Just Impediment

Introduction

. . . . 7 III. THE WOMAN WITH HAIR LIKE BRASS . . 14 IV. MISS WILTON 19 V. AFTER DINNER 30 VI. THE PHOTOGRAPH IN BARN STREET . . 37 VII. LORD RUTHERFORD AT HOME IN KNIGHTS- BRIDGE 53 VIII. THE INCIDENT IN THE NIGHT . . • • 59 IX. MISS CLOSE 67 X. WHAT LADY HERON HAD TO SAY . . . 75 XI. A VISIT S3 XII. MRS. WILTON'S MANNER 90 XIII. THE PANTHER 97 XIV. 'THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT' . . . . 107 XV. MISS CLOSE READS A LABEL. . . . 1 16 XVI. LOVE AND DEATH 122 XVII. LADY HERON'S DOUBTS . - . . .135 PAGH

CHAPTER XVIIL THE RIVER

' " I42 XIX. A WARNING I51 XX. THE LAST OF BARN STREET • • ' - * 59 XXI. BILLY IN KNIGHTSBRIDGE . I&9 XXII. LADY HURLINGHAM'S BALL • • • ■ 175 XXIII. MRS. WILTON'S MANNER ONCE MORE . . 187 XXIV. THE LETTER UNREAD 19^ XXV. OVER THE SEA 2o8 XXVI. THE AWAKENING . , . . . . 219 XXVII. THE RETURN OF RUTHERFORD . , . 233 XXVIII. THE TALK ON THE STAIRS . . 1 . 245 XXIX. FOR ESTHER'S HAPPINESS . ■ . 253 XXX. DID I WRITE THESE?. . . . . 260 XXXI. THE READING OF THE LETTER , . . 266 XXXII. THE GOING OF ESTHER . . , . .

Chapter I The Face In The Street The

theatres were pouring out their living streams into the streets. The noisy Strand Avas congested, and the glimpse that Rutherford caught of a face in the crowd was of necessity momentary, but it made an unconscious impression upon him. His friends were talking to him. The burlesque had been very sunn)*. ' Yes, a hansom, please.' ' Ansom, sir ? 'Ansom up ! 'Ere, 'ansom ! ' ' Noav then, where are yer comin' to, carn't yer ? You keep back a bit.' ' 'Igher up there. Git out. I fetched this 'ansom.' The boys were prepared to fight. A policeman interfered. It Avas some moments before Lord Rutherford's friends drove away. Then he was free. B The night was fine, and he determined to walk home. The crowds hindered him. At Wellington Street the carriages from thc Lyceum blocked the Avay. He stood on the kerbstone, Avaiting to cross.

Some one was speaking to him. It was one ofthe boys wlo bad pestered him already at the theatre doors. ' I fitched yor 'ansom, sir. I got it a' corner 'Olliwell Street. Wasn't 'is at all, sir. It Avasn't stryte ! Ain't yer got a copper for me ? ' Rutherford Avas inclined to answer with im patience. The inconveniences of getting from the theatre Avere insufferable. But the boy made him laugh. ' I know yer got a copper for me.' A glance at the stunted form, and at the face, white and eager, on Avhich the streets had set their indelible mark, softened his heart. The boy Avas, perhaps, fifteen. At that age he himself had been at Eton, Avell clothed, well fed. So he gave him money, and the boy told him that he Avas the right sort, and ran across the road Avith his papers on his arm, shouting, 'Exteryspechell — pyper — Avinner — pyperl' He Avas lost amongst the vehicles, and the traffic being suspended for a few moments Ruther ford crossed the street.

The pavement here Avas yet more crowded. THE FACE IN THE STREET 3 Progress was slow, so Rutherford interested himself in the realism of thc scene. About him there Avas life, and he Avas satisfied to look on. Perhaps the case of the boy may have lingered in his mind, for he looked round him Avith eyes open to the problem of the unfair division of this Avorld's goods. He saw the hardened faces of men and women Avho passed him — eyes and mouths grown sullen in the struggle to live. What was their crime, these wretched people ? He saw faces sodden with drink. Was not drink an effect rather than a cause ? Was not vice itself an effect ? What had these miserable girls done to be condemned, with reddened cheeks and blackened eyes, and the crying vulgarity of cheap finery, to tread the midnight pavements ?

