Womanlike

Chapter I. The

Mortimers had been giving a very successful evening party. Their parties were ahvays considered successful, but on this occasion they had made it go off even better than usual. Alice, the eldest daughter, had devised a new plan of arranging and decorating the room, which had given great satisfaction ; and Bertha, the musical one, had arranged the music most judiciously, while setting her mother free to entertain her guests with a quiet mind. It was a pleasant house to visit at, people always said. Everyone felt welcome there, no one was ever neglected, and there was a general air of prosperity about the house that was very conducive to social success. Mrs. Mortimer felt proud of herself and her daughters as she stood in the rapidly emptying room discussing the events of the evening with a few intimate friends.

She had been complimented on Alice's looks and Bertha's music, and assured that little Dickie's violin solo gave signs of great promise. Two or three new sets of acquaintance had come to-night for the first time — people whom she had been wanting to know for some time — and they had parted on most friendly terms. She felt that the evening had been a decided step in the social scale. Womanlike. "We have fairly made our mark in the musical set now," she thought to herself. " And if Alice is married by next season, the other girls will really have a fair chance at last." Alice came slowly back into the long empty rooms from saying " Good-bye " to some special friends. She was a pretty girl, with fair brown hair, a delicate com plexion, and refined features. She looked pleased and excited, and the flush on her cheek was very becoming as she moved up the room with her soft primrose coloured gown trailing behind her, humming a phrase from the last song of the evening as she went.

Two young men were watching her eagerly as she approached the piano. One was a neat, dapper little man, with a black moustache carefully waxed, who had been in close attendance on her all the evening, and now looked on with a superior smile, while a young fellow at least six inches taller than himself promptly began to help her in collecting and sorting the music. " Alice, I have something I want to say to you," he said in a low voice, while he handed her a book of songs. " Stay up with me when the others go down to supper, will you ? " Alice nodded and laughed. She and Roger had been friends from babyhood, and he always told her all his secrets. Probably it was some story about the bank that he wanted to tell her to-night ; or perhaps, as he looked so very radiant, he had had a promise that his salary should be raised at Christmas.

Presently there was a general movement in the room, and gradually everyone straggled downwards except a little girl, a picturesque child of twelve, who came eagerly up to her sister. " Mother said I was to go to bed, Alice," she said Womanlike. 9 coaxingly. "But I may stay and talk to you and Roger for a little, mayn't I ? " " Not to-night, Dickie," said Roger good-humouredly. "I want to talk to Alice myself particularly. Look here — if you'll go off like a good child, I will bring you a large box of chocolates next time I come." Dickie looked most unwilling. " Are you going to talk secrets ? " she asked, putting her head on one side with the air which, together with her bright eyes and colour, had gained her the nickname of " Dickie bird." " Yes, we are going to talk secrets," answered Roger promptly, while Alice stroked the child's dark hair, laughing.

" Will you bring a very big box?" " Huge ! " answered Roger, shamelessly corrupting her morals by bribery ; " chocolate creams, too ! " "Very well," said Dickie, sighing; "then I will say 'Good-night.'" Half-way to the door she paused. " You needn't mind about the chocolates, Roger," she said, in her clear, childish voice : " I am not going for them, but because I like you." " How like Dickie ! " said Roger, laughing, as the door closed behind her. " Yes, wasn't it ?" said Alice. " She is a dear child, but she is very childish for her age, I think." " All the better," said Roger ; " I like children. Shall I turn some of these lamps out, Alice ? " " Yes, do," said Alice, moving to a sofa and beginning to unbutton her long gloves. " How tired I am ! But I think the party was a success." Roger went to and fro, putting out the lamps and candles.

He was evidently accustomed to be made use Womanlike. of in this house. Alice sat watching him idly, and waiting to hear what he had to say. " Well," he said at last, as he came back and threw himself down by her side, " now, do you want to hear my news ? " He had left a lamp burning just behind her, that threw into relief the outline of her graceful figure, and just tipped with deeper colours the cluster of yellow and brown chrysanthemums that she wore as a shoulder knot. She made a pretty harmonious picture as the light brought out the golden tints of her hair, and caught the gleam of the Indian necklace round her throat. To Roger she was a vision of beauty, an angel — in short, the girl he loved, and had loved ever since he could remember. He was a fine-looking fellow, with fair hair, true blue eyes, and a face that was wonderfully simple and boyish for his five-and-twenty years.

