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 L I E) R.ARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN IVER5ITY 
 
 OT ILLI NOI5 
 
 8^3
 
 OVERMATCHED,
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 New Edition, I Vol., Crown 8vo. 
 
 -EXPIATED." 
 
 Opinions of thk Press. 
 
 The Standard. 
 " A romance far above the ordinary run. The story abounds 
 in vivid and picturesque description, in amusing as well as tragic 
 mcident, and is certain to be popular among all thoughtful 
 readers. " 
 
 The Guardian. 
 "The author has established a claim for absolute supremacy 
 in the treatment of one subject ; no other writer has yet been 
 able to delineate with such terrible precision the genesis of that 
 class of crimes which proceed, not so much from passionate 
 impulse or calculated depravity, as from morbid imaginations, 
 
 petted, cherished, and indulged Those who do not shrink 
 
 from such subjects will find them handled with wonderful power, 
 with the most minute insight into truth, and with an artistic 
 skill and thorough earnestness which invests them with a noble- 
 ness and dignity which will recall the might and power of an 
 old Greek tragedy." 
 
 The Saturday Review. 
 "The novel before us will have readers enough, we doubt 
 not ; as, indeed, it deserves to have. " 
 
 The Graphic. 
 "Not only a novel of intense interest, but a book of the most 
 ingenious construction ; a master piece from the hand of a great 
 artist." 
 
 The Spectator. 
 " The love passages between Reginald and Leonie are exqui- 
 site, and Leonie herself is a charming picture." 
 
 The British Quarterly Review, 
 "In 'Expiated' there are the great merits of distinct and 
 powerful character drawing, clever and natural dialogue, deli- 
 cious love-making, fine pure sentiment, and a cultured style, 
 which give the author a high place among novel writers." 
 
 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO. 
 SALISBURY : BROWN & CO.
 
 OVERMATCHED, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 Six Months Hence," " Behind the Veil," &c. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 Vol. I. 
 
 LONDON : F. W. J. BAKER, 
 
 PERCY CHAMBERS; 17A, CHARLOTTE STREET, 
 
 FITZROY SQUARE. 
 
 1876. 
 
 All riirhts reserved.
 
 SALISBURY : 
 
 BEKNETT BROTHERS, PRINTERS 
 
 JOURNAL OFFICE.
 
 83-3 
 
 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ''This is the last will and testament of 
 me, John Rayner; by law and right, of 
 Stanton Court, Earlsford, in the County of 
 Kent ; but in actual abode of No. 17, 
 Carr's buildings, Pentonville. 
 
 " I appoint my son, Malcolm Rayner, 
 my executor, and bequeath to him the 
 small property now left to me, reduced as 
 it has been by the Chancery suit of 
 * Rayner v. Rayner,' and by the expense of 
 our joint maintenance since the iniquitous 
 decision in that suit. 
 
 " And I hereby direct that the brief in 
 
 1
 
 Z OVERMATCHED. 
 
 the said suit shall be kept by my son, 
 and handed down in his family for ever, 
 in perpetual memory of the treachery of 
 Paulina Rayner, and the wrong which has 
 robbed me and mine of our patrimony. 
 
 '^ I desire at the same time to attest my 
 conviction that neither my late brother, 
 nor his daughter, were responsible for what 
 took place. Evelyn will be the gainer by 
 her step-mother's wickedness, but I am 
 satisfied that she had no share in it. And 
 my poor brother, whom I forgive from my 
 soul, was a mere tool in the hands of his 
 implacable and remorseless wife. Dated 
 this 14th day of January, 18 . . John 
 Rayner." 
 
 Strong language this for the dying man ! 
 — for John Rayner deceased shortly after 
 penning it ; — words wrung from the 
 heart's core of the injured litigant.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Yet there they survive; '' of record," as 
 the phrase goes, in the Prerogative Court 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Not 
 indeed admitted there without a sharp 
 struggle; for the parties reflected upon 
 felt aggrieved, and contended that, if the 
 will itself were allowed to be proved, its 
 denunciations should be expunged. But 
 they were unsuccessful. And the dead 
 man's protest still lives, crying aloud, from 
 the archives to which it has been con- 
 signed, against the evildoers and their 
 triumph ; swelling the pile of earth's un- 
 redressed wrongs. 
 
 For there had been a wrong, and a very 
 wicked one. JSTot one of legal technicah- 
 ties, not, in itself, imphcated with law 
 at all; a heinous moral outrage of deep 
 dye. 
 
 Meanwhile, the generation which wit- 
 nessed it has passed away; perpetrator 
 and sufl*erer sleep beneath the sod alike.
 
 4 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 The story may now be publicly told ; and 
 with it, the results to which it led. 
 
 The former, as briefly as may be : it is 
 past and bygone for all time. The latter 
 at more length ; dealing with younger life, 
 opening up from the overcast dawn the 
 sunshine and laughing hours of the noon. 
 
 Even the sensationalisms of fiction can- 
 not be tragic throughout ; how much less 
 this, which is a real history ?
 
 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Op the wrong first; although, as we 
 have said, in comparison but briefly. It 
 is of the essence of our tale, and, as such, 
 must not be passed over. But, like other 
 essences, it is as compressible in itself as 
 it became expansive in its consequences. 
 
 Earlsford is a Kentish village, standing 
 on one of the streams which the chalk 
 back-bone of the county sends down north- 
 wards to the Thames. It has its church, 
 and a few cottages; and httle else, ex- 
 cepting the keep of a dismantled castle. 
 In the seventeenth century, the feudal 
 building had been replaced by a more
 
 b OVERMATCHED. 
 
 convenient structure at some distance ; 
 and at the time when our retrospect 
 begins, thirty years before the date of John 
 Eayner's will, this was tenanted by his 
 father, Philip Eayner. 
 
 Stanton Court, as it was named, was a 
 charming residence. The chalk stream 
 wound under bluffs of hill; oaks and 
 beeches, every stem a history, swept down 
 to it from the mossy glades at its side ; the 
 Tudor house, the most picturesque within 
 twenty miles, was as comfortable as if it 
 had been in Eaton Square, and the estates 
 were ample to keep it up. Ample, and 
 wholly without incumbrance ; acres on 
 acres which the Eayners had held from 
 father to son, time beyond memory, with- 
 out once leaving on them the family mark of 
 borrowed money. So that Philip Eayner 
 had reason to be a happy man. 
 
 Well, he was not the reverse ; far from 
 it. But he had one trouble. It did not
 
 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 " spring out of tlie ground," as Scripture 
 touchingly words it ; but it came to him 
 by the most direct of secondary approaches; 
 through his own progeny. 
 
 Phihp Rayner had two sons ; John 
 Rayner, the elder of the two, and the 
 testator of the preceding chapter; and 
 Charles. Both had been born to him in 
 advanced life. Long and ardently had 
 Philip Rayner desired male issue ; but the 
 wish was not gratified for many years after 
 his marriage, and the gratification brought 
 some pangs with it. 
 
 Children are not an unmixed blessing in 
 all cases. We have our character, and 
 they have theirs. Sometimes, a wholly 
 contradictory character, which is un- 
 pleasant. Sometimes, too close a copy; 
 which, as it is less indulgently viewed than 
 the original, is more unpleasant still. 
 
 Now, Philip Rayner' s two children, — he 
 was left a widower soon after the birth of the
 
 8 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 second, — involved both these elements of 
 discomfort. Charles, the younger, was a 
 puny, somewhat sickly boy, and retained 
 the same qualities in after hfe. He was 
 not unamiable, much the reverse ; but he 
 was wholly without heart for the hard 
 riding and boon living of Stanton Court; 
 **no use," as Philip would often complain 
 to his eldest-born, John. 
 
 Then, as to John. He was " of use," 
 undoubtedly ; the best shot in half the 
 county, reckless, genial ; all that the 
 paternal nature delighted in. But, with 
 this, he had inherited the paternal temper 
 too : and this led to untoward conse- 
 quences. 
 
 If Philip Rayner had one settled convic- 
 tion in the w^orld, it was that his will 
 should be law. He was himself intensely 
 sensitive, vulnerable by word or even look ; 
 this lay side by side, as apparently incon- 
 sistent qualities often do lie together, with
 
 OVEEMATCHED. \f 
 
 his social proclivities. But it never occurred 
 to Mm tliat other people might have sensa- 
 tions also ; least of all, his own sons. Let 
 Philip decide that a thing was to be done, 
 and done it must be ; that John Rayner or 
 Charles Eayner, of all people in the world, 
 should oppose him in it, even when they 
 were themselves concerned, never entered 
 his thoughts. He did not intentionally 
 outrage any feeling they might have in the 
 matter ; he simply ignored its existence. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, this was not 
 John's own view of the position. As he 
 grew up, he dissented from it more and 
 more. Let obedience be exacted, and John 
 would yield it readily enough ; — always 
 provided that the circumstances squared 
 with his own wishes. Should they fail to 
 do so, John was less tractable ; and then a 
 collision would ensue. 
 
 John refused ; the parent threatened ; 
 choler begat choler ; mailed words, grievous
 
 10 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 of endurance, sprung up like the sown 
 dragon's teeth. John left the room, or 
 was ordered out of it, seeking a congenial 
 retreat with some friend at a distance. 
 The old man was first frantic, then queru- 
 lous ; then vented his irritation on Charles ; 
 then tried to extract comfort out of him in 
 other ways ; finally, failing in this, let John 
 know, through indirect channels, that the 
 home of his forefathers was not hopelessly 
 closed against him ; in fact, that he was 
 wanted back there. Thereupon John would 
 return, half penitent, half triumphant, and 
 be received with open arms. The causes 
 of strife were dismissed to some limbo of 
 forgetfulness ; peace and amity were re- 
 instated; and things went on as before, 
 until some fresh divergence of will induced 
 a new feud, to be waged on the same 
 model, and supplemented by the same 
 results. 
 
 This was the normal state of affairs at
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 11 
 
 Stanton Court ; and for some years it con- 
 tinued to be so. But the time came at 
 last wlien these oscillations between war 
 and peace ceased abruptly, and left the 
 ultimate condition — war. The gates of 
 Janus were to stand open to all time ! 
 
 John Rayner married. 
 
 Nothing in matrimony itself to exaspe- 
 rate the paternal mind : John might have 
 had twenty wives, had the law permitted, 
 and welcome. But then, they must have 
 been all of his father's choosing. And 
 one wife, at least, had been chosen for 
 John ; open to be won, good-looking, the 
 heiress, in reversion, of a property which 
 " marched" with Stanton Court, and would 
 have combined with it into a small prince- 
 dom. Everything that could be desired, 
 if John would only have accepted the 
 choice. 
 
 But this was precisely what John would 
 not do; he was neither to be coaxed nor
 
 ]2 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 threatened into Miss Molyneux. Even- 
 tually, he took a course which disposed of 
 her pretensions altogether ; he married 
 some one else. 
 
 A very charming girl indeed; one for 
 whom he had always entertained a liking, 
 which the determination to have his own 
 way in the matter, like a tropical sun, 
 stimulated into love. But a girl without 
 position or prospects ; the daughter of a 
 general practitioner in medicine in the 
 next post town. Sadly out of rapport 
 with Stanton Court and its surroundings ! 
 
 So much out of rapport, that from the 
 day of his wedding to that of his death, 
 twenty-four years afterwards, John Rayner 
 and Stanton Court were entire strangers. 
 He never again crossed its threshold ; 
 never saw it but once, when, as will appear 
 further on, he followed the old man's re- 
 mains to their last resting-place. 
 
 Nor was this the only result; banish-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 13 
 
 ment and confiscation went hand in hand. 
 The estates were entirely in the father's 
 power, and he exercised it without cere- 
 mony. John wedded the apothecary's 
 daughter ; and before the Caversham bells 
 had done ringing for the event, Philip 
 Rayner had sent for the attorney. The 
 fly in which Mr. Miles was driven to 
 Stanton Court emerged from the George 
 yard just as the bridal cortege was return- 
 ing to it. Instructions for a "settlement" 
 of the property were drawn up the same 
 afternoon. 
 
 No need to trouble the reader with the 
 details of this ; nothing turns upon them. 
 Philip Rayner of course kept the ownership 
 as long as his own life should last : then 
 Charles was to take, and any widow he 
 might leave after him, with an '* entail" on 
 his children. John, his wife, and his and 
 her progeny, if any, were left out in the 
 cold shade altogether. There was a power
 
 14 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 for Philip Eayner to '' revoke" the settle- 
 ment, that is, to alter or do away with it, 
 if he thought fit; but this was not very 
 likely to be exercised ! In less than a 
 fortnight the instrument was executed, 
 and John's disinheritance was a fait 
 accompli. 
 
 One only fragment of good fortune did 
 survive to John Rayner. Mary Greaves, 
 as she was when she married, Mary Rayner 
 as she was now, had some small succession 
 on her late mother's side ; and the income 
 of this maintained them while John was 
 setting his wits to work in quest of occu- 
 pation. 
 
 A hard enough quest, as the reader may 
 perhaps know. Toil and disappointment ; 
 toil and disappointment. We have no 
 space for the particulars, and, grievous as 
 they were, the occupation did come at last. 
 
 John Rayner had no profession; knew 
 nothing of books, and still less of Ian-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 15 
 
 guages. But he had a gift which now 
 stood him in good stead. He drew well ; 
 animals best, and dogs and horses best of 
 all. John's water-colours got some local 
 patronage; occasionally found their way 
 into London exhibitions, and, once or 
 twice, found purchasers there. Seeing 
 this was so, John removed to London 
 also. 
 
 But he had better have stopped where 
 he was. The country orders had come in 
 freely, but in town John was lost; his 
 pieces were clever, but not sufficiently 
 above the average to ensure custom. He 
 eked them out with lessons, however ; and 
 between the two, and with the aid of his 
 wife's income, lived in moderate comfort. 
 But we must return to Charles. 
 
 As Charles was to be, practically, the 
 heir, his father now pressed matrimony 
 upon him also. Not Miss Molyneux ; she 
 had disposed of herself elsewhere. Not,
 
 16 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 in fact, any one of tlie old man's own 
 choosing ; he had learnt a lesson upon that 
 score, although he would not haye admitted 
 having done so even to himself. Charles's 
 inclinations were left free, only with the 
 understanding that they must culminate 
 somewhere, and without much loss of 
 time. 
 
 The difficulty was for Charles to have 
 any inclinations at all. If he particularly 
 cared for anything, it was beetles : a 
 variety of which he had amassed at dif- 
 ferent epochs, and devoted himself, when 
 energy was redundant in him, to repinning, 
 re-assorting, and cataloguing. As for a 
 wife, he decidedly shrunk from the idea: 
 not with repugnance, exactly, but with a 
 good deal of vague apprehension. 
 
 However, Charles looked about, and 
 eventually made a choice. Not an un- 
 prosperous one, had circumstances per- 
 mitted; the wife he fixed upon was a
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 17 
 
 sensible, domestic woman. But tlie union 
 was a short one. A daughter was born, 
 " Evelyn :" then decline set in, and, in the 
 second year from his marriage, Charles 
 was left a widower. 
 
 By special desire of the old man, the 
 married couple had resided at Stanton 
 Court; and Charles now hved on there 
 with Evelyn. But he might as well have 
 been at Timbuctoo. He fretted for some 
 time, then relapsed into listlessness ; as 
 company, he was of less use than ever. 
 From his grandaughter Evelyn, Philip did 
 extract some satisfaction; but there was 
 none to be got out of his son. He began 
 to have strange yearnings after that other 
 son ; the banished, disinherited, unrepen- 
 tant John ! 
 
 But this was wholly out of the question : 
 Philip would not have acknowledged the 
 yearning in the most remote region of 
 thought even. Things must be made the
 
 18 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 best of as they were. Miglit not diaries 
 remarry ? 
 
 Time wore on : several years ; tlie grief 
 of his bereavement, never very acute, bad 
 wholly passed from Charles's mind. No 
 obstacle existed to his doing what he had 
 done before ; associating some new life with 
 his own, which might bring sunshine to 
 the house, and the chances of a male 
 succession to the estates. Two or three 
 times, the old man sounded him upon the 
 point. But with no form of pressure ; he 
 shrunk from applying this as heretofore ; 
 and, without pressure, Charles would not 
 move. The father's suggestions were re- 
 spectfully received, but that was all ; they 
 led to no results. 
 
 Philip Rayner might have acquiesced in 
 this less patiently, but for a discovery 
 which he made about this time. It re- 
 lated to the settlement made at the time 
 of John's revolt. His thous^hts often
 
 OVERMATCHED. 19 
 
 recurred to this ; as they did, whether he 
 Hked it or not, to most other memories of 
 that period. And, one day, he took out 
 the instrument from his deed-box, and ran 
 his eye over the contents; the first time 
 he had done so since it was executed. 
 
 Mere idleness this, of course ! Phihp 
 knew the contents well enough. Special 
 idleness, too, that his eye should rest, so 
 long and nervously as it did, on the " re- 
 voking" power at the end. That clause, 
 at all events, would never come into ope- 
 ration ; small likelihood of it, while the 
 person who might benefit by it sued for 
 no pardon, exhibited neither remorse nor 
 contrition ; gloried in his contumacy ! Folly 
 even to have given it a thought ! Back 
 with the parchment where it came from ! 
 
 In folding up the instrument, however, 
 Philip's eye was caught by some words 
 which he had never observed before ; at 
 least, had given no special attention to ;
 
 20 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 sometliing about his, Philip's, " own right 
 heirs." Surplusage, in some shape, he 
 had always considered this ; legal phrase- 
 ology, for the most part, meant nothing, 
 and probably this did not. But on the 
 present perusal, he felt less confident : his 
 brain became exercised on the point. Let 
 him ask his solicitor. 
 
 Seventeen years had elapsed since the 
 deed was executed, but Mr. Miles was still 
 living, and explained as requested. Sub- 
 ject to the entails, the effect of this was to 
 give Philip Eayner himself the absolute 
 reversion ; he might alienate it ; leave it 
 by will ; do what he liked with it. 
 
 '' And supposing he did none of these ?" 
 
 In that case, Mr. Miles stated, '' and 
 " assuming the failure of Mr. Charles 
 '^ Rayner's male and female issue," the 
 property would revert to . . . 
 
 Mr. Miles stopped short at the name, 
 but that was of small consequence ; no
 
 OVERMATCHED. 21 
 
 need for Philip to be told it. The sentence 
 remainined unfinished : some trifling busi- 
 ness, which had been made the pretext for 
 requesting his solicitor's attendance, was 
 dispatched ; and Philip Kayner was left to 
 ruminate. 
 
 So that was the position, was it ? One 
 feeble life only in the way ? Let this girl 
 of his younger son's fall a prey, as she 
 might any day, to disease or accident, and 
 then the right heir would come back again ! 
 Come back, and bring with him the apo- 
 thecary's daughter who had defied Philip, 
 thrust herself into the family, driven his 
 favourite son from him ; bring herself and 
 her issue with her ! Had he not better 
 provide against the contingency ? Easy to 
 stop this last earth ; make his will, as Miles 
 had suggested, and devise his property to 
 his twentieth cousin; give it to a Jew's 
 synagogue, rather than have this scorn put 
 upon him in his grave !
 
 22 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Had the point arisen for decision some 
 years back, Philip Avould probably have 
 done this. But the seventeen years had 
 brought change with them. They had 
 allowed, as we have said, the old love for 
 the eidest-born to creep back to the 
 father's heart, coil by coil; and they had 
 altered matters out-of-doors as well. This 
 last change must be briefly noticed before 
 our resume closes. 
 
 The *' apothecary's daughter" acted 
 better than she might have done ; she did 
 not crown her off*ences with a large family. 
 It appeared likely that she would ; in the 
 first two years of her marriage with John, 
 two girls were born, but both died in 
 infancy. Then the next year a boy fol- 
 lowed, christened Malcolm ; then, after 
 him, there were no more births. And 
 Philip Rayner's wrath, unconsciously to 
 himself, abated in proportion. When a 
 woman marries your son against your will,
 
 OVERMATCHED. 23 
 
 every cliild multiplies the provocation ; the 
 olive-branches bring wrath instead of 
 peace; the more there are of them, the 
 oftener you are being contradicted. But 
 let them be few, or the number be thinned 
 out, and resentment becomes a thing of 
 the past. 
 
 Besides, there was another healing 
 element. Report spoke well of this boy 
 Malcolm ; just fifteen now, — a year older 
 than his cousin Evelyn, — active, enter- 
 prising, all the Rayner blood in him ; very 
 different to the luckless Charles ! Report 
 had to reach the grandfather's ears through 
 alleys and byways ; but he took care it 
 should reach him. And Malcolm, at all 
 events, had not sinned. 
 
 Altogether, Philip Rayner decided there 
 should be no will ; the settlement should 
 be left to work itself out as it might. 
 
 '' He will have been punished enough in 
 any case," was the thought which crossed
 
 24 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 his mind ; — the " he," of course, being the 
 recreant John. " Wholly nnhkely that he 
 should survive both Charles and Evelyn, 
 so that his folly will have cost him the 
 property for life, at all events. Then after- 
 wards, should anything happen to the little 
 girl, and the law take it to her cousin 
 Malcolm ; — well, let him have it, as far as 
 I am concerned. Besides, Charles will 
 remarry ; he ought to do it ; he must. I 
 will speak to him again about it." 
 
 All which notwithstanding, Charles was 
 not spoken to. Four years more passed, and 
 Stanton Court still went on in its lone- 
 liness. 
 
 But then came a change here also. The 
 event which its owner half desired and half 
 did not, was brought about without re- 
 ference to his wishes either way. 
 
 The details of this, however, belong to a
 
 OVERMATCHED. 25 
 
 new cliapter. We say "details" advisedly, 
 for tlie rapid sketch hitlierto given of the 
 Rayners and their fortunes must now be 
 exchanged for narrative. Up to the 
 present point, our notice of persons and 
 events has been preliminary only, although 
 necessary. The main actors must now 
 appear, and work out the drama for them- 
 selves.
 
 26 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 It is a fair face, undeniabl}^, which is 
 looking out of the balconied front-window 
 of the Domo d'Ossola posting house, this 
 October morning. Domo d'Ossola, as all 
 the world knows, is the first town on the 
 Italian descent of the Simplon ; and La 
 Posta is, or was, its leading hotel. 
 
 A fair face ; delicately moulded ; faultless 
 in complexion, and never shewing to better 
 advantage than when it rests, as it is now 
 doing, on the small, ivory-white hand. But 
 it is not a good face ; something instinc- 
 tively warns you of that. Something false 
 about it !
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 27 
 
 The owner is in her prime of early 
 womanhood, but that writing is already 
 there. And there is something else written 
 there too ; force of will ; nnflinchingness. 
 Paulina, or, as she was christened, Paolina 
 Guidi, is not, on nature's own showing, a 
 person to be lightly taken to one's heart 
 and home ! She has much to attract, in 
 addition to her rare beauty ; intellect, some 
 softness, much grace of manner. But it 
 may fare ill with the man who yields to 
 these seductions. Let him bear the coveted 
 prize across his threshold ; plant it beside 
 his hearth, amid the familiar Lares, in the 
 sanctuary of his own inner life ; — and he, 
 and others, may repent it to all time ! 
 
 It may be thus : everything would de- 
 pend upon the man himself. Paulina has 
 force, but not the hegemonia of other forces. 
 To a robust nature she would succumb in 
 her turn ; might possibly be moulded to 
 good, or, unquestionably, over-mastered for
 
 28 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 greater evil. But let her wed weakness in 
 any shape, and she will tyrannise ; subju- 
 gate ; drive rough-shod to her ends over the 
 conscience and heart enthralled to hers, as 
 Tullia did over her father's prostrate corpse. 
 
 And to this latter consummation, this 
 wedding-portion of the weak, things seem 
 already tending. 
 
 Charles Eayner had been ailing ; lung 
 disease, or some threatening of it ; and he 
 was ordered to winter in Italy. It was 
 already September, so that arrangements 
 had to be made in all haste. 
 
 Evelyn, it was settled, should not accom- 
 pany him. She was still under eighteen, 
 and the Brighton school at which she had 
 passed the last two years put in its claim 
 for some finishing touches. At Christmas, 
 she would be free of it, and, when the 
 hunting was over, might reappear at 
 Stanton Court ; but not until then. The 
 interval was to be spent with a married
 
 OVERMATCHED. 29 
 
 sister of her mother's, a few miles out 
 of London. But we return to Charles 
 Rayner. 
 
 His destination was Rome, and he took 
 the route by Geneva, an English servant 
 accompanying him. The first sod of the 
 Continental iron roads was still unturned, 
 and the journey was made by post or dili- 
 gence. At Geneva, the Simplon was re- 
 ported " open" ; and, after resting there 
 two days, Charles started for Milan. 
 
 Bright and clear the weather continued, 
 although cold, as far as Brieg ; then, when 
 the flats of the Yallais were left behind, 
 and the road became one of curves and 
 gradients, things altered for the worse. It 
 was still early in the forenoon, but the sky 
 had become ominously overcast. Would 
 the snow hold off until they were over the 
 col ? Hard to say. 
 
 History speaks of a man who came from 
 India in two ships ; and the Milan dili-
 
 30 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 gence this day consisted of two distinct 
 vehicles. The Continental traveller was 
 never left behind for want of room ; '' sup- 
 plements," as the term went, were attached 
 as needed, and the whole was still the 
 " diligence." The component parts, how- 
 ever, did not always maintain their relative 
 order ; and, on this occasion, the supple- 
 ment, which had been put on at Sierra, 
 and carried two ladies with light luggage, 
 took the lead on the first opportunity ; the 
 diligence, properly so called, lumbering 
 heavily in the rear. 
 
 The same order was maintained when 
 the hospice on the summit was reached ; 
 reached almost unexpectedly, for the 
 clouds trailed up in heavier masses than 
 ever. Then at Simplon, some distance 
 down on the Italian side, the horses were 
 changed, and only two stages remained to 
 Domo d'Ossola. But the enemy was upon 
 them.
 
 OVEILMATCHED. 31 
 
 A few white flakes fell as the diligence, 
 now far behind its companion, drove out of 
 the village. 'No more than this for some 
 time. Looking back from the angle which 
 the road makes before dipping to the 
 '* galerie" d'Algabj, the features of the 
 view were much as usual ; still the land- 
 scape of late summer. 
 
 But once through the tunnel, and it was 
 another matter. The gorge of Gondo, 
 through which the road here worms its 
 way, is one of the most savage in the Alps, 
 a celebrity as such; precipices of black 
 rock overhead, the stream penning you in 
 to the clifE-side, and the mountain above, 
 which has discharged acres of debris into 
 the ravine, threatening every moment to 
 send more. And to-day it looked more 
 savage than ever, for heavy snow had 
 fallen, throwing the rock into still stronger 
 relief. And in the strip of sky above 
 there was the promise of another downfall.
 
 32 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 The diligence made the best of its way, 
 but it was weary ploughing. The relief 
 was unspeakable when the next galerie 
 was reached, pierced through a projecting 
 spur of rock ; the rapid movement, as the 
 horses trotted over the two hundred yards 
 of clear roadway, was like coming to life 
 again. 
 
 But it was their last trot for that day. 
 The further end of the tunnel was blocked 
 by a snow-drift which had to be dug 
 through. Spades and mattocks had been 
 provided at Simplon, and they were used 
 with good-will ; the cascade of Frascinodi, 
 which descends just outside the galerie, 
 clattering and roaring in front as the work 
 proceeded. 
 
 But it was too late ; exactly as they 
 emerged, the storm began again : this 
 time, the well-known toiirmente of the 
 Alps, dense and Winding as a mist, and 
 obliterating in an instant every trace of
 
 OVERMATCHED. 33 
 
 road. The diligence still persevered; it 
 was the only thing to be done; but the 
 catastrophe was inevitable. In turning a 
 corner, the track was missed, and the 
 horses plunged over the side, almost dis- 
 appearing in the snow. 
 
 '' How far is the next post ?" asked 
 one of the passengers, who were all walk- 
 ing. 
 
 " Further than we shall reach to-night, 
 or to-morrow either," said the conductor, 
 who was addressed. " The next post is 
 Isella ; two leagues.'* 
 
 " Is there no place nearer?'* 
 
 " There is Gondo," said the conductor, 
 " but that is half-a-league ; and little 
 enough of it when you get there. Ma foi, 
 but we must try." 
 
 '^ Could we not get back into the 
 tunnel?" suggested another voice. 
 
 *' And be caught like a rat in a trap : 
 cao'ed in at both ends. Merci, non." And 
 
 3
 
 34 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 the Speaker proceeded to force his way 
 through the snow. 
 
 *' But the dihgence; shall we not dig it 
 out ?" asked a third passenger, a Milanese 
 jeweller, who had valuables among the 
 luggage. 
 
 " Try if you will," answered the guard. 
 ** Man can die but once, and that way goes 
 straight for the next world. Moi-meme, I 
 prefer the less direct route by Gondo." 
 
 The case was too clear for contradiction, 
 and the jeweller struggled on with the rest. 
 
 A fight for life or death, short as the 
 distance was ; the conductor was quite 
 right. The tourmente had spent itself, but 
 the snow-drifts were piled across the 
 ravine, yards high in places ; there was the 
 cliff to keep the direction right, but that 
 was about all. 
 
 The *' supplement," meanwhile, had been
 
 OVERMATCHED. 35 
 
 more fortunate; its start had taken it on 
 to Gondo before tlie storm commenced. 
 Nothing could be less promising than this 
 place ; a score of wooden cottages, huddled 
 together on a level patch left by the stream, 
 and maintaining an auberge of the most 
 homely character. But it proved a friend 
 in need to the two travellers ; things out- 
 side the hamlet looked still more unpro- 
 pitious than itself, and when the tourmente 
 once began, there was no choice. 
 
 The ladies thus driven to shelter were 
 Paulina, and her mother, the Contessa di 
 Guidi, widow of a Neapolitan nobleman of 
 old family but reduced fortune. The Con- 
 tessa was herself English, and Paulina, 
 although born and educated in Italy, spoke 
 both languages. At present, mother and 
 daughter were returning home from a tour 
 north of the Alps, '' home" being Amalfi : 
 the Contessa's married life had been spent 
 at Naples, but prices there did not tally
 
 36 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 with the very moderate income which, re- 
 mained to her as a widow. But we must 
 return to the Grondo auberge. 
 
 The landlord did his best for such un- 
 wonted guests. Meat, or even eggs, there 
 were none. There was butter and cheese, 
 and some very salt and very black bread ; 
 still better, fuel was abundant, and the 
 single guest-room of the auberge possessed 
 the luxury of a grate. Altogether, when 
 the meal was served and the logs kindled 
 into a blaze, the room, barring some 
 normal Italian features, looked fairly com- 
 fortable. 
 
 The occupants were retiring for the 
 night when the first stragglers from the 
 diligence appeared. Charles Rayner was 
 not amongst these ; the struggle to reach 
 Gondo had utterly exhausted him, and he 
 collapsed half a mile short of it ; lay down 
 and could not be induced to move. 
 
