Temptation

Chapter I Brave Avords

T T was a blazing August morning. Overhead the sky glowed like a vast turquoise jewelled Avith a single gleaming diamond. Beneath it stretched wide sweeps of green grass merging into brown cliffs, which merged again into a calm, unbroken sea the colour of a sapphire. A sudden spell of gloAving summer heat had come after a fortnight's rainfall, and, as yet, the whole earth Avas fresh and luxuriant, although the temperature stood hard upon 8o° in the shade. " Was eA7er such a perfect morning . " TEMPTATION 2 said a bright voice, the voice of a woman, and a young one. "But," replied a man's deeper tones, "you have gone away from our original stand point. We Avere not discussing the state of the Aveather, but a much more important question — the freedom of the human soul." "And you," said the girl in reply, "are so lip-sure of your OAvn beliefs that you cannot accept them as I accept mine ; you must needs thresh them out, and argue and argue until you are like the man in the song — you don't knoAV Avhere you are."

" Come, you are too hard upon me," he exclaimed. " I do know Avhere I am." "At present," ansAvered the girl, "you are sitting upon West Headland, Ronally Bay, talking to a young woman Avho knows her own mind so thoroughly that she has no need to discuss the subject." " But do you mean to tell me," said the man, " that if the occasion arose which invited you, impelled you, to go against the tenets of your whole past life, that you would be strong-minded enough to folloAV your inclination, whether your people ap proved or not?" " My people," said the girl, " have never interfered with me. You are almost a stranger to me — I never saw you until a fortnight ago; but somehoAv the first time we met I felt that I could be your friend, and I will tell you a little of my history. Who my father was, I know not — I mean that I do not knoAV to what family he be longed.

I do not know whether the name we bear Avas his OAvn name or not. He Avas an actor. He married my mother against all the wishes of her OAvn people ; he treated her badly ; he deserted her. That counted for nothing in the eyes of her relations. Her father left her a poor little tAvo hun dred a year, — left it so that it should come at her death to my brother and myself, — left TEMPTATION 4 it so that my father, if ever he came back again, could never touch one penny of it, could never forestall it in any way. But my grandfather never saw my mother again. He died as he had lived, unforgiving, implacable. As he said in his will, he left her so that she should never come to actual want, so that her children should never have to look for daily bread. And that was all the interest that any of my mother's relations ever took in her after she married my father.

Well, do you think that softened her? No. To-day she is as hard, as deter mined, as resolute in judging for herself, in deciding for herself, in fighting the world off her OAvn bat as it Avere, as she was on the day on which she determined that she would throAv in her lot Avith my father's. She has made her bed, she must lie upon it — that has become a creed Avith her, and she has at least made herself content to do so. She took my grandfather's money because she conceived such an inheritance to be her just right and due. 'My father brought me into the world,' was her reply to such of her relatives as suggested that she should be too proud to take money from a man who had personally disowned her, — ' my father brought me into the Avorld, and he has a right to provide for me.' From our earliest childhood she has ahvays taught us to do the thing that we believed to be right, indifferent to any opinion Avhich might clash Avith that conception.

For my part, Mr. West, I am so thoroughly convinced of my independence of thought that I have no desire to commit all the sins of the Deca logue by Avay of proving hoAv independent I am. If any occasion arises which calls for independence of action, I do not think that I shall fail — myself." Reginald West, as he sat almost on the edge of the headland, rested his elboAv upon his knee and his chin upon the palm of his TEMPTATION hand. For some minutes he looked out over the sapphire-coloured sea, then turned his head slowly and surveyed his companion intently. "To a certain extent," he said deliberately, " you have proved your independence of thought and action by coming here to spend your summer holiday in a boarding-house by yourself. Have you often done that before? " "Sometimes," the girl replied.

"You see, it is like this. My mother has enough to live upon. For people who have simple tastes, and neither the desire nor the opportunity of going into society, she has an ample income; but I hate idleness, I cannot be idle. I might sit doAvn and idle for the rest of my life: touch up my frocks, do a little fancy-AA7ork, spend a little time in the garden, help to decorate the church, and just wait till some one comes along to marry me. But I cannot live that kind of life. I must Avork. I am running over with energy. I cannot find enough to do to fill the twenty-four hours of the day." "What do you do?" he asked, still medi tatively nursing his chin and looking at her Avith a half-curious, half-speculative interest. " I teach the doctor's children in the morning. They are stupid little dolts, and I have all my work cut out to drive the very beginnings of learning into them.

