m 

 
 !, 
 
 7 fr.r 
 
 / 
 
 vn \ 
 
 -I-
 
 A GAME OF CHANCE
 
 NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS 
 
 AT ALL THE LIBRARIES 
 
 VIOLET VYVIAN, M.F.H. By May Crommelin and 
 
 J. Moray Brown. 3 vols. 
 
 RESTITUTION. By Awne Beale, author of 'Fay 
 
 MISTRESS BEATRICE COPE, or Passages in the 
 
 LiFK OF A Jacobite's Daughter. By M. E. Le Clerc. 2 vols. 
 
 THROUGH THE LONG NIGHT. By Mrs. E. Lynn 
 
 Linton, author of ' Patricia Kemball,' &c. 3 vols. 
 
 DORINDA. By The Countess of Munster. 3 vols. 
 
 MURST & BLACKETT, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
 
 A GAME OF CHANCE 
 
 A NOVEL 
 
 ELLA J. CURTIS 
 
 (SHIRLEY SMITH) 
 
 AUTHOK OP 
 
 THE FAVOURITE OF FOWTUNK," " ALL l->K HEKSELF," " HIS LAST STAKE, 
 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. 1 
 
 LONDON 
 
 HUBST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET 
 
 1889 
 
 All Ki^hls Rescfved
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 TILLOTSON AND SON, MAWDSLEY STREET 
 
 BOLTON
 
 %Z5 
 
 
 (*> 
 
 :^ 
 
 -a 
 
 O 
 
 3- 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 TO 
 
 ALFRED WILLIAMS MOMERIE 
 
 Q (BY KIND PERMISSION) 
 
 I HAVE THE HONOUR 
 
 ^ OF DEDICATING 
 
 "A GAME OF CHANCE.'
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 1 H E FIRST VOLUME 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I.— TO INDIA 
 
 II.— THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS . 
 III. — THE GREAT PYRAMID SAILS 
 IV. -FIRE AND SMOKE .... 
 V. — HIS enemy's DAUGHTER . 
 VI.— THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE IN DANGER 
 VII.— THE NOMINATION .... 
 VIII.- THE TALK OF THE TOWN 
 IX.— AN ADVENTURE .... 
 
 X,— OTWAY MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF 
 XI. — THE NEWS FROM INDIA . 
 XII.- MISS DYSART-SMITH CATCHES COLD 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 31 
 
 43 
 
 59 
 
 76 
 
 86 
 
 100 
 
 113 
 
 131 
 
 144 
 
 i=;6
 
 COxNTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAl'TEK 
 
 XIII. -THE VISITOR WHO WALKS ON THE GRASS 
 XIV. — THE rector's HAT . 
 XV. — OTWAY IX CHAINS . 
 XVI. — A LETTER FROM JACK 
 XVII.— NO. 200 (queen's GATE TERRACE 
 XVIII. — A WOMAX'S FOLLY . 
 
 XIX. - LETTY AXD IIER SLAVE . 
 
 XX. — ROSSITUR AGAIxX 
 XXI. — THE LETTERS IN CYPHER. 
 XXII. — THE STREET BRAWL . 
 XXIII. — MRS. FORSTER's CONCERT. 
 XXIV.— OTWAV OBEYS ORDERS 
 XXV. — LETIY GIVES HER OPINION 
 XXVI. — THE WEDDING-DAY . 
 
 I'AOK 
 167 
 
 204 
 217 
 
 227 
 240 
 
 263 
 
 277 
 289 
 300 
 
 320
 
 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 C H A P T E R I . 
 
 TO INDIA. 
 
 Everyone in the place was more or less 
 excited when the news got abroad that young 
 John Erskine's regiment was under orders 
 for India, and the excitement became quite 
 intense as soon as it was known, positively, 
 that Sir John and Aunt Louise, and little 
 Letty were actually going to Portsmouth to 
 see him off. It was the first event of any 
 great importance that had happened in the 
 rather sleepy little town since the young man 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 had joined his regiment, about a year before, 
 and it was made the most of ; people who 
 were not interested might have said that 
 too much was made of it. 
 
 But then everything connected with the 
 Erskines was of importance in the town and 
 neighbourhood ; and their most private affairs, 
 in some unaccountable manner, got into the 
 air, as it seemed, and became public property 
 even while the family were still talking about 
 them in whispers and with closed doors. It 
 might even be said with truth that the gossips 
 somehow got hold of the vaguest rumours 
 and served them up as accomplished facts ; 
 and that sort of thing had gone on for ages, 
 and would, perhaps, go on for ever. A great 
 many years ago the facts, or perhaps to speak 
 more truly, the fictions connected with the 
 tragic death of a young Erskine at a gaming- 
 table abroad, were bandied about in the little 
 town before anyone had had the courage to 
 break the news of his son's death to a de-
 
 TO INDIA. 3 
 
 voted father. And in the same mysterious 
 way it was known that a sister of the present 
 Sir John Erskine, who had married young 
 and not in accordance with the wishes of her 
 family, was "running a rig," as it was called, 
 in London, and getting her husband into debt 
 and difficulties, while, by her friends, she was 
 supposed to be leading a quiet and orderly 
 life. 
 
 The good people of the small town of 
 Little Centre Bridge — so called because there 
 was a Great Centre Bridge some six miles 
 off — being gifted with this extraordinary 
 power of divination, or second sight, in 
 all matters connected with the families of 
 the lords of the manor — and the gift seemed 
 hereditary — there is nothing surprising in the 
 fact that when the doctor's wife, Mrs. Sumner, 
 and the lawyer's wife, ^Nlrs. \'erity, and Mrs. 
 Dysart-Smith who was "lady principal" of 
 the Erskine Colleo^e for Younor Ladies, met at 
 little Miss ]\Iasham's for afternoon tea, they
 
 4 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 should have talked of nothing but the fact 
 that John Erskine's regiment was ordered to 
 India. 
 
 And it was not such a wonderful or un- 
 common event after all ; only sons go to India 
 ev^ry day and take their chance with the rest, 
 and young John was not such a paragon 
 that his absence would make a blank, or his 
 presence cause a sensation. But the fact was, 
 he was the first Erskine who had become a 
 soldier since the Erskine who fought and died 
 at Bannockburn, and his choice of a profes- 
 sion had been canvassed, and talked over, and 
 wondered at, long after the slight surprise it 
 caused to his family and friends had died out. 
 
 The Erskines were not a very prolific, but 
 they were a prosperous family ; now and then, 
 as was natural, and to be expected, an event 
 happened that seemed for a time to check 
 the steady flow of good fortune that followed 
 them ; a sailor lad would be lost at sea, a 
 daughter's husband would go to the bad.
 
 TO INDIA. 5 
 
 or, perhaps, the daughter herself prove un- 
 worthy of her name. But the eldest sons, 
 if not specially gifted in any way, were always 
 blameless and honourable young fellows, who 
 went to school and college, travelled a little, 
 and then settled down in contentment at the 
 Chase, shooting, fishing, hunting, and dancing 
 at the county balls ; then, when their time 
 came, they fell in love and married women 
 whose families and antecedents would bear 
 the closest inspection. If these women had 
 fortunes, so much the better, but no amount 
 of money would compensate for want of 
 breeding or levity of conduct. 
 
 When the first break in the regular routine 
 occurred, and young John Erskine's photo- 
 graph in full uniform was seen by visitors 
 upon a table in the drawing-room at the 
 Chase, it was immediately said, not by the 
 family, of course, that further innovations 
 might presently be expected. He would 
 never marry the " right woman," that is,
 
 6 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 the young lady his father had picked out 
 for him ; he would choose for himself, and 
 there was no knowing what would happen 
 by and by. Everyone knew the sort of girl 
 that officers fell in love with in garrison 
 towns, and young John, although very 
 amiable and agreeable, was just the sort of 
 easy-going, unsuspicious young fellow to be 
 taken in. That was the talk of the little 
 town. 
 
 The family at the Chase, naturally enough, 
 had no misgivings ; John was going to be a 
 soldier, but, all the same, he would marry the 
 right woman when the time came. There 
 were people who said that his father, Sir 
 John, a fine, tall, handsome man of fifty-five 
 or sixty, would marry again and astonish 
 everyone' He lost his wife when John was 
 a lad at school and his daughter, Letty, a 
 baby of three or four years old. There was 
 an interval of over ten years between the 
 brother and sister, and when Lady Erskine,
 
 TO INDIA. 7 
 
 whose health had failed soon after Letty was 
 born, died in bringing her third child pre- 
 maturely into the world, her maiden sister — 
 her senior by nearly twenty years — came to 
 the Chase and devoted herself to the widower 
 and his children. 
 
 Miss Lambton, or Aunt Louise as she w^as 
 called, was a pattern maiden aunt ; the very 
 essence of amiability, sensible, gentle, good- 
 tempered and refined; but she was absolutely 
 without even one strong point in her character, 
 and wholly devoid of a will of her own. She 
 would dance to any tune, wild or serious, 
 piped by any player, and she accepted any 
 proposition, no matter how preposterous or 
 unorthodox ; she never argued ; was never 
 known to utter a contradiction, and vaeue 
 surmise was to her as satisfactory and con- 
 clusive as testimony taken on oath. 
 
 With her brother-in-law she o-ot on ad- 
 mirably ; she was in every respect a striking 
 contrast to the wife he had lost. Lady
 
 8 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Erskine had been a very pretty, self-willed, 
 quick-tempered, loving and impulsive little 
 woman, nearly twenty years younger than 
 Sir John, who argued persistently and con- 
 tradicted flatly for the mere love of argument 
 and contradiction. She was fond of her 
 husband, but she took delight in teasing him, 
 and it is impossible to say what storms might 
 not have arisen to disturb the peace of their 
 joint lives had not all her faults and failings 
 been buried in her early grave. 
 
 When Aunt Louise reigned in her sister's 
 room. Sir John left the management of his 
 house and children entirely to her, and lived 
 the out-of-door life that suited him, and that 
 he loved. But Aunt Louise was, in reality, 
 managed by the household and children ; the 
 servants were her masters and mistresses ; 
 they complained to her if they had fault to 
 find with her arrangements, and she was 
 occasionally discharged, so to speak, by her 
 domestics, not her domestics by her. But
 
 TO INDIA. 9 
 
 she was quite unconscious of her state of 
 bondage. 
 
 As for the children, they domineered over 
 her without mercy. They issued their im- 
 perious commands to Aunt Louise, and Aunt 
 Louise meekly obeyed, although her nephew, 
 who was accustomed to school discipline, 
 would have bowed before authority had any 
 been exercised over him. Little Letty had 
 been spoiled from her cradle, and if she had 
 not had, by nature, the sweetest disposition 
 in the world, she would have been ruined by 
 the joint indulgences of father and aunt. She 
 was a pretty little brown-eyed maid of fifteen, 
 when her brother, to whom she was devoted, 
 joined his regiment, and she was the only 
 member of the household who really rejoiced 
 over his choice of a profession. 
 
 When his reo-iment was under orders for 
 India, and he came to the Chase to say good- 
 bye, he brought with him a young brother- 
 officer, and Aunt Louise was half-shocked
 
 lO A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 and half-frightened at the premature flirtation 
 that was carried on between him and little 
 Letty. He was a handsome, merry lad — 
 younger in years and in ways than his friend 
 John Erskine — and he asked no better fun 
 than to be carried off by Letty for a long 
 ramble across the country. The pair would 
 be out for hours, accompanied by half-a-dozen 
 dogs, but as they always came back safe, as 
 well as tired, happy and not too clean, Aunt 
 Louise had not the heart to scold her pet, or 
 to forbid the expedition that was planned in 
 her hearing for the next day. 
 
 There was not a trace of sentiment in 
 Letty's frank liking for her new friend ; her 
 brother was the dearest fellow in the world, 
 but Arthur Filmer was, if possible, a more 
 delightful companion than John. Everything 
 was new to Arthur ; he had never been in 
 that part of the country before, so Letty had 
 the pleasure of introducing him to all her 
 favourite haunts ; and then he had so much
 
 TO INDIA. ir 
 
 to tell her of his own beautiful home in 
 Devonshire — legends and tales of wild Dart- 
 moor and Exmoor, that were far more thril- 
 ling than any of the somewhat twaddling 
 kind of stories provided by the timid Aunt 
 Louise for the amusement of her niece. 
 
 '' You must come and see us at Brentmore 
 some day," the young man said about twent)^ 
 times durino: his short visit to the Chase, 
 " when Jack and I come home on leave. 
 We can give your father lots of prime 
 shooting and fishing, and I'll show you every 
 place worth seeing for miles round. Re- 
 member, it's a bargain." 
 
 Those were his last words as he said 
 good-bye to the girl at the Litde Centre 
 Bridge railway station, and Mrs. Sumner and 
 Mrs. Verity, who happened to be there 
 changing their library books at \V. H. Smith 
 and Son's stall, looked at one another and 
 smiled knowingly when they saw how the 
 handsome young fellow leaned out of the
 
 12 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 carriage window to say good-bye once more 
 to the pretty little girl who gave him just as 
 hearty a kiss as she gave to her brother. 
 
 " I think she Is too old to be allowed to 
 kiss young men at railway stations, don't 
 you, Mrs. Smith ?" Mrs. Sumner said when 
 she described what had taken place to the 
 principal of Ersklne College. 
 
 Letty did not hear any of the comments 
 that were made upon her conduct, nor the 
 prophecies that were delivered upon her fate 
 In the future If some timely check were not 
 put upon her propensity to flirt before it was 
 too late. It was simply as a pleasant com- 
 panion that she missed Arthur, and she told 
 him so several times In the childishly effusive 
 letter she wrote to thank him for a copy of 
 Blackmore's " Lorna Doone," which, by per- 
 mission of Aunt Louise, arrived at the Chase 
 the day but one after the young man left. 
 
 It was after dinner on the day of their 
 departure that a bright idea struck Sir John.
 
 TO INDIA. 13, 
 
 *' Why shouldn't we all go and see them 
 off at Portsmouth," he said. " Let me see ; 
 when does the Great Pyramid sail ? You 
 know, Letty, Til be bound." 
 
 Letty did know ; the troopship with the 
 99th Dragoons on board was to sail that 
 very day week, the 2nd of October. 
 
 *'A11 right," said Sir John. "We'll see 
 the last of them. You write for rooms, 
 Louise, and Lll put off the fellows who are 
 coming here for the ist." 
 
 Letty's eyes were sparkling. *'And I may 
 write and tell John ?" she said.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 
 
 It was in the middle of September that 
 Arthur Filmer and Letty Erskine were ram- 
 bling together about the country, and one 
 beautiful evening, just about the time the 
 party at the Chase was sitting down to 
 dinner, a young man and a girl were walking 
 side by side along a glade in a wood, about 
 fifty miles from Little Centre Bridge, and the 
 low sun that was streaming through the 
 open windows of the Erskines' dining-room, 
 and playing upon young John's handsome, 
 boyish face, was glinting through the boles 
 of the Stillingfort oaks and beeches, and 
 throwing fantastic lights and shadows upon 
 the uncovered head of the girl and the
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 1 5 
 
 brown velveteen shooting - jacket of the 
 man. 
 
 As young John turned away his dazzled 
 eyes, and suggested the letting down of a 
 blind, he thought how many years he had, 
 young as he was, been half- blinded by the 
 sun on late summer evenings in that very 
 spot ; and he wondered vaguely, as people 
 do, what would have happened before his 
 next long visit to the dear old home. Of 
 course he would often be there again ; it was 
 only a question of time ; in a few years he 
 would be in E norland on lone: leave, and 
 he would find the dear old governor and 
 Aunt Louise just the same ; they were the 
 sort of people who never grow old. Letty 
 would be grown up, of course ; but not 
 married, for he must be at her wedding. 
 
 The girl, who was walking through the 
 woodland glade with the sunlight glinting 
 on her f^Ir hair, had never heard of the 
 Ersklnes, and yet the mysterious power
 
 1 6 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 we call Destiny was already drawing her 
 towards them, and was about to make the 
 name of more Interest and Importance to her 
 than any name she had ever heard. 
 
 Her own name was Bella Rossltur ; she 
 was the daughter of Farmer Rossltur, who 
 was one of the principal tenants on Lord 
 Stilllngfort's estate, and the man beside 
 her was Jem Hathaway, one of his lord- 
 ship's keepers. The wood was his lordship's 
 property, and It was part of Jem's business 
 to walk through It and about It continually 
 at all hours of the day and night with a gun 
 on his shoulder. But whether It was also his 
 business to be accompanied, as on this par- 
 ticular evening, by Farmer Rossltur's hand- 
 some daughter, may be left an open question. 
 
 Whether It was or was not she was with 
 him now, and, as a matter of fact, she had 
 been with him almost every evening for 
 nearly a month. She did not 11^ at home, 
 for she was a lady's maid, and had come
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 1 7 
 
 from London to say good-bye to her friends, 
 as she was going to India the first week in 
 October with her new mistress, a very young 
 lady who was going out to join her father. 
 
 Bella Rossitur was a remarkably handsome 
 girl, and it was a curious fact that there was 
 a certain amount of likeness between her and 
 the young lady by whom she had been 
 recently engaged. It was only when those 
 who knew both of them saw them apart that 
 the likeness was at all remarkable ; put them 
 side by side and it seemed to vanish al- 
 together. In fact it was only what has been 
 called a reminding resemblance. Bella was 
 a much finer woman than her mistress, and 
 she was also a little older ; but they both had 
 a profusion of beautiful, light, almost tiaxen 
 hair, and very dark eyes. The eyes of the 
 maid were, in some respects, more lovely 
 than those of the mistress, but what they had 
 in beauty they lacked in softness and sweet- 
 ness, and they were also a trifle bold at 
 VOL. I. c
 
 1 8 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 times. Her lips, too, were fuller and redder, 
 and her nose, although the same in shape, 
 was much larger and more pronounced. Also 
 she was taller by fully an inch, and her figure 
 was more developed ; indeed, at that time, 
 the figure of her young mistress, Miss Amy 
 Gordon, was rather thin and willowy, but 
 very pretty and graceful withal. 
 
 Bella was very much pleased with her new 
 engagement ; she loved change and excite- 
 ment, and she knew she was sure of the 
 one and hoped to have the other, not only 
 during the voyage, but also in India. She 
 had a vivid imagination, and it was already 
 at work. Who could tell what was in store 
 for her. With her handsome face and fine 
 figure and her opportunities, she ought to be 
 able to attain a good position in life. 
 
 At present she had an humble victim in 
 Jem Hathaway. They had been little chil- 
 dren and boy and girl together, and he was 
 desperately in love with her now ; but she
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 1 9 
 
 was not going to marry a gamekeeper, and 
 besides, Jem was such an ugly fellow, not 
 handsome and dashing like another old friend 
 of hers, who happened to be in the village 
 just then ; a young soldier he was, too, and 
 he looked so bold and manly in his uniform 
 that the very sight of him was almost enough 
 to turn a girl's head. 
 
 And was it not just the oddest thing in 
 the world ? George Frederick Pottinger — 
 she always spoke of him by the two names — 
 was not only a soldier, but an officer's 
 servant, and he was going with his regiment 
 and his master to India. It was even pos- 
 sible that she and her mistress mi^fht sail in 
 the same vessel ; but she was not Qfoinor to 
 tell Jem anything about it, he was so jealous 
 there was no knowing what he might say or 
 do. 
 
 He was not very talkative this evening, 
 and she was beginning to feel bored ; if it 
 had been George Frederick he would not
 
 20 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 have let such an opportunity for love-making 
 slip through his fingers ! She was planning 
 what excuse she could make to get away 
 when Jem spoke. 
 
 '' India's a cruel way off, Bella," he said, 
 ** I wish you weren't going." 
 
 '* And I wish I was going to-morrow," she 
 answered, briskly. '' I am tired of being 
 here ; the first week was pleasant enough," 
 and she shot a saucy look at him, '' but now 
 you're always grumpy and cross. I am sure 
 you didn't speak more than two words to me 
 last night when I went to take tea with your 
 mother, and " 
 
 Jem laughed. 
 
 " What are you laughing at ?'' In a 
 moment the girl's handsome eyes were blaz- 
 ing with anger. *' Is it because George 
 Frederick Pottinger came with me that 
 you're vexed ?" she cried, in a passion. 
 *' How could I help that ? He told me your 
 mother had asked him."
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 2 1 
 
 '' Like his cheek !" Jem muttered. Then, 
 after a pause, " I tell you what it is, Bella," 
 he said, and he turned and faced her, " I 
 won't stand being made a fool of any longer ; 
 you must choose between him and me. You 
 know well enough I don't think there's 
 another woman in the world like you. Stay 
 in England and let's get married at once ; I 
 can keep you almost like a lady, and I'm to 
 have the head-keeper's place when old Stub- 
 bins is pensioned off in the spring. You can 
 do what you like with me ; you know you 
 can," the poor fellow added, for something in 
 her face told him he was not going to win 
 her, and his disappointment was very bitter. 
 
 '' Like a lady," she repeated, scornfully ; 
 ''you couldn't do that, you know, Jem, unless 
 you were a gentleman." 
 
 " You need never do a stroke of work 
 unless you like, and Lll buy you a silk dress 
 every year." 
 
 " Much obliged to you, Lm sure, Jem," she
 
 22 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 answered, *'but I couldn't marry you. I like 
 you well enough, but I want to see the world 
 and amuse myself." 
 
 *' And are you going to marry Pottlnger?" 
 
 he almost shouted. " By ," and he 
 
 swore a great oath, " if you do I'll shoot 
 him, or myself, for I couldn't bear to live !" 
 
 '' But he hasn't asked me ; I'll swear he 
 hasn't, If you like. Oh, Jem, dear Jem, for 
 shame to be so cross and to talk of shooting 
 people !" She laid her hand upon his arm 
 and looked up Into his face, smiling at him. 
 
 " I never saw anyone so pretty as you, 
 Bella," he said. "I can't bear to think of 
 your going away among those black people. 
 Didn't they break out once, and kill all the 
 women and children ? Don't go ; even If 
 you won't have me, don't go." 
 
 He laid his gun on the ground, and tried 
 to take her in his arms. " One kiss, Bella," 
 he said, ''only one, and I'll not worry you 
 any more."
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 23 
 
 " Remember your promise," she said. She 
 wanted to get away from him ; someone 
 might be coming to look for her. 
 
 '*Ay," he said, "it's hard, but as long as 
 you don't take him I'll be patient and hope." 
 
 She let him kiss her, and then, without a 
 word, she broke away from him and ran down 
 a little pathway through the trec^s that she 
 knew would lead her to her home. 
 
 In about ten days from that evening Bella 
 Rossitur was to go to London to enter upon 
 her new service, and every hour as it passed, 
 made poor Jem Hathaway more and more 
 miserable. Her assurance that she was not 
 going to marry Pottinger had had the two- 
 fold effect of allaying his jealousy and of 
 buoying up his hopes. She was only trying 
 him, he thought ; she did not really mean to 
 go away, and when the day, which she had 
 named as her last at home, came, she would 
 tell him she had changed her mind and 
 meant to stay with him. His hopes increased
 
 24 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 when he found out that Pottinger had gone 
 away, but he did not know that he had simply 
 left for a day or two on business, for his fur- 
 lough had not yet expired. 
 
 It was very trying, however, to note that 
 Bella kept out of his way ; she always had 
 some excuse to make for not walking with 
 him In the wood, and for not visiting his 
 mother. He went to her father's house twice 
 a day sometimes, but although the farmer was 
 civil, and Bella apparently glad to see him, 
 she would not promise to meet him anywhere 
 out of doors and alone. 
 
 Her stay at home was now very short, 
 and his newly-born hopes began all of a 
 sudden to die out rapidly. That kiss — how 
 the remembrance of It was cherished ! — meant 
 nothing after all ; and yet how freely she had 
 given It, and how beautiful she looked as she 
 raised her face to his. He felt sometimes 
 as if he would rather kill her than lose 
 her.
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 25 
 
 It was the 20th of September, and on the 
 23rd he knew she was to go to London. 
 Three times during the day he went to the 
 farm, and the third time she told him quite 
 crossly that she did not mean to go out at all 
 that evening, and that she wished he would 
 mind his business and let her alone. 
 
 Shouldering his gun he turned away dis- 
 consolately, and tramped, his heart growing 
 sore and angry with every step, to a distant 
 part of the preserves. He was on his way 
 home about nine o'clock, and avoiding a 
 short cut that he knew, he went a quarter-of- 
 a-mile round in order to pass the spot where 
 his last interview with Bella had taken place, 
 Perhaps something had impelled her to come 
 out, and that he mlorht find her waitino^ for 
 him. 
 
 He came out into the glade about two 
 hundred yards or so from the tree under 
 which they were standing when he kissed 
 her, and by the light of the full moon he saw
 
 26 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 she was there, but not alone. Her com- 
 panion was easily recognised by his uniform, 
 even if the tall upright figure, and cap 
 perched on three hairs, had not betrayed the 
 good-looking young dragoon, Pottlnger. Jem 
 knew that he was unobserved, so, crossing the 
 narrow glade he disappeared among the trees, 
 and worked his way noiselessly through the 
 brushwood until he found himself within 
 sight of the pair again ; within hearing, too, 
 for they did not speak In whispers. 
 
 He crept nearer and nearer. 
 
 " And so you never told Jem I was 
 going to India, too ?" he heard Pottlnger say. 
 "What a lark! And In the same ship! 
 Think of that, my beauty." 
 
 Poor Jem ground his teeth as he heard the 
 words. How cruelly she had deceived him, 
 and how happy and beautiful she looked 
 standing there in the moonlight, with the 
 soldier's arm round her waist ! Hathaway 
 placed his gun against a tree and felt In the
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 2/ 
 
 breast pocket of his shooting-jacket for some- 
 thing which for ten days or a fortnight past 
 he had carried about with him. There were 
 gangs of poachers In the neighbourhood, and 
 armed with their guns only the keepers were 
 apt to be at a disadvantage." 
 
 " I heard from master this morning," 
 Pottlno^er went on. " He's home on leave 
 now, and I must go over to Little Centre 
 Bridge, to his father's place, to-morrow; I am 
 to take some dogs up to town for him." 
 
 **'\Vhat Is his name ?" asked Bella. 
 
 '* Ersklne. Mr. John Ersklne. His father 
 is Sir John. I'm glad Mr. Ersklne has 
 engaged me to wait on him ; I shan't have to 
 wear uniform except on parade." 
 
 "Shan't you Indeed?" cried Bella, with a 
 shade of disappointment in her tone ; half the 
 young soldier's attraction for her, had he but 
 known It, lay in his scarlet coat and jingling 
 spurs. She turned the conversation by ask- 
 ing the name of the ship.
 
 28 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 "She's called the Great Pyramid," Pottin- 
 ger answered. " You will be surprised when 
 you see her ; she's as big as a tower. And 
 now look here, Bella, If I catch you flirting 
 with anyone on board " 
 
 '' Oh ! If you're going to be jealous like 
 Jem," she Interrupted — 
 
 " Jem !" was the contemptuous answer. 
 *' What business has a fellow like that — a 
 common gamekeeper — to raise his eyes to a 
 girl like you ?" 
 
 Before the words were fairly uttered there 
 was a sharp report behind the speaker, and a 
 bullet whistled past his ear, and fell harmless. 
 A loud scream from Bella was followed by a 
 second shot, and the noise of a heavy body 
 falling in the brushwood. Pottinger dashed 
 in, followed by the terrified girl, and the next 
 moment they were both kneeling beside the 
 bleeding and apparently lifeless body of poor 
 Jem Hathaway. In his right hand was 
 grasped a revolver.
 
 THE SHADOW OF COMING EVENTS. 29 
 
 As Pottinger raised him he opened his 
 eyes, and fixed them upon his hated rival ; 
 then, with an effort, he turned them upon 
 Bella. " Curse — my curse upon you 
 both," he muttered ; then his head fell 
 back upon the soldier's arm and he was 
 dead. 
 
 Goaded to madness by jealousy, the 
 unhappy man had fired first, either at Bella 
 or at his rival — it was of course never known 
 which of them he meant to kill, — and then 
 shot himself Pottino^er and Bella were both 
 
 o 
 
 examined at the inquest, and the fact that the 
 men were rivals naturally came out and was 
 made the most of ; but stories of love, 
 jealousy, attempted murder and suicide are 
 not so very uncommon, and a verdict of 
 *' temporary insanity " was returned. 
 
 The departure of Mr. John Erskine's 
 soldier-servant, and of Miss Amy Gordon's 
 new maid, was delayed for one day only; and 
 it was with the remembrance of poor Jem
 
 30 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Hathaway's dead face and dying words to 
 haunt her, that Bella Rossitur began her new 
 life.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID SAILS. 
 
 Miss Amy Gordon was extremely interested 
 and excited at the idea of going to India in a 
 troopship; her ideas on the subject of both 
 troops and ships were extremely vague, but 
 she had an idea that life on board the ship 
 might possibly be made more agreeable by 
 the presence of the troops. She had the 
 ordinary and commonplace love of an empty- 
 headed schoolgirl for red coats and military 
 bands ; she also loved dancing, and was not 
 averse to flirtation. 
 
 She did .not belong to the advanced sec- 
 tion of young women, and she had not the 
 slightest desire for the higher education we 
 hear so much of at present. Books, unless
 
 32 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 they took the form of novels, she never 
 opened, but in the matter of dress she was 
 decidedly an expert. The great question — 
 what to wear, would occupy her for 
 hours, and upon her elaborate Indian outfit 
 days, weeks, and even months, had been 
 bestowed. It was now finished and packed 
 away in tin-lined cases ready for embarka- 
 tion, and nothing remained to be done but 
 to make the most of the small space left for 
 the garments that were to be worn during the 
 voyage. 
 
 It seemed, to the pretty spoiled girl, that 
 those in authority might have afforded her a 
 little more room on board the Great Pyramid, 
 but her petulant grumbling was of no avail, 
 and the amount of time she, and her clever 
 maid, Rossitur, spent in the stowage of 
 numerous articles that, in all probability, 
 would prove quite useless on the voyage, 
 was really amazing, 
 
 '' Rossitur is a treasure ! I really consider
 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID SAILS. T,^ 
 
 myself very fortunate to have got her." Miss 
 Gordon made that remark to her aunt, Mrs. 
 Cartwright, with whom she was spending her 
 last weeks in England, several times a day. 
 
 " She seems to understand her business 
 very thoroughly," Mrs. Cartwright answered, 
 "but I cannot help wishing she was a little 
 older, and a little less good-looking. You 
 are so young and pretty yourself, my dear — 
 and, really, when she is dressed for walking, 
 a stranger might take you for sisters." 
 
 Miss Amy had heard that remark before, 
 and she did not like it. " I do not think it is 
 very complimentary to me, aunt, to say I am 
 like my own maid," she said. '' Rossitur is 
 not bad-looking, I know, but I cannot see the 
 likeness to me." 
 
 " I do not think you need expect to keep 
 her long, my dear. She is sure to have 
 plenty of admirers, and I do trust she is 
 steady and well-behaved." 
 
 '' Goodness, aunt, what disagreeable things 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 you say. She may have as many admirers 
 as she Hkes, but I am not going to let her 
 marry anyone, If I can help It ; but she has a 
 lover already, and — Isn't It funny? — he Is 
 an officer's servant, and he Is coming out 
 with the regiment on board the Great 
 Pyramid." 
 
 '' Do you mean that his master Is In the 
 99th?" said Mrs. Cartwrlght. 
 
 Now Miss Gordon was going out under 
 the care of the wife of the Colonel of John 
 Ersklne's regiment, and the young lady knew 
 already as much as Rossltur could tell her 
 of Pottlnger's young master. 
 
 " Mr. Ersklne Is the only son of Sir 
 John Ersklne, of the Chase — somewhere," 
 Miss Amy answered. '' Very rich county 
 people they are. I am thinking of setting 
 my cap at this John Ersklne If I get the 
 chance ! Wouldn't it be fun to arrive In 
 India engaged. All the men In papa's regi- 
 ment would be so awfully disappointed. And,
 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID SAILS. 35 
 
 oh, aunt," the young lady rattled on, " do you 
 know that a dreadful thing happened where 
 Rossltur's home is, just before she came up 
 to town ? A man shot himself because she 
 wouldn't marry him, and she saw him lying 
 dead. Wasn't it awful ? I said to her, 
 ' What strong nerves you must have ;' 
 and, do you know, she turned a little pale 
 as she was telling me about it, and I gave 
 her my salts to smell. I could not help 
 thinking, too, how dreadful it would be if 
 Fred Leslie were to shoot himself on my 
 
 account." 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright smiled. '' I do not think 
 
 you need be uneasy about Mr. Leslie, my 
 
 dear," she said, ''he has not taken your 
 
 refusal very much to heart." 
 
 '' Oh, do you think so r Miss Amy said in 
 
 a disappointed tone. '' I am sure I made it 
 
 plain enough that I was only amusing myself, 
 
 but he never seemed to see it." 
 
 " But when he found it out no doubt it
 
 36 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 helped to cure him. My dear Amy, you 
 must not be vexed If I say that you ought to 
 be more careful about encouraging men for 
 the pleasure of refusing them. It's the most 
 heartless and unwomanly trick a girl can be 
 guilty of." 
 
 " But Fred Leslie was such a donkey, 
 aunt !" 
 
 " He Is what you call a donkey, perhaps, 
 but I call him a sensible and clever young 
 fellow." 
 
 "Then I don't like clever sensible people," 
 Miss Amy said, decidedly, as she got up 
 and began to examine the set of her skirts 
 In a long mirror. " There Is something 
 wrong with this drapery," she said, " I know 
 there Is. I wonder Rossitur did not notice 
 the way It sticks out In one place and 
 falls In another; I must show It to her." 
 She went to the door and called " Rossitur, 
 Rossitur." 
 
 " Coming ma'am," a voice answered from
 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID SAILS. '7^'] 
 
 above, and presently the girl who had walked 
 with poor Jem Hathaway in the Stillingfort 
 woods came into the room, dressed in a neat 
 well-cut black gown, and over it a fantastic 
 little muslin apron. 
 
 Mrs. Cartwright looked curiously at mis- 
 tress and maid as they stood side by side 
 before the mirror. "They are not so much 
 alike when they are together," she said to 
 herself, "and I declare, I think Rossitur is 
 by far the handsomer of the two." 
 
 And now it is the 30th of September, and 
 on the 2nd of October the magnificent ship, 
 the Great Pyramid, is to sail for Bombay 
 with the 99th Dragoons on board. There is 
 business and bustle afloat and ashore ; the 
 last horse has been safely shipped, but the 
 baggage is not yet all stowed away. The 
 poop of the huge vessel is bright with ladies' 
 dresses, there is a buzz of conversation 
 mingled with gay laughter, and the sailors
 
 38 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 are flitting about hither and thither as busy- 
 as bees 
 
 A voyage to India now is more Hke a pro- 
 longed pic-nic than an actual voyage ; and so 
 the men and women felt who were to mxake 
 their home on board the Great Pyramid for 
 the next few weeks, while those who were 
 left behind felt but a passing regret. It was 
 such an easy matter to go backwards and 
 forwards that it was absurd to grieve over 
 the temporary separation. 
 
 Sir John Erskine, Letty, and Aunt Louise 
 had arrived from the Chase a couple of days 
 before, and taken up their quarters at an 
 hotel, and Letty had already explored every 
 nook and corner of the big ship, under the 
 guidance of her friend Arthur Filmer. The 
 girl was wild with delight, and the excitement 
 and novelty of the scene ; and she asked so 
 many questions that it was fortunate for 
 her guide that she rarely waited for an 
 answer.
 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID SAILS. 39 
 
 Sir John was the only one of the party 
 who was not in good spirits ; now that the 
 moment of parting with his son was so near 
 he felt sad and depressed, and unable to 
 shake off a vague presentiment of evil. But 
 he did his best to seem cheerful, and to laugh 
 and talk with the rest, and many times he 
 stopped short when he caught himself saying 
 to himself, as he looked at John: "Who 
 knows ? Perhaps I may never see him 
 
 agam. 
 
