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 HOOKS OF STEEL
 
 
 J-Tooks of Steel 
 
 BY 
 
 Helen Prothero Lewis 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "A LADY OF MY OWN," "HER HEART'S DESIRE," &C. 
 
 " The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with Hooks of Steel.' 
 
 — Shakspere. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES— VOL. I 
 
 Xonfton 1894 
 
 HUTCHINSON & CO. 
 
 34 PATERNOSTER ROW
 
 
 O 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. 
 II. 
 
 in. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 ORPHEUS WITH HIS LUTE. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 MY PRISON HOUSE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 32 
 
 58 
 
 83 
 
 in 
 
 139 
 
 167 
 190 
 212 

 
 BOOK I. 
 ORPHEUS WITH HIS LUTE.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 IBook I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Orpheus is dead. Dark as Erebus is his sleeping 
 place on the Thracian hill. No more do the savage 
 beasts of the forest in listening to him forget 
 their wildness, or the mountains bow their heads 
 to hear him sing. 
 
 But his lute is in the heavens and makes 
 sweet music amongst the stars. 
 
 Sometimes an echo of that music floats down 
 to earth, but it is not given to all to hear. The 
 nightingales heard it as they wept round the grave 
 of the dead musician, and ever since have sung 
 of that heavenly strain. Ever and anon a mortal 
 hears it. His eyes are divinely opened when
 
 4 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 he is gentle and pure in heart. The celestial song 
 passes into his soul and remains there, and the 
 strange power of Orpheus becomes his. Sweet- 
 ness and harmony flow from him, and he can 
 charm the wildest hearts by his gentle influence. 
 
 I knew one who had this power. He came 
 into my life in its springtime, when the rose of 
 youth was his and mine, and he touched my 
 heart with his sweet and constant song of love, 
 as Orpheus centuries ago touched the heart of 
 the nymph Eurydice. 
 
 But alas! My wild nature proved stronger 
 than his music. It gained dominion over me, my 
 ears grew deaf to the sweet pleading — all the 
 music was in vain. At length the singer wearied. 
 Full of wounded love and sorrow, he took up his 
 lute and wandered away to the mountains. 
 The beautiful song died away in the far distance. 
 I missed it when it ceased and looked round for 
 the singer; but he was gone. Then, too late, I
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 5 
 
 realized that without his music it was a dark and 
 dreary world. 
 
 I purpose to tell you how I wrecked my for- 
 tune and mv love. Wonder not, kind reader, 
 that I lay bare my heart, and give to the world 
 my story. It is meant as a warning note to all 
 who shut their ears to the sweet music of beautiful 
 souls : to all who trample on loving hearts and 
 strike down kindly, outstretched hands: to all 
 who, like the man with the muck rake, stoop 
 down to grasp at bubbles unheeding of the love 
 that offers them a crown. Nymph of to-day ! Sis- 
 ter ! Treading as I trod, heedlessly, along the path 
 of life, if, as you read it comes over you that 
 you too have been deaf to an Orpheus, repent 
 ere the singer wearies and his song dies away 
 in the distance. 
 
 It is a difficult task I have set myself. Very 
 few people commit themselves actually to paper; 
 put themselves unshrinkingly down in black and
 
 6 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 white. If the world wants the real man it flies 
 to the biographer, feeling sure that by him every 
 hidden weakness, every carefully kept secret, 
 every sacred detail of the hearth and home will 
 be unearthed and flaunted remorselessly in the 
 eye of day. The biographer knows no reserve : 
 to him nothing is consecrate, nothing is inviolable. 
 The gratified world learns that the celebrated 
 man changed his socks four times a week, and 
 his shirt but twice; that he had a wart just below 
 his collar, and a wife who drank. And it finds 
 these details so interesting that a second edition 
 of the book is called for immediately. 
 
 Very different is the autobiographer. He is 
 loth, as a rule, to show you his real self. He 
 would rather you did not know his wife drank, 
 and he would be very likely not to mention the 
 wart just below his collar. 
 
 I may fail sometimes in perfect openness, though 
 I honestly wish to be open and true. But I will
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 7 
 
 not fail knowingly, nor deliberately hide aught 
 that can bear upon my story. 
 
 Little shall I grace my cause, 
 In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience, 
 I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver 
 Of my whole course of love.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I AM a girl, by name Rosamund Gwynne, and, 
 as I write this, am a little over twenty-eight 
 years of age. Perhaps some of my younger sisters 
 may think that is rather old to be a "girl". Let 
 them wait until they themselves are twenty-eight, 
 possibly they will then think otherwise. 
 
 My birthplace was a sweet spot amidst the 
 mountains of Wales. The name of our village 
 .was "Llanfihangel-Aberbythich" which, being 
 rendered into English means: " The-church-of 
 the - angel -at -the -meeting -of -the -waters -which -is 
 never-dry, " and our house was called " Grwachel 
 Foddi, " which means : " Take-care-you-are-not-
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 9 
 
 drowned. " Close to us was a hill called " Wedi- 
 Boddi, " which means " You-are-drowned", so we 
 had both warning and illustration. No one ever 
 was drowned because there was no water nearer 
 than the reservoir, which was two miles off and 
 carefully railed in. But the caution was kind, 
 all the same. Ah me ! I jest over these quaint 
 old-time, misapplied names, but it is with tears 
 in my eyes, for they touch my heart as the high 
 sounding untranslatable names of English places 
 never can. 
 
 I was an only child. My mother — no, I cannot 
 write of my mother. In my heart there is a 
 Holy of Holies. Between the kissing wings of 
 love it lies. The mystery of death enwraps it, 
 undying memory broods over it, there in that 
 sacred place abides my mother. 
 
 Of my father I also, though for different reasons, 
 find it difficult to write. He left when I was 
 very young. He took the governess with him,
 
 IO HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 I was glad of that. Glad of it at the time, not 
 understanding that it meant terrible grief to my 
 mother. Later, I began to understand that there 
 was a blank in that loved one's heart which not 
 even I, her little daughter, could fill. She taught 
 me, I was her companion by night and day, and 
 there were times when I was an amazed hearer 
 of grief too great to be restrained. These occa- 
 sional glimpses into the blackness of desolation 
 alone clouded the brightness of my childhood. 
 Love and care surrounded my footsteps, tenderness 
 was the atmosphere of my home. The gentle 
 presence seems near me now as I write. Me- 
 mories of those early days throng upon me, and 
 more especially one in which I am lying in a 
 small white bed by an open ivy-framed window, 
 happy and drowsy in the summer dusk. By my 
 side is the loved one holding my hand, so that 
 my spirit may pass unfrightened into the world 
 of sleep. And, past the window, skim those won-
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. II 
 
 derful birds, the swifts, uttering the strange 
 shrill cry that so speaks of summer. Unfading 
 is this memory of my childhood. 
 
 When I was twelve years old my mother 
 died. Dressed in crape, and weeping, bewildered 
 and amazed by the sudden loss of my lov.ed one, 
 I was sent by my great-uncle, Lawrence Dillwyn, 
 to school. A very cheap boarding-school at 
 Exbourne, not at all the kind of place to which 
 my mother would have sent her little daughter. 
 But Lawrence Dillwyn was now my only living 
 relative. When they wrote to inform him of my 
 mother's death, he wrote back, directing that 
 everything should be sold, and that I should be 
 sent to this particular school, there to remain 
 until he should be pleased to receive me in his 
 house. There were none to gainsay him, and to 
 this school I was accordingly sent. The parlour- 
 maid took me there, a servant who had ever 
 been a little stiff with me because I was trou-
 
 12 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 blesome. But when she saw my helpless grief 
 and the meagreness of the home to which she 
 was about to consign me, a delicately nurtured 
 child, her heart melted within her, and after she 
 had bidden me farewell, she went out sobbing 
 through the doorway. With her, departed the last 
 trace of home. 
 
 O parents, uncles, and guardians, never send 
 your girl charges to a cheap boarding school! If 
 money be scarce let a reduced gentlewoman 
 come in and teach them every morning— there are 
 crowds of them who would be thankful to be so 
 employed— or educate them yourselves, but don't 
 send them to a cheap boarding school. Life being 
 short, time does not admit of my descanting at 
 full length on the evils of such institutions, but 
 I can at least speak of their effect upon myself. 
 In every way I degenerated ; I was uneasily 
 conscious of it myself, even at that early age. 
 Especially did I degenerate in manner, tone of
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 3 
 
 thought, and style of conversation, as you will 
 readily believe when you have followed me further. 
 Children are essentially imitative: at home I had 
 had a lovely model, and my old nurse was wont 
 to observe that, with all her naughtiness, Miss 
 Rosamund had the ways of a little lady. At 
 school the atmosphere was very different. Miss 
 Skinner, the head of the school, constantly spoke 
 of herself as a lady, but she was apt to forget 
 it when in a bad temper. Poor thing! she had 
 a great deal to do. There were forty girls in 
 the school, all boarders, and some of them very 
 young, and she had only one assistant, a Miss 
 Jones. According to the circular these two taught 
 English in all its branches, French, German, and 
 Italian acquired abroad, painting in water colours 
 and oils, piano, violin, and guitar, calisthenics, 
 needlework, dancing, and scientific cookery, and 
 when desired Greek and Latin. Besides all this 
 there was housekeeping, and marketing, and
 
 14 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 gardening, and account keeping, not to mention 
 the dressing of small children, the nursing of 
 sick ones, the care of wardrobes, the taking of 
 daily walks, the interviewing of parents, and the 
 punishment of culprits. Under such circumstances, 
 it was scarcely to be expected that we should 
 get much individual attention, nor were we inclined 
 to quarrel with our governesses on that score. 
 In fact, the less attention they gave us the better 
 we were pleased. 
 
 I cannot say from what class my girl com- 
 panions were taken. They were all absolutely 
 unrefined, but then refinement belongs to no class. 
 Since every Jack became a gentleman, there's 
 many a gentle person made a Jack. I have 
 known labourers with the manners and feelings 
 of gentlemen, and I have known ladies indulge 
 in conversation which might possibly be tabooed 
 in the servants' hall. I have nothing to say 
 against the poor girls. They suffered under the
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 5 
 
 same disadvantages that I did. We all combined 
 in hating Miss Skinner, and faute de mieux took 
 Miss Jones for our model. She was a stout 
 young woman, by no means dainty in her personal 
 habits, and with a weakness for peppermint. But 
 she had a pretty face, and a broad Dorsetshire 
 accent which we admired immensely and took 
 the greatest pains to acquire. 
 
 I will pass quickly over the first year of my 
 school life. The first six months I cried a good 
 deal and suffered from chronic and violent home- 
 sickness. I rebelled against my meals, sickened 
 at sight of the dirty tablecloths, looked with 
 aversion upon the six girls who shared my 
 bedroom, and thought the smell of peppermint 
 disgusting. By degrees all this wore off, and I 
 managed to accommodate myself to my surround- 
 ings. Appetite returned, squeamishness left me, 
 and I learned to enjoy my companions' society, 
 and to converse, like them, with remarkable freedom
 
 1 6 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 and choiceness of expression. We were not " kept 
 down" by overwork in our school. English in 
 all its branches consisted of reading, writing, and 
 arithmetic. Italian and German by tacit consent 
 were never mentioned either by the governesses 
 or their pupils, and profound silence was also 
 maintained concerning the violin and guitar. 
 French was of a most elementary description; no 
 one seemed to get beyond "Have you the green 
 coat of the carpenter's mother?" which came very 
 early in the exercises. We discovered later that 
 Miss Skinner and Miss Jones had never crossed 
 the Channel, though they had acquired so many 
 languages abroad, but the discovery made no 
 disagreeable impression upon our minds. We 
 also discovered that neither of our instructresses 
 knew a word of Greek or Latin, but then, as Miss Jones 
 observed, these dead languages were not taught 
 unless desired, and as they never were desired, 
 why should she know how to teach them !
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 7 
 
 The pianos received a great deal of attention; 
 there were but two between the forty of us. 
 Lessons on the instrument were few and far 
 between ; but we cared little for that, and enjoyed 
 far more "practising" alone. The nature of that 
 practising I leave to the imagination of the reader. 
 Miss Jones used to look quite hot sometimes 
 when both pianos were going at the same time, 
 and observed once that two cats on a house-top 
 were less trying to listen to, for they did get 
 pianissimo sometimes. 
 
 One class came twice a week with unfailing 
 regularity : the Literature-and-Sewing class. We 
 mended Miss Skinner's stockings then, and our 
 own clothes, and the house-linen, and we read 
 aloud Shakspere by turns. It was soon ascertained 
 that I mended very badly but read aloud un- 
 commonly well, so my turn to read came very 
 often. It was my great delight, my one perfect 
 pleasure. I have loved Shakspere all my life ; 
 
 vol. 1. 2
 
 1 8 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 to me he has ever been the greatest wonder of 
 the world. Even in those far-off school-days, 
 when I was but a little lassie, too young to 
 understand half the great master said, I loved 
 him, and delighted in the grand majesty of his 
 utterances. 
 
 But alas ! I confess it with shame, I put even 
 that master mind to base uses. I discovered by 
 degrees that nothing annoyed Miss Skinner more, 
 especially when she was already angry, than to 
 be talked to in Shaksperian language. Though 
 she presided over the Literature class, she was 
 never quite certain, when I became Shaksperian, 
 how much of what I said was Shakspere's, and 
 how much was my own, and this put her to a 
 great disadvantage. Afraid tc betray her ignor- 
 ance she seldom attempted a war of words with 
 me ; either she let my remarks pass in angry 
 silence, or she bade me harshly hold my tongue. 
 My companions also occasionally found my pre-
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 9 
 
 di lection for Shakspere disturbing. I remember 
 well exasperating them one night beyond the 
 bounds of patience. 
 
 It was early in April, and I had been over a 
 year at the school without once leaving it. I 
 think I was rather a favourite with the girls. 
 True, I annoyed them constantly, but there was 
 a good deal of esprit de corps about me, and 
 they appreciated it. On this occasion we had 
 retired for the night, and I lay in bed side by 
 side with my six sleeping companions-of-the-bed- 
 chamber. Opposite the beds, against the wall, 
 were ranged seven small deal washhand-stands, 
 and between beds and stands was a bare space 
 of uncarpeted floor. To the right was the door, 
 to the left the window. The blind had been torn 
 down in a scuffle that morning, and the pale 
 moonlight crept in and lay upon the floor. 'Twas 
 very tempting, that space of uncarpeted floor, 
 I could not resist it. I rose teeming with Shak-
 
 20 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 spere, and silently arrayed myself in my top sheet. 
 This sheet had been overlooked at the last Litera- 
 ture class, and had a large hole in it, most 
 convenient for the eyes. My next act was to 
 stand near the window and give a blood-curd- 
 ling groan. Instantly a row of white figures 
 started up in the line of narrow beds. 
 
 " What is it ?" exclaimed six voices affright- 
 edly. 
 
 I began to strut up and down the moonlit 
 floor declaiming again and again: 
 
 "'I am thy father's spirit: 
 Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night.' " 
 
 At first, though sleepy and half frightened, they 
 laughed a little, but after a time they got tired 
 of their father's spirit, and begged me to come 
 to bed. 
 
 " Never ! " I exclaimed. " I will make night 
 hideous. "
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 21 
 
 Then I gave some more blood-curdling groans 
 and continued to strut up and down and wave 
 myself about in the moonlight. In vain did my 
 companions entreat me to stop or Miss Skinner 
 would discover me. I was far too excited to 
 heed their warnings. 
 
 " I cannot stop, " I exclaimed, " I must do it 
 to-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow, I must 
 creep in this petty pace from day to day like a 
 wave o' th' sea, and murder him that first cries 
 •Hold, enough!'" ■ 
 
 More wavings in the moonlight followed. The 
 patience of my companions was exhausted. Isabel 
 Sturgeon, the eldest, flung her slipper at me, and 
 Amelia Macfarlane, the youngest of us all, tired, 
 and bereft of hope, began to cry loudly. 
 
 " Rest, rest, perturbed spirit, " I exclaimed, rush- 
 ing desperately to the latter's bed, "I will go 
 squeak and gibber in the Roman Streets. The 
 hurly-burly 's done."
 
 22 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 It was too late. Miss Skinner had been 
 awakened : we could hear her slip-shod feet 
 approaching. The girls cowered back on their 
 pillows, and the little one ceased her loud cries 
 and whimpered softly. The next moment the 
 door was flung open and our governess entered, 
 her tall thin figure wrapped in a scant grey 
 dressing-gown, beneath which appeared her lean 
 and slippered feet. She held herself, as usual, 
 very erect, and bore a lighted candle in her hand. 
 The light caught her face, making her grey 
 dishevelled locks shine, and her angry eyes gleam. 
 Involuntarily as I looked at her I thought of the 
 witches in Macbeth. 
 
 "Rosamund, what are you doing?" she asked 
 sternly, in a voice shaking with rage. 
 
 My reputation was at stake. I felt I must 
 not show craven fear before my companions, 
 but be bold as a Nemean Lion if I wished 
 to retain their admiration, so I answered boldly,
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 23 
 
 peering at her through the hole in the sheet : 
 
 "'Sleeping within my orchard, Madam, 
 My custom always in the afternoon.'" 
 
 " Hold your tongue, you impertinent girl. Why 
 have you been frightening Amelia, and how 
 dare you tear holes in my sheets in the dead of 
 night?" 
 
 The witch was beside herself with anger. Her 
 grey tresses trembled round her face, so strong was 
 the force of the passion that was shaking her. 
 
 Pleased with the excitement I was causing I 
 answered coolly : 
 
 " 'Thou canst not say I did it : never shake 
 Thy gory locks at me.' " 
 
 Miss Skinner grew crimson, and lost all command 
 over herself. "How dare you?" she cried, and 
 lifted her hand and struck me a sharp blow on 
 the side of the head. 
 
 I staggered for a moment beneath it, but
 
 24 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 recovered myself swiftly and stood erect, so full of 
 wild anger that for a moment I could not speak. 
 
 It must have been a funny picture; Miss 
 Skinner, tall and lean, in her scant grey dressing- 
 gown, facing me in my sheet, and the row of 
 girls sitting up in their narrow' beds, their eyes 
 fixed on us anxiously. Unfortunately I could 
 not see it, for my involuntary stagger had dis- 
 arranged the sheet, and the hole had slipped 
 away from my eyes. It was impossible to remain 
 in this position; so, after a moment of stunned 
 silence, I began to search for the hole, struggling 
 like a blind fury amongst the white folds. I 
 found it at last upon my chest, and seizing its 
 ragged edges, I tore the sheet asunder with 
 passionate violence and flung it round my feet 
 upon the floor. 
 
 " Rosamund ! " exclaimed Miss Skinner, but the 
 Nemean lion was roused fully now, and could not 
 be checked with a word.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 25 
 
 " Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! " exclaimed I 
 vehemently, pointing at the same time to the door. 
 
 A chorus of low, frightened "Ohs!" came from 
 the beds, and Miss Skinner turned quite white. 
 I fully expected a second blow, but, to do the 
 poor old creature justice, I really think, judging 
 by the expression her face wore, that she already 
 regretted the first, and now only longed to put 
 an end to a scene that was imperilling her 
 dignity. She looked at me helplessly for a 
 moment, evidently quite nonplussed; then did the 
 best thing she could have done under the circum- 
 stances, vacated the field. With all the dignity 
 she could muster she walked slowly out of the 
 room, and left me standing victorious in the midst 
 of it, with my battle sheet around me. Of course 
 it was quite evident that she wished me to under- 
 stand I was too wicked for further notice, but I 
 did not choose to take it so. 
 
 " She has gone, " I exclaimed hysterically, " gone,
 
 26 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 as I commanded her." Then the Nemean lion 
 broke down, and, weeping, I crept back to my bed. 
 
 " No one has ever struck me before, " I sobbed. 
 " Oh, my mother, my mother ! I do want you so 
 dreadfully. Am I never to go back to any 
 home ! Must I always stay here where everything 
 is horrid, and dirty, and ugly, and no one loves 
 me? Oh, my face hurts where she struck me, it 
 hurts, it hurts ! " 
 
 "She was a beast to hit you like that," said- 
 Isabel, sympathetically. 
 
 "Never mind," said Joanna Buckley, the girl 
 who slept next but one to me. "Don't cry, it 
 makes the eyes bad. The holidays are coming, 
 and you're to go away for a bit then, aren't 
 you, to stay with your great-uncle in his castle?" 
 
 " Yes, " I answered, calming a little, and drying 
 my eyes on the blanket. "He said I was to 
 come at the end of this term for a fortnight, to 
 show him how I was improving. "
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 27 
 
 "Did you see his letter?" asked Joanna. 
 
 " No, it was not shown me, " I answered. 
 
 "I did. I found it in Skinner's pocket when 
 I was mending the seam of her afternoon gown, 
 and I read it when she wasn't looking. Third 
 class you're to travel, and a small black bag to 
 save cabs. He doesn't seem very handsome 
 about money. You don't even get a penny a 
 week pocket-money like the rest of us." 
 
 " I don't care about money if I can get away 
 from Skinner," I answered; and then, worn out by 
 the conflicting emotions of the night, I suddenly 
 dropped asleep. 
 
 O dearie me ! I lived to regret my pranks 
 upon that moonlit, uncarpeted floor. Bitter punish- 
 ment awaited me, though it did not fall upon my 
 defenceless head at once. I was, of course, made 
 to mend the sheet, and being a little conscience- 
 stricken I did it to the best of my ability, and 
 made a very tidy job of it. Also, for the rest of
 
 28 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 the term I was banished from the Literature class, 
 and Shakspere became a forbidden joy. Butter 
 and pudding were also denied me at meal times, 
 a very favourite form of punishment with Miss 
 Skinner, but all these things were as trifles to 
 one who, like myself, expected a speedy emanci- 
 pation. An emancipation that would last a whole 
 fortnight, 'twas delightful to think of. I drew 
 vivid pictures of my uncle's castle, and of myself 
 revelling there amidst unlimited butter and 
 pudding, and endless editions of Shakspere. 
 
 " Breaking-up day " came at last. A few parents 
 came in person to take their daughters away, 
 saw the prizes given, and partook of tea in the 
 drawing-room. Neither parents nor prizes came 
 to me and I was glad when the ceremony was 
 over. All discipline was cast aside then, and the 
 girls rushed to their rooms to pack and get ready 
 for their departure. I was rushing up with them, 
 when suddenly I remembered I was to take a
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 29 
 
 small black bag, so I went up to Miss Skinner 
 and asked for one. 
 
 " A small black bag ! " she said sternly, " what 
 do you want with a small black bag?" 
 
 " To save cabs. It was in the letter ; don't you 
 remember ? " I said incautiously. 
 
 "How do you know what was in that letter ?" 
 she asked sharply. 
 
 I made no answer. My thoughtlessness had 
 led me into a scrape, but I did not mean to 
 betray a companion-of-the-bedchamber. 
 
 " So you have been sneaking and reading letters 
 behind my back, have you ? " went on Skinner 
 angrily. "Well, it is only of a piece with the 
 rest of your conduct, though I did think you 
 were above sneaking. I'll give you a letter to 
 read this time, and you shall see how you like it. 
 Here ! Take this up to your room and read it, and 
 you'll soon see you need no black bag. Black bag 
 indeed! I never saw such a bold, wicked child."
 
 30 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 I took the open letter she held out to me, 
 and went up to my room. It was from my 
 great-uncle, my mother's uncle, who was sup- 
 posed to be very rich and who lived in a castle. 
 He was a relation I had never seen. It was 
 at his expense I was being fed, clothed, and edu- 
 cated. I had no reason to suppose his letter would 
 be unkind, yet dull forebodings knocked at my 
 heart as I sat down to read it. Around me were 
 my companions packing joyously. Thus it ran, 
 the fatal letter: — 
 
 " The Castle, 
 " Wildacre Common. 
 
 -'My dear Rosamund, 
 
 " In consequence of a letter just received from 
 your kind instructress, Miss Skinner, describing 
 your profane and destructive conduct, I must 
 refuse to receive you in my Castle for the Easter 
 vacation as had been arranged. I cannot enter-
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 3 I 
 
 tain a child who uses bad language, and wantonly 
 destroys property. I value my property : besides, 
 I am really very poor. I have to pay the Lord 
 of the Manor an annuity, and my Common, 5,000 
 acres in extent, has to be kept in a state of good 
 preservation, which leaves great shortness of 
 money for household expenditure. Under these 
 circumstances, I think it will be best for you to 
 remain where you are until you reach the age 
 of seventeen, and are old enough to leave school 
 altogether. I regret to postpone our meeting, 
 but travelling, even third class, is expensive, and 
 there would be nothing gained by your travelling 
 to and fro. Please destroy no more sheets. I 
 have had to send seven-and-sixpence to replace 
 the one you have ruined. 
 
 " Believe me to remain, 
 
 " Your affectionate uncle, 
 " Lawrence Dillwyn. " 
 "Trior's day."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Stunned and miserable I sat on the bed when 
 I had finished reading the letter. Four years to 
 a child is an eternity, and emancipation might 
 have lain the other side the grave, for all the joy 
 the thought of it brought to me. The girls soon 
 saw there was something wrong and came crowd- 
 ing round me. I let Isabel take the letter from 
 my limp hand and read it aloud to the others. 
 
