BEATRICE AND BENEDICK //AWLEYSmRT m'rim:'^ ^ Wi H. SMITH & SON'S SUBSCRIPTION LIBRARI 186, STRAND, LfLNDON, AND AT THE RAILV^^Qfc^^OOKSTALLS. MacmiERsiN'SETS NOVELS ARE ISSUED TO AND FOR SOBSCRIBIM OBTj Per ONE Tolum (Novels wtnort thmd For TWO Volumi (Navels in *n«re than T; For THREE Voliunes For FOUR Fcr SIX Fcr TWELVE \m A CeUHTfiY lOOKSTALL- « Monthf. li Kon ^0 la .. 1 1 'ht *vailakU/*r this class »/ Subscription. 17 6 .. 1 U es are ntt available f0r this class tj SMbscriplt»n 1 3 „ 3 2 1 8 .. 8 10 1 15 ..8 8 3 .. 6 5 The clerks in charg:e of Messrs. W. H. STE," "THE PLUXGER," &c., &c. ly TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDOX : F. V. WHITE & CO., 31, SOUTH AMPTOX STEEET, STRAXD, W.C. 1891. PRINTED BY KKLLY AND CO., GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S ISN FIELDS, AND KINGSTON-ON-THAMES. a > FP3 CONTENTS. IT) ^ CHAP. P^'^^K t^ I. — The AValkinct Match .... 1 '^ II. — AVar Mutterings . . . • 17 J— o III. — Blue Beard's Chamber .... 34 ^ lY. — Constable Tarbant .... ^^ ^ Y. — Miss Smerdon Grows Sarcastic . . 69 ^ YI. — The Taking of the Quarries . . 87 YIL— Miss Smerdon's Pride Breaks Down . 106 YIIL — Xews from the Crimea . . . 1-5 >^ IX.— Constable Tarrant i> Puzzled . .143 ^ X. — Mrs. Seacole's 161 ^'' XL — Tom's Yisitor in the Advance . .178 XII.— The Fourth Division Races . . 194 XIII.— The Lady of the Roses . . .211 XIY. — The Storming of the Redan . . 229 ^i TO HENEY lEVING, In remembrance of many pleasant nights at the Lyceum, during which the idea of this story first sug- gested itself, this book is dedicated by his sincere friend and admirer, HAWLEY SMAIIT. BEATRICE AND BENEDICK, H IRomance of tbe Grimea. CHAPTEPt I. THE WALKING 3rATCH. A BKiGHT sun and a nor '-easier, sucli as usually characterizes the merry month of May. A white, straight, dusty road, along which a man with his loins girt up and stripped to his shirt and trousers, is walk- ing rapidly and doggedly. He is followed by a little knot of people apparently in- terested in his proceedings, one of whom, walking by his side, continually consults his watch ; indeed, the whole party seem extremely anxious as regards the time. The man, stripped of his coat, looks worn, travel- VOL. I. 1 2 BEATEICE AND EENEDICK. stained, and bears signs of weariness. If lie is walking fast, there can also be little doubt from the set defiant expression in his face that he is walking " in difficulties." From time to time he throws a mute glance at his companion, who usually responds with much the same formula ; " Never fear, old boy — you'll do it all right ; all you have got to do is to keep on walking and think of nothing else. I'm doing the thinJcing for you. You have got a mile to do every fourteen minutes, and you will just win clever ! " When Hugh Fleming three evenings ago backed himself to walk fifty miles in twelve hours, without training, the whole mess-table laughed. The brother officer who had laid two to one against his doing it, good- naturedly ofiered to scratch the bet any time during the evening. It seemed per- fectly absurd that Fleming should perform any such feat as this. A man who had shown so far not the slightest taste for THE WALKIXa lilATCH. 3 atliletics — who rarely played cricket, never played racquets, and, with the exception of an occasional country walk, for the most part took his exercise round a billiard-table. He had never been known to walk a match, and when this one w^as made, said that he had never done such a thing before. His comrades all laughed at him, and, with that candour which close intimacy confers, bade him, " Xot make a fool of himself, but cry off his bet before it was too late." There was one exception to the popular feeling — there invariably is — and this was Tom Byng, Fleming's most intimate friend. Byng maintained a rigid silence as to wdiat he thought of the affair, and even when appealed to declined to express any opinion thereon. He was a man who w^as rather an authority amongst his fellows on all matters of sport, wdiether with rod or with gun, whether on the race-course or on the cinder- track, and his brother officers were not a little anxious to ascertain what he might 1* 4 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. think of this foohsh wager. But no, neither at the dinner-table nor in the ante-room afterwards could he be induced to express his views. Until Fleming had retired for the night he smoked silently, and in answer to all inquiries as to what he thought of the match, merely shrugged his shoulders and replied, " I don't know ; I never saw him walk in earnest." But no sooner had Flemincf retired than, throwino^ the end of his cigar into the fire, he turned round to the layer of odds and said : " If you would like to have a little more money against Fleming, Brydon, you can lay me £100 to £50." "You may put it down," replied the other, " if you will tell me what you are going on." "Willingly. Unless he is ver}- vain, it is alwavs verv dansferous to bet ai^ainst a man who backs himself, besides, when we were quartered at Portsmouth I once saw Fleming, for a joke, do a thing which, though I be- THE WALKING MATCH. 5 lieve no great feat, would puzzle any man in this room to perform. "You recollect at one end of the cricket ground there was a skittle alley, and after play, or when their side was in, men would sometimes have a turn at that fine old Eng- lish game. Precious duffers at it too they were for the most part. Fleming was in there one day, chaffing a couple of men who were plapng. When they had finished, he put up the pins again and said, ' Xow if you fellows can play let's see you take those down, one pin at a time, that is the nine pins in nine shots. You mustn't upset two at a time remember, or you will not have done what I mean.' " ' Bah,' said one of the men, ' do it, of course I can't, nor you either. I will lay you ten to one you can't do it.' " ' I think I can,' replied Fleming quietly, ' although it isn't easy. You shall lay me ten to one in shilHngs,' and to our astonishment Fleming proceeded to accomplish the feat. 6 BEATRICE AXD BENEDICK. " I didn't know he could play skittles, and most certainly don't know that he can walk, but he might, I'm backing him on the off." Such were the events which had led up to the match now taking place. Fleming had started at seven in the morning, accompanied only by two brother officers, one of whom was acting as umpire. When he had accomplished his first twelve miles in two hours and a half and then stopped to breakfast, these gentlemen thought that he would win his wager easily. But the pace was too good to last, and when Byng arrived just as Fleming was finishing his thirtieth mile, the match had begun to look very black for the pedestrian. He was untrained, he had no experience of walking matches, and he had nobody to coach him. Whatever the man's capabilities might be he did not know how to make the most of them. As he had not understood the husbandincf of his own powers in the early part of his undertaking, so now he did not know how to THE WALKING MATCH. 7 use what was left of them. He was losing time on every mile ; there were twenty more weary miles to tramp, and each of them took him longer to accomplish than those that had gone before. All the fiery dash of the morning was gone and the afternoon saw the sorely distressed man still struggling gamely with the task which it was rapidly becoming an obvious impossibility that he should per- form. Had Byng not arrived at this critical juncture it had been little use his arriving at all ; but the minute he understood the state of things he made a rapid calculation in his head, examined Fleming critically as he walked alongside him, and then said : " I tell you what, old boy ; if you're game and will do as I tell you, you will just pull through ; but there won't be much to spare." " I'm about cooked," replied Fleming, " but Fm quite good to go on till you say it's hopeless." " It's a long way off hopeless at present," rephed the other, for the first time giving the 8 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. advice whicli he is reiterating at the beginning of this chapter. As they turned at the milestone (for under Byng's guidance, the mile being tolerably level, the match was to be completed over that mile, walking it backwards and for- wards) there was a slight commotion among some of Fleming's partisans, who had now assembled to watch the conclusion of his task. What it was, was hardly discernible at the distance they then were from it, but as they came nearer it was evident that in their zeal for his success some of Fleming's par- tisans had stopped a smart carriage full of ladies, for fear it should prove a hindrance to their champion. The fair tenants had willingly acquiesced upon understanding what they had to pull up for. Two young ladies stood up as Fleming went by, and scanned him narrowly. " Who did you say it was, Pritchard ? " enquired a tall showy girl, of the coachman. " It's one of the officers, miss," replied the THE ^YALKIXG :\IATCH. 9 man, toucliing his hat ; " but I didn't catch his name. He's backed himself to walk a lot of miles in a certain time." " They are a new lot, Xell," said the speaker ; " they only came in about six or seven weeks ago. Papa has but just called, and I haven't met any of them yet. Besides, you know, in common decency for those who have gone ; the th were a very nice lot of fellows, and very popular ; we really must, so to speak, wear mourning for them a little." " More than they will do for you, my dear," replied her companion, laughing. " Soldiers and sailors are marvellous hands at quick transfer of the affections." " Ah, well, I don't suppose there's much harm done on either side. Singed wings here and there no doubt, but for most of us only many a pleasant dancing party to look back upon, and genuine regret that our pet partners will meet us no more. This looks promising for the new comers. As long as a regiment has some go in them, there's always 10 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. hope for us. A very pretty taste in balls and picnics I have noticed often accompanies sporting tendencies, but when we get a regiment that does nothing, as now and again we do — Ugh ! " and Miss Smerdon shrugged her pretty shoulders, as much as to say no words could express her feelings for the British soldier who socially failed to do his duty. A tall, good-looking girl, with a profusion of wavy, brown hair, Miss Smerdon was con- sidered a beauty in her own part of the country. She was the only daughter of a wealthy ironmaster, and in spite of her having two brothers, she was likely, if not an heiress, yet to bring her husband a very substantial dowry. She was a popular girl, and no one could say that Frances Smerdon was deficient in " go." Elderly ladies some- times shook their heads over her doings, and whispered " bold and fast " behind their fans ; but for all that there was no real harm in her. She rejoiced in high spirits, and was THE WALKING MATCH. 11 perhaps a little too given to defy conven- tionalities, but lier escapades when looked into were of a very venial nature, and more prompted by her love of fun than anything else. She enjoyed life keenly, as well she might with both youth and wealth at her call, and threw herself into whatever she was doing with all her heart. How she and Xellie Lynden had become such intimate friends was rather a puzzle to their acquaintance. The latter lived in ^Manchester, but was in the habit of paying long visits to Monmouth- shire, where, some half-dozen miles from Newport, Mr. Smerdon had a handsome country seat. " Xo ! don't let him drive on, Frances, we are in no hurry, and I want to see that officer come back ao-ain. I don't know what he's <_ trying to do, but I am interested in it. I feel sure he will do it whatever it is." " Stay where you are, Pritchard," replied the other, laughing. " We wish to see a little more of this match." 12 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. " Well," she continued, turning to lier friend, " Love at first siglit we've heard of, but faith at first siglit such as yours I have never yet met with. Why such behef in this unknown pedestrian ? " " It's a striking face," rejoined Nell Lynden, " I don't mean a particularly handsome one, but a more resolute bull-dog one I never saw. He was in distress when he passed us, but that man will do the task he has set himself, or drop by the wayside." And now once more Fleming and his three or four attendants pass close to their carriage. He keeps side by side with his mentor, and there is a set dogged look on his face, which, pale though it is, shows no sign of flinch- ing. He is evidently very nearly done, but there can be little doubt that he will go on to the bitter end, and it is evident to all the lookers-on that Byng has determined he shall. To do the latter justice it is not his own stake on it that he is thinking of, but his blood is up, he has identified himself with his THE WALKING MATCH. 13 protege and lie is resolved he shall win. He has made up his mind to take the last ounce out of his man just as he would out of his horse in riding a punishing finish. He has spared himself not a whit since he came upon the scene, and has walked sixteen miles by his friend's side ; only four miles more to go, and if his protege can but keep at the pace he's going, the match will be won with five or six minutes to spare. The excitement waxes intense as the finish draws near. Win or lose — it is a match, and must be a very close thing. It takes all Byng can do to keep his man up to the requisite pace, and there can be no doubt that, left to him- self, Fleming would have imperceptibly slackened in that matter. It is very hard for a beaten man to keep both his eye on the watch and regulate his speed at the same time. The sympathies of the regiment and even of the lookers on, who had come out of the neiorhbourinj? town to see the finish of such a sporting afiair, are all 'with Fleming. The 14 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. public always wish success to the man who backs himself in anything of this sort. It requires pluck to perform such an arduous task, and that is a thing which always enlists the sympathies of Englishmen. Even Brydon could not resist the excitement. " Upon my word," he exclaimed as the last mile but one was begun, " I think he'll win. It will cost me a couple of hundred if he does, but I can't help hoping he will. We don't know much of each other tiU a pinch comes that's certain. Who'd have thought that Hugh Fleming had such stufi in him?" But this mile Byng had no little trouble to get his protege along. Now and again Fleming stumbled in his walk. The truth is he was suffering from one of the most severe trials to which a man is exposed in a long walk of this nature. His feet were giving way, which means that before long the walk must be reduced to a hobble, and that to crawl a mile within half-an-hour THE WALKING MATCH. 15 will be about all tliat he can accomplish. He had lost two minutes in spite of Byng's exertions over the last, and there remained to him but eighteen minutes in which to walk the concluding mile. The young ladies had lingered to see the finish of the match, and as Fleming passed their carriage for the last time with still half-a- mile to get, Nell Lynden turned to her friend and said : " Now let's go home, Frances. He'll do it ; but I wish we hadn't stopped to watch him go by this time. Poor fellow, he is suffering terribly. I could see his lips twitch as he passed us." They well might, for to say nothing of being dead beat, Hugh Fleming was experi- encing the sensations of a cat on hot bricks every time he put his feet to the ground. Pritchard turned his horses round, and in accordance with Miss Smerdon's instructions drove leisurely homewards. But ere they had gone far the sounds of a 16 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. ringing clieer fell faintly on their ears, and told tliem that Hugh Fleming had won his match. It had been a close shave, but the fifty miles had been completed with two good minutes to spare. "A fine thing, and a pretty match," said Byng, " but I tell you what, Brydon, if he'd only had a week in which to harden his feet, he'd have won with half-an-hour in hand. If you want your revenge, I'll back him to ^^alk " " No you don't," cried the hero of the hour, as his partisans picked him up and carried him to the carriage which was in waiting. " This child has had enouorh walkinof to last him his natural life. And he's beginning to think that cavalry is the branch of the service which would suit him best." CHAPTEE II. W A E M U T T E R I N G S . Nell Lyxden's father and Mr. Smerdon had been friends in their school-boy days, at which period the position of Lynden's family was certainly superior to that of the latter 's. But both boys had their way to make in the world ; neither had any prospect of succeed- ing to any fortune from their parents. Eobert Lynden went up to London and was speedily lost in the whirlpool of the great city. What became of him, what he did there, nobody knew. For the first year or two that he was in London, they heard from him regularly at home. He had apprenticed himself to a chemist, and entertained serious thoughts of turning to medicine as a pro- fession later on, and to enable him to attend the schools his father volunteered considerable VOL. I. 2 18 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. pecuniary assistance. For a few months young Lynden drew on liim steadily for this purpose, then suddenly all communication from him ceased. He not only abstained from writing for money, an exigency apt to ensure punctual correspondence, but he did not write at all. His mother grew very anxious about him, enquiries were set on foot, the chemist to whom he had bound himself was duly com- municated with, and replied that Eobert Lynden, after voluntarily apprenticing himself, had broken his indentures at the end of a 3^ear, and that he had neither seen nor heard anything of him since. His father went up to town and made enquiries in every direction. He even consulted the police on the subject ; but no, nothing could be heard of the missing youth, London seemed to have swallowed him up, and all endeavours to ascertain his fate proved useless. He was advertised for in all direc- tions, for his people were well enough to do to be able to spend some little money in trying WAR MUTTERINGS. 