 The young man was touched and subdued, 
 too ; his father's low spirits infected him, but 
 he was determined not to break down. 
 
 " There is one lovely girl on board," he 
 said, when they were all at dinner at the 
 hotel on the last evening. '' She came from 
 London late this afternoon with our Colonel's 
 wife, but they went to their cabins at once, 
 so I only caught a glimpse of such a pair of 
 eyes !" 
 
 "And, by Jove!" said Arthur Filmer, "the
 
 40 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 maid Is as handsome as the mistress. You 
 didn't see her, did you, Jack ?" 
 
 '*No ; but Pottlnger, my man, knows her. 
 I asked him if he knew who the young lady 
 was who was going out with the Colonel's 
 wife, and somehow the fellow gave me to 
 understand that the maid came from his part 
 of the world, and I have an Idea that she's 
 his sweetheart. I don't envy her If she 
 marries Pottlnger. He's a queer fish, but a 
 capital servant." 
 
 '' And he has deuced good taste If he 
 wants to marry that young woman I saw 
 looking after the cabin trunks," said Fllmer; 
 "she's a regular stunner and no mistake." 
 
 '' Remember, you must tell us all about 
 the young lady when you write. Jack," said 
 Letty. " But you must not fall In love with 
 her, you know, for we all expect you to marry 
 Lucy Knollys when you come home." 
 
 " Be quiet, Letty," said her father. ''You 
 should not mention names."
 
 THE GREAT PYRAMID SAILS. 4 1 
 
 " Oh, Arthur knows all about It," said the 
 little lady, quite unabashed. " Don't you, 
 Arthur?" 
 
 The last evening passed all too quickly. 
 The father and son took a quiet stroll 
 together after dinner ; Arthur and Letty 
 played a game of chess, and Aunt Louise sat 
 near, as In duty bound, and fell asleep In her 
 chair. By noon next day the last good-byes 
 were spoken, and amid the ringing cheers of 
 friends and Idle spectators on shore, and the 
 strains of " God save the Queen " and '' Auld 
 Lang Syne," played alternately by the regi- 
 mental band on board, the Great Pyramid 
 steamed away from the dockyard jetty. 
 
 As long as the figures of the two young 
 men were discernible Aunt Louise and Letty 
 waved their handkerchiefs and kissed their 
 hands. Sir John strained his eyes after the 
 vessel, but somehow she looked all blurred 
 and indistinct to him. He felt, too, an un- 
 accountable lump In his throat, and It seemed
 
 42 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 as if it was the face of the lad's mother he 
 saw before him. 
 
 Was it really a presentiment ? Was It 
 fated that he was not to see his son again — 
 poor Conny's boy ? The mist before his 
 eyes grew thicker, and then he could no 
 longer hide that it was caused by tears. 
 
 He felt as if he must break down when 
 Letty touched his arm. " Oh, papa," she 
 said, "do take the opera glass and look at 
 the pretty girl who is standing beside Jack 
 now."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRE AND SMOKE. 
 
 " It is the most insolent, the most audacious 
 
 thing I ever heard in all my life." 
 
 It was Sir John Erskine who spoke, and it 
 
 was to the Vicar of Little Centre Bridge — 
 
 Dr. Murray, that he addressed himself. But, 
 
 although he had but one auditor, the majority 
 
 of Sir John's friends and acquaintances in the 
 
 town would have echoed his speech with 
 
 emphasis. 
 
 The occasion, or rather the circumstance, 
 
 that drew it forth was this : The Conserva- 
 tive member for the southern division of 
 Stoneshire, in which Little Centre Bridge 
 was situated, had died suddenly ; Sir John, a 
 sound Tory of the old-fashioned type, was
 
 44 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 asked to stand In the dead man's room ; and, 
 after a little demur, he consented. He had 
 no great desire for public life, and, above 
 all things, he abhorred party strife, but he 
 thought It was clearly his duty to come 
 forward now. And, besides, It might be a 
 good thing to keep the seat warm for young 
 John. He might, perhaps, like to step Into 
 it when he came home. 
 
 Everyone said there would be no contest — 
 that Sir John would have a walk over ; but 
 suddenly a rumour began to circulate In the 
 town that the Liberals were about to start a 
 candidate — an out and out Radical, people 
 said — who was prepared to go all lengths, 
 and to promise anything and everything In 
 order to gain the seat. For a long time Sir 
 John scoffed at the Idea that the other side 
 really meant to oppose him. He was aware 
 that for some years past Liberalism had been 
 spreading in the country, and that In Great 
 Centre Bridge especially there were several
 
 FIRE AND SMOKE. 45 
 
 influential people who had deserted the old 
 Tory side ; but that he, an Erskine, should 
 encounter serious opposition was monstrous. 
 
 It was over three full years since John had 
 gone to India with his regiment, and he was 
 not yet complaining of the climate or thinking 
 of getting leave. On the contrary, India was 
 still to him the most delightful place he had 
 ever been in, and the three years had passed 
 with almost incredible swiftness. At the 
 Chase they had, naturally, been slower in 
 their flight and less exciting. At their close, 
 Sir John perhaps looked a little older, a little 
 more bald on the top of his head ; was a little 
 slower in his movements, and perhaps a little 
 more inclined to drop asleep over a book ; 
 but it was in Letty that the greatest alteration 
 was visible. The pretty, merry child was 
 now a lovely, high-spirited girl — healthy, 
 happy, and as light-hearted and full of mis- 
 chief as when she was but ten years old. 
 
 She had not been very carefully educated,
 
 46 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 but then, as she was not specially intellectual, 
 what was the use of cramming her her father 
 said. She had had, since her brother went 
 away, the advantage of masters at Mrs. 
 Dysart-Smith's college, and ]\Irs. Smith was 
 very proud indeed of the fact that Sir John 
 Erskine allowed his daughter to attend select 
 classes — she took care that the classes were 
 very select — at her establishment. 
 
 The Erskines were almost as sacred in the 
 eyes of Mrs. Dysart-Smith as the tooth of 
 Buddha is to his devoted followers ; so when 
 she heard that Sir John was to be opposed 
 by a Radical candidate, she was perfectly 
 furious, and she stirred up all the ladies of 
 the town into the most vigorous partisanship 
 of the Tory side. 
 
 The time seems favourable for a brief des- 
 cription of the town of Little Centre Bridge, 
 novv- that it is about to be disturbed by the 
 turmoil of a contested election ; but it has not 
 many peculiarities to distinguish it from other
 
 FIRE AND SMOKE. 47 
 
 countr}- towns of the same size and impor- 
 tance. Perhaps the most notable thing about 
 it is the fact that the wide gates, with the 
 *' Erskine lion rampant" upon the posts, that 
 stood at the end of the long avenue, and shut 
 in Sir John's beautiful park, opened upon the 
 High Street, and that the picturesque old 
 red brick Manor House itself was visible 
 from all the principal parts of the town. 
 
 Opposite the entrance gate of the Chase 
 was the Parish Church — a beautiful old 
 buildinor, coeval with the Manor House, and 
 scarcely less reverenced by the inhabitants 
 of Little Centre Bridge than the Erskines 
 themselves, who. for generations past, had 
 had the presentation to the living. 
 
 The High Street was fairly wide and 
 imposing, and not unpicturesque from the 
 irregularity of the houses. It was plenti- 
 fully lined with shops, that put on at certain 
 seasons of the year quite the West-End- 
 of- London stvle in the dressinor of their
 
 48 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 windows. There were, besides, numerous 
 smaller streets, which were wholly with- 
 out the great pretensions of the principal 
 thoroughfare. But, notwithstanding their 
 rather humble appearance, there were people 
 who said that goods of a better class could 
 be bought in them than in the more showy- 
 establishments. 
 
 Miss Lambton, it was well known, scarcely 
 ever shopped in the High Street ; but the 
 carriage and horses from the Chase were 
 often to be seen at Simpsons', the drapers, 
 in Manor Road. To be sure the Post Office 
 was in High Street, and she was very often 
 there ; but then nothing was sold at the Post 
 Office except stationery and the London 
 weekly papers. 
 
 At the end of the High Street nearest to 
 the Church, stood the Young Ladies' College, 
 presided over by Mrs. Dysart- Smith. She 
 was a portly and imposing woman, who 
 swept up to her pew in church with as
 
 FIRE AND SMOKE. 49 
 
 majestic an air as If the eyes of Europe were 
 upon her ! Even the most ungainly of the 
 young ladies under her charge could not fail 
 to acquire some dignity of carriage from 
 the constant contemplation of Mrs. Dysart- 
 Smith's movements ; she was a living lesson 
 in deportment, and as she never, so to speak, 
 stood at ease, she could be studied every day 
 and all day long. 
 
 The Rectory was not where one would 
 expect to find it, near the church, but it 
 was very near Mrs. Dysart-Smith's college ; 
 indeed from the upper windows of that estab- 
 lishment it was possible to look over the tall 
 hedge that shut out the road, and so right 
 down into the Rector's pretty garden. Even 
 the peaches could be seen ripening upon the 
 south wall, and the cook and the gardener 
 detected in a flirtation as they pulled the peas 
 for the Rector's dinner. 
 
 Dr. Murray was a bachelor, and the 
 gossips of Little Centre Bridge had grown 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 tired of selecting a suitable wife for him. 
 They had once started the idea that he was 
 in love with Miss Lambton and afraid to pro- 
 pose for her. That delusion lasted two years 
 or more ; then It was suddenly dropped, and 
 the prevailing belief was that the Rector did 
 not know his own mind ; and, that being the 
 case, how was it possible for anyone to know 
 it for him ? 
 
 Dr. Murray was decidedly the most popular 
 man In the parish ; not perhaps because he 
 was clever; an excellent preacher, and a hard 
 worker, but because he was a bachelor. The 
 rector of any given parish may be obstinate, 
 dogmatic, self-sufficient and ignorant ; he 
 may mumble in the desk and roar in the 
 pulpit, but. If he Is a bachelor, or a widower, 
 his shortcomings will be overlooked. If not 
 wholly ignored, by every one of his par- 
 ishioners of the better class, if they have 
 daughters to marry. 
 
 It has already been stated that the people
 
 FIRE AND SMOKE. 5 1 
 
 of Little Centre Bridge took a great interest 
 in everything directly or indirectly connected 
 with the Erskine family ; indeed they were 
 considered as much public property as the 
 old town pump. But of late the family may 
 be said to have distanced the pump, for the 
 supply of water yielded by the latter had 
 been condemned by the local officers of 
 health as unfit for use ; so the handle of the 
 pump had been removed by order, and the 
 occupation of the pump was gone. 
 
 But no matter what amount of decadence 
 moral or physical, a county family may suffer 
 from, it cannot be suppressed by any board 
 In the world, and It may safely be said that If 
 the Erskine family, or any member of it, 
 had fallen into evil ways, the interest taken In 
 them generally, and In the erring member in 
 particular, would have increased rather than 
 diminished. Everyone in the town, from the 
 highest to the lowest, liked to see Miss 
 Lambton borne about the streets lnj^jl^|^^^}^rge,' p ilhi^qu 
 
 LIBRARY
 
 52 A GAME OF CFIANCE. 
 
 well-appointed barouche, drawn by the hand- 
 some dappled greys. The meek little lady 
 always looked lost in the big roomy carriage; 
 even her little niece Letty, who fidgeted 
 about with her back to the horses, and 
 knocked her aunt's many parcels down into 
 the bottom of the carriage — Miss Lambton 
 always had a great deal of shopping to do — 
 seemed much bigger and more imposing than 
 the grown up woman, who would have been 
 more at home in a donkey chair. 
 
 Now that Letty was eighteen, and quite a 
 grown up young lady, she had a pretty little 
 pony carriage of her own. It was a tiny thing 
 drawn by a pair of animals scarcely bigger 
 than dogs, and called by their young mistress 
 by the ridiculous names of Fire and Smoke. 
 Aunt Louise was too nervous to trust herself 
 to the little pair ; she preferred the greys and 
 the steady old coachman, who had driven her 
 for years, and Sir John was too big, he said, 
 for the pony carriage ; he had no room for
 
 FIRE AND SMOKE. 53 
 
 his legs. So Miss Letty drove about alone ; 
 sometimes she took the smallest and lightest 
 of the grooms with her on the back seat, but, 
 as a rule, she went out by herself. '' I want 
 to meet with an adventure, if I can," she 
 often said, " but Fire and Smoke are much to 
 steady to give me an opportunity." 
 
 Letty was very much interested in the 
 coming election, and extremely angry with 
 the Liberal candidate who had started up to 
 oppose her father. When she heard that he 
 had actually arrived in Little Centre Bridge, 
 and taken rooms at the New Hotel, near the 
 railway station — it was not likely that he 
 would patronise the Erskine Arms, in the 
 High Street — she declared that, by hook or 
 by crook, she must see him. 
 
 '' What do Radicals look like, papa r she 
 said, when she told him the news of Mr. 
 Otway's arrival in the town. '' I want to be 
 able to know the man if I happen to meet 
 him. Are they always short and fat, or tall
 
 54 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 and thin ? I saw a fat stumpy man, a 
 stranger, at the Post Office this morning, and 
 I was sure It was Mr. Otway, but they told 
 me he was a traveller In the paper line." 
 
 "Dr. Murray says Otway Is a good-looking 
 fellow of about thirty," said Sir John, "and a 
 barrister In very good practice." 
 
 "Then he Is a gentleman," put In Miss 
 Lambton. " I am glad they have not 
 brought down a soap boiler or a tallow 
 chandler to oppose you, John." 
 
 " I do not see that It makes much differ- 
 ence, myself," Sir John answered. " The 
 mischief Is In the opposition, not the man."" 
 
 Days passed, but no one at the Chase had 
 seen Mr. Otway, although more than enough 
 had been heard. He had spoken at public 
 meetings In both Great and Little Centre 
 Bridge, but, of course, his own followers only 
 had been present, and the general Impression 
 was that he had disappointed expectation. 
 He had not said exactly what people wanted
 
 FIRE AND SMOKE. 55 
 
 to hear, and he had been very guarded In 
 the matter of promises. Letty was as much 
 disappointed as anyone ; she had been hoping 
 for a fierce attack upon her father, and Mr. 
 Otway had not once mentioned his oppo- 
 nent's name. 
 
 About two days after the meeting she was 
 driving home rather late In the afternoon ; It 
 was early spring-time, and the lamps were 
 already lighted In the streets, and there were 
 a great many people about. There was a 
 fresh wind blowing In Letty's face, and It 
 gave her a brilliant colour ; she was also a 
 little flurried, for Fire and Smoke, who had 
 been left standing at a shop door much 
 longer than they liked, were rather out of 
 temper and inclined to be troublesome. 
 
 Letty, who did not approve of insubordi- 
 nation, except In herself, touched them up 
 freely with the whip, and, as luck would 
 have it, just as she turned them Into High 
 Street, they nearly ran Into a German band
 
 5-6 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 that was braying before the Erskine Arms. 
 There was a stampede and some profane 
 language. Fire and Smoke got restive, and 
 presently Letty found that they had left the 
 road and were cleverly backing the little 
 carriage up to the plate - glass window of 
 Mr. Carat, watchmaker and jeweller. 
 
 "And he is on the Radical side!" she 
 thought, as she shut her eyes and waited to 
 hear the crash. But no crash was heard, and 
 when she looked again she saw that a man 
 was leading the ponies out of danger. She 
 was so nervous she did not observe him 
 very closely, but she thought he was rather 
 forward, for, having piloted the little carriage 
 into the middle of the street, he quietly 
 stepped into it, seated himself beside her, 
 took the reins and dashed off at a smart pace, 
 saying as he did so, '' It is rather dark ; allow 
 me to drive you home." 
 
 He evidently knew who she was, for w^hen 
 they reached the big gates opposite the
 
 FIRE AND SMOKE. 57 
 
 church — they always stood open in the day- 
 time — he turned in quite naturally, and 
 whipped Fire and Smoke up the long avenue 
 in fine style. 
 
 Sir John chanced to be standing on the 
 steps smoking. " Hallo, Letty !" he said. 
 
 "Oh, papa!" she cried, jumping out and 
 runnine to him. " I have had an adventure 
 at last ! Smoke has been so naughty. There 
 was a horrid German band, and he backed 
 nearly into Mr. Carat's shop, and this — this 
 gentleman was kind enough to help me. I 
 am so much obliged to you," she added, 
 turning to the stranger, who was in the act 
 of giving up the ponies and carriage to a 
 groom. 
 
 Sir John was not ungrateful, but, at the 
 same time, the fellow seemed rather officious. 
 Did he expect to be asked to dinner that he 
 was standing there? "My daughter is very 
 much obliged to you for your timely assis- 
 tance, sir," he said, with genuine British
 
 58 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 frigidity. '' May I ask to whom we have 
 the honour of being Indebted .^" 
 
 *' My name Is Otway," the stranger an- 
 swered ; and, having spoken, he slightly 
 raised his hat and walked away. 
 
 "The Liberal candidate, as I live!" cried 
 Sir John. " Now, what am I to do ?" 
 
 And Mr. Otway, who was but a few paces 
 off, heard the exclamation, and laughed softly 
 to himself " Liberal or Illiberal," he said, 
 '' I mean to see that sweet face again."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HIS enemy's daughter. 
 " I consider it a most unfortunate occur- 
 rence," said Sir John, ''most unfortunate in 
 every way." Again Dr. Murray, the Rector 
 of Little Centre Bridge, was the friend to 
 whom he confided his woes. 
 
 "To think," Sir John went on, "that of 
 all the men in the world he should be the one 
 to help Letty with her ponies. She declares 
 now that he saved her life. It is very unfor- 
 tunate !" 
 
 " That her life was saved ?" said Dr. 
 Murray, slyly. "Come, come, Erskine ; you 
 know you would rather lose your election 
 than your daughter." 
 
 "But there was no question of lives at all,"
 
 6o A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 replied Sir John, who was rather matter-of- 
 fact. ''There was no danger; he says so 
 himself. It's all that ridiculous child. She 
 wants to make him out a hero." 
 
 '' Oh, you have seen him since it happened 
 then ?" 
 
 '* I have just been to call upon him. What 
 a row there will be in the place when it gets 
 out, and it's sure to get out ; everything does 
 here. They never gave me peace or rest 
 until I promised to call and thank him." Sir 
 John had looked in at the Rectory on his way 
 back from the New Hotel. " Miss Lambton 
 was just as bad as Letty ; they said it would 
 look so pointed if I did not call. I don't care 
 a rap how it looks, but I do not want to 
 behave like a cad because the fellow has 
 set up for the county ; and now the 
 women want me to be civil to him, and 
 that means asking him to dinner ! What 
 do you say, Murray? Would you ask him 
 to dinner?"
 
 HIS enemy's daughter. 6 1 
 
 " I think you might venture ; he will 
 refuse." 
 
 " I am not so sure of that. He said he 
 did not see why our opinions should keep us 
 from being friends, and that for his part he 
 was opposed in politics to some of his nearest 
 relations." 
 
 " He said that!" said Dr. Murray, opening 
 his eyes. 
 
 '' And plenty more of the same kind. I 
 wish I knew what to do ; the man is a gen- 
 tleman, but it will never do for me to get into 
 hot water with everyone because he kept 
 those confounded ponies from backing into 
 Carat's shop. Who are the Otways ? Do 
 you know .^" 
 
 ''I do not think they are anyone in particu- 
 lar. I believe this man's father was a great 
 railway-carriage contractor or something of 
 that kind ; he did not leave as much money 
 behind him as people expected, but still he 
 did not die poor. The eldest son went into
 
 62 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 the army, I think, and this man is a barrister 
 in good practice." 
 
 '' Has he a wife?" asked Sir John. *' It 
 woukl make things easier if he was a married 
 man." 
 
 '' How ?" asked the Rector. " You do not 
 want to be^ civil to her, do you ? Oh," as 
 an idea struck him, "you are thinking of 
 Letty." 
 
 The next thing Dr. Murray heard about 
 the matter that so perplexed his friend and 
 neiofhbour at the Chase was contained in a 
 note from Sir John. It was really an invita- 
 tion to dinner, and he was asked to meet Mr. 
 Herbert Otway, the Liberal candidate for 
 Stoneshire. 
 
 Letty had carried the day, as she generally 
 did when her wishes and those of her father 
 clashed. She had made up her mind that, in 
 spite of political differences and the impend- 
 ing election, Otway was to be asked to dinner 
 and treated as a friend instead of an enemy,
 
 HIS ENEMY S DAUGHTER. 63 
 
 and Sir John, after a short struggle, suc- 
 cumbed. 
 
 ''You must come and see me through it, 
 Murray," he wrote. ''You know I dare not 
 ask any of my supporters in the county to 
 meet him." 
 
 If he hoped to keep the matter secret he 
 was disappointed. In the broad day, of 
 course — for gentlemen do not make visits of 
 ceremony at night — Mr. Otway returned Sir 
 John's call the very day after it was made ; 
 and as he was turning in at the hospitable, 
 open gates, he was seen by no less a person 
 than Mrs. Dysart-Smith. She was on her 
 way to see little Miss Masham, a maiden 
 lady who lived all alone in a little cottage on 
 the London Road, outside the town. 
 
 "Quite true — perfectly true, I assure you," 
 Mrs. Smith said, as she sipped her tea and 
 nodded at Miss Masham. " I saw him pass 
 through the gate and walk on towards the 
 house. Now, could he have been going to
 
 64 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 make a call, or was he going to see Sir John 
 on business ?" 
 
 ** Suppose we send to the Chase and in- 
 quire ?" said Miss Masham, In a dry way 
 peculiar to her ; and It was a way that per- 
 plexed the gossips of Little Centre Bridge 
 very n'luch Indeed. 
 
 Mrs. Smith got very red. ''You are so 
 matter of fact, dear," she said. 
 
 Mr. Otway did not find Sir John at home, 
 but he boldly asked for Miss Lambton, and 
 was shown Into Aunt Louise's favourite little 
 sitting-room. Letty was with her aunt, and 
 the Radical candidate had, at first, only a 
 confused sense of a quantity of sweet-scented 
 spring flowers, of canaries In cages ; of a 
 pretty elderly woman, with soft white lace 
 about her head and face, and of the young 
 lady whose ponies he had taken In hand In 
 the street. He did not know what the ladles 
 said or what he replied. 
 
 Surely the girl was the prettiest creature
 
 HIS enemy's daughter. 65 
 
 he had ever seen. Tall, but scarcely looking 
 her height, she was so finely proportioned, 
 with a singularly well-shaped head, set on a 
 beautiful full throat. She had sunny hair, 
 brilliant eyes, a matchless complexion, and a 
 smile that brought dimples in its train. Her- 
 bert Otway, who called himself a sensible 
 elderly man at eight-and-twenty, felt, as he 
 looked at her, that his head and his heart 
 were both in peril. 
 
 "And she is my enemy's daughter," he 
 said to himself. "At least, I suppose Sir 
 John is my enemy." 
 
 He spent an agreeable hour with the two 
 ladies, but it was Letty who took the chief 
 part in the entertainment. Miss Lambton, 
 always rather shy, was unusually so in the 
 presence of this interloper who had come to 
 oppose her brother-in-law, who was never 
 opposed by anyone except his daughter. 
 And now Letty was chattering away like a 
 bird, and Otway listened and followed her 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 about to look at the hyacinths and the 
 canaries, and Aunt Louise thought how very 
 childish she was, and she was rather sur- 
 prised that a full-grown man could be so 
 attracted and pleased. 
 
 Had she known it, Otway was simply fas- 
 cinated. Never had he heard anything so 
 delicious as the soft babble that flowed from 
 Letty's pretty mouth. But, allured as he was, 
 he kept himself well in hand ; he never lost 
 sight of the fact that Sir John Erskine's 
 house was the last house in Little Centre 
 Bridge he ought to enter as a visitor, and 
 Sir John's daughter one of the few women in 
 the place with whom he ought to hold no 
 familiar intercourse. 
 
 And so it happened that Sir John's fear of 
 getting into hot water with his constituents 
 was unfounded. Otway sent a courteous 
 refusal to the Invitation to dine at the Chase, 
 and when he called again he simply left his 
 card. No one knew what It cost him to
 
 HIS enemy's daughter. 67 
 
 refuse and to turn away from the door, but 
 he knew It was the right thing to do, and so 
 it was done. 
 
 There had been some unprecedented delay 
 In the Issuing of the new writ for Stoneshire ; 
 In fact the announcement of the sittlnor 
 
 o 
 
 member's death was premature, but now he 
 was really dead, and the date of the nomina- 
 tion was fixed. Mr. Otway had been busy 
 with his canvass, and his followers were 
 certain of victory ; the only thing they had to 
 complain of was a certain lukewarmness In 
 their candidate. The news of his visit to the 
 Chase had got wind, and been duly magnified, 
 and he was reminded more often than he 
 liked that he was tampering with the enemy. 
 But although he had not been a second 
 time In Miss Lambton's sitting-room, he had 
 seen Letty very often. Indeed, It was quite 
 remarkable how often he contrived to come 
 across Fire and Smoke and their bewitching 
 mistress in the streets of the town. A word
 
 68 A gamp: of chance. 
 
 or two might be exchanged ; perhaps only a 
 bow and a smile, and Otway would go about 
 his business with his mind full of the bright 
 eyes of his political enemy's daughter. 
 
 What would he have said had he known 
 the great project that was maturing in her 
 foolish little head ? She had actually made 
 up her mind to see Mr. Otway and to ask 
 him to retire from the contest for Stoneshire. 
 A more absurd idea could scarcely have 
 entered the girl's mind ; but there it was, 
 and she was determined to carry it out. She 
 saw that her father was worried and vexed, 
 and she thought if only Otway would give 
 up his canvass, all the trouble would be over. 
 
 But to carry out her project safely and in 
 secret was not so easy ; she could not talk to 
 Otway about it in the street, and he never 
 came to the Chase. Why should she not ask 
 him to come ? But then Aunt Louise, or 
 perhaps her father himself, would find out all 
 about it, and interfere with her plan and pre-
 
 HIS enemy's daughter. 69 
 
 vent it from being carried out. Then she 
 thought of writing to him ; but she knew 
 that she could not express herself fluently on 
 paper, and she had, besides, a vague idea 
 that Otway might find it more difficult to 
 resist a personal appeal than a written one. 
 
 Suddenly it occurred to her, and how bit- 
 terly she regretted the impulse when it was 
 too late, to go to him. She had not the 
 faintest idea that It might be considered a 
 bold step for her to take, even by Otway 
 himself. She was Miss Erskine, and If she 
 wanted to see anyone — even the Liberal 
 candidate for Stoneshire — on business, why 
 should she not see him ? It was a mere 
 matter of business, after all. Accordingly, 
 the day but one before the nomination was to 
 take place, she ordered the ponies and drove 
 aw^ay through the town to the New Hotel, 
 which was close to the railway station. It 
 was not a part of Little Centre Bridge that she 
 knew very well, and it was crowded with coal
 
 JO A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 trucks and waggons, and there were a great 
 many rough-looking and idle people about. 
 
 But Fire and Smoke were unusually well 
 behaved, and the people made way for the 
 dainty little carriage driven by the pretty 
 girl ; and, although she was not recognised 
 as she would have been in the High Street, 
 she created quite a sensation as she drove up 
 to the door of the New Hotel. She was not 
 nervous, but she felt a little confused when 
 she saw a group of men standing at the hotel 
 door, talking, laughing and smoking ; a sud- 
 den silence fell upon them as the carriage 
 stopped — that was satisfactory so far — and, 
 also, one or two of them took out their cigars, 
 but they all stared and looked surprised. 
 
 Letty felt that the sooner she was under 
 cover the better ; so beckoning to a man, who 
 looked like a helper in the stables, to stand 
 at the ponies' heads, she got out and went 
 into the hotel. But it was not empty and 
 quiet inside as she hoped ; very unlike indeed
 
 HIS ENEMY S DAUGHTER. 7 1 
 
 to the hall of the Ersklne Arms. There were 
 more men standing about talking and smok- 
 ing ; and how they did stare ! She began to 
 feel uncomfortable. A waiter came up, and 
 nerving herself for the effort, for she felt it 
 was an effort now, Letty asked If Mr. Otway 
 was in the house. She could not help noticing 
 that as she spoke, the men looked at one 
 another, and one man actually laughed out- 
 right and tried to turn it off with a cough, 
 while a second asked, audibly, "Who is she, 
 does anyone know ?" 
 
 The waiter replied that Mr. Otway was 
 upstairs In his room, and, was It possible ? — 
 did he put his hand to his mouth to hide a 
 smile ? Letty flushed to the very roots of 
 her hair, and drew herself up. She w^as 
 afraid she had made a mistake. 
 
 "What name, miss .^" the waiter asked. 
 
 " Never mind my name," she said, " show 
 me up," and the next moment she was on the 
 stairs, and had left the staring men behind.
 
 72 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 It seemed to her that she went alonor miles 
 
 o 
 
 of corridors, but, at last, the waiter stopped 
 before a door, threw it open with a flourish 
 and announced, ''A lady for you, sir." 
 
 Letty passed into a sitting-room and found 
 herself face to face with a man she had never 
 seen before. 
 
 He was seated at a table, writing, and a 
 greater contrast to Otway could scarcely be 
 imagined. He was, perhaps, strictly speak- 
 ing, a handsomer man, but his good looks 
 were of the barber's block type, and he was 
 dressed in a flashy suit of plaid garments, the 
 like of which Letty had never seen before. 
 She halted suddenly when she caught sight 
 of him ; the light from the window fell full 
 upon her ; the young man at the table got up 
 in a great hurry, and uttered the ejacula- 
 lation "By Jove," in a loud voice, as he 
 advanced to the unexpected visitor. 
 
 Letty had never looked prettier ; a little 
 black velvet hat threw a most becoming shade
 
 HIS ENEMY S DAUGHTER. J 2> 
 
 Upon her flushed face, and the perfectly-made 
 dark-green ulster showed her beautiful figure 
 to the greatest advantage ; but the youth in 
 the plaid suit had not perception enough to 
 detect that, in spite of the equivocal aspect 
 of the situation, she was not of his own kind. 
 
 " Fine day, miss !" he said, with what he 
 meant to be a killing look. 
 
 *' Is Mr. Otway not here ? I want to see 
 him," Letty answered. She tried to speak in 
 a dignified and business-like manner, but her 
 voice trembled in spite of all her efforts and 
 she felt as if she was Qroino: to faint. 
 
 '' Oh, that's the litde Qrame, is it ?" the 
 young man said. "We want Otway, do 
 we ? Well, he's out for the day, but I'm 
 left in charge to see anyone who comes on 
 business, you know. But you don't want 
 to see him on business, I'm sure. An 
 appointment, and he forgot the day. What 
 a bloomino^ shame ! If it had been vours 
 truly, now ! Who shall I say called, miss ?"
 
 74 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Letty gave him a look that ought to 
 have abashed him, but he was too obtuse 
 to notice It, and she was on the point of 
 saying, " Tell him Miss Ersklne called," 
 when It dawned upon her, foolish as she 
 was and Ignorant of the ways of the world 
 that she ought not to give her name. In 
 turning the matter over In her mind, she 
 actually forgot her perplexity for a moment. 
 To mention her name would, of course, at 
 once reduce this Impertinent creature to his 
 proper level, but, then, It might also be 
 awkward for her father, or someone. She 
 knew now she was In a false position, 
 although she scarcely knew how false It was 
 and how full of danger. 
 
 But Otway's representative. If Indeed he 
 had that post, gave no time for reflection. 
 Here was a pretty girl In his chiefs room In 
 a public hotel ; she had called to see him 
 either by appointment or on chance — which 
 was It? But, perhaps — happy thonght—
 
 HIS ENEMY S DAUGHTER. 75 
 
 Otway had made an appointment without 
 intending to keep it, and he had meant the 
 temporary occupant of his room to make the 
 most of the piece of good luck that had fallen 
 ill his way ; and no one had ever been able to 
 say of him that he had failed to make the 
 most of his opportunities. He pulled up his 
 collar ; took a look at himself in the mirror 
 over the mantelpiece, gave a smirk at the 
 reflection, and advanced to Letty, bent on 
 conquest. Almost before she realised that he 
 was so close to her, his arm was round her 
 waist, but what happened mtxt she scarcely 
 knew ; she struggled to escape with all her 
 mio^ht, but he would not let her oo ; then she 
 heard rapid steps coming along the corridor, 
 the door was dashed open, and Otway stood 
 on the threshold. 
 
 *' You here, Miss ?" and there he 
 
 stopped. Letty remembered afterwards that 
 he did not mention her name.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE IN DANGER. 
 
 But the sudden pause did not strike her at 
 the moment, for she all but fainted, and, as 
 she lay in a state of half-consciousness on the 
 sofa to which Otway half-led and half-sup- 
 ported her, she heard the sound of his voice 
 as he spoke angrily to the man who had 
 Insulted her. What the one said and the 
 other replied she did not know. He had 
 saved her by his timely arrival from further 
 contact with that vulgar, insolent creature ; 
 but she was not yet out of the scrape she 
 had got herself into by her thoughtlessness. 
 Presently she heard the door of the room 
 open and close ; she knew that she and 
 Otway were alone, and never In the course
 
 THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE IN DANGER, ']^ 
 
 of her short hfe had she felt so small or so 
 ashamed. Was the man laughing at her, or 
 pitying her, or did he think she had gone out 
 of her mind ? She glanced at him shyly ; he 
 looked very grave, or, as the silly girl put it, 
 cross. Now, no one was ever cross with her, 
 no matter how naughty she was ; and, al- 
 though in her heart she knew she had been 
 guilty of the most foolish act she had, up to 
 the present, been guilty of, she did not want 
 to be looked at as if she were a criminal. So 
 her red lips began to quiver ; her eyes brimmed 
 over with big tears, and Otway was instantly 
 vanquished ! He went to her, took her little 
 handkerchief from the breast pocket of her 
 ulster, wiped aw^ay the tears that were running 
 down her soft, round cheeks, and whispered, 
 " Oh, please, don't cry. It was all my 
 fault." 
 
 But of course she sobbed the more. " I 
 came — I came — to — to ask you not — not to 
 go on with — with the election ; and you
 
 *jZ A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 weren't here, and that dreadful man 
 frightened me so." 
 
 Otway did not know what she meant by 
 wanting him not to go on with the election, 
 but he did know that he was desperately, 
 madly, in love with her, and that if he did 
 not keep a firm hand upon himself he must 
 betray what he felt. 
 
 " How am I to get away?" she whispered, 
 presently. " Are all those horrid men still in 
 the hall .^" 
 
 The question of getting her away was the 
 very one that was perplexing Otway at the 
 moment — or that would have perplexed him 
 If he had not been fighting a hard battle with 
 the passion that was struggling for utterance ; 
 and every glance from Letty's lovely, tear- 
 washed eyes made the victory less easy to 
 win. At last he resolutely turned his own 
 eyes from her face, and calmness came back 
 to him in a measure, as he began to walk up 
 and down the room.
 
 THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE IN DANGER. 79 
 
 *' How did you come ?" he said, at last, and 
 his voice was as matter of fact as if he had 
 been addressing a constituent. 
 
 ''I drove the ponies. Did you not see the 
 carriage at the door ?" 
 
 " No ; it wasn't there. Perhaps someone 
 was driving the ponies about. You brought 
 a groom, I suppose .^" 
 
 '' No ; I told a man in the street to hold 
 their heads." 
 