 " Well ! " she exclaimed when she had finished, 
 " there's a stingy uncle ! Bad language indeed ! 
 It's to save your railway fare he does this, it's 
 as plain as a pikestaff. And there's nowhere he 
 
 can board you so cheap as with Skinner. Oh, 
 
 32
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 33 
 
 I'd like to pay him out for this ! Why, the 
 man can't even spell : just look how he's spelt 
 Thursday. Who ever saw it spelt 'Thor's day' 
 before ! " 
 
 " It's Skinner is at the bottom of it all, " said 
 Joanna indignantly. "She wrote him a pack of 
 mean lies, I can see by this letter. That sheet 
 has been no more replaced than I have. Rosa- 
 mund made a very tidy job of it, and it's back 
 on her bed now. I'd pay out Skinner if I could. 
 It pays her to keep Rosamund four years straight 
 on end, that's where it is." 
 
 Oh, yes ! They were all very indignant and 
 sympathetic, but that did me small good. No- 
 thing they could say touched me or comforted me 
 in the slightest. I sat on the edge of my bed 
 motionless and dry-eyed, and felt as if I had 
 been turned into stone. The girls resumed their 
 packing at length, whispering to each other as 
 they moved about the room, and every now and 
 
 vol. 1. 3
 
 34 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 then casting a commiserating glance at me. 
 When all was ready they put on their hats and 
 jackets, and then they congregated in a corner, 
 and there was much agitated whispering and a 
 great searching of pockets and jingling of coppers. 
 Then they approached me looking strangely 
 sheepish, Isabel a little in advance. 
 
 " Rosamund, " she said, " you know those shil- 
 ling Shaksperes in the shop in the High Street, 
 the ones you're always longing for when we 
 walk past. Well, we subscribed two-pence each, 
 that's a shilling, and you're to buy a Shakspere 
 with it the first time you can slip out on the 
 sly. And we'll be back in a fortnight, and when 
 we come we'll pay out old Skinner for treating 
 you so shamefully." So saying she placed the 
 collection in my lap. 
 
 Dear girls! I can see you now, standing 
 awkwardly before me in your cheap ill-fitting 
 clothes, with your shabby trunks behind you.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 35 
 
 Not one of you was pleasing to look at in reality, 
 but to me at that moment you were transfigured, 
 and appeared what all unselfish people are in a 
 fair way to become, beautiful as angels in robes 
 of light. I looked up at them, and the gate of 
 my tears was opened. Taking up my black silk 
 apron I covered my face with it, and sobbed 
 amongst the coppers, and my heart went out to 
 my companions-of-the-bedchamber. Their coppers 
 were to them what pounds are to some people, 
 each had given me a fortnight's pocket-money, 
 just on the eve of their holiday which they had 
 been saving up for. Poor dear girls ! Never will 
 I forget you. You all came from poor and 
 sordid homes and went to lives of drudgery, but, 
 please God, I shall have sweetened life for all of 
 you before I die. 
 
 " Good-bye, Rosamund, don't cry, we'll be back 
 soon, " said Isabel, and then she kissed me. There 
 were sympathetic tears in her own eyes as she
 
 36 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 did so, and she sniffled a good deal into her 
 pocket-handkerchief. It was a singularly dirty- 
 handkerchief, but I could have had the loan of 
 it if I had liked, or of anything else that was 
 hers, so let no one think the worse of the owner. 
 Ten minutes later they had gone, and I was alone 
 in the room. 
 
 There I and Sorrow sat. I tried to stop crying 
 but could not, so bitter a sense of home-sickness 
 and desolation was upon me. At length I went 
 to the window, threw it open, and thrust my 
 feverish convulsed face out into the cold air. It 
 was a very wet world I looked out upon. The 
 earth was soaked with rain, and the trees waved 
 and dripped in the garden of our neighbour. A 
 shower had just passed, and dark, low hanging 
 clouds showed that another was imminent. As 
 I leaned out, I longed, with a longing that was 
 absolute pain, for my mother-home in Wales. 
 It is curious, but to this day an interval between
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 37 
 
 two showers gives me a feeling of home-sickness, 
 and makes me long for Wales. I think it is the 
 effect of early associations, which have a stronger 
 influence on the mind than aught in life besides. 
 Whispers from the vanished past mingle with 
 the breath of the fresh rain-laden wind ; vague 
 memories of childish days haunt the gleaming 
 puddles, the dripping hedges, the diamond-spangled 
 grass ; dear and familiar is the grey far-off line 
 of the advancing rain, which comes like a mes- 
 senger from over the mountains. No one who is 
 not familiar with them can imagine the delight 
 and sense of refreshment given by constant 
 showers. The earth is so refreshed and rejoicing. 
 Its breath is like a song of praise as it rises to 
 the kindly, down-sweeping clouds. Like sweetest 
 incense is the fresh scent of the grass and flowers ; 
 like loveliest jewels are the hanging raindrops; 
 calm and sweet is the line of yellow on the horizon, 
 beyond the hills. It may be difficult to believe,
 
 38 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 but a true Welshwoman loves the damp, rejoices 
 in a shower, and exults in a storm. 
 
 My tears continued to fall as I leaned from 
 my window and watched the sweeping clouds, 
 but after a little time, chancing to look down to 
 the left, I saw a sight which suddenly checked 
 them. A fine large house stood next to ours, 
 half hidden by trees, through which its many 
 windows glittered on sunny days like great 
 diamonds. It was surrounded by a beautiful 
 garden which, on our side, sloped down to a low 
 wall which was also the boundary line of Skinner's 
 little strip of flower-beds. These flower-beds lay 
 beneath my window and now, as I looked down 
 upon them, I saw, leaning against the further side 
 of the boundary wall, a tall boy watching me. 
 Nay, perhaps he was rather too old to be called 
 a boy, we'll call him a young gentleman. 
 
 I had never seen him before, but at the first 
 glance I could perceive that he was superior —
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 39 
 
 superior, at any rate, to us of the boarding-school. 
 He wore a knickerbocker suit of pale grey, very 
 good clothes indeed, and he looked altogether the 
 sort of boy to have plenty of pocket-money. His 
 attitude too, was superior, as he leaned with careless 
 grace against the wall, and there was something 
 proud in the way he held his head. He had a 
 bright kind face, nevertheless my first feeling at 
 sight of him was one of anger. His superiority 
 annoyed me, and it mortified me excessively that 
 he should have seen me cry. 
 
 " Go away, you horrid mongrel, " I called out 
 to him. " Be somewhat scanter of your maiden 
 presence. " 
 
 The young gentleman started. Then he straight- 
 ened himself, raised his eyebrows, and gazed 
 at me with an expression of unbounded wonder. 
 But he did not go away. 
 
 I proceeded to make the most horrible grimaces, 
 twisting my features into every contortion possible
 
 40 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 to the human face. At first my intention was 
 only to make his stay unpleasant, but as I went 
 on I forgot my home-sickness, and, absorbed in 
 my efforts, began to enjoy myself thoroughly. 
 Presently it struck me as curious that the young 
 gentleman never once smiled or looked amused. 
 He simply resumed his superior attitude, and, 
 with a critical expression upon his face, continued 
 to watch me. A fierce determination to make 
 him smile came over me. I left the window-, 
 tossed my hair into a yellow heap at the top of 
 my head, stuck my comb bolt upright in it, 
 soaped my nose well, then presented myself again 
 at the window. To my great mortification, after 
 the first glance the young gentleman took off 
 his hat, made me a little bow, expressive of 
 thanks and farewell, and walked away. My 
 cheeks burned with shame as I watched him, 
 and I began to regret I had gone so far. A 
 line from Shakspere haunted me unpleasantly as
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 4 1 
 
 I washed the soap off my nose, and combed my 
 tangled locks down again : 
 
 "Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar." 
 
 "Yes," I said to myself, regretfully, "I have 
 been vulgar ; next time I will ' be familiar, no- 
 thing more." 
 
 But the young gentleman had had enough of 
 me and did not come again to the wall, though 
 I watched for him continually. I had no chance 
 of being either vulgar or familiar, which was a 
 great blow to me. Oh, how long the days were ! 
 To do Miss Skinner justice she did not make my 
 holiday more disagreeable to me than was inevit- 
 able. She gave me no tasks, took me out with 
 her when she went calling, and supplied me with 
 plenty of literature of a harmless description, 
 Shakspere excluded. But she was a grim com- 
 panion for a child, and I had no other the better 
 part of the time. Of course I was never allowed
 
 42 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 to go out alone, and though I watched carefully, 
 several days elapsed before I was able to slip 
 out and invest in the longed-for volume of Shak- 
 spere. At length an opportunity presented itself 
 in this wise. 
 
 Miss Skinner had been asked out for the day, 
 and I was not invited to accompany her. She 
 decided to go, and to leave me in charge of Mary 
 the housemaid. At eleven o'clock she came down 
 ready to start. She had on her best black silk 
 dress and jet-trimmed mantle, and I noticed that 
 she had smartened up her old black straw bonnet 
 with a red feather, and had red mittens on over 
 her old black kid gloves. 
 
 "Now, Rosamund," she said, taking up her 
 reticule and hanging it over her arm, "be a good 
 girl and don't give Mary trouble whilst I am 
 away. You can help her to weed the walks 
 amongst the flower-beds in the afternoon, the fresh 
 air will do you good. I have placed your dinner
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 43 
 
 ready for you in the schoolroom ; a nice slice of 
 cold bacon and some lettuce, and bread pudding 
 to follow. Give her some tea when you have 
 yours, Mary, and there's some dry toast left from 
 my breakfast she can have. I shall not be home 
 before seven. I think that is all there is to think 
 of: good-bye, Rosamund." 
 
 She went. The cook was away on a holiday, 
 Mary and I were alone. I looked at Mary: she 
 was a plump, good-humoured, bonnie lass, but she 
 stood between Shakspere and me. I felt it would 
 be a discredit to myself to allow her to remain 
 in such a position. Miss Skinner might be too 
 much for me, but Mary — oh, absurd ! 
 
 Now Mary had a lover, a young man who 
 worked in a timber yard. Miss Skinner did not 
 allow followers, but maids care little for such 
 prohibitions. 
 
 "Mary, " I said, "would you like to see your 
 young man to-day ? "
 
 44 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 Alary grinned. 
 
 "Well," I said, "let us take a walk in the High 
 Street, and I'll take a look at the books whilst 
 you slip round to the timber yard." 
 
 " I daren't, " said Mary, " the timber yard's a full 
 mile away, and it's as much as my place is worth 
 to leave the house and no one to answer the door. " 
 
 " Oh, well, " I said, " I'll stay and answer the 
 door, that will be no trouble. It's a pity you 
 shouldn't see Sam. You needn't stop long, and 
 you could ask him to tea, Miss Skinner won't be 
 home until seven." 
 
 Alary looked tempted. She was fully aware 
 the whole school took a deep interest in her love 
 affair, so was not surprised at my manoeuvring 
 to help her. After a little demur she yielded to 
 the temptation, and left the house, begging me 
 to keep a sharp eye on the door. 
 
 "And you wont split on me, Miss, will you?" 
 she said, as she departed.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 45 
 
 " Of course not ! " I answered indignantly, " you 
 wouldn't split on me and get me into trouble, 
 would you ?" 
 
 "Never, whatever you did, Miss," she answered 
 warmly. 
 
 This was satisfactory, most satisfactory. I 
 watched her until she was out of sight, then I 
 packed up the cold bacon in a lettuce leaf and 
 put it in my pocket. Next I tore the fly leaf 
 out of a school book, wrote on it : 
 
 " Out for the day. Don't tell." 
 
 and tied it to the knocker of the front door 
 with some black wool out of Miss Skinner's 
 work-basket. These simple preparations completed 
 I put on my hat and jacket, walked out of the 
 house, and slammed the door behind me. I was 
 free ! O glorious Liberty ! Free until seven 
 o'clock. Quick as my feet would bear me I 
 sped to the High Street, nor paused until I
 
 46 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 reached the bookseller's shop. Another moment 
 and twelve coppers lay on the counter and the 
 long-coveted Shakspere was in my hands. A 
 bulky, badly-printed volume, but mine own. On, 
 on, to the sea and there I seated myself on the 
 shingly beach and fell like a hungry hawk upon 
 the precious volume. 
 
 I read through the whole of "Hamlet" and the 
 whole of "Macbeth" without stopping. Then, a little 
 w^eary, I desisted and resolved to eat some cold 
 "bacon before proceeding to "Romeo and Juliet." 
 I drew it forth : it looked perfectly horrible ! I 
 had been sitting upon it for two hours, so this 
 was scarcely surprising, but 'twas very disappoint- 
 ing. Not a morsel had passed my lips since the 
 meagre breakfast at eight o'clock, the sharp sea 
 air had made me exceedingly hungry, and here 
 was my dinner spoilt, absolutely uneatable ! I 
 flung it from me far as strength permitted, and 
 soon had the pleasure of seeing a four-legged
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 47 
 
 snapper-up of unconsidered trifles enjoying my 
 dinner. Then I returned to my Shakspere, but 
 somehow the god of my idolatry had no longer 
 any power over me. My mind was cloyed, my 
 body famished, and the depression which accom- 
 panies hunger began to steal over me. I laid 
 my book on my lap and looked round dejectedly. 
 In front of me lay the sea, blue, tossing, and 
 restless, with white sails scudding away in the 
 distance like wandering spirits seeking some lost 
 happiness beyond the wave. Behind me, on the 
 path, people were walking and talking together, 
 and on the beach on either side of me were 
 groups of happy children playing merrily together 
 in the spring sunshine. 
 
 Soon a lady passed me, holding by the hand 
 a beautifully dressed little girl, whose fair hair 
 floated far down her back like mine. Something 
 in their look as they passed together seemed to 
 awake a sleeping memory. They stared at me
 
 48 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 a good deal as they passed, and I became 
 suddenly conscious that my black frock was very 
 shabby and my shoes much the worse for wear. 
 
 " That little girl looks very lonely, " I heard the 
 lady say as she passed, and then in a very gentle 
 manner she added, looking down upon her little 
 daughter, "Don't drag, dear." 
 
 A sharp pain darted through my heart. Was 
 it in another world that I, beautifully dressed 
 like that little girl, used to walk in the sunshine 
 clinging confidently to a loved one's hand, and a 
 gentle voice used to say to me: "Don't drag, 
 dear. " 
 
 Suddenly it came over me that I was very 
 lonely, terribly lonely. So overpowering was the 
 feeling that it was like physical pain. I hung 
 down my head and hot tears dropped upon my 
 lap. Someone drew near as I sat thus, I heard 
 the heavy footfall scrunching the shingle, and 
 looking up I saw before me the young gentleman
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 49 
 
 of the wall. He had caught me again, like 
 Niobe, all tears ! I felt furious with myself, and 
 sitting bolt upright tried to took as if I had never 
 shed a tear in my life. But the young gentle- 
 man was too sharp for that. He halted in front 
 of me, and said in a quiet composed voice : 
 
 "What is the matter, little girl?" 
 
 " Private, " I answered grimly. 
 
 He tried again. "What is your name?" he 
 asked gently. 
 
 "Born without one;" I said in the same tone. 
 
 I had once replied thus to a new girl's question 
 as to my name, and the answer had been thought 
 very witty in our school. I fully hoped the 
 young gentleman would think it witty also, but 
 to my discomfiture, my answer drove him away 
 a second time. He lifted his hat and was gone. 
 
 "Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar." 
 
 I began to realize that I had overstepped the 
 VOL. 1. 4
 
 50 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 bounds of familiarity. How soon, how pitiably 
 soon had I forgotten the great master's teaching! 
 If I had not replied so rudely the young gentle- 
 man might have stayed, I might have found a 
 friend. Alas, poor Yorick ! Where be your gibes 
 now ? Your flashes of merriment that were wont 
 to set the table on a roar ? They stand confessed 
 as pure vulgarity. 
 
 The young gentleman walked steadily on for 
 some time, then he turned and came back again 
 towards the pier. He passed close in front of 
 me, but this time he did not even glance my 
 way. A sudden impulse seized me, and as he 
 was walking on I called out desperately : 
 
 " My name is Rosamund. " 
 
 He wheeled round instantly, and came and 
 stood in front of me, smiling pleasantly. 
 
 " And a very pretty name it is, " he said, " Rosa- 
 mund, fair Rosamund. It suits you. But where 
 is Queen Eleanor ? "
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 5 I 
 
 History was not a strong point in our school. 
 I had not the least idea what he meant by such 
 a question, but I did not wish to betray ignorance, 
 so I answered promptly: 
 
 ■ Gone home for the holidays. " 
 
 "And why have you not gone home too?" he 
 asked, seating himself by my side with a quick 
 look at my shilling Shakspere open at "Romeo 
 and Juliet," and blotted with tears. 
 
 " I have no home, and my great-uncle would 
 not have me." 
 
 "Why w r ould he not have you ?" 
 
 " Because Miss Skinner wrote and told him I 
 used bad language and wantonly destroyed 
 property, and his property is 5,000 acres in extent, 
 so he doesn't want it destroyed." 
 
 "But did you do what Miss Skinner accused 
 you of?" 
 
 " I was only acting Shakspere, and I tore an old 
 sheet, but I mended it afterwards. And now I 
 
 DIVERSITY OF
 
 52 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 am not to leave the boarding school for four 
 years, not until I am seventeen ! And all the 
 others go home every holidays. That is why I 
 was crying on the breaking-up day. And to-day 
 I cried because I felt so lonely after that little 
 girl passed with her mother. But I don't cry as 
 a rule." 
 
 " You cried very often when you first came to 
 school ?" 
 
 " How do you know ?" I asked, too surprised 
 to be angry. 
 
 "I saw you in church," he said. "I sit a long 
 way off, but I have good eyesight, quite good 
 enough to distinguish a little figure in black, that 
 wept every Sunday all through the service." 
 
 "It was the hymns," I said, getting very red ; 
 "hymns always make me cry." 
 
 I was speaking the truth. Like Jessica, I am 
 never merry when I hear sweet music. To this 
 day church music gives me pain and fills me
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 53 
 
 with a sense of something wanting-, which may be 
 found the other side the grave, but not here. 
 
 " Why did you not laugh the other day ? " I 
 proceeded, wishing to change the conversation. 
 
 " Because, " he answered, " I was sorry to see 
 anyone made beautiful by nature distort herself 
 into ugliness." 
 
 "Am I made beautiful by nature?" I asked. 
 
 " Yes, I think so, " he said, looking at me 
 meditatively. "You have what I am particularly 
 fond of, blue eyes and golden hair." 
 
 I smiled broadly, and began to think I should 
 like my new acquaintance. 
 
 " And you look a little lady, " he went on, 
 "therefore it is doubly a pity you should behave 
 like a street Arab." 
 
 This remark also pleased me, it w r as so nice 
 to hear that, notwithstanding my shabby clothes, 
 I looked like a little lady. 
 
 " I like you, " I said, " we'll be familiar. Now
 
 54 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 tell me, where do you live and what is your 
 name ?" 
 
 " I have just come to live next door to you, " 
 he said, "and my name is Felix, Felix Gray." 
 
 " Felix. You have a pretty name too. I like 
 Felix immensely. Are you Welsh ? I do hope 
 you are Welsh, because I am. My other name 
 is Gwynne, quite a Welsh name." 
 
 "Yes, I am Welsh on my mother's side, she 
 was a Vaughan-Price, but my father was Eng- 
 lish. Don't catechise me further now, I want to 
 know more about you, poor forlorn little maiden. 
 Have you no mother?" 
 
 " No, " I said in a low voice, the ready tears 
 leaping to my eyes again. 
 
 "Poor child! And no father?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ! I have a sort of father. " 
 
 "Why don't you go to him in the holidays?" 
 
 "Never," I answered fiercely. 
 
 " Surely you would rather be with your father
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 55 
 
 than at school ! At least there would be no Miss 
 Skinner to worry you." 
 
 " Oh, there would be someone just as bad. 
 He's got my old governess." 
 
 "What do you mean ?" asked Felix, looking 
 puzzled. 
 
 " Oh, I must not mention her name, it must never 
 be mentioned. But he took her away when we 
 lived at home, years and years ago, and he never 
 came back. No one knows where he is now. " 
 
 " Poor child ! " said Felix again. He had a 
 very nice voice, and something in it, perhaps the 
 ring of true sympathy unmistakable even to a 
 child's ears, touched my heart and turned it to 
 him. Drawing closer to him I continued in a 
 very low tone. 
 
 " The other one you asked after used to cry a 
 great deal because he never came back. I used 
 to hear her crying in the night — the loved one, 
 crying ! And I knew why when I grew older,
 
 56 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 and I hated him ! She cried because she was 
 lonely and had only her one little girl. And she 
 cried more and more before she died. I am glad 
 now she has gone to heaven and cannot cry any 
 more. But I want her ! oh, I want her, Felix ! " 
 
 Then I burst into an anguish of tears. Felix 
 did not speak, he did not even look at me, but 
 he took my hand and clasped it gently in his 
 own until the storm of grief was over. Something 
 in his clasp gave me a curious, long-lost sense- 
 of protection, and eased my sense of loneliness 
 and homesickness strangely. Soon my tears 
 ceased to fall. I looked down at the hand that 
 clasped mine. A nice cool hand. The hand of a 
 gentleman, with a crested gold ring on the third 
 finger, and gold studs in the spotless cuff. The 
 hand of a friend, there was real tenderness in its 
 clasp. 
 
 We sat quiet for a moment or two, he and I, 
 and I felt unusually happy. No longer did I
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 57 
 
 envy the children playing on the sands in the 
 sunshine, or the gay people talking on the path 
 behind me. I had a friend of my own now. The 
 white sails in the distance were no longer lost 
 spirits searching for happiness beyond the wave ; 
 they were beautiful sea-angels racing about and 
 playing with each other, and the blue transparent 
 ocean was the home of joy. 
 
 The ocean has rolled between Felix and me 
 since then. Long, long years have parted us. 
 But never once since that moment by the shore 
 just described, have I doubted Felix's kind and 
 faithful heart. I know that from the first moment 
 we met, he has been constant as the Northern 
 Star. But I — alas ! in writing of myself I write, 
 
 " — of one whose hand, 
 Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away 
 Richer than all his tribe."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Felix and I sat hand in hand and happy, but 
 time sped on and I had not dined. The pangs 
 of hunger began to reassert themselves, and. 
 became unbearable. Longingly my thoughts 
 turned to the bread pudding I had left behind 
 me on the schoolroom table. 
 
 " I don't think I can sit still much longer, " I 
 observed pathetically, "I am so hungry I have 
 got quite an empty pain. " 
 
 "Hungry! Have you had no dinner?" asked 
 Felix, turning quickly upon me. 
 
 " No, " I replied. " I have had nothing since 
 
 breakfast, and there wasn't much bread and butter 
 
 58
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 59 
 
 then. There was some nice cold bacon for my 
 dinner, but I sat upon it until it ran into the 
 lettuce." 
 
 " What a shame ! " exclaimed Felix, starting up 
 and pulling me to my feet so abruptly that I 
 looked at him half offended. " Come with me at 
 once, " he went on, drawing me along without 
 heeding my injured glance. "You shall have 
 some food before you go back to that precious 
 Miss Skinner, or my name's not Felix." 
 
 Nothing loth, I let him draw me on, though 
 he walked so fast I had much ado to keep up 
 with him. He led me to the High Street, and 
 presently stopped at a confectioner's shop, the 
 windows of which had dazzled my eyes many a 
 hungry day. 
 
 "We'll see what we can get here," he said, to 
 my delight, and then took me in, and I was 
 given a seat on a chair before a round marble 
 table.
 
 60 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 "Now, what will you take?" asked Felix. 
 
 My eyes roved to some delightful looking ham 
 sandwiches in a glass jar. 
 
 " I should like one of those, please, if they are 
 not too expensive " I said humbly, feeling almost 
 awed by my good fortune. 
 
 " Too expensive, nonsense ! " said Felix, " and 
 now what would you like to drink : lemonade, 
 milk, coffee?" 
 
 " Oh, lemonade, please, I used to be so fond of 
 lemonade. But, Felix, are you sure you have 
 enough pocket-money to pay, because I have 
 none." 
 
 "Don't trouble your poor little head about the 
 paying, leave that to me, and do enjoy yourself, 
 Rosamund. " 
 
 I did enjoy myself. I eat all the delicious 
 sandwiches, and then I had some jelly and bis- 
 cuits, and then I had more jelly and a Bath bun, 
 and I drank two bottles of lemonade, and ate
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 6 I 
 
 sweets until I could eat no more, and was given 
 a huge packet to put in my pocket to take home. 
 Felix paid for it all, and tossed down shillings 
 as if they were coppers. I thought he looked 
 such a gentleman, and told him so when he 
 came out. But he only laughed and would not 
 let me thank him. 
 
 As we walked home I explained to him how 
 I had come by my Shakspere and told him how 
 deeply I loved it. He listened with much interest. 
 That was ever one of Felix's pleasant character- 
 istics. He always listened as if he were interested, 
 and I do like that in a person. So many men 
 nowadays only care to hear themselves talk. 
 
 All too soon we reached Miss Skinner's door. I 
 guessed Mary had returned because the notice 
 was gone from the knocker, so I knocked boldly. 
 My knock was promptly answered by Mary 
 herself. She looked flushed and anxious, and her 
 hair was much dishevelled, an invariable sign
 
 62 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 that the disallowed follower was haunting Miss 
 Skinner's back premises. A capital idea occurred 
 tr» me. Sam was evidently having tea with Mary, 
 why should not Felix have tea with me ? 
 
