His Own Father

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Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. — Premonition ...... i

II. — Persuasion . . . 13

Chapter I. Premonition

THERE were moments when the premature whiteness of Mrs. Hamilton's hair struck everybody as a mere freak on the part of nature and rather an enhancement than otherwise of charms which had survived four decades of existence. There were also moments when she looked quite old, despite her slim figure, and her refined, prettyish little features. It was, as her intimates were well aware, a question of expression, a question of whether she happened to be feeling worried or not ; and they were likewise aware that it did not take a very great deal to worry her. " Well, what's wrong now ? " inquired the bronzed, military-looking man of thirty or thereabouts who had stationed himself beside the bench upon which she was seated, and who had been watching, with inward amusement, the deepening horizontal lines on her forehead.

The scene was a ball-room in Dresden, which hospitable city had for some months past enjoyed the privilege of entertaining Mrs. Hamilton and her daughter, and it may have been for the sake of sharing that privilege that Captain Clough, albeit a non-dancer, was now leaning against the wall in close proximity to one of the two ladies whose trusted friend and ally he was. Mrs. Hamilton's foot ceased to tap the polished floor, as she glanced up at her interrogator with a certain half-childish fretfulness.

" Daphne has danced three times running with that long-legged prot£g£ of yours," she said.

* So I have noticed/' he returned imperturbably. " That shows Miss Daphne's discrimination ; for there are few better waltzers in Europe, I am told, than Otto von Kahlenburg."

" But — three times running! Besides, I don't much like the look of him somehow. Who is the mani— where did you pick him up ? "

" In Vienna originally, I think. Or was it when I was shooting at his uncle's place in the Salzkammergut ? Anyhow "

" Then he is an Austrian ! " interrupted Mrs. Hamilton, with an unaccountable suggestion of alarm and repugnance in her voice.

" Oh, he's an Austrian, if there's any harm in that. It isn't given to the whole human race to be Englishmen, you know ; though he is really a good enough sportsman to have been born in our favoured islands. Anyhow, as I was going to say, he is of the highest respectability, besides being the dancer and the good-looking fellow that you see he is. An excellent amateur actor, too*— in short, a social success all round. Why you should dislike the look of him I can't imagine."

Mrs. Hamilton made no immediate response; but presently she said, in a tone calculated to put an end to further discussion, u Well, whatever his nationality may be, I don't like his going on in this way. Daphne came to Dresden for music lessons, and I only wish that I had kept to my first intention of avoiding the society of the place; but from the moment that one admits the thin edge of the wedge — However, we shall soon be leaving now; that's one comfort"

" Not to me/ 1 observed Captain Clough, smiling.

* Why, surely you don't propose to make a long stay in Dresden! What attraction can it have for you?"

"I sometimes wonder. Perhaps, apart from your presence, its attractions are not overwhelming. At the same time, I can quite understand Miss Daphne's enjoying herself here, and I am glad to notice that she does."

" Jack," exclaimed Mrs. Hamilton impatiently, " you are very provoking!— and very stupid! "

" Because I understand things ? "

"Not at all! — because, on the contrary, you don't! However, I should have thought that even you might understand one's reluctance to thtfow a young girl amongst the people whom one meets in places of this sort."

" But the Saxons are charming people."

"They may be; I don't know them well enough to judge. You will allow, though, that the English are appalling. Just look at this one, who is bearing down upon us now, for instance! w

Captain Clough glanced towards the stout, rubicund, profusely-jewelled lady whom Mrs. Hamilton's fan indicated, and laughed " Oh, I grant you that Mrs. Perkins is appalling," he answered. w She appals me so much that I* haven't the pluck to wait and explain why I haven't asked either of her daughters for a dance. She will assuredly put that question to me if I do wait."

She actually did put it — in stentorian accents which dominated the braying of the band, and must have reached the swift fugitive's ears. But Mrs. Perkins, who was a good-humoured, philosophic, thick-skinned woman, did not greatly resent Captain dough's discourteous flight ; for she had already discovered that he was likely to prove useless for any purposes of hers. It was otherwise with Mrs. Hamilton, whom she believed to be well connected and who might subsequently be looked up in London with advantage, she thought Therefore, although there really was not room for her at the end of the bench which Mrs. Hamilton occupied, and although no attempt

6 HIS owtf FAthkk.

was made to offer her a modicum of space, she contrived, somehow or other, to sit down beside her victim.

