Into an Unknown World. A novel

Front matter

H Hovel. BY JOHN STRANGE WINTER, AUTHOR OF " BOOTLES' BABY," " A BLAMELESS WOMAN," " ARMY SOCIETY, " THE TRUTH-TELLERS," " GRIP," ETC, IN ONE VOLUME. LONDON : F. V. WHITE & CO., 14, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C, 1897. PRINTED BV KELLY AND CO. LIMITED, 182, 183 AND 184, HIO-U HOLBORN, W.C, AND KINOSTON-ON-THA5IE9. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAOB I. — Home Influence 1 II. — The Awakening of a Soul . . 8 III. — Longings ...... 18 IV.— How Things Fall Our ! . . . 24 V. — Dangerous Ground .... 31 VI. — A Merchant Prince ... 40 VII. — The Brink of the Stream . . 45 VIII. — Love, The Tempter . . . 51 IX. — Consent 58 X. — Waiting 64 XI. — The Passing of the Rubicon . . 71 XII.— Gone! 77 XIII.— Blame 85 XIV. — Those Whom God Hath Joined Together ..... 90 XV. — Into the Unknown World! . . 97 XVI.— Clive Hodse 104 XVII. — The Rack — an Instrument of Torture 111 XVIIL— A Restoration 119 XIX. — A Mighty Effort .... 125 XX. — Between Two Worlds . . . 133 XXI. — Externals or Essentials . . 138 XXII. — Open Confession is Good for the Soul CONTENTS.

VI CHAP. PAGE XXIII.— The Last of Her Boats . . 152 XXIV.— Still— The Rack! . . .157 XXV. — An Honourable Retreat . . 165 XXVI.— Home, Sweet Home . . .172 XX VII.— Young Folks' Ways . . . 176 XXVIII. — Austin's Ambition .... 183 XXIX.— To Meet the Bride ... 190 XXX. — A Social Failure . . . .196 XXXI. — The Head of the Business . 203 XXXII.— A Piece of News . . . .209 XXXIII.— Two Lives Bound Fast . . 215 XXXIV. — Nearer and Nearer . . . 221 XXXV— Face to Face .... 230 XXXVL— A Rift 237 XXXVII.— The Rift Widens ... 242 XXXVIII.— A Suggestion 247 XXXIX.— Enmity 253 XL.— Crow's Nest 258 XLL— A New Venture ... 266 XLII. — She Stoops to Conquer . . . 272 XLIIL— Given Back .... 279 XLIV. — Any Stick to Beat a Dog with . 285 XLV.— A Bold Front .... 292 XL VI. — The Member for Banwich . .

Chapter I. Home Influence

Some of our weaknesses are born in us ;. others are the result of education : it is a question which of the two gives us most trouble. — Goethe. " There is nothing in all the world so precious, so to be prized, so holy as love," said a voice, in soft German accents. " I suppose not, Fraulein," came the answer through the fast-gathering twilight. "Ach, you are so cold, you English girls," said the German girl, for she was little more than a girl though she had been for six months past entrusted with almost the sole care of Marjory Dundas, who was less than six years her junior. "Meine liebe, do you never think of the day when you will find yourself in the embrace of your beloved ? " " Oh, yes, I suppose I shall get married some day," replied Marjory a little hazily. " Get married — some day — you suppose," echoed the German girl, with an air of fine scorn, " ach, how cold you all are.

Get married — some day — ah, Marjory, there are nights when I lie awake, dreaming, thinking, hoping, wondering " " But you are betrothed — that makes a differenc?," put in Marjory. " Betrothed — yes ! " in a tone of rapture. " Acb, himmel, and it is already six months since I have seen my Fritz. It may bs six months more " "Unless my mother decides that we are to go to Heidelberg instead of to some French place for the holidays," said Marjory. , " You will ask her ? " interrupted the German girl eagerly. " You will do your best, liebchen, that she says Heidelberg, will you not ? " " Yes, I will ask her, but she is not easy to persuade and I am afraid she is set upon improving our French rather than our German," said Marjory doubtfully. " But I would not set my heart on it if I were you, Fraulein, if you do, I am afraid it will mean dis appointment."