 " You naughty girl, Miss Ros'mund, for shame 
 to you ! " burst forth Alary impetuously ; then she 
 stopped abruptly, for her eyes fell upon my 
 companion. 
 
 " Air. Gray, a friend of mine, " I said, waving 
 my Shakspere carelessly in his direction. "A 
 gentleman of princely parentage and stuffed with 
 honourable parts" — 
 
 " O lor' ! You're always on with your Shak- 
 spere, " said Mary angrily. " Excuse me, Sir, but 
 Miss Ros'mund has no business" — 
 
 " Mr. Gray has come to tea, as you have Sam 
 with you in the kitchen,'" I said very pointedly, 
 staring fixedly at Mary as I made the remark. 
 
 " Oh, no, Rosamund, I must go home to dinner, " 
 put in Felix, with a great show of resolution.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 63 
 
 I kept my eye on Mary and she understood 
 that eye. I was small but determined, and she 
 felt she must accept the situation if she did not 
 wish to risk hers. 
 
 " Please walk in, Sir, " she said, turning affably 
 to Felix, "Miss Skinner won't be home for a 
 couple of hours yet." 
 
 " Do, " I said, looking at him pleadingly, " do, 
 do, dear Felix. It is so lonely in that bare 
 schoolroom by myself." 
 
 Felix hesitated. Then again he refused, but I 
 only entreated -him the more and, taking his hand, 
 strove to draw him in. At last he yielded. I 
 know he felt he ought not to come in, but from 
 first to last that dear kind heart could refuse me 
 nothing. He consented to come in for ten min- 
 utes ! I led him to the schoolroom, a square 
 uncarpeted room with three long deal tables 
 flanked by benches ranged along it side by side, 
 and maps on the yellow-painted walls. There
 
 64 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 was the bread pudding still awaiting me, but how 
 I despised it now ! 
 
 "Come and sit here, Felix," I said, pushing the 
 cold pudding aside and sitting down to the table. 
 " Come and sit by me on this bench. Oh, this is 
 nice, this is real holidays ! If only Skinner could 
 be drowned that they might last for ever." 
 
 The ten minutes lengthened into twenty, and 
 still Felix stayed and listened whilst I poured 
 into his bent and kindly ear the story of my little- 
 life, made a little obscure perhaps by perpetual 
 digressions into Shaksperian language, but evi- 
 dently interesting to Felix. And then up came 
 brave Mary, bearing on a tray two cups of tea and, 
 oh, good creature ! two fresh hot slices of toast. She 
 placed the tray on the table before us, and with joy I 
 prepared to play hostess for the first time in my life 
 when, oh, horrible ! three quick raps on the knocker 
 burst upon my frightened ears. I gave a jump, 
 for 'twas the well-known knock of Skinner.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 65 
 
 "The missis!" exclaimed Mary, turning pale. 
 " Oh, Mr. Gray, it's as much as my place is worth 
 for you to be caught here with Miss Ros'mund, 
 and me allowing it." 
 
 Felix glanced at the window. 
 
 " No, " I said, " you can't escape that way. It's 
 nailed down because we used to climb out. But 
 you must hide somewhere; you don't know Skin- 
 ner when she is angry. She hit me last time." 
 
 " Hit you ! " exclaimed Felix indignantly, " fancy 
 hitting a delicate little creature like you ! Where 
 shall I hide, Rosamund ? I hate getting you and 
 Mary into trouble." 
 
 " The cupboard ! " cried Mary with sudden 
 inspiration, and then she flung open the door of 
 a large cupboard in the wall behind us. Inside 
 was a row of pegs from which usually depended 
 our walking cloaks and hats, but now, luckily, 
 though dark and dirty 'twas empty save for my 
 mackintosh. Felix hesitated ; it evidently went 
 
 VOL. 1. 5
 
 66 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 against the grain to hide in a cupboard. Three 
 raps, louder and angrier than the first, again 
 resounded through the house. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! " I cried, " she's getting furious, she's 
 getting more inexorable far than empty tigers, 
 whatever shall we do ?" 
 
 " For your sake then, Rosamund, " said Felix, 
 and bolted into the cupboard. I flung the Shak- 
 spere in after him, and the next instant the lock 
 was turned upon him and Mary was answering 
 the door. 
 
 " I'm so sorry, Ma'am, you should have been 
 kept waiting," I heard her saying in the passage, 
 "but I was just carrying up some tea for Miss 
 Ros'mund and myself to the schoolroom, thinking 
 'twould be lonely for her to have it by herself." 
 
 " Oh, well, lock the front door, no one will be 
 going out again," replied my instructress in her 
 loud harsh voice, " and just come in here and take 
 off my goloshes ! "
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 67 
 
 She walked into her private sanctum, which 
 was just opposite the schoolroom, as she spoke. 
 Felix gave a low groan. 
 
 " Hush ! " I said in a whisper through the key- 
 hole ; " she's still near. " 
 
 "But she's cutting off all escape," he whispered 
 back, " and w T hat shall I say if she comes to this 
 cupboard and finds me here ?" 
 
 'Twas a difficult question, but the student of 
 Shakspere need never be long at a loss. " Cry, 
 ' Havock ! ' " I whispered energetically through 
 the keyhole, " cry ' Havock, ' and let slip the dogs 
 of war." 
 
 Then a still better idea occurred to me. I drew 
 forth the key of the cupboard and put it in my 
 pocket. The next instant Miss Skinner entered. 
 
 "Good evening, Rosamund," she said, putting 
 her reticule down upon the table, and proceeding 
 to remove her red mittens and black kid gloves. 
 "I am glad to hear from Mary that you have
 
 68 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 been a good girl and have given her no trouble. 
 Did you enjoy your dinner? I see you have not 
 eaten much of the pudding." 
 
 "Yes, Miss Skinner, I enjoyed it very much, 
 thank you," I answered, in my very best school- 
 room manner. 
 
 "And did you weed the walks?" she asked next, 
 removing her jet-trimmed mantle, and hanging 
 it over the back of a chair. 
 
 "Yes, Miss Skinner, but the weeds spring up- 
 again as fast as you pick them. " 
 
 " That is a slight exaggeration, Rosamund, " she 
 said, smoothing her hair under her bonnet as she 
 sat down to the table. " Weeds certainly grow 
 very quickly, but not quite so immediately as 
 you describe. You should try to be more accurate. 
 I shall inspect your work to-morrow morning. — 
 As you see, Mary, I have returned earlier than 
 I expected, but my friend had such a headache 
 I felt I really ought to leave. You had better
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 69 
 
 have your tea downstairs now and I will have 
 mine with Miss Rosamund. I see you have 
 warmed up the toast, so we shall do nicely." 
 
 Mary scuttled away looking much relieved, and 
 I was left to have tea with Miss Skinner, Felix 
 close behind us in the cupboard. I don't think 
 I have ever seen Miss Skinner so good-tempered 
 or so sfarrulous as she was on this occasion. 
 The day's outing had done her good, and she 
 discoursed with unwonted affability as she drank 
 her tea. 
 
 "I have been hearing about our new neigh- 
 bours, " she said presently, " the people who have 
 taken the large house with the beautiful garden 
 next door. Miss Robinson's cook knows the 
 housemaid there intimately, so Miss Robinson 
 was in a position to give me a great deal of 
 information about them. The family consists of 
 Mrs. Vaughan-Price, a very rich old lady, and 
 her grandson Felix Gray, the son of her only
 
 70 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 daughter who died some years ago. The grand- 
 mother's got a shocking temper, no servants stay- 
 there long. Comes down in black silk and real 
 lace, and most beautiful diamond rings. A fresh 
 joint every day, and a good table kept even in 
 the servants' hall. They keep two gardeners. 
 Oh dear ! how I wish I could have a few spare 
 roots from that lovely garden. My poor little 
 beds look sadly empty. They may say wmat they 
 like, but things aren't equally divided in this 
 world. I toil to raise a few geraniums, just for 
 the love of them. That old lady has acres of 
 flowers, and doesn't go once a week to look at 
 them. Pass the toast, my dear." 
 
 I passed the toast, and hoped no more would 
 be said about the family life of the gentleman in 
 the cupboard. For a moment Skinner was silent 
 and scrunched her toast, then she began again: — 
 
 " They say the young man is quite dependent 
 on his grandmother. His father died almost a
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 71 
 
 pauper. But he's to be his grandmother's heir 
 on one condition, — that he marries his cousin, 
 Angharad Vaughan-Price, the daughter of the old 
 lady's only son, and the heiress to Cwmcoch Hall, 
 the Vaughan-Prices' family place in North Wales. " 
 
 Here her speech was interrupted by a scuffling 
 noise in the cupboard. I knew 'twas Felix 
 making an impatient movement, and the frightened 
 blood rushed to my cheeks. Was he angered 
 by this news of himself ? Would he cry " Havock ! " 
 and let slip the dogs of war ? Miss Skinner started 
 at the unexpected sound, and turned and looked 
 behind her. 
 
 " Those rats grow bolder every day, " she cried. 
 " Now, where has the key of that cupboard gone ? 
 Who has dared to take the key of that cupboard ? " 
 
 " I don't know, Miss Skinner, " I answered, 
 my hand straying fearfully towards my pocket. 
 
 "Ring the bell for Mary. That key was in 
 the lock this morning, and I'll have it found."
 
 72 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 I rang the bell and Mary came, but she knew 
 nothing about the key. She searched, Miss 
 Skinner searched, I searched, but nowhere could 
 that key be found. It was the most extraordin- 
 ary disappearance, most unaccountable, so Miss 
 Skinner kept saying again and again. Suddenly 
 she called out: 
 
 "Rosamund, what have you got bulging out 
 in your pocket? Come here, and let me see." 
 
 I was stooping to look under a low book-shelf 
 for the missing key at that moment, and jumped 
 up as if I had been shot. 
 
 " Don't stand there staring at me," she called 
 out impatiently, " come at once." 
 
 Tremblingly I came and stood before her. 
 With ruthless hands she dived into my pocket 
 and brought forth a large packet of sweets and 
 the missing key! 
 
 I cannot describe the scene that followed. Miss 
 Skinner refrained from hitting me this time, but
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 73 
 
 her tongue outvenom'd all the worms of Nile. 
 I stood before her, crimson and helpless, obstin- 
 ately refusing to give any explanation as to how 
 key and sweets came into my pocket. Mary came 
 to the rescue at last. 
 
 " I can't think how she came by the sweets, 
 Ma'am, " she said, " but I believe myself she locked 
 the door because of those rats. They was making 
 a terrible noise, and p'raps they frightened 
 her. " 
 
 " Well, why couldn't the naughty girl have 
 said so instead of being so obstinate?" said Miss 
 Skinner, cooling down a little at this partial 
 explanation. "You'll sit down now, Rosamund, 
 and do ten division sums as a punishment for 
 your deception and obstinacy, and you'll have 
 no supper. I shall write and tell Mrs. Hunter 
 you can't come and play with her girls to-morrow, 
 as we had arranged, because you are so naughty 
 you would corrupt them. Mary, we'll poison
 
 74 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 those rats to-morrow. Remind me to do so. 
 Come out now and leave Miss Rosamund to do 
 her sums. Don't stir from your seat until you 
 have done them, Rosamund." 
 
 She put the key of the cupboard and the 
 sweets in her pocket, and went out of the room 
 into her sanctum opposite, leaving the doors 
 open so that she might hear if I played instead 
 of doing my sums. 
 
 With a low " Hush " to Felix I began my 
 task, and had soon done the sums. I never allowed 
 Miss Skinner to find it out, because it would have 
 meant lengthened impositions, but I was very 
 quick at my lessons and sums. My task thus 
 swiftly accomplished, I looked round at the 
 cupboard, longing to be able to open it and set 
 the prisoner free. Becoming aware that it was 
 very silent in the enemy's sanctum I stole on tip- 
 toe to the door and peeped in. Miss Skinner 
 was asleep in her favourite arm-chair by the
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 75 
 
 window, grunting under her weary life. I stole 
 back to the schoolroom. 
 
 " Felix, " I whispered through the key-hole, " she 
 is asleep, so we can talk. Are you comfortable? " 
 
 " Hardly, Rosamund. I've got to play the part 
 of a hungry rat, and it sounds very much as if 
 I should have to remain cramped up in this dark 
 cupboard until I'm poisoned to-morrow morning." 
 
 He spoke loud in his impatience, and the 
 sound disturbed the grunting lady in the next room. 
 
 "Rosamund, what are you doing? Have you 
 finished your sums?" she called out, rising and 
 coming into the passage. 
 
 "Yes, Miss Skinner." 
 
 " Then go to bed. Walk out : I want to lock 
 the door." 
 
 I walked out and she locked the door behind me. 
 
 "Now go to bed at once, and no pranks or 
 playing about whilst you are undressing. If I 
 hear any noise I shall come up to you."
 
 76 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 poor Felix, doubly barred and bolted now! 
 I cried as I laid myself down to sleep in the big 
 room with empty beds on either side of me, and 
 my heart w T ent out pitifully to my new-found 
 friend, condemned for my sake to pass the night 
 in a dark, cold, rat-haunted cupboard. Of course 
 I could easily have released him by going to 
 Miss Skinner and confessing all, but that I could 
 not bring myself to do though I lay tossing 
 uneasily and thinking of it for hours. It was 
 easier to let Felix suffer, with shame I confess 
 it: it was easier to let him suffer. 
 
 1 dreamt that night that I went to the cupboard 
 and found Felix dead there. So bitter was my 
 sorrow and remorse in the dream that I broke into 
 a sharp low cry and awoke. Even when I had 
 awakened, the consciousness of base ingratitude, 
 and the sense of misery were still upon me, so 
 strong was the influence of the dream. I felt I 
 would do anything now to save Felix, ay, even
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 77 
 
 confess to Miss Skinner. But first I must go 
 down and see if he were yet alive, I could do 
 nothing until I had heard his voice once more. 
 I rose, softly opened my door, and ran down- 
 stairs, bare-footed and in my thin nightdress. 
 The dawn was creeping in through the shutters. 
 Oh, how cold it was ! a nipping and an eager air, 
 and all through the long night whilst I slept in 
 my warm bed, Felix, cold, hungry, and cramped, 
 had been standing pinned against the wall behind 
 the cupboard door. The schoolroom looked weird 
 and ghostly in the pale light. With an anxious, 
 wildly-beating heart I flew up to the cupboard. 
 It w r as empty. Felix had gone ! 
 
 I could scarcely believe my eyes; it seemed 
 like the work of a magician. Amazed, I stared 
 around me, and then I perceived that the large 
 pane of glass which formed the lower part of 
 the window had been smashed, leaving a hole 
 big enough for a man to creep through. This
 
 78 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 was no magician's work, now I saw the hand of 
 Felix in it all. He had waited until we were 
 all in bed and asleep, and then he had burst the 
 lock of the cupboard door, smashed the window, 
 and escaped. The marvel was that no one had 
 been awakened, but fortunately Miss Skinner's 
 room was at the back, where she could not have 
 heard the disturbance easily. 
 
 I scuttled back to bed feeling I had been 
 saved as well as Felix, having just sense enough ■ 
 to pick up my Shakspere and lock the schoolroom 
 door after me. 
 
 There was much excitement in the morning 
 when all the bursting and smashing was discovered. 
 It passed, however, as an attempted burglary. 
 To her dying day Miss Skinner believed that the 
 wretch who came in through the window was 
 disappointed, like Mother Hubbard's dog, by find- 
 ing that the cupboard was bare, and receiving 
 a bad impression of the house at starting did not
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 79 
 
 consider it worth while to pursue his researches 
 further. How Felix explained his late return 
 to his grandmother I know not. It was not my 
 wont to concern myself about what did not concern 
 me in those days. 
 
 That afternoon, Miss Skinner, according to her 
 usual custom, went forth to garden. She found 
 the walks particularly verdant, notwithstanding 
 the weeding I had given them, so I was called, 
 railed at in good set terms, and put to work 
 upon them. 
 
 I could not endure weeding, it hurt my hands 
 so, but it was pleasant to be out of doors and 
 within sight of Felix's house and garden, so I 
 managed to get on by resting when Miss Skin- 
 ner's back was turned and grabbing at the weeds 
 with violence when she looked my way. 
 
 It was very amusing to watch Miss Skinner 
 gardening. She became very absorbed in her work, 
 much too absorbed to study grace of attitude. On
 
 80 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 this occasion she was sowing some hardy annuals, 
 and being very short-sighted she had to bend a 
 good deal over the flower-beds, consequently her 
 skirt dragged up behind revealing a good deal 
 of shank. Oh, it was very funny to watch her ! 
 Her prominent nose nearly touched the bed, she 
 might have raked the ground with it, and her 
 thin legs scuttled about like a frightened fowl's. 
 Poor Miss Skinner ! I indulged in a silent fit of 
 laughter as I watched her then, but I think of - 
 her with a tender pity when I picture that scene 
 now. Her sordid drudging life had withered 
 every vestige of outward grace. Beneath its 
 influence she had become mean, harsh, and 
 unpleasing, but in her soul there must have 
 been some inward grace, some dormant hidden 
 poetry, for she loved her flowers. They were 
 the only bright things in her existence, the 
 sole things that spoke to her of the beauty of 
 life.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 8 1 
 
 Once I heard George Macdonald lecture on a 
 line from Shakspere : 
 
 I see a cherub, that sees them. 
 
 To most people this is simply one of Hamlet's 
 mad utterances, but the heavenly-minded lecturer 
 understood better the beautiful idea. That line 
 was a "cherub" to him through whose eyes he 
 saw many beautiful far-off things. He became 
 a cherub to us himself. He talked to us about 
 Heaven. He could not make us see it, but we 
 saw that he saw it, and as he talked, that undis- 
 covered country, which is the goal of us all, 
 became -very real and near. We saw it through 
 his eyes, that was his strange power. And as 
 he went on he developed Hamlet's idea further, 
 and showed us that all beautiful things were 
 cherubs through whose eyes we got glimpses of 
 diviner things beyond. Do we not all at times 
 feel the truth of this ? We listen to a lovely 
 vol. I. 6
 
 82 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 strain of music : why does it move us ? What is 
 its power ? The composer himself could not tell 
 you, he could only pass the cherub on, and we 
 gaze through its eyes as he gazed and, if we 
 have music in our souls, see as he saw. And 
 that same strain becomes a cherub to countless 
 generations. Some years ago I saw a picture that 
 brought tears to my eyes. A peaceful sunset 
 behind some lovely hills. I noticed that most 
 people were silent when they stood before that 
 picture. It was a cherub, it lifted us up, we 
 gazed through its eyes and saw something beyond, 
 diviner than the sunset. 
 
 Flowers were Miss Skinner's cherubs. She 
 came and looked at them when she was weary, 
 and they gazed back at her and gave her glimpses 
 of a more beautiful beyond. 
 
 But these are the thoughts of later years ; I 
 must go back to myself of the early days.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Just as I was indulging in a fit of silent laughter 
 over the fowl-like legs, a voice close to us called 
 out suddenly " Good morning. " We both looked 
 up startled, and there was Felix standing quite 
 near us, only separated from us by the low wall 
 which divided his garden from Miss Skinner's 
 strip of flower-beds. 
 
 "Good morning," answered Miss Skinner rather 
 stiffly, straightening herself and making a grab 
 at her bonnet to tilt it forward as she spoke. It 
 was generally hanging half way down her back 
 by the strings when she was gardening. I was 
 so taken aback that I sat motionless amongst 
 
 83
 
 84 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 the weeds, and stared at Felix as if he were a 
 madman. 
 
 "Gardening is hard work, is it not?" went on 
 Felix pleasantly, addressing Miss Skinner, " but 
 your garden looks so nice and well kept, I am 
 sure it repays you for your labour." 
 
 Miss Skinner looked pleased, and regarded the 
 young man with a more favourable eye. " I try 
 to keep it nice and pretty," she said, "but it is 
 hard work, as you say, with so much else to do, 
 and I can't afford to spend much on flowers. So 
 many things failed last year, and this year even 
 my crocuses failed, and I love crocuses beyond 
 every flower in the world. The soil is very bad, 
 you come upon the chalk directly, and I've no 
 hot-bed to raise anything in. — I do envy you 
 your beautiful garden," she went on with a sigh, 
 "your hyacinths and tulips are quite a show." 
 
 " I want you to accept some from me, " said 
 Felix, looking at her with bright, kind eyes.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 85 
 
 "Please don't be offended. You see, I am a 
 neighbour now, so we must not remain strangers. 
 I have them here all ready. " 
 
 He stooped as he spoke, reappearing a second 
 after with a beautiful pot of tulips in each hand. 
 These he placed upon the wall, and then dived 
 again, bringing up this time two exquisite hyacinths. 
 
 Miss Skinner turned crimson with delight. 
 " What beauties!" she exclaimed, "but, Sir, I really 
 cannot rob you." 
 
 " Nonsense ! ' ; answered Felix, " you must not 
 refuse me. We have more than we know what 
 to do with. " 
 
 Then he dived a third time, reappearing with 
 a large basket, and said in a matter-of-fact voice : 
 "And here are some nice flower-roots. This is 
 a rare and very beautiful kind of dahlia, you 
 must protect it at nights until all danger of frost 
 is over, the gardener says. And this is the evening 
 primrose, and these are carnations, and pinks,
 
 86 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 and here are Canterbury bells, and Michaelmas 
 daisies, and asters, and, let me see — I think these 
 are sunflowers. They are all fit to be planted 
 out now, the gardener tells me, so I do hope 
 they will succeed in your garden and give you 
 pleasure. Next year I will see you get some 
 crocuses, since you are so fond of them." 
 
 Miss Skinner could scarcely speak for pleasure. 
 "Oh, but it is too much: you are too good!" 
 she exclaimed at last, with a little gasp. 
 
 "Nonsense !" said Felix again, "a flower or two 
 is nothing. " He never could bear to be thanked. 
 It was a peculiarity of his. 
 
 "Well, since you insist — Oh, I must, I must!" 
 exclaimed Miss Skinner bending her flushed elderly 
 face over the dear roots. " They will make my 
 garden quite a blaze in the summer. I must 
 plant them at once, at once, before they droop." 
 
 " I'll come and help you " cried Felix, leaping 
 over the wall, and actually, though Miss wSkinner
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 87 
 
 had never seen him before, she made no objection. 
 
 Oh, sly Felix ! The remarks he had overheard 
 about flower-roots, when in the cupboard, had not 
 been lost upon him. He was turning them to good 
 account. And yet, though I knew Felix had an 
 object in this kindness, and was deliberately try- 
 ing to ingratiate himself with my guardian, I felt 
 instinctively that he was pleased with Miss Skin- 
 ner's pleasure. I sat and looked at him as he 
 stood talking to her, and thought I had never 
 before seen so bright and good a face. It was 
 like the morning, and seemed to bring fresh day 
 into my life. 
 
 " Get up, Rosamund, and speak to the young 
 gentleman. Where are your manners ? " said 
 Miss Skinner sharply, remembering me for a 
 moment in the midst of her excitement. 
 
 I got up and offered Felix a weedy hand. " A 
 little orphan," I heard Miss Skinner whisper to 
 him as I did so, and Felix said : " Oh indeed ! "
 
 88 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 quite as if he did not know better, and had 
 heard nothing of an absent father. 
 
 Then he and Miss Skinner began to garden, 
 and I really think Felix became genuinely inter- 
 ested in the little strip of flower-beds and was 
 honestly pleased to help their overworked owner. 
 I began to feel interested in the garden myself, 
 so strong is the influence of example, and handed 
 roots with much zeal. 
 
 When they were all planted, Felix attacked 
 the walks, and worked side by side with me 
 whilst Miss Skinner watered her new possessions. 
 It felt quite odd, we were so like a happy little 
 family that afternoon. Miss Skinner became quite 
 gentle, and w T eeding changed from a disagreeable 
 task into a delightful pastime, such was the magic 
 of Felix's genial presence. 
 
 It was a particularly bright afternoon. The 
 cheerful spring sunshine illumined everything, 
 the flowers in Felix's own garden flamed beneath
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 89 
 
 it, and the windows of his house shone like dia- 
 monds betwixt the trees. In front of us, beyond 
 the little green gate and the white road, lay the 
 downs, stretching away as far as the eye could 
 reach, with cloud shadows racing over them 
 towards the distant sea. Ever since that afternoon 
 I have loved to see cloud shadows racing over 
 sunlit turf. They suggest to me so many delight- 
 ful things: buoyancy, freshness, coolness, swift 
 happy bird-like motion, youth, high spirits, and 
 the budding spring-time. Oh, Earth would not be 
 complete without her shadows! Look up, and 
 we see they come from Heaven : sweet soft spirits 
 sent from above, to emphasize the sunshine! 
 
 Of course Felix was told the whole history of 
 the burglary, and he was much amazed at the 
 audacity of the burglar, and blushed for very 
 shame at the thought of such a thing. He was 
 also very sympathetic over the broken window 
 and the cupboard lock.
 
 go HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " I tell you what, Miss Skinner, " he said, 
 " some workmen are doing odd jobs for us at 
 the house, I'll send a couple round to-morrow to 
 repair the window and cupboard. Please don't 
 pay them, because they will get paid by us 
 anyway for their day's work, and there is no 
 reason why they should be paid twice over." 
 
 The workmen came next day, did their work, 
 and went away again without payment — trust 
 Miss Skinner for that. We heard no more of the 
 burglary, and Felix was not again put to the 
 blush. 
 
