IRAMSPLANTED 
 
 By GERTRUDE ATHER.TON 
 
 T--,K 
 
PS 
 Til 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 FROM 
 
 Wra. Sulzer 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS 1042.T77 
 
 Transplanted a novel. 
 
 3 1924 022 113 579 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022113579 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
BY MRS. ATHERTON 
 Historical 
 
 The Conqueror 
 
 A few of Hamilton's Letters 
 
 California: An Intimate History 
 War Book 
 
 The Living Present 
 
 Fiction 
 
 California 
 
 Rezanov 
 
 The Doomswomao 
 
 The Splendid Idle Forties (1800-46) 
 
 A Daughter of the Vine (The Sixties) 
 
 Transplanted (The Eighties) 
 
 The Californians (Companion Volume to 
 
 Transplanted) 
 A Whirl Asunder (The Nineties) 
 Ancestors (Present) 
 The Valiant Runaways; A Book for JJoys 
 
 US40) 
 
 In Other Parts of the World 
 The Avalanche 
 The White Morning 
 Mrs. Balfame 
 
 Perch of the Devil (Montana) 
 Tower of Ivory (Mumch and England) 
 Julia France and Her Times (B. W. I. and 
 
 England) 
 Rulers of Kings (Austria, Hungary and the 
 
 Adirondacks) 
 The Travelling Thirds (Spain) 
 The Gorgeous Isle (Nevis, B. W. I.) 
 Senator North ( Washington) 
 Patience Sparhawk and Her Times (Califor- 
 nia and New York) 
 The Aristocrats (The Adirondacks) 
 The Bell in the Fog (Short Stories of 
 various Climes and Places) 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 A NOVEL 
 
 By GERTRUDE A^THERTON 
 
 Author of" The Conqueror ," 
 " Tower of Ivory," etc 
 
 NEW YORK: DODD, MEAD 
 AND COMPANY 1919 
 
V 
 v 
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1898 
 
 BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 As "American Wives and English Husbands" 
 
 New and revised edition 
 
 Copyrighted, 1919 
 
 By Gertrude Athertoa 
 
TO 
 
 THE LADIES OF RUE GIROT 
 BOIS GU1LLAUME 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 PART ONE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MRS. HAYNE'S boarding-house stood on the 
 corner of Market Street and one of those 
 cross streets which seem to leap down from the 
 heights of San Francisco and empty themselves into 
 the great central thoroughfare that roars from the 
 sandy desert at the base of Twin Peaks to the teem- 
 ing wharves on the edge of the bay. On the right 
 of Market Street, both on the hills and in the erratic 
 branchings of the central plain, as far as the eye can 
 reach, climbs and swarms modern prosperous San 
 Francisco; of what lies beyond, the less said the 
 better. On the left, at the far south-east, the halo 
 of ancient glory still hovers about Rincon Hill,* 
 growing dimmer with the years: few of the many 
 who made the social laws of the Fifties cling to the 
 old houses in the battered gardens; and their chil- 
 dren marry and build on the gay hills across the 
 plain. In the plain itself is a thick-set, low-browed, 
 dust-coloured city; "South of Market Street" is a 
 
 •This was written before the earthquake and fire of 1906. 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 generic term for hundreds of streets in which dwell 
 thousands of insignificant beings, some of whom 
 promenade the democratic boundary line by gas- 
 light, but rarely venture up the aristocratic slopes. 
 By day or by night Market Street rarely has a 
 moment of rest, of peace; it is a blaze of colour, a 
 medley of sound, shrill, raucous, hollow, furious, 
 a net-work of busy people and vehicles until mid- 
 night is over. Every phase of the city's manifold 
 life is suggested there, every aspect of its cosmo- 
 politanism. 
 
 To a little girl of eleven, who dwelt on the third 
 floor of Mrs. Hayne's boarding-house, Market Street 
 was a panorama of serious study and unvarying 
 interest. She knew every shop window, in all the 
 mutable details of the seasons, she had mingled with 
 the throng unnumbered times, studying that strange 
 patch-work of faces, and wondering if they had any 
 life apart from the scene in which they seemed eter- 
 nally moving. In those days Market Street typified 
 the world to her; although her school was some 
 eight blocks up the hill it scarcely counted. All 
 the world, she felt convinced, came sooner or later 
 to Market Street, and sauntered or hurried with 
 restless eyes, up and down, up and down. The sun 
 rose at one end and set at the other; it climbed 
 straight across the sky and went to bed behind the 
 Twin Peaks. And the trade winds roared through 
 Market Street as through a mighty canon, and the 
 sand hills beyond the city seemed to rise bodily and 
 whirl down the great way, making men curse and 
 women jerk their knuckles to their eyes. On sum- 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 mer nights the fog came and banked there, and the 
 lights shone through it like fallen stars, and the 
 people looked like wraiths, lost souls condemned to 
 wander unceasingly. 
 
 When Mrs. Tarleton was too ill to be left alone, 
 Lee amused herself watching from above the crush 
 and tangle of street cars, hacks, trucks, and drays 
 for which the wide road should have been as wide 
 again, holding her breath as the impatient or timid 
 foot-passengers darted into the transient rifts with 
 bird-like leaps of vision and wild deflections. Occa- 
 sionally she assumed the part of chorus for her 
 mother, who regarded the prospect beneath her 
 windows with horror. 
 
 "Now! She's started — at last! Oh! wfiat a 
 silly! Any one could have seen that truck with 
 half an eye. She turned back — of course! Now! 
 Now ! she 's got to the middle and there 's a funeral 
 just turned the corner! She can't get back! She s 
 got to go on. Oh, she s got behind a man. I won- 
 der if she'll catch hold of his coat-tails? There — 
 she 's safe! I wonder if she 's afraid of people like 
 she is of Market Street ? " 
 
 " If I ever thought you crossed that street at the 
 busy time of the day, honey, I should certainly faint 
 or have hysterics, " Mrs. Tarleton was in the habit of 
 remarking at the finish of these thrilling interpre- 
 tations. 
 
 To which Lee invariably replied: "I could go 
 right across without stopping, or getting a crick in 
 my neck either; but I don't, because I wouldn't 
 make you nervous for the world. I go way up when 
 
 3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 I want to cross and then turn back. It 's nothing 
 like as bad." 
 
 "It is shocking to think that you go out at all 
 unattended; but what cannot be cannot, and you 
 must have air and exercise, poor child!" 
 
 Lee, who retained a blurred, albeit rosy impres- 
 sion of her former grandeur, was well pleased with 
 her liberty; and Mrs. Tarleton was not only satisfied 
 that any one who could take such good care of her 
 mother was quite able to take care of herself, but, 
 so dependent was she on the capable child, that she 
 was frequently oblivious to the generation they 
 rounded. Mrs. Tarleton was an invalid, and, although 
 patient, she met her acuter sufferings unresistingly. 
 Lee was so accustomed to be roused in the middle 
 of the night that she had learned to make a poultice 
 or heat a kettle of water while the receding dreams 
 were still lapping at her brain. She dressed her 
 mother in the morning and undressed her at night. 
 She frequently chafed her hands and feet by the 
 hour; and cooked many a dainty Southern dish on 
 the stove in the corner. Miss Hayne, who had a 
 sharp red nose and the anxious air of protracted 
 maidenhood, but whose heart was normal, made it 
 her duty to fetch books for the invalid from the 
 Mercantile Library, and to look in upon her while 
 Lee was at school. 
 
 Lee brushed and mended her own clothes, 
 " blacked " her boots with a vigorous arm, and studied 
 her lessons when other little girls were in bed. 
 Fortunately she raked them in with extreme rapidity, 
 or Mrs. Tarleton would have made an effort and 
 
 4 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 remonstrated ; but Lee declared that she must have 
 her afternoons out of doors when her mother was 
 well and companioned by a novel ; and Mrs. Tarleton 
 scrupulously refrained from thwarting the girl whose 
 narrow childhood was so unlike what her own had 
 been, so unlike what the fairies had promised when 
 Hayward Tarleton had been the proudest and most 
 indulgent of fathers. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MARGUERITE TARLETON'S impression of 
 the hour in which she found herself widowed 
 and penniless was very vague; she was down with 
 brain fever in the hour that followed. 
 
 The Civil War had left her family with little but 
 the great prestige of its name and the old house in 
 New Orleans. Nevertheless, the house slaves having 
 refused to accept their freedom, Marguerite had 
 " never picked up her handkerchief," when, in a 
 gown fashioned by her mammy from one of her 
 dead mother's, she made her debut in a society which 
 retained all of its pride and little of its gaiety. Her 
 mother had been a Creole of great beauty and fas 
 cination. Marguerite inherited her impulsiveness 
 and vivacity ; and, for the rest, was ethereally pretty, 
 as dainty and fastidious as a young princess, and had 
 the soft manner and the romantic heart of the con- 
 vent maiden. Hayward Tarleton captured twelve 
 dances on this night of her triumphant debut, and 
 proposed a week later. They were married within 
 the month; he had already planned to seek for 
 fortune in California with what was left of his 
 princely inheritance. 
 
 When Tarleton and his bride reached San Fran- 
 cisco the fortune he had come to woo fairly leapt 
 
 6 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 into his arms ; in three years he was a rich man, and 
 his pretty and elegant young wife a social power. 
 It was a very happy marriage. Marguerite idolised 
 her handsome dashing husband, and he was the 
 slave of her lightest whim. Their baby was petted 
 and indulged until she ruled her adoring parents 
 with a rod of iron, and tyrannised over the servants 
 like a young slave-driver. But the parents saw no 
 fault in her, and, in truth, she was an affectionate 
 and amiable youngster, with a fund of good sense 
 for which the servants were at a loss to account. 
 She had twenty-six dolls at this period, a large 
 roomful of toys, a pony, and a playhouse of three 
 storeys in a corner of the garden. 
 
 Then came the great Virginia City mining excite- 
 ment of the late Seventies. Tarleton, satiated with 
 easy success, and longing for excitement, gambled; 
 at first from choice, finally from necessity. His 
 nerves swarmed over his will and stung it to death, 
 his reason burnt to ashes. He staggered home 
 one day, this man who had been intrepid on the 
 battle-field for four blood-soaked and exhausting 
 years, told his wife that he had not a dollar in the 
 world, then went into the next room and blew out 
 his brains. 
 
 The creditors seized the house. Two hours before 
 Mrs. Tarleton had been carried to Rincon Hill to 
 the home of Mrs. Montgomery, a Southerner who 
 had known her mother and who would have offered 
 shelter to every stricken compatriot in San Francisco 
 if her children had not restrained her. Lee, who 
 had been present when her father spoke his last 
 
 7 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 words to his wife, and had heard the report of the 
 pistol, lost all interest in dolls and picture-books 
 for ever, and refused to leave the sick-room. She 
 waited on her mother by day, and slept on a sofa at 
 the foot of the bed. Mrs. Montgomery exclaimed 
 that the child was positively uncanny, she was so old- 
 fashioned, but that she certainly was lovable. Her 
 own young children, Tiny and Randolph, although 
 some years older than Lee, thought her profoundly 
 interesting, and stole into the sick-room whenever 
 the nurse's back was turned. Lee barely saw them ; 
 she retained no impression of them afterward, al- 
 though the children were famous for their beauty 
 and fine manners. 
 
 When Mrs. Tarleton recovered, her lawyer re- 
 minded her that some years before her husband 
 had given her a ranch for which she had expressed 
 an impulsive wish and as quickly forgotten. The 
 deeds were at his office. She gave her jewels to the 
 creditors, but decided to keep the ranch, remarking 
 that her child was of more importance than all 
 the creditors put together. The income was small, 
 but she was grateful for it Her next of kin were 
 dead, and charity would have been insufferable. 
 
 Mrs. Hayne, a reduced Southerner, whom Tarleton 
 had started in business, offered his widow a large 
 front room on the third floor of her boarding-house 
 at the price of a back one. In spite of Mrs. Mont- 
 gomery's tears and remonstrances, Mrs. Tarleton 
 accepted the offer, and persuaded herself that she 
 was comfortable. She never went to the table, nor 
 paid a call. Her friends, particularly the Southern' 
 
 8 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 ers of her immediate circle, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. 
 Geary, Mrs. Brannan, Mrs. Cartright, and Colonel 
 Belmont were faithful ; but as the years passed their 
 visits became less frequent, and Mrs. Montgomery 
 was much abroad with her children. Marguerite 
 Tarleton cared little. Her interest in life had died 
 with her husband ; such energies as survived in her 
 were centred in her child. When there was neither 
 fog nor dust nor wind nor rain in the city, Lee 
 dressed her peremptorily and took her for a ride 
 in the cable-cars ; but she spent measureless monoto- 
 nous days in her reclining chair, reading or sewing. 
 She did not complain except when in extreme pain, 
 and was interested in every lineament of Lee's busy 
 little life. She never shed a tear before the child, 
 and managed to maintain an even state of mild cheer- 
 fulness. And she was grateful for Lee's skill and 
 readiness in small matters as in great; her unaccus- 
 tomed fingers would have made havoc with her hair 
 and boots. 
 
 " Did you never, never button your own boots, 
 memmy?" asked Lee one day, as she was perform- 
 ing that office. 
 
 " Never, honey. When Dinah was ill your father 
 always buttoned them, and after she died he would n't 
 have thought of letting any one else touch them; 
 most people pinch so. Of course he could not do 
 my hair, but he often put me to bed, and he always 
 cut up my meat." 
 
 " Do all men do those things for their wives ? " 
 asked Lee in a voice of awe ; " I think they must 
 be very nice." 
 
 9 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " All men who are fit to marry, and all Southern 
 men, you may be sure. I want to live long enough 
 to see you married to a man as nearly like your 
 father as possible. I wonder if there are any left ; 
 America gallops so. He used to beg me to think 
 of something new I wanted, something it would be 
 difficult to get ; and he fairly adored to button my 
 boots ; he never failed to put a little kiss right there 
 on my instep when he finished." 
 
 " It must be lovely to be married ! " said Lee. 
 
 Mrs. Tarleton closed her eyes. 
 
 "Was papa perfectly perfect? " asked Lee, as she 
 finished her task and smoothed the kid over her 
 mother's beautiful instep. 
 
 " Perfectly ! " 
 
 " I heard the butler say once that he was as drunk 
 as a lord." 
 
 "Possibly, but he was perfect all the same. He 
 got drunk like a gentleman — a Southern gentleman, 
 I mean, of course. I always put him to bed and 
 never alluded to it." 
 
 BC 
 
CHAPTER HI 
 
 T EE had no friends of her own age. The large 
 -■— ' private school she attended was not patronised 
 by the aristocracy of the city, and Mrs. Tarleton had 
 so thoroughly imbued her daughter with a sense of 
 the vast superiority of the gentle-born Southerner 
 over the mere American, that Lee found in the 
 youthful patrons of the Chambers Institute little like- 
 ness to her ideals. The children of her mother's old 
 friends were educated at home or at small and very 
 expensive schools, preparatory to a grand finish in 
 New York and Europe. Lee had continued to meet 
 several of these fortunate youngsters during the first 
 two of the five years which had followed her father's 
 death, but as she outgrew her fine clothes, and was 
 put into ginghams for the summers and stout plaids 
 for the winters, she was obliged to drop out of fash- 
 ionable society. Occasionally she saw her former 
 playmates sitting in their parents' carriages before 
 some shop in Kearney Street. They always nodded 
 gaily to her with the loyalty of their caste ; the magic 
 halo of position survives poverty, scandal and exile. 
 
 " When you are grown I shall put my pride in my 
 pocket, and ask Mrs. Montgomery to bring you out, 
 and Jack Belmont to give you a party dress," said 
 Mrs. Tarleton one day. " I think you will be pretty, 
 
 ii 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 for your features are exactly like your father's, and 
 you have so much expression when you are right 
 happy, poor child! You must remember never to 
 frown, nor wrinkle up your forehead, nor eat hot cakes, 
 nor too much candy, and always wear your camphor 
 bag so you won't catch anything ; and do stand up 
 straight, and you must wear a veil when these horrid 
 trade winds blow. Beauty is the whole battle of life 
 for a woman, honey, and if you only do grow up 
 pretty and are properly lanc&, you will be sure to 
 marry well. That is all I am trying to live for." 
 
 Lee donned the veil to please her mother, although 
 she loved to feel the wind in her hair. But she was 
 willing to be beautiful, as beauty meant servants and 
 the reverse of boarding-house diet. She hoped to 
 find a husband as handsome and devoted as her 
 father, and was quite positive that the kidney flour- 
 ished within the charmed circle of society. But she 
 sometimes regarded her sallow little visage with deep 
 distrust. Her black hair hung in lank strands; no 
 amount of coaxing would make it curl, and her eyes, 
 she decided, were altogether too light a blue for 
 beauty; her mother had saved Tarleton's small library 
 of standard novels from the wreck, and Lee had dipped 
 into them on rainy days; the heroine's eyes when not 
 black " were a dark rich blue." Her eyes looked the 
 lighter for the short thick lashes surrounding them, 
 and the heavy brows above. She was also very thin, 
 and stooped slightly ; but the maternal eye was hope- 
 ful. Mrs. Tarleton's delicate beauty had vanished 
 with her happiness, but while her husband lived she 
 had preserved and made the most of it with many 
 
 13 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 little arts. These she expounded at great length to 
 her daughter, who privately thought beauty a great 
 bore, unless ready-made and warranted to wear, and 
 frequently permitted her mind to wander. 
 
 " At least remember this," exclaimed Mrs. Tarleton 
 impatiently one day at the end of a homily, to which 
 Lee had given scant heed, being absorbed in the ad- 
 venturous throng below, " if you are beautiful you 
 rule men ; if you are plain, men rule you. If you are 
 beautiful your husband is your slave, if you are plain 
 you are his upper servant. All the brains the blue- 
 stockings will ever pile up will not be worth one com- 
 plexion. (I do hope you are not going to be a blue, 
 honey.) Why are American women the most suc- 
 cessful in the world ? Because they know how to 
 be beautiful. I have seen many beautiful American 
 women who had no beauty at all. What they want 
 they will have, and the will to be beautiful is like 
 yeast to dough. If women are flap-jacks it is their 
 own fault Only cultivate a complexion, and learn 
 how to dress and walk as if you were used to the 
 homage of princes, and the world will call you beau- 
 tiful. Above all, get a complexion." 
 
 " I will ! I will ! " responded Lee fervently. She 
 pinned her veil all round her hat, squared her shoul- 
 ders like a young grenadier, and went forth for air. 
 
 Although debarred from the society of her equals, 
 she had friends of another sort. It was her private 
 ambition at this period to keep a little shop, one half 
 of which should be gay and fragrant with candies, the 
 other sober and imposing with books. This ambition 
 she wisely secluded from her aristocratic parent, but 
 
 13 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 she gratified it vicariously. Some distance up Market 
 Street she had discovered a book shop, scarcely wider 
 than its door and about eight feet deep. Its presiding 
 deity was a blonde young man, out-at-elbows, con- 
 sumptive and vague. Lee never knew his name ; she 
 always alluded to him as " Soft-head." He never 
 asked hers; but he welcomed her with a slight access 
 of expression, and made a place for her on the 
 counter. There she sat and swung her legs for hours 
 together, confiding her ambitions and plans, and re- 
 capitulating her lessons for the intellectual benefit of 
 her host. In return he told her the histories of the 
 queer people who patronised him, and permitted her 
 to " tend shop." He thought her a prodigy, and 
 made her little presents of paper and coloured 
 pencils. Not to be under obligations, she crocheted 
 him a huge woollen scarf, which he assured her 
 greatly improved his health. 
 
 She also had a warm friend in a girl who presided 
 over a candy store, but her bosom friend and confi. 
 dante was a pale weary-looking young woman who sud- 
 denly appeared in a secondhand book shop in lowly 
 Fourth Street, on the wrong side of Market. Lee was 
 examining the dirty and disease-haunted volumes on 
 the stand in front of the shop one day, when she glanced 
 through the window and met the eager eyes and smile 
 of a stranger. She entered the shop at once, and, 
 planting her elbows on the counter, told the newcomer 
 hospitably that she was delighted to welcome her t« 
 that part of the city, and would call every afternoon if 
 she would be permitted to tend shop occasionally. If 
 the stranger was amused she did not betray herself; 
 
 14 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 she accepted the overture with every appearance of 
 gratitude, and begged Lee to regard the premises as 
 her own. For six months the friendship flourished. 
 The young woman, whose name was Stainers, helped 
 Lee with her sums, and had a keenly sympathetic ear 
 for the troubles of little girls. Of herself she never 
 spoke. Then she gave up her own battle, and was 
 carried to the county hospital to die. Lee visited her 
 twice, and one afternoon her mother told her that the 
 notice of Miss Stainer's death had been in the news- 
 paper that morning. 
 
 Lee wept long and heavily for the gentle friend 
 who had carried her secrets into a pauper's grave. 
 
 " You are so young, and you have had so much 
 trouble," said Mrs. Tarleton with a sigh, that 
 night. " But perhaps it will give you more char- 
 acter than I ever had. And nothing can break 
 your spirits. They are your grandmother's all over ; 
 you even gesticulate like her sometimes and then 
 you look just like a little creole. She was a won- 
 derful woman, honey, and had forty-nine offers of 
 marriage." 
 
 " I hope men are nicer than boys," remarked Lee, 
 not unwilling to be diverted. " The boys in this 
 house are horrid. Bertie Reynolds pulls my hair 
 every time I pass him, and calls me ' Squaw ; ' and 
 Tom Wilson throws bread balls at me at the table 
 and calls me ' Broken-down-aristocracy.' I 'm sure 
 they 11 never kiss a girl's slipper." 
 
 " A few years from now some girl will be leading 
 them round by the nose. You never can tell how a 
 boy will turn out ; it all depends upon whether girls 
 
 IS 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 take an interest in him or not. These are probably 
 scrubs." 
 
 " There 's a new one and he 's rather shy. They 
 say he 's English. He and his father came last night. 
 The boy's name is Cecil ; I heard his father speak to 
 him at the table to-night. The father has a funny 
 name ; I can't remember it. Mrs. Hayne says he is 
 very distingut, and she 's sure he 's a lord in disguise, 
 but I think he 's very thin and ugly. He has the 
 deepest lines on each side of his mouth, and a big 
 thin nose, and a droop at the corner of his eyes. 
 He 's the stuck-uppest looking thing I ever saw. 
 The boy is about twelve, I reckon, and looks as if 
 he was n't afraid of anything but girls. He has the 
 curliest hair and the loveliest complexion, and his 
 eyes laugh. They 're hazel, and his hair is brown. 
 He looks much nicer than any boy I ever saw." 
 
 " He is the son of a gentleman — and English 
 gentlemen are the only ones that can compare with 
 Southerners, honey. If you make friends with him 
 you may bring him up here." 
 
 " Goodness gracious ! " exclaimed Lee. Her 
 mother had encouraged her to ignore boys, and 
 disliked visitors of any kind. 
 
 " I feel sure he is going to be your next friend, 
 and you are so lonely, honey, now that poor Miss 
 Stainers is gone. So ask him up if you like. It 
 makes me very sad to think that you have no 
 playmates." 
 
 Lee climbed up on her mother's lap. Once in a 
 great while she laid aside the dignity of her superior 
 position in the family, and demanded a petting. 
 
 16 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Mrs. Tarleton held her close and shut her eyes, and 
 strove to imagine that the child in her arms was five 
 years younger, and that both were listening for a step 
 which so often smote her memory with agonising 
 distinctness. 
 
 17 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 LEE sat limply on the edge of her cot wishing 
 she had a husband to button her boots. Mrs. 
 Tarleton had been very ill during the night, and her 
 daughter's brain and eyes were heavy. Lee had no 
 desire for school, for anything but bed; but it was 
 eight o'clock, examinations were approaching, and 
 to school she must go. She glared resentfully at the 
 long row of buttons, half inclined to wear her slip- 
 pers, and finally compromised by fastening every 
 third button. The rest of her toilette was accom- 
 plished with a like disregard for fashion. She was 
 not pleased with her appearance and was disposed 
 to regard life as a failure. At breakfast she received 
 a severe reprimand from Mrs. Hayne, who informed 
 her and the table inclusively that her hair looked as 
 if it had been combed by a rake, and rebuttoned her 
 frock there and then with no regard for the pride of 
 eleven. Altogether, Lee, between her recent afflic- 
 tion, her tired head, and her wounded dignity, started 
 for school in a very depressed frame of mind. 
 
 As she descended the long stair leading from the 
 first floor of the boarding-house to the street she 
 saw the English lad standing in the door. They had 
 exchanged glances of curiosity and interest across 
 
 18 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the table, and once he had offered her radishes, with 
 a lively blush. That morning she had decided that 
 he must be very nice indeed, for he had turned scar- 
 let during Mrs. Hayne's scolding and had scowled 
 quite fiercely at the autocrat. 
 
 He did not look up nor move until she asked him 
 to let her pass ; he was apparently absorbed in the 
 loud voluntary of Market Street, his cap on the back 
 of his head, his hands in his pockets, his feet well 
 apart. When Lee spoke, he turned swiftly and 
 grabbed at her school-bag. 
 
 " You 're tired," he said, with so desperate an 
 assumption of ease that he was brutally abrupt, and 
 Lee jumped backward a foot. 
 
 " I beg pardon," he stammered, his eyes full of 
 nervous tears. " But — but — you looked so tired at 
 breakfast, and you did n't eat ; I thought I 'd like 
 to carry your books.'' 
 
 Lee's face beamed with delight, and its fatigue 
 vanished, but she said primly : " You 're very good, 
 I 'm sure, and I like boys that do things for girls." 
 
 " I don't usually," he replied hastily, as if fearful 
 that his dignity had been compromised. " But, let 's 
 come along. You 're late." 
 
 They walked in silence for a few moments. The 
 lad's courage appeared exhausted, and Lee was cast- 
 ing about for a brilliant remark ; she was the cleverest 
 girl in her class and careful of her reputation. But 
 her brain would not work this morning, and fearing 
 that her new friend would bolt, she said precipi- 
 tately : 
 
 " I 'm eleven. How old are you? " 
 iq 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Fourteen and eleven months." 
 
 " My name 's Lee Tarleton. What 's yours? " 
 
 " Cecil Edward Basil Maundrell. I 've got two 
 more than you have." 
 
 " Well you 're a boy, anyhow, and bigger, are n't 
 you ? I 'm named after a famous man — second 
 cousin, General Lee. Lee was my father's mother's 
 family name." 
 
 " Who was General Lee? " 
 
 " You 'd better study United States history." 
 
 " What for? " 
 
 The question puzzled Lee, her eagle being yet in 
 the shell. She replied rather lamely, " Well, Southern 
 history, because my mother says we are descended 
 from the English, and some French. It's the last 
 makes us Creoles." 
 
 "Oh! I'll ask father." 
 
 " Is he a lord ? " asked Lee, with deep curiosity. 
 
 " No." 
 
 The boy answered so abruptly that Lee stood still 
 and stared at him. He had set his lips tightly; it 
 would almost seem he feared something might leap 
 from them. 
 
 " Oh — h — h ! Your father has forbidden you to 
 tell." 
 
 The clumsy male looked helplessly at the astute 
 female. " He is n't a lord," he asserted doggedly. 
 
 " You are n't telling me all, though." 
 
 " Perhaps I 'm not But," impulsively, " perhaps I 
 will some day. I hate being locked up like a tin box 
 with papers in it. We 've been here two weeks — at 
 the Palace Hotel before we came to Mrs. Hayne's — ■ 
 
 20 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 and my head fairly aches thinking of everything I say 
 before I say it I hate this old California. Father 
 won't present any letters, and the boys I 've met are 
 cads. But I like you ! " 
 
 " Oh, tell me ! " cried Lee. Her eyes blazed and 
 she hopped excitedly on one foot. " It 's like a real 
 story. Tell me ! " 
 
 " I '11 have to know you better. I must be sure I 
 can trust you." He had all at once assumed a darkly 
 mysterious air. " I '11 walk every morning to school 
 with you, and in the afternoons we '11 sit in the draw- 
 ing-room and talk." 
 
 " I never tell secrets. I know lots ! " 
 
 " I '11 wait a week." 
 
 " Well ; but I think it 's horrid of you. And I can't 
 come down this afternoon; my mother is ill. But 
 to-morrow I have a holiday, and if you like you can 
 come up and see me at two o'clock; and you shall 
 carry my bag every morning to school." 
 
 " Indeed ! " He threw up his head like a young 
 racehorse. 
 
 "You must," — firmly. "Else you can't come. 
 I'll let some other boy carry it." Lee fibbed with a 
 qualm, but not upon barren soil had the maternal 
 counsel fallen. 
 
 "Oh — well — I'll do it; but I ought to have of- 
 fered. Girls ought not to tell boys what to do." 
 
 " My mother always told her husband and brothers 
 and cousins to do everything she wanted, and they 
 always did it." 
 
 " Well, I 've got a grandmother and seven old maid 
 aunts, and they never asked me to do a thing in their 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 lives. They wait on me. They'd do anything for 
 me." 
 
 " You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Boys were 
 made to wait on girls." 
 
 " They were not. I never heard such rot" 
 
 Lee considered a moment. He was quite as aris- 
 tocratic as any Southerner; there was no doubt of 
 that. But he had been badly brought up. Her duty 
 was plain. 
 
 " You 'd be just perfect if you thought girls were 
 more important than yourself," she said wheedlingly. 
 
 " I '11 never do that," he replied stoutly. 
 
 " Then we can't be friends ! " 
 
 " Oh, I say ! Don't rot like that. I won't give you 
 something I 've got in my pockets, if you do." 
 
 Lee glanced swiftly at his pockets. They bulged. 
 " Well, I won't any more to-day," she said sweetly. 
 "What have you got for me? You are a nice 
 boy." 
 
 He produced an orange and a large red apple, and 
 offered them diffidently. 
 
 Lee accepted them promptly. "Did you really 
 buy these for me ? " she demanded, her eyes flashing 
 above the apple. " You are the best boy ! " 
 
 " I did n't buy them on purpose, but my father 
 bought a box of fruit yesterday and I saved these for 
 you. They were the biggest." 
 
 " I 'm ever so much obliged." 
 
 " You 're welcome," he replied, with equal concern 
 for the formalities. 
 
 " This is my school." 
 
 " Well, I 'm sorry." 
 
 "28 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " You '11 come up at two to-morrow? Number 142, 
 third floor." 
 
 " I will." 
 
 They shook hands limply. He glanced back as he 
 walked off, whistling. Lee was standing on the steps 
 hastily disposing of her apple. She nodded gaily <o 
 him. 
 
 33 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE next afternoon Lee made an elaborate toi- 
 lette. She buttoned her boots properly, sewed 
 a stiff, white ruffle in her best gingham frock, and 
 combed every snarl out of her hair. Mrs. Tarleton, 
 who was sitting up, regarded her with some surprise. 
 
 " It 's nowhere near dinner time, honey," she said, 
 finally. " Why are you dressing up? " 
 
 Lee blushed, but replied with an air : " I expect 
 that little boy I told you about, to come to see me — 
 the English one. He carried my bag to school yes- 
 terday, and gave me an apple and an orange. I 've 
 kept the orange for you when you're well. His 
 name's Cecil Maundrell." 
 
 " Ah ! Well, I hope he is a nice boy, and that 
 you will be great friends." 
 
 " He 's nice enough in his way. But he 'd just 
 walk over me if I 'd let him. I can see that." 
 
 Mrs. Tarleton looked alarmed. "Don't let him 
 bully you, darling. Englishmen are dreadfully high 
 and mighty." 
 
 There was a faint and timid rap upon the door. 
 
 "That's him," whispered Lee. "He's afraid of 
 me all the same." 
 
 She opened the door. Young Maundrell stood 
 there, his cheeks burning, his hands working ner- 
 voi sly in his pockets. He looked younger than 
 
 24 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 most lads of his age, and had all that simplicity of 
 boyhood so lacking in the precocious American 
 youth. 
 
 "Won't you come in? " asked Lee politely. 
 
 " Oh — ah — won't you come out? " 
 
 " Come in — do," said Mrs. Tarleton. She had a 
 very sweet voice and a heavenly smile. The boy 
 walked forward rapidly, and took her hand, regard- 
 ing her with curious intensity. Mrs. Tarleton patted 
 his hand. 
 
 " You miss the women of your family, do you 
 not?" she said. "I thought so. You must come 
 and see us often. You will be always welcome." 
 
 His face was brilliant. He stammered out that 
 he 'd come every day. Then he went over to the 
 window with Lee, and with their heads together 
 they agreed that Mrs. Tarleton was a real angel. 
 
 But Cecil quickly tired of the subdued atmosphere, 
 and of the crowd below. He stood up abruptly and 
 said: 
 
 " Let 's go out if your mother does n't mind. We '11 
 take a walk." 
 
 Mrs. Tarleton looked up from her book and nodded 
 Lee fetched her hat and jacket, and they went forth. 
 
 " My father took me to the Cliff House one day. 
 We '11 go there," announced the Englishman. 
 
 " I was going to take you to a candy store — " 
 
 "Nasty stuff! It's a beautiful walk to the Cliff 
 House, and there are big waves and live seals." 
 
 " Oh, I 'd love to go, but I 've heard it 's a queer 
 kind of a place, or something." 
 
 " I '11 take care of you. Can you walk a lot? " 
 as 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Of course ! " 
 
 But like all San Franciscans, she was a bad walker, 
 and she felt very weary as they tramped along the 
 Cliff House road. However, she was much interested 
 in the many carriages flashing past, and too proud to 
 confess herself unequal to the manly stride beside 
 her. Cecil did not suit his pace to hers. He kept 
 up a steady tramp — his back very erect, his head 
 in the air. Lee forgot her theories, and thought him 
 adorable. His shyness wore off by degrees, and he 
 talked constantly, not of his family life, but of his 
 beloved Eton, from which he appeared to have been 
 ruthlessly torn, and of his feats at cricket He was 
 a champion " dry bob," he assured her proudly. 
 Lee was deeply interested, but would have liked to 
 talk about herself a little. He did not ask her a 
 question; he was charmed with her sympathy, and 
 confided his school troubles, piling up the agony, as 
 her eyes softened and flashed; When she capped 
 an anecdote of martyrdom with one from her own ex- 
 perience, he listened politely, but when she finished, 
 hastened on with his own reminiscences, not pausing 
 to comment. Lee experienced a slight chill, and the 
 spring day seemed less brilliant, the people in the 
 carriages less fair. But she was a child, the impres- 
 sion quickly passed, and her interest surrendered 
 once more. 
 
 " We '11 be there in two minutes," said Cecil. 
 " Then we '11 have a cup of tea." 
 
 " My mother does n't let me drink tea or coffee. 
 She hopes I '11 have a complexion some day and be 
 pretty." 
 
 26 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 She longed for the masculine assurance that her 
 beauty was a foregone conclusion, but Cecil replied : 
 
 " Oh ! the idea of bothering about complexion. I 
 like you because you 're not silly like other girls. 
 You 've got a lot of sense — just like a boy. Of 
 course you must n't disobey your mother, but you 
 must have something after that walk. You've got 
 a lot of pluck, but I can see you're blown a 
 bit. Would she mind if you had a glass of wine? 
 I 've got ten dollars. My stepmother sent them 
 to me." 
 
 " My ! — I don't think she 'd mind about the wine. 
 I 've never tasted it. Oh, goodness ! " 
 
 They had mounted one of the rocks, and faced 
 the ocean. Lee had thought the bay, girt with its 
 colourous hills very beautiful, as they had trudged 
 along the cliffs, but she had had glimpses of it many 
 times from the heights of San Francisco. She had 
 never seen the ocean before. Its roar thrilled her 
 nerves, and the great green waves, rolling in with 
 magnificent precision from the grey plain beyond, 
 to leap abruptly over the outlying rocks, their spray 
 glittering in the sunlight like a crust of jewels, filled 
 her brain with new and inexpressible sensations. She 
 turned suddenly to Cecil. His eyes met hers with 
 deep impersonal sympathy ; their souls mingled on 
 the common ground of nervous exaltation. He moved 
 closer to her and took her hand. 
 
 "That's the reason I wanted to come again," he 
 said. " I love it." 
 
 The words shook his nerves down, and he added ; 
 " But let 's go and freshen up." 
 
 2? 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 She followed him up the rocks to the little shabby 
 building set into the cliff and overhanging the waves. 
 She knew nothing of its secrets ; no suspicion crossed 
 her innocent mind that if its walls could speak, San 
 Francisco, highly seasoned as it was, would shake 
 to its roots, and heap up its record of suicide and 
 divorce; but she wondered why two women, who 
 came out and passed her hurriedly, were so heavily 
 veiled, and why others, sitting in the large restaurant, 
 had such queer-looking cheeks and eyes. Some in- 
 herited instinct forbade her to comment to Cecil, who 
 ■did not give the women a glance. He led her to a 
 little table at the end of the piazza, and ordered claret 
 and water, tea, and a heaping plate of bread and 
 butter. 
 
 It was some time before they were served, and 
 they gazed delightedly at a big ship going out, and 
 wished they were on it ; at the glory of colour on the 
 hills opposite; and at the seals chattering on the 
 rocks below. 
 
 "It's heavenly, perfectly heavenly/' sighed Lee. 
 " I never had such a good time in all my life." 
 
 She forgot her complexion and took off her hat. 
 The salt breeze stung the blood into her cheeks, and 
 her eyes danced with joy. 
 
 The waiter brought the little repast. The chil- 
 dren sipped and nibbled and chattered. Cecil 
 scarcely took his eyes off the water. He and his 
 father went off on sailing and fishing excursions every 
 summer, he told Lee, and he was so keen on the 
 water that it had taken him fully three months after 
 be entered Eton to decide whether he would be a 
 
 28 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " v^.. bob," or a " dry bob." Cricket had triumphed, 
 because he loved to feel his heels fly. 
 
 Lee gave him a divided attention : her brain was 
 fairly dancing, and seemed ready to fly off in several 
 different directions at once. "Oh!" she cried sud- 
 denly, " I 'm not a bit tired any more. I feel as if I 
 could walk miles and miles. Let's have an adven- 
 ture. Would n't it be just glorious if we could have 
 an adventure ? " 
 
 The boy's eyes flashed. " Oh, would you. I 've 
 been thinking about it — but you're a girl. But 
 you 're such a jolly sort ! We '11 get one of those 
 fishing-boats to take us out to sea, and climb up and 
 down those big waves. Oh, fancy ! I say ! — will 
 you ? " 
 
 " Oh, won't I? Youbetcherlife I will." 
 
 Cecil paid his reckoning, and the children scrambled 
 along the rocks to a cove where a fishing smack was 
 making ready for sea. Lee wondered why her feet 
 glanced, off the rocks in such a peculiar fashion, but 
 she was filled with the joy of exhilaration, of a reck- 
 less delight in doing something of which the entire 
 Hayne boarding-house would disapprove. 
 
 Cecil made a rapid bargain with the man, an 
 ugly Italian, who gave him scant attention. A few 
 moments later they were skimming up and down the 
 big waves and making for the open sea. At first Lee 
 clung in terror to Cecil, who assured her patronisingly 
 that it was an old story with him, and there was no 
 danger. In a few moments the exhilaration returned 
 five-fold, and she waved her arms with delight as they 
 shot down the billows into the emerald valleys. Out 
 
 29 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 at sea the boat skimmed along an almost level sur- 
 face, and the children became absorbed in the big fish 
 nets, and very dirty. Lee thought the flopping fish 
 nasty and drew up her feet, but Cecil's very nostrils 
 quivered with the delight of the sport, although his 
 surly hosts had snubbed his offer to lend a hand. 
 
 Suddenly Lee rubbed her eyes. The sun had gone. 
 He had been well above the horizon the last time she 
 had glanced across the waters. Had he slipped his 
 moorings? She pointed out the phenomenon to 
 Cecil. He stared a moment, then appealed to the 
 Italians. 
 
 " Da fogga, by damn ! " exclaimed the Captain to 
 his mate. "What for he coming so soon? Com 
 abouta." 
 
 The little craft turned and raced with the breeze 
 for land. The children faced about and watched that 
 soft stealthy curtain swing after. It was as white as 
 cloud, as chill as dawn, as eerie as sound in the night. 
 It took on varying outlines, breaking into crags and 
 mountain peaks and turrets. It opened once and 
 caught a wedge of scarlet from the irate sun. For a 
 moment a ribbon of flame ran up and down its length, 
 then broke into drops of blood, then hurried whence 
 it came. Through the fog mountain came a long dis- 
 mal moan, the fog-horn of the Farallones, warning 
 the ships at sea. 
 
 The children crept close together. Lee locked her 
 arm in Cecil's. Neither spoke. Suddenly the boat 
 jolted heavily and they scrambled about, thinking 
 they were on the rocks. But the Italians were tying 
 the boat to a little wharf, and unreefing her. The. 
 
 20 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 dock was strangely unfamiliar. Cecil glanced hastily 
 across the bay. San Francisco lay opposite. 
 
 " Oh, I say ! " he exclaimed. " Are n't you going 
 across before that fog gets here ? " 
 
 " Si you wanta crossa that bay you swimming," 
 remarked the Captain, stepping ashore. 
 
 Cecil jumped after him with blazing eyes and 
 angry fists. " You know I thought you were going 
 back there," he cried. " Why, you 're a villain ! 
 And a girl too ! I '11 have you arrested." 
 
 The man laughed. Cecil, through tears of mortifi- 
 cation, regarded that large bulk, and choked back 
 his wrath. 
 
 " My father will pay you well if you take us back," 
 he managed to articulate. 
 
 " No crossa that bay to-night," replied the man. 
 
 " But how are we to get back ? " 
 
 " Si you walka three, four, five miles — no can 
 remember — you finda one ferra-boat." And he 
 sauntered away. 
 
 Cecil returned to the boat and helped Lee to land. 
 " I 'm awfully sorry," he said. " What a beastly mess 
 I 've got you into ! " 
 
 " Oh, never mind," said Lee cheerfully. " I reckon 
 I can walk." 
 
 " You are a jolly sort Come on then." But his 
 brow was set in gloom. 
 
 Lee took his hand. "You looked just splendid 
 when you talked to that horrid man," she said. " I 
 am sure he was afraid of you ! " 
 
 Cecil's brow shot forth the nimbus of the conqueror. 
 
 ** Lee," he said in a tone of profound conviction, 
 3i 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "you have more sense than all the rest of the girls in 
 the world put together. Come on and I '11 help you 
 along-" 
 
 They climbed the bluff. When they reached the 
 top the world was white and impalpable about 
 them. 
 
 Cecil drew Lee's hand through his arm. "Never 
 mind," he said, " I think I have a good bump of 
 locality, and one can see a little way ahead." 
 
 Lee leaned heavily on his arm. " I can't think why 
 I feel so sleepy," she murmured. " I never am at 
 this time of day." 
 
 "Oh, for mercy's sake don't go to sleep. Let's 
 run." 
 
 They ran headlong until they were out of breath. 
 Then they stopped and gazed into the fog ahead of 
 them. Tall dark objects loomed there. They seemed 
 to touch the unseen stars, and they were black even 
 in that gracious mist. 
 
 " They 're trees. They 're redwoods/' said Cecil. 
 "I know where we are now — at least I think I do. 
 Father and I came over to this side one day and 
 
 drove about. It 's a regular forest. I do hope " 
 
 He glanced uneasily about. " It 's too bad we can't 
 walk along the edge of the cliffs. But if we keep 
 straight ahead I suppose it'll be all right." 
 
 They trudged on. The forest closed about them. 
 Those dark rigid shafts that no storm ever bends, 
 no earthquake ever sways, whom the fog feeds and 
 the trade winds love, looked like the phantasm of 
 themselves in the pale hereafter. The scented under- 
 bush aad infant redwoods grew high above the heads 
 
 32 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 of the children, and there were a hundred paths. 
 The roar of the sea grew faint 
 
 Lee gave a gasping yawn and staggered. " Oh, 
 Cecil," she whispered, " I 'm asleep. I can't go 
 another step." 
 
 Cecil was also weary, and very much discouraged. 
 He sat down against a tree and took Lee in his arms. 
 She was asleep in a moment, her head comfortably 
 nestled into his shoulder. 
 
 He was a brave boy, but during the two hours that 
 Lee slept his nerves were sorely tried. High up, in 
 the unseen arbours of the redwoods, there was a faint 
 incessant whisper: the sibilant tongues of moisture 
 among the brittle leaves. From an immeasurable 
 distance came the long, low, incessant moan of the 
 Farallones' " syren. " There was no other sound. If 
 there were four-footed creatures in the forest they 
 slept. Just as Cecil's teeth began to chatter, whether 
 from cold or fear he did not care to scan, Lee 
 moved. 
 
 " Are you awake ? " he asked eagerly. 
 
 Lee sprang to her feet. " I did n't know where I 
 was for a minute. Let 's hurry as fast as we can. 
 Memmy will be wild — she might be dreadfully ill 
 with fright " 
 
 " And father 's got all the policemen in town out 
 after me," said Cecil gloomily. " We can't hurry or 
 we '11 run into trees ; but we can go on." In a few 
 minutes he exclaimed : " I say ! We 're going up 
 hill, and it's jolly steep too." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " That Italian did n't say anything about hills." 
 3 33 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Then I suppose we 're lost again," said Lee, with 
 that resignation so exasperating to man. 
 
 " Well, if we are I don't see who's to help it in the 
 fog at night in a forest. Perhaps the ferry is over 
 the hill, and as this is the only path we '11 have to 
 go on." 
 
 " I would n't mind the hill being perpendicular if 
 memmy was at the top." 
 
 Cecil softened at once. " Don't you worry ; we '11 
 get there soon. I '11 get behind and push you." 
 
 They toiled and panted up the hill, which grew 
 into a mountain. The forest dropped behind and a 
 low dense shrubbery surrounded them. They were 
 obliged to rest many times, and once they ate a half 
 dozen crackers Lee found in her pocket and were 
 hungrier thereafter. But they forebore to discourse 
 upon their various afflictions ; in fact, they barely 
 spoke at all. Their clothes were torn, their hats 
 lost, their hands and faces scratched. When they 
 paused to rest and the vague disturbances of night 
 smote their ears, they clung together and were glad 
 to hasten on. Lee longed to cry, but panted to be 
 a heroine in Cecil's eyes, and win the sweets of 
 masculine approval; and Cecil, whose depression 
 was even more profound, never forgot that the 
 glory of the male is to be invincible in the eyes 
 of the female. So did the vanity of sex mitigate the 
 terrors of night and desolation and the things that 
 devour. 
 
 The fog was far below them, an ocean of froth, 
 pierced by the black tips of the redwoods. On 
 either side the children could see nothing but the 
 
 34 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 great shoulders of the mountain. They seemed 
 climbing to the vast cold glitter above. 
 
 Gradually they left the brush, and their way fell 
 among stones, rocks, and huge boulders. Not a 
 shrub grew here, not a blade of grass. They climbed 
 on for a time, they reached level ground, then the 
 point of descent. They could see nothing but rocks, 
 brush, and an ocean of fog. Their courage took 
 note of its limitations. 
 
 " I 'm not going to cry," said Lee sharply. " But 
 I think we 'd better talk till the sun gets up and that 
 fog melts. Besides, if we talk we won't feel so 
 hungry. Tell me that thing about yourself — your 
 father — I suppose you can trust me now?" 
 
 " We' re friends for life, and I like you better than 
 my chum. You 're a brick. Hold up your right 
 hand and swear that you '11 never tell." 
 
 Lee took the required oath, and the two battered 
 travellers made themselves as comfortable as they 
 could in the hollow of an upright rock. 
 
 " There • ain't so much to tell. My father and my 
 stepmother don't hit it off — quarrel all the time. 
 But my stepmother has the money and is awfully 
 keen on me, so they live together usually. Besides, 
 until two years ago my stepmother thought she 'd 
 be a bigger somebody, and my father thought he 'd 
 have money of his own one day because his uncle 
 was old and had never married. But Uncle Basil — 
 I 'm named for him — married two years ago and his 
 wife got a little chap right off. So that knocked 
 my father out, and my stepmother was just like a 
 hornet. I love her, and she 's seldom been nasty to 
 
 35 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 me, but I have seen her so that when you spoke to 
 her she 'd scream at you ; and when she 's in a real 
 nasty temper I always go out. Once I got mad 
 because she was abusing Uncle Basil — I always 
 spent my vacations at Maundrell Abbey, and he 
 was good to me and gave me a gun and lots of tips 
 — and I told her she was nasty to abuse him and I 
 should n't like her unless she stopped. Then she 
 cried and kissed me — she's great on kissing — and 
 said she loved me better than any one in the world, 
 and would do anything I wanted. Did I tell you 
 she is an American? My father says the Americans 
 are very excitable, and my stepmother is, and no 
 mistake. But she dotes on me — I suppose because 
 she has n't any children of her own, and no one else 
 to dote on, for that matter; so I like her, whatever 
 she does. 
 
 " One day, she and my father got into a terrible 
 rage. I was in the room, but they did n't pay any 
 attention to me. Father wanted a lot of money, and 
 she would n't give it to him. She said he could ask 
 his mother to pay his gambling debts. (Granny has 
 money and is going to leave me some of it.) He 
 said he 'd asked her and she would n't. Granny 
 and father don't hit it off, either, only granny never 
 quarrels with anybody. Then my stepmother — her 
 first name's Emily and I call her Emmy — called 
 him dreadful names, and said she 'd leave him that 
 minute if it wasn't for me. And my father said she 
 was the greatest snob in London and had gone off 
 her head because she'd lost her hopes of a title. 
 Then he said he 'd get even with her ; he could n't 
 
 36 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 stay in London any longer, so he 'd go as far away 
 from her as he could get and then she'd see what 
 her position amounted to without him. 'You're an 
 outsider — you're on sufferance,' he said, and he 
 went out and banged the door. She went off into 
 hysterics, but she did n't think he 'd do it. He did 
 though. He bolted the next day, and took me with 
 him to spite her and granny. He's always been 
 decent to me, so I would n't mind, only I 'd rather 
 be at Eton. He came here because it would n't cost 
 him much to live, and he 's keen on sport and knows 
 some Englishmen that have ranches. He hopes 
 Emmy '11 repent, but she has n't written him a line. 
 She wrote to me, and sent me two pounds, but she 
 never mentioned his name." 
 
 " Goodness, gracious ! " exclaimed Lee. She was 
 deeply disappointed at this unromantic chronicle. 
 And it gave all her preconceived ideas of matrimony 
 an ugly jar. " My papa and mamma were just 
 devoted to each other," she said. " It must be 
 terrible not to be." 
 
 " Oh, I expect people get used to it. And there 
 are a lot of other things to think about. My step- 
 mother has a very jolly time, and father does n't 
 come home very much when we are in London ; and 
 in the autumn we have a lot of people in the house 
 • — Emmy rents a place in Hampshire." 
 
 " Then your father is n't a lord?" 
 
 " No ; Uncle Basil is." 
 
 The lord in the family was the only redeeming 
 feature of this sordid story; he gave it one fiery 
 touch of the picturesque. Suddenly she forgot her 
 
 37 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 disappointment, and patted Cecil's scratched and 
 grimy fingers. 
 
 " You have n't been a bit happy, like other little 
 boys, have you ? " she said, " and you are so kind 
 and good. I'm sorry, and I wish you could live 
 with memmy and me." 
 
 That Cecil loved sympathy there could be no 
 manner of doubt. He expanded at once upon 
 the painful subject, consigning the devotion of his 
 granny, his seven aunts, his stepmother, the kind- 
 ness of his uncle, and his unfettered summers, to 
 oblivion. He could not see Lee's face in the shadow 
 of the rock, but he felt the tensity of her mind, con- 
 centrated on himself. They forgot their anxious 
 parents, the dark clinging night, the awful silence, 
 hunger and fatigue. Lee forgot all but Cecil; Cecil 
 forgot all but himself. When he had exhausted his 
 resources, Lee cried: 
 
 " I '11 always like you better than any one else in 
 the whole world except memmy ! I know I will ! I 
 swear I will ! " 
 
 " Could n't you like me better than your mother? " 
 he asked jealously. 
 
 Lee hesitated. Her youthful bosom was agitated 
 by conflicting emotions. Feminine subtlety dictated 
 her answer. 
 
 " I can't tell yet. When I 'm a big grown-up 
 person I '11 decide." 
 
 " What's the use of doing anything by halves? I 
 don't. I like you better than anybody." 
 
 " I '11 have to wait," firmly. 
 
 " Oh, very well," he said crossly. " Of course, ii 
 3» 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 I knew some boys here, it would n't matter so 
 much." 
 
 " Then if you had boys to play with you would n't 
 love me ? Oh, you unkind cruel boy ! " 
 
 " No — you know what I mean ; I 'd like you 
 just the same, but I should n't need you so much. 
 There's nothing to get angry about — Now? — 
 What? — Oh!" 
 
 For Lee was weeping bitterly. 
 
 Cecil suddenly remembered that he was cold, and 
 hungry, and tired, and lost. And he was confronted 
 with a scene. What Lee was crying about he had 
 but a vague idea. For a moment he contemplated a 
 hug, — on general principles, — but remembered in 
 time that when his father attempted cajolement his 
 stepmother always wept the louder. So he remarked 
 with the nervous haste of man when he knows that he 
 is not rising to the occasion : 
 
 "We'll stay here till morning and then I'll take 
 your apron off and put it on the top of a long stick 
 and somebody '11 be sure to see. It 's exactly like 
 being shipwrecked." 
 
 " I never was shipwrecked," sobbed Lee ; " I 'm 
 sure I should n't like it." 
 
 ■' We 've had adventures, anyhow, and that 's what 
 you wanted." 
 
 " I don't like adventures. They 're not very inter- 
 esting, and I 'm all scratched up, and hungry, and 
 tired." 
 
 " We 've not been attacked by a bear. You ought 
 to be thankful for that." 
 
 Lee, who would have been comforted at once by 
 39 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the hug, arose with dignity, found a soft spot and 
 composed herself to sleep, forlorn and dejected. 
 Cecil haughtily extended himself where he was. But 
 he, too, was sensible of a weight on his spirits, which 
 hunger, nor fatigue, nor cold, nor straits, had rolled 
 there. In a few moments he took off his jacket and 
 went over to Lee and slipped it under her head. 
 She whisked about and caught his head in her arms* 
 and they were fast asleep in an instant 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 LEE awoke first. She remembered at once where 
 she was, and sat up with a sense of terror she 
 had not experienced in the darkness of the night 
 The fog was gone, the sun was well above the hori- 
 zon. She and Cecil were alone on a mountain peak 
 so high above the world that the blue depths of 
 space seemed nigher than the planet below. The 
 redwood forest at the foot of the mountain looked 
 like brush ; on a glassy pond were hundreds of toy 
 boats ; beyond was a toy city on toy hills. Far to 
 the South another solitary peak lifted itself into the 
 heavens, dwarfing the mountain ranges about it. 
 Lee glanced to the left. Nothing there but peak 
 after peak bristling away into the north, black and 
 rigid with redwoods. 
 
