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A DOG WITH A BAD NAME 
 
 FLORENCE WARDEN, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 THE HOUSE ON THE MARSH " AND " AT THE WORLD's MERCY. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, 
 
 ^uilisfjers in ©rlimarg to f^cr IHajcstg tfjc ^uccn, 
 1885. 
 
 {All rights reset ved.) 
 
INTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 ^ 
 
 p2 
 
 The following story originally appeared in 
 
 i ^6e Jamilp l^eralb as " The Iron Hand." That 
 
 title, however, having been left behind by the 
 
 story in the course of writing, has now been 
 
 discarded in favour of one with more meaning, 
 
 1"^'' A Dog with a Bad Name." 
 
 February 3, 1885. 
 
)^ 
 
 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ^' Please, master, there's a baby in the shed 
 along o' the carts." 
 
 It was a grinning Norfolk yokel, with a per- 
 manent expression of Idiotic amusement on his 
 round face, who made this announcement to 
 Farmer Corbyn, putting his head shyly round 
 the door of the farm-kitchen, and looking 
 straight at the fire as he did so. 
 
 The farmer, who was at tea, turned slowly 
 and stared at him. 
 
 " Go along for a fool, Sam, and tell yer daft 
 stories to some one else." 
 
 Sam half withdrew his sandy head, then 
 thrust it in again, looking stupidly from the 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
2 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 farmer to the farmer s wife, with wide-mouthed 
 intensity, which attracted Mr. Corby n's atten- 
 tion ; turning suddenly in his chair, he caught 
 his wife in the act of making signs to the lad. 
 
 " Hallo, what's up, Molly ?" 
 
 "Oh, nothing, nothing! Go along, Sam, 
 with your silly stories." 
 
 ** No, Sam ; stay ! I must get to the bottom 
 of this. What's all this bother and mystery 
 you're cocking up together ? What's " 
 
 " Good gracious, John, you needn't put 
 yourself about like that, and all for nothing, 
 too ! You can run away, Sam." 
 
 " Sam, come in here ! " roared the farmer, 
 cutting short his wife's conciliatory speeches by 
 a thump on the table. 
 
 The lad brought himself fearfully round the 
 door and into the room, casting a glance at his 
 mistress as if to ascertain that he was doing 
 right. 
 
 " Now, what's all this noise about a baby ? 
 Where is it, and whose is it ? " 
 
 " Please, master, it's a sittin' on a sack 
 under one of the hay- waggons ; and I don't 
 rightly know whose is it ; but " 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 3 
 
 And again he turned his round eyes help- 
 lessly but expressively towards the farmer's 
 wife. She was a bright-looking woman, some 
 years younger than her husband, to whom she 
 had not been long married. She began to 
 laugh at the angry wonder In the latter's face, 
 and put her hand upon his shoulder. 
 
 '* It Is all right, John ; there's nothing to be 
 angry about. Only a woman came knocking at 
 the door to-day — and — and asking the way, and 
 she seemed very tired ; so I asked her just to 
 step in and have a cup of tea, as she'd a little 
 child with her. I know you don't like strange 
 people coming into the house ; but she wasn't a 
 tramp, John ; she was quite respectably dressed 
 and well-spoken, though she was Irish, I think." 
 
 " So I see this is what comes of your bring- 
 ing your tramps into the house, that they leave 
 their brats about the place for you to saddle 
 yourself with. You made a fuss with the little 
 wretch, I'll be bound — told the mother you 
 wished you had one like it, or something of the 
 sort — till your smart well-spoken tramp takes 
 it into her head that she can't do better than 
 get rid of her encumbrance at your door." 
 
4 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 "In the shed, master," corrected Sam. 
 
 " But perhaps she is coming back again ; 
 perhaps she has taken it away by this time. 
 The child may have strayed away from her 
 and got back here of its own accord ; it was 
 a sharp, pretty Httle thing," said Mrs. Corbyn, 
 enthusiastically, moving towards the door with 
 evident anxiety to see the child again. 
 
 " Not likely ; the woman knows her busi- 
 ness ! You stay here, Molly ; I'm not going 
 to have my house turned into a foundling 
 hospital. Sam shall take the brat to the 
 workhouse, and there the mother can fetch it 
 if she likes." 
 
 " But it is such a dear little thing, John. 
 Do let me bring it in here for a moment ; it will 
 be so terribly cold after being left out there." 
 
 '' No, it won't be cold, missis, for Master 
 James was a-cuddlin' of it." 
 
 " Master James ! " 
 
 "Yes," answered Sam. "When I asked 
 whose the baby was, he said it were his'n ; and 
 I left 'em in the shed among the cocks and 
 hens, and I come to tell you." 
 
 "All right!" said the farmer, slapping on 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 5 
 
 his hat and snatching up his stick in a threat- 
 ening manner. 
 
 " Oh, don't hurt it, master ! " broke out Sam, 
 alarmed. 
 
 Mr. Corbyn was already on the door-step ; 
 and as Sam followed, with slow and clumsy 
 gait, his mistress said in a low voice — 
 
 " Don't be a fool, Sam ; he won't hurt the 
 babe. He'll be the first to be kind to it, what- 
 ever he may say. So hold your noise. Here, 
 let me pass ! " 
 
 She passed him, and followed her husband 
 out of the house, and over the ground in front, 
 heavy with October rains, towards the long 
 shed where the carts and waggons were kept. 
 It was dusk by this time;' but, before they 
 could see anything human, the exploring party 
 caught the sounds of the voices of children and 
 the shrieks of a fowl. 
 
 '' Fetch a light, Sam ! " said the farmer. 
 
 In the mean time, guided by the voices, he 
 made his way to the end of the shed nearest 
 to the cart-way, and, half under a scarlet 
 waggon, found, as Sam had said, a little girl 
 of about three years old trying to pull the 
 
6 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 feathers out of an unfortunate chicken which 
 she held in her arms ; while a boy, some five 
 years older than herself, sitting beside her with 
 one arm round her chubby neck, did his best, 
 not to protect the chicken, but to protect his 
 tyrannical companion from the beak and claws 
 of the creature she was tormenting. 
 
 The sudden appearance of the farmer bend- 
 ing over them in the dusk startled the children, 
 and made them look up. The little girl did 
 not let her victim go, but hugged it with 
 obstinate clutch, as she looked up at the big 
 man's hand stretched out to rescue her prize. 
 The boy threw his other arm round her, and 
 joined his hands round her neck. 
 
 " Do-on't," cried the object of his chivalrous 
 attentions lustily, as she tried to free herself 
 from his protecting embrace. 
 
 '' Let her be, Master James ; she'll give ye 
 naught but scratches for yer pains, like the rest 
 of her kind," said the farmer. 
 
 At the sound of his gruff voice, the girl looked 
 up again, with curiosity, but without any fear. 
 Mr. Corby n stood aside to let the little light 
 there was left fall on her face, and as, against 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 7 
 
 the background of gloom In the shed, a pair 
 of great beaming dark eyes met his, looking 
 intently out of a cherub's face surrounded by an 
 untidy tangle of very fair hair, he stooped lower 
 and grunted. 
 
 " Bless my soul. It's a pretty bairn ! " he 
 muttered, when he had finished his Inspection. 
 '' Here, Molly ! " 
 
 Turning, he found his wife beside him. 
 
 " We'd better take the brat In, and give It 
 something to eat. These tramps' children are 
 always hungry ; I believe they train 'em to It. 
 Then we can see about packing It off," he added 
 sternly, repressing a look of triumph he saw on 
 his wife's face. 
 
 '* All right, John," said she; and she pushed 
 past him eagerly, and began her work of 
 mercy by releasing the chicken. The child 
 struggled with all her strength to retain her 
 prey, but did not scream ; her resentment took 
 the still more unamlable form of an attempt to 
 bite Mrs. Corby n's hand. 
 
 " Now let her go. Master James, there's a 
 good boy ! I am not going to hurt her. She'll 
 catch her death of cold, sitting here in this 
 
8 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 damp shed. Dear, dear, her poor little feet are 
 wet through. Come, let me take her In ; and 
 you can come In too, and have a piece of cake ; 
 and then you must run home to the Hall. Sir 
 Charles won't like your being out so late, and 
 I don't know what Miss Elizabeth would 
 say If she saw the state you are In. Good 
 gracious ! and you've got your best clothes on 
 too ! " 
 
 With a sudden wrench, more violent In this 
 new excitement than any she had yet used, she 
 parted him from his lady-love, and dragged him 
 up to be examined. An hour's sitting In the 
 mud had a good deal spoilt the appearance of 
 his black velvet knickerbockers, and he had 
 torn his scarlet stockings on a nail. Mrs. 
 Corbyn, who knew that that velvet suit, rusty- 
 looking as It was getting and short at the 
 wrists and knees, was meant to last some time 
 longer, was aghast. 
 
 " Never mind, Mrs. Corbyn. Now they'll 
 have to get me trousers," said the boy, coax- 
 Ingly, lifting a pair of gentle blue eyes from the 
 damaged clothes to her face. 
 
 " No ; they won't do that, my boy, If It's 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 9 
 
 only because you want to have them," said 
 she injudiciously. 
 
 And the blood flew to the boy s cheeks, as 
 he turned from her, and ran after the little waif, 
 who had got upon her feet and was toddling 
 away. 
 
 '' I think you'd better run straight home, 
 Master James ; your clothes are so wet. I'll 
 take care of the child, you may be sure ! " 
 
 *' No, no ; I'm going to take her home with 
 me. She's going to be my sister, and to marry 
 me when she grows up — aren't you, Deldee ? " 
 
 But the young lady had sat down in the 
 mud again, outside the shed this time, and 
 showed no interest in the question, being 
 absorbed in watching the approach of the 
 lantern which Sam was bringing. When, 
 however, Mrs. Corby n took her up to carry 
 her indoors, she suddenly gave a short scream, 
 and stretched out two plump arms towards the 
 boy, kicking an intimation that she wanted to 
 be put down. He rushed responsively up to 
 where her little muddy boots were dangling 
 wildly from Mrs. Corbyn's arms; but the 
 farmer's wife was equal to the occasion. 
 
lO A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 " Hush, hush ! Be a good girl, and you 
 shall have some bread-and-jam — nice bread- 
 and-jam ; Fll take you indoors and give you 
 some beautiful bread-and-jam." 
 
 And the wild legs grew suddenly calm ; 
 and, repeating '' Bed-and-dam — boofer bed-and- 
 dam ! " the young lady instantly forgot her dis- 
 consolate admirer, and let herself be carried 
 indoors and placed on a chair by the fire and 
 divested of her boots and socks, quite amiably. 
 The bright light of the fire and of the lamp 
 dazzled and amused her, and she sat blinking 
 her great brown eyes quietly, and curling up 
 her little pink toes in the warm glow of the fire, 
 in a manner which completed her subjugation of 
 the farmer, who sat opposite to her, with his 
 hands on his knees, wagging his head and 
 making strange sounds with his tongue, in a 
 weak attempt to render himself engaging to 
 one of her years. She stared at him gravely, 
 and, having been provided with the promised 
 delicacy, went on steadily attempting the feat 
 of eating the jam and leaving the bread behind. 
 
 " Don't forget the other one," said the farmer 
 presently, jerking his head in the direction of 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 I 
 
 the end of the table, where James Otway stood 
 looking wistfully across the well-laden board at 
 his inconstant little lady-love. 
 
 The boy grew crimson, and shyly moved 
 away ; but the farmer's wife laid her kindly 
 hands on his shoulders, and brought him round 
 to the fire, where he at first refused refresh- 
 ment, but melted at the sight of a huge piece of 
 cake, and then stood by the baby s chair quietly 
 munching, and feeding her with bits of cake 
 when she had grown tired of her own bread- 
 and-jam. 
 
 '* How did you find her. Master James ? " 
 .asked the farmer. 
 
 " I was in the pine-wood with Tip, when he 
 started off after a rabbit or something, and I 
 followed him round this way along the farm- 
 yard wall ; and then I lost sight of him, and I 
 saw a woman carrying a baby. And she put 
 her into the shed, and she was crying ; and I 
 saw her put a letter into the little thing's 
 hand " 
 
 ''A letter! Wh-ere is it ?" 
 
 ''She's eaten it up; I saw her. I was 
 standing near the meadow-gate by the side of 
 
12 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 the house, and the woman had her back to me. 
 Then Tip came running up, and began chivying 
 the ducks ; so I went through the gate after 
 him, and when I came back the woman was 
 gone, and the baby had torn up the letter, and 
 was swallowing the pieces. So I took the rest 
 away from her, all I could " 
 
 " And what did you do with the pieces ? " 
 
 ** I don't know. She was scratching me and 
 hitting me so — of course she didn't know any 
 better, poor little thing ! — I didn't notice what 
 became of the letter. It was all in little 
 pieces." 
 
 *' We must look for those pieces, Molly, and 
 see if we can make anything out of them. You 
 see she did mean to leave the child — that's plain 
 enough for even you to believe. But I'll have 
 her hunted out, and made to answer for herself 
 — that I will ! Leaving a poor babe like that 
 at a stranger's door ! The wench ought to be 
 ashamed of herself ! " 
 
 '' Well, let us find the rest of the letter first, 
 John, if we can. Perhaps she gave some ex- 
 planation there." 
 
 " Explanation ! A child left in a shed before 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 3 
 
 the door of a simple little fool who has evi- 
 dently taken a fancy to It, explains itself. It 
 doesn't want no letter to show that the mother 
 is tired of her encumbrance, and thinks she's 
 done well In foisting it on a soft-hearted creature 
 like you. But she reckoned without your 
 husband, Mrs. Corby n, and I'm not ready to be 
 put upon in that way, if you are." 
 
 And the farmer rose from his chair, put on 
 his hat again, and walked out of the house, 
 taking with him the lantern which Sam had 
 brought. The little grave-faced lad watched 
 him closely, keeping one hand upon the baby- 
 girl's plump fist all the time. As soon as the 
 door closed upon her husband, Mrs. Corbyn 
 abandoned herself freely to her affectionate 
 instincts towards the child, and, taking the 
 rather unwilling mite into her arms, she half- 
 smothered it with kisses. 
 
 " Mr. Corbyn wants to send her away," said 
 the boy's voice, quietly but apprehensively. 
 
 ** Oh, I think I can persuade him to let me 
 keep her ! " said the young woman, cheerily. 
 
 '' Then, when you have children of your own 
 you won't care about her. You'll let her run 
 
14 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 about by herself just as they do me, and only 
 bring her In to scold her." 
 
 " Just hark at him preaching ! Why, I 
 declare, Master James, you're for all the world 
 like a parson already, with your grave face and 
 your grave ways ! " 
 
 " I'm not going to be a parson." 
 
 " Ah, that'll have to be as Sir Charles likes ! 
 Time enough to think of that when you're ten 
 years older. You're but a child now, and you 
 don't know what's best." 
 
 " I know what I like, and I'm not going to 
 be ^ parson ; I'm going to be a poacher." 
 
 " Hush, hush ! What would your uncle say 
 if he could hear you ? Fancy a young gentle- 
 man that's going to be a baronet wanting to be 
 a poacher ! " 
 
 '' Bashford says when I'm a baronet I can 
 do as I like. So, when my uncle dies, I shall 
 have trousers and be a poacher." 
 
 " You shouldn't talk like that about your 
 uncle ; it isn't right. You wouldn't like him 
 to die, just so as you might do as you liked, 
 surely ? " 
 
 '' I don't know. My uncle isn't kind to me, 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 5 
 
 and Aunt Elizabeth Isn't kind — I hate Aunt 
 Elizabeth — and Aunt Eleanor hardly ever 
 speaks to me. If I could do as I liked, I would 
 go right away, and live in the woods and eat 
 roots and rabbits and never learn anything." 
 
 " Bless the boy ! You live in the w^oods 
 pretty near now, I think." She was interrupted 
 bv her husband's voice shoutino- to her, and the 
 light died out of her face as she said, " I must 
 go ; that's Mr. Corbyn calling. Perhaps the 
 woman has come back for her child. Take 
 care she doesn't fall into the fire, Master James. 
 Good-bye, my precious," she added to the baby- 
 girl, with a sounding kiss, before she threw her 
 apron round her head and ran out. 
 
 Her fears were groundless ; the baby's 
 mother had not returned. Her husband wanted 
 the help of her quick eyes in searching for the 
 tiny torn scraps of paper which were all that 
 remained of the letter which might perhaps 
 have thrown some light upon the pretty little 
 waifs history. After a long and careful search, 
 some half-dozen small pieces of paper, covered 
 with that puzzling writing of the very illiterate 
 which, examined in frasrments, has about as 
 
1 6 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 much meaning upside down as right side up, 
 were all they could find in the mud inside and 
 outside the shed. No ingenuity could arrange 
 a connected whole out of these scanty frag- 
 ments ; yet very little imagination was ap- 
 parently needed to tell them a common, but sad 
 story ; " but a poor girl," '' wrong, but," " was a 
 gentleman," '' its father " — these words Could be 
 traced out among others with enough distinct- 
 ness to enable the farmer and his wife to guess 
 the rest. They had made this out by the light 
 of the lantern ; and as the woman examined 
 the last bit of paper, she looked up at her 
 husband appealingly. 
 
 " Oh, John, let's keep her ! I'm sure shell 
 be a blessing to us ! " she urged, falling into the 
 usual formula. 
 
 " A blessing ! I don't know so much about 
 that. She's got a temper of her own, for one 
 thing ; and, for another, she hasn't the pedigree 
 I should choose for a girl to bring up as my 
 own. A gentleman and a tramp ! Good stock 
 to come of ! Why, my girl, she'd never keep 
 out of gaol, coming of such parentage ! " 
 
 " Oh, John, if you think she is in such danger 
 
A DOG WITPI A BAD NAME. 1 7 
 
 as that, then it's all the more reason we should 
 take care of her and try to keep her honest and 
 good. Come in and look at her again, John ; 
 and, look here — to-morrow morning we'll go to 
 the Vicar and ask his advice." 
 
 "A lot o' orood it'll be askin' the Vicar! 
 ' Think it out and act for the best ' — that's what 
 he'll say. Oh, a thorough-going Protestant is 
 Mr. Bamber ! ' Make yer own religion and 
 stick to it, and save me a deal o' trouble ' — that 
 might be Mr. B amber's motto ; and you can 
 talk him over easy too, you women with your 
 tongues. Oh, yes, a deal " 
 
 He would have gone on with his comments 
 on this — a favourite topic — if he had not been 
 interrupted by a shriek from his wife, who had 
 entered the farm-kitchen first. He quickened 
 his steps, and, entering, found her white and 
 trembling^, leaninof aorainst the table. The child 
 was gone ! The farmer was as much disturbed 
 as his wife. Together they looked under the 
 table, in the cupboards, in every corner. Mrs. 
 Corbyn was at the door to search the passage 
 and the parlour, when her husband stopped 
 her. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 
 
15 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 '' I have it, Molly ! The boy's gone too ; 
 he's taken her away. Let's have the fields 
 searched. They'll be hiding under some hedge ; 
 and the little one's voice is pretty sure to guide 
 us before long." 
 
 " He's taken her home to the Hall with 
 him, I expect, John. I'll go straight there first, 
 while you and the lads hunt about, if you like ; 
 but I'm pretty sure I shall find them." 
 
 " Are you now ? Well, then, I'll set Sam 
 to search the farmyard, and I'll go with you. 
 Look sharp, lass ; never trouble for to get your 
 best bonnet." 
 
 But, Instead of obeying, she stopped short, 
 with the light of an inspiration in her eyes. 
 The expression of her face was unmistakable ; 
 she had found out somethlno-, or fancied that 
 she had. 
 
 " Well, what is it, lass ? You've found a 
 mare's nest, I see ! " said her husband, encourag- 
 ingly. 
 
 " No, John, I haven't," she rejoined very 
 quietly ; '' but It'll be an odd thing If we find 
 the child at Waringham Hall." 
 
 '' Why ? What's the mystery ? Come, 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 9 
 
 you're burning to make a real romantic story- 
 out of this, I see, Molly ! Out with It." 
 
 " It's nothing, John ; only that the ques- 
 tions the woman asked me to-day were nearly 
 all about Waringham Hall, and the people 
 in it." 
 
 '' Like enough a gipsy — wanted to find out 
 the easiest way of robbing the place, and 
 whether there were plenty of silly maid-servants 
 about, whose fortunes she could tell." 
 
 *' But how many times am I to tell you, 
 John, that she wasn't a tramp no more than I 
 am ? Why, you might see that yourself from 
 the way the child was dressed ! " 
 
 " Why, they were just common clothes." 
 
 ''Yes, but not a tramp's odds and ends, 
 picked up anywhere from anybody, I know. 
 And I tell you it was not chance that brought 
 her to Waringham." 
 
 " No ; it was a caravan, I'll lay. But what 
 have you got in your head now, Molly ? " 
 
 " Nothing ; only I believe that letter would 
 have told us more than you think for. It might 
 have opened our eyes, John." 
 
 " Well, it seems to have loosened our 
 
20 A DOG WITH A BAD NA^IE. 
 
 tongues as it Is. Look here ; you be a sensible 
 lass, and don't go prating to Mrs. This and 
 Mrs. That all the silly fancies that come into 
 your head ; or, mind, if you do, off that baby 
 ofoes to the workhouse." 
 
 " Then you will let me keep it, John ? " 
 
 **Well, I don't know ; I must just think 
 it over ; for, mind, it's a responsibility. A 
 child isn't a thing to be picked up and then 
 chucked away when you're tired of it, or when 
 you have something else you like better to take 
 its place. And, mind you, if I thought there 
 was anything in your wild fancies about War- 
 ingham, I'd leave the child under a hedge 
 rather than take it in. But there's nobody 
 about the place but Mr. Johnson, the butler ; 
 and I'm sure he's not the sort of man " 
 
 " But Mr. Johnson's not a gentleman, John.. 
 You know in the woman's letter it said *a 
 gentleman.' " 
 
 ''He's a gentleman to the likes of her; 
 and, goodness, you wouldn't suspect Sir 
 Charles " 
 
 "No, no, of course, that's true ; I'd for- 
 gotten there was only Sir Charles now,'' Inter- 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 21 
 
 rupted his wife, hastily. '' Yes, how silly of me ! 
 Of course there's nobody it could be." 
 
 '' Your wits have had a rare time of it wool- 
 gathering to-day, Molly ; now let's have a little 
 sense for a change. Here we are at the gate ; 
 don't walk on the grass, you'll get your feet 
 wet. You ask for Mrs. Symes, and I'll wait 
 for you." 
 
 *' Heaven send the baby's safe, John," 
 whispered she, slipping her hand through her 
 husband's arm as they made their way along 
 the narrow^ path under the thick-growing trees 
 of the park, over the wet leaves, through the 
 dense October night-mist. 
 
 " Amen to that ! " said he, rather huskily. 
 
2 2 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Waringham Hall was a big, ugly white house, 
 built in the time of George the Third, and so 
 picturesquely placed among the oaks of the 
 park, with the ground sloping gently from the 
 front, that not all the efforts of the architect, 
 not even his freak of hiding away the principal 
 entrance round the corner of the house and 
 surmounting it with a hideous brick portico, 
 could in summer make it look quite the dreary 
 barrack his fancy had imagined. But, on this 
 cold October evening, with the mist rising 
 slowly up about the bare white walls and the 
 almost leafless oaks standing stiffly round, 
 stretching out gaunt crooked fingers above the 
 thick vapour that was gradually enshrouding 
 them, the Hall, with its meagre lights seen 
 dimly through the blinds of some half-dozen of 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NA^IE. 23 
 
 the windows, looked from the outside hardly 
 less cheerless than a family vault. 
 
 And the inside corresponded with the out- 
 side. Commodious rooms half-warmed, half- 
 lighted — copies of Rubens and Murillo lining 
 the carved oak staircase, and one feeble lamp in 
 the hall below to see them by. Otway ladies 
 of the past in satin and diamonds, painted by 
 Revnolds and Gainsborouo^h, on the walls ; 
 Otway ladies of the present, in dyed-stuffs and 
 cheap shoes, leading the dullest of lives within 
 the dreary hall. Corridors lined with unused 
 rooms, massive silver candlesticks with un- 
 lighted candles in them, old furniture in the 
 taste of past generations — all spoke of dwindled 
 hospitality and declining fortunes. 
 
 The sonorous measured voice of a middle- 
 aged manservant was calling through the halls 
 and on the staircase, " Master James, Master 
 James ! " with subdued respectfulness which 
 threatened to turn into something quite different 
 when he should succeed in catching the young 
 gentleman in question. Getting no answer, 
 after having opened the doors of several rooms 
 and muttered, " I'll give it you when I do catch 
 
24 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 you, my young gentleman ! " as he shook the 
 heavy curtains of the old bedsteads, he walked 
 downstairs again and listened for a few 
 moments at the door of the drawing-room. It 
 was only to find out whether his prey was 
 there ; Sir Charles and his two middle-aged 
 sisters never had anything to talk about inter- 
 esting enough to tempt the ear of the most 
 curious of servants ; and Johnson knew the 
 anatomy of every skeleton in the Waringham 
 cupboards as well as — well, as most people. 
 He could hear Miss Eleanors cough, he could 
 hear Miss Elizabeth's rather sharp voice and 
 Sir Charles's acquiescent grunt ; but, as the lady 
 did not seem to be scolding anybody, Johnson 
 concluded that her nephew was not there ; and 
 he returned to the servants' hall to join in the 
 discussion of the event of the day. 
 
 The Bishop and two or three of the gentle- 
 men of the neighbourhood had lunched at 
 Waringham Hall that day, on the occasion of 
 the consecration of a new burial-ground, and 
 Sir Charles and his sisters were talkinof it over 
 ■ — that is to say. Miss Elizabeth Otway was 
 passing their guests in review, and her brother 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 25 
 
 and sister were listening with now and then a 
 modest comment. 
 
 Sir Charles was a small, slight, fair man of 
 about forty, with an aquiline nose and a retreat- 
 ing chin, who was only saved from utter insig- 
 nificance by his upright bearing, due to twelve 
 years' inactive service in a line regiment. The 
 same features, which expressed nothing in par- 
 ticular in his face, were full of significance in 
 the face of his sister Elizabeth, who was a few 
 years younger than himself, and who had in 
 her girlhood borne a reputation for good looks, 
 which the amount of admiration they excited in 
 the lymphatic gentlemen of the county scarcely 
 justified, but which strengthened her position 
 as leading spirit in the family circle. Her 
 manners were good, though imperious, her 
 complexion was still delicate, her fair hair still 
 pretty, her cold blue eyes still bright, and her 
 dress, in spite of the rigid economy they were 
 all forced to practise, was dainty with old lace 
 and jewelry Avhich had been in the family for 
 generations. She was not the eldest daughter 
 of the late Sir James Otway ; but she had 
 managed, in this as in other matters, to get 
 
26 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 more than her fair share of such orood thing^s 
 as came in her way. Sir Charles had always 
 been very submissive to her, and almost the 
 only point on which he had made a firm stand 
 against her superior judgment had been that 
 of his marriage ; in spite of all her attempts to 
 persuade or to entrap him into a match which 
 would supply that need of money which, as 
 times grew worse and tenants gave up their 
 farms, or required their rents lowered, got more 
 desperate every day, he obstinately persisted 
 in remainino- a bachelor. 
 
 o 
 
 Eleanor, the eldest of the family, was a 
 shrivelled and shrunken brunette, short, sallow, 
 and insignificant, who followed her sister's lead 
 dutifully in most things — spent a lazy life in 
 shivering and lounging from room to room 
 with a little woollen shawl round her shoulders,, 
 and in avoiding the fresh air, and who only 
 became plaintive over such misfortunes as five, 
 minutes* delay in the arrival of the mid-day 
 chop and glass of sherry with which her dis- 
 criminating fragility had to be sustained. She 
 had no manners to speak of, and her powers of 
 conversation were limited to trifling- subjects 
 
A DOG ^Y1TH A BAD NAME. 27 
 
 connected with religion of the uncompromising 
 sort ; but, for all that, she was far more popular 
 in the household than her sister. 
 
 They sat together by the small fire with 
 which the space round the worn white skin 
 hearthrug was economically half warmed, in the 
 little circle of light cast by a lamp and Sir 
 Charles's reading-candle. This oasis in the 
 two big, bare, lofty rooms, with its spindle- 
 legged sofa for Eleanor, a work-table with the 
 frayed silk cover neatly darned, a couple of 
 uncomfortable armchairs, a reading-table, a 
 footstool, a fire-screen, and a cushion for the 
 cat, was the only habitable spot in the expanse 
 of comfortless o^loom. HuQ^e fires in both fire- 
 places and an outlay in candles which would 
 have made the ladies shudder could hardly 
 have made the rooms cheerful, for the fioor 
 was covered by a pale carpet strewn with a 
 pattern of faded garlands connected by curly 
 ribbons : a bleak-looking light-coloured paper, 
 stained in many places with damp, hung on 
 the walls, while the doors and wainscoting were 
 white, picked out with tarnished gilding. Old- 
 fashioned furniture of the slim and fra^crile 
 
28 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 order, much of it covered with worn wool-work 
 of ugly and conventional design by the busily 
 idle fingers of past generations of Otway ladies, 
 sprinkled the wilderness sparsely, arranged in 
 little groups of a table and two chairs, an otto- 
 man and two footstools, with a prim attempt 
 at invitinor- the tete-ct-tctes which never took 
 place there, for visitors instinctively made for 
 the oasis. 
 
 " Don't you think the Bishop laughs and 
 talks politics rather too much for one in his 
 position, Elizabeth ? " asked her sister meekly. 
 ** Mr. Bamber and Canon Gillingham both tried 
 to draw him into discussion of more serious 
 matters, and each time I noticed that he 
 avoided it." 
 
 " Discussion with Canon Gillinorham is such 
 a very serious matter, that I think w^e may 
 forgive him, Eleanor." 
 
 Then Miss Elizabeth turned the subject. 
 
 " Everything would have gone well but for 
 James. Really that boy is the most ungrateful, 
 unmanageable child I ever met, Charles ! " 
 
 '' What did he do 1 I thought he seemed 
 very quiet," said Eleanor. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 2C) 
 
 *' Yes ; he was quiet as long as we wanted 
 him to be bright and talkative. But here, after 
 luncheon, when the Admiral had opened the 
 Pilgrims Progj^ess and was looking over it 
 with him, w^hen he carrie to the picture of 
 Christian going away, he said, ' And who are 
 all those unkind people laughing at him ? ' and 
 James answered quite loudly, ' I suppose they 
 are his uncles and aunts/ And of course it 
 was in a pause, when everybody was listening. 
 And it is just the sort of story that will get 
 about, and make people think we treat the 
 ungrateful, tiresome child badly. I meant to 
 have spoken to him about it when they w^ere 
 all gone, but of course he knew he had been 
 naughty and ran out to play — in his best 
 clothes. He ought to be here now to say 
 good-night — it is half-past six. Charles, will 
 you ring ? " 
 
 Her brother obeyed, and Johnson appeared, 
 like a dignified ghost in the gloom beyond the 
 lamplight. 
 
 " How Is It Master James Is not here, 
 Johnson ? " 
 
 " I can't find him, ma'am. Susan saw him 
 
30 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 going Upstairs with his arms full of sweets that 
 had been left from luncheon, that he had taken 
 off the dishes ; and now Mr. and Mrs. Corby n 
 have come to complain that he has stolen a 
 baby, ma'am." 
 
 " Stolen a baby ? " 
 
 *' Yes, ma'am. I've been looking for them, 
 and they are all looking for them ; but we can't 
 find any trace of either of them, except some 
 jelly on the stairs." 
 
 '' Dear me, this is a very extraordinary 
 story ! " said Sir Charles, rising, glad to have 
 somethinof to walk about for. " Where are 
 i\Ir. and Mrs. Corby n ? " 
 
 "In Mrs. Symes's room, sir." 
 " Ask them to come into the study." 
 The library, which was devoted to Sir 
 Charles's use, was the only comfortable room 
 in the house. A screen round the fireplace 
 protected its owner's eyes from the sight of the 
 books, which he disliked ; and his armchair 
 had been used by him and his father before 
 him till all the buttons had come off and most 
 of the surface of the leather had been worn 
 away, while the horsehair stuffing stuck out in 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 3 1 
 
 several places and tempted James, when no 
 one was in the room, to pull It out to put on 
 the hedofes for the birds to build their nests 
 with. 
 
 It was here that ]Mr. and ?^Irs. Corby n told 
 Sir Charles the story of the appearance and 
 disappearance of the little waif. They had 
 scarcely finished it when Johnson knocked at 
 the door and announced respectfully, but with 
 suppressed excitement — 
 
 '' We've found them, sir, both together, up 
 in the bachelors' wing ! " 
 
 Sir Charles led the way through the hall, 
 tellinof the farmer and his wife to follow, and 
 calling to his sisters as he passed the drawing- 
 room door. He had caught the excitement ; 
 and, snatching the candles from Johnson's 
 hands, he charged up the stairs at the head 
 of the party, with as much enthusiasm as if 
 he had been leading a forlorn hope, spilling the 
 wax at every step, and at last upsetting one 
 candle with a crash into the hall below. John- 
 son, who had been in the army himself, and 
 who was as active as his master, except when 
 in the presence of '' the family," had run round 
 
32 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Up the back staircase to warn the rest of the 
 household — all assembled to see the baby 
 Master James had run away with — of the 
 approach of the master of the house. They 
 were gathered round the door which led to the 
 bachelors' wing, a dusty, deserted old corridor 
 where no bachelors were ever found now^ 
 except among the rats and mice who picked 
 up but a poor living among the worm-eaten 
 furniture and mouldy hangings of the rooms 
 which had once held keen sportsmen, m.ad 
 lovers, charming younger sons — dead now, 
 most of them — and the rest — fogeys. 
 
 Mrs. Symes, the housekeeper, had selfishly 
 drawn the bolt of the outer door, under pre- 
 tence of not dlsturblnof the child, who was 
 asleep ; and she and the cook were standing 
 in the third bedroom, watching the little waif, 
 who was lying on a ^lusty old settee, when 
 Johnson's voice calling to them that Sir 
 Charles was coming, made them hurry out and 
 withdraw the bolt, just as the master of the 
 house and his panting suite came up. 
 
 " Well, where is the lost princess, Mrs. 
 Symes ? " 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 33 
 
 '' In the third room, sir," answered the 
 housekeeper, who was a tall, thin, melancholy 
 woman, always regretting the bygone glories 
 of the family at the time when she had just 
 entered their service as kitchen-maid, though 
 her slowness of thought, speech, and action and 
 her lugubrious aspect would have been as much 
 out of place in her present post in the good old 
 times of Waringham wealth and hospitality as 
 they were In harmony with it now that the tide 
 of fortune had turned against the Otways. 
 
 She led the way with her own candle and 
 the one Sir Charles had been dropping about, 
 which she respectfully relieved him of, to the 
 third of the row of doors w^hich ran along the 
 left-hand side of the corridor, the right-hand 
 side being occupied by windows overlooking 
 some out-buildings and the stable-yard. 
 
 '' Master James Is with her, sir, and he 
 won't let anybody touch the child. She's 
 asleep, sir," continued the housekeeper, as she 
 pushed the door open and ushered her master 
 into a mouldy-smelling bedroom, the boards of 
 the floor of which rattled under the tread. The 
 mildewed paper was in places peeling from the 
 
 VOL. I. 3 
 
34 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 outer wall ; the death-watch ticked in the wain- 
 scoting ; what little furniture had been left in 
 the disused room looked doubly old and mean 
 and worn, seen by the dim and flickering light 
 of the candles held over the low old-fashioned 
 cushioned seat on to which James the kid- 
 napper had helped his prize to climb. He had 
 thought, in a vague child's way, that, if he could 
 manao^e to brinsf her unseen to this old corridor 
 where nobody ever came, he could keep her 
 there till she grew up, and then he could marry 
 her, and they could go away together some- 
 where — to some wood, or to sea, and they 
 could take Tip, the fox-terrier, with them. He 
 could easily bring her food from the pantry, 
 where Johnson, who scolded him more fiercely 
 than anybody, but who was the only person 
 who ever treated him to a little harmless spoil- 
 ing, might make a fuss about his depredations, 
 but somehow always forgot to lock him out. 
 And now that nasty old griffin — this was Mrs. 
 Symes — had hunted him out, and come creep- 
 ing down the corridor, and he had listened 
 with a fast-beating heart while she opened each 
 creaking door. He had blown out his candle, 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 35, 
 
 drawn a curtain over the baby-girl, and hidden 
 himself under the bed. But it was in vain ; 
 the rasping, ''Come out; I see you!" so familiar 
 to children's ears, had been followed by the 
 grip of a strong bony hand upon his nearest 
 leg ; and he had been dragged out in a very 
 inconsiderate manner, and forced to give an 
 account of himself and the baby, whom the 
 housekeeper's sharp eyes had in the mean time 
 discovered. 
 
 Now, crouched beside his treasure In the 
 presence of his uncle, with his Aunt Elizabeth 
 and the avenging Corbyns in the background, 
 he felt that the end of all things was come. 
 His Imagination for horrors, like that of all 
 children who are much neo^lected or little loved, 
 was preternaturally keen ; and, after one look 
 at the awful group, he hid his face in the dusty 
 curtain he had torn down to put over the baby, 
 and waited without a sound for the tempest. 
 
 But none came, for nobody was thinking 
 about him. Sir Charles bent down over him 
 without taking any notice of him, and looked 
 at the sleeping child. Then he took one of the 
 candles from Mrs. Symes, and looked again. 
 
36 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 '• By Jove ! " said he at last. The child s 
 beauty had impressed him just as strongly as it 
 had the farmer. 
 
 "She's a picture — isn't she, sir ? " said Mrs, 
 Symes. 
 
 " Here, Elizabeth, Eleanor — come and look [ 
 I never saw such a — by Jove ! " he repeated, 
 unable to find adequate words. 
 
 His younger sister stepped forward, and 
 was forced, without much enthusiasm however, 
 to admit that the child was pretty. Mr.. 
 Corbyn's gruff voice broke in. 
 
 " Yes ; if she's as fair in her ways as she is in 
 her looks, we shan't have no cause to regret 
 we took her in — shall we, sir ? " 
 
 " Took her in ! Why, it was my nephew 
 here who took her in ! You found her first, 
 didn't you, James ? " 
 
 " Yes, uncle ; I found her in the shed, and I 
 was with her all the time. Oh, do let me keep 
 her, Uncle Charles ! " 
 
 '' What do you say to that, Mr. Corby n ? " 
 
 " I say, sir, that those ought to have her 
 that's best able to provide for her ; and if 
 Master James is better able than me to take 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 37 
 
 the responsibility of a young woman's bringing 
 up, why, then let him have her by all means ! " 
 said the farmer, doggedly. 
 
