Marietta's Marriage

Front matter

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Uniform with this Volume. The Countess Radna. The Morning Post. — 'The fidelity of his por traiture is remarkable, and it has rarely appeared to so much advantage as in this brilliant novel. ' A Victim of Good Luck. The Spectator. — ' Mr. Norris displays to the full his general command of narrative ex pedients, which seem to belong to their place in the book, just as a keystone belongs to its place in the arch." The Dancer in Yellow. The Guardian. — 'We found the book very pleasant and refreshing, and laid it down with the wish that there were more like it.' London Wm. Heinemanx, 21, Bedford St., W.C. By W. E. Norris Author of ' The Countess Radna,' ' A Victim of Good Luck,' ' The Dancer in Yellow,' etc. London William Heinemann All rights reserz>ed CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. LORD MIDDLEWOOD'S CHILDREN I II.

ST. QUINTIN TAKES NOTES .... g III. PONTE k SERRAGLIO - - - - - 17 IV. ADMIRATION AND DISCRETION - - - - 24 V. JACTA EST ALEA - - - - - 30 VI. THE FAMILY COUNCIL - - - - - - 37 VII. THE ARRIVAL OF THE EXILES - - - - - 44 VIII. A FACILE TRIUMPH - - - - - 52 IX. THE PROTESTANT HEROINE - - - ... 59 X. MARIETTA AT HOME - - - - - 67 XI. ROLAND STRAHAN - - - - - - 73 XII. AUSTRALIA ADVANCES - - - - - - 8l XIII. DISCONTENT .... - - 8g XIV. THE COLONEL'S REMEDY - - - - - 97 XV. STRAHAN DISPLAYS A FRKSH ACCOMPLISHMENT - - I04 XVI. LORD MIDDLEWOOD CONQUERS AND IS CONQUERED - - 112 XVII. THE NEW REGIME - - - - - I iS XVIII. BETTY PAYS ST. QUINTIN A COMPLIMENT - - - 126 XIX. BENIGNA DIVA TRIFORMIS - 133 XX. STRAHAN IS A LITTLE PUZZLED - - - I40 XXI. THE RECALCITRANT PRINCESS ----- 148 XXII. 'SCANDALOUS CONDUCT' - 155 XXIII.

MARIETTA BECOMES RESTIVE ----- 163 XXIV. LADY MIDDLEWOOD'S DANCE - - - - - 170 XXV. GOOD LUCK AND GOOD GUIDANCE .... 177 XXVI. TIME FOR CONSIDERATION - - .- - - 1 84 XXVII. INDIA GOES TO THE WALL - - - - - 191 XXVIII. THE DEVOUT LOVER ------ 199 XXIX. AUSTRIA V. AUSTRALIA ------ CONTENTS VI CHAPTER PAGE XXX. BETTY PUTS HER FOOT IN IT - - - -214 XXXI. JUDGMENT PRONOUNCED BY THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY - 222 XXXII. IN AN OPERA BOX ------ 228 XXXIII. THE BETTER PART OF VALOUR - 235 XXXIV. STRAHAN THE INVINCIBLE ----- 242 XXXV. A FOE IN NEED - - 25° XXXVI. THE COLONEL GIVES BATTLE- .... 257 XXXVII. PRESENCE OF MIND ------ 264 XXXVIII. 'SOME PERSON OR PERSONS UNKNOWN' - - - 271 XXXIX. SOLITUDE A DEUX ------ 27S XL. STRAHAN LOOKS MATTERS IN THE FACE - - - 285 XLI. ON THE BRINK ---... 292 XLII. NOT CAUGHT YET ------ 299 XLIII.