 But it was not the stupendous isolation that terri- 
 fied Lee. It was a vague menace in the atmosphere 
 about her, an accentuated stillness. Over the scene 
 was a grey web, so delicate, so transparent, that it 
 concealed nothing. Lee rubbed her eyes to make 
 sure it was really there. It might have been the 
 malignant breath of the evil genius of California. 
 As she gazed, the mist slowly cohered. It became 
 an almost tangible veil through which San Francisco 
 
 41 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 looked the phantom of a city long since sunken to 
 the bed of the Pacific. The sun glared through it 
 like the suspended crater of an angry volcano. The 
 forests on the mountain all at once seemed dead. 
 The very air was petrified. The silence was awful, 
 appalling. 
 
 Lee caught Cecil by the shoulder and pulled him 
 upright. 
 
 " Something terrible is going to happen," she 
 gasped. " Oh, I wish we were home ! I wish we 
 were home." 
 
 Cecil rubbed his eyes. He barely grasped the 
 meaning of her words. There was a dull muffled 
 roar, which seemed to spring from the depths of the 
 planet, a terrible straining and rocking, and the very 
 heart of the mountain leaped under them. 
 
 Cecil saw Lee make a wild dart to the left. Then 
 he was conscious of nothing but a rapid descent 
 amidst a hideous clatter of rock, and the sensation 
 that he was sliding from the surface of the earth into 
 space. Down he went, down, down, with the rumble 
 below and the roar of loosened earth and rock about 
 him. Inside of him he fancied he could hear the 
 icicles of his blood rattle against each other. In his 
 skull was a horrible vacuum. 
 
 The slide stopped abruptly. Cecil looked dully 
 about him, wondering why the still trembling rocks 
 had not ground him to pulp. He stumbled to his 
 feet mechanically, worked his way beyond the slide, 
 then climbed toward the cone from which he had 
 been so abruptly evicted. His knowledge of what 
 he sought was very vague, a primal instinct. Pres- 
 
 42 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 ently he saw Lee running toward him. Behind her 
 was a man in the rough garb of a mountaineer. 
 
 " It was an earthquake," cried Lee, as she flung 
 herself into Cecil's arms, " and he's going to take us 
 home." 
 
 A3 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 BETWEEN a night of maternal agonies and an 
 earthquake which wrenched the city to its 
 foundations, Mrs. Tarleton's spirit was very nearly 
 shaken out of her frail body. 
 
 Mr. Maundrell, after despatching two detectives in 
 search of the truants, spent the greater part of the 
 night pacing up and down the upper hall. He called 
 upon Mrs. Tarleton late in the evening, and assured 
 her that his son was a manly little chap, and would 
 take good care of Lee. As the night waxed he called 
 again. Miss Hayne was holding salts to the invalid's 
 nostrils, and fanning her. Mrs. Tarleton implored 
 him to remain near her; he was so cool he gave her 
 a little courage. He consented hastily and retreated. 
 When the earthquake came he entered Mrs. Tarleton's 
 room unceremoniously and stood by her bed, throwing 
 a shawl over her head to protect it from falling plaster. 
 The chandelier leapt from side to side like a circus 
 girl at the end of a rope, then came down with a 
 crash which drew an exhausted shriek from the bed. 
 The wardrobe walked out into the middle of the room, 
 the pictures sprang from the walls. Mrs. Tarleton, 
 stifled, flung the shawl from her head. Mr. Maundrell 
 stood, imperturbable, beside her, a monocle in his 
 eye, critically regarding the evidences of California's 
 
 A 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 iniquity. She began to laugh hysterically, and he 
 fled from the room and begged Miss Hayne — who 
 had rushed out shrieking — to return. 
 
 He went down to his own rooms. It was eight 
 o'clock in the morning. People in various stages of 
 undress were grouped in the halls volubly giving their 
 experiences. Not a woman but Mrs. Hayne had a 
 dress on, not a woman had her hair out of curl-papers. 
 The men had paused long enough to fling on dressing- 
 gowns and blankets. They were visibly embarrassed. 
 
 Three hours later Mr. Maundrell was in his sitting- 
 room reading an earthquake " extra." The door 
 opened and a small boy, with a cold in his head, 
 dirty, ragged, scratched, and apologetic, entered and 
 awaited his doom. Mr. Maundrell glanced up. Cecil 
 shivered. 
 
 " Go and take a bath," said his father curtly. " You 
 are positively sickening. And kindly do not bore 
 me with your adventures. I have really had as much 
 as I can stand." 
 
 AS 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LEE went neither to school nor to her meals for 
 a week She nursed her mother with the 
 ardour of maternal affection and remorse. For the 
 first two days Cecil dared not approach that door ; it 
 seemed written large with his misdoings. On the 
 third he knocked timidly, then put his hands behind 
 him. 
 
 Lee opened the door, threw back her head, and 
 half closed her eyes — to conceal the delight in them. 
 
 "Well," she said freezingly. "I am glad to see 
 you have n't forgotten all about me — I am sure I 
 am!" 
 
 Cecil attempted no apology. He produced a bag 
 of candy, and an apple nearly as big as his head. 
 
 "I thought you 'd like these as you couldn't go 
 out to get any," he said with tact. 
 
 Lee almost closed her eyes. She drew back. 
 "You are so kind!" she said sarcastically. 
 
 Cecil must have had great ancestors. He replied 
 never a word. He stood with both arms outstretched, 
 the tempting offerings well within the door, and 
 under Lee's very nose. 
 
 Her eyes slowly opened. The corners of her 
 mouth invaded her cheeks. Her hands rose slowly, 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 fluttered a moment, then closed firmly over the 
 tributes to her sex. 
 
 "Won't you come in? " she asked graciously. 
 
 Cecil promptly closed the door behind him. 
 
 "I'm coming every afternoon to take care of 
 your mother," he announced. 
 
 "The idea of a boy being a nurse," said Lee 
 disdainfully; but she brought her lashes together 
 again. 
 
 " You go and take a nap. Which medicine does 
 she take next ? " 
 
 Lee allowed herself to be overborne, and fell 
 asleep. Mrs. Tarleton opened her eyes suddenly to 
 meet a hypnotic stare. Cecil did nothing by halves. 
 
 Mrs. Tarleton smiled faintly, then put out her 
 hand and patted his. 
 
 "You are a good boy, Cecil," she said. 
 
 The good boy reddened haughtily. I 'm not try- 
 ing to be thought a milksop," he remarked. 
 
 "Oh, I know, I know! I mean most boys are 
 selfish. I knew you would bring Lee safely back. " 
 
 "I wouldn't mind if you said you forgave me." 
 
 " I do. I do. Only please don't do it again." 
 
 He gave her the medicine. She closed her eyes, 
 but he saw that she did not sleep. Occasionally 
 she frowned and sighed heavily. Finally she opened 
 her eyes again. 
 
 " I wish you were a little older," she said abruptly. 
 
 He sat up very straight. "I'm quite old," he 
 said thickly. "I'm much older than Lee." 
 
 " I mean I wish you were really grown and your 
 own master, and as fond of Lee as you are now. I 
 
 .47 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 must die soon ; I had hoped to live until Lee was 
 grown and married, but my will won't last me much 
 longer. It is of that I think constantly as I lie 
 here, not of my pain." 
 
 "I'll marry Lee if you like," said Cecil oblig- 
 ingly. "I like her very much; it would suit me 
 jolly well to have her in England." 
 
 Mrs. Tarleton raised herself on her arm. Her 
 thin cheeks fairly expanded with the colour that flew 
 to them. The boy could see the fluttering of her 
 exhausted heart. 
 
 "Cecil," she said solemnly, "promise me that you 
 will marry Lee. I am a good judge of human nature. 
 I know that you would be kind to her. I know of 
 no one else to leave her to. Promise me." 
 
 " I promise," said Cecil promptly. But he had an 
 odd sensation that the room had grown suddenly 
 smaller. 
 
 " If I die before you go, take her with you if your 
 father will consent. She has a little money and 
 will not be a burden. If your father won't take her 
 come back for her when you are of age. Remember 
 that you have given your solemn promise to a dying 
 woman." 
 
 "Yes, rai'am," said Cecil faintly. He was young 
 and masculine and unanalytical; but instinct told him 
 that Mrs. Tarleton was unfair, and he cooled to her, 
 and to the sex through her, for the time being. He 
 slipped out as Lee awoke. 
 
 The next day when he returned, the unpleasant 
 sensations induced by Mrs. Tarleton had almost 
 vanished. On the fourth day, as he and Lee were 
 
 48 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 sitting before the fire popping corn — Mrs. Tarleton's 
 nerves being under the influence of morphine — Lee 
 remarked with some asperity : 
 
 " I wish you wouldn't stare at me so." 
 
 "I was just thinking," he said. "I am going to 
 be your husband, you know. " 
 
 " What ? " Lee dropped the popper into the fire. 
 Her head went back, her nostrils out. " Who said 
 you were, I 'd like to know? /didn't." 
 
 " Your mother asked me to marry you, and I 
 said I would. So I'm going to." 
 
 The American girl arose in her wrath, and 
 stamped her foot. 
 
 "The very idea! Try it, will you? The idea, 
 the idea of saying you 're going to marry a girl just 
 'cause you want to! — without asking her! I just 
 won't marry you — so there ! " 
 
 Young Maundrell rose to his feet, plunged his 
 hands into his pockets and regarded her with angry 
 perplexity. He knew what he would have done had 
 she been a boy ; he would have thrashed her. But a 
 girl was a deeper problem than earthquakes. He 
 descended to diplomacy. 
 
 "Of course I'll ask you if you prefer it that 
 way. " 
 
 " You just bet your life I do." 
 
 " Well — " He got very red and trembled all 
 over. He threw his weight first on one foot and 
 then on the other. His nails clawed at his trousers 
 pockets. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Oh — ah — that is — you can marry me, if you 
 4 4S 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 like — Oh, hang it, Lee! I don't know how to 
 propose. I feel like a rotter." 
 
 "That isn't the way," said Lee icily. She hastily 
 reviewed her glimpses of standard works. 
 
 "You must go down on your knees," she added. 
 
 "I 'd see myself dead sooner," cried Cecil. 
 
 "You must." 
 
 "I won't." 
 
 "Then I won't marry you." 
 
 "I don't care whether you do or not." 
 
 " But you promised ! " 
 
 "I 'm not going to be an ass if I did." 
 
 Said Lee sweetly: "I don't much care about the 
 going down on the knees part. I 'm afraid I 'd 
 laugh. Just say, 'Will you marry me?'" 
 
 He sulkily repeated the formula. 
 
 "Now we're engaged," said Lee complacently; 
 "and the popper 's burnt up. But we 've got a lot 
 popped, and I '11 make a syrup and stick some 
 together into a nice ball for you. It 's lovely to eat 
 when you 're in bed." She leaned forward and 
 adjusted his agitated necktie. " You look as if you 
 just owned the whole world when you get mad," sha 
 said. 
 
 And the male ate his sweets and was pacified. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE tide in Mrs. Tarleton rose once more; on 
 Monday she was able to sit up, and Cecil took 
 Lee for a walk; but returned betimes, having 
 received a brief parental admonition that if he did 
 not, he 'd be caned. After that, they explored 
 Market Street every afternoon, and on Sunday trotted 
 off to church together. 
 
 On the following afternoon, as Lee was walking 
 down the hill from school, she saw an excited group 
 of boys in the street, before the side entrance of 
 Mrs. Hayne's boarding-house. As she approached, 
 she inferred that two were fighting, as some eight or 
 ten others were cheering and betting. 
 
 Lee raised herself on tiptoe and looked over the 
 shoulder of a short boy. The belligerents were 
 Bertie Reynolds and Cecil Maundrell. Her first 
 impulse was to scream — an impulse which she 
 quickly repressed. Her second was to cheer Cecil. 
 This she also repressed, remembering that she was 
 a girl, or, as her mother would have put it, a 
 Southerner. 
 
 She mounted a box and watched the battle, her 
 hands clenched, her eyes blazing, her heart sick ; for 
 her Cecil was getting the worst of it. He looked as 
 sturdy as a little oak, and he planted his blows 
 
 5* 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 scientifically; but his antagonist was twice his size, 
 lean and wiry, and full of nervous fire. Moreover, 
 the surrounding influences were all for the Ameri- 
 can : Cecil was not only English, but he had snubbed 
 these boys of Mrs. Hayne's boarding-house for three 
 consecutive weeks. Vengeance had been in the air 
 for some time. 
 
 The boys fought like young savages. Their faces 
 made Lee shudder and ponder. But that impression 
 passed, for there was worse to come. Cecil got a 
 huge lump over his right eye. Cecil got a damaged 
 nose. Cecil's immaculate shirt turned an angry 
 scarlet. Cecil got a blow under his jaw, and went 
 down. 
 
 Then was Lee's opportunity. She leaped from 
 the box, straight into the ring — which was giving 
 unearthly cat-calls — and took Cecil's head in her 
 arms. 
 
 ' You just help me carry him inside, you horrid, 
 hateful bully," she commanded young Reynolds. 
 "Take his feet — there!" 
 
 The national instinct prompted obedience, and 
 Cecil was safely deposited on the lower step of the 
 side entrance, Reynolds retiring in haste before 
 the concentrated fury in Lee's eyes and teeth and 
 nails. She gathered Cecil into her bosom, and wept 
 bitterly. 
 
 "I say!" murmured the wounded hero. "Don't 
 cia'-' I'm all right. I've got a beastly headache, 
 thai "sail." 
 
 "Those loathsome boys!" sobbed Lee. 
 
 "Wt'll, they know I can fight, if I didn't beat." 
 
 52 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 But his voice was thick, and there was no pride 
 about him anywhere. 
 
 Lee's tears finished, and were succeeded by 
 curiosity. 
 
 "What did you fight about?" she asked, drying 
 her eyes on her ensanguined pinafore. 
 
 " They all said the United States licked England 
 twice, and I said it didn't. They said I didn't 
 know history, and I — well, I told them they were 
 liars, and that Reynolds offered to fight for the 
 crowd, and we fought." 
 
 "Don't get excited," said Lee soothingly. "Do 
 you think you can walk up to your room ? You ' 11 
 feel better if you lie down, and I can do a lot of 
 things for you." 
 
 He got to his feet, climbed wearily to his room, 
 and flung himself on the bed. Lee was in her 
 element. She sponged him off, and fetched ice, and 
 bound up his damaged face. She felt his nose to 
 see if it was broken. It was swelling rapidly, and 
 he shrieked as she prodded it. Lee wished that she 
 did not feel a disposition to laugh, but her hero 
 certainly looked funny. When she had bound two 
 compresses about his face — his upper lip was also 
 cut — she closed the inside blinds, and sat down 
 beside the bed. It was her duty to go to her mother, 
 but she was loath to leave her comrade. 
 
 "Lee," said a stifled voice, "pull off my boots." 
 
 Lee rose, hesitated a moment, then removed the 
 boots, and threw his jacket over his feet. She 
 walked to the window, peered through the slats, then 
 returned to the bed. 
 
 53 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "The United States did lick England/' she said. 
 
 Cecil was on his elbow in an instant. 
 
 " It did not, " he cried hoarsely. " If you were a 
 boy I 'd thrash you." 
 
 " I finished United States history last term. We 
 licked you in the Revolution and in 1812." 
 
 Cecil was erect on the edge of his bed, glaring 
 at her out of his attenuated eye, over the rising sun 
 of his nose. "I tell you you didn't," he growled. 
 And his bandages slipped, and his wounds bled. 
 
 Lee flung her arms about him in an agony of 
 remorse and pushed him back among the pillows. 
 
 "I'm just horrid," she sobbed; "I don't know 
 why I said that." And once more she bathed and 
 bound him. 
 
 "Lee," whispered a weary voice. "Say that you 
 didn't lick us." 
 
 Lee gave him a little hug. " Of course not," she 
 said, as to a sick child; "of course not." 
 
 54 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 IT was something over a week later that Lee awoke 
 suddenly in the night and sat erect, with stiffened 
 muscles. Her skin was chilled as if her sleeping 
 body had been caught in a current of night air. A 
 taper burned in a cup of oil. She glanced towards 
 the door. It was closed. Her cot was in a corner, 
 out of the reach of window draughts. Her shoulders 
 approached each other. Something was certainly 
 wrong, quite different from the usual routine of night. 
 The taper faintly illumined the large room over 
 which her expanding eyes roved. A red light flashed 
 across the wall like a scythe, accompanied by the dull 
 grumble of the cable car. Everything in the room 
 was as she had arranged or left it for the night. Even 
 the flannel petticoat Mrs. Tarleton had been embroid- 
 ering for her daughter was on the table where she 
 had dropped it The needle stood up straight and 
 focussed a beam of light. It was the same common- 
 place comfortable room, with whose every feature 
 Lee was intimate; yet over these features to-night 
 rested a thin film of something unfamiliar. 
 
 Lee gave way to unreasoning terror. " Memmy ! " 
 she called, " memmy 1 " 
 
 Mrs. Tarleton was a light sleeper, but she did not 
 answer. 
 
 SS 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Lee sprang to the floor and ran towards her mother's 
 bed. She paused within a foot of it, her knees jerk- 
 ing. Mrs. Tarleton lay on her side, her face to the 
 wall, her arm along the counterpane. In both arm 
 and hand was the same suggestion of unreality, of 
 change, as in the room. 
 
 Lee fled out into the hall and down the stairs to 
 Cecil's room. His door was unlocked. He awak- 
 ened to find himself standing on his feet, striking out 
 furiously. 
 
 " It 's only me," gasped Lee, who had received a 
 smart blow in the shoulder. " Something 's the 
 matter with memmy. Come quick." 
 
 " All right, I will. You stay here and I '11 go into 
 father's room and dress." 
 
 He lifted Lee to the bed and went into the next 
 room. Mr. Maundrell entered a moment later and 
 lit the gas. He looked keenly at Lee's scared white 
 face, then went out by the hall door. He did not 
 return for some little time. When he did he met his 
 son and Lee — who was enveloped in Cecil's over- 
 coat — ascending the stairs. He turned them back. 
 
 " Mrs. and Miss Hayne are with your mother," he 
 said. " Get into Cecil's bed and go to sleep. I will 
 take him in with me." 
 
 " I never leave memmy to other people," faltered 
 Lee; and then she put her hands to her ears, and 
 shuddered, and crouched against Cecil. " I can't 
 sleep," she gasped. " Don't leave me alone." 
 
 " Very well," said Mr. Maundrell hastily. " You 
 go into the sitting-room, both of you. Cecil, you 
 had better make her a cup of tea." 
 
 56 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Cecil half carried Lee into the sitting-room, put 
 her on the sofa, lit ail the burners, and fell to making 
 tea with nervous fingers and every sign of deep 
 embarrassment. When he had finished he walked 
 rapidly over to Lee, jerked her upright, and held the 
 cup to her lips. 
 
 " Drink it ! " he said in his most peremptory manner. 
 Lee gulped it down. Cecil returned to the table, 
 drank a large measure, then went back to Lee and 
 put his arms about her. 
 
 " Now," he said with an effort which brought hia 
 brows together and sent the blood to his hair, " you 
 can cry if you like." 
 
 Lee promptly buried her head in his bosom and 
 wept wildly, with abrupt and terrible insight Cecil 
 could think of nothing to say, but he gathered her in 
 and gave her little spasmodic hugs. He felt very 
 much like crying himself, and at the same time wished 
 with all his heart that it were three days later. He 
 concluded that a girl must get all cried out in that 
 time. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ALL of Mrs. Tarleton's old friends sent flowers, 
 and many of them attended the funeral ser- 
 vice, which took place in the death chamber. Mrs. 
 Hayne had decided that a church funeral would be 
 too expensive, and her boarders would have objected 
 to the association of a coffin with the back parlour. 
 Lee, holding Cecil's hand tightly, sat in a corner, 
 looking smaller and darker than ever in her black 
 frock, the novelty of which had mitigated her grief 
 for the moment. All of the ladies kissed her and 
 told her that she must be sure to come to see them ; 
 and Mrs. Montgomery, who had just returned from 
 Europe, and was very much agitated, asked her to 
 come home with her at once. But Lee only shook 
 her head. She and Cecil had other plans. 
 
 Her cot was taken into Miss Hayne's room and 
 she went to school as usual. Her grief waxed rather 
 than waned, and she stooped so that Mrs. Hayne put 
 her into braces, which confirmed her gloomy views 
 of life. But her woman's instincts were very keen, 
 and she knew that if she was to have the solace of 
 Cecil's companionship, she mtfst reserve her tears 
 for solitude. He was very kind, and informed her 
 that he loved her the better because she had such a 
 jolly lot of grit and kept her back up (Lee had not 
 
 Si 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 mentioned the braces), and that his father — who 
 hated Americans — had condescended to say that 
 Lee was a jolly little thing, and had more character 
 and good sense at the age of eleven than his own 
 selection had accumulated in five-and-thirty years. 
 
 She and Cecil took many long walks, and rode 
 back and forth on the Oakland and Sausalito boats, 
 munching molasses candy ; Cecil was rapidly falling 
 a victim to the national vice. One day the father 
 and son took her to the country on a fishing expedi- 
 tion. It was a very long day, and it was very hot. 
 She sat on the bank and watched the others fish. 
 Their concentration amounted to genius, and except 
 at luncheon, which she prepared, they never addressed 
 a word to her. She had never seen Mr. Maundrell 
 look so happy, and as for Cecil, his hazel eyes 
 sparkled like champagne. In spite of the blue sky, 
 the warm sunshine, the beautiful depths of the red- 
 wood forest, the singing stream, she felt lonely and 
 depressed, and went home with a sun-burned nose, 
 and a heart full of those obscure forebodings which 
 assail woman when man forgets the lesson of civilisa- 
 tion and pays a brief and joyous visit to the plane of 
 his sovereign ancestors. 
 
 59 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 IT was about a month after Mrs. Tarleton's death 
 that Cecil kicked Lee under the breakfast -table 
 and jerked his eyebrows at his father, who sat oppo- 
 site. Mr. Maundrell was reading his English mail. 
 His pale face was flushed. His impassive features 
 threatened a change of expression. 
 
 That afternoon, as Lee was returning from school, 
 Cecil met her half way up the hill. 
 
 " My uncle Basil and the little chap are dead, and 
 father's the heir," he announced. 
 
 " Is he a lord ? " cried Lee, with bated breath. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Lee's eyes danced. Romance revived. Care fled. 
 
 "A duke?" 
 
 "No, an earl." 
 
 "Earl's much prettier than duke. I mean a 
 prettier word." 
 
 " He 's got a title of course. He 's Lord Barn-- 
 staple." 
 
 "That 'snot so pretty." 
 
 " I " Cecil thrust his hands into his pockets 
 
 and turned very red. " I don't mind telling you — 
 I 've got a title too — what they call a courtesy title. 
 You see my father 's the Earl of Barnstaple and 
 Viscount Maundrell. So I 'm Lord Maundrell. I 
 
 6y 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 should n't think of mentioning it to any one else," 
 he added hastily. 
 
 " Cecil ! " Lee waved her arms wildly and danced 
 up and down. " I never heard of anything so lovely. 
 I feel exactly as if we were inside Scott or Shake- 
 speare or something. Shall you wear a crown and an 
 ermine robe ? " 
 
 "I'm not a king," said Cecil loftily. "Talk 
 about my not knowing anything about United States 
 history! You Americans are so funny. Fancy you 
 caring so much about such things." His tone was 
 almost his father's upon occasion. 
 
 "Why not? The idea! I think it's perfectly 
 romantic and lovely to be lords and ladies. Whole 
 shelves full of books have been written about them 
 — the standard works of fiction, that everybody reads. 
 And plays, and ballads, and poems, and pictures 
 too ! I 've often heard my mother talk about it, and 
 I used to read the descriptions out loud to her in the 
 winter — she said it would form my taste for elegant 
 literature. I could just see the whole thing — the 
 kings and dukes, and the beautiful processions, and 
 the castles and tournaments, and princesses and 
 falcons. Oh my ! Of course I care. I 'd be a silly 
 little ninny if I did n't care. I just wish I 'd been 
 born like all that. I 'm sure there 's nothing very 
 romantic about San Francisco — particularly Market 
 Street." 
 
 "Well," said Cecil, bringing down his eyebrows 
 and consenting to establish himself at Lee's view 
 point. " You 're going to be ' like that ' You 're 
 going to marry me." 
 
 61 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Lee stopped short, her mouth open. "So I am," 
 she gasped. " So I am. Could we be married right 
 off, do you think ? " 
 
 Cecil dropped his head and shook it gloomily. 
 "I had a talk with father to-day;" he shivered as 
 he recalled that conversation; "and he says he won't 
 take you back with us ; that he likes you well enough, 
 but one American in the family is as much as he 
 can stand — and, oh, a lot of rot. We'll have to 
 wait till I grow up, and then I '11 come back for you, 
 or perhaps some one will bring you over." 
 
 They entered the side door of the boarding-house. 
 Cecil pulled Lee down beside him on the stair. 
 
 "Oh, Lee," he said in a high falsetto, "we're 
 going to-morrow. And I hate to go away and leave 
 you. I do ! I do ! " 
 
 " Going to-morrow ! " gasped Lee, " and without 
 me ! " She burst into a storm of tears, and Cecil 
 forgot his manly pride and wept too. 
 
 " I wish I were grown, " sobbed Cecil. " And I 
 won't be for years. I 've got to finish at Eton, and 
 then I 've got to go to Oxford. I 'm only fifteen 
 and one month. I won't be my own master for six 
 years, and I won't be through Oxford when I am. 
 It takes so beastly long to educate a fellow. It may 
 be eight years before I see you again. " 
 
 " Eight years ! I shall die. Why won't he take 
 me ? I can pay for myself. Mrs. Hayne says I have 
 eighty dollars a month. Don't you think he '11 
 change his mind ? " 
 
 "He won't! he won't!" 
 
 When Lee had wept herself dry, she adjusted her- 
 6a 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 self to fate. "Well," she said, with a heavy sigh, 
 "we '11 write every week, won't we? " 
 
 It was Cecil's turn to be appalled. This was a 
 phase of the tragedy that had not occurred to him. 
 "Oh, Lee," he faltered, "I hate to write letters!" 
 " But you will ? " she cried shrilly. " You will ? " 
 " Oh, I '11 try ! I '11 try ! But only one a month. " 
 " One a week or I won't write at all. And it 's 
 nice to get letters." 
 "One a fortnight then." 
 
 To this Lee finally consented, and then went up- 
 stairs and helped him to pack. Their faces were so 
 funereal at dinner that they were the subject of much 
 good-natured chaff. Many disapproving glances were 
 directed at Mr. Maundrell, — with whose ascent they 
 had not been made acquainted, — for the children 
 had furnished the house with much amusement, and 
 they commanded no little sympathy. 
 
 After dinner Cecil and Lee sat in one of the bay 
 windows in the front parlour and talked of the 
 future. Cecil good-naturedly promised that life 
 should be exactly like one of Scott's novels, any 
 one that Lee preferred. After some excogitation 
 she concluded that she liked the poems best, par- 
 ticularly " Marmion," and Cecil agreed to qualify for 
 the part. Lee in return vowed to go fishing and 
 shooting with him, never to scream at the wrong 
 time, even if a blackbeetle got on her, and never 
 to get into rages and call him names. They also 
 exchanged tokens. Lee gave him a little gold heart 
 with her picture — cut from a tin-type — and a strand 
 •f her lank hair in it, and he gave her a ring cut 
 
 «3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 with the arms of his house, and begged her to keep 
 it in her pocket when his father was round. 
 
 The next morning Lee was graciously permitted 
 to accompany the travellers across the bay. She 
 and Cecil paced up and down the deck of the boat, 
 too excited for melancholy; both under that spell 
 which cauterises so many wounds. Lee was to be 
 left behind, but she was in the midst of an event. 
 Moreover, she was shortly to see what a Pullman 
 car was like. She wrung one more solemn promise 
 from Cecil to write. 
 
 Lord Barnstaple had taken a drawing-room for 
 himself and his son, and Lee examined the ornate 
 interior and thought it very vulgar. 
 
 "You '11 be sure not to put your head out of the 
 window, won't you, Cecil ? " she asked anxiously. 
 "And you'll hold on tight at night and not be 
 pitched out of these things." 
 
 Cecil grunted. She had hung a camphor bag on 
 him, and presented him with a large package of 
 cough drops. 
 
 Lord Barnstaple took out his watch. " We start 
 in eight minutes," he said. "You had better let 
 me put you in the hack; I have told the man to 
 take you home." He paused and smiled slightly. 
 He was at peace with the world, and inclined to 
 be gracious to everybody; moreover, there was just 
 a chance, a bare chance, that this boy-and-girl- 
 affair might come to something. His son had a 
 tenacious will, and these Americans were the devil 
 and all for getting their own way. If Lee should 
 turn out a great heiress — he had a vague idea that 
 
 «4 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 all American girls became heiresses as soon as they 
 grew up — and should fulfil her promise of even 
 temper and sturdy character, Cecil might, of course, 
 do worse. Far be it from him to encourage the 
 invasion of the British aristocracy by the undisci- 
 plined American female, but if another in the 
 family was to be his unhappy fate, as well drop into 
 the plastic mind a few seeds from the gardens of 
 civilisation. 
 
 "We may see you in England, some day," he said; 
 "you Americans are always travelling. Try to make 
 yourself like English girls. Study hard and improve 
 your mind. A smattering is such a trial; it rhymes 
 with chattering. Don't talk too much, and above 
 all never have hysterics. I am sure they are only 
 a habit and can be controlled if you begin early. 
 And — ah — your manners are somewhat abrupt, and 
 you have a way of sprawling. Your mother, I am 
 told, was a very elegant woman. Try to grow like 
 her. Mrs. Hayne says it is likely that some of your 
 mother's friends will offer you a home. Accept, by 
 all means ; it would be quite dreadful to be brought 
 up in a boarding-house. I believe that is all. Now 
 say good-bye. " 
 
 Cecil gave Lee a mighty hug and winked rapidly. 
 Lord Barnstaple allowed them one minute, then took 
 Lee firmly by the hand and marched her to the hack. 
 
 "Good-bye," he said kindly. "You are a jolly 
 little thing — you don't make any fuss. Mind you 
 never have hysterics." 
 
 But Lee cried audibly all the way home, secure in 
 the pawing of the horses about her on the boat, and 
 5 65 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 in the noise of the hack on the cobble-stones there- 
 after. Cecil was gone, and there was no mother 
 awaiting her in the boarding-house. She could not 
 even go into the old room and cry on her mother's 
 bed, for strangers were there. She was very forlorn, 
 uid life was as black as pitch. 
 
 M 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 AFTER several weeks' exchange of vague sugges« 
 tions, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. Brannan, Mrs. 
 Geary, and Mrs. Cartright met at the house of the 
 former to discuss the future of Marguerite Tarleton's 
 child. Mrs. Cartright was the aunt of Helena Bel- 
 mont, whose energies were bottled for the moment 
 in school. Mrs. Montgomery and Mrs. Brannan 
 were also preparing for the difficult r61es of mothers 
 of beauties. Mrs. Geary was a degree less important, 
 her daughter being bright rather than pretty. Mrs. 
 Cartright, between the imperious Helena and the 
 incorrigible Colonel, her brother, over whose home 
 she had presided since his wife's death, had long 
 since surrendered what little character she had 
 brought to California ; but having a wide popularity, 
 and a mighty flow of words, was never absent from 
 the counsels of her friends. Mrs. Montgomery was 
 " very Southern," very impulsive, rather prone to do 
 the wrong thing when caught in the cyclone of her 
 emotions. Mrs. Brannan was merely the gorgeous 
 Ila's mother, but like the others of her intimate circle 
 was a Southerner, and had been a close friend of 
 Marguerite Tarleton. Mrs. Geary was the practical 
 wife of a millionaire. Her husband, a man from 
 
 67 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Maine, who looked not unlike a dried cod-fish, had 
 panned for gold in '49, bought varas and ranches 
 in the Fifties, become a banker of international im- 
 portance in the Sixties, and had succeeded in making 
 his Southern wife as close and practical as himself. 
 Her advice was always in demand by her more im- 
 petuous friends. 
 
 " It 's just this," said Mrs. Cartright, beginning at 
 once, " that dear child cannot be brought up in a 
 boarding-house, even in Mrs. Hayne's. Lee is a 
 great-niece or second cousin of General Robert E, 
 Lee and third cousin of the Breckinridges, and Ran- 
 dolphs and Carrolls and Prestons, to say nothing 
 of the Tarletons. As long as poor dear proud 
 Marguerite lived we could do nothing, but now Lee 
 belongs to us, particularly as dear brother Jack and 
 Mr. Brannan are her mother's executors and Lee's 
 guardians. Now, of course, V d just jump at the 
 chance of taking her, if it were not for darling imperi- 
 ous Helena. She will be home in a year now, and 
 if they did n't get on it would be really dreadful. 
 Helena is really the most kind-hearted creature in the 
 world — but such a tyrant ! Her will has never been 
 crossed, you see. You don't know what I go through 
 sometimes, although I fairly worship her. And Lee, 
 you see, has simply managed poor dear Marguerite 
 and done exactly as she pleased for eleven years. 
 It would be really terrible if she did n't give in to 
 Helena, and I 'm afraid she never would. And it 
 would be almost cruel to bring her up in a house 
 where she would have almost no individuality, al- 
 though, of course, Helena may marry at once " 
 
 68 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " How much income has she ? " interrupted Mrs. 
 Geary. 
 
 "Eighty dollars a month. Isn't it shocking? 
 Fancy Hayward Tarleton's daughter growing up on 
 eighty dollars a month ! " 
 
 " It 's quite enough to educate and dress her, and 
 when she is ready to come out we can each give her a 
 frock, and help with the trousseau when she marries." 
 
 " But she 's got to have a home, meanwhile ; that 's 
 the point," said Mrs Montgomery, who seemed to be 
 repressing her own eloquence, as great upon occa- 
 sion as Mrs. Cartright's. " She must have a home 
 and a mother, poor little thing. Think if it were 
 Tiny ! I have cried myself ill. And she can't grow 
 up from pillar to post either ; she would become quite 
 demoralised, quite unworthy of her blood " 
 
 " The very oldest families of the South ! " cried 
 Mrs. Cartright with enthusiasm. 
 
 " That 's all very well, but I can't see why she 
 should n't be placed at Mill's Seminary for the next 
 seven years," said Mrs. Geary. " Of course, she 
 could spend her vacations in Menlo with us." 
 
 Mrs. Montgomery shook her head with emphasis. 
 " She must have a home ! She must have a mother ! 
 She 's full of feeling. It would wound and demoralise 
 her to feel a waif, with no anchor, no one in particu- 
 lar who took an interest in her — it is too terrible 
 to think of!" 
 
 " It comes to this then," said Mrs. Geary : " one of 
 as must take her." 
 
 "That is what I mean," said Mrs. Montgomery 
 eagerly. 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " If it were not for Helena " began Mrs. Cart- 
 right, ready to recapitulate. Mrs. Brannan inter- 
 rupted her with unusual firmness. 
 
 " I 'm afraid I cannot," she said. " I 'd really love 
 to, and she would be such company for Coralie ; but 
 Ila is so exacting and jealous, and as imperious in 
 her quiet way as Helena. I wait on her like a slave, 
 and she'd fairly hate an outsider who made any 
 claim on me. Fortunately Coralie adores her and 
 is so sweet. It was all I could do to persuade Ila to 
 let me come back and look after Mr. Brannan and 
 Coralie for a few months — and I do hate Paris ! I 'II 
 do everything I can in the way of a good substantial 
 present at Christmas, and she and Coralie might 
 study together ; that would save a little on both 
 sides, and I 'm sure they 'd get on, but I don't dare 
 risk taking her." 
 
 " Of course you would take her if you could," said 
 Mrs. Montgomery ; " we all know how good and kind 
 you are. And you, Maria? " 
 
 Mrs. Geary shook her head emphatically. " Mr. 
 Geary would n't listen to it for a moment. He detests 
 sentiment and everything out of the common, and he 
 has a special prejudice against adopting other people's 
 children. Besides, as you know, Marguerite used to 
 snub him, as she did all Northerners, and he 's not the 
 kind that ever forgets. No, I have n't even thought 
 of it. I'll make her little presents, and give her a 
 party dress when she 's eighteen, but I can't do 
 more." 
 
 "And I'm afraid to venture," sighed Mrs. Cart- 
 right, " but Jack will do something handsome " 
 
 70 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "Then it's settled," cried Mrs. Montgomery. "J 
 am to have her ! The very day of the funeral 1 
 begged her to come home with me, but she would n't: 
 she thought that heartless Englishman would take 
 her, poor litde innocent thing — but Cecil was a dear, 
 quite as nice as any Southern lad before the war. 
 Well, when I got home, I reflected that perhaps it 
 was as well that Lee had refused, as I have made so 
 many resolutions to consult my children before taking 
 any important step — it is their right I thought all 
 night and finally decided that it did not concern any 
 one but Tiny and Randolph, as the others are married. 
 I spoke to Randolph the next morning, and he said 
 he could see no objection ; he 's sixteen now, and so 
 sensible ; and after breakfast I wrote a letter of ten 
 pages to Tiny and told her all about it, and how 
 deeply I felt on the subject, and dilated upon the 
 brilliant prospects of Lee's babyhood, and the distin- 
 guished blood in her veins — a Tarleton of Louisiana ! 
 to say nothing of all the others ! I begged her to think 
 it over carefully and write at once — it does take so 
 long to get an answer from Paris ! I told her I would 
 leave it entirely to her. She has so much heart, but 
 her head is far cooler than mine. Even when she was 
 a child I respected her judgment, and she quite man- 
 aged her elder sisters. I 've rarely seen her excited. 
 Well! I had her answer this morning. That is the 
 reason I asked you to come to-day and decide once 
 for all. She is so sweet and sensible about it. She 
 began by saying that of course it would be a great 
 risk to take an alien into the family, no matter how 
 Well we had known the parents : for no matter how 
 
 7i 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 many different characters there were in a family there 
 was always a sort of general disposition among them 
 that carried things off. And we were all so devoted 
 to each other, and so happy together. It would be 
 quite terrible if Lee should turn out a strong indivi- 
 duality. Therefore she begged me not to take her 
 unless Mrs. Tarleton's other friends absolutely refused 
 to do so. But if they did refuse, then I must not hesi- 
 tate — I must take her by all means and make her as 
 much like my own children as possible — after all, she 
 was only eleven. So it 's decided ! She 's mine ! " 
 
 "Tiny certainly has a level head," said Mrs. Geary 
 dryly. " And I really don't see how Lee could do 
 better, or as well, if you really care to take her. 
 You will see that her manners are all that could be 
 desired, and that nobody ever speaks a cross word t© 
 her ; and Tiny will see that you do not spoil her, and 
 that she acquires the family disposition." 
 
 " You dear sarcastic Maria ! You know you 'd just 
 love to spoil her yourself. I 'm so happy. I haven't 
 dared go to see her, but I've sent her candy, and 
 fruit, and a new coat and hat I '11 go straight away 
 and fetch her." 
 
 Thus was the momentous question decided, and 
 Lee entered upon the third chapter of her life. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THAT same day she was installed in the old 
 Montgomery house on Rincon Hill. It was 
 a low irregularly built house, wooden, but substantial. 
 The walls of the lower storey were panelled, and 
 covered with portraits of Southern ancestors and 
 relations. The furniture and carpets were worn, 
 but as both had been bought in the golden days of 
 Mr. Montgomery's career, before he, like Hayward 
 Tarleton, had speculated and lost, they were of the 
 first quality, and would last for many years to come. 
 Moreover, his widow had picked up many bibelots 
 and much antique furniture in Europe, which added 
 to the reserved, aristocratic, and un-Californian at- 
 mosphere of the house. And her silver and crystal 
 were the finest in San Francisco. 
 
 Mrs. Montgomery was no longer wealthy, but she 
 was as exclusive as in the Fifties, when exclusiveness 
 meant self-protection, and, if not a social power, a 
 person whom it showed a proper pride to know. 
 Mr. Montgomery had not lost his entire fortune, by 
 any means, and what his wife and the unmarried 
 children inherited was unencumbered. It was also 
 sufficient to enable Mrs. Montgomery to indulge her 
 passion for travelling, to educate Tiny in Paris, to 
 give Randolph his leisurely choice of careers, to 
 
 73 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 keep up the Rincon Hill and the Menlo Park prop- 
 erty, and to enable the family generally to live as be- 
 came one of the " old families of California," *. e., of 
 the early Fifties. 
 
 The house was on the crest of the hill, and com- 
 manded a fine view of the city and mountains and 
 water. It stood in a dilapidated high-walled garden, 
 full of the Castilian roses, pinks, gladiolus, and 
 fuchsias of the older time. In one corner was a 
 large weeping-willow, and in the middle the remains 
 of a stone fountain. The hum of the city on the 
 plain, and on the heights beyond, never reached that 
 quiet old garden, which symbolised a phase of 
 California's life already remote. 
 
 Lee was given a pretty blue bedroom overlooking 
 the city, and found her new life very pleasant, albeit 
 her roving propensities could no longer be gratified. 
 Mrs. Montgomery, indulgent and yielding in most 
 things, was inexorable on all points of deportment, 
 and gave Lee strict orders that she must never put 
 her foot outside the gate alone. She also missed 
 not being obliged to think for herself, to have no 
 responsibility but punctuality at meals; even her 
 studies were over for the summer. But she was 
 very young; the artificial habits of the last five 
 years fell from her, and the instincts of her nature 
 reached forth to the conditions which had been hers 
 during her earlier years and her mother's before her. 
 She was never quite so young and so dependent as 
 other children, but in less than a month she would 
 have shuddered at the mere mention of Market 
 Street; and she loved the repose and low-toned 
 
 74 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 richness of her surroundings after the clatter and 
 vulgarities of a boarding-house. She still mourned 
 her mother with sudden childish outbursts, but she 
 enjoyed the unbroken rest of her nights, and felt 
 strong and unfatigued as a little girl should. 
 
 Randolph was a dark handsome boy — " exactly like 
 his father, who was the picture of his grandfather, 
 who was a perfect cavalier, my dear !" — and so polite 
 that he made Lee feel like a Red Indian. When 
 she rose to leave the room he opened the door. He 
 never sat until she had placed herself, and he rose 
 when she rose, ignoring the gulf between sixteen 
 and childhood. He was always on hand to adjust 
 her cape, and his attentions at table were really 
 beautiful. He treated his mother with a deference 
 which was surely Southern, and when Lee lamented 
 that she was "so gawky," and that Lord Barnstaple 
 had told her so, he assured her that the traditionally 
 irreproachable Tiny had been quite gauche by com- 
 parison at the age of eleven. After that compliment 
 Lee almost wavered in her allegiance to Cecil, who 
 doubtless would have told her the truth and asked 
 her why she bothered about "such things." But 
 she felt that she certainly was improving, with her 
 well-brushed hair in a tight plait, her dainty white 
 frocks, her thin boots, and hands no longer dis- 
 coloured by liniments, but washed in bran water 
 and manicured once a week. She gave strict atten- 
 tion to her poses, and forbade her legs to fly up and 
 herself to bounce down on the edge of her backbone. 
 The mere fact that her skirts were the same length 
 all round made her feel less awkward. 
 
 75 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 She renewed her baby acquaintance with Coralie 
 Brannan, a fair delicate child who promised a few 
 years of ethereal beauty before withering like a hot- 
 house plant in the rude winds of life. She was 
 sweet and bright and adaptable, and adored Lee at 
 once, succumbing to the stronger nature, but com- 
 panionable through the liveliness of her mind. Of 
 course she was permitted to read Cecil's letters; 
 and she was volubly sympathetic over every phase 
 of that extraordinary friendship. 
 
 The summer months were passed in Menlo Park, 
 which, although it boasted a village and a very 
 smart railway station of the English pattern, was 
 practically a collection of large plain substantial 
 country houses with deep verandahs, and surrounded 
 by grounds more or less extensive. These were 
 scattered over an area of some six miles in the great 
 San Mateo Valley, along whose western rim towered 
 a mountain range covered with redwood forests. 
 The Montgomery, Yorba, Geary, Belmont, Brannan, 
 Randolph, Folsom, and Washington estates dated, 
 in their present sub-division, from the early Fifties : 
 and these families (not all of whom appear in this 
 chronicle) may be said, for want of a better term, 
 to have represented the landed aristocracy of Cali- 
 fornia's second era — counting the arcadian episode 
 of the Spaniards as the first. 
 
 Cecil wrote with a praiseworthy attempt at regu- 
 larity. He had returned at once to Eton and to 
 cricket. His parents were living in comparative 
 harmony, and his stepmother had promised him a 
 new horse and a boat. His letters were very brief, 
 
 76 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 and there was the creak of protesting machinery in 
 every line, but he rarely failed to assure Lee that 
 her letters were "jolly," and to beg her to be faith- 
 ful, as he did so love to get mail. 
 
 When Lee returned to town in the autumn, plump 
 and strong and pink, she settled down at once with 
 Coralie to hard study under private tutors. She 
 was not only to be "thoroughly educated," but 
 "highly accomplished." Her studies were con- 
 ducted entirely in French. She pounded the piano 
 daily until her back ached, covered countless pads 
 with birds and flowers and trees, tinkled the guitar 
 with her head on one side, attacked the German 
 language, and took three dancing lessons a week. 
 These studies were pursued in the old schoolroom at 
 the back of the house, where there was always a big 
 fire roaring, and a polished floor. Randolph and 
 Tom Brannan attended the dancing-class when at 
 home, and bestowed their favours impartially. Tom 
 was fourteen, a round-faced youth with a large 
 mouth, an amiable temper, and an inflammable 
 heart. He sent Lee an immense package of peanuts 
 the day after he met her, and announced himself 
 violently in love. Both he and Randolph danced 
 to perfection, and between the two Lee rapidly 
 developed the inherent grace of her Creole blood. 
 
 •n 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 HER life from eleven to eighteen was very 
 monotonous and very happy. Mrs. Mont- 
 gomery petted and indulged her, the boys were her 
 slaves, and assured her, every time they came home 
 from school, and later from their whirl at College, 
 that she was growing up the prettiest girl in San 
 Francisco. After Tiny's return from Paris, which 
 was shortly after Lee entered her thirteenth year, 
 the child caught little glimpses of the world from 
 her secluded tower. Tiny entered society at once, 
 and was as much of a belle as any girl so constitu- 
 tionally bored and indifferent could be. But her 
 beauty made an immediate impression; she was 
 much entertained, and during her first winter the 
 young men came in shoals to the house on Rincon 
 Hill. She was very small and marvellously digni- 
 fied. With a long train and a high coiffure, her fine 
 head held well back, emphasising her fine aquiline 
 profile, she actually had a presence. Her hair was 
 soft and brown ; her brown eyes, under their level 
 brows, very sweet and thoughtful , her skin had the 
 pure cold whiteness of the camellia; and her 
 admirers swore that her feet and hands necessitated 
 a magnifying glass. She was thin and delicate, but 
 she had great force of character and a sweet inflexi- 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 ble will. Lee conceived for her one of those girlish 
 adorations peculiar to the impulsive and imaginative 
 of her sex, and quite bitterly resented the rival 
 claims to belledom of the overwhelming Helena, 
 the sinuous tropical Ila, the clever Miss Geary, and 
 the wealthy Miss Yorba. When Mrs. Montgomery 
 gave a party she was permitted to contemplate these 
 radiant beings in the dressing-room, and preferred 
 Miss Yorba, with her tragically plain face, because 
 she was the only one who ever condescended to 
 notice her. Later, when she was supposed to be in 
 bed, she lay prone at the top of the stairs watching 
 the dancing and flirting. In summer, she saw even 
 more of the mysterious life of grown people; who 
 appeared to live on the verandahs, and had many 
 picnics. When she was sixteen, men began to 
 notice her, despite Mrs. Montgomery's efforts to 
 keep her in the background and " a child as long as 
 possible." But creole blood is quick and magnetic, 
 and long before it was time to take her place in 
 society it was prophesied that Lee was to succeed 
 that famous trio of belles, Helena Belmont, Ila 
 Brannan, and Tiny Montgomery. Her own imagin- 
 ings on the subject were very satisfactory, but she 
 studied hard and read so many books that Tiny 
 begged her to be careful lest she be thought clever. 
 
 79 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 CECIL, some five months after his eighteenth 
 birthday, went up to Oxford and entered 
 Balliol. Here he gave the cold shoulder to cricket, 
 and took to the water with the enthusiasm of a man 
 who has the honour of his college to uphold and his 
 blue to get. He also took more kindly to corre- 
 spondence, and wrote Lee long letters on the 
 tendencies of modern civilisation. His letters 
 struck his friend, used to the lighter mood of Mr. 
 Montgomery and Mr. Brannan, as decidedly prig- 
 gish, and she worried over the development not a 
 little, — being unaware that the University youth of 
 Great Britain must take priggishness in the regular 
 course of measles, mumps, whooping-cough, Public 
 School wickedness, the overwhelming discovery of 
 his own importance as an atom of the British 
 Empire, aad cynicism. 
 
 During the second term he became profoundly 
 and theologically religious, and Lee wept at the 
 prospect of being a parson's wife His excursions 
 into the vast echoing region of spiritual mysteries 
 nearly addled her brains, and she felt quite miser- 
 able at times to think that there was so little of the 
 old Cecil left. But during the spring of his second 
 year there seemed to be a healthy reaction. A 
 letter dated from Maundrell Abbey informed Lee 
 that he had been sent down for breaking windows 
 
 80 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 and attempting to feed a bonfire in the quadrangle 
 with an objectionable don. He further confided 
 that upon the last hilarious night before his exile he 
 had been discovered by a good Samaritan at the foot 
 of his stairs calling imperiously upon the Almighty 
 to carry him up to his room and put him to bed. 
 
 During the months of his exile he travelled on the 
 Continent. His letters at this period were less like 
 essays for posterity, and much of his old self flashed 
 through them. When he returned to Oxford in the 
 autumn he went in bitterly for politics, announced 
 himself a Liberal, and made cutting references to 
 the House of Peers. Indeed, shortly after he had 
 been elected President of the Union, he gave full 
 rein to his eloquence and his new-born convictions, 
 and so scathingly and vituperously assailed the 
 entire territorial system that he finished in a perfect 
 pandemonium of cheers and hisses, and was pestered 
 for months by the enterprising Socialist. During 
 the following vacation he attempted to convert his 
 father, who was a blue-hot Tory; and the fixity and 
 bitterness of his convictions and his arrogant 
 assumption of advanced thinking so irritated Lord 
 Barnstaple that he damned his offspring for a prig ; 
 forgetting that in his own time he had been as 
 pretty a prig as Oxford had ever turned out. Cecil's 
 keynote at this time — frequently quoted to Lee — 
 was Matthew Arnold's unpleasant arraignment of 
 their common country : " Our world of an aristocracy 
 materialised and null, a middle class purblind and 
 hideous, a lower class crude and brutal." Lord 
 Maundrell was for reforming all three. Unlike the 
 6 81 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 great poet who inspired those lines, there was no 
 danger of his being the "passionate and dauntless 
 soldier of a forlorn hope, who, ignorant of the future, 
 and unconsoled by its promises, nevertheless waged 
 against the conservatism of the old impossible world 
 so fiery battle. " To-day the future was quite clear, 
 that is to say, it was to be what its brilliant and 
 determined youth chose to make it. 
 
 Lee thought these sentiments simply magnificent, 
 and expressed her approval with such fire and enthu- 
 siasm that Cecil wrote with increasing frequency, 
 and assured her that the way her style had improved 
 was really remarkable. 
 
 During his last year his fads had pretty well run 
 their course, although he was temporarily interested 
 in " The Influence of Zola on Modern Thought, " and 
 bi-metallism. But his ideals, so he assured Lee, 
 were leaving him. All he really cared for in life 
 was to take a double first in Greats and History, and 
 he was working like a horse. There were long 
 intervals between his letters, and when he wrote it 
 was to apologise on the score of fatigue. He was 
 " dog tired. " So were all the men. If they were n ? t 
 drivelling idiots when the thing was over it was 
 because nothing could really knock an Englishman 
 out. Of course he was on the water more or less, 
 and took a turn every day at cricket, which kept 
 him in fair condition, although he was far from fit. 
 Meanwhile Lee was to pray that he was not ploughed. 
 He liked women to pray. Religion had gone with 
 his other ideals, but it was a beautiful thing in a 
 woman. 
 
 82 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 A RAILROAD sliced off a corner of Lee's 
 ranch and paid her a large indemnity, which 
 was invested by Mr. Brannan in first mortgages; 
 and an earthquake presented another section of the 
 ranch with a fine assortment of mineral springs 
 warranted to cure as many ills. A hotel and bath 
 houses were promptly erected, and a heavy patronage 
 followed. Mrs. Montgomery insisted that every 
 detail of her business affairs should be explained to 
 Lee after she passed her sixteenth birthday, and that 
 upon her eighteenth she should assume the entire 
 control of her property. 
 
 " I want Lee to know so much that no man can 
 cheat her, and no complication take her unawares, " 
 she saidj in a memorable interview with Mr. Brannan, 
 in which she completely routed that conservative 
 person. " Look at the women in this town who were 
 once distinguished members of society, and who are 
 now getting their bread Heaven only knows how. 
 Their husbands died involved, and they were help- 
 less — for they had been petted dolls, nothing more." 
 
 Lee awoke one morning and found herself eighteen. 
 It was very early, and the world was intensely still. 
 The spring birds were silent in the willow, the star* 
 burned low. 
 
 83 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 She was very happy and very expectant : the prin- 
 cess was to come down from her tower into the great 
 hall of the castle and take part in the beautiful and 
 mysterious drama called Life. She was quite con- 
 vinced that not in the whole world was there a girl 
 so fortunate as herself. She was lovely to look at, 
 her manners were soft and convent-like: even the 
 hypercritical Mrs. Montgomery assured her that they 
 were as fine as those of the women who had been the 
 glory of their country before the war ; and her in- 
 come added to her consequence and would leave no 
 wish she could think of ungratified. She was de- 
 lighted with the prospect of being a woman of affairs. 
 She felt very important and very proud ; and as the 
 original hotel on her property was flimsy and hide- 
 ous, she and Randolph, who was an architect, had 
 already planned a new one. It was to be a huge 
 edifice of adobe in the old Californian style, with a 
 courtyard full of palms, and a fountain tossing the 
 least offensive of the waters. 
 
