The Betrothal of James

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NEW NOVELS MRS DE LA RUE S Mr THE By RICCARDO STEPHENS Price 6f- Illustrated by W. G. Burn Murdoch A DEPARTURE FROM TRADITION And Other Stories By ROSALINE MASSON Price 61- THE SPIRIT IS WILLING By PERCIVAL PICKERING Pries SI- ONE CROWDED HOUR By A. BERESFORD RYLEY Price 6j- A SOUL ON FIRE By FLORENCE MARRYAT Price 316 IN THE SHADOW OF THE 'BUSH.- A New Zealand Romance By JOHN BELL Price 3/6 SECOND LIEUTENANT CELIA By L. C. DAVIDSON Fully illustrated Price JT/6 A BRANCH OF LAUREIr By A. B. LOUIS Price 3/6 HIS FORTUNATE GRACE By GERTRUDE ATHERTON price 216 TALES OF THE KLONDTKE Bv T. MULLETT ELLIS Pric. 2/6 IHlorfts be tbe same Sutbot. NOVELS. THE CAPTIVE OF PEKIN. THE WOOING OF AVIS GRAYLE. CHIN-CHIN-WA. DRAMAS. A HOUSE OF LIES. HONOUR AMONG THIEVES. THE OPIUM EATER, Etc. And in collaboration with Wilson Barrbtt, OUR PLEASANT SINS. By CHARLES HANNAN LONDON! DUSS SANDS & C°- MDCCCXCVIII " Hail gentlemen ! So it please you, let me clown awhile."

Chapter I Tn

the pretty little village of Ulingford there resided, at the time of the opening of this history, a tall and somewhat lanky young physician, who, having taken his degree at the University, had now placed upon the little gate of a humble cottage a brass plate bearing the words : J. VEERDON, M.D. His long thin face and dreamy eyes were thrown into the background by masses of unruly tawny-coloured hair, which grew in small bushes, as it were, about his head, for Nature, besides providing him with an unkempt mass of hair upon the top of his cranium, seemed to have taken special delight in sticking dabs of the same upon his face. It was as if he had been placed at a little distance and had patches of tawny hair thrown at him to fasten where they might. A bush on either side of the chin, irregular masses on the cheeks, a moustache which he could readily have spared, and, to crown these, a luxuriant foliage jutting out on top.

Much might have been obviated by shaving, but at this period Dr Veerdon was too deeply engrossed with the cultivation of the mind to have much regard for merely outward appearance. He was, in truth, a very ugly and undeveloped-looking young fellow, who had now taken his first step towards fame by the placing of the brass plate upon the gate. His home, though humble and unpresum ing, was a sweet country cottage, covered in summer with an abundance of roses, standing detached in its own grounds, somewhat quaintly built, and of but two storeys high, yet a dear little old-fashioned spot. At the foot of the garden in the rear there stood a smaller building or outhouse, con sisting of two little rooms, originally built as garden tool-house, but now dignified by the name of "consulting-room," for the young doctor had ousted the garden tools and taken possession.

As this consulting-room stood at some distance from the main road, and as patients, in seeking it, had thus to pass by the cottage itself, and to wend their way up the garden afterwards to reach it, it will be seen that, if secluded, it was none the less somewhat awkwardly placed. Whether from the difficulty of reaching the consulting-room, or on account of the unattractive appearance of the doctor him self, the brass plate had hitherto failed to bring a single fish to the physician's net. Dr Veerdon, however, was very busily occupied upon experiments calling for very close concentration of ideas, so that, up to the present, absence of patients did not very greatly matter. In the cottage itself the home was a happy one. The circle consisted of but three persons — Miss Veerdon, an old lady of quiet and sedate habits, who filled the place of mistress ; Veerdon, the young doctor spoken of ; and Lucy, his sister, a young and very charming girl.

