Best for her : a novel

Front matter

iLJRTIClL.ES for the Hair, Complexion, and Teeth, are the PUREST d BEST,

A pure, non-gritty tooth powder.

It whitens the teeth, prevents decay, and sweetens the breath.

Contents

CHAPTER I'AOE

I. IN CAVENBTSH SQUARE _ _ - 9

II. A GALWAY DEMESNE - - 19

Chapter I. In Cavendish Square

' To tell the truth, my father thinks Robert has been very extravagant in establishing himself here, and leaving such a practice as he had at Walton. And you know how intolerant he is to anything like extravagance.'

The speaker is a good-looking girl of two or three and twenty, large, long, and lissom-limbed, a young lady who does justice to the close-fitting dresses of the day, and can hold her own satisfactorily on any lawn-tennis ground.

She is a Uttle affected in manner, or rather it should be said that she lacks the ring of reality, and she 'tells the truth ' in the words quoted above in tones that make one sceptical.

' If hard work and assiduous attention to his patients go for anything, Robert will command success ; and as for the house, it is for you he has taken and furnished it, you know, Marian ! Your father ought not to be too intolerant.'

It is the sister of the ' Robert ' under discussion who says this, and the one to whom she makes reply is Marian Lepell, the bride-elect of Robert Annesley, a clever young surgeon lo BEST FOR HER.

who has recently given up his practice at ^Valton-on-Thames, and bought one in the neighbourhood of Cavendish Square.

' Oh ! I like the house well enough ; don't take up the idea that I am discontented with it or with anything else that Robert gets or does for me,' Marian says coldly, for it is not according to her notion of the fitness of things that anyone should correct her as to any opinions she may choose to hold about Robert^ her own peculiar property ; ' but you can hardly wonder at my not being elated at the prospect of leaving Walton. I looked forward to living there for years to come, having mamma and the girls close by ; near enough for us to be together every day would have been so pleasant — now, here I shall be quite alone.'

Miss Annesley feels that a faint colour mounts to her brow as her future sister-in law says this, for it is in the projected order of things that she (Dolly) is to continue to live with her brother, and now his wife that is to be appears to be ignoring this arrangement.

' Worse than alone, in fact,' Marian goes on, in her low, sweet, unemphatic tones, 'for Robert is sure to get into a circle of stiff professionals, and I shall have the trouble of entertaining them at dull dinner-parties without any help from mamma and the girls.'

' Perhaps I shall be able to help you,' Dolly says reassuringly ; and then something like a feeling of contempt for the well-mannered puerile grumbler seizes her, and she adds —

' At any rate, I can't regard your grievance as a serious one. If you preferred your mother and the girls to Robert you needn't have taken him ; now that you have taken him you ought to think more of his interests and less of leaving Walton.'

' Ah ! yes, of course, you would be ready to go into heroics and the wilderness with the man of your heart,'

IN CA VENDISH SQUARE. ii

Marian says, with a slight sneering smile ; ' thoj's none of that sort of " Wherever-thou-art-would-seem-Erin-to-me" sentiment about me. Mamma says I shall tind this plush furniture will wear vilely ; I almost wish I had persuaded Robert against it.'

'Come and see the other rooms now they're finished, they look so different to what they did the other day,' Dolly cries, jumping up, heartily glad of the change of topic, and eager to lead the future mistress of it over the perfectly appointed house. But Miss Lepell has no fancy for making an informal progress over her new demesne.

' Where is Robert ? I'll wait for him to take me over the house, I think ; as I wrote to tell him I should come up to lunch with you to-day he might have been at home to see me.'

'I thought I told you he had been called to a consultation?'

' So you did, but that doesn't last all day, I suppose ; it's half-past three now ; I can't wait about for him all day. Tell him I think the house and furniture would be perfect if they were down at Walton or Weybridge ; being in Cavendish Square I shall never take any interest in either.'

' I wouldn't give him such a disheartening message for the world,' Dolly cries indignantly. ' Poor, dear, kind Robert ! You'll surely never throw cold water on his enterprise in such a way, Marian ?'

