■mh 
 
 '^
 
 L I E. RARY 
 
 OF THt 
 
 U N IVER5ITY 
 
 OF 1 LLl NOIS 


 
 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.
 
 VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
 
 % ^obcl of §,mcviran Sorictn 
 
 BY 
 
 Hamilton Aide 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JAMES R. OSGOOD, M^ILVAINE & CO. 
 
 45, Albemarle Street, W. 
 
 1892 
 
 [A// rights reserveif}
 
 V. / 
 
 TO MY DEAR COMPANIONS 
 ON 
 
 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
 5 &cD(cate tbese pages.
 
 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 " Why are you going to the United States ?" 
 asked an American, no longer in his first 
 youth, of a young EngHshwoman on board the 
 Teutonic, the second day after they had left 
 Liverpool. 
 
 The sky was blue, the sea was smooth, 
 the hour was noon. The lady was stretched 
 on a deck-chair, the American sat beside 
 her. Both were fine types of their races, 
 both had faces which arrested and held 
 the attention. Mr. Quintin Ferrars was un- 
 usually tall for an American, his limbs were not 
 loosely knit, and his walk was erect and firm, 
 attributes more common to the dwellers in the 
 prairie than to those on the Fifth Avenue. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 He had a resolute, thoughtful face, over which 
 gleams of satire were more apt to play than 
 those of sympathy, with keen eyes, the expres- 
 sion, even the colour, of which it was difficult 
 to determine. Neither in his accent nor in 
 his colloquialisms was there any touch of the 
 peculiarity which we call " American," but 
 which our cousins affirm to be drawn through 
 conduits of heredity from the undefiled well 
 of English speech of their Puritan fathers. 
 Mr. Ferrars was accused of being an Anglo- 
 maniac ; it would be more true to say that he 
 was keenly critical of the defects in his own 
 country. But, then, he was critical of all things 
 human and divine. 
 
 The young Englishwoman, in her tight-fitting 
 ulster of russet tweed, with a stalking cap of 
 the same material, beneath which her abundant 
 auburn hair was tightly rolled, was tall and had 
 a well-balanced figure, with a waist sufficiently 
 large to support her breadth of shoulder and 
 finely-developed bust, without suggesting a 
 fear that it might snap in two. Her clear 
 grey eyes under dark, level brows, had a sin- 
 gular directness of outlook ; the fine lines of 
 her somewhat large mouth, as much variety of
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 3 
 
 expression when speaking as of strength and 
 sweetness in repose. But the chief character- 
 istic of her handsome face was the eager 
 interest it displayed in anything — whether 
 grave or gay — that moved her, the absence of 
 self, consciousness in her intercourse with both 
 men and women, and the bright smile which 
 was in itself an enchantment. She had great 
 animation of manner, a frank and ringing laugh, 
 and a ready tongue ; all of which were probably 
 calculated to mislead a stranger as to her real 
 character. 
 
 " Why are you going to the United States, 
 Miss Ballinger ? " again asked Mr. Ferrars. 
 
 " The polite answer would be that I am going 
 to see your country, but that would not be quite 
 true," answered the young lady, with a smile. 
 " My brother wished me to come — I am doing 
 so for the sake of being with him." 
 
 "You won't like it. Unless you go to the 
 Far West, we have nothing to offer you that 
 you haven't got better in Europe." 
 
 ** People interest me more than things. One 
 gets wrong ideas of Americans from those one 
 often meets travelling. I shall like studying 
 them on their own soil." 
 
 B 2
 
 4 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 He lit a cigarette before he replied. 
 
 *' The best types you will probably not see. 
 They do not push themselves prominently 
 forward." 
 
 Miss Ballinger's eyes sparkled with amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 " One would really think your object was to 
 dissuade me from attempting to see your 
 country." 
 
 " My object is to prevent your being dis- 
 appointed. We are a very young, raw country. 
 Youth, in the educational stage, is apt to offend 
 against good taste. We are made up, at 
 present, of odds and ends. You are sure to 
 get hold of some odds. The ends require to 
 be unravelled." 
 
 " I shall try and unravel them." 
 
 " Your brother is trying to do so now." 
 He o:lanced down the row of deck-chairs to 
 where Sir Mordaunt Ballinger sat on a stool, 
 beside the recumbent figure of a lady, so 
 thickly veiled that it was impossible to see if 
 she was young or old. " Have you made Mrs. 
 Courtly's acquaintance ? She is rather a com- 
 plicated skein to unravel." 
 
 " We have exchanged a few words — just
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 5 
 
 enough for me to know that she has a sweet 
 voice and a very gracious manner." 
 
 " She is a charming woman, and a clever 
 one. Not that she does anything, or knows 
 anything particularly well, at all events much 
 less than half our highly-educated women. 
 But she has that fine receptive capacity which 
 makes her seize the scope and meaning of 
 most things that do not demand preliminary 
 study. Of course she is called ' superficial,' 
 but what does that mean ? That she has the 
 artistic instinct, unusually developed, in a 
 number of subjects, and an insatiable curiosity 
 about everything," 
 
 " I had no idea she was that sort of person — 
 I thought, — I had been told that she was very 
 fond of admiration — and — " 
 
 " I know all you heard. You need not tell 
 me. She is often misunderstood ; most of all 
 by her own sex. She is fond of dress, and 
 dancing, and admiration. She is religious, and 
 philosophical, and pictorial, and poetical — what 
 is she not in turn ? But she is never ill-natured, 
 never slanderous. A female Proteus." 
 
 " You evidently know her well ? " 
 
 "I do, but we have always met in Europe.
 
 6 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 I have never visited her in New England, where 
 she has a charming house and entertains a 
 great deal." 
 
 " Has she been long a widow— for I conclude 
 she is one ? " 
 
 " Her husband died several years since, and 
 she has never yet made up her mind to change 
 her state. She had one desperate love affair 
 long ago. Whether it is that has prevented her 
 marrying again, or whether her experience of 
 matrimony was not such as to make her desire 
 to repeat the experiment" — his smile was not 
 pleasant as he said that — " I do not know. 
 I only know she is the best friend in the world, 
 and that women are jealous of her because she 
 attracts all sorts and conditions of men. The 
 lion and the lamb lie down together on her 
 hearth-rug. But she loves the lion better 
 than the lamb." 
 
 " Mordaunt is not a lion, neither is he quite a 
 •lamb," laughed his sister. 
 
 " Oh ! but he will be made a lion of In the 
 States, The son of so eminent a man as your 
 father, whose name was so prominent in our 
 country during the Alabama dispute, will be 
 interviewed, and banqueted, and have recep-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 7 
 
 dons given for him, all the time. Most of this 
 you will have to endure also. I hope you 
 won't hate it as much as I should." 
 
 " I can't believe that you are right, Mr. Fer- 
 rars ; but if greatness is thrust upon me, in this 
 unexpected manner, I hope I shall be amused. 
 I have no idea or expectmg to be bored with 
 anything. A sense of humour carries one 
 through so much, and I delight in American 
 humour." 
 
 " If you expect that everyone is going to talk 
 like Mark Twain, you will be mistaken. You 
 will find a good deal of unconscious humour 
 occasionally in the sayings and doings of my 
 countrymen. I hope it will carry you through 
 those dreary hours — the ladies' luncheons, and 
 all those terrible afflictions ! " 
 
 " Must they be afflictions because you are not 
 admitted to them ? " laughed Miss Ballinger. 
 
 " Not necessarily. But the tall talk of su- 
 perior women is bad enough when it has to bend 
 to the level of our comprehension. What it 
 must be when they are alone — " 
 
 " Well, they will have to bend to the level of 
 mine. I shall collapse if they ask me, as Miss 
 Lobb did this morning, what influence I con-
 
 8 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 sidered the ancient religions of Egypt had on 
 the manners and customs of the Western world ? 
 I murmured, ' I suppose it has tended to a love 
 of cats,' and fled." 
 
 Ferrars laughed, for the first time. " The 
 old-maid must have taken it as personal. I 
 think, in some prior state of existence, she must 
 have been a cat, though I doubt the Egyptians 
 worshipping her." 
 
 " Her voice is very trying. Explain to me 
 why your highly educated people, who talk so 
 much of ' culture,' take so little trouble about 
 training the voice. For the voice can be 
 trained, you know." 
 
 " Certainly it can, and our singers prove that 
 the American voice is a raw material that can 
 be worked to advantage. But then singing pays, 
 and speaking doesn't„" 
 
 " Yet you are much given to ' orating ' ! " 
 said Miss Ballinger, with a mischievous twitch 
 of her lips. " Is not every American born to 
 hold forth?" 
 
 " Well ! As the Yankee said, when he stood 
 before Niagara, for the first time, ' What hin- 
 ders?' We are in the rapids of life. Why 
 should the cataract of our impetuosity be
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 9 
 
 checked ? We have got to do a deal of talk- 
 ing to make leeway and overtake other 
 nations." 
 
 " I think you have overtaken them. Are you 
 a member of Congress ? " 
 
 " Heaven forbid ! What should I do there?" 
 " Serve your country, I suppose. You 
 do not strike me as a good American, Mr. 
 Ferrars." 
 
 " I am too good an American, and too irri- 
 table a man, to stand by and see all the job- 
 bery and corruption that goes on and not raise 
 my voice. And what good would that do, even 
 if I were elected, which I doubt ? There are 
 men shouting their lungs out all the time ; there 
 are papers, every day, denouncing the acts of a 
 
 man like , and yet he will continue to be a 
 
 member of our administration, until he is hurled 
 from power, and the Opposition set up their 
 gods in the temple. That is the result of our 
 beautiful universal suffrage — what you are fast 
 coming to." 
 
 " Are you a Democrat or a Republican ? " 
 " Who can say what he is, in the present day ! 
 One feels disposed to vote with the Opposition, 
 whatever it is."
 
 10 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " Perhaps that is your principle through Hfe," 
 said Miss Ballinger, demurely, as she bound a 
 Shetland veil round her face, which the wind 
 was buffeting too roughly. After that he lost 
 the sunlight and the cloud-like shadows that 
 crossed it. The next moment she continued, 
 " You spoke of the papers just now. If they 
 denounce corruption, they are not as bad as we 
 are always told they are." 
 
 " Their denunciations lose all weight, because 
 they vilify everyone. The Angel Gabriel 
 wouldn't be safe from their attacks. No man's 
 home, or his most private domestic concerns, 
 is sacred. No lie is too preposterous for them 
 to invent, no scandal too hideous for them to 
 propagate. As no man who brought an action 
 for libel in the States ever got substantial re- 
 dress, they carry on their vile trade with impu- 
 nity, until some editor happens to be shot by 
 an outraged husband, or father, when the com- 
 munity says complacently : ' Ah, serve him 
 right ! ' Can you wonder that the best citizens 
 often shrink from the pillory of election for 
 office, whether it be the municipal town council 
 or anything else ? To have their early difficul- 
 ties, their family griefs (it may be their family
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. ii 
 
 disgrace), their most secret wounds torn open, 
 to be pelted with the rotten eggs of vilification, 
 day after day, what man, unless he be made of 
 adamant, or is sunk so low as to be absolutely 
 indifferent to public opinion, would willingly 
 subject himself to all this ?" 
 
 " If a man had a very strong sense of public 
 duty, and if his record were a clean one, I 
 should think he would. How are things ever 
 to be improved if all you educated men say 
 this ? By-the-bye, what do you do with 
 your life, Mr. Ferrars ? Something more than 
 vibrate between Europe and America, I sup- 
 pose i 
 
 " Well, what I do can be done as well on one 
 side of the Atlantic as the other. I was 
 brought up to the study of medicine. But I 
 gave that up when I was still young. Now I 
 do nothing but write." 
 
 " Caustic criticism of your own country, I 
 suppose ? Anonymous ? " 
 
 " Yes, anonymous." 
 
 "Perhaps you wrote 'Plutocracy,' the 
 authorship of which excited so much curiosity 
 a few years ago ? " 
 
 " I should not own it if I had," he replied,
 
 12 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 rather sharply. " I hold Sir Walter Scott's 
 line of conduct quite justifiable in such cases. 
 No secret could be kept if it was necessary to 
 stand and deliver to the first highwayman who 
 demanded your treasure." 
 
 "So you look on me as a highwayman!" 
 laughed the young Enghshwoman merrily. " I 
 assure you, I had no desire to rob you of — " 
 
 " You misunderstand me," he interrupted, 
 looking a little annoyed. " I did not think of 
 applying the image — a stupid one, I admit — to 
 you. As a matter of fact, I never write fiction. 
 What I do write, for personal reasons, I do not 
 put my name to — and, consequently, consider 
 myself quite at liberty to repudiate." 
 
 The gong sounded for luncheon at this 
 moment, and Sir Mordaunt rose and came up 
 to his sister. He was a tall man, with rather too 
 small a head for his height, but remarkably well- 
 built, and with that undefinable air of high breed- 
 ing which is a gift of the gods, bestowed now 
 and again upon the low-born, but not to be 
 purchased nor transmitted, depending neither 
 upon the traditions of Eton, nor the tailoring 
 of Poole or Johns. He had a frank, intelligent 
 face, with indications of possible but transient
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. i 
 
 J 
 
 explosion in the quick flash of the eye and 
 occasional contraction of the brow. But he 
 was more disposed to smile than to scowl 
 through life. His laugh, and his way of speak- 
 ing, strongly marked by what Americans call 
 " the English accent," resembled his sister's, 
 and there all likeness between them began and 
 ended. Miss Ballinger's personality, to a close 
 observer, conveyed a sense of reserved force 
 under that light manner and readily-responsive 
 smile, which her brother's entirely lacked. As 
 someone expressed it, "All his goods were in 
 his front shop window." There was nothing to 
 be explored, nothing to be connived at, in a 
 nature affectionate if not very profound, 
 pleasure-loving and, as some thought, con- 
 ceited; quick tempered and, as some thought, 
 occasionally impertinent ; a nature every fold 
 of which was exposed to the light that revealed 
 its spots and the accretions of dust that are 
 apt to gather upon goods that are exposed in 
 front shop windows. 
 
 " Come along to luncheon, Grace ! I'm as 
 hungry as a hunter. How do you get on with 
 that Yankee ? I hope he was as entertaining 
 as my widow. She is perfectly charming — I
 
 14 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 want you to talk to her. She knows almost as 
 much as you do about pictures and things — 
 and she is awfully amusing." 
 
 " I have been listening to her praises from 
 Mr. Ferrars, who, by-the-bye, is not a Yankee. 
 He is a Southerner by birth, and a cosmo- 
 politan by choice — an odd man, and clever ; 
 but I don't feel quite sure whether I like him. 
 All the same, I wish his seat at meals was next 
 me. Mr. Gunning, with his narrow little mind 
 centred on himself, is such a bore." 
 
 " Mrs. Courtly tells me he is a ' dude,' and 
 tremendously rich. They think no end of him 
 in New York." 
 
 " I dare say ; but, as his riches don't interest 
 me, I wish I hadn't to sit next him three times 
 a day for the next week. I had so much 
 rather have that nice old man — Senator some- 
 thing — who looks like a portrait by Tintoret, 
 with his white beard." 
 
 •' What a queer girl you are ! always cotton- 
 ing to old men. Gunning is a good-looking 
 chap — talks a little too much about his yacht 
 and his athletics, and his big game ; but I 
 don't think he's half a bad sort." 
 
 His sister smiled a subtle, enigmatical smile,
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 15 
 
 and gently pinched her brother's arm, on which 
 she leant, as they walked along. 
 
 " How well I know you, Mordy ! You 
 wouldn't judge him so leniently if he were a 
 penniless Englishman, ' something in the City.' 
 You are at present resolved to see everything 
 American en beau.''^ 
 
 " Of course I am. I only wish I had an 
 American girl with some fun in her next me at 
 table, instead of that Lady Clydesdale." 
 
 "Well! She is American enough, in all 
 conscience, with her Republican ideas ! She 
 seems to me ' p/?is royaliste que le roi,^ if one 
 can use such a Conservative figure of speech 
 about her." 
 
 " Only the fun's wanting. She is in such 
 deadly earnest, with her rights and her wrongs, 
 and her emancipation from social slavery, and 
 all the rest of it." 
 
 They had reached the saloon by this time, 
 and most of the famished passengers were 
 already seated. Opposite Sir Mordaunt 
 Ballinger and his sister sat a couple, concern- 
 ing whom Grace felt a mild curiosity. It had not 
 been sufficiently strong to prompt her to speak 
 hitherto, and they were so quiet and retiring.
 
 1 6 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 It was pretty certain they ^vould never take the 
 initiative. Were they husband and wife ? 
 Hardly. The lady looked a little older than 
 her companion. She had a sweet, tranquil 
 face, and yet, for all its tranquillity, one read 
 there the lines of suffering and sorrow. Her 
 abundant brown hair was smoothly parted over 
 a brow that was too large for beauty, without 
 fringe or curl, to mitigate the defect in propor- 
 tion. Her dress was of Puritanic simplicity. 
 She wore no bracelet or ornament of any de- 
 scription, but on her delicate small hand was a 
 wedding-ring. 
 
 Her companion, without being ill-built, had 
 the sort of figure which looks as if it had never 
 been trained to athletics, and is unused to 
 active exercise. His hands and feet were 
 almost too small for his height. His chest was 
 contracted ; and he had a cough which, without 
 beinof constant, made itself heard now and 
 again. His smile was a very pleasant one, 
 lighting up the entire face, as some smiles 
 seem incapable of doing ; and his rare laugh 
 was merry as a boy's. He wore his clothes 
 badly, and the clothes themselves were ill-made, 
 facts which disqualified him in Sir Mordaunt
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 17 
 
 Ballinger's estimation, but hardly affected his 
 sister. What did afFect her was the curiously 
 intense, powerful young face which rose, beard- 
 less, above the loose-tied neckcloth. It was too 
 thin and colourless for manly beauty, though 
 the lines were fine, and the eyes of extraor- 
 dinary depth. His voice, like his companion's, 
 was low, and except by certain expressions and 
 the pronunciation of certain words, it would not 
 have been apparent that he was American. 
 
 On the lady's right sat Mr. Ruggs, from 
 Chicago, who had been to Europe to enlist 
 sympathies for the World's Fair, and who held 
 forth to Lady Clydesdale opposite him as to 
 the wonders of the show, " which I tell you, 
 ma'am, will knock the Paris Exhibition into a 
 cocked hat!" His opulence and prodigality 
 of illustration seemed a little oppressive to the 
 gentlewoman beside him. Her companion had 
 Miss Lobb on his left. That highly-cultured 
 lady tackled him at once upon the subject of 
 undeveloped cosmic forces. Grace asked her- 
 self whether he would not be as glad to escape 
 from the cosmic forces as she would be to 
 forego the rapid vehemence of the young man 
 from New York. And so, resolved that the 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 1 8 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 stream of white cloth should divide her no 
 longer from her opposite neighbours, she startled 
 them with this original observation, addressed 
 indifferently to both, — 
 
 " How hungry being at sea makes one ! " 
 
 The lady responded with a fluttering smile. 
 " I have not experienced it as yet. I hope my 
 son will do so soon. He has been sick." 
 
 Her son ? Grace was astonished. And 
 sick? Why, the twenty-four hours that had 
 passed since leaving Liverpool had been ab- 
 solutely calm. In her expressive countenance 
 the young man read possibly what was passing 
 in her mind. 
 
 " Vou would say ' ill,' " he observed, with a 
 smile. " We use the word in the old Scriptural 
 sense." 
 
 " Yes," said his mother, " sick unto death. 
 He really was that. We have been quite a 
 time in Europe, in consequence." 
 
 "Where were you?" asked Grace. "At 
 some Baths ? " 
 
 " Homburg is the only Bath worth going to," 
 struck in Mr. Gunning. " Lots going on there 
 all the time." 
 
 " Horrid place ! I hate it," said Miss
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 19 
 
 Bllinger. Then, looking at her opposite 
 neighbour, she continued, " I hope you were 
 at a nice place. How long were you in 
 Europe ? " 
 
 *' Four months. I was sent right off to Aix- 
 la-Chapelle, after rheumatic fever, and then on 
 to Spa. We had very little time to travel, but 
 we did go around in Belgium and Holland for 
 three weeks." 
 
 "One picks up awfully sweet delf and old 
 oak in Holland," said Mr. Gunning. 
 
 " What ! You saw nothing of England, 
 then ? And this is your first visit to Europe ? " 
 
 Miss Ballinger looked almost indignant as she 
 asked this. The mother answered quickly, — 
 
 " It is our first visit, and I never should have 
 come but for my son's health. I should dearly 
 love to visit the cathedral towns, and all the 
 old historical castles in England ; but I guess I 
 never shall." 
 
 " Yes, you will," said her son. " I mean to 
 go next fall, and to take you with me. My 
 mother has lived more than twenty-five years 
 in a New England village, without going further 
 than the seashore. She enjoys travel, but 
 she cannot leave home." 
 
 c 2
 
 20 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " When one has gotten a house and helps, 
 it's difficult to go right away, even if there were 
 no other reason," said the mother, shaking her 
 head. " But you can go. There's no call for 
 you to spend your vacation at home." 
 
 " If one doesn't go to Europe," said Gunning, 
 " the only place is Newport. You must come 
 to Newport, Miss Ballinger — you really must. 
 It's yachting, dancing, or picnics, all the time. 
 You should see how our swells live there. 
 Why, Cowes isn't in it, it isn't really. Our 
 prominent cottagers give such entertainments. 
 Why, there was one luncheon party last year 
 that cost — " 
 
 " Don't tell me, Mr. Gunning. It makes me 
 feel that I am a pauper." 
 
 Miss Lobb here interposed to observe that it 
 was only in effete old countries that pauperism 
 was tolerated. She looked through her double 
 glasses defiantly at Grace as she added, " With 
 us it is exterminated." 
 
 Sir Mordaunt Ballinger's face was convulsed 
 with suppressed laughter, as he touched his 
 sister's elbow at this moment. " Listen to Mr. 
 Ruggs' account of Chicago. If it doesn't make 
 you wish to go there ! Will you tell my
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 21 
 
 sister what you were saying about your 
 city ? " 
 
 '* I tell you, miss," said the fat Httle man, 
 turning a pair of twinkling eyes on Grace, and 
 with an expression so shrewd and humorous 
 that she felt uncertain how far he was in earnest, 
 how far endeavouring to impose on her credulity, 
 " I tell you, miss, we are going to have the 
 finest city in the whole creation. Don't you 
 make a mistake. There will be nothing to 
 touch it, until the New Jerusalem is built. Why, 
 already it takes more than two hours to drive 
 from one end of it to the other ! We've got a 
 street twelve miles long. We've got a tonsorial 
 saloon paved with dollar pieces, and a hotel of 
 alabaster and gold. I tell you, miss, there is 
 nothing to touch it in Europe !" 
 
 " And about the World's Fair, Mr. Ruggs — 
 tell us what you propose doing," asked Sir 
 Mordaunt. 
 
 " Well, sir, we propose bringing over a few of 
 your European princes, and having them on 
 show. We are in treaty for the Duke of 
 Braganza, as direct descendant of Columbus, 
 whose bones we feel like having if we can, but, 
 odd to say, they make some difficulties. The
 
 22 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 bones and the descendants will come right over 
 in galleons made on the model of those that 
 brought Columbus. We also propose to bring 
 over the Sphinx — " 
 
 "What! From Egypt?" Miss Ballinger 
 laughed outright. " Poor Sphinx ! It will feel 
 very strange away from its native desert." 
 
 " Oh ! we'll blow a lot of sand up right around 
 it. We've got plenty on the shore of our lake. 
 That's for the classical advertisement. Then, 
 for the Scriptural one, I did think of 
 having Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and dividing 
 the water by hydraulic pressure ; but making 
 the waves red might create a sort of a feeling 
 — the citizens might feel kinder uncomfortable. 
 There's no reason against the Garden of Eden ; 
 plenty of apple-trees and snakes are common ; 
 there's only a little dilhculty about Adam and 
 Eve. However, I've no doubt we shall 
 hit on something. People do like something 
 Scriptural. There's Ammergau, now ! That 
 would do fust-rate, only those peasants wouldn't 
 come." 
 
 " But you're going to have a bigger theatre 
 than the world has ever seen, I suppose ? " 
 
 " We have one, sir, and as to acting, have
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 23 
 
 you seen our Clara Morris ? I tell you, sir, 
 there is nothing in creation like it ! Why, when 
 she weeps on the stage, it is enough to make 
 an iron dog come down from a door-step and 
 lick her hand ! Don't talk to me of your Burn- 
 hards, and your Ristor-^^^'^j". Not but what we'll 
 have them too, just to show how superior the 
 reel American article is ! " 
 
 " And pictures — are you going in for pic- 
 tures ?" 
 
 " I believe you, sir ! Why, the pictures at 
 the Paris Exhibition '11 be like a pack of 
 playing cards, compared with ours. I cal- 
 culate we'll have the biggest picture on show 
 that has ever been seen. It's forty-two feet 
 long. I've concluded to bid half price for it, 
 when our show is over, and to present it to the 
 city." 
 
 Here Lady Clydesdale, who was on the other 
 side of Sir Mordaunt, struck in her oar, and a 
 powerful one it was. She was what Mr. Ruggs 
 styled " a fine female, but fleshy," and her ar- 
 rogant assumption of humility was irritating to 
 others besides the young baronet ; perhaps, to 
 none more than to Americans. 
 
 " I am sorry to hear you say," she observed
 
 24 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 quickly, and in a voice like a trumpet, " that 
 you are going to imitate the follies of Europe, 
 in attaching any importance, or giving any 
 prominence, to princes. It is degrading to dis- 
 tinguish one individual above another, except 
 for personal merit." 
 
 " Yours and mine are beyond question, Lady 
 Clydesdale," laughed Ballinger, parentheti- 
 cally. 
 
 It was Impertinent ; but he was nettled. She 
 turned and rent him. 
 
 " My principles and practice are too well- 
 known at home for me to argue with you, Sir 
 Mordaunt. I would resign my coronet to- 
 morrow. I would abolish all class distinctions. 
 I would herd with the humblest. I would dine 
 with my servants, and give them all the luxuries 
 I enjoy myself — the piano, horses, carriages — 
 they should Hve as I do did the prejudices of 
 society permit it. I expected to find it more 
 enlightened in America than in England. I 
 thought there was one country, at least, where 
 all men were equal ! I am disappointed." 
 
 What Mr. Ruggs' rejoinder was, for he did 
 rejoin, and how the battle was fought, Miss 
 Ballinger never heard, for Gunning, who had
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 2 
 
 -D 
 
 been listening to her ladyship's onslaught In 
 amazement, here said in an undertone, — 
 
 *' Is she mad ? Fancied we were all equal ! 
 Why, we are just as exclusive as ever we can 
 be In New York. The Four Hundred shut their 
 doors against everyone who hasn't money, I 
 can tell you." 
 
 " Ah ! brains count for nothing, I suppose." 
 
 " Nothing out of Wall Street. A man must 
 work, of course, to make his pile, If he doesn't 
 inherit one. I was an only child. Lucky, 
 wasn't I ? Never had to work." 
 
 " Those who have to work are the lucky ones. 
 In my opinion." 
 
 He looked surprised, and shook his head. 
 
 "Couldn't have my yacht, or my team — 
 couldn't go off to shoot In the Rockies — 
 couldn't do lots of things, if I had to work. 
 Then getting up early every morning — oh, It 
 wouldn't suit me ! '' After a minute's pause, 
 he went on, " You'll let me drive you in my 
 team one day ? Fll get up a luncheon party 
 for you somewhere In the country. We'll have 
 a band and dance afterwards. We'll have a 
 rare good time." 
 
 " I shall do whatever my brother likes in New
 
 26 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 York. You must ask him. I shall have ab- 
 solutely no will of my own. Will you give me 
 those biscuits ? Thank you." 
 
 "We call them crackers. About your brother, 
 I'll see that we have a lot of bright girls. 
 There's Miss Planter; she is a belle, she will 
 just suit him. She was made a lot of in 
 London last season, I believe. She will have 
 a million of dollars. Not bad, eh ? " 
 
 " Bad, if she is to be married for the sake of 
 them. It is fortunate she is attractive. I am 
 glad that I have only enough to keep body 
 and soul alive. No one will marry vie for my 
 money." 
 
 " Oh, well, it won't signify to you having 
 nothing — " he stopped short, and smiled at her. 
 Then, though the connection of ideas was not 
 very clear, he went on, " I say. Miss Ballinger, 
 this is the second time I have been to Europe, 
 but I've never seen anything of English society. 
 I have fooled around in Paris and London a 
 bit, but I have a mind next year to take a place 
 in England and hunt. Do you think I should 
 like it ? They say Englishwomen don't take 
 to American men ; is that so ? " 
 
 " We know so few ; most of you are too ab-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 27 
 
 sorbed In business to spend much time with us, 
 but your women are very popular. My brother 
 says they are so much easier to get on with 
 than his own countrywomen." 
 
 " That's right enough, but are not we Ameri- 
 can men easy to get on with as well ? " 
 
 "Certainly; perhaps too easy sometimes. 
 But, having got on, the thing Is to remain on. 
 I have heard It complained sometimes that 
 Americans lose ground by assurance. If you 
 come to England, I dare say you will be made 
 a great deal of because you are a rich young 
 man. But If you want to be popular with any- 
 one besides manoeuvring mammas, take my 
 advice — never talk about your money, never 
 presume upon It In any way ; the nicest 
 people resent that. I am going on deck ; It Is 
 so hot here." 
 
