The Three Daughters of Night

Front matter

THE THREE DAUGHTERS OF NIGHT HThe Three Daughters of Night BV Derek Vane AUTHOR OF "THE SIN AND THE WOMAN". ETC. The Three Daughters of Night:— Clotho the Spinner. Lachesjs the Apportioncr, and Atropos the Inevitable. Xonfcon 1897 HUTCHINSON & CO. 34 PATERNOSTER ROW PRINTED AT NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) BT H. C. A. TH1B1IE OF N11IEGUEN {HOLLANs.) AND 27 SHOE LANE, LONDON, E.C po Mr. and Mrs. F. A. ENGLISH Of Johannesburg, S.A.R. ONE OF THE PLEASANTEST THOUGHTS CONNECTED WITH THE WRITING OF THIS STORY HAS BEEN THE THOUGHT OF INSCRIBING IT TO YOU.

Chapter I

"Mine own familiar friend." VALENTINE LUTTRELL was sitting alone in his studio in St. John's Wood one evening in the month of June. He was reclining at his ease in a long, low chair drawn close up to the open window and he was looking absently out into the little garden, which was smothered in roses, thinking what a lovely night it was and that the Gloire de Dijon under his window was a thing of beauty and a joy for ever. But these idle thoughts were but the back ground, the accompaniment, as it were, to some thing of much greater importance ; to the theme of which his heart was full. A very fitting accompaniment to such a theme, this fair summer night with its perfumed air, its vague sug gestions, its misty distances. The imagination could run riot ; there were no hard and fast "Obe Ubree Daugbters of ffMgbt. 4 lines to pull one up, nothing to break the charm.

Valentine Luttrell had a vivid imagination and a strong sense of beauty, and he was wont, even on ordinary occasions, to revel in sweet sights and sounds, worshipping Nature perhaps with more passion than reverence, and to weary his friends a little with his raptures ; so that it was small wonder that to-night — which was a night to be marked with a white stone — he should feel that the joy and beauty of life were almost too great. That he was a little oppressed and overpowered by his own keen susceptibility. So that it was almost with a sense of relief, though he roused himself with a sigh, that he heard a familiar step on the stairs ; here was his alter ego, his own famihar friend, to whom he could unburden himself; to whom he would confide the wonderful thing that had happened to him since they last met.

John MacGregor drummed a moment on the door, but turned the handle without waiting for a reply. "What, all in the dark!" he exclaimed in vigorous tones that seemed like a breath of fresh air in the perfumed room. "And doing Œbe Ubree Daugbters of foigbt. 5 nothing as usual. What a lazy beggar it is ! " He drew a deep breath. " Ah-h ! How your roses smell ! Well, what mischief has Satan been finding for your idle hands ? " "All hail, MacGregor! Sit down and subdue your native energy a little if you can. I wonder why Providence blessed Caledonia stern and wild with a larger share of that useful commodity than other lands? Your vitality peeps out in your hair, which inclines to a ruddier hue than that of other nations, in your cheek-bones, which are higher, in " " Shut up ! " interrupted MacGregor uncere moniously.

" You are talking utter rot. In the first place, I am only a quarter Scotch, though I am proud of that quarter. My father's father hailed from the Land o' Cakes, so that's the right proportion, isn't it? therefore your remarks don't apply to me. And in the second, my hair is a whity-brown, suggesting the old-fashioned thread-paper of my youth, and I have only enough cheek-bone to be interesting. " " You are an awful ass sometimes, Mac, I must say that for you. My remarks of course were not meant to be taken at the foot of the letter why be a slave to facts ? — they were general, Xlbe Ubree Daugbters of isitgbt. 6 not personal. At the same time your father's father tells. I see him cropping up when you thoughtfully regard the vanishing bawbee, when you stiffen into an incarnate piece of buckram when other folk melt into tears ; it is on these and similar occasions that I am led to think of the much discussed doctrine of heredity.

" " Confound your emotions ! " growled Mac- Gregor as he lit his pipe. " By the time you have finished weeping you have done with the matter. With you emotional people all your sympathy evaporates in tears. " " Allow me to resume, MacGregor. I was about to remark — when you interrupted me so rudely — that your argument just now was not very logical. You denied that my remarks applied to you and yet you attempted to refute them. ' Defen dant denies that he did anything of the kind, but pleads that he was justified if he did. ' That is about your line of argument." " Good Lord ! how the boy runs on ! If there's Scotch blood in my veins, there ought to be French in yours. " " Perhaps there is. There was once a young person, according to family tradition, who came from foreign parts and married a Luttrell, but Zbc Ubree Daugbters of istigbt. 7 the less said about her the better.