" I want to congratulate you upon your daughter's conquest," she began. " Out and out the handsomest man in the room, and quite a grandee in his own country, I hear. Or is it only in Spain that there are grandees ? Anyhow, he is a distinguished personage, and my girls are devoured with jealousy, I assure you. That is, they would be jealous if it had been anybody but dear Daphne who had cut them out/'

Had Mrs. Hamilton possessed any capacity for snubbing intrusive fellow creatures, she would long ago have shaken off this tiresome woman, whose familiarity was odious to her, and who had no sort of right to call Daphne by her Christian name ; but she was herself too sensitive to have recourse to salutary rudeness; so she only returned, in vexed, plaintive accents :

"Please do not imagine that my daughter wishes to make conquests of foreigners or to cut out anybody here. We are scarcely acquainted, as it happens, with Herr von Kahlenburg, who was introduced to us, the other day, by Captain Clough, and we shall probably never dee him again after to-night."

"Well, I'm sure it will be no fault of his if you don't see him again," Mrs. Perkins declared, with a shrill, cackling laugh; "he is desperately smitten, that's evident ! And, between ourselves," she added, lowering her voice a little, " I know that he has set his heart upon persuading Daphne to act in some private theatricals with him next week. Oh, don't be alarmed! It will be a most select affair, and the King and Queen have promised to be present One of the performers has been taken ill, it seems, which has landed them in rather a difficulty. Count von Kahlenburg — he is Graf, not Kerr, by the way — told Minnie all about it, and as good as offered her the part; but I suppose he must have forgotten what he said, for this evening he announced as coolly as possible that he had decided to secure your daughter."

" That he had decided ! Surely he could not have been so impertinent as to say that"

" Oh, well, I daresay he is accustomed to getting his own way; it is understood, of course, that he

8 JTJS OWN FATHER.

must obtain your consent Rather mortifying for Minnie to be thrown over so cavalierly, wasn't it? However, I will say for dear Minnie that there is nothing small about her, and indeed she has received so much attention from other quarters this winter that perhaps she can afford — but that is neither here nor there. Besides, her comparative ignorance of German, which Daphne speaks so beautifully, might have been an obstacle ." .

"My daughter," said Mrs. Hamilton resolutely, "does not speak German well enough to act in a German play with strangers, nor should I dream of allowing her to do so, if she did Miss Perkins will certainly not be supplanted by her."

The fat lady laughed again. "Ah! we're all of us the slaves of our children in these days," she placidly remarked ; " I have given up attempting to refuse my girls anything."

It crossed Mrs. Hamilton's mind that the duty of occasionally thwarting those squat, plain-headed young women might be found a good deal easier than that of disappointing Daphne, whose violet eyes, when veiled by a suspicion of tears, were well* nigh irresistible. Beauty has its powers and its prerogatives even in the case of those most nearly related to us. At the same time, there could not and should not be any permission of this suggested play-acting; an accelerated departure from Dresden must, if necessary, be resorted to rather than that.

About ten minutes later Mrs. Hamilton had given her assent — a reluctant one, it is true, yet a distinct and binding assent — to the request which young von Kahlenburg, on restoring his partner to her mother's guardianship, put forward in excellent English and with a happy blending of supplication and temerity. Not, to be sure, that he owed this signal triumph to his blonde comeliness, his white teeth or his pleasant address. Such personal allurements were likely to tell rather against than for him — although, on the other hand, it did seem a little ridiculous to be prejudiced against the poor youth simply by reason of the fugitive resemblance that he bore to a certain fellow-countryman of his who had been dead and buried for ever so many years. But in truth it was Daphne who carried his point for him-— carried it, too, with scarcely so much as a spoken word of entreaty.

io MS OWN FATHER.

* She always does ! " Mrs. Hamilton apologetically owned to Jack Clough, who had drifted back to her side as soon as Mrs. Perkins had been induced by an elderly officer to visit the supper-room for the third time ; " she has a way of looking at me — a sort of doggy way, don't you know? — as if she wanted something very much, but didn't like to put me to the pain of refusing. When she summons up that expression, all is over; I become as wax in her hands!"

" That," observed Captain Clough drily, " does not surprise me. I myself have once or twice been favoured in the way you describe, and I have instantly become as wax in her hands."

He gazed meditatively, as he spoke, at the subject of his confession, who was revolving amongst the dancers some yards away from him, and whose rippling bronze hair, dark-blue eyes and perfectly proportioned figure rendered her — so he often thought, but never said — the loveliest of created beings. Mrs. Hamilton stole a side glance at him, sighed and made as though she were about to say something, but apparently thought better of it.