 '' Well, what if I take the responsibility for 
 him ? " 
 
 " Charles, are you dreaming ? '* cried Miss 
 Elizabeth, so sharply that the child woke up, 
 and, frightened by the crowd of strange faces, 
 began to cry lustily. 
 
 Mrs. Corbyn rushed forward ; but the two 
 men, both grown eager and rather angry, stood 
 in the way, still leaning over the child and 
 looking at it and at each other. 
 
 " You said you'd send her to the workhouse, 
 Mr. Corbyn!" cried James's shrill, childish 
 voice. He had taken courage from his uncle's 
 so unexpectedly taking up his cause. 
 
 " Look here, Corbyn ; I've taken a fancy 
 to the child too," said Sir Charles, with some 
 excitement. " Let her decide for herself. 
 Whichever of us she turns to of her own 
 accord shall keep her." 
 
 ** Charles ! " broke in his sister again ; but 
 he paid no attention to her. 
 
 "Well, I'm only a rough man, and she'd go 
 
"38 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 to you if it was only for yer watch-chain, Sir 
 Charles. Let my wife try against ye." 
 
 '* No, no ; of course she would go to the 
 woman." 
 
 "Well, let Miss Eliz " began the farmer,. 
 
 with a twinkle in his eye. 
 
 But, disgusted by her brother's freak and 
 by his want of courtesy to herself, that lady 
 had swept out of the room. 
 
 *' Well, she shall decide between you and 
 your wife, and me and my nephew." 
 
 " Of course she'll go to the gentlefolks, 
 sir. 
 
 " Well, we'll see ! I think you said you 
 believed her father was a gentleman, while 
 you know her mother was of much lower rank. 
 Then this trial is perfectly fair, and will prove 
 on which side her sympathies lie," said Sir 
 Charles, who was by this time as much in 
 earnest as the farmer. 
 
 The child had left off crying, and was 
 sitting up and staring at them very solemnly,, 
 with one chubby hand to her mouth and the 
 other buried in the old curtain, with which 
 her small admirer had covered her to keep 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 39 
 
 her warm. Mrs. Corbyn knelt down on one 
 side of her, putting her kind good-natured face 
 coaxingly near to that of the baby-girl ; her 
 husband stood behind her and nodded and 
 clucked in token of good-will. The little waif 
 turned to them at once and chuckled and 
 clapped her hands, without seeming to notice 
 the baronet down on his knees on the other 
 side of her, with his nephew standing by him, 
 watching her breathlessly. Already a pair of 
 motherly arms were closing round her, and the 
 farmer was drawing himself up in triumph, 
 when some impulse, some sound, some instinct 
 — no one knew what — made the child turn, see 
 the other two figures, and stretch out her baby- 
 arms, not to her old friend James, but to Sir 
 Charles. He was too much pleased to speak. 
 Snatching her up in his arms, he rose, and was 
 silent a moment, with the little creature against 
 his breast, before he said very quietly to the 
 farmer — 
 
 ** I've won her quite fairly, Corbyn — have 
 I not?" 
 
 "Well, I'm not saying you haven't. Sir 
 Charles. But, look, sir — if it's you that's 
 
40 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 going to charge yourself with her bringing up, 
 you'll want somewhere to put her; and won't 
 you put her with us ? You see we've taken 
 a fancy to her pretty face and her pretty little 
 ways, and we'd be kind to her, you may be 
 sure. Then, when she's old enough to enter 
 your service, she can come to the Hall, sir, or 
 we'll look after her still, just as you may 
 please." 
 
 The baronet hesitated, looking down at the 
 child, who was biting his waistcoat buttons and 
 clawing him with sticky fingers. 
 
 "Well, Corbyn, we'll see about that to- 
 morrow," said he, after a minute's considera- 
 tion. 
 
 " I hope you'll decide to let us have her, 
 sir," said the farmer's wife, with a winning, 
 timid, pleading look into the baronet's face, as 
 she followed her husband out. 
 
 Then Sir Charles walked out of the room 
 and alone the corridor and down the staircase 
 with his burden, leaving the housekeeper to 
 make a slow lunge at James, who eluded her 
 and ran away to his own room. The dinner- 
 hour drew near, and still Sir Charles did not 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 4 1 
 
 leave the library, where he had shut himself up 
 with his prize. Just as the ladies were leaving 
 the drawing-room to dress, their brothers 
 voice, calling them hastily, sounded through 
 the hall. They came to the library, the door 
 of which was open. The baby was sitting in 
 his armchair, with his watch and chain and 
 seals for playthings ; and Sir Charles, his face 
 flushed with excitement, was standing over her 
 with a dusty oil-painting in his hand. 
 
 '* Look here, Elizabeth — isn't it marvellous ? 
 Look at that child and then at this ! " 
 
 The picture w^as that of a smooth, smiling, 
 elaborately dressed child, an aunt of theirs, 
 painted when she was four, by Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence. The likeness w^as undeniable ; the 
 silky fair hair, almost flaxen, the large velvety 
 brown eyes, a quaint good humour in the 
 expression — all were attributes of the portrait 
 strikingly reproduced in the living child before 
 them. Miss Elizabeth looked startled and 
 uneasy, and glanced up in her brother's face 
 to see if he shared the suspicion which had 
 flashed through her own mind. The aunt 
 Avhose picture Sir Charles held had married 
 
42 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 badly and died, leaving a son who had been 
 for years a disgrace to the family. A scamp 
 of the worst kind, dishonest as well as 
 dissolute, he had been shipped off again and 
 again to this place and that by his relatives, 
 and returned each time, smiling, affectionate, 
 and unwelcome, to beg, borrow, and steal in 
 every ingenious way that a well-born vagabond 
 can. Nobody had heard of him for some years 
 now, and his family were beginning to hope 
 that they never would again. No deed w^as 
 too bad, no desertion too heartless, for him to 
 have committed ; and as his cousin Elizabeth 
 looked earnestly from the child to the picture, 
 she faltered instinctively — 
 
 '' Lindley Fielding ! '*' 
 
 Sir Charles started and turned to her sharply, 
 
 " Nonsense, Elizabeth ! He never was in 
 Ireland." 
 
 '' You can't be sure. We haven't heard of 
 him for a long time now." 
 
 "Why, I should have been sure to have 
 heard something of his doings when I was 
 quartered at Sligo with my regiment, if he had 
 been there ! Lindley generally manages to 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 43 
 
 make his presence known within a hundred 
 miles or so of wherever he may happen to be.' 
 
 *' Well, send the child away somewhere ; 
 don't let the Corbyns take care of it. I could 
 not rest while it was in the neighbourhood ; it 
 makes me quite uncomfortable to look at it, 
 Charles." 
 
 " You will get used to the sight of it," said 
 he, with unusual decision. '* It is only a fancy 
 of yours about Lindley, and I tell you I have a 
 superstitious feeling about keeping the little 
 creature. I believe — Heaven knows what I 
 don't believe about it — perhaps it will bring 
 luck back to the Otways. Yes, yes, I am as 
 silly as a moonstruck nursemaid about this, I 
 know. I'll do all in my power to find out its 
 mother — the woman who left it — whoever she 
 may be " — he paused, with his eyes fixed on 
 the child — " and I'll have her brought up — as 
 a lady." 
 
 " Not here," said his sister quietly, "unless 
 you wish Eleanor and me to leave Waringham. 
 You cannot expect your sisters to remain under 
 the same roof with a creature picked up " 
 
 " No, no, of course I did not mean here,'' 
 
44 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 he explained, falling into his usual tones of sub- 
 mission. " I must find some proper persons to 
 take charge of her, and " 
 
 '' And what will people say, Charles ? " 
 
 " I don't much care. I have made up my 
 mind about this as firmly as — as if you had 
 made it up for me, Elizabeth. I tell you the 
 child became a sort of religion to me from the 
 moment she put her chubby little arms round 
 my neck." 
 
 "And have you any idea what this new 
 religion will cost you ? How will you afford 
 to dress this religion and educate it and pay for 
 its maintenance with ' proper persons ' who will 
 make proper charges for this sort of under- 
 taking ? " 
 
 " I don't know ; I must find some way. 
 Perhaps I'll sell Potheen ; I hardly ever ride 
 now." 
 
 " And what are you going to call her ? She 
 has no name ; perhaps you propose giving her 
 yours — ours ! " 
 
 " No, no ! I must think about that. I 
 think she might do without one for a year or 
 two, and that will orlve time to think it over. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 45 
 
 Of course she must have a Christian name ; 
 that will be simpler." 
 
 Indeed, the child relieved him of that diffi- 
 culty herself, for, before the discussion between 
 him and his sister about her had lasted many 
 more minutes, she began to rub her eyes rest- 
 lessly and to cry pettishly, lisping out — 
 
 " Deldee go by-bye, Deldee go by -bye — 
 Deldee tired ! " 
 
 " That's it, that's her name!" said Sir Charles, 
 triumphantly, as the dinner-bell rang. '' Her 
 name is Deldee. It is short for something ; we 
 can find out what to-morrow." 
 
 His sister, finding him obstinately bent on 
 his purpose, as he always was on the rare occa- 
 sions when he did make up his own mind, left 
 the library without waiting to hear his careful 
 directions to Johnson to take " the young lady " 
 to Mrs. Symes, and to tell her to have a fire 
 lighted in the old nursery, and to take care that 
 the cot was well aired. 
 
 Perhaps it was lucky that Miss Elizabeth 
 did not stay to hear these directions. 
 
 When, after dinner, the ladies left their 
 brother, as usual, sitting in solitary state over 
 
46 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 the wine which was not hkely to tempt him to 
 injudicious indulgence, he only waited until he 
 heard the drawing-room door close upon them 
 before he rose, left his usual fascinating after- 
 dinner occupation of staring with vacant eyes 
 over the shaded lamp and two pairs of flickering 
 candles at the portraits of his ancestors and 
 ancestresses high above him in the gloom on 
 the walls, wondering what they did with their 
 money to leave him so little — and, slipping very 
 quietly, like a truant schoolboy, up the stairs, 
 he paused at the nursery-door to listen to a 
 sound which moved him strangely — the prattle 
 of children. The door was ajar ; he could look 
 in without being seen. The fire, which was 
 never lighted for Master James, was burning 
 brightly enough to show the boy, in his night- 
 shirt, sitting up in bed to talk to Deldee, whose 
 cot was drawn, by his desire, close up to the 
 side of his bed. He was apparently telling her 
 a story, and she kept interrupting him with 
 sleepy and entirely unintelligible comments. 
 At last he stopped, and, leaning over the rail 
 of the cot to examine her face, he said gravely — 
 ''And I think I'll tell you the rest to- 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 47 
 
 morrow, Deldee, for I don't believe you're 
 listening." 
 
 She made no answer ; and the boy just put 
 his hand out and gently patted the one chubby 
 little fist which was lying on the counterpane, 
 and then he lay down on his pillow and curled 
 himself up for sleep. And Sir Charles went 
 downstairs again and slipped quietly into the 
 dining-room for a few moments before opening 
 and shutting the door again loudly to proceed 
 to the drawing-room. 
 
 But his guilty action had been witnessed by 
 the butler, who had not found it difficult to keep 
 out of sight in the ill-lighted hall, from which 
 he had seen his master creeping noiselessly 
 downstairs. 
 
 '' It is the oddest thing I ever see," said he 
 that evening, in the servants' hall, where this 
 unheard-of event naturally excited plenty of 
 comment and some whispering, In which Mr. 
 Lindley Fielding's name was mentioned with 
 a ''Hush!" after It, "that Sir Charles, who 
 seemingly can't abide children, by the way he 
 treats Master James, his own brother's son and 
 an orphan, should take such a fancy to this 
 cast-off child of a tramp." 
 
48 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 *' But then the Httle thing Is so pretty. It's 
 as near what one thinks the angels are when 
 children die young and go straight up to heaven 
 as anything I ever see In a picture-book," said 
 one of the housemaids sentimentally. 
 
 ''Well, what I say Is," said Johnson, dog- 
 gedly, " It Isn't fair on Master James." 
 
 " Master James Is so rough when he's not 
 shy ; he Isn't a taking sort of child," argued the 
 cook. 
 
 '' But he's o^ot a sfood heart, for all that. 
 Look how he's took to this little tear-your-eyes- 
 out-If-you-don't-please-her, wild creature, that's 
 being petted and made much of, while he, that's 
 the heir and ought to be everybody. Is just 
 scolded and snubbed b}^ everybody — even us. 
 Why, it goes to my heart to see it — that it 
 does ! And all because he happens to be a bit 
 shy and awkward, while this picked-up vagrant 
 has the cheek of Old Harry! It's a shame, 
 that's what It Is — a shame ! " 
 
 But if they had been able to see into the 
 coming years and the events which these would 
 bring to Warlngham Hall, even Johnson would 
 not have given all his pity to " Master James." 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 49 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Sir Charles's unusual burst of energy lasted 
 long enough for him to carry his point with 
 regard to the education of the child so strangely 
 brought under his roof, but not long enough for 
 him to pursue his inquiries into her antecedents 
 very far. It did, indeed, suddenly occur to him, 
 late in the evening of the day after that of her 
 unexpected arrival, that he ought to try to find 
 out her mother ; but he put it off in his usual 
 dilatory fashion for two or three days, so that 
 when at last he caused an inquiry to be made 
 in the neighbourhood as to the appearance and 
 disappearance of the woman, it was too late for 
 him to hope to track her without taking more 
 energetic measures than he was ready to use. 
 Deldee, who retained that form of name which 
 some ingenious person guessed to have been 
 
 VOL. I. 4 
 
50 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 originally Geraldine, could give very little help 
 in solving the mystery about herself. She cried 
 at first from time to time for ''mamma," but 
 was consoled with ease which said little for her 
 constancy. Indeed, she gave very few signs of 
 possessing any of the qualities usually called 
 good. She was impatient, exacting, wilful, 
 greedy, and absolutely savage when thwarted. 
 But she was so pretty, so bright, and had such 
 fascinating, coaxing little ways, that it required 
 strength of mind such as only Miss Elizabeth,, 
 of all the household at Waringham, possessed, 
 to resist her. But for his sister. Sir Charles 
 would have braved comment by keeping the 
 child at the Hall. He was miserable at parting* 
 from her ; and when she uttered a sharp scream 
 and clung to his coat as he gave her a last fond 
 hug before leaving her in the charge of the two 
 excellent ladies who had undertaken the re- 
 sponsibility of her physical and mental wants, 
 it needed all their remonstrances and their too 
 true assurances that she would be consoled as^ 
 soon as he was out of sight to prevent him from 
 taking her home again with him. 
 
 The Misses Gretton, who had been recom- 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 5 1 
 
 mended by the Vicar of Warlngham as the 
 very persons for such a task as that of turning- 
 the wilful waif into a model young lady with all 
 the latest improvements, were two middle-aged 
 sisters who had formerly kept a fashionable 
 ladies' school at a well-known seaside town on 
 the south coast, but who had retired early 
 owing to the ill-health of the younger, and 
 settled in their birthplace, Copsley, a dull little 
 town in Suffolk. They had made many objec- 
 tions at first to the unsatisfactory parentage 
 of their proposed charge. But the sight of a 
 back to be drilled and toes to be turned out 
 was to the elder Miss Gretton as the sound of 
 the bugle to the old war-horse, and before 
 Deldee had been many minutes in their 
 presence both sisters had yielded to the won- 
 derful charm the little creature exercised on 
 almost every one with whom she came in 
 contact. 
 
 "Why, I believe it is a fairy!" exclaimed 
 Miss Emma Gretton, the younger, at last. 
 
 And that speech, agreeing so well with Sir 
 Charles's superstitious convictions concerning 
 his pet, won his heart, and. satisfied him that 
 
 .v'.;?^0J5 
 
52 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 he had done right in trusting Deldee to the 
 care of these gentle ladies, who, when their first 
 reluctance was once overcome, promised faith- 
 fully to do their best with her. 
 
 They kept their word — to the unruly 
 Deldee's cost. The vigilance which had kept 
 twenty-five budding women in order at once 
 being now all concentrated upon this solitary 
 mite, she was drilled and instructed and im- 
 proved with a watchful yet kindly strictness 
 which subdued the impulsive manners and kept 
 under the wild spirit, until, after some years 
 passed in their care, no trace of the naughty 
 baby was to be seen in the shy, reserved, and 
 studious girl that, at twelve years old, she had 
 become. 
 
 During all those nine years Sir Charles 
 never failed — except on one occasion, when a 
 slight seizure of some sort which frightened 
 the household by a threat of paralysis, confined 
 him to the house for several days — to walk or 
 ride three or four times a week the seven miles 
 which lay between Waringham, just within the 
 borders of Norfolk, and Copsley, which was in 
 Suffolk ; though the prim and shy girl with 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 53 
 
 pigtail and schoolroom apron had lost, for the 
 time at least, a good deal of the charm of the 
 fascinating and forward baby. 
 
 During the very first week after Deldee's 
 departure from Waringham, Master James made 
 his appearance on the top of the high garden 
 wall of the dull-looking old house in Copsley, 
 just at the moment when the girl, fearless and 
 mischievous as usual, having escaped into the 
 narrow and now flowerless strip of ground, was 
 amusing herself by trying to take away a bone 
 from a big dog that was chained up there. 
 Just as James, untidy, breathless, and covered 
 with mud, slid down the wall and ran up her. 
 Miss Gretton appeared at the back drawing- 
 room window, and, not unnaturally mistaking 
 him for some undesirable acquaintance Deldee 
 had picked up before her rise in life, she hurried 
 the poor boy through the house and out at 
 the door without listening to his explanations. 
 Tired and mortified, he got back to Waringham, 
 partly on his weary feet, partly by the help of 
 a friendly cart. On his way he came to a 
 grand resolution ; and next morning, when Sir 
 Charles had mumbled through prayers in his 
 
54 A DOG WITH A BAD ^^AME. 
 
 usual inaudible tones, his nephew made a 
 nervous rush at him as he was leaving the 
 room, and jerked out, in a choking voice — 
 
 '' Uncle Charles, I found her — I brought 
 her here ! Oughtn't they to let me see her ? 
 Please make them." 
 
 His uncle had stopped and looked down at 
 him. He was not fond of the boy ; he had 
 had a curious prejudice against him from the 
 very day when, two years ago, he had taken 
 the boy to Waringham on the death of his 
 younger brother, Master James's father; but 
 his sense of justice told him that there was 
 reason in his nephew's words. Once a week 
 thenceforward James was driven over to 
 Copsley to eat cake and enjoy Deldee's society 
 in the stiff drawing-room, in the stately presence 
 of her two guardians, who thought him a very 
 gentlemanly boy, but rather old-fashioned in his 
 manners. But when the two ladies went to the 
 seaside every year, Sir Charles took it into his 
 head to ask them to take his nephew also ; and 
 those holiday-weeks which the children spent 
 together were a golden time for both of them. 
 Then all the malice and mischief which seemed 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 55 
 
 to have been uprooted by the Gretton rdgime 
 sprang into new life, and Deldee tyrannized 
 over him and thumped him and pinched him 
 when he annoyed her, and made it up again 
 with a violence almost equally aggressive, in a 
 way which would have much shocked her 
 guardians could they have guessed that the 
 beautifully correct manners their pupil observed 
 towards her companion when in their presence 
 were instantly put off as soon as their confiding 
 backs were turned. And James worshipped 
 her dutifully ; and when he went to Winchester 
 — he being then thirteen and she eight — he 
 told her that she was getting old enough to 
 think seriously of things, and that she must 
 look upon him as her future husband. Deldee 
 was quite ready to do that — too ready, James 
 thought — for he could not but feel that the 
 promptness with which she nodded assent, over 
 a piece of almond rock which she was eating, 
 to all the grave propositions he was making to 
 her, denoted a lightness of mind which spoke 
 ill for her constancy. 
 
 *' You are a giddy girl, Deldee ! " said he, 
 patronizingly. " You don't understand things 
 
56 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 half as well as I did when I was your age. 
 But then, of course, you're a girl ; and that 
 makes the difference. Well, I must speak to 
 you about it when you are older." 
 
 But alas for human consistency ! At Win- 
 chester the lonely boy found himself In a new 
 world, among new occupations, new pleasures. 
 His sturdy clumsy form grew straight, supple, 
 and athletic in the playground, his facility in 
 learning made his progress in the school 
 brilliant, while his gentle, easily led disposition 
 gave him dangerous popularity. When he 
 returned to Waringham, at each successive 
 vacation taller, handsomer, and with a better 
 report of his college successes, he did indeed 
 still submit fondly to Deldee's caprices and con- 
 tinue to remind her that she was to marry him 
 when she grew up ; but at each return there 
 was a shade more sense of fun in his proposal 
 and a shade more seriousness in her acceptance 
 of it — until, when he, a big, bright, good-look- 
 ing lad of seventeen, took leave of her In 
 affectionate, but most lively fashion, on the 
 occasion of her going to France to be *' finished," 
 she — a shy slim girl of twelve, with fair hair 
 
A DQG \YITH A BAD NAME. 57 
 
 Still in pigtail and flashing eyes of velvety 
 brown, that promised to do their share of 
 mischief some day — grew silent and awkward, 
 and tried to withdraw her cheek from the 
 matter-of-course kiss which he, grown bold 
 enough now, gave her in the very presence of 
 the Misses Gretton. 
 
 '' You are not to forget that you are engaged 
 to me. Don't let me hear of your flirting with 
 some fellow at a French lycde^' he found an 
 opportunity of whispering to her presently, as 
 he pressed her red, bony girl's hand, and gave 
 her a long sentimental look with his good- 
 humoured, gentle blue eyes. 
 
 And he had not the least idea of the effect 
 his tender, half-jesting, half-serious speech had 
 upon the passionate, imaginative child-woman. 
 She remained in France four years, having 
 been provided, at the suggestion of Miss 
 Gretton, with a surname. After having con- 
 sidered the matter carefully for some days. Sir 
 Charles — without mentioning the fact to his 
 sisters — had given her one of the family names, 
 and sent her to school at St. Denis as Miss 
 Geraldine Lindley. She expressed some sur- 
 
5^ A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 prise on learning that Gretton, which she had 
 used as her own, was not her name ; but, having 
 been told long ago that she was the orphan 
 daughter of two dear friends of Sir Charles, 
 this fact awoke no suspicion in her mind. She 
 did not come to England for any holidays — this 
 had been Insisted upon by Sir Charles's sister 
 Elizabeth, who grew fiercer every year In her 
 resentment against the girl who had taken up 
 so much of her brother's love, and, far worse, 
 of his money. This he agreed to the more 
 readily, as it put off the approaching day when 
 the girl he loved as his own child must make 
 the terrible discovery of her own position. He 
 had not reckoned for this difficulty when an 
 irresistible impulse of tenderness and admi- 
 ration had made him adopt the beautiful little 
 waif and treat her so generously ; when it first 
 occurred to him, It was characteristic of him 
 that he set about evading It. In spite of the 
 wise objections of the Misses Gretton, he in- 
 sisted that she was to be kept In entire Igno- 
 rance of the truth, that she was not to know 
 that he himself lived near, and that his sisters 
 were never to be mentioned to her. She was to 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 59 
 
 be made to believe that he came from a distance 
 to see her. James was bound to be equally- 
 silent ; and as, besides being by nature honour- 
 able, he knew Deldee was not to be trusted 
 with a secret, he was discreet ; and, though she 
 knew his home was with Sir Charles, she did 
 not know where that home was, for she had 
 no recollection of Warlngham Hall. To all 
 the remonstrances of the Misses Gretton, Sir 
 Charles replied that he would break It to her 
 some day — that he had a plan. But they 
 -shrewdly guessed that that plan was to leave the 
 story untold as long as possible, and then to 
 shift the telling of It on to some one else's 
 shoulders. 
 
 And as, during those four Inquiring, self- 
 tormenting, transition years of a girl's life from 
 twelve to sixteen, she was surrounded by 
 people who could tell her nothing about her 
 parentage and her prospects, she lived In 
 happy Ignorance of her own history ; while a 
 certain natural reserve and distinction of man- 
 ner, which Increased the effect of her beauty 
 and accomplishments, gave rise to a belief 
 among her companions that she was '^ an 
 
6o A DOG WITH A BAD NAINIE. 
 
 heiress " — a belief which in time naturall}^ 
 affected her also, and seemed the reasonable 
 explanation of the semi-conventual care which 
 had guarded her childhood. At last, as Miss 
 Gretton took no notice of the suggestions in 
 her old pupil's letters that she would like to 
 know something more than had been told her 
 about her parents and position, the girl wrote 
 more boldly, begging Miss Gretton to let her 
 know whether certain small extravagances in 
 dress in which she had indulged were justified 
 by her prospects. The old lady showed this 
 letter gravely to Sir Charles, who said he 
 would reply to it. But he had not the heart 
 to rebuke her, to warn her ; he merely wrote 
 to say that, in answer to her very natural 
 questions, it was time for her to know that her 
 father had been a brother-officer of his own 
 who had not been very well off, but had been 
 able to leave her properly provided for; he 
 himself was her trustee and guardian, and there 
 was no need for her to stint herself in any of 
 a young lady's little wants and whims. 
 
 So that, while Sir Charles and his sisters 
 lived with strict economy which bordered upon 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 6 1 
 
 niggardliness at Waringham, the little vagrant 
 picked up In a shed held among her companions 
 the envied position of a rich girl with whom 
 money was no object. Happily this elevation 
 was not attained at great cost, for the school 
 at St. Denis, though good, was not a fashion- 
 able one. To meet the expense of Deldee's 
 education, Sir Charles, unknown to his sisters, 
 to whom he understated the cost of it, had sold 
 one of his farms and cut down some timber on 
 a remote part of the estate ; but, during the 
 thirteen years between the child's adoption and 
 her return from France, no day passed without 
 some cutting allusion from Elizabeth Otway to 
 her brother's criminal philanthropy, which would 
 keep a vagrant In comfort while his sisters 
 almost starved. If they starved, however, he 
 starved too ; and he might have pointed out to 
 her that they might all have lived more com- 
 fortably, if she would only have consented to 
 reduce their retinue of Idle servants and the 
 number of horses In the stable to their modest 
 needs. But there were traditions to be kept 
 up In the face of poverty, of discomfort, of 
 disunion. And so, though the days of Waring- 
 
62 A DOG WITH A BAD NAT^IE. 
 
 ham hospitality were gone by, there were two> 
 discontented servants to do the work of every 
 one, and the coach-house was stored with big 
 barouche, and with dog-cart, waggonette, and 
 phaeton rotting in the damp and darkness, now 
 that there were no guests to drive to meet or to 
 battue, when one small brougham w^ould have 
 amply fulfilled all the requirements of the 
 family. 
 
 , When Deldee had been away two years 
 and James was nineteen, he began to give 
 his uncle some uneasiness by growing rather" 
 ** wild," and at last announced his disinclination 
 to enter the Church, for which, that being the 
 only profession in which Sir Charles had strong 
 interest, he was intended. Argument, persua- 
 sion, warning followed, and at length the young 
 man consented to be placed with a private 
 tutor in order to prepare himself for the only 
 profession in which, as his uncle assured him, 
 he had any chance of rapid advancement. 
 
 But two years later, just before Deldee s 
 expected return, and just before he had com- 
 pleted his twenty-rirst year, a fresh lit of mad 
 impatience against his intended career seized 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 6^ 
 
 him ; he expressed a restless wish to travel, to 
 see something more of life and the world than 
 the rigid economy want of money had forced 
 upon him allowed him to do. And Sir Charles, 
 to keep him quiet, resolved to entrust him 
 with a long-delayed task which he had set 
 himself — to go to Ireland and entrust a solicitor 
 he had formerly known, now living in Dublin, 
 wath the task of trying to trace out the parent- 
 age of Deldee. Certain vague suspicions, 
 which had strengthened as the years went by, 
 that the child had not been left by accident 
 in the neighbourhood of Waringham Hall, had 
 increased his wish to solve the mystery which 
 hung about her ; and the letter which James 
 carried to Mr. Massey, a man in whom Sir 
 Charles had reason to place the utmost con- 
 fidence, contained the most explicit instructions 
 and the clearest indications as to the nature of 
 his suspicions. 
 
 James took leave of his uncle and of his 
 aunts, and started on his mission In the begin- 
 ning of June. As he stood in the hall, ready 
 for his journey, with the excitement of a wish 
 about to be realized lighting up his face, tall, 
 
64 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Stalwart, handsome, Sir Charles was forced to 
 feel, for almost the first time, a glow of pride 
 in his heir. With cold Elizabeth, who wor- 
 shipped success, James had long since become 
 a somewhat unresponsive darling ; the sensitive 
 nature could not forget the early snubs inflicted 
 by the hard one. 
 
 *'When Deldee comes back, I shall have 
 a handsome pair of young people about me," 
 said Sir Charles to his nephew, in a voice too 
 low for the ladies to hear. 
 
 '' Deldee ! Oh yes, she is coming back 
 this summer, isn't she ? Tell her from me 
 that " 
 
 "Why, you can give your messages your- 
 self. You are only going to be away a month, 
 and she does not return till late in August." 
 
 " Oh, ah, yes, I had forgotten ! " said the 
 young man, with a moment's constraint. xA.nd 
 he turned to his aunts, and lightly told them 
 to expect him with a brogue and a shillelagh. 
 
 But something in his tone had struck Sir 
 Charles ; and, when the young fellow had given 
 both his aunts an unusually affectionate kiss 
 and pressed his uncle's hand stedfastly without 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 65- 
 
 looking him In the face, and had driven off 
 with unaccountable moisture in his blue eyes, 
 the baronet started forward with an alarmed 
 expression of face, and called him back. But 
 James did not or would not hear. And Sir 
 Charles stepped absently back into the hall 
 just as his younger sister was saying — 
 
 " There is the stamp of success about that 
 boy. I believe he will bring the old days back 
 to Waringham." 
 
 But Eleanor said, in her thin querulous 
 voice — 
 
 '' I hope he may, I m sure, Elizabeth. But 
 he has poor dear James's weak mouth, and, for 
 a young man destined for the Church, his views 
 are by no means serious." 
 
 ** So much the better ; he will look beyond 
 his flock. James will be a bishop, and for that, 
 you know, he must be a man of this world as 
 well as a pilot to the next." 
 
 Eleanor was too submissive to her sister 
 even to look shocked by this speech ; but it 
 hurt her, as the hard and sometimes flippant 
 remarks of her clever sister often did. Sir 
 Charles listened to them both, but went into 
 
 VOL. I. 5 
 
66 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 the library without any comment on their 
 words. 
 
 They received letters from James, telling 
 of his safe arrival in Dublin, and of his fulfil- 
 ment of his mission so far at least as the 
 delivery of the letter to the lawyer was con- 
 cerned. He knew what the subject of that 
 letter was, and had been instructed by his uncle 
 to supplement it by replying to such questions 
 concerning Deldee and her first appearance at 
 Waringham as Mr. Massey might think fit to 
 put to him. But of this part of his task he said 
 nothing, nor did the solicitor when he acknow- 
 ledged the receipt of the letter and promised 
 Sir Charles to do his utmost in the matter. 
 
 Then there was a pause. James was a bad 
 correspondent, and they were not much sur- 
 prised at not hearing from him ; but, as Ireland 
 was in rather a more disturbed state than usual, 
 they began, after three weeks' silence, to be 
 rather uneasy about him. 
 
 '' I dare say we shall not hear a word until 
 he suddenly turns up brimming over with 
 adventures, and mad either for or against Irish 
 patriots," said Elizabeth. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 67 
 
 *' Do you think it was quite wise to let him 
 •go to a place like Ireland at such a time as this, 
 considering how rash and headstrong young 
 men are, and how they will rush into danger 
 for the sake of excitement ? " asked Eleanor, 
 nervously. " Supposing he should get into 
 mischief ? " 
 
 Sir Charles fidgeted and pulled his 
 moustache. 
 
 "If young men want to get into mischief, 
 they can make it for themselves anywhere ; 
 and, if a lad of twenty-one can't take care of 
 himself, I hardly think he is worth taking care 
 of," said the baronet. '' He's all right, depend 
 upon it. Ireland isn't so bad as it's painted ; 
 I've lived there, and I know." 
 
 Still, there was a trace of anxiety in his 
 -eyes, as well as in those of his sisters ; and, 
 when the month allowed for James's holiday 
 was over and still no news came of him, they 
 could no longer hide from each other their 
 alarm. He was to have spent his time travel- 
 ling about the country, staying at Killarney, 
 and visiting some friends of the family who had 
 a seat in County Down. Without saying any- 
 
68 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 thing about it to his sisters, Sir Charles wrote 
 to these friends and received the repl}' that 
 they had heard nothing of the young man, 
 whom they had expected, but who had never 
 appeared. Mr. Massey, too, had heard nothing 
 about him since his deHvery of the letter from 
 Sir Charles. 
 
 The suspense at Waringham was at its 
 height when, ten weeks after James Otway's- 
 departure, Geraldine Lindley returned, by Sir 
 Charles's arrangement, back to her old guar- 
 dians, the Misses Gretton, who received her 
 with joy and affection. Increasing years had 
 taken the edge off the duenna-like asperity of 
 the elder, and the beautiful bright-faced young 
 girl was welcomed by both sisters as a ray of 
 sunshine to cheer their old age. As for Sir 
 Charles, who had kept the date of her return 
 a secret from his own sisters, and had found 
 that business required him to be in town at the 
 time, his pride and delight on finding how 
 brilliantly she had fulfilled the promise of her 
 pretty babyhood knew no bounds. But, at the 
 first moment of his meeting her at Victoria 
 Station, he was struck by an indefinable like- 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 69 
 
 ness to the fairest among the ladies of his own 
 family, which was even more noticeable in the 
 graceful accomplished girl of sixteen than it 
 had been in the merry, active little waif of 
 three. He took her back to Copsley, dreading 
 all the way that she would ask some question 
 about James, the answer to which, revealing 
 the anxiety her old playfellow's long absence 
 Avas causing to his friends, must necessarily 
 pain her. But she did not ask a single direct 
 question about him, though she mentioned his 
 name several times, and each time Sir Charles 
 let the subject drop. 
 
 It was through Miss Emma Gretton that 
 she first heard the bad news, which she 
 received with such unmoved tranquillity of 
 manner that the elder lady was rather pained 
 to see her show so little feelinof. 
 
 '' Don't you understand, my dear ? We 
 have every reason — his uncle has every reason 
 to believe that something very serious, perhaps 
 something fatal, may have happened to the 
 poor young gentleman." 
 
 " I hope not, I'm sure. Miss Emma. But 
 it is no one's fault but his own if he has got 
 
yO A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 into some difficulty. You say it was his own 
 w^ish to go," said Geraldine, quietly. 
 
 And Miss Emma told her sister, when they 
 were alone together, that, in turning out so 
 clever, their old pupil was growing rather hard. 
 
 She was clever, there was no doubt of that. 
 Her playing of harp and piano was showy and 
 brilliant ; her drawing and painting remarkable 
 for clear, careful resemblance to the copy ; 
 her French, German, and Italian correct and 
 fluent. And the wish for further improvement,, 
 which was not likely to die in the society of 
 the ex-schoolmistress, made her devote herself 
 still to study. To the old ladies she seemed 
 a paragon. 
 
 " How fortunate, my dear ! " said the elder 
 to her sister. '' She will make an admirable 
 governess. I shall not hint that to Sir 
 Charles ; but we must do our best, very 
 gradually of course, to prepare Geraldine's mind 
 for the thought of a career of tuition. Then, 
 indeed, Sir Charles's generosity will not have 
 been thrown away. She will be able to enter 
 a nobleman's family, Emma ; and, later, with 
 tlie help of Sir Charles's influence, she might 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. "Jl 
 
 become principal of a ladles' college. Her 
 propects in the direction of instruction are 
 positively boundless." 
 
 " I hope she may be worthy of them, 
 Rebecca. She certainly shows most praise- 
 worthy Industry. But you know she has 
 hardly yet arrived at the crucial test of the 
 period when young girls are apt to let frivolous 
 and regrettable ideas of gaiety and admiration 
 turn their attention from steady effort to the 
 vain things of this world." 
 
 "If you mean to a husband, Emma, I am 
 sure I hope she may find one. For I know, 
 if I had been handsome enough to attract a 
 worthy man, I would have jumped at him," 
 candidly confessed the elder, whose long 
 withered face and keen black eyes would now 
 and then sparkle with a flash of humour and 
 shrewd common-sense through the crust of 
 prim rigidity formed by nearly half a century 
 of strict scholastic discipline. 
 
 For nearly a year Geraldine lived quietly 
 on, as uneventfully as if she had been a 
 cloistered nun, with nothing but Sir Charles's 
 visits to break the monotony of the long days 
 
72 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 of diligent study varied only by the slow 
 measured constitutionals of a mile or two a 
 day, which were all that the elder Miss 
 Gretton, active as she was by nature, now 
 cared to take, and by the girl's visits to the 
 neighbouring cottagers. In none of these 
 expeditions did she ever get as far as 
 Waringham ; and she never guessed how near 
 it was to Copsley. 
 
 No news came to Sir Charles, either of his 
 nephew's fate or ol any result of the search for 
 Geraldine's parents, until the autumn of the 
 year in which the young girl reached the age 
 of seventeen. Then Sir Charles received a 
 letter from Mr. Massey which, coupled with 
 reports in the newspapers, came upon the 
 whole household like a thunderbolt. 
 
 James Otway was one of six men arrested 
 on a charge of murder. The victim was a 
 farmer named Hughes, and the motive of the 
 outrage was said to be revenge for the 
 resentment Hughes had shown at an insult 
 offered by James Otway to his daughter. Sir 
 Charles and his sisters at once decided that 
 there was some mistake, that the James Otway 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 73 
 
 who had been apprehended could not be their 
 nephew, and the baronet wrote back to the 
 lawyer to that effect. 
 
 Mr. Massey replied that he was sorry to 
 say there was no possibility of doubt upon the 
 subject. 
 