I am afraid she was no better than she ought to be. But her drop of wild blood was perhaps a blessing in disguise; it prevented us from getting stodgy. " " What's up ? " asked MacGregor deliberately, as he leant back in his chair and blew a ring of smoke into the air. " You're fey. I've seen you taken like this before, but never quite so badly. It's unwise, and very questionable taste, to look as though you had a monopoly of happiness. Out with it, youngster ! What's happened ? " Valentine was glad that it was too dark for his friend to see distinctly, for he felt his keen blue eyes on his face — those Scotch blue eyes, which look so clear and hard and cold, as though they were made of mountain air, and yet can melt and break up, as it were, in an astonishing way sometimes. He knew that he had flushed under that enquiring gaze, and he leant out of the window and twisted a full blown Gloire from its stem and held it to his face.

" I think, " he said after a moment, waving the rose lightly to and fro, " that I might with XEbe Ubree Daugbters of isitgbt. 8 equal reason put the same question to you. I am frivolous by nature and little things amuse Uttle minds ; you are not, and yet to-night you have shed with me smile for smile. " " May not a man on occasion play the fool with the foohsh? Besides, I have some excuse for my folly, let me tell you. The great Mac farlane descended upon me this afternoon and I showed him my last pic. He said it was nae sae bad but what he had seen worse. Can you wonder that I am elated? Fancy Macfarlane praising in that reckless fashion ! " Valentine laughed, but made no reply, and for a little while there was silence in the room. " Wake up, Val. You're dreaming again. These frequent lapses are a little trying to a friend who is waiting to be entertained.

If you do not appreciate my society properly, I shall betake myself elsewhere, " and he made a movement as if to go. Valentine threw the rose at him, which fell in a shower of leaves to the floor. " Stop where you are, " he said. " I've got something to tell you, but you won't give a fellow a chance. " "Cbe Œbree Daugbters of iRigbt. 9 He twisted himself about in rather an embarrassed fashion and then it came out with a burst. " I'm engaged to be married, " he said. " You're mad ! " gasped MacGregor as soon as he could speak, and the dismay on his face was almost comical. " I don't believe it. What do you mean by giving me such a fright? Shouting it out like that, too, as though I were deaf! " " It's true enough, " Valentine said a little sulkily, " but if you take it that way perhaps we'd better drop the subject.

" "Drop the subject? What nonsense! Come, Val, don't be angry. I'm a stupid, blundering beast, but I didn't mean any harm. It was such a shock ; I didn't even know you were in love — at least not more than usual. But I must say it seems a pity just as you've got your foot on the first rung of the ladder and ought to be devoting all your energies to climbing higher. " "A woman should inspire a man to do his best, " said Valentine rather solemnly. " Inspire a fiddlestick ! The flat-iron of matrimony has crushed more budding genius than Ifitgbt. 10 it has ever given inspiration. But enough of this. Who is the lady?" Valentine was soon pacified ; nobody could deny that he was sweet-tempered, it was one of the charms that went to make up a rather fascinating personality. The men and women who called Valentine Luttrell 'friend' did not deny that he had faults, but they knew that they could have better spared a better man.

For some reason he did not now answer very readily. " Come, Val, who is she ? Aren't you going to tell me?" " She, " he said, looking away out into the little garden, " she is Irma Fawcett. " John MacGregor drew a long breath — it might almost have been called a whistle — and said nothing. " Well ? " said Valentine uneasily, looking round after a moment, "haven't you anything to say? Why don't you speak ? " " I was thinking," said MacGregor very quietly, " I was thinking that we were both introduced to Miss Fawcett at the same time and by the same man." "Well?" impatiently. ifilgbt. 11 " I don't think I have anything more to say," he answered slowly. " Yes, you have — confound you ! You are not generally so backward in expressing your opinions," in a sneering tone. Then with a sudden softening, " Out with it, Jock.

" " You have quite made up your mind to marry this lady ? " MacGregor asked. "Quite," ready to flare up again. " Then what is the use of discussing the matter? I don't want to quarrel with you, Val. You and I have been good friends too long for that." "Who talks of quarrelling? I want some thing very different. I," a little nervously, "I want you to congratulate me — to wish me good-luck." " Well, if you will have it, it's your own fault. I can't congratulate you, because I see no occasion for doing so — rather the reverse." Valentine flushed hotly and his hands clenched, but for a moment he did not speak. " That chattering fool who introduced us is dead now," he said at last, as it seemed rather irrelevantly. "Yes, but no doubt there are others — there iRtgbt. 12 must be others. And in any case the fact remains the same."