 His servant behaved well, and, finding
 
 OVERMATCHED. 37 
 
 he could not rouse liim, called for help. 
 "His master was rich; would pay libe- 
 rally ; would no one come ?" 
 
 The words were English, but they trans- 
 lated themselves ; money is of all tongues. 
 Two of the rotonde passengers, mechanics 
 from Yogogna, turned back, and the con- 
 ductor joined them soon afterwards. 
 
 Charles was far gone in drowsiness, and 
 drowsiness, in such circumstances, means 
 death; — better perhaps for him had it 
 done so now. But it was not to be. 
 Brandy was poured down his throat, and 
 he was forced to rise ; then the stout arms 
 which had come to his aid, partly dragged, 
 partly carried him to the entrance of the 
 village. Here the stimulant took effect, 
 and he was able to reach the auberge with- 
 out further assistance. 
 
 Rumour soon spread that the passenger 
 who had been so nearly lost was a wealthy 
 Englishman. The only passenger of condi-
 
 38 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 tion tliat day. The rest were bourgeoisie, 
 and took possession of the kitchen, con- 
 tentedly enough ; but on Charles's behalf 
 the landlord appealed to the two ladies. 
 *' Milord Anglais ; great family ; enor- 
 mously rich : would their ladyships allow 
 him to share their sitting-room?" 
 
 Permission was^ granted, and Charles 
 entered. 
 
 And in that poorest of hostel-chambers, 
 warmed by pine-logs, and lit by its solitary 
 dip candle, he found his doom awaiting 
 him. 
 
 It may have been surprise ; contrast to 
 the scene without; the exhaustion of re- 
 cent toil; impossible to say. The result 
 which was to follow did follow. The Con- 
 tessa had arisen to receive their visitor; 
 Paulina remained seated. Her eyes met 
 those of Charles as he entered, and the 
 effect on the latter was instantaneous. The 
 latent flame woke up within him, emotions
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 39- 
 
 unfelt, unsuspected; tlie hitherto impas- 
 sive nature was stirred to its depths ! 
 
 It was some moments before Charles 
 Hayner could withdraw his eyes ; he stood 
 hke a man in a trance, marvelling at the 
 rare beauty which confronted him. Then 
 he faltered out some apology. 
 
 " We are English ourselves," said the 
 Contessa, interrupting the half-formed 
 Italian of this utterance. " But you should 
 not speak at all ; the landlord has told us 
 of the peril you have just run. Pray be 
 seated, and I will see that supper is 
 brought." 
 
 We must not linger on the evening, 
 momentous as it was. Supper, such as it 
 was, did appear. Half-an-hour's conversa- 
 tion followed, discussing the incidents of 
 the day, the prospects of its successor : 
 then the ladies withdrew. And, with 
 them, light and warmth, almost the very 
 life seemed to vanish; the room shewed
 
 40 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 itself in its native squalor ; the ice-fang of 
 the tourmente struck anew through pulse 
 and vein. 
 
 Well, oh ! Greece of elder days, mightest 
 thou enshrine love as a divinity; wiser 
 than Athene; more worshipful than Apollo; 
 stronger than the cloud- compelling Zeus ! 
 
 Meanwhile, Charles Eayner did not 
 escape other consequences of the day's 
 adventure : a weak chest is not benefited 
 by out-door exercise in a snow-storm. 
 Next morning he was decidedly ailing. 
 
 '' Weak and feverish-like," was his ser- 
 vant's reply to the question anxiously put 
 by the Contessa ; — a friendly, simple- 
 hearted woman, very little de -Anglicized 
 by her foreign domicile, and whose sym- 
 pathy had been enlisted by some reference 
 which Charles had made overnight to the 
 object of his journey. 
 
 " He has been coughing a good deal, I 
 fear," said the Contessa. " I hope we may
 
 OVERMATCHED. 41 
 
 be able to leave this wr etched place before 
 long." 
 
 No, no hope for that day, at all events. 
 The road was reported clear below Crevola, 
 but between that place and Gondo it would 
 have to be cut ; nothing on wheels could 
 leave the hamlet for at least twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 The Contessa consulted with her 
 daughter, and sent up to request that 
 Charles, who had not yet appeared, would 
 share their sitting-room again, if so dis- 
 posed. Charles was over -joyed; and the 
 rest of that day was passed in the com- 
 panionship which, in his present frame of 
 mind, and notwithstanding some premo- 
 nitions of serious illness, was enchant- 
 ment. On the following morning he sent 
 for a carriage from Isella, and the ladies, 
 at his urgent entreaty, shared it with
 
 42 OVEEMATOHED. 
 
 him to Domo d'Ossola, where they found 
 quarters at the Post. The next day, it 
 was arranged that they should pursue their 
 journey together to Milan. 
 
 This however proved out of the ques- 
 tion. During the night, some of Charles 
 Rayner's worst symptoms recurred, and 
 the physician who was fetched forbade his 
 travelling for at least a fortnight. He was 
 only partially confined to his room, how- 
 ever ; and as the Contessa prolonged her 
 own stay at the hotel, Charles spent his 
 evenings with her and Paulina. On the 
 day with which our chapter opens he was 
 to pass the forenoon with them also ; he 
 had mended much, and had asked leave 
 overnight to do sc. 
 
 It was granted readily enough. To the 
 Contessa Charles had made himself excep- 
 tionally agreeable; developing animation 
 and social power which would have aston- 
 ished Stanton Court beyond measure.
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 43 
 
 And Paulina? 
 
 Well, let her speak for herself ; we have 
 kept her at the front window of the hotel 
 long enough. Charles is expected down 
 in half-an-hour, and the Contessa has just 
 entered the room. The latter, it should be 
 added, has, within the last day or two, 
 awakened to symptoms of something 
 going on which has caused her uneasiness. 
 Paulina's relations to herself are in the 
 main those of independence; not abso- 
 lutely such, for their small income is at 
 the mother's disposal ; but still, within the 
 limits thus constituted, substantial inde- 
 pendence of thought and action. The 
 present, however, is a serious matter; 
 and the Contessa has resolved to speak 
 about it. 
 
 ''What are you looking at, Paulina?" 
 she asked, after observing her daughter for 
 a minute or two in silence. 
 
 *' Looking at. Mamma ?'*
 
 44 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 " Yes. You were so absorbed by some- 
 thing in the street that you did not hear 
 me enter." 
 
 " The fruit- women, perhaps/' said Pau- 
 lina, carelessly. Now that she did really 
 see external objects, the grape-laden stalls 
 were the first which impinged upon the 
 retina. 
 
 '' I should not have thought them spe- 
 cially interesting," said the Contessa. 
 
 '*No, Mamma; but then, Domo is not 
 an interesting place. I do not quite know 
 why we have stayed on here.'' 
 
 " Well, my dear, we are not pressed for 
 time ; and as we had arranged to travel 
 with Mr. Rayner, it seemed only civil to 
 remain until he was stronger. I almost 
 regret having done so, though," added the 
 Contessa after a pause. She was an out- 
 spoken woman, and approached her sub- 
 ject more abruptly than she had intended. 
 
 *'Why so. Mamma?"
 
 OVERMATCHED. 45 
 
 ** I think you must know why, my dear 
 child. I am not very observant in such 
 things ; I never was ; but you can hardly 
 have failed to notice Mr. Rayner's manner 
 to you lately. It is most marked." 
 
 " He is polite, and so on," said Paulina. 
 
 '* ' So on' means a good deal in this case, 
 Paulina : it may mean mischief if you are 
 not careful. He will fancy you are giving 
 him encouragement." 
 
 Paulina was silent, but the cheek shewed 
 a shade more colour than usual. 
 
 *' He seems amiable," resumed the Con- 
 tessa, " and it would be grievous to mislead 
 him in any way, especially vin his state of 
 health." 
 
 Paulina spoke at last. " Why should I 
 mislead him?" she asked. 
 
 " There is no reason why you should ; 
 but there is serious risk of it. He is evi- 
 dently thinking a good deal of you.** 
 
 " That is not my fault, Mamma.**
 
 46 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 " I think it is, my dear child. I am not 
 speaking for your own sake; you have 
 given your heart elsewhere, and may be 
 only amusing yourself, as you think. But 
 it may be a cruel amusement to him if it 
 goes on." 
 
 Again there was a pause. Paulina was 
 still seated at the window ; gazing from it 
 more fixedly than ever, her face wholly 
 averted from the speaker. Some strong 
 feeling was at work within her, and it was 
 long before it would find utterance. 
 
 "I am not engaged to Mr. Luxmoor,'* 
 she said at last. 
 
 ''Paulina!" exclaimed her mother, in 
 the utmost surprise. '^ No," she continued, 
 almost indignantly ; '' no, you are not 
 engaged to him. He was so honourable 
 that, in his present position, he would not 
 fetter you in any way. But you cannot 
 mean that you are repenting of your attach- 
 ment to him ?"
 
 OVERMATCHED. 47 
 
 *' No," Paulina answered, again after 
 some hesitation. 
 
 '' I trust not, indeed," said the Contessa ; 
 " I trust not : it would pain me more than 
 I could tell you." 
 
 " You opposed it at first. Mamma," said 
 Paulina. 
 
 '' Certainly not, ' opposed,' Paulina. You 
 have nothing of your own, and I regretted 
 that your choice should have fallen on a 
 poor man, estimable as he is. Mr. Lux- 
 moor has barely enough to maintain him 
 while he is learning his business at the 
 Naples house here ; and when he returns 
 to England at Christmas, it is only as clerk 
 in a merchant's office. But it was your 
 own choice, and when I found your mind 
 was made up, I would not stand in the 
 way of it. You cannot have forgotten 
 your time together at Amalfi last sum- 
 mer." 
 
 ** Of course that is all right. Mamma;"
 
 48 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 said Paulina, who still retained her sullen 
 attitude. 
 
 "I will not doubt it, my dear child,'* 
 said the Contessa. "You may have been 
 a httle thoughtless, but I am confident of 
 your heart being in the right place ; very 
 likely too, you may not have noticed what 
 I hare. Only, just be guarded with this 
 gentleman for the short time we shall still 
 be together ; it is due to him as well as to 
 yourself. There, I hear him coming down 
 now." 
 
 Charles Eayner remained with the ladies 
 to the utmost limit required by courtesy, 
 and a good deal beyond it. He took his 
 leave at length, asking, and obtaining 
 permission, to join them as usual in the 
 evening. When he quitted the room, the 
 Contessa did the same, and Paulina re- 
 turned to her window. 
 
 A tumult of thought was in her heart, 
 and she could not refrain from its audible 
 expression.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 49 
 
 " Not noticed !" slie exclaimed recurring 
 to the Contessa's last words ; " that is 
 not very likely; a baby could not help 
 noticing. But it has not been my fault ; 
 I told Mamma so ; it was his own doing 
 from first to last. Not far off, too, the 
 ' last' now, I fancy ; a day or two will 
 bring things to a crisis. Of course, I 
 shall not accept him; how can I, after 
 that unfortunate business ? No, I didn't 
 mean that ; of course, I like Stephen Lux- 
 moor as much as ever; only this would 
 be such a- chance ! Not the man himself, 
 he has neither heart nor brains that I can 
 see; but one could put up with that for 
 the sake of ... . 
 
 " That is not my fault either," Paulina 
 continued, breaking off her sentence as 
 the current of reflection changed abruptly ; 
 " not my own fault. It was not my own 
 thinking of at all ; it came into my mind 
 quite suddenly that evening. ' Enormously 
 
 4
 
 50 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 rich/ tlie landlord said. Yes, that they 
 evidently are ; and the county position, 
 too ; one of the oldest families there ! 
 How cruel it seems ! Why, with Stephen 
 it will be years before we can marry ; and 
 then it will only be some dismal place in a 
 London suburb, knowing nobody ! 
 
 ''Of course I shall keep to it," Paulina 
 resumed after a new pause, during which 
 her thoughts, although busily at work, had 
 failed to shape themselves into definite ex- 
 pression : ''Mamma need not have been 
 afraid of that. But I am free, if I choose ; 
 what was the sense of there being no 
 engagement if I am not ? It is a shame 
 to say it. As to shunning him, I shall do 
 no such thing; why should I? He will not 
 break his heart, in any case ; people never 
 do. I am sure Stephen would not do that. 
 
 " And, really and truly," Paulina pro- 
 ceeded, after a still longer pause, during 
 which the bell rung for the table d'hote,
 
 OVERMATCHED. 51 
 
 ** really and truly, it miglit be best for 
 Stephen himself if it were broken off. I 
 shall only be a clog to him, and so he 
 would come to feel before long. I must 
 think this over." And Paulina descended 
 to the dinner table. 
 
 There is something very strange in 
 temptation; strange in its variety of 
 aspect. To some it comes as the result 
 of long specific training, so to speak ; the 
 sin has been tampered with in thought, in 
 word, in trifling acts. But with others it 
 strikes home at once, fastening with ter- 
 rible precision on some weak point in the 
 character, some latent, undetected mischief. 
 The trial is really perhaps equal in both 
 cases ; but the sides of approach are 
 different. Probably this constitutes its 
 essential danger. 
 
 With Paulina, temptation had come in 
 
 % 
 
 %.
 
 52 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 this latter form. In that Gondo auberge, 
 in the companionship which had com- 
 menced there, her whole future had been 
 changed ; the suggestion of a great evil 
 had come upon her. This wealthy Eng- 
 lishman of whom the landlord had spoken ; 
 his undisguised, increasing, admiration 
 for herself; the circumstances which had 
 thrown them thus together ; what did it all 
 mean ? What might it not mean ? 
 
 Paulina was fascinated. A new world 
 had dawned upon her, a new star risen 
 upon her firmament. Up to that time, her 
 aspirations had been bounded by the life 
 she had hitherto known; the narrow 
 Italian home, with its economies and 
 shortcomings ; her mother's society there ; 
 latterly, Stephen Luxmoor's suit. But 
 these things seemed barren and cheerless 
 now. ''Great family!" "Enormously 
 rich !" Had she really any such chance ? 
 
 Of course, from any true woman's heart
 
 OVERMATCHED. 53 
 
 the suggestion would have glanced off, 
 leaving no trace of its impact. But 
 Paulina's was not a true heart. She was 
 not wholly bad; who is, or can be, at 
 twenty-two ? But the nature was a selfish 
 one, fortified by no higher aims, trained in 
 no habit of self-discipline. It had, under- 
 lying it, this capacity for falsehood ; 
 treachery to itself first, and then to others. 
 
 It was now tried in its very depths ; 
 
 and found, wanting ! 
 
 The result had not followed all at once, 
 but it was none the less sure on that 
 account. Step by step the battle had been 
 waged ; but there had been no pause, 
 no retrogression : and now the decisive 
 moment was not far distant.
 
 54 OVEEMATCHBD. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Two days later, the travellers had started 
 southward. 
 
 The Contessa would gladly now have 
 proceeded without Charles Rayner. Not- 
 withstanding Paulina's assurances, their 
 conversation had left a painful impression 
 upon her. She was a straightforward, 
 sincere woman, and felt by no means 
 satisfied as to her daughter's proceedings. 
 If Paulina was merely amusing herself 
 with their present companion, this was 
 unfair to him; and any alteration of 
 purpose as regarded Stephen Luxmoor 
 would be still darker treachery.
 
 OVEKMATCHED. 55 
 
 Escape, however, seemed impossible. 
 The weather had brightened into summer 
 again, and Charles Eayner's recovery was 
 rapid in proportion. He could perfectly 
 bear the journey now, and the Contessa 
 could not recede from their arrangement 
 without stating some reason ; and yet, 
 what producible reason was there ? Nor 
 would Charles now have accepted his dis- 
 missal. He was thoroughly roused ; hung 
 upon Paulina's lips and smile; devoured 
 with his eyes the very ground she trode 
 upon ; grudged every moment spent apart 
 from her ! 
 
 Paulina herself might have dismissed 
 him, no doubt. Quite easy for her to 
 elude his attentions, or shew that they 
 were distasteful to her. And this the Con- 
 tessa, notwithstanding appearances, still 
 hoped that she would do. 
 
 But PauHna did nothing of the kind. 
 Flirtation or earnest, she gave her admirer
 
 56 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 all the chances lie could desire; no dis- 
 pleasure, no rebuff. Let Mr. Eayner be 
 deluding himself as he would, Paulina 
 would do nothing to disabuse him. And 
 what could any one else do ? 
 
 So when the vettura drew up to the 
 hotel door, the Contessa, concealing much 
 inward anxiety, entered it with her two 
 companions. The morning was exquisite ; 
 and at Yogogna, the first stage from Domo 
 d'Ossola, Charles, who was in the highest 
 spirits, proposed an alteration in their 
 route. " Instead of following the direct 
 road to the Maggiore, let them diverge to 
 Orta, and spend a couple of days viewing 
 the lake and scenery there. Thqy could 
 then either return to the main road at 
 Gravellona, or strike across to the lower 
 end of the Maggiore." 
 
 The Contessa was greatly disturbed
 
 OVERMATCHED. 57 
 
 by tHs suggestion, and did lier best to 
 combat it; but ineffectually. Charles ex- 
 tolled tlie seclusion, the rare beauty of 
 Orta ; undertook the adjustment of matters 
 with the vetturino ; and finally, although 
 with perceptible nervousness, appealed to 
 Paulina. 
 
 The appeal was successful. Paulina did 
 not actually second him ; " would prefer 
 to do what her mother wished" ; but ad- 
 mitted that " Orta was a temptation. And 
 we poor females," she added, with a smile 
 of ominous fascination, " can hardly hope 
 again for the chance of visiting it so plea- 
 santly." 
 
 The words added fuel to the flame. 
 Charles Rayner's ardour was redoubled, 
 and the Contessa was compelled to give 
 way. The sunset that evening was watched 
 by the travellers from the balcony of the 
 Leone d'Oro at Orta; looking across the 
 miniature quay and flashing waters of
 
 58 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 the lake, to the pinnacled Isola di san 
 Griulio, with its background of dusky 
 mountain peaks. 
 
 Next day, cloudless skies once more; 
 the weather still warm as July. The fore- 
 noon was passed in visiting San Giulio; 
 dinner was served at one o'clock; when 
 this was despatched, Charles, whose energy 
 seemed to increase with the demands upon 
 it, proposed the ascent of a rising ground 
 above the town, studded with the oratories 
 of St. Francis of Assisi. 
 
 The Contessa felt she ought to be of the 
 party, and prepared to be accordingly. 
 But nature, or fate, were too strong for her. 
 When Paulina entered the room equipped 
 for walking, she found that her mother, 
 after some feeble attempts at conversation, 
 had sunk into a profound slumber. 
 
 The good lady woke indeed, and strove 
 to rouse herself. But with the effort came 
 new drowsiness ; images of the morning's
 
 OVERMATCHED. 59 
 
 sight- seeing seemed to blend with the hot 
 afternoon haze without. After a few 
 struggles, the Contessa sank back on her 
 couch, and announced that she must be 
 left behind. ''After all," she murmured, 
 as her eyes again closed in slumber, *' it is 
 no use worrying oneself about it : the mis- 
 chief has been done already. Better 
 perhaps that he should have it out with 
 her. She will refuse, and there will be 
 an end of it." 
 
 The hill of the Oratories rises in ter- 
 races, laid out as a pleasure garden; 
 gourds and fig-trees shading its slopes, 
 with the white chapels gleaming between 
 their foliage. The tourist season was over, 
 exceptionally fine as the month was ; and 
 of the natives, there were no curious eyes 
 to note their progress. An occasional 
 devotee passed in or out of the chapels, or 
 knelt at one of the stations of the Cross 
 by the roadside; but these worshippers
 
 60 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 were absorbed in their own tliouglits, and 
 in the more secluded avenues were not to 
 be seen at all. Paulina did not walk by 
 Charles Rayner's side, but behind him ; he 
 offered his arm, but she declined it, and let 
 him lead. She was trembling a good deal : 
 quite perceptibly enough to make her glad 
 that he should not watch her. 
 
 Since the review she had taken of her- 
 self and her own intentions at Domo, 
 Paulina had shunned thought of any kind ; 
 thrust it from her. As the Contessa saw, 
 she had not avoided Charles Rayner, quite 
 the contrary ; her manner to him was 
 more encouraging than ever. But she had 
 been trying to escape from herself! *' I 
 shall not accept him if he does propose;" 
 so she had soliloquized at Domo. But 
 with a dishonest nature, the moment in 
 which it assures itself it will resist is often 
 that in which it is preparing to succumb. 
 
 And that Paulina would succumb, she
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 61 
 
 knew well enougli. But she could not 
 quite stifle conscience; could not quite 
 help this trembling. It was a wicked, 
 treacherous act she was bent upon ! She 
 did not love this Charles Rayner, not in 
 the least ; despised him rather. And she 
 did love Stephen Luxmoor ; not, of course, 
 with the real abandon of woman's love ; 
 that would have vetoed the treachery at 
 once ; — but with such love as Paulina was 
 capable of. He was a grand fellow, nobly 
 built, nobly endowed ; Paulina's eye ad- 
 mired his exterior, her intellect did justice 
 to the man himself. And yet, the moment 
 had now come when she would renounce 
 him 1 
 
 They reached a portion of the grounds, 
 commanding an exquisite view, but en-
 
 62 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 tirely screened itself. Here Charles Ray- 
 ner waited for his companion to join him ; 
 in her agitation she had fallen some yards 
 behind. Then, when she came up, they 
 stood looking down on the fair scene to- 
 gether. 
 
 Island and lake ; the wooded banks 
 dotted with the white campaniles of the 
 villages ; behind them the snow moun- 
 tains, close enough, one might have fan- 
 cied, for the hand to touch them; the 
 whole lapped in the gold and crimson of 
 an October sunset. The scene ivas fair. 
 
 But Paulina's eyes were quickly with- 
 drawn from it ; they were arrested by an 
 object nearer at hand. At a short dis- 
 tance, planted on a hillock, was a tall 
 wooden crucifix ; devoid of ornament, but 
 touching in its simple truth of realization. 
 A tide of feeling swept across Paulina's 
 breast, memories of a time when for her 
 too, although not of her own faith, the
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 63 
 
 emblem would liave had. significance. The 
 angel had stood in the way ; a new an- 
 tagonist risen up between her and her pur- 
 pose. Would she, could she do this thing ? 
 
 It might have been deliverance ; it was 
 unquestionably meant to be. For a few 
 seconds she faltered ; some prayer, she 
 hardly knew what, some petition to be 
 saved from herself, formed itself within 
 her ; almost forced its way to her lips. 
 But it was cut short. 
 
 A reach of the carriage-road to the town 
 was visible below ; along this, at the same 
 moment, drove a barouche and pair ; the 
 occupants unmistakably English. The 
 voices reached them where they stood, 
 and both spectators turned involuntarily ; 
 Charles Rayner at once recognised the 
 party. 
 
 "Lady Aspinall and Claude!" he ex- 
 claimed ; " how singular !" 
 
 *' You know them ?" Paulina asked.
 
 64 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 ** Thej are our nearest neighbours,'* 
 said Charles ; " the two properties run 
 together. Claude is the young baronet ; 
 he succeeded to the estates last year. I 
 wish you knew Kent." 
 
 The carriage whirled out of sight as he 
 spoke. Still more rapidly in Paulina's 
 heart, died out the half-formed purpose of 
 good; the images which his words had 
 conjured up left no room for it ! 
 
 And Charles spoke on now ; the oppor- 
 tunity had come, and courage to tell his 
 love came with it. No need to dwell upon 
 this ; we care little for Charles Rayner 
 himself. But we do care for the beautiful 
 but false woman who stood beside him, 
 with downcast eyes and still heaving 
 breast, listening to these utterances. 
 
 Brief enough, and fervent enough ; 
 Charles was in earnest now. Painting the 
 effect on himself of his first meeting with 
 Paulina ; the growth of his passion ever
 
 OVERMATCHED. 65 
 
 since ; his inability to exist witTiout her. 
 Deploring his own hitherto purposeless life, 
 but entreating her not to reject him on that 
 account. Sketching rapidly what he could 
 offer her ; position, wealth, ample for every 
 enjoyment, although all too little for one 
 so qualified to adorn them. Pledging him- 
 self that, should he be accepted, the devo- 
 tion of his whole future should follow. 
 ^'Mighthehope?'' 
 
 Paulina again trembled violently. She 
 was deadly pale ; her face blanched to the 
 hue of the marble chapels which gleamed 
 through the shrubberies beside them. But 
 she made no sign of dissent. 
 
 Once, and once only, she turned her eyes 
 in the direction of the cross at which she 
 had been looking. Somewhere within her 
 was a superstition, half hope and half fear, 
 that even against her own volition, this 
 great guilt might still be barred against 
 her ! 
 
 5
 
 66 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 All ! but it miglit not be. Silence was 
 consent ; and Charles Eayner was not slow 
 to interpret it as sucli. His arm was 
 round ber ; bis breatb bot upon ber cbeek. 
 ** Paulina, darling, say you love me; say 
 you will be my wife. Say yes." 
 
 And sbe said it. Very faintly. But 
 still a spoken word : — and, tbat word. 
 
 A great pall of darkness fell upon tbe 
 scene before ber ; something wbicb seemed 
 to bave been evoked by tbe monosyllable, 
 simple as it was ; blotting out from ber 
 view lake and island, Alp and sunshine. 
 They were all there, but she could not see 
 them. 
 
 Strange, too, that she seemed to be 
 looking upon something else, instead of 
 them. Charles Rayner bad led her to a 
 bank near, and seated himself by her ; his 
 arm still pressing ber towards him ; shower- 
 ing kisses upon her of which she was 
 hardly conscious. What she did see, did
 
 OVERxMATCHED. ^7 
 
 feel, was widely different. A sea, tossing 
 in white foam. A giddy precipice, at the 
 foot of which the waves broke ; herself 
 clinging desperately to the brink. A 
 powerful arm thrown round her ; — and, 
 assuredly, not in love ! 
 
 Perception returned at last, and Paulina 
 rose ; " she must go back to the hotel." 
 Charles complied, at last, and led the way \ 
 past the crucifix he was . going, but she 
 stopped him. " No, no ; the way we came 
 up ; — any way but that !" 
 
 Charles looked surprised, but made no 
 comment, and Paulina soon regained her 
 composure. Not so the Contessa ; she 
 was grievously dismayed ; found it hard 
 to refrain from informing this new suitor 
 how matters stood. But the maternal 
 instincts prevailed. 
 
 ** I have not told him," she said to
 
 68 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Paulina, when they were alone together at 
 bed time ; "he would hardly care to know 
 that the wife of his choice had been 
 playing fast and loose with some one else ! 
 You must go your own way : I neither 
 hinder you, nor ask your motive. Affec- 
 tion it cannot be ; you cannot in these 
 few days have transferred your attach- 
 ment to a total stranger. If you have 
 yielded to any other temptation, God help 
 
 you!" 
 
 Paulina withdrew sullenly, and the topic 
 was not resumed. Lady Aspinall and her 
 son had taken up their quarters at the 
 Leone d'Oro, and on the following morning 
 Paulina was introduced to them, amidst 
 many felicitations, as Charles Eayner's 
 bride elect. Some further days passed at 
 Orta in the society of the new comers; 
 then the two parties separated, the Con- 
 tessa and Paulina proceeding, with Charles 
 Rayner, to Milan and Florence, and event-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 69 
 
 ually to Rome. Naples was tlieir ultimate 
 destination ; but Paulina had no inclina- 
 tion to reach it before Christmas, when 
 Stephen Luxmoor would return to England. 
 
 To the latter, the Contessa had written 
 from Orta, apprising him of what had 
 taken place ; and had received a few lines 
 in reply. Paulina's name was not men- 
 tioned ; but Mr. Luxmoor enclosed some 
 notes of hers, and a lock of her hair she 
 had once given him. 
 
 So that affair was over, and Paulina 
 at liberty to enjoy herself with her fiance. 
 And this she unquestionably did. Charles 
 Rayner's purse supplied indulgences of 
 which she had never dreamt. Even Italian 
 life became charming, while in the future 
 was the English home, now daily invested 
 with a brighter halo. In her introduction 
 to the Aspinalls, Paulina had stepped into 
 the position to which her birth entitled 
 her, but from which she had hitherto been
 
 70 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 excluded by narrow means. Now the 
 gates were thrown open. Naples, which 
 was reached in January, teemed with in- 
 toxication and excitement ; Paulina was a 
 success, admired, feted, had her entourage 
 of followers. And in April the marriage 
 would take place, and the scene of these 
 triumphs be transferred to England ; the 
 final debut be made there. Mistress of 
 Stanton Court; wealthy and courted; every 
 circle accessible to her, every wish grati- 
 fied as soon as formed ; who would not 
 envy her ? 
 
 An alluring prospect no doubt. But it 
 had its back-ground. Even in this world 
 the Nemesis sometimes comes ; something 
 behind and beyond that of our own out- 
 raged heart and conscience. Other actors 
 appear on the scene; the threads of in- 
 trigue are grasped by a firmer hand ; the 
 feebler guilt overmatched by the more 
 robust. Subjugation awaits us, and
 
 OVERMATCHED. 71 
 
 terror, and remorse; — tlie treachery we 
 have wrought, working out, under neces- 
 sities of our own creation, its career of 
 guilt and retribution ! 
 
 But enough of this ; we must pass to 
 brighter scenes. Our narrative is not 
 tragedy ; nor is Pauhna, although its cha- 
 racters group themselves round her, our 
 real ** heroine;" whatever that far-de- 
 scended term may mean.
 
 72 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The winter whicli Charles Rayner thus 
 passed in Italy was spent by Evelyn with 
 the married aunt already mentioned; her 
 mother's sister. 
 
 Mrs. Alsager lived at Chigwell, the 
 picturesque street of which still defies the 
 suburban " builder," and at the time of 
 which we write had not yet cause to dread 
 him. Her husband held a legal appoint- 
 ment, and they had a daughter and four 
 sons. Money was abundant ; the domestic 
 rule easy ; the " Beeches" a charming villa 
 residence; life there generally enjoyable.
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 73 
 
 And Nina Alsager and her brothers did 
 their best, in their respective vocations, to 
 enjoy it. 
 
 The calling of the youngest scion, No. 4, 
 consisted for the present in school life at 
 Harrow. No. 3, named Clarges, was at 
 Cambridge. No. 2 was Charles. He had 
 emerged from college, — rounding the turn- 
 ing-post of his academical career somewhat 
 narrowly, — and was just called to the bar. 
 The eldest, Richard, nominally did busi- 
 ness as a stock-broker. If you called to 
 see him, the clerk would seat you, look 
 into his principal's room, and regret that 
 he had just stepped out : would the visitor 
 wait a few minutes ? Should the visitor, 
 after waiting a great many minutes, ex- 
 press impatience, the newspaper was 
 handed to him: ''Mr. Alsager would not 
 be long now." And the forenoon might 
 pass thus, and the afternoon too, if you 
 chose. If you did not choose, you went
 
 74 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 away. But this was only witli business 
 callers. Announce yourself as a personal 
 friend, and you would find tliat Mr. 
 Alsager had not been in Copthall buildings 
 that day, or probably any day for the last 
 month; and that it was quite uncertain 
 when he would be there ! 
 