'Fortunately for him I shall frequently,' Miss Lepell says, quietly. ' His enterprises are apt to end expensively, and I shouldn't have a pleasant time of it with my own people if I were a poor, harassed, ill-dressed, care-worn wife and mother, and wanted help from them ; I mean to make Robert a careful man, Dolly ! He'll get no sympathy for any of his rash enterprises from me.'

Miss Lepell has been adjusting her hat, and drawing on her long many-buttoned gloves as she says this, preparing to depart in her usual graceful unhurried way. Dolly, whose spirit has waxed impatient during the latter part of their interview, moves restlessly about the room, longing for relief from this unruffled but most ruffling presence — eager to be free to prepare some natural flower trimming for a dress she is going to wear this night at Lady Killeen's dance.

But her irreproachable oppressor has not quite done tantalizing her yet. While Marian is waiting for the cab which has been sent for to take her to the station, she says:

' By-the-way, Dolly, are you seeing anything of the Killeens now ? or are they too much occupied in London to have time to cultivate their Matlock friends ?'

' I have seen them once or twice, and I'm going to her dance to-night'

' Is Robert going ?'

' If he can manage the time.'

I\Iiss Lepell's fair face tingles with a sudden blush, and her thin nostrils dilate and grow pink.

' Is that girl with them still ?' she asks.

' Miss Thynne? Yes ; why, it's her home.'

'Tell Robert I hope he'll enjoy himself with his fine friends to-night, and tell him also that Lord Killeen is the type of a man above all others of whom my father disapproves — an absentee Irish landlord, throwing away the money in London that he grinds out of his poor wretched tenants. Robert will never do any good in his profession if he gets intimate with such a man.'

She goes after having enunciated this sentiment, and, with a cry and a bound of joyous relief, Dolly gets herself into her own room, where large basins, full of perfect roses, crimson and cream, in full bloom and in bud, are waiting for her to sew them in bands and clusters on to the bodice and skirt of the ivory satin which is to be moulded

IN CA VENDISH S(2UAKE. 13

on to her splendid, pliant young form at a later period of the day.

Her task is a congenial one. She loves flowers, she likes becoming dress, and she wishes to do credit, by her appearance among his possible clients, to her clever, sanguine, loving brother. Accordingly, the bands and bouquets grow apace into most perfect form, and are sewn firmly on to every portion of the dress on which decoration is admissible. Her maid — a deft-handed girl with no views as to the prerogatives of her position as yet — aids her with the needle-and-thread part of the business when the roses are put into position, and the busy hum of everlastingly moving London comes in at the open window soothingly.

Dolly cannot help thinking a good deal about her own appearance to-night, and thrilling as she reflects that it will be a pleasing one ; for the man who has asked her for the first waltz is a dear friend of many years' standing, and, latterly, Dolly and he have begun to feel that there can be but one end to such leal and loving friendship as theirs — not that they are engaged, but each feels sure that in all the world the other is the dearest. They have got to the stage of taking each other for granted, and Dolly is well justified in feeling that an engagement and a union for life will follow as a matter of course.

That he, Ronald Mackiver, is a soldier — a captain in a line regiment merely — is rather against him in Robert Annesley's professional eyes ; but, on the other hand, the Mackiver family look smilingly upon Dolly, who has ten thousand pounds of her own, so the fors and againsts the probable match are fairly balanced.

Indeed, it is a difficult thing for any human being to look other than smiHngly upon Dolly, without regard to her ten thousand pounds at all. If photographers, princes, and the

14 BUST FOR HER.

press could only get hold of her, she would be projected into the ranks of ' professional beauty ' without delay.

As it is, she is merely a lovely girl in a limited circle, with hair of golden hue, and two eyes so soft and brown.

Her temper is golden too, bright and sunny, and she has a reserve fund of will and endurance that will make a good winter-weather friend for those with whom her lot is cast.

