CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 5802.B8 1899 
 
 The Brookes of Bridlemere. 
 
 ■3"-':|"924''013 570 100 
 
^ Cornell University 
 M Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013570100 
 
The Brookes of Bridlemere 
 
" And I missed him." (Page 31 ) 
 The Brookes of Brulleiiicrc'.] 
 
 [Frontispiece 
 
The Brookes of 
 Bridlemere 
 
 By 
 
 G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE GLADIATORS," "WHITE ROSE," "CERISE," 
 
 " MARKET HAREOROUGH," ETC. 
 
 
 LONDON 
 
 WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED 
 
 NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE 
 
 T6 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OHAP. 
 
 I. TwUight 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 FAOE 
 7 
 
 II. Conntry Quarters 
 
 
 . • a 
 
 . 20 
 
 m. The Brookes . 
 
 
 
 
 . 36 
 
 IV. Stoney Brothers 
 
 
 
 
 . 54 
 
 V. Tollesdale 
 
 
 
 
 . 69 
 
 VI. Jack Brooke . 
 
 
 
 
 . 85 
 
 vn. A Dragon's Tooth 
 
 
 
 
 . 101 
 
 vni. Market-day . 
 
 
 
 
 114 
 
 IX. " Uncle Archie " 
 
 
 
 
 130 
 
 X. The Middlesworth BaU 
 
 
 
 
 146 
 
 XI. A Break-up . 
 
 
 
 
 i63 
 
 xn. Eaising the Wind 
 
 
 
 
 180 
 
 XIII. Carrying On . 
 
 
 
 
 196 
 
 XIV. Too much Sail 
 
 
 
 
 210 
 
 XV. Drifting to Leeward . 
 
 
 
 
 230 
 
 XVI. Cold Comfort . 
 
 
 
 
 244 
 
 XVII. Partners 
 
 
 
 
 263 
 
 xvni. The Long Lane 
 
 
 
 
 279 
 
 SIX. Pressure 
 
 
 
 
 295 
 
 XX. Becoil . 
 
 
 
 
 311 
 
 xxt. An Knglishwoman's Castle 
 
 
 
 
 326 
 
6 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 
 
 
 CHAT. 
 
 xxn. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 A Broken Eeed . . . . . .340 
 
 XXIU. 
 
 Pounce Commerce 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 356 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 A Broken Head 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 374 
 
 XXV. 
 
 A Bundle of Sticks 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 389 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Higli Pressure 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 405 
 
 xxvn. 
 
 "Nobler King" 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 421 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 The Ladies' Mile 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 486 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Jack's Alive . 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 453 
 
 XXX. 
 
 The Reason Why 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 468 
 
The Brookes of Bridlemere 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 TWILIGHT 
 
 " It's hard lines, Mas'r Philip — ^hard lines ! That's 
 where it. is, for a chap as is able and willin', and carn't get 
 work for five weeks now come Toosday. The jobs is scarce, 
 ye see ; with the days shortening, and winter coming on, 
 and what-not ; but I dim-know how to better it, bless ye, 
 not I, cut it which way you will." 
 
 Jem Batters having thus relieved his mind in the ver- 
 nacular, turned to his companion a face of injured honesty 
 and simplicity, scarcely in keeping with the general 
 character of his appearance. A much-worn velveteen 
 jacket, loose cord breeches, sturdy calves, and heavy ankle- 
 boots, seemed the natural appendages of a countryman who 
 was supposed to be as arrant a poacher as ever set a night- 
 line in a reservoir, or a snare in a smeuse. Nor did Jem's 
 countenance in any way redeem the rest of his person from 
 the imputations imder which it laboured. The features 
 were good, but pale, though weather-beaten ; and the eyes, 
 smaU and cunning, looked bold, without being frank. A 
 red handkerchief, Imotted loosely round his neck, denoted 
 pursuits somewhat without the pale of honest labour, 
 though as yet on the safe side of the county-gaol. Alto- 
 gether he seemed a slang, knowing, able - bodied, 
 unscrupulous sort of person — such am one as a man had 
 rather breakfast with than fight, nor care, indeed, to share 
 
 7 
 
8 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 his morning repast, unless there was enough prepared for 
 three. 
 
 But "Mas'r Phil," properly called Mr. Philip Stoney, 
 did not form his opinion from externals, and indeed, was 
 accustomed to look deeper below the surface than most 
 people. On the present occasion he took notice of the 
 blood from a dead rabbit oozing through the pocket of Jem 
 Batters's velveteen, and scrupled not to express his senti- 
 ments on the subject. 
 
 "You'll do no good without being strictly honest, Jem. 
 I've told you so many a time. You've no more right to 
 that rabbit in your pocket, than you have to take the gun 
 out of my hand, and spout it at the first pawnbroker's shop 
 you come to in the High Street of Middlesworth. You 
 were paid to beat; and if you've done your day's work, 
 you've got your day's wages. What business have you 
 with the Squire's property, if it was only the worth of a 
 halfpenny?" 
 
 " The Squire'U never miss it," replied Jem, with a 
 sheepish expression of countenance, and a forced smile that 
 did not improve his beauty. He looked askance at Philip 
 Stoney while he spoke, like a dog who knows he has done 
 wrong, and deprecates the anger of his master. The latter 
 answered, in a sterner tone — 
 
 " The Squire wouldn't miss it, if you took five shillings 
 off his chimney-piece ; but the law would send you to 
 prison and hard labour, all the same ; and serve you right ! 
 Poaching is but stealing out of doors, Jem. You ought to 
 know that as well as I do. I tell you, I wouldn't trust a 
 poacher any more than I would a housebreaker or a thief." 
 
 But Jem could not see the matter exactly in this light. 
 It is doubtful if he ever admitted to himself he was com- 
 mitting a crime when he picked up a hare for supper on a 
 " shiny night," though he had a vague idea that it was not 
 quite a respectable action ; and, indeed, if he knew his 
 own interest, was better let alone. 
 
 " It's hard, too, Mas'r Philip," said he, plucking a dry 
 ■twig from the adjoining hedge, and munching it with 
 apparent relish. " But you've been a good friend to me, 
 and mother too, however ; and I take notice of what you 
 says more nor I do of parson, nor Squire neither. You 
 
TWILIGHT 9 
 
 couldn't give a poor chap a job, could you, Mas'r Phil? " 
 added Jem, in his most insinuating tones, and without 
 removing the twig from his mouth. 
 
 " I'll tell you what it is, Jem," replied the other, putting 
 his hand at the same time into his pocket, " I've known 
 you a long time, and I'll see if I can give you one more 
 chance yet. Look ye here. You take that rabbit back to 
 old Halfcock, the keeper. Promise now, and come down to 
 our place the first thing to-morrow morning. I'll speak to 
 my brother to-night about you. But it's your last chance, 
 Jem — ^mind that. We don't keep dogs that won't bark in 
 our shop ; and if a man isn't honest, and sober too, he'd 
 better not come at all, for we shall be sure to find him out, 
 and turn him adrift, without thinking twice about it. 
 Good-night, Jem. Take the rabbit back before you go 
 home, and don't be late to-morrow, for it's market-day, and 
 we shall be pretty busy before twelve o'clock." 
 
 So the two parted on their respective paths, Philip 
 Stoney stepping briskly out on his homeward way, and Jem 
 Batters compromising the matter of the rabbit by laying 
 it down in the comer of a copse where it was pretty sure to 
 be found by the keeper when he came round with a retriever 
 to pick up lost game next morning. 
 
 There had been a battue at Bridlemere that day — not 
 one of your pounding, slaughtering, cannonading attacks, 
 resembling a general action in all but the small proportion 
 of those who run away ; when, to enjoy the sport — ^if such 
 it can be called — dandies come down from London, with all 
 the modern improvements in dress, arms, and accoutre- 
 ments, for the express purpose of learning how often they 
 can pull their triggers within a given number of hours. If 
 they shoot straight, and obtain an enormous bag, so much 
 the better ; but the great thing is to let the gun off at the 
 utmost possible rate of rapidity and repetition. When the 
 colonel is sent forward with one breech-loader in his hand, 
 and two more carried by his attendants (six barrels in all), 
 so that he can never be for an instant unprepared ; when 
 my lord, with his legs very wide apart, stands like a 
 colossus in the ride, and while 
 
 " Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland," 
 
10 THE BB00EE8 OP BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 misses rocketer after rocketer, with increasing impatience 
 and disgust ; when gentlemen's gentlemen, sighing for the 
 warmth of the castle, and the luxuries of "the room," load 
 for their masters with a gracious carelessness, not always 
 quite safe for the sportsman, but assumed by the valet as if 
 he were performing the mere every-day duties of the toilet ; 
 when the duke, at close of day, apologises to his guests for 
 the badness of the sport, and condoles with them that they 
 have only averaged some two hundred head per gun ! No ; 
 the battue at Bridlemere was nothing of this soi-t, but a cosy 
 little affair of eighty cock-pheasants, and twice that number 
 of hares and rabbits, equally enough distributed amongst 
 half-a-dozen people, who shot well and fairly, without more 
 jealousy than was desirable in order that each man should 
 do his best. There was a pretty range of copsewood, 
 skirting a warm and sheltered dingle, to shoot in the fore- 
 noon ; a capital luncheon, with strong home-brewed, at two 
 o'clock ; and a good deal of sport afterwards in the fox- 
 covert, which afforded, in addition to a woodcock, the 
 cheering sight of a brace of the wild and wily animals, to 
 the preservation of which it was specially devoted. Old 
 Halfcock never trapped a fox in his life, though, with the 
 perverse instinct of a gamekeeper, he would have been only 
 too glad of the chance, for well he knew that such an 
 offence against the Squire's standing orders would be his 
 first and last. So Bridlemere offered a sure find nearly 
 once a fortnight in open weather ; and though the Squire 
 was wont to complain with sufficient pride that the Duke 
 was very hard wpon it, two or three of the best runs 
 in the season owed their celebrity to that time-honoured 
 locality. Game and foxes are a contradiction that has long 
 since seemed to be an impossibility ; and there was, vdth- 
 out doubt, a fair show of both at Bridlemere. 
 
 Philip Stoney, walking home to Middlesworth, reflected 
 pleasantly enough on his day's amusement, and the skill he 
 had displayed both in and out of covert, at flesh and fowl, 
 fur and feather, ground game and winged. Phil was an 
 Englishman all over — a pm-e-bred Anglo-Saxon as ever 
 stopped a cricket-ball in flannels, or handled a Purdey in 
 velveteen. He was no Admirable Crichton, like the hero of 
 a novel, who must needs be strong as Hercules, beautiful 
 
TWILIGHT 11 
 
 as Apollo, brave and swift as the son of Peleus, alternately 
 sulking in his tent, and vapouring over his comrades on the 
 narrow strip of sand where the god-like heroes of the 
 "Iliad" laid their ten-years' leaguer round the walls of 
 Troy. No ; he was but a fair representative of the thou- 
 sands of Englishmen who constitute the upper and middle 
 classes of our happy country. For his bodily gifts, he could 
 walk, run, leap, skate, and swim as well as his neighbours, 
 though truth compels me to admit that he knew not a note 
 of music, and was an execrable dancer. He could stand up 
 fairly enough to professional bowling, when the ground was 
 smooth; shoot straight, either in the coppice or on the 
 stubble, when not too much hurried; and would ride a 
 good horse, in a good place with a pack of foxhounds, even 
 at the expense of an occasional fall. His mental qualities 
 and acquii'ements were rather sound than brilliant. Latin 
 and Greek he had learned, and forgotten. Of history, both 
 ancient and modern, he was not more ignorant than other 
 people. Science he might have dabbled in could he have 
 spared the time. He had a clear head for business, was a 
 capital accountant, and spoke French, the only continental 
 language he attempted, as Talleyrand said the Great Duke 
 did, " bravely." For his tastes, he so far agreed with 
 Byron, that 
 
 " He loved our taxes, when they're not too many ; 
 He loved a sea-coal fire, when not too dear ; 
 He loved a beef-steak too, as well as any ; 
 Had no objection to a pot of beer." 
 
 Was a little inclined to Liberalism in politics, and intoler- 
 ance in religion, believed The Times, shaved scrupulously, 
 drank port wine, and hated a lie. 
 
 Without being handsome, he had a clear, fresh com- 
 plexion, and a small, well-shaped head, on which the brown 
 locks were cropped short and close. His teeth were good, 
 and he showed them all when he spoke. His eyes light, but 
 looking straight into your own, with a frank and fearless 
 expression that inspired confidence in his sincerity at once. 
 All this, carried by a square, able-bodied figure, very quick 
 and energetic in its gestures, offered an exterior rather 
 pleasing than othervnse ; and as well known in the streets 
 
12 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 of Middlesworth as the late-erected drinking-fountain or the 
 old church clock. 
 
 He stepped along more hriskly, as evening began to close, 
 and the town lights twinkled out more and more numerous 
 through the hazy twilight, yet lingering round some dull 
 crimson streaks on the horizon left by the departed sun. 
 It was a soft, still November evening, such as is never 
 experienced out of England, and shows our English climate 
 and our English scenery to the greatest advantage. Every- 
 where else in Europe a fine winter's day means a dazzling 
 sun and a piercing cold, that if you only took your wraps 
 off, would finish you in about ten minutes ; but in our own 
 little island, which we abuse so heartily amongst ourselves, 
 it means a green and grateful earth; a sky of dappled 
 clouds, serene and motionless, edged here and there with 
 gold ; a sleeping fi:agrance of vitality only waiting for the 
 spring ; and a mild, hazy atmosphere, through which trees, 
 and hills, and hedges loom out, grave and ghostly and in- 
 distinct. Philip felt in charity with all mankind, and more 
 than usually grateful to Providence for the many advantages 
 of his position, the many pleasures of health and strength, 
 and every-day life — nay, for the harmless amusement and 
 enjoyment of the hours he had just spent at Bridlemere. 
 Behind him was the recollection of a delightful day's 
 shooting, in which he had borne a skilful and satisfactory 
 part ; the pleasant interchange of good fellowship with those 
 of his own age, nowhere so fraiJdy afforded as in manly 
 out-of-doors recreation, and which furnishes one of the 
 strongest rational arguments in favour of field-sports; a 
 conviction that he was esteemed, certainly not foi: his 
 station, or such fictitious advantages, but for himself; and 
 a pleasant consciousness that he was not an idle man, like 
 most of those with whom he had spent the day, but a 
 working bee, for whom business was business, and pleasure, 
 pleasure — an arrangement which enhances extremely the 
 satisfaction of both, and which the drones, who eat the 
 honey without the labour of making it, never can be 
 brought to understand. 
 
 Around him were already stretching the level town 
 meadows, grass at three pounds an acre, smooth and 
 springy as a garden lawn, feeding huge beeves that scarcely 
 
TWILIGHT 18 
 
 moved in their early beds by the footpath, save to raise 
 great handsome wide-horned heads, and stare lazily at him 
 as he passed — a movement, nevertheless, sufficiently 
 terrifying to the only other passenger across the town-lands, 
 a little girl pattering home to " mother " from a half-mile 
 errand, who kept close behind Philip, for convoy through 
 this alarming region. 
 
 Presently he sees the white indistinct lines of the drying- 
 grounds in the suburbs, and "mother " herself, with soapy 
 arms, and pinned-up skirts, taking in fluttering garments 
 from the clothes-line ; and now immediately before him, so 
 to speak, is the anticipation of warmth, and fire-light, and 
 dinner, and rest, in his own comfortable home on the other 
 side of the town. He is a Middlesworth man, and is proud 
 of it, firmly believing that for health, beauty, convenience, 
 public buildings, and private society, everything but 
 "business" — of which he could wish it afforded a little 
 more — his town would bear comparison with any city on 
 the face of the earth. 
 
 Everybody might not, perhaps, agree with Philip Stoney 
 in this favourable estimate. Mr. Dowlas, the draper, who 
 set up here when he retired from London, having failed 
 there twice, once in Wigmore Street, and once in the 
 Tottenham Court Eoad, considers it "a poor place alto- 
 gether. Sir ; a place in which a yoimg man finds no opening; 
 a place quite behind the times " ; and a smart, black- 
 bearded Italian, generally regarded by the inhabitants as a 
 conspirator, with horrible designs against the French 
 Emperor, to be prosecuted in some mysterious manner, 
 from a confectioner's shop in the market-place, left it after 
 a month's trial, in a fit of somewhat unreasonable disgust, 
 because there was no opera. Nevertheless, the population 
 in general are extremely patriotic, and however much they 
 may squabble amongst themselves, rise like one man to 
 vindicate the honour and glory, and general respectability 
 of their town. 
 
 As Middlesworth, however, may not be quite so well 
 known to the general public as to its own inhabitants, and 
 the nobility and gentry of the shire, who frequent its shops 
 on market-day, and fill its judicial buildings at Quarter 
 Sessions, Assizes, and such other important gatherings of 
 
14 THE BBOOKES OF BRIBLEMEBE 
 
 landed proprietors — as, moreover, the simple story I have to 
 tell is chiefly connected with this locality and its immediate 
 neighhourhood, I may be permitted to pause on the very 
 threshold of my narrative, for the purpose of affording the 
 reader some vague idea of the general features and character 
 of the place. 
 
 To a certain extent, and from a metropolitan point of 
 view, particularly as regards facilities for borrowing money, 
 discounting bills, and robbing the British public, Mr. 
 Dowlas is right. Middlesworth is far " behind the 
 times," when compared with London, Liverpool, Man- 
 chester, and such large, populous, and speculative cities ; 
 but money, nevertheless, is to be made in its quiet streets, 
 by honest enterprise ; and many an active, industrious 
 tradesman has realised a comfortable competence in its 
 marts, and retired in the prime of life to enjoy the fruits of 
 his success in its suburbs. These outskirts are conse- 
 quently well supplied with the peculiar style of house which, 
 when isolated by twenty feet or so from its neighbours, is 
 dignified by the title of " a villa," but of which half-a-dozen 
 constitute " a terrace," and twice that number " a place." 
 Plate-glass and laburnums are the specialities of these 
 residences; and save for the consideration that all the 
 rooms are in front, and commanded from the public road, 
 they would seem to be commodious and comfortable 
 dwellings enough. 
 
 But if the suburbs of Middlesworth thus run to retire- 
 ment and gentility, the streets, and lanes, and rows, 
 within the actual precincts of the town, affect no such 
 attempts at refinement or ostentation. They have no pre- 
 tension to sink the trade by which they thrive. Bow- 
 windowed shops, especially for the sale of butchers' -meat, 
 protrude themselves boldly on the pavement, which is, how- 
 ever, in many places wide enough to admit of two male 
 passengers walking abreast. Stalls, whereon are exposed 
 most commodities of daily life, form an outwork to this 
 footway, projecting far into the street. Any intervals that 
 might otherwise be left unguarded, are fiUed with hand- 
 barrows, empty casks, and articles of ornamental husbandry, 
 such as iron-work, ploughs, many-teethed harrows, or 
 patent dibbling machines, so that the width of the thorough- 
 
TWILIGHT 15 
 
 fare may be contracted to the scantiest limits. A cattle- 
 market, too, is held weekly in the narrowest of the streets, 
 and as the town is paved throughout with the smoothest and 
 most slippery of stones, it may he imagined that a ride or 
 drive through Middlesworth, on any special occasion, is a 
 progress not entirely devoid of that excitement which springs 
 from a sense of personal fear. 
 
 The shops, however, are cheap and good of their kind. 
 The staple manufacture of the town being muffatees, it is 
 needless to observe that these are not to be procured for 
 love or money, of decent quality, owing, perhaps, to the 
 brisk export trade driven with the South Sea Islanders for 
 this indispensable article of costume; but all other 
 necessaries, and most luxuries of life, are found in Middles- 
 worth, of as good quality as in London, and at little more 
 than cost price. 
 
 Two branch railways connect this flourishing town with 
 two great arteries of English traffic, rendering its com- 
 munications with other places as facile as is compatible 
 with the inconvenience of its local arrangements, trains 
 being scarce during the day, but redundant before light in 
 the morning and after dark at night. It has, besides, a 
 race-course, a com exchange, a homoeopathic dispensary, a 
 hospital, three churches, of which the oldest is, of course, 
 the handsomest, and a nondescript building for the ad- 
 ministration of justice, presenting a happy combination 
 of several distinct orders of architecture, including the 
 Chinese, with twisted pillars, parti-coloured porches, and 
 an Oriental roof, the whole wrought out in brickwork and 
 stucco, the colour of strawberries and cream. 
 
