A Study in Prejudices

Chapter I

Jasper Fleming, the now celebrated Royal Academician, whose pictures sell even in the hardest times, and whose mannerisms are copied by so many admiring disciples, owes a large measure of his success, as every one knows, to the fact of his being a Shakespearean student and fanatic. His first hit was made with a picture called " Shakespeare's First Play," which purported to be a representation of the boy Shakespeare's first visit to the theatre at Stratford-on-Avon, when he stood between his father's knees, and studied the antics of the strolling players. This work found favour in the eyes of both critics and public, and after a Royal personage had praised it, and an American millionaire had I A bought it, Fleming found himself on the high road to fame and fortune. He was clever enough to follow up his success with a series of pictures illustrative of scenes or incidents in his idol's work, and his reputation increased year by year.

But he did not only paint Shake spearean subjects ; he also devoted much time and thought to a study of the poet both as man and artist. He groped his way along tortuous paths, made dark by many commentators, stirred up the dry bones of forgotten contro versies, and added his quota to the long list of attempts to disentangle hopeless knots and solve insoluble problems. Needless to say, like all true Shakespeare lovers he was also given to the fascinating though delusive quest of autobiographical hints and details in both plays and poems. As a result of these studies he had con ceived the theory that the poet, at some period of his career, had loved a woman called Rose, and that she was not the dark-eyed, false-hearted heroine of the later sonnets, but the original from whom some of his most exquisite portraits of womanhood were drawn, namely the four masquerading heroines, Rosalind, Viola, Portia and Imogen.

In these characters he fancied he could trace, more or less distinctly, variations of the same feminine type, a beautiful creature in the spring-tide of life, fearless, quick-witted and resourceful, com bining the daring and impetuosity of a high spirited youth with the passionate tenderness and self-abnegation of a true woman. He further believed, whatever English or German critics might say to the contrary, that some of the love-letters in sonnet form were addressed to the poet's true love Rose, and not to a male friend or to an unfaithful mistress. This pretty little theory was of course based on no better evidence than that which a vivid imagination could supply ; but it was at least not more absurd than the theories of those who hold that the sonnets are addressed to Pure Reason or to William himself, and assert that the dark-eyed lady is either the Catholic Church or the Bride of the Canticles.

At the time this story opens, when Jasper was about eight-and-thirty, he had long cher ished the ambition of illustrating his pet theory by a picture called " Shakespeare's Rose." In this work the imaginary sweetheart was to be represented playing the spinet, with roses in her bosom and her hair, while the picture was to have for a motto the lines, from the 108th Sonnet : " For nothing this wide universe I call, Save thou, my Rose, in it thou art my all.' Jasper had managed to secure a professedly Elizabeth spinet, and he could call roses from the South of France even in the depths of winter, but for the face and form of the Rose herself he had hitherto sought vainly among the models at his disposal, both professional and amateur. At length, at an evening party at the house of his friend Mrs. Marchmont, just ashe had decided to bid his hostess good-night, he caught sight of a face that made him promptly relinquish his intention.

He stood still with a beating heart, while his eyes took in every detail of the picture that had arrested him. A tall figure with the short waist and long limbs of a young Diana, a small head set buoyantly upon the full white throat, dark grey eyes placed well apart, a mouth of gracious curves, and a chin that was not a meaningless end to the face, but a finely-modelled feature in itself, made up a whole that caused Jasper to exclaim half aloud, " My Rose," and sent him off, as soon as he had gazed his fill, to seek his hostess. " Who is that tall girl in black standing by the piano ? " he asked eagerly, when he had detached the lady of the house from the group of which she was the centre. " That is Cecily Tregarthen, a great favour ite of mine," replied Mrs. Marchmont, smiling at his impetuosity. '' Her father and mine were brother-officers, and I have known her ever since she was a child."

" I want you to introduce me to her directly, please," he went on. " I must have her head — no, I must have the whole of her. I have been hunting for her for months. Where does she come from ? Has she any people ? " " Her father had a staff appointment at Chatham, but he died rather more than a year ago, and left his family little better than paupers. Cecily and her sisters and brother live in London now, and work for their bread." " Do you mean to say that girl works ? " demanded Jasper indignantly. " She ought to be paid a handsome salary for ornamenting this hideous city. What does she do ? " " Something in your line. She paints Christ mas cards, designs fashion advertisements, and is trying to get a footing in the cheaper illustrated papers. Madge, the eldest sister, has a typewriter, that genteel substitute for a mangle, and Kate, the second, writes for a sweating newspaper.