 " Mr. Lindley Fielding," he wrote, " your 
 unworthy cousin, about whom you have so 
 often had to consult me, called at my office 
 the other day, frankly owning that the sight 
 of another member of his family in difficulties 
 w^as, next to his kindness of heart, the attraction 
 which had taken him to see his nephew. He 
 said that he had found Mr. James Otway much 
 depressed and ashamed of himself, and that he 
 wished his family to forget his existence, should 
 the law, on account of some doubt as to who 
 struck the finishing blow at Hughes, allow him 
 to live. In addition to this evidence, I, having 
 reason to mistrust Mr. Fielding as a witness 
 in any matter, myself visited the prisoner 
 James Otway, who was in truth, as his relative 
 had for once correctly reported, deeply cast 
 down and unable to look me in the face. I 
 have done what I could for him, and I can 
 
74 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 undertake to say that he will be most ably 
 defended. But I fear I must add that the 
 most you can hope for is that the capital 
 sentence may be commuted in this case to 
 penal servitude. I will not press you to come 
 and see him, knowing your reluctance to do so. 
 You may rely upon his having the benefit of 
 every exertion in my power. Mr. Fielding 
 made many inquiries, which I answered with 
 caution, about Miss Geraldine Lindley, of 
 whom he must have have heard through Mr. 
 James Otway, your nephew. I don't know 
 what idea he has in his restless, mischief- 
 spinning brain about this young lady ; but I 
 would advise you to be on the look-out." 
 
 A few weeks later, the six prisoners were 
 tried at the Munster Assizes, and the sentence 
 passed upon James Otway was — " Penal servi- 
 tude for life." 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Five years have passed uneventfully over the 
 stagnant household at Waringham Hall since 
 the day when Sir Charles Otway and his sisters 
 learnt the terrible news that their nephew James 
 had been sentenced, on a charge of participa- 
 tion in a murder, to penal servitude for life. 
 He is dead to them now ; his name is never 
 mentioned ; his room, which had been, by order 
 of his Aunt Elizabeth, kept constantly ready 
 for his return up to the very day of his appre- 
 hension, was locked up, just as it was, by her 
 own hand, and has never since been opened. 
 It is a sepulchre of dead memories, many of 
 which the cold proud woman would fain forget 
 — for conscience tells her of a boyhood dreary 
 and joyless through unsympathetic treatment ; 
 and in the night-time she sometimes fancies she 
 again hears the patter of little feet, as she used 
 
70 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 often to do while in her room dressing for 
 dinner, when James, sent to bed early and 
 supperless for some trifling childish fault quite 
 undeserving of such a harsh punishment, 
 shuffled sobbing along the corridor, sometimes 
 stopping outside her door for a moment to give 
 an ostentatiously loud moan of grief, in the vain 
 hope of softening her. 
 
 The Hall became gloomier than ever, 
 Elizabeth more imperious, Eleanor more queru- 
 lous. Sir Charles, now close upon sixty, more 
 silent. The very servants — the youngest 
 middle-aged by this time — had grown into a 
 mournful gravity which harmonized with the 
 threadbare carpets and the mouldy hangings, 
 and with the fallen fortunes of the family. 
 
 One consolation Sir Charles had which his 
 sisters did not share. Three times a week he 
 rode over to Copsley to see his adopted 
 daughter, who, at twenty-two, was still with her 
 old instructress — the younger being dead — 
 living something like the life of a nun. Most 
 of the people about the neighbourhood had 
 learnt her story, though she herself still re- 
 mained in ignorance of it ; and she had a circle 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. *]^ 
 
 of acquaintances, consisting of those few lawyers 
 and doctors and clergymen about Copsley whom 
 Miss Gretton honoured with her Intimacy, and 
 of a chirping colony of old maids. Among 
 these latter she would long ago have learnt the 
 manner of her coming to Warlngham but for a 
 very natural suspicion to which her likeness to 
 the Otway family. Sir Charles's fondness, and 
 his sisters' well-known virulent dislike had lonsf 
 ago given rise. 
 
 The eirl herself had borne her isolated life 
 outwardly well ; but the fierce cravings of a 
 young woman for excitement, for admiration, 
 for sympathy, for love, were intensified by her 
 position to such a degree of fever-heat in her 
 passionate, emotional nature, that, had it not 
 been for one resource, she must have broken 
 the bounds of her dull prison life. This re- 
 source was the common one of solitary women, 
 the spoiling of ream after ream of good paper 
 with bad verses, long-winded stories, trite 
 essays, of no value to any one but the owner ; 
 but they saved her from madness of one sort or 
 another, and that of course was something. 
 
 She was much admired by the golden youth 
 
78 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 of the county ; but her anomalous position had 
 kept away any admirers whom her protectresses 
 would have considered worthy of encourage- 
 ment, until lately, when the only son of the old 
 Vicar of Waringham, Reginald Bamber, a hand- 
 some man of about thirty, just returned from 
 America, on the look-out for a wife, had been 
 so much struck by the girl's beauty and graceful 
 modesty of manner that he entreated his father 
 to ask Sir Charles the truth about the girl. He 
 was a man of too calm and prudent a nature to 
 offer himself to her in spite of everything ; but 
 he was deeply enough in love with her not to 
 be able to resist the temptation of throwing 
 himself a good deal in her way. She was more 
 of a coquette than the disdainful indifference 
 with which she had treated the admiration of 
 the county gentlemen around would have led 
 her friends to believe ; and the attention of the 
 dignified, handsome, sweet-voiced Reginald 
 Bamber, whom all the girls she knew were 
 raving about, gave a pleasant variety to her 
 dull life which led her to give him tacit en- 
 couragement and to make him feel more sure of 
 her liking than he had any reason to be. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 79 
 
 When Mr. Bamber approached the subject 
 of Geraldlne's history as deHcately as he could, 
 and asked Sir Charles if he thought it fair to 
 the girl to let her remain In a neighbourhood 
 where the suspicions cast upon her birth might 
 possibly injure her prospects, the baronet felt 
 that the Vicar's words contained a truth to 
 which he had long tried to blind himself. 
 
 '' You are right, Bamber," said he, after a 
 long pause, during which he had sat like a 
 culprit, with bent head, accusing and excusing 
 himself. ''It Is not fair to the girl. And I 
 will set it right — yes, I will set it right. She 
 shall come here, whatever my sisters may say ; 
 and, once at Waringham Hall, no one will dare 
 to say a word against her. Heaven knows her 
 presence will let a flood of light Into the old 
 vault, and frighten away some of the black 
 shadows that have crept into the corners of late 
 years." 
 
 The Vicar was amazed. He thought it not 
 at all unlikely that the baronet would carry his 
 point with that dogged obstinacy he could show 
 when he was at last forced by circumstances to 
 make up his mind upon any point ; but whether 
 
8o A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 the " flood of sunshine " would long continue to 
 shed any light in the grim presence of those 
 two withered sisters who hated her already, and 
 whose hate would not be likely to diminish 
 when brought into personal contact with its 
 object, was another matter. After looking in 
 some perplexity at his old friend and neighbour 
 for some minutes after this announcement, the 
 Vicar rose to his feet and got out of his diffi- 
 culty in a characteristic manner. 
 
 " Well, think it over, think it over," he said, 
 as he shook hands with the baronet and left 
 him to his reflections. 
 
 These were not wholly cheerful ones. The 
 explanation he had so long dreaded, so long 
 shuffled out of, could be put off no longer. 
 Geraldine must learn that she had lived on lies ; 
 that there was a mystery about her birth ; that 
 she was penniless ; that he had two sisters who 
 disliked her. He counted upon their aversion 
 melting like snow before the sun under the 
 influence of her sweetness and charm ; but still 
 it would not do for her to come Into their 
 presence In Ignorance of any circumstance in 
 her own histor}', to risk its being told to her 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME, 8 1 
 
 less kindly than by his own lips. She had been 
 as a daughter to him, he as a father to her, for 
 eighteen years now ; he would adopt her frankly 
 now, and the fact of his sisters' receiving her 
 under the same roof with them — for they should 
 receive her, he had resolved upon that — would 
 silence the tattle of the neighbourhood, and 
 make people receive the meagre account which 
 was all he had to give them as indeed the truth. 
 Yes, on the very next day he would ride over 
 as usual to Copsley ; but, instead of sitting as 
 usual, almost monosyllabically listening to the 
 prattle which was always cheerful for him, he 
 would take her out for a walk with him, and 
 make that strange and difficult confession as 
 best he might. 
 
 But his decision had been made too late, and 
 his confession was to be forestalled. 
 
 On the morning after Sir Charles's conver- 
 sation with the Vicar, Geraldine was walking 
 through a lane a little way from Copsley, with a 
 basket in her hand containing some jelly and 
 broth for a sick woman. She was alone, for 
 Miss Gretton did not feel well enough to 
 accompany her. Rather glad to be able to 
 VOL. I. 6 
 
82 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 choose her own pace, she was tripping along 
 as fast as her feet could carry her, the April 
 air quickening her young blood, brightening 
 her soft brown eyes, and bringing a glow of 
 rich colour to her cheeks, when, turning quickly 
 into a grass-covered cartway which led to the 
 row of cottages which was the end of her 
 journey, she came face to face with two 
 gentlemen ; one was the curate, the other a 
 stranger whom she had several times lately met 
 in his company. She had heard a good deal 
 of gossip lately as to who this strange gentle- 
 man could be, who had for the last few days 
 come over so frequently from Colchester, where 
 it was understood that he was staying, appa- 
 rently for no other motive than to enjoy the 
 society of the curate, Mr. Meadows, whose 
 acquaintance he had made last Sunday after 
 service, and who, though a good little fellow 
 enough and quite a favourite everywhere but 
 in the pulpit, was not the sort of companion 
 people would have expected such a well-dressed 
 and well-bred-looking man as the stranger to- 
 find very interesting. 
 
 Geraldine had taken a dislike to the maa 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 83 
 
 ever since the first moment when she had met 
 his critical stare of approval in church ; and she 
 felt very much annoyed when the curate, after 
 a few low words from his companion, said, in 
 the hurried nervous manner peculiar to him 
 when not preaching — in the pulpit vigorous 
 denunciation was his forte — 
 
 '* Miss Lindley, will you allow me to 
 introduce to you my friend Mr. Howard ? '' 
 
 She bowed rather coldly, and exchanged a 
 few remarks with her new acquaintance in a 
 hard, smileless, almost repellant manner which 
 she could assume when she was not pleased. 
 She thought Mr. Meadows had taken a liberty 
 in forcing upon her this introduction to a man 
 who, although his manner was that of a certain 
 class of gentlemen, was, some Instinct told her, 
 an undesirable acquaintance. Mr. Howard was 
 not of the type of men who are easily snubbed, 
 and he took care not to let her pass on until, by 
 an adroit remark, he had at last drawn an un- 
 willing smile from her. She then continued 
 her walk, fulfilled her errand, paid two or three 
 visits to cottages near, and returned towards 
 Copsley. On the way back she gathered a 
 
:84 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 basketful of primroses, and, turning into the 
 churchyard, she sat down on one of the tomb- 
 stones and began to put them together and 
 fasten them up, to place on the grave of a little 
 girl who had been one of her scholars in the 
 Sunday school, and who had been carried off 
 by consumption just before the spring flowers 
 began to blossom. 
 
 She was occupied with her flowers with the 
 utter absorption natural to her In any work, 
 however trifling, when the voice of the unwel- 
 come Mr. Howard addressed her. He had 
 approached from behind her, acrpss the grass 
 and the graves, so softly that she had not heard 
 a sound until he spoke. 
 
 "Another errand of mercy or kindness, I 
 can guess, Miss LIndley," said he, with a smile 
 and a pleasant manner which were difficult to 
 resist. And Mr. Howard strolled round the 
 last tombstone which separated him from her, 
 and, resting his hand upon the cross-beam of a 
 cold white marble cross, he looked down upon 
 her with a kindliness which forced her to look 
 up. And then she was forced, against her will, 
 to smile back again. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 85 
 
 Mr. Howard was not a very young man. 
 He was rather short, rather stout, and looked a 
 year or two less than forty. In truth, he was 
 older ; but he was so carefully dressed, so genial 
 of manner, the grey hairs in his dark moustache 
 and hair were so well dyed, that he carried his 
 years very lightly. 
 
 Geraldine shook her head slowly and rather 
 sorrowfully, as she answered him — 
 
 " No one can show either kindness or mercy 
 to the dead. These flowers are to put on a 
 grave." 
 
 " Now, why do you do it ? I have 
 had impressed upon me most strongly, by 
 every one I have met about here, that you 
 are a young lady of transcendent learning 
 and accomplishments, not at all likely to 
 do anything without a reason, and a good 
 one." 
 
 '' That silly Mr. Meadows has been telling 
 you that. He thinks me learned because I 
 know where all his hackneyed quotations come 
 from. But even if I were learned I dare say 
 I should have human weaknesses. I suppose 
 putting flowers on a grave is silly, yet I should 
 
86 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 not like to think there would be no one silly 
 enough to put them on mine." 
 
 " Not silly at all. Don't let us talk about 
 graves," said Mr. Howard, with uncomfortable 
 hastiness. " Why choose the saddest of all 
 subjects on such a lovely morning as this ? " 
 
 " Oh, but I think there are many things 
 sadder than death ! " said Geraldine, for whom, 
 in the bloom of her two and twenty years, the 
 tomb had a fascination which a quarter of a 
 century's nearer approach to it had very much 
 decreased in her companion. " Separation — 
 life-long separation from — from people we care 
 about." And her voice suddenly quivered. 
 " To see good people unhappy and not to be 
 able to comfort them ; to have^friends a long 
 way off in trouble and suffering, and not to be 
 able to go to them. Why, to die seems easy 
 compared with a lot of troubles I know. But, 
 then, I believe people who live very solitary 
 lives seldom fear death," she added, in a 
 moralizing tone- that frequent solitude had 
 caused her to acquire when speaking on 
 subjects about which she had thought much. 
 
 " But surely you don't lead a solitary life, 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 8/ 
 
 young as you are ! You are not quite in the 
 wilderness here, though I dare say the society 
 of the neighbourhood is not very enHvening. 
 There are so few young people of your own 
 age in the families about." 
 
 Geraldine was rather surprised ; every one 
 looked upon this gentleman as a stranger. 
 
 '' I always find out something about the 
 inhabitants of any place I may be in, as well 
 as about the scenery," he added in explana- 
 tion ; " and I make a point of seeing all the 
 old houses and churches. Old buildings are 
 eloquent to me." 
 
 "Well, the inhabitants of Copsley are as 
 old as their houses, I think, and have about 
 as much to say for themselves." 
 
 ''You are severe. But I don't confine 
 myself to Copsley. I go farther afield, and 
 visit Heckleton and Tolbeach and Waring- 
 ham." 
 
 *' The church at Tolbeach is pretty, but 
 there is not much to see at Heckleton. And 
 Waringham — why, Waringham is a long way 
 ^ff ; it is not in Suffolk at all ! " 
 
 " No, it is just within the borders of 
 
SS A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Norfolk, I know," said the stranger, watching 
 her. " But it Is only seven miles off, nearer 
 than Tolbeach." 
 
 '* Only seven miles off! Indeed, I — I think 
 yon must be mistaken. I have lived here all 
 my life, and I — oh. Indeed I am sure It Is 
 a great deal farther off than that ! " 
 
 *' No ; I assure you you have miscalculated 
 the distance. You know where the road 
 branches off, just at the foot of the hill which 
 goes up to Warlngham park-gates ? " 
 
 " I have never been to Warlngham ? " 
 
 " Never been to Warlngham ! " he echoed, 
 In a tone the surprise of which It suddenly 
 occurred to Geraldlne to think was feigned. 
 *' Then that accounts for your thinking It so 
 much further off than It Is. You ought to 
 know Sir Charles Otway and his two weird 
 old sisters." Geraldlne started; but her com- 
 panion did not seem to notice this. He 
 continued — " Sir Charles himself Is a charming 
 gentleman — he Is an old friend of mine — Indeed 
 a connection of my family ; but his sisters are 
 the very reverse of him In all things — at least 
 the younger Is, and the elder follows her sister's 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 89 
 
 lead. But you really ought to know Sir 
 Charles." 
 
 *' I do know Sir Charles," answered the 
 girl, quietly, but In a constrained voice. "He 
 is my guardian." 
 
 " Indeed ! To tell the truth, I had heard 
 so ; but your saying that you had never been 
 to Waringham made me doubt whether I had 
 heard correctly." 
 
 '' Quite correctly. He was a comrade of 
 my father's, who left me in his care. He is as 
 fond of me as if I were his own child." 
 
 " Yet you have never been to Waringham?" 
 He let the question slip out so naturally that 
 it did not seem impertinent. 
 
 " No-o, I have never been to Waringham," 
 Geraldine answered, in a low voice. 
 
 Suddenly Mr. Howard's manner changed ; 
 and, bending a little lower, so that he could 
 look into her face, he said impressively^ — 
 
 '' And do you know why ? " 
 
 The girl raised her head quickly and 
 coldly — 
 
 " If he had wished me to know, Sir Charles 
 would have told me." 
 
90 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 " And do you not wish to know ? Of 
 course you do. Some curiosity in the matter, 
 now that I have unwittingly let out two things 
 that you did not know before, is only natural." 
 
 The girl rose, and clung to the headstone 
 of the grave next to the flat stone one on which 
 she had been sitting. 
 
 ''Whatever curiosity I may have to know 
 whether the things you have told me are true 
 or false I must stifle. I — I have no right to — 
 to pry into any secret which my guardian 
 chooses to keep from me." 
 
 She was trembling and cold ; the pretty 
 colour had left her cheeks, and her eyes seemed 
 suddenly to have lost their lustre. 
 
 Mr. Howard was overwhelmed on seeing 
 the eflect of his rash disclosures. He made 
 profuse apologies, and added, as he withdrew 
 his hand from the cross on which it had been 
 resting and prepared to take leave — 
 
 " You must allow me, Miss Lindley, as a 
 man nearly old enough to be your father " — he 
 was quite old enough, but ''nearly" sounded 
 better — "to express my admiration of your 
 self-control, wonderful in one so young, in 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 9 1 
 
 resisting the temptation to learn a secret— 
 which, whatever you may say, must be — is of 
 vital interest to you." 
 
 He raised his hat, and was leaving her, 
 when, turning suddenly towards him, with 
 trembling lips and shaking voice she called 
 him back. 
 
 " Mr. Howard, one moment, please. There 
 is one question I must ask — I may ask ; there 
 
 can be no harm in that. Perhaps " She 
 
 stopped, hesitating. In spite of herself, the 
 poor girl was unable entirely to resist the 
 temptation to learn something more, if only 
 a little ; and she was trying to think of an 
 innocent question. 
 
 Mr. Howard came to the rescue. 
 
 " Do not torture yourself needlessly," said 
 lie, kindly. '' There is nothing much more 
 .terrible in what you have not heard than in 
 what you have heard. The answer to one 
 of the questions which puzzle you I have 
 already given you ; it is Sir Charles's sisters, 
 -or rather his sister Elizabeth, who is the 
 obstacle to your going to Waringham. What- 
 ever her brother hates she loves ; Avhatever — 
 
92 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 whoever he loves, she hates. As Sir Charles 
 — your guardian I think you called him ? — ;is 
 fond of you, I will answer for it that, in 
 Elizabeth Otway's eyes, poison would not be 
 bad enough for you." 
 
 ''Is that so ? " asked the girl, her face 
 suddenly clearing. " Then, of course. Sir 
 Charles could not take me to see Warlngham, 
 because his sisters would not have received me 
 kindly ; and so, in order to avoid telling me 
 that, for fear It might pain me, he never 
 mentioned them to me, and let me think 
 Warlngham was a long way off. That is 
 just like him — so kind and considerate ! That 
 explains everything. Oh, I am so glad ! " she 
 cried, as the natural colour began to flow back 
 to her cheeks, and she gave a deep sigh of 
 relief *' I — I began to be quite frightened. 
 It came so suddenly, and I have always lived 
 so quietly that anything that sounds at all 
 strange impresses me deeply. I — I don't 
 know what I thought at first." 
 
 " Nothing half so strange as the truth, Miss 
 Lindley, I am sure of that. What would you 
 say to a person who would clear up the mys- 
 
A DOCx WITH A BAD NAME. 93 
 
 terles concerning you and the people about you, 
 which must long have puzzled you ? " 
 
 '' What mysteries ? I know of no mysteries. 
 I don't understand you," said the girl, sharply, 
 her face flushing red under this new and more 
 alarmino^ form of attack. 
 
 '' Has it never occurred to you to ask your- 
 self — if not, to ask those around you — why you 
 lead a life so different from that of other girls ? 
 — why you have been brought up as those girls 
 are who are intended to shine in society, and 
 yet are kept shut up here with two old school- 
 mistresses like a nun, with no companions of 
 your own age, none of the usual amusements 
 and gaieties of a young lady ? Do you never 
 wonder why you are never shown any portraits 
 of your parents, why you are never told any- 
 thing about them except vaguely in answer to 
 questions from yourself ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " gasped Geraldlne, 
 in a very low voice, looking at him steadily, but 
 clinging to the worn stone by which she was 
 standing, as if she scarcely felt that she had 
 strength to bear the shock of what might be 
 coming. 
 
94 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 "What would you say to — some one whov 
 having heard your story and been struck with 
 deep pity for your position and deep admiration 
 for the way in which you filled it, had taken 
 the trouble to hunt out evidence which would 
 remove you from it, would expose the cruelty 
 which has let your bright young life lie under 
 a shadow for so long, and force those who are 
 keeping you out of your rightful place to yield 
 it up to you ? " 
 
 " I don't understand you." 
 
 " If this were true that I am telling you, 
 you would be grateful to such a person, would 
 you not ? I am sure you would, for you are 
 very tender-hearted. And if this person were 
 to prove to be a — a relative of your own, who 
 had been as ill-treated at the hands of the rest 
 of his family as you had been yourself by the 
 same persons, you would In gratitude stretch 
 out a kindly hand to him, show him sympathy 
 in his trials, give him help In his struggles with 
 unmerited misfortune." 
 
 " All this bewilders me. I don't know what 
 you mean. I begin to feel that I ought never 
 to have listened." 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 95 
 
 *'Ah, that is what people always begin to 
 feel when you mention to them that you expect 
 a little help in return for a great service ! " 
 interrupted Mr. Howard, the passionate tones 
 to which he had worked himself up during his 
 last speech changing a little. '' But that is not 
 like you, Miss Lindley. You are generous- 
 hearted. You " 
 
 '' Wait, wait. Let me think. You are a 
 stranger to me, and you come upon me with — 
 with a long account of some mystery which you 
 make more mysterious by your way of telling 
 it. Before I hear another word from you I 
 must see my guardian, must tell him what you 
 have told me — or part of it, at least — there is 
 no help for it now — and must ask him if I am 
 to believe — what I am to believe." 
 
 " Ask Sir Charles ! You will get no help 
 there. He will stammer and excuse himself, 
 tell you I am not to be believed, that what I 
 have told you is a tissue of nonsense." 
 
 *' If my guardian tells me that, that is the 
 version I shall have to accept, Mr. Howard." 
 
 " You will try to do so, perhaps. But some 
 day human nature will get the better of you so 
 
96 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 far as to lead you to ask, not Sir Charles, but 
 some Indifferent person how far off Waringham 
 is ; and when you hear that it is just seven 
 miles from here, some other day you will not be 
 able to resist the temptation to walk those seven 
 miles ; and when you find out that, besides Sir 
 Charles, the two old ladies, his sisters, live in it, 
 you will begin to wonder if there was not some 
 truth in those other suggestions the stranger 
 gave you, and to be tormented with a burning 
 wish to know what that last and most important 
 piece of information was which you were too 
 proud or too timid to let him tell." 
 
 ''You are mistaken. Whatever my guardian 
 tells me will satisfy me." 
 
 '* I think not. But it is possible something 
 I have to tell him may satisfy him. For, though 
 you have not treated the disinterested services 
 of a complete stranger very kindly, I am 
 magnanimous enough to resolve to serve you 
 against your will. Then, when you have ex- 
 perienced my generosity In spite of yourself, it 
 will He with you whether you show me a corre- 
 sponding generosity In return, or — like most 
 of your sex — forget it. I will give you my 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 97 
 
 address. When — I do not say ' If ' but ' when ' 
 — you want my help to clear up the mass of 
 difficulties and contradictions you will encounter 
 when you put your questions to Sir Charles, a 
 note, a telegram will summon me to your service 
 Immediately." 
 
 He put Into her hand a card, which she 
 allowed to drop unread to the ground. He was 
 not daunted by this show of disdain, knowing 
 well that she would pick It up and read it as 
 soon as he was out of sight, and tnat, if she 
 were to tear it In pieces and throw It to the 
 winds the next moment, the address would 
 remain Indelibly graven on her mind. 
 
 She let him go with the coldest of bows in 
 answer to his elaborately courteous salute, and 
 in her nervous excitement uttered a short scream 
 as Reginald Bamber's sweet voice, graver and 
 rather faster than usual, addressed her. 
 
 " Miss LIndley, what has that man been 
 saying to you ? He has frightened you." 
 
 " Oh no, not at all ! He is a stranger here 
 — a friend of Mr. Meadows. He only " 
 
 She gave way and burst into a passion of 
 tears. Turning blindly to escape, she ran 
 
 VOL. I. 7 
 
gS A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 against a gravestone, and Reginald laid a gentle, 
 restraining hand on her arm the next moment. 
 
 ''Have you hurt yourself.'^" he asked very 
 softly. 
 
 '' No, oh no ! Let me go, please. Miss 
 Gretton Is waiting for me. I " 
 
 " You must let me ask you one question. 
 Miss Lindley. You know very well it is not 
 impertinent curiosity which prompts me. I 
 know the man who was speaking to you just 
 now — at least, I knew him once. I know him 
 as a worthless insinuating scamp, who will 
 make any mischief in order to make a little 
 profit out of it. He would tell any lie, tease 
 anybody, to any extent " 
 
 " What, what ? Are you sure ? " Interrupted 
 Geraldine, eagerly seizing his hand in her 
 breathless anxiety, as she looked up with 
 glistening Intent eyes Into his face. ''He does 
 not tell the truth, you say ? He is unworthy 
 of any belief ? " 
 
 " Quite ! He would make up any story 
 almost for the bare pleasure of exercising his 
 invention, I really believe." 
 
 " Thank Heaven ! " she whispered, as her 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. ■ 99 
 
 hands fell listlessly down at her sides, and for 
 the moment Reginald thought she was fainting. 
 
 But she recovered even as he put his arm 
 about her, and, freeing herself gently, looked 
 up at him with grateful moist eyes as she held 
 out her hand. 
 
 " Thank you," said she unsteadily. " You 
 have relieved me from a terror I cannot 
 describe, I could not understand. The man 
 frightened me by hints and stories which 
 seemed to take the very ground from under 
 my feet. I have not recovered from the effects 
 of them even now. Forgive me for being so 
 silly, so incoherent ; I will tell you — explain 
 myself when I am — myself again." 
 
 He pressed her hand warmly in his, and 
 let her go. Then he left the churchyard and 
 went hastily in the direction he had seen " Mr. 
 Howard " take. It was towards the station ; 
 and, seeing that there was no trace of that 
 gentleman about and that a train had just 
 started, Reginald came to the conclusion that 
 Mr. Meadows's genial friend was satisfied that 
 he had done mischief enough for one day ; and, 
 remounting his father's cob, on which he had 
 
lOO A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 ridden over on the chance of getting a glimpse 
 of Geraldlne Lindley, he returned to Waring- 
 ham Vicarage. 
 
 *' But " Mr. Howard " was to do worse 
 mischief than that before the day was over. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. lOI 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 Geraldine returned home, still in such a state 
 of bewilderment and nervous excitement that 
 she did not know whether the effect of Mr. 
 Howard's words had passed away, w^hether 
 Reginald's assurances that the man was not 
 to be believed had or had not relieved her 
 mind from the weight of vague but terrible 
 misgivings which the information he had volun- 
 teered and the hints he had thrown out had 
 laid upon her. Miss Gretton was in some 
 alarm because she had been out longer than 
 usual ; but Geraldine had self-command enough 
 to describe in a lively manner how she had 
 been tempted by primroses to walk further and 
 to linger longer than she had intended, which 
 satisfied her old friend, who, now past seventy, 
 was not so lynx-eyed at detecting a shifting 
 
I02 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 glance or a change of colour as she had once 
 been. 
 
 But when the girl was alone again, it was 
 inevitable that she should discover that it was 
 impossible for her to rest until she had seen 
 Sir Charles and learnt from his own lips 
 whether there was any particle of truth in 
 the strange things she had been told, and, if 
 not, what this man's motive could have been 
 for deliberately hunting her out to distress her 
 with them. After dinner — for Miss Gretton 
 remained faithful to the school habit of dining 
 in the middle of the day — she made an excuse 
 to go out again, went back, half ashamed of 
 herself, to the churchyard, and hunted about 
 for the strangers card. She had not looked 
 at it when he had given it to her, and now 
 she could not find it — she picked up, indeed, 
 at a little distance from the spot where she had 
 stood during her interview with the stranger, 
 a gentleman's card on which was printed the 
 name '' Mr. Lindley Fielding" with an address 
 in London, in the city, written below in pencil ; 
 but, knowing that the strangers name was 
 Howard, she thought at first that this card 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. i03 
 
 must have fallen from his pocket-book by acci- 
 dent. However, she could find no other ; and 
 then the possibility of a man with no character 
 having two names occurring to her, she put the 
 card into her purse, slipped guiltily out of the 
 churchyard, and as fast as she could walk 
 to one of a row of cottages a little distance 
 off. The mother of two of her Sunday-school 
 scholars lived there ; but, though Geraldine 
 made the excuse of calling to know whether 
 Eliza s cough was any better, she hardly heard 
 Mrs. Boggett's answer. 
 
 " You used to live in Norfolk once, Mrs. 
 Boggett, didn't you ? " she asked, after a few 
 remarks about the baby. 
 
 " Yes, miss, I was kitchen-maid two years 
 in Mr. Fawcetts family at Thorpe. I was 
 married from there, miss." 
 
 " Thorpe ! Oh yes ; that Is near Waring- 
 ham, isn't it ? " 
 
 **Waringham! Bless ye, no, miss! Thorpes 
 miles and miles from Warlnorham. It takes 
 nigh upon two hours by the railway to get 
 to Thorpe." 
 
 " It — it doesn't take nearly so long to get 
 
I04 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 to Waringham, does It ? " asked the girl, with 
 hands which trembled so much that the asto- 
 nished mite on her lap turned and feebly tried 
 to slap her. 
 
 '' Bless your heart, no ! Why, It's only a 
 walk from here to Waringham ! " 
 
 '' Oh yes, yes, of course ! How far do you 
 call it ? " 
 
 '' Well, it's a matter of three or four mile, I 
 should say." 
 
 '' Oh, it must be more than that ! " broke 
 out the girl, with sudden vehemence. 
 
 ''Well, mayhap it is. I'm not much of 
 a dab at guessing such things, and I don't 
 know as I've ever heard tell the length of it 
 rightly." 
 
 ''How long does it take to walk there ? 
 Do you know, Mrs. Boggett ?" 
 
 " Well, John can do it in a little over two 
 hours ; but then he's a good walker is John. 
 But you wasn't thinking of walking over to 
 Waringham — was ye, miss ? " 
 
 " Oh no ! " answered Geraldlne, who indeed 
 had no such intention. She had only taken 
 the simplest means of finding out from the 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. IO5 
 
 ignorant woman how far her guardian's home 
 really was from hers. She was satisfied now ; 
 and, after wishing "good day" to Mrs. Boggett, 
 who guessed, from the young lady's absent 
 manner, that something was amiss, she returned 
 home, and, unable to face the old lady just yet, 
 went straight to her own room to give way to 
 an agony of suspense and misery. It was not 
 that this little discovery was by itself very ter- 
 rible ; but this evidence that the stranger had 
 told the truth on one point opened the possi- 
 bility of his having done so concerning other 
 matters. His strange statements, his mysterious 
 hints, could only be explained away by Sir 
 Charles ; he was sure to call before the after- 
 noon was over, as he had not been to Copsley 
 for two days. She listened, on fire with 
 impatience, for the sound of the bell, or of his 
 horse's hoofs upon the drive ; at last she stole 
 into Miss Gretton's bedroom, which was in the 
 front of the house, and watched with deepening 
 anxiety for his long-delayed arrival. But the 
 afternoon wore on into the evening, and Sir 
 Charles never came. During the six years 
 since her return from Paris he had never before 
 
I06 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 allowed so long a time as three days to elapse 
 without coming to see his adopted child ; and 
 even Miss Gretton began to be anxious, and 
 to wonder whether Sir Charles had had another 
 of those attacks like the one he had had twelve 
 years ago, when he had been threatened with 
 paralysis. A sudden misgiving that the mes- 
 senger of 111 omen who had disturbed her own. 
 peace that morning had had something to do 
 with the absence of her adored guardian filled 
 Geraldlne with alarm, and caused her to lie 
 awake that night a prey to a thousand fantastic 
 and torturing fears. 
 
 Her affection had put her apprehensions 
 upon the right track. That very afternoon, 
 within three hours of the time when the 
 stranger left Geraldlne In Copsley churchyard,, 
 the old servant Johnson, who, now that the 
 number of servants at Waringham Hall was at 
 last reduced, was butler, valet, and footman all 
 in one, came to the door of Miss Eleanor 
 Otway's room and told her that a gentleman 
 wished to see her. Eleanor was sixty by this 
 time, and more shrivelled and shrunken tharr 
 ever ; but this message put her Into a flutter 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. I07 
 
 of excitement and brought a tinge of orange to 
 her cheeks. For she knew that EHzabeth was 
 out, and knew that her visitor must be that 
 family scapegrace upon whom, nearly thirty 
 years ago, she had bestowed a limp but 
 constant affection, of which he had many 
 times since, when in pecuniary difficulties more 
 embarrassing than usual, taken advantage. 
 The best of those few family trinkets which 
 had fallen to her share had one by one passed 
 from her hands to his, together with such small 
 sums as she could ill spare from her meagre 
 allowance of pocket-money ; and each of these 
 remittances had been accompanied by a copy 
 of some pocket devotional work and a pedanti- 
 cally phrased letter, punctuated with notes of 
 exclamation, after the fashion of those ladies 
 whose education has been of the slip-shod 
 order, in which a less careless reader than the 
 man to whom they were addressed might have 
 detected the ring of a very pure and simple- 
 hearted affection. He had, indeed, sometimes 
 shed a maudlin tear upon one of these notes 
 over the whiskey-and-water which her gene- 
 rosity had enabled him to procure ; and he 
 
108 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 had boasted of her devotion without letting his 
 hearers know that this " good httle cousin " was 
 plain of feature and a good many years older 
 than himself. But the condescendingly senti- 
 mental liking he had for her, on account of the 
 lift to his own self-esteem which her constancy 
 gave him, was a poor thing which the simple- 
 minded object of it rated much too highly. 
 
 As she entered the seldom-used morning 
 room into which she had directed that he 
 should be shown, she was struck at once by 
 the airy gaiety and ease of his manner, and 
 thought at once they must portend some more 
 than usually deep difficulty. 
 
 " What is the matter, Lindley ? " she asked, 
 her feeble voice shaking with anxiety. '' What 
 can have happened to bring you here ? Don't 
 you know that Elizabeth may return at any 
 moment ? She has only gone for a drive. 
 And then — oh, what would she say ? " 
 
 These young girl's words, spoken as they 
 were without the least affectation, were oddly 
 pathetic in the mouth of the leathern faced, 
 bent old woman who would make, Lindley 
 Fielding thought, as he examined her curiously 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. IO9 
 
 in the waning sunlight of the April afternoon, 
 an excellent model for the Witch of Endor. 
 
 ''She may say what she chooses when I 
 have the pleasure of seeing her," said he, 
 buoyantly. " One of the objects of my visit 
 is to have a little important conversation with 
 her ; but of course my first care was to see 
 you," he added, with gallant tenderness. '' Do 
 you know how long it will be before she 
 returns ? " he asked, after a pause, in which 
 he had affectionately led her to a seat. 
 
 " I expect her every moment," answered 
 Eleanor, nervously. " But do you think you 
 are wise to face her, Lindley ? I know you 
 are very brave ; but she says such bitter things, 
 she has no mercy, she makes no allowances 
 for the difference between men's temptations 
 and women's sheltered position. I have 
 often intimated this to her on your behalf — 
 I have, indeed ; but with little effect, I am 
 afraid." 
 
 '' Let her say what she pleases, Eleanor ; 
 I have something to say to her which will turn 
 her hard words and sharp looks in another 
 direction, I fancy. Is Charles at home ? " 
 
no A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 ** Yes ; but that doesn't matter. I am not 
 afraid of Charles ; it is only Elizabeth." 
 
 " And why be afraid of Elizabeth, my sweet 
 cousin ? Does she still bully and snub you 
 both as she used to do ? " 
 
 " Oh, Lindley, you should not say that ! 
 Her character is different from ours — not so 
 easy to understand perhaps, but much stronger. 
 She is the pillar of the family." 
 
 *' Well, she is hard enough ! However, I 
 have come to pull the pillar down." 
 
 '^ Lindley ! " 
 
 '' Yes. She has done her ' best to turn 
 every member of the family against me, and 
 all for no better reason than that I preferred 
 her more modest and retiring sister to her 
 overbearing self," said he, fatuously. 
 
 " But that is all over now, Lindley," said 
 Eleanor, rather pleased, in spite of herself. 
 " We are all getting old now, and should forget 
 such things. Why, do you know, It is nearly 
 twenty years since we have seen each other ! " 
 
 " Is it, indeed ? It seems merely a few 
 months to me," he responded quickly. He did 
 not care for reminders of this sort ; and, as for 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. Ill 
 
 her suggestion that it was time to " forget those 
 things," why, he had never felt himself to be so 
 eligible an object for the tender passion as he 
 was now at mellow — well, forty ! But of course 
 it was very different with these old maids, and 
 one must make allowance for them. 
 
 " You will think her rather passde now, I 
 dare say, Lindley — that is, if you insist upon 
 meeting her. But she is very handsome still — 
 at least, we think so ; you know she has always 
 been the beauty of the family." 
 
 " Well, she will have to give up that place 
 now, and on the whole I don't think she can 
 complain that she has been hurried out of it. 
 We will see if we can't give the county another 
 beautiful Miss Otway, and one too whose title 
 to loveliness it will be less easy to dispute." 
 
 " What do you mean, Lindley ? We are the 
 <3nly Miss Otways left." 
 