 Also, he had won Miss Skinner's heart. The 
 sending of the workmen, in conjunction with 
 the flower-roots, quite softened her tough fibres. 
 I have never seen her unbend to anyone so 
 suddenly as she did to Felix. To her pupils 
 she was ever stiff and cold as an icicle, but I 
 suppose we acted upon her as the east wind did 
 upon the man in the fable, and genial warm-
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. gi 
 
 hearted Felix bursting upon her with gifts of 
 flowers in his train, was like the sun. 
 
 Quite a friendship sprang up between the two, 
 a friendship productive of much happiness to me. 
 Scarcely a day passed that we did not see something 
 of Felix. Whenever he saw us gardening or 
 weeding the walks, he used to leap the wall 
 and join us, always with a root or a flower in 
 one hand for Miss Skinner and frequently with 
 a little gift for me in the other. Presently he 
 got bolder still and invaded the house with his 
 presents, and on one occasion he was formally 
 asked to tea, and there were hot cakes and 
 buttered toast, so nice that I begged him pri- 
 vately to come again to tea as soon as he could. 
 In a wonderfully short time we grew so intimate 
 that he used to walk in without knocking, and 
 Miss Skinner, when she was busy, actually trusted 
 him so far as to allow him to carry me off for 
 a morning by the sea. Oh, what happy mornings
 
 C/ 2 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 those were, and how kind Felix was to me! 
 We were supposed to spend all our time on the 
 beach, but a good deal of it was spent at the 
 confectioner's, and I seldom returned hungry to 
 my dinner, which was most fortunate, both for 
 the dinner and myself. 
 
 We never saw the grandmother, Mrs. Vaughan- 
 Price. At first I think Miss Skinner fondly hoped 
 she would call, Felix being so exceedingly friendly, 
 but day after day passed, and she came not. 
 Miss Skinner at last betrayed her disappointment 
 to Felix, and 'twas wonderful how many polite 
 messages the grandmother sent after that. She 
 did not call, but it became understood that she 
 would have flown to make Miss Skinner's acquaint- 
 ance had she not been subject to most distressing 
 headaches which invariably came on if she paid 
 calls. Miss Skinner was quite concerned when 
 she heard this and said that though she seldom 
 called on people first herself, being- so poor,
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 93 
 
 and unable to entertain, she should break her 
 rule in this instance, and call on the poor invalid. 
 Then Felix explained, in rather an embarrassed 
 manner, that his grandmother's headaches came on 
 still more distressingly when people paid calls 
 upon her, so rather reluctantly Miss Skinner had 
 to abandon all hope of an acquaintanceship with 
 Mrs. Vaughan-Price. 
 
 The holidays came to an end at last, and 
 Felix was told bv oar instructress that his visits 
 to the house must cease. 
 
 The girls came back, and were surprised and 
 a little hurt to find that I had enjoyed the holidays 
 immensely, and was not in ecstasies over their 
 return. Indeed, quite a coldness sprangup between 
 my companions-of-the-bedchamber and myself in 
 consequence of my cool reception of them. They 
 had returned brimful of sympathy and condolence, 
 and prepared to " pay out old Skinner " for treating 
 me so unfairly, so no doubt it was disappointing
 
 94 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 to find me cheerful. The coldness lasted for one 
 day, and then suddenly I was rehabilitated in their 
 favour and rose at one vast bound to the rank 
 of heroine. 
 
 During this first day there had been no mention 
 of Felix. I had thought of him a good deal and 
 had lamented silently over his pleasant visits, now, 
 alas, at an end, but I did not speak of my new- 
 found friend to my companions, in consequence 
 of the coldness between us. The second day was 
 vSunday, and as usual we walked to church two 
 and two, Miss Jones in front, and Miss wSkmner 
 behind. 
 
 I had discovered Felix's pew by this time, and 
 contrived, when everyone's head was bowed in 
 the Litany, to let him have a peep at a small 
 three-cornered note in my hand. A slight nod 
 showed me I was understood. Felix was in the 
 porch when we came out, standing so that I had 
 to brush by him in passing. He lifted his hat
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 95 
 
 and bowed politely to Miss Skinner, and under 
 cover of that bow I managed to slip the note 
 into the hand that hung down by his side. 'Twas 
 swiftly done, but girls' eyes are wondrous sharp, 
 and my companions- of- the-bedchamber, who were 
 nearest me, beheld the amazing deed. 
 
 No sooner had we gained our room than I 
 was beset by a torrent of excited questions, and 
 coldness changed to awe and admiration on the part 
 of my companions and pleased superiority on mine. 
 
 " Be calm, girls, be calm, " I said, assuming my 
 grandest manner. "In due time all shall be 
 revealed. You shall learn how with sweet words 
 we lulled to sleep the insolent foe; an' if you 
 will take an oath of secrecy, you shall be the 
 instruments of darkness and witness deeds that 
 will make your blood run cold." 
 
 There was no time for more as we had to go 
 down to say the collect to the insolent foe. The 
 afternoon was one of intense excitement. The
 
 96 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 girls could scarcely restrain their curiosity, and 
 every act of mine was watched with interest. 
 Perceiving this, I added fuel to the fire, by 
 adopting much mystery of movement. I gazed 
 out of the window and started violently at 
 every sound without, and once I put my hand 
 to my heart, and sank back in my chair and 
 panted, which had a great success. Altogether 
 'twas a most enjoyable day, and not one hour 
 too long for me, though I could see my com- 
 panions were wildly longing for the hour of 
 revelation. 
 
 At eight o'clock we were sent to bed by Miss 
 Jones. Miss Skinner always went to church on 
 .Sunday evenings, so we were safely quit of her 
 for an hour or two and we did not fear a visit 
 from Miss Jones. She was supposed to come 
 and see we were safely in bed; but she was 
 engaged, and always wrote to her lover on Sun- 
 day evenings, so forgot this little duty. I felt I
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 97 
 
 was mistress of the situation and when we reached 
 our room acted accordingly. 
 
 " Silence for five minutes ! " I called out arbi- 
 trarily, then sat down in an important attitude on 
 the only chair in the room. 
 
 This was more than the girls could stand, and 
 they became so indignant I thought it wiser not 
 to try them any longer. Therefore I hastily 
 made them take a solemn oath of secrecy, and 
 plunged into my story. When I came to the 
 part where Felix lay hidden in the cupboard 
 whilst Miss Skinner and I took our tea a yard 
 from the door, their excited faces were a sight 
 to see ! In fact, they refused to believe it, until 
 I also took an oath, and swore 'twas true. Their 
 excitement excited me and I am afraid I em- 
 bellished the story a little towards the end, 
 and smashed the window for Felix with my 
 own hand. There was a pause of awe when 
 I concluded, and I read in every eye that I had 
 
 VOL. 1. 7
 
 98 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 become a heroine and was covered with glory. 
 
 " Well, there's an adventure ! " exclaimed Isabel, 
 breaking the awed silence. "Why, you almost 
 saved his life by going down in the dead of night 
 to show him the way to freedom. And he too! 
 such a swell ! And living in that fine house ! Is 
 he very rich, Rosamund ?" 
 
 " Rich ! " I repeated scornfully. " Rich ! ask the 
 confectioner! Rich isn't the word." Then I 
 enumerated all the different things I had eaten 
 at Felix's expense during the holidays, and really 
 thus summed up, they mounted into an amaz- 
 ingly large total. 
 
 " There's a friend to have ! " said Joanna, a delicate 
 girl who cried very often over the scanty school- 
 fare. " I'd give something to be you, Rosamund." 
 
 " Wait a bit ! " I said mysteriously, " I can call 
 spirits from the vasty deep, and perchance they 
 may bring something nice for you. See you 
 this butterfly net ? 'Twas given me by Felix, and
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 99 
 
 now 'tis going to be a mortal engine whose rude 
 throat shall pour forth treasures at thy feet." 
 
 I fished out a butterfly net from under my 
 mattress as I spoke, and waved it dramatically 
 above my head. The girls watched me spell- 
 bound, whilst I marched down the room with it 
 and rapped deliberately with the handle on the 
 window. There was a moment's silence and I 
 began to feel a little anxious and to run over in 
 my mind the contents of my note to Felix, 
 wondering whether aught could have annoyed 
 him or caused him to mistake place or hour. 
 Thus my note had run : 
 
 " Dear Felix, 
 
 " It is miserable without you. Since She forbids 
 visits to the house, jump the wall at a quarter 
 past eight, stand under my window, and wait 
 for a sign, then throw up gravel, and if the 
 window opens, all is well. We can then have
 
 IOO HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 a long interview. And, dear Felix, if you don't 
 mind our mentioning it, we do get so hungry. 
 I could let down my long handled butterfly net 
 to you, and then if you happen to have anything 
 nice with you, you might tie it to the handle, 
 but remember we are seven of us in our room, 
 and all hungry, especially Joanna. 
 
 " Ever your loving friend, 
 
 " Rosamund. " ■ 
 
 Surely Felix would not fail me after that 
 appeal. I could not believe it of him. And yet 
 that moment's silence with six expectant girls 
 gathered round me, was very trying. I rapped 
 again. Oh, joy ! Some gravel came rattling merrily 
 against the window. I flung it open in a trans- 
 port of delight. 
 
 " We are all here ! " I exclaimed joyfully. 
 " Here, girls, come and be introduced. Mr. Felix
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. IOI 
 
 Gray of next door, Miss Isabel Sturgeon, Joanna 
 Buckley, May Tompkins, Lizzie, Jane, Amelia, 
 and here's the butterfly net." 
 
 I lowered the net and the girls crowded round 
 the window eagerly. It was a clear starlight 
 evening, and we could see Felix distinctly, stand- 
 ing below, a rather dark figure amidst the little 
 flower-beds. There was a basket on his arm. 
 Dear kind Felix! from first to last he never failed 
 me or refused request of mine. The basket was 
 tied to the end of the butterfly net handle, just 
 above the net, to prevent its slipping, and then 
 I drew it up. Within were seven tartlets, seven 
 slices of sponge cake, fourteen figs, unlimited 
 biscuits, and a huge bunch of grapes. Imagine 
 what this meant to girls like us, who never at 
 any meal got quite enough food to satisfy our 
 hunger. We thanked Felix most gratefully, let 
 down the empty basket and began upon the 
 tartlets. Felix looked up at us from where he
 
 102 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 stood amidst the flowers, and said in a soft voice 
 that he could not bear girls to be hungry and 
 would try to come every night at that hour with 
 something nice for us. And when he failed to 
 come we were to understand that he had not 
 forgotten us, but had been obliged to return to 
 Oxford. 
 
 Every night after that, for nearly a week, 
 Felix came with a well-filled basket, and 
 everything he said was so gentle and kind and 
 pleasant, that when at last he went back to 
 Oxford, there was not one of us who would not 
 have died for him, in a painless way. 
 
 My position in the school was very different 
 after this episode. In spite of the solemn oath 
 of secrecy taken by my companions-of-the-bed- 
 chamber, every girl in the school soon knew the 
 whole story of Felix, and I became an object 
 of deepest interest, and a recognized Leader. 
 
 Miss Skinner had a bad time of it this term.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 103 
 
 Excited by my recent triumphs, I rushed into 
 unheard-of deeds of daring, and my spirit of 
 recklessness infected the whole school. A girl 
 in an adjoining bedchamber to ours even went 
 so far as to start a Felix of her own, but he was 
 a failure, borrowed a shilling and disappeared. 
 And well for him he never crossed his proprietress's 
 path again, for in her mortification and anger she 
 might have torn him joint by joint and strewn 
 the hungry churchyard with his limbs! 
 
 I cannot give you a detailed account of the 
 four years of school life that followed. Summer, 
 autumn, and winter have to follow; alas! one 
 cannot linger for ever in the spring time, the 
 only pretty ring time. The four years would 
 have been barren had it not been for Felix. 
 Term after term he came back to me faithfully. 
 He alone saved me from becoming utterly ignoble 
 in the midst of ignoble surroundings. If ever a 
 longing to improve inspired me, or if ever my
 
 104 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 heart were touched into tenderness and thought 
 for others, 'twas Felix who touched and inspired. 
 Every joy and pleasure that came to me, came 
 through him, and every gift was brought to me 
 by his hand. The history of our friendship during 
 these years of my early girlhood can be summed up 
 in four words: Felix gave, I accepted. O Heaven! 
 To think of how I recompensed him afterwards! 
 And yet, though you may doubt it when you 
 read further, from the first I loved Felix. I did 
 for him what I would have done for no other. 
 For his sake I tried to learn, and especially did 
 I strive to play well upon the piano. I loved 
 music myself, and when Felix told me that he 
 sang, and hoped some day he might sing to an 
 accompaniment of my playing, then I spared myself 
 no trouble to learn, and being quick of ear and 
 of finger soon succeeded passing well. Also as 
 I grew older I began to take more pains with 
 my appearance and manners. Felix was very
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 105 
 
 point device in his accoutrements and very gentle 
 in his speech, and it seemed to pain him when I 
 appeared before him with tangled locks and grubby 
 hands, flinging myself about, and saying every 
 rude and careless thing" that came into my head. 
 When I think of what I was in those days, I 
 wonder often what Felix could have seen in me 
 that he should have remained so long my willing 
 slave, but I suppose I had a fascination for him 
 as I have had since for many others. And then 
 I was singularly pretty. He told me so on one 
 occasion. It was Sunday evening and holiday 
 time, and we were together in Miss Skinners 
 little strip of garden. He told me that I was 
 like a fair, beautiful flower that spoiled herself 
 wilfully, and he wished I would hold my head 
 up to heaven and not lay me down in the dust. 
 " I don't lie down in the dust," I said poutingly. 
 " I can't help it if my frock is dusty and shabby 
 Miss Skinner wrote to uncle and told him my
 
 106 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 wardrobe needed renovating, but he took no 
 notice of her letter, so I have to go on wearing 
 old clothes." 
 
 "You don't quite understand what I mean, 
 Rosamund," he said gently. "Never mind your 
 shabby frock, you can't help that, the most beautiful 
 flowers have rough sheaths. But look at this 
 hair," — he took up a tangled mass as he spoke — 
 " if you brushed this out it would be like threads 
 of gold ; the sunshine can't get into it now, it is 
 so matted. And look at your hands, small pretty 
 delicate hands, but I seldom see them clean." 
 
 " We are not allowed to waste the soap, " I 
 replied, snatching my hands from him and exe- 
 cuting a pas seid on the gravelled walk. I al- 
 ways took to dancing when Felix lectured me, 
 because it annoyed him, and made him leave off. 
 
 " I am sure that is not true, Rosamund, " said 
 Felix, " I have heard Miss Skinner send you 
 upstairs to wash them many a time."
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 107 
 
 " I thank you for your voices, thank you, your 
 most sweet voices," I answered, mocking him 
 as proud Coriolanus mocked the citizens, and 
 then I changed the dance to a particularly inelegant 
 one of my own invention : a waddle up the 
 middle path, ladies' chain round the handle of 
 the pump at the end of the garden, down the 
 middle on one leg, and chassez to right and left with 
 back turned to partner. Felix watched me gravely, 
 then without a word, took off his hat and left me. 
 
 That was ever his way when I was naughty. 
 He left me to heaven, and to those thorns that 
 in our bosoms lodge, to prick and sting us. 
 And though I could not bear him to leave 
 me, I drove him to it many a time, ay, once 
 too often. The thorns pricked and stung me 
 on this occasion. I had mocked, but I had been 
 ashamed for all that. 
 
 Next time Felix saw me, my hair was flowing far 
 below my waist, in loose untangled glory, and I felt
 
 108 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 with delight as I stood in the bright spring sun- 
 shine that it was like threads of gold, and that 
 my palms and finger-tips were rosy from the 
 kisses of fresh cold water. I saw Felix's eyes 
 light up with pleasure and admiration as he 
 looked at me, and personal vanity awoke within 
 my breast. I began to take pains with myself 
 in order to make Felix admire me. My rough 
 sheath I could not help, but 1 took care the flower 
 should be as spotless and beautiful as care could 
 make it. Also I tried to move and speak more 
 gently, but this I found very difficult, for my 
 spirits ran away with me continually, and, indeed, 
 to this day I relapse occasionally into the old 
 wildness. 
 
 Yes, certainly I did for Felix what I would 
 have done for no other. I cried bitterly every 
 time he went back to Oxford, and I felt mad 
 with joy when he returned again. We were 
 more and more together as we grew older, for
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. IOQ 
 
 Miss Skinner allowed me more freedom, or per- 
 haps I took it, and she became so fond of Felix 
 that she could refuse him nothing. So he came 
 to the house when he listed, and took me out 
 for walks when he chose, and we met besides 
 many a time she knew not of. 
 
 The last year of my school life was decidedly 
 the happiest. Felix left Oxford, having taken 
 honours, and spent a long holiday at home, so 
 I saw him daily. I told him one day how dearly 
 I loved reciting, and he insisted on giving me 
 lessons in the art. Miss Skinner made no objec- 
 tion, so a lady was found to teach me. She came 
 twice a week and a surprisingly good instructress 
 she proved. I got on so wonderfully that soon 
 rumours of my performances spread abroad, and 
 Miss Skinner received frequent letters from 
 clergymen and others, begging that I might be 
 allowed to recite for them at little entertainments 
 got up for charitable purposes. These requests
 
 IIO HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 were refused, partly because my clothes were so 
 poor and shabby, and partly because Miss Skin- 
 ner feared my uncle might disapprove if it came 
 to his ears that I had performed in public. But 
 at length, quite at the end of my last term, the 
 very day on which most of the girls went home, 
 came an invitation which was not refused. 

 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 This most surprising invitation was actually 
 from the headachy Mrs. Vaughan-Price. Words 
 cannot describe the commotion in Miss Skinner's 
 breast when the note arrived. It ran as follows : 
 
 "Dear Miss Skinner, 
 " A few friends are coming to spend the after- 
 noon with me to-morrow at four o'clock, and 
 have a great desire to hear your pupil recite. I 
 believe my grandson has the pleasure of your 
 acquaintance; I therefore venture to ask you to 
 join our party and bring the little girl with you. 
 Kindly reply this evening. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 Anastasia Vaughan-Price. 
 
 Ill
 
 I i 2 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 "To-morrow, that is the 14 th of April, how 
 fortunate your uncle does not want you until the 
 15th, we shall be able to go now!" exclaimed 
 Miss Skinner, her hands so tremulous with ex- 
 citement that the note she held wagged up and 
 down like a leaf in a gale. 
 
 "I shan't go," I said. "The proud old thing 
 only asks me because she wants me to amuse 
 her friends. She has taken no notice of me all 
 these four years. 'Little girl' indeed ! I am not 
 a little girl, and I have no intention of being 
 treated like one." 
 
 But Miss Skinner did not see that the invitation 
 was not a flattering one, or if she did, put her 
 pride in her pocket and seemed determined to 
 go. She said if I recited there it would be a 
 very good advertisement for her school, and it 
 would not be like performing in public, so my 
 uncle could not object. I objected to being an 
 advertisement, and then she said I was very
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 113 
 
 selfish, and wondered how I could refuse an op- 
 portunity of seeing so beautiful a house and 
 garden. Seeing her heart was so set on going, 
 I yielded so far as to say that I, too, should like 
 to see the house Felix lived in, but that I would 
 not go there in shabby clothes. And here the 
 matter rested, for much as Miss Skinner longed 
 to go, her desire was not strong enough to prompt 
 her to furbish me up at her own expense. 
 
 In the afternoon Felix came in and asked rather 
 anxiously if we were going to accept his grand- 
 mother's invitation. 
 
 " You'd better ask Rosamund, " answered Miss 
 Skinner sharply, " I can do nothing with her, she's 
 so vain and obstinate." 
 
 " I am not vain and obstinate, " I said indignantly, 
 "but I won't let my candied tongue lick absurd 
 pomp, and I am not going to see Felix's grand- 
 mother in a bulged sailor hat, and shoes burst 
 at the toes." 
 
 vol. I. 8
 
 114 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 Then Felix said he was most anxious for many 
 reasons that I should accept his grandmother's 
 invitation, and make a good impression upon her, 
 and he said if I would only come out with him 
 to choose the things he would give me a new 
 hat and shoes and anything else necessary. By 
 this time I had become so used to Felix's gifts 
 that I had no shame in accepting anything from 
 him, so I put on my bulged hat and burst shoes 
 and sallied forth by his side. Miss Skinner let 
 us depart without a word. She was glad the 
 matter had been thus pleasantly settled without 
 any call upon her own pocket. 
 
 First we sought for and found a hat shop. I 
 was much taken with a grey velvet bonnet 
 trimmed with feathers, and long ribbons to tie 
 under the chin. It struck me as the kind of head- 
 gear likely to make a good impression upon the 
 grandmother. But the shopwoman smiled when 
 I tried it on, and Felix agreed with her that
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 115 
 
 'twas too matronly looking for a young girl. A 
 large gauzy looking black hat was next tried on. 
 
 " Ah ! The young lady really looks lovely in 
 this!" exclaimed the shopwoman, "it makes her 
 face look so fair, and sets off the golden hair." 
 
 Without more ado, the hat was bought, and 
 an expensive one it proved, costing Felix two 
 and a half guineas. Then we went to a shoe- 
 maker's, and bought a sweet little pair of buckled 
 shoes; and Felix having espied a hole in my 
 stocking whilst I was trying the shoes on, we 
 next repaired to a draper's, where I bought a 
 pair of black silk stockings, a pair of light kid 
 gloves, and an embroidered pocket-handkerchief. 
 We then agreed that my dress was much too 
 shabby to wear with such smart appointments, 
 and at Felix's request, some ready-made dresses 
 were shown us. They were none of them quite 
 the right thing; but at last we hit upon a very 
 pretty pale green silk skirt, and the girl who
 
 I 1 6 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 served us, having become quite interested in our 
 purchases, promised to make me a bodice to it 
 by the following morning. She took my meas- 
 urements, and we happily turned homewards 
 when all was done. 
 
 "Most complete I shall be now," I said gaily, 
 as we walked down the pavement. "I ought to 
 make a good impression on your grandmother; 
 don't you think so?" 
 
 "I hope so," answered Felix earnestly. "A 
 great deal depends upon it, Rosamund dear. I 
 scarcely like to tell you how much depends upon 
 it, you still seem so much a child." 
 
 This speech annoyed me. In many ways, no 
 doubt, I was still very much a child, for I knew 
 nothing whatsoever of the world beyond Miss 
 Skinner's school, and I still wore my hair flowing 
 over my shoulders, and my frocks, which I had 
 outgrown, were very short, which made me seem 
 younger than my years. Nevertheless, I was
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. I I 7 
 
 verging on seventeen and taller than any girl 
 in the school, so it was mortifying in one day to 
 be called both a little girl and a child. 
 
 "I am very, very anxious my grandmother 
 should think well of you, " went on Felix, " so 
 even if you find her a little stiff and difficult to 
 get on with, try, dear, to be sweet and pleasant 
 to her, for my sake. You'll do this for Felix, 
 will you not?" 
 
 "Of course I will," I answered shortly, "why 
 should you be afraid, you solemn old thing." 
 Then catching sight of his anxious face, my 
 heart softened and I added — "I'm provoking 
 sometimes, but I always do what you wish me 
 to do in the end, don't I, Felix ? " 
 
 "In the end," he repeated, half laughingly, 
 " that may not always do, Rosamund. There is 
 no time like the golden Now. But we will not 
 be solemn any longer, or I shall end by making 
 you quite nervous about to-morrow. Come, here's
 
 l I 8 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 the confectioner's. We can't pass without turning 
 in, such conduct would be without a precedent." 
 
 We turned in to the confectioner's and had a 
 feast, a farewell feast, for in two days I should 
 be leaving the familiar haunts of my girlhood. 
 Some girls might have felt sad, but as we walked 
 home I almost skipped along the pavement by 
 Felix's side, 1 felt so happy. It was such a 
 lovely afternoon, and I was so pleased to think 
 that the next day I should be going to a real 
 party, dressed in pretty things, and Felix looked 
 so kind and indulgent and so pleased with my 
 pleasure. Oh, how long ago it seems! It was 
 the spring time then, the spring time, the only 
 pretty ring time. Dark days, December bareness 
 were very far away. 
 
 At four o'clock the next afternoon Miss Skin- 
 ner and I assembled in the schoolroom, dressed 
 for the party. Miss Skinner wore her best black 
 silk and jet-trimmed mantle and had a new
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. I I 9 
 
 feather, purple this time, in her bonnet, and wide 
 lace ruffles hanging over her wrists instead of the 
 red mittens. I was robed from head to foot in 
 the gifts of Felix. The green silk skirt proved 
 to be a little short for me, but the bodice fitted 
 beautifully. Miss Skinner looked at me again 
 and again, as though slightly surprised at the 
 appearance I presented. 
 
 " You look very nice, Rosamund, " she said as 
 we started, " very nice indeed. But for goodness* 
 sake don't put your hand in your pocket and 
 swing your skirt about as you walk. It's short 
 enough when it's left alone, but when you swing 
 it about it's disgraceful." 
 
 I continued to swing it about as I walked, 
 calmly superior in the consciousness of silk stock- 
 ings and pretty buckled shoes. 
 
