L I B R.AFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 £>72>VZa 
 
 v. \ 

 
 THE QUEEN OF TWO WORLDS 
 
 VOL. I, 
 
 a
 
 THE QUEEN 
 OF TWO WORLDS 
 
 BY 
 
 LAURENCE BROOKE. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 SAMUEL TINSLEY & CO., 
 10, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND. 
 
 1879. 
 
 [All Rights Reserved.}
 
 COLSTON AND SON, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 £J. CHAPTER 
 
 I. 
 
 
 CD. 
 
 •— MARRIED IN HASTE, 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 Oi 
 
 
 
 c^ CHAPTER 
 
 II. 
 
 
 CO 
 
 UJ GETTING INTO SOCIETY, 
 
 a 
 
 
 19 
 
 _ CHAPTER 
 
 III. 
 
 
 L3 A RASH BET, 
 
 
 . 36 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 IV. 
 
 
 RUINED ! 
 
 • 
 
 44 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 V. 
 
 
 ; THE VAN STONE HOUSEHOLD, . 
 
 
 59 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 VI. 
 
 
 ENNUI, .... 
 % 
 
 
 
 77 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 VII. 
 
 
 .4 THE BEAUFORTS, 
 
 • 
 
 90 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 S A VISITOR, 
 
 VIII. 
 
 
 . 
 
 no
 
 vi Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DOMESTIC AMENITIES, . . . . 130 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SOWING SEEDS, . . . . . 151 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON THE RIVER, . . . . . 169 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FIRST LOVE, . . . . . .182 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A RELUCTANT CONSENT, . . . 1 89 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HALCYON DAYS, ...... 204 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A BOHEMIAN PARTY, . . . . 21 7 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 YOUTHFUL HEARTS, . . . . .238 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RALPH'S HISTORY, . . . . 250
 
 PART I. 
 
 The World of Bohemia.
 
 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MARRIED IN HASTE. 
 
 LOCO M BE, a town situated on 
 the Yorkshire coast, was one of 
 those recently-developed watering- 
 places which owe their existence 
 to the favour of fashionable doctors and the 
 facility of railway communication. In an in- 
 credibly short space of time it had emerged 
 from insignificance into a wide expanse of 
 picturesque villas, handsome shops, commo- 
 dious lodging-houses, and first-rate hotels. 
 But as it has no connection with this story, 
 save in the matter of the one incident without 
 
 VOL. I. a
 
 2 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 which the story itself would have had no 
 existence, the time of the reader will not 
 be wasted in the perusal of further and 
 unnecessary description. 
 
 One of the handsomest shops in the High 
 Street was that belonging to Mr. Joshua 
 Tubbs, the chief draper of the town ; and, on 
 a certain spring morning, Mr. Tubbs walked 
 to the door, and surveyed the scene before 
 him with a pleasant and benignant smile. 
 
 There were several reasons for this more 
 than ordinary cheerfulness. In the first 
 place, he was a leading citizen, a shining 
 light among the righteous, a man whose 
 voice uplifted at vestry or on platform com- 
 manded the attention of the thoughtful. In 
 the second place, his business was flourishing 
 enough to enable him to look forward with a 
 serene spirit to the morrow. And, in the 
 third and last place, his handsome and 
 favourite daughter Martha was going to 
 marry a gentleman of old family and fair 
 fortune, named Gabriel Vanstone. It may 
 be as well to take the opportunity of stating 
 that Gabriel Vanstone and Martha Tubbs 
 are not the hero and heroine of this story.
 
 Married in Haste, 3 
 
 The affair had happened thus. Gabriel 
 Vanstone, a young man, possessing more 
 money than wit, had found his constitution 
 so impaired by late hours and the consump- 
 tion of a great deal too much champagne, 
 that his doctor had advised him to betake 
 himself to the pure and bracing air of Slo- 
 combe, until such time as he should be 
 restored to his former self. The young 
 fellow, used to the genial life of clubs and 
 country-houses, found the place insufferably 
 dull, and, after a few days' trial, had made up 
 his mind to quit, when an incident occurred 
 which scattered his resolution to the wind, 
 and made him regard Slocombe from a 
 totally different point of view. 
 
 Finding himself in need of a pair of gloves, 
 he walked into the first shop he came to, 
 which happened to be Mr. Tubbs', and was 
 served by a young girl, whose first glance 
 made his heart beat as it had never beaten 
 in his life hitherto, and whose second 
 made him fall head over ears in love 
 with her. 
 
 This handsome young lady was no other 
 than Miss Martha Tubbs, whose presence
 
 4 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 behind the counter on this particular day was 
 due to the sudden illness of the principal 
 shopwoman ; for the fair Martha had a 
 horror of business, and had secretly resolved 
 within her own soul that if she could not 
 marry a gentleman she would go to her 
 grave in ' single blessedness.' 
 
 Next day the foolish young man went in 
 for some more things that he had no need 
 of, but the purchase of which enabled him 
 to gaze at the fair creature who had so en- 
 thralled him. Her dark sparkling eyes, her 
 clear blooming cheeks, her pearly teeth, which 
 had made so powerful an impression upon 
 him the first time, effected his conquest the 
 second. He was too much in love to think 
 of consequences ; was his own master, with 
 a clear fifty thousand pounds invested in good 
 securities, and snapped his fingers at the pro- 
 bable disgust of his relatives. Waylaying 
 Miss Tubbs as she was walking in the fields 
 one evening by herself, he poured out his 
 raptures in her greedy ear, and offered her 
 his hand and future. 
 
 Miss Tubbs blushed, and after a little 
 maidenly hesitation, let him see that his
 
 Married in Haste. 
 
 society was rather pleasing to her than 
 otherwise. She even allowed him to press 
 a kiss upon her chaste and blooming cheek, 
 and then informed him that he must speak to 
 papa. Mr. Vanstone intimated his more than 
 willingness to seek an inter :h Tubbs 
 
 ■: upon the subject for though weak, he 
 is not vicious, and his intentions were 
 strictly honourable. 
 
 fter a little hesitation. Mr. Tubbs gave 
 his consent. In his own private judgment, 
 he considered the young man a fool, and he 
 had also some old-fashioned notions as to the 
 desirability of young women rriarrying in th 
 own sphere of life. But Mr. Vanstone 
 was no concern of his, and it was for Martha 
 a brilliant chance, which would never come 
 more than once in a life. 
 
 The lovers were 1 and were to be 
 
 married at the parish church in a fortnight 
 from the morning on which Mr. Tubbs 
 walked to his shop door, and looked forth 
 with that pleasant expression to which we 
 have referred. . :ood there, his glance 
 
 Eefl upon a young man whc was :rossing the 
 road to him He recognised the porter of
 
 6 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 the ' Christopher,' one of the best hotels 
 of the town, and greeted him with a con- 
 descending nod. 
 
 1 Good morning, Jinks ! Did you want to 
 speak to me ? ' 
 
 ' A letter for you, sir, from a gentleman 
 who arrived by the 11.30 London train last 
 night,' replied the man named Jinks. 
 
 Mr. Tubbs looked at the strange hand- 
 writing, and wondered who on earth the 
 gentleman from London could be. He 
 opened the letter, thinking this would be 
 the readiest method of plucking the heart 
 out of the mystery, but when he had read it 
 he was more puzzled than ever. 
 
 ' Sir,' wrote his mysterious correspondent, 
 1 I should be glad if you would call upon me 
 as soon as you can conveniently do so, as 
 I have something of importance to communi- 
 cate to you, which it will be to your interest 
 to hear without delay. You will oblige me 
 by keeping both this letter and your visit 
 a secret from everybody, for reasons that 
 will be explained by yours faithfully, — 
 George Trew.' 
 
 The worthy draper had never been so
 
 Married in Haste. 7 
 
 surprised in his life. Who in the name of 
 wonder was Mr. George Trew, and what 
 could be the nature of this communication 
 which necessitated so much mystery ? Mr. 
 Tubbs put on his hat, and entering the 
 ' Christopher,' which was not five minutes' 
 walk from his own shop, requested to be 
 shown into the room occupied by his un- 
 known correspondent. Mr. Trew rose at 
 his entrance, and bowed courteously ; he was 
 a little gentleman — neat almost to primness 
 in his dress, with a sharp eye, and a decided 
 manner. Said the draper to himself, ' This 
 man has got the cut of a lawyer, or I'm very 
 much mistaken.' 
 
 He was not mistaken, for the little man 
 told him his business in the first words he 
 uttered. 
 
 1 Good morning, Mr. Tubbs ; you have 
 been very prompt indeed. Can I offer you 
 a glass of sherry — no — well it is a little 
 early. I suppose you were very much 
 surprised by the receipt of my letter. My 
 presence here is soon explained. I am 
 solicitor to Mr. Michael Vanstone, and it 
 has come to his ears that his nephew is on
 
 8 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 the point of contracting a marriage with your 
 daughter.' 
 
 Mr. Tubbs turned scarlet and stammered 
 out, ' Your information is quite correct, sir.' 
 He had an uneasy suspicion that in spite of 
 Mr. Trew's suave address, he must appear in 
 the lawyer's eyes a designing fellow. 
 
 ' You will permit me to point out to you 
 some of the disadvantages which will result 
 from this match — disadvantages, I mean, 
 which concern the young lady,' continued the 
 little gentleman, throwing one leg over the 
 other, and settling himself back in his chair, 
 with the air of a man who is about to enter 
 into an exhaustive statement. 
 
 Mr. Tubbs sat bolt upright, preserving 
 strict silence. His experience of the world 
 had taught him that in discussions of this 
 kind the advantage rests with the man 
 who hears all his opponent has got to say 
 before he opens his own lips. Mr. Trew, 
 whose policy on the present occasion was 
 one of perfect frankness, proceeded with 
 his reasons. 
 
 1 Your daughter, like all ambitious young 
 ladies, doubtless considers this a fine oppor-
 
 Married in flaste. 9 
 
 tunity of advancing her own interests and 
 getting into a sphere superior to her own. 
 Now I can tell you that in this hope she will 
 be grievously disappointed. I speak plainly, 
 but I perceive that you are too much the 
 man of the world to be offended with my 
 plainness — men of Mr. Vanstone's class have 
 a horror of trade. I think I may safely pre- 
 dict that not one lady among her husband's 
 acquaintance will ever invite her to enter 
 her drawing-room.' 
 
 The natural pride which all men feel in 
 their offspring was a little roused at the 
 uncompromising frankness of the lawyers 
 speech. 
 
 1 Allow me to inform you, sir,' interrupted 
 Mr. Tubbs in his most dignified way, 'that 
 my daughter, in spite of her connection with 
 trade, is not without education or accom- 
 plishments. She has been taught the piano 
 by Mr. Thumps, the first music-master in 
 Slocombe, and she can chatter French as 
 fluently as you can English, which is say- 
 ing something, for you seem a pretty glib 
 one.' 
 
 ' I am very grateful for your compliment,
 
 i o The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 and I have no doubt that Miss Tubbs is a 
 most agreeable and accomplished young 
 lady,' replied the little man with an affable 
 smile ; ' but even the fact of having enjoyed 
 the tuition of Mr. Thumps, and of being 
 able to speak French fluently, will not pro- 
 cure her admission into society.' 
 
 ' I always understood, sir, that when a 
 man married, he raised his wife to his own 
 level, no matter what her previous position, 
 cried Mr. Tubbs hotly. ' I can give you in- 
 stances in this country, for the matter of that, 
 among the aristocracy of England itself.' 
 
 The lawyer shook his head with a calm 
 persistence that was very provoking to a 
 man who had long been accustomed to shake 
 his own head at the crude ideas and rash 
 utterances of others. 
 
 1 You can quote examples to support every 
 theory, Mr. Tubbs, but there are cases and 
 cases. Lord A. or B., who owns half the 
 county, may succeed in forcing people to 
 be civil to his wife, but a plain gentleman 
 like Gabriel Vanstone does not lead society ; 
 he is led by it. And society, Mr. Tubbs, 
 will shut its doors in your daughter's face.'
 
 Married in Haste. 1 1 
 
 For the first time since the unregenerate 
 days of his youth, Mr. Tubbs made use of a 
 wicked expression. ' Then all I have to 
 say, sir, is, that society may go to the 
 devil.' 
 
 1 It will go there, Mr. Tubbs, at its ap- 
 pointed time, not before. Come, sir, I think 
 we are getting a little too warm over the 
 matter. I have taken this journey at the 
 request of Mr. Michael Vanstone in order to 
 try and arrange the business in a friendly 
 spirit.' 
 
 * Mr. Gabriel is over age, his own master, 
 and I don't see what right his relatives have 
 to interfere,' said the draper, doggedly. 
 * When I married, I didn't ask the consent of 
 my uncles and cousins.' 
 
 'Well, well, sir, we will not argue that 
 particular point, but pass on to another, and 
 one of vital importance to the young lady. 
 I think I have succeeded in proving to you 
 that she will not accomplish the principal 
 object for which she marries, namely, secur- 
 ing an entrance into good society. Now let 
 us see how her failure will affect her domestic 
 happiness. Without any particular disre-
 
 1 2 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 spect to Mr. Gabriel Vanstone, he is an 
 amiable, but a rather weak young man. 
 
 'Just a little soft, perhaps,' assented Mr. 
 Tubbs, in a more gracious tone. 
 
 ' Quite so. Now, it is well known that 
 fickleness and weakness generally go to- 
 gether, and when young Vanstone finds that 
 his marriage has made him lose the esteem 
 of his friends and relatives, it is almost cer- 
 tain that he will vent his chagrin upon 
 the woman whom he considers to have 
 been the cause of it all. You can see your- 
 self, Mr. Tubbs, what a pleasant prospect 
 will be hers then — nominally the mistress of 
 a good home, with the title of a gentleman's 
 wife, and wealth enough to give her every 
 possible comfort — but shut out from society, 
 despised and neglected by her husband. 
 This is not a fate that she would embrace 
 willingly, but it is the fate that she will em- 
 brace, if she takes advantage of his calf-love 
 to bind herself to him for life. 
 
 The lawyer ceased, pleased to observe 
 that his impressive words and tones had 
 considerably shaken Mr. Tubbs' obstinacy. 
 The draper sat silent, pondering these
 
 Married in Haste. 
 
 l 3 
 
 things in his heart, and then Mr. George 
 Trew leaned forward and played his trump 
 card. 
 
 ' Now, sir, you are a man of business ; I 
 am the same ; and I hope we shall be able 
 to understand each other without difficulty. 
 To relinquish this match will be a painful 
 blow to yourself and daughter. My client 
 has taken this fact into his consideration, 
 and on his behalf I am empowered to offer 
 you two thousand pounds to break it off, 
 and to give your daughter a thousand when 
 it is done.' 
 
 ' It is not the filthy lucre that tempts me, 
 sir,' replied Tubbs, with an incorruptible air 
 that would have been perfect save for the 
 wistful look which came into his eyes at 
 mention of that pleasant sum ; ' but what 
 you have just said touching my girl's future 
 happiness, has made a very powerful and 
 painful impression on me.' 
 
 ' I'll be hanged if the impression would 
 have been so powerful but for the bribe of 
 the two thousand,' thought the lawyer to 
 himself, then he said aloud : ' You will act 
 much more wisely by breaking it off than
 
 14 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 letting it go on. The thousand pounds will 
 make her a capital down' against the time 
 she meets with some nice young fellow in 
 her own walk of life. It is very seldom, Mr. 
 Tubbs, that good comes from marrying into 
 a different station/ 
 
 ' 1 must own that I have often thought so 
 myself,' said the draper. 
 
 ' Well, is it to be a bargain, Mr. Tubbs ? 
 I can draw up a little form of agreement 
 between us in five minutes.' 
 
 ' But there's Martha to be made to see all 
 this. It wants a man with your gift of the 
 gab to persuade her that a thousand down is 
 better than two thousand a-year for life.' 
 
 ' Come, come, Mr. Tubbs, you can manage 
 that, I am sure : you have authority in your 
 own house, I suppose ? ' replied the lawyer, 
 smiling. 
 
 1 But Martha is a difficult one to manage : 
 she has a touch of her poor mother's temper, 
 — Heaven rest her soul,' explained the 
 father, who, great as he was in the world of 
 Slocombe, had suffered himself to be some- 
 what easily led at home by his favourite 
 daughter.
 
 Married in Haste. 
 
 1 Well, of course if your authority fails, I 
 will see what I can do with her. But she 
 is evidently a young woman of sense, and 
 would see these things clearly enough if they 
 were once put in a proper light. You can 
 str.i r.-zr 2 i >:~-vT.~r- :i-::r_- ^:oi le- 
 thal Gabriel Yanstooe does not know where 
 - 
 
 The lawyer dipped his pen into the ink 
 and began to write out an agreement, while 
 Mr. Tubbs looked on in a rather agitated 
 frame of mind. His moral senses had got 
 rather confused, and he could not determine 
 quite satisfactorily whether he was doing die 
 best for his daughter's interests, or whether 
 he was has 
 
 hjic: ~-^ mi yr r_ _r:y :"; r :>. T f_~ ::" : : 
 thousand pounds. 'That lawyer chap has 
 so muddled my poor head with his jabber, 
 t.-.j.: I :;.r. : ;h:~k :"tjj\v he 5.1 i :: ~— 5t_: 
 
 Trew's pen. 
 
 • Now then, Mr. Tubfas ;ust sign your 
 name to this.' and he rapidly read over 
 
 v.->.a: he h:ii r::r" 
 
 Then Mr. Tubbs rose up, buttoned his
 
 1 6 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 coat and spoke in the slow accents of a 
 man who has arrived at an important con- 
 clusion. 
 
 1 Mr. Trew, I should like to well weigh 
 this matter before I put my name to any 
 contract. You must remember, sir, that I 
 am a parent, and that I must lay my head 
 upon my pillow this night with the full 
 conviction that I have done my duty ; that 
 of the two alternatives which are offered to 
 me, I have chosen that which will ensure 
 her the most perfect chance of happiness 
 in the future. I must have time, sir, to 
 reason and examine ; for, although I am not 
 a rich man, and the two thousand would 
 come in very sweet just now, it is not 
 merely a matter of money with me. I am 
 a father, and the welfare of my children is 
 dearer to me than all the gold in the world.' 
 
 As Mr. Tubbs uttered these sentiments, 
 his homely features lighted up with feeling, 
 a dignified pathos in his voice, even the 
 lawyer, in spite of his mortification at any 
 delay in assenting to his proposals, could 
 not help feeling moved. 
 
 ' As you please, sir, as you please. When
 
 Married in Haste. i 7 
 
 do you think you can promise to give me 
 an answer? My client, Mr. Michael Yan- 
 stone, is naturally anxious to hear the result 
 of my mission.' 
 
 ' I will call on you between six and seven 
 this evening, Mr. Trew, and give you my 
 final decision. I will now wish you good 
 morning, sir.' 
 
 1 Good morning, Mr. Tubbs, good morn- 
 ing. I shall expect you between six and 
 seven.' 
 
 Mr. Tubbs, deep in thought, walked back 
 to his shop. Entering the parlour, the first 
 sight that greeted his eyes was his daughter 
 Martha seated on the sofa by the side of her 
 lover. 
 
 ' Papa,' said Martha, advancing towards 
 him, covered with blushes. ' Gabriel and I 
 have been very very wicked. We have 
 been married this morning privately.' 
 
 Mr. Tubbs fell back two or three paces 
 in his astonishment, and Gabriel Vanstone 
 got up from the sofa and said in tones that 
 just shook a little from the novelty of his 
 situation, — 
 
 1 The fact is, I thought if we waited any 
 vol. 1. b
 
 1 8 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 longer, it might get to the ears of my 
 relatives, and they might interfere to pre- 
 vent it. You see, we have saved all bother 
 of that sort now. We are going from here 
 by the 2.40 train.' 
 
 Half - an - hour afterwards, Mr. Tubbs 
 wended his way to the ' Christopher,' and 
 related what had happened. The lawyer 
 smiled with the calmness of a man whose 
 experience of human affairs prevents him 
 from being astonished any longer by either 
 the follies or the crimes of mankind, and 
 said, — 
 
 ' I am very sorry, both for your sake and 
 the sake of the family I represent. Your 
 daughter is a clever young lady, but I think 
 she will, sooner or later, repent the step she 
 has taken.'
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GETTING INTO SOCIETY. 
 
 RS. VANSTONE left her native 
 town of Slocombe with a hope- 
 ful heart and elated spirit. Her 
 airy castles were being translated 
 to solid eround. She had reached the ^oal 
 of her youthful ambition — marriage with a 
 man of wealth and family ; for to this young 
 bourgeoisie an income of over three thou- 
 sand a-year seemed to promise an inexhaus- 
 tible supply of pleasures and luxuries. She 
 * dipt into the future,' and was enchanted 
 with the vision that she saw — a house fur- 
 nished after the newest mode, an equipage 
 unsurpassed in elegance, herself robed in 
 magnificent toilets, and ablaze with costly 
 gems receiving aristocratic visitors in her
 
 20 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 drawing-room. Poor, ambitious Mrs. Van- 
 stone ! If, as she flung her arms round 
 the necks of her sisters and father, she 
 cried and smiled hysterically, let us be 
 charitable in our cynicism. From the 
 small parlour of a drapers shop to her 
 present proud prospects was an elevation 
 that might well have excited the steadiest 
 nerves. We cannot all retain in our pros- 
 perous hours that evenly - balanced mind 
 which is recommended by the philosophical 
 Horace. 
 
 There were a few drawbacks certainly. 
 When Martha Tubbs, musing in her solitary 
 chamber over the future, had exclaimed with 
 the small heroine of Mrs. Browning, ' I will 
 have a lover,' she had drawn the portrait 
 of a man very different from Gabriel Van- 
 stone. He was, as a matter of course, to 
 be handsome, intellectual, one to whom she 
 could look up, by whom she could be 
 guided. Her present husband had none of 
 these necessary qualifications — he was weak, 
 vacillating, easily led by a will a little 
 stronger than his own. However useful 
 this weakness might prove, considering it
 
 Getting into Society. 2 1 
 
 from a strictly matrimonial point of view, 
 the fair Martha in her heart despised him 
 for it. Like all women, she would snatch 
 at power where she could ; while, like the 
 majority of women, she would sooner have 
 been governed by a more powerful mind. 
 
 As all these thoughts and speculations 
 were at present in a germ-like state, Gabriel 
 Vanstone had nothing to complain of in his 
 newly-made bride. Her great content with 
 the present, her sanguine hopes of the future, 
 — for Martha had that supreme confidence in 
 her own ability to conquer hostile circum- 
 stances that has led many ambitious souls to 
 successful achievement — gave to her manners 
 a softness and tenderness that were charm- 
 ing enough to a young and desperately- 
 enamoured husband. As Gabriel drove 
 away with his beautiful prize, he thought 
 that he was a man to be envied. In that 
 moment of intense satisfaction, he would 
 have said that the world could not be better 
 lost than for love. 
 
 At any rate he was wise to bask in the 
 sunshine of to-day, for the morrow might 
 bring clouds, even upon the radiant counte-
 
 22 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 nance of Martha. Their marriage had been 
 accomplished easily enough, since it only re- 
 quired the consent of two people, one of 
 whom was desperately in love, the other 
 ambitious ; but the getting into society in- 
 volved the unanimous consent of persons 
 who were not likely to be influenced so 
 readily by Martha's beauty and accomplish- 
 ments as her husband had been. Her high 
 opinion of her own merits, and her ignorance 
 of a wider world than the small provincial one 
 in which she had gathered her experience of 
 life, made her feel sanguine as to the accom- 
 plishment of the task she had set to herself. 
 But Gabriel was pretty sure in his own mind 
 that she would be doomed to disappointment. 
 The season was far advanced, in fact 
 nearly ended, when they returned from their 
 wedding tour, and took a furnished house in 
 one of the small streets that abound about 
 Mayfair. Having got a place to which they 
 could ask respectable people, the next thing 
 to do was to try and get respectable people 
 to come to it. After much deliberation, 
 Gabriel resolved that he would go to his 
 uncle, and do his best to persuade him to
 
 Getting into Society. 2 3 
 
 show a favourable countenance to his ple- 
 beian wife. 
 
 Mr. Michael Vanstone was a rich, old 
 gentleman of about sixty or thereabouts. He 
 was easily moved to anger, and unpleasantly 
 plain-spoken and uncomplimentary when in 
 that condition. It required, therefore, no 
 small amount of courage on Gabriel's part to 
 present himself before his offended relative. 
 
 ' By Gad, sir,' was the old gentleman's 
 greeting to him, ' you must have the impu- 
 dence of the devil to look me in the face 
 after what you have done.' 
 
 ' I am very sorry that it has offended you so 
 deeply, sir/ stammered his nephew, keeping 
 his eyes away from his uncle's wrathful glance. 
 
 * Offended me ! offended me, sir ! ' repeated 
 Mr. Michael Vanstone with savage emphasis. 
 * I always knew you had a small share of wit, 
 but I would not have believed that you could 
 have made such a contemptible fool of your- 
 self as to marry a linen-draper's daughter. 
 Good heavens! fancy a Vanstone marrying 
 a woman who had passed her life in selling 
 pennyworths of tape over a counter. What 
 an unmitigated blessing that my poor brother
 
 24 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 did not live to witness this ; it would have 
 broken his heart, you foolish, you wicked, 
 you criminal young scoundrel!' 
 
 It seemed that the irritated old man could 
 not find epithets sufficiently vigorous to 
 express his mingled contempt and disgust. 
 
 1 Will you let me speak a moment, sir,' 
 asked Gabriel, at length. 
 
 1 Speak as long as you like ! ' roared his 
 uncle, fiercely, flinging himself back in his 
 easy chair, and muttering wrathfully to him- 
 self. 
 
 1 What I wanted to tell you is this/ said 
 the young husband, plucking up spirit, ' that 
 although Martha — ' 
 
 1 What's her name ? ' called out the old 
 man, with a shout that drove all the courage 
 away from poor Gabriel's heart. 
 
 ' Martha,' he repeated. 
 
 1 Martha. Good heavens ! what a name ! 
 I wonder it wasn't Mary Ann.' 
 
 ' Well, sir, we will not quarrel over her 
 name ; that was given her by others. 
 What I was about to tell you was this, 
 that in spite of her want of family, my 
 wife is neither common nor uneducated.
 
 Getting into Society. 2 5 
 
 She has the accomplishments of a lady ; 
 she can play beautifully, she can speak 
 French — ' 
 
 1 And paint on velvet, and accompany her- 
 self on the guitar ; a complete rara avis, a 
 kind of female admirable Crichton, I sup- 
 pose,' interrupted Mr. Michael Vanstone, 
 with an irritable sneer. Then he continued 
 with savage energy, ' Who the deuce cares 
 what she can do ? All the world will want 
 to know is — Who is she ? and when that 
 question is answered, it will very properly 
 turn its back upon her.' 
 
 Gabriel was a good-tempered man, and 
 was ready to make every allowance for his 
 relative's prejudices ; but he was also a hus- 
 band, and this last insult made the cup of his 
 patience overflow. 
 
 1 Come, sir, be kind enough to remember 
 that you are speaking of my wife. However 
 contemptible she may seem to you, she is 
 very dear to me. It is natural that you 
 should feel offended at such a marriage, but 
 the knot is tied, and" there is no untying it. 
 All I ask is that you will give her a fair trial, 
 that you will let her prove to you that in
 
 26 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 spite of her origin she has the manners and 
 feelings of a lady.' 
 
 ' And now, sir, you shall hear my answer 
 to this request,' said the old gentleman, 
 grimly. ' You have made a fool of yourself, 
 and you must take the consequences. I will 
 not put forth my little finger to save you 
 from them. You can come and see me when 
 you like ; blood is thicker than water, and I 
 don't want to be at daggers-drawn with my 
 own brother's son ; but that wife of yours 
 shall never enter this house, and I will never 
 enter hers. You married Miss Martha 
 Tubbs with your eyes open ; I wish you joy 
 of your bargain.' 
 
 So resolute was the old man's manner, that 
 Gabriel saw it was useless to supplicate his 
 good offices any further. 
 
 ' Then I suppose I must wish you good 
 morning, sir.' 
 
 1 Good morning,' replied the uncle, grimly ; 
 then, as his nephew extended his hand, he 
 added, in a softer tone, ' I tell you, Gabriel, 
 that your idiotic conduct has pained me as I 
 have not been pained for years. I would 
 have given ten thousand to have got you out
 
 - Getting into Society. 2 7 
 
 of the mess while it was possible. If you 
 had not been so precipitate a fool, I am 
 pretty sure I should have managed to get 
 you out of it. You have ruined your future, 
 and dishonoured your father's memory.' 
 
 Gabriel did not venture to contradict the 
 old gentleman, but took his leave, and drove 
 to the residence of his cousin Caroline, who 
 had not long been married to Sir Francis 
 Grahame, a rich baronet. He was in hopes 
 that he might succeed better in this quarter, 
 for he and his cousin had been brought up 
 together as children, and had for each other 
 a more than ordinary cousinly affection. 
 
 But Lady Grahame was as obstinate as his 
 more plain-spoken uncle. She flatly refused 
 to take up his wife. 
 
 ' Had she been a poor gentlewoman, 
 Gabriel, I would have done my best for 
 her ; but to receive as my guest a girl who 
 has stood behind a shop counter, never! 
 Had I the will, I have not the power to ac- 
 complish what you wish ; did I give her the 
 entrde here, she would never get friends. 
 Her youth and her good looks are her 
 greatest obstacles ; they will only attract the
 
 28 The Queen of Two Worlds, 
 
 attention which is fatal. If you were both 
 twice as old as you are, and had a daughter 
 who could take the lead in your household, 
 you might contrive to get her invited in 
 return for your own dinners. But in the 
 present condition of things, it is impossible. 
 Society will never open its doors to your 
 wife. If you try hard you may get around 
 you a set ; but of what creatures will it be 
 composed ? Of women of doubtful and un- 
 defined position ; mere hangers-on of our 
 world. Men you may get to visit you, par- 
 ticularly as Mrs. Vanstone is handsome, but 
 women never, except of the class I have just 
 described.' 
 
 Gabriel looked perplexed. His cousin 
 argued the matter so calmly, and yet with 
 such iron logic, that he knew not how to 
 refute her. He began to see very clearly 
 that his ambitious Martha would never get 
 a foothold in the unreachable world of good 
 society. 
 
 ■ If your wife has married you on specula- 
 tion, I fear she will be grievously disap- 
 pointed,' added Lady Grahame, with a cold 
 smile. Then she cried with a sudden im-
 
 Getting into Society. 2 9 
 
 petuosity, ' Good heavens ! Gabriel, were 
 you mad when you took this foolish 
 step ?' 
 
 ' I was very much in love/ replied her 
 cousin, simply. 
 
 'Are you as much in love now, may 
 I ask ? ' 
 
 ' I think so,' replied the young man, with 
 an awkward smile. 
 
 Lady Grahame tossed her head, and 
 looked at him with a kind of contemptuous 
 pity in her glance. ' I can predict that you 
 will not be so much in love this time next 
 year. I know enough of human nature to 
 prophesy that your wife will be a rose so 
 long as there seems a chance of gratifying 
 her ambitious views ; a thorn when she sees 
 that chance melt away. Poor, weak, silly 
 Gabriel, I didn't think your enemies could 
 wish you a greater punishment than you will 
 bring on yourself. As if I could not have 
 found you a nice girl to-morrow if it was 
 imperative that you should fall in love.' 
 
 Gabriel Vanstone rose. ' You might give 
 her a trial, Caroline.' 
 
 Lady Grahame shook her head obstinately.
 
 30 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 ' No, my foolish cousin, one must draw the 
 line somewhere — I draw it at the shop- 
 counter. And I have already explained to 
 you the uselessness of my inviting her here. 
 Your future programme must be this : — you 
 visit your relatives, and keep up your old 
 club sets, while your wife is making belief 
 that she is somebody among the shady circle 
 she will get around her. I don't wish to be 
 more offensive than I can help, Gabriel, but 
 it is necessary to state plain facts plainly.' 
 
 1 I will say good morning,' said her cousin, 
 stiffly extending his hand. 
 
 1 Good morning,' repeated Lady Grahame, 
 mimicking his tone. ' Do not forget, Gabriel, 
 that your family have a just right to feel 
 offended by this marriage. A man is bound 
 to fulfil his duties towards his family before 
 he consults his own inclinations. I shall 
 always be pleased to see you here, just as in 
 the old days.' 
 
 So the young husband had to return home, 
 and communicate his failures to expectant 
 Martha. As might be expected, it proved 
 a crushing blow to her ; with their help an 
 entrance into society would have been easy
 
 Getting into Society. 3 1 
 
 enough, she said to herself, but without their 
 help the task seemed to grow into a difficult 
 one. She shed some natural tears, for she 
 felt that she was not being treated fairly ; 
 that these insolent people, who refused to 
 open their doors to her, knew positively 
 nothing of her merits and qualifications. 
 For all they knew to the contrary, she might 
 have the wit and genius of a De Stael : they 
 rejected her simply on the narrow ground of 
 being a linen-draper's daughter. 
 
