8Z3 
 
 V. 1
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 VOL. L
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOE OF 
 
 ^t^^U-^-) 
 
 "ST. OLAVE'S," "JAmXA'S CROSS," 
 "THE BLUE RIBBON," 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 "A mien and face 
 In which full plainly I can trace 
 Benignity and home-bred sense, 
 Ripening in perfect innocence." 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: , 
 
 HURST AND BLAOKETT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 1874. 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 T>RINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUGWELL, 
 
 BLENHEIM HOUSE.
 
 C^yJ 
 
 in 
 
 
 ^ HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 .t- 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 T T stood about a mile away from the vil- 
 to -*- lage ; Nunthorpe Chase, the family seat 
 . , of the Lauderdales. A quaint, picturesque 
 
 old house, with the moss of well-nigh four 
 N^ centuries staining its red gables, and dappling 
 ^ with many a patch of russet, olive, and gold, 
 
 its stone mullioned bays and oriels. An 
 S avenue of rook-colonised elm-trees led up 
 
 to the south front, stopping short at a 
 
 balustraded terrace, whereon, in summer 
 
 C^^ time, a pair of peacocks were wont to take 
 
 V their pastime, after a somewhat noisy fashion. 
 
 t VOL. I. B
 
 2 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 Over the principal entrance was the Lau- 
 derdale crest — a lion passant^ given to 
 Guy, the first baronet, when he returned 
 with his comrades from a voyage of dis- 
 covery in the Spanish main. And all 
 round and about, beyond park and pleas- 
 aunce, lay the woods, the beautiful Nun- 
 thorpe woods, with many a glade and dingle 
 breaking away into great slopes of moor- 
 land, purple-blue in earl}'- autumn with 
 heather and gentian, or brightening into a 
 golden glory as the blossoming gorse burst 
 out like flashes of sunshine to say that spring 
 had come. 
 
 The house had its own traditions, as all 
 such houses are bound to have. A lady, 
 unnaturally tall of stature, was sometimes 
 seen wandering up and down at untimely 
 hours upon that balustraded terrace. Some- 
 where, in unexplored recesses of the northern 
 wing, was a walled-up chamber, from which
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 3 
 
 strange noises, as of rustling garments or 
 of clanking chainSj were heard to issue. 
 Before any untoward event was going to 
 happen in the family, a knocking was heard 
 at the oriel window of the portrait-gallery, 
 followed by a whizzing sound, as of the 
 flight of some heavy-winged bird. And in 
 the musty, worm-eaten diary of Sir Hugh 
 Lauderdale, member of the Privy Council 
 of James II. was a most circumstantial ac- 
 count of an armed knight who had been 
 distinctly seen, on one moonlight night, to 
 ride slowly, mounted on a black steed, 
 through the great entrance-hall ; and then, 
 without clatter of hoof or drawing of bolt, 
 to disappear through the iron-studded door. 
 But, spite of all these stories, carefully 
 treasured up and handed down from one to 
 another of the successive butlers or house- 
 keepers of the place, Nunthorpe was a 
 right pleasant old mansion. Bright enough 
 
 B 2
 
 4 HOPE MEREDITH, 
 
 was the flashing firelight which in winter 
 nights poured forth beneath the large man- 
 telpiece of the oak dining-room, making 
 flickering shadows on the portraits of the 
 Lauderdale people, knights and ladies brave, 
 who had done their work, and suffered 
 their pains, and played out their lives in 
 that venerable homestead. Warm was the 
 smile of the summer sunshine glancing 
 through the stained windows of the picture- 
 gallery upon suits of armour, and Indian 
 cabinets, and Eastern curiosities, which Lau- 
 derdale warriors had from, time to time 
 treasured there. There was a feeling as 
 of some living yet unseen human presence 
 brooding everywhere. The life of the old 
 generations, their loves, their hates, their 
 joys, their sorrows, throbbed and stirred in 
 every chamber. The place was full of 
 memories. 
 
 Perhaps more full of memory now thau
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 5 
 
 hope. One might havelooked for brighter faces 
 at Nunthorpe Chase than those of Sir David 
 Lauderdale and Madolin, his daughter, who 
 were now sole occupiers of the place. There 
 should have been children's voices, merry, 
 laughing voices, echoing under those boars' 
 tusks and deers' antlers in the big silent 
 entrance-hall, and children's footsteps, many 
 and musical, pattering up and down the long 
 panelled corridors; but no children ever 
 came to Nunthorpe Chase — Miss Lauderdale 
 did not care for them. 
 
 There should have been guests, brave and 
 beautiful, to catch upon their satins and 
 jewels the flash of that blazing firelight, or 
 to make holiday in the pleasant garden, with 
 its shady alleys so meet for lovers' talk, its 
 sunny lawns and terraces so fitting for jest 
 and game and gathering ; but few guests 
 ever came to Nunthorpe Chase. Miss Lau- 
 derdale did not care for company.
 
 b HOPE MEKEDITH. 
 
 There should have been many a banquet 
 in that grand old dining-room, whose very 
 walls seemed steeped with fragrance of wine 
 and spices, or seasoned with after-dinner joke 
 and repartee of the olden time ; but com- 
 pany was rarely invited to Nunthorpe 
 Chase. Only now and then, when Sir 
 David's sole surviving sister, majestic Miss 
 Griselda, was down from London, the 
 solemn pageant of a dinner-party, with 
 much glitter of plate and silent stepping to 
 and fro of powdered footmen, was gone 
 through, followed at a due interval by the 
 inevitable calls of ceremony. Miss Lauder- 
 dale did not care to " entertain." 
 
 What, then, might Miss Lauderdale be 
 pleased to care for ? Apparently nothing 
 but to idle away her time in the woods, 
 crushing down the blue-bells and wind- 
 flowers with those dainty feet of hers. Or to 
 sit with her hands clasped behind her head,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 7 
 
 whilst the winter twilight crept up and about 
 in the silken-curtained drawing-room, and 
 Sir David breathed heavily in his cushioned 
 chair. Or to write verses in old English 
 text, and illuminate them with queer, gro- 
 tesque, or fanciful devices, copied from 
 missals in the library. And the poem she 
 had written out most frequently, and illus- 
 trated with the choicest wealth of leaf and 
 bud and flower, was that one of Mariana in 
 the moated grange, which has for its bur- 
 den : 
 
 " I am aweary, aweary ; 
 I would that I were dead." 
 
 People who had nothing else to do, won- 
 dered that Miss Lauderdale did not marry. 
 True, the broad acres of Nunthorpe Chase 
 would only descend in the male line ; but 
 still there was money enough in the Lau- 
 derdale coffers, and patronage enough in the 
 Lauderdale family, to make Sir David's only
 
 8 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 child an eligible match for the best of the 
 county aristocracy. And Madolin was 
 beautiful too, tall of stature and fair of face 
 as any of the ladies who, in ruffs and far- 
 thingales, or with loose tresses and half- 
 covered bosoms, looked down from their 
 gilded frames in the portrait-gallery. 
 
 But Miss Lauderdale did not care for that 
 either. It was not her will to marry. So 
 Princess Madolin said with royal calmness, 
 as time after time she was summoned to the 
 library, to receive, through her stately old 
 father, the offer of some fresh suitor's heart. 
 And she would listen patiently, but with coldly 
 folded hands and no light of woman's love or 
 longing in her great shadowy eyes, whilst Sir 
 David, who would fain have seen his only 
 child a happy wife before going to his own 
 place under the carven canopies of the dead 
 Lauderdale people in Nunthorpe church, set
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 9 
 
 before her the advantages of such and such 
 an alliance which had been proposed to him. 
 This would give social status ; that, patron- 
 age in Church or State ; another, wealth ; 
 another, the prestige of intellectual influ- 
 ence. He told her, if no husband were ac- 
 cepted, with due shelter of home and name, 
 the days would surely come when a new 
 master must take possession of Nunthorpe 
 Chase, and she, no longer its lady and mis- 
 tress, must drift into the obscurity of old 
 maidenhood. Old maidenhood, too, with- 
 out the importance which lands or wealth 
 could sometimes give even then; for the 
 Lauderdale coffers were not so full as some 
 people thought, and patronage had never 
 yet been sold in that family. 
 
 Still Madolin's answer was the same — it 
 was not her will to marry. 
 
 And that was what she said when the
 
 10 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 latest of her suitors came — Colonel Lauder- 
 dale, Sir David's namesake and heir, who 
 would have given her the old family title, 
 and made her, by marriage right, the mis- 
 tress of the ancestral home which now she 
 only held by courtesy, during her father's 
 life. 
 
 In vain Sir David remonstrated ; in vain 
 the gallant Colonel asked for private inter- 
 views; in vain Miss Griselda, who came 
 down from town on purpose, pleaded, pout- 
 ed, argued, and threatened — Madolin faced 
 them all with the immoveable, rock-like 
 firmness of the Lauderdales, and told them 
 only that it was not her will to marry. 
 
 But when she had told them so, she 
 swept away to her own chamber, and there, 
 with tight-clasped hands and in no wise 
 calm face, she watched away a whole long 
 winter night. And her voice went up
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 11 
 
 through the silent dark in a slow wail which 
 only Heaven could hear : 
 
 "I am aweary, aweary, 
 I would that I were dead !"
 
 12 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 ^' T CAN'T square her up nohow, Bessie," 
 ■- said Jacob Lund, the lodge-keeper, 
 to his wife, as Miss Lauderdale walked past 
 with her father to the little church on the 
 green, listless, uninterested, with neither 
 light of hope nor memory on her pale, 
 proud face. " I can't square her up nohow. 
 Seems to me she's got summut on her mind, 
 else I don't see no call for her to trail her- 
 self along as if she'd all the troubles of 
 Matchborough tied up at the tail of her 
 gown." 
 
 "She's been that way, Jacob, ever since 
 the family came back from them there furrin
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. IS 
 
 parts where they was forced to go when Sir 
 David lost his money. Maybe she'd set her- 
 self to wed somebody out there, and her 
 father went again' her. The Lauderdales is 
 a terrible stiff-backed family. They don't 
 talk a deal, but, bless you, they'd go right 
 away to their deaths, every man and woman 
 of 'em that I've set eyes on yet, afore they'd 
 give up their own wills." 
 
 " Why don't she face round and get it,, 
 then ?" said Jacob. 
 
 ''Get what?— her will? Nay, I don't 
 know for certain as that's it ; but there's a 
 summut that don't run easy with her. 
 Law, now ! to think of the difference afore 
 she went away, and that's better'n ten years 
 back, just afore little Jack was born, there 
 wasn't a more light-hearted er creature in 
 the parish; and ready to keep company 
 with anyone proper — as the times and times 
 I've seen her galloping over the Chase with
 
 14 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 the young ladies from the Rectory — poor 
 Parson Bonaway's daughters, you remem- 
 ber, Jacob, — laughing again, and as merry 
 as a cricket. And for temper — her mother 
 over again, as sure as I'm a living woman. 
 My ! but if you wanted to see a bit of 
 temper, you'd only need go to Nunthorpe 
 Chase in poor Lady Lauderdale's time." 
 
 '^ I don't need to go so far," said Jacob, 
 drily. "You can give tongue yourself as 
 well as the best of 'em. It don't need big 
 folk to be a bit fond o' their own way, and 
 to show up a bit o' temper, too." 
 
 But Jacob's honest grey eyes, as he made 
 this remark, rested on his bonnie middle- 
 aged wife with a half-ashamed acknowledg- 
 ment of love, which, perhaps, served to 
 make the personality go down comfortably. 
 At any rate, Bessie did not bridle up to any 
 serious extent. She only gave the cups 
 and saucers a little extra rattle as she
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 15 
 
 put them away in the corner cupboard. 
 
 " Well, and what's a woman good for, I 
 should like to know, if she hasn't a tongue 
 in her head and a bit of a temper to back 
 it up. I'd as soon see a shorn sheep i' the 
 March winds as a wife that can't give back 
 as good as she gets, any day. The law ties 
 them up pretty fast, most ways, but it can't 
 get hold of their tongues and their tempers ; 
 and I say let 'em use 'em while they have 
 'em. But I never see a woman give loose 
 like Lady Lauderdale yet. You don't re- 
 member her, Jacob ; you didn't use to 
 come about the house so much then — least- 
 ways, only to the back, when you was 
 a-courting of me." 
 
 " Ay, and a rare long time you kept me 
 at it, too," said Jacob, with a still half- 
 ashamed, half-proud look at his wife — 
 ''seven year and better afore you'd give in 
 to be axed in church, and me coming across
 
 16 HOPE MEKEDITH. 
 
 Nunthorpe Common, wet or dry, e very- 
 night of my life for as mucli as a kiss at the 
 gate ; and lucky if I got it, too." 
 
 " Well, Jacob, and the better for both 
 on us. For wages didn't use to be what 
 they've risen to since ; and if I hadn't stuck 
 to my situation when I lived housemaid at 
 the Chase, and spared and scraped as there 
 isn't a many does now, there'd none have 
 been that fifty pound in the Matchborough 
 Bank to get agate of housekeeping with ; 
 and the big nest of drawers, and the goose 
 feather-bed, and the eight-day clock, as it 
 hasn't missed a tick since it was set a-going 
 on the wedding-day. It isn't you, Jacob, as 
 had ought to say nothing." 
 
 " I don't say nothing," replied Jacob, con- 
 tentedly. " You've been a good wife to me. 
 I wish every man had as good. Only when 
 a fellow knows he's making a good bargain 
 for himself, it nat'rally kind o' riles hiin
 
 HOPE MEKEDITH. 17 
 
 when he can't get it struck right away. 
 And as for the clock, Bessy, why, the time 
 used to go quick enough — we didn't want 
 nothing to help it on. But I don't go 
 against the saving, for all that." 
 
 " No, nor hadn't need to," said Bessy, 
 turning her head sharply in the direction of 
 her eldest daughter, a pretty girl of seven- 
 teen, who had just come into the kitchen, 
 and was tying on her black straw hat at the 
 little lookinsr-dass over the afore-mentioned 
 '' nest " of drawers. " And that's a word on 
 your side of the bridge, miss, for I'd like to 
 see how much you'll lay by against you get 
 a young man to keep company with, and you 
 a-peaking and a-preening of yourself, as if 
 you was a lady born, with your flowers and 
 ribbons and things. Them wasn't the ways 
 when I was a girl, I can tell you, or your 
 father and me might have waited long 
 enough before we got settled with furniture 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 as there don't need to he no better in the 
 parish." 
 
 " Nay, mother, let her alone," said Jacob, 
 soothingly, glancing with a father's pride at 
 his pretty Theresa, or Tossie, as they gene- 
 rally called her, standing there before the 
 looking-glass, and holding her head coquet- 
 tishly on one side, to see the effect of the 
 new hat; "it isn't often she sets a chance 
 to put her best things on. I lay you liked 
 to smarten yourself up when you was a girl, 
 as well as the best of 'em. What did cost, 
 honey ?" he continued, taking hold of the 
 hat and dangling it on his big thumb. 
 
 " Nothing at all, father," said Tossie, tri- 
 umphantly ; " and so mother needn't have a 
 deal to say about me not saving. It's my 
 old hat as I had last summer, with the brim 
 pinched in a bit, same as I've seen 'em on 
 Matchborough market-day ; and the ribbon 
 I've sponged up wdth black tea; and the
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 19 
 
 rose Miss Tippet gave me — she that's maid 
 up at the Chase." 
 
 ^' And more to blame she," said inex- 
 orable Mrs. Lund, " to set you up with such 
 trumpery, when she might see well enough 
 your head's turned round, if you can only 
 get a bit of something smart to stick on it. 
 Anybody might think you wasn't your own 
 mother's child, to see you wasting your time 
 that way, and me toiling and moiling in the 
 house, as they needn't talk about black 
 slaves while I'm here to show 'em what a 
 Christian woman has to do." 
 
 " Well, mother," said Tossie, with a shrug 
 of her pretty sloping shoulders, " I don't 
 want to be idle — I've said over and over 
 again I'll go and wait in a shop any day, if 
 you'll find me a place convenient; and I 
 always get the children off to their school ; 
 and I've trimmed your best bonnet up for 
 you this year, so as Miss Tippet herself says 
 
 c2
 
 20 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 you wouldn't get much change out of half 
 a sovereign if you had it to buy in Match- 
 borough. I don't think you've a need to fly 
 at me for being idle, that way." 
 
 "No, Bessy, honey," urged soft-hearted 
 Jacob, evidently perplexed between love for 
 Tossie and fear of his ready-tongued but 
 valuable wife. " If she takes it off one way, 
 she puts it on another, and that evens it, in 
 a manner, as you may say. There, Tossie ; 
 you'd best be going, or you'll happen fall 
 late for church, and that don't look well for 
 such as you." 
 
 Jacob gave the girl a kindly nod as she 
 disappeared, readily enough, with her prayer- 
 book. Poor girl! she was often thankful 
 to find relief in the outward means of grace 
 from the incessant reproof to which her 
 pretty face and somewhat slovenly house- 
 hold w^ays subjected her. And Jacob, 
 lighting his pipe, stood at the lodge door,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 21 
 
 ready, in case the storm should wax louder, 
 to make a retreat outward, down some of 
 the woodland paths ; or, should it lull, to 
 return to the pleasures of domestic inter- 
 course. 
 
 " You'd best not be over hard upon her, 
 Bessy honey. She's that sort as don't do to 
 be driven. If you give her a touch too 
 much, she'll maybe fling up, and it'll go hard 
 with her." 
 
 " It'll go harder still if you let her alone, 
 Jacob. I'm surprised at you ! As long as 
 the bairn looks pretty you don't think o' 
 naught else. I lay if my mother hadn't kep' 
 a straight hand on me when I'd as bonnie a 
 face to bless myself with, I shouldn't have 
 been much of a wife for you, and vittles the 
 price they are now, and butcher meat that 
 dear you may think yourself lucky to get it 
 three times a week. And talk of waiting in 
 a shop, indeed! — as I wonder you could
 
 22 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 Stand still and hear her say it, and you 
 turned fi%, and knowing what a place 
 Matchborough is, as a pretty face can't walk 
 down its streets in peace and quiet. A fine 
 thing for a girl that's been taught to behave 
 herself decently and respectably, to be stuck 
 up there behind a counter, for every jack- 
 anapes as wants a pennorth of tape to come 
 in and stare at. No, Mr. Lund, wait till 
 I'm safe in my grave, if you please, and then 
 send Tossie to w^ait in a shop, if you think it 
 would be such a mighty fine thing for the 
 girl." 
 
 '' I don't remember as I ever said it 'ud 
 be a mighty fine thing for the girl," said 
 Jacob, with a dubious glance down the 
 nearest woodland path. Perhaps it would 
 be best to go in that direction, after all. 
 • ^' It was her own thought, and there's 
 a-many does it now-a-days, when wages 
 isn't to call high. But if she isn't no use to
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 23 
 
 you in the house, why don't you put her out 
 maid-of- all-work somewhere, or get her took 
 in at the Chase — she's had her mind set that 
 way, too, a good bit past." 
 
 " Maid-of- all- work, indeed, Jacob ! I 
 wonder you're not ashamed of yourself, to 
 smoke your pipe there and say such a thing, 
 and leave me here with the work, as it's 
 scarce ever a minute I get to sit me down 
 and rest. I'd like to know who'd see after 
 getting Jack off to school, and making his 
 few bits of things for him, bless him ! and 
 do the light end of the dusting, and that 
 sort, if Tossie's handed off to a maid-of-all- 
 work place. But it's always the way with 
 the men — they never have no sense about 
 nothing." 
 
 And then, seeing that she had, like 
 many another irritable and quick-tongued 
 woman, faced round upon her own pre- 
 vious position, and knocked it down, Mrs.
 
 24 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 Lund adroitly changed the conversation. 
 '' But I don't say nothing — it'll right 
 itself; only leave it alone, as I've heard tell 
 that were poor Sir David's way when my 
 lady was in her tantrums ; not but what she 
 was always kind enough to me, because with 
 me being took in maid while mother was 
 housekeeper at the Chase, it wasn't like 
 coming in a stranger. But save us, if there 
 ever was a bonnie woman with a bonnie 
 temper, that was my Lady Lauderdale. I've 
 heard tell most of them Spanish folks has a 
 deal of spirit in 'em, and if they're all like 
 her, I'm thankful I was born in my own 
 country, and so there's an end. For as 
 proud a man as he is, I've seen Sir David 
 shake in his shoes — ay, that I have, when 
 Lady Lauderdale got fired up about any- 
 thing as she couldn't have her own way 
 
 in." 
 
 " Ay, they're a awkward thing, is a woman
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 25 
 
 when you get hold of 'em wrong way," said 
 Jacob, sententiously, coming back with his 
 pipe, now that the storm had veered round, 
 and settling himself down in the chimney 
 corner. "You may talk, and you may talk, 
 but after all you must let 'em have their 
 way." 
 
 " Yes, and my lady got it, too. She had 
 a flash with her eves as a man couldn't stand 
 against, and that sort of look as, if she'd had 
 a dagger anywhere handy, she wouldn't 
 have stuck at using it. I could tell you a 
 deal, Jacob, if I was a woman that talked ; 
 but nobody has it to say of me that I'm 
 given to such like, or I shouldn't have kept 
 my situation at Nunthorpe Chase fifteen year 
 from the time I was took in maid under ray 
 mother, and the servants coming and going 
 like chickens in and out of a coop, with my 
 lady's temper. But my mother always said 
 to me, * Bessy,' she used to say, ' stop
 
 26 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 where you are — it'll be best for you in the 
 end. A girl as has been at the Chase fifteen 
 year can put her foot pretty well where she 
 likes after that.' And a true word, too, for 
 if I hadn't married you, Jacob, there's many 
 and many a county family about here would 
 been glad enough to have had me, and 
 good wage, and everything found. But I 
 don't complain." 
 
 Jacob, puffing away at his pipe, and medi- 
 tating upon a row of brightly-polished tin 
 candlesticks and saucepan lids upon the 
 chimneypiece, didn't complain either. And 
 Bessy continued — 
 
 '^Miss Madolin was her mother over 
 again, every bit, while they went away 
 abroad, to save, when Sir David lost his 
 mone}^ Such a spirit and a temper ; and 
 always for racing and galloping about up 
 and down the park with them young ladies 
 from the Rectory, as they're both of 'em
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 27 
 
 married and done for now, poor things ! 
 and a smile for everybody, let 'em be as 
 poor as they might; and as long as you 
 didn't cross her, the best of dispositions. 
 But just say her nay when she'd set her 
 mind on ought, and then wait a bit and 
 vou'd see. I've known her and Miss 
 
 ml 
 
 Griselda, when the old lady's been at her to 
 be a bit steadier, and I should say a young 
 tigress would about have matched it. And 
 now, if you want to see the difference, 
 you've only to look." 
 
 And Bessy jerked her elbow in the 
 direction of Nunthorpe village green, across 
 which, half an hour before, Sir David and 
 Miss Madolin had walked, slightly apart 
 from each other ; he silent, stately, self- 
 absorbed ; she careless, indifferent, purpose- 
 less ; her long garments trailing over the 
 fallen leaves, her small black-gloved hands 
 loosely folded, her brown shadowy eyes
 
 28 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 looking straight on, with no light or sweet- 
 ness in their gaze. 
 
 " And never nobody coming to the place, 
 and the horses eating their heads off in the 
 stable, and no dancing nor nothing in the 
 great gallery, as I've seen it in Lady Lau- 
 derdale's time, when you couldn't count 'em 
 with their laces and their satins and their 
 diamonds ; and the supper set out in the 
 crimson dining-room, with such a sight of 
 plate as it might have done anybody's eyes 
 good to see. And it isn't Sir David's fault 
 as they don't come the same now, nor Miss 
 Griselda's neither, for the old lady always 
 puts her best foot forward to get a bit of a 
 spread when she comes to the Chase. She's 
 a rare one is Miss Griselda for making Sir 
 David's money fly; and people are glad 
 enough to get asked to such a house. It's 
 Miss Lauderdale does it, that's where it is ; 
 but the why and the wherefore's beyond you 
 and me, Jacob."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 2^ 
 
 Jacob puffed away silently as ever, only 
 just taking his pipe out to say — 
 " 1 can't square her up, nohow." 
 Meanwhile Madolin and her father sat in 
 the Chase pew, with plenty of crimson 
 cushions to make them comfortable, and 
 silken curtains closely drawn around, that 
 the village folks should not inquire too 
 rudely into their devotions. Madolin went 
 to church regularly every Sunday morning, 
 and said her prayers out of a great book, 
 with the Lauderdale crest upon its cover ; 
 but for eight long years the empty-hearted 
 woman had never prayed at all, save that 
 God would take from her the life which 
 was a weariness unto her.
 
 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Oj IR DAVID was a middle-aged man when 
 ^ he came into possession of the Lau- 
 derdale title and estates. Having at the 
 outset of life but the slender expectations of 
 a younger son, he had been sent into the 
 Army, and was engaged for some time in 
 foreign service. During one of his cam- 
 paigns, when he was long past the heyday 
 of 3^outh, he met a Spanish girl named 
 Madolin Alvara, fell in love with her, sold 
 ■out of the Army, got a Government appoint- 
 ment abroad, married, and settled down to 
 such happiness as the middle-aged husband
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 31 
 
 of a beautiful, jealous, passionate, imperious 
 girl may be expected to enjoy. 
 
 Ten years after this, his eldest brother 
 dying unmarried. Captain, now Sir David 
 Lauderdale, came to England to take pos- 
 session of Nunthorpe Chase, bringing with 
 him his splendid wife and their only child, a 
 bright little brunette of six or seven years. 
 
 Lady Lauderdale did not live long to 
 enjoy the privileges of her new social posi- 
 tion. Having by turns scolded, stormed, 
 and sulked at her husband, until she had 
 changed him from a frank, good-tempered 
 man of the world, into a grave, silent re- 
 cluse ; and having succeeded in thoroughly 
 spoiling the little Madolin, to whom she had 
 given her own temper with more than her 
 own beauty, the Spaniard died, and was 
 buried amongst the dusty Lauderdales, in 
 Nunthorpe village church. Unrestful sur- 
 roundings, truly, those carven canopies and
 
 32 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 stony faces and hands, for ever clasped, as 
 in prayer, for her on whose grave the 
 myrtle should have blossomed, and the 
 orange dropped its white leaves in her own 
 
 sunnv land. 
 
 «/ 
 
 Then Sir David's maiden sister, majestic 
 Miss Griselda Lauderdale, came to live with 
 her brother, and try what could be done 
 towards bringing little Miss Madolin into 
 something like wholesome restraint. 
 
 That was not much. Miss Griselda was a 
 Lauderdale herself, stiff-backed as any of 
 them ; but the strong marble of her charac- 
 ter was cracked through and through with 
 little womanish foibles and pettinesses, which 
 Madolin was quick to see and powerful to 
 resist. Tolerably good-hearted, but very 
 pompous, bound in meekest slavery to the 
 creeds and customs of her own little set, a 
 Tory of the Tories, excellently kind and 
 patronizing to everyone beneath her, so long
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 3S 
 
 as the iron bars of position were kept intact, 
 but horrified beyond measure if struggling 
 worth or intellect had the audacity to vault 
 over them, Miss Griselda was very unfit to 
 deal with a girl in whom liberty was an in- 
 stinct, and who knew no law but her own 
 will. To that will Sir David's sister could 
 oppose one equally strong, though far from 
 equally subtle; but of passion, that white 
 heat of southern fire which quivered and 
 blazed in the young heart of her niece, poor 
 Miss Griselda knew nothing at all. It as- 
 tonished her; she was powerless to guide 
 it 
 
 So were governesses, so were tutors, so 
 was even Sir David himself, when he at- 
 tempted it. But he seldom did attempt it. 
 He had entered Parliament soon after the 
 death of his wife, and was rarely at home 
 now, except for a few weeks in the late 
 summer, when Madolin's pretty petulant 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 84 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ways, her ripe, girlish beauty, mingling the 
 Alvara colour and warmth with the severe 
 chiselled contour of the Lauderdale type, 
 even her passion and imperiousness, made 
 her rather fascinating than otherwise to the 
 tired politician. 
 
 At eighteen Madolin was the idol of all 
 the county families round Nunthorpe Chase. 
 Society forgives everything to a beautiful, 
 dashing, high-spirited girl. It will overlook 
 bad temper and selfishness, or even turn 
 them into additional attractions, when the 
 eyes out of which they show themselves are 
 so gloriously bright, and the cheeks on 
 which they flush round as the peach and 
 soft as the roseleaf. Madolin queened it at 
 all the out-door gatherings, archery meetings, 
 and boating parties which were got up by 
 Miss Griselda's set. Everyone said what a 
 brilliant match the girl would make one of 
 these days, with that splendid face and
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 35 
 
 glorious spirit of hers. And the old aunt, 
 who exulted in her niece's beauty as much 
 as she dreaded her imperious temper, was 
 already beginning to look forward with 
 secret triumph to the excitement which 
 Madolin would create when she was pre- 
 sented at Court, and took her place in 
 society, and brought to her feet even its 
 most blase aristocrats, who could not but be 
 conquered by a face and manner which 
 linked southern fire to northern stateliness. 
 
 But Madolin was not destined to kiss the 
 hand of Royalty, and dazzle the eyes of the 
 fashionable world, and then, at the close 
 of her first season, step supreme into her 
 carriage, a bride, in all the glories of orange 
 blossom and Honiton lace. Whilst Miss 
 Griselda was making the necessary arrange- 
 ments for joining her brother in his town 
 house, preparatory to the young lady's pre- 
 sentation, the Matchborough Bank, in which 
 
 d2
 
 36 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 most of Sir David's fortune was locked up, 
 stopped payment. Large sums had been 
 forged upon it by the chief cashier, a man 
 named Jetsam, who had made his escape, 
 and was supposed to be somewhere in hiding 
 on the Continent. Sir David was so deeply 
 involved in the downfall that nothing re- 
 mained but for him to break up his estab- 
 lishments, both in town and country, let the 
 Chase furnished, find a quiet home for Aunt 
 Griselda and Madolin somewhere abroad, 
 and go into apartments in London until his 
 affairs were sufficiently settled for him to 
 make a home for his family again. 
 
 So Nunthorpe was let to a wealthy coal 
 and timber merchant, and Madolin, instead 
 of a court-train, had a travelling-dress pre- 
 pared for her, and the orders which had 
 been given for the refitting of the town 
 house were countermanded, and, instead, 
 arrangements made for a speedy packing-up
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 3? 
 
 and removal to Heidelberg, where apart- 
 ments had been taken for them at one of 
 the hest pensions. 
 
 Miss Griselda took her brother's misfor- 
 tunes sorely to heart. Never, since the first 
 Sir Guy built for himself a home there, had 
 Nunthorpe Chase wanted a Lauderdale to 
 keep due state beneath its roof. Though 
 not so wealthy as many of the mushroom 
 aristocracy of the neighbourhood, the Chase 
 people had always held their place proudly 
 enough at the head of the county society. Now, 
 for strangers, vulgar merchants without a 
 pedigree, people who had grown rich through 
 coal and timber, to tread those polished 
 satin floors, which hitherto none but Lau- 
 derdale feet had paced, and gather round 
 the ample firesides which had flashed their 
 light upon none but Lauderdale faces, and 
 dispread their capacious persons on the 
 couches whose downy pillows had yielded to
 
 38 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 the touch of none but Lauderdale loveliness 
 — Miss Griselda shed tears at the thought. 
 