19 to trace tlieir hoj. But nothing came of enquiry or advertisement, and after a time liis mother mourned for him as dead, while his father came sadly to the conclusion that his disappearance was one of those inscru- table mysteries ever characteristic of great cities. Whether he had been foully done to death who could say ? or whether he was the unrecognised victim of some accident. But that their son was dead, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Lynden entertained the slightest doubt, and in due course of years went to their graves undisturbed in that belief. Nellie Lynden could have told you very little about her father's antecedents. She could barelv remember her mother, who had died when she was very young, and from that time her life had simply been a progress from one school to another. Clever, sensitive, even as a child the thought had oppressed her that she belonged to nobody. She was kindly treated, but it was bitter for her when the holidays came and the other girls went to 20 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. their homes. There were no holidays for her, for what were hohdays without a home ? and she had no home. Boys we know can be very cruel to each other, and I fancy girls are very little better in this respect. Some of her schoolmates, perhaps because they were out of temper, perhaps from that innate desire to torture which exists in the young of both sexes, would twit Xellie when the holidays came round with having nowhere to go to. They would enquire, with affected interest, if she did not find it dull being there all those weeks by herself. And she did find it dull — horribly dull, and they knew it. Her school-mistresses were kind enough, but what could they do ? Their engagement with her father was that they should always take care of her in the holidays, as he had no home to take her to. He was kind enough to the desolate girl upon his few brief visits, and lavish with regard to money for her dress or anything else she fancied as she grew WAR MUTTEKINGS. 21 older. But, except occasionally for a very few days, lie liad never taken her away with him. And then an hotel had been her home. The result of this peculiar training had been to make Nellie Lynden a somewhat reserved girl, not one to give away her friendship lightly, and though popular in every school she had ever been in, she had never formed one of those gushing friendships which girls are so apt to contract in these days. Some four years before our story commences she had been called upon to come home and take charge of her father's house. For the first time in his life Dr. Lynden admitted of having a house. Nellie further wondered on the receipt of this letter, whether he had also a practice. Questioned once upon this point, he had replied that he had practised chiefly abroad, that he had given it up now, and only prescribed in an amateurish way for a few intimate friends and acquaintances. He had further made some rather severe strictures on the vice 22 BEATRICE Al^D BENEDICK. of curiosity, and avowed his opinion that there was no such bore aHve as a painfully inquisitive person. This was quite sufficient hint for Nellie. She never ventured to inquire further into the past life of her father. She accepted things as they were, and admitted that she had no cause to complain. The doctor's house in the suburbs of Manchester, though not large, was ex- tremely comfortable. Nellie was perfectly satisfied with the rooms placed apart for her exclusive use, as well as the drawing-room and dining-room. The doctor reserved for himself besides his bed-room, a large room fitted up as a laboratory, which he called his " den." The peculiarity about this room was that it was guarded by elaborate double doors from the rest of the house, and further, had a separate stair communicating with the outside, so that it was possible for the doctor from his laboratory to leave the house without the knowledge of the other inmates. The outer of these doors was kept jealously WAR MUTTEEINGS. 23 locked, which the doctor explained by saying that evil smells were emitted from apartments of that description, and that he did not wish the rest of the house poisoned ; moreover that servants could never resist touching things, and that he did not wish a housemaid to blow her head off by fiddling with a retort which did not concern her. He had had a passion for chemistry from his youth up, but it was really only of late that he had found leisure to indulge it. " I can't say as yet, Nell, that I've made any discovery calculated to benefit mankind. I don't suppose I ever shall, but it amuses me, and hurts nobody. I've done my best to render my hobby inoffensive, so you must put up with it." " My dear father," said Miss Lynden, " why shouldn't you do as you like in your own house ? As for the laboratory, the double doors are so effective that 1 am sure no one could ever detect that there was such a thing in the place." 2-1 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. If Dr. Lynden went out but little himself he was not forgetful of his daughter. He made arrangements with a lady, with whose husband he was tolerably intimate, to act as Nell's chaperon, and as that young lady herself was by no means unattractive, she was not long before she knew a good many people in Manchester. Her chaperon, Mrs. Montague, was one of those vivacious ladies who contemplate passing an evening at home with dismay. This restless lady could not bear the idea of not assisting at everything that was going on in Manchester, and would work with untiring patience and assiduity to obtain tickets. The more difficult they were to come by, I verily believe the more she enjoyed it, and she was perfectly callous to all social rebuff in matters of this nature. Some two years ago, Nellie, while under the wing of Mrs. Montague, chanced to meet Frances Smerdon at a dinner-party, and the ironmaster's daughter at once conceived a strong liking for the quiet, reticent, lady-like WAK MUTTEETXaS. 25 girl. Miss Smerdon, who had come on a month's visit to Manchester, contrived to see a good deal of her new friend in the course of her visit. In the first instance the liking had been entirely on the part of Frances, but gradually Nellie thawed under the advances of her more impressionable friend, and before Miss Smerdon left, it had been arranged that Nellie should pay her a visit in Monmouth- shire. Dr. Lynden, as soon as he knew who she was, took the greatest possible interest in Miss Smerdon. He enquired after her father, whom he recollected as the employe of a great iron company in South Wales, and seemed much struck at discovering that he had blossomed into a large ironmaster on his own account. Although reticent about his own past as ever, he told Frances that he and her father had been school-fellows, and this seemed an additional link in the friendship of the two girls. It had subsisted now about two years, and Frances was enthusiastic in Miss Lynden's praises. 26 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. Knowing her father's strong opinions on the sin of curiosity, Nellie was rather amused to see how extremely interested he was in all particulars concerning the life of his old chum, Matthew Smerdon. He never wearied of asking Smerdon's daughter about him on such occasions as Frances was in Manchester, and cross-examined Nellie on her return from Monmouthshire in a manner diametrically opposed to his expressed opinions. Smerdon too, in his turn, had been curious to hear of his old school-boy friend, and the two girls sometimes discussed their respective fathers, but there was this difference, whereas Matthew Smerdon's career was not only well-known to his daughter but to all his neighbours, from the very outset, nobody knew anything about Dr. Lynden's, from his disappearance almost as a boy in the great London wilderness, until his reappearance as a retired medical man in Manchester some four years ago. That he had practised on the Continent, and made money, was the brief WAR MUTTERINGS. 27 account that Dr. Lynden deigned to give of his past. * ^ ^ * * At this particular juncture there com- menced a bickering between England and the great Autocrat of the North, which, little as anyone dreamed of it at the time, was shortly destined to set all Europe by the ears. Europe had been at peace ever since Waterloo, and that big battles were ever again to be fought amongst the western nations was apparently looked upon by politicians with incredulity. Still that real or mythical will of Peter the Great had always been kept steadily in sight by the rulers of Eussia. To come to Constantinople sooner or later ever their fixed resolution, and the Turks still believe just as firmly that they will, and that it is their Kismet. But as to about the when they are to arrive there the Eussians have fallen into great mistakes. If the Turk submits resignedly to his Kismet in the end, yet he will fight bitterly to avert it, as he has 2i BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. shown at Plevna and elsewhere. Moreover the nations of Europe have ever regarded with jealous eyes the idea of Eussia at Constantinople. The Czar, Nicholas, was doubtless aware of all this when he made up his mind that the pear was ripe for the plucking. Europe might not like it, but who was there to interfere with him ? There was no united Germany in those days. France had only recovered from its state of chronic revolution to have a relapse in the shape of a coup-d'etat, while for England one might as well expect to see a Quaker in the prize ring as Great Britain intervening by arms in any of the quarrels of Europe. The nations of the West might not like it ; but then in the words of the immortal Wegg, " The nations of the West were at liberty to lump it." Very busy was the English Govern- ment with notes, and protests, circulars, etc., finally dabbhng with that most dangerous of all documents, an ultimatum. That England would ever fight about such a trifle as Eussia WAE MUTTERINGS. 29 annexing the Danubian provinces of Turkey was a thing neither believed in by the Czar nor the British Government. But the temper of the English people had to be reckoned with. The English people may be thick- headed, but they are also extremely obstinate, and close on forty years ago John Bull made up his mind that he would stand no Eussian aggression, and that it was his bounden duty to protect the Turks. After Waterloo, the Millennium ; forty years, and there comes another big war ; forty years again, and those gallant Turks for whom it was waged are pronounced " unspeakable." And I fancy there are a good many big battles yet to be fought before we come to the final field of Armageddon. The English nation had taken the bit be- tween its teeth, and was " neither to hand nor to bind." It was bent upon fighting, and no Government could control it — kicked the Government of the day indeed out of the saddle in a very short time. Whether we 30 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. were ready for war, or indeed whether any nation in Europe was what would be termed ready for war in these days, is open to ques- tion. Before we knew where we were, we were committed to it, and had to make the best of it. That this should occasion much confusion at the Horse Guards, as it was then, and much ordering and counter-ordering of troops, was only natural. One thing which still further complicated affairs was the per- sistency with which the Government clung to the belief that the whole thing would end after all in " a demonstration," that the strengthen- ing of our garrisons in the Mediterranean and the landing of a small army at Gallipoli must convince the Czar that we were in earnest. It was not likely that the proud ruler of the hordes of Turkestan and the Steppes of Tartary would flinch from hfting the gauntlet we had thrown down, and of this our rulers were very shortly destined to be convinced. Now all this led, of course, to much shifting and changing of troops, the places of regiments • WAE MUTTERINaS. 31 that liad been promptly shipped off to the East had to be filled by others, brought from wherever the authorities could lay hands on them. Our military chiefs were painfully cognisant that they could do with many more regiments than we actually pos- sessed, and that the British Army was terribly small in comparison to all that was required of it. Eegiments got shuffied about in rather higgledy-piggledy fashion in those days. One thing safe to keep clearly in mind, that wherever a regiment might be sent it was as well it should be handy to a port of embarka- tion, for it was patent to anyone that if there was really going to be war every soldier that could be laid hands on in the United Kingdom would be required on the scene of action. The result of all these changes was that Her Majesty's — th found themselves, much to their disgust, in Manchester one fine day, having been sent there to relieve a regiment told off for the East. Miss Smerdon, who happened to be staying 32 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. with the Lyndens, picked up the news in the course of her morning walk. Nearly a year had elapsed since the great walking match, and Frances Smerdon had seen a good deal of the — th since then, but it so happened Miss Lynden had not. She had paid one short visit in the autumn, but the only one of the officers from Newport she had met during that time was Captain Byng. Frances laughed at the time, and said, " It's not my fault, Nell, I assure you we asked your hero to dinner, but he's away on leave somewhere, and I could not catch him." " Oh, you may laugh at my hero," rejoined the girl gravely, " but they will all have a chance of being heroes shortly." " Why, nobody thinks there is going to be a war, really," exdaimed Miss Smerdon. " Oh, yes, Frances, they do. My father does for one. He not only thinks there'll be war, but a big war too." " But even if there should be, the — th are not under orders for it, and I hope they won't WAE 31 LETTERINGS. 33 be. I don't want to think my friends, my partners, men whose hands have only lately pressed mine, are carrying their lives in their hands." " They'd not thank you for wishing them out of it," cried jMiss Lynden as her eyes sparkled. " Didn't you hear that spirited new song the other night, ' Boot and saddle, the pickets are in,' how the officer who sang it gave out the line, ' And we're not the lads to leave out of the dance.' I can understand a soldier would feel that ; however, your Xewport friends needn't fret. If war is really meant, as my father thinks, he says none of the soldiers need trouble themselves about their not going out, they will all find them- selves there before long." " Ah well, I can only hope Dr. Lynden's wrong," said Miss Smerdon, " and now give me some lunch, for I am nearly starving." VOL. I. CHAPTER III. Miss Smeedon had become a great favourite with the Doctor, and his daughter would often say jestingly that Frances could turn him round her finger. Indeed, NeUie sometimes affected to be jealous, and declared that she believed her friend would wind up by be- coming her mamma. This, however, was the merest badinage, still the young lady was undoubtedly a great favourite with the Doctor, and could coax him into -pvettj nearly what she pleased. On one point only was the Doctor inflexible ; he would not show her what she denominated " Blue Beard's cham- ber." She had asked to see it in the first instance in the idlest spirit of curiosity. It was a wet day. She felt dull, or something of that sort. The Doctor parried her request "BLUE BEARD'S CHAMBER." 35 in good-liumoured fashion. He read her a lecture on the sin of being inquisitive, but he did not show her his den. Tliis only stimu- lated the girl's desire to see the inside of the laborator3^ She returned to the charge again and again, and though Frances was always assured the Doctor could refuse her nothing, she discovered that he could, and most de- cidedly too. Frances Smerdon said nothing ; she did not even tell her friend, but she regis- tered a vow in her own breast that if she ever did get the opportunity, she would investigate the laboratory pretty thoroughly. She ques- tioned Nellie as to whether she had ever been inside it, and the girl's reply was only once, and then for a very few minutes. " I never was in any other laboratory, but I suppose they are all much alike. A sort of cooking- range, a small furnace, and all sorts of queer- shaped glass bottles." Miss Smerdon considered. She also had never seen a laboratory. " I recollect," she murmured, " hearing a 3^* BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. gentleman say, it was with regard to invita- tions, that he always went everywhere he was asked, once, on the same principle that you should see everything once, of course, there- fore it's my business to see a laboratory once if I can." However an opportunity to get inside the Doctor's den did not seem likely to present itself. -She had coaxed him, and pledged herself not to be frightened at any- thing she might see inside, even skeletons ; but it was no use : the Doctor was inflexible. She enquired of Nellie if anybody was ever admitted there. " A few pupils of chemistry who come to him from the outside and whom I never see, and also Phybbs the housemaid, but Phybbs' visits are rare, and are only made under my father's immediate superintendence." Prom that instant Phybbs became invested with considerable interest in the eyes of Miss Smerdon, as one versed in the Asian mysteries. She even condescended to con- verse with Phybbs on the subject, which was "BLUE BEARD'S CHAMBER." 37 quite contrary to Miss Smerdon's usual habits, as though considerate she was given to keeping a stiff upper hp with servants. It was odd that her curiosity should be so excited about such a trifle, but she was a rather spoilt young woman, accustomed to have her own way in everything, and more- over it is just about these very trifles we do become so painfully exercised. What she had gathered from Nellie and Phybbs ought to have satisfied her, but it did not. The doctor spent a great deal of his time in his laboratory, and Frances Smerdon joictured him as perpetually transmuting baser metals into gold, seeking for the philosopher's stone, or indulging in the darker mysteries of the Eosicrucians. Who were these pupils that Nellie spoke of? Disciples, of course, she ought to have called them ; for, gifted with a vivid imagination, Miss Smerdon was rapidly investing the doctor with supernatural powers, and believing him to be the head of a sect. She was a girl with a very S8 BEATEICE AND BEXEDICK. romantic kink in her brain, and had built all these visions in her own mind on the plain prosaic fact that her host was an elderly gentleman, who dabbled in chemistry, and did not want his retorts and crucibles meddled with. However, Miss Smerdon had not much time to indulf?e in further imaRinino^s. The embarkation of the troops caused a feeling through England that she did not perhaps make enough of her soldiers. If we were going to war — and practical people said we were virtually at war at that very time, although perhaps not a shot would be fired — still it behoved the nation to send forth her army handsomely. There might be bitter tears to shed, even over victories, should real fighting ever begin ; but at the present moment there was a deal of "Eule Britannia " about, " Britons never, never shall be slaves," and all that sort of thing. It was ris^ht that our voung^ heroes should be feasted before going into the lists — destined "BLUE BEARD'S CHAMBEE." 