 That she was a girl of courage and resolu- 
 tion was proved by the fact that, after the 
 shedding of these few tears of wounded 
 vanity and disappointment, the insolence of 
 her husband's relatives awoke a spirit of 
 defiance. They despised her — she would 
 despise them. 
 
 ' We will do without their invitations, 
 Gabriel,' she cried, with flashing eyes. 
 1 Since I cannot get into the society I 
 want, I will make a society for myself. 
 There must be some people who will be glad 
 to eat our luncheons and dinners ; they may 
 not be of the best kind, but they will be 
 better than nobody. As papa used to say,
 
 32 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 " What are the odds so long as you are 
 happy." ' 
 
 This was a colloquial vulgarism for which, 
 in her maiden days, Martha Tubbs had often 
 rebuked her parent, but in her present turbu- 
 lent and defiant mood she took rather a keen 
 delight in casting off for a moment these 
 shackles of gentility that might prove more 
 galling than she expected. 
 
 So Mrs. Vanstone set dauntlessly to work 
 to gather round her a little circle of friends 
 and acquaintances, who would forgive her 
 her lack of illustrious origin for the sake of 
 her good dinners. This sort of thing is 
 being attempted daily by hundreds of plea- 
 sure-loving matrons with about much the 
 same results as attended her effort. Gabriel 
 brought home some jovial card-playing young 
 gentlemen from his various clubs, who gene- 
 rally contrived to win their host's money, and 
 paid for a hospitality thus ; they did not return 
 otherwise than in the small coin of conversa- 
 tion and sedulous attention to their hostess. 
 These pleasant-mannered fellows had a large 
 acquaintance amongst a peculiar portion of 
 female society — that portion which comprises
 
 Getting into Society. 33 
 
 women who live poorly and dress well, who 
 can always pay for a bonnet, but find great 
 difficulty in meeting the demands of the 
 butcher ; women who never have any settled 
 habitation, but flit about from capital to 
 capital with their husbands and are at 
 home everywhere, and are a kind of upper 
 class Bohemians. 
 
 By one of these fair and worldly creatures 
 was the young wife especially patronised, and 
 as she was a sort of leader among her little 
 world, she soon brought others. This lady 
 was the wife of a Captain Polling, a poor 
 officer, with whom she had run away from her 
 father's parsonage. Bright, handsome, clever 
 and vivacious, Mrs. Polling was glad to make 
 the acquaintance of a woman who had plenty 
 of money, could take her out in her carriage, 
 and give her good dinners. To a critical 
 judge, there was in this agreeable person's 
 manners a strong dash of Bohemianism that 
 might have been more repellant than attrac- 
 tive, but poor Mrs. Vanstone, ignorant of the 
 great world, thought her a model of fashion- 
 able deportment, and copied her so far as 
 she could. In many instances, the young 
 vol. 1. c
 
 34 • The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 housekeeper found her friend's experience 
 and judgment of eminent use to her. When 
 she gave her dinners, it was Mrs. Polling 
 who superintended the arrangement of the 
 menu, and instructed her in the various 
 small details of etiquette which are so puzzl- 
 ing to the social novice. It was Mrs. Polling 
 who accompanied her to the dressmaker and 
 milliner, and advised her on the difficult 
 matter of colour and style. 
 
 On the whole, Mrs. Vanstone was not un- 
 happy. It is true she had sense enough 
 to perceive that these people were mere 
 hangers-on to the skirts of the society she 
 had dreamed of entering ; it is true that 
 she could not yet boast of having enter- 
 tained, or of having been entertained, by a 
 lady of title. But still they were pleasant 
 enough, they dressed well, they mingled 
 enough at intervals with the world above 
 them to catch something of its tone and 
 flavour ; they knew the latest fashionable 
 intelligence, the last fashionable scandal : 
 to whom Lord D — ■ had proposed, whom 
 the daughter of Lord E — had accepted. 
 If she could not entertain the planets, she
 
 Getting into Society. 35 
 
 must be content with the satellites. It 
 would have been pleasanter if her friends 
 had possessed a little more wealth ; could 
 have paid their visits in their own carriages, 
 instead of in hired vehicles or on foot ; but 
 you cannot have everything. One thing 
 was very certain, this life was better than 
 any that Slocombe could have offered her. 
 
 As for Gabriel Vanstone, he was also well 
 contented. Awkward and shy, he did not care 
 much for the society of fashionable women, 
 and felt more at home among these well- 
 bred Bohemians whose manners had neither 
 coldness nor hauteur, and in spite of occa- 
 sional displays of temper on Mrs. Vanstone's 
 part, and a few unjustifiable acts of domestic 
 tyranny, he was still devotedly attached to 
 his wife, and far from repenting the step he 
 had taken.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A RASH BET. 
 
 S they could not remain in London 
 when their more fashionable 
 neighbours had left it, and as 
 none of their acquaintance had 
 country houses to invite them to, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Vanstone passed the autumn and winter on 
 the Continent. And to her credit it must be 
 stated that Martha did not forget the humble 
 home at Slocombe : from Rome, Naples, 
 Geneva, wherever, in fact, the newly-married 
 couple pitched their tent, she despatched 
 lengthy epistles to her father and sisters 
 descriptive of the present place of abode, 
 and detailing the various incidents of her 
 new life. It is almost needless to say that 
 these letters were a great event in the small
 
 A Rash Bet. 37 
 
 Slocombe circle, that their coming was 
 eagerly expected, and their contents com- 
 municated to an admiring and awe-stricken 
 band of friends and acquaintances, who 
 had known the fair writer in the days of 
 her youth before her sudden elevation to 
 greatness. 
 
 They came back to London about the 
 middle of March, having secured for the 
 season the furnished house which they had 
 occupied last year. Mrs. Vanstone was 
 pleased to return to the metropolis, pleased 
 to renew her festivities, her visits to the 
 Opera and theatres, her drives in the Park, 
 her elegant little dinners, her hundred-and- 
 one pleasant occupations. Her husband 
 shared her delight, since he had his own 
 reasons for preferring London to the capitals 
 of the Continent — he was fond of the society 
 of his clubs, and when he was away from it, 
 felt like a fish out of water. 
 
 A constant succession of small dinners 
 (Mrs. Vanstone never entertained more than 
 eight at a time) and other amusements soon 
 made the time fly, and brought them within 
 three weeks of the Derby.
 
 38 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 * How I detest this race-time ! ' cried the 
 vivacious Mrs. Polling as she sat in her 
 friend's drawing-room after one of those 
 dinners, in giving which Mrs. Vanstone 
 took so keen a delight. ' There's a kind 
 of Derby fever in the air— men can talk 
 of nothing but odds, favourites, trials, gal- 
 lops — a perfect jargon of the stable.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone smiled, but said nothing. 
 In spite of her confidence in her own 
 powers, her knowledge of her humble ante- 
 cedents weighed upon her somewhat heavily 
 in the presence of worldly creatures like the 
 officer's dashing wife, and she allowed her 
 guests to do most of the talking. 
 
 ' I can put you up to a good thing, Mrs. 
 Polling,' said a young man named Melton, 
 who was standing near her. 
 
 1 Just listen to the execrable slang ; " put 
 me up to a good thing," ' laughed the lady. 
 'Well, Mr. Melton, what is the good thing 
 you are so kind as to wish to recommend 
 me. Can I make my fortune ? ■ 
 
 ' That depends on how much you risk. 
 The horse to back is Suzerain ; you can 
 now get fifty to one against him.'
 
 A Rash Bet. 
 
 39 
 
 ' But is he certain to win ? ' asked Mrs. 
 Polling, mockingly. 
 
 1 Nobody can say that ; but I hear from 
 good authority that — ' 
 
 1 I am much obliged to you for your ad- 
 vice, Mr. Melton/ interrupted the lively 
 lady. ' But I am not rich enough to bet. 
 The only event on which I ever do venture 
 anything is the University boat-race : my 
 wager then takes the form of gloves, and if 
 I lose I don't pay.' 
 
 1 What has Melton been recommending 
 you for the Derby ? ' asked Captain Polling 
 sauntering up to the two ladies. 
 
 ' A creature rejoicing in the name of 
 Suzerain, against whom we can get fifty 
 to one,' replied his wife laughing. 
 
 1 What in the name of wonder makes 
 you imagine such a brute as that has got 
 a chance, Melton ? ' 
 
 1 I have my information from very good 
 authority,' said Mr. Melton, with an im- 
 portant air. 
 
 ' Well, I never bet on races, but if I did, I 
 should back Belisarius, Turnpike, or Warrior. 
 Vanstone, have you made a book ? '
 
 4-0 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 This question was addressed to the host, 
 who was just passing them ; he stopped, 
 and catching his wife's eye, looked a little 
 confused. 
 
 ' It's hardly worth calling a book ; I just 
 back one or two for a nominal sum.' 
 
 But Mrs. Vanstone did not like that look 
 of confusion, and when the guests were 
 gone, she said to him in a serious tone, 
 — ' Gabriel, I do hope that you have never 
 been addicted to betting and gambling, or 
 that, if you have been, you will give them 
 up at once.' 
 
 ' My dear Martha, don't be so silly. Do 
 you think I am such a fool as to risk more 
 than I can lose without inconvenience.' 
 
 ' You are not rich enough to afford to 
 lose anything,' replied Martha, with some 
 asperity. ' You lose at dcartd in this house 
 more than you ought, but I look upon that 
 as a kind of tax one has to pay people for 
 coming ; but there is no need to throw 
 money away out of the house.' It will be 
 seen from these pungent remarks that Mrs. 
 Vanstone had plenty of that useful ingredi- 
 ent, common sense, in her composition, and
 
 A Rash Bet. 41 
 
 rated the friendship of her guests at its 
 proper value. She had also a holy horror 
 of betting, the result of a certain episode 
 in her own family history. Her uncle, 
 Thomas Tubbs, a genial fellow, following 
 the profession of a commercial traveller, 
 had long ago brought his wife and children 
 to the verge of starvation through too great 
 a fondness for backing his fancy. Chiefly 
 through the pious exhortations of his brother, 
 he had been at length reclaimed, and now 
 fled the race-course as he would a viper ; 
 but Martha had never forgotten the spectacle 
 of that once wretched home. 
 
 She did not know that she had united 
 herself to a man with the same fatal ten- 
 dency. Gambling and betting were Gabriel 
 Vanstone's two great and criminal weak- 
 nesses, and by them he had considerably 
 impaired his fortune before he met his wife. 
 He had not even confined himself to cards 
 and racing, but had speculated also on the 
 Stock Exchange. Ill-luck followed him 
 everywhere ; the horses he backed never 
 won, and he universally got bad cards. 
 When he bulled, some sudden and unfore-
 
 42 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 seen Continental complication was sure to 
 send his stocks down ; when he beared, 
 some equally unforeseen complication sent 
 them up. Every year did he resolve that 
 he would never bet, speculate, or touch a 
 card again, except for mere nominal amounts, 
 and every year found him with a fresh deficit 
 in his capital. 
 
 He unfortunately mixed with two sets of 
 men — a poor set and a rich set. The poor 
 set comprised fellows like Polling, who were 
 gentlemen by birth and education, and con- 
 trived to live Heaven knows how ; the 
 rich set contained men like Melton, who 
 had inherited from their relatives large 
 fortunes, or were able to raise plenty of 
 present cash on the strength of their ex- 
 pectations. 
 
 Had none of his friends won more from 
 him than Polling, he would have been able 
 to stand the racket, but when removed 
 from the watchful eye of his wife, Gabriel 
 played with the rich set for high stakes, 
 and generally lost. When he had returned 
 to London this season, he had made a 
 vow that he would never play again at
 
 A Rash Bet. 43 
 
 cards for stakes beyond a certain moderate 
 amount. This resolve he had managed to 
 keep ; but on the other hand he had made 
 a very foolish book on the Derby. 
 
 The night before the great festival, he 
 conned over his bets with a grave face. 
 There were several rash transactions, but 
 the one that annoyed him most was one 
 with his friend Melton. Discussing the 
 merits of Suzerain one night, Melton had 
 offered to take fifty to one in thousands, 
 and in the heat of the moment Vanstone 
 had laid it.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RUINED ! 
 
 T was evidently going to be a 
 splendid day. The morning sun 
 had risen slowly and majestically 
 in a sky of faultless blue, and 
 there was just enough breeze to comfortably 
 temper the heat to those enthusiastic wor- 
 shippers of our national sport who were 
 going to take the road. Mr. Gabriel Van- 
 stone glanced out of his dressing-room 
 window with an air of satisfaction. 
 
 Of all festivals, the Derby stood first 
 in his estimation, and the splendid weather 
 gave the one thing necessary to complete 
 enjoyment. Having finished his toilet, he 
 went into the bedroom to take leave of 
 his wife.
 
 Ruined! 45 
 
 ' Good-bye, my dear.' He stooped and 
 kissed her affectionately. 
 
 ' Good-bye, Gabriel,' said the wife plea- 
 santly, then she added ; ' you are quite sure 
 that you don't stand to lose much ? ' 
 
 'Only a hundred or two at the worst/ 
 replied Mr. Vanstone glibly, although his 
 heart beat a little as he uttered the lie. 
 Putting the bets against Suzerian out of the 
 question, he had backed other horses to the 
 extent of five thousand pounds, and unless 
 one of these won, he would have to pay this 
 sum on settling day. It was natural, there- 
 fore, that he should feel a little qualmish at 
 his wife's question ; he felt that he had made 
 a very foolish book this year, and inwardly 
 resolved to be more careful when the next 
 Derby came round. 
 
 ' You must keep yourself very quiet,' he 
 said as he left her. She was near her 
 accouchment, and Gabriel Vanstone looked 
 forward with great joy to the prospect of 
 a son and heir. 
 
 A couple of hours afterwards the young 
 husband was seated on the drag of his friend 
 Captain Carter, bowling along that famous
 
 4.6 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 and dusty road, every inch of which has been 
 described by countless pens. 
 
 ' Have you heard anything about Suzerain ?' 
 asked Vanstone in the course of conversation 
 — a conversation that, as a matter of course, 
 ran upon nothing else than horses, and the 
 doings of past Derbies. 
 
 ' Who wants to hear anything about him?' 
 replied Captain Carter, a good-looking young 
 guardsman, who was ruining himself as fast 
 as he could. 'He's a rank outsider ; you 
 don't mean to say you have got anything on 
 him ? I hope not, for your own sake.' 
 
 1 But I have got something against him, 
 laid when he was fifty to one, and the last 
 odds were forty. I ought to hedge/ 
 
 ' Hardly worth the trouble, I think,' replied 
 Carter, carelessly. ' How much do you want 
 to put on him ? ' 
 
 ' A thousand or more if I can ; for if 
 I only put the same that has been given 
 me, the difference in the odds would make 
 ten thousand.' 
 
 ' But, my dear fellow, Suzerain hasn't 
 a chance, I tell you/ 
 
 ' I don't say he has, but discretion is the
 
 Ruined! 47 
 
 better part of valour/ replied Vanstone, who 
 was thinking of what his Martha would say 
 if she knew that he ran even the slightest 
 risk of losing fifteen thousand pounds. 
 
 ' You must do it with the bookmakers ; 
 Gregg is as good as anybody,' said the 
 captain, as they came in sight of the famous 
 Downs, crowded with its expectant thou- 
 sands. 
 
 If not for the sake of the brief race, the 
 Derby is at least worth going to for the sake 
 of seeing the various types of humanity that 
 are congregated on that one spot of ground. 
 For some hours at least pleasure reigns 
 triumphant ; it shines on the face of the 
 noisy and somewhat too hilarious coster- 
 monger as he sits in that ricketty little cart, 
 which is to him what a drag is to a noble- 
 man — it finds its representatives in those 
 ubiquitous darkies, who sing their liveliest 
 airs, and play their loudest, in the full know- 
 ledge that on a festive occasion like the pre- 
 sent coppers are bound to flow in abundantly 
 — it sparkles in the eyes of that youth who 
 has driven down with his sweetheart in a 
 hansom cab, and is as proud of his white
 
 48 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 hat and green veil as a duke might be 
 of a star and garter ; honest delight, too, 
 beams on the countenance of that same 
 sweetheart, a pretty, smartly-dressed girl, 
 with a tasty bonnet built by her own deft 
 fingers, for she looks as if she were in the 
 millinery line of business — for is she not 
 seeing life in a mighty and pleasant fashion, 
 and could she not fill three volumes with 
 a description of all she sees on that teeming 
 heath in the course of this too brief day. 
 Even those blase, over-dressed, deeply- 
 rouged ladies who laugh very loudly, and 
 perpetually quaff champagne, on the top of 
 that drag yonder, seem to be gay for once 
 with a gaiety that comes straight from the 
 heart. A motley, incongruous group, met 
 together for a few hours, and for a few 
 hours united by the same sympathies. Ere 
 night closes in, the vast heath will be as 
 silent and deserted as a wilderness : the 
 prince will have gone back to his palace, the 
 noble to his mansion, the costermonger to 
 his alley, the beggar to his den. The hopes 
 and fears that have swayed by turns thou- 
 sands of hearts during the last few weeks
 
 Ruined! 49 
 
 will have been ended by the rush of the 
 winner past the judge's box. Thousands 
 will have changed hands ; while the winners 
 bless and the losers curse the Derby of the 
 year. 
 
 1 What against Suzerain ? ' says Gabriel 
 Vanstone to Gregg, the bookmaker, a burly, 
 red - faced man, whom people remember 
 twenty years ago as a billiard-marker at 
 one of the West-end clubs. Mr. Gregg is 
 supposed to be the richest man of his class 
 now. 
 
 1 Forty to one ! ' answers the Leviathan, 
 with a smile. He knows Gabriel Vanstone 
 well, and has done business with him before. 
 In another moment the two men have 
 settled their little transaction, and Gabriel 
 goes back to the grand stand with a com- 
 paratively light heart. It is true that if 
 by any chance Suzerain should win, he 
 will lose fifteen thousand pounds, that is, 
 a quarter of his whole capital ; but what is 
 that loss compared to the prospect of fifty 
 thousand being swept away. 
 
 ' Did you find Gregg friendly ? ' asks 
 his friend Captain Carker, looking up from 
 vol. 1. D
 
 50 The Queen of Two Woidds. 
 
 his note-book, in which he has been making 
 some extensive calculations. It may be 
 mentioned en passant that the gallant 
 captain has never been known to win on 
 any race yet. 
 
 'All right, I've hedged pretty well,' 
 answers Gabriel, cheerfully. But as he 
 speaks, conscience whispers to him that 
 he has been acting very foolishly and culp- 
 ably in staking his money on the speed of 
 these four-legged creatures. He is not now 
 a single man without ties, with nobody's 
 future but his own to think about. In the 
 words of a philosopher with whom he is but 
 little acquainted, he has given hostages to 
 fortune ; and in imitating the reckless ex- 
 ample of Carker and fools of the same 
 class, he is squandering the patrimony of 
 his child. He has staked on three horses, 
 Belisarius, Turnpike, Warrior, and hedged 
 on Suzerain. Reckoning up his chances, 
 he finds that he stands thus, — if Belisarius 
 wins, he makes seven thousand ; if Turn- 
 pike wins, he loses two thousand ; if Warrior 
 wins, he makes a thousand ; if Suzerain wins, 
 he loses fifteen thousand ; if none of these
 
 Ruined ! 51 
 
 win, he loses five thousand. Two chances 
 of winning against three of losing, — not an 
 encouraging prospect. As he thinks over 
 all this, he says to himself, ' I'm as big a 
 fool as ever lived/ It is a pity that his 
 uncle was not there to overhear this muttered 
 remark, for the old gentleman would have 
 endorsed it with the greatest heartiness. 
 
 •Awful bad luck I've had in my bets 
 this year,' says Captain Carker, when he 
 has finished his little sum. 'At the worst 
 I lose twenty thousand ; at the best I must 
 lose two.' 
 
 ' I'm rather better than that,' says Gabriel 
 ' I do stand two chances of winning, and 
 the biggest loss is fifteen thousand.' 
 
 * I should be glad to exchange liabilities,' 
 answers the captain, with a smile. He has 
 inherited an immense fortune from his aunt, 
 a rich ironmaster's widow, and will be able 
 to go on losing like this for a few years 
 yet ere he is finally ruined. 
 
 Hark, there goes the bell. The vast 
 crowd is slowly being driven off the course, 
 — men and women dodge under the railings 
 and appear close on the other side, striving 
 
 "$£■"<*«*"*
 
 52 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 to gain a post of vantage from which they 
 can seet he splendid rush of those magni- 
 ficent creatures, on whose power, strength, 
 and speed and endurance vast fortunes 
 hang. It is an anxious moment — the lull 
 before the storm. The wandering minstrel 
 hushes his song, for he knows that every- 
 body is too interested in the coming race 
 to think of flinging him anything. Even 
 the beggar drops his piteous whine, and 
 glances at the glossy horses and the slender 
 jockeys, with as much interest as if he had 
 a thousand on the event. 
 
 Thousands of eyes are bent upon them 
 as they take their preliminary canters past 
 the anxious gaze of the spectators. Turn- 
 pike shows last, piloted by the crack jockey 
 of the day, and Gabriel Vanstone turns a 
 little pale as he hears the unanimous buzz 
 of admiration which greets his appearance. 
 Suzerain keeps in the background, as if con- 
 scious of his inferiority. They walk back 
 again to the starting point, and slowly ar- 
 range themselves in line. Heads are craned 
 round from every point to catch a glimpse of 
 the first rush. The signal is given — there's
 
 Ruined ! 
 
 53 
 
 a roar and then a sudden lull, that tells of a 
 false start. They arrange themselves again 
 •—another anxious moment, and then, to the 
 cry ' They're off ! ' the whole field sweeps 
 away, with Belisarius and Turnpike among 
 the leaders. 
 
 The gaze of every man and woman on 
 that heath is bent now upon the narrow 
 strip of ground along which these swift 
 animals dash like a whirlwind. On they go, 
 — their tiny jockeys crouching in the saddle, 
 their firm and delicate hands guiding and 
 restraining the ardour of their steeds, their 
 keen eyes watching for the first opportunity 
 of getting into a better place. A third of 
 the course has been traversed now, and the 
 three favourites, Belisarius, Turnpike, and 
 Warrior are nearly abreast, just a little 
 behind some stable companions, who have 
 made the running. A few more seconds, 
 and then it seems to all that the real race 
 has begun. Warrior is a noble horse, but 
 he is evidently not equal to the other two. 
 For some seconds, Belisarius and Turnpike 
 draw near the goal, ' neck by neck, stride by 
 stride.' The air resounds with the shouts of
 
 54 The Queen of Two Worlds, 
 
 the respective backers of the two gallant 
 horses who are straggling so desperately for 
 the crown of victory. Then, inch by inch, 
 Turnpike begins to creep ahead of his ex- 
 hausted rival. In vain does the defeated 
 jockey dig his spurs into Belisarius' flanks 
 till they are dyed in blood ; in vain does the 
 sharp, stinging stroke of the whip fall 
 heavily upon him. They are close to the 
 fatal corner, and it is pretty clear that Beli- 
 sarius, good horse as he may be, is beaten. 
 
 So keen has the struggle been between 
 the two favourites, that the spectators have 
 hardly cast a glance at the field toiling in 
 their rear. But as they near that crucial 
 corner, a horse whose colours are unfamiliar 
 to most, creeps out of the compact mass, and 
 takes up his position on the left of Belisarius. 
 People turn on each other a questioning 
 gaze, that asks who is this new comer, and 
 then the air resounds with a hoarse murmur 
 of ' Suzerain,' forty to one against whom 
 has been laid freely at the post. To Gabriel 
 Vanstone those colours are known well 
 enough. 
 
 'Just my luck; that brute will win/ he
 
 Ruined ! 
 
 55 
 
 says, with an oath, as the glass shakes in 
 his trembling hand. 
 
 1 Nonsense,' exclaims the contemptuous 
 Carker. ' He may beat Belisarius, but he'll 
 never get near Turnpike. Make your mind 
 easy.' 
 
 For a few seconds there is a peculiar lull 
 among the spectators, who see clearly enough 
 that the advent of this rank outsider looks 
 like mischief. Then, as the dark horse 
 creeps past the exhausted Belisarius and 
 draws up by the side of Turnpike, whose 
 jockey is doing all he knows to save him 
 from this unsuspected danger, the Babel 
 bursts forth again, and the name of the new 
 rival divides the air with that of the favourite. 
 
 There is not a hand's length between the 
 two now, and the goal is terribly close. 
 Turnpike's jockey makes one supreme effort, 
 and succeeds in widening the distance for a 
 second ; but that effort is his last. The 
 gallant favourite can do no more. The 
 spurs are buried in Suzerain's flanks, the 
 whip falls twice on his shoulder, and with 
 the rush of an avalanche, the dark outsider 
 sweeps past the judge's box, the winner
 
 56 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 of one of the most sensational Derbys on 
 record. 
 
 ' I may thank my stars I hedged,' says 
 Gabriel Vanstone, as he turns away, pale 
 and disgusted, from the spectacle which has 
 cost him fifteen thousand pounds. 
 
 ' Deuced quiet they've kept him,' remarked 
 Captain Carker, who was as much suprised 
 at the event as everybody else. ' It was 
 Melton who took the bet, was it not ? You 
 may depend upon it that fellow was in the 
 secret.' 
 
 ' I'll never make or take another bet as 
 long as I live,' cried Gabriel. 
 
 1 My dear fellow, I make that resolution at 
 the end of every Derby, but next year I've got 
 as bad a book as ever,' said Carker, laughing. 
 
 Owing to the blocked state of the road, 
 and the consumption of a pretty good 
 amount of champagne at Carker's house, 
 Gabriel Vanstone did not get back to his 
 own home until nearly four o'clock in the 
 morning. Great was his suprise to learn that 
 his wife's accouchement had already begun, 
 and that the doctor was in attendance. 
 
 He was more than slightly flustered by
 
 Ruined ! 
 
 57 
 
 the champagne, but this intelligence sobered 
 him directly, and he enquired anxiously as 
 to her state. The housekeeper, who had 
 opened the door to him, shook her head 
 gravely at this question, and said that the 
 doctor should come and see him as soon as 
 he could. In a few moments he came down 
 to Gabriel, and informed him that Mrs. 
 Vanstone was still in considerable danger. 
 
 The young husband was terribly moved. 
 His wife was still little less dear to him than 
 on the day when she had stolen quietly out 
 of her father's house to marry him, and the 
 thought of losing her in this way was 
 unendurable. The doctor, a kind, grave 
 man, did his best to soothe his fears, and 
 gave him what hope he could. 
 
 The anxious hours sped on, and still there 
 was no certain intelligence. Gabriel Vanstone 
 paced up and down the library in his intense 
 anxiety. In this new and terrible trouble, the 
 loss of his fifteen thousand was forgotten. 
 
 The butler entered the room noiselessly, 
 and put the morning paper on the table. 
 When he had gone, Gabriel took it up with 
 the listless air of a man who is hardly
 
 58 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 conscious of his actions, and glanced absently 
 at the heading containing the principal 
 items of news. Suddenly his eye lighted 
 on a paragraph, whose terrible meaning 
 flashed straight into his brain, bewildered as 
 it was by this recent trouble. 
 
 * As we go to press, we learn that Mr. 
 Gregg, the well-known bookmaker, committed 
 suicide at a late hour last night, after his 
 return from Epsom. It is said that he was 
 driven to the rash act by his inability to 
 meet the heavy losses he had sustained by 
 the defeat of the favourite.' 
 
 The paper dropped from his hand, and 
 he staggered wildly to the door, which was 
 partially open, his face white as death, the 
 beads of perspiration thick upon his fore- 
 head. And at that moment the wail of a 
 new-born infant smote upon his ear. 
 
 1 My God, my God !' he cried in his 
 agony ; ' my folly has made my wife and 
 child beggars.' 
 
 And, under these conditions, under a roof 
 on which ruin had thus suddenly descended, 
 did Helen Vanstone, the heroine of this 
 story, make her entrance into the world.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE VANSTONE HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 N our last chapter, the Vanstone 
 family were residing in the aris- 
 tocratic neighbourhood of May- 
 fair. We must now skip a 
 period of some eighteen years, and come 
 to the moment when we find them located in 
 a less distinguished quarter, Regent's Park. 
 
 There are many faded-looking and dingy 
 streets in this part of the metropolis, and 
 Thomas Street was about as dingy and 
 faded-looking as any of them. The houses 
 were of the usual forty and fifty pounds a- 
 year type, that is to say, plain and unadorned 
 to the point of repulsiveness. To this 
 charming retreat had the Vanstones moved 
 after their loss of fortune ; their income was
 
 60 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 certainly miserably small, but it would not 
 have been difficult to choose a more cheerful 
 spot. Mrs. Vanstone, however, who was 
 disposed to take even the smallest troubles 
 in a tragical spirit, had made up her mind, 
 after the first inspection, that the gentle 
 melancholy of Thomas Street was in har- 
 mony with their own sombre fortunes. Mr. 
 Vanstone, who added meekness to foolish- 
 ness, offered no opposition to his wife's 
 mournful sense of propriety, and to Thomas 
 Street they moved. Nobody who was not 
 well acquainted with Mrs. Vanstone's 
 character, could realise the grim satisfaction 
 that she took in glancing disdainfully down 
 the street which she had herself chosen, and 
 muttering wrathfully, — ' Gracious Heaven ! 
 to imagine that I should be forced to pass 
 my life in a hole like this ! ' 
 
 The surroundings were to her discontent 
 what the wind is to fire. Did she feel it 
 slacken for a moment, she had only to go 
 to the windows of her small drawing-room, 
 and look opposite, to fan it into its pristine 
 strength. Often and often of late years had 
 her husband mildly urged their removal into
 
 The Veinstone Household. 6 1 
 
 a newer and more cheerful neighbourhood. 
 Her invariable response had been — ' What 
 does it matter where we live now ? this 
 place is favourable to the obscurity to which 
 your criminal folly has condemned us.' To 
 have taken her forcibly from Thomas Street, 
 would have been to deprive her of her most 
 cherished grievance : she was too cunning to 
 deny herself so sweet a subject of complaint. 
 
 Yet if she was shrewish and disagreeable, 
 some allowance must be made for her. She 
 had early resolved to turn her beauty to 
 good account, and this was the outcome 
 of her resolution. Nothing exceeds the 
 poignancy of having lost what we once 
 enjoyed, of being driven ruthlessly from the 
 Eden in which we passed so few yet such 
 happy hours. The poor lady would have 
 been more than an angel if she could have 
 forgiven what she justly termed her hus- 
 band's criminal folly, which had reduced her 
 and her child to comparative poverty. 
 
 No stranger, happening to stray incident- 
 ally into the precincts of Thomas Street 
 for the first time, would have been tempted 
 to choose that direction again. Everything
 
 62 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 about the place was so very dingy, wore 
 such an air of sadness, which one felt con- 
 vinced must be in keeping with the fortunes 
 of their owners. The doors were dirty ; 
 not fresh and bright with paint as in houses 
 where the tenants are never behind in their 
 rent, nor callous to the demands of the tax- 
 gatherer ; so were the blinds as a rule ; and 
 even about the muslin curtains, that made a 
 brave appearance in the summer, there was 
 an air of limpness characteristic of the neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 And yet upon this gloomy soil there had 
 sprung up as fair a flower of womanhood 
 as ever the eye of man gazed upon, proving 
 that beauty can flourish with but an illiberal 
 supply of air, light, and sunshine. When 
 Helen Vanstone came out of that dingy- 
 looking house, the effect was such as is pro- 
 duced on seeing a luxuriant tree growing in 
 some city oasis, and overshadowing with its 
 waving foliage the windows of dark rooms 
 in which men toil and labour. The sun- 
 shine that flows for ever from girlish grace 
 and beauty flooded that sombre street as 
 she stepped lightly along it, conscious of her
 
 The Vanstone Household. 6$ 
 
 charms, but half indifferent to, half despising 
 the admiration which they attracted in such 
 a place and from such admirers. 
 
 It will be seen from this trait alone that 
 the girl was both proud and discontented, 
 and not at all inclined to bestow her love 
 upon a man belonging to the class among 
 which her father's follies had placed her. 
 Nor was this discontent unnatural. It had 
 been implanted and fostered in her heart 
 by her mother, who had done her best to 
 teach her to look upon the father as an 
 enemy whom it was impossible to forgive. 
 Certainly Mrs. Vanstone had something to 
 complain of in being reduced at one fell 
 swoop from affluence to comparative poverty. 
 It was true that she had married her hus- 
 band not for love, but as a good speculation ; 
 but what woman in her situation would ever 
 remember this ? All she knew was that 
 she had been prepared to make him a good 
 and faithful wife, and that she had been 
 shamefully ill-used. Even where married 
 people love each other dearly, pecuniary 
 misfortunes often bring shadows between 
 them ; and in cases where there is no love,
 
 64 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 unhappiness is sure to follow. Mrs Van- 
 stone was possessed of a bad temper and a 
 bitter tongue. In the hour when her hus- 
 band had faltered forth the history of their 
 ruin, she sought to control neither. She gave 
 utterance to words which she afterwards 
 owned to herself she regretted ; and for the 
 first time the foolish Gabriel suspected that 
 his wife had married him without a spark of 
 affection. He could have borne patiently, 
 and forgiven what would have been justifi- 
 able indignation, but he could not forgive 
 the insults which she heaped on him in the 
 mere wantonness of passion. He only 
 answered her once, and in those words he 
 buried all the love with which her beauty 
 had ever inspired him. 
 
