The Passion for Romance ... Second edition

Front matter

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLL'Mh THE EVOLUTION OF A WIFE HY ELIZABETH HOLLAND Extra crown Svo, 6s. JOHN MILNE 12 Norfolk Street, Strand, London BY EDGAR JEPSON „ — — 1L AUTHOR OF SIBYL FALCON^w SECOND EDITION JOHN MILNE 12 Norfolk Street, Strand, London CONTENTS CHAP PACE I. LORD LISDOR'S FIND .... I II. LORD LISDOR SUFFERS A SHOCK . . 1 4 III. LORD LISDOR IS IN ERROR . . . 29 IV. LORD LISDOR'S INTEREST GROWS . . 48 V. LORD LISDOR MAKES A FRIEND . . 6 1 VI. LORD LISDOR STOPS A RUSH ... 69 VII. ETHEL ON THE RIVER . . . . 85 VIII. RUTH AND ALTHEA .... 98 IX. THE THIRD STRING . . . . II3 X. RUTH IN THE COUNTRY . . . -135 XI. ALTHEA AT THE EMPIRE . . . 149 XII. THE REWARD OF CHARITY . . 1 68 XIII. LORD LISDOR IS RUDE .... l82 XIV. LORD LISDOR IS STUBBORN . . 1 92 XV. ON LIBERTY 203 XVI. LORD LISDOR IS FRANKLY DIPLOMATIC . 211 XVII.

AN EFFECTIVE ACCIDENT . . . 2 22 XVIII. THE MEETING IN THE LOCK . . .231 XIX. REDINTEGRATIO AMORIS .... 239 XX. LORD LISDOR IS IN THE VEIN . . Contents VI XXI. RUTH DINES WITH LORD LISDOR • • 26l XXII. ABOVE THE PINES 2^7 XXIII. LORD LISDOR PICKS UP THE DROPPED THREADS 276 XXIV. A ROW IN THE SHOOTING-GALLERY . 289 XXV. THE CASTLE ON THE TABLE . . . 3O4 XXVI. LORD LISDOR MAKES ARRANGEMENTS . 313 XXVII. LORD LISDOR'S FURY .... 323 XXVIII. FORTUNE'S SPUR 332 XXIX. THE FURY ABIDES 342 XXX. LORD LISDOR PLAYS HIS LAST CARD . 356 XXXI. A SACRIFICE OF PRINCIPLE . . .

Chapter I Lord Lisdor's Find

Lord Lisdor sat in a very weary mood. He could barely hear the senile voice of the speaker at the further end of that ill-built chamber, and only now and again a word on a higher note broke upon his gloomy thoughtfulness, and checked for a moment the slow flow of his ideas. Till of late he had not been given to the discharge of his political duties ; for to his plain shrewdness serious politics seemed to possess the unreality of a farce without its humour, while as a game they were played for no stakes he coveted. But from the beginning of this session he had displayed a patient devotion to them, out of a desire to be able to serve the interests of a cousin who had embarked on that career. To-day that devotion had been sorely tried. He had come down to the House expecting an early division, and had sat for two A hours, taking refuge in a self-communing very distasteful to him from speeches that gained in diffuse ness what they lost in lucidity.

He was a peer of a commonplace ugliness, the ugliness of the unfinished : Nature had moulded the clay with tired fingers, leaving the nose and mouth rough, the brow low, and the ears too large ; while the hard-cut chin, and jaw a little heavy, gave him an air of strength and determination almost disagreeable. His hair was of the common mouse colour, his moustache short. It was not an unrelieved ugliness, however : his skin was clear, his eyes, of a deep blue, were worthy of a finer face, and he wore an expression of an honesty so sterling as to seem almost unnatural. Indeed, the expression was only in part natural, for he cultivated it with great care, esteeming it very useful in the one pursuit of his life. As the slow hour ebbed, he fell from ennui to unhappiness. A touch of Spring in the air had awakened vague desires in him ; and as he pon dered, he had grown aware that he had fallen out of love with Ethel.

He had, indeed, suspected for some time that he loved her less, but had been careful to refrain from verifying the suspicion, till, in that wearisome hour, the knowledge had forced itself upon him. Now that he knew how little he loved her, he was pained to be assured that all the passion was dead, that a mere fondness alone lived. He wondered if the passion would revive with the season, and was doubtful of it. The sense of the emptiness of life oppressed him : it was unbearable to be out of love in the springtime ; and he set about considering how he might find an ardent spirit to fire his own, and burn with an equal flame. The division interrupted him. After it was over, he came out, exchanging greetings with some of the older peers ; and it did not escape him that his new .devotion to legislation was leading them to regard him with kindlier eyes every day.