 " I must beg you'll behave yourself when you 
 get to the party," went on Miss Skinner, getting 
 exasperated. "You'll shock Mrs. Vaughan-Price
 
 120 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 if you put on your hoity-toity airs. Remember now, 
 you're to keep quiet, and mind you get up to recite 
 directly you're asked, and above all don't cross 
 your legs, as you're so fond of doing. I shall 
 scrape my throat like this — H — h — hem — if I see 
 you doing anything wrong, then you'll know 
 what I mean." 
 
 I began to feel impatient. It seemed to me 
 that both Felix and Miss Skinner were making 
 an unnecessary fuss over my behaviour at the party. 
 
 "Mrs. Vaughan-Price has asked me," I said 
 poutingly, " why should I behave like somebody 
 else? I shall not use an enforced ceremony, or 
 hang a calf's skin on these recreant limbs." 
 
 " There you are ! Why can't you talk in your 
 own language instead of dragging in that old 
 Shakspere every minute ? Upon my word, stran- 
 gers must think you are demented." 
 
 We had reached Felix's door by this time, to 
 my great relief, for Miss Skinner's prattle was
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 121 
 
 becoming a little tedious. She rang the bell, and 
 a butler flung it open, I thought in rather a proud 
 manner. We could see a large hall behind him, 
 and two footmen in gay livery waiting at the 
 bottom of the stairs. Miss Skinner suddenly 
 became nervous and lost her presence of mind. 
 
 "Is Mrs. Praughan-Vice at home?" she asked 
 in a shaky voice. 
 
 " Mrs. Vaughan-Prtce is at home, " answered 
 the butler with great distinctness. Miss Skinner 
 walked in with all the dignity she could muster, 
 and then the butler caught sight of me. 
 
 "Miss Gwynne?" he said inquiringly, with a 
 sudden look of interest. 
 
 "Miss Skinner and Miss Gwynne," put in my 
 instructress pointedly. 
 
 The butler moved aside to a table and returned 
 with a lovely large posy of daffodils. " With 
 Mr. Felix's compliments," he said, putting it 
 into my hands. There was a little card lying
 
 122 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 amidst the golden heads of the flowers. I took 
 it up and read : " For Rosamund to hold in her 
 hands whilst she is reciting." I felt quite giddy 
 with pleasure. Xo prima donna in the flush of 
 her greatest triumph ever felt prouder that I as 
 I followed the gay footmen and Miss Skinner 
 upstairs, behind my bunch of glowing nodding 
 daffodils. Miss Skinner turned to me looking 
 very red, when she reached the top of the stairs. 
 "Mind you behave. Is my bonnet straight?" 
 she whispered nervously. 
 
 " Oh, yes! Do go on, Miss Skinner," I answered, 
 excited and impatient, " see, they are waiting and 
 holding the door open." 
 
 Miss Skinner entered the drawing-room, nearly 
 tripping over the door-mat in her agitation. The 
 great moment had arrived, we were at the party, 
 our names had been called out loudly so that 
 everyone might know, another second, and we 
 were in the middle of the party, and Felix was
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 123 
 
 threading his way to us through a crowd of 
 people. It was a beautiful room, full of palms, 
 statues, lovely pictures, old china, and delicate, 
 softly hanging draperies, and the atmosphere 
 was almost heavy with the scent of flowers. 
 
 " I am so glad you have come, " said Felix, 
 looking at me with an exceedingly pleased and 
 proud expression, " let me take you to my grand- 
 mother. " 
 
 He led us up to a sofa, on which a very stately 
 looking old lady was sitting, surrounded by 
 quite a court, and showing no trace of headache. 
 Miss Skinner was introduced, received a frigid 
 shake of the hand, and was given a chair a 
 little distance away from the lady of the house. 
 And there the poor thing sat, looking red and 
 uncomfortable, most of the afternoon, and from 
 first to last small notice was taken of her by 
 anyone save Felix. I was introduced next, and 
 I saw a look of surprise on the haughty face of
 
 124 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 the old lady as she shook hands with me, a look 
 that was immediately followed by a frown. I 
 stood before her, feeling a little shy, for she said 
 nothing kind to set me at my ease, and I saw 
 she was taking stock of every detail of my ap- 
 pearance from my hat to my buckled shoes. A 
 gentleman sitting near her came to the rescue 
 at last, with a kind remark. 
 
 " What beautiful daffodils you have, " he said, 
 " I am so fond of daffodils." 
 
 I forgot my shyness instantly. " So am I, " I 
 answered, turning to him eagerly, "they are my 
 favourite flowers. They come before the swallow 
 dares, and take the winds of March with beauty. " 
 
 There w T as a look of surprise on all the faces 
 surrounding me when I finished my quotation, 
 and Miss Skinner scraped her throat meaningly. 
 
 " She is not a child : what did you mean by 
 saying she was a child ? " said the old lady in a 
 loud undertone to Felix, who was standing near her.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. I 25 
 
 " She is still almost a child," said Felix, get- 
 ting very red. 
 
 "Old enough to be dangerous," said the gen- 
 tleman who had first addressed me, speaking in 
 a load undertone like the old lady. She frowned 
 again. Her frowns made me uncomfortable. 
 Instinctively I moved towards Felix, feeling sure 
 there would be no frowns from that quarter. 
 
 " It was so kind of you to get these daffodils 
 for me, Felix," I said, suddenly remembering 
 he had not been thanked. " Fancy, almost every- 
 thing I have on has been given to me by you." 
 
 " Hush ! " whispered Felix warningly. 
 
 The warning came too late. I had spoken in 
 a clear voice, and I saw by Mrs. Vaughan-Price's 
 angry, astonished face that she had heard. 
 
 She stared at both of us until Felix became 
 crimson, and then she said : " Felix, I see Ang- 
 harad looking very dull in that corner, will you 
 oblige me by going to talk to her."
 
 126 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 Felix reluctantly moved away from my side. 
 "I'll come too," I said eagerly. 
 
 " Miss Gwynne, will you please take this chair, " 
 said Mrs. Vaughan-Price in an icy voice, pointing 
 to a chair near her sofa. 
 
 I was beginning to feel very angry with the 
 old lady, her manner was so indescribably rude, 
 but my courage had not yet mounted to the 
 occasion, so I seated myself on the chair pointed 
 out to me, between a smart young lady, and a 
 sleepy looking old gentleman. 
 
 "You've come to recite, have you not?" asked 
 the young lady, eyeing me very superciliously. 
 
 I did not like her question, or her manner, so I 
 looked back at her as superciliously and said : " Yes, 
 paid by the hour. What have you come to do ? " 
 
 For answer she turned her back upon me. 
 Then for a long time I sat silent. The old gen- 
 tleman took no notice of me whatever, no one 
 took any notice of me except the gentleman who
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. I 27 
 
 had said I was old enough to be dangerous, and 
 he confined himself to staring. Mrs. Vaughan- 
 Price took care Felix should not approach me. 
 Twice he drew near, and each time she sent him 
 away on some pretext or other, before he could 
 address a word to me. It was a most disappoint- 
 ing party, a horrible party, I wished a thousand 
 times over I had never come. I looked at Miss 
 Skinner, sitting opposite me, silent and neglected, 
 and knew by her flushed face and mortified 
 expression that she was thinking the same thing. 
 A wild longing to revenge myself on the old 
 lady for her rude reception of us, surged up in 
 my breast, and I boiled with rage behind my 
 daffodils. At length, tired of silence, I turned and 
 addressed the sleepy old gentleman. 
 
 "It's very nice out to-day" I observed. 
 
 "Eh! What?" he said, turning slowly towards 
 me, "speak louder, Missy, I'm a little deaf." 
 
 "It's very nice out to-day," I repeated.
 
 128 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! You saw a nice trout to-day. 
 Whereabouts did you see it ?" 
 
 "I said — 'It's nice out to-day,'" I repeated, 
 still louder. 
 
 " Yes, I heard : you saw a nice trout to-day. I 
 asked — Whereabouts did you see it ?" 
 
 The conversation seemed scarcely worth keep- 
 ing up, so leaning weariedly back in my chair, 
 I merely answered by a mumble. 
 
 "Eh! what? Speak a little louder, Missy." ■ 
 
 The comic side of the situation began to strike 
 me. I tried to mumble again, but the mumble 
 turned irresistibly into a giggle. People began 
 to look my way with rather astonished expressions, 
 Mrs. Vaughan-Price turned a freezing look upon 
 me, Miss Skinner scraped her throat loudly and 
 the old gentleman drew back, evidently offended. 
 I knew I was behaving badly, and a second 
 scrape from Miss Skinner made me conscious that 
 I was sitting with my legs crossed, but I had
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. I 29 
 
 got into one of my reckless moods now, and all 
 desire to behave well had left me. A wave of 
 silence passed through the room, a silence that 
 seemed awkward at a party. Mrs. Vaughan- 
 Price broke it by addressing me, very stiffly : 
 
 " Miss Gwynne, we have heard a good deal of 
 your powers of recitation, " she said, " will you 
 oblig'e us with something ? " 
 
 Miss Skinner looked anxious and gave a very 
 loud H — h — hem. A capital idea occurred to me. 
 That horrid old grandmother should bite the dust ; 
 her detestable party should be made a jest for ever. 
 
 " Certainly, " I answered meekly ; " shall I begin 
 now ? " 
 
 " Wait a moment, " said Mrs. Vaughan-Price, 
 relaxing a little the severity of her expression, 
 "we must have silence before you can begin." 
 
 Silence w r as then commanded, and the guests 
 collected and made a ring round me. Felix was 
 amongst them, but I was too busy with thoughts 
 
 VOL. I. 9
 
 130 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 of revenge to heed him now. I heard Mrs. 
 Vaughan-Price say in her loud undertone — "She 
 is very good, and very difficult to secure, quite 
 an extraordinary talent, " and then everyone 
 looked expectantly at me. I rose, tucked my 
 daffodils under my arm, stuck my hand into my 
 pocket, and swinging my skirt to and fro, began 
 in the dull monotonous sing-song of a Sunday- 
 school child : 
 
 " Gin ! Gin ! a drop of Gin ! 
 When, darkly, adversity's days set in, 
 And the ragged pauper, cold within, 
 Steep'd in poverty up to the chin, 
 Hardly acknowledg'd by kith and kin, 
 
 Alas, poor rat, 
 
 Has no cravat, 
 A seedy coat, and a hole in that, 
 No sole to his shoe, and no brim to his hat, 
 Not a change of linen, except his skin, 
 
 No credit, no cash, 
 
 No mutton to hash, 
 No bread, not even potatoes to mash, 
 
 Gin ! Gin ! A drop of Gin ! 
 'Tis then your tremendous temptations begin !"
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 131 
 
 There was a moment's dead silence when I 
 finished, broken by giggles from some of the 
 younger members of the party, and fearful scrapings 
 from Miss Skinner. I looked at the old grand- 
 mother. Angry discomfiture was written on every 
 line of her face. The whirligig of Time had 
 speedily brought in his revenges, and her party 
 had been made a jest for ever. 
 
 "Rosamund!" cried Miss Skinner, fussing up 
 to me with a very red face, how could you choose 
 such a piece ! — For goodness' sake. " — she whispered 
 — ■ don't be so wild and naughty ; even Shakspere 
 would have been better than that." Then she 
 continued aloud — "Do recite that pretty little 
 piece 'The Magic Wand.'" 
 
 I looked down, slightly ashamed of myself, 
 but not inclined to yield. 
 
 " Rosamund ! " said Felix's voice. I looked up 
 and met his eyes fixed upon me anxiously and 
 entreatingly. Some compunctious visitings of
 
 132 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 nature almost shook my fell purpose when I saw 
 those entreating eyes, but T did not yield. I 
 resumed my seat, and so refused the first favour 
 Felix had ever asked of me. 
 
 Seeing there was nothing further to be expected 
 of me, the company dispersed about the room 
 again. Mrs. Vaughan-Price gave me a withering 
 look, then turned her back upon me, the kindest 
 thing she had done yet. 
 
 " I think we'd belter go home, " said Miss Skinner- 
 looking almost ill with chagrin. 
 
 " Oh, you must not take Miss Gwynne away 
 until she has had some tea," said the gentleman 
 who had spoken to me when I first entered the 
 room. 
 
 I looked at Felix. He turned to Miss Skinner 
 and took no notice of me. 
 
 " Do come and have some tea, Miss Skinner, " 
 he said, offering his arm to her as if she had 
 been a princess. " You must not dream of going
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 133 
 
 yet, we shall be having some music presently." 
 
 They walked away together, and I was left to 
 the care of the stranger. He took a chair by 
 my side when they had gone, and asked me a 
 great many questions about myself, seeming 
 especially interested in the history of my acquaint- 
 anceship with Felix. 
 
 " I think it is a fortunate thing for Felix that 
 you are leaving Exbourne so soon," he remarked 
 presently. 
 
 "Why?" I asked, surprised. 
 
 " Well, you see, the old lady has her plans for 
 her grandson, and it would go ill with Felix if 
 you thwarted them." 
 
 "But what have I to do with her plans?" I 
 asked wonderingly. 
 
 He looked at me with a laugh. "Did Felix 
 give you those daffodils?" he asked, without 
 answering my question. 
 
 " Yes, " I answered. " Do you like my hat ?
 
 134 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 He gave me that too — Why do you laugh so v ' 
 I added, seeing him with difficulty suppressing 
 his laughter. 
 
 "Come to tea," he said, jumping up, "we are 
 attracting grandmamma's attention." 
 
 We went into an adjoining room where the 
 most delicious things were spread upon a large 
 table, and found Felix there, still waiting upon 
 Miss Skinner. 
 
 " Felix looks dull and out of spirits, " observed 
 my cavalier. 
 
 I had already seen that for myself, but I did 
 not allow it to affect my spirits, and began to jest 
 with my companion as if I were enjoying myself 
 immensely. 
 
 " Rosamund ! " whispered Miss Skinner, coming 
 up to me nervously, "do be careful. That's the 
 son of a Lord you're talking to." 
 
 Far from checking my merriment this news 
 only increased it. I turned and asked my companion
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 35 
 
 if his father were Lord Tomnoddy, and he said 
 yes, and his grandfather was Duke Humphrey, 
 and we laughed so noisily over this that soon 
 everyone in the room was looking at us. Felix 
 glanced at me, a glance in which pained disap- 
 proval could be read plainly, then again offered 
 his arm to Miss Skinner and led her back to the 
 drawing-room. Someone began playing a nocturne 
 of Chopin's. I suddenly felt tired of my companion, 
 who had begun paying me outrageous compliments. 
 
 " Let us go and listen to the music, " I said. 
 
 " First give me your Wildacre address, " said he. 
 
 I gave it him, and when he had written it 
 down in his note-book he told me his name was 
 D'Arcy Leigh, and hoped I would not forget him. 
 Then he led me to the drawing-room, and we 
 seated ourselves on a couple of chairs near the 
 piano. But Felix kept aloof from me, and never 
 once looked my way. 
 
 The music was very inferior. I knew I could
 
 136 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 have done much better, and felt rather inclined 
 to perform, but no one asked me to do so, which, 
 considering the circumstances, was not surprising. 
 First a very buxom looking lady, not young, 
 rose and went to the piano, and D'Arcy Leigh 
 whispered to me that she was a widow, whose 
 husband had been kindly removed to a happier 
 sphere. With much spirit she sang a song 
 beginning " Awake, I am free ! I am free ! " and I 
 caught D'Arcy Leigh deliberately winking at the 
 gentleman who was turning over the leaves for 
 her. Then an elderly gentleman played the first 
 movement of the Moonlight Sonata, very pizzi- 
 cato in the treble, and with thumps in the bass 
 that made you start, and after that he played 
 something jiggy which he said was Haydn, but 
 which would certainly have provoked a posthumous 
 " Surprise " from that musician had it been played 
 near his burial place. Then Mrs. Vaughan-Price 
 said suddenly :
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 137 
 
 "Felix, it is your turn now, sing something 
 for us." 
 
 Through the room ran a stir, and cries of " Oh 
 do !" Felix went to the piano, and began turning 
 over some music. I left my seat, and came softly 
 to his side, crimson with excitement. I had never 
 heard Felix sing, but I felt instinctively he would 
 sing well, and I was sure he would ask me to 
 play his accompaniment. For years I had worked 
 hard at the piano, with the hope of such a moment 
 as this before me, and my whole frame thrilled 
 with delight at the thought that now -at last — 
 the moment had come. I saw Felix look round 
 as if in search of someone, and thinking he did 
 not see me I whispered eagerly : 
 
 " I am here, Felix, ready to play it. " 
 
 "No, thank you, Rosamund," answered Felix 
 coldly. " I must have someone I can depend 
 upon. Angharad, will you kindly play the accom- 
 paniment of this song of Sullivan's for me?"
 
 138 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 A girl he had talked to a great deal, a stately 
 dark-eyed girl, advanced to the piano. I fell 
 back, cut to the heart, and leaned against the 
 wall with my head hung down low over my 
 daffodils to hide the hot tears that sprang to my 
 eyes. It was the bitterest blow my young life 
 had yet experienced, and I was amazed that 
 Felix should have dealt it.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Upon my pain and amazement broke Felix's 
 voice on a high, beautiful note that rang through 
 the room, then dropped into a strain that had a 
 dying fall. I thrilled all over as the song 
 began, for the words were Shakspere's, I knew 
 them well: 
 
 Orpheus with his lute made trees 
 And the mountain tops that freeze, 
 
 Bow themselves when he did sing. 
 To his music plants and flowers, 
 Ever sprung : as sun and showers 
 
 There had made a lasting spring. 
 
 i39
 
 140 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 Everything that heard him play, 
 Even the billows of the sea, 
 
 Hung their heads, and then lay by. 
 In sweet music is such art, 
 Killing care and grief of heart 
 
 Fall asleep, or hearing, die. 
 
 Again that high, beautiful note, followed by 
 the strain that had a dying fall. I lost all con- 
 sciousness of the room in which I was standing. 
 I seemed to be amongst the mountains, and Felix's 
 voice was the voice of Orpheus, calling to me, 
 calling to all nature. Then came a smooth soft 
 strain, and the voice was like a voice in a dream, 
 and from over the mountains I seemed to feel 
 the soft south wind murmuring gently in my ear. 
 Louder and louder swelled voice and music, all 
 nature was awakening and answering : at last I 
 could hear even the billows of the sea replying. 
 Onward they rolled, ever more and more majestic, 
 whilst the divine voice rose and fell and rose 
 again, now lost in the tumult, now triumphing
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 141 
 
 over it. At last came one supreme note, like the 
 call of a trumpet, and then suddenly the sea was 
 silent. The voice was no longer calling, it was 
 dying away, receding further and further amongst 
 the mountains. The answering music grew fainter 
 and fainter ; nature had fallen asleep, or, hearing 
 that sweet music, had died. Further, still further, 
 receded the voice, then suddenly like the sea it 
 was silent, and I awoke to find that the Orpheus 
 who had called to me was — Felix. 
 
 Never shall I forget him as he appeared to 
 me at that moment. He might have been the 
 son of Apollo as he stood there facing us all, 
 with his head thrown back, one foot planted 
 proudly forward, and the inspiration of song light- 
 ing up his face. Let me try to describe him as 
 he appeared then. His hair was bright chestnut 
 and curly, his eyes were brown with golden lights, 
 and shone beneath his straight dark brows, his 
 complexion was fresh and bright, his mouth firm
 
 142 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 and sweet, and there was both strength and grace 
 in his tall figure. But all this can give you no 
 idea of Felix: I cannot describe his face, never 
 have I seen another possessing such a charm. 
 Perhaps his most striking characteristic was his 
 marvellous look of brightness and youth. Oh, to 
 think that that look should ever have faded! 
 Bright youth should be immortal; pray God it 
 may be so in the next world, and that there we 
 may find a lasting spring. 
 
 There was a moment of thrilled silence when the 
 song ended, then the people burst into a storm 
 of thanks and applause. 
 
 " I am delighted to think I have been able to 
 give you all so much pleasure," said Felix 
 simply, when the applause was over, and then 
 his eyes met mine, and suddenly his face changed. 
 I don't know what he read in my expression, 
 but my heart felt bursting. Stadden shame came 
 rushing upon me like the wind. Felix's simple
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 43 
 
 words which revealed his character, revealed also 
 my own. His chief joy was to give pleasure. 
 He had said it, and oh ! did I not know it ? For 
 years he had come to me with pleasures in his 
 hand, a faithful, never-failing- friend, and not once 
 until to-day had he asked me to do a thing for 
 him. And what had I done to-day when the 
 golden opportunity came? Insulted his grand- 
 mother, insulted his guests, insulted him ! A 
 great sob rose in my throat, and I rushed from 
 the room like a wild thing. The astonished foot- 
 men moved aside that I might descend the stairs, 
 but I could not face them. I turned aside and fled 
 along the corridor, down a steep narrow staircase, 
 and out through an open doorway into the fresh air. 
 For a moment I could see nothing, then through 
 my tears I saw I was in Felix's beautiful garden. 
 The spring sunshine was all around me, sweet 
 scents filled the frir, brilliant flowers bloomed in 
 all directions, but my blurred eyes saw every-
 
 144 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 thing through a mist, and pain filled my soul 
 The song had stirred me to depths I knew not 
 in myself. It seemed to me that for years Felix 
 had been calling to me in the language of a 
 beautiful song, and I had made no answer. 
 Would he be silent now? Would he cease to 
 try to draw me to him? 
 
 No, not yet. Felix himself was my answer. 
 A kind hand clasped mine suddenly, the same 
 kind hand that had clasped mine four long years 
 ago when I was a hungry child weeping for 
 loneliness on the sea shore. I seized it in both 
 my own, and placed it upon my breast, and then, 
 scarcely knowing what I said or did, I poured 
 forth my heart to my dearest friend. 
 
 " Oh, Felix ! " I cried, " you do not know my 
 grief of heart. You have called to me so many 
 years and I have made no answer. And even 
 to-day when I came into your home, covered 
 with your gifts, I would not answer when you
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 45 
 
 entreated me, I would not do even one little 
 thing for you. Oh, Felix! I began to think you 
 would never call to me again. Your song pierced 
 my heart, the song that she played for you! 
 Forgive me, Felix, I will never behave so again ; 
 I will answer when you call, I will come to you, 
 and follow you, and do anything in the world 
 for you" — 
 
 Felix would not let me say more. He put my 
 hand inside his arm, and drew me on amidst 
 the flowers. 
 
 "Don't cry, dearest one, don't cry," he kept 
 saying. But my tears still fell until at last, looking 
 up, I saw Felix was looking radiantly happy, and 
 then I began to feel happier myself. Still further 
 he drew me amidst the flowers, and then he 
 stooped and kissed me, not once, but many times. 
 
 "You love me a little then, Rosamund?" he 
 asked, with a tremble in his voice. 
 
 " Better than the whole world. I found it out 
 
 VOL. I. 10
 
 146 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 when you were singing. I feel now I would 
 follow you into another world if you called me." 
 
 Felix gave a happy laugh. " Now indeed do 
 I feel like Orpheus, " he said, " for with my lute 
 have I won Eurydice." 
 
 " Yes, " I said, " you drew me, as Orpheus drew 
 the savage beasts of the forest. You drew all 
 the wildness out of me. But I don't think it 
 was the song alone, Felix. You are music yourself, 
 you are sweet singing, you are bright spring 
 sunshine. Your lute is your own kind nature; 
 'twas that, as well as the song, that touched me. " 
 
 " Oh, hush! You must not be so extravagant, 
 Rosamund. If you put me on such an extrava- 
 gantly high pedestal, I shall topple over at your 
 feet. There, smile again ! I do not like to see 
 my Rosamund weeping. Come and look at the 
 flowers. " 
 
 So saying, he drew me on into Fairyland. 
 Nowhere have I seen a garden like this of
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 47 
 
 Felix's. It contained everything that was beau- 
 tiful. Even the soft music of water was not 
 wanting, for a brook ran murmuring by. Care and 
 order prevailed, yet nothing was stiff or formal. 
 Stretches of grass mingled with gay flower-beds, 
 flowering shrubs bordered the pathways, here 
 and there a beautiful group of trees stood proudly 
 on the sward, and rustled their green leaves 
 against the breezy sky. Flowers bloomed in 
 every direction. Purple and white hyacinths, gold 
 and crimson tulips, bright ranunculuses, softly 
 tinted anemones, velvety auriculas, all the beautiful 
 favourites of the spring, were there. And the 
 wild flowers of the field and forest were there 
 too; they had not been forgotten in Felix's garden. 
 Golden daffodils waved and nodded on the green 
 turf beneath the rustling trees, all along the sides 
 of the brook grew pale sweet primroses and 
 forget-me-nots, and lurking in corners were 
 daisies pied, and cowslips, and delicate wood
 
 148 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 anemones, and violets, dim, but sweeter than the 
 lids of Juno's eyes or Cytherea's breath. Far off, 
 beyond the bordering wall, could be seen the 
 downs, undulating in the sunshine, and flecked 
 by purple shadows; whilst overhead the white 
 clouds raced across the blue sky, driven swiftly 
 onwards by the fresh sweet breath of spring. 
 
 " Oh, Felix, this is beautiful, " I cried delightedly, 
 "you have been here with your lute." 
 
 Felix smiled, and we seated ourselves on a 
 grassy knoll beneath a flowering lilac tree, and 
 listened to the murmuring brook, and to the 
 thrushes and blackbirds singing for joy that spring 
 had come. I felt more than ever that I loved 
 Felix. 
 