 Lee thought of all these things this morning, and 
 of more. In the background of her musings there 
 was always the fairy prince. It was hard work 
 idealising Cecil in the light of his Oxford effusions, 
 but Lee did it; he was seven thousand miles away. 
 And he belonged to the land of poetry and romance, 
 crusaders, castles, and splendour; he would be the 
 eighth earl and the eleventh viscount of his line, and 
 the very repairs of his ancestral home were older 
 than the stars on her flag. Deep in her imagination 
 dwelt an ideal Cecil, a superb and lovable creature 
 upon whom Oxford had never breathed her blight, 
 
 84. 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 with whom fads had never tampered, who was seri- 
 ous only when in love, and who would descend upon 
 her like a god and bear her off to the abbey of his 
 fathers. She never regretted the utter absence of 
 sentiment and tenderness in Cecil's letters; it would 
 have accorded ill with Cecil in the present trying 
 stages of his development. Cecil, as a man of the 
 world, was to be all that ever sprang from the fertile 
 brain of a romanticist. He would not condescend 
 to be photographed, but he could not fail to be hand- 
 some, and she could only pray that he was tall. 
 She, with a fine instinct, had never sent him her 
 portrait, nor alluded to her brilliant prospects. She 
 wrote of her daily life, of the books she read, and 
 of himself, and, having a ready pen and a generous 
 endowment of femininity, never failed to make her 
 letters amusing. She wondered if, as he sauntered 
 through the moonlit gardens of Oxford — she, too, 
 had read Matthew Arnold — or rowed alone on the 
 Isis at night, he dreamed tender and impassioned 
 dreams of her. If he did he gave no sign. On the 
 other hand, there was never the flutter of a petticoat 
 in his letters. She had asked him once if there were 
 no girls in Oxford, and he had replied that he had 
 too much to do to think about girls, and that she was 
 the only one he could ever endure, anyhow. Those 
 he met in his vacations bored him to extinction; but 
 he liked the married women, and intended to culti- 
 vate them one of these days. 
 
 Lee yawned and sat up lazily. It was her duty to 
 take another nap, for she was to go to her first ball 
 to-night. But sleep was a waste of time, and her 
 
 85 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 first day of young-ladyhood should be as long as pofr 
 sible. Her hair was braided. She shook it loose 
 and spread it about her. It was fine and soft, and 
 black enough to be sown with stars, but it had never 
 a wave in it. She took a hand-mirror from the table 
 beside her bed and regarded herself with some 
 approval. Her skin was very white, her cheeks and 
 lips were pink, her light blue eyes were very large 
 and very radiant. The lashes were still short, but 
 black and thick, and the underlid was full. The 
 hair grew about her low forehead in a waving line, 
 and her eyebrows, although straight and heavy, 
 seemed, like the irregular nose and mouth, to have 
 been made for her face alone. The short nose with 
 its slight upward slope had a spirited nostril ; what 
 the mouth lacked in conventional prettiness it made 
 up in colour and curves ; and if the lower part of her 
 face was square, few took note of the lines under so 
 much beauty of texture. She knew her good points 
 perfectly — her eyes, complexion, poise of head, and 
 length of limb — and she already knew how to make 
 the most of them. 
 
 She laughed, stretched herself, and slipped to the 
 edge of her bed, where she sat for a few moments in 
 apparent indecision. The truth was that she was in 
 no haste to face the great fact of life, now that the 
 door stood ajar. Until she was dressed and had 
 gone forth into those parts of the house which were 
 not her own exclusive bower, she still lingered in 
 the period of dreams and anticipation, and it was 
 very pleasant. 
 
 She thrust her feet into her night slippers, wan- 
 86 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 dered about the room for a moment, then opened a 
 window and leaned out. The perfume of roses and 
 violets and lilacs came up to her from the old gar- 
 den below and from many another about. One or 
 two of these gardens she had full view of, others 
 showed only a corner in the triangle of crumbling 
 walls built about the queer old-fashioned houses 
 when the city was young. At this early hour their 
 secrets seemed whispering along the eaves, cowering 
 in the dark gardens, ready to lift their heads and 
 laugh. What Lee had not heard of the ancient his- 
 tory of San Francisco had not been worth repeating, 
 for Coralie had grown up with her elders and missed 
 nothing. In South Park, at the foot of the hill, she 
 could see the chimneys of the Randolph House, 
 whose tragedy seemed separated from her time by a 
 dozen generations ; so rapid had been the evolution 
 of the city, so furious its energies. Beyond lay the 
 plain and the steep hills bristling with the hives of 
 human beings, who dreamed of gold, and the loud 
 peremptory roar of Market Street. Telegraph Hill, 
 sharp and bare and brown, passed over in contempt 
 by the dwellers on the fashionable heights, its sur- 
 face broken only by an occasional hovel, looked like 
 an equally contemptuous old grandmother. Far 
 across the bay, to the right of Rincon Hill, were 
 the pink ranges of the coast ; at the other end of the 
 plain the brown Twin Peaks, as yet unhonoured by 
 the hideous dwellings of rich and poor ; and then the 
 slopes of Lone Mountain, its white slabs and vaults 
 grey in the dawn, the sharp cone with its Calvary 
 behind black in the dull void. 
 
 87 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 The city looked grey and old, as if the gold in its 
 veins had turned to lead and its uneasy head were 
 thick with ashes. 
 
 It was the first time in many years that Lee had 
 seen San Francisco in an ugly mood, for she was 
 not given to early rising. She had found it beauti- 
 ful from her eyrie, with its brilliant floods of winter 
 and spring sunshine, its white mist robes and wild 
 dust-cloak of summer. She had almost, forgotten 
 the flare and glare of Market Street; and she had 
 rarely crossed that plain since her mother's death, — 
 never except in the seclusion of Mrs. Montgomery's 
 carriage. She had as seldom entered a shop. Her 
 life in some respects had been almost cloistered. 
 To-day all was to be changed. She should never go 
 out alone, of course, but she was no longer to hold 
 herself aloof from the details of life. And to-night 
 she was to go to her first party ! She hardly knew 
 whether she was glad or sorry. 
 
 As the sun rose and the city turned pink, and a 
 fine white mist rode in and hung itself about the 
 sparkling windows on the heights, and the bay deep- 
 ened into blue, and the bare peaks looked a richer 
 brown, the Contra Costa range a deeper pink patched 
 with blue, the darkness of night lingering only in 
 its canons, Lee decided that she was glad. The 
 world was very beautiful out there. San Francisco, 
 clad in her rosy gown, looked like the Sleeping 
 Princess on her wedding-morn, but peaceful and 
 still — and happy. Lee could hardly realise that it 
 was a monster with a million nerves, a fevered 
 brain, its tainted blood swarming with the microbes 
 
 88 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 of every vice, of every passion ; raging for gold and 
 alcohol with a thirst that never slept; a monster 
 that had killed her father and Mr. Montgomery, and 
 Colonel Belmont, and Mr. Polk, and Don Roberto 
 Yorba, and countless others whose families were 
 scattered to the winds ; that it had in its records as 
 many terrible tragedies, as many shameful secrets as 
 it had nails in the spires of its churches. Over 
 there, beyond her range of vision, was a whole city 
 of rottenness in which she would never set her foot, 
 which counted as nothing in her carefully guarded 
 life, and yet was crowded with beings, many of them 
 young, not all of them wholly bad. Mrs. Mont- 
 gomery would not have a newspaper in her house, 
 but Lee knew that horrid and picturesque crimes 
 were not infrequent in those mysterious regions 
 known as Barbary Coast, Sailor Town, Spanish 
 Town, and China Town, and longed for details 
 with that kindliness for sensation inherent in the 
 American not wholly a Southerner. 
 
 But what she could see was beautiful. She smiled 
 indulgently into the face of that great Fact out 
 there. For Lee was a dreamer who knew that she 
 dreamed. In the background, ineffaced, were the 
 hard practical years of her youth; surrounding her 
 was the lore she had gathered from books and Coralie ; 
 to say nothing of the intellectual agonies undergone 
 at the hands of Lord Maundrell, and the observa- 
 tions on the world as it is to young men settling 
 themselves in life, with which she had been favoured 
 by her two faithful swains, Randolph and Tom 
 Brannan. She had helped them both to choose 
 
 80 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 their careers. Randolph had hovered between archi- 
 tecture and the law, and Tom's aspirations were 
 directed equally towards ranching in a cow-boy out- 
 fit, and stockbrokering, until persuaded by Lee that 
 he was too lazy to sit a horse all day and would be 
 useful to her in town. 
 
 But she was none the less expectant, demanded 
 none the less the richest and most picturesque treas- 
 ures of life, its most poignant and abiding happi- 
 ness. Beyond those hills, beyond the grey ocean, 
 whose roar came faintly to her, was the fairy prince 
 — Cecil, with the faint musty perfume of the ages 
 about him, and the owls hooting in the ruined 
 cloisters of his abbey. 
 
 90 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 " T EE, darling; I am afraid you will take cold." 
 
 JLv Lee whirled about. Tiny, muffled in a pink 
 dressing-gown, her brown hair hanging about her 
 lovely imperturbable face, had entered, and was 
 smiling at the dreamer. 
 
 " I want to be the first to kiss you," she said. Lee 
 gave her an enthusiastic hug and swung her up to 
 the table. 
 
 Tiny laughed and made herself comfortable. 
 "You look for all the world like a long white lily 
 in your night-gown, " she said ; " but I do believe 
 you are as strong as Randolph." 
 
 Lee threw herself backward until her finger-tips 
 touched the floor, then writhed her slender body 
 until she looked like a snake uncoiling. Tiny 
 gasped. 
 
 " No wonder you are graceful, " she said. " Who 
 taught you to do that ? " 
 
 " Want to see me kick ? " 
 
 "No, no," said Tiny hurriedly. "I don't think it 
 is nice to kick, dear. But I am not going to scold 
 you. I can't realise that you are eighteen. It 
 makes me feel a grandmother — I am twenty -four. " 
 
 " Why don't you marry ? I think it must be horrid 
 to be an old maid." 
 
 9* 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "How horrid of you, Lee. I 'm not an old maid." 
 
 "You look just sixteen; but why don't you 
 marry? " 
 
 " Of course you will ask till you find out. Well, 
 Lee, considering that you are really grown-up to- 
 day, I '11 tell you something. I 'm thinking about 
 it." 
 
 Lee gave a little shriek of delight, sat down on 
 the floor, and embraced her knees. 
 
 "Quick! Tell me." 
 
 "He 's an Englishman." 
 
 "Tiny!" 
 
 " I met him in London two years ago, and he asked 
 me then; but I couldn't make up my mind. It's 
 such a bore making up one's mind. I did n't bother 
 much, but we corresponded, and it came about with 
 less trouble than I thought it would : I wrote him 
 last night definitely. He has been so faithful — 
 when I think of those that have come and gone 
 meanwhile! — and he really is very nice. Not very 
 amusing, but, cnfin, not too talkative." 
 
 f 'What is his name?" 
 
 " Lord Arrowmount." 
 
 "That makes it just perfect! " 
 
 "I wish he were not. It will be such a bore liv- 
 ing up to things one was n't born to. And after the 
 lazy freedom of California! When I was in London 
 it seemed to me that the poor women were worked 
 to death. I 'd far rather have married an American 
 ■ — if it were a mere matter of nationality." 
 
 "They won't make you do anything over there 
 that you don't want to," said Lee wisely. "You 
 
 92 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 have the sweetest little face and the softest voice 
 in the world, but the cool way in which you walk 
 straight at what you want — it 's too clever ! " 
 
 Tiny laughed. " It 's you that are quite too fright- 
 fully clever. Be careful, dear, that you don't talk 
 books to any of the young men to-night." 
 
 "I suppose I won't have any one to talk books 
 with till Cecil comes," said Lee with some vicious- 
 ness. " Is Lord Arrowmount clever? " 
 
 "No, thank Heaven! He is just a nice, quiet, 
 big, kind Englishman. He takes photographs, but 
 I don't mind that, as he doesn't talk much about it; 
 and when I said I 'd rather not stand in the broiling 
 sun with my eyes puckered up for ten minutes at a 
 time, he never mentioned it again. I think we 
 shall be quite happy. Of course we '11 come back 
 to California every few years, or mother will come 
 to us." 
 
 "Of course. So shall I. I never could leave 
 California for very long." 
 
 " Englishmen are not so easy to manage as Ameri- 
 can men, but I believe that as soon as I understand 
 Arthur I shall be able to manage him quite easily. 
 I should simply hate it if he were always contra- 
 dicting me." 
 
 " He won't. I don't know that I should care to 
 manage Cecil. I think it must be magnificent to be 
 lorded over by a man you love ; but I should want 
 my own way all the same. I 'd storm and beg and 
 cajole, and then of course I 'd get it." 
 
 Tiny laughed. " I don't know much about English- 
 men, but I think you know less." 
 
 93 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 *' But, you see, I shan't meet Cecil again for several 
 years, and by that time I shall be quite experienced. 
 Besides, I 've made a regular study of Randolph and 
 Tom. I think it must be so interesting to understand 
 men — and so useful." 
 
 " You look so knowing — just like a baby owl." 
 
 " There can't be such an extraordinary amount of 
 difference, considering that we are descended from 
 them and speak the same language. And for that 
 matter, I 'm saturated with English literature. It 's 
 the only one I know, and it has formed my mind. 
 I 'Ve scarcely read an American novel, and never 
 an American poem — is there one ? And I know 
 English history backwards, and adore it." 
 
 " All the same, you are American straight into 
 your marrow, and I feel surer and surer, the more I 
 see of English people — and I have had two seasons 
 and one autumn in England — that there are no two 
 peoples on the earth so unlike." 
 
 " Well, I think it 's very strange," said Lee crossly. 
 " I don't understand it at all." 
 
 " We are not even like the Americans of a quarter 
 of a century ago. Why should we expect to be like 
 our ancestors of several centuries back? " 
 
 " Oh, true, I suppose. And Cecil ! If he 's any- 
 thing like his letters he 's certainly not much like 
 Randolph and Tom. But I had an idea he was 
 going through a sort of freak stage, and would 
 be just like other men (only nicer) when he got 
 over it." 
 
 " There are, doubtless, hundreds like him ; and I 
 wish you would not use slang, dear." 
 
 94 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 * Well, I won't What is your Arthur? " 
 
 "A baron — nothing so very wonderful; but he 
 has a very long descent : I looked it out in Burke. 
 And at least I am not buying him. He knows that 
 I have very little. I believe he is wealthy. He 's 
 thirty-six; a very good age. I do hate boys." 
 
 "Is he frightfully in love?" 
 
 Tiny nodded and blushed. " When an English- 
 man falls in love — well!" 
 
 Lee jerked her knees up to her chin and gave a 
 gurgle of delight. " Are you in love with him ? " 
 she asked softly. " Do tell me, Tiny? " 
 
 Tiny's massive dignity relaxed under a pink flood. 
 " I have had other offers, you know, and some from 
 very rich men," she said as she slipped to the floor, 
 " and it 's really commonplace nowadays to marry a 
 title. Give me a kiss, and tell me you want me to be 
 happy, and I '11 go back to bed. I 'm cold." 
 
 95 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 " T HAVE taken a day off in honour of the great 
 A event," said Randolph at the breakfast table. 
 Lee smiled sweetly, but one of her shoulders gave 
 an impatient little jerk. Randolph had proposed 
 four times already, since his return from Europe, 
 three weeks ago. Mrs. Montgomery smiled approv- 
 ingly. She had tolerated the correspondence with 
 Cecil Maundrell out of respect to the wishes of the 
 dead; but she had long since permitted herself to 
 hope that the ridiculous boy-and-girl engagement 
 would die a natural death, and that there would be 
 one change the less in her happy domestic life. She 
 had covered the table with wild flowers, sent from 
 Menlo, in honour of Lee's birthday, and had ordered 
 three different varieties of hot bread, besides the 
 usual meed of griddle cakes, chicken, hash, hominy 
 and eggs. It was to Lee's happy indifference to the 
 popular American breakfast that she owed her superb 
 health and colour. Tiny looked as fragile as porce- 
 lain beside her; and even Randolph, although he 
 had achieved height and sinews, had the dull com- 
 plexion and thin cheeks of the American who adds 
 the tax of alcohol and late hours to the decimating 
 national diet. He was by no means dissipated, for 
 
 .96 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 San Francisco ; but he worked very hard during the 
 day, and, when free of the social claims of his family 
 — to whom he was devoted — took his recreations 
 with other youths by night. He had left college at 
 the end of his first year, studied architecture for an- 
 other year in New York and Paris, and had sold his 
 first plan — for a Bonanza king's "palatial residence " 
 on Nob Hill — three months later. Since then he 
 had had little leisure, and had made money : he was 
 practical, with a zigzag of originality, and planned 
 and worked with marvellous rapidity. There were 
 lines about his sharp nervous grey eyes, and, six 
 months before, he had broken down, and gone to 
 England to rest, and visit Lord Arrowmount His 
 manners were not what they had been in his remote 
 boyhood, but they were still fine, and he had a 
 certain distinction, in spite of a slight stoop and a 
 decided restlessness of manner. 
 
 After breakfast he followed Lee to the garden, and 
 they sat down under the willow. 
 
 " Don't propose just yet," said Lee. " I feel in a 
 perfectly beatific humour, and I would n't be made 
 cross for the world." 
 
 "Not for the world, if you don't wish it," said 
 Randolph airily. " I will postpone it until to-morrow 
 afternoon at six. That will give me just half-an-hour 
 before dinner." 
 
 " I don't believe you ever are really serious. You 
 wouldn't be half so nice if you were." 
 
 " It is difficult to be serious with a habit. When- 
 ever I propose I have a sudden vision of pinafores, 
 and braids, and angles. It takes all my mental 
 ■» 97. 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 nimbleness to realise that you are really marriage* 
 able — in spite of your beauty." 
 
 He spoke in his usual bantering voice, and his eyes 
 smiled, but his nervous hands were pressed hard 
 against each other. 
 
 Lee saw only his eyes. She smiled saucily and 
 tossed her head. " I 'm to be reckoned with," she 
 remarked. " There are no pinafores on my plans for 
 the season." 
 
 Randolph threw back his head, and laughed heartily. 
 " Perhaps you suspect that you are going to be a 
 great belle to-night," he said in a moment. 
 
 "I? Oh, Randolph ! how can you be sure? " 
 
 " The men have planned it between them. Don't 
 start out to-night oppressed with any doubts." 
 
 Lee clapped her hands. Her eyes flashed with 
 delight. 
 
 "Who? Who? Tell me! Of course it was you 
 first of all." 
 
 "You may be sure that I would do everything I 
 could to make you a success; and so would Tom 
 Brannan and Ned Geary. The others you know only 
 by name." 
 
 " I suppose Mr. Geary will propose to-night," said 
 Lee with resignation. " I am used to you and Tom, 
 but when the others begin I shall really be quite 
 frantic. I suppose I '11 have to tell them about 
 Cecil " 
 
 Randolph threw back his head and laughed again, 
 although he caught in his under lip. " Fancy you 
 marrying a little tin god of an Englishman ! " 
 
 "That's enough!" 
 
 9« 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I beg pardon. Don't singe me with that blut 
 fire of yours, and I won't call him names. But you 
 took me by surprise. I thought you had forgotten 
 all about him." 
 
 " Why, you know I correspond with him." 
 
 "Do you still — really? I don't know that I am 
 surprised, however: you are the kindest and most 
 unselfish of girls, and Englishmen have a stolid fashion 
 of plugging away at anything that has become a 
 habit." 
 
 " Cecil is not stolid. He has changed his mind 
 fifty times about other things. You can read his 
 letters if you like." 
 
 " God forbid ! I know of nothing in life so objec- 
 tionable as the Oxford prig. But you don't mean to 
 tell me, my dearest girl, that you consider yourself 
 engaged to him?" 
 
 " Of course I do ! " 
 
 " But, Lee, the thing is a farce. You were chil- 
 dren. And you have not seen each other for seven 
 years. When you meet again you will be two differ- 
 ent beings; if you don't detest each other it will 
 be a miracle." 
 
 "We shall find each other the more interesting; 
 and people don't change so much as all that." 
 
 " Am I what I was at sixteen ? Well, let that point 
 go. You have n't reflected, perhaps, that there would 
 be enormous opposition on the part of his family. 
 The Maundrells are paupers. Old Lord Barnstaple 
 left the greater part of his private fortune to his 
 young wife, and the present earl soon made ducks 
 and drakes of the rest. Cecil must marry a fortune, 
 
 99 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 and yours is entirely too small ; they want millions 
 over there. Lady Barnstaple has cut into her capital 
 trying to keep up with smart London. She is simply 
 mad to be known as one of the three or four smartest 
 women in society, and the smartest American; and 
 her case is hopeless. She has n't money enough, she 
 never was a beauty, and now is nothing but an 
 anxious-eyed faded pretty woman ; and she has n't 
 an atom of personality. I was in the same house 
 with her for a week." 
 
 " What is she like ? " Curiosity routed her irritation. 
 
 " A bad imitation of the loud English type, and 
 fairly exudes larkiness and snobbery. She and 
 Barnstaple lead a cat-and-dog life. She gives him im- 
 mense sums to keep him from leaving her, for without 
 him she'd drop out; she has no real hold. When 
 she calls him a cad, he calls her a tuft-hunter, a 
 parvenu, and a pushing failure." 
 
 "Who was she? Cecil never told me." 
 
 " Something very common — from Chicago, I 
 think. She went to London a rich widow, but with- 
 out letters to the other Americans in power, who are 
 mostly New Yorkers with a proper contempt for the 
 aristocracy of wealth in its first generation. She 
 worked the Legation to some extent, and managed 
 a few easy and gluttonous titles. But the big doors 
 were shut in her face - , she was managing herself 
 badly, she had picked up with the wrong people, and 
 she was about to give up the game when Maundrell 
 and his debts came along. They flew at each other; 
 he was heir presumptive to the earldom of Barnstaple, 
 and his uncle was old. Maundrell's first wife was a 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 daughter of the Duke of Beaumanoir, a beautiful and 
 charming creature, and one of the most popular 
 women in London for eight years. The present 
 owner of her precious husband could not have made 
 a worse move than to succeed her. Well, to return 
 to Cecil. He won't have a penny but what his grand- 
 mother and stepmother allow him ; and what he may 
 inherit from both will not be enough to keep up the 
 title, the way things are going now. Therefore, he 
 must marry money " 
 
 " Oh, bother ! I don't want to hear any more." 
 
 " Answer me this — if Cecil Maundrell were out of 
 the question, would you marry me?" 
 
 " You promised " 
 
 " Not to propose. Fancy a man proposing at this 
 hour in the morning, and after eight buckwheat cakes ! 
 To discuss the question in the abstract is quite another 
 matter." 
 
 " I don't believe I could ever think of a man I had 
 grown up with as anything but* a brother." 
 
 " You could if you would. It is merely a matter 
 of readjusting yourself mentally. I am not your 
 brother ; I have hardly seen as much of you as Tom 
 
 Brannan has; and "he hesitated a moment — 
 
 " you do not know me half so well as you think you 
 do." 
 
 Lee looked at him with a flash of curiosity, then 
 she lifted her chin. " You want to intrigue me, as 
 the French say. But I am not so easily managed, 
 I know you quite well." 
 
 "You think I could never be really serious, I 
 suppose." 
 
 IOI 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "I can't imagine any man I ever met being really 
 serious. And you are much nicer as you are. 
 Please don't try to be." 
 
 "Why do you suppose I am working like a dog?" 
 
 "To get rich and ahead of everybody else, of 
 course. You want to be an architect that all America 
 talks about, and to make stacks and stacks of money." 
 " You are right as far as you go. I want to get to 
 the top, and be the first in my line, and I must have 
 wealth ; but the two are ashes without the woman. I 
 not only love you, but I should be prouder of you 
 than of anything else that I achieved. If I made 
 millions you could spend them, and the more you 
 dazzled the eyes of the world the better I should like 
 it. You should never have a duty that was repugnant 
 or irritating to you, and never a wish ungratified." 
 
 " Would you button my boots? " asked Lee merrily. 
 
 " Of course I would." 
 
 " I don't believe you 'd have time. You '11 never 
 be through getting rich, if you are like the other 
 millionaires of San Francisco. Tom says they work 
 like old cart-horses from morning till night, and then 
 die in harness." 
 
 " Every man with energy and ambition wants to- 
 make his pile ; and then, of course, when a man has 
 made millions he must watch them or they will run 
 away ; but I should always know that you were there. 
 That would satisfy me." 
 
 Lee made no reply. Her lip curled, her lashes 
 approached each other, and she looked dreamily 
 through the green lattice of the willow to the moun- 
 tains beyond the bay. 
 
 .102 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "What are you thinking of?" said Randolph 
 abruptly. i\ %// 
 
 " I want more than that. I dwt care for enor- 
 mous wealth, and I have ft anWgr&r ambition to 
 dazzle the world — I suppolVr am jSot a very good 
 American." V" / 
 
 "What do you want?" » / 
 
 She turned very pin^gT skook^ier head shyly and 
 looked down. \A ' 
 
 " You fancy you will find it with an Englishman, I 
 suppose — with whom you would be a sort of necessary 
 virtue, and who would have forgotten after three 
 months of matrimony whether you were beautiful or 
 not." 
 
 " It is too bad of you to have such a poor opinion 
 of Englishmen when Tiny is going to marry one." 
 
 " I wish she were not, although Arrowmount is a 
 first-rate fellow, and I like him. Besides, it is quite 
 another matter for Tiny to marry an Englishman : she 
 has the adaptability of indifference, and she is a born 
 diplomatist and manager. Southern girls are not 
 American in the modern sense, and when they are 
 educated in Europe they practically revert to the 
 conditions out of which their ancestors came. My 
 mother has seen to it that Tiny is as Southern as if 
 she had never set foot in this extraordinary chaos 
 called California. She tried it on me, and it worked 
 until I had to go out in the world and hustle. She 
 tried it on you, and you are a magnificent compound 
 of the South, California, and yourself. Before you 
 have been out a year you will have an individuality 
 as pronounced as Helena Belmont's ; and no woman 
 
 103 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 irith individuality can get along with an Englishman. 
 For the American, she can't have too much." 
 
 " Three of Tiny's friends are married to English- 
 men, and they get on." 
 
 "Which is another point: when an Englishman 
 settles down in California he sheds a part of his 
 national individuality into the surroundings he loves. 
 A Californian wife is part of the scheme. He loves 
 the country first, and the woman as a natural se- 
 quence. You are not Tiny, and it is not in the least 
 likely that Cecil Maundrell will settle down in Cali- 
 fornia. I repeat what I said a moment ago, and I 
 should like to have you think it over: as my wife 
 you would be a queen ; as his wife you would be a 
 mere annex until you ceased to be on speaking 
 terms " 
 
 " Oh, bother ! I like to believe that everything 
 in the world is beautiful, and I 'm going to as long 
 as I can. Go and get the plans for the hotel, and 
 don't talk another word of nonsense to me to-day." 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 " ^7"ES," said Tiny to Lee that night, "you are 
 
 A lovely — perfectly lovely : but it should have 
 been white. I think it was quite weak of us to give 
 way. No girl ever made her debut in black before." 
 
 " That 's why I wanted to — that, and because it 's 
 so becoming. Why should I wear a silly little white 
 frock just because it 's the custom ? " 
 
 " The more you make yourself like other people, 
 dear, the easier time you will have in this world." 
 
 Lee tossed her head. " I 'm going to have my 
 own way in my own way," she announced. 
 
 She was dressed for her party, in black gauze. 
 Mrs. Montgomery had wept at the bare suggestion. 
 Tiny had expressed herself with unusual emphasis, 
 and Coralie, who expected to be a vision in white, 
 had remonstrated until Lee had fallen asleep. 
 
 Lee had an instinct for dress. She knew that she 
 would look superb in black, and merely sweet and 
 pretty in white. She had chosen a gauze as blue- 
 black as her hair, and ordered it to be made with a 
 light simplicity which increased her clean length of 
 limb and threw into sharp relief the dazzling white 
 of her skin. She wore her hair brushed away from 
 J»er face and knotted at the back of her head. 
 
 i°5 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I may not be a great beauty," she remarked, 
 "but I am stunning!" 
 
 "You are a symphony in black and blue; and 
 white and pink ; your eyes are so very blue in that 
 dress, and your hair, and brows, and lashes seem so 
 much blacker than usual — one almost forgets even 
 your complexion. You are despairingly pretty." 
 
 Tiny looked placidly pretty in pink and white. 
 
 " Ah ! Well, I intend to be thought so, whether 
 I am or not If I see anybody looking at me as if 
 they were criticising my nose and mouth I '11 just 
 blaze my eyes at them and walk across the room." 
 
 Tiny laughed. " The beauty carriage is half the 
 battle. I 've seen rather plain girls carry themselves 
 as if they were satiated with admiration, and get far 
 more than some modest beauty." 
 
 " Youbetcherlife — I beg pardon, Tiny ; I '11 never 
 use a word of slang again — I vow I won't. Is it 
 true that Englishwomen use a lot of slang?" 
 
 " Smart Englishwomen have an absurd fiction 
 that they are above all laws, and some of them are 
 as vulgar as underbred Americans — I cannot say 
 more than that. But like other properly bred 
 Americans — Southerners, I mean, of course — I 
 have my own standards." 
 
 " But if you do not adopt their argot you may not 
 get on over there," said Lee, with a flash of insight. 
 
 " I should like nothing better than to be unpopular 
 with people whose manners I did not like, and whose 
 race for amusement bored me. They can think me 
 just as provincial and old-fashioned as they like. 
 There are always charming people in every society. 
 
 lot 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 The thing is to have the entree, and then pick and 
 choose." 
 
 " I shan't care at all about society when I 'm 
 married. Cecil and I will be frightfully in love, 
 and live in an old castle, and stay out all day on 
 the moors and in the woods, and climb fells and 
 things." 
 
 " So you fancy yourself in love with Cecil," re- 
 marked Miss Montgomery. "You've been dream- 
 ing about him all these years." 
 
 Lee turned as pink as one of the Castilian roses 
 under her window. She had been imprudent more 
 than once to-day and betrayed her precious secret. 
 
 "Well — it is rather romantic. I — well, you'd 
 think about him in that way, too — you know you 
 would." 
 
 " Not if I had been obliged to read his letters. 
 But if you really love him and intend to marry him, 
 I think you should announce the engagement." 
 
 "Well, I'm not going to announce it, and spoil 
 all my fun. An engaged girl has a simply dismal 
 time." 
 
 " But it 's not fair to other men. I do hope, 
 dearest, that you are not going to be an unprincipled 
 flirt." 
 
 "I don't care a bit about flirting or having men 
 fall in love with me. I only want to have a good 
 time. If I see any man fixing to fall in love with 
 me — I beg pardon — I mean showing signs of it, 
 I '11 tell him, for I don't want to hurt anybody, and 
 I 'm sure it must be horrid to see men look serious 
 and glum. But I do want to be the belle of all the 
 
 "7 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 parties, and have flowers sent to me, and get nearly 
 all the favours at the germans. Surely I have a 
 right to a girl's good time." 
 
 "You certainly have, dear. Why not break the 
 engagement ? Have you considered that it is hardly 
 fair to Cecil ? " 
 
 "What?" Lee whirled about. "Do you think 
 he would wish it broken off? He's never even 
 hinted at such a thing." 
 
 "Of course not; he's too honourable. But when 
 you are a year older you will write and tell him that 
 you no longer hold him to a childish compact." 
 
 "I won't! He 's mine, and I '11 keep him. How 
 can you be so cruel, Tiny? It 's my first party, and 
 now I want to cry!" 
 
 " You did not let me finish. I had no intention 
 of speaking of this to-night, and I would not spoil 
 your pleasure for the world. I was only going to 
 say that a year from now you will feel very differ- 
 ently about everything. You will have seen more 
 of the world, and you will realise the difference 
 between fact and fancy." 
 
 "All the same I won't give up Cecil," said Lee 
 obstinately. " It has been my dearest dream, and I 
 won't even think about it 's being all a sham." 
 
 *o8 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 BUT a year later, as Tiny had predicted, Lee 
 wrote to Cecil Maundrell and gave him his 
 freedom. 
 
 It is little that a girl learns of the world in San 
 Francisco: where the home-bred youths are a re- 
 markable compound of guile and ingenuousness, 
 alcohol and tea-cakes, and where the more highly- 
 seasoned Easterner rarely tarries. But that little 
 had taught Lee several things. She had not only 
 been the belle of her set, but her charm was potent 
 and direct, and she had caught more than one 
 glimpse of the passions of men. Randolph's had 
 waxed with her growing consciousness of her power, 
 and upon two memorable occasions the fiery impetu- 
 osity of his Southern blood had routed his practical 
 Americanism, his aversion to gravity. Tom Brannan, 
 whose mouth and heart grew no smaller with the 
 years, and who was by no means a fool, although 
 somewhat rattle-brained, had shown himself capable 
 of imbecility. Ned Geary, clever, versatile, indo- 
 lent, who employed his larger energies in protest 
 against his father's insistence that he should make 
 money instead of spending it, and who was the 
 uncertain object of many maidenly hopes, not only 
 proposed regularly to Lee by word and letter, but 
 
 109 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 was inspired to excellent rhyme. He was famed 
 for breaking social engagements of the most exact- 
 ing nature, 'and was at pains to assure Lee that the 
 nice precision with which he adjusted his pleasure 
 to his politeness whenever herself was in question 
 was the signal proof of the depth of his feelings. 
 He even answered Mrs. Montgomery's notes when 
 she invited him to dinner, and his fair gay face was 
 never absent from her "evenings." When he 
 pleaded his cause that face became an angry red, 
 and the veins stood out on his forehead, but Lee, 
 who was very observing, noted that when he sang 
 he underwent precisely the same facial changes — 
 contortions she phrased it — and refused to be moved. 
 Perhaps she was a trifle heartless at this period, as 
 all girls are apt to be in the first flush of their 
 triumphs, when the love of men is flung at their feet 
 and their dearest art is to dodge a proposal. Lee 
 liked both Ned and Tom, for their spirits were high 
 and they were very good fellows, and offered them 
 her life-long friendship. For Randolph she had 
 much placid affection, and she respected him, for 
 he had brains and rather more knowledge of books 
 than the average of his kind ; but she prayed that 
 he would transfer his affections to Coralie, who 
 secretly pined for them. 
 
 Between the three she arrived at the knowledge 
 that men were practical creatures and must be 
 treated as such, not as dream-stuff. 
 
 When Lord Arrowmount arrived she applied 
 herself to the study of him, but she ran into 
 impenetrable dusk some few inches from the entrance 
 
 no 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 of his every avenue of approach. He was uniformly 
 polite, in a stiff unself-conscious way, and seemed 
 kind, and sensible, and good, but he barely opened 
 his mouth. Tiny insisted that during their walks 
 together — he arrived in summer — he delivered him- 
 self of many consecutive sentences; but her state- 
 ment was regarded as an erratic manifestation of the 
 romantic condition of her affections. Lee, baffled 
 at all other points, descended to pumping his 
 knowledge of the Maundrells; but his brief com- 
 ments that " Barnstaple was rather mad," and " Lady 
 Barnstaple was going at the deuce of a pace," summed 
 up, if not his information, at least his communica- 
 tions. Of Cecil he had never heard. When she 
 questioned him regarding his own experience at 
 Oxford, he looked blank, and replied that he sup- 
 posed it had been the usual thing. 
 
 It seemed incredible that Cecil could ever develop 
 into an artificially animated sarcophagus of Eng- 
 land's greatness, but the pink atmosphere of her 
 day-dreams faded to ashes-of -roses ; particularly as 
 Randolph, who had spent six months in England, 
 and Ned Geary, who had spent six months in Europe, 
 assured her that Lord Arrowmount was a "type." 
 
 After the wedding, and the departure of the Arrow- 
 mounts, she strove to reconstruct her castles and re- 
 suffuse their atmosphere. But her intervals for 
 meditation were few ; she was not only a belle sur- 
 rounded by admirers and friends, but business 
 claimed a considerable share of her attention. The 
 new hotel was almost finished, and the hungry 
 energies of the Press had found it and its young 
 
 .in 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 •wner so picturesque as "copy," that the conse- 
 quent boom necessitated two extra wings and another 
 row of bath-houses. Mrs. Montgomery was horrified 
 at the notoriety, and would not permit Lee to be 
 photographed, lest the artist should weaken under 
 the unholy methods of the Press ; but Lee herself 
 found resignation possible, and even cherished a 
 private gratitude for the sensationalism of the rival 
 dailies; her income was doubled, and it was not 
 unpleasant to be a personage. 
 
 Altogether, she found life intensely interesting, 
 if quite unlike the dreams of a less practical epoch ; 
 and although she wanted nothing on earth so much 
 as to marry Cecil Maundrell, when the end of the 
 year came, she knew that it was her duty to release 
 him from a boy's chivalrous promise to a dying 
 woman, — and did so. 
 
 Cecil was in his last year of infrequent favours, 
 studying mightily for his first; but his reply was 
 prompt enough, and of unusual length for this 
 period. There was a good deal to the point, and 
 more between the lines. With him (haughtily) a 
 promise was a promise; he had never given a 
 thought to release, any more than he had ever 
 thought twice about another woman; he had taken 
 it for granted, of course, that they should eventually 
 marry ; and if she stopped writing to him he should 
 feel dismembered ; forced to readjust himself when 
 he needed all his faculties for the honours he was 
 determined to take ; should, in fact, feel himself full 
 up against a stone wall, bruised and blinking. His 
 similes were many and varied, and he seemed anxious 
 
 112 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 that his letter should do equal credit to his princi- 
 ples and his culture. What Lee read between the 
 lines was that he was aghast, that he had practically 
 forgotten the engagement ; and had long since come 
 to regard his correspondent as a sort of second him- 
 self, an abstract sympathy, a repository of his corus- 
 cations, a sexless confessor. 
 
 Lee, who had hastened upstairs to read the letter 
 in her virgin bower, hung and festooned with dream- 
 memories of Cecil, was more miserable than she had 
 been since the death of her mother, and cried until 
 nothing was visible of her beautiful eyes but a row of 
 sharp black points above two swollen cheeks. Her 
 castles rattled about her ears, and were possessed of 
 imps who laughed the tenacious remnants of her 
 dreams to death. 
 
 When the fire was out of her brain, she wrote to 
 Cecil a gay matter-of-fact letter, insisting upon the 
 end of the engagement, but promising to write as 
 regularly as if nothing had happened. 
 
 " And nothing really has, you know," she added, " except 
 that we are no longer babies. You are thirty years older — 
 with your wonderful Oxford ! — than the little boy I popped 
 corn with and sponged after a fight for the honour of 
 Britain; and I am a most practical person with not an 
 ounce of romance in me " — (she had less than an atom at 
 the moment of writing) — " and quite determined to make 
 no mistakes with my life. So many girls do, Cecil; you 
 can't think ! Four of the girls that came out about the 
 same time as Tiny are married and divorced. It seems to 
 me quite terrible that people should marry in that reckless 
 manner, knowing next to nothing of the world and less of 
 S 113 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 each other! In each case it was the man's fault — they 
 usually drank; but the girls, it seems to me, were as 
 much to blame for not making as sure as one can that the 
 men they expected to live their lives with ■ — I suppose they 
 did — had character and principles they could respect. I 
 have been brought up in a very old-fashioned way, and 
 nothing would induce me to get a divorce, so I shall hesi- 
 tate a long while before I take the final step. Of course 
 you will not misunderstand me — we are such firmly knit 
 friends we never could misunderstand each other, I think — 
 I know as well as if I had seen you every day for the last 
 eight years that you would never give any woman cause for 
 divorce ; but if we happened to have different tastes in all 
 things, we should be just as unhappy as if you were a little 
 Western savage. And we probably have, for our civilisations 
 are as opposite as the poles. I have been as carefully 
 reared as all Californian girls of my class, but those that 
 know me best tell me that I am Californian clear into my 
 marrow ; so I am, doubtless, as little like an English girl as 
 if I were a Red Indian. But what is the use of all this 
 (attempted) analysis? Of course you will come to Cali- 
 fornia to see me one of these days, and as I shall not marry 
 for years, if ever, we shall meet in plenty of time to find out 
 whether or not we were wise to break our engagement. Mean- 
 while, we are both free. I insist upon that, and, you know, 
 I always would have my own way." 
 
 Lee was extremely proud of this epistle, particu- 
 larly of the touch about racial differences, and its 
 general essay-like flavour; she was ambitious to stand 
 well with so terrible an intellect as Lord Maundrell's. 
 She could not fascinate him across seven thousand 
 miles — she exchanged a glance of mysterious con- 
 fidence with her mirror, her nostrils expanding 
 
 114 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 slightly — but she could command and hold his 
 attention until those seven thousand miles were 
 wrought into the past with the years of separation. 
 She glanced at her mirror again. 
 
 His second reply was equally prompt. He ac- 
 cepted her decree, of course. She had exercised 
 her woman's privilege, and he was bound to respect 
 it; but he held her to her promise that the corre- 
 spondence should continue exactly as before; and, 
 indeed, after the first two paragraphs of his letter, 
 there was nothing to indicate that the correspon- 
 dence had been agitated for a moment. It was not 
 exactly relief that breathed through the letter, for 
 Cecil's mind seemed without vulgarity; but the 
 alacrity with which he took up the broken thread, 
 after having tied the knot with a double loop, made 
 Lee laugh outright 
 
 " He 's really wonderfully decent," she thought, 
 " considering that he has been harrowed for a month 
 with the prospect of a scrawny, yellow, and lank- 
 haired wife. What a fright I must have been ! And, 
 of course, he has that tin-type. Fate would never 
 have been so kind as to let him lose it ! " 
 
 115 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 CECIL finished his Oxford epoch, taking his 
 double first and crowning his athletic career 
 as stroke of his college eight. He wrote to Lee that 
 he was a wreck mentally, and was going on a tour 
 round the world to shoot big game; he should 
 eventually land in California, where he expected she 
 would have a grizzly for him. He hoped for tigers 
 in India, lions and elephants in Africa, and buffalo in 
 the " Western " United States. He should also take 
 a run through South America. When he had finished 
 with the grizzly, he should feel a man once more, not 
 a worn-out intellect. 
 
 " It would be quite dreadful not to have gone through 
 Oxford," he confessed, " for nothing else moulds a man's 
 brain into shape — if he 's got one. How odd and un- 
 finished your American men must be ! I understand that few 
 of those who go to the Universities take the whole course 
 — which is a kindergarten compared to ours — and that 
 the majority scorn education after eighteen ; but I am more 
 than willing to forget all I ever knew for at least two years. 
 After that, of course, I shall think seriously of what I am 
 to do with my life. I did not tell you, I think, that my 
 grandmother is dead, and that I am not quite a pauper. 
 I feel reasonably sure that the political life will be my 
 choice, and I shall manage to learn something of each of 
 our colonies that I visit." 
 
 116 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Lee understood Ned Geary, Tom Brannan and 
 more than one other of the men who had given her 
 opportunity to study them. At times she was sure 
 that she knew Randolph, leaf by leaf. The habit in 
 which the average American lives may be said to be 
 an illuminated manuscript of himself, profusely illus- 
 trated with drawings by the author. When he is not 
 disclosing his inmost mind, he is criticising life, 
 within the narrow horizon of his experience, from 
 the personal view-point; which reflections are as self- 
 revealing as annotations by the ambitious editor of a 
 great poet. There was no mystery about any of them 
 for Lee, and, like all bright imaginative girls, she 
 loved mystery. She felt that it would be long before 
 she could understand the least of Cecil, particularly 
 if he was anything like Lord Arrowmount. It is true 
 that he had often written at great length, and by no 
 means ignored the sacred subject of himself; but 
 there was always a magnificent reach about Cecil, 
 and a corresponding lack of ingenuousness. 
 
 She wondered if she had given him the same sug- 
 gestion of a complex mind and nature, and one day 
 re-read his letters. The first fifteen or twenty con- 
 tained references to the episodes of their brief 
 companionship. Later, these episodes seemed quite 
 forgotten. And he not only demanded no return of 
 confidences, he evinced no curiosity. In all his 
 letters there was not a reference to her inner life. 
 Occasionally he asked what she was reading, and 
 if she were happy in her new home ; that was all. 
 
 " How is one to prepare oneself for such a man 
 as that?" thought Lee. "What does he want? An 
 
 "7 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 ear — nothing more ? He seems different enough 
 from American men. They seem either to under- 
 stand me, or to suggest that it does n't matter whether 
 they do or not ; I am perfect all the same. But Cecil 
 Maundrell ! " She kicked out her little foot rather 
 viciously. After all, why should she adapt herself to 
 anybody? She was an individuality, more of one 
 every month of her life, and extremely interesting to 
 herself and other people. Englishwomen, she had 
 been told, were very much of a pattern — the result 
 of centuries of breeding in uninterrupted conditions. 
 It was the very reverse that made up nine-tenths of 
 the fascination of the American woman. When she 
 married Cecil Maundrell — she had tossed "if" out 
 of her vocabulary — they might take a year or two 
 to adjust themselves to each other; but they both 
 had brains enough to succeed in the end ; and he 
 could not fail to be charmed with a wife cut out of 
 her own piece of cloth, and specially designed for 
 himself. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 LEE spent the following winter in New York and 
 Washington, with friends of Mrs. Montgomery, 
 who met and made much of her Del Monte. Her 
 social success in both places was very great, and she 
 carried off all the honours that an ambitious young 
 beauty could desire. She met many men-of-the- 
 world. The species rather alarmed her at first, but, 
 after she had posed herself, they amused her more ; 
 in their way, they were as ingenuous as the callow 
 youth of San Francisco. She returned to California 
 wiser than when she had left it, and a trifle more 
 subtle, but with an undiminished vitality of spirit, 
 and with the romantic imp in the depths of her brain 
 as active as ever. It had been Mrs. Montgomery's 
 intention to join Lee in the spring, take her to visit 
 Tiny, then to the great show places of Europe — 
 invented by a benign Providence for the American 
 tourist; but an attack of rheumatism defeated the 
 project, and Lee hastened home to her. 
 
 She was not sorry to return. The East quickly 
 palls on the Californian of temperament and imag- 
 ination, and before the winter was over Lee had 
 begun to long for the mysterious Latin charm of her 
 own country, and for its unvarying suggestion of 
 unlimited space. Moreover, she feared to miss Cecil 
 Maundrell if she went abroad at this time ; his move- 
 
 119 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 ments seemed very erratic, and his letters were brief 
 and unexplanatory. He might change his plans, and 
 come to California at any moment. Above all, she 
 wanted to meet him on her own ground, in the coun- 
 try which had gone largely into the making of her; 
 not in Tiny's drawing-room, surrounded by a con- 
 ventional house-party. 
 
 Sometimes she wondered at the persistence of her 
 desire for Cecil Maundrell, considering how little it 
 had to feed upon, and preferred to conclude that they 
 were held together by some mysterious bond com- 
 pounded in the laboratory of Nature, whose prac- 
 tical manifestation only awaited the pleasure of 
 Time. It is true that there were periods when she 
 was rebellious and angry, and during one of Cecil's 
 long silences — he had not written for four months 
 — she came very close to marrying Randolph. He 
 was ever at her elbow, with a persistence generally 
 quiet, occasionally impassioned. He made himself 
 useful to her in a thousand ways, and studied her 
 tastes ; reading her favourite books, and keeping up 
 with her fads. He was clever and companionable, 
 and would, indubitably, make a good husband. He 
 did not interest her; she knew him too well, and 
 her power over him was too sure, but her second 
 winter in San Francisco had bored her; she was out 
 of tune with the world for the moment, and very 
 human; she was in the mood, failing the best, to 
 hang her ideals upon the man who pleased her most, 
 and to love him by sheer exercise of imagination; a 
 mood that has ruined the life of more women than 
 one. 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 She was balancing the pros and cons more seri- 
 ously than she was aware, when she received a letter 
 from Cecil Maundrell. 
 
 It was early spring. The family had moved down 
 to Menlo sooner than usual on account of Mrs. Mont- 
 gomery's health, which was still delicate; and Lee 
 was starting for a ride to the hills, when the stable- 
 boy returned from the village with the morning mail. 
 She sent her other letters into the house, unopened, 
 and rode off rapidly with Cecil's. It was of unusual 
 thickness ; she had not received one so heavy since 
 the Sturm und Drang of his Oxford days. 
 
 When she was half way down the lane that led to 
 the hills she read his letter. Its length was its one 
 point of resemblance to his note -books of Oxford. 
 Several of its pages were filled with half-tender, 
 half -humorous reminiscences of "the happiest and 
 most piquant weeks of his life " ; the rest to the 
 enthusiasm with which he was filled at the prospect 
 of seeing her again, mingled with unsubtle masculine 
 suggestions that he would take a friendly pleasure 
 in learning that she had not committed her future to 
 some man who was not half good enough for her. 
 The letter was dated New York, where he had been 
 visiting an American college friend for two weeks. 
 He expected to start immediately for the ranch of 
 some English friends in the "Far West," and to 
 reach California in five or six weeks. Would she 
 write him at once to the enclosed address, and tell 
 him news of herself? 
 
 Lee's horse was walking slowly up the lane be- 
 tween hedges of wild roses and fragrant chaparral. 
 
 121 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 She glanced about vaguely, hardly recognising the 
 familiar beautiful scene : the green foot-hills crouched 
 close against the great mountains that were dark and 
 still with their majestic redwoods crowding like 
 brush and piercing the sky on the long irregular 
 crest; the dazzling blue sky, the soft blue haze on 
 the mountains, the glory of colour in the fields, and 
 on the lower slopes of the hills ; for the poppies and 
 baby-eyes, lupins, and California lilies, were swarm- 
 ing over the land. 
 
 What did the letter mean ? Had Cecil Maundrell 
 written it in a dream, in which she, perchance, had 
 visited him ? She read it again. It was remarkably 
 wide-awake. And it was almost a love-letter. 
 
 She glanced about more appreciatively. The soft 
 rich mysterious beauty of the day and of California 
 symphonised with the flush on her cheeks, the rapt 
 languor of her eyes, the quickening within her. 
 
 She spent the greater part of the day in the hills, 
 buying a glass of milk and some bread at a farm- 
 house. When she reached the redwoods on the long 
 slopes, she tethered her horse, and wandered far 
 into the forest. The very mystery of life brooded in 
 those dim cool aisles, whose silence was undisturbed 
 by the low roar of spring waters, whose feathery 
 green undergrowth was barely necked by the bril- 
 liant sun above the dense arbours high on the grey 
 columns of the forest. 
 
 She lay on the edge of the bluff above the creek 
 and watched the salmon moving in lazy and unper- 
 turbed possession of their sparkling waters, the dart- 
 ing trout, the wilderness of ferns and lilac and lily 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 down on the water's edge. A deer climbed down 
 the opposite bank and drank; owls cried to each 
 other in the night of the forest; two hundred feet 
 above her head the squirrels exchanged drowsy re- 
 marks ; in the warm green twilight of the afternoon 
 the very birds went to sleep. 
 
 It was not the first time that Lee had dreamed of 
 Cecil Maundrell in this forest; she doubted if he 
 would seem as naturally encompassed by the beech 
 woods and fells, the ruins and traditions of his 
 English home. Certainly this was as old, and as 
 surely it was a part of her. 
 
 They both had unnumbered generations behind 
 them : his were thick with men and events ; hers with 
 redwoods, whose aisles were unpeopled, in whose 
 impenetrable depths tradition itself was lost. 
 
 She returned home late in the afternoon. Ran- 
 dolph, who had just come from town, was standing 
 on the steps, and ran forward to lift her down. 
 
 " My mother was beginning to worry," he said ; 
 " you ought to take a boy with you. If you don't 
 want a servant, I will stay down and accompany 
 you." 
 
 Lee flicked him lightly with her whip. " Then I 
 would n't go," she said. " I love to ride about for 
 hours by myself. Fancy if one could never get away 
 from men." 
 
 She spoke airily, but Randolph looked hard at her. 
 
 "What has happened?" he demanded. "There 
 is something quite unusual about you." 
 
 Lee hlushed, but Cecil's letter was safe in her 
 bosom. 
 
 123 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Don't ask impertinent questions, and see that 
 you don't talk me to death to-night; I' m tired," and 
 she ran upstairs. 
 
 Her other mail lay on her dressing-table. She 
 opened a letter from Coralie, who was visiting friends 
 in New York. 
 
 " Well," it began abruptly, " I have met your Cecil. It 
 was last night, at a dinner-party at the Forbes'. He is tall, 
 you will be pleased to learn, and I fancy he might look quite 
 athletic and ' masterful ' (your style) in evening clothes 
 that fitted him. But I believe he has been sporting round 
 the world with a couple of portmanteaux, and avoiding 
 polite society. He wore a suit belonging to Schemmer- 
 horn Smith, whom he is visiting, and it was just two sizes 
 too small. He did n't seem in the least embarrassed about 
 it, and his manners are quite simple and natural. He 
 does n't talk very much, but is a good deal easier to get on 
 with than that awful Lord Arrowmount. At first I was 
 frightfully afraid of him — of course, being the lord of the 
 party, he took in Mrs. Forbes, but I sat on the other side of 
 him, and Mrs. Forbes had a scientific thing on her other 
 side, and had to give him most of her attention. Well, 
 where was I? Scared to death in the memory of those 
 letters — of course I did n't breathe that I 'd read them — 
 but he 's not in the least like them — at all events not at 
 dinner-parties. He was very much interested when I told 
 him I was your intimate friend, although not so much as 
 later — but wait a minute. You may be sure I said every- 
 thing under Heaven in your praise, but, curiously, I never 
 mentioned your beauty, although I dilated upon your suc- 
 cess, and all the scalps you wore at your belt, and that you 
 had a room whose walls were simply covered with german 
 
 124 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 favours. He warmed to the theme as time went on, and 
 said you had always been his greatest chum, and that he 
 was going to California for two things only — to kill a grizzly 
 and see you. He put the grizzly first, but never mind — 
 he's English. Now comes the point. After dinner, as 
 soon as the men came in, he made for me — I did n't tell 
 you that I'm sure he's shy — and I took him straight to 
 your photograph, which is enthroned on a table all by 
 itself. 
 
 " ' There she is,' I said. 
 
 " He took it up. ' Who? ' he asked, staring at it with all 
 his eyes — they are nice honest hazel eyes, by the way, that 
 often laugh, although I '11 bet he has a temper. 
 
 " ' Who ? — Why, Lee, of course ! ' 
 
 " He stared harder at the picture — it is the low-necked 
 one you had taken here, in black gauze and coloured — 
 then he turned and stared at me. ' Lee ? ' he said. ' This 
 is Lee ? ' and if he were not burnt a beautiful mahogany, I 
 do believe he would have turned pale. He 's got a mouth 
 on him, my dear, that means things, and it trembled. 
 