Poverty and degradation and Avoe seemed a heritage. Here Avere children, dirty, halffed, and scarcely clothed, running amongst the crowd. A few more years and they would be as those Avho had transmitted to them their inheritance of Avant and pain. He reached Charing Cross and turned out of the Strand. Here, on the steps of St. Martin's Church, crouched a girl with an infant in her arms ; there, on the benches in the square, sat the shadowy figures of others who were homeless. The Nelson column Avas sharply defined against B JUST IMPEDIMENT a sky pale as a thrush's egg. The fountains Avere not playing, and the water in the basin was still and silvered. The lions Avere bathed in the moonlight. Rutherford walked on. He had a sense of having experienced some recent pleasure. He Avas dimly conscious that he had heard or seen something which Avas beautiful or good.

It had no connection with the play, he thought ; that had amused him, but it Avas not that. He strove to remember all that had occurred during the course of the evening, and he ran hurriedly over its events — the hasty dinner at his club, the arrival at the theatre, to find himself somewhat late and his friends already seated, his boredom because they Avould talk, the standing in the vestibule because they Avere fussy and liked to let other people pass, the incident of the boy and the hansom. Nothing that Avas particularly pleasant had happened since then. He had been exercising himself with the problem of the lot of the poor— the woe, the disease, and degradation. He turned up Waterloo Place. The moon Avas rising. There Avas not a cloud in the sky. The light of the street lamps seemed unnecessary.

The buildings stood out very clearly, and all shadoAvs Avere black and sharply cut as silhouettes. There was a croAvd in Piccadilly Circus, near the Criterion. THE FACE IN THE STREET 5 It suiged round the corner of LoAver Regent Street. People were running up from all sides with the vulgar instinct that is attracted by disorder. Rutherford found himself hemmed in and con demned to witness the altercation between two Avomen. Others of their class Avere thronging round. ' What did she want to go and say I was drunk for? I was having a glass of lemonade, like any other young lady ' ' Lemonyde ! ' came the screamed retort, in scathing derision. ' Lemonyde ! ' The idea seemed too comical not to be shared, and the woman turned to the bystanders. ' Do you 'ear that ? Lemonyde ! Eat lot she knows about lemonyde !

Yes, you come near me if you dare. You push me, that's all ! If I Avas you I'd tyke a little plyne soder and go and lay down for a bit.' She Avas playing to the gallery, and she looked round for applause. A few of the spectators laughed. This seemed to exasperate the first. ' If I wasn't a young lady I'd tell you what I think of you,' she said with great disdain. Rutherford tried to extricate himself from the crowd. This sort of thing had small interest for him. Unfortunately for herself, the young woman who claimed to be a lady so far forgot her dignity as to brandish an umbrella in her enemy's face In JUST IMPEDIMENT a moment the weapon Avas caught and broken across a revengeful knee, and then came cries of ' Shyme ! ' 'Serve her jolly well right!' screamed the destroyer of property. ' Look at my dress.

She jogged my elbow and sent my 'alf-pint all over it. I'd do the syme agyne if I 'ad the chance. I'll teach her 'oav to treat me.' The other Avas in tears, and her friends tried to comfort her. ' Never mind, Maudie. Don't cry, there's a dear. Look, the silk ain't torn. You can easy get it mended. I Avouldn't care tuppence for a thing like 'er. Yes, Ave know all about you, Lizzie Jownes.' And now came the tardy policeman. Miss Jones thought fit to hurry down the street and turn off into the Haymarket. Thence she lost herself amongst the throng that came from Leicester Square. ' Now then, pass along, please ; pass along. You was both in the Avrong, I expect. Move on, ladies, or I'll lock some of you up.' The crowd broke. The owner of the broken umbrella moved away with a group of sympathis ing friends.

The others walked off in twos and threes. They were laughing and talking. The incident had been for them a pleasing excitement THE FACE IN THE STREET 7 It Avas then that Rutherford accounted for his sensation. Set free by the dispersing of the crowd, as some flower is revealed by the bursting of an outer shell, he saw the face whose beauty had uncon sciously impressed him as he left thc theatre. The girl was standing quite still, and the moonlight fell full upon her, so that he saAv her clearly.