Miss Veerdon, sister of the late solicitor, James Veerdon, and aunt to the two young people, possessed sufficient fortune in her own right to have kept the little house hold going, but the young doctor and Lucy, having each inherited a small income of their own from their parents, contributed their share towards the general expenses, and were therefore in no way dependent upon the aunt. Lucy Veerdon formed by her sweetness and beauty as great a contrast to her gaunt and ungainly brother as it is possible to imagine. All the red or tawny hair in the connection had been dealt out to the young man. Lucy's locks were golden, her complexion clear, her height medium, her limbs well formed, her every movement instinct with ease and grace, and her smile one of those rare, lingering, gentle smiles that one loves to remember long afterwards.

Lucy Veerdon was engaged — a promise of some standing, given one night in early spring in the green lane which led down by the village church, whilst the stars in the still sky above chuckled to themselves, perhaps in merry laughter as to the future, when Lucy plighted her troth to the young man of her choice. Lucy might, indeed, have done a little better for herself, but then she was so very young, and the chosen suitor was her brother's dearest friend, born a gentleman, it is true, but, unfortunately, poor at that. So Lucy's aunt, as guardian, had made it a condition that the lover should be in dependent, through his own exertions, before the girl finally gave her hand. Some years had gone by since then, and this independence had not yet been attained. Lucy, though now her own mistress, being for some time past of age in the legal sense, still held to the old promise out of love for her aunt ; but the young fellow took it rather ill that she did so, seeing that what he con sidered to be the best years of their youth were slipping by, and becoming somewhat soured, that do what he might, money did not tumble into his lap quite so rapidly as he expected.

Like his friends, he, too, was an orphan. He was an architect by profession, some years older than the young doctor, and he bore a name which was not of the most attractive order. He was called Algernon Quiggerfield. Lucy used often to think that Veerdon was much prettier than Quiggerfield, but there was no help for it. It was his ances tors' fault, not his. One question sat heavily upon an other wise happy little household. Lucy being engaged, there remained the all-important matter, as Miss Veerdon put it, of the betrothal of James. Every one felt that this would spur up the young gentleman, when accomplished, to the endeavour to improve his personal appearance. It would also probably result in greater energy as to his practice, and might lead to more attempts to extend it. The important point was the choice of the lady.

James would have none of them, or they would have none of James — it matters little which. Miss Veerdon would sigh when other young people's forthcoming marriages were announced. " Another chance lost for our James," she would say, "and that girl might have done quite well." Lucy made new friends constantly in order to give her brother a chance. They discussed the question frequently in the doctor's presence. He grew to hate the very names of Lucy's acquaintances. Quiggerfield once said to him : " / am all right, old chap, but when is your time to come ? " " Yes," sighed Miss Veerdon plaintively, and in her old-fashioned way, "it is a serious matter, indeed, is the betrothal of James." " I wish," said Veerdon impatiently, " I honestly and sincerely desire that you would all attend to your own business and leave the betrothal of James alone !

" " That is a nice temper," said Quigger field, "when we are all doing our best for you ! There is only one chance for you, James, in this world — you must marry money." " I think I have a way of making the money first," replied Veerdon, "and my betrothal can follow after." Quiggerfield was one of those square headed men one meets with, whose opinions are not always right, but are, nevertheless, steadfastly maintained by their owner. His hair was dark and he wore a slight mous tache ; his features were regular. He was not clever — and this fact annoyed him. He took a rather unfortunate view of life, as a rule, and though a good enough fellow, was very ordinary. One meets dozens — nay, hundreds — of men just like Quiggerfield ; nothing out of the way, simply like other men ; nothing at all original about them, simply good fellows to whom it never occurs to be anything else.

Quiggerfield was very conservative in his ideas. He believed in nothing new till it was fully proved, and take him all round, he was what might be described as a slow-paced horse. It would perhaps have been better for Quiggerfield if he could have been kept entirely out of this history. He was the wrong man to have been brought into con nection with the Veerdons at all, but, un fortunately, he was engaged to Lucy Veerdon, and there was no shutting him out of the events which were to come. Quiggerfield resided in lodgings in the village, and spent a couple of hours, as a general rule, almost every evening at his friends' house and in Lucy's society. It was on one of those evenings, some months after his setting up in practice, that young Veerdon momentarily startled both his relatives and friend by a somewhat curious statement.