PkkMomTioif. n

" After all/' she somewhat irrelevantly remarked at length, "there are national types, as well as family likenesses. I daresay most Austrians have fiat backs, small waists, fair colouring and little turned-tip moustaches."

"A good many of them have," Captain Clough answered ; " but they are a mixed race, you know."

"Oh, I don't know anything about them," Mrs. Hamilton hastily declared ; " I have met scarcely any Austrians in the course of my life. I wasn't particularly fascinated by those I did chance to come across, years ago, that was all. Well," she added presently, "we must go to Bayreuth the week after next, at all events. I can't imagine Daphne wanting to miss Bayreuth."

" I can imagine Otto von Kahlenburg wanting to go there. Scarcely for the sake of Wagner, though." . "Oh, Jack! you won't let him do that! I should so very much dislike it. And I should have thought that you would dislike it too ! "

"My dear lady, is it ever a question of what we like or dislike, you and I ? Isn't it invariably, and quite properly, a question of what Daphne likes?

Besides I really can't pretend to any control over von Kahlenburg's movements."

"Jack," exclaimed Mrs. Hamilton vehemently, "I have no patience with you ! "

He had, however, plenty of patience with her — and with others. Therefore he only laughed and held his peace.

Chapter II. Persuasion

The modern German Empire, busy, commercial, prosperous and thickly populated, has all but made a clean sweep of the old-world picturesqueness which used to characterise its component parts, and Dresden, that rococo little city which in years gone by was a miniature European capital, with a certain distinction of its own, has already become a big town like another — a town of flat, featureless facades and wide, windy streets, wherein hurried pedestrians jostle one another (no Dresdener was in a hurry thirty years ago) and whence clangorous electric tram-cars have well-nigh banished the deliberate droschke of an earlier date. It remains, however, a place of comparatively cheap living, extremely cheap education, and singular accessibility as regards its Court and high society ; for which excellent reasons Mrs. Perkins,

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1 P^onj^d appfc«e, stepped before the enrtain,

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"Well, it certainly looks as if he might," their mother agreed: "but I suspect that he will have some trouble with dear Mrs. Hamilton first It is easy to see what her wishes are ! "

She pointed her fan at the back of Captain Clough's closely cropped black head, which was visible, alongside of Mrs. Hamilton's white one, a few rows nearer the stage. "Peine perdoo, I'm afraid," she added, with a shrug of her fat shoulders and a complacent glance at her eldest daughter ; " dear Daphne doesn't know how to make herself attractive to men of his sort"

Minnie looked down, while the Idimples on her cheeks became accentuated and a demure smile overspread her countenance. It is impossible even to conjecture upon what slender grounds the Perkins family had built up a theory that Captain Clough admired Minnie ; but they honestly held that belief, and were happy in holding it — for indeed it was an ascertained fact that Captain Clough was very well off.

Whether it was or was not on that account that Mrs. Hamilton cherished the wishes rightly ascribed to her is another question; probably she liked her old friend Jack Clough none the less because the recent demise of a distant relative had made a rich man of him. But, be that as it may, she felt almost certain that his own wishes coincided with hers, and she was therefore both vexed and puzzled by his apparently pleased acquiescence in the triumphs of a possible rival Count von Kahlenburg, to be sure, was not really a rival, not really possible ; still Jack might have been excused for resenting his quickly formed intimacy with Daphne — or rather, was inexcusable for not doing so.

" Thank goodness, that is over ! " she exclaimed, when her daughter had once more retired from view and the audience had at length ceased to applaud with all its hands and feet. "It was rather bad taste of your friend, I think, to insist upon dragging her before the curtain, when he must have known quite well that they were calling for him» not for her."

" Oh, perhaps he didn't," said Captain Clough, imperturbably ; " he is a very modest fellow."

" Is he ? I must confess that I shouldn't have thought modesty was his most prominent virtue. He acted splendidly, though — which is more than can be said for Daphne/'

"I have seen better actresses," Clough was fain to admit " Still I believe she has enjoyed it all, and that is the main thing."

He spoke with sincerity. To him it appeared eminently desirable that Daphne should enjoy herself, and although he had for some time past been deeply, silently in love with the girl, he was under no illusion as to her sentiments. She looked upon him as a kind, trustworthy, rather elderly friend, and it was most unlikely (not absolutely impossible, perhaps) that she would ever regard him in any other light Why, then, risk the loss of such share in her affections as he possessed by playing the part of dog in the manger ?