 There are days of bustle and confusion at Middlesworth, 
 but here are also days of peace and somnolent quiet, verging 
 on stagnation. Once a year, when Tattersall's pours its 
 subscribers into the grand stand on its race-course, for the 
 great Middlesworth Handicap ; once a week, when the 
 adjacent villages send their rustic inhabitants to market in 
 its overflowing streets, and their carriers' carts, to. increase 
 the profits of its public-houses and beer-shops, a stranger 
 would imagine that he had arrived at the very emporium of 
 speculation and commerce ; but let him stay over the night 
 at the Plantagenet Arms, or elsewhere, and sally forth after 
 
16 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 his coffee-room breakfast next day, Lo ! the spell is 
 broken ; the hive, lately so busy and populous, is hushed 
 and lonely now; the shops are empty, the streets deserted; 
 save the church clock lazily chiming the quarters, not a 
 sound disturbs the drowsy air, and Middlesworth seems to 
 stand solemn, silent, and untenanted, as Palmyra, the City 
 of the Dead. 
 
 Philip Stoney had lived in the town all his life, had been 
 to a day-school in its High Street, and played in its cricket 
 matches (Middlesworth against Mudbuiy), ever since he was 
 old enough to wield a bat or stop a ball. Except for a 
 couple of years spent in London, to give him an insight 
 into business, and a few months at Manchester with a 
 flourishing cousin, who proposed to put the extra polish 
 of a commercial education on him in his counting-house, 
 and certainly did take him to half-a-dozen balls and dinner- 
 parties every week, he had never quitted his own home for 
 more than a few days at a time. No wonder he looked 
 affectionately on evei-y nook and corner of the quaint old 
 place; no wonder he felt interested in the Mayor's im- 
 provements, and the Town Council's edicts, and all the 
 petty details of the circle in which he lived, including the 
 little squabbles and heart-burnings of the municipality, a 
 body no less distinguished for diversity of opinion, than for 
 the frequency and excellence of the dinners at which it was 
 their official privilege to meet. 
 
 Many a time had Philip watched the lights of 
 Middlesworth as he neared them at even-tide, and felt 
 he was really going home. After a jaunt for business or 
 pleasure into the adjoining counties; after a day with 
 the Duke's hounds, on a certain blemished old chestnut 
 horse, by which he set great store, and justly, inasmuch as 
 his grace's own stable could not produce a better hunter, 
 and the animal, notwithstanding its lean old head, and a 
 pair of very worn looking fore-legs, afforded Philip many a 
 delightful gallop in a recreation both of them enjoyed above 
 all others. After a few hours' good shooting as to-day 
 in winter, or after a picnic in summer, with a bevy of 
 Middlesworth young ladies, damsels of fascinating manners, 
 though somewhat giishing, and rejoicing in sumptuous 
 apparel, such as dazzles, while it subdues ; but the 
 
TWILIGHT 17 
 
 advantage of whose society, I fear, Philip did hardly 
 appreciate, heing indeed less susceptible to the florid 
 order of beauty, than to the chaste, and classical, and 
 severe. After any and all of these excursions, I repeat, 
 it was his nature to return to Middlesworth as the bird 
 returns to its nest ; nay, with even a more eager alacrity, 
 for the bird, we know, goes out to feed, whereas the un- 
 feathered biped conies home for that important ceremony. 
 To be young, to be hungry, to be able to walk five miles an 
 hour, heel and toe, these are advantages of which men are 
 scarcely conscious, yet of which they make good use while 
 they possess them. It was Philip's habit to hurry home 
 as if he were very hungry indeed, which perhaps was 
 generally the case. 
 
 To-night, however, his pace was variable and ill- 
 sustained. Sometimes he strode on rapidly, at a rate 
 that forced his little follower to break into a short jerking 
 trot ; sometimes he relapsed moodily into a thoughtful 
 crawl, denoting the absorbing influence of profound 
 reflection, and once he halted so suddenly, that his un- 
 prepared convoy ran fairly between his legs. But Philip 
 was undisturbed by this, as by every other external in- 
 fluence of the moment. Habitual day-dreamers, like 
 habitual drunkards, preserve at their worst an inner 
 consciousness that enables them to shake off, vrith a 
 temporary effort, the effects of their favourite indulgence ; 
 but a practical, wide-awake intellect, steeped in a fit of 
 abstraction, like a sober man who has chanced for once to 
 get drunk, loses all power of observation, and abandons all 
 attempt at self-consciousness or self-control. The child's 
 excuse of " Please sir, mother said I must be home afore 
 dark," was quite lost upon him, though repeated more than 
 once, nor did he miss the little footsteps when they pattered 
 joyfully away in fi-ont at the welcome sight of " mother " 
 in the drying-ground. His thouglits must have been very 
 far from Middlesworth and its outskirts, to judge firom his 
 pre-occupation. His manner was not that of a man who is 
 thinking of his dinner, the subject to which human reflection 
 naturally points about this hour of the day, and when he 
 reached the bridge that spans a sluggish river meandering 
 round the outskirts of the town, he seemed to have 
 
 2 
 
18 THE BBOOKES OF BRIDLEMEBE 
 
 abandoned all idea of that necessary refreshment, for he 
 stood still when half-way across, and looked dreamily over 
 the parapet into the quiet stream. 
 
 It was nearly dark now. A star or two struggled faintly 
 through the thin misty clouds that were stealing over the 
 heavens from the south. The light breeze, though damp, 
 was soft and pleasant to his cheek, fanning him with quiet 
 breath ere it passed on to stir the rustling sedges by the 
 river-side, and mingle their murmurs with the drowsy lap 
 of the water against its low, level banks. 
 
 The town was close at hand, with its hum of voices and 
 continuous tread of men ; but Philip seemed no more aware 
 of its vicinity than if he had been in the middle of the 
 Great Desert. The river was beneath his feet, stealing on 
 to the sea, slowly, insensibly, surely, as time steals on to 
 eternity ; but he thought not of the river nor the sea, nor 
 indeed, in the common acceptation of the words, of time 
 nor of eternity neither. 
 
 Dim though they were, the two or three stars visible 
 seemed to have more attraction for him than any other 
 material objects, and he indulged in a good long stare at 
 these celestial bodies, apparently deriving a certain relief 
 and gratification from the process. It was a strange 
 occupation for a man of Mr. Stoney's character and habits ; 
 so near dinner-time, too, and after a day's shooting at 
 Bridlemere. 
 
 Mankind, I believe, after all, are very much alike. We 
 differ, it is true, in our external appearance, our faces, 
 figures, complexions, manners, and various styles of 
 ugliness ; but I make little doubt that the formation of each 
 one's heart, liver, and digestive process is upon the same 
 pattern, and indeed almost identical. On a like principle, 
 the spriags that set the outer man in motion, the feelings, 
 affections, weaknesses, and prejudices of one specimen are 
 common to all humanity. Were it not so, where would be 
 the advantage of studying human nature, of acquiring that 
 knowledge which, like the science of medicine, is based on 
 the assumption that all interiors are alike ? You look at 
 an old gentleman dozing over his wine by the fireside, bald, 
 portly, and double-chinned, infirm upon his pins, and spread 
 into a goodly bulk below the girdle. It is hard to believe 
 
TWILIGHT 19 
 
 that this is the same man who led the forlorn hope at 
 Mullagatawny, and won the light-weight steeplechase at 
 Ballinasloe, besides taking all hearts captive in Dublin by 
 the agility of his dancing and the symmetry of his figure, 
 the year the potatoes were so plentiful, and the Viceroy's 
 balls so well attended. Or you watch a venerable dame, 
 with a Mother Shipton nose and chin, a shrill, shaking 
 voice, false teeth, false hair, and a complexion of brickdust 
 and whitewash, wondering the while how this can be the 
 lady who refused dukes and marquises, and made a runaway 
 match for love with a clerk in the Foreign Office, tempo- 
 rarily breaking the heart of the old gentleman aforesaid in 
 that ill-advised performance. Perhaps you speculate on 
 the possibility of renewing the flash in the man's spirit, 
 or the capability for indiscretion in the woman's heart : 
 perhaps you arrive at the conclusion that neither ever really 
 grow old, that the sacred fire is never thoroughly quenched 
 in the immortal subject, but, though damped and smothered 
 for the present, will assuredly flicker up again at some future 
 period, bright and consuming as of yore. 
 
 Old and young, men and women, wise and simple, rich 
 and poor, for each and all there is a combustible principle 
 somewhere beneath the clay — a wild drop in the blood, a 
 crevice in the plate armour, a soft spot in the heart. 
 
 Philip Stoney was of the same material as his fellow- 
 creatures, and, perhaps, on emergency, not a bit wiser or 
 stronger than the rest. Nevertheless, he made no long 
 stay upon the bridge, but after a good stare at the stars, 
 sighed gently, and walked on with rapid step and head 
 erect, like a man who, looking far into the future, has made 
 up his mind to foUov? out what he sees there, resolutely and 
 without fear. 
 
CHAPTER n 
 
 COUNTRY QUAETEBS 
 
 Notwithstanding its many weaknesses and shortcomings, 
 its unworthy subterfuges under pressure, and obvious want 
 of confidence on the eve of a division, even the Opposition 
 papers could not but admit that Government showed sound 
 discretion in stationing a squadron of light dragoons at 
 Middlesworth. The presence of the detachment shed its 
 exhilarating influence over every nook and corner of the 
 town. Public-houses in the by-streets, albeit never 
 languishing for want of business, found trade so briskly on 
 the increase, as to admit of theii' providing customers gratis 
 with glees, fiddles, and other musical provocatives of thirst. 
 Small shopkeepers, deriving no practical benefit from the 
 presence of the military, but rejoicing in that sense of 
 bustle which the mercantile mind connects vaguely with 
 an idea of profit, were glad to treat the men of the sword 
 to much serious drinking fi-ee of expense. It was the beer 
 these heroes swallowed, not what they paid for, that 
 stimulated consumption so vigorously during the dark 
 hours intervening between evening stables and watch- 
 setting. The principal hotel, too, furnished the officers' 
 mess with wines at the highest possible price, and sundry 
 lodging-house keepers derived their own share of profit 
 from such enterprising ladies as did not disdain to accom- 
 pany their husbands into country quarters. 
 
 All classes received the cavalry mth open arms. Even 
 the farrier-major, notoriously the ugliest man in the regi- 
 ment, and the thirstiest, confessed that he had more liquor 
 given him than he could drink, and, although an Irishman, 
 
COUNTRY QVABTEBS 21 
 
 more offers of marriage than he could find it in his con- 
 science to entertain. The muffatee makers, as may be 
 supposed, were not the least ardent admirers of their 
 military guests. The male portion seemed too happy to 
 welcome any additional incentive to the consumption of 
 excisable fluids, and the female stitchers, closers, and 
 other handicrafts-women of the trade, felt secure of a 
 suitor apiece, spurred, braided, and small-waisted, of easy 
 manners, chronic thirst, and tolerable constancy until 
 ordered elsewhere. 
 
 A walk through Middlesworth after sunset afforded 
 accordingly an amusing and enlivening sight. The 
 muffatee makers having finished stitching for the day, 
 turned out in streams, gay with their best attire, in 
 abundant crinolines, saucy hats, and hair, though not 
 very well brushed, dressed in the newest fashion. I must 
 allow they were little remarkable for beauty as a class — 
 even the farrier-major was obliged to admit that — but, 
 then, as he observed, " They was so haffable ! " Their 
 military swains 'squired them about the doors of the 
 different public-houses, while their civilian adorers were 
 drinking steadily within — the latter thus consoling them- 
 selves under unavoidable defeat ; for how could they hold 
 their own against such odds as clanking spurs, laced 
 jackets, forage caps (without peaks) balanced on one ear, 
 waxed moustaches, and, above all, that fascinating walk, 
 half stride, half swagger, combining the utmost rigidity of 
 body, with apparent paralysis of the lower limbs, which is 
 specially affected by every dismounted dragoon. 
 
 Private Overall, of C Troop, Loyal Dancing Hussars, 
 lounging in the ill-lighted street, under the sign of the 
 "Fox and Fiddle," and listening to some one playing an 
 accordion within, seemed the only individual ia uniform 
 unprovided with a companion of the other sex. Overall 
 was a smart fellow, too, a favourite with his captain, 
 rather an authority amongst his comrades, very often 
 seen smoking a cigar, and, when he took off his pipe- 
 clayed glove, further adorned with a riag. 
 
 That Miss Blades, the butcher's daughter, was secretly 
 over head and ears in love with Overall, and shutting her 
 eyes to the humiliating consideration that she was thus 
 
22 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLBMEBE 
 
 "letting herself do-wn," would steal out presently for a 
 five minutes' interview at the corner of the street, under 
 pretence of "fetching father's heer," is a shred of gossip 
 unconnected with my tale ; and on which I am not obliged 
 to dwell ; but, in the meantime, Overall was switching the 
 unoffending air with a smart riding-whip, and debating in 
 his own mind whether he would not go in for "just another 
 half-pint," not without a strong inclination to carry that 
 measure in the affirmative. Presently he espied a comrade 
 coming up the street in the attire soldiers call " coloured 
 clothes " — an expression they apply indiscriminately to all 
 civil garments, even a suit of black, in contradistinction to 
 the scarlet or blue of their own uniforms. On the present 
 occasion the " coloured clothes " were of a good working 
 fustian, denoting that the wearer was a batman, or officer's 
 servant, though on the strength of the regiment as a trooper 
 in its ranks. He carried a pair of very workmanlike top- 
 boots in his hand, and was obviously hastening back to 
 baxracks. He must have been in a hurry, for he declined 
 his friend's invitation to drink. 
 
 " Do as I do. Tommy ? " asked Overall, hospitably, with 
 a jerk of his smart head towards the " Pox and Fiddle." 
 " Take a drain, man : it'll do ye good ! " 
 
 " Throat's as dry as a limekiln ! " answered " Tommy," 
 whose surname was Belter, passing the back of his large 
 hand across his moustaches. " Can't be done though, 
 Bill. Time's up, d'ye see ? " 
 
 " Just a suck, and run home again," pleaded Overall, 
 spinning a sixpence in the air, and catching it dexterously 
 as it fell. "Wants twenty minutes to stables yet." 
 
 But Belter was proof against his comrade's solicitations, 
 and passed on, shaking his head gravely as one who fulfils 
 a duty at great personal sacrifice. Let us follow him 
 through the windings of two or three dark and slippery 
 streets, which he threaded as though well acquainted with 
 their intricacies, and in the gloomiest of which a heavy 
 figure lurched helplessly against him, and subsided with a 
 drunken laugh into a sitting posture on the pavement. 
 
 " Hurrah ! " hiccupped Jem Batters — ^for Jem, I am 
 sorry to say, it was. "It's my call now. Mr. Batters 
 will favour the company with a song. Hurrah ! " 
 
COVNTBY QVAETEB8 23 
 
 Belter spread a cotton handkerchief carefully on the 
 driest square of the payement, stood the top-boots thereon 
 with extreme deliberation, and then raised the sitter slowly 
 to his legs, propping him against a friendly lamp-post, and 
 urging him to " hold on by his eyelids till his missis could 
 nip round the corner, and fetch him home." 
 
 Jem Batters, however, seemed to treat all such domestic 
 interference with utter contempt. Persuaded that he was 
 presiding over a convivial meeting with equal grace and 
 ability, he continued to pour out a doleful lament, bewailing 
 himself in the reflection that 
 
 " if he had had good government, 
 
 He had not come to this " 
 
 and impressing on his hearer, with touching gravity (while 
 he clung to the lamp-post), a moral contained in the fol- 
 lowing stanza, which, though it seemed to have no connection 
 with the rest of his ditty, he repeated over and over again : — 
 
 " But I was always ready 
 To run at every one's call : 
 Though it grieves my mind, yet still, I find 
 Good government is all." 
 
 Then he shook his head, got gradually lower and lower 
 down the lamp-post, and subsided once more into his 
 former sitting posture on the flag-stones. 
 
 The fact is, Jem was helplessly drunk. Several causes 
 had combined since sundown to produce this disgraceful, 
 and I am bound to say, by no means unusual, result. 
 
 In the first place, Jem was desirous of meeting a friend 
 in Philip Stoney's employment, to impart the good news 
 that he hoped to enter the same service on the morrow. A 
 narrow, crowded street is an uncomfortable locality for con- 
 versation. The friend was a married man ; but it was 
 " washing-day " at home. Independent of the confusion, 
 damp, and other disagreeables attending such an operation 
 in the scanty lodging tenanted by a working man, he was 
 too well drilled by his " missis " to think of bringing in a 
 visitor at such a time. Where could the two go but into 
 the well-warmed, well-lighted, and well-decorated tap of 
 the familiar " Fox and Fiddle " ? There they had clean- 
 
24 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 liness, comfort, and shelter, the excitement of society, and 
 the charms of music, for the accordion was in practised and 
 untiring hands. There they were free to talk, and laugh 
 and jest, and gossip with their own class, discussing their 
 news of the day, the rate of wages, and the price of bread 
 ■ — just as interesting to them as the odds on the Derby, or 
 the defeat of Ministers, to my lord at Brookes's and White's. 
 But being there, they must call for a pint. Men always 
 begin with a pint, and soon that which promised to be but 
 a cheerful and friendly meeting, grew to a quarrelsome and 
 degrading debauch. Jem Batters had only one shilling in 
 his pocket — ^the shilling Philip gave him in the afternoon ; 
 but a man with a tendency to inebriety can get very drunk 
 for that sum if he likes. The soldiers, too, shared the 
 beer to which they were treated, very freely with Jem. He 
 was an able-bodied, likely looking young fellow, just the 
 stuff, so they told him, out of which to make a dragoon, 
 sinking the two years' riding-school drill indispensable for 
 such a metamorphosis ; and Jem, who had a vague idea in 
 his cups that he might some day be tempted to " take the 
 shilling," encouraged the idea, though he never went so far 
 as actually to accept her Majesty's bounty. 
 
 Contented, as it seemed, with the quantity of liquor his 
 military aspirations procured him free of expense, he would 
 have enlisted long ago, like many another unquiet spirit, 
 had it not been for his mother, but with all his faults there 
 was this one redeeming point in Jem's character, that he 
 loved old Dame Batters in his heart. He was often hard in 
 speech to her ; he was rude and disrespectful in behaviour : 
 but this was the rind, so to speak, and outer husk of the 
 man. At the core, he would have made any sacrifice 
 rather than vex "mother," and the old woman knew it. 
 
 " He's not so steady, our Jem ain't ; " she would say to 
 her cronies by the fireside, "not so steady as some on 'em, 
 but he's a good son, is Jem, and always has been, there ! 
 and always will be." 
 
 Jem did not look very steady now, with a red neckcloth 
 untied, and foolish eyes shining out from a pale face, in 
 the dull stare of intoxication. Belter glanced down at him, 
 half sympathising, half scornful, but appeared to think no 
 further interference necessary, for he gathered up the top- 
 
COUNTBY QUABTEBS 25 
 
 boots, and resumed his walk to barracks, without troubling 
 himself any more about his helpless acquaintance. 
 
 Preserving his burden carefully fi-om a light drizzling 
 rain, now beginning to fall, the batman entered the barracks, 
 and proceeded to the ofi&oers' quarters with his usual steady 
 gait, and immovable, not to say vacant, expression of 
 countenance. 
 
 Only a man familiar with its every nook and corner could 
 have found his way along the passage and up the gloomy 
 staircase, whereon a feeble oil-lamp shed the smallest pos- 
 sible amount of light, without tumbling over a certain 
 empty chest and iron coal-box, that fortified the approaches 
 to his destination. Belter, however, walked confidently on 
 till he reached a dirty and dilapidated door, on which was 
 painted, in letters nearly obliterated, " Offs.' Qrs. No. 5." 
 Here he gave two solemn consecutive thumps with his 
 sturdy knuckles, and followed his summons at once into 
 the apartment, after the manner of these domestics, 
 without waiting for an answer from within. 
 