 She delivered herself of this little homily 
 simply, almost laughingly, and rose, leaving 
 the young man to his half-finished luncheon. 
 The mother opposite, without waiting for her 
 son, upon whom Miss Lobb had once again 
 fastened her fangs, had risen from the table, 
 and Miss Ballinger followed and joined her on 
 deck.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " May I walk up and down with you ? " (The 
 gentle little woman smiled her assent.) " I was 
 never more surprised than to hear you were 
 the mother of the young man opposite me. 
 You look like his eldest sister." 
 
 " I was married very young." 
 
 " Is he your only child ? " 
 
 " The only one alive. I lost two younger. 
 That is why I — why we are doubly anxious 
 about him." 
 
 " Your husband is alive, then ? What is 
 he?" 
 
 It was only this young woman's great charm 
 of manner which prevented her curiosity some- 
 times from seeming obtrusive. But there was 
 such genuine interest in the look of her clear, 
 truthful eyes, that no one, least of all the gentle 
 unsophisticated creature she addressed, could 
 resent it. 
 
 " My husband is a minister. Our name is
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 29 
 
 Barham. We live in a very quiet village in 
 New England, and seldom leave it. Of course, 
 I should not have gone abroad with Saul had 
 it not been for his health. But my husband 
 urged it, and so I went." 
 
 *' And you are glad you went, I am sure. 
 As you were anxious about your son, it must 
 have been a great comfort to you to be with 
 him. Has he always been delicate ? " 
 
 " Well, he has never been very strong." 
 Here she sighed. " We feared lung trouble at 
 one time. Our climate Is rather trying, and 
 Saul overworked himself." 
 
 " Was he at Harvard University ? I am 
 sure he is very clever." 
 
 " Yes, he is very clever. When he left 
 Harvard, he became a teacher. Then they 
 made him a professor at the University a few 
 months ago — a great compliment to so young 
 a man. But whether his health will stand it — " 
 Here she sighed again, and left her sentence 
 unfinished. 
 
 " But he is going now to return to his 
 work ? " 
 
 "Why, certainly. He would not give that 
 up for the world. He was offered a fine salary
 
 30 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 to remain In Europe and travel with two boys. 
 It would have been a grand thing for his health, 
 and he would have made more money than he 
 can do at home, but he would not accept it. 
 He has a deal of ambition, you see, and there's 
 — there's something else — he is so fond of me, 
 he couldn't bear to leave me and go right 
 away. Here he comes; don't say anything to 
 him about his health, Miss — " 
 
 " Miss Ballinger. No, I will not. I am so 
 much obliged to you for telling me so much 
 about yourselves. Mr. Barham, I am going to 
 introduce myself formally to you. Your mother 
 and I have been making friends. It is like 
 being at a masquerade, not knowing who and 
 what people are, and it saves so much idle 
 speculation and back-stair ferreting out, to 
 label oneself at once. I am Miss Ballinger, 
 spinster, aged twenty-five, travelling with her 
 brother, Sir Mordaunt Ballinger, Baronet and 
 Member of Parliament. Any discreet question 
 you like to ask I am prepared to answer, for I 
 have a mania for asking questions myself, as 
 your mother knows by this time, and I don't 
 want any unfair advantage." 
 
 The young man looked at her fixedly for a
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. ^i 
 
 J 
 
 moment, and then laughed. He had never 
 met anyone Hke this young lady. Was she a 
 specimen of her country ? He knew so few of 
 them. 
 
 " All the questions I shall ask will be mental 
 ones, which you will answer whether you like it 
 or not," he said. " I find these replies, un- 
 consciously given, so much more satisfying 
 than any others. Little mother, you look tired ; 
 lie down here. Perhaps Miss Ballinger will 
 continue her quarter-deck walk with me." 
 
 He tucked up the "little mother" on a deck- 
 chair with a plaid round her legs ; then turned 
 and resumed his walk with Miss Ballinger. 
 
 She began at once, "What a charming face 
 Mrs. Barham has ! She ' reminds me of 
 Scheffer's picture of the mother of St. 
 Augustine, only younger." 
 
 " Yes. It is a pity I am not more like him. 
 The only point of resemblance that I can recall 
 is that, whenever I pray to be made good, I 
 add, like Augustine, 'but not to-day, O 
 Lord ! ' " 
 
 She turned her bright, penetrating glance 
 full upon him, half-laughing, half-serious. 
 
 " Are you one of the men who are anxious to
 
 2,2 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 be thought very wicked ? I should not have 
 expected that. But there I am, questioning 
 again ! Well, never mind. Strong characters 
 are rarely saints in youth, I suppose, though I 
 don't know why they shouldn't be — if they are 
 only strong enough^ 
 
 " Perhaps I am not strong at all." 
 
 " Yes, you are. Your mouth and chin told 
 me that before you spoke." 
 
 " You are a physiognomist. How about the 
 eyes ? Do you attach any importance to them, 
 those * windows of the soul ' ? " 
 
 " He does not expect me to say that his 
 windows are luminous ones, magnificently 
 draped, does he ? If he does, he shall be 
 disappointed," thought Grace. What she said 
 was, " Eyes are the most deceptive feature. 
 There is no trusting them. I have grown quite 
 tired of fine eyes." 
 
 The young American smiled in a peculiar 
 manner. " I am beginning my mental ques- 
 tions." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " I am wondering whether you yourself are 
 always as perfectly truthful." 
 
 She flushed and looked annoyed. "You
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 3^ 
 
 o 
 
 are quite justified. Of course I was not 
 speaking the exact truth, though it is really 
 my opinion that eyes do not denote charac- 
 ter." 
 
 " I think your eyes do — better than your 
 words, perhaps." 
 
 " As how ? " 
 
 He smiled again. " Well, that brings the 
 confession that / was not perfectly truth- 
 ful. I was not wondering; I never doubted 
 that you were truthful, and straightforward 
 — generally, though you might say things 
 that were not quite so, sometimes." 
 
 She burst out laughing. 
 
 " Upon my word, Mr. Barham ! That is a 
 pretty character, and unfortunately, it is quite 
 true. It is lucky I am not like Mrs. Van 
 Winkle — have you spoken to Mrs. Van 
 Winkle? She is most amusing — who told me 
 she loved flattery, in every form — there was no 
 amount of it she could not swallow ! Now, I 
 like it, of course — what woman doesn't ? But 
 it must be in homoeopathic doses. You have 
 administered an infinitesimal grain of it wrapped 
 up in a very wholesome bitter. I shall take 
 care what I say to you in future." 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 ** Pray don't. That would be punishing my 
 impertinence too severely. Yes, Mrs. Van 
 Winkle spoke to me this morning, hearing I 
 was from Harvard. She said she felt that those 
 who were fellow-workers in one field should in- 
 terchange thoughts. I suppose I stared, for 
 she hastened to inform me that she had written 
 a book which was pronounced to be a work of 
 genius." 
 
 " Her naivete is quite delightful ! " 
 
 " Presently she went on to tell me that a 
 painter had begged her to sit to him as Clio, 
 when she was in Rome, and that her hands and 
 feet had been modelled by a sculptor in Paris. 
 I suppose that was nawe.'^ 
 
 " Certainly, it was. Most of us would have 
 gone a roundabout way to convey the same in- 
 formation. We are all vain. My vanity is fed 
 by the belief that people will find out what a 
 nice person I am, without my giving a sort of 
 auctioneer's inventory of my merits, as that 
 dear innocent Mrs. Van Winkle does." 
 
 " Innocent ? Well, she told me her hus- 
 band would be the next Minister to England, 
 and that she would not return there till then, 
 as she did not choose to go about having to
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 35 
 
 explain herself. I thought — with the Paris 
 sculptor and the modelling — that a /00^-note 
 might be explanation enough. But I have not 
 an idea what she meant." 
 
 *' She meant that the Van Winkles are not 
 to be herded with common travelling 
 Americans." 
 
 " I have been a common travelling American 
 myself for the last three months." 
 
 " And I daresay you /^^^ sometimes to explain 
 yourself." 
 
 " Never. I know too well the way in which 
 my pushing countrymen are spoken of, to seek 
 anyone. Those who have sought me have 
 had to do so without any * explanation.' " 
 
 " Proud as Lucifer," thought Grace. 
 " Clearly no^ the stuff of which saints are 
 made." Then aloud, " How did you like 
 Europe ? " 
 
 "Very much, for a time — for many times, I 
 might say. I should like to travel there 
 yearly. I hope it may be possible for me to 
 do so. But I would not live out of my own 
 country." 
 
 "Because you prefer it as a residence, or 
 from a sense of duty ? " 
 
 D 2
 
 36 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 He demurred. " The associations of early 
 life have a strong hold on one, and there are 
 special reasons in my case, why — " Here he 
 broke off, then began anew, " Of course there 
 are things I dislike, things I deplore, in my 
 own country, but she has a great future before 
 her, and it behoves every American to do his 
 best to advance that future, so that the genera- 
 tion that follows may be richer than the 
 present in wisdom and in worth." 
 
 "Not only in wealth ? " 
 
 " You have been told that Is the only god we 
 w^orship ? Well, that Is true, perhaps, of the 
 majority ; not of all. And this god, when he 
 has been won by the self-made man, is generally 
 a very munificent god with us. Where will 
 you find colleges, hospitals, libraries, galleries, 
 the gift of private Individuals, to the same 
 extent as with us ? Every city has Its record 
 of them — a record to be proud of." 
 
 " I see I shall have to strike a balance in my 
 judgments between you and Mr. Ferrars. He 
 is pessimist, and you are optimist, as regards 
 your country." 
 
 " I do not know Mr. Ferrars," said the young 
 man, drily. " But it Is a cheap way of showing
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 37 
 
 your superiority, to decry your own nation and 
 point out all Its shortcomings." 
 
 " There is such a thing as exaggerated 
 patriotism that will not admit shortcomings. 
 As a nation, you are so over-sensitive to 
 criticism. Why, you will not allow one 
 of your own best writers to represent certain 
 types, to laugh at certain follies, with- 
 out crying out that he is unpatriotic ! The 
 whole stock-in-trade of Dickens and Thackeray 
 was laughing at our shams and vulgarities, and 
 who ever thought of bringing such a charge 
 against them f " 
 
 " We are over-sensitive, but then we are 
 very young, remember." 
 
 Here a slight accident interrupted their pro- 
 gress. Mrs. Courtly was emerging from the 
 main gangway just as Miss Ballinger and her 
 companion crossed it, and a lurch of the vessel, 
 for the wind had been gradually rising and the 
 sea was no longer perfectly smooth, sent the 
 unprepared lady, adroit and nimble as she was, 
 into the young man's arms. She was a small, 
 slight woman, exquisitely built and pro- 
 portioned, no longer in her first youth, with a 
 pale face lit by a wonderful smile, which
 
 38 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 recalled to Grace Leonardo da Vinci's enig- 
 matical " Joconde." 
 
 Apologies on both sides, with a good deal 
 of laughing on the lady's part, followed. 
 Grace came forward, and a few words were 
 exchanged, during which Barham took off his 
 hat and walked away, to Miss Ballinger's 
 surprise — perhaps, it may be said, to her annoy- 
 ance. 
 
 " Who is your friend whom I so unceremoni- 
 ously embraced ?" asked Mrs. Courtly, in her 
 low, musical voice. " Why is he gone away? 
 I am so sorry to have interrupted your walk." 
 
 " If he had wished, I suppose, he would 
 have stayed. He is a professor from Harvard 
 University ; his name is Barham." 
 
 " Really ? I never heard of him, and I 
 have so many friends at Harvard. My home 
 in Massachusetts is not so very far distant. 
 He is very good-looking ; is he clever ? " 
 
 " Certainly; but not much of a society-man. 
 He suffers from a form of shyness which I 
 suppose is not common in the States — a dread 
 of being thought forward, pushing. I am sure 
 that is why he beat a retreat." 
 
 " How very singular ! It was I who was
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 39 
 
 forward and pushing!" Here she laughed softly. 
 " You must present him formally to me ; I shall 
 be delighted to make his acquaintance ; I love 
 to gather round me all that is best worth 
 knowing. By the way, your brother has been 
 promising to bring you to stay with me. I am 
 within easy reach of Boston ; I hope you won't 
 object." 
 
 " You are very good ; it sounds delightful. 
 1 have always looked forward to seeing Boston, 
 and I hope my brother will go there. I have 
 heard there is nothing like Boston society." 
 
 " You must not expect the magnificence of 
 New York. We New Englanders live much 
 more simply ; but there is a pleasant mixture 
 of the grave and the gay. I am reproached 
 with being too gay — too frivolous for my years. 
 But my principle is to enjoy everything as long 
 as I can, to live and to let live. And so I get 
 a great deal of pleasure out of existence." 
 
 She said this in a low, cooing voice that was 
 wonderfully persuasive. 
 
 "And confer a great deal," rejoined Grace. 
 " Most people get so soon biases^ it is refresh- 
 ing to find anyone who retains youthfulness of 
 spirit into middle age. But, then, you have a
 
 40 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 wonderful variety of interests in life, I am 
 told." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; I care for a great many things, I 
 am glad to say — books, and pictures, and 
 people. If I cannot get some excitement out 
 of one, I do out of another ; life is so curious, 
 so full of problems. Who told you about me? 
 If you listen to all you hear — " 
 
 "It was Mr. Ferrars — evidently a very true 
 friend — who spoke of you." 
 
 " Oh ! poor Quintin Ferrars ! Yes, he is a 
 good friend." 
 
 "Why do you say ' poor ' ? " 
 
 " Because he has not had a happy life." 
 
 " Partly his own fault, I should think. He 
 strikes me as not having a happy tempera- 
 ment." 
 
 "Is that his own fault?" asked Mrs. 
 Courtly, smiling. " He has not a happy tem- 
 perament, it is true. I have always told him 
 that he does not extract the enjoyment he 
 might out of life — though it struck me he was 
 doing so successfully this morning ! But, poor 
 fellow, he has been heavily handicapped ; cir- 
 cumstances have been against him, they have 
 embittered everything."
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 41 
 
 Grace was dying to ask what those circum- 
 stances were, but something restrained her. 
 Her acquaintance with Mrs. Courtly was but 
 sHght ; it would hardly be seemly for Grace to 
 press for information about Mrs. Courtly's 
 friend which that lady thought fit to conceal. 
 Presently Mrs. Courtly said, — 
 
 " Will you come and have tea in my cabin 
 at five o'clock ? I have a deck cabin ; it can 
 hold half-a-dozen people — Mrs. Van Winkle, 
 and your brother, and Quintin Ferrars, and one 
 other man ; shall I ask Jem Gunning ? " 
 
 " Not for me, please, I have enough of him 
 at three meals every day. Do you like him ? " 
 
 " Why, yes. Jem is not a bad boy in his 
 way. A clever woman would twist Jem round 
 her finger, and might make him very different 
 to what he is." 
 
 " What he is, is not pleasing to me at pre- 
 sent. Perhaps if I meet him hereafter, when 
 he has been duly twisted by the clever woman, 
 I may appreciate him more." 
 
 " How sarcastic you are ! " purred Mrs. 
 Courtly, showing her white teeth ; "all our 
 young men will be quite afraid of you, Miss 
 Ballinger."
 
 42 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " I am not sarcastic — far from it," said Grace, 
 laughing. " Only I know what I like and what 
 I don't." 
 
 " You prefer your friend, the Harvard Pro- 
 fessor ? " She smiled with a malicious twinkle 
 in her hazel eyes. " Well, will you invite him ? 
 Bring him with you." 
 
 Grace was a little taken aback. " I — I can't 
 bring him. I will deliver your message . . . 
 if I see him . . . But he is wo friend of mine. 
 I never spoke to him till half an hour ago." 
 
 After a few more words interchanged, the 
 two ladies separated. Later in the afternoon, 
 Grace found Mr. Barham, seated by his mother 
 reading, in the upper deck cabin. It had by 
 this time become rough and cold, and only the 
 very hardy were still pacing the deck. 
 
 " I have a message from Mrs. Courtly (the 
 lady who would have fallen but for you to-day). 
 She wishes to make your acquaintance, Mr. 
 Barham, and asks if you will come and have 
 tea in her cabin at five o'clock. My brother 
 and I are going." 
 
 The young man had laid down his book, and 
 had risen. He looked much surprised. 
 
 " What can Mrs. Courtly — want to know me
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 43 
 
 for ? I am not a society man, and I cannot do 
 anything to amuse her . . . But . . . of course 
 . . . if . . . you are quite sure — " 
 
 " I should not transmit such a message if I 
 were not quite sure. You will do as you please 
 about accepting the invitation." Then, turning 
 abruptly to Mrs. Barham, " Can you recommend 
 to me a thoroughly representative American 
 book ? I mean representative of real American 
 life, not from the satirical, or humorist point 
 of view. I see there is a capital library 
 here." 
 
 " Our New-England life is very well depicted 
 in Mary Wilkins' tales, and also in Sarah Orne 
 Jewett's. They are truthful pictures of our 
 quiet homes, or quiet lives removed from the 
 turmoil of the great cities. But perhaps you 
 might find them dull." 
 
 " I have read them, and thought them 
 charming. Spinsterhood is great, and Miss 
 Wilkins is its prophet. But I want to know 
 about something besides those dear old women. 
 Miss Jewett, also, charming as she is, is cir- 
 cumscribed. I want something wider in range. 
 I was given ' On Both Sides ' the other day. 
 It amused me, but as a caricature."
 
 44 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " You mean that the English are caricatured 
 — not the American," said Saul Barham with a 
 smile. 
 
 " Yes, I do. No woman in society ever said 
 the outrageously vulgar things Mrs. Sykes is 
 made to say. She may think them — she may 
 even act them — she could not say them. It 
 strikes a false note. Then there is a beautiful 
 young man, supposed to be a typical young 
 man of society, who tells a long story in which 
 he repeats over and over again, ' I says to him.' 
 Why ! no one above a stable-boy ever used 
 such a form of speech." 
 
 "Is it quite possible for one nation to judge 
 another fairly ? " asked Mrs. Barham gently. 
 
 " I hope so. Why not ? I am sure I have 
 no anti-American prejudices. But as we are 
 so closely bound together by language and 
 origin, it is more difficult for us not to look at 
 differences between us from an English stand- 
 point, than it is when we are discussing any 
 European nation. And no doubt it is the same 
 with you, if you confess it." 
 
 " I do confess it," said the young man. 
 
 Mrs. Barham murmured something about 
 there being "quite a number of persons in
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 45 
 
 America who Imitate everything English 
 
 now." 
 
 Saul laughed. 
 
 " Why, we have a cousin who Is so anxious 
 to be taken for an Englishman, that we can 
 scarcely understand what he says, he swallows 
 his words so." 
 
 After which he recommended two books to 
 Grace, one of which she found on the shelves 
 disengaged, and departed with it.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The small gathering In Mrs. Courtly's cabin 
 at five o'clock, which looked at first as if it 
 would be what Mordaunt Ballinger called 
 " frosty," ended, by reason of the hostess's tact 
 and charm of manner, in assimilating fairly 
 well. The men were of course the difficult in- 
 gredients to " mix ; " they always are, when not 
 homogeneous. Ballinger felt, and rightly, that 
 he and Ferrars had not much in common ; it 
 would require a shipwreck to make them 
 intimate. Ferrars probably did not trouble his 
 head about the young baronet, except as being 
 the brother of the most delightful girl he 
 thought he had ever met. Saul Barham was 
 an unknown quantity to both men ; to 
 Ballinger he was "a young Yankee, not 
 bad-looking, but a willowy sort of chap, got 
 up in a reach-me-down, and wants his hair cut 
 awfully." Ferrars regarded his young country-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 47 
 
 man superciliously, as he did most things at 
 first. And the young Harvard Professor 
 showed no keen desire to conciliate either of 
 the men, whom he now spoke to for the first 
 time. Mrs. Van Winkle displayed an evident 
 intention of securing Sir Mordaunt Ballinger's 
 undivided attention, by inviting him to share 
 a portmanteau with her, the seats in the cabin 
 being few. But it was not to indulge in tetes- 
 d-tetes that Mrs Courtly had brought her friends 
 together; they could do that on deck. With 
 the pouring out of the Russian tea, and the 
 diffusion of some wonderful cakes, produced 
 from a tin, she contrived adroitly to break up 
 the duets, for Ferrars was talking art in a low 
 voice to Miss Ballinger, and she herself had 
 been drawing out the young Professor. She 
 felt that the conversation ought now to become 
 general. 
 
 "You must come and see me when you are 
 back in Cambridge," she had been saying to 
 Barham, as she made tea. " I am quite an 
 easy distance by rail from there, and I want you 
 to look over my books. I am devoted to books 
 . . . not that I am a great scholar, far from it. 
 Do you read Italian ? Yes ! I am so glad.
 
 48 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 Then, with your knowledge of Latin, you will 
 help me to decipher some old provincial poems 
 which I picked up at Quarritchs' the other day, 
 an d of which I believe there are very few copies 
 extant. I have some Elzevirs, too, that may 
 interest you, and several first editions. Talking 
 of first editions, dear Miss Van Winkle, is it 
 true that the whole of the first edition of 
 your ' Phryne ' is sold out ? Have you read 
 it, Sir Mordaunt ? Of course jj/^?^ have, Quin- 
 tin ! " 
 
 The men were spared replying, by the fair 
 authoress, a decorative woman, with lively eyes, 
 and a very elaborate pink tea gown. 
 
 " The demand for my book has been very 
 great,'' she said, with a sweet smile, " but I 
 know nothing of the details. I have had appli- 
 cations from all the chief magazines begging 
 me to write for them, and I suppose I must do 
 so. Of course my name has something to do 
 with the success. People know that,' as a 
 leader of society, I write of what I under- 
 stand." 
 
 " Then I conclude your book is modern, and 
 has nothing to do with the famous Greek 
 . . . beauty ? " inquired Ferrars gravely.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 49 
 
 " Only by analogy," replied Mrs. Van Winkle, 
 sipping her tea slowly. " The whole world sits 
 in judgment now upon any woman whose 
 beauty or whose talent makes her conspicuous. 
 If she has a symmetrical form, she is always 
 accused of being too decolletde!'' 
 
 "You forget that the judges forgave 
 Phryne." 
 
 " Oh ! they were men. Of course it isn't 
 men's tongues a woman has to fear in society. 
 They will make love to her, and praise her 
 before and behind her back, if she amuses them 
 — and encourages them just a little. It is the 
 wives and the mothers, they are the Areopagus 
 which sits in judgment upon the woman who 
 attracts men." 
 
 "You must have suffered severely at their 
 hands," said Sir Mordaunt as he looked up into 
 her face, with an amused expression. 
 
 " I don't know about suffered. We are all 
 arraigned, we married women, who amuse 
 ourselves, and who have inspired perhaps a 
 grande passion ; is it not true, Mrs. Courtly ? 
 But they are a little afraid of me. When a 
 gifted woman has social position, and fortune, 
 she is comparatively safe. She may follow her 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50" A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 own course, and is only accused of the eccen- 
 tricities of genius — or, at worst, of being a little 
 mad. " I know," she added, complacently, as 
 she bit a cake with her small white teeth, " that 
 Is what they say of me." 
 
 Mrs. Courtly felt rather uncomfortable at the 
 turn the conversation had taken. She was 
 not quite sure how far Miss Ballinger might be 
 amused or be scared by Mrs. Van Winkle's 
 utterances. It was necessary to make a diver- 
 sion, before one of the men should throw back 
 the ball ; so she said quickly, — 
 
 " Isn't it Marcus Aurelius — or somebody — 
 who says, ' It is a good thing to be abused ' ? 
 And, as you say, your position is so well estab- 
 lished ! You will look after Miss Ballinger and 
 her brother in New York, I know, and see that 
 they get invitations to anything that is going 
 on. How long do you remain there, Miss 
 Ballinger ? " 
 
 " You must ask my brother. He has some 
 business in New York. The length of our stay 
 depends entirely on him." 
 
 " I shall do all that lies in my power to make 
 It agreeable to you," said Mrs. Van Winkle, 
 with cordiality. Her glance, which was at first
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 51 
 
 directed to Grace, revolved slowly, till it rested 
 on Sir Mordaunt. 
 
 " I am glad to hear you have business," said 
 Ferrars, addressing the latter directly, for the 
 first time. " With an object — a direct interest 
 — your visit to the United States may repay 
 you. I was telling Miss Ballinger that if she 
 expected either picturesque beauty or art, she 
 would be disappointed, but she declares, like 
 Pope, that " the proper study of mankind is 
 man," and she comes among us, wishing to see 
 something of our society. You will show her 
 the most costly samples of our social fabrics, 
 Mrs. Van Winkle, but how about brains ? You 
 who are such a decorative ornament of literature, 
 I hope you will get together some clever people 
 for Miss Ballinger." 
 
 " Oh ! brains are of no account in our New 
 York society. I might pick up a brain or two, 
 if I were to sweep around very diligently, per- 
 haps, but the world I live in is intensely frivo- 
 lous, and whenever I meet a clever man, I feel 
 like putting him under a glass case, he's too 
 good for daily use. Miss Ballinger will have to 
 get Mr. Barham to show her the brains of 
 society at Cambridge." 
 
 ^ ^ UBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILtJIva^
 
 52 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 Here she smiled sweetly at the young man ; 
 and he spoke for the first time, laughing lightly, 
 as he said, — 
 
 " I am afraid we are all in glass cases there, 
 classified and catalogued. But without putting 
 Mrs. Van Winkle to the labour of searching for 
 brains in New York, I am sure if Miss Ballin- 
 ger meets some of our brilliant lawyers and 
 noted speakers, she will find there is as good 
 talk to be listened to there as anywhere in 
 Europe. I hope she will not judge of American 
 society from any one set, or any single speci- 
 men." 
 
 "Quite right, Mr. Barham," said Mrs. 
 Courtly, witli a kindly nod. *' Though hardly 
 complimentary to tis, I think you are quite 
 right. No Frenchman would have said that ; 
 but you are too much in earnest, to think of our 
 feelings, Mrs. Van Winkle's, and mine." 
 
 Miss Ballinger came to his defence. " It is 
 really more complimentary to think you both 
 incapable of personally applying Mr. Barham's 
 remark than if he had fenced it round with 
 those leafless twigs of conventional politeness 
 which only draw attention to what they were 
 meant to conceal."
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 53 
 
 " The leaves, themselves, did that in 
 Paradise," murmured Mrs. Van Winkle, leaning 
 back with a dreamy air. 
 
 Ballinger was the only one who laughed. 
 Mrs. Courtly coughed, and did not seem quite 
 at ease. Ferrars said quickly, — 
 
 " Mr. Barham is quite right. Nothing is so 
 misleading as personal experience in forming 
 our estimate of a nation. My friend goes to 
 England, and lives in his hotel all the time (and 
 very bad hotels they often are, it must be 
 owned), I have the good chance to meet a few 
 people I know, and am received with kindness 
 and hospitality. What are our respective 
 opinions worth ? Never generalize from in- 
 dividuals. Out of us four Americans who are 
 round this table, only Mr. Barham, perhaps, is 
 the least a typical product of our country." 
 
 " Why so ? " asked Miss Ballinger. 
 
 " Because I see he has great belief in our 
 institutions, our future, our indomitable force. 
 As to me, I gave up any such belief when I was 
 twenty. You said yesterday you doubted if I 
 was a good American. If to believe that our 
 crooked paths are straight, our rough ways 
 smooth, and to proclaim on the housetops that
 
 54 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 we are the greatest nation on earth — if this is 
 to be a good American, then I am not one." 
 
 " I never heard that to love one's country 
 was to be blind to her faults," said Barham, 
 quickly. 
 
 " Mr. Ferrars belongs to no country," Mrs. 
 Van Winkle fanned herself as she spoke, with 
 half-closed eyes. " Nor do I. I am more 
 like a Russian, I believe — a Russian George 
 Sand — that is what I feel like. And you, dear 
 Mrs. Courtly ? Are you not more French ? 
 Madame Recamier, with any number of 
 Chateaubriands round you, it suits you to a 
 T." 
 
 " Are Chateaubriands so plentiful ? " laughed 
 Mrs. Courtly gently. " I wish I could find 
 them ! They would last so long, too. Madame 
 Recamier's friendships did not depend upon 
 her youth. I should like to end my days lying 
 on a sofa, and surrounded by my old friends." 
 
 " Nothing reconciles one so much to the 
 trouble of living as those strong links which 
 stand the test of time," said Ferrars, looking 
 with steady, level eyes at Mrs. Courtly. 
 
 " Ah ! Quintin, yours is one of those iron 
 natures whose links never melt — not very
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 55 
 
 malleable, but which will stand any amount of 
 strain, as I know." 
 
 " Never melts ? " exclaimed Mrs. Van Winkle, 
 opening her pretty blue eyes, in affected 
 wonder. " I prefer a man who melts." 
 
 '' And whose links are of gold ? " said Ferrars, 
 without looking at her. Then he went on, 
 while a flush mounted to her cheek, '* I am not 
 ©ne of the precious metals." 
 
 " There is a great deal of brass," replied the 
 lady, more tartly than she had yet spoken. 
 " Give me another cup of tea, dear, with lots 
 of sugar, I want something sweet after Mr. 
 Ferrars' acidity. So you are going to the Far 
 West, your brother tells me, Miss Ballinger ? 
 What a journey ! " 
 
 " And yet you think nothing of running back- 
 wards and forwards to Europe ? " laughed 
 Grace. 
 