 Madolin took things more philosophically. 
 Life at Nunthorpe Chase had never quite 
 contented her ; neither, she thought, would 
 London life, with its added burden of state 
 and ceremonial, be much better. She had 
 heard, read of Heidelberg. It was a pleasant 
 place. Society was not so formal as in 
 England. People could do as they liked 
 there, go where they liked, visit whom they 
 chose. Aunt Griselda would not need to 
 be always reining her up, reminding her 
 of her position, coming down upon her with 
 traditions of Lauderdale grandeur. She 
 would be able to have her own way a little 
 more, shake off the dust of country exclu- 
 siveness, and look with her own great bright 
 eyes into a world whose ways and woes and 
 wickednesses had hitherto been carefully 
 kept from her. Heidelberg would not be
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 39 
 
 SO bad after all. And then it was only for 
 three years. Papa said his aifairs would 
 most likely have come right by that time. 
 They should save no end of money by going 
 to the Continent, and be able, perhaps, 
 to spend as much as ever they liked when 
 they came home. Only she hoped in the 
 meantime some one would catch that villain 
 Jetsam, and visit upon hiai the due reward 
 of his evil deeds. 
 
 " If I could find him, Auntie Grisel, I 
 would like to take hold of him like this — 
 look !" 
 
 And Madolin clutched her little white 
 throat with her jewelled fingers. 
 
 " And I would keep him fast, until there 
 was no breath left in him. I would. Auntie, 
 there then ; and so you need not look so 
 shocked at me." 
 
 "My dear," said Sir David's excellent 
 sister, " such feelings are not for people of
 
 40 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 our class. So long as the purposes of justice 
 are answered, it is needless for us to sully 
 our minds by thinking of the vile wretch 
 who has done us so much mischief. I beg 
 you will not mention his name in my pre- 
 sence again." 
 
 Though, at the same time, if Auntie 
 Grisel had known that Jetsam was to be 
 executed at Newgate prison in a still more 
 ignominious fashion than that which Mado- 
 lin had suggested, she would have been 
 abundantly content. That was quite dif- 
 ferent from cherishing vindictive feelings in 
 one's own mind. 
 
 So Sir David took the ladies to Heidel- 
 berg, established them in private apartments 
 in one of the best pensions of the town, 
 staid with them until they had gathered 
 round them a comfortable little circle of 
 friends, and then came back to his solitary 
 London chambers, to live there as quietly
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 41 
 
 and inexpensively as he could, until such 
 time as Nunthorpe Chase might own him for 
 its master again.
 
 42 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 rpHE three years were nearly over. They 
 -■- had been more formidable in prospect 
 than reality. Even Miss Griselda was con- 
 strained to say that Continental life had its 
 bright side, for she was quite the Empress 
 of the pension. Everyone did obeisance to 
 the stately old English miladi. She had 
 the best seat at the dinner-table, the warm- 
 est corner in the drawing-room, the sunniest 
 or the shadiest place on terrace and lawn, 
 as weather might make sun or shade desir- 
 able. Some officious widower or polite 
 elderly gentleman was always ready to dis-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 43 
 
 entangle the interminable strips of parti- 
 coloured knitting which she was in the 
 habit of carrying about with her, and which 
 were everlastingly catching upon door- 
 handles, or table ornaments, or other peo- 
 ple's buttons ; and Miss Griselda bowed so 
 graciously when they were restored to her. 
 She had not even yet forgotten the time 
 when she, too, wrinkled now, and puckered, 
 and withered, and mildewed, and outworn, 
 was one of the queens of society, and could 
 have had her choice, had she not, perhaps, 
 as she said sometimes with a smile, been 
 over-fastidious in her likes and dislikes. 
 But then the Lauderdales were always such 
 a proud famil}^ 
 
 Madolin, too, liked it. If the pension 
 did obeisance to the elder lady, it did ' 
 homage to the younger one, whose bright, 
 flashing, passionate beauty was even more 
 rare at Heidelberg than amongst English
 
 44 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 county aristocracy. Madolin loved music ; 
 there were out-door concerts without num- 
 ber during the sweet summer evenings. 
 Madolin loved display ; there were private 
 theatricals got up at the ^pension for her 
 especial benefit, at which she took the prin- 
 cipal parts, and dazzled her audience, now 
 as a princess, now as a gipsy queen, now as 
 an Oriental bride, now as a fascinating little 
 coquette, now as a stately Italian Contessa. 
 Madolin loved amusement ; there were snug 
 dances in the drawing-room, private and 
 public balls in the town, boating parties, 
 hunting parties ; she had but to give the 
 word, and pic-nics, any number of them, 
 were got up for her, where everyone was 
 ready to dance attendance upon her for the 
 favour of a smile. And if Auntie Grisel 
 > always found some elderly widower to rescue 
 her strips of coloured knitting, Madolin 
 had but to drop a glove, a handkerchief, a
 
 HOPE MEKEDITH. 45 
 
 bouquet, and the room was in a tumult, a 
 perfect rush of cavaliers took place, and 
 happy he who replaced the trifle in her 
 careless hand. Oh ! it was a pleasant life 
 for Princess Madolin. 
 
 And no satiety in it, either. For no 
 sooner had she wearied of the too manifest 
 devotion of one set of admirers than chance 
 or fortune drifted them awav, and others 
 took their place, to do homage to the bril- 
 liant young Queen of the pension — to do 
 homage and offer their hearts too. Madolin 
 liked that very well. Nothing pleased her 
 better than to smile upon a bearded Ger- 
 man, or swarth Italian, or dainty English 
 milord, until she had brought him to 
 his knees before her, and then, with a 
 smile just as sweet, dismiss him, saying 
 he had "misunderstood" her — she had 
 only wished him for a friend. As a friend 
 she still desired that he should ling^er in
 
 46 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 her presence ; but for other than that 
 
 Then Madolin let the suitor press her 
 white hand, and utter a few words of pas- 
 sionate farewell ; and next day a place was 
 empty at the long table, and one more 
 unfortunate had temporarily lost his faith in 
 women-kind, and Madolin smiled as brightly 
 as ever. What was it all to her ? She 
 cared for none of these things. 
 
 Until one day, when the three years of 
 Aunt Griselda's proposed residence at 
 Heidelberg had nearly come to an end, a 
 Swedish gentleman, Gustave Nilken by 
 name, as the visitors' book showed, took his 
 place in the drawing-room. A fair-haired 
 man, quiet of manner, grave of face, with 
 keen grey-blue eyes, which seemed to see 
 everything, but told no story of their own. 
 He was travelling in Germany, he said, for 
 the sake of learning the language. He 
 seemed to have a facility in such learning,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 47 
 
 for he spoke English almost like a native — 
 a fact which was explained by his having 
 been for several years at school in London, 
 and afterwards mixing much with English 
 merchants in his own country. But appa- 
 rently he intended to learn German rather 
 by listening than by speaking, for his words 
 were very few, and he seemed to court ac- 
 quaintance with no one. The quietest man 
 they had ever seen, but gentlemanly withal, 
 said the ladies of the loension, though lack- 
 ing that indefinable something which all 
 over the world marks a man of high breed- 
 ing. Another conquest for my lady Mado- 
 lin ? Nay, not so, for Gustavo showed little 
 readiness to fall into the train of the splen- 
 did brunette. He appeared quite content 
 to admire at a distance, a mode of admira- . 
 tion to which Madolin was unaccustomed, 
 and of which she decidedly disapproved. 
 At least, she disapproved of it until the ad-
 
 48 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 mirer had asked permission to sun himself 
 in the royal presence. After asking that, 
 and being, of course, refused, he might 
 retire into the distance as much as he liked, 
 to make room for fresh worshippers. 
 
 Gustavo Nilken's offence was that, after 
 two or three weeks at the i^ension, and 
 sundry glances from Madolin's bright eyes, 
 intended as intimations that she was " at 
 home " to his homage, he was still content 
 to look upon her as an interesting study of 
 maidenhood, fair to see, but in no way 
 essential to his happiness. Madolin sang ; 
 he never offered to turn over the leaves for 
 her. Madohn sat upon the lawn ; he never 
 brought rugs and cushions to protect her 
 from the cold. Madolin announced her in- 
 tention of taking a stroll in the woods ; he 
 did not offer himself as an escort. Madolin 
 assumed the role of bride in private theatri- 
 cals ; Gustavo was never found amongst the
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 49 
 
 shoal of amateurs who expressed their de- 
 sire to act the part of bridegroom. Madolin 
 complained of the heat ; other people might 
 rush to open the window, or bring fans and 
 vinaigrette, Gustave never did, only amused 
 himself by noting how the proud girl chafed 
 at his neglect, and how she was beginning 
 to despise her other admirers, because 
 this stranger would not come into their 
 midst. 
 
 Wise Gustave ! prudent Gustave ! If, 
 from the very first, his object had been to 
 arouse the interest of Sir David Lauder- 
 dale's beautiful daughter, he could not have 
 gained it more successfully. His assumed 
 indifference did more for him than the 
 studious homage of all the rest of the 
 people. Madolin, finding she was not 
 sought, began to play the perilous game of 
 seeking. Influence, at any rate, she must 
 have, and submission she must win ; but she 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 bought them both at the price of what in 
 those days she fancied was her own heart's 
 love. 
 
 For soon a pang of jealousy, quite new 
 and strange to her, quivered through every 
 fibre if Gustavo smiled on other than her- 
 self. A meaning look, a delicate little 
 touch of flattery, a graceful compliment be- 
 stowed upon some flaxen-haired Fraulein or 
 well-dowered English maiden, could tighten 
 Madolin's lips for a whole evening, and 
 bend her brows into disdainful curves, and 
 tinge with bitter meaning every word she 
 said. A glance of his blue eyes could win 
 her away whithersoever he went ; a gentle 
 touch of his hand, would he but give it as 
 they sauntered through the woods, or passed 
 •each other in the dance, made her heart 
 beat, and the warm light burn within her 
 •eyes. Perhaps Gustavo knew that, too. 
 Few things escaped his quiet observance.
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 51 
 
 And was not Madolin rich — likely to be so, 
 at least — the only child of a country gentle- 
 man whose name was not entirely unfami- 
 liar? Gustave used to walk up and down 
 under the linden-trees after nightfall, al- 
 ways after nightfall, and stroke his mous- 
 tache, and think of these things. 
 
 Next day there would be just a touch of 
 devotion in his manner to the haughty 
 beauty. He would win her by some trifling 
 attention, which from him meant so much. 
 Then he would excite her jealousy by com- 
 pliments paid in another direction, then 
 bring back the sunshine by a tender word 
 or two. So, little by little, the game fell 
 into his own hands. It was no longer his 
 part, but Madolin's, to be moved, to wait 
 for a smile, to be humble, obedient, watch- 
 ful. And still the cold blue eyes gave no 
 sign to anyone else, and still Gustave held 
 himself apart, and was apparently so ab- 
 
 E 2 
 
 ^L^!!^'l^nnaiNOis
 
 52 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 sorbed in making himself master of that 
 difficult accomplishment — a knowledge of 
 the German language. 
 
 By-and-by Miss Griselda awoke to the 
 fact that something more serious than one of 
 Madolin's ordinary flirtations was altering 
 the girl's manner so, making her more than 
 usually irritable, wayward, passionate, and 
 capricious ; and the good lady determined 
 to put an end to it. Madolin might amuse 
 herself a little in that way if she liked, well 
 and good. She might break a few hearts, 
 well and good, too ; most handsome girls 
 did that more than once before their own 
 were taken captive in love's gentle thrall. 
 Even if she won away an honest lover from 
 some less-favoured maiden, who, before her 
 coming to Heidelberg, had held him all her 
 own, that was not of so very much conse- 
 quence. Such things happened every day 
 in good society. Might she not have been
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 53 
 
 a bride herself, many and many a year 
 ago, if a fairer, not to say a sweeter, 
 had not stepped before her and borne 
 away the prize upon which she had set her 
 mind? Let the Heidelberg maidens, then, 
 and the belles of the Pension, look after 
 themselves, they were no concern of hers. 
 But that her niece Madolin, the only child 
 of Sir David Lauderdale, of Nunthorpe 
 Chase, should be caught by a man with no 
 introductions, a man who, though appa- 
 rently well-read and tolerably gentlemanly, 
 and speaking English with wonderful accu- 
 racy for a foreigner, had still a smirch of 
 mercantile transactions about him, and might 
 be, for anything she knew to the contrary, 
 a penniless adventurer — that was a degrada- 
 tion not to be thought of It must be put 
 a stop to without delay. , 
 
 And Miss Griselda, by way of putting a 
 stop to it, did the foolishest thing that ever
 
 54 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 aunt of a headstrong, wilful, impetuous girl 
 stumbled upon. For instead of sending for 
 Sir David to fetch away his mischievous 
 daughter, or quietly packing her own port- 
 manteau and then giving the girl marching 
 orders, excellent Miss Griselda beckoned 
 Madolin with great solemnity into her 
 dressing-room, locked the door, drew down 
 the blinds, placed a couple of chairs oppo- 
 site each other in front of the stove, and 
 bidding her niece be seated on one, took the 
 other herself, and forthwith launched into 
 the solemnities of a set exhortation. She 
 held up before the girl in a variety of lights 
 the folly, not to say enormity, of her con- 
 duct, in allowing herself to encourage the 
 attentions of a man who, whatever his social 
 qualifications might be, could not certainly 
 give her that place in the fashionable world 
 to which her birth entitled her. She drew 
 upon her imagination for exaggerated pic-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 55 
 
 tures of the degradation which Madolin 
 would sustain by marrying beneath her own 
 rank. She even went out of her way to 
 blacken poor Nilken's character — a needless 
 piece of spitefulness on the old lady's 
 part, seeing that the man had conducted 
 himself quietly enough since his stay 
 in the pension, — conjuring up visions of 
 deserted wives in various Continental towns, 
 and possible domestic and matrimonial com- 
 plications which might arise when it was too 
 late to have them remedied. When Aunt 
 Griselda began to blacken, Madolin began 
 to storm. What right had her aunt to say 
 such things of a man about whom she knew 
 nothing, save that for three weeks he had 
 conducted himself as a gentleman in the 
 same house with themselves? What had 
 she done now, worse than she had been 
 doing for the last three years, during which 
 time no one had thought it necessary to pull
 
 56 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 her up, or find any fault with her ? Be- 
 sides, had she ever said that she meant to 
 marry Gustave Nilken, or wanted to marry 
 him, or behaved in such a way as to make 
 him believe that she would marry him, if he 
 asked her, that Aunt Griselda should take 
 the trouble to set in order such an array of 
 disgusting possibilities ? As if any Lauder- 
 dale girl ever had brought discredit upon 
 her father's house, or linked her name with 
 one that was not worthy to stand side by 
 side with it, in life and death ! 
 
 And Madolin's eyes flashed, and her 
 black brows knotted in to uneven lines, and 
 she stamped impatiently with her little feet 
 on the polished floor. Talk to her indeed, 
 bid her be prudent, mindful of the honour 
 of her race ! Let them leave that to her- 
 self! 
 
 Then Aunt Griselda began to storm too, 
 after her funny, spiteful, illogical way of
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 57 
 
 storming, which had the effect of making 
 Madolin cahn, immovable as a rock. Ex- 
 postulation always roused her into passion, 
 whilst the passion of others steadied her 
 back again into scornful quiet. However, 
 the end of it all was that she promised to 
 consider the matter, and not give Gustave 
 Nilken any further encouragement. With 
 which promise Aunt Griselda was content, 
 drew up the blind, unlocked the door, dis- 
 missed her niece, and fondly imagined that 
 all was right.
 
 58 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TTIHAT a member of the grand old Lau- 
 -■- derdale family could make a promise 
 and not keep it was a possibility which never 
 suggested itself to the mind of Sir David's 
 worthy sister. She forgot that the blood 
 of the crafty Spaniard mingled with the 
 noble English life in Madolin s veins ; that 
 passion capable of crouching like a tiger, 
 and jealousy, cruel as an adder's sting, lay 
 hidden beneath the pride and lofty self- 
 restraint which she inherited from her 
 father. 
 
 Madolin spoke no word, but swept calmly
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 59* 
 
 out of her aunt's presence. Just a few 
 more interviews, with low-spoken words 
 and half-averted looks, took place between 
 her and Gustave Nilken ; a few more walks 
 under the linden-trees, when Aunt Griselda 
 imagined her preparing for her part in a 
 charade, or writing letters to her English 
 friends ; and then, about three weeks after 
 that momentous dressing-room interview, 
 she went out one fine morning, met Gustave 
 at a little distance from the town, was pri- 
 vately married to him, and, after the cere- 
 mony, came quietly home, having slipped 
 the wedding-ring into her purse. Nilkeii 
 parted from her at the door, having business^ 
 matters to arrange at Homberg, which would 
 occupy him for perhaps a week. At the 
 end of that time he should return to Heidel- 
 berg, claim his splendid bride, spite of father, 
 aunt, or all the world, and bear her triumph- 
 antly away to the Swedish home, where
 
 60 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 she was to reign queen-mistress over him for 
 the rest of their lives. 
 
 For awhile after that all went on plea- 
 santly enough. The guests generally re- 
 gretted Monsieur Nilken's departure — he 
 was so quiet, inoffensive, unassuming. Miss 
 Griselda exulted over it. Madolin had most 
 likely dismissed him in consequence of those 
 remarks of hers in the dressing-room. The 
 girl really had a great deal of common 
 sense, where personal position was involved. 
 How glad she was now that she had not 
 made a fuss over it, said anything to the 
 other visitors, written to Sir David, or hur- 
 ried their departure from Heidelberg, since 
 they were not likely to meet with a pleas- 
 anter residence anywhere else. Madolin 
 certainly, she must say, seemed to feel his 
 absence, was not quite so vivacious, did not 
 care to have such a train of admirers round 
 her, had almost, at times, a touch of pre-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. • 61 
 
 occupation about her, a sort of absent- 
 mindedness, as if she were remembering 
 and regretting. But that would soon pass 
 away; no need to trouble about that. 
 Besides, Sir David would soon be coming to 
 take them back to Nunthorpe Chase, and 
 then everything would be all right again. 
 
 So that week wore to its close, and Gus- 
 tave did not return ; and a second week 
 wore to its close, and still Gustave did not 
 return. And proud Miss Lauderdale, who 
 had vowed a wife's love and duty, and who 
 carried her wedding-ring now in a little 
 golden locket round her neck, began to 
 wonder when those affairs at Homberg 
 would be settled. She had grown rather 
 tired of picturing to herself with what 
 magnificent pride, when Gustave came back, 
 she would present him to her aunt as her 
 husband, the man of her choice, for whom 
 she was content to forsake the possible
 
 62 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 splendours of London society, and banish 
 herself to a sort of limited monarchy in that 
 far-off land of dairy-maids and reindeer. 
 But still, of course, everything was all right. 
 He had said he might possibly be detained 
 a day or two longer. Her papa was some- 
 times kept for weeks in town when he only 
 expected to be absent a few days. It could 
 not but be all right. 
 
 So Madolin, to pass the time, dashed into 
 excitement again, brought a dozen sighing 
 admirers to her feet, smiled, first upon one, 
 then upon another of them ; Miss Griselda 
 the while, though not quite able to justify 
 such conduct, glad to see that darling Mado- 
 lin had recovered her spirits. And dances 
 and theatricals and pic-nics, which had been 
 slightly languishing during Miss Lauder- 
 dale's marriage week, burst out in more 
 glorious abundance than ever. 
 
 Until one morning, when Madolin's secret
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 63 
 
 was about three weeks old, Aunt Griselda 
 brought into the drawing-room, where a 
 gay party of the pension people were as- 
 sembled — her niece, as usual the bright, 
 particular star of the company — a long letter 
 from Sir David Lauderdale. 
 
 "Now, Madolin," she said, triumphantly, 
 whilst any quantity of strips of gay-coloured 
 knitting fluttered behind her, catching in 
 door-handles and gentleman's buttons, " you 
 have attained your wish at last." 
 
 "My wish. Auntie Grisel?" replied the 
 flashing brunette, turning the light of her 
 countenance away for an instant from a 
 gentleman who had been basking in it all 
 day, — " my wish ? I don't think I happen 
 to have any wishes just now." 
 
 "Indeed! Don't you remember saying, 
 long ago, how you wished that villain 
 Jetsam might be found out and punished ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Madolin, with a gesture
 
 64 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 of infinite contempt, " I had almost forgot- 
 ten the wretch !" 
 
 "Then, my dear, as it happens, you have 
 a very short memory, for he was in this 
 house, though we did not know it at the 
 time, only a month ago. Who do you 
 think he is proved to be ?" 
 
 And Aunt Griselda looked about on the 
 company with the complacency of a well- 
 bred British woman, who has a sensation to 
 make ; also with a private glance of supreme 
 exultation at Madolin, as much as to say, — 
 *' I told you so ; see what you might have 
 done for yourself by disobeying me." 
 
 "Who, indeed, but our delightful Swed- 
 ish friend, who was arrested at Homberg 
 ten days ago. He is not a Swede at all, 
 but a fellow named Jetsam, an Englishman, 
 cashier of the bank at Matchborough ; and 
 for three years, ever since he committed all 
 those forgeries, the detectives have been on
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 65 
 
 his track. He is safely lodged, now, in 
 Newgate gaol, and Sir David says the 
 sentence cannot be less than transportation 
 for life." 
 
 It was not the way of the Lauderdales 
 to shriek or scream or faint when anything 
 happened to them. The Spartan lad, who 
 let the fox gnaw its way through to his 
 heart rather than betray himself, had not 
 more heroism than Gideon Jetsam's wife. 
 
 " How very strange," she said, and then 
 went on turning over the pages of " Don 
 Giovanni," out of which she and the English 
 gentleman had been practising duets most 
 of the morning. 
 
 The rest of the company expressed their 
 opinions more unreservedly. 
 
 *' Audacious, insufferable creature!" said 
 Mrs. Regison, an officer's widow, who had 
 been living at the jpension a year, with a 
 rather elderly unmarried daughter. "And 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 QQ HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 to think of our behaving to him as an equal. 
 I declare it is enough to make us all afraid 
 of each other !" 
 
 " Oh ! mamma, dear, don't say~so," lisped 
 Gertrude, the elderly and unmarried. " It 
 sounds so very unkind to everybody else ; 
 and I am sure we are always delightfully 
 comfortable together. But do you know, 
 from the very first, I had my doubts about 
 that man — he never seemed to me to have 
 the air and bearing of a gentleman." 
 
 " Dear me," said Miss Maxfield, another 
 elderly habitue, *'you astonish me!" I al- 
 ways fancied you took so kindly to Monsieur 
 Nil ken. Indeed, one might have thought — " 
 
 " It was mere kindness," said Miss Ger- 
 trude, with dignity. "I am seldom de- 
 ceived in my estimate of character." 
 
 " Oh ! well, of course a great many peo- 
 ple are attentive out of mere kindness, and I 
 always say it is very good of them — very
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 67 
 
 good indeed. But, Miss Griselda. I read 
 him so correctly from the first that I never 
 even went so far as to be kind to him. I 
 felt sure there was something wrong with 
 him, because he never looked anyone in the 
 face." 
 
 *^ And had such an unmistakable flavour 
 of the shop about him," said a gentleman, 
 leaving his newspaper, and joining the little 
 group round Miss Griselda. It was astonish- 
 ing how the evidences of poor Gustave's 
 guilt and want of gentlemanliness were 
 accumulating, now that the truth was really 
 found out. " Anyone might have told what 
 he had been accustomed to, from the way 
 he counted out his money. I am glad to 
 say I never encouraged him in the least." 
 
 "A queer thing that none of us found 
 him out," said a dry little German. " For 
 my part — and I have been over the world a 
 
 f2
 
 68 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 good deal — I thought him a very decent 
 sort of fellow." 
 
 " Of course," answered Miss Griselda, im- 
 patiently, giving her wool-work a twitch 
 which fastened it upon one of the little 
 German's buttons — '^ of course we might be 
 supposed to think that of anyone who came 
 into a house like this. We are not accus- 
 tomed to look upon each other as rogues 
 and thieves and vagabonds. I did have my 
 doubts, though, and I expressed them in 
 private, and the event has proved me cor- 
 rect. I can only say I was very glad when 
 he took his departure. I mistrusted him 
 from the very first." 
 
 " A quiet, inoffensive fellow, though," said 
 the basso of " Don Giovanni," '' and toler- 
 ably well informed. I am sure, to hear him 
 speak of his travels, you must have had the 
 impression that he was a very clever man. 
 Miss Lauderdale, do you not remember how
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. €9 
 
 one evening we enjoyed his description of 
 those Norwegian fiords, and afterwards — " 
 
 But Miss Lauderdale had stepped silentl}^ 
 out of the drawing-room whilst the little 
 German was disentangling his buttons from 
 Aunt Griselda's wool-work.
 
 70 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 QjHE went into her own room, a little 
 ^^ boudoir opening out of Miss Griselda's 
 apartment, and there looked her life steadily 
 in the face. 
 
 Higher than the Spanish fury rose the 
 English pride of her nature. Her secret 
 was her own. None need know the horrible 
 misery and disgrace which she had brought 
 upon herself. That was the first thought 
 which nerved her to bear all the rest. 
 Worse than any amount of suffering was the 
 pity of society, the kindly condolences of 
 friends who would hasten to sympathise
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 71 
 
 with her as a deceived and injured woman. 
 That at least she could avoid, that she would 
 never allow. 
 
 One wild thought flashed across her mind. 
 They were going back to England in a week 
 or two. She would get an order from a 
 magistrate, gain admittance to the gaol, pour 
 out upon her villain husband's head the 
 storm of her indignation, cover him with re- 
 proach, scorn, contempt, and then leave him 
 to his fate. 
 
 But no. The wrong that had been done 
 to her had this sting in it, the bitterest sting 
 of all, that revenge was utterly hopeless. 
 This man whom she despised had her life 
 in his power. One little word from him 
 could crush her into the dust. To open the 
 flood-gates of her anger would have been to 
 betray herself to the world. In silence only 
 was her strength, and Madolin resolved to 
 be silent.
 
 72 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 Well, let her. She had had her light- 
 ning-flash of joy, and it had burnt up all her 
 life, left nothing but a grey scorching path- 
 way of ashes through the long years of her 
 lonely womanhood, until she or Gideon 
 Jetsam should die. She would bear it 
 quietly. She would make no sign. No one 
 need know that Sir David Lauderdale's only 
 child was a thief's deserted wife. Jetsam, 
 if not goaded to it by her reproaches, 
 would never tell the truth. It would do him 
 no good. It would only increase his chances 
 of conviction. 
 
 And if he should not be convicted. If 
 the law, finding no plea against him, gave 
 him back to society, and to his wife — sweet 
 gift! ' 
 
 Madolin ground her teeth. Good. She 
 could but die. She would not be the first 
 of her mother's race who had bidden steel 
 or poison do the work of death before its
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 73 
 
 time ; and the grave would be far better 
 than life with him. 
 
 She did not much reproach herself. The 
 Lauderdale people rarely felt their faults, 
 still more rarely owned them. She never 
 remembered the winning looks, the brilliant 
 smiles, the subtle, tender tones, the linger- 
 ing hand-touches with which she had sought 
 to beguile the fair-haired Swede, sought 
 the more earnestly because at first he had 
 seemed to slight her. She never cursed the 
 spark of foolish fancy which, fanned by his 
 indifference and her jealousy into a flame of 
 passion, had now blasted all her life, and 
 turned her love to hate, hate which, having 
 no way to spend itself, must burn on for 
 ever in her own heart. She had been 
 wronged, and the bitterness of the wrong 
 was coming all upon herself. She had been 
 deceived and betrayed, and what was there 
 left for her but to hide these things from
 
 74 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 the world, and be Madolia Lauderdale 
 still, proud, and brave, and self-reliant, 
 still a lady in her own and her father's right, 
 so long as the terrible secret was undis- 
 covered ? 
 
 She made her appearance next morning 
 as usual, took her part in the breakfast-table 
 conversation, read the English and German 
 papers, which contained the account of 
 Jetsam's arrest, but refrained from express- 
 ing an opinion upon it, feeling annoyed, 
 no doubt, as Miss Griselda concluded, that 
 a man upon whom she had been foolish 
 enough to bestow even a passing preference, 
 had turned out so disgracefully. Besides, 
 Madolin was very proud, could not bear to 
 be told that her judgment was in the wrong ; 
 and so, of course, having made such a mis- 
 take as this, and having, at last, found out 
 that her discernment of character was not 
 quite so infallible as she believed it to be,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 75" 
 
 she would naturally feel irritated, and re- 
 sent even the least allusion to the subject 
 in her presence. Aunt Griselda could, 
 therefore, quite account for any little out- 
 breaks of ill-temper, sullenness, or reserve 
 which might occur during the remainder of 
 their stay at Heidelberg. 
 
 Fortunatel}^, that stay was not very long. 
 The Regisons and two or three other peo- 
 ple, who had been Miss Griselda's chief 
 friends at the pension^ left soon after Jet- 
 sam's affair. She did not care to prolong 
 her own stay, and that being the case, it wa& 
 easy to convince herself that a change 
 would be good for her niece. So Sir David 
 was written to, arrangements were made 
 for their departure, and, within a month of 
 " that disgraceful affair," as Miss Griselda. 
 ever afterwards called it, they returned to 
 Nunthorpe Chase — the house having been 
 vacated some time before by the coal and
 
 76 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 timber people, and put into complete order 
 for its rightful owners. 
 
 And the bells of the parish church were 
 rung, and the simple village folk, who loved 
 their landlord well, gathered in little groups 
 along the roadside with shouts of welcome, 
 and over the park gates an arch of laurel 
 was hung, and a band of music played upon 
 the green, and Sir David bowed, and Aunt 
 Griselda smiled for once all over her stiff, 
 stately old face ; and none knew, and none 
 could have told, from cramp of pain or line 
 of care upon her proud forehead, that Miss 
 Lauderdale, who had left the Chase three 
 years ago, a bright, dashing, wilful, high- 
 spirited girl, was coming back to it at one- 
 and-twenty, a woman seared and scarred 
 and embittered, with no longer any hope or 
 promise in her life, nor any peace, save such 
 as she could make for herself by sweet and 
 self-denying deeds ; and such deeds, alas !
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 77 
 
 were all strange enough to the lady of Nun- 
 thorpe Chase. 
 
 Considerably changed, the county peo- 
 ple said one to another when the congratu- 
 latory calls had been naade — quite a differ- 
 ent manner about her, and, if they might 
 say what they thought, perhaps just a little 
 too stiff and stately for so young a girl. 
 Though that might only be the result of 
 three years of pension life. Of course 
 people were obliged to hold themselves 
 rather apart at such places, for they never 
 knew whom they might meet, or what they 
 might get drawn into. 
 