 " Everything that heard your music has blos- 
 somed," I went on, still clinging to the idea that 
 had filled my mind. " Felix, here you have made 
 a lasting spring." 
 
 "No, not lasting," said Felix almost sadly,
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 49 
 
 " no spring is lasting. My springtime is passing 
 away, leaving me, like you, Rosamund." 
 
 " But, Felix, when I go to-morrow I don't say 
 good-bye to you for ever ! " I exclaimed, aghast 
 at the mere thought. 
 
 Felix laughed at the monstrous idea. " Do 
 you think I could live without you now, Rosa- 
 mund ? " he said fondly. " No, I shall say good- 
 bye to you at the station to-morrow, but it will 
 be only good-bye for a while. My Oxford days 
 are over now, and soon I shall be much in London 
 reading for the Bar, so it will be easy to run 
 down to Wildacre. " 
 
 " And what will your grandmother say if she 
 finds out you do that? " 
 
 Felix looked grave. " You have made my 
 position a difficult one, " he said slowly. 
 
 This was the only reproach he ever gave me. 
 
 " I am so sorry, Felix dear, " I said, creeping 
 up close to him. But I did not in the least realize
 
 150 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 the full significance of his words. Later, that 
 speech of his returned to my mind, and I knew 
 what that fatal afternoon cost Felix. 
 
 We sat a long time in that paradise of a garden, 
 but at last Felix said it was absolutely necessary 
 he should go back to his guests. We parted by 
 the low wall, close to Miss Skinner's flower-beds, 
 and I again baptized the flowers at my feet with 
 my tears. But they were not bitter tears, for 
 our real parting was to be on the morrow, and 
 after all, 'twas the spring time, the only pretty 
 ring time, and summer was coming, I hoped with 
 many merry meetings. 
 
 Felix put me over the garden wall, and I ran 
 back to the shabby house which had been my 
 home for so many years. Miss Skinner was sitting 
 in the easy chair which always stood in the win- 
 dow of her sanctum, a window that commanded 
 a view of her flower-beds. She sat there a good 
 deal, gazing out of the window, and I used to
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 151 
 
 wonder what she thought of, she always, at such 
 times, looked so melancholy. 
 
 " Well ! " she exclaimed, when I presented myself, 
 "I hope you are properly ashamed of yourself. 
 I know I am ashamed of you. You'll never get 
 asked inside those doors again. A nice return 
 to make Felix for all his kindness, and he so 
 anxious you should make a good impression, 
 and giving you all those pretty things on purpose 
 that you might show well before his grandmother 
 and his friends. You put him to regular shame. 
 I never in my life saw Felix so down as when 
 he took me into the tea room." 
 
 It is strange what different effects different 
 people produce upon us. I had thrilled and wept 
 beneath Felix's voice and eyes, I waxed angry 
 beneath the blows of Miss Skinner's tongue. 
 
 Instead of making any excuses or apologies, I 
 turned my back upon her and stared into the empty 
 fire-place. Miss Skinner became still more incensed.
 
 152 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " Can't you speak ? " she cried angrily. " Well, 
 I'll tell you what I think of you. Either you're 
 a fool, or you're the biggest child I ever saw. 
 Couldn't you see how important this afternoon 
 was to you ? Why, if you had taken Mrs. Vaughan- 
 Price's fancy, there's no knowing what might 
 have happened, with Felix so fond of you. As 
 it is, the best thing he can do is to wash his hands 
 of you, it's thankless work to be your slave. ' 
 
 I gave a half angry laugh, feeling very sure 
 of my slave, yet a little uneasy about the future. 
 
 " I expect he compared you very unfavourably 
 with his cousin, the heiress," went on Miss Skin- 
 ner with marked emphasis, "she was a pretty, 
 nice, ladylike girl, and she played that accom- 
 paniment beautifully. " 
 
 " Was that girl Angharad his cousin, - -the 
 heiress to Cwmcoch Hall ?" I asked, facing my 
 governess abruptly, with my cheeks aflame. 
 
 " Yes, the girl his grandmother intends him to
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 53 
 
 marry, " replied Miss Skinner, looking at me with 
 a curious intent expression. 
 
 " She wasn't a bit pretty, " I cried vehemently, 
 " and I hate nice ladylike girls, and so does Felix, 
 I am sure. I could have played that accompaniment 
 much better than she did. And I hate that old 
 grandmother, and don't want her to take a fancy 
 to me. Her headaches were all bosh, and she 
 could have called on us years ago if she had not 
 been a proud stuck-up old thing." 
 
 Then I burst into tears and rushed out of the 
 room, upstairs to my bedroom. I remember 
 now that Miss Skinner was very kind to me 
 when I came down again, kinder and more 
 gentle than I had ever known her, but it did not 
 strike me much at the time, my mind was so 
 full of other things. 
 
 Xext morning I was all eagerness and excite- 
 ment, packing for Wildacre. No black bag was 
 possible this time; I had to take all my belong-
 
 154 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 ings with me to my new home. Miss Skinner 
 came and helped me to pack, and was so 
 strangely silent I looked at her in astonishment 
 several times, wondering what had gone wrong. A 
 little before the hour of starting came a note from 
 Felix saying he could not come and say good- 
 bye to me at the station, because his grandmother 
 had particularly requested he would accompany 
 her and her friends to Berry Point, and they 
 were starting immediately. This was disappoint- 
 ing; but the letter was so loving, and held out 
 such bright hopes of a speedy meeting, that it 
 brought its own consolation with it. Half an 
 hour later I was ready for my journey. 
 
 " Come into the schoolroom and have some 
 refreshment," said Miss Skinner, when all was 
 done. 
 
 I followed her in, and on the middle table was 
 a nice little dish of sandwiches, and, oh, unheard- 
 of luxury ! a glass of sherry. I sat down on
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 55 
 
 the time-honoured bench, feeling that Miss Skin- 
 ner was sending me off in style, and no mistake, 
 and began to eat, laughing and talking the while 
 in the highest spirits. The very thought of the 
 railway journey was a pleasurable excitement to 
 me, who for five long years had never been out 
 of Exbourne. Miss Skinner was seated at the 
 head of the narrow table, still very silent. 
 
 Suddenly she said in a trembling voice: "You've 
 been five years in this house, Rosamund, for five 
 
 years it has been your home and yet, you're 
 
 glad to go. " 
 
 I looked up from my sandwiches, startled and 
 embarrassed. 
 
 " Well, you see, Miss Skinner, it's been school, " 
 I said apologetically, " and now it's going to be 
 holidays. " 
 
 u Oh, yes ! That's what all you young people 
 think! You think life is going to be one long 
 holiday. It won't be. I thought as you do once,
 
 156 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 but it's been no holiday to me. It's been drudg- 
 ing, thankless, toilsome work. It's been a mean 
 life without any beauty in it. It's taken all the 
 strength and spirit out of me, and made me a 
 hard, unlovely old woman before my time. An 
 old woman that no one is sorry to leave. Oh! 
 it's not only you, Rosamund, you've all been the 
 same; term after term you've gone away and 
 not one kind thought or word for the poor teacher 
 left behind to her weary life. I thought I had 
 got used to it, but you've been with me so long* 
 and uninterruptedly, that though you've given me 
 more trouble than most, I've got attached to you 
 somehow. I ought not to have got attached to 
 you. It does not do for such as me to form 
 attachments. You don't know how I shall miss 
 you, left lonely here." 
 
 I looked at her, too astonished at this unex- 
 pected outburst to speak. Suddenly it struck me 
 that the poor old thing did look very lonely,
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 57 
 
 sitting by herself at the end of the long narrow- 
 table, in that bare room. 
 
 " I don't wonder you're glad to go, " she went 
 on, " my temper is sharp now, I know, and every- 
 thing is very skimpy. I can't help it ; I'm bound 
 to be skimpy. The parents grind me down, your 
 uncle has been no better than the rest of them, 
 though he's a rich man. Do you think I wouldn't 
 have things nice and pretty if I could, and have 
 plenty on the table every day ? Oh, I can tell you, 
 Rosamund, for once you've gone hungry I've gone 
 hungry twenty times " 
 
 The sandwiches began to choke me, I could 
 eat no longer. 
 
 — "And with all my skimping I get but little 
 profit out of my school. If my health failed me, 
 which it might do to-morrow, I shouldn't have 
 enough to keep me three months out of the 
 workhouse, and not a relation in the world to 
 go to."
 
 158 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 I sat aghast at the revelation. We had always 
 understood, we girls, that Miss Skinner had saved 
 a big bag of money by skimping us. "Have 
 not you any money put by?" I asked. 
 
 " Xot a penny. I had to keep my invalid brother 
 for years, and it was a great drain upon me. I 
 could not skimp him, he suffered so. " 
 
 " Oh, Miss Skinner dear, I never knew ! And is 
 he dead?" 
 
 "He died five years ago; but for long before 
 that he could not move about. He spent his 
 days in that arm-chair in my room. He used to 
 like that seat, because he could look out of the 
 window and watch the flowers springing in my 
 garden. Oh, I can see him now as he sat there 
 for the last time, the day before he died. It was 
 the early spring of the year. I was passing the 
 door, and he called to me in such a pleased voice, 
 'Oh, Margaret, the crocuses are out, come and 
 look at the crocuses'."
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 159 
 
 The poor thing broke down here, and began 
 to sob in a manner pitiful to see in one her age. 
 I began to sob also. I knew now why she sat 
 so much in that arm-chair, looking sadly out upon 
 her flower-beds. I knew now why she loved 
 crocuses beyond every flower in the world. She 
 no longer seemed the same woman. A halo of 
 love and sorrow shone round her, and she was 
 transfigured to my eyes. I left my seat, and 
 rushed up to her and flung my arms passionately 
 round her neck. 
 
 " Dear, dearest Miss Skinner, " I said, " don't cry, 
 Oh, don't cry. You shall never go to the workhouse, 
 Felix will not allow it. And don't call yourself 
 hard and unlovely, you are beautiful, quite beauti- 
 ful! And I don't mind skimpiness, I love it, only 
 I am sorry you should ever have gone hungry 
 yourself. And your life has not been a mean 
 life, it has been full of beauty, love first, now 
 remembrance, and always flowers. And I am
 
 160 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 dreadfully sorry to leave you, more sorry than 
 I can say. Dear Miss Skinner, do drink this wine, 
 it will do you good, and eat these sandwiches, I 
 really can't eat more. Please take them and look 
 happier, or I shall go away miserable. " 
 
 After a good deal more pressing Miss Skinner 
 drank the wine, trying at the same time to hide 
 her streaming eyes with the corner of the rusty 
 black shawl covering her shoulders. The wine 
 seemed to revive her, and gave her courage to 
 attack the sandwiches, which she seemed really 
 quite to enjoy. Poor thing, I am sure she needed 
 them more than I did: I daresay her dinner had 
 gone to make them. 
 
 " There's the cab ! " she said presently. " I 
 don't feel that I can come to see you off, Rosa- 
 mund, I'm too upset, but cook will go with you, 
 and will see to everything for you. Here's the 
 money for your railway journey, five shillings 
 for your ticket, and eighteenpence for the cab at
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 161 
 
 this end, I've had directions to give you the exact 
 sum, but I've added twopence of my own for the 
 porter at Clapham Junction, where you change, 
 because it is a bewildering station, and not being 
 used to travelling you may want a little extra 
 attention. Is Felix going to see you off at the 
 station? — what was the note about?" 
 
 " He can't come, " I said. " His grandmother 
 made him go off with her to Berry Point. " 
 
 Miss Skinner shook her head and gave a 
 little groan. "Just as I expected," she said 
 enigmatically, and then she rose and bade me 
 farewell. 
 
 " Good-bye, Rosamund, " she said in a shaky 
 voice, " 'twill be dreadfully strange and quiet 
 without you. I can't think how my heart has 
 twined so round you. But I hope you'll be happy 
 in this new life you're going to. Think sometimes 
 of old Miss Skinner, leading her weary life term 
 after term, and year after year. Felix will look 
 
 vol. I. I I
 
 1 62 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 after you, I don't think he will give you up. 
 Oh, Rosamund! you can't set too much store by 
 Felix. He's a friend in a thousand. I believe 
 now that you're truly fond of him, but for heaven's 
 sake don't spoil his life and your own by wild 
 ways and foolish tricks. Remember, these 
 are my last words. Now good-bye, and may 
 God bless you as He has not seen fit to bless 
 me. 
 
 Somehow, through blinding tears, I left Miss 
 Skinner and entered the cab. If anyone had 
 told me an hour before that my heart would ache 
 over the parting, I should not have believed 
 them; but it did ache sadly. 
 
 I never saw Miss Skinner again. She was 
 spared the workhouse. A year later she fell 
 asleep under her weary life, fell asleep suddenly, 
 in the spring time, just as another weary term 
 was beginning. Fell asleep in her arm-chair, with 
 her face turned towards her little garden. And
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 63 
 
 where she awoke we know not, but I like to 
 think that she awoke to find her narrow strip of 
 flower-beds had changed into a world of flowers, 
 and that her brother was there waiting for her 
 amidst the crocuses. 
 
 END OF BOOK I.
 
 BOOK II. 
 MY PRISON HOUSE.
 
 ISook II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The four years of school-life which I had dreaded 
 so much had vanished ; like a dream, like a 
 bubble, like a bright exhalation in the evening, 
 which no man sees more. For ten minutes I lay 
 back in the railway carriage, sobbing because I 
 had parted with Miss Skinner, and done with 
 school for ever; then gradually school and Miss 
 Skinner faded into air, into thin air. It was borne 
 in upon me that we are indeed such stuff as 
 dreams are made of. See ! The insubstantial 
 pageant fades and leaves not a rack behind. 
 Gone is the skimpy home, and the little strip of 
 
 flower-beds : before me dawns the great beautiful 
 
 167
 
 1 68 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 world. Even the weeping lonely figure hiding 
 her streaming eyes behind the corner of her shawl 
 fades at last. The earth hath bubbles as the 
 water has, and Miss Skinner is of them. The 
 great globe itself claimed my attention now. It 
 whirled past me, dressed in all the trim of proud 
 pied April, a vision of green fields, shining 
 streams, and fruit trees glorified by masses of 
 pink and white blossom. Intensely interesting I 
 found it, yes, though lovely country disappeared 
 by degrees and merged itself in suburban town. 
 Even Clapham Junction had charms. The des- 
 perate, hurrying crowds, the trains shrieking by 
 like demons, filled me with excitement. This was 
 life, real life, and I was in the midst of it. Some- 
 one looked after me, and put me into the right 
 train for Wildacre : I have not the least idea 
 who he was, but he was kind and elderly and 
 respectable looking, and I offered him Miss Skin- 
 ner's twopence when the bustle was over.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 169 
 
 "For your extra attention," I said. 
 
 He stared at me, and he stared at the twopence, 
 but he did not attempt to take it. And so I left 
 him, my hand outstretched with twopence in it, 
 and he staring after me and my departing train 
 with an angry surprised expression upon his 
 countenance. 
 
 The line was a little uninteresting after we had 
 left Clapham. I could not decide whether I were 
 passing through town or country, and the houses 
 had a painful uniformity of ugliness. By degrees 
 the people who had started w^ith me got out at 
 the different stopping-places, and I was left alone 
 in the carriage. Another stop. 
 
 " Waker / " shouted a porter who was carelessly 
 strolling down the platform. He sounded as if 
 he had a cold in his head, but I have since 
 discovered that most porters give you that dis- 
 agreeable impression when they are shouting the 
 names of places.
 
 170 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 A great many people got out at Waker. I 
 watched the bustle on the platform with much 
 interest. One old man in particular interested 
 me. He was the thinnest man I had ever seen, 
 and carried his hat in his hand as he rushed 
 excitedly up and down the platform, evidently 
 hunting for someone, so I had the full benefit 
 of his features. The face was a peculiar and yet 
 an attractive one : very dark eyes and eyebrows 
 contrasted well with white hair that stood erect 
 on the forehead, somewhat after the manner of 
 the crest of a cockatoo, and the complexion was 
 so dark as to give him almost a foreign look. 
 Suddenly his eyes fell upon me. He flew up to 
 the carriage door with an alertness surprising 
 in one whose hair was white with the snows of 
 time. 
 
 "Where for, Madam ?" he asked, poking a well- 
 cut aquiline nose through the window. 
 
 "Wildacre," I answered.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 171 
 
 " Of course. Here you are. Miss Gwynne, 
 isn't it?" 
 
 " Yes, I'm Miss Gwynne, " I answered, wondering- 
 how he could have known my name. 
 
 " I knew you were the instant my eyes fell 
 upon your face, " he exclaimed eagerly, and then 
 he flung open the carriage door and apparently 
 awaited my descent. 
 
 " I don't get out here, " I remarked in surprise, 
 "I'm for Wildacre." 
 
 " This is Wildacre, Madam. " 
 
 "Oh, no, it's not," I said, "it's Waker." 
 
 " But I assure you, Madam, it is Wildacre, and 
 I have come expressly to meet you." 
 
 I felt a little staggered, he seemed so positive, 
 but just then catching sight of the porter with 
 a cold in his head I shouted out to him: 
 
 "What station is this, porter?" 
 
 " Waker ! " shouted back the porter, in precisely 
 the same tone as before.
 
 172 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " There ! " I exclaimed, " I told you it was 
 "Waker. You don't take me in, though I've 
 never travelled before. Shut the door, please. 
 I shall not get out here." 
 
 " But, Madam, I assure you the places are the 
 same, precisely identical, exactly similar. You'll 
 get no nearer by going further." 
 
 The poor old gentleman was getting so flustered, 
 I could not refrain from a smile, but I had no 
 intention of getting out at a wrong station at the bid- 
 ding of a stranger, so I did not move. This seemed 
 to drive him to desperation. He called the guard. 
 
 " Guard, please convince the young lady that 
 this is Wildacre." 
 
 The guard examined my ticket, then convinced 
 me it was Wildacre by bundling me out uncere- 
 moniously, and pointing afterwards to a signboard. 
 " Wildacre" was written on it in huge characters, 
 so at last I was forced to believe that Wildacre 
 and Waker were the same.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 73 
 
 And the stranger who had come to meet me 
 must be my uncle, my unknown uncle! How 
 ungracious I must have appeared. I turned upon 
 him impetuously, anxious to make amends. 
 
 "I am so sorry I did not know you, uncle," 
 I said, seizing his hands, and lifting my face to 
 his for a kiss. 
 
 He shrank back looking quite appalled. " Oh, 
 no, Madam, do not, I implore you, do not," he 
 exclaimed affrightedly. "I have not the honour 
 to be your uncle, I am only your uncle's er — 
 er — confidential man, his servant in fact, Madam." 
 
 "Oh, indeed!" I said, "then my uncle is not 
 like Julius Caesar. You know what Julius Caesar 
 said — 'Let me have men about me that are fat." 
 
 " Your uncle thinks differently. Have you 
 any luggage, Madam? " 
 
 "He liked sleek-headed men, and such as 
 sleep o' nights." 
 
 " Ticket, please, " interrupted a porter.
 
 174 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 I was far too interested in my subject to heed 
 him. " He objected to Cassius, you know, because 
 he had a lean and hungry look. He thought 
 thin men dangerous. I don't know that I quite 
 agree with him. I expect fat men are sometimes 
 to be avoided quite as much as thin men, but 
 Caesar was perhaps justified in " 
 
 The confidential man again interrupted me, 
 looking red and rather offended. " I may be thin, 
 Madam," he said, "but I hope I know my duty. 
 The porter has asked for your ticket twice, and 
 your luggage will be stolen unless we go and 
 look after it." 
 
 It was evident my remarks were not appreciated, 
 so I gave up my ticket and identified my luggage. 
 When we got out into the road I saw before 
 me a large, old-fashioned, double-seated carriage, 
 to which were harnessed a pair of grey horses. 
 On the box was a coachman in a rather faded 
 livery of brown. My box was lifted on to the
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 75 
 
 seat by the coachman, and then my escort held 
 open the carriage door for me. 
 
 ■ Where are you going to sit ? " I asked. 
 
 " Behind, Madam, in the dickey ? " 
 
 " Is that the dickey, that dear little seat stuck 
 on behind. Why, it's the nicest part of the 
 carriage. I'll sit there with you, it will be so 
 cosy. " 
 
 " But, Madam, you really cannot sit behind in 
 the dickey with me. You, a young lady, the 
 master's niece, mistress of the whole establish- 
 ment as you will be. It would create quite a 
 scandal, Madam." 
 
 " Well, if you are really afraid of scandal, I 
 won't sit there with you, but you must come 
 and sit in the grand seats with me. I won't sit 
 there alone with no one to talk to." 
 
 " But, Madam, that would be little better, my 
 place is behind." 
 
 " Well, I'll sit with my back to the horses,
 
 176 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 and you sit on the seat facing them, then we 
 shall both be suited. I can talk, and you'll be 
 a bit behind." 
 
 My companion gave a little groan. Finally it 
 was arranged that he should sit with his back 
 to the horses and I facing them, and then we 
 started. 
 
 " What sort of a carriage do you call this ? " 
 I asked, as we drove up a hill between houses 
 set in nice little gardens. 
 
 " A barouche, Madam ; it has been in the 
 family a great many years." 
 
 " So I should think; but I like it, it's so roomy. 
 You can put your legs up." 
 
 " Yes, Madam, but it might be as well just to 
 put your legs down until we are past the 
 houses. " 
 
 " Why ? Scandal ? " 
 
 "Well, it's unusual, Madam, a little unusual." 
 
 " Oh, well ! I don't much care, I'll put them
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 177 
 
 down. Now tell me about my uncle. As you 
 are his confidential man I suppose you know 
 all about him. If he can afford such a nice 
 carriage, why did he stint me so, and grind 
 down poor Miss Skinner, and let me go without 
 any pocket-money?" 
 
 My companion looked quite distressed. " My 
 dear Madam, I never knew you were being 
 stinted, or I would not have allowed it to happen. 
 Oh, dear ! What a pity you didn't write to me, 
 I would have sent you what you wanted at once. " 
 
 I looked at him amazed. " I don't want your 
 money," I said. 
 
 " Not at all, Madam, of course not, it would 
 not have been my money. You cannot under- 
 stand the situation yet, not knowing your uncle, 
 but I've been with him fifty-five years, ever since 
 he was a beautiful lad of ten, and I was the 
 same — in age, I mean — and I know how to manage 
 him, and how to get money from him when 
 
 VOL. I. 12
 
 178 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 it's wanted. But he's very troublesome. I've to 
 keep my eye on him continually, or he stints 
 somebody or something, and from first to last 
 he's been very sly about you. I have often 
 wondered how you were getting on. I am so 
 vexed you should have been stinted. In future, 
 when you want anything, I beg you will let me 
 know, and it shall be obtained at once." 
 
 This sounded* very promising. I forgot Caesar's 
 prejudices, and began to think I should like this 
 thin man. We had climbed the hill, and now the 
 houses fell away before our approach, and in front 
 of us opened a wide grassy plateau over which 
 swept the most delicious breeze, and my familiar 
 friends, the cloud shadows. 
 
 " Oh, what delicious air, " I exclaimed. " Is this 
 Wildacre Common? Oh, where is the castle?" 
 
 " This is the common. The castle lies some 
 way further on, to the right of that windmill 
 which you see defined against the sky."
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 179 
 
 " Is that a windmill ! What a dear, sweet, 
 picturesque old object. It is like a dark giant 
 standing in a lonely land. See! it beckons with 
 its arms, and the breeze comes rushing to refresh 
 the world. I shall love this common. To whom 
 does it belong? " 
 
 My companion lowered his voice as he an- 
 swered me. " That is the great point, Madam. 
 I wished to speak to you on the subject before 
 you encountered your uncle. Don't be alarmed. 
 The matter stands thus : as a matter of fact the 
 common is free to everybody, to you or me, or 
 any dog or cat, but your uncle — well he has a 
 little mania on the subject, and he thinks it belongs 
 to him, and that no one has a right to walk 
 freely on it save by his permission. " 
 
 "Why does he think it belongs to him?" I 
 asked, beginning to think my uncle must be 
 rather queer. 
 
 " Well, he's a bit mixed on the point, Madam.
 
 180 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 Sometimes he says his ancestors enclosed it at 
 the time of the Heptarchy and that it was ap- 
 proved afterwards under an old statute, and at 
 others he says the god Woden took possession 
 of this common, and left it to his family, and he 
 thinks he's descended from the god Woden, so 
 that's another claim, you see. " 
 
 I began to feel uneasy. It was evident I was 
 going to live with someone very peculiar. 
 
 " You will have to humour him on these points, 
 I am afraid, Madam. Never contradict his state- 
 ments, however absurd they may be. And please 
 don't praise the Wildacre Common Act before him, 
 it drives him wild. Say you never heard of it 
 if he asks you, or else abuse it tremendously. You 
 can praise up the old statute as much as you like, 
 the statute of Merton in the time of Henry III. 
 if you will try to remember, Madam." 
 
