Only a Love Story

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ONLY A LOVE STORY Qnly a Love Story BY Mrs. Robert Jocelyn AUTHOR OF "THE M.F.H.'S DAUGHTER", "RUN TO GROUND", "ONLY A HORSE DEALER", "A DANGEROUS RRUTE ", " PAMELA'S HONEYMOON", "DRAWN BLANK", "JUANITA CARRINCTON ", ETC. Xon&on 1897 HUTCHINSON & CO. 34 PATERNOSTER ROW PRINTED AT NIMEOUEN (HOLLAND) BY H. C. A. TH1EME OF NIMEOUEN (HOLLAND) ANsi 27 SHOE LANE, LONDON, B.C. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. three women I II. like an old picture 14 m. an arrangement of Helen's 30 iv. "miss impertinence" 44 v. in the rose garden 52 VI. a middle-aged man 72 VII. A TALK ABOUT ANOTHER 8 1 VIII. LORD BRACKFORTH is in a confidential mood . 94 IX. HER COUSIN REGINALD Ill X. JEALOUSY 122 XI. THE OLD LOVE AND THE NEW 140 XII. "I MUST LEAVE IN A FEW DAYS' TIME" .... 1 55 XIII. SECOND THOUGHTS 1/8 XIV. ALICE CARR 193 XV.

A CONFIDENTIAL TALK 203 XVI. LADY ELIZABETH'S ADVICE 220 XVII. LADY ELIZABETH'S HUSBAND CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XVIII. CAPTAIN KELLY 24^ XIX. A BONE OF CONTENTION 2^2 XX. A SKEIN OF WOOL 273 XXI. DAY-DREAMS 286 XXII. A FRIEND 297 XXIII. A LOVER 3 ' ' XXIV. TWO LETTERS 3'^ XXV. QUESTIONS . . ; 33° XXVI. A LECTURE 33^ XXVII. A CONFESSION 34$ XXVIII. THE OLD STORY 3<H ONLY A LOVE STORY.

Chapter I. Three Women

There was a bright blue sky overhead, across which little white clouds sailed slowly ; and underfoot, and everywhere for miles around, the heather in full bloom clothed the hills with a mass of purple, bronze, dull green, and pink. Far away in the distance a glimpse of the sea could be seen. From the south a soft breeze was blowing and freshening the very purest and sweetest air that mortal man ever inhaled. It was a perfect day, and the scene was wild and beautiful. No human habitation was within sight, and the occasional whirr of grouse rising on their wings, and the faint trickle of a mountain stream, running its rocky course down towards i I ©nlS a Xove 5ton>. 2 the sea, were the only sounds which for the greater part of the year were ever heard there. But on that particular day, wild discordant cries and unearthly yells, forcibly brought to the mind of one of the three women who were there to hear them, that the world would be a very perfect place if there were no people in it.

The woman who held this opinion was not a woman, though ; she was a girl ; and her name was Veronia Blackendale. Her two companions were not of her way of thinking. To them the rich tints of bronze and purple, the grand range of mountains, and that distant peep of thc sea were all non-existent ; the sunshine was merely welcome because it was convenient; and those discordant shouts and yells were the pleasing part of the whole, since they spoke of the near vicinity of shooters. These two women were Miss Helen Bracken dale and Mrs. Ossington. Both of them were good-looking, and many people said that one of them was beautiful ; she was the daughter of Veronia's uncle, and therefore that young lady's Ubvee imomen. 3 first cousin; but no two young women ever resembled each other less than did Miss Helen Brackendale and Veronia.

Veronia was not very happy in her present society. Mrs. Ossington and Helen Brackendale were the dearest of friends, and Veronia was congenial to neither of them ; and she was aware that this was so. She was a very good-natured and good-hearted girl, and she did not bear either of them any grudge because they talked to each other all the time and left her out in the cold. But she was young, she was their host's daughter, and she was painfully impressed by the fact that she ought to do something towards their amusement, instead of being an incubus to them and in their way. That she was in their way, neither Mrs. Ossington nor her cousin Helen attempted to hide from her. They both thought themselves very " smart " women, and their pretensions were considerably more prominent than their good manners.

The 'school-girl', as they called Lord Brack forth's young daughter (though it need hardly ©nls a Xove Stotv. 4 be said that she had never been to school), was quite aware that her companions thought her dull and that they would have been much better pleased if she had not come out with the shooters that day. That they found her presence a restraint had not struck her, because it seemed to her that they talked incessantly to each other just as if she was not there. But her presence was a restraint for all that, and the way she had of turning her large eyes upon them in a half-doubting, half-questioning kind of stare, had more than once made Mrs. Ossington feel that particularly annoying kind of impatience which has a touch of shame in it. Good, kind-hearted, homely Lady Brackforth had not the smallest idea of it ; but ' Dolly ' Os sington had the reputation of being very fast indeed, and she was laughed at and admired in a proportion which was about equal.