But be fore that I am pretty busy. I get up ATery early. ... I do the gardening, and I keep the conservatory going. Oh, yes, AAre have a conservatory; it is about the size of a postage stamp. My mother loves it; but she is not very strong, and she cannot do more toAvards it than loving it. Then I touch up our little drawing-room after the maid has cleaned it, and I generally carry my mother's breakfast up to her bedside. Four times a Aveek in the afternoon I give a music lesson. I have several old cot tagers Avhom I go to see. I seAv and do all TEMPTATION sorts of things; and once I tried to Avrite a story, but I was a dead failure at that. I have no gift, and people avIio have no gift should not try to take the ground from under those Avho are really Avorthy of the ground they stand on." " You have strong vieAA7s for a young lady," said Reginald West, still scanning her intently.

" But, tell me, do you have no sort of society Avhere you live ? " " Oh, yes ; we have a certain amount of intercourse Avith our neighbours, if you mean that," she replied. "No chance of — er — of — er — of making a Avider sphere in that neighbourhood ? " " I don't knoAV Avhat you mean," said the girl. "Well, no chance— er — of marrying. " I have had a chance of marrying," she returned promptly, yet in a tone Avhich did not invite any further questions upon the subject. " As for my coming aAvay alone, ■* BRAVE WORDS 9 my mother hates moving aAA7ay from her own home. She thinks it is good that I should use the money I make in Avidening my life. As to herself, she is in poor health, and gadding about does not suit her and is no pleasure to her ; but she has a horror of narrowness. When I have money, and am free to take a change, I usually go to a boarding-house, because I can go alone.

It Avould be very dull, you know, for a girl to go to lodgings by herself." " Yes, but you haATe a brother," he said. "Why doesn't your brother come Avith you?" "Oh, my brother is away. He is a sailor; he is second in command of one of the Australian liners. Sometimes I go to London Avith him when he is at home." "I see," said Reginald West; "and you have been aAvay besore in this fashion ? " " Oh, yes ; several times." "This is not your first experience of a seaside boarding-house ? " TEMPTA TION 10 " Oh, no ! " " Then does it— I mean, has it ever occurred to you, Miss PoAver, that I am not the usual type of man Avhom you meet with in a boarding-house ? " She looked straight at him. "Yes, I have thought so," she admitted. " I am not, you knoAV. Has it ever occurred to you to wonder what I am, what I do?"

" Yes," she admitted frankly, " I haA7e AA7ondered." "I will tell you," he said. "In the first place, I am a fraud." She started, but did not interrupt him. " Yes, I understand what you mean," he said, smiling at her • "but I am not exactly that kind of fraud. In one sense I am not Avhat I pretend to be. You might take me for an author, a barrister, an artist, a student. I am none of these things — I am an idler. I have views, very strong vieAvs on certain subjects ; but I never had the grit or the gumption to carry them out. I have dipped into a dozen deep ways of life; but I never had the mind to follow any one of them to the end. I am going perhaps a little to take your breath away. I follow no profession, I do no work, and I have only one principle in life to Avhich I am determined to stick at any cost.

Miss Power, you will keep my counsel ? " " Oh, yes ; of course I will. " Well, I had the misfortune to be born the son of a nobleman . . . my father was Lord Mountenoy." For a moment the girl was almost too much astonished to speak. " You are Lord Mountenoy ! " she gasped. " I ought to haA7e knoAvn it. I felt somehoAv all along that you were in a way familiar to me, that I kneAv something of you. Of course, that is it ... I ought to have knoAvn you." "And now that you do knoAV me," said TEMPTATION 12 Lord Mountenoy, " you — you do not feel any differently toAvards me — I mean towards Reginald West?" "Oh, no; why should I do that? "Why? Well, because there are people in the Avorld who say that all my ideas and vieAvs are wrong, that they are entirely based upon a wrong system, that they are impracticable and Avould not AArork."