 ' I am much obliged to you for dropping 
 the veil with so little ceremony, Mrs. Van- 
 stone. I am glad that I have at last learned 
 the state of your feelings when you stood 
 beside me at the altar. The majority of 
 persons would hold that you had been 
 rightly punished.' 
 
 His disgust and indignation at her coarse 
 avowals conquered for the moment his
 
 The Vanstone Household. 65 
 
 habitual awe of her, and with all her con- 
 tempt for him, she quailed beneath his glance 
 as he spoke thus. 
 
 From that hour there was no further 
 attempt at dissimulation on either side. As 
 the Gabriel Vanstone who could have given 
 her dresses and jewels, and maintained her 
 in luxury, she might have tolerated his love, 
 returned his caresses with a certain warmth 
 that came from gratitude. For the Gabriel 
 Vanstone whose criminal folly had brought 
 her and her child to this sordid existence, 
 her feeling was little short of decided aver- 
 sion. 
 
 Where the income is limited, the man has 
 better chances of enjoying himself than the 
 woman. Needless to say that the affable 
 Polling and her satellites fled at the first 
 appearance of disaster, and left the woman 
 who had feasted them so often to weep alone. 
 In justice to Polling, it must be said, that 
 although intensely worldly, she was not 
 much of a hypocrite ; she honestly owned 
 that she could not afford to waste her time 
 with poor people. From year's end to 
 year's end, therefore, poor Mrs. Vanstone 
 vol. 1. e
 
 66 The Qiieen of Two Worlds. 
 
 sat in that gloomy house in Thomas Street, 
 the monotony of her life only relieved now 
 and then by the visit of some companion in 
 misfortune, with whose tears and lamenta- 
 tions over the past she could mingle her own. 
 The husband, as it has been hinted, was 
 better off. For a few guineas a-year he 
 obtained admittance to a second-rate club, 
 which contained some very pleasant fellows. 
 In the company of these choice spirits he 
 passed his evenings. Mrs. Vanstone affected 
 to consider herself neglected, but in her 
 secret heart was glad to get rid of him, and 
 thought his absence cheaply purchased by so 
 small a subscription. 
 
 There are very few women who do not 
 possess the faculty of loving, and although 
 Mrs. Vanstone had many qualities the 
 reverse of amiable, she was not without it. 
 Disappointed in her married life (and how- 
 ever we despise the motives that prompted 
 her to accept her husband, we must own 
 that it was a most crushing disappoint- 
 ment), she turned for consolation to her 
 child. On the graceful little fairy, to whom 
 every year seemed to bring a fresh beauty,
 
 The Veinstone Household. 67 
 
 a fresh charm, she expended all the love 
 of her nature. Peevish and irritable to 
 everybody else, to Helen she was always 
 tender and gentle : when she addressed 
 her, the eye and the voice involuntarily 
 softened. Selfish in ordinary life, there 
 was nothing she would not have deprived 
 herself of to confer a moment's gratification 
 on her child. Helen was the one bit of 
 pure sunshine in her sombre existence. 
 
 And it was no wonder that the mother's 
 heart so twined itself round her, — for 
 although the girl had many faults, some 
 inherent in her nature, some engendered 
 by the conditions of her life, she was affec- 
 tionate and lovinof. There was a certain 
 impetuosity about her which betrayed an 
 impulsive nature, and was a most charming 
 trait. She was not strong . minded nor 
 learned, nor particularly accomplished, but 
 she had a big fund of that valuable quality, 
 common -sense, which enabled her to see 
 clearlv through things that blind half the 
 world. She had a profound contempt for 
 convention, a bitter scorn of rich relatives, 
 and a vocabulary that was furnished with
 
 68 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 a liberal supply of vigorous adjectives. * I 
 am a Bohemian,' she was accustomed to 
 say of herself, with a charming smile, that 
 made her look like a young Hebe. 
 
 But in spite of the hostile conditions of 
 her life, the impress of gentlewoman was 
 stamped upon her ; refinement spoke in 
 every tone, every gesture. If her phrase- 
 ology was at times a little too blunt for 
 the ears of fastidious frequenters of draw- 
 ing-rooms, it proceeded from such beauti- 
 ful lips, it was expressed in accents so 
 musical, that you forgot to find fault, — you 
 were ready to own that a phrase is not 
 the same in one mouth as in another. 
 She had grand dark eyes that looked at 
 you frankly and fearlessly ; dark brown 
 hair clustering round a forehead smooth 
 and white as marble ; a mouth perfect in 
 shape, and enhanced by brilliant teeth ; a 
 tall and slender figure. 
 
 Only once had this peerless girl mingled 
 in the society she was fitted to adorn with 
 her grace and beauty. This was at a ball 
 given by her fathers cousin, Lady Grahame, 
 who had condescended to take occasional
 
 The Vanstone Household. 69 
 
 notice of them in their poverty ; and seeing 
 that Helen was as beautiful a girl as any 
 that frequented her saloons, had been 
 gracious enough to invite her. Need it 
 be said that the day on which she received 
 that invitation was one marked with white 
 in her calendar ? Delicious visions rose 
 before her ardent and longing gaze. She 
 would be able to mix among the great 
 world for which she had so fervent an 
 admiration : some handsome young hero of 
 the Byronic and romantic type would lose 
 his heart to her, and lay his fortune at 
 her feet. 
 
 The inefficiency of her wardrobe was 
 certainly a painful fact, for she possessed 
 that exquisite sensitiveness which often 
 anticipates misery, and felt sure that her 
 poverty would be apparent to the eyes of 
 all. But at seventeen, hope springs eternal 
 in the human breast, and when the hour 
 of setting out arrived, Helen forgot the 
 meagreness of her attire, in expectation of 
 the delicious novelties in store for her. 
 How her young eyes sparkled and her 
 young heart throbbed as she entered the
 
 jo The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 rooms, and mingled in the crowd of richly- 
 apparelled guests. She was not a shy or 
 a timid girl ; but for the first few moments 
 her father felt her hand tremble as it 
 nestled on his arm. It was all so different 
 from what . she had been used to. She 
 fancied that even the language of these 
 aristocratic looking men and women must 
 be different from that of her ordinary 
 associates. 
 
 Lady Grahame spoke a few kind words 
 to her, and found her a partner for the next 
 dance. A woman of the world, and not 
 bad-hearted, she was touched by the girl's 
 beauty and embarrassment, and in her own 
 mind secretly revolved schemes of advanc- 
 ing her fortunes. Helen's partner was a 
 young gentleman fresh from Eton, rather 
 shy and timid, but excessively polite ; and 
 after she had become more used to the scene, 
 her naturalness returned, and she collected 
 her ideas sufficiently to carry on a very 
 lively conversation. So agreeable indeed 
 did she make herself, that the young 
 Etonian went home and dreamed of her. 
 
 Alas ! her happiness was short-lived.
 
 The Vanstojie Household. yi 
 
 This dance over, she ensconced herself in an 
 out-of-the-way corner, and presently over- 
 heard the following conversation between 
 two exquisites who stood near her. 
 
 ist Exqttisite. — 'I hear there's a very 
 pretty girl here, a poor relative of Lady 
 Grahame's. Have you seen her ?' 
 
 2d Exquisite, speaking in a tone of languid 
 interest. — ' No ; but I shall make it my 
 business to do so. I daresay a little atten- 
 tion will go a long way with her. Poor 
 people are always grateful for very slight 
 favours/ 
 
 The girl's blood seemed on fire, as she 
 listened to these decidedly coarse remarks. 
 She was not experienced enough to know 
 that these brainless young men cultivated 
 cynicism because they thought it made them 
 appear men of the world, and would have 
 spoken disparagingly of a Duchess. Her 
 eyes filled with tears, an unpleasant lump 
 rose in her throat, her lips quivered, and, 
 rising swiftly from her seat, she walked 
 into a little deserted ante-room, and burst 
 into a flood of bitter tears. How she hated 
 the ball, the people whom she had so
 
 72 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 admired, — her cousin and everybody con- 
 nected with it ! Never again would she stir 
 out of her own humble home to be the sport 
 and jest of these insolent creatures. 
 
 1 What is the matter ?' asked a voice close 
 beside her. She lifted up her tear-stained 
 face, and beheld Lady Grahame. 
 
 Unfortunately, Helen had inherited a 
 good deal of her mother's temper. She was 
 just at boiling point, now, in that frame of 
 mind in which it is a relief to say bitter 
 things, regardless of justice or consequences. 
 
 * I would rather not stay here any longer, 
 if you please. I have been grossly insulted. 
 You were very kind to invite me, I know, 
 but I was foolish to accept. I am old 
 enough to know that poor people cannot 
 visit rich without loss of their self-respect/ 
 
 Lady Grahame drew herself up stiffly. 
 Perhaps she had mistaken this young girl's 
 character. She remembered that the blood 
 of the Tubbs ran in her veins side by side 
 with that of the Vanstones. 
 
 * I do not understand you, Helen ; be 
 kind enough to explain in what manner you 
 have been insulted, and by whom/
 
 The Vansione Household. y$ 
 
 With flashing eyes and scarlet cheeks, 
 the girl told her story. Lady Grahame's 
 reply was dignified, yet not devoid of 
 graciousness. 
 
 1 1 am very sorry that you should have 
 overheard these rude young men, but your 
 own good sense should tell you not to 
 waste a thought upon what they said. You 
 will oblige me by coming back into the 
 ball-room, and I will find you a partner.' 
 
 It was unfortunate that this last part was 
 spoken in a somewhat peremptory tone. To 
 Helen it savoured both of dictation (another 
 form of insult from the rich to the poor), 
 and want of sympathy, and she hardened 
 directly. It must also be borne in mind 
 that her mother had inoculated her with 
 her own cordial detestation of their wealthy 
 relatives. 
 
 1 I must beg that you will excuse me. I 
 may be foolishly sensitive, but I could not 
 enjoy myself after what I have heard. I 
 would much rather leave at once.' 
 
 Lady Grahame hardened also at this un- 
 conciliatory speech. It was not consistent 
 with ber dignity to argue such a point
 
 74 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 any longer with a foolish and headstrong 
 girl. 
 
 1 As you please : if you stay here I will 
 send your father to you.' 
 
 Mr. Vanstone came to her shortly, look- 
 ing very embarrassed, for his cousin had 
 been quietly cutting in her interview with 
 him. 
 
 1 My dear, you have offended Lady 
 Grahame for life/ 
 
 ' Papa, I don't care a straw if I never 
 see Lady Grahame's face again,' replied 
 Miss Helen emphatically. At that moment 
 she spoke the truth ; all the pride in her 
 nature was aroused. 
 
 She went home, and poured her wrongs 
 into her mother's ears. In her heart, Mrs. 
 Vanstone regretted that the girl had thrown 
 away her chances to gratify a minute's 
 anger, but her hatred of her husband's 
 relatives prompted her to openly approve 
 Helen's spirited course. 
 
 ' Seventeen years ago, Lady Grahame 
 shut her house against me ; to-day, she 
 invites my child in order that she may be 
 insulted. Gracious heaven ! that I should
 
 The Vanstone Household. 
 
 75 
 
 have married into such a family ! ' exclaimed 
 the injured matron with a withering glance 
 at the innocent Mr. Vanstone. 
 
 1 Do not say anything to wound papa. 
 He cannot help his relatives' ill-breeding,' 
 cried Helen quickly. 
 
 1 You do not know, you cannot enter into 
 my feelings, child,' said Mrs. Vanstone, with 
 a severe look ; then after a pause she added, 
 in the tone of one whose cup of bitterness is 
 full, — ' We are the victims of fate ; it is our 
 destiny to lie down and be trampled in the 
 mire. I would to heaven that I had never 
 given birth to a child to inherit my wretched 
 ill-fortune.' 
 
 At another time Helen's sense of humour 
 would have prompted her to smile inwardly 
 at her mother's melodramatic airs and 
 phrases, but at the present moment all this 
 chimed in with her own woe, and before 
 she went to bed she had another good cry, 
 in which exhausting pastime Mrs. Vanstone 
 joined her. 
 
 And that was the end of the ball to 
 which she had looked forward with such 
 eagerness and pleasurable expectation, the
 
 76 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 ball at which she was to meet the Byronic 
 and romantic young hero, who would shower 
 love and riches on her, and lift her for ever 
 out of this sordid existence. Alas for the illu- 
 sions of youth ! the disappointment she had 
 experienced to-night was but a type of the 
 disappointments that wait us through life, 
 stealing the light from our eyes, the hope 
 from our hearts, and peopling the past with 
 bitter and mocking memories. 
 
 She sobbed herself softly to sleep, repeat- 
 ing many times under her breath that she 
 was very miserable, and that life was hard, 
 and cruel, and joyless. A man or woman 
 of the world would have laughed at such 
 trouble ; but she was only a child and cursed 
 with a sensitiveness that made her wound 
 herself more deeply than the hand of others 
 could wound her. In the years to come 
 she learned to look upon this as the lightest 
 grief she had ever known.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ENNUI. 
 
 ADY GRAHAME was a well- 
 meaning, but at the same time 
 haughty, woman with a strong 
 sense of her own dignity. She 
 considered that Helen had acted rudely 
 and petulantly, and that it was her place 
 to apologise. As our heroine could not 
 be brought to this view, friendly relations 
 were in consequence suspended. Lady 
 Grahame occasionally came to Thomas 
 Street to see her cousin, and on these occa- 
 sions Helen generally contrived to be out 
 of the way. 
 
 ' I regret for her own sake that she has 
 not more sense,' remarked the great lady, 
 in discussing the subject with her husband.
 
 J& The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 1 It is evident that although she resembles 
 the Vanstones in appearance, she is a Tubbs 
 by nature/ 
 
 As time rolled on, and the monotony of 
 life in Thomas Street grew daily more irk- 
 some, Helen began to own to herself that 
 she had acted rashly and foolishly in offend- 
 ing her rich relative, since it was only 
 through her intervention that she could 
 obtain an entrance into the bright world 
 for which she so ardently pined. But pride 
 prevented her from making the amende 
 honorable which would have regained Lady 
 Grahame's good-will, and by this obstinacy, 
 she cut off from herself for the present, at 
 least, all chance of seeing good society. 
 
 ' Mamma, dear, I am dreadfully weary of 
 this life,' she said one day to her mother. 
 They had just returned from Regent Street, 
 having indulged in the unwonted luxury 
 of a long day's shopping ; and the sight of 
 the carriages, the fine things in the windows, 
 the gaily-dressed people, had filled the girl 
 with a feeling of discontent not altogether 
 unnatural in one so young, so beautiful, and 
 so fitted by nature for a superior sphere.
 
 nnia. 
 
 79 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone shook her head with a 
 mournful air. 'It is no use repining, my 
 child. We are in the gutter, and in the 
 gutter we shall remain.' When strongly 
 moved, this worthy lady's expressions were 
 more often remarkable for vigour than 
 elegance. 
 
 1 I have been thinking seriously of our 
 situation, and I have an idea,' resumed 
 Helen, after a pause. ' I lead a dreadfully 
 useless life here, and I should like to do 
 something, to turn any talents I may possess 
 to advantage. It is terrible to go about the 
 world as I do with hardly a shilling in my 
 pocket' 
 
 * Helen, I give you all the money I can. 
 If you only knew how I have to manage 
 and pinch — ' 
 
 She interrupted her mother's expostulation 
 by flinging her arms round her neck and 
 kissing her fondly. 
 
 'You are the best, the dearest, the most 
 self-sacrificing of mothers,' she cried grate- 
 fully ; ' but the utmost you can do is very 
 little. Now, would it not be nice if I could 
 earn money for myself, to give you and
 
 80 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 me a few luxuries that we should so ap- 
 preciate.' 
 
 1 What do you propose ? ' asked Mrs. 
 Vanstone doubtfully. 
 
 1 I had an idea of becoming an actress/ 
 replied Helen, in a somewhat faltering voice. 
 
 Her mother started as if she had been 
 shot. ' Good heavens, child, never mention 
 such a thing to me again ! ' she cried fiercely. 
 1 I would rather see you in your coffin than 
 exposing youself to the gaze of every in- 
 solent fool who pays to stare at you.' 
 
 Helen sighed gently. 
 
 1 What do you say to singing ? ' 
 
 ' Very little better,' said Mrs. Vanstone 
 gruffly. ' The idea of a Vanstone becoming 
 a public singer ! ' 
 
 She hated her husband's relatives, but she 
 could not forget that they had aristocratic 
 blood in their veins, and that her daughter 
 had inherited it. 
 
 ' I could change my name,' put in the girl 
 artfully. Mrs Vanstone did not reply, being 
 apparently engaged in pursuing the train of 
 thought conjured up by her daughter's pro- 
 position, and Helen continued, —
 
 Ennui. 8 1 
 
 1 Even if you disliked me to appear in 
 public, I could learn enough to enable me 
 to get a few pupils quietly. There would 
 be no degradation in that, and the money 
 would be a pleasant addition to our income.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone's face wore a dubious look. 
 ' I will think over the matter, my dear, and 
 let you know/ 
 
 But Helen attacked her again the next 
 day ; and before a week was over, so per- 
 suasively had she argued, that her mother 
 was induced to give her consent to her 
 taking lessons with a view to becoming a 
 public singer. 
 
 ' And if I haven't voice enough for that, I 
 can fall back upon the teaching,' urged the 
 girl. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone gave her consent from 
 mixed motives. She saw Helen was terribly 
 tired of her monotonous life, and she thought 
 that taking lessons would at least give her 
 occupation, and distract her thoughts from 
 their sordid circumstances. The next diffi- 
 culty to be encountered was in the choice of 
 a professor. But Helen was prepared with 
 all the details of her scheme, and immedi- 
 
 VOL. L F
 
 82 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 ately named Mr. Mountjoy Smith. Several 
 distinguished artistes had received their 
 preliminary training at the hands of this 
 gentleman. 
 
 Mr. Mountjoy Smith resided in a medium- 
 sized house in the neighbourhood of Blooms- 
 bury. Mother and daughter made their 
 way thither, and requested an interview with 
 the professor. 
 
 He was a fine-looking man, with a noble- 
 shaped head, surmounted by curly hair ; a 
 Roman profile, and a somewhat grand man- 
 ner. He was none of your shabby, sloppy- 
 looking Bohemians, but wore good clothes, 
 showed a large expanse of shirt-front, and 
 arranged his neck-tie with scrupulous 
 neatness. In somewhat hesitating phrase, 
 Helen explained the object of her visit. 
 Mr. Mountjoy Smith listened with bland 
 attention. 
 
 ' I understand you perfectly/ he said, when 
 she had finished. ' You wish first of all to 
 ascertain whether you have a voice, and in 
 case it proves that you do possess one, you 
 desire to have it cultivated with a view to 
 pecuniary profit.'
 
 Ennui. 83 
 
 ' Exactly,' replied Helen, greatly obliged to 
 him for comprehending her so readily. 
 
 ' Perhaps you will kindly sing me any 
 song that shows your powers to the greatest 
 advantage,' said the professor, walking to- 
 wards the piano and opening it. 
 
 Helen felt terribly nervous at having to 
 begin business so soon, but intimated that 
 ' Robin Adair ' was generally considered her 
 masterpiece. 
 
 In the twinkling of an eye, Mr. Mountjoy 
 Smith had picked out a copy of the song 
 from a pile of music, had seated himself 
 at the stool, and struck the preliminary 
 chords of the accompaniment. 
 
 ' Now, if you please, and try and forget 
 that there is anybody listening to you.' 
 
 Thus encouraged, she began in a some- 
 what faint voice ; but as she went on, her 
 nervousness grew less, and she contrived 
 to sing it, if not at her best, yet well 
 enough to give him an idea of what she 
 could do. 
 
 He rose, and said gravely, — ' You have the 
 pipes.' This phrase he repeated two or three 
 times, as if by it he were better explaining
 
 84 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 his opinion to himself. Then he addressed 
 the expectant performer, — 
 
 1 Of course, the organ is very uncultivated, 
 but it is mellow and sympathetic. Power 
 would come in time ; and you have also 
 good natural taste.' 
 
 Helen blushed vividly with pleasure and 
 bashfulness. Delicious words they seemed 
 to her, comforting, and symbolical of future 
 triumph. In the golden days of youth, ex- 
 pectation is so much superior to reality. 
 The first hope of drawing a prize in the 
 lottery of life sends a fiercer thrill through 
 our hearts than even the actual drawing of 
 it. For, before that takes place, we have 
 experienced the chills of doubt, delay, and 
 despair. 
 
 After a little more talk about the voice 
 and the mode of training,- they came to the 
 more difficult question of terms. Mr. 
 Mountjoy Smith wanted a guinea a lesson, 
 which, by degrees, he reduced to fifteen 
 shillings. Poor Helen's face fell. 
 
 * It is more than I expected to give more 
 than I could afford to give, in fact,' she 
 explained to him, flushing sensitively under
 
 Ennui. 85 
 
 his gaze. ' Of course, if I were rich, I 
 should not want to enter into this sort of 
 thing at all.' 
 
 Mr. Smith considered. ' What sum had 
 you fixed in your own mind ? ' he asked, 
 after a pause. 
 
 ' I thought half-a-guinea !' replied poor 
 Helen, feeling very ashamed at having to 
 beat down so grand a looking personage. 
 
 Mr. Smith considered further ; then, with 
 a burst of frankness, he cried, ' Well, then, 
 we will say half-a-guinea a lesson, and two 
 lessons a week.' 
 
 * Oh ! thank you very much. I am sorry 
 to be compelled to ask you to take less than 
 your usual fee.' 
 
 The professor smiled kindly at her. He 
 was a married man, with a large family, 
 but he was not insensible to beauty, and 
 he thought he had never seen a lovelier 
 girl than this delicate, graceful, blushing 
 young creature, who could only afford to give 
 him half-a-guinea. Had she been a plain 
 young woman, he might have refused to 
 take her on such terms. Such is the way 
 of the world, — a kind one to persons who
 
 86 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 fulfil its preconceived notions in various 
 small matters, a hard one to those who 
 cannot. 
 
 Then Helen, who was not a bad hand 
 at business, in spite of her timidity, started 
 another question. 
 
 1 I want to ask you this, Mr. Smith. As- 
 suming for a moment that my voice repays 
 cultivation, and you think me competent 
 to appear in public, could you help me to 
 make a debut. In other words, could you 
 launch me V 
 
 Mr. Smith considered for a moment or 
 two. It did not seem a question quite so 
 easy to answer as that about terms. After 
 a pause, he replied, — 
 
 'Yes. I think I could guarantee that.' 
 He added, with a grand manner that suited 
 well with his fine figure and Roman profile,' 
 — ■ Talent has seldom much difficulty in 
 finding a market.' 
 
 This was a vague kind of sentiment that 
 did not quite satisfy Helen, and she was 
 about to pin the professor to some more 
 definite statement, when Mrs. Vanstone 
 struck in, —
 
 Ennui. \ - 
 
 'It is too soon to talk about that, my 
 dear. Let us first wait and see how your 
 voice turns out/ 
 
 Mr. Mountjoy Smith looked relieved. 
 ' That would be the best plan/ he added, 
 with a resumption of his grand manner. 
 1 Should our hopes in that respect be 
 realised, there would be little difficult} in 
 coming to an understanding on the other 
 matter.' This meant, of course, that he 
 would require a large share out of her 
 earnings ; but neither Helen nor her mother 
 suspected it, not being versed in the v 
 of professors et hoc genus omne. The only 
 doubt that his hesitating manner raised 
 in the girl's mind, was whether he had 
 the influence necessarv to launch her. 
 
 Mother and daughter walked on in 
 silence for some little time after they 
 emerged from Mr. Smith's somewhat dingy 
 house. Then all at once Helen cried 
 bluntly, — ' Mamma, do you think him a 
 humbug ? ' 
 
 Mrs. Yanstone often used words herself 
 that would not pass muster in the best 
 circles, but she was careful that her
 
 88 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 daughter should not so derogate, so she 
 observed rather severely, ' My dear, that 
 is not a nice word.' 
 
 1 Of course it isn't/ said Helen, with a 
 merry smile ; ' but you know, dear, it is so 
 delightfully expressive. And I must con- 
 fess that there is something in Mr. Mount- 
 joy Smith's whole manner, handsome look- 
 ing man as he is, that seems to exactly 
 suit the term. He is too suave.' 
 
 1 Perhaps that comes from his mixing 
 so much with women. At any rate, I 
 observed him pretty closely, and I did 
 not come to the conclusion that he was 
 a greater scoundrel than the majority of 
 men. I daresay he is a brute in his own 
 home.' Mrs. Vanstone was a virulent man- 
 hater, and held firmly to her theory that 
 all men are by nature tyrannical, brutal, 
 and hypocritical. 
 
 1 I am sorry for Mrs. Mountjoy if such 
 is the case,' replied Helen, laughing ; ' but 
 I must confess I was not studying him 
 with a view to his domestic character, but 
 as to his ability to do what I want with him.' 
 
 1 Humph ! that you must take your
 
 Ennui. 89 
 
 chance of. We know nothing about this 
 kind of people. All we know generally 
 is that the world is full of rogues, who 
 are only too glad to pick your pocket in 
 a genteel kind of way/ said her mother 
 gruffly. 
 
 1 It would be a terrible thing to pay 
 our money and do no good by it,' cried 
 poor Helen, with a twinge of conscience ; 
 adding, in a more cheerful tone, ' But 
 after a month's trial of this gentleman, we 
 shall be better able to form an opinion.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone said nothing. There are 
 wheels within wheels, and she was not at 
 all ambitious that her daughter should 
 degrade herself by singing in public.
 
 CHAPTER VI I. 
 
 THE BEAUFORTS. 
 
 ELEN began her lessons with Mr. 
 Smith, and made the house in 
 Thomas Street musical with the 
 daily practice of exercises, shakes, 
 and trills. Mrs. Vanstone found the noise 
 somewhat irritating, but she made no com- 
 plaint. The girl was occupied, and taken 
 out of herself and the region of melancholy 
 thoughts ; and so far this was desirable. 
 
 One day she returned from the professor's 
 in a high state of excitement, eyes spark- 
 ling, lips quivering with eagerness to tell her 
 adventure. 
 
 ' Oh, mamma dear, I have met such a 
 delightful girl at Mr. Smith's — a Miss 
 Florence Beaufort. She is going to ap-
 
 The Beauforts. 91 
 
 pear in public soon, and Mr. Smith thought 
 we might try a few duets together. Is it 
 not strange ? her family has come down in 
 the world like us. Her father is most 
 respectably connected. Sir Rupert Beaufort, 
 who commanded the expedition against the 
 Wallaboos, is one brother, and Dr. Beaufort 
 of Curzon Street, Mayfair, is another. But 
 they look down upon him, of course, as is the 
 way with rich relations.' 
 
 Here she paused to take breath ; and 
 Mrs, Vanstone, who began to feel a little 
 interested herself, enquired, ' What does he 
 do for a living ? ' 
 
 ' He is an actor, but I am afraid does not 
 do much. One daughter teaches music, 
 their only son is in a bank, and Florence, 
 as I told you, will shortly earn her living 
 as a professional. Oh, she is such a dear 
 girl, — so natural, so pleasant, not a bit of 
 false pride/ 
 
 1 She seems at least a communicative 
 young lady, to have told you her family 
 history so soon. Pray where was all this 
 related, — before Smith ? ' 
 
 * Oh, no,' replied Helen quickly, feeling
 
 92 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 anxious that her new friend should appear 
 to advantage in her mother's eyes. ' We 
 walked part of the way home together. 
 She lives at St. John's Wood. I do so 
 long for next Thursday, when we are going 
 to sing some more duets together.' 
 
 Thursday came in due course, and the 
 two young ladies met again in the pro- 
 fessor's room. As he was not yet come in, 
 Miss Beaufort favoured her fellow pupil with 
 some more of the family history ; and Helen, 
 won by such artless candour, communi- 
 cated a little of their own misfortunes. The 
 fair Florence listened with a sympathising 
 air, and when she had finished, said sweetly, 
 1 We are companions in affliction, why should 
 we not be dear friends ? ' 
 
 Moved by a common impulse, the two 
 girls embraced tenderly. When they with- 
 drew gently from each other's arms, the eyes 
 of both were moist. It was a touching 
 sight ; touching to anybody except a 
 hardened cynic, who would have sworn 
 that six months hence they would not have 
 a kind word to say of each other. After 
 the duets had been gone through, they
 
 The Beaicforts. 93 
 
 walked home together. As they bade each 
 other adieu at the corner of the street where 
 they took separate ways, Miss Beaufort said 
 in a persuasive tone, — 
 
 ' Will you come and see me ? You will 
 find us but poor, broken-down folks, it is 
 true, but we are not poor in mental 
 resources.' 
 
 1 I shall be delighted,' replied Helen, 
 colouring with pleasure at the prospect 
 of making the acquaintance of so charm- 
 ing a family. 
 
 ■ Say, then, to-morrow at six. Once we 
 could have asked you to dinner, but now 
 I can only say come to tea.' 
 
 Helen replied gracefully that it would 
 afford her exquisite pleasure to partake of 
 that humble meal in Miss Beaufort's com- 
 pany, and they parted with mutual satis- 
 faction. 
 
 The next day she set out for St. John's 
 Wood in a condition of hi^h delight. Poor 
 child ! going into society of any kind was 
 a novelty to her. Mrs. Vanstone had 
 wished to array her in her best, but Helen 
 had pointed out that good taste required,
 
 94 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 she should make her first visit dressed as 
 plainly as possible. ' You know, mamma, 
 they are poor people, and to put on grand 
 things might appear like an insult to their 
 poverty,' she said. 
 
 This was all very right, of course, and 
 showed a delicate feeling on her part ; but 
 she was fairly surprised to find the Beau- 
 fort family decked out with a splendour 
 that put her own raiment completely in 
 the shade. Mrs. Beaufort, a majestic- 
 looking woman, appeared imposing in a 
 rich silk dress, and an artistic head-dress, 
 with a very fine feather. Miss Beaufort, 
 the teacher, was in pink. Florence, who 
 was rather a pretty girl, looked captivating 
 in blue. Mr. Beaufort, a handsome man 
 about six feet high, had on morning dress, 
 and Helen thought his coat must have 
 been cut by no ordinary artist. 
 
 Mrs. Beaufort received her with a stately 
 courtesy. Mr. Beaufort bade her welcome 
 in a more hearty fashion. 
 
 1 Charmed to make your acquaintance, 
 my dear young lady.' He paused for a 
 second, and then added, with a theatrical
 
 The Beanforts. 95 
 
 kind of sigh, — ' My daughter tells me that 
 you too have known misfortune. I need, 
 therefore, make no apology for receiving 
 you in a home so little suited to the tastes 
 and aspirations of either of us.' 
 
 This was all very grand and imposing, 
 but, as Helen thought, hardly in the best 
 taste. But her closer acquaintance with 
 Mr. Beaufort convinced her that he took 
 a positive delight in dwelling upon his 
 misfortunes, and a still keener delight in 
 talking about his family. After a little 
 time spent in general conversation, they 
 went down to tea, Mr. Beaufort escort- 
 ing Helen to the dining-room with the 
 air of a man accustomed to the best 
 society. 
 
 ' My brother, Sir Rupert, dines at a 
 grand banquet given by the commander- 
 in-chief to-night, while I am eating bread 
 and butter in a humble cottage in St. 
 John's Wood,' said the broken-down gentle- 
 man, in the course of the meal : he added 
 with a sigh — ' And yet we are sons of the 
 same father.' 
 
 ' Thank Heaven there will be no rich
 
 96 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 and poor in the next world,' said the 
 majestic Mrs. Beaufort with an emphasis 
 that made the feather in her head - dress 
 shake. 
 
 Helen glanced at the speaker with some 
 curiosity. She was a very grand-looking 
 personage, and all the family seemed to 
 treat her with great deference. The only 
 thing that puzzled the girl was that while 
 she had heard all about the Beaufort's 
 down to the ninety-ninth cousin, she had 
 never heard a word about the mother's 
 family. 
 
 Tea proceeded slowly, in consequence of 
 the chat, and Mr. Beaufort took every 
 opportunity of slipping in something about 
 1 Sir Rupert!' He never spoke of him 
 simply as my brother ; it was always the 
 same phrase, ' My brother Sir Rupert,' as if he 
 loved the flavour of the title, e.g., ' When 
 I was in Edinburgh with my brother Sir 
 Rupert — as I was walking down Bond 
 Street with my brother, Sir Rupert,' etc., etc. 
 
 In the evening they had music, playing 
 and singing, and Mr. Beaufort contributed 
 to the general amusement by recitation.
 