 '' Oh ! traversing our own continent is 
 different ; not half such a change, and very 
 trying to the complexion. Even in the East, 
 one gets awfully dried up. Then, there is 
 nothing to see when one gets there." 
 
 " It is not only prophets who have no honour 
 in their own country ! " cried Sir Mordaunt.
 
 56 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " Fancy, my sister has never seen the Tower of 
 London ! and it is the more shameful as I was 
 there for a year." 
 
 " Not imprisoned ? " inquired Mrs. Van 
 Winkle, with mock gravity. 
 
 " The next thing to it — I was quartered 
 there." 
 
 *' Then you are a guardsman ? I always 
 wondered whether all guardsmen were like Guy 
 Livingston. Now I know." 
 
 " Well, you see in me a deceased guardsman. 
 I left the service a few months ago." 
 
 " Do tell me what brings you out to America ? 
 An heiress ? Of course, you have been very 
 wicked. Are you going to ' i^anger'' yourself ? " 
 
 " Neither reformation nor matrimony is in my 
 mind, I am afraid," laughed Ballinger. " Only 
 self-interest and curiosity. I have one or two 
 friends — one, a brother-officer settled on a 
 ranche in Colorado. I am going to look about 
 and see if I can find a good investment for a 
 little money." 
 
 " I think it will be so refreshing to see 
 ranche-life, after the conventionalities of civiliza- 
 tion," said Grace. 
 
 " You will find a week of it will go a long
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 57 
 
 way," and Mrs. Courtly shook her head. To 
 her, existence, without its Intellectual refine- 
 ments and pictorial luxuries — all the delicate and 
 varied entrdes she provided for herself In the 
 pleasant feast which she called " life " — without 
 these, existence would hardly be worth having. 
 
 '' I would rather live on a ranche than work 
 in Wall Street all my days,' said Barham. 
 
 " Wall Street has solid compensations," 
 observed Ferrars. 
 
 " I think money can be too dearly bought," 
 returned the younger man quickly. " At the 
 sacrifice of all Independence, I would not be 
 rich, if I could." 
 
 " How sweet of you, Mr. Barham ! In these 
 mercenary days to hear such a sentiment from 
 a man, It is quite too lovely for anything ! " 
 
 Mrs. Van Winkle spoke the words with a 
 languid drawl, but there was a humorous 
 twinkle in her eye. In point of fact, It was 
 often diihcult to tell how far she meant her 
 utterances to be taken seriously. Grace, in 
 the spirit of anti-humbug struck In gaily, — 
 
 " I am a Philistine. I like riches. I should 
 like to know once how it feels to be ve^y rich. 
 I think I could work in Wall Street — whatever
 
 58 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 that may mean — all my life if I could earn lots 
 of money ; but I never shall." 
 
 Barham looked at her with a steady gaze. 
 Was she in earnest ? 
 
 " I heard the worship of wealth was as great 
 in London as in New York — but I did not 
 believe it." 
 
 " Well/' said Mordaunt, " all I can say is, I 
 know several instances in the Life Guards where 
 a fellow's having a pot of money prejudiced 
 other fellows against him. They sent him to 
 Coventry, because his father dropped his h's, 
 and they made up their mind the son couldn't 
 be a gentleman. I know one very nice chap 
 who couldn't stand it — had to leave. So you 
 see the worship of money isn't universal." 
 
 "We don't drop our h's," Ferrars said. 
 " But there are few colloquial sins we may not 
 commit with impunity, if we have half a million 
 of dollars a year, and entertain." 
 
 " Ah ! You have it there ! " interposed Mrs. 
 Van Winkle. " Our rich people are bound to 
 entertain. Otherwise they are of no account. 
 It is very logical. We, of the blue blood, want 
 amusements, but are too poor to give magni- 
 ficent fetes. We honour them with our
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 59 
 
 presence, and the obligation is more than 
 repaid." 
 
 "And I honour the sentiment. It is worthy 
 of blue blood, and It carries conviction with 
 it." 
 
 " Mr. Ferrars is detestably satirical, but no 
 one minds what he says," and the lady rose. 
 " It is nearly dinner time. We must leave you, 
 my dear." And so the party broke up. 
 
 Next day Mrs. Courtly found an opportunity 
 of saying to Miss Balllnger, In her soft, depre- 
 catory way, — 
 
 ** I am afraid you may form a false impression 
 of Mrs. Van Winkle. She Is really a very kind 
 woman, as well as a clever one, and she is a 
 very good wife, too, only you see her fail- 
 ings. She likes to astonish people. That 
 makes her say things occasionally which — 
 which she had better not." 
 
 Grace smiled. " I suppose she has been 
 spoilt, she gives one that idea. Did she marry 
 for money ? " 
 
 " Why, no ! What made you think that ? " 
 
 " She looked so annoyed when Mr. Ferrars 
 talked of ' links of gold." I am sure he meant 
 something disagreeable by it. He looked it."
 
 6o A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " Mr. Van Winkle is by no means rich, but 
 she married him because she was in love : and 
 they are really very happy. He is of a very 
 good old Knickerbocker family. She Is very 
 proud of that, as you see. She has always a 
 train of admirers ; it means nothing : and Mr. 
 Van Winkle does not object. That Is to say, 
 he doesn\ £-eneral/y. It is said he did so once, 
 in the case of a man who was very rich, when 
 some one ill-naturedly started the Idea that this 
 person helped the establishment along. It got 
 to Mr. Van Winkle's ears, and he gave the 
 man his ^^;2^/ there and then. It Is the only 
 time he ever asserted his authority, and I am 
 not sure that his wife did not like him all the 
 better for it. If Quintin Ferrars meant any- 
 thing by his 'golden links,' it was that ; but I 
 really think It was a chance shot, and Mrs. 
 Van Winkle—" 
 
 "What about her?" said Sir Mordaunt. 
 He had come up, unperceived by Mrs. Courtly ; 
 and she stopped short on seeing him. " I 
 think that woman Is the greatest sport I've 
 met, for a week of Sundays ! How she does 
 blow her own trumpet ! I never can be dull in 
 New York as long as she is there. What
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 6i 
 
 sort of fellow is the male Winkle, Mrs. 
 Courtly ? " 
 
 " A very nice man, but he doesn't amount to 
 much. He is a Van. You mustn't call him 
 Winkle — tout court.'' 
 
 " A descendant of the famous Rip, I sup- 
 pose. We have all had rips for ancestors, at 
 some time or other, no doubt ! " and the young 
 man laughed. 
 
 " For shame ! to decry your pedigree in that 
 way ! We are very proud of our descent, 
 when we have any ; and if we know who our 
 great-grandfather was, we always speak of him 
 as having fought in the War of Independence." 
 
 The brother and sister laughed ; and the 
 subject of the Van Winkles was not continued 
 further.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The rest of the voyage was performed swiftly, 
 and uneventfully. Mordaunt Ballinger walked 
 the quarter-deck for hours with certain Ameri- 
 can men, whom he encouraged to talk of their 
 various interests and enterprises, and believed 
 he was gaining a vast store of useful informa- 
 tion thereby. The acquaintances brought 
 together in Mrs. Courtly's cabin saw more or 
 less of each other, according to their proclivi- 
 ties : and in some cases intimacies were formed 
 which could hardly die the natural death which 
 is the common lot of close companionship on 
 board ship. This was especially so in the 
 friendship which Miss Ballinger had established 
 with the Barhams, and though they lay more out 
 of her path, so to speak, than the others, she re- 
 solved not to let the threads of her intercourse 
 with mother and son drop, on landing. She 
 felt really interested in the young man : she
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 6^ 
 
 should be sorry to think this was to be the end 
 of their long talks and discussions, pacing the 
 deck, or watching the moonlight upon the sea, 
 on warm nights, as they leant over the bul- 
 warks. 
 
 Ouintin Ferrars also she had grown to know, 
 and to like better. That is to say, she liked 
 some parts of him better, and disliked other 
 parts less : recognized his ability, and made 
 more allowances for his cynicism ; as all women 
 do for the cynicism of a man who is never 
 cynical at their expense. Conversation with 
 him stimulated thought : and, though it ge- 
 nerally roused opposition, left something 
 behind it, to be pondered over and redis- 
 cussed with that other self, which only makes 
 itself heard very often when both speakers are 
 silent. 
 
 Mrs. Courtly, Grace admired and liked more 
 and more. She had expected to find the 
 gracious Httle lady too much of "a man's 
 woman " to take much thought for her, an 
 English girl. They could have but a small 
 community of interest, she thought ; and 
 " men's women " were, as a rule, distasteful to 
 her. But, whatever her faults might be, Mrs.
 
 64 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 Courtly, she felt sure, was a really kind woman ; 
 and, moreover, so appreciative, so amusing, and 
 so many-sided, that Grace found it impossible 
 to resist her charm. What a blessed gift 
 (taking too low a stand among the virtues, 
 indeed, not regarded as a virtue at all, by some) 
 Is tact ! Mrs. Courtly possessed it in a con- 
 spicuous degree. She never said anything to 
 wound the susceptibilities of her audience : 
 whereas Mrs. Van Winkle, clever as she was, 
 never seemed to have any perception of when 
 she might, with impunity, astonish her audience, 
 and when it would be wiser to sacrifice that 
 keen but momentary enjoyment. Vanity, and 
 a desire to maintain her reputation for audacious 
 wit, rendered her case-hardened against shocked 
 looks. She said to Grace, — 
 
 "You know, the very last person with whom 
 one should be seen in New York society is 
 one's husband. Now, I started very badly. 
 I began married life by being really in love 
 with mine, and, socially, it nearly ruined me. 
 It has taken me fifteen years to live it down, 
 and I am only just recovering from the fatal 
 mistake I made." 
 
 The girl knew exactly what value to attach
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 65 
 
 to such utterances as these. She never 
 gratified the speaker by looking surprised. 
 
 Grace stood on the deck with Saul Barham 
 as the Teutonic slowly, almost imperceptibly, 
 neared the landing-wharf. A thick fog had 
 shrouded the great statue of America, the 
 shores of New Jersey, Staten Island, and all 
 the features of the beautiful sea-avenue to New 
 York. 
 
 " I am angry," said Barham, " that you 
 should not have a better impression of the city 
 on landing. It is too bad to have a fog here 
 to greet you that is worthy of London." 
 
 " A delicate attention on the part of America 
 to make us Britishers feel ' at home. ' " 
 
 " I hope you will appreciate all such at- 
 tentions," he returned, smiling, "and not be 
 too much influenced by first impressions. 
 Ladies, I believe, generally are." 
 
 "And men?" 
 
 " Well, a man — at all events, an American — 
 is slower in forming any in his intercourse 
 with foreigners. You see, English manners are 
 different in some ways from ours ; it wouldn't 
 do for us to trust first impressions very often." 
 
 " Has your remark any personal application ? " 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 asked Grace, laughing. " Did my manners 
 repel you at first ? " 
 
 " No," he replied, quietly ; " I had never 
 met a young lady like you, and, yet, I can't 
 exactly say why ; for your manners have more 
 of the frankness of our nicest American girls 
 than those of the most Englishwomen I have 
 met ; and English;;^^;^ — well, as I say — they 
 require to be known." 
 
 Miss Ballinger was silent. She felt sure 
 that her brother's free-and-easy, rather de haut 
 en bas manner was in the sensitive young 
 American's mind. She knew also what a good 
 fellow Mordaunt really was at heart, and how 
 either man, if he could discard his husk, would 
 appreciate the other. But the husk of manner 
 is as necessary a protection to the Englishman, 
 who is habitually on the defensive, as the un- 
 fashionable clothes worn by the American 
 were to his body. She hoped these two would 
 draw nearer to each other by-and-by, but at 
 present there was nothing to be done. Pre- 
 sently he said, — 
 
 " That Lady Clydesdale, is she really a 
 great lady ? Her opinions and her manners 
 seem to us rather odd."
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 67 
 
 " I wish I could say she is not well-born, but 
 she is, I shouldn't mind her opinions if she 
 had only better manners. Such an incendiary 
 should at least offer her fire-brands with some, 
 persuasive charm, not fling them in your face ; 
 pray don't regard her as a typical English- 
 woman. I am ashamed of my countrywoman." 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 "And, yet, I fancy she will have great suc- 
 cess with some " of our advanced women. 
 When are you coming to Boston, Miss Ballin- 
 ger ? " 
 
 " I have no idea, but I shall let you know as 
 soon as we arrive. I have promised Mrs. 
 Barham to go out and spend a day at your 
 father's house. It will interest me to see some- 
 thing of your New England village life." 
 
 " Well," he began, hesitatingly, " I will not 
 discourage you. Mother will love dearly to 
 receive you, but you must not expect anything 
 like an English village, or — or the comforts of 
 an English rectory. Things are much simpler 
 with us, and quite different." 
 
 "I am prepared for that. If they were not 
 different they would not interest me, though, 
 indeed, all that concerns your mother would 
 
 F 2
 
 68 A. Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 interest me. I took to her at once — I told 
 you so — and, in that case, my first impressions 
 have strengthened more and more." 
 
 He repHed gravely, — 
 
 " Our having met you, Miss Ballinger, your 
 having spoken to my mother has made a great 
 difference in our voyage. I shall never forget 
 it. When we meet again it will probably not 
 be on the same terms. How can it be, in a 
 great city ? I shall call, and you will be kind 
 enough to say you are glad to see me — but the 
 informal intimacy of our long talks on deck ; 
 can it be renewed on shore ? I think not. 
 Still, I shall always look back to those hours 
 as quite some of the most delightful in my life." 
 
 " I hope they will be renewed. I assure 
 you I shall always remember them with the 
 greatest pleasure." 
 
 " Ah ! you have many such pleasant memo- 
 ries, no doubt. I have very few." 
 
 The crowd, the shouts of porters, emissaries 
 from hotels, and friends of passengers, who 
 now rushed on board, put an end to further 
 conversation. Grace had only time to bid him 
 and his mother good-bye (she had already 
 taken leave of her other friends), when she was 
 
 i
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 69 
 
 hurried off by her brother to the carnage 
 which was waiting to take them to the hotel. 
 
 And here I will seize the opportunity, while 
 our travellers are landing, of saying a few words 
 as to the Ballinger family, which will make the 
 position of this brother and sister more easily 
 understood. 
 
 Sir Henry Ballinger, who died only two 
 years ago, was, as everyone knows, a remark- 
 able man ; prominent in politics, he had been 
 twice a cabinet minister, distinguished as an 
 author upon currency and international law, 
 absorbed in the frigid, more than in the burning 
 questions of the day ; but, still, so much ab- 
 sorbed as to have little leisure to bestow upon 
 his children. Their mother died when Mor- 
 daunt was sixteen and Grace was twelve ; and 
 what they would have done without Mrs. 
 Frampton, their father's sister, who almost 
 took Lady Ballinger's place in the household 
 from that time forward, it is hard to say. 
 Mordaunt was at Eton ; he was an impression- 
 able lad, who stood too much in awe of his 
 father ever to make a friend of him, and to 
 whom the loss of a mother's sympathy meant 
 more than it would to many boys. He was
 
 yo A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 much less clever than his sister, but possessed 
 far more " worldly wisdom," as it is called, 
 which, from a high standpoint, is probably 
 nearer akin to foolishness. Nevertheless, he 
 had a capacity for strong attachment ; and, 
 as a boy, his mother had been everything to 
 him. He was very fond of his sister, and 
 as years advanced, she became more and 
 more prominent in his life, but at this time she 
 was too young to be his companion, still less 
 his confidante. Happily Mordaunt and his aunt 
 had always been great friends. He used to 
 say he could talk more easily with her than 
 with anyone ; her plane of wisdom was not too 
 far above him. Soon after Lady Ballinger's 
 death, Mrs. Frampton arrived on a long visit ; 
 and from that time filled the vacant place at the 
 head of the table during several months each 
 year. She had her own house in London, and, 
 when resident there, the two establishments 
 were separate ; but when Sir Henry moved to 
 the country, or if he took Grace abroad, Mrs. 
 Frampton always accompanied them. Between 
 the aunt and niece there was also a strong 
 affection ; but Grace's nature being less plas- 
 tic than her brother's, Mrs. Frampton's influence
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 71 
 
 was less than it was upon Mordaunt. As 
 the girl grew up, the difference of opinion on 
 many points between her aunt and herself 
 grew more marked. It did not prevent their 
 being the best of friends ; but their way of 
 looking at many questions was diametrically 
 opposed. Intellectually, Mrs. Frampton and 
 her niece had much in common ; but Mordaunt 
 had that respect for his aunt's judgment which 
 led him to consult her upon points where 
 Grace would have decided for herself, and 
 decided differently. 
 
 Grace's education had been a broken one ; 
 now sent to a foreign school for a year, 
 when her father went to Australia, now left in 
 her aunt's charge, to the tuition of governesses 
 and masters. It is doubtful whether she had 
 profited much by either. What she was she 
 had made herself, more than had been made by 
 instruction. She was not accomplished ; but 
 her bright, quick intelligence, and keen delight 
 in books, stood her in good stead, in her inter- 
 course with all the clever men who flocked to 
 her father's house. She had been in the world 
 five years when he died, and was now nearly 
 six-and-twenty. Early youth had had for her
 
 72 A Voyage of Discovery, 
 
 its usual illusions, its usual disappointments, 
 but they had not embittered, they had only 
 strengthened the sweet, fresh nature, which 
 retained a healthy capacity for enjoyment. 
 
 Within the past year she had suffered the 
 keenest trouble she had yet known, and, conse- 
 quent upon this, and upon their divergent views, 
 had occurred the nearest approach to estrange- 
 ment between aunt and niece which they had 
 ever known. It is not necessary in this place 
 to enter into the nature of the cloud which had 
 arisen, and had darkened the sky in that small 
 household. Of course Mordaunt Ballinger 
 sided with his aunt: he always did, in any 
 family discussion ; and Grace consequently pent 
 up her hopes, and her disappointments, in 
 silence, and with a brave face, that told nothing. 
 She did not go quite so much into the world 
 during the following months, neither would she 
 altogether shun society ; and when the sug- 
 gestion came from Mordaunt that she and 
 Mrs. Frampton should accompany him to 
 America, she hailed the idea. Change of 
 scene, change of people, change of thought, she 
 felt that all this was the best thing for her 
 just now.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. y^) 
 
 Mrs. Frampton was an odd combination of 
 the child of nature and the woman of the world. 
 Clever, impulsive, strong in her affections, 
 unjust and implacable in her hatreds, often 
 humorous, sometimes sarcastic, even at her 
 own expense, she possessed an extraordinarily- 
 sound clear judgment in all business matters, 
 and such as concerned temporal welfare and 
 advancement. There was no sacrifice she would 
 not have made for her nephew and niece ; but 
 her devotion to Grace was perhaps even greater 
 than to Mordaunt, though between him and 
 herself there had never been a difference, and 
 between her and Grace so many. This last 
 subject of division, and the withdrawal of Grace's 
 confidence, the feeling that there was one for- 
 bidden subject between them, had tried the 
 elder woman sorely. She had been very bitter 
 about it, until Grace's demeanour had shown 
 her that there could no longer be any discussion ; 
 if she attempted to renew it, her niece left the 
 room. In her inward heart, she admired the 
 noble-minded, resolute girl all the more for her 
 attitude ; though she never admitted that she 
 did so. She spoke of it to Mordaunt as " re- 
 prehensible folly," which was justly punished,
 
 74 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " but, thank goodness ! there is an end, once 
 and for ever, to all that.'" She was delighttully 
 inconsistent ; it made her the amusing and 
 provoking person she was ; in all that did not 
 pertain to hard-headed calculation, and worldly 
 perspicacity. 
 
 Mordaunt Ballinger found himself, at his 
 father's death, with all the expensive habits 
 that are bred in the life he was leading, and 
 but very moderate means. Sir Henry's pension 
 of course died with him ; so did a considerable 
 income which he had enjoyed as chairman of 
 certain railway and other companies. His son 
 resolved to let his country-house, which was too 
 expensive for him to keep up ; and he left the 
 Guards. The constituency which his father 
 had represented, offered to nominate him in the 
 late baronet's place, and after a little hesitation 
 he accepted the proposal, and was elected. 
 These steps he had. not taken without con- 
 sulting Mrs. Frampton, whose influence had 
 also been wisely exercised in restraining him 
 from embarking in sundry speculations. His 
 thoughts had now been turned for some time 
 past to America, as an Eldorado where he 
 might improve his fortunes, as certain friends of
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 75 
 
 his had done. Not that he meant to give up 
 Parliament, leave England, and all it pleasures, 
 and live upon a ranche. That would not have 
 suited Mordaunt at all. But there was "real 
 estate" in some of the rising cities, silver mines, 
 shares in canned-meat companies, railways, 
 tramways, waterworks, surely in some of these 
 he might find a good investment that would 
 bring him in eight or ten per cent ? Mrs. 
 Frampton's present terror was that her nephew 
 would be induced by some designing person to 
 risk considerable sums in that land of reckless 
 speculation. When he proposed, therefore, that 
 she and Grace should accompany him on a 
 visit to the United States, she jumped at the 
 suggestion. To see the Americans chez eux 
 was the thing of all others she had always 
 wished. It was odd that she had never been 
 heard to express the wish before, but no one 
 was surprised at anything Mrs. Frampton said. 
 She suddenly remembered that she had some 
 dear friends, the Hurlstones, in New York. It 
 was eight years since she had seen or heard of 
 them, but she would write to them at once ; she 
 felt sure they would do all in their power to 
 make New York pleasant to herself and her
 
 76 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 belongings. But, as to that, her brother's — Sir 
 Henry's — name was sure to secure them a warm 
 welcome in a country where he had been so 
 well known, and Mordaunt's being in Parliament 
 would be an additional reason. It would be 
 charming, too, for Grace ; it would change 
 the current of her thoughts. She only said this 
 to Mordaunt, but the alacrity with which his 
 sister acceded to the proposition told him and 
 his aunt that she felt this to be true. 
 
 Unfortunately, within a week of their sailing, 
 just before Christmas, Mrs. Frampton was sum- 
 moned, by telegram, to Geneva, by a sister of 
 her late husband's. The message stated that 
 Miss Frampton was dying, and desired her 
 sister-in-law's presence. Mrs. Frampton felt 
 she had no choice but to obey. It was unfor- 
 tunate! Had it only come a few days later! As 
 it was, there was nothing for it but to start 
 by the next train, and let Mordaunt and Grace 
 sail for New York without her. She pro- 
 mised to follow them, if Mordaunt resolved to 
 remain all the winter in the States. And, on 
 the other hand, she extracted a promise from 
 him, to embark in no scheme without con-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. ^"j 
 
 suiting her. With this understanding they 
 parted, hurriedly and sorrowfully, and a fort- 
 night from the day when they had seen her 
 into the train at Charing Cross, they landed at 
 New York.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Tpie day after her arrival, this is the letter Miss 
 Ballinger wrote to Mrs. Frampton : — 
 
 9th January, 1891. 
 Dearest Aunt Susan, — We were delighted 
 to have your telegram just before starting, 
 saying that Miss Frampton had rallied. I 
 hope that her recovery will be so rapid as to 
 enable you to leave her before many weeks are 
 over. We miss you terribly, and shall do so, 
 now that we have landed, more than ever. The 
 voyage was really delightful, I never could have 
 believed it would have gone so quickly, and I 
 had such an appetite, dear aunt, you would 
 have been ashamed of me, instead of scolding 
 as you have done lately, because I ate so 
 little. Mordy was very happy. He made 
 friends with one man who was in pork and
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 79 
 
 another in oil. I wonder which is nicest, to be 
 
 in pork or in oil ? I always knew which he 
 
 had been pounding the deck with, by his 
 
 coming up to me afterwards and saying, " Do 
 
 you know, I'm thinking seriously of going into 
 
 pork," or " oil," as the case might be. Then he 
 
 fell in love with a dear woman nearly old enough 
 
 to be his mother, a Mrs. Courtly, whom most of 
 
 the other women hated and abused, particularly 
 
 odious Lady Clydesdale, who was on board. 
 
 The things she said to me about her! — I replied 
 
 that Mrs. Courtly's only crime, as far as I could 
 
 see, was that she succeeded In attracting people, 
 
 " And it is a pity more women don't try," I 
 
 added. "They might at least try. For my 
 
 part, my only serious aim in life is to make as 
 
 many people like me as ever I can." You should 
 
 have seen her face of ineffable scorn as she 
 
 turned away. You always say I am so toast- 
 
 and-watery, aunt, that I can't hate. I have 
 
 at last accomplished it ; congratulate me ; I 
 
 really do hate Lady Clydesdale. Among those 
 
 on board whom I liked was an odd, clever man 
 
 named Ferrars. He would puzzle, and, I 
 
 believe, Interest you. His past is mysterious, 
 
 he never speaks of It, nor, indeed, of his present.
 
 8o A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 for that matter. I discovered, by that ex- 
 haustive process of pumping which Mordy 
 declares qualifies me to become a female inter- 
 viewer (Oh I have something to tell you about 
 that^ presently) that he is a Southerner, who 
 lives chiefly in Europe, and that he writes ; but 
 what^ and wke7^e, he curtly refused to say. He 
 is quite indifferent to fame or money, and we 
 generally disagreed about everything : and yet 
 I got to like him. In contrast to Mr. Ferrars, 
 who, I am sure, is not just to his country's 
 future, whatever he may be to her present, 
 there was a young Professor from Harvard, an 
 ardent patriot, who could not bear a word to 
 be said against America. I do not feel sure 
 that you would like this Mr. Barham as much 
 as Mr. Ferrars, though he is to me much more 
 interesting. But he is shy, and proud, and 
 not very forthcoming, and you like turbulent 
 youth. You might call him " a prig," which 
 would distress me ; but when you saw his 
 mother, who is a Philadelphian, and I am certain 
 must be a direct descendant of William Penn — 
 so sweet, and drab-coloured, and gentle, with 
 the youngest and yet saddest face you ever 
 looked upon, to be the mother of this handsome
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 8i 
 
 young man — I say, when you looked upon her, 
 you would better understand why he is as he 
 is ; you would see that repression was born in 
 him. Then there was a very rich young man 
 from New York, who, like the young man in 
 Scripture, ought to be told to go and sell all 
 that he has, he would be so much happier. 
 But being very stupid, he doesn't know that he 
 is not happy. He fancies the fatigue of doing 
 nothing vigorously is enjoyment. Last of all, 
 in our set — for you must know a steamer has its 
 " sets" as well as a city — was the authoress of 
 " Phryne," a rather 7^is^y novel which has had 
 some success. You know how fatal it is to 
 any but a strong head to write a moderately 
 successful book. Mrs. Van Winkle is pretty, 
 and good-natured, but I suppose she was born 
 foolish; the book has done the rest. We got 
 through the Custom House very well, though 
 the officer seemed to think it impossible that 
 any " gent " could require so many " pants " as 
 Mordy brought with him. Virginie had 
 frightened me so by saying I should have to 
 pay duty on all my new gowns, that I was 
 relieved when the inquisition was over. The 
 first impression of New York in a fog was not 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 favourable. Then the paving of the streets ! 
 Words cannot describe to you the condition of 
 all the thoroughfares. Our London streets, 
 Heaven knows ! are bad enough in wet 
 weather ; and even in dry are not above 
 reproach compared with Paris — but these ! the 
 smallest town in Bulgaria would be ashamed of 
 such atrocities. In some there are holes so 
 deep that it is necessary to put a tub or a few 
 stones round the gaping chasm to prevent 
 people falling in. In some the electric wires 
 were lying playfully about under the horses' 
 feet, a storm, I am told, having brought them 
 all down more than a week ago! In Broadway 
 the tramways intersect each other like the 
 criss-crossings on some withered old palm ; but 
 the line of life cannot be long, I imagine, for 
 anyone who resides there. We found comfort- 
 able rooms awaiting us at the hotel, but heated 
 by a furnace such as only Shadrach and Co. 
 could face. I flung open all the windows to the 
 manager's amazement. On the table was a 
 splendid bouquet of crimson roses with a note 
 and a card. Whose do you think ? The 
 Hurlstones. A very pretty attention, which I 
 am afraid we should not have thought of. To
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 83 
 
 be greeted thus on arrival by strangers, for to 
 us they are absolute strangers, is very 
 pleasant. The note was to ask us to dine with 
 them to-night. Presently, another card was 
 brought me on which was written "Miss M. T. 
 Clutch," with a request that I would receive the 
 lady. I innocently thought this must be 
 another kindly disposed person, to whom 
 friends had written, unknown to us, on our 
 behalf. Judge of my consternation when a 
 small, smirking woman entered, who introduced 
 herself thus, — 
 
 " I represent The New York Scavenger^ one 
 of our prominent Daily's, Miss Ballinger. Your 
 name is well known, I may say it is a household 
 word among us. I trust you feel like answering 
 a few questions which will be of interest to our 
 readers ? " 
 
 "You must be mistaking me for someone 
 else," I replied. " I am not eminent in any 
 way, and your readers cannot possibly — " she 
 interrupted me. 
 
 " Oh ! but you are Sir Henry Ballinger's 
 daughter, and, as such, are quite an interest- 
 ing personality in America. We thought a 
 heap of him. We claim that his book had 
 
 G 2
 
 84 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 a bigger circulation in the States than in 
 England." 
 
 " It is a pity, then, that the States paid him 
 nothing for it," I said. " But do you really 
 mean that you consider the relations of a well- 
 known man to be public property ? I have not 
 even written a book that can be pirated. I 
 don't lecture, or preach, or act. I am a per- 
 fectly obscure individual, whom your readers 
 cannot possibly know anything about." 
 