 There is no greater contrast than that afforded by the 
 inside and outside of an officers' barrack-room. The 
 passage was as dark, dirty, and dismal, as can be con- 
 ceived. The bare boards — ^for of course it was uncarpeted — 
 stood an inch deep in dried mud, brought in by many a pair 
 of regulation boots and clinking spurs. It was scarcely 
 better lighted by day than by night, and besides the dreary 
 chest and coal-box above-mentioned, there was not an article 
 of furniture to be seen, suggestive of a civilised dwelling- 
 place ; but no sooner had the batman closed the door behind 
 him, than he entered an apartment overflowing with every 
 modern comfort, convenience, and luxury, all portable more- 
 over, and made to be packed up and carried about wherever 
 the regiment moved in its change of quarters. There was 
 a Brussels carpet, there was even a hearth-rug, whereon a 
 royal Bengal tiger, gorgeous in colour, and of abnormal 
 stripes, was worked in tapestry; there was a couch, of 
 ample vndth and proportions, forming a sofa by day and a 
 bedstead by night, of which the brass knobs and general 
 iron- work denoted that it could be taken away in a baggage- 
 waggon at five minutes' notice; there was an easy chair, 
 of the easiest description, draped with a real tiger-skin, 
 
26 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 obviously no relation to the monster on the hearth-rug; 
 there was a table that made a chest, and a chest that made 
 a table, both adorned with rich coverings of gaudy hues, 
 and littered with their respective treasures; gold-topped 
 scent-bottles, silver dressing things, ivory hair-brushes — all 
 the appliances of an elaborate, and, indeed, lady-like toilet, 
 except a mirror, represented in this martial domicile by a 
 four-inch shaving-glass, hung on a nail in the window-sill. 
 Several gun-cases were stowed away in comers, surmounted 
 by trophies, consisting of Eastern sabres, regulation swords, 
 cherry-stick pipes, riding- whips, umbrellas, and sabretasches. 
 Innumerable boots were ranged in military order against the 
 walls, and at least twenty pairs of spurs, inclusive of those 
 expressly manufactured with smooth rowels, for dancing, 
 occupied the chimney-piece, forming indeed, with the green 
 plush cushion on which they reposed, its principal ornament. 
 
 Above the fireplace hung a photographic print of the 
 Ariadme, supported by a portrait of " Beeswing," in oils, 
 and a likeness of "Tom Sayers," in water colours; the 
 mare looking a good deal more attenuated by training than 
 the champion. An embroidered cigar-case lay open by a 
 gold-lace forage-cap, where both had been cast aside hur- 
 riedly on the couch, and a deep tin bath, yet steaming with 
 hot soap-and-water, from which the occupant had lately 
 emerged, like Venus from the sea, filled the apartment with 
 a misty vapour, that mingled heavily with its habitual 
 odours of saddlery, blacking, varnish, aromatic perfumes, 
 and stale tobacco-smoke. 
 
 Eagman de KoUe, formerly of Eton College, Bucks, 
 middle division, fifth form, and No. 9, in the ten-oar, late 
 of Christ Church, Oxford — ^whence, I am concerned to add, 
 he was rusticated for breach of discipline, before the com- 
 pletion of his second term — and now subaltern in her 
 Majesty's Loyal Dancing Hussars, having just washed 
 himself, after his day's exercise, from top to toe, is pre- 
 paring to smoke his fifth and last cigar before dinner, in all 
 the comfort of warmth, clean linen, and a fancy costume of 
 velvet, such as in these days has completely superseded the 
 old-fashioned dressing-gown. 
 
 Mr. de RoUe poises the Havannah in his fingers, and 
 eyes the top-boots which Belter is disposing in military line 
 
COVNTBY QUABTEB8 27 
 
 with their comrades. To judge by his countenance, he has 
 very little on his mind, nor a mind indeed constructed to 
 carry any considerable burden at a time, but his face is 
 rosy and good-humoured; his figure, though somewhat 
 thick and lumpy for a light di'agoon, is vigorous and full of 
 health, whilst his clear eye, and glossy hair, denote that 
 good digestion, without which no mortal can be said to 
 enjoy his fair share of physical happiness. Enviable 
 man; he had but one anxiety at present — he is a little 
 apprehensive, not vrithout reason, of growing too fat — 
 and meditates " Banting," though he has not yet become 
 a disciple of the Great Attenuator. 
 
 " Belter," says his master, after a pause of deep thought, 
 " those tops must be three shades lighter at least. You've 
 browned them to mahogany, and I like them the colour of 
 double Gloucester cheese." 
 
 Belter springs to " attention," not a twitch crosses that 
 weU-drilled servant's face. "Very good, Sir," is all the 
 answer, and yet the complexion of these tops is the curse 
 and the trial of Belter's life. " He'll be druv to drink, he 
 knows it," as he tells Overall, in moments of convivial con- 
 fidence. " It's trouble as done it, all along o' them tops ; 
 but he'll be druv to drink, see if he ain't." Then he finishes 
 his beer with a sigh, and walks steadily off, once more to 
 resume his boot-trees, and his brush-case, and his daily 
 efforts at the unattainable. 
 
 "Shall I clean 'em all over again, Sir?" asks Belter, 
 hopelessly, pointing to at least half-a-dozen pair. 
 
 " Yes — no," answers Comet de RoUe, for he is a good- 
 natured cornet enough, notwithstanding his peculiar taste 
 in colours. " Only mind next time to turn me out properly. 
 Hang it, man, if you want a pattern, go and buy a cheese, 
 and copy it ! Come in ! " 
 
 The last two words were roared out pretty loudly, in 
 answer to a summons at the door, fi:om a heavy kick, 
 which nearly drives in the panels, followed by the entrance 
 of a young man, with a short black pipe in his mouth, 
 emitting fragrant odours of Latakia. He is clad in a 
 shooting dress of knickerbockers, leggings, Hythe boots, 
 grey jerkin, felt hat, with black cock's feather, and, in 
 short, the usual war-paint of a " brave," in the present day. 
 
28 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 " Halloo, Bags ! " said the new comer, removing the pipe 
 from between two rows of very white teeth, under a silky 
 and carefully-trimmed moustache. " Look here, old fellow, 
 you must taie my orderly duty to-morrow ; I've promised to 
 go to ToUesdale, for a crack at old Waywarden's pheasants, 
 and I quite forgot I should have the belt on. Never mind, 
 I can do yours next time, so it's all right." 
 
 Now " Eags," as his brother officers called him, would 
 much prefer haviiig the morrow to himself, not that he has 
 anything particular to do, but like all idle men, he enjoys 
 and appreciates the pleasures of indolence for its own sake, 
 yet he consents at once to this off-hand arrangement of his 
 friend, and resigns himself without a murmur to his imprison- 
 ment, with the many parades, inspections, and other duties, 
 enforced by the rigid discipline of the Dancing Hussars. 
 
 The truth is, Walter Brooke, the most popular, and 
 indeed, as it is sometimes called, jpar excellence, the show 
 man of his regiment, had obtaiaed over none of his com- 
 rades so complete and , unquestioned an influence as over 
 "Bags." To imitate, as far as circumstances permitted, 
 his pattern's dress, walk, manner, tastes, pursuits, and 
 sentiments, was the one study of Bagman de BoUe's life. 
 It was a failure, of course. All such imitations are, and 
 indeed the honest, good-humoured Comet was perhaps less 
 than most men fitted to engraft upon his own sturdy person, 
 and frank disposition, the air of a somewhat spoilt dandy, 
 and what is called " a finished man of the world." Bags 
 was a good fellow enough, not bright, nor quick-witted, but 
 with a certain plodding sense of right, and nice feeling of 
 honour, that guided his conduct as safely as any amount of 
 worldly wisdom. Of old family, as his name implied, his 
 grandfather and father had both been in trade, bringing to 
 their business much of the energy, and a spice of the ad- 
 venturous spirit, that distinguished their mail-clad ancestors. 
 Consequently, they made money fast, and all they had they 
 left to Bags. A cornet, even in a crack cavalry regiment, 
 whose income is numbered by thousands, finds himself a 
 very rich man, and liable to be spoilt by adulation outside 
 the barrack gates, although to do them justice, the mere 
 possession of wealth affects his popularity very little 
 amongst his brother officers within. Nevertheless, if he 
 
COUNTRY QUABTEB8 29 
 
 is of a free, good-humoured and jovial character, it is not 
 to he supposed that a " balance at his bankers' " is likely 
 to lower him in their favour, and " Eags," as he was 
 universally called, found the path of life made very smooth 
 and easy for him, rolled, as it were, and gravelled, with 
 plenty of ripe fruit and blooming flowers, to pluck by the 
 way. 
 
 Like many others, he was scarcely aware of his own 
 advantages. From his mother, a comely Scotchwoman 
 of the middle class, he inherited a considerable amount of 
 difGidence and rather large hands and feet, to equalise, 
 perhaps, the enviable gifts of an even temper and a 
 faultless digestion. He was not much at home in the 
 drawing-room; but quite in his element in the barrack- 
 yard. It was told of him, that on one occasion, sitting 
 between two fine ladies in a tent at an archery meeting, 
 and finding nothing to say to either, he laid down knife 
 and fork submissively, and looking from one to the other, 
 thus appealed to both in the plaintive accents of despair, 
 "Can't ye speak to a fellow?" Being very fine ladies, 
 they were amused, and therefore delighted with him, 
 encouraging and making much of him during the rest 
 of the afternoon — ^vowing he was an original and a 
 quiz. But the last accusation fell harmless ; for those 
 who knew him ever so little, felt there could be no 
 deception about Rags. Dull, honest, sincere, jovial, and 
 good-tempered, his character is best summed up in his 
 own avowal of his tastes and predilections. 
 
 " I ain't much of a ladies' man, I know," quoth Rags, 
 when taxed with disinclination to female society. " I'm 
 more at home with men, ye see. I hope I should run 
 straight anywhere ; but I like soldiering — ^I like barracks. 
 I like my cool bottle of claret and my weed after dinner, 
 and a mess-table suits me down to the ground." So he 
 did his duty, rode with his squadron, and smoked his cigar 
 in great comfort and content ; firmly persuaded that life 
 had nothing better to offer than the good opinion of his 
 brother officers, and speedy promotion to a troop in the 
 Dancing Hussars. 
 
 Walter Brooke, puffing the short pipe with his back to 
 the fire, was a very different person in every respect from 
 
80 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 his easy going friend. When I say he was the most 
 popular man in the regiment, I do not mean that he was 
 the most beloved ; but that his opinion carried more 
 weight, and his personal influence was greater than that of 
 anyone else, irom the war-worn old Colonel, browned and 
 bleached by an Indian sun, and counting nearly as many 
 wounds as he had clasps and medals on his brave old breast 
 — to the Paymaster, twenty stone in weight, never known 
 to be out of humour, and, from his very duties, an of&cial 
 with whom it was important to be on the most friendly 
 terms. Either of these, and indeed many other members 
 of the corps, had won more affection ; but none commanded 
 so much admiration as Walter Brooke. I believe this 
 secret was his : — Whatever he did, he had the knack of 
 making it appear he could do better if he chose. There 
 was a quiet, matter-of-course consciousness of superiority 
 in his manner : perhaps the result of natural audacity and 
 self-reliance ; perhaps assumed from motives of calculation, 
 by one who was shrewd enough to know that in society the 
 world assesses a man at his own valuation, which led people 
 to think there was considerable power latent in Brooke's 
 character, only wanting opportunity to display itself; that 
 he had it "in him. Sir ! " so they said, " and some day it 
 would come out." When people talk thus, they are pre- 
 pared for a very favourable judgment. It enhances their 
 own penetration, and everybody likes to nod sagaciously, 
 yet not without triumph, and say, " I told you so ! " 
 
 Walter Brooke was careful never to over-do the thing. 
 He was no boaster, but by inference — no swaggerer, save 
 by implication. He seemed to say less than he knew, and 
 to mean more than he said. Generally cool, always col- 
 lected, neither subject to the influence of bodily caloric nor 
 mental excitement, he had the credit of steadier nerves and 
 a better temper than he really possessed. Decidedly good- 
 looking — at least so the women said — he enjoyed the 
 further advantage of a figure, which coats and other articles 
 of attire fitted of their own accord, while his hands and feet 
 seemed made on purpose for the gloves and boots he wore. 
 Walter spent less money on his personal adornment than 
 any other ymmg man in the regiment — and not a tithe of 
 what Rags did — yet they admitted unanimously (and this 
 
OOUNTSY QUARTERS 81 
 
 is no mild panegyric), that for all external qualifications, 
 either in or out of uniform, Brooke was " quite the 
 Hussar ! " The men were not perhaps so fond of him as 
 the officers. He was aware of this, and it annoyed him, 
 for he knew that his inferiors are nicer judges of a gentle- 
 man than his equals. It may be that in his intercourse 
 with them, more opportunities arise for testing the true 
 politeness which comes from the heart ; it may be that they 
 place their standard higher, as not aspiring to reach it 
 themselves ; but the coarser, commoner clay, seems always 
 very ready to detect flaws in the porcelain ; and if you must 
 needs set up a golden image, and would prove the bright- 
 ness and purity of the metal, find out how it looks from 
 behw. 
 
 So Rags agreed to do Walter's duty, and bade him draw 
 the other easy-chair to the fire, and smoke at his ease, 
 asking him hospitably, at the same time, " Whether he 
 woid(£i't take anything to drink ? " 
 
 His friend seemed somewhat restless, and not in the best 
 humour. Ignoring the invitation both for rest and refresh- 
 ment, he stood with his back to the fire and pufi'ed savagely 
 at the short pipe during several seconds, then he broke 
 out : 
 
 " What a wretched day's sport ! How infernally they 
 mismanage the whole thing now that the governor is laid 
 up. Not that it was much better in his time, with their 
 ridiculous fancies about the tenants and the ground game. 
 Old Halfcock's superannuated. It's time he was pensioned 
 off, or shot, or put out of the way somehow. I tell you, 
 Rags, we ought to have had five hundred pheasants to-day 
 in those coverts, if they were properly looked after. I was 
 quite ashamed (though I've nothing to do with it), when I 
 saw you fellows on the patch of mangold-wurtzel at the 
 end of the fox covert. The few pheasants there were went 
 back, and you had only one ' rocketer,' only one, I'll swear, 
 for I saw it." 
 
 " And I missed him," said Eags, good-himiouredly ; who, 
 to do biTn justice, could usually make good practice with his 
 breech-loader, even at " rocketers." 
 
 "And you missed him," repeated the other, with rather 
 a contemptuous smile; adding, between a volley of little 
 
32 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 short, angry puffs, " It always will be so, as long as Jack 
 has the management. Jack won't listen to anybody. Jack 
 won't go anywhere to see how the thing ought to be done. 
 Jack don't even like my bringing out two guns. It's per- 
 fectly ridiculous in these days ; but Jack is so painftiUy 
 slow." 
 
 " Well, I thought we had some pretty shooting enough," 
 interposed Bags, uneasily divided between his natural spirit 
 of contentment and the impossibility of thinking differently 
 from his friend, " I had very good fun with the rabbits in 
 the copsewood ; and, by Jove ! Walter, that's something 
 like beer, that stuff you gave us at luncheon." 
 
 " Oh ! of course, if you go in for beer," answered the 
 other, with a sneer, "it's a different thing. You had 
 better take a share in the brewery with that precious Mr. 
 Stoney they always think it necessary to ask to Bridlemere. 
 What the governor sees in him is more than I can tell. 
 Jack is hand-in-glove with him, of course ; he's just such 
 another fellow himself." 
 
 "He's not half a bad shot," said honest Eags, thinking 
 the while of a certain woodcock between the trees which 
 Philip had turned over in very workmanlike style. 
 
 " He's not half a good one," replied Walter. " Besides, 
 the fellow's a snob. The governor used to be more parti- 
 cular when we were boys. I don't mean to say there's any 
 harm in Stoney ; but he's in trade, my good fellow, don't 
 you see ? He's in trade ! " 
 
 " Oh, of course ! Exactly ! " answered poor Eags, who 
 had not the courage to confess he thought none the worse 
 of him for that. " You must draw the line somewhere, I 
 suppose. Don't you dine with us to-night, Walter ? " he 
 added, getting off the treacherous ground as quick as he 
 could ; for Eags was very sensitive on the subject of birth 
 — a weakness probably inherited from a plebeian mother, 
 rather than from a long line of male ancestors, who were 
 paladins in plate-armour, centuries before the Brookes of 
 Bridlemere had ever been heard of. 
 
 " Not to-night," answered his friend, kicking the coals 
 into a flame with the heel of his neat shooting-boot. 
 " Waywarden expects me to dinner, and I daresay will give 
 me a pretty good one ; though he's never had what I call a 
 
COUNTBY QUABTEBS 33 
 
 real cook since Ravigotte left. I wish you were coining, 
 Rags ; old Waywarden's a capital fellow, and shows a good 
 deal of proper feeling about claret. My lady is always 
 pleasantest in a small party ; and Lady Julia's a nice girl 
 enough, though it's the fashion to abuse her. I wish you 
 were coming, we could ride oyer together." 
 
 Rags devoutly wished it too. All this being interpreted, 
 meant — " I, Walter Brooke, with my advantages of birth, 
 manner, impudence, and appearance, hold a position, to 
 which you, Ragman de RoUe, cannot aspire. ToUesdale is 
 one of the great houses, with its indispensable accessories 
 of magnificence, exclusiveness, and a French cook. Its 
 mistress is one of the few fine ladies left ; rejoicing, after 
 the manner of her kind, in a pomp of dignified inanity, and 
 a reign of terrorism, supported by the cowardice of the 
 oppressed. The daughter of the house, I suppose, would 
 hardly condescend to admit the existence of a fellow like 
 you — a mere subaltern of light dragoons, unacknowledged 
 by St. James's Street, and only known in Pall Mall to the 
 messenger of the Army and Navy Club. Yet, behold ! I 
 am at home in these enchanted regions, I can criticise the 
 claret, and find fault with the dinners. I can brave the 
 crushing manners of the mother, and even speak of the 
 daughter with half-pitying approval, and charitable allow- 
 ances for her failings. I am one of them. Don't you envy 
 me ? You are not ! " 
 
 Rags did envy him ; though, to do him justice, it was 
 less for the pleasures of the evening than the morrow. 
 Nay, had he been invited, he could probably have been 
 induced to face Lady Waywarden's drawing-room, only by 
 the anticipation of the following day's sport amongst the 
 belts and hedgerows of the Home Farm at ToUesdale, and 
 the " hot corner " in the park, at the back of the keeper's 
 house. 
 
 This young man, you see, had not passed the period of 
 life when field-sports, in some dispositions, seem to be an 
 absolute necessity of existence. In later years, though 
 even old blood boils and thrills under the influence of a 
 rattling gallop amongst large fences, or at the ringing of 
 shots and cheer of beaters, in a deep, stately woodland, 
 gaudy with the red, russet, and deep brown hues of 
 
 3 
 
34 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Autumn's last caress, these pleasui'es are taken sparingly 
 as they come, and at least with an outward show of sobriety 
 and moderation ; but in the morning of life, when the 
 bloom is rosy on the cheek, and the beard soft on the chin, 
 to miss a good day's shooting by some untoward accident — 
 to be stopped hunting by an untimely frost ; these are 
 disappointments which the untried philosophy of inex- 
 peiience accepts with a frank avowal of vexation and 
 disgust. 
 
 JDespite a wholesome fear of the ladies. Rags would have 
 liked nothing better than to order portmanteau and breech- 
 loaders to be got ready for Tollesdale. 
 
 " How are you going ? " he asked, after a pause, during 
 which, for the hundredth time that week, he had been wish- 
 ing that he could change places with Walter Brooke. "I 
 can lend you my trap, if you like. It's a darkish night, 
 and Belter says it's beginning to rain. Sober John will 
 get you there under the hour." 
 
 " Sober John has quite enough to do, grinding about the 
 country with his master," answered Walter, who never 
 scrupled to avail himself of that useful animal when he 
 wanted him. " And as for his getting there by dinner- 
 time, why. Rags, if you'll give me five minutes' start, and 
 lay me three to two, I'll undertake to beat him on foot, and 
 trundle a hoop before me the whole way ! No. I shall 
 canter Jack's cob over, and send him back to Bridlemere 
 in the morning." 
 
 " But won't your brother want him ? " said good-natured 
 Rags. " I heard him talk of riding somewhere to-morrow, 
 while we were at luncheon. I can lend him one of mine, 
 if he likes, you know, as I shall be doing your duty." 
 
 " Oh ! never mind Jack," answered the younger brother, 
 filling his pipe, and preparing for a start. " We've some 
 long distances next week ; we shall want all the hacks. 
 Jack don't mind; he'll walk. Jack's a capital walker. 
 Good-night, old fellow ; I must make running, for I'm late 
 as it is." 
 
 So Walter Brooke groped his way down the dark stair- 
 case to the door, where brother Jack's pony stood in waiting, 
 held by an unbraced and bare-armed dragoon. He was in 
 the saddle, and away without loss of time, the man looking 
 
COUNTBY QUABTEBS 35 
 
 after him with a grim, haK-doubtful approval, as the pony's 
 hoofs clattered out of the barrack-gate, and down the 
 slippery, ill-paved street. Walter would have ridden his 
 own horse, or even one belonging to Bags, carefully over 
 such ground, however much he might have been hurried, 
 but he had accustomed himself to treat everything of his 
 elder brother with a recklessness, which arose not so much 
 firom want of proper feeling as &om the generous character 
 and utter unselfishness of the owner. Whatever belonged 
 to Jack Brooke, was at the service of everyone who wanted 
 it. Such a disposition need not go beyond its own family 
 circle to indulge its peculiar weakness. Jack seldom had 
 a shilling in his pocket, or a good coat to his back ; to- 
 morrow he must trudge many a mile through the muddy 
 lanes, because Walter, with plenty of horses at command, 
 had borrowed his pony for a mere whim of his own, and 
 Jack, though justly prizing the animal, never dreamt for a 
 moment of saying " No." 
 