39 to be heroes in real earnest too, whether in life or death, many of them. But all this was in futurity. At present the banners waved, the bands played, the crowd cheered, the officers dined and danced, and war was apparently one of the most light-hearted of pastimes. There had been much talk of giving a great ball to the regiment which the — th had relieved, but soldiers get scant warning on these occasions, and unfor- tunately the proposed guests were packed off to the East a little before the date fixed for the entertainment. " What was to be done ? " said the committee. " We have excited society in Manchester, and society must be satisfied. Postpone the ball we may, to put it off altogether is impossible." Then arose in that committee a hard practical man, who opined that one regiment was as good as another — in his heart he considered they were all expensive encumbrances. As long as the Manchester ladies got their ball, they would be content. As long as their partners 40 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. have red coats, girls don't trouble their heads about who is inside of them. Ask the new regiment instead of the old, it will all come to the same thing. And so it came about that no sooner had they appeared in Manchester than the — til found themselves feted in all direc- tions. It was necessary, of course, to make the acquaintance of the new-comers before this ball, given in their honour, took place. The young ladies of the city were most posi- tive on this point, and the result was the humblest subaltern of the — th found himself committed to as many enga^'ements as in these days falls to the lot of an African explorer. "I tell you what, old man," exclaimed Byng, as he lounged in the ante-room one morning after parade, " it's well for you that you hadn't two or three weeks in Man- chester before you backed yourself for your big walk. They can't mean us for active service, or they would never have sent us to such a Capua as this. Last "BLUE BEAED'S CHAMBER/' 41 night's tlie fifth nioiit I've dined out this week. Do you ? "Well, if tui'tle, champagne, punch " " Are little comforts you will find the Government don't provide on active service," exclaimed Fleming laughing. " No," returned the other. " By-the-way, I took in to dinner a very nice-looking girl, who manifested an undue interest in your unworthy self — Miss Lynden." " Don't know her — never even heard of her," replied Hugh Fleming sententiously. . " Well, you needn't crow, young man. She never saw you but once, and what- ever you may think of your personal ap- pearance, you weren't looking your best then." " When was that ? " asked Hugh. " She saw you finish your match," replied Bjmg. " Didn't look much of it myself just then, but you — a shambling broken-down tramp was the only possible description of you." 42 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. " Don't be personal, man," rejoined Hugh. " I've a hazy recollection of passing a carriage with some ladies in it. I wonder how she knew mj^ name ? " " Oh, she was staying with the Smerdons. She often stays with them, and you were a local celebrity for a few days, remember. Miss Smerdon was there last night. Ever}^- one was raving about this ball. I tell you what, my children," continued Byng, address- ing the little knot of officers in the ante-room, " soldiers are up, they've touched about the top price they've ever been at since I've been in the service. Manchester is popularly supposed to abound in heiresses — obvious deduction. Take advantage of your oppor- tunities, and bless you, etc." And here Byng extended his hands after the manner of the conventional stao-e father. The evening^ of the ball arrived. It reallv had aroused great enthusiasm. Eomantic young ladies declared it put them in mind of the Duchess of Eichmond's famous ball at "ELUE BEAED'S CHA3IBER." 43 Brussels tlie nigiit before Waterloo, looked up " Childe Harold," and quoted : " There was mounting in hot haste." But these were tlie exception. Generally tlie younger portion of the community looked forward to a capital dance, and the elder to a capital supper. Miss Smerdon and Nellie were of course there under the charge of Mrs. Montague, and Miss Smerdon was most thoroughly mistress of the situation. Xot only had Mrs. Montague a large acquaint- ance, but Frances was^ well known and popular wdth the officers of the — th. The two girls were speedily in great request, and it was not lonc^ before Miss Smerdon brouo-ht up Hugh Fleming to be introduced to her friend. "Capital ball, Miss Lynden," said Fleming, as he led her away to join the dancers, " but Manchester strikes me as having gone mad. The whole thing seems so utterly unreal. I can't help feeling that Fm the shallowest of impostors." 44 EEATRICE AND BENEDICK. " I don't understand you," said tlie girl. "What I mean is this," said Fleming, " Manchester is feting us, dining us, giving us this ball, all just as if we'd done something. Not only we haven't, not only we never may, but we may never even have the chance. I always feel that I'm dining out under false pretences." " Yery proper of you to say so, but you're wrong all the same. I'll admit that in a vulgar sense, you are discounting your laurels before you've won them, but you will have your opportunity before long, and English women have no doubt about English soldiers winning the bays when the chance comes." " Yery prettily put. Miss Lynden, but you may do any amount of hard fighting without distinguishing yourself." " You're a little selfish, Mr. Fleming," said the young lady smiling. " As the individual, yes ; as a regiment, no ; and you soldiers are very proud of the corps to which you belong, are you not ? " " BLUE BEARD'S CHAMBER." 45 " Yes, there are two things a man seldom loses his sympathy for, his old school, and his old regiment. While he's in it, it's the one reoiment." " Yes, I've seen enough of you military men to know that." " One of our weaknesses," laughed Fleming, as he put his arm round her waist and whirled her off to the inspiriting strains of " The Sturm Marsch." Kell Lynden was looking extremely well that evening. If not a pretty girl, she was at all events a decidedly attractive one, as with dark chestnut hair, bright hazel eyes, good teeth, and a neat figure, she could not well lielp being. She was not accomplished, but there were some two or three things that XeU could do to perfection. Her w^altzing was the poetry of motion. She had not much voice, but to hear her warble an old English ballad, in those low contralto tones of hers, would stir most men's pulses. She was a very self- 46 BEATEICE AXD BENEDICK. reliant girl, partly by nature, but still more so by her bringing up. Slie had never met with ill-treatment or unkindness, but for all that she had always regarded herself as a friendless httle Arab, with only herself to depend upon. Indeed Frances Smerdon was the only intimate friend of her own sex she had ever made ; and there was one side of Frances' character which she was incapable of understanding, and that was the imagina- tive side of her disposition. People of this very sanguine temperament can never control themselves, nor even in old age utterly abandon the habit. They build their castles in the air on the largest scale and upon the slenderest foundations, and constantly as these Chateaux d'Espagne come tumbling about their ears they are neither discouraged nor disconcerted. " Well, Miss Lynden," said Fleming, as, their valse finished, he took his charge back to her chaperone, " I hope your prophecy may prove true — that we shall have the «« BLUE BEARD'S CHAMBER." 47 opportunity of winning our laurels before the year's out, and also that individually I shall be quick enough to snatch at mine when the chance comes." "You've got one grand quality for a soldier, Mr. Fleming," repHed the girl, laugh- ing — " dogged pertinacity. You would never have won that walking match if you hadn't. It would be hard to convince you that you were beaten, about anything." " I don't like giving in," replied Hugh. " Neither do I," returned the girl. " We are both what our friends, Mr. Fleming, call obstinate." That the war should be the ruhng topic of conversation was inevitable. A considerable part of the Enghsh people still found it difficult to believe that we really were at war — destined to remain in that belief too, for some months to come. The men of that time knew from their fathers how England had rung with the news of victories, when the century was young, and fully expected news 48 BEATKICE AND EENEDICK. of a great battle before six weeks were over. But things are not done quite so quicklj^ as all that. Where to bring off a fight, used to be a knotty problem in the latter days of the prize-ring, and this was just the point which at the present moment puzzled our rulers. Eussia vaguely told us to come on, but had inconsiderately forgotten to name where the combat was to take place. Miss Smerdon, as we know, had no belief that there would ever be actual hostilities, and she was rather chaffing Byng on obtaining hospitality under false pretences, indeed it really was a joke in the regiment at their being feted, mainly because their prede- cessors had been sent campaigning. "Ah, you can chaff us. Miss Smerdon," said Byng, " but we really have a good deal the best of the joke; you see we've got the cakes and ale, and may never gather the laurels." "There, never mind the war," replied Frances, " let's talk about something^ else. "ELUE BEARDS CHA^VIBER." 49 You know Miss Lynden, you've met lier at our house." "Certainly," rejoined Byng ; "not a girl one is at all likely to forget." " Have you ever met Doctor Lynden ? " " Only once, and that was at a small bachelor dinner, and how I was included in that to the present moment I can't imagine. They were a scientific lot, and how they came to think that a Captain of Infantry was a savant, I can't conceive." " Now tell me all about it, Captain Byng. This interests me." " More than it did me," rejoined the soldier. " They talked a good deal about things a little over my head. Nothing for it but the old magpie dodge, you know. I didn't talk much, but I thought the more. I know I got through no end of claret." " Xonsense, Captain Byng, you must know what they talked about, and I particularly want to know." VOL. I. 4 50 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. " Well, cliemical discoveries, new beliefs, and all sorts of things you never hear at a mess-table. Blest if I don't think everyone of the party had a religion of his own " " Except yourself," said Miss Smerdon, sweetly, " but you surely can recollect some of the talk if joii try. Captain Byng." "Indeed, I can't, my sole recollection of that evening was, that it was dull, that the claret was good, and that I was there by mistake." "It's very provoking. You know I am staying here with the Lyndens. The Doctor is a charming old man, but I'm dreadfully curious about him." " Clever old fellow," replied Byng, " they're all too clever for me, but I'm bound to say I don't think Dr. Lynden would have gone on propounding his rigmarole theories if the others had left him alone." "I only wish I had had half your oppor- tunity," rejoined Miss Smerdon. "Now take me back to Mrs. Montague, please, for it's " BLUE BEARD'S CHAMBER." 51 getting late, and I daresay she's wanting to go home/' Byng did as he was bid, and as he wished his fair partner '' good night," marvelled much in what way he had missed his oppor- tunity. It was impossible for him to know the theory that Miss Smerdon's vivid imagina- tion had conceived concerning her host, and that she regarded Captain Byng as having been present at a secret conclave of adepts in mysticism. LIBRARY UWIVERSITV OF lUlNOlS CHAPTER lY. CONSTABLE TARE ANT. " You see, PoUie, I'm a man of intellect, that's what I am. I may be only an ordinary police-constable now, but my chance will come, and then you'll see a lot about this 'active and intelligent officer,' and all the other clap-trap." " Of course you are, Dick, everybody knows you are a^-fuUy clever," and Miss Phybbs looked admiringly at the sandy-haired young man in a policeman's uniform with whom she was walking. Constable Tarrant looked at her suspi- ciously for a moment. He was quite aware his talents were not so universally admitted as Polly suggested. But he was a young man with a very excellent opinion of himself, and though, during the two years he had been in CONSTABLE TARRANT. 63 the force, nothing had taken place to afford any grounds for the behef, he was certainly firmly impressed with the idea that he was destined to achieve greatness in the career upon which he had embarked. Polly Pnybbs was a thin-lipped, black beady-eyed young woman, a trustworthy capable servant and with no weakness about her excepting her love for this cousin of hers, Eichard Tarrant. Whatever he said was law to her. She was four or five years his senior, and he had made love to her from the time he was fifteen, not very disinterested love either, for from the very commencement he had utilised her in every possible way. He invested her with the general supervision of his wardrobe, let her wait upon him, and work for him, and spent a considerable portion of her wages for her to boot. A sharp, hard-working girl, she was never long out of a good situation, and might by this have saved money if it had not been for her infatuation for her cousin ; shrewd though she was on all other matters, 51 BEATEICE AXD BENEDICK. on this point she was bhnd. Though a smart- looking girl ^Yith a rather neat figure, nobody could call her good-looking. It might be that she attracted no other sweetheart, but certain it is that she had been for the last seven or eight years completely devoted to Eichard Tarrant. When after having failed twice or thrice in his attempts to get a hving, Dick succeeded in getting into the pohce force, she quite believed that it was due to the display of considerable talent on his j)art, and felt quite sure that he would sooner or later distinguish himself. She was not pledged to be married to him, but he was her young man, and she quite understood that they would be married some of these days — some of these days being interpreted into such time as she should have saved money enough to start housekeeping on. "Now," said Dick, "you see in my profes- sion " — Police Constable Tarrant was given to speaking grandiloquently of his calling — " a fellow's only got to keep his eyes open, CONSTABLE TAREANT. 55 and liis turn must come. Xow you know, Polly, I always was a reo'ular wonner for observing." Polly dutifully assented, altliougii she could call to mind no particular recollections of tliis faculty in lier cousin. " I notice everything. If I see a chap loitering, I says to myself at once : ' Xow, what's he loitering for ? ' He don't gammon me that he's tired and his boots hurt him. ' On yoa go, my man,' says I. Bless you, he might be keeping watch while two or three of his pals commit a burglary. Xo, no, my girl , my eye is everywhere, and when your eye's everywhere you're bound — well, you're bound to see something at last," concluded ]Mr. Tarrant, rather feebly. It did not occur to Polly that in a big city like Manchester those gimlet eyes of Con- stable Tarrant's ought, in the course of two years, to have detected crime of some nature. Dick had never told her of any such success, neither had he told her of a pretty sharp 16 BEATRICE AND EENEDICK. reprimand he had received from his superiors when a gentleman's watch was snatched ahnost under his very nose, without attract- ing his observation. " Xow," resumed Tarrant, " this master of yours is a queer sort of a man. What can he want with a side door to his house ? You see all these villa residences are built exactly alike, except your house. Xow, who is Dr. Lynden that he should have a side door all to hisself ? That's what I want to know." "Lor', Dick, my master's as quiet an old gentleman as you'd meet anywhere ; there's no harm in him." " That's 3^our unsuspecting nature," replied the constable, loftily. " The law is sus- picious ; the police, which is an arm of the law, is suspicious too — me, I'm suspicious — it's my duty." " I tell you what, it's all nonsense your being suspicious of master ; and as for Miss Lynden, she is as sweet a young lady as ever I saw " CONSTABLE TARRAXT. 57 r " Don't rile me, Polly ; you'll make me suspicious of you next. I tell you, some- times when I've been hanging about here after you, I've seen two or three suspicious characters go in at that side door." " What do you call suspicious characters, Dick?" " They were men," replied Constable Tar- rant, glaring at his companion in a most Othello-like manner. " Some of master's chemical friends most likely," suggested Miss Phybbs. '• Friends ! Lovers — lovers of yours ! " ex- claimed Tarrant, with a burst of well-acted jealousy. " Now, don't be foolish, Dick ; you know I care for nobody but you. Men do come in at times by that door to see master. It was built on purpose ; they are friends interested in his experiments, and go straight to the chemical room without going through the house." " PoUy," said Tarrant, endeavouring to call 53 BEATEICE AND BEN'EDICK. up a look of preternatural sagacity, "your master's conduct is suspicious. It's your duty to the public to keep your eye on him. It's your duty to me to keep your eye on him." "I assure you you're all wrong. My master's a quiet, harmless old gentleman, who shuts himself in with his pots and pans, and blows himself up occasionally. I go in now and then, when he's there, but bless you, there's nothing? to see in the room." " It's not likely a woman would see any- thing in it. It would look very different, no doubt, to a police officer." " But what is it you suspect the doctor of doing ? " " That's it," rephed Constable Tarrant. " I suspect him ; it doesn't signify what of, at present. Keep your eye on him, Polly." Polly laughed as she replied : "Of course I will, if you tell me to, and now I must run away. Kiss me, Dick, before I go, and don't be long before you come and see me again." CONSTABLE TARE ANT. 59 And tlieir embrace over, Miss Phybbs sped home, conscious that she had considerably exceeded the time for which she had been granted leave of absence. " I don't know what he's up to. I don't know what his little game is, but the circum- stances are suspicious," said Mr. Tarrant, as he walked quickly back to his own dwelling. " Let's reckon it all up," he continued, stop- ping and placing the forefinger of his right hand solemnly on the palm of his left. " First, you've a doctor with no visible means of earning his living, verdict on that, rum, and I only wish I knew how he did it. Secondly, he has a private room, into which nobody is ever allowed to go, rummer. Lastly, he's a private stair, and a private door, what's he want with a private door ? rummest. Men go in by day, what goes in by night ? " There was a pause of some seconds, and then Mr. Tarrant suddenly laid the forefinger of his right hand against the side of his nose, winked 60 BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. at an imaginary audience, and ejaculated " Bodies ! " y^ ^ "^ ^ y^ Doctor Lynden meanwhile continues the harmless tenor of his -way, dining out oc- casionally, and for the most part with the savants of Manchester, among whom he is now generally well-known. He spends a good deal of time in his laboratory, in ex- periments, presumably, the result of which has not yet been published to the outside world. That Miss Smerdon has a strong girlish curiosity to see the inside of his den he knows, but he little thinks what that ima- ginative young lady pictures his real life. kStill further would he have been astonished to hear that a rather thick-headed young policeman was also taking a lively interest in his proceedings. At the former he would probably have onh^ laughed ; but had he been cognisant of the latter, he would doubt- less have been seriously annoyed. Nobody cares to be under the observation of the CONSTABLE TAKRANT. 