 The fact is, Eichard Alsager, and 
 Charles, and Clarges, and even the boy- 
 Alsager, had all a calling in life apart from 
 its every-day business. They were all 
 athletes, and very renowned ones; the 
 side-board groaned under the weight 
 of their trophies ; prize-tankards, prize- 
 flagons, prize-salvers ; even more than one 
 candelabrum. Eichard and Charles were 
 the Castor and Pollux : Eichard great at 
 steeple-chases, and Charles, — the gentlest 
 of human beings in his ordinary relations, 
 — truculent and terrible as a pugilist. 
 Clarges jumped ; standing jumps and run- 
 ning jumps, hurdles and ditches. And
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 75 
 
 Ned, the boy-Alsager, — so far as seventeen 
 is boyliood now-a-days, — ran races. 
 
 As for Nina, she did nothing athletic, 
 excepting in the gentler field of archery. 
 Nina painted, and played, and snng. Nina 
 could cook, on emergencies, like a real 
 artiste. Nina was excellent in plain needle- 
 work, with a passion for darning which was 
 almost morbid. And Nina was so charm- 
 ing altogether, that we regret there is no 
 vacancy for her, either, as "heroine;'' in 
 the present narrative at all events. The 
 family picture was completed by Mrs. 
 Alsager; a cultivated, clever woman; 
 quick-tempered at times, but placable; 
 always of generous sentiments, and a fast 
 friend. 
 
 This was the family at the Beeches ; and 
 at the Beeches Evelyn Eayner has just 
 arrived to spend two months; her first 
 visit there. 
 
 And of Evelyn herself?
 
 76 OVERMATCBIED. 
 
 Nina and lier cousin are both pretty, 
 but in different types ; Nina more attrac- 
 tive, Evelyn's a more artistic beauty, tall, 
 fair, delicately-moulded ; the face and 
 figure which you involuntarily class as 
 *' aristocratic," although, in this case, with- 
 out even the suspicion of hauteur. At 
 least, with no suspicion of it usually. Now 
 and then, most rarely, there is something 
 in the face which might be mistaken for 
 this. An absolute mistake ; the expression, 
 probably derived from some ancestor far 
 away, is as much out of rapport with the 
 other features as with the real nature; 
 for Evelyn is frankness itself. But there, 
 occasionally, the misleading look is. As 
 to other matters, Evelyn's tastes and pre- 
 ferences are interests, not enthusiasms. 
 She would love devotedly ; would suffer, 
 should love bring suffering, with sweet 
 patience ; but would not be torn fibre from 
 fibre, as some natures are. Not that
 
 OVERMATCHED. 11 
 
 Evelyn's is a superficial character ; as far 
 from it as is possible ; but it is the kindly, 
 disciplined English girl's heart, not the 
 dormant crater-fire of a Medea. — We do 
 not mean to imply that Nina Alsager 
 belonged to this latter school, either. 
 
 Evelyn reached the Beeches about five 
 in the afternoon, and dinner was at seven. 
 The interval therefore was not long in 
 itself; and during one hour of it, at least, 
 the visitor was in her own room with 
 Nina, unpacking. And yet, even thus 
 abridged, it produced a striking effect on 
 such male members of the family as she 
 encountered. The Alsager temperament 
 was a susceptible one ! 
 
 The two youngest sons came first ; Ned 
 Alsager home iov the holidays, and Clarges 
 for the Cambridge vacation. Each of 
 whom, within five minutes of shaking
 
 78 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 hands with Evelyn, fell insanely and help- 
 lessly in love with her; the boy-Alsager 
 the worst of the two. The afternoon being 
 a steady down-pour, with half- thawed snow 
 under foot, Ned Alsager had selected it for 
 running " miles" in an adjacent lane, and 
 came in in a condition horrible to witness. 
 He insisted on an immediate introduction ; 
 then, suddenly viewing himself in the 
 light of the new emotions thus inspired, 
 fled upstairs with some ideas of suicide. 
 Clarges followed, and was presented with 
 the same results, slightly modified ; and 
 then Mr. Alsager senior made his ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 A sufficiently scandalous one. In spite 
 of his years, and in utter defiance of the 
 table of kindred and affinity, he succumbed 
 at once ; devoting himself to the visitor 
 with such empressement that he underwent 
 a well-merited rebuke from his wife, and 
 was despatched to his dressing-room.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 79 
 
 Lastly, dinner time brouglit E^icliard and 
 Charles ; the latter half way through the 
 first course, the former not until the third, 
 which waited while he made up lee-way. 
 Their opportunities, as regarded Evelyn, 
 were thus most limited; but they were 
 turned to the best advantge ; by the time 
 the ladies left the table, both brothers were 
 as hopelessly in bondage as their prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 But, meanwhile, the hand of fate was on 
 the curtain. How disproportionate are 
 human desires to their ends, even when the 
 latter are attained ! And how frequently 
 does it turn out that they are not attain- 
 able ! 
 
 Vainly in those cousinly hearts has the 
 flame of love blazed up, so suddenly and 
 fiercely. They may burn on for ever, but 
 the torch of Hymen will light itself at none 
 of them. It is spell-holden ; it cannot 
 ignite except under the wand of the real 
 magician !
 
 80 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 And already tlie magician is at hand. 
 Wholly unconscious of his power, at pre- 
 sent ; indisposed, it may be, to attach much 
 value to it, even if he should make the dis- 
 covery. But he will be wiser bye and bye. 
 
 *' Papa," said Clarges Alsager, during a 
 pause in the discussion of a recent libel- 
 case between Charles and his father, *' do 
 you want the mare to-morrow ?" 
 
 " No, my boy. Why ?" 
 
 "I thought that Eayner and I would 
 ride over to Lord Willoughby's, and see if 
 the large pond bears." 
 
 «« Very well," said Mr. Alsager ; ** so do. 
 Who is Rayner ?" 
 
 '' Don't you recollect, Papa ? He dined 
 and slept here last summer after our match 
 with the school eleven. Oh ! no, you were 
 all at Wimbledon."
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 81 
 
 ** The Grammar- school, do you mean r" 
 
 *'Yes," said Clarges. "He had left 
 some time before, but they could have 
 made no play without him, so we let him 
 join. I called upon him in Cambridge last 
 term, and have seen a good deal of him." 
 
 "And is he coming here to-morrow?" 
 
 " He is coming to-night," said Clarges. 
 " I have asked him to spend a few days. 
 1 talked over the mater while she was at 
 dinner, and he can sleep in the old nursery ; 
 I only got his answer this evening. He 
 will be here by the last coach." 
 
 " Is he any relation of Evelyn's ?" asked 
 Mr. Alsager. 
 
 " Not that I know of," said Clarges ; 
 " Why should he be ? Oh ! you mean it is 
 the same name : I never thought of that : 
 we have never seen Evelyn before to-day, 
 you know." 
 
 " No," said Mr. Alsager : " her mother's 
 death broke off the connection a good deal, 
 
 6
 
 82 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 although we have always kept on civil 
 terms. But it is curious this should be 
 a Rayner. What is his father, do you 
 know ?" 
 
 " I fancy he is a painter, or something of 
 the kind," said Clarges ; ''they live in 
 Gower-street. I know they are not well 
 off; in fact, that is why I asked Rayner 
 here partly ; there's only himself at home, 
 and that's extra slow when you've got to 
 economise." 
 
 '' I wish some of you would practise that 
 virtue," said Mr. Alsager. '' But, Clarges 
 my boy, that must be the same family. 
 What is your friend's Christian name ?" 
 
 " 'M,' something: Matthew, I suppose. 
 No, I know; it's Malcolm." 
 
 ''Of course," said Mr. Alsager; "I 
 thought so. Why, he's Evelyn's first 
 cousin." 
 
 " We are her first cousins," said Clarges, 
 resentfully.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 83 
 
 '' A girl may have cousins more ways 
 than one, I suppose, Master Solomon ? 
 This is on the father's side. Don't you 
 know the family history ?" 
 
 "About as much as I do the Roman 
 emperors," said Clarges. ''What his- 
 tory ?" 
 
 "Why, your visitor belongs to the disin- 
 herited branch. His father, John Rayner, 
 is the eldest son, but he chose to marry 
 against orders, and so took the conse- 
 quences." 
 
 " You look out, Dick," said Clarges 
 parenthetically to his elder brother, who 
 was ruminating in gloomy silence on the 
 fair apparition which had just left them. 
 " Go on, Papa." 
 
 "Well, there is not much else. John 
 Rayner was sent adrift, and had to main- 
 tain himself as he best might ; painting and 
 taking pupils, poor fellow. Your young 
 friend is the only child living now ; and,
 
 84 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 with their narrow means, perhaps this is 
 just as well." 
 
 " What a thundering shame it was," said 
 Clarges. " But, Papa, how could they be 
 disinherited while old Eayner is still li^dng? 
 I thought he must make his will for that." 
 
 " No necessity for it," said Mr. Alsager ; 
 " a settlement answers all purposes, and he 
 made one. I don't know the details, but 
 substantially everything goes to the second 
 son and his issue." 
 
 "And Evelyn's father is the second 
 son?" 
 
 " Yes," said Mr. Alsager. 
 
 " Then it will all go to Evelyn ?" 
 
 "Yes," said Mr. Alsager; "unless her 
 father should marry again ; I heard some 
 report of his being engaged, a few days 
 since. There is the front door bell ; if it is 
 young Rayner, bring him in here." 
 
 " Won't it be rather awkward his meet- 
 ing Evelyn ?" said Charles.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 85 
 
 " Perhaps SO," said Mr. Alsager ; "but 
 I dare say slie will be equal to the emer- 
 gency : one can generally trust a girl's 
 tact. However, I will tell her of the 
 arrival first : keep him here with you a few 
 minutes after I leave the dining room." 
 
 Malcolm's entrance here broke ofi* the 
 topic; and a page or two of description, 
 necessary and, we hope, not tedious, must 
 be allotted to him before returning to it.
 
 86 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 In person Malcolm Rayner was slightly 
 built ; the features were small also, and 
 too irregular in themselves, and the hair 
 too low down on the forehead, to be other- 
 wise than plain. But the figure was well- 
 knit, and the eye had a most redeeming 
 sweetness about it; something allied in 
 turns, as the expression varied, to mirth 
 and pathos, and interpreting the mouth, 
 which, in repose, was firmly set, into 
 robustness of will rather than sternness. 
 
 Nor did the character behe these indi- 
 cations. Malcolm was blessed with buoy- 
 ant spirits, strong good sense, and the
 
 OVERMATCHED. 87 
 
 generous, manly temper whicli women 
 admire and men envy. In society he 
 attracted all who came near him ; there 
 was a merry gentleness about him, if one 
 may coin the phrase, which was unspeak- 
 ably winning. 
 
 As to personal tastes, Malcolm had 
 two special predilections; cricketing; and 
 horses, so far as the latter had come in 
 his way. He loved the animal, as such : 
 loved to paint it, to sing of it. The paint- 
 ing was not much, for Malcolm had no 
 chance of handling the brush even with 
 John Rayner's success. But for poetry he 
 had gifts ; and he sang of the horse, under 
 all aspects, and in all stages, from the colt 
 upwards. All poetry is ''mimesis," Aris- 
 totle says ; and mimesis, as rendered by 
 one of his commentators, is " expression ;" 
 — a vent for strong feeling, artificially 
 checked ; the breaking loose of the caged 
 waters. If so, Malcolm's muse was per-
 
 88 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 haps the creation of the penury which 
 allowed him no stud of his own. 
 
 This, perhaps, in its first inception. But 
 latterly, in the closing years of school-life, 
 and, still more, in the solitude of a fresh- 
 man's first term, another repressed feeling, 
 stronger and deeper twenty-fold, had sent 
 its stream bounding down by the side of 
 the other. 
 
 Not love ; love of woman, that is. Mal- 
 colm, although nearing twenty, was abso- 
 lutely heart-whole, and seemed likely to 
 remain so. But attachment of another 
 kind; an intense yearning for the home 
 from which he and his had been so ruth- 
 lessly excluded. He had never seen the 
 house ; with his resentment against Philip 
 Rayner's tyranny nothing would have 
 tempted him within miles of it ; nor did 
 the name ever pass the father's lips. But 
 from his mother, Caversham-born and bred, 
 Malcolm had heard of Stanton Court from
 
 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 89 
 
 boyliood. The gabled Elizabethan pile; 
 its muUioned windows, its towers and 
 terraces; the water meadows, with the 
 chalk knolls swelhng, spur after spur, 
 above them ; the stately park, colonnades 
 of verdure, the tree-trunks mossed with the 
 growth of centuries, the deer browsing un- 
 molested in their shade ; the church with 
 the hatchments of the old family ; the keep 
 which had been their original home, ivy- 
 mantled and owl-watched ; the unimpaired 
 Eayner estates of which we have spoken, 
 pastures and sheep-downs, arable land and 
 hop land, stretching leagues away out of 
 sight ; — all this the mother never wearied 
 of recounting ; and to it all the son 
 listened, at first with rapturous delight, 
 then, by degrees, with the yearnings of a 
 great love. And when these could neither 
 be assuaged nor gratified, they actuated 
 themselves, as they best might, in numbers. 
 Of battle-field and tournament the
 
 90 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 youthful bard sang ; of the knight's 
 morion and the lady's lute ; of Crusader 
 and lowly pilgrim ; of sea-faring, and 
 siege, and silken bower, and stately pa- 
 geant. And in every scene, be the truth 
 of history what it might, a Rayner always 
 bore some part. And ever interwoven 
 with it, in some shape or another, was the 
 unbeholden home ; that grand old Stanton 
 Court ! Malcolm's poetry was not of first- 
 rate merit ; but it ivas poetry, the utterance 
 by which genuine emotion interprets itself 
 to the world without. 
 
 Meanwhile, we are bound to add that 
 this was not the only vent of Malcolm's 
 sentiments. He was a dethroned prince : 
 but there was the correlative fact of an 
 usurping dynasty ; and to this dynasty, as 
 such, he cherished a cordial aversion. 
 Personally he knew nothing of its mem- 
 bers. They were only two now, Charles 
 Rayner and Evelyn ; and Malcohn had
 
 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 91 
 
 never seen either of them. But he genu- 
 inely dishked them, notwithstanding ; dis- 
 liked them as persons ! His uncle, Charles 
 Rayner, Malcolm depicted under various 
 aspects, none of them at all complimentary; 
 and Evelyn must be something disagree- 
 able also, although he had not quite settled 
 what. For the present he inclined to some 
 type of scornful beauty ; haughty, heart- 
 less, and so on ; although at eighteen 
 there was time enough for the evil to 
 assert itself in fifty ways. But that evil 
 it would and must be, under all conditions 
 and however disguised, he entertained no 
 shadow of, a doubt ! 
 
 Things being as above, Malcolm was 
 certainly not gratified when he heard that 
 his cousin was in the house. Mr. Alsager 
 me:nit to have imparted the news himself ;
 
 92 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 but a great wave of cricketing broke 
 over the conversation, and the task fell to 
 Charles, who detained Malcolm in the 
 dining-room as directed, while his father 
 made a similar communication to Evelyn. 
 
 " That girl here!" was the exclamation 
 which rose to Malcolm's lips, and was 
 only kept back by main force : the angry 
 flushing of cheek and brow could not be 
 repressed, and was not lost upon Charles 
 Alsager. Malcolm was so conscious of 
 this, that he pleaded the necessity of 
 dressing, and obtained a few minutes' 
 grace upstairs, where he digested his 
 wrath as he best might. Then the enemy 
 had to be faced. '* I shall make some 
 excuse and cut the thing to-morrow," he 
 said to himself as he entered the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 Evelyn's reception of the intelligence 
 meanwhile had been very different. "My 
 cousin here; Malcolm Eayner !" And the
 
 OVERMATCHED. 93 
 
 ejaculation had certainly no displeasure 
 in it. 
 
 The fact is that Evelyn's mind had been 
 a good deal exercised in regard to this 
 cousin. "Womanhood had opened out for 
 her new ranges of thought ; the objective 
 girl-life was becoming subjective; specula- 
 tive as to the reasons and fitnesses of 
 things, and its own relations to them. 
 Evelyn dearly loved Stanton Court ; and 
 hitherto no complications had existed to 
 disturb this sentiment. But during the 
 last few months, thoughts of the dispos- 
 sessed father and son had begun to ob- 
 trude themselves. She knew the family 
 history ; and although as expounded to 
 her, John Eayner had only suffered be- 
 cause he deserved, and only what he 
 deserved, still, there was the fact. Evelyn's 
 father had stepped into his place, and 
 Evelyn herself, hereafter, would occupy 
 that of Malcolm : and Malcolm at all
 
 94 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 events, was wholly guiltless. "What was 
 he like ? What were his pursuits ? What 
 profession would he follow ? How did he 
 bear his expatriation ? Evelyn was curious 
 to know all this. And, with the curiosity, 
 were associated, at times, other feehngs; 
 pity for him ; compunction, and even 
 shame, as to her own prospective share in 
 the matter. 
 
 So when Malcolm at last entered, Evelyn 
 looked up at him with decided interest. 
 She had been imprisoned on a sofa by 
 Richard Alsager, who was descanting on 
 an approaching county ball at Chelmsford. 
 Eichard was not affluent of speech by 
 nature, but he was getting on creditably 
 with this topic ; gall and wormwood 
 though it was to Ned, who was standing 
 close by, drinking in the discourse with 
 the emotions of a fratricide. But suddenly 
 Evelyn became inattentive. Richard's 
 eulogy of the floor of the Chelmsford
 
 OVERMATCHED. 95 
 
 assembly rooms fell on thankless ears ; 
 hearing and sight of his companion were 
 both directed to the new comer. And as 
 the new-comer persistently looked the 
 other way, Evelyn had an undisturbed 
 view. 
 
 Of its results hereafter; they would 
 naturally take time to develop themselves. 
 But there was one result of which Evelyn 
 became conscious even at the moment ; — 
 somehow, for some reason, this was her 
 oivTi cousin, par excellence ! Had she 
 obeyed impulse, she would have stepped 
 forward at once, and tendered greetings. 
 But she checked herself; they would 
 doubtless be introduced ere long. 
 
 No ; it was not to be. Mr. Alsager had 
 ruled this in a brief whisper to his wife. 
 " Let them make acquaintance for them- 
 selves," he said; *' it may save some em-
 
 96 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 barrassment." So Evelyn's ear was again 
 bent to Eichard Alsager, reinforced soon 
 afterwards by the two next brothers, who 
 edged into her corner in succession, and 
 kept up a lively conversation ; so exaspe- 
 i-ating Eichard, that he retired in dudgeon 
 to the billiard room, slamming the door 
 after him. 
 
 The evening passed without Malcolm 
 bestowing any notice, even the most 
 passing, on the object of his antipathy. 
 He purposely avoided doing so ; conversed 
 with Mrs. Alsager, and then secured Nina 
 at the piano, where she played and sang 
 like a Siren. At last, it was bed-time. 
 Clarges, as in duty bound, tore himself out 
 of the charmed circle, and stood for a few 
 minutes by the fire, talking to his guest. 
 Then Malcolm prepared to leave the room ; 
 shook hands all round, and, with a glance, 
 which shewed him a hglit figure in evening 
 costume, but little more, made a formal
 
 OVERMATCHED. 97 
 
 bow to Evelyn. But this was too mucli 
 for the frank nature ; impulse won tlie 
 day. 
 
 " I think we ought to shake hands too,'* 
 she said, stepping forward, " although it is 
 our first acquaintance. I am so very glad 
 we have met." 
 
 Malcolm could neither refuse the prof- 
 fered hand, nor forbear looking up at its 
 owner : — at last 1 
 
 "What a sweet face!" was the mental 
 ejaculation which followed, in spite of him- 
 self. Why, it was the face, and form, too, 
 which, in idea, had inspired his verse, 
 times out of number; so fair; so re- 
 fined ; so . . . 
 
 Ah ! but there was the footprint of the 
 defacer. " So aristocratic," was the next 
 term which suggested itself. As we have 
 said, it was Evelyn's most marked trait ; 
 her special attraction, to ordinary be- 
 holders. But on Malcolm's eye, it struck 
 
 7
 
 98 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 very differently. Aristocratic ! yes, just 
 so ! Just wliat he liad expected, and was 
 prepared to resent ! 
 
 Yes ; tlie second impression was riglit ; 
 the apparent sweetness superficial only ; 
 the frank greeting, a '* condescension" which 
 he would just as soon have dispensed with ! 
 — All the work of a moment. But the 
 result was that Malcolm's reply was cour- 
 teous merely, instead of being cordial, as 
 it was preparing to be. Then the various 
 cousinhoods dispersed themselves, and he 
 went to bed with renewed purposes of de- 
 parting next day. 
 
 But, he did not depart, either that day, 
 or for several after it. 
 
 First, Lord Willoughby's pond came as 
 an adversary. There was no escaping the 
 ride over there with Clarges ; and although
 
 OVERMATCHED. 99 
 
 the ice did not then actually ''bear," it 
 pledged itself, as distinctly as ice could, to 
 do so in the course of the night, and a 
 skating party was organized accordingly. 
 Then, on the return drive from this, Mrs. 
 Alsager stopped the breach, insisting that 
 he should on no account leave before the 
 county ball next week. She had taken 
 cordially to their visitor; and when the 
 hostess insisted, and Nina seconded the 
 order, there was no saying nay. Malcolm 
 was not susceptible, like the Alsagers 
 themselves ; but he saw the merit of a 
 pretty face, his cousin Evelyn's always 
 excepted ; and Nina, with her bright eyes 
 and seductive smile, was far too charming 
 to be refused anything. So his movements 
 for the present were taken out of his own 
 volition. 
 
 However, the situation proved support- 
 able. Malcolm and his scornful beauty, 
 although inhabiting the same house, were
 
 100 OVERMATCHED, 
 
 seldom in actual contact. At breakfast, 
 whetlier of express arrangement or other- 
 wise, their seats were at opposite corners 
 on the same side; Evelyn was barely 
 visible. Then, from breakfast to dusk, life 
 went on out of doors; skating, riding, 
 shooting and the like. Lastly, at dinner 
 and after dinner, the two scions of the 
 Eayner stock were mutually led into cap- 
 tivity, Evelyn by the male Alsagers, and 
 Malcolm by the female. So that, beyond 
 the interchange of good morning and good 
 evening, and some passing civilities at 
 other times, " that girl,'' as Malcolm had 
 been pleased to call her, was practically no 
 drawback to his enjoyment at all. 
 
 The only annoyance which did result 
 arose from a wholly different cause ; one 
 for which Evelyn was in no sort respon- 
 sible; while Malcolm himself was wholly, 
 and most unreasonably so. 
 
 Most unreasonable, it really was; but
 
 OVERMATCHED. 101 
 
 there was the fact ; — he was always think- 
 ing about this cousin of his ! Go where 
 he would, and do what he would, there 
 was his brain at work on this one subject. 
 Why should it be ? 
 
 Malcolm tried to discover the cause 
 sometimes, but with little success. His 
 speculations were nipped in the bud. Had 
 he met Evelyn, any hour of the day, he 
 knew that he would have avoided her ; he 
 had done so, more than once. Her society, 
 even her presence in the room, were dis- 
 tasteful to him. On the rare occasions 
 when his eye wandered in the direction of 
 the fair face, his original impression was 
 confirmed ; there was the hauteur, the 
 latent scorn in it. Why then did he think 
 so much about her ? 
 
 Not, perhaps, an easy question to answer; 
 but Malcolm lost even the chance of an- 
 swering it. At some point like the above, 
 Evelyn and himself would change places
 
 102 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 in the analysis. Was it scorn ? he would 
 go on to reflect. Well, not perhaps to- 
 wards any one in her own position; — 
 *' some donkey with lots of money ;" — to 
 such an one, she would be amiable enough. 
 But let a man approach her without these 
 advantages ? The neck would arch, the 
 lip curl ; eye and brow denounce the pre- 
 sumptuous intruder ! 
 
 She would be rude to him ? 
 
 No, no ; she was too much the lady for 
 that ; too . . too . . well, too 
 gentle, or generous, or whatever it might 
 be ; no saying what. For when Malcolm's 
 reflections had reached this point, there 
 would be a new divergence ; memories of 
 the frank kindness Avith which Evelyn had 
 extended her hand to him on their first 
 meeting; something which smote to his heart 
 with a kind of pang. JSTo ; even to this 
 haughty cousin he would not be unjust. 
 She would not be rude to any human
 
 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 103 
 
 being ; could not be ; the rejection would 
 be absolute, unmistakable, but she herself 
 would be all goodness, all truth. And so 
 he would revolve the matter backwards 
 and forwards. 
 
 A harmless employment enough, in it- 
 self. As an abstract question he might as 
 well discuss this as any other ; hydro- 
 statics ; entomology ; the rings of Saturn ; 
 anything. No doubt. But what was re- 
 markable was the assiduity of the occupa- 
 tion. Had he actually '' cared for" Evelyn, 
 as the phrase goes, he could hardly have 
 thought more about her ! 
 
 Singular, too, that his speculations al- 
 ways broke off at the same point ; always 
 brought him back to that first greeting 
 with Evelyn ; the half minute during 
 which the freely-proffered, soft palm had 
 rested in his own. Why should he think 
 of this ? he was neither chiropodist nor 
 fortune-teller. But, somehow, the palm
 
 104 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 haunted him; thought and voHtion suc- 
 cumbed to it hke a mesmerism ! 
 
 So things went on for some days, bring- 
 ing the time to the afternoon before the 
 Chelmsford ball. Then, Malcolm received 
 new food for his meditations.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 105 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 There was a temporary lull that after- 
 noon in Evelyn's absorption by the male 
 Alsagers. Ned, indeed, had finally with- 
 drawn from the scene. He was due at 
 Harrow, and had been despatched there in 
 a frame of mind vindictive and blood-thirsty 
 in the last degree, alternating with bursts 
 of grief which might have melted granite. 
 But, on this day, the others were out of 
 the way also. Richard, on a hunting ap- 
 pointment of old standing in Berkshire, 
 watching the frost, which showed symp- 
 toms of breaking up. And Charles, with 
 his first brief at Westminster; a guinea 
 ** motion," which ultimately involved at-
 
 106 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 tendance there for half the term, and the 
 loss of a new umbrella. Clarges, on the 
 other hand, was, or meant to be, at 
 home : — the most devoted worshipper, 
 next to the afflicted Ned, he had counted 
 on this afternoon alone with his idol. But 
 the fates ruled otherwise. 
 
 '' Clarges," said Mrs. Alsager after lun- 
 cheon. 
 
 **Yes, mother.'' 
 
 ''I want you to drive me over to Fyfield, 
 please." 
 
 '' To Fyfield, mater ? What for ?" 
 
 " Why, I must call on the Everests. I 
 have put it off too long already, and after 
 this business to-morrow night I shall be fit 
 for nothing. You have no engagement ?" 
 
 " No ; nothing particular, that is," said 
 Clarges, ruefully. " But hadn't Blumer 
 better take you in the close carriage ?" 
 
 " You are very polite, Clarges, but the 
 carriage would be knocked to pieces on
 
 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 107 
 
 those cross roads. Besides, we shall want 
 it to Chelmsford, and a second day would 
 be too much for the horses." 
 
 " I shall be proud to volunteer," said 
 Malcolm. 
 
 *' No, no, Clarges must come ; he is the 
 proper person. You stay at home and 
 amuse the young ladies." 
 
 At three o'clock, accordingly, Clarges 
 started with his mother, and Malcolm 
 remained in charge as directed. He 
 proposed a walk ; but for the next twenty- 
 four hours, or the available portion of 
 them, Nina's energies were absorbed by 
 " costume." The pretty ankles would 
 have their turn later on, but the fingers 
 must work at present. 
 
 And work they did, deftly and devotedly; 
 as long as they were permitted. But then 
 came an interruption. The garment in
 
 108 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 progress was not too recondite for the 
 drawing-room, and Nina had brought it 
 there. Malcolm sate chatting with her for 
 some time ; then Evelyn joined them, and 
 things were going pleasantly enough, when 
 a fresh visitor appeared. His ring was 
 unheard ; otherwise Nina would have 
 guarded the approaches, or taken to flight 
 herself. 
 
 " Mr. Brocklebank.'' 
 
 A heavy young man of five and twenty, 
 or thereabouts; florid and stolid. Nina 
 had to discourse on platitudes, her needle 
 rusting in idleness, and her soul hungering 
 for him to leave, for upwards of an hour. 
 Hints and yawns alike inefibctual; Mr. 
 Brocklebank always, apparently, on the 
 point of rising, and always finding himself 
 unequal to the effort. 
 
 " Oh ! that that too, too solid flesh would melt, 
 Or else resolve itself to bid adieu," 
 
 Nina whispered to Evelyn, during a breath-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 109 
 
 ing time alloT\^ed by Malcolm's gallantly 
 drawing tlie enemy on himself. But the 
 flesh sate on obdurately ; and was only 
 dislodged at last by the appearance of the 
 postman, and the reflections as to the time 
 of day with which Nina improved the 
 occasion. 
 
 " Oh ! dear," exclaimed poor Nina as 
 the .door closed, "I am so behind-hand! 
 actually it's half-past four. What a dread- 
 ful, dreadful man ! Evelyn, my dear, would 
 you mind my leaving you till dinner-time ? 
 I must try and finish this upstairs with 
 Jarvis. You and Mr. Rayner can get on 
 somehow, can't you ?" 
 
 *' I suppose we can," thought Malcolm; 
 " but it is exceedingly awkward." How- 
 ever, there was no help for it. Nina 
 vanished in the moment of utterance, and 
 the ordeal had to be faced. 
 
 It ought not to have been a very terrible 
 one. There was a bright fire ; the room
 
 110 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 was snugness itself: the light pleasantly 
 hovering on the confines of dusk ; and an 
 exceedingly pretty girl to share the situa- 
 tion with him. But Malcolm did not half 
 like it for all that. He could not have been 
 more embarrassed if he had been in love 
 with his companion, instead of nourishing 
 a well-founded aversion for her ! 
 
 Evelyn, on her part, felt unaffectedly 
 pleased with their rencontre. For such it 
 practically was ; they had been nearly a 
 week under the same roof, but had not 
 *'met" in any sense of the word. Pretty 
 often, while apparently engrossed by the 
 Alsagers, Evelyn had stolen glances at this 
 other cousin. But that was not like ex- 
 changing words and thoughts ; and the 
 fewer chances he had given her the more 
 she had longed for this. She wondered 
 so much what he was like ! 
 