 " Oh ! but they do^' she insisted. "They've 
 seen your photograph among the society 
 beauties, they've read your name in the society 
 papers, they know you belong to the tip-top 
 swells. And then there was the report which 
 went all the round of the States that a German 
 prince had nearly blown out his brains for love 
 of you." 
 
 This was more than I could stand. I rose 
 quickly : " You must pardon me if 1 decline to 
 continue this conversation. I am not account- 
 able for all the rubbish you may have heard, 
 but at least I will not be a party to dissemi- 
 nating more. Good morning." 
 
 " You might just tell me why you are come 
 here, and — and a few other things ?"
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 85 
 
 " Nothing at all. I wish to remain un- 
 noticed." 
 
 " Well ! That is real disobliging. But if 
 you conclude to say nothing, I guess it's no 
 good my staying." 
 
 " No," I repeated after her, " I guess it's no 
 good." 
 
 And so she left the room. Mordy says I 
 ought to have submitted to the infliction, and 
 that I showed my usual want of worldly wisdom, 
 in snubbing a reporter. But why ? It is all 
 very well for him to see these people, he has 
 had a tribe of them after him, and it may be 
 proper and even useful that he should see them 
 all. But, in my case, it would be worse than 
 ridiculous, and I think it a gross piece of im- 
 pertinence on Miss Clutch's part, trying to 
 force publicity upon me. 
 
 loth January. — I did not close my letter yes- 
 terday, finding it would catch to-day's mail if I 
 posted it this morning : and I knew you would 
 like to hear about our dinner. The Hurlstones 
 live in Fifth Avenue. It is a fine house, and 
 everything about it is very grand — more grand, 
 perhaps, than comfortable, according to our 
 ideas. Americans have always been ruled by
 
 86 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 French taste, not only in dress, but in art, and 
 in certain social matters. The old French 
 idea of a salon prevails here : gorgeous fur- 
 niture ; but no books, no writing-table, no 
 evidences of occupation, except a grand piano, 
 shrouded in some rare gold-woven tapestry. 
 A few pictures by Corot, Daubigny, and 
 Troyon adorn the walls. A bust of Mrs. 
 Hurlstone by D'Epinay, with a bunch of roses 
 in her hair, a necklace and a Xd^o.^ fichu over her 
 shoulders stands in the window. The two 
 ladies were dressed, like their home, In the per- 
 fection of French taste. You know the father 
 and mother, who is still handsome, so I need 
 not describe them ; but the daughter has 
 grown up since they were in England, and is 
 considered a beauty. She has delicate 
 features, fine eyes, and pretty, though not 
 brilliant colouring. She is intelligent, vivacious, 
 and meets one more than half way in her 
 desire to be agreeable, as few English girls of 
 eighteen would be able to do. She has, more- 
 over, no twang ; no ugly intonations of voice. 
 Why don't I admire her more ? I kept asking 
 myself this, as I watched her. Though set off 
 by dress to the best advantage, for some reason
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 87 
 
 she does not produce the effect she should. 
 There is one son, a year older, equally good- 
 looking, perhaps even handsomer ; but of that 
 order of beauty that leaves no impression. I 
 have already forgotten v^hat he was like, except 
 that he wore a very large diamond in his shirt- 
 front. The father took me in to dinner. I like 
 him exceedingly, perhaps the best of the family ; 
 but all were most amiable. We were sixteen 
 at dinner. Nearly every other guest was 
 actually, or prospectively, a millionaire. The 
 women were all very well dressed, and wore a 
 great many jewels, more than perhaps we 
 should think quite good taste for this sort of 
 party. They were one and all extremely civil ; 
 offering to take me out driving, and so on. 
 One of them, a Mrs. Siebel, married to a 
 wealthy banker of German origin, was par- 
 ticularly bright and amusing. I felt as if I 
 knew her better in half an hour than I have 
 ever done an Englishwoman in the same time. 
 Another, Mrs. Thorley, who is the sovereign 
 of all social entertainments here, was most 
 gracious. She is going to give a great ball to 
 which she invited us. Some of the men struck 
 me as clever, especially in conversation with
 
 88 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 their own countrywomen, their quickness and 
 incisiveness were remarkable. With me they 
 seemed a Httle stiff, a little on their p's and q's. 
 One of the exceptions was a man whom they 
 called ' George Ray, the Third.' When I in- 
 quired the reason of this curious appellation, I 
 was told it was because his father and grand- 
 father, both alive, were also Georges. He is a 
 splendid animal ; and he knows it. He cer- 
 tainly cannot be accused of being stiff. He 
 planted his chair opposite me, leant his elbows 
 on his knees, and told me of all the great people 
 he knew in London, as though he thought that 
 was the only topic that would interest me. 
 This was not clever on George the Third's part. 
 And yet he was anything but dull ; and his 
 perfect self-satisfaction entertained me. Mrs. 
 Hurlstone seemed afraid he might prove peril- 
 ously entertaining. She was good enough to 
 inform me that he had not a penny, he had run 
 through everything. It was considerate of her. 
 A much more amusing man, however, sat next 
 me at dinner ; a barrister, named Sims, shrewd 
 and humorous. I asked him who a little red- 
 haired man with a waxed moustache, opposite, 
 was ; evidently a foreigner. He replied, ' He
 
 A \'oYAGE OF Discovery. 89 
 
 is Jean Jacques, Marquis de Trefeuille, a pair 
 de France of the first water, who is come over 
 here to hitch on to an heiress, if he can. It 
 was of him that some wag wrote, — 
 
 " Tu es Jean, tu es Jacques, tu es roux, tu es sot, 
 Mais tu n'es pas Jean Jacques Rousseaux ! " 
 
 I inquired if the girl next him was the future 
 Marquise. He shook his head : " I doubt it. 
 Even if she tumbles to the coronet, he will find 
 her father won't make the settlement the 
 Marquis expects. He will give her a big 
 allowance, but not a lump sum down, and 1 
 doubt if that will suit the Marquis." Before 
 the evening was over, Mr. Sims asked Mordy 
 and me to dine with him at Delmonico's, next 
 week. I have time for no more. 
 
 Your ever affectionate niece, 
 
 Grace Ballinger. 
 
 P.S. — Mordy says he will write to you by 
 the next mail. He is already up to his eyes 
 in engagements, and made a great deal of, a 
 great deal more of than he is in London, so 
 no wonder he likes it. 
 
 Second P.S. — Mordy has just run in, shouting 
 with laughter, this morning's Scavenger in his
 
 90 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 hand. " Here you are ! " he cried, "and serve 
 you right ! " Then he read the cutting (I am not 
 sunk so low as to mean a pun) which I enclose. 
 I hope it will amuse you, as much as it did him. 
 The paragraph was as follows : — 
 " Sir Mordaunt Ballinger, Baronet and M.P., 
 with his sister landed here from the Teutonic 
 yesterday. She is credited with being a London 
 belle, and, as such, and the daughter of one of 
 the few Englishmen who have not written gross 
 falsehoods concerning our country, we were 
 desirous of interviewing her ; but the young 
 woman, with a rudeness peculiarly British, re- 
 fused to submit to any interrogation. If she 
 is a specimen of London's beauty, we cannot 
 congratulate that city on its show. A Grenadier 
 in petticoats, quite wanting in the delicacy and 
 elegance we consider essential for beauty, best 
 describes her. She is decidedly too fieshy. 
 Her hair is not stylishly coifed, and there is a 
 slip-sloppiness about her attire which denotes 
 that she is not gowned in Paris. Altogether, 
 we have seldom experienced a greater dis- 
 appointment both as to appearance and manner, 
 in a woman of whom we had been taught to 
 expect so much."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Sir Mordaunt Ballinger was indeed, as his 
 sister had said, made a great deal of in New 
 York society. It took but a few days to ac- 
 complish this. From the square business-like 
 letters, to the blush-coloured note, documents 
 poured in on him all day long. There were in- 
 vitations from men to lunch at the " Lawyers' 
 Club down town," to meet railway directors, 
 promoters of mines, and others " who can give 
 you information concerning," etc., etc. There 
 were formal cards requesting his presence at 
 great club dinners and private banquets ; and 
 there were informal beckons to every species 
 of entertainment, from four o'clock teas 
 upwards. No stranger in London ever found 
 himself so swiftly and surely swept away on a 
 tide of hospitality. Mrs. Frampton had rightly 
 predicted that her brother's name would be an
 
 92 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " open sesame " to his son and daughter ; for 
 Grace was not left out of all this cordial 
 welcome. Ladies' luncheons, " to meet Miss 
 Ballinger," theatre parties, receptions, diver- 
 sions of all kinds were offered her. Still, it was 
 not to be expected that she should be made 
 quite so much fuss with as her brother. He 
 was in some sense a public man. His name 
 and position as his father's successor and an 
 M.P. carried a certain weight, and then he was 
 good-looking, with invariably charming man- 
 ners to women, and variably attractive ones to 
 men, with a genuine relish of a joke, which 
 made him popular after dinner among those 
 who told good stories, and where is the sharp 
 American who has not a store of them ? For 
 serious, practical purposes, however, these gifts 
 did not, as a certain May Clayton told him, 
 " amount to much.". 
 
 " You're a lovely man to flirt with, but unless 
 you find a girl with a pile, you're not eligible as 
 a husband, you see." 
 
 May Clayton was a young lady whom he 
 met at that dinner Mr. Sims gave at 
 Delmonico's. She was a "bud," as Mr. Sims 
 informed his English friends ; that is, she was
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 93 
 
 only just formally Introduced to society. But, 
 owing to her education, she had no shyness or 
 diffidence, and in knowledge of the world and 
 effrontery of speech might have been a woman 
 of forty. She could not remember the time 
 when she had not had flirtations, had not been 
 escorted back from daily school by youthful 
 beaux, had not been to parties every week, 
 and received bouquets and bonbons. It was 
 astonishing she should be as captivating as she 
 was, with all the bloom of youth rubbed off 
 her, and her speech interlarded with slang. 
 But she was pretty, quick-witted, and her 
 exuberant spirits were especially attractive to 
 English people, who have so little gas in them- 
 selves, they are glad to be lit, and their stock 
 replenished by others. She and a Mrs. Flynn 
 were the only ladies besides Grace. Both of 
 them could tell who their grandfathers were ; 
 both had connections who were among the 
 " 400," and yet neither was in what Mr. Sims 
 called "the swim." They went to the 
 Assembly and Patriarch balls, but the great 
 leaders of society knew them not ; they had 
 not learned as yet to ingratiate themselves 
 with the venerable leader of cotillons, Mrs.
 
 94 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 Flynn not being rich enough to give balls her- 
 self. They were cousins. Mr. Flynn had 
 something to do with steel plates, and had 
 failed twice. Perhaps this was why his pretty 
 little wife had also failed. He rarely went into 
 society, nor did Mrs. Clayton when she could 
 avoid it, being apparently shelved as com- 
 pletely as though she were defunct. Her 
 daughter already received visits, gave parties, 
 and went everywhere either with Mrs. Flynn or 
 alone to houses where there was a matron. 
 She told Sir Mordaunt she expected him to 
 call, " And mind, you're not to ask for mamma, 
 but for me." And to Grace she said, " You're 
 just as nice as ever you can be, and I hope 
 you'll come and see me, but not with your 
 brother." May was bright, and cheery, and 
 shrill as a canary. She chirped and trilled 
 away, drowning everyone else's voice, even 
 those of the young American men of the party, 
 though they were jovial, high-spirited fellows, 
 fully able to hold their own. She told one of 
 them who was boasting a little, to " come off 
 that roof ! " To Ballinger, who said something 
 about the breast and the leg of a chicken, she 
 said, " We always call it 'the brown meat, 
 and white meat."
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 95 
 
 " Would not that sound rather odd, if 
 appHed to the human form ? " he asked, with 
 apparent innocence. 
 
 " Well ! To be sure — I never thought of 
 that!" 
 
 Then she seemed about to illustrate this by 
 an example, but only laughed and turned the 
 subject. 
 
 Being challenged, she sang a stave of some 
 " Darkey " song, to the delight of her auditors, 
 then suddenly stopped, " No, it isn't nice. I 
 won't sing any more," nor could any supplica- 
 tions induce her to continue. The audacious, 
 wayward little creature had evidently clearly 
 defined limits of her own, beyond which her 
 high spirits never transgressed, no matter what 
 encouragement she met. And her admirers 
 understood this. They drew her out, and 
 roared at her sallies, but there was no suspicion 
 of license in the familiarity which was never- 
 theless unlike anything to which the English 
 guests had been accustomed. 
 
 " Have they all been brought up together?" 
 Miss Ballinger asked her host. 
 
 " Oh, no. She is a Kentucky girl, only 
 came here this winter. They probably danced
 
 96 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 the German together for the first time a few 
 weeks ago. I asked her and Mrs. Flynn, 
 because I thought it would amuse you more to 
 meet two individual types of Americans — of a 
 certain stamp — as they are before the edge is 
 taken off them, than the smart conventional 
 women, such as we met the other night, who 
 are much the same all the world over. You 
 don't object ? " 
 
 " On the contrary ; I much prefer it. I am 
 all for different nations having a different code 
 of manners. I don't see why we are all to be 
 built up on the same pattern." 
 
 Mr. Sims laughed. 
 
 " Don't run away with the impression that 
 this is the general code of manners. No; they 
 belong to a certain type, a type which you 
 English enjoy more than some of our own 
 countrymen do, especially the Anglomaniacs. 
 We shall soon have all the originality rubbed 
 out of us. There is Mrs. Flynn. She was 
 twice as amusing a year or two ago. Now she 
 is afraid to let herself go. She is eating her 
 heart out, poor little woman, because she 
 doesn't get on. I'm afraid she is going in for 
 the ' prunes and prism ' business.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 97 
 
 " I shouldn't have thought it," said Miss 
 Ballinger smiling, as she glanced at the grace- 
 ful little woman, who was carrying on a lively 
 flirtation with Mordaunt. 
 
 After dinner they went to the theatre, where 
 their host had taken a row of stalls, in order 
 that his guests might see a thoroughly repre- 
 sentative American play. Viewed as a literary 
 production, the piece was amazing. But the 
 capital picture of American country life, the 
 naturalness of the characters, the humour and 
 pathos of the acting In these scenes, redeemed 
 that portion which was supposed to depict the 
 graces and the vices of the moneyed aristocracy 
 of New York. It seemed curious to Grace 
 that the actors and actresses should not have 
 caught even the faintest outward resemblance 
 to ladies and gentlemen. On this point, how- 
 ever, her American acquaintances were more 
 indignant, more bitter in ridicule than herself. 
 
 Mordaunt Ballinger told his sister, as they 
 drove home, that New York was an awfully 
 nice place. He believed he was being put up 
 to a good thing or two, and he should be in 
 no hurry to go away. Grace assured him she 
 was quite content to remain there as long as he 
 vol. I, H
 
 98 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 liked. " Only don't fall in love with Miss 
 Clayton," she added, laughing. " I don't think 
 Aunt Susan could stand her for a niece." 
 
 He laughed in return. " She is very fetching. 
 Why is it that no English girl has that abandon f 
 But you needn't be afraid ; she is too cute to 
 marry a pauper. She warned me that I wasn't 
 eligible. Fancy an English girl doing that ! 
 As Sims said (Sims is a deuced clever fellow), 
 ' American women are like pins. Their heads 
 will always prevent them from being lost, plunge 
 they never so deep ! ' " 
 
 Quintin Ferrars called on the Ballingerstheday 
 after their arrival. He was remaining on in New 
 York ; for what purpose did not seem very clear, 
 as he had told Grace, during the voyage, that 
 business in Virginia was bringing him over, and 
 that nothing but business would have induced 
 him to come at this season. Nor had he any 
 friends in New York. He seemed as much 
 a stranger there as the Ballingers ; indeed, 
 more so ; for they had invitations, and he had 
 none, and spoke with profound aversion of New 
 York Society. He visited with them the 
 Metropolitan Museum of Art, some exhibitions 
 of modern pictures, and several private collec-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 99 
 
 tions, which they had obtained permission to 
 see. They also accompanied him to Daly's 
 Theatre, where some of those slight comedies 
 in which the canvas was nothing and the work 
 thereon perfection were being performed. His 
 remarks were always trenchant and original ; 
 his satire sometimes pungent. But it seemed 
 to Grace that the man was more depressed and 
 at times more bitter than he had appeared during 
 the passage. The one thing which she did not 
 see was that he was in love with her. Mordaunt, 
 with not half her perspicacity, saw it, but held 
 his peace. Grace had too recently had a 
 bitter disappointment, for him to fear that she 
 would fall in love with the first middle-aged 
 American who laid his heart and fortune at her 
 feet. Still, it was well that he should make 
 inquiries touching this Ferrars. But he could 
 learn little or nothing. Those he asked said the 
 man came of a good old Virginian stock, and 
 was well off. But he had not lived in America 
 for many years ; during his occasional visits, 
 few saw him ; if anything was to be known of 
 his life, it was not in New York. 
 
 About Gunning, on the other hand, who had 
 been unremitting in his attentions to Grace 
 
 H 2
 
 lOO A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 ever since their arrival, there were no in- 
 quiries to be made. He had proposed Sir 
 Mordaunt as a visitor to the Knickerbocker and 
 Manhattan Athletic Clubs. There and else- 
 where everyone spoke well of the young man. 
 He did not drink ; he did not gamble ; he had 
 never been known to do a shabby thing. He 
 was manly, straightforward, and liberal with his 
 money. To his mother, who lived with him, 
 he was an excellent son ; to his companions a 
 generous friend. He was not always "very 
 good form ; '' but Ballinger had seen worse 
 failings than a little bombast, a little empty 
 talk, knocked out of a man. He certainly did 
 not wish his sister to marry an American, he 
 said to himself ; but if she should have a fancy 
 that way, it would be as well if she would select 
 one for whom everyone had a good word, and 
 who possessed a million of dollars a year. 
 
 Here is a passage from a letter to his aunt. 
 
 '' People say no American man ever really 
 likes an Englishman. Some of the young 
 fellows may be a little jealous of a stranger, if 
 he has any success here ; but all I know is that 
 most of them have been awfully kind to me ; 
 and many of them are capital company. I
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. ioi 
 
 daresay one mustn't inquire too curiously how 
 some of these great fortunes were made ; that 
 is no concern of mine. They all seem very 
 glad to put one in the way of making a good 
 thing. One fellow tells me that orange groves 
 or fruit orchards in Southern California are the 
 safest investments ; giving the largest returns^ 
 from 25 to 40 per cent., on the capital laid out. 
 Another advises "reel estate," as they call it, 
 near one of the rising cities (mining centres) in 
 Colorado. He says land can't fail to double or 
 treble in value ; only one must be content to let 
 the money remain tied up for a time. A third 
 recommends a Mexican opal mine which he says 
 he knows is a first-rate thing. But the man 
 I am most disposed to trust is a shrewd chap 
 named Reid, to whom I brought a letter. He 
 has been awfully kind, explaining things. He 
 says there is nothing like being on the spot ; 
 and recommends strongly my going out West, 
 and looking into these various investments. 
 He has been explaining to me how the whole 
 city is ruled by the Irish vote, and what awful 
 corruption goes on. Talk of liberty ! It seems 
 to me they have precious little here ; everything 
 is sacrificed to party. And the worst of it is,
 
 I02 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 the best men stand aloof. Fellows of high 
 character and enormous wealth, who ought to 
 have the chief weight in municipal matters, have 
 none. They won't mix themselves up with the 
 Irish, whom they hate. Apropos of Americans, 
 the greatest parti in New York, a young chap 
 named Gunning, is awfully gone on Grace. He 
 crossed with us, and it began then ; but she 
 would have nothing to say to him, preferring 
 the society of a man nearly old enough to be 
 her father, named Ferrars (so like her, isn't it ?) 
 or of a thin, pasty-looking young professor, in 
 horribly made overalls, and a reach-me-down. 
 Gracey always willhe queer in her tastes, to the 
 end of the chapter ! Flowers come every 
 morning from this Gunning. She can't return 
 them ; but she declines every other mortal thing 
 he offers, his riding horses, carriages, theatre- 
 parties, &c. I have had difficulty in getting 
 her to accept a party he is giving " to meet 
 Miss Ballinger," — that is the New York form, 
 when they want to do a person special honour. 
 He heard her say she would like to see a 
 Spanish dancer who is here, and who only per- 
 forms at a low cafd, where ladies can't go ; but 
 occasionally dances at private houses for a
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 103 
 
 select circle. That is how he caught her, I wish 
 I could see that she took any interest in any- 
 one /^r/eV?^/<«r/y — that there was any symptom 
 of her having forgotten. She is always cheery, 
 always ready for everything ; — but, by-the-bye, 
 have you heard when the trial is to take place ? 
 I hope soon, while we are over here. It would 
 be much better that Grace should not be in 
 England when it comes off. It would worry 
 her, and rake up the past. Well ! I hope you 
 are coming out to us soon. We both want you 
 awfully." 
 
 On the subject of invitations I may here give 
 a characteristic note which Miss Ballinger re- 
 ceived a few days after their arrival : — 
 
 My dear Miss Ballinger, — Will you and 
 your brother give me the pleasure of your com- 
 pany at a blue dinner on the 28th of January, 
 at 8 o'clock ? I have selected this colour, not 
 because I am called a " blue-stocking " by those 
 who are amazed that a woman should know 
 Greek, but to honour you and the country I 
 adore. I shall never rest till Mr. Van Winkle 
 is appointed Minister to Saint James's. I 
 believe your Queen would be gratified by having
 
 104 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 at her court one woman representative alike of 
 literature and fashion. 
 
 Your true-blue friend, 
 
 CoRRiNA Van Winkle. 
 
 This dinner had not yet come off. In the 
 meantime Mordaunt and Grace went in the 
 Hurlstones' box one night to hear " Siegfried." 
 The box was a large one, on the grand tier, and 
 besides the Hurlstone ladies, and the Ballingers, 
 there were Gunning, and another of \\).^ jetmesse 
 doi'^e of New York. Grace had heard that 
 society was enthusiastic about Wagner's music, 
 and that there was a great difficulty in obtaining 
 a good opera-box, for which far larger sums 
 were paid than are ever given in England. She 
 innocently imagined that people went to listen 
 to the music ; she was undeceived. She had peti- 
 tioned to go early, as she had never heard " Sieg- 
 fried," and she and Mordaunt were in the box 
 nearly an hour before the owners of it arrived. 
 At first all was well. The upper boxes were 
 crowded by Germans, who listened devoutly 
 to every note ; so did the unfashionable occu- 
 pants of the stalls in their morning dress. But 
 in the middle of the second act the grand tier.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 105 
 
 which till then had been nearly empty, filled 
 rapidly with smart ladies and their attendant 
 cavaliers, and from that time onward a continu- 
 ous fire of conversation was kept up, without 
 even the semblance of any attention to the 
 orchestra or the stage. That was the only part 
 of the theatre to which opera-glasses seemed 
 rarely to be directed. They raked every box, 
 and the Hurlstones', by reason of its stranger 
 guests, more persistently than any other. In 
 vain Grace fixed her eyes alternately on 
 the book of the words and on the stage. In 
 vain there were angry expostulations from the 
 stalls of " Stop that talking ! " Miss Hurlstone 
 actually turned round deliberately and sat with 
 her back to the house, talking to the Marquis 
 de Trefeuille and a number of other young 
 men who flocked in and out ; and in doing 
 this she was only following the example of 
 others. To listen to the lightest French 
 or Italian opera under such conditions would 
 have been impossible ; but when the music 
 was Wagner's, music which demands the 
 strain of every nerve, the tension of every intel- 
 lectual faculty to grasp the meaning of that 
 tumult of sound, to follow and seize the floating
 
 io6 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 gossamers of melody from the brambles of 
 apparent discord, it was nothing short of exas- 
 perating. It became sound and fury, signify- 
 ing nothing, Grace recalled the darkness, the 
 death-like silence of the theatre at Bayreuth. 
 If Wagner could have risen from the grave to 
 see himself so treated ! She gave it up at last 
 in despair, as Mrs. Hurlstone leant forward for 
 the fourth time (Gunning had been pouring 
 his thin stream of small talk over her shoulder), 
 and said, — 
 
 " There is the Princess Lamperti just come 
 in with George Ray — that fat woman in black, 
 with yellow pompons and pearls. You know 
 her history, poor thing ! She was Miss Morse 
 of Baltimore, and fell in love with the prince at 
 Rome. He married her for her money, and he 
 behaved very ill. They were married more 
 than ten years ; there was never a word said 
 against her, but, after a miserable life, she has 
 at last divorced him on the ground of his 
 desertion, at his solicitation, they say, in order 
 that he may marry some Spanish woman to 
 whom he has long been devoted, and who is 
 also very rich. Dreadful, isn't it ? Everyone 
 feels very much for the poor princess."
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 107 
 
 Here Gunning, who had heard part of 
 Mrs. Hurlstone's narration, said, — 
 
 " You know the prince, I suppose, Mrs. 
 Hurlstone? Look up at the third box on the 
 second tier. You'll see him there behind a 
 very dark lady — I suppose Madame Moretto." 
 
 " You don't mean that he has had the 
 effrontery to come here, when he knew his wife 
 was in New York ? " 
 
 " Why not ? They're divorced ; and Lam- 
 perti has cheek enough for anything. I don't 
 think they are staying in New York city, how- 
 ever." 
 
 Mrs. Hurlstone, whose glass had been 
 riveted on the box during this speech, ex- 
 claimed, — 
 
 "It is the prince, sure enough ! Well, I 
 never heard anything like it, flying in the face 
 of public opinion like that ! Of course, every 
 one will cut him. And what a coarse-looking 
 creature Madame Moretto is ! What on earth 
 brings them here f " 
 
 " I am sure I don't know. Perhaps it has 
 something to do with the settlement of the 
 princess's money." 
 
 "Why, it must all have been settled when
 
 io8 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 she married. You don't suppose she would 
 give him anything more ? He has got enough 
 out of her already. Besides, I thought this 
 Madame Moretto ^vas also very rich ? " 
 
 " So I conclude. He wouldn't have married 
 her without." 
 
 " He is, then, actually married to her ?" 
 
 " Why, certainly — or, if not married, going to 
 be." 
 
 " Upon my honour ! It is a pretty story 
 altogether. We pride ourselves upon our 
 society being very free from scandals ; but if 
 people will marry foreigners," then she cor- 
 rected herself, " I mean foreign princes, who are 
 mere fortune-hunters, what can one expect ? " 
 
 Grace, meantime, had looked at the rivals in 
 this pitiful story, and had come to the con- 
 clusion that Madame Moretto's was no com- 
 mon face. She was handsome, though young 
 no longer, but the strength of the countenance, 
 more than its beauty, made it remarkable. A 
 woman, this, to exercise a fateful hold, prob- 
 ably, over any man on whom she had fastened ; 
 certainly over a weak one. As Grace looked 
 at those eyes, burning like lamps, in the depths 
 of two dark caverns, at the proud and splen-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 109 
 
 didly poised head and ample bust, and then at 
 the figure and face of the deserted wife, she 
 read at once how unequal the contest must 
 have been. Coarse ? Well, she might be 
 coarse, but it was the coarse strength of 
 Tintoret, as compared with the faded feebleness 
 of Guido. 
 
 The curtain had now fallen upon the second 
 act, and Mordaunt, with the other men, had left 
 the box to visit their acquaintances and make 
 room for those who wished to pay their respects 
 to Mrs. Hurlstone and inspect the English 
 beauty more closely. Among these was a 
 powerfully built young man, of medium height, 
 with a fine resolute face and a delightfully 
 frank smile. His general bearing and ease of 
 manner, which never touched the confines of 
 familiarity, that snare of the underbred, would 
 have distinguished him in any society. He was 
 greeted with cordiality by mother and daughter, 
 and introduced to Miss Ballinger as Mr. Cald- 
 well. He repeated her name, as all Americans 
 do, on being presented. 
 
 " Mr. Caldwell does not -honour New York 
 very much," explained Mrs. Hurlstone, with a 
 smile. "We spoil him so much here, when-
 
 no A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 ever he comes, that he thinks it best to make 
 himself precious." 
 
 '' Quite true," said the young fellow, showing 
 the whitest teeth in the world, under his in- 
 cipient black moustache. " It is only coming 
 here very seldom that makes me tolerated, I 
 know. I am a grub, an earth-worm who is out 
 of place among the butterflies." 
 
 "What nonsense!" exclaimed Miss Hurl- 
 stone. " You know quite well that you despise 
 us butterflies. You prefer being a grub in 
 those horrid mines all the time, and won't 
 come out of your chrysalis. It's too bad ! " 
 
 " That is all very well, Miss Hurlstone, but 
 how would the butterflies ever exist but for the 
 state of grubdom ? Perhaps I shall burst my 
 chrysalis some day and flutter up and be a 
 giddy old butterfly, but I am afraid you will 
 have nothing to say to me then." 
 
 *' Nothing ! " said the young lady decisively ; 
 " if you will not when you may," and the battle- 
 dore and shuttlecock of chaff went on, while 
 Mrs. Hurlstone, who had been sweeping the 
 house with her opera-glass, said to Grace, — 
 
 " Who are the people whose box Sir Mor- 
 daunt is in ? "
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. i i i 
 
 Grace felt sure Mrs. Hurlstone knew. 
 
 " Mrs. Flynn and Miss Clay-ton. Have you 
 never met them ? " 
 
 " Oh, I believe I have met them, but they 
 are not in our set. I fancy they are from 
 Kentucky." 
 