 " ' She 's grown up very pretty,' he said in a moment, as 
 carelessly as he could manage. 'I never suspected that 
 she would — that she had. Of course some of your enter- 
 prising Americans have snatched her up. I have n't heard 
 from her for a long time. Is she engaged ? ' 
 
 " ' Not that I know of,' I said, ' although she has three 
 or four admirers so persistent, you never know what you 
 may hear any minute.' I thought a little worry would n't 
 hurt him ; he looks altogether too satisfied, as if he had 
 been born to plums, and never had anything else. All he 
 said was ' Ah ! ' He put the picture back, and we went off 
 to the music-room, but he managed to pass that table twice 
 before the evening was over — and I must say, I've seen 
 
 "5 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 American men manage things more diplomatically. But 
 there's something rather magnificent about him, all the 
 same. He 's not very entertaining — Randolph would fairly 
 scintillate beside him — but his air of repose and remote- 
 ness from the hustling every-day world are really fine. If 
 he had worn a potato sack instead of his almost equally 
 grotesque get-up, he would have looked as unmistakably 
 what he is. I hunted industriously for all his good points 
 to please you, but give me an American every time. I 
 never was intended for a miner, and you have to go into 
 an Englishman's brain with a pick and shovel. Your Cecil 
 suggests that he 's got a solid mine of real intellect, de- 
 veloped with all the modern improvements, inside his skull ; 
 but what's the good, when you can't hear the nuggets 
 rattle? He wouldn't even tell me his adventures — shut 
 up like a clam, and said they were just like any other 
 fellow's; and Schemmerhorn Smith told me that same 
 evening that the men Lord Maundrell was with said he 
 was one of the crack sportsmen of the day. Do you re- 
 member when Tom killed that panther that attacked him 
 in the redwoods? We had it for breakfast, lunch, and 
 dinner for a month. Of course a happy medium 's the 
 thing j but for my part, I don't like too much modesty. 
 I'm suspicious of it. . . ." 
 
 So it was her beauty that had shifted the strata in 
 Lord Maundrell's solid mine of intellect? It must 
 have caused something of a shock to have resulted 
 in a letter which almost committed him. It was both 
 a jar and a relief to discover that he was much like 
 other men. She re-read his letter. Then she glanced 
 into her mirror. 
 
 " So much the better," she remarked. 
 126 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 HER admirers had a sorry time of it for the next 
 two weeks ; she was capricious, even irritable, 
 absent-minded, and at no pains to conceal that they 
 bored her. Her appetite remained good, or Mrs. 
 Montgomery would have grown alarmed. 
 
 The answer to Cecil's letter had required an entire 
 day of anxious thought. Her pen ran over with the 
 emotions he had quickened; but pride conquered, 
 and she finally wrote him a gay friendly letter, as- 
 suring him of a welcome in which curiosity would 
 play no insignificant part, but studiously concealing 
 her burning interest. 
 
 She was profoundly thankful to the inspiration 
 which dictated that letter when his answer came. It 
 was very brief, and its only enthusiasm was inspired 
 by the buffalo. There was not a mutually personal 
 line in it. He concluded by remarking that if he did 
 not write again, she could expect him any time just 
 outside of a month. He should go to Southern Cali- 
 fornia first to visit some English ranchers, whom he 
 had known at Oxford, and to kill his grizzly. 
 
 Lee tore this letter into strips, and plunged into a 
 desperate flirtation with Randolph, giving him an un- 
 usual meed of dances at the little parties of Menlo, 
 tiaking him get up at unearthly hours to ride with 
 
 «? 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 her before his day in town — he detested riding- 
 and driving every evening to the station to meet him. 
 He was puzzled, but inclined to take the pleasant 
 caprices of the gods without analysis. He was very 
 busy, and it was enough to know, as he sat at his 
 table, his pencil working at the thousand and one 
 prosaic details of a huge iron building he was de- 
 signing, that his evenings and Sundays were to be 
 made radiant by the smiles of the most charming 
 woman in the world. He forgot Cecil Maundrell; 
 and the future he tenaciously desired seemed immi- 
 nent. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 "TTERE comes a tramp up the avenue again," said 
 
 XT. Mrs. Montgomery, with irritation. "That 
 makes the second this week. I shall have to build a 
 lodge. Why can't they go to the farm-house? 
 Tramps are very trying." 
 
 " He does n't walk like a tramp," said Lee, " al- 
 though his clothes certainly are — " Being a trifle 
 shortsighted, she raised her lorgnette. She rose 
 suddenly, turning her back to Mrs. Montgomery, and 
 descended the steps of the verandah. Her knees 
 and hands shook violently, and the blood rushed to 
 her head ; but she was some three minutes reaching 
 the stranger, who had lifted his cap, then plunged his 
 hands in his pockets, and at the end of that time her 
 nerves were in the leash of her will. 
 
 " Well, if it is n't like you, Cecil Maundrell, to come 
 in those awful clothes ! " she cried gaily. " Mrs. 
 Montgomery took you for a tramp." 
 
 He laughed nervously as he swung her hand to 
 and fro. " We were burnt out last night, and they 're 
 all I 've got left. I '11 go on to San Francisco in a 
 day or two and get some." 
 
 " I don't believe Aunty will let you in the house, 
 much less sit down at the table." 
 9 129 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Really? How curious ! I did n't know you were 
 so conventional out here. But I '11 go on at once, if 
 you say so." 
 
 " No, no. Only make an elaborate enough apology 
 to Mrs. Montgomery, and she will be as nice as pos- 
 sible. But we're not only frightfully conventional 
 out here, but rather sensitive. A duke came down to 
 a dinner-party in Menlo once in his shooting-jacket, 
 and we 've never gotten over it." 
 
 " What a bounder. I '11 go out and eat with the 
 farm hands. I like the rough and ready American 
 very much." 
 
 "I don't know any, so I can't argue. You look 
 perfectly splendid, and I 'm so glad you 're tall. You 
 really have changed very little, except that you 've 
 lost your pretty complexion — although I prefer this. 
 You make other men look positively ill. Oh, Cecil, 
 I am glad to see you ! " 
 
 Her face and voice were animated by the friendliest 
 feeling. Cecil stared hard at her, the smile dying 
 out of his eyes. " You are very beautiful," he said 
 abruptly. 
 
 " I hear a carriage. Some people are coming to 
 call. Let us get out of the way — not that I'm 
 ashamed of you, but you don't want to meet Mrs. 
 Montgomery before a lot of other people." 
 
 " I don't want to meet her at all — or anybody else 
 but yourself. To tell the truth, it never occurred to 
 me that there would be any one else, and I knew you 
 wouldn't mind these old shooting rags. I do look 
 like a tramp. I really never thought about it. I re- 
 member people rather stared at me in the train. A 
 
 130 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 flashy-looking fellow in the smoking-car asked me if 
 I was looking for work, and I told him No, I was look- 
 ing for a fight. He said nothing more until we 
 reached a station, when he asked me to get out and 
 take a drink." 
 
 " Did you ? I can't imagine your unbending that 
 far." 
 
 " Oh, I take everybody as a matter-of-course, 
 knocking about. I accepted the drink and stood him 
 another. After that I went to sleep to get rid of him. 
 Of course he wanted to talk — that is to say, mono- 
 logue." 
 
 " Let us sit down here." 
 
 They had left the avenue, and crossed a side garden. 
 There were two rustic chairs under a great oak. They 
 took them, and faced each other. 
 
 " Did you kill your grizzly? " 
 
 " No ; not one has been heard of in the neighbour- 
 hood of San Luis Obispo for three years. I never 
 was so disappointed in my life. Now, I suppose, 
 there is no hope ; it is too much to ask of men who 
 have been burnt out to bother about grizzlies. My 
 other friends — the ones I 've been with for the last 
 two years — didn't come further West than Mon- 
 tana." 
 
 Lee had on a white summer frock, girdled with a 
 ribbon the colour of her eyes. Her black hair was 
 coiled loosely. She was fully aware that she looked 
 very lovely. 
 
 " You are the only man living that would look for 
 a grizzly first and for me after," she said with a 
 certain arching of her brows and pouting of her lips 
 
 131 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 , . . " Cecil, you always could stare harder than any 
 one I ever knew." 
 
 " I believe I 've thought quite as much about you 
 as the grizzly." 
 
 " Thanks ! " 
 
 " No ; but I am serious." He looked away. Lee 
 fancied that his triple coat of tan really paled. " I 've 
 never been so upset in my life," he continued lucidly. 
 
 " It never did take you long to come to the point 
 What a relief — there are not to be a half-dozen weeks 
 of flirtatious fencing. Do come out with it." 
 
 He laughed, but without any great amount of ease. 
 " I '11 be perfectly frank," he said. " I saw your pho- 
 tograph in New York ; I nearly went off my head. I 
 lay awake all night. It was the first time any woman 
 had bowled me over. My two or three fancies were 
 hardly worth recalling. You see, I put your beauty 
 with all I knew of you mentally, and of our delightful 
 companionship when you were older than most girls 
 of your age — and the sweetest little thing ! — and 
 the combination made my brain whirl. Before morn- 
 ing I wrote you that letter " 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 Lee was twirling her lorgnette, her eyes lowered. 
 Cecil had not removed his eyes from the horizon. He 
 spoke jerkily, with an evident effort. 
 
 " When I cooled down, I was sorry I had sent that 
 letter," he brought out brutally, after an instant's 
 further hesitation. " You see, I had never thought of 
 you in that way at all, or I should n't even have started 
 for California. I don't believe in international mar- 
 riages " 
 
 132 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " But, my dear Cecil," exclaimed Lee, opening wide 
 surprised eyes, '* we 're not going to marry ! I settled 
 all that long ago." 
 
 Cecil was too perturbed and too masculine to mark 
 the rapid change of tactics. He turned his face about 
 and stared at her. He was visibly paler, and his eyes 
 were almost black. 
 
 " You have not settled it as far as I 'm concerned," 
 he said. " I knew it was all up with me when you 
 came toward me down that avenue. I 've done noth- 
 ing but deliberate for five weeks ; I 've weighed every 
 pro and con ; I 've recalled every scene between my 
 father and stepmother ; I 've argued with myself on 
 the folly of marrying anything under a fortune ; and 
 the moment I saw you I knew that I had wasted five 
 weeks, and that I should marry you if you would 
 have me." 
 
 Lee's eyes had returned to the study of her lap. 
 Pride and passion battled again. After a full 
 moment's silence, she looked up with so sweet a smile 
 that he leaned forward impulsively to take her hand. 
 But she drew it back. 
 
 " Cecil," she said, " I forbid you to make love to 
 me until you have made me love you first. Of course 
 I can't say if I ever shall." She looked about 
 vaguely, her lips still smiling. " But, at least, we 
 start fair ; I don't care a straw for any one else, and 
 I 've always liked you better than anybody in 
 the world. To-day is the twenty-sixth of April. 
 You may propose to me again on the twenty-sixth 
 of May." 
 
 He looked at her helplessly, his lips twitching. 
 *33 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " You don't care at all ? " he asked. His voice still 
 thickened when he was agitated. 
 
 " How can I, Cecil — in that way — when I have n't 
 laid eyes on you for ten years? You admit that I 
 was only an abstraction to you before you saw my 
 picture. You could not expect more of me, and I 
 never even had a glimpse of a photograph. And 
 women don't take fire so easily as men." She prayed 
 he would not catch her up in his arms and kiss her. 
 " I have not even been inspired to deliberation." 
 She gave a little laugh just tipped with malice. 
 " What would you think, I wonder, if I accepted you 
 on a moment's notice." 
 
 "You certainly wouldn't have my excuse. What 
 a guy I must be ! " He stood up with a sudden 
 diffidence which made him look like a big awkward 
 boy, and Lee loved him the more. 
 
 " What time does the next train go to San Fran- 
 cisco? " he added. He had taken out his watch. 
 
 "Twelve-ten." 
 
 "I have just time to catch it. I '11 be back when 
 I 've got some decent clothes. I suppose there are 
 tailors in San Francisco — in Market Street ? " 
 
 "Go and see Randolph, Crocker Building. He 
 will take you to his." 
 
 " Thanks. Good-bye. " 
 
 He shook her hand, avoiding her eyes, and strode 
 away. When he reached the avenue, he plunged his 
 hands into his pockets and began to run. Lee found 
 time to laugh at his picturesque lack of self-con- 
 sciousness before she turned and fled across the lane 
 into the friendly solitude of the Yorba woods. 
 
 *34 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 HE returned three days later, clad in immaculate 
 grey, a trunk in his wake containing much 
 smart linen and four suits of clothes, which had 
 been ordered at the best house in San Francisco by 
 a stockbroker who had retired from business and 
 his country the day before Cecil, with similar 
 measurements and similar needs, was presented to 
 the tailor by Randolph. 
 
 Mrs. Montgomery had done the one thing possible 
 under the circumstances — she had asked Cecil to 
 make her house his home so long as he remained in 
 that part of California. Her eyes were very red on 
 the morning after his first appearance, but she made 
 no comment to Lee, who spent the greater part of 
 those three days by herself, but appeared quite 
 normal when with the family. Cecil had gone at 
 once to see and consult Randolph, who remarked, 
 when he came home that night, that the Englishman 
 seemed a very good sort, but that he should prefer 
 not to walk down Kearney Street with him again 
 until he was properly rigged out. He really did n't 
 know why they had n't been mobbed, and two imps 
 of newsboys had made audible remarks about 
 "blarsted Britishers." 
 
 "I don't see why you can always tell an English- 
 man," he added, with some impatience. "To say 
 
 *35 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 nothing of his get-up to-day, look at the difference 
 between his figure and Coe's. The clothes will fit 
 Maundrell to perfection, but his figure is no more 
 like Coe's than it 's like mine. He 's a lean athletic 
 Englishman, every inch of him ; Coe was thin and 
 angular. It 's quite remarkable. " 
 
 "Is he very handsome? " asked Mrs. Montgomery 
 faintly. 
 
 "I really couldn't say. He looks like an Eng- 
 lishman — that 's all. " 
 
 Lee darted a swift side-glance; he was eating 
 with his usual nervous haste. She knew him better 
 than in the old days, but could detect no sign of 
 agitation in him. In a moment he began to talk 
 about a new pair of carriage horses he had bought 
 his mother; and during the evening he asked Lee 
 to play for him in the dark, as usual. Once she 
 turned her head suddenly and caught a fixed steely 
 gleam from the depths of his chair. She averted 
 her eyes hastily, and gazed thoughtfully at the keys, 
 playing mechanically, with nothing of her usual 
 expression. 
 
 She always wore white in summer, in accordance 
 with an unwritten law of Menlo Park, and for the 
 evening of Cecil's second appearance she selected 
 her softest and airiest, one, moreover, that was cut 
 several inches below her throat, and one or two 
 above her elbows. Full-dress, except at the rare 
 dinner parties in honour of some-one-with-letters, 
 was tabooed in that exclusive borough. As Cecil 
 came from town with Randolph she left the honours 
 of introduction to the host, and did not make her 
 
 136 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 appearance until a few minutes before dinner. She 
 found Mrs. Montgomery and Cecil amiably discuss- 
 ing California, and Randolph gently jeering at them 
 for their lack of originality. 
 
 " Several volumes have been written on the ' Re- 
 sources of California, ' but the one to which she shall 
 owe her permanent fame has never had so much as 
 a paragraph. It awaits its special biographer. " 
 
 " But there can be originality even on an exhausted 
 theme," said Lee, who had shaken hands with Cecil, 
 and was anxious to keep the conversation light. 
 " Captain Twining's remark two days after his arrival 
 in California is already quite famous. " She glanced 
 at Cecil, and lifted her chin with defiant coquetry. 
 "He said that he had only heard of two things 
 Californian before he came — Miss Tarleton and the 
 climate. " 
 
 "He wasn't very polite to call you a thing," said 
 Cecil, laughing; he seemed in excellent spirits. 
 
 " Perhaps he took her for a perfume or a flower," 
 said Randolph quickly. 
 
 The two men measured each other with a swift 
 glance. 
 
 "That was really very neat," remarked Lord 
 Maundrell. "You might have blushed, Lee." 
 
 "She has had too many compliments; she is 
 quite spoiled for anything less than downright 
 uxoriousness. " 
 
 " Ah ! " observed Lord Maundrell. 
 
 They went in to dinner. Cecil was not to be 
 laughed out of his interest in California ; the grape 
 industry had interested him during his brief sojourn 
 
 137 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 in the South, and he wanted to know all about it, 
 from its incipience to its finalities. Randolph, who 
 knew little about the grape industry, and cared 
 less, answered in glittering generalities, and headed 
 him off to the subject of mission architecture. 
 Cecil immediately instituted a comparison between 
 the results of Indian labour and the characteristic 
 edifices of Spain — more particularly of Granada, and 
 then branched off to the various divergences under 
 native and climatic influences to be found in South 
 America. Of all this Randolph knew practically 
 nothing. Like most Americans, he was a specialist, 
 and had studied only that branch of his art necessary 
 to his own interests. But his mind was very nimble, 
 and he so successfully concealed from the English- 
 man his superficial knowledge of the subject, that 
 Lee, who followed the conversation with rapt inter- 
 est, did not know whom to admire most. She was 
 wondering if Cecil could make as brilliant a show- 
 ing as Randolph on next to nothing, when, in reply 
 to a question of his host's regarding the gold mines 
 of Peru, he replied indifferently : 
 
 "I don't know anything about them. They 
 didn't interest me," and dismissed the subject; one 
 upon which Randolph happened to have some knowl- 
 edge. He had invested heavily in a newly-discov- 
 ered mine of which one of his friends was secretary. 
 
 The conversation turned to politics. Randolph 
 was at his best analysing and illustrating the party 
 differences, but when Cecil questioned him about 
 the genesis of the two parties, the constitution of 
 the United States, and the historic significance of 
 
 138. 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the various presidents, even generalities failed him, 
 and he was obliged to confess himself nonplussed. 
 
 "Upon my word," he exclaimed laughing, "I do 
 believe that the only thing I remember about United 
 States history is its covert admonition to grow up as 
 fast as I could and lick the English. " 
 
 Lee and Cecil laughed simultaneously. " Have 
 you ever told the story of my attempt to lick the 
 United States ? " asked Cecil. " That defeat rankled 
 for years. " 
 
 "Never!" 
 
 Cecil told the story very well. It was evident 
 that his bitterness had passed, and he concluded: 
 
 "The odd part of it all is, that although you 
 Americans beat us, it is you who are bitter, and not 
 ourselves. It was the same way with those boys. 
 They gave me sour disapproving glances every time 
 they met me until I left. On the other hand, I 
 nearly thrashed the life out of a man in Montana, 
 and I never made such an enthusiastic friend. " 
 
 "Oh, we have to be bullied," said Randolph 
 frankly. " We love to brag and boast and swagger. 
 You see we are such an extraordinary nation that 
 we can't help being a little cocky, and the only man 
 we really respect is the one who lays us on our back 
 with a black eye and a nose out of joint. We always 
 get up — nothing can keep an American on his back 
 — but we go to our graves with a wondering admira- 
 tion of the muscle, mental or physical, that floored 
 us." 
 
 "That is very interesting," said Cecil thought- 
 fully, "very." He added in a moment: "I fancy 
 
 130 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the bitterness would have died out by this time, in 
 spite of our failure to keep the finest of our colonies, 
 but for our diplomacy, which is a trifle too subtle 
 and sinuous to please the rest of the world. I don't 
 know that the United States stands alone in her 
 antagonism." And he laughed. 
 
 Randolph knew less about English diplomacy than 
 he did about the past history of American politics, 
 but he made a rapid calculation : if he led Cecil on, 
 the Englishman, with his exact and profound knowl- 
 edge, would distinguish himself and win the grateful 
 admiration of the woman. On the other hand, 
 unless he kept him talking, he should be called 
 upon for information which he had always considered 
 superfluous in an American who had but one short 
 life in which to "get there," and which was of no 
 particular interest to himself; he had cut his college 
 course down to one year in order to make the most 
 of his youthful energies, and to run no risk of los- 
 ing Lee Tarleton. Moreover, if he drew his guest 
 out, he should not only be doing his duty as a host, 
 but Lee's approval for himself would be as large as 
 her admiration of his rival. There was more than 
 a chance, clever as she was, that she would give 
 him full credit for generosity and for the courtesy 
 of his fathers. He made up his mind in an instant, 
 threw out an observation of epigrammatic vagueness 
 on the diplomacy of England, and in ten minutes 
 had Cecil monopolising the conversation, under the 
 impression that he was forced into an argument. 
 
 Lee forgot her dinner, and listened intensely. 
 She had heard men talk more brilliantly — for Cecil 
 
 140 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 had cultivated none of the graces of oratory, and of 
 the epigram he appeared to have a healthy scorn 
 — but she had never heard any one talk who knew 
 so well what he was talking about, and who yet 
 suggested that he was merely skimming up the spray 
 of a subject whose deeps were trite to him straight 
 down to its skeletons and flora. His knowledge of 
 English diplomacy suggested an equally minute 
 knowledge of the diplomatic history of every country 
 into which England had run her horns. He talked 
 without priggishness, rather as if he were used to 
 discussing the subject with men who were as well 
 grounded as himself. 
 
 As they left the dining-room, Lee lingered behind 
 a moment with Randolph. 
 
 "It was awfully nice of you," she said. "You 
 like to do the talking yourself, and England has 
 never interested you much." 
 
 " I knewkfRit it would interest you. I was bored to 
 extinction; but it is time you had a little variety." 
 
 "You are good." She hesitated a moment. "He 
 has real intellect, has n't he ? " she asked. 
 
 " He knows things. He can knock the spots out 
 of us when it comes to solid information. But in a 
 contest of wits I 'd engage him in a match without 
 any qualms. He's straight out from the shoulder, 
 and if he were stacked Up against American nimble- 
 ness and adaptability for any great length of time, 
 he 'd go under." 
 
 " He 's quick enough." 
 
 "With an answer — yes; but that's not what I 
 mean. " 
 
 141 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THEY had remained longer at dinner than usual, 
 and when Lee went out to the verandah, she 
 found Mr. and Mrs. Brannan and Mr. Trennahan, a 
 New Yorker who had recently married and settled 
 in Menlo. Cecil was at her elbow in a moment. 
 
 " Let us take a walk," he said. "Will it be rude 
 to leave these people ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ; we are very informal among ourselves, 
 and they are Mrs. Montgomery's friends rather than 
 mine." 
 
 They crossed the grounds, entered Fair Oaks 
 Lane, and walked toward the hills. It was moon- 
 light, and the redwoods on the crest of the mountain 
 were sharp against the sky. 
 
 " Can I smoke a cigar ? " 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 "Should not you have something else round 
 you?" 
 
 " This shawl is camel's hair and very warm. How 
 do you like Randolph ? " 
 
 " A very decent chap. Is he in love with you ? " 
 
 " Why is it that when a man admires a woman he 
 fancies every other man is in love with her ? " 
 
 " That 's not answering my question. Not that it 
 is necessary. No man could grow up with you and 
 not love you." 
 
 142 
 
TRANSPLANTED^ 
 
 " You are learning to pay compliments. You will 
 be sending me candy and flowers next. " 
 
 "I '11 never send you candy, nor anything that 's 
 not good for you. " 
 
 "Have you spent the last three days regretting 
 that you proposed on Monday ? " 
 
 "What an ass you must think me. I proposed, 
 and that was the end of it ; my only regret was that 
 I did it so badly. I have spent the last three days 
 racking my brains over a different matter, not a 
 wholly foreign one." 
 
 ■ Lee made no reply. Her hand hung at her side. 
 He took it in a quiet but determined pressure. 
 " How am I to make you love me ? " he asked. " I 
 have n't the vaguest idea how to go about it." 
 
 " In the very bottom of your mind would n't you 
 really rather that you could not ? I, too, have been 
 thinking hard during the last three days. Of course, 
 I know of international marriages that have turned 
 out very well ; but that does n't alter the fact that 
 many have turned out badly — although, for that 
 matter, the United States fairly reeks with divorce. 
 It is a question to puzzle wiser heads than mine. 
 Are most English marriages happy? " 
 
 " Probably not ; but the point is that if you marry 
 your own sort, you know where you are. If I had 
 ever met an English girl who attracted me one half 
 as much as you do, and had married her, we should 
 have followed along certain traditional lines and got 
 on fairly well, even if there were no great happiness. 
 You see an Englishman is certain of several things 
 if he marries a perfectly normal Englishwoman of 
 
 H3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 his own class. She will obey him, she will have as 
 many children as he wishes, her scheme of life will 
 be his, and, no matter how bright she may be, she 
 will adapt herself to him — which is not the least 
 important point. An Englishman simply cannot 
 adapt himself to anybody. It is n't in him. He 
 can be a good husband on his own lines, particularly 
 if he loves his wife ; and if he loves her enough, and 
 she makes herself more charming than other women, 
 he '11 be faithful to her, and do what he can to make 
 her happy. But she must adapt herself to him." 
 
 "You have the virtue of frankness! Are you 
 trying to frighten me off ? " 
 
 " It would not be fair of me to deceive you. " He 
 certainly looked very serious. Lee studied his pro- 
 file meditatively, but she did not withdraw her hand. 
 "I don't see why it should frighten you. We have 
 always been most sympathetic. We really loved 
 each other when we were little chaps, and were 
 drawn together at once. In all these years I have 
 had no such confidante, no one who has been so 
 necessary to me. And you have not been indifferent ; 
 never was there so faithful a correspondent. If you 
 loved me enough, we should be very happy. Theo- 
 ries go to the winds when a man wants a woman as 
 much as I want you, and love would settle all our 
 differences." 
 
 " I wonder ! " They walked on in silence for a 
 moment; then she said: "How brave you are! 
 Much braver than I should be if I consented to 
 marry you; for I, at least, know you fairly well, 
 whereas you are merely generalising, and do not 
 
 i44 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 know me in the least. I might give you an exhaus- 
 tive description of the conditions in which I had 
 been brought up, from that in which my mother 
 played no small part to the men that have been my 
 slaves ever since I put on long frocks. I might 
 analyse to you the growth of my individuality, 
 describing the influence which the management of 
 my own affairs has had on my character, the fact 
 that I have done my own thinking all my life, and 
 then — these three years in which I have been a real 
 belle, and seen more than one man make an idiot of 
 himself. I might tell you all that, and even enter 
 into a wise dissertation on the racial differences of 
 our two civilisations ; but nothing could give you a 
 real idea of myself, the idea you would have absorbed 
 if you had been a part of my environment for the last 
 ten years. Nothing could be wiser than your obser- 
 vation that we should marry our own sort. As far 
 as I can figure it out, it comes to this: If I mar- 
 ried Randolph he would spend his life buttoning my 
 boots. If I married you, I should spend my life 
 
 pulling off yours " 
 
 " Good heavens, no ! What a little beast I was ! " 
 He laughed heartily, although, oddly enough, his 
 laughter did not interfere with his seriousness in the 
 least. It would have dissipated that of any other 
 man she knew ; but he went on at once. " I should 
 not quarrel with Fate for giving me a wife who inter- 
 ested me more than any woman of my own sort could 
 do, if you were always perfectly open and frank with 
 me. I should hate being intrigued, and I should 
 never have the patience nor the inclination to sit 
 10 145 
 
TRANSPLANTED] 
 
 down and unravel any woman's complexities. If 
 you did not go to work deliberately to puzzle me, I 
 should soon know you, and I cannot imagine you 
 other than absolutely charming." 
 
 " If I pluck out my complexities — in other words, 
 my individuality — by the roots, and adapt myself to 
 you." 
 
 " You could adapt yourself to me without sacrific- 
 ing the least of your individuality. I would n't have 
 you other than you are. Where would your charm 
 be?" 
 
 " You began very practically, but you are getting 
 rather Utopian." 
 
 " No, because we are both young. It is true that 
 I am twenty-five, and that my character is quite 
 formed — a difficult thing for a woman used to 
 American men to understand. But I still have all 
 the fresh enthusiasm of youth for anything that 
 interests me, and an immense capacity for affection, 
 which has been satisfied very little. If you loved 
 me well enough — that would be the whole point." 
 
 "In other words, the entire responsibility of this 
 matrimonial experiment would lie on my shoulders." 
 
 "Don't call it an experiment, for God's sake! It 
 is life and death for me. If I take you I take you 
 for ever, and if you decide to marry me, you must 
 make up your mind that we will be happy." 
 
 They walked on for another moment in silence. 
 He felt her fingers curl up stiffly, but she said quite 
 calmly : 
 
 " I decided long ago, when I was sixteen, I think, 
 to marry you, and I have never changed my mind for 
 
 14.6 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 a moment. I always knew that you would come. 
 On Monday, I could not make up my mind to fall 
 into your arms like a ripe apple; but you are so seri- 
 ous that you have made me serious, and I cannot 
 coquet any longer." 
 
 Cecil had dropped her hand and stopped short, 
 facing her. 
 
 " Is it possible that you love me ? " he asked. " Is 
 it possible ? " 
 
 " I have loved you twenty times more than any one 
 on earth for years and years, and I shall love no one 
 else as long as I live. . . . Cecil, you do stare so ! " 
 
 But in another second he had ceased to stare. 
 
 *47 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THEY decided to keep their engagement to 
 themselves for a short while, but on the fourth 
 day Mrs. Montgomery entered Lee's room abruptly. 
 
 " I must have the truth, my dear child, " she said. 
 " In the first place, unless you are engaged to Lord 
 Maundrell, I cannot permit you to take these long 
 walks and rides alone with him ; you never did such 
 a thing before. And in the second place " 
 
 "Don't cry," said Lee, fondling her nervously. 
 "That is one reason I haven't said anything about 
 it. I knew you would be disappointed about Ran- 
 dolph, and I can't even bear to think of leaving 
 you " 
 
 " If you only could have loved Randolph ! " 
 
 " Really and truly, I tried — two or three times. 
 But I made up my mind long ago that I would not 
 make a mistake when I married, if I could help it. 
 I don't expect a bed of roses with Cecil — he 's too 
 high and mighty, and he 's too self-centred — but at 
 least I love him well enough to put up with any- 
 thing, and nothing could make me love him less — 
 no matter what happened. " 
 
 " C"h, I hope you will be happy ! — I hope you will 
 be happy ! Lord Maundrell is really most interest- 
 ing and charming; his air and his manners are really 
 ^- really. And Tiny is very happy with Arthur. 
 But I shall be so lonely — and poor Randolph ! " 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "Can't you and he come to England to live? " 
 
 " I have six other daughters and five grandchildren 
 here, remember, and Randolph is in too great a 
 hurry to get rich to begin over again in a new coun- 
 try. Tiny will be here soon now for a year, and I 
 shall go back with her. Of course, I shall see you 
 then, but you are really lost to me. " 
 
 Lee, whose tears were quick, wept passionately at 
 this aspect ; she had not thought of it before. When 
 both were calmer, Mrs. Montgomery asked : 
 
 " Did you tell him that you had a great deal more 
 money ? " 
 
 Lee nodded. 
 
 "What did he say?" 
 
 " He was delighted, and said so as frankly as he 
 says everything. He says we shall have three thou- 
 sand pounds a year between us, and can get along 
 very nicely; although the tug will come when we 
 have to keep up Maundrell Abbey. His stepmother 
 has made her will in his favour; but he says she has 
 cut into her capital, and lately she has had to pay a 
 tremendous amount for repairs on the Abbey. Lord 
 Barnstaple certainly came high ! " 
 
 " What a terrible marriage ! Thank Heaven, there 
 is no disgraceful commercial transaction where you 
 and Tiny are concerned. Lord Maundrell seems 
 clever enough for anything; why does n't he go into 
 business and make a fortune ? " 
 
 " He would never think of such a thing ; he 's going 
 to stand for Parliament at the next elections. His 
 ideas are quite fixed, and he has his whole career 
 mapped out." 
 
 149 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "Of course he'll be Prime Minister. Of course 
 he 's ambitious." 
 
 " He 's not so ambitious as he is terribly serious. 
 He thinks it 's his duty — his vocation. A lot of 
 his ancestors have been statesmen, although they 've 
 generally been in the House of Lords. Cecil 's so 
 glad he 's not going to be for ages. His father 
 started out brilliantly, but had a great row with his 
 party about something, and dropped out. Then, 
 after his first wife's death, he became rather dissi- 
 pated. Cecil says he began life with high ideals. 
 His uncle Basil was a distinguished Parliamentarian, 
 and a Bill or a Law or something is called after him 
 — I expect to know English politics backward by 
 this time next year." 
 
 " You will ! — You will ! You were made to be 
 the wife of a great man, and he '11 be so proud of 
 you!" 
 
 " You are the most partial person ! " 
 
 " Yes, I am ; but I 've always been able to see my 
 children's faults, much as I adore them. But I don't 
 feel a qualm about you. Your mind is so quick; 
 and, thank Heaven, I paid such strict attention to 
 your manners. They are simply perfect. " 
 
 " Think if you 'd left me to grow up in a boarding- 
 house ! You may be sure I never forget my debts. 
 I did n't tell you that Cecil is no longer a Radical. 
 He's a Conservative, straight into his marrow; his 
 ancestors have never been anything else, and he 's 
 outlived all his fads." 
 
 "He's painfully mature," said Mrs. Montgomery, 
 with a sigh. " Englishmen seem to remain boys a 
 
 '5° 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 long time, and then to grow old all at once. I sup- 
 pose it 's that dreadful Oxford. Our boys are little 
 old men who get their youth somewhere in their 
 twenties, and are not really grown again until after 
 thirty. It 's very singular. Randolph, of course, 
 has worked a good deal of his boyishness out of him, 
 but he is always laughing and joking. And look at 
 Tom and Ned — they are mere children beside Lord 
 Maundrell. I was really mortified when they tried 
 to talk to him last night, and I had always thought 
 them bright" 
 
 " So they are. But if men won't cultivate their 
 brains, what can they expect? Tom thinks of noth- 
 ing but business — which he takes as a joke — danc- 
 ing, and football, and Ned boasts that he has only 
 read ten books in his life. Tom would only remain 
 eight months at Harvard, and Ned would n't go at 
 all. Both have had every opportunity, and they are 
 full of American quickness and wit ; but they have 
 a genuine scorn for intellect. I can see that they 
 regard Cecil as a freak. Randolph respects brains, 
 but even he is bored. " 
 
 "Yes, it 's true — it 's true. Will you tell Ran- 
 dolph ? I have n't the courage. " 
 
 "Yes; I'll tell him to-night — we're dining 
 alone, aren't we? Don't worry about him. Men 
 always get over things." 
 
 *5« 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THAT evening, as they were walking up the hall 
 from the dining-room to the verandah, Lee 
 put her hand on Randolph's arm and drew him into 
 the parlour. 
 
 " I want to tell you something," she said nervously. 
 " You know I have always loved Cecil Maundrell. I 
 am going to marry him." 
 
 " So I have inferred." 
 
 The room was dark. She could not see his face. 
 
 "I am so glad you don't mind. You used to 
 fancy yourself in love with me — that was the only 
 thing that worried me. I 'm afraid I 'm hopelessly 
 conceited." 
 
 " You have every reason to be. Maundrell has 
 floored me. I respect him. But, as I remarked 
 once, an American never stays on his back." 
 
 " You '11 forget me ? You '11 marry Coralie ? " 
 
 He brought his hand down on her shoulder and 
 jerked her close to him. She could see his white 
 face dimly. 
 
 "I mean that sooner or later — this year or ten 
 years from now — I will have you, and that you will 
 come to me of your own accord." 
 
 " I never will ! What a detestable No matter 
 
 what happened, I 'd never love any man but Cecil 
 Maundrell ! I belong to him ! " 
 
 *5 2 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " We shall see." 
 
 He left her then and went out to the verandah. 
 Lee heard his light laugh a moment later. 
 
 " He certainly can be serious," she thought; " but 
 I 'm sure he hates it. That laugh means either that 
 he 's delighted to forget his momentary drop, or that 
 he 's past master of the great national game of blufc 
 In his way he 's not uninteresting." 
 
 l 53 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 SEVERAL days later she took Cecil to the red- 
 woods. Mrs. Montgomery consented reluc- 
 tantly — Lee had always been a little beyond her — 
 but put up the lunch herself. They started early, 
 for the weather was very warm, and as they rode 
 hard there was little conversation, although both 
 were in high spirits. When they reached the foot- 
 hills they were obliged to slacken speed, and Cecil 
 said: 
 
 " I feel exactly as if we had started out in search 
 of adventures again. Let us hope there will not be 
 a fog nor an earthquake." 
 
 They had talked old times threadbare, and, after 
 shuddering once more over that memory, Lee said: 
 " The redwoods are just the place for stories of thrill- 
 ing adventures with tigers and lions and things. As 
 Coralie says, you are altogether too modest. I shall 
 insist." 
 
 " I don't mind telling you anything you like ; but 
 to sit up by the hour and rot to other people about 
 oneself — it's too much like " 
 
 " American brag? " 
 
 " Well, I don't like to be rude, but that was what 
 
 I meant. Of course there are exceptions," he added 
 
 hastily. " Take Mr. Trennahan, for instance. I have 
 
 noticed that the American who has lived a good deal 
 
 , J 54 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 abroad neither brags nor is in any way provincial. 
 And, as Montgomery says, the others have every 
 excuse. They would have a right to be cocky about 
 their country, if only on account of what Nature has 
 done for it." 
 
 " They are lovely, are n't they? " Lee pointed her 
 whip proudly to the forest above. It began on the 
 next slope they ascended, straggling carelessly for a 
 mile or more, then seemingly knit into a black and 
 solid wall of many tiers. Presently the hills closed 
 about them, the great arms of the mountain reached 
 down on every side, its grass burnt golden, its red- 
 woods casting long shadows, until their own shade 
 grew too heavy. As the riders ascended higher, 
 there was often, far down on one side of the road, a 
 canon set thick with the rigid trees, and cut with 
 a blade of water; an almost perpendicular wall on 
 the other. Finally, they passed the outposts, and 
 entered a long steep avenue of redwoods leading to 
 the depths of the forest. 
 
 " I never knew anything so intensely still, nor so 
 solemnly beautiful," said Cecil. " Could n't we come 
 here for our honeymoon? Is there a house to be 
 had?" 
 
 " The Trennahans have one. I am sure they would 
 lend it to us. Oh, I should like nothing so much as 
 that!" 
 
 " Nor I ! Fancy ! " 
 
 When they felt that they were really in the forest, 
 they tethered their horses and sat down at once with 
 their luncheon. It was a very good one, and they 
 ate it with relish, for they had been in the saddle 
 
 155 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 several hours. When it was over, Cecil made a 
 pillow of his saddle, and smoked a pipe. 
 
 " You look quite happy,'' said Lee sarcastically. 
 
 " Oh, I am ! I never knew anything so jolly! " 
 
 " Would you like me to pull off your boots ? " 
 
 " What an unforgiving spirit you have. I should 
 be much happier if you would sit as close to me as 
 you can." 
 
 Lee sat down beside the saddle. 
 
 " Now, tell me your adventures," she commanded. 
 
 Whatever the final results of her inspiration, the 
 immediate were very agreeable. Cecil's adventures 
 had been many, and the enthusiasm of the sportsman 
 made him eloquent. It was soon evident that he had 
 returned heart and soul into the past two years ; and 
 although Lee was pleased to observe that his grasp 
 on her hand did not relax, his pipe was permitted to 
 go out. Although his adventures did not consist of 
 a series of hairbreadth escapes, they were novel and 
 exciting, and Lee was thrilled. 
 
 " You always were the most sympathetic listener," 
 he exclaimed. " Fancy my talking to anyone else 
 like this ! I do believe my tongue has been wagging 
 for two hours." 
 
 " I don't wonder you love sport. I should, too. 
 It was a mere name to me before, The boys go 
 fishing once a year; they camp out in this forest; 
 and, occasionally, they go duck or snipe shooting, or 
 kill a few quail ; but I never heard even the expres- 
 sion ' big game' except from you." 
 
 " And with grizzlies and pumas — fancy ! What 
 are the men thinking of ? " 
 
 156 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Of course there are lots of old mountaineers and 
 trappers who have shot more bears and things than 
 they can count ; but even those of our men that are 
 not chasing the mighty dollar don't seem to take 
 to sport." 
 
 " It 's not a tradition with them. It will come with 
 more leisure, more Englishmen, and the inevitable 
 imitation of ourselves in that and in other things. 
 They hate us, but the tail of their eye is always on 
 England's big finger writing on the wall. The East- 
 ern men copy our accent, our clothes, our customs. 
 The New Yorkers are already good sportsmen, and 
 they owe it to us that they are. They began with a 
 spirit that did them little credit, but they are twice 
 the men they would be otherwise — this generation 
 of them, I mean. I am given to understand that, in 
 its mad rush for money, the race has deteriorated 
 since the Civil War. Your Californians are slower, 
 because they are on the edge of the world, and cus- 
 toms take longer to reach them ; but one day some 
 idle young blood will spend a year in England, then 
 come back and make sport the fashion, and the next 
 generation will be men with healthy bodies and 
 healthy minds." 
 
 " And better manners ! I am so glad you are not 
 going to hustle for money. I hate the loathsome 
 stuff — except to have it; it has so much to answer 
 for. I should think the race has deteriorated. Look 
 at the Southerners ! Look at Randolph ! The only 
 picture Mrs. Montgomery has of her husband was 
 
 15 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 taken when he had been out here twenty years, and 
 then his face had become very sharp and keen ; but 
 his father and grandfather were most aristocratic- 
 looking men — full of fire, but with a repose as fine as 
 yours. And Randolph was a most courtly boy; it 
 is doubtful if you think him a gentleman." 
 
 " Oh, yes, yes ! . The American armour fairly rat- 
 tles on him, and when he 's old he '11 look like the 
 American eagle; but I feel jolly sure that when it 
 came to the point, he 'd never do anything unworthy 
 of a gentleman." 
 
 " Not even to get a woman ? " 
 
 " All 's fair in love ; but he would never do any- 
 thing tricky or vulgar." 
 
 " Once he would n't ; but he has been rubbing 
 elbows with dishonest and common men for so many 
 years. His standards are lowered; I can see the 
 change from year to year." 
 
 " Blood is blood. He will never descend quite to 
 the level of the men of one generation. I 've just 
 thought of another yarn." 
 
 " Oh, do tell it ! Let us walk." 
 
 They wandered about for an hour or two, pushing 
 through the low forest of fronds and young redwoods, 
 sometimes silent and happy, sometimes planning out 
 the days of their honeymoon, sometimes absorbed in 
 the vast silence, the almost overwhelming sugges- 
 tion of immensity and power and antiquity of the 
 redwoods. 
 
 " They are a thousand years old — some of them." 
 
 " They are so new to me that I can hardly realise 
 their age. But they make the rest of the world seem 
 
 '58 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 a thousand miles away, and there is something about 
 them that agitates soul and sense, and promises — 
 almost everything. If Trennahan won't lend us his 
 house, we '11 come here and camp out" 
 
 They went down to the flashing creek whose walls 
 were brilliant with green and scarlet, and counted the 
 fish, Cecil hungrily sighing for a rod. 
 
 "I'll let you fish during the honeymoon — you 
 remember, I promised — but only one hour in the 
 morning and another in the afternoon." 
 
 " I see you are determined to make a good wife 
 without sacrificing your precious individuality. 
 But, my dear, we must go." 
 
 As they descended the mountain out of the red- 
 woods, Cecil looked back with a sigh. "If we 
 had only seen something," he said. "I have talked 
 so much sport to-day that I 'm all on fire again for 
 my grizzly. " 
 
 iS9 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 AND it was that evening at the dinner table 
 that Randolph remarked : 
 
 " Unless you 've lost your interest in sport, there 's 
 a chance for you. The grizzly 's a rare bird in 
 California, these times, but the agent of a ranch my 
 mother has in the Santa Lucia Mountains writes 
 me that he has seen two of late, and has been think- 
 ing about killing or trapping them. It takes him 
 several weeks to make up his mind to do anything, 
 so the grizzlies are yours, if you care about them." 
 
 Cecil had nearly risen from his seat. "I '11 start 
 to-night ! " he said. " How do you get there ? " 
 
 "If you really care to go, I'll walk over after 
 dinner and ask Trennahan if he'll go with you. 
 I 'm sorry that I can't go myself, but I am not a 
 sportsman, and I 'm very much rushed. Trennahan 
 is nearly as enthusiastic as yourself, and would be 
 sure to go. You could start early to-morrow 
 morning. " 
 
 " I will indeed ! How jolly of you to think of it. 
 I really am tremendously obliged. I 've seldom 
 been so keen about anything." 
 
 Lee kept her eyes lowered. They were the feature 
 she could least control, and she knew that they were 
 blazing. Randolph told eighteen anecdotes of the 
 
 1 60 
 
transplanted! 
 
 grizzly, to which Cecil listened with undivided 
 attention. 
 
 As they passed out into the hall, Lee tapped 
 Cecil's arm with her fan. 
 
 "Will you come to the library a moment?" she 
 said. "I want to speak to you." 
 
 The library was in a wing of the house; they were 
 sure to be out of earshot. She lit the gas, and then 
 turned her eyes upon him. He moved uneasily and 
 raised his eyebrows. 
 
 "Are you angry about something? " 
 
 " Do you really mean that you would leave me te 
 go to spend two weeks tracking a grizzly bear? " 
 
 " It need not be as long as that." 
 
 "It's almost sure to be. It takes nearly two 
 days to get to the ranch, and is such a tiresome trip 
 that you will have to rest for another before you 
 go out. You will be gone a fortnight at the very 
 least." 
 
 Cecil made no reply. 
 
 " We have not been engaged two weeks. Do you 
 really mean that you will — that you can leave me 
 for a loathsome grizzly bear ? " 
 
 " I don't want to leave you, of course. Could n't 
 you come too ? " 
 
 "And rough it? I never even camp out in the 
 redwoods; and you have no idea what travelling in 
 the wild parts of California means. " 
 
 "Of course you mustn't come, then. But, you 
 
 see, this is my only chance ; and that is one of the 
 
 things I came to California for — one that I started 
 
 round the world after, for that matter. Surely you 
 
 *i 161 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 wouldn't have me miss it! You told me to-day 
 that you understood my feeling for sport." 
 
 "I don't understand at all how you can leave me! 
 I 'm not your own sort, you see, or, doubtless, I 
 should." 
 
 " It is n't that only. You have led too many men 
 round by the nose. " 
 
 "Not one of them would have left me for a 
 bear." 
 
 "Which does not argue that they loved you better 
 than I, merely that they are different. None of 
 them succeeded in winning you, I may observe; and 
 the way you treat them when they bore you makes 
 me blush for my sex. Yesterday you fairly swept 
 Mr. Geary out with a broom." 
 
 " I wanted to be alone with you. " 
 
 Cecil was facing her, his hands in his pockets. 
 His eyes were smiling, but his jaw was set in a way 
 she had taken note of two days before: she had 
 demanded a confession of his past relations with 
 women, and he had merely set his jaw and made no 
 reply. 
 
 " Are you going ? " 
 
 He nodded, still smiling. His hands were work- 
 ing nervously in his pockets, but she did not see 
 them. 
 
 She gasped slightly. "I cannot believe it," she 
 said. 
 
 "That I can love you as passionately as a man 
 ever loved a woman, and yet leave you to complete 
 a record which means a good deal to me ? If I were 
 going to live in California I would put it off for a 
 
 162 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 year — with scarcely a regret ; but it is now or never. 
 Surely you will be reasonable." 
 
 " You can go if you like, but you need not come 
 back ! " and she made a rush for the door. 
 
 He caught her in his arms, and held her so closely 
 that she could not move. "I shall go, and I shall 
 come back, and I shall marry you on the first of 
 July. And believe this — I cannot get back quickly 
 enough. " 
 
 " I can't bear the thought of having you go, and I 
 can't bear the thought of being put aside for a 
 bear," sobbed Lee. 
 
 " Console yourself with the thought that you will 
 never be able to get rid of me for more than two 
 weeks at a time. I do not believe in matrimonial 
 vacations. " 
 
 " You will never make another long sporting tour 
 round the world?" 
 
 " Never ! I have had that. I want a home more 
 than anything on earth. " 
 
 " I wish I had more influence over you. " 
 
 "You mean that I was your blind besotted slave. 
 When you have forgotten your false ideas of the 
 relations of men and women, and accepted the right 
 one, you will not bother yourself about trifles ; and 
 there is no reason why anyone on earth should be 
 happier than we." 
 
 "After I have adapted myself ! " 
 
 He gave her a little shake. "When you have 
 swung round to the old world, and the only logical 
 point of view. A state of society is all wrong 
 where women rule — that is to say, it is in a senv- 
 
 16? - 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 chaotic transition period. When your greatest 
 country on the face of the earth has shaken down, 
 men and women will occupy exactly the same rela- 
 tive positions that they do in older countries. And 
 there will be fewer divorces. " 
 
 " How can you stand up herejmd lecture me ? " 
 
 "I don't want to lecture ^you. I want to kiss 
 you." 
 
 " I can't help being an American. I was made 
 one, and I have grown up one. How can I make 
 myself over ? " 
 
 " Think less about it. You Americans — par- 
 ticularly you Californians — carry your individuality 
 round like a chip on your shoulder. You are as 
 self-conscious about it as a little boy with his first 
 pair of trousers. I hear Trennahan's voice. I must 
 leave you in five minutes, and I may not see you 
 alone again. We have talked enough." 
 
 And as they were both people who did nothing by 
 halves, they parted with fervour, and mutual assur- 
 ance of the other's impeccability. 
 
 164 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 THE next evening, Lee rose abruptly from her 
 seat between Mrs. Yorba and Mrs. Trennahan, 
 who had dined with them, and walked hastily over 
 to Randolph who sat alone in a corner of the 
 verandah. 
 
 "Did you send Cecil to the Santa Lucia Moun- 
 tains hoping that he would be killed?" she 
 demanded. 
 
 " What do you take me for ? — the ten-cent villain 
 in the melodrama ? He's got the strength and the 
 nerve of two men, and I 've written to Joe Mann not 
 to leave him for an instant. His precious skin is 
 safe enough. I merely wanted to show you what 
 you had to expect if you married him — a correct but 
 unflattering glimpse of your power over him." 
 
 " You did it on purpose ? " 
 
 "I did it on purpose; and the infantile manner 
 in which he walked into the trap, and turned him- 
 self inside out, was really delicious." 
 
 " It 's because he 's as honest and straightforward 
 as — as your grandfather was. You are a horrid 
 tricky American ! " 
 
 Randolph brought his teeth together, but he 
 answered: "All's fair in love. Moreover, if I 
 were entirely out of the question, I should study 
 
 165 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 your interests as I should those of my sister. You 
 are not married yet. Think it over carefully before 
 he comes back." 
 
 " Do you suppose I 'd break my engagement ? I 've 
 given him my word, and it 's announced." 
 
 " If you had engaged yourself to me before Maun- 
 drell came, would you not have thrown me over? " 
 
 "Yes, I would." 
 
 " Your femininity is your greatest charm — to me. 
 Its somewhat anarchistic quality may not commend 
 itself to Cecil Maundrell. Better think it over. " 
 
 "You can plot all you like, but I 'd marry Cecil 
 Maundrell if he went after grizzlies every month in 
 the year. " 
 
 She had passed through several phases since that 
 morning, when she had risen at four to see her 
 future lord depart. The strong passion of her 
 nature responded with sensuous delight to the heavy 
 hand of the master; she was primal woman first, and 
 American after. But she was American "all the 
 same," she reminded herself with a proper pride. 
 She was willing to excuse Cecil from buttoning her 
 boots, but she would have liked him to manifest a 
 natural desire to kiss her slipper. Of the strength 
 of his passion she had no misgivings, but she was 
 too clear-sighted to permit herself to hope that 
 idolatry had any part in it. And if she had a 
 primal instinct for submission to the worshipped 
 strength of the male, she had quite as strong an 
 instinct for her own way. Not only had the condi- 
 tions of her life fostered a tenacious will, but she 
 inherited a love of power and adulation from a 
 
 1 66 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 mother and a grandmother to whom the neck of man 
 was a familiar footstool. 
 
 Two days later Tiny arrived with Lord Arrow- 
 mount and the Honourable Charles Edward Richard 
 Thornton, the last in the arms of his nurse. Tiny 
 was as pretty and as placid as ever, and Lord 
 Arrowmount, if not so pretty, was quite as placid, 
 and as silent as of yore. The note of command was 
 not manifest in his voice, and it was evident that he 
 was not on the alert. 
 
 " Have you adapted yourself ? " asked Lee that 
 night. 
 
 Tiny smiled her old inscrutable smile. "He 
 thinks I have, so it amounts to quite the same 
 thing." 
 
 "I wish I could manage things that way, but I 
 can't. Cecil is horribly clever, and I don't take 
 things calmly." 
 
 "It is all a matter of temperament, of course. 
 Try and not expect too much, and it will be easier. 
 An Englishman simply won't keep on telling you 
 that he loves you — " 
 
 " Mine will, or there '11 be trouble." 
 
 "They're so lazy about talking. I'm afraid he 
 won't. It 's pure laziness that has made them clip 
 so many names, and throw all their accents back- 
 ward, fairly swallowing the last syllables. When 
 they 've told you once they love you, they don't see 
 why you can't take it for granted ever after, and 
 when one gets over that I 'm positive they are the 
 most agreeable husbands in the world. They give 
 so little trouble, and take such good care of one, 
 
 167 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 and do all the thinking. Arthur is the most com- 
 fortable person. He is generous, and has no temper 
 at all if he is not crossed, and is more than willing 
 to think me quite perfect because I always look 
 pretty, and never contradict him, and entertain ali 
 his stupid shooting friends without a grimace." 
 
 " What do you get out of it all ? " 
 
 "Those things can't be analysed; he suits me. 
 I am really very fond of him. I love people who 
 are good-tempered and not nervous, and can be 
 awfully fond of one without making a fuss about it. 
 I love him well enough to bore myself in a good 
 many ways, but I have this compensation — / can 
 make him do anything I choose. We spend every 
 winter where I want to spend it, and he 's none the 
 wiser. I entertain bis friends in the summer and 
 autumn, but I have my own in town, and we always 
 go to at least three houses that I like." 
 
 " It is evident that Cecil and I will have to work 
 out our own problem." 
 
 He returned in two weeks and two days with his 
 grizzly's skin — a huge, hideous, and ill-favoured 
 trophy. Lee lifted her delicate nose, and drew away 
 her skirts, but assured him warmly that she was 
 quite as delighted as he was, and so proud of him 
 she feared every one would laugh at her. 
 
 "Trennahan got the other, but mine was the 
 biggest," he said intensely. "It's a long and 
 exciting story. The old chap nearly got me. Let 
 me go and clean up, and then we '11 go for a walk, 
 and I '11 tell you all about it. And that 's the least 
 of what I have to tell you. " 
 
 168 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 They went for their walk, and there was no doubt 
 left in Lee's mind that he had been in a hurry to 
 get back to her, although he had waited until his 
 grizzly's skin was peppered and dried, Her doubts 
 went to rest, and she was happy. 
 
 They were married on the first of July, in the 
 library, in the presence of the family and intimate 
 friends. Coralie returned in time to be bridesmaid 
 and to bring the wedding-dress and veil, — in which 
 Lee looked so lovely, that, as she entered the room 
 on Randolph's arm, Cecil put his hands suddenly 
 into his pockets, as was his habit when his nervous 
 fingers betrayed him. His face was impassive, and 
 he went through the ceremony very creditably. So 
 did Randolph. 
 
 After the wedding-breakfast, the newly-wed, 
 amidst showers of rice, started for the redwoods on 
 horseback. Mr. Trennahan had offered his house, 
 and their luggage had gone the day before. Their 
 h^st had asked them to remain indefinitely, as he 
 and his wife purposed to pass the summer at Lake 
 Tahoe. They took the house for a fortnight. They 
 remained a month. 
 