"Your vieAvs about marriage?" she said. She blurted the words out abruptly, almost curtly. " Yes, my vieAvs about marriage. I feel, I have always felt, that hoAvever much I might love any Avoman, the mere fact of knoAving that I Avas married to her — I mean, of knoAving that I Avas tied, bound, irrevoc ably, unalterably, indissolubly bound to her — Avould inevitably make me desire to break those bonds. I can imagine no tie between man and Avoman so great as a tie of honour. 1 can imagine a Avoman saying : ' I must have provision. I have never been taught or trained to earn my OAvn bread, and the mere fact of my entering into a compact of that kind with a man would weigh against my chances of making my bread honestly in the time to come, if we should ever part.' Miss PoAver, if I were to ask you to join me ?"

"You don't mean to marry you?" She asked the question in a clear and frank voice, Avhich had no hesitancy about it. " No, not to marry me in the conven tional sense of the word. In the unconven tional sense of the Avord to be my Avife — yes. What do you say?" She half hesitated. "Lord Mountenoy," she said, " you have not asked me, and until you do so, I do not think that it is quite fair to ask me Avhat I should do under certain given circumstances." "But I do ask you," he returned eagerly. "I— oh, I don't quite know how to put it— TEMPTATION but you must know that for more than a fortnight now I have been almost living in your society; I have never missed a single chance of learning to know you better. That I do not ask you to bind yourself irre vocably to me is not because that kind of connection has been the habit of my life ; it is because I know my own peculiarities and character so Avell that I cannot bind myself If you will come to me, if you will take the place of my Avife, I Avill make every pro vision.

I do not think that you will ever repent it. I believe, on my word as a gentleman, that I should remain faithful to you tor all the rest of my life. Noav, what do you say ? " " I do not knoAV," she replied. " Lord Mountenoy, it is no use half looking at a question, especially Avhen it is a vital ques tion such as entails the up or down of a woman's Avhole life. Look here, I have never been troubled overmuch by conventionality. Right is right, and Avrong is Avrong ; there is a broad line between the two. The question is, supposing I were to do what you ask and you did get tired of me, where should I be ? " " Practically just where you are now," he replied. " I don't quite see that." " You Avould be just Avhere I should be." " No, I should not. I should be in a very different case to you. You would be neither better nor AArorse; I should be very much the worse."

"In yourself?" he asked. " No, not in myself. I should be no dif ferent in myself. But in the eyes of the Avorld, yes. Frankly, if you had asked me to marry you, I should have said yes." "Why?" " Because I like you. I do not think that I am in love with you ; but I like you, and, odd as it may seem, I respect TEMPTATION you. If I Avere your Avife, I should have an immense sphere opened out Avide to me; as your — your — temporary wife, I should find existence a very cramped and one-eyed sort of business." Lord Mountenoy rested his chin upon the palm of his hand again, and looked out across the sea. The girl Avent on Avith her task of making a little posy of buttercups and daisies. " You have not," he said, presently, "giATen me an answer." "Because," rejoined the girl, "I scarcely realized that you had seriously asked me the question."

Chapter II Yes Tv

/[ISS POWER remained yet another Aveek in the boarding-house by the sea, and Lord Mountenoy — still knoAvn to the Avorld at large, or I should more correctly say to the world of Ronally, by the name of Reginald West — continued as before to be the companion of most of her hours. In answer to her rejoinder that he had not as yet put the question concerning the future plainly to her, he had deliberately, and with all outward form and ceremony, asked her whether she would so far meet him, would so far justify her belief in her OAvn judgment and in her OAvn vieAvs, as to become his Avife Avithout going through the formalities of marriage. '7 c TEMPTATION "I think," she said, in reply to this, " that I shall say no ; but I am remaining here yet another week, and if you like to leave it open until I go away you can do so, but I don't feel that I shall say yes."

And then he poured out all the eloquent enthusiasm which dominated his whole being on this subject. He represented to her some of the horrors Avhich attend Avhat he called the fixity of marriage; he cited instances which had occurred in his own experience of wives Avho had been chained to drunken husbands, of husbands who had been bound hard and fast to lunatic wives. He told — for he Avas Avell up in the subject — of cases Avhere men and women bound by no tie save that of hon our had passed lives of sacrifice for each other; but he succeeded in transferring none of the glow in his own soul to the heart and soul of the girl whom he Avanted for his own. All that he could extract from YES 19 her Avas, " I don't feel like doing it." And so at the end of the week they parted. " You Avill let me come and see you ?

