The Verge of Night

Front matter

VOL. 1, NEW AND POPULAB NOVELS AT ALL THE LIBRARIES. THE LAW FORBIDS. By Katharine King, author of ' The Queen of the Regiment,1 &c. 3 vols. SNOW IN HARVEST. By Ida Ashworth Taylor, author of ' Venus' Doves.' 3 vols. ENTANGLED. By E. Fairfax Byrrne, author of ' A Fair Country Maid.' 3 vols. t THE SINS OF THE FATHERS. By Henry Cresswell, author of ' A Modern Greek Heroine,' ' Incognita,' &c. 3 vols. MADAME DE PRESNEL. By E. Frances Poynter, author of - My Little Lady,' &c. 2 vols. HURST & BLACKETT, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET ET PERCY GREG AUTHOR OP "ivy: cousin and bride," ETC., ETC. " Mirth aparkling like a diamond shower From KpB of lifelong sadnesB ; Clear picturioga of majestic thought Upon a ground of m&dneas." Whittiei:. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1885.

All lights reserved. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTEl: PAGE I. Adoption 1 II. Modern Chivalry 21 III. The Shadow of Death .... 40 IV. The Formless Horror .... 51 V. Ambition 66 VI. Life's Issues 83 VII. Solved Problems 97 VIII. Father and Son 128 IX. Clouds of Conscience .... 142 X. Tryst .... . 156 XI. Paternal Kindness 172 XII. FORTUNATA-NIMIUM 189 XIIT. Man's Pride and Maiden's Love . . 197 XIV. News from the Field .... 219 XV. Laurel and Myrtle 226 XVI. A Maiden Speech 243 XVII. Fashion or Fancy? 254 XVIII. The Wedding Eve 263 XIX. Phantoms or Facts ? 280 XX. A Crisis 295 XXI. From the Cage .

Chapter I

ADOPTION". ' Does Pearl like him, Ivy V 'He is her cousin. She would be sorry to speak against him to us. But do yon think she could like any one whom you so dislike?' 'I don't know. Contradiction with her is almost as strong an impulse as affection ; and of course I never told her how I hate the fellow.' ' Can she not see, Ethert ? At least, she knows you detest his politics.' 'Pearl is a keen little politician; but ladies forgive the politics, however execrable, if they like the man ; and I could pardon his Nihilism — that is the only word for his views — sooner than his slanders on the Royal Family. But the man VOL. I. B has only taken up Radicalism as for him the winning side. His one chance of political distinction is to be more violent, more extreme, more unscrupulous than any man of higher standing and greater claims.' 'May he not be honest?

The Queen can do no wrong, but I suppose her children may ?' ' No gentleman, no man not mean and vulgar to the core, will strike those who cannot strike in return. A Prince of the Blood alone can neither answer nor punish a slanderer ; aud the social etiquette of to-day forbids other people to take up his quarrel. But for that, I should have liked myself to horsewhip Carey for his speech at Stapleton.' ' Then why did you ask him here?' 'Because he is her cousin.' ' Surely, Ethert, if he had been your own kinsman, you would not have invited a man of whom you think so ill?' ' Not even if he had been yours, Ivy ; nor if Pearl had been our own child. And, if she accepts her uncle's offer, I shall cut Carey at once, and for ever.' 'Pearl understands that — knows why you endure him. But, Ethert, you would not have her leave us?' ADOPTION". 3 • I ought not to wish.

I can't advise her to refuse; nor indeed to accept, unless — Ivy, what do yen wish V • I have no right to wish, Ethert ; surely you have? You who adopted the friendless orphan child when you had barely enough for yourself, you who have given her a home, who, ever since she cau remember, have done for her all that a father or an elder brother could, you surely have almost a father's right ; and, if you wish to keep her, do you think her heartless enough to be bribed to go V ■ Another woman, Ivy, might say and per haps think that a man's guardianship of an orphan girl is its own ample reward. At any rate, I wish Pearl to do what is best for herself without thought of me.' ' Ethert, if she goes, it will be because she thinks you wish it." ' Or you.' Ivy coloured, not brightly or deeply, but painfully.