" When I think of my Fritz, my own noble-hearted perfect Fritz," murmured Fraulein half shutting her short-sighted blue eyes and clasping her little fat hands together with a gesture half of rapture and half of despair. " I wouldn't," put in Marjory — " no, I wouldn't, and I certainly would take particular care that my mother never suspects even the existence of a Fritz. It will be good-bye to all chance of going to Heidelberg if she does." The German girl murmured " Liebchen — Lieb chen — " and then apparently fell straightway into a day-dream about her Fritz, who was no such hero after all, if Marjory Dundas had but known it, but only the second violin of a band of musicians who for the present made sweet music at Heidelberg and hoped for fame and fortune in the days to come. Meantime, life in the big London house went on as usual.

Ever since Marjory Dundas could remember anything, that life had been practically the same. HOME INFLUENCE. 3 She could never remember the time when her mother had not had more engagements than she could possibly get through, she had never known her to take more than what might be described as a bird's eye view of her daughters' lives, her interest in their appearance, their looks, their attainments being an affair not of to-day but entirely for to-morrow. "Fraulein, you must take care that Marjory does not stoop," she would say — " Sewing ? Oh, no, what does my daughter need with sewing ? Embroidering ruins the eyes. See that she holds herself well — that is much more important." Not once in a month did the three young daughters of the house of Dundas see their father or mother before lunch-time, and not always then.

If Mrs. Dundas was lunching at home and there were not too many guests, the young ladies shared in the ordinary dining-room meal. On other occasions they were served separately in the morning-room. " Such a mistake to have girls too much in evidence before they are out," said Mrs. Dundas one day to a friend, who asked why her daughters were not present at some entertainment. " My girls are very pretty — it would never do to have them always to the front. Besides, I wish them to make a distinct mark in Society when they are introduced." " But don't you think girls are apt to be shy ? " the other began. " Shy ! No, I don't think my girls will be shy. They are always with their governess and occupied with their different lessons. They have no time to think of being shy," Mrs. Dundas said with decision.

" Fraulein knows my wishes in that respect. A good kind estimable creature with no nonsense of any kind 1' about her, Fraulein. Yes, that was why I chose a German in preference to a Frenchwoman. French women are so intriguantes — one never quite knows, don't you think ? I would have preferred a French woman so far as the language went, but with a sweet, simple, domestic, homely German, one feels so much more safe." So Mrs. Dundas's three girls continued in the safe seclusion of the school-room and remained under the influence of the sweet, simple, domestic and homely Fraulein Schwarz, while the lady herself went her way secure in the feeling that she had done her best to fit her daughters to shine one day in that society of which she was so bright an ornament and so popular a member. And Marjory, who was not ryet seventeen, continued to be the confidant of all Fraulein Schwarz's rhapsodies concerning the absent and beloved Fritz, and, all insensibly though it wa3, to drink in deep intoxicating draughts of that poison which most of us taste at one time of our lives and which we all know as the glamour of romance.

It happened as the season drew towards a close and Mrs. Dundas was obliged to bring her attention to bear upon the annual holiday of the girls, that Marjory once or twice asked her mother whether she had decided on their destination. "I should like you to go to some French place, Marjory," she replied one morning, when Marjory had diplomatically approached the subject. "Your accent is really very indifferent, though your French is fairly fluent. But I am doubtful." "Why are you doubtful, Mother?" Marjory asked. " Well — for one thing I cannot very well go with you. Your father and I are invited and indeed have HOME INFLUENCE. 5 promised to pay a visit to Prince Erenstein at his place in the Thuringian Forest. If you had been a year older, Marjory, and had been introduced, you would have gone too.