 It was a good pony, no doubt, and sure-footed, as Walter 
 could not but admit, whilst rattling it fifteen miles an hour 
 down hill, on the stones ; nevertheless, for all his hurry, he 
 too paused when he arrived at the bridge, looking wistfully, 
 even as PhUip Stoney had done, over the parapet, listening 
 to the miurmuring wind, and the quiet lapping of the waters. 
 
 For a few moments he seemed lost in thought, and laid 
 the rein on the pony's neck ; then, ere he tightened it once 
 more, and gave the animal a hint to go on, he spoke aloud : 
 
 " Bum girl, Nell ! Wish she'd marry Bags. Yet I 
 don't know how we should get on without her at Bridlemere. 
 Somehow, it wouldn't seem like home without Nell ! " 
 
CHAPTER in 
 
 THE BBOOEES 
 
 Nell, all unconscious, was playing the pianoforte the while, 
 by the light of a wood fire, glowing and crackHflg under the 
 ample chimney-piece of the old library, at Bridlemere. 
 The old library that — because it had never been intended 
 for the purpose — ^had gradually become the favourite sitting- 
 room of the whole house. It was very lofty, with deep 
 narrow windows, looking on a little sheltered flower-garden, 
 with oak floor and wainscoting ; with a ceiling in suf- 
 flciently bad taste, on which the different coats-of-arms of 
 the Brookes were picked out in scarlet and gold — ^perhaps 
 I ought to say, " gules and or." The bookcases at Bridle- 
 mere were not so well furnished as the cellars ; and large 
 gaps on their shelves, which should have been fiUed with 
 intellectual food, were littered with fly-hooks, fishing- 
 tackle, work-boxes, backgammon boards, battledores, 
 shuttlecocks, and such miscellaneous articles as are apt to 
 accumulate in any large room of a country house to which 
 young ladies and gentlemen habitually resort. Bridlemere 
 was an overgrown, old-fashioned buUding — partly of the 
 Restoration, partly of Queen Anne's time — and had little 
 pretension to regnilarity of architecture or arrangement. 
 The dining-room was the smallest and the worst on the 
 ground floor ; the drawing-room the prettiest and the 
 coldest. The best bed-rooms were ghostly, and uncomfort- 
 able to a degree — much too large, and in sad want of new 
 furniture; while in the "Bachelors' Gallery," as it was 
 called, a guest might find himself in the cosiest and neatest 
 of retreats, bright with French paper and flowering chintz, 
 
 36 
 
THE BB00KE8 87 
 
 replete with every appliance for cleanliness and comfort, 
 fragrant with the woodbine that trailed and twined about 
 the window, and commanding an uninterrupted view of the 
 tops of some elms, an ivy-covered tower, and the broad face 
 of the stable clock. It is pleasant to lie in bed in such a 
 room as this, and watch the rooks wheeling against an 
 AprU sky ; listening to their cawing through the open 
 window, and looking forward to a day of happy country 
 idleness — only happy and enjoyable when earned by a 
 previous period of honest anxiety and toil. Below stairs, 
 doubtless, Bridlemere was cheerful enough — the servants 
 took care of that. For good fires and strong tea, commend 
 me to the steward's room and the servants' hall ; but, 
 certainly, the darkest and gloomiest apartment in the whole 
 house was that in which the family chose habitually to 
 reside. 
 
 They might have made it a little more cheerful, too, with 
 a few prints or pictures, of which there was no want in 
 other parts of the building ; prints representing many a 
 spirited scene of country and sporting life. Dogs and deer 
 from Landseer, that you could not look at for five minutes 
 without feeling the wild breeze off the heather, and fancy- 
 ing you smelt the peat smoke. Horses from Rosa Bonheur, 
 snorting lifelike in the playfulness of wanton fear; or cattle 
 coming out of their frames with meek wistful eyes, and wet 
 healthy muzzles, and the dew of morning glistening on their 
 shaggy russet hides. Pictures, too, of many a periwigged 
 gallant, and tight-waisted dame ; the gentleman invariably 
 thrusting on public notice a pale and slender hand ; the 
 lady displaying with much liberality a long white neck and 
 bosom. But none of these were admitted to the library, 
 perhaps . lest they should withdraw the visitors' attention 
 from its great pictorial chef d'ceuvre and work of art — The 
 FamUy Tree of the Brookes of Bridlemere. 
 
 It was all very well for the Craddocks of Caradoc, now 
 Dukes of Merthyr-Tydvil and Severnside, Earls of Caradoc 
 and Lionesse, Barons Bonspiel in the Peerage of Scotland, 
 and all the rest of it, whose ancestors sat with King Arthur 
 at his Round Table, and held their heads high even then, 
 as having " come in " with King Cole, to look down in 
 pitying condescension on the antiquity of the Brookes. It 
 
88 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 was all very well for Lord Waywarden, of the illustrious 
 race of Treadwell (the first Treadwell ennobled was boot- 
 maker to Charles the Second), to assume a priority over 
 the Brookes, as his rank entitled him, at all county meet- 
 ings or social gatherings ; and for Lady Waywarden to 
 speak of them as " very good sort of people, whom she 
 was always delighted to see " — ^which she was not. The 
 Brookes, I say, esteemed their own pedigree infinitely 
 superior to what they considered the fabulous ancestry of 
 the Duke, and the mercantile origin of the Earl. To be a 
 Brooke was with them tantamouut to a diploma, vouching 
 not only for birth, but for beauty, talent, manners, probity, 
 aU the advantages, external and internal, that are assumed, 
 like gout, to be transmitted fi-om one generation to another 
 through the blood. 
 
 The Family Tree, however, on examination, scarcely 
 afforded sufficient reason for inordinate pride of birth. 
 Notwithstanding that in its many roots, suckers, and 
 ramifications, it resembled that redundant plant, " The 
 Auricaria," called irreverently " The Puzzle Monkey," — 
 notwithstanding that it required much practice, a clear 
 head, and a sharp-pointed pencil besides, to follow out 
 all the marriages and inter-marriages of the different 
 shoots, terminating too often in a little open circle like 
 a medal, with some barren spinster's name solitary in the 
 midst — notwithstanding that the attention was much dis- 
 tracted from its main trunk, by foreign grafts and ex- 
 crescences allied to houses, which again were allied to 
 royalty, it seemed pretty clear that the family knew little 
 about their origin prior to the appearance of a certain Sir 
 Geoffrey Brooke, who did good service in the cause of 
 royalty during the Kebellion, and would have assm-edly 
 been killed or taken prisoner with his stand of pikes at 
 Marston Moor, had he not run away, like many another 
 gallant cavalier, when the action became too hot for him. 
 
 From an old yellow letter — of which the ribbon that 
 once fastened it, according to the fashion of the time, 
 though much worn and frayed, was in better preservation 
 than any other part of the missive — it appeared that Sir 
 Geoffrey, before going into battle, had commended to the 
 care of his loyal wife and sweetheart, to whom it was 
 
THE BB00KE8 89 
 
 addressed, his poor old father, under the title of a simple 
 yeoman and franklin, giving thanks to Heaven, at the 
 same time, with quaint and sincere self-gratulation for his 
 own advancement in life. This letter, though carefally 
 preserved, was nevertheless ignored hy the family, who 
 preferred a far-fetched theory of their own regarding Sir 
 Geoffrey's origin, and affected to consider him as a younger 
 branch of the Devonshire De Brokes, hereditary grand 
 posset-bearers to the Plantagenet kings, and found in old 
 charters seised of certain fiefs and manors, now lapsed to 
 the Crown. 
 
 They might have been satisfied, nevertheless, with their 
 own Sir Geoffrey as he stood — an honest, God-fearing old 
 cavalier, who stuck to church and sceptre, fought as well 
 as his neighbours, and swore by Prince Eupert, who lived 
 to see "the king enjoy his own again," and to win for 
 himself, though history does not explain how, a goodly 
 tale of rich acres in the vicinity of Middlesworth, where he 
 built the oldest and least commodious parts of the house 
 now standing, and died in it at something over four-score — 
 the first of the Brookes of Bridlemere. 
 
 The Court of the " Merry Monarch," with its reckless 
 pursuit of pleasure, its taste for meretricious display, and 
 its unbounded licence of manners, served to ruin the 
 fortunes of such Boyalist families as did not succeed in 
 obtaining places or monopolies under its patronage, quite 
 as surely, and almost as rapidly as reverses at Edge Hill 
 and Naseby, or fines inflicted by the Parliament and the 
 Protector. Eank, in a second generation, has at all times 
 been prone to affect the pomps and vanities, rather than 
 the duties of its position. Sir Egremont, son to Sir 
 Geoffrey, shook the dice at Whitehall, and ran short-tailed 
 horses at Newmarket, to a tune which levelled half the 
 West Avenue, and melted away many a score of fat acres 
 round Bridlemere. There was a picture of him over the 
 dining-room sideboard, representing a handsome, but 
 clownish and sullen-looking man, with a periwig, a breast- 
 plate, and a tall glass of wine in his hand (artist unknown), 
 which formed a striking contrast to the likeness of his 
 father by his side, whose weather-beaten, war-worn visage 
 was depicted simpering under his steel head-piece, turned 
 
40 THE BBOOEBS OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 carelessly away from a dirty-faced page, a fore-shortened 
 charger, and a general action raging furiously in the back- 
 ground. Sir Egremont not only dissipated his property, 
 but also married his dairymaid, and thus on the first 
 opportunity struck a deadly blow at the aristocratic pre- 
 tensions of his house. 
 
 The dairymaid had a large progeny of daughters, branch- 
 ing out, indeed, all over the genealogical tree ; some wedded 
 to diverse plebeian surnames ; some dying like ungathered 
 roses on the parent stem. The property now passed into 
 possession of a family named Brown, and a stranger could 
 not commit a greater solecism, nor put a deeper affront on 
 either race, than to confuse the Browns and the Brookes of 
 Bridlemere. 
 
 One of Sir Egremont's married daughters, however, 
 must have preserved her patronymic; for in George the 
 First's reign, and after the Browns had added a wing and 
 put their mansion into thorough repair, a young Dorcas 
 Brooke appears on the stage as the last remaining scion of 
 her name, and to Dorcas Brooke appertains a pretty little 
 romance, commemorated among the archives of her family 
 by a bad picture in oils, and a long account in manuscript. 
 
 This young lady, it appears, dwelt with her aunt and 
 uncle by marriage, the latter a saddler and harness-maker 
 in the City. She seems to have been a fair young lady, 
 and an amiable, also more venturous than other damsels 
 of her class, inheriting, perhaps, something of old Sir 
 Geoffrey's energy and resolution of character. 
 
 London, in the reign of George the First, was not safe 
 to walk about in at night as it is now ; there were Mohocks 
 in those days, as there have been garotters since. Perhaps, 
 too, the anti-Mohocks, like the anti-garotters, contributed 
 largely to the general confusion after dark. A nervous 
 passenger would whip his sword out, fancying he was 
 going to be attacked, and become himself the occasion of 
 the very brawl he dreaded, as in later times we have 
 heard of impulsive gentlemen who would run a muck with 
 "life-preservers" and "knuckle-dusters," persuaded that 
 the stranger humbly asking his way was some perfidious 
 brigand, scientific in gripe as a Thug, and backed by a swarm 
 of confederate assassins round the corner. 
 
TEE BROOKES 41 
 
 The Mohocks, however, were the greater pest to the 
 public, that they slew and maltreated people for sheer 
 amusement. To be drunk with wine by two o'clock in the 
 day ; to "keep it up " with bowls of steaming punch and 
 cups of burnt brandy during the afternoon ; to " crack 
 t'other bottle," as it was called, at supper, and then sally 
 forth for the express purpose of insulting women, stabbing 
 men, and beating the watch, was the correct routine of a 
 " blood's " life in those fine old-fashioned times, which 
 some people, I understand, can still be found to regret. 
 
 Dorcas Brooke, however, was a good little girl enough, 
 coquettish, it may be, and not averse to admiration, yet 
 none the less womanly and kind hearted for these natural 
 failings of her sex, and Dorcas Brooke was not to be 
 deterred by all the Mohocks in London from regular attend- 
 ance at a sewing society in the next street, held twice a 
 week, for the purposes of conversation and charity, retaUiug 
 gossip, and fimiishing the indigent with clothes. Wrapped 
 in her muffler, a pretty white hand peeping out to clasp it 
 round her throat, and her dainty feet tripping lightly over 
 the mud, from gutter to gutter, Dorcas went backwards and 
 forwards from her home to her sewing society, without 
 taking much notice of the admiration, generally expressed 
 with oaths, that she called forth. One tall man, in a 
 cloak, watched her regularly for a fortnight ; and so did a 
 shorter, squarer, sturdier person, of less aristocratic exterior, 
 only she did not remark the latter. The tall man ventured 
 to accost her before long, and although she was greatly 
 shocked at the liberty, how do we know that it was so very 
 disagreeable, after all, or that she had not implied, as 
 damsels vrill, by some almost imperceptible hitch of her 
 garments, some unnecessary adjustment of her veil — "If 
 you follow me, I shall be angry ; if you speak to me, I 
 shall scream ! and yet I shall be a little disappointed if 
 you don't do both ! " The tall man, however, was a 
 Mohock when required. The third week he had a hackney- 
 coach waiting, and a couple of ruf&ans ready to help his 
 prey into the vehicle. She was a light weight ; a shawl 
 would gag her pretty mouth and easily stifle her cries. It 
 was but lifting her in, and the thing was done. Such 
 trifles took place nightly in that golden age. It was. 
 
42 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 therefore, well for Dorcas that she had another follower, 
 watchful and unsuspected, of less aristocratic appearance, 
 but of honester nature, stiffly built withal, and holding a 
 good oak cudgel in his hand. 
 
 These aflrays are soon over. There was a piercing 
 whistle; a scuffling of feet; a hoarse, suppressed voice 
 muttered, "My darling, I won't hurt you ! " and a shrill, 
 angry one screamed out, " Let me go. Sir ! Help ! 
 Murder! Let — " Then one of the ruffians went down 
 on the stones, with the blood streaming from his sconce, 
 the rapier flew in shivers out of the taU man's grasp, and 
 the saddler's apprentice flourished his cudgel between 
 Dorcas and her assailant, executing a war-dance in the 
 mud that bade defiance to a legion, and hallooing for the 
 watch with might and main the whUe, The tall man took 
 to his heels and fled ; the fallen accomplice lay senseless 
 where he fell; his comrade jumped on the box with the 
 hackney-coachman, and drove off. The watch never came 
 at all, and Dorcas walked silently home with her uncle's 
 apprentice, longing to thank him heartily, but not daring 
 to speak, for she knew she should burst out crying directly 
 if she ventured to open her lips. Nor was her champion 
 one whit less taciturn. Bayard might have been more 
 courtly in manner, but not more chivalrous at heart. 
 Also, in the presence of Dorcas, he was shy, mute, and 
 awkward. Her aunt thought him "a poor creature," so 
 she said, " easily dashed, and for all his broad shoulders 
 he hasn't the heart of a chicken ; not he ! Now look at 
 Dorcas ; the spirit of the girl ! But then, to be sure, she's 
 a Brooke ! " It is my own opinion that neither of its 
 participators alluded to the evening's adventure or its 
 termination, after Dorcas said " Good night ! Oh, thank 
 you ! " at the street-door, and hurried up stairs for the 
 " good cry " that could be delayed no longer. Neverthe- 
 less, there must have been thereafter a tacit imderstanding 
 between the two ; and, I daresay, at meals, the only times 
 they met, the apprentice would raise his eyes timidly to 
 seek the girl's, and avert them the instant they caught her 
 glance. 
 
 It is obvious that when two people are at opposite ends 
 of a line, and wish to meet at a given point, one must take 
 
TEE BB00KE8 43 
 
 the initiative, and move in the desired direction, if it be 
 but an inch at a time. To do women justice, they shrink 
 sensitively from thus commencing operations, and as long 
 as there is a chance of the advance originating with the 
 adversary, they are as retiring as the snail within its shell; 
 but when the lover so far forgets his masculine prerogative 
 of solicitation as to remain a longing devotee rather than a 
 brisk assailant (and it is provoking to reflect that the truer 
 his affection, the less it seems to sue for a return), why 
 then, rather than that the game should languish altogether, 
 and die out for want of players, she will emerge cautiously, 
 gradually, yet very obviously, from her reserve, and give 
 him to understand that she is neither so coy, nor so indiffe- 
 rent, nor so hard-hearted as he seems to believe. The 
 saddler's apprentice must have gathered a deal of encourage- 
 ment from his master's niece, in the shape of stolen glances 
 and approving smiles, ere he could summon courage to 
 offer her his escort on the river, when she took boat at 
 Whitefriars for a voyage into the country as far as West- 
 minster. That her aunt made no objections is only to be 
 accounted for on that principle which, in all ages and 
 societies, has trusted "the cat to keep the cream." In 
 the present instance, the cream was not the least afraid of 
 the cat ; and the latter, although an inexperienced mouser, 
 was delighted with its charge. 
 
 There could be but one result to such an expedition. 
 The waterman, a staunch Hanoverian, full of ale and 
 loyalty, ran them aground in some three feet of water. 
 Dorcas, losing her footing, and her presence of mind simul- 
 taneously, upset the wherry with much dexterity, and the 
 apprentice, in a laced waistcoat, knee-breeches, and fuU- 
 skirted coat, waded with his dripping burden to the bank, 
 and felt his head swim with a vague delirious happiness 
 when he imprinted his first kiss on her pretty lips, while 
 she clasped her arms round his neck, and vowed he was 
 her defender and preserver, and had saved her a second 
 time from death. The waterman, who was too drunk to 
 walk ashore, was in most danger of the three ; nevertheless, 
 the young people, ignoring the shallowness of the river, 
 voted it a rescue, and henceforth became avowed sweet- 
 hearts, only waiting for an opportunity to declare themselves. 
 
44 THE BBOOEEa OP BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 So presently the apprentice was " out of his time," and, 
 earning good wages, married his master's niece, who thus 
 exchanged the cherished patronymic of Brooke for the less 
 noble name of Housings — an exchange that only lasted till 
 the next generation, for Master Housings, in some forty 
 years' practice, amassed a large fortune by the leather 
 trade, and pretty Dorcas lired to see her grandfather's roof 
 over her head, and was buried in the country churchyard at 
 Bridlemere. It was, perhaps, her aunt's untiring influence 
 that stimulated this prosperous London tradesman to pur- 
 chase the acres she persisted in terming his wife's ancestral 
 property — an influence none the weaker that she never 
 neglected to remind him of his inferior birth during her life- 
 time, and left him a good round sum of money at her 
 death. Master Housings and his Dorcas ended their days 
 then at Bridlemere (Lord Waywarden maintains even now 
 that the place was so called to commemorate the saddler's 
 employment ; but such an assertion is directly refated by 
 the title-deeds of this estate, held by one Brown), and their 
 children, by royal licence, took the name and arms of the 
 Brookes of Bridlemere. 
 
 Two or three succeeding Squires drew their rents and 
 drank their port in the old house without becoming in any 
 way remarkable. The last bought pictures ; and the 
 present, till his health failed him, kept hounds. Both 
 succeeded in impoverishing their estate, and the energy of 
 another Sir Geoffrey, or the good sense of another Master 
 Housings, was beginning to be wanted for the repair of the 
 family fortunes. Nevertheless, the Brookes held a high 
 station amongst the county people. They could go back 
 honestly to Sir Geoffrey, and, by a perverse train of reason- 
 ing common to mankind, descent is the more valued the 
 further off it is from an illustrious ancestor, and, con- 
 sequently the less there is of his blood in the veins of his 
 posterity. The present Squire, like the others, was, above 
 aU things, proud of being a Brooke. As he watched the 
 firelight flickering on Nell's black braided hair, crimsoning 
 her sweet pale forehead, and throwing a saffron tinge on 
 the keys of the pianoforte, from which her white hands 
 were pressing out a low, pleading, mournful symphony, 
 dwelling, as if they loved it, on each sad harmonious 
 
THE BROOKES 45 
 
 chord, he was not thanking God, who gave him, in his 
 helpless age, the love of such a daughter, but congratulating 
 himself rather on the two stalwart sons, who should per- 
 petuate in the male line the Brookes of Bridlemere. Helen 
 was a good girl, no doubt — a good girl and a bonny one — but 
 it was well, he thought, that he had nearly twelve feet of 
 manhood, besides, to look to, lest the race might become 
 extinct. 
 
