A Tragic Blunder, etc

Front matter

H IRovel. BY MRS. LOVETT CAMERON, AUTHOR OF "IN A GRASS COUNTRY," "A DAUGHTER'S HEART," "A SISTER'S SIN," "JACK'S SECRET," &c, &e. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON : F. V. WHITE & CO., 14, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1894. PRINTED RT KELLT AND CO. LIMITED, 182, 183 AND 184, HIGH nOLRslRN, W.C. AND KINGSTON-ON-THAMES. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAQE I. — The Menage in Chester Square . 1 II. — Lord Netheryille's Visit . 16 III. — An Eligible Suitor .... 32 IV. — The Ineligible ..... 49 V. — Mr. Taunton's Present . . . U3 VI. — Agatha is Jealous .... 77 VII. — Billy Repents of his Past . . . 9;3 VIII. — At Burlington House . . . 107 IX. — A False Alarm 120 X. — Doubts and Fears . . . . 134 XI. — Billy's Confession . . . .147 XII. — Bitter Words and Hard Thoughts . 161 XIII— Joe Taunton is Generous . . 182 XIV. — How Freedom Came .... 198 XV. — At Chatswell Again . . . .213 A TRAGIC BLUNDER. A TRAG 1 C BLUNDER.

Chapter I. The Menage In Chester Square

Ever since October, Rupert Carroll and Agatha his wife had been living together in Chester Square. There was a third inmate of the house in the person of Miss Louise Carroll, who, having let Harvington Lodge furnished for a year to a most desirable tenant, brought her god-daughter up to London, and took up her abode as well in the house which she had engaged for her brother. o _. It is not often that an elderly maiden sister is so welcome in the house of a young married couple as was Louise in Chester Square. But VOL. II. as a matter of fact, it was she who held this particular couple together. Without her intervention it is possible that they never would have lived under the same roof at all. For a very long time after their wedding day Rupert and Agatha never even saw one another. Agatha did not die, as perhaps she would have liked to do, but she recovered very slowly from her serious illness, and when she was better she was ordered change of air, and Miss Carroll took her for three months to Bournemouth.

Then when her strength came back to her, there arose the question of what was to be done about her future. Agatha protested that nothing would induce her to live with a man who had publicly stated on her wedding-day that he had only married her under a hallucination, and she declared that if he did not love her, but someone else, she would be no wife to him ; whilst Rupert, though humbly anxious to do all in his power to promote her welfare, was clearly in no way desirous of any closer connection with the unhappy girl, whom he liked and respected, but whom he could never love. In fact, to live apart was the wish of both. But Louise had strong ideas of duty, and she would not hear of such a plan. She contended that Rupert and Agatha were as much bound by their marriage vows as any other husband and wife, and that if only to silence the voice of scandal, it was incumbent on them to live together and to make the best of a bad business, at any rate in the eyes of the world.

It was more than six months after their marriage that the first interview took place between them in Miss Carroll's presence. She brought Agatha up herself to Rupert's bachelor rooms in town, and the two met there with much reluctance on both sides. "I wish to give you yoar liberty, Rupert," 19* said poor Agatha, not daring to lift her sad eyes to her husband's, "and to leave you perfectly free ; but it seems that it would not be right for me to do so. I have only come to tell you that I will do exactly what you and your sister wish." He took her hand kindly. She was fright fully altered — she had grown very thin and pale, and the good looks which love and happiness had conjured up for a short time in her, had all faded away again. She had never been really handsome, and now colour less cheeks and sharpened features and lustre less eyes were all that were left of her youth and freshness.

Her figure, too — once her strong point — was not at all what it had been ; she stooped a good deal, and her shoulders had become angular and her chest was sunk and narrowed. Rupert pitied her from his heart. " There is nothing I will not do to make you happy, Aggie," he said, " you shall have everything I can give you — every penny of my money." " I do not want your money, Rupert," she said quietly, " I want your affection." He was silent ; he bit his lip and looked down on the ground, in painful distress of mind, for he could not answer her as she would have liked him to answer. " Now this is all nonsense, my dear children," here broke in Miss Carroll briskly. " We are not going to discuss matters of sentiment, but matters of fact. You have both known and liked each other all your lives, and you must both manage to make the best of one another for the future.