But that was in London Society ; and at Brackenhinch they knew little and cared less about anything which did not directly concern Brackenhinch. Since she had married the owner of Brackenhinch, Ubrec Women. 5 twenty years ago, Lady Brackforth had looked upon London as being merely a good shopping and sight-seeing place ; so it was not surprising she knew little about it or the people who fre quented it. They met the Ossingtons staying at a mutual acquaintance's, during the shooting season of the previous year; and Lord Brackforth had declared Reginald Ossington to be a ' capital fellow', and had invited him to come to Brackenhinch for the grouse shooting. Mrs. Ossington, informed by her husband of the invitation, had grumbled a little at the dullness she foresaw awaiting her, but had done her share of the business for all that, and inspired Lady Brackforth with a wish to second the proposition.

And thus it was that they were there, and were being treated with the utmost consideration and greatest courtesy, as all guests were within the hospitable walls of Brackenhinch Castle. But as "Dolly" had remarked to her husband on the previous day, the Brackforths belonged to a different century, and had not one single ©nip a Xove Stor-g. idea in common with her. On the whole she was being less bored than she had anticipated; but that was because her dear friend Helen and two men she knew were amongst the party. Reginald Ossington, on his part, was enjoying himself immensely. In London he was merely 'Dolly' Ossington's husband, but at Brackenhinch, as at man)* another place where he was asked during the shooting season, he was looked upon as being a very good fellow, and a first rate shot.

Lady Brackforth sometimes went out on the hills at luncheon time; but only when her pony carriage could take her there without much difficulty and the distance from the castle was not great. When she did not go, and the ladies of the party wished to do so, she sent Veronia to do duty in her place. It was certainly a duty and not a pleasure for Veronia, but she was too good a girl to tell her mother so. And Lady Brackforth who knew that Veronia loved the hills, and felt no doubt at all that everyone who saw her must love Veronia, often imposed this Œbree Women. 7 task upon her; and it had happened that for three days running Veronia had done duty with Mrs. Ossington and her cousin Helen. And whether in their heart of hearts they were most bored with Veronia, or she with them, is doubtful ; but that the ' school-girl ' disguised her boredom better than the two older ladies there was no doubt at all.

She might have been dull ; she was young, and unless she had something of interest to talk about, she might not have had very much to say; but the title ' Lady ' was not misplaced in her case. Veronia Brackendale was by nature quite as much as by birth, a lady to her finger tips. Seeing that her absence would be preferred to her company, she had moved as far away from her companions as her sense of civility towards them would permit, and for quite a long time she had been trying to efface herself by leaning back against a heather-clad little hillock with her eyes fixed upon the scene before her and her thoughts far away. She gave quite a start when her cousin Helen ©nls a Xove Story?. 8 suddenly spoke to her. " A penny for your thoughts, Veronia," she said. Veronia turned her head and looked at her. *' I was thinking of a hawk's nest which 1 found up there last spring," she replied, raising her hand as she spoke and pointing upwards.

Mrs. Ossington who had been leaning back amongst the heather, suddenly sat upright. " Up there?" she repeated. "Good gracious, you do not mean to say that you have ever been up there ! " Veronia laughed. The expression of incredul ity and astonishment on the little lady's pretty face amused her. "Why, of course I have," she replied. " I know every yard of these mountains. There is hardly a day passes on which I do not come up here, or fish either out at sea or in thc river. Mrs. Ossington and Helen Brackendale both looked upwards. And perhaps they were justified in feeling that in going up to the top of the rocky peak, which a short way from where they were towered above them, Veronia had done a TIb.ee XQomen. 9 thing which very few women and not very many men would have cared to do. Xo doubt a winding, very rocky path led up to it; but it was a rough and steep one, and in many parts it overhung a sheer precipice of many hundred feet.

On the far side it formed a great rocky cliff, against the bottom of which the sea foamed and hurled itself at both high tide and low. It was crescent-shaped and formed a little bay. At no time were there dry sands beneath it in any part, but in the centre, where the peak was highest, the sea was ver}* deep where it dashed against its rocks. In fact it was a mere ledge of rocks, up which the keepers who were accustomed to giddy heights would not have hesitated to go; but that a girl should have accompanied them or gone on her own account in search of hawks' and herons' eggs, seemed to Helen Brackendale and Mrs. Ossington a thing which if true, was certainly preposterous. "You must be joking, Lady Veronia," said Mrs. Ossington. " It makes me giddy merely to look at such a place." ©nlv a Xove Storv. 10 Veronia smiled.