 And what a curious thing that, of all men 
 in the world, the Lauderdales should have 
 stumbled upon that fellow Jetsam ; quite a 
 romance, only such a very unpleasant one ! 
 It must have been a great shock to them 
 when the truth came out. And so annoy- 
 ing, actually to have gone into public with
 
 78 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 him, as Miss Griselda said, and received 
 attentions from him as if he was one of their 
 own class. But that was Miss Lauderdale's 
 fault, no doubt. It always had been her 
 weak point to be a little too fond of admi- 
 ration, and most likely she had had a train 
 of men after her at Heidelberg, and encou- 
 raged them and amused herself with them 
 as used to be the case at Nunthorpe Chase 
 years before. But this unpleasant occur- 
 rence would be a lesson to her, and, even 
 if she purchased prudence at the expense of 
 n little of that fine, dashing impetuosity 
 which used to be so fascinating — well, so 
 ■much the better. 
 
 Thus the county people one to another, 
 after having welcomed the Lauderdales 
 back to the Chase. 
 
 Excellent Miss Griselda did not stay 
 there very long. Madolin was old enough 
 now, and dignified and stately enough too,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 79 
 
 to assume the position of lady of the house. 
 Moreover, it was not in her disposition to 
 brook the continual dropping of her aunt's 
 sage experiences, nor those airs of supe- 
 riority which elderly women are wont to 
 assume towards those who know, as they 
 think, little of life — who are entering upon 
 it with too much hopefulness, and require 
 to have their over prosperity checked by 
 wise reminders of sorrow which must 
 surely come. Sorrow, indeed ! said Mado- 
 lin to herself, as with bent brows and com- 
 pressed lips she paced up and down those 
 long corridors through many and many a 
 day — what did Aunt Griselda, whose only 
 disappointment was the misfitting of a dress, 
 or the non-appearance of a suitable husband, 
 know of sorrow compared with her, between 
 whom and the grave stretched nothing but 
 the blackest, most absolute bitterness ? 
 And then, though Aunt Griselda did talk
 
 80 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 SO nicely about the inevitable troubles of 
 life, she was always insisting upon dinners 
 and evening parties being given at the 
 Chase ; and the new clergyman, with his 
 pretty, frivolous, fashionable little wife, 
 must be made at home there — " because, 
 you know, my dear, they are so very excel- 
 lent and well-meaning, and Mrs. Norbury 
 will put you into the way of being of use 
 amongst the tenantry." Of use amongst 
 the tenantry, forsooth ! — as if that for Ma- 
 dolin could ever mean anything but filling 
 their coal-places at Christmas, and being 
 curtsied to as a Lady Bountiful all the rest 
 of the year in consequence. And Madolin 
 hated that sort of thing, for with all the 
 great surging selfishness of her nature, there 
 was still a foundation of honesty beneath it 
 which would not let her stoop to receive 
 charity-bought obeisances, nor add to the 
 inevitable pretence of all her future life
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 81 
 
 others which were not of such bitter need. 
 But Aunt Griselda insisted upon the din- 
 ners, whatever became of the coal-giving ; 
 and when her own efforts failed, she moved 
 Sir David to insist upon them too, because 
 31adolin must take her place as head of the 
 county society ; the Lauderdales always had 
 occupied that position, ever since the family 
 was established ; and how could her bro- 
 ther expect that his only child would ever 
 be suitably established in life, unless people 
 of her own rank were gathered round her 
 from whom she might choose one who was 
 worthy of her position and prospects ? It 
 "was all very well for the girl to hold up 
 her head and look down upon the county 
 families, and fancy that no one was good 
 enough for her ; but that sort of thing might 
 be carried a little too far, and Madolin was 
 carrying it too far when she shut herself 
 up like a queen in disguise, and refused 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 to have anything to do with anybody. 
 Then came misunderstandings, then came 
 quarrels, then came contests between Aunt 
 Griselda's fussy self-importance and Mado- 
 lin's rock-like calmness ; in which contests 
 the calmness always had the best of it, and 
 the end of the matter was that Miss Griselda, 
 finding two ruling spirits could not flourish 
 simultaneously at the Chase, wisely resolved 
 to depart before an open rupture took 
 place. And so, after a few months of rest- 
 less fidgeting on her part, and quiet resist- 
 ance on Madolin's, the baronet's sister re- 
 tired to apartments in town, promising to 
 come down now and then for the purpose 
 of seeing how things went on. 
 
 '^ And now, Madolin dear," she said, as 
 the man was depositing multitudes of par- 
 cels in the carriage, previous to her being 
 accompanied by Sir David to the Nunthorpe 
 railway-station — '* and now, Madolin, if
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 83 
 
 there is ever a ball, or concert, or an37thing 
 of that sort at Matchborough, which you 
 would like to attend, you have nothing to 
 do but send me a line, and I shall be de- 
 lighted to come down. And if Sir David 
 wants a dinner-party now and then, and 
 you don't feel disposed to have the trouble 
 yourself, nothing will give me so much 
 pleasure as to take the matter off your 
 hands. You know," she added, mysteri- 
 ousl}^, drawing Madolin a little to one side, 
 " you really must try to make your father's 
 life as pleasant as possible, or there is no 
 telling " 
 
 " Oh ! thank you, auntie, don't trouble at 
 all. I will see that papa has everything 
 quite comfortable. I don't believe he cares 
 half so much for society as you think he 
 does." I 
 
 " Perhaps not, my dear ; but when peo- 
 ple have a position it must be maintained, 
 
 g2
 
 84 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 and I am quite sure that any efforts which 
 you may make for your dear papa's domestic 
 comfort and happiness, will meet with an 
 abundant reward. Not of course that you 
 can expect in a quiet place like this the 
 constant variety and amusement which, with 
 one lamentable exception, I think we may 
 say we enjoyed during the whole of our 
 stay at that delightful " 
 
 " Never mind, auntie dear," said Madolin, 
 hastily, stooping to pull out one of the bows 
 in Aunt Griselda's bonnet strings ; " I have 
 no doubt we shall manage very nicely to- 
 gether. And pray come down whenever 
 you like — your room in the west corridor 
 will always be kept at liberty for you ; and 
 you know papa likes to talk to you about 
 what is going on. Good-bye ; we shall miss 
 you ever so much." 
 
 And then the upholder of Lauderdale 
 dignity was handed into the carriage. When
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 85 
 
 she had safely departed, Madolin stretched 
 herself wearily enough in a great arm-chair 
 by the dining-room fire, and clasped her 
 hands behind her head, and watched the 
 flickering lights and shadows play over the 
 portraits of the dead Lauderdale people in 
 their tarnished frames ; and she wondered 
 how long it would be before she, the last of 
 the line, took her place in that silent array, 
 at rest and for ever from all that vexed her 
 now. Might it be soon, for life was likely to 
 be very bitter ! 
 
 An hour later. Sir David returned from 
 the station, bringing the London paper with 
 him, containing an account of Jetsam's trial. 
 
 Madolin roused herself a little. It would 
 not do to provoke either questioning or 
 curiosity about her altered behaviour. 
 
 " Well, it's over at last, my dear," her 
 father observed, settling himself down in 
 the opposite arm-chair.
 
 86 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 "What, Auntie Grisel's visit? I rather 
 thought you liked to have her here, 
 papa." 
 
 " Oh ! dear no, not that in the least ; but 
 the proceedings about this wretched fellow 
 Jetsam. Fifteen years transportation ; and 
 richly he deserves it, too." 
 
 Madolin turned herself a little round, out 
 of the play of the firelight. 
 
 " Indeed, papa. Well, I suppose there 
 was no doubt about his being convicted. He 
 would plead guilty, I should think." 
 
 " Oh ! the trial was a mere matter of 
 form. Although, if the first indictment of 
 forgery had failed, he would have been 
 arrested on a second charge of embezzle- 
 ment. It serves him right. I never had 
 less pity for a man. And to think of your 
 having been in the company of such a 
 scoundrel for three weeks ! It makes me 
 almost mad to think of it !"
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 87 
 
 "Never mind, papa, it is not likely to 
 happen again. Transportation for fifteen 
 years ! That means being sent to Australia, 
 does it not?" 
 
 " Yes — Port Philip, or somewhere there- 
 abouts. I should not wonder, though, with 
 Jetsam's manners and education, if he were 
 to find some sort of private service soon 
 after he is sent out. Government will make 
 better use of a man like that than setting him 
 to make or mend roads." 
 
 " But they will not give him his liberty, 
 papa," said. Madolin, her thoughts running 
 swiftly over the terrible possibilities involved 
 in Jetsam's superior "manners and educa- 
 tion." 
 
 " Oh ! no, certainly not. He will always 
 be under supervision ; and very properly 
 so too. What a wretched thing for his 
 family and friends !" 
 
 " Yes, very."
 
 88 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 " But very fortunate that there is no wife 
 for any one to pity." 
 
 ^'Not for any one to pity ^'' thought Mado- 
 lin, as she waved to and fro the feathered 
 border of a dainty Indian screen — '*not for 
 any one to pity." 
 
 "Papa," she said, after a pause, "suppos- 
 ing he had been married, would they have 
 let him send for his wife ?" 
 
 " Of course, my dear ; he might send for 
 , her if he chose, but how could he pay her 
 passage, and keep her when she got out 
 there ? Possibly, after a few years, when 
 he began to earn a little money for himself, 
 he might have sent home for his wife, if he 
 had one." 
 
 " And would she have been obliged to go, 
 papa ?" 
 
 " I really cannot say, my dear. But what 
 a peculiar question I As if it could ever be 
 of the least interest to us !"
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 89 
 
 *' Of course. I only just happened to 
 think how it might be. Did Auntie Grisel 
 start comfortably?" 
 
 " Quite. Dr. Evans was in the same car- 
 riage, going through to London, so that she 
 has company all the way. I fancy the drive 
 has made me a trifle sleepy. I will have my 
 nap a little earlier than usual, if you will ex- 
 cuse me." 
 
 " Oh, certainly, papa. I won't speak 
 one word. But will you let me have the 
 paper, if you are not wishing to read it?" 
 
 Sir David rose with due ceremony, and 
 brought the Standard to his daughter as she 
 lay carelessly back amongst her cushions. 
 She waited until his heavy breathing showed 
 that he was fast asleep ; then, crouching on 
 the hearthrug, read by the firelight the whole 
 account of the trial ; how great interest was 
 excited by the gentlemanly appearance of 
 the prisoner; how the judge, in summing
 
 90 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 upj dwelt impressively upon the aggravated 
 nature of the crime he had committed, and 
 the subtlety with which, for more than three 
 years, he had eluded justice ; how, after an 
 exceedingly short time spent in deliberation, 
 the jury returned a verdict of " guilty ;" and, 
 lastly, how the prisoner, who listened with 
 respectful calmness during the pronouncing 
 of the sentence, w^as removed from the dock, 
 and placed in the charge of a couple of 
 warders, who took him out of court by a 
 small side-door, to avoid the mob waiting 
 outside. 
 
 So then another act in the terrible drama 
 was over. Madolin had a feeling of relief 
 now from the tightening grip of suspense. 
 One burning terror had had possession of 
 her since Jetsam's arrest, the terror lest he 
 should be acquitted, and so return to claim 
 from her the love, honour, and obedience — 
 horrible mockery of words — which she had
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 91 
 
 promised ; return once longed for with a 
 girl's passionate impatience, now dreaded a& 
 a living death. 
 
 But it was gone. For awhile, at least, the 
 vampire had lifted his wings, and slowly 
 moved away. She had but to suffer, and 
 be silent, and be strong. 
 
 Sir David stretched himself Miss Lau- 
 derdale resumed her seat in the easy-chair. 
 There was a little more chat upon indifferent 
 subjects. The dressing-gong sounded. Mado- 
 lin retired to her room, appearing soon 
 afterwards in the splendours of evening 
 dress. Then came dinner, coffee, another 
 nap, a game at cribbage, and, finall}^, the 
 assembling of the whole household for 
 family worship, after which there was leave 
 to drop the mask of indifference, and re- 
 member, and suffer, and despair. ^ 
 
 That day was the pattern of many and 
 many a day that followed it. And when
 
 ^2 HOPE MEREDITH, 
 
 seven years of this slow torture had passed 
 over the wretched woman's head, Jacob 
 Lund might well say of poor Madolin Lau- 
 derdale, as she paced wearily to church by 
 her father's side — 
 
 "I can't square her up nohow. Seems 
 like to me she's gotten summut on her 
 mind."
 
 93 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 '^ "\T0, please, Miss Lauderdale, do not ask 
 -^^ me any more. It would be very 
 pleasant, but I must go, and so there is an 
 end of it." 
 
 '^ And why must?''' said Miss Lauderdale. 
 *' I see no must about it. Now let us pro- 
 ceed to consider this matter carefully, as 
 Mr. Norbury says when he is going to divide 
 his sermon into heads. Here are you want- 
 ing a home. Don't be vexed with me for 
 saying it, Hope, but you must have a home 
 of some sort, there is no mistake at all about 
 that must.''
 
 "94 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 "None at all," said Hope Meredith, grave- 
 ly, but with just a little ring of proud pur- 
 pose under the gravity. 
 
 "Well, then, here is Nunthorpe Chase, 
 with space enough in it for fifty people, half 
 the rooms unoccupied, the prettiest little 
 chamber that ever 3^ou did spy waiting for 
 you in the west corridor, close by Aunt 
 Griselda's own particular sanctum ; though, 
 as you have not seen Aunt Griselda yet, you 
 don't know what a comfort it is to be close 
 to her. Here are papa and myself, wonder- 
 ing what in the world we are to talk to each 
 other about; and here are you, needing 
 nothing so much as a few months of fresh 
 moorland air to bring the colour back to your 
 cheeks, after that weary spell of nursing down 
 yonder in Nunthorpe Hollow. And yet you 
 talk about going away. It is foolish, Hope, 
 it is indeed. Just look at the matter from 
 a common-sense point of view."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 95 
 
 '* That is what I have been trying to do 
 for the last three weeks," said Hope, balanc- 
 ing a crested spoon on the edge of a teacup 
 of the rarest, most delicate china, as she sat 
 at Miss Lauderdale's feet, " and looking at it 
 has brought roe to this terrible must which 
 you will not listen to. And then there is 
 another must. I must earn my own living." 
 
 ^'Andhowdo you propose doing that? 
 By going as companion, I suppose, to some 
 dull, disagreeable, rich woman, like those 
 who advertise in churchy papers, offering 
 fifteen or twenty pounds a year, or perhaps 
 nothing but a 'comfortable home,' to the 
 unfortunate young person who is to oifer up 
 her life a perpetual burnt-offering to all the 
 advertiser's whims and fancies ? Ah ! well, 
 one might have to make even a sadder burnt 
 offering than that, but I don't think you 
 are the one to make it." 
 
 "Please go on. Miss Lauderdale, about
 
 96 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 the situation ; it does sound so tempting." 
 " Of course I mean to go on. The woman 
 must be dull, or she would have resources 
 within herself to keep her from being de- 
 pendent upon a companion ; and she must 
 be disagreeable, or she would not need to 
 advertise for one ; and she must be tolerably 
 rich, or she could not give you what would 
 make it worth your while to go to her. I 
 have made out three more musts, without 
 any doubt. Ah ! poor little Hope, I can 
 see you toiling away down column after 
 column of the Times or Standard, or, worse 
 still, a sleep}^ denominational paper, whilst 
 the old woman dozes in her chair ; or mend- 
 ing her lace for her, which is what I believe 
 a companion is generally expected to do, 
 or counting over piles of blankets that have 
 been lent to dirty women in the parish, 
 
 or " 
 
 " No, you can't see anything of the kind,*'
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 97 
 
 said Hope, with a quiet, resolute shake of 
 her head. " I mean to go into a hospital, 
 and train for a nurse." 
 
 Miss Lauderdale turned and looked down 
 into the face of the young girl who was 
 sitting at her feet. A quiet, middle-class 
 face, nothing but middle-class. No quiver- 
 ing, flashing pride there, pride which comes 
 of noble blood and high descent ; none of 
 the sculptured, stately calm which nature's 
 chisel, working on through patient centuries, 
 turns out at last in her favoured Norman 
 children. Nothing but the tender, pure 
 outlines of girlhood, and even these spoiled 
 by six months of watching at the bedside of 
 the old aunt, who, lately dying, had left her 
 niece, Hope Meredith, for legacy, only these 
 three musts which were now driving her 
 out into the world, there to shape her way 
 as best she might. 
 
 " Hope, you are talking nonsense. Just 
 
 VOL. T. H
 
 98 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 get up and look at yourself in the mirror. 
 Put that cup and saucer somewhere first, 
 though. Aunt Grisel will never forgive me 
 if she finds any of her beautiful egg-shell 
 china broken next time she comes ; and then 
 tell me honestly if you think you are fit to 
 go to a hospital and train for anything else 
 than being an invalid all the rest of your 
 days." 
 
 " I don't look very strong," the girl said, 
 standing on tip-toe to survey herself in the 
 big, old-fashioned glass, " but I think I 
 shall come all right again in two or three 
 months." 
 
 " That depends. You certainly will not 
 come all right again unless you take pains to 
 do so. For you to go through a course of 
 hospital tralhing now, simply means disap- 
 pointment and failure, besides the almost 
 dead certainty of a break-down in your 
 health, after which you know you will be
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 99 
 
 laid aside, a helpless burden, upon any one 
 who may be good enough to take care of 
 you; and I think I know Hope Meredith 
 well enough to be sure she would not like 
 that sort of thing." 
 
 " It is all there, though," said Hope, who, 
 having surveyed the hollow places in her 
 cheeks and neck, had curled herself up again 
 at Miss Lauderdale's feet, and was playing 
 a tune on the fender with the tips of her 
 little boots — " the health, I mean. I don't 
 feel a bit run down, only rather tired. 
 You don't know how much work there is in 
 me yet." 
 
 "I am sure I didn't know how much 
 resistance there is, Hope — you with your 
 soft face, and quiet, tender ways, why there 
 is a fifty-horse power of will under it all, 
 whatever may be true about the work. 
 Only you must know you are very different 
 now — I mean in looks — from what you were 
 
 h2
 
 100 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 when I first saw you, six months ago, at 
 Miss Asgard's house. The thankless old 
 thing, to take so much out of you, and then 
 die and leave you without the means of 
 putting it back again. But once more, 
 Hope, will you let papa and me do what 
 she has left undone ? Will you promise to 
 stay with us until you are quite strong, and 
 then you shall do as you like ?" 
 
 Hope, still gazing steadily into the fire, 
 made no answer for awhile. Then she said 
 slowly, doubtfully, 
 
 " But Sir David. What right have I to 
 impose myself upon him ?" 
 
 ^' None at all," said Madolin, her slender 
 brows tightening into something like a frown. 
 She was not accustomed to be argued with 
 in this way. She had imagined that a boon 
 such as she proposed conferring upon this 
 friendless girl, would have been accepted at 
 once with a burst of pious gratitude ; that
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 101 
 
 Hope would have fallen on her knees, and 
 with tears in her eyes have blessed the 
 noble benefactress who was extending such 
 privilege to her. 
 
 And indeed had Miss Lauderdale been 
 offering her hospitality out of simple kind- 
 ness, she would most likely at this point 
 have withdrawn it, proudly retiring behind 
 her dignity, and allowing Miss Meredith to 
 lose what she seemed so slow to appreciate. 
 But Madolin could no longer afford to feed 
 her dignity at the expense of her heart. 
 She was hungering and thirsting for some- 
 thing to satisfy the life which for seven long 
 years had been slowly drying up within her ; 
 and in Hope Meredith she began to find 
 what she sought. Hope's companionship 
 was like fresh air to one who has long pined 
 in city streets. Hope's character, firm, yet 
 elastic, lowly, yet springing backward with 
 proud recoil from the least approach to flat-
 
 102 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 tery or patronage, was like wholesome bitter 
 to one who has been fed to satiety upon the 
 sweets of fawning dependency. She could 
 not afford to lose the little gleam, though it 
 were only of pale winter sunshine, which 
 had lately struck across her desolate path. 
 She thought she could have commanded it 
 to stay; she found she must ask it as a 
 favour. 
 
 *' It is not all for your own sake," she said 
 at last, with an effort, "that I want you not 
 to go away. Hope, you can do me a great 
 deal of good. You have done me a great 
 deal already. It gives me a feeling of life 
 to be with you. There is no one in this 
 stupid country place with whom I can have 
 any companionship. You know — but no, 
 you don't know," and Madolin stretched 
 herself wearily in her lounging-chair, ''how 
 horrible it is to have everything done for 
 you, to have people obeying you, cringing to
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 103 
 
 you, talking as if they were afraid of you ; 
 to have no one who dares contradict you, 
 or even suggest that you are in the wrong. 
 It eats all the goodness out of you. You 
 are the only person who, in nearly all my 
 life, has dared to talk freely and fearlessly to 
 me, and you don't know how refreshing it 
 has been." 
 
 " I'm sure I ought to have been abundant- 
 ly refreshed at Miss Asgard's, then," said 
 Hope, with a shrug of her pretty shoulders, 
 *'for everything that I did was wrong, in- 
 stead of right, and she wasn't a bit afraid to 
 tell me so, too." 
 
 " Very likely. I shall be just the same 
 when I get old, if nobody speaks the truth 
 to me. And that is why I want you so 
 much to stay. Don't think I am so very 
 unselfish, Hope. I don't believe it is in the 
 nature of any of the Lauderdale people to 
 be that ; but in this matter your interests
 
 104 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 and mine agree. It will do you good in body, 
 it will do me good in mind. Stay, Hope, 
 stay.'' 
 
 And Miss Lauderdale drew the girl's head 
 down upon her knee, and kissed her cheek 
 once, twice. It was much for such a woman 
 to do. Poor Madolin! The passionate, 
 starving soul within her was crying out for 
 something, even the merest crumb of honest 
 friendship to stay its hunger; and Hope's 
 very name seemed like a promise of better 
 days, of some faint little dawn of light upon 
 the blackness of darkness through which she 
 must walk to her grave.
 
 105 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " T)UT you have not told me yet whether 
 -L> Sir David will like it," said the 
 pertinacious middle-class girl, who seemed 
 so very far from anxious to reap the benefits 
 which might be supposed to arise from six 
 months' residence with such great people as 
 the Lauderdales of Nunthorpe Chase, said 
 residence to be as guest and friend, with 
 nothing menial required. 
 
 Madolin did not bend her fine brows any 
 more. She knew the metal she had to deal 
 with now ; knew, too, how much she might 
 win by dealing with it wisely. She looked
 
 106 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 away to the other end of the room, where, 
 in a recess almost out of sight, Sir David 
 sat by another fire, reading his paper. 
 
 "Papa, will you come here just for one 
 moment, and set Hope's mind at rest? I 
 have been asking her to stay the summer 
 with us, and she seems to think we have not 
 room for her, or that it will be an infliction 
 upon you. I want you to tell her that it is 
 the very thing, of all others, we should both 
 of us enjoy." 
 
 Sir David laid down his paper, and came 
 with slow, stately step to the corner where the 
 ladies were encamped amongst their tea-cups 
 and tiger-skins. Then, bowing to Hope, he 
 said, somewhat stiffly, perhaps, for, after all, 
 what was she but a stranger and alien 
 amongst them, with no very definite antece- 
 dents, so far as they had heard yet? 
 
 " I hope Miss Meredith will consider her- 
 self quite welcome at the Chase, so long as
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 107 
 
 she chooses to remain. Anyone in whom 
 my daughter finds agreeable companionship 
 cannot but do a favour to us by remaining 
 as long as possible." 
 
 Hope looked up into the old gentleman's 
 face, and shyly expressed her thanks ; not 
 by any means, however, in such well-turned 
 sentences as those to which she had just 
 listened. Perhaps she would have felt more 
 relieved if he had done what, under the 
 circumstances, her own good-hearted father 
 — dead years and years ago — would have 
 done to a friendless girl who was coming to 
 stay under his roof, patted her on the head, 
 or, better still, kissed her cheek, and said 
 cheerily, 
 
 "Bless you, my dear, don't be afraid! 
 We are plain people, but very glad to see 
 you ; so just make up your mind to stop as 
 long as ever you feel comfortable." 
 
 But who ever heard of a Lauderdale speak-
 
 108 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ing ill that way ? And Madolin evidently 
 thought that everything was quite right now, 
 for she said, pleasantly enough, 
 
 "There now, Hope, I told you how it 
 would be. You see you need not have 
 made such a circumstance of staying. "We 
 will drive to the Hollow this very afternoon, 
 and bring your things from the old house, 
 and you shall settle down with us for the 
 summer. It will not be so very dull either, 
 for Aunt Griselda is to come by-and-by, and 
 then there will be dinners, and dances, and 
 all that sort of thing, and you can go instead 
 of me, which will be an immense relief 
 And then, too. Uncle Mac is to be here 
 from Canada some time before long. Did 
 you not say, papa, he was coming home on 
 business this summer?" 
 
 " I did, my dear. Some of our people 
 said so last time I was in town. I believe 
 he has a furlough of some months."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 109 
 
 "Is Mr. Mac in the army ?" asked Mope, 
 timidly, having a somewhat uncomfortable 
 prevision of a second edition of Sir David 
 Lauderdale, tall, erect, military, stiff, given 
 to speaking in long sentences, and with most 
 overpowering politeness. 
 
 Madolin laughed. 
 
 " He used to be in the army, but he is 
 not Mr. Mac. His proper name is Maud 
 Arbuthnot Cayley, but as the first sounds 
 womanish, and the second clumsy, and the 
 third commonplace, we call him by the first 
 letters of all of them. He sold out of the 
 army awhile ago, but, of course everybody 
 calls him Captain still ; though I believe he 
 has a farm or something of that sort out in 
 Canada." 
 
 Hope did not look much relieved. Per- 
 haps Miss Lauderdale noticed it, for she 
 continued in an assuring tone : 
 
 "He is delightful — everyone says he is
 
 110 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 delightful. He does not properly belong 
 to us at all ; we only call him uncle because 
 he has such a lot of nephews and nieces all 
 over the world. I think he is quite a young 
 man, and I fancy he belongs to us in some 
 far-oif way — does he not, papa." 
 
 "My aunt Janet, sister of Sir Jasper 
 Lauderdale, married into the Cayley fami- 
 ly," said Sir David, going back to his paper 
 at the other end of the room. 
 
 " Oh, well, then, of course we have a sort 
 of claim upon him. I don't remember him 
 at all, myself, for he was here only once, a 
 long time ago, when I was quite a little 
 girl. He was about the same age as my- 
 self, only, of course, much bigger and strong- 
 er ; and he used to toss me in a blanket, 
 with the old Rector's little girls to help. 
 Oh, dear ! I wish the time never came when 
 we had to give over being tossed in blan- 
 kets. And I think, too, Mac was the only
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. Ill 
 
 person I never flew into a passion with." 
 **You in a passion, Miss Lauderdale!" 
 and Hope looked up into the pale, self-con- 
 tained face, so quiet in its pride, yet with 
 streaks of fiery intensity quiveriug through 
 it sometimes, like the half-hidden red glow 
 at the heart of an opal gem. "Were you 
 ever really in a passion ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, — very often ; with Auntie 
 Grisel most of all, because she was so pro- 
 voking, and that was the only way I could 
 get what T wanted. But I was talking 
 about Uncle Mac, not about myself, and 
 how nice he used to be when he was a boy. 
 All the dogs were so fond of him he could 
 do whatever he liked with them. He must 
 be rather rough now, though, I should 
 think. It is a queer place, far up in the 
 country, where he has been living for the 
 last few years. I don't believe they have 
 either carpets or tablecloths; and as for
 
 112 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 dressing for dinner, it would be simply 
 ridiculous. Fancy black broadcloth and a 
 white tie in a log hut, with a red Indian to 
 wait upon you ! I can't imagine how a 
 man can keep himself quite a gentleman 
 when he is always amongst that sort of 
 thing." 
 
 "Can't you?" said Hope, simply. ^^I 
 shouldn't have thought that sort of thing 
 would have made any difference, so long as 
 the real sort of thing was in him." 
 
 " Well, we shall see. It will not make 
 any difference to me, at any rate. I mean 
 that I don't feel enough interest in him to 
 care whether he is a gentleman or not. I 
 believe you will get on with him, though, 
 because he never quarrels with anyone ; 
 and I am very glad he is coming, because it 
 will make it pleasanter for you. You will 
 not be moped to death, after all, at this 
 stupid Nunthorpe Chase.
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 1 1 3 
 
 Hope nestled a little closer to her new 
 friend. 
 
 *' I don't think I should be moped any- 
 where, so long as I had you to talk to. I 
 love you very much — you have been so 
 good to me." 
 
 A soft light, very rarely seen there, came 
 into Miss Lauderdale's eyes. That was what 
 she longed for, to have love given, and her 
 kindness acknowledged. There was life 
 yet, throbbing warm and strong far down in 
 her heart ; a woman's yearning for friend- 
 ship, companionship, ay, and love too, 
 though that longing, when it stirred at all, 
 could only stir now to bitter pain. 
 
 " You are a dear child, Hope !" she said. 
 " You have done me all the good in the 
 world. Ah, me ! I wish in all my life I 
 had done half as much for anybody as you 
 have done for me — but I never have. 
 Nobody is any better for ray living. Papa 
 
 VOL. 1. I
 
 114 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 is the only person I could once have helped 
 at all, but even he can do without me now. 
 1 used to be so impatient of doing anything 
 for him that at last he gave over asking 
 me ; and now everybody tries to please me, 
 and I try to please nobody. A sweet life, 
 isn^tit?'' 
 
 "But that cannot be," said Hope. ''It 
 is impossible to live with one's father with- 
 out being either a comfort to him, or some- 
 thing else." 
 
 " Well, then, Hope, if that is the case, I 
 am the something else. But really it is not 
 so here. I never quarrel with papa. I 
 never vex him at all. I sit at the head of 
 his table, and dress nicely, and that is all he 
 requires of me. He never expects me to 
 make any sacrifice for him, even in the least 
 little thing. I sometimes wish he would, 
 just for a change. No, you need not look 
 alarmed, Hope, he is fast asleep, he will not
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 1 1 5 
 
 hear us. He always has a sleep like this 
 after afternoon tea, and another after dinner. 
 Brilliant for me, of course ; but then what 
 else do I deserve ? What was I saying to 
 you when you disturbed me by looking so 
 sharply round ? Oh ! about making sacri- 
 fices. Yes, I do think it would be a good 
 thing if I had to do it sometimes, if everything 
 in this house were not arranged for my sole 
 comfort and convenience. It is humiliating. 
 People talk about the submission of others 
 making you proud. It doesn't; it makes 
 you terribly ashamed of yourself." 
 
 " Miss Lauderdale !" 
 
 '* Well" 
 
 " Will you let me say just one thing to 
 you?" 
 