Rupert, you must take a house in London for Aggie, and j^ou, Aggie, must go and live under your husband's roof, like a good girl. You don't want, I suppose, to injure your wife's reputa tion, Rupert ? " " God forbid ! ' "Then let us put an end to this false position. I have heard of a very nice house to be had in Chester Square ; it is to be let furnished by the year. Will you take that for one year at least, and see how you get on?" Rupert looked at Agatha, and Agatha looked at Miss Carroll. " Auntie," she said hesitatingly, " if you would only come and live with us ? " " What a capital idea ! " cried Rupert with animation. " Yes, Louie, come and help us patch up our life together, and then we will both do as you wish and endeavour to make each other as happy as we know how." And so it was eventually settled.

And in due course of time this queer and uncomfortable trio took up their abode in the very furnished house that Miss Carroll's fancy had been originally set upon. As to being happy, that perhaps was hardly to be expected, but several things combined to make them at any rate more contented with their lot than it would have seemed possible. To begin with, quite unexpectedly Rupert got something to do. A friend offered him a partnership in one of the firms that have been started latterly connected with electrical enter prise. He had a few thousands to invest, and he was above all exceedingly thankful to get employment — he knew that work is the most sovereign panacea on earth for an aching heart, and he threw himself eagerly into his new occupation. Rather to his own surprise, he developed very decided business capacities, and soon proved himself invaluable to his coadjutors.

His business took him away from his home and from his troubles from breakfast till dinner, from Monday morning till Friday night, and nothing in the world could have been more salutary for his own and for Aggie's peace of mind. Little by little they fell into the life that a great many married people lead ; that is to say, there was no display of love and devotion i — but they were very good friends. They did not quarrel, and they did not hate one another — that is always something, in these days of ill-assorted couples ! Rupert was kind and scrupulously polite to Aggie, and Aggie was submissive and always obedient to Rupert. That they were both intensely unhappy at heart, made very little difference in the out ward flow of their perfectly tranquil and uneventful life. Unfortunately this amicable state of things was not destined to last.

When first Rupert had recovered his memory he had used every means in his power to discover what had become of Irene. He had gone down to Chatswell repeatedly, and had made enquiries about her. He soon learnt, of course, that Mrs. Garland had died in the November of that fatal autumn, and that her daughter had gone away with her aunt immediately after the funeral, but beyond the fact that it was " somewhere abroad," her humble friends and neighbours could tell him nothing. Then came the London season, that brought the Garlands to England, and in the list of the debutantes at Her Majesty's first Drawing-room, Rupert read this sentence one morning in the newspaper : " Miss Irene Garland — by her Aunt, Lady Garland." So she was in London ! Well, Irene need not have been afraid of meeting him.

Rupert went out very little now-a-days ; and that sentence in the Morning Post was quite enough to put a stop to his going out at all. She was alive — she was well — and since she had been to a Drawing-room, she was pre sumably happy enough to go into Society. He felt that this knowledge ought to be enough for him. and although he sighed as he went his way to his daily work in the City. he was, on the whole, more inclined to submit to the inevitable, than he had ever been since the catastrophe of which he had been tho unconscious victim. He believed that he had lost the desire to see her now, and. at least, he had no intention of seeking her out, or of putting himself in her way, although involuntarily his eves were always on the alert in the streets, or as he passed on his homeward way through the Park, looking out for the face that, to him, was the only face he wanted to see in all the crowd, and yet he never saw her.

He told himself that he was glad of it — glad that Aggie's health prevented their going out in the evening, and that he went nowhere where he was likely to meet her She had probably forgotten him by now ; she must look upon him as a scoundrel, who had deserted her, and she must hate and despise him for his conduct. Some times, indeed, he felt he would have given worlds just to explain it all to her, and tell her how it had happened ; he would like her to have a better opinion of him, but perhaps it was better not, better that she should be lieve him to be the traitor, that he must seem to be ; for alas ! how could he alter the facts of his life, or undo those chains that bound him for ever to another woman ? So, with a sigh, he resigned himself to fate, and though at his heart he often hankered for a sight of her face, yet aloud he said to himself : " Better not.