Chapter II A Letter Of

INTRODUCTION.

As a matter of fact Lady Heron would have done a great deal for her cousin the Dean of St. Damian's, but she was not an enthusiast ; so when he wrote to her in glowing terms of some friends of his — people he had met in Rome — asking her to call upon them, she Avrote back one of her calm and unemotional letters, part of which ran as follows: — '"Met in Rome" is so very vague. Who are they ? Whom do they know ? Please tell me something more.' The Dean was not at all offended. He was himself the most incorrigible of enthusiasts, and so easily imposed upon — a thing of which he was even conscious himself — that Lady Heron might very pardonably be excused for asking for more de finite particulars. ' One really has to be a little careful Avith Edward,' she said to herself. ' I do not forget the girl from his model cottages, who Avas everything — everything that is estimable, and who stole six forks and a fish-slice.' The Dean answered by return of post — Avitness his zeal ! — ' Mrs. Wilton and her daughter are charming' — 'So was Mary Anne Smith from the model cottages,' said Lady Heron in parenthesis as she read ; ' however, let that pass ! ' ' and they are quite people of our OAvn station in life, or I am no judge.

Miss Wilton is beautiful. Understand me, really beautiful, I mean. I might underline the words many times if I thought this would at all impress you. I shall not attempt to describe her, nor do I fear that you will think that I have said a Avord too much. Miss Wilton's beauty is beyond question. And now, my dear Avorldly Kate, if you Avant to know any thing more about them, you must go to some one else for your information. I have been staying in thc same hotel with them for a fortnight, and the more I see of them the more I like them. They are Australians, and it is some laAv business which takes Mrs. Wilton to England. I think they came in for all the money of that Mrs. Brace Avho died A LETTER OF

INTRODUCTION.

9 last year near Cumber. If you remember, there A\*as some scandal in connection Avith her com panion. It Avas hushed up, but everyone knew all about it. I fancy the Wiltons Avere Avell off even before this windfall. Noav they think of settling in England. I believe that they have not many friends in London, so I thought my best plan Avas to write to you, and ask you to interest yourself for and in them. I will send you a card to let you know when they leave for town, and I will give you their address.' The Dean knew as avcII as possible, even Avhile he Avrote, that Lady Heron Avould take a certain percentage off the praise of his new friends, but he found himself powerless to modify it by a word. He had been prepared for the ' Who are they ?' and the scarcely less important 'Whom do they know ? ' Neither question could he answer from personal knowledge.

He had, it is true, the strongest possible conviction that the Wiltons were all that is desirable, but personal conviction is no argument Besides which, Lady Heron Avas not the sort of Avoman to take anyone's estimate blindly, and he knew her Avell enough to be aware that a sight of the Wiltons themselves Avould be a far stronger argument in their favour than any thing that he could say. If Lady Heron had a weakness, it Avas for good looks. ' At all events,' he said to himself, ' she will call, and that is the great thing.' Lady Heron was Avell known in London, and, though the Dean Avrote about the Wiltons to one or two others of his influential friends, it Avas on her that he most relied. She had a big house on the Chelsea Embankment, and she gave dinner parties. She Avas a Avoman of about fifty, not tall of stature, but of good presence.

Her face told of sufficient beauty in her younger days ; now it Avas a little cold, and suggested a habit of mind satirical, critical. She did indeed look on at life much as the scientist who Avatches the movements of the living atoms under his microscope, and Avith apparently as little emotion. But the Dean stoutly maintained that beneath all the seeming indifference and cynicism her heart Avas in the right place. She Avas not, perhaps, a woman to Avhom you would have gone for sympathy, but the Dean, and Rutherford, her nephew, and one or two of her more intimate friends, Avould have told you, I doubt not, that in this you would have been wrong. It may be that her sympathies lay dormant, like those of all for Avhom life has gone so smoothly that their emotions have had no play. Her bank book at Coutts's Avould, at any rate, have testified to her charities. Her manner Avas deliberate and quiet, and in any of those little passages at arms A LETTER OF

INTRODUCTION.

