Cruel as the Grave, etc

Front matter

■ ■ I ■ ■ ■ ■ I I ■ I I ■ ■ Novels in reading at all the Libraries. I. HALF A DOZEN DAUGHTERS. By J. MASTERMAN. Author of "A Fatal Error." Two Volumes. Crown 8vo. " The book possesses that air of probability which is an important element in a good novel, and calls out sympathies which a more pretentious, more romantic, and consequently more improbable tale, would fail to awaken. We can honestly recommend our readers to order ' Half a Dozen Daughters ' from the circulating library, and can also say of it that which can but rarely be said of the novels of the day — that it is a work which the most careful of mothers may confidently place in the hands of her own daughters." — AtkcnœutH, " The author has given us one of the brightest and pleasantest pictures of domestic life that we have seen for some time. — Graphic.

II. HER TITLE OF HONOUR. (Second Edition.) By Holme Lee. Author of "Kathie Brande," " For Richer for Poorer," etc. One Vol. Crown _vo. " It is unnecessary to recommend tales of Holme Lee's, for they are well known, and all more or less liked. But this book far exceeds even our favourites, ' Sylvan Holt's Daughter," 'Kathie Brande,' and ' Thorney Hall,' because with the interest of a pathetic story is united the value of a definite and high purpose ; and because, also, it is a careful and beautiful piece of writing, and is full of studies of refined and charming character." — Spectator. " The graceful writer and accomplished lady who takes the name of Holme Lee as her nom de plume, has never written a more fascinating story than the one under the above heading." — Public Opinion. " A tenderly pathetic story, told in good plain English ; a story of service and heroic sacrifice spent in the best and holiest cause.

It is enriched with beautiful description, and details of life and sentiment." — London Quarterly. " The tale is such a charming one, and the characters so well drawn." — Churchman's Shilling Monthly. "A most exquisitely written story." — Literary Churchman. "The characters are all strongly marked, well developed, and sustained throughout." — Examiner. Cruel as the Grave. BY THE COUNTESS VON BOTHMER, Author of" Strong /sands and Steadfast Hearts" "A Poet fferos* &c. &c. " Jealousy is cruel as the grave." The Song of Solomon- VOL. II. LONDON : Henry S. King & Co., 65, Cornhill. [AU rights Reserved. ,] CONTENTS. VOL II.

Chapter I

"/ MUST BE HAPPY!" Three years have passed. Let us look at Lesbia now, and see whether the confident anticipations of her maidenhood have been fulfilled ; whether the brilliant hopes, the loving desires of her fresh young heart have been realized, and whether, instead of that rash assertion of triumphant youth — ■" I must be happy! I shall be happy;" she can say in the calm serenity of her wifehood — " I am happy ! " Those three years have not been VOL. II. B altogether uneventful. Mrs. Dobree and Ella have passed by once that way en route for Rome, where they spent the winter, and lingered on even after the Easter festivities, until warned by the malaria to depart. After Lesbia's marriage Ella had flavored, and had seemed so dispirited that her mother, at a loss what to do with her, had taken her to Paris.

The second year of Lesbia's so journ at Groschenheim they had gone to Rome ; and that winter Prince Philip had also spent in the Eternal City. He had been absent from Groschenheim when Ella and her mother passed through it en route for Italy, but it may be presumed that it was no surprise to him to meet the two English ladies on the banks of the Tiber. Mr. Hamilton came and went, and seemed to find no abiding place on the "I MUST BE HAPPY!" 3 face of the earth. He had paid Lesbia several flying visits ; coming unannounced, and often leaving unexpectedly. He also had been part of the time with the Dobrees in Rome, but he had left them for a tour in Algeria, and then had come back and spent some months in Sardinia. He was generally in Lon don during the spring and early summer, and when in England he would, of course, go down to Berrylands, where he always found everything ready to receive him, and perfect order reigning in all departments.