61 police — the guilty naturally dislike it ; the innocent fiercely resent it ; but to find one- self under the self-imposed surveillance of a young police constable would exasperate most men. Fortunately for his peace of mind, Doctor Lynden is in blissful ignorance of there even being such a person as Police Constable Tarrant, at present. But the summer shps away. Miss Smerdon has long ago gone back to her home. The army has moved from Gallipoli to Yarna, but still those bulletins of " Glorious victory," for which the British public yearn, are not forth- coming. The cavalry has lost a good many men and horses from an expedition into the unhealthy Dobrutschka, but of actual cross- ing of swords and exchanging shots there has been none ; still rumour has it that both French and English fleets, with innumerable transports, have all been collected at Varna, that such a flotilla has not been seen since the days of the Armada ; and, indeed, tliat probably would have seemed a very small 62 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. afiair compared to tliat assembled in tlie Black Sea under tlie flags of tlie allies. Eussia lias long ago yielded the naval supremacy, and is destined ere long to make grim reparation to tlie Turks for Sinope, by voluntarily sinking her own fleet in tlie moutli of Sebastopol Harbour. That an expedition of some sort has been decided upon, that the combined forces of French and English are about to embark and the war to commence in bitter earnest, is now well-known, though the exact destination of the ex- pedition is kept as secret as possible. But let it land where it will, it will be upon Eussian soil, and that a pitched battle will speedily follow, is confidently predicted. This time the Quid Xuncs are right, another week or two, and all England will ring with the victory of the Alma. A little longer, and men will look grimly and women weep over those terrible lists of killed and wounded which inevitably follow all glorious victories. Men think sadly of many a good fellow who CONSTABLE TAREAXT. (53 they will never clasp hands with more, and maidens think sadly of friends who had been rather more than friends to them but a few months back ; and who they had dreamed might in the future be something dearer still. But those who conduct wars have no time for sentiment ; the ravening monster requires perpetual fresh food for his insatiable maw, and the sole thouoiit of the authorities is how the losses are to be made good — how to fill the places of those who have fallen ; and it is already evident to all military men that to find the necessary reinforcements will tax our small army to the utmost. Men who are fretting their hearts out because they have been so far " left out of the dance " grow jubilant. They feel that it cannot be long now before they are called upon to bear their part. Then comes the false report of the fall of Sebastopol, and these restless spirits are filled with alarm lest the whole thing should be over without their having anything to do with it. But that canard is soon exploded, 64 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. and when the real state of thmgs becomes known, England generally awakes to the fact that this is no military promenade, but that if she is seeking a big war, she has got it. A few weeks more, and home comes the story of Inkermann, and when the bulletins of that glorious, but grisly battle are read — accounts of such fierce hand-to-hand fighting as re- called the storming of Badajos, and other such scenes in the Peninsular war — sensible men could no longer doubt we were com- mitted to the biggest struggle we had been engaged in since the Titan was caged at St. Helena. The country has woke up in earne.*5t now, and not only is every available soldier in the United Kingdom hurried to the front, but from all parts of the Empire, England's sons are summoned to her aid. It is needless to say that the th had received marching orders, they were to go to Malta in the first instance, thence to be pushed on to the Crimea in the early spring. Hard-worked and hard-pressed though the CONSTABLE TARRAXT. 65 army at the front was, yet the authorities found they were hard put to it to feed it, dreadfully depleted though its ranks were. Some months had elapsed since that great ball which inaugurated their arrival in Manchester had been given to her Majesty's th, and in that time the officers had naturally become intimate with the people of the place. Miss Lynden for instance had become well-known to several of them, but the most persistent visitor at the doctor's house was Hugh Fleming. He made no disguise to himself that he was falling deeply in love. He knew, and if he didn't, it would have been for no want of telling that what his chum, Tom Byng, was continually dinning in his ears was true, that there was no higher pinnacle of folly than the committal of matrimony by a subaltern in the army, that as matters stood at present, all love-making ought to be punished by court-martial ; that for a man just going out to fight for his Queen and country, for pay and plunder, VOL. I. 5 66 BEATRICE Al<;i) BENEDICK. for glory and promotion, to be whispering love-speeches was criminal with no extenu- ating circumstance, and deserved to be met by placing a bandage round the culprit's eyes and interviewing him with a few file of loaded muskets, at the back of the barrack square. " Why do I tell you all this, young un ? Why do I keep pitching into you, d — n it ? because you want it ! You're getting spoons, disgusting spoons, awful spoons, on Miss Lynden ; that's a nice thing to do, as things are at present, for a young man who is legally supposed to have come to years of discretion." " Shut up, Tom ; we're old friends, and I don't want to quarrel, but I won't hear an^^- thing against Miss Lynden." " Who wants to say anything against Miss Lynden? She is just the nicest girl I know, and that's the only excuse for your selfishness and folly. I suppose you think you're behaving well to the girl you profess to love, by bringing her heart into her mouth every CONSTABLE TARRANT. 67 time slie hears tlie news-man yelling out, ' Glorious victory,' to make lier lieart jump and her colour come and ao whenever she hears the Crimean mail is in, and finally, to make her cry her eyes out because your worthless carcase has been riddled by Eussian bullets." "Well, Tom," rejoined Fleming, laughing, " it's to be devoutly hoped that you are not gifted with second-sight, because the view you are taking of my immediate future is, to put it mildly, unpleasant. Why am I more likely to be shot than you, I should like to know ? You're much more likely to run your thick head into danger than I am." " A palpable miserable evasion of the question," returned Byng. " You're getting desperately spoony on Miss Lynden, and worse still, you are letting her know it. It's not right ; bottle your feelings up, repress your emotions as I do ; do you suppose you're the only fellow who's " and here the speaker stopped abruptly, conscious of having in his zeal said more than he meant. 5* 68 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. "No other fellow what?" ejaculated Flem- ing in considerable surprise. " Never mind, nothing, remember what I have said, drop making love to Miss Lynden," and with these words, Byng somewhat hastily left his friend's room. I daresay Byng's advice was theoretically good, but human nature is wont to play the very deuce with theories. There is nothing like a big war to precipitate matters of this kind, and it is just when the love words ought not to be spoken that our feelings get beyond our control, and those love words slip out which are never forgotten. Ah, well, I doubt if those from whose eyes the tears are destined to flow, those who are doomed to mourn their dead, would have had it other- wise. There is something sweet in those sorrowful memories : *' For the mark of rank in nature Is capacity for pain, And the anguish of the singer Makes the sweetness of the strain." CHAPTEE V. :miss smekdon grows saecastic. " They have come at last, as you always said tliey would," exclaimed Hugh Fleming, as he entered the Lyndens' drawing-room one gloomy day about the middle of November, " our orders for the East." '• Yes, I thought so," replied the young lady, as she shook hands, but in by no means the exultant tones with which people usually greet the fulfilment of theu' prophecies. "Who of us have not suffered from that ever recurring, usually detestable, " I told you so." How is it that our accession to the rewards of this life are never announced beforehand, while its evils and misfortunes are so industriously foretold to us ? Hugh Fleming should have been in high spirits at having attained his heart's desire, 70 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. but someliow he was not. He had come to pay a farewell visit — he had had a good many to pay, and had put saying good-bye to the Lyndens off to the last. Good-bye, when it is for an indefinite period, is often a painful thing to say, even though it is mercifully veiled from us that it is good-bye for ever. Still no such thought oppressed Hugh's mind on this occasion. He was off to the Crimea, of course, everyone who wore a sword was bound to go there now, he would come back again in due time, a captain, perhaps a major, who knows ? But he was quite conscious that saying farewell to Nellie Lynden was the hardest task that had ever fallen to his lot yet. He knew that he loved her dearly, he knew that he ought not to tell her so, and yet he was guiltily conscious that, if not in words, he had been telling her so for some weeks past, as if a genuine love story is not told long before it is put into matter-of- fact words. " I love you," requires no speech to proclaim it, and put what guard we may MISS SMERDON GROWS SARCASTIC. 71 upon our tongues, no woman needs their assistance to learn it. After the first con- ventional speeches, a silence fell upon those two. It was not that, as a rule, they had not plenty to say to each other, but of late they had found the keeping up the ordinary stream of talk wearisome. Both were con- scious that there was a barrier which had not been broken ; but what they had both known it must end in, had come at last. The word " good-bye " had to be spoken ; the initiative was with Hugh, and he was sore puzzled how to begin. I once heard a well-known soldier who had won for himself countless decorations, asked in a club smoking-room what was the nastiest bit of work he had ever had. He paused a little before he answered, and it was easy to see that he was recaUing the scene to his mind's eye. " Breaking to a lady," he replied at last, " that her husband had been killed at the head of the stormers that morn- ing." Bidding good-bye to the woman he 72 EEATRICE AND BENEDICK. loves is tlie hardest thing for a soldier when ordered on active service. " I suppose they have given you very short notice, to finish with," said Miss Lynden, woman-like, the first to relieve the awkward- ness of the situation. " Yes," rejoined Hugh ; " we are all sup- posed to be ready to go now at a moment's notice. We embark at Liverpool the day after to-morrow. Of course, we're glad to go ; but we're sorry to say good-bye to so many who've — who've been kind to us." " We shall miss you all very much. I hear we're to be left quite forlorn for the present, as you are not to be replaced. Is that so ? " Hugh felt the situation was intolerable. " I don't know, and I don't care," he replied passionately. " I know I oughtn't to say it, Nell — you will let me call you Nell for the last time — won't you ? " Her lips moved slightly, but she made no reply. MISS SMERDON GROWS SARCASTIC. 73 " I ought not to say it. Nell, I know," he continued, " but I cannot go out there without telling jou I love you. I am not going to ask you to promise yourself to me, I will only ask you to think of me, and to think kindly of me. Eemember, when you read any account of our doings out there — remember, there is one amongst us who can never forget you, and if ever I do anything that brings me into notice, promise to send me just one line of congratulation." It has been before mentioned that Nell Lynden was a quiet, possessed, self-reliant young woman, but it is just these self-reliant heroines who disappoint one so cruelly at the crucial moment. If she was self-reliant she was also a warm-hearted girl, and (I apologise for her) all she did at this critical moment was to burst into a flood of tears and gasp out—" Oh, Hugh ! " For a moment Hugh Flen-^ing was dis- mayed — tears usually do discompose a ''man — and deeply repented him of his rash avowal. 74 BEATEICE AND BEXEDICIv. but when lie saw Nellie smile through her tears it gave him the courage to become practical, and passing his arm round her waist he did what was obviously his duty under the circumstances — kissed them away. " It was very foolish of me I know, Hugh," said the girl at last, '• I know you must go, but it seems bitter to part from you just now ; no doubt there are scores of women in my place, still, remember what those terrible lists are to us. Ah, it was bad enough to read them after the Alma and Inkermann, but when you are out there, my own, the very rumours of fighting will make my heart turn sick." " Nell, Nell, this will never do, remember my darling you are a soldier's sweetheart now." " I know," she replied, smiling, " and I am not going to be foolish am^ longer. But Hugh, I've hardly had time yet to get used to the position. You will let me come to Liverpool and see you off, won't you ? " MISS SXERDOX GROWS SARCASTIC. 75 " No, I think not ; you see there is no time to announce our eno-ao^ement now, and I can't bear to think of you in the turmoil there's sure to be, all by yourself." " I don't care who knows of our engage- ment," exclaimed the girl, proudly. " Xo, Xell," repUed Fleming, " but that's just where it is, they will see you down at the docks and won't know of it." " Nor do I care about that, but I do care very much about seeing the last of you." " I can't help it," replied Hugh, " you must be guided by me in this matter. No, Nell, my dear, we will say our good-byes here. There is one thing, you know, we can write to each other by every mail." " Ah, yes, and mind you do so. I may keep you to myself the whole afternoon now, may I not ? " " "Willingly," rejoined Fleming. " I am your prisoner for the rest of the day if you choose. I suppose I had better tell your father ? " 76 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. " That shall be as you think best. If you don't, I must ; but Hugh, what will your own people say about it ? " " Well, you see," he replied, " I've kept pretty straight and never given them any trouble since I joined, then, further than saying that I ought to wait till I have got higher in my profession, what can they do, except congratulate me ? Besides if, instead of the sweetest crirl in En^^land, I was about to introduce a Gorgon to the family they couldn't say anything to me just now ; why the most peccant amongst us are voted white as snow nowadays ; the most un- compromising fathers have granted plenary absolution." '' It will be a sore trouble to me if your people are very much opposed to our engage- ment," said the girl, thoughtfully. "But you will stick to me, NeU, won't you ? " he asked anxiously. " Yes," she replied. " I'm yours for ever ; let it be as long as it may before you come MISS SMERDON GROWS SARCASTIC. 77 to claim me ; but I own I am nervous about what your people will tliink of it." Hugh now set himself earnestly to dissipate any misgivings Miss Lynden might have upon that score. It is unnecessary to follow the conversation of the lovers further ; suffice it to say that Hugh Fleming was absent from the temporary mess which the — th had established at the " Queen's Hotel," nor did any of his brother officers set eyes on him that night. The next day was their last in Manchester, and what time they could snatch from duty was filled by saying once more those " last good-byes," which people always feel impelled to speak when leaving their native country. Hugh, therefore, saw little of his brother officers all that day, and embarked next day hugging his secret closely to his own breast. But there never was a man in love who did not crave to impart his madness to somebody, and few amono-st us have not some friend who, though to some extent the confidant 78 BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. of our hopes and aspirations, is still oftener a recipient of our follies and vexations. It was so with Hugh, and by the time they had " rolled through the gut of Gibraltar," Tom Byng was fully acquainted with the story of his subaltern's love. " Well, you've done it now,'"' he remarked ; " and all I have got to do is to offer you my hearty congratulations. Please to forget all I ever said to you on the subject ; what one says to a man before he does a thing is totally inapplicable after he has done it. If this wind lasts, we shall be at Malta in no time. I wonder where they wiU put us up." " From what those fellows told us at Gib., they must be pretty full there." " Full ! " exclaimed Byng. " Packed like sardines in a box, I am told ; and tents in the open will most likely be our lot. Never mind ; it's all on the way to the Crimea, and as for tents ! why there's nothing like getting used to them while we have leisure." Malta, indeed, was as full just then as it MISS SMEKDOX GEOWS SAKCASTIC. 