He had a happy dis position, that enabled him to make light of the worries and anxieties of life, and though he declared he detested his position as bank clerk with ,£150 a year, he made such fun of it that most people thought the detestation feigned. Still, life held something more than careless content with its scantiest gifts for a man with such a mouth and jaw as Roger Haughton's. Like most things that are worth developing, he was slow of development ; but dissatisfaction with the present was beginning to work already, and bringing out new traits in his character that he scarcely knew he possessed. " I suppose you are going to have your salary raised for being a good boy ? " said Alice, as she toyed with her fan : his gift. " Not a bit of it ! Besides, what is the use of raising Womanlike. 11 one's screw ten pounds a year ?

I shall be ninety before I can set up house, at that rate," returned Roger, laughing. " No ; I will tell you something far more thrilling than that. Do you remember Ainslie, an old Winchester chum of mine ?" " I remember his name very well," answered Alice. " He went to Ceylon to plant tea." " Exactly. And he has planted it to such purpose that he has come home to look for a partner to help him in the business and put some capital into it. He wants a man with a couple of thousand pounds who will go out with him, and eventually take charge of the planta tions, while he comes home to work the sales of tea here." " I should think anyone would be glad to join him," said Alice. " Ceylon is a very healthy climate, in parts. I should rather like to go there." Roger sat up suddenly very straight. " / want to go there, Alice," he said.

Alice gazed at him in amazement. " You, Roger ? " she cried. " Yes, I ! I am thoroughly sick of the bank and the office-stool, and being kept there till one o'clock in the morning because some fellow has forgotten to enter a halfpenny ! I hate the life ! I detest top hats, and black coats, and omnibuses, and everything connected with the City," cried Roger, stretching his long limbs. " I didn't know how much I hated it till I got a chance of freedom. I can't go back to it. I've made up my mind to one thing : if I don't go to Ceylon, I'll go some where else, but back to that hateful bank I will not go ! " said Roger, with determination. Alice was completely taken aback at this new view of Roger's character. Roger talking of throwing up his Womanuke. 12 post — steady-going old Roger ! She felt very much as if her well-brought-up sisters had suddenly defied theit governess.

" But, Roger, how can you possibly go to Ceylon ? " she said. " You have not got two thousand pounds." " No, I haven't," said Roger ruefully ; " I wish I had But I mean to try and borrow it," he added, more hopefully. " Who from ? " demanded Alice. Both his parents were dead, and as far as she knew, he had no relations. " From an old aunt of mine who used to stay with us years ago, and tipped me occasionally in the good old days," he answered. " She was my father's aunt, and rather a queer-tempered woman, but she is rich, I know ; and surely she won't refuse to lend me the money ? I shall offer her good interest, of course ; and I have been into the whole thing carefully : it is as safe as the Bank of England. Simply as a matter of business she ought to be grateful to me for investing her money so well."

" What do you suppose that you will get out there, Roger ? " asked Alice meditatively. " He guarantees me four hundred pounds the first year, and when the new plantation he wants to buy begins to pay I shall get a great deal more. Oh, it is a splendid chance ! I shall never get such another ! " cried Roger. " And Ainslie wants me to go out with him. He will do everything he can to make things easy if I can only get the money." " Do you know, Roger, I can't quite believe it all," said Alice, looking at him frankly. " It is so unlike you to come out with these sudden new ideas. Just think how we shall miss you if you go ! " " Shall you ? " said Roger, eagerly. " Shall you miss me yourself, Alice ? " Womanlike. 13 " Why, of course I shall," she answered, laughing. " Then, won't you come with me ?

" said Roger quickly. " There ! I know I ought not to have said it," as Alice started in surprise. " I expect your mother will be annoyed with me. But you know, Alice, I have cared for you all my life, and I could not go away to Ceylon without telling you so. I meant to have waited till all this was quite settled, but I could not bear to see that little ape Hunt dancing attendance on you all the evening, and I felt I must speak first. Alice, if all goes well, and I make you a home in Ceylon that is fit for you to go to, will you go out with me if I come home and fetch you ? " His whole soul was in his words as he pleaded ; he leant forward and took her hand in his, and waited eagerly for her reply. Alice was strangely confused and embarrassed. She had known well enough for a long time that Roger loved her, but she had put the knowledge from her, because she knew also that the faintest hint of such a thing to her parents would banish him from the house.