As it is, for at least another year, you must be kept in the back-ground. If I let Fraulein take you girls to a French place with Marie, of course " "Oh, but Mother, she is so German, and so patriotic," Marjory put in in atone of alarm which she was far from feeling — " don't you think she will certainly get us into trouble ? Somewhere in Germany she will be on her native heath so to speak and surely, if we speak German perfectly it will count the same as if it were French." " I doubt it," said Mrs. Dundas seriously. " Perfect French is perfect French all the world over. Still, as you say, Marjory — and, really, you are very sensible and far-seeing for your age — Fraulein is very German and the Germans are naturally not very popular in France, and it certainly would be awkward if any unlucky con tretemps were to happen — so perhaps we had better say some place in Germany for certain.

And there is another thing in favour of that idea — your father and I could travel part of the way with you and see you comfortably settled. That would do better for all. The only thing then to definitely settle is to choose a place for you." " Oh, Heidelberg, Mother, Heidelberg," cried Mar jory clasping her hands together, "do say Heidelberg." Mrs. Dundas looker rather coldly at her daughter. " It is not necessary to get excited about it, Marjory," she said freezingly. "Excitement is very bad form. Why do you wish to go to Heidelberg ? " " So lovely, so romantic, so " Marjory began. " So cheap, " put in her mother in cool every day tones. " Yes, good air, good water, good hotels and pensions. A suite of rooms in some quiet hotel would be the best. Helen could go on with her violin lessens — and you could take a few extra lessons in sketching.

Really I think Heidelberg would be as good as any place we could find. I will speak to your father about it." Marjory sought out Fraulein Schwarz with a light heart. Speaking "to your father " stood in that estab lishment for a decision already arrived at, and Marjory was full of the news that the sojourn at Heidelberg was already a foregone conclusion. The German girl — I have said that she was but a few years older than Marjory — caught her pupil in her arms and kissed her with effusion. " It is thou, angel that thou art," she ex claimed with trembling lips and tear-dimmed eyes, and Marjory who was also shaking with excitement, was scarcely less affected. "Nay, Fraulein," she cried, putting her slim )oung hands on the dumpy shoulders of the little German woman and looking down upon her from her vastly superior light, " if you upset yourself like this, I shall be sorry that I tried to persuade my mother that Heidelberg was the place for us."

" Upset — how can I help being upset, when I shall see my Fritz once more, my own noble-hearted Fritz whom I have not seen for all these weary months and to whom I have been betrothed ever since I was sixteen ? My Fritz — my Fritz." " Poor little Fraulein," said Marjory Dundas with a smile that was half of sympathy and half of envy. " It is wonderful to feel for any one like that." " Wonderful," echoed the other, " it is even more HOME INFLUENCE. 7 than wonderful — it is heaven itself. Ach, but you are cold, you English. Still, you will understand some day. You will wake up — you will be born to love. Then you will know." Marjory looked a little wistfully at her instructor. " You see, Fraulein," she said shame-facedly, as if it were a distinct blot upon her character that she was so ignorant on this point — " I have never had the chance of knowing about these things.

Our last go verness was very stiff and very prim. I am sure if anyone had proposed to her, she would have fainted on the spot. I remember my mother saying to her once — ' I think first and foremost, Miss Jones, of what will fit my girls to shine when they are married,' and Miss Jones positively shuddered and said some thing about its being better to keep young girls free of such thoughts, and my mother laughed outright." " Madame is more sympathetic," cried Liza Schwarz, who at that moment was full of gratitude towards Mrs. Dundas for having unwittingly decided in favour of Heidelberg as a suitable place wherein a governess and three young girls might spend a holiday. " I don't think," said Marjory slowly, " that my Mother is in the very least little bit sympathetic to romance in any shape or form.

