No Alternative. A novel

Front matter

NO ALTERNATIVE £ fiobd. B1 ANNIE THOMAS (MRS. PENDER CUDLIP,) AUTHOE OF "DENIS DONNE," " PLAYED OUT," ''HE COMETH NOT, SHE SAID," ETC, ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1874. [AU rights reserved.} CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAPTER PAGE I. AVELL MET - - 1 II. " NOT YET ------ 26 III. BY THE LEETH FOR THE SECOND TIME - 52 IV. " BUT IP OTHERS SHAKE AVITH ME, FARE- WELL TO HER AVHOE'ER SHE BE " - 78 V. BY THE LEETH FOR THE LAST TIME - 105 VI. " AS I LEAVE THE LEETH BEHIND ME " - 134 VII. MABEL AT MARGATE - - - 157 VIII. BERTIE MAITLAND - - - - 182 IX. " LET AVELL ALONE " - - - 203 X. MABEL VICTRIX - - 225 XL " IT IS ALL ORDAINED " - - - 244 XII. THE END OF IT - - - - - 2G2 ]SsO ALTERNATIVE.

Chapter I. Well Met

! Haety left all hope behind her when she witnessed that recognition. The man who was bound up by his union Avith her mother with her fate, was the same one who had driven that wretched boy to a dishonourable death in order to avoid living a dishonoured life. There could be no doubt about it. How should she ever face Jack Ferrier again ? To her intense surprise neither her mother nor Mabel betrayed much emotion 1 VOL. when Mr. Devenish delivered himself of the excited inquiry as to Avhat devil had raised the ghost of young Frank Archer. Though he had fallen back faint, shocked, exhausted, they bore the spectacle with their customary affectionate anxiety about him truly, but with no manner of amaze ment or curiosity expressed in their manner. They at least, Harty felt with a throb of intense relief, Avere innocent of the great offence of knowing or suspecting aught of the worse parts of Mr. Devenish's delin cpiencies.

If they had been cherishing him in spite of that knowledge, Harty would have found it hard to forgive them. " I might have been sure it Avas your doing," he said presently, with a snarl. "If I am to hear anything unpleasant, you're always ready to be the medium of communication ; if I am to see anything disagreeable, you are always ready to play the part of show-woman. I suppose Claude WELL MET ! 3 Powers, with his customary good feeling, made you show me this by way of recalling happy memories of a man who was the cause of my downfall." Harty shivered through her whole soul, and her judgment was swayed about most cruelly. Should she keep the peace for her mother's sake ? or should she for the sake of fair justice, denounce and expose the machinations, the murderous duplicity, the misrepresentations, and the false pretences of the man who hurled bitter accusations at every one else without compunction ?

No ; she could not do this latter thing. It was not demanded of her that she should do it. His guardian angel, as she had called her mother on a former occa sion, stood between him and vengeance now. So, picking up the locket with a gesture of tender pathos, she said : " Claude Powers does not even know that I have it. This poor fellow's half- 1—2 brother, Mr. Ferrier, was showing it to me to-day, and telling me the story of the boy's wretched death ; and in the excite ment cf my pity and— horror — I forgot to return it to him." "Mr. Ferrier! his half-brother ! telling you the story of — of Frank Archer's death !* Mr. Devenish stammered out. And as he spoke he grew pale with the waxen, sickly pallor of a white ivy leaf, and for the first time Harty pitied him ! Really pitied him for that self-abasement of his which had ruined his life, and more than probably destroyed her happiness.

" He feels that I know all about it," the girl thought. " How sorry I am that he has been unkind to me, because it must hurt him all the more, that I should know it, and how can I make him understand that I'm not scorpion enough to sting him for that 1" " Yes," she said aloud, speaking very WELL 21 ET! 5 sadly, and striving at the same time to make her eyes speak this truth to Mr. Devenish, that he need have no fear of her using her recently acquired knowledge against him, " yes ; Mr. Ferrier told me the story, and I hope with all my heart that I may never hear mention made of it again." "Amen to that," Mr. Devenish muttered with a sigh of relief, and a shade of the livid hue crept off his face, as his spirit strengthened within him. " I knew that young fellow at a period of my life which I certainly have no particular pleasure in recalling ; thereforeif you'll put that trinket out of my sight, and kindly avoid the topic, I shall really have reason to be obliged to you for once, Harty, and shall be inclined to believe that you ure really not quite destitute of feeling for me."