And now she was suddenly called upon not only to entertain the idea, but to respond to it without a moment's warning. " Roger, I don't know what I may say," she faltered, slowly. " I would go with you willingly — I can't quite imagine life without you, Roger ! " she broke out, her natural feeling finding vent, in spite of herself. " Oh, 1 should like to go abroad so much, and with you, Roger ! But I don't know what mother will say — whether she would listen to it." "It is a very good prospect, really," he answered, eagerly. " And if only I thought you were coming cut to me, Alice, I know everything would go right. You Womanlike. 14 are such lucky people. Everything you touch always prospers. Tell me you care for me, dear : tell me to succeed for you, and I know I shall get the money, and be a rich man in time."

She could not resist his voice and looks. This pleading manly lover was a very different man from her old playfellow, and one far more attractive. She felt in the ardour of the moment that she could promise any thing, bear anything, for his sake. They might have to wait, but a long engagement even seemed a mere trifle to-night, and Roger was sure it would not be a long one. He painted their future in glowing colours, and she listened and believed, her prudent suspicions lulled to rest. Many had been their confidential talks on that old sofa ; this was the sweetest, the happiest — and the last ! There came a fumbling at the door-handle at last, and May Mortimer came timidly in. " Mother sent me to say you were to come down to supper, Alice," she said, rather reproachfully. " She is very tired ; and Mr. Hunt won't go, and " " Oh, all right, May !

" said Roger, impatiently ; and May fled. " Then to-morrow I go down to see my aunt," he said to Alice as they rose ; " and on Thursday I will come and tell you the result. You will tell your mother everything I have told you to-night ? " "Yes, I will," said Alice, fervently. "Oh, Roger, I hope she will listen to us ! I know she is so fond of Leonard Hunt." " Oh, hang poor Hunt ! " said Roger, with good natured contempt. " Alice, I cannot imagine what you were thinking of to-night," said Mrs. Mortimer severely, detaining her Womanlike. 15 di ughter in her own room for a few last words that evening. "You made yourself so conspicuous with Roger that Mr. Hunt was quite annoyed. It must not happen again." " Oh, mother dear, I am so sorry!" said Alice, gently. " He had so much to say to me." Mrs. Mortimer glanced at her daughter's face, and jumped to a conclusion in a moment.

Here was a blow to her plans ! What could be more annoying? How ever, she said, kindly enough — " What has he been saying ? Tell me all about it, my child." So Alice told all, making the most of Roger's pros pects, and dwelling little, poor girl, on her own feeling for him. Mrs. Mortimer looked grave when all was said. " I do not think that Roger should have spoken to you to-night," she said, slowly. " His affairs are in too unsettled a state to justify him in doing so. Of course, if all goes well, and his prospects are what he represents them to be, since your heart seems set on it, we should not prevent your going to Ceylon. But I need not tell you how much I should have preferred Mr. Hunt as a son-in-law." Alice sighed. " I like him well enough, but he is not Roger," she said. " I wish you could have liked him best.

But you must promise me, Alice, that if Roger's hopes are disappointed, you will not throw over Mr. Hunt in a fit of pique. I do not ask you to accept him at once, but I leave you to consider whether it would be right to refuse such a home as he can offer because you cannot gratify your first fancy." Alice shivered a little ; the words fell on her as some thing physically cold and hard. Womanlike. " Good-night, mother ; I am very tired," she said wearily, and went slowly away. " Poor child ! How dreadfully unfortunate ! " thought the mother, left behind. " I would give anything that this had not happened. It is too bad of Roger. If he had not spoken she would never have suspected that she cared for him. I hope he won't get that money ; then, if I give a hint to Mr. Hunt to be patient, everything will go well, after all."

Chapter II

The November rain was falling fast as Roger Haughton journeyed slowly in a rickety, rattling station-fly through the muddy streets of Slowborough. The station itself lay in a new suburb, a barren desert of bricks and mortar, that had not prepossessed him in its favour ; but even that was cheerful compared to the gloomy street of old-fashioned houses along which he was now driving. It was almost dusk, though the fact was hardly per ceptible, so thickly did the heavy grey clouds veil the sky, and the small paned windows were already closely shuttered, lest a gleam of fire or light should cheer the passers-by. Everything looked grey, and dull, and dead, as though the little town had fallen asleep till winter should be over. Roger looked about him undepressed, and almost amused at his first experience of the Midlands.

What an awful hole to live in ! he thought, with good-natured pity, and wondered what kind of people could possibly live here, as he contrasted his surroundings with a mental vision of that Eastern home to which he hoped soon to take Alice. They stopped at last before a severe-looking house, half covered with dripping ivy, having two windows on each side of the door and five windows above. It stood a little back from the pavement, behind a low wall sur mounted by high iron railings, and a flagged path led Womanlike. between two patches of rank grass from the grim gate to the front doorstep. The flyman got down and pulled the bell, while Roger sat waiting with a little shudder. What a damp, mildewy place, highly suggestive of rheumatism and the blues ! He began to be afraid that it might not improve his aunt's temper.