It was only the other day that she was speaking to Aunt Margaret about a girl who had married a man for love and nothing else. Aunt Margaret was saying that after all, there was a great deal of excuse for her, that the young man was handsome and very fascinating, attractive enough to turn any girl's head. ' Pooh ! ' cried my Mother, what nonsense you talk, Margaret. It all comes of the poor girl's silly mother filling her head with such ridiculous nonsense — marrying for love on twopence half-penny a year ! They manage these things much better in France where a girl is told to marry the man who is the most suitable for her to marry.' " ' But surely you would leave a poor girl her choice,' cried Aunt Margaret. " • Not at all. How is a young girl without experience or anything but mere fancy to guide her, to know whether a particular man is best for her or not ?

Nonsense, a girl has nothing to do with romance and such like absurdities. Her business is to make a good marriage.' " ' And yet you married George,' said Aunt Margaret, meaning of course my father. " ' Yes, I married George,' said Mother shortly. " ' I wondered then and have often wondered since what Aunt Margaret could have meant," Marjory con tinued in a puzzled tone. " Madame knows what love is," said Fraulein Schwarz with conviction. "Perhaps; for my father is very handsome," returned Marjory. " And yet .... it is hard to think — I mean to realize that they were ever really in love with each other."

Chapter II. The Awakening Of

A SOUL. Seest thou shadows sailing by, As the dove, with startled eye, Sees the falcon's shadow fly ? — Longfellow. It was not the least remarkable characteristic of the life led by the Dundas family in the handsome house in Eaton Square that discussion was unknown among the members of the household. From the very beginning of her married life Mrs. Dundas had always resolutely and inflexibly set her face against such a habit growing either upon her or any member of her family. None of the three young daughters of the house had ever known a decision once given to be reversed for any reason whatsoever; they knew not what it was to be nagged at or in any way worried on the score of things that were over and done with ; a fault once reproved was never mentioned again, a commendation was uttered once and once only.

Mrs. Dundas herself was thoroughly consistent and never under any circumstances argued with her lord and master. "I think, George," she would say, " that we may as well do such and such things." To which the Honourable George was expected to give an unhesitating consent, and in variably did so. And when, now and again, she sought a definite opinion from him and asked his advice, she never argued a point but accepted his fiat as the only possible plan of action to be taken under the circum stances. Therefore, when Mrs. Dundas set forth to her husband her plan for giving the three girls a thorough change and at the same time a suitable holiday, he seeing no objection thereto, fell in with it and the matter was settled. The actual arrangements were simple enough. Mrs. Dundas wrote to a house-agent at Heidelberg who recommended a suite of rooms in an excellent pension, where they could be spared all trouble of housekeeping and yet be as much by themselves as if they were in a house of their own.

" It will cost a little more to have meals served in their own apartments," said Mrs. Dundas to her spouse, " than if they joined the general table. Of course they cannot join the general table ; they might get mixed up with all sorts of people." " Oh, of course not," returned Mr. Dundas with decision, Mr. Dundas was nothing if not thoroughly insular in his prejudices. So the suite of rooms was taken and, in due course of time, the Dundas family were conveyed by means of a couple of omnibuses to the railway station and staited off on their journey, which to some of them at all events was to lead into an unknown world. How utterly and entirely unknown a world it would prove, they little suspected. All were entirely trustful of that dim mysterious future which ever looms before each one of us and about which the majority of us think so little that it scarcely troubles us at all.

Of the six people who that morning left the home which would never be the same again to any one of them, not one cast so much as a single backward glance at it, all were gay and smiling, full of joyous anticipation of what lay immediately behind the veil. Mr. Dundas pleasantly thinking of good sport, his wife tossing her head so to speak over new social triumphs, Fraulein dreaming ecstatically of her Fritz, and the three girls brimful of the promise of life ! Alas, alas ! There is nothing very wonderful in a journey from London to Heidelberg ! To Mr. and Mrs. Dundas, who had made it many times before, it was only a time to be got over as easily and as comfortably as might be. To the others, who were in the next carriage during the railway parts of the journey, it was unmixed fun and merry-making.