" he said Avistfully, as he stood at the door of the third-class carriage Avhich Avas to take her home again. " Oh, yes," she said ; " yes, you may come and see me; but I don't think you had better mention Avhat you have asked of me to my mother. It is not as if I were likely to say yes." " But I may come ? " " Yes, you may come if you like ; but I think I ought to warn you that I don't be lieve I shall ever say yes." " We shall see," said Lord Mountenoy ; " we shall see." Within a feAv weeks he made his appearance at the little cottage in the quiet country tOAvn Avhere Mrs. PoAver lived. He came, as he had gone to the boarding house, incognito, — that is to say, not as Lord TEMPTATION 20 Mountenoy, but as Reginald West, — and he managed from the first moment to ingrati ate himself both Avith Mrs. Power and with everybody whom they knew.

She, poor lady, was never tired of sounding his praises to her daughter. "A charming man, Adela," she said more than once; "a gentleman, and a man of honour ; a man I would trust to the very end. It is not always looks that are the most trust worthy," she ended Avith a sigh. Her own husband, the betrayer of her heart, had been Avell endowed in the matter of looks, and to say of a man that he was a man of honour was the highest compliment which she knew how to pay. Not that Lord Mounte noy's looks ailed anything. He was not a strikingly handsome man, it is true, but he was good-looking enough. His manners Avere charming, Avinning and deferential, and the natural obstinacy of his mind was hidden by the SAveetness of his disposition. YES 21 He was essentially a lovable man, a man of great ambitions, but not a man of great parts; a man Avho credited himself, even to his own mind, Avith more failings than he really possessed; a charming, inconsequent, lovable, simple-minded man, troubled by a fad which Avas altogether too strong for him.

Everybody in Cherry Hutton knew that Mr. West was Adela Power's admirer ; everybody knew that they had met in a boarding-house at Ronally, that he Avas a man of means and apparently of leisure, and that he had come to Cherry Hutton solely for her sake ; and all Cherry Hutton thought that Adela Avas throAving away a good chance in not settling the affair Avith out any vexatious and dangerous delays. So the autumn days slipped by, and Reginald West remained for the most part the occupant of the best suite of rooms in the Rose and CroAvn at Cherry Hutton. TEMPTA TION 22 He was as devoted in his quest as ever; and if the truth be told, Adela had an idea that if she only held out long enough and firmly enough, she Avould in time over come his scruples and be Lady Mountenoy. And, in truth, she might have done so, only just as the season of Christmas was drawing near something happened — some thing which made all the difference in the world to Mrs. Power and to Adela.

It was no new thing, only the story of a trustee who AA7as not true to his trust, of an absconding solicitor, whose name Avas struck off the Rolls in due course, and Avho was seen and heard of no more ; but to Mrs. Power and Adela it meant ruin, cold, black, cruel, unavoidable ruin. Reginald West saw his chance, and seized upon it. "Surely, noAV," he said to Adela, "you will not hesitate for a mere scruple, for the omission of a mere ceremony, Avhich YES 23 is in reality worth no more than jumping over a broomstick. Come, be reasonable, be brave ; be as good as those brave words you spoke that morning when we sat out on Ronally Headland, when I first told you Avho I was. Don't wreck both of our lives for the sake of a Avhim." " But it is what you are doing," she said, looking at him Avith eyes still piti fully full of the word " ruin."

" No, it is not a whim on my part, Adela," he said gravely and earnestly ; " it is because I love you so much that I must be frank and honest with you ; it is be cause I know the weakness of my OAvn nature so thoroughly, and dread it so in tensely, that I feel constrained not to put myself in the way of temptation. Listen to me. You are ruined ; in a few days you and your mother must go out of this poor little cottage, Avhere you have lived on a poor little pittance, and you must battle TEMPTATION 24 with the world. Alone, you might be able to do it; but can you, single-handed, do the same for her as that to which she has been accustomed? No, not honestly I offer you wealth. For years past I have had it in my mind that I might one day see a woman whom I should want for my oavii. I can never marry ; I cannot go against all my well-known principles ; I cannot meet my cousin, who is my heir, and tell him that I am going to be married.