He had almost forgotten his old prejudice against Mrs. Scarsdale; seeing what a faithful stewardess she had been, and her eagerness to hear every detail of Lesbia's married life, the interest with which she listened to all he could tell her, went far towards redeem ing her faults in Mr. Hamilton's eyes. Coming back from his wanderings, and finding everything as he would have wished to find it, and noting her sympathy and interest in all he had to tell, it was but natural that in some delicate manner, he should seek to reward so much devotion and such sympathetic tact. And on these occasions he did not fail to visit his dead wife's jewel case, and to draw from its treasures some valuable ornament for the cousin whom she had so strenuously recommended to his care, and who had so faithfully served him through many years.

Every jewel so given was a fresh mesh in the net wherewith he was un consciously surrounding himself; and to Mrs. Scarsdale it had often seemed in these later days as though her patience must soon meet with its reward. " I must be happy!" 5 Ah, what pleasure it was to Lesbia to welcome her guardian on those brief visits ! Her husband had apparently quite got over his resentment against Mr. Hamilton, and allowed the most un restricted intercourse. No one could have been less jealous, less exacting, than Stephen Dalrymple. His prize once secured, he was too generous, too noble-minded — at least so Lesbia thought — to trammel his wife with jealous exac tions and unworthy suspicions. On the contrary, he promoted her attachment to her guardian in every way possible, withdrawing almost absolutely from their society, and leaving them at liberty to chat of all those thousand and one small matters of local and personal interest which are always best discussed tete-a tete.

He had the fullest confidence in Lesbia. He knew the loyalty of her soul, and that, tender though the interest might be which her guardian took in her welfare, and warm though the affection with which Lesbia returned that interest, a delicate reticence would al ways seal her lips on all subjects con nected with her husband. Mr. Hamilton had no need to ask Lesbia whether she was happy. His anticipated coming alone sent a light to her eyes and a bloom to her cheek which brightened and deepened in his actual presence into joyous brilliancy. Of the husband and wife, as husband and wife, he saw but little. Lesbia was his companion; Lesbia walked, rode, drove, talked with him ; her husband discreetly kept away ; and if Mr. Hamilton sometimes sighed, and when the moment for parting came looked grave and troubled, it was not that any fear for Lesbia's happiness dis- "I must be happy!" 7 turbed his soul.

Lesbia at least was happy. That must be enough for him; it should be enough. He never failed in leaving to leave also some valuable token of his presence behind ; a bracelet; a set of furs ; silver for her table ; lace ; in fact whatever her husband sug gested as the most acceptable gift at the moment. The packet was always delivered after his departure ; her thanks, her delight, her kisses of affectionate gratitude, would have proved too strong for him, and he would have stayed. To Lesbia he dared not offer that which without scruple he offered to her husband. There was a delicate instinct in her which his affection had divined. She would have looked upon a gift of money as an outrage to her affection ; a wound, which, though it might heal, would always leave a scar behind to tell of the pain inflicted.

" Take it," he would say to Stephen Dalrymple, al ways using the same formula, " and use it for her; but say nothing to Lesbia about it. She is apt in these matters to take offence. Use it for her com fort, her luxury, her pleasure, and it will be spent as I desire." And Stephen Dalrymple obeyed, at least, one part of Mr. Hamilton's com mands. He took it, and said nothing about it. He used it also ; but whether absolutely for Lesbia's benefit may at present remain an open question. A man has many uses for his loose cash; and, besides — Lesbia had all she wanted ! At least, he often told her so. But she had ceased so entirely to agree with him as he considered it desirable that she should do. In these latter days she had shown some disposition to " I MUST be happy !" 9 have a will of her own, and such a disposition, Stephen Dalrymple told him self, must be energetically repressed.

In some respects Lesbia's life was singularly barren. She lived either in a whirl of senseless gaiety, or in absolute solitude. She had no household to engage her attention ; no children to occupy her time. Mr. Dalrymple's suite of bachelor apartments were so handsome and so spacious that a little taste, a little money, and the court upholsterer had converted them into as elegant a suite as any lady in Groschenheim could boast. Everything was new, pretty, and commodious. Mr. Dalrymple dined so often at the palace, or at the officers' mess, or at the club, that there was, he said, no necessity for a cook ; they dined at the table d'hote of the Russian Hotel when they were " at home ; " and when Mr. Dal rymple was out, Lesbia's dinner was sent from a restaurant close at hand, or more frequently she took no dinner at all, but consoled herself in her solitude with a volume of " Tauchnitz " and a cup of tea.