 As soon as they had gone, Randolph went to 
 town, saying he could not return until the next day. 
 He pleaded business, and his mother, who had 
 watched him closely, was satisfied. He spent the 
 night in a private room of a fashionable saloon, 
 before a small table, drinking — drinking — drink- 
 ing, his face growing whiter, the fire in his brain 
 hotter, his ideas more lucid. Once he took a letter 
 irom his pocket and re-read it. It notified him that 
 
 169 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the Peruvian mine in which he had invested was 
 several times richer than had been anticipated, and 
 that a syndicate would offer him a million dollars 
 for his interest. He tore the letter to strips. 
 When the dawn came he was still sober. 
 
 170 
 
PART TWO 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IT is seldom that the imagination is disappointed in 
 the " ancestral piles " of England. The United 
 Statesian, particularly, surrounded from birth by all 
 that is commonplace and atrocious in architecture, is 
 affected by the grey imposing Fact, brooding heavily 
 under the weight of its centuries, with a curious cora- 
 mixion of delight, surprise, and familiarity. All the 
 rhapsodies of the poets, all the minute descriptions of 
 the old romanticists, train the imagination, bend it into 
 a certain relationship with the historic decorations of 
 another hemisphere, yet stop short of conveying an 
 impression of positive reality. The product of a new 
 world, a new civilisation, as he stands before the carved 
 ruins of an abbey's cloisters, or the grey ivy-grown 
 towers and massive scarce-punctured walls of an 
 ancient castle, feels a slight shock of surprise that it 
 is really there. But the surprise quickly passes ; in a 
 brief time, with the fatal adaptability of the American, 
 it is an old story, a habit. He examines it with curi- 
 osity, intelligent or vulgar, according to his rank, but 
 novelty has fled. 
 
 Maundrell Abbey stands in the very middle of an 
 estate six miles square. The land undulates gently 
 
 171 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 from the gates to the house, woods on one side of the 
 drive, a moor on the other. At the opposite end of 
 the estate are several farms, a fell of great height, and 
 several strips of woods, in the English fashion. Not 
 far from the Abbey, on a steep low hill set with many- 
 trees, are a chapel and a churchyard. 
 
 As Cecil and Lee drove toward their home at the 
 close of an August day the bride forgot the bride- 
 groom in her eagerness to knit fact to fancy. The 
 moor was turning purple, the. woods close by were 
 full of sunlight, a wonderful shimmer of gold and 
 green ; with no hint that they too, before the greed 
 of man fell heavily upon them, may have been as dark 
 and solemn as the forests of California. Now and 
 again she had a glimpse of a grey pile and a flash of 
 water. 
 
 They reached the top of a hillock of some altitude, 
 and Cecil ordered the coachman to pause. Lee rose 
 in her seat and looked down on the Abbey. It was 
 quite different from the structure in her brain, but no 
 less satisfying. All that was in ruin was a long row 
 of Gothic arches, so fragile that the yellow sunlight 
 pouring through seemed a crucible in which they 
 must melt. The rest of the building was an immense 
 irregular mass at the back, but continued from the 
 cloisters in a straight severe line, which terminated in 
 a tower. Weeds and grass sprang from the arches, 
 ivy covered the tower ; before the Abbey was a lake, 
 on which swans were sailing ; peacocks strutted on 
 the lawns. The fell behind was turning red ; in a 
 field far away were many cows ; over all hung the low 
 powdered sky, brooded the peace and repose, which, 
 
 172 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 were one shot straight from the blue, one would recog- 
 nise as English. 
 
 " It is the carving that makes the cloisters look so 
 fragile," said Cecil. " They will stand a long while 
 yet. The crypt, which is now the entrance hall, and 
 a stone roof which once covered a part of the church 
 and is now over the drawing-room, are all that is left 
 of the original Abbey, except two stone staircases. 
 The tower is Norman, arid as there is a tradition that 
 a Maundrell owned these lands before the Church, 
 when the latter was despoiled, and Henry VIII. gave 
 the estate to another Maundrell, it took the family 
 name. Oliver Cromwell left precious little of the 
 Abbey, but it was rebuilt in the reign of Charles II., 
 and there is nothing later than the succeeding reign. 
 That chapel on the hill dates from Henry VIII. only. 
 We have service there on Sundays. Our vault is 
 underneath. Only the old abbots and monks are 
 buried in the graveyard. Well ? Are you satisfied ? " 
 
 Lee nodded and smiled. She was so well satisfied 
 that she hoped to lose herself in the pleasurable sen- 
 sation of a dream realised, and forget certain disap- 
 pointments and tremors. She had indulged in the 
 dream of an enthusiastic welcome by the tenantry, 
 triumphal arches, and other demonstrations of which 
 she had read ; for Cecil was the heir of this splendid 
 domain, and he was bringing home his bride. But 
 they had driven from the station as unobtrusively as 
 two guests invited for a week's shooting. Tiny had 
 said to her the day before her departure for England : 
 
 " Make up your mind not to expect anything over 
 there, and you will save yourself a great deal of dis- 
 
 i73 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 appointment. When you feel a chill settling over you, 
 shake it off with the reflection that English ways are 
 not our ways. They are the most casual people in 
 the world, and their hospitality, although genuine, is 
 so different from ours, that it seems at first no hospi- 
 tality at all." 
 
 Lee deliberately forced these words into her 
 mind as Cecil lifted her from the carriage and she 
 passed between two rigid footmen into the crypt 
 of the Abbey. The vast dim columned greyness 
 of the crypt was beautiful and impressive, and 
 surely it was haunted in the midnight by indignant 
 friars, but, save for the approaching butler, it was 
 empty. 
 
 " Are n't your father and stepmother at home ? " 
 asked Lee, as Cecil joined her. 
 
 " Father 's probably on the moors, and Emmy 
 always lies down in the afternoon," said Cecil indiffer- 
 ently. " We '11 go straight up to my old rooms. I 
 hope you '11 like them, but of course if you don 't, you 
 can take your choice of the others." 
 
 They followed the butler up an immense stone stair- 
 case, then down five long corridors, whose innumer- 
 able windows framed so many different views of the 
 grounds that Lee felt sure nothing less than a reel of 
 silk would guide her back and forth. The corridors 
 were lined with pictures and cabinets and curiosities 
 of many centuries, but Lee barely glanced at them, so 
 absorbed was she in wondering if the Abbey were a 
 mile square. Cecil's rooms were in the tower, and the 
 tower was at the extreme right of the building's front, 
 but those corridors appeared to traverse the entire 
 
 '74 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 back and every wing. At length they passed under 
 a low stone arch, ascended a spiral stone staircase, 
 entered a small stone room fitted up with & desk, a 
 sofa, and two chairs, and Cecil said : 
 
 " Here we are." 
 
 " Well, I shall be glad to rest Is n't there a short 
 cut to the grounds ? If there is n't, I '11 have to take 
 all my exercise indoors." 
 
 " There 's a door at the foot of the tower. And 
 you '11 be a famous walker this time next year. You 
 Californians are so lazy." 
 
 He opened the door of the bedroom, a large old 
 fashioned severely-furnished room with a dressing- 
 room beyond. Lee, who was luxurious by nature and 
 habit, did not like it, but consoled herself with the 
 charming landscape beyond the window. 
 
 " Do you think you '11 like it up here? " asked Cecil 
 anxiously. " I 'd never feel at home anywhere else. 
 I insisted upon these rooms when I was a boy, because 
 Charles II. hid in them once for a week ; but another 
 reason why I like them now is because they are out 
 of earshot of all the row — Emmy's house-parties are 
 rather noisy." 
 
 " Oh, I am sure I shall love it, and I like the idea 
 of being quite alone with you ; but do let me fix them 
 up a little ; I should feel like a nun." 
 
 " Do anything you like. And if that room is hope- 
 less, there are any number of boudoirs to choose from. 
 This is the only part of the Abbey that is n't full of 
 windows. And your maid will sleep quite close. We'll 
 have a bell put in." He took out his watch. " It 's 
 just five. I '11 send you tea at once, and then go and 
 
 175 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 look up father. You 'd better lie down until it 's time 
 to dress for dinner." 
 
 " Well, for Heaven's sake, come back for me, or I '11 
 not move." 
 
 Cecil pinched her cheek, kissed her, and departed. 
 Her own maid had refused to cross the ocean, and 
 Cecil had written to the housekeeper requesting that 
 a new one might await them. The girl arrived with 
 the tea-tray, asked Lee for her keys, and without 
 awaiting orders, began at once to unpack the trunks 
 that had arrived with the travellers. She accomplished 
 her task so swiftly and so deftly, that Lee, with a long 
 train of inefficient maids in mind, reflected gratefully 
 that she would doubtless be spared any personal 
 effort for the thousand and one details which went to 
 make up the physical comfort she loved. 
 
 The maid laid a wrapper over the back of a chair, 
 dragged the trunks into the antechamber, returned, 
 and courtesied. 
 
 " Will your ladyship take off your frock and rest 
 awhile?" she asked. 
 
 Lee gave a little jump. It was the first time she 
 had been so saluted. It made her feel a part of that 
 ancient tower, she reflected, with what humour was in 
 her at the moment, — more at home. The maid un- 
 dressed her, and she lay down on the sofa in the 
 sitting-room to await the return of her lord. The 
 maid, remarking that she should return at seven t« 
 dress her ladyship for dinner, retired. 
 
 176 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 ALTHOUGH Lee was happy, she had a hard fight 
 with an attack of tearful repining. Surrounded 
 all her life with demonstrative affection, each home- 
 coming after a brief holiday an event of rejoicing 
 and elaborate preparation, this chill casual entrance 
 into a huge historic pile — apparently uninhabited, 
 and as homelike as a prison — flooded her spirits with 
 an icy rush. Cecil, who had been so close to her, 
 seemed to have mounted to a niche in the grey stair- 
 case, and turned to stone. The domestic machinery 
 appeared to run with the precision of an expensive 
 eight-day clock. Were her future associates equally 
 automatic? She remembered the inexcitable Mr. 
 Maundrell, and shuddered. Perhaps even " Emmy " 
 by this time was a mere machine, warranted to have 
 hysterics at certain intervals. Surely a woman who 
 would not sacrifice her routine to receive a petted 
 stepson after two years' absence and a stranger in a 
 strange land — and so important an addition to the 
 family as her daughter-in-law — must be painfully 
 systematised. 
 
 " However," thought Lee, curling herself down in 
 the hope of a nap, " I can hold my own, that is one 
 comfort. Thank Heaven, I have been brought up all 
 my life to think myself somebody, and that I have 
 
 12 l 77 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 plenty of money ; it would be tragic if I were a timid, 
 nervous, portionless little person." 
 
 She heard a light step, and the agreeable sibila- 
 tion of linings and flounces. In a second she had run 
 to the mirror in her bedroom. Her hair was smooth, 
 and the wrapper of white camel's hair and blue vel- 
 vet sufficiently enhancing. There was colour in her 
 cheeks, and the only suggestion of fatigue came from 
 a vague shadow beneath her lashes. She felt that 
 she had nothing to fear from the critical eyes of the 
 other woman. 
 
 "May I come in?" Lady Barnstaple had rapped 
 and opened the door simultaneously. " How do you 
 do? Are you tired? You look abominably fresh. 
 And how tall you are ! I thought you'd be in a 
 wrapper, so I didn't send for you. Lie down again, 
 and I'll sit here. These chairs are stuffed with bricks." 
 
 She was a short woman, with a still beautiful figure 
 above the waist ; it was growing massive below. Her 
 colouring was nondescript, but her features must once 
 have been delicate and piquant ; now they were sharp, 
 and there were fine lines about the eyes, and weak 
 determined mouth. Her cheeks were charmingly 
 painted, her hair elaborately coiffed ; she wore an 
 airy tea-gown of black chiffon, with pink bows, in 
 which she looked like a smart fluffy doll. Her car- 
 riage, short as she was, would have been impressive 
 had it not been for the restlessness of her manner. 
 If she had come to England with a Chicago accent, 
 she had sent it home long since. Her voice was 
 abrupt and unpleasing, but its syllabic presentment 
 was wholly English, and her manner was curiously 
 
 178 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 like an Englishwoman's affectation of American anima- 
 tion. Her eyes, for some time after she entered the 
 room, had the round vacant stare of a newly-arrived 
 infant. When the exigencies of conversation removed 
 this stare, they flashed with the nervous irritable 
 domineering character of the woman. It was some 
 time before they were removed from Lee's face for an 
 instant. Lee was tired, but she obeyed the instinct 
 of the savage who scents a fight, and sat upright. 
 
 " You won't stay in this hole, of course — one might 
 as well live in a dungeon — there is one at the bottom 
 of the tower, for that matter. In the only letter that 
 Cecil condescended to write me after his engagement, 
 he said he wanted his old rooms to be ready for him, 
 and he hoped I would n't put any guests in them. But 
 of course you can't stand them. Fancy not being able 
 to turn round without falling over a man ! You 'd be 
 at each other's throats in a week." 
 
 " Is n't there another room underneath these that I 
 could fix up as a sitting-room? I like this tower." 
 
 " Fancy, now ! I believe there is a lumber-room, 
 or something; but what can you do with a tower- 
 room with walls five feet thick, and such windows? 
 Of course I don't know your tastes, but I must have 
 fluffy airy things in bright colours about me, and 
 floods of light — through pink shades, nowadays," 
 she added, with a bitter little laugh. " What a lovely 
 complexion you have ! I had one too, once, but it 's 
 gone ! — it 's gone ! I don't know whether I 'm 
 pleased or not that you 're a beauty. Barnstaple 
 assured me that it was impossible you could be, 
 that Cecil must be mad — the English children are 
 
 11Q 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 so pretty; but I thought it unlikely that Cecil would 
 sacrifice his chances of a fortune for anything less 
 than downright beauty. Of course you '11 be a great 
 card for me. I can make out a lot of you ; but on 
 the other hand it 's disgusting having anything so fresh 
 forever at one's elbow. Repose is not the fashion 
 now, and of course you are a bit of a prude — young 
 married women who are in love with their husbands 
 are always so fiercely virtuous ! — and of course you 
 have n't half enough money; but I can see that you 
 will be a success. We all know that you 're clever, 
 and they like clever people over here, and your voice 
 is n't nasal — it 's really lovely. It 's a thousand 
 pities — a thousand pities that you could n't bring 
 Cecil a fortune ! " Her voice gave a sudden queru- 
 lous break. " He could have had one — probably 
 a dozen — for the asking, and I think the Abbey 
 should have been his first consideration. He won't 
 inherit a penny from Barnstaple, and Heaven knows 
 what I '11 have left ! He can't possibly keep it up 
 on what you and he have together — your house in 
 town will take every penny — and he '11 either have 
 to break the entail and sell it, or rent the moor, and 
 cut the rest up into farms, and perhaps let the Abbey 
 itself. I should turn in my grave, for the Abbey is 
 the one real love of my life — " 
 
 Her restless eyes had been moving about the 
 room ; they suddenly met her daughter-in-law's. Lee 
 had very beautiful eyes, but they were capable of a 
 blue-hot flame of passion at times. Lady Barnstaple 
 blinked rapidly; her own seemed scorching under 
 that blue-fire. 
 
 180 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Oh, of course, it does n't signify ! Nothing really 
 signifies in this world. I really didn't mean to be 
 nasty, but I always flare up when the Abbey is in 
 question ^- and then that old superstition ! — But 
 bother! I really want to be nice! Do tell me 
 about your clothes. If you had sent me a lining 
 I could have ordered everything for you in Paris. 
 I should n't have minded running over a bit." 
 
 " My things were made in New York, and will 
 probably answer." 
 
 " Oh, of course ! New York 's every bit as smart 
 as Paris, only it eats your head off. Have you many 
 jewels?" 
 
 " Very few — compared with the shop-window 
 decorations of New York and English women." 
 
 " We do overload ourselves," said Lady Barnstaple 
 amiably. " I 've seen women turn actually grey 
 under the weight of their tiaras. Still, unless you 
 blaze at a great party, you are simply not seen. But 
 of course the Barnstaple jewels are mine till I die, 
 and I sold all my own after having them copied; 
 you could wear some of those if you liked, although, 
 being fresh from the other side, you 'd probably 
 scorn imitations." 
 
 " I certainly should." 
 
 " Oh, you '11 get over all that ! We are all shams 
 nowadays." 
 
 " You are certainly frank enough." 
 
 "A mere habit — a fashion. Everybody shouts all 
 he knows just now. We even talk of things at the 
 table that would quite shock — Chicago, for instance. 
 And as for your poor little San Francisco — there are 
 
 181 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the most amusing points of resemblance between the 
 Americans and the English middle-class." 
 
 " Then perhaps you would not mind telling me if 
 you would have taken the trouble to meet us this 
 afternoon if I had brought a million with me." 
 
 " Dear me, no ; not if you had arrived at such an 
 unearthly hour. I assure you I did not intend to be 
 rude, but I always sleep from half after four to half 
 after five. I don't take my tea with the others." 
 
 "And there would have been no demonstration, 
 I suppose." 
 
 " Well — yes, frankly, perhaps there would have 
 been. Barnstaple did say something about it, but I 
 told him I could n't think of affording it, and I 
 could n't. Don't be bitter about it ; but we need 
 money — money — money so horribly." 
 
 " I am not bitter in the least. I merely asked out 
 of curiosity." 
 
 "Oh, my dear, when one is young and beautiful 
 one would be a fool to be bitter about anything. 
 You probably think me a devil, but if you knew what 
 my life has been ! To-day I 'm in one of my moods. 
 I'm sorry it happened so, and I hate myself for be- 
 ing nasty, but I can't help it. I have n't any particu- 
 lar reason for being; they just come down on me, 
 and I want to scratch everybody's eyes out. I may 
 be as cheerful as a lark, and as amiable as a kitten 
 for a week. You have no idea what a popular little 
 person I am ! " 
 
 Lee's anger had passed, giving way to a com- 
 mingling of curiosity, disgust and pity. Was this a 
 sample of engrafted America? She asked if there 
 
 182 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 were any other English-Americans staying at the 
 Abbey. 
 
 Lady Barnstaple scowled, and the scowl routed 
 what little youth she had left. " I 'm not on speaking 
 terms with a single American but yourself and Lady 
 Arrowmount, and I barely know her. I adore the 
 English, but the jealousy and rivalry of other Amer- 
 icans ! But I 'm sent in ahead of the ones I hate 
 most ! I am ! — I am ! It 's been war to the knife 
 between three of us for years now, and I 've got to 
 go under, because I have n 't the money to smash 
 'em. That is one reason why I 'm a bit off my head 
 about Cecil not having married a million. With a 
 rich and beautiful — But here comes your maid. I 
 must go to mine. I '11 swear you shall think me an 
 angel to-morrow." 
 
 '83 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LEE found no time to think that night. As soon 
 as her maid had left her, Cecil entered from 
 his dressing-room and said that his father would like 
 to see her for a moment before they joined the guests 
 in the library. 
 
 " I saw Emmy for a few minutes, and she said she 
 had been to see you — and many complimentary 
 things." 
 
 " How kind of her ! " 
 
 " Did n't you like her? Most people do." 
 
 " It 's not polite to criticise your relations, but I 
 may be excused, as she is my countrywoman first. I 
 have been carefully brought up, and I never before 
 met that sort of American. Of course the Middle 
 West is very new, and it is hardly fair to criticise it, 
 but I should think twenty years or so of England 
 would have done something more than remove her 
 accent." 
 
 Cecil smiled. " American women are so popular in 
 England that I fancy they grow more and more 
 American as the years go by. I don't know much 
 about it." 
 
 " It is rather odd having to stand just behind a 
 stepmother whom I should n't think of knowing at 
 home." 
 
 184 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Of course there are no distinctions in regard to 
 Americans over here ; it is all personality and money. 
 Emmy has n't much of the first in a large sense, but 
 she knows how to make herself popular. People find 
 her likeable and amusing — even the women, because, 
 of course, she is so different from themselves ; and 
 she is really the best-hearted little creature in tha 
 world. I see you don't like her, but wait a little J 
 perhaps she was nervous to-day." 
 
 " I am not going to be so commonplace as to quar- 
 rel with my mother-in-law, but I certainly shall not 
 like her. As you would say, she is not my own sort." 
 
 "Neither am I," said Cecil laughing, "but you lik* 
 me." 
 
 " We represent the fusion of the two greatest na- 
 tions on earth. Why do not you tell me that I anf 
 looking particularly well ? " 
 
 They were traversing one of the long corridors. 
 Cecil glanced uneasily about, then put his arm round 
 her and kissed her. 
 
 " I am doing my best to live up to the American 
 standard, and tell you once a day how much I love 
 you, and how beautiful you are. When do you think 
 you will take it for granted? " 
 
 " Never ! never ! Are you proud of me to-night? " 
 
 " You never looked lovelier — except when we 
 were married. You nearly knocked me over then." 
 
 " What a pity I can't wear a wedding-veil on all 
 state occasions." 
 
 " I have a suspicion that as you are a bride you 
 should wear white for a time." 
 
 " All my day summer frocks are white, and I simply 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 won't wear it at night I shall take full advantage of 
 the fact that I am an American." 
 
 She wore a wonderful gown of flame-coloured 
 gauze, more golden than red, and so full of shimmer 
 and sheen, that she had reflected, with some malice, 
 it would outblaze all of Lady Barnstaple's jewels, 
 and had concluded to wear none. 
 
 " To-morrow and the next day I am going out with 
 the other men, and you are coming to luncheon with 
 us on the moor — at least Emmy and the others gen- 
 erally come when the weather is fine : but on Sunday 
 I'll show you over the Abbey. I'd like to do it 
 myself, but I 'm afraid we can't get into the state 
 bedrooms until the guests are gone." 
 
 " Are they in the rooms that kings and queens and 
 all the rest have slept in ? " 
 
 " You are improving. How is it you did n't say 
 ' kings and queens and things ' ? I'm afraid they are. 
 This house is all corridors and rooms for entertaining 
 and boudoirs; there are not more than twenty-five 
 bedrooms. Here we are." 
 
 They entered a small room furnished as a study, 
 and Lord Barnstaple entered from the adjoining bed- 
 room almost immediately. He looked rather more 
 impassive and rather more cynical, but hardly ten 
 years older. His monocle might never have been 
 removed. Somewhat to Lee's surprise, he not only 
 kissed her, but shook her warmly by the hand. 
 
 " So another American is my fate, after all," he 
 said. " You see, I suspected as much the day I left. 
 Have you ever had hysterics? " 
 
 " Never ! " 
 
 1 86 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I almost hope you have a temper — oh, you have, 
 you have, with those eyes ! " He chuckled. " Turn 
 it lbose on her ! Give it to her ! Gad ! but I 'd like 
 to see her well trounced ! She does n't mind me, 
 but you 're a woman, and young, and beautiful, and 
 — nearly twice her height. Gad ! how she '11 hate 
 you! But trounce her — trounce her! Don't give 
 her any quarter? " 
 
 Cecil laughed. " Why do you sow these seeds of 
 discord in the family?" 
 
 " Oh, we '11 keep out of the way. But fancy Emmy 
 limp and worn out, and not daring to call her soul 
 her own ! T would be the happiest day of my life ! 
 But I 'm famished." 
 
 They entered the library only a moment before 
 dinner was announced. It was a very long room 
 breaking the series of corridors, and only three times 
 their width. Its panelling was black, and its books 
 appeared to be musty with age; above the high 
 cases were many Maundrells; even the furniture 
 looked as ancient as the Abbey. But flooding all 
 was a pink glare of electric light 
 
 The room was full of people, who regarded the 
 bride with descriptive curiosity. Lady Barnstaple 
 was flitting about, her expression in perfect order, 
 her superlatively smart French gown quivering with 
 animation. She came at once toward Lee, followed 
 by a tall good-looking young man, whom she pre- 
 sented as Captain Monmouth. 
 
 " What a love of a gown ! I 'm so glad you know 
 how to dress ! " she exclaimed. " You are to go in 
 with Miss Pix," she added to her stepson. 
 
 187 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Cecil drew his brows together. " Why do you 
 send me in with Miss Pix?" he muttered angrily. 
 " You know she bores me to death." 
 
 " To punish you for not marrying her. You can't 
 get out of it; she expects you." 
 
 Lee overheard the conversation. So did Lord 
 Barnstaple, who was laughing softly at his son's dis- 
 comfiture. She had no time to question him, for 
 they went down at once to dinner, and his attention 
 for a time was claimed by the woman on his left. 
 Cecil was on the other side of the table, some eight 
 or ten seats down. Lee studied his partner atten- 
 tively while talking with Captain Monmouth, who 
 sat on her right. 
 
 The immense room looked like the banqueting hall 
 of kings, but, so far as Lee could judge — and she 
 had one half of the guests within her visual range — 
 the young woman with the dreadful name looked 
 more the traditionally cold haughty aristocrat, for 
 whom such rooms were built, than any one present. 
 The others appeared to have nothing of the massive 
 repose of their caste ; they seemed, in fact, to vie 
 with each other in animation, and they certainly 
 talked very loud and very fast. But Miss Pix had 
 that air of arrested development peculiar to the best 
 statuary. Her skin was as white as the tablecloth, 
 her profile was mathematically straight, suggesting an 
 antique marble or a sheep. Her small flaxen head 
 was held very high, and her eyelids had the most 
 aristocratic droop that Lee had ever conceived of. 
 
 "Who is she?" the bride asked her companion, 
 who appeared to be an easy and untraditional person. 
 
 188 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " And why is she so different from the rest — with 
 that name ? She looks like one of Ouida's heroines 
 — the quite impossible ones." 
 
 Captain Monmouth laughed. " Her father was a 
 brewer, disgustingly rich. Her parents are dead. 
 She and her brother — dreadful bounder — have been 
 trying to get into Society for years — only been really 
 successful the last three. Lady Barnstaple took 'em 
 up, for some reason or other. She 's usually rather 
 nasty to new people. Only girl, and has three mil- 
 lions, but does n't marry and is n't popular — scarcely 
 opens her mouth, and has never been known to un- 
 bend.. Fancy it 's rather on her mind that she was n't 
 born into the right set. So she fakes it for all it 's 
 worth, as you Americans would say. I do like 
 American slang. Can you teach me some ? " 
 
 " I know more than I 've ever dared to use, and 
 you shall have it all, as my husband disapproves of 
 it. I think Miss Pix has done rather well. She is 
 what we would call a good ' bluffer.' " 
 
 " Quite so — quite so. The women say all sortf 
 of nasty things about her — that all that white is put 
 on with a brush or a sponge or something, as well as 
 that haughty nostril; and that she has had the 
 muscles cut in her eyelids — ghastly thought, ain't 
 it? Nature gave her that profile, of course; can't 
 have the bridge of your nose raised — can you ? -r- 
 even with three millions. It 's the profile that made 
 all the trouble, I fancy. She 's livin' up to it. Must 
 be deuced aggravatin' to be born with a cameo pro- 
 file and a Lancashire accent. No wonder she 's 
 frozen." 
 
 189 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Has she got rid of the accent? " 
 
 " Oh, rather ! She was educated in Paris with a lot 
 of swagger French girls. She 's quite correct — in a 
 prehistoric way — only she overdoes it." 
 
 His attention was claimed by the woman on his 
 other side, and Lee asked Lord Barnstaple: 
 
 " What did Lady Barnstaple mean? Did she want 
 Cecil to marry that Miss Pix? " 
 
 " Did n't she ! She never worked so hard for any- 
 thing in her life. She was ill for two weeks after 
 Cecil went off. It would n't have been a bad thing. 
 I 'd have wanted it myself if she had n't. I like you — 
 always did — but I wish to gad you had more money I 
 Don't you think you '11 discover a gold mine on that 
 ranch of yours some day? " 
 
 Lee laughed, although the sensation of dismay in- 
 duced by Lady Barnstaple's visit returned at his words. 
 " I 'm afraid not. Sulphur and arsenic and iron are 
 as much as can be expected of one poor little ranch." 
 
 " Perhaps we can sell the springs to a syndicate — 
 who knows ? Syndicates are always buyin' things and 
 givin' seven Aggers for 'em. I '11 tell you what we '11 
 do. The next old Jew or brewer that wants to get 
 into Society we '11 send for and tell him that the ranch 
 at seven Aggers is our price for a week's shooting at 
 the Abbey and three dinners in town," and he gave 
 his ungenial chuckle. 
 
 " You are n't all really as bad as that over here, are 
 you?" 
 
 " Oh, we 're mixed, like you Americans. We 're all 
 right so long as we don't need money ; but, you see, 
 we need such a cursed lot of it — several thousand 
 
 190 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 times more than the nobodies who sit outside and 
 criticise us. It 's in our blood, and when we can't get 
 it one way we try another. We all cling to certain 
 ideals, though : I 've never gambled with a parvenu. 
 It 's true I made an ass of myself and married one, 
 but I pulled up just after. Miss Pix is the only other 
 that has got inside my doors. That 's the one point 
 Emmy and I agree on: I have my ideals" — he 
 laughed again — "and, like all upstarts, she despises 
 other upstarts. Monmouth is the only person in the 
 house except Miss Pix without an hereditary title, and 
 he 's grandson of a duke, and a Guardsman. Some 
 of the smartest women of the day are untitled, but 
 Emmy won't have 'em. Wonder who she'll have 
 this time five years ? — Second-rate actors and long- 
 haired poets, probably." 
 
 Lee wondered at even a dilapidated set of ideals, 
 and at a pride — and pride was written all over him — 
 which would permit him to live on a woman's money. 
 Of course he may have argued that Lady Barnstaple 
 was paying a fair yearly rent for the title and the 
 Abbey, but it was an old-world view-point, to which 
 it would take a long period of habit to accustom the 
 new. She wondered if she had any right to despise a 
 man who was a mere result of a civilisation so differ- 
 ent from her own, but felt unindulgent. In the United 
 States, if a penniless man married for money, he had 
 the decency to affect the habit of the worker, if it were 
 only to write alleged poems for the magazines, or to 
 attach himself to a Legation. 
 
 After dinner she went with the women into another 
 immense room, also panelled to the ceiling. Each 
 
 if* 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 panel was set with a portrait, several of which she 
 knew at a glance to be the originals of bygone mas- 
 ters. Their flesh tints were uniformly pink: Lee 
 glanced upward. The stone ceiling, arched and 
 heavily carved, was set with electric pears. It was an 
 irritating anomaly. 
 
 Lee thought the women looked very nice, and won- 
 dered if she was ever to be introduced to anybody. 
 Emmy was flitting about again — rather the upper part 
 of her seemed to flit as if propelled by the somewhat 
 unwieldy machinery below. She looked indubitably 
 common, despite her acquired " air " and the exquisite 
 taste of her millinery ; and Lee wondered what these 
 women — who, well-dressed or ill, loud-voiced or 
 semi-subdued, delicately or heavily modelled of face, 
 intensely modern all of them, looked what they 
 were, and as if they assumed the passing fad in man- 
 ners, even the fad of vulgarity, as easily and adjustably 
 as a new sleeve or a larger waist — could find in this 
 particular American to their fancy. 
 
 " Do sit here by me!" A young woman on a 
 small sofa swept aside her skirts and nodded brightly 
 to Lee. She had sat opposite at dinner, and spoken 
 across the table several times to Captain Monmouth, 
 whom she addressed as " Larry." She had a large 
 open voice and a large open laugh, and, to use an 
 unforgettable term of Lord Barnstaple's, she rather 
 sprawled. But she was exquisitely fine of feature 
 and cold of colouring, although charged straight up 
 throjgh her lithe figure with assumed animation or 
 ungoverned nervousness, Lee could not determine 
 which. The bride sat down at once. 
 
 192 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "You are Lady Mary Gifford," she said smiling. 
 "I asked Captain Monmouth who you were." 
 
 " Oh, did you ask who I was? How nice ! I wish 
 everybody in the room was talking about me as they 
 are about you. But my day for that is past. Would 
 you guess I was twenty-four?" 
 
 Lee shook her head, smiling. In spite of the per- 
 sistent depression within her, she found her new 
 friends very interesting. 
 
 "Twenty-four, not married, and only sixty pounds 
 a year to dress on ! Is n't it a tragedy ? I wish I 
 were an American. They're all so frightfully rich. 
 At least, all those are that come over here; they 
 would n't dare to come if they were n't." 
 
 " I have dared, and I am not — not as you count 
 riches." 
 
 " No — really now? But of course you 're joking, 
 Cecil Maundrell simply had to marry a ton " 
 
 Lee laughed, with a nearer approach to hysteria 
 than she had ever known. "Would you mind not 
 talking about that? " she said. " If ever I know you 
 as well as I hope I shall, I '11 tell you why." 
 
 " Fancy my being so rude ! But I 'm quite horribly 
 outspoken, and Cecil Maundrell 's so good-looking, of 
 course he 's been discussed threadbare. Of course we 
 all knew the Abbey must go to another American, 
 and we 've been so anxious to see you. Emmy is a 
 duck, but she 's not a beauty — few Americans really 
 are, to my mind. They just 'chic it' as the French 
 painters say. Everybody is simply staring at you, 
 and you 're so used to it, you don't appear to see them. 
 
 »3 i93 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 You 're going to be a great success. I know all the 
 signs — seen 'em too often ! " 
 
 " Well, I hope so. I suppose an American failure 
 would be painfully conspicuous." 
 
 " Oh, would rit she ! Tell me, is it really true that 
 you have different grades of society, as we have — an 
 upper and middle-class, and all that sort of thing? 
 Some of the Americans over here have always turned 
 up their noses at Emmy, and it seems so very odd — 
 you are only a day or two old ; how can you have so 
 many distinctions ? Of course I know that some are 
 rich and some are poor, which means that some are 
 educated and some are not, but I should think that 
 would make just two classes. But Emmy is — has 
 been — awfully rich, and yet she has had a hard fight 
 with two or three other Americans that are dead 
 against her. She has n't it in her, poor little soul, to 
 be quite as smart as Lady Vernon Spencer and Mrs. 
 Almeric Sturt — you could be ! — but she 's ' popular,' 
 and unless the Abbey burns down — oh, it 's the 
 sweetest thing in England, and the shootings are 
 famous ! But do explain to me." 
 
 " About our social differences ? Of course to be 
 really anybody you must have come from the South, 
 one way or another." 
 
 " What South ? — South America ? " 
 
 Lee endeavoured to explain, but Lady Mary quickly 
 lost interest, and made one of her dazzling deflections : 
 it war evident that more than three minutes of any 
 one subject would bore her hopelessly. But Lee had 
 realised in a flash the utter indifference of the English 
 to vhe most imposing of the new world's family <rees 
 
 194 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 The haughty Southerner and the raw Westerner were 
 " varieties," nothing more. She might be pronounced 
 better style than her stepmother, and doubtless would 
 be more respected, but no one would ever think of 
 looking down the perspective of each for the cause. 
 She felt doubly depressed. 
 
 195 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 SHE awoke late next morning, after a restless night 
 Cecil had risen without disturbing her and gone 
 to his grouse. In a happier frame of mind she would 
 have indulged in a sentimental regret at this defection, 
 but now she only wanted to be alone to think ; and to 
 think she must get out-of-doors. 
 
 The maid was in the outer room awaiting orders, 
 and went for her tea at once. Lee hurriedly dressed 
 herself, and while she was attacking her light break- 
 fast told the girl to go down to the foot of the tower 
 and see if the outer door could be opened. . At the 
 end of a half-hour the rusty key and hinges had been 
 induced to move, and Lee, having convinced herself 
 that no one was in sight, left the shelter of her tower 
 and went hastily toward the woods. 
 
 The air had a wonderful softness and freshness, and 
 the country showed a dull richness of colour under a 
 pale sky. The woods looked black as she approached 
 them, but within they were open and full of light. 
 There were no majestic aisles here, no cavernous 
 vistas, but, in their way, they were lovely, as many 
 trees massed together with a wilderness of bracken 
 between must always be. 
 
 Lee selected as secluded a spot as she could find, 
 and sat down to think. She was terrified and depressed 
 
 196 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 and homesick, and longed passionately for some one 
 of her " own sort " to whom she could present the half 
 of her troubles, and with whom dissect her uneasy 
 forebodings. Cecil was not the man to whom a woman 
 could take her daily worries. He would be a rock of 
 strength in the great primary afflictions of life; he 
 looked after her as carefully as if she were blind and 
 lame ; and she had not been called upon for an inde- 
 pendent decision since the day of her marriage. More- 
 over, she was firmly convinced that no man had ever 
 loved a woman so much before ; but, she had admitted 
 it with dismay more than once, there was a barrier. 
 It was humiliating, almost ridiculous, that she, Lee 
 Tarleton, should live to confess it, but she was just a 
 little in awe of her husband. Why, she had not been 
 able to guess until yesterday, for he had been the 
 most enamoured of bridegrooms ; he had even yielded 
 laughingly to more than one whim (tentative, each), 
 and he had been rather less high and mighty than 
 before marriage; but, and he had given her many 
 opportunities to look into him, at the end of each of 
 his vistas there was something terrifyingly like a blank 
 wall. It had not worried her deeply in the redwoods, 
 where she had been as happy as mortals ever are, nor 
 yet on their long journey home, monotonous and 
 uninteresting as it had been, but she had instinctively 
 refrained from talking over her own small affairs with 
 him, as had been her habit with Randolph and the 
 other members of her family; and it was not until the 
 flat disappointment of the drive from the station 
 yesterday, that she had suspected what this depriva- 
 tion would mean to her. 
 
 197 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 And it was not until she had looked down upon the 
 Abbey that she had begun to understand. Centuries 
 had gone to the welding together of Cecil Maundrell, 
 and he was as coherent and unmalleable as the walls 
 of his historic home, as aloof in spirit, as self-contained 
 as if he no more had mingled with men than had the 
 Abbey altered its expression to the loud restless fads 
 with which it so often resounded. His wife might be 
 the object of his most passionate affection, she might 
 even be his companion, for he was the man to satisfy 
 the wants of his nature, but it was doubtful if he was 
 capable of opening the inner temple of his spirit, had 
 such a thing ever occurred to him. He would want 
 so much of a woman, and no more. He was English ; 
 he had been born, not made. And the men within 
 whose influences her mind and character had devel- 
 oped had been little more than liquids in a huge fur- 
 nace whose very moulds were always changing. 
 
 But Lee put this new interpretation of Cecil aside 
 for the present, realising that it would torment her 
 sufficiently in the future, and that she had better shut 
 her eyes as long as she could, and linger over the 
 pleasant draughts of the moment. 
 
 But it was of the future that she thought, and she 
 longed for wings that she might fly to California for a 
 day. England was beautiful, and it satisfied her imagi- 
 nation, but its absolute unlikeness to California, com- 
 bined with the incidents of her brief sojourn, filled her 
 with a desperate home-sickness. It might have been 
 dissipated in a moment if she had had one Californian 
 to talk to — Mrs. Montgomery, or Coralie, or Ran- 
 dolph. On the whole, she would have preferred 
 
 198 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Randolph, not only because she had run to him 
 with most of her troubles during the last ten years, 
 but because his advice had always been sound and 
 practical. 
 
 His assertion some years before that the Maund- 
 rells needed millions, and Cecil's subsequent graceful 
 remark that he had argued with himself on the folly 
 of marrying anything under a fortune, had been mere 
 words to her. It is difficult for a Californian who has 
 not known grinding poverty or the suicidal care of 
 vernal millions to realise the actual value of money. 
 In that land of the poppy, where the luxuries of 
 severer climes are a drug in the market, where the 
 earth over which people sprawl their tasteless " palatial 
 residences " is, comparatively speaking, inexpensive, 
 where a man with a hundred thousand dollars can 
 live almost as smartly as a man with a million, where 
 there is little inclination for display, even among the 
 fungi, and where position is in no wise dependent upon 
 the size of one's income, one never conceives the 
 most approximate idea of the absolute necessity of 
 great wealth to men born to other conditions of 
 climate, race, and to the enormous responsibilities 
 of territorial inheritance. 
 
 To Lee, millions had always been associated with 
 vulgarity, as belonging exclusively to low-born peo- 
 ple whom Mrs. Montgomery would not have permitted 
 to cross her door-mat. It is doubtful if her father or 
 Mr. Montgomery or Mr. Brannan had ever been worth 
 eight hundred thousand dollars, although they had 
 been stars of the first magnitude in their day. Col- 
 onel Belmont had left little more, and the Yorbas and 
 
 199 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Gearys were the only families of the old set who were 
 known by their riches. The great wealth of these 
 had meant nothing to Lee ; Mrs. Montgomery lived 
 quite as well, and entertained far more brilliantly. 
 Her own income had seemed very large to her, her 
 jump from eighty dollars a month to nearly a thou- 
 sand one of the glittering romances of California. 
 She had sincerely pitied the people whose malodorous 
 opulence made them the target of the terrible Mr. 
 Bierce, and whose verbal infelicities had contributed 
 standing jests to those outer rings of Society which 
 had opened to them. To-day she was almost ready 
 to envy them bitterly, to barter her honoured name 
 and illustrious kin for their ungrammatical millions. 
 
 Lord and Lady Barnstaple and Lady Mary Gifford, 
 even the speechless Miss Pix, had succeeded in mak- 
 ing her feel as guilty as if Cecil were a half-witted 
 boy whom she had entrapped. One of the great 
 homes of England — one, moreover, to which he was 
 passionately attached — was the price he had paid for 
 his wife. She was too charged with the arrogance of 
 youth and beauty to wonder if he would live to regret 
 his choice ; but she was far-sighted enough in other 
 matters, and she was as certain of his capacity for 
 suffering as for deep and intense affection. The day 
 he lost the Abbey he would cease to be Cecil 
 Maundrell. 
 
 And she had cause bitterly to reproach herself; 
 Randolph had begged her to sell her ranch and invest 
 in the Peruvian mine. She had replied that she " had 
 enough," in tranquil scorn of the United Statesian's 
 frantic lust for gold. If she had only known ! She 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 conceived a humble and enduring respect for a metal 
 that meant so much more to man than the response 
 to his material wants and his greed. 
 
 She went to the edge of the wood, and looked dowj 
 on the Abbey. Its lids seemed lowered in haughty 
 mute reproach. She saw a thousand new beauties in 
 it, and knew that she should shake and thrill with the 
 pride of its possession, exult in the destiny which 
 had made it her home, were it not that the stranger 
 bided his time at the gates. 
 
 Had Cecil Maundrell been mad? Were all men 
 really mad when they loved a woman ? Or had it 
 been that he, too, had but an abstract appreciation of 
 the value of money? This splendid estate had fitted 
 him too easily, and he had worn it too long, for it not 
 to seem as inevitable as the stars, in spite of much 
 desultory talk ; and his personal wants were simple, 
 and had always been liberally supplied. 
 
 She turned her back on the Abbey, which seemed 
 actually to lift its lids and send her a glance of stern 
 appeal, and returned to her nook. What should she 
 do ? There was not a cell of morbid matter in her 
 brain ; she contemplated neither suicide nor divorce 
 — in favour of Miss Pix. There seemed but one 
 solution of the difficulty. She must find a million — 
 dollars, if not pounds. The latter were desirable, but 
 the former would do. She decided to write to Ran- 
 dolph that very day. He had a genius for making 
 money, and he must place it at her disposal. 
 
 She heard the sound of many voices rising with 
 the slight ascent between the Abbey and the wood, 
 and hastily sought the deceptive shades beyond. 
 
 2^1 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 These people had been very charming to her the 
 night before, and she had no doubt that she should, 
 in time, like all good Americans, fall under their 
 spell ; but at present she rather resented their failure 
 to differentiate between herself and " Emmy." And 
 she was harassed, and they were not her " own sort." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 SHE escaped from the wood into her tower, and 
 wrote a letter to Randolph. She made no at- 
 tempt at diplomacy ; she told him the truth. Ran- 
 dolph loved her, and she was a woman of sufficient 
 humour, but there was no one else to appeal to, and 
 she argued that he would respect her frankness ; and 
 it had been his habit for many years to obey her 
 commands. Moreover, in the sequestered recesses 
 of his brain he was a Southerner, chivalrous and im- 
 pulsive. She believed that he must by now have 
 accepted the fact that she was another man's wife, 
 and she believed that he would help her. 
 
 After breakfast, which she took in solitude, as she 
 was very late, she went to call on her mother-in-law, 
 who had graciously intimated the night before that 
 she would be visible at twelve. The maid conducted 
 her to a suite of apartments removed from Lord 
 Barnstaple's by almost the width of the building, and 
 Lee wondered if he had caused the walls to be 
 padded. The bedroom was certainly very pink, and 
 as fluffy as much lace and fluttering silk could make 
 it. Miss Pix, in a white serge tailor-made frock, was 
 seated in a large carved chair, with her prof.le in 
 bold relief. Lady Barnstaple, in a pink peignoir, 
 looked like a ball of floss in the depths of an arm- 
 chair. She smiled radiantly as Lee entered. 
 
 " So good of you to come ! " she said. " Lee, dear, 
 203 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 this is my intimate friend, Miss Pix. How perfectly 
 brilliant you look ! Of course you have been out. 
 I almost went myself. I feel quite fit to-day; one 
 would think I 'd never had a nerve. Victoria, my 
 beautiful daughter-in-law has been such a belle in the 
 States, and has had an unheard-of number of offers, 
 three of them from immensely wealthy members of 
 the peerage, Lord Arrowmount's friends. But it was 
 an old boy-and-girl affair between her and Cecil, and 
 I think it is all too romantic and sweet ! I 've felt 
 ever so much younger since she came. I never had 
 one spark of romance in my life. Men are in the 
 way, though — we '11 have ever so much nicer times 
 a year from now when you and Cecil have learned 
 to exist without each other — not that I can com- 
 plain that Barnstaple was ever in my way. Things 
 might have turned out differently if he had been 
 occasionally, for I was young enough, and romantic 
 enough, when I married him ; but he always was, 
 and always will be, the most cold-blooded brute in 
 England. Once I cared, but now I don't. I 'm con- 
 tent to have got the upper hand of him. It was that 
 or being simply ground to powder myself. But, to 
 say nothing of the fact that he sold himself in the 
 most bare-faced manner, I soon learned that when I 
 played a tune on my nerves he 'd give in at any 
 price ; there are more ways of getting ahead of an 
 Englishman than one. Still he was a fascinating 
 creature — but that's passed. Cecil always was sweet 
 to me, and I 've always simply adored him. If he 'd 
 been his father — well ! It would have made me 
 simply ill if he had n't married a woman worthy of 
 
 2*4 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 him. I believe he 's the only human being I 've ever 
 really loved. And he simply adores — but I shan't 
 be personal. Your clothes are really perfect — " 
 
 She rattled on, with brief intermissions, for nearly an 
 hour. It was evident that her mood had undergone 
 a metamorphosis in the night, and that she desired to 
 be amiable. Lee could understand her " popularity" ; 
 her manner and certain intonations were most fascin- 
 ating, and she constantly swept little glances of suf- 
 fering appeal and voiceless admiration into her 
 disciplined orbs. Her tiny hands fluttered, and from 
 head to foot, in a pink light, she pleased the eye. 
 Her smile was rare and dazzling. Lee wondered 
 why, when she was young, Lord Barnstaple had not 
 loved her. 
 
 Miss Pix made one or two sensible remarks in a 
 low excellent voice, which had evidently received 
 scientific training. When Cecil was flashing among 
 his stepmother's conversational pyrotechnics, her 
 cheek looked less like paper for a moment, but her 
 profile stood the strain. 
 
 Suddenly Lady Barnstaple jumped up. " You 
 must dress and I must dress," she said to Lee. " We 're 
 going out to luncheon on the moor, and afterward 
 we '11 stay and watch them shoot, if you like. Of 
 course, everything will interest you so much — I 
 envy you ! I 'm sick to death of shooting-talk my- 
 self! One does n't hear another topic from the 
 twelfth of August until the first of November, and 
 then one has hunting and racing for a change. I live 
 for the London season — and the Riviera. I 've ha«* 
 to give up dear, delightful Homburg. Well, ta, ta 1 
 
 205 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 A FORTNIGHT later Lee scanned her new bou- 
 doir with complacency and pride. The large 
 tower room beneath the suite above had been cleared 
 of its rubbish, and she had availed herself to the full 
 of Lady Barnstaple's careless permission to take what 
 she liked. Lee liked beautiful things, and, having 
 been surrounded by many during the greater part 
 of her life, regarded the best that could be had as her 
 natural right. Therefore her stone walls had dis- 
 appeared behind ancient tapestries, which she had 
 thoughtfully selected from different rooms, that they 
 might not be missed. Round two sides of the room 
 ran a deep divan, made by a village carpenter, which 
 was covered with Persian rugs, and cushions of many, 
 but harmonious styles. Persian rugs also covered 
 the floor. Some of the furniture was carved, highr 
 backed, and ancient, cut with the Maundrell arms ; 
 other pieces were modern and luxurious. In two of 
 the window-seats, which were five feet deep, were 
 cushions, in the others noble marbles and bronzes. 
 The room was further glorified by a writing-table 
 which had belonged to Charles II., a wonderful brass 
 and ivory chest with secret drawers which had been 
 the property of Katherine of Aragon, an ancient 
 
 206 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 spinet with a modern interior, a table inlaid with 
 lapis-lazuli, a tortoise-shell cabinet, and a low book- 
 case curiously carved. On the mantel, heavily draped 
 with the spoils of an obscure window, and on the top 
 of the bookcase, were not too many bibelots, selected 
 after much thought and comparison. The tapestries 
 could meet across the narrow windows at night, but 
 flat against the glass were silk curtains of a pale 
 yellow colour, as a background for the marbles and 
 bronzes. Altogether, Lee felt that she had some 
 reason to be proud of her taste. 
 
 She sat down to await her father-in-law. He was 
 kept at home by a sprained wrist, and she had in- 
 vited him to be the first to pay her a call. He 
 entered in a few moments, raised his eyebrows, then 
 gave vent to a chuckle of unusual length. 
 
 "What amuses you?" asked Lee, rather tartly. 
 "Don't you think my room is pretty?" 
 
 " Oh, it 's charming ! It 's close to being the 
 prettiest room in the house. I congratulate you. 
 You have excellent taste — and you are delicious ! " 
 
 Lee never expected to understand her father-in- 
 law, and felt little inclination to attempt the dissect- 
 ing of him ; she merely begged him to take the 
 most comfortable chair, placed a cushion under his 
 elbow, and sat down opposite him with an expression 
 of genuine welcome ; she liked him so much better 
 than she liked Emmy that she was almost persuaded 
 that she loved him. And he had been consistently 
 kind and polite to her, whereas her mother-in-law had 
 twice been the victim of a " mood," and cut her dead 
 in the corridors. 
 
 207 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " It 's just as well to tell you," said Lord Barnstaple, 
 " that if Emmy happens to come to this room when 
 she 's in one of her infernal tempers, she '11 raise the 
 deuce of a row, and order you to send these things 
 where they came from. If she does, stand to your 
 guns, and tell her I gave 'em to you. They 're mine, 
 not hers. Don't refer her to me, for God's sake! 
 You 're quite able to take care of yourself." 
 
 " She shan't have them — and thanks so much. 
 You can smoke if you like. I '11 light it for you." 
 
 " Upon my word, I believe this will be the pleasant- 
 est room in the house — a haven of refuge ! Well, 
 how do you like us? What do you think of us? 
 You're an interesting child. I'm curious to hear 
 your impressions." 
 
 "I must say I do feel rather like a child since 
 I came over here " — Lee made this admission with 
 a slight pout — " and I thought I was quite a person- 
 of-the-world after two winters in San Francisco and 
 one in the East." 
 
 " Oh, we 're pickled ; you 're only rather well 
 seasoned over there. But do you like us ? " 
 
 " Yes — I think I do. The women are very nice 
 to me, and although I don't understand half they 
 say, and they are quite unlike all my old ideals, and 
 I 'm never exactly sure whether they '11 speak to me 
 the next time they see me, I feel as if I 'd get on with 
 them. I must say, though, I don't see any reason 
 why I should attempt to make myself over into a 
 bad imitation of them, like Emmy " 
 
 " Some of them — your countrywomen — are such 
 jolly good imitations — that they no longer amuse 
 
 208 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the Prince of Wales. Emmy happens to be a 
 fool." 
 
 " The men look as if they'd be really charming if 
 they could talk about anything but grouse, and I had 
 one last night at dinner who was so tired he never 
 made one remark from the time he sat down till 
 he got up." 
 
 " Men are not amusing during the shooting season ; 
 but, after all, my dear, men were not especially 
 designed to amuse women." 
 
 " That 's your way of looking at it." 
 
 " Do you expect Cecil to amuse you ? " 
 
 " Cecil has stayed home with me three whole days, 
 and we 've roamed all over the place, and had the 
 jolliest times imaginable. He has a lot of fun in him 
 when he has nothing on his mind." 
 
 " I never attempt to discuss men during those 
 periods when they are engaged in proving the rule. 
 Cecil is in love. Long may he remain so " — he 
 waved his uninjured hand gallantly — " but unless 
 I am much mistaken, the longer you know him 
 the less amusing you will find him. It is the preroga- 
 tive of greatness to be dull. England is the greatest 
 nation on earth, and is as dull as befits its dignity — 
 mind you, I don't say stupid, which is a wholly dif- 
 ferent quantity. Conversely, many of the most bril- 
 liant men living are Englishmen, but they are not 
 great in the national sense. Read The Times, and you 
 will see what I mean." 
 
 " Do you think Cecil has it in him to be great ? '* 
 asked Lee eagerly. 
 
 " Sometimes I 've thought so. He has as good a 
 14 209 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 brain for its age as there is in England, and I believe 
 he 's ambitious. Do you think he is ? " 
 
 "I can't make out. I don't think he knows, him- 
 self." 
 
 " He '11 find out as soon as he 's in the run- 
 ning. Just now I fancy he imagines himself op- 
 pressed with the weight of family traditions, which 
 I have neglected. But there are no half measures 
 about him, and if he develops ambition he '11 
 make straight for the big prizes. It will be all or 
 nothing." 
 
 " I hope he 's ambitious." 
 
 " Ah ! Ambition is an exacting mistress — a 
 formidable rival ! " 
 
 "I 'd not be afraid of that; I don't know that I 
 can explain." 
 
 " Do — try. "" Lord Barnstaple could be very 
 charming when he chose; he tossed aside his cyn- 
 ical impassivity as it were a mask, and assumed an 
 expression of profound and tender interest. His 
 son was the only living being that he loved, and he 
 had planned for an uninterrupted interview with Lee 
 in order to ascertain, as far as was possible, what 
 were Cecil's prospects of happiness. He liked and 
 admired his daughter-in-law as far as he knew her, 
 but he despised and distrusted all women, and he 
 had heretofore hated Americans with monotonous 
 consistency. 
 
 Lee was very susceptible to a warm personal 
 interest, and this was the first she had experienced 
 in England. And she was in a surcharged state of 
 mind to speak out freely at the first sign of unmis- 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 takable sympathy. Lord Barnstaple took the one 
 step farther that was necessary. 
 
 " I am not given to sentimentalising, but I love 
 Cecil. And next to him, I want you to regard me 
 as your best friend in England." 
 