 Externally, she knew well enough ; even 
 stolen glances had made her at home with
 
 OVERMATCHED. Ill 
 
 face and figure. But she wanted tlie real 
 Malcolm Rayner himself ; the esoteric idea, 
 undisclosed by the every-day nothings of 
 table-talk. And now here was the oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 '' The afternoons are really growing 
 lighter," she observed, feeling a very un- 
 wonted shyness at speaking first, but im- 
 pelled to do so. 
 
 " Yes," said Malcolm. '' They turn, you 
 know, early in December, while the morn- 
 ings go on darker and darker, up to 
 January. Are you an early riser, Miss 
 Rayner ?" 
 
 " Pretty well," said Evelyn. She had it 
 on her tongue to add, '' Mister Rayner,'* 
 with an echo of his own formal tone ; but 
 discretion forbade. 
 
 *' The upper ten thousand can dispense 
 with it," said Malcolm bitterly. As he 
 could not escape the conference, he was 
 determined that this proud girl should nob
 
 112 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 trample upon him in it : — tlie daughter of 
 the usurping house too ! '' It is the poor 
 bread-winner who must be up with the 
 lark," he continued, " delving and spinning, 
 with hands or brain, before Belgravia has 
 settled into its first sleep." 
 
 Evelyn ventured a timid glance at the 
 speaker, and wondered if he were a radical. 
 How very dreadful ! She was not quite 
 clear as to what a radical was, but she had 
 heard of Cambridge as a place of levelling 
 tendencies; and this suggested her next 
 topic. 
 
 " You are not at Clarges' college, I think, 
 are you ?" 
 
 '' No, Miss Rayner ; my father could 
 only afford one of the inferior ones — 
 Gervoise's. My being at Cambridge at all 
 is a serious expense to him ; he works hard 
 for every penny, and it comes to little 
 enough at the year's end. But I am as 
 proud of him as if he were a duke ; I have
 
 OVERMATCHED. 113 
 
 reason to be. However, I did not mean 
 to intrude upon you witli our family 
 troubles." 
 
 " The family is my own," said Evelyn, 
 gently. Malcolm looked up, and saw once 
 more the sweet face of his first impression. 
 If only there were not those other qualities 
 in the back-ground ! 
 
 '' It is singular we should have met here 
 first, and loj mere accident," she went on : 
 " I have so often wished for it. Do you 
 like Cambridge ?" 
 
 " Greatly, in itself," said Malcolm, whose 
 poet-soul, even in the November term, had 
 found new pabulum in that seat of learn- 
 ing. ''It is so unhke anything one has 
 ever seen ; so different fi:'om a selfish, com- 
 mercial place like London. It is just like 
 the most perfect picture, only real at the 
 same time; gardens, and splendid trees, 
 and meadows, and the river winding: in 
 and out of them, with the arch of a bridge
 
 114 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 here, or a gateway there ; that is the 
 dream-land. Then you turn a corner, and 
 find yourself in the heart of one of the 
 colleges, as if it had sprung up by magic ; 
 life and movement all round you. Not 
 that the colleges are not dreamy, too. 
 There is Jesus, as beautiful as if it had 
 stepped out of a piece of tapestry ; and the 
 old bit of John's, overhanging the Cam. I 
 could stand and look at that by the hour 
 together." 
 
 *' He can't be a radical," thought 
 Evelyn ; '' that is quite impossible !" 
 '' What is it you dislike then ?" she asked, 
 as her companion paused in his burst of 
 enthusiasm. *' ' In itself,' you said." 
 
 " Yes, only in itself. Miss Rayner," said 
 Malcolm, with a relapse into sternness, 
 almost churlishness. Time, indeed, that 
 he should draw in ! Why here had he 
 been unlocking the treasure- chambers of 
 thought, not only to a stranger, but to
 
 OVERMATCHED. , 115 
 
 one incapable of a sentiment external to 
 herself and her ''own set !" He changed 
 his tone at once. 
 
 " I detest the sort of men up there, 
 to begin with," he said; ''a good many 
 of them, that is; the plutocracy and 
 aristocracy of the place : insolent, vulgar 
 puppies that they are ! Of course one is 
 beneath their notice, one knows that well 
 enough : at all events, I am. For the 
 first six months that I resided, I was 
 simply a beast." 
 
 " Were you ?" said Evelyn, compas- 
 sionately, although with some wonder in 
 her tone. 
 
 "I beg your pardon, I mean that I 
 belonged to no college ; that is called being 
 a beast at Cambridge ; and now I am only 
 a Gervoise's man. I don't expect to know 
 them, or them to know me, of course. 
 But that is quite different to having their 
 eye-glasses up at you, or being elbowed
 
 116 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 off the pavement, if you ever happen to 
 meet the lot ; just as if you belonged to a 
 different species." 
 
 "I am afraid he is rather proud," was 
 Evelyn's second note of character. *' But 
 no doubt it must be galling to him. I 
 don't fancy I should mind it myself, but 
 then men are so different." 
 
 " Again I am very rude. Miss E-ayner," 
 Malcolm continued; "your sympathies, 
 of course, are with those I have been 
 speaking of." 
 
 " No, indeed they are not. If there is 
 one thing which seems to me more noble 
 than another, it is the struggling against 
 
 . . . against not being well off, and 
 things of that kind ; and succeeding. But 
 I fancy that at a place like Cambridge, I 
 should not care for the puppies, if there are 
 such : — I thought they abounded more at 
 Oxford. I should be seeing the beauty, as 
 you describe it, the grand old colleges and
 
 OVEEMATOHED, 117 
 
 courts and gardens, and not see anything 
 that was disagreeable, at all. I am sure 
 that, at home, all the foolish people in the 
 world couldn't spoil my enjoyment. It 
 would still be the same Stanton Court as 
 ever, the rides the same, the walks the 
 same, the dear old house to love and be 
 happy in, even if . . . ." 
 
 Evelyn stopped most abruptly, colouring 
 deeply; her feeling was that of intense 
 pain. How had she lancinated the wound, 
 already, as she could see, quick and 
 bleeding ! And what could she say in 
 alleviation ? 
 
 Say nothing, was the obvious course; 
 but her compassion was too strong for this. 
 
 ''I do so beg your pardon," she mur- 
 mured ; '' indeed I did not mean it." 
 
 Malcolm was softened in spite of him- 
 self ; he could not help replying more 
 gently. 
 
 '' It does not trouble me," he said,
 
 118 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 " please do not mind ; you see I do not 
 know the place at all : it would be different 
 if I had been brought up there. Please 
 think no more about it. You are fond of 
 riding, then ?" 
 
 " Oh ! yes, very fond. I enjoy it more 
 than anything." 
 
 "You hunt?" 
 
 " Not now. I rode out with the hounds 
 when I was smaller, but I should not care 
 to now ; two or three times, when I have 
 seen girls doing it, it has struck me as 
 unfeminine. However, I ought not to say 
 that, for I have a most unfeminine taste 
 myself" 
 
 '' AYhat is that ?" 
 
 " I shall shock you dreadfully ; I have 
 hardly ever ventured to confess it before. 
 But I do dearly like being with the horses." 
 
 *' Eeally !" said Malcolm, laughing. Ac- 
 tually laughing ; he detected himself in the 
 fact, and made some feint of becoming re-
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 119 
 
 served and distant again ; but tlie infection 
 of the frank face before him was too 
 strong for this. Such a contrast, too, as 
 its dehcate lines offered to the predilection 
 Evelyn had just avowed ! 
 
 '' I seldom get the chance," she con- 
 tinued ; "it is only when the men are out 
 of the stables that I can venture there, and 
 then I am in fear of detection all the time. 
 But I enjoy it beyond everything; I 
 suppose it is the family taste re-appearing 
 in me. I think horses are such grand 
 creatures !" 
 
 " Exactly what I feel," said Malcolm. 
 
 " I am glad I have not frightened you. 
 Of course I do not understand their points, 
 as gentlemen do ; only I like watching 
 them, and making friends with them : I 
 am sure they respond to it." 
 
 " All animals do," said Malcolm. 
 
 " Yes," Evelyn continued : " even that 
 fierce hunter of grandpapa's is quite gentle
 
 120 OVERma ICHJlii;. 
 
 with me ; lie eats bread out of my hand, 
 and lets me stroke him by the half-hour 
 together. And yet with grandpapa, the 
 day he bought him, he galloped round 
 and round a field for fifty minutes without 
 stopping, and then, when he was turned 
 into the road again, ran away the whole 
 twelve miles home." 
 
 *' I seldom get even a canter," said 
 Malcolm, sadly. '' But I love horses as 
 you do." 
 
 " And write poetry about them ?" 
 
 " Oh ! did you hear me repeating those 
 lines to Clarges the other day? They 
 were a very humble effusion ; mere bur- 
 lesque in fact. Merriman had told Clarges 
 of them." 
 
 " AYho is Merriman ?" 
 
 '' An old schoolfellow of mine," said 
 Malcolm ; "he is up at Cambridge, at 
 least he was last term ; but I don't suppose 
 I shall ever see him again. He has turned 
 Cheimono-baptist."
 
 OVERMATCHED. 121 
 
 " I never heard of that sect." 
 
 " It is not a sect," said Malcolm, '' only 
 a sort of club ; they bathe all through the 
 winter, which the word means." 
 
 " But the verses were not about that ?" 
 
 " No, they were about a young lady to 
 whom he is engaged. I had been laughing 
 at him, and saying that he cared much less 
 for her than for a bay pony he has ; and 
 then I sent him the lines." 
 
 ''The lady was Wilhelmine, was she 
 not?" asked Evelyn. "I only caught a 
 word here and there." 
 
 " Oh ! no, that is the pony's name ; her's 
 is Jessie. I will say the Hues to you if I 
 may ; there are only three stanzas Merri- 
 man lives in Wales, I should premise." 
 
 So Malcolm recited accordingly : 
 
 " When the pearly dew's bathing the sweet meadow 
 grasses, 
 And dim through the mists the blue mountains 
 are seen ; 
 I think on my Jessie, the sweetest of lasses, 
 And saddle my pony, my bay AVilhelmine.
 
 122 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 ** Returning at eve, when the sun's setting glories 
 Beam far o'er the mountains, an ocean of gold, 
 With a red-purple cloud-isle, fit dwelling for Houris, 
 As Mahomet taught his bold Moslems of old ; 
 
 " Yain, Jessie, I think, were such beautiful Eden, 
 With no laughing eyes to illumine the scene ; 
 And joyless, oh ! joyless, both prospect and maiden. 
 Did a Cambridge hack bear me, not bay Wilhel- 
 mine. 
 
 " They are mucli too pretty for bur- 
 lesque," said Evelyn. 
 
 " Do you really tliink so ?" asked Mal- 
 colm, mucli gratified ; for Ms pieces seldom 
 found an appreciative listener. " I was 
 trying to make out a tune for them before 
 lunch, but I could not get it right : I only 
 just know the notes." 
 
 " Shall I try ?" 
 
 *' Would you really ?" said Malcolm : '* I 
 should be so awfully obliged. But it will 
 bore you, will it not ?" 
 
 "Oh! no." 
 
 So Nina's piano-candles were lighted, 
 and Evelyn betook herself to her task,
 
 OVERMATCHED. 1 23 
 
 Malcolm producing a sheet of music-paper, 
 on which he had blurred some hierogly- 
 phics that morning. The first two lines 
 were mastered without special difficulty ; 
 but the third was an enigma worthy of 
 CEdipus. Evelyn tried it over in various 
 shapes, half-a-dozen times or more, but 
 with the most unprosperous results. 
 
 " Might I just play it to you ?" said 
 Malcolm. '' I will pick it out in the bass." 
 
 So Evelyn's fair hands were lifted from 
 the instrument; and Malcolm, forgetting 
 for the moment all prejudices and prepos- 
 sessions, knelt down beside her, and, after 
 various false starts, succeeded in realizing 
 his conceptions. Then the fourth line was 
 adjusted, and Evelyn had to sing over the 
 whole to an extemporised accompaniment, 
 Malcolm standing behind her and supply- 
 ing the words as required. But she seemed 
 to need little prompting. 
 
 "The last two lines are rather ungal-
 
 124 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 lant," she said, when the performance had 
 undergone a second rehearsaL 
 
 "Oh! bnt please remember they were 
 only chaff; in fact, I think of altering 
 them. I have never been in love, but I do 
 believe in it with all my heart and soul. I 
 mean, I think it is the grandest thing in 
 the world ; there would be no history, no 
 poetry without it ; no anything worth 
 hving for. Perhaps, as we were reading in 
 that Plato-lecture the other day, one ought 
 not to have jested on the subject ; it is too 
 sacred. However, Merriman did not seem 
 to mind much." 
 
 ^* Have you been introduced to the young 
 lady?" 
 
 '*No," said Malcolm. "But he has 
 told me all about her : she has hazel eyes, 
 and is a brunette, and sings a splendid 
 contralto ; oh ! and I forgot her ears ; they 
 are the smallest and prettiest in the world. 
 How curious that is !"
 
 OVERMATCHED. 125 
 
 '' AYhat ? That she should have small 
 ears ?" 
 
 " No, but that a man who is in love 
 should be able to talk about them ; people 
 are so different. I beheve that was what 
 made me compare her with the pony, 
 Merriman telling me all her ' points/ as 
 you said just now. If I loved, I don't 
 think I should know whether a girl had 
 blue eyes or brown ones." 
 
 *' Perhaps you are colour-blind," said 
 Evelyn. " Some people, you know, cannot 
 distinguish colours the least ; they will call 
 a red thing green, and so on." 
 
 " Ah ! you are laughing at me. But I 
 really meant that." 
 
 " Meant that you would not know what 
 colour a young lady's eyes were ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 '' But you would look at them some- 
 times ?" 
 
 '* I dare say I should do that," said
 
 126 OVEKMATCHED. 
 
 Malcolm, whose own look was at the mo- 
 ment intently fixed upon his companion's 
 bright orbs, although with absolute un- 
 consciousness of the fact. *'But I should 
 not see the eye itself; only the truth and 
 beauty in it." 
 
 *' There might be neither." 
 
 " There must be by the hypothesis," said 
 Malcolm. " I beg your pardon for talking 
 Euclid ; I meant, that I should never be in 
 love with a mere face. Loving is wor- 
 shipping, you know ; the Prayer-book says 
 so ; and one couldn't worship a face ; it 
 would be idolatrous." 
 
 " You seem to have given the subject 
 some consideration," Evelyn observed, in a 
 tone in which possibly some shade of pique 
 mingled. 
 
 " No, indeed not, in any practical sense, 
 nor am I likely to do so ; I have no money 
 myself, and I shall certainly not turn 
 fortune-hunter. That is just the one thing
 
 OVERMATCHED. 127 
 
 in the world that I detest; with all my 
 heart and soul." 
 
 " What a favourite phrase that is of his," 
 thought Evelyn : — reflection No. 3 ; — " and 
 how strongly, almost fiercely, he feels some 
 things ! It is curious, with such a sweet 
 temper as I am sure he has. I suppose it 
 all comes from that old trouble. How I 
 wish, wish, wish . . ." 
 
 Evelyn had not time to develop what 
 she wished then, for some reply was neces- 
 sary. She diverted the conversation how- 
 ever from its recent subject ; a feeling for 
 which she would have found it difficult to 
 find a name, compelled her to do so. 
 
 Then they talked on, easily and con- 
 fidentially, as if they had known each 
 other for years. Outside topics merely. 
 Malcolm's profession, which it appeared 
 was still a moot point, although with 
 leanings to the bar. The Cambridge 
 terms he would have to keep. The
 
 128 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Alsagers ; Nina especially. Painting; 
 music ; books. All exoteric in themselves, 
 but liere and there " shot" with some vein 
 of colouring from the inner life of both 
 speakers ; something which gave each 
 personal interest in the other. Evelyn 
 carefully avoided all reference to family 
 matters ; and the talk rippled on so 
 pleasantly that Malcolm had not time even 
 to ask for a '*real" song, as he had in- 
 tended to do. Just as he was framing the 
 request, wheels were heard outside, and 
 Evelyn looked up at the clock in amaze- 
 ment. 
 
 '' Actually past six !" she exclaimed, 
 *' That must be aunt and Clarges." 
 
 It was not Mrs. Alsager but her 
 husband ; whom, however, she soon fol- 
 lowed ; then came dinner and the evenino^ 
 as usual. The only unwonted circum- 
 stance was that Malcolm, for the first time, 
 observed how Charles and Clarges, the
 
 OVERMATCHED. 129 
 
 only two Alsagers now at home, mono- 
 polized tlieir cousin ! Perhaps lie had 
 more leisure for observation than usual. 
 Mrs. Alsager was somnolent after her 
 drive, while Nina had again fled upstairs 
 for millinery. At all events, the fact did 
 force itself upon him, and with a wholly 
 new sensation. He felt quite indignant. 
 
 Should he join the trio ? No, he did 
 not care to do that. He did, in fact, 
 nothing; sate by himself, turning over 
 photographs, and pasturing keen resent- 
 ment aginst somebody, he was not quite 
 sure whom. Then, at bed-time, Evelyn's 
 cordial "good night" restored him; and 
 he lay awake for an hour or two, recalling 
 the incidents of the afternoon. 
 
 Not of any set purpose, this ; the re- 
 collections forced themselves upon 'him. 
 Singular enough, when he came to think 
 of it, how the afternoon had been spent ; 
 how intimately, during its course, his own 
 
 9
 
 130 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 entity had been identifying itself with that 
 of the last person he would have selected 
 to share it. However, there was the fact. 
 And eventually Malcolm left off trying to 
 account for it, and went to sleep in its 
 simple acceptance. 
 
 Little did he foresee in what divergence 
 of the two natures thus brought together, 
 the next evening's occurrences were to 
 issue !
 
 OVERMATCHED. 131 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The county ball at Chelmsford was highly 
 "select;" the ball of the year, par ex- 
 cellence, and only accessible to families of 
 some pretension. Malcolm had gathered 
 this, with small satisfaction, dm'ing the 
 preceding week ; and he realised it still 
 more in the room itself. 
 
 Well filled, and pleasant looking enough ; 
 — in itself; but its social aspect just that 
 in which Malcolm personally had no share. 
 As of right it was his, no doubt ; but as 
 of fact, with the Gower-street house and the 
 drawing lessons, he had no locus standi 
 there. Palpably, but for his having ac- 
 companied the Alsagers, he would not
 
 3 32 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 have been allowed in the room at all 1 
 Being there, he resolved to enjoy himself; 
 but the matter rankled, all the same. 
 
 We are by no means upholding Malcolm 
 Rayner in this ; quite the contrary ; this 
 antagonism to slight, real or anticipated, 
 was his weak point. It is a mistake to 
 depict character as if its essential traits 
 were the only ones; very often they are 
 not even the most prominent. Malcolm's 
 was an affectionate, kindly nature; but 
 this drop from the bitter well had been 
 infused into it, and, to a superficial 
 observer, might at times have seemed to 
 compose the whole. This evening, chance 
 willed that it should come into full play. 
 
 '' I shall permit nothing of the kind, 
 my dear," said Nina Alsager to Evelyn, 
 who had just received her card, and was 
 proceeding to fill it up with engagements
 
 OVERMATCHED. 133 
 
 for " round" and " square" dances, as fast 
 as Charles and Clarges could alternate 
 them. " Mamma has put you into my 
 charge this evening, and I intend you to 
 behave accordingly. As to your being 
 monopolized by these boys, it is out of the 
 question." 
 
 " But I would much sooner dance with 
 my cousins than any one else," said 
 Evelyn ; although secretly rejoicing that 
 Nina's interference would leave room for 
 that other, and nearer, cousin, should he 
 think fit to offer himself. At present, 
 Malcolm had got separated from their 
 party, and was in the act of being cap- 
 tured by one of the stewards. And the 
 captor's eye, and hand, had an ominous 
 direction towards the Misses GoHghtly, 
 who had been the scourge of the ball for 
 fifteen years past. 
 
 "One round dance with each," said 
 Nina, replying to Evelyn's plea for her
 
 134 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 cousins ; " but that is peremptorily all. I 
 had a suspicion you would be the belle 
 here to-night, and so you are; that is 
 obvious to the meanest capacity. So please 
 be select in your choice of partners/' 
 
 Nina was quite right : a face and manner 
 at once so distingue and so " fresh" as 
 Evelyn's attracted all eyes. 
 
 " Introduce me there, please/* said 
 Algernon Strachan to the steward who 
 had taken Malcolm in charge, and who 
 now, having consigned him to one of the 
 sisters, was returning to his post with the 
 self-approbation of a good conscience. 
 
 " Introduce you where ?" said the person 
 addressed: "to the Golightlys ? Surely 
 you know them ?" 
 
 " A man must have greatly misused his 
 gifts not to do so," said Strachan. " No, 
 I mean that girl talking to Miss Alsager." 
 
 So the introduction came off. If Evelyn 
 was the belle of the ball, Algernon Strachan
 
 OVERMATCHED. 135 
 
 was its speciality in the opposite sex ; heir 
 to the richest baronetcy in the county, 
 fifth wrangler in his year, and stroke of 
 the Cambridge boat. More than one fair 
 cheek would receive an added tinge should 
 Algernon manifest any interest in it ! All 
 which information Mna duly imparted in 
 a whisper, as he came up to their party. 
 
 Algernon Strachan secured Evelyn for 
 a quadrille, which was just coming off. 
 Then Charles and Clarges had their waltz 
 apiece. Then Evelyn was claimed by her 
 new acquaintance for a mazurka; and, 
 when it was over, was glad to sit out the 
 next dance, Algernon standing by her, 
 conversing. She liked him, and they 
 found topics in abundance. 
 
 One in particular, in which Evelyn 
 discovered that she had developed a special 
 interest since yesterday; that of Cam- 
 bridge and Cambridge hfe. Her present 
 companion's point of view was of course
 
 136 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 very different from Malcolm's ; but the 
 two pieced together well enough, Mal- 
 colm's forming the text, and Algernon's 
 supplying a commentary, or exegesis, 
 which completed it in various points left 
 imperfect the afternoon before. 
 
 Thus it happened, that, amongst other 
 colleges, they came to speak of '' Gervoise's." 
 Evelyn had a great desire to know more 
 about it, and, chance favouring her, con- 
 trived to introduce the name. 
 
 " Grervoise's ? * Jarvie's,' we call it," 
 said her companion with a half- smile, plea- 
 sant enough, but unquestionably signifi- 
 cant. 
 
 " It is not much thought of, then ?" 
 
 " Well no," said Algernon ; ''a caddish 
 sort of place; quite fourth-rate. But 
 perhaps," he added, apologetically, ''you 
 know some one there ?" 
 
 " Oh ! no," was Evelyn's hasty answer; 
 '' no one of the slightest consequence, that
 
 OVERMATCHED. 137 
 
 is." And something very like a blusli 
 shewed itself in the speaker's face. 
 
 The truth was, that during the last 
 twenty-four hours, Evelyn's mind had been 
 much exercised in regard to her cousin 
 Malcolm. Was she not caring a good deal 
 for him ; at all events, thinking a good 
 deal about him ? The question was not 
 put so categorically as this ; maidenhood 
 would have taken umbrage ; it did remon- 
 strate, as it was. " Quite clear that he cared 
 nothing for herself: — was it not unseemly 
 even to admit the possibility on her part ?" 
 But this could not be helped ; the question 
 tvould present itself. And, worse still, in 
 the depths of Evelyn's own consciousness 
 there was something in league with the 
 intruder; a Tarpeia in the citadel. Idle 
 to assure herself, as she did a hundred 
 times in the twenty-four hours, that it was 
 *' all nonsense." The traitress within un- 
 barred the gates, and the mailed foe
 
 138 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 marched to its conquest. Witli the words 
 of denial trembhng on her lips, Evelyn was 
 compelled to own to herself that she " did 
 care;" and that she had no intention of 
 doing otherwise ! 
 
 Hence, on the present occasion, the 
 hurried answer and the blush. The con- 
 fession to herself of the heart's secret ; 
 and the equally instinctive dread lest word 
 or act should reveal it elsewhere ! 
 
 All which might .have been very well, 
 but for one unfortunate circumstance. 
 Unperceived by either of the two speakers, 
 at all events by Evelyn, Malcolm Rayner 
 was all the time within ear- shot of them ! 
 
 Sarah Golightly had fastened upon him 
 like an octopus. A waltz. A quadrille. 
 Then refreshments. Then a third dance, 
 with others looming in the distance. Mal- 
 colm writhed in her custody, helpless 
 and hopeless. His name seemed to write 
 itself on her card, his movements to obey
 
 OVERMATCHED. 139 
 
 hers, without choice or voHtion of his 
 own ! 
 
 At length, fortune seemed propitious ; a 
 vacant chair offered, and Miss Golightly 
 was induced to deposit herself upon it. 
 He would be quit of this dreadful female 
 now. 
 
 But no ; the octopus was on the alert. 
 It wore, on some section of itself, a plaid 
 scarf or some such garment. This dropped 
 to the ground ; and when Malcolm politely 
 restored it, he found himself, without the 
 least knowing how, deep in the Mac- 
 gild ownie branch of the Mac duffers. The 
 tartan, it appeared, belonged to them ; 
 they were near connections of the Go- 
 lightlys ; the sisters all doted on their 
 " clan," and never thought of dressing 
 without its colours ; — did not Malcolm 
 think them beautiful ? 
 
 Malcolm, groaning inwardly, was about 
 to express such admiration as he could of
 
 140 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 a dingy yellow bisected by scarlet, when a 
 familiar voice struck his ear. Evelyn was 
 close beside him ; and the concluding sen- 
 tences of her conversation with Algernon 
 Strachan reached him verbatim ! 
 
 Ejaculating something, he hardly knew 
 what, to Miss Grolightly, Malcolm escaped 
 to the further end of the room. His blood 
 boiled. He had been chafed by his reflec- 
 tions on entering the room ; chafed by his 
 partner; and now, this came to complete 
 matters ! The insult to his college ; 
 Evelyn's contemptuous mention of himself. 
 Her fear of being supposed even to know 
 any one at " Jar vie' s," at all intimately ! 
 Idiot that he had been ! 
 
 Yes, twice-told idiot. For, during the 
 last twenty-four hours, some germs of 
 consciousness, born from the preceding 
 afternoon, had developed themselves in 
 Malcolm's mind also. Had any afternoon 
 ever passed with him so enjoyably before ?
 
 OVERMATCHED. 141 
 
 Of course he was not in love with Evelyn 
 Eayner, and did not intend to be ; in their 
 relative positions there would be degrada- 
 tion in the mere thought. But, had things 
 been otherwise, it might have been . . . 
 well, very pleasant. And pleasant he had 
 resolved it should be, for these few further 
 days they would be together. Pleasant 
 this evening. He would see her off and 
 on ; claim at least one dance from her ; he 
 had been on the point of doing so when 
 Miss Golightly's scarf dropped ! But 
 no\/ ! — Detestable girl ! 
 
 "Yes, detestable !" Malcolm repeated to 
 himself. *'I see the whole now. Yester- 
 day afternoon, I was well enough ; there 
 was no one else to amuse herself with, and 
 she put up with me; condescended! Quite 
 a different thing here, with her own set 
 round her." 
 
 On such slight matters hinges human 
 destiny ! But for the Macgildownie scarf,
 
 142 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Malcolm would not have overheard what 
 he did. And, but for his over-hearing — 
 supplemented, as it was, by a further inci- 
 dent, presently to be narrated but equally 
 trivial in itself, — well, this history need 
 not have been written. 
 
 Over and over again, in the corner to 
 which he had retreated, Malcolm recalled 
 the words of which he had been the invo- 
 luntary auditor; all the more cutting on 
 that account. He was roused from this 
 occupation by a voice at his elbow. 
 
 *' You seem to find the room hot ?" said 
 the speaker. 
 
 Malcolm turned upon him — it was a 
 male voice — almost savagely. The tones 
 betrayed some amusement, and, in Mal- 
 colm's present mood they sounded like an 
 echo of the disparaging phrases on which 
 he was brooding. 
 
 "No, not particularly," he replied, 
 brusquely enough.
 
 OVEK^^rATCHED. 143 
 
 *' You would not contravene any article 
 in the Decalogue, if you did," said his new 
 companion, Malcolm's senior by a few 
 years ; "I am suffocated. However, pray 
 let me withdraw the imputation as it dis- 
 pleases you." 
 
 Malcolm laughed. "All right," he said; 
 " I was out of temper about something." 
 
 " Your late partner, perhaps ? Sarah 
 Golightly is certainly trying. I have been 
 admiring your devotion to her." 
 
 '' I could not get away," said Malcolm. 
 " By the way, who is that man standing 
 dos-a-dos to her ?" 
 
 " Tall, and reasonably good looking?" 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so," said Malcolm ; '' he 
 danced the mazurka, and he is talking to 
 his partner now. A young lady with a 
 single rose in her hair." 
 
 " That is young Strachan," said his 
 companion ; " our leading family here. 
 I live at Chelmsford," he added in expla-
 
 144 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 nation; "as far, that is, as a barrister 
 now-a-days can be said to live at all." 
 
 *' You are at tlie bar, then ?" 
 
 "I have that honour," was the reply, 
 " and an extremely barren one it is. Mr. 
 Eldon Bligh attends chambers every day 
 with the utmost regularity ; and the laun- 
 dress comes there, and occasionally a dun 
 or two. But nobody else ever comes. The 
 irony of my Christian name is tantalizing." 
 
 '' I am thinking of the bar," said Mal- 
 colm. 
 
 " You cannot do better. Think of it as 
 often as you feel disposed. But don't go 
 to it." 
 
 " I know it is uphill work/' said Mal- 
 colm ; ** but some barristers get on. And 
 it is a grand profession." 
 
 "A costermonger's is a long way 
 grander," said Eldon : "it does benefit 
 his species; but I cannot see that ours 
 does ; we only exist to make money, and
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 145 
 
 we extract as mucli of it as we can out of 
 the most sordid of liiiman qualities. That 
 is what makes bar reputations so ephe- 
 meral. Who knows anything about Follett 
 now?" 
 
 " But your work is not confined to pro- 
 perty ?" 
 
 " No, there is the Old Bailey, certainly. 
 However, you are right ; crime is grand. 
 Griven the suspicion of foul play, and some 
 old woman's stomach who never had enough 
 to fill it since she was born, becomes the 
 table-talk of half England. A three volume 
 novel is nothing to it." 
 
 '*I don't care much for novels," said 
 Malcolm. 
 
 *' Don't you ? Well, I do ; I am pro- 
 foundly grateful to them if they are worth 
 reading." 
 
 " If ! that is the whole point. What 
 does make a novel worth reading ?" 
 
 ** Rather a hard question, I admit," said 
 
 10
 
 146 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 Eldon. " What makes it ' succeed' now-a- 
 days is more readily told ; there must be 
 a breach of the seyenth commandment 
 in it/' 
 
 '' That seems easy enough," said Mal- 
 colm. 
 
 '' I don't know, not always. The two 
 last I read rather bungled the matter, and 
 failed accordingly ; the public had not got 
 what it wanted." 
 