 The Beauforts. 97 
 
 He chose Antony's oration, and ' To be 
 or not to be ; ' and after she had heard these, 
 Helen no longer wondered that he did 
 not succeed in his profession. A more 
 monotonous or lugubrious delivery it was 
 impossible to conceive. As a performance, 
 it was infinitely below the average of penny 
 readings. But his family evidently thought 
 him a fine reciter, and applauded vigorously ; 
 and Helen, not to be behindhand in polite- 
 ness, did the same. 
 
 1 I'll give you Gray's Elegy,' said the 
 would-be actor, stimulated by the applause. 
 And through that not very cheerful poem he 
 drawled in the same monotonous tone, and 
 with the same monotonous see-saw action 
 of the hand, which was the only approach 
 he made towards action. When he had 
 concluded, he said in his ordinary voice, 
 which was a cheerful one, — ' I used to recite 
 that when a boy at my father's parties. It 
 was my brother Sir Rupert's favourite piece. 
 I little thought I should have to come to 
 that sort of thing for a living/ 
 
 Helen looked sympathising, but had a 
 melancholy conviction that the audience was 
 vol. 1. G
 
 98 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 yet to be found who would give a penny 
 for a recitation of this kind. But, taken 
 as a whole, the evening passed very pleas- 
 antly, and she felt sorry when it was time 
 to go. 
 
 Mrs. Beaufort kissed her affectionately, 
 and intimated that she should be glad to 
 make the acquaintance of Mrs. Vanstone. 
 * My wretched health prevents me from 
 going out, but I should be very pleased to 
 see her here if she can put up with a dull 
 evening. We have at least misfortunes in 
 common/ 
 
 Then Florence, who was a business-like 
 young lady, added, — ' General invitations 
 are no use, nobody knows when to come. 
 Let Helen appoint an evening, when she 
 will bring her mother.' There was a chorus 
 of approval from the whole family at this 
 proposal, and being so hard pressed, Helen 
 suggested that day fortnight. But it seemed 
 that the ardour of the Beauforts to make 
 Mrs. Vanstone's acquaintance could not 
 brook so long a delay, and it was eventually 
 decided that they should meet that day 
 week.
 
 The Beatiforts. 99 
 
 When Helen informed her mother of the 
 invitation she had accepted for her, Mrs. 
 Vanstone at first pished and frowned, and 
 said she did not want to go gadding about 
 at her time of life. When, however, the day 
 came round, she arrayed herself in her best, 
 and sallied forth with her daughter to St. 
 John's Wood. 
 
 Florence and Mr. Beaufort received them 
 in the hall, and escorted them to the drawing- 
 room, where Mrs. Beaufort was waiting in 
 state to receive them. And then, as the 
 eyes of the two mothers met, a most extra- 
 ordinary thing happened. A vivid carnation 
 slowly spread over Mrs. Beaufort's face, and 
 instead of her usual majestic appearance, 
 there was visible an air of mortification 
 and embarrassment. On her side, Mrs. 
 Vanstone looked equally embarrassed, but 
 a trifle less ashamed. Being- the more 
 self-possessed of the two she was the first 
 to speak. 
 
 ' Am I mistaken ; or do I see again my 
 old acquaintance, Jemima Scroggs?' she 
 said, wonderingly. 
 
 1 You do ; and you are Martha Tubbs,'
 
 ioo The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 replied the other lady, advancing with an 
 awkward air of cordiality. They then em- 
 braced, wishing each other at the bottom of 
 the sea all the time. 
 
 It was an embarrassing scene to more 
 than the two principal actors in it. Helen 
 was not in the least ashamed of her mothers 
 origin, and bore herself bravely ; but Mr. 
 Beaufort and the girls had faces like scarlet. 
 After all this boasting about the family, and 
 the constant references to ' My brother Sir 
 Rupert,' it was very mortifying to think that 
 Helen should know the humble antecedents 
 of the mother. 
 
 Miss Jemima Scroggs was the daughter of 
 a Slocombe publican, and in her youth had 
 been the playmate of Martha Tubbs. This 
 young lady had rather looked down upon 
 Jemima, and entertained for her much the 
 kind of feeling which a piece of silk, suppos- 
 ing it to be gifted with a delicate sense of 
 social distinction, might be imagined to ex- 
 hibit towards a pewter pot. Mr. Scroggs 
 had failed and gone to London, so that 
 neither of the girls had become acquainted 
 with the after history of the other until they
 
 The Beauforts. 101 
 
 met on this occasion, under the names of 
 Mrs. Beaufort and Mrs. Vanstone. 
 
 In the course of the evening the embarrass- 
 ment wore off, and the two matrons chatted 
 about old times. Even Florence, who had 
 looked the most mortified of the family, 
 recovered herself so far as to whisper gush- 
 ingly to Helen, ' How strangely things come 
 about in this world ! To think that your 
 mother should be an old friend of mine. 
 This constitutes another link between us, 
 darling.' And the warm-hearted creature 
 kissed her friend affectionately. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone was nothing if not critical, 
 and when she and her daughter were beyond 
 the hearing of the Beauforts, who had clus- 
 tered in a family group at the door, her first 
 words were, — 
 
 'How in the name of wonder do those 
 people live ? Did you ever see such a sight 
 as that foolish old woman (thus disrespect- 
 fully did she designate the friend of her 
 youth) with her feathers and lace, as if she 
 were in a Belgravian drawing-room ? And 
 she only a publican's daughter, too. As for 
 that poor noodle Beaufort, he surely cannot
 
 102 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 earn a penny with that horrid sing-song 
 voice of his. He calls himself an actor ; 
 where did he ever act ? ' 
 
 1 I don't think he has performed in 
 London,' replied Helen shortly. She did 
 not quite relish her mother's unflattering 
 comments. 
 
 ' I should doubt if he would be allowed to 
 perform at a fair,' said Mrs. Vanstone, in 
 her most contemptuous manner. 
 
 ' But Florence is a charming girl,' pleaded 
 Helen. 
 
 ' I don't take to her, my dear. Plenty 
 to say, very gushing, and all that sort of 
 thing ; but, in my opinion, decidedly sly. 
 You don't look below the surface.' 
 
 1 Oh, mamma, how can you say so ? She 
 is artlessness itself,' rejoined Helen warmly. 
 
 ' Pooh ! that's all put on, I tell you.' Then 
 returning to her old enquiry, — ' I should very 
 much like to know how they live. They 
 say they are as poor as church mice ; then 
 where does that old Jemima get her feathers 
 and silks from ? ' 
 
 This mystery so weighed upon Mrs. Van- 
 stone's mind, that she communicated it to
 
 The Bemiforts. 103 
 
 her husband, who was soon in a position 
 to solve it. At his club he met a man 
 who knew all the Beauforts, and was per- 
 fectly ready to tell all he knew. 
 
 i Beaufort an actor, sir ? ' cried the com- 
 municative personage : ' No more an actor 
 than you are. How do they live ? simply 
 by cadging, there is no other word for it. 
 He cadges, the old woman cadges, the girls 
 cadge. I know a man now, sir, that they've 
 got over three hundred pounds out of at 
 different times. I lent the old sinner twenty 
 pounds once myself to stave off an execu- 
 tion ; and be-gad, not content with never 
 repaying me, he actually called on me a 
 month after and requested another loan ! 
 Cool, eh ? He is fertile in resources, and 
 can dress up any number of plausible lies.' 
 
 ■ But how does he contrive to always find 
 people who will lend. I don't know where 
 I could go for five pounds, much less three 
 hundred ? ' asked Mr. Vanstone, wonderingly. 
 
 1 Luck, sir ; sheer luck. The family, who 
 are really respectable, cut him on his mar- 
 riage. Mrs. B. was a publican's daughter, 
 you know. He was then in a fairly flourish-
 
 104 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 ing way of business as a wine merchant. 
 But the most unbounded extravagance and 
 idleness made him a bankrupt. He turned 
 his attention to acting ; but he never got 
 more than one engagement, to play Polonius, 
 at the Margate Theatre, and that was only 
 for a week. Being a plausible fellow, he 
 managed to get a lot of friends, and he 
 has lived on them ever since. When they 
 are tired of listening to him, he sends the 
 girls to cry to them.' 
 
 It was evident from this graphic descrip- 
 tion that Mr. Beaufort belonged to that class 
 of men whose moral vision is so oblique, and 
 who are so steeped in vice, that they are at 
 all times unscrupulous and aggressive. Yet 
 they seem to pass to a certain extent un- 
 scathed through all sorts of troubles ; their 
 life being an alternation of squalor and 
 luxury. There are not a few of these gay 
 Bohemians, of a cleverer type than the 
 Beauforts, who may be seen driving through 
 the London streets in a smart brougham 
 with a high stepper, while there is an 
 execution in the house for a few pounds 
 owed to some tradesman. Nay, they look
 
 The Beauforts. 105 
 
 as flourishing as ever, even after they have 
 been made bankrupts, and their assets re- 
 presented by a cipher. 
 
 They dress well, have very loud trappings 
 on their persons in the shape of jewels, live 
 like fighting cocks, run into debt anywhere 
 and everywhere, pass now and then a few 
 hours of quiet contemplation in prison, and 
 play hide and seek with the sheriff's 
 minions. Eternally in debt, and eternally 
 compounding with their creditors, they 
 thus manage to keep on 'pegging away.' 
 Begging letters are with such men a 
 lucrative branch of polite art. Their three 
 chief canons for guidance are comprised in 
 borrowing, eating, drinking, and making a 
 good appearance, and never repaying. 
 These maxims, like some of the physical 
 laws, reduce things to a state of equilibrium, 
 so that it may be said, they live to borrow, 
 and borrow to live. 
 
 Those who know the world well, and 
 have studied this class of men, must de- 
 clare that they are rascals, at once unscrupul- 
 ous, truculent, servile, insolent, and men- 
 dacious, especially the bon vivani section,
 
 1 06 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 who are dangerous from their plausibility 
 and suave speech, and who spend as much 
 on eating and drinking in a day as would 
 keep a more honest man for a month. 
 
 Mr. Vanstone returned home, primed 
 with this history. His wife did not look 
 exactly pleased ; but there was about her 
 that air of passive content, with which, 
 according to a cynical philosopher, some 
 people take the misfortunes of their friends. 
 Helen was very crestfallen, there being a 
 terrible air of truth about it all. 
 
 ' Well, thank heaven, I don't buy feathers 
 and lace with other persons' money !' said 
 Mrs. Vanstone at length. It was astonishing 
 how that gorgeous head-dress seemed to 
 rankle in her mind. ' But Jemima was 
 always unprincipled when a girl ; always 
 took more than her share of buns and 
 tarts ; and old Scroggs cheated a lot of 
 people in Slocombe.' / 
 
 1 Poor things ! we don't know what we 
 should be driven to if we had not a penny 
 of our own,' put in Helen, with sweet 
 womanly pity. 
 
 ' I am quite sure I should never degrade
 
 The Beauforts, 107 
 
 myself by living on the charity of others/ 
 replied her mother grimly ; and, to do her 
 justice, she would not have condescended 
 to the mean shifts of the Beauforts. 
 
 The knowledge of their history did not, 
 however, make any apparent difference in 
 the relations between the two families. It 
 was still 'Florence dear!' and 'Helen 
 darling !' with the girls, while the elder ladies 
 Martha'd and Jemima'd each other with a 
 great appearance of cordiality. Mr. Van- 
 stone was also introduced in due time, and 
 the Misses Beaufort declared they had fallen 
 in love with him, a circumstance that made 
 the old gentleman feel flattered, and his 
 wife suspicious. 
 
 1 1 know that Florence is an artful minx !' 
 said Mrs. Vanstone, in her usual uncompro- 
 mising manner. 
 
 Time proved her estimate of Miss Beau- 
 fort's character correct. One evening Mr. 
 Vanstone, on returning from his club, put 
 into his wife's hand a letter which had 
 been addressed to him there. It proved 
 to be from the artless Florence, and Mrs. 
 Vanstone perused it with a frowning brow.
 
 io8 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 It contained a request for a loan of fifty 
 pounds, to be repaid out of her earnings as 
 soon as she appeared in public. Its con- 
 clusion was as follows, — ' Please do not let 
 Mrs. Vanstone or darling Helen know any- 
 thing of this.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone threw down the note in a 
 furious passion. It was well for Florence 
 that she was not behind the door, for she 
 would have heard some unpleasant truths 
 of herself. Even Helen, unsuspicious as 
 she was by nature, had her eyes opened at 
 last. She burst into tears, and cried in a 
 broken-hearted voice, — 
 
 1 Oh, what a hateful world this is ! To 
 think that we were only invited there and 
 treated so kindly in the hope of being made 
 use of. I shall never believe anybody after 
 this ; and I had grown to love that girl like 
 a sister.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone undertook to answer the 
 letter, and wrote what she called a ' trimmer.' 
 Miss Florence did not condescend to hold 
 further communication with the elder lady, 
 but she sent a freezingly polite note to 
 Helen, in which she intimated that her
 
 The Beauforts. 109 
 
 mother's insulting and outrageous conduct 
 had rendered it impossible to continue her 
 acquaintance with any member of the Van- 
 stone family. 
 
 Thus ended this little friendship ; and as 
 Helen did not make the progress that she 
 expected under the tuition of Mr. Mountjoy 
 Smith, and began to have an uneasy sus- 
 picion that he was somewhat of a charlatan, 
 she abandoned the idea of a public career, 
 and avoided a house where she was likely 
 to come into contact with the false Florence. 
 
 But life seemed to be duller than ever in 
 Thomas Street, with no friend, and no hope 
 of getting into anything better. 
 
 1 The world is a dreary dwelling place, 
 mamma ! ' she said as they sat together one 
 evening, trying to kill the time with fancy 
 work. ■ I wish a diversion of some kind 
 would happen.' 
 
 As she spoke, there came a knock at the 
 street door. She ran to open it, thinking 
 it was her father. When she came to 
 reflect afterwards, she said to herself that 
 this knock had come as an answer to her 
 wish.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A VISITOR. 
 
 REAT was Helen's vexation, when 
 on opening the street door, the 
 tall figure of a stranger presented 
 itself to her view in place of the 
 familiar form of her father. Her vexation, 
 however, did not prevent her from noting 
 that this stranger was young, had dark eyes 
 and hair, clear cut features, and the air of a 
 gentleman. 
 
 'Is Mr. Vanstone at home?' He had 
 begun his question in what must have been 
 his habitual voice, which was rather hard 
 and sharp — the voice of a man who is some- 
 what stern and peremptory by temperament, 
 but on perceiving that the person who had 
 performed this menial office was a girl, whose
 
 A Visitor. 1 1 1 
 
 marvellous beauty and refined bearing he 
 recognised at a glance, it took a courteous 
 inflection. 
 
 ' No, he is not,' replied Helen, curtly and 
 sharply. The courtesy in his tone increased 
 her vexation, for it showed that if he was 
 acquainted with her father, as he seemed to 
 be, her identity was not to be concealed from 
 him. 
 
 But the repellant tones did not seem to 
 affect this young man's appreciation of her 
 beauty, for his glance dwelt upon her with an 
 admiration that he found it impossible to 
 repress, and self-possessed as was Helen on 
 ordinary occasions, she felt herself blushing 
 furiously beneath the gaze of those dark, 
 eloquent eyes, that seemed to look into her 
 very heart. 
 
 He perceived her confusion, and remem- 
 bered that he was not acting a very gentle- 
 manly part, by staring at a young lady till 
 he brought the blood to her cheek, and he 
 indirectly apologised for his rudeness by 
 resuming the parley in a voice that was 
 almost humble. 
 
 ' I am very sorry to have to trouble you
 
 1 1 2 The Queen of Two JVor/ds. 
 
 with any more questions, but I should be 
 glad to know if he is likely to be in shortly. 
 I wish to see him very particularly, and as my 
 home is a long distance from here, I should 
 prefer to return with my mission achieved.' 
 
 Whether it was that his anxious desire to 
 apologise for his rudeness softened Helen's 
 asperity, or that her female instincts whis- 
 pered to her she was already the object of 
 an admiration very intense, and out of mere 
 coquetry she was not averse to fascinate him 
 more deeply, certain it is that her vexation 
 disappeared as if by magic, and when she 
 answered him, it was with one of the most 
 charming smiles in the world. 
 
 'It is no trouble to answer so simple a 
 question as that. I expect papa in every 
 moment, in fact, I took your knock for his. 
 Would you like to come in and wait ? He 
 cannot possibly be long.' 
 
 The young stranger accepted the invita- 
 tion with an eagerness that was flattering 
 enough to the girl, who in a few seconds 
 had made so powerful an impression upon 
 him. His politeness prompted him to shut 
 the door for her.
 
 A Visitor, 1 1 3 
 
 'And now it is time that I should make 
 myself known,' he said, as they stood together 
 in the hall, very dimly lighted by a flicker of 
 gas in a somewhat dirty lamp. * My name 
 is Weldon — Ralph Weldon — and I belong to 
 the same club as your father/ 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone, on hearing the sound of 
 voices in such close proximity, advanced to 
 the door of the dining-room, and put her 
 head out to see what was going on. She 
 was not particularly reassured when she per- 
 ceived a tall young man standing bare- 
 headed by her daughter's side. It was just 
 possible that he might have designs upon 
 the coats. 
 
 ' Helen, who is there?' she called out, 
 sharply. 
 
 Helen made Mr. Weldon a sign to follow 
 her into the dining-room, where she ex- 
 plained matters succinctly to her mother. 
 
 ' This gentleman is Mr. Weldon, mamma, 
 a member of papa's club ; and as he wishes 
 to see him very particularly, I have asked 
 him to wait a little while.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone gave a sort of half bow, 
 which might be taken to mean both assent 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 H4 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 to her daughter's proposition and an ac- 
 knowledgement of the young man's presence. 
 Mr. Ralph Weldon also bowed on his side ; 
 and as he did so their eyes met. In that 
 swift interchange of glances each conceived 
 a dislike to the other, a perfectly groundless 
 but at the same time invincible repugnance, 
 that was never conquered in the months and 
 years of their after intercourse. 
 
 They all sat down ; and those dark, 
 earnest eyes, under whose gaze the un- 
 accustomed blood had rushed so swiftly to 
 Helen's cheek, sought her own, as if com- 
 pelled by some powerful instinct which their 
 possessor could not control. In those long 
 and ardent glances he took in every detail 
 of her faultless beauty ; the smooth, white 
 forehead, shaded by the glossy, abundant 
 hair ; the liquid brown eyes, that seemed to 
 light up the room with their thrilling glance ; 
 the exquisitely-curved coral lips, through 
 which gleamed the brilliant teeth ; the small, 
 delicate-shaped ears ; the lithe and supple 
 figure ; — all those details which made her 
 seem the fairest woman he had ever 
 gazed upon.
 
 A Visitor. 115 
 
 It is customary to ridicule the idea of love 
 at first sight ; but experience tells us that a 
 glance, a tone, may plant in the heart the 
 seed that time ripens into a blooming and 
 fragrant flower. Certain it is that Ralph 
 Weldon, a man over whose youth and child- 
 hood had rested the shadows of deep 
 sorrows, that had made life less bright to him 
 than to most ; whose pulse had never yet 
 thrilled at a woman's voice ; whose heart 
 had never yet melted beneath the magic of 
 a woman's smile ; who had grown to think 
 that the curse of joylessness, breathed upon 
 his childhood by the faults and the sufferings 
 of others, would cling to him and dog him 
 to the grave ; who had learned to repay to 
 the world the hardness and scorn that he 
 had received from it, — certain it is, that 
 from the moment his glance had met the 
 glance of Helen Vanstone, as she stood in 
 that dimly lighted hall, he had seemed to 
 feel that a marvellous change was being 
 wrought in him. 
 
 For as he sat and watched the lights and 
 shadows that danced across her fair cheek, 
 the light that trembled in those sweet eyes,
 
 1 1 6 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 such clear mirrors of the soul that they 
 interpreted, he began to think that the world 
 was not so dark, so hard, or so scornful, 
 but that a woman like this could illumine it 
 with her love, and take away the sting 
 from its scorn. He had never yet thought 
 seriously about love ; his narrow circum- 
 stances had precluded him from mingling 
 with women of refined mind and manners, 
 and he had nothing but contempt for those 
 mindless, half-educated girls, who, with the 
 exception of his dead mother and sister, had 
 made up his whole experience of the fairer 
 portion of creation. 
 
 But here, in a soil as uncongenial as could 
 well be imagined, he saw that there flour- 
 ished a flower of rare beauty and perfume ; 
 and he gazed and marvelled, knowing but 
 little of Gabriel Vanstone's past, as a man 
 might gaze and marvel who finds a splendid 
 and flawless diamond enshrined in a mean 
 and paltry setting. And as the sordidness 
 of the setting brings into greater relief the 
 brilliance of the stone, so did this dingy 
 home, with its dark and gloomy surround- 
 ings, enhance the charms of this radiant girl,
 
 A Visitor, 117 
 
 on whom nature and education had stamped 
 the impress of gentlewoman. For although 
 Helen had not escaped the taint of Bohe- 
 mianism, as how was it possible she should 
 have done — her Bohemianism was rather of 
 that kind which springs from a certain law- 
 lessness of spirit, from the constant warring 
 of the heart against the hateful conditions of 
 the life amid which it beats, than from the 
 innate vulgarity of a nature that deliberately 
 prefers coarseness to elegance, the common 
 to the refined. 
 
 In her quick and often petulant phrases, 
 he detected much that enabled him to guess 
 the conditions of her life. It was easy to 
 discover from them that she was discon- 
 tented with her surroundings. And, taking 
 all that he had been able to perceive of the 
 street and the house, into consideration, 
 Mr. Weldon was not surprised that such 
 was the case. At the club, he had heard 
 something about old Vanstone having once 
 been a rich man, and having lost his money 
 in some unfortunate speculation, and the 
 refined bearing of this young girl bore out 
 the fact. No wonder that she felt herself
 
 1 1 8 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 out of place here, he said to himself, — her 
 beauty would have adorned a palace. 
 
 Feeling it incumbent upon himself to find 
 some topics of conversation, he asked her 
 if she had been to any of the theatres lately. 
 Fortunately, she had been to two, so she 
 was enabled to discuss the merits of the 
 pieces she had seen with her visitor, who 
 appeared to frequent every theatre in the 
 metropolis. 
 
 1 Why, you have seen everything !' she 
 cried, after Mr. Weldon had described all 
 the plots, and criticised all the actors and 
 actresses. 
 
 1 I can get orders whenever I want, you 
 know/ he said. 
 
 - Oh ! how nice. Papa knows two or 
 three actors, but he never gets any. I sup- 
 pose he is too shy to ask for them.' 
 
 'Will you allow me to send you some ?' 
 said Mr. Weldon, politely. It is distressing 
 to have to record that this offer did not 
 proceed from pure philanthropy, as the 
 astute reader will have guessed already. 
 The artful fellow wanted to get an excuse 
 for creeping into the house, and he fore-
 
 A Visitor. 119 
 
 saw some difficulty in the matter, for 
 Mrs. Vanstone was one of the dragon 
 species. 
 
 ' Oh, I should be so grateful ! Mamma 
 and I lead a very lonely life, and a visit to 
 a theatre or a concert is our only dissipation. 
 We have no nice clubs like you fortunate 
 men.' 
 
 ' That is only a matter of time/ replied 
 Mr. Weldon, smiling. ' Only the other day 
 I received a prospectus of one which is 
 to admit both sexes. In a few years, 
 perhaps months, we shall get to one for 
 ladies exclusively ; but I don't think it will 
 answer.' 
 
 ' You mean they'll quarrel till there's not 
 a member left,' cried Helen, merrily. ' But 
 I don't agree with you, Mr. Weldon. I 
 think if the men are rigorously excluded, 
 they will get on very well. It is the intro- 
 duction of your sex that makes the ladies 
 quarrelsome.' 
 
 * Of course I bow to your superior judg- 
 ment, and feel how profoundly ignorant I am 
 on such matters. The fact is, I have 
 a .very small acquaintance among the fair
 
 120 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 sex ; hence my want of knowledge/ was Mr. 
 Weldon's answer. 
 
 There was silence for a little time after 
 this, which was employed by Helen in 
 guessing at the profession of their visitor. 
 One thing was very clear, he was a gentle- 
 man. He did not look like a City man, at 
 least not like such City men as started from 
 Thomas Street in the morning. He was 
 not prim enough for a lawyer, and he looked 
 many stages above a clerk. He certainly 
 was not a doctor, neither had he the appear- 
 ance of a military man. In Helen's private 
 opinion, he more resembled the exquisites 
 she had seen at Lady Grahame's than any 
 other class with which she was acquainted ; 
 but it was hardly possible that he would 
 be a friend of her papa's, and come to 
 Thomas Street, if he were very fashionable. 
 After having exhausted probabilities and 
 possibilities, she was reluctantly obliged to 
 come to the conclusion that he must be a 
 young man of no social status. 
 
 ' Do you go to the exhibition of pictures, 
 Miss Vanstone ?' he asked suddenly, in the 
 midst of her musings.
 
 A Visitor. 121 
 
 She answered in the affirmative ; and this 
 led to a discussion on art and things artistic, 
 in which he displayed so much knowledge, 
 that she had now little doubt as to his pro- 
 fession. In order to be certain on the 
 point, she put a leading question. ' You 
 seem to be wonderfully well-informed in 
 these matters, Mr. Weldon ?' 
 
 ' I ought to be, — I am an artist,' he 
 answered. 
 
 1 Dear me, I should never have taken you 
 for one,' said Helen, innocently. 
 
 ' May I ask your reasons V asked Mr. 
 Weldon, smiling. 
 
 She blushed, and would have avoided 
 giving an answer, but he pressed her. 
 
 Now, please, Miss Vanstone, do not be 
 afraid of giving offence. I should like to 
 hear a little truth about my own profession, 
 at least glean an idea of the impression they 
 make upon other people.' 
 
 Thus exhorted, Helen pocketed her fears, 
 and said laughingly, — 
 
 ' Well, I have always understood that 
 artists are a somewhat slovenly and untidy- 
 looking race, with long hair and ill-fitting
 
 122 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 clothes. Now you, on the contrary, look 
 as if you had prepared yourself for a 
 promenade down Bond Street or some 
 other centre of fashion.' 
 
 It was Ralph Weldon's turn to blush a 
 little at this compliment. ' Certainly, I never 
 thought that genius was incompatible with 
 neatness,' he answered. * The world of Bo- 
 hemia conforms more to convention than 
 it used, Miss Vanstone. A poet of the 
 Victorian era can enter a drawing-room 
 without his " eye in fine frenzy rolling." ' 
 
 1 I should think all these kinds of pro- 
 fessions, — poets, artists, and writers, were 
 very unprofitable,' suddenly called out Mrs. 
 Vanstone, in the intervals of her sewing. It 
 was almost the first remark she had con- 
 descended to make, and Helen blushed 
 vividly at its rudeness. She stole a glance 
 at the visitor, and saw a burning spot on 
 his cheek that told he felt it. 
 
 ' May I ask whether you have known 
 many who pursue these callings ? ' he asked, 
 coldly. 
 
 1 No ; but I have heard and read a good 
 deal about them. There was one man who
 
 A Visitor. 123 
 
 poisoned himself in a garret, I forget his 
 name ; and another who died through eating 
 a crust which had been given him when 
 he was starving. 5 
 
 1 I am encouraged to persevere in my 
 profession by the remembrance that neither 
 of these unfortunate men was an artist/ re- 
 plied Weldon, sarcastically. 
 
 Now it must not be supposed that Mrs. 
 Yanstone was so excessively ignorant as not 
 to know she had been guilty of great coarse- 
 ness and ill-breeding ; but the fact was, she 
 had taken a dislike to this young man, and 
 she was rather pleased to annoy him. 
 
 The slight embarrassment that resulted 
 from this brief passage caused Mr. Weldon 
 to glance at the clock, and to express his 
 regret at detaining them. 
 
 Helen smiled, and replied with the frank- 
 ness that is born of a Bohemian existence, — 
 ' You are not detaining us at all. Our life is 
 so monotonous, that the advent of a chance 
 visitor like yourself is quite a sensation. 
 Mamma and I get very tired of each other's 
 company sometimes, and our friends can 
 be counted upon our fingers.'
 
 124 The Qiteen of Two Worlds, 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone gave a slight frown, to 
 express disapproval of her daughter's 
 candour. There was no necessity to let 
 this young man know their affairs. But 
 although Helen read its meaning, she did 
 not choose to regard it, but continued her 
 revelations. 
 
 1 Of course we could make plenty of 
 acquaintance if we liked, but then most of 
 the people who are in the same position 
 in point of wealth, or rather in the absence 
 of it, as ourselves, are not to our tastes. 
 That is the misfortune of having tastes 
 beyond your means, Mr. Weldon.' 
 
 He knew that feeling well enough. ' I 
 have often thought, Miss Vanstone, that it 
 must be a great happiness to possess a 
 nature which soon accommodates itself to 
 its surroundings,' he added. " In London 
 you are at any rate free from the annoy- 
 ance of having your neighbour's friendship 
 forced upon you. In the country, you have 
 hardly got in before you perceive that an 
 obtrusively genial member of the family next 
 door is lying in wait for you in the back 
 or front garden.'
 
 : : - 
 
 ' Pray don't speak of neighbor 'ied 
 
 rn, with a wivjuty that rendered her 
 inning. , n our left there lives a 
 poor, threadbare-looking man, wL j 
 lawyer, I believe. How I pity him a 
 see him trudging every morning to busi- 
 : for you know, Mr. Weldon, he has 
 a dreadful half-fed look, that depresses me 
 fearfully. And his wife, poor creature, she 
 must have been a remarkably pretty 
 but now she h^ ; aerated into a drudge. 
 
 glimpses of hei garden :cca- 
 
 sionally, with a mysterious dustery-loc. 
 head-gear; and die ihildren, their nam 7 is 
 of course legion, have a broken-down 
 pearance, horribly large feet and handi is 
 if their misfortunes had taken the form of 
 elongating their extremities, — and die ddest 
 boy. he cannot be more than 5: 
 to busir.Trf ind never gets back before 
 eight. After his tea. poor fellow 
 himself by playing the concertina : you 
 will hear him in a few minutes ; he is 
 -ax/ 
 Mr. Ralph Weldon smiled a: hei descrip- 
 tion, and replied, — A s Eaur as my limited im-
 
 126 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 pressions would allow me to form a judg- 
 ment, I should not consider this street a 
 very cheerful abode. As your father does 
 not actively follow any profession, I wonder 
 you don't live in the country.' 
 
 ' I suppose habit makes us keep here,' said 
 Helen ; and then she added, with a very 
 vivid blush, as if she felt too late the im- 
 propriety of what she was saying, — ' And, 
 moreover, moving is expensive, when one is 
 not rich.' 
 
 This was more than Mrs. Vanstone could 
 well stand. 
 
 * My dear Helen, this gentleman cannot 
 possibly be interested in the paltry details 
 with which you are furnishing him.' 
 
 She blushed yet a deeper red at her 
 mother's rebuke, for she felt that it was not 
 undeserved ; that she had let her tongue run 
 too fast. Mr. Weldon came to the rescue 
 by changing the conversation. 
 
 1 I lead a very quiet life myself. My sister 
 lives with me, and she is my great com- 
 panion. Our friends can be counted, like 
 your own, upon the fingers, so we fall back 
 chiefly upon books for amusement.'
 
 A Visitor. 127 
 
 4 You have a sister ; how delightful that 
 must be!' cried Helen, eagerly. 'How I 
 wish that I had a brother ! ' She paused a 
 second, then added in a more thoughtful 
 tone, and unheedful of the rebuke which her 
 mother had just administered, — ' But, under 
 the circumstances, perhaps it is better as it 
 is. Men degenerate sooner than women, 
 and my brother might have been like one of 
 the boys next door, with large feet and great 
 red hands. I couldn't have been fond of 
 him then.' 
 
 ' You could only love an Apollo, I sup- 
 pose,' said Mr. Weldon, somewhat sarcasti- 
 cally. 
 
 ' O dear, no ! I have no predilection for 
 handsome men ; but I could not like any- 
 body who was common, not a gentleman. 
 You know, Mr. Weldon, poverty is not 
 incompatible with refinement.' 
 
 ' I flatter myself I am a proof of it in my 
 own person/ he cried, laughing. What he 
 admired intensely about this girl was her 
 audacious frankness, and her fearless con- 
 tempt for anything like sham. She hated 
 her poverty, but she was not ashamed of it.
 
 128 The Queen of Two Worlds, 
 
 ' I should like very much to be rich/ she 
 said, after a pause. 
 
 ' So would everybody, I think/ added Mr. 
 Weldon, smiling at her emphasis. 
 
 ' But I don't merely wish it because it 
 would promote my own individual comfort, 
 although that is its greatest consideration, 
 but because it would give me the chance of 
 snubbing a few people I know.' 
 
 A deep flush dyed the beautiful cheeks, 
 and such a glittering light came into the 
 dark brown eyes, as she followed out the 
 rest of the picture. 
 