Chapter I. Lord Middlewood's Children

' Confound it all !' exclaimed the old gentleman in the corner of the smoking-carriage, 'here they are slowing down again. Upon my word, it's too bad !' His opposite neighbour agreed that it was, but remarked, by way of excuse for the railway company, that the gradients were uncommonly steep thereabouts. The train, indeed, was at that time skirting the high-lying Peak district of Derbyshire, and there were obvious difficulties about the maintenance of a uniform rate of speed. But the first speaker would admit no such plea. ' Gradients be hanged !' he returned ; 'we're slackening because they're going to stop us at Middlewood — for the third time during the present month, as I can personally testify. Now, what I want to know, and what I shall make a point of writing to the traffic manager to ask, is whether the company has a legal right to delay passengers by express for a matter of ten minutes merely because some whipper-snapper or other has been invited to stay with Lord Middlewood ?

If so, well and good, and we shall know what to expect in future when we are charged express fare. If not ' He glanced savagely at the third occupant of the carriage, a tall young man, whose travelling-bag, as he might have noticed, bore on a label the printed name of Harold St. Quintin, beneath which was written the tell-tale address of Middlewood Hall The culprit hastily raised the Field between him and his accuser to conceal his embarrassment, for he was a modest, unassuming youth, and nothing could have been further from his wish than to cause inconvenience to any old gentleman. It was no fault of his that MARIETTA'S MARRIAGE 2 Lord Middlewood had ordered the train to be stopped, nor could he be aware that Lord Middlewood did not care a straw (except, perhaps, at election times) how much inconvenience might be inflicted upon insignificant passengers by rail.

What is the use in these days of being a mighty territorial magnate if you are to waive the few trifling privileges left to you by a triumphant democracy ? Presently the train was brought to a standstill, and Mr. St. Quintin, with a deprecating glance at his aggrieved fellow travellers, hastened to collect his belongings, which a groom was waiting to receive. As he stepped out on to the platform, one of the aggrieved persons asked : ' Who is that long-legged fellow?' 'I'm sure I don't know,' answered the other. ' Some friend of young Mallet's, come down for shooting, I suppose. I only hope he'll report my remarks to his noble entertainer. I was glad to observe a blush of shame upon his ugly face.' Of an appropriate and not unbecoming blush Harold St. Quintin may have been guilty ; but to call his face an ugly one was scarcely fair.

It was a long, narrow face, divided vertically by a nose of noble dimensions, and horizontally by a mouth far too wide for beauty ; but if these features sinned against the rules of art, they were redeemed in part by his wellopened gray eyes, and altogether by that indescribable expression of countenance which is the peculiar property of kindly, honest men. It was impossible to look at him and doubt that, if you should ever have occasion to ask him what he thought of you, he would subject himself to deep mental suffering by telling you the unscrupulous truth. Happily for him and for others, he could have said exactly what he thought about Lionel Mallet without hurting anybody's feelings ; and what he thought was very much what the world thought. Lionel Mallet, that spoilt child of fortune whom fortune had not succeeded in spoiling, had driven down to the station to meet him, and greeted him as warmly as one young Englishman ever greets another.

This very handsome, broad-shouldered fellow, whose hair curled crisply over a well-shaped head, and whose profile had been pronounced almost perfect by more than one competent judge, was about to start in life with advantages far more substantial than those which are proverbially but skin deep. Heir-apparent to an ancient title, and actual proprietor of an estate which had been carefully managed for him during a long minority, he was believed to possess, into the bargain, more than an average share of brains, while he was known to excel in every form of sport and pastime. When to all this is added the fact LORD MIDDLEWOOD'S CHILDREN 3 that his conduct at Eton and Oxford had been irreproachable, or nearly so, it will be perceived that he had some reason for sharing the apprehensions of Polycrates.

However, he was just now blessed with a grievance — not a very serious one, to be sure, still a genuine grievance, so far as it went — and upon this he proceeded to descant as soon as he and the friend who had been his most intimate associate at the University were seated side by side in his dogcart. ' I'm awfully glad to see you, old chap,' said he ; ' and if I must needs explore foreign lands, I would rather do it in your company than in anybody else's ; but I confess that it would suit me a good deal better to stay at home. It seems to me that one can find out all that there's any necessity to know about other countries with an atlas and a few books of reference.' ' I suppose Lord Middlewood doesn't think so,' observed St. Quintin. ' But you are your own master, after all ■ you aren't bound to obey him or anybody.' ' Ah, that's just where the shoe pinches !