 " What were their names ?" 
 
 '^ I have utterly forgotten; one, I recol- 
 lect, had four people who were mutually 
 desirous of committing — co-respondency, 
 shall we call it ? The circumstances how- 
 ever were not propitious, and it evaporated 
 in merely pious sentiments." 
 
 '' And the other ?" 
 
 " The other," said Eldon, " did not fail 
 on this account. There was an undoubted 
 co-respondency; an exquisite young crea- 
 ture, married about a twelvemonth, ran off
 
 OVERMATCHED. 147 
 
 with a man with false teeth. But then, 
 things were too strong for digestion. The 
 husband obtained a divorce, and the exqui- 
 site creature married the pseud-odont ; he 
 ill-treated her, and she, haying the entire 
 command of her own property, ran away 
 again, — alone, this time, — and cut him off 
 with a shilling ; whereupon, to retaliate, 
 he informed her that they had not been 
 really married, the legal forms being de- 
 fective." 
 
 " Dear me !'' exclaimed Malcolm, 
 '' That is not half of it," said his com- 
 panion. " Hearing this, the first husband 
 came over to America, where it had all 
 happened, and brought the faithless fair 
 home, renewing his vows of attachment in 
 the state-cabin. Then false teeth retracts, 
 and asserts that he really was married, and 
 is coming to claim his wife. He however 
 founders at sea ; and she contracts a pul- 
 monary complaint and deceases in the arms
 
 148 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 of her first husband, recommending him to 
 marry her cousin, with whom it transpires 
 he had really been in love throughout. So 
 it all comes right, and the survivors are 
 happy ever afterwards." 
 
 " What a remarkable story !" said Mal- 
 colm. *' But I wonder you care to read 
 such trash.'' 
 
 " There are exceptions ; and a clever 
 book does take one out of oneself. But 
 probably you have not found that a neces- 
 sary process yet." 
 
 '' I don't know that I have," said Mal- 
 colm. '' When I am tired I generally go 
 to sleep." 
 
 *' I used to once," said Eldon, " but it 
 seems harder now. Past things have a 
 trick of grafting themselves into the pre- 
 sent." A look of pain, or some other deep 
 feeling, much at variance with his habitual 
 cynicism, crossed the speaker's face, and 
 he changed the topic.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 149 
 
 *' No wonder we are hot," lie said ; 
 *'look at that prodigious fire at the end of 
 the room : and the evening has fallen quite 
 mild; spring-like. You can always tell 
 when a thaw has set in, by their lighting a 
 furnace for you. It is a barbarous thing, 
 this combustion of coal at all." 
 
 ** "What would you have then ?" 
 
 " Well, some less cumbrous agent. Elec- 
 tricity may help us some day ; we may 
 arrest its heat, as we have done its motive 
 power ; utilise it to cook and warm. A 
 mean task for it, but these Afrites must be 
 tamed ; put to toil like Samson in the mill. 
 Probably however you consider him an 
 entire myth ?" 
 
 "Oh! no." 
 
 " A young lady asked me the other 
 day," said Eldon, " whether I ' really be- 
 lieved all that about Adam and Eve ?' I 
 told her that, as far as Eve was concerned, 
 I certainly did ; it was the only way of
 
 150 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 accounting for such beautiful creatures as 
 women being so depraved." 
 
 ''Did she seem flattered ?" 
 
 " Well, we had not much conversation 
 afterwards/' said Eldon. 
 
 '' But," asked his companion, " do you 
 really think women so depraved ?" 
 
 '' Perhaps not as the rule ; I only said 
 that to annoy her. But they are very 
 weak." The look of pain again crossed 
 the speaker's face ; but he went on. " That 
 is what makes the advocacy of 'women's 
 rights' so unpractical ; let them be generals 
 and cabinet ministers to-morrow, and 
 within three months it would all come 
 round again; they would not have force 
 to hold their own. As an anatomical fact, 
 they have less brain than we have." 
 
 ''You judge them cynically," said Mal- 
 colm, who, however, in his present mood, 
 was little disposed to quarrel with the 
 sentiment.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 151 
 
 "Well, no. Tlieir destiny is settled 
 here, and no talking will alter it ; but 
 hereafter things may be reversed ; it may 
 turn out that man is the crude idea, and 
 woman the completed tjrpe, the final cause 
 of our having existed at all. But they are 
 feeble creatures, needing moral help from 
 us as they do physical. And maledictions 
 on him who withholds either." 
 
 The last words were uttered almost 
 fiercely, and Malcolm looked at the speaker 
 with some surprise ; but he again changed 
 the subject. 
 
 *'Are you staying with the Alsagers ?" 
 he asked. " I saw you came with their 
 party." 
 
 ''Yes. Do you know them ?" 
 
 " Only slightly ; they live too far ofi*; 
 but I like them all. By the way, who is 
 that young lady you spoke of just now, the 
 one with the rose in her hair ? She came 
 with the Alsao^ers also."
 
 152 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 "'Evelyn': that is, 'Miss Rayner/ " 
 said Malcolm; uttering the name in a 
 defiant tone. The sting of Evelyn's con- 
 tempt was passing away, and this mood 
 taking its place ; he would not be "tram- 
 pled upon." He would thoroughly cool 
 down, and then do what he had previously 
 intended; ask her to dance. But not as 
 a condescension to him ; not with the 
 smallest concern whether she did so or 
 not; simply as an act of politeness. He 
 would take care that she understood that. 
 
 Meanwhile, Bligh had rephed to his last 
 sentence. 
 
 " Eayner !" he said. " That is your own 
 name ; I heard the steward introduce you 
 just now. Not your sister, of course ?" 
 
 " First cousin," said Malcolm, doggedly. 
 
 " She is not bad-looking either," said 
 Bligh ; " and how exquisitely she dances. 
 Perhaps she and Strachan will make a 
 match of it; they are still talking toge-
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 153 
 
 ther. No, now she lias joined your party 
 
 again." 
 
 Malcolm ground his teeth with an im- 
 patient Psha ! although he would have 
 been puzzled to assign any reason for the 
 demonstration. His companion observed 
 it, but made no remark ; and soon after- 
 wards they separated, Eldon Bligh crossing 
 over to a different part of the room; one 
 in which, whether of purpose or not, he 
 obtained a better view of the girl who was 
 '* not bad-looking" ! Malcolm, thus left to 
 himself, recommenced the cooling down 
 process. 
 
 It occupied some time ; long enough to 
 allow of two more waltzes, in both of 
 which Evelyn danced, although not with 
 Strachan. Then she again joined the 
 Alsagers, and Malcolm, at length, did the 
 same. He had chilled himself to ice, as 
 he imagined, and could meet this super- 
 cihor.s girl on her own platform ! But he 
 had to encounter Nina first.
 
 1 54 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 " Are we to congratulate you, Mr. 
 Rayner ?" slie asked. 
 
 " Congratulate ?" 
 
 "Yes. When a gentleman pays a lady 
 sucli marked attentions all the evening, 
 dances every dance with her, takes her 
 into supper, and finally disappears with 
 her, as far as can be ascertained, for a 
 couple of hours, it is to be supposed that 
 something Avill come of it. A nature like 
 Sarah Golightly's is not to be trifled 
 with." 
 
 " I am afraid I know nothing about Miss 
 Golightly's nature," said Malcolm, rather 
 curtly. He wished Nina would not talk 
 such nonsense. Every one seemed con- 
 spiring to mortify him. 
 
 " Oh ! Mr. Eayner, can she have refused 
 you ?" persisted Mna. *' That would quite 
 account for your looking so distraught, and 
 hiding away from us as you have done. 
 Poor Evelyn has been quite disconsolate."
 
 OVERMATCHED. 155 
 
 " I was about to ask Miss Rayner if she 
 would favour me for tlie n^xt waltz," said 
 Malcolm, with severity ; a good deal to the 
 surprise of both ladies. Evelyn however 
 was too vexed to think about it. Here 
 was the partner for whom she had been 
 wishing the whole evening ; and, now that 
 he had presented himself, it was too late ; 
 her card, as she knew, full for every 
 dance; twice over for some, contingently 
 on the first claimant not keeping faith. 
 How entirely perverse ! Why could he not 
 have spoken before ! 
 
 Malcolm must not see the vexation, 
 however. Had he been less in her 
 thoughts, Evelyn would have expressed 
 it frankly enough : as things were, she 
 repUed, in the most indifferent tone she 
 could command, 
 
 *' I . . . that is, I believe I am 
 engaged for everything, thank you.'* 
 
 Malcolm cast a suspicious glance at the
 
 156 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 speaker's card. He was compelled to 
 accept her statement, of course ; but he 
 shrewdly doubted it; young ladies, espe- 
 cially in distinguished circles, were quite 
 capable of that version of the ''Not at 
 home" formula; it would be their target 
 against plebeian intrusiveness ! Perhaps, 
 if very conscientious, she might have a 
 " standing partner" for the evening, some 
 one to fall back upon in the event of objec- 
 tionable offers ! That puppy Strachan, for 
 instance. Yes, and actually ! 
 
 Yes; actually. As the above surmise 
 flashed through his brain, the puppy did 
 step forward. 
 
 '' I believe," he said, turning to Malcolm, 
 that I can answer for Miss Rayner as re- 
 gards this waltz." 
 
 He spoke courteously enough, but, as it 
 seemed to the person addressed, with an 
 easy superiority which the courtesy only 
 made more galling. He offered his arm ;
 
 OVERMATCHED. 157 
 
 Evelyn accepted it ; in the next minute, 
 they had disappeared among the melee of 
 dancers, and Malcolm remained, utterly 
 confounded. 
 
 " How unlucky," was Evelyn's thought, 
 as she observed him from the distance. 
 " The next dance I tvill sit out and have 
 another talk with him, whatever happens. 
 I must explain to him that Mr. Strachan 
 asked me half-an-hour since." 
 
 Easy enough to propose this. But the 
 tide of circumstance at times runs too 
 strong for human purposes ! 
 
 Gentlemen were scarce that evening ; 
 and Malcolm, standing unemployed as he 
 was, caught the steward's eye the second 
 time. Before he could realise what was 
 happening, he found himself provided with 
 a new partner. 
 
 An agreeable one, this time ; nice-
 
 158 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 looking, lively, and a good waltzer, as 
 Malcolm himself was. There was some 
 consolation in this, and he was acquitting 
 himself satisfactorily to both parties, when 
 the final catastrophe of the evening 
 occmTed. 
 
 Seated against the wall was the usual 
 row of chaperons, and other non-dancers ; 
 amongst the latter, a certain Captain 
 Oliver, who, some sixty years before, had 
 lost his leg in a naval action. The wooden 
 limb with which he had replaced this was 
 an interesting study. It tuas wooden, not 
 of the more precious material for which 
 Miss Kilmanseg stipulated ; but it might 
 have saved money to have made it gold in 
 the first instance : with compound interest 
 on the pension annexed, it had cost the 
 country eight thousand pounds and up- 
 wards ! Then, again, it symbolized not 
 only wealth but learning. Under the 
 auspices of this member, which unscrewed
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 159 
 
 when required and was a terrible imple- 
 ment of offence, had grown up two genera- 
 tions of Ohver boys; and fine young 
 fellows they were. Lastly, the leg was an 
 annuity to more professions than one : 
 mantua-makers, dentists, doctors, even 
 attorneys, could speak of many a harvest 
 of profit garnered in from it. Never was 
 there a wooden leg more fruitful of disaster : 
 bound by no laws of time or place ; re- 
 specting neither age nor sex; protruding 
 itself irrepressibly, always exactly where 
 it was least expected and inflicted the 
 most mischief ! 
 
 And, on this occasion, Malcolm fell a 
 victim to it. 
 
 The waltzing swayed, as it often will do, 
 to one side ; the side where Captain Oliver 
 was seated. Two or three couples passed 
 unscathed, the sitters making room for 
 them. Then came Malcolm and his 
 partner. Their pace was rapid, dresses
 
 160 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 and feet were drawn in still closer to tlie 
 cliairs. It was an opportunity which the 
 leg could not let slip. 
 
 Quite suddenly, and without any previous 
 warning, it became rigidly horizontal; stood 
 out from the Captain's seat at right angles. 
 There was a stumble ; a crash. Malcolm, 
 who had tripped over the impediment, fell 
 heavily to the ground, having sustained no 
 damage himself, and, as he hoped, saved 
 his partner. 
 
 Saved her from falling, he had ; but it 
 might have been better otherwise ; she had 
 twisted an ankle, and had to be helped 
 from the room in great pain. Malcolm 
 sprung forward to assist, but was repulsed, 
 not by the girl herself but by those who 
 were supporting her, rudely enough. 
 Meanwhile the music stopped, amidst a 
 general buzz of question and answer. 
 
 Among the questioners was Algernon 
 Strachan. He and Evelyn were resting on
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 161 
 
 the opposite side of the room, and the 
 latter, from her position, saw what had 
 really happened : apparently she was the 
 only person who did. Strachan, who had 
 seen nothing, stepped forward with en- 
 quiries. '' Who was hurt ?" 
 
 " One of the Egertons," was the reply ; 
 *Hhe youngest." 
 
 " What, that pretty girl Lucy ? How 
 did it happen ?" 
 
 " Some one threw her down ; some 
 awkward lout of a fellow. I don't know 
 his name." 
 
 " He is standing two from us now/' said 
 another voice ; in a demi- whisper, but quite 
 audible to Malcolm, as the previous speech 
 had been. " The party with his hair 
 growing down on the forehead." 
 
 Algernon glanced in the direction indi- 
 cated, shrugged his shoulders slightly, and 
 returned to Evelyn, Malcolm's eyes fol- 
 lowing him. 
 
 11
 
 162 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 What he saw was not of a nature to 
 restore his equanimity. Strachan spoke a 
 few words ; evidently repeating what he 
 had just heard. Evelyn rephed with 
 equally evident emotion; concern, doubt- 
 less, for the sufferer. Then they both 
 looked, as Malcolm thought, directly at 
 himself, and a smile broke over Evelyn's 
 face. Nothing which was pleasant to see, 
 but the reverse; stamping on it that old 
 look of scorn, hauteur, whatever it might 
 be called, which under the circumstances 
 was intolerable. 
 
 Malcolm strode from the room, burning 
 with indignation, and very far indeed from 
 divining what had really passed. Evelyn, 
 vexed almost to tears, first by the accident 
 and then by Algernon Strachan's version 
 of it, had commenced an eager defence of 
 Malcolm. 
 
 '' It was not his fault," she said, *' not in 
 the very least ; he was tripped up."
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 163 
 
 " Tripped up ?" 
 
 ''Yes, by an old man witli a wooden 
 leg ; I don't know his name, but lie is 
 sitting in a line behind Mr. Eayner some- 
 where; there, I can see him now." And 
 Evelyn pointed out Captain Oliver accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 Her companion at once apologised. 
 " Pray forgive me," he said, '' at least if 
 Mr. Rayner, as you name him, is any con- 
 nection of yours. I had no suspicion of 
 it. 
 
 ''He is my cousin," said Evelyn; "he 
 came with us this evening. There, look ; 
 he is doing it again !" 
 
 As she spoke, the wooden leg once more 
 rose into position. Harmlessly enough this 
 time ; but with such a graphic illustration 
 of the mischief it had already done, that 
 Evelyn could not forbear smiling. 
 
 A poor little smile enough ; it had great 
 ado not to be a sob. And yet in that
 
 164 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 smile, recalling as it did the alien expres- 
 sion of some features long laid in the dust, 
 was built up between her and Malcolm a 
 great wall of separation ! 
 
 When Malcolm left the room, he had 
 visions of walking back to Chigwell, or 
 possibly to London, just as he was ; dress 
 boots and all. He fetched his hat from 
 the cloak-room, and was already in the 
 street, when he encountered Clarges 
 Alsager. 
 
 "I have just been for the carriages," 
 said the latter ; " the mater is tired. 
 Would you mind fetching her out? We 
 shall go back as we came," he added, " she 
 with you and Nina. Your carriage will be 
 up directly." 
 
 Impossible for Malcolm to refuse. In 
 fact, as he would thus escape being thrown 
 with Evelyn, it was the best arrangement ;
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 165 
 
 a twenty miles' walk home in a winter's 
 night would undoubtedly have excited 
 comment ! But his departure should take 
 place by day-break. 
 
 And so it did. 
 
 Little was said on the return home, 
 which they reached before the rest of the 
 party. Malcolm apologised for the dis- 
 credit he had brought on his hosts ; and 
 Nina, who was as ignorant as Malcolm 
 himself of the real cause of his misadven- 
 ture, administered consolation. "Acci- 
 dents must happen : her own dress was in 
 ribands." 
 
 But there was no real healing in this; 
 and even if there had been, Malcolm would 
 not have accepted it. He betook himself 
 at once to his room; was up betimes, — 
 the only person stirring in the house ; left 
 a few lines for Clarges, and apologies for 
 Mrs. Alsager; and, by nine o'clock, was en 
 route for London.
 
 166 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Then, witli departure, came reflection. 
 The house was visible for some distance 
 along the road; and, as Malcolm looked 
 back at it, he gained, for the first time, 
 some intuition of what his feeling to 
 Evelyn had really been ; — or rather, might 
 have become, had she been difierent herself ! 
 
 " I have had an escape," he thought. 
 " I was getting really to care for her. And 
 the utter fool I should have made of my- 
 self ; the laughing-stock of herself and her 
 friends for months to come ! However, 
 that is all quite over : last night would 
 have cured infatuation itself. I shall soon 
 have forgotten all about it." 
 
 And with this conviction, at which he 
 arrived just as the "Beeches" finally dis- 
 appeared from view, Malcolm fortified 
 himself accordingly.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 167 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 On the evening of the same day, Malcolm 
 and his father were seated together after 
 dinner. John Eayner had returned late 
 from his round of drawing-lessons, and was 
 too fagged for much during the meal. 
 Now, a glass of wine had restored him, 
 and he settled into his arm-chair with a 
 sense of relief. 
 
 The dining-room had little to boast of 
 either in size or equipments : Grower- street 
 was not a distinguished location. A lustre- 
 less table and sideboard, with some worn 
 leather chairs, composed the furniture ; the 
 carpet and red curtains were in keeping
 
 168 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 with it, frayed and faded; and the walls 
 were ornamented with a selection from the 
 father's unsold paintings. Still, under its 
 present aspect, the room was endurable. 
 The blaze lighted up these surroundings 
 cheerfriUy ; concealed their defects, and in- 
 vested them with an air of comfort which 
 daylight would have dispelled. And, at all 
 events, it was home. 
 
 Home, in one sense, but not in all ; the 
 main element, the wife and mother, was 
 wanting to the scene. Mrs. Rayner had 
 been absent for some months, and probably 
 would be until the spring ; exiled to Daw- 
 lish. Anxiety and the loss of children had 
 much broken her ; and coupled with these 
 was the feeling that, but for his union with 
 her, John Eayner's life would have been a 
 widely different one : for drudgery and dis- 
 appointment would have been substituted 
 the affluence of Stanton Court. John himself 
 never felt this, still less breathed a whisper
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 169 
 
 of reproach on any such score; but the 
 wife felt it for him, and it preyed upon 
 her : spirits and health gradually gave 
 way. And now, this winter, there was 
 undoubted mischief at the chest. Devon- 
 shire was prescribed, and the prescription 
 had been punctually obeyed ; contracting 
 still further John Rayner's slender income, 
 and inflicting upon him many a solitary 
 hour in addition. He was heartily glad of 
 Malcolm's return this evening. 
 
 " They treated you civilly there ?" he 
 asked; the question of course referring to 
 the Alsagers. 
 
 Malcolm eulogized his reception as it 
 merited ; then the Chigwell menage was 
 discussed, inside and out. Its inmates, 
 male and female ; their names, ages, looks, 
 characters, avocations ; the dogs, the 
 horses; everything and everybody Mal- 
 colm enlarged upon, naively and eagerly ; 
 his father occasionally interposing with a
 
 170 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 question, but for the most part well content 
 to listen. 
 
 Everthing and everybody, with one ex- 
 ception. Of Evelyn, Malcolm spoke not 
 one syllable. Why should he ? 
 
 No reason why he should, of Course. 
 John Eayner might have remained in pro- 
 found ignorance of all that concerned her, 
 had not an accidental question brought her 
 to the forefront. 
 
 "Do they keep much company?" he 
 asked ? 
 
 '* Only one formal dinner party while I 
 was there. But there is always some one 
 coming or going." 
 
 " Visitors staying in the house, I sup- 
 pose?" 
 
 "No one but myself, this Christmas," 
 said Malcolm ; " there is no room when
 
 OVERMATCHED. 171 
 
 they are all at home. Myself and their 
 cousin," he added. 
 
 " "What was his name, my boy ?" 
 
 "Not a he," said Malcolm with some 
 hesitation. "Miss Rayner; Evelyn Ray- 
 ner, that is. You know whom I mean, 
 papa." 
 
 Unquestionably John knew ; and greatly 
 discomposed he was by the idea which the 
 name suggested. He abandoned his arm 
 chair, and paced up and down the room for 
 some minutes, ejaculating to himself The 
 exclamation was the same which Malcolm 
 had uttered when first told of Evelyn's pre- 
 sence at the Beeches — " That girl there !" 
 
 John Rayner paused at last in fi^ont of 
 his son, and looked steadily at him. 
 
 "How long has she been there?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " The whole time," said Malcolm. 
 
 " And you have remained there? sleeping 
 under the same roof; eating and drinking
 
 1 72 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 at the same table with her ? You have 
 stooped low enough for that ?" 
 
 '* I could not exactly help myself," said 
 Malcolm. '' There were engagements made 
 for me before I came : then there was a 
 county ball at Chelmsford last night, 
 which the Alsagers insisted on my going 
 to. It would have been uncivil to have 
 left sooner." 
 
 Malcolm spoke with as much nonchalance 
 as he could assume ; but do what he could, 
 he could not prevent the colour mounting 
 in his face, and even by the imperfect light, 
 John Rayner saw it. 
 
 He resumed his seat, and some minutes 
 elapsed before he again spoke. 
 
 "Malcolm, my boy," he said at last. 
 The words were gently uttered, but in a 
 tone which showed profound agitation. 
 
 " Yes, papa ?" 
 
 *' I have not been a harsh father to you, 
 I think ?"
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 173 
 
 '' The kindest, dearest of fathers. Never 
 had a son more cause for gratitude." 
 
 '' I have done but my duty. But Mal- 
 colm, I shall have to put your affection to 
 the test now. It would be terrible to me 
 if you were thinking of Evelyn Rayner ; 
 thinking of her with any thought of love." 
 
 '' That I am certainly not doing," said 
 Malcolm. '' At least . . ." 
 
 He paused abruptly : there was some- 
 thing at his heart which compelled him to 
 retract the unqualified denial he had just 
 uttered. 
 
 " At least what ?" 
 
 The son was still silent. John Rayner 
 looked at him intently. 
 
 " It is as I feared then," he said, after a 
 further pause. " You do care for this girl." 
 
 " I think perhaps that I did ; or nearly 
 did," Malcolm answered at last, very 
 slowly. It was the first avowal in words 
 of the truth which had begun to dawn
 
 174 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 upon him during the last twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 " Has anything passed between you ?" 
 
 *' Certainly not, papa; it was just a 
 passing fancy. And an utterly absurd 
 one," he added with some bitterness. 
 " Nothing ever can, or could, possibly 
 come of it." 
 
 John Rayner rose from his seat once 
 more, in the deepest emotion. Advancing 
 to Malcolm, he took both hands of the 
 latter between his own, and pressed them 
 fervently. 
 
 " Malcolm, my boy," he said, " you 
 promise me that?" 
 
 " Promise, papa?" 
 
 " Yes ; promise me that, as you say, 
 nothing shall ever come of this passing 
 fancy. That never, under any circum- 
 stances, will you seek the hand of Evelyn 
 Eayner in marriage." 
 
 Malcolm again hesitated : there was a
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 175 
 
 conflict of thought within him for which 
 he was unprepared. As far as his judg- 
 ment, and, in fact, his present feehngs, or 
 one section of them went, he had no 
 scruple in giving the required assurance. 
 " Seek Evelyn in marriage?" Madness to 
 dream of such a thing ; yes, and humilia- 
 tion too : had he not undergone insult 
 enough ? 
 
 Yes; but this was the surface emotion 
 only ; beneath it was a tide setting the 
 other way altogether ! Do what he would, 
 Malcolm could not quite dam it back. 
 And he hesitated accordingly. 
 
 John Rayner saw the conflict, and con- 
 tinued with still greater earnestness. 
 
 " Malcolm," he said, " your mother and 
 yourself are all I have in the world; and 
 she cannot be with me much longer. I 
 must not deceive myself. Every day she 
 writes me that she will soon be strong 
 again ; and if a bright spirit and loving
 
 176 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 heart could make lier so, she soon would 
 be. But there is no real improvement 
 that I can make out ; coughing and 
 coughing, and wasting and wasting; just 
 the old story going on." 
 
 " You must not be despondent, papa," 
 said Malcolm. He spoke cheerfully, but 
 inwardly his apprehensions told the same 
 tale as John Rayner's. The latter shook 
 his head. 
 
 " We must look it in the face, Malcolm," 
 he said. " Only, if sorrow comes, let us 
 encounter it together." 
 
 " That I hope we always shall." 
 
 " So do I, Malcolm. But the union of 
 which I have spoken, even the bare sus- 
 picion of it, would finally separate us : I 
 could not hold up my head under it. You 
 say yourself that nothing can ever come of 
 the acquaintance you have formed with 
 Evelyn Rayner. Do you hesitate to give 
 me your assurance that it never shall ; to
 
 OVERMATCHED. 177 
 
 spare me added anxiety in the trouble 
 whicli is coming upon us ?" 
 
 Why should Malcolm not do so ? Again, 
 as he thus reflected, he decided that he 
 would ; and again some inexplicable feeling 
 restrained him. John Rayner still pressed 
 his request. 
 
 "Malcolm," he said, "I am surprised 
 that you should hesitate. Even were your 
 affections actually engaged to your cousin, 
 you must feel that there is an impassable 
 barrier between you : any alliance with her 
 would be intolerable. Could you bear it 
 yourself? Bear to sneak back, as it were, 
 into your rights ; make your marriage the 
 means of reinstating yourself in house and 
 lands ?" 
 
 " Certainly not, papa," Malcolm an- 
 swered, and this time, without a moment's 
 delay. His pride was roused by John 
 Rayner' s suggestion ; the balance of the 
 contending forces within was disturbed ; 
 
 12
 
 178 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 resentment, for the time being at all 
 events, drove its adversary from the field. 
 " Sneak back !" Yes ; and how much 
 worse should he try to do so, and fail, as 
 he undoubtedly would fail ; be repulsed as 
 the "fortune-hunter" he had himself de- 
 nounced ! Utterly hopeless, utterly absurd, 
 in any case, any suit of his to Evelyn 
 Rayner ; but, from this point of view, dis- 
 honourable also ! 
 
 " Most certainly not,'' he repeated in a 
 still firmer tone. 
 
 " You promise me then ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " You will never join Evelyn's hand 
 with yours in marriage; will accept from 
 her neither fortune nor favour of any 
 kind ?" 
 
 " I will not." 
 
 " You promise it, as we are son and 
 father ; as we are living man and man ; as
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 179 
 
 we stand together here before tlie All- 
 Seeing?" 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " Then God bless you, my boy. During 
 the few years my life has to run, nothing 
 can ever now separate us."
 
 180 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 Malcolm Rajner was not the only person 
 to wliom the Chelmsford ball had been 
 fruitful of after-reflection. His temporary 
 companion there, Eldon BHgh, also found 
 his thoughts travelling back to it, oftener 
 than he could have anticipated. 
 
 We have much to do with Eldon Bligh, 
 and the reader must be told something 
 about him before proceeding. 
 
 When Eldon spoke of himself as living 
 at Chelmsford, he meant that his family did 
 so, or rather, its sole surviving member in 
 the previous generation ; a certain Aunt 
 Margaret, his father's sister. The Blighs
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 181 
 
 had been Chelmsford people for a century 
 and more, owning lands there, and visiting 
 in county society at large. But, of late, 
 their fortunes had been in decadence. The 
 members of the house had died off, and its 
 property had dwindled at the same time ; 
 Aunt Margaret had a moderate income, 
 but it would expire with her ; the rest was 
 gone. As to Eldon, his means, exclusive 
 of bar-earnings, were most limited ; and 
 the bar-earnings did little at present to 
 cement the necessary alliance between soul 
 and body. His chambers were in the 
 Middle Temple, and there he mostly hved. 
 Chelmsford however was still ''home;" 
 Eldon' s own room was kept for him, and 
 this he occupied, a night or a score of 
 nights, as leisure and inclination served. 
 
 Meanwhile, the social status of the 
 family had not changed with its fortunes. 
 The tenacity which makes county society 
 exclusive ensures its constancy ; the entree
 
 182 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 is difficult, but, once admitted, you need 
 not fear proscription ; poor or ricli are not 
 its terms of membership. More tban one 
 coronet would be displayed before Miss 
 Bligli's porcli whicli tlie wealthiest par- 
 venus round could not entice within their 
 lodge-gates ! 
 
 Hence it was that Eldon Bligh had done 
 duty at the ball. He was no great dancer, 
 and grudged the night's sleep ; it meant loss 
 of the next day's work. But to Aunt Mar- 
 garet the ball was all-important ; to have 
 missed it, would have disturbed her sense 
 of personal identity. She had good quali- 
 ties of head as well as heart, but para- 
 mount above all was the necessity of up- 
 holding the Bligh position ; it was as the 
 breath of life in her nostrils. And the 
 county ball was the express voucher for 
 this ; a roll-call of the order, at which all 
 who belonged to it must pass muster. 
 
 Specially and exceptionally important,
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 183 
 
 too, had this last ball been. A family 
 disaster had occurred ; and it was impera- 
 tive to show that the status had not been 
 altered by it. 
 
 Some twelve months before, a sister of 
 Eldon's, his only next of kin except Aunt 
 Margaret, had made a ruinous marriage; 
 or, to speak more correctly, she had not 
 made a marriage at all. She had gone 
 through its forms ; eloping from the 
 Chelmsford house, where she still re- 
 sided, but believing unquestionably in the 
 validity of the rite. Nor was there any 
 ceremonial flaw as such : none in the 
 license, none in the priest's orders ; neither 
 response nor canticle left unsaid. But 
 there was sl fatal drawback for all that ; — 
 the bridegroom had a wife still living ! 
 
 The fact came to light a few weeks after 
 this mock wedding. Some little money 
 which Alice Bligh owned had been realized 
 by the man she eloped with. When this
 
 184 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 was spent, lie ill-treated her; took to 
 drinking ; and at length, stung by some 
 remonstrance of hers, told her what her 
 real position was. Something in his man- 
 ner satisfied Alice that he spoke truly. 
 She quitted the house immediately, and 
 fled to Eldon's chambers ; then, when the 
 facts were finally ascertained, drew the 
 wedding ring from her finger, and encoun- 
 tered hfe as she best might. 
 