Reading in her face how keenly she was hurt, Ethert would fain have recalled or ex plained a phrase which had not been meant quite as it had been understood. But before he could find words, his wife resumed. ' She shall not. fancy that. She knows how we both love her. She is provided for here ; is b2 it wise or well for her to give up a home in which she is so thoroughly safe and happy, to live with a man she does not know — of whom her friends know little, and that not very promising — merely that she may be rich when he dies?' ' That Pearl must decide. I only fear that she should underrate, as girls generally do, the value of wealth, and— as you think she will- — that she should hold herself bound iu some sense to us.-' ' Ethert, is a woman likely to be happier for being rich ? When Charlie was born, you said you were glad Flora would not be an heiress.

Meta will have enough : ought you not to judge for her as for a daughter?' ' Perhaps I ought — I know I can't. I could not advise her to reuounce her uncle's inheritance.' ' Why not, if you think it will not make her happier?' ' Because — well, I should not be credited with the same right, or the same single regard to her real happiness. But that won't bear argu ing. What is her cousin's aim ? He can't want her to be his uncle's heiress, unless she is to be his wife.' The speakers were pacing the terrace that ADOPTION. 5 overlooked the eastward or spring gardens of Glynnehurst, never more beautiful than in the bright twilight of that summer even ing. Another pair strolled along a narrower path that wound in and out among the beds and shrubs ; generally in sight, now and then lost behind a group of rhododendrons or a stately Wellingtonia, but always out of hearing. ' Surely you will go, Meta ?

Uucle George has set his mind upon it ; he cannot understand that you can hesitate ; and if you refuse, I'm afraid he won't forgive you.' ' He never did anything for me ; he has no right to expect that now, because he chooses to want me, I should leave those who have done everything. Forgive me, indeed 1 What does that matter ?' ' A good deal, cousin. His adopted child will be about the greatest heiress in Australia.' ' That does not seem fair to you or your sisters. Why should he not take Fanny or Juliet?' 'He does not choose. For one thing, you .are an orphan. Besides, my father has got on well, as you know, these last ten years, aud Uncle George would prefer one more entirely dependent on himself.' ' I don't understand ; what difference would that make? ' ' I fancy he wants his adopted child all to himself; one who could not quarrel with him, and with whom no one could interfere.' ' You mean that he wants to play the tyi-ant?' Her cousin glanced sharply and somewhat askance at Meta's face ; but, meeting her frank, enquiring look, turned answered. half aside before he ' I don't know that, to be master at home. been quite a child, he Of course he means Perhaps, if Juliet had might have preferred her.

But, after all, what does it matter? I fancy you can take care of yourself; and he can't beat you.' 'Nor eat me. James, what do you really think of him ; do you like him V ' Yes, on the whole. An old bachelor is always crusty ; a rich man is used to his own way, and means to have it. I don't suppose he is any worse than other men in the same position.' ' But why should I go ? I suppose if he can't get me, he will take one of your sisters ? Let him — why not?' ' Because he wants you. If you refuse, vou may be very sure he'll leave you nothing !' ADOPTION. ' I don't want his money ! Why should I give up a happy home, to be at his mercy for all the best years of my life, that some day or other, if he don't quarrel with me, I may be, as you say, the richest woman in New South Wales?' ' You are a very strange girl, Meta.

I could understand better if Fanny or Juliet argued in that way.' 'Why?' ' Well, they have a home of their own ; they will have something — enough, at any rate, to have a good chance of marriage in England. And yet either of them would jump at your chance.' 'And have not I a home? You mean it is not my own ; but, if I were his child or her sister, Sir Ethert and Lady Glynne could not have been kinder to me. I could not be hap pier ; and, if they wished me to stay, for no fortune in the world ought I to leave them. I can understand,' she continued, after a thought ful pause, 'it makes some little difference that your sisters are provided for ; and, of course, if anything happened here, I don't know ' Her cousin glanced at her once more. This time she did not meet his look; her eyes were fixed on the ground, in thought apparently not wholly pleasant.