79 could liold. Its hotels were thronged with people curious to hear the latest rumours from the seat of war — women anxious about sons and husbands. Sick and wounded officers invalided down from the front told direful tales of the difficulties of getting up provisions to the plateau still grimly held b}^ the Allies. Both sides seemed to have stopped for breath after the furious struggle of Inkermann, and it was now rather an open question as to which were besiegers and which were besieged — whether we were investing Sebastopol, or whether the Eussians had not invested the entrenched camp of the Allies. At Malta, of course, supphes were plentiful, and it really seemed almost a mockery that men were living well on that sun-baked rock, while their brethren but a little way off were near starving on the storm-swept plateau of the Chersonese. That half-dozen miles of almost trackless mire between Balaklava and the front quite ex- plained why it was so. Dum vlvinmsvivamus, 80 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. and Malta was never gayer than it was that whiter. Even those most anxious to join their comrades already in front of Sebastopol were fain to confess that there was nothing doing up there at present. As far as the English were concerned, it was the same weary monotonous trench work, only relieved by an occasional sortie. With our Allies it was different. Stronger handed than our- selves, the French persistently continued to sap up to the Bastion de Mat — a proceeding to which the eneni}^ offered fierce and jealous opposition. Still everyone knew that nothing of any consequence could be attempted till the Spring. Whenever British regiments are gathered together, they are sure to develope three of our national particularities, they are certain to start cricket, racing, and theatricals. If it was the wrong time of year for cricket and racing, private theatricals were just the thing, and no less than two companies were organised that winter. Hugh Fleming greatly MISS SMERDON GROWS SARCASTIC. 81 distinguished himself in one of these, and his Crepin, in The Wonderful Woman, was pro- nounced to have soared quite above the range of the ordinary amateur. But though Hugh's face flushed with pleasure at seeing himself favourably noticed in print, yet there was mingled with it a half - contempt that he should be eno^ao-ed in such frivolities. This was not what he came out to do. Such pinchbeck laurels were not the things he had promised himself to lay at Nell Lynden's feet. He had yet to learn that the more you can combine relaxation with the serious business of fighting, the better for everyone ; take 3'our men out of themselves, let their trade be what it will, if you want to get the maxi- mum of work out of them. And the successful representative of Acres will most likely be well to the front in a hand-to-hand melee not forty-eight hours afterwards. Those were halcyon days for Hugh ; nearly everv mail brousfht him letters from Xellie, in which passionate love was mingled with VOL. I. 6 82 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. all the chit-cliat about those he knew in Manchester. " I hear constantl}^," she said in one of her letters, " from Frances Smerdon. What have you, or at all events some of you, done to her ? She is so bitter against you all. I heard from her only the other day, and she made me quite angry. 'As for the poor — th,' she said, ' we need not fret about them, there is always a cessation of hostilities when they appear upon the scene. Papa says that he thinks nothing more will take place, and that a peace will be patched up in the Spring. No, we needn't be anxious about the — th ; they are very nice fellows, but they are not a fighting regiment, my dear.' " !N'ow if this had angered Xellie Lynden, it had stung Hugh Fleming to the quick. It was a gibe about which all the men of the corps were very sensitive. They were as smart a regiment as there was in the service, and one of the seniors of the Army List, but there remained the bitter fact that they had MISS SMERDOX GROWS SARCASTIC. 83 hardly the name of a battle emblazoned on then' colours. It was luck ; while some regiments seemed always in the way when hard fighting was going on, others, from no fault of their own, seemed never to hand on such occasion ; the same with individuals, though having once gained distinction, a man can to some extent force himself forward ; yet many a young soldier has panted for the opportunity never vouchsafed him. The objurgation that escaped from Hugh's lips as he read this was anything but complimentary to Miss Smerdon. Although they had made jests in Manchester, of the premature way in which they had been feted, yet there had always been a tinge of soreness at the bottom of their hearts, arising from this very subject, and had anybody thought of connecting the two, and chaffing them about it, he would have aroused the wrath of the corps with a vengeance. Hugh pondered for a little as to what could have drawn forth Miss Smerdon's sarcasm. Her father had been very hos- 6* 84 EEATEICE AND BENEDICK. pitable to tlie regiment during tlieir stay at Newport, and slie lierself had been popular with all of them. What could have made her turn round and taunt her old friends in this fashion ? However, Spring at last made its appear- ance, and despite Mr Smerdon's prophecy brought with it neither dove nor olive-branch, but an order for Her Majesty's — tli to pro- ceed, amongst the very first reinforcements, to the front. The sun shone brightly as they steamed out of Yaletta Harbour. And all signs of that dreary winter seemed to have vanished. As Tom Byng said, "By Jove, how those fellows before Sebastopol must revel in this ! How they must kick up their heels after all they have gone through." Across the bright dancing waters of the Mediterranean the good ship rapidly makes her way ; up the Sea of Marmora, through the Dardanelles, looking perfectly lovely in all the glory of the early spring ; has a good passage up the usually stormy Euxine, and as 3IISS SMERDOX GROAVS SARCASTIC. 83 tliey near Balaclava a dull monotonous boom breaks upon their ears and informs them that the belligerents have woke from their winter torpor, and though as yet somewhat leisurely, are recommencing hostilities. " Ah, Miss Smerdon will have to take back her speech, I fancy, before long," said Byng, as they threaded their way into the crowded and land-locked harbour (Hugh had read him that extract from Xellie's letter). "I wonder whether she'd feel it should she chance to see that we've been in a big fight, and that some of us had gone under in attempting to blazon the colour." " Ah, she's been rather severe lately on our want of laurels." "Yes, a girl who speaks of us as she does is not likely to cry much for us," said Byng sulkily. Hugh eyed his chum queerly for a moment, and then, as he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, rejoined : " Don't think you quite understand women 86 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. — there was a lady called Beatrice and a man called Benedick." " Xever — excejDt in Shakespeare," said Byng. Hugh Fleming shrugged his shoulders and walked away without reply. CHAPTEE YI. THE TAKING OF THE QUARRIES. " HuLLOA, young un," exclaimed Tom Byng, as he thrust his head into the door of Fleming's tent, " if it was some time before we got introduced to the trenches, I'll be bound to say the big wigs are doing their best to make us quite at home in them now." " "Why, you don't mean to say we find them acrain to-nicrht ? " " Indeed we do, my boy, and if you've got nothing ready to eat you'd better come and feed with me at once. I don't know yet what's in the wind, but the Brigade Major, who is an old pal of mine, told me we were hkely to have a very lively night of it." " All right, I'm your man, Tom ; I shall be 88 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. ready in two minutes, and tlien I'll come with you." " Yes, it's sliarp practice," said Tom Byng as tliey sat down to dinner. " I only came out of tlie trendies myself tliis morning, but it's all fair enouoii. These regiments that bore the brunt of the winter are reduced almost to shadows. I met a fellow the other day whose regiment is in the left attack ; he told me that they hadn't two hundred men fit for duty ; so of course the turn comes heavy upon strong regiments like ourselves. That's the sherry, help yourself and pass it on. By the way, did I tell you my adventure on the Woronzoff Eoad this morning ? " " No, what was that ? " enquired Fleming. " Well, I don't know whether you've ever been down there. The left attack fellows generally take care of it. However, for some inscrutable reason we were told off for it last nicfht. The trench crosses the road, and we had an advanced picket of a subaltern and thirty men, covered by a chevaiuv cle frise. THE TAKING OF THE QUARRIES. 89 some eighty yards or so in advance, lln afraid it was a bit my fault, but I was new to the post, and a trifle anxious. You see, when you're told to withdraw at daybreak, it becomes rather a nice point. " I was warned that the Eussian rifle pits commanded my trench, and would make themselves deuced unpleasant as soon as they could see. In my anxiety not to quit my post too soon I stayed a little too late. As I withdrew my advanced picket, two or three fellows had a snap at us, but no sooner did I fall in my men and leaving the main trench proceed to march them up the road, than the rifle pits at the top here in front of the right attack, commenced squibbing. To retreat leisurely may be dignified, but it's not whist. I wasn't going to lose men if I could help it, so I gave the word to double. You know that tall Irishman, ^Mickey Flinn ? — he was doubhng alongside me when he suddenly exclaimed, 'I'm shot. Captain Byng — I'm shot.' 90 BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. " ' Come along, my good fellow, come along,' I cried, as I turned round to look at him. He was doubling as steady as any man in the company, and gave no sign of being wounded. " ' I'm shot, sorr,' he reiterated, and with- out slackening his gait. " ' Where, my good fellow ? ' I inquired, as we still doubled side by side. ' Where, my good fellow ? — where ? Come on ! ' I once more cried. " ' Eight through the body, sorr,' he rejoined, without in the least relaxing his pace. " ' Come on ! " I cried ; ' come on ! ' And how the deuce a man shot through the body succeeded in keeping up the steady double Flinn did astonished me greatly. " ' Yes, sorr,' he exclaimed, continuously, ' I'm shot ; shot clean through.' " Well, I continued my exhortation to keep it up, in short, keep it up was the sum total of my advice, and the responses to my litany THE TAKING OF THE QUARRIES. 91 on Flinn's part were — ' I'm shot, sorr ! — I'm shot clean through ! ' " As soon as we turned the bend in the road and were out of fire, I halted my party, that FHnn's wounds might be at- tended to. There was the bullet mark certainly, going straight through his great coat in front, and a hole where it had come out behind, and if ever you would have said a man had been shot through, it was Flinn. " When we came to his tunic it was the same, but when we came to himself, there was nothing but a red mark running round his ribs. The bullet must have struck a button of his great coat in front, glanced round his body, and come out at the back. The queerest casualty I've seen since I've been at work in the trenches. The best of the joke is that Flinn's extremely disgusted because I haven't returned him wounded. It's not a bit that he wants to shirk duty, but he wants to know what's the use of being 92 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. shot clean through the body if yez don't get the credit of it." " Fall in the covering party ! " interrupted the hoarse voice of the sergeant outside the tent. " Time's up ! '* said Bjng. " Here, Stephens," he cried to his servant, " quick, give me my revolver ! It's a pity to be asked to an evening party, and not be able to take part in the fun. Now Hugh, come along ! " A few minutes more, and they were wend- ing their way to the brigade ground where the various trench guards formed up, and were formally handed over to the colonel destined to command them. " Who commands the — th ? " exclaimed the officer in question, as he got off his horse. " I do, sir ! " replied Byng, touching his cap. " You and your fellows are for the advance to-night, and are not likely to have a dull time of it, I promise you," said the Colonel, cheerily. " The Sappers report that those THE TAKING OF THE QUAKRIES. 93 rifle pits in front of our attack are getting too troublesome to be borne witli any longer ; we must have them to-night." " You will find us all ready, sir," replied Byng, " as soon as you give the word to go." The Colonel gave him a good-natured nod. His own officers always said of Colonel Croker that you could be always sure when you were about to see sharp fighting. The Colonel's manner was so deuced pleasant. There was a delay of some ten minutes or so before they moved off, waiting for the waning light to die as near away as might be ; and then under the cover of the semi- darkness the several guards moved rapidly away to their allotted positions. Having gained the advanced parallel, Byng collected his men, and spread them in lines along the most convenient part of the parapet. " We'll just wait another half-hour," said the Colonel, " that all may be comfortably settled in both attacks, and then the sooner 94 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. we have those Quarries the better. Your men know they'll be wanted in earnest in a few minutes ? " "Yes, sir," " And not a shot, mind, till weVe got them. We'll carry them with the bayonet. Now wait for the word." It was a still night, and the stars twinkled brightly, although the moon was not yet up. Pulses throbbed and hearts beat quick as the little band awaited the signal, keen and anxious as greyhounds in the leash. The big guns boomed at short intervals, and there was the usual spattering rifle fire going on in the French trenches, on the extreme left. Byng and his followers stood with pricked ears, and almost breathless from excitement, waiting the word to go. Suddenly through the night air rang out the long-expected command, " — th. Forward ! Charge ! " In an instant, before the bugle could sound the repetition of the order, Byng and his THE TAKING OF THE QUAERIES. 95 brother officers had bounded over the parapet, followed by their men, and with a loud hurrah dashed across the open, straight for the coveted pits. So sudden and so un- expected was their rush that the enemy had only time to discharge a few hurried shots at their assailants. A minute or two more and Byng, Fleming, and their followers had tumbled pell-mell into the little group of rifle pits it was their object to obtain, and were engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand conflict with their tenants. A confused hurly-burly, in which oaths, bayonet thrusts, the cracking of revolvers, and an occasional death - shriek were strangely blended. It did not last long. The dash of the attack, and perhaps slight superiority of numbers, speedily told on the side of the English, and the discomfited enemy was soon seen flying back. "Well," said Byng, complacently, as he and Fleming met at the conclusion of their little victory, '' that was a very pretty scrimmage while it lasted. Well done, my 96 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. lads, but don't think you won't be served with notice to quit before the night's out. This'll be a comfort to Flinn next time he is called to take a turn on the Woronzoff. I hope he's not managed to get shot through again this time." " I'm none the worse, sorr, thank you," growled a voice from the background, " which is more than I can say for one or two of them as got in my way, but it'll take a bit more than this before the WoronzofF's pleasant for sthroUing." " Now, Jackson, what about the casualties ? Our losses are only slight, are they ? " said Byng, as the colour-sergeant from the left hand company came up to make his report. " Not very heav}^, sir, as far as I can see," replied the sergeant, " but we've lost Captain Grogan." "Grogan! Good God! killed?" said Husfh. " Yes, sir," replied the sergeant. " A shell THE TAKIN'G OF THE QUARRIES. ' 97 burst just as we cleared the parapet, and a bit of it struck the Captain and killed him before he had led us a dozen yards." " Poor fellow," muttered Byng ; " you are senior subaltern down, Fleming. Go and take command of the other company. We're expected to hold this position till morning, remember, and by I mean to do it." Hugh moved off in obedience to orders, and at this juncture Colonel Croker made his appearance. " Well done — th," he exclaimed, cheerily. "Now Captain Byng, you've got in and you must keep in. I've got heavy reinforcements drawn up in the fourth parallel, and shall lead them on as soon as you're attacked. Attacked you're sure to be in an hour or two, onlv thev haven't o-ot the rans^e as vet." And the Colonel glanced significantly at the shells flying over their heads and bursting in all directions. " The Sappers are coming up directly to reverse the parapet and connect VOL. I. 7 98 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. the pits, and the noise of their parties will still more madden the Eussians." The Colonel walked quietly back to the fourth parallel, and for the next half -hour the shot and shell flew furiously over their heads, though, like the buzzing of an irritated wasp's nest, it did but little harm. On the contrary, it served to mask the noise of the now actively engaged working part}^ Then came a lull, an ominous lull it occurred to Hugh riemino', as he strained his eves throuo^h the dim starlight, seeking for any sign of the approaching enemy. He had not very long to wait. Soon he could discern a dark mass creeping along the edge of the ravine, whose object evidently was to get round his left flank before attacking it. Similarly, although Fleming was not aware of it, did Byng dis- cover a small column of the enemy attempting to steal round his right flank. B}Tig had very little doubt that Hugh was equally menaced on the left. Directing his men to use their rifles, as he expected he was imme- THE TAKING OF THE QUAERIES. 99 diately answered from the left. Finding themselves discovered, the Eussians raised their battle slogan, only to be answered by the defiant hurrahs of the Encflish. Then ensued some twenty minutes of as stubborn fighting as it is possible to witness. True to his promise the Colonel had been prompt with his reinforcements, or else the — th must have been swept out of the position they had won. Twice were the Eussians hurled back from their desperate assault, but their gallant leader succeeded in rallying them for even a third attempt. But the steel had been taken out of them, and they came on in a very half-hearted way to what they had done on the two previous occasions. Though vic- torious, the — th had been pretty roughly handled in this last struggle, and not only were many of them stretched lifeless in the trench, but the stretchers had a busy time in conveying the wounded to the rear. Among them were two of Hugh's brother subalterns, one of whom was carried off with a smashed 7* 100 BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. arm, and the other a bullet through his thigh, which, when attended to, proved to disqualify him for military service for ever. The Colonel reinforced Byng's party to the extent the position would hold. Once more he im- pressed upon him that he must hold the position, coide que coute, and that he might thoroughly depend upon reinforcements, led by himself, to come to his assistance the minute he was seen to be attacked. "Till the moon rises," said the chief, " 3^ou'll have a ticklish time of it, but as soon as it's lio'ht enouo-h, the batteries will make it rather hot for the Piussians, should they venture to cross that open ground." There was little need to tell the trench sentries to keep watch that night. Little more than an hour elapsed before the enemy once more sallied forth from their lines, and made another most determined attack. If the conflict vras not so long as the previous one, it was quite as obstinate, and in the course of it Colonel Croker, while personally THE TAKING OF THE QUAREIES. 