He walked along with the supple lightness that comes of well-trained muscles, looking shorter than his middle height for the breadth of his shoulders. But he did not go cheerfully : the sense of the emptiness of life was still heavy upon him. Even a pretty girl who passed did not excite in him the proper, lively interest, though his cultivated eye missed no good point in her face or figure. He was still too gloomy to think of filling the gap in his life ; and the thought that he had to pass two hours before he could dine, deepened his gloom. He was no lover of his own company ; the evening papers had no interest for him ; and at this hour he could not be certain of finding an acquaintance in any given place. There was Ethel indeed : she would pass the time for him quickly enough. . . But no : he had not been to her house for five days. . . .

If he went in his present dreariness, he would not have the readiness to make good excuses for his neglect. . . . Ah, she wanted some gloves ! . . . that would pass half an hour. He turned, and began to stroll towards the shop, more cheerful for the thought of something to do. As he went the posters on the Varolium caught his eye, and his mind changed. He had never been inside the building, and it seemed to him that his spirits might be raised by exploring it. He crossed the road and went in. It was an hour when it is little frequented, and its bareness in the chill glare of the electric light inspired into him a deeper desolation. He wandered round, growing moodier under the lack-lustre eyes of the uncompanionable fishes, and was on the point of coming out, when he perceived the shooting-gallery, and brightened at the sight.

He went into it, and choosing a pistol that fitted his hand, began breaking the hanging clay pipes with the pleasure that a man takes in doing a thing he does well. He shot for ten minutes before his interest began to slacken ; then he cast about for a more difficult mark, and as he did so, his eyes fell on the girl in charge. He began to consider her covertly, leisurely, after his fashion. Her face was pale, of the waxen whiteness of a camelia in the electric light, a fine oval, and framed in a mass of warm, red hair. He had the passion for red hair of a connoisseur of beauty ; and the hunter's instinct awoke in him. He looked at her more closely, and saw that the delicate face with its clearly cut features and scarlet lips was beautiful. Her air of reserve too pleased him ; but it kept her eyes downcast, and hidden by the fringe of golden lashes. ' Can you shoot ? ' he asked abruptly.

As he had intended, she started at his sudden words, and raised them. He saw that they were of a strange green : not of the common, light green that is now a grey, and now a faint blue, but of the green of a fine emerald. He was surprised, and could not at the moment call to mind where he had seen eyes of that colour before. He knew that he had seen them somewhere. ' Yes,' she said indifferently, and let her eyes fall before his steady gaze. ' Well ? ' he asked. ' Yes,' she said. He fired another shot; paused; and then said, 'I'll bet you five shillings to a penny I beat you.' ' You will bet me five shillings to a penny that you beat me ? I don't understand,' said the girl, raising her eyes puzzled. 'If I win you pay me a penny; if you win, I pay you five shillings,' he said. The girl looked at him distrustfully, and said, ' You really mean it ? ' 'Yes,' he said. 'Five shillings,' said the girl in a tone that was almost awed. ' And a penny, if I win,' said he. ' No : it wouldn't be fair : I shoot very well,' she said regretfully. ' Oh, yes, it would.

I shoot very well,' he said. Once more she bent distrustful eyes on him ; but he was looking so honest that she was reassured ; and said, ' Very well, I will bet with you — But you will have to pay for my shots, you know,' she added quickly. ' Of course,' he said. ' We'll have ten shots apiece. You shoot first.' She took up a pistol : and he saw that her hand was trembling with eagerness : aimed very carefully, and fired. The bullet struck the target half an inch from the bull's eye. He fired quickly; and put the bullet just on the edge of it. ' One to me ' he said. She bit her lip, and her eyes began to glow, as she slipped another cartridge into the pistol. Then she was for reloading his, but he bade her see to her own, and give her mind to the shooting, and he would see to his himself. At the end of eight shots apiece they were equal ; then the girl's excitement and nervousness increased to a pitch that spoiled her aim ; and he won by the two last shots. ' My match ' he said.

She said nothing ; but her face fell ; and she drew slowly from her pocket a very thin little purse. He saw a sixpence and a penny in it. She took out the penny, and laid it on the counter with a sigh. He was surprised at this readiness to pay, and in two minds about taking it ; but another look at the girl's face assured him he had better ; and he put the penny in his pocket. ' I'll bet you the same again,' he said quietly. The girl looked at him and then longingly at her sixpence, and shook her head. 'You're wise; ' he said; 'I should beat you again.' There was the faintest taunt in his tone; and a tinge of pink coloured the white face; her eyes sparkled; and she said, ' You wouldn't. I will bet you again.' ' Come on,' he said, loading his pistol The touch of temper was all that was needful to steady her nerves.