11 inevitable to her assured position, it was not Lady Heron who came forth smarting. She had friends Avho called her ' names,' and friends to Avhom she Avas very dear, which is tantamount to saying that her acquaintance was desirable, and it was perhaps those Avhose epithets were least complimentary who most coveted her intimacy. In due course Lady Heron received the Dean's promised post-card, announcing the Wiltons' de parture for London, and giving her the name of their hotel. ' When you see Mrs. Wilton,' he added in a postscript, 'you might say how sorry I was not to see her to say good-bye. Her daughter has not been very well the last few days, and I have not seen so much of them. I shall miss them very much.' Lady Heron let a few days pass to allow them to shake off the dust of travel, and then she drove round to Northumberland Avenue.

Mrs. Wilton was at home. Lady Heron was shown into a private sitting-room on the first floor. There Avere certain evidences of taste and culture Avhich were not lost upon the visitor. In a furnished room the individuality of the occupier has small chance of asserting itself, but in just those little details upon Avhich it can leave its mark there was a subtle sense of refinement. There was an open piano, and beside it a pile of music. On a table of orthodox pattern stood two big bowls filled Avith flowers. There were books, magazines, reviews, and on a frame near one of the Avindows Avas some A-ery beautiful embroidery in silk, the work of an artist. So much Lady Heron had time to remark, when the door opened and a lady came in. She was dressed for walking, and her manner Avas hurried. ' Lady Heron ? ' ' You are Mrs. Wilton ? ' Lady Heron spoke without thinking ; a glance told her that this Avas impossible. ' Gracious, no ! ' said the lady. ' I am Miss Close, Mrs. Wilton's companion.

I am sorry you had the trouble of coming upstairs. Mrs. Wilton is very unwell to-day. She Avishes me to say how much she regrets being unable to see you. She is lying down with a headache.' ' I am sorry to hear it,' said Lady Heron. ' Fatigue, perhaps, after the journey.' ' I dare say,' said Miss Close indifferently. ' I think she will be better in a day or so. Mrs. Wilton is not very strong.' Lady Heron rose to go. ' I Avas charged Avith a message from my cousin, the Dean,' she said. ' Will you tell Mrs. Wilton that he Avas sorry not to say good-bye to her ? ' A LETTER OF

INTRODUCTION.

13 'Yes,' said Miss Close with a curious smile. ' He was not up. We left early.' ' And Avill you express to Mrs. Wilton my regret not to have seen her, and more especially for the cause. And, Miss Wilton ? ' There was a slight pause. ' Miss Wilton is not at home,' said Miss Close. After this Lady Heron took her leave. On the stairs she met a very beautiful girl, and, walking just behind her, as if in attendance, a man of gentle manlike appearance, whose face was somehow familiar. It chanced that at this moment Lady Heron dropped her card-case, and she Avas for a few moments delayed. She saw the girl run suddenly forward to the door next that whence she herself had just come, and, throwing it open, dash wildly in. She heard two sharp and glad cries as of surprise and greeting. Lady Pleron Avas startled, and Avas looking in the direction from which the sounds proceeded, and as she looked the door Avas shut by Miss Close.

The man, hat in hand, Avaited patiently outside. It Avas as Lady Heron Avas driving from the hotel that she remembered where before she had seen his face. When Mary Anne Smith, of the model cottages, stole the six forks and the fish slice, Lady Heron had sought the aid of a certain private inquiry office. This was the man, she remembered, Avho had successfully traced the theft to the Dean's p/vtt'gc'e.

Chapter III The Woman Aa'ith Hair Like Brass

As the Dean had anticipated, Lady Heron's bark was Avorse than her bite. Having proved herself true to her type in her unmoved answer to his enthusiastic letter, she straightway complied with all that he Avished. She not only called at the hotel, but she wrote and asked Mrs. Wilton and her daughter to dinner. The invitation Avas ac cepted, and Lady Heron sent out others for a small party. There seemed to her to be a certain risk in asking these people, Avhom she had never seen, to meet her own friends, but after all something must always be risked, and Lady Heron Avas really fond of the Dean, and she \A-ished to please him. ' And if they do not turn out a success,' she said to herself, ' there is nothing — nothing easier than to drop them.' She asked her nephew Rutherford, amongst THE WOMAN AVITH HAIR LIKE BRASS 15 others, and to him she confided some of her doubts.