 ** Are you sure ? " 
 
 " Yes, of course I am ; quite, quite sure. 
 Unless, indeed, some upstarts of the same 
 name are trying to pass themselves off as 
 distant connections of ours ! " said she, drawing 
 herself up. 
 
112 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 " Oh no ! The lady I mean Is in the direct 
 line." 
 
 " But that is impossible — you know it is 
 impossible, Lindley," she repeated querulously, 
 looking up into his face with impatience, in- 
 creased by the curious expression of trium- 
 phant conviction she read there. " Look here," 
 she added, after a few moments' pause — '' my 
 father and his sister, your mother, were the 
 only two Otways left in the direct line, weren't 
 they?" 
 
 " Quite true." 
 
 " And, then, when Aunt Henrietta your 
 mother, married Mr. Fielding, your father, 
 why, then she ceased to be an Otway ! " 
 
 " That is true also." 
 
 '' So that papa was the only Otway left ; 
 and, now that he is dead, Charles and Eliza- 
 beth and I are the only Otways." 
 
 " But one." 
 
 " One ! Which one ? What do you mean, 
 Lindley ? Who is the other ? " 
 
 Eleanor had risen to her feet, and was 
 leaning upon her silver-headed taper crutch- 
 stick, with her black eyes staring at him out 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 1 3 
 
 of the brown wrinkled face, like a sorceress 
 frightened by some apparition she has herself 
 conjured up. 
 
 " Yes, who is the other ? I too should 
 like to know that," struck in a hard, clear 
 voice which seemed to cut the air ; and, turn- 
 ing — even Lindley more startled than he chose 
 to appear — they both saw that Elizabeth had 
 entered the room, and was standing, looking 
 as commanding in her brown stuffy gown as 
 Eleanor looked insignificant in hers, with her 
 long slim white fingers still upon the handle of 
 the door, very dignified, very quiet, very cold. 
 
 Lindley moved towards her in a sauntering, 
 airy manner, in which her sharp gaze detected 
 something more than his old bravado. 
 
 " You shall know in good time, my dear 
 cousin," said he, genially. '' But I think, in 
 common fairness, it is the head of the family 
 who should have the privilege of learning the 
 interesting secret first." 
 
 " And as, for all practical purposes, Lindley, 
 I am the head of the family, as you very well 
 know, in common fairness you will entrust the 
 interesting secret to me," she urged, with care- 
 
 VOL. I. 8 
 
114 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 lessness so admirably feigned, that If It had 
 been possible for her to be even as civil as this 
 to him without a very strong motive, LIndley 
 would have thought It real. 
 
 '* I'm afraid I must steel myself to resist 
 even your all-conquering fascination," said 
 Lindley, showing his handsome teeth, only 
 one of which was false, in a smile which was 
 still admired by some women, though to his 
 cousin Elizabeth at this moment it seemed a 
 ghastly caricature of mature fascination at 
 which she did not scruple to shudder. 
 
 " I suppose you know that, to bear legally 
 the name of Otway, the person so bearing it 
 must be the child of a o^entleman of that name 
 who has been legally married to that child's 
 mother ? " 
 
 " So I have been told, my fair cousin." 
 
 " And I suppose you know that the only 
 living gentleman of the family bearing the 
 name of Otway Is my brother Charles ? " 
 
 " My cousin Charles. I have heard some- 
 thing of the kind." 
 
 ** And that he Is the only person who could 
 possibly be the father of such a child ? " 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. II5 
 
 This was put in exactly the same tone, but 
 something in the glance of the cold, blue eyes 
 told that this was more of a question than the 
 others had been. 
 
 " I think I may even go with you as far 
 as that," said LIndley, very slowly and impres- 
 sively. 
 
 Her eyes showed that she did not believe 
 him. However, she went on — 
 
 '' You have come, then, to inform Sir 
 Charles, my brother, of the existence of a 
 legitimate child of his ? " she asked, with a 
 sneer. 
 
 " Your conjectures, as might be expected 
 from you, show considerable penetration." 
 
 " Of whose legitimacy he was ignorant ? " 
 
 " Wonderful, wonderful ! " 
 
 " Otherwise, you see, your information 
 would not be of sufficient value to encourasfe 
 you to swagger in the house where you 
 formerly cringed." 
 
 " Epigrammatically put, though severe, and 
 still wonderful in its discernment, like all your 
 other remarks." 
 
 Elizabeth made no show of impatience. 
 
Il6 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 She Stood confronting him Hke marble, except 
 for the steely glitter of her cold, blue eyes. 
 After a pause, she moved, turning slightly 
 towards him ; and, with a sudden smile which 
 was like the flash of flint-and-steel, she said, 
 in a lower, softer voice, and with a look of 
 inquiring innocence— 
 
 " Does it often happen that a man marries 
 and becomes the father of a child without 
 knowing it ? " 
 
 *' Not often, I believe," answered the un- 
 abashed LIndley, in suave mimicry of her own 
 tone. 
 
 ''In such a case, no doubt, he would show 
 deep gratitude to the person who put him in 
 possession of such a bewildering piece of 
 information ? " 
 
 *' I may say I believe that too." 
 
 " I think you may say, LIndley Fielding,, 
 that you reckoned upon it." Then, changing 
 back to her old hard tone, she went on slowly, 
 fixing upon him a steady gaze which, in spite 
 of himself, made his full brown eyes shift their 
 audacious glance from her face to the carpet, 
 ** You have a very ingenious plan, LIndley, for 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. I I 7 
 
 inducing Sir Charles to adopt openly and 
 proclaim as his legitimate child a girl less 
 honourably connected with the family, to 
 whom, as you know — for you keep yourself 
 well informed of our affairs — he has become 
 fondly and foolishly attached. You know that 
 he is so absurdly infatuated about this girl that 
 he would willingly seize upon any plan for 
 openly adopting her as his daughter, and 
 removing the prejudice which naturally rests 
 upon the foundling. You know that he is 
 ready to do this, even to the prejudice of his 
 legitimate relatives, to the annoyance and open 
 insult of his unattractive old sisters. You, 
 therefore, not unnaturally reckon upon per- 
 suadine him to take this course without much 
 difficulty ; and, in return for your suggestion, 
 and for your undertaking to provide the 
 necessary story and the necessary witnesses to 
 the — h'm — the truth of it, you also not un- 
 naturally reckon upon — his gratitude." 
 
 " Really, Elizabeth, in the art of making 
 a story I yield to you most humbly. I am 
 quite astounded — overwhelmed by your elo- 
 quence ; the more so as this fascinating fiction 
 
I 1 8 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 of yours has not had the assistance of the least 
 basis of truth. But it would be idle to insist 
 on that point ; your blushing modesty would 
 still lead you to forego the claim of such 
 striking invention. Therefore, I will withdraw 
 myself from your presence to ponder on your 
 genius alone, or perhaps to join in admiration 
 of it with my cousin, your brother, the head 
 of the family — in fact, with Sir Charles." 
 
 He bowed, and airily and swiftly went out 
 by the second and less used door, which led 
 into the dining-room, thus avoiding any per- 
 sonal collision with his dignified cousin, who- 
 had drawn herself up where she stood in a 
 rather menacing manner. She turned sharply ;: 
 but it was too late — he was gone. 
 
 Poor Eleanor had sunk, trembling like a 
 leaf, down on the sofa during this scene, which 
 she had witnessed in terror, turning her bead- 
 like black eyes from the one to the other as. 
 thrust succeeded thrust in the short dialoo^ue,. 
 and uttering from time to time a faint exclama- 
 tion of protest, of which neither took the 
 slightest heed. She now started up as if to 
 detain Lindley ; but, as he had already left the 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. II9 
 
 room by the time she was on her feet, she fell 
 back again on to the chintz-covered cushions, 
 with their old-fashioned pattern of huge flowers, 
 whose gaudy colours had now long been toned 
 down, and looked at her sister in querulous 
 reproach. 
 
 Elizabeth's blue eyes were still bright with 
 a sort of ice-bound fire. 
 
 '' What did he say to you before I came, 
 Eleanor ? Did he tell you why he had come ? 
 What reason did he give ? " 
 
 " Oh, Elizabeth, I don't know ! Don't look 
 at me like that. He said nothing In particular. 
 
 He just said he had a secret No ; he said 
 
 there was another Miss Otway, and then you 
 came In. He said no more about it, indeed." 
 
 " Oh, you had something more interesting 
 to talk about, I suppose ! " sneered the other, 
 coldly. " I am afraid you have not used your 
 influence over your admirer to the best 
 advantage, or he would not now be occupied 
 in trying to turn us both out of our home by 
 foisting his own child upon our brother." 
 
 *' His own child! Lindley's child!" cried 
 Eleanor, in horror. 
 
I20 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 "Yes. I have long suspected it; to-day I 
 am sure of It." 
 
 "You mean the girl Charles has educated?" 
 faltered Eleanor. 
 
 " Yes. On the very night when misfortune 
 brought the wretched child here her likeness 
 to Aunt Henrietta's portrait woke my sus- 
 picions. It was a trick of Lindley's, a very 
 clever trick ; and It Is not surprising that he is 
 so triumphant over its success. But he Is 
 going a little too fast now, and I fancy I can 
 impede his last all-Important step." 
 
 " What do you mean, Elizabeth ? " 
 
 " He will try to persuade Charles to declare 
 this peasant woman's waif to be his own 
 legitimate child. The girl Is handsome, they 
 tell me — In fact, I have taken care to see her, 
 and, unluckily, her appearance Is in favour of 
 this Infamous plan. Now that — now that 
 Charles has no heir, owing to — to our last 
 terrible misfortune five years ago, you see 
 nobody would be injured by such an arrange- 
 ment but us ; and Charles would salve over 
 his conscience in that respect by saying to 
 himself that he would take care to provide 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 121 
 
 for US, and that, when we knew her better, 
 she would be the light of our lives, or some 
 such nonsense. And then he would shuffle 
 and delay as usual, until at his death it would 
 be found, just as it was when poor papa died, 
 that we were left with nothing. We should 
 be at the mercy of this vagrant girl, who w^ould 
 grudge us the means of living like tradesmen's 
 widows In apartments at Yarmouth or Lowes- 
 toft. This is what your favourite Is trying to 
 bring about, Eleanor ; but. In the face of my 
 accusations, Charles will not dare to keep 
 steadfast to the lie." 
 
 " Oh, Elizabeth, all this will kill me, I am 
 sure it will ! " moaned the other, falling into 
 her usual formula in times of excitement. '' I 
 suppose the girl will let me be burled In the 
 vault at Gilllngstone ; it won't cost much to 
 have my body taken there ? " 
 
 But the question did not Interest her sister, 
 who left the room with no other answer than 
 a glance of contempt at the Inability of the 
 other to grasp a situation so full of danger. 
 She hesitated in the hall for a few moments, 
 •debating whether she should go upstairs to 
 
122 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 her room and take off the outdoor garments 
 she was still wearing, or knock at the door of 
 the library to disturb her brother and cousin in 
 the concoction of their scheme. She decided 
 that a bold accusation when the plot was ripe 
 would be the more effective plan ; and she had 
 walked towards the staircase, which was in an 
 inner hall in the centre of the house, when 
 a noise from the library caused her to stop 
 short. It was the unmistakable sound of a 
 heavy fall. She turned back, and was at the 
 door of the library in a moment. There was 
 no further sound inside but the sharp rustle of 
 paper — no voice, no tread. She turned the 
 handle quickly, and called — 
 
 - Charles ! " 
 
 There was no answer ; but the sound inside 
 ceased. 
 
 '' Charles ! " she called again. 
 
 Again no answer ; but she heard a very soft 
 footstep in the room. She did not scruple to 
 put her eye to the keyhole ; but all she could 
 see was a part of the table and some books on it. 
 
 *' Charles ! " she repeated, in a louder tone, 
 *' Open the door, or I shall think something has. 
 
A DOG ^V1TH A BAD NAME. 123 
 
 happened to you, and I shall send Johnson to 
 get in by the window." 
 
 This threat brought Lindley to the door, 
 which he unlocked and opened, with a face of 
 well-expressed horror and distress. 
 
 ** Come in ! Call the servants ! Where is 
 the bell ? " he cried, stepping back into the 
 room and holding open the door for Elizabeth 
 to enter. " Come and help me to raise poor 
 Charles. He is in a fit, I'm afraid." 
 
 Elizabeth crossed the room, pulled aside 
 the heavy screen which shut in her brother's 
 favourite corner near the fire, and saw him 
 lying on his face on the floor, close by the large 
 bureau which stood opposite the fireplace, and 
 a few feet from it. She touched the bell, and 
 was on her knees beside him in a moment, 
 trying to raise him, without a word to the 
 effusive Lindley, who fidgeted officiously about 
 the room, but refrained from again offering to 
 join his services to hers, warned by the hasp- 
 like manner in which her well-cut mouth was 
 closed. As soon as she had discovered that 
 her brother was not dead, she looked up and 
 said quietly — 
 
124 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 '' Why did you not ring at once ? " 
 
 " I lost my head for a moment. I thought 
 — I thought something had happened to him ; 
 I threw myself down beside him and begged 
 him to speak to me." 
 
 " Strange that I heard him fall, but did not 
 hear your voice ! Why did you not let me in 
 at once ? " 
 
 *' I did let you in as soon as I heard you. 
 But I was so much occupied with poor 
 Charles " 
 
 " No," said she, sharply, *' not with poor 
 Charles, but with poor Charles's papers." 
 
 He winced ever so slightly, then turned 
 away as if this woman's wearisome suspicions 
 were beneath contempt. 
 
 " I really cannot condescend to answer any 
 more of your ridiculous and heartless speeches," 
 said he, with dignity. '' At such a moment as 
 this, when your brother's life may be in danger, 
 I really should have thought you would be 
 occupied with something more serious than my 
 imaginary crimes." 
 
 At this moment they were interrupted by 
 the entrance of Johnson, who, with Lindley's 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 12$ 
 
 help, raised the baronet from the floor and 
 placed him, still unconscious, upon the sofa. 
 Then Elizabeth gave her cousin a hint that he 
 might retire, which even he was fain to take ; 
 and he left the Hall, airily promising the butler, 
 who knew quite well what this gentleman's 
 welcome was likely to be, that he would return 
 to make inquiries. 
 
 Elizabeth had sent to Goldborough for a 
 doctor ; but In the meantime she despatched 
 one of the servants with a note to a retired 
 physician who lived near, begging him to 
 come and see her brother, saying she scarcely 
 knew whether he was alive or dead. Old Mr. 
 Crosse came at once and pronounced, as she 
 had guessed, that the baronet was struck by 
 paralysis. They carried him upstairs to his 
 own room ; and, as soon as Elizabeth had 
 seen him laid on the huge-canopied wooden 
 bed she hastened downstairs aofain to the 
 library. 
 
 Even after that short absence she took the 
 precaution of looking out of both the high 
 windows right and left into the dusk, and of 
 glancing into every corner of the room in which 
 
126 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 It was possible for any one to hide. She 
 saw no one, however ; and, after ringing for a 
 lamp, which she placed upon the bureau, she 
 told Johnson to close the shutters. It was 
 early in the day to do this, which was generally 
 done while the family were at dinner, and he 
 obeyed with a good deal of unexpressed surprise. 
 As soon as she was alone again, she turned 
 over all the papers lying about ; none of them 
 were of the least importance. Sir Charles, 
 dilatory and indolent as he was, had certain 
 soldierly habits of order ; and such of the 
 drawers of his bureau as were not securely 
 locked contained nothlnof of interest or value. 
 Lindley had not had much time for ferreting, 
 and, unless he had managed to obtain possession 
 of Sir Charles's keys. In which case the look- 
 out kept for his re-appearance could not be 
 too close, there was not much to fear from his 
 industry and research, great as those were in 
 him when a work of mischief was in question. 
 Whether he had any clear object in view in the 
 foraging over which she had interrupted him, 
 or whether he had been merely putting a spare 
 moment to profit on the chance of lighting upon 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 12/ 
 
 something out of which capital might be made, 
 she did not know. Times of illness and death, 
 when a household is of course somewhat dis- 
 organized and has something better to do than 
 to keep guard over every scrap of paper, are 
 just the times when an intelligent outsider may 
 make himself master of many a little bit of 
 useful information ; and Lindley Fielding would 
 not be slow to take advantage of any oppor- 
 tunity of this kind. She left the library, locking 
 the door, and taking away the key, and went 
 to the drawing-room, where poor Eleanor, 
 with a smelling-bottle in one hand, a devo- 
 tional work, " On the Way of Using Severe 
 Affliction as Discipline for the Soul," in the 
 other, was sobbing on the sofa by the white 
 hearthrug. 
 
 Elizabeth retreated at once, and went upstairs 
 to her brother's room. After a few words to 
 the old housekeeper, who was watching beside 
 him, and a glance at the unconscious figure 
 with closed eyes and head slightly moving 
 from side to side on the pillow, she examined 
 the clothes he had worn that day, and in one of 
 the pockets found his keys. 
 
128 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME.. 
 
 And, her sisterly solicitude being now 
 satisfied, she went to her own room, where she 
 remained until, the bell being silent on account 
 of the invalid, Johnson came to announce to her 
 that dinner was ready. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 29 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 On the following morning Sir Charles was no 
 better ; he still lay without speech, almost 
 without movement, either with his eyes closed 
 or else with them fixed on the celling in a 
 painful frowning stare, as If vainly trying to 
 recall some memory which had escaped him. 
 Both his sisters visited him early ; the elder to 
 shrink down on to her knees at his bedside to 
 offer up a prayer for him, and to make a faint 
 offer of her services as nurse — the younger to 
 survey him very critically, wondering what 
 shock it was which had had such a terrible 
 effect upon him. 
 
 On leaving his bedside, she went down- 
 stairs to the library, unlocked the door, let 
 herself in, and, taking from her pocket the keys 
 she had found the night before In her brother's 
 VOL. I. 9 
 
130 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME* 
 
 coat, she opened successively the locked drawers 
 of the bureau to try to satisfy a vague wonder 
 whether there was any secret in his life which 
 Lindley had in some way got hold of, and was 
 trying to trade upon. But there was nothing 
 which contained the least Intimation of that 
 sort, though Elizabeth, in her hunt for this 
 chance prize, came upon certain papers which 
 explained something that had long been exer- 
 cising her mind, and fully repaid her for this 
 rather adventurous search. 
 
 For, by certain receipts and memoranda 
 which she discovered, the Indignant lady found 
 out by what means her brother had for so many 
 years supported and educated his adopted child, 
 and also was enabled to ascertain for the first 
 time how much his freak had cost him. And, 
 in her first outbreak of solitary rage at the 
 discovery that the expenses of his undertaking 
 had been rather more than double what he 
 had represented to them, and that he had had 
 to sell two of his farms and to cut down some 
 timber unknown to her to meet them, Elizabeth 
 started up and stepped forward to the door, 
 as If seized by an irresistible impulse to vent 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. I3I 
 
 her wrath upon the unconscious figure lying 
 upstairs. She had scarcely turned the key in 
 the lock, however, when her reason returned, 
 and, half ashamed of her action, though her 
 anger was as violent as ever, she turned sharply 
 back, forgetting to relock the door, and, re- 
 turning to her place at the bureau behind the 
 screen, she bent again, with tightly pressed lips 
 and glittering eyes, over the evidences of her 
 brother's criminal deceit and extravagance. 
 
 She was roused from her occupation by a 
 very soft little chuckle of amusement ; and, as 
 she raised her head quickly, her eyes met those 
 of Lindley Fielding, who had come into the 
 room as softly as a cat, and who was watching 
 her round the screen with a malicious delight 
 on his blandly smiling face, which turned the 
 torrent of her fury upon him. 
 
 '' How dare you sneak into this house again, 
 after the mischief you have done in it ? " she 
 demanded, rising, her cold eyes flashing, her 
 voice low but harsh with anger. 
 
 " I came to see whether you had recovered 
 from the effects of sitting up all night nursing 
 your brother," replied Lindley, softly. " I did 
 
132 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 not know that I should find you so pleasantly 
 employed. Charles is well enough to have 
 sent you to look for something, perhaps — for 
 some paper of interest and importance ? Or 
 are you hunting on your own account ? " 
 
 *' Leave the room and leave the house, or 
 I will have you turned out." 
 
 " Very well ; turn me out. Go and ring 
 the bell." 
 
 She could not do this without leaving him 
 in possession of the bureau, he thought ; but he 
 underrated the Avoman s audacity. Carefully 
 glancing at the papers upon which her hands 
 were lying, she replaced them coolly in one 
 of the little drav/ers of the bureau, locked it, 
 touched the handles of two or three of the 
 other drawers to see that they were securely 
 fastened ; and then, putting the keys into her 
 pocket, she walked to the fireplace and rang 
 the bell sharply. 
 
 " Bravo ! " said Lindley. 
 
 Elizabeth looked at her cousin aofain, but 
 this time not with anger — that had no effect 
 upon him — but with searching inquiry. What 
 did he know ? There was something porten- 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 33 
 
 tous in the permanence of his serene Insolence. 
 He was a man without ballast, and at the mercy 
 of fortune, good or bad : she began to feel that 
 he must be on smooth waters to be so confident ; 
 and insensibly her manner changed. Watching 
 each other keenly as they w^ere doing, no faintest 
 relaxation of feature was lost upon Lindley, 
 who asked himself, in his turn — 
 
 '' Does she guess anything ? What does 
 she know ? " 
 
 She remained at the. bureau; but, after 
 occupying herself for a few moments with the 
 loose papers lying on it, she raised her head, 
 and said shortly — 
 " Sit down, Lindley." 
 
 He accepted the abrupt and somewhat un- 
 crracious invitation with outward calmness ; 
 but his curiosity was roused, and increased 
 when, upon Johnsons appearance, instead of 
 the threatened order to show him out, his 
 cousin merely uttered the words — 
 
 " Bring some sherry." 
 
 Lindley appeared to take no notice of this 
 change of front, but, with hands easily crossed 
 upon the rail of his chair and eye-glass up, sat 
 
134 ^^ I^OG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 looking out into the park, waiting in wise silence 
 for her next move. 
 
 She said nothing until the sherry was 
 brought ; and then, signing to him to help him- 
 self, which he did liberally without hesitation, 
 she began, in a quiet, business-like tone, draw- 
 ing upon the blotting-paper in front of her, and 
 very intent upon that work — 
 
 " Look here, Lindley, if you have anything 
 of real interest to tell, it may be as well worth 
 your while to tell me as to tell Charles." 
 
 " Worth my while, Elizabeth ! "—dropping 
 his eye-glass from his eye in his wounded 
 surprise. '' I don't understand you." 
 
 " Don't you, really ? Well, I will explain. 
 The gratitude you expected from Charles for 
 the information you had to impart to him may 
 take an even more substantial form in my hands 
 than in his." 
 
 '' Really, Elizabeth, if you think I am a 
 person to be bribed, especially in a matter 
 where the family honour is concerned, you 
 make a great mistake," said Lindley, putting 
 down a large piece of cake which he had cut 
 for himself, in order to be more free to ex- 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 35 
 
 press the proud indignation he felt at her 
 suggestion. 
 
 He was so sternly incorruptible that she 
 felt he mistrusted her power to fulfil her 
 implied promises. 
 
 " Oh, the family honour is concerned, is it ? " 
 
 " Yes," he replied, taking up his cake 
 again. 
 
 " Ah ! " she ejaculated incredulously. When 
 Lindley began to talk of the family honour he 
 lost weight directly. 
 
 '* I came here," he continued, with dignity, 
 " on a mission of justice. I have been the 
 victim of so much injustice myself throughout 
 my life — partly perhaps through a certain reck- 
 lessness of the opinion of others, which may be 
 a fault in my character — that I can feel for 
 other victims of injustice, and exert myself 
 for them as no one has ever exerted himself 
 for me. When the victim is a woman, my 
 chivalry comes to the aid of my indignation, 
 and then I do not care to what misrepresenta- 
 tion I lay myself open in my endeavour to 
 obtain justice for her." 
 
 '' And in this case justice means " 
 
i;6 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 O 
 
 '' Charles's acknowledgment of his own 
 child." 
 
 " Or of yours as his own ? " 
 
 " Your suspicions are unworthy of your 
 discernment. What motive could I have for 
 such a suggestion ? " 
 
 "A very good one, or, at least, one quite 
 good enough for — for your purpose. Charles 
 has no heir. If he were to acknowledge this 
 girl as his legitimate child, he would leave all 
 he possesses to her ; and it may have occurred 
 to you that it is better to be the unacknow- 
 ledged father of the heiress to even such a poor 
 property as this than to be the acknowledged 
 father of a girl without a penny." 
 
 " I repeat, Elizabeth, that I am not the 
 father of the girl in question at all. You don't 
 seem to know how old she is, to begin with. 
 Charles's daughter is twenty-two or twenty- 
 three at least." 
 
 "And you are forty-eight or forty-nine at 
 least, Lindley, though I acknowledge that you 
 don't look it by this light." 
 
 For he had changed his seat, and was now 
 sitting with his back to the windows. This 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 37 
 
 shaft Struck home ; his plump well-shaped 
 hands twitched and trembled, as they did when 
 anything moved him strongly. When he spoke 
 again, it was in a softly argumentative tone. 
 
 '' Do you think, Elizabeth, that it was any- 
 thing less than a statement of vital interest to 
 him which had such an effect upon Charles as 
 to strike him down with paralysis ? " 
 
 "No, I do not," she answered coolly. Then, 
 after a pause — '' You struck a little too hard ; 
 you made your statement a little too interest- 
 ing ; for, if he should die, as the doctors fear, 
 without recovering power enough to speak, you 
 see all your efforts in the cause of the * victim 
 of injustice ' will be thrown away." 
 
 '' I hope not — I may say I am sure they 
 will not be. Charles has in his possession 
 written proofs " — and he looked at her very 
 fixedly — "of the truth of the story which, if 
 anything were to happen to him, I should 
 repeat to his executors ; and then, even if it 
 were too late for her to benefit pecuniarily by 
 the establishment of her true position, at least 
 the poor girl would be released," continued 
 Lindley, his tone rising to the occasion, " from 
 
13^ A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 the Stigma which has long so unjustly lain upon 
 her." 
 
 " Charles has written proofs, you say ? 
 How do you know that ? " 
 
 ** Perhaps he told me ; perhaps I found out 
 from a different source. At any rate, I can 
 produce other proofs in support of them. 
 Besides," continued Lindley, in a more assured 
 tone, ''we may still hope that Charles will 
 recover, at any rate sufficiently to acknowledge 
 his child." 
 
 " As I have told you, he is speechless, and 
 it is greatly to be feared that he will remain so 
 until his death, which cannot — so the doctors 
 are afraid — be far distant." 
 
 " But he is conscious ; your man-servant 
 told me so." 
 
 Elizabeth's lips contracted with annoyance. 
 
 " The sight of some one he was very fond 
 of," continued Lindley, growing warm, " might 
 give him temporary strength ; at least it could 
 not do him any harm. Well, then, let this girl 
 be brought into his presence ; let him be pre- 
 pared for her coming, if you please, and then 
 see what the effect will be." 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 39 
 
 *' x\re you dreaming ? Is it possible you 
 think I could be guilty of allowing a ghastly 
 experiment to be tried upon a dying man ? " 
 
 " I do not believe, Elizabeth, that Charles is 
 dying. Whom have you had to see him ? A 
 pack of incompetent country practitioners quite 
 at sea in any case worse than measles or tooth-^ 
 ache. Now, in order to do my best to remedy 
 the evil I have so unhappily caused in breaking 
 my tidings to Charles too suddenly, I have sent 
 to town for a physician who is renowned for his 
 treatment of cases of paralysis — Doctor Led- 
 bury; and he has telegraphed that he will arrive 
 at Goldborough by the 2.25 express from Liver- 
 pool Street ; he will be here by a little past six." 
 
 *' He shall not see Charles!" broke out 
 Elizabeth, vehemently. " No doctor of your 
 sending shall enter the house." 
 
 " You cannot insult a man of the standing 
 of Doctor Ledbury," said Lindley quietly. 
 
 This w^as .undeniable. He was a man of 
 the highest rank in his profession. Elizabeth's 
 frame shook with rage. 
 
 " You have taken a great liberty in sending 
 for him without consultine us ! " 
 
140 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 ''In the case of the dano^erous illness of a 
 member of my own family," LIndley argued 
 gravely, his brown eyes bright with triumphant 
 light, '' no effort I could make to restore him to 
 life and health could possibly be a liberty. i\s 
 it was I who sent for him, will you allow me to 
 be present when he arrives ? " 
 
 " No," answered Elizabeth shortly ; '' I can 
 tell him all that is necessary. I am quite satis- 
 fied that Doctor Foley and Mr. Crosse have 
 done all that is possible for poor Charles ; but, 
 as you have sent for Doctor Ledbury, I sup- 
 pose he must see him. At what time did you 
 say he would be here ? " 
 
 " The train gets into Goldborough at 
 
 5-5I-" 
 
 *' Then I will send the carriage to meet 
 him. Eleanor wants to go to Goldborough ; 
 she can explain the case to Doctor Ledbury. 
 That will save time." 
 
 Eleanor's explanation was not likely to be 
 valuable ; but Lindley understood perfectly 
 well that this was only a measure of precaution 
 to prevent his meeting the great London 
 physician himself, and prejudicing his mind 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. I4I 
 
 in the case. He acquiesced in this arrange- 
 ment, however, having no excuse for upsetting 
 it. Then Elizabeth rose. 
 
 " Now, I will have no tricks, LIndley," she 
 told him, growing more and more dissatisfied as 
 his satisfaction evidently increased. " Doctor 
 Ledbury shall see Charles ; and I hope that, 
 by the help of Heaven, he may be able to restore 
 him," she said in a hard voice, " though I fear 
 it is very unlikely," she added with Christian 
 resignation. " But, understand me, LIndley, 
 not at the instance of all the doctors In the 
 world will I allow poor Charles's last hours to 
 be disturbed by the presence of an intruder, 
 or any person whom I consider an Intruder. 
 I shall give orders that, after Doctor Ledbury's 
 arrival, no person shall be admitted into the 
 house upon any pretext whatever ; and I shall 
 take even stronger measures than that to enforce 
 my wishes — my resolves for my brother s peace. 
 So that, I warn you, it will be of no use for you 
 and the girl in whom you take such a nobly 
 unselfish interest to lurk about watching for an 
 opportunity of making an entrance, for I shall 
 be on the watch against any such attempt, and 
 
142 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 I would bar the way, If necessary, with my own 
 person." 
 
 '' I swear," said LIndley, standing erect and 
 speaking most Impressively, " that I will make 
 no such attempt. It Is far from my wish to 
 increase the affliction which I have been the 
 unwitting means of bringing upon you. I feel 
 that affliction more acutely than any of you 
 on that account. It was In trying to repair the 
 injury done to an innocent girl that I was the 
 unhappy cause of this family calamity. I have 
 done my best to atone for that by sending for 
 Doctor Ledbury. I will now leave you, and 
 I can assure you that my prayer for poor 
 Charles's recovery shall not be wanting." 
 
 LIndley was always the first and generally 
 the only dupe of his own hypocrisy ; and he felt 
 at this moment what his melodious and full 
 voice expressed — a sentiment of deep and pious 
 compassion for the victim of his lofty motives. 
 
 Elizabeth, who had heard his last speech 
 without much attention, her mind occupied with 
 something more Important than Lindley's oaths 
 or Lindley's prayers, stopped him as he was 
 preparing to take leave. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 43 
 
 " After all, you had better stay, perhaps — 
 if you will. It is two o'clock; luncheon will be 
 ready directly ; and, if you know Doctor Ledbury 
 
 personally " 
 
 . " I don't," interrupted Lindley ; '' I have 
 seen him once, and that is all. I really don't 
 think it is necessary for me " 
 
 '' Yes, yes ; perhaps it is better that there 
 should be a man in the house/' she insisted, not 
 troubling herself to be complimentary in this 
 excuse for detaining her cousin at the Hall, 
 where, it had suddenly occurred to her, he would 
 be under her eye. 
 
 She grew warmer in her invitation as he 
 showed a wish to evade it, and at last she 
 prevailed over his reluctance ; and, to Eleanor's 
 surprise, the two who had hurled defiance at 
 each other the day before now came in to 
 luncheon together, apparently on the most 
 friendly terms. The elder sister was too much 
 puzzled and , almost alarmed by this mystery 
 to join much in the conversation ; but the other 
 two kept up an animated talk without her help. 
 Lindley suggested that the Vicar should be 
 sent for; and Elizabeth, wondering that this 
 
144 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 proposal should have been left to him, agreed 
 to it, and went into the morning-room to write 
 a note as soon as they rose from table. When 
 she joined the other two in the drawing-room, 
 Eleanor was standing on the white hearthrug, 
 with her little woollen shawl round her shoulders, 
 shivering over the fire, while Lindley was stand- 
 ino- at one of the lonof windows, w^hlch he had 
 opened, speaking to a stupid-looking boy of 
 about twelve, who was employed from time to 
 time about the place to help the under-gardener. 
 Eleanor was looking frightened, without any 
 apparent reason : a breath of soft April air 
 coming across the wide room was scarcely 
 enough to cause alarm in the most sensitive 
 of elderly ladies ; and Lindley, leaning easily 
 against the window-frame, was only talking 
 about tulips. Elizabeth's sharp eyes glanced 
 from the one to the other ; but she could read 
 nothing more in either face. 
 
 '' This young gentleman will take your note, 
 Elizabeth," said he cheerfully, having already 
 assumed towards his imperious cousin the tone of 
 the affectionate and intimate companion of years' 
 standing. In his heart he knew that she was 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 45 
 
 tolerating his society that she might keep a 
 watch upon his movements ; but he preferred 
 to cheat himself into the belief that she was 
 not insensible to the charm of his presence ; and, 
 encouraged in his efforts to be entertaining by 
 that assumption, he was actually succeeding in 
 turning her tolerance into a sort of half-con- 
 temptuous pleasure in his society. ''He says 
 he could find his way to the Vicar's blindfold ; 
 that he was there only last week * a-cleanin' of 
 the winders and a-weedin' of the garden ' — so 
 you could not have a safer messenger." 
 
 So she would have thought herself, had he 
 not been Lindley's choice ; however, there 
 seemed to be really no cause for hesitation 
 about so simple a matter ; so she gave her 
 note herself to the boy, with the clear and 
 short instruction that he was to take it to the 
 Vicarage, and that there was no answer. The 
 Vicarage was only a few minutes' walk from 
 the park-gates. 
 
 Joe had not left the drawing-room window 
 to start on his errand ten minutes when there 
 Avas a ring heard ; and a few moments later 
 Johnson ushered in the Vicar. Elizabeth looked 
 
 VOL. I. 10 
 
146 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 surprised — Mr. Bamber was by no means an 
 active man, and her request had not been 
 urgent. It was years since he had seen Lindley 
 Fielding ; but he knew him and was evidently 
 not surprised to meet him. 
 
 " I got your note," said he to Elizabeth, 
 " and yours " — turning to Lindley ; " so of 
 course I came at once." 
 
 Why had Lindley written ? What had 
 made him so anxious for the Vicar's coming ? 
 
 When he had expressed his condolences 
 very simply, Elizabeth led him upstairs to her 
 brother's room, not without an anxious glance 
 at her cousin, expressing the question, ''What 
 mischief will he contrive to do now ? " 
 
 They went very softly into the sick-room ; 
 but they had scarcely entered when the sound 
 of the closing of the drawing-room door woke 
 Elizabeth's quick suspicions ; and, after leading 
 the way to her brother's bedside and seeing 
 that he was conscious, she modestly retreated, 
 leaving the clergyman standing by the sick man, 
 while the old housekeeper, who was watching 
 at a little distance, respectfully rose and stood 
 while the Vicar remained. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 47 
 
 Elizabeth found her cousin still safely in the 
 drawing-room, talking to Eleanor ; and she 
 wondered whether it was perhaps one of the 
 servants whom she had heard closing the door, 
 which always creaked in a manner not to be 
 mistaken. Was it a rtcse of Lindley's to draw 
 her downstairs ? she wondered, when, on her 
 going to meet the Vicar on his way from the 
 sick-room, he answered to her question whether 
 she had found her brother sensible — 
 
 ''Yes; but much disturbed in mind. He 
 could not speak, though he tried very hard ; 
 but I gathered from his expression and slight 
 movements, in reply to my questions, that he is 
 very anxious — to see some one." 
 
 Elizabeth started, and her face changed 
 colour. This, then, was the explanation of 
 Lindley's manoeuvre — he had put the Vicar on 
 the track of certain questions to ask about that 
 miserable ofirl ! 
 
 *' Don't you think," said the Vicar, hesitatingly 
 — for he was extremely shy of interference in 
 family matters — " that at a time like this you 
 ought to — well, to yield to his wishes ? Don't 
 you think it would be better ? " 
 
148 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 '' I am afraid, Mr. Bamber, that in this 
 matter my own idea of my duty forbids me to 
 do so." 
 
 " But do you know who she is ? " asked the 
 Vicar slowly, his guttural rattling voice giving 
 added solemnity to the question. 
 
 ''Yes, I do," she answered, with great 
 significance. 
 
 The Vicar looked at her, and then in front 
 of him. 
 
 '' Oh, very well ! " was all he said ; but his 
 tone made her feel uncomfortable. What was 
 he thinkino^ ? What was he Sfoinor to do ? 
 Was he, too, on the enemy's side ? She watched 
 him walk, with his stooping, shambling gait^ 
 down the drive towards the park-gates, and 
 returned to the others with a mind full of 
 anxiety, and with the bitterest feelings against 
 the cunning Lindley, who was going through a 
 caricature of pastoral love-making with Eleanor. 
 
 Time dragged heavily until the hour came 
 for the carriage to start for Goldborough, to 
 meet the train by which the famous physician 
 was to arrive. Eleanor was very nervous at 
 havinof to ^o to meet him ; but her sister 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD N A:\rE. 1 49 
 
 insisted — she wanted some spy to see that no 
 message from Lindley should reach Doctor 
 Ledbury to prejudice or prepare him, as he had 
 done the Vicar. So the poor httle lady went 
 off submissively in the barouche ; and the rival 
 conspirators were left to entertain each other. 
 