 " Oh ; it's all right then. What would 
 you like to do ?" He was back again at her 
 side, but he had himself well in hand now, 
 and felt that he might venture upon the 
 luxury of looking at her. He knew she 
 ought to go at once ; that every moment she 
 stayed added to the difficulties of the situa- 
 tion, but he longed to detain her just a few 
 minutes more, in order that he might hear 
 why she had come. "You are a little shaken 
 still," he said. '* May I not get you a glass 
 •of wine ?"
 
 8o A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 '' Oh, no, no, thank you ! I really must go 
 
 now ; but I want to tell you oh, don't 
 
 you want to know, Mr. Otway, why I came 
 to see you ?" 
 
 '' I want to know very much," he said, 
 smiling. '* It Is a great honour, and I cannot 
 tell you how grieved I am that I happened 
 to be out when you came. It was very, very 
 unfortunate, too, that young Brandon, who Is 
 acting as a sort of secretary to me just now, 
 chanced to be here ; but I made It all right 
 with him. He does not know who you are." 
 
 '' But he can find out. Everyone knows 
 the ponies !" cried Letty. " I told him I 
 came to see you on business ; but he did not 
 seem to understand. You know I came on 
 business, don't you, Mr. Otway ? What else 
 should I have come for ?" 
 
 " I am quite sure It was on business you 
 came," he answered, gravely. 
 
 " But you think I ought not to have come 
 even for that I" she cried, petulantly. ''I
 
 THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE IN DANGER. 51 
 
 never thought of anything but my business. 
 There was nothing else to think of; at least 
 there was nothing until all those horrid men 
 stared at me In the hall !" 
 
 "And will you not tell me the business 
 now.'^" Otway said, quietly. " Sit down for 
 just five minutes and tell me all about It from 
 the beorlnnlno^. You want me to do some- 
 thing for you." 
 
 He made her sit down again, and placed 
 himself beside her, but he kept his eyes fixed 
 upon the buttons of her ulster, or upon the 
 little hands folded together on her lap ; any- 
 where except on her face. He could not 
 trust himself to look at the sweet rosy mouth 
 and the brilliant eyes. 
 
 " I came to ask you," she began, and she 
 heaved a great sigh as she spoke, " not to go 
 on with the election, if you wouldn't mind. 
 I am afraid It is a great deal to ask, but isn't 
 there some other place you could be a mem- 
 ber of parliament for ? A place that a per- 
 VOL. I. ^
 
 82 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 son like papa did not want to be a member 
 for, too ?" 
 
 ''In short, you want your father to be the 
 member — you do not want me at all. I may 
 go back to London, and no one In Stoneshire 
 or Centre Bridge will care a brass button If 
 they never hear of me again !" 
 
 " I should care ever so much more than a 
 brass button," replied Letty, ''for I should 
 say to myself every day that you were the 
 kindest and most good-natured man I ever 
 met. 
 
 "You would say that every day, regularly?" 
 said Otway. " I think you would get tired." 
 
 " No, I am sure I shouldn't." 
 
 "And you think that would repay me for 
 giving up the election ?" he went on. " I am 
 afraid I should want something more — from 
 you." For half a second he laid his fingers 
 lightly on the little, gloved hand, and looked 
 for about the same time Into her eyes, tiers 
 did not fall.
 
 THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE IX DANGER. S^ 
 
 '' From me?" she repeated. " But I have 
 nothing of my own to give you, except the 
 ponies." 
 
 " I do not want the ponies, thank you," he 
 said. " Neither can I promise all at once to 
 give up the election. I do not care so very 
 much about it myself, but 1 have promised 
 other people who have been working for me, 
 you know." 
 
 " But they would all vote for papa if you 
 were gone," said Letty. "And then you 
 know," she added, *'you could be such good 
 friends with all of us at the Chase, if you 
 were not the Liberal candidate ; you could 
 come and see the canaries again, and I would 
 sing for you, and " 
 
 "You would?" cried Otway. ''Oh, Miss 
 
 Erskine— Letty Hallo! What is all 
 
 this going on outside ?" 
 
 The window of the room overlooked the 
 street. Otway went to it and glanced out for 
 a moment, half-relieved and half-vexed at
 
 84 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 the sudden Interruption. Another second 
 and words Impossible to recall, and, under 
 the circumstances, dishonourable to utter, 
 would have fallen from him. 
 
 When he came back to her, Otway was 
 looking very grave. " Your father has just 
 ridden up," he said, " and recognised the 
 ponies." 
 
 Something in the speaker's tone struck the 
 girl. " Is he — Is he angry ?" she said. 
 " What had I better do ?" 
 
 " He may be surprised ; there Is nothing 
 to make him angry. Shall I " 
 
 Before the sentence was finished. Sir 
 John's voice was heard In the corridor, and 
 it seemed as If he were speaking loudly with 
 a purpose. '* I know Miss Erskine is ex- 
 pecting me," they heard him say, "what 
 number Is it ?" 
 
 The next moment he was In the room, and 
 the door was shut behind him. His face 
 was livid with passion, and his eyes were
 
 THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE IN DANGER. 85 
 
 ablaze. But it was not at his face Letty 
 looked. She saw only the riding -whip so 
 firmly grasped in his right hand. 
 
 " Papa ! papa !" she cried, and caught hold 
 of his arrn. 
 
 But he pushed her from him. "You — 
 you infernal scoundrel !" he exclaimed. Be- 
 fore Otway was aware of his intention, Sir 
 John had him by the collar, and, if the up- 
 raised arm had not been deftly caught by the 
 young man, a stinging cut from the whip 
 would have fallen on him between the 
 shoulders. 
 
 " If you were not her father," he said, as 
 he wrenched himself free, " I'd knock you 
 down where you stand."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NOMINATION. 
 
 *' I KNOW I made a fool of myself," said Sir 
 John, " but what would you have a man do 
 when he finds his daughter tete-a-tete with a 
 fellow he knows nothing about ? I am sure 
 you w^ould have horse-whipped him." 
 
 '' Not until I had asked him a question or 
 two," said the Rector. 
 
 To Dr. Murray, as usual, Sir John had 
 confided his troubles ; they were rather 
 serious on this occasion, and poor Sir John 
 was walking up and down the Rector's study 
 with a rueful expression on his ruddy face. 
 " I suppose it is all over the place," he said 
 at last. 
 
 " Yes ; I am afraid there is a good deal of
 
 THE NOMINATION. ^J 
 
 gossip, as usual, and many different versions 
 of the affair. One is that you belaboured 
 him to such an extent that he was carried 
 fainting to bed ; another, that you and he 
 fought it out there and then, and that you 
 are unpresentable with a black eye ; a third, 
 that you found him at the railway station 
 about to elope with Letty." 
 
 "Oh, confound it; that is the worst of 
 all !" cried Sir John. 
 
 "And that you kicked him from one end 
 of the platform to the other." 
 
 Sir John threw up his hands. "What is 
 to be done ?" he said. 
 
 " I think you and Letty and Mr. Otway 
 had better be seen together in public as soon 
 as possible. To-morrow is the nomination ; 
 take her with you, and shake hands with 
 Otway before everyone." 
 
 " But what will our side say if they see me 
 fraternising with the Liberal candidate .^" 
 
 " Very true," said the Rector. " And it is
 
 SS A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 the gossips here we want to silence. In all 
 probability the Great Centre Bridge people 
 will not hear of the affair. Suppose you just 
 take no notice. What matter what people 
 say ?" 
 
 '• But I am afraid poor Letty will be talked 
 about." 
 
 '* She must live it down, too. And now, 
 would you mind telling me what she went to 
 Otway's rooms for ?" 
 
 " She went to ask him, if you please, to 
 resign — to give up the election and allow 
 me to have a walk-over. Did you ever hear 
 of such a thing ? But he is a gentleman, 
 Murray, and no mistake about it. He 
 behaved so well ; made me understand, as 
 soon as I had the sense to listen, how it all 
 came about — -and if Letty had been the 
 Princess Royal he could not have been more 
 deferential — more anxious to smooth over her 
 absurd indiscretion. By Jove," and Sir John 
 broke into a little nervous laugh, " I am
 
 THE NOMINATION. 89 
 
 afraid the fellow has fallen In love with the 
 child." 
 
 ''Oh, never mind that," said the Rector, 
 *'as long as she does not take a fancy to 
 him." 
 
 ''But you never can tell ; girls are so 
 queer. She can't but see the way he looks 
 at her. It is very different from the way he 
 looks at me." 
 
 " I dare say," said the Rector. 
 
 "And isn't it an odd thing ?" Sir John went 
 on, "I told you Jack had been writing a 
 great deal lately about some Gordons he 
 knows out there in India. Miss Gordon 
 went out in the Great Pyramid, under the 
 care of Jack's Colonel's wife, and now he has 
 come across her again. Letty and Miss 
 Lambton say they think he is in love with 
 this Miss Gordon, but I think not. He 
 knows I want him to come home and marry 
 Lucy Knollys by and by. Well, where was 
 I ? You know Otway's name was mentioned
 
 90 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 a long time ago as a possible candidate If 
 poor old Mllner died, and I told Jack about 
 him, of course. Now he writes word that 
 Otway's elder brother married the half-sister 
 of this Amy Gordon, and I should like to 
 ask him about them. If only we were friendly 
 enough. Jack says Colonel Gordon told him 
 that Herbert Otway — that's our man — was- 
 was one of the best fellows he ever met." 
 
 " All the same, I wish he had gone to 
 Great Centre Bridge Instead of settling him- 
 self here," said the Rector. 
 
 ''I suppose, then, the best thing I can do 
 is to show myself with Letty." Sir John said, 
 as he took up his hat. " She Is so ashamed, 
 poor child, that I cannot scold her ; and the 
 best of It Is," he added, slyly, "she fancies 
 our friend Otway thinks she Is a silly little 
 fool, and I would not undeceive her for the 
 world." 
 
 Dr. ]\Iurray had said truly enough that 
 half-a-dozen versions of the affair at the hotel
 
 THE NOMINATION. 9 1 
 
 were current in the little town. As a matter 
 of fact, it had ended peacefully. Sir John, 
 his bit of bluster over, listened to his 
 daughter's explanation ; he and Otway shook 
 hands, and the latter had the pleasure of 
 handing Miss Erskine into her little carriage. 
 She scarcely looked at him. however ; she 
 was grateful to him for having helped her to 
 explain everything to her father, but she did 
 not want to see him again. Sir John had 
 some difficulty in persuading her to accom- 
 pany him and Miss Lambton to Great Centre 
 Bridge on the day of the nomination. It 
 was very galling to her to be present, for, of 
 course, if Otway had retired from the contest^ 
 the fact would have been known by that time, 
 and so she had beo^Q^ed in vain. 
 
 Still she was but young, and her spirits 
 rose and her face erew briofht as usual, as 
 they all drove up to the town hall, and were 
 greeted with loud cheers by their friends and 
 adherents. The dappled greys had the Con-
 
 92 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 servatlve colours streaming from their heads ; 
 the coachman and footman wore big rosettes, 
 and Aunt Louise and Letty were suitably 
 decorated. There was such a dense crowd 
 in the wide square or market-place before the 
 town hall that the carriage had some difficulty 
 in drawing up. A platform had been erected 
 for the speakers, with a flight of steps at 
 either end, and rival bands were stationed at 
 ■opposite sides of the square. The players 
 had ranged themselves and their music stands 
 round poles, from which flags showing the 
 party colours floated in the wind. 
 
 A group of men stood on the steps of the 
 entrance to the town hall under an awning, 
 and amongst them Letty recognised Otway. 
 She would not have been a woman had she 
 not been struck by the contrast he presented 
 to some of his companions. For one thing 
 he was remarkably well-dressed ; not in the 
 dark tweed suit and deer-stalker hat in which 
 he appeared at Little Centre Bridge, but in
 
 THE NOMINATION. 93 
 
 the well-made frock coat and tall hat which 
 are considered indispensable for a man on 
 ceremonious occasions. The hat was taken 
 right off the dark curly head of the good- 
 looking Liberal candidate, as soon as he saw 
 the carriage from the Chase, and he stood 
 bare-headed as Sir John helped the ladies to 
 alight. 
 
 Sir John knew nearly all the men who 
 were on the steps. They were political foes, 
 to be sure, but, for all that, he shook hands 
 right and left, and in the most marked 
 and ostentatious manner with his opponent. 
 When the action was noticed by the crowd 
 it was received with mingled cheers and 
 hisses, and the Conservative band struck up 
 "See the Conquering Hero." 
 
 " Premature that, eh ?" said Sir John, 
 laughing, and addressing no one in par- 
 ticular. 
 
 Letty did not look at Otway. Miss 
 Lambton gave him a timid little bow, and
 
 94 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 as he put on his hat again and watched the 
 girl walking away with her father he was 
 foolish enough to feel bitterly disappointed. 
 
 There were not many ladies present ; the 
 Avife of Otway's proposer and some young 
 girls belonging to the seconder were the only 
 women on the Liberal side of the platform, 
 but a little group of county ladies surrounded 
 Miss Lambton and Letty. It was some time 
 before the business of the day began. Men 
 came up on the platform and went down 
 again ; the bands played, the crowd jeered 
 or cheered as friends or opponents were seen 
 passing to and fro, there was some rough 
 horseplay, and cries of " Bonnet him," '' Turn 
 him out," and every fresh outburst of cheers 
 or groans was louder and less good-humoured 
 than the last. By the time the candidates 
 and their friends appeared in front of the 
 platform the mob had become decidedly rest- 
 less and ripe for mischief. 
 
 The preliminaries were, however, gone
 
 THE NOMINATION. 95 
 
 through without any serious interruption 
 from below, but, when Sir John came forward 
 to make his speech, and had just cleared his 
 throat and uttered the words " Friends and 
 
 electors of ," a well-directed rotten Qgg 
 
 struck him on the cheek and cut him short. 
 And then a curious thing happened. Mr. 
 Otway rose, and, leaning over the front of 
 the platform, called out, *' Don't let us have 
 any more of that, if you please." But even 
 as he said the words he was obliged to duck 
 his head to avoid a dead cat. 
 
 He could not account for the impulse that 
 made him look at Letty Erskine as the un- 
 savoury missile fell at his feet. Her face was 
 all aoflow with excitement, and her lovelv 
 eyes were fixed on him. What was it that 
 eaeer look was saving ? He fancied she was 
 mutely reproaching him for not having, as 
 she had asked, retired from the contest. He 
 glanced at her again, but her eyes were turned 
 awav.
 
 96 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Sir John spoke for half-an-hour, but the 
 fates were against him, and scarcely a word 
 he said could be heard ; his friends in the 
 crowd were evidently in a minority. Con- 
 fident of a better reception, and half-angry 
 that it should be accorded to him, Otway 
 came forward. The uproar was at its height, 
 but curiosity had the effect of creating 
 silence for a little while. It did not last long; 
 something in the speaker's manner caused the 
 first note of dissatisfaction, and he was 
 assailed with rude cries of '' Shut up," '' Who 
 are you ?" and such like ; for, instead of 
 of expounding his political views, he began 
 by attacking his own friends for their want of 
 courtesy and fair play towards the rival" 
 candidate. 
 
 His proposer at last whispered, ''What 
 
 the are you about, man ? They won't 
 
 stand being lectured." 
 
 But Otway's blood was up, or some other 
 impulse may have moved him, for he went
 
 THE NOMINATION. 97 
 
 on In the same strain. But the patience of 
 his friends was soon exhausted, and he was 
 silenced by a perfect storm of hisses and cat- 
 calls, while rotten eggs fairly rained on the 
 platform. 
 
 Otway's friends and his own got round Sir 
 John to Implore him to demand a hearing for 
 his opponent, and he at once came forward 
 and tried to make himself heard ; but his 
 appearance was the signal for a sudden turn 
 of the tide. A shout of execration greeted 
 him, and the eggs flew faster than before. 
 Some roughs from Little Centre Bridge, who 
 had more than once been brought up before 
 Sir John In his capacity as a magistrate, had 
 pushed themselves to the front, and it was 
 from them the foulest language came. But 
 he never changed countenance until a bigger 
 bully than the rest called out, "What was 
 Miss Letty doing In the New Hotel with 
 Billy Brandon ? Just tell us that, Sir John, 
 will ye ?" 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Otway gave one look round to see if Letty 
 had heard ; her face was very white now, and 
 she had risen as if to go to her father. 
 Catching her eyes for a moment, the young 
 man waved her back ; then, putting his hands 
 on the bar that formed the top of the raihng 
 in front of the platform, he vaulted over into 
 the roadway below, and just as the ruffian 
 was about to repeat his insulting question, 
 Otway knocked him down with one well- 
 planted blow. 
 
 Before the yelling crowd quite realised 
 what had happened, friends and opponents 
 together rushed from the platform to Otway's 
 assistance, and not a moment too soon ! 
 Maddened by the fall of their comrade, the 
 roughs closed in upon him, and attack and 
 defence became general. Some hard knocks 
 had been given and received, when a strong 
 body of police and military came upon the 
 scene, and a regular stampede ensued. 
 
 When it was all over, and one or two
 
 THE NOMINATION. 99 
 
 arrests had been made, Otway was found 
 leaning against the door of the hall with 
 blood flowing from a cut upon his temple and 
 his right arm hanging by his side. 
 
 *' I am afraid It Is badly broken," he said, 
 and so It was.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TALK OF THE TOWN. 
 
 The local gossip caused by the numerous 
 versions in circulation about Letty Erskine's 
 visit to Otway at the New Hotel was extin- 
 guished as effectually as a lighted candle is 
 put out by a sudden puff of wind, when the 
 events of the nomination day in Great Centre 
 Bridge became known. There was no need 
 for exaggeration in this instance ; what had 
 actually taken place was bad enough. But 
 even the news of the rioting and the free 
 fight, which brought the business to an 
 abrupt close, paled before the amazing fact 
 that Otway, the Liberal candidate, with his 
 head cut and bleeding and his arm badly 
 broken in two places, was taken, first to the
 
 THE TALK OF THE TOWN. lOI 
 
 house of Dr. INIannering, Sir John Ersklne's 
 own medical attendant In Great Centre 
 Bridge, where his wounds w^ere dressed and 
 his bones set, and then. Sir John's carriage 
 being still used for the purpose, conveyed 
 to the Chase, and established there with a 
 professional nurse, while Miss Lambton and 
 her niece went home in a hired fly. It was 
 true that Otway had been badly hurt while 
 defending Sir John from the roughs, but still, 
 was it any wonder people looked at one 
 another and asked, " What next ?" 
 
 So much was known to everyone, but no 
 one knew how Otway had protested against 
 the arrangement ; vehemently at first, but 
 more feebly as Sir John insisted. He gave 
 in at last, not because he felt less strongly, 
 but his physical strength deserted him and 
 he was Incapable of continuing the struggle 
 when he was at length helped Into the car- 
 riage with his bandages and splints In order. 
 
 The Chase was the last house he ought to
 
 I02 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 have entered under the circumstances ; he 
 was Sir John's poHtical opponent ; he was in 
 love with Sir John's daughter, and honour 
 and honesty ahke forbade him to take up his 
 abode under Sir John's roof. And yet, there 
 was a certain amount of satisfaction in the 
 knowledge that he was all but helpless in the 
 matter ; he had entered his protest, and had 
 been silenced ; so if anything happened, Sir 
 John must take the consequences. But 
 nothing would happen ; he was bound in 
 honour not to make love to Miss Erskine. 
 But as he lay feverish and restless in the 
 pretty bedroom which, with a sitting-room 
 attached, had been given up for his sole use, 
 he took all at once a great resolve. It was 
 not yet too late to do as she had asked him, 
 and withdraw from the contest for Stoneshire. 
 It was quite possible that he was not treating 
 his friends very well by retiring at the last 
 moment, but he could very well bear their 
 anger and ill-will. So he sent for Sir John,
 
 THE TALK OF THE TOWN. IO3 
 
 who would not listen to him at first ; but 
 Otway had so thoroughly made up his mind 
 that he had to give in. Then letters, tele- 
 grams and messages passed between the 
 Chase and the Liberal committee rooms in 
 Great Centre Bridge, there was much angry 
 remonstrance, and a few uncomplimentary 
 expletives were directed against the man who 
 had thus played fast and loose with his party, 
 but Otway had his way ; he was determined 
 to withdraw from the contest, and withdraw 
 he did on the very eve of the election. 
 There was no time to hnd another candidate, 
 and Sir John Erskine was returned without 
 opposition. 
 
 Lying there on his sick bed, for excitement 
 and worrv made him feverish and li^ht-headed 
 for some days, Otway knew nothing of the 
 storm of indio^nation his conduct had raised. 
 The comments passed upon him in the 
 Liberal papers were the reverse of compli- 
 mentary, and it was pretty plainly hinted that
 
 I04 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 ''petticoat influence" had been at work. One 
 very scurrilous "leader" in the Centre Bridge 
 Banner of Freedom said openly that " no 
 bribery was as potent as that practised by a 
 pair of bright eyes, and no corruption more 
 demoralising than the smile of rosy lips." A 
 kind friend sent a copy of the paper with the 
 above passage underlined to Sir John, but he 
 put it into the fire, and carefully avoided the 
 subject with Letty, who was under the im- 
 pression that Otway had been obliged to 
 resign on account of his broken arm. 
 
 About a fortnight after the memorable 
 nomination day, Mrs. Dysart-Smith gave 
 one of her select luncheon parties, and Dr. 
 Murray was, as usual, one of the guests. 
 Her only daughter. Miss Ethel Dysart- 
 Smith, had been for some time past designed 
 by her mother for the post of mistress of the 
 pretty Rectory, but, for some unaccountable 
 reason. Dr. Murray did not propose to the 
 young lady, and he was, moreover, much too
 
 THE TALK OF THE TO\YN. I05 
 
 attentive to Mrs. Smith's English governess, 
 Mary Hamilton, in whom neither the mother 
 nor the daughter could see anything to 
 admire. She had a sweet oval face, lovely 
 soft brown eyes, and a figure that w^as simply 
 the perfection of symmetry and grace. But 
 it was not to be borne that the Rector's eyes 
 should have rested on her with admiration, 
 especially when Ethel was present. 
 
 Miss Hamilton never appeared at the 
 luncheon parties, but she occasionally spent a 
 leisure afternoon with the kindly maiden lady 
 Miss Masham, of whom mention has already 
 been made, and it was strange how very often 
 Dr. Murray happened to drop in to tea 
 when the young lady was there. As he was 
 on his way to this special luncheon, Dr. 
 Murray happened to meet Miss Hamilton on 
 her way to the post. A few words only 
 were exchanged but they w^ere enough to 
 bring a pretty colour into the too pale 
 face, and to make Mary very absent indeed
 
 I06 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 about the number of postage-stamps she 
 required. 
 
 '' Now, Dr. Murray," said Mrs. Dysart- 
 Smith, as soon as she saw that her guests 
 were beginning to enjoy their luncheon, 
 " what Is the latest news from the Chase? 
 Is that man ever going to get well and take 
 himself off? I never knew a broken arm so 
 hard to mend before." 
 
 "It was a bad compound fracture," said 
 Dr. Sumner. " At least, so I understood. 
 Personally, I know nothing about the case." 
 
 " I met Dr. Mannering yesterday," said 
 Mrs. Verity — her husband, the lawyer, was 
 not present — "and he told me Mr. Otway 
 was recovering very fast now ; he was moved 
 into a sitting-room yesterday." 
 
 "Yes; I called at the Chase yesterday," 
 said Mrs. Sumner, "and It was some time 
 before Miss Lambton came In. Miss Letty 
 told me she was in Mr. Otway's room, seeing 
 that everything was comfortable for him."
 
 THE TALK OF THE TOWN. lO/ 
 
 " Letty was not overseeing his comfort, 
 too, then ?" said Mrs. Dysart-Smlth. 
 
 " Oh, dear, no ; she has not seen him since 
 the accident, she says. She was telhng me 
 about her brother In India, and, from what I 
 can gather, he Is very far gone about some 
 young lady out there. I forget her name ; 
 Amy something. What will Sir John say If 
 he does not come home and marry Lucy 
 Knollys ? Young John gave a very amusing 
 account of some private theatricals they had 
 at some place, and It seems this young lady's 
 maid, I forget her name too, took a principal 
 part and played so extremely well that 
 bouquets were thrown to her and everyone 
 was delighted. Depend upon it, the next 
 news will be that young John Is going to 
 marry this Miss Amy— Gordon. That Is the 
 name." 
 
 Dr. Murray was eating his luncheon 
 silently. He had already heard the Indian 
 news from Sir John.
 
 I08 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 "Have you seen ^Ir. Otway, doctor?" 
 Mrs. Dysart-Smlth addressed him direcdy 
 again. "And do you think he is in love 
 with Letty ?" 
 
 " I cannot presume to say," the doctor 
 answered. " He has not confided in me." 
 
 "If there is nothing between them it is 
 most extraordinary. Why did she go to his 
 rooms, and why is Sir John so civil to him ?" 
 said Mrs. \^erity. "Depend upon it, there is 
 more in it than meets the eye. You know 
 they say she used to meet him in the park 
 every evening, and he used to send a young 
 man he employed as secretary with notes and 
 messao-es." 
 
 " I am quite sure you are mistaken, Mrs. 
 Verity," said Dr. Murray. " Miss Erskine 
 is not the sort of girl to do things of that 
 kind ; and, besides, I happen to know that 
 she went to the hotel to ask Mr. Otway to 
 give up the election. It was a foolish thing 
 to do, but there w^as no harm in it."
 
 THE TALK OF THE TOV.W. IO9 
 
 "He need never think of setting up for 
 Stoneshire again," said Dr. Sumner. 
 
 "And I think." said Mrs. Smith, laughing, 
 "the best thing Sir John can do is to let 
 Letty marry him as soon as he is well. I 
 am sorry to say a great many things are 
 being said of her that would grieve me very 
 much if they were said of ??iy daughter. 
 Not that I believe them, of course, but 
 
 still Dr. Murray, you are not touching 
 
 your favourite claret. I never give that 
 wine to anyone but you. It is Ethel's pet 
 brand, you must know, but I always say, 
 ' Xo, my dear, we must keep that wine for 
 Dr. Murray.' By the way, my dear Ethel, 
 do not fororet to show the Rector that 
 exquisite design you have for an altar 
 cloth." 
 
 That same afternoon, at the Chase, Otway. 
 with his arm in a sling, was resting in an 
 easy chair that kind Miss Lambton had 
 arranged for him. close to a window which
 
 no A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 commanded a wide view of the park and 
 overlooked, besides, the Ladies' Garden, as it 
 was called. It was bright now with spring 
 flowers, and once that day he had seen Letty 
 herself, the sweetest flower of all, in his eyes, 
 racing about over the grass, with her fox- 
 terrier, Orion, in full chase. He had been 
 introduced to that wonderful dog on the 
 occasion of his visit of ceremony, and he 
 felt inclined to envy the little animal on that 
 bright spring day. Once or twice he fancied, 
 but he could not be sure, that the girl looked 
 towards the window of his room, but when 
 he got up and placed himself at it in the 
 hope that she would wave him a greeting, 
 he was disappointed ; she did not look up 
 again. 
 
 The day wore on ; he read until he was 
 weary, and then, in a somewhat fretful and 
 impatient mood, he threw himself on the 
 couch to try and doze away the rest of 
 the long afternoon, but presently the door
 
 THE TALK OF THE TOWN. I I I 
 
 opened and Miss Lambton came in. She 
 
 was followed by a servant who carried a tea 
 
 tray, and after the servant who should trot 
 
 in, with his nose in the air, but the handsome 
 
 Orion ? 
 
 Otway jumped up, his head at once in a 
 
 whirl, and his curly locks decidedly untidy. 
 
 But he never thought of his hair, he was 
 
 filled with a delightful hope. Was she 
 
 coming ? Was he to see her again ; to touch 
 
 her hand ; to look into her face ? Yes, he 
 
 was. Orion rushed back to the door to meet 
 
 her, and she came in without a sign of flurry 
 
 or excitement in her manner ; she wore a 
 
 bewitchino: tea-Q^own of some soft cream- 
 er o 
 
 coloured stuff, trimmed with ribbons of red- 
 dish brown and pale apricot, and she carried 
 some flowers. 
 
 " Letty and I are going to have tea with 
 you, Mr. Otway, if you don't mind," said 
 Miss Lambton. 
 
 *' And Orion too, aunt. Don't forget
 
 J 12 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Orion, please," said Letty's clear, unem- 
 barrassed voice. " How do you do, Mr. 
 Otway .^" she added and gave him her hand.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AN ADVENTURE. 
 
 Orion, the fox-terrier, did good service that 
 afternoon ; it was so easy to steer clear of 
 such a disagreeable topic as the election, and 
 to become chatty and friendly over his good 
 looks and accomplishments ; not that he had 
 many accomplishments, for he was much 
 too petted, and was not forced to spend too 
 much time over his lessons, but his young 
 mistress made the most of what he could do. 
 His rdpertoire consisted of a few very common 
 tricks, and he did them very badly, but 
 Otway was prepared to swear, if necessary, 
 that he had never seen such a clever dog 
 before. 
 
 Letty was not in the least imposed upon, 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 ^ GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 but she allowed the invalid to believe that she 
 accepted his lavish praises of her pet In good 
 faith. She could not help feeling very sorry 
 for the poor fellow who was so pale and 
 gaunt, but rather picturesque, too, she 
 thought, with his arm In a sling. Letty felt 
 it was her duty to be kind to this man who 
 had defended her father so bravely, and as 
 she always did her duty fairly well when it 
 did not Interfere with her pleasure, she was 
 very kind to him that afternoon. In her way, 
 but It was a childish and provoking way. 
 Did Otway find any fault with it ? Not he, 
 indeed ; he was only too happy to be taken 
 any kind of notice of by the girl who had 
 never, for one moment, been out of his 
 thoughts for the last month or more. 
 
 He did not care whether she talked sense 
 or nonsense — and it was fortunate he was not 
 particular, for It must be confessed she gave 
 him plenty of the latter — as long as he could 
 look at her and watch the dimples coming
 
 AN ADVENTURE. T I 5 
 
 and going, and hear the ripple of her frank, 
 merry laugh, and catch the mischievous 
 glance of her lovely eyes. 
 
 No one who had ever seen Herbert Otway 
 at his work would have recognised him 
 that afternoon. Love had transformed him 
 more than pain and illness. Even his most 
 intimate friends called him cold and impas- 
 sive ; a man not easily^mcved, and not given 
 to express or even to feel enthusiasm. And 
 yet now he was the abject slave of a 
 girl of eighteen ; enthusiastic enough in all 
 conscience about her beauty ; hanging on 
 her words ; in the seventh heaven of delight 
 when she gave him a kind look, and absurdly 
 jealous when she lavished attentions and 
 caresses on her dog. 
 
 And was Miss Letty blind to all this ; was 
 she ignorant of the damage she had done ? 
 By no means ; she saw it all only too dis- 
 tinctly, and exulted over it as any spoiled girl 
 of her age would have done. But she was not
 
 Il6 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 disposed to fall In love In her turn, although 
 she liked Otway, and said he was a "delight- 
 ful man " for having given up the election ; 
 but then he could not have gone on with It 
 with a broken arm, and If he had gone on 
 she supposed, he could not have stayed at the 
 Chase until he was well again, so everything 
 had turned out for the best. That was the 
 way she reasoned. 
 
 But It was absurd of him, when everything 
 had ended so nicely, to look so lackadaisical 
 before her, and to stammer and stutter when 
 he could talk so well, and to gaze at her as If 
 he were never to see her again ; and indeed, 
 had he but known It, Otway was not taking 
 the right way to Impress Letty, and to touch 
 her heart. She did not want a slave, she 
 wanted a master ; and a little neglect and In- 
 difference would have won her more effectu- 
 ally than all his deference of speech and 
 ill-suppressed devotion of manner. 
 
 " But it was all very nice," Letty said to
 
 AN ADVENTURE. I 1 7 
 
 herself, as she laughed in secret over Otway's 
 words and looks ; and as he was " making 
 such a goose of himself" he must submit to 
 be teased. By and by, when he got back to 
 London, he would "get over it." 
 
 But, as the days wore on and the afternoon 
 tea was repeated in Otway's room until he 
 was able to come downstairs to the pretty 
 boudoir, with the flowers and the canaries, 
 Letty began to think that, when he was back 
 in London, she should miss her captive — the 
 first who had fallen to her bow and spear ! 
 Every day she liked him better, and every 
 day she wished he would pluck up a spirit 
 and not allow her to turn him round her 
 finger, as she was in the habit of doing. 
 
 '' I believe I should fall desperately in love 
 if I were but a little afraid of him," she said 
 to herself many times, "but I cannot care 
 much for a man who never finds fault with 
 anything I say or do." 
 
 But there was no one to ofive him a hint,
 
 Il8 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 SO he went on day after day metaphorically 
 prostrating himself before her, and enjoying, 
 with the keen zest of hunger, the few crumbs 
 of kindness she threw him now and then. 
 
 When he was quite recovered, she walked 
 with him In the park and drove him about In 
 the pony carriage ; but, although his oppor- 
 tunities were legion, he never dared to speak 
 openly of his devotion. He saw, but too 
 plainly, that she did not love him as he 
 wanted to be loved. "Would it ever come?" 
 he wondered. "Should he ever have the 
 happiness of seeing her shy and subdued In 
 his presence ? Would those lovely, saucy 
 eyes ever droop before his, and the laughing 
 lips be still ?" 
 
 He was quite well now, and he had no 
 excuse for lingering on In the country, but 
 still he stayed. Sir John had taken his seat 
 in the House, and had then paired with a 
 member on the other side until after Easter, 
 which fell rather late that year. When Par-
 
 AN ADVENTURE. II9 
 
 liament re-assembled after the recess, It was 
 arranged that Letty and Miss Lambton were 
 to go to town for a few weeks. 
 
 At the beginning of April, Otway was 
 obliged to tear himself away, but to his great 
 satisfaction and delight, hospitable Sir John 
 Invited him down to spend Easter at the 
 Chase. He showed his delight In the eager- 
 ness of his acceptance, and he did not guess 
 that the very slightest show of reluctance or 
 hesitation on his part would have Increased 
 tenfold Letty's appreciation of his promised 
 visit. 
 
 As It was she simply put up her lip dis- 
 dainfully as she told Orion that the man who 
 thought him such a very clever dog was 
 coming again In a fortnight, and that he 
 ought to learn a new trick. 
 
 But when he was gone she missed him 
 sadly ; there was no one now to fetch and 
 carry for her, and to rush about hither and 
 thither to gratify all her whims and fancies.
 
 I20 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 No one except her father — and he did not 
 count — to look admiringly at her when she 
 appeared In a new gown or hat, and above 
 all, there was no one to listen to all her silly 
 chatter as deferentially as if she were uttering 
 choice words of wisdom. 
 
 During the fortnight he was away several 
 large packets of new music arrived from 
 town addressed to Miss Ersklne ; also an 
 extremely pretty, but very unsuitable, collar 
 for Orion. Then came a thick letter for 
 Miss Lambton to thank her and Sir John 
 for their great, their never-to-be-forgotten 
 and wholly undeserved kindness to the 
 writer. He could say with truth that the 
 very happiest hours of his life had been spent 
 at the Chase, and the pleasure with which 
 he was looking forward to his return visit at 
 Easter was too great for words, but he con- 
 trived to spend a great many upon it, never- 
 theless. The chief part of the letter, how- 
 ever, was taken up with messages to Letty —
 
 AN ADVENTURE. I 2 I 
 
 " Pray tell Miss Erskine that I have ordered 
 the song she wished for," or " Miss Erskine 
 may depend upon me to find the kind of 
 forehead band and rosettes she is anxious to 
 get for Eire and Smoke, if they are to be had 
 in London," or '' Let Miss Erskine know 
 that I have got the riding-whip she was good 
 enough to commission me to procure for 
 her." 
 