It was early summer, and the evening being fine and the air warm the men, after supper, had taken chairs for the ladies into the garden. Wrapped in a light shawl the age\i Miss h Veerdon had fallen silent from drowsiness; Lucy and her lover conversed at long in tervals ; Veerdon puffed at a long wooden pipe moodily and thoughtfully ; the tinkling of a cattle-bell could be heard from afar ; the neighing of a horse came gently upon the breeze ; the last glory of the setting sun was passing ; a solitary bird crossed the sky in homeward flight. Nature herself seemed dropping into the quietness of a deserved repose. It was an evening of beauty and peace. Veerdon stirred himself and took his pipe from his lips. " This all seems very quiet and beauti ful, doesn't it?" he asked. "Nature seems perfect, and yet Nature wants much im proving.

Why do we live? What are we? What are we created for? What are we to become ? " " That you will never solve," said Quiggerfield. " I mean to try. You will think me mad, but, to begin with, I believe I hold the dis covery of the secret of perpetual life." " Yes, or the philosopher's stone." " No, something far more wonderful. As I say — perpetual life." " Oh, rubbish ! " muttered Quiggerfield, somewhat rudely. Miss Veerdon had been aroused from dozing by the voices, and now asked : " What is James saying ? " " He has discovered perpetual life." "He is jesting ! I hope he has done nothing so wicked as even to try," cried the old lady. "My dear aunt," answered the doctor seriously, " I have tried. It is not wicked. I have, I think, nearly succeeded, and, what is more, I mean to experiment upon you."

Whereat the old lady gave such a shriek of dismay that the whole party burst into laughter and the subject passed by. During the remainder of the evening, how ever, Quiggerfield kept a serious but hostile and suspicious glance fixed upon his friend, and later on, when Veerdon accompanied him to the gate, he returned to the subject thus : " You don't seriously mean to say, old fellow, that you are going to waste your time upon impossibilities ? " " By no means." " Then, what you said to-night " Is absolutely true." "Then you are experimenting — wasting your youth, I may say — upon abstruse subjects." " Seeing is believing. ' You shall see what you shall see.' " " Very likely." " The fact of the matter is this, Quigger field : the almost daily assurances on all sides that I am good - for - nothing but to marry money in this world has been the real cause of leading me to show you all, as I shall do presently, that I am, in reality, a neglected genius.

I made up my mind to invent this thing, and I have invented it ; and shall develop it in what may prove a very surprising manner. Wait and see." "I will 'wait' with pleasure," answered Quiggerfield, " but I honestly don't want i i a to see. Veerdon continued as follows, without noticing the sarcasm : "In the meantime, let me put a question before you. Have you ever considered the various forms of life — the things that seem to us to be dead ? A step higher, those that show a symptom of sluggish life ? A step higher, plant life ? A step higher, animal life ? A step higher yet, human life ? A step higher, flame and fire ? And, higher still, most sur-excited of all life, electricity ? " "Well?" " You haven't — / have. And I mean to get life itself into the form of an essence. What do you think of that ?

" " To be candid — very little." " There is one instance, Quiggerfield, which always attracted me — the combination of animal life and electricity. It already exists. The cat has both." " Electricity in its skin ? Yes, I admit." " And animal life beneath that skin. Why not extract the two, combine and use them ? This is the basis of a very wonderful dis covery, Quiggerfield. Through my treatment perpetual life may be given to the human being; furnished — absurd and ridiculous as it may seem to you — by one means only — the humble but necessary cat." " Pounded up, I suppose ? " " Treated by me." " Made into a sort of fluid ? " " More probably pills." Quiggerfield intimated that he thought the joke a very poor one, but, nevertheless, went very silently and thoughtfully home. If James was really serious he must be seen to, poor fellow. There must be some thing very much the matter with his head.