The boy, Peter, only left school a few months ago, and he has not yet suc ceeded in finding anything to do." " What an emotional creature it is," broke in Jasper, who had been too much occupied in gazing at Miss Tregarthen to pay much atten tion to this explanation. " She blushes when ever she speaks, and the tears rush to her eyes each time she laughs. And only look at her dear chin ; it is shaped like a little fig. She must be a survival of some old-world type, for she makes all the other girls look either blowsy or anæmic." Mrs. Marchmont laughed. She and Jasper were very good friends, and she was quite accustomed to his sudden ardours and en thusiasms. Since his rapid rise to fame he had been spoken of admiringly as " quite a character," whereas, in the days of his ob scurity, his acquaintances had contented them selves with saying that Fleming was rather queer.

The truth was, there was more of the natural man about Jasper than the world alto gether approves, except in the case of a cele brity. He had no idea of posing as an eccen tric, but he was in the habit of saying what he thought, and, so far as he could, doing what he liked. His spirits varied between the abnor mally high and the abysmally low, and as he seldom dissembled his feelings, it was only to be expected that he should be something of an enig ma to the more conventional among his friends. " I'll introduce you to Cecily as soon as I can get her away from her admirers," said Mrs. Marchmont. " But I warn you to look to your heart. Cecily doesn't mean to be naughty, but she can't help being charming, and more than one man whom I have introduced to her has no reason to thank me." " You needn't fear for me.

I am long past the combustible age." " Ah, but there are two combustible periods in every man's life, and you may be approach ing the second." "Well, I'm willing to take all risks. She must and shall sit to me, even if I have to abduct her forcibly from her home." " Let us hope no such violent measures will be necessary. Now I have caught her eye, and she is coming towards us." The introduction took place, and the artist was delighted to find that Miss Tregarthen gave herself none of the airs of a beauty, but was perfectly simple and unaffected. En couraged by her friendliness, he ventured, after a little talk upon indifferent topics, to express a hope that she would come and see his studio some day. " I shall be delighted," she said, her face lighting up with pleasure. " I have never been to a distinguished artist's studio.

The few painters I know are still hopping about, trying to get one foot on the first rung of the ladder. May I bring one of my sisters with me ? " " Of course," he replied. " Pray bring them both, if they care to come. I have a sister too, whom I should like to introduce to you. She is a chronic invalid, poor thing, and obliged al ways to lie on her back." "How dreadfully sad," said Miss Tregarthen sympathetically. " Has she been ill long ? " Before he could reply they were joined by a good-looking though rather overblown young woman of seven or eight-and-twenty, who broke in upon their conversation with the remark : " It's time to go, Cecily. Our cab is at the door." Thereupon Jasper was introduced to the elder Miss Tregarthen, the invitation to the studio was repeated, and it was agreed that the visit should take place on the following Sunday.

That visit was a complete success from Jasper's point of view. After tea he contrived to draw Cecily aside under the pretext of show ing her some pen and ink sketches, explained (at considerable length) the subject of his next picture, and finally made his request for sittings. " Oh, but do you think I should really do ? " exclaimed Miss Tregarthen. " It seems so presumptuous to sit for the portrait of even an imaginary sweetheart of Shakespeare's." "I am sure you will do beautifully," he said, smiling. " And Shakespeare would have been a lucky fellow to have—" he stopped abruptly, feeling that, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, he was going too fast. But Miss Tregarthen did not seem at all embarrassed. " Lucky to have me for a sweetheart ? " she said composedly. "I'm afraid he would not have agreed with you.

He preferred a lady with black silk hair and mourning eyes." "Oh, but she was his evil genius," put in Jasper eagerly. " His feeling for his real love, for Rose, must have been of a very different kind. He probably regarded her with the mixture of chivalrous homage and passionate devotion that a man only feels for the creature who is at once his guardian angel and his earthly love." " How very trying for Rose," remarked Cecily meditatively. " If a man regarded me in that sort of way I should live in perpetual terror lest he should see me with a cold in my head or a black on my nose, which would of course quite destroy the illusion." Jasper laughed, and told himself that Miss Tregarthen seemed a jolly sort of a girl with no primness or prudery about her. The remem brance of what Mrs. Marchmont had said about his new model's circumstances came back to his mind, and he wondered whether he could make her any return for her services.