"Yes, I suppose she has enjoyed it," Mrs. Hamilton agreed, in dubious accents. "What I haven't quite enjoyed is her being made conspicuous in this way. However, as we are off to Bayreuth at once, and shall probably never see this place or these people again — by the way, what becomes of you after we leave? You have no musical hankerings, I am afraid"

He shook his head. " Oh, I hanker, but I must go home, all the same. Lawyers are clamouring for me, and land agents and gamekeepers, and I don't know what other functionaries connected with the management of a neglected estate. It isn't all roses, this sudden shift from the ammunition boots which fitted one's feet into the uneasy shoes of a county magnate; I often find myself sighing for the old regiment and the old prescribed routine."

"It is better to be rich than to be poor," Mrs. Hamilton declared with conviction, " and you are such an orderly, practical person that you will soon dispose of preliminary bothers. Are we not to meet again, then, until we ourselves go back to London next winter ? "

"Well, I was thinking that, if you wouldn't find me a bore, I might possibly allow myself another run abroad during the summer, when you will be at Marienbad."

The company had broken up into groups, and was gradually dispersing. Mrs. Perkins, who had drawn near, overheard the last word and echoed it in a loud, jubilant voice.

u Marienbad ! — are you really thinking of Marienbad, dear Mrs. Hamilton? How delightful it will be if we can arrange dates so as to go through our cures together! I am sent there," she good-humouredly continued, "for reasons which must be only too apparent to everybody — reasons which certainly don't exist in your case. It does me some good ; I reduced my weight by six pounds last year ; still, as the doctor very truly says, I could part with four or five times that amount and never miss it What time do you suppose will suit you best? — July or August? We aren't tied down to any particular week, or even month/'

MrS. Hamilton who had been upon the point of naming a specific date to Jack Clough, hastened to reply that her plans were as yet quite vague. Jack, of course, could never be a bore ; but Mrs. Perkins would assuredly never be anything else, and she could not resist adding a feeble, pathetic protest

* Don't you think Carlsbad would be better for you ? Everybody says that the Carlsbad waters are

a* a great deal stronger, and six pounds a season doesn't seem much ! At that rate "

" Oh, at that rate, I shall die, no doubt, a heavy woman/' Mrs. Perkins philosophically owned; "but, after all, it's a matter of habit, and I'm accustomed to being stout I would far rather," she went on, with much graciousness, " have the pleasure of being in the same place with you and dear Daphne than take a couple of inches off my waist"

This tiresome persistency was bad enough; but there was worse to come. During the foregoing colloquy Count von Kahlenburg, accompanied by Daphne, had approached from the background, and what was it that that more than exasperating young man was now taking it upon himself to proclaim as coolly as though he had only to announce his intentions? Marienbad would do perfectly — splendidly! His uncle had a property in the neighbourhood which would afford roe-deer shooting and other sport for Clough; he himself had no engagements for the summer months, or only engagements which could be easily set aside — what more simple or more charming than to conclude a general assignation, " now that we are in one spot and of one mind ? " All this with the utmost and most cheerful assurance.

Captain Clough fell back a few paces, laughing under his breath, while Mrs. Hamilton, scared and perturbed, did what in her lay to demonstrate to this audacious youth how little she was of one mind with him, Thus it became possible to ascertain Daphne's views, which were softly communicated to one in whom she had every confidence.

"It would be so nice!— don't you think it would? How unfortunate it is that mother should have taken a dislike to him!"

" Not half as unfortunate — for him — as if you had. The reverse being the evident state of things, one may predict that you and he will get your own way."

Miss Hamilton blushed slightly. That did not prove much, for her colour was always coming and going; but Clough, who knew her face by heart, thought himself capable of knowing her heart by her face, and something told him all that he cared to discover— even a trifle more, perhaps.

"Have no fear," said he; "von Kahlenburg will turn up punctually at Marienbad."

u With you, do you mean ? "

" With or without me. My presence is not indispensable, I take it"

"Oh, but indeed, and of course, it is, M the girl protested eagerly. "To begin with, we all want you ; and then—— "

"And then?"

"Well, if you don't come, everything will fall through. Count von Kahlenburg himself sees that He says he would never have the courage to intrude upon us, without any certainty of being welcome, unless you were there to support him."

So the question of the suggested rendezvous had already been discussed between Daphne and her open admirer ! Her secret admirer smiled and kept silence, judging it best to commit himself to no promise. He foresaw, indeed, that he would presently be asked, or ordered, to make promises of a contrary nature, and this expectation was fulfilled while he was conducting Mrs. Hamilton to her carriage.