 The Squire had been a stalwart, well-grown man, in his 
 prime — could cheer his hounds and ride his horses with 
 unfailing lungs and vigorous dexterity. There were old 
 women about the place now, still hale and hearty, who 
 remembered *' his eyes as bright as diamonds, bless you ! 
 and his hair as black as your hat. Such a hearty, well- 
 limbed man as our Squire was, and a free gentleman, too ; 
 vrith a word for everybody — ^gentle and simple, rich and 
 poor ; " whilst an old-fashioned attorney in Middlesworth, 
 with a red nose and white neckcloth, quoted Squire Brooke, 
 as "the best judge of port wine in the country; but a 
 careful man of his health, always, and an abstemious, never 
 taking more than his one bottle a day ! " He had been 
 a good shot, of course ; an active, but somewhat pig-headed 
 magistrate, and an invaluable auxiliary at all agricultural 
 dinners, cattle-shows, and such public gatherings of the 
 landed interest and its supporters. 
 
 Now he could not walk across the room without assist- 
 ance. . Powerless below the waist, his arms and shoulders 
 still retained something of their former vigorous mould, 
 and there was brightness in his eye, and colour in his cheek 
 still ; but his hair and whiskers had turned white since his 
 attack, and he betrayed, at times, a querulous irritability 
 foreign to his character, denoting too plainly the approach 
 of a general break-up. One doctor called it rheumatism ; 
 another, suppressed gout ;• a third thought that his liver 
 was affected, and a fourth considered the general system 
 too low in tone. Nobody sent for a strange practitioner, 
 lest he should blurt out the right name, and declare it 
 
 Earalysis. It would have been a friendly deed — it would 
 ave been the action of a kind and brave man to tell Squire 
 Brooke the truth. It seems hard that the wayfarer should 
 be the last person warned of his inevitable journey — should 
 
46 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMESE 
 
 never know he is going to start till the long narrow box is 
 as good as ordered and ready for packing — till the horses 
 are actually pawing and snorting in his hearse. 
 
 The Squire sat in the warmth of the chimney-corner ; a 
 newspaper lay beside him ; but from the habits of his old 
 active life, he never read it till evening. He was dressed 
 in an out-of-doors costume, with his poor helpless legs 
 incased in stout shooting-boots and gaiters. His hat 
 neatly brushed, his gloves carefully folded, his stick ready 
 to support him, were placed within reach on a chair by his 
 side. Every morning Helen went through the same routine, 
 unvaried now for months. After breakfast, she looked at 
 the thermometer, and told her father the exact temperature 
 (he was very particular about this) ; then at the barometer, 
 and recorded its changes : setting it by his directions with 
 great care. Then she went out at the hall-door, wet or 
 dry, and furnished her own report of the atmosphere, 
 seldom tallying with that afforded by the mercury. This 
 performance accomplished, the Squire would say, " Helen, 
 my dear, I've a good deal to do at the Home Farm ; but 
 I think I shall not go out till the afternoon." 
 
 At first she liked to hear him talk so, for it gave her 
 hope. After a time, when he got no better, she would tmii 
 away to conceal her tears. At last, she became used to 
 this as to other distressing symptoms, and grew to con- 
 sider it as one of the details — nor indeed the most trying 
 one — of her father's illness and her own daily duties. She 
 had plenty to attend to — calls for the exercise of thought- 
 fulness, patience, and self-denial, every hour of the day. 
 Her brothers consulted " Nell " in all their complications 
 of stables, kennel, or other opportunities for mismanage- 
 ment. She was expected to remember their engagements, 
 and get them out of their difficulties of forgetfulness or 
 incivility. She had to sew the buttons on their gloves, 
 and keep them supplied with stationery, stamps, paper- 
 lights, and other miscellaneous articles which men seem to 
 think grow of their own accord in sleeping and sitting rooms, 
 like daisies in a May meadow-ground. Moreover, they 
 asked her advice in every conceivable dilemma, and never 
 took it on any subject whatever. 
 
 Then the servants came to Miss Helen for orders, bring- 
 
THE BROOKES 47 
 
 ing her, in return, complaints of overcharge from the trades- 
 men, and reports of each other's short-comings, which they 
 thought it " their duty to name; " but which could never 
 be substantiated on further inquiry, and poured in her 
 ready ear many a dolorous statement with which they 
 would not ventm-e " to trouble the Squire." She had lost 
 her mother several years before, and Helen was well accus- 
 tomed to a position which demands, more than any other, 
 the qualities of tact and good temper, viz., the acceptance 
 of responsibility without authority. 
 
 But it was as a daughter that the girl shone in her 
 brightest lustre. She had always been devoted to papa, 
 from the time when she used to toddle after him on sturdy 
 little bare legs, round the Home Farm, tumbling about 
 sadly amongst the turnips, and holding tight by his fore- 
 finger in the straw-yard, where dwelt those huge horned 
 monsters that visited her in her dreams. From those early 
 days, when she thought him the noblest, the wisest, and 
 the most gigantic of men, till now that she knew herself 
 the prop and mainstay of the poor bleached, withered old 
 cripple, she had never wavered one hair's breadth in her 
 affection, though year by year it changed its character, pro- 
 gressing through the successive phases of admiration, 
 confidence, anxiety, pity, and protecting love. 
 
 The Squire accepted it all, as, if men were wise, they 
 would be careful ever to accept the devotion of the 
 other sex, with a lofty royal condescension, that seemed 
 to expect attachment and homage as a right. 
 
 Loyalty, I think, must be a special characteristic of 
 womanhood. They seldom rebel till the monarch himself 
 shows symptoms of weakness or abdication. What taxes, 
 too, will they not bear, so Jong as he imposes them with a 
 firm and temperate hand ? Whilst he remains on the dais, 
 they are the sincerest, though the subtlest of courtiers ; but 
 let him not descend to meet them on an equal footing in 
 the hall ; and if he place them on a pedestal above his own 
 level, woe betide him ! He will surely find that the pretty 
 head turns giddy with elevation, and the little feet can 
 trample hard and heavy on the prostrate ruler who has 
 voluntarily yielded up his natural sway. 
 
 The Squire had accustomed himself to be tended and 
 
48 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 nursed, and waited on by his child, till it seemed only 
 natural that all Helen's pleasures, amusements, and pursuits, 
 should give way to every whim of the invalid. She seldom 
 left him for more than a couple of hours at a time, and 
 nobody knew how often she had denied herself a ball, 
 a pic-nic, or an archery meeting, lest the worn face in the 
 arm-chair should look wistfully round for her and find her 
 not — lest the querulous voice complaining from habit to 
 Helen, should become more querulous and irritable because 
 she was beyond hearing of its wail. 
 
 The country people voted Miss Brooke a little shy, and a 
 little proud. It may be she had a spice of both these failings. 
 On the few occasions when she did appear, the young men 
 fell in love at first sight ; but after a quadrille, or a dinner- 
 party, became somewhat afraid of her, confiding to each 
 other in elegant figures of speech, that she was " a clever- 
 shaped one ; but slhw, and not much in her." Nevertheless, 
 it might be seen, by the earnest way they took their hats 
 off when she bowed — which she did somewhat haughtily, I 
 admit — ^that they liked her to notice them. The ladies were 
 less outspoken in their decision. They had "heard she 
 was a very nice girl. For their own part, they shouldn't 
 call her exactly handsome." It is needless, therefore, to 
 observe, that Miss Brooke's exterior was sufficiently pleasing 
 in the eyes of the other sex. 
 
 She was a stately looking young woman. She carried 
 herself naturally in a more queenly fashion than is usual 
 with a country gentleman's daughter. She possessed what is 
 called a very thorough-bred air — ^not that this advantage is 
 by any means monopolised by our aristocracy — and her 
 reserved manner was probably much increased by the life 
 she led, and her habit of thinking for everyone in the house. 
 Her head and neck were extremely well put on, particularly 
 when you saw her en profile. She could look very high and 
 mighty when she drew herself up, which she was apt to do 
 from shyness, oftener than was necessary ; but when she 
 bent over her work, or stooped down to caress a dog or a 
 child, there was something very gentle and womanly in her 
 gestures, that accorded well with the expression of her fair low 
 forehead, and the gentle, trustful look in her large dark eyes. 
 Hers was not one of those faces which derive so much beauty, 
 
TEE BBOOKES 49 
 
 and that too of a very fascinating kind, from brilliancy of 
 colouring, and mobility of feature. Helen was nearly always 
 pale, and so calm she was almost severe ; but if in an un- 
 guarded moment a thought or feeling was permitted to 
 express itself unreservedly on her face, men turned their 
 eyes quickly away, and as quickly looked at her again, in the 
 instinctive homage the boldest cannot but pay to a high 
 type of feminine attraction. 
 
 Had she been more liberal of her smiles, she might have 
 easily claimed the championship — if I may use such an ex- 
 pression — in every ball-room of the shire. Had she looked 
 at any other man as she did now from under her long dark 
 eyelashes at her father, down he must have come, I think, 
 unless shortsighted, or lately married, or very deeply pre- 
 engaged — down like a wild bird, shot deftly under the wing, 
 wounded and fluttering, and helpless at her feet. 
 
 She closed the pianoforte, and came round still with that 
 smile on her face, to her father's chair. Whatever Helen 
 did was done noiselessly ; her dress never rustled, and she 
 could even read the newspaper without crackling it. " Papa, ' ' 
 she said, " let us put off the Dacres and Stoneys. There 
 will be plenty of time for me to write a line now, before the 
 post goes." 
 
 The Squire struck both hands angrily against the arms of 
 his chair, making a movement as if he would get upon his 
 feet — " Put off the Dacres and the Stoneys, Helen! Good 
 gracious ! what are you dreaming of? Why on earth do 
 you suppose I asked them if I'm to put them off ? You 
 don't think I'm worse, do you ? " 
 
 His voice shook painfully, but it was partly from anger. 
 He was easily irritated now, particularly when his health was 
 alluded to. 
 
 "Dear papa," persisted Helen, ''you know Mrs. Dacre 
 has a bad cold, and the chances are she will send an 
 excuse at the last moment ; in which case she won't let him 
 come alone. Walter is gone to ToUesdale, and he never 
 knows when he will be back ; people like so to have him. 
 You see, there would only be the Stoneys, and Jack, and 
 
 I." 
 
 " Then you count me for nothing ! " exclaimed the Squire. 
 " Considering that I have been in this cursed chair for — ■ 
 
50 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 for — how long have I been in this cursed chair, Helen ? 
 Considering that it's my house, and my seiTants, and my 
 wine, I think I might be permitted to sit at my own table ! 
 If the doctors think I am going to dine at two o'clock every 
 day, they're infernally mistaken, and so I tell them ! Why, 
 it's not till Tuesday, I expect to get out to-morrow, if 
 it's anything like a fine day ; and I must go to the Home 
 Farm on Monday at all risks. I suppose I may have some 
 dinner after my walk, eh, Helen ? Neither you nor the 
 doctors are fools enough to forbid me that ! And this isn't 
 till Tuesday, I expect to be nearly as well as ever I was in 
 my life. A little heavier, perhaps, for want of exercise ; 
 but quite strong again — quite strong again." 
 
 Now, these dinner parties were amongst the weekly trials 
 of Helen's life. The Squire persisted in asking his friends 
 and neighbours to dine with him, as he used when he could 
 sit at the end of his table, and carve his saddle of mutton, 
 and drink his bottle of port. Ay, and play his rubber of 
 whist till twelve o'clock at night. Now, early hours and 
 complete repose were absolutely enjoined. Nor, had he 
 been equal to the exertion of entertaining his guests, 
 would the excitement of their society have been permitted 
 by the doctors. Nevertheless, he would take counsel with 
 his children whom he should ask, and with his cook what 
 they should have for dinner; and send off invitations for a 
 party of fourteen with far more eagerness than he ever 
 showed when he was strong and well. Perhaps the bustle 
 and excitement of the project may have served to amuse 
 him, but he was nevertheless very irritable while its arrange- 
 ments were pending ; very querulous and desponding the 
 day after the feast at which he had been unable to attend-. 
 
 It was no easy task for a young girl to preside and do the 
 honours of a large party, chiefly country neighbours, neither 
 very bright nor very sociable ; but of this duty she acquitted 
 herself wonderfully well. What Helen dreaded was the 
 effect of these Barmecide entertainments, both past and 
 prospective, upon her father. 
 
 It was worse, too, when Walter was away from home. 
 That young Hussar seemed to have acquired an ascendancy 
 over the Squire, such as was acknowledged by his brother 
 officers. In the presence of his second son, Mr. Brooke 
 
THE BBOOKES 51 
 
 was ashamed to indulge the querulous habits of had health, 
 and assumed, as far as he could, the tone of a man of the 
 world. A visit from Walter always seemed to do him good ; 
 but on the days he felt weakest, he declined to see him ; 
 and when he was at his worst, he liked nobody but Helen 
 to be in the room. 
 
 " So Walter is off to ToUesdale— off to ToUesdale," re- 
 peated the Squire, after a pause. " Quite right, quite 
 right. Young men should go into society, good society, 
 the best they can command. And the Waywardens are 
 civil to Walter, are they? Popular fellow, Walter; twice 
 the brains of Jack, eh, Helen ? And Waywarden's a good- 
 natured man : old friend of mine, though he never comes to 
 see me now." 
 
 His voice dropped, for he was thinking of the days when he 
 could beat Waywarden over a country, and shoot quicker 
 at pheasants, and when in one of these amusements or the 
 other, they used to meet three or four times a week. He 
 would have taken it very kindly had the latter ridden over 
 to see him a little oftener ; and his old friend would have 
 grudged neither time nor distance, but that he fancied he 
 should only be in the way in a sick room, forgetting that 
 the Squire, as a Christian, loved his neighbour, and none 
 the less when that neighbour was a Peer. Mr. Brooke liked 
 to think of Walter flourishing about amongst these grandees, 
 riding as good horses and wearing as smart clothes as the 
 best of them, though he never seemed to consider how 
 these advantages were to be paid for, nor dreamt of in- 
 creasing his younger son's allowance to meet the expenses 
 such society entails. 
 
 There are many fathers who have no scruple in pushing 
 the earthen vessel out to swim down-stream with the iron 
 pots, and think they have a right to be angry when it 
 breaks and fills, and sinks to rise no more. Were it not 
 that the iron pots, as a class, are very considerate and very 
 good-natured, these shipwrecks would occur far oftener than 
 they do. Mr. Brooke, reflecting on his own choice piece of 
 porcelain, began to think he should like it to be present at 
 his dinner-party. 
 
 " Of course Walter will be back by Tuesday, Helen? " 
 said he, more cheerfully. " We shall want his help to do 
 
52 THB BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 the honours, and talk to the young ladies. I forget who 
 are comilig, Helen. I've got your list somewhere, but I've 
 mislaid it. Eing the bell, dear ; or, no, put a little more 
 wood on the fire." 
 
 Helen stirred the logs into a flame, as usual, to please 
 him; then she went over, for the twentieth time since 
 luncheon, the roll of invited guests. The Smiths, who 
 couldn't come; the Greens, who hadn't sent an answer; 
 the Dacres, who were doubtful ; and lastly, the Stoneys, 
 who had accepted " with thanks." 
 
 A dinner-party in the country is apt to prove a failure 
 from the difficulty of getting your forces together at the 
 last moment. Like an invading army, its available 
 strength is far less than that which it shows on paper. 
 In London, you send out your invitations three weeks 
 beforehand, and the invited come as solemnly, as tardily, 
 and apparently as unwillingly, as they would to pay any 
 other just and unavoidable debt. Moreover, the gaps 
 between your couples are filled with professional diners- 
 out — men who make a regular business of the thing, 
 and whose conversation, cut fresh from the evening paper 
 and the topics of the afternoon, will no more keep tin to- 
 morrow than the flowers in your epergne. Therefore, if 
 they are alive, come they will, and you need fear no far- 
 fetched excuses to disappoint you at the last moment. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the entertainment is likely 
 to be cool, roomy, comfortable, or in any way particularly 
 pleasant ; but it is pretty sure to take place, and there is 
 an end of it ; whereas, in the country, you may lose four of 
 your party at once on the day itself by such a trifling 
 casualty as the breaking of a spring, or the illness of a 
 coach-horse. If it is a frosty night, your richest elderly 
 lady probably fails you from sheer poltroonery ; if a thaw, 
 your handsomest and most eligible young man is likely to 
 be wading up a muddy lane with a tired hunter a dozen 
 miles off, when he ought to be simpering over his soup 
 plate at your dinner-table. The undertaking is beset with 
 difficulties; and even if it succeeds, in nine cases out of 
 ten, it proves one of the many games which are not worth 
 the candle that lights them. 
 
 Helen never argued with nor contradicted her father. 
 
THE BBOOEES 53 
 
 She let him run on and exhaust his petulance unopposed, 
 returning, as it wore itself out, with the gentle persistency 
 of woman, again and again to the attack. 
 
 " Walter will be back the end of the week," she said. 
 " If we could put off the dinner-party, papa, we might 
 make sure of having him to help us." 
 
 "I don't require any help!" answered the Squire, 
 quickly. " Still, "Walter makes himself agreeable, and 
 brings us all the news. And you say the Dacres won't 
 come, you think, Helen ? " 
 
 " Sure not, papa," was the reply ; "we all know what 
 Mrs. Caere's colds are: they mean, 'I won't take any 
 trouble about anything for a fortnight.' " 
 
 The Squire wavered. Still he coiUd not at once relinquish 
 the idea of his dinner-party. It was a sort of point d'appui 
 for his poor, weak, helpless, vacillating mind. 
 
 "But there are the Stoneys," said he; "three of them, 
 for I told you to ask Philip particularly. Did you ask 
 Philip particularly, Helen ?" 
 
 She had turned to make the fire up again. 
 
 "Yes, papa," she answered; "I wrote hiin a separate 
 note in your name." 
 
 " Three of them," mused Mr. Brooke. " I don't think 
 we can put three of them off. It is not as if we had only 
 asked two. What should you say, Helen? Don't you 
 think it would seem very odd, if we put three of them 
 off?" 
 
 But Helen was firm. He had come round, as usual, to 
 her way of thinking, by imperceptible degrees, and thought 
 he had converted her to his own opinion. So she lit the 
 candles on the writing-table, and sat down to her task, 
 taking great pains, as ladies do, with the penmanship and 
 superscription of her letters, and composing, as her 
 father desired, a particular and separate note to Mr. 
 Philip Stoney. 
 
CHAPTER rV 
 
 SIONEY BROTHERS 
 
 Of all the flirts in and about Middlesworth, I doubt if 
 there was one who could bear comparison with a young 
 lady now occupying the hearth-rug at the feet of Philip 
 Stoney, divested of his shooting dress, clean, hungry, and 
 waiting for the important hour of dinner. That this person 
 was four years of age, wearing her legs bare, likewise her 
 shoulders, and her frock in as untidy a state as constant 
 revision by mamma and nurse would permit, is simply an 
 aggravation of the charge, inasmuch as dishevelment and 
 general disorder of costume did but enhance the peculiar 
 style of coquetry which she found irresistible by many of 
 her own, and all of the opposite sex. 
 
 Without being a pretty child, except in so far as healthy 
 children cannot help being pretty, rosy cheeks and dancing 
 eyes, and an- impudent nose, vrith a profusion of curling 
 brown hair, imparted to this little lady quite pretension 
 enough on which to found a dynasty that had gradually 
 usurped dominion over the whole house. That she had a 
 Christian name I assume from presumptive sponsorial 
 evidence, afforded by a fairy-like fork and spoon, with a red 
 case, also a silver toast-and-water mug in her possession. 
 But such baptismal appellation was entirely superfluous, 
 inasmuch as nobody, in or out of the family, ever dreamed 
 of calling her anything but " Dot ; " and a very troublesome, 
 quaint, and noisy little personage Dot could be, at no time 
 more so than at the period 
 
 " Between the dark and the daylight, 
 Which is called the children's hour." 
 
8T0N£}Y BB0THEB8 55 
 
 Philip was warming himself (like an Englishman) at the 
 fii'e. Dot sat on the hearth-rug at his feet. She brandished 
 a pair of scissors (points blunted for family use), and was 
 cutting a paper pattern of mamma's into a device which 
 it had by no means been originally intended to represent. 
 