" I feel rather unhappy about wasting so much of your time," he said. " I was going to ask you for a whole morning at least once a week." " You needn't distress yourself about that," she replied, "for though I am a working woman I am sorry to say that my time has a very small market value at present." " I hear that you are a sister of the brush," he went on, a happy thought striking him. " I shall be very pleased if you will allow me to give you a little instruction in return for the sittings." " You couldn't suggest anything I should like better," she said. " But I should feel that you were paying your model much too highly." "You wouldn't think so if you knew how long and vainly I have sought for her. Besides, I really enjoy teaching, and I am sure you would prove an apt pupil." " How can you possibly tell ?

" she laughed. " Do I bear the marks of genius on my brow ? " It was finally arranged that for the present Cecily should go twice a week to the studio, once for a sitting and once for a lesson, it being understood that the artist's invalid sister would act as chaperon on these occasions.

Chapter II

Three months later, on a bleak March after noon, Cecily Tregarthen was making her way in the teeth of an east wind to Mr. Fleming's house in Wisteria Road, St. John's Wood. The cold blast cut through her thin, shabby jacket, numbed her fingers in their oft-mended gloves, rasped her nerves and slightly affected her temper. For it must here be confessed that Miss Tregarthen, however well she might look the part, was not a heroine at all in the usual sense of the word, but only a very human girl with, thanks to an erratic bringing up, rather more than the average girl's share of thoughtlessness and folly. No doubt, had there been any necessity for such a course, she would not have objected to masquerading in boys' clothes, or to taking advantage of a legal quibble to best a bloodthirsty Jew ; but as it was, she had no opportunity of doing any thing more heroic than flirting and dancing with any Orlando or Bassanio who might come in her way.

It was like stepping into a new world to quit the grey windy street and enter Mr. Fleming's studio, with its blazing fire, warm rugs, sunlit landscapes on the walls, and bowls of daffodils in every nook and corner. The owner of the studio himself was a picturesque figure, with his brown handsome face, bright eyes, and thick, dark hair, just touched with grey. " You poor dear," exclaimed Jasper, coming forward with outstretched hands to greet his visitor. '' You look as if you were frozen per fectly stiff. Come here and let me thaw you before you attempt to speak." " You talk as if I were a joint of New Zealand mutton," said Cecily, with a little laugh, but she permitted her host to establish her in an easy-chair by the fire, draw off her gloves, and warm her hands between his own. For a few moments she lay back in her chair, and allowed the warmth and perfume to steal over her senses, and render her oblivious of the chill outer world.

The man at her side and his caressing attentions were no more to her than the fire and the daffodils, though by gratifying her vanity and soothing her self love, they put the finishing touch to her sense of satisfaction and well-being. She was roused from the delicious lethargy into which she had fallen by the consciousness that her companion had raised her hand to his lips, and was pressing kisses on the palm. " We are wasting a great deal of time," she observed, getting up from her chair. " Isn't your sister coming in ? " " Presently," he said ; " but you needn't be such a prickly rose. I was only studying ' the tender inward of your hand.' " "It is not the turn for a sitting to-day. You are to criticise my new drawings." "Ah, you were much nicer to me the last time you came. You quite forgot to ask where Dulcie was."

"That was because it was your birthday," she answered, blushing slightly. " I couldn't be cross to you on such an auspicious occasion." "No, you were very sweet, dearest, and you gave me the nicest birthday present I ever had in my life." '' You mean you took it," said Cecily, trying to look severe. " And you know I don't like you to call me dearest." " But it doesn't mean anything from me," he returned carelessly. "It is only one of my en gaging little ways. Now let me see your latest chef d'œuvre." He opened the girl's portfolio, and glanced over its contents. " What on earth is this ? " he inquired, holding up a pen and ink sketch. "Ah, that is my last success," said Cecily, with pride. " It is a design for the advertise ment of the Empress Velvet. Don't you see that it represents a girl, and a very pretty girl too, wearing a gown of Empress velvet, and sitting on a sofa with an obviously devoted young man.