 It was no very protracted struggle. 
 Aunt Margaret made the fugitive an allow- 
 ance, but declined to receive her back at 
 Chelmsford ; impossible that she should do 
 so. Her social atmosphere would have 
 become untenable ; tainted with mistrust, 
 or chilled with indifierence and neglect ! 
 
 So the matter was hushed up, and his 
 sister's charge devolved on Eldon. In the 
 old Chelmsford times there had been little 
 in common between the two. Alice's was 
 an every-day nature, not heartless or bad.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 185 
 
 but superficial ; Eldon's, one of deep, quick 
 feeling, concealed beneath a cynicism wMcli 
 had become habitual. His sister's frivolity 
 repelled him; every emotion with himself 
 was so ardent that he could not understand 
 shallowness in others. But now, this was 
 all changed. Eldon augmented Aunt Mar- 
 garet's allowance out of his own scant 
 earnings ; took a lodging for Alice in the 
 outskirts of London ; and spent most of 
 his evenings there with her, importing into 
 them such cheerfulness as he could. 
 
 But his companionship was not needed 
 long. Grief; disappointment ; remorse ; — 
 they are sore adversaries even for a robust 
 frame, and Ahce's was none such : she 
 sunk under their impact like a flower 
 stricken at the root. "Within six months 
 from her elopement earth's troubles were 
 over for her. Eldon was with her to the 
 last, tending her in her self-abasement and 
 suffering. Then he followed her remains
 
 186 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 to their interment in a South London 
 cemetery, and, in due time, placed over 
 them a simple cross, with the name and 
 date. 
 
 Of small value that record ! Within 
 another six months, Alice Bligh and her 
 story were as absolutely forgotten as if she 
 had deceased under the Heptarchy. But 
 on Eldon's own character the past had 
 stamped itself indelibly. Repeatedly, in 
 the later weeks of her illness, as he 
 watched the thin cheek and drooping 
 frame, he had asked himself. Whose doing 
 was this ? Had not this young life been 
 put in his charge ? " Man is strong, 
 woman weak." His was the arm on which 
 Alice might have leant for support ; had he 
 ever held it out to her ? What word of 
 counsel had he ever breathed ; what in- 
 terest had he evinced in her ? Sympathy 
 of Alice's he could recall, and did so with 
 exquisite pain ; — nothing very uniform or
 
 OVERMATCHED. 187 
 
 deep, but still, kindly sympatliy as far as 
 it went. But had there been any return 
 on his part ? And yet it was he who had 
 condemned ; he who had termed his sister 
 heartless and frivolous ! 
 
 It was thus that, even during her illness, 
 the wrung heart had travailed in its self- 
 accusation. And now, after death, all was 
 intensified. The tremendous realities of 
 life presented themselves as they had never 
 yet done; the unseen world asserted its 
 place. It was not against Alice only that 
 Eldon had erred ; his shortcomings, — and 
 hers, — would be judged at a higher tri- 
 bunal. There were times when he would 
 have surrendered every ambition in the 
 future to have recalled these last few 
 years. 
 
 But we are not meant to live in any 
 past : repentance is the utilization of the 
 present. From the furnace of self-reproach 
 Eldon emerged a new man ; profoundly
 
 188 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 humbled, but not made morbid ; altered in 
 interest and purpose, but in no way- 
 parading tlie change ; not even divesting 
 himself of the cynicism which was habitual 
 to him. The reader may think that it 
 would have been more consistent had he 
 done so. But perhaps the truest thing in 
 human nature is its inconsistency. 
 
 Amongst other practical results which 
 developed themselves in Eldon's new cha- 
 racter was his presence at this Chelmsford 
 ball. He went to it like the fillet- wreathed 
 ox to the shrine of sacrifice; escorting 
 Aunt Margaret, who was speedily absorbed 
 by her own '^ set," and anticipating the 
 dreariest of evenings. But virtue brings 
 its own reward. Never had time passed 
 more pleasantly ! For society indeed Eldon 
 had done little enough ; danced such duty 
 dances as fell to his lot, but done little else.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 189 
 
 But he had found occupation enough him- 
 self. Allowing for some intervals, during 
 which chance or good manners interfered, 
 it had consisted in — looking at Evelyn 
 Rayner ! 
 
 Merely as a connoisseur, of course. 
 Eldon would have scorned the idea of 
 anything beyond this : did he not know 
 the sex ? Frivolous ; weak ; vacillating ; 
 some surface-differences, but the identity 
 of type-idea running throughout. Still, as 
 a connoisseur, and from a surface point of 
 view only, Eldon was considerably im- 
 pressed by the face. " Not bad-looking," 
 he had said to Malcolm Rayner. But this 
 was conventionalism : speaking as he felt, he 
 would have said, ''beautiful." And beauty 
 really of a high order ; soul and intellect, 
 so far as women could possess either, 
 setting their stamp upon it; the loveable, or 
 what to a more susceptible gazer might be- 
 come such, mirrored in the eye-entrancing !
 
 190 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Such speculation, however, interesting 
 as it may be, is dangerous when appHed 
 to actual flesh and blood. Canvas and 
 marble may be criticized innocently 
 enough; a Pygmalion occurs but once 
 in history; but the changing tints, the 
 pulsation and breath of life, are different 
 matters. And when Eldon Bligh at length 
 got to bed that night, he experienced a 
 result from his evening's occupation which 
 rather disquieted him. Malcolm's answer 
 to his inquiry had supplied Evelyn's 
 christian name as well as surname; and 
 now, all night long, they both haunted 
 him ; he fell sound asleep, but they wove 
 themselves into his dreams. Just at 
 present, by way of variety, there loas 
 some work in chambers; a Welsh pedi- 
 gree-case, in which the '' Owen Morgan," 
 and " Hugh Jones" of each generation 
 became the '' Morgan Owen" and " John 
 Hughes" of the next, and vice versa. But
 
 OVERMATCHED. 191 
 
 in Eldon's dreams tlie entanglement grew 
 far worse ; male or female, parent or child, 
 everybody was called Evelyn ! In fact, 
 things hardly righted themselves in 
 chambers next day. There was no 
 *' Rayner" on the brief- sheets ; that was 
 quite certain. But between the retina and 
 the brain somewhere, the Owens and 
 Morgans all got turned into it. Alto- 
 gether, it was the best part of a week 
 before Eldon could finally shake off the 
 incubus, and say to himself, that, for a 
 mere face. Miss Eayner's had "impressed 
 him very favourably." 
 
 Such were the results which the Chelms- 
 ford ball, or rather Evelyn's presence there, 
 had produced on two of the iDcrsons with 
 whom our story is concerned. How has 
 it fared with herself since that evening ? 
 
 The feelings with which Evelyn entered
 
 192 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 the ball-room, only half avowed to her own 
 heart, had become a distinct, objective 
 fact before she quitted it ; Malcolm's 
 disaster, and its consequences, lifted from 
 the frank nature whatever veil of self- 
 disguise still lay upon it. Even in the 
 room the tears had nearly risen to her 
 eyes. Before sleep visited her pillow that 
 night, or rather, in the January dawn on 
 which it had encroached, they had fallen 
 fast. However, the sleep came at last, 
 and happily enough : it would be all right 
 next day. 
 
 But, next day, things were ten times 
 worse. Malcolm, — '* he," as the name 
 shaped itself in Evelyn's maiden con- 
 sciousness, — had retired from the scene 
 altogether. No opportunity of meeting ; 
 no farewell ; nothing ! 
 
 Evelyn was bitterly disappointed ; all 
 brightness had died out of the house ; she 
 felt wretched. The day was dismal, snow
 
 OVERMATCHED. 193 
 
 turning to sleet, sleet reverting to snow, 
 and rain coming on tlie back of botli. 
 Everybody was tired ; and tbe few wbo 
 were not out of temper seemed to make 
 matters worse for the majority wbo were. 
 
 Eventually, Evelyn slipped away to lier 
 own room. She tried not to think of 
 Malcolm ; but the attempt was hopeless, 
 and she gave it up ere long ; thought 
 roamed where it would. Unkind, that he 
 should have gone away thus, making no 
 sign ; saying no parting word, leaving no 
 message even. But then, why expect him 
 to do either ? What was she to him in 
 any case ? Their lots were cast hopelessly 
 apart; he would return to his college, 
 forget that they had even met ; were they 
 ever thrown together again, would probably 
 fail to recognise her ! 
 
 Singular, too, that he should have left so 
 
 abruptly : why was it ? Nobody seemed 
 
 to know. Could he have overheard what 
 
 13
 
 194 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 was said; the words which Strachan had 
 repeated to her ; — she almost hated him for 
 doing so ; — so unjust, so untrue ? Yes, 
 they might have reached Malcolm's ear; 
 and with his intense sensitiveness too ! 
 That he loas sensitive Evelyn was quite 
 sure ; every look, every gesture shewed it ; 
 every syllable he had uttered in their long 
 talk together ! 
 
 How unspeakably pleasant that talk had 
 been to her, how full of interest ; full of 
 himself, his tastes, pursuits, predilections ! 
 And now, everything was over. Only forty- 
 eight hours since then, and already this 
 great gulf of division between them ! Had 
 she only something, the merest trifle, to 
 recall him by; something external, tan- 
 gible; some representative-shape of the 
 actual self! 
 
 Hold, though; was there not something? 
 What a fortunate thought ! That scrap of 
 music, the paper on which he had jotted
 
 OVERMATCHED. 195 
 
 down his '' Wilhelmine ;" had betaken it 
 away ? She could not recollect his doing 
 so ; it had been propped inside a song-book 
 while they tried it together ; might it not 
 still be there ? 
 
 Feeling extremely guilty, Evelyn stole 
 down to the drawing-room, and peeped 
 in. 
 
 Empty, as good fortune would have it. 
 It was a moment's work to find the book 
 she was in quest of, turn over the leaves ; 
 discover the manuscript between them. 
 Unshapely; blurred and blotted with the 
 composer's rude notation ; — but how price- 
 less ! 
 
 It was secured : Evelyn regained her 
 room, undetected. And then . 
 
 Then she drew the paper from her 
 pocket. Gazed round furtively, as if scores 
 of eyes were peering at her from the chintz 
 curtains, the wardrobe, the cheval-glass, 
 the books, the pictures. Then, imprinted
 
 196 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 upon it a bashful, bashful maiden kiss ; but 
 so deep, so tender, so true ! Then she 
 would not trust herself further, but locked 
 the *^ representative-shape" into some inner- 
 most shrine of privacy, secure from ab- 
 straction, as from intrusion. 
 
 Judge her not austerely, kind reader. 
 "Woman's whole heart is made for love ; — 
 what is it worth, if it does not love early and 
 ungrudgingly ? "Would you like it better 
 if it paused for mature selection, instead of 
 surrendering itself in some unforgotten first 
 meeting, it may be in some half-minute's 
 glance which has been indelible, to that 
 which is its woman's destiny ; — confiding, 
 and suffering ? 
 
 Could Malcolm only have seen what was 
 going on ! 
 
 Ah ! but they had parted ! The heart of 
 each, although, as regarded one of the two, 
 with little consciousness of the fact as yet, 
 irretrievably knit with that of the other;
 
 OVERMATCHED. 197 
 
 but the two lives parted, by an utter, abso- 
 lute mistake. One most easily rectified in 
 itself; but to any actual correction of 
 which circumstances seemed to oppose 
 themselves with the tenacity of iron.
 
 198 OVERMATOaED. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 We must return to Paulina Guidi; tlie 
 fiancee, as will be remembered, of the 
 widower, Charles R-ayner ; and, as such, 
 shortly to become Evelyn's step-mother. 
 The time is some two or three months 
 later than our last chapter ; the first week 
 in April. Paulina's marriage is to take 
 place about the middle of the month. 
 
 On the part of Evelyn's grandfather, 
 Philip Rayner, his son's choice had met 
 with no opposition. That Charles should 
 remarry and have male issue was the old 
 man's chief anxiety ; the particular person 
 he might select, within certain limits, 
 was matter of indifierence. As regarded
 
 OVERMATCHED. 199 
 
 Paulina, she was without fortune, but the 
 alliance was a creditable one otherwise. 
 PhiHp Rayner would have preferred some 
 property, and preferred an Englishwoman 
 out and out; but this would do well 
 enough. 
 
 To Charles he accordingly wrote, giving 
 his full consent to the marriage, and con- 
 veying his good wishes, with instructions 
 for a handsome present, to the bride elect. 
 As to settlements, Philip added, the ne- 
 cessity was superseded ; the instrument 
 he had drawn up twenty-one years before, 
 excluding John and John's children, and 
 substituting Charles and his issue in their 
 place, already contained a provision for any 
 widow of the latter. Should Paulina sur- 
 vive Charles, Stanton Court and the estates 
 would be hers for life. 
 
 All very well this, as far as the letter
 
 200 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 itself went ; when it was lianded to Paulina, 
 she perused it with * entire satisfaction. 
 But there was a postscript which was less 
 satisfactory ; Charles Rayner did not seem 
 to think much of it, but Paulina did. It 
 ran as follows. 
 
 " By the way," Phihp added, " you must 
 bear in mind, and this young lady also, that 
 the settlement is a revocable one : I have 
 the power of altering it, or annulling it 
 altogether. It is wholly improbable that I 
 shall ever do this, but the power is, in 
 fact, reserved to me.'* 
 
 '' Wholly improbable." Yes, Philip 
 Rayner wrote as he felt. The clause had 
 been inserted, partly at the suggestion of 
 his solicitor, Mr. Miles, and partly from a 
 feeling on Phihp' s own part that he did 
 not choose to give the reins altogether out 
 of his own hands. But for all practical 
 purposes, John's disinheritance was com- 
 plete and final ; no reversal ever could or
 
 OVERMATCHED. 201 
 
 would take place. And Charles Rayner, 
 althougli aware that the power existed, 
 attached no importance to it accordingly. 
 
 But to Pauhna the matter looked much 
 more serious. Why, here, in black and 
 white, depending only on an old man's 
 caprice, was something which with one 
 stroke of the pen, might demolish the 
 whole fabric of fortune she had built 
 up ! 
 
 Paulina's was no love-match, and she 
 had never pretended to herself that it was. 
 More than twice her age ; feeble in frame, 
 purpose, intellect ; barely roused, even by 
 his present passion for herself, from the 
 inertness which had been his norm.al state : 
 — it was difficult to say that she did not 
 hate Charles Rayner ! 
 
 And for this she must be compensated. 
 If it was a money-bargain, a matter of 
 scales and weights, the price must be paid 
 in full ; no fraction abated, nothing left
 
 202 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 insecure. And yet liere was unforeseen 
 miscliief ; insecurity on the very threshold ! 
 What should she do ? 
 
 At the time, Paulina did nothing : merely 
 handed back the letter to Charles, with 
 some trivial remark. But she thought 
 profoundly over the matter afterwards. 
 Was the position, with this contingency 
 hanging over it, worth maintaining ? 
 
 We must not dwell on her dissection of 
 the problem. Eventually, after anxious 
 thought, Paulina decided that it was ; 
 she would hold to her bargain ; better the 
 chance than nothing at all. Besides, the 
 reversal of the settlement was only a risk ; 
 it might be guarded against. She was to 
 reside at Stanton Court; be practically, 
 even at present, its mistress. Oppor- 
 tunities enough for bringing her influence 
 to bear on the feebleness of an old man ! 
 
 So the engagement had gone on as 
 arranged. All this was, of course, in its
 
 OVERMATCHED. 203 
 
 early stages ; now it is April, and the 
 ceremony fixed for a week or two hence. 
 
 But at present the bride elect is not with 
 her lover. She has escaped from him, and 
 is spending a few days at her former home, 
 Amalfi, where the Contessa still retains her 
 house. 
 
 The last month of this period has been 
 one of sore trouble to Paulina ; the nearer 
 the time came for redeeming her promise, 
 the more she shrunk from it. Heart, in 
 some fashion, she did possess ; and, such 
 as it was, she had given it wholly to 
 Stephen Luxmoor; her love for him was 
 the one honest purpose of her hfe ! 
 
 Gradually, a burning desire sprung up 
 within her, a woman's longing, to revisit 
 Amalfi before this . . . this accursed 
 union, — Paulina almost spoke the word — 
 should have taken place. Let her view the
 
 204 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 familiar scenes for the last time ; tread tlie 
 ground slie had trod in Stephen's com- 
 pany ; hear his voice once more on shore 
 and hill-side ! 
 
 The craving was irresistible. Some 
 easily-devised excuse satisfied the Con- 
 tessa ; some ^'personal matters to be seen 
 to in the old house ; articles there, which 
 Paulina would prefer to pack herself;" this 
 or that plausibility of the kind. If the 
 daughter wanted to go, useless either to 
 question or oppose her. 
 
 So to Amalfi Paulina went, and went 
 alone ; expressly and purposely so ; society 
 of any kind would have been intolerable. 
 The Contessa's company was not requested, 
 and without her, Charles could not offer 
 his. He could only intreat for as brief an 
 absence as possible. 
 
 Paulina however did very little to ex-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 205 
 
 pedite matters. There was no route by 
 Salerno then; Castellamare was readied, 
 and then you followed a mountain road, 
 rugged and laborious. This occupied time ; 
 and, once at Amalfi, Paulina delayed still 
 longer ; she could not tear herself from the 
 place. We must not claim much sympathy 
 for her, but she deserved some at present ; 
 she was utterly miserable. Had she met 
 Stephen Luxmoor, she must have surren- 
 dered everything ; knelt to him, implored 
 to be taken back ; told him that she lived 
 only in and for his love ! 
 
 But it was not to be. The die must fall 
 as she had thrown it ; the inevitable end, 
 reaching far beyond this already hateful 
 marriage, be wrought out. No destiny 
 shaped it; no malign star controlled it; 
 the sea-waves never chaunted it, nor the 
 sky darkened with its prophecy. Self- 
 chosen, self-invoked. The hand that 
 sowed, reaped ; the sinning was the arti-
 
 206 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 ficer of tlie doomed ! But wrought out 
 tlie end must be; and even now, unfore- 
 seen and unsuspected, the means were in 
 preparation. This visit to Amalfi was 
 among them. 
 
 The most vivid of Paulina's memories 
 there was identified, as it had reason to be, 
 with the secluded ravine known as the 
 Dragone gorge. In one of its hamlets 
 lived Paulina's nurse, Veronica Sonzi; and 
 it was on a visit to Veronica, in which 
 Stephen Luxmoor accompanied her, that 
 the then lovers had first avowed their 
 attachment. Each had divined the other's 
 secret. The one burning kiss which 
 Stephen had snatched, and, in his upright- 
 ness, forborne to repeat, had added notliing 
 to this knowledge; the freedom left to 
 Paulina, the absence of any definite be- 
 trothal, could detract nothing from it. 
 Nothing, so long as both were true.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 207 
 
 Yes ; but now, one liad played false ! 
 But of this Paulina would not think ; she 
 thrust it from her ; her mind was made up 
 on that point. But, revisit the Dragone 
 she must and would. It was an easy walk, 
 and to-day was her last chance. Let her 
 start forthwith. 
 
 The spring forenoon was exquisite, as, 
 often enough, it fails to be in Italy, what- 
 ever presumptions the latitude may palm 
 ofE on intending visitors. Often enough is 
 April piloted there by blasts from Alp or 
 Appennine, chilling to the marrow in the 
 carpetless rooms, or drenching with rain 
 out of doors. But this spring deserved 
 its name ; suns shone and seas glittered ; 
 from the lap almost of winter, the quick 
 growths of the south leapt into colour and 
 fragrance. 
 
 On the last descent to the hamlet, 
 Paulina paused, and looked down on a 
 fair scene. In its main features the
 
 208 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Dragone is gloomy enougli ; sterile crags, 
 distorted and abrupt, wall in both sides of 
 tlie valley. But other portions are more 
 open ; woods of olive and chestnut ; the 
 lemon and orange, contrasting with both ; 
 arcades of trellised vines, with the church 
 towers of the villages gleaming between 
 them. Pre- occupied as she was, Paulina 
 admired ; she could not fail to do so. 
 
 But the beauty brought no calm with it, 
 rather the contrary. Again and again the 
 tears rose; hot, scalding drops, not of 
 healing, but of remorse. These fair sur- 
 roundings, earth and sky, flowers and 
 foliage, of what use were they ? They 
 seemed to mock, to defy her ; taunting her 
 with what she had voluntarily renounced ; 
 putting the seal to her final exclusion from 
 all hope, all light ! Why torture herself 
 further ? Why proceed with this senseless 
 walk ? 
 
 But the torture would not be foregone.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 209 
 
 Immediately below her was Veronica's cot- 
 tage ; slie could see tlie sun glittering on 
 one of its casements. And in tlie garden 
 outside the cottage, on a rustic bench 
 shadowed by the quaint carouba-pods, 
 had Paulina sat with Stephen Luxmoor ; 
 her lips had met his, her heart beat against 
 his, her love phghted itself, in fact if not 
 in word, to be his only for ever. She 
 must go there ; re-enact in memory the 
 very scene at the very place. It was ex- 
 quisite pain, but she must do it ! 
 
 U
 
 210 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ''And you are happy?" asked Veronica 
 when the first greetings were over : " and 
 well? Ah ! but I need not ask that. 
 How beautiful is my child ; what eyes ; 
 what carriage ; what complexion ! How 
 Giuseppe would admire ! To think that 
 the bambinella I nursed with him should 
 have shot up into this !" 
 
 In explanation of which speech it should 
 be observed that Giuseppe Sonzi was 
 Paulina's foster-brother. The Contessa's 
 health after the birth of the latter had 
 compelled the importation of Veronica, 
 who however stipulated that she should 
 bring her own infant with her.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 211 
 
 Paulina smiled at her nurse's enthu- 
 siasm. Mere vanity was not among her 
 sins, and she was more amused than flat- 
 tered by the eulogy. 
 
 " I might have been a black- a-moor," 
 she said ; " or might have squinted, or 
 had red hair. What would you have done 
 then, Veronica ?" 
 
 '' A black-a-moor !" retorted the nurse ; 
 «« rengrazziamo Dio ! But the woman you 
 have grown, figliuola mia ! Last summer 
 you were a child still, seeing the flowers 
 and the fruit-blossoms ; but now you look 
 all inwards ; you are the woman. Ah! and 
 I can guess the reason why, darhng. It 
 is all so changed when that happens ; just 
 like the young lambs when the spring is 
 over. And she was so secret too, my lady- 
 bird was ; she would not tell the old nurse 
 about it ! But the nurse had eyes, but no 
 tongue; no, none, none!" 
 
 In proof of which assertion, Veronica
 
 212 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 screwed up her lips as if in preparation for 
 their being padlocked. 
 
 A deep crimson overspread Paulina's 
 handsome face. She well knew what her 
 companion referred to, and hastened to 
 change the subject accordingly. The self- 
 inflicted pain she could bear, something 
 compelled her to it in spite of herself; but 
 for another to probe the wound was intole- 
 rable. 
 
 *' And this good Griuseppe?" Paulina 
 asked ; " you have not told me of him. 
 We have hardly met since he was a school- 
 boy." 
 
 Veronica, who was a lively little woman, 
 clapped her hands. '^What think you 
 Giuseppe has become ?" she asked. 
 
 " I cannot guess, Veronica. A soldier?" 
 
 *' Soldato ! and his mother still living ! 
 He is not so abandoned. And Giuseppe 
 has brains ; too useful to be sent adrift by 
 a lead bullet. He is in a profession, the 
 boy is."
 
 OVERMATCHED. 213 
 
 ''A lawyer?" 
 
 " Piano, piano. Griuseppe lias a con- 
 science." 
 
 ^'Not a priest?" 
 
 Veronica sighed. '' I did hope," she 
 said ; " but he and Carlotta . . . Well, 
 there, it is the old story, and she will make 
 him a good wife when he can afford one. 
 No, Giuseppe is a doctor." 
 
 "Is he in practice yet?" Paulina asked. 
 She liked her foster-brother, and in their 
 young days they had spent pleasant times 
 together. 
 
 " Practice ! No one in Sorrento would 
 think of dyiog without him, or being born 
 either. And the cures he has made ! Old 
 Luino, the bookseller there ; you know 
 him ?" 
 
 "No, indeed, Veronica." 
 
 " It was eight years since he had got 
 out of bed," said Veronica; "his daughter 
 had sold all his clothes, as he couldn't
 
 214 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 possibly want tliem any more; that was 
 before Griuseppe came to see him. He 
 only attended a week, and, next Sunday, 
 Luino walked to mass in his new things, 
 and looking quite clean. People said that 
 was the more surprising cure of the two." 
 
 " Griuseppe is settled at Sorrento then ?" 
 
 " Yes, but he is often over at Amalfi. 
 And, what am I thinking of? To-day is 
 what, figliuola mia, what day of the week?" 
 
 " Tuesday," said Paulina. 
 
 " That is it, then ; first Tuesday in the 
 month; you will see him if you care to 
 stay till the evening. He comes over to- 
 day to the hospital in the cathedral square, 
 the fanciullo esposto ; comes to draw the 
 children's teeth, gli poverini; he takes 
 them out faster than you could count. 
 ' Granda grandinata,' the neighbours all 
 cry out, and run to the windows. But 
 he comes over to see the old mother after- 
 wards. You will wait for Griuseppe ?"
 
 OVERMATCHED. 215 
 
 " I fear not/* said Paulina ; " it is my 
 last day but one, and I am very busy." 
 
 " You leave Amalfi then ? But wlien do 
 you come back for good, you and tlie 
 Contessa?" 
 
 " For good !" echoed Paulina bitterly. 
 " But, Veronica, we shall never come back 
 at all, at least, I shall not ; I am going to 
 be married." 
 
 Again Veronica clapped her hands. 
 " Did I not say it ?" she exclaimed. '' The 
 old nurse's eyesight was not so bad, after 
 all And he is so handsome, for an Eng- 
 glishman ; so tall and grand-looking ! I 
 thought so, as he stood in the porch 
 waiting for you that day." 
 
 Paulina's cheek flushed again, and with 
 a still deeper crimson ; but she was com- 
 pelled to speak. 
 
 "It is not Stephen . . . not the 
 gentleman you mean," she said in a low 
 voice.
 
 216 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 A look of disappointment, mixed with 
 surprise, crossed Veronica's face; but she 
 hastened to remove any pain which her 
 words might have caused. 
 
 " Ah !" she said, " did it not come off 
 then ? Povera ! But they are false, these 
 men ; they amuse themselves just while it 
 suits their pleasure, and never think it is 
 human hearts they are breaking. II per- 
 fido ! But we need not mind him ; my 
 darling has some one worthy of her now. 
 And is this an Enghshman also?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Paulina. She did not 
 attempt to undeceive her companion as to 
 Stephen Luxmoor; the pain would have 
 been too sharp. 
 
 "And you will live in England ?" asked 
 Veronica, with a slight shiver, as if, even 
 at such a distance, the climate made itself 
 felt. 
 
 " I suppose so. Yes, certainly." 
 
 "And the Contessa with you? Ah,
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 217 
 
 no ? But then you will be all alone ; have 
 no friends : and this man may be false too. 
 Child, you must protect yourself: before 
 marrying it is hard enough to bear ; but 
 afterwards, . . . misericordia ! But 
 that is what you came for to-day, no 
 doubt; partly to see the old nurse, and 
 partly for that." 
 
 " For what ?" 
 
 ''Why, for the occhio, of course," said 
 Veronica. " And I can shew you where it 
 grows too ; but you must gather it with 
 your own hands. When is the marriage ?" 
 
 " The week after next." 
 
 " Possibile ? And you leave Amalfi so 
 soon ! Ah ! you have no time to lose ; we 
 must go to-day, go at once. The flower 
 takes twenty-four hours in drying." 
 
 '* The flower ! what do you mean ? 
 What flower?" 
 
 '' The occhio d'oro," said Veronica ; 
 *' have you never heard of it ? No girl
 
 218 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 hereabouts marries without a buncli; al- 
 though the tiniest piece will do." 
 
 "Do for what, Yeronica?" 
 
 "Why, for the philtro, child; bevanda 
 che induce ad amare. But you are in- 
 nocent ; you know not these men. Yer- 
 gine santissima ! Let them have said 
 more vows than there are prayers in father 
 Giacinto's breviary, and they will break 
 them all. They would barter Paradise for 
 a pair of black eyes. That is the good of 
 the philtro, it cures them of it ; keeps 
 them from looking where they have no 
 business ; you drop a pinch of it in any- 
 thing they are going to drink, wine, or 
 coffee, or anything, and they never find 
 out what has happened. And nothing 
 does happen, only they stay at home with 
 their wives like buoni Christiani ; as long 
 as it lasts, that is ; then they must have 
 another dose." 
 
 " And is the place far fi:*om here?" asked
 
 OVERMATCHED. 219 
 
 Paulina. She liad not paid mucli attention 
 to Yeronica; her heart was too heavy; nor 
 would the subject have interested her had 
 she done so. Little to gain by a potion 
 which would secure Charles Rayner's love 
 in perpetuity ! But Paulina could not yet 
 tear herself from the spot. To quit it was 
 to part finally, as it were, from hope and 
 truth; the last strands would be cut, the 
 bark sent adrift without chart or rudder 1 
 Let her humour her companion; go in 
 quest of this wonder-working flower. To 
 wait for Guiseppe was impossible ; but this 
 walk promised an hour or two's delay, and 
 she grasped at it. 
 
 " The place where this plant grows : is 
 it far from here ?" 
 
 " JSTo, no, within sight almost. You 
 know that ruin, up on the hill yonder?" 
 
 " The Hermitage, you mean. Is it 
 there ?" 
 
 " Not far from it," said Yeronica.
 
 220 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 '' Tliere is a patch of olives ; then you 
 go down very steeply, past some cottages, 
 and tliere is a hollow with cliffs, where the 
 stream loses itself in a cave ; goes under- 
 ground : the Bocca di lupo we call it. Do 
 you not know it ?" 
 
 " ISFo," answered Paulina. " I have 
 been to the Hermitage with Giuseppe, but 
 never beyond it." 
 
 " It is lonely enough," said Veronica, 
 " and dismal, too ; I would not be there 
 after nightfall for a thousand scudi ; but it 
 is the best place to find the occhio. But, 
 presto, there is no time to lose. The sun 
 dips." 
 
 The Bocca justified Veronica's descrip- 
 tion. The ravine by which they ap- 
 proached it had been formed by a landslip 
 at some distant period, through the debris 
 of which, overgrown with brushwood, a
 
 OVERMATCHED. 221 
 
 rough path wound to the mouth of the 
 cavern. Here the diff was high and beet- 
 ling; and, as if to enhance the gloom of 
 the place, the stream suddenly quitted its 
 natural co.urse through the ravine, and, 
 entering the Bocca, disappeared in a rock- 
 cauldron at its extremity. 
 