 After an unbroken silence of some thirty seconds, Dot 
 looked up. 
 
 " Uncle Phil," said she, shaking the curls off her face, 
 " when am I to be your wife ? " 
 
 This was a matrimonial arrangement long since concluded, 
 and now established as a matter of course by the lady, with 
 whom, indeed, it originated. 
 
 " Not at all, Dot," answered Uncle Phil. " I am afraid 
 of undertaking the job. I've changed my mind." 
 
 " Are you going to have another wife ? " asked Dot, 
 very graciously, and quite unmoved by her favomite's 
 inconstancy. 
 
 Philip smiled, and smothered a sigh, while he thought 
 how unlikely such an event was ; and Dot proceeded with 
 the utmost gravity : 
 
 "Because, mamma said this morning that Phil was too 
 good to be a bacheldore, and when I asked what a bacheldore 
 was, she said papa was one before he married. And I thought, 
 perhaps, you would be good enough for me to be your wife 
 very soon, and then we could go to that place you told me 
 of, where the beasts are, like my Noah's Ark." 
 
 Dot had already a very feminine notion of a wedding 
 trip, combining, as far as practicable, amusement with 
 romance. Every child has its own ideal region of en- 
 chantment, and Dot's Utopia was "where the beasts were, 
 like her Noah's Ark." 
 
 Uncle Phil sat down, and his torment, reaching his knee 
 at a bound, proceeded to the constant and never-failing 
 resource of opening and shutting his watch. 
 
 " We'll see about it. Dot," said he, smoothing the glossy 
 head. " I think the beasts would all be afraid of you ; 
 you're such a little vixen." 
 
 " What's a vixen ? " asked Dot. " Wind it up, Uncle 
 Phil ! What's a vixen ? " she repeated, with a quick look 
 in his face. " Is Jane one ? Is mamma a vixen ? " 
 
 Philip laughed outright. " Here she comes, Dot," said 
 
56 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 he; " you had hetter ask her yourself; " and the words 
 were scarcely out of his mouth, ere Dot, whose motions 
 were like quicksilver, had made a dive at mamma, 
 and was lost in the ample folds of that lady's gown. 
 Anything less like a vixen than Mrs. George Stoney 
 could hardly he imagined. She was a stout, untidy, 
 uncomely sort of woman, motherly, to say the least, in 
 her dress and exterior ; of considerahle presence, whichever 
 way you looked at her, and generally, with a large, healthy, 
 hungry haby in her arms. She had a fine figure so to 
 speak, run to seed; fine dresses ill put on; fine hair, 
 neither well-brushed nor carefully arranged; and fine 
 features which nothing could spoil. She could not have been 
 always nursing, yet her appearance never failed to suggest 
 a general idea of nutrition ; and her demeanour, with its 
 heavy, languid step, and slow imposing gestm-es, was a 
 happy combination of the matronly and the imperial. 
 
 Her conversation, too, was of the same handsome, 
 careless, untidy character as herself. She liked fine 
 phrases, as she liked fine gowns, and used the words as 
 inappropriately as the dresses. Even at home, she was 
 very fond of speaking like a book, and held, that next to 
 her maternal duties, eloquence was, of all things, to be 
 cultivated by a woman. Fortunately, a slow delivery, and 
 a West-country accent, prevented the torrent of her oratory 
 from becoming overpowering ; and as the miller sleeps 
 sound through the accustomed thunder of his mill, and 
 only wakens up when the wheel stops, so did Mr. George 
 Stoney find himself quite undisturbed by his wife's rhetoric, 
 answering too often, like other husbands, instinctively, 
 and at random, without in the least comprehending the 
 purport of a single question addressed. 
 
 With men, Mrs. Stoney was rather popular than other- 
 wise. They admired her fine points, and laughed 
 good-humouredly at her fine phrases, ignoring their 
 misapplication, or setting down her mistakes, as they 
 will, to the score of feminine ignorance and incapacity. 
 Amongst her own sex, opinions as to her merits varied 
 in accordance with the social standing of those who 
 broached them. The poor thought her " a noble lady," 
 as indeed they had good cause. The tradespeople con- 
 
STONEY BBOTEEBS 57 
 
 sidered " she gave herself airs to which she was not 
 entitled ; " for this class of persons only tolerate and even 
 admire bad manners, when covered with a coronet. The 
 doctor's sister, the rector's lady, and one or two neigh- 
 bouring Squiresses voted her " a vulgar, trapesing woman, 
 and just what they had expected from the first; " whilst 
 Lady Waywarden, I fear, ignored her altogether, and none 
 the less loftily, that Waywarden, some years ago, had been 
 heard to declare at a Middlesworth ball, she was " out-and- 
 out, the handsomest woman in the room ! " 
 
 Mrs. George Stoney, however, permitted herself to be 
 but little affected by the suffrages of her neighbours. 
 What with marketing, shopping, the production and 
 sustenance of infants, the unpicking of dresses, the 
 supervision of servants, and the struggle for supremacy 
 with Dot, time did not hang heavy on her hands. All the 
 languor she indulged in was confined to her manners, and 
 she could bustle about below-stairs, on occasion, with a 
 vigour and activity quite remarkable in so ample and 
 majestic a personage. Dot was devoted to her. She 
 herself thought she was the only person who kept Dot in 
 order, but to this opinion the latter did by no means 
 subscribe, and the question was tried at least half-a-dozen 
 times a day, usually with the same result, a signal and 
 complete victory on the part of the child. Philip got on 
 admirably with his sister-in-law, perhaps for the very 
 reason, that no two people could be less alike in every 
 respect, and altogether, no more united family sat down to 
 dinner in Middlesworth than that which surrounded the 
 dining-table of the comfortable vUla inhabited by Stoney 
 Brothers. 
 
 " George is late," remarked his wife, ringing the bell 
 with one large white hand, and imprisoning Dot with the 
 other. " He has not been in ten minutes, but it never 
 takes him long to make his toilet. He's an elegant 
 figm-e, George ; and the children take after him. He'll be 
 here before the soup now. Dot ! will you leave the fire- 
 irons alone? " 
 
 Dot's attention was at this juncture fortunately arrested 
 by the simultaneous entrance of papa, who was always an 
 attraction, and the soup, borne by a clean, tidy-looking 
 
58 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 parlour-maid, whose connection with a certain store-room, 
 and the jam thereto belonging, gave her opinions con- 
 siderable weight amongst the inhabitants of the nursery. 
 It was at her instance that Dot consented to be removed, 
 ostensibly to superintend the putting to bed of her juniors ; 
 and as the young lady was replaced by a tureen of hot soup, 
 the three sat down to dinner in considerable comfort and 
 tranquillity. George Stoney was several years older than 
 his brother. He had the worn and somewhat subdued air 
 of a man whose whole life has been spent in the toils of 
 business, in work not adapted to his tastes, and that taxed 
 his powers to the utmost. There are two sorts of men in 
 trade, equally energetic, perhaps, and equally successful, 
 but who wear their good fortune, as Ophelia says of her 
 rue, " with a difference." Those to whom business is 
 their naturial element, thrive and grow fat upon it ; they 
 are younger and fresher men of their years than the British 
 yeoman himself. But the others, who put their shoulders 
 perhaps no less assiduously to the wheel, yet who cannot 
 cheat themselves into the belief that labour and pleasure 
 are convertible terms, who do the drudgei-y, and do it 
 thoroughly, but only because it must be done to pay the 
 premiums on their life-assurances for wife and children; 
 who stand at the desk, when they would fain be breasting 
 a mountain, and long for the saddle, while perched high on 
 an office stool; these men have thin hands and hollow 
 voices, weak hair, streaked with grey before its time, a stoop 
 in the shoulders, marked lines about the mouth, and. Oh ! 
 such a wistful look in the weary, weary eyes, as if they 
 longed so for rest, that they would be content to find it 
 even in the grave. George Stony was active, painstaking, 
 intelligent, but his natural element was leisure and 
 retirement. He would, probably, have been equally 
 successful as a scholar, had his lot been cast amongst 
 a different kind of books from those which he compared and 
 posted so carefully ; unquestionably he would have looked 
 ten years younger, and he would certainly have been a 
 happier man. 
 
 Eefined in character, cautious, and a little indolent of dis- 
 position, shrinking almost sensitively from everything noisy, 
 exaggerated, or in bad taste, averse even to so much of 
 
8T0NEY BB0THEB8 69 
 
 strife as must constitute the necessary competition of trade, 
 he was a dreamer — almost a poet in heart; though ex- 
 ternally, both in dress, manner, and habits, as prosaic a 
 personage as it is possible even for the British merchant to be. 
 Such a man was sure to marry a woman of far coarser 
 mental texture than his own, and, having married her, was 
 equally sure to abandon the reins of government to her 
 grasp as far as she liked to possess them. Intellect, from 
 its very nature, is too often hampered by facility of character 
 and love of ease ; such a combination cannot but give way 
 when opposed to a firm and thick-skinned disposition ; 
 strong in its will as its affections, regardless of those 
 nicer shades of feeling which do not practically affect its 
 well-being, and rejoicing in that useful self-confidence, 
 which, however unwarranted, is so often justified by 
 results. It is only fair to say, however, that in the 
 present instance, the lady confined her energies to do- 
 mestic sway. She never interfered with the business, 
 and the brewery was conducted, unquestionably, by the 
 firm of Stoney Brothers, though inside the villa Mrs. 
 George's word was law. 
 
 This brewery, then, well known, long established, and 
 ministering to the thirst of more than half the villages in 
 the county, was considered to be the best business doing in 
 the town of Middlesworth. Its magnificent greys were to 
 be seen at all hours resting their nose-bags to feed on each 
 other's backs. Its waggons clattered and jingled along the 
 ill-paved streets, waking the echoes and shaking the windows 
 as they rolled by. Its draymen, jolly and gigantic, were 
 walking advertisements of the stuff on which they flourished, 
 and " Stoney' s Entire " seemed synonymous vnth John 
 Barleycorn himself. 
 
 For many years the firm had done well, and amassed 
 considerable profits in a dark, mysterious-looking building, 
 far down a by-street, through which it was a miracle how 
 the waggons and the greys, and the draymen ever wound 
 their way ; but the spirit of enterprise had of late prompted 
 Stoney Brothers to quit their old premises, and erect a 
 magnificent pile of classical proportions in the most fre- 
 quented part of the town, where greys and drays, and 
 waggoners, should be permanently quartered, and which 
 
60 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 should become the colossal emporium, as it were, and 
 fountain-head, of the very strongest beer (for the money), 
 that could be brewed by the power of steam. 
 
 Old gi-ey-headed tradesmen who remembered Middles- 
 worth before the days of railroads, " small profits, and 
 quick returns " men — who ate and slept in their places 
 of business, and were proud of it ; who " kept the shop 
 as the shop kept them," looked with no favourable eyes 
 on the new brewery, sagaciously opining that Stoney 
 Brothers were "reaching their hands out further than 
 they could draw them back again ; " — but the younger 
 division of the mercantile interest — the modern class of 
 shopkeepers — approved much of the whole proceeding, and 
 Mr. Dowlas, the draper, an eloquent person, with a taste 
 for public speaking and Mechanics' Institutes, declared it 
 was " refreshing to witness such a bold and comprehensive 
 spirit of enterprise, which deserved, even if it failed, to 
 command success ! " 
 
 There was one person, however, who could not bring 
 himself to entertain these sanguine views of the new 
 undertaking, on whose peace of mind the huge erection 
 seemed to press, with the specific weight of the very 
 bricks and mortar of which it was composed. George 
 Stoney had looked, if possible, graver and wearier than 
 ever, since the foundations of the building had been laid. 
 It was only after long consideration that he had given his 
 consent to its commencement, after carefully inspecting the 
 plans, and reducing the estimates, and calculating the 
 expense. When fairly begun, nobody could have shown 
 more energy and activity in furthering its completion ; 
 but even Mrs. Stoney observed that George grew quieter 
 — " more absorbed in thought," she called it — day by day ; 
 and Dot, standing on papa's knee, and taking stock, as 
 usual, of his eyebrows, whiskers, &c., was delighted to 
 find how many more of those " nice white hairs " she 
 could discover every time she looked for them. 
 
 To your own family your symptoms are never so alarming 
 as to strangers. Meeting you every day, changes are to 
 them imperceptible, which your visitors, as they drive away, 
 tell each other " they were quite shocked to perceive." 
 Illness is like age. You fondly imagine, the man you 
 
8T0NEY BBOTHEBS 61 
 
 Bhave to-day is very like what he was when you began 
 to shave him thirty years ago ; and the wife of your bosom, 
 if always with you, never looks older than when she was a 
 bride. Thus the gradual decline from indisposition to 
 weakness, and from weakness to ill-health, is only observed 
 by your doctor. And when the inmates of your household 
 begin to see a difference in your appearance, depend upon 
 it, the last change of all is not very far off. 
 
 At the dinner-table, the conversation was principally 
 between Philip and his sister-in-law. The latter mois- 
 tening her remarks pretty plentifully with the beer of the 
 firm, as indeed she had a good right, from conviction of 
 its excellence, and conscious want of its sustaining power 
 within. There was no ostentation about the repast, but 
 all its accessories were close at hand without the trouble 
 of asking for them. The linen was soft and white, the 
 plates too hot to hold, the silver shone, the glass sparkled, 
 and the dumb-waiter was scarcely quieter or more indis- 
 pensable than the noiseless parlour-maid, who removed 
 and changed the dishes with each succeeding course. 
 That parlour-maid's ribbons always looked new. For the 
 first month, her mistress vowed daily, " Jane wouldn't 
 suit," on the score of being " dressy; " but Jane's clean 
 hands and willing face, and tidy, active ways, soon 
 gained for her the reputation of being " a treasure." 
 Dot, too, entertained morbid feelings about her merits. 
 "Altogether," as she wrote to her sister, "the place 
 was suitable, and she had no intentions of leaving of it." 
 
 Mrs. Stoney looked very ample and handsome, dispensing 
 the good things before her to her husband and his brother. 
 Neither of them, to use her own expression, " took as much 
 animal food " as she thought good for them. Her own idea 
 was, that the more a man ate and drank, the stronger he 
 must necessarily become. She would have liked to feed 
 her husband as often as she did the baby in possession. 
 George Stoney, lifting his head languidly to decline any 
 more of his own beer, was admonished, that "if he would 
 neither eat nor drink at dinner, he must promise to take 
 two or three glasses of good wine afterwards." "If once 
 you let the system down," argued Mrs. Stoney, "every 
 medical man will tell you he cannot answer for the con- 
 
62 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 sequences. Look at me ; I'm sure I can't think whatever 
 I should do without my beer. Philip there is afraid of his 
 waist, I know, but you've no need to be apprehensive on 
 that score, George. Your dancing days are over, my dear ; 
 something like my own." 
 
 Mrs. Stoney was fond of asserting her matronly exemp- 
 tion from the delight of the dance ; claiming privilege on 
 the score of superannuation, which it was pleasant to 
 hear indignantly denied. This self-depreciation, too, was 
 purely theoretical; inasmuch as she liked nothing better 
 than to swim through a quadrille, with the majestic and 
 imposing progress of a first-class ship under easy sail ; and 
 my own impression is, that she abstained from waltzing, less 
 from a sense of decorum, than a specific gravity of person, 
 which rendered that measure too laborious and breathless 
 an effort for recreation, and only to be risked on great 
 occasions, once or twice a year. 
 
 " I've other things than dancing to attend to," said her 
 husband, abstractedly ; " and if I hadn't. Bell," he added, 
 with a smile, " I don't think Middlesworth is much of a 
 place for that amusement." 
 
 " I declare if he hasn't forgotten our ball ! " exclaimed 
 Mrs. George, clapping her hands with a peal of laughter, 
 and turning to her brother-in-law. "Now, that's George 
 all over. I'll undertake to say you've been thinking about 
 it, Philip, more than enough, and are engaged, a dozen 
 deep beforehand, with all the prettiest partners in the 
 town. Ah, it's a great pleasure, is a ball, to young 
 people ! though there's many a heart-ache comes from it 
 afterwards ; and a head-ache too," added she, reflectively, 
 " if Mr. Driblet furnishes the champagne, as usual, at 
 supper." 
 
 " Both are easily got rid of," answered Philip, " and 
 both are easily avoided, if a man knows what he's about. 
 You needn't dance, if you can't take care of your heart ; 
 and you needn't drink champagne, if you're not sure of your 
 stomach." 
 
 " If I was a man, I'd run my chance of both," replied 
 Mrs. George Stoney. "Nothing venture, nothing have! 
 Phil ; and, ' faint heart never won fair lady.' But you 
 don't get off so easily from our Middlesworth balls. London 
 
STONEY BBOTHEBS 63 
 
 parties may be better, and more crowded, if you come to 
 that ; but nobody shall persuade me they can be more 
 genteel." 
 
 "I know nothing about London," said Philip, who 
 seemed a little restless and inclined to change the 
 subject. " I am not much of a judge in such matters, 
 but these seem well enough in their way," 
 
 " Well enough in their way ! " echoed his sister-in-law. 
 " Why, George, did you ever hear anything like that ? " 
 
 " Anything like what ? " asked her husband, waking up 
 from a dreaming fit, and relapsing without waiting for an 
 answer ; while his wife, who was used to his abstraction, 
 continued the conversation without him. 
 
 " I'm sure, Philip, I wonder what you'd have, if these 
 balls are not good enough for you. I've seen a good deal 
 of life in my time, as a girl, you know, Phil, before I 
 married your brother. The very first people, both from 
 the barracks and the dockyard, were always welcome in 
 my father's house : but if you ask me, I declare I don't 
 know when I've set eyes on so many elegantly dressed 
 females, and gentlemen of really fashionable exterior, 
 as attended our Middlesworth ball this time last year. 
 And it's been the same ever since I've known the town. 
 If it wasn't for what I call the ' stuck-up set,' who always 
 will get by themselves at the top end of the room, there'd 
 be nothing equal to our balls — ^nothing ! " 
 
 Mrs. Stoney flourished her large well-shaped hand and 
 arm, with a gesture that seemed to defy contradiction. 
 
 " I've seen some very handsome people at that end too," 
 observed Philip, with a little malice, and a slight accession 
 of colour in his cheek. " Lady Julia kept her whole party 
 there last year, and they say that she is reckoned quite a 
 beauty, even in London." 
 
 " I've no patience with her ! " exclaimed Mrs. Stoney; 
 " nor her mother neither. I blame Lady Waywarden far 
 more than the girl ; though, if you ask me, I think Lady 
 Julia is rather inclined to be a romp. Such airs and graces, 
 indeed ! If we're not good enough to be iu the same room 
 with them, why do they come, I should like to know ; I'm 
 sure nobody wants 'em ! " 
 
 This last assertion was somewhat inconsequent, inasmuch 
 
64 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 as these offenders contributed, at least, one-third of the 
 ball-goers; and if they had abstained from attending, 
 because " nobody wanted them," the assembly would have 
 been shorn of a large and very ornamental portion of its 
 attractions. The grievance, however, was of long standing. 
 Mrs. Stoney said no more than the truth, when she declared 
 it to be one of which she "could not speak with patience; " 
 moreover it became year by year more confirmed amongst 
 its originators, and more offensive to the rest of the society. 
 
 The Town Hall, wherein these solemnities were held, 
 though a lofty and lengthy room, was, unfortunately, but 
 of scanty width. The musicians' gallery, equally distant 
 from both ends, and fronting an enormous fire-place, from 
 before which the shy men were knocked out of time in 
 about five minutes, almost divided it into two different 
 apartments ; and in the one of these, furthest from the 
 door, the county families had contracted a habit of con- 
 gregating, huddled together like starlings in a nor'-wester, 
 and offering considerable social difficulties to such adven- 
 turous youths as might desire to extricate their partners 
 from the flock. It was in vain the townspeople, with Mrs. 
 Stoney at their head, strove to form an opposition gathering 
 of their own, and took possession of the other end, leaving 
 a clear space in the midst, as though for some exhibition of 
 posture-making or legerdemain. This only made matters 
 worse. Few ladies, and still fewer gentlemen, ventured to 
 cross the Debateable Land; and, instead of a festive 
 gathering, these assemblies began to assume the aspect 
 of an impending battle between opposing armies, with 
 Amazons in the front rank. 
 
 Mrs. Stoney, indeed, had, on one occasion, reaped a 
 signal and unexpected triumph. It was when Lord 
 Waywarden, the most good-humoured and unaffected 
 of men, who could hardly have been made to understand 
 the difficulty, had it been explained to him, deliberately 
 left his ranks, and selecting her from the opposition for 
 a partner, led her triumphantly to the top of a quadrille at 
 his own end of the room, where she had a Marquis for a 
 vis-a-vis — an arrangement she did by no means dislike. 
 