 " I w^onder how he is going to behave this 
 time ?" she said, as she buttoned herself into 
 a most becoming new, tailor-made gown, and 
 put on an equally becoming little hat, on the 
 day Otway was expected. AVhen she was 
 dressed she called Orion to accompany her 
 and started to take the short cut across the 
 park which led to the railway station. She 
 had given Otway an indefinite promise — or, 
 more truly, a conditional one — that on the day 
 of his return for his Easter visit, she and 
 Orion would meet him at a certain stile on 
 the outskirts of the park well known to both
 
 122 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 of them, and walk back with him to the 
 house ; but he was not to be disappointed, 
 she explained, If she was not at the stile, for 
 she might change her mind, or forget all 
 about It. When she said she might forget, 
 Otway looked so dejected and prayed so hard 
 that he might be honoured by her company 
 that she laughed In his face, and said he had 
 done nothing to deserve the honour ; but 
 when he went on to confess his unworthiness 
 she lost all patience, and flippantly told him 
 not to expect her until he saw her. 
 
 And now, though she was actually on her 
 way to the trysting-place, she had almost 
 made up her mind to turn back before the 
 train arrived. '' But if he looks too pleased 
 to see me," she said to herself, '' I can 
 revenge myself by snubbing him all the 
 evening." 
 
 She had a book with her, and when she 
 came within sight of the stile she sat down 
 on the stump of a tree to wait, for the train
 
 AN ADVENTURE. I 23 
 
 was not due for nearly half-an-hour. She 
 was in the shelter of a small but thick copse 
 of beechwood, and in the distance she could 
 see the signal posts on the railway line, and 
 hear now and then the whistle of a local 
 train. 
 
 Orion was very happy sniffing about for 
 rabbits, and Letty. with her open book on 
 her lap, leaned against a tree, and began to 
 devise some new modes of torment for the 
 expected guest. The only thing, she made 
 up her mind, that she would not give him 
 was encouragement. She had very early 
 been impressed with the idea by good Miss 
 Lambton that it was dishonourable for a 
 woman to lead on a man to make a declara- 
 tion of love and then to reject him. But 
 still, in spite of her excellent resolution, 
 Letty was longing to hear what he would 
 say and to see how he would look, if he were 
 to ask her to marry him. 
 
 '' He would spoil me dreadfully if I said
 
 124 ^"^ GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 ■"yes ;' I know he would," she thought, " and 
 I am sure, although It would be very nice, It 
 would be very bad for me always to have my 
 own way. Mrs. Herbert Otway — Letty 
 Otway — they sound rather pretty, but I do 
 not think I want to be married just yet. Be 
 quiet, Orion ! What Is It, good doggie ?" 
 
 Orion was barking furiously, and presently, 
 to Letty's surprise, a man emerged from a 
 side path among the trees and came towards 
 her. She rose at once, called the dog to 
 her side, and stood looking at the Intruder. 
 Where had she seen that face before, and 
 that plaid suit, and scarlet necktie? The 
 face of the wearer was scarlet too, and that 
 puzzled her, for the person of whom he re- 
 minded her had not had that flaming visage. 
 His hat was worn raklshly and his gait was 
 a little unsteady. Yes ; there was no doubt 
 about It, It was unsteady, and as It suddenly 
 flashed across her where she had seen him 
 before, she knew that he was tipsy, and that
 
 AN ADVENTURE. I 25 
 
 his condition made the difference in his 
 appearance. He was the man who was in 
 Otway's room at the New Hotel — the man 
 called Brandon, who had so utterly mistaken 
 the object of her visit to the young and good- 
 looking Liberal candidate. 
 
 Brandon was not very tipsy, for he spoke 
 quite distinctly, but she did not like his look 
 or his manner. 
 
 ''Morning, miss," he said familiarly, as he 
 made a bungling effort to take off his hat. 
 " Hope I see you well, miss. You look 
 uncommon fit, I must say." 
 
 Letty was silent for a moment, then she 
 said, in a freezing voice, " Perhaps you are 
 not aware that you are trespassing. People 
 are not allowed to walk here." 
 
 " Indeed ! Beg pardon, miss, but I have 
 an object ; I am not trespassing. I was on 
 my way to the house to see you, miss, when 
 I caught sight of you and the dawg " — he 
 drawled out the word in true Cockney fashion
 
 126 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 — "and I followed to have a word with you 
 in private." 
 
 '' I cannot speak to you," said Letty. ''If 
 you have any business you should go to Sir 
 John." 
 
 He was close beside her by that time, so 
 close that she had to move a step backwards 
 to avoid contact with him. He moved on, 
 too. " I'm down on my luck, miss, if you 
 know what that is," he went on. " I didn't 
 know who you was that day at the hotel, or 
 I'd have been less free and easy, but you 
 don't bear malice, I hope ; and, seeing you 
 there alone, I thought you was fair game for 
 a lark, if you'll excuse me." 
 
 Letty was crimson with anger and mortifi- 
 cation, and she tried to walk quickly on in the 
 direction of the house, but Brandon contrived 
 to keep in her path. " I used to do some 
 writing for Mr. Otway," he continued, '' but 
 he sent me to the right about after that day, 
 with a tenner in my pocket, which I took to
 
 AX ADVENTURE. I 27 
 
 mean. * Hold your tongue about the young 
 lady,' and the half- tipsy creature put his 
 finger to his nose, and, to Letty's horror and 
 disgust, winked at her. " And never a word 
 said I, honour bright, as long as the coin 
 lasted." 
 
 " What is your business with me ?'' inter- 
 rupted Letty, haughtily. " I do not believe 
 you have any." 
 
 ** Oh, yes, I have," he said ; " maybe you 
 don't know how folks are talking of you and 
 that swell chap from London. They say you 
 bought the election for your father, pretty 
 dear, but that if the old gent will only come 
 down with a lot of cash, you'll be Mrs. Otway 
 safe enough, by and by !" 
 
 Now, the greater part of this speech was 
 unintelligible to Letiy, but nevertheless, it 
 was offensive in the highest degree. " How 
 dare you speak to me in that way ?"' she said, 
 stamping her foot. 
 
 *' I can silence ever\* tongue in the place.
 
 128 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 and I will, too," Brandon went on, quickly, 
 ''if you'll give me five sovs. I'm cleaned 
 out, that's the truth. I want to get back to 
 London, too, and I haven't the price of a 
 ticket. Just five, miss, and not a word more 
 about anything. I can square everyone for 
 that, and get to town besides." 
 
 Letty put her hand into her pocket and 
 took out her purse ; she had plenty of money, 
 and five sovereigns was a small price, she 
 thought, to pay for silencing the slanderers, 
 and she never suspected that Brandon had 
 made up the tale. She had turned and was 
 walking at a good pace back to the house ; 
 Brandon was close beside her, talking eagerly 
 as he walked. She took the pieces of gold 
 from her purse, and, without turning her 
 head, placed them in his eager hand and 
 hastened on ; but the sound of hurrying foot- 
 steps and a sudden scuffle made her pause 
 and look round, to see Otway in full chase 
 after the frying figure of Brandon.
 
 AN ADVENTURE. I 29 
 
 The race was a short one ; Brandon was 
 not sober enough to keep up the pace, and 
 presently Letty saw him being dragged to 
 her by his captor, and frightened and vexed 
 though she was, she all but laughed out at 
 the comical figure he cut, with his hat on one 
 side and his gaudy necktie pulled awry by 
 Otway's grasp upon his collar. 
 
 " I saw Miss Erskine give you money, 
 you miserable cur!" cried Otway. "How 
 dare you speak to her, sir ? Give it up 
 instantly or I'll hand you over to the 
 police !" 
 
 Brandon sullenly held out his hand with 
 the money in it to Letty. ''There — take 
 it," he said, ''but I'm starving. I haven't a 
 copper ; not one !" 
 
 Then Letty looked at Otway, and in her 
 eyes he saw soft appeal and womanly pity. 
 " Let him keep it," she said, gently, and the 
 next moment Brandon, the five sovereigns 
 safe in his pocket and his tongue in his 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 I ^o A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 cheek, was hurrying away as fast as his legs 
 would carry him, and Otway and Letty were 
 left alone.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OTWAY MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF. 
 
 When she found herself standing face to 
 face with Otway, whose name had been so 
 freely and offensively used by her late half- 
 tipsy tormentor, Miss Erskine suddenly and 
 unaccountably lost her temper. Otway was 
 annoyed beyond measure that Brandon should 
 have obtruded himself and got money out of 
 her ; but, at the same time, he was so over- 
 joyed to find himself once more in her 
 presence that he would not let himself think 
 of the impertinent rascal who was already 
 out of sight. 
 
 He was also excited by the knowledge 
 that she had come to meet him after all. As 
 he was whirled along from London In the
 
 132 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 express he kept telling himself that she 
 would not come, that he must not expect 
 her ; and yet she must actually have been on 
 her way to the stile when that fellow inter- 
 cepted her. 
 
 " It was so good — so kind of you," he 
 said, breaking the awkward silence and hold- 
 ing out his hand. 
 
 " What was good of me ?" she said, and 
 she pretended not to see the hand. " I wish 
 I hadn't been so foolish." 
 
 His face fell. '' I do not call it foolish," he 
 said. 
 
 ''Then you are very inconsistent," she 
 retorted, " and if you do not call it foolish, 
 why did you make him give back the 
 money ?" 
 
 " I was not thinking of the money," he 
 said. " I meant that it was kind of you to 
 come and meet me." 
 
 '' Oh," and she tossed her pretty head. " I 
 was just thinking of going back to the house
 
 OTWAY MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF. 1 33 
 
 when that man came up. I came out for a 
 walk ; I never meant to go to the stile. 
 Why did you listen to me and allow him to 
 keep the money ?" she went on, pettishly. 
 *' You must have known that I was silly to 
 ask you. A man like you ought to know 
 better than to give in to a girl." 
 
 That was Otway's own belief as regarded 
 girls in general, but to this special girl who 
 had bewitched him by her beauty and her 
 pretty ways, he could refuse nothing. 
 
 ''You think so?" he said, gazing at her 
 with that worshipping look in his eyes which 
 liattered, while it provoked her. "All I 
 know is that I could not refuse you anything." 
 
 "Then I must say you are very silly," she 
 said, decidedly, and she walked away from 
 him. " That man will make a very bad use 
 of that money." 
 
 " He is quite welcome," said Otway. " I 
 am afraid I do not care very much what 
 happens to him, but I do want to know what
 
 134 A GAI^IE OF CHANCE. 
 
 he said to you. I hope he was not very im- 
 pertinent ?" 
 
 Not for worlds would Letty repeat Bran- 
 don's words ; some instinct told her that they 
 were very impertinent, although she did not 
 quite understand them. ''He said he was 
 hungry, and that he wanted to get back to 
 London," she explained. 
 
 '' He did not try to frighten you, then ?" 
 
 "Oh, dear, no," said Letty, ''but I hope 
 he will eo to London now ; I do not want to 
 have him prowling about here." 
 
 " I am afraid he was insolent to you," said 
 Otway, with injudicious solicitude in his voice 
 and manner, ''you were looking quite pale 
 when I came up." 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I wish you would not w^atch 
 one so. It is very disagreeable," was the 
 snappish rejoinder. " I really must beg of 
 you, Mr. Otway, not to notice whether I 
 am pale or red." She began to walk on 
 very fast as soon as she had delivered that
 
 OTWAY MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF. 1 35 
 
 crushing rebuke, but he was beside her in a 
 moment. 
 
 '' I cannot help looking at you," he said, 
 quite humbly. "It is the only pleasure I 
 have when you are so unkind to me." 
 
 She o-ave her shoulders a little shrug, and 
 turned her head away that he might not see 
 she was laughing. " He is too absurd," she 
 said to herself. Then she walked on, hum- 
 ming a gay little tune, and not a word did 
 she vouchsafe to the patient slave at her side. 
 
 " I hope Miss Lambton and Sir John are 
 quite well," he said, at last. 
 
 " Quite well, thank you," and she hummed 
 
 on. 
 
 ''And I hope you have good news from 
 
 India." 
 
 " Very good." 
 
 '' And how are Fire and Smoke ?" 
 
 '^Very well indeed. They tried to run 
 away with me last week." 
 
 ''Good heavens! I hope you were not
 
 136 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 alone. Were you frightened ? You terrify 
 
 me. 
 
 '' Oh, not In the least ; it was great fun." 
 She hummed away at her song and took no 
 notice of his anxiety. The pretty profile was 
 all he could see, for she never once turned 
 the eyes he was pining to look Into towards 
 him. Was the walk he had been looking 
 forward to ever since he went to town really 
 to end In this way ? 
 
 At last a fallen tree in a tempting position 
 came Into view. Miss Letty sat down, and 
 Otway meekly placed himself beside her. 
 There was silence for a few minutes, then she 
 said, suddenly, " I am sorry I was so cross," 
 and held out her hand. 
 
 It was ungloved, white, soft and pretty. 
 He took it eagerly, and, in a tender but half- 
 irresolute manner, raised it to his lips. 
 
 " You should not do that," she said, as she 
 tried to draw it away, but he would not let it 
 
 go-
 
 *' I may as well tell you now as a week 
 hence," he said, and his voice was husky with 
 emotion. " I love you. Letty. I love you 
 with my whole heart." 
 
 " I am very sorry to hear it," she answered 
 promptly, and with an irresistible smile 
 curving her lips. " We were such good 
 friends, and everything was so nice and 
 pleasant. Oh, how can you be so foolish ?" 
 
 " Do not mock me in that cruel way," he 
 cried. " I was half- afraid you would not be 
 kind to me, but you must not blame me for 
 what I cannot help. I can no more help 
 loving you than the sun can help shining. I 
 am not vain enough to suppose that you care 
 for me, Letty ; but let me love you, and by 
 and by perhaps I may teach you " 
 
 She broke into a merry laugh. " Xo one 
 could ever teach me anything," she said, 
 " especially if I did not choose to learn, and 
 in this instance I do not choose. I do not 
 want a lover ; it is so ridiculous when I think
 
 138 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 that about a year ago I had a doll. I am 
 sure when you think over It seriously, Mr. 
 Otway, you will be very glad I did not listen 
 to you." 
 
 '' Glad !" he repeated. '* Glad, when I 
 would give the world, if I had it, to know 
 that you even thought kindly of me. I love 
 you so dearly, so devotedly, there is nothing 
 I would not give up to please you — to try 
 and win you." 
 
 " That is exactly what men say in books, 
 but I do not think it means much," she 
 answered, calmly. "We girls are very nice, 
 of course, and I suppose men cannot help 
 falling in love with us, but to talk of giving 
 up the whole world for us is simply ridiculous. 
 It really means nothing, if you think of it." 
 
 " I mean everything by it," he answered, 
 ''but I can see you do not love me, or you 
 would not laugh at me ; yet, for all that, I 
 am sure I could make you happy if you 
 would be my wife."
 
 OTWAY MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF. 1 39 
 
 " You would give me my own way in 
 everything, I suppose," she said. '' Let me 
 do exactly as I liked ?" 
 
 "It would be the study of my life to please 
 you in every way — to anticipate, if possible, 
 your every wish. I am glad to say I am 
 in a position to surround you with as much 
 comfort and luxury as you enjoy in your 
 father's house ; and in addition, my darling, 
 you would have the devotion of a heart that 
 has never known love for any woman before." 
 
 She looked at him with her frank eyes, 
 unabashed as usual. " Indeed," she said, 
 gravely, " I am not sure that it is such a 
 great recommendation to a heart after all. 
 I should not care if you had been in love 
 a dozen times. It must be rather stupid to 
 have no experience." 
 
 "You like making fun of me," he said, 
 " but I do not find fault if only I may love 
 you." 
 
 " There is no law against it, that I know
 
 140 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 of." she answered, "but you must not expect 
 anything. I am very much obhged to you, 
 Mr. Otway ; very much indeed. I feel quite 
 proud that I have had my first offer of 
 marriage ; but I am quite satisfied with the 
 spoiHng I get at home from papa and Aunt 
 Louise. Yours would be very nice, too, 
 perhaps, but still I might not like it as well ; 
 and then, you see, it would be very shabby of 
 me, would it not ? — to take everything and 
 give nothing in return." 
 
 '' You would give me yourself !" he cried, 
 *' and your sweet companionship in my lonely 
 life." 
 
 " Oh ! I am not much of a companion, I 
 assure you," interrupted Letty, "you would 
 have to spend the most of your time amusing 
 me, and giving me new gowns, and taking me 
 to the theatres. If I lived in London with a 
 stranger like you I should want so much 
 amusement. It would not be like home, you 
 know."
 
 OTWAV MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF. I4I 
 
 ^' Home !" he repeated. " Oh, Letty ! It 
 would be Paradise to me with you." 
 
 ''Very Hkely," she answered, ''but I must 
 think of myself. But do not let us talk any 
 more about it, if you please. I had no idea 
 you were foolish enough to fall in love, and 
 the sooner you get over it the better." 
 
 "You do not know what you are saying," 
 he interrupted, mournfully. " You have 
 grown to be part of my very life. It is not 
 love I feel for you — it is worship — idolatry ; 
 see," and kneeling at her feet he stooped and 
 kissed the hem of her gown. 
 
 She rose in a great hurry, blushing all 
 over her face, and very nearly knocked him 
 over. 
 
 "I am surprised, Mr. Otway," she ex- 
 claimed; " and— and— vexed. Do get up. 
 There is Orion staring at you, and no 
 wonder. I do not like to see a man on his 
 knees, and you will find that green mossy 
 earth very hard to brush off You should
 
 142 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 have spread your handkerchief, as the old 
 men do in the free seats at church." 
 
 " I should not mind kneeling there for a 
 month if I could hope to win you at the end 
 of it," he said. 
 
 She gave him a half-compassionate, half- 
 contemptuous look. ''You will never win 
 me by kneeling to me," she muttered. 
 
 " I beg your pardon. Did you speak?" he 
 said. 
 
 " No," she answered, crossly, " I did not 
 speak ; and I am not going to speak any 
 more. I am going home." 
 
 And not another word was exchanged 
 between them until they reached the house. 
 Otway looked sadly dejected. Letty's cheeks 
 were on fire, and her heart was beating 
 wildly. After all, although he was so foolish 
 and so unmanned in her presence, he was 
 ardently in love, and that in itself was a 
 dangerous attraction ; an idea to fall in love 
 with if she could not love the lover.
 
 OTWAY MAKES A FOOL OF HIMSELF. 1 43 
 
 In the hall they met Miss Lambton. ''Oh, 
 how do you do, Mr. Otway ? Very pleased 
 to see you back again. Will you excuse Sir 
 John for a few minutes ? He wants Letty in 
 the library. Will you go to him, dear ? The 
 Indian mail is in."
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE NEWS FROM INDIA. 
 
 Letty disappeared not altogether sorry to 
 escape for a time. Otway pulled himself 
 together with an effort and followed his 
 hostess into the morning-room. ''Sir John 
 has not had any bad news, I hope," he said, 
 politely. He saw that Miss Lambton was 
 excited and nervous, and not much in the 
 mood for the entertainment of guests. 
 
 " Oh, no ; not bad, really," she answered, 
 as she seated herself and tried to look at her 
 ease, "indeed most people would call it good, 
 I think — very good ; but my brother-in-law 
 Is just a little bit put out and disappointed, 
 I think. It is rather unexpected, certainly ; 
 at least Letty and I thought we might hear
 
 THE NEWS FROM INDIA. 1 45 
 
 something before long, but Sir John always 
 said it was nonsense, just because he did not 
 quite like it, you know." 
 
 "I suppose," said Otway, ''I am not wrong 
 in thinking that the news has something to 
 do with Mr. Erskine — your nephew — Miss 
 Erskine's brother.^" 
 
 "With Jack?" said Miss Lambton, "you 
 are quite right ; it is all about Jack. There 
 is no reason why you should not know. He 
 writes to say that he is engaged to be married 
 to that Miss Gordon ; have you heard of her.-^ 
 I forget. The dear boy is very much in 
 love and very happy, but somehow I can't 
 take it all in. It would be just the same if 
 Letty were engaged ; I could not take it 
 in." 
 
 " You told me when I was here before that 
 your nephew was very much smitten with 
 Miss Gordon, and I mentioned, if you re- 
 member, that she was a sort of connection of 
 mine. Her half-sister married my only 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 brother. I never met Amy Gordon, but I 
 believe she Is very charming." 
 
 '' So Jack says, of course. How odd that 
 you should know anything about her. I 
 think it will please Sir John, as he likes you. 
 I suppose you met Letty and walked home 
 with her ? I am very glad you were able to 
 run down this week ; you will talk to Sir 
 John, and In a day or two he will be quite 
 reconciled to Jack's engagement. I want 
 him to write a nice letter to the dear boy by 
 the next mail." 
 
 Letty found her father waiting for her with 
 his son's letter In his hand. ''What is it, 
 papa ?" she said ; "a letter from Jack ? Is he 
 coming home ?" 
 
 " No ; he's not coming home, but he's 
 going to be married " 
 
 ''To Amy Gordon!" cried Letty. "Oh, 
 I knew he would. Aunt Louise and I always 
 said he was In love with her. What does he 
 say ? Has he sent her photograph ?"
 
 THE NEWS FROM INDIA. 1 47 
 
 " No, the young idiot says no photograph 
 does her justice. Here is the letter," and Sir 
 John began to read: '"Mv dear Father and 
 Everyone, — I have only a few minutes to 
 save the mail, but I must send you a line 
 to tell you that I am the happiest man in the 
 world. I am engaged to Amy Gordon, and 
 we are to be married very soon. She is, 
 without any exception, the most beautiful 
 and the sweetest, dearest, darling in the 
 world.' Did anyone ever hear such bosh ?" 
 put in Sir John. " ' I know she loves me, 
 and I would give the whole world if I had it, 
 for her sake.' " "I suppose they all say that," 
 murmured Letty, blushing as she remem- 
 bered Ot way's declaration of half- an -hour 
 ago. '' * You must all write to her, and tell 
 her how pleased you are ; I have already 
 told her all about the dear old home, and 
 she sends her love and a sweet kiss to you 
 all.' There," said Sir John, ''what do you 
 think of that for rubbish ? Stay, there is a
 
 148 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 P.S. : ' We are going to — to ' I can't read 
 
 the name, 'for our honeymoon — Amy and I, 
 and her maid, Rossitur. I have not made 
 up my mind whether I Hke that same maid 
 or not, but Amy says she is a treasure, so 
 it's all right.' " 
 
 *' Well, papa," said Letty, "what do you 
 say : 
 
 "What do I say? What is the use of 
 saying anything now ? The rascal has taken 
 the law into his own hands, and we must 
 make the best of it. I wanted him to marry 
 Lucy Knollys, but if this girl is nice, 
 and a lady, there is no great objection, I 
 suppose." 
 
 "And if they care for one another," put in 
 Letty. 
 
 " Oh, Jack seems pretty hard hit ; and of 
 course she likes him, too, or I suppose she 
 would not marry him." 
 
 " Do women ever marry men they are not 
 In love w^ith?" asked Letty. She was fiddling
 
 THE NEWS FROM I1\DIA. 1 49 
 
 nervously with a paper-knife, and Otway's 
 passionate pleading was ringing in her ears. 
 
 " Well, I don't know\ I suppose they 
 do sometimes," said Sir John, doubtfully. 
 '' Poor women, unfortunately, have very 
 often to marry for a home ; but I think a 
 w^oman might get fond of a man after she 
 married him." 
 
 " I am sure I should hate him if I did not 
 love him very much before," said Letty, 
 decidedly, " especially if he w^ere very fond 
 of me and did not order me about. I could 
 not endure a man who was always on his 
 knees adoring me." 
 
 *' Order you about !" cried Sir John, laugh- 
 ing. '' I should like to see the man who 
 would order you about, you little tyrant. I 
 never venture to do it." 
 
 " But a husband and a father are different, 
 you know," said Letty. " Quite different." 
 
 '' When did you find that out, you mon- 
 key ?" and Sir John took his daughter's
 
 150 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 pretty chin between his finger and thumb and 
 turned her face towards him. " Hallo, what 
 does this mean .^" as the deep red colour rose 
 again. "What are you asking about hus- 
 bands for, I should like to know .^" 
 
 '' Mr. Otway wants me to marry him," 
 answered Letty, speaking very fast. " I met 
 him in the beech wood as he was coming 
 from the train, and he asked me." 
 
 " And what did you say ?" 
 
 " I believe 1 laughed at him. He was 
 very silly and sentimental." 
 
 " Then you don't care for him ?" 
 
 '' I do not think I do. I hate the way he 
 goes on — as if I were something too good for 
 this world. He is so sensible and manly and 
 clever until he begins to talk about love." 
 
 "And what happens then?" asked Sir 
 John. 
 
 " He becomes perfectly idiotic," answered 
 Letty, calmly. " I know I am very pretty 
 and lively, and I might, perhaps, make a nice
 
 THE NEWS FROM INDIA. 15I 
 
 wife ; but when a man goes down on his 
 knees and sees no fault in me I call him very 
 stupid." 
 
 Sir John burst out laughing. '' Poor 
 Otway !" he said. '* He has no chance, I 
 see." 
 
 " Not unless he gives up all that nonsense, 
 and behaves like a man, not a goose," said 
 Letty. 
 
 " Where is he now .^" asked Sir John. 
 *' Did you leave him lamenting in the beech 
 wood ?" 
 
 " Oh, dear, no ; we came home together, 
 and he is with Aunt Louise, I suppose. 
 Please, daddy," and she wound her arms 
 round her father's neck and laid her pretty 
 cheek against his ruddy one, ''don't pretend 
 that you know anything about it ; and if he 
 talks to you, you must not tell him that I 
 should like him better if — if " 
 
 " If he liked you less. Is that it .^" 
 
 "Oh, no, certainly not. I like to be liked,
 
 152 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 but I think a man is weak who goes on his 
 knees to a woman." 
 
 ''In short, you prefer a commander to a 
 beggar. Is that It? Well, I am not going 
 to tell him what to do, my darling, for I do 
 not want to lose my daughter just yet." 
 
 " But he may change of his own accord," 
 said Letty, saucily. "And now, daddy, you 
 go and tell him all about Jack, and if he 
 asks for me, say you do not know where I 
 am." 
 
 Aunt Louise slipped away as soon as her 
 brother-in-law came in ; she wanted to talk 
 to Letty about the Indian news. 
 
 ''Well, Otway, my boy," said Sir John, 
 heartily. " Glad to see you again. I have 
 just heard from my son In India; he is 
 engaged to be married. By the way, I think 
 you know something of the lady. Never saw 
 her, eh ? Well, Jack raves enough about her 
 beauty and her goodness ; but of course, she 
 is perfection in his eyes. Your sister-in-law
 
 THE NEWS FROM INDIA, 1 53 
 
 is her sister-in-law — is that it ? No, her 
 step-sister — same father ? Jack hasn't sent 
 her photograph ; says she comes out badly. 
 Pretty women generally do. I never saw a 
 photo of Letty that was fit to look at. She 
 met you coming from the train, she says. 
 She had a fright the other day, soon after you 
 left us, with those confounded ponies. They 
 tried to bolt." 
 
 "Why not get rid of them ?" said Otway, 
 anxiously. " I am sure it is not safe for Miss 
 Erskine to drive them, and " 
 
 As he was speaking, Letty came in. 
 " Scandal about my ponies. I heard you, 
 sir !" she cried, and she shook her finger 
 threateningly at the infatuated Otway, who 
 the moment she appeared assumed the 
 vacuous expression of the longing lover. 
 
 '' I came to look for Aunt Louise's keys," 
 Letty went on. " No, thank you," as Otway 
 came forward to join in the search. " Men 
 never can find anything, I notice. Please sit
 
 154 -^ GAME OF CHA^XE. 
 
 down and talk to papa. There, now ; you 
 very nearly upset that little table, and you 
 frightened the bird. You see how she is 
 fluttering, and it is very bad for her to 
 flutter ; she is supposed to have heart disease. 
 Do be quiet and stand on the hearthrug out 
 of sight." 
 
 Otway obeyed like a dog, and Letty con- 
 tinued her hunt for the lost keys and smiled 
 to herself in contempt at his obedience. " I 
 could not marry a man who did exactly as he 
 was told," she thought. 
 
 Presently the keys were found under an 
 open book on one of the sofas. " There," 
 she said, " I knew I should find them if I 
 were let alone." She gave Otway a look 
 from under her long lashes as she left the 
 room and shook the keys at him. "If that 
 poor bird dies," she said, ''it will be all your 
 fault." 
 
 The two men stood side by side for a few- 
 moments in silence ; then Otway put his
 
 THE NEWS FROM INDIA. 1 55 
 
 hand upon his host's shoulder, and said 
 earnestly, ''Will you give her to me, Sir 
 John?"
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MISS DYSART-SMITH CATCHES COLD. 
 
 At the moment Otway was asking this 
 momentous question, Mary Hamilton — Mrs. 
 Dysart-Smlth's pretty EngHsh governess — 
 was alone In one of the class-rooms of the 
 young ladles' college. She was seated at a 
 writing-table ; her elbows were on the table, 
 and her chin was supported on her hands. 
 A finished letter In Its addressed envelope 
 was beside her, writing materials were 
 spread out before her, but she was absorbed 
 in thought. 
 
 Not half-an-hour before she had received 
 her dismissal from Mrs. Smith, on the pretext 
 that her supervision of her pupils was too lax 
 during play hours. A long consultation had
 
 MISS DYSART-SMITH CATCHES COLD. 1 57 
 
 been held between the lady principal and her 
 daughter just before Mary's discipline was 
 called in question and her services dispensed 
 with, and if she had known that such a con- 
 sultation had taken place, it w^ould have given 
 her the clue she looked for in vain as she sat 
 with her elbow^s on the table and her pen and 
 paper before her. 
 
 She was convinced in her own mind that 
 Mrs. Smith had not given the real reason of 
 her abrupt dismissal, and she w^as naturally 
 not a little vexed at being treated in such a 
 curt and unkind manner. She put down her 
 elbows and scribbled off a note w^hich she 
 addressed to '' Miss Masham, The Rosary, 
 Little Centre Bridge ;" then she got up and 
 began to walk up and down the room. No 
 matter how courageous and self-reliant a 
 woman may be, she does not like to be 
 turned adrift at a moment's notice without 
 sufficient reason, and before long Mary 
 began to feel angry as w^ell as perplexed.
 
 158 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " What does it mean ? What does It 
 mean ?" she said to herself as she again sat 
 down and began to scribble hieroglyphics 
 over her blotting paper. By degrees the 
 motion of her restless hand grew slower ; 
 the colour on her face, which was flushed, 
 deepened from rose pink to deep crimson. 
 It was only April, and the weather was by no 
 means warm, but Mary felt suddenly as if 
 she were stifling. '' It must be that," she 
 said. "He was certainly more careful to 
 keep the rain off me than off her. I wish I 
 had walked home alone." Then she jumped 
 up. feeling hotter than before, and put her 
 writing materials away in a drawer. ''What 
 a fool I am," she said, as she took up her 
 letters and went upstairs to her own room. 
 
 It was at the top of the house, and it was 
 not very large ; but it was a front room, and 
 from the window there was an excellent view 
 of the Rectory and the Rectory garden. Other 
 windows in the college commanded the same
 
 MISS DYSART-SMITH CATCHES COLD. 1 59 
 
 view, but Mary's was the best of all. And It 
 was such a charming garden, too, w^ith Its 
 gnarled apple trees and stately pear trees, its 
 walls covered with peaches and nectarines, its 
 row of beehives at the further end, and such 
 quantities of sweet old-fashioned flowers, that 
 even a busy housemaid in Mrs. Smith's em- 
 ploy might be pardoned for lingering long at 
 a window just to look at it. 
 
 And it may as w^ell be confessed that Mary 
 Hamilton never went to her room without 
 taking a peep into this modern Paradise. 
 She was much too high up to be noticed by 
 anyone who happened to be In the garden, 
 so she could admire to her heart's content 
 without fear of detection. Her cheeks were 
 very pink still, uncomfortably hot, in fact ; 
 her very ears burned as she stood at the 
 open window^ and looked out. And what 
 did she see over the way that made the 
 colour get deeper and deeper still ? 
 
 In the very middle of the garden there
 
 l6o A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 was a fine old apple tree, and directly under 
 it, gazing up into its branches, stood the 
 Rector, Dr. Murray, without his hat. He 
 was a tall handsome man of about forty-five 
 or fifty. His clothes were always well made, 
 and there was always a very snowy line of 
 linen above his high waistcoat. Altogether, 
 he was a man worth looking at. His back 
 was turned to Mary, and she could see dis- 
 tinctly a tiny bald place on the top of his 
 head. Clearly the doctors hair was begin- 
 ning to come off. 
 
 Much time, however, was not vouchsafed 
 to Mary for the contemplation of this phe- 
 nomenon, for Dr. Murray suddenly put on his 
 hat — he had simply taken it off to prevent it 
 from fallino^ off when he threw back his head 
 to look in to the apple tree — and walked away. 
 She saw no more of him, and she did not 
 know that he went straight out of the garden 
 into the street, turning in the direction of the 
 church, which stood, as has been already
 
 MISS DYSART-SMITH CATCHES COLD. l6l 
 
 mentioned, in the middle of the High Street, 
 about fifty yards beyond the Post Office ; and 
 the Post Office was next door to Crump's, the 
 fancy shop par excellence of Little Centre 
 Bridge. 
 
 In five minutes after she lost sight of the 
 Rector, Mary went out to post her letters, but 
 she turned into Crump's, which came first, to 
 buy some knitting-cotton. She spent about 
 ten minutes over the purchase, then went 
 on to the Post Office to get stamps for her 
 letters, and there saw Dr. Murray writing a 
 telegram. 
 
 Mary started. It seemed but ^v^ minutes 
 since she had seen him staring up into his 
 apple tree. She could not exactly turn and 
 fly, although some unaccountable impulse 
 urged her to do so ; besides, why should she.'* 
 He had as much right to be in the Post Office 
 sendinor off a teleQ^ram as she had to be there 
 buying stamps, so she stood meekly behind, 
 waiting until he made way for her. 
 
 VOL. L M
 
 1 62 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Even very stupid people know sometimes 
 by instinct when they are in the way, or 
 when someone whom they know and would 
 like to speak to stands behind them. Dr. 
 Murray was the reverse of stupid, so he not 
 only immediately became conscious that he 
 was in the way, but that someone whom he 
 knew and liked was behind him, and he had 
 the curiosity to turn his head to see who It 
 was. 
 
 And It was not a very remarkable object 
 by any means. He saw a pretty, neat little 
 figure, in a grey gown and a black jacket, and 
 a sweet face with shy soft eyes and very pink 
 cheeks. The Rector had never seen them as 
 pink before. He did not say a word, but he 
 shortened his telegram by at least three 
 words ; then, giving the paper and a shilling 
 to the clerk, he turned and shook hands with 
 Mary. 
 
 '' I have not seen you since the concert, 
 Miss Hamilton," he said. " I hope you did
 
 MISS DYSART-SMITH CATCHES COLD. 1 63 
 
 not catch cold? It was too bad of the rain 
 to come on just then, and I did not find 
 it easy to shelter two ladies under one 
 umbrella." 
 
 '' I got no cold, thank you," said Mary, 
 ''but Miss Smith has a sore throat. She 
 says the drip from the umbrella went down 
 her neck." She might have added, ''And 
 that same drip has cost me my place." 
 
 " Dear, dear, how very unfortunate. I am 
 very sorry. She ought to have gone with 
 her mother in the fly. I suppose I must buy 
 a larger umbrella before the next concert." 
 