Chapter II Come

months had passed since the above conversation, during which time Quiggerfield kept a secret yet close watch upon his friend, feeling a somewhat natural anxiety as to the development of lunacy in his future brother-in-law ; but Veerdon maintained so quiet and unobtrusive a manner that Quiggerfield was at last forced to admit to himself that his fears for his friend's sanity had been apparently ground less. Nor had the young doctor again referred to the subject, so that, after all, the matter was evidently a joke. Thus time had passed by. One day Quiggerfield happened to be passing his friend's house early in the afternoon — a somewhat unusual occurrence, for his business seldom called him that way — when he was arrested by sounds within the cottage which somewhat startled him. It appeared as though some one were making very merry within, for sounds of loud chuckling and laughter could be heard mingled with cries of amazement upon the part of the young domestic kept by the Veerdons, and the voice of his fianctie re monstrating with the merry one also reached him.

Quiggerfield, as a matter of fact, had had no intention of stopping at the cottage that afternoon, but these unusual sounds called for an investigation which he promptly accorded to them. As he opened the gate, Veerdon, with his hair in even a worse state of confusion than usual, rushed out to meet him, and seized hold of him, exclaiming excitedly as he did so : " I've got it, old chap ! The thing's done ! I've got it, I tell you! Come in and see my aunt ! She is just the queerest you ever saw! Hurroosh! I've got it! I've got it ! Hurroosh ! Hurroosh ! " and with that James Veerdon rushed indoors again, leaving Quiggerfield to follow as he might. With a sinking heart Quiggerfield crossed the threshold. A strange sight met him. Veerdon was strolling round the little room apparently out of his senses with excitement.

Lucy seemed busily engaged in trying to resuscitate the servant, who had fainted on the sofa, whilst, strangest of all, the sedate and gentle old Miss Veerdon, with her skirts gathered rather high about her, was excitedly dancing a jig upon the top of the dining table, the lightness and agility of her steps being only equalled by her own apparent enjoyment in her achievement. Quiggerfield's flesh rose with horror at the manifest impropriety of the situation, whereupon Miss Veerdon suddenly turned a somersault, and alighted in a collapsed condition in the fireplace, only to spring to her feet again with renewed laughter, and to recommence her war-dance on the floor. " She's too bobbish, but I've got it, old chap — it's mine!" shouted Veerdon. "Oh, do be quiet!" cried Lucy from the sofa. "Ah!" she added to her fiance", " this is something dreadful !

" Quiggerfield, who had already formed this opinion upon his own account, now seized hold of the energetic old lady, and suddenly forced her, by superior strength, into an armchair. One of the legs of this chair immediately gave way under the rough treatment — an unexpected incident which so upset Quiggerfield's equilibrium as to cause him to release the old lady, stumble over the coal-scuttle, and clutch at the bell-handle to support him. The immediate ringing of the bell, as a natural consequence, added to the general pandemonium, and poor Lucy was now driven nearly frantic with despair. James Veerdon and his lively aunt seemed to relish Quiggerfield's discomfiture immensely, but that young gentleman, now thoroughly roused, could be heard angrily enquiring: "What the devil was the meaning of it all ?

" The maid-servant, recovering under Lucy's treatment, now enlivened the general situation by a series of shrieks which went far towards convincing the bewildered Quigger field that he had suddenly stepped into Bedlam. Lucy, at last, gradually succeeded in pacifying the girl ; the bell stopped ringing ; Veerdon had momentarily ceased his trans ports of delight ; and Miss Veerdon, some what wearied by her exertions, was now quietly bobbing up and down upon the hearthrug, so that it became possible to review the situation. An account of what had led to these occurrences was speedily given. The Veerdons, living in the country, usually dined early, and it was towards the end of the meal recently concluded that the first symptoms of unusual jollity had broken out in the person of the old lady. Whilst the maid was clearing the table after dinner, Veerdon had drawn his sister towards the window, and explained to her that she need feel no alarm with regard to her aunt, saying that he himself was intensely interested in what was to come.

Upon Lucy's insisting that he should tell her his meaning, he confessed that he had now carried out his previously announced inten tion of experimenting upon his aunt. " Needless to say," he assured Lucy, "that there is absolutely no danger, or I should never have dreamed of doing it. All that has happened is, that in a portion of that pudding — which, by the way, was very good indeed — I managed to conceal a small pill, which is now beginning to work upon my aunt." Alarmed beyond measure Lucy turned towards the old lady, who, upon the servant's leaving the room, immediately clambered upon the dinner-table and com menced that dance which was the cause of bringing matters to a head, and which resulted in Veerdon's excitedly hastening to summon his friend, whom he perceived passing in the road.