How is one to disobey one's natural master when he admits that, owing to the peculiar circumstances, he is compelled to ask favours instead of giving orders ? My father is old-fashioned ; he was sent on the grand tour when he was young, and he is persuaded that an extended edition of the grand tour is the necessary wind-up of a liberal education. And then, naturally enough, he is in a mortal funk lest I should marry somebody before I have had time to look about me. Well, it's a bore ; but it couldn't very well have been helped, and I dare say we shall manage to get some fun out of our wanderings.' ' I expect to do so,' remarked St. Quintin ; ' but I am rather easily pleased, and what you call a bore I call a downright god send. To see India and Egypt and Italy free of expense is a piece of good luck which doesn't come twice in a lifetime to the likes of me !' It was also a piece of good luck for a young man who had neither wealth nor powerful influence to have been selected as Lionel Mallet's companion on that journey.

For Mallet, who would some day be Viscount Middlewood, and who was already marked out by position and inheritance to play a prominent part in political life, would, it might safely be assumed, be able ere long to render valuable services to his friends. But St. Quintin, dowered though he was with a sufficiency of sober sense and foresight, had not thought of that when he had accepted the offer conveyed to him by Lionel's father. It had been a question with him whether I MA R I ETTA ' S MA RRIA GE 4 it would be wise on his part to interrupt his reading for the Bar in order to undertake the proposed trip : if he had consented, it was partly because he could not resist so great a temptation, partly because Lionel had wanted him so much to consent. It had always been his habit to do as far as possible what Lionel wanted him to do. ' What a beautiful, wild country this is !' he remarked, while the dogcart was driven at a round pace up hill and down dale in the yellow sunshine of the autumn afternoon. 'Well, yes, it's wild enough,' his friend agreed ; ' I don't know whether you would call it beautiful if you saw it in the month of January, and we have no hounds hereabouts, except the jelly-dogs.

Ludworth, my own place, which is on the borders of Cheshire, you know, is a good deal more favourably situated than this.' ' For hunting, you mean ?' ' Well, for everything, except grouse. The worst of it is that it's rather a big house for a lone man to inhabit, and, now that I have come into possession, my father will never go there again without a formal invitation. He's tremendously punctilious about that sort of thing.' It is perhaps as well to be a little punctilious with your only son when he happens to be independent of you in a pecuniary sense, and Lord Middlewood, who was a man of many experiences, may have thought that his best chance of retaining influence and authority under circumstances so difficult lay in a formal renuncia tion of the same. He may likewise have thought — and indeed he did — that Ludworth ought to have come to him, instead of to his heir ; but he had never given utterance to an opinion which had apparently not been shared by the kinsman who had died many years before, bequeathing that very desirable property to a child of eight years old, with stringent directions as to the employment of surplus revenues during the child's minority.

In accordance with the will of that deceased kinsman, Lionel had only come of age on the completion of his twenty-third year, and now that he had taken his degree, it was obviously desirable that he should see a little of the world before falling a victim to one of the Belgravian mammas whose arms were ready to clasp him. As a result of his good-nature, therefore, Harold St. Quintin and he were about to see something of the world in a geo graphical sense. That small portion of the world in which his childhood had been spent was a district of rolling moors and uplands and grass fields, divided by stone walls. Deep valleys, through which Trout LORD MIDDLEWOOD'S CHILDREN 5 streams ran, and of which the precipitous banks were clothed by hanging woods, intersected it ; mountain-ashes, brilliant just now with clusters of scarlet berries, bordered the road, and presently a pair of massive iron gates were flung open to admit the dogcart into a well-timbered, undulating park. ' I'll tell you what it is, Mallet,' said St. Quintin, in the grave, convinced accents of one who has hit upon an interesting discovery : ' you're a devilish lucky chap !' Lionel laughed, partly because it is not unpleasant to be a 'devilish lucky chap,' partly because nobody with an average sense of humour could help laughing at dear old St. Quintin's remarks. ' Oh, I don't grumble,' he replied. ' All the same, if it comes to that, I'm not sure that Betty's luck isn't better than mine.