 " There is no objection to that, is there ? " 
 asked Grace, with apparent innocence. " If 
 Kentucky can produce such pretty women, I 
 congratulate Kentucky." 
 
 "Pretty, yes; but such style! You 
 English, my dear Miss Ballinger, are so very 
 odd. You take up people that we should 
 never know ! You do that all the time in 
 England. We hear of such extraordinary 
 people being received there. It does seem so 
 strange to tis.'' 
 
 Grace recognized some truth in what Mrs. 
 Hurlstone said. Probably, if she were Ameri- 
 can, she would feel much as Mrs. Hurlstone 
 did. But she felt sure these young women 
 were quite harmless ; they had amused her ; 
 in a certain way, she had liked them ; 
 she was too loyal to give them up. So 
 when Mrs. Hurlstone followed up her remark 
 with, —
 
 112 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 "Do tell me where you made Mrs. Flynn's 
 acquaintance ? " 
 
 Grace replied, — 
 
 " At a dinner your friend, Mr. Sims, gave 
 us at Delmonico's. Is there any reason why 
 he should not have asked them ? " 
 
 " Oh, no reason exactly, except that, as a 
 man of the world, he ought to have known they 
 were not the kind of people you ought to meet 
 as good specimens of New York society. I 
 am sorry you should meet any but our best 
 people." 
 
 Grace checked the question,* " What are 
 the best? The richest?" which rose to her 
 lips, and said, — 
 
 " Mr. Sims thought we should be more en- 
 tertained by meeting some American types 
 such as we have not seen in England, and he 
 was right. Miss Clayton especially amused 
 us both very much." 
 
 " We don't like our English friends to be 
 amtt^sedm that way," said Mrs. Hurlstone, with 
 trenchant emphasis. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Hurlstone, if everyone were 
 alike, the world would be very dull. A little 
 originality is so delightful. I want to see as
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. i i 3 
 
 many different types as I can, in going through 
 the States. I don't think the worse of people 
 for not having the manners I have been used 
 to. Their manners are good for them, as mine 
 are for me." 
 
 " Forgive me for saying that is all nonsense, 
 Miss Ballinger. There is but one code of good 
 manners, all the world over. You will go back 
 to England, and quote these people, and say 
 that is the way Americans behave. You know 
 you will ! " 
 
 " Some Americans, not all," replied Grace 
 calmly. " And why not ? What is the use of 
 blinking the truth ? There are differences, you 
 can't deny it, and I want to see them all. The 
 New-Englanders, about whom I have read so 
 much, the warm Southerners, the wild Western- 
 ers, I know I shall find them all interesting in 
 their different ways. I don't want only to see 
 the smart, conventional people. I have plenty 
 of them at home." 
 
 Here someone entered the box, and Caldwell 
 rose. Then, approaching Grace, he said, — 
 
 " I believe my mother has taken the liberty 
 of writing to you to-night, Miss Ballinger. She 
 knew your father quite well, when he was over 
 
 vol. I. I
 
 114 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 here, and would like to make your acquaintance, 
 but did not like to call, without writing to 
 explain why. We shall only be quite a short 
 time in New York ; but my mother hopes she 
 may see you." 
 
 " Certainly. I shall be charmed. If she will 
 appoint any hour, I will be at home, or call on 
 her." 
 
 " I will tell her. She thought, perhaps, — but 
 no. She has written, and I will not forestall 
 her note. I shall have the pleasure of meeting 
 you to-morrow night at Mr. Gunning's party. 
 Good night ! " 
 
 He bowed. She extended her hand. " Do 
 not forget my message." Then, when he had 
 left the box, she said to her hostess, " What 
 a charming face that young man has ! So 
 frank, and manly, and straightforward. Who is 
 he?" 
 
 " His mother s only son. The father died 
 two years ago, and left great mining operations 
 In a state that required very active and constant 
 supervision. This boy, as he was then, under- 
 took It all, worked like a slave, and showed 
 great cleverness, great tact and judgment, I am 
 told, in dealing with the men, who all adore
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 115 
 
 him, I hear. He lives there in. Colorado 
 almost entirely with his mother and a young 
 sister, and resists all temptations to come to 
 New York, unless business brings him. It is 
 most extraordinary." 
 
 " It is admirable. And his mother, is she as 
 nice as he ? " 
 
 " I don't know her. She never goes into 
 society here. She devotes herself to the edu- 
 cation of her daughter, I believe, and to 
 making a comfortable home for her son." 
 
 But the third act had now begun, and with 
 it Mr. Gunning's fluid vacuity, which played 
 with a mild spray down Miss Ballinger's back 
 for the remainder of the evening. 
 
 I 2
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 This was what the post brought Grace the 
 next morning : — 
 
 My dear Miss Ballinger,^ — I hope to call 
 on you to-morrow ; but I wish first to explain 
 who I am. My husband was well acquainted 
 with Sir Henry Ballinger, and he was our guest 
 while in the United States. I am now a widow, 
 living almost entirely in Colorado, with my son, 
 though I have a house here. I do not go into 
 New York society, and fear I can be of little 
 use to you during my short stay, but if you 
 and your brother have a spare evening, and 
 would dine quietly with me, I would try and 
 get one or two pleasant friends to meet you. 
 Later on, if you are going West, it would give 
 
 ^ By Americans it is considered more formal, by us more 
 familiar, to begin with "My." I am surprised to find my 
 friend, ^Ir. Marian Crawford, asserting precisely the reverse 
 in his " American Politician." I can only refer this diverg- 
 ence of opinion to the experience of the general reader.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. i i 7 
 
 me real pleasure to offer you and Sir Mordaunt 
 such hospitality as we can, in our wild home in 
 the Rocky Mountains. Should you not be at 
 home to-morrow, perhaps you will kindly write 
 and say if I am fortunate enough to find 
 you both disengaged any evening. All are the 
 same to me. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Joanna Caldwell. 
 
 "Jem" Gunning's party that night was a 
 great success. He had done a good-natured 
 thing, by inviting Ferrars, whom he scarcely 
 knew, but had interchanged a few words with 
 on board ship, and had subsequently met at 
 the Ballingers. Ferrars was their friend ; he 
 had greatly admired Carmencita's public per- 
 formances, and he had expressed a desire to 
 see her in private ; hence the invitation. Of 
 course all the very " smartest " of New York 
 society were there, including the Hurlstones 
 and Mrs. Van Winkle, and besides these, two 
 or three artists justly supposed to be more in 
 touch with the wayward, capricious dancer, who 
 it was said, required the enthusiasm of Bohemia 
 to stimulate her efforts. Before a cold, fashion-
 
 ii8 - A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 able circle she had been known to be a failure. 
 They had arranged the beautiful picture- 
 gallery added by the late Mr. Gunning to his 
 fine mansion, so that the dancer should have a 
 little stage to herself at one end, backed by tall 
 folding screens of Cordova leather. The 
 electric light fell full upon this, while it was 
 subdued in the rest of the gallery. The whole 
 effect of the beautifully-dressed women, mostly 
 young, not overcrowded, but seated in groups 
 with their cavaliers, against the rich background 
 of pictures, was in itself a little tableau. 
 
 Before Carmencita arrived, the Hungarian 
 band played, and people wandered about, some 
 to look at the pictures (which were all modern 
 French) some to the refreshment room adjoin- 
 ing. Then, when it was announced that the 
 dancer and her accompanying band of guitars 
 had arrived, the guests w^ere arranged in semi- 
 circles of chairs, and, there being plenty of 
 room for all, the men were not relegated to 
 doorways, or flattened upright against the wall, 
 as is generally the case in London. The band 
 of guitars seated themselves, and began 
 thrumming a bolero with wonderful spirit, and 
 a body of sound that was surprising from such
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 119 
 
 poor instruments. In the midst of this a young 
 woman entered from a side door. She was 
 dressed in white and gold, and wore a white 
 lace mantilla over her head. She was neither 
 pretty nor ugly, a common type of Spaniard, 
 and her movement as she walked was swagger- 
 ing. She was greeted by a great clapping of 
 hands, which the artists led. She acknow- 
 ledged this by an awkward and, as it seemed 
 to Grace, a surly salute. Then she sat down 
 with her feet apart, a fan in one hand, the 
 other lying in her lap, the palm upwards. Her 
 eyes looked dead, her whole face dull and 
 expressionless. Could this be Carmencita ? 
 Why, the woman was not even graceful ! And 
 the smart ladies who saw her for the first time 
 whispered, " So badly dressed ! Hair so 
 blousy, and frock gathered so fully over the 
 hips that it makes them look ever so much too 
 large ! " 
 
 Ferrars had a chair immediately behind 
 Grace. 
 
 " Is it possible that this is the dancer all the 
 artist world rave about ? " she asked. 
 
 "Wait." 
 
 " I can't fancy that any agility can compen-
 
 I20 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 sate for the lack of grace and charm," she 
 insisted. 
 
 " Wait," he again repeated. ** If you are 
 not a convert before ten minutes are over, 
 write me down an ass." 
 
 The guitars had ceased their Httle prelude. 
 They were chattering to each other. The 
 leader's head was turned away. He had not 
 once glanced at Carmencita since she entered. 
 Now, however, he revolved upon his stool, 
 struck a chord, looking down as he screwed up 
 one string, then raised his eyes. They met 
 hers. It was Hke the falling of a spark upon 
 some explosive substance. Her whole face 
 was illuminated. She flung away her mantilla, 
 and rose transformed, as the guitars struck up 
 once more. The genius of her art had now 
 hold of her, and went impatiently quivering 
 through her frame. Her feet tapped the ground, 
 her arms and hands — those apathetic hands — 
 were lifted with a sort of exultant passion, 
 she drew herself proudly up, and her bolero 
 began. 
 
 Considered merely as dancing, probably 
 many of the spectators had witnessed more 
 wonderful performances. It was the dramatic
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 121 
 
 force, the vivid intensity of every movement 
 that distinguished it from any ordinary 
 terpsichorean feat. Without being what is 
 understood as pantomimic, the little dance 
 told its story as no dance of the kind has ever 
 done before. When she sprang forward with 
 that defiant audacity, bent, swayed, flung her 
 body back till it seemed as though her head 
 would touch the floor, her eyes appeared to 
 flash fire, her hands and wrists in their delicate 
 and flexible intonations played through the 
 whole gamut of passionate emotion ; they 
 spoke with an eloquence that was not to be 
 resisted. It was no longer a woman dancing, 
 it was a creature possessed by some demoniac 
 influence, struggling, supplicating, conquered ; 
 swept like a leaf before the wind, in a series of 
 gyrations so rapid and astounding that when 
 she sank to the earth, the spectators gasped 
 with almost a sense of relief, amid the storm of 
 applause that arose. 
 
 She smiled for the first time, then the light 
 faded from her eyes, and she swaggered back 
 to her seat, the same awkward, lumpish-look- 
 ing peasant she had been ere the flame had 
 been ignited.
 
 122 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 "Well? What do you say? " asked Ferrars, 
 from behind Grace's shoulder. 
 
 " Nothing. She has taken away my breath." 
 
 The flood gates were burst. " Tremendous ! " 
 " Astonishing ! " " Immense ! " " Did you 
 ever see anything like that bend of body ? " 
 " There is no one can touch her ! " and so on, 
 poured the tide of frothy admiration round the 
 room. 
 
 " They see nothing but an exhibition of 
 agility," said Ferrars. " You see something 
 more than this, I am sure?" 
 
 " Yes." She waited a minute, then added, 
 " It is a physical illustration of Owen Meredith's 
 line, * Genius does what it must. Talent does 
 what it can.' She could no more help dancing 
 as she does, than a tornado can help blowing. 
 I am not quite sure that I like a tornado. 
 I think I prefer a gentler breeze. But 
 one is carried away by the tempest, while it 
 lasts." 
 
 " And what do you want more ? To be 
 ' carried away,' even for a few minutes, and by 
 a dancing girl, is rare in life. I tell you. that 
 this creature has an individuality that is all her 
 own. I have seen much more wonderful
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 123 
 
 dancing in Spain, but never any that had this 
 curious histrionic character." 
 
 " You have been in Spain much ? " 
 
 "Yes, at one time. I hope Carmencita will 
 sing some national airs presently. She never 
 does so in public. I hear her singing and 
 dancing together are extraordinary. Get our 
 host to ask her." 
 
 There was a movement at the door at this 
 moment, and a fat, fair woman, with a sweet 
 smile, laden with jewels, entered. Gunning 
 went forward with his mother, and then the 
 magnificent George Ray strode down the room, 
 and greeted the new guest with effusion. 
 
 " Who is that ? They are going to bring 
 her up to you," said Ferrars. 
 
 " It is the Princess Lamperti. I daresay 
 you have heard her story. She has just 
 divorced her husband." 
 
 They approached; and the soft cushiony-look- 
 ing woman, with so complacent an expression 
 that itwas impossible to believe that her domestic 
 sorrow had eat.n deeply into her soul, was 
 presented to Miss Ballinger. As the honoured 
 guest of the evening, whom everyone was asked 
 to meet, all presentations were made to her.
 
 124 ^ Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 The princess began at once, — 
 
 " I saw you last night at the opera, Miss 
 Balhnger, and I was glad to think I was to 
 meet you to-night. Your face was very syjn- 
 patheque to me ; I am very susceptible to fresh 
 impressions, too much so. And you ? " But 
 she ran on without waiting for an answer. 
 " How do you like Carmencita ? Wonderful, 
 isn't she ? But, for me, I like something more 
 — more ondoyante — more — more — how shall I 
 say, ethereal ? ' 
 
 The princess, though pure American, had 
 quite foreign terms of speech, and was much 
 addicted to foreign words. 
 
 "Certainly she is not ethereal," smiled 
 Grace, " And yet she seems a sort of 
 double-natured creature — a stupid peasant, 
 and — " 
 
 "A Paphian Priestess!" murmured Mrs. 
 Van Winkle, who stood near with her head 
 dressed like a cockatoo. " It is like the 
 frenzied orgy that used to wind up some of 
 their interesting rites ! That intoxicating twirl 
 of hers at the end it is realism in extremis!'' 
 
 This sounded to Grace very like nonsense ; 
 but she was quick enough to respond, —
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 125 
 
 " The extremis^ I suppose, are her head and 
 her toes ? They were so mixed, I could not 
 quite tell for a moment which was which." 
 
 " You know," said the princess, '* that the 
 leader of the guitars is her husband ? She 
 adores him." 
 
 " Indeed ? That is interesting. I saw that 
 he lit her by a look, as some people, they 
 say, light gas by the electricity in their 
 fingers." 
 
 " I am one of the light-fingered gentry," 
 laughed George Ray, fatuously. " In cold 
 weather I can always do it. I am so strongly 
 charged with electricity." 
 
 " You are such a large battery, such a 
 mighty machine that we are ablaze when you 
 come near us," said Mrs. Van Winkle, with a 
 satirical smile. Then she added reflectively, 
 as she opened and shut her fan, — 
 
 " Fancy being lit by your own husband ! 
 How curious ! Though once, long ago, 
 perhaps — '' Then she broke off. 
 
 "Ah! They are so young all is new!" 
 sighed the princess. " One asks oneself, ' Will 
 it continue ? ' Foreign natures are so volages. 
 They know not what fidelity means, and, more
 
 126 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 than all, Italians and Spaniards ; ah ! They 
 are a dreadful people, as I have good reason to 
 know ! " 
 
 Grace, generally ready with her tongue, felt 
 rather at a loss what to say. 
 
 Mrs. Van Winkle saved her. 
 
 " It must be very unexciting, dancing to your 
 own husband. Herodias's daughter would not 
 have won the Baptist's head under those cir- 
 cumstances. I feel like Marguerite de Valois, 
 when she was thirsty and drank a cup of cold 
 water, and exclaimed, ' Ah ! if it were only a 
 sin ! ' The legitimate thing is always so very 
 fade^ 
 
 It was astonishing the pains this lady took 
 to try and give a false impression of herself. 
 But it was all thrown away on Grace. 
 
 " My aunt would have gratified Marguerite 
 de Valois," she said. "She would have told 
 her a cup of cold water zoas a sin — a deadly sin 
 against hygienic laws. It is an idee fixe with 
 her." 
 
 Then Mrs. Van Winkle moved on, bowing her 
 cockatoo-like crest to right and left ; and, as 
 the princess had taken her seat, Grace turned 
 to make some remark to Ferrars, but she saw
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 127 
 
 to her surprise that he had left his chair, nor 
 could she detect his head anywhere. 
 
 Carmencita now danced an affondangodo^ 
 followed by a sequidillOy with increasing energy, 
 terminating by explosions, similar to that which 
 had roused such enthusiasm in her first dance. 
 
 Young Caldwell took the vacant chair 
 behind Grace. After the usual questions as 
 to whether she cared for the dancing, he said, — 
 
 " My mother was so delighted to get your 
 note. She is glad that Sir Mordaunt and you 
 can dine with us. Have you met Bagshot, our 
 great lawyer and wit ? We hope to get him 
 and one or two others to meet you. But it 
 will be quite a small party. You won't 
 mind ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I shall like it so much better. 
 Every one is most hospitable to us here ; but I 
 prefer small parties to large ones, v Mr. Gun- 
 ning," she called to her host, who was passing, 
 ' do ask Carmencita to sing while she dances. 
 I am told that is the most charming thing she 
 does." 
 
 " Why, yes ! Michael Angelo Brown will 
 get her. He speaks Spanish, you know, and 
 understands how to tackle her."
 
 128 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 He was going, when the princess stopped him. 
 
 "And after that, if you can induce her hus- 
 band to dance with her — he is difficult to per- 
 suade, sometimes, but if you can only succeed 
 — it is charming ! so entrain ! And there is 
 something in their being husband and wife so 
 — I don't know what ! You understand ? Ah ! " 
 She heaved a deep sigh. 
 
 The young man looked as though he did not 
 in the least ; but he hurried off to find the artist 
 ambassador, who should convey his request to 
 both the performers. And, pleased with the 
 fervour of her reception, the lady consented, so 
 far as she and the song were concerned. It 
 was a long story in couplets, threaded, so to 
 speak, with dances. The precise meaning of 
 each verse required some knowledge of Spanish 
 to understand, but her marvellous play of coun- 
 tenance, and the variety of expression in that 
 low, husky voice, which she trod with all the 
 subtlety and delicacy of a great artist, told 
 quite enough. This performance seemed to 
 Grace to be even more remarkable, and cer- 
 tainly more pleasing than the preceding ones. 
 When it was finished, she looked round once 
 more with her bright enthusiasm, to try and
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 129 
 
 catch Mr. Ferrars' eye, but he was no where in 
 sight. All she discovered was Mordaunt and 
 Miss Hurlstone in a distant corner, where she 
 had seen them more than an hour ago, 
 engrossed in each other's conversation. Well ! 
 Dear Mordaunt was an out-and-out flirt ; of 
 course, it meant nothing with him. It was to 
 he hoped the girl was equally case-hardened. 
 
 " Do you know, Miss Ballinger," said Cald- 
 well, " I am afraid I like this singing better than 
 the opera last night. I'm not worthy of that 
 grand music. It's such an awful row." 
 
 " Which you tried to drown with the sound 
 of your own voice, I daresay," laughed Grace. 
 " Most people did. Now everyone paid devout 
 attention to Carmencita. That isn't fair to 
 poor Wagner, is it ? " 
 
 Here Gunning rushed up. " He has caved 
 in at last ! He has consented to dance with 
 her — but only after a regular battle. It was 
 that funny to watch 'em. Their goings on to- 
 gether were like a play, they were, but she 
 has got round him. I say, Miss Ballinger, I 
 want to know if you and your brother won't 
 come out to Tuxedo on Saturday and stay till 
 Monday, as my guests. It's an awfully jolly 
 
 vol. I. K
 
 130 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 place, and I'll get up a nice party — just the 
 right set, you know — no outsiders — if you'll 
 come." 
 
 " You are very good ; but it is impossible. 
 We are engaged." 
 
 "What? both days? Couldn't you come 
 for one ? " 
 
 -" No. /, at least, am engaged both days. 
 I can't answerfor my brother." 
 
 And so, after the little dramatic dance of 
 coquetry, and pursuit and capture between the 
 Spanish husband and wife was gone through, 
 the evening came to an end.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The next morning, Grace sat turning over the 
 leaves of a book which had just been sent her. 
 The elderly author had been presented to her 
 the evening before, and had promptly sent her 
 his " Souvenirs," which were said to be having 
 a great sale, especially in the Far West, where 
 its axioms of etiquette and records of high life 
 in New York were accepted with unquestioning 
 reverence. A smile played on the girl's face, 
 culminating now and again in a burst of merri- 
 ment, as her eye fell on such passages as 
 these : 
 
 " It is well to be in with the nobs who are 
 born to their position ; but the support of the 
 swells is more advantageous, for society is 
 sustained and carried on by the swells ! " 
 
 Grace fairly screamed when she read of some 
 man who was supposed to have been in fashion- 
 able English life, that " He was in with all the 
 
 K 2
 
 I'?2 
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 sporting world — intimate with the Champion 
 Prize-fighter, the Queen s Pages, Tattersall's 
 and others ! " 
 
 She had just come to this passage when 
 there was a knock at her door, and in response 
 to her " Come ! " (in America the invitation is 
 confined to that monosyllable), Mr. Ferrars 
 was announced. 
 
 " Why did you disappear so suddenly last 
 night ? " asked Grace, with her usual indiscreet 
 directness, as soon as they had shaken hands. 
 '' I don't believe you heard Carmencita sing, 
 after all ? " 
 
 " No, I did not. There was someone there 
 I did not wish to meet. I had to go. I told 
 you New York society and I would never agree. 
 It proved so last night. I shall not try the 
 experiment again. I shall leave New York to- 
 
 morrow." 
 
 " Is it not a pity to take life so very hard as 
 you do ? " 
 
 " It is life that took me.'' 
 
 " You strike me as treading very heavily on 
 it. " ' Glissez, et n'appuyez pas,' is such a 
 wise motto." 
 
 " I see you have Golightly's ' Souvenirs,' "
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 133 
 
 he pointed to the book on her lap. " Perhaps 
 you are right. I suppose the career of that 
 veteran butterfly proves it. I suppose, if I had 
 been born Hke him, I should be happier than I 
 am. 
 
 Grace opened the book, and read this passage 
 aloud : 
 
 " If you see a fossil of a man, shabbily 
 dressed, it is better to cross the street, and 
 avoid meeting him." 
 
 " There is a fitness in such noble sentiments 
 being expressed in this refined language ! I 
 fancy I hear you saying that." 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Golightly is the natural outcome of a society 
 that is built solely upon wealth, I look upon 
 that rubbish as the most salutary lesson our 
 people could have of the depth of degradation 
 to which a ' leader of society,' as he is called, 
 may sink." 
 
 " Oh ! but he is a joke, you know ; ask any 
 .one. It is absurd to judge a whole community 
 by one foolish man." 
 
 " I am glad you find the society to your 
 taste," he returned drily. " By-the-bye, I have 
 heard from Mrs. Courtly to-day. She asks if
 
 134 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 I know when you are likely to be in Boston, and 
 will pay her a visit at her country place, 
 Brackly." 
 
 " Mordaunt has made no plans for leaving 
 New York at present. How long do you stay 
 in Virginia ? " 
 
 " I don't know. It depends ; I shall not 
 return to New York ; but I shall return East 
 shortly, and hope to be with Mrs. Courtly at 
 the same time you are." 
 
 " I shall be very glad if you are." Then she 
 added, with a smile, "You will not object to 
 Boston Society ? " 
 
 " No, I shall not. Mrs. Courtly does not 
 suffer fools gladly. You will not be dull in her 
 house." 
 
 " I am never dull anywhere, certainly not 
 here, where I have found plenty to interest and 
 amuse me. I might say more than this, but I 
 am afraid you would sneer." 
 
 " Pray go on. I won't sneer." 
 
 " I have found something to respect and to 
 admire, which I do not find at home — in our 
 best society. And that is, a much higher moral 
 standard." 
 
 " How so ? Not in public affairs? Not in
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 135 
 
 railways ? Not in the Press ? Not in Wall 
 Street?" 
 
 " I know nothing about those things. I 
 speak of what comes under my personal obser- 
 vation. I see that women and even men are 
 tabooed, about whom there is any open scandal. 
 It is not so with us. Nothing short of divorce 
 shuts the door against a woman of position who 
 sins ; and as to a man, nothing except cheating 
 at cards seems to do so." 
 
 He rose, without reply, and went to the 
 window. At the same moment Mordaunt 
 entered. 
 
 " Good morning, Ferrars. Grace, I have a 
 note from that good natured chap^ Gunning, 
 enclosing a box for the Circus, this afternoon. 
 Will you come ? " 
 
 "Is the box our very own, or is Mr. Gunning 
 coming with friends ? " 
 
 " He says he may drop in — but the box is 
 ours, to fill as we like, only it's rather late to 
 get any one." 
 
 " Will you come, Mr. Ferrars ? and I will 
 telephone to ask Mrs. Caldwell and her 
 daughter." 
 
 Ferrars accepted ; and so, a few minutes
 
 136 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 later, did the ladles. Soon after two o'clock, 
 the whole party, except Gunning, was esta- 
 blished in the great arena to witness Barnum's 
 show of " Nero." The vast building was 
 crowded. Grace, who now met the Caldwell 
 ladies for the first time, was charmed with 
 them. The mother's sweet, frank face, and 
 the young girl's freshness and intelligence — an 
 intelligence very different from " the needle-like 
 sharpness which pricked and startled one," as 
 Grace described it, in May Clayton, she was 
 equally delighted with both. Doreen Caldwell 
 was not yet seventeen. She gave the promise 
 of being a very pretty woman ; at present she 
 was too thin, her face too narrow, and her eyes 
 unduly large for the rest of the features. She 
 was strangely quiet for an American, almost 
 shy, but then her bringing up had been different 
 from that of most of her country-women, with- 
 out the constant excitement and restlessness 
 which seem inseparable from a home-education 
 in most city households. She had an abundance 
 of the national humour, quick perceptions, and 
 a keen capacity for enjoyment ; but she had 
 not as yet, if she ever would acquire, that par- 
 ticular attraction in the eyes of most English-
 
 A Voyage of Discoverv. 137 
 
 men, the spontaneous up-bubbling garrulity 
 which most Englishzc^^w^?^ call " a feverish 
 desire to be prominent." 
 
 Mordaunt talked chiefly to the mother, Grace 
 saw at once that the daughter did not particu- 
 larly attract him ; it was not this that he had 
 come out into the wilderness for to see. Beatrice 
 Hurlstone's undisguised encouragement and 
 capacity for flirtation treated as a Fine Art, or 
 May Clayton's audacious drollery was much 
 more to his taste. But Ferrars and Grace 
 together drew Doreen out, and were entertained 
 with the remarks of this child of nature, as yet 
 unblasee by the glitter of such shows. A young 
 man came in to visit Mrs. Caldwell, whose box 
 he believed it to be. She introduced him to 
 Grace as Mr. Alan Brown. He was evidently 
 intimate with the family. The girl greeted him 
 with a frank smile, and said, — 
 
 " I am sure you have never seen anything 
 better than this in Europe. Say, have you, 
 now : 
 
 "No," he answered. " Barnum takes the 
 cake for shows. It isn't a very grand thing to 
 take the cake for — but it's the best we have 
 in the dramatic line."
 
 138 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 This remark, and Mr. Brown's " English 
 accent," gave Grace the key-note of the air 
 which persecuted the young man's hfe. He 
 had been educated at Eton and Oxford, and 
 had returned to business in New York, hating 
 his present existence, and indisposed to find 
 pleasure in the many pleasurable things his 
 native land had to offer him. 
 
 " I am sorry for him," said Mrs. Caldwell, 
 when he had left the box. " Alan is a very 
 nice fellow in many ways, but his education 
 has been a mistake. His father is very rich — 
 dry goods, you know — and this is his only son. 
 As he naturally wishes him to continue the 
 business, it was not fair to bring him up with 
 all the tastes and habits of your leisure class 
 in England. It was his mother's fault. He 
 hates business, and he hates New York." 
 
 Gunning entered just then, and was pre- 
 sented to Mrs. Caldwell. 
 
 "You live near the Rockies, don't you ? I 
 shot six bears there last year. It was great 
 sport. I was under canvas. But to live 
 there — Caldwell must find it awfully slow." 
 
 " My son has work there, and he likes the 
 life. He enjoys New York for a short time,
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 139 
 
 but he would soon tire of doing nothing. He 
 told me what a charming party you had last 
 night," she added. 
 
 " Why, yes. It was a success, I think — I 
 hope you thought it went off well, Miss Ballin- 
 ger ? Oh ! Thank you. It's awfully good of 
 you to say so. Everyone was so delighted to 
 meet you — and Sir Mordaunt. Sorry you 
 can't come to Tuxedo- Quite a number of 
 people are going there on Saturday. You are 
 going to the ball to-night, of course ? And 
 have you cards for the Assembly ball next 
 week ? That's all right- Talking of cards, I 
 wish you'd tell me which is the correct thing in 
 London, to print your address on the right-hand 
 or the left-hand corner of your card ? 'Cause 
 it's important to know." 
 
 " I am afraid I can't tell you. I never 
 thought about it." 
 