She had a very pleasant smile. "I can quite understand that, Mrs. Ossington," she replied, " but you forget that I have lived at Brackenhinch all my life, and that I have been accustomed to these rocks and mountains ever since I was quite a little child." Mrs. Ossington and her dear friend Helen exchanged glances. How it was that Veronia took in their meaning it is difficult to say. But she did so unerringly, " You are wondering how it is that I have been allowed to wander about here so much alone," she said, quietly, "and you feel sure that I have been alone because you know that my mother would not be able to walk half a mile on this rough, hilly ground, and that dear old Miss Beeston would be even less capable of doing so than my mother. But you forget that I am an only child, and that as Brackenhinch is to be mine some far-off future day, it has been my father's wish that I should be allowed to clo things which a boy would have done."

It was Helen who replied. 'Dolly' Ossing- "Cbree Women. 11 ton was for the moment a little taken aback by having her thoughts so easily interpreted by a mere girl. " But you are not a boy, Veronia," she re marked, in a tone which expressed disapproval, and a smile which was intended to disguise it. "Xo," agreed Veronia, and it was on the very tip of her tongue to add, " I am sorry to say I am not," but she remembered just in time that Helen's brother would succeed to the title, and she checked the words before they were uttered. Instead of them she added quietly, " But my father wishes me to grow up as capable as if I was one." Mrs. Ossington smiled, a smile which was even falser and less agreeable than Helen Brackendale's had been. " Rather a hard life for a girl," she said. " If it entails climbing precipices, I quite shudder when I think of it.

Your nerves must be very good. " Veronia laughed and shook her head. " Oh, no," she said, "It is nothing if one is used to ©nly? a Xove Stovs. 12 doing it. I should not have done it, of course, if it made me feel giddy, or if it had not amused me." " You certainly have the great merit of being original, Veronia," said her cousin Helen, in a tone which proclaimed that she considered origi nality a fault. " But I agree with Mrs. Ossington in thinking that you have had rather a hard lot, and been made to lead a very rough kind of life." Again Veronia laughed. "Do you, Helen?" she said g*ood-humouredly. " I assure you, you are quite wrong. I have enjoyed my life im mensely so far, and can picture no other which would have suited me half so well." " I suppose that Brackenhinch is a place a child would like," said Helen, who, as a matter of fact, was not better pleased than the rest of her family were at the thought that Brackenhinch was Lady Brackforth's, and would never belong to her brother.

"It is indeed," said Veronia quietly, looking out towards the distant peep of thc sea as she spoke. Œbree Women. 13 " But now that you are older you will begin to find it dull here," returned Miss Brackendale. " It is only natural at your age that you should wish to see a little life." At this Veronia sat very upright indeed, and turned her head so as to look more fully into her cousin's face. " My dear Helen, you are joking, are you not? " she enquired. " Because I cannot see how it would be possible to see more life than one does here. Is not everything around us full of it, in the very truest and best meaning of the word ? "

Chapter II. Like An Old Picture

MRS. OSSINGTON and Miss Helen Brackendale again exchanged glances; it was their opinion that Veronia was ' quite hopeless,' which meant that she had ideas and tastes which did not resemble theirs and those of the especial clique of society to whom they belonged. But any necessity for a reply was done away with by the near approach of the shooters, whose heads appeared just then over the top of a rising piece of ground not very many yards away from them. There was a great flourishing of caps, and some enquiries as to why the luncheon was not ready for them. Mrs. Ossington and Miss Brackendale became Xifte an ©ib picture. 15 very smiling and animated, and at once began to ' chaff' the newcomers, to pretend that there had evidently been some mistake and that they feared they would all have to go without their luncheon.

But Veronia went forward and spoke. " We have arranged to have luncheon behind that rock, father," she said. "It is sheltered there from the wind. Everything is quite ready. John arrived with the cart nearly an hour ago." Helen Brackendale had drawn a little aside, and was talking to a tall young man with a very black moustache. She shrugged her shoulders and looked first at Veronia and then at him. " I can hardly believe she is my cousin," she said, sotto vocc, " she is so terribly matter-of-fact. " Her companion's eyes wandered from a rapt contemplation of Helen's face towards the spot where Veronia was standing. "She is an uncommonly pretty girl," he said, with a candour which certainly lacked his usual amount of worldly wisdom. " Perhaps, " agreed Miss Brackendale. ■ But a complete child." ©ulS a Xove Storv. 16 Mr. Ossington joined them at that moment, and overheard what had been said.