She is very young, only just twenty, and no special call has been made upon these latent powers of hers as yet. For the present her sorest trouble is that Marian Lepell — the handsome wife her brother has chosen to do credit to his career — appreciates herself and her own family more than she does Robert. The sister knows that Robert is as sensitive as he is sanguine, and with all her heart she wishes that his choice had fallen on one who would love him as unselfishly and unflinchingly as will the girl to whom Ronald Mackiver will by-and-by throw the handkerchief.

The wreaths, the breast-plate, the shoulder and throat bouquets, and bandeau for the handsome Httle head, all are completed by five o'clock, and Dolly is sipping her tea, feeling almost that she has earned it, when her brother drives up rapidly to the door in his neat brougham, and rushes up to the drawing-room in unprofessional haste.

' Dolly !' he cries, coming out panting to the landing, and, looking up the staircase, he sees her standing in her morning wrapper in the doorway of her bedroom.

' Such news for you, Dolly, dear !' he cries, leaping upstairs and confronting her with a face expressive of triumphant joy, and a manner that is full of enthusiasm and energy. ' Can you be ready to start for Ireland with me this evening ? Yes, of course you can when I tell you that Killeen has offered me Darragh !'

Her first thought is that if she goes to Ireland to-night

IN CA VENDISH SQUARE^ 1 5

she will miss meeting Ronald Mackiver, and how dear a meeting is to unacknowledged lovers no lovers who are 'unacknowledged' need be told. Her second is that if Robert wants her she must go with him, and the roses must fade unworn upon that perfect dress. It is a little hard, but there is no sign of feeling the hardship of it in the tone in which she says —

' Offered you Darragh ! To lend it to you do you mean ?'

' No, no ; to sell it to me. I'll tell you all about it by-and-by ; but get ready to start by six o'clock like a good girl. I want you to see the place, and then you'll understand what a magnificent investment it is. Such a chance comes but once in a lifetime.'

'Must we go to-night? Lady Killeen's dance. Have you forgotten it?'

' My dear Dolly, you're going to be frivolous for the first time in your life, and want to give up a tangible good for a dance ! Yes, yes ! I see ! the dress is charming. But we mustn't stay talking about it now ; I want your sagacious little head over there, my dear sister, and we must leave here by six o'clock.'

Then in a few words he explains to her that Lord Killeen, ' entirely through his own fault,' has alienated his tenants on the Darragh demesne, in Galway, and that consequently some little difficulty has arisen about the rents.

' The fact is Killeen has made a hash of it, has got disgusted with the place and the people, and so is ready to sell at an awful sacrifice. The property came into the family with his aunt, the late Lord Killeen's wife, and both the present man and his wife seem to regard it as a white elephant'

' Why don't they give it to Miss Thynne if it belonged to her mother ?' Dolly asked bluntly ; and Robert, as he turns away to order his portmanteau to be packed, replies —

' My dear child, I am not going to dig and delve into the reasons why Killeen has made me such a splendid offer ; the place is a paradise. Just think of the days we'll have at Arranmore and on the Shannon, and — • — '

' But this house ? and your practice ? and Marian ?' she cries, running a few steps after him.

' My dear bewildered Dolly, don't you see that it's quite possible that I may attend to all of them, even though I am an Irish landowner?' he rephes good-temperedly, and in such a superior and convincing manner that Dolly only ventures to remark —

' Galway is further from Walton than Cavendish Square. Marian will feel herself exiled indeed if the Channel has terrors for " mamma and the girls." '

' We shall only be there a few months of the year — till the property becomes as grandly remunerative as I intend it to be ; and Marian has such a clear judgment and so much calm firmness that she will be an invaluable aid to us in managing a rather wild and lawless set of people. As for you, Dolly, you're quite the girl for Galway. Now ! you've only half-an-hour.'