Better not ! It is happier for her not to know the truth ! It is better for us both that we should never meet again. And London is a wide world. It is possible for two people to live in adjoining streets for years, and yet never to meet at all, unless they deliberately plan to do so. Meanwhile, Agatha was, if anything, even more to be pitied than her husband. Her health was extremely bad, often for days she lay prostrate on the sofa, unable to do anything at all. About this time Rupert gave her a victoria ; he had strained every effort to do this for her, for he was not very well off, for, in spite of the good prospect of his new business, he had not yet begun to reap any great pecuniary benefit out of it. But the victoria was as prettily turned out as any in the Park, and the horse was as handsome a one as money could buy, and Aggie and Miss CarroU were delighted with their new toy, and took daily drives together whenever Aggie was well enough to go out.

On one of these occasions — it was in the middle of June — the little carriage was standing in the shade by the end of the railing near the Row at Hyde Park Corner, and the two ladies were idly watching the gay scene, the brilliant equipages, the coaches with their shining teams, the bright dresses and gay parasols, and the crowd of happy faces that went by them, when suddenly some feminine voices exclaimed excitedly close behind them : " Why, I declare, there is Agatha ! — and Miss Carroll." They turned round and beheld the phalanx of four— the Goodford girls in all their glory — who came crowding about the victoria with noisy and delighted greetings. After all, it was pleasant to see familiar faces, for Agatha and Louise Carroll knew very few people in London, and the Goodford girls were so genial and jolly that it was impossible to help liking them.

Then followed a crowd of questions and answers on either side. " Only up for a fortnight just to go to Ascot, and see the pictures. Having a good time, Aggie ? No ? Dear me, you do look seedy ! Chester Square ? Oh, yes, of course we will all come and see you, to lunch to morrow — by all means, dear ; many thanks." And of course it was the irrepressible Cora who added : " And how is your husband, dear ? Papa heard from somebody that you and he are such a model couple ; quite devoted to each other, and all little misunderstandings blown away, eh? And, oh, by-the-way, have you heard about Lord Netherville, Aggie ? People say he is always about with such a horrid woman — a widow, who paints, and dyes her hair ! Such a pity, isn't it ? I do hope he won't marry her ; but I daresay you know all about it."

" No, indeed," answered Agatha, a little eagerly. " I have not seen Lord Netherville at all. Is he in London ? " " Who wants Lord Netherville ? " cried a voice behind them. Nora laughed gaily. "Talk of the 'what's his name!' Why, here he is ! " And Agatha saw her old lover taking off his hat to her over Cora's head.

Chapter II

lord netherville's VISIT. One afternoon on his return from the City, Rupert found Lord Netherville sitting in his wife's drawing-room. He rose, somewhat nervously, at his cousin's entrance, and it was a relief to him to find how cordially and heartily Rupert shook hands with him. " I met Mrs. Carroll in the Park two days ago, and she was good enough to tell me I might call," he began apologetically. " We are both delighted to see you, Netherville." " It is very good of him to have come," said Agatha with dewy eyes. It was one of Agatha's bad days — she was subject to severe LORD NETHERVILLE'S VISIT. 17 fainting attacks, and she had had one earlier in the day, and had not been out. The sun streamed in hotly through the red and white striped blinds outside, and the room felt stiflingly hot Perhaps it was the heat that made the little sense of embarrassment in the air.

Rupert went to the window and threw it wider open. " Lord Netherville was telling me all the news of the fashionable world," said Aggie. "Go on, please, about that girl who is so lovely." " I am afraid I have very little to tell you about her. I do not, indeed, know her myself, only as you asked me who is the prettiest girl in Town this season, I must un hesitatingly give the palm to Miss Garland. She is decidedly the beauty of the year." Carroll was standing with his back to them. All at once he seemed transfixed into stone, and remained staring at the dusty vol. u. square garden over the tops of the white marguerites and scarlet geraniums that were banked up on the balcony outside. " What is she like ? " enquired Aggie, who was faintly interested and amused. " You must not ask me to describe her ; for I am a duffer at that sort of business.

I can only tell you that she is ' Tall, and divinely fair, with golden hair,' as the poets say, and she is certainly a very beautiful creature, although I have only seen her at a distance, and have never been introduced to her, and, to tell you the truth, I have no desire to know her. All the young fellows are in love with her, but she is an arrant flirt, and they say she bowls them over at the rate of two a week ! But I hear that she will certainly be engaged before the end of the season." " Who is the favoured man ? " LORD NETHER VILL E'S VISIT. 19 " Well, it seems the young lady — like most of our girls nowadays — has an eye to the main chance, and there is a man with a lot of money always dangling after her, and people say she will probably end by marrying him. I hear that she is as cold as ice, and as heartless as — well, as the rest of your lovely sex, Mrs. Carroll !