 " Well, now, that's curious. We've had 
 quite a dispute about it here. I say, don't you 
 want to know wdio is in the third box from here, 
 that handsome woman in grey ? She's Otero, 
 the rival of Carmencita, and a sight better- 
 looking too, but she's not the fashion like the 
 other is. Fashion is everything after all, ain't
 
 140 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 it ? This circus is full all the time. Everybody 
 comes here, not that they care for it very 
 much, but it's the thing. Pity it's so big, one 
 can't see across the house well." Here he took 
 up his glass. "Why! I declare there's Miss 
 Planter and her mother! They must have 
 arrived from Pittsburg yesterday. If I'd known 
 it, I'd have asked her last night. Didn't you 
 meet her in London ? Why ! she made quite 
 a stir there — went into first-rate society and 
 refused a lord, I am told. You must be in- 
 troduced, Sir Mordaunt. She is a real belle, 
 Clare Planter is. If you like to come right 
 away now, I'll present you." 
 
 So Ballinger rose laughing, and the young 
 men left the box. On his return, just before 
 the end of the performance, Mordaunt reported 
 that the young lady was charming, the prettiest 
 girl he had seen since he landed, lots to say 
 for herself, and very nice. " A sort of girl you'll 
 like, Grace. Been in England too." 
 
 Grace knew what that meant. They trooped 
 out of the theatre, Grace on Gunning's arm, Mrs. 
 Caldwell on Sir Mordaunt's. Doreen had a 
 double bodyguard ; Ferrars, whose arm she 
 took on one side, and Alan Brown, who had ap-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 141 
 
 peared again just as they were leaving, on the 
 other. As they reached the crowded entrance 
 Grace saw a sallow foreigner in front of them, 
 with a lady on his arm. The lady turned her 
 head, the face was an unforgetable one ; it was 
 that of Madame Moretto. There was a block 
 at the door of people waiting for their carriages, 
 for it was raining. 
 
 "Where is Doreen ? I do not see her," 
 said Mrs. Caldwell ; but a moment later the 
 girl appeared on Mr. Brown's arm. Then, 
 " What have you done with Mr. Ferrars ? I 
 thought you were with him ? " 
 
 " So I was, mother, but he suddenly dropped 
 my arm, and asked me to excuse him, and let 
 Alan take me to the carriage. He looked so 
 odd, quite ill, I thought." 
 
 " Certainly Mr. Ferrars is not fit for New 
 York society," thought Grace to herself. " I 
 don't believe he was ill a bit. It was one of his 
 strange vagaries." 
 
 The ball that night at one of the greatest 
 and most exclusive houses in New York will be 
 best described in an extract from Grace's 
 letter to her aunt, written the following day. 
 It tells better than I could the fresh impres-
 
 142 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 sions made upon her receptive nature by the 
 scene, the habits, and the actors in that drama 
 of the New World in which she was now taking 
 part. 
 
 " Thursday, January i^th. 
 " We were last night at Mrs. Thorly's ball. 
 Everything was very splendid, the house, the 
 dresses, the diamonds, the flowers, everything 
 except the introduction to the fete, by which I 
 mean that the guests, on arrival, had to 
 struggle through the brilliant crowd in order to 
 reach the staircase, and up to the cloak room 
 on the first floor. This strange anomaly, I am 
 told, is almost universal here. It was snowing, 
 and everyone wore " gums," to protect their 
 thin shoes. The men were naturally muffled in 
 ulsters ; the women swathed in veils and fur 
 cloaks. Anything more incongruous than this 
 unsightly procession forcing its way through the 
 bare shoulders and wreathed heads of those who 
 had already discarded their wraps and were 
 scanning each new arrival, can hardly be ima- 
 gined. The ordeal of running the gauntlet 
 through this crowd was most disagreeable to 
 me. I should not have minded so much if I 
 had been impenetrably veiled as most of the
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 143 
 
 women were ; but I felt as if the snow-flakes 
 were in my hair, and my cheeks a-flame, as I 
 heard people whisper, " That's the English girl, 
 you know." When I had smoothed my ruffled 
 feathers, I descended with Mordy, and we 
 made our way to Mrs. Thorly, who received 
 me most graciously. As I looked round I 
 was really dazzled by the general — more than 
 the particular — beauty of the women, and 
 specially by their toilettes. No one of them, 
 perhaps, was really beautiful ; but they were 
 nearly all pretty, and, as a whole, better 
 dressed than any collection of girls I ever saw. 
 I had on that frock of Mrs. Mason's, which I 
 had only worn once at Grosvenor House ; and 
 I flattered myself I looked so smart till I saw 
 how much fresher all the dresses round me 
 were. Well, it didn't much signify. There 
 was a time when I should have been vexed, 
 but now — I don't much care. The married 
 women's diamonds were amazing; many of 
 them wore tiaras, which I understand is an im- 
 portation from England, much reprehended by 
 some. ' What business have republicans with 
 crowns?' a man said to me. I replied that 
 republicans had taken them off so many heads
 
 144 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 that I did not suppose they attached any im- 
 portance to them as the insignia of royalty. I 
 preferred walking about and watching the 
 dancers to dancing much; the young men 
 were indulgent with me, they showed me 
 everything, told me who everyone was, and 
 were very nice and kind. Mordy divided his 
 attentions between Miss Hurlstone — who is 
 certainly much taken with him — and a Miss 
 Planter, a new beauty just arrived. She was 
 the handsomest girl there, and I admire her 
 more than anyone I have seen. There is 
 character in her fine, fearless eyes, her well- 
 cut mouth, her firm, erect carriage. She is 
 more like a married woman than a girl, and her 
 very costly attire strengthened this impression. 
 Mordy introduced us. Her voice is peculiarly 
 pleasant, so rich and low, very unlike most of 
 the voices here. She has a few American 
 turns of speech (of which she is quite uncon- 
 scious, of course, for her great desire, I am 
 told, is to be thought English), but no twang, 
 not the faintest suspicion of one. She talked 
 of all the people she had known in London with 
 a familiarity which was amusing. An English 
 girl would have made a mess of it ; but adapta-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 145 
 
 bility is essentially an American feature. She 
 had fallen into these people's lives, for the time 
 being, so completely, that she maybe said to have 
 assimilated them. Of course, she is a flirt ; all 
 girls here are. On the other hand, married 
 women are not ; husbands would never stand 
 their wives " carrying on " as they do all over 
 the continent of Europe, including England. 
 We theorize about morality ; but the variable 
 laws which decree how much people may sin 
 before they are excluded from society, are much 
 more lax with us than in New York. 
 
 "The supper was most picturesque. At a 
 given moment any quantity of little tables were 
 brought in by numberless servants and 
 scattered through the rooms, and at these the 
 whole of the guests seated themselves and 
 were served. The feast lasted quite an hour, 
 during which there was an entire cessation from 
 dancing. To me individually this was a trial, 
 for I had promised Mr. Gunning to go to 
 supper with him, believing it would be an affair 
 of ten minutes — I scarcely touch supper, as 
 you know. Instead of that, I found myself 
 wedged between him and a man I did not know ; 
 and Mr. Gunning was absurd enough, and tact- 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 less enough to choose this moment to propose 
 to me. Can you imagine a more irritating 
 position ? No escape. When I decHned the 
 honour he did me, hot cutlets were being 
 handed over my shoulder ; and there I had to 
 sit while quails, and lobster salads, creams, and 
 ices came in slow succession, and still he 
 poured out his persistent nonsense ! I was so 
 angry ; I could have boxed his ears, 
 
 ^'January 2^th. — Miss Hurlstone drove me 
 out this morning in her pony-carriage. Of 
 course we discussed the ball, but had not got 
 very far when she turned round and asked if I 
 admired Miss Planter. I replied, 'Yes, very 
 much.' ' So does your brother,' she remarked. 
 Then, after a pause, ' Does he confide in you 
 much ? ' I was rather taken aback. ' He does 
 sometimes, I suppose, not always.' ' Has he 
 ever spoken to you of me ? ' ' Yes, two or 
 three times.' * Do you think he likes me } ' 
 ' Certainly ; why should he talk to you other- 
 wise ? But Mordaunt is a dreadful flirt. You 
 mustn't take anything he says seriously, especi- 
 ally here, where he has been told you all ex- 
 pect to be flirted with, and attach no import- 
 ance to it.' ' Well/ she said, as she flicked
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 147 
 
 her ponies, ' if he thinks we all take it like 
 that, he is mistaken — and, I suppose, therefore, 
 the less I see of him the better, for I never 
 met anyone I liked so much. That is just the 
 truth, Miss Ballinger, and, until last night, I 
 fancied — But when I saw how he was carrying 
 on with that Planter girl — they are just 
 nobodies, coals, or tallow, or something from 
 Pittsburg — I was so hurt, I could have cried. 
 I suppose you think it very undignified of me 
 to own it ? Mamma would be very angry if 
 she knew that I said so ; but it is the truth 1 ' 
 What could I say ? I tried to console her by 
 the assurance that Mordaunt was too volage to 
 settle down with Miss Planter or Miss any one 
 else just at present, and though I doubt if this 
 carried much weight with it, the girl's worldly 
 common sense, so at variance, according to 
 our ideas, with this expansiveness of sentiment, 
 stopped her from saying more. I have given 
 you the dialogue, as nearly as I can, in the 
 very words used, because its directness — the 
 way in which she went straight to her point 
 without hesitation — struck me as very charac- 
 teristic of the nation. She wanted to learn 
 something, and she learnt it. Most English 
 
 L 2
 
 148 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 girls would have died sooner than have made 
 that confession. As to Mordy, of course, none 
 of these flirtations mean anything ; but he will 
 be burnt some day if he goes on playing with 
 fire. Miss Planter is really far above the com- 
 mon run. As I looked at Miss Hurlstone's 
 pretty face, and recalled the other's fine 
 classical head, I could not be surprised at 
 Mordy's transference of his admiration. After 
 all, if American girls choose to flirt in this way, 
 and encourage men without any intention of 
 marrying them, they must take the conse- 
 quences if they are sometimes the ones to suf- 
 fer. I cannot pity Miss Hurlstone very much. 
 Some of the men here I like greatly. The 
 women are superior in superficial qualities ; 
 they have more leisure to give to them. But 
 among the men not devoted solely to money- 
 making, among those who aim at raising the 
 intellectual tone of the people, I have met 
 some well worth cultivating. Mordy's friend, 
 Mro Reid, you would like ; a shrewd head for 
 business, with brains to spare for other things. 
 " But I must stop. Good night. We are 
 waiting anxiously to hear when you think you 
 may be able to join us."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 QuiNTiN Ferrars was gone ; and Miss Ballin- 
 ger acknowledged to herself that she missed 
 his visits greatly. His conversation, it is true, 
 aroused her combativeness as no one else's 
 did ; but then, no one interested and at the 
 same time puzzled her, as did this strange man. 
 It cannot be said that she thought much of 
 him, when alone, for her mind was still en- 
 grossed with the image of a very different 
 person, between whom and herself a gulf, wider 
 than the Atlantic, had been fixed. But in the 
 human procession that passed daily before her 
 eyes, no figure was as vivid as that of Ferrars, 
 none that she could have missed as she did 
 his. Under no circumstances could she have 
 loved this man ; his nature was not heroic. 
 And the only men who had exercised, or could 
 by any possibility ever exercise, an influence on 
 her life, had, whether rightly or wrongly, seemed 
 to her as heroes. For Quintin Ferrars she felt
 
 150 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 very sorry, but no respect. His existence ap- 
 peared to be a wasted one. She admired his 
 intellectual capacity, his very strangeness had a 
 certain attraction for her ; the knowledge that 
 there was some real cause for his unhappiness, 
 though she was ignorant of that cause, all made 
 him an interesting person in her eyes. But 
 there her feeling for him stopped. The more 
 she studied his character, the more she felt 
 that there was something which evaded her. 
 He had shirked a duty ; he had not fallen in a 
 fair stand-up fight with life — he almost acknow- 
 ledged as much — and it is not of such stuff that 
 heroes are made. 
 
 But Grace Ballinger was a woman, and not 
 above a woman's weaknesses. She liked ap- 
 preciation — admiration — call it what you will ; 
 and, though possessed of no craving to have a 
 man always at her feet, the constant occupation 
 — it might almost be called the devotion — of a 
 clever and original one was certainly agreeable 
 to her. She did not even now realize all that 
 this meant to Ferrars. He sought her as he 
 did no one else ; but his reticence as to his own 
 feelings on every personal subject, blinded her 
 to the fact that she was growing to be of para-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 151 
 
 mount importance in his scheme for the future. 
 They had now been nearly a month in New 
 York, and had met ahuost daily, yet it never 
 occurred to her to regard his assiduity in a very 
 serious light. Her view of it was that he found 
 an intellectual pleasure in her society, nothing 
 more. He was too self-absorbed in brooding 
 overpast troubles to feel any longer a passionate 
 interest in any one. Mordaunt, standing further 
 off, discovered what she did not. We cannot 
 see the object accurately that is held too close 
 to our eyes. 
 
 And so it came to pass that, when he bade 
 her good-bye with a certain rigidity and 
 difficulty of utterance, she expressed her sorrow 
 at his departure with more than her usual 
 frankness. 
 
 " I am so sorry you are going. I hope you will 
 try and be at Brackly when we are there." 
 
 " Yes. You may depend on that. Mrs. 
 Courtly will write to me ; she has promised.'' 
 
 " I fancy we shall not be there beyond the 
 middle of February, and I think, from what my 
 brother said yesterday, he means to go to 
 Boston straight from here." 
 
 Mordaunt had dropped something more than
 
 152 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 this, to wit, that Miss Planter was a friend of 
 Mrs. Courtly's, and was going to stay at 
 Brackly in February. But Grace did not give 
 this reason for the faith that was in her as re- 
 garded her brother's movements. 
 
 " I hope you are going to do your duty as a 
 good American citizen," she said smiHng, as 
 she shook his hand. 
 
 " I am going to fulfil the law, at all events," 
 he returned grimly. And then he departed. 
 
 What an odd man he was, to be sure ! How 
 difficult it was to understand him ! Perhaps 
 the explanation of it was that the lens of his 
 mental photographic apparatus was ill-adjusted: 
 not only were the shadows too black, the 
 objects themselves were distorted ; and the 
 nearer they stood in relation to him, the more 
 they were out of focus. 
 
 Mrs. Van Winkle's party that evening was 
 no compromise. She had nailed her colours 
 fast to the staff of fashion : and literature, save 
 in her own fair person, was unrepresented. 
 Mr. Sims, who stood on the borderland of the 
 two worlds, and the young painter, Michael 
 Angelo Brown, at present engaged on a portrait 
 of Mrs. Van Winkle in the character of Diana,
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 153 
 
 with a crescent on her head and a bow in her 
 hand, — these were the pinches of salt thrown 
 in to flavour the social compound, with a 
 regard to Miss Ballinger's appetite for some- 
 thing stronger than a fashionable souffle It 
 is true that bright creature, Mrs. Siebel, 
 was of the party, whose shrewd perceptions and 
 ebullient sense of fun irradiated any circle. 
 But then, in Mrs. Van Winkle's eyes, she was 
 first of all a woman of fashion ; only a delightful 
 human being afterwards. For Sir Mordaunt, 
 Mrs. Van Winkle felt herself to be feast enough ; 
 but with the happy confidence of a woman who 
 fears no rivalry, she had selected two pretty 
 units of the " Four Hundred " to add brilliancy 
 to the entertainment. She looked unusually 
 well herself, in pale blue velvet, with powdered 
 hair and pearls. When Grace remarked how 
 much they became her, she whispered, — 
 
 " Diamonds are getting so vulgar ! Look 
 at the poor dear Princess. She is always like 
 a badly-made blanc-mange, but to-night she 
 looks as if she had been upset in a jeweller's 
 window, and had got mixed up with the 
 diamonds." 
 
 For the Princess Lamperti's ample white
 
 154 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 form was resplendent with jewels, two neck- 
 laces defining a waist which it would have 
 taken a Life Guardsman to encircle. Not 
 wholly unlike a Life Guardsman was Mr. George 
 Ray, who was on her left, while the host sat 
 between her and Miss Ballinger. He was a 
 well-favoured gentleman of fifty, with ex- 
 tremely good manners, and not much besides. 
 The dinner was perfect, and the ingenuity with 
 which it was coloured gave rise to some amuse- 
 ment, of the thin, obvious kind which anyone 
 can enjoy. The table was covered with forget- 
 me-not growing out of moss, procured for 
 Mrs. Van Winkle with infinite difficulty at this 
 season. The candle-shades were pale blue ; 
 the bills of fare were printed, as were the names 
 of each guest, on pale blue cards. Of course 
 the menu began with Blue Point oysters. 
 Then there was a Potage d la Mazarin, having 
 an occult reference to the tint associated with 
 the cardinal of that name. This was followed 
 by Trzcites au bleu, and what Mrs. Van 
 Winkle had christened " True-blue Fillets of 
 Salmon." After that there came a compote of 
 " blue-rock pigeons," and I know not what 
 other birds of the air, and entrees of meat which
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 155 
 
 had been re-christened for the nonce. In the 
 second course there was a jelly of blueberries, 
 I remember, and finally the menu closed with a 
 fondu ait cordon bleu. 
 
 On the other side of Grace was Mr. Sims. 
 He fired his little shots alternately at the 
 hostess, the Princess, and other ladies across 
 the table, breaking up the tetes-a-tetes with the 
 laughter which followed his assaults. 
 
 " I never saw so becoming a ' fit of the 
 blues ' as your dress, Mrs. Van Winkle," he 
 declared. 
 
 " It is quite too sweet of you to say so; you 
 don't generally pay compliments." 
 
 '' He would not have done so now but for the 
 temptation of the pun," laughed Mrs. Siebel. 
 '' I wonder he did not get in something about 
 ' blue stockings.' " 
 
 " It was an oversight," he replied merrily. 
 " Couldn't you have concocted a dish 'ait bas- 
 bleu; Mrs. Van Winkle ? " 
 
 " You don't suppose I did not think of it ? 
 My avoidance of that opprobrious term was 
 deliberate. Literary women never understand 
 the art of eating ; I am the exception. With 
 me it is 2^ fine art. Observe the combination in
 
 156 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 this menu. The sequence of flavours is as deH- 
 cately felt as the juxtaposition of colours on 
 Titian's canvases." 
 
 " You mean it is ' a symphony in blue ' ? " 
 
 " Exactly. You think you are making an 
 epigram, Mr. Sims. You are uttering the 
 simple truth. There are no harsh discords 
 here. You are led up from one dish to another ; 
 you may eat straight through this dinner. You 
 will find that all the surprises resolve themselves, 
 like the surprises in harmony." 
 
 " Great Scot ! " cried Mr. Sims. " I had no 
 idea eating was allied to music, as well as to 
 painting! It only remains to drag in Poetry." 
 
 " Oh ! " interposed Grace, " she requires 
 no dragging. Does not she step in of her own 
 accord ? From Homer downwards all the 
 grand, healthy old poets take delight in the 
 pleasures of the table. It is only the morbid, 
 attenuated school that feed on rose-leaves." 
 
 " That reminds me of the ' Souls,' that ex- 
 clusive society of aesthetes in London we have 
 heard so much about," said Mrs. Van Winkle. 
 ** Are you a ' Soul,' Miss Ballinger ? " 
 
 Grace laughed. " I am no^^^, but I am 
 not a ' Soul.' "
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 157 
 
 " I should like to be one," sighed her hostess. 
 "But must I abandon all the pleasures of the 
 flesh to be admitted to this spiritual commu- 
 nity ? " 
 
 " No ; some female ' Souls ' are very cor- 
 poreally active — a sort of ' Walkyre ' — spirits 
 on horseback. They ride ; they hunt." 
 
 " In couples ?" asked the hostess with an air 
 of infantine innocence. 
 
 " Only misanthropes like doing things alone," 
 returned Grace, with a smile. " I am sure I 
 don't." 
 
 "Nor I !" cried Mrs. Siebel. 
 
 " My dear, who is prepared to contradict 
 you ? " Mrs. Van Winkle played with a morsel 
 of jelly on the end of her fork, as she spoke. 
 " We all love humanity too much. Yes, I wish 
 I were a Soul ! " 
 
 " Well ! " said Sims, reflectively, with a funny 
 twitch of his mouth, " you fence beautifully, 
 and I have seen you dance 2. pas seul — two re- 
 commendations, I believe, to Souldom." Then 
 turning to the large lady, who certainly looked as 
 if she could neither fence nor dance 2Lpas seul, 
 he continued : " And you, Princess, what do 
 you say ? Do you feel like being a ' Soul ' } "
 
 158 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 The Princess paused, and looked grave, 
 before she replied, — 
 
 " I don't quite know what it all means, Mr. 
 Sims ; but if it has anything to do with ghosts, 
 and visions, and second sight, I have the best 
 right to join the society, for I dimYQry croy ante. 
 I have had such experiences ! Ah ! " 
 
 " Do tell us about them." 
 
 " A ghost story first hand ! How delight- 
 full ! " said several people round the table. 
 
 " Not now, not while we are at table," re- 
 turned the Princess. "Perhaps by-and-by." . . . 
 And no one had the bad taste to insist further. 
 
 But Mrs. Van Winkle who, no matter at 
 what cost, was never content to play second 
 fiddle, here observed, — 
 
 " I once saw a ghost — or what I took to be a 
 ghost — in St. Petersburg, in the dusk of the 
 evening, in my room. I was dreadfully 
 frightened. It proved to be a Russian ; those 
 foreigners are so very enterprising. He had 
 long shown his admiration. He now sprang at 
 me with a drawn sword in his hand. Happily, 
 I was near the bell, or it might have been very 
 awkward." 
 
 " And what became of the ghost ? " asked
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 159 
 
 Mordaunt, biting his lips. " Did you have him 
 arrested ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, I felt too much compassion for 
 him, poor man ! Indeed, I was very much 
 touched. There is so little romance in this 
 present day." 
 
 "What a charming comprehensive word that 
 is, my dear Mrs Van Winkle ! " laughed Sims. 
 "It includes murder, highway robbery, and 
 now, I see, other little offences ! " 
 
 A good deal of amusement was caused by 
 this peculiar revelation, and one can only 
 Imagine the narrator intended that such should 
 be the result. I am confident she rarely ex- 
 pected to be taken seriously. If she could 
 shock or astonish her audience by her utter- 
 ances she was satisfied. She had certainly 
 driven the ghosts from the field. 
 
 But when dinner was over, and the men had 
 rejoined the ladies in that bower of em- 
 broideries and perfume where Mrs. Van Winkle 
 received her guests, lapped in langorous repose 
 on satin cushions, and no one's face could be 
 distinguished under the dim irreligious light of 
 silk-shrouded lamps, then the narrator of abnor- 
 mal experiences being pressed by her hostess,
 
 i6o A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 began, without reluctance, without a shadow of 
 hesitation, — 
 
 " It will be five years ago next May, I was 
 in Rome and alone. The Prince had left me 
 to go to Palermo, on business, as he said. I 
 had only been married three years, at this time, 
 and though I cannot say I was happy, no ! 
 I still loved my husband ; I was not completely 
 desilbisiomiie. I knew he was volage, but I had 
 no reason to suspect that he was quite — how do 
 you say ? estranged from me. I gave him a 
 liberal allowance, over and above what had 
 been settled on him at our marriage, and he 
 always treated me with, well — with respect. He 
 was not passionnd, no, but I thought, enfin^ I 
 thought it was not his nature. Well ! he went 
 to Palermo, and I had a letter from him in the 
 course of a few days, saying his business was 
 advancing favourably, though slowly. He would 
 probably be detained longer than he expected. 
 I was not anxious, I was not uneasy about him, 
 — why should I be ? when I went to bed that 
 night. That made my dream the more extra- 
 ordinary, tout d fait saisissante. I saw him in 
 a garden, under a tree. Beside him stood a 
 dark woman, whose face was quite distinct,
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. i6i 
 
 I could have drawn It. She gave him some 
 fruit." 
 
 " Were they in the condition of Adam and 
 Eve ?" murmured Mrs. Van Winkle, from her 
 pile of satin cushions. 
 
 ',' Oh, no," continued the Princess gravely, 
 " she had a yellow gown on, trimmed with 
 broderie Anglaise. I can see it now ! He was 
 dressed in grey tweed. He ate the fruit she 
 gave him, and then gradually, gradually, I saw 
 his face change colour, and the expression, ah ! 
 il avail un air mechant. I had never seen him 
 look like that before — he was almost green — his 
 features hideously distorted. He fell down at 
 her feet, and I knew that she had poisoned him. 
 I woke with a scream ! " 
 
 " No wonder. You must yourself have eaten 
 something that disagreed with you, Princess ! " 
 said Sims. 
 
 She shook her head. " No, but my dream 
 disagreed with me ! Ah ! I was quite bojilvers^e, 
 I could not sleep again, and still I saw them 
 distinctly before me. In the morning I rang 
 for my maid, and said I would start for 
 Palermo. My family tried to dissuade me 
 from following my husband, but I said I knew 
 
 VOL, I. M
 
 l62 a Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 some misfortune had happened to him, or 
 would happen, if I did not go. What I had 
 dreamt was 'a presentiment ; and so persuaded of 
 this was I, that when I reached Naples, though 
 a great hurricance was blowing, and I am a 
 dreadful sailor (^je soiiffre horriblement\ I in- 
 sisted on embarking. They told me the steamer 
 was a very bad one, and really not fit to put to 
 sea in such weather, but I was firm. Que 
 voulez vous ? I was possessed with the idea. 
 We had a terrible passage, but at last we 
 reached Palermo, and I drove to the Hotel des 
 Palmes. I was dreadfully nervous ; I scarcely 
 dared ask after my husband, but they told me 
 he was quite well — he was in the garden — so I 
 followed him. I could not rest till I had seen, 
 with my own eyes, that he did not look as he 
 had done in my dream. I found him under a 
 tree, a palm tree, in his grey tweed suit, seated 
 beside a brunette, dressed in yellow ; that 
 Madame Moretto, who has poisoned his life_ ever 
 since ! " 
 
 " And does that account for his looking as 
 he does — so very unwholesome, Princess ? " 
 asked Mrs. Van Winkle. 
 
 "Ah! I saw a change in that minute, when
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 163 
 
 he looked up and perceived me — ah ! he turned 
 green just as I had seen him in my dream — 
 dtin ton vcrddtre, and his expression, it 
 was terrible ! That was the beginning of all 
 my trouble, which lasted nearly five years, 
 before I consented to divorce him.^ Have I 
 not reason, ma c/iere, to believe in spiritual 
 warnings — second sight, and — and so on?" 
 
 Of course everyone declared that it was a 
 most interesting and remarkable instance of 
 spiritual premonition that he or she had ever 
 heard, direct from the fountain-head. Only 
 Mr. Sims made a captious remark, to the 
 effect that the vision seemed to have been 
 quite useless ; it had resulted in the princess 
 being very seasick, and very unhappy some 
 time before she need have been : otherwise, the 
 warning had produced no effect — one way or the 
 other. 
 
 Grace listened to all this in silence. It was 
 amazing to her that anyone could bring herself 
 to relate deliberately so painful an episode in 
 her past, to hand it over, as it \vere, for 
 
 1 He went to live in Paris, and, having no Italian 
 property, became a French subject, which enabled her to 
 do so. 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 analysis to a cold and curious circle, eager 
 indeed for " some new thing," but not even 
 pretending to feel any warm sympathy for the 
 lady's domestic woes. It confirmed Grace m 
 the opinion that those woes could not be very 
 deep-seated. No doubt this soft feather-bed 
 of a woman had suffered to some extent, but 
 not to the extent which she herself believed ; 
 not as a proud, passionate, sensitive nature 
 would have suffered in like circumstances. To 
 such an one it would have been impossible to 
 make them the subject of after-dinner discus- 
 sion, in a circle of the merest acquaintance. 
 
 She was at some distance from the Princess, 
 and Madame Siebel, who sat near her, whis- 
 pered, — 
 
 " You can take a horse to the water, but you 
 can't make him drink. He was dead sick of 
 his wife five years ago, so she would have done 
 better to set him free then." 
 
 "In England we don't think that sort of 
 millstone should be so easily sHpped off the 
 neck," returned Grace half seriously, and half 
 playfully. " She has only just divorced him, 
 
 then ? " 
 
 "Only just. He is waiting now, I believe,
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 165 
 
 for Madame Moretto to divorce her husband 
 in order to marry her." 
 
 " Good gracious ! Has she got a husband 
 also ? And what is the plea in her case ? or is 
 it the husband who divorces her ? " 
 
 "No. He is passive, I am told, in the 
 matter. She pleads desertion, though of 
 course that is all nonsense, for she is ever so 
 rich, and left him years ago. The curious 
 thing is, no one knew she had a husband until 
 the Prince was free to marry her. Then it 
 came out she had been clandestinely married 
 to some American, who had separated from her 
 when he discovered the sort of woman she 
 
 was." 
 
 " Well ! I must say these divorces by 
 mutual consent seem very easily obtained m 
 your country." 
 
 "Yes, if you are in the right State, I don't 
 mean state of mind or body, I mean if you go 
 and live for six months in a State where it is 
 the law. Madame Moretto has come over 
 here expressly for that purpose, and is Hving 
 in Rhode Island, I am told, where divorce is 
 made easy. It is not so in New York." 
 
 " But I have seen her here twice ? "
 
 1 66 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " Oh ! they have only been over for the day. 
 It is a funny story, isn't it ? This sort of 
 double game of chess. To make it complete 
 the American ought now to marry the 
 Princess." 
 
 " I should think she had had enough of 
 matrimony.' 
 
 " Oh, dear no. She is just the woman to 
 marry again. A husband is a luxury that sort 
 of woman cannot forego, I shouldn't wonder 
 if George Ray the Third were the fortunate 
 man." 
 