" We are not bound to Groschenheim, you know," said Stephen Dalrymple to Lesbia before they were married; "and therefore it is as well not to saddle ourselves with a house ; and you spoiled young English ladies know so little of le viL-nage that I shall be saving you an immensity of boredom by dispensing with a horde of domestics. I believe your beautiful golden locks would be grey before you had half mastered the mysteries which go to make up a good Hausfrau's education;" and Lesbia had, of course, agreed with him. It would " I MUST BE HAPPY!" 11 be so pleasant to begin their married life unshackled by that dull round of domestic duties, doubly annoying in a strange land. Her husband found a bright, ready girl for her as waiting maid, and she, with the worthy Johann, made up the household ; but Johann, being a married man, went home at night, unless required for some special service.

At first Lesbia entered into all the gaiety with the thoughtlessness of her age. The Grand Duke paid her marked attention. The Grand Duchess always had a pleasant word for her. " I like to see our cousin of Katzen ellenbogen turning green with jealousy," she whispered to Prince Philip. Prince Philip was not sorry either at the change in his elderly cousin's com plexion when the beautiful Frau von Dalrymple was praised. For him she had a charm too deep for words, too strong to be resisted. She was not the rose, mais elle avail vScu aupres d'clle. His voice grew gentler and his eyes softer when he spoke with Lesbia, and the Court ladies were not too polite to nudge each other and exchange signifi cant looks as often as they were seen talking together. In Frank Hamilton a change had taken place.

Two months' leave of absence spent in Paris had sent him back to Groschenheim a wiser if not a better man. " If she be not fair for me, What care I how fair she be ? ' was now his motto. But nevertheless he followed Lesbia like her shadow, though he seemed rather to enjoy her triumphs than to writhe under them as " I MUST BE HAPPY !" 13 he had formerly done. Lesbia was nothings to him now, could be nothing; and it was not without humour, and a strong sense of enjoyment, that he pointed out to her how unfragrant she was in the nostrils of the somewhat antiquated beauties of Groschenheim, and how specially exasperating were Prince Philip's attentions in the sight of her Serenity of Katzenellenbogen. It was never quite clear to the good Groschenheimers whether Herr von Dal rymple had married the heiress or the heiress's cousin, who was probably only less rich by one degree than her opulent relative.

All Englishwomen had large for tunes, and though a nation of shopkeepers might disdain to call a few paltry thou sands by that name, yet a comparatively small sum might be differently estimated elsewhere. That Lesbia had money (which means a good deal of money) was a fait accompli, and Mr. Hamilton's frequent presence at Groschenheim, and evidently ample means, procured him in the town the nickname of "der reiche Onkel." Lesbia was elegantly dressed ; Mrs. Dobree and her daughter travelled with all the comfort and luxury that unlimited means command. Frank Hamilton was in a good position, looked upon as his uncle's heir, and well received both at Court and in society. Stephen Dalrymple was proud of his wife's success. He was afraid lest ill ness or fatigue should dim her fresh young beauty.

He was careful for her dress, for her appearance, for her position. And Lesbia saw in all this care so many proofs of his love ; and was grateful and affectionate, as a child is " I MUST BE HAPPY !" 15 grateful to the nurse who tends it, and who gives it food. She did not understand that she could be the object of malevolent observation, and could not believe it when her hus band told her that all Groschenheim knew what she said, and what she thought, and what she did, as well as what she had not done, or even dreamt of doing. She, who had lived with her gentle mother in retirement, and had then tasted a few months of gaiety and freedom in a world where she was so much occupied in observing others that she never for a moment thought of herself, now found it hard to realize that she should be the object of general attention.