And at last they arrived at the lovely town on the banks of the Necker and in a very short time were as much at home as if they had lived there for years. Mr. and Mrs. Dundas stayed but for a few days, being due at their destination in the Thuringian Forest. Mrs. Dundas was pleased to be very much satisfied with the arrangements which she had made for the girls and Fraulein. "A very good place, Marjory," she said, on the morning after their arrival, " so much more private than an hotel and no more trouble. If I had let you have a flat and left you to provide your own meals, I feel convinced you would never have had enough to eat, but would have spent all your housekeeping money on cakes and ices. These rooms are really very nice and the cookery as good as you will get anywhere in Germany. I shall go off to Prince Erenstein's seeling quite happy about you."

" I am sure you may be that, Mother," said Marjory. " We shall be perfectly comfortable, and Fraulein's joy at finding herself in her native land again is too extreme for description." Mrs. Dundas looked up sharply. " Marjory," she said in a quick tone of suspicion, " Fraulein is not a native of Heidelberg surely ? " " Oh, no, Mother, certainly not. But Germany is all home to her and she has suffered horribly from home-sickness " " What absurd nonsense," ejaculated Mrs. Dundas with a disgusted air. " Home-sickness indeed. H'm ! I wonder if she has ever lived in all her life as she has done since she has been with us. And eighty pounds a year into the bargain ! Home-sickness indeed." Marjory gave vent to a little sigh, but it was a meek and suppressed sigh which Mrs. Dundas did not hear. How hard her mother was, how unrecognizing of the rights of others, how unfeeling !

Did she never realize, the girl wondered, that Fraulein and the servants were human beings, with hearts and souls, and likes and dis likes, like higher placed and more fortunate people? Had she never grasped the fact that Fraulein was young still, at least, that she was not old or even middle-aged, that time was passing on, life slipping away and the bloom and passion of youth fading and becoming less intense with every hour? No, no, to her mother poor Fraulein was not a woman, a heart, a soul ; she was just a machine who was wound up with eighty pounds' worth of oil every year, a machine whose sole object in existence was to help to make Mrs. Dundas's daughters ready for the marriage-market ! It was the first time in all her young life that Marjory Dundas had realized the actual quality of her mother's nature ; for the first time in all her life she awoke to the truth that in time to come, no question of her likes and dislikes would be taken into account when someone should wish to marry her ; for the first time she realized that her future would not be a question of her heart or even of her soul, but solely one of horses and carriages, of men-servants and maid-servants, of diamonds, of purple and fine linen, of ways and means, of rank and fashion, and the pleasure of Mrs. Dundas !

It was a loathly prospect and Marjory Dundas seemed all at once, under the influence of these new-born ideas, to grow from a rather childish girl into a woman, a woman young and inexperienced it is true, yet full of all the innate pride, the reserve, the stateliness and dignity of the feminine creature whose bloom is still unbrushed by the coarse contact of the world. I do not mean to convey that Marjory Dundas from that moment was so changed that her whole life, thoughts, aims, and ambitions became totally altered. Oh, dear no ! Those about her perceived no change in her at all. She ate and slept just as usual, and entered into all the bright pleasant life which was going on around her as gaily and light-heartedly as she had ever done. Each morning, very very early, while the brilliant summer day was yet in its infancy, the German girl, whose heart was brimful and running over with love for Fritz, went out to spend a too-short blissful happy hour with him, and Marjory, who was young and sympathetic, aided and abetted in the arrangement.

Wrhen Mrs. Dundas first discovered that Fraulein and Marjory had been out sketching before breakfast she was delicately scornful at their enterprise. " Such energy," she said. " I suppose it is to be expected that Fraulein will infect you with her homely German habits. It is a good thing that your sisters prefer to stay in bed, for I am sure they are neither of them strong enough to go in for freaks of that kind." " It does me no harm, Mother," said Marjory. " Oh, no, my dear, none at all," Mrs. Dundas rejoined drily. " I have no objection to your getting up in the middle of the night, if it pleases you to do so ; only I do hope it won't last. You would find such a habit so inconvenient after you are introduced." " I don't think it will become a habit," said Marjory, feeling very guilty all at once, and conscious that she was growing of a fine crimson hue.

