Mars

Front matter

MARS MARS BY S. DARLING BARKER AUTHOR OF "TWO STRIDES OF DESTINT" ~iC London : HUTCHINSON fcf CO Paternoster 'Row Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGC I THE WHITE LADY OF HEAVEN I II. THE ONE DEAR BOY . . . . 16 III. MARS' DISGUISE 31 IV. UNDER THE STARS ..... 44 V. THE POETRY OF MOTION ... 56 VI. CUNNING LITTLE MAID . . . .71 VII. HEREDITARY LEGISLATORS . . .84 VIII. CONVICT 289 99 IX. LIFE'S RESPITE IO4 X. PURIFIED FROM THE TAINT OF THE FORGER Ill XI. NO ESCAPE 129 XII. AN ODOUR OF SANCTITY . . . 145 XIII. "TO OUR NEXT MERRY MEETING" . 1 56 XIV. KISSES FROM OVER THE SEA . . 168 XV. MARS LEARNS FENCING . . . . 1 85 XVI. DULL RESPECTABILITY . . . . 198 v VI Contents CHAPTER PAGE XVII. THE ANONYMOUS LETTER . . -213 XVIII. LOOKING FORWARD 229 XIX.

SACRIFICED ON THE ALTAR OF DUTY , 244 XX. THE WORLDLY LITTLE SAINT . . 263 XXI. ENTRAPPED INTO THE HOLY ESTATE OF MATRIMONY 28 1 XXII. THE MAN OF HER VISION . . . 300 XXIII. "I PLUCKED UP AND DID IT" . -313 XXIV. INNOCENT ! INNOCENT ! . . .322 XXV. IMPORTED FROM GERMANY . . .335 MARS

Chapter I. The White Lady Of He

A VEN Snow had been falling in the Black Forest, with persistent heaviness, for a whole week. It had come earlier than usual, and in greater quantities, completely covering the country with a mantle of dazzling whiteness. Away on the horizon, the blue clouds of heaven, mingling with the white line of earth, threw upon it many beautiful tints, while the sun, casting off poppy-hued rays, caught up the snow-flakes and danced in mirthful glee in the glowing gradients of colour. Here and there transparent particles reflected the ever shifting lights and converted them into jewels of many hues. The firs bore their burden of this crystalline splendour on every branch ; sometimes the weight was too much for the fragile support which, yielding to it, assumed unexpected curves. aTfears 2 Gigantic limbs of hoary oaks, distorted with age, were made picturesque with a fantastic festooning of glistening purity.

Limp brown leaves still clinging to the trees in protest, as it were, at their withering, served to catch the snow-flakes and turn them into pretty flowers. Huge ferns, spreading out their dying fronds like angels' wings, were luminous with this celestial feathering. It was as if nature had gone to sleep under a downy covering. Now and then little rifts of sound sang a cradle song, rocking the giants of the forest to sleep, until an unruly gust, with exuberant boisterousness, roused up those already slumbering into alertness, as they shook a shower of snowy petals in sportive fun on to their com panions. The choristers of the woods were restless ; they flew from tree to tree, while their throats swelled in a joyous welcome to the " White Lady of Heaven." The blackbird told the thrush domestic secrets, perky robins discussed the probabilities of food.

Wood-peckers tapped gnarled trunks in a desperate search for dainties, while cooing wood-pigeons disturbed the stillness with their eternal refrain. In the distance, silhouetted against the deep blue sky, was the sharp oudine of a stag in proud defiance of the elements, surveying the scene, seeking, perhaps, to trace a long lost fawn, or a hind that had lingered from his side too long ; while below, Ufoe TDŒlbite Xaop of Ibeaven 3 more on the hill-side, a mischievous fox pursued his merry way, only stopping to take his bearings. Gay little squirrels were swinging among the branches, receiving a drenching downfall on their ruddy backs that served only as an encouragement to continue their wild gymnastics. Suddenly these sounds and sights were broken by the jingling of bells, and a sleigh rushed in mad haste along the path cleared by the snow plough.

A young girl, wrapped up cosily in furs, en couraged the galloping horses to greater speed, her merry laughter waking up all the echoes of the valley, as she shouted to them to go " faster ! faster ! " They raced along like a whirlwind ; even the weasel, out on a foraging expedition, turned round to look after them. When she came to the bend in the mountain she steadied them, but only for a second, for their turbulent passion for movement had taken possession of them. The air had set their blood on fire, and they plunged on in a delirium of delight. She patted the small head of her griffin, while she pulled him out of his nest among the furs. " Rex, get up, you lazy little beast, and look about you ; aren't you ashamed to be sleeping when the world is made so beautiful by the snow, and the sun has turned every flake into a rainbow ?