101 leading the reinforcements, fell literally riddled with bullets, while another subaltern of the hard beset — th, was carried away very badly wounded. Twice more at short intervals did the Eussians again return to the attack, and in the last of these a bullet stretched Tom Byng, to all appearances, life- less on the ground, and, the struggle ended, one of the few remaining sergeants reported to Hugh Fleming that two-thirds of the men were down, and that he, Mr. Fleming, was the sole officer left of the half-dozen officers of the regiment that had marched down from camp. Black with powder, with clothes torn to ribbons, and eyes bloodshot with the thirst to slay, they were a fierce and savage-looking band upon vvhom the moon now looked down. It was not likely, Fleming thought that any further attack would be made upon them, but for all that he knew he had to keep vigilant watch until relieved. He >was in sole charge of the shattered remnant 102 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. of the — th. Poor Tom Byng ; he never thought of his faUing. And then he thought savagely of Miss Smerdon's sarcastic speech. " The bill," he muttered angrily, " the bill ought to satisfy her. Five down out of six is pretty stiff. And we have not quite done with it yet. They will never be able to say that the — tli is not a fighting regiment after this. They must put some account of such a scrimmage as this in the papers. It's a big thing in sorties. I wonder whether J^ell will be pleased when she reads it." And here suddenly through the trench ran a whisper of, " Here they come again." In his anxiety to ascertain what was doing, Hugh Fleming sprang upon the slight parapet, an act which was immediately greeted by a report of two or three rifles, the bullets of which sang past unpleasantly close to his ears. He jumped back again into the trench, but not before he had convinced him- self that so far the alarm was baseless. Some few Eussian sharp-shooters had crept along THE TAKING OF THE QUAERIES. 103 the edge of tlie ravine, with a view of harassing the occupants of their late position, but there were apparently no supports behind them. The moon died gradually away before the first streaks of dawn, and no sooner was the light sufficient than the batteries on both sides engaged in a savage snarl over the disputed bone of last night. The Eussians knew well that every hour their lost position remained in the hands of their assailants so much the more difficult would it be to recover. It was clear it could only be retaken by dayhght at a great sacrifice. They must wait for the next night, and in the meantime, as Mr. Fhnn said, "They were showing a deal of nasty temper." It was weary work, after the prolonged ex- citement of the night, waiting through the early morning hours for the reliefs to come down ; but they came at last, and sadly Hugh Fleming commenced to lead his worn and shattered band back to camp. It was im- 104 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. possible to regain the right attack without exposing the party to a certain amount of fire from the enemy's guns, and the Eussians were not the men to overlook their opportunity. However, Fleming was fortunate enough to accomplish this without further casualties, and finally reached camp, where he found the remainder of the regiment anxiously awaiting their coming, and full of pride at the way they had taken and held the Quarries. On the right, our gallant Allies had under- gone similar experiences, but the splendid rush with which they had taken the Mamelon just before sunset, recalling the dash of a pack of hounds into cover, had not been sustained. Carried away by their impetuosity the victorious French chased their beaten foes to the very glacis of the Malakoff, but there they encountered the Paissian reserves, and were in their turn not only hunted back to the Mamelon, but through it, and so lost the work they had so gallantly won. General Bosquet, who was in charge of the attack, THE TAKING- OF THE QUARKIES. 105 was, however, not quite the man to put up with such failure as this. He hurled two brigades at once against the re-captured Mamelon, and after a brief but sanguinary struggle the French regained possession of the Lunette, though, take it all in all, at a fearful sacrifice of life. CHAPTEE YE. MISS smerdon's pride breaks down. A well-IvXOAyx novelist, who lias not long since left us, ascribed tlie ratlier moderate suc- cess of one of liis earlier stories to the Crimean war. It was the first time we had been engaged in a European struggle of this sort, since the invention of steam, telegraphs, and, if I may be pardoned the expression, news- paper correspondents. Then again the great battle between Eussia and the Allies was practically fought out in a cock-pit, and the famous correspondent of the Times, then in the hey-day of his youth, was enabled to keep that paper supplied with such an accurate, I may almost say microscopic, account of the great siege as made it easy for those at home to follow it, in all its details. It might have been headed, after the manner of these times, MISS SMERDON'S PEIDE BREAKS DOWN. 107 "The Crimea day by day." It was close upon a twelvemonth from the time the Western powers first sat down in front of the place, before the ]\Iuscovite, after gloriously half- repulsing an assault all along the line, suc- cumbed to his assailants. Small wonder that those who were there from first to last compared it to the siege of Troy. One thing it proved conclusively, and that was that like Sebastopol, Troy was only half invested, or starvation must have compelled its capitulation long before ten years. That several of his brother officers should gather round Hugh, on his arrival in camp, was but natural. They were all anxious to hear his account of the last night's fighting, how poor Grogan came by his death, and so on. " Xo doubt you are pretty well played out, old man, but beyond that you took the Quarries with a rush, and have been fighting for them all night we know nothing; whether the wounded fellows could tell us anything 108 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. we don't know ; the doctor won't allow them to talk just yet, he is so afraid of fever. Byng might no doubt if they'd let him." " Tom Byng I " ejaculated Fleming. " Why he's dead. Shot through the head." " Xot a bit of it," exclaimed two or three voices at once. " Why I saw him carried away myself." "Xot a bit of it," rejoined the others. "It was a mighty close shave, but Tom Byng is no more dead than you are. He was stunned and was a good bit coming to, but he has escaped, the doctor says, by about an eighth of an inch." "Thank God," said Fleming. "I'm sure I thought he was killed. How about the others ? " " Badly wounded all three of them, still the doctor says if he can only keep the fever within bounds they will all pull through. Poor Loyce must lose his arm. You're not touched, Hugh, are you ?" MISS SMERDON'S PEIDE BREAKS DOWN. 109 " No, but I'll tell you what. I'm just froze for a drink, a wash, and a sleep." " All right, old man, we'll bother you no more. Bustle off to your tent and we'll see nobody disturbs you. We were all turned out and kept under arms for two or three hours in case you wanted us down there," and the speaker jerked his thumb in the direction of Sebastopol. After the excitement and faticjue of the night Fleming slept soundly for some hours. He had rapidly adopted the habits of the old campaigner, who thoroughly understands that sleep is a thing to take when you can get it. It sometimes happened that men only came out of the trenches to be marched back again before they could get their belts off, in consequence of a sudden alarm. The con- tending armies were like two gladiators ever keeping a keen eye for an opening, and, notably, on the side of the Russians, taking speedy advantage of it. He was awakened by a roar of laughter just outside his tent, and no BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. hastily j)utting on a few things and a pair of shppers, stepped outside and found a small knot of his brother officers gathered round Tom Byng, \Yho, seated in an easy chair, with a bandaged head, and propped up by pillows, had apparently finished the narration of some story which had thoroughly tickled his audience. He silently extended his hand to Fleming as he came forward, and as Hugh clasped it, he said : " Thank God ! I was afraid it was all over with you." Byng gave a queer smile, and rejoined with a slight motion of his head : " Natural density saved me, old fellow. I'm all right, but have rather an earthquaky feeling to-day." " What's the joke ? " continued Fleming, as he warmly pressed his friend's hand. *' I was roused from my slumbers by ribald laughter." " Tell him, some of you," said Byng. " Well, it's all Mickey Fhnn. Seeing Tom MISS SMERDON'S PRIDE BREAKS DOWX. Ill outside his tent lie came across to congratulate his Captain for not being kilt dead entirely, and Tom was umvise enough to chaff him. " ' Last nioiit was worse than the Woronzoff, eh, Flinn ? ' said Tom. " ' 'Deed sorr, and it was, and it's glad I am to see your honour about again, for it's kilt dead entirely I feared you was when I put you on the stretcher.' " ' Ah, being shot through the head is worse than being shot through the body.' " ' 'Deed, I don't know, sorr, it's much of a muchness it sthrikes me, only 3'ou get the credit of being wounded for the wan and you don't for the other,' and with that Mickey Flinn saluted, and stalked back to his com- pany in supreme dudgeon." " It's all the old villain came to see me about," said Byng, still laughing at the recollection. " I believe he was glad I wasn't killed ; but he's very angry because I have been returned as wounded, and he wasn't." "Yes," laughed the adjutant, who was 112 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. one of tlie group ; " that's a good healthy grievance that ouo'ht to be a comfort to Fhnn, whenever the rations run short, to the end of the campaign. He's a fine old soldier, but as we all know 3^ou may trust the old soldier to have his grievance." "Yes," said Fleming, "he'll go through any amount of hardship, hard Avork, and fight- ing ; but he must have his grievance — generally about the veriest trifle." And then there suddenly arose a shout from the orderly room tent of " Mail in from England ! " followed by the sharp bugle-call for orderly sergeants, and the group of officers, with Fleming amongst them, rushed off to see after their letters. "Yes," thought Tom Byng, as he looked after Fleming ; " I counselled him not to speak, but he has the best of it now. Letters from home ! Yes, we're all glad to get them — ah, very glad no doubt, most of us ; but don't tell me Hugh wouldn't give up all his letters from home, and the whole corres- MISS SMERDON"S PRIDE BREAKS DOWN. 113 pondence of the regiment to boot, for that one letter he's expecting from Nell Lynden ! I hope the young un '11 come through all safe ; and after last night it does seem as if Providence was watching especially over him. I fancy he was right not to take my advice." And if one might judge from Hugh's face as he passed a few minutes later with an open letter in his hand, Byng was right in his conclusion. Few things could have been more harassing, to a romantic and imaginative young woman of those days than to discover that she had let her heart go out of her keeping before she was aware of it, to be uncertain whether her feelings were reciprocated or not, and that the man who had won her affections should sail for the East without making any avowal was hard. Frances Smerdon was in this position, and all Xell Lynden's burst of girlish confidences about her love dream were gall and worm- wood to her friend, "Detestable gush," VOL. I. 8 114 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. Prances Smerdon called it, and revenged her- self by saying the most spiteful things of the Eegiment collectively, which were intended to be repeated for the benefit of the one individual who was the object of both her love and her hate. But when, with the Springtime, came the news that the fighting had begun again, and also that the Eegiment had reached the Crimea, Frances Smerdon's heart began to quail and soften. She could not speak bitterly of men she had known well but such a short time ago, and the finish of whose lives she might see announced in any morning paper. There was one man she hated, there was one man she declared she would never speak to again. He could not have been blind to her love. He must have despised it, she would never, never, never and then this inconsistent young lady would burst into a flood of tears, and only wish she could write a long letter to him. " If he had only given me some excuse before he left," she moaned, "but I suppose' MISS SMERDOX-S PEIDE BREAKS DOWN. 115 even if he was seriously wounded it would be an awful thing for me to write to him. As for Xell, I could box her ears, I could, for gushing to me about her love when she knows I'm so unhappy." Xow this was exactly what Miss Lynden did not know. Her own love affair had pro- bably prevented her noticing her friend's weakness, though women seldom succeed in keeping each other in the dark on such points. Men as a rule are slow to recognise a leaning in their favour. It might be that, but, whether from policy or from a mistaken estimate of his chances, Tom Byng sailed for the East without utterino- a word to Frances Smerdon that could be construed into any- thing more than admiration. But what did puzzle Miss Lynden much was the change that had come over her friend. It was the one girlish friendship, remember, she had ever made, and that Frances should not sym- pathise and rejoice with her in the flood-tide of her first love grieved the girl sorely. She 8* 116 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. SO craved for a woman's sympathy in her passionate dream— for someone to talk with of her hopes, of her fears — and women had too many of those latter to battle with in love born in snch troublous times. She could not understand it — Frances seemed to have changed completely. She was witty and sarcastic about things gene- rally ; she had laughed at Nell about her " spoonishness " ; told her she could not hope to keep her soldier wrapped in cotton wool when shot and shell were flying about ; and that she needn't be afraid, it was a peaceful regiment, and all would be over before they got there. Angry though they made her, Nell felt that there was a hardness and bit- terness in Frances' letters that had no genuine ring in it ; and then, much to her amaze- ment, Miss Smerdon's letters suddenly com- pletely altered in tone, and her enquiries after the — th became both courteous and pressing. As we know, whether the man she loves is MISS SMERDON'S PRIDE BREAKS DOWN. 117 in danger, or whether he is merely passing a lively winter in a pleasant place, make a good deal of difference in the expression of a woman's sentiments under Miss Smerdon's peculiar circumstances. The camp was rich in " shaves " that bright spring weather. Men seemed to have shaken off* the torpidity of the winter, both mentally and bodily, and, wondrous were the rumours of what the French were doing, and we were going to do, and even what the Eussians might be expected to do. Men began to move about amongst the lines, and the half- starved garrons of ponies, that had passed the winter in painfully toiling with such luxuries as their masters could lay hold of between Balaklava and the front, waxed fat in the ribs and sleek in the coat. Barley was plentiful, and they no longer stood shiver- ing at their picket pegs, with their quarters turned to the cold blasts of the Steppes. En- terprising sutlers erected stores on the way to the front, and sweet champagne, dubious 118 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. brandy, and all descriptions of tinned deli- cacies became no longer scarce, and were to be liad on comparatively reasonable terms. A few days after the taking of tlie Quarries a group of officers miglit have been seen lounofinc^ on the "Woronzoff road iust at the DO d point where three or four tracks — it would have been absurd to describe them as am^- thinof more — branched off the main road in various directions across the Plateau, suffi- ciently confusing, except to the initiated. Take the one to the rioiit for instance, and an hour or two's easy riding would bring you amongst the famous caves of Inkermann, and eventuate in 3'our certainly getting inside Sebastopol before morning, as a prisoner. The laughing knot of officers were of all branches of the service, but there were a good many of the — th among them. A fresh regiment had arrived at Balaklava that morn- ing and was to march up to the front that afternoon. Now the regiment in question was what is MISS SMEEDON'S PRIDE BREAKS EOWN. 119 termed a sister corps of the — tb, which being interpreted means that the two corps had been quartered together, or as the soldiers term it, " Lain together " in several places, and that the officers and men had cordially fraternised and knew each other well. The men, as a rule, showed their grati- fication at the meeting; by being; slig:htly the worse for liquor, late for tattoo, and exchang- ing forage caps, than which latter mysterious ceremony none are so significant of friend- ship and goodwill in the eyes of the British soldier. The officers usually celebrate their re-union by an interchange of dinners, in which they would sing the old songs, and prolong the festivities far into the night. Moreover, as it was known that the same regiment had a draft of the — th attached to it, the latter had sent their drums and fifes to meet the new-comers at this point in the road, and from thence play them into camp. "Not much of a band you know," said Hugh Fleming, "all we can say is, it's the 120 BEATEICE AXD BENEDICK. best we have out here. Hang it, I never proper!