"Jack," murmured the agitated lady in his ear, " I count upon you to meet us at Marienbad in July. On or about the fifteenth, I think ; only you mustn't say so to Mrs. Perkins. And don't—oh, but f lease don't — bring that very pushing young friend of yours with you."

"I haven't the slightest wish to bring him with me, I assure you," Clough replied truthfully, if somewhat disingenuously.

That his pushing young friend would accompany him, whether he wished it or not, was a foregone conclusion ; and, had there been any doubt about the matter, it would have been removed while he was walking towards his hotel, arm in arm with the latter, who ecstatically cried aloud :

"Clough, I adore her!"

" Oh, yes, I know," returned the older man, with composure.

"Ah, you are the most wonderful fellow! — you know things almost before one knows them oneself. Well, then, it is understood, is it not? You will stand by me ? For the rest, I shall not let you out of my sight I was going to England at any rate, and now I shall cleave to you until you start for Marienbad. You will give me the signal as soon as you are ready."

" I don't quite see why I should," said Clough.

"Oh, my dear friend, you certainly see! You see that the mother is not too well disposed towards me, and that your help will be needed. That is why you will not refuse to serve those who appeal to you."

"H'm! I suppose it is. Especially as the appeal seems to be made in the plural number. Well, goodnight. I don't want to be told how beautiful and fascinating and adorable Miss Daphne is, thank you ; you can tell all that to the stars, who will listen patiently, and won't be guilty of any worse impertinence than an occasional wink."

2 5

Chapter III. Impotence

" THREE cheers! " cried Mrs. Perkins, with boisterous cordiality. "I was just saying to my girls, 'Now, you may depend upon it, the Hamiltons will turn up, this morning,' and here you are, sure enough! And how are you both ? *

Mrs. Hamilton suffered her hand to be gripped and murmured, "How do you do?" resignedly. It is cjifficult to say why we all find it so offensive to be described as " the So-and-Sos " to our faces, considering that we invariably speak of our acquaintances in that way behind their backs ; but poor old Perkins would have been offensive in any case — as offensive as she was, apparently, unavoidable.

"You'll have to fall into line," the good woman went on, quite unconscious of having given umbrage, "with all these thousands of water-drinkers; we

*6 MIS OWN FATHER.

should never get to the springs at all if we didn't form a cue and wait our turn."

Three parallel queues of the patient Curgaste were advancing, step by step, towards the Kreuzbrunn that crisp, sunny morning, white the band in the neighbouring kiosk played operatic selections to cheer them on their way. At Marienbad, as at all such places, the day begins early, and although the clocks had but just struck seven, everybody was out and about Natives of the country, for the most partsome yellow-complexioned, some preternaturally obese — with a sprinkling of Russians, Britons and other aliens discernible here and there in the throng ; upon the whole not a particularly attractive crowd ; but then who or what can look attractive at seven o'clock in the morning ? Well, the blue hills, perhaps, and the dark pine woods and the bright, white houses in the foreground. Mrs. Hamilton's *yes sought these, while her ears gave scant attention to the volubility of her fat friend, at whose heels she plodded slowly onwards, glass in hand. Her daughter had been led away by Minnie and Rosie, who presumably stood in no need of healing waters ; she herself must perforce submit for another five minutes or more to the company and conversation of Mrs. Perkins; but it was not, she thought, incumbent upon her to answer categorically the questions which were fired off at her every now and again, or to give a detailed narrative of her movements since her departure from Dresden, three months back.

"Oh, we have been travelling about," she made compendious reply, and then relapsed into silence.

Presently, however, it occurred to her to put a question on her own account— a question couched in accents of mild remonstrance.

"What could have made you expect to see us here this morning ? We only arrived last night."

" Ah ! " returned Mrs. Perkins, with an arch glance over a massive shoulder, "a little bird whispered to me that you were not far off/'

Jack was already at Marienbad, then ! Well, that was a relief; the more so because, as his tiresome habit was, be had omitted to acknowledge epistolary reminders.

" I flatter myself," Mrs. Perkins resumed complacently, " that I am rather a good hand at putting two and two together, and when a certain person appeared upon the scene the day before yesterday, full of anxiety for news of you, I thought, i Now we are getting warm! — now we may look forward to meeting dear Mrs. Hamilton again at any moment! ' In point of fact, I took the liberty of promising him as much. He seemed so delighted and so grateful, poor fellow ! "