 "I shall be afraid to speak to him," I said, 
 my spirits running rapidly down to zero.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. l8l 
 
 "You need have no fear. Humour him on the 
 subject of the common, and you'll find him a 
 lamb, a perfect lamb. And in any difficulty 
 come to me. " 
 
 "But who are you? What is your name? 
 Where do you come from ? " 
 
 " My name is Matthew, Matthew Primavesi, at 
 3'our service, Madam. " 
 
 "What a strange surname! Is it foreign? Tell 
 me more about yourself. " 
 
 " My father was an Italian, his relations are 
 unknown to me. He came to England and mar- 
 ried my mother, nurse to your uncle afterwards. 
 Two months after his marriage, my father died, 
 killed by some machinery; none of her relations 
 held out a helping hand to the poor widow, but 
 your uncle's mother was a noble-hearted lady; 
 I was born in her house, and your uncle and I 
 grew up, so to speak, side by side. So you see, 
 Madam, my own people were to me as though
 
 1 82 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 they existed not, and your uncle's people were 
 everything to me. My life is now at your uncle's 
 service, and I am most deeply attached to him. 
 And, because you are his relation, I am at your 
 service also. " 
 
 " Thank you very much, Matthew. What is 
 that house in front of us ? " 
 
 "The castle, Madam." 
 
 " It's not a castle. " 
 
 " No, Madam, but it's your uncle's whim to call 
 it so." 
 
 It was not a castle, but it was a sweet old 
 house, large, irregular, and covered with ivy like 
 my old home in Wales. A balcony ran along 
 the side next the windmill, a dear green balcony, 
 garlanded with clinging plants not yet in flower, 
 and connected with the ground by a flight of 
 wooden steps which led down from the centre. 
 All around the house was pleasant lawn shaded 
 here and there by feathery silver birches, and just
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 83 
 
 marked off from the common by a rustic wooden 
 fence scarcely knee high. So unobtrusive was the 
 fence, that, at a little distance, the eye did not 
 perceive it, and private grounds seemed to merge 
 indistinguishably into common, which added greatly 
 to the charm of the place, giving it an indescrib- 
 able air of sweet free wildness. The place had 
 one curious feature. The middle of the house was 
 higher than the rest, the roof was flat and square, 
 and on the centre of it stood something which, 
 as far as one could see from below, resembled a 
 throne, or huge chair. 
 
 "What is that?" I asked, pointing upwards. 
 " It is difficult to distinguish it clearly from below. " 
 
 " Valhalla, Madam," answered Matthew promptly. 
 " Your uncle calls it Valhalla, it's just as well 
 you should know. Every afternoon of his life 
 he sits there with the Voluspa on his knee " 
 
 This was a little too much for me. I had 
 made up my mind to put up with a great deal,
 
 1 84 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 but I felt I could not stand Valhallas and 
 Voluspas. 
 
 " Stop the carriage, " I cried, jumping up ex- 
 citedly. " I am going back, I won't enter that 
 house to live with madmen and Voluspas. Let 
 me get out." 
 
 " But, Madam, I assure you your uncle is quite 
 harmless, a lamb, a perfect lamb," said Matthew 
 hurriedly, trying at the same time to hold me 
 back. u Oh, pray be seated again, there is nothing 
 to fear. The Voluspa is only a book ; don't 
 leave the carriage, Madam, consider my position, 
 sent to meet you, responsible for your safety. 
 I assure you, your uncle is not a madman, in 
 many ways he is as sane as I am." 
 
 " How do I know you are sane, perhaps you 
 are mad too," I said, still striving to get out of 
 the carriage. 
 
 Matthew sat down with a gesture of despair. 
 " I'd rather give five pounds than go to meet a
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 85 
 
 young lady again," he said, drawing out a red 
 silk handkerchief and mopping his crest and fore- 
 head with it, " from first to last it's been a hard 
 job to get you on." 
 
 There was something so very human and 
 pathetic about him as he said this, that terror 
 changed into pity as I looked at him. I sat 
 down again, reflecting that I might as well give 
 my new home a trial. 
 
 The carriage now drew up outside the little 
 rustic fence, for within was no path or drive of 
 any description. With Matthew's help I descended 
 from the carriage, which then drove round to 
 the back. 
 
 " This way, please, Madam, " said Matthew, step- 
 ping over the fence and crossing the lawn towards 
 the house. I followed closely, still somewhat 
 uneasy. 
 
 "Well, Matthew, have you brought the Val- 
 kyrie?" cried a cheery voice.
 
 1 86 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 Matthew drew aside, and waved me onwards 
 towards the house, with a bow. Before me was 
 an innocent-looking porch wreathed with leafy 
 honeysuckle, and inside the porch was the 
 plumpest, most affable-looking little gentleman 
 I had ever seen in my life. He was really 
 delightful to look at, so fresh his complexion, 
 so white and curling his hair, so snowy his linen, 
 so bland his smile. How could I have feared 
 him even in anticipation? I rushed up to him 
 with a feeling of intense relief, and giving him 
 a warm embrace said: "Here I am, Uncle!" 
 
 He seemed surprised at my demonstrativeness, 
 and drew back a little, but there was no sign 
 of displeasure as he surveyed me; on the con- 
 trary his bland smile became if anything 
 blander. 
 
 " Oh, here you are ! " he said, " here you are, 
 upon my word. Ha ! no mistaking you, the 
 true Scandinavian breed, fair face, free gestures,
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 87 
 
 perfect outlines, golden hair. Really magnifi- 
 cent golden hair, isn't it, Matthew ? I had no 
 idea I was going to see such a fine specimen, 
 quite a beautiful specimen. Why she'd have 
 been a mate for Balder himself, Matthew. Come 
 in, my dear, I am most pleased to see you, only 
 don't destroy the sheets. How do you like my 
 common?" 
 
 "I think it is perfect, windmill and all." 
 " Oh, but you've not seen the best part of it 
 yet. I'll show you over to-morrow and we'll 
 discuss some further improvements together. 
 Matthew, show the Valkyrie upstairs. Just wash 
 your hands and come down, my dear, no grand 
 toilette necessary here, we just live in wild free- 
 dom on a common. But I don't like dinner kept 
 waiting. " 
 
 Matthew led me upstairs, and ushered me into 
 a sweet little room, with a French window open- 
 ing on to the balcony, and commanding a view
 
 1 88 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 of the windmill. Everything in the room looked 
 light and fresh and pretty, from the painted ceiling 
 to the flowery chintz and carpet. 
 
 "It's the prettiest room I have ever seen," I 
 exclaimed delightedly. "How kind of uncle, I 
 can see he's had it newly done up for me." 
 
 Matthew blushed a little. "Well, if I were 
 you, I shouldn't mention the new things to your 
 uncle, Madam, because the money is supposed to 
 have gone in improving the common. We have 
 to manage a little, to get money for household 
 expenses, but I was determined you should have 
 a pretty room." 
 
 So I had to thank Matthew, not my uncle. 
 My heart warmed towards the kind, thoughtful 
 creature, and his odd face grew more and more 
 attractive to my eyes. 
 
 " Matthew, " I said, " we shall be friends, I am 
 sure. I should like you to be my confidential 
 man as well as uncle's."
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 189 
 
 Matthew looked quite frightened. " There is a 
 maid, " he said hastily, " there is a housemaid who 
 will attend to you in your room, and render you 
 any little personal services you may require. I 
 will send her to you. It will hardly do for me 
 as a — er — as a — not feminine " 
 
 "Oh, don't go on, I know; scandal!" I said 
 laughingly, " you are very afraid of scandal. But 
 of course I didn't mean that you were to mend 
 my stockings and brush my hair. Why, Matthew, 
 you were silly to think I meant that sort of 
 thing!" 
 
 Matthew again blushed, recognizing his own 
 folly, I suppose, and left the room.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 We had quite a nice little dinner, my uncle and 
 I ; not for years had I eaten such a nice dinner. 
 Matthew waited on us, and joined in the conver- 
 sation when he felt inclined. We talked about 
 the common a good deal, and I bore in mind 
 Matthew's hints, and tried to avoid dangerous 
 remarks. All went well until the interval before 
 cheese. Then my uncle asked me suddenly if I 
 was aware that he was an impoverished man. 
 
 " I don't think you can be very impoverished, " 
 I said laughingly ; a not unnatural answer, seeing 
 that at the moment I was surrounded by every 
 
 luxury. 
 
 190
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. igi 
 
 "You doubt my poverty then?" he said, an 
 excited look coming into his blue eyes. 
 
 Matthew made some violent signs and grimaces, 
 which I rightly interpreted to mean I was not to 
 doubt my uncle's poverty, but a little indignation 
 arose in my breast, and triumphed over diplomacy. 
 I considered my uncle had behaved very meanly 
 to me whilst I was at school : I had thought so 
 from the moment my eyes fell upon his fine 
 carriage and horses, and the evidences of his 
 wealth which met me at every turn, increased 
 the feeling. He had ground down poor weary, 
 overworked Miss Skinner, but he could afford 
 a beautifully furnished house, and a well-appointed 
 table. And now he was trying to excuse himself 
 on the score of poverty ! I was not going to 
 stand it. 
 
 u Yes, I do, " I answered firmly. 
 
 " But I tell you it is true. I am a poor man. 
 Now do you doubt it ? "
 
 192 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 Matthew made more signs and grimaces, but I 
 answered doggedly: "Certainly I doubt it." 
 
 " You hear her, Matthew ! She doubts my 
 poverty ! No, thank you, no cheese, nothing more. 
 I shall go upstairs. I will not stay here with 
 her." He rose in an agitated manner from the 
 table. His face was crimson, his smile had 
 vanished. 
 
 Seeing how disturbed he was I began to feel 
 sorry I had expressed my doubt. We had been 
 so cheery together before, it seemed a pity to 
 have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting. 
 
 " Oh, please, don't go away, uncle, " I cried re- 
 pentantly. " I am quite willing to believe you are 
 an impoverished man, since you tell me so. I 
 always did believe it at school. I felt sure you 
 would have sent me pocket-money had it been 
 otherwise. " 
 
 My uncle sat down again after this apology, 
 but his spirits did not revive immediately. He
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 93 
 
 remarked that his appetite had gone, and buried 
 his face in his hands, looking exceedingly low. 
 Matthew at this juncture was a marvel. He 
 hovered over his master like an eagle ministering 
 to its young, offering him tempting fruits, and 
 saying everything he could think of as likely 
 to raise the spirits of an impoverished man. 
 
 ■ Yes, you are poor, very poor," he said at 
 length, darting to the sideboard and fetching 
 thence a decanter, " but you have kind and grateful 
 friends for all that. Here!" — putting down the 
 decanter on the table with a flourish — "here is 
 a bottle of '47 port, most beautiful '47 port." 
 
 My uncle raised his head quickly with a dawning 
 smile. ■ Eh ? '47 port ? Where did that come from ? " 
 
 "Sent this morning, Sir," said Matthew, with- 
 out a shadow of hesitation. " Sent by the 
 invalid lady with best thanks to you for so 
 kindly allowing her to come on the common with 
 her donkey and bath-chair yesterday." 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 194 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 "Oh, indeed! very proper of her, very proper 
 feeling indeed. Tell her she may come again 
 to-morrow. It's beautiful port ! I feel better, my 
 appetite has returned, ' I'll take some of those 
 grapes. Ha! This is nice and pleasant. Good 
 wine, agreeable company. Take a chair, Matthew, 
 draw it up by me, opposite the Valkyrie. I want 
 to explain how it is I am so impoverished." 
 
 Matthew drew a chair up to the table and sat down 
 in an apologetic attitude, on the very edge of it. 
 
 " Have you heard of the Wildacre Common 
 Act?" asked my uncle, turning sharply upon me. 
 
 " Yes — no — yes," I answered confusedly, feeling 
 rather flustered by the nods and signs Matthew 
 was making opposite me. 
 
 "Yes, d'you mean, yes? Oh! all right, yes! 
 You've heard about it. Iniquitous, isn't it?" 
 
 "Abominable!" I answered, taking my cue 
 better this time. 
 
 u Shameful!" said Matthew.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 95 
 
 u It made over my common, my common, mind 
 you, to a body of conservators ! Did you ever 
 hear of such a thing? Conservators for my com- 
 mon! People resident in this neighbourhood 
 whom I have never visited, would not condescend 
 to visit. People, many of them, with absolutely 
 no pedigree, and mine goes back to the god 
 Woden. Now isn't that iniquitous?" 
 
 " Abominable ! " I said again. 
 
 " Shameful, " repeated Matthew. 
 
 " It has been my common since time imme- 
 morial; mine by a double right. Aline by birth- 
 right, for the god Woden once used it as a 
 pasture land for all superfluous animals ; and 
 mine by right of law, for our annexation of it 
 
 « 
 
 in the early days of the Heptarchy was approved 
 in the reign of our most gracious sovereign 
 Henry III. under the Statute of Merton. You've 
 heard of the Statute of Merton, of course? Good 
 old statute, isn't it?"
 
 196 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " Oh, magnificent ! " I said. 
 
 "A grand old statute," remarked Matthew. 
 
 "Quite so," said my uncle, beaming benevo- 
 lently upon us. " Take a glass of port, both of 
 you. Now you understand how the common 
 came to be mine. Well, now, would you believe 
 it, this iniquitous Act I was speaking of — the 
 Wildacre Common Act — not only made over my 
 common to a body of conservators, but also laid 
 down that an upstart personage called the Lord of 
 the Manor, who used to cut down my trees and 
 dig out my gravel, was to receive an annuity on 
 condition he abstained from digging and cutting! 
 Was to be paid, in fact, for not thieving ! Now do 
 you understand the full monstrosity of the Act?" 
 
 We murmured, u shameful", and " abominable", 
 as a token that we did. 
 
 " Well, I pay that annuity. Parliament has de- 
 creed that it shall be paid, and I don't like to 
 go against the government of my country. No !
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 197 
 
 I'd rather impoverish myself. I pay the Lord of 
 the Manor, I pay him for not thieving, I support 
 him, he lives on my charity. I pay the man 
 weekly, send him so many pounds a week by 
 my confidential man here, Matthew. Good plan 
 that, paying him by the week, isn't it ? Matthew 
 suggested it." 
 
 " A splendid plan," I answered, beginning to 
 understand how Matthew managed to get funds 
 for household expenses. Our nice little dinner 
 would be paid for out of the Lord of the Manor's 
 annuity. 
 
 " Of course it is a great drain on my resources 
 disbursing such a sum every week, it impover- 
 ishes me sadly; and I have other serious calls 
 upon my purse. My claim is universally recog- 
 nized by the people living around me. The con- 
 servators refuse to act except under my orders. 
 They send to consult me, through Matthew here, 
 before they dare to cut down a single tree. /
 
 198 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 decide whether a path is wanted or not, whether 
 a piece of wood wants thinning, whether a seat 
 should be made here, or a pond there. To me 
 the inhabitants around come for permission to 
 walk about on the common. And all the ex- 
 penses of managing the open space are charged 
 upon me. That is only fair. I must accept the 
 responsibilities of my position as owner of a 
 common five thousand acres in extent." 
 
 He paused here, and looked at me as though 
 expecting me to say something. I racked my 
 brains for something appropriate to say, and 
 finally asked nervously if the Lord of the Manor 
 were a nice man. 
 
 " A nice man ! " cried my uncle, helping him- 
 self excitedly to a third glass of port — " How 
 can an able-bodied man who accepts charity 
 once a week be a nice man ? Are thieves usu- 
 ally nice men ? Nice, indeed ! I'll tell you where 
 he's very likely to go — he'll go to Xiflheim ! "
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 1 99 
 
 " Where is Niflheim ?" I inquired. 
 
 " Ha! Ha! hear her, Matthew ! She asks where 
 Xiflheim is. Ha ! Ha ! she doesn't know where 
 Niflheim is ! " 
 
 " It's a very bad place, Madam, " said Matthew 
 kindly. 
 
 " Ha ! Ha ! Yes, a very bad place, a very cold 
 place, icily cold, freezingly cold," went on my 
 uncle, roaring with laughter in a most peculiar 
 way, and rolling about on his seat until he nearly 
 fell on the floor. 
 
 I looked at him half alarmed, and began 
 suddenly to feel very tired. 
 
 Matthew got up, and quietly removed the 
 port, locking it up in the sideboard and pocket- 
 ing the keys. 
 
 "Time for your nap, Sir," he then said, address- 
 ing my uncle in a very firm voice. 
 
 " So it is. I feel quite sleepy, now you remind 
 me of it. My dear, don't remain with the gentle-
 
 200 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 men any longer than you feel inclined. It is 
 my custom to take a nap after dinner on this 
 sofa, but there are two charming sitting-rooms 
 at your disposal. Good-night, my dear. Matthew 
 will show you the rooms. I hope you won't de- 
 stroy the sheets." 
 
 I assured him I no longer destroyed sheets, 
 then, remembering how he had drawn back from 
 my first embrace, shook hands with him and fol- 
 lowed Matthew out of the room. 
 
 The sitting-rooms were charming, especially 
 one which faced the west and was lined with 
 books. I selected that to sit in, and Matthew 
 brought me in a lamp, and left me there, hoping 
 I should be able to amuse myself with the 
 books. When he had gone I took down a 
 large volume of Shakspere, and for a time the 
 beautiful illustrations by Kenny Meadows gave 
 me great delight. Then I began to feel lonely, 
 and a vision of my uncle lying asleep with a
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 201 
 
 horrible smile upon his face began to haunt me. 
 I longed for Felix. Though 'twas but a day since 
 we had parted, I felt as if it were years. I 
 had been for so long accustomed to have him near, 
 and now he seemed so very far away, almost 
 lost to me. How quiet the house was, unnatu- 
 rally quiet; Miss Skinner's harsh voice breaking in 
 upon the stillness would have been a positive joy. 
 I wondered if I should ever hear it again, or the 
 girlish laughs of my companions-of-the-bedcham- 
 ber ? When people passed from one phase of life 
 to another, did the past life utterly vanish, and 
 become an irrevocably lost thing, of which no 
 part, or actor in it, could ever be recalled? Was 
 that the way of life ? It almost seemed so. Had 
 not my childhood's home in Wales utterly 
 vanished, and everyone who had taken part in 
 it become dead to me ? Now, sitting here alone, 
 in this strange house, was I irrevocably lost to all 
 who had known and loved me in my school-
 
 202 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 life? A little sob arose in my throat, as I 
 thought of it. Impossible to sit here any longer, 
 I resolved to go to bed. No one was about as 
 I passed through the hall, and the stairs and 
 passages were silent and deserted. The house 
 might have been empty, it was so still. 
 
 The whole place seemed penetrated with my 
 uncle's sleep. In my room a little silver lamp 
 was burning, and everything was ready for the 
 night, but the silence and the loneliness of the 
 house seemed to have crept in even there. I 
 unlatched the window, and stepped out upon 
 the balcony. The silence and loneliness were 
 there too. Everything was steeped in a dreadful 
 sleep. The windmill looked weird and ghostly 
 against the dark sky, full of some dread signifi- 
 cance I could not understand. Its arms pointed 
 warningly over the common, which lay all a- 
 round, shadowy in the foreground, impenetrably 
 black beyond. Nowhere was there any light.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 203 
 
 * • 
 
 Suddenly a black figure darted into view and 
 came to a standstill at the bottom of the wooden 
 steps which led down from where I stood. It 
 startled me horribly, and I gave a terrified cry. 
 
 "Madam, Madam, it is I," said the voice of 
 Matthew. " I came round to see if all was safe, 
 and never thought to frighten you, or find you here." 
 
 " Come up, Matthew, come up, " I cried, trem- 
 bling all over. " I feel so lonely, oh, so lonely ! 
 I don't think I am going to be happy here at all. 
 I don't think I can stay here, I am so frightened." 
 
 " Don't be frightened, my dear, take my word 
 for it, there is nothing to fear," he said soothingly, 
 mounting the steps to my side. 
 
 " Matthew, my uncle is mad. It is of no use 
 your denying it any longer." 
 
 "Well, Madam, as you have perceived it, I 
 suppose it is of no use denying that his mind 
 is a little warped on some points, but then he 
 can be managed, so it comes to much the same
 
 204 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 thing in the end as if he were sane. And indeed, 
 Madam, if you knew the world as well as I do, you'd 
 find there were heaps of people as mad as he, and 
 madder, who are thought mighty clever by their 
 fellow-creatures. It's by no means the maddest 
 that are clapped into lunatic asylums, I can tell you. 
 It is very difficult nowadays to distinguish the 
 sane from the insane. Please believe me, Madam, 
 when I say, from your uncle you have nothing to 
 fear. I really do think that if you can — accommo- 
 date yourself to circumstances, you will find it a 
 pleasant home. It is a strange place for a young 
 lady, I admit; for many reasons I am sorry there 
 is no other home open to you ; but there is nothing 
 to fear." 
 
 " Matthew, did — did my mother know he was 
 mad?" 
 
 " No, my dear, " answered Matthew, with a deep 
 sigh, " and that's where the mistake was made. 
 Had she known she'd have left you to another
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 205 
 
 guardian perhaps. But for poor master's sake, 
 it has always been kept very quiet, and he having 
 no relations except the one sister Frances who 
 married early, and never saw much of her brother 
 afterwards, it was easy to keep the sad truth 
 from your mother's ear. I don't think your 
 mother saw the poor master but once, and then 
 she was a child, too young to understand, if he 
 was a bit peculiar. And so, not knowing, on 
 her deathbed she wrote and committed you to 
 his care ; there was no one else to look after you, 
 and the thing was done. A year or two ago 
 your father seemed inclined to interfere and 
 claim you — but " 
 
 ■ But what, Matthew ? How was I saved ? " 
 
 " You don't know? " 
 
 " Don't know what ? " 
 
 u What happened to your poor father ? " 
 
 " No, and I don't feel as if I much cared, " 
 I answered fiercely.
 
 206 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 "Hush! my dear. Speak gently of one whose 
 life on earth is over, and whose faults have now 
 to be dealt with by other hands than ours." 
 
 " Do you mean that he is dead ? " I whispered. 
 
 " Yes, dead. He died two years ago, after a 
 terrible illness during which he was deserted by 
 the one for whom he had given up wife and child 
 and home. Died alone, in a foreign land, with no 
 friend near to soothe the last dark hours." 
 
 I sat mute, shocked beyond measure. No hard 
 thoughts were possible now. Far, far away I 
 seemed to see that lonely, miserable deathbed: 
 sadder did it seem for a moment, even than my 
 mother's weeping. He who was dead had been 
 but a name to me, but that name was — father. 
 
 "I feel very alone in the world, Matthew," I 
 said, a choking feeling rising in my throat." 
 
 " Yes, poor dear. But I'll see you are taken care 
 of and come to no harm. Let me try and explain 
 my position here. I am a servant, and the son
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 207 
 
 of a servant, I never forget that, or the respect 
 due from me to your family. I never forget my 
 place. Still I am in authority here. Your uncle 
 is living on his mother's money left to him by 
 will, and she left him to my care, and appointed 
 me executor, knowing there was no one in the 
 world so attached to him as I, or so anxious to 
 save him from the worst horrors of his terrible 
 affliction. So you see, Madam, though a servant, 
 1 occupy a position of authority and trust. And 
 after your uncle's death his money —but time 
 enough for you to . know all that again. Your 
 uncle, though your great-uncle, is still well and 
 strong, and young for his sixty-five years." 
 
 "You said, Matthew, that my mother wrote to 
 my uncle committing me to his care. How I 
 should love to see, to have, that letter. Her last 
 letter, written on her deathbed, about me!" 
 
 "You shall," said Matthew. "1 know where it 
 is, and will get it for you."
 
 208 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 He darted away, leaving me alone on the 
 balcony. In a few moments he darted back again, 
 a letter in his hand. I took it from him silently, 
 and sat down to read it on the ground by the 
 open window, just where the light streamed from 
 the silver lamp. The writing was strange to me, 
 the paper was crumpled, the ink faded: it was 
 altogether the letter of a person hopelessly far 
 away, irretrievably gone. 
 
 "Dear Uncle Lawrence, 
 
 " I am dying, and my little girl, my only 
 one, will be left without a protector. Uncle, take 
 care of the little darling that I must leave. Send 
 her to some good school where she will be happy, if 
 you feel you cannot receive a child ; look after 
 her and give her a home when she is a woman. 
 For the love of God I entreat you to do this 
 for me. Be good to the little one, left mother- 
 less and worse than fatherless. I am too weak
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 209 
 
 to write more, but they will tell you when the 
 end comes. 
 
 " Frances. " 
 
 I read it through, and then suddenly I burst 
 into dreadful weeping. Matthew looked at me 
 helplessly, entreating me not to weep, but the 
 fit had to have its way; I could not still my sobs 
 though they seemed to tear me in two. At length 
 the paroxysm passed, and I became quiet again. 
 
 " I am so sorry, Matthew, " I said, " but reading 
 that was like hearing her dead voice. She was 
 my loved one. I was her little girl, her only 
 one. Oh, I am crying again ! I can't stop ! I 
 think I am ill, I don't know what is the matter 
 with me." 
 
 "You are tired, poor dear, your journey has 
 tired you, and everything has been strange. You 
 are over-excited, you are nervous, you are un- 
 strung, I could see it by your face at dinner. 
 
 VOL. I. 14
 
 2IO HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 It is rather a strain on the nerves to be a long 
 time in the master's company, don't I know it, 
 I, who am with him day and night ? It's that has 
 taken all the flesh off my bones. But don't you 
 fret yourself about anything, poor little dear ; 
 Matthew will take care of you, Matthew will 
 see you have everything you can possibly 
 desire. " 
 
 " But you are old, Matthew, suppose you died, 
 I could never manage my uncle alone." 
 
 " Leave that to God, Madam. He will take care 
 of you, God will take care of you." 
 