You have no imagination, old fellow." He blinked his eyes, ashamed of the charge, and ilfcars 4 set up a loud barking. " There, you silly little wretch, get down and do not frighten all the timid beasts away. I love to look at their bright eyes ; they are brighter than yours, old man, for they have not dimmed their splendour by laziness, or greed. Pet doggies are not nearly so nice as the squirrels, or the mice. See, boy, there it goes ! " And, before she could restrain him, Rex had bounded out of the sleigh and was in hot pursuit. " Steady, wooa — now then, be good," she cried to the prancing animals. But they were too eager for the frolic to listen. She could not check their impetuous career. On and on they flew, as though they had the wings of Pegasus. She guided them with unerring skill, until they came to a sharp corner.

Taking too wide a sweep, they toppled over the edge, and, before she could regain her hold over them, they had fallen into a deep ravine. She extricated herself from the debris and hurried to them to learn the extent of their injuries. They were trembling in every limb, their eyes were aflame with excitement, but they were, luckily, unhurt, having fallen into a snow-drift. " Well, we are' in a fix," she cried, looking about to see what was best to do. The barking of Rex drew her attention to some one whistling above her. She shouted with all her strength, but Zbt Mbtte Xaog of 1beav>en 5 the wind carried the sound down the valley, and the whistling grew fainter in the distance and finally died away. The horses were too restive to give her a chance of setting things straight ; the moment she left their head they broke away and dashed furiously across the fields.

Mars pursued them, and, managing to outflank them, she seized the reins and brought them to such a sudden check that they reared and might have fallen on her, if a firm hand had not pulled them in an opposite direction. " Good heavens, what are you doing ? You will be killed if you let those brutes pull you across country like that ; they were making straight for the river." " I know they were, and Herr PfeifFer's sleigh would have been utterly ruined ; it is awfully damaged already, and he will never let me have it again without the boy to drive me. Just fancy, Captain Molyneux, flying through fairyland with a German bauer sitting by your side when you want a prince or an armoured knight to be there." Mars' dolorous voice and woebegone face excited the man's compassion. " I think we shall be able to make it all right, if you are not too afraid to go to their heads," he added, looking searchingly at the eager, flushed face beside him.

" I am afraid of nothing, at least nothing of /Ifears 6 this sort ; the only fear I have is of losing privileges that I have won in a harder fight than the barons had to get their Charter. The world is down on girls like me. I have a bad reputation of spoiling things." She made a wry grimace. " That is because they don't understand you." The ripple of his laughter brought back her vivacity. The sleigh was forgotten, and she sat down on the bank and began to pelt him with snow-balls. " I have no craving for things to eat or to wear ; my greediness is neither for external nor internal gratification ; it is for usurping liberties that no well-brought-up girl is supposed to hanker after ; for instance, I love tearing about in a sleigh all by myself. If Eve had never been told not to eat that apple, she would, possibly, have despised it; it was the prohibition that made her do it.

It is the setting up of barriers that makes people want to jump over them." A heavy lump of snow hit him on his collar and made him feel limp and shivery. It was a challenge, it roused his English combativeness. He stooped down and made a neat little ball, which he threw on to her chest. Her hilarity was infectious, it made him a boy again and awakened a new relish for the sports of youth. " Oh ! You naughty man, I believe you meant that for my nose. Of course, since you are storm- Ubc TKUbite Xaos of Ibeaven 7 ing the fortress, I must defend it. My nose is my recommendation ; it is, Aunt Gloria says, the only thing straight about me. I am not mathematically built, so it is of no use to try to make a problem out of me ; I do not want to be anything but what I am, ' a chum.' " " A very delightful one ; but, believe me, I was not aiming at any special feature, I simply shied back.

I would not for worlds damage your pretty little nose ! " " There you are, that's done it. I thought we might be chums, but how can a girl chum up to a man who flatters her ! Why will men say a lot of stupid rubbish to us girls and pick our bodies to bits and string some adjectives on to them, as you are doing, and think they please us ? It is all rot to say that girls like flattery." " If you will tell me what the touchy subjects are I will try to avoid them." He spoke spas modically, by reason of the fretfulness of the animals. " Life is too short ; I have no desire to educate outside men in my tastes. Just now, what I should most of all like to know is how I am to get these things out of this punch bowl. The animals cannot climb that perpendicular bank, and I hired this affair for only an hour or two.