He evidently strove hard to read her mind ; and, baffled in that attempt, pondered for some time before he answered in a half hesitating tone, as if trying the ground or watching the impression his words might produce. ' For that matter, Meta, you are as well off as my sisters. Sir Ethert told my father that his mother's fortune is settled ou you.' She started and looked up. ' That is very strange ! She never cared much for me ; she would not have taken charge of me, but that he pressed it so. Surely she would never leave her money away from him and his children ?' Her cousin hesitated, and Meta instinctively recognised a perplexity she could not under stand. A keen, shrewd, hard man of the world could ill judge how the facts he knew, the motives and ideas he could suggest, might oper ate on a girl whose nature was so utterly unlike as to be almost unintelligible to his. ' I fancy,' he said at last, ' it was Sir Ethert's own doing, not his mother's.' Meta looked up hastily, and then again bent her eyes upon the ground, while her cousin watched her furtively; more and more unable to follow the train of her thought, more and more perplexed to know what statement or conceal- ADOPTION. 9 ment, what representation or misrepresentation was likely to attain his end.

Almost every sentence had been ventured in a doubtful hesitating manner, as if each might possibly give a death-blow to the scheme it was meant to serve. ' Is that right, James ? It is like Sir Ethert — but is it just to his children ? Ought I to accept it V ' Why not, Meta ? Glynne is a rich man ; he has a right to do as he will with his own ; and when he adopted you he must of course have meant to provide for you. That was only his duty.' 'His duty ! As if it were not enough to give me a home ; to provide for me as a child, to educate me till I could earn my own bread ! Not that I think he ever meant that : I know, I am sure, it would grieve him so much, and her too ; or else . . ." ' You need have no fear on that score, if you accept Uncle George's offer. Surely you are not afraid of quarrelling with him ?

"You will know how to manage him and keep on good terms with him as long as may be necessary. You know he was many years older than your mother ; he is not far off seventy now.' ' You say Sir Ethert ought, was bound, after adopting me as a child, to provide for me : and yet you think that Uncle George might, if I offended him, leave me penniless at last.' ' Of course, if you were silly enough to offend him deeply and not to make it up. But, Meta, a clever and pretty girl can always manage an old man, even though he be somewhat hard and very shrewd.' ' I might have quarrelled with Sir Ethert ever so bitterly, might have offended him ever so deeply and justly ; and none the less he would have done for me all he had ever thought right, would have been all the more scrupulously kind and generous.

Only I am not quite sure — I wish I were certain what Lady Glynne really wishes, what she would think.' For once Carey answered hastily and un hesitatingly. He was not the man to doubt either what a young wife must feel towards a ward but three years youuger, or what must be a mother's wish where her children's interest came into conflict with a stranger's. 'I don't think that, should be your guide, Meta. If you think you owe nothing to your uncle' — if you mean to forget your own interest and be ruled by gratitude — your duty surelyis to Sir Ethert, not to his wife ? I know she has ADOPTION. 11 been kind to you ; but you may be very sure that was his doing.' ' You think so ?' she asked hastilj- : then sud denly coloured and paused. Too generous and frank to distrust her cousin, to suspect a sinister or selfish purpose, his character, his general tone as well as the spirit of his present reasonings, repelled her confidence.