 " That young Adonis ? Do you mean that 
 he — ? Oh ! impossible ! " 
 
 " Impossible that he should propose ? Not 
 at all. He is awfully hard up. The only gold, 
 I believe, he possesses is in his teeth." Here 
 she laughed merrily. " Sometimes I think we 
 take a pride in the amount of gold we stuff 
 into our mouths. Talk about the gold-fields, I 
 will back a fashionable churchyard to beat 
 them, as a mine of wealth." 
 
 Grace could not help laughing. 
 
 " I heard of a man who had a front tooth 
 stuffed with a diamond, but I didn't believe 
 it."
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 167 
 
 "Why not? Young men addicted to 
 precious stones have so few opportunities of 
 displaying them. If George Ray the Third 
 marries the Princess, I'll suggest to him that he 
 should wear one of hers, instead of that lump 
 of gold in his eye tooth." 
 
 The Princess here rose. It was time to go 
 to the assembly, of which she was a patroness, 
 and whither nearly all the party present were 
 bound.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MoRDAUNT Ballinger's lunchcons at the 
 " Lawyers' Club," and his introductions to 
 various magnates of the money-market had 
 led to his mind being tossed and buffeted on 
 a sea of railroads, and mines, and joint-stock 
 companies, until it had settled — as much from 
 exhaustion, perhaps, as anything — on " real 
 estate " in one of the rapidly rising cities of 
 the Far West. This seemedas safe an invest- 
 ment, to bring in a large return for his money, 
 as he could find. He felt sure Mrs. Frampton 
 would think so. Still, as his aunt, whose 
 acuteness in money matters he regarded with 
 an almost superstitious trust, not wholly un- 
 mixed with dread, w^as to join them in the 
 course of a few weeks, the young man resolved 
 to defer the purchase of the shares offered him 
 until he could visit Pueblo, and investigate on 
 the spot the condition and prospects of the 
 estate in question.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 169 
 
 He came into his sister's room, a morning or 
 two after the Van Winkle dinner, holding an 
 open letter in his hand. 
 
 '• I've heard from Aunt Su. She has got 
 my letter, and seems in an awful stew about my 
 investing money here. Well, I wrote yester- 
 day to tell her I should do nothing till she 
 came. She thinks she can sail the middle of 
 February, and join us in Boston. By-the-bye, 
 have you written to Mrs. Courtly ? " 
 
 " No. I was waiting for you to tell me 
 what time to propose to go to her. I suppose 
 we shall only be there a few days before we go 
 to Boston?" 
 
 " Well, that depends. I believe the 
 Planters are going to her next week. We may 
 as well offer ourselves at the same time." 
 
 Grace smiled. 
 
 '' Certainly." Then, with a malicious glance 
 into her brother's face : " Perhaps Mrs. 
 Courtly would invite Miss Hurlstone, too, if I 
 mentioned her. They are friends, I know." 
 
 " Well, don't mention her, then. She is a 
 very nice girl, and all that, but — Pd rather she 
 didn't come." 
 
 He stood near the table where his sister was
 
 170 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 writing as he said this. Then he took up a 
 pen, and flung it down, fidgetted first on one 
 leg, then on the other, finally walked to the 
 window, still with Mrs. Frampton's letter in his 
 hand, and remained there silent, with his back 
 to Grace for several minutes. She knew him 
 too well not to see there was something on his 
 mind — something which he desired to say to 
 her, and yet found it difficult to express. She 
 thought, not without a twinge of apprehension, 
 of the various ladies to whom he had paid 
 attention here. Could it be that he had en- 
 tangled himself, more or less, with one of these ? 
 Her mind so little anticipated what was coming 
 that she started and flushed when he said, — 
 
 " There's something else In Aunt Su's letter 
 which I think you ought to know, Grace. In 
 fact, she says I'm to tell you. Because you're 
 sure to hear of It sooner or later. People are 
 full of it. There's fresh evidence against 
 Lawrence." 
 
 Her face hardened. She closed her lips 
 tight for a moment, and in her clear blue eyes 
 there was a momentary flash, as she said 
 quickly, — 
 
 "What Is it?"
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 171 
 
 "They've found the draft of another will, 
 dated some years back, by which his uncle left 
 the bulk of his fortune to his other nephew, 
 Giles Tracy, and only io,ooo/. to Ivor Law- 
 rence." 
 
 "You call that evidence against him? 
 What does that prove ? " she asked hotly. 
 
 " It only proves that before Ivor got the 
 influence over his uncle which he exercised 
 latterly, the old chap meant to leave his estates, 
 not to his sister's son, but to his brother's son, 
 as was natural, and as it was understood he 
 would do." 
 
 "Understood by whom? By Mr. Giles 
 Tracy, I suppose, who took to gambling on 
 the strength of this prospective fortune ! And 
 why was it ' natural,' pray, that a man who 
 had made — not inherited — his large fortune, 
 like old Mr. Tracy, should leave it to a spend- 
 thrift, a vautrien, instead of to a clever, rising 
 barrister like his other nephew, whose character 
 was universally respected ? " 
 
 " Well, it isn't universally respected now, 
 Grace." 
 
 *' The more shame for those who are ready 
 to believe any foul accusation on such evi-
 
 iy2 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 dence ! " Her cheeks were aflame, and her 
 voice shook as she spoke. " Evidence ? It is 
 too childish to call this evidence. According 
 to your own showing, all it proves is that the 
 old man once — before he knew how young 
 Tracy would turn out — meant to make him his 
 heir. He discovered in time the comparative 
 worth of both his nephews." 
 
 ''You forget there is a lot of cumulative evi- 
 dence against Ivor before ; his bringing a 
 lawyer (who happens to have died since) to his 
 uncle's bedside when he was dying — young 
 Tracy's being refused admittance to his 
 uncle — " 
 
 " Because the old man could not endure the 
 sight of him latterl}-. Everyone knows that 
 he refused repeatedly to see him ; and those 
 who had heard him speak of his nephew during 
 the last year or two, were amazed to find 
 that he had left him even so much as 20,000/." 
 
 Mordaunt shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " The signature of the will is disputed, as 
 you know." 
 
 An ejaculation indicative of intense scorn 
 burst from his sister's lips. 
 
 ''So he is to be accused of forgery. I
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 173 
 
 wonder they don't add murder to the charge ! 
 Has the trial begun?" 
 
 " No, it has been again deferred." 
 
 She was silent for a moment, leaning her 
 head upon her left hand, while with a pen in 
 the right she traced some scrolls upon the note- 
 paper before her. 
 
 " Poor Mr. Lawrence ! " she said, at last. " I 
 have a great mind to write to him." 
 
 " Good God ! You wouldn't dream of doing 
 anything so undignified, so outrageous, after 
 his behaviour to you, Grace ? A fellow who 
 runs after you for months so that half the 
 world believes you are engaged to him, and 
 that he is only waiting till he is rich enough to 
 marry, and who, when he inherits this big 
 fortune, turns his back and never comes near 
 you again ; and you would actually demean 
 yourself to write to him ? " 
 
 Strange to say, now that the discussion had 
 entered upon personal grounds, the young lady 
 had comparatively regained her composure. 
 Still it was not without an effort that she said, — 
 
 " Mr. Lawrence and I are very good friends, 
 and I hope we shall always remain so. We 
 never have been, and, of course, never shall be.
 
 174 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 anything more. I see no reason why I should 
 not write and assure him that there is one 
 person who believes in him, if all the verdicts in 
 the world went against him, — if the whole of 
 London cut him dead, it would make no 
 difference to me. I know him to be a perfectly 
 honourable, truthful, noble character. He is 
 peculiar ; there are some very rugged knots in 
 him which you and Aunt Su, particularly Aunt 
 Su, could never understand. And you don't 
 understand him now. You think, supposing 
 that he cared for me, which of course he never 
 did, that he should have proposed when he 
 found himself with 10,000/. a year. That is 
 the last thing he would do with this accusation, 
 this cloud over his head. He might have done 
 so as a poor barrister, but never as one whose 
 good name was tainted. I don't say he is right 
 in avoiding us as he has done ; I think, on the 
 contrary, he is quite wrong. But I should not 
 be afraid of his misunderstanding me if I wrote 
 to him. I think he would do justice to my 
 motives, and thank me." 
 
 '' All the same, Grace, I do hope to good- 
 ness, you won't. Men of the world are not used 
 to such high-flown sentiments. And it's so
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 175 
 
 very like throwing yourself at the head of a 
 cad, who — " 
 
 " None of that, Mordy, please, or I must ask 
 you to leave the room." She spoke now with 
 more excitement. "We have gone through all 
 the string of opprobrious epithets at your 
 command before, you know. They produce no 
 effect on me — yes, they do. They make me 
 feel very irritable with you. So, like a dear, 
 drop it, please, and if you mention Mr. Law- 
 rence — I have no objection whatever to your 
 mentioning him — do so respectfully, as my 
 friend." 
 
 He felt there was nothing more to be said. 
 He had expended all his ammunition, retreat 
 alone remained for him. But when the door 
 was closed behind her brother, the girl's fortitude 
 and pride broke down. She laid her head 
 between her hands and the hot tears of wounded 
 love and disappointment coursed down her 
 cheeks, and fell on the note-paper upon which 
 her pen had traced a confusion of curves and 
 circles. Why had he not spoken to her when 
 he was a struggling barrister ? Was it because 
 of her aunt, her brother ? Was it by reason of 
 false pride ? That he had pride, of an un-
 
 176 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 reasoning, indomitable kind, allied to the 
 obstinacy which was so marked a feature of 
 his character, she knew well. But this should 
 not have been enough to have kept him silent 
 if he cared for her. And unless she was 
 utterly blinded by vanity, by a fatuous mis- 
 apprehension of looks she had now and again 
 found fastened upon her, of casual words and 
 actions escaping from a reticent man, he had 
 cared for her at that time. She would sooner 
 have died than admit to her brother that she be- 
 lieved this. To him, as to her aunt, while hotly 
 defending Ivor Lawrence, whenever a discussion 
 concerning him arose, she always declared that 
 as " there had been nothing between them," her 
 only feeling as to his now holding aloof from them 
 was grief at the alienation of the most trusted 
 friend she had ever had. Of course Mrs. 
 Frampton was much too acute to be deceived 
 by these protestations. When the accusations 
 against Lawrence were made public, Grace's 
 health and spirits were so visibly affected for a 
 time that those who loved her most could not 
 but see how strong a hold this man had taken 
 on her heart. Nearly eight months had passed 
 since then, and to all outward seeming she had
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 177 
 
 recovered her buoyant tone, her healthy interest 
 and capacity of deriving pleasure from things 
 around her. Only at rare moments, and when 
 alone, as now, did the fiood-gates of a grief, 
 the well-springs of which lay so far below the 
 surface, rise up and overflow. 
 
 Nevertheless, after a while her brave spirit 
 rose. She must not succumb to her trouble. 
 For the sake of others she must put it away 
 from her; she rose and bathed her eyes. She 
 had an engagement to a "ladies' luncheon" 
 party, convened at the house of an agreeable 
 woman, almost a stranger to Grace, who, after 
 securing her, had invited seventeen others " to 
 meet Miss Ballinger." The luncheon was 
 exquisite and well-served ; the conversation 
 general and very pleasant. 
 
 '* I had no idea it could have been so pleasant," 
 she said afterwards. " I really think eighteen 
 Englishwomen would have been very dull, all 
 the waves floundering together without a male 
 rock to dash themselves against. But these 
 waves had so much salt in them ! I felt myself 
 quite invigorated by plunging among them." 
 
 The truth was these waves were rather 
 stronger than those which played, as a rule, 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 A Voyage oy Discovery. 
 
 upon the fine shores of fashionable New York 
 life. The women here met were almost all 
 interested, and active in better things than 
 gossip, parties, dress. Their fields and their 
 aims were diverse ; some of them were young 
 and active, some past middle age, but with keen 
 intelligence undimmed, sympathies warm as in 
 girlhood, and a playful humour, a humour 
 altogether national, conveyed sometimes in a 
 word, the turn of a phrase, lighting with the 
 illusive flame of a will-o'-the-wisp swamps into 
 which an interchange of talk so often flounders. 
 They were not pretentious, though many of 
 them did adventure upon subjects that demand 
 more time, thought, and preparation than most 
 Englishwomen conceive it fitting to give to 
 any study. One girl had been through a 
 course of anatomy ; not as it appeared, with 
 any ulterior object, but in order to master the 
 wonderful mechanism of the human frame, 
 '* which," as she said, with a hard directness, 
 which sounded odd in one so young, " being a 
 fact always present, should interest us more 
 than it does. We can learn, and we ought to 
 know all about it ; for this is a thing which 
 affects our whole being here, our present and
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 1 79 
 
 our future ; whereas our soul, which people 
 trouble themselves so much about, Is only a 
 matter of speculation. It seems a pity to 
 waste time on a subject we know so little 
 of." 
 
 Grace was too wise to enter Into a discussion 
 with the youthful philosopher; this was a phase 
 which would probably pass away in a few years, 
 when, If the girl fell under right Influence, she 
 mlo^ht learn that there were hlo^her truths than 
 those which can be tangibly felt ; In the mean- 
 time, the uncompromising antagonism to all con- 
 ventional acceptances, and polite euphemisms, 
 the resolve to seize the truth to her hand, and 
 probe it thoroughly. Interested Grace. This 
 was a type of American character she had not 
 yet met. 
 
 But among the middle-aged women was one 
 whose studies and experience were far more 
 curious. She had large means, which she had 
 partly expended among the fast diminishing 
 tribe of Zuni Indians in i\rIzona, whose lan- 
 guage she had rescued from oblivion by means 
 of the phonograph. The music of their hymns 
 and chants and invocations for rain had also 
 thus been noted down, and several unique 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 objects — notably, a je\velled toad, supposed to 
 be a god — secured by her excavations. The 
 ruined city made of adobe, in which this tribe 
 dwelt, had been saved from total destruction 
 through this lady's exertions, who induced the 
 Government to aid her in protecting them from 
 the attacks of other and more powerful tribes. 
 So interested had she become in this people, 
 that she had bidden some of their high-priests 
 to journey to the East, and visit her — which 
 they did. She described most graphically their 
 dignity, their admirable breeding, the eloquence 
 of their gestures, expressing their meaning so 
 clearly as scarcely to need the interpreter's 
 verbal translation of their speech. They went 
 thrice a day down to the seashore — the house 
 stood on a cliff — to make their prayers and 
 libations. " You are not as religious as we 
 are," they said, "but we suppose you are as 
 religious as you have time to be." 
 
 Some day a learned monograph will be pub- 
 lished of this people, their language, their faith, 
 their customs ; and the philologists will fight 
 over their origin, and the plough of civilization 
 will pass over their poor mud-built city ; but 
 Grace was interested in meeting the enthusiast
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. i8i 
 
 through whose courage, energy and devotion so 
 much had been rescued as a text book for his- 
 torical research. It was a fine sonorous note in 
 the diapason of American character, and the 
 young EngHshwoman heard it with pleasure. 
 
 That evening she and her brother dined with 
 Mrs. Caldwell. It was not a large party ; and 
 the guests, with the exception of Mrs. Flyn and 
 her sister, were all men — mostly men distin- 
 guished in some way other than that of having 
 amassed large fortunes ! 
 
 It is true that Alan Brown, the young Anglo- 
 maniac — "and stupid at that," as May Clayton 
 said — was present, but as he sat next Doreen, 
 to whom he talked in a low tone, his insignifi- 
 cance was not offensive. Brilliant Chudleigh, 
 the advocate, whose scathing eloquence was a 
 proverb, jovial Dr. Parr, simmering with fun, 
 ready to boil over at any moment, wise and 
 witty General Stout, famous in the war, and 
 now in peace time as great a favourite with 
 women as with men, the poet Sloper, so gently 
 humorous, so blandly pungent, Mordaunt's 
 shrewd friend Reid, and two others, whom the 
 Ballingers had not met before, threw in their 
 separate contributions into the common pool,
 
 1 82 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 and produced that best of round games — 
 general conversation. No one monopolized 
 the talk, but the men had the best of it. 
 May Clayton held her own. it is true ; the pro- 
 vocation of her nimble tongue stimulated the 
 clever elders around ; her sallies elicited peals 
 of laughter ; and from time to time, when there 
 was a lull, she set the humming-top — as with a 
 neat fiick of the whip — once more frantically 
 spinning. But as dinner progressed, and the 
 conversation, leaving generalities, entered into 
 the arena of personal chaff, the spur of the girl's 
 tongue was not needed. The combatants were 
 on their mettle, with a gallery to applaud their 
 brilliant attacks and retorts, their assaults, and 
 reprises, and carrying of the war into the 
 enemy's country, each man had his bout ; and 
 the fooling, conducted with perfect good 
 humour, was delightful. Such a contest would 
 not be possible in England. In chaff, we hold 
 that all is permissible, but the truth. But here 
 to wound one of these dexterous knights, armed 
 cap-a-pie, seemed impossible. Chudleigh had 
 tried for the Presidency of the United States, 
 and had failed. The mock commiseration he 
 met with at the hands of Parr, who deplored the
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. i8^ 
 
 o 
 
 waste of fine oratory spilt upon that occasion, 
 was countervailed by the satirical sympathy 
 Chudleigh affected in rounded periods, at the 
 charges of bribery and corruption brought in 
 the public prints against a well-known body, of 
 which the M.D. was a leading member. This 
 spear-thrust might have been expected to pierce 
 his armour. Not at all ; he rode on laughing, 
 and apparently untouched. Then it was pro- 
 posed that Government should be memorialized 
 to create the post of Laureate to the United 
 States, in order that the poet Sloper should be 
 elected thereto. His verses had failed to 
 soften the hearts of his native town so far as to 
 induce them to send him as their representative 
 to Congress, but this want of appreciation, this 
 deadness of heart — said General Stout, warm- 
 ing to his subject — would, no doubt, disappear 
 when Sloper's Sonnets received the stamp of 
 official recognition. As to the General himself, 
 he received thrusts on all sides, as to his cam- 
 paigns in stage-land, his conquests in the green- 
 room, his capitulations under (scenic) canvas, 
 his ready response to the cry from oppressed 
 damsels of " Stout to the rescue ! " 
 
 The Ballingers were both much amused.
 
 184 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 Mordaunt, between Mrs. Caldwell and Mrs. 
 Flynn, had two foot-notes, as it were, to the 
 text of all this personal raillery. Mrs. Flynn 
 was the more ample and unrestrained expositor 
 of the two : Mrs. Caldwell not going beyond a 
 hint, sometimes, where the younger and livelier 
 lady became exhaustive. Grace had Pierce 
 Caldwell beside her. He fully entered into the 
 fun, and told her enough to make her under- 
 stand the point of each attack, the dexterity of 
 each defence, the Imperturbable good temper 
 with which all who mingled in the fray bore the 
 several blows. 
 
 " People say you Americans are thin-skinned," 
 she said. " Perhaps there is one side of you — 
 that side which you turn to tis, which has a sen- 
 sitive skin ; but the other side, that which is 
 presented to yourselves, must be covered with 
 a perfect hide ! Englishmen could no more 
 stand these blows below the belt, they would 
 turn very nasty. I saw a clever young man 
 once in a country house retire to bed, because 
 — we were playing at ' Twenty-one Questions ' 
 — he was so offended at an impudent bit of 
 chaff. We had thought of the Duke of Welling- 
 ton's Monument in St. Paul's, and when he
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 185 
 
 could not guess it, and had to be told, he de- 
 clared indignantly he had never heard of it. 
 ' Perhaps you never heard of the Duke of 
 Wellington,' said a pert prig ; whereupon the 
 discomfited guesser went straight off to bed. 
 Now, I see that no American could possibly be 
 so silly. You have your tempers so admirably 
 in hand." 
 
 " Well, I don't know about that," said Pierce 
 dubiously. " It all depends on whether we 
 think a man means mischief or not. These 
 fellows here, you see, are all good friends. 
 They enjoy sharpening their wits on each 
 other." 
 
 " So it seems," said Grace, laughing. 
 
 Dr. Parr, on her other side, had been watch- 
 ing his opportunity to fire sly shots obliquely 
 across the table at Chudleigh, and had not 
 heard the foregoing. He now turned round 
 and addressed the young Englishwoman with 
 the unmistakable air that says, " Enough of 
 fooling. Let us be serious," though there 
 was still a sub-cutaneous twitch about his 
 mouth. 
 
 " What do you think of us, Miss Ballinger ? 
 I am afraid you will go back and say we are an
 
 1 86 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 ?/;^licensed set of victualers, making a terrible 
 row, without any manners, any polish, eh ? " 
 
 " I am so glad you put it that way, instead 
 of asking me what I think of America, which is 
 so difficult to answer, and which I am asked, 
 upon an average, twelve times every day. It 
 isn't at all difficult to answer you. I should 
 like to dine with such unlicensed victuallers 
 every day of my life." 
 
 " Great Scot ! This is, indeed, an incentive 
 to continue in our evil ways," cried the doctor. 
 "You cannot be English, Miss Ballinger, quite, 
 qtdte English ? A drop of Irish or Foreign 
 must be infused into your blue blood, surely ? " 
 
 " Why so ? Are we not the most apprecia- 
 tive nation upon earth ?'' 
 
 " Critical — say critical — and I am with you. 
 You measure everything by one standard — your 
 own. I don't say you are wrong, but it makes 
 English approval sometimes appear to be tinged 
 with — what shall I say ? condescension ? Do 
 you know the story of the American who drew 
 the attention of a patriotic Briton to a gorgeous 
 sunset here ? The Britisher replied, " Sunset ? 
 Ah ! you should see one of Her Majesty's 
 sunsets ! "
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 187 
 
 Grace laughed heartily. 
 
 "That is very cruel of you, Dr. Parr. I 
 wanted to say such a number of nice things to 
 you, and now I can't. I shall have to pour 
 them all out to Mr. Chudleigh, who won't call 
 my appreciation, ' condescension.' " 
 
 Here a name, bandied across the table, struck 
 Grace's ear. 
 
 " Planter has cornered the market, they 
 say. 
 
 " He has high Scriptural authority for doing 
 so," said Chudleigh. "Joseph cornered the 
 market, and made a very good thing out of it." 
 
 " I suspect that is more than Planter will 
 do," struck in the General. *' He will come to 
 grief some day with his gigantic specula- 
 tions." 
 
 " What ! " cried May Clayton, with her 
 chirruping little voice, " has he bitten off more 
 than he can chew ? " 
 
 Ballinger laughed immoderately. Probably 
 this turned Miss Clayton's attention more 
 directly to him. 
 
 " By-the-bye, Sir Mordaunt, is it true that 
 you are going to give up your baronetcy, and 
 become an American citizen ? "
 
 1 88 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " You have given me too little encourage- 
 ment," he replied promptly, with a stage 
 sigh. 
 
 "Well!" she said, "I don't know about 
 encojiragemcnt. I should say you have 
 neglected your opportunities. But I believe 
 you followed my advice. Only take care you 
 don't bark up the wrong tree." 
 
 " There's such a forest," he said. " It's awfully 
 confusing." 
 
 Grace had some conversation with her hostess 
 after dinner. 
 
 The Caldwells were to leave New York for 
 their home in the Rocky Mountains in the 
 course of a week. It was arranged that Grace 
 should write to Mrs. Caldwell when she and 
 her brother went Westward, and Mrs. Frampton 
 was included in the cordial invitation to 
 " Falcon's Nest," offered to the English 
 travellers. 
 
 " I like Mrs. Caldwell," said Mordaunt as 
 they drove home. " She is a good sort. The 
 girl's dull. ' 
 
 " Not at all, she is young, and has not lost 
 the sweet privileges of youth for remaining in 
 the background, as Miss Clayton has."
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 189 
 
 " Give me a girl who has lost the privilege, 
 then. I can't stand a bread-and-butter miss. 
 I wish Mrs. Caldwell would ask Mrs. Flyn and 
 her cousin to Falcon's Nest when we are there ; 
 not that I shall be there for more than a day 
 or two, I fancy. I shall leave you and Aunt 
 Su, while I go off to Pueblo, and stay with 
 Charington at his ranche." 
 
 " I should not much like to be shut up with 
 Aunt Su and Miss Clayton," returned his sister, 
 laughing. " It would be what you call ' rather 
 warm quarters.' I like the girl myself. I am 
 sure there is no harm in her — not half so much 
 as there is in many very demure girls — but I 
 fancy I see Aunt Su's face at her way of going 
 on ? I shouldn't mind her meeting Miss 
 Planter now," she added, glancing with a smile 
 at him as the lamplight flashed upon his face. 
 *' Miss Planter would not offend her taste." 
 
 He did not reply, and the rest of the drive 
 home was performed in silence.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The ball of hospitality which had been set 
 rolling by kindly hands a month since, was 
 snatched from one to another, during that last 
 week of our travellers' stay in New York, and 
 seemed to acquire a more vigorous impetus as 
 the day of their departure drew near. That 
 this constant round of social engagements was 
 fatiguing to Grace, that she longed for a little 
 repose, and leisure for reflection, is true ; but, 
 under the circumstances, perhaps it was as well 
 that this luxury was withheld. She had come 
 abroad, as her brother's companion, with the 
 definite resolve to put the past 1 ehind her. 
 For months one subject — one cruel, gnawing 
 trouble — had absorbed all her thoughts. It 
 should do so no longer. She would never 
 suffer a hint of reproach, or a word of accusation 
 against Ivor Laurence to fall from the lips of 
 either her aunt or brother, without defending
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 191 
 
 him hotly. But, unless forced to do so, she 
 never uttered his name. Both Mrs. Frampton 
 and Mordaunt recognized the effort to dismiss 
 him from her heart. They thought they were help, 
 ing her to do so ; but they learnt the inefficacy 
 of abuse. Happily, there was a natural rebound 
 in her healthy temperament against sitting 
 down with folded hands, and doing nothing in 
 this world. Visiting the poor was not in her 
 line ; she had tried " slumming " in London, 
 and had found it a failure ; it was the only 
 thing which paralyzed her with shyness. The 
 pursuit of science and art were equally foreign 
 to her nature. The work which seemed fitting 
 and natural for her just now was to be 
 Mordaunt's help-mate and companion, until 
 such time as he should select one for life. 
 He was not made to be alone. And this work 
 which her hand had found, she would do, as 
 she had done everything, with all her might. 
 
 Therefore it was that she had thrown herself 
 frankly and without stint into the stream of 
 society in New York, resolved to take what 
 interest and amusement she could find, without 
 letting anyone — least of all her brother — see 
 the dark shadow that obtruded itself, from time
 
 192 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 to time, across the brilliant scene. And she 
 had her reward. There is not so much cor- 
 diality in the world that a warm-hearted girl 
 can remain indifferent to such a welcome as had 
 been accorded to Grace, even where there was 
 not much in common between her and her new 
 acquaintances. Some she really liked greatly; 
 some had only amused her ; towards all she 
 felt unaffectedly grateful for the many thought- 
 ful attentions she had received. The Hurlstones 
 had been persistently kind, and now proposed 
 to receive Mrs. Frampton, their old acquain- 
 tance, on her landing ; but, as regarded them, 
 Grace could not but feel it was just as well 
 that her brother and she were leaving New 
 York. If the girl took Mordaunt's spasmodic 
 flirtation seriously, the sooner he was removed 
 from her the better. Grace was sceptical as to 
 his ever being very hard hit ; at all events 
 Beatrice Hurlstone was not the one to deal the 
 decisive blow. 
 
 As to her other acquaintances, the Caldwells 
 and Mrs. Siebel were those from whom she 
 parted with most regret. The first Grace 
 hoped soon to see again ; the latter was to be 
 in Europe next summer, when she and Miss
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 193 
 
 Ballinger would meet. Jem Gunning had gone 
 to recover his equihbrium from defeat at St. 
 Augustine. Grace was glad to be spared any 
 farewells from the young millionaire. Mr. Sims 
 was so peripatetic that he might turn up any- 
 where, at Boston, or Chicago, or San Francisco. 
 " As long as I am this side the grave you are 
 never safe from me," as he himself put it. Mrs. 
 Van Winkle proposed to give a Thd Funebre 
 on the Ballingers' departure. She had lately 
 given one, on the death of a third cousin, who 
 had left her an amethyst necklace. "A thing 
 I couldn't wear, you know, so I sold it, and 
 spent the produce in cypress wreaths, and im- 
 mortelles, tied with black riband, with which I 
 decorated the room and the tea-table, in the 
 poor thing's honour ; and though we didn't have 
 * funeral baked meats,' we ate ' soupirs^ and 
 everyone said it was charming, so original." 
 But Grace declined the proffered honour, as 
 she was obliged to do many other entertain- 
 ments that last week. 
 
 Some twelve miles from Boston, but served by 
 a branch railway which decants the traveller at a 
 station hard by the gate of the grounds, stands 
 a pleasant grey stone house of moderate size, 
 
 VOL, I. o
 
 194 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 built by the late Mr. Richardson. That talented 
 architect, who struck out a new line in domestic 
 building, and created, it may be said, the school 
 of American architecture which is now so 
 flourishing throughout the land, never designed 
 a more picturesque home than this of Brackly. 
 The low Byzantine arch, beneath which the 
 front-door steps ascend, and then turn sharp 
 to the right hand ; the heavy mullioned bay- 
 window, and corner turret with its sharp pin- 
 nacle, and wide range of outlook, over the cliffs 
 and down to the sea, the steep-pitched red 
 roof, and stone balcony thrust out from a 
 recessed window under another arch, the heavy 
 oak door with its old Venetian knocker of 
 wrought iron, every feature is agreeable and 
 harmonizes. And the face of this delightful 
 dwelling, on the summit of a green slope, sur- 
 rounded by fine beeches, is as the face of a 
 friend from the old world to the traveller who 
 has just left behind him the hideous uniformity 
 of city streets. The trees were still bare ; 
 through the rich brown earth of the flower-beds 
 not even a crocus had as yet thrust its golden 
 head ; but the sea beyond the sandhills was 
 very blue, and the log- wood down by the lake
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 195 
 
 made a spot of crimson colour against the grey 
 green bank. 
 