 It was a trying tete-a-tete. Their open 
 defiance exchanged for masked guard on each 
 other's movements, they tried to keep up a 
 conversation upon indifferent subjects, while 
 each slightest sound above or outside thrilled 
 them both — the debonair fluent man of the 
 world and the still handsome cold-faced woman 
 — with the wild excitement of keen expectation. 
 Would this world-famed physician succeed in 
 restoring Sir Charles to speech ? If he should, 
 however temporary the restoration might be, 
 Elizabeth knew that Lindley would secure his 
 aim ; that, whether truly or falsely, the outcast 
 child who had so strangely come beneath the 
 roof of Waringham Hall would be acknow- 
 ledged by Sir Charles Otway as his own 
 daughter. 
 
 When Johnson brought in the lamp, they 
 both started guiltily ; and when at last they 
 
150 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 heard the sound of hoofs and wheels coming 
 nearer and nearer to the house, Elizabeth drew 
 a sharp breath, and Lindley Fielding, less self- 
 controlled, started to his feet with staring eye- 
 balls and face moist with aeitation. 
 
 In a few moments the bell rang ; the front 
 door was opened immediately, faint sounds in 
 the hall were followed by the flinging open of 
 the drawing-room door, as Johnson announced 
 solemnly — 
 
 " Doctor Ledbury ! " 
 
 Lindley glanced stealthily at his cousin. 
 She looked cold, dignified, anxious ; but there 
 was in her face no doubt, no suspicion. Breath- 
 ing more freely, he too turned his eyes towards 
 the door as the physician entered. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. I5I 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The entrance of the celebrated Doctor Ledbury 
 into the drawing-room at Warlngham Hall 
 made a profound impression upon its occupants. 
 He was a man so striking in appearance that 
 this would, in a less degree, have been the case 
 even if the fate of almost every member of the 
 household had not hung upon the results of his 
 skill, which was about to be exercised upon the 
 master of Warlngham, now lying speechless 
 upstairs. 
 
 Doctor Ledbury was a man of tall and 
 commanding fio-ure, with fair hair and lonor 
 well-trimmed tawny beard, handsome aquiline 
 nose, and blue eyes as cold and piercing as 
 those of Miss Elizabeth Otway herself. He 
 looked young for a man who had attained so 
 high a place in his profession, in spite of the 
 
152 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 gold-rimmed spectacles he wore ; the only sign 
 by which it was possible to tell that the sleek 
 brilliancy of his appearance was the result, not 
 of youth, but of careful preservation, was in his 
 walk, which was measured and rather heavy, 
 not that of a young man. He spoke very little, 
 very slowly, and in a deep low voice, listened 
 gravely to Elizabeth's brief explanation of the 
 case he had been summoned to attend, and then 
 asked — 
 
 " Result of some shock, I suppose ? " 
 
 " I — I believe so." 
 
 '' You were not present ? " 
 
 '' No." 
 
 '' Any one present ? " 
 
 Elizabeth hesitated. The physician waited. 
 At last she said — 
 
 " Yes, one person." 
 
 '' I was present at the time of Sir Charles's 
 seizure, Doctor Ledbury. I am his cousin. 
 Indeed, I am afraid it was a disclosure made 
 by me with unthinking suddenness which pro- 
 duced on my poor cousin such lamentable 
 results," said Lindley, coming forward and 
 bowing to the great physician, who examined 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 53 
 
 him attentively through his gold-rimmed 
 c:lasses. 
 
 " What effect does your presence have on 
 him now ? " 
 
 They had to listen very closely to catch 
 the sense of the great man's words, so low did 
 he speak, besides having apparently a slight 
 difficulty of utterance. 
 
 '' I have not seen my cousin since his 
 seizure." 
 
 The doctor looked at him steadily, evidently 
 surprised. 
 
 " You had better see him now. The sight 
 of you may have some effect. Kindly show 
 me the way." 
 
 His quiet manner was so authoritative that 
 Elizabeth, who had started at his suggestion, 
 dared not interfere. Fortune was with Lindley 
 still ; in powerless rage she had to witness his 
 triumphant departure from the room with the 
 physician. For one wild moment the thought 
 possessed her that this doctor, summoned by 
 Lindley, was in collusion with him ; but then 
 her reason told her that a man of his position 
 was above suspicion ; the next, the suspicion 
 
154 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 flashed through her mind that this might not 
 be Doctor Ledbury at all, although she had 
 seen his telegram announcing the hour of his 
 coming ; but that idea had also to be dismissed^ 
 for nothing could be more unlike the bearing 
 of an impostor than the grave dignity and 
 assured manner of the man, whose shrewdy 
 penetrating glance had exercised upon herself 
 a strange fascination. She was not surprised 
 when, having listened with straining ears to 
 the last sound of the footsteps of the two men 
 as they crossed the central hall and went up 
 the staircase, Lindley talking volubly all the 
 time, Eleanor entered the room, still wearing 
 her bonnet, and, coming close up to her sister 
 with tottering steps, whispered — 
 
 " Oh, Elizabeth, he frightens me ! Oh, I 
 would not go through that drive again with him 
 for the world ! " 
 
 *'Why, what makes you afraid of him.'* 
 He is neither old, ugly, nor ferocious, unless 
 he is very different en tete-a-tete from what 
 he is at other times. How did you meet 
 him?" 
 
 *' The London train came in just as I drove 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 55 
 
 Up, and a minute after he came out of the 
 station ; he was lookine about ; so I euessed 
 who he was and spoke to him." 
 
 " So, then, he frightened you coming along, 
 did he ? What did he say ? " 
 
 "He didn't say anything — at least he said 
 scarcely anything. He apologized to me for 
 opening his pocket-book, and he looked at it 
 and read and made notes in it nearly all the 
 time." 
 
 ** Well, that was not very alarming." 
 
 " Oh, but you don't know ! There was 
 something in the way he did it which seemed 
 to say that he did not want my company, and 
 that I ought not to have come. But it was 
 more than that, Elizabeth; he had a horrible 
 effect upon me ; he is one of those terribly 
 clever people who read one through and 
 through at a glance ; his eyes are like lancets. 
 If he were to come to attend me, I should die 
 at once, I know I should." 
 
 " Indeed, I believe that a sillier doctor would 
 be quite as able to treat you successfully," said 
 her sister, drily. 
 
 Elizabeth was beginning to take courage 
 
156 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 from her very confidence in this man's penetra- 
 tion ; he was not Hkely to be the dupe of such 
 a man as Lindley, nor at all the sort of person 
 to encourage dying delusions in his patient. 
 Nevertheless, she was restless and feverishly 
 impatient as time wore on and there was no 
 sound to be heard above. Sir Charles's bed- 
 room was over the smaller drawing-room. She 
 left the lamp and the fire and the place where 
 she and her sister usually sat, and, crossing to 
 the dim cold corner under the spot where her 
 brother lay, she listened in vain for some sound 
 overhead. At last her endurance gave way 
 and she softly opened the door ; after a few 
 seconds' hesitation, she glided softly and quickly 
 through the large, ill-lighted outer hall into 
 the small, worse-lighted inner one, where she 
 was stopped with a great shock by coming 
 suddenly against a motionless figure at the foot 
 of the staircase. She was in a state of such 
 nervous excitement that the meeting almost 
 forced a cry even from her resolute lips. It 
 was Johnson the man-servant. 
 
 " What are you doing here ? " she asked 
 sharply. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 57 
 
 '' Mr. Fielding told me to be about, ma am ; 
 he said he might want me," replied Johnson, 
 respectfully. 
 
 " And since when have you taken your 
 orders from Mr. Fielding ? " she asked coldly, 
 but stung to fury by the discovery of the pro- 
 gress this ne'er-do-well cousin, on the strength 
 of his secret, was making into the very heart 
 of the household affairs. 
 
 Johnson stood in a respectfully deprecatory 
 attitude, saying nothing. 
 
 "You need not wait any longer. I will 
 answer for your neglect of his orders to Mr. 
 Fielding," she said, in a hard, ironical tone ; and 
 she passed him and went upstairs. 
 
 Johnson, however, merely retreated to the 
 deep shadow of the oaken staircase until she 
 was out of sight, and then quietly returned and 
 took up his old position, waiting. He hated 
 Miss Elizabeth, he adored his old master, and 
 he would not have missed the smallest chance 
 of being near Sir Charles, or of serving him 
 when he was dying, for a regiment of cold-eyed 
 Miss Otways. So he stood mentally ejacula- 
 ting, " The old cat ! The old spy ! " as he 
 
158 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 listened to his mistress's stealthy footsteps 
 outside her brother's door. 
 
 She was listening, with her head nearer and 
 nearer to the keyhole, to the sound of a long, 
 earnest recital of some kind, told in a whisper. 
 Who the speaker was, whether it was Lindley 
 or the physician, she could not tell. Closer and 
 closer she bent to the door handle, more and 
 more sharply she drew her breath as the sound 
 continued, until there was at last a pause ; and 
 then she heard her brother's voice, weak, indis- 
 tinct, but intelligible, saying — 
 
 "Yes, yes; I understand it all — all." 
 Great Heavens ! Then Lindley had not 
 overrated Doctor Ledbury's skill ; the physician 
 had, indeed, restored speech to the dumb man. 
 Her excitement, her feverish anxiety to know 
 what that passionately hissed-out tale was 
 which had been poured out into the sick man's 
 ear, overcame her self-control somewhat ; her 
 breath came quickly, her frame shook so much 
 that the hano^inor ends of the old-fashioned chain 
 she wore round her neck tapped against each 
 other with a faint noise. As she stooped to 
 look through the keyhole, it was suddenly 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 59 
 
 blocked by another inquiring eye on the other 
 side. Without further ceremony, she raised 
 herself and sharply turned the handle. It was 
 of no use — the door was locked. 
 
 '' Who is there ? " said Lindley's voice, very 
 quietly. 
 
 *' It is I, Elizabeth Otway," she answered, 
 in her grimmest tone. 
 
 '' Hush ! Don't speak so loudly ! " he 
 whispered back, in his sweetest manner. 
 *' Charles is much better ; he can speak. I 
 will come out and tell you all about it in a few 
 minutes ; but he must not be disturbed just 
 now ; Doctor Ledbury says it is a critical 
 moment." 
 
 That was true enough, as the tortured woman 
 knew. She stood there a moment irresolute, 
 panting like a tigress, with eyes fixed upon the 
 door in front of her, as if it needed but one 
 pang more of maddening anxiety to make her 
 force it open or tear it down ; then, without 
 another word to her enemy inside, she softly 
 withdrew, and creeping a few steps further 
 along the corridor, she opened the door of Sir 
 Charles's dressing-room. There was a candle 
 
l6o A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 on the table, and beside it Mrs. Symes was 
 sitting, with her long, lean, sharp old face a 
 livid grayish hue from terror. Her mistress 
 passed the old woman, who had staggered 
 slowly to her feet, and tried the bedroom door. 
 It was locked, like the other. 
 
 ** What does this mean ? " she asked, in a 
 low imperious tone, stepping back to the house- 
 keeper's side. 
 
 '' They have locked it, ma'am. He — the 
 doctor — sent me into this room, and told me 
 to wait " 
 
 She hesitated, shaking from head to foot. 
 
 '' And then ? " queried Elizabeth, on fire 
 with impatience. 
 
 ^^Then I heard— I heard " 
 
 " Well, well, go on. You heard ? " 
 
 " I heard Sir Charles's voice call out, ma'am, 
 quite strong and sudden." 
 
 ''What did he call out ? ' 
 
 " I — I — I don't know, I was that dazed 
 like, I couldn't tell, ma'am," she stammered. 
 
 " Well, well ; but was it words he said, or 
 only just a cry ? You remember as much as 
 that, don't you ? " asked Elizabeth, lapsing into 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. l6l 
 
 the winning, encouraging tones she could use 
 upon occasion. 
 
 " I — I really couldn't tell you, ma'am. I 
 was just sitting there, and it took me unexpected 
 like, as I may say, and I know no more than 
 the child unborn what he did say." 
 
 *' Mr. Lindley has been speaking to you 
 since." This was not a question, but a con- 
 fident assertion, while the sharp eyes pierced 
 through the old woman's hesitancy like gimlets. 
 
 " No-o — yes, ma'am." 
 
 A momentary confusion was a natural enough 
 result of that raking investigation. But Miss 
 Elizabeth had no mercy. 
 
 " And he has been persuading you, ordering 
 you, bribing you not to repeat what you heard. 
 You see, Mrs. Symes, it is of no use for you 
 to attempt to deceive me ; you had better tell 
 me the whole truth at once." 
 
 '' Mrs. Symes ! " Lindley's voice here called 
 out from the bedroom. 
 
 '' Yes, sir," she answered, in a faltering 
 voice. 
 
 "Come here to the door. I want to speak 
 to you." 
 
 VOL. I. II 
 
1 62 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 The old housekeeper glanced at Elizabeth, 
 who, anxious to hear what Lindley had to say, 
 signed to her to obey. But no sooner had 
 Mrs. Symes gone close to the bedroom door 
 and said in a low voice, " I am here, sir," than 
 the key was swiftly turned, the door opened, 
 and she was drawn quickly into the bedroom 
 by a hand laid upon her arm. As Elizabeth, 
 on the alert, crossed the room to follow, the 
 door was closed and the key again turned. She 
 knocked at once. 
 
 "Who is it ? " asked Lindley s voice. 
 
 " It is I. I insist upon your letting me in ; 
 if Mrs. Symes can be admitted, why cannot I ? 
 What trick is this, to keep his nearest and 
 dearest relatives from my poor brother's bedside ? 
 
 Doctor Ledbury, I insist " 
 
 Suddenly the door was opened, and the 
 doctor himself appeared at it. Startled by his 
 unexpected presence at the entrance, over-awed 
 by the indignant solemnity of his manner and 
 by the magnetic power of his cold, keen eyes, 
 she broke off in the middle of her speech and 
 stood silently before him. 
 
 " It is for me to insist here, madam," said he. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 63 
 
 in as low a voice as ever, but with authority 
 which subdued even her. " And I must insist 
 upon your making no further disturbance out- 
 side my patient's door. Otherwise I will not 
 answer for the consequences." 
 
 Elizabeth could just see, behind the physi- 
 cian's figure, the bed with her brother sitting 
 up in it, supported by pillows, and with Lindley 
 by his side. She could see too that the writing- 
 table which usually stood at the foot of the bed 
 was now at the side of it, and that the inkstand 
 was open. With the impulsive activity of a 
 girl, she instantly attempted to pass Doctor 
 Ledbury ; but he put up an arm like iron to 
 bar her entrance, and said, in a whisper that 
 absolutely awed her by a resolution superior 
 to her own — 
 
 " I must request you to retire.' 
 
 She faltered, met his cruel eyes, and, struck 
 by a sudden fear of him, stepped back. The 
 door was instantly closed and locked. 
 
 Excited to somethinof strono^er than sus- 
 picion, she left the dressing-room, but remained 
 in the corridor, listening, watching. And, after 
 a long low murmur of voices in the sick-room, 
 
164 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Lindley came out, went to the head of the 
 staircase, and, looking down into the dim hall 
 below, tapped softly on the carved oak bannisters 
 and beckoned. Johnson came up and was let 
 into the room, the door of which had been 
 locked the moment Mr. Fielding came out ; 
 then, before following the man-servant, Lindley 
 turned towards the dark corner where his cousin 
 had believed herself to be hidden. 
 
 " I am sorry to have to keep you in the 
 dark, Elizabeth," said he, suavely ; " but it won't 
 be for very long now. Before this evening is 
 over, I shall have finished the performance of 
 a sacred duty, and justice will be satisfied." 
 
 *' Not until you are in prison, Lindley, for 
 your share In an infamous conspiracy," answered 
 she, maddened by the only half-repressed 
 triumph In his tone. *' You shall not benefit 
 by this day's work, if I have to beg for the 
 means of bringing you to justice." 
 
 " It is not I, but others who will benefit by 
 my exertions, Elizabeth," said he, with infuriating 
 ofentleness of remonstrance. 
 
 " She will not, believe me. You have heard 
 of ' undue Influence ' perhaps ? " 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 65 
 
 " Yes, I have heard of It, and more than 
 that, I have seen it used for nineteen years to 
 prevent Sir Charles from acknowledging his 
 daughter, and even in attempting to dissuade 
 him from educating her in a manner suitable to 
 her station." 
 
 With this impressive tirade, Lindley tapped 
 at the door, and was readmitted into the sick- 
 room. 
 
 Elizabeth swept downstairs with head erect 
 and flashing eyes and shut herself into the 
 library. She had her brother's keys still in 
 her possession ; and, sitting down before the 
 bureau, she unlocked it with unsteady fingers, 
 and turned over the papers in passionate haste 
 until she found those relating to her brother's 
 adopted child and the extravagant expenses 
 into which the support of her had led him. 
 She read them over again with greedy eager- 
 ness ; every Item of expenditure seemed to eat 
 into her brain. Between her clenched teeth 
 she hissed out the sums he had paid to the 
 Misses Gretton for her food, her education, her 
 dress, even her pocket-money. Pocket-money ! 
 This greedy vagrant had had sixpence a week 
 
l66 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 to waste before she was ten, while she and her 
 sister had only been allowed half that sunt 
 when they were twelve. But the later details 
 concerning Geraldine's school expenses and the 
 amount allowed her for dress were more: 
 appalling still. 
 
 There was some excuse for the bitterness 
 with which this lady, whose whole life had been 
 one lone struesfle with the wants of a rich 
 woman and the purse of a poor one, whom 
 nature had made extravagant and circumstances 
 mean, now found that, while she and her sister 
 had been wearing old bonnets retrimmed and 
 gowns made up by their own maid, this un- 
 acknowledged waif had been allowed a supply 
 of hats and frocks quite liberal for a school- 
 girl's wardrobe. She was naturall}^ not inclined 
 to admit that her brother had as much right 
 to spend his money on the support of an 
 abandoned child as some of his neighbours, 
 little richer than he, had to keep yachts and 
 hounds and to indulge in still more expensive 
 pleasures. She was even less ready to allow 
 that it was a harmless and a generous whim. 
 She could see nothing in the act of adopting 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 167 
 
 the child, with its concomitant cares and 
 expenses, but a long tale of treachery and 
 extravagence ; nothing in the papers before 
 her but the records of a crime ; nothing in 
 the girl herself but a dangerous, a fatal enemy 
 to be encountered, defeated, and crushed. 
 Lindley s ingeniously forsaken child to be in- 
 stalled as mistress at Waringham, as Lindley 
 himself was contriving at this moment! If 
 Doctor Ledbury were twenty physicians to 
 testify to Sir Charles's soundness of mind when 
 making^ his will — she knew what was the busi- 
 ness going on upstairs — she would find means 
 of fighting Lindley, of breaking down his 
 story, falsehood by falsehood, and of proving 
 that her brother had never been married. 
 
 Only a momentary doubt on this last point 
 troubled her, though the papers now before her 
 showed that he could be more reserved than 
 she had believed ; but she had stronger reasons 
 than his own word for her reliance on the fact 
 that he had always been a bachelor. Although 
 he had been stationed with his regiment abroad, 
 as well as in different parts of Britain, he had 
 never been out of family surveillance, through 
 
l68 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 the fact that his Colonel was an old friend and 
 correspondent of the late Sir James, his father. 
 The possibility that the girl might still be her 
 brother's child she admitted ; but she had little 
 to fear except from the establishment of the 
 girl's legitimacy. 
 
 She was still poring over the evidences of 
 her brother's treachery and deceit when a ring 
 at the front-door bell made her start nervously. 
 It seemed to her that it was some time before 
 she heard Johnson's step returning from the 
 front-door, and Johnson's voice saying, in a tone 
 full of sympathy and respect — 
 
 '' Will you come in here, ma'am — into Sir 
 Charles's study ? Miss Eleanor, one of Sir 
 Charles's sisters, ma'am, is in the drawing-room." 
 
 He turned the study door handle ; but the 
 door was locked. 
 
 A harsh voice said slowly from within the 
 room — 
 
 " What is it ? " 
 
 " A young lady wishes to speak to you, 
 ma'am, upon something very important." 
 
 " Show the young lady into the drawing- 
 room.'* 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 69 
 
 Geraldine shrank back at the sound of the 
 voice, and the servant whispered respectfully — 
 
 '' Won't you go back, ma'am ? Indeed, it 
 is of no use. You had better not see her ; poor 
 Sir Charles would not wish it." 
 
 For Johnson knew Miss Geraldine, and 
 knew her history too. 
 
 But the girl, whose face was white with 
 ^rief, while her eyelids were heavy with crying, 
 answered falteringly — 
 
 '' I must, I must, Johnson ! It is my only 
 chance, you know ; " and the young voice 
 quavered on the last words. 
 
 Very reluctantly he led the girl through 
 the dark halls, where the shadows of huge 
 antlers on the walls flickered grimly in the dim 
 lamplight, and dusty old portraits looked down 
 solemnly upon her out of their heavy frames, to 
 the drawing-room. 
 
 And, as he ushered her into the long cold 
 apartment, where one lamp at the other end 
 made a little circle of lis^ht in the vault-like 
 darkness, the sound of an old woman's sobbing 
 was the Q^reetinor which met her ears. 
 
170 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 When the Vicar of Waringham left the Hall^ 
 after his visit to Sir Charles and his futile 
 endeavour to induce Miss Elizabeth Otway to 
 accede to her dying brother s wishes, he walked 
 through the park and along the meadow-path 
 which led to the Vicarage, a good deal dis- 
 turbed in mind. Lindley Fielding had, indeed, 
 as his cousin Elizabeth had guessed, suggested 
 in his note to Mr. Bamber certain questions 
 concerning the young lady under Miss 
 Gretton s care ; and the signs and efforts to 
 speak which Sir Charles had made in answer 
 let in a flood of light on to the position of the 
 girl and the baronet's wishes with regard to 
 her. He was very shy of interference in his 
 capacity of spiritual adviser ; but when the. 
 temporal interests of an amiable, accomplished,. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. I7I 
 
 brieht-faced crlrl were Involved, the Vicar felt 
 uneasy as to whether, as a neighbour as well 
 as a Christian, some action other than a prayer 
 for Sir Charles's spiritual welfare were not 
 required of him. 
 
 At the door of his home he met his son 
 Reginald, just returned from a drive into Gold- 
 borough in the Vicar s Norfolk cart. 
 
 " Hallo ! Is it true you have been to the 
 Hall, father ? Did you see Sir Charles ? " 
 
 " Yes. Come into the study a moment ; 
 I want to speak to you." 
 
 The Vicar had great respect for the judg- 
 ment of his son, who was a tall, dark, handsome 
 man, Avith so much natural dignity of manner 
 that his very silence was Impressive, even when 
 It arose from the fact of his having nothing 
 to say, while the grave and courteous attention 
 which he always gave to any matter upon 
 which his opinion was asked added to his 
 decision double value. 
 
 " There Is a very mysterious state of things 
 up at the Hall now," rattled out the Vicar, 
 solemnly. He had entirely lost his voice a 
 couple of years ago, and had since been com- 
 
172 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 pelled to give up all share in the services of his 
 little church. 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Reginald. 
 
 "Yes, very mysterious. Nobody seems to 
 know who is who. Lindley Fielding, that 
 good-for-nothing cousin of theirs they had 
 always such a difficulty in getting rid of, has 
 installed himself there as friend of the family ; 
 Elizabeth Otway evidently considers him no- 
 thing of the kind. He and Sir Charles both 
 seem to agree that the pretty, good little Miss 
 Geraldine Lindley is Sir Charles's legitimate 
 daughter, while Elizabeth " 
 
 " His legitimate daughter! " broke in Regi- 
 nald. ''Then, why hasn't he acknowledged 
 her before ? " 
 
 "That is the mystery. He said he didn't 
 know it and referred me to Lindley. But then 
 Lindley is such a liar — — " 
 
 " But, for the girl's sake, it is most important 
 that this should be cleared up. Where is 
 Lindley ? At the Hall still ? " asked Reginald, 
 his tone deepening to a grave interest, which 
 was the nearest approach to violent excitement 
 he usually showed. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 73 
 
 " Yes ; but wait a minute. There is some- 
 thing I want to ask you. Sir Charles wishes 
 to see the girl ; Elizabeth won't let her be sent 
 for. But it seems to me that, in such a case as 
 this, if a sick man's relatives don't do their duty, 
 his friends ought to step in and do it for them. 
 You know how I hate interfering, and It would 
 be as useful to preach Christian charity to the 
 chairs as to Elizabeth Otway ; but, at the same 
 time " 
 
 " ril go over to Copsley myself at once and 
 fetch her," said Reginald, really excited now. 
 " Bob can't have been unharnessed 3^et. 
 Whether she is his daughter or not, we know 
 he is devotedly fond of her, and his dying wish 
 ought to be respected." 
 
 " But think what we are doing, Reginald. 
 Through his unfortunate reticence, the girl 
 herself doesn't know who she is, or anything 
 about the household at the Hall. Elizabeth 
 is not likely to receive her kindly, and shock 
 after shock will come upon the poor child 
 at once." 
 
 ''They have begun to come already, father ; 
 the sooner she knows the worst the better for 
 
174 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 her. Lindley Fielding himself began the work 
 yesterday ; I found Miss Lindley in tears and 
 great distress after a conversation with him. 
 I told her to console her that I knew him to 
 be an unscrupulous liar ; but it is possible he 
 may have found some scrap of truth to serve 
 his purpose this time. However, whatever 
 he told her, it was something which distressed 
 her very much." 
 
 " It would naturally, coming upon her so 
 unexpectedly. But, remembering the signs 
 Sir Charles made to me yesterday when I 
 talked to him upon this very subject, I cannot 
 help thinking Lindley's assertion may possibly 
 be true. So I think there can be no harm in 
 fetching her, and she can spend the night here 
 if necessary. Tell Miss Gretton so, and I will 
 speak to your mother about it." 
 
 And, delighted to be relieved of the active 
 part of the affair, the Vicar hurried his son off, 
 and returned to the meditations in the study 
 which occupied the greater part of his time. 
 
 Reginald Bamber drove fast along the road 
 to Copsley. His father's words had suggested 
 a possibility which would be the realization of 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. I 75 
 
 the wish which was nearest to his heart at the 
 present time. If Geraldine Lindley — pretty, 
 bright, graceful, highly cultivated Miss Lindley 
 — were really Geraldine Otway, then there 
 could not be in the whole world a more ideally 
 perfect woman for him to wed and to carry 
 back with him in triumph to New York, as a 
 living, charming proof to his American friends 
 of the assertion he had always maintained 
 that, for beauty without artifice, grace without 
 coquetry, and intelligence without self-assertion, 
 English girls of the higher classes were without 
 rivals. It was due to his self-esteem that he 
 should present to those friends some such 
 vindication of his rather marked indifference 
 to the beauties of their fellow-countrywomen. 
 Reginald resolved that he would not unneces- 
 sarily alarm Miss Lindley by informing her at 
 once of the serious nature of Sir Charles's 
 illness ; he would merely state that the baronet 
 had sent for her, and would then, as he drove 
 her to Warlngham, do his best to advance his 
 own claims to her notice and secure a firm place 
 in her remembrance. 
 
 On arriving at Heathcote House, however, 
 
176 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 he learnt that Miss Lindley was out ; so, 
 saying that he would call again, and hearing 
 that she had gone towards the moor, a desolate 
 outlying part of the parish where some of the 
 very poorest of the cottagers lived, he drove in 
 that direction, in the hope of meeting her. 
 
 But Geraldine was in the mean time re- 
 turning homewards by a footpath across the 
 meadows, walking very fast, lest dusk should 
 com.e on and her nervous guardian be angry at 
 her delay. She reached the house soon after 
 Reeinald Bamber left it. Miss Gretton called 
 her at once into the drawing-room. Geraldine 
 thought she was to be catechized as to whether 
 she had committed the grave risk and impro- 
 priety of crossing the fields alone so late in the 
 afternoon, and prepared a penitential face like 
 a child. She had been kept curiously young 
 for her age in many ways by the fussy dic- 
 tatorship of her old maiden guardian, and 
 one of the signs of this was the juvenile 
 submission she showed to her irritating little 
 ordinances, like a model child, and the crest- 
 fallen humility she showed when she had dis- 
 reo^arded one of them. But Miss Gretton, with 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 77 
 
 the slow Steps to which her active frame was 
 now condemned, led her into the lamplight and 
 looked down over her spectacles, as was her 
 manner, into the girl's bright young face and 
 candid eyes. 
 
 " Some one has been here asking to see 
 you," began the old lady, rather severely. Not 
 that she disapproved of Reginald Bamber, whom 
 she, on the contrary, considered to be the ideal 
 of manly perfection ; but the undying instinct of 
 the schoolmistress that admiration and admirers 
 were things to be kept out of the heads of 
 young people unconsciously influenced her tone. 
 
 " My guardian ! " cried Geraldine, her face 
 alight with pleasure in a moment. 
 
 " No ; not Sir Charles — a young gentleman." 
 
 Geraldine grew anxious, and her face fell. 
 Was it the stranger with two names, whose 
 cruel revelations and suggestions had tormented 
 her since yesterday ? 
 
 Miss Gretton watched the young face 
 curiously. 
 
 " It is Mr. Reginald Bamber," said she. 
 
 Geraldine blushed, as an inexperienced girl 
 always does under an examination of this kind, 
 
 VOL. I. 12 
 
178 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 whether her heart Is interested in the subject 
 of it or not. But to Miss Gretton's watchful 
 eyes this blush pleaded " Guilty," and she 
 Instinctively continued, in a more severe tone 
 than before — 
 
 *' He Is going to call again." 
 
 " Indeed, Miss Gretton ! What does he 
 want ? Did you see him ? " 
 
 '' No ; he asked after me, but would not 
 disturb me, as he knows the afternoon Is the 
 time I devote to — letter-writing," said the old 
 lady, with an irresistible twinkle In her eyes. 
 
 " So he Is going to call again when he 
 thinks you have finished — writing your letters ? " 
 said Geraldine, too Innocently. 
 
 ** Geraldine " — more sharply than ever — '' it 
 Is you, and not I, Mr. Bamber is coming to 
 see ! 
 
 "Well, Miss Gretton ? " She was now quite 
 audaciously Indifferent. 
 
 '' Well, my dear," answered the old lady, 
 brought to the point, and relapsing Into friend- 
 liness — "well, do you like him ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, he Is very nice ! " 
 
 " Very nice ! You need not speak of him in 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 79 
 
 that patronizing tone, as if there were a hundred 
 gentlemen about whom you liked just as well." 
 
 ''Well, so there are. At least — no, not a 
 hundred ; but there are a few. There is — 
 there — let me see — there is Mr. Meadows ! " 
 
 ''Mr. Meadows! Why, Mr. Meadows is 
 a married man! You cannot admire Mr. 
 Meadows ? " 
 
 " Oh, you didn't say ' admire ! ' No ; he is 
 not so good-looking as Mr. Bamber." 
 
 " Now, Geraldine, this is affectation ! You 
 know very well that there is not in the whole 
 county a man so handsome, so well-bred, or so 
 highly cultivated as Mr. Bamber !" 
 
 "You admire him more than I do, Miss 
 Gretton." 
 
 " You don't deserve him. I have a great 
 mind to cut you out." 
 
 " You are quite welcome to do so, as far as 
 I am concerned," said Geraldine, with ever- 
 increasing indifference, which was rather exag- 
 gerated. 
 
 " Ah, you wouldn't be quite so generous if 
 I were half a century or so younger — would 
 you ? " 
 
I 8o A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Geraldlne laughed, and laid her head affec- 
 tionately on the old lady's shoulder. 
 
 " Not quite, perhaps. But really I should 
 care less than you think." 
 
 ** Would you ? You seemed very much 
 excited yesterday when you came in and con- 
 fessed to havinof met Mr. Bamber in the 
 churchyard." 
 
 '' Oh yes ; but — but he had not been — 
 been " 
 
 " Making love to you ? " 
 
 " No, not at all." 
 
 "Well, it won't be long before he does, I 
 fancy ; but I must confess that I don't think 
 you could easily have made a better choice, 
 my dear." 
 
 " But I haven't chosen him. You are so 
 impetuous, Miss Gretton ; you can't call it 
 ' choosing ' to take the only man Avho wants you, 
 for one thing ; and I am not at all sure that he 
 does not want me, for another ; and I am still 
 less sure that I want him." 
 
 " Why, what does the girl want ? Do you 
 expect a prince to marry you ? " 
 
 " No ; but Well, you know, it is a thing 
 
A DOG WITPI A BAD NAME. l8l 
 
 one can't talk about, it sounds so absurd, and 
 you would say I had been reading novels and 
 had picked up silly ideas. But I do think one 
 ought to — well, one ought to feel something — 
 I don't know exactly what, but something 
 different from — from anything else in fact — 
 for the man one — well, one wants to marry." 
 
 " Rubbish, my dear ! That is the very 
 mistake all young girls make. They think 
 they want an idol, when all they want is a 
 husband. My advice to every young girl is 
 this : when a well-born, well-bred, honourable 
 gentleman, good-looking enough not to frighten 
 you, and well-read enough to be a companion 
 to you, asks you to be his wife — take him, and 
 thank Heaven for your good fortune." 
 
 '' Then, why didn't you give me this advice 
 before. Miss Gretton, find out my ideas upon 
 the subject, and try to change them into yours, 
 instead of waiting until — until mine have grown 
 so strong that — that I think it would be very 
 difficult to change them, even if you were to 
 persuade me that they were silly — as perhaps 
 they are," she added, only half-lightly. 
 
 *' Geraldine," said Miss Gretton, looking 
 
1 82 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 affectionately and solemnly Into the girl's face, 
 '' There may be some truth in what you 
 say ; the imagination of a young girl is a 
 difficult thing to deal with, and perhaps we 
 shirk the control of it too much. But don't let 
 it run away with you, my dear ; believe me, 
 you will find it difficult for your imagination 
 to picture to you a man more worthy of your 
 love than Reginald Bamber ; besides, he is 
 handsome too, as very few good men are, I 
 assure you. What fault can you possibly find 
 in him ? " 
 
 '' Well, he is rather too perfect ; he frightens 
 me, and — and chills me a little. If I were to 
 marry him, life would be one long fatiguing 
 effort to live up to a standard above me." 
 
 " But, my dear child, what could be more 
 blameless than your life ? And surely your 
 life is not a long fatiguing effort now ? " 
 
 The girl kept her eyes down ; so the 
 eloquent flash in them which would have given 
 her old instructress an unexpected and most 
 appalling answer was unseen. 
 
 '' No, no, of course not," she answered, laugh- 
 ing constrainedly; ''but, if I were married, I 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 83 
 
 think I should Hke to be able to tell my husband 
 my thoughts — say them right out at once without 
 thinking first, you know. Well, I should never 
 dare to tell half my thoughts to a man like 
 Mr. Bamber ; I should have a feeling that 
 every — every unorthodox suggestion would jar 
 upon him, and — and put the wheels out of order. 
 Do you understand what I mean ? " 
 
 " Well, I understand ; but I think you are 
 mistaken. A man like that, a superior man, a 
 man of judgment and sense, would have more 
 consideration than you think. And he would 
 listen to you quite quietly, and make allowance — 
 loving allowance for your errors, and put you 
 gently right where you were wrong." 
 
 '' That is just what I am afraid of ! " burst 
 out Geraldine, with vehemence which startled 
 Miss Gretton, who, having hitherto treated 
 the subject of the affections with her charge only 
 in an abstract and Dry-as-dust sort of way, was 
 not prepared for the intensity of the interest 
 the girl showed in the matter when it was 
 treated of more personally. " I don't want a 
 superior being who will stand over me through 
 life with a benignantly superior smile, and 
 
184 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 iPxdulgently listen to my hasty opinions and 
 considerately point out my faults and mistakes 
 to me. I am not a child now, to be handed 
 over without having a voice in the matter from 
 one trustworthy guardian to another. I am 
 twenty-two ; I have been a woman longer than 
 you seem to think ; I do know my own mind 
 in this matter, and I don't want some one to 
 lecture me, but some one to love me, and I 
 would rather have the love without the lectures. 
 I am tired of being guided ; I want to guide 
 myself." 
 
 " But, my child, my child, it is woman's lot 
 and woman's blessing to be guided and guarded 
 through life. A woman is not fitted for rough 
 struggling with fortune, and, believe me, life 
 is a very sad thing for a girl, brought up as you 
 have been, when she is cast upon the world to 
 make a way for herself as best she can." 
 
 Miss Gretton spoke very solemnly. Warned 
 by Sir Charles, she had never before spoken 
 to Geraldine of the possibility of her having 
 some day to earn her own living ; but now the 
 girl's own words opened her mouth. 
 
 " But it hasn't been your lot to be guided. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 85 
 
 Miss Gretton, and I'm sure it would not have 
 been a blessing to you." 
 
 Geraldine said this rather archly, for it was 
 undeniable. The old lady was obliged to 
 smile. 
 
 *' I was always plain, my dear ; and that^ 
 whatever we may say to very young girls on 
 the subject, makes all the difference in the 
 world in a woman's life. It decreases its 
 dangers, perhaps, but it certainly gives it in an 
 altoo^ether different course. I used once to 
 think of the education of the young as a possible 
 career for you ; but I must acknowledge, my 
 dear, that for some years at least you will find 
 grave difficulties in the way, even if Sir Charles 
 would agree to it ; and he would certainly not 
 do so. Indeed, if your guardian's wishes have 
 any weight with you — and I know they have — 
 I can assure you that nothing would give him 
 so much pleasure as to know that your future 
 was In such safe hands as those of Reginald 
 B amber." 
 