" " How cynical you have become ! " " Don't you think I have good cause to be cjmical, Agatha ? Have you always behaved so nicely to everybody ? " He had lowered his voice, so that Rupert, standing by the window, with his back towards them, did not hear him. Agatha lifted her eyes, dewy with unshed tears, to his. " I did treat you badly ! " she murmured back. " But, perhaps, I have been punished for it. No, I don't mean that," she said hastily, seeing an expression of pained sur- 20* prise in his face. " For, of course, I cared for Rupert, and there was nothing mercenary in what I did. And I hear there is some one else you like now, so, perhaps, you have for given me, and got over it ! " He bent low over her chair. " My dear," he whispered, " I have forgiven you certainly ; but as to getting over it — that is another matter !

And there is no one else — not in the sense that you mean — there never will be ! There is one woman who is a great friend of mine — nothing more — I shall never wish to marry again. You will always hold a place apart in my life. And, Agatha, I want to say to you that if you ever want anything done for you — if you ever want a friend " " How should I want a friend ? " she answered, drawing back proudly and a little coldly. " I have my husband." " Yes, I know ; but sometimes a woman is LORD NETHERVILLE'S VISIT. 21 glad of a friend as well. Well, don't be offended ; only, if you ever do, remember that you may always reckon on me — to my life's end." At this moment, Rupert walked over from the other side of the room and joined them. " Who is this man with money, whom you say Miss Garland will probably marry ?

" he enquired of his cousin. The question surprised them both. Agatha looked up startled. Nor had Netherville imagined that he had even listened to his gossip. However, he answered him imme diately. " It is a man called Taunton, I am told ; but really I know very little about it." *' Taunton ! " repeated Carroll, with disgust. " Why, the fellow has nothing on earth to recommend him but his money ! Her friends must be mad to allow her name to be coupled with that of a snob of that description ! " " He is a cad, certainly," replied Nether ville, with a shrug of his shoulders ; " but money covers a multitude of sins ; and I'm told that he is head over ears in love with her." " They can never allow her to marry such a man as that ! " repeated Rupert excitedly. " It would be a crime." Agatha was looking at him strangely, but he did not appear to notice her.

Lord Netherville took up his hat and prepared to leave. He took very little interest in Miss Garland's love affairs, and could not in the least understand why his cousin should take them to heart. " I know nothing about it ; the girl is a stranger to me ! " he answered lightly. " I was only repeating the gossip of the day to amuse your wife. Good-bye, Agatha. How your grey hair alters you, Rupert," he added, as he left the room with the master of the LORD NETHERVILLL'S VISIT. 23 house. "No one could possibly mistake us for each other now ! What a pity you got that knock over the head to spoil your beauty! You know I always believe that blow was intended for me." Rupert had gone with his cousin outside the room. Netherville was going down the staircase. Rupert followed him down. " By the way," he said, when he got down to the hall, " I heard something about those pearls the other day ; those I was bringing down to give to Agatha, you know.

I daresay she told you about them. Of course you know that I was engaged to your wife at that time, Rupert ? " " Oh, yes, of course, I know all about it," answered Rupert carelessly ; then it went through his mind to wish that Agatha had only stuck to her engagement to him — how much happier it would have been for them all if she had ! Netherville was finding his hat and stick in the hall. He was a little confused ; the subject was an awkward one. " I was a good deal cut up at the time she threw me over; but Ive no doubt she was' right, old man. She chose the best man of the two. I am glad I have been to see her. I have pretty well got over it now, or you know I shouldn't have come. You don't owe me any grudge, I am sure ! And I hope you will let me be friends with her ? " " My dear fellow, of course !

" replied Carroll cordially. " But tell me about that necklace. I would give something to trace those fellows who played me such a trick." " Oh, as for the pearls, as I was going to tell you, Agatha sent them back to me, and naturally I took them to McGhTup's, where I had bought them, and he took them off my hands. But the odd thing about it, was that, shortly afterwards, McGillup sold those LORD NEl'HERVLLLE'S VISIT. 25 very pearls again, and the same thing happened again ! That is to say, the man who was carrying them to their destination — it happened to be a commissionaire in this case — was followed and set upon by three men in a lonely street, and thrown down and stunned, but before the thieves could rifle his pockets, there was an alarm raised, and some policemen ran up, and they bolted.