She felt an instinctive aversion to discuss with him a question that deeply touched her feelings on their most sensi tive side ; a question of delicacy, propriety, and honour. Her final answer was given in an altered tone, marked by a reserve which to Carey's watchful observation suggested newly awakened suspicion. In truth, however, Meta felt that she had trusted him a little too far; trusted him, too, in matters that concerned not herself alone, but those to whom he was a stranger, with whom she was as closely and intimately connected as by the nearest ties of blood. She was sorry and ashamed to have touched, with him, upon her feelings towards her guardians, much more upon their possible sentiments or wishes in regard to herself; felt as a daughter surprised into an undutiful viola tion of domestic privacy and parental confidence. 'I must think it ovei-, James.

Uncle George cannot expect me to answer such a question at once, without thought, without consulting those who have a right to advise, to guide me — I might say to decide for me, if only they would do so.' ' Uncle George,' thought Carey to himself, ' never dreamed that there could be a doubt, that any girl could hesitate between the position of an orphan protegee, even in a house like this, and that of his promised heiress. So much the better: he will be slow to understand that she hesitates ; but, if he understands it, it will seem almost as unpardonable as a flat refusal. She must be blind not to see that I can't wish her to accept — though I had as lief he took her as Juliet. I could make more out of her sentiment than Juliet's sisterly affectiou. But he shall have neither. After all, I, his only nephew, have a right to be his heir, and I don't mean to divide the inheritance.

A thorough-going Radical, a popular speaker at six-and-twenty, Uncle George's quarter of a million shall make me Prime Minister before I die. But if he wants a girl — well, his heiress must be rny wife ; and so, if he take any of the three, it shall be Meta.' ' How do you like Edith Lestrange, Ethert?' ADOPTION. 13 'Very much — why?' ' I should like to ask her here — I mean for a fortnight or so. And — could we not ask her father at the same time?' I don't know. Would she wish to meet him, or he . . ? ' ' Ethert, I am sure he loved his children : and — yes, I feel sure she would be glad to see him.' ' Have you anything further in your mind, Ivjl Better tell me your whole idea, not ask me to advise upon half the case.' ' Yes. I fancy somehow that Edith feels for her father, that she would go to him if he asked it: and she ought.

If Mr. Lestrange goes on another year as now, with no home, no one to care for him, and living in those rooms over the Courier office, Ida Cleveland says he must break down completely. If Edith were with him he must leave the office, must make a home for her, and she would make it home for him.' * Do you remember that Raymond Erne will be here — I suppose about the same time?' 'I suppose so — why?' 'Because — you know I wish Lestrange as well as you do, though it surprises me a little to see what hold he takes on the interest, the kindness of ladies like yourself and Mrs. Cleveland: —but, Ivy, are you sure that Edith will not make a home for some one else, rather than for him?' 'If she once goes to him, she will not leave him. What do you mean, Ethert?' ' Well, when we met her at Ferndale Holm, you remember Erne was there for the first week ; and he spent most of bis leisure upon her.' ' She was a stranger and somewhat lonely; and Mr. Erne is a gentleman in more than manner.' ' And Edith is very pretty, and attractive in a higher sense still.' ' You think he is in love with her ?

Oh, I hope not!' 'Not in love yet, perhaps, but — interested. Are you so much in love with Lestrange, then, Ivy, that you grudge his daughter to any one else?' Ivy was evidently confused ; her exclamation had been extorted by surprise ; but it was so rare for her to withhold a thought from her husband, to refuse an answer to any question of his, that her silence provoked his curiosity. ' I should have thought your sympathies would ADOPTION. 15 have been with the young people, Ivy. Why do you " hope not " V 'Don't ask me, Ethert. You know I can't palter or evade if you question me, and I can't tell you. Besides, I may be quite wrong — 1 hope lam.' Here the others joined them, and after a minute Carey took his leave. Meta had drawn close to Ivy ; and Ethert, observant where the feelings and moods of his adopted child were in question, if as a rule somewhat slow of social perception, felt that his absence might be agree able, aud turned to walk to the park gate with his guest.