 ' Oh, I would pay them all I owed with 
 such heavy interest. I would sting them 
 with my satire, and torture them with my 
 insolence/ 
 
 Then all at once her vindictive mood 
 changed, and she laughed merrily, as she 
 cried, ' Heigho ! — I shall never have an 
 opportunity of exhibiting these Christian 
 sentiments. I was born poor, and I shall 
 die poor.' 
 
 As she indulged in this cheerful reflection, 
 a knock was heard at the street door. She 
 turned to the visitor and said, —
 
 A Visitor. 129 
 
 ' That is papa ; you have not waited in 
 vain.' 
 
 But Mr. Ralph Weldon would have 
 preferred in his secret heart that he should 
 have waited an hour or two more in her 
 dear company. 
 
 vol. 1.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DOMESTIC AMENITIES, 
 
 R. GABRIEL VANSTONE was 
 
 a tall, thin man, with small, 
 meagre features, that expressed 
 neither greatness of character nor 
 strength of intellect. His eyes were small, 
 and had the habit common to timid and 
 insincere souls, of avoiding the gaze of 
 others. His clothes, without being abso- 
 lutely shabby, bore witness to good wear and 
 constant brushing. But although insignifi- 
 cant in face and slender in form, he had the 
 refined bearing of a gentleman ; and had you 
 seen him amid surroundings superior to the 
 present, you would not have concluded that 
 he was not in perfect harmony with them. 
 But in juxtaposition with the general dingi-
 
 Domestic Amenities. 131 
 
 ness of life in Thomas Street, his well-worn 
 clothes, his conscious air, the irresolution 
 expressed in speech and gait, proclaimed him 
 at a glance one of the victims of fortune. 
 Never strong or resolute by temperament, 
 his pecuniary disasters, and the domestic 
 tyranny of his wife, had reduced him to a 
 feeble old man. In the presence of Mrs. 
 Vanstone he was apt to assume the air of a 
 naughty child, who expects to be chid for 
 his misconduct, and seems anxious to sneak 
 away from the coming storm. As soon as 
 he saw Ralph Weldon he gave a start, 
 which did not escape the keen eyes of his 
 wife, and advanced towards him, holding 
 out his hand with an awkward affectation 
 of cordiality. 
 
 ' I wished to have a few moments' con- 
 versation with you, Mr. Vanstone/ said 
 Ralph, in his clear, ringing tones. His 
 keen eye read much of the state of affairs 
 between husband and wife, and he felt a 
 sovereign contempt for his acquaintance. 
 He did not as yet know the power of Mrs. 
 Vanstone's will, still less did he dream that 
 one day it would subjugate even him.
 
 132 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 The mistress of the house addressed her 
 lord (?) in a voice of much severity. * We 
 will leave you gentlemen together to talk 
 over your important matters ; there is no 
 fire in your study.' The emphasis laid on 
 two or three of the words indicated her 
 resentment at finding that Mr. Vanstone 
 had any secrets, business or otherwise, with 
 which she was unacquainted. 
 
 So great was Ralph Weldon's aversion 
 to her, that he would have allowed her to 
 remain in the cold half the night, but he 
 could not tolerate the idea of turning sweet 
 Helen out of the warm room. 
 
 ' I must beg, Mrs. Vanstone, that we 
 suffer the inconvenience, if any. I am the 
 intruder, and what I have to say to your 
 husband will not take five minutes. Let us 
 go into any other apartment.' 
 
 ' Will you follow me, please,' said the 
 master of the house, in his feeble tones, 
 desirous of ending a contest which might 
 more embitter his spouse's temper. The 
 unhappy man would shortly have to meet 
 her in their common chamber.
 
 Domestic Amen ities. 133 
 
 When they were gone, Mrs. Vanstone let 
 loose the floodgates of her soul. 
 
 ' This is the way in which wives are 
 treated. Men drag us down to poverty, 
 they convert us into drudges, rob us of our 
 looks and health, and then, greatest and 
 deepest wrong of all, withhold their con- 
 fidence from us.' 
 
 This pathetic lament was too much for 
 Helen's gravity : she indulged in a peal of 
 hearty laughter. ' O mamma, mamma, what 
 a pity you were born without a touch of 
 humour, you would have enjoyed such fun 
 out of yourself. If you only knew how 
 absurd all this sounds to a disinterested 
 person. To hear you talk, anybody would 
 think poor papa was a second Bluebeard, 
 whereas his only crime is being very weak. 
 O, my dear mother, please don't look so 
 tragic ! ' cried the girl, with a second irre- 
 pressible fit of laughter as she saw that the 
 injured woman was preparing to reply. 
 
 1 Helen, your jesting is ill-timed ; you are 
 too frivolous to understand my feelings. 
 Nobody but a wife could possibly do that.' 
 ' Thank Heaven I am not in that enviable
 
 134 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 position !' said Helen, who was still making 
 a desperate effort to steady the corners of 
 her mouth. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone rose with a quiet air of 
 determination. ' I shall go and listen to 
 what they are saying,' she said, decidedly. 
 ' When confidence is withheld from me in 
 this outrageous fashion, I am compelled to 
 resort to means which, under happier cir- 
 cumstances, I should be the first to despise;' 
 and with this public palliation of her pro- 
 ceedings she walked off. 
 
 'After all, there's a deal of comedy in 
 this life,' thought Helen, as she reflected on 
 recent events. * I don't expect there's half 
 so much fun to be got in a higher sphere. 
 I think Mr. Weldon has got a touch of 
 humour, and can detect incongruities. I saw 
 a twinkle in his eye once or twice that I 
 rather liked. I declare his visit has quite 
 freshened me up ; it's a long time since I've 
 held intercourse with a man who is gentle- 
 manly and clever too.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone re-entered the room with a 
 disappointed look. 
 
 i They are a cunning pair,' she said, bitterly.
 
 Domestic Amenities, 135 
 
 ' Your father always mumbles so that nobody 
 can hear him ; but that Weldon man has 
 hushed his voice to a whisper. I haven't 
 heard a single word.' 
 
 ' And yet your ears are pretty acute with 
 long practice, mamma.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone discreetly allowed this 
 sarcasm to pass without notice, and said, — 
 
 ' I don't like that young man ; there is 
 something very sinister about him.' 
 
 1 That's because he snapped you up rather 
 sharply once,' said Helen, shrewdly. 
 
 ' I trust that whatever may be the number 
 of my faults, Helen, paltriness is not to be 
 included among them,' replied her mother, 
 majestically. ' A person can differ from me 
 in argument without making me his enemy. 
 I speak from mature experience. There are 
 symptoms about this man which I could not 
 clearly explain, but which give me the idea 
 of a sinister character.' 
 
 1 Sinister or not, he has plenty of brains. 
 He is what I call a man! 
 
 ' I fail to clearly understand what you 
 mean to express by that definition.' 
 
 ' I mean to say that he is above the ave-
 
 136 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 rage/ answered Helen, rather puzzled to 
 make herself properly understood by a per- 
 son who had an interest in misunderstand- 
 ing her. 'He is a man who talks and acts 
 with vigour ; is not weak, like papa, for 
 example. He is one whom a woman could 
 look up to with confidence, and suffer her- 
 self to be guided by.' 
 
 ' Don't talk rubbish/ said Mrs. Vanstone, 
 crossly, descending suddenly to homely lan- 
 guage. ' In plain English, a man of that 
 sort would develop into a bad-tempered 
 brute a week after marriage/ 
 
 1 You persistent man-hater ! I am sure 
 that Mr. Weldon couldn't be a brute to a 
 woman. In spite of a certain air of stern- 
 ness about him, he has kind eyes ; I know 
 he could be very tender where he loved/ 
 
 ' For Heaven's sake, Helen, do not dis- 
 tress me with this foolish chatter. I cannot 
 conceive what amusement you derive from 
 speculating about him ? ' 
 
 1 My dearest mother, you must remember 
 that the visits of young men to Thomas 
 Street are like angel's visits, and that I am 
 obliged, for lack of occupation, to submit
 
 Domestic A men ities. 1 3 7 
 
 the character of any new comer to a search- 
 ing analysis/ 
 
 1 No eligible young men come this way,' 
 said Mrs. Vanstone, with her usual bitter- 
 ness. ' If ever fortune should so far smile 
 upon us as to permit you to receive an offer 
 from somebody who could give you a good 
 home, I should be the first to urge your 
 acceptance of it ; but I trust, nay I am sure, 
 that your own good sense will never allow 
 you to make a fool of yourself by marrying 
 a man who will bring you to the same 
 drudging life as this.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone stole a glance at her 
 daughter, and saw with inward triumph 
 that her solemn warning had impressed 
 her considerably. She was right. Helen 
 had shrewdness enough to see through a 
 good many shams, and in consequence of 
 this faculty, a large proportion of her 
 mother's proceedings were not sacred in 
 her eyes ; but she had a very strong belief 
 in that mother's knowledge both of life and 
 human nature, and her face wore its gravest 
 expression as she replied, — 
 
 * I know you give me good advice,
 
 138 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 mamma. I had better resolve to turn into 
 a regular old maid, with the inevitable cat 
 and parrot, than jump out of the frying- 
 pan into the fire. Here I am poor, but 
 to a certain extent my own mistress. If I 
 married, I should be just as poor, and have 
 to put up with the caprices of a husband 
 into the bargain. For, as you have very 
 wisely hinted, fairy princes don't come down 
 Thomas Street in search of wives, and any- 
 body under a fairy prince I will not accept,' 
 she said, smiling. 
 
 Something of her old laughing mood came 
 back to her as she thought more over the 
 subject, for it was in her most amusing 
 manner that she added — 
 
 ' I have the fate of poor Mrs. Baker next 
 door to warn me against rash matrimony. 
 She was as good-looking when a girl as 
 I am now, I daresay, and you see to what 
 she has descended — eight common-looking 
 children and a dustery kind of arrangement 
 for a house-cap.' 
 
 We have seen that Mrs. Vanstone's ears 
 were not acute enough to catch a fragment 
 of the conversation that was being carried
 
 Domestic Amenities. 139 
 
 on between the two gentlemen, but being 
 privileged, we can overhear it from the 
 beginning. 
 
 ' 1 came to your house this evening, Mr. 
 Yanstone, on the principle that delays are 
 dangerous,' said YVeldon, when the door was 
 shut on them, and taking care to lower his 
 voice, in order that if the lady of the house 
 should be behind the keyhole, as from his 
 diagnosis of her character he strongly sus- 
 pected she was, or soon would be, she might 
 be disappointed. 
 
 1 No bad news, I hope ? ' said the other, 
 turning very pale as he spoke. 
 
 ' Not exactly, or at least none that need 
 have a bad result if you act prudently. My 
 stockbroker told me to-day that they are 
 going to knock down our shares. I sold 
 out just before the Exchange closed, and I 
 strongly advise you to do the same as early 
 as possible to-morrow morning.' 
 
 ' They may be down by then,' cried Mr, 
 Yanstone, anxiously. 
 
 1 No ; the operations will not begin for 
 another day or two yet, so I am told ; but 
 it is . as well to act soon. The last price,
 
 1 40 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 the one at which I sold, was two and a-half- 
 premium, and you have ten, that will yield 
 you twenty-five pounds less commission ; not 
 so much as we had hoped to get out of 
 them, but still very much better than loss.' 
 
 ' My dear young friend, I am very much 
 obliged to you for the trouble you have 
 taken/ said the old gentleman, shaking 
 Mr. Weldon's hand with great cordiality. 
 1 Accept my warmest gratitude.' 
 
 ' You bought them on my recommenda- 
 tion, and I should have blamed myself had 
 you lost. I called here because I happened 
 to be in the neighbourhood, and thought an 
 interview would be better than writing. But 
 I fear it may not have been a very wise step, 
 if you wish, as I suppose you do, to conceal 
 these little transactions from your family,' 
 concluded Mr. Weldon. 
 
 The old gentleman coughed, looked em- 
 barrassed, and finally made a clean breast 
 of his domestic difficulty. ' Ahem ! I should 
 prefer to keep it quiet, for women are so 
 confoundedly nervous, and always think 
 you are going to lose if you venture into 
 a little bit of speculation. And Mrs. Van-
 
 Domestic Amenities. 141 
 
 stone is particularly nervous, as it happens 
 that I have managed to get rid of a good 
 part of my income, ha, ha!' and he ended 
 with a forced laugh, that told Ralph Weldon 
 plainly enough how very much afraid of 
 his wife he was. 
 
 * I perfectly understand,' replied that 
 young man of the world drily. To him 
 it seemed little short of monstrous that a 
 man should fear a woman. 
 
 After a few minutes more had been passed 
 in conversation upon the subject of the 
 shares, Mr. Weldon took his leave. As 
 he passed into the hall, he saw that the 
 dining-room door was open, and Helen was 
 seated in such a position that her glance 
 fell directly upon him. 
 
 He had hardly made up his mind whether 
 he should presume on their brief acquaint- 
 ance to go in and bid her good-night ; but, 
 in the face of that open door, it would have 
 been impossible to have avoided the small 
 courtesy. 
 
 Was she secretly desirous of knowing 
 more of this young man, as he was madly 
 eager to know more of her ? Perhaps so ;
 
 142 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 for although she had not fallen in love at 
 first sight with him as he unquestionably 
 had with her, he had made a distinct im- 
 pression upon her fancy ; and her voice was 
 full of cordiality as she said, — 
 
 1 We treat you better than you deserve, 
 you see, Mr. Weldon : you closed your door 
 upon us, we leave ours open to you.' 
 
 'It is from your sex that we should 
 especially expect the return of good for 
 evil,' he replied, as his gaze again rested on 
 her with that admiring expression which 
 had caused her to blush so vividly half an 
 hour ago. Even now she could not meet 
 it without a little embarrassment, for she 
 coloured as she answered in a jesting 
 tone. 
 
 ' That is a very pretty compliment.' She 
 paused as if doubting whether it would 
 be quite correct to give expression to her 
 thought ; then added, with the natural 
 audacity that dug so wide a gulf between 
 herself and young ladies who order every 
 word and action according to conventional 
 rules, — ■ And I should say you are not in the 
 habit of paying compliments.'
 
 Domestic Ame?iities. 1 43 
 
 It was this audacious frankness which 
 rendered her almost as charming in his 
 eyes as did the radiant beauty which had 
 first stirred his heart. 
 
 1 You are right, Miss Vanstone, I am 
 not a ladies' man by profession, and for that 
 reason more reliance can be placed upon 
 them.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone looked up with a dis- 
 pleased air. She was very far from being 
 a prudish mother, but conversation of this 
 kind was hardly such as should have been 
 indulged in between two young persons 
 whose acquaintance was of the very slen- 
 derest description. 
 
 He caught the glance, readily interpreting 
 its meaning, and willing for his own pur- 
 poses not to increase the enmity that he 
 had already provoked, held out his hand 
 in token of leave-taking. Yet had the dis- 
 pleasure of a hundred mothers been the 
 consequence, he could not have refrained 
 from detaining that little palm in his own 
 a few seconds longer than was strictly 
 necessary, and he knew by the flush that 
 spread over her cheek, and the droop of the
 
 144 The Queen of Two Worlds, 
 
 eyes which avoided his last glance, that 
 Helen detected in that swift pressure all 
 that he could have explained. 
 
 Mr. Vanstone saw him depart with dis- 
 may, for he knew that the shield between 
 himself and a severe domestic storm was 
 now withdrawn. He returned with slow 
 steps to the parlour, and, as he had guessed 
 would be the case, found his wife seated, 
 and waiting for him with that hard look 
 about the eyes, that rigidity about the fea- 
 tures, which indicated her firm and unalter- 
 able determination to bring the wretched 
 man to book. 
 
 * Mr. Vanstone/ began this resolute 
 woman, in her severest tones, — ' for more 
 years than I care to remember I have 
 suffered, meekly and resignedly, calamities 
 such as fall to the lot of few women. I 
 have been, sir, a faithful and a true wife, 
 devoted to your interests, careful of your 
 substance, attentive to your wants. I call 
 upon your conscience to answer the question 
 I now put to you — Is this a fitting return for 
 my life of devotion, my ruined hopes, my 
 shattered health ? '
 
 Domestic Amenities. 145 
 
 Her manner as she uttered these solemn 
 words was so majestic, that it might have 
 awed a stronger minded man than her 
 husband, and filled him with the uneasy 
 conviction that he had been committing a 
 gross breach of domestic duty. 
 
 1 My dear, I don't know what you are 
 driving at,' he stammered nervously. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone indulged in a prolonged 
 and withering sneer. 
 
 ' I am fully acquainted with your deeply- 
 engrained habit of dissimulation, sir ; but I 
 will explain my meaning so clearly, that 
 even you cannot shuffle out of understanding 
 it. I demand to know what was your 
 business with that sinister-looking man who 
 thrust himself upon us this night ! ' 
 
 Helen stood by, quietly observant of this 
 small drama, ready to interfere when matters 
 were getting to be too serious. She had 
 assisted at too many of these scenes to be 
 moved by them, and an amused smile curled 
 her lip at her mothers persistent definition 
 of young Weldon as sinister-looking. 
 
 Mr. Vanstone was in a most awkward 
 situation. If he told the truth, he knew that 
 vol. 1. K
 
 146 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 his wife's anger would be as great as if he 
 persisted in keeping his own counsel. His 
 occasional speculations on the Stock Ex- 
 change had furnished him with nice little 
 sums of money, that enabled him to enjoy 
 himself out to an extent that went some 
 way towards compensating him for his dis- 
 comforts at home, and he did not relish 
 the idea of either having to renounce the 
 prospect of such an agreeable addition to 
 his modest income, or of having to share 
 it with his family. 
 
 ' My dear Martha, I don't question you so 
 closely about your proceedings. If a friend 
 of yours happened to call, and be closeted 
 with you for ten minutes, I should not betray 
 curiosity about the matter. Please let us be 
 fair to each other. I don't pry into your 
 affairs ; don't pry into mine. That's just. 
 What do you say, Helen, eh ?' 
 
 But before Helen could give an opinion, 
 her mother's wrathful tones rejoined, — 
 
 ' How dare you, Mr. Vanstone, institute a 
 comparison between any one of my proceed- 
 ings and such conduct as that of to-night ? 
 Pry into your affairs, indeed ! If I do pry, it
 
 Domestic Amenities. 
 
 H7 
 
 is for your own sake and for the sake of this 
 poor child here, for the sake of keeping a 
 roof over our heads, and to prevent you from 
 squandering your few remaining thousands/ 
 
 At this point she reached the melting 
 stage of her wrath, and burst into tears. 
 
 Perhaps the sight of these tears made him 
 feel less nervous of her than when she fixed 
 him with her wrathful, glittering glances ; 
 perhaps it was a sudden wave of manly 
 feeling that for the moment strengthened his 
 feeble spirit, and prompted him to rebel 
 against this insidious tyranny. One thing 
 is certain, that he resolved to hold his own 
 this time, and conveyed that resolution in 
 language that was as emphatic as could be 
 wished. 
 
 * You would like to know what Ralph 
 Weldon came to see me about, would you, 
 Mrs. Vanstone ? Well, then, d — n me if I 
 gratify you ! ' 
 
 And marvelling at his own boldness, the 
 inspired husband quitted the room, and 
 hastily getting into bed, pretended to be 
 asleep when his wife joined him. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone's feelings may be better
 
 148 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 imagined than described. Very rarely had 
 it happened to her to be bearded thus ; but 
 like all great minds, she accepted her present 
 defeat with calmness, conscious of a future 
 victory that would restore to her her pristine 
 glory. 
 
 ' I will be at him again to-morrow,' she 
 said to her daughter, as she hastily dried 
 her tears. ' And if he doesn't confess then, 
 I'll keep on till he does. It's evidently 
 something he is ashamed of.' 
 
 ' If anybody can get out a secret by 
 badgering, it is certainly you, mamma,' 
 answered Helen, laughing. ' Poor papa 
 would have saved himself a deal of trouble 
 by confessing at once. Do you know, I 
 think I shall go to bed now, I feel rather 
 tired.' 
 
 And in a few moments she was in her own 
 room, having retired so early, more because 
 she wanted to be alone than because she was 
 really fatigued. 
 
 As any judge of human nature might have 
 predicted, her thoughts occupied themselves 
 with this young stranger, whose flattering 
 admiration had been so plainly revealed
 
 Domestic Amenities. 149 
 
 and she recalled with the faithful memory 
 of one whose uneventful life had made her 
 eager to note trifles, every word, every 
 glance, every gesture that had escaped him 
 during their brief acquaintance. 
 
 And then by a transition natural enough, 
 she found herself pondering on the subject 
 of love, of which as yet she knew nothing 
 from her own experience. Was it likely 
 that her own heart should ever be filled 
 with that passionate longing for another — 
 that sweet and strong love of which she 
 had read in books ? — that love which turns 
 the dingiest habitation into an enchanted 
 Eden, and breathes into the life that hitherto 
 appeared so sordid its own radiant glory — 
 the love that turns every work and property 
 of nature into its handmaid and minister. 
 
 Would there ever come to her a time in 
 which the small sorrows of her daily life 
 would melt in the great content of a 
 heart that throbbed with new and exquisite 
 emotions; when in the ecstacy of her new- 
 born love, all things would take a fairer hue 
 in her eyes, when sunlit skies, silver waters, 
 the joyous carol of birds, the bloom and
 
 1 50 The Queen of Two Wo7'lds. 
 
 fragrance of summer flowers, would seem to 
 speak to her with living voices, as if exult- 
 ing in her bliss ? 
 
 That time was nearer to her than she 
 dreamed of, for all unconsciously had been 
 planted in her heart the tiny seed that was 
 to bring forth golden fruit, — the future had 
 yet in store for her that one supreme and 
 exquisite gift which it bestows but once — 
 the first, passionate love of fresh, unsullied 
 youth.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SOWING SEEDS. 
 
 T is, or ought to be, always dis- 
 tressing to a high-minded his- 
 torian to be compelled to recount 
 an instance of supreme moral 
 cowardice on the part of those whose actions 
 he narrates ; and it is, therefore, a painful 
 task to have to record that the unhappy 
 Mr. Vanstone was finally vanquished by the 
 importunities of his wife, and gave, with 
 great reluctance, a true account of his con- 
 nection with Ralph Weldon. 
 
 But her reception of his intelligence was 
 very different from what he had expected ; 
 the upbraiding was of the very mildest de- 
 scription, and a man of less acuteness than 
 even Mr. Vanstone would have suspected
 
 152 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 that the unusual gentleness of her demean- 
 our had its root in some profound and 
 subtle reasous. The fact was, that although 
 bitterly wroth with her husband for not 
 having allowed his family to share these 
 windfalls with him, she saw the impropriety 
 of killing the goose that laid the golden 
 eggs. If this young man possessed the 
 faculty of filling his own pocket, and help- 
 ing other persons to fill theirs, it was quite 
 as well that he should be made use of, in 
 spite of his ' sinister air.' Mr. Vanstone 
 had confessed to having netted from his 
 Stock Exchange proceedings a little over 
 fifty pounds, — this, as she said to herself 
 with her profound belief in his deeply- 
 engrained habits of dissimulation, was most 
 probably under the mark. She was per- 
 fectly willing that he should continue his 
 speculations under the prudent directions 
 of Mr. Weldon, on condition that she took 
 her portion of the profits. 
 
 Such being the workings of her astute 
 and evenly-balanced mind, it was quite with 
 her consent that Helen made the following 
 proposition to her father, —
 
 Sowing Seeds. 1 5 3 
 
 * Papa, why don't you bring that young 
 Mr. Weldon home one evening ? It 
 would make a change for us, and as he 
 doesn't possess many friends, it might make 
 a change for him too.' 
 
 ' I can ask him, my dear, if you wish it,' 
 replied her father ; and the result was that 
 two evenings after, Ralph Weldon was 
 seated in the drawing-room of Thomas 
 Street, drinking deeply and greedily from 
 the cup of happiness. 
 
 It was an event in the girl's monotonous 
 life, and she had celebrated it with all the 
 resources that lay in her power. She had 
 put on her one grand dress — a blue silk, 
 which fitted her to perfection, and exhibited, 
 to his admiring eyes the faultless symmetry 
 of her tall and supple figure. She had 
 hunted out old bits of lace, and half-for- 
 gotten ornaments, and had dressed her 
 smooth, shining hair in the last and most 
 becoming fashion. She smiled to herself 
 as she completed her careful toilet with an 
 air of girlish triumph, for instinct whispered 
 to her that not a detail of it would be lost 
 upon her visitor. ' I wonder whether I
 
 154 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 really care about his admiration ! I never 
 remember taking such pains before,' she 
 murmured half dreamily. 
 
 And when she entered the little drawing- 
 room to greet him, it seemed to Ralph 
 Weldon that she flooded the place with 
 sunshine and perfume. He glanced out 
 on the dull street with its dark, sombre 
 houses, on the mean little apartment with 
 its antiquated, worn-out furniture, and 
 thought what a shame it was that so 
 radiant a creature should be compelled to 
 pass the most glorious days of her youth 
 amid such depressing surroundings. She 
 could not help her poverty, but it would 
 have been possible to have chosen a more 
 congenial spot than this. Nature at least 
 makes no distinction between rich and poor, 
 but showers her gifts ungrudgingly on all, 
 and amid flowers, and light, and fragrant 
 air, and skies undimmed by the smoke of 
 cities, she would have seemed the incar- 
 nation of bright and joyous girlhood. 
 
 It was doubtless a proof of the attraction 
 of their souls to each other, their marvellous 
 similarity in thought and nature, that
 
 Sowing Seeds. 155 
 
 although they were almost perfect strangers 
 so far as actual acquaintance went, they 
 glided into conversation! with as much 
 freedom from constraint as if they had 
 known each other from childhood. Helen 
 talked as naturally, expressed her thoughts 
 with as little reticence, as if she were ad- 
 dressing her own mother or father, and 
 this young man seemed to understand her 
 perfectly. If she found a momentary diffi- 
 culty in giving expression to some rather 
 original idea, he supplied the fitting defini- 
 nition, or the missing word without hesi- 
 tation. It was as if he could read her very 
 thoughts. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone had not yet put in an 
 appearance, being much busied about the 
 household affairs, and giving last and 
 minute instructions to her inefficient 
 domestic with regard to the serving of 
 the humble banquet ; Mr. Vanstone ex- 
 cused himself for a few moments, and 
 thus the young people were left together. 
 
 * How do you amuse yourself ? ' asked 
 Ralph Weldon, rather abruptly. 
 
 * I read a good deal. Knowing so few
 
 156 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 people as we do, I don't often get a 
 chance of exchanging ideas with my kind, 
 so I hold communion with the mighty- 
 dead and the illustrious living,' answered 
 Helen, smiling. 
 
 1 You don't often go out to parties, pic- 
 nics, and that kind of thing, I suppose ?' 
 
 ' For often you might say never,' said 
 the girl gravely. ' I think I have been 
 to three parties in my life, and wretched 
 affairs they were. The girls looked nice, 
 and managed to pass muster ; but the 
 men were shocking, — they looked so 
 horribly out of place in dress clothes ; a 
 cut-away coat and a pipe were more in 
 their way, you know. But I forgot, I did 
 go once to a really splendid ball at my 
 father's cousin's house, Lady Grahame — 
 and there was nothing to offend my sus- 
 ceptibilities there. The women were 
 dressed superbly, and the men had that 
 air which seems to come with wealth and 
 birth ; but I didn't enjoy myself really so 
 much as at the humbler gatherings. I 
 liked the glitter of the jewels, the rich 
 sea of colour formed by the dresses, the
 
 Sowing Seeds. 157 
 
 music, the brilliant lights ; but I felt too 
 much out of my element. It was a life I 
 had dreamed of, but it was not my life. I 
 felt strange and awkward, and seemed at 
 a loss to know what to say or do. That 
 was two years ago, I was only seventeen 
 then ; I think I shouldn't lose my head so 
 easily now.' 
 
 He regarded her with a gaze of infinite 
 compassion, as he thought how unjust had 
 fortune been in her instance, — a girl whose 
 grace and brilliant beauty would have made 
 her distinguished amid the proudest throng, 
 condemned to hide her charms in a 
 wretched hole like this, her greatest 
 triumph to be the queen of a night in 
 some assemblage unworthy of her. 
 
 ' Pardon me for asking so many ques- 
 tions, — but has your father's cousin never 
 asked you to her other balls ? ' he said, 
 after a pause, in which these and kindred 
 thoughts had been flitting through his 
 brain. 
 
 1 No ; we never got on together. Lady 
 Grahame presumes upon her rank and 
 riches to treat papa patronisingly. He
 
 158 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 puts up with it, and she thought that I 
 should be as easy. She found out her 
 mistake, and disliked me in consequence. 
 But I don't care a straw for her, or her 
 dislike,' added the girl, with flashing eyes. 
 \ I am her equal in manners, education, 
 and everything else, save insolence, and 
 no being on earth shall patronise me. I 
 would sooner starve than acquire affluence 
 by fawning on a woman of that class.' 
 
 * Rich people are only affable to the poor 
 so long as they remain their slaves.' 
 
 1 I have found out the truth of that in 
 my case, at any rate,' replied Helen, 
 laughing. Somehow there was in her 
 heart to-day so genial a content, such 
 innocent happiness, that she could not look 
 grave even over her social troubles. ' I 
 never go near her ladyship now. Papa 
 keeps up the connection by a monthly 
 visit, and she occasionally condescends to 
 direct her coachman to drive to Thomas 
 Street; but I tell him the relationship is 
 not worth keeping up. After all, even if 
 she were a different sort of woman, 
 pleasant and good - hearted, and took me
 
 Sowing Seeds. 
 
 w s 
 
 159 
 
 into society with her, there would be 
 other obstacles. To visit and attend 
 parties a girl must have good dress, and 
 it is impossible that papa could afford it. 
 And I would sooner stop in the house 
 from one year's end to another, than give 
 people the opportunity of sneering at my 
 appearance/ 
 
 He could have listened to her for hours, 
 as she poured out to him her girlish con- 
 fidences ; for this talk seemed somehow to 
 bring her closer to him, to make of him, 
 a mere stranger, a sympathetic and sympa- 
 thising friend. 
 
 1 Humph, without intending anything 
 impertinent, I think I may conclude that 
 your life is not a very brilliant affair/ he 
 said. 
 
 1 It is not indeed,' replied the girl, with 
 a grave shake of the head ; ' and the worst 
 part is, that there seems no hope of affairs 
 ever getting better.' 
 
 1 A change might come with marriage,' 
 he suggested, with a rapid glance at her. 
 
 She coloured vividly, foolishly, as she said 
 half angrily to herself. 'You speak of an
 
 1 60 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 improbability ; it is not at all likely that 
 I shall ever marry.' 
 
 He felt his heart sink suddenly at those 
 few quiet words. 
 
 ' For what reason ? ' 
 
 1 For many reasons,' she answered, in a 
 musing tone. ' In the first place, I should 
 not care to marry a poor man, and it is 
 extremely improbable that any but a poor 
 man would ask me to be his wife ; and, 
 in the second place, I have been so spoiled 
 at home, so accustomed to have my own 
 way, that I should not know how to 
 submit myself with a good grace to the 
 dictation of a man.' 
 
 He smiled as he thought that the man 
 who was fortunate enough to win so beauti- 
 ful a prize, ought only to feel too happy 
 in being her slave. 
 
 1 The majority of men are not tyrants,' 
 he said. ' I think I have seen enough of 
 your household to hazard a pretty shrewd 
 guess that your father is not supreme dic- 
 tator here, that Mrs. Vanstone is the ruling 
 and guiding spirit.' 
 
 ' But very few men are so easily ruled
 
 Sowing Seeds. 1 6 1 
 
 as papa,' replied Helen, with a candour that 
 was not flattering to her absent parent. 
 
 Ralph was silent, he could not honestly 
 avow his belief that there were many hus- 
 bands who would put their necks under the 
 yoke with the meekness of Mr. Vanstone. 
 And it was too early to tell her that he, a 
 man of a totally different mould, would have 
 been ruled by love as completely as the 
 other was ruled by fear, that he would be 
 ready to hug the silken chains which had 
 been bound round him by such dear and 
 tender hands, and that not a shadow should 
 tarnish the lustre of her life save such 
 as the most watchful love could not dispel. 
 
 And yet as she sat there in the dim 
 twilight, with her sweet eyes drooped in 
 thought, and the shadows playing over 
 the soft sensitive mouth and the delicate 
 bloom of her fair cheek, an almost irre- 
 sistible longing came over him to pour out 
 his troubled heart, and tell her of this 
 love, which in so brief a space had attained 
 to a giant's growth. But, with a stern 
 effort, he mastered the fiery impulse, mur- 
 muring to himself, ' Not yet, not yet ! let 
 VOL. i. L
 
 1 62 The Queen of Two Worlds, 
 
 me wait until time has prepared the soil 
 into which I can plant the flower of ever- 
 lasting bloom. To force it would be to 
 kill it/ 
 
 Mr. Vanstone came in and lighted the 
 gas, a task in which Ralph, to show that he 
 was not troubled with false pride, assisted 
 him ; and shortly after Mrs. Vanstone sailed 
 in with her best silk dress, and greeted the 
 young man, whose sinister air she had for- 
 merly denounced, with apparent cordiality. 
 The servant followed quickly, and announced, 
 in the weak voice of one not accustomed to 
 such ceremonious proceedings, that the 
 repast, a kind of tea-dinner, was served ; 
 and Ralph, politely offering his arm to his 
 hostess, escorted her down the staircase — a 
 world too narrow for her noble proportions, 
 which time had developed freely in spite 
 of her deep wrongs. 
 