 Nevertheless, such victories are too often fatal as defeats. 
 The English fine lady can be the best bred woman in the 
 
STONBY BBOTBEBS 65 
 
 world. It does not follow that she always is. When she 
 means to be rude, she draws the bow with less compunction, 
 and points her shafts more accurately, and more mercilessly 
 from behind the shield of conventionality than any other 
 archer in the battle. Ere Mrs. Stoney had swum through 
 her quadrille, with no less, be sure, than her accustomed 
 majesty, she wished in her heart she had never left the 
 other end of the room. Women have a way of making 
 each other uncomfortable, which the stupider sex can neither 
 appreciate nor understand ; and though Mrs. George carried 
 her crest bravely through the figures, and did not lower an 
 eyelash, under Lady Waywarden's cold, contemptuous stare, 
 she was very glad to get back to her own party at the 
 conclusion ; and from that night hated the " stuck-up set " 
 more than ever. 
 
 " Take away, Jane," said she to the parlour-maid, who 
 had re-entered with dessert ; and after whispering certain 
 injunctions, of which the words "bed" and "Miss Dot" 
 were alone audible, she turned to Philip, and resumed the 
 subject that about this time of the year was generally 
 uppermost in her mind. 
 
 " There's beauty enough, and to spare, Phil," said she, 
 smoothing her own glossy bands of hair on her temples ; 
 "and this winter there will be more than ever; though, 
 to be sure, I don't think much of the new people at the 
 Poplars ; and I don't see what there is in that Mrs. Dacre 
 to make a fuss about. If she didn't get her dresses straight 
 from Paris, she'd be positively plain, to my fancy. Don't 
 you think so, Phil?" 
 
 Phil had not thought about it ; scarcely knowing Mrs. 
 Dacre, indeed, by sight; so he said "Yes," with a clear 
 conscience, and Mrs. George pursued her criticisms, well 
 satisfied. 
 
 "Lady Julia will be there, I suppose, as usual? She's 
 a good figure of a girl, and a sweet dresser, Phil — there's 
 no denying that ; but she'll never have her father's elegant 
 manners ; and I'm certain she's freckled when you're close 
 to her. I declare, if she would only seem a little more 
 unbending, there are none of them to beat my favourite, 
 that dark-eyed Miss Brooke. Don't you think Miss Brooke 
 is a very handsome, aristocratic-looking girl ? " 
 
66 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 But Philip's answer, if he made one, was lost in the 
 wine-glass at his lips, for the subject was here brought to 
 an abrupt termination by the apparition of Dot, rosy and 
 tumbled, closely pursued by the parlour-maid, and obyiously 
 glowing with excitement from some overt act of successful 
 rebellion. 
 
 The young lady's costume, too, was of the simplest and 
 easiest. It consisted of a long white cotton garment, 
 clinging closely round her slender little figure, and making 
 it look absurdly limp and pliant. Her feet were bare, and 
 her curls scattered over her shoulders. It was evident, even 
 vyithout Jane's disapproving face, that she had been per- 
 manently put to bed, and had jumped up again. 
 
 "Halloo! Dot!" "Why here's Dot!" sufficiently 
 expressed her father's and uncle's astonishment, while 
 mamma's " Now Dot ! " denoted more displeasure than 
 surprise. Whisking round the table, and dodging out 
 of Jane's grasp, like an eel, the child sprang to Uncle 
 Phil's knee, and explained her appearance with perfect 
 frankness, and an air of determined resistance to injustice. 
 
 " My camel ! my camel ! " urged Dot, intensely in 
 earnest. "I've said my prayers, and I've had my hair 
 done, and I've been a good little girl; and I can't go 
 to bed without my camel!" 
 
 Jane here felt called upon to explain. " Miss Dot was 
 very partial to her camel " (a rare specimen out of her 
 Noah's Ark, resembling, now the paint was worn off, no 
 known creature upon earth), " and couldn't never be got 
 to bed without it" — a position the rebel seemed resolved 
 to maintain : clasping Uncle Phil firmly round the neck, 
 and from that point of vantage eyeing her pursuer with 
 a comical expression of triumph and defiance. 
 
 It was evidently a case where nothing but mamma's 
 interference could prove of the slightest avail, Mrs. 
 Stoney accordingly rose from the table, and quietly 
 carried off the intruder in her arms, the latter glancing 
 roguishly at Uncle Phil, over the maternal shoulder, 
 and clenching her little fist on the regained treasure, 
 which even in the moment of capture she had spied 
 out, and picked off the hearth-rug, where she had been 
 playing with it before dinner. 
 
STONEY SMOTBEUS 67 
 
 " After a storm comes a calm," observed George Stoney, 
 pushing the decanter over to his brother, and relapsing into 
 silence. 
 
 Soon he looked up. " Those are my reasons, Phil," said 
 he, reverting to Dot and her companions in the nursery, 
 " for being so cautious. I sometimes think I'm not 
 cautious enough for a man who has a wife and family 
 dependent on his life almost for bread." 
 
 Philip knew well what was in his elder brother's mind. 
 The latter could not bring himself to the belief that they 
 had acted prudently in building the new brewery. 
 
 " It's nearly finished," said Philip in a hearty, cheery 
 voice, answering his brother's thoughts rather than his 
 words. "Nearly finished, and as good as paid for, in my 
 opinion. I showed you the calculations I made yesterday. 
 Look how the business will increase ; why, in six months it 
 will have doubled itself. In five years the capital will be 
 pa,id up, and there you are with the fore-horse well by the 
 head, as our people say — a rich man for good and all." 
 
 " Five years is a long time," replied George, looking 
 thoughtfully into his glass. "Life's uncertain. I'm not 
 such a hard fellow as you, Phil ; and a good deal older into 
 the bargain. Suppose I don't last five years ? " 
 
 " Stuff and nonsense ! " exclaimed the other. " You'll 
 last fifty ! Besides," he added in a tone of deep feeling, 
 " I shall not be quite penniless. My share is a pretty 
 good thing- — at least, I think so, I can tell you. Then if 
 worst came to worst, d'ye think you're fonder of the children 
 than I am ? And Isabella has something, though it isn't 
 much, of her own. Your life's insured, too. Don't croak, 
 old boy ! What are you thinking of ? " 
 
 " That reminds me," observed George, more cheerfully, 
 " we ought to insure the new place, now it's so nearly 
 finished. I meant to speak to you about it to-day, before 
 you went to Bridlemere." 
 
 " I've thought of that, too," answered Philip, joyfully. 
 " We'll do it next week. Save a quarter's insm-ance ; don't 
 you see, George ? Oh, trust me for looking after the main 
 chance ! " 
 
 " You're a better man of business than I am," replied the 
 elder brother, " though I've had so much more experience. 
 
68 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBB 
 
 And you think the venture is sure to turn out successfully ; 
 don't you, Phil ? " 
 
 " Not a doubt of it," answered the latter confidently. 
 " No more wine, George, thank you. Yes, I will ; I'll have 
 one glass, to drink ' Good luck to the new brewery, and 
 success to Stoney Brothers ! " 
 
 George put a little shen-y into the bottom of his glass, 
 and pledged the hopeful toast. Nevertheless, the con- 
 fidence was only forced in him, which was spontaneous 
 in his brother. Their characters were different, both by 
 nature and from the force of circumstances. Philip not 
 only possessed the buoyant hope and energy of a young 
 man who had never yet known serious disappointment; 
 but he had also a resolute, and somewhat enterprising 
 spirit, prone to adventure, and not to be deterred by the 
 rebuffs of fortune. A thorough woman, the goddess is to 
 be won both by readiness and persistency. Philip could 
 repair a failure, as well as take advantage of a chance. At 
 present, too, he seemed even more than ever to be working 
 "with a will." He wanted no holidays now, except, it 
 may be, for an occasional day's shooting at Bridlemere. 
 Mrs. George began to suspect that this desire of money- 
 making must originate in something besides a love of 
 independence for its own sake. 
 
 Her husband was not given to speculate on anything 
 save future reverses in trade ; nevertheless, he, too, 
 observed that Philip was never tired of talking " shop." 
 Business seemed now to be the subject uppermost in his 
 mind at all seasons. 
 
 To the very threshold of their pretty drawing-room — in 
 which Mrs. Stoney, having put Dot and her camel to bed, 
 was waiting tea for them — he urged the advantage of taking 
 Jem Batters into their employment, at a somewhat lower 
 rate of wages than the regular tariff; and even while the 
 door opened she heard her husband's quiet melancholy 
 tones reminding his brother of the insurance, and the 
 latter's triumphant rejoinder, that he had saved a quarter's 
 interest — " A whole quarter's interest, George, by not 
 being in too great a hurry ! " 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 TOLLBSDALB 
 
 Need I make excuses for reverting to the subject of dinner 
 — that principal event in the recurring day ? From the 
 acorn-eating age of the savage to the great discovery of 
 truffles ; from the Eed Indian who loosens his hunger-belt, 
 and goes in for a gorge on juicy hump and oily marrow off 
 the fresh killed buffalo, to the dandy (no longer very young), 
 starched, curled, and perfumed, who sits down to twenty 
 dishes, with no appetite, but tastes of each in turn, 
 stimulated by dry champagne; all times and all classes 
 have agreed to regard dinner as an Institution, to establish 
 it as the axis round which the whole twenty-four hours 
 revolve. 
 
 Nor must it necessarily be an extremely plenteous or 
 elaborate repast. A crust of bread and cheese under a 
 hedge ; a sandwich (mustard forgotten) on the heather ; a 
 mutton chop, with another " to follow " — these simple 
 provisions are competent, on occasion, and when nothing 
 better can be had, to fill the place of a royal banquet, and 
 afford as much satisfaction to the consumer as turtle and 
 venison. There are but two conditions exacted for the 
 sacrifice — the priest must be hungry and the offering clean. 
 Then is there no necessity for great preparation, or 
 " apparatus." Say grace, fall to, and if you cannot get a 
 sip of sherry, or a glass of claret, or even a teaspoonful 
 of alcohol, as a digestive, make the best of it, and finish 
 off with a smoke. 
 
 I know not why the very people for whom this important 
 meal is an affair of the greatest ceremony, who take the 
 
70 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 most pains to have it good, and when they do get it, spend 
 the most time in its discussion, should put it off as long as 
 they possibly can. 
 
 The Stoneys were adjourning for tea at eight o'clock. It 
 was a quarter past before the party at ToUesdale had fairly 
 set down to dinner. Nor, indeed, was their complement 
 made up even at that late hour. Jack Brooke's was a 
 capital pony, no doubt ; and Walter did not spare him as 
 he galloped from the barracks. A good-looking young 
 man, who wears his own hair and teeth, who does not 
 require to curl his whiskers, and whose clothes are supplied 
 (on credit) by the tailor most in vogue, ought to be able to 
 dress for dinner in twenty-five minutes. Nevertheless, 
 Walter contrived to make his entrance, and his bow to his 
 hostess, as the soup disappeared, and sank into the seat 
 reserved for him by Lady Waywarden, without thinking it 
 necessary to excuse himself. Apologies in these days are 
 never offered for anything ; and a good deal of trouble is, 
 perhaps, saved by their abolition. They would have been 
 insincere, too, in the present instance, for Walter was late 
 on purpose. He was a dandy, you see ; and a certain 
 affectation, properly toned down, v/as in keeping with the 
 character. You must have attained your social position, 
 whatever it may be, before you cease to care about it, and 
 can afford to be natural. A man who wants to be thought 
 wiser, or better, or richer than he is, can never quite 
 dispense with sundry little artifices, sufficiently transparent 
 to those who know how much is done in society for effect. 
 
 In Walter's case, however, it is only fair to say, the 
 effect was very good. Even Lady Waywarden admitted 
 that he was "a gentleman-like, agreeable young man; " 
 and her ladyship was by no means given to over-rate the 
 social qualities of her fellow-creatures. She had the happy 
 knack, too, of letting them know that she made allowances, 
 because so thoroughly satisfied of their inferiority ; and this 
 pleasant quality, combined with a stately figure and icy 
 demeanour, rendered her a formidable personage even in 
 London, and the tenor of the whole country round 
 Middlesworth. 
 
 She had been a beauty, in days when men admired a 
 beauty, and women hated her more than they do now. 
 
T0LLE8DALB 71 
 
 The vei-y mob cheered when she leant forward in the 
 carriage at the bottom of St. James's Street, on her way to 
 her first drawing-room. They talked about her in the 
 clubs the day she was presented, and took odds about " the 
 double event " of Sal Volatile winning the Oaks, and her 
 marrying the only disengaged duke, before Goodwood. 
 She had very regular features, a beautiful skin, and an 
 expression of countenance denoting utter indifference to 
 everything in the world. I don't believe she blushed when 
 Lord Waywarden proposed to her (he had recently 
 succeeded to the earldom), and I think she said " Yes," 
 with as little emotion as if he had offered her a cup of tea. 
 People whispered there was " a cousin in India, that she 
 used to like " ; but I consider this mere gossip. Indeed, 
 unless he had been Governor-General, I am convinced " a 
 cousin in India" would have stood but a poor chance. 
 
 At forty, Lady Waywarden had lost all pretensions to 
 beauty. She looked the Countess (though she was a 
 Commoner's daughter) and that was all. Like other fine 
 ladies, she was active in mind, indolent in body. Though 
 she spent the mornings in bed, and never walked a quarter 
 of a mile from the hall-door, she did a great deal of good 
 amongst her poor, and did it, too, in the most judicious, 
 energetic and discriminating way ; though she never pitied 
 people, she was always ready to assist them ; and much of 
 her voluminous correspondence was occasioned by the public 
 charities and benevolent associations, to which she was a 
 generous and never-failing contributor. Waywarden was 
 very fond of her, and let her do exactly as she pleased. 
 He was right : coercion had never been tried with this 
 lady ; and it is likely that hers would have been a very 
 dif6.cult spirit to control. 
 
 The dinner party consisted of five — ^perhaps I might say 
 six, including Mr. Silke, the groom of the chambers ; an 
 important personage of refined appearance, whose duty 
 seemed to consist in listening to eveiything that was said, 
 and occasionally offering people sherry when they did not 
 want it. There were a good many more servants, both in 
 and out of livery, who waited as quietly as only very good 
 servants can. His lordship was extremely particular, you 
 see, and prided himself on the excellence of his domestic 
 
72 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 arrangements. There was only one house in England, he 
 boasted, where "the thing" was as well done as at 
 ToUesdale. 
 
 However disguised. Lord Waywarden could never have 
 been taken for anything but a gentleman. Though he was 
 short, broad-shouldered, and of a powerful build, there was 
 something in the carriage of his handsome bald head ; 
 something in his bold, pleasant Saxon face ; something in 
 his frank, straightforward and collected manner, peculiar to 
 the English nobleman. There is no class that combines so 
 much of manliness with so much of refinement. Their 
 bodies are vigorous, though their minds are cultivated ; and 
 the same individuals who are distinguished as scholars, 
 statesmen and diplomatists, have physical power to load 
 coals or dig potatoes ; and physical courage — " pluck " as it 
 is now called — to do anything that can be attempted by man. 
 
 Nothing could be more different, however, than his lord- 
 ship's outward appearance before and after half-past seven 
 o'clock, p.m. In the morning, from the top of his low- 
 crowned white hat to the nails in his heavy double-soled 
 shoes, he dressed the practical agriculturist to the life. He 
 had been a sportsman in his day, and could handle a gun 
 still as well as most men ; but he was now devoted heart 
 and soul to the farm. Hour after hour he would trudge 
 about his acres, heedless of wind and weather, intent only 
 on draining, top-dressing, or turnips ; and rejoicing in the 
 very savour of the dung-heaps that smoked at regular 
 intervals over the brown and wealthy soil. He could 
 cheapen bullocks, too, at fair or market, and not a drover 
 on the road would have let him pick from his straggling 
 charge, at the average price overhead of the herd. He 
 could calculate the wool on a sheep, or the weight of a fat 
 pig, at a glance ; and his tenants affirmed that "my lord 
 could buy e'er a one of 'em at one end of Middlesworth 
 market, and sell him at the other ! " 
 
 From his nine o'clock breakfast till he returned healthy, 
 happy, and hungry at night, he was the . farmer all over ; 
 but with the starched white neck-cloth, and portly white 
 waistcoat, came a transformation ; and at his own table, no 
 man could be more courtly, more polished, nor more 
 agreeable than Lord Waywarden. 
 
TOLLESDALE 73 
 
 Walter was rather a favourite. My lord was so used to 
 dandies, he did not mind them; and had, besides, a 
 natural liking for one whom he had known from childhood, 
 and who was the son of his old friend and neighbour, poor 
 bedridden Squire Brooke. Frank and genial in his nature, 
 he would enjoy his bottle of claret over the fire when the 
 ladies left them after dinner, none the less that his guest 
 was more than five-and-twenty years his junior, and must 
 necessarily consider him " an old fogey " in his heart. 
 
 It appears then that the guest was by no means in an 
 enemy's country. Lord Waywarden liked him because he 
 was used to him ; Lady Waywarden liked him because he 
 was not afraid of her ; and here, I may observe, that 
 Walter feared no woman on earth. This immunity he had 
 obtained at considerable personal sacrifice, by his former 
 intimacy with the well-known Mrs. Major Shabracque, late 
 of the Dancing Hussars, a dashing lady, who rode, drove, 
 dressed, rouged, gambled, flirted, and, I believe, smoked ; 
 adding to these dubious tastes the more reprehensible 
 pursuit of breaking-in raw cornets to the ways of the 
 world, almost as fast as they joined. People said she had 
 rather burnt her fingers with young Brooke, and took to 
 liking him, when she only meant he should like her. But 
 it seems improbable that a bold, brazen dame, of five-and- 
 thirty, with the animal spirits and great experience of 
 Mrs. Shabracque, should ever have played a losing hazard, 
 except as a matter of calculation in the game. Be this as 
 it may, Walter got tired of dangling about her at last, and 
 emerged from the ordeal a good deal hardened externally, 
 and if scorched within, only so far burnt as is good for the 
 child who must learn betimes to entertain a wholesome dread 
 of fire. After exposure to such a battery, all other artillery 
 seemed but as a volley of small arms. Moreover, without 
 knowing it, Walter had become, so to speak, " free of the 
 guild." The women were civil to him wherever he went, 
 and Lady Waywarden never dreamt of snubbing him as 
 she snubbed his brother Jack. 
 
 With Mr. Silke, too, he was a prime favourite. Habits 
 of personal extravagance, and a younger brother's liberality 
 in doucews, had completely won that functionary's affec- 
 tions; he really pressed him with the old sheny, and a 
 
74 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 certain white Burgundy, after cheese. Mr. Silke's own 
 opinion was, that Captain Brooke, as he persisted in calling 
 him, was " quite the gentleman." 
 
 Two more ladies made up the party. Miss Prince, who 
 sat next to Walter, and, although a little afraid of him, 
 was delighted at her proximity to a live dandy. She, too, 
 entertained certain prepossessions in his favour, though in 
 an indirect way. Mr. Brooke's home was at Bridlemere ; 
 Bridlemere was near Middlesworth ; in Middlesworth lived 
 Mrs. George Stoney ; and Mrs. George, when bouncing, 
 handsome Isabella Richards, had been a pupil at a school 
 — I beg pardon, an establishment — whereof Miss Prince 
 was erst part-proprietress, and principal teacher in all the 
 most important arts and sciences constituting female educa- 
 tion. How the little woman could know so much, yet be 
 so silly, was a marvel : nevertheless, in spite of a nervous 
 twitter and foolish manner, and an insatiable tendency to 
 ask questions, Miss Prince had a heart far too large in 
 proportion for her body, and to the bottom of this great, 
 simple, loving heart, Isabella Richards had found her way. 
 
 The former teacher had met with reverses, which she 
 accepted in a humble, thankful spirit, that showed a good 
 deal of Christian philosophy ; and when the establishment 
 broke up, the poor part-proprietress went out as governess 
 to Lady Julia Treadwell, at whose emancipation she con- 
 sented to remain as a sort of companion to her mamma. 
 She had a paralytic sister to provide for, of course. You 
 never knew a woman totally unfitted to battle with the 
 world, yet making a capital fight of it notwithstanding, who 
 had not some drag of this description ; but through all her 
 ups and downs, debts and difficulties. Lady Julia's vagaries, 
 and Lady Waywarden's whims, she preserved, as fresh as 
 ever, her great love for Isabella Richards, now Mrs. George 
 Stoney. Though she marvelled much at his whiskers, his 
 refinement, and the somnolency of his manners (" So 
 unnatural in a young man, my dear," as she afterwards 
 told Lady Julia), she could not but regard with considerable 
 admiration so elaborate a specimen of his class as Walter 
 Brooke. I think, next to personal courage, with which it 
 is often associated, nothing goes down with women so well 
 as personal vanity. The coxcomb runs the hero a very 
 
TOLLESDALE 75 
 
 hard race, and a combination of both never fails to produce 
 a winner. 
 