At a little distance is another girl, not so pretty or so well dressed, who is sitting all alone, and saying to herself, ' I wish I had a frock of the Empress velvet.' The manager was so pleased with the design that he said he would give me a guinea for it, if I would work it up a little more." " Bah, the idea of your wasting your talent and imagination on such trash," said Fleming impatiently. "Several of these things are really charming in the rather niggling style that seems inherent in every feminine artist. You ought to work more with charcoal, and try to acquire a broader method. With proper training and more practice yoy should make your mark in black and white." " I do like you when you talk like that," said the girl, flushing with pleasure. " Now give me something to do to improve my niggling style."

Jasper brought out a cast of a piece of frieze, and having provided his pupil with charcoal and paper, amused himself by making a rough sketch of her bent head and serious expression as she sat at work. Cecily was still occupied with her drawing when the door opened, and Miss Fleming was wheeled in on her reclining-chair. She was a plain woman, a year or two older than her brother, with coarse features and swarthy complexion, while her appearance was not improved by the peevish, discontented lines about her mouth. Her face brightened as she greeted her visitor, for between the two women, so dissimilar in age, appearance, and circumstances, an odd kind of friendship had sprung up. Miss Fleming had B been attracted from the first by the young girl who possessed all that she herself lacked, but who was neither spoilt nor arrogant ; while Cecily on her part was sorry for the irritable, unattractive invalid, and always took her cap tious humours in good part.

" Tea will be ready directly," said Miss Fleming. " Jasper, as you have had Cecily to yourself all this time, and as you never take tea, you might as well go for a walk now, and leave us to have our gossip undisturbed by fear of your masculine criticism." Her brother looked a little taken aback at this suggestion, but as he was accustomed to allow the invalid her own way in all minor matters, and as she was capable of making things unpleasant for him if he stayed, he thought it better to accede to her request. " Very well," he said reluctantly. " But first I have to break a sad piece of news to my pupil. Get your handkerchief ready, Miss Tregarthen. The melancholy fact is that I am going to Paris to-morrow for a fortnight, or possibly three weeks." " That is indeed a blow," answered Cecily with mock seriousness.

" I need scarcely say that I shall count the days till you come back. Meanwhile I will be very industrious, and do a number of charcoal studies to surprise you with on your return." When Jasper had left the room Miss Fleming turned to her visitor and asked abruptly : " Cecily, do you mean to marry my brother?" "I! No," replied the girl, laughing. "My intentions are no more serious than his own." "That is prevarication. You know perfectly well that you could marry him if you chose. But if you don't mean to take him you ought not to lead him on, and encourage him in the way you are doing. He has had quite troubles enough in his life without another unfortunate love affair being added to the list." " But I don't believe he has ever thought of falling in love with me," pleaded Cecily. " He looks upon me as part pupil, part playfellow, for he scolds or teases me nearly all the time.

Besides, he has told me all about his first en gagement, and shown me the girl's photograph." " Oh, yes, Jasper finds his broken heart very useful when he wants to get on confidential terms with a woman," observed Miss Fleming. "But the mere fact that he scolds and teases you shows that he is in danger. If he meant nothing he would be much more sentimental." " That sounds like a saying of Oscar Wilde's," said Cecily, who was beginning to feel uncomfortable. " Well, what do you wish me to do ? " " Leave Jasper alone, if you think there is no chance of your ever caring for him." " I like him very much," said Cecily frankly. " He has been very kind to me, and he amuses, interests, and puzzles me. I really almost wonder that I haven't lost my heart to him. But I fancy that in some ways we are too much alike ; we are both rather easy-going and self indulgent.

I think we ought to marry to better ourselves from a moral point of view — to choose someone who will give us more ballast and keep us in order." " Well, don't play with Jasper if you don't consider him good enough for you," said Miss Fleming brusquely. " I shall miss your visits very much, but naturally my brother must come first, and I consider myself especially respon sible for his peace of mind because I broke off his first engagement. Did he tell you about that among his other confidences ? " " No ; he has never said a word about you that was not kind and brotherly." "Well, I'll tell you the story, because it will show you why I feel bound to try and save him from further unhappiness. Besides, I'm not ashamed of it ; I did it for his sake as well as my own, and it has all turned out for the best.