 " Yes ; say as many things as you like, 
 and make them as bitter as ever you can. I 
 want to be contradicted. I want somebody 
 to thrust hard at me, not with paltry little 
 
 i2
 
 116 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 pettinesses and conventionalities, like Aunt 
 Griselda, but with truths that I know to be 
 true, and that will make rae believe them, 
 whether I wish to do so or not. Oh ! for 
 a huge allopathic dose of moral quinine ! 
 Hope, give me it ! You are the only per- 
 son in all the world who has ever been 
 brave enough to speak out to me, and that 
 is the very reason why I love you so much. 
 There must be some good in me, just a little, 
 must there not, Hope, for me to like people 
 to tell me the truth ? If I were quite bad, 
 I would not listen to it at all." 
 
 " I don't know ; but what I want to say 
 to you is this. The other day, when we 
 were sitting just like this, Sir David came in, 
 and I saw at once he wanted to join us, 
 and have a general talk about things." 
 
 "Perhaps. When, for a wonder, any- 
 body pleasant is staying in the house, he 
 would like often enough to join us, and
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 117 
 
 have a general talk about things. But I 
 was talkmg to you just then about my life 
 here, and what I could do with it, and that 
 was a great deal more important, infinitely 
 more important, than that we should make 
 room for papa, and drop into a general con- 
 versation." 
 
 *^No, it was not. Because, just then, 
 dropping into what you call a general con- 
 versation would have been, for you, an act 
 of self-denial ; and that one should be able 
 to deny oneself when need comes, lies at the 
 foundation of all the use of life that I have 
 any faith in ; and so, instead of talking about 
 your duty, you would have done it, which is 
 far better." 
 
 " Hope, what a logician you are ! The 
 Chief Justice himself couldn't have packed 
 up an argument more neatly." 
 
 "Well, but I haven't done yet. Of course 
 we could not very well go on talking then,
 
 118 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 and so you took to your illuminating as 
 earnestly as if there had been nothing else in 
 the world to think about, and I could see 
 Sir David was disappointed. By-and-by he 
 said something about having the clergy- 
 man and his wife asked to dinner." 
 
 " Yes ; which is simply intolerable. Fancy 
 one, two, three hours of the dreariest com- 
 mon-places, with a woman who has no 
 earthly ideas beyond managing her house 
 and keeping her children nice." 
 
 "Two very useful ideas, I should think; 
 and any woman who can reduce them to 
 practice is not utterly commonplace. But 
 Mr. Norbury can talk well enough, and Sir 
 David likes to have arguments with him 
 about politics and the best way of improving 
 the condition of the working-classes, and so 
 on." 
 
 , " Yes, and so on ; and meanwhile I am 
 to hear what a delightful pattern Mrs. Nor-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 119 
 
 bury has found for a baby's bib, or how 
 comfortably Percy Julius has cut one of his 
 double teeth ; or I am to be told how well 
 Mrs. Norbury's sister plays at croquet. It 
 is too much, Hope — it really is. Give me a 
 pinafore and a coral at once, and then I 
 shall know what I am." 
 
 " You might know, if you wished, just as 
 well without the pinafore and the coral. 
 You are Sir David's only child, and you 
 ought to do all you can to make him happy. 
 And if now and then he likes to have a talk 
 about politics and workmen's cottages at his 
 own table, you ought to be willing to let 
 him have it." 
 
 " Hope, you are too practical. I mean 
 you give the quinine in too large doses. But 
 if it will please you, next time papa wants 
 the Norburys to come, I will not throw any 
 obstacles in the wa}^" 
 
 " I don't think he will want them again
 
 120 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 very soon — at least, he will not ask you 
 about having them. He looked grieved 
 when you shut him up so abruptly ; and 
 it takes a great deal to make a proud man 
 like Sir David show that anything hurts 
 him." 
 
 *' You have wonderfully sharp eyes, 
 Hope. You look so quaint and quiet, with 
 those funny, unworldly little ways of yours ; 
 and yet I do believe you see everything. I 
 don't know how it is, but really papa, when 
 he does want me to do anything, always hits 
 upon the very thing I would most avoid ; 
 and so does everyone else." 
 
 " In that case, then,'' said Hope, laughing, 
 *' I should think you have plenty of oppor- 
 tunities of self-denial. You need not ask to 
 have them pointed out to you." 
 
 Madolin drew herself up. Even Hope 
 must not go too far. Sir David's daughter 
 was something like those fashionable lady
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 121 
 
 patients who send for a physician that the}'- 
 may describe their own aihnents, and pre- 
 scribe their own remedies. She felt half 
 inclined to drop the conversation ; and yet 
 there was a strange charm in it — the luxury 
 of confession without the mortification of 
 penance. 
 
 ^' Don't talk about such little things," she 
 said at last, with a touch of impatience. 
 " Tell me about something that I can do. I 
 told you I wanted to be of some use in the 
 world." 
 
 '' Did you ? I had forgotten. Well, then, 
 I know something that you can do, and it 
 won't give you a great deal of trouble 
 either." 
 
 " Perhaps it costs money ; and you 
 know papa does not give me a large allow- 
 ance." 
 
 "No. I don't think it would cost any 
 money at all ; and it would be a real kind-
 
 122 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ness. You know Theresa Lund — Tossie 
 they always call her — the daughter of the 
 lodgekeeper ?" 
 
 Madolin looked doubtful. 
 
 " A pretty girl — you must have seen her 
 sometimes when you have gone out into the 
 village." 
 
 " Hope, I never do go out into the vil- 
 lage, except to church. I hate having the 
 children drop curtseys to me. I do seem 
 to remember a girl, though, somewhere 
 about the Lodge, with a sort of Irish face, 
 blue eyes, black curling hair, and rosy 
 cheeks. I suppose that is the one you 
 mean. But I know very little about the 
 people papa employs. I cannot go into poor 
 women's cottages and chatter to them and 
 ask about their babies. And so that pretty 
 girl is Jacob Lund's daughter?" 
 
 " Yes, and I don't fancy she is in a very 
 good state of mind just now. She has
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 12^ 
 
 notions of getting up in the world, going 
 into a shop, or something of that kind, 
 where she can dress as she likes, and be 
 able to go out after dark. Poor Tossie! 
 the height of her ambition appears to be, 
 just at present, to go out after dark, because 
 her mother will not allow it. Mrs. Lund 
 was talking to me about her the other day, 
 and saying how she wished she could get 
 her into service at the Chase ; and I thought, 
 if you would let her come as sewing-maid 
 under Catton, it would be a real kindness to 
 her." 
 
 " And should I have to take her under 
 my wing, talk judiciously to her, attend to 
 the formation of her character, and that 
 sort of thing ? Because — really, Hope, you 
 know, that is not in my line at all." 
 
 " I don't think you have much of a wing 
 to take her under yet," said Hope, saucily. , 
 It was astonishing what sharp, trenchant
 
 124 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 things that shy, demure little maiden could 
 say sometimes. "At least, as regards that 
 sort of thing. All that I want you to do, 
 is to give her a situation under Catton, and 
 sometimes, when she comes in your way, to 
 speak a kind word to her. A little appro- 
 bation goes a long way with Tossie. She 
 will do anything, so long as she is praised 
 for it ; but she never gets a bit of praise at 
 home. Her mother is always fussing and 
 fuming about the house, and finding fault 
 with poor Tossie for spending so much time 
 over doing her hair, or trimming hats and 
 making bows. Now that is just the thing 
 she has a talent for, and I am sure Catton 
 would soon make a first-rate maid of her." 
 
 "Well, she may come as soon as ever 
 you like. Catton told me the other day 
 the sewing was almost too much for her 
 sometimes. And will that count for doing 
 good?"
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 125 
 
 Hope could not help laughing. 
 
 "I should think it will. A very little 
 attention from you will soon make her feel 
 proud of her place ; and at any rate, if she 
 lives here, she will be prevented from form- 
 ing bad companionships." 
 
 " That will be something," said Madolin, 
 clenching her small white teeth. 
 
 " Yes. Mrs. Lund is getting rather anxi- 
 ous about her. Tossie has those pretty, 
 attractive ways which make people fond of 
 her, and she has not prudence enough to 
 teach her where she should stop. Also, 
 she is a little bit wilful and fond of her own 
 way." 
 
 " God help her, then ! Hope, she shall 
 come at once. There is the gong. I will 
 speak to Catton as soon as she comes to 
 ray dressing-room, and you may tell Mrs. 
 Lund, next time you go out, that we are 
 willing to receive her."
 
 126 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 And Madolin, with a sudden fierce impa- 
 tience, which Hope could not understand, 
 swept her lace-work away into a little Indian 
 basket, and went to dress for dinner.
 
 127 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TTOPE MEREDITH, between whom 
 ^^-*- and Miss Lauderdale this conversa- 
 tion had taken place, was the only child of 
 a medical man in Matchborough. He had 
 died when she was twelve years old, leav- 
 ing a widow quite unprovided for, save by 
 the small insurance which he had effected 
 on his life. 
 
 Mrs. Meredith was a self-helpful, self- 
 reliant woman. After her husband's death, 
 she removed from their large, comfortable 
 house in the High Street to a cottage in the 
 outskirts of the town, and supplemented her 
 income by taking boarders for the Match-
 
 128 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 borough grammar-school. She found time 
 to teach her own daughter, too, such small 
 store of accomplishments as she herself pos- 
 sessed, and by dint of almost painful econo- 
 my, gathered together enough money to 
 send the girl to Heidelberg, as pupil teacher 
 in a school there for a year, when she had 
 learned all that could be learned at home. 
 
 Better still, she taught her those habits 
 of womanly resolve and self-denial which 
 had been her own stronghold in need. She 
 knew that Hope must, sooner or later, earn 
 her living in the world. In that upper 
 middle-class to which professional men 
 usually belong, girls without fortune, and 
 lacking the stylish, fashionable manners 
 which sometimes serve instead of it, have 
 small chance of marriage. And Mrs. Mere- 
 dith had higher aims for her simple-minded 
 . daughter than that she should fall into the 
 arms of the first man who proposed to her,
 
 HOPE MEKEDITH. 129 
 
 or starve on at home in enforced idleness, 
 for fear of damaging her chances of a settle- 
 ment in life by honest self-help. 
 
 She watched carefully the growth and 
 development of the girl's character, looking 
 for indications of any special capacity which, 
 wisely fostered, might reach to such excel- 
 lence as would insure its possessor worth 
 and success in life. But, for a while, the 
 good mother seemed destined to disappoint- 
 ment. Hope Meredith was one of those 
 apparently ordinary girls who have no 
 strong bent in any direction. She had a 
 keen eye for form, colour, and beauty, but 
 this was not accompanied by more than the 
 most moderate skill in the use of pencil and 
 brush. She understood music well, and her 
 face lighted up almost into beauty at the 
 performance of a good sonata or concerto, 
 but she could not, to have saved her life, 
 have played one of those flashy drawing- 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ]^oom pieces by which only a modern young 
 lady can be admitted to honourable place in 
 the ranks of amateur performers. She 
 could sing Scotch songs and English ballads 
 sweetly enough by herself, but her voice 
 quavered like an exhausted teetotum if any- 
 one but her mother listened. She knew a 
 little of French and German, and was well- 
 grounded in the " usual branches of a sound 
 English education ;" but then every nursery 
 governess at twenty pounds a year is ex- 
 pected, now-a-days, to be able to say that of 
 herself She was very useful in the house, 
 delighted in dusting and cooking, never got 
 into anybody's way, or asserted her own 
 rights in opposition to those of other people ; 
 but these qualities, though making her 
 valuable as a daughter at home, were of little 
 market profit in the great world of society. 
 
 At eighteen, then, there seemed no pro- 
 spect for Hope Meredith but nursery teach-
 
 HOPE MKREDITH. 131 
 
 ing, or paid companionship to Miss Lauder- 
 dale's typical old woman, rich, dull, and dis- 
 agreeable. JSTo mountain-peaks of genius in 
 her character to attract the fertilising showers 
 of popularity; no strong, overmastering 
 force of will to seize and keep for herself a 
 place in the world ; nothing in looks, man- 
 ners, or achievement to give society as- 
 surance of an unwonted treasure. 
 
 And yet, if anyone was out of sorts, Hope 
 always seemed to know what was the right 
 thing to be done. If sickness visited the 
 neighbours it was Hope who sat up at night 
 with the invalid, or in the day-time prepar- 
 ed dainty dishes — divining, as if by magic, 
 what was wanted, and when it would be 
 most welcome. 
 
 If one of the half dozen boarders, merry, 
 mischief-loving little lads, cut his finger, 
 sprained his wrist, got chilblains, ran up 
 against a post, or upset a kettle of water 
 
 k2
 
 132 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 upon his toes, Hope was there directly with 
 the proper remedies, applying them neatly, 
 skilfully, with a firm hand that never flinch- 
 ed, and a gentle tenderness that was in it- 
 self almost like a cure. 
 
 Slowly, then, the problem worked itself 
 towards a solution. The care of the sick 
 and suffering was evidently Hope's call in 
 life ; a noble call too — perhaps the best any 
 woman can have who has not yet listened 
 to or obeyed the supreme mandate of love. 
 
 Mrs. Meredith determined that she should 
 have all possible opportunity of becoming a 
 proficient. She spoke to one of her friends, a 
 medical man in the town, who introduced 
 Hope to the Lady Superintendent of the 
 Hospital. No systematic training was to be 
 obtained there at present, but much insight 
 and experience might be gained ; and Hope 
 was such a ready scholar that she soon 
 became very valuable amongst the patients.
 
 HOPE MEREDITH, 133 
 
 The doctor advised her remaining there 
 a year or two at a nominal salary, after 
 which she could go to one of the London 
 hospitals for regular training, and become, 
 in her own turn, Lady Superintendent some- 
 where else. 
 
 But before that time came, Hope's nursing 
 capabilities were called for nearer home. 
 Mrs. Meredith's own health failed. The 
 brave little woman had struggled nobly in 
 the long years of her widowhood ; worked 
 hard, lived sparingly, risen early, sat up late, 
 given herself but scant rest or holiday, and 
 now these things began to tell upon her. 
 The busy hands were found to drop, one by 
 one, the duties which had been so cheerfully 
 done. She could but sit in her arm-chair 
 and toil on at the sewing work of the house. 
 Then that, too, became more than she could 
 manage ; she must needs be content to plan 
 and direct, whilst others laboured. Then
 
 134 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 even the diligent brain failed, and she was 
 obliged to take for herself the help she would 
 so much rather have given. 
 
 Hope did what she could towards managing 
 the little family of boarders; but as her 
 mother required from day to day more 
 constant care, she was obliged to let them 
 go, and with them almost the whole support 
 of the house. Still there was a little money 
 left on hand. No debts had accumulated. 
 The friends of the children promised they 
 should return as soon as they could be re- 
 ceived again. With rigid economy Hope 
 managed to make ends meet, and even lay 
 by a little for the time when extra comforts 
 should be needed. That time came only 
 too soon. As the summer days began to 
 shorten, Mrs. Meredith died, leaving Hope 
 alone in the world. 
 
 Providence came to her assistance, at 
 least everybody thought it did, in the shape
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 135 
 
 of an old lady, Miss Asgard of Nunthorpe 
 Hollows, an ancient spinster with a large for- 
 tune and a taste for illuminated manuscripts. 
 The Meredith family was distantly connected 
 with her own, but she had carefully avoided 
 anything like intimacy since the doctor's 
 death, having a wholesome, and, under the 
 circumstances, perfectly justifiable dread of 
 poor relations. What did people marry for, 
 she should like to know, and then die and 
 leave widows and children to be taken care 
 of by those who had never achieved the 
 honour or happiness of the matrimonial 
 estate ? Let the dead bury their dead. Miss 
 Asgard used to say, when benevolent ladies 
 pestered her with cases of distress, or drew 
 eloquent pictures of weeping widows and 
 starving orphans, between whom and the 
 bitter east winds of poverty her own wealth 
 might place a grateful screen. 
 However, hearing of Hope's lonely condi-
 
 136 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 tioDj and being herself in that state of health 
 which might soon render the companionship 
 of a cheerful, unselfish, well-educated young 
 girl very acceptable, she magnanimously 
 offered the " poor thing " an asylum at Nun- 
 thorpe Hollows, until such time as she could 
 look about for other means of support. 
 Hope's friends advised her to go. She needed 
 rest and change after the long strain, both of 
 mind and body, which she had borne since 
 her mother's illness. She could not begin 
 her work of hospital training at once. Miss 
 Asgard's offer seemed the very thing she 
 needed, giving her what she supposed to be 
 a comfortable home, whilst the services she 
 could render would relieve her from any 
 feeling of dependency. 
 
 So there was a sale at poor Mrs. Meredith's 
 cottage. A chest which had been part of 
 her mother's outfit, contained all the world- 
 ly goods, in the shape of plate, linen, books,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 137 
 
 and some mementoes, which Hope reserved 
 to herself; and leaving this in charge of a 
 friend at Matchborough, she entered upon 
 her new life at the Hollows. 
 
 Now it so chanced that Miss Lauderdale, 
 who, when not restlessly pacing up and 
 down the elm-tree avenue, or leaning back 
 among her silken cushions, was generally 
 copying, in fine church text, extracts from 
 the English poets, and illuminating illustra- 
 tions for them from the old missals in her 
 father s library, had heard of Miss Asgard's 
 collection of ancient manuscripts, and had 
 asked the clergyman's wife to call with her 
 upon the old lady, for the purpose of ex- 
 amining them. They happened to call a 
 week or two after Hope had taken up her 
 abode at the Hollows. Miss Asgard, who 
 had lost no time in making her young 
 relative useful in that station of life in which 
 it had pleased Providence to place her, de-
 
 138 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 puted her to attend Miss Lauderdale to the 
 library, take down any cases which she 
 might require, dust, unlock, open, and then 
 replace them, when the interest of the 
 great lady should be satisfied. 
 
 If Hope had been as silly as most girls, 
 she would have done her duties of custodian 
 with the airs of an injured queen, mute, un- 
 interested, indignant at the work thrust upon 
 her, and going through it with an air of dis- 
 gust so manifest as to spoil any pleasure 
 which the most fervent lover of antique 
 manuscripts might have found in disagree- 
 able old Miss Asgard's collection. But Hope 
 was not silly, and whatever pride she might 
 have was judiciously balanced by common 
 sense. Besides, she had a real interest in 
 these things herself. She could illuminate 
 very prettily. She had an artist's feeling 
 for colour. A bramble-leaf, with autumn's 
 burning kiss upon it, was as dear a delight
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 13(> 
 
 to her as his glass of old port to a connois- 
 seur, or his shred of mouse china to a 
 virtuoso. That lightness of hand, firmness 
 of touch, quickness of eye, which made her 
 so useful in a hospital dressing-room, served 
 her now, with patient care, to copy the 
 quaint conceits of the old monks ; and she 
 was not wanting either in that other, inner 
 sense, that perception of spiritual life and 
 meaning, which made her quick to discern 
 the symbolism hidden under leaf, and bud, 
 and flower, which they had wrought. 
 
 Something in her frank, eager, intelligent 
 manner soon attracted Madolin's attention. 
 Here was no ordinary girl, drudging on in 
 the dull groove of mediocrity. Receiving 
 Hope's services at first with her usual calm, 
 lofty indifference, she was startled by a 
 chance word here and there, a keen remark, 
 a subtle explanation of some strange device, 
 discovering her own ignorance of art, as
 
 140 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 compared with tliis 3^oung girl's keen ap- 
 preciation of it. Where she touched it me- 
 chanically, Hope saw through to the deep 
 undermeaning. What was only body for 
 her, was body and soul for Hope, a living, 
 breathing, moving interest, which gave zest 
 to her enjoyment, and fire and vigour to 
 her work. And then she had such a simple, 
 independent way of saying what she thought. 
 Madolin, wearied to death with flattery, 
 bored with the obsequious attentions of 
 people anxious for the honour of her friend- 
 ship, experienced a delightful sensation of 
 freshness at the way in which Hope set her 
 right, contradicted her, insisted upon her 
 own opinions ; diving now and then into the 
 garden to fetch an ivy-leaf or rose-spray, 
 to show exactly how the tracery of some 
 initial letter ought to be arranged, or climb- 
 ing like a squirrel up the library steps to 
 hoist down some dusty old book, in which 
 she might find a specimen of the exact
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 1 4 1 
 
 colour which must be used for the border of 
 a saint's robe, to make it in accordance with 
 church canons on the subject. The girl was 
 as good as a chapter of clergymen, and as 
 fearless as a regiment of dragoons. 
 
 " Shall I see you again next time I come 
 to the Hollows ?" asked Miss Lauderdale ; 
 asked, too, with an interest strangely dif- 
 ferent from the careless condescension which, 
 an hour before, had been quite sufficient for 
 Miss Asgard's companion. 
 
 " Most likely," said Hope. "I believe I 
 shall be here through the winter." 
 
 *' I am glad of that. And shall we have 
 another talk about the illuminations ? And 
 will you let me see some of yours?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, if you like. And I will show 
 you what I use to raise the letters. You 
 can make your designs look so much prettier 
 if you raise the initial letters; and I will 
 look for that etching — I am sure I have it 
 here — which some one copied for me from a
 
 142 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 manuscript in the British Museum. It would 
 interest you so much, if you like that sort of 
 thing." 
 
 " Thank you — you are very kind. 1 am 
 quite sure I should learn a great deal from 
 you. And " 
 
 Miss Lauderdale hesitated. But still, yes, 
 she might as well. It need involve nothing 
 further. It was not as if Miss Meredith 
 was going to live in the neighbourhood, and 
 would therefore look upon the kindness as 
 an opening for familiarity. 
 
 "And would you care to come over to 
 the Chase some day? I will show you a 
 few of my etchings. Perhaps, too, you will 
 like to see some of papa's old books — he 
 has some very good ones, with illuminations 
 in them, w4iich I am sure he would be 
 delighted to allow you to copy. You will 
 find me at home almost always, I scarcely 
 ^ver go out."
 
 143 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 TTAD Miss Meredith, then, the provincial 
 -■— ■- doctor's portionless child, no appreci- 
 ation of the honour conferred upon her by 
 an invitation to Nunthorpe Chase, that she 
 answered so very calmly, 
 
 "Thank you. If it is not very far, I 
 shall be glad to walk over some day. I 
 have not much time of my own now, though, 
 for Miss Asgard has so many things for me 
 to.do." 
 
 And then Hope busied herself in return- 
 ing the old manuscripts to their cases, in- 
 stead of obsequiously attending Miss Lauder-
 
 144 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 dale round the room on a tour of inspec- 
 tion. Anyone else would have been over- 
 powered, would have paused, at any rate, 
 to find words for her gratitude. Hope did 
 not seem to have any difficulty in expressing 
 herself. 
 
 Curious, and yet rather piquant, thought 
 Miss Lauderdale, as, gathering the reins in 
 her hand, and bowing a courteous adieu to 
 Miss Asgard, who, overwhelmed with the 
 honour of a visit from the lady of Nunthorpe 
 Chase, had actually trotted to the front 
 door, to keep aristocracy in view as long as 
 possible, she returned home to the weari- 
 ness and loneliness and bitterness of the life 
 appointed to her there. And a great long- 
 ing arose within her to know more of this 
 girl, who cared so little to be known or 
 noticed ; who, humble, friendless, dependent, 
 could yet afford to treat with debonnaire 
 indifference the advances of even county
 
 HOPE MEPEDITH. 145 
 
 people. It was a new interest in the mono- 
 tonous dead level of her experience. 
 
 For seven years now Madolin Lauderdale 
 had borne that sad secret of hers. It had 
 made her old before her time, reserved, 
 stern, and cold. She walked upon a vol- 
 cano which might at any moment burst 
 open at her feet. Chance remarks from 
 Aunt Griselda or Sir David, neither of 
 whom could forget " that wretched affair " 
 at Heidelberg, flashed from time to time 
 upon the terrible past, and brought it all so 
 vividly before her. In seven years more 
 Jetsam would be coming back again. Would 
 God let her die first ? It was the only thing 
 she ever asked of Him. 
 
 Wearily, wearily the days went on, and 
 there was no interest for her in life. One 
 by one the companions who had known her 
 in her bright, impetuous girlhood married 
 and forgot her. One by one the suitors 
 
 VOL I. L
 
 146 HOPE MEEEDITH. 
 
 who would faia have borne her away to be 
 queen-regnant in a fair home of her own, 
 departed, sad at heart, but not so sad as she 
 whom they left behind. Love, the hope of 
 which, or its memory, or its possession, is the 
 one true fulfilment of a woman's life, was 
 for ever set apart from her. The warm, pas- 
 sionate heart within her could only beat to 
 feel its own misery. And none must know, 
 none must comfort her. 
 
 Why did not Miss Lauderdale marry ? 
 Why did not Miss Lauderdale go into society? 
 Why did not Miss Lauderdale visit amongst 
 the poor ? Why did not Miss Lauderdale 
 join a sisterhood, if the world had lost its 
 charms for her? said one or another of the 
 Chase set, watching the cloud of despair deep- 
 ening year by year upon her face. What 
 could anyone want more than had been 
 given to her? She had beauty, mone}^ a 
 splendid home, a kind old father who wait-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 147 
 
 ed upon her as proudly as thougli she had 
 been his young wife, instead of his careless, 
 indifferent daughter. And yet she took it all 
 with such graceless discontent. But the 
 Lauderdales were a proud family, and that 
 Spanish woman had mingled her bitterness 
 and passion, as \vell as her beauty, with their 
 pride ; and poor Madolin had to take her 
 portion, the evil with the good. 
 
 Hope, too, had rather a distressful time of 
 it with rich old Miss Asgard. The pro- 
 mised visit was paid to Nunthorpe Chase, 
 sharpening Madolin's interest and quickening 
 her desire to have the girl for a friend ; but 
 Miss Asgard had not asked Hope to the Hol- 
 lows to have her go dancing about to great 
 people's houses. She must make herself use- 
 ful, in return for the board and lodging w^hich 
 were so generously provided for her. It 
 was not everyone who would have taken in a 
 friendless girl, and she ought to feel that she 
 
 l2
 
 148 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 could never do enougli to repay the benefit. 
 She liked books, did she ? Well, there was 
 a catalogue to be made of all those in the 
 library, and numbers written and cut out 
 and pasted over the proper place of each 
 one. What pleasanter employment than that, 
 for anyone who had a taste for literature ? 
 She was fond of gardening. All the seeds of 
 the choice annuals wanted collecting and 
 spreading out to dry, and then sifting and 
 wrapping up in brown paper, and labelling 
 and stringing in rows across the roof of the 
 spare attic. Such an occupation as that must 
 satisfy even the intensest lover of horticul- 
 ture. Hope was benevolently inclined. 
 There were hundreds of yards of flannel to 
 be measured off, and petticoats to be made, 
 and tracts to be covered with brown paper, 
 and ticketed and endorsed with the caution 
 — " Keep this book clean." There were 
 clothing-club cards to be written out and
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 149 
 
 added up at the close of the year, and a 
 separate little interest sum to be worked in 
 connection with each, to ascertain how many 
 pence or half-pence each poor person ought 
 to receive upon her investments. Miss 
 Meredith loved housewifery. There was 
 threadbare old linen to mend, according to 
 the excellent maxim, never departed from at 
 the Hollows — " Take two threads, and miss 
 two ;" and stockings. Miss Asgard's fine 
 Lisle thread stockings, to darn so that the 
 weak place could not be detected, even with 
 spectacles ; and pillow lace to repair, fibre 
 by fibre, for it had been in the family so 
 many years, and was so very good of its 
 kind, that Miss Asgard could not think of 
 treating it with less than that respect. Miss 
 Meredith liked to know what was going on 
 in the world. There were the columns of the 
 Times and the Standard and the Guardian 
 to be gone through, and what so pleasant
 
 150 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 for her as to read them aload, Miss Asgard 
 nodding in her chair the while, but always, 
 as surely as the reading ceased, waking up 
 and vigorously asserting that she had not 
 slept a wink. Really, w^hen one came to 
 think about it, Hope ought to have been the 
 happiest girl in the world, to have all her 
 wants, as one might say, anticipated and 
 provided for by an ingenuity which seemed 
 almost fairy-like. 
 
 At last the ingenious old fairy died, not 
 much regretted by anyone — scarcely even 
 bewailed by Dr. Clay, the excellent Nun- 
 thorpe physician, who had visited her regu- 
 larly once a week for the last ten years. 
 She died very suddenly, and in her will, 
 which was made after Hope came to stay 
 with her, she left that young person an 
 ancient family tea-pot, as an acknowledge- 
 ment of the services rendered by her ; also 
 the sum of five pounds for mourning.
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 151 
 
 Upon hearing of the death, Miss Lauder- 
 dale drove over to the Hollows, and insisted 
 upon bringing Hope back with her until 
 affairs were settled. 
 
 She found the girFs companionship so 
 pleasant, the breeze of new life which she 
 brought into that dreary house so refreshing, 
 that the few days offered at first extended 
 to as many weeks, and, finally, as we have 
 seen, arrangements Avere made for Hope's 
 visit to be indefinitely lengthened out. 
 
 Shortly after the quinine conversation 
 recorded in the previous chapter, Jacob 
 Lund's daughter was received at the Chase 
 as sewing-maid and general assistant to 
 Cattou ; and Madolin, for the first time in 
 all her life, felt that she had done some 
 good in the world. 
 
 And what a window even that little act 
 of kindness opened towards the sweet blue
 
 152 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 heavens, only those could know whose lives 
 had been, like hers, one long exile from all 
 that is tender and true.
 
 153 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 *' A ND pray, may I ask to be informed of 
 ■^^ the antecedents of this young 
 person who appears to have established her- 
 self so familiarly in the bosom of the family ? 
 I am not aware that the name has ever 
 been mentioned in my hearing during any 
 of my previous visits to Nunthorpe Chase." 
 
 It was Aunt Griselda who made this 
 rather ominous speech ; and the " young 
 person" referred to was not, as might have 
 been supposed, Catton's lately-appointed 
 assistant, but Hope Meredith, whose adop- 
 tion into the Chase family was a severe
 
 154 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 blow to excellent Miss Lauderdale's ideas of 
 propriety. 
 
 Seven years, carrying her just across to 
 the shady side of the three score and ten ap- 
 pointed as the ordinary portion of human life, 
 had somewhat diminished Aunt Griselda's 
 natural vigour, and stiffened her joints, and 
 parched her never-very-blooming features, 
 and bent her once erect figure, and given 
 her a slight resemblance to a valuable 
 piece of old bronze. But she was a fine 
 woman, nevertheless ; only a little bit gar- 
 rulous, and perhaps a trifle more self-opin- 
 ionated and given to issue perpetual cannon- 
 ades of judicious maxims. And then, in 
 addition to the staunch Toryism which had 
 growm with her growth and strengthened 
 with her strength, Aunt Griselda had had, 
 ever since that wretched affair at Heidel- 
 berg, an aversion amounting almost to horror 
 for middle-class people whose connections
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 155- 
 
 had not been thoroughly ascertained. Of 
 ourse it was the most natural thing in the 
 world she should have such a horror, and 
 nobody, least of all Sir David and her 
 niece, ever found fault with her for having 
 it. Only the niece, at any rate, would have 
 preferred that Aunt Grisel's terrible experi- 
 ence at Heidelberg should not have been 
 brought so constantly forward. 
 