She thrust aside the thought of che dreadful loss of twopence : it would mean walking to and from business on the morrow : set her little teeth; and determined to shoot as she had never shot before. Both of them put the first five shots into the bull's eye; then he deliberately put a bullet half an inch outside it, and said, ' Confound it ! ' ' One to me ! ' cried the girl joyfully, and kept her advantage to the end. When she had fired the tenth shot, she breathed a deep sigh of relief, and laughed a little low laugh : it rang very pleasant. He laughed too, and taking two half-crowns from a handful of silver, laid them on the table. The girl looked at them, stretched out her hand to take them, drew it back, and said, ' No ; it doesn't seem fair. It's a great deal of money. I shan't take them.' ' Oh, yes, you will,' he said. ' You won fairly ; and a bet's a bet.

I took your penny ; and you'll take my half-crowns.' She looked at him doubtfully ; and knitted her brow into an anxious frown : ' No,' she said ; ' if you give me the penny back, that will be fair.' ' Take them at once,' he said sternly. She obeyed the command in his voice, took them reluctantly, and put them into her purse carefully j he saw that her fingers were trembling again, and that a flicker of brightness smoothed her anxious frown. By way of drawing her out, he began to talk to her of the pistols, revolvers, and rifles ; and she showed more interest in them than he had expected from a girl ; but when he went on to try to make her talk of herself, she fell silent, and reserved. He observed that she put her hand into her pocket twice or thrice as though she could not believe, unless she touched them, that the half-crowns were really there.

She began to interest him ; he found her reserve and unwillingness to take the money strange in a girl of her occupation. He did not press her reserve ; he had learned to be very cautious in the beginning of his dealings with a woman, to attach all importance to producing the right first impression ; but let his talk drift back to the shooting, the people who came to the gallery, the hours of work. Now and again he stopped to try a difficult shot, repeating it again and again till he succeeded. He insisted on her trying one or two of them ; found her very eager to surpass him, and losing some of her reserve in the eagerness. She certainly shot very well. All the while, he was observing her carefully ; her face, her figure, her eyes, and the tones of her voice. The longer he studied her, the more possible she seemed to him. ' You can shoot ! ' she cried with frank admiration after one of his finer shots. ' There's not much in that.

It's more knack than anything else,' he said. ' Besides I ought to shoot with a pistol after all the years of practice I've had at it.' ' I believe,' said the girl slowly, ' that if I were a man, and could shoot as you do, I should never be happy till I had fought a duel, and seen what I could do when I was being shot at.' ' That's odd,' he said, looking at her with a more open interest, ' that was exactly my feeling. It's rather uncomfortable work ' he added thoughtfully. ' What ! Have you tried it ? Have you actually fought a duel ? ' she cried. He nodded, and fired another shot. ' How was it ? ' said the girl eagerly. ' I thought no one fought duels now-a-days. Tell me about it.' He set the pistol down, turned, and faced her. ' One doesn't in England,' he said. ' But in France it's different, and in the days when I was younger and more foolish, and feeling as you say, I had an affair — my first.' ' And how did it happen ? ' said the girl, her eyes alive with interest. 'Oh, well; I went to Marseilles to see what would happen — there's always plenty of anglophobia in Marseilles.

There I knocked about in different cafes, and gave the Frenchmen every chance ; and at last a young Frenchman thought that his chance had come to distinguish himself in a patriotic way. He insisted on having a row, called me a spy, and threw his absinthe over me. I knocked him down.' ' And then,' said the girl, for he stopped. ' Oh, we met next morning. I'd learnt he was a well-to-do person, and put a bullet in his knee-cap; thinking the sight of him limping about would be a kind of walking warning to his friends to let harmless foreigners alone.' ' Was he crippled then ? ' said the girl ' Well, he'd always limp a bit.' ' How dreadful of you,' said the girl with a little shudder. He shrugged his shoulders and said, ' I don't see it. He tried to hit me in the head; and nearly did it too.' She was silent awhile and then said, ' What did it feel like being shot at ? ' 'Never felt anything so awkward in my life, and never heard anything so pleasant as the whiz of that bullet passed my ear.' She considered it awhile, then she said, 'It was very brave.' ' I think it was silly, but it's rather a thing to do once, don't you know ?