 " There it is a^aln ! Safe hands — I don't 
 
 o 
 
 want to be in safe hands. Oh, Miss Gretton, 
 do you know that I often feel like a wild bird 
 
150 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 caught and imprisoned ? I feel such a mad 
 longing sometimes to break away from this 
 house, from Copsley, even from you and my 
 guardian — just for a little while, only a little 
 while, to go among crowds and bustle and noise 
 and — and dangers. You see you have taught 
 me and counselled me and warned me, and 
 filled me with knowledge and with precepts, 
 and prepared me to meet every danger, moral 
 and physical, which could possibly come upon 
 me ; and it is all thrown away, because I 
 never meet any. And it seems such a pity — 
 doesn't It ? " 
 
 Miss Gretton did not attemj^t to check her, 
 but listened with an earnest attention which 
 encouraged the girl to pour out her whole 
 heart. But the old lady was struck with 
 apprehension on finding the wild nature of the 
 vagrant — so it seemed to her — just as strong as 
 ever, after nineteen years of careful cultivation 
 — under the manner and form of the accom- 
 plished, graceful lady. Geraldine continued 
 more and more impetuously — 
 
 " I don't know whether other cr'irh feel as I 
 
 o 
 
 do- -I don't think they can, or the world would 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 87 
 
 be full of runaways ; for they haven't all the 
 ties of love and kindness which keep me still 
 quietly here. I want something to do, some- 
 thing to spend my energies upon, something to 
 tire me. If I could only go to balls like other 
 girls, and dance till my feet ached ! I do dance 
 like that by myself sometimes — in the room 
 where the birds are. I feel a wild craving — not 
 for excitement, for I get into such a fever with 
 that by myself that very often I can't sleep or 
 keep still, but for something for my excitement 
 to feed upon, some work, some action. Do you 
 understand me ? Why, I have frightened you ; 
 your dear old hands are trembling ! Don't 
 mind what I've said ; oh, I'm so sorry, so sorry ! 
 I don't mean it all ; I have only been teasing 
 you. Forgive me, do forgive me, there's a 
 kind old darling ' " 
 
 But her caresses could not comfort Miss 
 Gretton, who had heard in the girl's passionate 
 tones and read in her flashing brown eyes 
 warnings of future danger for her headstrong 
 nature, against which all the mild precepts and 
 daily texts with which she had been sedulously 
 furnished would prove but a weak shield. 
 
1 88 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Almost for the first time, Miss Gretton got an 
 insight into what that inner life was which the 
 girl's natural reserve had kept concealed all 
 these years. That spiritual life, the absence 
 of which both the elderly ladies had deplored 
 in their otherwise blameless charge, was replaced 
 by a feverish energy of imagination, more 
 earthly, more dangerous. She had nothing 
 ready to say to the girl impressive enough to- 
 suit the needs of the occasion ; so she received 
 her kisses and her retractations almost in silence,, 
 resolved to appeal for advice to the Vicar of 
 Copsley, the Reverend William Cox, a kind old 
 gentleman who was reported to be able to tell 
 the exact number of words in any given chapter 
 of the Bible. Geraldine was surprised by the 
 mildness with which her outbreak had been 
 received by her old instructress, who had often 
 treated less serious ones more severely ; but 
 Miss Gretton felt that the case was too grave 
 for scolding, or even for reproach, and she was. 
 glad when the announcement of *' Mr. Reginald 
 Bamber " allowed her to shelve the subject 
 for further consideration when she should be 
 alone. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 89 
 
 Reginald broached the object of his visit 
 very cautiously, to avoid alarming either of the 
 ladies. It was not until after a little talk about 
 the surprising coldness of the weather for the 
 last two days, and everybody's hopes that the 
 late frost would not injure the budding trees, 
 that he mentioned that Sir Charles did not feel 
 well enough to leave the house, and that, as he 
 wished to see his ward, Reo[-inald himself had 
 offered to drive her to Waringham, and had 
 come to beg Miss Gretton to trust her to his 
 care. This announcement caused both ladies 
 much agitation ; the old lady guessed at once 
 that nothing but severe illness would have led 
 Sir Charles to take this step ; the young one 
 felt that the moment had come when all the 
 mystery about herself would be cleared away. 
 Reginald asked Miss Gretton, in his mother's 
 name, to allow Geraldine to stay at the 
 Vicarage until next day, when he promised to 
 bring her back safely to Copsley. The girl had 
 left the room to prepare for the drive, and the 
 old lady took the opportunity of asking whether 
 Sir Charles's illness was not more serious than 
 he had admitted. 
 
igO A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 " Yes, I am afraid so," he gravely answered, 
 
 " Poor Geraldine ! " murmured the old lady, 
 not without a shrewd intention of drawing- 
 forth a reassurinof answer. She succeeded. 
 
 '' I don't think you need alarm yourself 
 about the future of— of Miss Lindley," said he 
 gently, looking gravely at his hat. " From 
 what I have heard, I believe she will be — er — 
 provided for." 
 
 And, leavinor her in the dark as to whether 
 he himself or Sir Charles would be Geraldine's 
 good providence, he rose as the young girl 
 re-entered the room. She was much excited, 
 and the additional brightness and colour which 
 impatience and anxiety gave to her face made 
 her so lovely in his eyes that he felt tempted 
 to make the plunge on his way with her to 
 Waringham, instead of prudently waiting to see 
 whether Sir Charles really would acknowledge 
 her as his daughter. Fortunately, the girl 
 herself saved him from such a rash act. This, 
 her first visit to her guardian's home for nine- 
 teen years, was an occasion full of solemn 
 interest, of eager yet timid anticipation to her, 
 little as she guessed how deeply her fortunes 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. I9I 
 
 were involved in it. There were several things 
 she must find out first. 
 
 '' Is it far ? " she asked timidly, when they 
 were well on their way, the Vicar's cob trotting 
 fast along the hard roads, between the budding 
 hedges, whose scanty covering of pale leaf and 
 white blossom could no longer be distinguished 
 in the gathering dusk of the April afternoon. 
 
 " To Waringham ? No, not far ; we shall 
 be there very soon. Are you tired of — of the 
 drive already ? " 
 
 His voice was naturally so sweet that even 
 this speech sounded like an avowal of love. 
 But Geraldine's mind was far too much absorbed 
 in Warino^ham Hall and its master to notice 
 this. 
 
 " Oh, no, not tired, not tired at all ! But I 
 — I have never been to Waringham ; at least 
 I— I think not." 
 
 '' You think not ? " 
 
 ''Yes. I should have said the day before 
 yesterday I was sure not ; but since then I have 
 heard some things which have set me thinking, 
 and I have been trying to remember as far back 
 as I can and Is there the skin of some 
 
19^ A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 animal, lion, tiger — I don't know what — on the 
 floor of one of the rooms ? " 
 
 '' There is a lion's skin with the head on in 
 Sir Charles's library, I believe." 
 
 "■ And is there at Waringham Hall a woman, 
 a lady — I don't know who — with a very dis- 
 agreeable, repellant face ? " she asked hesita- 
 tingly. 
 
 " Oh, yes — several ! " 
 
 '' Several ? " echoed poor Geraldine. 
 
 '' Why, yes ; I think you must prepare your- 
 self for a remarkable absence of feminine charm 
 in every member of your sex whom you will 
 meet there i Tom and Percy, my brothers at 
 Shrewsbury, call the Hall the ' Witches' 
 Cavern ' ! " 
 
 " Oh, not really ! And my poor guardian 
 lives there ! How many w — witches are 
 there ? " 
 
 " Well, there are his two sisters " 
 
 " Two sisters!" faltered Geraldine. Another 
 of the strano;-er's statements was true, then. 
 
 '' Yes ; I think they are the worst ; but some 
 people think even they are less alarming than 
 the housekeeper, Mrs. Symes. Fortunately, the 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 93 
 
 rest of the women-servants, of whom one hears 
 dreadful accounts, are seldom seen by visitors." 
 
 '' It doesn't sound like a very cheerful place," 
 said Geraldine, doubtfully. 
 
 " It is quite an enchanted castle of horrors, 
 to my mind ; so I warn you to be stout-hearted, 
 Miss Lindley. Its very aspect as we drive up 
 to it will depress you, and it has an atmosphere 
 of gloom and decay in which you will need all 
 your fortitude, especially at such a time as this." 
 
 Geraldine was silent ; it began to dawn upon 
 her that she would find her guardian very ill- — 
 far worse than she had expected. At last, after 
 trying to speak once or twice, she found voice 
 to say, almost in a whisper — 
 
 " Mr. Bamber, you would not deceive me 
 about this, would you ? It would be too — 
 terrible ! He is — not — dead ? " 
 
 '' No, no," said Reginald, very gently. 
 *' Don't be alarmed ; he is very ill ; but he is 
 alive, and very, very anxious to see you." 
 
 The girl drew a convulsive, sobbing breath. 
 
 " Drive fast, fast, please," she whispered. 
 
 And he touched the cob with the whip as 
 he looked down reverently at the young face 
 
 VOL. I. 13 
 
194 ^ DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 beside him, which wore an expression of in- 
 tense agony that would have softened a heart 
 of stone. After a short silence, she said, in a 
 low voice — 
 
 " They are kind to him — his sisters — now ? " 
 
 " I suppose they are, in their fashion." She 
 shivered. He continued, reassuringly, ''Sir 
 Charles is used to them, and he would not 
 expect more tenderness from them than they 
 can give." 
 
 "How can they help being tender to him — 
 his own sisters too ! They can't be human ! " 
 
 " Yes, they are human, though perhaps they 
 don't belong to the best type of humanity. 
 One must make allowances for them ; they are 
 old and poor and rather selfish, and they depend 
 entirely on their brother, I believe ; so, if you 
 find them rather hard and disagreeable, you 
 must not mind, you know." 
 
 " I don't mind what they are hke to me — at 
 least, yes I do," said she, with a sudden change 
 to nervous fear; ''I hope they won't say any- 
 thing unkind to me," she faltered. 
 
 '' How could they ? " exclaimed Reginald. 
 Then he quickly added, ''What could they say? " 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 95 
 
 *' I — don t — know ; perhaps they are angry 
 with my guardian for being so fond of me. 
 You see he has been just like a father to me ; I 
 could not love him a bit better if he were my 
 father," she declared, her voice breaking. 
 
 Reginald was silent. It was clear that she 
 herself had not the least idea of there being 
 any relationship between her and her guardian. 
 Ought he to prepare her ? One thing at least 
 she must learn. 
 
 " You remember the gentleman who spoke 
 to you in the churchyard yesterday ? " he asked 
 presently. "He is a cousin of Sir Charles'* 
 — she started — " and I expect you will find him 
 at the Hall." 
 
 Geraldine uttered a faint cry. The whole 
 aspect of her visit to Waringham was suddenly 
 changed to her ; it had become shadowed with 
 unknown terrors. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Bamber, do you know anything ? 
 Can you tell me anything ? I am walking so 
 blindly ; and to have to meet that man, whom I 
 fear and almost hate — already frightens me ! " 
 
 '' I know nothing," he replied; "but you may 
 learn something to-night, not from Lindley 
 
196 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Fielding — who, by-the-by, was the cause of Sir 
 Charles's illness — but from your guardian him- 
 self." 
 
 The park gates were now in sight ; Reginald 
 pointed to the lodge. 
 
 " That is the Hall," he said in a low voice. 
 
 A man was standing by the gates ; but he 
 slunk away as the little cart drove quickly up. 
 
 '' Just the same, sir, by the last accounts," 
 said the lodge-keeper, in answer to Reginald's 
 inquiry, as he opened the gates. 
 
 And they drove on fast towards the house, 
 which, standing square and gray in the evening 
 mist, with only one dim light here and there 
 showing faintly and flickeringly through the 
 blinds, made an impression even stronger than 
 Reginald had predicted on the trembling girl. 
 
 " Keep up your courage ! " whispered he, as^ 
 after ringing the bell, he helped her down from 
 the cart. "Ask boldly to see Sir Charles. 
 Don't, if you can help it, see any one else first. 
 You know Johnson, Sir Charles's old servant, 
 don't you ? " 
 
 " Oh yes ! " 
 
 Johnson had often brought messages and 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 1 97 
 
 fruit and flowers to the ladies at Heathcote 
 House, having been selected for that, in addi- 
 tion to his many other duties, as a special mark 
 of his master's favour. So that, when he 
 opened the door, Geraldine thankfully greeted 
 him as a friend in this gloom-haunted house, 
 whose sepulchral aspect had already added 
 terror to the grief in her heart. But even 
 Johnson caused her another alarm, for he 
 started at sight of her, and whispered — 
 
 '' You, Miss Geraldine ! " in a tone which 
 caused her for a moment to lose the power of 
 speech. 
 
 '' Take this young lady to Sir Charles ; 
 don't let any one frighten her," said Reginald's 
 soft measured tone. Then he took her hand 
 and pressed it reassuringly. '* I will come 
 back for you in an hour or two," said he, kindly, 
 '' and take you to my mother. Miss Lindley 
 will pass the night at the Vicarage, Johnson," 
 he added to the old butler, with a last injunc- 
 tion — " Take care of her." 
 
 Geraldine made a gesture as if to call him 
 back, as she saw him, her last friend of the 
 living outside world, step into the little Norfolk 
 
198 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 cart, raise his hat, and drive away, leaving her 
 alone, stricken with a hundred fears, on the 
 threshold of this house which she had so longed 
 to see, which now seemed to her to be haunted 
 with terrors worse than death. For she could 
 not realize that she would find her guardian, 
 the gentle, smiling guardian he had always 
 been to her — here. 
 
 '' I want to see him, Johnson ; will you take 
 me to him ? " she asked like a child. "He has 
 sent for me." 
 
 "I can't. Miss Geraldine ; there's a strange 
 doctor, a great doctor from London with him, 
 and Mr. Fielding his cousin ; they won't let 
 anybody Into Sir Charles's room." 
 
 " Oh, but they will let me see him, I think ; 
 tell him I'm here ! Can't you tell him, John- 
 son ? Oh, do, do, please ! I know you can ; 
 he Is so fond of you." 
 
 " Indeed I can't. Miss Geraldine. You 
 know well enough I'd help you If I could." 
 
 " But I must see him : If you won't take me 
 to him, I'll hunt about for his room by myself 
 Oh, you must know he wants to see me ! " 
 
 " Indeed, I know that well enough ; but I 
 don t see Well, I'll try." 
 
A DOG AVITH A BAD NAME. 1 99 
 
 Geraldlne had advanced from the cold 
 stone-paved entrance-hall to the first of the 
 inner halls, which was scarcely warmer, scarcely 
 lighter. A bold idea had crossed her mind ; 
 there was nothing for it but boldness now. 
 
 ''Where are Sir Charles's sisters, Johnson?" 
 she asked, as a boy asks for the master who 
 has promised to cane him. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Geraldine, you can't see them ! " 
 cried the butler, in alarm. 
 
 '' I must, I must ; which must I see ? " 
 
 '' Oh, it will be Miss Elizabeth ; but don't, 
 I beg of you, Miss Geraldine. I believe she 
 — she'll eat you ! " said he, encouragingly. 
 
 '' I can't help that ; I must see her." 
 
 Johnson reluctantly advanced to the study 
 door, which he found locked ; and Miss Eliza- 
 beth's own hard voice told him to ''show the 
 young lady into the drawing-room." 
 
 Trembling from head to foot, but strung up 
 by the need of all her courage, of all her untried 
 eloquence in this dreaded meeting, Geraldine 
 followed Johnson through the creaking door 
 into the gloomy chilling vastness of the 
 drawing-room. 
 
200 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 As the sound of low sobs met her ear, before 
 she could see any human being besides herself 
 in the room, Geraldine was seized with a 
 childish impulse to open the door and run away 
 again ; and as, conquering this feeling, she 
 advanced into the second and larger room, and 
 a little lean old woman, with bead-like black 
 eyes and a bent shrunken figure, sprang up 
 from the sofa by the fireplace and peered at her 
 from behind the lamp on the table, the girl 
 shuddered with an eerie superstitious feeling 
 that she was really under the influence of some 
 evil enchantment. For no hag versed In witch- 
 craft ever looked more weirdly uncanny than 
 poor harmless Miss Eleanor, as she took up 
 her silver-headed crutch with Its tapering stick, 
 and moved feebly forward a few paces, her 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 20I 
 
 furrowed, leather-coloured face still further dis- 
 figured by weeping, blinking anxiously In the 
 lamplight In her endeavour to make out the 
 features of the intruder. Involuntarily Geral- 
 dine made a step back. 
 
 " Who is it ? " asked a thin querulous voice. 
 
 The sound was human at least ; and detect- 
 ing In the sharp nervous tone the reassuring 
 fact that the witch was afraid of her, Geraldlne 
 recovered her self-possession, and said gently — 
 
 " I am afraid I have disturbed you ; I am 
 very sorry. My name is Geraldlne LIndley." 
 
 The decrepit old lady gave a gasp of horror. 
 She had come close to the girl by this time, 
 and she now put her little thin claw-like hand 
 upon Geraldine's arm and looked up Into the 
 fair young face with a nervous devouring 
 scrutiny In which, however, there was no 
 conscious unklndness. The girl felt this, and 
 smiled as she bent her head towards the ugly, 
 anxious, withered features, which had already 
 lost their terrors. 
 
 '' It Is a good face ! " said the old lady at 
 last, betraying ingenuously some surprise. She 
 had never seen the baby-waif since the day the 
 
202 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 latter left the Hall till this the day of her 
 return ; and her imagination had followed her 
 sister's representations so dutifully that she 
 had unconsciously expected to see greed and 
 avarice and every selfish vice stamped on the 
 features of this hungry vampire who was living 
 on the very life-blood of the Otways. And to 
 find that the vampire bore the likeness of a 
 beautiful girl of good and gentle manners gave 
 Miss Eleanor a shock, whether of pain or of 
 pleasure she hardly knew. 
 
 '* Oh, Miss Otway, do let me see Sir 
 Charles ! I am so fond of him — you don't 
 know how fond of him ! Do please let me 
 see him ! " 
 
 " My dear, it Is of no use to ask me ; you 
 must ask my sister Elizabeth. And I am 
 afraid it will be of no use to ask her either. 
 
 She — er — she Oh, dear, I wish she would 
 
 come ! She sees to everything ; I am an 
 invalid. But I think, If I were you, my dear, I 
 would not ask her. And yet I don't know," 
 she added doubtfully, looking up again Into the 
 face which was gaining upon her heart more 
 and more, and wondering for one brief moment 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 203 
 
 whether the sight of this ray of youth and love- 
 liness might not soften Elizabeth too. But her 
 common sense returned in an instant ; and she 
 said, plucking at the girl's sleeve with discon- 
 certing nervousness, and dropping her voice to 
 a croaking half-whisper, '' My dear, who told 
 you to come ? It is a pity you have come ; it 
 is, indeed ! It is not that I wish to be unkind 
 to you, my dear ; In other circumstances I am 
 sure I should have liked you very much ; but 
 you see it Is rather awkward for everybody— 
 isn't it ? And Elizabeth, my sister. Is very — 
 very just, and she has a way of saying what 
 she thinks in a very straightforward manner, 
 which, perhaps, might — er — might disconcert 
 3''ou a little, my dear." 
 
 " Oh no ; straightforwardness would not 
 disconcert me ; I would rather deal with 
 straightforward people ! But is Miss Elizabeth 
 Otway so very formidable, then ? " 
 
 *' Oh no, not formidable at all, my dear, but 
 very — very undemonstrative, except — except 
 when she is annoyed — at least, not annoyed, 
 
 but I am afraid I am giving a wrong 
 
 Impression of her, and perhaps " 
 
204 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 " Perhaps I shall like her very much, after 
 all," said Geraldine, encouraged by her inter- 
 view with the witch. 
 
 '' Perhaps ! " echoed Eleanor, faintly. For 
 it seemed very unlikely that the doomed 
 intruder would succeed in doing what nobody 
 had ever done yet. 
 
 Geraldine was more puzzled than ever, on 
 finding what a very harmless bogey the first 
 of the witches really was, as to her guardian's 
 reason for keeping the very existence of his 
 sisters concealed from her. The dread of 
 some terrible secret to be disclosed to her in 
 this dreary house on this anxious night began 
 to grow upon her again ; and, when the creak- 
 ing of the door at last announced the approach 
 of the all-important Miss Elizabeth, the girl 
 turned with a deep sigh of relief towards 
 her. 
 
 But the very first sight of the stiffly upright 
 figure, majestic though not tall, in an old gray 
 silk gown that hung in soft folds about her, 
 and of the hard face and the cold eyes, struck 
 Geraldine with superstitious indefinable terror, 
 for she recognized the face which had once 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 205 
 
 frightened her in her childhood ; and she knew 
 now that she had been in Waringham Hall 
 before. As the rigid figure approached, she 
 bowed, but for a moment dared not advance. 
 When within a few steps of her, Elizabeth 
 stopped and looked at her from head to foot. 
 There was something in this cold, contemptuous, 
 deliberate inspection so cruelly different from 
 the timid inquiring scrutiny to which the other 
 sister had subjected her, that Geraldine, alarmed 
 and Avounded, shrank back and hesitated, not 
 knowing what to say. However, as the other 
 maintained her cold silence, the girl began, in 
 a low, faltering voice — 
 
 " I have dared, Miss Otway " 
 
 '' Dared ? Yes, that is the right word. You 
 have dared a great deal. Miss Lindley." 
 
 But the girl, knowing herself to be innocent 
 of intentional wrong, raised her brown eyes to 
 meet the cold blue ones very steadily ; and, 
 recovering her self-possession to hear and 
 answer whatever accusation might be coming, 
 she said, in a firmer tone — 
 
 " You cannot know. Miss Otway, that Sir 
 Charles sent for me." 
 
206 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 '' Indeed ! Whom did he send ? " 
 
 '' Mr. Reginald Bamber." 
 
 " Who was also good enough to bring you, 
 I suppose ? " 
 
 " Yes, he drove me here." 
 
 " And is he going to drive you back ? " 
 
 '' I — I don't know." 
 
 " Oh, then the duty of seeing you safely 
 restored to your friends is entrusted to us ? 
 Or is it your intention to honour us permanently 
 with your presence ? " 
 
 '' Elizabeth ! Elizabeth ! " expostulated 
 Eleanor, moved out of her tacit submission 
 by this coarse cruelty and (by the stony ex- 
 pression of her sister's face, which told that she 
 had worse blows still to deal before long. The 
 rigid gray figure merely silenced the feeble 
 protest by an imperative gesture. 
 
 " I don't understand you," said Geraldine, 
 in a low voice. 
 
 " I will try to speak more clearly. Since 
 you are so abnormally innocent, it devolves 
 upon me to tell you that your presence in this 
 house is an insult to us, Sir Charles's sisters, who 
 for years have been silent sufferers from the 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 20/ 
 
 unreasonable fancy he took, nineteen years 
 ago, to the abandoned child of a beggar 
 woman." 
 
 Eleanor sat crouched on the sofa, shudder- 
 ing. But the girl to whom this revelation was 
 thus coarsely made heard it in perfectly calm 
 silence, without a start or a sound. It was too 
 new, too sudden, too entirely unexpected for 
 her to be able at once to feel any sensation 
 about it ; she merely understood it, and waited 
 for more. 
 
 Elizabeth continued — ''I should have 
 thought that, having been brought up, thanks 
 to the generosity with which Sir Charles starved 
 and pinched his own relatives for your sake, 
 in a manner far above your station, you would 
 have had the decency to respect the feeling 
 which prompted your benefactor to forbid you 
 this house." 
 
 " My guardian — Sir Charles — has never for- 
 bidden me this house, madam," said Geraldine, 
 quietly ; '' and it was he who sent for me this 
 evening. It is he I have come to see, and 
 I have no wish to obtrude either upon you or 
 Miss Eleanor Otway, If you will be kind 
 
208 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 enough to let him know I am here, you will see 
 I have told you the truth." 
 
 She turned, with a first restless movement, 
 glancing with anxious eyes towards the belL 
 She was not only impatient to be with her old 
 guardian, but a choking feeling in her throat 
 warned her that, if she were to have to pass 
 through a further ordeal of cold looks and cruel 
 words, her self-command would be in danger. 
 
 But Elizabeth had other bolts in store, and 
 she meant to use them all. 
 
 '* Unfortunately it is impossible for me to 
 fulfil your wishes," said she, with hard irony. 
 '' A physician from London is with him, and he 
 cannot be disturbed." 
 
 '' Then I will come back to see him pre- 
 sently," said Geraldine, speaking rather more 
 quickly than before. " I will take care that 
 you and Miss Eleanor Otway shall not again 
 be disturbed by my arrival." 
 
 " I am afraid I must beg you not to run the 
 risk of incurring another disappointment. Miss 
 Lindley. In the critical state my brother. Sir 
 Charles, is in now, the excitement of seeing 
 any one but the members of his own family 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NA^IE. 209 
 
 might have dangerous results for him, and I 
 regret to inform you that I therefore feel com- 
 pelled to withhold my permission from your 
 doing him the honour of a visit." 
 
 '* But he wishes to see me," expostulated 
 Geraldine, still very quietly, though her voice 
 was not quite steady. 
 
 "Very likely. But his wishes, now that he 
 is ill, must be controlled for his good by the 
 common sense of those nearest and dearest to 
 him." 
 
 " But there is no one nearer or dearer to 
 him than I am," burst out Geraldine, not loudly, 
 but with the fire of passionate earnestness in 
 her voice. " You yourself have confessed that. 
 For, if the story I never heard before, which 
 you have just told me, is true, then surely 
 the little outcast who had no claim upon 
 him must be very, very, dear for him to 
 have made for her sake the sacrifices you 
 speak of" 
 
 '' You need not distress yourself about that, 
 Miss Lindley. The sacrifices Sir Charles made 
 on your account, by selling his farms and 
 cutting down his timber, have affected chiefly 
 
 VOL. I. 14 
 
2IO A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 that part of his estate from which we, his 
 sisters, would, in the case of his death, derive 
 what scanty income we should have. But these 
 details cannot interest you. So long as your 
 own place in his will is secure, of course ours 
 is a matter of no importance to you." 
 
 Geraldine caught an inspiration from these 
 words. 
 
 ''If that is what is troubling you, you need 
 not be afraid of me," said she quickly. " Sir 
 Charles has indeed, as you say, done more than 
 enough for me." She was hurrying her words, 
 lest the passion of remorseful gratitude which 
 was surging up in her heart should overflow 
 and render her incapable of thought or action. 
 *' Thanks to him, I have been well educated 
 and am able to work. If he were to do any- 
 thing more for me now that I know all I owe 
 him " — her voice was shaking more and more 
 — " it would not cause me happiness, but the 
 deepest pain. Let me tell him that ! " she 
 almost sobbed. 
 
 " You are very good. But I cannot impose 
 on your generosity so far. It seems inhospit- 
 able to suggest it ; but I think your friends at 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 2 1 I 
 
 Copsley, as well as Sir Charles, would be 
 much distressed if you were to delay your 
 return any longer. It is getting late for a 
 young lady to be out without an escort. I 
 will order the carriage to take you back." 
 
 She moved towards the bell. There was a 
 moment's pause before Geraldine dared trust 
 herself to speak. Then she said — 
 
 " Thank you ; but I will not trouble you to 
 do that. I know Waringham Vicarage is close 
 by ; they are expecting me there." 
 
 Johnson was waiting at the other end of 
 the room. Before Elizabeth could order the 
 carriage, Geraldine had bowed to her, and 
 had shaken hands with Eleanor, who, braving 
 her sister's anger, crept up to the girl and 
 pressed the warm firm hand in her skinny 
 little fino^ers. Elizabeth was o^lad the o^irl had 
 refused the offer of the carriage, as she grudged 
 every moment's delay in getting her safely out 
 of the house before Lindley or Sir Charles 
 should learn her presence there. She had felt 
 unutterably thankful for the self-control Geral- 
 dine had shown in keeping her voice too low 
 for the sound of it to penetrate to the sick- 
 
212 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 room above ; she was thankful now for the 
 girl's choice of going away on foot. 
 
 Geraldine left the room bravely, with firm 
 step and erect carriage ; but no sooner had the 
 drawing-room door closed upon her than she 
 turned to the old man-servant with glittering 
 eyes and panting breath. 
 
 " Can't you take me to him now ? " she 
 whispered. " Oh, if he should die without my 
 seeing him now — I — I think I should go mad ! 
 Oh, take me to him, take me to him, for 
 Heaven's sake ! " 
 
 The sound of a footstep at the other side 
 of the drawing-room door suddenly froze the 
 words on her lips, and, recalling her self-con- 
 trol, she crossed the hall towards the front 
 door. There, after a cautious look into the 
 darkness behind him, Johnson paused, with his 
 hand upon the lock. 
 
 *' I dare not go up now, Miss Geraldine. 
 Mr. Fielding is up with Sir Charles and the 
 doctor ; and he has it all his own way about 
 the place now. He is Sir Charles's cousin, 
 ma'am — and if he was to say you couldn't 
 come in, it would be all ujd with your chance 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 213 
 
 of seeing master. But, if you could manage 
 to wait about, Miss Geraldine — it isn't a 
 pleasant thing for a young lady to have to 
 do, but it's your best chance — if you were to 
 catch the doctor going out, and could persuade 
 him to take you up to his room — why, you can 
 wheedle a bird off a bough. Miss Geraldine, 
 and you ought to be able to do it." 
 
 '' Thank you, thank you, Johnson ; I'll meet 
 him, if I have to watch about all night ; and 
 ril persuade him, if I have to beg him on my 
 kness, to take me back." 
 
 The butler opened the door, and she went 
 out into the darkness full of excitement and 
 eager hope that this last chance of seeing her 
 adored guardian that night might succeed. 
 But as, walking with trembling steps over the 
 gravel towards the front of the house, she 
 heard the door close upon her, and realized 
 that she was shut out from the house where 
 the man who had been, to her, father and all 
 the world besides lay, perhaps, dying at that 
 moment, all her self-control suddenly gave 
 way, and, returning, she flung herself down 
 upon the doorstep and burst into sobs and 
 
214 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 tears. The sense of the cruel words Elizabeth 
 Otway had spoken to her had dawned upon 
 her in all their terrible meaninsf now that she 
 was alone. It was the generous charity of 
 the man she had erown to love as if he had 
 been her own father which had saved her in 
 her childhood, cherished her during all these 
 years, and supplied her every whim and fancy 
 so munificently that the belief had insensibly 
 grown up in her and in those about her that 
 she was an heiress. She, the outcast child 
 of a beggar-woman, a beggar and an outcast 
 now ao^ain herself! It was this feelino^ which 
 had prompted her to throw herself upon the 
 doorstep of his home, the home from which 
 they had shut her out, to sob her heart out, and 
 to pray with all the fervour of her soul that 
 she might see him once again — ^just once ! 
 He should not die until she had told him she 
 knew everything, until she had sobbed out 
 upon his breast some sort of incoherent, pas- 
 sionate thanks for all he had done for her. It 
 would be too horrible ; it could not be ! 
 
 She sprang up and peered through the 
 figured glass of the door panels into the entrance- 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 215 
 
 hall. All she could see of the lighted inner 
 hall beyond was that there were figures moving 
 in it ; dreading lest one of these should be Miss 
 Elizabeth Otway, she dared not ring yet. As 
 she debated within herself what she should do, 
 whether she should search round the house for 
 another entrance, and trust to chance for 
 reaching Sir Charles's room somehow, she 
 heard footsteps on the gravel coming towards 
 the entrance where she stood. Turning, she 
 saw in the gloom the figure of a tall man close 
 to the steps. Ashamed of having been caught 
 in the act of peeping into the house, and rather 
 alarmed by the manner in which the figure 
 stopped short in front of her, as if to prevent 
 her passing, she darted down the two wide 
 stone steps past him. He turned at once and 
 followed her. She recovered herself as a 
 natural thought struck her, and, suddenly facing 
 the figure, without, however, coming nearer, she 
 asked — 
 
 '' Is it you, Mr. Bamber ? " 
 
 The figure approached her without answer- 
 ing, and, now really frightened, Geraldine 
 hurried across the broad space of gravel which 
 
2l6 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Stretched In front of the entrance, towards a 
 dark mass of trees and shrubs opposite. As 
 she ran in the darkness, which was now almost 
 that of night — for it was nearly seven o'clock 
 and the evening was dull and foggy — she was 
 stopped abruptly by coming against a low iron 
 railing ; a bar rattled as she touched it, and, 
 finding that her fingers were upon a gate, she 
 felt for the latch, raised it, slipped through, and 
 plunged into a clump of shrubs and evergreens 
 on her rigrht hand. She discovered that she 
 was treading in the soft mould of a flower-bed, 
 as she brushed past a yew tree and then paused 
 close to a lilac bush, whose sweet half-open 
 blossoms touched her cheek as she held her 
 breath to listen. She could hear the man's 
 footsteps still, though she could not see him — 
 he had given up pursuit and was returning 
 towards the house. Shame then seized her at 
 her childish fright ; no one of whom she need be 
 afraid would be going boldly up to the house 
 as this man was doing when she first saw him. 
 She was not particularly timid by nature ; but 
 a certain vague dread of the stranger himself 
 which she could not define had seized her just 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 2I7 
 
 at a time when she was still in a state of high 
 nervous excitement. 
 
 She had just found her way slowly and 
 sheepishly on to a narrow path that led from 
 the little ofate through which she had come to 
 a similar one about a dozen yards farther on, 
 when she heard the front door of the house 
 open, and saw against the light in the hall 
 behind him the figure of the butler standing in 
 the doorway. He came out on to the steps 
 and called softly, " Miss Geraldine ! " Before 
 she could rush forward at the welcome sound, 
 he had come down the steps on to the drive ; 
 the next moment, with a hoarse cry of terror, 
 he had fled back helter-skelter up the steps into 
 the house, slamming the door behind him. She 
 could see from where she now stood what it 
 was that had caused his alarm — it was the tall 
 figure, only just distinguishable in the gloom, 
 which had started her upon her wild flight 
 into the shrubbery. She crept up to the little 
 gate through which she had come, and, lean- 
 ing upon it, watched the mysterious stranger 
 with straining eyes as he went up the steps and 
 prosaically rang the bell. 
 
2l8 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 At the moment when Geraldlne had left the 
 house, Lindley, whose important duties in the 
 sick-room did not prevent his taking a watchful 
 interest in what went on downstairs, had been 
 coming from his cousin's bedside to find out 
 the meaning of certain sounds which had reached 
 his ears while imperative business, connected 
 with papers which the baronet had desired to 
 have read to him, had detained him with Sir 
 Charles and Doctor Ledbury. He met Eliza- 
 beth at the foot of the staircase, on the way from 
 the drawing-room to her own room. 
 
 " You have had a visitor, have you not ? " 
 he asked amiably. 
 
 " Yes," she answered. '' Reginald Bamber 
 came to inquire after Charles." 
 
 " Ah, yes, I saw the Vicar's little cart from 
 the window ! Mrs. Bamber came with him, did 
 she not ? I saw a lady's figure." 
 
 " I believe he did say she had come with 
 him." 
 
 '' Surely she stayed some time, did she not ? 
 I seemed to hear a lady's voice a minute 
 ago." 
 
 '' I don't know whose voice it can have been. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 219 
 
 then," said Elizabeth Indifferently, proceeding 
 to pass him. 
 
 He had a suspicion of the truth ; she could 
 tell that from a light which suddenly came into 
 his face. But he had to speak to her upon 
 another matter. 
 
 '' Are you going upstairs, Elizabeth ? 
 Charles, who Is now perfectly conscious and 
 able to make himself understood, thanks to the 
 doctor I sent for, wants you and Eleanor to 
 come to his room to hear an Important declara- 
 tion he has to make. And Johnson and Mrs. 
 Symes are to be there also ; It Is a thing which 
 cannot be too widely known." LIndley was 
 speaking with studied calmness, but there was 
 the ring of triumph in his voice, the light of 
 success In his eyes. *' He has been making his 
 will ; that was the business which obliged him 
 to deny you admittance. But it is over now, 
 and he Is very anxious to see you."" 
 
 This was too much for Elizabeths self- 
 control. She turned on him with fire. 
 
 " And you think the game is yours, Lindley ? 
 You think that, after having locked yourself up 
 with a weak-minded dying man, and Induced 
 
2 20 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 him to listen to stories and sign papers prepared 
 by you, in the presence of witnesses suborned 
 to your interests, you can triumphantly flourish 
 the results of your patience and industry in the 
 faces of us, his nearest relatives, without our 
 uttering a word of protest ! Why, I can and I 
 will call the whole household to witness the 
 open manner in which you have set a cordon 
 of your spies round my brother to prevent our 
 approaching him. It will be the most flagrant 
 case of undue influence ever brought before the 
 Probate Court." 
 
 " The case never will be before the Probate 
 Court, unless some accident has clouded that 
 intellect which has so long been your own 
 boast and your family's torment," said Lindley, 
 with quiet insolence. " Look here," he added 
 in a lower voice, as he took from his pocket 
 a small bundle of papers and letters ; and, 
 selecting two small strips of paper from the 
 rest, held them one by one before her at just 
 sufficient distance for them to be les^ible to 
 her in the lamplight, but out of reach of her 
 unscrupulous fingers — " what do you say to 
 that — and that ? " he asked exultingly. '' Will 
 those proofs silence you ? " 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 221 
 
 '' Let me see ; I can't see," said Elizabeth 
 faintly, as she clutched the bannisters. 
 
 '' You have seen quite enough, I think," he 
 answered, as he watched the effect of his 
 revelation. 
 
 " Those papers are forgeries," she declared, 
 In a low voice, recovering herself at once. 
 
 '' Are they ? Well, we'll see !" he answered, 
 as he carefully slipped them through the elastic 
 band which held the whole packet of documents 
 and put them carefully back Into the breast- 
 pocket of his coat. 
 
 " If Charles had still had an heir. If James, 
 our unfortunate nephew, had not been dead to 
 us, you would never have dared to concoct this 
 Infamous plot." 
 
 " You are mistaken altogether, my dear 
 Elizabeth. If James, ^ our unfortunate nephew,' 
 as you euphemistically call him, had not 
 rendered himself incapable of Inheriting the 
 property, I would show these papers to him, 
 as I now show them to you, with just as much 
 confidence in the fact that their evidence is 
 irrefutable." 
 
 He called to Johnson, who appeared at that 
 
2 22 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 moment on his way to the dining-room to make 
 preparations for dinner. 
 
 " Run after Miss Geraldine — Lindley," said 
 he, with a glance at his cousin and a significant 
 pause before the surname. *' Ask her to return 
 with you here, and show her straight up to Sir 
 Charles's room." 
 
 And, softly whistling, Lindley turned and 
 went upstairs. 
 
 Johnson put down the plate-basket, and 
 got to the front door with the alacrity of a lad, 
 lest his mistress should countermand this order. 
 But, for the time, Elizabeth's imperious prompt- 
 ness had left her ; she followed the servant 
 slowly into the outer hall, heard him call, '' Miss 
 Geraldine ! " — heard him utter a cry, and, the 
 moment after, saw him rush back, slam the 
 front door, and stand white and trembling, with 
 staring eyeballs and open mouth, before her. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " she asked abruptly. 
 '' Have you seen a ghost ? " 
 
 '' Ye-es, ma'am." 
 
 ''What ghost?" 
 