It never occurred to her that whilst she was gaily talking with Prince Philip, or smilingly answering the Grand Duke's affabilities, envious high-born, ill-bred elbows were nudging each other, or contemptuous eyes were exchanging angry glances. She did not know that it would have been to her advantage to have cringed to the malicious old Baroness Hagestolz, or to have fawned upon the envious Countess Magerhalz, nor would she have believed so ill of those two ladies as to think insincerity and flattery could be precious in their eyes. She amused herself as unconcernedly as she had done at Monkshill or Berrylands, and for a time her unconscious gaiety pleased and amused her husband. He had reason to know that the two ladies in question had not always "taken him up tenderly" in private life, and he was not sorry that they should be exasper ated.

But Lesbia's ignorance must not be allowed to let her pass certain limits. The old ladies might be filled with envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness, but there must be no open breach. They could slay the reputation of the immaculate St. Dunstan himself, and — Stephen Dalrymple's reputation was far from immaculate. He did not wish his wife's fresh innocent young heart to be poisoned by evil stories of himself; it was essential that she should think well of him ; it was essential that Mr. Hamilton should do so. He must warn her to be pru dent. But such warnings rather bewil dered than enlightened Lesbia. She was not conscious of offence; and, indeed, her youth and beauty were the chief offences of which she had been guilty. Her husband took one precaution. He never allowed her to go to coffee parties — those institutions for feminine vol. 11. c scandal and gossip so much in vogue amongst our cousins-german.

"That perpetual coffee drinking destroys the digestion, ruins the complexion, and sours the disposition," he used to say. " Leave it to older and uglier women to gossip and scandalize, Lesbia. Don't spoil your pretty teeth with sugar and greasy cakes. Come out and walk. The very deuce is in the women on these occasions. Come out and walk, or take a ride, or go down to the swimming bath ; then you will be as fresh as a daisy for the ball to-night. And Lesbia, grateful to her husband for sparing her the horror of a long afternoon of twaddle and stocking-knitting amongst a number of silly ' or malicious women, was glad enough to quote him as her authority for refusing all afternoon engagements. To avenge this insult the wildest stories were whispered about in the afternoon scandal entertainments.

She had invited a number of her friends to see her swim for a wager. She had ridden races with Prince Philip for 25 Friedrichs-d'or the race, round the Exercir Platz. She had walked ten miles out and ten miles home, and had so fatigued her poor husband by her pedestrian feats that he had been actually obliged to hail a peasant's cart and get himself driven to the nearest rail way station, whilst she had walked home in triumph alone. She made eyes at the Grand Duke, who was infatuated enough to call her a beauty; "Yes, and actually said the other day, bei Tafel" cried Countess Magerhalz, " that she was handsomer than our dear and beautiful Stadion." Countess Stadion, a bold Bohemian beauty, les trente-cinq ans bien sonnis, knit her brows at this piece of gratui tous malice. "I pity her poor husband," was all she said, contemptuously.

" We all know what feeling pity is akin to," whispered Baroness Hagestolz, to her next neighbour, a pale, quiet woman, who only simpered a little in reply, and dropped her eyelids. "It serves him right for marrying a woman of low birth," said another. "Do you know what her father was? A brewer. A low, vulgar, common brewer. I don't know if he wasn't a publican." A shudder of horror ran through these high well-born ladies. " I am not surprised," said the mistress of the house, in reply, " to hear anything after what I have seen. Set a beggar on horseback and we know where he will ride to! To think of such a little upstart having the imper tinence to refuse our invitation! It is high time she should be put into her proper place." " Where is her proper place ?" asked Countess Stadion, in a clear voice, "the brewery ?"

" Some one told me her father had been an officer in the army," suggested a young married woman, timidly. " Nonsense," said Frau von Hagestolz, sharply, " her father was a brewer. I know better. I have it on the best authority." " And the wretched infatuation of Prince Philip, my dear! It is positively scandalous." "I wonder the Grand Duchess allows it." "How can she prevent it? Besides, if the husband says nothing " "Ah! all husbands are not so com plaisant as yours, my dear Stadion." "No; my husband has never found fault with me since the day I married him," said Countess Stadion, loftily, as she rose to take her leave. "More than he dare do," sneered her hostess as soon as she had left the room. "But our dear Stadion has become very querulous of late. She ages wonderfully. I see one of her front teeth is quite black.