 Mary, who was stamping her letters, made 
 no remark. 
 
 " Where are you going now ?" he asked, as, 
 having followed Mary out of the office, he 
 saw her drop her letters into the box. 
 
 " Home — to the college," she answered, 
 and, all unknown to herself, she gave a little 
 sigh as she held out her hand to her com- 
 panion.
 
 164 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " I am going your way," he answered, and 
 turned with her. 
 
 Now, although she had been nearly two 
 years in Little Centre Bridge, that was the 
 first time she had ever walked through the 
 High Street in daylight escorted by the 
 Rector. Two evenings before, a concert had 
 been given in the town hall ; rain came on 
 unexpectedly, and Dr. jNIurray had escorted 
 Miss Dysart-Smith and INIiss Hamilton back 
 to the college. He walked, not next to Miss 
 Smith, as he ought to have done, but next 
 to Miss Hamilton, with the disastrous result 
 already mentioned — the drip from the um- 
 brella went down ]\Iiss Smith's neck and 
 gave her cold, while Miss Hamilton reached 
 home without a drop having fallen upon her. 
 Then the mother and daughter held a consul- 
 tation ; decided that ]\Iary's discipline during 
 play hours was too lax, and gave her notice. 
 
 This was all in her mind now as she 
 walked along beside the handsome Rector,
 
 MISS DYSART-SMITH CATCHES COLD. 1 65 
 
 and it seemed to her that the always busy 
 High Street was unusually crowded that 
 afternoon, and everyone she knew abroad. 
 They passed little IMIss ^Masham, in her 
 Victoria, and she certainly raised her eye- 
 brows as she nodded and smiled. Then 
 they met Airs. Sumner, and presently they 
 came upon Mrs. \"erity, who. with three or 
 four acquaintances, all women, stood talking 
 and laughing outside the pastrycook's. 
 
 Alary could not think of anything to say, 
 and Dr. Alurray was silent, too. At last she 
 made a stupid remark upon the beauty of the 
 young foliage on the trees in the park. 
 
 "Ah, October is the time for the Erskine 
 beeches," cried the Rector, who was great 
 upon autumn tints. 
 
 "I know it is," Alary answered, "but I 
 
 shall be eone lono^ before October ; Airs. 
 
 Smith orave me notice this afternoon." 
 
 " You are QToino- awav !" cried the Rector. 
 00* 
 
 upon whom the word notice jarred disagree-
 
 1 66 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 ably. "This is very sudden; very sudden 
 indeed." 
 
 Not another word was said on either side 
 until the door leading into the grounds of the 
 college was reached ; then Dr. Murray said, 
 abruptly, ''How many afternoons have you 
 disengaged each week ?" 
 
 ''Two," she answered, looking, as she felt, 
 very much surprised, " Tuesdays and Satur- 
 days." 
 
 "And I never met you out before. Good- 
 bye." 
 
 As they were shaking hands the door was 
 opened, and Mrs. and Miss Dysart-Smith 
 came out.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE VISITOR WHO ^YALKS OX THE GRASS. 
 
 It was on a Thursday that Mrs. Dysart- 
 Smith found Dr. Murray shaking hands with 
 Miss Hamilton at the door of the college 
 grounds. On Friday was Miss Masham's 
 fortnightly "At Home," and the Rector was 
 the very first arrival. This was so unusual 
 that his hostess allowed her surprise to 
 appear in her greeting. "Are you going to 
 give us an old sermon on Sunday ?" she said. 
 " You have never come to one of my Fridays 
 in good time before, and your excuse was 
 that you had your sermon to write." 
 
 " Quite true," he answered, smiling. " I 
 am going to preach an old sermon on Sun- 
 day, but not one you ever heard before."
 
 1 68 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 '' Take care. I have a capital memory. 
 I shall find you out ; and if I detect even one 
 sentence I know, I shall cough loudly." 
 
 " That will be awkward for me unless 
 you throw more originality into your cough 
 than I do into my sermon. There is so 
 much sameness in coughs that I may not be 
 able to distinguish your note of warning. 
 But I came early to find you alone If 
 possible." 
 
 " You are not going to make me an offer, 
 I hope ?" 
 
 The Rector laughed. '' Then you do not 
 think I am too old to marry ?" he said. 
 
 " On the contrary, you do not seem to me 
 old enough to know your own mind, or when 
 you have had encouragement enough to 
 justify you in proposing." 
 
 '' But have I received any ?" 
 
 *'You let your umbrella drip down the 
 poor girl's back and she did not resent it. I 
 assure you everyone is talking of that um-
 
 THE VISITOR WHO WALKS ON THE GRASS. 1 69 
 
 brella of yours, and I cannot make out which 
 of the young ladles it dripped upon." 
 
 ''Well, If you must know. It was upon 
 Miss Dysart-Smlth ; but I did not come here 
 early to talk about her. Do you know that 
 Miss Hamilton has been dismissed ?" 
 
 *^Yes ; I had a note from her last night." 
 
 " I want you to be kind enough to ask her 
 to afternoon tea here on Tuesday." 
 
 '* And what am I to do with her when she 
 comes?" asked Miss ]\Iasham, and she looked 
 at the Rector with an Inquisitive twinkle in 
 her kind bright eyes. 
 
 ''Ask me, too, and I can help you to enter- 
 tain her." 
 
 " If you are so anxious to see her why do 
 you not call at the college ? It Is just over 
 the way from the Rectory." 
 
 "I am afraid of Mrs. Dysart-Smlth."- 
 
 "And how are you going to entertain Miss 
 Hamilton if you meet her here ?" 
 
 "I do not know whether you will look .
 
 170 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 upon it in the light of an entertainment or 
 not, but I am going to ask her to marry me." 
 
 Miss Masham uttered a long-drawn "Ah! 
 You are a wise man not to go to the college 
 on that errand," she said. " Depend upon it, 
 Mrs. Smith found out how that umbrella of 
 yours dripped the other night — hence the 
 notice to quit. I assure you I am very glad, 
 and I hope Mary will not be silly enough to 
 refuse you." 
 
 " I refuse to contemplate that possibility at 
 all," said the Rector. " Of course, I cannot 
 force her to marry me, but it will be a terrible 
 disappointment if she says no." 
 
 " Have you ever made love to her .^" 
 
 Dr. Murray turned away with a gesture of 
 annoyance. 
 
 "There; don't be vexed," the indiscreet 
 old lady went on. " I suppose it would be 
 infra dig. for a D.D. to behave like a B.A., 
 for instance. Now you just listen. By and 
 by I mean to have a bit of fun with our old
 
 THE VISITOR \VHO WALKS ON THE GRASS. 171 
 
 friend Mrs. Smith. I am going to tell her 
 that I have heard of a situation that I think 
 will suit Mary." 
 
 When Miss Hamilton reached the pretty 
 little villa on the London Road the following 
 Tuesday, she found her small hostess in a 
 state of flurry and excitement, quite unusual 
 to her. She insisted upon taking the girl 
 upstairs at once to take off her hat and jacket 
 and arrange her hair. She even dived into a 
 drawer and brought out a dark red bow, 
 which, with her own hands, she pinned at 
 Mary's throat, in order to lighten up the 
 girl's grey gown. 
 
 ''I cannot bear grey gowns without a spec 
 of colour about them," she said ; " and I am 
 sure I hope you will not be allowed to wear 
 them by and by." 
 
 ''And who is to prevent me ?" Mary asked. 
 
 " I can't say," answered Miss Masham^ 
 " but I hope someone will." 
 
 Mary stood at the window — a front one —
 
 172 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 looking out, while Miss Masham bustled 
 about the room. Presently the gate at the 
 end of the short drive clicked. 
 
 '' Another visitor ! Who can it be ?" and 
 she came to the window and peeped over her 
 guest's shoulder. 
 
 " Dr. Murray, I declare ! Now what 
 brings him here to-day ? And he never 
 keeps on the gravel. He always will walk 
 upon the grass. There, you see he is on it 
 already. What an obstinate husband he will 
 make. Come down, child. I dare say he 
 has come to wheedle me out of a subscrip- 
 tion ; I have not given anything towards the 
 new organ yet. I declare that red bow has 
 given you quite a pretty colour. We saw 
 you coming, doctor," she began, as soon as 
 she opened the door, " and, as usual, you 
 walked on the grass. I never saw such a 
 man as you are. You have quite a little path 
 worn between the flower beds. W^hat am I 
 to do with you ?"
 
 THE VISITOR WHO WALKS ON THE GRASS. I 75 
 
 '* Put a veto on my visits." 
 
 " Until you have someone with you to 
 keep you in order. Is that what you mean ? 
 Miss Hamilton arrived about ten minutes 
 ago ; I have not had time to ask her how 
 poor Miss Smith's throat is. But as she was 
 here on Friday evening she cannot be very 
 bad. What news is there in town to-day ? 
 Is it true that young John Erskine is en- 
 gaged to be married out in India ?" 
 
 " Quite true ; I had it from Sir John him- 
 self." 
 
 " Is he pleased?" 
 
 "Well, he makes the best of it; but I 
 think he would like his son to marry at 
 home." 
 
 "And I see they have got their pet Radical 
 staying with them again ; that handsome 
 young fellow who got all his bones broken at 
 the nomination. I saw him at church with 
 them on Sunday." 
 
 "He has come down to spend Easter,"
 
 T74 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 said the Rector. '' I met him there at 
 dinner, on Saturday night." 
 
 '' I suppose Sir John knows that the man 
 will very likely fall in love with Letty, if he 
 has not done so already. Mrs. Verity was 
 talking about it on Sunday; you know what 
 a gossip she is." 
 
 '' She waylaid me yesterday to try and find 
 out if I knew what fortune the future Mrs. 
 John Erskine has." 
 
 "We must provide them with a fresh 
 subject, or the poor Erskines will be worn 
 threadbare," said Miss Masham. '' Set your 
 wits to work, doctor, and think of something 
 new. And now will you excuse me if I leave 
 you to be entertained" — she laid a funny little 
 emphasis on the word — ''by Miss Hamilton 
 for half-an-hour, while I finish a letter for the 
 five o'clock post ?"
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE rector's hat. 
 
 It would be untrue to say that ^lary Hamil- 
 ton felt altogether at her ease when she found 
 herself alone with the Rector ; she did not 
 think that Miss Masham was kind to rush off 
 in that abrupt manner. She might have 
 letters to finish before post time, it was true, 
 but somehow Mary did not believe it. She 
 was not very shy in general, but on this 
 occasion she did not know w^hat to do ; 
 whether boldly to plunge into conversation 
 or wait for her companion to begin. 
 
 He was standing with his back to her, 
 looking out of one of the windows, and she 
 did not feel bold enough to address him. 
 Three minutes passed ; in desperation she
 
 176 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 took Up a book, but she had scarcely opened 
 it when Dr. Murray left the window and 
 came over to her ; then followed a few 
 seconds of utter bewilderment, before she 
 realised that he was asking her to be his wife. 
 
 There was no ambiguity In his love- 
 making; he said very little about his feelings, 
 but his meaning was unmistakable. Mary 
 made more than one effort to speak, but no 
 words would come, and she felt like a simple- 
 ton as she sat there, with the much-coveted 
 Rector of Little Centre Bridge standing 
 before her waiting for his answer. 
 
 " You might say something to me," he 
 pleaded at last. " I hope you will say 'yes,' 
 but an answer of some kind I have a right to 
 expect." 
 
 '' Ah ! you would not ask me If you knew 
 my story !" she broke out at last. Then she 
 covered her face and began to cry. 
 
 *' I do not think your 'story,' as you call it, 
 can be anything so very terrible," he
 
 THE RECTORS HAT. 1 77 
 
 answered ; " and I am quite sure there is 
 nothing in it that would make me think less 
 highly of you." 
 
 On hearing this, Mary's sobs broke out 
 afresh, and, made desperate by the sight of 
 her grief, Dr. Murray knelt on one knee by 
 her side and tried to get her hands into his. 
 
 ''My dear, don't cry," he said, quite 
 piteously. "I cannot answer for myself when 
 I see you in trouble. Tell me what it is, 
 and let mesee if I cannot make it lighter." 
 
 " You will not care for me any more when 
 you know," she said, mournfully. 
 
 '' I am not sure of that ; but you must let 
 me be the judge." 
 
 Mary gave a great sigh and began. " I — 
 I was not always poor," she said. " We 
 were w^ell off while my father was alive, and 
 I — I was engaged to be married " 
 
 " I am not surprised to hear that," put in 
 the Rector, smiling at her ; " but I am happy 
 to know that it was broken off." 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 '* But not as you think. He — he jilted me " 
 — Mary whispered the terrible word. "When 
 papa died, and it was found out that he had 
 speculated and lost all his money, he went 
 away without even saying good-bye, and 
 married another woman directly. It nearly 
 broke my heart. It was such a — a disgrace 
 to be deserted In that way, and I cared for 
 im. 
 
 ''Poor child!" said the Rector, as he 
 pressed her hands fondly In his. 
 
 " Oh, you must not pity me," she cried. 
 " I can bear anything but that ; it hurts 
 me." 
 
 ''And I would not hurt you for the 
 world." 
 
 She gave one quick look at him, and then 
 her eyes fell. 
 
 " You need not doubt It, Mary, for I love 
 you with all my heart. You do not really 
 think that I am going to let what you have 
 just told me come between us ? No, my
 
 THE RECTORS HAT. I 79 
 
 dear, If you are going to reject me you 
 must find some better reason. The question 
 is — can you like me well enough to marry 
 me r 
 
 " Like you ?" she repeated. '' Oh, Dr. 
 Murray !" 
 
 '' Well, what does that mean ?" 
 
 '' It means — oh, how can I tell you ?" 
 
 " V^ery easily. I am not particular about 
 the manner if the matter is to my liking- 
 Just make it clear to me that you will be my 
 wife." 
 
 " But are you quite sure you will not wish 
 to-morrow you had not asked me .^" 
 
 "If any such ridiculous idea enters my 
 head I promise to tell you of it directly." 
 
 " But do not people change their minds 
 sometimes when they begin to think over 
 things ?" 
 
 " Well, considering that I have thought 
 over this for some time, I may be allowed to 
 say that any change is impossible. I wish I
 
 l8o A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 were as sure of you, Mary, as I am of 
 myself" 
 
 ''I am quite sure of myself," she answered, 
 softly, and on hearing the words, the doctor, 
 like a sensible man, without more ado took 
 her in his arms and kissed her. " You owe 
 me compensation," he said, "for having kept 
 me In suspense so long." 
 
 '' But it seems so strange that you should 
 want to marry me," said Mary. 
 
 " I do not see that," he answered. " I am 
 sure I did my best to show you that I liked 
 you." 
 
 " Did you ever think of me when you 
 walked in your garden ?" Mary asked, when 
 the Rector had enlarged at length upon his 
 state of mind during the past six months; 
 and she heard with surprise that she had 
 often come between him and the writing of 
 his sermon. There was something wonderful 
 in the idea that he had been in love with her 
 for so long.
 
 THE rector's hat. i8i 
 
 * ' What do you know about my walks in 
 the garden ?" he asked. 
 
 Mar)^ blushed and laughed. The doctor 
 pressed the question. 
 
 '' The window of my room overlooks your 
 garden," she said, '* and I used to see you 
 nearly every day." 
 
 " Very well, then if I confess to you, you 
 must confess to me. When you have seen 
 me in my garden did you ever wish to be 
 walking there with me ?" 
 
 " That is a very hard question." 
 
 '' Never mind that. Answer it." 
 
 " I thought it would be very pleasant — if 
 the weather were fine." 
 
 Dr. Murray laughed heartily. ''I do not 
 think I believe in the ' if,' " he said. " For 
 my part, ]^Iary, I can say with truth that I 
 thought of you, and you only, as I walked up 
 and down." 
 
 " You remember the day last week I met 
 you in the Post Office ?" said Mary.
 
 182 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 '' Perfectly. It was last Thursday ; the 
 day you told me you were going away. 
 What about It ?" 
 
 " Just before I went out with my letters I 
 saw you in the garden ; you had your hat off, 
 and you were looking up into an apple tree ; 
 were you thinking of me then ?" 
 
 " I am sure I was. I dare say I was 
 wondering if you knew how to make an 
 apple dumpling, you little sceptic. You 
 remember I walked back with you to the 
 college, and we met Mrs. and Miss Smith at 
 the gate. Did they say anything disagree- 
 able to you ?" 
 
 " Not a word." 
 
 '' They were very gracious to me, and I 
 could not help wondering what they would 
 say had they guessed that I was medi- 
 tating writing to you that very evening to 
 make you an offer. In fact, I began two 
 letters." 
 
 "Oh! I should like to see them," cried
 
 THE RECTORS HAT. 1 83 
 
 Mary. " I suppose you thought If you wrote 
 to me someone would see the letters and 
 make a fuss." 
 
 " Well, yes ; I believe I did think a little 
 about the fuss, as you call It, but I wanted to 
 have the pleasure of hearing from your own 
 lips that you loved me and would be my wife ; 
 and now I want you to fix the day for our 
 marriage. It may as well be very soon ; we 
 have nothing to wait for." 
 
 A troubled expression came Into Mary's 
 soft eyes. "It Is all of no use," she said. 
 " I may fix the day, but it will come to 
 nothing. Do you know that I was twenty- 
 eight my last birthday, and I have been so 
 miserable ever since my father died that I 
 feel very old .^ If you marry me, all your 
 friends will say you have thrown yourself 
 away." 
 
 '* I am a patient man, Mary, so I heard 
 you out. Come now, tell me honestly, do 
 you think I am throwing myself away ?"
 
 184 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " I think if you really care for me, that I 
 can make you happy." 
 
 '' Then the question is settled ; and I hope 
 very soon to have you walking with me in 
 my garden, instead of looking at me from 
 a window." 
 
 Another hour passed before Miss Masham 
 reappeared, but the rest of the conversation 
 that took place between Dr. Murray and 
 Miss Hamilton is not worth recording ; the 
 sample already given is, perhaps, more 
 sensible than what followed. When Miss 
 Masham came in, she found Mary looking 
 out of the window, and the Rector on the 
 hearthrug, in the well-known John Bull 
 attitude. 
 
 '' If I did not know that you both took up 
 your present very unnatural positions the 
 moment you heard my hand on the handle of 
 the door, I should say you had quarrelled !" 
 the little woman said. " Turn round, Mary, 
 and let me look at you. Cheeks like peonies,
 
 THE rector's hat. 1 85 
 
 and that bow, I took so much trouble to put 
 on, all awry ! There is no change for the 
 worse in Dr. Murray, so I may take it for 
 granted that he has had everything his own 
 way." 
 
 '' Not quite," said the Rector, gravely, 
 *'but I was getting on very fairly " 
 
 " Do not listen to him, Miss Masham," 
 interrupted Mary. "He has had everything 
 his own way. My most carefully guarded 
 secrets have been wrung from me ! No 
 inquisitor was ever more unmerciful " 
 
 " She is not telling the truth," interrupted 
 the Rector, In his turn. '' It was nothing but 
 her Incredulity, her scepticism, that put off 
 the final setdement of a most Important 
 question. We were not engaged more than 
 five minutes when you " 
 
 "Oh!" cried Mary. " It struck half-past 
 five when you " 
 
 " Pray spare me the details," Interrupted 
 Miss Masham. " I can Imagine w^hat took
 
 1 86 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 place at half-past five, and it Is now past six. 
 I dismiss Dr. Murray's statement as to the 
 length of your engagement, as unworthy of 
 belief, and I want to know. Miss Hamilton, 
 when you think of telling Mrs. Dysart-Smlth 
 that you have found a situation you think will 
 suit." 
 
 ** I forgot all about her," answered 
 Mary. " 1 am afraid she will be very 
 angry." 
 
 " I am sure she will. I do not know what 
 grounds she has to go upon, but I believe she 
 looked upon Dr. Murray as her future son-in- 
 law. However, you and he, Mary, must 
 settle It between you." 
 
 '' I am sure this girl does not think I am 
 to blame," said the Rector, as he put his arm 
 round Mary's waist. Nothing these women 
 say can hurt her now, and when she is my 
 wife " 
 
 " I prophesy that before you come back 
 from your honeymoon," said Miss Masham,
 
 THE RECTORS HAT. iSy 
 
 '' the Ladies' College will have changed 
 hands." 
 
 " I shall always feel an interest in the 
 place for the sake of one window," whispered 
 Dr. Murray ; and Miss Masham, although 
 she pretended to be very busy clearing a 
 table for the tea-tray, saw the girl look up at 
 him with a bright, loving glance. The 
 Rector could not resist it ; he bent down and 
 gave her a kiss. 
 
 '' I see that it is quite useless to expect a 
 man to be sensible, even at his age, when he 
 falls in love," the old lady murmured. 
 
 The servant came in with the tea-tray, and 
 Mary and the doctor walked away to the 
 window, and there stood talking in whispers 
 until Miss Masham interrupted them. 
 
 '' I think you might let that poor girl have 
 a cup of tea, doctor," she said. " Tea was 
 really what she came for, you know, and we 
 are nearly an hour late." 
 
 " And as it was not what I came for, I
 
 iSS A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 suppose I must not have any," he answered. 
 Then he went with Mary to the table and 
 helped himself. 
 
 Half-an-hour later, when he said good-bye 
 to Miss Masham, Mary would not allow him 
 to walk back with her to the town. " If we 
 are seen together again," she said, " everyone 
 will sav that I am trvinor to ' catch ' vou, and 
 I could not bear that." 
 
 " Then the sooner everyone knows you 
 have caught me the better I shall be 
 pleased," he answered, as he stood with her 
 at the gate. "And remember, the moment 
 I get home I shall go out and look up at that 
 window." 
 
 " But you will not see me," said Mary. " I 
 do not mean to look into the garden any 
 more." 
 
 '' Then you are very hard-hearted." He 
 was talking against time just to keep her 
 with him a little longer, but she broke away 
 at last, and looked round once onlv, to wave
 
 THE RECTORS HAT. 1 89 
 
 her hand to him before she reached a turn in 
 the road. 
 
 As she went round the bend she came face 
 to face with Mrs, Dysart- Smith and her 
 daughter. They were on their way to call 
 upon Miss Masham, 
 
 **You will not get back to the college be- 
 fore the tea-bell rings. Miss Hamilton," said 
 Mrs. Smith, severely. " I think when you 
 are allowed out in the afternoon you might 
 be home in good time." 
 
 Mary murmured an incoherent apology^ 
 and went on almost running in her excite- 
 ment. How fortunate that she had not 
 allowed the Rector to escort her ; but then it 
 was just possible that the Smiths would find 
 him still standing at Miss Masham s gate. 
 
 But he was not there; he was in the 
 drawing-room, holding forth to Miss Masham 
 about Mar)^ and his great happiness in having^ 
 won her when the two ladies appeared on 
 the avenue.
 
 190 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " They must have met her, and I cannot 
 face them," he said. "Call me a coward if 
 you like, but hide me somewhere." 
 
 "That door behind you leads into the 
 morning-room. There ! Be quick ; the 
 Philistines are upon us ! Bless the man ! 
 He has left his hat behind him !" and Miss 
 Masham had barely time to throw it — fortu- 
 nately it was a soft, clerical wide-awake — 
 upon the ground behind a sofa, when the 
 two ladies were shown in. 
 
 When the effusive greetings were over, 
 Miss Dysart-Smith, as luck would have it, 
 seated herself on the sofa that screened the 
 hat ; if she turned her head ever so little she 
 must see it. For half-an-hour by the clock 
 on the chimney-piece the mother and 
 daughter sat and talked volubly, and poor 
 Miss Masham was on thorns. She had a 
 keen sense of the ridiculous, and she did not 
 want anything absurd to happen in her draw- 
 ing-room. And what could be more absurd
 
 THE RECTORS HAT. I9I 
 
 than the discovery of the doctor's hat, except 
 the discovery of the doctor himself, hidden 
 away in the morning-room. 
 
 At last the visitors stood up to go, and 
 there was a muslin antimacassar found en- 
 tangled by Its lace edging in the beaded 
 fringe of Miss Smith's mantle. Was ever 
 anything so unlucky ! She took it off, turned 
 to replace It upon the sofa, and, as she did so, 
 she saw the hat. She knew whose it was ; 
 there was not another exactly like it in Little 
 Centre Bridge. Now, in his own house a 
 man is generally not far from his own hat, 
 and in a strange house he must be very near 
 indeed, and Miss Smith peered down as if 
 she expected to see the Rector crouching on 
 the floor beside his head-gear ; but he was 
 not visible, and she had to go away. 
 
 Miss Masham gave a great sigh of relief 
 as her visitors disappeared ; then she ran to 
 the door of the morning-room, and, opening 
 it, called out, ''The coast Is clear. Here Is
 
 192 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 your hat." There was no reply ; she looked 
 in ; the room was empty ; the Rector had 
 gone off without his hat.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 OTWAY IN CHAINS. 
 
 When Otway asked Sir John if he would 
 give him his daughter, he did not imagine 
 that Letty had already told her father what 
 had taken place in the wood. Sir John 
 showed no surprise ; he said simply enough, 
 " The child told me you had asked her, and I 
 think you had better be satisfied with her 
 answer. I could not give her to you against 
 her will." 
 
 " But I do not think she knows how much 
 in earnest I am," pleaded Otway. **Your 
 consent might have some weight." 
 
 "Humph!" said Sir John, remembering 
 Letty's comments upon her lover's manner. 
 
 '' But you have no objection to me per- 
 VOL. I. o
 
 194 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 sonally, have you, Sir John ?" said Otway, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Not the slightest, my boy. I do not 
 like your politics, but, after all, they don't 
 count for much now-a-days, do they ? And 
 we can afford to differ. I know nothing 
 
 o 
 
 against you, and I believe you are fond of 
 the child; indeed, I may as well tell you that 
 I suspected your fancy for her long ago. 
 But she doesn't care a pin for you ; she 
 says she doesn't." 
 
 Poor Otway winced visibly. '* That is 
 hard upon me," he said; "very hard." 
 
 ''But you do not want a wife who does 
 not love you, I suppose ?" 
 
 '' I want her," the young man answered, 
 " and I mean to do my very best to win her 
 if I can." 
 
 " I suppose," said Sir John, with an air of 
 the greatest Innocency, *'you have done your 
 best already ? Gone the right way to work, 
 you know, and all that. Isn't it true that
 
 OTWAY IN CHAINS. 1 95 
 
 some women are caught one way and some 
 another ?" 
 
 *' There is but one way that I know of. 
 If a man loves a woman to desperation, as I 
 do, he tells her so, and does all he can to win 
 her love in return." 
 
 "And all is very little, sometimes," mut- 
 tered Sir John, who felt bound in honour not 
 to give Otway a hint to be less meek and 
 submissive ; besides, although he liked the 
 man well enough, he did not want to lose 
 Letty just yet. 
 
 "She is very young," the lover went on, 
 "and very guileless and innocent; and it is 
 very presumptuous, perhaps, of me to think 
 that I could make her happy. To have her 
 for my very own would make me so per- 
 fectly, so absolutely content, that perhaps I 
 do not think enough about her, and " 
 
 " For goodness' sake do not get meta- 
 physical or logical, or whatever it is," 
 interrupted Sir John, upon whom such
 
 196 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 reasoning was utterly lost. '' A girl mar- 
 ries a man because she loves him, and they 
 are bound to make the best of one another. 
 That is my idea of matrimony, and if you 
 and Letty agree to take one another ' for 
 better, for worse,' you have my consent. 
 What more can I say ? And now come along 
 with me to the stables ; I want to show you 
 a cob I bought the other day for my own 
 use." 
 
 During the next few days, although Otway 
 and Letty were very much together, and 
 often alone, he was silent on the subject of 
 his love. His visit was to last nearly a 
 fortnight, as Easter Day did not fall until 
 the Sunday week after he came down ; if she 
 again rejected him, he felt that he could 
 not stay on as her father's guest, and so he 
 waited. 
 
 His silence was In his favour. Letty 
 thought much of that fervent declaration In 
 the wood ; Indeed, she thought more of it
 
 OTWAY IN CHAINS. 1 97 
 
 than of the man who made it, for when she 
 thought of him, his want of self-assertion 
 annoyed her. But it was very sweet to be 
 so worshipped and adored, and it would, no 
 doubt, be very delightful, in many ways, 
 to marry a man who was prepared to carry 
 on the worship and adoration ; she could not 
 feel any great amount of respect for him, but 
 then he could not expect what he did not 
 deserve. 
 
 " I could simply turn him round my finger," 
 she often said to herself, and she took to 
 practising diverse little arts upon him, and he 
 fell so easily into all her traps and pitfalls, 
 and let her see so plainly that any ill treat- 
 ment was better than neglect and indifference, 
 that she presently began to look upon him as 
 a puppet specially retained to dance to her 
 wire-pulling. 
 
 " If I marry him," she used to say to 
 herself, "he must let me live here at home 
 more than half the year with papa and Aunt
 
 198 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Louise ; they would be so lonely by them- 
 selves. We do not want him to be always 
 about, but I could run up to town sometimes 
 to see how he Is getting on. I should die If 
 I had to keep on ordering dinners every day 
 all the year round. What I should like 
 would be to marry him ; to have a very, very 
 short honeymoon — I suppose he would Insist 
 upon a honeymoon, but I am afraid I should 
 have lost all patience with him at the end of 
 a week — and then for us to separate. I 
 could come here to papa, and he could go 
 back to London. That would be delightful ! 
 Yes ; I am very much afraid If I were too 
 much with him, and he behaved always In 
 that Idiotic way, telling me that I was an 
 angel and that he adored me, I should 
 dislike him, and I do not want to dislike 
 him." 
 
 With her mind full of these most absurd 
 Ideas, she was kinder to Otway as the days 
 went on ; teasing him less and less, and not
 
 OTWAY IN CHAINS. 1 99 
 
 snapping off his admiring speeches quite so 
 short. But she did not fall in love with him. 
 His visit was coming to an end, and he re- 
 solved to make one more effort. She walked 
 with him nearly every afternoon, and on 
 Easter Monday, accident having brought 
 them to the beech coppice again, he found 
 his opportunity and spoke. 
 
 Letty did not seat herself this time upon 
 the fallen tree ; she remained leaning against 
 an upright one ; Otway stood facing her at 
 a little distance. 
 
 " It Is nearly your last day," she said, care- 
 lessly. 
 
 " My last day of happiness," he said, " un- 
 less you allow me to come back." 
 
 " I have nothing to do with it. Papa will 
 probably ask you." 
 
 " You have everything. Give me one ray 
 of hope, Letty ; only one." 
 
 " How much is a ray ?" she asked, saucily. 
 " How am I to measure it ?"
 
 200 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " Say you will be glad to see me." 
 
 '' You know that already." 
 
 " But I will not come back for that," he 
 protested. '' At least, I will not if I can 
 keep away." 
 
 " I do not think you could keep away," 
 she answered, still with her saucy air, "you 
 are very fond of — the Chase." 
 
 '' No, Letty, but of you. I did not think 
 It was possible to love you more than I did 
 when we talked on this very spot the day 
 I came back, but I know better now. Am I 
 to go to my work in London, miserable — 
 broken-hearted ? Do you not care for me 
 even a little ? You have been kinder of 
 late." 
 
 "How much would satisfy you?" she 
 asked, half-fllppantly. " I am afraid to say a 
 word lest you should ask too much." 
 
 " Your will is law to me," he cried, passion- 
 ately, "try me — trust me! I swear to you 
 not to encroach upon your kindness. Let
 
 OTWAY IN CHAINS. 20I 
 
 me love you ; that is all I ask, until — until 
 you are my wife." 
 
 "And my will must be law then, too," 
 she said. 
 
 "You will marry me, then ?" 
 
 " On those terms." 
 
 "Oh, Letty ; my darling!" In his delight 
 Otway would have clasped her in his arms 
 and kissed her, but she would not allow him. 
 
 " That is not the way to begin," she said, 
 and there was not a smile on her face, "at 
 least, it is not vty way. Come and let us 
 take a walk ; we have dawdled here long 
 enough." 
 
 As they walked she chatted to him upon 
 every imaginable subject but the one so 
 near his heart ; every attempt he made to 
 speak of his feelings, his hopes for the future, 
 his rapture at her acceptance, she either 
 laughed at or received with a stolidity of 
 demeanour that drove him to the verge of 
 distraction.
 
 202 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Would she not listen while he said once, 
 just once, how happy she had made him, and 
 how devotedly — how ardently he loved her ? 
 
 No ; she did not want to hear it all over 
 again ; she liked him very much better when 
 he talked about music, or books, or plays, or 
 even politics, which she confessed she did not 
 understand. There was nothing in the whole 
 world as silly as love-making, and she hated it. 
 Yes ; she had said she would marry him ; it 
 was not exactly a promise, but if she did not 
 change her mind she would marry him by 
 and by. No, he must not call her ''his own," 
 or " an angel " either. She was neither the 
 one nor the other ; she was Letty Erskine, 
 and if he w^ent on his knees to her, which he 
 seemed very well inclined to do, she would 
 not let him kiss her. 
 
 And while she thus tormented him, and 
 drove him almost wild with her banter and 
 rebuffs, she was saying to herself — " Oh, if 
 you only knew what a little audacity would
 
 OTWAY IN CHAINS. 203 
 
 do. Why don't you say, ' Letty, you must,' 
 instead of ' Letty, will you ?' with your heart 
 in your eyes ? You could so easily take by 
 force what I will not give for beseeching." 
 
 An hour after the scene in the beech copse 
 when Letty, with her infatuated slave in 
 excellent order by her side, entered the 
 house. Miss Lambton came running to meet 
 them. 
 
 *' I have just been to look for you, dear,'" 
 she cried, ''there is an Indian telegram. Jack 
 is married."
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A LETTER FROM JACK. 
 
 It was the height of the London season. 
 Everyone was in town ; the weather was 
 fine ; the shops were looking their gayest 
 and prettiest ; there were attractive bills at 
 the theatres ; there was plenty of first-rate 
 music to be heard ; and half-a-dozen new 
 beauties were on view every day in the 
 park. 
 
 The Erskines had a furnished house in 
 Halkin Street ; Sir John liked to be near 
 what he was pleased to call the " scene of his 
 labours at Westminster." He was a most 
 conscientious member ; would sit for hours 
 listening to most uninteresting debates, 
 Avas never out of the way when a division
 
 A LETTER FROM JACK. 205 
 
 was expected, and never opened his lips 
 except to speak to a friend. 
 
 There was a Drawing-room soon after 
 Easter. Letty was presented, and she had 
 the pleasure of reading a detailed catalogue 
 of her charms in one or two of the " society " 
 papers. It was not disagreeable, of course, 
 to know that her youth and peculiar style of 
 beauty enabled her to bear the trying ordeal 
 of Court dress by daylight, but it was not 
 so delightful to find it broadly hinted in 
 another paragraph that it was this "lovely 
 ddbutante who had won the Stoneshire 
 election for her father, Sir John Erskine ;" 
 or that it was " an open secret that the 
 Liberal candidate, who had so suddenly and 
 unaccountably retired from the contest for 
 Stoneshire, was engaged to the beautiful 
 daughter of the present member, a Conser- 
 vative of the old-fashioned type." 
 
 If Otway saw the objectionable allusions 
 to himself and his betrothed, he never
 
 206 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 mentioned them. The enQfacrement between 
 them was really known only to a few very 
 old friends, for, although Sir John had given 
 his consent willingly enough, he did not wish 
 Letty to marry for six months at least, and 
 the girl herself would willingly have put it 
 off for a year could she have found any 
 pretext, save her own unreasonable caprice, 
 for the postponement. Otway, more in love, 
 if possible, than he had been when he asked 
 her to marry him, unconsciously did his best 
 to turn the girl's heart away from him by his 
 continued and never-failing patience and for- 
 bearance with all her whims and fancies. If 
 she tried to provoke him by flirting with 
 other men, he would simply look at her in 
 mute reproach, instead of getting angry, and 
 scolding and upbraiding her, as she wished 
 him to do. It is quite possible that he felt 
 jealous, but he never showed it. 
 