 The butler put his hand up to his damp 
 forehead, and stared at his mistress as if to 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 223 
 
 assure himself that he was awake and sober. 
 Then he tried to speak ; but fright had parched 
 his mouth, and at first he was Inaudible. When 
 he got back his voice he whispered huskily — 
 
 " Master James ! " 
 
 Elizabeth started violently. 
 
 " Hush, man ! Are you dreaming ? " she 
 said in a quick, low voice. " Don't you 
 know " 
 
 But she was interrupted by the ringing of 
 the bell. Signing to Johnson, who still stood 
 paralyzed by alarm, to open the door, she 
 turned the handle of the library door with 
 fingers which, in spite of her strong nerves, 
 were clammy with excitement and indefinable 
 dread. 
 
 And the unfortunate servant moved obe- 
 diently towards the entrance-hall, with the 
 leaden feet of a doomed man on his way to the 
 scaffold. 
 
2 24 ^ ^OG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Tpie gloom of a starless and foggy night had 
 already fallen over the Norfolk broads and 
 marshes and settled thickly among the oak 
 trees of Warlngham Park, Avhen the old butler, 
 Johnson, in obedience to his mistress's order, 
 slowly and tremblingly opened the front door of 
 the Hall to eive admittance to the fiofure which 
 had frightened him so much. 
 
 But when, having opened the door very 
 gradually, with his eyes carefuU}'^ kept away 
 from the dreaded object, he had recovered 
 enough self-possession to turn his head and 
 o^lance at the fiorure once more, his fiuQ^ers 
 slipped from the door handle as he examined 
 the ghost from head to foot in the light of the 
 lamp above, and assured himself that It was 
 a living man who stood, In long rough black 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 225 
 
 ulster and round travelling-hat, on the threshold 
 before him. 
 
 " Lord ha' mercy ! " muttered the servant 
 below his breath. " It is himself sure enough." 
 
 ''Yes, it is himself, and a pretty welcome 
 he is getting ! " said James Otway, with some 
 irritation. Then he stepped into the entrance- 
 hall, handing his bag to the still trembling 
 manservant, and continuing to grumble in 
 a manly, pleasant, and rather musical voice. 
 '' First some peeping baggage of a girl runs 
 away at sight of me as if I had the plague ; 
 then you, who are old enough to know better, I 
 should think, howl and slam the door in my 
 face as if I were a ghost. Don't stand there 
 making faces at me ; go and get me something 
 to eat. How are you ? " And his irritability 
 having gradually given way, in the course of 
 his speech, to amused friendliness, he ended by 
 taking the butler s hand into his own, which, 
 by-the-bye, was much larger and rougher than 
 that of the servant, and giving it a hearty 
 shake. 
 
 Johnson looked up at him, still in evident 
 fear, and answered in a whisper — 
 
 VOL. I, IS 
 
2 26 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 '' I'm nicely, thank you, sir. I hope you 
 are in good health too, sir." 
 
 " Why, what's the matter with me ? Do 
 I look as if I were dying ? " asked the young 
 man, with a sudden return of irritability. 
 
 '' No, sir — no. Quite the contrary. You're 
 looking very well indeed, sir, considering " 
 
 The cobwebs of fright and surprise had not 
 quite cleared away yet from the old servant's 
 brain, or he would have had more tact than 
 to let slip that suggestive word — more tact 
 than to break off in his speech, appalled at his 
 own indiscretion. James Otway, who was 
 unbuttoning his ulster, turned sharply. 
 
 " Considering what ? " 
 
 But the frown on his face and the low growl 
 in which he spoke did not encourage the 
 servant to be eloquent. He tried respectfully 
 to laugh it off w4th a short joyless chuckle as 
 he said — 
 
 "Well — er — considering the long time you 
 have been away from Waringham, sir." 
 
 "Oh, ah!" said James, abruptly. Then, 
 after a pause, during which Johnson helped 
 him off with his ulster and noticed that circum- 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 227 
 
 Stances had led him to become less careful of 
 his appearance than he used to be, he continued, 
 ** Let me see, it is six years since I was last in 
 this old vault — isn't it ? " 
 
 " Yes ; it is six years come next June since 
 you were last at the Hall, sir," answered John- 
 son, who, now that the first shock of his surprise 
 was over, was becoming more and more curious 
 as to the way in which Master James had '' got 
 off," and as to the effect his arrival would have 
 on affairs in the household. 
 
 " And how have things been going on all this 
 time ? Much the same as ever, I suppose ? " 
 
 '' Yes, sir, much the same as ever, until 
 yesterday, when — when Sir Charles was taken 
 very suddenly ill, as perhaps you may have 
 heard, sir ? " he said, inquiringly. 
 
 " Yes, I have heard all about it — only 
 within the last half-hour, though, from the 
 keeper at the lodge — new man — didn't know 
 who I was, and I didn't tell him. I've o^rown 
 modest now, and don't care for a boisterous 
 welcome," he added, with a short, hard laugh. 
 
 '' Yes, sir, of course — yes, sir," Johnson 
 agreed, nervously. 
 
2 28 A DOG WITH A BAD NAjME. 
 
 '' How is my uncle now ? " asked James, 
 gravely, but without any show of deep affliction. 
 There had never been the slightest sympathy 
 between Sir Charles and his nephew, and for 
 the latter to pretend to feel great grief at his 
 uncle's condition would have been, to the old 
 servant who remembered his neglected boy- 
 hood, the most transparent hypocrisy. 
 
 " He was better when I saw him last, sir. 
 He's had a great London doctor down to see 
 him, that Mr. Fielding sent for ; and this 
 Doctor Ledbury has really brought him round 
 quite wonderful, so that he can speak a little — 
 not plain, but so as you can understand him. 
 And he's been making his will, sir ; but, now 
 you've come, of course it will change all that." 
 
 " Oh no ; his will won't make much 
 difference to me ! " said James, indifferently. 
 *' Who is this Mr. Fielding who seems to be 
 such an important person here now ? Down 
 at the lodge I heard a great deal about him. 
 Surely it isn't that cousin of my uncle's, 
 Lindley Fielding, whom they never would see 
 if they could help it ? " 
 
 *' The very same, sir," replied Johnson, 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 2 29 
 
 dropping his voice. "It was something he 
 told Sir Charles that gave him a great shock 
 that brought on this stroke, I believe. It 
 was in the library that it happened, sir." 
 
 Johnson glanced at the library door, which 
 was some distance from where they were stand- 
 ing ; and he managed, by looking significantly 
 in that direction and then at the young gentle- 
 man, to convey the information that some one 
 there mio^ht overhear them. 
 
 " Is he in there, then ? " murmured James. 
 Johnson shook his head, and formed with 
 his lips the single word, " She ! " 
 
 James had not been too long away to 
 understand that. He raised his eyebrows, 
 and muttered in provokingly audible tones — 
 
 " Skinning flints, as usual, I suppose ? 
 Where is my Aunt Eleanor ? " 
 
 " Miss Eleanor is in the drawing-room, sir. 
 Shall I announce you, sir ? " 
 
 '' No, no — not yet. Somehow I am not 
 overwhelmed with eager joy at the prospect 
 of beholding my affectionate relatives once 
 more. I think you were about the only friend 
 I had in the old days here, Johnson. You 
 
230 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 used to tweak my ears, but you were not 
 illiberal in the matter of tarts." 
 
 But his only friend had not shown great 
 alacrity in welcoming him, nor did he now 
 display any sentiment more tender than a wish 
 to dispose in some way of this unexpected 
 visitor before the latter should, in the hearing 
 of the household bogey, Miss Elizabeth, make 
 some compromising statement which would 
 bring that lady's icy wrath swiftly and suddenly 
 upon them both. An evil spirit of listless 
 loitering had apparently got hold of this 
 strangely altered Master James, however ; for 
 he yawned and stretched himself and looked 
 at one after another of the dusty old portraits, 
 and grumbled at the bad light, and wanted to 
 know why they didn't have gas, and behaved 
 altogether in such an unconventional and dis- 
 concerting way for a man who, though not in 
 the pleasantest of circumstances, was, after all, 
 returning to the home of his childhood after 
 an absence of many years, that the orthodox 
 Johnson gradually stiffened into a rigid atti- 
 tude of respectful disapproval as he watched 
 him. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 23 1 
 
 At last the young man suddenly turned 
 round and blinked at the lamp In an odd 
 manner that the butler, standing In a position 
 of obsequious dignity, with his eyes upon the 
 ground, did not notice. 
 
 "Ah, well, I suppose I must go In and see 
 them ! " he said, with a great burst of rather 
 overpowering cheerfulness. 
 
 " I think you had better, sir," agreed John- 
 son, coldly ; then, surprised Into a little more 
 intelligence by the impatient stamp of the foot 
 with which the young gentleman turned from 
 him aoraln, he added In a more Sfenlal tone, 
 *' It Is warmer in there, sir, and It will be more 
 cheerful for you than " 
 
 ''Warm, cheerful ! " interrupted James, hotl)\ 
 *' Yes, with the warmth and cheerfulness of the 
 charnel-house ! Do you think I expected a 
 blaze of light In honour of my return in the 
 windows of this place, which was a dungeon 
 to me in my boyhood ? Or that the sweet- 
 natured guardians who snubbed and neglected 
 me because I wasn't a pretty plaything would 
 rush out to overwhelm me with welcoming 
 caresses ? No ; I left them because a fiorht 
 
232 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 with the world had more attractions than their 
 love and sympathy could offer me. If my life 
 is ruined, it is through their fault — yes, their 
 fault — and — and I'm sure I don't know why 
 I've come back," he added, falling suddenly 
 from the full passionate tones in which, with 
 his eyes upon the opposite wall, he had been 
 speaking to himself, not to the butler, into the 
 careless apathy of his former manner. 
 
 '' I'm sure, sir, they will be very glad to see 
 you," said Johnson, with more courtesy than 
 confidence. 
 
 ''Oh yes, Johnson, I'm sure they will!" 
 echoed James, drily. 
 
 He stepped slowly towards the drawing- 
 room door ; but, turning again before he reached 
 it, he asked, with his eyes on a trophy of a fox's 
 pate and a couple of brushes over the entrance 
 to the central hall : 
 
 ''Well, aren't you surprised to see me? 
 Don't you wonder how I got here ? " 
 
 Failing a welcome, the man was hungry 
 for mere curiosity as to the manner of his 
 return. 
 
 But Johnson was much disconcerted by 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 233 
 
 these questions, which he considered in the 
 Avorst possible taste, as putting- a valued and 
 confidential retainer into a state of great em- 
 barrassment for a suitable answer. He coughed, 
 and touching the tips of his left-hand fingers 
 lightly with those of his right suggested, in a 
 low and deferential voice — 
 *' Ticket-of-leave, sir ? " 
 
 But the explosion this too candid inquiry 
 produced sent him reeling back a step or two, 
 still respectful, but naturally astonished and 
 indignant. For James swung suddenly round 
 with clenched fist and fury in his face, and 
 hissed out at the bewildered manservant. 
 
 " Good Heavens ! Hold your d d 
 
 tonorue ! " 
 
 For a moment Johnson obeyed. Then, his 
 wounded dignity rising and re-asserting itself, he 
 drew up his still soldier-like figure and said — 
 
 '' I beg your pardon, sir ; it was far from 
 my intention to offend. I think — I think a 
 joke, a pleasantry, sir, might be pardoned in 
 such an old servant of the family as I am." 
 
 '* A joke ! " repeated James slowly, looking 
 down curiously, and still with a frown on his 
 
234 ^ DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 face, at the deeply injured butler. "So you 
 have come out as a humorist since I've been 
 away ! Well, then, by Jove, I think your style 
 of fun is admirably suited to your surroundings. 
 You would make a mute split his sides, 
 Johnson." 
 
 And he walked at last to the drawing-room 
 door, opened it, and went in. Eleanor was 
 lying, crumpled and dishevelled, on her sofa, 
 feeling her own pulse and assuring herself that 
 her sister's violence towards that pretty un- 
 fortunate protdgde of Charles's had shortened 
 her life. 
 
 *' Is that you, Lindley ? " she asked feebly, 
 as soon as she heard the door creak and caught 
 sight of a man's figure at the other end of the 
 room. 
 
 *' No, Aunt Eleanor," answered a voice which 
 caused her to start up and shriek, as he made 
 his way, without much alacrity, towards her. 
 He felt it to be quite a relief, after all these 
 cries and flights, when a cold firm hand took 
 his, and his Aunt Elizabeth, who had followed 
 him quickly into the room, said, with a steely 
 smile and in the same tone with which she 
 
A DOG WITPI A BAD NAME. 235 
 
 would have greeted him after an absence of 
 a couple of days — 
 
 " Glad to see you back, James. Come to 
 the fire ; you must be cold." 
 
 He turned and shook her long white hand 
 gratefully in both his ; his dark blue eyes, 
 which were neither large nor brilliant, shining 
 with a responsive light that made his face 
 gentle and attractive at once. 
 
 "Thank you, Aunt Elizabeth," he said 
 huskily. And he drew her cold fingers through 
 his arm, and advanced with her to the white 
 hearthrug on to which the poor little invalid 
 had slipped, burying her face in the sofa, and 
 prepared for the end of the world. 
 
 " Oh, go away ! Heaven forgive you, but 
 don't touch me," she moaned piteously, as the 
 big nephew, for whose guilt-laden soul she had 
 offered up a shuddering prayer each night and 
 morning for the last five years, stooped down 
 and put his arm round her and raised her 
 from the floor less bloodthirstily than she had 
 expected. 
 
 "Don't be frightened. Aunt Eleanor; I'm 
 not a ghost," he assured her, in a voice which, 
 
2^6 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 O 
 
 If rather gruff, was gentle ; and he tried to place 
 her in a sitting position on the sofa. 
 
 But she doubled up limply as soon as he 
 withdrew his arm and took his seat beside her, 
 and his attempts at soothing her were quite 
 ineffectual until Elizabeth's cold voice, saying, 
 " Eleanor, how long is this exhibition going to 
 last ? " acted like a charm upon her and reduced 
 her at once to submissive tranquillity. Then 
 the younger lady turned to her nephew. She 
 had had the advantage over the rest of having 
 overheard his voice while in the library, and 
 thus become accustomed to his presence before 
 she was brought into actual contact with him. 
 Quite as much astonished at his return as her 
 sister or Johnson had been, she was more pre- 
 pared to receive him with tact and kindness, 
 quite genuine of their kind, for she hailed in his 
 return a means of foiling Lindley Fielding. 
 
 "You have come back to us at a most 
 unfortunate time, as far as welcome is con- 
 cerned, as I dare say you have heard, James," 
 she said kindly. " The place Is like a dim 
 dungeon full of dreary ghosts, Isn't it ? But of 
 course this sudden illness of poor Charles has 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 237 
 
 upset US all dreadfully, and taken the spirit out 
 of us." 
 
 James's face clearly expressed his opinion 
 that there had never been much to take out ; 
 but he agreed heartily that such a sad event 
 did of course make a place less festive ; and 
 she continued — 
 
 *' At the same time, in some other respects, 
 your arrival could not have been better timed." 
 
 Both her nephew and her sister looked up 
 at her, the former curious, the latter appre- 
 hensive. 
 
 " During your long and most deeply deplored 
 absence, James, I suppose you have not had 
 much opportunity of keeping yourself au courant 
 of the affairs of the family ? " 
 
 '' No," said James, shortly. 
 
 She went on at once, without giving him 
 time to erow uncomfortable over this allu- 
 
 sion — 
 
 '' I am sorry to say that advantage has been 
 taken of it by certain unprincipled persons to 
 worm themselves into the confidence of your 
 poor uncle, who, you know, was always too 
 confiding and easily influenced." 
 
238 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 James assented, remembering how submis- 
 sive his uncle had always been to her. 
 
 " One person in particular, a woman " — 
 James's attention grew — ''has so insinuated 
 herself into his affections as to render him 
 utterly insensible to the claims of love and — 
 and duty which ought to bind him to us, his 
 sisters, whose devotion, being a fact of loiig 
 years' standing, has become a matter of course 
 and of no account." Her nephew expressed 
 becoming astonishment. " I have reason to 
 believe that recently this woman's whole atten- 
 tion has been directed to inducing your uncle 
 to leave to her everything which it is in his 
 power to will away ; and quite lately a worth- 
 less cousin of ours has made common cause 
 with her, and has managed, by using her 
 influence, to obtain such a hold upon your 
 uncle that he may actually have induced him 
 to acknowledge this girl as his daughter." 
 
 " Daughter ! " echoed James. 
 
 Eleanor started up. 
 
 *' Oh, Elizabeth, you don't know ! I don't 
 believe Lindley " 
 
 '' Lindley ! " cried James, still more puzzled. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 239 
 
 Now Lindley was the last member of the 
 family who had seen James since the departure 
 of the latter from Waringham, nearly six years 
 ago ; he and the lawyer, Mr. Massey, having 
 both visited the young man in prison, when he 
 was awaiting his trial for the murder of the 
 Irish farmer Hughes. It was of the utmost 
 importance, therefore, to Elizabeth to know on 
 Avhat terms the two men stood towards each 
 other ; for, though the appearance of James 
 would certainly alarm Lindley, on the other 
 hand, the sight of Lindley, if they had not 
 parted on good terms, might alarm James. 
 The circumstances of her nephew's return 
 were still a mystery to her ; if he had been 
 formally released, then all was safe, for a few 
 days or hours would make him Sir James, and 
 his generous easy-going nature would make 
 him almost as easy to manage as her brother 
 himself had been ; yet, on the other hand, the 
 evident state of depression he was in, his 
 abrupt changes of manner, a certain nervous 
 way of peering around him into the dark 
 corners of the room, pointed to the supposition 
 that he might, after all, have only escaped from 
 
240 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 prison, in which case that fact would have to be 
 concealed from Lindley, and the unscrupulous 
 adventurer frightened out of the house, before 
 Sir Charles could be induced to destroy his 
 newly made will ; then, though James, being a 
 convict, could not inherit, she and her sister 
 would be safe. 
 
 " Lindley Fielding, Aunt Henrietta s son. 
 You remember him ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I remember him." 
 
 His tone told nothing. He was looking 
 absently at the fire, with his elbows on his 
 knees and his chin on his hands, quiet, gloomy, 
 and sleepy-looking. His momentary curiosity 
 in the story she was telling him seemed to 
 have died away, and his indifference on such 
 a matter amazed her, until it suddenly occurred 
 to her that this abstraction was the natural 
 result of the enforced reserve of prison-life. 
 
 '' Have you any objection to seeing him ? " 
 hazarded Elizabeth, softly. 
 
 " Objection ? " repeated James, without 
 looking up. " Oh no ! " 
 
 Eleanor moved uneasily ; her sister quieted 
 her by one cold look. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 24 1 
 
 " We must have a room prepared for you, 
 James ; I think the red room will be the most 
 comfortable. Dinner will be ready in a few 
 minutes now, so I will consult Mrs. Symes about 
 your accommodation at once. You had better 
 come upstairs and prepare for dinner, Eleanor." 
 
 " Yes, I will come directly, Elizabeth," said 
 the invalid, meekly, beginning to gather up her 
 shawl and book and smelling-bottle. She had 
 a suspicion of what her sister was going to do, 
 and resolved to stay to watch proceedings on 
 Lindley's behalf, if she could manage it. 
 
 So Elizabeth left the room alone. A spasm 
 of horror seized the nervous lady at finding 
 herself again tete-a-tete with this man who had 
 the guilt of blood upon his head. Conquering it 
 less from kinship or Christian charity than for 
 Lindley's sake, she leant upon her crutch-stick, 
 to say, piercing him with the round black eyes 
 which had, unconsciously to their owner, a 
 weird power of fixing attention — 
 
 " James, it is our duty to forgive, even to 
 seventy times seven. As we forgive you the 
 wrong you have done, remember it becomes 
 you to be merciful to others." 
 
 VOL. I. 16 
 
242 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 The young man, who had risen to bestow 
 upon her the unwelcome Httle attention of 
 helping her to pack herself up for the journey- 
 upstairs, stopped, with her woollen shawl in his 
 hands, and shuddered. Fear and nervousness 
 made the croakingf tones which his aunt meant 
 to be entreating hard and didactic ; and, if he 
 had been as innocent as a child, the effect her 
 well-meant address had upon him might well 
 have been the same. As it was, however, it 
 seemed to her that he felt the sting of a 
 heavily laden conscience ; and, though in fear 
 and tremblinor she was too orthodox not to 
 rejoice in having made some effect. Un- 
 happily, it did not soften him. He said, rather 
 impatiently — 
 
 " Will you have this shawl on, Aunt 
 Eleanor ? " 
 
 And, just as she was submitting to have 
 it wrapped very carefully round her bent 
 shoulders, the door creaked again, and they 
 heard two voices and the footsteps of two 
 persons. 
 
 As soon as the sound of the man's voice 
 struck James's ears, he started, and his aunt 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 243 
 
 saw his face chancre. With wonderful and 
 unexpected energy she hobbled across the 
 room and met her sister and Lindley almost 
 before they had advanced beyond the door, 
 which Lindley closed as they entered. 
 
 '* Lindley," she croaked, in a hoarse whisper, 
 " do you know who " 
 
 But Elizabeth dragged her aside before she 
 could finish her speech ; she had been careful 
 not to give her cousin the least hint that there 
 was any one waiting to see him in the drawing- 
 room but Eleanor. 
 
 " What is it ? " he asked, as he stepped 
 forward quickly into the room. 
 
 The next moment there were heard two 
 short cries in men's voices, one loud and sharp 
 and hissing, the cry of a horrible surprise ; the 
 other low, deep, murderous. The frightened 
 women saw the men approach each other 
 quickly ; they could not see why or how. Then 
 there was a crash as the lamp was flung down 
 and the light went out ; another sound in 
 James's voice, a short pursuit, then something 
 was overturned, and there was silence. The 
 ladies, after a first scream of surprise from 
 
.244 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Eleanor, stood quiet as death, staring with 
 straining eyes into the gloom, at first impene- 
 trable, in which the desperate chase was taking 
 place. For Eleanor, who would have rushed 
 shrieking to the door, was held by force by her 
 sister. Until she had had time for a few 
 instants' thought to try to realize what this 
 might mean, Elizabeth dared not summon 
 witnesses ; but, as her eyes became accustomed 
 to the gloom, and she saw that the pursuer was 
 the taller figure, which she knew to be that of 
 her nephew, she cried — 
 
 " James, for Heaven's sake, speak ! What 
 IS It : 
 
 And, as she moved towards the door, she 
 was arrested by another sound, and she saw the 
 two figures together, struggling. Then there 
 came a low wolfish cry from a man's lips, her 
 nephew's, and the figures fell. She tried to 
 move, she tried to call, but voice and limbs 
 failed her ; she could only stand, with staring 
 eyes and loudly sobbing breath, watching, 
 Avaiting. In another instant one figure rose, 
 the other and taller after it. With a spring 
 James had the elder man again in his grip — 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 245 
 
 only for a moment ; LIndley struggled out of 
 his coat, flung it over his pursuer's face, and 
 escaped. There was the crash of glass, and 
 James, shaking himself free, rushed to the 
 window. But he only cut himself against the 
 broken glass ; the window was still fastened, 
 and no one could have got through the hole 
 made in the glass. He staggered back, with a 
 cry of fury. Then the door creaked ; rushing 
 blindly in that direction in the darkness, he 
 was greeted by a discordant duet in the voices 
 of his aunts. Eleanor did nothing but moan 
 and cry ; Elizabeth hissed out — 
 
 " Stop, James, stop ! " 
 
 He paid no heed ; but, dashing past 
 towards the door, with his back to the faint 
 rays that penetrated into the apartment through 
 the drawn blinds, he ran against the partition 
 which divided the long drawing-room from the 
 smaller one, and staggered back, for the 
 moment partly stunned. 
 
 " He went out ; I — must — follow him ! " he 
 gasped out savagely, as Elizabeth found her 
 way to the bell and rang it sharply. 
 
 " No, James," said his elder aunt ; " it 
 
246 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 was I who opened the door. No one went 
 out." 
 
 The feeble lie was transparent, and he did 
 not answer. As he reached the door the 
 butler opened it, and uttered an involuntary 
 exclamation. 
 
 *' Did you pass any one ? Did a man pass 
 you ? " asked James, dragging the manservant 
 out into the hall with hands which were 
 shaking with fierce excitement. 
 
 " No, sir, no one," said Johnson, beginning 
 to feel sure that imprisonment had affected 
 Master James's intellect. 
 
 " Liars, liars every one of you ! " growled 
 the young man between his teeth, as he stared 
 about him, blinking in the light, and uncertain 
 which way to go as Johnson made his escape. 
 
 His aunt's cold voice from the drawincr- 
 room doorway made him turn ; and she came 
 out towards him as she spoke. 
 
 *' Come with me into the library," she said, 
 gravely and with authority. '' I have a better, 
 surer w^eapon against that man than your 
 hand." 
 
 Over her left arm hung Lindley's coat, 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 247 
 
 which he had left in James's hand when the 
 struggle between them grew close. As she 
 spoke, she drew from one of the pockets a 
 small packet of papers held together by an 
 elastic band. 
 
 *' No," answered James, savagely ; " I must 
 be revenged my own way." 
 
 But his uncertainty as to which direction 
 had been taken by the man of whom he was 
 in pursuit rendered it easy for her to have her 
 will with him. 
 
 There was a cold light of triumph in her 
 hard face as she gently but firmly drew him 
 towards the door of the library, which she 
 opened. 
 
 " Come in," she said. " I can promise you 
 that to listen to the few words I have to say 
 will be no waste of your time." 
 
 He yielded to the force of the resolute will, 
 and followed her into the library. 
 
248 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The fire was alight in the Hbrary, Sir Charles's 
 armchair in its customary place ; though the 
 housemaid had known, as she wheeled it as 
 usual opposite to that exact spot on the hearth- 
 rug where her master's heels had, in the course 
 of years, worn a hole, that he would never use 
 it again. 
 
 Elizabeth was not sentimental. She seated 
 herself without remembrances or regrets in the 
 armchair, and signed to her nephew to take 
 the one by the table. He glanced round him, 
 as he did so, at the old book-shelves and at 
 the names of old books which had made him 
 think in his childhood what a very learned man 
 his uncle must be. In those few moments, 
 while he looked about him, his mind evidently 
 comparing those old impressions with his 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 249 
 
 present ones, his aunt, occupied solely with 
 the affairs of the moment, quickly took a re- 
 solution, and determining that it would be 
 well until matters were more settled to keep 
 her newly acquired secret to herself, she slipped 
 Lindleys packet of papers into her own 
 pocket, and made up her mind to evade any 
 inquiries her nephew might make concerning 
 them. 
 
 But he did not seem to be in an inquiring 
 mood. His gaze fell from the books on to the 
 fire, and he sat looking at the glowing coals, as 
 stolid, silent, and inert as if no electric outburst 
 of passion had fired his veins and thundered 
 in his voice a few minutes before. She ex- 
 amined him very attentively for some seconds 
 before she began, with her voice subdued to low 
 tones, as sympathetic as she could make them — 
 
 " So this Lindley has wronged you too In 
 some way ? Believe me " 
 
 '' Lindley ! " interrupted James, raising his 
 head abruptly. 
 
 '' Yes. Don't you know that the man you 
 attacked, or who attacked you — I don't know 
 which — just now, was Lindley Fielding ? " 
 
250 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 Her nephew got up and leant against the 
 mantelpiece, playing nervously with one of 
 the bronze horses which stood on each side 
 of the clock. 
 
 '' Lindley Fielding ! " he echoed slowly. 
 
 '' Yes. Who did you think it was ? " 
 
 '' I thought — no, I was sure it was " 
 
 He stopped, and stared vacantly at himself in 
 the glass. " I w^onder if — if I was dreaming ! 
 Perhaps the musty air of this old barn has 
 affected my head. And yet I don't think I 
 
 could have mistaken that voice, which 
 
 Besides," he cried, suddenly starting erect, 
 *' he turned out the light. Why should he do 
 that, except to prevent my seeing him ? And 
 I did see him, in spite of his grimaces and his 
 quickness — I tell you I did see him ; and it 
 was he — it was Williams, the man who has 
 ruined me body and soul, the man who fawned 
 upon me and humoured me, and wriggled him- 
 self into possession of every thought I had, 
 the devil who led me where I was a fool to go. 
 Yes, yes ; I know I was a fool," said he, ex- 
 citedly, staring straight at the wall in front of 
 him, and bringing out his strong voice in a 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 25 1 
 
 deep thunder of anger and self-contempt. " I 
 was a weak, miserable fool. But it takes a 
 knave to make such a fool as that man made 
 of me. And I tell you I will have him ; I 
 won't be cheated of my revenge now. Let 
 me go, I say, let me go ! " 
 
 For as he left the mantelpiece and moved 
 towards the door, his aunt's white taper fingers 
 closed firmly upon his arm. 
 
 ** What is the use of wandering about tiring 
 yourself with hunting for a man you are sure 
 not to find ? For, if Lindley Fielding really 
 has so much cause to fear you as you have 
 represented, he is certainly a mile off by this 
 time." 
 
 This was so evidently true, and was said 
 in such a sensible tone of calm and authoritative 
 persuasion, that the young man, who was clearly, 
 from some cause or other, in a state of weak 
 mental discipline, yielded again to her, as he 
 had done before, and sank down into the chair 
 he had occupied at the beginning of the inter- 
 view. 
 
 " Now," said she, not resuming her seat, but 
 standing before him with one hand on the 
 
252 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 bureau, and speaking very earnestly, "if LIndley 
 should prove to be the man you suspect, you 
 will have my fullest sympathy, and all the help 
 I can give you towards such just punishment 
 as may be in our power. But there is quite 
 another motive he may have had for not wish- 
 ing you to see him, and I fancy it was this 
 suspicious action of overturning the lamp which 
 led you to mistake him for the man you have 
 so much reason to dislike. Lindley has, as I 
 told you, been plotting to get your uncle to 
 leave the property to a person of his choosing ; 
 he would never have dared to do this while 
 you were here, and your return has naturally 
 disconcerted him." 
 
 " But not to such an extent as to lead him 
 to do anything hopelessly foolish," said James, 
 looking up at her with more shrewdness in his 
 blue eyes than she had expected. *' I know 
 this man Lindley — Williams — whatever his 
 name is. He is as clever as he can stick. If 
 it had been a mere matter of getting an unjust 
 will made, he would have faced it out. It 
 wanted the fear of a pair of hands at his throat 
 to make him raise such a scene as that which 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 253 
 
 took place In the drawing-room just now. You 
 need not be afraid of his Influence over my 
 uncle any longer ; while I am at the Hall he 
 will keep at a safe distance, I'll answer for It." 
 
 He spoke with such absolute certainty that 
 she began to recognize the likelihood of 
 LIndley's plots to get the affairs of the family 
 into his own hands having been more deeply 
 laid than she had suspected. Of course, since 
 James had been in prison when the news came 
 of LIndley's charitable visit to him, they had 
 only heard one side of the story. They had 
 sent no word, no message of sympathy or 
 sorrow to the young man in his misery and 
 degradation, except through Sir Charles's 
 solicitor, Mr. Massey ; and James had sent no 
 word back ; therefore, the means by which he 
 had fallen from his bright adventurous manhood 
 to the depths of a cowardly crime had remained 
 unknown to them. 
 
 " James," said she slowly, lowering her voice 
 to a solemn whisper, '' do you mean to tell me 
 that you suspect some hand of having delibe- 
 rately set about your ruin ? Be frank with me ; 
 there is no use In making up a story to me. 
 
2 54 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 I have welcomed you without one, and you 
 have my sympathy In any case — my warmest 
 sympathy, my poor, dear boy ! " 
 
 She laid her white hand — which had 
 wonderful capabilities both for hardness and 
 softness — caressingly on his curly brown hair. 
 But there was wanting In the soft touch just 
 that thrill of warm human feeling which sends 
 the current of sympathy from one heart to 
 another; and James, sensitive, responsive, Im- 
 pressionable, remained unmoved. 
 
 "Thank you, aunt," he repeated. Instinctively, 
 but without anything warmer than courtesy. 
 " What should I make up a story for ? " he 
 continued, simply. " It could not help me now, 
 it Is all over with me now; I'm done for; but 
 it was his fault, he did it " — with a fresh out- 
 burst of anger. '' Heaven knows that Is true 
 enough ; and Heaven knows what he did it for 
 —I don't ! " 
 
 " We may be able to find out If we go to 
 work coolly." 
 
 "What Is the use of that now ? His work 
 is done, he has wrecked my life ; for Heaven's 
 sake let us talk of something else," said he. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 255 
 
 getting up to walk about. " I wanted to 
 forget the miserable business, to come some- 
 where where nothing was known of it, where 
 
 I could get " He stopped short with a 
 
 laugh, not a merry one. The idea of expecting 
 consolation or welcome or sympathy worth the 
 having in this his old home suddenly struck 
 him in its U le light as quite ludicrous in its 
 extravagance. 
 
 Now his aunt was burning to hear the 
 whole story, which, if no longer interesting to 
 her nephew, might have considerable practical 
 value for her. She, therefore, with elaborate 
 demonstration of wakening affection in touch 
 and look and tone, followed him, and gently 
 said, as he stopped in front of a book-case, 
 with his eyes fixed intently on the dark volumes 
 of Gibbon's " Decline and Fall " — 
 
 '' How could you think we should know 
 nothing of it ? Did you imagine your welfare 
 — you, the only remaining representative of 
 youth and hope in our decaying family — could 
 be a matter of indifference to us ? " He did 
 look down at her then, but it was with a rather 
 cynical expression. However, she went on, 
 
256 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 undaunted, '' When 3^ou disappeared from us 
 so cruelly, without one word, one hint of what 
 you were going to do, we were frantic with 
 anxiety about you ; we made inquiries, we 
 searched, we did everything we could to obtain 
 tidings of you. It was a most unfeeling thing 
 for you to do." 
 
 There was truth in all this, and James knew 
 it ; though, indeed, want of feeling was far from 
 having been the cause of his disappearance. 
 
 " Yes, yes, I know it was wrong — I know 
 it was," he said restlessly. *' But you can't 
 imagine how intolerable the thought of entering 
 the Church had become to me ; even now, I 
 give you my word, I am inclined to think I did 
 better than that." His aunt could not restrain 
 a slight start at this avowal. " I knew I was 
 unfit for it, I knew I could never make you and 
 my uncle consider or understand my scruples ; 
 he is too calm by temperament to feel, and you 
 are too good a woman to know them. So, 
 half intentionally, half involuntarily, I drifted 
 off, and — and I did no good, as I suppose you 
 have guessed, as I dare say you prophesied. 
 Even at the last, when I had done something 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 257 
 
 at college to disprove the gloomy forebodings 
 of my future, which you let me hear so much of 
 when I was a boy, you never gave me credit 
 for much but straight limbs and strong lungs, I 
 fancy." 
 
 This was hardly just to the feeling of pride 
 Elizabeth had certainly taken in her nephew 
 when he had outgrown the need of it. But a 
 man down-broken as James now was cannot 
 be just. 
 
 " And you see you were quite right," he 
 continued, interrupting her protest. '' Nothing 
 you told me when I was a boy, in those friendly 
 little inducements to conscientious effort which 
 began by telling me I was good for nothing, 
 overstepped the truth, I assure you. I think 
 you may reasonably take pride in having judged 
 me so truly, so early." 
 
 ''James, James, how can you talk in this 
 manner ? It is most unkind and unfair. We 
 were overwhelmed when we heard of it — I most 
 of all." 
 
 '' When you heard of it ! " he repeated, 
 turning to look at her. '' What did you hear ? 
 How did you hear ? " 
 
 VOL. I. 17 
 
258 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 '* We heard all about It, of course, in half a 
 dozen ways — Mr. Massey — the papers. You 
 surely did not imagine we had never heard 
 of it ! " 
 
 " Was It in the papers ? I thought, being 
 
 out of the country Well, at any rate, you 
 
 may congratulate yourselves that it was not a 
 hanging matter ; for myself, I give you my 
 word I would rather it had been." 
 
 '' Hush, hush, James ; don't talk like that ! 
 Had Lindley — had the man for whom you have 
 taken Lindley anything to do with — that ? " 
 
 *' Why, of course he had ! " said James turn- 
 ing upon her with vehemence. "He had every- 
 thing to do with It ; it was he who took her 
 away from me — he, that man who had called 
 himself my friend, who had lived upon me, led 
 me away, done what he liked with me. He 
 has been the curse of my life, and some day — 
 some day — I'll have It out with him yet. He 
 may skulk and hide and creep out of my way, 
 and dodge me and escape me, as a fox does the 
 hounds ; but I'll hunt him down at last ; and 
 then I'll show him no mercy, If he begs for his 
 life on his knees." 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 259 
 
 That fixed stare In front of him with which 
 he spoke, as If his eyes actually saw himself In 
 the act of taking a sanguinary revenge, alarmed 
 his aunt much more than his words or the low 
 savage tones of his voice. She had forgotten, 
 until those words — '* It was he who took her 
 away " — recalled the fact to her mind, that there 
 had been a woman concerned In the murder, 
 not very creditable to James. The young man, 
 after his angry outburst, seemed to be anxious 
 to recollect his reserve ; this was just what she 
 wished to prevent. She said, in her softest 
 voice — 
 
 '' You were very fond of her ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered he, briefly ; and he passed 
 his hand Impatiently over his head, as If to 
 Intimate that he wished to shake himself free 
 of the subject. '' I should like to see my 
 uncle ; can I see him now ? " he asked, in a 
 •different tone. 
 
 " I don't know ; the doctor is still with him ; 
 but I will go up and find out. Come with 
 me," she added affectionately, putting her hand 
 through his arm, anxious not to lose sight of 
 him until she had an opportunity of broaching 
 
26o A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 that very delicate subject, the manner of his 
 release or escape from prison. 
 
 So they went upstairs together, and he 
 waited outside his uncles room, while, in 
 answer to Elizabeth's knock, the door was 
 opened by Doctor Ledbury himself. He 
 glanced at James, whom she at once introduced 
 as her nephew. Contrary to her expectation — 
 for she had begun to feel convinced that he 
 was an accomplice of Lindley s — the physician 
 showed no surprise, no more interest than 
 would naturally be expected of a stranger in 
 the circumstances. He came out upon the 
 landing, having closed the bedroom door after 
 him, and said gravely, in his low-voiced, abrupt 
 manner, that he deeply regretted that he could 
 hold out no hope ; Sir Charles was sinking 
 fast ; he could do nothing further for him ; 
 the housekeeper had received from him all 
 necessary instructions. He was bound to 
 return to town that night. Mr. Otway had 
 better not enter his uncle's presence until Sir 
 Charles had been prepared for the sight of 
 him. Mr. Otway would excuse his abrupt 
 departure, as he must not miss his train. He 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 26 1 
 
 bowed, and Elizabeth accompanied him down- 
 stairs, ordered that the carriage should be 
 brought round at once, and deferentially ques- 
 tioned him about her brother's condition. 
 