Mais enfin, on ne pcut pas etre, et avoir 6M." Frau von Hagestolz was very fond of showing she had learnt French at school. Stephen Dalrymple was certainly wise in declining all afternoon invitations for Lesbia. He knew quite well that her absence would give the opportunity for her being cut into mincemeat ; but he reflected that it was better she should be cut into mincemeat, than that he should be torn limb from limb, to the destruc tion of all future peace and prosperity. It would never do to have her mind poisoned against him by all the envious reports of his enemies. As long as Lesbia believed in him, he was safe. Indeed, he told himself, and that truly, that he would have less to fear from Lesbia's believing the malicious inven tions of his foes than from her generous young refutation of them.

Her indignation would vex her ■ like a thing that is raw, and she would not be slow to show her wrath. Stirtout, point de zele. Stephen Dal rymple preferred discretion, and discretion invariably points to a vantage ground at some distance from the battle-field of valour. That evening, as Lesbia came into the ballroom at the Palace, a smile passed over several faces. The Grand Duchess, coming out of her private apartments, tapped her on the cheek with her fan. The Grand Duke, shambling out of the card-room, stopped Prince Philip, who was just going to whisk her off in a waltz, and the young man fell back into a group of lieutenants and insignificances as one who knows his place. Stephen Dalrymple, sitting next to Countess Stadion was listening to -her circumstantial report of the afternoon's coffee-and-malice, with his eyes fixed upon Lesbia.

"How jealous Herr von Dalrymple seems to be of his beautiful young wife!" said the young woman who had ventured a favourable opinion as to Lesbia's birth and parentage in the Kaffee-Gesellschaft, to Frank Hamilton with whom she was dancing. "You think so ?" he asked, and laughed a short dry laugh. "Yes; don't you? See how he watches her." "Really, the Stadion's conduct is rather too outrageous ! " said Baroness Hassestolz to her daughter Pauline, an old young lady of thirty-six; "and that stupid little Englishwoman must be an idiot to allow it." "What do you think, then, of Count Stadion?" asked her daughter in reply. " A woman can't prevent her husband from flirting, but a man who allows his wife to behave in such a way under his nose must be either a fool or a coward." " Perhaps more knave than fool ; but I don't think any one could accuse Count Stadion of being a coward."

"I don't know. Mr. Dalrymple is a remarkably good shot." "You are right not to let her go to these wretched coffee parties," Helene Stadion was saying to Dalrymple. "Those envious women would turn the sweetest blood to gall. They are mad, of course, at the slight conveyed by her persistent refusals ; but better that, than let her be made suspicious and dis trustful." "Lesbia's nature is not a suspicious one. She would fling back all accusa tions with scorn. She is not clever, but she has a clear judgment, and a sort of intuitive perception of things, and would never be guilty of the meanness of listening to stories against " I MUST BE HAPPY !" 27 her husband. It is her zeal I have to fear." " You are a happy man!" replied the handsome Helene haughtily. " I am happy just at this present moment because I am sitting by you."

" Yes ! And know that fifty pair of jealous, spiteful eyes are fixed upon us ! " " Envious eyes, perhaps. I can excuse that. If I were not just where I am, my eyes would be envious too." " And all the while we are most in nocently talking of your wife's perfec tions." There was a slight bitterness and hard ness in her tone. " It is like you, worthy of you, to be generous," answered Stephen Dalrymple, bringing his fine grey eyes to bear upon her. " A beautiful woman is never so beautiful as when she enjoys the beauty of another. But Lesbia is not a woman, she is only a charming child." If she were conscious of being accused of an amiability which she did not de serve, it only made her manner the more gracious as she rose, and going towards Lesbia, who had been finally released by the Grand Duke, complimented her gracefully upon her appearance and gay spirits.