 On the whole, it was a merry little party, 
 for Mrs. Vanstone was gracious, to further 
 her own purposes. Helen felt strangely 
 light-hearted and happy ; and Ralph Weldon 
 developed a fund of humour which hardly 
 seemed compatible with his usually grave
 
 Sowing Seeds. 163 
 
 demeanour. He jested and told comical 
 stories, in a dry, mirth-provoking manner, 
 that made Helen think him the most enter- 
 taining person she had ever met. And after 
 the meal was finished, they went back to 
 the drawing-room, and Ralph turned over 
 her music, and stood by her side while she 
 sang. 
 
 Then Mrs. Vanstone got him to herself 
 for a few minutes, and after informing him 
 with her sweetest smile that she had dis- 
 covered her husband's secret, began to sound 
 him on the subject of speculation in con- 
 nection with the Stock Exchange. And 
 Mr. Weldon, who now perceived the cause 
 of her extraordinary cordiality, saw in what 
 way he could secure her toleration of his 
 visits, and instructed her in all the know- 
 ledge he had gained from his friend on the 
 Stock Exchange, in the mysteries of pre- 
 miums, contangees, and backwardations, and 
 graciously expressed his readiness to help 
 them to add to their small income, by keep- 
 ing Mr. Vanstone posted with regard to 
 any promising thing in the market, by which 
 he could net ten or twenty pounds profit.
 
 1 64 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 1 You must pay me a visit at my little box 
 at Richmond ; my sister will be delighted to 
 make your acquaintance/ he said. ' Next 
 month the country will begin to look at its 
 best. I have a boat, and if you care for the 
 river, I can row you and Miss Vanstone 
 about in the summer evenings.' 
 
 ' You are very kind, and it would indeed 
 be a pleasure, if my wretched health allowed 
 me to enjoy myself like other people ; but 
 Helen and Mr. Vanstone will, I know, be 
 happy to accept your invitation : she gets 
 so little change, poor child,' replied Mrs. 
 Vanstone, in plaintive tones. 
 
 She had developed of late years a slight 
 tendency to rheumatic gout, a malady which 
 was in truth inherited from her ancestors, 
 but which she persisted in attributing to her 
 misfortunes ; although to ordinary minds the 
 connection between rheumatic gout and 
 pecuniary difficulties would be one exces- 
 sively hard to trace. 
 
 ' Helen, my love,' she said, raising her 
 voice, * Mr. Weldon has been kind enough 
 to express a wish that you should visit him 
 at Richmond, and be introduced to his sister.'
 
 Sowing Seeds. 165 
 
 ' Are you fond of rowing ? Because I 
 have a boat,' added Ralph, as she crossed 
 over to where they were sitting. 
 
 Her eyes grew bright at the prospect of 
 this simple pleasure. 
 
 1 O, how delightful ! I should like it 
 above all things, Mr. Weldon ; and I should 
 be so glad to make the acquaintance of your 
 sister. Is she about my age ? I am nine- 
 teen, you know.' 
 
 ' She is twenty-seven, but as merry and 
 light-hearted as a school girl. She is an 
 artist by profession, and will, I hope, one 
 day make a name.' 
 
 1 I am sure I should take to her, and she 
 to me/ cried Helen, joyously. 
 
 He looked at her with a glance, that 
 seemed to say the man or woman who did 
 not take to so charming a girl must be very 
 hard to please. 
 
 ' And so you live together, like Darby and 
 Joan,' she said, after a pause, in which she 
 had been drawing a mental picture of the 
 Richmond household. ' I suppose that you 
 are very fond of her, and that she 
 worships you.'
 
 1 66 The Queen of Two Worlds, 
 
 1 We love each other very dearly ; but I 
 am not quite sure that I am altogether 
 such a hero in her eyes as you imagine,' 
 replied Ralph, laughing. 
 
 The evening flew on wings, and in an 
 incredibly short time, as it seemed to both 
 himself and Helen, the visitor had to declare 
 that he must take his leave. 
 
 ' One of the disadvantages of a country 
 life, — having to get up with the sun and 
 quit your friends just as the evening is 
 beginning,' said Helen. 
 
 She and her father accompanied him to 
 the street door, while Mrs. Vanstone, in 
 order to maintain the appearance of that 
 cordiality which it was politic to display, 
 smiled benignantly on the group from the 
 top of the staircase, her choice of this safe 
 retreat being dictated by her fear of 
 catching cold. 
 
 ' Good night ! and remember that the 
 moment the fine weather sets in you are 
 to come to Richmond,' cried Ralph, hold- 
 ing out his hand for the second time. 
 
 1 I shall not forget, but you will see us 
 before then,' said Helen. ' Come in without
 
 Sowing Seeds. 1 6 7 
 
 ceremony any evening you have nothing to 
 do with yourself. You will be sure to find 
 us two lonely females at home. Papa is a 
 wicked man, and generally passes his even- 
 ings at the club.' 
 
 'May I really be so unceremonious ? ' 
 asked Ralph, with an eager glance. 
 
 She coloured ever so little as she 
 answered, — 
 
 ' I am a straightforward young lady, Mr. 
 Weldon, and mean what I say. If you visit 
 us a few times, you will be able to study 
 my character and find that out for yourself.' 
 
 ' Then I shall come again very soon,' he 
 said, in a low tone, as he let her hand fall 
 for the last time. 
 
 ' He improves on acquaintance,' Mrs. Van- 
 stone deigned to admit when they were 
 seated again in the drawing-room. 
 
 1 He is young in years, but old in thought 
 and experience,' replied the husband, adding, 
 — ' He has received a first-rate education, 
 too ; is a better Greek and Latin scholar 
 than ever I was.' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone gave a contemptuous sniff 
 at this remark.
 
 1 68 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 ' If he had not learned something better 
 than Latin and Greek, he wouldn't succeed 
 much in the world. Drumming dead lan- 
 guages into your head doesn't give you 
 brains.' 
 
 This, of course, was meant for a thrust 
 at her unfortunate lord, on whose mental 
 incapacity she held a very strong opinion. 
 
 They still dilated upon the theme of their 
 guest for some time longer, Mrs. Vanstone 
 being very minute in her inquiries as to his 
 antecedents, his mode of life, his probable 
 income, etc., etc. Helen spoke the least of 
 the three ; but in this case silence meant the 
 reverse of indifference.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON THE RIVER. 
 
 APA ! papa ! how much longer 
 are you going to be ? We 
 shall miss the train to a cer- 
 tainty,' cried the impatient voice 
 of Helen, as she stood in the hall, ready 
 dressed, and waiting for her father to join 
 her. 
 
 It was the day of her visit to Ralph Wel- 
 don at Richmond, and the girl looked radiant 
 with happiness and the expectation of the 
 pleasures in store for her. Poor child ! ex- 
 cursions were rare things with her — espe- 
 cially when undertaken in the society of 
 agreeable young gentlemen, — and this was 
 a day to be marked with white in her 
 calendar. Mrs. Vanstone, who detested
 
 1 70 The Queen of Two Worlds.. 
 
 even the shortest railway journey, and would 
 have screamed with horror at the thought of 
 jeopardising her precious person in a rowing 
 boat, had declined to make one of the party, 
 on the convenient plea of failing health. 
 To her infinite credit it must be stated, that 
 she had pinched out of their small means a 
 sum sufficient to buy Helen a very pretty 
 costume, in order that she might not suffer 
 from juxtaposition with Miss Weldon. Every 
 person has some good points, and Mrs. Van- 
 stone's lay on the side of her maternal instincts. 
 
 It was the first week in June ; the greater 
 part of May had been cold and cheerless, but 
 at last summer had come in with a sudden 
 rush, and flooded the earth with green, and 
 perfume, and sunshine. Even dingy Thomas 
 Street seemed a little lighted up with the 
 prevailing gladness, and exhibited its sym- 
 pathy with nature by putting forth a flower 
 or two in its desolate gardens. 
 
 Mr. Weldon was at the station to receive 
 them, habited, as became a dweller amid rural 
 delights, in a light suit and a straw hat. 
 
 ' How nice and cool you look, while poor
 
 On the River. 171 
 
 papa seems as hot and uncomfortable as can 
 well be in that black coat and heavy hat,' 
 cried Helen, laughingly, as she shook hands 
 with him. Smiles overflowed her mouth 
 constantly to-day, for her heart was full of 
 a girlish gladness and content. 
 
 1 1 hope you will have so fallen in lave 
 with the country before you return, Miss 
 Vanstone, that I shall be able to persuade 
 you to become my near neighbour,' said 
 Ralph, as he assisted her into a fly. 
 
 At the end of a quarter of an hour, they 
 drew up before a small house, half villa, 
 half cottage, the lower windows of which 
 were screened from observation by a thick 
 high hedge that divided the garden from 
 the road. A neat maid-servant came to 
 open the gate, and as they walked up the 
 pavement leading to the door, Helen caught 
 a side glimpse of a spacious, well-kept lawn, 
 bordered by rose-trees. Some delicious- 
 looking roses bloomed close to the windows, 
 and filled the warm air with a fragrant 
 perfume. 
 
 ' O, what a delightful place this is ! ' cried 
 Helen, stopping short in her ecstasy, and
 
 172 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 bending down to inhale the delicious scent 
 from the roses. The gay tints and perfume 
 of the flowers, the pure, cool green of the 
 grass, the golden flood of sunshine, the 
 joyous carol of the birds as they clustered 
 among the branches, filled her heart with 
 their own unconscious joy. For the lan- 
 guage of nature had been almost a sealed 
 book to this young dweller in cities. And 
 Ralph's dark cheek flushed with pleasure 
 as he noted her simple delight ; and he said 
 kindly, — 
 
 ' I must make up a basket of these roses 
 for you to take home,' 
 
 I Oh, thank you very much, but it would be 
 robbing your beautiful garden.' 
 
 I I would strip it of every flower it holds 
 to keep that look of delight on your face,' 
 he said earnestly. 
 
 She did not blush at that meaning tone, 
 but she returned his gaze with one that 
 was half shy, and half grateful, and wholly 
 expressed her consciousness of what was 
 passing in his thoughts as he spoke thus. 
 
 ' I will go in now and see your sister ; 
 there will be plenty of time to make a
 
 On the River. 173 
 
 further acquaintance with the flowers,' she 
 said a little shyly. 
 
 Ralph led them into the hall, and Miss 
 Weldon, hearing them enter, came out to 
 meet them. She was a pleasant looking 
 girl, rather below the middle height, but 
 graceful and lady - like in her movements. 
 She had her brother's dark eyes and hair, 
 but here their resemblance to each other 
 ceased, for while Ralph's expression was 
 one of gravity, not unmixed with stern- 
 ness, her features wore a constant smile, 
 and her clear joyous tones indicated a sunny 
 nature. 
 
 The two girls went up-stairs for a few 
 moments, and Clara Weldon began to 
 chatter to her guest without loss of time. 
 
 * Miss Vanstone, I am so very pleased 
 to know you ; my brother has sung your 
 praises to me from the first night he saw 
 you. I fully expected to see you last 
 month, but my tiresome illness intervened, 
 although, as it happens, you could not have 
 had nicer weather for your first visit. Ralph 
 described you to me very minutely, you 
 know. I used to tell him I was sure I
 
 1 74 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 could paint your portrait from his descrip- 
 tion/ 
 
 'Indeed!' cried poor Helen, blushing a 
 little under the gaze of those eyes which 
 were so marvellously like Ralph's. ' And I 
 have heard a great deal about you, too — 
 I so long to see your pictures/ 
 
 1 0, you will not behold anything very 
 elaborate, I assure you. I am only one of 
 the "small fry" yet, and think myself a 
 genius if I make over two hundred a-year.' 
 
 'Two hundred a year!' cried Helen, 
 opening her eyes in astonishment. ' Why, 
 that is a fortune for a girl to make, I mean 
 by her own exertions. I only wish I pos- 
 sessed a talent that would bring me in a 
 fourth of that.' 
 
 The slight flush of excitement that dyed 
 her cheek, as she spoke with an energy called 
 forth by the subject, made her look lovely, 
 and Clara Weldon's gaze dwelt on the sweet 
 face with the admiring gaze of an artist. 
 
 ' My brother told me you were very 
 beautiful, and he was quite right. Forgive 
 my impertinent compliment, my dear ; but I 
 am a lover of beauty by profession.'
 
 On the River. 175 
 
 Apparently the young ladies had been 
 closeted together too long to please Mr. 
 Ralph Weldon, for his impatient voice called 
 out from the foot of the little stairs, — 
 
 1 We are getting very tired of waiting 
 here.' 
 
 * That means he wants you, Miss Van- 
 stone,' said Clara Weldon, laughing. 
 
 When they went down, he proceeded to 
 explain his programme to his guests. 
 
 ' It is now half-past four. We will have 
 what Clara intends to give us to fortify 
 ourselves as soon as possible. After that 
 we will devote a quarter of an hour to 
 the inspection of the botanical arrange- 
 ments. A fly will then be here to take us 
 to the river, and we will row about till 
 dusk, return back in time for a hasty supper, 
 and put you safely in the last train for town. 
 Will this suit you, Miss Vanstone ?' 
 
 ' Splendidly ! I think you are a first-rate 
 organiser, Mr. Weldon.' 
 
 * I am glad it meets with your approval. 
 Clara, is the banquet spread ? ' 
 
 And on receiving an answer in the affirma- 
 tive, they proceeded into the dining-room,
 
 ij6 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 where they were regaled with a choice little 
 dinner of salmon, lamb, and other dishes, 
 and vegetables, the product of their own 
 kitchen garden. 
 
 Everything about this small home was 
 characterised by an elegance and refinement 
 which charmed Helen, accustomed to one 
 so totally different. The order, the cleanli- 
 ness, the pretty though inexpensive knick- 
 knacks arranged tastefully about the rooms, 
 bore witness to the care of a mistress who 
 took pride in her house, and was enabled to 
 create an agreeable and pleasing effect out 
 of humble material. Even the linen which 
 adorned the table seemed to look whiter than 
 that on which they took their meals in 
 Thomas Street 
 
 1 But I daresay their income is more than 
 treble our own. What can be done on two 
 hundred and fifty a-year,' thought the girl to 
 herself, as her glance took in all these details 
 with something like a feeling of envy. She 
 did not know that a discontented mistress 
 makes a gloomy home, whatever the means 
 she may have at her command. Order and 
 neatness would always have flourished where
 
 On the River. 177 
 
 Clara Weldon was the presiding genius, for 
 she infused her own qualities into everything 
 around her. 
 
 They had not much time for an inspection 
 of the garden, for the fly was waiting at 
 the gate when they left the dinner table, and 
 Ralph Weldon took them very quickly over 
 the small estate. 
 
 1 For you know that the river is the great 
 feature of our entertainment,' he said to them. 
 
 So they got into the fly, and were de- 
 posited at the boathouse, where the stylish 
 appearance of the two girls and the beauty 
 of one attracted the regards of several young 
 men in acquatic costumes lounging about. 
 
 'It is a remarkable trait of the average 
 Briton, that while he can hardly open his 
 mouth before a woman to whom he is 
 introduced for the first time, he can always 
 stare at her by the hour together,' remarked 
 Ralph, with a displeased air, as he put off 
 from the shore with a few vigorous strokes. 
 And Helen, who divined by whom that 
 remark had been called forth, showed her 
 consciousness by one of those glances in 
 which shyness and pleasure met, and which 
 vol. 1. M
 
 178 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 gave to her eyes one of their sweetest 
 expressions. 
 
 Mr. Vanstone established himself comfort- 
 ably on the cushions, and lighted a cigar at 
 the express command of his hostess, who 
 assured him emphatically that smoking was 
 not in the least disagreeable to her ; while 
 Helen assumed the command of the steering 
 arrangements, being appointed to this office 
 by Ralph, in spite of her laughing protest 
 that she had never steered before in her life. 
 
 ' I shall run you ashore in no time, I 
 know.' 
 
 1 Oh no, you will not ; I will tell you which 
 string to pull/ replied Ralph, who enjoyed 
 her pretty puzzled looks, like an infatuated 
 young man as he was ; for her sweet presence 
 made this ordinary little boat more splendid 
 in his eyes than Cleopatra's famous barge. 
 
 'How do you like rural life ?' he asked, 
 as he rested on his oars. 
 
 1 So much, that I am very sad at the 
 prospect of having to return to London. I 
 should like to live here for a month.' 
 
 1 That can very easily be managed. Come 
 down as soon as you like, and stay till you
 
 On the River, 1 79 
 
 are tired. I promise you will not outwear 
 your welcome/ 
 
 I Oh, Mr. Weldon, I was not fishing for an 
 invitation,' cried she. 
 
 * I never suspected you were. You are not 
 one of the fishing sort ; but I am fishing to 
 get you down amongst us.' And as she 
 drooped her eyes beneath his earnest glance, 
 he went on eagerly, — ' I would row you 
 about as long as you liked. Will you come ? ' 
 
 I I cannot make a promise just now. I 
 should like it above all things ; but I must 
 consult mamma about it/ she answered 
 shyly. 
 
 1 I should have thought you were a 
 young lady who was rather independent of 
 mamma,' he said, plunging his oars sharply 
 into the water. 
 
 ' You do not think I am rude ; you are 
 not offended with me, I hope ? ' 
 
 ' Not offended, but — very disappointed, 
 that is all,' he replied. 
 
 ' I will try to come ; I don't think I can 
 promise more.' 
 
 1 And that means we shall have you,' he 
 said with a radiant look.
 
 1 80 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 So he rowed on in silence, thinking what 
 a paradise that little home would be if it 
 were lightened with her bright smile and 
 sunny glances. The world had changed 
 to him during those few weeks in which he 
 had dared to indulge in the hope that he 
 might win this young girl's love. His 
 heart took a quicker beat from the beauty 
 round him, and his eyes dwelt with a 
 keen interest on things that he had never 
 cared to notice hitherto. For the thought 
 of her wove itself into everything on which 
 his glance fell and his touch lighted. The 
 magic lights and tints which nature scatters 
 in profusion on her countless creations — 
 the silver sparkle of the shifting waters, 
 the golden glories of the summer sunset, 
 the rich bloom of the summer flowers, 
 became to him things of greater beauty 
 since he had known her ; for all that was 
 sweet, and tender, and fragrant in these, 
 seemed mingled in her smile, and glance, 
 and hair. 
 
 The soft, rosy twilight fell about them, 
 bathing the fair face in its tender shadows 
 as they floated on in the sweet silence, and
 
 On the River. 181 
 
 the tranquil beauty of the scene, the balmy 
 odours of the delicious night, seemed to 
 enter into his soul and blood, and open 
 his heart wider and wider to its passionate 
 love.
 
 CHAPTER XI I. 
 
 FIRST LOVE. 
 
 OUR roses!' cried Ralph, sud- 
 denly remembering his promise, 
 as they stood in the drawing- 
 room, looking at Clara Weldon's 
 last picture. 
 
 ' How good of you to think of them ; 
 but have we time ? ' asked Helen. 
 
 'You need not start for a quarter of an 
 hour yet. Will you take this little basket 
 and come into the garden with me, and I 
 will gather them for you ? ' 
 
 ' Can I help you ? ' asked Mr. Vanstone, 
 who had been favoured with private instruc- 
 tions from his wife not to leave these young 
 people alone more than could possibly be 
 helped, and was making a feeble effort to 
 do his duty.
 
 First Love, 183 
 
 ' We will not trouble you ; it hardly re- 
 quires three persons for such little work/ 
 replied Ralph quickly. * One to hold the 
 basket, and one to cut are quite enough. 
 Are you ready, Miss Vanstone, because we 
 have not too much time ? ' 
 
 She took up the basket, with cheeks that 
 were just a little brighter than their wont, 
 and followed him into the garden. There 
 were a few precious moments left, and he 
 intended to make the most of them. The 
 presence of these other people had been a 
 disagreeable restraint upon him all day, but 
 now he would have her to himself for one 
 delicious little interval, and be able to feast 
 his gaze on her delicate beauty without the 
 fear of being watched. 
 
 The sky was cloudless, and had hung out 
 its starry jewels long ago, while the soft 
 breeze, laden with the fragrant odours of 
 the balmy, summer night, fanned her cheek 
 and brow. Glorious as had looked the 
 fair face of nature, when lighted up a few 
 hours since with that golden flood of sun- 
 shine, it seemed to Helen that it looked 
 fairer still under the silver light and the
 
 1 84 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 quivering shadows which night had woven 
 for its veil. 
 
 They began their task, and the roses were 
 placed one by one in the basket. In this 
 agreeable occupation they were necessarily 
 brought very close together, so close that 
 he could feel her fragrant breath upon his 
 cheek, so close that once the sweet, sensi- 
 tive mouth, with its full coral lips, was within 
 an inch of his own. 
 
 He had taken the basket from her hands 
 in order to adjust the flowers a little more 
 neatly, while she watched him with glad, 
 laughing eyes. Then all at once he let the 
 basket fall to the ground, and taking the 
 astonished girl's hands into his own, spoke 
 with the fiery vehemence born of great 
 passion. 
 
 1 Helen, could you not bear to live here 
 always ? I love you, my darling, tenderly, 
 passionately, as a man never loves but once. 
 From the first hour I saw you, you filled 
 my heart with glory and sunshine, and I 
 cannot dare to think of life without you. 
 Can you love me a little in return ? ' 
 
 She neither stirred nor spoke, but her
 
 First Love. 185 
 
 lips parted into a smile that was almost in- 
 fantine in its joy, and into the sweet, dark 
 eyes there came such a light as could have 
 been kindled by the words of none save 
 him. In her eyes and on her lips he read 
 his answer, and drew her to his breast. 
 
 ' And you love me ? ' he whispered, as 
 his hand strayed fondly over the shining 
 hair. 
 
 1 I do/ she answered, with the frankness 
 of one whose soul was filled too full of joy 
 to hide or to coquet with her feelings. 
 
 * And you, my darling, have made the 
 world look so bright to me/ he said. ' Once 
 I was foolish enough to harbour the notion 
 that a mysterious fate had debarred me from 
 the delights that others extract from life. I 
 fancied that my heart would never throb 
 with those exquisite emotions, that deep 
 and passionate love, which turns earth into 
 an Eden. For there have been things in 
 my history, Helen, — I shall tell you all some 
 day, for no secrets shall be kept from my 
 darling, — which have weighed upon my spirit, 
 and darkened it with heavy shadows. But 
 it is all over now/ he added, in joyous, ring-
 
 1 86 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 ing tones, — ' the shadows are lifted, the past 
 is forgotten, and I live in the glorious sun- 
 shine of the present, in the consciousness of 
 having won for myself a priceless jewel — 
 the rich, unfailing treasure of your love.' 
 
 He stooped down and kissed the soft, 
 sweet mouth, that mouth from which had 
 come the little word which had made him 
 feel rich above all living men ; that mouth 
 from which, had she so chosen it, there could 
 have issued words that could have stung and 
 festered in his heart like poisoned arrows. 
 
 'And my own sweet Helen, we will create 
 for ourselves such happiness as only poets 
 have dreamed of. We have youth and health, 
 and we will make life one complete holiday. 
 And although I am not poor now, in a year 
 or two I shall be much richer, — I will tell 
 you all about my prospects in time — and 
 then I shall be able to give you all that 
 you desire, splendid jewels, rich dresses, a 
 carriage, a beautiful home ! ' 
 
 And Helen listened trustingly to this 
 sanguine talk. What lovers ever yet pic- 
 tured the future without the most radiant 
 of skies, the most resplendent of suns ?
 
 First Love. 187 
 
 Love hushes reason to sleep with a few 
 witching words, and speaking to them with 
 the language of hope, persuades them that 
 it is the language of reality. 
 
 ' The world has changed to me too,' she 
 said, shyly, as she nestled her head against 
 the strong shelter of that breast. ' Before 
 I knew you I was discontented, and soured, 
 and miserable, hating and despising the 
 sordid life which had been assigned me by 
 the fault of others ; but now — I cannot ex- 
 plain all I feel, Ralph, it would want a 
 poet to do that, — but I am so changed. The 
 old discontented Helen has vanished, and 
 in her stead I find a girl whose heart seems 
 to have woke from a long, long sleep, and 
 to throb with a strong and passionate life ! ' 
 
 And thus, amid the breathless silence of 
 the summer night, did these two lovers 
 pour out to each other their sweet and 
 tender secrets, attaining in those few 
 supreme moments the height of human 
 bliss . . . And ever in their after lives 
 rearing itself high, and towering against all 
 weaker and less exquisite recollections, did 
 there stand out the one imperishable memory
 
 1 88 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 of that one brief hour, when the hand of love 
 struck to a divine music the chords of her 
 spirit, and their souls seemed to melt into 
 each other and become one with the first 
 passionate kiss that was laid upon her lips. 
 
 . . . ' My roses ! ' she said, stooping 
 down to put them back into the basket. 
 
 1 My darling, they are blooming in our 
 hearts ! '
 
 CHAPTER XIII, 
 
 A RELUCTANT CONSENT. 
 
 dear child, to put it in plain 
 
 English, there will be the deuce 
 
 to pay when your mother hears 
 
 of this,' said Mr. Vanstone, when 
 
 his daughter had confided to him her 
 
 secret, amid the jolting and rumbling of the 
 
 train. 
 
 The girl turned a shade paler at the 
 prospect of her mothers hostility to her 
 wishes. ' But, papa dear, you will stand 
 by me, will you not ?' 
 
 ' I will do all I can, my love ; but you 
 know I have found it a tough job to fight 
 my own battles for the last twenty years/ 
 replied the father, with a comical expression 
 of countenance ; for Mr. Vanstone was not
 
 1 90 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 without a touch of humour, and was not 
 at all averse to occasionally indulge in a 
 smile at his own expense, — an enviable 
 faculty, which enables a man to support the 
 trials of life with greater cheerfulness than 
 those who possess it not. 
 
 ' Of course, I know mamma will think 
 I ought to marry somebody in a better 
 position/ continued Helen, gravely ; ' but 
 to bother about position is simply nonsense. 
 We have grand relations, it is true, but 
 they wouldn't stir their little fingers to find 
 me a husband ; and, after all, papa, they 
 never did anything for us yet, and never 
 will. The world with which I come into 
 contact does not think a bit better of Miss 
 Helen Vanstone because she has got a 
 wealthy uncle, and a cousin a Baronet's 
 wife. People have a habit of taking you 
 for what you are, not what you were/ 
 
 * That is undeniably true,' assented Mr. 
 Vanstone, — who had discovered that fact 
 long before his daughter was born. 
 
 1 1 will never give him up to please 
 anybody. If mamma holds out, I will 
 go out one fine morning and marry him
 
 A Reluctant Consent, 191 
 
 privately,' she added, with an air of deter- 
 mination. 
 
 If Mr. Vanstone had been a judicious 
 parent, he would have undoubtedly remon- 
 strated with his child on the heinousness 
 of such unfilial sentiments, but he was also 
 a much-suffering husband, and to know or 
 see that his wife was being thwarted was 
 one of the small delights of his life, and 
 the only compensation which fate seemed 
 to allow him for his own private wrongs. 
 
 1 You have no objection to my marrying 
 him, have you, papa ?' she asked. 
 
 1 My dear, I think it would be a very good 
 match for you, under the circumstances. 
 Ralph Weldon is a clever young fellow, 
 and will make his way in life.' 
 
 4 Then, it is all right!' cried Helen, radi- 
 antly. 'You are the head of the family, 
 not mamma, and if you give your consent, 
 I need have no scruple.' 
 
 Flattering as was this declaration to a 
 man's vanity, it must be owned that Mr. 
 Vanstone had the good sense to receive 
 it with a few grains of salt. 
 
 ' I am the nominal head, I know, dear
 
 192 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 but your mother is a woman of very strong 
 will, and she has acquired a confirmed habit 
 of having her own way.' 
 
 - But she cannot have it in this instance, 
 papa. You and I and Ralph, all leagued 
 together, will surely be more than a match 
 for her/ 
 
 Mr. Vanstone shook his head dubiously. 
 * I am not so sure of that, Helen.' 
 
 Bnt love gives great courage to even the 
 faintest heart as well as to one naturally 
 resolute, and when she entered the dingy 
 precincts, which seemed more odious than 
 ever in comparison with that dear little 
 home she had just quitted, she felt herself 
 capable of fighting a harder battle than 
 this. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone was not, as it happened, 
 in the sweetest of moods, for although she 
 had declined to accompany them, her loneli- 
 ness had made her feel cross and spiteful. 
 Helen began. by flourishing the basket of 
 flowers in her face. 
 
 ' Here are beautiful roses that Mr. Weldon 
 has sent to you, mamma.' 
 
 This was not quite the truth, as we know ;
 
 A Reluctant Consent. 193 
 
 but she thought that the harmless little false- 
 hood, combined with their bloom and fra- 
 grance, might have a benignant influence. 
 
 ' Pity to cut them ; they will soon wither 
 here,' was the ungracious response. 
 
 It was very evident that Mrs. Vanstone 
 was not amenable to delicate flattery that 
 evening. A less determined girl might have 
 preferred to wait for a more favourable 
 opportunity, but her love made her restless 
 and impatient. She was resolved to have 
 this matter settled one way or the other 
 before she went to rest. 
 
 ' Mamma, I have something of great 
 importance to communicate to you/ she 
 said, plunging in medias res. ' Ralph 
 Weldon has proposed to me, and I have 
 promised to marry him.' 
 
 Had a bomb-shell suddenly exploded in 
 the room, her mother could not have worn 
 a more startled expression. As might have 
 been expected from a lady of. her peculiar 
 temperament, her wrath first directed itself 
 against her husband. 
 
 1 How came it that you left these silly 
 creatures together, after receiving my ex- 
 vol. 1. n
 
 194 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 pressed injunctions to the contrary, Mr. 
 Vanstone ? ' she asked, severely. 
 
 1 1 could not watch them like a little dog,' 
 he replied, with some spirit. 
 
 4 A little dog would have proved himself 
 a much more efficient protector,' retorted his 
 better half, with withering scorn. 
 
 ' Come, mamma, it is hardly fair to vent 
 your temper upon him,' struck in Helen. 
 * Vent it upon me, if you like ; I am the 
 guilty person.' 
 
 ' There is no guilt at all in the matter,' 
 cried Mr. Vanstone, buttoning up his coat 
 with the air of a man who is determined to 
 exercise his authority for once. ' This 
 young fellow loves her very dearly ; and I 
 say that, under the circumstances, it is as 
 good a match as she can expect. Ralph 
 Weldon has got his head screwed on the 
 right way, and is a man who will make 
 money.' 
 
 1 So, that is your opinion,' said his wife, 
 sarcastically. ' Thank heaven, my child has 
 yet one parent left capable of attending to 
 her interests.' 
 
 ' Of course I shall institute inquiries into
 
 A Reluctant Consent. 195 
 
 his means, his prospects, and all that kind of 
 thing,' added Mr. Vanstone, with a last 
 expiring effort. 
 
 ' You need not trouble yourself, / shall 
 attend to these matters/ 
 
 Finding that his overtures were so un- 
 favourably received, Mr. Vanstone undid the 
 buttons of his coat, surrendering by this 
 significant action the authority which he had 
 for a moment assumed, plunged his hands 
 into the pockets of his trousers, and retired 
 into the privacy of his own thoughts. There 
 are moments when silence becomes the 
 wisest and most dignified policy, and he was 
 assured in his own mind that the present was 
 one of them. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone chewed the bitter cud of 
 her reflections. She did not know on what 
 grounds to openly condemn, and yet she 
 could not bring herself to heartily approve 
 this engagement. The truth was, she had 
 still in her secret soul dared to harbour 
 ambitious hopes of Helen's future, to cherish 
 the fond notion that her beauty would, in 
 spite of their misfortunes, succeed in attract- 
 ing some eligible suitor, who would raise
 
 ig6 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 them into a better position. Where this 
 generous wooer was to come from, or by 
 what combination of favouring circumstance, 
 he would be led into the unfamiliar regions 
 of Thomas Street, she had never been 
 successful in indicating clearly to herself. 
 But like all people who cherish delusive and 
 impracticable notions, she had clung to her 
 belief all the more firmly, because she was 
 unable to base it upon any solid or enduring 
 data. 
 
 As a dead silence had reigned since 
 Mrs. Vanstone's snappish answer effectually 
 quenched her husband's unwonted audacity, 
 and reduced him to that passive condition 
 which was his normal one in her presence, 
 Helen thought that it was a fitting oppor- 
 tunity for her to speak. 
 