" But it is so long ago, " Valentine said in a low tone. "And lately there has never been a word said — not a word. I don't beheve anyone hardly knows. And if you had seen her when I spoke — my God, if you had seen her ! " And the ready tears rushed to his eyes. " Haven't the French a word for this sort of thing? Wouldn't they call you a Redemp toriste? A redeemer? H'm. I wonder how often it has answered? And I do not think you are the right man for the part in any case. " "Why not?" rather fiercely. " You are too young, and you have not patience enough. Then you are too sensitive and too easily influenced by what people say. At the present moment, of course, you are ready to defy the whole world, if need be, but that state of mind does not last." " You are wonderfully clever, " with a sneer.

" But perhaps I am not such a weak fool as you imagine. I think you are making the worst of things." " There is no worst or best. As you will Œtgbt. 13 discuss the matter, let us be honest about it. I see no sense in mincing things — in glossing over something now, in the heat of passion, that by and bye, in the light of everyday life, may dwarf everything else. Ifyou are determined to go through with this, look it straight in the face to start with. That is the best advice I can give you. " Five or six years ago — it does not matter which — Irma Fawcett was leading an immoral life — none the less immoral that she kept up appearances and only a few people knew what was going on. It lasted for about a year, I believe, then she shook herself free from her surroundings and started afresh. Had her young sister up to live with her and turned over a new leaf — turned it over thoroughly too, I quite believe, for I have never heard it called in question.

That is the case in brief as far as I know it. " "There are one or two extenuating circum stances, which you have not mentioned. When Irma first went on the stage and — was led astray, she was only eighteen, and young at that. She had no knowledge of the world and no one to advise her and she was fond of pleasure and iRlgbt. 14 luxury, and only earned enough to keep body and soul together. The result was almost a foregone conclusion. It only lasted twelve months, then she woke up and suffered agonies of shame and remorse ; I should not put it in a past tense, she suffers still. She told me all about it herself, and she didn't know I had heard a word. The confession must have cost her something. " " You must remember, " put in MacGregor impartially, " that her remorse did not begin until she was earning a good income ; until she could afford to do without those extraneous resources.

" Valentine uttered a hasty exclamation. " You are very hard, " he said. " Can't you imagine a young girl practically alone in London — surrounded by temptations, beautiful and fond of all the pleasures natural to her age — revolting against her own hard, narrow life and drifting into another which promises aU that she lacks ? Don't you think that she might go almost innocently to her own destruction ? " "That is a nice question, which I am not prepared to answer at a moment's notice." " At least you will acknowledge that she did ffitgbt. 15 a brave thing when she climbed unaided out of that morass from which so few escape, and struggled, nobly and untiringly, back to a position of respect and esteem ; not many women could have done as much. I hold that she has redeemed the past and is worthy to take her place as any man's wife."

" I will give her all the credit she deserves," replied MacGregor, "but I would rather any other man made the experiment than you. Nowadays a good deal too much is made of these soiled doves in my opinion, and innocence and purity are considered tame and commonplace by comparison. I would not say that a woman with a past is a woman without a future, but I am quite certain that the past leaves a taint ; it is never forgotten, how could it be? And why you should take damaged goods when you can have new, I never could understand." " You are horribly coarse in your expressions," said Valentine, flushing hotly. " I would not have aUowed another man to say half that you have said. You seem to forget that Miss Fawcett is my promised wife." " I would not have discussed the matter at Isiigbt. 16 all, but you forced me," replied MacGregor, " and I am saying all I have to say now.

I shall never speak of the matter again. But before we put it on one side, let me ask you to think it over carefully once more. It is not too late yet. For the sake of our old friendship, Val, do nothing rashly. The dream is so short and the reality so long." John MacGregor's voice had grown very earnest, almost entreating, and his pipe had gone out. He leant forward in his chair and looked intently at his friend through the gathering darkness. " Dear old fellow, just to please me. Take a little time, Val. " The blue eyes had grown very deep and tender. " How can I ? " cried Valentine, a little irri tably ; he had never seen MacGregor so moved before and he would have hked to have pleased him. " It is a settled thing, I teU you — how could I draw back now, even if I wished— which I don't?"

Perhaps MacGregor thought that a little lack of ceremony might be excused in dealing with what he called a free-lance, but if so he did not put it into words. He saw that it would be useless. " Do me a favour instead, Jock. You have ifitgbt. 17 always been my friend, be Irma's friend too now. I know you are thinking that I have been taken in, that she has inveigled me into this — isn't that the correct word? Nothing of the kind. I had the greatest difficulty in inducing her to take me. She was so afraid of doing me an injury; she said she was not good enough, and a lot more rot. Why, she's miles above me ! Look at her genius — her beauty — her — There ! I won't rave. But I don't want to lose you, Mac, and you can't be my friend unless you are hers." MacGregor thought he had never seen Valentine to such advantage.