He goes on his way buoyantly, and Dolly orders a few necessaries into a small travelling trunk, and sees the flowerwreathed dress laid aside with a gallantly suppressed sigh. She does not believe that her brother is at all the man for Galway more than she is the girl for it. Still she has nothing tangible to urge against the scheme, and the thought of the Lepells' wrath when they come to hear of the transaction does not fill her with dismay.

' They love to think that Marian is couiing dov.n from her throne in marrying Robert, but they're good-hearted

IN CA VEND IS H SQUARE. 17

people for all that, and it's only their love for her that makes them talk as if no one were good enough for her,' Dolly thinks, and then she dismisses Marian from her mind, and gives a few moments' consideration to what 'might have been' at Lady Killeen's dance to-night. When her brother comes down to swoop her off to the station he finds her writing these few lines to Ronald Mackiver :

' Dear Ronald,

'Business takes Robert to Ireland to-night, and Robert takes me. Don't wait for me, therefore, but waltz with the nicest girl in the room. You shall hear directly I come back.

• Yours always,

' Dolly Anneslev.'

' You're not telling Mackiver anything about Darragh, are you ?' Mr. Annesley asks, as he glances at the address on the envelope.

' No ; why not, though ?'

' I prefer telling people I've done a thing to saying that I am going to do it. Now, dear, we're off.'

They catch their train, and are speeding away through the summer night air. Quaint, picturesque old Chester is passed, the valley of the Dee is rushed through, and Holyhead is gained before some of the guests reach Lady Killeen's house in Charles Street. Among these late arrivals is a man who has run up from Aldershot, and who fears that his detention by duty may cause him to appear a laggard in love in the eyes of Dolly Annesley.

His quick, searching glance flies round ball-room and conservatory, and fails to find her. Disappointed, but still, after the manner of men, disposed to make the best of iS BEST FOR HER.

it, he looks about him critically. Dolly's note has not reached him, for the simple reason that he has not been to the hotel at which she has addressed him ; but unconsciously he follows her advice, and seeks to solace himself with the 'nicest girl' in her absence.

According to his idea, and he is not singular in holding it, this nicest girl is the cousin of his host, the Honourable Miss Thynne. A beauty of the real Irish type, vigorous, graceful, womanly, with a breath of childish wildness about her that is pure and sweet as mountain air.

Captain Mackiver is making his way towards her, marking her for his own for the next round dance, and approving thoroughly of the way in which her thick, long, black curly lashes shade her deep violet eyes, when he sees her whisked off by another man. So, being arrested in his course by circumstances, he falls into conversation with Lord Killeen, who is in rather higher spirits than usual to-night in consequence of the re-lighting of the torch of hope in his breast about his Galway property.

'Your friends the Annesleys have given us the slip to-night,' his lordship says, gaily. ' Annesley has got my beloved country on the brain, and has rushed over to look at a property I want to sell in Galway.'

' Annesley will land himself on a barren shore some day if he doesn't look out,' Mackiver replies. ' This West-end practice and the furnishing the house has swallowed up all his capital nearly ; he ought to work hard and recoup, and not go across " desperate seas " to search for fortune that he'll never find in Ireland.'

' Oh ! I don't know,' Lord Killeen says, with brilliant hopefulness. ' Miss Lepell's money will put him all right, and I'll let him have this place in Galway for a song.'

' What's the name of this place ?' Mackiver asks ; and just

LV CA VENDTSH SQUARE. 19

then the Honourable Miss Thynne has herself whirled by a skilful partner into their vicinity. As she holds her hand out to Ronald Mackiver and says —

' These " Sweetheart " waltzes are too good to be missed ; why are not you dancing ?' Lord Killeen says —

' My cousin was christened after the place. Tell him what the Galway property and you are called, and he'll get the right pronunciation.'

' It was a whim of my mother's I should have the name at least,' the girl says, smiling, • so I'm called " Darragh "!'

Chapter II. A Galway Demesne

The morning breaks blue, beaming, and bright, as the steamer in which they have crossed discharges her passengers at Kingstown. The sea has been smooth, and the sunshine on the distant hills seems to hold out a golden promise from the land to which the Annesleys are coming for the first time. What wonder that in view of this goodly harbour, and these green and gold-tipped lands all prudent dread of « what the Lepells will think of Robert's plan ' should fade from Dolly's mind ?

