sight of the old 
 combination, so often proved admirable— a story by Manville Fenn, illustrated 
 hy Gordon Browne? The story, too, is one of the good old sort, full of life and 
 vigour, breeziness and i\\r\.*— Journal 0/ Education. 
 
 3/6 
 
 The Peacock Library 
 
 A Series of Books for Girls by well-known Authors, 
 handsomely bound in bhie and silver^ and well illustrated. 
 Crown Svo. 
 
 1. A PINCH OF EXPERIENCE. By L. B. Walford. 
 
 2. THE RED GRANGE. By Mrs. MoLESWORTH. 
 
 3. THE SECRET OF MADAME DE MONLUC. By the 
 
 Author of 'Mdle Mori.' 
 
 4. DUMPS. By Mrs. Parr, Author of * Adam and Eve.' 
 
 5. OUT OF THE FASHION. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 6. A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 7. HEPSY GIPSY. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 8. THE HONOURABLE MISS. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 q. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By Mrs. Leith Adams.
 
 24 Messrs. Methuen's List 
 
 MUTUAL THRIFT. By Rev. J. Frome Wilkinson, M.A., 
 Author of * The Friendly Society Movement. ' 
 
 PROBLEMS OF POVERTY : An Inquiry into the Industrial 
 Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. Hobson, M. A. 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS. By C. F. Bastable, 
 M.A., Professor of Economics at Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 THE ALIEN INVASION. By W. H. Wilkins, B.A., Secretary 
 
 to the Society for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens. 
 
 THE RURAL EXODUS. By P. Anderson Graham. 
 
 LAND NATIONALIZATION. By Harold Cox, B.A. 
 
 A SHORTER WORKING DAY. By H. DE B. Gibbins 
 and R. A. Hadfield, of the Hecla Works, Sheffield. 
 
 BACK TO THE LAND : An Inquiry into the Cure for Rural 
 Depopulation. By H. E. Moore. 
 
 Methuen's Commercial Series 
 
 BRITISH COMMERCE AND COLONIES FROM ELIZA- 
 BETH TO VICTORIA. By H. de B. Gibbins, M.A., Author 
 of *The Industrial History of England,' etc., etc. 2s. 
 
 A MANUAL OF FRENCH COMMERCIAL CORRES- 
 PONDENCE. By S. E. Bally, Modern Language Master at 
 the Manchester Grammar School. 2s. 
 
 COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY, with special reference to Trade 
 Routes, New Markets, and Manufacturing Districts. By L. D. 
 Lyde, M. a. , of The Academy, Glasgow. 2s. 
 
 COMMERCIAL EXAMINATION PAPERS. By H. DE B. 
 Gibbins, M.A. is. 6d. 
 
 THE ECONOMICS OF COMMERCE. By H. DE B. Gibbins, 
 M.A. IS. 6d. 
 
 Edinburgh: T. and A, Constarlr, Printers to Her Majesty.
 
 
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