Whilst Lucy and her brother were explaining this to Quiggerfield, the servant maid, whose presence had in part been for gotten, listened with open mouth as though struck dumb with astonishment and fear. "My aunt," concluded Veerdon, "is, as you see, exceedingly happy. You may ask her yourself." "Yes," said the old lady, " I never felt so happy before." She was now quieter, but it was noticeable that she still continued a gentle bobbing up and down, as if the joy within her was almost too great for her to contain. " I, myself," continued the young doctor, "was amazed for a few moments at the sudden and excessive nature of the attack, but all the absurdity in it has now passed by. The only unfortunate result — one which I would have avoided, if possible — is, that I have given her, at her period of life, some what too strong a dose.

Now that we are all calmer I can accurately judge the lasting effect of the dose, and I am very much afraid that this continual bobbing up and down from sheer joy of life, however pleasant for my aunt herself, will become a nuisance in a few days' time to others." Lucy and Quiggerfield exchanged glances. These glances conveyed a meaning which might have been expressed in the words : " Poor James !" Nevertheless, that something had happened to Miss Veerdon remained undoubted. With no actual change in her outward appearance, her face beamed with smiles, and she gently continued, as Veerdon put it, "bobbing." Quiggerfield hazarded a question. "If you are really responsible, James," he said severely, " for some dastardly act with regard to your respected aunt, how long will this medicine, or whatever it is, continue to have effect ?

" Veerdon took a note-book from his pocket and consulted it. " From three o'clock to-day the effect will continue for exactly twenty-three days eleven hours and four minutes. I must check this, however, more carefully later on. I think I am a few hours astray." " Great heavens ! And is your aunt to continue in this unfortunate condition for twenty-three odd days?" " Except when she is asleep, it is highly probable." Lucy gave a cry of despair. " But, in goodness name," cried Quigger field, "tell me what it all means!" " My aunt," returned Veerdon quietly, "is now, as you perceive, virtually inocu lated in a very simple manner with that combination of animal or human life and electricity of which I once spoke to you, and which, as I said before, is to be obtained solely through the medium of the humble but necessary cat."

"If you have given any medicine to your aunt you ought to be horsewhipped!" " Not so, for any inconvenience to be experienced through the slightly excessive nature of the dose lies with Lucy and with me, not with my dear aunt herself. This gentle movement up and down, which already grows monotonous to us, is pleasing to her. She likes it. You have only to look at her to perceive this." Quiggerfield drew Lucy apart and whispered to her that he had better hear all that James had to say, but that he would get some one to see to him later on. Lucy, greatly distressed, nodded her acquiescence. Veerdon and his aunt meantime were conversing pleasantly together, the young fellow expressing his regret for a trifling mistake in the composition of his dose, the old lady assuring him that whilst she would never have agreed to his treatment had she known his intentions, now that it was all over, the joy of merely living was such that she entirely forgave him for the means taken, adding that she felt no in convenience whatever from his misconcep tion of quantity.

" Nevertheless," said Veerdon, " I do earnestly wish that, be it only for a moment, you could manage to stand still." Quiggerfield having concluded his secret consultation with Lucy now approached his friend. " Come up the garden, James," he said, in a pleasant and conciliatory tone, and thrust ing his hand through the other's arm, "and tell me all about it quietly in the consulting room. Your aunt appears to be recovering. No doubt, old fellow, all will be as usual very soon. I can understand that a chemist and physician of your experience can easily play a little harmless joke like this upon us, some excitable medicine the effects of which will quietly wear away." "You are mistaken; the effects terminate suddenly in twenty-three days." " Ah yes ! yes," interrupted Quiggerfield, humoring him; "and then you can ask Miss Veerdon to forgive you, old fellow, can't you ?