 '' You know, my dear," the old lady 
 would say at every convenient opportunity^ 
 " it would be impossible to make you under- 
 stand my feelings about that sort of people. 
 That execrable " 
 
 And then Miss Lauderdale would waive 
 the subject. 
 
 " Never mind, auntie dear ; we won't say 
 any more about it. It is really no use 
 agitating yourself so constantly. You will 
 have Heidelberg on the brain, if you don't 
 mind."
 
 156 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 Perhaps that was one reason why Mado- 
 lin did not care to have Miss Griselda living 
 always at the Chase. 
 
 And now here was one of the obnoxious 
 class actually received as a member of the 
 Lauderdale family, sauntering familiarly 
 with Madolin up and down the elm avenue, 
 closeted with her for hours in the library 
 amongst those valuable old manuscripts, any 
 one of which was worth a round fifty guineas 
 — she hoped her brother had a catalogue of 
 them all ; if not, she would give him no rest 
 until one was made — sitting with perfect 
 familiarity at Madolin's feet in the cozy lei- 
 sure of afternoon tea-time ; nay, actually 
 receiving the Lauderdale kiss night after 
 night, and from proud Madolin, too, who 
 had never been known to bestow a caress 
 upon anyone but her own father and 
 aunt. Well might Miss Griselda ask, with 
 the air of an injured person, after the
 
 HOPE MEKEDITH. 157 
 
 antecedents and introductions of the new- 
 comer. 
 
 Madolin looked her aunt steadily in the 
 face. She was prepared to fight, if need 
 were, for her possession in Hope's friend- 
 ship, the only possession now which made 
 life endurable to her. 
 
 " The young person, aunt, about whom 
 you inquire, is Miss Meredith, the daughter 
 of a medical man at Matchborough, who died 
 many years ago. She has kindly promised 
 to stay with me through the summer." 
 
 "Very kind indeed of her," said Aunt 
 Griselda, with a fling of one of her long 
 strips of knitting. " I have no doubt you 
 might find many people equally kind if you 
 gave yourself the trouble to look for them. 
 Sir David told me she was an orphan, or 
 something of that nature. May I ask, have 
 you been long acquainted with her ? — suffi- 
 ciently long, I mean, to justify you in ad-
 
 158 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 mitting her to such famiharit}'' as she appears 
 to enjoy at present ?" 
 
 " I have known her for more than six 
 months. I met her at Miss Asgard's house. 
 She went there after her mother's death. 
 The Asgards are distant connections of the 
 Merediths." 
 
 *'Very distant, I should say. I never 
 heard that Miss Asgard had indigent rela- 
 tives of that name. Of course you are 
 quite sure that the statement may be relied 
 upon. Miss Asgard, I suppose, treated her 
 with deference, being a connection, and left 
 her no doubt a handsome legacy, besides 
 the family tea-pot, which most likely was a 
 tribute of esteem and affection." 
 
 " You seem to have given yourself a great 
 deal of trouble. Auntie Grisel, to find out 
 Hope's exact position at The Hollows. But 
 will you be kind enough to remember that 
 she is my guest now."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 159 
 
 " I beg pardon, my dear," said Miss 
 Griselda, not wishing to provoke a quarrel 
 •which might shorten her own visit at the 
 Chase. " I do not in the least wish to hint 
 at anything detrimental to the young lady. 
 Only, when I was a girl, it was considered 
 wise to be very careful in the choice of com- 
 panions. That is all I have to say. Unless 
 indeed I might add that at this particular 
 juncture, when Captain Cayley may be ex- 
 pected to make his appearance at any time, 
 and stay perhaps for weeks in the house — " 
 
 *' Oh ! auntie dear, don't distress your- 
 self !" and a delicate flash of satire played 
 over Miss Lauderdale's face. " I daresay 
 Miss Meredith will excuse poor Uncle Mac's 
 little roughnesses. She is not critical, and 
 you know he is really a very good fellow, by 
 all accounts. I have already told her that 
 she must make allowance for him." 
 
 Aunt Griselda dropped her knitting.
 
 160 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 What could Madolin be thinking about? 
 She was so little accustomed to irony, and 
 from her reserved, indifferent niece, too, 
 that she could not comprehend the situa- 
 tion. 
 
 ** My dear^ are you aware what you are 
 saying? A girl like Miss Meredith make 
 allowances for anyone connected by ties, 
 however remote, to the Lauderdale family ! 
 You must surely be joking." 
 
 "Just the very thing that I am doing, 
 auntie dear, so do not trouble yourself any 
 more about it. Seriouslv, I have not the 
 least doubt that Hope and Uncle Mac will 
 get on very well together, if he should 
 happen to come whilst she is here. Papa 
 says he is a dear, good-hearted, honest old 
 fellow." 
 
 " Not so very old, Madolin, if you please," 
 
 ' said Aunt Griselda, drawing herself up with 
 
 dignity; "and when I was a girl, young
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 161 
 
 ladies were not accustomed to call their 
 male relatives old fellows. I presume you 
 have already taken some lessons from your 
 new friend in the art of elegant conversa- 
 tion." 
 
 ^' Come, come, auntie, no more of that. 
 Hope Meredith is my friend, and my friend 
 she shall remain, whatever you or anyone 
 else may say to the contrary. So we will let 
 that matter drop. As for Mac, I don't re- 
 member him in the least, except that I am 
 told he used to help to toss me in a blanket, 
 when he was over here, twenty years ago. 
 I don't suppose I shall particularly care to 
 have him again, except as he may serve to 
 make Hope's visit a little brighter." 
 
 "Perhaps too bright, my dear. Of course 
 Captain Cayley, being a man of good posi- 
 tion, would never think of committing him- 
 self to anything of the kind ; but for Miss 
 Meredith it would be a most brilliant op- 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 portunity, and I should not wonder if the 
 girl " 
 
 " Aunt Griselda, we will not speak any 
 more about Hope Meredith. I tell you, 
 once for all, she is my guest." 
 
 " So you have told me before, my dear. 
 You really seem to be quite touchy about 
 her. But I always did say, Madolin, and 
 truth compels me to say it again now, that 
 you were never sufficiently cautious in the 
 choice of your friends. Ever since that 
 wretched experience at Heidelberg, I have 
 had such an intense horror of " 
 
 " Excuse me, auntie, I think I heard papa 
 calling." 
 
 And Madolin went hastily out of the 
 room. 
 
 Miss Griselda chafed and fumed for a 
 moment or two, then resumed her knitting. 
 Her niece could not bear to be reminded of 
 Heidelberg — that was what had made her
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. * 163 
 
 go out of the room in such a hurry. And 
 no wonder, for it must be a source of last- 
 ing humiliation to her that she had allowed 
 herself to accept the attentions of a man 
 who was worse than a disgrace to society. 
 But perhaps it was just as well that she had 
 made such a mistake. Though it did not 
 seem to have humbled her very much, still 
 it might be used advantageously as a check 
 when she was launching out rather too in- 
 dependently in the choosing and defending 
 of her friends. And Miss Griselda meant 
 to avail herself of it pretty often. 
 
 Sir David came in, and his excellent sis- 
 ter resumed the thread of her discourse. 
 
 " Such a pity, my dear brother, as I was 
 saying just now, that Madolin does not 
 exercise a little more discretion in the 
 choice of her friends. To my own personal 
 knowledge there are at least half-a-dozen 
 families within a drive of the Chase who 
 
 m2
 
 164 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 would be delighted to be on intimate terms 
 with her, and have her at their town houses 
 during the season, and do anything in the 
 world to amuse and interest her, and yet 
 she must needs pass over them all to make 
 an associate of this doctor's daughter — a 
 girl with absolutely no tone about her, in- 
 deed, I think I may almost say quite the 
 reverse, Miss Meredith's manner being sin- 
 gularly wanting in the polish and reserve 
 which are usually supposed to characterize 
 people of position." 
 
 "But a sensible girl, Griselda, a very 
 sensible girl," said Sir David, " and perfectly 
 obliging." 
 
 " Oh, yes ! I have not the slightest doubt 
 of that And most likely quite awake to 
 her own interests. I should wonder what 
 girl, admitted to familiar association in a 
 house like this, would not, at any rate, make 
 an eifort to be obliging. Can you really
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 165 
 
 say, now, David, dear, that you approve of 
 her being here ?" 
 
 Sir David, who was a man of strict in- 
 tegrit}^, was compelled to say that he did 
 approve of it. Moreover, he went on to 
 own that life at Nunthorpe Chase had been 
 quite a different thing since Hope Meredith 
 came to the house, and that he did not know 
 what they should do without her. 
 
 Miss Griselda looked disgusted. 
 
 " An exceedingly pleasant person in her 
 way, my dear brother, and with her own 
 ends to serve, you may depend upon it. 
 What I complain of is this, that my niece 
 has neglected so many superior people, to 
 fix her affections upon this upstart — for 
 really I can call her by no other name. 
 For instance, now, those delightful Regisons 
 — you remember them, don't you ? I used 
 to write to you from Heidelberg, and' 
 tell you how sweetly attentive they were.
 
 166 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 Widow of an Indian officer very high in the 
 service, and a charming daughter about the 
 age of dear Madolin." 
 
 Yes, Sir David thought he did remember. 
 
 *' Well, a year or two ago they returned 
 to England, and were travelling about for 
 their health. You know poor dear Mrs. 
 Regison ruined her constitution in India, and 
 they came to a house near Matchborough on 
 account of the moorland air ; and as soon 
 as ever I heard of it I wrote to Madolin, re- 
 questing her to lose no time in driving over 
 to call upon them — such very nice people, 
 you know, and so very attentive. And, 
 would you believe it, she excused herself 
 from doing anything of the sort." 
 
 Sir David could quite believe it. Princess 
 Madolin had not been mistress of Nunthorpe 
 Chase for seven years without convincing 
 most people there that she intended her will 
 to be law.
 
 HOPE MEEEDITH. 167 
 
 "I never interfere with my daughter's 
 arrangements," he said, in a deprecatory sort 
 of way. "You know she is a little head- 
 strong, and I find it better to allow her to 
 follow her own inclinations." 
 
 " Exactly so, David. But I think you 
 will agree with me that there are occasions 
 when the inclinations of a member of the 
 family might be considered a little. How- 
 ever, I do not intend to take Madolin's 
 opinion upon the subject again. I have had 
 a letter this morning from Mrs. Regison, 
 sent on here by my people in London, from . 
 which I find that she is in this neighbour- 
 hood a second time, for her own and Ger- 
 trude's health, and I intend to take the 
 matter into my own hands, and call upon 
 her, without consulting Madolin at all." 
 
 " The best thing for you to do, Griselda." 
 
 " And I suppose, David, if I tell her that 
 we shall be glad to see her at the Chase,
 
 168 HOPE MEREDITH. ^^ 
 
 you will not think that I am infringing 
 either upon your privacy or that of your 
 daughter ?" 
 
 '^ Not in the least. In fact, it would be a 
 real relief to me if we did have a few guests 
 occasionally. I have almost now ceased to 
 mention the subject to Madolin — she repels 
 it so decidedly ; but there is nothing I should 
 like better than something to vary our ever- 
 lasting tete-a4etesy 
 
 ^' I knew that, David, dear. And it is 
 entirely on that account that even the pres- 
 ence of a person like Miss Meredith is wel- 
 come. There is just one other thing I should 
 like to mention. You know there was an 
 invitation from the Milbanks this morning 
 for dinner on the 25th to meet Mrs. Regi- 
 son, and I believe Madolin was going to 
 decline for herself. However, I told her 
 that I did not think you would allow such 
 a slight to be offered to me in your house."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 169 
 
 " Certainly not, Griselda. It is Madolin's 
 place to accompany you, and I shall expect 
 her to do so." 
 
 "Thank you; I was sure you would. 
 And dear Mrs. Regison is so very anxious to 
 renew the intimacy. Such delightful friends 
 as they would be too, for Madolin. I be- 
 lieve it is nothing but her foolish pride 
 which prevents her from calling upon them. 
 You know she was dreadfully irritated 
 about that wretched affair at Heidelberg; 
 in fact, fires up if I mention it to her in the 
 mildest way, and of course Mrs. Regison 
 knows that she encouraged Jetsam a little 
 too much. She must learn, however, to 
 conquer such feelings when they interfere 
 with the comfort of those about her." 
 
 And Miss Griselda, who, of course, never 
 missed an opportunity of conquering her 
 own feelings when they interfered with the 
 comfort of those about her, retired, feeling
 
 170 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 that, on the whole, the conversation had 
 been very successful. 
 
 Next morning, somewhat to her chagrin, 
 there was a letter from Uncle Mac. He 
 had sailed sooner than he expected, was in 
 London, and intended, as soon as possible, 
 to pay his respects to Sir David. Perhaps 
 he might be in the neighbourhood for a few 
 days before coming to stay at the Chase ; 
 but, at all events, he should call in the 
 course of a week or two. 
 
 And now that Miss Meredith must be put 
 down at the earliest opportunity.
 
 171 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A UNT GRISELDA thought no one 
 ■^-^ could perform that delicate office 
 with so much tact as herself. Accordingly 
 she jotted down a few remarks which might 
 be useful, and waited her opportunity. 
 
 It fell out a day or two before the Mil- 
 bank dinner-party. Sir David chanced (a very 
 rare chance indeed for him) to be busy with 
 his daughter, looking over some plans for 
 worknien's cottages on the estate. Where- 
 upon Miss Griselda suggested to Hope that 
 they should avail themselves of the lovely 
 May morning to take a turn in the Park.
 
 172 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 "You know I always think Sir David 
 •and Miss Lauderdale must like to be left 
 ^lone occasionally," she began, by way of 
 introduction to more personal remarks. 
 •^^ Guests, of course, are very well in their 
 way, but I am always careful not to intrude 
 upon the privacy of my friends. It is op- 
 pressive, sometimes, to feel that you must 
 keep up conversation whether you are dis- 
 posed to do so or not." 
 
 Hope assented, not seeing any special 
 drift in the remark, and the two ladies set 
 out upon their walk. 
 
 It was a sweet spring morning. A soft, 
 bloomy green was beginning to peep forth 
 upon the old elm-trees of the Chase. There 
 were violets and primroses scattered up and 
 down the mossy woodland paths, with beds 
 of wild hyacinth, and here and there, far- 
 ther down by the stream, a solitary Lent 
 lily, blooming long past its time, and carry-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 173 
 
 ing Easter memories almost into the snowy 
 dawn of Whit-tide. And the breath of the 
 slowly-coming summer breathed warm and 
 soft across the slopes of gorse and heather, 
 and everywhere there was a strong pulse of 
 life beating and bounding in Nature's veins, 
 as though she had suddenly awakened, full- 
 rested and refreshed, from her winter sleep, 
 and could scarce work brightly or cheerily 
 enough now that the night of her idleness 
 had passed away. 
 
 Hope felt it in her own veins too. She 
 wanted to jump and spring and stretch her- 
 self. Two months of perfect rest at Nun- 
 thorpe Chase had brought the roses back to 
 her cheeks, and the brightness to her eyes, 
 and she felt as if she must have some out- 
 let for the life which was so strongly stirring 
 within her. Oh, for a run up and down 
 those heathery slopes, if only Miss Griselda 
 had not been there, or for a romp with Leo
 
 174 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 and Chit, the retrievers, who were crossing 
 the park at the heels of one of the game- 
 keepers. And when they passed under the 
 drooping branch of a sycamore, she could 
 scarcely keep from catching hold of it and 
 swinging herself into the tree, as she used 
 to do at her grandfather's farm of Willowaste 
 — how much more delis^htful an exercise 
 than keeping step with Miss Griselda, and 
 listening to her everlasting hints and admon- 
 itions, which were doubtless intended as 
 tonic bitters, but had much more the effect 
 of mosquitoe bites. 
 
 " A little slower, Miss Meredith, if you 
 please," said the old lady, with a touch of 
 dignity. " It is inconvenient to me to hurry. 
 In fact, I was obliged to send away my last 
 companion in London entirely on account 
 of her rapid manner of walking. It is so 
 exceedingly difficult to meet with a person 
 who quite understands your ways. I dare-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 175 
 
 sa}^ you did not often walk out with Miss 
 Asgard." 
 
 *' Oh ! yes, but she always rode in a Bath 
 chair ; and I just walked as fast or as slow 
 as I liked, so long as I did not go out of 
 sight." 
 
 " Poor thing !" said Miss Griselda, not 
 indicating, however, to whom the remark 
 was applicable. " Rather tedious, I should 
 think, for you, my dear ; and it is a very 
 shut-up little place down there at The Hol- 
 lows." 
 
 "Yes — it was so full of thingjs, too. The 
 house always smelt of calico and blankets 
 and brown paper. You know Miss Asgard 
 was so very benevolent." 
 
 " Of course ; and found plenty for you to 
 do, no doubt. It must have been a delight- 
 ful change when dear Madolin asked you out 
 here for a week or two. So kind of her, 
 was it not ?"
 
 176 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 '^ Yes, very," said Hope, making a flying 
 leap over a little running stream, in quest 
 of an iris blossom on the other side, and 
 then springing back to her astonished com- 
 panion. " I don't think I was ever in such 
 a pretty place before." 
 
 *' Most likely not. People generally ad- 
 mire Nunthorpe Chase very much. I used 
 to live here myself when dear Madolin was 
 quite a child, and greatly I enjoyed the 
 beauty and privacy of the place. It is so 
 delightful, you know, to be able to take your 
 walks in any direction without having to 
 meet common people, as you must do if you 
 go into the village. And I believe now 
 Sir David is more particular than ever about 
 trespassers. My niece is so very much 
 annoyed if she meets strangers in the 
 grounds.*' 
 
 *^Yes," said Hope, with rather a bored 
 expression. This first walk with excellent
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 177 
 
 Miss Griselda was turning out anything but 
 brilliant. " Miss Lauderdale told me there 
 was nothing she hated so much as to meet 
 people in the park when she happened to be 
 walldnsj out." 
 
 * "Did she? Ah! 1 see she has quite 
 taken you into her confidence. You know 
 my niece has peculiar tastes. As I was tell- 
 ing you before, I used to make my home 
 here some time ago ; but since my residence 
 in town, I have only come down for occa- 
 sional visits, and not very long ones." 
 
 Miss Griselda was coming to the pith of 
 her discourse now, and had taken Hope's 
 arm, in order that that young person might 
 not break the conversation by any more fly- 
 ing leaps after iris blossoms. 
 
 "Not very long ones. I always avoid 
 long visits at the Chase, because Miss Lau- 
 derdale soon tires of company." ' 
 
 "She told me she never had any to tire 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 of," said Hope; "and that was why she 
 wished me to stay with her all the summer." 
 
 " Then I should not advise you to do it. 
 You know the constant obligation to enter- 
 tain guests soon becomes a tax. No doubt 
 my niece enjoys it just at present, but by- 
 and-by " 
 
 "Unless indeed," Miss Griselda continued, 
 with a series of her favourite little mysteri- 
 ous nods and smiles — " unless indeed there 
 is some definite arrangement between you. 
 You understand me, Miss Meredith, I am 
 sure. Of course, if my niece finds that she 
 requires the services of an educated and 
 intelligent person like yourself, it would give 
 me the greatest possible satisfaction to know 
 that you had taken up your permanent resi- 
 dence at the Chase. There are so many 
 things in which Miss Lauderdale would find 
 you invaluable. I always say, you know, 
 that anyone who has been accustomed to
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 179 
 
 attend upon others, and make herself use- 
 ful in all sorts of little ways, is so very- 
 desirable in a house." 
 
 " Oh ! but," said Hope, innocently, " I am 
 not going to be companion to Miss Lauder- 
 dale, if that is what you mean. I mean to 
 train for a nurse in one of the London hos- 
 pitals when I leave here." 
 
 "Indeed ! — very praiseworthy, very praise- 
 worthy indeed. Nothing pleases me so 
 much as for young people to set themselves 
 against being a burden to others. If I 
 might trouble you to carry my muif for me, 
 Miss Meredith ; I find myself rather incom- 
 moded with it. You see, the sun has great 
 power just now. And I think, if it does 
 not make any difference to you, we will 
 walk a little more slowly. I am afraid I 
 am troublesome, but most likely you have 
 got into the habit of rapid walking from 
 
 generally having had an errand in view 
 
 N 2
 
 180 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 when you have gone out. Now, you see, 
 when I take my walks, it is simply for the 
 sake of the air." 
 
 And to make disagreeable remarks to 
 other people, thought Hope, but she did 
 not say so. 
 
 ^' Yes, simply for the air, and so I like to 
 take it as leisurely as possible. I have 
 always considered very rapid walking as a 
 characteristic of common people. But, my 
 dear " 
 
 And Miss Griselda came to a dead stop, 
 keeping a tight hold of her companion's 
 arm, in order that she might do the same. 
 
 ^'Who can that be coming along in the 
 distance ? My eyesight is not ver}^ good. 
 A gamekeeper, do you think, or is he a 
 trespasser? Exceedingly annoying, when 
 all the people about here know that Sir 
 David is so very particular. I believe he 
 is a trespasser. Now that I look more
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 181 
 
 closely, I am quite sure he has not the air 
 and bearing of a gentleman." 
 
 " Perhaps he is coming from the Mil- 
 banks' place at Rossbury," suggested Hope. 
 "There is a short cut across the park from 
 one of their meadows, and Miss Lauderdale 
 said Sir David had given them leave to use 
 it." 
 
 " Excuse me, Miss Meredith, I am rarely 
 mistaken. It strikes me he is a low sort 
 of person from Matchborough. They are 
 often seen prowling about here when Sir 
 David is in town, and no doubt the fellow 
 fancies we are all away. Ever since that 
 wretched affair at Heidelberg, I have had a 
 perfect horror of such people. Of course 
 we are perfectly safe ; he can do us no 
 harm, but I shall certainly tell him there 
 are traps upon the premises." 
 
 Miss Griselda drew herself up, girded heri 
 shawl tightly about her, and marched for-
 
 182 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ward with the air of a British female who 
 is prepared to face death at the cannon's 
 mouth. 
 
 The stranger, who was somewhat care- 
 lessly dressed, and had a quantity of fish- 
 ing-tackle about him, slackened his pace as 
 he approached the ladies. 
 
 ^' There ! he is actually going to speak 
 to us. I told you he was a trespasser. 
 There are always gamekeepers about," she 
 said, in a high-pitched tone of indignation, 
 as the terrible unknown raised his cap. 
 
 *' Thank you," he replied, giving the 
 tackle a swing over his shoulder. " Per- 
 haps one of them will be able to tell me if 
 there is a short cut to the fir plantation." 
 
 ^^ SirT said Miss Griselda, with all the 
 dignity of which a Lauderdale was capable, 
 " this park is strictly private." 
 ' '* All right, madam. I only want the 
 stream down by the plantation. I will go
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 183 
 
 on until I find some one to direct me." 
 
 And away he went. 
 
 " Insufferable impertinence !" hissed Miss 
 Griselda. 
 
 Hope could scarcely contain her amuse- 
 ment. The whole affair was so supremely 
 comical. The stranger's coolness, the lady's 
 indignation, could not have been surpassed ; 
 and she felt so sure, too, that, for once in 
 her life, Aunt Griselda had been mistaken. 
 She just lingered a moment to tell the 
 stranger that there was a short cut past one 
 of the woodmen's huts to the fir plantation, 
 and then rejoined her companion, w^ho was 
 walking on with the majesty of a whole 
 battalion of police concentrated in her single 
 person. 
 
 '^ Miss Meredith, it would have been more 
 prudent to have passed on in perfect silence. 
 We shall have to cross that path ourselves, 
 on our way home, and who can tell what
 
 184 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 the man may be loitering there for ? I am 
 convinced that his intentions are dishon- 
 est." 
 
 " Then I have done the prudentest thing 
 in the world," said Hope, "for he will have 
 to go straight past one of the workmen's 
 huts, and if he is doing wrong he will be 
 found out." 
 
 But Miss Griselda was sternly silent. In 
 her opinion Miss Meredith Avas ayoung person 
 who required a great deal of putting down, 
 and she should have it too. If a Lauderdale 
 woman could not do it, she should like to 
 know who could. 
 
 " I daresay you won't mind," she resumed 
 after a while, in a bright, cheery tone, as if 
 what she was going to say was the very 
 sweetest thing that could be said under the 
 circumstances. *' I daresay you won't mind 
 spending an evening by yourself occasionally. 
 My niece does not go out very often ; indeed
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 185 
 
 I tell her she secludes herself much more 
 than a lady of her position ought to do, but 
 still now and then she exchanges visits with 
 the people about here, which involve an 
 occasional invitation to dinner, and, of course, 
 you would not — you understand what I 
 mean, I daresay, without my going farther 
 into the subject." 
 
 " Oh, yes, thank you ; you mean that the 
 people won't expect me, too. I'm sure I 
 don't want to go, and so it is all right." 
 
 ''Yes, I knew it would be. You under- 
 stand about all these little matters, I am 
 sure. I should not have mentioned it just 
 now, only there is a dinner engagement 
 next week at the Milbanks. Delightful 
 people the Milbanks; I believe they used 
 to call sometimes upon Miss Asgard, but 
 perhaps she would not expect you to be in 
 the room at such times." ' 
 
 '' Yes, she did ; and I remember the Mil-
 
 186 HOPE MEKEDITH. 
 
 banks very well. Once Miss Milbank came 
 too, and we had a long talk about the 
 Matchborough Hospital. She has a great 
 desire to be a trained nurse herself, and so 
 she was very anxious to hear all T could tell 
 her about it. And in the note which came 
 to Miss Lauderdale yesterday, Mrs. Milbank 
 asked if I would go too, so I shall not need to 
 stay at home by myself." 
 
 Hope said this with a delightful little touch 
 of sauciness, which, however piquant in 
 itself, was almost the most irritating thing 
 Miss Griselda had ever experienced since 
 that wretched affair at Heidelberg. Really 
 the girl was like an air-ball ; the more you 
 tried to knock her down, the higher she 
 rose. 
 
 *' But I don't so very much care to go," 
 she continued ; " Miss Milbank will be busy 
 with the other people, and will not want to 
 be talking to me ; and besides, I never was
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 187 
 
 at a real dinner-party in my life. I don't 
 know at all what I ought to do." 
 
 "Most likely not. I daresay in your posi- 
 tion you would feel a little awkward. Still 
 you know it was very kind of them to have 
 asked you, though I daresay they did it to 
 please my niece ; of course they knew an at- 
 tention to you would gratify her, though I 
 think, my dear, at the same time, if you take 
 my advice you will remain at home. I 
 should never accept complimentary invita- 
 tions if I were in your place. It is so much 
 more dignified to maintain your own position,, 
 whatever it may be." 
 
 "What a disagreeable old woman you 
 are !" thought Hope, whistling to a squirrel 
 who was running up a tree ; and she was 
 very glad to be able to suggest that, as 
 the wind had veered to the east, it would be 
 advisable for them to return by a shorter cut 
 than going round by the fir plantation.
 
 188 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! my muff at once, please, then 
 and we will return immediately. There is 
 nothing so unpleasant to me as east wind." 
 
 "Yes," said Hope, drily; "and if you 
 talk whilst you are facing it, you will most 
 likely have bronchitis again. The doctor at 
 the Matchborough Hospital always said that 
 people took cold in that way sooner than 
 any other." 
 
 Aunt Griselda, whose prudence was al- 
 ways in advance of her perception, retired, 
 Minerva-like, behind the ^gis of a thick 
 Shetland veil, and ventured not another re- 
 mark. So that, of Hope's share in the 
 morning's experiences, it might very truly 
 be said, " better is the end of a thing than 
 the beginning thereof !"
 
 189 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 nnHEN came the little dinner at Rossbury^, 
 -^ where the Regisons, who had been 
 now a month or two at Matchborough, were 
 to be introduced to the elite of the neidi- 
 bourhood. 
 
 Miss Lauderdale did not go, after all, a 
 headache having mercifully interposed its 
 pain between her and the far worse agony 
 of Mrs. Regisons reminiscences. But she 
 would have Hope into her own room when 
 the eventful process of dressing began, and 
 Catton — who loved Miss Meredith for the 
 brightness she had brought into that else
 
 190 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 €old and desolate house — was sent for to 
 ensure a successful result. Tossie, too, who 
 was now quite established at the Chase, and 
 promised to outrun her teacher as a quick 
 and tasteful lady's maid, was there with her 
 needle and thread, ready for action. 
 
 The black silk dress which had been doing 
 duty on state occasions ever since poor Mrs. 
 Meredith's death, eight months before, and 
 which was likely enough, seeing the con- 
 dition of Hope's finances, to continue that 
 office for an indefinite time, was brought 
 out for Miss Lauderdale to inspect. A knot 
 of ribbon was put here, a fold shaped there, 
 the neck, cut out a little lower, to show the 
 wearer s fair round throat, the sleeves looped 
 up to let her arms come into sight. 
 
 " One might think Miss Meredith was an 
 old maid of fifty, by the way she covers 
 herself up," said Catton, " and those pretty 
 dimpled elbows, as I'm sure many a duchess
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 191 
 
 would give a thousand a year for them. I 
 only wish some folks thought as little of setting 
 themselves off." 
 
 And Catton darted a somewhat severe 
 glance at Tossie, who, with her pretty head 
 on one side, and the back of her hand to her 
 mouth, was watching the performance with 
 intense interest. Oh ! if she could have a 
 dress cut square in the front ! — for was not 
 her throat as white as the whitest and as 
 fair as the fairest of them all ? 
 
 " But them that's born to it often don't 
 think anything at all. Now, Madam, isn't 
 it a shame that Miss Meredith doesn't make 
 more of herself?" 
 
 " Of course it is, Catton, and Ave mean to 
 make her behave better now. And, Hope, 
 listen to me. I insist upon a cluster of 
 scarlet geranium for your hair, and another 
 for the bosom of your dress, and another to 
 knot in amongst that drapery ou the skirt.
 
 192 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 Tossie, run down to the gardener directly, 
 and ask hiin to make you up three little 
 bunches of geranium. He must pick them 
 out of the purest scarlet, not a bit of that 
 crimson or pink amongst them, all exactly 
 the same shade ; and bring them here to 
 me directly." 
 
 " Yes, ma'am," and away flew Tossie, but 
 she did not mean to bring them back '' di- 
 rectly," for had not young Rayson, one of 
 the hot-house men, looked upon her some- 
 times with sweet eyes, and was not five 
 minutes of flirtation with him, amongst the 
 perfume of roses and heliotrope, better even 
 than seeing Miss Meredith dressed for the 
 Milbank dinner-party ? 
 
 Hope, standing before the mirror, looked 
 as pretty as need be in her red dressing- 
 jacket and short white petticoat; and if a 
 duchess might have envied . the dimpled 
 elbows, she might have envied still more
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 193 
 
 the masses of thick black hair which the girl 
 was twisting coil upon coil round her head. 
 It was astonishing how nice Hope could 
 make that hair look, when she tried. Miss 
 Lauderdale was still turning the dress over 
 and over. 
 