No responsibilities, you see, and as much liberty as she chooses to claim — which is a good deal.' He pointed with his whip, as he spoke, to an approaching vehicle, the driver of which appeared to claim, amongst other things, the lion's share of the road. This was the Hon. Betty Mallet, Lionel's only sister, who was driving a pair of ponies tandem, and who, after forcing the occupants of the dogcart on to the grass, greeted them with a friendly nod. Miss Mallet was going to be a beauty and a considerable heiress. Many people thought that she was already the former, though she was still only a child, and her fair hair hung dowTn her back in one thick plait. The frank blue eyes with which she took stock of her brother's companion while she passed were destined, as anybody could foresee, to make hearts ache, and she displayed a row of white, even teeth when Lionel called out : ' Now then, Betty, where are 'you going to ?

And who gave you permission to drive your ponies one in front of the other, I should like to know ?' ' Took it, dear boy,' she replied over her shoulder. ' Also the harness, which I'm sure you are happy to lend me. I'm going over to pay a duty-call to Granny, and ask her what she thinks of my turn-out.' ' You'll hear what she thinks in plain language if you ever get there !' shouted Lionel. ' But you won't. The first waggon you meet will send you and your cart into the ditch without touching you.' To this gibe Miss Mallet, being out of earshot, made no rejoinder, and St. Quintin observed sententiously, 'Your sister certainly does appear to be allowed a fair share of liberty.' MARIETTA'S MARRIAGE 6 Lionel shrugged his shoulders. ' She has a will of her own,' he answered ; 'and she has never, within her memory, had a mother of her own.

My grandmother comes down upon her like a cartload of bricks every now and then ; but that doesn't trouble her much. She can do exactly what she likes with my father, and, in justice to her, I must say that she doesn't, as a rule, abuse her power. It's in a few years' time that she will be apt to give us all trouble, I'm afraid.' Nothing seemed more probable ; so St. Quintin discreetly held his peace, thinking to himself that, upon the whole, he would just as soon not be the father of Lord Middlewood's children. The gray-bearded man who, from the library window of the mansion which was now in sight, was watching the advent of the two young friends, would have told him, no doubt, that paternal cares and anxieties play the deuce with one's nervous system. Not that Lord Middlewood could fairly complain of the manner in which either his son or his daughter had so far treated him ; but his nervous system did not happen to be a robust one, and, as has been mentioned, he did not possess that control over the purse-strings which confers ultimate power and authority upon the House of Commons.

To have a son who is a richer man than you are yourself is to occupy an anomalous position, while Betty would, of course, have been an anomaly even if she had not had the certainty of inheriting the whole of her grandmother's property. Riches, like poverty, have their drawbacks, and Lord Middlewood, who had been hard up during the earlier years of his life, sometimes felt disposed to murmur at the conditions under which an old age of ease and prosperity had been granted to him. However, he had heard excellent reports of this young St. Quintin, who was distantly related to many noble families, and who, it might be hoped, would restrain Lionel at a critical period of life from making a fool of himself. And when the new-comer was con ducted into the library to be introduced, he decidedly liked the look of him. ' I am delighted to make your acquaintance, sir,' said he, in his courteous, old-fashioned way. ' We have very little to offer you in the shape of amusement here, I am afraid ; but you will be released at the end of a week, and in the meantime there will be the shooting for you— such as it is.' To himself — for, indeed, he was a sufficiently shrewd old fellow, who, as diplomatist, politician, and sportsman, had learned to judCTe men quickly in his day — he thought, ' This is the right type simple, not too stupid, and a gentleman.