 ' You know, mamma, I have often told you 
 that I had made up my mind to live and 
 die an old maid, and up to within a few 
 weeks, my experience of the very few men 
 with whom we have come into contact, had 
 not inspired me with any desire for a differ- 
 ent destiny. But since I have known Ralph 
 Weldon, my heart has opened itself to the
 
 A Reluctant Consent. igj 
 
 longings natural, I suppose, to my sex and my 
 age, and I have felt a better and a happier 
 girl for the change.' 
 
 She paused a moment, and when she re- 
 sumed, the simple pathos in her voice, the 
 soft flush on her cheeks, the tender light in 
 the sweet dark eyes, bore such direct witness 
 to the joy with which this new-born love 
 had filled her whole soul, that even Mrs. 
 Vanstone was softened, and was carried 
 away to the far-off years when she, too, had 
 shared the delusions of girlhood, and dreamed 
 of such happiness as her child was dreaming 
 of now. 
 
 1 I don't suppose it is natural for any 
 woman to go through life with her mission 
 in the world unfulfilled, and to find herself 
 standing solitary and desolate on the shores 
 of time, while the sullen tide rolls backwards 
 and forwards without laying at her feet a 
 single precious gift. I thought it might be 
 easier to me than most, from the conditions 
 of my present existence ; and so, but for 
 Ralph's advent, it might have been. He 
 has taught me a different creed, and his love 
 has infused into the future a light that makes
 
 198 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 it look hopeful and golden. I love him, 
 and I shall only know happiness by be- 
 coming his wife.' 
 
 As she ended, the tears fell, in spite of 
 her brave attempt to hold them back, and 
 perhaps it was the sight of them that pleaded 
 her cause most effectually with her mother, 
 whose own eyes were moist when she 
 replied, — 
 
 ' Your happiness is as dear to me, Helen, 
 as to yourself, and if I appeared to thwart 
 your wishes, it was because experience has 
 taught me to look for the shadows where 
 youth only sees sunshine. If your heart is 
 set upon marrying this young man, and he 
 can show me that he possesses the means 
 to give you a home which, if not such as 
 I could wish for you, will be one a little 
 better than that you have had hitherto, I 
 will not say nay. My duty, my love for 
 you, will not let me rest content with any- 
 thing short of a rigid examination into all 
 these, what may seem to you trifling details/ 
 
 Helen crossed to her mother's side, and 
 flung her arms round her neck. 
 
 1 Oh no, dearest mother, you are quite
 
 A Reluctant Consent. 199 
 
 right. I know it is your love that makes 
 you so anxious, and you must forgive me 
 if I have seemed unkind and impetuous. 
 But if you could guess how very dear he 
 is to me ! ' 
 
 Mr. Vanstone, finding that his wife's feel- 
 ings were considerably softened, considered 
 that he might, with safety, hazard a remark 
 of a general nature. 
 
 ' It carries one back to the days of one's 
 own youth, eh, Martha ? ' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone shook her head, not 
 exactly in a cross fashion, but with an air 
 that seemed jto indicate she had no desire 
 to be taken back to them. 
 
 ' If their youth doesn't open with brighter 
 promises than ours, Gabriel, it will be but 
 a poor look-out for them,' she said, chillingly. 
 
 ' It seems that I can never say or do 
 anything right,' muttered poor Mr. Van- 
 stone, as he re-thrust his hands into his 
 pockets, and retired for the second and 
 last time into himself. 
 
 So the battle was won; and before she 
 went to bed that night, Helen penned a 
 hasty note to her lover, according to pro-
 
 200 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 mise, to let him know the attitude of her 
 mother; for he was to call to-morrow 
 evening and make a formal demand for 
 her hand. 
 
 She had a little difficulty with regard to 
 the manner in which she should address 
 him : should it be ' Dear Ralph,' or ' Dearest 
 Ralph.' 
 
 1 Oh, how absurd it is playing the coquette 
 with the man I love, and whom I am going 
 to marry,' she cried, when she had pon- 
 dered over the subject for a few seconds. 
 So the letter went with the more affectionate 
 prefix. 
 
 * My Dearest Ralph, — Mamma is quite 
 prepared to give her consent, and papa 
 gave his as we came along in the train, 
 so there are no difficulties in the way. I 
 shall expect you to - morrow. I cannot 
 write any more, for I am now very tired 
 and sleepy. With best love, I remain, your 
 affectionate and happy Helen.' 
 
 He found his first love-letter waiting for 
 him in the morning; and Ralph Weldon^
 
 A Reluctant Consent, 201 
 
 grave, staid young man as he was, did 
 what a schoolboy would have done, pressed 
 it to his lips. 
 
 He came the next evening, and received 
 from her parents the formal consent to their 
 engagement. He gave Mrs. Vanstone all the 
 information she required with regard to his 
 income and prospects, and consented, though 
 with some reluctance, to her request that at 
 least a year should elapse before Helen left 
 her home. 
 
 ' I am very averse to hasty marriages,' 
 she explained. ' Half of the unhappiness of 
 married life arises from the tendency which 
 seems common to all young lovers to enter 
 at once into this solemn contract without 
 sufficient experience of each other's tem- 
 perament, tastes, and habits. Helen is still 
 very young, only nineteen, and you know 
 positively nothing of her character, as she 
 knows nothing of yours. A year is a short 
 enough period in which to cultivate that 
 necessary knowledge. I do not wish to 
 damp you, but it may happen that in that 
 time you may discover in her, or she in you, 
 certain qualities and inclinations which might
 
 202 The Queen of Two Woi'lds. 
 
 prove fatal to your married happiness. If 
 such exist, which I trust they do not, it is 
 better for both that they should be discovered 
 before than after.' 
 
 There was so much common sense in these 
 reasons, that Ralph hardly knew with what 
 arguments to oppose them, so he yielded 
 with a protest. 
 
 'A year does certainly not make much 
 difference in a lifetime, but when a man loves 
 as deeply as I do, he likes to make sure of 
 his prize, and I shall always feel a little 
 uneasy until Helen is made mine, beyond the 
 power of man or fate to take her from me.' 
 
 ' I think you may trust in the stedfastness 
 of her affection,' replied the mother ; adding, 
 with a quiet smile, ' and if she changes in a 
 year, she would have made but a discontented 
 wife.' 
 
 On the whole, Ralph was very glad when 
 that interview terminated, for Mrs. Van- 
 stone's prudent reasons and unpleasant man- 
 ner of summing up contingencies, seemed to 
 drive some of the sunshine out of his heart, 
 and fill it with cold, prophetic shadows. 
 
 * My darling, you must come down and
 
 A Reluctant Consent. 
 
 203 
 
 stay with Clara as soon as possible,' he said 
 to Helen in the course of that evening. ' Our 
 love seems out of harmony with this gloomy 
 place. You must come among the sunshine 
 and the flowers — our hearts will breathe more 
 freely then ! '
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HALCYON DAYS. 
 
 HEN the time came for Helen to 
 fulfil her promise of spending a 
 week at Richmond with her lover, 
 she had a fit of contrition, in which 
 she accused herself for being an ungrateful 
 wretch to leave her mother for the society of 
 any young man, however lovable and charm- 
 ing. Since, with this sensitive young soul, 
 to feel and to speak were one, she lost no 
 time in revealing to Mrs. Vanstone her deep 
 sense of her filial ingratitude. The worthy 
 woman received the confession with that 
 nicely-balanced demeanour which impresses 
 a sensitive culprit more strongly than the 
 keenest reproaches. A reproach provokes 
 a reaction, and leads you to defend yourself;
 
 Halcyon Days. 205 
 
 but when a person looks profoundly miser- 
 able, sighs deeply, and says nothing, the 
 eloquence of such silence is terrible. 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone did three things, — she 
 heaved a profound sigh, she then smiled a 
 little bitter smile, in which there was no 
 mirth, and finally closed her eyes with the 
 air of one who was shutting them from a 
 painful vision. Helen well knew that these 
 three single acts were with her mother sioms 
 of the deepest tribulation, and felt herself 
 driven to despair. It was not unlikely that, 
 in the fervour of her penitence, she would 
 have exhorted Mrs. Vanstone to write a letter 
 then and there, bidding Ralph Weldon go 
 his ways and never more to disturb the even 
 tenour of their lives, but there was something 
 stronger even than the love for a mother 
 which kept her from offering this painful 
 sacrifice. She was looking on a vision of 
 her own, a roseate one ; she was thinking 
 what a Paradise that little river-side home 
 would be when Ralph walked by her side, 
 and told her all manner of things sweet for 
 maidens to hear, in those tender thrilling 
 tones of his.
 
 206 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 1 Oh, why did I ever fall in love ; why did 
 I ever get engaged ? ' she cried, with an 
 almost comical petulance. 
 
 This was too good an opportunity to let 
 slip. If there was one method of attacking 
 her opponents dearer to Mrs. Vanstone than 
 another, it was that which is known as the 
 oblique. 
 
 ' Because it is the pleasure of all foolish 
 and headstrong girls to despise the admoni- 
 tions of their elders and superiors, to court 
 the misfortune that they ought to shun.' 
 
 1 Oh, mamma dearest, please do not talk so 
 terribly ; it chills me,' cried poor Helen, en- 
 treatingly. ' I cannot think of Ralph, and 
 associate him with unkind ness, neglect, and 
 indifference. If you could only see how 
 different he is from other men, — how tender, 
 how considerate ! ' 
 
 Mrs. Vanstone laughed the hollow laugh 
 of the worldly-wise and cynical at this 
 entreaty. She rose from her seat with the 
 air of a Siddons. Decidedly this woman 
 would have made her fortune on the stage. 
 
 ' Go, poor, foolish girl ; go to your doom ! 
 I would have saved you had it been possible.'
 
 Halcyon Days. 207 
 
 Helen's obstinacy rendering the hope of 
 salvation impossible, the result was that she 
 set out for Richmond, after taking a most 
 heartrending farewell of her mother, and 
 shedding many salt tears. Even at the 
 last, as she was about to descend the stairs 
 with tottering steps, she called out, in 
 earnest tones, — 
 
 ' Tell me to stay now, and I will.' 
 
 To this offer Mrs. Vanstone, her hand- 
 kerchief to her eyes, replied in a firm voice, 
 indicative of her resolution to suffer, and 
 even die, rather than prove herself a selfish 
 mother, — 
 
 ' No, I can bear it.' 
 
 Helen and Mr. Vanstone got into the cab, 
 and after they had gone a little way, she said 
 to him through her tears, — 
 
 ' Papa, I find it is a terrible thing to be 
 engaged.' 
 
 The poor gentleman heaved a deep sigh. 
 
 ' That is not the worst part of the 
 business, my dear. Marriage is the most 
 terrible part.' 
 
 The earnest, hearty manner in which he 
 pronounced these few words, was so intensely
 
 208 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 comic, when taken in conjunction with his 
 own experiences, that Helen smiled in spite 
 of her woes. 
 
 ' You dear, old, philosophical papa,' she 
 said, kissing him : * but, you know, you have 
 been a very naughty man to us.' 
 
 At the Richmond station, Ralph was there 
 to receive them ; and as there was a crowd 
 on the platform, their meeting was in no way 
 lover-like, but tranquil and dignified. Yet 
 the hearts of both were beating quickly, and 
 any intelligent observer could have read the 
 state of the case, both in his fervent glances 
 and the lovely flush which settled on her fair 
 cheek. In the silent rapture of that meeting 
 even Mrs. Vanstone was forgotten for a 
 moment. 
 
 They reached the cottage, and were 
 welcomed heartily by Clara Weldon. Being 
 a discreet and kind-hearted young lady, she 
 thought it was high time the lovers had a 
 few moments alone, and cleverly drew off 
 Vanstone pere under pretence of showing 
 him the garden. 
 
 Then, when they were alone, Ralph drew 
 her to him, and kissed her so much and so
 
 Halcyon Days. 209 
 
 fervently, that at length she recoiled from 
 him, half scared and half offended. 
 
 ' I did not think you were going to receive 
 me like that,' she said, with her face the 
 colour of a rose. 
 
 'Is it a way that offends you, dearest ? 
 he asked. 
 
 ' No, not quite that,' she answered hastily. 
 She saw the slight cloud that came over his 
 brow, and divined the cause. 'But — but you 
 are a little boisterous. We have only been 
 engaged a few days, and I have always 
 heard that a lover should ask and nof take. 
 A young lady who does not value her own 
 self-respect may end by perceiving that 
 others do not value it also.' 
 
 She said all this with the most enchant- 
 ingly severe air of youthful wisdom in the 
 world ; and all the while that she was 
 preaching prudery so admirably, the smiling 
 mouth, the tender eyes, contradicted her 
 words, and told that she loved him as dearly 
 as he loved her. And he adored her all 
 the more for this charming, unaffected 
 modesty, which proved her no worldly- 
 experienced coquette, no young forward 
 vol. 1. o
 
 2 1 o The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 flirt, who had been polluted with the kisses 
 of half-a-dozen lovers before. The lan- 
 guage of love was as new to her as to him. 
 Thank heaven ! in these days it was some- 
 thing for a man to be grateful for to know 
 that he was the first. 
 
 1 You are an angel of purity and goodness, 
 you dear little preacher, and I am an un- 
 couth, savage Bohemian. Henceforth I will 
 never take a kiss without your permission. 
 Is that conduct sufficiently respectful ? ' She 
 smiled, and said it was. 
 
 After a while she spoke as follows, — 
 
 ' You must know, Ralph, it is very likely 
 I shall be dull and mopish for a day or two, 
 because I shall be thinking of poor mamma 
 sitting by herself in that dreary, dismal 
 house.' 
 
 In his heart Ralph Weldon was of opinion 
 that his future mother-in-law was a selfish, 
 peevish woman, who extracted positive de- 
 light out of her woes ; but he played the 
 hypocrite well enough to express regret for 
 her condition. Still there was a want of 
 sincerity in his tones which Helen detected 
 at once, for she rejoined, —
 
 Halcyon Days. 2 1 1 
 
 1 But if you love me, I must insist upon 
 your loving my mamma, sir. She is the 
 dearest, kindest, sweetest of mothers ; and 
 if she received you a little coldly at first, 
 you must remember it is you who have 
 offended by coming to steal her darling 
 away. Oh yes, sir, I know what you are 
 going to say, that it was not your fault ; 
 but she thinks it was, and I think so too. 
 Why did you not keep away from our 
 house ? ' 
 
 ' How could a man refuse to enter Para- 
 dise when opened to him ? ' 
 
 ' How very grandiloquent you artists are, to 
 be sure, and what nonsense it is.' Then she 
 added directly, with true feminine inconsist- 
 ency, ' but I think I prefer it to sense, on the 
 whole. But to return to our subject ; you 
 will love mamma for my sake, will you not ? ' 
 
 1 I will try my best, dearest,' said Ralph, 
 gravely. 
 
 ' I know that to strangers she must 
 appear a little cold and hard ; but then 
 consider how she has been tried — all her 
 youthful hopes and illusions dissipated 
 in a moment by papa's folly.'
 
 2 1 2 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 1 From what little I have seen of your 
 household,' said Ralph, quietly, ' I fancied 
 that Mr. Vanstone hadn't an easy time 
 of it.' 
 
 Helen coloured faintly under her lover's 
 penetrating eye. ' Of course, mamma has 
 never forgiven him for it, and sometimes 
 she upbraids him a little more bitterly than 
 — well, than I would, were I in her place.' 
 
 ' I don't think you resemble your mother 
 to any great extent, dear,' answered Ralph, 
 with a peculiar smile. ' I cannot fancy you 
 making my life bitter to me for any injury 
 of that nature.' 
 
 At that direct appeal, enthusiasm came 
 out and conventionality went in. 
 
 ' Oh, my darling, I should always love you 
 the same, however unfortunate you were,' 
 she said fervently, and with a little guilty 
 thrill of pleasure at the epithet she bestowed 
 on him for the first time. 
 
 * You sweet enthusiast,' he said, regarding 
 her tenderly, 'one thing I am sure of, — if 
 you love me as well as you love your 
 mother, I shall be the happiest husband in 
 England/
 
 Halcyon Days. 2 1 3 
 
 ' The love is so different, Ralph,' she mur- 
 mured softly, as she lifted her pure, truthful 
 eyes half timidly to his own. 
 
 Then, just as they had arrived at a most 
 satisfactory state of mutual tenderness and 
 content, Mr. Vanstone made his appearance, 
 with that want of propriety which is charac- 
 teristic of elderly and prosaic people. The 
 intrusion of a third party at such a moment 
 is superlatively chilling ; they came down at 
 a leap from the rosy Paradise inhabited by 
 lovers to this work-a-day world, in which 
 people babble of the weather, politics, of 
 every topic, in fact, that has no interest for 
 young souls enamoured of each other. 
 
 But after a day or two, thanks to the 
 management and tact of Clara Weldon, who 
 was in her way a subtle diplomatist, the life 
 at the cottage was fixed in certain grooves. 
 The old gentleman was cleverly got out of 
 the way, and made infinitely happy, by the 
 constant supply of excellent cigars. In fine, 
 he enjoyed himself so thoroughly ; it was 
 so refreshing to feel himself treated cour- 
 teously, and to be safe from the irruption of 
 a splenetic spouse, that he felt quite sad at
 
 2 1 4 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 the prospect of ever leaving so delightful a 
 spot. 
 
 And how did the lovers spend their days ? 
 Why, like most other young persons in their 
 condition. They spent the greater portion 
 of their time in Ralph's painting-room, — he 
 working away at his picture, she watching 
 him. They babbled together much, of 
 course, for they had all their past to unfold 
 to each other, all their secret thoughts, 
 dreams, and aspirations to communicate, 
 until their inmost souls were fairly ex- 
 changed. What they said in those moments, 
 tedious enough to a third person, but full 
 of exquisite joy to them, may be better 
 imagined than described. The talk of 
 lovers, like the talk of children, sounds dull 
 when put on paper, — for it is the kindling 
 eye, the glowing cheek, the eloquent voice 
 which give the charm to their words, and 
 make poor stuff sound like the communing 
 of angels. The three simple words, ' I love 
 you/ do not look much written, but when 
 they are uttered by a beautiful young crea- 
 ture, pure and fresh as the dew and the 
 morning, in a voice of sweetest music, they
 
 Halcyon Days. 2 1 5 
 
 stir the pulse and thrill the heart with a 
 power one must feel to believe. 
 
 And then, when they were tired of 
 babbling their sweet nonsense to each other, 
 there came an interval of delicious silence, of 
 that dreamy contemplation beloved of young 
 and amorous hearts, when sweeter visions are 
 conjured up than the most eloquent lips 
 could pourtray. She was the happiest of 
 women, for every moment revealed the 
 ardent love, the chivalrous tenderness of her 
 betrothed ; and he was the happiest of men, 
 since every hour strengthened the claims of 
 this beautiful young creature on his heart 
 and faith. He knew that what charmed him 
 most in her was the exquisite blending of 
 love and dignity : it was a temperament 
 southern in its intensity and capacity for 
 passion, overlaid and held in check by a 
 northern training. How he loved to see 
 the combat between nature and convention, 
 and how his heart thrilled when the impetu- 
 ous words that expressed her soul rushed to 
 her lips in spite of an almost ludicrous effort 
 to keep them back. From this cause there 
 arose inconsistencies that were charming,
 
 2 1 6 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 that gave to their love-making a character of 
 its own. Once she said to him, — 
 
 ' I allowed myself to be won far too easily/ 
 and almost in the same breath she added, — 
 1 but I could not help it, I love you dearer 
 than my life ; I loved you from the moment 
 I saw you, and felt that fate had destined us 
 for each other.' 
 
 Once he had doubted if she could love 
 passionately, but he doubted no longer now. 
 Behind that pure, virginal front, beat a heart 
 with a capacity for love such as is granted to 
 few women ; but it was a heart as pure as 
 her eyes and face, such a heart as warmed 
 the breast of a Juliet, an Imogene, or Cor- 
 delia.
 
 them. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A BOHEMIAN PARTY. 
 
 BOUT three days after Helen's 
 arrival, Ralph told her that he 
 expected a few of his friends 
 would spend the evening with 
 He made this announcement as he 
 stood putting the finishing touches to the 
 picture which was to make his fame — Maria 
 Theresa confiding herself to the protection 
 of the ' Hungarian Knights.' 
 
 Her face flushed with pleasure at the 
 simple prospect. 
 
 6 Oh, how nice ! tell me all about them, 
 dear.' 
 
 ' Well, there's not much to tell, really. 
 They are agreeable fellows, although not 
 overburdened with this world's goods ; like
 
 2 1 8 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 myself, they deal largely in hope, and trust 
 to the future to reward their patient merit. 
 There's Bite, a journalist, splendid articles 
 he writes too ; then there's Sparkle the 
 comedy writer, he'll convulse you in five 
 minutes : he, by the way, is doing well since 
 that last hit of his. There's my dear old 
 uncle, David Fairfax, artist like myself; I 
 shall be surprised if you don't fall in love 
 with him on the spot. Young Gough, the 
 dramatic critic ; he's rather young at the 
 business yet, so he only reviews the small 
 theatres ; and his sister, an actress.' 
 
 ' An actress!' cried Helen, joyfully. It 
 will be remembered that she had once turned 
 her ambition stage-wards. ' Oh, how delight- 
 ful ! I am sure I shall make great friends 
 with her.' 
 
 1 She isn't a swell, you know ; she only 
 does the gentlewoman and waiting-woman 
 kind of business,' said Ralph, carelessly. 
 
 Poor Helen's face fell at this announce- 
 ment. She had hoped to meet a stately 
 gifted being, who melted the house in Juliet, 
 and thrilled them in Lady Macbeth. ' I 
 daresay she will be very interesting to know,'
 
 A Bohemian Party. 219 
 
 she said, in a more sobered manner; then she 
 added more timidly — ' Ralph, dear, do you 
 know any great people, — people, I mean, 
 at the top of their professions, like Mr. 
 
 R , the great painter, and Mrs. T , 
 
 the novelist ? ' 
 
 Ralph smiled. ' Xo, pet, not at present. 
 Mr. Scumble, who gets two thousand for a 
 portrait, and Mrs. Thrillum, who gets about 
 the same for a romance, would hardly con- 
 descend to partake of my hospitality. Great 
 people know you when you are great your- 
 self.' 
 
 1 I wish you were great/ said Helen, with 
 an unconscious sigh. 
 
 ' I am trying to become so as hard as 
 I can, darling.' 
 
 She did not answer, but leaned back in 
 her chair, with the air of one in a profound 
 reverie. Ralph worked on steadily at his 
 picture ; presently he asked, — 
 
 ' What are you thinking of, lady mine ? ' 
 
 A faint flush stole over her cheek as she 
 met her lover's honest gaze. ' I was won- 
 dering if we should ever be rich.' 
 
 He answered lightly and cheerfully. 4 I
 
 220 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 think there are things less likely. I believe 
 I shall succeed in my art, and in the present 
 day, success means money. The public is a 
 generous master, and pays merit not only in 
 praise but specie.' He stole a look at her, 
 and seeing that this hopeful prophecy had 
 made her seem bright and sanguine, con- 
 tinued, — ' Look at Wiggles ; five years ago, 
 he was nobody — did not get so much for his 
 pictures as I do, and now — he gets eight 
 hundred for a portrait, and has commissions 
 for four years. Look at Splash again, a 
 man with no pretensions to high art, his 
 last picture — " Say good-bye to Grand- 
 mamma ! " — sold for three thousand. The 
 "' Kiss and be Friends " of the same dis- 
 tinguished gentleman fetched three thousand 
 five hundred.' 
 
 1 Why don't you paint, " Say good-bye 
 to Grandpapa !" Ralph ?' 
 
 ' It would be a copy, my dear ; and besides 
 my talent does not lie in the simple do- 
 mestic. Splash is not an artist I should 
 care to imitate ; in fact, he has very few 
 pretensions to art at all.' 
 
 * High art is a fine thing, no doubt ;'
 
 A Bohemian Party. 2 2 1 
 
 replied Helen, with the gentle obstinacy of 
 womankind ; ' but, all the same, I cannot 
 help envying Mr. Splash's practical success.' 
 
 Silence succeeded ; Ralph did not care to 
 dispute the justice of this last remark. How 
 was it possible that Helen, who could know 
 nothing of the principles of art, should com- 
 prehend his lofty scorn for the school of 
 painting of which Mr Splash and his 
 followers were the exponents ? This time it 
 was she who first broke the silence. 
 
 ' You know, Ralph dear, I think there is 
 no disputing a few facts like these. It is 
 nicer to ride than walk, to be waited upon 
 than to wait upon one's self, to have hand- 
 some furniture, fine dresses, money to give 
 away in charity, to possess educated ac- 
 quaintances, than to be placed in a sphere 
 where you can hope for none of these.' 
 
 Ralph laid down his brush, and came close 
 to her. ' My darling,' he said tenderly, 
 1 1 am ^afraid you hanker after these things a 
 little too much for your own peace.' 
 
 She smiled faintly. ' It is the first time 
 I ever breathed such a wish to you.' 
 
 * Not a direct wish, perhaps, dear, but you
 
 222 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 have many times let fall words that showed 
 me very plainly your desires.' 
 
 ' Is it a crime to wish to be rich, Ralph ?' 
 
 ' No, not a crime,' he answered quickly ; 
 then he added, in a nettled tone, and urged 
 by the restless jealousy which ever accom- 
 panies ardent love, — ' Would it not have 
 been wiser to wait for a rich man who 
 could have given you all these things, 
 than link your fate with a poor, struggling 
 artist, whose greatest treasure consists of 
 hope ?' 
 
 Her eyes filled with tears. ' You are 
 unjust,' she said, in a low voice. ' I may be 
 sordid in wishing for wealth, but I only wish 
 that it should come through you.' 
 
 He caught her hand and covered it with 
 kisses. ' Forgive me, my own darling, for 
 being so hasty. It is but natural a girl so 
 beautiful, so fitted to adorn the highest 
 society, should pine for a different world. 
 Have a little patience, and your ambition 
 shall be gratified. A few years more of toil 
 on my part, and all will come that you sigh 
 for — furniture, horses, dresses, jewels, etc., 
 etc'
 
 A Bohemian Party. 223 
 
 He ended with a little banter, and she 
 smiled too, so these young people were re- 
 conciled, and went straight from this little 
 discussion into love-making. But Ralph 
 could not forget this incident. It saddened 
 more than angered him, to think that she 
 should desire anything in addition to his 
 deep love. He forgot that he had his art to 
 fall back upon, while she had no resource. 
 1 This is her mother's evil teaching,' he said 
 bitterly to himself. ' If my sweet girl is a 
 little lower than the angels, it is the fault 
 of that sordid woman.' 
 
 The first arrival among the guests of the 
 evening was David Fairfax, a fine stalwart 
 man of sixty, with a loud ringing voice and a 
 hearty manner. His artistic eye dwelt with 
 evident pleasure upon Helen's rare beauty, 
 and he complimented her in his straight- 
 forward fashion. 
 
 ' My dear young lady, I am delighted to 
 find my nephew has made a choice which 
 reflects so much credit on his taste and 
 judgment. I am a judge of character, and 
 I can see at a glance that you are as good 
 as beautiful. There now, what an old savage
 
 224 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 I am, for ladies' love unfit ; I have made you 
 blush.' 
 
 ' I am very grateful for your good opinion,' 
 said Helen, prettily. 
 
 David Fairfax laughed genially as was 
 his wont, and turning to Mr. Vanstone, 
 who stood near, smiling in a feeble way, 
 said, ' If that sweet young lady were my 
 daughter, sir, I should bear no good 
 will to the fellow who came to steal her 
 from me.' 
 
 To this sally, Gabriel Vanstone, not being 
 a ready man, replied nothing ; and David, 
 seeing that there was not much to be ex- 
 tracted from the father, turned again to 
 Helen. 
 
 1 My dear, I believe my nephew Ralph is 
 a sterling, upright, fine-hearted fellow, and 
 deserves a good wife ; but if, when you are 
 married, you find anything to complain of, 
 come to me, and I will thrash him into good 
 behaviour myself.' And in spite of his years, 
 he looked as if he could do it too. They all 
 laughed at this invitation, of course, and 
 Helen thought that if this genial old gentle- 
 man was a specimen of a Bohemian, the
 
 A Bohemian Party. 225 
 
 world of Bohemia must be a pleasant one to 
 dwell in. 
 
 The next arrival was Mr. Bite, a man of a 
 singularly placid and even benevolent cast 
 of countenance, but, according to old Fairfax, 
 who acted as master of the ceremonies to 
 Helen, a terrible fellow. 
 
 'When Bite gets a pen in his hand, he's 
 no longer a human being, but a pitiless 
 demon. Take care not to offend him, Miss 
 Vanstone, or he will flay you like a second 
 Marsyas ; but you don't know who Marsyas 
 was, of course, how should you ? You see I 
 am so little accustomed to ladies' society, that 
 I don't know how to talk to them. To 
 return to our friend Bite, — it is reported that 
 he is driving Lord Muddlebrain, the foreign 
 secretary, to madness. I am quite certain 
 that if the Fates were suddenly to exercise 
 their shears on Bite, Lord Muddlebrain would 
 dance a bolero in spite of his gout.' 
 
 All this was said in the presence and hear- 
 ing of the gentleman described. To Helen's 
 great astonishment, Mr. Bite listened with 
 the utmost placidity to his old friend's banter, 
 and only remarked quietly, when he had 
 vol. 1. p
 
 226 The Queen of Two Worlds, 
 
 finished, — 'Always a boy, David, always a 
 boy!' 
 
 1 That is why I wear so well, old friend, 
 why I am hearty, and rosy, and stout, no lean- 
 looking conspirator/ replied the whimsical 
 artist. ' I have kept my sanguine tempera- 
 ment as my most precious possession ; there- 
 fore do the world's troubles roll off my spirit, 
 and therefore do I say with gentle Will, ' My 
 age is as a lusty winter, frosty but kindly.' 
 
 There was a pause. ' Sparkle is late/ said 
 Ralph Weldon. 
 
 1 But he is coming, for I met him to-day 
 in the Strand, and he told me so,' answered 
 his uncle ; then turning to Helen, he added, 
 — ' Have you ever met Sparkle ? ' 
 
 < No/ 
 
 1 Ah ! then I think you will be delighted 
 with him. When he opens his mouth to 
 speak, other persons are forced to open 
 theirs to laugh. Nature gave Sparkle a 
 face that would become a mute or an under- 
 taker. As soon as he saw his reflection in 
 the glass, he came to the conclusion that 
 he had been badly treated, and resolved to 
 cultivate a comic vein strangely at variance
 
 A Bohemian Party. 
 
 with his appearance. He succeeded ; and 
 you have the delightful incongruity of hear- 
 ing the drollest things issuing from the most 
 solemn-looking creature in the world.' 
 
 Hardly was the description finished, when 
 Mr. Sparkle was announced, and certainly 
 he looked solemn enough with a vengeance. 
 He was also so very ugly, that Helen did 
 not care to look at him too much. It seemed 
 to her that there had been a steady deprecia- 
 tion in personal appearance since the advent 
 of David. He was gentlemanly enough ; but 
 with regard to Mr. Bite, there was only one 
 epithet which described him to Helen's 
 satisfaction, and that was 'queer/ — a word 
 by no means classic, but full of a subtle 
 meaning to those who understand the mys- 
 teries of language. As to Mr. Sparkle, — his 
 solemn and ugly countenance, his small body 
 crowned by an enormous head, his short 
 legs and long arms, presented a tout ensemble 
 for which she could find no adjective in her 
 vocabulary, save perhaps ' unnatural.' 
 
 To the young and ardent, appearances 
 are much, if not everything, and a little chill 
 crept over her at the thought that gentlemen
 
 228 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 of this kind were to be her life-long acquaint- 
 ance. She waited eagerly for the door to 
 open, in the hope of seeing somebody whom 
 she would not be ashamed to be seen with 
 in the ' Row ' or at the ' Horticultural.' 
 Fancy being escorted to a flower-show by 
 Mr. Sparkle ! The door opened at last, and 
 Mr. Jones was announced, whom she had 
 heard Ralph speak of as a rising young 
 artist. He was rising six feet three in his 
 stockings certainly, if that had anything to 
 do with the matter ; for the rest, he had a 
 head of long, reddish hair, and a very plain 
 face. Altogether, he was a hideous young 
 man, and ran Mr. Sparkle hard for the 
 first place in want of personal comeliness. 
 Another very patent fact was, that although 
 Mr. Jones might possess a fine sense of 
 beauty in artistic matters, he had evidently 
 none in the question of attire. His clothes 
 were ill-made, his tie loosely arranged, and 
 showing above his collar at the back. 
 