The handsome, boyish face was flushed and a trifle defiant; a trifle entreating too. The hard Scotch rind had given way a little; it gave way more. " All right, old fellow. I can't afford to lose you. It shall be as you wish." "Honest Injun?" "Honest Injun, Val. From this time forth it is your wife, not Irma Fawcett. " Then the lean, sinewy hand and the white womanish one met in a close grip, and the next minute John MacGregor was clattering down the stairs. ifiigbt. 18 He nearly fell over a beautiful white Persian cat that sat on the rug at the bottom, and swore under his breath. It was a relief to his feelings. Moreover, he hated cats, and this one was a spoilt beauty. " There's one comfort, this will put your nose a little out of joint, I should think, " he exclaimed, as he recovered his equilibrium. But the Persian only gazed after him with supreme contempt. Men were so fussy and restless and had no laps !

Chapter II

"Since called The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown." IT was a very quiet wedding, but everyone said it went off beautifully. Irma had expressed a wish to be married in the country, and to have as few guests as possible, and Valentine, who was in the stage when every wish of the beloved one is sacred, and the craving for self-sacrifice is strongest, willingly consented. Probably, if she had ex pressed a wish to retire to a desert island for the ceremony, he would have thought it a beautiful idea. " I know a delightful little place where I have often spent my week-ends, " she said. " St. Kilda's Bay. Do you know it ? There is a church on the top of the hill where you can smell the sea, and a quaint old churchyard in which I Ififgbt. 20 have often sat and sketched. There were such funny tombstones.

One I remember had an hour-glass on each side and a coffin in the middle just opening. It used to make me feel quite creepy. " So the resolution was put and carried nem. con. " It is such a delightfully inconvenient Uttle place too, " went on Irma, " it hasn't even a railway-station, so there won't be many people who will want to come. Molly wiU be my bridesmaid, and then there will be your sister and Mr. MacGregor and one or two others; just a pleasant little party. It will be so much nicer to be married among the green fields than in a stuffy London square. " There was some grumbling when the fact was made public — but then grumbling at a wedding is not unknown — and the guests felt aggrieved at being obliged to rush to Victoria for an early train, and be boxed up in a rail way carriage for a couple of hours on a sultry August day, but when they alighted at a littie wayside station and started driving through the country lanes to St. Kilda's Bay, they began to cheer up.

That blue expanse of sea was gladdening to the eyes after the dust and brown. Œlgbt. 21 ness and general fustiness of a season-end, and the fresh smell of it was grateful to the nose, which has much to put up with in the London streets. Even the jolting of the somewhat ancient vehicles became a source of amusement, and the perilous descents and ascents on the hilly road a matter for laughter. " They might just as well stay here altogether instead of going South, " Pauline Luttrell remarked to her companion, Mr. MacGregor. " It is just the place for a honeymoon, I should have thought — at least, for a romantic honey moon. There is seclusion — a great deal of seclusion, I should say — flowers, lanes, sea, and a nice clean yellow beach where they can sit and hold hands. " " It certainly seems a little extraordinary to six on the Riviera at this time of year," he replied with a laugh.

" Monte Carlo in August is an anomaly. But Valentine talked some nonsense about being a child of the Sunny South — and I presume Miss Fawcett is a similar child — and that all they wanted was to bask. Well, they will be able to do that!" " Yes, he talked the same nonsense to me, and when I suggested that the dust and glare flifgbt. 22 would be unendurable, that they would prob ably find aU the hotels closed, and that, as they are neither of them gamblers, they would most likely be regarded as lunatics, he only murmured something about how delightful it would be to have the lovely Casino Gardens to themselves, to promenade on a deserted Terrace, to drift along in a red-sailed boat under the shadow of the olive-clad hiUs. " " Yes, he is very far gone, I am afraid. Let us hope that if he escapes a sunstroke he will return more sane.

" "The whole thing has been so sudden and unexpected, " remarked Pauline after a moment, " that I can scarcely realise it yet. Didn't it strike you as a httle extraordinary ? " "In what way do you mean?" "Oh," impatiently, "in every way. You know what friends Val and I have always been — not merely brother and sister — and yet I hadn't the slightest idea of such a thing until he told me. I felt very hurt at first." "You hardly knew Miss Fawcett, I believe?" "No, she was almost a stranger to me. I had met her once or twice at a mutual friend's, that was an. I should not think anything of it with Iftigbt. 23 some men, but with Val it is different. You know how open and confiding he is as a rule. By the bye, you and she are quite old friends, are you not?" " I can scarcely say that. I was introduced to her about six months ago, but I have not seen much of her since.