It was an ungracious form of words, an irritatingly grudging acceptation of her generosity, but for once Harty was not irritated by him. For she had watched his eyes while he spoke, and had read in them truly that he was acting a part of distrust against, and dislike to her now. There was gratitude, trust, admiration almost expressed in his eyes, and she realized that in this victory, which she had achieved Avith a struggle over her OAvn young burning spirit, she had achieved one OA~er his broken, and possibly contrite heart also. " ' Let the dead past bury its dead,' " she said, reassuringly, and then she took the locket away with a good deal of solemnity in her heart and manner, and packed it up to be returned with a civil note to Jack Ferrier, a note so civil, meaningless, .cool and altogether unlike herself, that she could but feel sure it Avould chill him off from her effectually.

" I can never tell him the truth, I could never bear to see Avhat he Avould feel when he knew it ; for if Claude is compelled tobe inexorable, what Avould Jack Ferrier be ? and so I won't let him like me any longer. He'd hate himself for the weakness when he found out whom he had been liking." So she mentally resolved to have done Avith Jack Ferrier 's friendship for ever. For she had given her bond to Mr. De venish that she would never betray him, never render up a secret which disclosed Avould surely bring down a heavier weight of obloquy on his bowed, humbled head. And she could not bear the continual con straint of being on guard against herself, of being reserved with one of the freest and frankest of her fellow-creatures — of finally feeling that he was receding from her, because he had found her out.

She could not bear this, she could not bear the contemplated possibility of it. Therefore she mentally relinquished the friendship even, which was fast becoming precious to her. The leverage power Avhich moved her to do it, meanwhile, was fast relapsing into his normal condition. As soon, indeed, as the influence of her personal graciousness was no longer upon him, Mr. Devenish was himself again. " I wish you Avould prevent that girl of yours running Avild in the way she does, he said querulously to his wife, who was just prematurely congratulating herself on the turn things had taken betAveen the belligerents ; " this Mr. Ferrier who lends her his lockets, is hardly the sort of man I should choose to cast a daughter of mine adrift with." Mrs. Devenish fidgeted meekly, and responded : " It wouldn't be just to isolate the girls as entirely as we do ourselves, Edward ; surely, Mrs. Powers is — I am sure you think that Mrs. Powers is a suf ficient guarantee for this young man."

" I had very much rather that Harty had nothing to do with him," Mr. Devenish said, in an exasperated tone ; " if you want a reason I have none to give you, none that I choose to give you, at least ; that brother of his died in a discreditable way, and if you take my advice you'll take some steps to stop their intimacy before anything dis creditable comes of it. I've no authority over Harty, I have never attempted to usurp any ; but as the nominal protector of your children, I venture to offer my opinion." He stopped breathless, having succeeded in working himself into a trembling, quiver ing rage, Avhich reduced his wife to the lowest and most helpless depths of despon dency. But in her despondency she dared not be silent. She knew that she must speak, or he Avould further goad her with accusations of being sulky.

" You know hoAv I value your opinion, dear Edward," she said, meekly. " I will speak to Harty ; I will tell her what you say about there being something discre ditable " " In the name of common sense don't tell her anything of the sort," he inter rupted, shaking his head at her. " It would be just the very way to rouse her spirit of opposition ; what effect has your speaking to her had as regards putting a stop to the ridiculous exhibition she makes of herself Avith Mr. PoAvers. She'll go on and make an equally ridiculous exhibition of herself with this felloAv, unless you use your authority as her mother for once in your life and put a stop to it ; speak to her, indeed !" " I will try," Mi-s. Devenish promised, meekly, and Mabel put in : " Good feeling will make Harty give up all intercourse with both of them, I'm sure, when she knoAvs that papa really wishes it."

To which he rejoined : " No, no, my dear ; you judge her by yourself, therefore you judge her errone ously." And Mabel blushed at the praise she felt herself to be so well deserving of, and was almost melted to tears at Mr. De venish's perfect appreciation of her. Mrs. Devenish did " speak to her daugh ter," as she had promised. She did in a halting and selfcondemnatory way try to put a stop to the one pleasant thing in Harty 's life, her intercourse, namely, with Claude Powers and his friend. " Give me a good reason, mamma, a reason that I can see you feel to be good, and I'll do it," the girl said, rather hope lessly. " Edward wishes it, and he has always a good reason for his requests," the wife said. Harty shook her head. " His wishing it isn't enough ; he must tell you Avhy he Avishes it ; we're not the soulless creatures he supposes us to be, mother ; I must have a reason given me for relinquishing the only happiness that comes in my way — ex cepting what your love gives me," the girl added, hurriedly, and Mrs. Devenish seized upon the softening mood, and strove to mould it to her husband's will at once.