" You are speaking of Lady Veronia," he remarked. "And all I can say about her is this: It fell to my lot to take her in to dinner last night, and child or no child, she is very intelligent and well-read. " Veronia accompanied by her lather, had walked away towards the rock behind which she had said that the luncheon was awaiting them, and as it was evident that he had a few instructions he wished to give her, the rest of the party had remained behind. It was thus that it became possible to discuss Veronia. The discussion, such as it was, did not seem to afford Miss Brackendale the amusement she had intended to derive from it. For Reginald Ossington's opinion she cared not at all; but Sir John Fellingham was the one man just then who she most wished to keep attached to her list of admirers, and the fact that although he was quite ready to flirt with either her or any other woman, he showed no wish to give up flirting Xtfce an ©Ib picture. 17 with other women and confine his attentions entirely to her, made Miss Brackendale more determined to secure him than she might other wise have been.

She was not in love with Sir John ; if she ever had loved anyone as much as she loved herself, it had been some years ago. It had not been very suitable and she had given it up, and had since found consolation for the loss of the love of one individual in the admiration of many. But now she had decided that if she was ever going to marry it would be as well for her to do it soon, and that Sir John Fellingham was more suitable than any other man she knew. He was only a newly-made baronet, it is true; but he was also a millionaire — a thing which baronets who are not newly-made seldom are. So she smiled very sweetly and agreed that, although her cousin was " such a child," she was, of course, both clever and beautiful. But she was not pleased, and a natural dislike she had already entertained for that young lady, considerably deepened. ©ills a Xove Stors.

Her uncle's absolute devotion to his daughter and the perfect understanding which existed between them, had irritated Helen Brackendale ever since she had first witnessed it. Why it should have done so it is hard to say, but some people have natures which are naturally sour, and there is little doubt that anything which is sweet is not palatable to thobe people. It had been only at long intervals that Helen had been a visitor at Brackenhinch. As a rule, neither the guests who Lord and Lady Brackforth collected round them or the place itself were in any way congenial to Llelen. Her uncle and aunt were the kindest, most courteous people in the world, but their very kindness and courtesy seemed oppressive and overdone to Helen. In fact it belonged to a century which was not the one which Llelen Brackendale lived in; and although many people who live at the end of the nineteenth century, are quite as kind and courteous as any of their ancestors ever were before them, those people did not belong to the little clique which formed Helen Brackendale's Xifee an ©Ib picture. 19 world; that world in which 'Dolly' Ossington was laughed at and surrounded by admirers, and looked upon as " only Dolly Ossington, but ex tremely good fun."

It was a clique in which ' smartness' came before everything else; and therefore it was hardly surprising that Helen was of the opinion that anyone who had not succeeded in attracting a certain amount of attention in London, and who was not well up in all the latest scandals and fashions, was simply " out of it," and there fore not worth cultivating at all. And her uncle, although he was the sixteenth Earl of Brackforth and the head of her family, was looked upon by Miss Helen as being a most humdrum kind of person, and dreadfully behind the times. It had often annoyed that young lady that neither her uncle nor aunt nor their young daughter, seemed to understand how very smart a young lady she herself was. She was one of those people who are always quite sure that they know everything and everyone worth knowing, and that what they say must be interesting because they say it.

She was a great talker, and very seldom gave anyone who was talking to her a chance of saying a word which did not directly interest herself. She was also one of those people who believe that it is their part to set everyone else right, whether they wish to be set right or do not, and that age makes no difference one way or the other. The first time she had gone to Brackenhinch, and made the discovery that her aunt and uncle very seldom left Ireland, and that her aunt did not get her dresses from either Kate Reily or any other fashionable dress-maker or tailor, she had at once proceeded to take that lady under her wing, talk very big to her about her things and her friends, and patronize her with the utmost condescension and amiability. And Lady Brackforth had borne with this treatment as probably no one but good-natured, peace-loving Lady Brackforth would have done.

She belonged to a day which was essentially not the present one ; but she was a broad-minded woman and she possessed a quiet sense of humour. Xifte an ©Ib {picture. 21 It would have surprised Miss Helen Brackendale not a little had she known that her aunt con sidered her an insufferably bad-mannered young person, but that she tolerated her because she was too well-bred and kind-hearted to return rudeness for rudeness, and because she was often much amused at the little airs and graces which Helen delighted in. And, as may be supposed, the impression which Miss Helen created at Brackenhinch had always been a very different one from that which she imagined. She did know that it was not realized there that she was the very smart young lady she believed herself to be ; and that knowledge always annoyed her exceedingly; but what she did not know, was that the Brackenhinch people considered they were being very lenient in tolerating her at all, and in laughing at her for being ridiculous, instead of giving her the snubbing she deserved.