 He submitted to her caprices, and they 
 were legion ; he endured her neglect when
 
 A LETTER FROM JACK. 207 
 
 she neglected him, with unfailing good- 
 temper, and was rapturously, absurdly grate- 
 ful when she noticed him with favour and 
 approval. His desire was to win her by 
 his dumb, dog-like devotion, and she never 
 for a moment imagined that it was only by 
 the exercise of his iron will that he kept the 
 passionate love he felt for her in check. It 
 was a terrible mistake on her part to imagine 
 that he was weak, and on his to hide his 
 strength ; and when they found out their 
 error, it was too late to rectify it. 
 
 The people of Little Centre Bridge had 
 been overwhelmed with subjects for gossip 
 when, almost at the same moment, it became 
 known that young Erskine was actually 
 married in India, that his sister Letty was 
 engaged to Herbert Otway — for, somehow, 
 It got out that she had accepted him, 
 although Sir John wished the matter to be 
 kept secret — and that the Rector, Dr. 
 Murray, was going to marry Mary Hamil-
 
 208 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 ton, the English governess at the Ladles' 
 College. 
 
 And It was that extraordinary and un- 
 looked for bit of news that extinguished 
 everything else. Everyone wanted to know 
 how it had come about. Everyone said 
 what a " clever, sly little thing " she was to 
 *' catch " him, and everyone was curious 
 to know how Mrs. Dysart-Smlth and her 
 daughter would take it. 
 
 To all appearance, they bore It extremely 
 well. Mrs. Smith was too clever a woman 
 to let her disappointment be seen ; so, the 
 moment she heard that Mary was actually 
 engaged, she changed her tactics, over- 
 whelmed the bride-elect with congratulations 
 and kindness, and very neatly turned the 
 tables upon her own friends and acquain- 
 tances — who were looking out for her discom- 
 fiture — by telling them how delighted she was 
 that the " dear girl was going to have a good 
 husband and a happy home of her own."
 
 A LETTER FROM JACK. 209 
 
 It was now the end of May. Sir John, his 
 daughter and Miss Lambton were seated 
 at a rather late breakfast, and Letty was 
 looking as bright and as pretty as If she had 
 not been dancing until two o'clock that same 
 morning. She was the last to come down, 
 certainly, but her father had only just opened 
 the Times when she came in. 
 
 *' Good-morning, my pet," he said, as she 
 kissed him. ''There is a letter from Jack for 
 you. Let's hear the news ; we have had 
 but one shabby half-sheet from him, the lazy 
 rascal, since he married." 
 
 " And that was all taken up with raptures 
 about his bride !" said Letty. " What are 
 you smiling at. Aunt Louise ? Who is your 
 long letter from ?" 
 
 " From Jane Masham. The Rector was 
 married the day before yesterday, and he and 
 Mrs. Murray are off to the Lakes. She was 
 married from the Rosary, and Mrs. Dysart- 
 Smith's present was the cake, and she and 
 
 VOL. L P
 
 2IO A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Miss Smith were at the wedding. The 
 church was most beautifully decorated, Jane 
 Masham says, and the day was kept as a sort 
 of holiday in the town." 
 
 " I see the marriage in the Times this 
 morning," said Sir John. " I wish we had 
 been there. I suppose, Miss Letty, yours 
 will be the next grand wedding in Little 
 Centre Bridge ?" 
 
 '* I mean to be married in London, if I 
 marry at all," Letty answered. ''I do not 
 want to be stared at." Then she opened her 
 Indian letter, and began to read. "They are 
 back at Meerut," she said, presently, " and 
 there are all manner of gaieties going on for 
 the bride. Jack says he is as happy as 
 possible, and his darling Amy is so much 
 admired, he is prouder of her than ever. I 
 can't fancy Jack married! Can you, papa? 
 ' I wish 1 could bring her home and introduce 
 her to you all,' " the girl went on, reading from 
 the letter, "'but that is impossible, just yet.
 
 A LETTER FROM JACK. 2 I I 
 
 Your old friend, Arthur Fllmer, is beginning 
 to knock up with the cHmate, and will pro- 
 bably have to go home on sick-leave before 
 long. He will look you up at the Chase, and 
 bring you some presents we picked up on our 
 travels.' Now there are some more raptures 
 about Amy, which I am going to skip, if you 
 please," said Letty. "There is no doubt that 
 when men fall in love they become perfectly 
 idiotic. What is this ? This looks more in- 
 teresting. ' You remember I told you about 
 Amy's good-looking maid, Rossitur ? I 
 forgot to mention in my last that she was 
 married just a fortnight before we were, to 
 my man, Pottinger, who came to the Chase 
 for the dogs, you remember, before I left. 
 We knew she was engaged to him, but I did 
 not think it would come to anything, for, 
 between ourselves, she is the most outrageous 
 flirt I ever met. Lots of our fellows were 
 after her, and, to tell you the truth, I thought 
 at one time, Buncombe, of Ours, would marry
 
 2 12 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 her. By the way, he is next heir, he says, to 
 old Wat Duncombe, of the Hermitage — the 
 governor knows him — the ''hermit," we used 
 to call him — so you may have Walter for a 
 neighbour some day. I don't like the fellow 
 myself, and I wish he was out of the regiment, 
 but that's neither here nor there. Well, I 
 was going to tell you that this Duncombe was 
 very sweet upon Rossitur, and Amy tells me 
 that Pottinger threatened ''to do for him," 
 more than once, but, as she is now Mrs. P., I 
 suppose it is all right. The absurd thing is 
 that Duncombe and Filmer, and a lot more of 
 the fellows, insist that Rossitur is like my 
 wife! I'm hanged if I can see it ; but I dare 
 say you will be able to judge for yourself 
 some day, when we come home, for nothing 
 would induce Amy to part with " Rossitur," 
 as she is still called. I don't take to her so 
 much myself, but I would not vex Amy, by 
 saying so, for the world.' " 
 
 ** There," said Letty, " I hope he has
 
 A LETTER FROM JACK. 213 
 
 written enough about that tiresome woman. 
 I cannot tell you what a dislike I have taken 
 to her, although I never saw her ; and I have 
 a most extraordinary presentiment about her, 
 too, as If she would do us some harm some 
 day." 
 
 ''Oh, that Is nonsense," said Sir John. 
 
 " I suppose It Is," said Letty. Then, after 
 a pause, '' I'm so glad Arthur Fllmer Is 
 coming home ; he Is such a dear nice fellow." 
 
 " You must not let Herbert hear you say 
 that," said Sir John ; "he will be jealous." 
 
 ''He jealous!" cried Letty, tossing her 
 head, "I do not believe he knows how." 
 
 " Don't you Indeed ! You had better not 
 try him too far. Is he coming to ride with 
 you this morning ?'' 
 
 " No, I put him off. I would much rather 
 go with you, daddy. When he Is with me I 
 am simply bored to death. He Is always 
 staring at me as If he never saw me before, 
 and asking If I would not like to go to this
 
 2 14 ^ GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 play or that concert. Why does he not 
 settle where I am to go, and then take me, 
 whether I like It or not ?" 
 
 '' Perhaps he does not think you would 
 like that style of thing, my dear." 
 
 " Let him try it. I am tired of having my 
 own way. I should like a little coercion by 
 way of variety. But you must not tell him, 
 papa. Let him find out for himself, if he 
 can." 
 
 Sir John laughed. He thought It all a 
 good joke. '' Poor Otway !" he said, *' you 
 will lead him a life when you are married." 
 
 '' Yes ; when we are," the girl muttered, as 
 she took up her brother's letter again. " Oh, 
 papa," she said, presently, ''do you ever see 
 anything of that old Mr. Buncombe Jack 
 mentions ?" 
 
 '' No ; not now. He used to sit on the 
 bench sometimes when there was a poaching 
 case, but he hardly ever leaves the house 
 now, I hear, and no one visits him. He is
 
 A LETTER FROM JACK. 215 
 
 not a very reputable character, I am afraid, 
 if all accounts be true, and I suspect that 
 nephew or cousin of his, who is in Jack's 
 regiment, is not much better. But don't you 
 wonder that Jack's wife keeps that woman — 
 what's her name — about her, Louise ?" he 
 added, addressing his sister-in-law. "Flighty 
 maid generally means flighty mistress, I 
 think ; and they say she is like Amy, too." 
 
 " But Jack doesn't, papa." 
 
 " Oh, no ; of course he wouldn't see the 
 likeness, but I daresay it's there. I re- 
 member that fellow Pottinger very well — a 
 good-looking fellow — and I remember saying 
 to Jack that he looked an excitable sort of 
 chap ; and Jack told me he had had a great 
 shock just before he came to the Chase. 
 A gamekeeper shot himself on account of 
 some girl. He was jealous of Pottinger, I 
 believe." 
 
 " But that girl could not have been Rossi- 
 tur," said Letty. "Could she, papa?"
 
 2l6 A GAME OF CHANCE 
 
 " I suppose not, my dear, if she was Miss 
 Gordon's maid." 
 
 '' But, remember," said Miss Lambton, 
 "Amy and Rossitur went out in the Great 
 Pyramid three years ago, with Jack." 
 
 "And what has that to do with it?" cried 
 Sir John, testily. " I am sick of the very 
 name of that maid of Amy's. I wish you 
 would tell Jack not to write about her any 
 more "
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 NO. 200, queen's gate TERRACE. 
 
 Seated at his solitary breakfast that same 
 morning In his bachelor flat In Victoria 
 Street, Westminster, Otway worked his way 
 ^n a rather desultory fashion through his cor- 
 respondence. He was late that morning as 
 well as his friends In Halkin Street, and had 
 he been depending upon his profession for a 
 livelihood, he could not have afforded to 
 neglect his work as he had done since the 
 Ersklnes came to town. 
 
 It was now several days since he had been 
 at his chambers In the Temple, and he was 
 thinking of spending an hour or two In them 
 this very morning, as Letty had ordered him 
 not to ride w^ith her or even to show himself
 
 2l8 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 In the Row, and he always obeyed her Im- 
 perious commands. And what a glorious 
 morning It was for a ride. It was very hard 
 that he could not enjoy It with her, and It 
 never occurred to him that she would have 
 secretly rejoiced over his disobedience If he 
 had ventured to appear without her per- 
 mission. 
 
 He excused his absurd submission to her 
 whims by the plea that he was afraid of 
 frightening her away from him, If he show^ed 
 that he had a will of his own and could use 
 it. He did not deceive himself about her ; 
 he believed that she liked him, but to his 
 sorrow he knew she did not love him, and he 
 fondly Imagined that she could not long 
 remain Indifferent to a man who worshipped 
 her with such slavish devotion as he ex- 
 hibited day after day. And yet, somehow, 
 the slavish w^orshlp seemed to increase, but 
 the answerlno^ love did not awake. Then 
 he said to himself, '' She will love me
 
 NO. 200, queen's gate TERRACE. 219 
 
 when we are married. I must wait till 
 then." 
 
 He was thinking of her now as he sat 
 alone over his breakfast. Twice only had 
 she danced with him the night before, and 
 other men had scribbled their names on her 
 programme for dance after dance with an 
 amount of effrontery that he envied but could 
 not Imitate. She had not been kind to him 
 the whole evening. The flowers he had sent 
 her were not pretty, she said, so she did not 
 wear them ; and he had no business to stand 
 where she found him, watching for her 
 when she came Into the room. It was bad 
 taste on his part. In short, he could not 
 please by word or deed. She flouted him ; 
 she teased him ; she said sharp things to 
 him ; but she could not provoke him to 
 quarrel with her, and she declared to herself 
 when she got home, that she could not and 
 would not marry such a good-tempered, sub- 
 missive man for the whole world.
 
 2 20 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 His letters were numerous, but not very 
 interesting. Some of them had been for- 
 warded from his chambers, and among them, 
 as he turned them over, was one that arrested 
 his attention. It was eight years at least 
 since he had seen that bold dashing hand, 
 although at one time it had been familiar 
 enough. Of course, it was but natural that 
 the writing should recall the writer, and a 
 faint flush rose to his face as he turned the 
 letter over, and looked at the elaborate blue 
 gold and red monogram on the envelope. 
 
 " How completely I had forgotten her," he 
 said. He opened the letter with the air of a 
 man who expected to find something dis- 
 agreeable inside, and read as follows — 
 
 " No. 200, Queen's Gate Terrace. 
 
 '' My dear Mr. Otwav, 
 
 " I hope you have not quite forgot- 
 ten me, but I am afraid you have, as you 
 seem to have taken no trouble to find out my 
 address ; and yet you must know what a
 
 NO. 200, queen's gate TERRACE. 22 1 
 
 pleasure it would be for me to see you ao-aln. 
 I am in great trouble, and T want your 
 advice. Can you come and lunch with me on 
 Thursday next at two o'clock ? My husband 
 is out of town. 
 
 '' Yours sincerely, 
 
 " Caroline Ogilvey.'* 
 '' Mine sincerely, Caroline Ogilvey !" he 
 repeated. " No ; not mine, I am happy to 
 say, and not very sincere either, unless eight 
 years spent with ' Moneybags Ogilvey,' as 
 we used to call him, have changed you very 
 much. And eight years ago I fancied my- 
 self in love with you, and I did not find out 
 how little I really cared until I heard of your 
 marriage. In trouble is she .'^ And she 
 wants me to help her. Well, perhaps she 
 is, poor woman. I am not vain enough 
 to suppose that she wants to get me 
 into her toils again." He went to his 
 writing-table and scribbled a hasty note, as 
 follows —
 
 22 2 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " Mv DEAR Mrs. Ogilvey, 
 
 " I have not forgotten you, and I 
 am sorry to hear you are in trouble. Expect 
 me to luncheon to-morrow at two. 
 " Yours, 
 
 " Herbert Otwav." 
 
 He pushed the note aside, as soon as it 
 was wTitten, and, opening a drawer, took out 
 a cabinet photograph of Letty Erskine in her 
 riding-dress, which, strange to say, she had 
 had taken to gratify a desire of his, and fell 
 to rapt contemplation of the sweet face he 
 loved. Needless to say, he knew every line 
 by heart already, but was he ever tired of 
 gazing at those saucy laughing eyes, and the 
 exquisite turn of the throat and chin ? The 
 likeness was an admirable one, as the artist 
 had, happily, caught one of his sitter's most 
 bewitching expressions, and Otw^ay was such 
 a miser about the picture that he longed to 
 order the negative to be destroyed. How 
 Letty would have admired him, if he had had
 
 NO. 200, QUEEN S GATE TERRACE. 223 
 
 the audacity to say that he, and he only, 
 should possess a copy of that particular 
 photograph ; but he did nothing of the kind, 
 and, with the most amiable liberality, she 
 dispensed them far and wide among her 
 admirers. 
 
 It was with his mind still full of Letty's 
 charms, that Otway at length put his reply to 
 j\Irs. Ogilvey into an envelope, and rang the 
 bell for his servant to take it to the post 
 without delay ; then he dressed and went 
 down to his chambers. 
 
 He dined at Halkin Street the same 
 evening. There was a large dinner-party, and 
 he hoped to sit next to Letty, but she was at 
 the other end of the table, laughing, talking 
 and enjoying herself with some man Otw^ay 
 had never seen before. He had known her, 
 now in many moods, but he found her in a 
 new one on this evening ; she was in the 
 wildest spirits, but she scarcely spoke to him ; 
 he followed her about, as usual, and once or
 
 2 24 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 twice she told him to fetch her fan, or her 
 handkerchief, or her gloves — anything she 
 chanced to miss — and she took them with 
 just a careless word of thanks. 
 
 At last, when he was about to say good- 
 night, she suddenly became most gracious and 
 gentle ; laid her hand upon his arm, asked him 
 to ride with her in the morning, and then to 
 come to luncheon. 
 
 He accepted for the ride, but said that, 
 most unfortunately, he was engaged to lunch 
 with a friend. 
 
 " Ah !" and Miss Letty arched her pretty 
 eyebrows, "I knew that when I asked you." 
 
 " You knew !" he repeated ; ''you guessed, 
 perhaps." 
 
 " No, I knew ; but you need not ask me 
 how I knew, for I am not going to tell 
 you." 
 
 As usual, he entreated, coaxed and im- 
 plored, but without success. Letty only 
 laughed In his face.
 
 NO. 200, QUEENS GATE TERRACE. 225 
 
 ''You know I would give It up if I could," 
 he said. 
 
 " Of course you would," she answered, " but 
 you cannot desert old friends for new, can you?" 
 
 When he called next morning to ride with 
 her, he got a message to say she had changed 
 her mind and gone shopping instead, so he 
 had to spend another morning without her, 
 and consequently he was not in the best of 
 spirits when, shortly before two o'clock, he 
 presented himself at 200, Queen's Gate 
 Terrace, and asked for Mrs. Ogilvey. 
 
 He was shown into a pretty drawing-room ; 
 the light was subdued and the perfume of 
 flowers was oppressive. Otway felt half- 
 suffocated, and yet he had expected to find 
 Mrs. Ogilvey's drawing-room dimly lighted 
 and highly scented. He was left alone for 
 ten minutes, and, strange to say, his thoughts 
 went back, not to Letty Erskine, but to the 
 woman whom he had not seen for eight 
 years. He was one or two-and-twenty then 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 2 26 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 and she was, at least, five years his senior, 
 and he had fancied himself In love ! How 
 vividly he recalled the bitterness of his re- 
 proaches when she told him she was about 
 to marry the rich stockbroker, Christopher 
 Ogilvey, familiarly known as '* Moneybags 
 Ogilvey," and how little he had cared when, 
 after a month or two, he read the announce- 
 ment of the marriage In the Times. 
 
 He had made an ass of himself while his 
 fancy lasted, and Caroline was kind ; he re- 
 membered the kindness well enough. The 
 woman herself was very handsome; he had 
 not forgotten that, either ; her figure was 
 magnificent, and her voice, if he was not 
 mistaken, was one of her great attractions — 
 rich, soft and low. Yes, it was all three ; he 
 heard it behind him now, when \}i\^. frou-frou 
 of her gown over the carpet ceased. But 
 her address surprised him — 
 
 *' You have come," she said, "but why did 
 you not answer my note ?"
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A woman's folly. 
 
 ''I ANSWERED it Immediately," he said, "and 
 my servant took it to the post." 
 
 " This is very odd, for it never reached me." 
 Otway thought it extremely odd. 'T must 
 inquire about it," he said, ''for it was un- 
 doubtedly written, and posted so far as I 
 know." 
 
 " Well, you are here, and that is the chief 
 thing after all," she said, as she held out her 
 pretty white hand to him a second time. 
 '* Sit down and let us see what we have to 
 say to one another after all these years. 
 When I saw you last you were a very charm- 
 ing — boy ; now, I have no doubt, you are a 
 very charming man."
 
 2 28 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 ''Charming or not, I am a man who is 
 sorry to hear you are in trouble," he said, as 
 he seated himself beside her on a couch. " I 
 hope it is nothing very serious." 
 
 She gave a little impatient sigh, looked at 
 Otway for an instant, and then let her eyes 
 fall again. "You must judge for yourself 
 when I tell you about it — ^ after luncheon. 
 Can you stay a little while with me ? We are 
 not likely to be interrupted." 
 
 *' Yes," he said, " I can stay." 
 
 "How do you think I am looking?" was 
 her next remark. " It is eight long years — 
 long to me, at least — since you saw me 
 last. Do I look much older ? You need not 
 be afraid to tell me the truth." 
 
 "There is very little change in you," he 
 answered, "but," and he looked round the 
 room and smiled, "you know I cannot see 
 very distinctly in this light." 
 
 "You are improved ; I have light enough 
 to see that," she returned, in the same
 
 A WOMAN S FOLLY. 229 
 
 matter-of-fact tone she had used from the 
 beginning; "but then, as I said just now, 
 eight years ago you were Httle more than 
 a boy. I read all about your doings in 
 Stoneshire, and was disappointed when you 
 gave up the contest. I said at once, ' Who 
 is she ?' and before long I saw something 
 about a young lady whose life you saved. Is 
 she very charming ? But of course you do 
 not want to be questioned about her, and 
 I have other things to think of." 
 
 Luncheon was at the moment announced, 
 and Mrs. Ogilvey preceded her guest down- 
 stairs. In the fuller lio^ht of the dininor-room 
 he saw that she was considerably altered ; 
 she had grown stouter, and her beauty now 
 owed more to art than nature, paint and 
 powder being liberally used. The face was 
 handsome still, but it was that of a woman 
 who led a restless and worried life. 
 
 But her manner was bright and animated, 
 and she made herself very agreeable, talking
 
 230 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 of books, music and pictures in a light and 
 pleasant manner. She made more than one 
 attempt to bring the conversation round to 
 Otway himself, but seeing that he was not 
 disposed to be communicative, she let the 
 subject drop with some light remark that pre- 
 vented any awkwardness. 
 
 In his turn he tried to get her to speak of 
 herself and her husband ; but, beyond the 
 fact that she had no children and that Mr. 
 Ogilvey was then in Paris, he learnt nothing. 
 They went back to the shaded drawing-room 
 as soon as luncheon was over, and when 
 they were once more seated side by side, 
 she laid her hand upon his arm, and looking 
 into his face said, " Now, old friend, for my 
 trouble." 
 
 He thought it possible that he was about 
 to be asked to help her through some money 
 difficulty, but he soon found out his mistake. 
 " Have you ever met or heard of Count 
 Henri de Flavelle .^" she said.
 
 A WOMAN S FOLLY. 23 1 
 
 *' I met him about two years ago at " 
 
 and Otway mentioned a country-house at 
 which he had been staying. " Is he a friend 
 of yours ?" 
 
 " He was an intimate friend of mine ; but 
 do you not know that he is dead ? He com- 
 mitted suicide last autumn at Monte Carlo. 
 We — my husband and I — were there at the 
 time." 
 
 " I never heard of it. I knew he was a 
 
 reckless gambler, and also " He stopped 
 
 short and glanced at his companion. 
 
 "Yes ;" she said, putting her own interpre- 
 tation upon his sudden pause, "he was a 
 reputed * lady-killer,' as well." Then, after a 
 moment or two of silence, she went on in 
 a defiant voice, "He and I w^ere very inti- 
 mate ; he was a constant visitor at this house, 
 and I think he used to borrow money 
 from my husband. But, after a time, Mr. 
 Ogilvey refused to receive him any more, 
 and he desired me to hold no communication
 
 232 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 with him. You probably guess I did not 
 obey him." 
 
 '*Yes;" Otway said. ''I thought it prob- 
 able." 
 
 ''We met when we could, and w^here we 
 could, and I more than once lent him 
 money. It was not always easy for me 
 to get a sum large enough to be of any use 
 to him, but I am not easily baffled when I 
 make up my mind to do a thing, and on 
 several occasions I manaofed to eive him a 
 tolerable amount. I can see plainly enough 
 in your face what you think of all this, but it 
 is quite possible that you wrong me. Henri 
 and I were friends — nothing more. How- 
 ever, I am not going to defend myself or to 
 set up a plea of any kind ; the poor man 
 is dead, and it is only since his death that 
 I have had any cause to regret our intimacy. 
 He had a confidential servant, who for some 
 reason or other hated me, and this man is, he 
 says, in possession of all his late master's
 
 A WOMAN S FOLLY. 233 
 
 private papers and letters. Within the past 
 few weeks he has begun a system of perse- 
 cution of me which threatens to become more 
 than I can bear. He says he will go to my 
 husband if I do not give him a large sum of 
 money, and I am afraid to put myself so 
 completely in his power." 
 
 "And suppose he carries out his threat, 
 and goes to your husband, what then ? Had 
 this Count Henri any letters of yours ? Used 
 you to correspond with him ?" 
 
 " He had no letters of mine. Some 
 communications passed between us in cypher 
 ■ — his to me are destroyed — on the subject of 
 the loans I mentioned to you just now, and 
 in one or two of those I sent to him I made 
 an appointment for a meeting. The very 
 last of those cyphers was written at Monte 
 Carlo, a few days before he shot himself, 
 and it is just possible that it was not des- 
 troyed." 
 
 " I suppose this valet of his has no key to
 
 234 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 the cypher — the Count would not have let 
 him into the secret ?" 
 
 " Certainly not ; if he has any of my notes 
 he cannot read them, and the envelopes were 
 addressed by the Count himself. I always 
 had a supply of addressed envelopes by me, 
 and his to me were addressed by me. We 
 were very cautious on account of Mr. 
 Ogilvey's prohibition." 
 
 "Then, so far as I can see, you have 
 nothing to fear. If the cypher was known to 
 you and the Count only, you can let this 
 fellow do his worst." 
 
 "Ah! unfortunately it is known to one 
 other : the man who taught it to me." 
 
 "And he is ?" 
 
 " My husband," replied Mrs. Ogilvey. 
 " He gave it to me, and he can read it." 
 
 Otway looked grave. " There is only one 
 thing to be done," he said; "you must not 
 let this man see that you are afraid of 
 him. Do not give him any money, and
 
 A WOMAN S FOLLY. 235 
 
 refuse to hold any communication with him ; 
 it is quite possible that a bold front will 
 dismay him, and he will make up his mind 
 that the papers in his possession are of no 
 importance." 
 
 "Nor are they, in one way. They prove 
 that I disobeyed my husband, and gave Henri 
 money that I got from Mr. Ogllvey for 
 another purpose, and if he should find out 
 
 that I deceived him " The fear of 
 
 detection was In her voice ; the shame of 
 detection was in her face, as she spoke ; and 
 Otway, although he felt contempt for her 
 weakness and folly, was constrained to feel 
 pity as well. Detection to her meant the 
 loss of her husband's trust; and yet, for the 
 poor gratification of helping such a man as 
 the Count, she had risked all that was most 
 valuable to her in the world. 
 
 He left his place beside her, and began to 
 walk up and down the room, and the ques- 
 tion he asked himself was this : " Why should
 
 236 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 this woman be saved ?" But the thought of 
 Letty, the sweet pure girl he so passionately 
 loved, softened his heart towards the unhappy 
 creature who sat there before him self- 
 condemned, but not guilty of aught save 
 folly. He would save her if he could. 
 
 " You despise me ! I see it in your face," 
 she said, piteously, when he came back to 
 her. '' But, perhaps, if you knew all, you 
 would pity me a little as well. My husband 
 and I have nothing in common, and he is 
 very cold to me sometimes, but never 
 ungenerous. But if — if I can get out of this 
 scrape, I mean to turn over a new leaf — I 
 do, indeed." 
 
 " There is no way out of it, but the way I 
 spoke of just now. You must put on a bold 
 front. Refuse to give the man any money ; 
 tell him that you know he has no letters or 
 papers that can compromise you, and then 
 wait for his next move. If we ascertain, 
 beyond a doubt, that he has the cypher In his
 
 A WOMAN S FOLLY. 237 
 
 possession, we must, I suppose, buy them at 
 all hazards ; but my own opinion is, that he 
 has nothing to show." 
 
 " The risk is something terrible," she said, 
 as she wrung her hands together. "I lie 
 awake at night and think of it, and then I 
 seem to see poor Henri's face before me. 
 Ah ! poor fellow, he loved me so hopelessly." 
 
 The face of her companion grew very 
 stern as she was speaking. If Letty had 
 seen him then, she would never say again 
 that he was always soft and yielding. " I do 
 not want to hear anything about Count 
 Henri," he said, shortly. 
 
 "And I was just going to show you his 
 picture," she answered. "Must you go? 
 Give me another half-hour ; I feel that I have 
 a great deal more to say, and one thing 
 I must tell you, as it is important. Soon 
 after we were married, my husband gave me 
 a very beautiful and valuable diamond star ; 
 it was so arranged that I could wear it either
 
 2^8 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 J 
 
 as a pendant round my neck or in my hair. 
 On one occasion when I wanted money for 
 the Count, I had the ornament copied for 
 a few p3unds in French paste, and when 
 it was done I gave the real stones to Henri. 
 I very often wore the sham pendant before 
 Mr. Ogilvey, and he never detected anything 
 wrong ; but more than three years ago I 
 either lost it or it was stolen from me, and I 
 am in daily dread of being asked why I 
 never wear it. I dare not tell my husband 
 it is gone, lest he should recover it through 
 the police, and find out the imposition." 
 
 " You say it was lost or stolen," said 
 Otway. '' If stolen, of course the thief 
 thought the stones were real." 
 
 " I suspect the maid I had at the time took 
 it — she did not know it was paste — -but I 
 could not accuse her without lettinQ^ Mr. 
 Ogilvey know, so I simply said nothing. 
 She was about leaving me at the time, too." 
 
 " And where is she now ?"
 
 A WOMAN S FOLLY. 239 
 
 " She went with her new mistress, an 
 officer's daughter, to India, and she is 
 probably married by this, as she is very 
 good-looking." 
 
 "What was her name ?" 
 
 " Rossitur — Bella Rossitur. She came 
 from Stillingfort, in Stoneshire."
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 LETTY AND HER SLAVE. 
 
 It was past five o'clock when Otway left 
 Queen's Gate Terrace. He had certainly 
 not enjoyed his visit to his old love ; the 
 history of her " trouble," as she called it, had 
 revolted him, and the necessity he was under 
 to offer worldly - wise advice went sorely 
 against the grain. But he consoled himself 
 by hoping that her escape, if she did escape 
 the consequences of her folly, might be a 
 life-long lesson to her. 
 
 Refusing her offer to " drop " him some- 
 where in her Victoria, he took a hansom as 
 far as Albert Gate, and then walked down 
 the Row towards Hyde Park Corner. Half 
 way, he came upon Sir John Erskine, with
 
 LETTY AND HER SLAVE. 24 1 
 
 Letty beside him, seated in a mail phaeton, 
 which was drawn up close to the rails. 
 
 Letty's bright eyes were roving over the 
 crowd, and she did not see Otway until he 
 was close beside her. 
 
 ''Ah, Otway!" cried Sir John, ''you are 
 the very man we want. I was wondering 
 what had become of you. Get up here and 
 take the reins, will you ? I see some people 
 I want to speak to over yonder, and you can 
 take Letty home when she's had enough of 
 this." 
 
 Nothing loth, Otway took the vacant 
 seat and the reins. " Shall we drive round ?" 
 he said. 
 
 "Certainly not," replied Letty, promptly. 
 " I like to see the people. But I do not 
 object to one turn ; it is rather early. I 
 have not seen half-a-dozen people I know 
 yet." 
 
 Otway turned the horses into the road, and 
 they were soon bowling away towards the 
 VOL. L R
 
 242 A GAME OF CHA^'CE. 
 
 Memorial. " Well ?" he said, looking down 
 at her. 
 
 '' Well ?" she answered, looking up at him. 
 " I hope you enjoyed your luncheon with 
 Mrs. Ogilvey." 
 
 " Can it be possible," he cried, " that I 
 addressed the letter that she never got to 
 you ? That explains everything." 
 
 " Except your stupidity," said Letty. " Is 
 this the letter?" and she took a note from 
 her pocket. " Outside is ' Miss Erskine, 
 Halkin Street ;' inside you tell some Mrs. 
 Ogilvey that you have not forgotten her, and 
 that you will lunch with her at two o'clock. 
 Who is Mrs. Ogilvey ?" 
 
 " A lady I knew many years ago, when I 
 was about two-and-twenty." 
 
 " Is she a nice person ?" 
 
 " I don't know," said Otway. 
 
 "You are an old friend ; you lunched with 
 her to-day, and you do not know whether she 
 is nice or not. I call that absurd."
 
 LETTV AND HER SLAVE. 243 
 
 " I do not admire her particularly," said 
 Otway. 
 
 " Did you ever admire her ?" 
 
 "Very much," answered Otway, "in my 
 salad days — eight years ago." 
 
 "Eight years ago I was only ten," put in 
 Letty. " And have you not seen her since ?" 
 
 " I have not seen her since her mar- 
 riage until to-day. She wrote and asked me 
 to call upon her." 
 
 " Because she is in trouble," said Letty. 
 " I am sorry for the poor woman. I am 
 not going to ask you what the trouble is 
 because I know if I did you would tell me, 
 and that would not be right." 
 
 " I am afraid I could not tell you," Otway 
 was beginning. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you would, if I insisted ;" Letty 
 interrupted, confidently; "you know you 
 never refuse me anything I ask, and if I 
 said I must know all about this trouble of 
 your friend, ]\Irs. Ogilvey, you would tell
 
 2 44 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 me before we got round to the Memorial 
 again !" 
 
 "It Is very hard to refuse you anything, 
 my darling," murmured Otway, tenderly, as 
 he gazed with all a lover's rapture into her 
 eyes. And yet, even as he said the words, 
 he was conscious of a bitter stab of dis- 
 appointment, for not the faintest trace of 
 jealousy could he detect in her manner. A 
 girl who was very much In love would surely 
 show some annoyance or pique at this sud- 
 den renewal of intercourse between her lover 
 and his old friend. 
 
 " You must really be more careful about 
 your letters In future," Letty went on. In her 
 sprightly manner, and Ignoring altogether 
 the fond words just uttered in her ear. 
 " Suppose an epistle, with something very 
 secret in It, were to come to me by mistake, 
 what would you do ? And, when men meet 
 their old loves again, do they not generally 
 feel a little sentimental and unhappy ? They
 
 LETTY AND HER SLAVE. 245 
 
 always do in books, so if you want to be 
 sentimental or unhappy about this Mrs. 
 Ogilvey, I beg you will not hesitate on my 
 account." 
 
 '' As if you did not know that you are the 
 only woman in the world to me," broke in 
 Otway, with passionate reproach. 
 
 " There ! Do not drive quite so fast, if 
 you please. Everyone is staring at us, I 
 really mean what I say. You must feel more 
 for an old friend than you do for a new one. 
 I know I should. Is this trouble of hers 
 likely to last long ? You will have to lunch 
 with her very often, I suppose ?" 
 
 " Not oftener than I choose," Otway 
 answered. 
 
 As he was speaking, Mrs. Ogilvey drove 
 past them. She bowed to Otway, and stared 
 very hard at his companion. 
 
 " Now you have seen her," he said, 
 '' what do you think of her ?" 
 
 '* She drives a very pretty pair of horses,
 
 246 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 and she will probably known me again,'* 
 replied Letty. " Did you tell her we were 
 going to be married ?" 
 
 *' Did you not desire me, on pain of your 
 severe displeasure, not to tell anyone ?" 
 
 " Certainly I did, but I never expected 
 you to obey me," she returned. " I must 
 say you are the most oppressively obedient 
 man I ever met ; but perhaps you do not 
 want people to know you are engaged ?" 
 
 " I should like the whole world to know 
 it," cried Otway ; ''that I might be envied 
 by the whole word for my good fortune." 
 
 " Then, for goodness' sake, tell the whole 
 world directly," cried Letty, pettishly ; ''I 
 am sure I don't care." 
 
 *' And may I say that we are to be married 
 very soon ?" 
 
 *' If you like ; it is all the same to me. 
 No, do not go round again, and do not 
 draw up anywhere ; I am tired. Take me 
 home ; I want to show you Jack's last letter.
 
 LETTY AND HER SLAVE. 247 
 
 I had such a jolly letter from him this 
 mail." 
 
 The drawing-rooms at Halkin Street were 
 empty ; Miss Lambton was out alone. Letty 
 threw off her bonnet and began to fan herself. 
 '' Isn't it hot.^" she said. 
 