But if you're keen on it, why don't you try it for yourself? ' ' I try it,' said the girl. 1 Yes ; you know women are men's equals now. You'd have no difficulty in finding some woman only too happy to prove it in a new way. You'd be breaking the law too, and that's another inducement to a woman. Besides, if you were caught you'd go to prison, and be martyrs. Think of that.' ' You have curious ideas ! ' said the girl. ' I don't want to break the law, and go to prison, and be a martyr ! ' ' I know a lot of women who would be only too happy to go to prison to prove that women were the equal of men.' ' They must be very odd women, then,' she said. ' Oh, they are odd sure enough ; if they were paired, they wouldn't be at all keen.' The girl looked mystified, and presently said, ' My father says that women's being men's equals, is all nonsense.' ' He's a very sensible man, then.

But what do you think ? ' 'Oh, I can't see how they are. Men can do so many things.' It flashed upon her of a sudden that she was talking very freely with a stranger, and she fell back into her reserve. He tried for a while to induce her to talk again ; but she gave only the shortest answers. The building was filling little by little ; and two or three men came into the gallery, and began to shoot. He stayed a while to see how she would treat them. One of them tried to start a conversation with her ; but had to abandon the attempt for lack of encour agement : she seemed too busy with her duties to give him any of her attention. Lord Lisdor was pleased ; bade her good-night, and came out.

Chapter II Lord Lisdor Suffers

A SHOCK His gloom had gone : he walked along slowly, con sidering his new acquaintance, trying to make up his mind whether she was worth cultivating. She was a pretty girl, beyond a doubt : even very pretty. But would she fill the gap in his life ? It was not enough for him that a girl was pretty : he had grown exacting, and demanded a charming personality, as well as a charming person. He shook his head rue fully, as he called to mind four or five brief romances of a few weeks' each. They had begun so well, in vesting life in a rosy haze; then they had come to a sudden end. He was most interested in the girl's reserve, and pondered it, at a loss to decide whether it sprang from a set purpose, from shyness, or from stupidity. . . . No : she was not stupid. . . . Perhaps there was another man. . . .

There was generally an other man. Some outsider, or other. ... No : her red hair should be a safe-guard against that. . . . The outsider has no liking for red hair : he thinks it vulgar; and is always in dread of the chaff of his friends. . . . Besides, her black gown was too shabby; and she wore no bangles, or ring. Then he fell to thinking of her eyes, and of the play of the light in them. They urged him to see more of her, to make sure about her, at any rate not to lose a chance for lack of a little pains. Above all there was the possibility of romance ; and though many disappointments had destroyed in him any real hope of finding romance in a woman, he had that extreme thirst for it only suffered by the disillusioned. He would not miss the chance. Reflecting thus, he came into Pall Mall, and went to his nearest club.

No one of his acquaintance was there ; and he dined alone. All through the meal her strange green eyes kept rising before him, and once or twice her pleasant voice rang in his ears. It was a rarity in a red-haired girl ; he had believed that all of them had thin, harsh voices. Then he recalled how she had put her hand into her pocket to assure herself that the half-crowns were really there, and the memory touched him ; the poor child must be very hard up. Then he fell to thinking of Ethel ; but presently the other's face was back in his mind, and the thought of her would not leave him. Little details he had scarcely noticed at the time kept recurring vividly ; her trick of dropping her eyes, to think before speaking ; of tossing back the little curls on her brow, as she took aim. It was strange : he had not been so impressed by a first meeting with a woman for three or four years, and he wondered at himself.

As the champagne warmed him, it seemed to him that it would be pleasant to go back to the Varolium after dinner, and talk to her ; but as he trifled with the thought, his wonted wariness assured him that it would not be wise to go again for at least three days. He was sure he had aroused some interest in her, the spending of the five shillings would recall him. He was glad too that he had told her about the duel. If he went back that night, she would think him a person to be on her guard against ; and he wished to arouse no such feeling. He ought, indeed, to go and spend the evening with Ethel. But he was unreasonably averse from doing so to-night ; he was sure she would not amuse him ; she might even reproach him for neglecting her ; and he was in the mood to take her reproaches ill. He rose from the table with a sigh that he must forego another visit to the Varolium, and went to the smoking-room.

He had nearly finished his coffee, and was on the point of going to the Empire, when a young man came into the room : looked round and said, 'Goodevening, Lisdor. Will you come, and make up a rubber ? ' 'All right,' he said, and went with him to the card-room. He was not a good whist-player ; and to-night he played his usual selfish game ; but he held such cards that it made no matter, and won rubber after rubber in spite of his play. It did not please him ; for he had the thousand superstitions of the lover, or the gambler ; and it seemed to him an omen of evil fortune with the girl with the red hair. They played till eleven, and after a little desultory talk, he left the Club, and strolled slowly down Pall Mall, up the Haymarket, and along into Leicester Square, hot from the card-room, and enjoying the cool ness of the air.