Personal observations are de rigueur in Germany ; and if a lady is not told at a ball by all her female friends that her dress is perfection, and that she has never looked so well before in her life, she goes home to bed a disappointed and a dis contented woman. Lesbia only felt gratified and pleased by Countess Stadion's approval. Her husband was always kinder to her when she had been admired. It was something to be complimented by a lady who was considered somewhat haughty, amongst her friends. Lesbia felt drawn towards her, but did not dare to hope for her friendship, that was a thing above her ; still it was something to know those superb black eyes looked kindly upon her, that those disdainful lips could speak such sweet words. A look of love came into Lesbia's eyes ; a look of yearning, appeal, affection.

There was faith as well as love in their expression. Countess Stadion was pale. Frank Hamilton came and claimed Lesbia for a waltz. " You are right ; she is nothing but a child, a charming child," said Helene to Dalrymple, as the two young people turned away. " Frank," said Lesbia timidly, " tell me a little about Countess Stadion. She is a woman I could love. I often feel to want a woman's companionship here." " You are a fool, Lesbia," said the young man angrily. She was indignant. How dared he to speak to her, a married woman, Stephen Dalrymple's wife, in that way ? She said coldly, " If that is your opinion of me, Mr. Hamilton, perhaps you would be so obliging as to keep it to yourself for the future, or to express it, if you must do so, more politely." " I did not mean that, Lesbia, and I beg your pardon, but you are strange in some things ; so unlike most girls and women.

There are some things a wo man should know of herself, not want to be told them by a man." Lesbia blushed deeply. She was fri°-ht ened and perplexed. " Don't be hurt," he said ; " but some how I don't think that Countess Stadion will ever be much of a companion to you." " Why not ? Because she is cleverer and older that I am, and would not care to be bored by me ? " " If I say ' yes,' you will be offended again. But you are too young for a woman like Countess Stadion." Lesbia stared at Frank in amazement ; then bursting into a merry laugh, she said, " How absurd ! you are treating me like a little girl in a pinafore; whilst I, who am ever so much older than you, am listening to you as though you were the Delphic oracle." " Let us waltz, or we shall miss all the fun," said Frank, who thought it as well not to prolong an argument in which he appeared to be getting the worst of it.

" There are some things a woman should know of herself, not want to be told them by a man." The words rang unpleasantly in Les bia's ears. In what was her feminine instinct so defective ? It was a reproof from a young man like Frank Hamilton. She felt humiliated. " Not want to be told them by a man." She could not ask her husband. But, if he observed the de ficiencies to which Frank alluded, he surely would tell her. It would not be pleasant. Still he was the only man who could. But Stephen Dalrymple took care not to enlighten her ignorance.

Chapter II. Ella At Home

There were preparations for great festivities at Monkshill. Carpenters and red cloth were the order of the day. Men with baskets and laths seemed to per vade the premises. Artificial flowers and heaps of evergreens lay about the ball room. In the kitchen, clatter and activity on an extensive scale dimly shadowed forth some of the evening hospitalities. The school children were to have their feast in the schoolhouse, the winter weather not being favourable to sports on the lawn. The old people at the almshouses were also to be regaled in their own comfortable quarters. At the Priory the county was to be entertained, VOL. II. D and in the entertainment of that most important section of society Ella took not the very remotest interest. She had looked after the schoolhouse arrangements and the almshouse capabilities — after the young children and the old ones.

" Their capacity for enjoyment is about the same," she said ; " we all know the seat of human affections in the young ; and eating is the only pleasure left to the second stage of childhood, with tea and tobacco ; and tea and tobacco they shall have, pressed down and running over ; but for the other people, mamma, they may take care of themselves." ' Not very kind to your friends, Ella." " My friends, mamma ? My friends are in the almshouse and the village school. If they care for me at all, it is Ella Dobree they love. The other people (if they care for me at all) care for Miss Dobree, the heiress of Monkshill Priory." " Surely, you believe some of your friends care for you ? Mr. Hamilton, Lesbia Dalrymple, Hugh, for instance." " Yes, mother, I was unjust. If only I could have persuaded Lesbia to come over and spend a few months with us, all would have been so different !