 '' Allow me," said Otway, as he took the fan 
 from her ; but instead of using it, he put his 
 arm round her and tried to draw her to him. 
 
 ''One kiss, my darling," he said. 
 
 "No, no, no!" she cried, breaking away 
 from him. " How many times must I tell 
 you that I will not have any nonsense of that 
 kind ? I can't think what pleasure you find 
 in it. Do go away to the other end of 
 the room and be sensible. You have made 
 me a great deal hotter than I was before, and 
 I think you ought to know by this time that 
 I do not like to be kissed." 
 
 " I know by this time that you are very 
 unkind to me," he said. " You treat Orion 
 better than you treat me."
 
 248 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 *' Now, was there ever such a man ?" cried 
 Letty, appealing to the furniture. " I pro- 
 mised to marry him simply because he said 
 it would break his heart if I refused him, and 
 yet he is not satisfied." 
 
 She walked away and sat down, looking 
 the picture of injured dignity. He followed 
 much too humbly, as was his wont. '' Say 
 you forgive me," he said. 
 
 She looked up at him with a glance that 
 was half-comical but wholly unresponsive to 
 the appeal in his eyes. " I declare," she 
 cried, " if you kneel to me I have done with 
 you for evermore. Have I not told you, a 
 hundred times at least, that I cannot bear to 
 see a man on his knees, and yet you will do it? 
 There ; go and bring me that little writing- 
 case from the table yonder. Jack's letter is 
 in it. Now, sit down at a respectful dis- 
 tance and listen while I read." 
 
 Mastering his discomfiture and disappoint- 
 ment as best he could, Otway sat down and
 
 LETTY AND HER SLAVE. 249 
 
 listened while Letty read her brother's letter 
 aloud. 
 
 As soon as she had finished, he said, " I 
 knew I had heard the name Rossltur before. 
 Is it not very odd ? Mrs. Ogllvey told me 
 to-day that some years ago — It would be three 
 or four, I suppose — she had a maid called 
 Bella Rossltur, who went to India. I sup- 
 pose It Is the same person ; Rossltur Is not a 
 very common name." 
 
 " Common or not, It Is a name I am very 
 tired of," cried Letty. " Jack never writes 
 a letter In which she Is not mentioned, and 
 now your Mrs. Ogllvey knows her. Did she 
 like her ?" 
 
 " Well — not particularly, I think." 
 " She Is not connected with the trouble. Is 
 she ?" 
 
 " No, not direcdy. Not at all, Indeed." 
 
 " You look so frightened," cried Letty, 
 
 laughing, " I believe you are afraid I am 
 
 going to bribe you to let out Mrs. Ogilvey's
 
 250 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 secrets. Do you think I could not do 
 it?" 
 
 " There Is nothing In the world I would 
 
 not do for you, Letty, If only " he 
 
 stopped short. 
 
 The door had opened to admit Miss 
 Lambton. 
 
 '' Here Is Aunt Louise," cried Letty. 
 ** Now for some tea. And what's the news, 
 Auntie ?" 
 
 " I have just met Dr. Murray and his 
 bride," she said. " They did not go to the 
 Lakes after all."
 
 C H A P T E^R X X . 
 
 ROSSITUR AGAIN. 
 
 A FEW days later Otway was on his way 
 to call upon the Rector of Little Centre 
 Bridge at the Westminster Palace Hotel 
 when he met that gentleman at the entrance 
 alone. 
 
 " Coming to see me, were you ? And I 
 was just going to look you up ; you are close 
 by, are you not? Our [friends in Halkin 
 Street have taken my wife off to shop in the 
 Grove, wherever that is, and I was told I was 
 not wanted." 
 
 *' Rather hard upon you, eh ?" laughed 
 Otway. "But if men will come to London 
 for their honeymoons they must take the 
 consequences."
 
 252 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " We fixed upon the Lakes, you know, but 
 Mrs. Murray coaxed me to stay in London 
 for a few days to see the sights ; and if a 
 man does not humour his wife in the honey- 
 moon, when is he to do It ?" 
 
 •'Very true," said Otway, absently. 
 
 '' Any time fixed for your marriage ?" in- 
 quired the Rector, " I was in hopes it would 
 be this summer ; I hate long engagements 
 myself" 
 
 " I do not want a long engagement," said 
 Otway, "but Sir John says the marriage is 
 not to be until next spring." 
 
 " And what does Letty say ?" 
 
 "Oh, she says nothing!" 
 
 " Is she not looking handsome?" cried the 
 Rector, enthusiastically. " I never saw such 
 eyes in a woman's head ! You are a lucky 
 fellow, Otway. Oh ! we go up In a lift, 
 do we ? I don't know that I fancy this sort 
 of thing very much myself, but I suppose 
 one Q^ets used to it. You must let me brlnof
 
 ROSSITUR AGAIN. 2^2 
 
 my wife to see you. She would enjoy going 
 up in this thing immensely." 
 
 "You must bring her to lunch," said 
 Otw^ay. '' I should like her to see where 
 I live." 
 
 Dr. Murray spent some time examining 
 the bits of fine old China and the few 
 admirable pictures that adorned Otway's 
 little drawing-room, and then the two men sat 
 clown for a chat. 
 
 " And have you given up all idea of enter- 
 ing Parliament since we treated you so badly 
 down in Stoneshire ?" the Rector asked. "In 
 the mere matter of talking, our friend Sir 
 John has not clone much to distinguish him- 
 self, has he ? I believe in his heart he is 
 longing to be back at the Chase, pottering 
 about the home farm, and going into the town 
 to hear the news." 
 
 "He certainly does not care very much for 
 town life," said Otway. " None of them do, 
 for that matter."
 
 2 54 -'^ GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 "Oh, Letty likes it, I think." 
 
 ''Well, it's all new to her; but she 
 is very fond of the country. She has 
 never had a regular season before, you 
 know." 
 
 " You will give up this little nest up here 
 when you marry, of course ?" 
 
 " Yes. I am in treaty for a house she 
 likes in Rutland Gate. All places are pretty 
 much the same to me, but I want her to be 
 pleased." 
 
 " I am afraid you spoil her, my boy. Take 
 care." 
 
 " I feel as if I could not do half enough 
 for her," cried Otway. " She is the very 
 light of my life. I do not think it would be 
 possible for any man to love a woman more 
 than I love her, and she just likes me pretty 
 well, that's all." 
 
 " Oh, never mind ; liking is a very good 
 thing to start with, and it will all come right 
 by and by. But don't you give up to her
 
 ROSSITUR AGAIN. 255 
 
 too much ; for my own part, I think women 
 like a master." 
 
 " My dear doctor, it is early days for you 
 to have found that out," laughed Otway. 
 
 " Oh ; I knew it years ago," replied the 
 Rector. "But now I want to ask you about 
 this marriage of Jack Erskine's. Sir John 
 says very little, but I think he is cut up about 
 
 it." 
 
 " Well, you see, he wanted Jack to marry 
 some girl at home, and he cannot quite take 
 to the notion of a daughter-in-law he has 
 never seen." 
 
 '' And, between ourselves, Otway," said 
 the Rector, " I am afraid Mr. Jack has made 
 a mistake. It may turn out all right, and I 
 hope it will ; but, I confess I have my 
 doubts." 
 
 '' Why ? Do you know anything of the 
 young lady ; anything against her, I mean ? 
 Her half-sister is married to my brother, but 
 I know nothing at all about /ler.''
 
 250 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 ''And I know nothing actually against her, 
 but not much In her favour. It so happens 
 that a nephew of mine, Frank Murray, has a 
 very good post In Calcutta ; he came home 
 and married an uncommonly nice girl with 
 some money, just before Jack Ersklne's regi- 
 ment went out. Well, you know, Mrs. John 
 Ersklne's father, Colonel Gordon, had a staff 
 appointment In Calcutta when his daughter 
 went out to him, and my nephew, Franks and 
 his wife, being In the military set, saw a good 
 deal of Miss Amy Gordon, and heard a great 
 deal more. At that time Jack Ersklne was 
 with his regiment at Lucknow, I think, and 
 he did not meet her until some time after her 
 campaign In Calcutta." 
 
 '' But he knew her," said Otway, "for they 
 went out In the same ship." 
 
 " I know that ; but he had lost sight of 
 her. She was very much run after In Cal- 
 cutta, Frank told me, as she was pretty and 
 lively ; but I hear she was such an outrageous
 
 ROSSITUR AGAIN. 257 
 
 flirt that before very long, men used to say 
 very hard things of her ; but still, they all 
 amused themselves. It got out, after a time, 
 that she was looking out for a man with 
 money, and that her father was at his wit's 
 end for fear she should get into some 
 serious scrape. 
 
 " Poor Sir John !" said Otway. " I hope 
 he knows nothing of all this." 
 
 " Not from me. I would not tell him for the 
 world ; but you have not heard the worst yet. 
 It seems this Miss Gordon brought out a very 
 good-looking maid with her from England, 
 and this girl, of whom, strange to say, I 
 know something. Is apparently as great a 
 flirt as her mistress, and the tricks these two 
 used to play, Frank says, were simply dis- 
 graceful. He acknowledges that he does not 
 believe half the stories that were told about 
 them, but those he knows to be true are quite 
 bad enough. The maid used to dress up as 
 the mistress, and the mistress as the maid — 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 there is a sort of likeness between them, I 
 beheve — and then the maid would make a 
 fool of some poor fellow, who fancied that 
 Miss Gordon was in love with him, and the 
 story goes that, on one occasion, Miss 
 Gordon, passing herself off as Rossitur, had 
 much ado to get away from some young 
 fellow who wanted her — the maid, you under- 
 stand — to run away with him there and then. 
 My nephew says he does not believe that 
 story, as Miss Gordon was always much too 
 cautious to run any risk ; but it only shows 
 how people have been talking about her." 
 
 " Let us hope," said Otway, " that as she 
 has married a rich man she will turn over 
 a new leaf and make Jack a good wife. Do 
 you know that the^maid is married also, to 
 Jack's body - servant, a soldier in his regi- 
 ment ?" 
 
 " You don't say so ? Rather a come-down 
 for her, I should say, after all her flirtations 
 with his betters. Well, I should be sorry to
 
 ROSSITUR AGAIN. 259 
 
 let my wife keep such a woman in her 
 service." 
 
 ''But Letty tells me that her sister-in-law 
 would not part with Rossitur on any con- 
 sideration." 
 
 " Exactly. I hope it is not wrong of me 
 to say that it looks very much as if the maid 
 had some hold over her mistress. I hope 
 most sincerely, for Jack's sake, it is not the 
 case, and that all the stories about her are 
 exaggerated ; but Frank says there is no 
 doubt whatsoever that Miss Gordon was very 
 much in love with a remarkably handsome 
 and charming young Frenchman, whom she 
 used to meet in the very best set in Calcutta, 
 and that she would have married him, poor 
 as he v/as, if her father had not set his face 
 against the match." 
 
 " And what has become of him ?" 
 
 " I hear he succeeded, quite unexpectedly, 
 to a very fine property, shortly after Miss 
 Gordon's marriage, but where he is now I do
 
 2 6o A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 not know. My nephew says he Is as nice a 
 fellow as he ever met, and extremely hand- 
 some. I forget his name." 
 
 *' I am sorry to hear all this," said Otway. 
 ** It does not promise well for poor Jack 
 Ersklne's future happiness, and he seems so 
 wrapped up In his wife." 
 
 *' Oh ; they may get on very well. Depend 
 upon It, she knows the value of her position 
 as the future Lady Ersklne and mistress of 
 the Chase, and she will not make a fool of 
 herself." 
 
 " But she may make her husband very 
 miserable, all the same," said Otway. '' By 
 the way, you said you knew something about 
 that woman Rossltur. It was only a few 
 days ago I heard that, just before she went 
 to India, she had been maid to an old friend 
 of mine." 
 
 " She comes from Stilllngfort," said the 
 Rector, " and I was curate-In-charge there a 
 good many years ago. The Rosslturs are
 
 ROSSITUR AGAIN. 26 I 
 
 well known in the place ; for generations, 
 from father to son, they have held one of the 
 largest farms from Lord Stillingfort. When 
 I was there, this girl Bella was not more 
 than seven or eight ; she had a sister a year 
 or two older, and a baby brother ; the girls 
 used to come to my school. I had not been 
 In the place more than three months when 
 there was a terrible scandal ! Mrs. Rossitur, 
 who was a beautiful young woman, ran away 
 with a man who used to come down to shoot 
 at the manor — a relation of Lord Stillingfort 
 — and the poor farmer was so broken-hearted 
 he talked of selling the place and emigrating. 
 But he stayed on, and who brought up his 
 girl I don't know, for I left the place when 
 Bella was about eleven or twelve. I do not 
 remember her very distinctly, but she was a 
 pretty child, and there was a sturdy little 
 chap in the choir, a boy about fourteen or 
 fifteen, who used to be always about with 
 her. His father was a bailiff, or something,
 
 262 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 on the estate ; a man with a grand bass voice 
 —he was in the choir too. I remember the 
 boy very well— Httle Georgy Pottinger." 
 
 '* You don't say so !" cried Otway. '' Why, 
 that is the name of the man she has married ! 
 She is Mrs. Pottinger."
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE LETTERS IN CYPHER. 
 
 A MONTH passed away. Dr. Murray and 
 his bride, having spent a fortnight In what 
 he called " wild dissipation " In London, 
 ended their honeymoon at the Lakes, and 
 were now settled at home In the Rectory of 
 Little Centre Bridge, and Alary Hamil- 
 ton, the ex-governess of the Ladles' College, 
 found herself of some importance In the 
 community among whom she had been a 
 nonentity before. Mrs. and Miss Dysart- 
 Smlth had the pleasure of seeing all the 
 visitors she received, and of hearing of all 
 the Invitations that were sent to the newly- 
 wedded pair. 
 
 Mrs. Crump, of the fancy shop, who knew
 
 264 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 everything, and, moreover, was good at in- 
 venting, declared that the Rector was quite 
 another man since he married, and had 
 actually been in her shop twice since he 
 came home — once with his wife and again 
 without her — to match some knitting-silk ; 
 and it was nonsense for Mrs. Verity to be 
 positive that Dr. and Mrs. Murray had not 
 been invited to spend a week at Stillingfort, 
 for Mrs. Crump knew it for a fact ; and 
 the Rector was to preach, too, in the old 
 church that had been his when he was in 
 the parish as curate-in-charge. 
 
 Little particles of this local gossip were 
 blown to the Erskines in town, through the 
 medium of Miss Masham's amusing letters. 
 "I do not know what we should do without 
 our special correspondent," Letty used to say; 
 *' I like to hear what is going on at home. 
 Yes, Little Centre Bridge is home, and 
 always will be home to me." This clause 
 was added when Otway ventured to hope
 
 THE LETTERS IN CYPHER. 265 
 
 that another place might be her real home 
 before very long. 
 
 " I have nothing In the world to say 
 against Rutland Gate except that I hate It," 
 she continued, In her pretty, aggressive way. 
 "That Is, I hate having houses on each side 
 of me. But It does not really matter, as I 
 mean to spend nine months at least out of 
 every year at the Chase." 
 
 Otway flattered himself with the hope that 
 Letty did not mean all she said ; and he con- 
 tinued, with the rest of her world, to pet and 
 spoil her to such an extent that she would 
 have been more than mortal if she had not 
 begun to imagine that her power over him 
 was unlimited. But there was more beneath 
 that gay, frivolous exterior than even he 
 suspected, and he never guessed at the 
 struggle — a struggle that ended memorably 
 for both of them — that went on In her mind 
 as the time fixed for her marriage drew 
 near.
 
 266 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Comparatively speaking it was distant still, 
 but now that the following March had been 
 named and agreed to by Sir John, she began 
 seriously to ask herself if she really cared 
 enough for Otway to be his wife. It seemed 
 as if she could not make up her mind about 
 her feelinofs towards him ; she liked to ride 
 or drive, walk or talk with him, but she 
 never felt in the least angry or jealous when 
 he rode or drove or talked with other women ; 
 and when he became the adoring and demon- 
 strative lover she was puzzled and frightened, 
 and sometimes a little ashamed as well of the 
 feeling of repugnance that cams upon her ! 
 
 " And it is not that I dislike him," she 
 would say to herself, " but he is too humble. 
 If he would stand at one end of the room 
 and order me to come to him from the other, 
 it would make all the difference. He would 
 soon get what he wants then ; but when he 
 trots about after me, begging with his eyes, 
 if not with his tongue, for a little notice, I
 
 THE LETTERS IN CYPHER. 267 
 
 feel SO angry I am tempted to run away and 
 never to speak to him again. If he goes on 
 in the same babyish manner after we are 
 married something dreadful will happen ; I 
 know it will ; and yet, he is so very charm- 
 ing in many ways, I could love him with all my 
 heart if he would but treat me a little worse." 
 This was how she argued with herself day 
 by day. 
 
 It was the middle of July before Otway 
 heard anything more of Mrs. Ogilvey and her 
 *' trouble." He had seen her several times, 
 and she said nothing had happened, and 
 that she hoped to hear no more of the man 
 and his threats. She introduced Otway to 
 her husband, and he dined at Queen's Gate 
 Terrace, and w^as present at a big "crush" 
 one evening. Moreover, Mrs. Ogilvey heard 
 of his engagement, and gave him very cordial 
 congratulations, but he did not, in spite of 
 the many hints she gave him, and the many 
 opportunities that were offered to him, keep
 
 2 68 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Up either very familiar or very constant 
 intercourse with his old friend. 
 
 He was surprised one morning to get a 
 letter from her, asking him for an appoint- 
 ment at his chambers. " I have something 
 to tell you," she said, *' and we might be 
 interrupted here." 
 
 Accordingly he appointed a day and an 
 hour, and she was punctual to a minute. 
 He had not seen her for fully a fortnight, and 
 he was struck by the extraordinary change in 
 her appearance. In the first place she was 
 dressed entirely in black, and, as she generally 
 appeared in gay colours, he scarcely recog- 
 nised her at first. She was also very pale — - 
 almost haggard-looking — he thought, and her 
 eyes were dull and red, as if she had been 
 crying. 
 
 " I am afraid you are not very well," he 
 
 said, kindly, as he placed a chair for her. 
 
 ''Why did you not let me come to you?" 
 
 " I scarcely know," she answered, " except
 
 THE LETTERS IN CYPHER. 269 
 
 that I have a curious nervous sort of feelino- 
 over me that would not allow me to speak 
 freely, even in my own drawing-room. Not 
 that there are spies about me," and she 
 laughed rather hysterically, ''but I simply 
 could not do it, that is the truth. You said 
 just now you were afraid I am not well ; 
 I suppose I look ill, but I feel well enough ;. 
 only dazed and stupid, as if I had had a blow, 
 or just escaped a great danger." 
 
 "Has that man been persecuting you 
 again ? Perhaps you had better let me take 
 him in hand ; those sort of fellows always 
 bully women." And then Otway was surprised 
 to see the face of his companion contract as if 
 from a spasm of pain ; she bit her under lip 
 and held it tightly as if she were forcing back 
 a cry, and two great tears suddenly rolled 
 down her cheeks. 
 
 *' You are very kind," she added, presently,, 
 " but you need not take any more trouble. 
 He has done his worst — his very worst."
 
 .270 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " I am sorry " Otway began. 
 
 '' Oh ; he has not hurt me," she inter- 
 rupted. ''At least, not as he Intended, or as 
 we feared ; but he has given me a wound 
 that has cut me to the very heart, and taught 
 me a lesson I hope never to forget." She 
 sat up in her chair as she spoke, with a 
 sudden lightening of the gloom upon her 
 face, but she looked angry, hurt and mortified 
 all at once. 
 
 ** But I must not stay here too long," she 
 continued ; "and it is but fair to you to tell 
 you all. You are aware that for some time 
 after his first threats I heard nothing of the 
 man, and I hoped my refusal to treat with 
 him had silenced him ; but, about ten days 
 ago, he called at Queen's Gate Terrace and 
 asked to see me. I refused. Then he wrote 
 a most Insolent letter, and threatened, if I 
 did not at once comply with his demand and 
 send him a large sum of money, to communi- 
 cate with Mr. Ogilvey. It was in this
 
 THE LETTERS IN CVPHER. 271 
 
 letter he let me know, for the first time, that 
 the papers in his possession were my letters 
 in cypher to his late master. I sent no reply 
 as you advised, but I confess I waited in an 
 agony of suspense for his next move. He 
 soon wrote again, more insolently than before. 
 If he did not receive five hundred pounds 
 for the cyphers he would give them to Mr. 
 Ogilvey himself without delay. I replied 
 that I did not believe he had either letters 
 or papers of any kind of mine in his posses- 
 sion. He wrote again, offering to show me 
 the letters in presence of any friend I chose 
 to name. I made no reply. Then he began 
 to hang about the house for a couple of days, 
 and once, when Mr. Ogilvey and I were 
 getting into the carriage on our way to a 
 dinner - party, he spoke to me and uttered 
 some insolent threat. My husband threatened 
 in turn to give him in charge, thinking, I 
 believe, that he was drunk, and he went 
 away, looking terribly angry and vindictive.
 
 272 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 The next day he made no sign, but the day- 
 following, as I was dressing to go out, a 
 message came from my husband to say that 
 he wanted to speak to me in the library. I 
 went down at once, feeling that all was over, 
 and that nothing short of a miracle could 
 save me now, and the bitterness of knowing 
 that Count Henri, whom I had trusted so im- 
 plicitly, had died, leaving me in this wretch's 
 power, added tenfold to my misery. But a 
 worse bitterness was in store. When I went 
 into the room, I found my husband seated 
 at the table, looking pale and angry, and 
 opposite to him Count Henri's valet, looking 
 malicious and triumphant. He had a packet, 
 tied with ribbon, in his hand. It was not 
 large, but it struck me at the time that I had 
 never written enough letters to his master 
 to make a packet of even that moderate size. 
 My husband went into the matter at once. 
 * This man,' he said, ' the servant of the late 
 Count Henri de Flavelle, who shot himself
 
 THE LETTERS IN CYPHER. 273 
 
 at Monte Carlo ' — as if I did not know it 
 already — 'says he has lately been in commu- 
 nication with you about certain letters which, 
 according to him, were written by you in 
 cypher to his late master, and that you re- 
 fused to buy them at any price. You may 
 suppose that I was very glad to hear you 
 had refused to treat with him, but, nothing 
 daunted, he now comes to me, and offers 
 them at a certain price ; if I refuse to 
 give it, he threatens to publish them and 
 ruin you. If you really kept up a private 
 correspondence with the Count, I do not see 
 that it matters very much to either of us 
 whether the letters are made public by him 
 or by me, but perhaps you will be good 
 enough to examine them with me in this 
 man's presence. I think I can tell whether 
 they were written by you or not.' And by 
 that I knew he remembered that he had 
 taught me the cypher to which he had the 
 key. I shall never forget what it cost me to 
 
 VOL. I T
 
 2 74 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 appear calm and unconcerned, but, with ruin 
 staring me In the face, I said, ' Yes ; there Is 
 only one cypher I can write ; the one you 
 yourself taught me, and you have the key.' 
 'And perhaps I shall use It, too,' he replied. 
 ' Now then,' he added to the man, * open 
 that packet of yours, and let me examine 
 It.' The man untied the ribbon. About a 
 dozen letters fell out upon the table, and one 
 by one he opened them and laid them before 
 my husband. I sat still, looking on. Some- 
 thing told me they were not mine ; and If 
 not mine, whose ? ' Look here, Caroline,' 
 my husband said at last, ' I do not know this 
 cypher ; It Is not the one I taught you.' I 
 got up and looked over his shoulder, but a 
 glance was enough ; not one of those two or 
 three dozen letters had been written by me. 
 I took up one of them and opened the sheet. 
 A small enclosure fell out. It was a note not 
 In cypher, and was to the effect that the 
 writer was tired of that mode of correspon-
 
 THE LETTERS IN CYPHER. 275 
 
 dence, and would not use it any more. 
 There was no address and no date, and it 
 was signed, ' Ever yours, Estelle.' Imagine, 
 if you can, my feelings when it was all over, 
 and the man and his precious papers went 
 away and left me alone with my husband. 
 *You were very wise, Caroline,' he said, 'not 
 to give that man money. If he can find 
 Estelle, let him levy black-mail upon her.' 
 That was all he said, and he has not 
 mentioned the subject since. I suppose," 
 she added, after a pause, '' that I ought to 
 rejoice over my escape, and I do so — some- 
 times ; but it kills me to think that the man 
 for whom I did and risked so much was 
 
 not " Her voice broke, and she burst 
 
 into tears. 
 
 " Good heavens !" thought Otway, as 
 he watched her, '' what incomprehensible 
 creatures women are ! I believe this one 
 would have suffered less if her correspon- 
 dence with that worthless Count Henri had
 
 276 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 been laid before her husband, than she 
 suffers from the discovery of Estelle !" 
 
 He let her cry on for, to tell the truth, he 
 did not feel In the mood to offer consolation ; 
 and presently, ashamed of her agitation, she 
 dried her eyes and began to talk on in- 
 different subjects. He listened courteously, 
 as in duty bound ; but, at length, just as he 
 was becoming impatient and wondering how 
 long she meant to stay, he heard steps and 
 voices on the stairs ! Surely it was Sir John 
 Erskine who was speaking; and was it — could 
 it be possible — ? But no ; the second voice 
 was also that of a man, and he was simply 
 pointing out the way to the visitor. But 
 before Otway had time for any more con- 
 jectures, and as Mrs. Ogilvey was in the 
 act of drawing on her long gloves, the door 
 opened and Sir John Erskine appeared. 
 
 ''Oh! I beg your pardon!" he said, "I 
 was told you were alone."
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE STREET BRAWL. 
 
 *' I NEVER was SO surprised In my life ! Never ! 
 If It had been any other man but Otway ;" 
 so said Sir John, when, not for the first time 
 by any means, he described the scene In 
 his future son-in-law's chambers to Miss 
 Lambton. 
 
 It was a quiet evening In Halkin Street ; 
 the ladles had no engagement, Otway had 
 made the fourth at dinner, and he was now 
 with Letty In the smaller drawing-room. 
 She had been singing to him, and they were 
 now having what was, for them, quite a 
 serious talk. 
 
 "I went In," Sir John continued, "ex- 
 pecting to find my gentleman alone, and
 
 278 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 there he was with a handsome woman ; a 
 monstrous handsome woman dressed in black. 
 'And is she a specimen of your clients?' I 
 said to him as soon as she was gone. Then 
 he told me who she was— the wife of Ogilvey, 
 the millionaire. Otway knew her before she 
 was married, and she has been in a muddle 
 of some kind, and he has been helping her. 
 He's as good a fellow as ever lived, and 
 I wish Letty were a litde fonder of him. 
 There are times when I think this marriaee 
 is a mistake ; but if I say a word to her 
 about breaking it off, she flares up, and 
 asks me if she did not say, 'yes,' with her 
 eyes open ? But I say, what is the use of a 
 girl having her eyes open if her heart is 
 shut ?" 
 
 Otway, as it happened, went home that 
 night as happy as a king. Letty had never 
 been half as sweet or as kind, and during the 
 first part of the evening she had neither 
 teased nor snubbed him, and he had abstained
 
 THE STREET BRAWL. 279 
 
 from those demonstrations of affection she so 
 unaffectedly disHked. 
 
 He told her all about Mrs. Ogilvey's visit 
 to his chambers, and of Sir John's sudden 
 appearance, but Letty had had the story first- 
 hand from her father, so it fell rather flat. 
 '* I tried very hard to do my part, and feel 
 madly jealous, as the heroine of a book 
 always does, when the handsome rival is 
 found with her lover, but it was all to no 
 use," Letty said. 
 
 One of her hands was lying passive in 
 Otway's close clasp. " I am afraid there 
 must be something very wrong about me," 
 she went on, "or else I am very sensible, 
 for I should not care if you had dozens 
 of the handsomest and most fascinating 
 women in England in your chambers every 
 day, one after the other. I could see that 
 papa was disgusted with me. Such a noble 
 opportunity for a scene, and I made nothing 
 of it. I have evidently no dramatic instinct."
 
 2 8o A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 *' You know you need not be jealous of 
 me ; that Is the true reason," said Otway, 
 fondly. 
 
 " But I do not know anything about it. 
 You tell me so, and I take no trouble to put 
 you to the test. But I am sure it is much 
 better for people not to feel deeply. It 
 seems to wear them out. There is Jack, 
 now ; I can see from his letters that he is 
 terribly jealous of Amy. It comes out in 
 everything he says, poor dear, and do you 
 suppose it makes him happier.^" 
 
 *' But to love his wife makes him happier. 
 I should be madly jealous of you if you gave 
 me cause; but still, I should be much happier 
 than if I had never known you." 
 
 " Should you indeed ? I think it is a great 
 mistake to be wrapped up in any one," said 
 this young and untried philosopher. " But 
 I must tell you, candidly, that I think for a 
 man of your experience — I suppose you have 
 experience — you make a great many mistakes
 
 THE STREET BRAWL. 28 1 
 
 about me. I am not going to tell you what 
 they are, for I hope you will find them out 
 for yourself some day. It is not for a man 
 to learn from a foolish, ignorant girl ! Oh, 
 yes ; I am both foolish and ignorant, but I 
 know what I like." 
 
 " So do I," said Otway, raising the little 
 hand he held and pressing it passionately to 
 his lips. " I should like life to be one long 
 summer's day ; and I should like to lie at 
 your feet and look into your eyes and tell you 
 how I loved you." 
 
 '' But unless you chained me down you 
 would not get me to sit still to be worshipped 
 in that ridiculous fashion," cried Letty. " You 
 might as well be that Pagan god — was he a 
 god, by the way ? — who put on woman's 
 clothes and spun the distaff. I should 
 simply hate you if you were always lying 
 about at my feet !" 
 
 But in spite of these very emphatic pro- 
 tests, she was more loving and tender that
 
 282 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 evening than he had ever known her, and he 
 went back to his bachelor flat feeling that 
 fate had been very kind to him. His had 
 been a fairly smooth and prosperous life up 
 to that time ; but still, he had never looked 
 upon himself as either specially fortunate or 
 specially happy ; and without defining his 
 position to himself in actual words, he might 
 be said, during the past half-dozen years of 
 his life, to be a man who was waiting for 
 something to happen that never happened, 
 or to find something that was not to be found. 
 He was not obliged to work for a living, 
 but he qualified himself to work successfully ; 
 and then, when he might have made a 
 position for himself, and perhaps a name 
 also, he suddenly stopped short and allowed 
 others to get before him ; others, he said, 
 who wanted success more than he. 
 
 He was never absolutely idle, for his mind 
 was not a frivolous one ; and, moreover, he 
 was somewhat disposed to take life seriously;
 
 THE STREET BRAWL. 283 
 
 he was neither decidedly of an imaginative or 
 poetical turn of mind, nor yet was he deci- 
 dedly practical ; but he had an uncomfortable 
 trick of wishing that things that pleased and 
 charmed him were useful as well. Hence, we 
 may infer, that he was not a true artist. Had 
 he been born poor he would probably have 
 done some excellent work in the world ; and, 
 from his equable temper and genial manner, 
 no one would have suspected him of not find- 
 ing life inordinately agreeable. How sweet 
 it could be made by the subtle magic of a 
 woman's eyes, he learned when, yielding to 
 the solicitations of political friends — although 
 he was by no means an ardent politician him- 
 self — he consented to stand for Stoneshire in 
 the Liberal interest, and met Letty Erskine. 
 Then he decided, as many a sensible man, 
 as well as many a fool, had decided before, 
 that he had found his true mission in life — 
 the philosopher's stone that turned every- 
 thing bare and ignoble to gold! He would
 
 284 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 marry the woman he loved if he could win 
 her heart — have children about him — enter 
 public life, if another opportunity presented 
 itself, and do as much in his generation as 
 possible, by way of thank-offering, we may 
 suppose, for his great happiness. A low 
 and paltry ambition, some would say; but 
 do not those who aim low sometimes hit the 
 clouds ? 
 
 Philanthropy and the exercise of it, as 
 Otway had seen it, had not hitherto attracted 
 him ; but it might be possible, he thought, for 
 him to strike out some method which would be 
 free from all the objectionable cant and hum- 
 bug that so disgusted him. But, at present, 
 all schemes and desires were in abeyance, for 
 he could not flatter himself that the founda- 
 tion stone of his future happiness was laid, 
 or, in other words, that Letty's heart was 
 won ; his patience — what might be called his 
 subservient devotion, seemed all thrown away, 
 but still he persevered.
 
 THE STREET BRAWL. 285 
 
 On his way home that night, he came sud- 
 denly and unexpectedly upon that vulgar,, 
 brutal, and not uncommon sight in London, 
 a street brawl. If he had gone direct to his 
 flat in Members' Mansions he would have 
 missed It ; but, tempted by the extreme 
 beauty of the night, he passed his own door, 
 and strolled on towards Westminster. He 
 had just reached Broad Sanctuary w^hen the 
 noise of angry voices reached him, and 
 presently, at some distance in front, he saw 
 a group of struggling men. 
 
 A faint cry for help rose distinctly twice or 
 thrice above the angry voices and the thud of 
 blows. Otway began to run, and a young 
 fellow who had been keeping pace with him, 
 step for step, on the other side of the street,, 
 set off too. But before they reached the spot 
 the brawd was over; a cry of "police" had 
 frightened the roughs, and they dispersed in 
 all directions at full speed. 
 
 But, as it happened, they were scared by a
 
 2 86 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 false alarm ; there were no police visible, 
 and Otway, and the young man, who had 
 also been startled by the cries for help, 
 halted breathless beside the prostrate and 
 apparently lifeless body of a woman. 
 
 " Poor creature! Have they killed her?" 
 said Otway. 
 
 "The cowardly ruffians," cried his com- 
 panion, " I wish I had been up in time." 
 Something provincial in the youth's accent — 
 he did not look more than one or two-and- 
 twenty — struck Otway, and he looked up at 
 him. 
 
 " I am afraid," he said, " you do not know 
 much of the London rough if you expect to 
 find him anything but a coward." 
 
 Then they stooped and examined the 
 woman ; she was bleeding from a wound on 
 the temple, and she had either fainted, or 
 been struck down insensible. 
 
 '' We cannot do anything for her, poor 
 creature, w^ithout help," said Otway.
 
 THE STREET BRAWL. 287 
 
 "And here come two policemen at last," 
 said his companion, ''but I could carry her 
 myself if f knew where to eo to." 
 
 When the woman had been taken to the 
 nearest hospital, and the men who had seen 
 the fight, and been first on the spot, had 
 given all the information in their power to 
 the officials, they found themselves once more 
 in the street together. 
 
 " It is almost too late," said Otway, " to 
 ask you to come home with me for some 
 refreshment, but my rooms are not far 
 away." 
 
 The young man thanked him, but declined. 
 '' I must get back to my own diggings," he 
 said. He took off his hat, ruffled up his 
 thick, fair brown hair, and Otway w^as struck 
 by the remarkable beauty of his features, as 
 well as by the grace and symmetry of his tall, 
 robust figure. 
 
 " I am afraid she will die, poor soul !" he 
 said, "and perhaps it is the best thing that
 
 288 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 can happen to her. She had a wedding-ring 
 on her finger, did you notice ?" 
 
 "It was probably her husband who struck 
 her," said Otway. " Good-night ;" and he 
 held out his hand. '' I did not catch your 
 name just now, in the police office, he added, 
 *' nor your address. My name is Otway, 
 and I live in Members' Mansions, Victoria 
 Street." 
 
 '*And mine is Charles Rossitur, at your 
 service. I am lodging in Vauxhall Bridge 
 Road at present, but my home is at Stilling- 
 fort in Stoneshire. Good-night."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 MRS. FORSTER's concert. 
 