An austere-looking female answered the bell, and marched down in the rain to unlock the gate, retreating silently to the doorway again. Roger paid the flyman, took up his Gladstone bag, and entered the house with a feeling of adventure that was almost exciting. The woman shut the door — a proceeding which reduced them to almost total darkness — and then for the first time spoke in a stiff starched voice. " This way, sir. Miss Haughton expects you," she said, as she opened a door to the right, and admitted a feeble glow of light into the hall. Roger stepped through the open doorway with a feeling of intense curiosity. He had but a vague re membrance of his great-aunt, and her gloomy surround ings led him to expect someone of an unusual, or even original, type. The room he entered was but dimly lit by two candles on the mantelpiece, and the small fire that lingered, rather than burned, in the grate.

Yet he could distinguish that it was one of those old-fashioned draw ing-rooms that are now rarely to be seen. There was the large round table, with its piles of unread books and a stereoscope and slides, the tall glass cases on side tables, and the chairs set in rigid pattern, that most of us have seen in our youth. A straight high-backed sofa covered with a striped chintz and crochet antimacassars' was drawn up at right angles to the fire, and in one Womanlike. 19 corner of it sat bolt upright a little old woman wrapped in shawls, with keen bright eyes that glittered in the firelight. To Roger's fancy the nutcracker nose and jaw and shining eyes, in that dim shadowy room, might have belonged to some old witch luring him into an uncanny cave. But he shook off the impression with a smile at his own absurdity, and advanced up the room with out stretched hand.

" How do you do, Aunt Maria ? " he said, his cheer ful manly voice sounding strange in the dismal stillness. " I hope you are quite well ? " " So you are Roger ? " said the old lady, in a sharp thin voice, holding out a skinny hand. " It is a long time since I saw you last." " Oh, I remember you very well, Aunt Maria," said Roger in his hearty way, as he drew a chair forward with an case of manner that seemed almost presumption in this stiff, formal room. " You were very kind to me when I was a little chap, and you used to come and stay with us in Harley Street." "That was a long time ago," said the old lady briefly, and fixing him with her piercing glance. " You are not a bit like your father, Roger." " So I am always told," he returned. " And a good thing, too. Your father was the most extravagant man I ever met ; it is to be hoped you don't take after him," she said severely.

The accusation was true enough. If Roger Haughton the elder had not invariably lived up to, if not beyond, his income, his son would have been in a better position now. But, like many other extravagant people, he had been kind-hearted and indulgent, and Roger would not hear him found fault with. B Womanlike. 20 " He was my father, and he is dead, Aunt Maria," he said with spirit. " We will speak good, or nothing, of him, if you please." Perhaps the old lady rather enjoyed the unusual sensation of being opposed. At all events, she took the remark in good part. " Well, well, tell me all about yourself, boy," she said. " But mind " — shaking a long forefinger at him — " not a word about business ! I know what young men's business is : it means borrowing money. So not a word of that till to-morrow, if you please."

Roger was rather entertained by her shrewdness, but he set himself to humour her, telling her all he could about himself — which was a great deal more than he guessed — and endeavouring to convey an impression of his own steadiness and business capacity. It was a curious scene : the stiff old-fashioned room, with its feeble illumination, and its little old mistress in her corner, with her hag-like face, and wondrous cap that cast such strange shadows on the wall behind. And opposite to her the tall, broad-shouldered young man on his spindle-legged chair, who looked so thoroughly out of keeping with his surroundings, and as if he could have nothing in common with her. There was no extravagance permitted in this house hold, evidently, he reflected, as time crept on. The fire burnt lower and lower, but the old lady would not have it made up.

She drew her shawls more closely round her, for it was decidedly chilly, but she would have no more coal consumed than was absolutely necessary to keep the fire alight. Roger was cold and hungry, for he had hurried off after a scanty lunch, but five o'clock tea seemed to be unknown in this establishment. His thoughts turned Womanlike. 21 involuntarily to the cheerful drawing-room in Cromwell Road, where he knew a cosy party would be assembling just at this time, after their afternoon walk. A little discomfort was well worth enduring for Alice's sake. Some day she would make tea for him in her own drawing-room, and they would laugh together over this odd experience. " We dine at six," his aunt suddenly remarked, as the old clock with Arabic figures rang out the quarters. " If you will ring the bell, Dawson shall show you to your room.