" It would make him happier, Harty ; that is the only reason I can give you ; an all-sufficient one for me, my child." And then Mrs. Devenish went away full of all manner of exalted feelings as a wife ; but OAvning herself to be entirely defeated as a mother. For she could not find words to combat the truthfulness that seemed to enATelop Harty as the latter said : " And an insufficient one for me, mother. And you knoAv it." The dull daily routine went on for about a week, during which time the girls in the house at the corner saw and heard nothing of their friends at the Court. The two young men were very much at odds in reality, but very much absorbed by each other, and pursuits that led them quite away from the Miss Carlisles in seeming. The causes whereof were these. In the first place Claude was morbidly and vaguely jealous and angry, inclined in his heart to belieATe that Harty had de scended to the depths of trick and lure, and that she had met Jack Ferrier rather more than half-way.

While in the second place Jack Ferrier, in consequence of that note which she had written in all honesty, was misled by the idea that Harty was feigning to be coy, merely to invite him to advance the more speedily ! And he loved her so well already, that the mere suspicion that this might be the case, checked, and hurt, and kept him apart from her. And in the third place, Mrs. Powers, who was carefully watching events, was delighted to observe the drifting apart of these young people by reason of certain strong under-currents, Avhose source she could not determine. Delighted to observe that they were drifting apart, and not at all desirous of bringing them together again. A brace of sentiments Avhich united in keeping her quiescent, and made her cease from sending invitations to the two girls.

But when the fates of two people are " inextricably mixed," it is useless for op posing human influence, or even for their own weak wills, to try to separate them. Without design — for each carefully avoided the other's haunt — Claude Powers found himself thrown into Harty 's company one day, Avhen there "were none others by." He overtook her as she was struggling back from the station one afternoon, a load of newly-arrived books and newspapers in her arms, and a good deal of very newly acquired weariness in her gait and manner. WELL MET ! 15 And he could not find it in his heart to pass her vvith merely a bow. " Let me relieve you of your burden," he said, dismounting before she had time to protest. " Why do you do these things, Harty ? Why toil down to the station and knock yourself up in this Avay ?"

He looked thoroughly vexed for and anxious about her, and Harty 's heart swelled. " Toiling and being knocked up are ex periences that I'm pretty well accustomed to by this time. No " (with a laugh), " don't think that I'm being broken down by household drudgery ; but it's toil to me to get through the days here, and it's drudgery either to let things take their course or to struggle against them." He felt very pitifully towards her, but it was " her own doing " he reflected, that things had come to this pass with her. He had no alternative. He could not concede one fraction more of his point than he had already conceded. Whereas she had it in her power to make both him and herself happy by simply breaking the imaginary fetter that bound her to her step-father. So, though he felt very pitifully towards her, he said nothing.

She read his feelings in his face, and somehow it smote her that her love for him ought to make her feel more sorry than she did, that she should be the cause of sorrow and suspense to him. At least he should have the gratification of knowing that she now knew he was right in his judgment and denunciation of Mr. Devenish. So she said in a low voice : " I know now that you were justified in calling Mr. Devenish a scoundrel, Claude. Mr. Ferrier told me all the story of his brother the other day, and I knoAv by what I felt for poor Mr. Ferrier what you, who know him so much better, must feel." WELL MET! 17 " I wished you not to hear it, if you remember," he said, coldly. " Yes. I know that ; but Claude, I seemed as if I could not help myself when Mr. Ferrier overtook me that day. I longed to know so that I led him on " The phrase jarred on Claude's nerves.

" ' Led him on/ " he interrupted, " that is just what I thought, what I feared you were doing, Harty. What's to be the end of it, Harty ? An uncomfortable feeling at best between my old friend and me, for he is getting fond of you, and changeable as you are " The words were ill-chosen ; he felt that they were the instant he had uttered them, for the statement of the two facts, namely, that Jack was getting fond of her, and that she was changeable, caused Harty 's face to bloom into bewitching beauty, and her eyes to flame with dangerous excitement. The sight galled him, and in spite of his VOL. II. conviction that his words were inexpedient, he repeated : " And changeable as you are, you can hardly deliberately contemplate winning Jack Ferrier's heart ? Can you ?" " No, not deliberately," she said slowly.

" Not deliberately. I should never do any thing of that sort in cold blood." " But you're not blind ; you must see what you are doing. I held my peace while I thought you Avere putting forth your winning poAver unconsciously ; but now it is time to speak when I see you and Jack Ferrier on such terms that for the sake of proffering him your sympathy you go directly adverse to my Avishes. Good Heavens !" he continued, working himself into a hotter jealous rage Avith each word he spoke, " is it possible that it is true what you told me, that you had only been true to me all these years because no one had tempted you to be false ?" WELL 21ET! 19 " I think there was a great deal of truth in it, Claude. I know many girls would have flattered you by implying that num bers of men had been sighing in vain for them during your absence ; but I think that would have been a meaner thing to do than to tell you the truth as I have done."