Gloria said she should pay for one hour, but old Pfeiffer generally throws an extra half-hour in." fTDars 8 " I am afraid Gloria will have to open her purse-strings to the tune of two hours, for, by the time you get back, it will be dark. You have about ten miles to go." He looked at his watch, and then at the landscape on which twilight was deepening. The vermilion tints left on the hills by the dying sun had toned down into pink, and these were being chilled into pale patches of grey as the colour grew fainter as it died away. " I started at three ; we came helter-skelter all the way, directly we were out of Baden. I am considered a bad lot there ; the old fraus won't let their men lend me anything that there is the probability of smashing. Gloria says it would take a battalion of angels to keep me in order ; she has washed her hands of me, leaving me to Providence ; and this is what the angels have done for me."

Her quaint grimace was too much for him ; he broke out into a loud laugh. " Well, I, at least, am grateful to them ; but for this spill, I might have gone away to-day without knowing that people maligned you." By this time his deft fingers had removed all the snow from the new paint and velvet cushions, and offering her the reins as she stepped in, she took them with a half-coquettish, half-serious earnestness, saying, " I will give you a lift back, if you promise to get out when we reach the Zbc Wblte Xa&g of Ibeaven 9 Allee. Old Pfeiffer is the only one that trusts me, and I cannot risk his displeasure by giving lifts to people who can afford to hire ! " Rex took up his position at her feet and kept his bright eyes on the intruder, to whom he showed a double line of sharp firm teeth in more than suggestive anger.

" All right, old man, there is no need to tell me that you can bite. You have already introduced yourself to parts of my anatomy," he said, picking the snarling, snappy dog up in his arms and caressing it. " I suppose, Captain Molyneux, you are hard up, as we are, by coming to fashionable places out of the season ; we seem to meet you wherever we go. We are regular tramps abroad. Gloria can tell to a pfennig how much she can beat them down at the different hotels. I used to hate it at first, but I don't mind it now, for we give a good return for the money, and we keep all the other guests supplied with gossip, and the hotel people are getting rather to like to have us, we amuse their clientele. You see, I am bigger and more interesting than I used to be, and Gloria's beauty and frocks might belong to a queen in exile.

There is a lot of philosophy in frocks, that men can't understand," she said quaintly. The gate leading into the field was open. Mars handled her animals like a true sportsilbars 10 woman and brought them through its narrow limits without a hitch. Captain Molyneux was beginning to admire the pluck and skill of the girl beside him. He had often watched them and amused himself in wondering what strange history surrounded these two friendless young people ; the defiant attitude that Mars assumed towards the waiters was another source of dis traction to him. Her many brush-ups with the ladies who talked at her inspired him with admiration for her pluck, while the fiery indepen dence of her character had more than once excited his sympathy for the girl who had charge of her. All these things he had seen repeated over and over again, without getting on really friendly terms with them.

During the drive back he deliberated whether he should stay on, or go away at once and forget this provoking little girl and her beautiful aunt. Before he had made up his mind, she broke in on his reverie with a peal of loud, spontaneous merriment. " Did you see that ? It was cleverly done. Well done, hawky ; do you think small birds mind being eaten by hawks ? Anyway it was sport. Shall I tell you a secret ? I have got a beautiful little gun that Bill Bewdley sent me; you know Bill, he talked a lot about you. He was good fun ! We met him — where did we first meet him ? Somewhere ; I think it was at Zbz Udbite Xabs of heaven 11 Eberbach, and we used to shoot at bottles with tiny toy pistols. Of course you have never done that ; but, you know, he was cramming for the army, at Heidelberg, and he said the bottles made him study ; they encouraged his military tastes, in giving him a smell of powder ; it got hold of him in the end, and Bill worked like a man and managed to scramble through that beastly exam.

He had heaps and heaps of pluck and tons of muscle, and all that goes to make good fighters ; but nature forgot to give him many brains, and all the crammers in the world couldn't stuff the poor dear boy, until I roused him up, and at last the bottles did it." She threw herself back among the cushions, with the air of a petted beauty, and contemplated him with half-closed eyes. " You will be glad to hear that Bill is now on his way home from Gib, and has done lots of things since those Heidelberg days. He really scrambled through quite creditably and actually got in and out of Sandhurst, and was lucky in getting gazetted to the Rifles. He has now become the Earl of Bewdley. Good old Bill. He will like to hear about you. He used to call you his god Mars." He said this with the air of a man who has told an important secret.

"Yes, I was to protect him in battle, but now he has come into his inheritance, he won't want me. Money is much better security than flbars 12 girls." She whipped the horses into a brisk canter. By this time they were in sight of the Fisch kultur; the Captain proposed tea, but Mars, already in terror at the long time she had been away, declined it. They were still going at a break-neck speed, and there was a nasty dip in the road ahead ; he warned her against it, but she resented his interference, characterising it as distasteful hypocrisy, after all his flattery of her skill in driving. " You are not one bit better than any other man. Men never think that a girl has any nerve. Perhaps you have not heard that once I shot a wounded wild boar that was charging down on the line of shooters, and that the Germans hid all behind trees, and left me to kill the beast."