We don't dress here." Roger could not help rejoicing at the prospect of food, however unfashionable the hour. He was quite awake to the ludicrous side of everything as he crossed the hall, and ascended a narrow staircase behind the austere Dawson, who carried a candle in dignified silence. What an amusing story it would all make for Alice to-morrovv ! At the head of the stairs Dawson pushed open a door, handed him the candlestick, and turned away without a word. Roger entered his room, and putting down his candle, threw himself on to a chair, and thrusting both hands in his pockets, burst into a fit of laughter. His gay laugh echoed through the room with an almost mournful sound. It was so long since the old walls had heard anything so cheerful that they had lost the power of responding to it.

" Wrell, this is the coolest reception I ever met with, upon my word ! " said Roger, half aloud. " I am starving, and half frozen, and completely neglected. Oh, Alice ! what sufferings I endure for thy sake ! " He sprang up and began to unpack his bag, whistling as he did so, and surveying the room at intervals. It had a general aspect of white dimity and highly polished, but Womanlike. 22 scanty, furniture, which was distinctly chilling in the rays of his solitary candle. Presently he discovered that they had forgotten to bring him any hot water. "Another little point in my dear aunt's warm welcome ! " he said to himself as he seized the long embroidered bell-pull. He pulled in vain : there was no reply. Twice again he tugged at the bell-rope, and then he became convinced that the crank at the top did not work.

In comic despair, he opened his door and looked down the corridor. To his joy, a maid was approaching, with a candle in her hand. " Could you get me some hot water ? " asked Roger hastily. " I have rung my bell three times, and cannot get an answer." The girl started violently, and blushed a vivid scarlet. She was a dowdy-looking young person, in a plain brown gown and black apron, carrying a large work-basket. " I — I think the bell in that room is broken ; I will see that you have some hot water," she said in an odd confused voice, and passed on quickly. Roger went back to his room to wait again, rather cold and cross. Even the drawing-room was better than this. "I hope I have not kept Miss Haughton waiting?" he said in a reproachful voice to Dawson, when she brought him some hot water a few minutes later.

" Miss Haughton goes to bed at six o'clock, sir," answered Dawson severely, for she thought him sinfully luxurious. " Miss Elizabeth will dine with you." "Miss Elizabeth? Who on earth can she be?" thought Roger to himself as he hastily completed his toilet. " Some relation of my aunt's, I suppose. Good gracious — suppose that were she I met just now ! But no ; that girl could not be a lady." Womanlike. 23 Still he felt an uneasy qualm at the thought of the dowdy girl in brown as he turned the handle of the drawing-room door, and walked boldly in. To his great relief, he thought for a moment that the room was empty. Then a kneeling figure, who had been spreading her hands over the dying embers, rose quickly, and the supposed servant-maid stood before him, shy and awkward. " How do you do ? " said Roger heartily, taking the bull by the horns.

" I am afraid you must have thought me very rude just now, but the fact is I was getting quite impatient, and was only too delighted to see some one to pounce upon." The girl muttered something about its not mattering and subsided quickly on to the sofa. " The fire is nearly out ; shall I make it up ? " asked Roger, looking for the coal-scuttle. " Oh no ; pray don't ! " said the girl, in evident alarm. " No one sits here in the evening ; the fire always goes out." " But you are as cold as ice," said Roger, who still felt the touch of her frozen fingers. " Oh ! it doesn't matter ; I am used to it," answered the girl, in a low indifferent voice. Roger sat down, and tried to make conversation. He felt sorry for the poor girl ; she had a forlorn air, in spite of her extreme neatness, and her surroundings were such as to excite pity.

He glanced at the little table by the sofa, where two serious-looking books, bound in calf, and some coarse knitting, showed his aunt's tastes, and then at the utter absence of elegance, or even comfort, in the room. What sort of life could this poor thing lead in such an atmosphere ? She seemed quite unaccustomed to entertaining Womanlike. young men, and when dinner was announced she took his arm with obvious embarrassment, and crossed the hall in silence. The dining-room looked a little more inviting. The fire was better, and the table was laid out with good solid old plate, though there was less light than was pleasant or cheering. But not even Roger's spirits could hold out against the frugal dinner that followed, and the silence of his companion. No subject appeared to interest her, and all his efforts failed to elicit more than a dull " Yes " or " No." He came to the conclusion at last that she could have absolutely no mind, and must be quite content with her life ; and at that point he began quite to dislike the pale plain face opposite to him.