He chafed in silence for a few moments. He had done mischief he felt. The girl would not be scolded, Avould not be curbed, would not be put into any groove that pleased him, and made to run in it. A fierce pang shot through his heart as he thought, " Am I losing her love !" " I have loved you a good many years, darling," he said presently. " Ferrier 's is only a matter of yesterday in comparison with mine." She moved her head uneasily in a melan choly, deprecating way, and looked up at him with her candid clear eyes. " Why do you keep on speaking of his 2—2 liking for me, Claude ? Why do you do it ? I know myself — I know that I shall go on thinking about it. I know that if I do ever see him again I shall be more than I have ever been to him before, because I do so like to be liked " " I know that you will drive me mad," he interrupted, almost groaning ; and the tears flashed into her eyes as she answered : " Oh, Claude, what a pity we ever met • .99 again !

" Not if you'll continue to be what I believe you always have been, faithful and brave," he exclaimed, eagerly. " Let us marry and go abroad, darling." " I should like it, but I can't," she said, simply. " I can't do it, Claude ; it's no 9) use. " Your love for me is waning," he said, jealously. "Do you think it is?" she asked, du biously. " Isn't it possible to care very WELL MET! 21 much for some one else, and still to be fondest of you ? If it isn't possible, hearts are narrower things than I hoped they were." " I should consider any woman's heart too capacious if it had room for another besides myself," he said, in quiet, miserable accent. " Harty, do you know we are talking in a way that is very horrible to me ? Give me, after it all, one scrap of comfort ; tell me that you would feel no pain if you believed that you would never see Jack Ferrier again."

Her heart began to beat more rapidly. Was it possible that Jack Ferrier was gone already ? was it possible that her chilling note had so effectually chilled him, that he had gone away without making further effort to see her ? There was genuine sharp pain to her in the possibility, and she could not conceal it. " Oh, Claude," she exclaimed, " I shall see him again, shan't I ? I mean he isn't gone, is he ?" "It would hurt you, then, if he were," he said, bitterly ; " it would hurt either your heart or your vanity ; which is it, Harty ? Is it a love of mere flirtation, or is it anything deeper ?" " I don't know which it is yet. Is he gone V "You ask that again, though you see how the question cuts me. Well, as you will have it, you shall. No, he is not gone ; would to Heaven he were." She heaved a sigh of relief.

" You can't control a sign of delight," he muttered in a paroxysm of mortification and love. " You don't take the trouble to try and hide from me that you are glad that he is here still." " It would be deceitful to pretend to be any other than I am, and that's glad," she said, steadily ; " but, Claude, look here ; I WELL 2IET! 23 haven't seen him for a week. Has he taken a dislike to me ? does he knoAv that I am connected with the man who ruined his brother's life ?" She asked it with pitiable eagerness, poor child, and her eagerness goaded him into making a cruel retort. " He does not knoAv it yet ; when he does he'll break the spell you have cast over him quickly enough. And he won't think the better of you for having reserved your part of the story, when he made a full confi dence of his portion of it.

You're only preparing misery and mortification for yourself, Harty, by this course you're pursuing." " What am I doing ?" she struck in. " I don't seek him, or try to lure him to come after me. I haven't seen him for a week. What have I done that you're so angry with me, Claude ?" " Changed to me," he answered, with a choking sensation in his throat. " Let yourself feel such an interest in him as no man can tolerate the woman he loves feeling for another man. Harty, I make every allowance for you, for your excitable, changeable nature, but other people will not be so lenient, and, by Heaven, I'll never hear my wife dubbed a flirt." She came to a standstill in an instant, her lips quivering, her Avhole face working with emotion. " What have I done ?" she reiterated. " I have done nothing to deserve this yet ; if I were what you mean by a flirt, I could have done all that I have done, and much more too, without your being a bit the wiser for it.

But I have told you the worst of myself, and you scold me for it." " You don't know what it is to feel that the one thing you love best in life is slip ping away from you," he pleaded. " Do you think I am slipping away from WELL MET! 25 you, Claude ?" she asked, wistfully. " No, no ; don't think that ; but it's all so un satisfactory between us. We stand upon shifting sands, don't we ? I can't help liking to look away from the danger and uncertainty sometimes " "Well met!" a hearty clear voice shouted out, and Jack Ferrier dropped over the hedge into the road a few yards ahead of them.