She turned her white face towards him ; he could see her flashing eyes and the restless dimples that played around the corners of her mouth. A moonbeam shooting down on her, he thought he detected her finely chiselled nostrils quiver. She was a strange mixture of daring, audacity, and simplicity. Just then he was completely subju gated by her. " Did you hear about it ? " she asked suddenly. "No, I never heard that." His voice sounded hard. " I see, they like to tell strangers all my mis- XTbe Wbfte slabs of ibeaven 13 deeds, and I thought shooting was one of them ; but, to shoot, one needs to have courage and a determined will ; to be a good shot is something in my favour, isn't it? Have you never felt remorse for killing things ? I have, especially deer — and birds ; their eyes reproach you so.

I wonder whether the Christ weeps when we die, and whether Satan stands like a gamekeeper and catalogues us. Death is the only mystery that appals one." " What does Gloria say to it all ? " he asked. " Volumes and volumes ! They are too volu minous to remember." She spread her little hands out into a comprehensive space. " How is it that you two girls are wandering about Europe alone ? Have you no one belong ing to you ? " No sooner had he spoken than he regretted it, for he saw the lips tighten, and he felt that he had struck her unknowingly. " An epidemic of deaths deprived us of all hoary and respectable relations. Gloria was always an orphan, you know ; she is twenty-five and I am very nearly sixteen. I have not been an orphan all my life, I developed into one more gradually. There is a terrible dragon in the family, who exists for the sole purpose of sending us monthly cheques ; he also says he prays for us.

We are more sensibly affected by his cheques. flbars 14 The prayers have done neither of us any good. Of course I am hopeless. I am a recognised heretic, but Gloria drops half a franc into the collecting bag every Sunday morning, in the pious belief that it will purchase my salvation. But here we are, and now good-night. You are quite sure that the most searching inspection will not betray the accident ? This is my only pleasure at present, until Satan provides a new one for me." He took off his hat and disappeared into the darkness. Mars found Gloria in the vestibule, all ready to set out on a search expedition. The news of the spill had reached old Pfeiffer, who lost no time in hurrying to Gloria to bewail his weakness in giving way to the coaxing of the Fraulein. Gloria used few words in her dealings with subordinates, but they carried weight.

Looking in the old man's face, she told him that her niece could control military horses and that the exaggerations of peasants were not to be believed. The arrival of Mars turned the conversation, and Pfeiffer, seeing her as merry and light-hearted as usual, concluded that his property was intact. In sheer gratitude, he demanded only the hour's hire, which he pocketed with many nods and winks of self-congratulation. " Dinner is nearly over and you have not broken your neck yet, but you will soon break XTbe TKIlbtte Xabp of Ibcaven 15 my heart," Gloria said, as she led the way upstairs, followed by Mars, who was feeling a little bit meeker than usual. " I am not going to break it at all ; one can't grow necks at will, and, as for your heart, Aunt Gloria, if it is so brittle as that, my escapades would have shattered it long ago.

Hearts are a deal tougher than we give them credit for. I have just heard that Bill Bewdley has come into his inheritance, and I am going to write to him, to congratulate him and ask him what it feels like to be an earl." She threw her wraps off and let Gloria help her into the grey gown that had been to nearly every table d'hote in Europe. Gloria hoped to reform her by refusing to use, in renewing Mars' wardrobe, her own share of the money they received from England ; for every penny of her niece's money went in settling the list of breakages that was presented each month on a separate bill, and that she characterised as her patronage of trade. As they walked up the Speise Saal, Mars caught Captain Molyneux's eye fixed on her. She gave him a friendly nod and took her seat next to Miss Emily Brown- Jones, who sniffed her dis approval of her neighbour's goings on.

Chapter II. The One Dear Boy

" Oh, Gloria, do listen to this ! Here is a letter from the dear boy," Mars cried, bursting in suddenly on Gloria, who was writing at a table. She was accustomed to these inroads, for Mars was always turbulent and noisy. " What dear boy ? You have so many dear boys ; each hotel provides you with one or more," Gloria replied in quiet reproof. " Lord Bewdley ; he is the one dear boy at present ; he says — but I will read it to you, not to expose the spelling and punctuation of a British peer ; Bill never went in for small things, his mind soared beyond commas and swooped down in dashes. But listen ; no, not with your pen in your mouth, or else you will not be able to exclaim now and then, ' Well I never ! ' and it is impossible for you to feast on pens and Bill's rhapsodies at the same time.