 " Just as if it went in there on purpose," 
 said Veronica ; " see how it spins round 
 and round, whirr, whirr, whirr, like a boy's 
 top ! They say it comes out on the other 
 side of the hill, at Castellamare. But, here 
 is the occhio." 
 
 The flower spoke for itself; it grew 
 profusely, the spot of bright yellow in the 
 calix from which it takes its name seeming 
 to light up the secluded glen in which they 
 stood. Paulina gathered such of the 
 blossoms as were pointed out to her ; over 
 each of these her companion recited an 
 incantation of some kind, and placed it in 
 a book which she had brought with her. 
 Then she turned to leave the spot.
 
 222 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 But Paulina did not follow her. She 
 had taken little interest in her nurse's 
 proceedings, but the scene itself had a 
 stronger attraction for her. Let her 
 explore that gloomy cavern, gaze down 
 into those depths of troubled water ! 
 
 At the mouth of the Bocca the stream 
 occupied the entire aperture, leaving only 
 a narrow shelf of rock above it. But 
 Paulina was young and active, and to 
 traverse this to the interior, a distance of 
 eight or ten feet, was an easy task. Here 
 the cavern expanded, the deep trough, or 
 cauldron, into which the stream emptied 
 itself, occupying the further corner, while 
 nearer at hand, continuing^the ledge, was a 
 platform of broken rock. Paulina stepped 
 on to this, and peered down into the guK. 
 The swirl and rush of the water har- 
 monized with her excited feeling; she 
 could almost have plunged in to share the 
 tumult. And yet, how helpless would 
 anything be in those eddies !
 
 OVERMATCHED. 223 
 
 A child's toy, dropped from one of tlie 
 cottages they had passed on their way, 
 was borne down by the stream, and entered 
 the whirlpool. Paulina watched it until it 
 disappeared ; then she looked round for 
 something else to throw in. Meanwhile, 
 however, Veronica had discovered her 
 absence. 
 
 " Paulina !" she exclaimed in consterna- 
 tion, " have you lost your senses ? Man, 
 woman, or child in this valley would not 
 go two steps into the place !" 
 
 '' Why not ?" 
 
 '' Why not ! Why, it is a luogo male- 
 detto," said Yeronica, crossing herself; 
 " there are spirits, scellerati, there. To 
 think my child should have ventured 
 inside ! What would the father Giacinto 
 say !" 
 
 " He is not very likely to see me," said 
 Paulina. "However, Yeronica, I will 
 come out directly ; I am only looking for
 
 224 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 sometliing to tlirow into the stream. 
 Here, this will do." 
 
 Paulina's eye had been caught by a tuft 
 of the occhio which grew in a crevice of 
 the rock near her. It yielded to her grasp 
 after some resistance, but brought down 
 with it a mass of rubbish and loose stones, 
 filling the place with dust. When this 
 cleared away, Paulina threw the tuft into 
 the stream, and watched it disappear as 
 the toy had done; then she prepared to 
 quit the Bocca. 
 
 But her feat had brought an unexpected 
 actor on the scene. Between her and the 
 ledge she would have to traverse, with its 
 head towards the outlet, lay one of the 
 snakes which give its name to the gorge : 
 of no great size, but, as Paulina well knew, 
 of evil name in the district. The fall of 
 the rubbish had dislodged it, and it lay 
 coiled almost close to her, ready to strike 
 on the least provocation. She was unseen
 
 o\t:ematched. 225 
 
 at present, but sound or movement would 
 have betrayed her. 
 
 Nor were matters mueli improved when 
 the animal's resentment subsided, as it 
 presently did. The sun had been on that 
 side of the glen throughout the afternoon, 
 and the rock still retained its warmth. 
 Attracted by this, the snake uncoiled, and 
 estabhshed itself at full length on the 
 ledge, half asleep, but ominously vigilant 
 even thus. 
 
 What was to be done ? 
 
 Clearly, nothing at present. Probably 
 there was no serious risk; Pauhna had 
 withdrawn out of harm's way, and, as 
 night approached, the intruder would retire 
 of its own accord. But meanwhile she 
 was a prisoner; to attempt escape would be 
 mere insanity. So she seated herself as 
 she best might on the floor of the cavern ; 
 heartily wishing that the occhio had 
 perished from the face of the globe, but 
 
 15
 
 226 OVEEMATOHED. 
 
 not abandoning herself to any extremity of 
 terror. 
 
 But to Veronica matters looked very 
 different. Here before her, in actual shape 
 and substance, was one of the ''scellerati;" 
 — the accursed spirits of the cavern 1 
 
 " Misericordia, che spettacolo ! perdi- 
 tissime ! Cielo, cielo ! Paolina, figliuola 
 mia ; Paolina ! Ohime !" Half-a-score 
 more such ejaculations, and then Veronica 
 succumbed ; fled as for life ; along the 
 ravine, up the steep pitch of hill, through 
 the olive-grounds ; pausing only when she 
 reached the nearest cottages. 
 
 Here, at length, affection came to her 
 aid. Some of the field-labourers had come 
 in, and to these Veronica appealed, urging 
 them to return with her to the spot. But 
 quite fruitlessly; falling dusk as it was, 
 few of them cared to do so, and those who 
 volunteered were detained by their wives. 
 '' Ah ! no, no, per carita ! per amor del
 
 OVERMATCHED. 227 
 
 cielo 1 Poco bene, poco bene ! Basta ! 
 If slie must defy providence, why help 
 her ? have you none dear to you ?" 
 
 Veronica's anxiety could be sustained no 
 longer, and she started for the glen alone ; 
 a trifling distance, but now, as it seemed, 
 interminable ; who can gauge the retarding 
 force of fear ? Love may do battle with 
 it, but it hurls a feeble weapon, recoiling 
 from the viewless panoply of its antago- 
 nist. And when the Bocca was at length 
 reached, there was a new terror; — flut- 
 tering in the twilight, her eye detected a 
 light drapery. What further sorcery was 
 being practised upon her ? 
 
 But Paulina's voice broke the spell. The 
 snake had retired at last, and the detenue 
 was rel'eased ; somewhat cramped by her 
 late position, but none the worse other- 
 wise. 
 
 Veronica was re-assured at last, and as 
 they walked home together became radiant.
 
 228 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 She had achieved a crusade; routed the 
 powers of evil on their own ground; 
 driven them into flight and exile ! And, 
 she had what she came for ; the '' occhio/' 
 The book had been dropped in her first 
 terror; now she had it again fast and 
 safe, stored with the priceless flowers, the 
 medicament of faltering love. And within 
 the next twenty-four hours, before Paulina 
 left Amalfi, these would be dried and sent 
 to her, Veronica intimated, by a trusty 
 messenger. 
 
 All was thus over; the adventure, such 
 as it was, ofiering no results proportionate 
 to the alarm it had excited. No percep- 
 tible results, at the time, of any kind. 
 
 But it was attended with one conse- 
 quence, and that is why we have narrated 
 it. Paulina met her foster-brother, Giiisepj^e 
 Sonzi. He had come over in the evening,
 
 OVERMATCHED. 229 
 
 as his mother presumed lie would, after 
 finishing his day's work at Amalfi; and 
 the adventure in the Bocca, changing 
 afternoon to sundown, had delayed Pau- 
 lina's departure concurrently. Hence their 
 meeting. 
 
 Of small moment that too, as far as 
 present appearances went. Paulina was 
 pleased to see her old acquaintance ; and, 
 be the claims of Carlotta what they might, 
 he fully reciprocated the feeling. Such 
 beauty as Pauhna's was not to be seen 
 every day ; the playmate of childhood had 
 developed into something which brought 
 out to the surface the latent artist-soul of 
 the young Italian. 
 
 But still all this was of passing interest 
 only. It was dusk now; and Giuseppe, 
 who was compelled to return to Amalfi 
 that night, would have the honour and 
 pleasure of escorting this fair vision home ; 
 then they would part, probably for ever.
 
 230 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Unimportant enough, apparently, that brief 
 companionship ! 
 
 But out of life's least considerable details 
 are often composed its annals for good or 
 evil. The associate of half-an-hour has 
 implanted impulses which outlast our 
 own epoch. From the casually-dropped 
 word the darkest of tragedies has evolved 
 itself.
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 231 
 
 CHAPTER XIIT. 
 
 "And so, Paolina?" said her foster- 
 brother, as they walked back to Amalfi 
 together in the starlight, conversing on a 
 variety of topics. He had always called 
 her by her Christian name, and certainly 
 could not abstain now, with that fair face 
 beside him, and the light figm^e leaning on 
 his arm ; occasionally, when the path was 
 rough, clinging to it for additional support. 
 '' So, Paolina ?" 
 
 " So what, Giuseppe?" 
 
 '< Why, you and the madre have been 
 after the occhio, have you ?" 
 
 " Veronica wished it," said Paulina care-
 
 232 OVEEMATOHED. 
 
 lessly, recollecting how lightly she herself 
 set by the acquisition. 
 
 '^The madre beheves in it," said Giu- 
 seppe ; '^ it is part of her creed, you know, 
 as much as the saints and the ever-blessed 
 Virgin are. So I wouldn't undeceive her 
 about it, any more than I would about 
 them. It would be cruel, don't you think 
 soT 
 
 '' But you are not an infidel ?" 
 
 ''I believe in myself," said Giuseppe; 
 ''and I believe in Carlotta, as far as one 
 can in any woman." 
 
 " For shame, Giuseppe !" 
 
 '' But I don't know that I believe much 
 else," continued the doctor, unabashed. 
 " I think I might have done so, once. My 
 little sister who died, Filippa, you re- 
 member her; I know she went to heaven; 
 and if I ever get there, it will be from her 
 coming and singing to me, as she does 
 even now, sometimes ; songs with that still
 
 OVERMATCHED. 238 
 
 voice in tliem, like tlie wind among tlie 
 rushes. I did believe in God and good 
 then ; but padre Giacinto has driven it 
 quite out of me." 
 
 '* What has he done ?" 
 
 " More than I should care to tell you. 
 The last time I met him he was driving 
 over here from Amalfi, with his gilt angels 
 in a cart, and himself three parts drunk; 
 but that is nothing to his other doings. 
 However, it was not all padre Giacinto. 
 The anatomy schools don't help a man." 
 
 " They must be very shocking," said 
 Paulina. 
 
 '* Rather the other way, Paolina; they 
 are too interesting ; give one the key to so 
 many secrets of nature that one comes to 
 think of nerves and muscles as if they were 
 the only forces. Perhaps that's why, in 
 the Church states, they won't let you 
 dissect; the students have to learn their 
 subject from wax models, and curious
 
 234 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 learning it must be. Fancy a wax model 
 of cellular tissue ! But about this occhio 
 d'oro ; what are you going to do with it?" 
 
 '' Use it, perhaps," said Paulina. '' There 
 is no knowing." 
 
 '' Really ! Well be careful, that is all." 
 
 '' Why careful ? do you believe in its 
 properties ? I only spoke in jest." 
 
 " Believe in them ?" said Griuseppe, in a 
 tone of intense scorn ; " believe that this 
 flower inspires love; animates the cold, 
 wins back the faithless ? Not I indeed. 
 It passes any force in nature or art to do 
 that." 
 
 '* But why do you caution me then, if 
 the thing is harmless s ?" 
 
 ''I did not say that, Paolina. It is not 
 harmless. Fortunately our girls here have 
 no great occasion for it; husbands are 
 steady; it is not like Naples or Paris. 
 Besides, if they ever do give a dose it is in 
 fear and trembling ; as much . as would
 
 OVERMATCHED. 235 
 
 cover a lira, and that only as a sort of 
 amusement ; tliey would be frightened at 
 anything more. And a pinch now and 
 then does no great harm." 
 
 '^ Anything more would then ?" Paulina 
 asked. 
 
 Her companion shrugged his shoulders. 
 ''It would not destroy life," he said; "at 
 least, not for a long time. But it would 
 destroy, or at least endanger, something 
 else." 
 
 " What do you mean, Griuseppe ?" 
 
 The doctor touched his own forehead 
 significantly. " It would act there," he 
 said ; '' act upon the brain. Produce, if 
 taken in any quantity, what we call 
 aphasia." 
 
 ''What is that?" 
 
 " It is one of the things which modern 
 science has learnt to classify. Formerly, 
 half-a-dozen disorders were referred to the 
 same head, and probably this would have
 
 236 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 been called lethargy. But it is really quite 
 distinct. ' Loss of speecli/ tlie word 
 means ; but, as a medical term, it includes 
 a great deal more ; tbe loss of speech is 
 almost the last symptom." 
 
 '' It comes on gradually then ?" 
 
 '' Yes, first of all the memory begins to 
 fail ; you forget persons, places, facts. 
 Then the mind becomes enfeebled alto- 
 gether. And then, lastly, the utterance is 
 affected ; you can't speak, or won't ; for 
 the ' won't' is really at the bottom of the 
 whole." 
 
 '' How do you mean ?" 
 
 " Why, I mean that the faculties are not 
 really gone, only the patient won't use 
 them. It is like a case we had at the 
 fanciullo esposto, . . . But this is 
 dull talk for you, Paolina," said her com- 
 panion, interrupting himself. 
 
 '' No, go on ; I like to understand things. 
 What case do you mean ?"
 
 OVERMATCHED. 237 
 
 '' That of a little girl at the hospital," 
 said Giuseppe : '* she had a dumb spirit, 
 the matron said ; stopped talking all of a 
 sudden. Nothing would induce her to 
 open her lips." 
 
 " They should have made her," said 
 Paulina." 
 
 " Not so easy, Paolina : one man may 
 lead a horse to water, but a hundred can't 
 make him drink. Speak she would not, 
 or do anything else ; she was like a born 
 natural." 
 
 " But they might have punished her for 
 it," Pauhna suggested. 
 
 " So /thought," replied her companion. 
 " ' Felicia,' I said, — that was the matron's 
 name, — 'you go to the butcher's stall above 
 here, and buy one of the birch brooms they 
 flog the meat with ; it is a specific in this 
 kind of malady. The spirit will be exor- 
 cised directly.' " 
 
 '* And was the broom successful?"
 
 238 * OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 " A total failure. For two years, birches 
 or sugarplums, kind words or cross ones, 
 the child never uttered an articulate sound. 
 Then, quite suddenly again, she began 
 talking as if nothing had happened. That 
 is the sort of effect the madre's love-potion 
 would have ; only it would be real aphasia, 
 not sham." 
 
 '' How do you know ?" asked Paulina. 
 
 '' For the best of reasons. The summer 
 before last, a girl here did overstep the 
 limits with her lover; — they wern't mar- 
 ried. She got jealous and gave him some 
 good-sized doses, and I was called in ; and 
 found him in the most incomprehensible 
 state, until she confessed. I burnt the rest 
 of the stuff, and in a week he was all right 
 again. But it might have been most 
 serious." 
 
 " It looks such an innocent flower," said 
 Paulina. 
 
 " None the better on that account.
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 239 
 
 Paolina ; it is like those pretty, sweet-faced 
 boys one sees ; you never know wliat is in 
 them. As to flowers, hemlock looks inno- 
 cent enough, but if you and I were to sup 
 off it to-night, we should make a sensation 
 in Amalfi ! However, for this occhio to 
 do any harm the dose must be pretty 
 vigorous." 
 
 " It might be useful now and then," said 
 Paulina, with more interest than she had 
 hitherto shown. " Supposing that you 
 wanted . . . wanted any one, I mean, 
 to forget some particular thing ; to lose all 
 knowledge of it, as if it had never ex- 
 isted ?" 
 
 Paulina was thinking of herself; speaking 
 half in jest and half in earnest ; wishing 
 that it ivere possible to obliterate one page 
 of the past from her own memory. But 
 Giuseppe had no clue to these thoughts. 
 
 *' You draw from my premises," he said, 
 laughing, '' a conclusion which they do not
 
 240 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 warrant : the poor occhio might turn out 
 to be a love-potion after all. If a girl 
 were deserted and could not win back her 
 lover for herself, the next best thing would 
 be to make him forget her rival ! Ha ! ha ! 
 But, Paolina/' 
 
 "Yes, Guiseppe?" 
 
 ''Don't you, in a rash moment, amuse 
 yourself with any experiments of the kind. 
 It would be playing with edged tools. Con- 
 stitutions differ; what is innocent enough 
 in one case might be fatal in another. A 
 single overdose, and you might turn some 
 man or woman into a helpless idiot. 
 Don't you think, after all, you had better 
 burn the stuff too, when my mother 
 sends it?" 
 
 ''You need not be afraid," said Paulina. 
 " I spoke quite at random." 
 
 So the subject dropped, and Amalfi was 
 reached soon afterwards. Paulina pre- 
 sented her cheek to her foster-brother at
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 241 
 
 parting; and after a cordial farewell they 
 parted for their respective destinations. 
 
 " She will be all right," said Giuseppe 
 to himself the same evening, as he thought 
 over their conversation. '' It isn't every 
 woman I would have told about the occhio ; 
 not about its real properties, that is ; but 
 in her position there can be no risk. It is 
 a curious little plant. Curious, too, how 
 little . known it is ; I daresay that I and 
 one or two others hereabouts are the only 
 medical men acquainted with it. How 
 would it be to write a scientific notice ? it 
 could be easily done, and might bring the 
 author some reputation. Let me see. . . . 
 
 " But no, no ;" he continued, after a 
 minute's pondering over the form his work 
 should assume : " no, I won't be tempted. 
 There are plenty of poisons without adding 
 to them; and although I don't believe in 
 
 16
 
 242 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 father Giacinto and his gilt angels, I do 
 believe that we came into the world to do 
 as much good, and as little harm, as we 
 can. And this is such a subtle fellow too ; 
 so gradual, so certain ; betraying itself 
 neither by taste, odour, nor colour ! No, 
 no, let well alone !" 
 
 " And so she is to be married, la bella 
 Paolina,'* Giuseppe went on after a further 
 pause in his soliloquy ; " and to a wealthy 
 Englishman ! I hope they will be happy : 
 she is a beautiful creature. Yes, beautiful ; 
 and no fool either : but I do wonder if she 
 is sincere. She has not the true eyes of 
 my little Carlotta !" 
 
 Whereupon the doctor diverged into 
 recollections of his lady-love, in the course 
 of which he fell happily asleep. 
 
 Two days later, Paulina had left Amalfi, 
 bearing with her the dried flowers, which
 
 OVERMATCHED. 243 
 
 Veronica had sent over the evening pre- 
 viously. Paulina did not open the box, 
 and felt some doubt as to encumbering 
 herself with it ; not from Giuseppe's 
 description of the contents, but as an use- 
 less appendage. 
 
 A passing sentiment eventually decided 
 in its favour. The present would be some 
 memento of the Dragone gorge and its 
 associations : those of Paulina's last visit 
 but one there, the afternoon spent with 
 Stephen Luxmoor. Yes ; let it accompany 
 her on her travels.
 
 244 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 A FEW more weeks, and Paulina was at 
 Stanton Court. The marriage took place 
 on tlie day fixed; some foreign capitals 
 were visited; then Charles Eayner, still 
 enraptured, brought his bride to the 
 paternal roof. 
 
 Philip Eayner' s wish w^as gratified; he 
 had once more a daughter-in-law. One 
 whom he could accept as such; not like 
 that other woman, John's wife, who had 
 forced herself, to her own confusion and 
 that of every one else, into the Rayner
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 245 
 
 alliance. One whose issue, should there 
 be such, might succeed in right of the 
 existing settlement, to the exclusion of all 
 progeny of the disgraced elder son. To 
 all appearance, Philip Rayner had every- 
 thing he could desire. 
 
 There is something, however, very 
 strange in the phenomena of human 
 nature under these conditions. We have 
 no space to analyze ; the essayist or divine 
 might do it, but we must stay our hand. 
 But, why is it, that for a man to have all 
 he asks for is the surest recipe for making 
 him discontented? Easy to say that he 
 at once wants something further; like 
 Grattan's definition of a competence, " a 
 little more than one has." But, nine 
 times out of ten, the man does not want 
 more : he has plenty ; too much : and yet 
 the '' too much" is not the explanation 
 either. 
 
 Nearer the truth, perhaps, to say that in
 
 246 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 every human soul there resides a strange 
 consciousness ; that of its own unspeakable 
 worth. Of the more solemn reasons for 
 this, the price which has been paid to give 
 it this value, it may know nothing; but 
 the consciousness is still there ; the void 
 still unfilled. Human passions are incom- 
 mensurate with their objects ; we lavish 
 the energies of an archangel on the 
 scrapings of a beggar's hovel. — Pile the 
 dross of wealth together; pamper ambi- 
 tion, and luxury, and self-will; — beyond 
 and behind them all remains the craving 
 for the Infinite ! And in this lies our 
 punishment. The objects of our choice 
 fail in gratifying it ; we loathe them, and 
 become wretched ourselves. 
 
 And Philip Eayner was no exceiDtion to 
 this rule. He had had his own way ; en- 
 joyed that satisfaction as few men are 
 indulged with it ; and now simply realised 
 that the result was — gravel and ashes !
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 247 
 
 Griadly now would he have retraced his 
 steps. But this was just what, as things 
 stood, he could not do ; he was bound hand 
 and foot. John would not come back, be- 
 cause it was impossible that his father could 
 summon him ; false shame would interpose. 
 In asserting his own will so long, Philip 
 had made it objective ; a law of being, ex- 
 ternal and paramount to himself ! 
 
 But this was not all : as often happens 
 in such circumstances, the secondary agent 
 had stepped in. "We forge the chains for 
 ourselves ; but some one else helps to rivet 
 them. Philip Eayner had dismissed John, 
 and John's wife. And, in their place, he 
 had imported into his home — Paulina. 
 
 From the moment that she set foot there, 
 such power as he still retained of reversing 
 the past, restoring his own happiness and 
 the rights of those whom he had made
 
 248 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 outcasts was swept from him. Not con- 
 sciously, or avowedly, of course, but in 
 fact. It was Paulina's especial business to 
 see that nothing of this kind happened ; 
 and she was quite equal to the under- 
 taking ! 
 
 Two main impediments presented them- 
 selves. The least serious arose from her 
 step-daughter, Evelyn Rayner. 
 
 Evelyn had remained at Chigwell until 
 the end of the hunting season ; the in- 
 amorati, the four male Alsagers, being 
 dispersed in different directions, so that 
 "the Beeches" were neutral ground. Then, 
 when the last horn was wound at Stanton 
 Court and sobriety resumed its reign, she 
 returned there as arranged, Paulina arriv- 
 ing as bride a few weeks later. Evelyn 
 was prepared, after some struggle, to 
 receive her kindly, and did so ; but there 
 was little sympathy between them; the 
 natures were incompatible. And in any
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 249 
 
 scheming about the property Evelyn would 
 be an undoubted adversary. Their interests 
 in regard to it, indeed, lay in the same 
 direction, but this was of little moment ; 
 the mere fact that there was scheming 
 would secure Evelyn's determined oppo- 
 sition ; she would revolt against every 
 suggestion of it. Paulina felt this in- 
 stinctively. 
 
 This was one difficulty; but a still 
 greater one seemed to threaten in Philip 
 Rayner himself Paulina did not feel at 
 all sure how she stood with him. He was 
 affectionate and interested enough, studied 
 her comfort, and evidently admired her. 
 But he had evinced no special liking for 
 her ; there was no rapport between them. 
 And yet, without this, influence of any 
 kind was out of the question. How was 
 the rapport to be estabhshed ? 
 
 Eventually, accident favoured her.
 
 250 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 We have spoken of Philip Rayner's ex- 
 treme sensitiveness. Side by side with his 
 strong will, his social and genial instincts 
 in most ways, lay this quality ; singularly 
 contrasted with all of them, but none the 
 less real on that account. It was matter 
 of temperament. Temperament and cha- 
 racter are often confounded, but they are 
 essentially distinct things ; we create the 
 latter by an unintermitting, uniform pro- 
 cess, daily and hourly through our lives ; 
 the former we inherit, and it is capricious 
 accordingly. And Philip Rayner had in- 
 herited this sensitiveness. Unkindly com-
 
 OVEEMATCHEU. 251 
 
 ment, even tlie cliance word or jest, would 
 pierce him to the quick ; lie would brood 
 over them ; shrink, like a wounded animal, 
 from again encountering them. It was to 
 some morbid feeling of the kind that 
 John's proscription had really been due ; 
 the dread of what would be said of the 
 mesalliance by friends and neighbours ; 
 the amusement of some, the sneers and 
 contempt of others. 
 
 Now it fell out, some months after 
 Paulina's arrival at Stanton Court, that a 
 disaster overtook Philip Rayner. Nothing 
 very serious in itself, but one which this 
 constituent in his nature aggravated beyond 
 all reason. 
 
 Philip had never known a day's illness ; 
 held medicine and its practitioners in ab- 
 horrence. But he was driven into the 
 doctor's hands now. In his plenitude of 
 strength, an unexpected foe struck him. 
 Very lightly ; more as if testing their
 
 252 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 respective strengths tlian in actual conflict. 
 But a stroke was delivered ; — and it was 
 that of paralysis. 
 
 Philip speedily rallied from this : his 
 constitution was good, and the enemy re- 
 treated for the time being. That the 
 attack would recur was probable enough ; 
 it might do so at any time, and next time, 
 might be more serious. But, for the pre- 
 sent, recovery was complete; mind and 
 body the same as before, or substantially 
 so. 
 
 The same as before, but with one excep- 
 tion; one foot-print of the invader's 
 presence uneffaced. The face remained 
 partially distorted; the mouth, in parti- 
 cular, drawn down on one side; rather 
 noticeably so. And with Philip this meant 
 mischief. It supplied the exact materials 
 for a sensitive nature to prey upon ! 
 
 Early in his convalescence, he had 
 desired a glass to be brought to his bed-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 253 
 
 side, and the impression he received 
 from it had never left him. While im- 
 provement seemed possible, this was in 
 abeyance; now, it recurred in full force. 
 The " vacant simper" which he had seen, 
 or believed himself to have seen, was in- 
 tolerable. And the more intolerable it 
 was, the more it began to haunt him ! 
 
 It is a calamitous thing for a man when 
 this happens ; when he not only creates a 
 brain-spectre, but gives it place and domi- 
 cile in his daily life. The chances are that 
 it will not be content with this ! There 
 may be no mental disorder; there was 
 none with Philip Eayner; the end, pro- 
 bably, had loomed in view, one which 
 overthrows mind as well as body; but, 
 for the present, intellect, apprehension, 
 judgment, were sound as ever. But what 
 it did mean, even in the present, was that
 
 254 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 he liad brought into tlie field an adver- 
 sary who was more than a match for all 
 three ! 
 
 And this was a subtle one ; it cut him 
 off from all escape. Society would have 
 cured the evil, and Philip liked society; 
 but he began to withdraw from it now. 
 That '' idiotic" look ; something on which 
 every eye must be fixed ; — how should he 
 face his fellows ? It was Byron's club-foot 
 over again. 
 
 Inevitably, too, things occurred to ag- 
 gravate this. Philip would see some 
 glance directed towards him ; compas- 
 sionate enough, but that did not mend 
 matters. Or he would overhear this or 
 that fragment of conversation. " Much 
 changed since his illness." " Rather a 
 serious attack, I fancy." " Left its 
 traces." Casual words, but gaU and 
 wormwood to the hapless listener ! 
 
 The last time this occurred was out
 
 OVERMATCHED. 25 
 
 hunting ; for the season had come back to 
 winter again, and towards the close of 
 winter ; nine or ten months after Panhna's 
 marriage. Philip left the field almost 
 immediately, and never hunted again. 
 
 Then, he began to shrink from other 
 society ; the house, liitherto open to all 
 comers, was almost shut up ; from the two 
 or three friends who did come he secluded 
 himself great part of the day. There had 
 been a further, very slight, warning, which 
 helped in this. Quiet was recommended 
 for the present ; the visitors left ; and no 
 one was asked in their place. The family 
 remained in solitary possession. 
 
 And then, as time wore on, came the 
 final change. The more Philip nursed 
 his solitude, the more he confirmed his 
 " fixed idea." Crescit indulgens sibi 
 dims hydrops.
 
 256 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Upon the morbid tendencies of the last 
 few months supervened an acute stage. 
 He had escaped from general society, but 
 what was he the better for it ? 
 
 Equally painful that his infirmity should 
 exhibit itself to his own household ! 
 What the man shrank from, in his inmost 
 soul, was observation of any kind. He 
 longed to hide himself from all eyes ! 
 
 He did so, as far as might be. 
 
 Withdrew from the home circle, except 
 at meals. Gradually, on one excuse or 
 other, absented himself from these also ; 
 took the meal, lunch or dinner, as it might 
 be, in his own library. Ultimately, came 
 to occupy that apartment exclusively, fit- 
 ting up an adjoining one as a bedroom. 
 Shut himself up, as if Stanton Court had 
 been Millbank ! And there was no pre- 
 venting this. John would have done it ; 
 by force or fraud he would have stopped 
 the self-torture. But John was not there ;
 
 OVERMATCHED. 257 
 
 the stubborn will which had banished him 
 had brought its own chastisement. 
 
 Meanwhile, even in his two rooms, 
 Phihp Rayner could not be absolutely 
 alone; some intercourse with his species 
 was inevitable. And the person whose 
 companionship he found most endurable, 
 almost exclusively so, was his son Charles's 
 wife. — Paulina. 
 
 Because she had more sympathy with 
 him ? 
 
 Assuredly not ; but that was the very 
 thing. Everybody else showed a con- 
 sciousness of something wrong ; dropped 
 their eyes or averted them altogether. 
 Paulina looked him straight in the face. 
 Somewhat to his disquietude at first, but 
 that soon passed ; and then the relief was 
 intense : palpable that she was not think- 
 ing of him the least. The very thing he 
 
 17
 
 258 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 desired ! He had acquired of late a 
 nervous habit ; incessantly raising one 
 hand to his mouth, as if to conceal it. 
 But with Paulina he forgot to do this ; 
 he felt almost entirely at his ease with 
 her ; free from embarrassment and discom- 
 fort, as he was with no one else. And this 
 she soon discovered. It was no con- 
 trivance of her own ; the idea could not 
 possibly have occurred to her. But by all 
 means let her profit by it ! 
 
 There was small difficulty in doing so; 
 the natural result followed. A month or 
 two more went on, and she became prac- 
 tically Philip's sole companion. His valet, 
 Milward, attended when required, but no 
 other domestic. Of the other two inmates 
 of the house, Charles Rayner kept himself 
 aloof, mainly at Paulina's suggestion ; 
 *' his presence seemed to irritate his
 
 OVERMATCHED. 259 
 
 father." This was true enough ; but, even 
 without assigning any reason, Paulina's 
 suggestions were rapidly acquiring the 
 force of law with Charles Eayner. And 
 Evelyn was self-excluded also. She was 
 corapelled to admit, although sorely against 
 her will, that her visits to the library were 
 a source of uneasiness there ; and she re- 
 frained from them accordingly. This dis- 
 posed of the home party. Out of doors, 
 there was the medical attendant, a some- 
 what heavy man, who called occasionally, 
 once a fortnight or thereabouts ; not 
 oftener, unless specially summoned. And 
 this was all. Paulina remained mistress 
 of the field. 
 