 He was rewarded and somewhat taken aback by 
 an enthusiastic hug and a kiss on either cheek. He 
 laughed, but he felt more amiably disposed toward 
 Americans. 
 
 " Now, tell me, " he said, " why do you want Cecil to 
 be ambitious ? Do you want a great political salon ? " 
 
 " I should n't mind a bit, but that 's not the reason. 
 The more Cecil wanted of life, the more he 'd be 
 dependent on me for consolation and encouragement 
 — 'the most successful have so many disappoint- 
 ments. If he went through life animated by duty 
 alone, content with the niche he drifted into, he 'd 
 close up at all points, become a mere spoke in the 
 wheel, without a weak spot that I could get at. 
 And then he would be dull. It 's in Cecil to become 
 terribly solid or to spread out in several different 
 directions. I want him to spread out." 
 
 " Ah ! I see you have done some thinking, if you 
 are a mere child. " 
 
 " I 'm no child — really. I took care of my mother 
 and did all her thinking for five years, and I have 
 been treated like an individual, not like an English- 
 man's necessary virtue, ever since. I 've managed 
 my own business affairs ; I 've read more books than 
 any woman in this house; I 've had heaps and heaps 
 of men in love with me; and I 've done a lot of 
 thinking — particularly about Cecil." 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Lord Barnstaple at another moment might have 
 smiled, but for the present his concern had routed 
 his cynicism. 
 
 " You look as if you 'd merely been made to fall in 
 love with," he said gallantly. "But I am surprised 
 and gratified. Tell me what you have been thinking 
 about Cecil." 
 
 " I 'd day-dreamed for years about him before he 
 came, but it was all romantic and impossible non- 
 sense. I don't think I ever realised that he was the 
 author of his own letters, and I persisted in imagining 
 him a mixture of Byron, Marmion, Robert Dudley, 
 Eugene Wrayburn, Launcelot, and several of Ouida's 
 earlier heroes. Of course, my imagination wore 
 down a good deal after I came out and saw more of 
 the world; nevertheless, when Cecil did come, he 
 was wholly unlike anything I had concocted. But, 
 somehow, he seemed quite natural, even in the first 
 moment, and I would not have had him otherwise for 
 the world. He seemed made for me, and it did n't 
 take me a second to get used to him. " 
 
 "Well?" Lord Barnstaple was watching her 
 closely ; the slightest acting would not have escaped 
 him. She spoke with some hesitation, her eyes 
 turned aside. 
 
 "He only stayed a little while, and I didn't see 
 nim again for three days. During those days, and 
 during two weeks a little later when I was alone 
 again — he left me for a bear ! — I did harder think- 
 ing than I 'd ever done before. I realised two things, 
 especially the second time: I was frightfully in love 
 with him, and the whole happiness of our future was 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 in my hands. Cecil had told me, with his usual 
 frankness, that I'd have to do the adapting — he 
 couldn't. I m sure he had no idea of being egois- 
 tical; he always looks facts in the face, and he 
 merely stated one. And there 's no doubt about it ! 
 He's made for good and all — he's centuries old. 
 That threw the whole thing on me." 
 
 " Considering that you look things in the face with 
 something of the intellectuality of a man, you have 
 undertaken no light responsibility." 
 
 " It 's the less light because I am a Californian, 
 and we have twice the individuality and originality 
 of any people in the United States. We always get 
 quite huffy when we are spoken of as merely Ameri- 
 cans. Of course we take enormous pride in our 
 Southern descent, but we are — those of us that were 
 born there — Californians, first and last." 
 
 "These fine distinctions are beyond me at present. 
 Of course you will be good enough to initiate me 
 further." 
 
 " You need not laugh. Cecil did at first, but now 
 he quite understands that it is the United States and 
 California. What I was going to say was this : it 's 
 the harder for us to adapt ourselves, in spite of the 
 fact that we are malleable and made of a thousand 
 particles. Compared with Englishwomen, who — 
 w ho — are much more conservative and traditional, 
 we are in a state of fusion. But the fact remains 
 that we have tremendous individuality, and that we 
 are — as Cecil says — self-conscious about it." 
 
 "And you don't fancy adapting yourself to any- 
 body. Quite so. " 
 
 213 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " It irritated and worried me at first, for I 'd not 
 only been on a pedestal, but I 'd been a fearful little 
 tyrant with men. You would n't believe the way I 
 used to treat them. Now " — she paused a moment, 
 then blurted out: " I 'm so much in love that I don't 
 care a rap about my individuality. I don't care for 
 a thing on earth but to be happy. Of course, before 
 I married, I had made up my mind to make the best 
 of many things I probably should n't like, and not to 
 attempt the impossible task of making Cecil over. 
 But there is so much more in it than that. I am 
 determined that my marriage shall be a success. I 
 have had already enough happiness to want always 
 more and more and more. I '11 live for that. I 
 buried my private ambitions in the redwoods. It 
 is a curious contradiction, that happiness is the one 
 thing people really want, and that it is the one thing 
 nearly everybody . misses. I believe it is because 
 people do not concentrate on it. They wish for it 
 and make little grabs at it. I intend to concentrate 
 on it, and live for nothing else. And of course that 
 means that Cecil will be happy too. I '11 simply 
 fling aside the thought of certain attributes I would 
 wish Cecil had, and make the most of what he has. 
 And, Heaven knows, Nature was not niggardly with 
 him!" 
 
 Lord Barnstaple held his breath for half a moment. 
 His interest had ceased to be speculative, and even, 
 for the moment, paternal. He was in the presence 
 of elemental passion and a shrewd modern brain, and 
 the combination was a force from which he received 
 a palpable shock. There was so profound a silence 
 
 214 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 for several moments that Lee stirred uneasily, won- 
 dering if she had tried his interest too far. When 
 he spoke, it was in his most matter-of-fact tone. 
 
 " If I were a younger man I should say many pretty 
 things to you, notably one which I don't doubt Cecil 
 has said very often — that you are the sort of woman 
 a man imagines he could cheerfully die for. I am 
 no longer young, but I recognise the type." He 
 hesitated a moment. "My wife belonged to it. 
 Now, I am going to give you some hard practical 
 advice. If you adopt it, I believe that, taken in con- 
 nection with your purpose and with what Nature has 
 been kind enough to do for you, it will insure your 
 success if anything can. Identify yourself with 
 every one of Cecil's pleasures and pursuits. By 
 the first of October the guests will have gone, and 
 Emmy with them ; she spends the rest of the autumn 
 and early winter in London, and in a round of visits 
 further South. Cecil and I always stay on here for 
 the pheasants, and I usually ask two or three men 
 down at a time. There will be no other women here 
 until next August. Come out with us, learn to shoot, 
 
 stay out all day, and learn to like it. I doubt, 
 
 though, if you could help it. Then comes the hunt- 
 ing season. We always spend the month of November 
 in Warwickshire at Beaumanoir, my brother-in-law's 
 place — you will remember he was here when you 
 came. Cecil tells me that you are a fine horse- 
 woman. You will learn to ride to hounds in no 
 time, and Cecil is particularly keen on hunting. So 
 much for his pleasures ; and you will soon learn that 
 you cannot know too much about sport of every sort. 
 
 215 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 In December we must return here. Parliament may 
 be prorogued for elections at any moment after Feb- 
 ruary, and Cecil must begin as soon as possible to 
 nurse his constituency. It 's been nursing for him 
 in a way for several years, for it has always been 
 understood that Cecil was to succeed old Saunderson, 
 who has now had enough of it, and practically noti- 
 fied the Division. Nevertheless, Cecil has work of 
 his own to do, for the Liberal element has been 
 gaining strength here for some time. He must make 
 speeches, open libraries, or whatever else demands 
 the grace of his presence — and I believe several 
 things of the sort are finishing. He must do every- 
 thing he can to make himself known and liked, and 
 to inspire confidence. And he will have to study 
 very hard — will study, for he does nothing by halves. 
 You must go about with him, and also visit a little 
 among the village people. You will be a great help, 
 for the lower classes love the compound of beauty 
 and rank; and if it is known that you will sit on the 
 platform while he speaks he will be doubly sure of a 
 large audience. He may give an occasional lecture 
 or preside at a magic-lantern show at the village 
 schools. It is expected of us, for some six or eight 
 villages skirting the estate were once ours. I, too, 
 have been an oracle in my day. The bare thought 
 bores me now, but it will amuse you and Cecil. 
 And — here is another point — study with him. 
 That will not be so interesting; in fact, it will bore 
 
 you " 
 
 " No, it will not. I 'm immensely interested in 
 English politics already." 
 
 216 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "You'll find it something of a pull, tramping 
 through Blue Books, Reports, Public Speeches, 
 Statesman's Year-Books, and all the data on the 
 great question of the Landlord v. the Farmer. But 
 if you have the brains and the energy to stick to it 
 — and I believe you have — you will succeed in get- 
 ting closer to Cecil than you ever would in any other 
 way. He will be flattered at first, and pleased with 
 the prospect of companionship; later, you will be- 
 come his second self, and he could no more do with- 
 out you than without one of his legs or arms. It 's 
 a risky thing to say to a woman, but to live com- 
 fortably with an Englishman you 've got to become 
 his habit, and to be happy with him you 've got to 
 become his second self. Englishwomen are the first 
 from tradition. When they have brains they usually 
 bolt in the opposite direction. That is because they 
 are deficient in passion. Let me see what you will 
 make of the combination. I believe you will suc- 
 ceed. Thank Heaven, here comes the tea ! I 've 
 never talked so much in my born days, and I'mas 
 dry as a herring." 
 
 They took their tea cosily in the dim beautiful 
 room, and Lee, being a woman of tact, dropped the 
 subject of herself, and attempted the seemingly 
 impossible task of amusing Lord Barnstaple. She 
 succeeded so well that he discarded his usual chuckle, 
 and laughed heartily no less than five times. 
 
 " I foresee that you and Cecil and I shall be three 
 jolly good comrades. Of course I shan't see quite 
 so much of you in London ; you and Cecil will have 
 to take a house of your own, and I 've got to live 
 
 217 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 under the same roof with Emmy, for decency's sake. 
 But here we can be a really comfortable family 
 party. This year we '11 be here till April, and after 
 that, of course, you '11 have to move up to London 
 in January. Do you look forward to being the beauty 
 of a London season ? What a question ! " 
 
 "Of course I want to be admired; and what is 
 more, I don't intend to let Cecil forget that I can 
 be, when I choose. I suppose I '11 look horrid in a 
 shooting outfit. " 
 
 "I am sure you will look charming; and, I don't 
 wish to be rude — Cecil will not know whether you do 
 or not. But that 's not the point, and you can make 
 
 yourself fascinating at dinner. Tea-gowns " 
 
 He waved his hand vaguely. 
 
 Lee's eyes sparkled. " I have a delightful sensa- 
 tion of novelty, " she said. " I want to get right into 
 the middle of it all. It may not be like my old 
 dreams, but it glitters, all the same. I love doing 
 new things. " 
 
 "Novelty is the half of many battles," observed 
 Lord Barnstaple dryly. 
 
 The conversation drifted again to other matters, 
 but as he was leaving her a half -hour later, he turned 
 at the door, and said : 
 
 " Cecil is very much under your spell. Keep him 
 there." 
 
 " I intend to." Lee's eyes rarely failed to express 
 what leaped into the foreground of her mind. As 
 Lord Barnstaple picked his way down the dark and 
 winding stair his smile was much as usuaL 
 
 218 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 AS Lee sat alone, pondering deeply over hef 
 father-in-law's advice, her American mail was 
 brought up. She opened a letter from Mrs. Mont- 
 gomery. After several pages of lamentation in many 
 keys for her lost child, and several more of advice, 
 the good lady got down to news. 
 
 " And I 've lost another, for a whole year at the very least 
 — I '11 join him somewhere in Europe when Tiny goes back, 
 and then, of course, he '11 come with us to England, and has 
 almost persuaded me to take up my real abode in Europe 
 and pay visits to California. Of course I mean Randolph, 
 darling. He decided, after all, not to sell his share in the 
 mine, but formed a syndicate — himself, Mr. Geary, Mr. 
 Trennahan, Mr. Brannan, and others of unimpeachable 
 integrity — and now they own the mine, and Randolph says 
 he '11 be worth five millions at least. As soon as it was all 
 settled he told me that as there was nothing in particulaz 
 for him to do he should go abroad. I could n't believe my 
 ears when he said : ' I never want to hear the word " busi- 
 ness " again. I am sick of being a hustling American. I 
 want the repose of the old world, and all it must be able 
 to give and do for a man. I want to read and study, too. 
 I feel half-educated, half-baked. If I could only have got 
 ■■ a million out of the mine I should have been satisfied, and 
 turned my back on money-grabbing just the same, but of 
 course my instincts were too strong to take one million 
 
 219 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 where there was a chance of five.' So he's gone! I've 
 cried until I can't see, for, although Arthur 's the hest of men, 
 and I love him like my own son, he 's not Randolph, and 
 even Tiny could n't call him entertaining. When I tell him 
 my troubles, he merely says, ' Ah 1 ' at regular intervals. 
 But I 'm glad, for one reason : I 've always hated moaey-mai' 
 ing ; money was never made for anything but to spend with 
 an open hand without asking for change, arid I could never 
 shut my eyes to the fact that Randolph was not what his 
 grandfathers were — and his father when the latter was a 
 young man. And he looks so like his paternal grandfather 
 — the very image, and old Colonel Montgomery always 
 looked as if he 'd just come from a private audience with 
 the king — of course there was n't any king, but he made 
 one think there was. Europe does wonders for people. 
 I never saw an American woman go over for one year that 
 she didn't come back improved. The men don't usually 
 stay long enough, but when they do — look at Mr. Trenna- 
 han. I 'm sure it will give Randolph just the one thing he 
 needs. . . . " 
 
 Lee dropped the letter in dismay. If hers ever 
 reached Randolph, would he interrupt his first real 
 holiday to attend to her affairs ? And it would be a 
 year at least before he arrived in England. For a few 
 moments she was nervously excited and very de- 
 pressed. Then she bethought herself of her resolu- 
 tion to worry about nothing she could not alter. 
 Both her parents-in-law would, in all probability, live 
 for many years to come, and Lady Barnstaple seemed 
 by no means at the end of her resources. By hook 
 or by crook she would get the money before it was 
 needed ; but until she could take her next step she 
 would agitate herself no further about it. 
 
 220 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Her mind wandered to Randolph. It was on the 
 cards that he would be much changed and improved 
 the next time they met. He inspired her with quite 
 a new interest, and she anticipated his advent with a 
 lively curiosity. 
 
 She opened a letter from Coralie : 
 
 " I am going to marry, too," announced Miss Brannan ; 
 "Ned Geary. I used to fancy myself rather eprise with 
 Randolph, as you know; but really one's affections can't 
 thrive on disinterested friendship, so I 've transferred mine, 
 bag and baggage, to the uncertain Teddy. I don't believe 
 Randolph will ever marry. I 'm light and Ned is light, like 
 the North American atmosphere and Califomian claret ; but 
 Randolph is the kind that takes things clear down to his 
 boots. He 's as blue as paint, and it '11 be a long while 
 before he spruces up. However, he 's got several millions 
 to console him, so I expect he '11 pull through." 
 
 Lee felt a slight irritation at the rapid consolement 
 of Mr. Geary, and smiled at the assurance of Ran- 
 dolph's unaltered devotion. Then, out of her fuller 
 knowledge, she sent him a little sigh of pity, and 
 shortly after dismissed him from her mind. 
 
 In a few moments she went out to meet Cecil on 
 his return from the moors. On the top of a hillock 
 she turned and looked back at the Abbey. During 
 the last fortnight she had studied it in every light 
 and from every side. She understood why even 
 Emmy loved it, and why Cecil had cared for no 
 other home, even when a child, and with a bare pros- 
 pect of inheritance ; she herself had conceived a feel- 
 ing that was almost a passion for it. Cecil had 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 rehabilitated its past, and the tales were heroic and 
 dramatic and ghostly enough to satisfy even her 
 girlish imagination ; small wonder that she loved the 
 Abbey as the one thing that had been wholly with- 
 out disappointment, and had made no demands upon 
 her powers of adaptability. 
 
 It was nearly half an hour before she met the brakes 
 with the returning sportsmen. The undulations of 
 the moor soon hid every other feature of the land- 
 scape. It was a vast and lonely expanse, as primitive 
 and as widely lonely as any prairie of the New World. 
 And it was so beautiful that Lee was faithless to her 
 redwoods; for it came to her with something of a 
 shock that the expression " purple twilight " was not 
 a mere poetic felicity. Whether or not the atmos- 
 phere absorbed the heather's colour, all the light on 
 the moor, and on the mountain beyond, was purple. 
 She had read of the dreary moorland, and had pic- 
 tured it a dun grey thing; possibly it was in winter. 
 But in its autumn purples it was mysterious and en- 
 chanting. And it gave the impression of shouldering 
 the horizon on every side — of possessing the Earth. 
 Far away was a solitary hut ; near by a pond of ugly 
 traditions. It was all as it should be, Lee reflected 
 with a quizzical smile. Within the walls of the Abbey 
 Emmy held romance by the throat, but out here on 
 the moor it was impossible to realise her existence, 
 or anything but the England of the poets. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHAT Lee did at all she did thoroughly, 
 volatile as she was in some respects ; origi- 
 nal force of character, fostered and augmented by- 
 certain conditions, overbalanced for long periods the 
 lighter qualities of her native atmosphere. She had 
 wanted Cecil for the greater part of her life, and she 
 had got him ; to be completely happy with him, and 
 to be all to him that it is given to one mortal to be to 
 another was her fixed purpose, and she applied her- 
 self to it with the energy and concentration which 
 have carried many men to their pedestal in a public 
 square. 
 
 Cecil was not disposed to desert the grouse after 
 the last of the guests had left the Abbey, and she 
 went out every day with him and the keepers — 
 Lord Barnstaple was still nursing his wrist; and, 
 having a quick eye and a steady hand, occasionally 
 managed to bring down a bird. It was true that 
 walking on the moor was much like walking on a 
 spring-mattress, and, being the child of an earth- 
 quake country, she was never quite able to rid her- 
 self of an uneasy anticipation of collapse ; but so 
 great was the enthusiasm of her nature that she was 
 not only interested, but delighted with this, as with 
 other novelties of her present life. 
 
 Shooting in the covers was a more difficult matter, 
 and when she scratched her face or caught her hair 
 
 223 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 on a briary branch, she said things under her breath 
 which would have shocked Mrs. Montgomery or 
 Cecil ; but there was no doubt that sport, if one went 
 into it with one's entire brain, was really exciting, 
 and, had it not been, Cecil's delight in his wife's latest 
 development would have sustained her. 
 
 In hunting, she took an unqualified pleasure. No 
 Englishwoman had a finer seat in the saddle than she, 
 and, having always loved riding for itself, the addi- 
 tional incentive of pursuit, and the picturesque ap- 
 pearance of the field, made the pastime quite the 
 most perfect she had ever known. Before the season 
 was far advanced she rode as straight as any woman 
 in the county; and perhaps Cecil's compliments at 
 this period were the most spontaneous of his life. 
 There was no doubt that he was very proud of her, 
 and once he went so far as to hint that he felt rather 
 sorry for the majority of men. 
 
 The month at Beaumanoir was rather fatiguing, 
 but very gay — at least, everybody laughed a great 
 deal, and seemed full of energy. Emmy came for 
 a few days, and Lady Mary Gifford remained a fort- 
 night, and bestowed much of her society on Lee. 
 
 When they returned to the Abbey there was still 
 more or less shooting and hunting, but Cecil applied 
 himself seriously to the imminent elections. As 
 time passed, and the defeat of his party loomed large 
 in the possibilities, Lee noted that his interest be- 
 came less impersonal and considerably more acute ; 
 his latent ambitions and energies felt their first 
 prick. 
 
 He spoke frequently at this time, and as the roar 
 224 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 of the storm grew nearer, his own accents lost the 
 cold deliberation of the first weeks and became im- 
 passioned and convincing. He had little doubt of 
 his own election, but the threatened downfall of his 
 party harassed and angered him. It was then that 
 his wife discovered that he had not outlived his 
 boyish love of sympathy; and the boudoir in the 
 tower and the lonely moorland were the scenes of 
 many long and intense conversations, until it became 
 his habit to demand the sympathy of his wife for 
 every strait, great and small, in which his country 
 and his party found themselves. 
 
 If a solid winter of politics bored Lee, her hus- 
 band never knew it Neither did Lord Barnstaple, 
 who watched her critically ; he had no more intimate 
 talks with her. But although she was destined to 
 find much in English politics more interesting than 
 Home Rule, the present crisis was certainly exciting. 
 And the two facts, that Cecil was expanding, not 
 solidifying, and that he showed signs of becoming 
 almost dependent on her, were satisfying alike to 
 the pride of her purpose and to the might of her 
 affections. 
 
 On the first stormy day, Cecil announced his 
 intention to begin the course of study he had 
 planned, and was surprised and gratified when his 
 wife invited him to bring his tomes to her boudoir. 
 
 " I 'm tired of novels, and I 've nothing else to do, 
 and I'm so tremendously interested myself, that I 
 think I '11 read with you," she said, as Cecil littered 
 her lapis-lazuli table. "Would it bore you to ex- 
 plain things to me?" 
 
 15 225 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " You are sure it wouldn 't bore you f " Cecil 
 looked across the ugly volumes at his beautiful wife, 
 his eyes sparkling as eagerly as when she had, ten 
 years ago, at the Cliff House, put into words his half- 
 formed desire for an adventure. " I should like it 
 — above all things." 
 
 " I should be much more bored roaming round 
 the Abbey by myself, or sitting here twirling my 
 thumbs. I think I can understand. I 've read The 
 Times every morning for three months, and I feel 
 equal to anything." She did not add that at each 
 finish she invariably stuck a pin up to its head into 
 the pride of England, lest her surcharged spirits find 
 vent upon the gentlemen of her household. 
 
 " You can understand anything," replied Cecil, 
 who did not appreciate the humour of her remark. 
 " And I '11 get along twice as well myself if I have 
 somebody to talk things over with. But you must n't 
 tire yourself." And he went over to the other side 
 of the table. 
 
 They read together the long winter through, see- 
 ing Lord Barnstaple only at the table and in the even- 
 ings: he had congenial spirits in the neighbourhood, 
 and he paid several visits to London. The conver- 
 sation between the three was invariably of politics. 
 When the weather was fine Cecil and his wife spent 
 two or three hours of every day out-of-doors, and 
 occasionally attended a meet. 
 
 The fascination of politics, when the mind has 
 fairly opened to them, is indubitable ; and Lee not 
 only felt proud of herself that her understanding and 
 her patience stood the strain of this mass of facts 
 
 226 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 — whose skeletons fairly rattled — which mounted 
 higher and higher on her lapis-lazuli table and en- 
 croached upon the divan and all of the ancient chairs, 
 but she took a keen mental delight in the acquiring 
 of knowledge; and what knowledge to the alert 
 modern mind can equal the charm of current 
 history? Although her primary purpose was to 
 bind her husband to her by every fetter she could 
 devise, she occasionally saw herself the centre of a 
 political salon, when the world had pronounced her 
 the brilliant wife of a great man. 
 
 It was not later than the beginning of the second 
 month of their close mental intercourse that Lee 
 made one of her most important discoveries regard- 
 ing her husband; he had intellectual heights and 
 depths which she would never touch. She had 
 cleverness far above the average of her sex, and, 
 had she chosen, she would have had every right to 
 pose as an intellectual woman ; but she had distinct 
 limitations, and one proof of her cleverness was that 
 she recognised and accepted them. The discovery 
 arrived in the wake of a pleased reflection that it 
 was certainly a privilege to be in constant contact 
 with a mind like Cecil Maundrell's, and that she was 
 distinctly grateful for it. For a time she was morti- 
 fied and depressed, for it was her first intimation that 
 she was not all that the gods or man could desire; 
 but it was her mental habit to face facts and digest 
 them, and when this was disposed of she considered 
 its possible results. Her conclusions soothed her. 
 She knew something of men. When Cecil tasted to 
 the full the sweets of masculine superiority over the 
 
 227 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 mate with whom he was so delighted, and of whom 
 so justly proud, there would be still another bond 
 between them. Far be it from her to attempt to 
 throw dust into his keen eyes by feminine blandish- 
 ment and subterfuge ; she admitted the truth, when- 
 ever the opportunity offered, with spontaneous bursts 
 of admiration ; and if Cecil had not been flattered he 
 would have been less than human. 
 
 " I don't see how I shall ever be permitted to 
 become discouraged," he said one day with some 
 humour, looking into the rapt and beautiful eyes 
 opposite him. " I believe if I made an egregious ass 
 of myself in the House, you would persuade me that 
 I was too great to be understood by my fellow-men." 
 
 " I 'm not a goose, thank you. But you '11 never 
 make an ass of yourself, so it doesn't matter. Of 
 course you '11 be a great man." 
 
 " I wish I could believe it." 
 
 " It 's plain enough to every one else. All you 
 need is ambition, and I can see that growing already. 
 If your party is defeated, so much the better for you. 
 You can devote your energies and your gifts to put- 
 ting new life into it. You 're just what the old fogies 
 need. I don't see how you could start out more 
 favourably, and I don't see what is to prevent your 
 being the next great man." 
 
 Cecil's nostrils quivered suddenly. He looked for 
 an instant longer into the eyes that had expressed 
 many more things to him than admiration for his 
 intellectual equipment, put out his hand impulsively 
 and took hers, then returned to his studies. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THEY moved up to town on the third of April. 
 Lady Barnstaple had taken a tiny and costly 
 house for them in Green Street, and as there had 
 been much correspondence on the subject, and many 
 samples had travelled from London to Yorkshire and 
 back, it was almost in order when the young couple 
 arrived to take possession. 
 
 " For goodness' sake, have it light and bright," 
 Lady Barnstaple had written. " London is such a 
 grimy hole, people simply love colour. Don't mind 
 bothering me ; if I were poor I 'd be a house decor- 
 ator. The only fault I had to find with the Abbey 
 was that it was furnished." 
 
 Lee found her doll's house a delicious nest of 
 colour and luxury after the feudal severity of her 
 tower; and although Cecil was even more serious 
 than when he had married, she managed, during that 
 first spring in London, to make him feel that they 
 were playing at keeping house and at the lighter side 
 of life. She could always amuse and interest him 
 when she thought it wise to do so. 
 
 They went out very little, for he detested crushes 
 in hot ill-ventilated rooms, and large dinners were 
 not more to his taste; but he liked the play, and 
 they were always to be seen at Tattersall's on Sunday 
 
 229 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 afternoons, and often in the Park, which had not yet 
 been vulgarised as a promenade. In the mornings 
 they rose early and rode either through the Park 
 with the many of stereotyped habits, or out into 
 the country; occasionally to Richmond, where they 
 breakfasted at the Star and Garter, and tried to 
 imagine that it was still brilliant and wicked. Some- 
 times, of an afternoon, they traversed three or four 
 " At Homes," where Lee had an enchanting sense of 
 being in the great world at last, and Cecil kept his 
 eyes longingly on the windows. At the play they 
 always took a box, as Cecil became restless in the 
 narrower confines of the stalls, and Lord Barnstaple 
 and Mary Giffbrd usually accompanied them. Lady 
 Barnstaple, although she sang her daughter-in-law's 
 praises in a loud high key, flatly refused to elevate 
 her passing charms into a box of which Lee was the 
 radiant and novel star. Lee was greatly admired, 
 and knew that she could have been the bride of the 
 season, had Cecil permitted; but although she felt 
 some natural regret, especially when her mother-in- 
 law expostulated, and Lady Mary Gifford commiser- 
 ated, on the whole she did not care. Cecil barely 
 let her out of his sight, and once he sulked for an 
 entire day because she went to a luncheon ; she was 
 happy, and nothing else mattered. When she was 
 stared out of countenance at the opera and theatre 
 he took it as a matter of course, but the newspaper 
 comments were less to his taste, and he peremptorily 
 forbade her to give her photograph to any of the 
 illustrated weeklies, or to be the heroine of certain, 
 enterprising "lady-journalists," who wished to ex- 
 
 230 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 ploit her beauty and her many delectable gown& 
 Her semi-seclusion gave her a touch of mystery, and 
 one woman's magazine would have made her known 
 to fifty thousand provincials ; but Cecil was disgusted 
 at the bare idea of sharing his wife with the public, 
 and flung the artful request for an interview into the 
 fire. Lee was much amused, and assured him that 
 Mrs. Montgomery had brought her up to regard 
 notoriety with horror. 
 
 "And after all," she said to Lady Barnstaple, 
 " suppose I did become a professional beauty, that 
 would place Cecil in a contemptible position, and I 'd 
 rather be a desperate failure than do that." 
 
 " Oh, bother ! But it 's no use talking to a woman 
 in love. You '11 sacrifice your youth to a selfish brute 
 of a man and spend your thirties regretting it and 
 your forties making up for lost time. I love Cecil, 
 and of course I 'm glad to see him happy, but he 's as 
 selfish as all men, and you 're making him more so. 
 I don't say you won't keep him. I believe you will, 
 for he 's the sort that would rather be faithful to his 
 wife than not — does n't take after his illustrious par- 
 ent — but he '11 soon take you as a matter of course, 
 and then you '11 realise what the world could do for 
 you. God knows what I should have done without 
 it, and if I ever have to go under, a dose of laudanum 
 will do the rest." 
 
 But Cecil gave no sign of taking his wife as a mat- 
 ter of course. It is true that he took all and gave 
 nothing — except his love. That Lee might have an 
 inner life of her own never crossed his mind ; that it 
 had ever crossed any one's else that she was fitted 
 
 231 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 for a career more or less apart from his own, how- 
 ever parallel with it, he would have resented as an 
 insult to them both ; and he had long since dismissed 
 from his thoughts certain complexities which had 
 puzzled and worried him during the weeks of their 
 engagement. He was perfectly satisfied with her; 
 although he had begged to be released from paying 
 her compliments, and had received his discharge, he 
 would have had her changed in nothing. Her beauty 
 and passion held him in thrall, and he was more than 
 grateful for the companionship she offered him, to 
 say nothing of the incense. He would have liked to 
 be rich that he might have had the pleasure of mak- 
 ing her many beautiful presents, but he was philo- 
 sophical, and wasted no time in regrets. And he 
 was not wholly an egoist, for he occasionally reminded 
 himself that he was the luckiest chap alive ; and when 
 he glanced along the future, and reflected that for eack 
 of the severe ' trials, mortifications, and disappoint- 
 ments of his public career he should find solace, and 
 even forgetfulness, in his home, he felt that there 
 were indeed no limits to his good fortune. 
 
 Did he ever think of Maundrell Abbey at this 
 time? He gave no sign. But possibly he saw no 
 reason for anxiety. Emmy was entertaining magnifi- 
 cently, and had informed her family that Chicago had 
 taken a sudden leap in the direction of certain of her 
 town lots, and trebled their value. Lee, in spite of 
 the gossip with which Lady Mary Gifford regaled her 
 concerning almost every woman in Society, was not 
 inclined to think evil spontaneously of any one, but 
 she overheard one woman say to another, with a 
 
 232 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 shrug of the shoulders, that " Lady Barnstaple had 
 taken up with the wrong man," and she was surprised 
 at the constant presence of Mr. Algernon Pix in her 
 mother-in-law's house. Mr. Pix had none of his 
 sister's aristocratic beauty, although he was good- 
 looking in a common way ; he was very dark, with 
 eyes set close together, and he had a neat little figure. 
 His manner was polite to exaggeration, but his accent 
 was fatal, and three years of Society had not curbed 
 his love of diamonds. In truth, his position was very 
 precarious. Some women liked him, but the men 
 barely accepted him, despite the determined bolster- 
 ing of several of Victoria's powerful friends ; and as 
 he had never even attempted to handle a gun, and 
 feared a horse as he feared the snub of a Duchess, 
 his social future ran off into vague perspectives. He 
 was wise enough never to accept invitations to the 
 country, and Lee had not met him until she moved 
 up to town. He was the sort of man whom she had 
 heretofore associated with drapers' counters and rail- 
 way trains, and inevitably she snubbed him. 
 
 " I 'd be very much obliged to you if you 'd treat 
 my friends decently," said Lady Barnstaple sharply, 
 when they were alone. 
 
 " Surely he is not a friend of yours." 
 
 " His sister is my very most intimate friend ; and 
 as for him — well, yes, I do like him — immensely. 
 It means something to me, I can tell you, to have a 
 man show me the thousand and one little attentions 
 that women love — and to think me still beautiful; 
 and he does. I don't say he would if I were not the 
 Countess of Barnstaple, and miles above him socially 
 
 233 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 — I'm no fool — but that he can be really dazzled 
 means a great deal to me, and when you 're my age 
 you '11 know why." 
 
 Lee reflected that probably the bond between them 
 was the commonness of both, and that " Emmy " was 
 a striking instance of heredity, then dismissed the 
 subject from her mind. Lord Barnstaple, who never 
 took a meal in his wife's house, except in company 
 with many others, and took many at the little house 
 in Green Street, was apparently unaware of the exist- 
 ence of Mr. Pix, although he commented freely, and 
 with caustic emphasis, upon the idiosyncrasies of his 
 legal wife. 
 
 234 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ON June twenty-eighth Parliament was prorogued 
 for the elections, and Cecil and Lee went to 
 Yorkshire at once. 
 
 Lord Maundrell made a number of speeches, made 
 himself agreeable to many men whom he would have 
 preferred to kick, and received his nomination. The 
 contest was bitter and exciting, and Lee designated 
 her husband during this period, for want of a better 
 term, as " less English " than she had yet known him. 
 There were times when he let her see just how per- 
 turbed and excited he was, carefully as he secluded 
 his inner mind from others. Lee, in the little stone 
 villages, that looked as if they might have been built 
 by the heirs of the cave-dwellers, played the part 
 made familiar to her by the novel and the stage, and, 
 for the life of her, could not take herself seriously. 
 Her difficulty was increased by the fact that she could 
 not understand two words in ten of the Yorkshire 
 dialect. The villagers understood her as little, but 
 there was no doubt that her uncommon beauty and 
 her gracious and magnetic manner duly impressed 
 them. 
 
 Cecil was returned, but bis party was defeated; and 
 he convinced Lee that without her his melancholy 
 would have lasted fully a month. 
 
 235 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 There were still two weeks before the twelfth of 
 August, and they took a run over to Normandy. 
 After their return, life until December was precisely 
 what it had been the year before. The same people, 
 almost without exception, came in four instalments to 
 the Abbey for the six weeks which followed the open- 
 ing of the grouse season, and it seemed to Lee that 
 they talked about precisely the same things. The 
 men spent the day on the moors, and at dinner talked 
 when they felt like talking at all, of the bags which 
 had been made, the condition of the birds and the 
 moor, and the weather prospects, occasionally indulg- 
 ing in reminiscences of other years. The women 
 played tennis and golf, rode or drove, or sat about 
 the Abbey. After dinner the men roused, and per- 
 mitted themselves to be flirted with, either in historic 
 boudoirs or across the billiard tables, and th^re were 
 many who played high and late. Cecil/aad Lee 
 usually started on their long walk to_the^tower about 
 midnight after a long and fatiguing day. 
 
 When Emmy's guests had gone, Lee went out with 
 Lord Barnstaple, her husband, and half a dozen other 
 enthusiasts, and persuaded herself that sport was really 
 absorbing whether one had been brought up to it or 
 not. It was certainly preferable to wandering all day 
 long by oneself over an immense and echoing Abbey, 
 or driving to neighbouring estates, and taking tea with 
 women who rarely went up to London. 
 
 When the hunting season came, although the 
 novelty of riding hard after a yelping pack with some 
 twenty men in beautiful pink coats, or even of danc- 
 ing with the latter at hunt balls, was no longer a part 
 
 236 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 of her pleasure, she felt that the chase would wear 
 when other things had palled, although she would 
 have been glad to return to the Abbey for December. 
 They visited, however, and they hunted, and they 
 shot; they graced farmers' balls and hunt races with 
 their presence, and they even attended a great magic- 
 lantern show ; only returning to the Abbey for a few 
 days at Christmas. Lord Barnstaple went to Paris, 
 and the young people were alone. It was a blessed 
 interval of rest, during which Lee exacted from Cecil 
 a solemn promise that he would not mention sport, 
 adding hastily that she adored it, but was horribly 
 jealous, and did not want him to think of a thing but 
 herself for an entire week. And to his credit it must 
 be said that he seemed to find no difficulty in humour- 
 ing her. 
 
 In January they went to Paris for a fortnight, as 
 Lee's wardrobe needed replenishing, and in February 
 Cecil's parliamentary duties began, and they settled 
 down in London when it was at its dreariest and ugli- 
 est, and the rest of England was moist but beautiful. 
 Lee was alone now, for the greater part of the week, 
 from three in the afternoon until midnight or the 
 small hours of the morning, although she frequently 
 went to the Ladies' Gallery of the House and brought 
 Cecil back to dinner; or took tea with him on the 
 Terrace, which she thought very interesting. There 
 was always — for a reasonable time — at least one 
 distinguished man to be pointed out, and she liked 
 to conjure up the days when the Thames was gay 
 with the barges of sovereigns and their courtiers, in- 
 stead of mildly picturesque with penny boats and 
 
 237 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 queer-looking water vehicles for which Cecil had na 
 name. 
 
 When the young member was not too busy they still 
 rode or walked in the morning, and attended the play 
 or the opera at night. Occasionally they went to a 
 dinner or a party, and as Emmy's entertaining this 
 year took the form of morning concerts, with divas 
 and tenors to beckon the fickle world, Cecil made a 
 martyr of himself upon these occasions as gracefully 
 as he could. 
 
 On the whole, Lee, although she left a good many 
 cards and received on Tuesdays, saw less of Society 
 than during the preceding season, and learned of its 
 doings and of what faint interest it still felt in her from 
 Lord Barnstaple and Mary Gifford, who came fre- 
 quently to luncheon or tea. However, she assured 
 herself that after the late hours of the autumn and 
 early winter she was glad to get her beauty sleep 
 again, and went to bed at ten o'clock. 
 
 When there was an important debate on in the 
 House she always attended, and more than once 
 came home with Cecil at two in the morning. Such 
 speeches as she did not hear she read next morning, 
 as well as the comments thereon in no less than six 
 different newspapers; and she frequently assured 
 herself that her political education was comparable 
 with that of any Englishwoman born. Her enthusi- 
 asm undoubtedly had its reward, for not only was 
 Cecil pleased and grateful, but when they attended 
 dinners of more or less political significance she in- 
 variably incited her partner to speech, no matter how 
 silent Heaven had made him. One. and he was 
 
 238 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 famous and stout, and had buried conversation with 
 other follies of his past, surprised himself by informing 
 her that she could talk politics with her eyes more 
 eloquently than any woman in England with all the 
 resources of a large vocabulary and all the ambition 
 inspired by the heroines of Disraeli. 
 
 Lord Barnstaple laughed when she related this 
 anecdote. 
 
 " Oh, you will be wanting a salon next," he said. 
 " It is quite natural you should picture statesmen 
 crowding your rooms — I am making no reflection 
 on the size of your house — and whispering their 
 secrets in your pretty little ear — or seeing themselves 
 upside down in your eloquent eyes." 
 
 Lee coloured and lifted her chin in a manner which 
 even a father-in-law must find charming. " I could 
 have one if I liked — and that quite satisfies me, thank 
 you." 
 
 "I'm sorry you can't go out more, though," he said 
 tentatively. "You are young and admired, and of 
 course you like what women call pleasure." 
 
 " I don't care a rap about it," she said with empha- 
 sis. " I am sure one hard London season would bore 
 me to death." 
 
 "Quite so. Quite so. It's just a beastly grind, 
 nothing more. You 're really far better off in the way 
 you have chosen. I am glad to see you so happy. 
 Cecil is certainly a lucky dog." 
 
 " You gave me some good advice that day." She 
 smiled brilliantly into his watchful eyes. 
 
 " Oh, you were quite clever enough to have arrived 
 at the same conclusions without my help. Of course 
 
 239 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 if you had wanted a flashing career of your own, or 
 had been a silly woman, greedy for admiration and 
 intrigue, it would have been a different matter — a 
 terribly different matter for Cecil. But you wanted 
 happiness, and there is only one way to get it." 
 
 240 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 IT was not long before Cecil's abilities were recog« 
 nised. Something was expected of him, for he 
 came of a line of able Parliamentarians; and as he 
 was already famous as a sportsman, he commanded 
 an interest by no means inspired by the average 
 young man of an illustrious house. 
 
 When the time came for him to make his first 
 speech, shortly before the end of the Session, Lee sat 
 in the gallery with an icy exterior surrounding a furi- 
 ous nerve storm. The day was dark and depressing. 
 Those long rows of faces had never looked more 
 apathetic; it was enough to make a novice feel, as he 
 rose and confronted the bored old veterans, that he 
 was on trial for his life. If Cecil failed Lee felt that 
 she could hate him, not because the world would curl 
 its lip, but because Cecil, mortified, stammering, a 
 failure, would be an ideal in collapse. She might 
 oust these unworthy sentiments later, and sympathise 
 with him in his distress, but she could never quite 
 rehabilitate him. He might be defeated in the most 
 significant climaxes of his career, his party might 
 turn upon and rend him, and she would pour all the 
 wealth of her nature at his feet, but if he made a fool 
 •f himself, she 'd never forgive him. 
 
 But Cecil had no intention of making a fool of 
 himself. Moreover, his training at Oxford, when 
 16 241 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the Union had rung with his salad eloquence, made 
 itself manifest among the other foundations of his 
 mind and character. He was neither nervous nor 
 too diffident. In fact he opened so easily that Lee 
 thrilled with pride and excoriated herself. When 
 he got his first "Hear!" her knees jerked; she 
 realised how excited she was, and glanced about the 
 gallery hastily; but in that dim cage she had little 
 to fear. He demanded the attention of the House 
 for something over an hour, and he would have 
 scorned to amuse it; but his speech was terse and 
 packed with his own thought; it had not a platitude 
 in it, nor a time-honoured sentiment. He might or 
 might not become a brilliant speaker when he had 
 acquired sufficient practice and confidence to let 
 himself go, but that he was a Maundrell to be reck- 
 oned with had been conceded long before he sat 
 down. 
 
 Lee was with him in the lobby when he received 
 the congratulations of men many years older than 
 himself, and the next morning she brought all the 
 newspapers, and pasted the highly laudatory articles 
 on the rising sun into a scrap-book. She cunningly 
 persuaded him to be photographed, and as his repu- 
 tation waxed she supplied the weekly papers with 
 his distinguished profile. He was moved to wrath> 
 but his wife's fervid admiration was very sweet to 
 him, and when she pleaded it as her excuse for tak- 
 ing a step without consulting him, he forgave her 
 instantly. 
 
 They could not get away in time for a trip abroad 
 that year, much to Lee's disappointment; for the 
 
 242 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Continent was one vast romantic ruin to her, varied 
 with shops and the picturesque costumes of peasants. 
 The late summer and autumn and early winter were 
 precisely like the summer and autumn and early 
 winter of the year before. They entertained the 
 same people, visited the same houses ; and this time 
 Lee had the novel feeling of amazement for a people 
 who were just as much pleased and just as absorbed 
 as if a benign Providence had gifted them with the 
 instinct for variety. 
 
 " No wonder they are great, " she thought, with a 
 sigh. 
 
 In January the London maisonnette was open 
 again, and as gay as flowers and upholstery and 
 lamp shades could make it. Cecil for some time 
 past had meditated a Bill for the relief of certain 
 manufacturers, and had worked at it on odd days 
 during the recess. He introduced it, and it failed, 
 for it was practically a demand for the exclusion of 
 much that was "made in Germany," and was re- 
 garded as a covert and audacious attack on Free 
 Trade. His Speech in its behalf was the most bril- 
 liant he had yet made, and he was bitterly denounced 
 by the Liberal and Radical press next morning. 
 Nor did their attentions cease with their comments 
 on his Bill and Speech. From that time on he was 
 regarded by the Opposition as a man to be sneered 
 into the cooler regions of private life. His con- 
 stituency was warned by that section of its press 
 whose principles he did not represent, and he was 
 accused of having pledged his abilities, "such as 
 they were," to a lifelong fight against progress, and 
 
 *43 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 of a criminal indifference to Home Rule and to the 
 unfortunate Armenian. 
 
 Of these jeremiads — which Cecil refused to read, 
 having made up his mind and being at peace with 
 his conscience — Lee was as proud as of the many 
 compliments which the young member received, and 
 she pasted them dutifully in the scrap-book. Of 
 Society she saw something less than ever, although 
 her mother-in-law adjured her not to " make a fool 
 of herself." She admitted that she should like to 
 go to some of the great parties, and to an occa- 
 sional supper at the Savoy, under Lady Barnstaple's 
 wing; for her evenings were lonely, and politics 
 would have been even more interesting if seasoned 
 with variety. She asked Cecil, with an apologetic 
 blush, if he would mind. 
 
 He plunged his hands into his pockets. 
 
 " Are you very keen on it ? " he asked. 
 
 " Oh, I 'm not mad about it, but I have n't seen 
 much of London Society, and it interests me; and I 
 have so much time on my hands." 
 
 " I 'm afraid you must get rather bored. I 'm 
 sorry I have to be so much away from you. But — I 
 hate to see women running about without their 
 husbands. Besides it 's always the beginning of the 
 end — when a woman goes her way and a man his. 
 It 's selfish of me, but I like to think of you as 
 always here. As you know, I break away some- 
 times, and come home unexpectedly " 
 
 "You haven't this year." 
 
 " We 've been so confoundedly busy. But I often 
 think of you, and I like to picture you in this room 
 
 244 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 with a book, or asleep when other women are baking 
 their complexions. " 
 
 Lee smiled. " That was very astute. You would 
 rather I did not go out, then ? " 
 
 " I feel a selfish brute. Let me know what you 
 particularly want to go to, and I '11 try to pair and 
 take you myself." 
 
 But Lee knew that he hated the very thought of 
 it, and he was more and more absorbed in his work. 
 Of his ambition there was now no question ; he had 
 even gone so far as to half admit it to her. He did 
 not return to the subject, upon which their conver- 
 sation had, indeed, been so brief that he might be 
 pardoned for forgetting it. Lee attempted to find 
 oblivion in the mass of data elucidative of colonial 
 history, past and present, to which Cecil, with his 
 usual thoroughness, was devoting his leisure. It 
 had been his purpose, from the moment he had 
 decided upon his career, to achieve a full and sym- 
 pathetic understanding of the colonies. He had 
 given no little attention to politics in India and 
 South Africa, as well as to their peoples, during his 
 sporting tour, and he intended to revisit these and 
 other parts of the Empire as soon as he felt reason- 
 ably sure of his footing at home, and had mastered 
 the enormous bulk of colonial conditions in the 
 abstract. He had no belief in home-made theories 
 for governing the alien millions of the English 
 race. 
 
 Lee looked forward to these journeyings with 
 some interest, although she would have preferred to 
 explore the crumbling and rather more picturesque 
 
 245 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 civilisations of Europe. Travel would be more com- 
 fortable, and the Continent was a superb theatre, 
 under superb management — to take it seriously was 
 out of the question ; but although it did not appeal 
 to the soul, it was a delight to the imagination. 
 But neither the one change in her programme nor 
 the other seemed imminent ; Cecil found too much 
 to do in England. The present routine bid fair to 
 last for three or four years to come. 
 
 And to have argued that social success would 
 have conduced to her husband's advancement would 
 have been a waste of words, for Cecil was a man of 
 ideals and regarded meretricious connectives with 
 scorn. He was very much elated at this period, for 
 there was every indication that the Liberal tenure 
 was a brief one, and that his party was regaining 
 all it had lost, and more. He intended to speak 
 throughout the North, pending the next elections,, 
 and he had good reason to anticipate that his ser- 
 vices to his party would be rewarded with that first 
 stepping-stone to power, an Under-Secretaryship. 
 Lee was to go about with him, of course; he would 
 as soon have thought of leaving one of his members 
 at home, and she looked forward to the variation of 
 the usual autumn programme with some enthusiasm. 
 She was tremendously proud of her gifted and high- 
 minded young husband, and when disposed to repine, 
 forced into her mind her ten years of unremitting 
 determination and desire to marry Cecil Maundrell, 
 and her girlish hopes and dreams, some of which 
 had certainly been realised. 
 
 It was just after the Easter recess that he began 
 '246 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 to feel the need of a secretary, for he was doing 
 certain work outside the House. Lee disliked the 
 idea of a stranger in her maisonnette, to say nothing 
 of the fact that she would see less of her husband 
 by many hours, and offered herself for the post. He 
 was surprised and delighted, for he was reserved 
 almost to secrecy with every one else, and had con- 
 templated admitting a stranger into the privacy of 
 his study with much distaste. 
 
 "Are you sure it won't tire you?" he asked, 
 fondly. He was always very careful of her. 
 
 "Of course not! And I haven't a thing to do, 
 now that all my clothes are made. I 'm sick of the 
 sight of Bond Street. You know I love to feel that 
 I am of use to you. " 
 
 " You are always that, whether you are doing any- 
 thing for me or not. I 'm quite selfish enough to 
 accept your offer, if you really mean it. I simply 
 hated the thought of an outsider. But if I find it 
 tires or bores you, we can put a stop to the arrange- 
 ment any day." 
 
 It bored her, but he never knew it. As she had 
 an exuberant vitality, it did not tire her, although 
 she sometimes felt very nervous. She marvelled at 
 the greatness of the masculine mind which could 
 master such details and find them interesting, and 
 wondered if she were a real politician after all. 
 Somewhat to her amusement, she found herself 
 looking forward with pleasure to the sporting season ; 
 it would be an interval of comparative liberty and 
 rest. She enjoyed the sensation of being useful to 
 her husband^ and the increased companionship ; but 
 
 247 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 it was trying to spend so much of the morning 
 indoors, and to sit up by herself copying, when she 
 preferred being in bed, or reading such novels as 
 were clever enough to satisfy a mind now quite 
 tuned to serious things. The theatre was neglected 
 during the last two months of the Session, for Cecil 
 grew busier and busier, and worked late on his off 
 nights. Occasionally he examined his wife's lovely 
 face anxiously to see if she were losing her colour, 
 or acquiring any little fine lines, and when he could 
 discover no outward symbol of injured health he 
 begged her to tell him if she were really equal to 
 the strain. When she assured him that she was 
 profoundly interested, and had never felt better, he 
 assured her in return that she was, indeed, a wife of 
 whom any man might be proud. Sometimes she 
 wished, with a sigh, that his wants were more 
 spiritual. She might revive her enthusiasm if he 
 had need of sympathy and solace, but the world was 
 treating him very well, and he was satisfied and 
 happy. She wondered if he had ever been anything 
 else; he certainly seemed one of the favoured of 
 earth. 
 
 948 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 A DAY or two before the end of the season Lee 
 received a letter from Mrs. Montgomery 
 which suggested another variation in the autumn 
 programme. That lady and Randolph were leaving 
 France for England, and after a brief visit to Tiny 
 they hoped to be welcome at Maundrell Abbey. 
 The junior Gearys, who were taking a belated honey- 
 moon (Mr. Geary had died a week after the wed- 
 ding), would arrive in England in the latter part of 
 August. 
 
 Lee had seen nothing of her old friends since her 
 departure from California. Lord Arrowmount had 
 amused himself with a ranch until a month ago, 
 when he had returned to England with his family, 
 and gone straight to his place in the Midlands. 
 Mrs. Montgomery had remained in California with 
 them for two years, and spent the last year with 
 Randolph, who had bought a cMteau in Normandy 
 and seemed to be devoting himself to the pleasures 
 of the chasse. For two years he had sauntered leis- 
 urely about the world, and had finally made his home 
 in France, as the sky and air reminded him of Cali- 
 fornia and the life did not. He had written Lee a 
 brief note occasionally, in which he said little about 
 himself, and gave no indication that his sentiments 
 towards her were other than fraternal. Nor could 
 
 249 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 she guess what changes might have been wrought in 
 him, although he remarked once that the longer he 
 remained away from America the less he ever wanted 
 to see it again. Out of the chaos of Mrs. Mont- 
 gomery's letters Lee gathered that he was improved; 
 but she hoped that he was not too much changed, for 
 with the prospect of her old friends' advent came a 
 lively desire for something like a renewal of old 
 times. To her letter in behalf of Maundrell Abbey 
 he had never alluded, and she had not revived the 
 subject, for she had expected him to appear at any 
 moment. 
 
 She went at once to the house in Upper Belgrave 
 Street, and asked her mother-in-law to invite the 
 entire party to the Abbey for two or three weeks in 
 August and September. Lady Barnstaple happened 
 to be in a particularly gracious humour. 
 
 "I shall be delighted to see some new faces," she 
 announced. " One gets sick of the same old set year 
 after year. I quite liked Lady Arrowmount, what 
 little I saw her — rather prim and middle-classy, 
 but, enfin, quite convenable ; one must not expect too 
 much of the ancient aristocracy of San Francisco. 
 You 've improved so much, dearest. You never look 
 shocked any more, and you 've quite lost your pro- 
 vincialisms. When you came you were like a sweet 
 little wild flower that had got lost in a conservatory. 
 Now you are tout a fait grande dame, and it is quite 
 remarkable, as you go out so little. But you always 
 could dress, and the Society papers actually mention 
 your frocks, which is also remarkable. As a rule 
 one has to be en evidence all the time to retain any 
 
 350 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 sort of interest But you are pretty, and Cecil is so 
 clever — a selfish beast, though. How long are you 
 going to keep this thing up ? " 
 
 " Oh, I am a mere creature of habit now. Who 
 else is going down for the twelfth ? " 
 
 " Mary Gifford — could n't you marry her to Ran- 
 dolph Montgomery? It 's really tragic the way she 
 hangs on ! " 
 
 " Her sisters have married, so I suppose she could. 
 I don't think she wants to marry. Under all her 
 loudness she 's a queer porcelain-like creature, and 
 rather shrinks from men." 
 
 " Fiddlesticks ! She 's waiting for eighty thousand 
 a year! And she's quite right. Whether she'll 
 
 get it or not she 's a real beauty, and the way she 
 
 keeps on looking just eighteen ! Well, let me see : 
 there will be the Pixes Mr. Pix has really con- 
 sented to come at last; never breathe it, but he's 
 been taking private lessons and has actually learned 
 how to shoot as straight as anybody. I think Mary 
 has her eye on him, but she 'd better not! " 
 
 " Why not — since you are interested in her 
 future?" 
 
 " Because I 'm positive he 's the only man living 
 that doesn't see my wrinkles, and in my pocket 
 he '11 stay. Well — there will be the Arrowmounts, 
 Mdntgomerys, Gearys, Pixes, Mary, and sixteen or 
 eighteen of the usual crowd: the Beaumanoirs, 
 Larry Monmouth, the Duke and Duchess of Laun- 
 cester, Lord and Lady Regent, and, oh, the ones 
 one has to have or drop out. But I 'd like to shake 
 them all for one year." 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I thought you adored English people. " 
 
 "I do and I don't. I get mad sometimes at all 
 the trouble they give me. Look at Mary Gifford ! 
 She has n ! t a penny, does n't lift her finger, and 
 she 's in and out of every great house in England." 
 