 His words soothed me. The darkness seemed 
 to grow more friendly, the vague cloud of terror 
 lifted. I lost my fear of the uncle sleeping 
 below, and went to bed, with the loved one's 
 letter under my pillow. And in the middle of 
 the night I dreamed that my window flew 
 suddenly open, and that someone came and 
 stood there in the opening, saying, — " God
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 2 I I 
 
 will take care of you." — And in my dream 
 I looked up, and behold ! it was Matthew 
 who stood there. But he had become an angel, 
 with great wings that streamed far out into the 
 night.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Such a bright beautiful morning! It seemed 
 absurd to think that darkness and loneliness could 
 have frightened me only a few hours ago. I 
 rose, dressed, and ran down the balcony steps on 
 to the common to refresh myself in the morn 
 and liquid dew. My spirits rose as I ran across 
 the spangled turf. On and on I sped, until the 
 windmill was left behind, and the ground began 
 to be dotted with ever thickening bracken and 
 furze. So thick it grew, that at last I could 
 scarcely wade through it, but I persevered, for my 
 goal was a wood I saw on the slope beyond. 
 The wood gained, I found myself at the entrance 
 
 212
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 213 
 
 of a beautiful glade, where the branches met 
 overhead, forming a dewy green arcade alive 
 with the voices of innumerable birds. Down the 
 arcade I wandered, longing for the companionship 
 of the one I loved best. I found it was but one 
 of many green arcades, they opened out to 
 right and left of me, these branching off again 
 into others, forming a network in which the 
 unwary stroller might easily lose his way. Fear- 
 ful of losing myself I retraced my steps before 
 I had penetrated far, resolving to bring Felix as 
 a guide, at the earliest opportunity. Little did I 
 think then that it would not be with Felix I 
 should wander down the green arcades, but with 
 another. 
 
 The sun was high and bright by this time. 
 It drank the dew from off my skirts as I walked 
 home along the springy turf, and made the gorse 
 blossoms shine before my eyes like brightest gold. 
 In the porch Matthew and my uncle were wait-
 
 214 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 ing for me, the latter all smile and spotlessness. 
 I ran up to him and bade him good morning 
 brightly, feeling that even if he were a little mad, 
 it was not of much consequence, life, with sun- 
 shine in it, could always be made delightful. 
 
 My uncle seemed pleased with my cheeriness, 
 and remarked to Matthew as we entered the 
 dining-room that now he had seen me he didn't 
 so much mind maintaining me. 
 
 " Sit there, at the head of the table, my dear, " 
 he said to me pleasantly. "Excuse my having 
 a separate teapot for myself. I know it is a 
 lady's province to pour out tea for gentlemen, 
 but I like to put my milk and sugar in the tea- 
 pot and sip my tea comfortably from the spout. 
 People don't seem to know it, but it is by far 
 the most sensible way of taking tea. Not only 
 does the tea keep hotter than when poured out, 
 but it grows stronger as you progress with your 
 meal. No wishy-washy third cup my way."
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 215 
 
 Now was it mad to drink from the spout or 
 was it not? I could not make up my mind; the 
 question puzzled me throughout breakfast. It 
 looked peculiar, of course, but it really did seem 
 sensible now he had explained his reasons. 
 Matthew must have been right in what he had 
 said; it certainly was very difficult to distinguish 
 the sane from the insane. Could it be that 
 insanity was merely a different way of looking 
 at things from the usual way, and if so why 
 should not the insane be as sane as the sane? 
 My brain grew so muddled over the question 
 I gave it up at last, and finished my tea out of the 
 spout to see how it tasted. It was exceedingly nice. 
 
 When breakfast was over my uncle turned to 
 me and said : " My dear, as you are aware, you 
 are my niece." 
 
 "Yes, uncle Lawrence," I replied, in my best 
 schoolroom manner. 
 
 "You are my niece, dependent upon me. Of
 
 2l6 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 course you are aware you are penniless. Your 
 father chose to squander all his money away on 
 that crea " 
 
 Here Matthew gave him a nudge, and he 
 stopped abruptly. 
 
 "Oh, well!" he went on after a moment, "to 
 do him justice he kept up his remittances to your 
 poor mother until she died. But what was I 
 saying — Oh ! you are dependent upon me, and 
 penniless. Nevertheless my dear, as my niece, 
 your position is one of great dignity. I quite 
 recognize it, and I wish you to understand that 
 you are mistress here. Do as you like, go where 
 you like, behave as you like, only be punctual 
 at meals, and don't on any account attempt to 
 associate with your neighbours. They are none 
 of them your equals, and I intend to be very 
 particular on that point. Do you understand me?" 
 
 I replied that I did, feeling very flat at the 
 idea of being debarred from all society.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 21 J 
 
 " Well and good. That is all I ask of you. Con- 
 sider yourself from this moment mistress of my esta- 
 blishment. Matthew, behold your future mistress." 
 
 Matthew bowed. 
 
 Your mistress will now order dinner, Matthew. 
 I will leave you together so as to be no check 
 upon you." 
 
 He left the room and partly closed the door 
 after him, but I could see, though Matthew could 
 not, that he was listening behind the chink he 
 had left open. 
 
 I looked at Matthew. He stood before me, 
 silently awaiting my orders. 
 
 "Well, Matthew?" I said. 
 
 "At your service, Madam." 
 
 "What about dinner?" 
 
 "Would you like to see the cook, Madam?" 
 
 " Oh, dear no, thank you. Better not, I think, 
 because I don't know in the least what to say 
 to her."
 
 2l8 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " Very well, Madam, then I will take your orders. " 
 
 " Very well, Matthew, and what do you think 
 they'd better be?" 
 
 "Well, to begin with, what do you say to 
 some oxtail soup? we've got a nice tail in the 
 house." 
 
 The door was flung open and my uncle burst 
 violently into the room. "Where did that tail 
 come from, Matthew? How came you by that 
 tail? You don't mean to say that, knowing my 
 poverty, you bought that tail?" 
 
 For a moment Matthew was taken by surprise, 
 but he quickly recovered himself. 
 
 " Some boys brought it this morning, Sir, with 
 their best respects, and might they throw sticks 
 into your pond, and would you allow their dogs 
 to go into the water after them ?" 
 
 " Oh, certainly ! " replied my uncle, immediately 
 mollified by this explanation. " Tell them to bring 
 their dogs to play in the pond as often as they
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 219 
 
 please. Don't let me disturb you, continue your 
 orders, my dear." 
 
 He left the room again, but I could still see 
 him listening behind the door, so kicked Matthew 
 quietly to let him know it. 
 
 " Then, Madam, I would suggest a leg of lamb 
 sent by the riding-master with his best respects 
 to my master, and he and the young ladies greatly 
 
 ■ 
 
 enjoyed their gallop over master's common yes- 
 terday. There is some nice asparagus too, left 
 at the door by a baby's mother with many apo- 
 logies for taking the perambulator over the turf, and 
 some nice rhubarb from the green-grocer, who feels 
 he trespasses on master's kindness by using the 
 roads on the common so often, and a cream 
 cheese from the postman who feels the same. 
 I think that is all in the house for to-day, 
 Madam." 
 
 "Very good indeed. I think it's a splendid 
 dinner. We didn't get dinners like that at Miss
 
 2 20 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 Skinner's. Those are my orders. Oh ! I'm very 
 fond of jelly if anyone leaves some." 
 
 Here I gave another surreptitious kick, and I 
 saw by Matthew's expression that he understood 
 it, and that someone would leave that jelly 
 before dinner time. 
 
 " Ah ! Finished ? " asked my uncle sauntering 
 blandly in at this juncture. "I hope it has not 
 fatigued you, my idea. Luncheon requires no 
 ordering because I make a rule of finishing up 
 the remains of yesterday's dinner Now, Matthew, 
 get through your morning duties as quickly as 
 possible, because I want to take the Valkyrie for 
 a stroll on the common." 
 
 Matthew left the room. As soon as he was 
 out of hearing my uncle said with an evidently 
 forced attempt at carelessness — "By the bye, my 
 dear, don't say much before Matthew about the 
 manners and customs of your late home. I daresay 
 the dinners weren't very good there, but economy
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 22 1 
 
 must be studied, that's what I never can get 
 Matthew to understand. He's a very good fellow, 
 but" — here my uncle tapped his forehead signi- 
 ficantly — "a little peculiar you know, and he was 
 inclined to be suspicious about that school." 
 
 I longed to say, " You mean, you were sly about 
 it," but diplomacy prevailed this time, and I 
 didn't. It struck me as curious that my uncle 
 should think Matthew insane, it showed he was 
 unconscious of his own insanity, and made the 
 problem of madness more confusing to me than ever. 
 
 Half an hour later we met in the porch for 
 our walk, my uncle in a smart white sailor hat 
 and I in my bulged black one. Matthew sported 
 a quiet black felt, probably to mark the difference in 
 his station. He would not have presumed to wear 
 a sailor hat like us. Unobtrusive though as he was 
 in attire and general bearing, his dark foreign face 
 and strikingly white hair had a charm of their own, 
 and gave him very much the air of a gentleman.
 
 2 22 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 There is no air in the world like that which 
 blows over Wildacre Common. Nimbly and 
 sweetly it recommends itself unto our gentle 
 senses. It floats over the open land, laden with 
 the sweet breath of gorse and clover, of turf and 
 spicy wood. Fresh and pure it sweeps along, 
 whispering to us that we have wandered into 
 untainted country, millions and millions of miles 
 away from London, and so persuasive is the 
 ambient whisper, fain are we to believe. 
 
 We had a very pleasant walk, or perhaps it 
 would be more correct to say prowl, for my 
 uncle did not seem to want to go in any par- 
 ticular direction, and followed no course long. 
 Still it was a very pleasant prowl. A slight 
 haze lay over the level land to east and north, 
 giving a great effect of distance, and making it 
 seem like an almost boundless prairie, whilst to 
 the west, the ground fell away in copse-clad slopes 
 and dingles, growing ever more and more sylvan
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 223 
 
 in character, until at length it swelled and rose 
 again in exquisitely wooded hills, glorified by the 
 sunshine, and tenderly green from the hand of 
 Spring. 
 
 I noticed that Matthew did not seem to enjoy 
 his walk as much as his master and I did. 
 He wore an anxious air, and kept very close to 
 my uncle if ever a person approached us, talking 
 very fast as though to divert his master's attention 
 from the passer-by, and hurrying him on as 
 much as possible. 
 
 Fortunately, pedestrians on this part of the 
 common were few and far between, but once 
 when a man came very near us, my uncle mut- 
 tered an angry oath, and showed a decided intention 
 to stop and address him. The stranger paused 
 for a second in surprise, seeing he was about 
 to be accosted. 
 
 "Just you come on, Sir," said Matthew, touching 
 my uncle on the arm, and speaking in a low
 
 224 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 but determined tone, "you can't prosecute this 
 gentleman. " 
 
 The stranger passed on, with a stare of surprise. 
 My uncle looked after him angrily. 
 
 "Why not?" he asked, in a fierce tone, "why 
 should he not be prosecuted? He's trespassing 
 on my private grounds." 
 
 "He asked permission, Sir, and he provided 
 you with strawberries all last summer." 
 
 " Well, d n it, Matthew, let me thank the 
 
 fellow." 
 
 " Certainly not, Sir, you a descendant of the 
 god Woden, thank a man personally for a few 
 strawberries. Most undignified, Sir." 
 
 Very unwillingly my uncle moved on, still 
 casting hankering looks after the stranger. He 
 had given in to the stronger will, but I could 
 see he had got into a great state of irritation. 
 By an unfortunate chance, immediately after this 
 contretemps a cat appeared on the common,
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 225 
 
 frisking about quite as if he knew the five thousand 
 acres were public property. I could see by my 
 uncle's face that he regarded each caper as a 
 deliberate insult, his face grew redder and redder, 
 and he shouted to the impertinent animal again 
 and again. Finally he said he should chase the 
 creature, and wring its neck until every purr 
 was out of it for ever. In vain did Matthew 
 try to dissuade him, the cat could not possibly 
 be supposed to have sent strawberries or viands 
 of any description, and there was really no excuse 
 to make for its conduct. Off went my uncle after 
 it, his coat tails flying in the breeze, and his 
 straw hat dangling half way down his back by 
 a string. He ran and he ran, but he could not 
 succeed in catching the cat, for that intelligent 
 creature soon became a bounding speck in the 
 far distance. We hurried after its pursuer and 
 succeeded in catching him up soon after the 
 chase was over. 
 
 VOL. I. 1,5
 
 2 26 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " That's the eighth time I've caught the villain 
 trespassing," cried my uncle, angrily mopping 
 his forehead. 
 
 " You'd best leave him alone, Sir," said Matthew, 
 looking somewhat weary. "You'll never catch 
 him. If I were you I'd give that cat a free 
 pass over the common." 
 
 But my uncle scouted the idea of giving any 
 cat a free pass over his common. Indeed, so 
 angry did the mere suggestion make him that 
 he refused to walk home with us, but loitered 
 behind in sulky silence, and it took two glasses 
 of '47 port and Matthew's choicest blandishments 
 to restore him to good humour and his smile. 
 
 It would be tedious to recount to you in detail 
 the experiences of my first days at "the castle." 
 I have already related enough to give you an 
 idea of the life which opened before me. In 
 the morning I invariably rose early and had a 
 run on the common, returning to breakfast, and
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 227 
 
 tea out of the spout of a teapot. Afterwards I 
 ordered dinner, whilst my uncle listened behind 
 the door to find out if we were being economi- 
 cal, and Matthew accounted for the provisions 
 with inexhaustible ingenuity. 
 
 Afterwards we went for a prowl on the common, 
 which was always diverting to me by reason of my 
 uncle's vagaries, but which seemed to try Matthew's 
 nerves more than any part of the day. For, as 
 he said, if my uncle were allowed to annoy the 
 inhabitants, they might object to his enjoying so 
 much freedom ; indeed, it might become necessary 
 to keep him under much closer restraint. There- 
 fore every effort must be made to guard against 
 such a contingency, and when he took his daily walk 
 he must be watched and guarded with unceasing 
 vigilance. Naturally this did involve some strain, 
 and always, after the morning walk, Matthew 
 looked weary. I no longer wondered he was 
 so thin. But he would have worn himself to
 
 2 28 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 the very bone sooner than deprive his dear master 
 of his daily outing. 
 
 After luncheon my uncle always went up to 
 " Valhalla " with a great book under his arm, and 
 there, when fine, he spent the whole afternoon. 
 But he was very reticent about his afternoon 
 pursuits, and I was never allowed to peep into 
 the book or set foot on Valhalla. Fortunately 
 the shelves of the room facing the west provided 
 me with plenty of nice reading, and in that room, 
 which I christened "the library," I generally 
 passed the afternoon. Matthew always brought 
 me a prettily served tea at five o'clock, and 
 chatted with me whilst I drank it. We talked a 
 great deal of Miss Skinner and her school, and 
 sometimes we discussed uncle Lawrence and his 
 peculiarities, but for some time I breathed no 
 word of Felix, though he was in my thoughts 
 by night and by day. 
 
 In spite of the monotony of the life, it was
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 229 
 
 some time before I began to feel dull. My 
 uncle's vagaries gave an element of strangeness 
 and excitement to the monotony, and afforded 
 matter for endless speculation. No one ever 
 knew what he would say or do next, or when 
 he would take offence, and though he had fallen 
 into certain habits of life, there was always a 
 feeling that at any moment he might depart 
 from them. 
 
 I soon lost all personal fear of him, but could 
 not get quite used to his incomprehensible, 
 irresponsible individuality, and always felt it 
 was a strain to be long in his company. His 
 conversation wearied and bewildered me. As 
 a rule the thread of his verbosity was finer 
 than the staple of his argument, but sometimes 
 he was so clear and logical that I used to feel 
 quite startled, and wonder whether after all it 
 could be that he was sane, and Matthew and I 
 and the rest of the world insane.
 
 230 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 A question of such paramount importance could 
 not, of course, be easily dismissed from my mind. 
 To find out if it could be so I used to try and 
 put myself in my uncle's place, and look at things 
 from his point of view. This was hard work. I 
 had first of all to consider the world at large as 
 mistaken and insane in its ideas ; then, to imag- 
 ine myself a madman and reason as I thought 
 a madman would reason; and, finally, to decide 
 whether this reasoning could be considered sane. 
 Half-an-hour's effort of this kind would make 
 me hot all over, and at length in despair I came 
 to the conclusion that between sanity and insanity 
 there was no marked line, and that we all wa- 
 vered between the two. 
 
 It was not a healthy atmosphere for a young 
 girl. I had absolutely no society beyond that of 
 my uncle and Matthew. The cook and house- 
 maid were uninteresting unintelligent women, who 
 rarely came in contact with the high life upstairs.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 23 I 
 
 Matthew had them entirely under his control, and 
 took great and evident care to keep them apart 
 from us as much as possible, feeling, no doubt, 
 that the less they saw of their master the more 
 likely they would be to remain with him. It 
 was suggested at the beginning that the house- 
 maid should act as lady's-maid to me, but I soon 
 dispensed with her services at my toilette, for 
 she had a puffing, panting way with her, which 
 was very disagreeable. 
 
 One or two ladies kindly called upon me in 
 the course of the second week, but they were 
 not admitted, and my uncle was extremely an- 
 gered by their presumption. He said it was gross 
 impertinence on their parts to call upon descend- 
 ants of the god Woden, and he ground their 
 cards into a pulp with the dining-room poker. 
 It was after this that I began to feel dull. I did 
 not care especially about knowing the first lady, 
 for I peeped over the balustrade when Matthew
 
 232 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 answered the door, and saw she was plain and 
 elderly, but when the second lady called I peeped 
 again, and I saw she had with her a young girl 
 of my owu age, a nice, pretty, dear-looking young 
 girl whom it would have delighted me to know. 
 My spirits went down to zero when she was 
 sent away, I did so yearn for a young companion. 
 It was dreadful to learn that I was to be cut 
 off from all society. I felt as if I could not 
 endure such a hermit life. 
 
 My thoughts from the first had been much 
 with Felix, now I began absolutely to pine for 
 him. He had said he would come soon, but 
 day after day passed and he came not. Neither 
 did he write. I dared not write to him for he 
 had especially begged me to address no letters 
 to his grandmother's house, so I was left entirely 
 without news of him. It fretted me sorely, this 
 silence and delay, for it was not like Felix to 
 keep me in suspense. Was he going to melt
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 233 
 
 into air, into thin air, like Miss Skinner and her 
 little strip of flower-beds, and my lost compa- 
 nions-of-the-bedchamber. Was I never again to 
 see that best-loved face which had brightened 
 the sordid, skimpy school-life? This dreadful 
 fear so pressed upon me that I began to lose 
 both my spirits and my appetite. Matthew's eagle 
 eye was not long in discovering this. 
 
 " You are low, Madam, you are very low T , " he 
 said one afternoon, depositing the tea-tray on a 
 little table by my side, as I lay curled up on the 
 sofa. " There are traces of tears on your eye- 
 lashes : tell Matthew what ails you. Matthew is 
 your friend, there is nothing you can desire 
 that he will not get for you if it lies in his 
 power. " 
 
 I looked up at him as he bent over me, a 
 hand on either side the tea-tray. As I looked, 
 I felt instinctively that Matthew had a beautiful 
 soul. It shone through him ; it showed in his
 
 234 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 face, illumined by pure, unselfish, anxious tender- 
 ness, even in his very hands, tense in their 
 desire to do me service. I felt I could open my 
 heart to the devoted creature. 
 
 " Matthew ! " I cried, rising into a sitting posture 
 and speaking very tragically, " I am undone. " 
 
 Perhaps I spoke more tragically than the occasion 
 demanded, for Matthew looked quite frightened. 
 
 " Yes, " I said, feeling rather pleased at the 
 effect I had produced. " Undone. There is 
 no living, none, if Felix be away. Matthew, if 
 you have tears, prepare to shed them now. We 
 were torn from one another's arms, and I have 
 been here nearly three weeks, yet he has never 
 come to see me as he promised, nor written. 
 My heart is cold with despair, 'tis getting like 
 the frosty Caucasus." 
 
 " Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! This is very sad ! " said 
 Matthew, looking immensely concerned. 
 
 His sympathy comforted me, and I began to
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 235 
 
 feel a certain pleasure in relating my tale of 
 sorrow. u We were like twin lambs that freak'd 
 i' the sun, " I went on, rising to the occasion, and 
 growing more and more dramatic, " twin lambs 
 that bleated the one at the other." 
 
 " Dear, dear ! How very sad ! " said Matthew, 
 again, still bending over me with a hand on 
 either side the tea-tray. 
 
 " Together each morn we woke Diana with a 
 hymn, and at eve we were still quiring, to the 
 young-eyed cherubins. " 
 
 Matthew looked puzzled. "He is a good harm- 
 lessly-disposed young man then ? " he inquired 
 anxiously. 
 
 "Eminently so," I answered. 
 
 Matthew looked much impressed. " And may 
 I ask if he is very handsome, Madam ? " he 
 inquired respectfully. 
 
 u Handsome ! His person beggars all descrip- 
 tion — Imagine Hyperion's curls "
 
 236 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " Oh, Madam, Madam ! " cried Matthew, inter- 
 rupting me ruthlessly, " don't wave the teapot 
 about so, the tea is jerking out all over the carpet." 
 
 Thus swiftly brought down from the sublime 
 to the ridiculous, I put down the teapot with 
 which I had been unconsciously emphasizing my 
 words, and rather pettishly told Matthew to pour 
 out the tea for me himself. I think he was 
 sorry to have checked me in my confidences, for 
 he began fussing nervously over the cakes and 
 cream, and begged me to tell him more about my 
 friend. It was a nice, daintily served tea, but I 
 felt too low to do justice to it, and all incli- 
 nation to rhapsodize further about Felix had gone. 
 
 " Can nothing be done? " asked Matthew, 
 evidently much distressed by my heavy sighs 
 and want of appetite. " Can't I fetch Mr. Felix 
 from somewhere ? " 
 
 " No. I won't have him fetched. It would be 
 quite beneath my dignity as mistress of this
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 237 
 
 establishment. He can stay away if he does not 
 want to come. I'm sure I don't care, it is more 
 
 his loss than mine " Here T broke off, bent 
 
 my head over the tray, and began to sob bitterly 
 into my tea-cup. 
 
 Matthew looked distracted. " O Madam, O 
 poor young thing, don't cry," he exclaimed. 
 " You are flushing your dear pretty face so, and 
 the beautiful gold curls are all going into the 
 cream jug. Oh, dear! If I could only have let 
 those ladies in ! Mothers of families both of 
 them, who called in pure kindness of heart, 
 seeing you run about so wild and lonely with 
 no one but stupid old Matthew to look after 
 you. It's what you want, nice female friends to 
 advise you, and take the place of a mother to you. " 
 
 " Yes, it's what I want, " I said, sobbing more 
 bitterly than ever. 
 
 " Was your late instructress acquainted with 
 Mr. Felix, Madam ? "
 
 238 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 " Yes, he lived next door, " I answered between 
 my sobs — "and — she was very fond of him." 
 
 "Why not write to her and make inquiries?" 
 
 " She won't answer. She will always be very 
 pleased to hear from me, but I must not expect 
 to hear from her, except at Christmas time, 
 stamps are such a consideration." 
 
 " Stamps are no consideration. She shall be 
 sent a dozen, two dozen, we'll write at once and 
 enclose them, and Air. Felix shall be found and 
 brought here. That's right, my dear, stop crying ; 
 remember your dignity as mistress of this estab- 
 lishment. Here we are now, paper, pen, ink, 
 stamps, more stamps, heaps of stamps! Come to 
 this writing-table; now write and inquire, say 
 we are quite surprised at Mr. Felix, that we think 
 his silence quite unpardonable. " 
 
 " Writing to inquire won't sound as if I wanted 
 him very badly, and he didn't want to come, 
 will it? " I asked.
 
 HOOKS OF STEEL. 239 
 
 " Certainly not. A queen might send to inquire 
 after a subject, the course is a most dignified 
 one. " 
 
 Thus assured, I dried my eyes, sat down to 
 the writing-table, and began to compose a letter 
 to Miss Skinner, whilst Matthew stood by me, 
 wiping the cream off my curls and offering 
 suggestions. The letter was very dignified at the 
 beginning, but it became very much less so 
 towards the end, Matthew and I both grew so 
 excited over it; and when it was finished some- 
 how we found ourselves composing one to Felix, 
 to be enclosed in the one to Miss Skinner. We 
 had warmed to our work by this time, and the 
 second letter was one calculated to bring a ghost 
 out of his grave. I felt it could not fail to tear 
 Felix's heart and bring him bounding over walls 
 and precipices to my side, if once it fell into his 
 hands. Then we enclosed two dozen stamps for 
 a reply, sealed the letter with a huge seed so
 
 240 HOOKS OF STEEL. 
 
 that no one could tamper with it, and paused to 
 take breath again. 
 
 Matthew took the letter to the post himself. I 
 watched for his return from an upper bedroom win- 
 dow, and by arrangement he waved his handkerchief 
 the whole way home across the common, so 
 that as soon as he came in sight I might know 
 that all was well, and the letter had been posted 
 safely. He looked somewhat exhausted when 
 he reached the house, for the post-office was a 
 long way off, and to wave a handkerchief steadily 
 for twenty minutes is in itself a tiring exercise, 
 but I learnt in time that Matthew never spared 
 himself in the service of others. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
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