She chanced to meet him the next Sunday morning in the Park. ' Of course they may turn out to be very charming,' she said. ' I do not know. I hear that Miss Wilton is a beauty, if that has any attraction for you ; but remember, I have not seen her, so I don't vouch for this.' ' You don't often take the evidence of anyone's eyes but your own, do you ? ' said Rutherford. ' Very seldom,' agreed Lady Heron, ' and never your cousin Edward's ! ' ' Oh,' said her nephew ; 'they are his friends? ' ' They are his friends.' Rutherford laughed. ' He writes rapturously about them,' added Lady Heron Avith a smile ; ' but it doesn't take much to make him rapturous.' ' Do you remember those French people he took up one year at Brussels — an old Avoman and a consumptive son who was to turn out a great musical genius and take the Avorld by storm ?

He lent them fifty pounds.' ' Do I forget Mary Anne Smith, from the model cottages, Avho borro\A*ed my six forks and a fish-slice? ' Rutherford laughed again, ' Who are they ? ' ' Goodness knoAvs.' ' Why do you ask them to dinner ? ' ' Because I am a very good natured woman.' The Park was full and the season young. The dust and dirt of London had not yet disfigured the tender green of the trees. Even the grass on the lawn near the Achilles was fresh. Lady Heron looked quietly at the stream of passing faces, and made a few short and caustic re marks. ' We are very like sheep, aren't Ave ? ' said Rutherford. ' I suppose if some one set the fashion of walking round the dome of St. Paul's Ave should all go there till it became vulgar. This is vulgar. That is a striking-looking girl there — near the Avoman in red.

No, you can't see her now. She has passed. There is Lady Murgatroyd. How frightfully ill she looks since that odd Wetherby affair last year ! She is with the Stephens. Don't look up or they will stop. Great Scott ! I wish I could show you a face I saw the other night. I think I have seen the one perfect Avoman.' Rutherford grew suddenly serious. He leant forward in his chair and dug the soil at his feet with his stick. Lady Heron turned her head slowly and raised her eyebrows. ' Yes, I mean Avhat I say,' went on Rutherford without looking at her. ' I had been to the Gaiety THE AVOMAN WITH HAIR LIKE BRASS 17 with the Stephens — that reminded me — and it Avas afterwards.' ' And Avhere ? ' asked his aunt. ' In Piccadilly Circus — near the Criterion. I think I have thought of nothing else since.' ' Dear me.

This is A*ery interesting.' To me,' said Lord Rutherford ' But I don't think I understand. Was she a friend of the Stephens ? Were you introduced to her ? ' ' No, no, I only saw her — passed her.' ' In the street ? Alone ? He nodded. ' Like that ! ' said Lady Heron. ' Really, Leslie, you must not talk to me of young women you see in the street at tAvelve o'clock at night' ' But that is just it,' he said Avith Avarmth. ' That is just Avhat I don't think of her. She Avas there, God knoAvs how, but as I live I'll SAvear her face never belonged to a woman of their world.' ' Virtue,' said Lady Heron, ' scarcely chooses Piccadilly Circus to walk in alone, and at night' ' There Avas some explanation, and I ought to have looked for it ; but at that moment a man I know ran up against me, and persuaded me to go to supper with him at his club, and I went.' ' Leaving the young Avoman in the street ?

I c 1» am sure Ave ought all to be very much obliged to the man-you-knoAv.' Rutherford shook his head. He Avas drawing o patterns in the soil he had loosened Avith his stick. ' I only hope that no harm befell her,' he said. ' The chances are that the danger Avould have been to you,' said Lady Heron. ' I think it is very well that you saAv no more of her. What slaves men are to a pretty face ! ' ' She Avas not pretty. She Avas beautiful.' ' I hope you are not going to develop your cousin's enthusiasm,' said Lady Heron; 'two enthusiasts in a family Avould be rather more than one could manage. I say again I am very much obliged to the man who took you off to supper. My dear boy, I haA*e not lived to my age Avith my eyes shut. I think I see very nearly as clearly as my neighbours. I don't expect Avonders of you, Rutherford — if I did I should not get them ! — but I do expect you not to fall in love with casual young ladies.