Probably aimed with LORD MIDDLEWOOD'S CHILDREN 7 religious convictions of some sort. No great fear of cards, or French actresses, or Oriental orgies in his company, I should say. Looks as if he kept himself in tolerably hard physical condition, too — which is important, in view of the fact that one wishes him to serve as an object-lesson.' These rapid reflections were made while St. Quintin was express ing a very sincere admiration for the imposing edifice which had been erected at an enormous outlay by Lord Middlewood's grand father. It was in truth a very fine, if somewhat gloomy, example of the Palladian order of architecture, and, on account of its vast stiff gardens and the art treasures which it contained, had always been considered one of the show-places of England. Its present owner smiled, and remarked : ' I doubt whether you would think so highly of Middlewood if you were condemned to live here.

Nothing is more miserably uncomfortable than a house which has no small rooms. Besides, it has almost been the ruin of us, and that gives one a grudge against it. Lionel, who has a really charming house of his own, will be well advised if he sets fire to this gigantic white elephant on the day of my funeral.' ' Perhaps my own obsequies may have been solemnized before then,' said Lionel. ' My dear fellow, I am afflicted, or blessed, with at least three mortal diseases ; I have the highest medical authority for saying so. That is one reason why I must beg Mr. St. Quintin to see that you do not go out tiger-shooting on foot, or visit cholera stricken regions. It is so clearly your duty to marry and beget an heir without unnecessary loss of time ! As for me, I shall endeavour, in spite of the doctors, to hang on until you return from your travels.

More than that I can scarcely be expected to undertake.' With his waxen pallor, his round shoulders, and the slow languor of his movements, Lord Middlewood did not look as if longevity could be expected of him by any reasonable man ; but he had been more or less of an invalid for years past, and he was neither more nor less ill than usual now. His youth had been somewhat stormy, his mature age politically distinguished ; in the evening of life he had withdrawn from public affairs, and had taken to watching his health — in the absence of anything else to watch, save the ways and manners of his singularly independent children. St. Quintin, who, though not quick, was observant, felt sorry for him. without quite knowing why. Dinner was served two hours later at a small round table in an MA RIE TTA ' S MA RRIA GE enormous dining-room, and as there were for the moment no other visitors in the house, Betty played hostess with an ease and aplomb which promised well for the future. ' It seems that you don't count,' she remarked to her brother's friend. ' As a general thing, when we have people staying with us I dine upstairs, because I am supposed to be still in the school room.

You might not think it to look at him, but my father is a rigid, unbending disciplinarian.' ' I do my best to maintain discipline,' Lord Middlewood said ; ' but the truth is that I am not allowed to be master in my own house, and any order that I may make so bold as to give is treated with calm contempt. Upon what conditions did I give you leave to drive those ponies, Betty ?' The girl laughed, showing those white little teeth which had already won St. Quintin's respectful admiration. ' Dear old man,' she remonstrated, ' why did you go fussing out to the stables and asking questions ? It was all right. I haven't a scratch upon me, nor have the ponies.' ' You did upset the cart, then ?' returned her father. ' I thought as much. I may say that I never fuss, and I haven't been to the stables all day • but you were pleased to drive tandem down the avenue under my very nose.

I beg to intimate that you will not do such a thing again.' ' I don't suppose I shall,' said Betty, with a sigh. ' Not yet awhile, anyhow ; for I have had a little misfortune with the harness. Now, don't swear, Lionel ; the repairs shall be executed at my own expense ; and we didn't exactly turn over. Only I was obliged to put off my visit to Granny, which I was sorry for.' Lionel looked as if he might be going to say something which the occasion would have justified ; but before he could open his lips his father struck in hastily with : 'Oh, I'll pay for a new set of harness, upon the condition that it shall be put away somewhere where the sight of it won't act as a temptation. Which of us can always rise superior to temptation ? Perhaps not even you, Lionel, if the evidence of your friend Mr. Strahan is to be believed.