 " Well — surely ; she belongs to them. She 's re- 
 lated to half of them — her father was a Marquis " 
 
 "That's just it," said Lady Barnstaple, with a 
 heavy scowl. "She belongs to them. I don't. I 
 can't complain that they haven't even run after me, 
 but I 'm not intimate, not dead intimate with one of 
 'em, all the same." 
 
 "What does it matter? You had ambitions and 
 you 've satisfied them. There must always be some- 
 thing beyond one's grasp." 
 
 "There's a good deal beyond mine," said Lady 
 Barnstaple with a sigh. "I can't be young again; 
 and when I had youth I made so little of it." 
 
 "Well, you dazzle Mr. Pix," said Lee lightly. 
 "Let that console you." 
 
 «5 S 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LORD ARROWMOUNT and Randolph wrote 
 to Lady Barnstaple that they would arrive at 
 the Abbey on the eleventh ; Mrs. Montgomery was 
 indisposed, but hoped to come a week later with 
 Lady Arrowmount. The Gearys wrote from Paris 
 to expect them any time during August. 
 
 Lee laughed as Lady Barnstaple tossed her back 
 Coralie's letter with a sharp exclamation. 
 
 "They are both spoiled children, you know, and 
 Ned has ignored social obligations all his life." 
 
 "He Can't take any liberties with me if I am an 
 American — or was. " 
 
 "Oh, you 're quite English." 
 
 Lee and her mother-in-law exchanged hooded sar- 
 casms occasionally, but on the whole were excellent 
 acquaintances. Lady Barnstaple had never paid a 
 second visit to* the tower, and was ignorant of her 
 daughter-in-law's depredations; no other excuse for 
 a quarrel had occurred. Lee having made up her 
 mind to accept " Emmy " — there being no alterna- 
 tive — veiled her with philosophy, and saw as little 
 of her as possible. Lady Barnstaple forgave the 
 younger woman her beauty, as, according to her 
 lights, it might as well have blossomed in Sahara; 
 and she uneasily respected the obvious will beneath 
 
 "S3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 that lovely exterior, and frankly admired Lee's 
 genius for dress. 
 
 On the evening of the eleventh Lee selected her 
 gown with unusual care. During the past three 
 years she had dressed for no man but her husband, 
 who occasionally informed her that she always 
 looked exactly the same to him no matter what she 
 had on, and she had been as indifferent to the admir- 
 ing glances of other men as a beautiful woman can 
 be. She had not indulged in so much as a dinner 
 flirtation, and had kept her ideal of matrimonial 
 bliss so close to her eyes that she had occasionally 
 received a hint of myopic dangers and a benumbing 
 of certain mental faculties. Her glance, rising on 
 the wing of a phlegmatic fancy, sometimes strayed 
 to the right or left of the steel track she paced, but 
 it returned submissively; and the only alteration in 
 her face was a slightly accentuated determination in 
 the curves of her mouth. During the last six months 
 she had been conscious of a certain restiveness, but 
 had refused to analyse it. 
 
 It was quite natural to dress for Randolph, for he 
 was an old and valued friend ; and it was certainly 
 a pleasure to dress for him, for he appreciated every 
 detail and his taste was exquisite. She therefore 
 selected the sort of gown in which he had always 
 most admired her, a black gauze made with the dash- 
 ing simplicity which suited her so well. 
 
 He would arrive about five. She sent him word 
 to dress early and come to the tower. She knew 
 that he would doubtless be detained by Cecil in the 
 library for a time, but she was in her boudoir before 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 seven. Her flutter of excitement was very agree- 
 able. As it trembled along her nerves it brought 
 with it an admitted desire for a whole series of sud- 
 den and brilliant changes. She wished that Ran- 
 dolph had come straight from California, for she 
 could have fancied the wild winds of the Pacific 
 blowing about him. She had learned to keep Cali- 
 fornia out of her mind for many months at a time, 
 but to-night as she stood in her tower looking through 
 the narrow ancient window on the calm beauty of the 
 English landscape, she shook with homesickness for 
 that land which seemed to have all space just above 
 it, and as many moods and features as the imagina- 
 tion of Byron. The sudden nostalgia was as much 
 of the body as of the spirit. Her very veins seemed 
 full of tears ; in her brain was a distinct sensation 
 of nausea. She was a child of the redwoods, not of 
 the landscape garden. 
 
 Randolph came up the stair with a slower step 
 than of old, but with as light a foot. Lee was con- 
 ventional at once. 
 
 " You have been long enough crossing the Channel 
 to see me," she said gaily, and shaking him warmly 
 by the hand; "but you know I never harbour malice, 
 and now — I am simply delighted to welcome you." 
 
 " It was my mother that kept me in France after I 
 got within crossing distance of the Channel; her 
 health is really broken, I am afraid. " 
 
 They talked of Mrs. Montgomery for some time, 
 while studying each other. Lee hoped that if he 
 found her changed his surprise and approval would 
 equal her own. He had transformed himself into 
 
 »55 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 what he would have become years since had his 
 mother taken him to Europe while he was still a 
 boy, and kept him there. His restless Americanism, 
 his careless stoop, the nervous play of his features, 
 even the lines about his eyes and mouth had gone. 
 His erect and graceful carriage made him look almost 
 as tall as Cecil Maundrell. He was a trifle stouter 
 than when he had left California; and he was, in 
 his new habit, so handsome and so distinguished, 
 that Lee thrilled with the pride of the Montgomerys, 
 and of the South before the War. His manner was 
 scarcely fraternal, nor did it hint of the lover, dis- 
 carded and tenacious; it was merely that of an ami- 
 able man-of-the-world pleased to renew an intimate 
 friendship with a charming woman. 
 
 " Am I as much changed as you are ? " asked Lee 
 impulsively. 
 
 " Am I changed ? You — I will tell you when I 
 have been here a little longer. There is a differ- 
 ence : — although that gown makes you look very 
 natural. I cannot decide what it is. You are more 
 beautiful than ever, if that could be possible." 
 
 It was so long since Lee had received a vigorous 
 compliment that she blushed with delight. 
 
 "I'm so glad you've come, Randolph," she ex- 
 claimed. " Do talk to me about old times and Cali- 
 fornia, even if you do hate the thought of it." 
 
 " I hate the thought of it ? " 
 
 " Well, you hate Amer' ;a. '' 
 
 "Why will even the cleverest of women add so 
 many little frills? I am immensely proud of the 
 United States; I wov'd have been born under no 
 
 256 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 other flag. What I do hate^is the modern spirit of 
 the country as typified by New York, Chicago, and 
 San Francisco. I love California, and am beginning 
 to get a little homesick for her. I fancy it won't 
 be long before I shall suddenly pack my trunk and 
 go back for a year." 
 
 " Oh, if I could go ! If I could go ! " 
 
 " Could n't we all go back together next year? " 
 
 " Cecil cannot leave England. I suppose you have 
 not heard " 
 
 " That great things are expected of him. I take 
 several London papers; and, when travelling, they 
 are always at the clubs. How proud you must be of 
 him." 
 
 "I am ; " but she was thinking of California ; and 
 there seemed to be a hundred things to be talked 
 about at once. There had been a time when she 
 had talked to Randolph about nearly everything that 
 passed through her mind. That time came sharply 
 back to her. 
 
 "That is one of the changes in you," he was say- 
 ing. " You have the least little more pride in your 
 carriage. You never were very humble, but this is 
 a sort of double duplicated pride, as it were. And 
 
 yes — you are more intellectual looking. It is 
 
 that which has dissipated your girlishness without 
 ageing you a particle." 
 
 " Oh, I am intellectual ! I 've been on one long 
 intellectual orgie for the last three years. I 'm ready 
 for a change. If you 've been cramming your brain, 
 don't you try to impress me; and don't you dare to 
 mention politics." 
 
 17 257 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Randolph laughed. " I should not think of such 
 a thing. My interest is too cursory to burden my 
 conversation. And as for books — I 've read a good 
 many on rainy days since I saw you last, and am 
 better for them ; but I have spent the greater part 
 of the time living books of many sorts." 
 
 " Have you grown serious ? You used to take life 
 so lightly. So did everybody. So did I." 
 
 "I am afraid I still take life with reprehensible 
 lightness. I have got an immense amount of fun 
 out of the old world. " 
 
 "Do you remember how we used to roar — you 
 and Coralie and Tom and I? And about nothing 1 
 We were such good laughers ! " 
 
 " I hope you have n't forgotten how." 
 
 "Not much ! But I 'm out of practice. Let 's go 
 up on top of the fell to-morrow, and sit down on the 
 ground and shriek." 
 
 Randolph threw back his head and laughed so 
 heartily that Lee caught the infection of it, and in 
 a moment was leaping from peal to peal. She caught 
 herself up. 
 
 " I shall have hysterics. And it 's nearly dinner- 
 time. I 've got to go down and talk grouse pros- 
 pects and the tantalising peculiarities of that loath- 
 some bird for two hours. I don't know if I dare 
 put you on my other side. I 'm afraid I 'd giggle 
 like an idiot all through dinner if I did. I sup- 
 pose it 's reaction, but I really feel on the verge of 
 idiocy." 
 
 "The result of my sudden appearance. I am 
 immensely flattered." 
 
 »58 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Oh, you would be if you knew ! Cecil is simply 
 perfect; don't think I am casting the faintest reflec- 
 tion on him. It's the life! Oh, I must! I must! 
 I always did tell you things, Randolph, and you 
 always were so sympathetic. Have you read many 
 English novels that aim to initiate the outside world 
 into the life of our class — the truth without any 
 frills, and all that sort of thing? After I 'd been 
 here two years I made a terrible mistake: out of 
 curiosity — to see the influence of England on the 
 imagination circumscribed by conscience — I read, 
 one after the other, about twelve novels of that sort 
 — the sort that might be called the current history 
 of social England. Then I realised what I had got 
 into — that unchanging, inevitable, mathematically 
 precise mise en seine, that wheel that goes round and 
 round with never a change of spoke nor of speed. 
 You know — begin with the twelfth of August : house 
 parties for grouse shooting. Men — same men — 
 out all day. Women — same women — at home. 
 Sporting talk at luncheon. Sporting talk varied 
 with politics at dinner. Little gambling, little flirt- 
 ing, a rowdy game or two in the evening. Nexi 
 month same thing in other houses for partridge and 
 pheasant shooting. Next two months hunting and 
 hunting talk for a change ; otherwise the same, only 
 a little more hard work for the women. Races and 
 race talk thrown in all along the line. Then the 
 Riviera for some, and for me two months of life in 
 grime and fog and mud. Then the roasting crush 
 of the London season, in which everybody works like 
 a horse, and the women are reduced to a mere com- 
 
 259 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 bination of bones and paint. Then more races, a 
 few' days' breathing space, and again the Twelfth 
 of August. I wish I hadn't read those books; I 
 wouldn't have realised it so soon. But really, I 've 
 hardly admitted it before to-night. My own pro- 
 gramme is slightly varied. I shoot, and I don't go 
 to the Riviera, and I 've had no chance to get tired 
 of London Society. But it surrounds me — that 
 automatically shifting tnise e?i seine. I know it is 
 there. I am a part of most of it — a fly on its paint. 
 I may get the whole thing any day. That is one 
 reason I don't really rebel against being out of it in 
 London. Politics are the best there is in the whole 
 thing, because there is some variety, and there is 
 always the promise of some tremendous excitement 
 — only there has n't been any yet." 
 
 She sprang to her feet, overturning her chair. 
 
 "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" she cried, her 
 eyes blazing, her voice pitched high with delight. 
 " Do you remember how you and Coralie and Tom 
 and I used to lock ourselves up in the schoolroom, 
 and swear as loud and as fast as we could when Tiny 
 had been primmer than usual, or Aunty had been 
 holding forth on the South before the War? Well, 
 that 's the way I feel to-day, and I 've been feeling 
 that way for a long time, only I didn't know it." 
 
 She stopped for want of breath. Randolph had 
 risen too, but his back was against the light. If his 
 voice was not as steady as it had been she was too 
 excited to notice it. 
 
 " You certainly ought to return to California," he 
 said. " We are all half savage — the strongest of us 
 
 260 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Californians. The great civilisations fascinate us, but 
 they don't satisfy, and in time they pall." 
 
 " I 'd like to put dynamite under the whole business, 
 and then take Cecil and go and shoot bears with him 
 in the Santa Lucia Mountains and sleep under the 
 redwoods without so much as a tent. I believe I 'd 
 be willing to eat acorns." She sat down and glanced 
 up at him with all her old coquetry. 
 
 "You don't think I 've made an idiot of myself, do 
 you ? " she asked anxiously. 
 
 " You could never be other than the most charming 
 woman in the world." 
 
 "Will you pay me three compliments a day, 
 Randolph?" 
 
 " I shall probably pay you twenty." 
 
 " I hope to Heaven you will ! I need them — I do 
 really need them. Now go and wait for me in the 
 library : I must go up and put some powder on ; I 
 feel that I have the colour of a dairy-maid. It's so 
 nice to order you about — and I could n't speak out 
 to a soul on earth as I have to you ! I should have 
 burst if you had n't come soon. If you get lost in 
 those everlasting corridors ring a bell " 
 
 The promptness with which Randolph obeyed her 
 command, with the little laugh that had always saved 
 his dignity, was the first of his signals that the old 
 Randolph still flourished within that mellowed and 
 polished exterior. 
 
 Lee ran up to her room. The door of the dressing- 
 room was open ; Cecil was ready for dinner, and 
 alone. Her conscience hurt her, and she was stili 
 excited. With all her old impulsiveness she ran in, 
 
 261 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 flung her arms round her husband's neck and kissed 
 him. 
 
 The " Imp of the Perverse " is always hovering near 
 to man awaiting the more subtle climaxes of his life. 
 Cecil adored his wife, but he liked to do the love- 
 making; and Lee, long since, had accepted the 
 submissive and responsive r61e her beloved autocrat 
 demanded. And he was a man of moods, which were 
 deep and showed little on the surface. To-night he 
 was keen for the sport of the morrow, for a renewal of 
 the brief and congenial conversation he had had with 
 his men guests before dinner; and if his wife were to 
 be too absorbed in her friends for several days to give 
 him a moment he should not miss her. He had had 
 a hard Session and the reaction to sport and open air 
 was violent, that was all. 
 
 He returned Lee's kiss politely, and took up a hair 
 brush. 
 
 " You seem nervous," he said. " Do calm yourself 
 before dinner. It is always a relief to me that you do 
 not talk as loud as the rest of the women." 
 
 And when his wife rushed out and banged the door, 
 he frowned, then shrugged his shoulders, and went 
 down to the library. 
 
 26a 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 " TN other words," said Randolph, " loving an Eng« 
 
 JL lishman means hard work and plenty of it." 
 
 They were on top of the fell and had been roaming 
 about all the afternoon. Randolph had begun by 
 amusing her and putting her into the best of tempers, 
 then he had led her on to speak of her long and 
 determined struggle to be many things foreign to her 
 disposition and habit, evincing so deep and genuine 
 an interest that Lee's ego, so long the down-trodden 
 subject of her imperious will, had leaped hilariously 
 to its own and confessed itself steadily for two hours. 
 
 " I 'm not disloyal for a moment, and you 're really 
 my brother ; and I could not speak to any one else 
 living like this : the others I know as well would not 
 understand. I don't see why I complain. I 've got 
 almost everything I ever imagined myself wanting." 
 
 " You 've surrendered your individuality. It is that 
 that gnaws, and almost devitalises you." 
 
 " Perhaps. I don't know. I could be very quickly 
 spoiled and get it all back; but that would mean 
 that I should not be happy in the same way, nor 
 Cecil either." 
 
 " Are you happy? " 
 
 " I thought I was until lately — the last — oh, it is 
 363 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 hard to say exactly. But I never was intended for 
 quite such hard and fast routine. I feel positive that 
 in certain conditions I should not mind being a mere 
 second self to Cecil. When you love a man nothing 
 much matters up to a certain point ; and after that, 
 nothing would matter at all if the nerves could be 
 made to hum occasionally to something like uncer- 
 tainty. This cut-and-dried life of England's leisure 
 class, which reminds me of a grandfather's clock in 
 magnificent running order, may suit many tempera- 
 ments, but not mine. As you say, the old civilisa- 
 tions fascinate us who are two-thirds made u-p of the 
 unruly instincts of the new, but they don't satisfy, 
 and they certainly do pall. Three years more of 
 this and I shall be a machine without a nerve, or — I 
 shall hate Cecil Maundrell. I 've been horribly up- 
 set ever since you came ; you actually brought an 
 earthquake with you, and I 've thought and thought 
 and thought " 
 
 "Well?" he said gently. 
 
 "If I've relapsed into the national monologue it's 
 your fault." 
 
 " Have you been fashioning your mental habits on 
 an up-to-date novelette? People always monologue 
 in private life. Do go on." 
 
 " You know I never had a morbid nor a hysterical 
 moment ; but there must come a time to all strong 
 natures when all they have inherited and all they 
 have been in their plastic years finds itself in violent 
 conflict with an alien present. The problem would be 
 solved if we could get away, if Cecil's genius could 
 make a leap into other lines. If I could only have 
 
 264 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 had a finger in the moulding of our two destinies 
 Cecil would have been a great pioneer, an ' Empire- 
 maker,' like Cecil Rhodes. There would have been 
 no stagnation then ; I should have felt all the stimu- 
 lation of trampling down obstacles and defying the 
 prejudices of a million little minds in opening up a 
 new and savage country by the sheer insolent force 
 of one great man's personality. And then the excite- 
 ment of not knowing what would happen next, where 
 we or the whole country would be this time next 
 year! And in a new country, where civilisation is 
 still in the making, man is greater than the State, and 
 he is much more alive and individual, much more 
 primitive and at the same time many-sided than when 
 he is the slow and logical result of a rounded and 
 fagged civilisation which has caught him fast. But 
 there is no hope. . . . Even if Cecil discovered the 
 instinct of the pioneer in him he would not listen to 
 it, for he is very proud and very ambitious. When 
 a man towers in an isolated field like Mr. Rhodes, 
 every man who plants his heels in the same field in 
 the same epoch is a moon to Jupiter. And no two 
 men in a century will ever have all the gifts of the 
 Empire-maker united in one brain. Cecil is highly 
 gifted, and he has enormous energy, but his gifts are 
 on the old conservative lines." 
 
 Randolph, who had been absently tearing up the 
 heather by the roots, his eyes apparently absorbed 
 in his task, extended himself at her feet. 
 
 " What are you going to do about it? " he asked. 
 
 "What can I do? It has been an unspeakable 
 relief to talk to you — have I bored you?" 
 
 265 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I '11 not answer such a foolish question. Do you 
 still love your husband ? " 
 
 " Oh, I 'm sure I do, down deep ; but my brain is 
 in a chaotic state ; the whole of me in an ugly rebel- 
 lious temper. We've had our first real misunder- 
 standing these last two days, and Cecil is so absorbed 
 in grouse he does n't even know it." 
 
 Randolph laughed so heartily that Lee was forced 
 to smile. " If that were all," she said with a sigh. 
 
 " I can think of no better temporary remedy than 
 that you should come back to California with us for 
 a year. You might find that England had weaned 
 you after all, and California was an idealised memory. 
 And as for your husband — there is nothing like an 
 occasional vacation. Mother is already homesick: 
 we'll return this year." 
 
 " Cecil would never consent He 's really devoted 
 to me." 
 
 " I should hope so. But English wives are not 
 slaves, I suppose. If you asserted yourself he would 
 neither tie you up nor divorce you." 
 
 " He really needs me tremendously. If I were 
 not a little beast I 'd be contented with my lot. And 
 as I've tried to make him happy for purely selfish 
 reasons for three years, I don't see that I have the 
 right to make him miserable because I have wheeled 
 about and want something that he can't give me." 
 
 "Or awakened?" 
 
 " It 's not only that. I shut my eyes deliberately 
 to a great deal at the first— that I could not be every- 
 thing to him, that there were depths in his nature 
 that were way beyond me." 
 
 266 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " My dear child, no woman can be everything to 
 A man; that would be Utopia." 
 
 " He could at least be more to me." 
 
 "Ah, that is another matter," said Randolph 
 softly. 
 
 They returned to the subject many times. Ran- 
 dolph spent but a part of the day on the moors. He 
 was an admirable shot, and took care to distinguish 
 himself, but was at no pains to conceal his lack of 
 enthusiasm. On the fourth day of his visit, as Lee 
 was showing him over the Abbey, she said abruptly: 
 
 " Did you ever get a letter I wrote to you the day 
 after I arrived here ? " 
 
 "The day after " 
 
 " It was all about the Abbey. I told you that 
 Emmy might leave nothing, and that everybody had 
 expected Cecil to marry a fortune, or else lose his 
 inheritance. They wanted him to marry that Miss 
 Pix, and they all seemed to think I was a criminal 
 for not being worth a million. I felt a fool, I can 
 assure you, for not investing in the Peruvian mine." 
 
 " And you wrote to your old slave to make a mil- 
 lion for you. I did not get the letter, but I can see 
 every word of it." 
 
 " I don't think I should have the same assurance 
 to-day, but I 'd be very thankful if you 'd advise 
 me. 
 
 " Oh, you have changed ! It 's really tragic ! " 
 
 They were in the crypt of the Abbey, an immense 
 rambling and shadowy vault. Lee put her hands to 
 her face suddenly and began to cry. Randolph took 
 her in his arms and patted her gently. 
 
 267 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Don't worry," he said. " I 'm not going to make 
 love to you. I 'm only your big brother. But you 
 must come back with me to California." 
 
 " Oh, I want to go — the more I think of it, the 
 more I want to go. The first time I have a chance 
 I '11 speak to Cecil about it ; but he comes home just 
 in time to dress and is so tired he 's asleep before he 's 
 fairly in bed and in the morning he's gone before 
 I'm awake." 
 
 " You were certainly never intended for a sports* 
 man," said Randolph dryly. " I have written to 
 mother to urge you to return with us. And as for the 
 other matter, we '11 see to it when we get there " 
 
 " I am serious about that. I love the Abbey. I 
 should think I had been born to some purpose if I 
 could save it. And I look upon it as almost my 
 mission ; for should Cecil lose it, it would be through 
 me. I 'd never forgive myself." 
 
 " It strikes me that Cecil would have no one to 
 blame but himself. He was no raw stripling when he 
 married you, but a man with a remarkably mature 
 mind " 
 
 " But he was frightfully in love." 
 
 M And never wiser. However, if you wish to make 
 the Abbey your mission in life you can command my 
 services, as always. I will take the matter in hand 
 as soon as I get back." 
 
 " Will you?" 
 
 " Yes, but you must come too. It takes a month 
 to get a letter answered from here, and business 
 secrets cannot be cabled." 
 
 " I will go then. A double object gives me double 
 a68 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 courage. But I've bored you long enough. You 
 listen to my woes by the yard, and you never talk 
 about yourself except to amuse me " 
 
 " I came to England for no other purpose but to 
 see you and to hear you talk." 
 
 " Well, I can tell you then, that you were inspired 
 by the real missionary spirit, for I needed you 
 badly." 
 
 269 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 AFTER dinner that night, Lee and Lady Mary 
 Gifford, instead of following the other women, 
 strolled along the corridors for a quiet chat. They 
 were not intimate, for they had too little in common, 
 but they admired each other and Lee had seen some- 
 thing more of Lady Mary than of any of the English- 
 women whom she received in her little drawing-room 
 on Tuesdays or maintained a community of interests 
 with during that division of the year allotted to house 
 parties. 
 
 " I like your cousin, or whatever he is," announced 
 Lady Mary, clasping her hands behind her. " He 
 does n't talk through his nose and he 's quite at his 
 ease. As a rule I detest American men as much as I 
 like the women. Of course he 's rich — you can 
 always tell." 
 
 " He 's very rich." 
 
 " Now don't jump — I 'd like you to marry me to 
 him." 
 
 Lee did jump. " Really ? " she said dryly. 
 
 " I 'd rather never marry: if I had a talent I 'd go 
 and set up a studio in Kensington, or take chambers 
 and write a popular novel. Of course I could make 
 hats or open a florist's shop, but neither is to my 
 taste; and I really can't hang on any longer — ■ 
 
 270 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 twenty-seven and my ninth season — it's positively 
 sickening. I have had one or two good offers — in 
 the long ago — but I hated the thought of marrying 
 then more than I do now — when a thing has to be 
 it never seems quite so bad. Of course I could get 
 any numbers of parvenus, and I 'd almost made up 
 my mind to Mr. Pix, but I should feel quite recon- 
 ciled to Mr. Montgomery." 
 
 " That is very amiable of you, but I don't see 
 what you are offering to Mr. Montgomery; and as 
 he is almost my oldest friend I have his happiness 
 to consider. He would not care a rap for your 
 title " 
 
 "Wouldn't he? How very odd. But I'd make 
 him quite happy. You know I am fascinating. 
 
 Some men have gone quite off their heads about 
 
 ,, , it 
 me. 
 
 " If you send Randolph off .his head he '11 un- 
 doubtedly propose to you. You will have plenty 
 of opportunity." 
 
 " I see you don't like the idea " 
 
 " You are quite mistaken. I have had no time to 
 think it over. Of course if I thought you would be 
 happy together " 
 
 " Oh, I 'm sure we 'd arrange everything quite 
 amicably. I have immense tact, you know, and 
 American men are said to make such indulgent 
 husbands; and he's really distinguished-looking. 
 And of course he 'd be quite sure of me. I 'd scorn 
 to do the things most women do. That 's one 
 reason why I like you so much — you haven't a 
 
 lover." 
 
 271 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Lee laughed. " I can't see the superior virtue of 
 selling oneself." 
 
 "My dear, we must each do what is best for 
 ourselves, whether it is money we want or love. 
 Standards have never insured happiness yet We 
 must do our own thinking and try for what we most 
 want. Here is a secret for you to keep — until a 
 year ago I expected my godmother's fortune. She 
 had all but promised it to me and that is the real 
 reason I never married. She died without a will. 
 I can't be a stranded old maid living off my alter- 
 nate relations. And perhaps you can imagine what 
 it would mean to me to marry a man like Mr. 
 Pix." 
 
 Lady Mary had drawn in her wide voice, and it 
 vibrated slightly. It was the first time Lee had 
 known her to display anything like feeling, and she 
 softened at once. 
 
 " I '11 do what I can," she said. " Randolph is a 
 gentleman, and very clever. Try to fall in love with 
 him, and make him fall in love with you." 
 
 " You are good. And Emmy can keep her Pix 
 and welcome; by the way, I suppose you have 
 noticed, there 's not so smart a crowd here this year 
 as usual — except the Beaumanoirs, and Larry Mon- 
 mouth and the other single men." 
 
 " I had not — there is not, come to think of it." 
 
 " The Launcesters and Regents can be got by any- 
 body that will feed them " 
 
 " What are you driving at? " 
 
 " I mean that Emmy has been a little too careless 
 this last year. People simply won't swallow Pix- 
 
 272 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the men hate him so. There was a little doubt 
 before, but of course there's none now. She let 
 him go to the Riviera with her." 
 
 " Are you trying to make me believe that Mr. Pix 
 is Emmy's lover?" 
 
 " You don't mean to say you are an infant in 
 arms ? " 
 
 " Of course I 'm well enough used to women and 
 their lovers, by this time; but somehow one never 
 thinks that sort of thing can happen in one's own 
 family. It is plain enough, I suppose. She might 
 at least have chosen a gentleman." 
 
 " She might indeed ; that 's her crime. Pick up 
 with the wrong man, and Society is on its hind legs 
 in no time. I've seen it coming for an age. She 
 certainly must know that she 's got off the track as 
 well as any one can tell her, and considering the 
 way she 's worked for one thing for five-and-twenty 
 years, it 's rather surprising ; but the trouble is, she 's 
 in love with him, I fancy." 
 
 " I don't think there 's any doubt about it ; but 
 if her original commonness demanded a mate she 
 certainly could have found a bounder with a little 
 more gilding. There are one or two with the title* 
 she adores." 
 
 Lee spoke with heat and bitterness. She had the 
 indifference of familiarity to many things that had 
 horrified her youthful ideals, but a lover under the 
 family roof filled her with protest 
 
 " Emmy 's a curious contradiction " began 
 
 Lady Mary. 
 
 "What's to be done? Of course it can't go on. 
 18 273 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Lord Barnstaple or Cecil could put a stop to it, but 
 I can't tattle on any woman " 
 
 " My dear, I don't advise you to put a stop to it 
 unless you want to see the Abbey put up at public 
 auction." 
 
 " Mary Gifford ! " 
 
 " Now don't shriek out ; but I have more than one 
 reason to think that I 'm right." 
 
 "And perhaps we're eating his bread? " 
 
 " I don't know that it 's as bad as that, but I am 
 positive that she borrowed from him first and mort- 
 gaged her properties heavily — he was over in 
 America last year. Now, he is certainly in love with 
 her. He would marry me, of course, because I 
 could give him what Emmy cannot — but — how- 
 ever ! Better not say anything, my child. Lord 
 Barnstaple has always been too indifferent to give 
 two thoughts to his wife's private affections; but if 
 he were made to know anything, of course he'd 
 have to kick the man out. And he and Cecil would 
 have to break the entail, and the Abbey would go 
 to the highest bidder — who would probably be one 
 of the Pixes. Victoria the Silent has never stopped 
 wanting it from the day she first saw it; nor Cecil 
 Maundrell either, for that matter." 
 
 " Well, she won't get it. What a ghastly business ! 
 I wish you had n't told me." 
 
 " I wish I had n't, but it never occurred to me that 
 you could n't see the length of your nose." 
 
 " Something has to be done; it's a horrible posi- 
 tion for Lord Barnstaple and Cecil." 
 
 " What they don't know won't hurt them — it is 
 274 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 though. What's the use of platitudinising? Every- 
 body else knows — or guesses, and it is rough on 
 them. But let things drift along for a little. Who 
 knows what may happen ? " 
 
 " If you don't mind, and if you will make an excuse 
 for me, I '11 go up to my room. I 'm tired out, and 
 I 'd like to be alone." 
 
 " Do go, that 's a dear ; and don't bother too much 
 about other people. Almost everybody 's too selfish 
 to be worth it ! " 
 
 She returned to the great drawing-room of the 
 Abbey, where people were hovering about many little 
 tables, smiled brilliantly on Randolph, and marched 
 him off to a charming boudoir where she detained 
 him agreeably for the rest of the evening. Her 
 young blue eyes were very keen and she took pains 
 at once to assure him that Lee would be visible no 
 more that night 
 
 *75 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LEE went to her bedroom, and, in accord with 
 , some curious feminine sympathy of mental 
 and material habit, immediately took off her gown 
 and put on a wrapper. Then she sat down, and, to 
 use her own phrase, endeavoured to take hold of 
 herself. It was the f.rst time that she had been alone 
 for several days, and she had a good deal of thinking 
 to do. 
 
 The most gifted of men are successful in analysing 
 women up to a certain point only ; when they find 
 themselves confronted with utter unreasonableness, 
 perversity, and erratic curvatures of temper, they 
 solve the problem with a baby, and pass on. A 
 woman may be in superb condition, she may be lead- 
 ing the most normal of lives, she may not have a 
 care worthy of mention, and yet she may find herself 
 in a state of nervous and rebellious antagonism to the 
 whole scheme of creation. The women who work 
 and exhaust their brain vitality with a certain regu- 
 larity are less prone to such attacks, but the woman 
 of leisure is liable to them at any moment. For the 
 feminine imagination is a restless and virile quantity, 
 and a clever woman is often its victim to an extent 
 which no man can appreciate. That men are, on the 
 whole, so patient with what must often confound and 
 
 276 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 incense them, constitutes their chief claim to the 
 forgiveness of many sins. 
 
 If Lee was by nature neither morbid nor hysterical, 
 she felt that she was doing her best to overcome the 
 deficiency. Randolph's appearance had shattered the 
 routine of her married life, and with it her self-control. 
 She was aghast, and she was furious with herself. 
 Cecil had ceased to be an ideal for whom no sacrifice 
 was too great: he merely represented a sudden and 
 violent change in the order of her inner life ; and if 
 his personal fascination and his incalculable advantage 
 of a previous ten years' sojourn in her imagination 
 had accomplished this revolution and kept him 
 master of the field for three additional years, the 
 reaction to a strong and long-fostered individuality 
 was but the more violent What she wanted she was 
 scarcely able to define, but she felt sure that she 
 wanted several dozen things that she would never 
 have as the wife of Cecil Maundrell. 
 
 She searched diligently for his faults, and was 
 obliged to confess that they were few and would play 
 a small part in the balancing of accounts. He was, 
 if exacting, the kindest of husbands ; if not amusing, he 
 was always interesting; although moody, he showed 
 no sign of ceasing to be a lover ; if devoted to sport, 
 she had never, in her most feminine moments, been 
 able to persuade herself that he was not several times 
 more devoted to her; and she had the most profound 
 admiration for him both as a man and as an intellect. 
 His only imperfection was that he was a strong and 
 dominating personality with whom a woman must 
 live as a second self or not at all ; and Lee felt her- 
 
 277 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 self a fool. But, unfortunately, the supreme trage- 
 dies in the lives of two people who love and are 
 happy have often their genesis in no facts that can 
 be analysed and disposed of. 
 
 Of one desire, Lee was acutely conscious; to get 
 away from her husband for a time and return to Cali- 
 fornia — to that stupendous country of many parts 
 where she had been Herself, where she had stood 
 alone, where she had munched consecutively for 
 twenty-one years those sweets of Individuality so 
 dear to the American soul. And, this desire sud- 
 denly denned itself, she wanted to be volatile, she 
 wanted to be free from every responsibility; she 
 wanted, in short, to get out of the r61e of a serious 
 factor in the life of a serious man. 
 
 And Cecil? She made no excuses for herself, at- 
 tempted no self-delusion: she looked down steadily, 
 although with eyes of horror and disgust, at those 
 depths of selfishness peculiar to the soul of woman — 
 more so to the souls of women of the younger civili- 
 sations. He was practically blameless, and she was 
 meditating a punishment meet for a brute of a hus- 
 band. He loved her and needed her, and she was 
 condemning him to the acutest suffering she could 
 devise, short of her own death. Nevertheless, if the 
 situation were to be saved at all, she must get away 
 from him, she must be Herself for a time — for a 
 year. After that? Doubtless she would love him 
 the better. Certainly she would never love any 
 other man. Her prediction that hatred of her hus- 
 band might be the result of three more uninterrupted 
 years of him and of England had been a mere verbal 
 
 278 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 expression of nervous tension; even in the present 
 adventurous and overworked state of her imagination 
 she knew that she loved him, and would so long as 
 consciousness survived in her. If she could have 
 had that most plausible of all excuses, the death of 
 affection and passion, she would have felt quite ready 
 to justify herself. As it was, there were no limits to 
 her self-abasement And, logically, there were no 
 limits to her unreasoning anger with her husband. 
 
 She wanted her Individuality back; that was the 
 long and the short of it. 
 
 Regarding Randolph, she felt a certain disquiet 
 He had not betrayed himself by so much as a glance, 
 but her woman's instinct told her that he still loved 
 her. There was nothing to apprehend, however, 
 beyond a possible scene at a remote period. If he 
 was playing a big game it was for heavy stakes, and 
 he would not show his cards for many a day. It was 
 more than possible that he hoped everything from a 
 return to the scene of her girlish freedom and tri- 
 umphs, and from her withdrawal from her husband's 
 influence ; but he would watch and wait for the cru- 
 cial moment before suggesting the facile American 
 specific for matrimonial jars. He was very clever, 
 and she did not doubt that if he were playing for the 
 supreme desire of his life he would be sufficiently 
 unscrupulous. But he was a gentleman and he 
 would not demand her hand as the price of the 
 Abbey's rescue. If she had never met Cecil Maun- 
 drell she believed that she could have loved him, for 
 he understood her. He was, now that he had found 
 himself, a charming and companionable man, with 
 
 279 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 no raw edges to irritate the most sensitive romanti- 
 cism; and her Individuality would have flourished 
 like a green bay-tree. And he had plenty of brains 
 and was just serious enough. She could never have 
 given him the half of what she had given Cecil 
 Maundrell, but there would have been no violent and 
 humiliating reactions from too much high-thinking 
 and attempting to realise a serious man's ideal. 
 Now, neither he nor any other man but her husband 
 could satisfy her for a moment; but as she had no 
 desire to do Randolph any more harm than she 
 had done him already she determined to take Mary 
 GifTord to California with her and give that odd and 
 attractive young person all the advantages of propin- 
 quity and comparison. 
 
 Emmy's peccancy was but a final reason for her 
 desire to separate herself for a time from her present 
 life. She was charitable, but she was fastidious. 
 Had Emmy been an outsider she might have had 
 twenty lovers; but the proximity disgusted her. 
 
 «So 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 OF course Cecil did the worst thing possible for 
 himself : he appeared just as she had finished 
 elaborating her case and before she had started upon 
 the argument between her higher and her pettier 
 self which she had dimly contemplated. As he ran 
 up the stair she rose nervously to her feet, regret- 
 ting for the first time that she had not a room of her 
 own in which she could lock herself. They had 
 continued to put up with the trifling inconveniences 
 of the tower because its isolation and historic asso- 
 ciations made it a tenacious symbol in their own 
 romance. 
 
 She sat down as he entered. 
 
 "I just missed you," he said anxiously, "and 
 ■Mine one told me that you had not been in the 
 drawing-room since dinner. Are you ill ? " 
 
 " No ; and I am glad you have come up. I want 
 to ask you something. " 
 
 He sat down beside her and took her hand. 
 
 " What is it ? " he asked. " Something has gone 
 wrong ? " 
 
 " I want to go back to California for a year." 
 
 "But, my dear, I can't get away. I should be 
 mad — " 
 
 "But you can let me go. Mrs. Montgomery 
 wants to take me back with her." 
 
 281 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 If he had given her time she would doubtless have 
 approached the subject with tact and many deli- 
 cate subterfuges; but her mind was wearied and 
 possessed. 
 
 He stared at her incredulously. 
 
 "I really mean it. The only reasons I can put 
 into shape are that I am desperately tired of this 
 everlasting round of English life, and homesick for 
 California." 
 
 "Are you tired of me? " 
 
 " No ; but I believe that a short separation would 
 be better for us both. I can't make you understand, 
 for you have never cared to understand me. I 
 adapted myself, and you took me for granted — " 
 
 " Have you been playing a part ? " 
 
 " Heaven knows I have been serious enough. It 
 is that as much as anything else — I want to cease 
 being serious for a while. " 
 
 Cecil continued to stare at her. His tan had 
 worn off, and he paled slightly. When a man after 
 several years of married life is suddenly informed 
 that he does not understand his wife the shock is 
 trying to his mental faculties and to his patience. 
 
 " I do not know you to-night," he said coldly. " I 
 have seen you in a number of moods, and occasionally 
 in a temper, but I have never before seen you when 
 you were not — sweet." 
 
 "I don't feel sweet. I wish I did. I hate to 
 hurt you. " 
 
 Cecil seized the suggestion. " You have certainly 
 hurt me; and nobody could know better than you 
 how much. What is the matter with you?" 
 
 282 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I want a change, that is all. " 
 
 " I 'm afraid I 've really done something quite 
 abominable, although I don't remember — and it 
 isn't like you not to speak out." 
 
 " I haven't a fault in the world to find with you. 
 I wish I had!" 
 
 "I don't understand you," he said helplessly. 
 " And as I am so dense, perhaps you will be good 
 enough to explain. I really think I have the right 
 to demand it." He would have liked to shake her, 
 for he had not yet been made to realise that she was 
 in anything but a surprisingly nasty temper. 
 
 Lee was quite sure that he had the right to 
 demand a full explanation, and she cast about for 
 the phrases which would point it best. But her 
 reasons put their tails between their legs and 
 scampered to the back of her brain, where they 
 looked petty enough. So she began to cry instead. 
 
 Cecil took her in his arms instantly, excoriating 
 himself for his desire to shake her. "You are ill; 
 I know you are ill," he whispered, "and you are so 
 unused to it that it has quite demoralised you." 
 Then, his knowledge of women being primitive 
 indeed, he descended to bribery. "I am going to 
 ask father to give you my mother's jewels; I never 
 knew he had them — that there were a»y — till the 
 other day. There are some wonderful pieces." 
 
 Lee pricked up her ears, then despised herself 
 and sobbed the harder. Suddenly, she shrank 
 visibly from him, slipped from his embrace and 
 walked over to the fireplace, turning her back to 
 her husband. It had flashed into her mind that 
 
 283 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Randolph's arms had been round her that morning. 
 She had thought no more of it at the time than if 
 they had been Mrs. Montgomery's or Coralie's; but 
 of a sudden her quiescence seemed an act of infi- 
 delity, if for no other reason than because Cecil 
 would be furious if he knew it. She decided that 
 she certainly must be growing morbid, and she 
 resigned herself to being just as unpleasant as her 
 resources permitted. 
 
 Cecil went over to her and wheeled her about 
 sharply. There was no question about his pallor 
 now ; his very lips were white. " That was the first 
 time you ever shrank from me," he said. "What 
 does it mean ? " 
 
 "I mean that I will go to California." 
 
 "That 's not the point." 
 
 "I simply can't explain, but I'll try to in my 
 letters. I promise that if you don't understand me 
 now you shall before I get back." 
 
 "I have no time to read a woman's novels about 
 herself. I once read several volumes of women's 
 ' letters. ' There never yet was a woman who could 
 write about herself unself-consciously ; she is always 
 addressing an imaginary audience. Say what you 've 
 got to say now, and have done with it. If I 've 
 failed in anything I love you well enough to do all 
 I can — you know that." 
 
 " You told me when you proposed to me that you 
 would hate understanding a woman's complexities, 
 that she had no right to have any, that a woman 
 must become a mere adjunct of her husband." 
 
 " I don't remember ever having said anything of 
 284 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 the sort. But if I did — I very dimly realised at 
 that time all that you would become to me. Now I 
 would do anything in my power to keep you as you 
 have been these three years." 
 
 Lee almost relented; but her conscience was in 
 a state of abnormal activity. It had reminded her 
 that she had talked her husband over with another 
 man, and that the act was both disloyal and in bad 
 taste. She would have given all she possessed to 
 return her confidences where they belonged, much 
 as she had needed the relief. She hated Randolph 
 Montgomery and she hated herself. So she stamped 
 her foot at Cecil. 
 
 "I wish you would let me alone," she exclaimed. 
 "If I feel like it later I '11 explain, but I won't say 
 another word to-night." 
 
 There was really nothing for Cecil to do but to gc 
 out and bang the door, so he went out and banged it 
 
 485 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 LEE slept more soundly that night than she had 
 expected, and awoke the next morning feel- 
 ing very much ashamed of herself. Her determina- 
 tion to leave England for a time was unaltered, but 
 she would have given a great deal to have come to 
 an amicable understanding with Cecil. She had 
 treated him abominably, and he was the last person 
 she desired to wound. When she was in exactly the 
 right temper she would make herself as legible to 
 him as she could, and, as he was the quickest of 
 men, he would understand as much as any mere man 
 could, and would agree that the separation — she 
 might reduce it to six months — was advisable for 
 them both. He would do a good deal of thinking 
 during her absence and the result could not fail to 
 be happy. 
 
 She went out on the moor to luncheon and was 
 so amiable and charming and so pointedly bent upon 
 charming no man but her husband that Cecil's brow 
 cleared and he sunned himself in her presence. But 
 he was seriously disturbed, and she saw it. She 
 had awakened him roughly out of what was doubt- 
 less beginning to look like a dream, and he was not 
 the man to close his eyes again until he had quite 
 
 286 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 determined of what stuff his dreams were made- 
 But when they were alone he pointedly avoided the 
 subject. 
 
 The Gearys arrived next morning, and it seemed 
 to Lee that the whole Abbey was filled with Coralie's 
 light laughter. She wanted to see everything at 
 once, and the four Californians spent the entire day 
 moving restlessly over the house and grounds. 
 
 "Just think," cried Coralie, flitting about the 
 ghostly gloom of the crypt. " I 'm in an Abbey — an 
 old stone thing a thousand years old — oh! well, 
 never mind, a few hundred years more or less don't 
 matter. It "s old, and it 's stone, and it 's carved, 
 and it 's haunted, and grey-hooded friars were once 
 just where I am. I think it's lovely. Isn't it, 
 Ned? Isn't it?" 
 
 But Mr. Geary smiled with the true Californian's 
 mere toleration of all things non-Californian. 
 Coralie knew that smile, and tossed her head. 
 
 " Well, thank Heaven I 'm not quite so provincial 
 as that ! " she cried with sarcasm. " I 'm going to 
 keep you abroad three years. / never in my life saw 
 any one so improved as Randolph. " 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Geary coloured angrily and strode 
 off in a huff. 
 
 "Tell me some more," demanded Coralie. "Don't 
 slam the door, Teddy. Hasn't there ever really 
 been a hooded friar seen stalking through this crypt 
 at night ? " 
 
 "They do say — You know all the dead earls lie 
 here for a week ; and on alternate nights the tenantry 
 and the servants sit up. Those people are supersti- 
 
 387 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 tious, and they vow that they see shadowy forms 
 way over there; of course lamps are hung on the 
 columns near by — perhaps I can show you a whole 
 chest full of the silver lamps that have been used 
 for centuries. They make the rest of the crypt 
 fairly black, and it is easy enough to imagine any- 
 thing. The interment always takes place at mid- 
 night, by torchlight, even when there is a moon; 
 and there is popularly supposed to be an old abbot 
 telling his beads just behind the procession." 
 
 "How simply gorgeous! Of course I don't want 
 Lord Barnstaple to die, but I should love to be in at 
 that sort of thing. When Mr. Geary died of course 
 he was just laid out in the back parlour — drawing- 
 room I shall always call it hereafter; poor Mrs. 
 Geary has never been out of California since she 
 left the immortal South — and he really did look so 
 uninteresting, and his casket was so hideously ex- 
 pensive. But an earl — laid out in a crypt — of an 
 ancient Abbey — with tenantry kneeling round and 
 shivering at hooded friars in the background — I 'm 
 really alive for the first time! Is there an Abbey 
 we could rent anywhere? I 'd only want it for 
 about six months, but I 'd have a simply heavenly 
 time so long as the novelty lasted.' 1 
 
 " It would take you six months to get used to the 
 size of it," said Randolph, "and by the time it had 
 begun to fit perhaps you would feel that everything 
 else was commonplace. " He spoke to Coralie, but 
 he looked at Lee. 
 
 She smiled and brought her lashes together. 
 " Sometimes there are things one wants more than 
 
 288 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 magnificence," she said. "Well — Emmy must bt 
 awake. I'll go and speak to her about Tom." 
 
 For Tom was in London and had asked his sistei 
 to make known that he desired an invitation to the 
 Abbey, and had come to England merely to look 
 upon its future ch&telaine. 
 
 Lee found Lady Barnstaple in one of her freshest 
 and fluffiest wrappers and in one of her ugliest 
 tempers — attributable doubtless to the fact that Mr. 
 Pix, after three days of hard shooting, had been 
 obliged to go to London on business, and had not 
 yet returned. 
 
 "Ask all California if you like," she said crossly, 
 ■' but tell them to keep out of my way. I know their 
 airs of old. " 
 
 " It 's not at all likely that your guests would put 
 on airs with you. For the matter of that you have 
 the rank that all good Americans approve of — " 
 
 "Some people are putting on airs with me," said 
 Lady Barnstaple darkly. 
 
 This was an obvious opportunity to approach a 
 delicate subject, but Lee shrank from it. Moreover, 
 the thing would have run its natural course before 
 her return and one more unpleasantness been 
 avoided. Lady Mary's advice was wise and appealed 
 to her present craving for a long period of irrespon- 
 sibility. So she said instead : 
 
 " I think of going to California for a visit — 
 with Mrs. Montgomery, about the middle of 
 October. " 
 
 Lady Barnstaple raised her eyes and stared at 
 her daughter-in-law. Even in the pink light it was 
 19 289 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 evident that she changed colour. She dropped hef 
 eyes suddenly. 
 
 "California is a long way off," she said dryly. 
 "I wonder Cecil consents; but these little separa- 
 tions are always advisable. How long shall you 
 stay ? " 
 
 "A year, possibly. I am going to take Mary 
 Gifford with me if Mrs. Montgomery will invite her 
 • — as of course she will." 
 
 "Oh, do marry her to Randolph Montgomery! 
 It would be an act of charity." 
 
 " How pleased she would be ! But I think it can 
 be managed, particularly as Tiny likes her; and 
 Mrs. Montgomery would be sure to fall in love with 
 her and conceive it her mission to modify her 
 voice. " 
 
 "Well, I hope she'll stay in California. I'm 
 sick of her. I 'm sick of the rudeness of English 
 people, anyhow. " 
 
 " You have cultivated their rudeness with a good 
 deal of energy. It seems to me that most Ameri- 
 cans cultivate that attribute more successfully than 
 they cultivate any others of the many English attri- 
 butes they admire so profoundly," Lee observed. 
 
 "Well, I wish you'd let me alone!" shrieked 
 Lady Barnstaple. "Don't speak another word to 
 me to-day." 
 
 Lee hastily retreated and sent off a telegram to 
 Tom, then went out in search of the others. She 
 found them by the lake feeding the swans. 
 
 "The swans and the peacocks make it all just 
 perfect ! " cried Coralie. " I want Ned to sit up all 
 
 290 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 night with me in the crypt to see if there won't be 
 a ghost, and he won't do it." 
 
 "As if there were such things," said Mr. Geary 
 disdainfully. 
 
 Lee turned to Randolph. "You look a whole 
 generation older than Ned," she said, with the sen- 
 sation of having just made the discovery of how 
 much improved he was. " I believe you could almost 
 bring yourself to believe in a ghost." 
 
 He smiled and opened her parasol. " And you, I 
 am afraid, have taken on at least a century — without 
 being aware of the fact. I am afraid you will realise 
 it when you return to California." 
 
 " I want California more and more every day." 
 
 " We shall see. The changes of association are 
 very subtle. I can only hope they are not so deeply 
 wrought in you as they sometimes appear to be — 
 that you will really enjoy your year in California, I 
 mean." 
 
 They were walking toward the fell, and the others 
 were some distance behind. 
 
 " I am going to ask Aunty to invite Mary Gifford 
 to go back with us. She is my best friend here and 
 she is simply dying for a change." 
 
 " I am sure mother will be delighted. She will 
 undertake her reformation at once." 
 
 " That is what I told Emmy. How do you like 
 her — Mary, I mean?" 
 
 " She interests me very much, if only to see how 
 wide she can open her mouth." 
 
 " No, but seriously — Mary is such a problem to 
 me." 
 
 291 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "Well, she's a beauty, like a blue and white moon- 
 light in mid-winter ; and has a tantalising sort of elu- 
 siveness. I detest Englishwomen as a rule, but I 
 never met a woman before who talked so loud and at 
 the same time suggested an almost exaggerated 
 shrinking and modesty. The combination is certainly 
 striking." 
 
 " It is n't that she 's really cold," said Lee, with the 
 deep subtlety of her sex, " but she 's never met the 
 right man. I only hope she won't fall in love with 
 you, but she admires you tremendously." 
 
 " Ah ! " 
 
 " Do pay her a lot of compliments and show her a 
 lot of little attentions ; Englishwomen get so tired of 
 doing all the work. But don't make love to her." 
 
 " I have no intention of making love to her," said 
 Randolph ; but if he had a deeper meaning he kept 
 it out of his eyes — those eyes which had lost their 
 nervous facility of expression, and rarely looked other- 
 wise than cold and grey and thoughtful. 
 
 Tom arrived next morning, talkative, restless, and 
 irresponsible ; but although he frankly avowed him- 
 self as much in love as ever, he hastened to add that 
 he would not mention it any oftener than he could 
 help. For several days Lee neglected the other 
 guests and devoted herself to her old friends. The 
 last three had certainly brought the breezes of the 
 Pacific with them, and they talked California until 
 Lady Mary, who had joined them several times, de- 
 clared she could stand it no longer. 
 
 " I '11 go with you gladly if Mrs. Montgomery will 
 take me ; and I intend to make love to her, you may 
 
 2Q3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 be sure," she said to Lee, " but I really can't stand 
 feeling so out of it. And besides you are all so in' 
 timate and happy together, it 's almost a sin to in- 
 trude. You 're looking much brighter since they 
 came." 
 
 " It has done me good to see them again, and it 's 
 made me want to go back more than ever." 
 
 " I can understand. But it 's a pity Cecil can't go 
 with you. He 's looking rather glum. Is that what 's 
 the matter with him ? " 
 
 ■' I am not sure," said Lee uneasily. " I 'm going 
 to have a talk with him on Sunday. I did say some- 
 thing about it on Monday night, but of course — 
 well " 
 
 "It's hard to persuade an English husband that 
 he 's got to conform to the American habit of matri- 
 monial vacations and plenty of them." Lady Mary 
 laughed. " Speaking of vacations, Mr. Pix is taking 
 rather a long one, but I believe he returns on Monday. 
 I can't quite make out, but I fancy the men have rather 
 snubbed him — as much as they decently can. He 
 must feel frightfully out of it. I only hope he won't 
 Jose his temper. He 's got a nasty one, and if he let it 
 go he 's underbred enough to shriek out anything. I 
 saw with my own eyes that Lord Barnstaple avoided 
 playing with him the night before he left. Of course 
 Lord Barnstaple carried it off as he does everything, 
 but I think the man noticed it all the same." 
 
 " Then I wish he had pride enough to keep out of 
 the house, but of course he has n't." 
 
 " Your Californians now are so different. They are 
 
 quite comme ilfaut " 
 
 293 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " Mary Gifford, you are really intolerably rude ! " 
 " Upon my word I don't mean to be. And as you 
 know, I want to marry one." She paused a moment, 
 then raised her cold blue eyes to Lee's. " I too have a 
 will of my own," she announced, " and when I make 
 up my mind to do a thing I do it. I am going to 
 marry Mr. Montgomery, and whether you go back to 
 California or not I am going with my future mother- 
 in-law." 
 
 " Of course I shall go; and it is seldom that a 
 woman — particularly a beauty — fails to get a man if 
 she makes up her mind to it He is interested; 
 there's that much gained." 
 
 •9+ 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 MRS. MONTGOMERY arrived the next day 
 without Tiny, whose children were ailing. 
 As the following day was Sunday, and as Mrs. Mont- 
 gomery would hardly let Lee out of her sight, the 
 definite understanding with Cecil had to be post- 
 poned. She had seen practically nothing of him 
 since Tuesday. Mr. Geary and Mr. Brannan laughed 
 at the bare idea of tramping about all day carrying a 
 heavy gun, nor did they, nor Coralie, fancy the idea 
 of luncheon on the moor. They wanted Lee to 
 themselves, and they had a little picnic every day. 
 Mrs. Montgomery was too old for picnics, and Lady 
 Mary announced her intention of taking the good 
 lady on her own hands. Before sunset she had be- 
 wildered and fascinated her victim, and by noon the 
 next day had received the desired invitation. 
 