If you champion these people you will become entangled.' ' My dear Aunt Kate, I Avas thirty last week.' ' My dear boy, I shall be fifty-one in July.' ' I only mean,' said Rutherford, ' that I can take very good care of myself. I am in no danger, and you mustn't take me too seriously. However, I won't inflict upon you any more about the beauti- THE AVOMAN AVITH HAIR LIKE BRASS 19 sul unknown. We will talk of something else. Here comes the girl I tried to point out to you before. There — with that big woman in red.' The girl he indicated was tall and brilliant She had very big grey eyes, and the lashes were long and quite black. The hair was very lux urious, and in colour like brass. The teeth were superb. The figure Avas perhaps rather fully deA-eloped, though the Avaist Avas unnaturally small.

Lady Heron looked at her in silence, and looked away. After a pause she said quietly : ' The Wiltons certainly do not come to me with a very reliable letter of introduction. That is the Dean's former protegee, my quondam housemaid, Mary Anne Smith.'

Chapter IV Miss Wilton Lady Heron

moved about her rooms and looked at the clock. It Avas past eight, and the Wiltons had not arrived. There was just that sense of Avaiting that whets expectation, and it contributed to the effect of their entry a few minutes later. C Every one looked round as they Avere announced, except Rutherford, Avho was standing with his back to the door. 'Who did you say ? ' asked the lady to Avhom he was talking. 'Wilton? Is it the Blankshire Wiltons? I don't think I knoAV. Oh, Austra lians ? The mother is rather nice-looking, but, dear me, the girl is beautiful. Do turn round, Lord Rutherford. Ah, here comes your aunt. You are going to be introduced. You are going to take her down to dinner. You ought to think yourself very lucky.' Rutherford rose and followed Lady Heron across the room. Miss Wilton Avas hidden by the great leaves of a palm.

London Avas full of pretty girls. He did not expect anything so very extraordinary — and then he found himself trying to check the exclamation that rose to his lips. Lady Heron looked at him inquiringly, but he offered no explanation ; and as he bowed dinner Avas an nounced. Miss Wilton Avas looking at him in a puzzled sort of Avay. The immediate passage doAvn the Avhite stairs was almost a relief. It stopped the questions that clamoured for utterance, and the feAv Avords that he spoke on the Avay to the dining room had a certain local colouring, and Avere sufficiently commonplace. It was impossible to see MISS WILTON 21 Lady Heron's house for the first time without admiring its decoration, and Miss Wilton's com ments upon some pottery in a white niche helped him. He explained somewhat elaborately that plates and pots and pans were his aunt's hobby, and that she thoroughly understood arrange ment ; that she AA-as one of those people who do things for themselves, who stand at the foot of a ladder and direct where each individual thing is to go. 'And the result speaks for itself,' said Miss Wilton.

She Avas looking at him again in that puzzled way. They crossed the big square hall and entered the dining-room. As the party sat doAvn all eyes instinctively sought Miss Wilton. The word had gone round that she was beautiful, and Lady Heron's guests A\*ere already discussing her. Miss Wilton herself seemed quite unconscious of the attention she attracted. She looked round the table as she pulled off her gloves. Her eyes, perhaps, Avere what first struck you. They were long and deeply violet. The pupils Avere very large, and sometimes spread like a stain OA*er the irises, darkening them to black as the sea is darkened under a cloud. The brows Avere little curved, and the forehead Avas low. The nose Avas very delicately shaped, and was, perhaps, of the exact proportions that the laAVs of beauty demand.

Almost as a matter of course it folloAvs that the other features contributed to form a beautiful face. The mouth was small, with red lips, that Ruther ford presently liked to provoke to smile, that he might see the Avhite and even teeth. Old Lord Hurlingham, who was sitting next his hostess, Avas grunting in praise of Miss Wilton all through dinner. ' Very pretty girl ! Soup ? — no, I never touch it — nasty stuff — spoils your appetite. Wilton ? Wilton ? What Wiltons ? ' All these people said ' What Wiltons ? ' ' Introduce me presently, and introduce my wife to the mother. I'll get her to call on them. Must get Miss er — cr — Wilton for Lady H.'s dance. She's what I call a really pretty girl. Dare say Lady H. Avon't think so — never agrees Avith me about anything, and com pares every girl Avith Agnes.