• In half-an-hour we shall be testing the capabilities of the " Shelbourne," the hotel that Killeen declares to be " the best in the world," ' Mr. Annesley says, as he seats himself by his sister in the railway carriage. ' I say, Dolly, these Irish appreciate their own land. " Darragh's the loveliest spot in creation," Killeen says.'

♦ These Irish are rather ready to leave the loveliest spots in creation. Do you think there can be any reason for it, Robert ?' Dolly asks.

' Oh ! of course. I know what you mean — smouldering sedition, anarchy, lawlessness, disorder, and all the rest of it are reigning, or are about to reign, in the land ; and that's why Killeen is willing to part with Darragh. My dear Dolly, dismiss all that arrant nonsense from your mind, and look plain facts in the face : the crops were good last year, and promise to be even better this; the country is quiet and prosperous, and not at all disaffected. They're purely private considerations that make Killeen want to sell Darragh. The people are just exactly what the landlords make them. Treat them well and liberally, let them live like men and women, and not like pigs, out of the land they labour on, and their worst acts of rebellion will be to sing, " Let Erin remember the days of old," and " Wearin' of the Green." '

' I'm prepared to be delighted with Darragh and to be devoted to the people ; but several of our friends have failed to find perfect felicity on their Irish estates, and I don't think that they were much less deserving than we are,' the girl laughs as the train runs into the station — a fortuitous circumstance, which enables her brother to evade answering her in a convenient and creditable manner.

It is a busy day in Dublin, and the " Shelbourne " is wide awake by the time they reach it — wide awake, but in deshabille still, as is evidenced by the crumminess of the tablecloths and the dustiness of the furniture of the spacious saloon into which they are ushered for breakfast. But there is such warmth and radiance in the atmcsp'iere, and such a beautiful southern air of do-nothing and care-for-nothing about the waiters, that Dolly feels that words of reprobation

A GALIVAV BEAJESNE. 2i

as to the staleness of the soles and the greasiness of the chops will be worse than idle and vain.

Accordingly she does not utter them, but solaces herself with shrimps that have just come up from Queenstown or Cork — shrimps of such weight and magnitude that no truly generous prawn could feel hurt at their being mistaken for his branch of the family ; and as she shells them with the skill of an appreciative adept Mr. Annesley ponders over the railway time-table, and relieves that occupation by studying the flavour of broiled salmon from the Liffey.

The meal is a mixture of breakfast and luncheon, for they purpose leaving the Broadstone Terminus about mid-day in order that they may reach Galway in time to see something of the old Spanish-looking city before dark. While they are lingering over it at a table in the window, a young man comes hurriedly into the room, calling as he comes for his bill and a brandy-and-soda in a voice they know.

In a moment they recognise him as Arthur Thynne, a cousin of Lord Killeen's, and he remembers them as the 'jolly people Killeen picked up last year at Matlock.'

They are all together, fraternizing in a way that is characteristic of the soil on which they stand, in a moment, he hearing what is startling news to him about Darragh, and they learning from him that the Liberal member for Galway died last night, and that he has been advised by a hundred disinterested friends who want the fun of a fight to stand for that part of the county.

'Will it go against you if Lord Killeen sells Darragh? They won't think so well of you perhaps if he parts with his property to an English stranger, will they ?' Dolly asks.

' Oh ! I shouldn't stand on Killeen's interest ; I shall get in on Home Rule, if I get in at all. Killeen's is a sa/e line of policy, entirely opposed to my patriotic one. Though he wears an Irish title, and owns a good deal more Irish land than he deserves, there's very little of the Celt about him ; he's a cautious, suspicious fellow, fancying always that the potatoes are going to explode under his feet and the shamrocks cast some pernicious spell around him.'