}^ appreciated a drum and fife before." " Yes, you're right," exclaimed the adjutant, " a httle music does brighten one up here a good deah On my word I wouldn't despise a decent barrel organ." "That's where the French have one pull over us," said an officer of artillery, " they've managed to bring their bands out with them. By the way, I was down in your conquest last night, Fleming." " My conquest, indeed ! " laughed Hugh, " I was uncommon glad to get out of it, that's all I know. I hope you didn't find the Russians quite so touchy about it as I did." " No, they're quiet enough over it now ; we should like to get guns into it, but the ground's so confoundedly rocky I can't see how the engineers are ever to make the sap." "Listen," cried the adjutant, "here they come, and playing our own quick step, " Warwickshire Lads," as a greeting. Now fall in, you drums and fifes, and as soon as you MISS SMEKDONS PEIDE BREAKS DOWN. 121 catch sight of the head of the regiment strike up their own march " Hurrah for the Bonnets of Blue," and, confound you, roll it out as if you were trying to crack the fifes and burst the sheepskins." Another minute and the head of the new regiment appeared in sight, and then the drummers and fifers of the — th crashed out their welcome to the new-comers whose own music at once ceased. Cordial hand-grips and enquiries passed amongst the officers of the two corps, for it was not two months ago since the new-comers had played the — th down the Stairs at Yaletta. At this point the draft of the — th branched off to the left, in the direction of the lines of their own corps, and with them rode the adjutant and Hugh Fleming. On their arrival this batch of only just drilled recruits was at once paraded and the men told off to their respec- tive companies. Hugh Fleming looked carelessly on while the adjutant allotted a few to his own com- 122 BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. pan}^ The sergeant was marcliing tliese off when the sound of his own name made him turn abruptly. " Here's one recruit, sir," said the sergeant, " says he's got a bit of a note for you." " A note for me ! " ejaculated Hugh. " How did you get it, and what's your name, my lad ? " " Peter Phybbs, sir," replied the boy. He was little more than eighteen. " My sister got it for me when she heard what regiment I'd 'Hsted in, and said I was to be sure and give it to you as soon as I had the chance." Hugh threw one glance at the superscrip- tion of the rather crumpled missive the recruit had placed in his hands, and instantly recog- nised Nell Lynden's well-known writing. He at once tore it open. " Deaeest Hugh," it ran, " the young brother of Phybbs, our parlour-maid, has it seems enlisted in your regiment. The girl's in a sad taking about it, in which, alas, I can MISS SMEEDON'S PRIDE BEEAKS DOWN. 123 only too fully sympatliise witli her. She seems to think, poor thmg, that your powers to protect him out there are boundless, and to soothe her I write this to ask you to look after him a bit if he gets sick or in trouble. I know you will, Hugh, dear, if it's only for my sake ; but I also like to think that it is another link between us ; that while his sister is watching and waiting by my side here, he is fighting by your side there. I have never seen him, but he sounds a mere boy to be sent out on such work. God bless and save you, my darhng, " Ever your own, "Nell." " Well, Phybbs," said Hugh. " I'm asked to look after you a bit, and you may thoroughly depend upon me as long as you deserve it. Keep straight, my lad, don't flinch from your work, and be easy with the drink, and that's all 1 have to say to you at present. See the old hands aren't too 124 BEATEICE AND BEXEDICK. hard upon him, Smithers," and with that Hugh turned on his heel and walked off to his tent. " A queer letter of introduction," he said to himself with a smile, " but I must do the best I can for Xell's protegee^ simply because he is her protegee'' He little thought those few lines of recommendation were to prove of more value to him ere long than any letter to the Commander-in-Chief from the highest in the land could be. CHAPTEE VIII. NEWS FROM THE CRIMEA. Miss SmerdoN' has been making herself as un- pleasant as it is possible for a vivacious young lady to do when matters are running askew with her, and that, needless to say, means that Twmbarlyn House is rendered generally uncomfortable for all therein. "What's come to the oirl? " demanded Mr. Smerdon, petulantly, of his wife. " She used to be the life and sunshine of the place, and now she just mopes and snaps like a puppy with the distemper." " I don't know,*' returned Mrs. Smerdon, anxiously ; " she won't tell me, but there's something that worries and frets her. She's never been the same girl since her last visit to Manchester." The good lady did not think fit to confide 126 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. her tlioughts to her husband, but she was not Winded ; she strongly suspected that her daughter had brought a heartache home with her. The very servants wondered what had come to Miss Frances, and said that there really was no pleasing her. One morning, Miss Smerdon hastily caught up the paper, as she usually did ; she was feverishly anxious to see it now-a-days, though formerly the perusal of the Times had been either neglected or left for an idle half-hour. She was so interested, she said, in the doings of our soldiers in the Crimea. All this, though unnoticed by her father, was easy reading for a mother's eye. She could not induce the girl to give her her con- fidence, but Mrs. Smerdon had Uttle doubt that Frances' heart was in a soldier's keeping. If she had thought that before, she knew it for certain that morning. No sooner had the girl torn open the paper than the head lines, " BriUiant Exploit ; the Taking of the Quarries; Severe Fighting," caught her eye, NEWS FEOM THE CRIMEA. 127 and tlieii came a glowing and graphic de- scription of the position, of the dashing manner in which it had been carried, followed by a spirit-stirring narrative of the gallant and obstinate endeavours of the Eussians to recapture it during the night, and speaking in terms of unqualified praise of the bull-dog tenacity with which the — th clung to the vantage ground they had won. Frances' colour came and went as she read ; at length she came to the postscript of all glorious bulletins. " We regret to say that in the execution of this brilliant and successful operation Her Majesty's — th sufiered severely, having no less than five out of the six officers engaged in it hors de combat. The subjoined list is a return of the killed and wounded on the occasion. " Killed : — Lieut. -Colonel Croker (com- manding the attack) ; Captain Grogan, — th Eegiment. 128 BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. "Wounded: — Captain Byng, — th Eegi- ment (severely)." The paper dropped from her hand and the blood left her cheeks. Frances turned white to her very lips, and a slight moan escaped her. Her head swam, and it was only by a supreme effort she saved herself from fainting. Her mother was by her side in an instant, while her father looked up from his letters with open-eyed astonishment, and exclaimed, " Good Heavens, what's the matter ? " " Nothing, Matthew ; don't take any notice of her ; she will be all right directly," rejoined his wife, sharply. " She's only a little faint ; she has been out of sorts lately, you know." " I think, mamma, I'll go and lie down ; I don't feel very well," murmured Frances, and assisted by her mother she left the room and made her way to her own bed-chamber. Arrived there, she broke fairly down, burst into tears, and sobbed like a child on her mother's breast. NEWS FRO:\r THE CRI^klEA. 129 Mrs. Smerdon knew that this was no time for questioning. She let the girl weep pas- sionately on her bosom for some minutes, knowing full well that she would have all her confidence a little later. Then she loosened her dress, made her lie down on the bed, and said : " You can't sleep, I know, Frances ; but try and lie quiet, dear, for half-an-hour. I will come back and bring you some tea then, and you shall tell me all your trouble. Who should you come to, child, in your sorrow save to the mother who bore you ? " And before an hour was over Mrs. Smerdon knew that her daughter had given her heart away unwooed, and was tortured with shame and anguish because it was so, and that the author of all this mischief was now lying in grievous case in camp before Sebastopol. We know that Tom Byng was in no such plight, but he had been carried away from the Quarries for dead in the first instance, and had actually figured as such in the first VOL. I. 9 130 EEATEICE AND BENEDICK. returns of casualties. Luckily, tlie mis- take was discovered in time, and " severely wounded " was substituted for killed. San- guine though the doctors were about his hurt being of no great consequence, yet they were a little chary of speaking decisively about it for a few days, and hesitated to describe as " slightly " a wound which might even yet take a serious turn. It might have been some satisfaction to Mickey Flinn had he understood that Captain Byng had no knowledge of how he was re- turned in that night's casualties. " Severely wounded ! " thought Frances, when left to herself. Ah ! how often had that word been the precursor of " died of his wounds," of late. She had heard it said that the wretched accommodation of the field hospitals gave little chance of recovery to those once admitted into them. Oh, if she could but go out to nurse him ! But that was impossible. If she could but write to him. But no, he had never spoken — he had given NEWS FEOM THE CRBIEA. 131 her no right to do that. And jet in her heart of hearts she beheved that he loved her. Oh, she had been mad ! She had been rightly punished! She had jeered at the regiment — sneered at him ; and no doubt Nell had told Hugh Fleming, as she intended Xell should, and so all her bitter words had come round to his ears. How could she have been so wicked and so spiteful ? How was he ever to know that such words escaped her lips in the agony of what she believed to be her rejected love. No, she thought, she must go away. She could not stay at Twmbarlyn, for everybody, she felt sure, would read her secret in her face. She would go to the Lyndens. She hungered to hear all about the old lot, to talk of Hugh Fleming, of Tom ; and her face flushed even as her lips syllabled the name. She would hear, too, what his hurt was, whether it was likely to go very hard with him — no, if Nellie would have her she would go to Manchester at once. She would 9* 132 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. write by that day's post, and then the return of her mother cut short the thread of her meditations. As she had anticipated, Mrs. Smerdon found herself speedily taken into her daugh- ter's confidence, and she not only soothed the girl, but proceeded, metaphoricall}^ to bind up her wounds forthwith. The Smerdons were good, homely, as well as self-made, people, and neither of them enter- tained any extreme ambitions for either their sons or daughter. Smerdon had attained wealth, and with it such ascent in social status as is its inevitable accompaniment. So long as Frances married a gentleman of fair repute she was free to choose where she listed, and Mrs. Smerdon knew very well that had any of the officers from Newport, who so constantly dined with them, taken the girl's fancy, her father would have made no objection. As for Captain Byng, he had always been a great favourite with the good lad}^, although she had never dreamed that NEAVS FEOM THE CRIMEA. 133 lie had found favour in her daughter's eyes. But this may very easily be accounted for. Though Frances had always liked Captain Byng, it was not till she was staying at Man- chester with the Lyndens that the liking had ripened into a serious attachment. There is love at first sight, no doubt, but it's more generally, I fancy, of a slower growth. Again, as Tom had observed, soldiers were "up in the market" just then; and on my conscience I believe people fall in love very often for the sole reason that they ought not to do so. Mrs. Smerdon comforted the girl very much. She made light of the difficulties of the situation. " If," she thought, " Frances has set her heart on Captain Byng, and he likes her, there is no earthly reason why she shouldn't marry him — let him only get safely through this horrid war — and he will make her a very suitable husband." In her mother's partiality she looked upon Frances as a good match for any man. No, she saw 134 BEATKICE AND BENEDICK. no reason whatever wh}^ Frances shouldn't write to Captain Byng. '* You ' knew him very well, and there's nothing out of the way in your writing to inquire after him, having seen his mishap in the papers. Still, if you wish it, which you don't " and the elder lady laughed merrily. " Thanks, no, mamma ; I'll write to him payself/' . *' Quite so," replied Mrs. Smerdon, nodding. " And now, m}' dear, hope for the best ; it's no use thinking that just because people are in they are never going to get over it. As for your going up to stay with Nellie, I certain!}^ think that's advisable. Change will do you good. You will have an inexhaustible topic between you, and she will be able to give you sniall details about their daily lives out there, interesting to anyone, but 'especially to those who know — much more care for— the actors in the drama." Frances' \face flushed a little at her mother's allusion NEWS FROM THE CRIMlilA. 135 to lier weakness, but she had derived much consolation from her counsel and sympathy, and the thought that she saw no cause why she should not write to Captain Byng. In the course of that afternoon she despatched a letter to Miss Lynden, in which she recanted all the bitter things she had ever said about the regiment, called herself a little beast for having even thought such things, pleaded that she was very miserable, begged that she might come to her, said she had so much to say to her, and pledged herself to" be on her very best behaviour during her visit. If Miss Lynden had been blind to Frances' feelings in the first instance, she could read between the lines of her present letter, thanks to Hugh Fleming. Tom Byng was a very transparent man, and, sharpened perhaps by his own experiences, Hugh had no difficulty in penetrating his friend's secret, before they had set foot in the Crimea. When they'd got this town taken and the war finished up, he thought his friend would J36 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. have no cause for despair if lie asked the momentous question. Meanwhile the town took a deal of taking, and seemed quite as well supplied with provisions and munitions of war as its assailants. Miss Lynden's answer came by return of post. Thanks to Hugh's hints she was now able to account for the fluctuations in Frances' correspondence which had so much puzzled her. She knew very well what that long talk would be about, and it was very sweet to the girl to think that at last she would have someone with whom she might talk unrestrainedly about her love. As far as the doings in the Crimea went, no man could follow the proceedings of the Allies with closer interest than Dr. Lynden. But though aware of the engagement between Fleming and his daughter, he totally eschewed all discussion of that subject. He had some grounds for doing so ; it certainly could not be said that Hugh's family had welcomed the intelligence with effusion. To tell the truth, NEWS FROM THE CRIMEA. 137 old Mr. Fleming was furious at the announce- ment, and only restrained from fulminating his wrath hi all directions by the circum- stances of the case. " Xothing can take place at present between them but an exchange of ridiculous love-letters ; Time very often dispels these illusions. Besides, if anything should happen to the boy, I should be very sorry to think that angry words had passed between us ; and Master Hugh has a considerable touch of my temper about him. If he persists in his obstinacy and folly, when this affair is all over it will be quite time to let him know my mind thoroughly about such a preposterous arrangement." And then with sundry incoherent remarks, in which " young idiot," '* retired doctors of unknown families," " impertinence," and strong expletives were all mixed together, Mr. Fleming senior determined to say no more on the subject at present, but to fall back on a policy much in vogue just then of " masterly inactivity." 138 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. " Oil, Xell ! can you forgive me ? " said Frances, when, lier journey accomplislied, slie found herself once more safe in the Lyndens' drawing-room, with her friend ministering to her requirements in the shape of tea. " I've said horrid things of Hugh and the dear old regiment, I know. I could bite my tongue out for doing so now ; but I was so miserable. I have tried so hard to forget him, but I can't ; and now he's wounded — badly wounded — but I forgot, you don't know, and, oh, how am I to tell you ? " " Oh, yes, my dear," replied Xell, with a smile, " I fancy I do know — know jDcrhaps even more than you do, and a pretty scolding there will be for Captain Byng next time we meet." "Is it very serious?" asked Frances, eagerly. " How is he going on ? Do they think he will o-et over it ? What does Hus^h say?" "Hush! one question at a time," rejoined Miss Lvnden. " We must wait for the next NEWS FEOM THE CRIMEA. 139 mail to come in. I liacl only one line from Hugh tliis time. Here it is," and tlie girl took the scrap of a letter from the bosom of her dress, and read as follows : "My D.iELiXG Xell, — Just one line to say that I am all right ; but we had a big fight last night in the trenches, and you will be sorry to hear that several of your old acquaintances were knocked over. Poor Grogan, indeed, killed. I'm so dead beat I can't write any more. " Ever dearest, your own HuCtH." " That is all, Frances, so you see we must wait till the next mail for further tidings. I'm sure to hear again then. Hugh is very good about writing, though sometimes I get only such a scrap as this." "It's terrible, this watching and w^aiting," cried ]\Iiss Smerdon. " It must be hard for you to bear ; but, ah I Xell, how much happier you are than me. What wouldn't I 140 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. give for just two lines like that ! " and as she spoke she looked wistfully at the letter her friend held between her fingers. "Ah, if he had only given me the right to care for him." " Listen, Frances," replied Miss Lynden, " didn't I tell you that I had something to scold Captain Byng for. If his advice had been followed I should have been exactly in your place, and Hugh would not have told his love before he left. You're a proud girl, and Captain Byng's a quixotic man, as if a man's love story ever offended a woman, even when she didn't care for him." " Ah, my pride is all broken down now," replied Miss Smerdon, in dejected tones. " He must never know it, he would laugh at me very probably if he did. It's very dis- graceful, NeU, but I do love him. You never told Hugh any of my wicked remarks, did you ? " " Well, do you know," faltered Miss Lynden, " do you know, I'm afraid I did." " Oh, Nellie, how cruel of you. How could NEWS FEOM THE CKDIEA. 