If you are in a proper frame of mind I will begin. " ' Dear old Gal, — Helloe, here we are, right you are, tiger, don't snarl, or else I shall box your ears XCbe ©ne Dear JB02 17 r and wipe your eye at the bottles — so look out, I've come with the family dignities and honours and hard cash ; at least I have extracted some on a bill at three months from a Judean Johnnie with a nose like a roast potatoe. Just now I am stalked by the family Solicitor who intends to shoot some common sense into me from a roll of parchment tied up in red tape. You bet it means something to be a lord ; all the girls trot me about to look at jewels ; want 'em themselves, I suppose, and the Johnnies are all stony broke. It don't do to have too much heart, so I'm sending mine by registered post for you to keep, and you can put the chips of your own, or as many as you can collect, in a pill box and forward by return.

I'll consume a morsel every day until I have swallowed the lot. I'm coming over to see my ' god of battles ' and learn my fate. It won't be a bit of use for you to rush off from Baden ; I can travel as quickly as you can, and shall catch up with you somewhere ; so look here, Mars, there's no getting out of it — you have got to be my wife — if it's only to prevent my making an ass of myself. " ' Yours for ever, " ' Old Bottles.' When she had finished, she flourished the letter in Gloria's face. " Well, Mars, now you have inflicted that rubbish on me, perhaps you will explain what it is all about." Mars' only reply was to waltz round the room, singing snatches of a German student's song. Presently she grew sedate and, sitting on the floor at Gloria's feet, she buried her face in her ilbars 18 dress, and sobbed.

Gloria loved the vivacious, merry girl and was sorry to see her emotion, though she could not understand its cause. She picked up the letter and read it slowly over, pausing to think the while she did so. Gradually it was borne to her that the boy had proposed to Mars. She also shed silent burning tears that fell on Mars' bowed head. " Why will men do these things ? I never have a friend, but he spoils our comradeship by falling in love with me ; why must men love ? Gloria, do you know what love is, that people strive to catch it, and break their hearts chasing it, as sporting people break their limbs hunting a fox ? I have seen what love does for us. In every hotel that we have lived at, there has been a pale, wasted woman carrying with her the wreck of her sentiment within, in bold, but touching lines in her face.

Love is cruel to women." Gloria let her sob on ; she had her own thoughts and they were difficult to understand. It was hard for her to do her duty. She knew the day would come when she would have to tell that secret to Mars, but she hoped it was a long way off. Lord Bewdley's letter brought all her responsibilities to her mind. She felt that the delay would be cruel to both young people, but how was she to get the courage to tell the truth ? It had burdened her own life but she had spared Mars, and could Zbc ©ne 2>ear Bo? 19 spare her altogether, if her marriage did not make it incumbent on her to bring the skeleton out of the cupboard and expose the hard, cruel facts to the critical judgment of the worldly. Mars con tinued to sob on. Sometimes she uttered subdued wails at her destiny, sometimes she spoke about Bill Bewdley as if she too had some affection for him.

" The worst is, he will never believe me if I say no. You would be awfully shocked, wouldn't you, Gloria, if I asked you to — to talk it over with Captain Molyneux ? Yes, I know he is a stranger, but we pass our lives among strangers ; we make new friends with every move, and the men are always the best, they are not so cruel, or so nasty as the women. Shall we hear what he thinks about it ? You know Bill is a chum of his." This last was said in such a caressing, coaxing way that Gloria yielded. " Do my eyes betray me ? " She turned a wet, tear-stained face to her aunt. Gloria was alert at once to repair damages ; her deft fingers, with the help of some eau-de-Cologne and milk, soon removed the redness. They had not long to wait, for the Captain had been on the look out for them for some time, having received a request from Lord Bewdley to do all he could to further his success.

He kept his own counsel, while they haltingly gave him their confidence. " He is a rattling good sort ; I don't know a /Ibars 20 better-hearted man than Bill Bewdley," he said emphatically, letting his eyes rest almost tenderly on the pale face of Mars. " I know ; but Bill — is not the sort of man for a husband ; I mean — that — can't you understand how difficult it is to talk about it to you? I thought it would be so much easier. If you were to look somewhere else, perhaps I should manage to convey some of my ideas to you in a less muddled up condition." A long pause followed. No one broke it. Mars was left undisturbed to work out her destiny. "Must I write and tell him that bottle breaking does not mean always breaking hearts, and that he had better patch his up and forget that — that " a pathetic little sob caught up the word and strangled it.