Passing the Empire he came into the crowd thronging from its doors, and as he made his way through it, a flash of colour caught his eye and he saw a girl in a golden cloak, stepping into a hansom a few yards further on. He only caught a glimpse of her face, as she sank back into it, but saw very plainly the flushed young Jew, in a long drab coat, who stepped in after her; uttered an execration that startled the people round him ; and pushed violently through the crowd. But the hansom had started before he reached it, and by the time he was in another, was out of sight. He shouted an address near Regent's Park to the E driver, and sat back fuming with a rage that found expression in a few savage curses. It was one thing to have fallen out of love;with a girl, another to light upon her driving away from the Empire with a young Jew.

But by the time the cab had reached the top of Regent Street, he had recovered control of himself, and was beginning to reason. His anger was for the while overwhelmed in a vast surprise : he had seen a thing with his own eyes that he would not otherwise have believed, had the whole world borne witness to it; and he cudgelled his brains for a chance of having made a mistake. There was no chance. His surprise gave place for a little while, to a profound weariness which left him bitter : would no experience ever give him a just appreciation of women ? As the cab came into Baker Street another thought struck him : what was he going to do ? . . . He could make a row of course — kick the Jew out of the house. . . . But by what right ? . . . It was not his house. In a flash he saw that he would put himself in a ridiculous position; and though he knew well that he was strong enough to carry it off, he was loth to do it.

The situation grew plainer and plainer to him. With a savage oath he flung himself back in the cab, swearing he would let it be. If he did not interfere, and kept to himself the knowledge that chance had given him, he would hold the position of vantage, and be able to use it when the time came. Pushing up the trap with his cane, he bade the cabman drive him to his house in Eaton Square. Once or twice the beady, black eyes of the Jew, asparkle with triumph, forced themselves on his mind, to the very lively rekindling of his anger. However, he crushed it down; and finding supper awaiting him, ate it with an appetite unspoiled by his annoyance. Then he lit a cigar, and sat meditating, with a sour face, until he went to bed. The next morning he awoke with the heavy spirit of a man who has fallen asleep in an evil mood.

After his bath, he put on flannels, and went to a room fitted up as a gymnasium, his face set in a frown that only began to fade after he had gone through many violent exercises on the bars, rings, and with Indian clubs. Then his cousin and secretary, Robert Brydon, came in, and they put on the gloves, and sparred for ten minutes. However wild the night before had been, Lord Lisdor was punctual in the discharge of his duty to his muscles ; indeed, he was as careful of his muscles, as a pretty woman of her skin. The sparring restored him almost to cheerfulness, and he breakfasted, with the appetite natural after such exertions, in the room he made his peculiar abiding-place. It was large, well lighted, and furnished with little eye to effect, but with great attention to comfort. There were four easy chairs in it, and only two others, one of them at a writing table before a window ; a broad couch stood against the far wall.

A small bookcase hanging from another wall held some twenty volumes bound in white vellum. They were all of the same kind : the names of the authors were Richardson, Stendhal, De La Clos, Balzac, Mau passant, and Bourget. The dark curtains were drawn back to let in as much light as possible ; and it fell on a dozen fine drawings, or pictures of beautiful women, undistinguished by drapery. The middle of the room was empty, that he might prowl up and down it, after his uneasy fashion of a wild beast in a cage, when he was considering one of the problems he affected. After breakfast, he lit a cigar, and sat thinking moodily. Presently Brydon came in with the letters which required his attention ; and scribbled notes on the answers to them. When they were finished, he swung round in the revolving chair, and having lit a cigarette, leaned back comfortably, and said, ' You seem out of sorts.' Lord Lisdor looked at him slowly, and said, ' No ; I m only in an infernal temper.' ' Ah — I thought you were hitting uncommonly hard this morning.' ' Was I ?

I didn't mean to. I hope I haven't marked you,' said Lord Lisdor. ' Oh, no. It would have to be a light glove to mark me just now. I'm as hard as nails. But what's it all about ? Who has been enraging you ? ' Lord Lisdor considered a little while, averse from telling. But he had so long a habit of confidence with Brydon that presently he said reluctantly, 'I ought to have punched a Jew boy's head last night ; and not doing it has been on my nerves ever since.' He paused, and Brydon said nothing, waiting. He knew his cousin's way of making a confidence. ' As I came past the Empire I saw him drive away in a hansom with Ethel.' ' With Ethel ! With Miss Winthrop ! Nonsense There must be some mistake ! ' cried Brydon, un crossing his legs, and sitting upright on his chair. ' I'm certain,' said Lord Lisdor. ' It's impossible !