141 you," exclaimed Miss Smerdon with flushed cheeks, starting bolt upright from the des- ponding attitude she had assumed in a corner of the sofa, " you know I never meant them." " I knew they were meant more for some- body else's ears than mine," remarked the other demurely, " and I took care they got there." " How mean of you, how wicked of you, what a wretch Tom — Captain Byng I mean — must think me ; and now he's dying " and Miss Smerdon sobbed audibly. " Don't be a fool, Frances," interposed Miss Lynden, a httle sharply. " I quoted your tart remarks in my letters to Hugh simply because the fluctuations of your temper puzzled me. I could not understand it. It was well I did so or I should not' have under- stood things even now. Hugh, you see, was behind the scenes the other side, and when we compared notes we came to the conclusion that Benedick had oone to the wars once 142 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. more, and that Beatrice had promised to eat all of his killing. My dear, when next you meet Captain Byng, I have no doubt you'll find he has something to say to you." "Oh, Nell, do you really think so? Do you think he " " Loves you ! " said Miss Lynden, laughing. " No, I don't ; but Hugh does, and that's a good deal more to the j)^^rpose. He's wiser than I am, and has much better opportunities than mine of judging of Captain Byng's feelings. Soyez tranquille, my dear, and wait and hope trustfully for good tidings by the next mail." Oh, the humility and self-deception of a great love ! Here is quick, clever Nellie Lynden not only saying that honest, straight- forward Hugh Fleming is wiser than she, but that he possesses a quicker insight into the state of the affections ! As if on this latter point the perceptions of man are not as those of the mole compared to the eagle with the observations of the opposite sex. CHAPTEE IX. CONSTABLE TAKE ANT IS PUZZLED. Police Constable Eicliard Tarrant is some- what disconcerted at having, as yet, failed to verify his conclusions. He had drawn a more prosaic deduction than Miss Smerdon, concerning the mysterious employment practised by Dr. Lynden in his den. When on duty, his beat often brought him within the vicinity of the doctor's house ; but he spent many a sleepless night, which his obligations to the force did not impose upon him, in watching that side door of the doctor's. We know what he supposed that the rather retiring portal would open to admit ; but with all his vigilance, he was fain to acknowledge that, watch as he might, he saw bodies, neither living nor dead, pass its threshold. Had he confided his suspicions to 144 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. Polly Phybbs, that young lady, after she had got over the first shock of such an accusation against the doctor, would have ridiculed the bare idea of such a thing. What the doctor might do in the laboratory she did not know, but she would have been quite certain that it could be nothing of the kind that Dick Tarrant suspected ; and still more certain that if there had been the faintest grounds for thinking such a thing, nothing would ever have induced her to enter the room again. She had obeyed her cousin's command to keep her eye upon the doctor ; she had always done as Dick told her, and yet even about that she had her compunctions, and only for that foolish belief she had in Dick's understanding, would have pronounced that all nonsense. That so far it had led to no- thing, she was well satisfied. The doctor was a kind master, to whom she wished no harm, if, as Dick said, he was engaged in something "agen the law," well, then, she supposed he deserved to be punished, but she did not wish CONSTABLE TARRANT IS PUZZLED. 145 hers should be the hand to bring it about. Her young mistress too, she held in the highest esteem, and then had she not just written that letter to Mr. Fleming in the Crimea ? and Polly Phybbs looked upon the aegis of Hugh Fleming's protection as going far to ensure the safety of her boyish brother. Still she never had refused to do Dick's bid- ding, and she would do it now, but it was much satisfaction to her to find that nothing came of it. What had induced the doctor to make that mysterious addition to his house ? It would have hardly attracted the curiosity of anyone but such an addle-headed man as Dick Tarrant. His main idea was that advancement in the i:)olice was easiest pro- cured by some startling discovery of crime. More than one had taken place since he had been in the force, but Dick argued that he never had any luck, let him only get a chance and they would see what was in him. His superiors beheved there was very little, and were not at all likely to entrust Constable Tar- VOL. I. 10 •U6 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. rant with any delicate investigation. A slow thinker, one to whom ideas came but seldom, Dick clung strongly to this main belief of his, and also to that subsidiary notion that the conviction of the doctor was the case by which he was destined to achieve greatness. Now, without the slightest disparagement of the pohce, because it is an infirmity of human nature, there is always a disposition to make ■evidence chime in with conviction. Once hav- ing settled in our mind who is the author of a murder, we are more disposed to devote our powers to proving ourselves right in that conjecture than to an unbiassed investigation into who really committed it. The faculty of cool judicial analysis is rare, and it is seldom even the best detective can resist jumping to a conclusion at which he should only have varrived step by step. That Eichard Tarrant is also obstinate, it is almost needless to state. Men of this type •always are. Let them once get a maggot into their head, and they cling to it with a CONSTABLE TARRANT IS PUZZLED. 147 pertinacity that would be beyond all praise if it were not wrongheadedness — mainly owing, I fancy, for want of another idea to take its place. Dick Tarrant is in this plight. He began by suspecting Doctor Lynden of vague offences, and must continue to do so because he has no one else to suspect. It is Sunday afternoon, and, in the worst possible humour, Mr. Tarrant is lounging about the road awaiting the advent of Miss Phybbs. He is angry that his vigilance has resulted in nothing so far. Mr. Tarrant is an indolent man, and chafes mightily at nights out of bed, which produce no compensating result. That he should have been kept waiting is an additional grievance ; and, moreover, he has discovered that Polly is reluctant to carry out his orders — in fact, to use his own expression, that she isn't half ^'keeping an eye on him." " Now," mutters Mr. Tarrant to himself, " I ain't going to stand that, not likely you know. Never give women their heads ; that's my 10* 148 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. motto. And if Polly tliinks she's not to keep her nose to the grindstone, she's very much mistaken. There's my future career all depending upon the successful working out of this riddle, and she thinks she ain't called on to assist. If she thinks after we are married she'll have nothing to do but sit with her hands in her lap and play at being a fine lady, she won't do for me. A man can't do every- thing himself, and my wife will have to help keep the pot boiling." God help poor Polly Phybbs if she should come to wed this man under that delusion. He is of that sort for whom women of Polly's class work their fingers to the bone, quite content to keep their lords in indolence as long as they neither ill-use nor are false to them. Suddenly the side door of the doctor's house opened, that door which, watch it as he might, he had never succeeded in seeing used by anyone. And out of it, to the utter bewilderment of Constable Tarrant, stepped a CONSTABLE TARKANT IS PUZZLED. 149 well, but quietly-dressed, lady-like woman. Although closely veiled, he felt sure that it was not Miss Lynden ; he knew the latter perfectly by sight. The doctor's visitor was both taller and stouter, in short, much more of a woman, and her unexpected appearance so utterly upset his previous suspicions con- cerning the doctor that he neglected to do what an ordinarily inteUigent officer would have done under the circumstances, to wit, follow her. She apparently did not notice him, but walked quickly towards the busy part of the town, while Dick first stared vacantly at her, and then looked in a dazed way at the portal from which she had emerged. He was still gazing at this last, when he was startled by a voice at his elbow, saying : , " You seem rather interested in that door, my man ; pray, what is it you see to admire in it ? " He turned, and to his surprise found the doctor standing by his side. 160 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. "How on earth did lie come here?" was Dick's first thought, utterly oblivious of the fact that it was easy for the doctor to come out of one door while his (Tarrant's) eyes were fixed on the other. " Nothing, sir, nothing ! " he replied, confusedly. " I was only just thinking " " Of what ? " said the doctor, suavely. "Thinking, sir, thinking — just thinking — about nothing at all," concluded Dick, desperately, disconcerted by the keen glance with which the doctor regarded him. " An occupation in which mankind spend a good deal of their time," said the doctor, with a slightly sarcastic smile. " I wish you a good afternoon ! " and he walked leisurely away in the same direction as that taken by the lady. " Well, I'm blowed ! " remarked ^Mr. Tarrant, after a minute or two. " Here's a discovery? This is what comes of keeping your eye on them." And here his reflections, were interrupted by the appearance of Miss Phybbs. CONSTABLE TARRANT IS PUZZLED. 151 " Now, Polly," he exclaimed, after they had shaken hands, " you're a nice one, you are, to help an intelligent officer in the discharge of his duties. Who's that lady who visits the doctor, and he lets out of the side door ? You've never said anything about her, you know." "Lady! What lady? The only ladies that come to our house come to visit "Miss Lynden, and of course, come and go at the proper door." " Oh, oh ! " said Mr. Tarrant, sarcastically ; " this is what you call keeping an eye on him,, is it ? If you ain't got no powers of observa- tion, you can't help it. If you can't see beyond the end of your nose, I'm Sorry ior you ; but if you ain't altogether a beetle, it's downricrht wicked idleness, that's what it is."- . "Oh, Dick, Dick! what have I done?" cried the girl. " Done," replied the police-constable . in high dudgeon, " it's what you ain't done, I'm^ complaining of. How do you think I'm ever 152 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. going to get on in my profession if you won't help ? " " I assure you, Dick, I've done as you ordered me, but I've nothing to tell you. The doctor locks himself into the laboratory as usual, and I haven't been called in to tidy it up for a good three weeks. He's never had a lady, nor any other visitor to my knowledge all the time. Are you sure you're not mistaken ? " " Mistaken ! not likely," he replied, " I suppose you was born without gumption, and it can't be helped, but just you attend to me." And then Mr. Tarrant proceeded to relate circumstantially how he had seen the lady come out of the side door, how her departure had been closely followed by the unexpected appearance of the doctor at his elbow, and how the latter had then walked off in the same direction. If Miss Phybbs had been a very faint- hearted coadjutor so far, in the detective business, yet she promised to be a verv CONSTABLE TARRANT IS PUZZLED. 153 valuable assistant in the future. She wished no harm to the doctor and his family, but her womanly curiosit}^ was now thoroughly piqued. There was a slight flavour of scandal about Dick's story which was very titillating, her enquiries concerning the lady's dress were far more minute than her cousin was able to satisfy ; and if Dick recognised that his theory of the doctor carrying on a private school of anatomy was negatived by the appearance of a lad}^ on the scene. Miss Phybbs' ready brain had already built up another to take its place, in which, sad to say, a very indifferent construction was put upon her master's character ; still, in sj^ite of Mr. Tarrant's discovery, they were, in reality, not one whit wiser than before. Polly had known that men occasionally used that stair for the purpose of visiting her master's laborator3\ She knew now that a woman had also used it for the same purpose, and she knew no more. Wh}^ they -came or what they came about, she and Dick were quite as 154 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. ignorant of as ever. They talked tlie thing over, most exhaustively, during their walk. And while Miss Phybbs ran over the list of ladies who visited the house, endeavouring to put her finger upon the one likeh^ to be guilty of such an indiscretion as secretly visiting her master, Mr. Tarrant arraigned the doctor of every crime in the annals of the police, coin- ing, forgery, burglary, etc., only to reject them one by one. At one time he suggested that he should at once lay what he persisted in terming .his discovery before his superiors, but Miss Phybbs was decidedly opposed to that. Openly, she argued that it was useless, until they had jDushed their investigations somewhat further, and arrived at something more definite. Inwardly, she believed herself upon the track of a domestic scandal, which, though eager to get to the bottom of, she had no wish should go beyond the family circle. And, moreover, would turn out a case with which the police had no concern, so when they eventually parted, it was agreed between CONSTABLE TAERANT IS PUZZLED. 155 them that their lips should be sealed for the present. The next day Constable Tarrant's duties called him to the head quarters of the police in the city, and while there, lounging about waiting for orders, he heard some of his superiors discussing a communication that they had received from Scotland Yard, re- lative to a considerable quantity of base coin, with which the Metropolis had suddenly been flooded, and of the fabrication of which they had so far failed to find the slightest clue. They described the coin as beautifully manufactured and all evidently the work of the same hands. " The constructors are 23ast masters of their craft and must be provided with very superior plant and machinery. There are probably two or three employed in the minting of it, but the issuing must comprehend a very extensive organisa- tion. We need scarcely add, to lay hold of the principals is of the greatest possiWe im- portance." lo5 BEATRICE AND BENEDICK. " 1 don't believe we have anyone here on the smashing hiy. At all events not such artists as these are described to be. We may have one or two of the inferior ones about, but they would be in a very small way of business." " No," rejoined one of his brother officers, thoughtfully, " I don't think such a lot as they speak of could be here without our know- ing it. Not likely but what they'd try to pass some of the stuff in a big place like this. What little bad money we've come across lately is of a very inferior manufacture, not calculated to deceive anybody who looked at it twice." Eichard Tarrant sucked all this in greedily. He had settled in his own mind that Dr. Lynden was offending against the laws, and that if Dr. Lynden was not so doing in one way he was in another was a fact fixed and incontrovertible in Dick Tarrant's head ; if he was not carrying on that illegal school of anatomy then doubtless he was manu- CONSTABLE TARRANT IS PUZZLED. 157 facturing bad silver by the bushel, and upon no other orrounds than these did he once more decide in his own mind what was Dr. L}Tiden's secret occupation. But though both he and Polly kept watchful eyes upon the side door it was without result. It was a subject of much regret to Miss Phybbs that she had not been a little more punctual in keeping her appointment that afternoon, as she would then probably have caught a glimpse of that lad}^, and veiled though she might have been, Miss Phybbs confidently asserted that she would have known her again anywhere ; but to recognise her from Dick's description was, she ruefully admitted, impossible. Yes, there is no doubt a pronounced taste in dress offers great facili- ties for identification. The famous Lord Brougham is said to have been constant to shepherd's plaid — a material scarce known to us in the present day — for his nether garments. There are men in London whose hats we could swear to, and con- 158 EEATEICE AND BENEDICK. fidently predict their presence in the house as we pass their head-gear on the hall table ; and I can call to mind a well-known lady, whose taste for bright colours was so con- spicuous in her raiment that people at Lord's and Hurlingham made appointments to meet in her vicinity, as a rendezvous, that, though movable, could be seen from afar. If only this unknown lady had but had a penchant of that description. As it was, neither Tarrant nor Polly Phybbs saw any probability of coming across the mysterious stranger unless she should again pay the Doctor a visit. But there is something in luck, and busy one morning in the heart of the city on some mission of Miss Lynden's, Polly could hardly withhold a cry of exultation upon catching sight of her master talking earnestly with a well-dressed woman who she had no doubt was the lady she was so anxious to catch sight of. She easily contrived to pass them, not too closely, but near enough to obtain a CONSTABLE TARRANT IS PUZZLED. 159 good view of the latter 's face. It was one she had never seen before. " She may visit the master by the side- door," sniffed Miss Phybbs, " but she's never come in at the front " ; and her suspicions as to the respectabihty of the unknown became stronger than ever. She turned back and repassed them, still contriving to keep unnoticed herself, which was all the more easy from the slow pace at which they were walking and the earnestness of their conversation. And Polly felt then that there was no fear of her not recognising the stranger in future. A tall, well-preserved woman of forty, on a rather large scale ; with an indolent grace in her movement that would have made her a striking figure in any drawing-room. She was richly but quietly dressed, and that she saw her now for the first time Miss Phybbs was certain, though she and the Doctor were apparently old acquaintances. Polly had neither time nor inclination to follow them. 160 BEATEICE AND BENEDICK. but remained satisfied with having succeeded in identifying the stranger. She determined on her way home to say nothing of her morning's adventure to Dick, beheving that if she only got to the bottom of it, it would turn out to be a petty scandal, which was no concern of the police.