I have already told you something about my girlhood, how I was always ugly, uglier than I am now, and how my mother never could be brought to realise it." " Yes," said the girl in some embarrassment. " But if people are nice and kind one doesn't think about their looks." " Doesn't one ? " returned Miss Fleming drily. " You may not. but the world in general does. When I was a child I used to be told that if I was good everyone would love me, but when I grew up I found that to be one of the many pleasant fallacies we are taught in childhood. Unfortunately, my mother, who had been a beauty herself, had made up her mind that I was to be lovely and charming. That was why she called me Dulcibella, and she never could understand why people sometimes smiled when they heard my name. As soon as I was eighteen I was dressed up like other girls, and taken to dances and parties of all kinds.

Ah, you can have no idea what sufferings society can inflict upon a plain and unattractive girl. I had just as much craving for pleasure, admiration, yes, and love too, as the prettiest girl in London, but at all the parties I went to I had to sit neglected and forgotten among the elderly women, or to console myself with another social failure like myself. At dances I used to think myself lucky if three charitable men could be found by my hostess to bestow three duty dances upon me. Even other girls avoided me, for, let people say what they will, it is the pretty women who have the most women friends. An ugly woman is treated by her feminine acquaintances much in the same manner as a wounded deer is treated by the rest of the herd." " Oh, don't say that," exclaimed Cecily, her eyes filling with tears.

" I can't bear to think of any one being made so unhappy." "Well, suffering of that kind doesn't generally get much sympathy, because it has not any of the dignity of a great grief. It is only the result of the social law which decrees that women of the upper classes must all lead, or appear to lead, exactly the same manner of life. We are all expected to dance and enjoy our selves in our youth, to marry and have children in due course, and to occupy ourselves thence forward in housewifely and maternal duties. That man-made law does not take into account the fact that there are hundreds and thousands of women who never have the opportunity of dancing and enjoying themselves, still less of marrying and having children. It even denies to the vast majority of these poor social failures the only antidote to human sorrow and disappointment — work."

" But you have great artistic talent, judg ing from your sketches," put in Cecily. " I wonder you did not devote yourself to art. " That is just what I longed to do, and when we were boy and girl my drawings were said to show more promise than Jasper's. But my mother could not afford to give us both lessons, and all the money she could spare was spent on Jasper's training. Then so much of my time was taken up in paying calls, trimming hats, and arranging flowers, that I could only have worked at my drawing in a desultory amateurish way, and I love it too well to turn it into a mere pastime. If I could have cultivated my talent I believe that I should now be a healthy, contented woman. However, you will ask what all this has to do with Jasper's love affair. I am coming to that, but I wanted you to understand what sort of a life I had led before I meddled with his.

When I was about eight and-twenty, my back began to trouble me. Polite doctors said it was spinal neuralgia, and rude doctors said it was hysteria, but whatever it may have been, not one of them was able to do me any good. Before I became quite an invalid my mother died, and it was settled that I should go and keep house for Jasper. We had not been in our new home three months, however, before he became engaged to a pretty, heartless, empty-headed girl. She disliked me because I was ugly, and I knew that Jasper would be completely lost to me if he married her. There was nothing before me but life in a cheap boarding-house or a lonely lodging. I felt sure the girl would make him miserable, and for both our sakes I determined to break off the match. As you know, I accomplished my purpose ; it is not necessary to tell you how I did it."

" Did your brother find out that it was your doing ? " asked Cecily. " Yes, unluckily he did. He was very un happy and very angry with me for a long time. He went abroad for a year, so that I had to go into a boarding-house after all. By the time he came back the girl had married someone else, and I had become a helpless invalid. He came to see me, forgave me, and took me to live with him again. So now you see why I am so anxious to save him an unnecessary heartache. I should not mind your marrying him, because I think you would make him happy, and I am sure you would not treat me as if I were a female pariah. But don't flirt with him, Cecily." " I think he can play at that game as well as I," answered the girl. " However, if you really believe that he is more in earnest than he ap pears, the sittings had better come to an end.

He has made scores of studies of me, and the picture is practically finished." " Yes, and you see he is going away for two or three weeks. When he returns, come once more to give him a final sitting, and bid him good-bye. You can say that you cannot spare the time to continue your visits. I daresay it is better for you that you should have no more to do with us ; we are an unlucky family, and generally bring ill luck on any one who is connected with us." "Well, you have brought me nothing but good luck," said Cecily. " I have learnt a great deal from your brother, and you have been very kind to me." "Ah, but you can never depend upon us," said the invalid in the tone of one who takes a morbid pride in a family failing. " There is dark blood in us, you know ; our great grand mother was a beautiful half-caste.