' There isn't much stuff in Killeen,' Mr. Annesley says, in a satisfied tone, feeling how differently he will be spoken of when he owns Darragh.

' I thought Lord Killeen lived a good deal on his Irish estates, and was a liberal employer, Robert,' Dolly remarks, in some amazement, for it is beginning to dawn upon her that Lord Killeen, who is one of the kindest, heartiest, and cheeriest of little men, has either failed in his duty to Darragh, or found the denizens in and around Darragh wanting in their duty to him.

' He has been a little too exacting, I fancy ?' Mr. Annesley says interrogatively to Mr. Thynne, and on this encouragement, slight as it is, that enthusiastic young gentleman launches out into what almost sounds like bitter invective against his noble kinsman. But as his face wears a balmy smile the while his fierce utterances are being made, Dolly dismisses anxiety and apprehension, and starts presently for Galvvay with a light heart and a frankly expressed hope that ' Mr. Thynne may succeed in his worthy ambition of liberally representing his fellow-countrymen.'

' Are you on your way to London?' Robert asks, as he shakes hands at parting. And Mr. Thynne's broad, goodhumoured face relaxes into a more than ordinary mellow smile as he replies —

* Yes. I'm going to try if Killeen has family feeling enough in him to give me the tin to keep me going while I'm carrying on the campaign. You see, I depend entirely

A GALIVAY DEMESNE. 23

on the pen, and though I wouldn't exchange its power for the heaviest purse in the world '

' Finish that sentence in your next leader,' Robert laughs out, as he hurries his sister into the carriage ; and in an instant the train is off, and Arthur Thynne stands looking after it regretfully.

' That's a glorious girl,' the young fellow thinks, as he retraces his steps to the ' Shelbourne.' ' Has money, too, I think Killeen told me ; she has better brains, too, to help a fellow with than Darragh can boast — but Darragh's a queen of a girl, and I wish with all my heart for her sake that I had come to the title instead of that ass Harry. By Jove ! if she came over and canvassed for me, I'd come in with an overwhelming majority, sure enough ! As it is, I suppose I won't be let look at her.'

' I can't help liking that Mr. Thynne for wishing to get into Parliament and try to benefit his country-people ; but isn't he rather unjust to Lord Killeen, and isn't he rather mean in being ready to take Killeen's money ?' Dolly asks, as they rush along through Blanchardstown — and then, as Robert answers her ramblingly, she ceases to speculate on the subject, and becomes absorbed in the novel aspect of the land over which they are speeding.

Meantime, Robert Annesley, who has all his life been wont to act on impulse, and repent him of his acts at leisure, is occupied in reading up all the information he can glean from an agent's letter and sundry guide-books about Darragh and its neighbourhood.

All that he learns from the guide-books is intensely satisfactory. ' Darragh lies between Oranmore and Galway City, and from its well-wooded grounds beautiful views of the islands of Arran and Galway Bay are to be had. These grounds are wildly and romantically beautiful in some parts, and in others highly cultivated, richly planted, and intersected with walks that are bordered by magnificent shrubs and grand old trees. The house is a handsome grey stone structure, with a square tower at one end and a turret at the other, and of sufficient size and importance to justify its owners in calling it a castle if they pleased. But hitherto its owners have rightly been contented to call it simply Darragh. It is said that lead has been found in large quantities on the demense, but mining operations have never been carried out, and, therefore, we can hardly give credence to this rumour.'

* Dolly, I believe I'm in for a big fortune in buying this property,' Robert says, calling his sister's attention to this passage, and she, being quite as desirous for his welfare as he is himself, reads it with avidity and replies with sympathy:

' It seems to be all that you could wish, Robert ; Marian can't help liking such a place. I see maidenhair ferns are found down among the fissures of the rocks on the coast side of the grounds. How lovely !'

' Almost as good as the lead, eh, Dolly ?' he says, with a good-tempered, superior, patronising air. He almost feels as if he were the lord of Darragh already, and though he will soon have to crave a great favour from his sister, he cannot help deporting himself as such to her already.