 " Catton must pufF a quantity of white 
 tulle round the neck. It is a thousand 
 pities you never had a dress cut properly 
 before, Hope; and we must have some 
 more put for ruffles to the sleeves. You 
 might look as nice as anybody in the world, 
 child, if you would only give your mind to 
 it." 
 
 " Well, I mean to do so now ; but no one 
 has ever taken any pains with me yet, or 
 cared whether I was nicely dressed or not. 
 The only thing has been to make my clothes 
 last as long as they would." 
 
 '^ Just as if they would not last ever so 
 much longer if you helped them out with 
 
 VOL. 1.
 
 194 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 little bits of ornament here and there. You 
 know once — Catton is out of the room, is 
 she not? — once, when we lived at Heidel- 
 berg, I was very poor indeed, but still I 
 always managed to look nice." 
 
 ''I should think you did," said Hope, 
 with a glance of love's reverence towards 
 the calm, proud face, so keen, clear, finished 
 in its every line. " You would look nice 
 in anything. But then things are very dif- 
 ferent at Heidelberg." 
 
 *'How do you know?" asked Madolin, 
 sharply. 
 
 ^' Oh, I know well enough. I was there 
 for a year at school. Mamma thought I 
 should most likely have to earn my living 
 by teaching, and I went there to learn 
 French and German." 
 
 '' Indeed ! Strange that we never hap- 
 pened to talk about it. And when were 
 you there ?"
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 19$ 
 
 " I suppose about seven years ago. I 
 was thirteen or fourteen then ; and now I 
 am just twenty." 
 
 "The very time we were there. I may, 
 perhaps, have seen you sometimes, without 
 knowing it, when we were sitting out under 
 those linden-trees, where all the people 
 used to gather in summer evenings." 
 
 " I don't know, but I think very likely I 
 may have seen you, for we used to pass the 
 Pension Martel every day when the girls 
 went for their walk ; and I saw people 
 sauntering about in the beautiful garden. 
 What a beautiful garden it was !" 
 
 " Very," said Madolin, with a gesture of 
 sudden pain. " But here comes Tossie 
 with the flowers." 
 
 Half an hour later Hope stood forth as 
 bonnie a maiden as one could wish to see, 
 even in the Lauderdale set. 
 
 " I declare Miss Meredith looks quite the 
 
 o2
 
 196 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 lady," said Aunt Griselda, who, severe in 
 bristling black moire and point lace, came 
 into her niece's room to make sure that this 
 middle-class girl would not disgrace the 
 Milbank drawing-room. " People ought to 
 be thankful who can wear scarlet ; it gives 
 such a delightful finish to a dress. Really 
 no one would have thought that that old 
 black silk would have come out so well." 
 
 But Miss Griselda was even more aston- 
 ished, not to say disconcerted, at the simple, 
 easy, well-bred manner with which Hope 
 bore herself at Rossbury during the difficult 
 interval which lapsed before the announce- 
 nient of dinner. 
 
 "A friend of Miss Lauderdale, I pre- 
 sume," said delightful Mrs. Regison, as she 
 and Sir David's sister shook their lappets 
 and ringlets in each other's faces in a cosy 
 ' sofa corner. " A pleasant style of girl ; 
 perhaps a trifle heavy, but still quite inter-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 197 
 
 esting. Connection of the Merediths of 
 Castle Overay, perhaps ?" 
 
 ** Oh, dear, no," answered Miss Griselda, 
 in a confidential whisper, "nothing of the 
 sort. In fact, my dear Mrs. Regison, it is 
 quite an annoyance to me that my niece has 
 taken such a fancy to her ; but you know 
 what Madolin is in the choice of her com- 
 panions." 
 
 " Of course, we all remember poor Jet- 
 sam. Dreadfully unpleasant affair, was it 
 not ? But you know, Miss Griselda, I 
 never concealed, even from yourself, my 
 opinion that she gave him a little too much 
 encouragement. What can a man do when 
 a lovely and brilliant girl allows him to 
 attend upon her at concerts and all that 
 sort of thing? And so she is not one of 
 the Merediths of Castle Overay ?" 
 
 " On the contrary, my dear Mrs. Regi- 
 son, her father was a doctor at Match-
 
 198 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 borough. Madolin picked her up six months 
 ago, one morning while she was calling upon 
 Miss Asgard, an old lady who lived down at 
 Nunthorpe Hollows. Miss Meredith was 
 living with her as companion, and when the 
 old lady died last February, she must have 
 taken a situation of some kind if my niece 
 had not brought her to the Chase. Very 
 kind of her, was it not ? But not at all 
 what I should have done under the circum- 
 stances. As if any one who had been asked 
 to stay indefinitely at such a place as my 
 brother's, would be in a hurry to look out 
 for anything else. I tell Madolin she will 
 find it very difiicult to bring the visit to an 
 end." 
 
 " Most likely," said Mrs. Regison, '' I shall 
 give Gertrude a hint not to be too familiar 
 with her. They seem to be chatting away 
 now as if they had known each other all 
 their lives. Do you know. Miss Griselda, I
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 199 
 
 am really quite hungry ? I am sure it must 
 be past the proper time for dinner. I sup- 
 pose we are waiting for Captain Cayley, as 
 he has not put in an appearance yet." 
 
 "Captain Cayley! What, our relative 
 from Canada ? You surely do not mean to 
 say that he is here, and we are to meet him 
 this evening?" 
 
 " Oh ! what a mistake I have made !" and 
 Mrs. Regison dropped her fan and clasped 
 her hands in dismay. " Mrs. Milbank told 
 me I was not on any account to mention it, 
 as she wished to give you a little surprise. 
 I am so sorry. He came down two or three 
 days ago, and called at the Chase, but 
 everyone was out, and he would not leave 
 a card, because he wanted to see if you 
 would know him again. However, if I had 
 not said anything, it would have been just 
 the same, for here he comes." 
 
 And a very widely-opened door, and a
 
 200 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 flutter of expectation among the ladies, an- 
 nounced the entrance of Captain Cayley, the 
 unappropriated Canadian of good family and 
 easy position, who might possibly have other 
 business in his trip to England than that of 
 negotiating for the purchase of land in the 
 far west. 
 
 '' I should not have recognised him in the 
 least," said Aunt Griselda, as Uncle Mac 
 apologised to the lady of the house for being 
 a moment or two late. It was the fault 
 of the train, which had landed him at 
 Nunthorpe station half an hour past his 
 time. " But then you know it is twenty 
 years at the very least since he was staying 
 at the Chase ; and he was quite a boy then. 
 Rather rough and ready in his manners, I 
 fancy, but of course you must make allow- 
 ances for people living out there." 
 
 This last remark arose from the circum- 
 stance that, just at that moment Mac burst
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 201 
 
 into a hearty laugh, which was taken up on 
 a more subdued scale by Miss Meredith, and 
 greatly shocked Aunt Griselda's sense of 
 propriety. It was not the custom for ladies 
 and gentlemen to laugh quite so merrily 
 when presented for the first time ; and she 
 wondered what Mrs. Milbank or Gertrude 
 Eegison would think about it. Besides, if 
 her sight did not deceive her, there had 
 been no formal introduction at all. A 
 strange thing — very strange ! She must 
 have an understanding with Miss Meredith 
 about it. 
 
 For Hope had recognised Uncle Mac at 
 once as the "suspicious stranger" whom 
 Miss Griselda had so unceremoniously warn- 
 ed off as a trespasser only a day or two 
 before ; and Uncle Mac had recognised her 
 too, and the merry twinkle in his blue eyes 
 had kindled into a smile, helped by the light 
 of hers ; and then and there, without wait-
 
 202 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ing for anyone to name them to each other, 
 he had taken her hand and was shaking it in 
 true Canadian fashion. And then he told the 
 little story to Mrs. Milbank, who, enjoying a 
 bit of fun as keenly as anyone, brought him 
 up to Aunt Griselda, and waited for the 
 denouement. 
 
 "' I hope I may be forgiven for trespass- 
 ing upon the private grounds of Nunthorpe 
 Chase," he said, bowing low over Miss 
 Griselda's outstretched hand. "I thought 
 that perhaps as an old friend such a liberty 
 might be granted me. However, I will pro- 
 mise not to repeat the offence." 
 
 " Oh, dear, dear ! Mac, who woidd have 
 thought it could have been you?" said the 
 old lady, with a smile of real kindness on 
 her face, for she loved everybody who was 
 connected, however distantly, with the grand 
 old Lauderdale family, and was able to do 
 credit to the relationship. " I am sure you
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 205 
 
 must have thought me dreadfully cross and 
 disagreeable, but you know, ever since that 
 dreadful affair at Heidelberg, I have had a 
 perfect horror of strange people — now, dear 
 Mrs. Regison, don't you think if Captain 
 Cayley knew about that dreadful affair at 
 Heidelberg — — " 
 
 Yes, Mrs. Regison did think so ; in fact an 
 affair like that was enough to account for any 
 amount of suspicion. And Uncle Mac was- 
 still listening to all the particulars when 
 dinner was announced. 
 
 Mrs. Milbank was very kind-hearted, and 
 so was the Colonel, her husband, and not for 
 the world would they give pain to anyone, 
 least of all to one sosimpleand unassuming as 
 Hope Meredith; but still position has its 
 demands, and nowhere are these demands 
 more urgent than at a modern dinner party. 
 And as there were of course inferior places 
 at the table, and etiquette forbade that illus-
 
 "204 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 trious strangers should be relegated to them, 
 or married people of known importance in 
 the neighbourhood, Hope, being neither mar- 
 ried nor illustrious, was paired off at the 
 ■close of the procession with Miss Koors, a 
 poor relation of the Milbanks, one of those 
 limp, ineffectual dependents who are found 
 hanging on to most great families like dry 
 withered leaves at the root of a lily plant, 
 partaking neither of the fatness nor the 
 beauty of the parent stem. 
 
 So the dinner, Hope's first introduction to 
 fashionable life, w^ore to its end, and proved 
 a very slow, wearisome affair. For Miss 
 Koors, on her right, had no ideas beyond the 
 weather and the things they were eating ; 
 and Miss Regison, on her left, had a percep- 
 tion of the exact amount of condescension 
 proper to be bestowed on a young person 
 who, had she not had the fortune to be taken 
 «p by proud Miss Lauderdale, must have
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 205- 
 
 laboured with her own hands for a living. 
 Moreover, Captain Cayley was Miss Regison's- 
 next chair neighbour on the other side, and 
 she was much too wise to spend either time 
 or attention in one direction when more 
 might be gained by a little well-directed 
 flatter}^ in the other. Far too wise, also, to 
 encourage the attempts at neighbourliness 
 which the good Captain occasionally made 
 for Miss Meredith's benefit. It is so easy for 
 a clever, wide-awake woman to keep another, 
 not quite so clever, and not nearly so wide 
 awake, out of the conversation, and yet all 
 the time appear perfectly courteous and affa- 
 ble. If poor Hope had had much conceit, 
 great would have been the fall thereof. 
 
 Matters were not much better when the 
 ladies withdrew. Gertrude, cut off from the 
 stimulus of masculine society, was no longer 
 sparkling or fascinating. Mrs. Regison was 
 provokingly patronising. Mrs. Milbank was
 
 ^06 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 absorbed by the matrons of the party. Aunt 
 •Griselda kept dropping little hints and inuen- 
 does which narrowly escaped the verge of 
 cruelty. Since the advent of Captain Cayley, 
 she had begun to look upon Hope as an 
 actual nuisance in the family ; and Miss Mil- 
 bank, who would otherwise have been talk- 
 ing about the hospital, was obliged to devote 
 herself to Miss Regison, as being, in the 
 absence of the gentlemen, her own par- 
 ticular charge. 
 
 Hope felt her position, and was shut up 
 accordingly. Her natural freedom and self- 
 unconsciousness made her slow to perceive 
 a slight ; but, once perceived, it sank deeply, 
 making her appear shy and awkward. By- 
 and-by she dropped almost entirely out of 
 the conversation, and busied herself in a 
 quiet corner behind the door, looking over 
 some photographs. 
 
 There, upon the return of the gentlemen,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 207 
 
 Captain Cayley found her, rather to Aunt 
 Griselda's discomfiture. Mrs. Regison, whose 
 daughter Gertrude was rechning gracefully 
 on an ottoman in front of the fire, suggested 
 that he might possibly find the neighbour- 
 hood of the door uncomfortable, but ap- 
 parently he was accustomed to draughts, for 
 he did not seem inclined to move. 
 
 '' I have never had a chance of thanking 
 you, Miss Meredith, for showing me the path 
 through the wood down to that little stream. 
 It was the best day's sport I have had in 
 England." 
 
 "Which sport do you mean ?" said Hope, 
 looking up with a laugh in her honest brown 
 eyes. "I thought what I saw was ver}^ 
 good indeed." 
 
 "No, not Auntie Grisel. I don't mean 
 that, though it was capital fun. Of course 
 I knew her again as well as could be, only, 
 when I saw her looking so majestic, it seem-
 
 208 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ed a pity to spoil the joke. You must not 
 tell her, though, that I called her Auntie 
 Grisel, or she would never forgive me." 
 
 "Why not? I hear her speak of you as 
 Uncle Mac." 
 
 ^' Oh ! yes, that's all right ; everyone calls 
 me Uncle Mac. But one day, when I was 
 over here, twenty years ago, there was a 
 Christmas tree at the Chase, and Miss Gri- 
 selda got a grisly bear for her present. It 
 was just a little too near the mark to be 
 quite acceptable, for she was in one of her 
 worst tempers then, I don't know what 
 about. So there has been a little soreness 
 on the subject ever since. I sent the bear," 
 — and Mac put on a comical look, — ^'but 
 nobody ever found me out. Are you stay- 
 ing up at the Chase ?" 
 
 ^' Yes. Miss Lauderdale says I may stay 
 all the summer, if I like. She is very good 
 to me."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 209 
 
 " I don't wonder at that. I daresay you 
 can do her a great deal of good. From 
 what I hear, the house w^ants a little sun- 
 shine in it very much. It is a capital thing 
 for Madolin that she has found some one to 
 be a friend to her." 
 
 "Perhaps. Only Miss Griselda doesn't 
 like me." 
 
 " Bother Miss Griselda. I beg her par- 
 don, of course. She is very grand and 
 stately, and all that sort of thing, but when 
 one has been warned off like a poacher, it 
 can't help making a little difference, you 
 know. Tell Miss Lauderdale I am coming 
 over again in a day or two. You are likely 
 to be staying some time, I suppose ?" 
 
 " Miss Meredith, would you mind making 
 room for me on that couch ?" said the 
 amiable Gertrude. "The fire is scorching 
 me dreadfully, and you do look so nice and 
 cool." 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 " Of course she will, dear Gertrude. Hope, 
 my dear, come here." And Aunt Griselda, 
 •who was discussing the pension with Mrs. 
 Regison, squeezed herself up to make a place 
 for another on her own sofa. 
 
 There was no help for it. Hope had to 
 leave her cosy little tete-a-tete by the door, 
 and repair to the torrid zone of Miss Gri- 
 selda's more immediate presence, whilst Ger- 
 trude, all smiles and animation now, en- 
 gaged the Canadian Captain in a brisk dia- 
 logue. 
 
 "Not quite the thing, you know," said 
 Miss Griselda to Hope, in a whisper just 
 loud enough for Mrs. Regison to hear. *'It 
 is better to keep joining in the general con- 
 versation. Of course you will know what 
 to do when you have been out a little more, 
 but I thought it kinder to mention the mat- 
 ter to you just now." 
 
 "Thank you very much," said Hope,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 211 
 
 demurely, looking across to Uncle Mac. 
 There was the merry twinkle in his eyes 
 again, as he shrugged his broad shoulders 
 somewhat after the manner of a grisly 
 bear. 
 
 And now there was one thing more left 
 for Hope's Mentor to look after. Captain 
 Cayley was coming to stay for a few days 
 at the Chase. Mrs. Milbank had asked 
 Miss Meredith to spend a week at Rossbury. 
 If these two weeks could be arranged at the 
 same time, a great weight would be off Miss 
 Griselda's mind. For Uncle Mac seemed 
 quite inclined to take to Hope, and Hope, 
 on her part, seemed equally inclined to be 
 taken to, in which state of affairs there was 
 no telling what might happen. 
 
 Accordingly she took the first opportunity 
 of crossing over to Mac and having an 
 understanding with him as to the time when 
 he might be expected at the Chase. And 
 
 r2
 
 212 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 that being decided, she trotted off to Mrs. 
 Milbank and suggested, in the most innocent 
 manner possible, that the following Tuesday, 
 the day before Mac's arrival at Nunthorpe, 
 would be a very convenient time for Hope 
 to pay her proposed visit to Rossbury ; an 
 arrangement which was received at once, 
 and Mrs. Milbank promised to speak to Miss 
 Meredith about it that very evening. 
 
 So far, so good. But there was just one 
 more thing which excellent old Miss Griselda 
 desired, and that was that Mrs. Regison and 
 Gertrude should be received on friendly 
 terms at the Chase. Hitherto Madolin had 
 stood out persistently against renewing her 
 intimacy with them, and to take up a bold 
 position in the teeth of Madolin s will was a 
 dangerous proceeding. But what could not 
 be done by force might be accomplished by 
 guile. 
 
 Auntie Griselda went back to Mrs. Regi-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 213 
 
 son with a delightful little scheme in her 
 head. She expatiated to that good lady at 
 great length upon the improvements which 
 Sir David had lately made in the Chase 
 gardens, especially mentioning a Swiss 
 rockery, filled with the most exquisite ferns, 
 which was just now approaching completion. 
 Gertrude's weak point, if she had one, was 
 ferns, and therefore Mrs. Regison expressed 
 by proxy her daughter's passionate desire to 
 be permitted to see the beauties of the 
 rockery. Aunt Griselda said they must 
 come over some morning for luncheon, and 
 then go round the place, and she promised 
 that Madolin should call upon them imme- 
 diately to appoint a time. This done, she 
 trusted to her own ingenuity so to represent 
 the state of affairs to Madolin as to make her 
 believe that nothing else could have been 
 done under the circumstances. i 
 
 So now Miss Griselda was quite at her
 
 214 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ease. After that there was coffee, and then 
 tea, and then a little playing and singing, 
 Hope being kept judiciously under the 
 Lauderdale wing ; and then carriages were 
 announced, and Mrs. Milbank's delightful 
 dinner was a thing of the past.
 
 215 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " T"1TELL," said Miss Lauderdale next 
 * * morning, as the two sat together 
 in the old dining-room, Aunt Griselda never 
 rising very early the day after a party, " how 
 did my child get on among the fashionable 
 folk last night?" 
 
 And Madolin drew the girl closer up to 
 her. Her love for Hope Meredith was now 
 the one fountain of sweetness in her life. 
 All else around her was linked with the 
 bitter past or the bitterer future. Hope 
 alone took her out of herself; with Hopp 
 alone could she have any sort of peace and
 
 216 . HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 rest. And though ahnost too proud to 
 show it, she was beginning to cling to this 
 young girl as the weak cling to the strong, 
 the empty to the full. There was a strange 
 ring of love and tenderness in her voice, a 
 mingling of the caress one gives to a child 
 with the trust one gives to only the tried and 
 faithful, as she asked the simple question. 
 
 *' Oh ! pretty well," said Hope, quickly 
 responding to the caress. " You know I 
 have never been to anything of that sort 
 before, and it seemed rather stiiF. I don't 
 think I should have enjoyed it very much if 
 Captain Cayley had not been there, and he 
 was so nice and kind. And oh ! Miss Lau- 
 derdale, what do you think? It was he 
 whom we met when Miss Griselda and I 
 were walking in the park, and she told him 
 he was trespassing. I knew him again 
 directly, and he knew me, and we could 
 not help having a good laugh about it, and
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 217 
 
 that seemed to make us quite friends." 
 
 '^ Yes, papa just knocked at my door last 
 night, to tell me Uncle Mac was here, and 
 did not want to tell us about it, but make a 
 little surprise. What a joke that you and 
 Auntie Griselda should have met him before 
 in that way. What did she do ?" 
 
 " Oh ! of course she looked dreadfully 
 come down upon — at least, as much so as a 
 lady like Miss Griselda could possibly look ; 
 but she soon recovered herself, and she ex- 
 cused her behaviour by saying that ever 
 since that terrible affair at Heidelberg — you 
 know what would come after that." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said Madolin, hastily. "And 
 the other people — were they nice ? And 
 how did your dress look, and what did you 
 do? Tell me everything." 
 
 "Well, there is not very much to tell. I 
 talked to a Miss Koors, and she showed me 
 a new stitch in knitting ; and when the
 
 218 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ladies left the dinner-table, I got into a 
 terribly cold corner by the drawing-room 
 door, and Captain Cayley and I had a nice 
 little talk for a few minutes ; and then Miss 
 Griselda beckoned me away to a seat beside 
 her, and told me it was not the thing to be 
 talking to a gentleman apart from the rest 
 of the company. I don't see why it should 
 have been so very wrong for me, though, 
 for Miss Regison took my place, and was 
 talking to him ever so long, and nobody 
 seemed to think there was any harm in it." 
 
 A smile played over Madolin's face. 
 
 " And so that was all, was it?" 
 
 " Well, no, not quite. Mrs. Milbank has 
 asked me to go next Tuesday and spend a 
 week with her." 
 
 " Next Tuesday, Hope ! — why, that is the 
 day before papa said Mac was coming here, 
 and I was depending upon you to amuse 
 him. You know I cannot talk to people I
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 219' 
 
 don't care about. Why did you arrange it 
 so without telling me ?" 
 
 " I did not arrange it at all. Miss Griselda 
 did it for me, and, when it was done, I had 
 only to say I would ask you. I could not 
 make any engagement without doing that 
 first." 
 
 " Of course. I think Aunt Griselda has 
 forgotten that you are my guest, not hers ; 
 and I shall not let you be away when Mac 
 comes, unless you wish it yourself." 
 
 ^' Then I don't wish it myself at all. He 
 is very nice, and I should like to see him 
 again. I was very sorry when Miss Griselda 
 settled it so." 
 
 " Miss Griselda shall not settle it so. I 
 shall write to the Milbanks to-day, and tell 
 them I cannot spare you until at least three 
 or four weeks from this time. I don't think 
 it could have been Miss Milbank's own pro- 
 posal."
 
 220 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 " Miss Lauderdale !" 
 
 ^'Well, I always know there is soroething 
 particular conaing when you say ' Miss Lau- 
 derdale' in that way, with such a quaint 
 little pause after it." 
 
 ''May I tell you just what I think?" 
 
 " Of course you may, child. It is exactly 
 because you tell me what you think that I 
 love you so much. Most people only tell 
 me what they think I shall like, and oh ! 
 how wearisome it is !" 
 
 '' Well, then, I think Miss Griselda is not 
 very fond of me. She would rather that I 
 did not stay with 3^ou so very long." 
 
 " And is Miss Griselda the mistress of this 
 house, Hope, and is she to choose for me 
 my companions, and tell me how long they 
 are to stay? I thought we had settled all 
 that long ago. Do not think anything about 
 it. If you are content, stay." 
 
 " But I am quite strong, Miss Lauderdale,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 221 
 
 now. Look at my cheeks ; they are not 
 hollow any more, and I am never tired. 
 Why should I not go away and begin my 
 work ?" 
 
 *' Because I cannot live without you, 
 Hope. It is my peace and my rest that 
 you should be here. Stay with me until 
 you have taught me a little of your own 
 brightness ; you can do no better work than 
 that. Hope," and Miss Lauderdale laid her 
 delicate blue-veined hand upon her compan- 
 ion's arm with a grip that left every finger- 
 mark visible there — " Hope, are there no 
 sicknesses but those that doctors can cure ? 
 Is it not as kind to nurse a suffering soul as 
 a suffering body?" 
 
 "I did not know," said Hope, timidly, 
 looking up into Madolin's face. It was calm 
 no more. A cramp of bitter pain was 
 tightening it. The baleful secret was work^ 
 ing beneath. One could almost see the
 
 222 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 contortions of the despairing heart, which 
 longed and yet feared to buy sympathy 
 at the cost of such terrible humilia- 
 tion. 
 
 '' Hope, there is no rest for me. You do 
 not know — I cannot tell you. It is all 
 weariness and pain. I have no friends, only 
 a lot of people who sometimes flatter and 
 sometimes pity me. I never hear a new 
 thought. I never get a new idea. My life 
 was wasting away, and you came to me, and 
 now there is something like peace. Hope, 
 can you go ?" 
 
 And Miss Lauderdale, proud Miss Lauder- 
 dale, bent down, until her cheek touched 
 Hope's; and there were tears upon them 
 both. 
 
 Hope was surprised, but with love's true 
 tenderness she asked no questions. That 
 Miss Lauderdale was not happy, she had 
 known for long. That she could supply the
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 223 
 
 want was a new joy to her. Softly caress- 
 ing the hot cheek, she said, 
 
 " I will not go away so long as you want 
 me. I will stay and be your nurse, and you 
 shall be strong again." 
 
 "No, Hope, not my nurse, my teacher. 
 I was never well, so you cannot bring me 
 back to health, but you can teach me how 
 to be a little like yourself. Child," and 
 again that fierce grip upon Hope's arm, " do 
 you know I could sometimes almost hate 
 you because you are so brave and bright ; 
 and because you have your strong right 
 hand to work, and your unspoiled past and 
 your fair future. There are none of these 
 things for me — I have only " 
 
 A rustle of silken garments, and Miss 
 Griselda came in. Madolin was herself 
 again in a moment — calm, indifferent, care- 
 less. , 
 
 "Auntie, Hope has been telling me of
 
 224 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 the dinner-party last night, and that you 
 have made an engagement for her." 
 
 " Yes, my dear, Mrs. Milbank has been 
 so very kind as to ask her over to Rossbury 
 for a week. So very attentive ; and I am 
 sure Miss Meredith must feel " 
 
 " Ah ! yes, I have no doubt Miss Mere- 
 dith feels everything that is proper ; but I 
 happen to feel something, too, whether it is 
 proper or not, and I don't mean my friends 
 to be taken away from me without my con- 
 sent, and so I am going to write to Mrs. 
 Milbank, and ask her to excuse the visit 
 until after Uncle Mac has been here. I am 
 depending upon Hope to entertain him." 
 
 Miss Griselda drew herself up with dig- 
 nity. 
 
 " My dear, when I was a girl, young peo- 
 ple were not supposed " 
 
 *'But they are supposed now, auntie 
 dear," said Madolin, with that gentle raillery
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 225 
 
 which always mystified Aunt Griselda so." 
 *"' Everything is supposed now, so we need 
 not give ourselves any trouble. You know 
 Hope is the only one of us who can take 
 long walks ; and she knows all about the 
 cross-cuts in the park and the by-paths." 
 
 " And the best places for fishing," added 
 Hope, with an uncontrollable spirit .of mis- 
 chief. " Captain Cayley said he had such 
 an excellent day's sport, the best in all his 
 life." 
 
 Miss Griselda was greatly offended, but 
 this was not the time to make any mani- 
 festation of it. She had come into the room 
 to arrange that little matter about the 
 Regisons, and it was important that things 
 should go smoothly, if possible. 
 
 "Well, dear, just settle it as you like. 
 Mrs. Milbank is very kind. I'm sure she 
 will not be offended. But I came to speak 
 to you about the Regisons." 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 Madolin turned her head wearily away. 
 Those everlasting Regisons ! Why had those 
 people, of all others, planted themselves 
 just within calling distance of the Chase ? — 
 people so knitted up with the bitterest me- 
 mories of a bitter past. Renewing any sort 
 of intimacy with them could only mean 
 going over again, in every minutest detail, 
 that 'pension tragedy, and she must sit still 
 and listen, and take her part in the conver- 
 sation, and hear the question of Jetsam's 
 guilt discussed as it had already been dis- 
 cussed dozens of times since Aunt Griselda 
 came, and give her opinion as to whether he 
 would be likely to come back to England 
 when the term of his transportation was 
 over. Horrible ! Was there to be no 
 reprieve, no forgetting? Must one for 
 ever be chained to the dead body of the 
 , past ? 
 
 All this was in Madolin's face as she
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 227 
 
 turned again, and prepared to hear what 
 her aunt should say. 
 
 '* I think, my dear, you will be almost 
 obliged to call upon them. I am very sorry, 
 since it annoys you so, but Mrs. Regison 
 expressed so strongly her desire to see the 
 improvements which Sir David has been 
 making in the grounds, that I could not 
 avoid saying we should be happy to show 
 them to her. And of course, you know, 
 that will involve a previous call from you. 
 They would not think of coming until that 
 had been attended to." 
 
 ''Let us call as soon as you like, then," 
 said Madolin, despairingly. "To-morrow, 
 if it must be done." 
 
 " Thank you. And your papa thought if 
 we asked them over to luncheon some 
 day " 
 
 '' Oh ! yes. Ask them over with their 
 trunks and portmanteaus and bonnet-boxes 
 
 q2
 
 228 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 and parcels. I can bear anything. And 
 tell them the Chase is entirely at their ser- 
 vice, as long as they like to stay. Shall I 
 write the note at once ? Such a generous 
 invitation would almost do away with any 
 necessity for a preliminary call." 
 
 "Madolin, my dear, you distress me 
 greatly. If I had had the least idea." 
 
 " Which you never do have, auntie. 
 Your ideas are always so great. Well^ 
 then, suppose we make the call to-morrow, 
 and leave the luncheon in the dim future." 
 
 "Exactly, my dear. Only as my stay 
 here is not likely to be prolonged to an 
 indefinite extent — indeed, I was saying to 
 Miss Meredith only the other day that I 
 considered long visits an impertinence " 
 
 " They are not so impertinent as uncalled 
 for remarks, Aunt Griselda," said Madolin, 
 with a dangerous flash in her eyes. " But 
 please go on about the luncheon."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 229 
 
 ** I thought perhaps it would not be too 
 much trouble to give me an early oppor- 
 tunity of cultivating an acquaintance which 
 has always been exceedingly pleasant to 
 me.'^ 
 
 Madolin rang the bell. 
 
 " Tell Harrison we shall want the open 
 carriage at three this afternoon." 
 
 "There, auntie; and the luncheon may 
 be the day after to-morrow. Peace be 
 upon us. Should you like any one else 
 asked?" 
 
 "No, my dear," said Miss Griselda, with 
 the air of a martyr ; " and it is very kind of 
 you to have made the arrangement. I fan- 
 cied you had liked the Regisons. You used 
 to be very intimate with them at the pension, 
 I am sure that evening when you were act- 
 ing charades with Gertrude and " 
 
 " Oh ! auntie, never mind. It is all right 
 that they should come, only you know it is
 
 230 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 such a bore to me to entertain company. 
 Hope, show Aunt Griselda the new stitch 
 that Miss Koors taught you last night — it 
 would be the very thing for a sofa blanket. 
 And in stripes, too, which are the joy and 
 delight of your soul." 
 