And yet, although she did not know all this, her instinct warned her that when she was at Brackenhinch, it was prudent for her to appear to be more friendly than she really was with the Brackenhinch people. Somehow or other, when she was not there it was easy enough to laugh at them for their old-fashioned, behind the-times ways; but when she was there she found no one who was willing to join her in her laugh — excepting Dolly Ossington, who was just then spending her first visit there, and would probably find it her last. Even Sir John seemed to have gone over to the enemy. And no one else had ever annoyed her so much by doing so. She had felt fairly sure of him a short time ago ; and now — Could it be that he was going to find this child, Veronia, more attractive than her self? It was a dreadful thought, and one which had been growing up during the last few days.

He was one of those men who would flirt with any good-looking woman who would meet him half-way, and Miss Helen Brackendale had cer tainly met him half-way some little time ago, and there had been a rather marked flirtation going on between them ever since. It was Xtfte an ©Ib picture. 23 going on still, and indeed was becoming more marked daily — but it was now plain that Sir John was inclined to admire Lady Veronia, and quite disposed to get up a flirtation with her also. However, there wras one consolation to be ob tained out of the matter so far. Veronia was as yet quite unaware that Sir John found her at tractive. She was frank and genial and pleasant to everyone ; but Helen had been right in saying that as yet she was a child. During luncheon time Sir John, much to Helen's annoyance, took up his position close to the elbow of his host's daughter ; but even Helen could find nothing in that young lady's manner towards him, which caused her any anxiety — so far as Veronia was concerned.

And Helen tried to reassure herself by the thought that the fact that Veronia knew none of the people Sir John knew, and had not a single subject of interest in common with him, would go against her and bore him before very long. But when Veronia came down ready dressed for dinner that same evening, Helen was obliged to admit that that young lady held very formid able weapons in her hand. Those of youth and great beauty. She wore a simply made white muslin frock, full in the skirt, and so high in thc bodice that only her throat and neck were to be seen above it. Round her naturally slender waist a broad sash of pink silk was tied, and she wore absol utely no ornaments. The effect was wonderful. She looked just as if she had stepped out of some old-fashioned picture, and there was not one of the smartly dressed ladies in the room who did not suffer in comparison.

Xeed it be said that they were not very pleased with her in consequence, and that because she neither dressed her hair in the fashion of the moment, or followed it in any single particular, they said amongst themselves that they thought Lady Brackforth made a great mistake in so openly displaying the fact that she considered her young daughter sufficiently beautiful to adopt a style of her own. Xifce an ©Ib picture. 25 " It was so affected! " That was what was said ; but it was not said by any of the gentlemen present there that night, nor by one or two of the older women, who had arrived at a time of life when they found it pleasant to look at anything which was pleasing and pretty. That it was pleasing and pretty there was no denying. Veronia had never quite looked to such advantage before, and she made a picture which anyone with an artistic eye would not have found it easy to forget.

Perhaps the surprising thing about it was that one of her greatest charms was that she was so very womanly ; so much more so than any of these other women, though her father had taken a pride in bringing her up as far as he could as if she had been a boy. She was an expert at throwing a fly, and she could ride every and any horse upon which she could have been mounted. As we know, she had been in the habit of wandering about the mountains, and climbing on the edges of preci pices, and it mattered little whether the day was fine or wet, Veronia was certain to be out of doors during the greater part of it. Yet she was one of the very most womanly-looking young women imaginable, and her complexion was the purest pink and creamiest white. She had absolutely perfect health, as people who live the greater part of their lives out of doors generally do have ; but she was not of the robust order of young women at all; the word which best suited her was 'dainty.' Helen and her friend Dolly Ossington might scoff and pick holes where none were to be seen ; but there was little wonder that Lord and Lady Brackforth almost idolized their only child.

Both she, and the result of the manner in which they had brought her up, were perfect. After dinner Lady Dreamson, who was one of the party, sang some songs, and Mr. Henrick played his violin. They were both artistes in their way and received a great many invitations in consequence; but it was not until Veronia sat down on the pianoforte stool and began to play the accompaniment to an Irish melody that the Xifee an ©Ib picture. 27 attention of everyone in the room was absolutely arrested. Her voice was perhaps not quite so well trained as Lady Dreamson's, and it had not quite so great a compass; but it was ever so much richer and ever so much more sympathetic. As usual, when Lady Veronia once began to sing, song after song was called for, and she had to sing many before she was permitted to cease.