 Grace lingered for an instant on the door- 
 step. 
 
 " How lovely ! " she cried. 
 
 " There ought to be ducks there. By Jove ! 
 I see some," said Mordy. 
 
 Then they turned into the oak-panelled hall. 
 A curtain of old Flemish tapestry was lifted at 
 the further end, and Mrs. Courtly, as lithe as a 
 girl of fifteen, with a garden hat, an apron, and a 
 pair of scissors in her hand, ran towards them. 
 
 " Welcome to Brackly ! So glad to see you 
 both. And you have brought fine weather. It 
 snowed yesterday, I was in despair. You like 
 my little home? I am so glad. It is not like 
 your grand English places, but the view is 
 pretty, and the house comfortable, I hope." 
 
 " There is comfort for the eyes, and comfort 
 for the mind, I see," said Grace, looking round 
 her, '' as well as for the body." 
 
 " Those were wonderful cobs that brought us 
 from the station," said Mordy. " I never sat 
 behind better steppers." 
 
 " You shall sit behind something better to- 
 morrow, Sir Mordaunt, one of our fast trotters ; 
 
 o 2
 
 196 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 but come into the parlour, or, as you would say, 
 the drawing-room." 
 
 She lifted the portiere again and they entered 
 a long apartment, with deep bay-windows, at 
 the further end of which was a dais, raised upon 
 three steps, where stood the piano. From this 
 " coyn of vantage," the view over the sandhills 
 to the sea was more extensive ; and here some 
 rocking chairs, and a table covered with books, 
 showed that it was a favourite corner with Mrs. 
 Courtly and her friends. On the walls of this 
 room were a few good Italian pictures, not too 
 many ; one or two fine plates of Maestro 
 Giorgio, and Spanish lustre ware, with silver- 
 bound missals and ivory caskets, in an old 
 English glazed cabinet ; in another some rare 
 books. But the place had not the air of a 
 curiosity-shop ; nor was the first impression 
 you received one of stupefaction at what it must 
 all have cost. Thoroughly comfortable chairs, 
 the last new books and magazines, the score of 
 " Parsifal " upon the desk of the open piano, 
 these touches of modernity, and cultivation 
 " up to date " disarmed the Philistine who 
 might be disposed to charge the collector of 
 these treasures with aesthetic affectation.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 197 
 
 " How charming it all is ! " exclaimed Grace. 
 " I never saw a more delightful ' Lady's Bower.' 
 It seems as if nothino; but what is refined could 
 live here — nothing but sunshine enter those 
 windows ! " 
 
 "Ah! it is twelve years old, it has already 
 had its share of storm and showers." She 
 sighed, and then turning, said, " I see you are 
 looking at my portrait, Sir Mordaunt. It is by 
 Michael Angelo Brown. Do you like it ? " 
 
 " No, I think it is horrid. It doesn't do you 
 justice, Mrs. Courtly." 
 
 " And I think it masterly," said his sister. 
 " He has caught that enigmatical expression 
 that reminded me, when I first saw you, of 
 Leonardo's ' Gioconda.' " 
 
 " I am pleased. You are the second person 
 who has said that. I shall tell Brown." 
 
 " You may add also what I say," said 
 Mordaunt, laughing, " that it doesn't do you a 
 bit of justice." 
 
 " Oh ! you are a flatterer, and a Philistine, Sir 
 Mordaunt. You prefer prettiness to individu- 
 ality. The New School which Brown represents 
 here, rather courts ugliness, certainly would 
 rather have ugrliness than lose individuality."
 
 198 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " I know. I've seen a whole lot he did of 
 Mrs. Van Winkle. I thought them all beastly. 
 Mrs. Van Winkle fencing, apparently in a 
 vapour bath ; Mrs. Van Winkle yawning, — no, 
 singing, I suppose it is, because she is at the 
 piano, with one hand up, and her little finger 
 stuck out at right angles with her hand. For- 
 give me if I say it is all so damned affected." 
 
 " You talk of what you don't understand, 
 Mordy," said Grace, impatiently. " Both those 
 pictures are very, vejy clever." 
 
 Mrs. Courtly gave her low rippling laugh. 
 
 " I like the fresh expression of opinion. One 
 so seldom gets it. Mrs. Planter (you know 
 the Planters ?) stood dumb before my portrait 
 for a minute or two. Then she said the chiaro 
 'scuro was wonderful." 
 
 " I should like it better if it were xnoxQ cJiiai'O 
 and less oscuro^' laughed Mordaunt in reply. 
 " Is she a fool?" 
 
 " By no means. She is a dear woman, only 
 she has not the courage of her opinions. She 
 is so anxious to be amiable. They arrived this 
 morning, and are gone up to their rooms to 
 rest. I expect Quintin Ferrars presently, .nnd 
 two great friends of mine from Boston, George
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 199 
 
 Laffan, the author, and Burton, a young 
 musician, whose compositions I think charm - 
 
 mg. 
 
 " I shall be quite out of it among all this 
 talent ! " sisfhed Mordaunt : and he shruo^gred 
 his shoulders with a smile. 
 
 '' How absurd you are, Sir Mordaunt ! Is he 
 accustomed to have compliments paid him all 
 the time, Miss Ballinger ? Is he fishing?" 
 
 "He has had too many since he landed. 
 Don't increase the evil, Mrs. Courtly. It is 
 quite time we went to the Wild West. In 
 New York we both ran the risk of being 
 spoilt." 
 
 " We shall not spoil you here," rejoined her 
 hostess, with one of her bright smiles, " because 
 it is what is best in you, and therefore impos- 
 sible to spoil, that we Bostonians shall chiefly 
 prize. I claim to be a Bostonian, you know, 
 because I was born there. Ah ! I see you are 
 looking at that small picture by Jansen. Do 
 you recognize the face ? It is supposed to be 
 Mary Stuart." 
 
 " She must have had as many heads as 
 Cerberus," said Mordaunt, " for no two resemble 
 each other."
 
 200 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " Pardon me ! this is very like the one at 
 Windsor. Next it is a Rembrandt I bought at 
 the Demidoff sale at Florence." 
 
 " How wonderful, to make an ugly, old 
 woman so interesting ! " Grace exclaimed. 
 " What an odd sort of battledore and shuttle- 
 cock Art and Nature play ! One would not be 
 attracted by a face like a withered walnut, till 
 one saw this admirable portrait. The next 
 time one saw it in the flesh one would be 
 delighted." 
 
 " Well, I shouldn't,'' said Mordaunt, moving 
 on to a cabinet of miniatures. " I like these 
 much better. In miniatures, they have always 
 got such awfully nice skins — like velvet. I 
 wish more women in real life had such com- 
 plexions. That must have been a little duck — 
 that woman with the powdered hair." 
 
 " Madame de Pompadour — well, she was a 
 duck, in her way. She swam in troubled 
 waters, and so did this poor bird who was more 
 of a swan, Marie Antoinette, white and stately, 
 with her lonsf throat. And this is our Martha 
 Washincfton, more of the barn-door fowl, and 
 near to her, Lafayette, and further on, Franklin. 
 I love to talk to these historic o-hosts. I can
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 201 
 
 take up one of these miniatures and am carried 
 right back to those days. I seem to read all 
 their stories in those faces. But here is the 
 tea, and more substantial food than ghosts can 
 give us." 
 
 Two servants entered with trays, which they 
 arranged on a table, with an old Chelsea service, 
 out of which it was manifest one could drink 
 nothing but " a dish " of tea ; and a George III. 
 " equipage " of silver, urn-shaped kettle, and 
 all. Grace could have fancied herself in an old 
 English country house, where all had remained 
 unchanged for the last hundred years. 
 
 Presently the Planter ladies descended. It 
 was obvious that the " rest" they were credited 
 with having required, was an euphony for 
 elaborate toilette. The mother's clothes be- 
 came her years ; but the daughter was so nobly 
 beautiful that she should have been simply 
 dressed. Grace, in her tight-fitting tweed, felt 
 no feminine envy for the gold-braided waistcoat 
 and velvet jacket trimmed with blue fox which 
 the girl wore ; here, in the country, this splendour 
 was singularly out of place ; even in the city it 
 would have seemed to English ideas a little 
 oppressive on one so young. . But the smile on
 
 202 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 that beautiful and by no means weak face was 
 so captivating that ''the first instahiientof her," 
 as Grace afterwards expressed it, could not fail 
 to please. 
 
 " I am so glad to meet you in the country," 
 she said, as she sat down on the sofa next to 
 Grace. " One knows people so much better 
 in the country. Why would you not come to 
 Tuxedo, when Jem Gunning asked us to meet 
 you ? We had such a good time. But it would 
 have been ever so much better if you had come." 
 
 " It is very kind of you to say that, but I 
 never promised Mr. Gunning to go to Tuxedo. 
 I should have been very glad to have met you, but 
 — I am sure this is much nicer than Tuxedo." 
 
 " Of course it is. Brackly is just like an 
 English house, isn't it ? " 
 
 "Yes, and that I see is a compliment in your 
 eyes." 
 
 " I should think so ! I love England. Do 
 you know Wraxford ? No ? or Binly ? This 
 reminded me a little of Binly." 
 
 " I should have thought the duke had too 
 many places for any of them to look as much 
 lived in as this does. That is the advantage 
 of having only one home."
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 203 
 
 Miss Planter looked puzzled for an Instant 
 — not longer. 
 
 " If you fill your house full of friends all the 
 time, it will soon get to look lived in, I think. 
 You in Encrland understand all the amuse- 
 ments of country life so well. We have no 
 country life, no hunting and shooting for the 
 men, to take them away from business ; so, if 
 we do go to the country, it's awfully slow, and 
 we never remain long." 
 
 " You have no interests, I suppose ? Per- 
 haps it requires an education to feel an interest 
 in a villaofe — in the school — in all the little 
 schemes that arise for the welfare of the poor, 
 in the cutting of trees, and irrigation of the 
 land, and gardening, and beautifying your pro- 
 perty. Those who really love country life have 
 no end of interests and amusements, indepen- 
 dent of society." 
 
 " Well, of course I saw nothing of that quiet 
 sort of life. It was boating, or riding, lawn 
 tennis or picnics with dancing or music of an 
 evening, all the time." 
 
 " And is the result of your experience that 
 you would like to live in England ? ' 
 
 " Well, I don't know. I had a very good
 
 204 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 time there, but I am awfully fond of my own 
 country, my own people. I would require a 
 great inducement to give them up. I suppose 
 the truth is, it would all depend on the man. 
 I should want to be very much in love." 
 
 " I am glad to hear that. It is supposed to 
 be an antiquated idea, as much out of date 
 here, I suppose, as with us. But as you have 
 made so many friends in England, if you 
 return there, you are almost sure to find the 
 man." 
 
 " I don't know about that. Pap-pa doesn't 
 want me to find him in England. Mam-ma 
 doesn't mind, if the man has a good position." 
 Here she turned with her lovely smile to 
 Ballinger, and said, " Don't you want to give 
 me some tea. Sir Mordaunt ? " 
 
 As he handed the cup to her, his sister read 
 in his eyes that he wished for her seat by Miss 
 Planter ; so Grace rose, and joined the two 
 ladies at the tea-table. She could not help 
 thinking that Mrs. Courtly was just a little 
 bored by the conversation of the " dear woman." 
 The desire not to be ranked as an ordinary 
 Pittsburgher, but as a person belonging to the 
 most exclusive circles in London and New
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 205 
 
 York, was a little irritating. She could talk of 
 nothing else. Pittsburg was relegated to the 
 dust-bin of things to be swept away ; though 
 there Pere Planter was still amassing his 
 dollars, and, while he allowed his spouse to 
 spend them freely, during the greater part of 
 the year, constrained her to join him occasion- 
 ally. Grace sat by and listened to Mrs. 
 Planter's small fry of gossip, floating in a shal- 
 low bath of sentiments, and brought to the 
 surface to nibble from time to time, by an 
 " Ah ! " or " Indeed ! " from her hostess ; much 
 as an indolent fisher languidly casts a net, con- 
 scious that the only fish to be caught are insig- 
 nificant and flabby. 
 
 There was a pleasant diversion, however, 
 before long, caused by the arrival of Messrs. 
 Laffan and Burton. The coming of the two 
 Bostonians was hailed by Mrs. Courtly with 
 pretty demonstrations of pleasure. She was 
 never afraid of showing the satisfaction she de- 
 rived from the presence of her men friends ; 
 and this frankness of demonstration was some- 
 times ill-naturedly commented upon by her own 
 sex. 
 
 Miss Ballinger had met Mr. Laffan in London.
 
 2c6 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 Who had not met that gracious, elderly man of 
 the world, who acted so long as a social bridge 
 between the two countries ? The bridge is now 
 broken ; others will arise in succession, but none 
 will ever take exactly the place of that which is 
 gone. It is needless to describe one so well 
 known, who was always greeted with as much 
 warmth in London as in his native city ; it is 
 enough to say that in Mrs. Courtly's house he 
 was a special favourite, and a very constant 
 visitor. 
 
 Mr. Burton, on the other hand, was an un- 
 known quantity to Grace. She had never 
 before met a romantic-looking American, with 
 tender, dreamy eyes, and that soft, far-away 
 manner which indicates a mind little fit to cope 
 with the hard actualities of life. He had none 
 of the brilliant incisiveness common to his 
 countrymen ; he would have been sadly at a 
 loss in a contest with May Clayton. But it 
 was not till after dinner, when he sat down to 
 play, that she realized how much the man lived 
 in a world of his own. He seemed to forget 
 that he had an audience ; he was talking to 
 himself, as it were, in that sweet poet's lan- 
 guage, which only the chosen few can under-
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 207 
 
 stand. As his soliloquy rambled on, through 
 doubt, remonstrance, despair, from plaintive 
 elegy to wild rhapsody, two at least among his 
 hearers were stirred, as though they were listen- 
 ing to the passionate struggles, the jubilant 
 conquest of a troubled soul. 
 
 But Quintin Ferrars was not one of those to 
 whom music speaks. He had arrived very 
 late, and Grace had not seen him till just before 
 dinner. At table the conversation was general, 
 but later he sat down by Grace, who was next 
 the piano, and began talking, regardless of the 
 fact that Burton was playing. Twice Grace 
 placed her finger on her lips, the third time, 
 Mrs. Courtly came up and shook her fan at 
 him. 
 
 "You bad man! If you want to talk, you 
 must go Into the next room." 
 
 "Won't you come, Miss Ballinger ? " he 
 said. " Your brother and Miss Planter are 
 there. That will equalize the company." 
 
 " I am sorry for their want of taste. I prefer 
 listening to Mr. Burton." 
 
 Ferrars said nothing, but retired to a 
 distant corner of the room, and took up the 
 Ceiitztry. He spoke to no one during the
 
 2oS A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 remainder of the evening. Mrs. Planter mur- 
 mured at proper intervals that it was truly 
 delightful, so intellectual, so metaphysical 
 (she pronounced it mutterphysical). Mrs. 
 Courtly and Grace scarcely spoke, but silence 
 is often more eloquent than words, and in his 
 hostess, at least, the young musician knew he 
 had a listener who understood what it was he 
 meant to say. It was this power of under- 
 standing which made Mrs. Courtly a delightful 
 companion to so many and to such very 
 different sorts of people.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The next day was Sunday, and when the party 
 assembled at breakfast at half-past nine, it 
 appeared that Mrs. Courtly had already been 
 to early Communion, at the neighbouring 
 church. 
 
 " The carriage will be here at eleven for 
 anyone who wants to go to morning service. 1 
 am going to Evensong instead, and shall 
 take Mr. Laffan for a drive this morning. 
 What will you do, Miss Ballinger ? " 
 
 Grace said she wished to go to church, 
 whereupon Miss Planter declared she meant to 
 go also, adding, — 
 
 " I hear Samuel Sparks is near here, and will 
 probably preach." 
 
 "Yes," said Mrs Courtly. "That is the 
 reason I am not going." 
 
 "Is he not a very great preacher ? ' asked 
 Grace. 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 2 10 A Voyage of Discoverv. 
 
 " Yes, but I do not consider him orthodox. 
 He is too broad in his views to suit me." 
 
 Grace had been under a vague impression 
 that all American religion was "broad:" she 
 had no idea that a section of the community 
 cherished a rigid ritualism. 
 
 " Samuel Sparks is a lovely man," said Mrs. 
 Planter, shaking her head gently, " but perhaps 
 a little too — " 
 
 Her criticism was left to shift for itself as 
 best it might, in the minds of her hearers. All 
 the men had heard the famous preacher except 
 Sir Mordaunt, and he was not a very regular 
 church-goer. However, on this occasion, he 
 declared that his curiosity was fired, he would 
 accompany the ladies. Mrs. Courtly smiled 
 blandly across the silver urn at him. 
 
 " Mrs. Van Winkle will no longer be able to 
 compare you to Guy Livingston. I am glad 
 you go to church. You^ I know, Quintin, are 
 past praying for — " 
 
 •' Quite." He cut her short, decisively. 
 
 " In England it is thought good form for men 
 to go to church. They did so when we stayed 
 in county houses there all the time," said Mrs. 
 Planter.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 211 
 
 " All the time ? " repeated Sir Mordaunt 
 interrogatively, with a look of amused wonder. 
 
 " Mam-ma means every Sunday," explained 
 her daughter ; then added laughing, — " All, 
 except a few old heathens, politicians, and 
 philosophers, and people who buried themselves 
 in the library." 
 
 " I am not a politician, but I hope I am a 
 philosopher," said Ferrars, with a tolerant 
 smile. 
 
 " I am neither one nor the other," sighed 
 Burton, with an appealing look at Mrs. Courtly. 
 " But when the music is bad, my soul is in 
 revolt, it makes me so cross. I go away worse 
 than I came. And the music in your church 
 here is very bad — you know it is, Mrs. 
 Courtly." 
 
 So the three drove off to church together. 
 Nothing in the service invited comment (the 
 music being no worse than the Ballingers were 
 used to in their own country church), until Mr. 
 Sparks began to read the first lesson. He 
 had not opened his lips till then. Apparently 
 there was a storage of sound waiting to escape, 
 and it rushed forth with a volubility truly 
 astounding. Ballinger looked at his sister with 
 
 p 2
 
 212 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 elevated brows. It was clear that the minister 
 expected the congregation to be conversant 
 with the text of Holy Writ ; otherwise it was 
 impossible to follow him. He read also a 
 portion of the Communion service in a manner 
 that seemed to Grace little short of irreverent. 
 But all this was as nothing compared to the 
 rapidity of his utterance when he reached the 
 pulpit. His sermon was a splendid piece of 
 oratory, charged with noble thought, clad in 
 language that seemed, like lightning, to strike 
 and tear the ground. Then, as the thunder 
 rolled along, the scorn of self-seeking and of 
 sloth, the denunciation of envy and unchari- 
 tableness, fell like hail smiting the consciences 
 of some who heard. But the electric rapidity 
 with which the words poured down was such 
 that, as flash succeeded flash, many of the con- 
 gregation were blinded, groping their way 
 feebly, and clutching at his meaning here and 
 there. It required long usage (and to some of 
 those assembled he was almost a stranger), or 
 a sharp, retentive vision, not to be dazzled as 
 the lightning struck peak after peak, and the 
 wind swept by, and the great storm drove on 
 relentless, without pause or hesitation.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 213 
 
 Miss Planter only removed her beautiful 
 eyes from the preacher, to glance surreptitiously, 
 from time to time, at her companions, and judge 
 of the effect produced on them. Grace lis- 
 tened, eager and absorbed ; her brother gnawed 
 his moustache, and looked ill at ease. When, 
 at last, the torrent of words stopped, and the 
 congregation slid out of church, in various 
 mental conditions, the American girl's curiosity 
 found its vent. 
 
 " Well ?" she asked, addressing Mordaunt. 
 " What do you say ? Is he not just wonder- 
 ful ? " 
 
 " Wonderful ! I believe you. I never heard 
 a chap pour out so many words to the minute 
 before. It's perfectly awful, going on like this, 
 for more than half an hour without stopping !" 
 
 " How I wished I could write shorthand ! " 
 exclaimed his sister. " It is too sad to think 
 it is all gone beyond recall. I never heard 
 anything so splendid, so stirring ! " 
 
 " I am awfully glad you think so," said Miss 
 Planter, who clung fondly to the English slang 
 she had acquired. " I hoped that you, Sir 
 Mordaunt, would have felt a little moved. 
 Samuel Sparks always docs move me so ! "
 
 2J4 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 " Move me ! Why, I felt as if I were being 
 hurled down a precipice, and were clutching 
 wildly at twigs, roots, anything to save 
 myself. But it was no use ; as fast as I 
 caught hold of anything, it slipped from me, 
 and I felt just as if I'd come an awful cropper, 
 bruised and stunned when he stopped." 
 
 The conversation was renewed at luncheon, 
 when Mrs. Courtly expressed a desire to 
 know how her English guests had been 
 impressed by the famous preacher. Her 
 feelings as a patriotic American and a staunch 
 Churchwoman were divided. Miss Ballinger 
 satisfied one sentiment, Sir Mordaunt the 
 other. 
 
 "As far as I could make out," he said, "It 
 was more of a lecture than a sermon. But 
 then I made out very little." 
 
 " Whatever it was, it was exceedingly fine," 
 said his sister, with decision. " I have come 
 to the conclusion that Americans are much 
 more eloquent than Englishmen. We have no 
 orator in either House to compare with Mr. 
 Sparks." 
 
 " A preacher has every other sort of orator 
 at a disadvantage," said Ferrars, grimly. " He
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. - 215 
 
 can say what he Hkes, he can scourge you, 
 without fear of reprisal." 
 
 "Yes," said Mrs. Courtly, "and there must 
 have been many present, who — like myself — 
 object, not only to Mr. Sparks' manner, but to 
 his doctrine. His ability is undoubted, of 
 course." 
 
 " How is it, Mrs. Courtly, that he comes to 
 be preaching in a ritualistic church ? " asked 
 Grace. 
 
 " In former years the division was very great. 
 Doctrine was paramount, before eloquence, or 
 anything. Latterly there has been a growing 
 tendency to let pastors of different views change 
 pulpits. It is a practice I do not care about, 
 but I suppose its has it advantages." 
 
 " If people willhe preached at," said Ferrars, 
 " it is better that the subject should be looked 
 at from different points of view, with more 
 freedom and liberty than from the narrow plane 
 of one parsonic mind." 
 
 " Oh, my ! Mr. Ferrars," exclaimed Mrs. 
 Planter, " why should ministers have narrower 
 minds than anyone else ? " 
 
 " I did not say they had. All minds looking 
 at one subject from one point of view become
 
 2i6 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 narrow. I know mine has," he muttered. 
 Then, with a satirical smile, " And yours. Like 
 a good mother, it is concentrated on your 
 daughter, and I am sure you only take one view 
 of her future. You can't take an all-round 
 survey of the position." 
 
 Mrs. Planter bristled ; she did not know how 
 to receive this odd speech. As she said after- 
 wards to Mrs. Courtly, " It was so very — " 
 
 But her amiable hostess threw herself into 
 the breach. With a smile at the girl, who was 
 colouring, " There can be but one view of 
 Clare's future," she said quickly. " She has 
 already most of the good things of this world. 
 She will find the best, and be clever enough to 
 know when she has found it." 
 
 It was a clear, still afternoon, though very 
 cold. The recent snow had left the roads 
 ankle-deep in slush, which there had been 
 neither frost, nor wind, the previous day to dry. 
 Now it was freezing, but not hard enough to 
 affect the mud to any depth. The road on 
 which all the party set out to walk was certainly 
 very bad ; it would have been difficult to match 
 it in any country district in England ; but then, 
 they did not walk on the road. The system,
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 217 
 
 unknown with us, of laying down planks on the 
 wayside for pedestrians, secured them a dry 
 foot-path. But only two could walk abreast. 
 Mr. Burton had timidly endeavoured to place 
 himself beside Grace ; Ferrars' dominant per- 
 severance however secured that privilege. 
 
 " You behaved very ill, last night, Mr. 
 Ferrars," began Miss Ballinger, with her charac- 
 teristic fearlessness, " and again to-day at 
 luncheon. You sulked, because you were not 
 allowed to talk, and because I wanted to listen 
 to the music ; and to-day you attacked poor 
 Mrs. Planter in a most unjustifiable way." 
 
 " I am not aware that I attacked her. I 
 said her thoughts were concentrated on her 
 daughter's future — " 
 
 " You know very well what you meant ; and 
 sJie knew. Cynics like you are always crying out 
 against the follies and weakness of the world ; 
 and you have just as many yourselves. It is 
 Hudibras over again, what you are 'inclined 
 to ; ' and what you * have no mind to.' '' 
 
 " I daresay you are right," he returned, with 
 unusual gentleness ; " but if you knew how the 
 world has treated me, you would be more lenient 
 in your judgment, you would understand how
 
 2i8 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 I have come to be misanthropic and bitter. 
 Perhaps some day you may know." 
 
 She felt sorry for him ; she Hked the man, 
 with all his faults ; perhaps she was not 
 superior to the womanly love of influence over 
 one whom few attracted. But her clear sense 
 prevented her being blinded by the sophism 
 of his defence ; and she said impulsively, — 
 
 " You expect leniency, but you show none. 
 And, then, you are like a spoilt child, sulking, 
 as you did last night — or running away, as you 
 did more than once in New York, because 
 somebody came into the room you did not like ! 
 I think suffering ought to make men stronger, 
 not weaker, Mr. Ferrars," 
 
 " You are severe, but you don't understand — 
 you can't." He beat the long, yellow grass, 
 that sprang up beside the planks, with the 
 blackthorn in his hand. " If I were under your 
 influence always," he added, in a low voice, " I 
 should become more tolerant, I believe. I 
 should look at things from a different point of 
 view." 
 
 " Oh ! If I were your sister," laughed Miss 
 Ballinger, " I should lecture you. I should 
 keep you in better order. As it is, I can't
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 219 
 
 think, judging by your conduct, that my pre- 
 sence has a very beneficial effect." 
 
 " Perhaps not at the time ; it marks the con- 
 trast more strongly." He paused a moment ; 
 how could he explain his feelings without 
 startling her? And yet he felt some explana- 
 tion of this enigmatical sentence was needed. 
 "You see," he continued, "I have avoided 
 society for years. I suppose I have become 
 brutalized ; I have lost the habit of concealing 
 what I think, or doing what bores me. When 
 I see you with such people as the Hurlstones, 
 or Mrs. Van Winkle, or these Planters, my con- 
 tempt of the world is increased. I want to 
 talk to you or to go right away. If I enter into 
 general conversation, I am sure to say some- 
 thing which will offend them." 
 
 " So little self-restraint ? That comes from 
 having shut yourself away from people, and 
 having had your own way too long. All the 
 men I have heard you speak so slightingly of, 
 because they devote their whole time and 
 energies to amassing big fortunes, lead really 
 healthier lives than you do. They rub up 
 against all manner of people ; they give and 
 take."
 
 2 20 A Voyage of Discovery. 
 
 "They take more than they give," he said, 
 with a sneer; "and because they rub up against 
 all manner of people, they become callous. Is 
 it well to become callous ? to grow indifferent — 
 almost blind to evil ? to pass through life 
 shrugging one's shoulders ? Well, perhaps it 
 is. And, yet, I've had enough to make me 
 callous. But one can't alter one's nature." 
 
 " That is the defence of everyone who gives 
 in," she returned. " And it is horribly weak 
 — quite unworthy of a man, / think. I am a 
 great hero-worshipper, and all my heroes fight 
 something — either their own passions, or some- 
 thing else they are resolved to conquer. And, 
 as to growing callous, I don't see that anyone 
 need become so because he mixes with his 
 fellow-creatures, even the very worst. We 
 have a Great Example of that ; and all the 
 devoted workers among the poor of big cities 
 do not lose their sense of right and wrong 
 because they are pitiful and forbearing." 
 
 Here Mrs. Courtly, who was in front, 
 turned round. They had reached the village, 
 or rather small agglomeration of houses of the 
 lower middle class, as we should denominate 
 them, which were clustered around the church.
 
 A Voyage of Discovery. 221 
 
 The bell was ringing ; one or two elderly 
 women, a young girl, a pale-faced man carry- 
 ing some books, were hurrying along. Mrs. 
 Courtly said, — 
 
 " Here I leave you ; and I give Mr. Laffan 
 into your charge, Miss Ballinger. What ! 
 Quintin, are you coming with me to church ? 
 Well, wonders will never cease. Good-bye, all 
 of you, till tea-time." 
 
 And so the bright, genial little lady, with her 
 unwonted escort, left the rest of the party to 
 find their own way home. 
 
 Ouintin Ferrars had not entered a church for 
 years. What prompted him to leave Grace, 
 and acco'mpany his friend? Was it the girl's 
 words? Was it Mr. Laffan's joining her? 
 Was it some inexplicable working of con- 
 science ? 
 
 END OF VOL I.
 
 r
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 061865355