 That brought Miss Griselda completely 
 round. She was proof against most things, 
 but a new stitch in knitting opened the 
 deepest fountains of her content. Hope 
 brought pins and wool ; Madolin leaned 
 back and shut her eyes. For awhile no- 
 thing was heard but mysterious whispers 
 about seaming, throwing over, casting off, 
 narrowing, putting on. At last Miss Griselda 
 announced herself mistress of the subject, 
 and then Hope went away to feed the 
 chickens, her favourite morning employ- 
 ment. 
 
 Her absence was an opportunity which 
 must not be neglected.
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 231 
 
 "My dear Madolin, it was impossible for 
 me to explain matters in the presence of 
 Miss Meredith, but I had my own reasons, 
 in which I think you will agree, for arrang- 
 ing that visit to Rossbury at the time I did. 
 As I said to you once before, Miss Meredith 
 is not a child ; and though you may consider 
 her behaviour in the highest degree innocent 
 and guileless, yet the girl who would dash 
 across into a by-path with an utter stranger 
 to show him the way to a fish-pond, is 
 scarcely what I should call finished in the 
 social proprieties of our class. And from 
 what I saw last night, it appears to me that 
 she is quite ready to accept, and even invite 
 any attentions from Captain Cayley." 
 
 " My dear aunt, why in the world should 
 she not accept them, if they are offered ?" 
 
 " Because, Madolin, it would not be 
 proper. Your own sense of what is right 
 and just might tell you that. It is absurd
 
 232 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 to suppose that a man like Captain Cayley 
 has come to England for no other purpose 
 than to see after buying land for a public 
 company. And with yourself and Miss 
 Eegison as yet " 
 
 " Stop, aunt, if you please. We will have 
 no more of that. Miss Regison, with 
 eighteen years' experience of husband- 
 hunting, may very safely be left to look 
 after her own interests ; and if you are 
 building castles in the air on my account, I 
 tell you, once for all, that you need not give 
 yourself the trouble. From what I hear of 
 Uncle Mac, I have no doubt he is a very 
 good fellow, but I have told you many, 
 many times that I shall not marry." 
 
 " I don't see why it should be so. I am 
 sure your papa would be delighted to see 
 you comfortably settled in life." 
 
 "Then I am sorry not to be able to 
 gratify him. But we will let this subject
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 233 
 
 drop. And please, Aunt Griselda, remem- 
 ber that Hope Meredith is my guest, and I 
 love her very much. And though you look 
 down upon her and call her a middle-class 
 person, and all that sort of thing, she has 
 done me more good since she came to stay 
 with us than anyone I have ever known in 
 my life. And, truly," continued Madolin, 
 with a bitter smile, " I have known some 
 who have not done me much good. And 
 it is my wish that you say nothing to Hope 
 which might in any way make her uncom- 
 fortable." 
 
 "Dear me, Madolin, you need not take 
 me up so. I am sure I do not wish to 
 make her uncomfortable. I only think 
 that, if she has to work for her own living, 
 the sooner she sets about it the better." 
 
 "She is working for her own living now, 
 aunt, and she is working for mine, too ; 
 w^orking for it far more unselfishly than any
 
 234 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 of the fine friends you are so anxious for 
 me to cultivate. T only wish it were in my 
 power to give back to her a little of the 
 treasure she gives to me every day of her 
 life here." 
 
 Miss Griselda looked astonished. It was 
 seldom indeed that Madolin Lauderdale 
 put such heart into her words as thrilled 
 and trembled through them now. 
 
 ^'Aunt Griselda," she said, "be true to 
 yourself. Can you not own a fair, sweet 
 nature when you meet it ? Can you not be 
 proud to clasp hands with a lady, even 
 though the hands have worked until a little 
 of their beauty is gone ? Must a girl be the 
 product of centuries of idleness and land- 
 owning before she is good enough to have 
 a smile from ourselves? What have I ever 
 done in my life that I should stand above 
 Hope Meredith ?" 
 
 "You have never done anything, my
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 235 
 
 dear," said Aunt Griselda with dignity, " to 
 lower your position as a lady. In fact it 
 would be impossible for a Lauderdale to do 
 that." 
 
 Madolin shivered. 
 
 " You are feeling the draught, my dear. 
 It is astonishing how cold the winds are 
 down here, even in May. I should have 
 the sand-bags put down again if I were you. 
 But, as I was going to say, do you not think 
 matters had better remain as I arranged 
 them ? Will it not be advisable for Miss 
 Meredith to go to the Milbanks next 
 Tuesday?" 
 
 " No, aunt. It will be advisable for Miss 
 Meredith to stay with me." 
 
 And there the matter ended.
 
 236 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 OOR once Miss Griselda was foiled. But 
 -■- it is possible to sustain a slight defeat in 
 the front ranks whilst an advantage is gained 
 in the rear. Of course, as Miss Meredith, 
 designing girl ! had been so wishful to keep 
 Captain Cayley to herself on the evening of 
 the dinner, she would be equally anxious to 
 go and make her call at Rossbury whilst he 
 was staying there, and that at any rate could 
 be put a stop to. 
 
 Fortune favoured Aunt Griselda in her 
 plan for putting a stop to it. The afternoon 
 of the proposed call upon Mrs. Regison
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 237 
 
 turned out wet, and the order for the car- 
 riage had to be countermanded. Miss Gri- 
 selda suggested next day. That was ar- 
 ranged. Of course there would be no need 
 to ask Miss Meredith to join them, and the 
 wily old lady intended, after Mrs. Regison 
 had been disposed of, to propose a call at 
 Rossbury. Madolin, knowing it must be 
 made, would be glad to have it off her mind 
 at once ; and so, without the least appear- 
 ance of unkindness or inattention, Miss Mere- 
 dith would be disappointed of what she had 
 evidently set her heart upon, another op- 
 portunity of flirting with her new acquaint- 
 ance. 
 
 And lest Madolin should be drawn to 
 invite Hope's company for the drive, Aunt 
 Griselda suggested that the little pony-car- 
 riage, which only held two, and a boy be- 
 hind, should be used. So everything fitted 
 in as conveniently as could be, and Hope
 
 238 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 was left behind to amuse herself as well 
 as she could by a long ramble in the park. 
 
 Just the last thing she should have amused 
 herself with, if Aunt Griselda had known 
 that Uncle Mac intended to amuse himself 
 in the same manner, and in the very same 
 part of the park, too. For it so chanced, 
 as Hope in her felt hat and shepherd's plaid 
 was careering along over the short crisp 
 heather, on the north side of the fir planta- 
 tion, she encountered the suspicious-looking 
 stranger, with fishing-tackle and accoutre- 
 ments, making for the stream to which he 
 had been guided a few days before. 
 
 "You see I have made good use of your 
 directions, he said, laughingly, as he lifted 
 his cap, and shook hands with her. '^ I have 
 been here nearly every day since you showed 
 me the way. I thought perhaps I might 
 happen to meet you some time." 
 
 "No. Miss Lauderdale and I generally
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 239 
 
 go out towards the moors. It is more 
 picturesque there, only rather lonely when 
 one is by oneself. When Miss Griselda 
 wants a walk we come here, because it is 
 more sheltered." 
 
 "Do you fish?" 
 
 " No ; but I like to see other people do 
 it," answered Hope, quite unconscious that 
 she was thus opening rather wide a gate 
 for what Aunt Griselda would have called 
 " attentions." 
 
 " Then you might as well stay here with 
 me a little while, and afterwards I will walk 
 over to the house with you. I have not 
 seen Miss Lauderdale yet, for everyone was 
 out when I called. Shall I find anyone at 
 home this morning ?" 
 
 "Not just now. Miss Lauderdale and 
 Miss Griselda have gone for a drive. They 
 are to call upon the Regisons." 
 
 "And why have you not gone too ?"
 
 240 . HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ^' First, because the pony-carriage only 
 holds two, besides the boy ; and, second, 
 because Miss Griselda did not want me to 
 go." 
 
 «« Very unkind of Miss Griselda, but I'm 
 not at all sorry she did not want you to go 
 this morning. Do you like being at the 
 Chase?" 
 
 "I did like it very much indeed, until 
 Miss Griselda came. I don't think I like it 
 quite so much now. You know she is al- 
 ways trying to make me understand that I 
 am not quite so good as the rest of the 
 people about here. I told her once I did 
 understand that quite well, but she seems to 
 think I ought to be told it over and over 
 again." 
 
 "And why are you not as good ?" 
 " Because my father was only a doctor.'* 
 " Only ! What a shocking thing ! I am 
 not sure that I ever heard anything so
 
 HOPE MEKEDITH. 241 
 
 shocking in all my life !" And Mac's eyes 
 laughed merrily enough, though all the rest 
 of his face was as grave as possible. The 
 merriment died, out, however, as Hope went 
 on — 
 
 ^' Mamma was very poor too, and when 
 she died I was obliged to do something for 
 a living ; but I was not quite strong enough 
 then, so I came to the Hollows to stay with 
 Miss Asgard, but she died too, and still I 
 was not strong enough, and Miss Lauder- 
 dale asked me to come here for awhile." 
 
 " Poor little girl ! So you are delicate. 
 Then perhaps that was the reason Miss 
 Griselda was so very anxious you should not 
 sit in that draughty corner by the door, when 
 you and I were having a chat the other 
 night." 
 
 " Perhaps," said Hope, demurely. 
 
 ^^ And you have to earn your own living. 
 Well, there are worse things than that. I 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 daresay Madolin would be happier if she had 
 to work for herself. But here we are at 
 the stream. Now as you don't seem to have 
 anything better to do, will you hold this 
 fishing-rod for me ? Here is an old stump 
 of a tree for you to sit upon. And I am 
 sure by the look of you, you like to make 
 yourself useful." 
 
 Hope came forward, and, seating herself, 
 was instructed how to hold the rod. 
 
 " Now you know, if you get a bite," 
 
 " Oh ! but that is a very great if," said 
 Hope. " Sir David complains that he can 
 never catch anything in this part of the 
 stream. There are more of them a little 
 further down." 
 
 "Never mind, it is prettier here, and we 
 are more shaded from the wind. Now tell 
 me what you are going to do when you earn 
 your own living." 
 
 " I am going to a hospital to train for a
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 243 
 
 nurse. I know a little about it already, for 
 I have often been with Miss Archer in the 
 dressing-rooms at the Matchborough Infirm- 
 ary, and I like it very much." 
 
 "Like what? Seeing the poor people in 
 pain ?" 
 
 "No ; helping them out of their pain, or 
 making it easier for them to bear." 
 
 " I should think you would only have to 
 look ac them to do that," said Uncle Mac, 
 who was beginning to think, foolish fellow I 
 that he should not mind having rather a bad 
 accident himself, if little Hope Meredith 
 would help him through with it. " But you 
 are not holding that rod steady. Take both 
 hands to it. If you let it shake about in 
 that way you will frighten the fish away." 
 
 " I suppose it doesn't frighten them then, 
 if you throw little bits of stick into the 
 water, because that's what you have been 
 doing ever since you began to talk to me."
 
 244 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 *^ Is it ? Vm sure I didn't know. I sup- 
 pose I was thinking about something else. 
 But what you have got to do is to mind 
 your own business and hold that rod as 
 steady as one of the oak trees in the Chase, 
 whether I throw bits of stick into the water 
 or not. And you are not to make such 
 saucy little remarks any more. One would 
 think 5^ou had never had a Miss Griselda to 
 keep you in 3^our place." 
 
 *'I am quite sure there are no Miss 
 Griseldas where you come from," said Hope, 
 with a pretty toss of her head, " or you 
 would be able to keep your place better." 
 
 In answer to which piece of sauciness 
 Uncle Mac gave the fishing line a sudden 
 jerk, which cast a lot of water up into her 
 face. What would Aunt Griselda have said 
 if she had seen such performances ? And 
 - then there was silence for a little while, Mac 
 watching the pretty dark face over which
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 245 
 
 alternate lights and shadows of fun and 
 thoughtfulness were passing. 
 
 "If you please," said Hope at last, " it is 
 rather cold sitting here, and I came out for 
 a walk." 
 
 "Did you? Then I suppose you must 
 have one," said Uncle Mac, looking rather 
 disappointed, for he could have staid there 
 till nightfall, and asked no other amusement 
 than Hope Meredith, or listening to her 
 quaint innocent talk. " I might have known 
 that you would be cold. You English girls 
 are such tender little plants." 
 
 " I am not a tender plant at all," said 
 Hope, getting up and broadening her chest 
 and tossing her head back as she stood there 
 amongst the shadows of the chestnut leaves, 
 a perfect picture of health and strength and 
 maidenly self-reliance. " I'm sure your 
 Canadian girls are not a bit better than I 
 am, only I don't want to sit here until my
 
 24tj HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 hands are like pieces of stone, because the 
 fish never will bite whilst you throw sticks into 
 the water, and so its only make-believe." 
 
 " Come along, then," and Mac began to 
 pack up his things. " I mustn't take these 
 up to the house, though. I'll leave them 
 at one of the woodmen's huts, and then 
 they'll be ready when I come to stay at the 
 Chase. You know I'm coming next Wednes- 
 day, and perhaps you can put some warm 
 things on then, and a thick pair of gloves, 
 and we can have a regular day's fishing." 
 
 " Very well," said Hope, delighted to find 
 herself in motion again ; " only I must have 
 an understanding that you don't throw pieces 
 of stick into the water, and then say you 
 didn't know what you were doing." 
 
 '* You may have what understanding you 
 
 like, only come. I want you to tell me all 
 
 . about that hospital, and what you are going 
 
 to do in it. Are you quite sure that it isn't
 
 HOrE MEREDITH. 247 
 
 the fishing that you dislike, but only the 
 sitting still in the cold ?" 
 
 " Yes, and being told that I fish badly, 
 when the fault is all on your side. I don't 
 like that, either." 
 
 " You little pertinacious thing ! 1 will 
 promise never to play with bits of stick 
 again when I am fishing with you. Come 
 along. Shall we go up to the top of the moor?" 
 
 " No, I think it is about time for me to 
 go home. I have a lot of things to do 
 before Miss Lauderdale comes back." 
 
 "Then I will go with you. Quick march 
 or slow ?" 
 
 " Oh, quick." 
 
 And then came for Hope the pleasantest 
 walk she had ever had in her life — pleas- 
 anter than even those long leisurely rambles 
 in which she and Madolin had talked their 
 hearts out to each other, and in which th^ 
 sweet happiness of doing good, of giving
 
 248 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 quiet and comfort to one who sorely needed 
 both, had been hers. Ah ! how quickly one 
 learns the great lesson ! Five days ago a 
 stranger to him, and now so happy at his 
 side ! But Hope knew nothing about the 
 lesson, nor that she was learning it, nor that, 
 once learned, it could never be unlearned, 
 nor that, having once looked forth into that 
 sunshine, the mere doing of duty could 
 never again quite content her. That May 
 morning walk, with Mac by her side, was 
 cleaving as with a sparkling line of light her 
 future from her past. On one side cheerful, 
 healthy, wholesome rest — the rest of busy, 
 untroubled activity ; on the other side — but 
 that could only be told as the days gave 
 their light upon it. 
 
 " But you said they were not at home, 
 didn't you ?" 
 
 " Who ? — Miss Lauderdale and Miss 
 Griselda? Yes."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 249 
 
 ^^ Then what's the use of my going in ? 
 Sir David out, too ?" 
 
 *' Yes — something about the labourers' 
 cottages." 
 
 " Then I'll go back again. My compli- 
 ments to the ladies, and tell them I'll come 
 the day after to-morrow. Luncheon at two, 
 I suppose?" 
 
 "Yes, two." 
 
 ''And you'll be at home?" 
 
 " I suppose so." 
 
 "That settles it. Then I'll come. Good- 
 bye."
 
 250 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 '' A VERY pleasant call," said Miss Grisel- 
 -^^ da, coming into the dining-room half 
 an hour later, a shapeless mass of furs and 
 wraps and comforters. " The Regisons 
 were delighted to see us — such kind people, 
 so very affable and chatty ! And I don't 
 know whether you will thank me for it or 
 not, Miss Meredith, but I saved you the 
 trouble of a visit to Rossbury. After we 
 left the Regisons, I suggested to Miss Lau- 
 derdale that we should drive round in that 
 .direction, as a call from her was of course 
 necessary under the circumstances, and I
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 251 
 
 apologised for you. Mrs. Milbank desired 
 her kind remembrances. Captain Cayley 
 was out. I do think, Madolin, it is a little 
 uncourteous of him not to call upon us." 
 
 " Oh ! aunt, don't worry about it. Mac 
 is not the sort of person to stand upon cere- 
 mony. He knows that he will be welcome 
 whenever he comes." 
 
 " Yes, my dear ; but there is a degree of 
 respect which is due to your papa's posi- 
 tion." 
 
 "And Captain Cayley will come to offer 
 it the day after to-morrow," said Hope, 
 quietly. "I met him in the park whilst 
 you were out this morning, and he told me 
 he was coming to luncheon then." 
 
 Miss Griselda bristled with subdued 
 indignation. She would have liked to 
 take Hope up, there and then, and give 
 her a good shaking, and drop her out of 
 the window. The artful, desi^nin^]; little
 
 252 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 creature ! Then that was why she had 
 been so willing to forego the treat of a 
 country drive, had not even manifested the 
 slightest disappointment when that arrange- 
 ment about the pony-carriage was made. 
 Really, what depths of deceit there were 
 under her apparently guileless, unworldly 
 ways ! But Griselda smothered her wrath 
 for the present. Miss Lauderdale would 
 not suffer a word to be said against Hope in 
 her hearing. It was astonishing how the 
 girl had insinuated herself, what influence 
 she had contrived to secure. 
 
 "Thank you. Miss Meredith. Captain 
 Oayley is very kind to give us such timely 
 notice of his intentions, Madolin, my dear, 
 don't you think we had almost better change 
 the Regisons' day now, and ask them at the 
 same time? I am sure they would not 
 think anything about it ; and as you are not 
 specially fond of company, it would be one
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 253 
 
 trouble instead of two. Colin could ride 
 over this afternoon and take a note." 
 
 So, if that little chit of a hospital nurse 
 thought she was going to have Captain 
 Cayley all to herself to flirt with, she should 
 find herself mistaken. Such impertinence f 
 And for her to be the bearer of personal 
 messages, as if she were one of themselves, 
 forsooth ! 
 
 Madolin was quite ready to consent. It 
 was a relief to her that the Reglsons should 
 not come by themselves. Mac's presence 
 would, at any rate, put a stop to the endless 
 pension chatter which was so intolerable. 
 Aunt Griselda and Mrs. Regison seemed to 
 have no interests in common except those 
 which centred in Heidelberg. Every five 
 minutes the place was sure to come up. 
 The poison of Aunt Griselda's tenacious 
 memory was becoming far worse than the 
 mosquito bites of her maxims and advice
 
 254 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 and admonitions. So the note was de- 
 spatched at once. 
 
 "And you met Uncle Mac in the park, 
 Hope ?" said Madolin, when the two were 
 by themselves. "It is beginning to be 
 almost funny. You and he are like old 
 friends now, and I have not so much as 
 seen him yet. I was very nearly saying it 
 was too bad of you to steal a march again 
 upon me in this way, only I could not say 
 it in Aunt Griselda's presence, because she 
 is always so ready to take up anything of 
 that sort. And it was a pleasant meeting, 
 too ; I could tell that by the look of your 
 face when you came in. You are a real 
 tell-tale, Hope ; those honest brown eyes ot 
 yours can keep nothing back. It is well 
 you have no bitter secrets, for I am sure 
 you would not be able to take care of them. 
 Was Uncle Mac as nice as ever?" 
 
 "Yes; and he walked nearly home with
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 255 
 
 me. He wanted me to sit out fishing with 
 him, by that stream near the fir plantation, 
 but it was so cold I did not care to stay ; 
 and he would keep throwing bits of stick into 
 the water, and then scolding me because I 
 did not catch any fish. I told him it was 
 his own fault all the time.'' 
 
 " And he was so displeased that he actu- 
 ally walked home with you. Hope, I must 
 have you labelled ' dangerous.' It will not 
 do for you to take walks about in parks in 
 this way. You will find out that I can be 
 as proper as Auntie Grisel herself." 
 
 And yet, under the pretty playfulness of 
 Madolin's manner, there was something like 
 a pang of jealousy ; a faint, half-acknow- 
 ledged tinge of that bitterness wherewith 
 one who walks in the valley beneath — 
 always in the valley beneath — looks up and 
 sees upon her companion's head the au- 
 reole of sunlight which she herself may
 
 256 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 never, never wear. Perhaps, too, there 
 mingled with the bitterness a sense of 
 coming loss. Hope was very dear to her, 
 and now Hope would be able to do without 
 her. That proud, queenly giving which had 
 been so pleasant to her would be needed no 
 longer. And yet — yes, she was glad that 
 something pleasant, a pleasant friendship, 
 perhaps, had come into Hope's life. 
 
 " I knew you would like Mac very much,*" 
 she said. " There is no nonsense about him. 
 At least I should think not, from what I 
 have heard. He was very good-tempered 
 as a boy ; rather too good-tempered for me. 
 I like a man that moves me to fight with 
 him. I like something to battle against and 
 conquer. I cannot bear to be given in to, 
 and I fancy Mac is too good-natured to 
 have a quarrel with anybody. You seem to 
 have become quite at home with him very 
 soon."
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 257 
 
 " Well, yes. You must either be quite at 
 home with him, or nothing at all. You 
 can't go talking on like a conversation-book. 
 He asked me what I was going to do, and I 
 told him all about everything." 
 
 " What a comprehensive subject ! I quite 
 wish the day after to-morrow would come, 
 for I want so much to know what I shall 
 think about him. At any rate he will be a 
 pleasant change from the gentlemen about 
 here who behave to you as if you were a 
 piece of egg-shell china and must be 
 wrapped in cotton wool and taken up with 
 a pair of silver sugar tongs. I fancy Cana- 
 dian people are different. Mac throws his 
 opinions down before you, I should think, 
 and you may either take them or leave 
 them, as you like. Oh ! how refreshing it 
 will be ! I do long for some one to quarrel 
 with." 
 
 "Then I'm sure Captain Cayley won't 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 answer your purpose. You can't quarrel 
 with him, he turns everything into fun, if 
 you try." 
 
 " Oh ! so you have tried. Hope, you 
 child, how everything comes out ! Well, 
 never mind. If I can't quarrel with him, 
 at any rate he will be a change in another 
 way, Aunt Griselda says he is rather 
 rough and unpolished." 
 
 "Then Aunt Griselda tells a story," said 
 Hope, flashing up prettily until she knew 
 that Madolin was looking keenly upon her, 
 and then the red rose of indignation deepen- 
 ed into the conscious crimson of discomfiture. 
 " I don't care. She seems to think that be- 
 cause he is a Canadian he must be a sort of 
 tame elephant or amiable bullock let loose 
 , in polite society. Aunt Griselda ought to 
 know better than to say such things about 
 people." 
 
 *' Did they, then ?" said Madolin playfully,
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 259 
 
 and she put out her white hand to stroke 
 the rosy cheek. " It shan't be teased any 
 more, the dear, good, honest little girl ! But 
 seriously, Hope, I am very glad he has come 
 to England just now, and I want you to be 
 good friends, because I am sure you will get 
 along nicely together. I only wish the 
 Regisons were not coming the day after to- 
 morrow. It would have been ever so much 
 better quite by ourselves." 
 
 "Yes," said Hope emphatically. "But 
 perhaps they won't come. They may have 
 an engagement." 
 
 Madolin smiled. 
 
 "People like the Regisons don't have 
 engagements when they are asked to Nun- 
 thorpe Chase, and particularly when Captain 
 Cayleys are to be met. You are an un- 
 worldly little thing, Hope. You don*t know 
 the springs that move the great world of 
 fashionable life ; nor how some people will 
 
 s2
 
 260 HOPE MEEEDITH. 
 
 give truth and honesty, and almost anything 
 else, to get one step higher on the social 
 ladder. Not Mrs. Regison's oldest and 
 dearest friend will keep her from coming 
 here to luncheon the day after to-morrow. 
 But here is Aunt Griselda, we must be 
 proper again." 
 
 \
 
 261 
 
 M 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ADOLIN was quite right. Colin carae 
 back with his note. The Regisons 
 accepted the proposed alteration — accepted 
 it very gratefully, too. It was so kind of 
 dear Miss Griselda to suggest the additional 
 pleasure of a meeting with Captain Cayley. 
 They had formed such a favourable impres- 
 sion of him at Rossbury that nothing could 
 give them more satisfaction than a renewal 
 of the acquaintance. Though indeed no 
 inducements were needed, apart from dear 
 Miss Lauderdale's company and Miss Grisel- 
 da's, to make their visit to Nunthorpe Chase
 
 262 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 a most delightful prospect. Mrs. Regison 
 could not tell how much she was longing for 
 a talk about old times. It would be such a 
 treat to recall those pleasant — 
 
 Madolin flung down the note. She knew 
 what was coming. Heidelberg, Heidelberg — 
 nothing but Heidelberg. Oh ! what a weari- 
 ness it was. If one could but blot out the 
 past, the future too, and be allowed simply 
 to endure the present. But no, the burden 
 must be carried even to the end. And these 
 people whom she despised, vain, frivolous, 
 shallow, selfish, had the power to sting her 
 with every word they uttered. 
 
 That gave an air of cold, proud restraint to 
 her manner when the Regisons really did 
 come. That made her listen with scarcely 
 concealed contempt when they began at the 
 very outset of their visit to bear down upon 
 , her with a torrent of flattery. 
 
 " Such an unexpected pleasure to see you
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 263 
 
 looking so exactly the same, dear Miss Lau- 
 derdale. I could scarcely have believed it. 
 As I was saying to Gertrude, after you called 
 the other day, one might have thought it 
 was only a month ago, instead of — let me 
 see — eight years surely, since we said good- 
 bye to you at that delightful old pension. 
 You know, dear Miss Lauderdale, it is no 
 use trying to make believe, is it ? that we 
 are just as young as ever ; but really when 
 I saw you the other day — now did I not 
 say, Gertrude, when we saw Miss Lauder- 
 dale the other day, that she was not the 
 least little bit altered, except of course per- 
 haps a little more presence and dignity ?" 
 
 And Mrs. Regison turned to her once 
 blooming but now somewhat wrinkled 
 and crow's-footed daughter — wrinkled and 
 crow's-footed with the wearisome struggle 
 to make the jauntiness of youth and 
 the angularity of advancing middle age
 
 264 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 walk harmoniously hand in hand to- 
 gether. 
 
 " Could you not think, Gertrude dear, 
 that we were back again in that delightful 
 old drawing-room, and Miss Lauderdale the 
 queen of the circle, as she always used to 
 be?" 
 
 Miss Lauderdale bowed. Did Mrs. Regi- 
 son enjoy English country life after the 
 Continent ? It must be a great change. 
 
 " Oh ! yes ; but Gertrude and I are 
 always ready for a little change. We can- 
 not bear to be long in the same place. 
 You know one sort of air never suits me 
 for more than a few months. I am quite 
 glad to be quiet for awhile. And really, 
 since we left Heidelberg, we have never had 
 any society half so pleasant. The people 
 there were so very delightful, were they 
 not?" 
 
 "Oh! yes," said Madolin; ^^that deli-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 265 
 
 cious old Colonel Paynton was perfectly 
 irresistible. But still I hope, Mrs. Regison, 
 you may find a few tolerable people even in 
 this neighbourhood." 
 
 " Oh ! Miss Lauderdale, now that is cruel 
 of you ! As if I meant that there could 
 ever be the least want of society where you 
 and dear Miss Griselda were. You really 
 could not think me so ungrateful. But 
 what I mean, you know, is that abroad one 
 throws aside some of the little convention- 
 alities which one is obliged to keep up at 
 home. You can mix more freely with peo- 
 ple, and that is very pleasant ; though I 
 must own it has its disadvantages sometimes. 
 I suppose. Miss Meredith " 
 
 And Mrs. Regison turned to Hope, who 
 was winding a skein of wool for Aunt 
 Griselda. 
 
 "I suppose, Miss Meredith, you have not 
 been abroad much. I really ought to have
 
 266 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 apologised for shutting you out of the con- 
 versation." 
 
 "I have not been shut out, thank you," 
 said Hope, "for I once spent a year at 
 Heidelberg, and so I do know what it is to 
 live abroad." 
 
 "Yes," said Madolin ; "and Miss Mere- 
 dith happened to be there at the same time 
 we were." 
 
 " Dear ! dear ! you don't say so ! — how 
 very funny ! Then you remember the lovely 
 walks, I daresay — that exquisite one in par- 
 ticular, a little way out of the town, near 
 the old church of St. Elma. I do think I 
 never saw anything so lovely in my life as 
 that walk." ^ 
 
 " Oh ! yes. I used to go there with the 
 other girls to sketch ; and sometimes we 
 saw a wedding coming out of the church." 
 
 " How romantic ! And I always say a 
 German wedding is very interesting — the
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 267 
 
 bride in her short petticoats and blue kirtle, 
 and then that snow-white cap on her head ; 
 and they always have such nice rosy com- 
 plexions — they make us English people,, 
 who go about for our health, look quite 
 sallow." 
 
 " Yes ; and I remember once we could 
 not make out at all whether what we saw 
 was a wedding or not. A lady and gentle- 
 man went in — the lady was very dark — 
 almost as dark as you, Miss Lauderdale — and 
 the gentleman was very fair, and after a 
 little while they came out again, and shook 
 hands with each other, as if they did not at 
 all like to part ; and the lady went along 
 towards the town, and the gentleman disap- 
 peared. I know we made up quite a little 
 romance about it." 
 
 "I daresay. And of course the lady was 
 very pretty. Dark, so she could not be ^ 
 German."
 
 ^68 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 '' I don't know. I think I only noticed 
 her dress. It was very singular — black and 
 amber — you don't often see anyone wear 
 that dress out of doors. I know we all 
 thought it was very grand, though." 
 
 '^ Just fancy ! Why, Miss Lauderdale, 
 3^ou had a dress like that yourself — 
 don't you remember wearing it when you 
 were acting in that charade with Gustavo 
 Nilken ? And you were the bride, you 
 know, only you wouldn't change the dress 
 for anything more suitable, because he had 
 said it suited you so well." 
 
 " Perhaps," said Madolin, carelessly. " My 
 memory is really not so good as yours." 
 
 But when she had said the words, her 
 teeth nearly met in a little silver pencil-case 
 which she was playing with. 
 
 *'Aunt Griselda, should we go into the 
 garden now ? Mrs. Regison wished to see 
 the ferns."
 
 HOPE MEEEDITH. 26^ 
 
 "Not just now, iny dear. You know- 
 Mac may be here any minute. I hope you 
 told him two o'clock, Miss Meredith." 
 
 " Yes," said Hope, bending over to disen- 
 tangle a knot in the wool. 
 