Chapter II

"not yet." " Well met !" Jack Ferrier had cried out, in the jubilant agitation of his first mo ment with her, his queen, after their com paratively long separation ; but they one and all felt that his words were a mockery, and that they were quite the reverse of " well met," that, in fact, they were very ill met indeed. For the two men distrusted each other, and, through some extraordinary distortion of judgment, each one distrusted the girl. " Is she fooling me or him ?" Avas the ques- "NOT YET." 27 tion asked of himself by both Claude Powers and Jack Ferrier. " Is she going to be a recreant to a freely -pledged faith ? is she going to throw me over for the first fellow who holds his finger up ?" Claude questioned savagely of himself. And simulta neously Jack Ferrier was saying to himself, " Is she playingfor the higher stakes ? is she using me as a bait to bring him on ?

It isn't in her to resist the temptation of being- Mrs. Powers of the Court." So even the men who loved her thoroughly misjudged her. Meanwhile, demurely as she paced along betAveen the two men, she was in a very tempest of agitation, of doubt, and bewil derment, and (it must be written) of flat tered, fluttering vanity. She was no impossible monster of perfection, this poor little tossed-about heroine of mine. She was essentially human, therefore very faulty, and very lovable, and the conduct of her two companions taught her clearly that she was this latter thing, and well she liked the teaching. She caught herself comparing them, con trasting them, defining delicate points of resemblance and difference between them, as they tried to talk lightly and easily about commonplace things, leaving her the while in silence mercifully.

And it never does answer to contrast or to com pare two people together whom we have hitherto thought we liked equally well, and were equally Avell worthy of our liking. It never does answer. One must lose, and as a rule, the one who loses is the one we have believed in the most blindly and fondly hitherto. " Claude can talk, and Claude can be obstinate, and a trifle unjust," Harty thought ; " he's rather masterful too, and, as he has no open claim upon me, he oughtn't to be that ; but" (with a sigh) "NOT YET." 29 " he knows everything ; perhaps Mr. Fer rier would alter if he knew everything too." " You got your locket safely 1" she asked suddenly, speaking out of the fulness of her heart, which could only feed upon that one subject just now. " Yes," he said, speaking so low that Claude, on the other side of her, could not distinguish the words that were spoken.

" Yes, and the note too. What a freezing note it was ; what chilling wind was sweep ing over you when you wrote it ?" " Self-reproach for having used concealment toAvards you," she whispered promptly, turning her face to him, " and cold uncertainty as to whether I should be candid in the future with you or not." " It won't be my fault if I fail to win your confidence," he muttered in reply* and by this time Claude was thoroughly vexed and aggrieved, as a man always is if he hears the " lowered-tone" system applied to another man by a Avoman in Avhom he is interested. He felt wronged and wrathful, only because he could not hear distinctly Avhat two of his fellow-creatures were saying to each other. And he felt annoyed with himself for entertaining such feelings, and altogether humiliated and put in the wrong place.

It AATas almost a relief to him that they were just turning into the High Street, and that the moment for parting with Harty had come, for Avould not Jack Ferrier have to part with her too ? " Good-bye," he said, taking Harty 's hand and holding it for a moment or two. *' If my aunt tries to beguile you and your sister over to-morrow, will you come ?" (He really could not constrain himself into abstaining from her society a day longer.) "You will come, won't you?" he added, amending the phrase. Her heart did not bound responsively "NOT YET." 31 to his invitation. The truth came home to her heart, and pressed heavily upon it. She was not essentially delighted at the idea of seeing her lover the next day. The power of feeling ecstasy about him had passed aAvay for ever. "He has called me ''changeable,'" she thought, "and I am — of course I am — Claude is always right."

And she felt a hot throb of anger against him, for that he had not combated her weakness. " A man oughtn't to let a girl change Avhen once she loves him ; Claude put the idea that I might do so into my head." She was regarding him wistfully and un easily as she thought over these things ; and somehow she forgot to speak, and there was silence for a moment or two. " You will come ?" Claude asked, more earnestly. " I suppose so," she said ; and then she remembered that Jack Ferrier would be there ; and at the remembrance, in spite of everything, her heart and her face light ened. " Good-night," Claude repeated, in flat, disappointed tones. A presentiment of Avhat was coming was pressing upon him heavily. " Come on," he added, carelessly, to Jack Ferrier, as Harty mounted the door-steps. "If Miss Carlisle will allow me, I will go in and see Mrs. Devenish," Jack Ferrier said, hesitatingly ; and Harty, with one passing look of apology at Claude, acqui esced in his request, while Claude, with a sickening, indignant feeling at his heart, went away.