 Not indeed in any sense '' mistress," as 
 between herself and Philip. He was still 
 more drawn to her than he had been ; 
 grateful for the tact which enabled him to
 
 260 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 enjoy lier society without discomfort; 
 grateful for the society itself. It was 
 pleasant to have his son's wife, whose 
 beauty he admired unaffectedly, bestow- 
 ing this companionship upon him. 'No 
 nursing was required; even after his 
 second slight attack things had not come 
 to this : such trifling offices as were re- 
 quired she discharged womanlywise, deftly 
 and noiselessly. But in other matters her 
 assistance was valuable. She laid herself 
 out to the best advantage ; amused Philip 
 with description and anecdote ; read to 
 him ; still more frequently, wrote for him ; 
 checked the accounts of the property; 
 rendered efficient aid in twenty ways. 
 And to this he did respond ; he had never 
 been so helped before. His amanuensis, or 
 private secretary, or whatever else Pauhna 
 might be called, had relieved him of what 
 might have been a serious difficulty. He 
 appreciated this; liked her, trusted her; 
 he could hardly do otherwise.
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 261 
 
 But, this was all. A hair's-breadtli be- 
 yond tliis, a moment's subjugation of one 
 will to tlie other, such as Paulina had 
 possibly hoped for, was out of all question. 
 She felt this more every day. Even as 
 regarded the business details in which 
 Phihp accepted her aid, he entirely held 
 his own ; it was mere dictation ; neither 
 advice or opinion of hers were ever asked. 
 As far as jpresent results went, she had 
 gained nothing. 
 
 But, from another point of view, one 
 which took in future as well as present, 
 there ivas gain ; and it may be compen- 
 diously stated. Adapting a well-known 
 legal phrase, she was '* committee of the 
 person." Phihp Rayner had chosen to 
 immure himself, and had made her custo- 
 dian ; his organ of communication with the 
 outer world ; the person through whom he 
 saw, spoke, acted. "Whatever he wished 
 done, she was the doer. The volition still
 
 262 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 exclusively his own. The execution as 
 entirely — hers ! 
 
 The position was decidedly of some 
 value.
 
 OVERMATCHED. 263 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Things stood as described in tlie last 
 chapter, when an unexpected event oc- 
 curred : unexpected, that is, at Stanton 
 Court. John Rajner lost his wife. 
 
 We have already spoken of her declining 
 health. She had passed one winter at 
 Dawlish ; the winter in which Malcolm, 
 then just nineteen, had commenced his 
 Cambridge residence, and in the Christmas 
 vacation of which he and Evelyn first met. 
 Then came the spring, and Paulina's mar- 
 riage ; her establishment at Stanton Court ; 
 Philip Rayner's attack and recovery in the 
 ensuing winter; now it was early spring
 
 264 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 again. But with this second spring the 
 feeble Hfe closed. No letters came to 
 Stanton Court, of course. But Philip 
 Rayner saw by the Times that his eldest 
 son was a widower. 
 
 The news affected him most powerfully. 
 Had Paulina supposed herself to be ac- 
 quiring any influence, advancing one step 
 beyond general hking and trust on her 
 father-in-law's part, she would have been 
 undeceived now. The ground was pre- 
 occupied. Palpable enough that the master 
 key to Philip Rayner' s heart, the only one 
 to which it would respond in any shape, 
 was in the hands of his son, the proscribed 
 John ! 
 
 No one hitherto had entertained the least 
 suspicion of this : it was a secret which 
 Philip had shut out even from his own 
 consciousness. But this could not go on 
 now. In the father's inner life, the exile, 
 the absentee had been, all these years, the
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 266 
 
 only real presence ; now the presence would 
 step forward, and claim external recogni- 
 tion also ! 
 
 Yes, and much more than recognition. 
 Those two or three lines in the obituary 
 column led to something far beyond this ; 
 a world of new suggestion. 
 
 '' Exiled ;" '' absent !" Why should John 
 be so any longer ? The woman was dead 
 now, gone to her account. She had parted 
 father and son, parted them hopelessly and 
 finally, as it had hitherto seemed ; but that 
 was all over now. The mere memory need 
 not do it ! 
 
 But there was her child ; Malcolm. Very 
 true. Philip had not forgotten that ; in 
 the abstract he would certainly have pre- 
 ferred that this offspring of the mesalHance 
 should not have existed. Still, one child 
 was not like half-a-dozen : this solitary boy 
 need be no impediment.
 
 266 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 And what impediment then was there ? 
 
 A momentous question this, and one 
 which did not admit of immediate reply : 
 some days passed, and Phihp was still 
 occupied with it. In its discussion, he 
 almost forgot himself; forgot his infirmity, 
 and the voluntary seclusion to which it 
 had led : too habitual to be broken through 
 on the moment, but continued mainly as 
 habit. Under the pressure of this new 
 interest it might be discarded altogether. 
 
 Paulina saw this risk, and was much dis- 
 quieted by it. To that other, and still 
 greater peril, John's restoration to favour, 
 she had no clue. Philip's mind was at 
 work upon something, that was obvious 
 enough ; but she was far indeed from sus- 
 pecting that it had reference to his eldest 
 son. Still less did she understand, or 
 could she have understood, the totally new 
 point of view in which the death of that 
 son's wife had placed matters. What she
 
 OVERMATCHED. 267 
 
 did see, and what was disturbing enough, 
 was that such hold upon her father-in-law 
 as she possessed was in danger of slipping 
 from her. And yet, what could be done ? 
 
 Once more fortune favoured her. 
 
 The excitement which Philip had under- 
 gone again brought threatenings, and Dr. 
 Alston was sent for. His orders were 
 imperative. The patient must keep as 
 quiet as possible. Specifically, he must 
 see no one whom he could avoid seeing ; 
 and must abstain from agitation and undue 
 thought of all kinds. 
 
 The first half of the order was easily 
 obeyed : Philip remained patiently enough 
 in Paulina's charge. But that other requi- 
 sition, "to abstain from thinking;" that 
 was difficult. 
 
 Wholly impossible. Backwards and for- 
 wards, almost incessantly, Philip's brain
 
 268 OVEEMATCHED. 
 
 toiled in discussing its one question : why 
 should not John come back ? What hin- 
 dered it? The overtures could not be 
 made directly by Philip himself, no doubt ; 
 the Rayner nature forbade that. But why 
 should they not be elicited from John, as 
 in old times ? 
 
 Plenty of disputes there had been then 
 between father and son ; culminating in a 
 separation not quite so long-lived as the 
 present, but quite as absolute while it 
 lasted. But then, some friend had always 
 interposed; held the gates of penitence 
 ajar for the offender. Much better than 
 ajar. He had not to wait for admission on 
 the outside, not even to steal in at un- 
 awares ; with a sudden recoil, they flung 
 themselves wide open for him. And why 
 not now ? 
 
 Had things been otherwise, Philip would 
 have taken horse forthwith ; ridden over, 
 — well, say, to Serjeant Everitt, one of the
 
 OVERMATCHED. 269 
 
 best fellows in the world, and the constant 
 referee in those old disputes. And if not 
 Everitt, there were others. Easy enough. 
 
 Ah! but he must not defy Dr. Alston 
 like that. Must not even, although equally 
 easy, send for Everitt or any one else to 
 come over to Stanton Court. Philip cared 
 little for Dr. Alston, but he had come to 
 believe in his warnings. And, just at pre- 
 sent, there was something in himself which 
 he had never felt before ; something which 
 satisfied him that if he did not obey orders, 
 there would be a catastrophe. '' Over- 
 tures" would be cut short altogether ! 
 
 Besides, another idea occurred to him. 
 Why need he go out-of-doors for what he 
 wanted ? Here, beneath his own roof, was 
 the very person ; this intelligent, handsome, 
 helpful daughter-in-law of his ! Why 
 should not she be peace-maker? write 
 to John, not in direct terms, of course, 
 but as those other friends had done; sug-
 
 270 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 gesting, as from herself, that any advances 
 on his side would be met so very much 
 more than half-way ? A dehcate commis- 
 sion, no doubt, but she had ample tact for 
 it ; the most natural and suitable person in 
 every way. 
 
 Philip quickly made up his mind : the 
 bell was rung, and Milward appeared. 
 
 " Mrs. Charles Hayner ?" 
 
 She was somewhere in the grounds, the 
 man believed. She would probably be 
 back soon, as the carriage was ordered 
 early to-day. 
 
 Very well. When she returned, his 
 compliments, and would she kindly come 
 to him in the library ? 
 
 The door however had hardly closed 
 behind Milward when a sudden doubt 
 occurred ; he was on the point of recalling 
 his message.
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 271 
 
 Would Paulina do this for him ? 
 
 The father's heart had leapt towards 
 his first-born. The barrier was down be- 
 tween them ; down at last ; formal obsta- 
 cles, so to speak, all that still interposed. 
 He should see his son once more before 
 . . . before he died. As to any further 
 result, any consequences which might ensue 
 on John's return, he had never even given 
 them a thought. 
 
 But now, they flashed upon him ; return 
 would mean restitution. John would come 
 back, rehabilitated in his old rights, eldest 
 son for all purposes ; his boy, Malcolm, 
 heir after him. Charles and Paulina, with 
 their issue, if any — as yet, no such indica- 
 tions had presented themselves — must be 
 indefinitely postponed ; not left without 
 ample provision, that would be matter of 
 course, but reduced to their natural posi- 
 tion of the younger branch merely. Would 
 Paulina pen the letter which would lead to 
 this ?
 
 272 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 But, the next moment, Philip felt 
 ashamed of his doubt. He judged other 
 natures by his own ; generous himself to a 
 fault, he could not understand those of a 
 lower stamp. Had it scattered his own 
 fat are to the winds, he would have healed 
 such a breach between father and son ; 
 why should not Paulina do the same ? 
 Heartless in him even to have questioned 
 it! 
 
 ]^o, let her come. Practically, indeed, 
 there was no one else ; Evelyn was too 
 young ; as to Charles, he was a dolt ; more 
 listless, more unsympathising than ever. 
 And time pressed too. Every twenty-four 
 hours, the warning from within made itself 
 more plainly audible: a chime, sounding 
 faintly at first in the distance, but striking 
 the ear, with each repetition, more fully 
 and distinctly. 
 
 '' Let her come," Philip said to himself. 
 " After all, she can but refuse, and then I
 
 OVEEMATOHED. 273 
 
 shall discover tliat I have been mistaken 
 in her. But I do not believe she will 
 refuse." 
 
 18
 
 274 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 An exquisite day in April, near the middle 
 of the month. Everywhere the tenderest 
 of leaf, the brightest of blossom ; every 
 copse vocal with song, every field breathing 
 fragrance. 
 
 The library which Philip Rayner had so 
 long occupied looked across the valley. 
 Immediately below it were the shrubberies ; 
 then the ground sloped to meadows, irri- 
 gated from the chalk- stream, and with 
 sheep penned by the threads of bright 
 water; above these a spur of down, 
 fringed with beechwood hangers. 
 
 It was a sweet, English home- view, wor-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 275 
 
 shipfal to eye and heart; but Paulina 
 took little note of it as she entered. Her 
 thoughts were busied elsewhere ; — they 
 had been so throughout the walk from 
 which she had just returned; engaged 
 with a far distant scene. 
 
 A scene in the past. This was the 
 anniversary of her wedding-day ; its first 
 return; twelve months before, at the 
 English chapel in Naples, she had given 
 her hand to Charles Rayner. Paulina 
 recollected every incident of that morning. 
 The lazzaroni on the chapel steps. The 
 meanly-fitted place of worship, one of 
 those which disgrace the English faith 
 abroad. The curtailed, half-gabbled ser- 
 vice. The bridal cortege, and its spec- 
 tators ; her mother's pained look ; the 
 enraptured gaze of the man whom she 
 had chosen to be her partner through life. 
 Recollected all this; and, still more vividly, 
 recalled her own part in the ceremony.
 
 276 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 The treaclierous heart knew itself; the 
 veil was lifted, as with compassionate pur- 
 pose, until life's probation is quite over, it 
 at times is. Every vow she uttered that 
 day twelvemonth had been a falsehood; 
 every prayer, a mockery of the Being in 
 whose name it was breathed. Was it too 
 late to repent, even thus ? 
 
 Too late, in one sense. As she turned 
 to close the door, the imageries of the past 
 were swept from her; the present reas- 
 serted itself. Some hour or two this 
 before Philip's usual hour of sending for 
 her ; what did the summons mean ? 
 Thought and interest became absorbed in 
 the answer. 
 
 Meanwhile Philip Eayner had not for- 
 gotten the anniversary either. He rose 
 from the table, and drew her affection- 
 ately towards him. Usually he was an 
 undemonstrative man, specially chary of 
 expressions of regard ; he had kissed his
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 277 
 
 daughter-in-law on her arrival at Stanton 
 Court, but never since. But he did so 
 now, pressing the wan, distorted lips on 
 her forehead ; and she kissed his cheek in 
 return. She was looking very beautiful 
 to-day. The figure had slightly rounded 
 since her marriage, giving its outline the 
 maturity of womanhood; the complexion 
 too, exquisite as it always was, had gained 
 by her English residence ; added softness 
 and dehcacy to its tints. Philip admired 
 her as he had never done before. He 
 almost loved her; trusted her, at all 
 events, quite implicitly. 
 
 He resumed his seat, and handed 
 Paulina what he had been writing when 
 she entered, a cheque for £200. 
 
 " A wedding-day present from the old 
 man," he said ; " I hope the twelve months 
 have passed happily to yourself. To us, 
 you have made them very pleasant." 
 
 "Oh! how generous of you!" Paulina
 
 278 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 exclaimed. In spite of herself, slie was 
 genuinely touched for the moment. 
 
 "It is trifling enough," Philip answered, 
 but it may purchase you some little plea- 
 sure or the other; some acknowledgment 
 of the life you have brought to our dull 
 house, as well as of your goodness to my- 
 self. Besides, I have a selfish motive ; I 
 want your help to-day rather specially. 
 Will you give it me ?" 
 
 " With all my heart," said Paulina. She 
 spoke lightly, but a tumult of emotions was 
 in her heart; something in Philip's man- 
 ner arrested her at once. What could be 
 coming ? 
 
 She was so agitated that the cheque 
 which had given her so much pleasure the 
 minute before fell from her hand ; she had 
 forgotten all about it. Philip took it up. 
 
 " Put that in your purse, my dear," he 
 said, "and then come and sit near me here.'' 
 
 Paulina obeyed. Philip's agitation
 
 0\T]RMATCHED. 279 
 
 equalled her own, but he controlled him- 
 self by a strong effort. 
 
 '' I have made up my mind," he said in 
 a low voice. '^ I must see my eldest son ; 
 see him at once. And you must fetch him 
 here for me." 
 
 " My eldest son !" " Fetch him here !" 
 Pauhna echoed the words to herself, auto- 
 matically. 
 
 It had come then at last ; the worst, the 
 very worst ! And how unexpectedly, how 
 crushingly ; without signal or preparation 
 of any kind ! Pauhna saw the full conse- 
 quences, although Philip had not : they 
 rose up before her as if the revoking in- 
 strument were abeady signed and sealed, 
 John and his son in undisputed possession, 
 herself ousted from all that she had sinned 
 for! What could she do, or say? And 
 yet, something must be done ; be said, at 
 any rate : and this, on the very spur of the 
 moment !
 
 280 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 Fortunately for her, Philip continued to 
 speak. 
 
 " I have been a hard father to him," he 
 said ; " exacted the last mite in his punish- 
 ment ; but it is over now. One sees things 
 differently at a time like this. The sands 
 are running very low with me now, my 
 child. Alston does not tell me so, but 
 something else does ; this morning, more 
 than ever before." 
 
 Paulina ventured one glance at the 
 speaker; and one was enough. Strange 
 that she should have failed to notice this 
 herself! Written palpably on cheek and 
 brow was the evidence of a great change, 
 the impending death-warrant. It might 
 be days, might be only hours, no saying : 
 but there was the fact. Could she only 
 gain time ; tide over this emergency ! 
 
 Paulina's resolve was taken on the in. 
 stant. Oppose him ? advocate her own 
 claims? endeavour to divert this new cur-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 281 
 
 rent of feeling ? Worse than useless ; con- 
 fidence would be at an end witli the first 
 syllable she uttered. No ; let that be main- 
 tained at all hazards. Confidence meant 
 time ; time during which something — she 
 knew not what — might occur ; during 
 which any chance that ofiered might be 
 utilized. Forfeit her present position, and 
 she would be out of the game altogether ! 
 
 She replied without a moment's delay. 
 Critical as the decision had been, it had 
 occupied no perceptible interval : Philip 
 had gone on speaking by his own choice ; 
 and as he concluded, Paulina was ready 
 with her reply. 
 
 ''You are alarming yourself without 
 reason, sir," she said, referring to Philip's 
 last words ; " this little threatening will 
 pass like the others, and you will feel your- 
 self again in a day or two. But I could 
 be almost glad of it if it is to have this 
 effect. Do you mean, really mean, that
 
 282 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 my brother-in-law is to . . . I mean, 
 that all this unhappiness is to end now ?" 
 
 " Do jou wish it ?" 
 
 " It is the one thing I have wished since 
 I came to England," Paulina answered. 
 " Of course, neither Charles nor myself 
 could ever speak of it; you would have 
 resented our doing so. But we shall be 
 so intensely glad ! You said that I was to 
 ' fetch' John," Paulina continued. " How 
 do you mean?" 
 
 Philip hesitated : when he did reply, it 
 was in an embarrassed, nervous tone. 
 " There had better be ... be some 
 third person," he said, '' at least in the 
 first instance. You see, it is a good many 
 years since, and I do not quite know, 
 . . . that is, things might go wrong, 
 if I wrote with my own hand. I thought 
 it possible that . . ." 
 
 " That I might write for you," said 
 Paulina, completing the sentence. " That
 
 OVERMATCHED. 283 
 
 I will do with all my heart. Shall it be in 
 my own name, or yours ?'' 
 
 " In your own name, I think. You can 
 tell him, you see, that there is a good deal 
 of change ; that my health is much broken 
 lately : put this as if it had occurred to you 
 to write it yourself. Then you might 
 add . . ." 
 
 Again he hesitated, and again Paulina 
 looked up at him ; a steady, unembarrassed 
 look this time ; her nerves had quieted 
 themselves. Everything depended upon 
 this. Phihp was about to place himself in 
 her hands ; to give her, it might be, the 
 very chance she desired ! 
 
 He resumed at length, although still 
 with frequent pauses. The outworks were 
 mastered; but the old pride, the old in- 
 domitable will, had intrenched themselves 
 deep and fast within; the ground had to 
 be won inch by inch. 
 
 " You might tell him," he went on.
 
 284 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 " that you think now, . . . if he 
 cared to come home, that is ; — he and his 
 boy, Malcolm, I mean ; you had better put 
 that in ; — that you think there would 
 . think there would be no diffi- 
 culty; that, that, things would be for- 
 given ; overlooked. You will know how to 
 put this. You will do it for me, Paulina?" 
 
 '' Most gladly." 
 
 '^ And do it at once?" 
 
 "By all means, if you wish it ; my 
 only doubt is whether you should agitate 
 yourself with this at present. Why not 
 wait imtil you are stronger again?" 
 
 Paulina caught at every straw; — any- 
 thing to gain time, and this was the first 
 chance which offered. But the old man 
 shook his head. 
 
 " That will never be," he said ; " what- 
 ever is done must be done immediately. 
 Paulina, I must see my son once more ; I 
 cannot die without it. Here is the ad-
 
 OVERMATCHED. 285 
 
 dress," lie added. He had cut out the 
 obituary notice from the Times : now he 
 took it from his pocket-book, and placed it 
 in her hands. 
 
 ''There is one thing I ought to mention," 
 he added. " I am asking you to do what 
 is against yom^ own interest, to some 
 extent. If John comes back, he will be 
 the eldest son once more, and his boy after 
 him. Ample provision shall be made for 
 yourself and Charles ; that, you may 
 quite leave to me ; but the present settle- 
 ment . . ." 
 
 Again Paulina interrupted him. What- 
 ever chances might offer later on, she 
 had one role in the present, and only one ; 
 instant, absolute acquiescence. 
 
 '' Do not speak of that. Sir," she said. 
 " Of course that will follow; my brother- 
 in-law will take his proper position at once: 
 I shall write all the more willingly on that 
 account. When is the letter to be sent ?"
 
 286 OVERMATCHED, 
 
 ''I should like it posted this afternoon, 
 if possible." 
 
 " It shall be," Pauhna answered. " I 
 will begin at once. I will write it in my 
 own room, and bring it down to you."
 
 OVERMATCHED. 287 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 In less than an hour, Paulina had despatched 
 her task, and the result was placed in 
 Philip's hands. The composition had cost 
 her little pains ; it was not that she was 
 concerned about ; a third of the time would 
 have sufficed. But the interval had been 
 busily occupied. Yain attempts at shaping 
 out her own line of conduct ; each plan 
 successively rejected, almost before it pre- 
 sented itself. 
 
 One thing only seemed clear : if any 
 agency of hers could prevent it, the mis- 
 sive must never reach its destination. How 
 this was to be insured, Paulina could not
 
 288 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 see ; but insured it must be, if possible, at 
 any cost. Best that she should still be 
 guided by circumstances. 
 
 Yes, if circumstances were propitious. 
 But there appeared small likelihood at first 
 that they would be. 
 
 Philip read the letter carefully twice 
 through. It satisfied him ; satisfied him 
 entirely as far as the mere document went. 
 What he was not easy about, now that it 
 was complete, was the mode of communi- 
 cation itself. 
 
 Even during Paulina's brief absence, the 
 feelings of which he had been conscious 
 in speaking to her had gained ground. 
 Wholly new feelings in that breast ; grief 
 for the past ; remorse ; self-abasement ! 
 
 " I should have written it with my own 
 hand," he said, partly to himself, partly 
 addressing Paulina ; "I, who have done
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 289 
 
 the wrong, should have stooped to acknow- 
 ledge it. My pride would not let me, I 
 suppose ! And he must come here and 
 sue for pardon, forsooth ; sue to me, who 
 have been a task-master not a father; 
 driven him, and his, into penury all these 
 years ; barred door and heart against him ! 
 Pauhna, this letter must not go." 
 
 " Shall I write it again ?" 
 
 " No, no ; the fault is in my instructions, 
 not in your penning. But that shall be 
 mended now. Grive me my desk." 
 
 Philip tore the letter to shreds as he 
 spoke. Then he indited a few hurried 
 lines. They ran thus. 
 
 '* John, my boy, I have given you cause 
 to curse me even by the grave of your 
 dear wife : perhaps there more than else- 
 where. But for my tyranny she might 
 have been living now ; poverty and anxiety 
 need not have done their work. John, 
 
 19
 
 290 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 forgive me, if you can. And come back, 
 you and Malcolm ; come and see me before 
 I die. Do not delay many hours after you 
 receive this : I shall not be here long, I 
 think, and we have much to settle, much 
 to talk about. John, my boy, my whole 
 heart is with you; it always has been, 
 really, all the time. 
 
 Your loving father, 
 
 Philip Rayner." 
 
 Philip folded and directed his letter : 
 then he placed it, almost mechanically, in 
 an open stand with two or three others, 
 to be dispatched at post-time as usual. 
 Paulina looked on in blank dismay; the 
 last chance seemed cut from her. Better 
 almost, instead of this tame surrender, to 
 have combated his decision in the outset ; 
 protested against John's return, against 
 any sacrifice of her rights !
 
 OVEEMATCHED. 291 
 
 But she was relieved by PHlip him- 
 self. After thinking for a moment, he 
 took the letter from the box and gave it 
 to her. 
 
 '' I should have kept it open for you to 
 read," he said, " but it was hardly worth 
 while, and might only have saddened you : 
 the avowal of shame and guilt is for those 
 who have incurred them, not for the in- 
 nocent. But now, will you do me a 
 further kindness ?" 
 
 " With pleasure," said Paulina. Calmly 
 as she uttered the words, a strange feeling 
 thrilled through her : half of terror, the 
 pang of a great temptation, and half of 
 wild joy. The writing had been in the 
 first instance deputed to her; was the 
 despatch of this new missive to rest with 
 her also ? And — if so ? — 
 
 " I ought not to ask for anything," 
 Philip continued, '' after treating your 
 composition so badly. But will you post
 
 292 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 this for me in Caversliam ? There would 
 be some . . . some curiosity about it 
 here ; besides our people are careless, and 
 I am anxious that it should not miscarry ; 
 that there should be no delay of any kind. 
 I could send one of the men, but they 
 would be talking perhaps." 
 
 " Do not think of doing that," said 
 Paulina ; ''I will take it with pleasure. 
 The carriage was ordered for half-past one, 
 and I may just as well drive there as any- 
 where else." 
 
 " Thank you, my dear child. The 
 old man will not trouble you much 
 longer." 
 
 " I fear that he will," said Paulina 
 gaily. " But now I must be getting ready ; 
 Morison never likes his horses kept at the 
 door." Paulina was feverish with excite- 
 ment; she could hardly control her im- 
 patience to quit the room ; to find herself 
 alone, with leisure to reflect on the best
 
 OVERMATCHED. 293 
 
 means of utilizing this turn of affairs in 
 her favour. 
 
 But she had to submit to one further 
 detention, although a brief one. Philip 
 called her back from the door. 
 
 " Paulina?" he said. He had risen, and 
 was now standing in front of her ; gazing 
 into her very soul, as it were, with a pro- 
 longed scrutiny. But she did not flinch 
 from it : she returned the gaze, calmly and 
 steadily, with a half-smile. 
 
 Thus might Circe have looked; thus 
 beautiful, and thus false. Proffering the 
 unholy chalice. Stirring the odorous 
 cedar into a blaze, while the cries of the 
 transformed wailed through the night- 
 shadows ! 
 
 "Paulina?" 
 
 She could not trust her voice to reply, 
 but smiled as before. 
 
 " Forgive me, child," said the old man, 
 ** but this is life and death to me, and you
 
 294 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 know young ladies are pre-occnpied some- 
 times. Something in Caversliam miglit 
 divert your attention; it is a poor little 
 place, but this might happen, and you 
 know how early the post leaves. You will 
 go there first of all ?" 
 
 '' I will go nowhere else." 
 
 "And you will post the letter your- 
 self?" 
 
 " It shall not leave my hands, from this 
 moment until it is in the box ?" 
 
 " You promise me that ?" 
 
 '' Most solemnly." And the minute 
 afterwards the carriage drove up to the 
 hall- do or. 
 
 For one moment, as she left the room, 
 some vague prompting arose in Philip's 
 mind, urging him to recall her, to despatch 
 the letter by its usual channel. It was 
 one of those instincts which no science has 
 yet analyzed ; which, when judgment and 
 apprehension are both at fault, throw
 
 OVERMATCHED. . 295 
 
 across our path a last guiding ray. But 
 the suggestion, if it amounted to such, 
 was discarded as soon as formed. What 
 ground had Phihp for acting thus ; what 
 reason could he assign for it ? To Pau- 
 lina herself, it would seem a gratuitous 
 insult. 
 
 And, in any case, it was too late now : 
 she was already in the carriage. And, 
 shortly afterwards, as Philip sate listening, 
 he heard, in the still air, the sound of the 
 lodge gates closing behind it. 
 
 " Why, Paulina !" exclaimed Evelyn the 
 next day, as her step-mother entered the 
 breakfast-room. — Mother and daus^hter 
 were so nearly of an age, that, by the 
 desire of the former, Evelyn always called 
 her by her Christian name. 
 
 Paulina was late this morning ; the
 
 296 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 morning of all others when she had meant 
 to be downstairs, not only at her usual 
 hour but a good deal earlier. The key of 
 the letter-bag hung by the hall- door, and 
 Paulina intended, this day of all days, that 
 its contents should pass through her own 
 hands. 
 
 But nature had been too strong for her ; 
 the night had been sleepless, and the 
 morning hours had to compensate it. She 
 replied to her maid's call, heavily and 
 drowsily; a minute afterwards, she was 
 again buried in profound slumber, and the 
 woman forbore to disturb her. 
 
 Hence it chanced that Evelyn had first 
 possession of the letters that morning. 
 She sorted them according to their des- 
 tinations, placing on Paulina's plate one 
 addressed to her ; the only one. It was 
 this which had led to her exclamation. 
 
 '' Why, Paulina !" 
 
 " Yes ? Wliat has happened ?"
 
 OVERMATCHED. 297 
 
 '' Nothing has happened," said Evelyn ; 
 " but what have you been writing to your- 
 self about ? Surely that direction is your 
 writing, although it is not your usual 
 hand." 
 
 A deep flush overspread Paulina's cheek 
 and forehead. Unquestionably, the address 
 was not in her usual hand ; she had dis- 
 guised it, and fancied the disguise com- 
 plete. 
 
 But resources were not wanting to her. 
 She took the letter from the plate, glanced 
 at it as unconcernedly as might be, and 
 placed it in her pocket. 
 
 ''It is from that glove shop in Bond 
 Street," she said. '' I sent them my ad- 
 dress on an envelope, and they have used 
 it to post the answer." 
 
 Nothing further passed, and Paulina 
 conversed pleasantly enough during the 
 rest of the meal.
 
 298 OVERMATCHED. 
 
 It was over, at last. Observation and 
 enquiry had both been eluded. Paulina 
 hurried to her own room ; locked and 
 double-locked the door ; and then, tearing 
 open the envelope, reduced the contents to 
 ashes in the flame of one of the candles on 
 her dressing-table. Even in ashes, she 
 was still suspicious of them. Watched 
 until the last spark had extinguished itself. 
 Collected the charred fragments, and let 
 them float away, in opposite directions, 
 from the open casement. 
 
 For in those embers had perished Philip 
 Rayner's letter ! 
 
 Paulina's first impulse, on leaving him 
 the day before, had been to destroy it on 
 the spot. But the promise she had so 
 solemnly made was too strong for her ; she 
 dared not, by an express, direct act, give 
 the lie to it. 
 
 The letter was posted, and by her own 
 hand ; she had engaged it should be. But
 
 OVERMATCHED. 299 
 
 the envelope whicli Philip had directed 
 was enclosed in another. And this other 
 was addressed by Paulina — to herself! 
 
 EI^D OF VOL I.
 
 SALISBURY; 
 
 JENNETT BROTHERS, PRINTERS, 
 
 JOURNAL OFFICE.
 
 mmmmmmmm 
 
 fnsa=;? ra » f>i w n> M WH if rtr<rff«a i »nfiw i i nmm im immmmmmimitm 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 823P9380 C001 v.1 
 Overmatched / 
 
 3 0112 088987976