 "And it would be pleasanter, you know, 
 dear, to have plenty of time in the houses. 
 He will like to go with us too, I daresay. 
 Funny thing about that dress, wasn't it? 
 How well I do remember it ! We always 
 said that Madolin looked better in it than 
 in anything else; and I'm sure I can't 
 tell why she never wears that mixture of 
 colour now. But perhaps it is because of 
 the unpleasant associations ; for really you 
 know, dear Mrs. Regison, it was the most 
 annoying thing that could possibly have 
 happened, especially as it was entirely in 
 consequence of him that my poor dear 
 
 brother " 
 
 "Yes, of course. I wonder how you can
 
 ^70 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 bear to think of the fellow. And that re- 
 minds me, we had a newspaper from Aus- 
 tralia the other day. You know every- 
 one has relations or connections, or some- 
 thing of the sort, there now ; and it 
 seems there is a probability of his coming to 
 England before the term of his transporta- 
 tion has expired. The paper said he had 
 conducted himself remarkably well, and 
 given such proofs of amendment that Go- 
 vernment was taking into consideration a 
 reprieve of the remainder of the sentence. 
 Preposterous, is it not ?" 
 
 Miss Griselda simply held up her hands. 
 
 "Yes," said Gertrude, "and mamma has 
 not told you the best part of it. In a lead- 
 ing article the paper suggested the raising of 
 a subscription to pay his expenses home. 
 I hope they will give him a first-class 
 passage, and collect as much as will provide 
 a comfortable little annuity for him to retire
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 271 
 
 upon. I wonder everybody doesn't turn 
 rogue, for that sort of thing seems to succeed 
 better than honesty now." 
 
 " Yes, but you know, dear Miss Griselda, 
 it's the insinuating way that the man has. 
 He would come round over anybody to 
 gain his own ends. And you remember — 
 don't you ? — how quiet and gentlemanly he 
 was, never seemed to force himself upon 
 anyone. Indeed he rather seemed to need 
 drawing out than otherwise. I believe he 
 would scarcely have spoken a word all the 
 time if we had not noticed him. Don't you 
 recollect. Miss Lauderdale, we all used to 
 say how quiet he was ?" 
 
 Miss Lauderdale suppressed a yawn, and 
 fancied she could recollect a little about it, 
 now that Mrs. Regison mentioned it again. 
 
 *' Yes, and you know you were so kind to 
 him. I don't believe we should ever have 
 known what he really was, if you had not
 
 272 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 brought him out. Oh, dear, those charades ! 
 How inimitably he used to act ! And such 
 a lovely tenor voice." 
 
 " Yes," said Madolin, speaking huskily 
 and catching her breath. There was no help 
 for it. Mrs. Regison would not be stopped. 
 '^The Heidelberg concerts were very 
 delightful. And when Colonel Paynton 
 tried to sing it was really almost too much 
 for one's gravity. You remember Colonel 
 Paynton, don't you ?" 
 
 " Of course, my dear, and what fun you 
 used to make of him, poor man ! when he 
 thought all the time he was producing quite 
 an impression upon you. Some men are 
 such simpletons ; you can do anything with 
 them. But Nilken was not one of that sort. 
 He never forgot himself. And such an 
 actor too ! Can I ever forget those charades ? 
 But then, as I said to Gertrude afterwards, 
 that was the very thing which made him
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 273 
 
 elude the detectives so long. He could get 
 himself up so that nobody could recognise 
 him. Dear me ! to see him come into the 
 room in that black wig and moustache, and 
 talk broken Italian, and stroke those little 
 guinea pigs on the top of his old box ; one 
 would have thought he had been born to it. 
 I shouldn't wonder if he takes to that sort of 
 thing when he returns to this country. He 
 would be invaluable at a second-rate 
 theatre." 
 
 Miss Lauderdale turned sharply away. 
 This conversation was becoming too much 
 for her. And Mrs. Regison's careless words 
 had opened such a terrible door into the 
 future. Yet whilst she listened at all, she 
 must listen quietly, with the well-bred ease 
 and indifference of a lady who has no other 
 care than to make her guests enjoy their 
 little visit. And Hope kept looking at her ; 
 Hope, with those honest, far-seeing brown 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 eyes, must know that something was wrong. 
 Sitting there opposite Miss Griselda, appa- 
 rently absorbed in the task of disentangling 
 that troublesome skein of wool, there was yet 
 a questioning look, a touch of solicitude upon 
 her face, which showed that she was not so 
 unobserving as she seemed. And Hope had 
 been to Heidelberg, and Hope had sketched 
 the little church of St. Elma, and Hope had 
 built up a romance about two people who 
 had been seen at its gate one day ; the lady 
 very dark, '' almost as dark as you, Miss 
 Lauderdale," the gentleman very fair. But 
 only fair outside. Heavens, what a blackness 
 of darkness must his soul have been before 
 he could lie to her so, and make her life 
 one long, long misery ! 
 
 And even as she thought these thoughts, 
 
 Miss Regison and dear Gertrude went 
 
 , prattling on, and Aunt Griselda seemed to 
 
 enjoy nothing better than taking up those
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 275 
 
 old Pension times and the part the fair- 
 haired Swede had played therein. Their 
 voices sounded like hailstones rattling and 
 hissing upon the brazen walls of a furnace ; 
 and she was in the furnace, life and almost 
 consciousness scorching up within her. 
 
 " Just excuse me a little while. I must 
 have left my lace-work upstairs in my 
 dressing-room. Auntie Grisel, you never 
 like to see me idle, so I must go and fetch 
 it." 
 
 *'Let me go," said Hope; '^you look so 
 tired. Are you ill?" she added, as she 
 sprang to the door. " I am sure something 
 is the matter. Do let me help you." 
 
 *' No," whispered Madolin, almost fierce- 
 ly, and she pushed Hope's hand away from 
 the latch. "These people worry me to 
 death. I must be alone. Let me go." 
 
 T 2
 
 276 
 
 CHAPTER XYIIL 
 
 SHE flew across the hall, up the great 
 staircase, and away to the oriel win- 
 dow at the end of the west corridor. There 
 she sank, panting, exhausted, her hands 
 pressed upon her heart to still its loud, 
 angry beating. Oh! if with one great 
 throb it would cease for ever, and free her 
 from the unbearable misery of life ! 
 
 No need for thinking or planning yet; 
 though, truly, enough of both would need 
 to be gone through before long ; now, 
 only to rest and be quiet for a little season, 
 until she had gathered up strength enough 
 to return, indifferent, listless as usual, to
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 277 
 
 the chatter of Gertrude and the flatteries of 
 Mrs. Regison. And by the time she had 
 gathered up strength enough for that, Aunt 
 Griselda would think the lace-work ought 
 to have been found, and would send Hope 
 Meredith to expedite the search. 
 
 Hope Meredith ! No ; anyone but her. 
 Hope's look of sympathy would be too 
 much. Hope's strengthening, encouraging 
 words would be simply irritating instead of 
 soothing. And besides, a subtle change 
 had, within the last day or two, passed over 
 her feelings towards Hope. That little 
 touch of envy, which never ceases until it 
 has eaten out the full, ripe heart of love, 
 was just beginning to show like a faint speck 
 on the fair surface of their friendship. 
 
 Madolin could tolerate no rival in the 
 hearts of those who loved her. She, and 
 she alone, must reign there. And now the 
 rosy dawn of another light was rising upon
 
 ^78 HOPE MEKEDITH. 
 
 the girl whom she had befriended. Al- 
 ready, like the first kiss of morning upon 
 the mountain-tops, her quick eye had dis- 
 cerned it in Hope's brightening face and 
 varying colour, and the unconscious smile 
 that came and went upon her lips as she sat 
 alone, not knowing that any watched her. 
 
 The wings of the angel must have grown 
 large enough to veil the eyes of the woman 
 before any daughter of Eve, unloved her- 
 self, can behold love given to another and 
 not feel a pang of unacknowledged bitter- 
 ness. And Madolin Lauderdale was in no 
 wise an angel yet. 
 
 Not Hope, then ; and she would have 
 neither sympathy nor comfort from anyone. 
 She would forget everything, brave every- 
 thing, be her old, bright self again. Mrs. 
 Regison's words had reminded her of the 
 Pension life, with its joys, triumphs, vic- 
 tories* how one and another had owned
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 279 
 
 her power; how she had but to look, to 
 speak, to smile, and a wealth of admiration 
 was poured at her feet. 
 
 "Was her power quite gone, then ? Had 
 eight years of lonely bitterness killed all the 
 sparkle out of her eyes, all the fascination 
 out of her smile ? She would try. At any 
 rate, it would be an amusement, and amuse- 
 ment she must have, interest, excitement 
 in her life. She had little enough to look 
 for, let her be merry whilst she could. 
 
 She went to her room, bathed her face, 
 put a few little finishing touches to her 
 dress, wound a scarlet shawl coquettishly 
 round her, and was coming downstairs. 
 Some one stood in the open doorway. 
 
 Madolin started back. A stranger ! And 
 who might not any stranger be who stood 
 upon that threshold now ? But Jetsam's 
 shoulders were narrow and drooping, this 
 man s were broad. Jetsam's face was pale
 
 280 HOPE MEHEDITH. 
 
 and long, with short-cut flaxen hair retreating 
 from it. The stranger had a ruddy count- 
 enance, and crisp brown curls seemed almost 
 to be pushing off the blue Glengarry cap 
 which contrasted so well with them. And 
 even Aunt Griselda might have owned him 
 a gentleman as he stood there, waiting for 
 admission to Nunthorpe Chase. 
 
 " Oh ! Uncle Mac, it is you. I am sure 
 it must be you." And with a great sob of 
 relief Madolin sprang downstairs and took 
 hold of both his hands. Better an amiable 
 elephant, as she had called him a few days 
 before, than the tiger who might be roam- 
 ing now unchained, ready at any moment to 
 spring upon her. Besides, had she not 
 wanted some one upon whom to try her 
 power ? And here he was. 
 
 " And this is little MadoHn, is it ?" said 
 Mac, looking into the eager, bright face. 
 " Well, I suppose there is a little bit left yet
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 281 
 
 of what I used to know. But of course it's 
 not to be Madolin any longer now. May I 
 say that I am very pleased to meet Miss 
 Lauderdale again ?" 
 
 " No, indeed you may not," and Madolin 
 smiled one of her most brilliant smiles. 
 Was this the girl, Mac thought, of whom 
 people spoke as cold, indifferent, uninterest- 
 ed? *' Everything is just the same as it 
 used to be." 
 
 "Except the quarrelling, I hope. I 
 should be rather afraid of quarrelling with 
 you now." 
 
 " Oh ! yes, the quarrelling is to be the 
 same, too, I have not had anj^body for a 
 long time now to quarrel with, and you 
 don't know how refreshing it will be. Come 
 into the dining-room. Aunt Griselda has 
 been expecting you ever so long.'* 
 
 "The Eegisons are here," she continued, 
 with a disdainful shrug, " the people you met
 
 282 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 at Rossbury. It would have been ever so 
 mucli nicer if we had just been by ourselves ; 
 but Aunt Griselda would have it so. And 
 there is Hope Meredith — you know Hope 
 Meredith." 
 
 And there was a keen, momentary quiver 
 of light in Madolin's eyes as she looked Mac 
 straight in the face. 
 
 ^' Oh ! yes — Miss Meredith and I are quite 
 good friends already. She would tell you I 
 made her hold my fishing-rod for me the 
 other day, and then scolded her because she 
 did not catch anything." 
 
 ^'I don't know about the catching any- 
 thing. Hope is not accustomed to fishing. 
 However, I am glad you are good friends ; 
 and I hope we shall be too by-and-by." 
 
 "Let us settle that once for all now, 
 shall we ?" she added, as she took him into 
 the dining-room. How bright she looked, 
 how gay and sparkling, hoAV different from
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 28S 
 
 the Miss Lauderdale who had left it a 
 quarter of an hour ago. So different that, 
 after the first greetings had passed, Aunt 
 Griselda trotted up to her and said in a- 
 mysterious whisper, 
 
 " My dear girl, what have you been doing 
 with yourself? You know that cordial of 
 Dr. Clay's is dangerous if you take too much 
 of it ; and I was sure you must be suffering 
 from neuralgia before you left the room." 
 
 "Oh! don't trouble yourself, auntie. I 
 did take a full dose, but nothing else would 
 have enabled me to keep up, the pain was 
 so maddening. Pray don't take any notice, 
 you will only make me more uncomfortable. 
 Where is Hope Meredith ?" 
 
 " I don't know, I am sure — she disap- 
 peared soon after you went away. There is 
 no need to look for her." 
 
 " Oh ! no, not in the least — she is quite 
 at home. I suppose she will come in when
 
 284 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 she wishes — she knows it is almost luncheon 
 time." 
 
 And then she said, in a very brilliant 
 tone, for the benefit of the company, 
 
 '' Uncle Mac and I have made friends 
 already. I met him in the hall, and he 
 knew me again directly — ^^just fancy." 
 
 "Come, come, now, Madolin, you need 
 not put it quite so strongly as that. I only 
 said I supposed it was you." 
 
 " I will not be contradicted. Uncle Mac." 
 
 " Certainly not, if you are the Madolin 
 Lauderdale I remember — well, we need not 
 say quite how many years ago." 
 
 " Ah ! Captain Cayley, if you do not re- 
 member it, I am sure no one else will." And 
 Mrs. Regison began to quote a piece of poetry 
 about the foot of Time, which only treads 
 on flowers. Though if she had expressed 
 her most interior sentiments, she would have 
 been better pleased if Time's foot had crush-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 285' 
 
 ed the flowers the least bit in the world, in- 
 stead of treading on them so stealthily as in 
 the case of Miss Lauderdale ; almost one 
 might say bringing out their perfume by his 
 touch, and doing nothing more. 
 
 And she would have been quite as v/ell 
 pleased too, if the baronet's daughter had 
 shown a little less lively interest in the com- 
 pany of her relatives — if he was a relative — 
 which fact she must ascertain from Miss 
 Griselda. For who could so much as aim 
 a dart where the beautiful Madolin Lauder- 
 dale was determined to conquer ? And that 
 she meant conquest was evident from the 
 brilliance and animation of her manner, so 
 different from the weary listlessness with which 
 she had scarcely endured the conversation a 
 little while before. Rather a poor compli- 
 ment to herself and dear Gertrude, she must 
 say ; but then any one who had seen Miss 
 Lauderdale at the Pension must have noticed
 
 -286 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 how she altered in the presence of gentle- 
 men. 
 
 Not of course that she was meaning any- 
 thing now, any more than she meant it 
 then. Amusement, simply amusement. 
 Sir David's daughter would never think of 
 giving up her position in England, and going 
 •out to Canada as the wife of a man who was 
 never likely to bring her a title. But that 
 ^id not make any difference. Of course, if 
 she had set her mind upon conquering him, 
 she would never rest until she had done it ; 
 just the same as she used to do with those 
 poor fellows at Heidelberg, drawing them 
 •on and encouraging them, and smiling and 
 flirting until she brought them to the point, 
 and then quietly telling them they had been 
 mistaken ; she had never intended anything 
 but kindness. Somebody ought to give poor 
 Captain Cayley a hint about it. Doubtless he 
 had his views in coming to England. It was
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 287 
 
 all very well to talk about business, and that 
 sort of thing, but everybody knew it meant 
 a great deal more than that. And now here 
 was Miss Lauderdale beginning to amuse 
 herself with him, and all that she would do 
 would be to take up his time and prevent 
 some really worthy woman from engaging 
 his affections. It was too bad. 
 
 All this was in Mrs. Regison's mind as 
 Madolin chatted away to the new-comer. 
 Aunt Griselda was astonished. Surely some- 
 thing stronger than Dr. Clay's cordial must 
 be working such wonders in her proud, in- 
 different niece. 
 
 " I am sure. Uncle Mac," she said, " we 
 ought to be very much obliged to you for 
 rousing Madolin up so. I tell her she 
 stays moping here from one year to another 
 until she almost forgets the existence of 
 anything outside the Chase. Now is it not 
 so, Madolin my dear ?"
 
 288 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 How devoutly Madolin wished it was so, 
 but she only answered, gaily enough — 
 
 "Uncle Mac will change all that. Be- 
 sides, what was the use of pretending to be 
 strangers? It was much better to settle 
 down like old friends fromthe very beginning. 
 Miss Regison, what do you think ? Captain 
 Cayley used to swing me when I was a little 
 girl no taller than this." 
 
 And Madolin, stooping, held her hand 
 about a yard from the ground. 
 
 " Oh ! how charming !" drawled Gertrude. 
 
 " I don't think it was charming at all, Miss 
 Regison," said Mac, " you have no idea how 
 she used to scold me if I happened to jerk 
 her on one side, or if I didn't swing her high 
 enough. And I have known her scratch like 
 a little panther sometimes, when she was in 
 a bad temper. It is no use your contradict- 
 ing me, Madolin." 
 
 " I don't want to contradict you. It is
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 289 
 
 quite true, and I shall do just the same now 
 if you do not behave properly.'^ 
 
 ''Thank you, very much. I was thinking 
 of asking you if you would allow me to stay 
 for a few days, but, after that generous 
 expression of your sentiments, I think I 
 shall be safer at Rossbury. I find that I 
 have to be in London some time next week, 
 about this land business, and there is no 
 knowing when I may be back again." 
 
 " Then you must stay now ; that is quite 
 settled. Indeed, papa expects you are 
 coming to stay, and you don't know how 
 much I want a little cheerful company. 
 Auntie Grisel is always scolding me because 
 I don't go out enough, and the real reason 
 is, that she never takes me to any but the 
 dullest, stupidest places. Now, Mrs. Regi- 
 son, did I ever mope at Heidelberg ?" 
 
 '' On the contrary, my dear, you were 
 the life and soul of the Pension, I ofteu 
 
 VOL. I. XJ
 
 290 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 used to say — did I not, Gertrude? — what 
 should we do without Miss Lauderdale ?" 
 
 "You did, indeed, mamma," replied that 
 damsel, who was beginning to feel rather 
 crushed beneath the Lauderdale animation. 
 " And I am quite sure if anyone had asked 
 Mr. Nilken-^ " 
 
 '' Oh ! it was just because there were 
 plenty of people there to amuse me," said 
 Madolin, impatiently ; " and here one lives 
 on such a dead level from day to day. 
 Why, if I had anyone the least bit interest- 
 ing in the world to talk to, you would soon 
 find out how brilliant I could be." 
 
 " My dear Madolin," — and Aunt Grisel- 
 da's lips curled with not quite ungratified 
 womanly spite — ^' what would Miss Mere- 
 dith say if she were to hear that ?" 
 
 " Miss Meredith would say that Miss 
 Lauderdale was quite right," said Hope, 
 coming out from the little curtained recess
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 291 
 
 at the end of the room, where she had been 
 sitting ever since Madolin went away. 
 ^^ Miss Lauderdale would be a great deal 
 happier if she had more society ; I am quite 
 sure of that." 
 
 " Or if she had somebody the least bit 
 interesting,'^ said Miss Griselda, with a mean- 
 ing smile. 
 
 Madolin tossed her head. 
 
 ''Well, never mind," continued Hope. 
 ^' If you mean me, Miss Griselda, I never 
 thought that I was very interesting," 
 
 " I think you are a little traitor," said 
 Mac, coming forward to shake hands with 
 her. " Hiding there like a mouse behind 
 the curtain. Why, we might have been 
 saying no end of wicked things about you." 
 
 But, as their eyes met, there was a kindly 
 light in both, and Hope felt, by the strong 
 clasp of Mac's hand, that the '' wicked 
 things," if said at all, would not be said by 
 
 u2
 
 292 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 him. Still it had been very strange to her 
 to sit there and listen. Miss Lauderdale in 
 the character of a gay, fascinating woman of 
 society was a problem she could not under- 
 stand. All the sadness and longing seemed 
 to have died out of her, but the brightness 
 which had come in their place seemed sad- 
 der still. Hope felt that it did not ring 
 true. And then there was a touch of hollow- 
 ness in the little inference to herself. At 
 least, if it was not hollowness, and Madolin 
 Lauderdale could never be hollow, there 
 was a tinge of insincerity about it — it had 
 been said for effect, not because the thing 
 was true. 
 
 The entrance of luncheon and Sir David 
 changed the conversation. Then came the 
 promised stroll round the grounds, in which 
 Miss Griselda adroitly contrived to keep 
 Hope by herself and Mrs. Regison, whilst 
 Madolin, Gertrude, and the Captain saunt-
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 293 
 
 ered behind. Because, as she said, Hope 
 knew so much about ferns, and would be 
 able to give dear Mrs. Regison all the in- 
 formation about the rare varieties which 
 had lately been planted in the Swiss gar- 
 den. 
 
 Miss Griselda was surprised, but very 
 much pleased at the change in Madolin's 
 behaviour since Uncle Mac had come upon 
 the scene. It argued, so the good lady 
 thought, a disposition to be pleased, even 
 yet a willingness to conquer, and possibly 
 to be conquered. And though of course 
 anything of that sort would quite put a stop 
 to the little plans which Mrs. Regison and 
 Gertrude were evidently ready to enter- 
 tain, that was not of the slightest conse- 
 quence, so long as something definite could 
 be arranged for Madolin. 
 
 For in that case Sir David, being left to 
 himself once more, who so suitable a com-
 
 294 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 panion for him as his sister, and what posi- 
 tion for her so pleasant as being mistress of 
 Nunthorpe Chase ? Of course that was 
 what things would come to, whenever 
 Madolin married. 
 
 Thus thought Griselda Lauderdale to 
 herself as she conducted dear Mrs. Regison 
 round the new Swiss garden.
 
 295 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 rpHAT luncheon over, the Regisons dis- 
 -*- posed of, Captain Cayley away with 
 Sir David to look at some improvements on 
 the home farm, and Aunt Griselda settled 
 down with her knitting work in the dining- 
 room — Hope in attendance to sort out 
 shades or pick up dropped stitches — Mado- 
 lin was able to shut herself up in her own 
 room and do a little thinking. 
 
 She might so have arranged it, and per- 
 haps, two hours ago, would so have 
 arranged it, that Hope should have joined 
 Sir David and Uncle Mac in their ramble 
 round the home farm. But a something
 
 296 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 which as yet had scarcely shaped itself into 
 distinctness, made it easy for her to repre- 
 sent to herself that Aunt Griselda oug^ht not 
 to be left so long alone ; and as she did not 
 care to offer her own companionship, Hope 
 was allowed to fill up the gap. Besides, 
 Hope was so good. She never seemed to 
 think anything a trouble. 
 
 Two hours. Little enough to change the 
 current of a whole life. Yet Madolin's was 
 changed. The old storm and unrest had 
 come back. The terrible secret, which she 
 thought for a time at least was safely put 
 aside, had brokenloose again and was stalking 
 forth almost in her very presence. Hope had 
 got hold of some threads which might draw 
 it near. If Mrs. Regison's curiosity should 
 awake, as was likely enough, hunt out dates, 
 places, circumstances, and find that they cor- 
 responded with Hope's recollections of that 
 Heidelbersf year. If Jetsam should make
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 297 
 
 his appearance, and who could tell how soon 
 that might be ? 
 
 And yet she was helpless. She could 
 absolutely do nothing. If the man came, 
 she could but bribe him aw^ay with large 
 sums of money. He had risked his freedom 
 for gold once. He would not scruple to 
 buy other things with it now. Only where 
 should money come from? That poor 
 Spanish mother of hers had left no portion 
 for her, save her own beauty and passion ; 
 and Sir David required an exact account of 
 all the expenses of the household. How 
 was she sufficiently to bribe a man who had 
 an unbounded authority over her ? 
 
 And then if Hope knew, if Hope should 
 begin to suspect ! For to one who already 
 knows the worst, it seems so easy for 
 others to find it out. That thought gave 
 her a pang of anger against the innocent 
 girl. Another veil of separation was weav-
 
 298 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 ing itself between her and Hope Meredith, 
 a veil of separation inevitable between a 
 proud, lofty nature, compelled for self- 
 preservation to unworthy shifts of conceal- 
 ment, and one humble, tender, yet uncon- 
 sciously possessing a terrible power of 
 injury. Already there stirred in Madolin's 
 heart the s^erm of such feelings as would 
 spring into life did Hope really know ; fear, 
 distrust, suspicion, hatred ; and then, touch- 
 ing all these into greater vividness, the 
 passion which could perhaps move Madolin 
 Lauderdale more strongly than any other — 
 jealousy. 
 
 The hearts of Hope Meredith and Uncle 
 Mac were trembling towards each other. A 
 touch might separate them. A touch wAght 
 unite them. And then they would be so 
 happy. But who is it says there is a some- 
 thing which does not please us in the happi- 
 ness of our friends?
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 29^ 
 
 Madolin sat thinking, thinking. 
 
 ^^ Reptile that I am !" she said at last, 
 springing up with a gesture as if to push 
 away some venomous creature. 
 
 For, only a week ago, in that very room, 
 she had helped Hope to array herself for 
 the Rossbury party, and she was pleased to 
 see the girl so fair in her round, young 
 beauty ; and, with her own hands, she had 
 put the finishing touches to her dress, and 
 laid the flowers in her hair ; and then she 
 had kissed her, and when Hope went away 
 it seemed as if a light had gone. Now ! — 
 and Madolin paced up and down the room 
 again. 
 
 "There is something better in me than 
 this," she murmured. " I will be true to it. 
 I will not let myself be conquered." 
 
 And in her tightly-clasped hands, and in 
 her uplifted, though tearless, eyes, and in the 
 sigh which struggled through her parted
 
 300 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 lips, the angels of God, who are never far 
 from any suffering human soul, might have 
 felt a prayer. 
 
 There were voices on the terrace beneath 
 the window. She looked out, and, in the 
 soft sunlight of that May afternoon, saw 
 Hope Meredith and Uncle Mac sauntering 
 among the flowers, talking to each other in 
 low, subdued tones. He had not looked so 
 pleasantly upon her an hour ago, though 
 she had put forth all her powers to dazzle 
 him. Was he, then, giving to this untrained 
 country girl what her own brilliance could 
 not win ? And yet no wonder. Years of 
 angry bitterness had wasted the roundness 
 from her face. Hope's was young and fresh 
 and unspoiled. Had it not better have 
 been losing a little of its freshness at a hos- 
 pital bed-side ? It might have been, even 
 now. 
 
 "I brought her here," Madolin whispered
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 301 
 
 to herself, through her clenched teeth, — " I 
 brought her here to make her fair and 
 lovely again, and now she triumphs over 
 me. Ha ! what a weariness life is ! I used 
 to triumph once. I wonder if it is all over 
 now ? Never mind ; let us make the best 
 of it whilst we can." And Madolin turned 
 away. 
 
 There was a time in the life of the black- 
 est traitor upon earth when a moment's 
 pause might have saved him, — when the 
 voice of his good angel, heard and obeyed, 
 would have kept him from his sin, — when 
 one holy, self-denying thought, held firmly 
 down upon the sluices of evil purpose, 
 would have stayed their outgoing. But 
 that moment's pause was never made ; that 
 voice, once neglected, spoke no more; the 
 evil purpose was left to take its own way, 
 until, by-and-by, no human touch could
 
 302 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 hold the flood-gates before it, and the man 
 was lost. 
 
 Madolin rang the bell for her maid. 
 Bright-eyed, rosy-faced little Tossie came. 
 
 "Tell Catton I am ready for her. And 
 you may come too, Tossie ; you may be 
 wanted to help." 
 
 Catton came. 
 
 "You are early, ma'am. I did not 
 expect you would be ready for me just yet." 
 
 " No, Catton ; but I want you to look out 
 some of my pretty things, and then you 
 shall do the best you can for me to-night. 
 It is such a long time since I tried to look 
 nice." 
 
 " Indeed, ma'am," said the fluent Catton, 
 " you can't help looking that, whether you 
 try or not ; but I loill say it's a pity you 
 don't spend a deal more time over 3^our- 
 self than what you do. I never knew any- 
 body that paid better for good dressing. If
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 303 
 
 you would only take as much pains with 
 yourself, ma'am, as you did last week with 
 Miss Meredith, and give your mind to it, as 
 I may say, there wouldn't be a Lauderdale 
 in all the portrait gallery, ma'am, to do 
 more credit to the family." 
 
 '* Well, Catton, you shall have your own 
 way to-night. Do just as you like with 
 me ; only it must not be black and amber. 
 I hate black and amber !" 
 
 "Yes, ma'am. I should say the black 
 gauze and your silver ornaments, with a few 
 sprays of that crimson fuschia in the hot- 
 house." 
 
 Tossie's eyes began to brighten at the 
 mention of the hothouse. 
 
 '* Yes, Catton, that will do very nicely. 
 Tossie, go and ask the gardener to give you 
 a few of the best he can find." 
 
 " Yes, ma'am," said the girl ; " and some 
 for Miss Meredith, too ?" '
 
 304 HOPE MEREDITH. 
 
 '' Well, no. Miss Meredith will order 
 what flowers she chooses. We shall not 
 care to be alike. And some sprays of 
 maiden-hair, Tossie." 
 
 "Yes, ma'am."" 
 
 So whilst Tossie flirted with the under- 
 gardener, Catton brought out my lady's 
 finery, and the dark hair was wound into a 
 braid over my lady's low forehead, and 
 festooned with a silver arrow ; and a me- 
 dallion chain of the finest, daintiest Indian 
 silver-work was put upon my lady's neck, 
 and silver drops in her small white ears, 
 and silver bracelets on her arms, whose 
 creamy roundness the black gauze showed 
 so well. And then just a touch of powder 
 was sprinkled over the braids, and the 
 faintest tinge of rouge dropped upon the 
 cheeks, and when Tossie returned, the 
 plume of crimson fuschia was arranged by 
 Catton's skilful hands, and a frond or two of
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. 305 
 
 feathery maiden-hair completed the whole. 
 
 "There, ma'am," said the triumphant 
 Abigail. " If you'd stepped down from one 
 of the gilt frames in the drawing-room you 
 couldn't have been more beautiful. If I 
 could have my way, ma'am, you should 
 never go down of an evening different to 
 that. Some looks best in one sort, and 
 some in another ; but black and silver, with 
 a bit of crimson touched in where it's want- 
 ed, is what you'll never beat, ma'am." 
 
 "There, there, Catton, that will do. 
 What's the use of beginning to flatter me in 
 my old age ?" 
 
 " Old age, ma'am, indeed ! I should like 
 to see anybody look at you and talk of old 
 age. You're as like as can be to the Lady 
 Lauderdale, Sir Rupert's wife, that I've heard 
 my grandmother talk about, that they called 
 the belle of the county ; and she broke more 
 hearts than any of the family before her." 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 HOPE MEKEDITH. 
 
 Madolin smiled. ^' Well, give me my fan, 
 Catton — poor mamma's black one, with the 
 silver embroidery. And my handkerchief — 
 where is it ?" 
 
 "Here, ma'am," said Tossie, who had 
 been watching her mistress, eager-eyed, 
 bright, expectant. 
 
 Oh, for the time when she should be a 
 real lady's-maid herself, and handle those 
 beautiful dresses and laces and jewels, 
 which now she only looked upon afar off! 
 
 "It's that Canadian gentleman, I'll be 
 bound," said Catton to herself as she held 
 the door open and watched her mistress 
 step supremely down the broad staircase ; 
 " and I'd like to see her wed, too, if that's to , 
 be it, because — for as beautiful as sheis,^and 
 I wouldn't wish to set eyes on a better — she 
 isn't what she used to be ten years ago." 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 ^