 This last arrival completely overwhelmed 
 poor Helen. She could not understand what 
 she saw. Surely, the world of Bohemia 
 must contain some gentlemen of a more
 
 A Bohemian Party. 229 
 
 presentable appearance. She had seen the 
 
 portrait of Mr. R , the great painter, 
 
 a handsome, aristocratic-looking man ; and 
 young Catullus Brown, the promising poet, 
 was a perfect Apollo. Could it be possible 
 that Nature was in league with ill-fortune 
 to set an opprobious mark upon those who 
 did not succeed greatly in the world. She 
 had not enough experience to know that 
 there are extraordinary-looking creatures in 
 every society, and that the reason they look 
 less peculiar in the highest society than in 
 any other, is because the elegance of the 
 surroundings throws a veil over them. Here 
 she was on the alert to discover faults ; at 
 Lady Grahame's she would have entered the 
 house with her mind fully made up that she 
 was going to meet none but a superior class 
 of beings. Like many others, she took the 
 unknown for the magnificent, and vice versa. 
 The next arrival was a young actor, who 
 proved to be a handsome, shapely fellow ; 
 and after him came the actress and her 
 brother. The brother was a little peculiar 
 i n appearance, but gentlemanly withal ; and 
 the sister, plain of feature, but graceful and
 
 230 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 lady-like. Helen brightened up a bit at 
 these last arrivals. Decidedly, the world 
 of Bohemia was improving. It would, at 
 least, have been ungrateful to entertain a 
 bad opinion of them, since they all testified 
 in the most unmistakeable manner that they 
 admired her immensely. Even Mr. Sparkle, 
 whose acquaintance lay chiefly among bur- 
 lesque actresses, et hoc genus omne, and 
 whose manners with ladies had in conse- 
 quence acquired a somewhat free-and-easy 
 tinge, treated her with the most respectful 
 deference. In time, won by his evident 
 desire to please, she forgot even his peculiar 
 appearance and plain aspect. 
 
 In Bohemia there is no frigidity; in a 
 very few moments the room was filled with 
 the sound of everybody talking, and the 
 conversation came borne to Helen's ears 
 something after this fashion. 
 
 Mr. Sparkle, giving an account of his last 
 piece to Clara Weldon. — ' So I said to Quip, 
 this is not the kind of fun that takes at all. 
 You must bring in a comic cabman, or a 
 footman, who drops his " h's," or something 
 of that kind.'
 
 A Bohemian Party. 231 
 
 Mr. Bite, discussing Politics with David 
 Fairfax. — ' The policy of the present 
 Government is characterised by feebleness, 
 splutter, and an absolute disregard of the 
 tax-payer. I have it on the highest autho- 
 rity that when it was proposed to give Lord 
 Muddlebrain a seat in the Cabinet ten years 
 
 ago, Lord P declared that he would not 
 
 sit in the same room with such a noodle.' 
 
 Mr. Jones, discussing Art with Ralph 
 Weldon. — ' Stipple has ideas, some of them 
 grand ones ; but what is the use of ideas 
 to a man who cannot draw ? Good ideas 
 coupled with bad drawing are most 
 offensive.' 
 
 Ralph Weldon, who has a higher opinion of 
 Mr. Stipple than his friend. — ' Not so 
 offensive as good drawing without an idea, 
 old fellow, like Splash's rubbish, eh ? ' 
 
 The Actor, detailing the gossip of the green 
 room to the actress s brother. — ' There's no 
 doubt in the matter ; she was actually intoxi- 
 cated when she came on the stage, and had 
 the greatest difficulty to keep herself from 
 
 falling. E told me he never felt so 
 
 disgusted in his life as at having to go
 
 232 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 through the piece with her. You've heard 
 about young Barry, of course ? No ! — well, 
 the other night he was playing at Mrs. 
 F 's theatre, and in the piece she con- 
 sidered he took hold of her too roughly. 
 By-gad, sir, when the curtain was down, she 
 slapped his face before them all. Barry 
 swears he'll bring an action.' 
 
 While all this chatter went on, Helen 
 was having a long conversation about the 
 stage with the actress, to whom she con- 
 fided, somewhat bashfully, that she had 
 herself once contemplated N entering the 
 theatrical profession. 
 
 The young lady smiled pityingly. 
 
 1 Ah ! my dear Miss Vanstone, I am glad, 
 for your own sake, you did not. Family 
 misfortunes compelled me to turn actress, 
 but it is one of the hardest modes of getting 
 a livelihood. When I first took to it, I 
 thought, as no doubt you have done, that it 
 would be a fine thing to play " Juliet " and 
 the " Lady of Lyons " before applauding 
 audiences ; but that is the most rosy side of 
 the picture. I have never played Juliet yet, 
 and I don't suppose I ever shall.'
 
 A Bohemian Party. 233 
 
 She examined Helen critically for a few 
 seconds, and then added, — 
 
 1 But you might have had a very good 
 chance of succeeding on the stage, for, of 
 course, your appearance is so greatly in your 
 favour.' 
 
 Helen blushed at the compliment, and her 
 friend, noting this feminine weakness, asked 
 with a smile, — 
 
 ' Do you think you could have made 
 yourself brazen enough for our profes- 
 sion ? ' 
 
 1 I am afraid, when it came to the pinch, 
 I could never have faced the footlights.' 
 
 Taking advantage of a temporary lull in 
 the Babel, David Fairfax stood up, and 
 called out in his hearty tones, — 
 
 1 Ladies and Gentlemen, I am going to ask 
 our friend Sparkle to give us a little enter- 
 tainment of his own arranging.' 
 
 Hereupon Mr. Sparkle put his hand upon 
 his heart, and bowing profoundly, answered 
 in a voice of assumed bashfulness, — 
 
 1 Really, unaccustomed as I am to public 
 speaking — ' 
 
 Whereupon there was a loud laugh from
 
 234 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 all who understood the gentleman's peculiar 
 humour. 
 
 These preliminaries having been settled, 
 Mr. Sparkle gave them an imitation of 
 amateur performers at Penny Readings, and 
 in five minutes the audience was fairly con- 
 vulsed, Helen among the number. There 
 was the bleating vicar, who read the 'May 
 Queen ' in much the same tone as he would 
 read the Psalms ; the young man with a cold 
 in his head, who would recite ' The Raven ; ' 
 and a lot of other imitations remarkable for 
 their mirth-moving powers. Helen had 
 never seen anything of this kind before, and 
 she was delighted with it all. 
 
 The ball having once been set in motion, 
 it was constantly kept going by the others. 
 The actor and actress did the cottage scene 
 from the ' Lady of Lyons,' which made Helen 
 weep copiously. Bite, the critical, the fero- 
 cious, sang a comic song. Mr. Jones played 
 a sonata, which was not so entertaining, as 
 there were few in the room who cared much 
 about music. Ralph recited the ' Ride to 
 Ghent,' and splendidly he did it, in the 
 judgment of one young person, at all events.
 
 A Bohemian Party. 235 
 
 Then, when everybody had done his best in 
 turn, they came back again to Sparkle, who 
 gave them an imitation of a popular lady 
 singer noted, for her love of runs and 
 flourishes. Sparkle, the actor and actress, 
 were the lions of the evening ; the efforts of 
 the others fell flat after theirs, like soda-water 
 after champagne. 
 
 The evening flew on wings, and Helen 
 felt sorry when supper was announced, for it 
 meant an end of those friendly performances. 
 Still, it was by no means a dull meal ; the 
 table was kept in a roar, chiefly with the 
 drollery of Sparkle. Then they finished the 
 evening with proposing healths ; and, after a 
 few had been drank, Mr. Sparkle rose, and 
 begged leave to propose the toast of the 
 evening. Everybody was silent, and Helen, 
 who had a presentiment of what was coming, 
 blushed violently. The speech was as 
 follows, delivered in a serious and earnest 
 voice, — 
 
 ' Ladies and Gentlemen, — We have already 
 testified our good feelings towards our host, 
 and, speaking for all of us, I may emphati- 
 cally say, it was no mere empty form of
 
 22,6 The Qtieen of Two Worlds. 
 
 compliment. Ralph Weldon is our friend, 
 our very dear friend, of many years' standing. 
 Side by side, shoulder to shoulder, we have 
 marched on together like hardy soldiers, 
 sometimes with very little in our knapsacks, 
 fighting the hard and stern battle of life. 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, we can look back 
 without regret, and we can also look forward 
 with hope. His future is gilded with hope 
 of the most radiant description. If Ralph 
 Weldon is dear to us as an old Bohemian 
 comrade and brother, the lady who is about 
 to become his wife must be dear to us too. 
 I beg to propose long life, health, and happi- 
 ness to Miss Vanstone, the future wife of 
 Ralph Weldon, whose beauty and grace 
 justly earn for her the title of Queen of 
 Bohemia ! ' 
 
 Mr. Sparkle ceased amid a whirlwind of 
 applause, and the health of the ' Queen of 
 Bohemia ! ' was drunk with the greatest 
 enthusiasm. Gladly would she have spoken 
 a few grateful words in reply, but utterance 
 and power to arrange her ideas both failed 
 her, and Ralph returned thanks on her 
 behalf. Five minutes afterwards there was
 
 A Bohemian Party. 237 
 
 a general rush to catch the last train to 
 town, and the cottage returned to its normal 
 quietude. 
 
 ' Have you enjoyed yourself, darling ? ' 
 asked Ralph, when they were alone. 
 
 1 Oh, so much. I think Bohemia is a de- 
 lightful world, and the dwellers therein the 
 most delightful people.' 
 
 He kissed her gladly, with a happy look 
 on his face. But in spite of her sincere 
 assurance, there never was a girl who had 
 less in common with Bohemianism than 
 Helen Vanstone. First views of all things 
 are notoriously deceptive, and at present her 
 tastes and aspirations pointed towards a very 
 different sphere. 
 
 Something of all this flashed through his 
 own mind, but he consoled himself with the 
 recollection of how dearly she loved him, 
 and felt sure that for his sake she would 
 love his world.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 YOUTHFUL HEARTS. 
 
 thinking 
 
 about, 
 
 HAT are you 
 
 Helen?' cried Ralph. 
 
 It was the day after the 
 Bohemian party. The young 
 people were seated on the lawn, basking in 
 the sun, Helen holding a dainty parasol to 
 shield her face from the rays, her lover 
 smoking a cigarette, and feasting his eyes 
 upon her delicate beauty. At first she had 
 felt rather bashful under his constant 
 scrutiny ; but when he told her, with the 
 greatest gravity, that it was impossible for 
 a true lover to keep his gaze away from his 
 mistress, she nerved herself to stand the 
 ordeal, and was surprised to find that a 
 couple of days' practice had rendered her
 
 Youthful Hda rts. 239 
 
 perfectly hardened. There had been silence 
 between them for some time, and Helen 
 had fallen into a reverie, hence his question. 
 
 1 Perhaps if I tell you, I shall make you 
 vain,' she replied. 
 
 1 Let me beg of you to run the risk, my 
 darling/ 
 
 'Well, then, Ralph, I was wondering if 
 our life could always be as happy as it is 
 now ; because, you know, most people of 
 experience tell you that married men soon 
 grow cross and irritable.' 
 
 Ralph muttered to himself, ' That's an 
 arrow out of my sweet friend, Mrs. Van- 
 stone's quiver.' Then he said aloud, ' And 
 by a natural application, you began to ask 
 yourself whether Ralph Weldon would grow 
 cross and irritable with his beloved Helen ? ' 
 
 'Just so ; and I came to the conclusion 
 that I had not much to dread. I don't set 
 up for a great judge of character, Ralph, my 
 experience of your sex being dreadfully 
 limited ; but with women, instinct often 
 supplies the place of experience.' She 
 paused a moment, and then, placing one 
 hand in his, and looking into his face with
 
 240 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 an expression of the most perfect love, 
 added, ' My instinct tells me that you are 
 not like ordinary men, selfish, fickle, un- 
 reasonable. I believe that twenty years 
 hence I shall be as dear to you as I am 
 now, in the bloom of our youth and romance.' 
 
 He carried her hand to his lips. ' Dearer, 
 my sweet love, if it be possible to love more 
 than I do now ! ' 
 
 1 How strange that I, of all girls, should 
 have fallen in love,' she was beginning, with 
 innocent gravity, when he interrupted her. 
 
 1 Say rather, how strange that you should 
 not have done so. It would be an outrage 
 to imagine such beauty as yours without the 
 Promethian spark that makes it divine. It 
 would have been as anomalous as a scentless 
 rose or a songless nightingale.' 
 
 'You will make me most preposterously 
 vain, sir,' she answered, assuming a severe 
 look. ' But really, Ralph, I always thought 
 I must be a very cold creature. I never 
 remember to have looked on any of your 
 sex with approbation, or to have had the 
 least desire for those innocent flirtations in 
 which other girls take delight. I had long
 
 Youthful Hea rts. 2 4 1 
 
 made up my mind I should never love any- 
 body but mamma.' 
 
 ' You were waiting for the right man, 
 you discerning young lady. Now, Helen, I 
 want you to candidly answer me one ques- 
 tion — " What opinion did you form of me on 
 the first night of our acquaintance, when I 
 came to see your father on business, you 
 know?"' 
 
 ' Let me think a little, Mr. Inquisitive. 
 Well, in the first place, I certainly thought 
 you a superior being to the few men I had 
 come into contact with before ; and then, am I 
 not dreadfully forward in confessing all this ? 
 
 I remember that I went to bed earlier than 
 usual, to have a little extra think about you/ 
 
 ' You sweet angel ! Helen, that was love 
 at first sight.' 
 
 ' Perhaps not. Let us see if we cannot 
 find another reason,' she answered, playfully. 
 
 I I led a very lonely life, visitors were exces- 
 sively rare ; my proceeding might have been 
 the same with any other tolerable-looking 
 young gentleman.' 
 
 ' Oh, Helen ! Helen ! can you look me in 
 the face, and say that your heart did not tell 
 vol. 1. Q
 
 242 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 you there was a mysterious affinity between 
 our souls ? ' 
 
 ' What ! after ten minutes' interview ? 
 You dear old goose ! Now, come, I have 
 satisfied your curiosity ; it is your turn. 
 What did you think of me ?' 
 
 She was looking at him with one of her 
 most charming- expressions ; her eyes were 
 sparkling with happiness, with that kind of 
 joy which comes only in youth, and springs 
 from only one source — gratified affection. 
 Her lips were parted in a smile that made 
 her look like a young Hebe. As Ralph 
 Weldon gazed on her thus, he felt almost 
 mad with delight to think that this radiant 
 creature would one day be his own. A flush 
 of deep feeling burned on his cheek as he 
 answered, — 
 
 ' I thought you were such a woman as I 
 might have pictured in my dreams, but could 
 have never hoped to meet out of dreamland. 
 Your gestures, your voice, your grace dwelt 
 on my memory, leaving there an imperish- 
 able record. I carried your presence with 
 me from your home ; I shut my eyes, but 
 still you stood before me, graceful, gracious,
 
 Youthful Hearts. 243 
 
 and beautiful as I had just beheld you. I 
 saw you again in my sleep, and when I awoke, 
 I knew for certain that I had found my 
 ideal, — the woman who would make of the 
 man who loved her an artist or a poet. I 
 began to realise the matchless conceptions of 
 the great creators, — Juliet, Marguerite, I mo- 
 gene, — and you seemed to me one worthy, 
 like them, of the most exalted passion/ 
 
 The tears gathered in her eyes as he 
 spoke thus, his tones even more than his 
 words bearing witness to his fervent love ; 
 then, half ashamed of her emotion, she said 
 in a sprightly tone, ' I ought to inspire you 
 with the subject for a grand picture.' 
 
 What he would have replied to this must 
 be left to conjecture, for Mr. Vanstone came 
 sauntering towards them with a cigar in his 
 mouth. Ralph would have preferred that he 
 should not have made his appearance at that 
 exact moment ; but, under the circumstances, 
 he was a necessary encumbrance, and to 
 treat him with courtesy was a duty. One 
 thing must be said in his praise : he was 
 much more considerate to the young people 
 than his wife would have been ; but then he
 
 244 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 had known the meaning of love, while she 
 never had. 
 
 ' A charming little place this, Weldon, my 
 boy. It makes me shudder to think of 
 Thomas Street after it,' remarked the old 
 gentleman, as he carefully deposited himself 
 on the grass. 
 
 ' Why don't you take a house in the 
 country ? As you have no occupation, it 
 doesn't matter where you live,' said Ralph. 
 
 ' Humph ! it's inconvenient to get to the 
 club,' answered Mr. Van stone. A few 
 moments' reflection had convinced him that 
 permanent residence in the country would 
 mean staying at home on wet and unpro- 
 pitious nights, in the company of a snappish 
 spouse. Ralph saw what was passing in his 
 mind, and said, with some slyness, — 
 
 ' But I forget, you are not a domesticated 
 character.' 
 
 The poor old gentleman just smiled, and 
 then sighed. 
 
 * No, I have no encouragement to be so,' 
 he said, in an accent that conveyed volumes. 
 
 Helen leaned forward and shook her finger 
 playfully at him, —
 
 Youthful Hearts. 245 
 
 ■ Papa, that is an insinuation. If you had 
 ever been a domesticated character, you 
 would not have behaved so badly in your 
 youth. Look at the state I am reduced to 
 through your wickedness.' 
 
 1 Ah yes, child, I daresay I deserve all 
 IVe got,' assented the old gentleman, with 
 a melancholy smile. 
 
 1 O come, don't let us be mournful,' she 
 cried, in a cheerful tone, and putting her arms 
 round his neck, she gave him a hearty kiss. 
 ' There, you are not a bad old papa after all, 
 although I ought to have been an heiress 
 instead of a poor beggar, with about five shil- 
 lings pocket-money, and a sovereign to put 
 in my purse on grand occasions, although, 
 like the " Vicar of Wakefield's " daughter, 
 I have strict injunctions not to change it.' 
 
 ' You shall have a banking account all to 
 yourself one day,' said Ralph, in a sanguine 
 tone. ' It would be worth a hundred pounds 
 to see you write your first cheque.' 
 
 ' My dear Ralph ! I should be writing 
 cheques all day for the first month, till the 
 novelty wore off.' 
 
 ' That reminds me of a story I once read,'
 
 246 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 interposed Mr. Vanstone. ' A certain king 
 of O-why-hee had built for him a house after 
 the most approved modern pattern. The 
 thing about it that most astonished the 
 savage monarch was the staircase ; and he 
 was so delighted with this novel feature in 
 architecture, that he amused himself by run- 
 ning up and down it all day ! ' 
 
 ' And what about the ponies I promised 
 you ? would you be driving them about all 
 day for the first month ? ' asked Ralph. 
 
 In discussing that fairy future when he was 
 to get two thousand pounds for a picture, it 
 had been arranged between these young 
 people that a pair of ponies for Helen's special 
 use would be an indispensable luxury, quite 
 apart from the more imposing carriage which 
 was to convey them to dinners and parties. 
 
 It was in painting such fancy pictures that 
 they passed the time. Lovers who are not 
 overburdened with this world's goods must 
 perforce live largely on hope, and I am not 
 sure that in many cases it is not an invigor- 
 ating food. The beauty of the artistic pro- 
 fessions is that they give so wide a field for 
 the exercise of the imaginative faculty, and
 
 Youthful Hea rts. 247 
 
 tone down the stern realities of life. A poor 
 solicitor or a poor parson must of necessity 
 be bounded in his views; many other favour- 
 ing circumstances besides ability being neces- 
 sary to bring the one an immense practice or 
 make the other a bishop. But to the artist, 
 the poet, the musician, the morrow may 
 bring fame and wealth, although he be in 
 poverty to-day : one splendid picture, one 
 exquisite poem, one grand opera, may in a 
 few hours lift him from destitution to afflu- 
 ence. Suppose Ralph Weldon had been a 
 clerk, could Helen have ever looked forward 
 to the advent of those ponies with any 
 degree of confidence ? It is true that in- 
 dustrious clerks are sometimes taken into 
 partnership, but how rarely, and under what 
 exceptional circumstances. But now, so long 
 as Ralph could wield a brush, so long as 
 there remained a public to appeal to, fortune 
 was not impossible — was only delayed in its 
 arrival. If 'Maria Theresa' did not make 
 his fame, why, his next great picture might 
 do so ! and if, for some almost unaccountable 
 reason or another, that failed, the one after 
 would be more successful ; and so on ad info-
 
 248 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 nitunt. On the whole, she congratulated 
 herself on the fact that she was going to 
 marry a man belonging to a profession in 
 which hope played so large a part. 
 
 Fortunately for the continuous indulgence 
 of her roseate dreams, Helen had that strong 
 faith in her lover which made her believe 
 that success was only a question of time, and 
 that the public must ultimately discover the 
 merit which was already patent to her dis- 
 cerning vision. In painting, too, it happened 
 that without much technical knowledge, she 
 had certain instincts which enabled her to 
 tell a good picture after a few glances, and 
 Ralph found himself hugely comforted by 
 her sanguine prophecies. He had that 
 belief in his own powers without which 
 hardly any man can achieve greatness ; but 
 'hope deferred maketh the heart sick/ and 
 he had so often anticipated a triumph, which 
 had never come, that sometimes he grew 
 despondent. 
 
 1 Do you really think this is a great 
 picture ? ' he used to say to her often, as they 
 were together in his studio. ' Or is it going 
 to turn out an ambitious failure ? '
 
 Youthful He a rts. 249 
 
 Then she always replied firmly she was 
 sure it would make his reputation ; and she 
 said this from conviction, not merely from 
 a desire to keep up his spirits. And after 
 this encouragement, he always worked with 
 greater gusto than before. 
 
 To a man fighting the battle of life, it is an 
 inestimable blessing to meet a woman who 
 thoroughly believes in him. Her inspiring 
 words of praise act as a greater spur than 
 the moderate approval of colder critics. For, 
 although she may have less knowledge than 
 they, her love gives her a greater insight 
 into the capacity of her lover ; she alone 
 knows his hidden thoughts, his clearest 
 ambitions, his strength and weakness ; she 
 alone sees him in his loftiest as well as his 
 lowest moments, for to her he displays the 
 enthusiasm he would be ashamed to exhibit 
 to the world. 
 
 It was perhaps a perception of this truth 
 that made Ralph say to her, ' I believe there 
 is no inspiration more divine than that which 
 is eiven bv love. I have a new incentive 
 now to prove myself worthy of your good 
 opinion/
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RALPH S HISTORY. 
 
 §fe 
 
 ELEN, you remember my telling 
 you that there had been certain 
 things in my past history which 
 had cast a deep shadow over my 
 life ? ' he asked her one evening, as they 
 went gliding down the river in his boat. 
 They were alone that evening, for Clara 
 Weldon had stayed at home with a bad 
 headache. 
 
 1 1 remember it perfectly, and you promised 
 that you would keep no secrets from me/ 
 answered the girl, gravely. 
 
 He ceased rowing, and let the # boat float 
 on with the current. 
 
 1 The story I am going to tell you, dearest, 
 is a very sad one. I have an uneasy con-
 
 RalpEs History. 251 
 
 viction that I ought to have told it long ago, 
 if not to you, at least to your parents.' 
 
 She looked at him in amazement, and her 
 colour faded slightly, for his manner was so 
 grave and solemn, that it seemed to her 
 significant of some evil that might imperil 
 their love. He understood that look of sur- 
 prise mingled with dread, and answered it 
 immediately. 
 
 ' With some women the knowledge that I 
 am going to impart to you might have 
 influenced their decision. But I fancy I 
 have read your character well enough to be 
 sure that when you have heard this story, 
 you will pity rather than blame my weak- 
 ness. When I stood beside you that night 
 on which we gathered the roses, and saw 
 your sweet eyes shining up to mine with 
 such love and trust in their clear depths, I 
 was a coward, Helen. I could not then have 
 uttered a word which might have led you to 
 suppose that there was or might be even 
 the shadow of a barrier between our hearts.' 
 
 She was quite pale now, and her heart 
 was throbbing painfully with the dread of 
 this revelation which was prefaced so gravely.
 
 252 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 Was the life of sunshine and perfume in 
 which she had been revelling for the last 
 few weeks, only, after all, a cheating dream, 
 from which she was to be suddenly and 
 rudely awakened by the touch of some 
 ghostly and hidden skeleton, who came 
 creeping out of the shadows of the past ? 
 In her horror she did not know what to 
 think, what shape to give to the evil that 
 was impending. This man might have 
 committed some sin past redemption, even 
 some crime that would drag after it the 
 Nemesis of the law. 
 
 As he noted the agonised expression on 
 her face, it struck him, for the first time, 
 that the solemnity of his manner might have 
 given birth to such apprehensions as these. 
 
 1 There is no need for alarm, my darling,' 
 he said tenderly. ' The barrier between us, 
 if such should exist, was built not by me, 
 but by the hands of others ; and the heart 
 of her who built it was innocent of every 
 sin, save that which man's perfidy and 
 lawlessness often converts into a sin, — the 
 faculty of loving not wisely but too well.' 
 
 She gave a long sigh of relief as she
 
 RalpJis Histo7y. 253 
 
 listened to those reassuring words. Thank 
 heaven, he at least was free ! The errors 
 and faults of others, least of all the errors 
 and faults of a woman, as he indicated that 
 they were, could not lower him. Whatever 
 might be the details of this sad story to 
 which she was about to lend her ears, she 
 felt sure that their recital could not dim for 
 long the sunshine of their hearts. 
 
 And then, amid the fading light and the 
 falling shadows, he told her the history of 
 his past. 
 
 'When I go back to the earliest days 
 of my childhood, there comes to me the 
 recollection of a little house in the country, 
 something like my own now, with a pretty, 
 spacious garden, in which I and Clara used 
 to play about, while my mother sat watching 
 us from under the shade of a grand old tree 
 that flourished at the bottom of the lawn. 
 
 ' I can recall my mother's face perfectly 
 in those days, the days of her youth, for she 
 was not more than twenty-seven then. She 
 was a beautiful woman, with large dark eyes ^ 
 and glossy dark hair like your own, only I 
 never saw on her features the sunlight that
 
 254 Tke Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 falls upon yours, for the summer had gone, 
 out of her life years ago, and her smiles 
 issued from a broken heart. 
 
 * Both Clara and I, as soon as we were 
 able to reason and think a little, noticed this 
 constant sadness, which would end often in 
 tears as we all sat together, — and puzzled our 
 small minds in endeavours to discover the 
 cause. Our life was a dull one ; no visitors 
 save one, who, we were told, was our uncle, 
 ever relieved the monotony. Often and often 
 did we put to her questions concerning our 
 relatives, and the father whom we imagined 
 to be dead ; and, young as we were, we dis- 
 covered in her answers a certain air of 
 embarrassment and mystery that puzzled us 
 still more. 
 
 ' The years glided by, and with an instinc- 
 tive feeling that these questions gave pain 
 to our mother, we had long discontinued 
 them. It was not until I had reached fifteen 
 that we were made acquainted with the 
 secret of our birth, and perhaps but for stern 
 necessity we should never have known it to 
 the day of her death. 
 
 1 1 entered her room casually one after-
 
 RalpJis History. 255 
 
 noon, and found her seated in an attitude 
 of the deepest dejection, her face bathed in 
 tears, and an open letter which had dropped 
 from her hands to the floor. At the sieht 
 of me she raised her head, and, opening her 
 arms, folded me to her breast. I can feel 
 her tears dropping on my cheek now, and 
 hear again the mournful tones in which she 
 kept repeating the words, " My poor, poor 
 Ralph ! my poor, unhappy boy." 
 
 ' And, then slowly, for the words fell from 
 her as if they had been drops of blood wrung 
 from her heart, she told me the sad story of 
 her wrongs and suffering. 
 
 1 Sixteen years ago, in the town of her 
 birth, she made the acquaintance of a young 
 officer. She was the daughter of a not very 
 flourishing surgeon. He was a man of birth 
 and high connexion, the heir to large estates. 
 Their is no need to sketch the history of 
 their attachment, of their clandestine meet- 
 ings, of the world-worn excuses he put 
 forth for not wooing her in an open manner, 
 — the dread of disinheritance through a 
 father's anger, the loss of great expecta- 
 tions from other quarters, and all the other
 
 256 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 methods by which a man succeeds in mask- 
 ing his villany from the eyes of the woman 
 who loves him. He persuaded her to come 
 up to London in order to be married 
 privately to him. 
 
 ' They were married, as she thought. 
 Not until he grew tired of her did she learn 
 the truth, that it was a sham, that the 
 priest who read over the service was a 
 creature of his own. I pass by any descrip- 
 tion of her agony when she discovered 
 this treachery ; and its poignancy was in- 
 creased by knowing that she could blame 
 none but herself and her seducer. He tired 
 of her sooner than the ordinary run of 
 villains, and six months after Clara was born, 
 he left her with a coldly-worded letter, in 
 which he informed her that, as he was soon 
 going to be married to a girl belonging to 
 his own rank of life, it was better that they 
 should^separate. 
 
 ' Perhaps the discovery of his utter heart- 
 lessness helped to cure my mother of her 
 love for the worthless scoundrel ; at any 
 rate, she acted like a woman of courage and 
 spirit, threatening him that if he did not
 
 RalpJis History. 257 
 
 make a decent provision for herself and her 
 unhappy children, she would expose him to 
 the woman he was going to marry. This 
 threat brought him to terms, for his future 
 wife was both an heiress and a woman of 
 high tone and principle. As long as that 
 wife lived, he carried out his covenant faith- 
 fully ; but three months after her death, he 
 sent the letter which I had seen on the floor, 
 and which my mother read to me. It was 
 headed, " Dear Mrs. Weldon," and contained 
 a business-like and formal announcement to 
 the effect that, in view of his increasing ex- 
 penses, he would find it quite impossible to 
 pay for the future so large a sum as he had 
 hitherto done, and must reduce it to a hun- 
 dred a-year. 
 
 'After she had recovered from the first 
 shock of this cruel intelligence, my mother 
 sent for our uncle, a kindly, genial bachelor, 
 who followed the profession of an artist with 
 but scant success, and asked his advice. We 
 were practically thrown upon the world ; our 
 education was stopped, and our outlook was 
 of the gloomiest. The paltry sum would 
 just suffice to give us shelter and food 
 enough to keep us from starving. 
 
 vol. 1. R
 
 258 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 1 We were brought to' a dead-lock. Both 
 I and my sister had early manifested a love 
 for art, and had received instruction from my 
 uncle. It was possible that in time we might 
 be able to get our living as artists, but this 
 was, of course, problematical, and the present 
 pressed heavily upon us. Money must be 
 got somehow at once, and the question was, 
 how could this be done ? It seemed that 
 there was nothing left for me but that refuge 
 of the destitute — a clerkship. My poor 
 mother, who was ambitious for her children, 
 wept copiously at the gloomy prospect of her 
 darling son having to pass his days on a four- 
 legged stool in some dingy office. 
 
 ' My uncle, one of the best-hearted men in 
 the world, was moved by her grief. " I wish 
 to Heaven I could devise some better plans 
 for him, my dear," he said kindly; " but what 
 can the poor lad do without means ? I live 
 from hand to mouth myself, as you know, 
 and could not scrape together a hundred 
 pounds to help him. And it would take 
 ten times that sum to start him in anything 
 respectable, even if he had business know- 
 ledge." 
 
 1 " I know that too well," sobbed my poor,
 
 Ralph 's History. 259 
 
 dejected mother. Suddenly a bright idea 
 came into my uncle's head. " Listen to me, 
 Mabel. I have a notion that you might do 
 something with this villain by a personal 
 interview. When you have got a man face 
 to face, you can deal better with him than by 
 letters." 
 
 1 My mother gave a shiver at the prospect. 
 " I think I would sooner die than meet that 
 man again, David ; and you do not know his 
 nature, made up as it is of cruelty and light- 
 ness. I should make no impression on him." 
 
 1 " I am not so sure of that," replied her 
 brother, shaking his head. " The scoundrel 
 cared for you once, and the sight of your 
 suffering might soften his heart. Take your 
 boy with you ; he is a fine young fellow, of 
 whom a father ought to be proud. The 
 interview must prove a painful one, I am 
 aware ; but, for the sake of your children, it 
 is necessary that you should leave no stone 
 unturned." 
 
 ! At those words, my mother glanced from 
 me to Clara, and back again from Clara to 
 me, with eyes that overflowed with tears. 
 
 ' " For the sake of my children, I will con- 
 quer my own repugnance," she said, in a brave
 
 260 The Queen of Two Worlds. 
 
 voice. " You inspire me with faith, David ; 
 it is impossible that he can look on this dear 
 boy without some natural emotions. His 
 letter is dated from his country place. I will 
 take Ralph down with me to-morrow, and 
 we will enter together the home that by 
 right belongs to me and these darlings." 
 
 1 I can see her now as she uttered that 
 brave resolve, a crimson flush lighting up 
 the pale, wan cheek, and a stedfast light 
 gathering into those beautiful dark eyes, 
 which are so like your own. 
 
 ' " Yes," she resumed, in a softer tone, 
 " when his glance falls upon this boy, his 
 heir and first-born in the sight of heaven, if 
 not of man, and I tell him of the proud 
 hopes and dreams that I have indulged in 
 when I pictured his future, he may return to 
 a sense of what he owes to me and to my 
 helpless children." 
 
 ' She placed one hand on my head, and 
 drew me to her breast with the other. 
 
 ' " Ralph, my darling boy," she whispered 
 
 to me, 
 
 "we 
 
 will 
 
 go 
 
 to 
 
 your 
 
 father 
 
 to- 
 
 mor- 
 
 row." , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 

 
 "