Left alone with their ward, Ivy's ready sympathy discerned that Meta, while wishful to speak, was somewhat more than merely at a loss for words. ' You have had a long talk with your cousin,' she said, in that tone of affectionate interest which had so often relieved Meta's shyness or softened her wilful humour. ' Has he advised you to accept your uncle's offer ?' ' I hardly kuow,' Meta answered, doubtfully. ' I don't feel sure what he wishes — and I don't care. Ivy, what do you wish ?' ' Nay, dearest, you must not think of that. I could not wish you to make — what I suppose most people would think a great sacrifice — for us.' ' Had I better go, then ?' Meta said, in a low quick tone, in which Ivy felt a change of mood ; something like misgiving or distrust clouding the frank sister-like confidence of her ward's usual manner. ' Don't ask me, dearest.

I don't think Ethert would like me to advise you as I feel ; and, after all, men are the best judges when matters of business, of worldly interest are in question.' ' Would he wish me to go ?' Ivy was a little hurt by the sharp, abrupt question, and might have replied somewhat hastily, had her temper been less sweet or her habitual consideration for the orphan's sensitive spirit, her perception of the less agreeble in cidents of Meta's actual position, not so tender and sympathetic. ' You know Ethert would miss you, if possible, more than I.' 'More than you?' Another woman might have been hurt or angry: Lady Glynne answered the more gently and kindly that she felt no twinge of self-reproach, knew that she had given no cause, no shadow of excuse for the doubt implied yet more clearly in the tone than iu the words. 'I could part with you, darling, if I thought it for your own good ; but it would be a great, a lasting grief to me ; and' — with some hesitation ADOPTION. 17 — ' I think I ought to tell you what I feel, though I dou't know that Ethert will be pleased with me.

I think — I am sure he thinks — you are, will be happier here than your uncle's fortune could make you. I could hardly bear to trust you to one who does not know and love you as we do.' ' Who could not have, ought not to have, half your patience and forbearance with me, Ivy,' Meta answered, touched to the heart, aud wind ing her arm caressingly round her companion's waist. ' Are you sure, quite sure, I had not better go ?' 'Quite sure, darling, that your leaving us would be a grief to Ethert, a great loss to me. I dare not be sure that you ought to refuse such an inheritance: but in your place I should not accept it.' 'Ivy, do you think I care for the money?' — withdrawing her arm, and looking up indig nantly, almost angrily, into her face. ' Then why should you hesitate, Pearl ; how can you doubt ?

You cannot think you owe less to Ethert than to your uncle, merely because he is your mother's brother : you know what, if he thought it right to speak, would be Ethert's pleasure — and mine.' ' Will it always be your pleasure, Ivy ?' VOL. I. C ' Need you ask that question, Pearl ? After so many years, can you doubt our love for you ?' 'No, indeed; and if you bade me go I should not think you loved me less.' 'Are you unreasonable enough to be hurt, Pearl, because Ethert will not urge or advise you ? Just because it would be so great a sorrow to part with you, he will not counsel you to sacrifice what seems, and what I suppose rightly seems, much more to him than to us.' 'Never mind Ethert ; I mean ' — in some confusion — ' I know what he will wish. Ivy, I will do just what you, yourself, really would have me.

I will go, if you tell me.' ' I cannot tell you, dear : Ethert has forbidden it. But you know, you surely know, what I wish?' Pearl looked up once more earnestly, as if striving to read her friend's true meaning in eyes that rarely if ever contradicted the lips. Whether by force of personal affection or of feminine tact, Ivy understood all that the other could not say, all that she herself must not seem to perceive, drew her ward close to hei-, and whispered, as she kissed her cheek : 'You will stay, then? And,' she continued after awhile, in a lighter tone, as they paced the terrace together, waiting for her husband's ADOPTION. return, ' I can tell you, now you have decided, Ethert will be as glad as I : he would have missed you sorely. You are very useful to him now, you know. Indeed, since Mr. Erne taught you shorthand, you do the work for which I wanted him two years ago to engage a secretary.