 " I wish I could have had the bringing up of her," 
 said Mrs. Montgomery earnestly to Lee. "She's 
 really very peculiar, and has shockingly bad man- 
 ners, but with it all she is high-bred; it's really 
 very strange. With us it 's either one thing or the 
 other. And she 's so sweet. I 'm sure if I scold her 
 a little after a while she won't mind it a bit." 
 
 "I 'm sure she '11 take it like an angel," said Lee, 
 295 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 who had told Mary what she was to expect, and could 
 still hear that young lady's loud delighted laugh. 
 "And be sure you 're good to her. She 's very 
 much alone in the world." 
 
 Lee's conscience hurt her less at this deliberate 
 scheming than it might have done a few weeks 
 since, for she had by this time convinced herself 
 that Mary was really in love with Randolph; and 
 she was certainly a wife of whom any man might 
 be proud. 
 
 On Tuesday evening as Lee and her friends were 
 descending the fell — on whose broad summit they 
 had laughed the afternoon away, and Lee had been 
 petted and flattered to her heart's content — she 
 paused suddenly and put her hand above her eyes. 
 Far away, walking slowly along the ridge of hillocks 
 that formed the southeastern edge of the moor, was 
 a man whose carriage, even at that distance, was 
 familiar. She stared hard. It was certainly CeciL 
 He was alone, and, undoubtedly, thinking. She 
 made up her mind in an instant. 
 
 "I see Cecil," she said. "I'm going to bring 
 him home. You go on to the Abbey." And she 
 hurried away. ' 
 
 Doubtless he had been there for some time, and 
 had sought the solitude deliberately : the men were 
 shooting miles away; apparently even sport had 
 failed him. She made tight little fists of her hands. 
 Her morbidity had not outlasted the night of her 
 momentous interview with her husband, but her old 
 friends had both satisfied her longings for previous 
 conditions, and rooted her desire for a few months' 
 
 296 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 freedom. It was true that, with the exception of 
 Randolph, they bored her a little at times, but the 
 fact remained that they symbolised the freest and 
 most brilliant part of her life, and that they were in 
 delightful accord with the lighter side of her nature. 
 Cecil, outlined against the sky over there in the 
 purple, alone, and, beyond a doubt, perturbed and 
 unhappy, made her feel as cruel and selfish as she 
 could feel in her present mood. She rebelled against 
 the serious conversation before her, and wondered if 
 she had slipped from her heights forever. They had 
 been very pleasant. 
 
 Cecil saw her coming and met her half-way. She 
 smiled brilliantly, slipped her hand in his, and 
 kissed him. 
 
 "You are thinking it over," she said, with the 
 directness that he liked. 
 
 " I have been thinking about a good many things. 
 I have been wondering how I could have lived with 
 you for three years and known you so little. I hardly 
 knew you the other night at all, and I never believed 
 that you would care to leave me. " 
 
 " Cecil ! You are so serious. You take things so 
 tragically. I cant look at it as you do, because I 
 have seen women going to Europe all my life with- 
 out their husbands. One would think I was wanting 
 to get a divorce ! " 
 
 " Are you trying to make me feel that I am n.ak- 
 ing an ass of myself? I think you know that I have 
 my own ideas about most things, and that I am not 
 in the least ashamed of them. I married you to 
 live with you, to keep you here beside me so long as 
 
 ?97 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 we both lived. I have no understanding of and no 
 patience with any other sort of marriage. And I 
 think you knew when you accepted me that I had 
 not the making of an American husband in me. " 
 
 " I never deluded myself for a moment. And you 
 must admit that I have been English enough ! Be- 
 lieve me when I say that a brief relapse on my part 
 is necessary " 
 
 " I cannot understand your having a ' relapse ' 
 unless you are tired of me." 
 
 " I am not in the least tired of you ; no one could 
 ever tire of you. It is all so subtle " 
 
 " Don't talk verbiage, please. There are no sub- 
 tleties that can't be turned into black and white if 
 you choose to do it. I can quite understand your 
 being homesick for California, and I 've fully in- 
 tended to take you back some day. But you might 
 wait. I have kept you pretty hard at the grind, and 
 if it were not for all the political work I 've got to 
 do this autumn and winter, I 'd take you over to the 
 Continent for a few months. And after a year or 
 two we shall do a great deal of travelling, I hope : I 
 want more and more to study the colonies." 
 
 " That is one reason I thought it best to go now 
 — you are going to be so busy you won't miss me at 
 all. When you 're travelling about, speaking here 
 and speaking there, you '11 be surrounded by men all 
 the time. You won't need me in the least" 
 
 " It is always the greatest possible pleasure to me 
 to know that you are where I can see you at any 
 moment, and that you have no interests apart from 
 my own." 
 
 298 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "That is just the point. I should like a few 
 trifling ones for a time. If you want it in plain 
 English, here it is — I want to be an Individual for 
 just one year. I made a great effort to surrender 
 all I had to you, and you must admit that I was a 
 success. But reaction is bound to come sooner or 
 later, and that is what is the matter with me. " 
 
 Cecil stood still and looked at her. "Oh," he 
 remarked. "That is it? Why didn't you say so 
 at once ? I ought to have expected it, I suppose. I 
 saw what you were before I married you — about the 
 worst spoiled woman I had ever met in my life. But 
 you had brains and character, and you loved me. I 
 hoped for everything." 
 
 "And you can't be so ungrateful as to say that 
 you have been disappointed." 
 
 " No. I certainly have not been — up to a week 
 ago : I thought you the most perfect woman God ever 
 made." 
 
 Lee flushed with pleasure and took his hand 
 again. 
 
 "I wouldn't make you unhappy for the world," 
 she said. " Only I thought I could show you that it 
 was for the best. We are what we are. Brain and 
 will and love can do a great deal, an immense 
 amount, but it can't make us quite over. We bolt 
 our original self under and he gnaws at the lock and 
 gets out sooner or later. The best way is to give 
 him his head for a little and then he will go back 
 
 and be quiet for a long time again. But " she 
 
 hesitated for so long a time that Cecil, who had 
 been ramming his stick into the ground, turned and 
 
 299 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 looked at her. "If I can't make you agree with 
 me," she said, "I won't go." 
 
 "But you would stay unwillingly." 
 
 " Oh, I do want to go ! " 
 
 " Then go, by all means, " he said. 
 
 $so 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 DURING the following week Lee was not so 
 absorbed in her friends that she would have 
 been oblivious to a certain discomposure of the 
 Abbey's atmosphere, even had Mary Gifford not 
 called her attention to it. Some of the guests had 
 given place to others, but the Pixes, Lady Marys 
 and the Californians still remained. Of course they 
 were all scattered during the day, but the evenings 
 were spent in the great drawing-room and adjoining 
 boudoirs and billiard-room, and it was obvious to 
 the most indifferent that there was a discord in the 
 usual harmony of the Abbey at this season. Lady 
 Barnstaple's temper had never been more uncertain, 
 but no one minded that : Emmy was always sure to 
 be amusing, whether deliberately or otherwise ; that 
 was her r61e. Nor was any one particularly dis- 
 turbed by the increased acidity of Lord Barnstaple's 
 remarks ; for when a man is clever he must be given 
 his head, as Captain Monmouth had remarked shortly 
 before he left; "and some pills are really cannon 
 balls," he had added darkly. 
 
 Mr. Pix was the disturbing element. He had 
 managed to keep an effective shade over the light 
 of his commonness in London, for he did not go 
 out too much and was oftener in Paris. Moreover, 
 Victoria, who was painfully irreproachable, had 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 provided a sort of family reputation on which he 
 travelled. But in the fierce and unremitting light 
 of a house-party he revealed himself, and it was evi- 
 dent that he was aware of the fact ; his assumption 
 of ease and of the manner to which his fellow-guests 
 were born grew more defiant daily, and there were 
 times when his brow was dark and heavy. Every- 
 body wondered why he did not leave. He handled 
 his gun clumsily, and with manifest distaste, and it 
 was plain that he had not so much as the seedling of 
 the passion for sport. Nevertheless he stuck to it, 
 and asserted that he longed for October that he might 
 distinguish himself in the covers. 
 
 If the man had succeeded in giving himself an 
 acceptable veneer, or if he had had the wit to make 
 himself useful financially to the men with whom he 
 aspired to associate, he would have gone down as 
 others of his gilded ilk had gone down; but, as it 
 was, every man in the Abbey longed to kick him, 
 and they snubbed him as pointedly as in common 
 courtesy to their host they could. 
 
 " I am actually uneasy," said Lady Mary to Lee 
 one evening as they stood apart for a moment in 
 the drawing-room. The guests looked unconcerned 
 enough. They were talking and laughing, some pre- 
 tending to fight for their favourite tables; while in 
 the billiard-room across the hall a half-dozen of the 
 younger married women were romping about the 
 table, shrieking their laughter. But Victoria Pix, 
 looking less like a marble than usual, stood alone in 
 a doorway intently regarding her brother, who was 
 also conspicuously alone. And although Emmy was 
 
 302 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 flitting about as usual, there was an angry light in her 
 eyes and an ugly compression of her lips. 
 
 " I wish it were the last of September," replied 
 Lee. 
 
 " So do I — or that we were in California. I feel 
 as if some one had a lighted fuse in his hand and was 
 hunting for dynamite. It's really terrible to think 
 what might happen if that man lost his temper and 
 opened his mouth." 
 
 " I don't want to think of it. And where there 
 are so many people nothing is really likely to happen ; 
 there are so many small diversions." 
 
 But she broached the subject to Cecil as they were 
 walking along the corridors to their tower some 
 hours later. Apparently they were the best of friends 
 again, for Cecil was not the man to do anything by 
 halves. He had not even returned to the subject; 
 and if he were still wounded and unquiet he gave no 
 sign. 
 
 " I wish that horrid Mr. Pix would go," said Lee 
 tentatively. " He "s so out of it, I wonder he 
 does n't." 
 
 " I can't imagine what he came for. I never saw 
 a man look such an ass on the moors." 
 
 " He must get on your father's nerves." 
 
 " I fancy he does. I suppose Emmy asked him 
 here. She could hardly avoid it, she 's so intimate 
 with Miss Pix. By the way, that woman actually 
 talked at dinner to-night ; you may not have noticed, 
 but I had her on my left; I suppose I'm in Emmy's 
 bad graces for some reason or other. But she really 
 seemed bent on making herself entertaining. She 
 
 3°3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 has something in her head, I fancy. If less of it were 
 snobbery she would n't be half bad." 
 
 " Fancy what you escaped. If you had never 
 come to America they might have married you to 
 the Pixes." 
 
 " The person has yet to be born who could do my 
 marrying for me," said Cecil; and there was no doubt 
 that he knew himself. 
 
 304 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE next afternoon as Lee was taking tea with 
 the other guests in the library she happened 
 to glance out of the window, and saw Lord Barnstaple 
 returning from the moors, alone. It was an unusual 
 occurrence, for he was an ardent and vigorous sports- 
 man. Ten minutes later she became aware that 
 a servant in the corridor was endeavouring to attract 
 her attention. She went out at once and closed the 
 door. The servant told her that Lord Barnstaple 
 desired an interview with her in his own sitting-room ; 
 he feared interruptions in her boudoir. 
 
 Lee went rapidly to his rooms, curious and un- 
 easy. She felt very much like running away, but 
 Lord Barnstaple had been consistently kind to her, 
 and was justified in demanding what return she could 
 give him. 
 
 He was walking up and down, and his eyebrows 
 were more perturbed than supercilious. 
 
 " I want to know if you will give me a little help," 
 he said abruptly. 
 
 " Of course I will do anything I can." 
 
 " I want that bounder, Pix, put out of this house. 
 
 I can't stand him another day without insulting him, 
 
 and of course I don't want to do that But he is 
 
 Emmy's guest and she can get rid of him — I don't 
 
 20 305 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 care how she does it. Of course I can't speak to 
 her; she would be in hysterics before I was half 
 through; and would keep him here to spite me." 
 
 " And you want me to speak to her? " 
 
 " I 'm not asking you to undertake a very pleasant 
 task ; but you 're the only person who has the least 
 influence over her, except Cecil — and I don't care to 
 speak to him about it." 
 
 " But what am I to say to her? What excuse? " 
 
 Lord Barnstaple wheeled about sharply. " Can't 
 you think of any?" he asked. 
 
 Lee kept her face immobile, but she turned away 
 her eyes. 
 
 Lord Barnstaple laughed. " Unless you are blind 
 you can see what is becoming plain enough," he said 
 harshly. " I 've seen him hanging about for some 
 time, but it never occurred to me that he might be 
 her lover until lately. I don't care a hang about her 
 and her lovers, but she can't bring that sort to the 
 Abbey." 
 
 " I can tell her that everybody is talking and that 
 the women are hinting that unless she drops him 
 she'll be dropped herself." 
 
 " Quite so. You '11 have a nasty scene. It is good 
 of you to undertake it without making me argue my- 
 self hoarse." 
 
 " I am one of you ; you must know that I would 
 willingly do anything for the family interests that I 
 could." 
 
 " You do belong to us," said Lord Barnstaple with 
 some enthusiasm. "And that is what Emmy has 
 never done for a moment. By the way," he hesi- 
 
 306 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 tated, " I hate to mention it now, it looks as if I were 
 hastening to reward you ; but the fact is I had made 
 up my mind to give you my wife's jewels. They are 
 very fine, and Emmy does not even know of theif 
 existence. I suppose it would have been rather de- 
 cent of me to have given them to you long ago: 
 but " 
 
 Lee nodded to him, smiling sympathetically. 
 
 " Yes," he said, " I hated to part with them. But 
 I shan't mind your having them. I'll write to my 
 solicitors at once to send them down ; I 've got to 
 pass the time somehow. For Heaven's sake come 
 back and tell me how she takes it." 
 
 " I don't suppose I shall be long. I have n't thanked 
 you. Of course I shall be delighted to have the 
 jewels." 
 
 " You ought to have the Barnstaple ones, but she *8 
 capable of outliving the whole of us." 
 
 307 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 AS Lee walked along the many corridors to her 
 mother-in-law's rooms she reflected that she 
 was grateful Lord Barnstaple had not refrained from 
 mentioning the diamonds: their vision was both 
 pleasing and sustaining. She was obliged to give 
 serious thought to the coming interview, but they 
 glittered in the background and poured their sooth- 
 ing light along her nerves. 
 
 Lady Barnstaple had but just risen from her after- 
 noon nap and was drinking her tea. She looked 
 cross and dishevelled. 
 
 " Do sit down," she said, as Lee picked up a porce- 
 lain ornament from the mantel and examined it. " I 
 hate people to stand round in spots." 
 
 Lee took a chair opposite her mother-in-law. She 
 was the last person to shirk a responsibility when she 
 faced the point. 
 
 " You have seemed very nervous lately," she said. 
 *' Is anything tire matter? " 
 
 " Yes, everything is. I wish I could simply hurt 
 some people. I 'd go a long ways aside to do it. 
 What right have these God-Almighty English to put 
 on such airs, anyhow? One person's exactly as 
 good as another. I come from a free country and I 
 like it." 
 
 308 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I wonder you have deserted it for five-and-twenty 
 years. But it is still there." 
 
 "Oh, I don't doubt you'd like to get rid of me. 
 But you won't. I 've worn myself out getting to the 
 top, and on the top I '11 stay. I 'd be just nothing in 
 New York. And Chicago — good Lord ! " 
 
 " You 've stepped down two or three rungs, and if 
 you 're not careful you '11 find yourself at the foot — " 
 
 " What do you mean?" screamed Lady Barnstaple. 
 " I 've half a mind to throw this teacup at you." 
 
 " Don't you dare to throw anything at me. I should 
 have a right to speak even if I did not consider your 
 own interest — which I do; please believe me. 
 Surely you must know that Mr. Fix has hurt you." 
 
 " I 'd like to know why I can't have a lover as well 
 as anybody else." 
 
 " Do you mean to acknowledge that he is your 
 lover?" 
 
 " It 's none of your business whether he is or not ! 
 And I 'm not going to be dictated to by you or any- 
 body else." 
 
 Lady Barnstaple was too nervous and too angry to 
 be cowed by the cold blue blaze before her, but she 
 asserted herself the more defiantly. 
 
 " I have no intention of dictating to you, but it 
 certainly is my business. And it 's Lord Barnstaple's 
 and Cecil's — " 
 
 " You shut up your mouth," screamed Lady Barn- 
 staple ; her language always revealed its pristine sim- 
 plicity when her nerves were fairly galloping. " The 
 idea of a brat like you sitting up there and lecturing 
 me. And what do you know about it, I 'd like to 
 
 3°9 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 know? You 're married to the salt of the earth and 
 you 're such a fool you 're tired of him already. If 
 you 'd been tied up for twenty years to a cold-blooded 
 brute like Barnstaple you might — yes, you might 
 have a little more charity " 
 
 " I am by no means without charity, and I know 
 that you are not happy. I wish you were ; but surely 
 there are better ways of consoling oneself " 
 
 "Are there? Well, I don't know anything about 
 them and I guess you don't know much more. I was 
 pretty when I married Barnstaple, and I was really in 
 love with him, if you want to know it. He was such 
 a real swell, and I was so ambitious, I admired him 
 to death ; and he was so indifferent he fascinated me. 
 But he never even had the decency to pretend he 
 had n't married me for my money. He 's never so 
 much as crossed my threshold, if you want to know 
 the truth." 
 
 " People say he was in love with his first wife, and 
 took her death very much to heart. Perhaps that 
 was it." 
 
 " That was just it. He 's got her picture hanging 
 up in his bedroom ; won't even have it in his sitting- 
 room for fear somebody else might look at it. I went 
 to see him once out of pure charity, when he was ill 
 in bed and he shouted at me to get out before I 'd 
 crossed the threshold. But I saw her." 
 
 " I must say I respect him more for being perfectly 
 honest, for not pretending to love you. After all, it 
 v/as a square business transaction: he sold you a 
 good position and a prospective title. You 've both 
 
 got a good deal out of it " 
 
 310 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I hate him ! I hate a good many people in Eng- 
 land, but I hate him the most. I 'm biding my time, 
 but when I do strike there won't be one ounce of 
 starch left in him. I 'd do it this minute if it was n't 
 for Cecil. What right has he got to stick his nose 
 into my affairs and humiliate the only man that ever 
 really loved me " 
 
 " If you mean Mr. Pix, it seems to me that Lord 
 Barnstaple has restrained himself as only a gentle- 
 man can. He is a very fastidious man, and you 
 surely cannot be so blind as not to see how an 
 underbred " 
 
 " Don't you dare ! " shrieked Lady Barnstaple. 
 She sprang to her feet, overturning the tea-table and 
 ruining her pink velvet carpet. " He 's as good as 
 anybody, I tell you, and so am I. I 'm sick and tired 
 of airs — that cad's that's ruined me and your ridi- 
 culous Southern nonsense. I'm not blind! I can 
 see you look down on me because I ain't connected 
 with your old broken aristocracy! What does it 
 amount to, I 'd like to know ? There *s only one thing 
 that amounts to anything on the face of this earth 
 and that 's money. You can turn up your nose at 
 Chicago but I can tell you Chicago 'd turn up its nose 
 at you if it had ever heard of you. You're just a 
 nonentity, with all your airs, and all your eyes too for 
 that matter, and I 'm known on two continents. I 'm 
 the Countess of Barnstaple, if I was — but it's none 
 of yours or anybody else's business who I was. I'm 
 somebody now and somebody I 'm going to stay. If 
 I 've gone down three rungs I '11 climb up again — I 
 Willi I will! I will! And I can't! I can't ! I can't ! 
 
 3' 1 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 I have n't a penny left ! Not a penny ! Not a penny ! 
 I 'm going to kill myself " 
 
 Lee jumped up, caught her by the shoulders and 
 literally shook the hysterics out of her. Then she 
 sat her violently into a chair. 
 
 " Now ! " she said. " You behave yourself or I '11 
 shake you again. I '11 stand none of your nonsense 
 and I have several things to say to you yet. So keep 
 quiet." 
 
 Lady Barnstaple panted, but she looked cowed. 
 She did not raise her eyes. 
 
 " How long have you been ruined? " 
 
 " I don't know ; a long while." 
 
 "And you are spending Mr. Pix's money?" 
 
 " Yes, I am." 
 
 " Do the Abbey lands pay the taxes and other ex- 
 penses? — and the expenses of the shooting season? " 
 
 "They pay next to nothing. The farms are too 
 small. It 's all woods and moor." 
 
 " Then Mr. Pix is running the Abbey? " 
 
 " Yes he is — and he knows it." 
 
 " And you have no sense of responsibility to the 
 man who has given you the position you were ready 
 to grovel for ? " 
 
 " He 's a beastly cad." 
 
 " If he were not a gentleman he could have man- 
 aged you. But that has nothing to do with it. You 
 have no right to enter a family to disgrace it. I sup- 
 pose it's not possible to make you understand ; but its 
 honour should be your own." 
 
 " I don't care a hang about any such high-falutin' 
 nonsense. I entered this family to get what I wanted, 
 
 312 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 and when it 's got no more to give me it can be the 
 laughing-stock of England for all I care." 
 
 " I thought you loved Cecil," 
 
 The ugly expression which had been deepening 
 about Lady Barnstaple's mouth relaxed for a moment. 
 
 "I do ; but I can't help it. He 's got to go with 
 the rest. I don't know that I care much, though; 
 you 're enough to make me hate him. What I hate 
 more than everything else put together is to give up 
 the Abbey. And you can be sure that after the way 
 Mr. Pix has been treated " 
 
 " Mr. Pix will leave this house to-night. If you 
 don't send him I shall." 
 
 " You 're a fool. If you knew which side your bread 
 was buttered on you 'd make such a fuss over him 
 that everybody else would treat him decently " 
 
 " I have fully identified myself with my husband's 
 family, if you have not, and I shall do nothing 
 to add to its dishonour. There are worse things 
 than giving up the Abbey — which can be rented; 
 it need not be sold. The Gearys would rent it to* 
 morrow." 
 
 " If you think so much of this family I wonder you 
 can make up your mind to leave it." 
 
 Lee hesitated a moment. Then she said : " I shall 
 never leave it so long as it needs me. And it certainly 
 needs somebody just at present. Mr. Pix must leave ; 
 that's the first point. Lord Barnstaple and Cecil 
 must be told just so much and no more. Don't you 
 dare tell them that Mr. Pix has been running the 
 Abbey. You can have letters from Chicago to- 
 morrow saying that you are ruined." 
 
 3 J 3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " If Mr. Pix goes I follow. Unless I can keep the 
 Abbey — and if I 've got to drop out " 
 
 " You can suit yourself about going or remaining. 
 Only don't you tell Lord Barnstaple or anybody else 
 whose money you have been spending." 
 
 " I 'd tell him and everybody else this minute if 
 it weren't for Cecil. He's the only person who's 
 ever really treated me decently. And as for the 
 
 Abbey " 
 
 , She paused so long that Lee received a mental 
 telegram of something still worse to come. As Lady 
 Barnstaple raised her eyes slowly and looked at her 
 with steady malevolence she felt her burning cheeks 
 cool. 
 
 " He would n't have the Abbey, anyhow, you 
 know," said Lady Barnstaple. 
 
 " What do you mean? " 
 
 " I heard you jabbering with Barnstaple and Cecil 
 not long since about the Abbey and its traditions, but 
 either they had n't told you or you had n't thought it 
 worth remembering — that there is a curse on all 
 Abbey lands and that it has worked itself out in this 
 family with beautiful regularity." 
 
 " I never heard of any curse." 
 
 " Well, the priests, or monks, or whatever they 
 were, cursed the Abbey lands when they were turned 
 out. And this is the way the curse works." She 
 paused a moment longer with an evident sense of the 
 dramatic. " They never descend in the direct line," 
 she added with all possible emphasis. 
 
 " I am too American for superstition," but her 
 
 voice had lost its vigour. 
 
 3*4 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " That has n't very much to do with it I 'm merely 
 mentioning facts. I have n't gone into other Abbey 
 family histories very extensively, but I know this one. 
 Never, not in a single instance, has Maundrell Abbey 
 descended from father to son." 
 
 Lee looked away from her for the first time. Her 
 eyes blazed no longer; they looked like cold blue 
 ashes. 
 
 " It is time to break the rule," she said. 
 
 " The rule 's not going to be broken. Either the 
 Abbey will go to a stranger, or Cecil will die before 
 Barnstaple is laid out in the crypt " 
 
 Lee rose. " It is an interesting superstition, but it 
 will have to wait," she said. " I am going now to 
 speak to Mr. Pix — unless you will do it yourself." 
 
 " I '11 do it myself if you '11 be kind enough to mind 
 your business that far." 
 
 " Then I shall go and tell Lord Barnstaple that you 
 have consented " 
 
 "Ah! He sent you, did he? I might have 
 known it." 
 
 Lee bit her lip. "I am sorry — but it doesn't 
 matter. If to-day is a sample of your usual perfor- 
 mances, you can't expect him to court interviews 
 with you." 
 
 " Oh, he 's afraid of me. I could make any man 
 afraid of me, thank Heaven ! " 
 
 315 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 LEE returned to her father-in-law more slowly 
 than she had advanced upon the enemy. She 
 longed desperately for Cecil, but he was the last 
 person in whom she could confide. 
 
 Lord Barnstaple opened the door for her. 
 
 " How pale you are ! " he said. " I suppose I sent 
 you to about the nastiest interview of your life." 
 
 " Oh, I got the best of her. She was screaming 
 about the room and I got tired of it and nearly shook 
 the life out of her." 
 
 Lord Barnstaple laughed with genuine delight. " I 
 knew she'd never get the best of you," he cried. " I 
 knew you 'd trounce her. Well, what else? " 
 
 " She promised to tell Mr. Pix he must go to-night." 
 
 " Ah, you did manage her. How did you do it? " 
 
 * I told her I 'd tell him if she did n't." 
 
 " Good ! But of course she '11 get back at us. 
 What's she got up her sleeve?" 
 
 " I don't think she knows herself. She 's too 
 excited. I think she's upset about a good many 
 things. She seems to have been getting bad news 
 from Chicago this last week or two." 
 
 " Ah ! " Lord Barnstaple walked over to the 
 window. He turned about in a moment. 
 
 316 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 " I have felt a crash in the air for a long time," he 
 said pinching his lips. " But this last year or two 
 her affairs seemed to take a new start, and of course 
 her fortune was a large one and could stand a good 
 
 deal of strain. But if she goes to pieces " he 
 
 spread out his hands. 
 
 " If Cecil and I could only live here all the year 
 round we could keep up the Abbey in a way, particu- 
 larly if you rented the shootings ; but our six months 
 in town take fully two thousand " 
 
 " There 's no alternative, I 'm afraid : we '11 all have 
 to get out." 
 
 " But you would n't sell it? " 
 
 " I shall have to talk it over with Cecil. The rental 
 would pay the expenses of the place; but I can't 
 live forever, and when I give place to him the death 
 duties will make a large hole in his private fortune. 
 I have a good many sins to repent of when my time 
 comes." 
 
 He had turned very pale, and he looked very 
 harassed. Lee did not fling her arms round his neck 
 as she might once have done, but she took his hand 
 and patted it. 
 
 "You and Cecil and I can always be happy 
 together, even without the Abbey," she said. " If 
 Emmy really loses her money she will run away with 
 Mr. Pix or somebody. We three will live together, 
 and forget all about her. And we won't be really 
 poor." 
 
 Lord Barnstaple kissed her and patted her cheek, 
 but his brow did not clear. 
 
 f* I am glad Cecil has you," he said, " the time may 
 3'7 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 come when he will need you badly. He I „.-.* the 
 Abbey — more than I have done, I supp: w, or I 
 should have taken more pains to keep it." 
 
 Lee felt half inclined to tell him of Randolph's 
 promise ; but sometimes she thought she ku.ew Ran- 
 dolph, and sometimes she was sure she did not 
 She had no right to raise hopes, which converse 
 potentialities so nicely balanced. Then slu bethought 
 herself of Emmy's last shot, which had passed out of 
 her memory for the moment. She muat speak of it 
 to some one. 
 
 " She said something terrible to mc just before I 
 left. I 'd like to ask you about it." 
 
 " Do. Why did n't you give her another shaking?" 
 
 "I was knocked out: it took all my energies to 
 keep her from seeing it She said that Abbey lands 
 were cursed, and never descended from father to 
 son." 
 
 Lord Barnstaple dropped her hand and walked to 
 the window again. 
 
 " It has been a curious series of coincidences in our 
 case," he said, " but as our lands were not cursed 
 more vigorously than the others, and as a good many 
 of the others have gone scot free or nearly so, we 
 always hope for better luck next time. There is 
 really no reason why our luck should n't change any 
 day. The old brutes ought to be satisfied, particularly 
 as we 've taken such good care of their bones." 
 
 " Well, if the Abbey has to go, I hope the next 
 people will be haunted out of it," said Lee viciously. 
 " I must go and dress for dinner. Don't worry ; I 
 Have a fine piece of property, and it is likely to increase 
 
 .3x8 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 in value any day." She felt justified in saying this 
 much. 
 
 '* You had an air of bringing good luck with you 
 when you came. It was a fancy, of course, but I 
 remember it impressed me." 
 
 " That is the reason you did n't scold me for not 
 bringing a million, as Emmy did ? " 
 
 u Did she ? The little beast I Well, go and dress." 
 
 319 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 AS Cecil and Lee were descending the tower stair 
 an hour later he said to her : 
 
 " Don't look for me to-night when you are ready 
 to come home; I am coming straight here after 
 dinner. It's high time I got to work on my 
 speeches." 
 
 She slipped her hand into his. " Shall I come too 
 and sit with you ? " 
 
 He returned her pressure and did not answer at 
 once. Then he said : " No ; I think I 'd rather you 
 did n't. If I am to lose you for a year I had better 
 get used to it as soon as possible." 
 
 She lifted her head to tell him that she had no in- 
 tention of leaving him for the present, then felt a per- 
 verse desire to torment him a little longer. She intended 
 to be so charming to him later that she felt she owed 
 that much to herself. But she was dressed to-night 
 for his special delectation. If Cecil had a preference 
 in the matter of her attire it was for transparent white, 
 and she wore a gown of white embroidered mousseline 
 de soie flecked here and there with blue. 
 
 They were still some distance from the door which 
 led into the first of the corridors, for the stair was 
 winding, worn, and steep, and, in spite of several 
 little lamps, almost dark. Cecil paused suddenly and 
 
 3*3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 turned to her, plunging his hands into his pockets. 
 She could hardly see his face, for a slender ray from 
 above lay full across her eyes ; but she had thought, 
 as she had joined him in the sitting-room above a 
 few moments since, that he had never looked more 
 handsome. He grew pale in London, but a few days 
 on the moors always gave him back his tan ; and it 
 had also occurred to her that the past two weeks had 
 given him an added depth of expression, robbed him 
 of a trifle of that serenity which Circumstance had 
 so persistently fostered. 
 
 " There is something I should like to say," he 
 began, with manifest hesitation. " I should n't like 
 you to go on thinking that I have not appreciated 
 your long and unfailing sacrifice during these three 
 years. I was too happy to analyse, I suppose, and 
 you seemed happy too ; but of course I can see now 
 that you were making a deliberate — and noble — 
 attempt — to — to make yourself over, to suppress 
 an individuality of uncommon strength in order to 
 live up to a man's selfish ideal. Of course when I 
 practically suggested it, I knew what I was talking 
 about, but I was too much of a man to realise what 
 it meant — and I had not lived with you. I can 
 assure you that, great as your success was, I have 
 realised, in this past week, that I had absorbed your 
 real self, that I understood you as no man who had 
 lived with you and loved you as much as I — no 
 man to whom you had been so much, could fail to 
 do. I am expressing myself about as badly as pos- 
 sible, but the idea that you should think me so 
 utterly selfish and unappreciative after all you have 
 ai 321 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 given up — have given me — has literally tortured 
 me. I don't wonder you want a fling. Go and have 
 it, but come back to me as soon as you can." 
 
 She made no reply, for she wanted to. say maay 
 things at once. But it is possible that he read some- 
 thing of it in her eyes — at least she prayed a few 
 hours later that he had — for he caught her hard 
 against him and kissed her many times. Then he 
 hurried on, as if he feared she would think he had 
 spoken as a suppliant 
 
 When she joined him in the corridor the Gearys 
 were waiting for them, and Coralie Immediately 
 began to chatter. Her conversation was like a very 
 light champagne, sparkling but not mounting to the 
 brain. Lee felt distinctly bored. She would have 
 liked to dine alone with Cecil and then to spend with 
 him a long evening of mutual explanation and remin- 
 iscence, and many intervals. She answered Coralie 
 at random, and in a few moments her mind reverted 
 with a startled leap to the pregnant hours of the 
 afternoon. Could she keep Cecil ignorant of the dis- 
 grace which had threatened him? Had Pix gone? 
 Would Emmy hold her counsel? She had forgotten 
 to ask Lord Barnstaple to keep away from her; but 
 such advice was hardly necessary. 
 
 " Where on earth did you disappear to this after- 
 noon?" Coralie was demanding. "I hunted over 
 the whole Abbey for you and I got lost and then I 
 tried to talk to that Miss Pix and she asked me all 
 about divorce in the United States — of all things! 
 I wonder if she 's got a husband tucked away some- 
 where — those monumental people are often bigger 
 
 322 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 fools than they look. I told her that American 
 divorces were no good in England unless they were 
 obtained on English statutory grounds — we 'd known 
 some one who 'd tried it. She looked as mad as a 
 hornet, just like her brother for a minute. And he 
 fairly makes me ill, Lee. Just fancy our having such 
 people in the house. I must say that the English 
 with all their blood " 
 
 " Oh, do keep quiet ! " said Lee impatiently. 
 Then she apologised hurriedly. " I have a good 
 deal to think about just now," she added. 
 
 Coralie was gazing at her with a scarlet face. 
 " Well, I think it 's about time you came back to 
 California," she said sarcastically. " Your manners 
 need brushing up." 
 
 But Lee only shrugged her shoulders and refused 
 to humble herself further. She was beset with impa- 
 tience to reach the library and ascertain if Pix had 
 gone. 
 
 He was there. And he was standing apart with 
 his sister. His set thick profile was turned to the 
 door. He was talking, and it was evident that his 
 voice was pitched very low. 
 
 As the company was passing down the corridor 
 which led to the stair just beyond the dining-room, 
 Lady Barnstaple's maid came hastily from the wing 
 beyond and asked Lee to take her ladyship's place at 
 the table. 
 
 It seemed to Lee as the dinner progressed that 
 with a few exceptions every one was in a feverish 
 state of excitement. The exceptions were the Pixes, 
 who barely made a remark, Cecil, who seemed as 
 
 3«3 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 usual and was endeavouring to entertain his neigh- 
 bour, and Lord Barnstaple, whose brow was very 
 dark. Mary Gifford's large laugh barely gave its 
 echoes time to finish, and the others certainly talked 
 even louder and faster than usual. Randolph alone 
 was brilliant and easy, and, to Lee, was manifestly 
 doing what he could to divert the attention of his 
 neighbours. Before the women rose it was quite 
 plain that they were really nervous; and that the 
 influence emanated from Pix. His silence alone 
 would have attracted attention, for it was his habit 
 to talk incessantly in order to conceal his real timid- 
 ity. And he sat staring straight before him, scarcely 
 eating, his heavy features set in an ugly sneer. 
 
 " I 'm on the verge of hysterics," said Mary Gifford 
 to Lee as they entered the drawing-room. "That 
 man 's working himself up to something. He 's a 
 coward and his courage takes a lot of screwing, but 
 he 's getting it to the sticking point as fast as he can, 
 and I met him coming out of Emmy's rooms about 
 an hour before dinner. I ran over to speak to her 
 about something, but I was not admitted. He 
 looked as if they 'd been having a terrible row and 
 he was ready to murder some one. I 'm in a real 
 funk. But if he's meditating a coup de th/dtre we 
 can baulk him for to-night at least. It's a lovely 
 night. Get everybody out of doors and then I '11 see 
 that they scatter. I '11 start a romp the moment the 
 men come out." 
 
 " Good. I '11 send up for shawls at once. I '11 tell 
 Coralie to look after Lord Barnstaple; she always 
 amuses him. Then — I '11 dispose of Mr. Pix." 
 
 324 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 * Oh, I wish I could be there to see. He '11 sizzle 
 and freeze at once, poor wretch. Well, let's get 
 *hem out. I '11 deposit Mrs. Montgomery in the 
 Sevres room, and tell her to look at the crockery 
 and then go to bed." 
 
 Lee had intended to return with Cecil to the tower 
 and inform him that his bitter draught was to be 
 sweetened for the present, but Pix must be dealt with 
 summarily. If she did not get him out of the house 
 before Lord Barnstaple lost his head there would be 
 consequences which even her resolute temper, born 
 of the exigencies of the hour, refused to contemplate. 
 
 The women, pleased with the suggestion of a romp 
 on the moor, strolled, meanwhile, about the lake, 
 looking rather less majestic than the swans, who 
 occasionally stood on their heads as if disdainful of 
 the admiration of mere mortals. When the men 
 entered the drawing-room Lee asked them to go 
 outside immediately, and Coralie placed her hand in 
 Lord Barnstaple's arm and marched him off. 
 
 Lee went down to the crypt with them, then 
 slipped back into the shadows and returned to the 
 drawing-room. Pix had greeted her suggestion with 
 a sneer and a scowl, but it was evident that his plans 
 had been frustrated, and that he was not a man of 
 ready wit. He had sat himself doggedly in a chair, 
 obviously to await the return of Lord Barnstaple and 
 his guests. He sat there alone as Lee re-entered, 
 looking smaller and commoner than usual in the 
 great expanse of the ancient room, with its carven 
 roof that had been blessed and cursed, and the price- 
 less paintings on the panels about him. The Maun- 
 
 325 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 drells of Holbein, and Sir Joshua, and Sir Peter 
 seemed to have raised their eyebrows with super- 
 cilious indignation. He was in accord with nothing 
 but the electric lights. 
 
 As Lee entered he did not rise, but his scowl and 
 his sneer deepened. 
 
 She walked directly up to him, and as he met her 
 eyes he moved slightly. When Lee concentrated all 
 the forces of a strong will in those expressive orbs, 
 the weaker nature they bore upon was liable to an 
 attack of tremulous self-consciousness. She knew 
 the English character; its upper classes had the 
 arrogance of the immortals ; millions might bury but 
 could never exterminate the servility of the lower. 
 Let an aristocrat hold a man's plebeianism hard 
 against his nostrils and the poor wretch would grovel 
 with the overpowering consciousness of it. Lee had 
 determined that nothing short of insolent brutality 
 would dispose of Mr. Pix. And for sheer insolence 
 the true Californian transcends the earth. 
 
 "Why haven't you gone?" she asked as if she 
 were addressing a servant. 
 
 Pix too had his arrogance, the arrogance of riches. 
 Although he turned pale, he replied doggedly : 
 
 " I 'm not ready to go and I don't go until I am. 
 I don't know what you mean." He spoke grammati- 
 cally, but his accent was as irritating as only the 
 underbred accents of England can be. 
 
 " You know what I mean. You saw Lady Barn- 
 staple this afternoon. She told you you must go. 
 We don't want you here." 
 
 " I '11 stay as long as I " 
 
 326 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 "No, my good man, you will not; you will go 
 to-night. I have ordered the carriage for the eleven- 
 ten train to Leeds, where you can stay the night. 
 Your man is packing your box." 
 
 " I won't go," he growled, but his chest was 
 heaving. 
 
 " Oh yes you will, if you have to be assisted into 
 the carriage by two footmen." 
 
 He pulled himself together, although it was 
 evident that his nerves, subjected to a long and 
 severe strain, were giving way, and that the foun- 
 dations of his insolence were weakened by the po- 
 sition in which she had placed him. He said quite 
 distinctly : 
 
 " And who 's going to feed this crowd ? " 
 
 " My husband and myself; and I '11 trouble you 
 for your bill." 
 
 "It's a damned big bill." 
 
 " I think not. I have no concern with what you 
 may have spent elsewhere. I shall ascertain exactly 
 when my mother-in-law's original income ceased and 
 I know quite as well as you do what is spent here ; 
 so be careful you make no mistakes. Now go, my 
 good man, and see that you make no fuss about it." 
 
 The situation would unquestionably have been 
 saved, for the man was confounded and humiliated, 
 but at that moment Lord Barnstaple entered the 
 room. 
 
 " My dear child," he said, " I was a brute to leave 
 this to you. Go out to the others. I will follow in 
 a moment." 
 
 Lee, who was really enjoying herself, wheeled about 
 3 2 7 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 with a frown. " Do go," she said emphatically. " Do 
 go." 
 
 " And leave you to be insulted by a cur who 
 does n't know enough to stand up in your presence. 
 I am not quite so bad as that." He turned to Pix, 
 whose face had become very red ; even his eyeballs 
 were injected. 
 
 " I believe you have been told that you cannot stay 
 here," he said. " I am sorry to appear rude, but — 
 you must go. There are no explanations necessary, 
 and I should prefer that you did not reply. But I 
 insist upon you leaving the house to-night." 
 
 Pix jumped to his feet with hard fists. " Damn 
 you ! Damn you ! " he stuttered hysterically, but 
 excitement giving him courage as he went on : " and 
 what 's going to become of you ? Where '11 you and 
 all this land that makes such a h — 1 of a difference 
 between you and me be this time next year? It'll 
 be mine as it ought to be now ! And where '11 you 
 be? Who'll be paying for your bread and butter? 
 Who'll be paying your gambling debts? They've 
 made a nice item in my expenses, I can tell you ! If 
 you 're going to make your wife's lover pay your debts 
 of honour — as you swells call them — you might at 
 least have the decency to win a little mor 'n you do." 
 
 He finished and stood panting. 
 
 Lord Barnstaple stood like a stone for a moment, 
 then he caught the man by the collar, jerked him to 
 an open window, and flung him out as if he had been 
 a rat He was very strong, as are all Englishmen of 
 his class who spend two-thirds of their lives in the 
 open air, and his face was merely a shade paler as 
 
 3 28 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 he turned to Lee. But she averted her eyes hastily 
 from his, nevertheless. 
 
 "Doubtless that man spoke the truth," he said 
 calmly, " but she must corroborate it," and he went 
 towards the stair beyond the drawing-room that led 
 to his wife's apartments. 
 
 Lee' ran to the window. Pix was sitting up on the 
 walk holding a handkerchief to his face. No one else 
 was in sight. Presently he got to his feet and limped 
 into the house. Lee went to the door opposite the 
 great staircase and saw him toil past : it was evident 
 that he was quite ready to slink away. 
 
 She sat down and put her hand to her eyes. It 
 seemed to her that they must ache forever with what 
 they had caught sight of in Lord Barnstaple's. In 
 that brief glance she had seen the corpse of a gentle- 
 man's pride. 
 
 What would happen ! If Emmy lost her courage, 
 or if her better nature, attenuated as it was, conquered 
 her spite, the situation might still be saved. Lord 
 Barnstaple would be only too willing to receive the 
 assurance that the man, insulted to fury, had lied; 
 and, above all, Cecil need never know. There was 
 no doubt that Lord Barnstaple's deserts were largely 
 of his own invoking, but she set her nails into her 
 palms with a fierce maternal yearning over Cecil. He 
 was blameless, and he was hers. One way or another 
 he should be spared. 
 
 She waited for Lord Barnstaple's return until she 
 could wait no longer. If he were not still with Emmy 
 — and it was not likely that he would prolong the 
 Interview — he must have gone to his rooms by the 
 
 .329 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 upper corridors. She went rapidly out of the draw- 
 ing-room and up the stair. She could not be re- 
 garded as an intruder and she must know the worst 
 to-night. What would Lord Barnstaple do if Emmy 
 had confessed the truth ? She tried to persuade her- 
 self that she had not the least idea. 
 
 330 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 HE was sitting at his desk writing; and as he 
 lifted his hand at her abrupt entrance and 
 laid it on an object beside his papers she received no 
 shock of surprise. She went forward and lifted his 
 hand from the revolver. 
 
 " Must you ? " she asked. 
 
 " Of course I must. Do you think I could live 
 with myself another day ? " 
 
 " Perhaps no one need ever know." 
 
 " Everybody in England will know before a week 
 is over. She gave me to understand that people 
 guessed it already." 
 
 " This seems such a terrible alternative to a woman 
 — but " 
 
 " But you have race in you. You understand 
 perfectly. My honour has been sold, and my pride 
 is dead : there is no place among men for what is 
 left of me. And to face my son again ! Good God ! " 
 
 " Can nothing be done to keep it from Cecil ? " 
 
 " Nothing. It is the only heritage I leave him and 
 he '11 have to stand it as best he can. It won't kill 
 him, nor his courage ; he 's made of stronger stuff than 
 that. And if I 've brought the family honour to the 
 dust, he has it in him to raise it higher than it has 
 ever been. Never let him forget that. You've 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 played your part well all along, but you 've a great 
 deal more to do yet. You '11 find that Fate did n't 
 steer you into this family to play the pretty r61e of 
 tountess " 
 
 "I am equal to my part." 
 
 " Yes : I think you are. Now — I have an hour's 
 fcrork before me. I can't let you go till I have finished. 
 You are a strong creature — but you are a woman, 
 all the same. You must stay here until I am ready to 
 let you go." 
 
 " I want to stay with you." 
 
 " Thank you. Sit down." 
 
 He handed her a chair, and returned to his writing. 
 
 Lee knew that if he had condemned her to the 
 corridor under a vow of secrecy she should have 
 paced up and down with increasing nervousness. But 
 she felt calm enough beside him. He wrote deliber- 
 ately, with a steady hand, and out of the respect he 
 commanded she felt as profound a pity for him as she 
 would feel when she stood beside him in the crypt. 
 The soul had already gone out of him: it did not 
 even strike her as eerie that the vigorous body beside 
 her would demand its last rites in an hour. 
 
 Although taught to forgive her father, she had been 
 brought up in a proper disapprobation of suicide. 
 The impressions rooted in her plastic years rose and 
 possessed her for a moment; but she wisely refused 
 to consider what was none of her business. She did 
 not even argue Lord Barnstaple's case, nor remind 
 herself that she understood him. It was exclusively 
 his own affair, and to approve or condemn him was 
 equally impertinent. 
 
 332 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 Her chair faced the window. The crystal moon 
 hung low above the park. The woods looked old 
 and dark : night gave them back their mystery. The 
 lovely English landscape was steeped in the repose 
 which the centuries had given it. The great forests 
 and terrible mountains of California may have been 
 born in earlier throes, but they still brooded upon the 
 mysteries of the future. England was worn down to 
 peace and calm by centuries of passing feet. She had 
 the repose of a great mind in the autumn of its years. 
 
 Lee melted into sympathy with the country of her 
 adoption. California loomed darkly in the back- 
 ground, majestic but remote, and folding itself in the 
 mists of dreams. It had belonged to her, been a part 
 of her, in some bygone phase of herself. She was 
 proud to have come out of it and glad to have known 
 it, but it would be silent to her hereafter. She was 
 as significantly a Maundrell as if she had been born 
 in her tower ; for she was, and indivisibly, a part of 
 her husband. 
 
 She was too sensible to waste time in upbraiding 
 herself for her conduct of the past fortnight. It had 
 been as inevitable as exhaustion after excitement, or 
 mental rebellion after years of unremitting study ; and 
 the suffering it had caused could easily be transformed 
 into gratitude. The important points were that her 
 reaction had worn itself out, and that the tremendous 
 climax on its heels had forced her prematurely into 
 the consciousness that the three years' effort to be 
 something she had not developed in the previous 
 twenty-one, had changed her character and her brain 
 as indubitably as the constant action of water 
 
 333 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 changes the face of a rock. One month of her old 
 life would have bored her to extinction. Two months 
 and she would have anathematised the continents of 
 land and water between herself and her husband. A 
 fortnight later she would have been in her tower. 
 Solemn as the passing moments were, she could not 
 ignore the prick of ironical relief that her future was 
 to lack the determined effort of the past three years. 
 Her new self would fit her with the ease of a garment 
 long worn. Love had sustained her when she had 
 desired nothing so much as happiness ; but she knew 
 that she had hardly known the inchoation of love un- 
 til to-night Cecil, in his terrible necessity, had taken 
 her ego into his own breast. 
 
 Her thoughts went to him in their tower, writing, 
 like his father, but with far less calm; for he grew 
 nervous and impatient over his work. It seemed a 
 strange and terrible thing that he should sit there un- 
 conscious of the double tragedy preparing for him, but 
 she was glad to prolong his unconsciousness as long 
 as she could. And she would be the one to tell him. 
 
 Lord Barnstaple laid down his pen and sealed his 
 letters. He stood up and held out his hand. 
 
 " Good-bye," he said. 
 
 They shook hands closely and in silence. Then 
 she went out and he closed the door behind her. 
 She stood still, waiting for the signal. She could not 
 carry the news of his death to his son until he was 
 gone beyond the shadow of a doubt. It was so long 
 coming that she wondered if his courage had failed 
 him, or if he were praying before the picture of his 
 wife. It came at last. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 SHE walked rapidly along the corridor toward the 
 tower. But in a moment or two she turned 
 back and went in the direction of the library. It was 
 Randolph's habit to read there when the other guests 
 were playing and romping. To-night's frolic would 
 certainly not have appealed to him. It was more 
 than possible that he was there alone, or in his room ; 
 and to-morrow he must go with the others. It might 
 be years before she would see him again, and it would 
 be culpable not to make him a last appeal. If the 
 Abbey was lost it should not be for want of effort 
 on her part 
 
 Randolph was in the library, and alone. He rose 
 with a brilliant smile of pleasure, then stood and 
 looked hard at her. 
 
 " Something has happened," he said. " You look 
 as if you had just come back from the next world." 
 
 " You are not so far wrong. Lord Barnstaple has 
 just killed himself. Things had come to his knowl- 
 edge that I hope you may never hear. But he is 
 dead, and to-morrow you will have gone." 
 
 They were standing close together. 
 
 " You will not return to California with us." 
 
 " I would never leave Cecil Maundrell for an hour 
 again if I could help it." 
 
 335 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 They exchanged a long look, and when it was over 
 each understood the other. Lee looked down ; then, 
 in the unendurable silence, raised her eyes again. 
 She averted them hastily. His were the eyes of men 
 who look their last It was the second time she had 
 looked into a man's soul to-night, and she felt cold 
 and faint. What should she see in Cecil's? 
 
 And how was she to speak of the Abbey in the face 
 of a tragedy like this? She turned to go, but her feet 
 clung to the floor. The Abbey was Cecil's, and 
 Cecil's it must remain if its rescue were within the 
 compass of her determined hands. But words were 
 hard to find. 
 
 ' Then she remembered that she had very eloquent 
 eyes, and that Randolph was versed in their speech. 
 She raised them slowly and let them travel about 
 the beautiful old room, then out to the cloisters 
 tinder whose crumbling arches hooded shadows 
 seemed passing to and fro; then raised them once 
 more to his with an expression of yearning and 
 appeal. 
 
 " Is it true that Lady Barnstaple is ruined? " 
 
 " She has not a penny." 
 
 There was another silence, so intense that they 
 heard the echo of a laugh, far out on the moor. 
 
 Randolph picked up a book from the table, and 
 examined its title, then laid it down again, and turned 
 it over. 
 
 " I have never yet broken my word," he said. 
 
 Lee flashed him a glance full of tears and tribute. 
 Then once more that night she shook hands with a 
 man who was sick with the bitterness of life. 
 
 336 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 She left the library and went rapidly down the cor- 
 ridor. As she passed Lord Barnstaple's door she 
 noted with gratitude that there was no sign of dis- 
 covery. If the blow could be softened it was by her 
 alone. 
 
 She was traversing the last corridor but one when 
 her eyes were arrested by the chapel and the church- 
 yard on the hill. She paused a moment and regarded 
 them intently. A week from to-night she and her 
 husband would follow Lord Barnstaple up that hill 
 to the vault beneath the chapel's altar. She had 
 hardly realised his death before, but that solitary hill, 
 cold under the moonlight, cold in its bosom, coldly 
 biding its Maundrells, generation after generation, cen- 
 tury after century, made the tragedy of the earl's 
 death one of the several sharply-cut facts of her life. 
 They were five ; she counted them mechanically : the 
 violent death of her father, her meeting with Cecil, 
 the death of her mother, her union with her husband, 
 the violent death of her husband's father. There was 
 certainly a singular coincidence between the first and 
 the last 
 
 As she continued to look out at the graveyard, 
 dark even under the moon, and wondering if the next 
 great fact in her life would be the birth of a child, to 
 be borne up that hill supinely in his turn, following 
 the father who had gone long since, she became 
 aware that the word coincidence was swinging to and 
 fro in her mind, although the other words of its com- 
 pany had gone to their dust-heap. She frowned and 
 reproached herself for giving way to melancholy; 
 then reflected that she would be less than mortal if 
 32 337 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 she did not . . . the reiteration of the word annoyed 
 her, and in a moment she had fitted it into her con- 
 versation with Lord Barnstaple that afternoon. 
 
 Her stiffening eyes returned to the hill, and their 
 vision stabbed through the mounds to the bones of 
 the abbots, whose brothers had cursed the Abbey. 
 It had been but a coincidence perhaps, but it had 
 worked itself out with astonishing regularity. 
 
 Lee became conscious that she was as cold as ice. 
 The Abbey was saved to the Maundrells. Was Cecil 
 dead? Had he died before his father? Nothing 
 could be more unlikely, for he was the healthiest of 
 men, and there was no one to murder him. 
 
 She shook herself violently and took her nerves in 
 hand. Two years ago she would have flung off the 
 superstition as quickly, but to-day the old world and 
 all its traditions had taken her imagination into its 
 mould. Had Pix — or that silent, persistent, unfath- 
 omable woman, his sister 
 
 She ran towards the tower, gripping her nerves; 
 for if Cecil were there she would have need of all her 
 faculties. It was no part of her programme to burst 
 in upon him and scream and stammer her terrible 
 bulletin. But she was a woman, frightened, horrified, 
 overwrought with hours of nervous tension. When 
 she reached the stair her knees were shaking, and she 
 climbed the long spiral so slowly that she would have 
 called her husband's name could she have found her 
 voice. She wished she had asked him to write in 
 her boudoir, whose open door was as black as the 
 entrance to a cave ; but he was — should be • - in his 
 own little sitting-room above. 
 
 338 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 
 She climbed the next flight with somet^ng more 
 of resolution ; courage comes to all strong natures as 
 they approach the formidable moments of their lives. 
 At the last turning she saw a blade of light, but the 
 door was too thick to pass a sound. When she 
 reached it her fear and superstition, and the obses- 
 sion they had induced, left her abruptly, and she 
 opened the door at once. Cecil was writing quietly. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 339 
 
1 
 
 I 
 
 ■I