Even if I were Avilling to do this for you — which I am not, because I knoAV that it would lead to the destruction of our hap piness — I am not willing to go and face Eric Western and cry back upon all the promises that I have made him." " But you never promised your cousin that you Avould not marry, surely?" " No, I never promised him in that way ; but I have always said to him, ' Eric, my boy, this will all be yours some daj7. I shall never YES 25 marry ; it is against my principle ; I don't be lieve in marriage, and so, of course, the estates and the title are bound to come to you.' Can I go back upon that noAV ? As suredly not. But I have had it in my mind for years, ever since I came of age indeed, that one day I might Avant to make a pro vision for a Avoman I loved, and I haAre saved to that end.

I can settle upon you now — to-morrow, if need be — a sum of money which will bring you in an income of five thousand a year. This I lay, freely and willingly, at your feet. I tie you by no conditions ; I do not say, " so long as you are faithful to me,' or ' so long as I am faithful to you ' ; I give it to you, a free gift, a pledge of my love. Think what you can do for your mother with five thousand a year ! Think hoAv little you have to give up! I am not a society man. If I could bring myself to marry any woman, I Avould never go into society as I understand it, as you understand it. It is just a question TEMPTATION of whether you will give up a little for my sake. I do not feel that I am asking too much." "You are asking for everything that most Avomen hold dearest," said Adela deliberately; " you are asking me to enter a life which is commonly called a life of sin ; you are asking me to do w7hat you would not like to think your mother had done before you."

" My mother," said Lord Mountenoy, " did nothing so honest as that which I ask you to do. My father divorced my mother, and I was only a year old." She felt in that supreme moment as if the one great test put to him had failed, as if the ground had been knocked from under her feet. "It is partly," he said, "because I have thought so bitterly of my mother that I ask you to let me give you the means of shielding yourself. Don't refuse me, Adela. Think Avhat you can do Avith five thousand a year 1 " YES 27 "It would break my mother's heart," she said, hesitating. He saw that she was wavering, and pressed his point hard. " My dear child," he said, " I don't ask you to blazon the fact to the Avorld. Your mother need never know exactly Avhat our relations to each other are. I don't Avant to proclaim to the whole world that I am not your husband.

I Avould prefer it to be our secret, to be the bond between us, the bond of honour and of love, which Avill keep me chained to you as long as these eyes can see, as these hands can feel, as this heart can beat." " And you would let my mother think that we were married ? You Avould let her think that I Avas Lady Mountenoy?" " Oh, no ; Ave Avould remain just Mr. and Mrs. West. It would be so much easier, so much more simple ; there Avould be so much less talk about it ; and then we will go abroad, and we will take your mother into all the TEMPTATION sunshine that is to be found the Avhole year round. It Avould be an ideal ending to her life." " Yes, and, like most ideals," said Adela, " a false one." "But you Avill consent?" he asked anxi ously. She looked aAvay for a moment, clasped her hands together, and gazed out over the snow covered world.

He had spoken truly Avhen he had said that in a feAv more days she and her mother must turn out of their simple little home and face the Avorld — the Avorld that was draped in snow — the world that Avas hard and cold and unsympathetic to those who have not full hands Avith Avhich to avoo it. " Lord Mountenoy," she said at last, " it is not because I have not courage, the courage of my opinions, that I hesitate to say yes to Avhat you propose. It is because I look ahead, beyond the immediate suture, and I see break ers — only breakers. I cannot see why you YES 29 wish this thing ; I cannot understand Avhere you Avill gain in happiness, while it is easy to see Avhere we shall both lose. I know that you care for me, and I Avon't pretend that I do not care for you. That day on Ronally Headland you told me of a man that you kneAv who was tied to a lunatic wife, like a living prisoner is sometimes chained to a dead one.

Well, if you had a lunatic wife and I loved you, do you think that I would fear the opinion of the world, that I would think tAvice if you wanted me to say yes? No, believe me, in that case I should not hesitate for half a minute, not for a second ; but it seems to me, as things are, that you are raising up a bogey for nothing. There is no bar, no ob stacle, nothing but a whim of your OAvn." "You do not care for me," he said, looking at her fixedly. " Yes, I do, I do care. I like you better than any man I have ever knoAvn in my life ; I trust you, I admire you ; but I do not see, TEMPTATION and I cannot see, why you ask me to do this. Oh, yes, I know that you have made all kinds of explanations ; but your explanations do not satisfy me." " But I have made you a very substantial offer, which involves no trust ; it involves only trust on my side that you keep faith Avith me, — that, even, I leave to your honour."