Suppose we change the subject.' The subject was according changed, but the above speech, with its unexpected allusion, caused both the young men to redden slightly. One of them thought it a very odd and irrelevant thing to have said ; the other, who knew his father's peculiarities, accepted it with good humour, though he did not altogether like it. ST. OUINTIN TAKES NOTES 9

Chapter II. St

QUINTIN TAKES NOTES. ' That was quite characteristic of him,' Lionel remarked to his friend later in the evening, when Lord Middlewood had dismissed the two young men to billiards and cigars. ' He knows a lot, and says precious little until the fancy takes him. He has never spoken a word to me about that miserable business, and I was in hopes that he hadn't heard of it. But he was afraid I was going to scold Betty, and he can't bear her to be scolded ; so I suppose he thought that was as good a way as another of shutting me up.' ' You had nothing to do with it. Your name would not have been mentioned in connection with the affair if that fellow Strahan had not dragged it in to shield himself,' said St. Quintin, scoring rather neatly off the red. ' Oh, well, I knew the poor girl, and I used to see a good deal of her, just as he and half a dozen others did.

I'm sure he was very welcome to mention my name, and it seems to me that he was entitled to clear himself from false suspicions by doing so. He gave his evidence in a thoroughly straightforward manner, whereas Brydon thought it more prudent to disappear. Conse quently, we now know pretty well which horse to saddle. One doesn't want to speak ill of the dead ; but the fact of course is, that poor Maggie Field was — what she was, and what has happened to Brydon might have happened to any of us.' ' I don't know,' answered St. Quintin deliberately, ' what has happened to Brydon, who was a very great fool, I admit, to run away. I know what couldn't have happened to you or me. I'm not so sure that it couldn't have happened to Strahan.' ' You mean that we couldn't have perjured ourselves, and that you believe he did ?

Isn't that rather unfair upon a man whom you dislike ?' St. Quintin, who had got the balls together, made a break of fifteen before replying, ' I dare say I am unfair. Anyhow, he has marched off with flying colours, so nothing that I say or think can do him any harm. I don't deny that I dislike him.' ' I should say that you are absolutely the only man of his acquaintance who does,' remarked Lionel. 'A better all-round fellow than Strahan never stepped ; and I think you'll find, too, that he will make himself heard of in the world. I only wish I had half his brains, I know !' MARIETTA'S MARRIAGE 10 'Oh, he's clever, no doubt.' ' Yes ; and it's a thousand pities that he should be dismissed to Australia to earn his living, when he might have had a brilliant career at home— though perhaps, all things considered, he is wise to go.

Mind you, this scandal, out of which you say he has come with flying colours, hasn't done him any good. In such cases there are always plenty of people like you to shake their heads and hint that the whole truth hasn't transpired.' The whole truth concerning a recent tragedy which had caused no little stir in Oxford and its neighbourhood certainly had not transpired ; but when suspicion attaches to various persons, of whom one takes to his heels, without leaving any address behind him, the situation can scarcely be accounted bewildering. The unfortunate girl who had been found drowned in the river, and whose reasons for having sought death were only too clearly established, had been pronounced by a coroner's jury to have committed suicide while in an unsound state of mind. There had not been, nor could there have been, any suggestion of foul play ; but several undergraduates had been summoned to give evidence, and one of them, Brydon by name, had failed to respond.

From that circumstance conclusions had naturally been drawn which had exculpated Lionel's friend Strahan, who might otherwise have found himself in a somewhat awkward position. ' Well, I don't think your father should have said that about your yielding to temptation,' resumed St. Quintin, after a pause. ' If I were you I should tell him that ' ' Bless your soul !' interrupted Lionel, ' he didn't mean any thing ; he knows as well as you do that I should never allow another man to be made a scapegoat for me. All he wanted was to stop me from hauling Betty over the coals and to give me a gentle reminder that he had his eye upon me. He'll always have his eye upon me, poor old fellow, and for a long time to come he'll be in terror lest he should see some unwelcome sight. I don't mind betting an even fiver that he asks you to write to him every now and then while we are away.' ' I shall be very happy to write to him,' St. Quintin declared ; ' for I know I shall have nothing to report which he ought not to be very happy to hear.' That sounded like a rather bold assertion to make about any body of Lionel Mallet's years and means ; but in reality it was justified by experience.