I thought Mr. Erne might have accepted such an offer then ; but Ethert would not have a stranger in the house.' ' Mr. Erne is coming here next week, is he not?' She stooped, as she asked the question, to gather a rose ; and Ivy could not see her face as she answered, ' Yes ; and I shall write this evening to Edith Lestrange.' Something, perhaps, in Ivy's tone told Meta that more was meant than met the ear. She started and looked directly into the speaker's countenance, but with no such change in her own as Ivy had half-expected. ' Edith Lestrange ? Ah — 1 guess ! And you mean to ask her father? Ivy, I hope you will succeed ; I do like them both.' ' Do you ?' Ivy said, a little surprised. Pearl, she knew, was no special favourite with the misogynist sceptic and Tory cynic, who had created aud still edited the chief organ of the C2 party : a man whose domestic troubles had em bittered his nature and injured his reputation. ' You saw more of Edith than I, and I dare say she would talk more freely to you.

Did she ever speak of her father ?' 'More than once. I am sure she cares for him ; and — she has a conscience ; or perhaps she is not so happy with her mother.' 'I dou't wonder: though I never saw her, never heard any explanation of the quarrel. Neither Jir. Lestrange nor his friends will speak, and I don't know hers. But I am afraid I should feel no scruple in helping Edith to return to him.' 'I think she would be very glad,' Meta answered ; and here, Ethert joining them, the conversation dropped. ' Well,' Lady Glynne thought, as her maid passed the brushes over her long, dark hair that evening, ' I think she cares for Erne ; but, if she does, she has seen nothing to make her fancy he cares for Edith. Is Ethert right, I wonder ? I hope not.'

Chapter II. Modern Chivalry

* Is this fair. Miss Mordaunt, or kind? I had hoped that you so far honoured me as to con sider me, I thought you had once called me, a friend. But if not, I thought you too just to condemn without heariug, to punish without even accusing.' ■ What have I done to you, Mr. Erne ?' ■ Miss Mordaunt, that is hardly worthy of yon. Let me rather ask, how have I offended you so deeply?' ' Have I said that I was offended ?" •Miss Mordaunt, I have tried these two days to find a chance of speaking to you, and in vain, or I should not have ventured now to follow you when I was so evidently unwelcome. Do you think I cannot feel your displeasure with out a word ; or do not feel it deeply, cruelly V The speaker stood by Meta's side on the southern terrace overlooking the perpendicular chalk cliff, and closed at either end by the two flanking towers of Glynnehurst.

Escaping from the larger drawing-room, first into that smaller one in which Lady Glynne was wont to receive her own especial friends, then, when he had ventured to seek her there, passing out upon the terrace, Meta bad probably counted on Erne's persistence. If apparently driven to bay, she knew that an inviolable refuge was open to her. From the left-hand tower the window of Sir Ethert's private study opened on the terrace, and there she was almost as much at home as its owner; while the other, familiar as he had long been with the house and household, could not have ventured thither un invited. Raymond Erne was not one against whom, even iu displeasure, ladies would willingly proceed to extremities. Face, form, and manner were all in mutual accord, and all pre possessed them in his favour.

The tall spare figure, the dark pale complexion, the brown clear expressive eyes and firmly-closed mouth gave him an air of dignity and self-command which enhanced, for women at least, the charm of the delicate, finely-formed features, the voice always softened almost to tenderness for their ears, the earnest, chivalric gentleness of his address ; and when, as now, he was deeply moved, the slight flush that tinged the usually colourless cheek, the pathos or passion that thrilled in the soft low tones, spoke in the liquid pleading eyes, had an eloquence inde pendent of words, which appealed irresistibly to feminine sympathies or susceptibilities. He rarely failed to gain a lady's ear, and generally won her favour ; almost always her regard and confidence. Too sensitive to their influence to be con scious of his own, no woman feared to trust him at the moment, or felt afterwards that a trust so readily given might be bitterly repented.