Nor did it prove so. When Mr. and Mrs. Dundas had gone on to Schloss Erenstein, and there was no longer any cover needed for Fraulein's comings and goings, Marjory stayed in bed of a morning like her sisters. If Fraulein chose to sally forth for the purpose of sitting in some arbour with her Fritz, that was no concern of Marjory's, and she did not trouble her self about the matter. If the truth be told, it was a very great relief to the girl that she need no longer be present at the meetings between Fraulein Schwarz and her Fritz. She had during those few mornings, when the presence of Mrs. Dundas in Heidelberg had made such meetings almost impossible, passed a most miserable aud uncomfortable time. She was not old enough nor yet sufficiently well versed in the ways of the world to be able to judiciously efface herself, and German lovers are not shy, so that she usually sat on a camp stool, with her eyes glued to her painting block wishing heartily that she had been born devoid of hearing.

This martyrdom on the altar of friend ship and true sympathy for love did not, mercifully, last very long ; and Mrs. Dundas would have been considerably astonished had she known how very soon Marjory abandoned her new habit after her mother's departure for Schloss Erenstein. Of a truth, Fraulein's Fritz had been somewhat of a revelation to Marjory. It would be hard to say precisely what she had expected to find him, but certainly she had looked for some one wholly different to what he proved to be. She would not have been very much surprised had he turned out to be a shaggy unkempt person with a gold band round his cap ; but certain it is that she was genuinely sur prised when she found that he was tall and comely, gentlemanlike both in manners and appearance, with a neatly cropped head of fair hair and a pair of good blue eyes such as were handsome enough to win the heart of any girl.

Aud he was so pathetically in love with little Fraulein ! Marjory smiled to see how evidently he invested her with every virtue and every beauty. In the eyes of the young girl, trained by the association of her whole life to an appreciation of the outward signs of class, there was something wholly unattractive in the little dumpy German woman, with her hay-coloured hair and her two rosy cheeks. It was indeed wonderful that Herr Fritz, an artist, an ex-soldier and a personable young man, could find so much to admire in her. Oddly enough, it was Herr Fritz whom Mrs. Dundas selected for the violin-lessons which the second girl Helen was to take during their stay at Heidelberg, and her instructions concerning them almost let the cat out of the bag. " I have arranged for Helen to have a violin lesson every morning, Fraulein," she said, the evening before her departure for Schloss Erenstein.

" One of the violinists in the band has been very highly recom mended to me, as he both plays and teaches well. His name is Schmidt. You will take care never to leave the room while the lesson is going on, Fraulein ! I have reason to " " You need have no fear, Madame," broke in the little German woman indignantly. Mrs. Dundas, recognizing the anger in the gov erness's voice, stared hard at her for a moment, as if to ask her how she dared show any passion to her employer? Then, with the habitual calm of a person who never allowed herself to show or indeed to feel anger, she put aside the momentary sensation of surprise and annoyance and went on speaking as quietly as usual. " No, no, of course I know that you will do every thing that is right, Fraulein. I did not for a moment wish to hint that you would neglect your charges.

I am sure that you are much too conscientious for that. Only with young and impressionable girls, one cannot be too careful. You understand what I mean." The little governess pulled herself together by an immense effort and smiled her understanding of Mrs. Dundas's meaning, and so the dangerous moment passed over without any revelations being made. Mrs. Dundas herself thought the matter over for fully ten minutes, when she once more found herself alone. " So strange," she mused, " that a young woman should feel offence about a trivial remark like that. Professional amour propre, I suppose. Dear me, it is difficult to understand." So Helen Dundas began her violin lessons with her new master under the care of a duenna who was supposed to be blessed with a superabundance of pro fessional zeal, and her mother, quite happy in the security of feeling that she had so surrounded her with ramifications of caution, bade adieu to her children and set off to enjoy the greater glories of the Schloss Erenstein.