 For it was impossible, when in the presence 
 of this man, to suspect him of complicity in 
 any plot. In the cold calm face, keen eyes, 
 upright and dignified bearing, there was some- 
 thing which so naturally inspired respect, that 
 the first words she exchanged with him, as 
 they waited in the library for the announce- 
 ment of the carriage, dispelled her suspicions 
 and made her ashamed of them. As he stood 
 before her, on the very same spot where her 
 nephew had stood a few minutes before, she 
 instinctively compared the two men as furnish- 
 ing a most striking contrast. Both were tall, 
 broadly built men, with figures denoting great 
 muscular power ; but the one moved listlessly, 
 and walked as if the effort of dragging his great 
 limbs about were not worth the trouble it cost 
 him; while every motion of the man before 
 her seemed to suggest the reserved power of 
 a nature whose faculties were all well under 
 the command of an indomitable will. The 
 
262 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 faces of the two men illustrated the contrast 
 still more powerfully. Both would have been 
 reckoned handsome, but James's good looks 
 Avere due more to the gentle, winning expres- 
 sion of his dark blue eyes and somewhat weak 
 mouth than to regularity of feature ; while 
 Doctor Ledbury's clear-cut face, from his high 
 fair forehead to the thin-lipped mouth which 
 was almost concealed by a tawny moustache 
 and well-trimmed beard, was classical in out- 
 line and firm, perhaps to hardness, in ex- 
 pression. 
 
 Curiously enough, as she thought, even at 
 the moment that she was making the com- 
 parison, Doctor Ledbury turned the conversa- 
 tion to the man with whom she was mentally 
 contrasting him. 
 
 "Is that gentleman whom I had the pleasure 
 of meeting just now the nephew of whom Sir 
 Charles talks as if he were dead ? " 
 
 Elizabeth looked surprised and anxious. 
 
 " Does he speak of him so ? Then I am 
 afraid it will shock my brother very much to 
 see him. What would you advise ? It is the 
 same; he is our only nephew/' 
 
 I 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 26 
 
 O 
 
 *' Poor fellow ! " ejaculated the physician, In 
 a very low voice, as if to himself. 
 
 Elizabeth looked at him Inquiringly. 
 
 " Pardon me. I am a judge of faces — to 
 be so Is an important part of my profession — 
 and I was painfully struck by the expression 
 of his. Fine young fellow ! " he added, more 
 lightly, to turn the subject. 
 
 For he had evidently astonished and even 
 alarmed the lady. She said slowly, after a 
 moment's pause — • 
 
 " May I ask you to tell me in what way his 
 expression struck you ? It is a matter of the 
 deepest interest to me ; and I should like, if 
 you will be so kind as to gratify my curiosity, 
 to compare your impressions with my knowledge 
 of him." 
 
 " Remember, It is a delicate subject for me, 
 as I warn you the Impression was a painful one. 
 Besides, I only saw him for an instant." 
 
 '' Go on. If you will." 
 
 *' Well, then, In the glimpse I had of him — 
 please remember that it was no more, and we 
 were nearly in the dark — I was almost startled 
 by what seemed to me, If I may use the 
 
264 A DOC WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 expression, a hang-dog look, as if the wearer 
 of it had recently been subjected to some deep 
 humiliation — nay, more — degradation. " 
 
 Elizabeth started. 
 
 " Pardon me, I have pained you. I was 
 afraid I should. Acknowledge that you almost 
 forced my frankness upon me. And, as I 
 said, we Avere in the dark." 
 
 " No, no ; I forced you to be frank. Will 
 you go on ? Don't be afraid of paining me, 
 I beg ; it is only facts and not impressions 
 that can do that. Will you tell me whether it 
 struck you — perhaps I am going too far even 
 for your strange skill — that his expression was 
 one of unmerited humiliation ? " 
 
 The physician hesitated. 
 
 " Ah, of course ; it would have needed a 
 magician to tell that ! " 
 
 '' Not quite, I think," he responded. ** The 
 human face is much more easily read than 
 people imagine who have only studied it cur- 
 sorily. I did not pause so much because I could 
 not answer you as because I dared not." 
 
 ^' You may dare any communication to me," 
 said Elizabeth, quietly. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD XAME. 265 
 
 The physician's keen eyes met hers, and a 
 glance told him that her boast was not ill- 
 founded, on this subject, at all events. 
 
 '' You are strong-minded, madam," he said, 
 in a tone as quiet as her own. '' I should have 
 decided, I am afraid, that the degradation 
 expressed in the face of young Mr. Otway 
 was not unmerited." 
 
 In spite of the fact that she had been 
 prepared for this, Elizabeth drew a sharp breath 
 as his last words fell. She looked up at him 
 quickly. 
 
 " I am afraid of you, Doctor Ledbury — not 
 of the communications you have made to me, 
 for all that you have told me I knew already — 
 but of your wonderful power of reading your 
 fellow-creatures. Can you," she asked timidly, 
 fascinated into almost childish confidence by 
 the physician's skill, and by the enormous sense 
 of reserved power with which he impressed her 
 — '' can you read the future too ? " 
 
 Doctor Ledbury smiled. 
 
 " No ; only to the extent that we all can. 
 Given a certain type of ^character, you can 
 prophesy pretty well the course it will take." 
 
266 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 " And that course in the case of my nephew 
 
 is- 
 
 The smile left the physician's face, and he 
 grew suddenly reserved. Elizabeth, Avho was 
 hanging on his words with eagerness of which 
 she was herself unconscious, felt her heart sink 
 in spite of herself. 
 
 " I cannot tell you that," he answered, very 
 gravely and almost inaudibly. He looked 
 towards the door, and glanced at his watch. 
 " You must excuse me. Miss Otway ; but " 
 
 ''One moment, pray!" she begged, her blue 
 eyes flashing with strange excitement. *' Give 
 me one more proof of your skill, I implore you f 
 You have met here — you have seen with my 
 brother — a relative of ours " 
 
 She paused, and Doctor Ledbury looked 
 down searchingly — for every glance of his 
 was searching — into her face. 
 
 ** And you wish to know what I have read 
 in his expression ? " 
 
 It was hardly a question — it was an asser- 
 tion. Elizabeth signed assent, with her lips 
 parted and her breath coming fast. 
 
 " I am not hazarding so much in this case. 
 
A DOG ^VITII A BAD NAME. 267 
 
 as I have had the honour of spending some 
 time in that gentleman's society. I may trust 
 in your discretion, Miss Otway ? " 
 
 '' You may, Indeed." 
 
 "Well, then, don't trust in his." 
 
 She trembled. She was going to ask 
 another 'question, when he turned towards the 
 door and raised his hand warningly. 
 
 " I can tell you no more. Miss Otway. I 
 dare say you know a great deal more than a 
 stranger's eyes can read." 
 
 And he passed out into the hall just as 
 Johnson was approaching the library to 
 announce that the carriage was at the door. 
 Some strange feeling of superstitious terror 
 seized Elizabeth, already much excited. In spite 
 of her strength of nerve, by her interview with 
 him, as he shook hands with her ; and the 
 touch of the cold, firm hand chilled her as the 
 touch of her own had so often chilled others. 
 
 She shuddered, with almost a sense of 
 relief, as the door closed, and she heard the 
 carriage wheels roll down the drive, bearing 
 away the physician of the keen eyes and the 
 magnetic touch from Waringham Hall with its 
 gloom and its mysteries. 
 
268 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 When Miss Elizabeth Otway accompanied 
 Doctor Ledbury downstairs, she left her 
 nephew standing irresolutely at his uncle's 
 door, warned not to enter, and indeed unwilling 
 to do so. 
 
 He had been quite as strongly impressed 
 as the rest of the household by the physician's 
 striking appearance and reserved, dignified 
 manner, but not in quite the same way. James 
 was a weak man ; but his weakness was moral, 
 not intellectual ; it lay rather in indecision and 
 indolence than in lack of wit. And he was 
 struck by one little peculiarity about Doctor 
 Ledbury which had been unnoticed or dif- 
 ferently interpreted by the rest of the family. 
 He sauntered across the landing, leaned over 
 the bannisters, and watched the great man as 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 269 
 
 he and Miss Elizabeth descended the staircase 
 with dignified steps and disappeared into the 
 outer hall on their way to the library. 
 
 It was very curious — very curious, he 
 thought, as he watched the little bald place 
 on the top of the doctor's head over which 
 the fair hair, encouraged to grow long round 
 that spot, was carefully brushed to hide that 
 tell-tale sign of advancing age. Had any one 
 else noticed the one thing about the physician's 
 manner which had attracted his attention ? he 
 w^ondered, as he stood erect and again ap- 
 proached his uncles door. Doctor Ledbury 
 was a great man, he knew ; in every respect 
 but that one his appearance and manners were 
 exactly what one would expect from a man of 
 high intelligence and cultivation, with just that 
 touch of graceful quackery which made him 
 chary of his words, to impress the remembrance 
 that they were valuable, with the low voice 
 that could not disturb the most delicate invalid, 
 the calm face which gave the Idea of reserved 
 power. Then where on earth had he picked 
 up that one significant habit ? 
 
 As James stood by the door of the sick- 
 
2/0 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 room, Still uncertain whether he should brave 
 the shock to his uncle by going in alone, or 
 wait for the unsympathetic companionship of 
 his Aunt Elizabeth, a very slight noise made 
 him turn round. The sound, which seemed to 
 come from his uncle's dressing-room, the door 
 of which was the next along the corridor, was 
 so faint that, at a time when his nerves were 
 in a less excited state, he would not have 
 noticed it. As it was, he turned towards the 
 bracket on the wall outside his uncle's door, to 
 turn up the lamp which stood there, and, while 
 doing so, he heard another sound. Glancing 
 back again along the corridor, he saw nothing ; 
 but another faint noise, coming this time from 
 the staircase, made him dart across the landing 
 and look down. The hall laipp intercepted his 
 view ; but he fancied he saw a man's figure 
 descend the last steps, and go through the door 
 into the outer hall by which his aunt and the 
 physician had passed a few minutes before. 
 However, he could hear nothing. 
 
 " Johnson, is that you ? " he called out. 
 
 There was no answer. The butler had 
 shown so little pleasure in his society, and even, 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD XA:\IE. 27I 
 
 on the occasion of their last brief interview, so 
 much absolute fear of him, that James could 
 not but feel that it was very likely the old 
 servant might take the liberty of shirking his 
 society. But, on the other hand, it was pos- 
 sible that this flying figure might have been 
 Lindley, who had much stronger reasons for 
 wishing to avoid him. So James hurried down 
 the stairs, through the central into the outer 
 hall, where he paused, for there was no one 
 to be seen. He had heard no door shut ; 
 there were voices in the library, but they were 
 those of his younger aunt and Doctor Led- 
 bury. He had already noticed the fact that 
 the drawing-room door could not be opened 
 without creaking ; so, those two being the only 
 rooms opening into the outer hall, he went 
 through to the principal entrance, and glanced 
 through the figured glass panels of the door 
 into the darkness outside. 
 
 It was not so much a hope that he might 
 find some trace of his enemy in the garden, 
 where the thick nio^ht-mist would have made 
 it easy for a fugitive to escape among the trees, 
 as a wish to be out of this sepulchral old home 
 
272 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 of his, and to forget its ghastly welcome, that 
 made him open the door and go out into the 
 cold and darkness, with his hands in his 
 pockets and his head raised to the murky 
 clouds, muttering — 
 
 " Well, at least the air out here isn't musty!" 
 
 But his feet had scarcely touched the gravel 
 when he was arrested by the sight of a girl, 
 whom he recognized by her figure as being 
 the same who had run away at his approach 
 half an hour ago, now running towards him 
 from the gate of the '' rose corner " opposite. 
 
 ** Oh, are you the doctor ? " she cried breath- 
 lessly, as soon as she was near him. 
 
 '* Yes," answered James, delighted to escape 
 from his own personality for a few moments> 
 and wishinor to detain the Q^irl until he could 
 find out who she was. 
 
 She came close to him, and looked up into 
 his face with great pleading eyes, whose beauty 
 he could partly see even in the thick gloom of 
 the closing evening. 
 
 " Oh, will you tell me how Sir Charles is ?" 
 Is he better?" she asked, her voice trembling 
 with anxiety, not noticing that it was a very 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 273 
 
 Strange thing for a doctor to be walking about 
 in the garden without his hat. 
 
 '' He is very ill," answered James gravely, 
 examining the upturned face as closely as he 
 could, and wishing as he did so that the light 
 was better. For his curiosity was growing ; 
 the voice was very sweet, and thrilling with 
 that passionate feeling which the voices which 
 had greeted him indoors so chillingly lacked. 
 
 " Very ill ! Oh, do let me see him — do,, 
 please ! Never mind what they say — what his 
 sisters say. He does want to see me ; he sent 
 for me, and they would not let me go to him. 
 Ask him, only ask him, if he does not want to 
 see Geraldine." She saw him start, and a 
 thought struck her. *' Have they been telling 
 you things about me," she asked fearfully, "say- 
 ing I am an impostor and greedy and grasping 
 and all that ? Indeed, indeed, it is not true 1 
 Oh, please believe me — how can I make you 
 believe me ? I only want to see him because 
 I love him with all my heart, better, a thousand 
 times better than any one else in the world 1 
 He has been more than a father to me, for — 
 for he has done all a father could do for me> 
 
 VOL. I. iS 
 
2 74 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 when I had no claim upon him at all. Won't 
 you let me see him ? I will do anything in 
 the world for you, if you only will. Oh, don't 
 refuse me ; it will break my heart ! " 
 
 She had seized his hand with little nervous 
 fingers that made his heart leap up in sympathy 
 as soon as he felt her touch. With head turned 
 away from her, he instinctively closed his 
 fingers upon hers with a firm warm answering 
 pressure which told her at once that her 
 pleading was not in vain. 
 
 *' Then you will take me in ; you won't let 
 them stop me ? " she whispered, in a low voice 
 of caressing gratitude, as she moved towards 
 the entrance with a great light of relief and 
 eagerness burning in her eyes. 
 
 He could see, as the light from the lamp 
 above the entrance now fell upon her, that she 
 was beautiful beyond the promise of her early 
 girlhood ; for he knew who she was, knew that 
 the slender sweet-voiced woman with melting 
 dark eyes and gentle manners was the wild 
 and fierce little vagrant with whom he had sat 
 in the mud in Mr. Corby n's cart-shed nineteen 
 years as:o. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 275 
 
 " Deldee ! " said he below his breath, 
 stepping forward beside the pillar of the portico 
 to call her back as she put her foot on the step. 
 
 She stopped, without uttering a word or a 
 sound, shivering and not daring to turn. 
 
 " Deldee ! " He touched her softly, trying 
 to take her hand. 
 
 But she fell back, away from him, deadly 
 white, with frightened eyes that scarcely dared 
 to look In his direction. 
 
 " All right, all right ! " he muttered, with- 
 drawing his hand abruptly and turning away. 
 And he thrust his hands into his pockets and 
 began to walk down the drive whistling. 
 
 He had not turned the corner of the house 
 when Geraldlne darted after him, caught his 
 arm, and, as that would not stop him, twisted 
 him round and faced him. 
 
 "It is not — you — James?" she asked 
 slowly, still half frightened and uncertain. 
 
 "Yes, It Is— I — James. But it doesn't 
 matter ; it is of no consequence. You will 
 find the doctor, If you go back ; he will be 
 coming out In a minute, Miss — er — Miss — " 
 He could not remember the fancy surname 
 
276 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 which had been given her, so he stopped short 
 and stared over her head at the trees. 
 
 " Oh ! " said she, in a voice which brought 
 his eyes down against his will ; and hers were 
 full of tears. 
 
 " Deldee, Deldee ! " he cried hoarsely, 
 selzinof her arms with his hands and lookinof 
 down into her face with the greedy, horrible 
 eagerness of a starvinsf man. *' You are not 
 — orlad to see me ! " 
 
 '' Glad ! Oh, James, I am half crazy with 
 joy ! " 
 
 She panted out the words in a whisper, 
 trembling still at his touch, not daring quite to 
 believe that it was really he, looking at him 
 inquiringly, already half shyly. He tried to 
 take her in his arms ; but she drew back, not 
 coldly, but timidly ; then, seeing that he looked 
 half offended at once, she took his right hand 
 in both hers and laughed a little laugh of 
 pleasure. 
 
 '^ It is the first welcome I've had, Deldee," 
 whispered he in her ear, almost sobbing. 
 
 She drew nearer to him and pressed his. 
 large rough hand against her breast. 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 277 
 
 " Don't, don't ! " she quavered. '' You 
 make me so miserable. How could you expect 
 those horrid old witches to welcome you as 
 warmly as your little sister ? I don't know 
 what to say to you ; I can't think of anything 
 nice enough and kind enough. Do look 
 happier, do be happier. Oh, James, James, 
 I am so happy and so wretched both together 
 that I think I shall go mad ! You have seen 
 him ? " she whispered, her voice growing 
 anxious again. 
 
 ''Not yet." 
 
 " Won't they let you see him either ? Oh, 
 what are they doing to him ? I believe there 
 is some plot " 
 
 " So do I. But they can't prevent my 
 seeing him, and they shan't prevent you now. 
 Come along. You remember what you said, 
 that you would do anything for me if I let you 
 see him ? " said he, stooping down over her. 
 
 " I remember. But I shouldn't have said 
 it if I had known it was you." 
 
 "You wouldn't!" He stopped, and made 
 her stop too. 
 
 '' No, James. Listen ! " she said, her voice 
 
278 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 low, but deep and thrilling with excitement. '' I 
 have something to teiryou which I have wanted 
 to tell you all these years ; but — but you know 
 I couldn't," she added nervously. " I have 
 thought about it so often, and never dared to 
 say a word about it to any one. You know it 
 was you who were my only companion when 
 I was a child, and you know how good you 
 always were to me and how you gave way to 
 me and yielded to me ? " 
 
 '' Well, that wasn't any merit. You were 
 such a dear little thing, one couldn't help it." 
 
 '* Oh yes, you were good ! I was too young 
 to know it then ; but I know it now. And ever 
 since I have been old enough to know it I have 
 been longing^ — oh, longing so deeply ! — for some 
 opportunity of telling you, showing you that 
 I am grateful. And, James," she went on, her 
 excitement growing still higher, '' whatever you 
 have done, and whatever you might do, it 
 would be just the same." 
 
 The young man heard her with a feeling 
 more dangerous, more stormy than her innocent 
 enthusiasm stirring in his breast, as he looked 
 at her beautiful eloquent face. He was not 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 279 
 
 a blackguard, this unlucky James Otway, though 
 most respectable people would have put him 
 under that heading. He knew enough of the 
 world and of women to feel sure, without 
 vanity, that this lovely gentle girl, with the 
 sympathy and sweetness for which he had been 
 hungering, was not far from being ready to 
 give him her love : and that he must not take. 
 He gave one rapid glance 'at her, and, without 
 answering, drew her in the direction of the house. 
 
 " Come along ! " he said shortly. 
 
 But, as he spoke, they heard the carriage 
 drive round to the entrance and the hall door 
 open, and a minute later they had to step back 
 for the barouche to pass them, while Doctor 
 Ledbury put his face to the window and raised 
 his hat. 
 
 " Who is that ? " asked Geraldine, with 
 curious eagerness. 
 
 '* That is the great Doctor Ledbury." 
 
 '* Doctor Ledbury ! " she repeated vaguely. 
 *' I — I wonder if I have seen him before ? I 
 seem to know his face." 
 
 "Why, you couldn't see much of it by 
 this light ! " 
 
28o A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 " No-o ; I suppose it was fancy." 
 
 " I think so. You are nervous to-night ; 
 all these shocks and surprises have been too 
 much for you, Deldee," said he, gently. 
 
 ''Yes, I think they have. When I first 
 saw you, and did not know you, and ran away 
 through that gate, I kept imagining all sorts 
 of horrible things and fancying I could hear my 
 guardian's voice calling to me, and that they 
 were doing him some harm. Oh, James, 
 Waringham Hall is a dreadful place ! It is 
 like a great cold prison. I can't bear to think 
 of my guardian's living there, and I don't 
 wonder you ran away ! Let us make haste 
 in to him." 
 
 They were standing at the corner of the 
 house, James so much fascinated by her innocent 
 warmth of welcome, her sofr voice, and the 
 seductiveness of her half-seen beauty, that, on 
 pretext of giving her time to recover her self- 
 possession, he was willing to linger a few 
 minutes longer out there in the night-mist 
 with her. 
 
 '' Better wait till you have — till you are — 
 till you feel calmer, in fact. It will be very 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 28 1 
 
 trying for you, and you must not break down, 
 you know." 
 
 He was standing with his back to the 
 house, and Geraldine stood, with his hand 
 placed soothingly on her shoulder, facing him. 
 These last words of his were scarcely uttered 
 when she started Violently, and he seized 
 the occasion to slip his arm round her reas- 
 suringly. 
 
 *' It is all right ; don't be frightened ; I 
 won't let anything hurt you." 
 
 " No, I'm not afraid," said she, resisting 
 him faintly. " Let us go in, let us go in ; I 
 think my head is giving way." 
 
 " Why, child, what is the matter ? What 
 frightened you ? " he asked quickly. 
 
 '' I — I fancied I saw a man running away, 
 in the mist, over the grass — away from the 
 house on that side." 
 
 She glanced towards the facade of the Hall, 
 and James turned immediately. 
 
 " Which way did he go ? " he asked, with 
 sudden and fierce excitement. 
 
 " I thought — I fancied he ran straight across 
 the grass there, where the flower-beds are ; and 
 
282 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 then he seemed to make a jump in the air, and 
 to run down the slope." 
 
 But James had already left her, crying,. 
 " Don't be frightened. Wait ; I will come 
 back ! " as he ran in the direction she had 
 indicated. 
 
 He had not the least doubt that it was the 
 man they called Lindley, the man whom he felt 
 convinced he had known as Williams, whom 
 she had seen escaping. The '' leap in the air " 
 she had described him as taking was explained 
 by the fact that a wire fence, invisible to her 
 eyes in the gloom, separated the lawn in front 
 of the house, with its flower-beds, from the 
 rougher, less carefully kept grass of the park 
 beyond. 
 
 Now, although the man of whom he was in 
 pursuit was active and muscular, he was some- 
 what short, somewhat stout, too fashionably 
 dressed to have the free use of his limbs, and 
 twenty years older than James. Therefore, the 
 latter had fair hopes of overtaking him. The 
 ground sloped very gradually the whole way 
 from the Hall to the lodge, and in a few- 
 moments James was at the park gates. But 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 283 
 
 the lodge-keeper said he had seen no one pass 
 out on foot ; he had opened the gates for the 
 carriage a few minutes ago, but he was quite 
 sure there had been nobody inside it but the 
 doctor who had arrived from London an hour 
 or so before. James went back slowly, glancing 
 right and left, peering among the still bare oak 
 trees, angry with himself for having again 
 missed the man whom he persisted in believing 
 to be his enemy. It was not until he was in 
 sieht of Geraldine that he remembered her, and 
 quickened his pace. 
 
 " Who was It ? Did you see any one ? " 
 she asked anxiously. 
 
 *' No, Deldee, I missed him. Well, at any 
 rate, we have only the Gorgons to cope with 
 now," he said, as If trying to throw a weight off 
 his mind. " Let us storm the fortress." 
 
 They went up to the entrance, James rang 
 the bell, and the door was opened Immediately 
 by the butler, who had by this time recovered 
 his usual stately serenity, and was prepared to 
 treat his masters nephew with the courtly 
 respect due to Sir Charles's heir, having come 
 to the conclusion that Sir Charles's influence 
 
284 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 would naturally be strong enough to hush up 
 any little unpleasantness with '' the authorities." 
 
 *' The red room has been prepared for you 
 for to-night, sir," he said, as soon as they were 
 in the hall. " We can get any room you would 
 prefer ready by to-morrow night, if you would 
 please sleep there to-night, sir. We have not 
 had much need of spare rooms lately ; but Lord 
 Charmouth slept there when he was here a 
 month ago, and I think you will find it pretty 
 comfortable." 
 
 '' Thank you ; you need not trouble your- 
 self about preparations for me ; Tm not going 
 to stay. Just get me something to eat, and 
 have the dog-cart or the phaeton — if either is 
 still in existence — brought round in time to 
 catch the next train to town. You will have to 
 look sharp — it is half-past seven now." 
 
 " Very well, sir." 
 
 Johnson retired, and at the same moment 
 Elizabeth came out of the library. At sight 
 of Geraldine the expression of anxiety in her 
 face hardened to one of dislike and suspicion. 
 She did not speak to her, however ; turning at 
 once to her nephew, she said — 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 285 
 
 *' James, will you come in here for a 
 minute ? " 
 
 "Will it do if I come in ten minutes,, 
 aunt?" 
 
 '' No, it must be now. It is important — 
 most important." 
 
 '' Will you wait here for me, Delclee ? " he 
 said kindly to the girl, in a low voice. " I can't 
 take you into the drawing-room, because there 
 is another Gorgon there," he added in a whisper, 
 close to her ear. 
 
 '' Very well. Only don't let her persuade 
 you not to let me see him. You know you 
 have promised, James ! " she whispered back 
 imploringly. 
 
 *' Trust me," he assured her, pressing her 
 arm gently, and giving a lingering affectionate 
 look at her entreating face, prettier than ever in 
 the lamplight, as he followed his aunt into the 
 library. 
 
 As soon as he had closed the door behind 
 him, he saw by the look on his aunt's face that 
 it was no lio^ht thinor that troubled her. Her 
 white skin looked like marble, her eyes were 
 glassy her upright jfigure shook as she stood 
 
286 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 supporting herself with one hand upon the 
 bureau. 
 
 " James, I have been robbed ! " she said 
 hoarsely. 
 
 "Robbed! By whom?" 
 
 *' The man who Avas here five minutes ago." 
 
 " The doctor ! Ah, I am not In the least 
 surprised ! I could have sworn he was a gaol- 
 bird ! " 
 
 "The doctor! Doctor Ledbury! What 
 do you mean, James ?" 
 
 " Why, that If ever a man had the convict's 
 walk, It is your world- renowned physician, 
 Doctor Ledbury ! " 
 
 " James, are you mad ? Do you know what 
 you are saying — of whom you are speaking ? " 
 
 " Yes ; either of an Impostor who is not 
 Doctor Ledbury at all, or else of a man who 
 has once committed a crime, has served his 
 time, begun life again, lived it down, and got 
 on. He Is not a young man, you know— but 
 that he picked up that walk In a convict prison 
 I'll swear." 
 
 Elizabeth looked startled for a moment ; 
 then she laughed a hard laugh. It was 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 287 
 
 naturally the sort of accusation her unfortu- 
 nate nephew would bring against any one 
 to whom he had taken a dislike. 
 
 " Unhappily for your theory, 3'ou have made 
 It to fit the wronof man. It is not Doctor 
 Ledbury who has robbed me — yes, and robbed 
 you — but LIndley, the man you met in the 
 drawing-room, the man you declared to be 
 your enemy. Well, if you were mistaken then, 
 you would be right now." 
 
 " What has he stolen ? " asked James, with 
 deepest attention. 
 
 " Papers — whether genuine or forged I 
 don't yet know — but which concern us all 
 most deeply. He had them with him when 
 he was shut in with your uncle ; then he 
 showed me two of them boastfully, and I tell 
 you they were of vital Importance. In your 
 struggle together, he left his coat in your hands, 
 and I picked it up and took out the papers. 
 Then, a few minutes ago, as Doctor Ledbury 
 had left In fact, I came in here and took 
 them out of my pocket to read, having first 
 locked the door. Suddenly LIndley, who must 
 have slipped into the room when I went out 
 
288 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 with the doctor, darted from behind the screen,, 
 seized the papers, and made off through the 
 window, wrenching himself out of my grasp as 
 I tried to stop him. Of course I dared not call 
 out. There — you can see where his foot went." 
 
 She walked to the nearest of the twO' 
 French windows, which were about a foot from 
 the floor, opened it, and showed her nephew 
 the traces of Lindley's descent on the narrow 
 flower-bed which ran the length of the front of 
 the house, close under the wall. 
 
 James took it very coolly. 
 
 '' Yes ; Geraldine saw him," he said, nod- 
 dine at the flower-bed. " But I couldn't catch 
 him. I think he must have hidden himself 
 somewhere among the trees, for I know his 
 boots are always too tight for him to run ver}- 
 fast." 
 
 " But what are we to do ? " she asked, m 
 consternation. 
 
 " We can't do anything. He's got away, 
 you see ; and you can't do much to a man who 
 is out of reach." 
 
 '' But the papers ? " 
 
 " You say that they were his ? " 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 289 
 
 '' Yes, but they concerned us — you." 
 
 ''Well, then, we must wait till he turns up 
 with them. He can't do much with any papers 
 unless he produces them himself; and then, 
 whatever they might contain, I should think 
 that a cheap bargain which put him within 
 reach of my hands," said James, the savage 
 look coming again into his eyes. 
 
 " But I tell you they would ruin you ! " cried 
 she, irritated by his lack of energy and interest. 
 
 '' No, no, aunt ; that has been done," said 
 he, sinking into sullen indifference. 
 
 "Well, then, think of us. Lindley holds 
 papers which, if they are genuine, or if the 
 forgery is clever enough, will leave Eleanor 
 and me without a penny." 
 
 James looked puzzled. At last he said — 
 
 " Look here. Aunt Elizabeth — instead of 
 worrying yourself about Lindley and his papers, 
 why don't you go up to my uncle and ask him 
 about it ? If it concerns you and me and Aunt 
 Eleanor, I suppose it concerns him, and he is 
 the only person Avho is likely to be able to 
 help you." 
 
 But she hesitated. 
 
 VOL. I. 19 
 
290 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 " If," she began, and stopped. 
 James rose. He hated mysteries, and he 
 would at all times rather have let everything 
 he possessed slip through his fingers than have 
 bothered himself about papers and documents. 
 
 ''I don't see how you can expect a man 
 you know to be a scamp, and his confederate, 
 to play hide-and-seek all over the house with- 
 out helping themselves to something. If he 
 has taken nothing but a few papers of his 
 own concoction, you may think yourselves 
 lucky. If I had been here when his 'doctor' 
 came, I would have told Johnson to keep an 
 eye on the plate-basket." 
 
 Elizabeth pursed up her lips. 
 " I am not a girl, James, without judgment 
 or discrimination. There was no need to warn 
 me against Lindley Fielding ; and, if there had 
 been, Doctor Ledbury himself, whom you call 
 his confederate, told me not to trust him." 
 
 " Oh yeS; that is an old trick ! " said James, 
 who was stubborn and didactic in argument. 
 '* ' I'll run after him and see if he's got it, 
 ma'am,' says the thief who has the lady's purse 
 in his pocket of the ' pal ' who ' covered ' him 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 29 1 
 
 while he took it." This simile, savouring so 
 strongly of her nephew's recent associations, 
 made Elizabeth shudder. '' I tell you," he 
 went on, not noticing the effect his words had 
 upon his aunt, " at some time or other in his 
 life that man has been a convict — and surely I 
 ought to know better than you ! " 
 
 The cynical coolness with which he uttered 
 the last words appalled the lady, who would 
 fain have put the hideous fact of his crime and 
 its punishment out of sight as long as he should 
 remain in her society. But these two matter- 
 of-course allusions seemed to argue that he 
 had lost all sense of shame both at his im- 
 prisonment and its cause. She was glad when 
 he walked towards the door, saying — 
 
 " I am going up now to see Uncle Charles, 
 and, if he is well enough, I will try to find out 
 all I can for you." 
 
 ''One moment, James. Are you going to 
 take that girl up with you ? " 
 
 " Geraldine ? Yes," said he, decisively. 
 
 " Very well. I know you will not listen 
 to me ; the affection of an old aunt who has 
 loved you since your childhood does not weigh 
 
292 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 a feathers weight against one smile, one 
 whisper from a young girl. But I tell you, 
 and you may remember it some day when she 
 has drained you as she has done your uncle, 
 when she has robbed you as she has robbed 
 us, that this girl whom you are now taking, 
 perhaps to disturb your uncle's last moments, 
 has been the curse of all our lives ! " 
 
 James had stopped at the door, and, as 
 he listened, a change came over his face, and 
 his lounging, careless attitude gradually gave 
 place to one more attentive, more erect. As 
 she finished speaking, he turned his eyes from 
 the lamp, at which he had been staring in the 
 fixed way usual with him when excited by 
 any strong emotion. 
 
 " Aunt," he said, in a low, full voice that 
 enforced attention, " you are falling from one 
 mistake into another. If, as you describe, you 
 had really ' loved me since my childhood,' there 
 would not be in the world a girl with a smile or 
 a whisper sweet enough to make me act against 
 your wishes — reasonable or unreasonable. I 
 am easy enough to lead. Heaven knows ! But 
 you never did love me — never took the slightest 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 293 
 
 interest in me till I began to bring home prizes 
 and be talked about as a smart lad. Of course 
 I was bullied and snubbed ' for my good,' and 
 that it was my natural perversity which made 
 me resent it. And I know too that I should 
 be overstating the case if I were to say that 
 I disappeared from you all because of your 
 unsympathetic hardness, and that, if I had had 
 a sweeter home to remember, I might have — 
 might have lived a life less unworthy of it. I — 
 I don't know about that. But I do know this, 
 that, if you were to turn from this moment into 
 an angel of sweetness to me, I could never 
 forget your unkindness to me in my boyhood 
 or your cold welcome this evening. And if 
 that little girl, now shivering in the dungeon 
 outside there, were to change into a demon and 
 to tear my eyes out, why, I would feel my way 
 sightless to her little hands and kiss them for 
 the sake of those few words, ' James, I'm glad 
 to see you ! ' which she spoke to me in the 
 garden just now." His voice broke towards 
 the end, and his eyes, which had wandered 
 away from his aunt again, grew moist and 
 shining. Then he gathered himself together, 
 
294 A ^^^ WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 cleared his throat, and, saying simply, " Til be 
 down again in a few minutes, aunt, and tell you 
 what he says," he left the room. 
 
 Geraldine, who had been walking about the 
 hall to avoid hearing what they said through 
 the door as their voices rose, turned and looked 
 at him apprehensively ; but he was very soft- 
 mannered and gentle, and was smiling and 
 looking happier than she had seen him yet 
 since their meeting. 
 
 " Tired of waiting, Deldee ? " he asked, as 
 he drew her hand through his arm, and bent 
 down to smile into her face as he led her 
 through the inner hall and up the staircase. 
 
 " Oh no ! " she replied in a whisper. Her 
 excitement was rising as the longed-for moment 
 of meeting her guardian drew near. '' I — I 
 heard you speaking so loudly ; I was afraid 
 you were angry about something." 
 
 ''Yes, I had turned the tables and was bully- 
 ing my aunt. It has done me good," said he. 
 
 They were at the top of the staircase now. 
 She was trembling so much that for a few 
 seconds she could not have stood steadily with- 
 out his support. She seemed, however, at that 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 295 
 
 time unconscious of his presence, for he saw 
 her eyeHds fall and her lips move, and he held 
 his breath and stood like a statue, lest the 
 remembrance of his being there might disturb 
 her silent prayer. Then she stepped forward 
 more calmly, as he led her to the door of his 
 uncle's room and knocked. In a few instants 
 the housekeeper's slow steps were heard, and 
 Mrs. Symes opened the door and presented 
 a face whose lean and withered old features 
 were still distorted and ghastly from the alarms 
 and surprises of which she had seen and heard 
 more than any one else that night. She had 
 evidently heard of James's arrival, for, on seeing 
 him, she only uttered one moaning ejaculation, 
 and then she looked at the unknown lady. 
 
 " How is he now, Mrs. Symes ? " asked 
 James. '' Is he conscious ? " 
 
 '' Yes, sir, he is conscious, I believe ; but 
 he's sinking rapid." 
 
 Geraldine drew a long breath of agony, but 
 uttered no other sound. James could not bear 
 to look at her face. 
 
 " You go in first, my child," he whispered. 
 '' Mrs. Symes, you ask if he will see her." 
 
296 A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 
 
 '' Who shall I say, sir ? " 
 
 '' Say, ' Will you see her ? ' " 
 
 The old housekeeper left the door ajar as 
 she approached the bed and drew aside the 
 curtain so that they could see the face of the 
 sick man, who was lying back half raised on 
 a heap of pillows with his eyes closed, quite 
 still. At sight of him James felt that a thrill 
 shot through the frame of the girl whose hand 
 he still held in his arm. 
 
 " Will you see her, sir ? " they heard the old 
 woman say slowly and without intelligence. 
 
 But quick as thought the sick man opened 
 his eyes, and a great radiance of light and joy 
 seemed to beam from his pale face. The 
 housekeeper moved aside. Geraldine slipped 
 away from her companion and softly crept in 
 and up to the bedside. Gently she clasped 
 her arms round him and pressed her lips to the 
 lined, worn face ; but the beloved touch sent an 
 electric thrill of strength to the dying man's 
 paralyzed frame. He moved one arm, which 
 she drew tenderly up to her neck, and, with 
 faltering but distinct speech, he cried — 
 
 " My daughter, my own — own child ! " And, 
 
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME. 297 
 
 after a moment, he whispered less clearly, ''Call 
 — me father ! Say it — quick ! " 
 
 " My father ! " whispered the girl, whose 
 tears were falling fast in spite of herself. 
 
 " Don't cry, child ! James will- — take care 
 — of you. James — James ! " 
 
 On hearing his uncle, whom he had believed 
 to be unconscious of his vicinity, call him by 
 name, James almost staggered. Then, recover- 
 ing from the shock of his surprise, he slowly 
 and gravely entered the room. He was close 
 to the bed before Sir Charles, who was still 
 gazing lovingly at Geraldine, raised his eyes 
 and saw him. To the horror of them all, the 
 sick man struggled up and stared at his nephew 
 with a cry of amazement and terror ; the next 
 moment, still with one arm round Geraldine's 
 neck, he fell back upon his pillows — dead ! 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 LONDON AND BECCLES. G. C. ^^ Co. 
 
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