 ''And where are we going to-night? I for- 
 get," Otway asked. As usual, he was dining 
 in Halkin Street ; Sir John was down at the 
 House, and Otway was to accompany the 
 two ladies to some evening festivity. 
 
 '' We are going to Mrs. Forster's concert 
 in Grosvenor Place." 
 
 " Does anyone know why people give con- 
 certs r Otway asked again. 
 
 " To please people who love music, I 
 suppose," Letty answered. 
 
 "Oh, no! If that was the object they 
 would not ask twice as many as their rooms 
 will hold, and oblige them to listen to third- 
 rate amateurs murdering good music." 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 ''A hint to me," said Letty. "You need 
 never ask me to sing to you again." 
 
 '' I wish I had a chance of hearing you 
 to-night ; you know I never tire of Hstening 
 to you, but I cannot take the same Interest In 
 Mrs. or Miss Brown, Jones and Robinson." 
 
 '* But you are bound to admire Lady Judith 
 Forster, for she can sing almost as well as a 
 professional. We met her the other day, you 
 remember, at the Botanic Fete, and you said 
 she was very handsome." 
 
 "You mean that tall, dark girl, with the 
 fine eyes and the Jewish nose ? Yes, she Is 
 handsome ; and she sings, does she ?" 
 
 " She Is down for a duet with the man who 
 wrote that song you like so much — ' The 
 sigh of the west wind.' He calls himself 
 ' Guy Montague,' and Mrs. Forster would 
 not tell me his real name. The Stilllngforts 
 have taken him up ; Lady Judith is their 
 daughter, and her aunt, Mrs. Forster, Is going 
 to bring him out at her concert."
 
 MRS. FORSTER S CONCERT. 29 1 
 
 '' It is quite a little romance," said Otway. 
 '' I wonder what he is like. A clever-look- 
 ing, ugly little man, in spectacles, and with 
 wild hair, I say." 
 
 "Mrs. Forster told me he was remarkably 
 handsome," said Miss Lambton; ''and that 
 if she had an only daughter she would not 
 throw her too much in his way." 
 
 ''And the Stillingforts are so proud," said 
 Letty. " Regular old-fashioned Tories, papa 
 says ; worse than he is himself." 
 
 "And, if I am not much mistaken," said 
 Otway, "their daughter has a will of her 
 own ; so let us hope that Mr. Guy Montague 
 is not too fascinating." 
 
 "Aunt Louise," said Letty, suddenly, "I 
 forgot to tell you that Herbert came across 
 young Rossitur last night." 
 
 "And who is young Rossitur, my dear? 
 Do I know him ?" 
 
 "You do not know him, but we think he 
 must be the brother of Bella Rossitur, Amy's
 
 292 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 maid, who married Pottinger, Jack's servant, 
 you know. He says he comes from Stilling- 
 fort." 
 
 "And he is one of the handsomest and 
 finest men I ever saw," said Otway. '' If his 
 sister is at all like him, I am not surprised 
 that she has turned some heads out in India. 
 Oh ! must we be going ? I suppose I cannot 
 hope for a seat next to you, my dearest ?" he 
 whispered to Letty, as he put on her cloak. 
 
 "That depends," she answered, laughing. 
 " I think you will probably spend the evening 
 standing in the door-way of the concert-room, 
 and in the dim distance you will be consoled 
 now and then by a peep at the top of my 
 head." 
 
 And that was exactly what happened. 
 They were a little late ; the room was nearly 
 full, and Otway had the pleasure of seeing 
 Miss Lambton and her niece conveyed round 
 to two vacant seats at the side of the room 
 farthest from the door, close to which, as
 
 MRS. FORSTER S CONCERT. 293 
 
 Letty had foretold, he took up his discon- 
 solate stand. 
 
 There was a duet for violin and piano 
 being performed when they arrived, and then 
 Lady Judith Forster came forward and sang 
 a solo in a rich contralto voice. She was a 
 grand-looking young woman, but Otway did 
 not admire her style ; the beauty of her face 
 and figure was striking, but the former was 
 rather too bold, and the latter too massive, to 
 please the man who had found his ideal in 
 Letty's slight, graceful, girlish loveliness. But 
 ' for all that, he could not help looking with a 
 certain amount of admiration at the dark, 
 flashing eyes, the finely-moulded throat and 
 bust, and round, white arms of Lord Stllling- 
 fort's only daughter, and he found himself, 
 moreover, waiting with some impatience for 
 the appearance of Mr. Guy Montague. 
 
 The duet between him and Lady Judith 
 was the last item but one on the first part of 
 the programme, and Otway made up his
 
 294 ^ GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 mind not to move until it was over. There 
 was some clapping of hands when Lady 
 Judith appeared for the second time, but the 
 applause was evidently meant less for her 
 than for encouragement to the man by whom 
 she was led forward. More than one 
 whispered comment upon their good looks 
 was exchanged as they ranged themselves 
 side by side and prepared to sing, and Otway 
 looked and looked again, bewildered ! 
 
 Where had he seen that handsome young 
 giant before, with the well-knit, pliant figure ; 
 the light brown hair curling all over his head, 
 and those large, deep, dark-blue eyes ? The 
 voice that came from the beautifully cut lips 
 was one of the sweetest and most ravishing 
 Otway had ever heard, but the song passed 
 almost unheeded, so absorbed was he in 
 watching the singer, who was no other than 
 the man who had run with him to the rescue 
 of the poor woman the night before — Charles 
 Rossitur, of Stillingfort !
 
 MRS. FORSTER S CONCERT. 295 
 
 When the duet was finished, Otway left 
 the concert-room ; he was bewildered by the 
 surprise of finding his acquaintance of the 
 night before in Guy Montague, the young 
 musician whose name was in every mouth, 
 who had thrown such impassioned fervour 
 into his song with Lady Judith that it was 
 no wonder some among the audience looked 
 at one another and smiled. 
 
 " There w^ould be nothing strange in it," 
 Otway said to himself, as he made his way 
 into a dimly-lighted room, that looked like a 
 small library or study, " if I did not happen to 
 know something of his belongings. Would 
 Lady Judith Forster sing with him in public 
 if she knew that his sister was a lady's maid 
 and the wife of a soldier in a dragoon regi- 
 ment ? I fear it would take a Radical like 
 myself to bridge over that social river," he 
 continued, as he went out through an open 
 French window, upon a dark and temptingly 
 cool balcony. " If I were beside Letty I
 
 296 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 might endure another hour of that atmos- 
 phere, but without her I have had enough. 
 I wonder what she thinks of Mr. Guy 
 Montague ?" He Hghted a cigarette, took 
 possession of one of the cane lounging-chairs 
 he found outside, and smoked peacefully for 
 about ten minutes ; then he heard the door 
 of the room behind him open and close, and 
 the rustle of a woman's dress. Presently she 
 spoke. 
 
 " No ; not out there ; we might be over- 
 looked. This is much safer. No one will 
 think of coming in here, and we can get 
 back to the others before you have to sing 
 again." 
 
 "By Jove!" said Otway, "I wish I was 
 out of this ! How can I let them know I am 
 here?" It was not possible without making 
 a scene, so he remained quiet. He seemed 
 to know by intuition who the woman was, 
 and also the man, who answered her in that 
 tender, thrilling voice.
 
 MRS. FORSTER S CONCERT. 297 
 
 '' My queen !" he said. " How can I ever 
 thank you ?" 
 
 After that no loud word was spoken, but 
 the murmur of the voices never ceased, and 
 had Otway been able to look into the room, 
 he would have seen the head of Lord 
 Stillingfort's lovely daughter resting upon 
 the shoulder of Farmer Rossitur's handsome 
 son. It was the old, old story that has 
 been told so many hundred times, and that 
 will be told many hundred more, as long as 
 the world lasts, and men and women have 
 eyes to see and hearts to feel. The daughter 
 of one of the proudest men in England had 
 given her love to the son of a man whose 
 ancestors had for generations earned their 
 bread by the labour of their hands ; and, 
 moreover, they were men who had known the 
 ups and downs of fortune, but who had, 
 through all reverses, been honest, sturdy 
 Englishmen, part of the veritable back-bone 
 and sinew of the country.
 
 298 A GAME OF CHA^XE. 
 
 And what was the inequaHty of birth In a 
 man so well favoured by nature as Charles 
 Rossitur ? He was handsome, manly, gifted ; 
 and, with his voice and appearance, one might 
 excuse the absence of the repose that marks 
 the caste of Vere de Vere. But what chance 
 had he of winning this daughter of a hundred 
 earls ? Mentally, Otway decided that he 
 had none ; and then he remembered what 
 Dr. Murray had told him about the young 
 man's mother ; how she had left her husband 
 and children with a man who was nearly 
 related to the father of this beautiful Lady 
 Judith, and brought ruin and disgrace upon 
 a happy home. Did Charles Rossitur know 
 this pitiful story, he wondered. 
 
 Yes. Charles Rossitur knew it vaguely — 
 Lady Judith did not know it at all, and 
 neither Rossitur nor the girl knew that, at 
 that very moment in the accident ward of a 
 London hospital, the outcast mother of that 
 handsome and gifted man lay dying ! And
 
 MRS. FORSTER S CONCERT. 299 
 
 she, poor creature, would never know that 
 one of the two men who came to her rescue, 
 as she lay bleeding and senseless in the street 
 in the dead of night, was the son upon whose 
 face her eyes had never rested since he was 
 a toddling baby at her knee.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 OTWAY OBEYS ORDERS. 
 
 It was Christmas week and real Christmas 
 weather. The water meadows outside Little 
 Centre Bridge were frozen, the Ice was firm 
 and smooth, and everyone had gone skating 
 mad. There had been a succession of 
 visitors at the Chase for a month or more, 
 and the house was full now, and would re- 
 main so until the middle of January. The 
 end of that month would see the Ersklnes 
 again in town for the meeting of Parliament 
 and Letty's marriage, which was fixed to take 
 place directly after Easter, and Easter fell 
 early that year. 
 
 Otway was at the Chase for Christmas as 
 a matter of course, and his brother and sister-
 
 OTWAY OBEYS ORDERS. 301 
 
 in-law — the latter, It will be remembered, was 
 the half-sister of Jack Erskine's wife — had 
 paid a long visit. They were about to leave 
 England and settle in Florida, in America. 
 Mrs. Tom Otway was not very strong ; the 
 climate of Florida was said to be the very 
 thing for her, and her husband said they 
 would be able to "push their boys;" a feat 
 less hard to accomplish there than in over- 
 crowded England. 
 
 Tom Otway was charmed with Letty, and 
 Eetty was charmed with him ; she could not 
 understand why Herbert was so sentimental 
 and yielding, when his brother was so prac- 
 tical and obstinate, and it did not occur to 
 her that she had never, so to speak, seen the 
 real Herbert yet ; he had disappeared for a 
 time under the overwhelming waters of a 
 great passion for a beautiful, whimsical girl, 
 whose coldness, tempered by rare fits of 
 sweetness and gentleness, nearly drove him 
 wild.
 
 302 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 Mrs. Tom Otway had naturally a great 
 deal to say for her half-sister Amy, but the 
 only photograph she had to show gave a 
 very poor Impression of her to her new 
 relations. " It is simply not even like her!" 
 Mrs. Tom declared. " She has the most 
 lovely complexion and beautiful hair, and 
 this thing makes her look black and ugly. 
 I have never seen a really good photograph 
 of her. But you must all come out and pay 
 us a visit in Florida, some day ; you, and 
 Herbert, and Jack, and Amy. It will be 
 delightful." 
 
 This was a favourite project of Mrs. Tom's, 
 and she was also never tired of telling Letty 
 that "Tom " thought his brother very much 
 changed. 
 
 '' Tom says he used to be the most obsti- 
 nate, masterful and self-willed man alive, but 
 you seem to have made a lamb of him. Tom 
 is amused to see how he obeys you, and how 
 afraid he is of vexing you, or crossing you in
 
 OTWAY OBEYS ORDERS. 303 
 
 any way." And Letty, as she listened, would 
 put up her pretty lip, and think to herself 
 how much nicer It would be to follow than 
 to lead. She was very tired of ruling over 
 a kingdom in which there was never any 
 rebellion. 
 
 When the Otways went away. Lord and 
 Lady Stilllngfort and their daughter came 
 for a few days, and Otway had an oppor- 
 tunity of studying Lady Judith. He had 
 never told anyone, not even Letty, so sacred 
 In his eyes was the love secret he had sur- 
 prised, of the scene that had taken place in 
 the library at Mrs. Forster's, the night of the 
 concert. And apparently nothing had come 
 of it. He and Rossitur were called upon to 
 give evidence at the inquest upon the poor 
 woman who had been found by them half- 
 dead in Broad Sanctuary. 
 
 Otway, on that occasion, had been struck 
 by the young musician's manner ; he had 
 not the slightest clue to the identity of the
 
 304 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 woman, the police had not been able to 
 unearth her history for more than a twelve 
 month back, and the son was wholly uncon- 
 scious when, with Otway, he contributed to 
 the expenses of her funeral, that she was 
 his own miserable, disgraced mother. By 
 all the laws that govern sensational romance, 
 he ought, by some subtle Intuition, to have 
 guessed who she was ; but, unfortunately. It 
 was not so ; and It was nothing but his fine, 
 highly-strung, imaginative and sensitive tem- 
 perament that brought tears to his fine eyes, 
 and a quiver to his mobile mouth, when the 
 story of the dead woman's wretched life, as 
 far as it was known, was related to him. 
 
 It was specially Interesting to Otway to 
 hear how freely Lady Judith spoke of the 
 young musician to him and Letty during 
 their walks and rides together at the Chase. 
 
 '' We have a musical genius at Stllllng- 
 fort," the girl said. " Charles Rossltur. He 
 has published several songs under the nom
 
 OTWAY OBEYS ORDERS. 305 
 
 de plume of Guy Montague. I tell him he 
 ought to put his own name, but he says 
 people would think nothing of him if they 
 knew he was only Charles Rossitur, the 
 farmer's son. His father is one of papa's 
 tenants, but he is not a nice old man. He 
 hates us for some reason or other, and papa 
 says he Is a terrible Radical. But you are 
 a Radical, are you not, Mr. Otway ?" 
 
 " But not a terrible one, I hope." 
 
 " I think I must be one too," the young 
 lady w^ent on, "for I do not care what people 
 are if they are handsome and clever ; and 
 Charlie Rossitur is just like a Greek god — 
 not that I ever saw one — he is so beautiful. 
 But you must have seen him, both of you, at 
 my aunt's concert ?" 
 
 Otway thought of the scene in the library, 
 and smiled. '' I thought he was one of 
 the handsomest men I had ever seen," he 
 said. 
 
 "There, now!" cried Lady Judith, with a 
 VOL. I. X.
 
 306 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 rush of colour over her face, '' I am glad 
 other people see it too. You must hear him 
 play the organ in our church, when you come 
 CO see us It is something too beautiful to 
 listen to him. We have a very fine organ at 
 the Park, and when he came from Germany 
 — he studied there for three years — I made 
 papa let me have some lessons." 
 
 "So," thought Otway, "that was how it 
 began." 
 
 " I am surprised that he is satisfied to 
 stay in a little place like Stillingfort," said 
 Letty. 
 
 Again the wave of colour passed over 
 Lady Judith's face. *' It is his home," she 
 said, quite softly, ''and he is fond of the 
 place. But I am sorry sometimes he stays,' 
 she added, presently, in a different tone, *' for 
 he cannot associate pleasantly with all the 
 farmers and people about, and our set look 
 down upon him. It makes me so angry 
 sometimes to see young men, who can only
 
 OTWAV OBEYS ORDERS. 307 
 
 ride and shoot, taking no notice of him, or, 
 what is worse, snubbing him ! Papa allowed 
 us to ask him to the Park once or twice 
 when we had people staying with us, and I 
 was ashamed of the way the men treated him. 
 The women were civil enough," she added, 
 with an angry little laugh, "but that was 
 because he is so handsome. It was not as 
 trying for him, poor fellow, at Aunt Forster's, 
 for people did not know who he was." 
 
 One day, w^hen she was running on as 
 usual about the handsome organist, Letty, 
 somewhat to Otway's surprise, asked her 
 point blank if she knew anything of his 
 sisters. 
 
 " Alice lives at home with her father," 
 Lady Judith answered, "and I think Bella, 
 the other one, is married abroad." 
 
 "She is lady's maid to my brother's wife, 
 in India," Letty replied, "and she is married 
 to a soldier in my brother's regiment." 
 
 " Is that really true ?" Lady Judith cried ;
 
 308 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 and this time it was not a tinge of colour that 
 rose and passed quickly away, but her whole 
 face and throat grew scarlet. 
 
 " Perfectly true," answered Letty ; ** and it 
 is really quite curious the number of times 
 we have heard of these Rossiturs since Jack 
 first mentioned his wife's maid. I dare say 
 she will be here with them some day, when 
 Jack and Amy come home." 
 
 '' Have you noticed," said Letty to her 
 lover, a few days later, " that Lady Judith 
 has never mentioned the fascinating organist 
 since I told her his sister was Amy's maid .'*" 
 
 " 1 believe she Is over head and ears In 
 love with him," said Otway, ''and that her 
 friends are as blind as moles not to see what 
 Is going on." 
 
 '' She will never marry him ; she Is much 
 too proud." 
 
 "Then she ought not to break his heart." 
 
 " Do men's hearts ever break ?" 
 
 " Mine would if you threw me over."
 
 OTWAY OBFA'S ORDERS. 309 
 
 '* Suppose I try the experiment ? To tell 
 you the truth, I am getting " 
 
 " Too fond of me, I hope, to be so cruel." 
 
 " Not at all. Tired of you was what I was 
 going to say." 
 
 " Oh, Letty ! My love ! My darling !" 
 
 "Yes, honestly and truly. I said to myself 
 only this morning, and very seriously too, ' I 
 am getting tired of Herbert ; there is no 
 variety in him. He hung about me yester- 
 day ; he will hang about me to-day ; and 
 to-morrow will find him hanging still.' " 
 
 " What can I do when I love the very 
 ground you walk on ?" 
 
 "I am sorry for the ground if it bores it 
 as much as it does me." 
 
 " My darling, say you do not mean it ! No. 
 It is of no use for you to laugh at me. Here 
 I kneel at your feet until you say you care 
 just a little." 
 
 " And will you go, then, and not come 
 back for two hours ?"
 
 3IO A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " I promise not to come back until you bid 
 me." 
 
 '' Well, then — I do care just a little ; but 
 I very much dislike that trick you have 
 of falling on your knees before me every 
 moment. Now go !" 
 
 And he went. 
 
 But an hour had not passed before she 
 was looking for him everywhere. " Herbert ! 
 Herbert ! Has anyone seen Mr. Otway ?" 
 
 He was soon found when she wanted him, 
 and he came to her with a radiant face. 
 
 " You look as delighted as Orion does 
 when he is coming for a walk," she said. 
 '' I have such charming news for you. Papa 
 has just heard from Arthur Filmer — he is in 
 Jack's regiment, you know. He has arrived 
 in England on sick leave, and he wants to^ 
 know if he can come here for a few days. Is 
 not that delightful ? He will tell us all about 
 Jack !" 
 
 But Otway did not reply.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 LETTY GIVES HER OPINION. 
 
 Bur, happily for Otway's peace of mind, 
 Arthur Filmer, when he came, showed no 
 decided incHnation to fall in love with his old 
 playfellow Letty. He had heard of her en- 
 gagement from Jack, and he made Otway's 
 acquaintance with such evident pleasure, that 
 the latter could not but join the rest of the 
 family in their cordial welcome to the young 
 soldier. Letty's pleasure in his society was 
 frank and unaffected, but even her lover's 
 watchful eyes could find nothing in her 
 manner to supply food for jealousy. 
 
 Filmer's eyes were watchful also, but it 
 was not until he had been a week at the 
 Chase that he began to suspect that Letty
 
 312 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 was not, by any means, as devotedly in love 
 with her future husband as he was with her ; 
 and, giving much thought to his discovery, he 
 fell to wondering why she should marry a 
 man she did not particularly care for. Had 
 Filmer himself been of a different stamp, the 
 next question would probably have been, 
 *' Would it be possible for her to like some 
 other man better ?" But he was not given to 
 covet the goods that would not by fair means 
 fall to his share ; and, conscious that Letty 
 was not for him, he did not allow himself 
 the luxury of falling in love ; yet, at the 
 same time, he knew full well that had there 
 been no Herbert Otway in the way, that 
 bright winsome face would have done its 
 appointed work upon him fast enough. 
 
 Not being able to indulge himself in one 
 way, he felt that he must do so in another, 
 so he set himself to find out why she was 
 apparently so indifferent to her lover. It 
 happened that Otway had to go to town on
 
 LETTY GIVES HER OPINION. ^I^ 
 
 business soon after Christmas ; during his 
 absence Letty and Filmer were very much 
 thrown together, and, one afternoon, while 
 they were out riding, he boldly attacked her 
 on the subject. 
 
 " You may say what you please," he said, 
 " but you cannot deceive me ; you are not 
 what I call in love with him, and I am afraid 
 you will both be very unhappy." 
 
 *' But if he is satisfied, it is all right," Letty 
 answered. " I like him very much, and if I 
 do not tear my hair, and turn my face to the 
 wall, and weep while he is away from me for 
 a few days, I think I ought to be compli- 
 mented for my good sense, instead of being 
 scolded." 
 
 " No one wants you to tear your hair, and 
 behave like a maniac," replied Arthur, "but 
 surely there is something between the cold- 
 ness of an icicle and the fury of a lunatic. I 
 have watched you when you get letters from 
 him, and they might be from — well, from
 
 314 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 me, or your father, or Jack, for all you seenr 
 to care." 
 
 '* I think, oil the whole, I prefer Jack's 
 letters," she answered. " They are less — 
 what shall I say? — less monotonous. I know 
 exactly what Herbert's are before I open 
 them." 
 
 '' I wish you would tell me why you are 
 going to marry him," Fllmer broke In, 
 impatiently. 
 
 "Because I am! There Is a woman's 
 reason for you, and now I forbid you to talk 
 about him any more. Sufficient for the day, 
 yoii know !" and she gave him a saucy look. 
 "And I want to hear something more about 
 Jack and Amy. What were you saying to 
 Aunt Louise about her last night ? You 
 must not let the old lady or papa suspect that 
 she Is fast, you know ; please remember that. 
 But you may tell me, and I want to know 
 positively — Is she fast ?" 
 
 " I should not call her exactly fast ; to tell
 
 LETTY GIVES IIER OPINION. 315 
 
 you the truth, I think she is too lazy ; but 
 she cannot Hve without admiration and flat- 
 tery, and somehow, she contrives to make 
 everyone — every man, I mean — do exactly as 
 she wishes. I think I was about the only 
 one who did not fetch and carry willingly, 
 and, the consequence is, I am not a 
 favourite." 
 
 ** You do not like her, then?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I like her well enough, but I 
 should never fall in love with her, she is too 
 selfish ; and I confess it vexes me sometimes 
 to see the way Jack spoils her. She winds 
 him completely round her finger." 
 
 '' And is he jealous of her ?" 
 
 '' I am afraid he is. I know there have 
 been one or tw^o pitched battles already — 
 which she won — about her flirtations. I do 
 not think there is any harm in them, but she 
 likes to have men dangling about her ; and 
 there are women, you know, who do not seem 
 able to exist without writing and receiving
 
 3l6 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 little sentimental notes that really mean 
 nothing." 
 
 "Oh! she can write, then?" said Letty. 
 '' She never wrote to any of us since she was 
 married." 
 
 Filmer laughed. '' I do not think she is 
 much of a scribe," he said. 
 
 " I am sure I shall not care for her," said 
 Letty, decidedly. "I dislike women of that 
 kind very much. I do not think I ever met 
 one of them in the flesh, but they are very 
 common in books, and they generally make 
 mischief." 
 
 "Where Jack was wrong," said Filmer, 
 " was in not getting rid, at once, of that maid 
 she is so fond of — or so afraid of — I don't 
 know which it is. If ever there was a bad 
 lot on earth it's Bella Rossitur — or Mrs. 
 Pottinger, as she is now, worse luck for that 
 poor fellow Pottinger. By the way, he had 
 sun-stroke not long after he married her, and 
 I think he is very queer in his head at times.
 
 LETTY GIVES HER OPINION. 317 
 
 He and his wife lead a regular cat and dog 
 life, but somehow, after their worst quarrels 
 she gets round him again, and he Is ready to 
 kill anyone who says a word against her." 
 
 "Is she very handsome .^" 
 
 " Very ; remarkably clever too, and lady- 
 like In manner when she chooses ; and Jack 
 may say what he likes, but there Is an extra- 
 ordinary likeness between her and his w^ife ; 
 everyone sees it except Jack, and he gets 
 perfectly furious If It Is mentioned before 
 him, for Madam Rossltur Is not a favourite 
 of his. He would send her packing In no 
 time If he were not afraid of vexing his 
 
 wife." 
 
 " I had no Idea Jack was so foolish," Letty 
 
 exclaimed, angrily. " And that Is what comes 
 
 of being In love ; this wonderful love you talk 
 
 so much about, but which seems to me to 
 
 turn sensible men Into semi-idiots." 
 
 ''And women Into — what .'^" exclaimed 
 
 Filmer, much amused.
 
 3l8 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 " I have never seen a woman desperately 
 in love, so I do not know. Oh, yes, I believe 
 our Rector's wife, who is about three or four 
 months married, is supposed to be very much 
 in love with her husband. I can only judge 
 by the way she stares at him when he is 
 preaching ; I often long to throw a hymn 
 book at her head." 
 
 Fi.lmer laughed heartily. '' It is quite 
 wonderful to find a young lady so deter- 
 minately set against love and lovers as you 
 are," he said, "but, on the whole, I like the 
 good, old, silly fashion the best." 
 
 " I suppose," said Letty, calmly ignoring 
 this last remark, "you never heard of the 
 wonderful brother this woman Rossitur 
 has ?" 
 
 " Never. In what way is he wonderful ?" 
 
 '' As a musician ; he is organist of Stllllng- 
 fort Church, his native place ; he has written 
 some very pretty songs ; he is very hand- 
 some — the handsomest man I ever saw — I
 
 LETTV GIVES HER OPINION. 319 
 
 think ; and I am afraid Lord Stilllngfort's 
 only daughter, Lady Judith Forster, Is In 
 love with him." 
 
 *'Here It Is again," cried Fllmer. *'Love Is 
 not to be got rid of, you see." 
 
 "I do not object to it In this case," said 
 Letty. "There Is something romantic In 
 the Earl's daughter being in love with the 
 handsome organist, who is the son of a 
 farmer on her father's property. But you 
 should have seen Lady Judith's face when I 
 told her that young Rossitur's sister was 
 lady's maid to my brother's wife. Poor 
 thing ; I saw it was a blow ; and now suppose 
 we give up talking of love and lovers and 
 romance, and have a gallop. I know every 
 fence between this and the Chase, and Lll 
 race you home for a pair of gloves." 
 
 "A dozen if you like; but what would 
 Otway say ?" 
 
 "He w^ould race, too, I hope, if he were 
 here — come along."
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE WEDDING-DAY. 
 
 It was the eve of Letty Ersklne's wedding- 
 day ; long looked forward to, it had come at 
 last. They were all in town again ; every- 
 thing was ready, and Otway, scarcely able 
 to realise that his happiness was almost 
 within his grasp, went about during the 
 day that immediately preceded that fixed 
 for the wedding like a man in a dream. 
 
 Letty was restless, preoccupied ; strangely 
 uncertain in temper, and to her lover, if 
 possible, more undemonstrative than she 
 had been during the early days of her 
 engagement. She avoided being alone with 
 him, and her treatment of him, while it 
 gave him more than one pang of dis-
 
 THE WEDDING-DAY. 32 I 
 
 appointment and pain, made him long all 
 the more ardently for the moment when 
 the knowledge that she was his for ever- 
 more would break down the barrier raised 
 by her coldness and reserve. 
 
 He never guessed how, as the hours went 
 by and brought him nearer and nearer to the 
 moment he anticipated with such joy, she 
 shrank from leaving her home with this man 
 to whom she had pledged herself, believing 
 that, by-and-by, she would care for him and 
 be happy ; and when she questioned herself as 
 to the cause of her repugnance to the marriage 
 she could find no answer, save that she dis- 
 liked him for being less manly in his devotion 
 to her than she wished her husband to be. 
 
 It was a strange objection for a girl to 
 make to a lover, and Letty made it to herself 
 in perfect good faith. She had at times a 
 dim suspicion that it was not a valid objection, 
 so she never spoke of it to anyone, and she 
 fought against it, and even laughed at it 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 22 2 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 "Mv DEAR Mrs. Ogilvey, 
 
 '' I have not forgotten you, and I 
 am sorry to hear you are in trouble. Expect 
 me to luncheon to-morrow at two. 
 " Yours, 
 
 " Herbert Otwav." 
 
 He pushed the note aside, as soon as it 
 was written, and, opening a drawer, took out 
 a cabinet photograph of Letty Erskine in her 
 riding-dress, which, strange to say, she had 
 had taken to gratify a desire of his, and fell 
 to rapt contemplation of the sweet face he 
 loved. Needless to say, he knew every line 
 by heart already, but was he ever tired of 
 gazing at those saucy laughing eyes, and the 
 exquisite turn of the throat and chin ? The 
 likeness was an admirable one, as the artist 
 had, happily, caught one of his sitter's most 
 bewitching expressions, and Otway was such 
 a miser about the picture that he longed to 
 order the negative to be destroyed. How 
 Letty would have admired him, if he had had
 
 NO. 200, QUEEN S GATE TERRACE. 223 
 
 the audacity to say that he, and he only, 
 should possess a copy of that particular 
 photograph ; but he did nothing of the kind, 
 and, with the most amiable liberality, she 
 dispensed them far and wide among her 
 admirers. 
 
 It w^as with his mind still full of Letty's 
 charms, that Otway at length put his reply to 
 Mrs. Ogilvey into an envelope, and rang the 
 bell for his servant to take it to the post 
 without delay ; then he dressed and went 
 down to his chambers. 
 
 He dined at Halkin Street the same 
 evening. There was a large dinner-party, and 
 he hoped to sit next to Letty, but she was at 
 the other end of the table, laughing, talking 
 and enjoying herself with some man Otway 
 had never seen before. He had known her, 
 now in many moods, but he found her in a 
 new one on this evening ; she was in the 
 wildest spirits, but she scarcely spoke to him ; 
 he followed her about, as usual, and once or
 
 324 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 At length it was over. The last good- 
 bye was said — the last handful of rice was 
 thrown, and the bride and bridegroom started 
 on their short journey to Richmond. Otway 
 was radiant when he set out, but when he 
 stepped out of the carriage at the end of 
 the drive, there was a look of perplexity 
 and keen disappointment on his expressive 
 face. 
 
 What had gone wrong ? 
 
 He led Letty, in silence, to the drawing- 
 room, and left her there, while he dismissed 
 the smiling and obsequious coachman ; but 
 even when he was free to rejoin his bride 
 he lingered for full five minutes before he 
 entered the room, and as he turned the 
 handle of the door he muttered, "It is very 
 hard." 
 
 Letty was seated by the fire ; there was a 
 brilliant flush on her cheeks and her eyes 
 were sparkling, but, without looking at her, 
 Otway walked to the window and stood look-
 
 THE WEDDING-DAY. 325 
 
 ing at the view over the river, beautiful even 
 under the cold sunlight of early spring. 
 
 It was nearly ten minutes before he sud- 
 denly turned and faced her. " Letty," he 
 said, quietly, but his voice had in it a ring of 
 pain that was lost upon her, so absorbed was 
 she in her own view of the situation, " did 
 you tell me the truth as we drove down from 
 town, or were you only jesting, just to try 
 me ? For God's sake, my darling, let me 
 know the worst at once ; when you told me 
 you did not love me you gave me such a 
 blow that I was stunned by it ! I cannot 
 understand ! I cannot believe it ! I will not 
 believe it ! It is a disappointment so cruel — 
 so unexpected, that it unmans me — I cannot 
 bear it !" and he put up his hands as if to shut 
 out some hideous object. As he did so some- 
 thing between a sneer and a smile passed over 
 Letty's lovely mouth. 
 
 " He will cry presently," she said to her- 
 self. Then she said aloud, quite calmly and
 
 326 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 coldly, '* What I told you Is quite true. I 
 am sorry It hurts you so much, but of what 
 use Is It to say I love you when I know I do 
 not? I have been uncertain about It for a 
 long time, but now that we are married, I 
 know the mistake I have made. But per- 
 haps, If — If you would give me a little time to 
 get used to the feeling that what Is done can- 
 not be undone, I may not dislike you quite as 
 much as I do to-day. Just now, I feel that 
 there Is no one In the world so — so — I really 
 must say It, or you will not understand — so 
 obnoxious to me as you are." 
 
 If she had stuck a knife deep Into his heart 
 he could not have endured a keener pang of 
 pain. For a few seconds he looked at her 
 with half-Incredulous amazement, as If ex- 
 pecting that a smile or glance would betray 
 the Ill-timed jest, but she looked at him with 
 such cold, unloving eyes, that he knew she 
 must be In earnest ; and being In cruel, ter- 
 rible earnest himself he put the finishing
 
 THE WEDDING-DAY. 327 
 
 ( 
 
 Stroke to his discomfiture by stooping to 
 beg for the love he so ardently desired. 
 
 " Letty ! Letty !" he cried, as he threw 
 himself at her feet and tried to clasp her 
 in his arms, "if you do not love me I shall 
 die !" 
 
 A great wave, not of love, but of passionate 
 contempt, swept over her as she heard this 
 abject appeal ; if he had but given back scorn 
 for scorn he would have conquered, but the 
 girl who had never known suffering herself, 
 and for whom the beauty of self-surrender 
 had no meaning, was deaf to the voice of 
 pain. 
 
 She drew herself away, and thrusting out 
 her hands to push him back, cried sharply, 
 "You call yourself a man and say such words 
 as those ? I not only do not love you, but I 
 despise you ! Go away and leave me to 
 myself." 
 
 Stung to the quick, he rose to his feet with 
 a bound ; a deep flush of mortification and
 
 328 A GAME OF CHANCE. 
 
 wounded pride was on his face, and his eyes, 
 had she but seen them, were flashing fire ! 
 But not one word did he utter, and it was 
 only by the bang of the door behind him that 
 she knew he was gone. 
 
 When she saw him pass outside the 
 French window she gave a great sigh of 
 reHef; then pressing her handkerchief to 
 her eyes, she remained motionless, save for 
 the quick panting of her bosom, which be- 
 trayed that she was forcing back hysterical 
 sobs. 
 
 It was nearly two hours before Otway 
 came back. During his solitary ramble 
 among the leafless trees in Richmond Park, 
 he had fought a bitter fight, and won a 
 victory that was scarcely less disastrous than 
 a defeat ; but he was a different man when, 
 with the keen sharp wind of the March 
 evening blowing in his face, he re-entered 
 the cottage. In a short time, he and his 
 bride would, once more, be face to face,.
 
 THE WEDDING-DAY. 329 
 
 but if her mood was changed so also, was 
 his. 
 
 When she pushed him from her, he for 
 the first time, saw himself and his slavish 
 devotion with her contemptuous eyes, and 
 never again should she have the opportunity 
 given her to address "him as she had done 
 that afternoon. *' By Heaven!" he said, 
 " she must kneel to me before one word of 
 love passes my lips again." 
 
 But there was another shock in store for 
 him. When, at eight o'clock, dinner was 
 announced, Mrs. Otway was nowhere to be 
 found. 
 
 END OF FIRST VOLUME.
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 TILLOTSON AND SON, MAWDSLEY STREET 
 
 BOLTON