They all got off safely, but without their booty ; and, by a curious coincidence, immediately after wards, a shop boy out of McGillup's shop dis appeared, and he never came back any more. So McGillup thinks he must have been in the employ of a regular gang of thieves, and that he gave the information to them about my taking down the necklace that day to Har vington. Of course, the boy very naturally mistook you for me, and his precious accom plices half-killed you in my place ! Upon my word, Rupert," he added, with a laugh, " I feel 1 owe you some reparation for your grey hair ! " If it had only been the grey hair ! Rupert thought with a sigh. H his cousin's theory was true, then what a havoc that boy's blunder had created in all their lives ! But for that, Netherville would have married Agatha, and no doubt would have made her perfectly happy ; for Nether ville at any rate had been in love with her, whereas he himself could not give her the love she craved for.

And Dene ! great Heavens ! how was he to stand by and see her sell herself to such a man as Taunton ? If she married him, it could only be for his money — how changed his sweet, true-hearted Dene must be, to have become so worldly and so mercenary ! Yet surely it could not be her own doing, it must be that aunt of hers, that horrid Lady Garland, who was forcing her on into this unnatural marriage. It was LORD NETHERVILLE'S VISIT. 27 what she had done with her own daughter, and now she was doing it with her niece — selling her to the highest bidder ! He did not go upstairs again after his cousin had left, but turned into his own little den on the ground floor, and throwing himself into an arm-chair, he remained plunged in the most gloomy and miserable thoughts of Dene and of her probable fate.

But it did not occur to him to think about Agatha upstairs. Agatha had got up from her sofa, she was standing in the middle of the room. There was a tempest at her heart, a tempest half love, half jealousy, and it was the jealousy that caused the love she had vainly striven to stifle to burn up into a fiercer, steadier flame. There was a long mirror opposite to her ; she saw reflected in it the image of a pale, gaunt woman, with shrunken cheeks and haggard eyes. " I have grown hideous ! " she said aloud slowly, " perfectly hideous ! A happy woman — a wife who loves and is loved again, keeps her looks and her youth and her freshness, but I am not loved, and I have lost it all — all ! There is nothing to win him with now, he will never love me ! And this other woman, this Miss Garland, who is the most beautiful girl in London — it is her whom he loves !

Why did he start and turn round so excitedly when Netherville said she was going to marry some rich man ? Why did he cry out that she must not be allowed to marry him ? If she had been a stranger, would his face have flushed and would his voice have trembled, as they did ? And had she been only a mere acquaintance of the past, should I not have heard her name before ? No ; I see it all now, it is this beautiful Miss Garland, who is in London now — I always knew that the woman he once LORD NETHERVILLE'S VISIT. 29 loved would come between us again ! Once loved ! Ah ! but he loves her now — now ! Oh ! what am I to do ? What am I to do ? " She flung herself face downwards upon the sofa in a paroxj-sm of anguish. Jealousy, that horrible fiend that can torture the soul with superhuman pain, was tearing at her heart.

All at once she realized that her husband might meet this unknown woman at any moment, and that his love would doubtless then be fanned into fresh life by a renewal of intercourse with her. He might even now be planning to see her ! How was she to keep him ? How guard that frail possession that the law had given her for her own, but that love had never ratified ? For a long time no other thoughts came to her save those confused and agonized self questionings and bewailings. At length, half blinded with tears and dazed with the overwhelming bitterness of her thoughts, she rose, and a sudden fear went through her heart like the stab of a knife. Where was he now ? Had he gone out with Netherville ? Gone away at once, perhaps — to her ! The horror of the fancy took away her breath. She ran swiftly and softly downstairs, her Hght steps making no noise upon the thick carpet as she went.

She breathed again when she saw that his hat and stick were in their place. Then softly she crept to the door of his study. She knew he must be there, and alone. A great wave of tenderness and love swept across her heart. " I will go to him," she thought, " I will tell him that I have guessed his secret, and implore him not to let me bear this misery of jealous fear. I will throw myself at his feet, and beseech him not to go and see this LORD NETHERVILLE'S VISIT. 31 woman. I will tell him that it will break my heart if he does. I will entreat him to give me his promise. After all, it is a long time since he saw her, he may have forgotten her, and I am his wife, bound to him by the most sacred of all ties — he cannot refuse me ! Perhaps even now I may be able to win him away from her ! " She opened the door noiselessly.