Come along now and tell me all." As he was about to lead his friend from the room the maid-servant, who had been standing like a stone up till the present, remarked somewhat suddenly : " Please, mum, I wish to go." Go!" said Lucy, "where? "To leave my place, mum. "You ungrateful girl!" said old Miss Veerdon. c "No, mum, I can't stay. I'm terrified with the diabollery!" " Diabollery, my good girl!" interrupted Veerdon, laughing; "what is that?" " I want to go." "Oh, very well," said Veerdon, "if you want to go — go ! " " And where am I to get another girl at an hour's notice?" asked Lucy, "and such a good servant, too." And the young mistress and servant thereupon, being mutually attached to one another, began to mingle their tears, to the distress of the inventor, the maid crying: " I am sure, mum, you are so kind I want to stay, but I must go !

" " One of the results of your d d nonsense, James!" said Quiggerfield, bitterly. Miss Veerdon intimated from the hearth rug that she really didn't see any cause for weeping if people would only be happy, whereat, by way of contrast, Lucy and the servant came together and clung to one another, and, amidst lamentations and re proaches, the young doctor was now placed in an exceedingly uncomfortable position. Without doubt the whole blame of this matter was his. It was, it now appeared, the inventor himself for whom the servant-maid had conceived a sudden terror. She confessed that she had never much admired him, that his wild-looking head had always terrified her, and now that he stood con fessed as a dealer in " diabollery," for not another hour could she remain under the same roof. Sorely distressed on his sister's account — for the maid was really a good girl — Veerdon at length managed to compromise matters.

Till the morrow, at least, the maid should maintain her situation, he himself undertaking to remain in his consulting room, so that her fear of him might pass by. " She'll stay for good, Lucy," whispered the doctor when he had accomplished this ; " have no fear, by to-morrow she won't wish to go." Lucy shook her head sadly. Her brother merely smiled. There was something in that ugly head of his which he did not yet mention. The servant, he fancied, would remain to-morrow, after all. He thought he saw a way ! Quiggerfield accompanied him to the door of the consulting-room, but there Veerdon stopped him. "You must put off this explanation, Quig, till to-morrow," he said, suddenly. " I have a lot to think of and much to do. To-morrow, like a good fellow, at the same hour." As Quiggerfield returned past the cottage and reached the road again, he noticed, on glancing through the window, that Miss Veerdon was still bobbing. He began to wonder where this was to end.

Chapter III Dy

an arrangement made between Lucy and her lover, through the interchange of a note about an hour after Quiggerfield's departure, these two young people met out of-doors that evening towards sundown. The lovers lingered long in one another's company, and, in the bright dream of the future — in which Quiggerfield figured as the architect of a little home to be built upon a spot long chosen but not yet secured by purchase — the young inventor and his doings were for a time forgotten. The circumstances of the afternoon thus furnished an excuse for a meeting which resulted chiefly in a pleasant lovers' walk. There was, indeed, little to say about matters at the cottage. The old lady continued in the same condition ; the maid-servant seemed more S7 resigned ; James had shut himself up in his consulting-room.

So, by mutual consent between Lucy and her lover, discussion was left over till to-morrow evening, in order that Quigger field should in the meantime have the promised interview with, and explanation from, his friend. Quiggerfield walked home with Lucy and parted with her at the little gate, she running indoors for a moment, and return ing to report that her aunt had retired to rest, and that all in the cottage was quiet once more. Night and rest now fell upon the village. It was dark and cloudy, not a star was to be seen. Towards early morning James Veerdon, who might have been supposed to have been asleep in his consulting-room, opened his door and crept like a thief up the garden. His actions were of a somewhat strange and suspicious character, and might have confirmed Quiggerfield's doubts as to his sanity.

Approaching the back of the house very silently, Veerdon secretly set about open ing a little window which belonged to the kitchen premises, and, having done this, he reached inwards with his long arm until his hand touched a key hung upon a nail within. With this key he was not long in opening the back door, which the maid servant guarded in this very inefficient fashion. What he did after effecting this entry to the house remained his secret for the present. In a moment or two he returned, locked up again, and this time really retired to rest. He was awakened in the morning by Lucy, who brought him his breakfast. She informed him that his aunt was in excellent spirits, had risen somewhat earlier than usual, made a good meal, but otherwise remained in a constant state of jumping gently up and down, which was very wear ing to the nerves of those who happened to be in the same room.