However, I hope to have the pleasure of knowing her better in the future." "We are both outsiders now, you and I," she said with a little laugh in which there was some bitterness, " we must learn to get accus tomed to playing second fiddle. I suppose," irrelevantly, " she is very much in love with Val or she wouldn't have married him? She had very good prospects on the stage, hadn't she?" " Very good indeed, I believe, and, yes, I suppose she is very much in love with him. I think we should be quite justified in calling them the happy pair when we send the announce ment to the Morning Post." " How absurd you are ! I think it was a little rash of Val to make her give up the stage. He makes a nice little income, but he has hitherto managed to spend most of it on Ælgbt. 24 himself, and I should not say that Irma was a woman of economical tastes.

Her flat in Chelsea was a picture. He would have found her money useful, and, really, if you choose an actress for a sweetheart, I don't know why you should object to an actress for a wife." " You forget there is the home," said Mac- Gregor solemnly. " If an Englishman's house is his castle, the Englishman's wife must be its chatelaine. She must be part and parcel of the chateau, and how can she be if she is out every night earning a separate income? Even Val, whom I should not describe as a typical Anglo-Saxon, feels the force of this ancient tradition." " And you ? " she said a little curiously, "what do you think about it?" " I have had no occasion to think about it at all as yet," he said carelessly. "But no doubt I also should fall a victim to the fetich 'home.' I should prefer to know that my lady was safely boxed up in my castle."

" It is generally supposed to be a very creditable feeling, " she replied, " but I have my doubts about it. I think it originates in pure selfishness. You like to feel that we are isiigbt. 25 dependent on you. In short, we go with the furniture ; we are mere goods and chattels. " " I can hardly imagine you a chattel, " he said, turning and looking at her amusedly. "When you become one — if you ever do — will you tell me ? I should hke to study the aspect. At the present moment you look so independent and so capable of taking care of yourself. " They had known each other long enough and well enough to talk freely ; they had been good comrades all three, and had had many gay little evenings in the house in St. John's Wood. But that was all at an end now ; the menage would be under different management in future, and who could tell what changes would come ?

"I have started a sheep-dog, like Becky Sharp, all the same, " she replied. " I found that it wouldn't do to be a bachelor. Aunt Jane and I are going to set up house together, not very far from the old place. You must come and see us very often. I shall miss Val dread fully. " " I shall be delighted. Aunt Jane is just the person for a sinecure ; she is plump and com fortable and fond of knitting. By the bye, of Ifiigbt. 26 course you know that Miss Fawcett's sister — or, rather, half-sister — is to live with them when they return ? " " Molly Gordon ? Oh yes. Poor Val, it is rather marrying the family, is it not ? But Irma adores her and couldn't bear the thought of being separated, and I believe the child has really nowhere else to go. But here we are at the church. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

I can't, because they would make my veil sticky. " After the ceremony, there was what refreshment contractors are fond of calling a 'cold coUation' at the hotel, and in the afternoon the young couple left for Victoria en route for Paris and the Riviera. The guests deferred their departure till later. " Let's go for a stroll, " suggested Pauline. "It seems very dull now they have gone. Did you ever see anyone look so absurdly happy as Val?" " It was a little trying, " admitted John Mac- Gregor to whom she had spoken. " But he had some excuse. Miss Fawcett played her part with considerable grace and skill. I felt inclined to applaud once or twice — you see, I ffifgbt. 27 have rarely seen her except on the stage, and one gets mixed. Really, " plaintively, " I don't know anything so mixing as a wedding; I am not accustomed to them and I don't think they agree with me.

" "Yes, she did look nice," agreed Pauline, " Felicie made the wedding garment, and I don't know anyone who can do better than F61icie when she likes. " MacGregor smiled a little smUe to himself. " I don't care for a blushing, weeping bride, " he rambled on, " a trembling victim who clings to your arm and sheds tears over your frock-coat. Miss Fawcett did none of these things. She smiled just enough to show her pretty teeth and dimples, and blushed just enough to light up her eyes. Yes, she filled the part with credit. " " I asked if you were coming for a walk, " said Pauline, a little sharply. " I beg your pardon, " he replied, raising himself out of his armchair with a sigh. " But this has been an emotional occasion, and I find emotion so exhausting. Don't let us walk. Let us sit on the beach.