 Miss Prince, sitting on the edge of her chair, appealing 
 constantly to her former pupil, and faltering a little when 
 she caught Lady Waywarden's eye, laid siege to her neigh- 
 bom* in her own way, by plying him with a series of ques- 
 tions, chiefly, as being of engrossing interest to a soldier, 
 on topics of military detail. 
 
 "And are all your men taught to ride by the same 
 master. Captain Brooke? " asked Miss Prince, in a small, 
 shrill, innocent voice. " And don't the music, and banners, 
 and shooting off the guns, frighten the horses ? And when 
 you go to the field of battle, is the colonel obliged to go 
 first? I'm so interested in the army. I had an uncle 
 once in the War Office. And why are your soldiers called 
 light dragoons." 
 
 Walter stared, and held his glass for dry champagne. 
 These questions were indeed " posers," and while the 
 thought flitted through his brain, " What the deuce makes 
 the woman want to put me through my facings ? Mad, of 
 course" — he simply sipped his wine, and looked at Lady 
 Julia, sitting opposite, who immediately took upon herself 
 to reply. 
 
 "Because they've light heads, and light hearts, and light 
 heels. Don't you know. Miss Prince, ' They love and they 
 ride away?' It's part of the system. The army couldn't 
 go on without it." 
 
 " My dear Julia ! " exclaimed her mother. 
 
 Miss Prince looked shocked ; Lord Waywarden laughed; 
 Lady Julia's eyes sparkled, and shot a shaft or two at 
 Walter that it could not have been unpleasant to sus- 
 tain. 
 
 " We are not to ride away, at least, for some time, I am 
 glad to hear," said he, in a tone meant for his vis-a-vis, 
 though he looked at Lady Waywarden. " Middlesworth 
 is a charming quarter for me, in every respect, and they'll 
 leave us here in peace now till the spring." 
 
 " I suppose hunting is the great attraction," said Lady 
 Julia, demurely, loosing the while another shaft from her 
 bow. 
 
 " And the shooting at ToUesdale,". added Walter, turning 
 
76 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 to his host, "and its inmates, and my own relations at 
 Bridlemere. I'm a domestic person ; I always was. Don't 
 you know, I'm a domestic person, Lady Waywarden? " he 
 reiterated, appealing to the Countess. 
 
 " I confess, I shouldn't have guessed it if you hadn't 
 told me," answered her ladyship drily; whereon the eyes 
 of Walter and Lady Julia met once more, and they both 
 laughed. 
 
 It seemed as if there was some understanding between 
 these young people ; some interest in common ; some link 
 subtler and stronger than the mere acquaintance of London 
 partnership or country neighbourhood ; but it was hard to 
 say. I need scarcely observe that Walter was not demon- 
 strative ; and as for Lady Julia, I am sorry to admit that 
 she was such a rattle, and such a flirt, you never knew 
 what she was driving at. 
 
 Animal spirits have a great deal to answer for. The 
 daughter inherited all her father's health and vitality, with 
 much of his joyous temperament, and had besides con- 
 tinually before her eyes her mother's example to warn her 
 from the opposite extreme of exaggerated coldness and 
 reserve. Lady Julia's exterior, too, was in marked contrast 
 to her disposition. Such beauty as she possessed was of 
 the cold, clear, delicate order. Her features were very 
 straight and regular; but the eyes, though bright as 
 diamonds, were set too deep in her head ; and though her 
 mouth was vei-y winning when she spoke, the lips closed 
 tight over the white, even teeth, when she ceased, giving 
 her whole countenance a cast of resolution — I had almost 
 said defiance — more formidable than feminine. I have seen 
 heads cut on cameos that resembled this young lady in 
 every particular, and I think I have felt thankful that the 
 type has become rarer now than it seems to have been of 
 old. With her pale, clear skin (it was not freckled, though 
 Mrs. Stoney said so, and though that sort of complexion 
 generally is freckled), with her long, light eyelashes, her 
 small, well-shaped head, and wealth of plaited hair, golden 
 in the sun, rich chestnut by candle-light, and called red or 
 auburn, according as people were or were not in love with 
 her, she certainly did possess a strange, weird, uncomfort- 
 able fascination of her own. There are some women with 
 
T0LLE8DALE 77 
 
 whom you fall in love, just as you fall asleep, easily, gradu- 
 ally, insensibly. The whole process is quite a pleasm-e, and 
 the waking, as after a good night's rest, merely a question 
 of time. There are others, again, who inflict on you night- 
 mare rather than repose : whose image affords evil dreams, 
 instead of healthy slumbers, and under whose influence 
 your state is more that of a mesmeric trance than of sound, 
 natural rest. You are never really happy during the whole 
 time of the delusion ; when you wake you are very miserable 
 indeed. These last are to be avoided if a man wishes to 
 remain a free agent, and, in my opinion. Lady Julia was 
 one of them. She had a beautiful figure, though slight ; 
 nobody could deny that. She was formed more like a 
 model than a living creature ; and this advantage, of which 
 she was perfectly aware, perhaps made her the graceful 
 mover, dancer, and horsewoman she was. I am afraid she 
 loved riding dearly ; she could do it very well, you see, and 
 was rather proud of being called "horsey," and " slangy," 
 by old women of either sex. To see her cross the pavement 
 before their house in Circus Square, and kiss her favourite's 
 nose, when she mounted or dismounted at the hottest hours 
 of the day, was a sight, that if it suggested waste of affection, 
 proved at the same time intense love for the animal and the 
 exercise. 
 
 Even in the school-room Miss Prince was always afraid 
 Lady Julia would be fast. " Not as feminine in her tastes 
 as I could wish," was the way the governess worded her 
 apprehensions, and they were justified by the result. She 
 was fast, no doubt. Like her mother, she could be horribly 
 fine when she chose, though it is only fair to say she seldom 
 did choose in the country, or even in London, except on 
 special occasions, and, so to speak, in self-defence. When 
 they tilt in the mSlSe, it is not to be expected that they 
 should dispense with their plate-armour. She liked gaiety 
 very much : balls, races, pic-nics, occasions for wearing 
 handsome dresses, and flirting with handsome men. Nor 
 is this an unusual tendency among the best and wisest of 
 her sex, but I believe she was never really so happy as when 
 riding a new horse, driving her wicked ponies, helping papa 
 to break a retriever, or engaged in any other essentially 
 masculine pursuit. It is a fact, that when her brother. 
 
78 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Viscount Nethersole, low down in the fourth form at Eton, 
 was at home for the holidays, she used to play cricket with 
 him on the lawn, and could bowl, bat, and keep a wicket, 
 so that young nobleman affirmed, " as well as any fellow in 
 the Lower Shooting-fields Eleven." 
 
 Whether Walter had the slightest chance in an encounter 
 with such a disposition, was a question he had asked him- 
 self more than once of late. Perhaps he had not answered 
 'it satisfactorily even now, while he sat opposite the brilliant, 
 animated girl, and thought what an amusing companion she 
 could be, and "what a well-bred one she was." You are 
 not to suppose he was in love with her— that sort of thing is 
 quite exploded now. Since the introduction of knicker- 
 bockers, I doubt if a man has ever been known to go down 
 on his knees, and Lady Julia was the last person in the 
 world to encourage, or even tolerate, anything in the 
 shape of romance. But he certainly admired her. It was 
 with a feeling of positive vexation that he bethought him 
 how, before he went away the day after to-morrow (he had 
 to attend a dismounted parade at two o'clock), he would 
 breakfast by himself, without a chance of her company, 
 which she might so easily afford him if she chose. He 
 knew the ways of the house, and could recall one or two 
 disappointments of the same nature. Lord Waywarden 
 breakfasted in his writing-room, and a capital meal he 
 made, at nine. Miss Prince consumed tea and toast in a 
 spacious apartment, once a school-room, at half-past ; Lady 
 Julia had her chocolate in bed at eleven ; and Lady Way- 
 warden never showed till two or three o'clock in the after- 
 noon. Breakfast went on for the guests from ten indefi- 
 nitely ; and nothing could be easier than for Lady Julia to 
 come down and make Walter's tea, but well he knew she 
 would do nothing of the kind. 
 
 She was a clever girl, and had enjoyed a good deal of 
 practice in that sort of intercourse with young gentlemen, 
 which, though of a warmer nature than friendship, stops 
 short of positive flirtation. They never went further than 
 she liked with her, or said to her more than she meant they 
 should ; and this immunity she owed partly to frankness of 
 manner, natural or artificial ; partly to fearless tactics and 
 skill in defensive warfare. She had a reputation, too, for 
 
T0LLE8DALB 79 
 
 spirit as well as wit, and men did not care to provoke an 
 encounter with a lady who was notorious for the facility 
 with which she could " show you up," or " set you down." 
 Of her own sex she had plenty of companions, hut no 
 friends; of the other, plenty of admirers but no lovers. 
 There are many of these exotic flowers grown in our aristo- 
 cratic hothouses — flowers that are forced rather early into 
 bloom, but are otherwise carefully reared and tended ; of 
 stately growth, and wondrous splendour; protected from the* 
 bee rather than the butterfly, and too often thrown away on 
 an amateur, who has but to walk into the glasshouse, and 
 select from it that which he desires. I sometimes think 
 they are the better for transplanting, flourishing as brightly 
 on a poorer soil and in a more exposed situation, losing 
 nothing of their beauty, and gaining a perfume sweeter 
 than before. Lady Julia used to say she should make a 
 capital poor man's wife, whereat mamma lifted her white 
 hands in horror, and Miss Prince her grizzled eyebrows in 
 deprecation. Such jests were not encouraged in the family. 
 Being an only daughter, she would have some money, and 
 by a perversion of reasoning, less logical than natm-al, it 
 seems established that such young ladies are to fetch a 
 higher price in the matrimonial market than others of the 
 same fabric, equal in colouring and workmanship, but without 
 the gilding. Lady Waywarden, however, obviously enter- 
 tained no suspicions of Walter Brooke. Whether it was 
 that the latter seemed, as befitted his profession, cuirass all 
 over, and a warm admirer of no style of beauty but his own, 
 or whether she was herself so utterly impenetrable (for the 
 Indian cousin, if he ever existed, had been forgotten long 
 ago) as to disbelieve in the superstition of mutual attraction; 
 or whether her ladyship's confidence arose from familiarity 
 with her daughter's disposition, she certainly seemed to 
 permit, if not to encourage, a state of things which any of 
 her own sex would have termed " a strong flirtation with 
 Walter Brooke." 
 
 Lady Julia, for her part, was nothing loth to keep her 
 hand in, and seemed to practise on the present subject with 
 even more than her usual zest. In vain mamma fitted on 
 a taper white glove, to indicate sailing orders for the draw- 
 ing-room. In vain Miss Prince made nervous little coughs. 
 
80 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMBBB 
 
 and took short dives at her smelling-bottle, and fidgeted 
 uneasily to the extreme edge of her seat — the tide of Lady 
 Julia's eloquence compelled them more than once to lower 
 away their signals in despair. 
 
 Even Walter seemed to glow and brighten under the sun- 
 shiny glances of the syren. She asked him questions that 
 denoted so much personal interest; she plied him so 
 volubly with half good-humoured, half sarcastic remarks 
 ' of a nature that she would herself have called " chaflF " ; so 
 sparkled, as it were, and flashed at him, like a gem in a 
 golden setting, that he could not but be pleased, though 
 somewhat dazzled the while, at least for him, and not a 
 little surprised. 
 
 "What sport had he yesterday? Hov/ late they must 
 have left off ! How many guns ? and who were they ? 
 Plenty of gTound game at Bridlemere " (what a pretty 
 name ! ), " but not so many pheasants as papa, dear, you 
 can show Mr. Brooke to-morrow. Oh ! she knew ! And 
 was Mr. de RoUe there? What a shame to call him 
 ' Eags ! ' Had seen him — was sure of it — ^the other day 
 out with the Duke's hounds — must have been Eags — rather 
 admired him ; his figure especially. And how did you get 
 here, Mr, Brooke, and why were you so late ? " 
 
 " I got here on Jack's pony," answered the hussar ; " and 
 I suppose I was late, because I started early, and galloped 
 the whole way." 
 
 " If I had said so, you would have called it a woman's 
 reason," observed Lady Julia, still ignoring mamma's 
 signals, who had now finished buttoning on a very close- 
 fitting and symmetrical glove. " But I rather pity the 
 poor pony. Is it a very good animal ? I think one of 
 mine is the best in the world, and the other is better 
 still. I am so fond of ponies ! Tell me all about your 
 brother's." 
 
 " My dear Julia," interrupted Lady Waywarden, whose 
 patience was fairly exhausted, " Mr. Brooke vrill tell you 
 all about the pony in the dravnng-room." And her lady- 
 ship, gathering up fan, handkerchief, and smelling-bottle, 
 rose in a cloud of drapery, and sailed stately, rippling and 
 rustling as she went, to the door. Walter held it open, 
 with a flourish, watching, it may be, for a responsive glance 
 
T0LLE8DALE 81 
 
 from Lady Julia as she went by, which, it is needless to 
 observe, she did not vouchsafa to bestow. 
 
 My lord sank into an armchair by the fire, poured out a 
 liberal glass of claret, pushed the decanter to Walter, 
 gulped, smacked his lips, spread a strong white hand to 
 warm, and commenced a promising conversation by pro- 
 phesying an open winter ; and asking his guest whether he 
 had seen any sport yet, and had got together some horses 
 he liked ? 
 
 With such a preface, the dialogue was pretty sure to 
 proceed swimmingly. Every man is pleased to talk about 
 his horses, whatever be the number or nature of his stud ; 
 and Lord Waywarden was a good listener on any topic, by 
 the side of a blazing fire, and with such excellent claret as 
 his own to keep the subject from getting dry. "He had 
 been young himself," he was fond of observing ; and he 
 might have added that for enjoyment of to-day and thought- 
 lessness of to-morrow, he had been very young indeed. 
 Whilst he had nothing, his lordship had been one of the 
 fastest of the fast. He bought, no doubt, a good deal of 
 experience and dealing with the Jews, as Lord Nethersole, 
 bought it of course at a high percentage on cost price. The 
 Earl, however, had the good sense to use the wisdom the 
 Viscount purchased, and it must have been a very sharp 
 Jew indeed who could get to windward of Waywarden now ; 
 yet it never seemed to occur to him that his old friend's 
 second son ought hardly to give three figures for his horses, 
 and have so many in the stable. 
 
 Not that he would have wittingly encouraged him in any 
 hurtful extravagance, but that it was one of those matters 
 men in his position seem to ignore; none more so than 
 those who have known difficulties in their youth, and got 
 out of them either by good fortune or good abilities. Per- 
 haps they think others must be able to do the same, and, 
 recognising only the successful ventures, forget the number 
 of barks that have been met in stress of weather on the 
 voyage, and never come into port at all. Be this how it 
 may, it seems that a young man need only show an inclina- 
 tion to go a fair pace down the road, and all his friends are 
 eager to encourage and assist him on the way. By the 
 time Walter had finished his bottle of claret, and corrected 
 
 6 
 
82 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 everything with half a glass of old sherry, the world seemed 
 a good one to live in, and an easy one to get on with. As 
 he flung his napkin into his chair, and swaggered off to the 
 drawing-room pulling his moustache, he had no difficulty in 
 stopping certain misgivings as to ways and means which 
 had oppressed him not a little, on an empty stomach, during 
 the process of dressing for dinner. 
 
 The invention of the pianoforte must have done incal- 
 culable service in the way of reducing the nobler sex to 
 subjection. For a woman who does not sing, I can conceive 
 no auxiliary so versatile, and at the same time so effective. 
 She can work on your feelings with the treble; she can 
 drown your remonstrance vrith the bass ; she can conceal 
 the very words you see trembling on her lips with a grand 
 crash of both hands at once, dying away presently into a 
 wail of low melodious chords, that draw your very heart out 
 through your long, foolish, thrilling ears. Then her attitude 
 at the instrument is in itself so graceful, the turn of her 
 hands and arms over the keys so attractive, and the upward 
 look she steals at her prey so irresistible, that the charm is 
 completed long before ihe fantasia is finished. The listener 
 gasps, and yields without an effort at self-preservation. 
 The net is spread, the noose adjusted, resistance is hopeless, 
 and escape impossible. 
 
 It must have been pleasant to lean over Lady Julia, to 
 listen to her playing, which was good ; and watch her 
 profile, which was better; and catch, ever and anon, the 
 sparkle of those diamond eyes, which was best of all. 
 Coffee came and went. Cura5oa and tea were offered, and 
 declined. Lady Waywarden wrote sheet after sheet to 
 some other corresponding countess, for whom she cared as 
 little as possible in her heart. Miss Prince worked a 
 counterpane of formidable dimensions, with a hook-nosed 
 ivory instrument, in short angry notches, and watched the 
 whUe for Lord Waywarden's tea-cup, balanced insecurely 
 on that nobleman's knee, who had sunk, as usual, into a 
 sound, healthy, and somewhat noisy slumber. Walter was 
 treated without ceremony (not that the Earl could keep 
 awake after dinner for any guest in the world ; so that 
 when the Duchess of Merthyr-Tydvil, who was a prodigious 
 favourite, staid at Tollesdale, he used to take his repose in 
 
T0LLE8DALE 83 
 
 jerks and snatches, standing with his back to the fire) ; hut 
 Lady Julia alone seemed to devote herself to the young 
 man's amusement, and very successful, it is but fair to say, 
 she was. 
 
 By the time he had drawn a low easy-chair to the 
 pianoforte, and seated himself in close proximity to her 
 music-stool, their conversation had gradually sobered down 
 from the bantering to the confidential. Though she played 
 at intervals (remarkably well), and kept up, indeed, a 
 semblance of music throughout, they talked upon a variety 
 of subjects, interesting and indifferent, but all leading to 
 one termination, viz., the state of things at Bridlemere, 
 the farm, the shooting, the Squire's health, Helen's 
 pursuits, "your charming sister Helen, Mr. Brooke;" 
 even brother Jack, his pony and terrier, were discussed in 
 turn, and it was hard to say on which Lady Julia seemed 
 to dwell with the most pleasure. By the time Lady 
 "Waywarden finished her letter. Miss Prince saved the tea- 
 cup, and my lord awoke himself with a vigorous snore, 
 Walter began to think that he had at last succeeded in 
 making some real progress with the daughter of the house. 
 It was now long past midnight, and they used to fancy that 
 they were rather early people than otherwise at ToUesdale. 
 Poor Miss Prince could scarcely keep awake, and swallowed 
 a yawn in the very act of wishing everybody good-night ; 
 but Lady Julia's eyes sparkled brighter than ever, while 
 Walter lit her candle ; and even in the hall, when he 
 turned to watch her up the wide staircase, branching off 
 midway in the direction of her own and her mother's 
 apartments, she flashed back at him one more of those 
 deadly arrows that, like the Parthian's, are so fatal when 
 thus delivered over the shoulder. More, he heard her 
 voice die away along the corridor above, humming the air 
 she had been playing, which he had most enthusiastically 
 admired. 
 
 Walter returned to his host, and drank a glass of fair 
 water, receiving at the same time directions as to where he 
 should find a certain smoking-room, recently built, and 
 fitted up expressly for the enjoyment of that deleterious 
 luxury. But his host excused himself from joining him. 
 "He was confoundedly sleepy," he said, "so should be 
 
84 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 off at once without ceremony to percli." And Walter, 
 reflecting that it was getting late, and he would like to 
 shoot his straightest to-morrow, followed my lord's 
 example, and was soon well over the border, and far into 
 the Land of Shadows, where mankind pass nearly a third 
 of their lives. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 JACK BEOOKB 
 
 It was a lovely night, for all that the month was November, 
 in the park at Bridlemere. A light haze hung over the 
 saturated earth, and through its film the moonlight 
 glimmered in ghostly whitened rays. The stems of the 
 old trees loomed huge, fantastic, and ill-defined, like 
 objects in a dream. Where the ground rose but by a few 
 feet, patches of bare russet sward, and brown bending fern, 
 and here a clump of brushwood, and there a twisted, 
 stunted thorn, emerged like islands from the surface of a 
 milky sea; but on a lower level, more especially down 
 towards the lodges, and in a part of the park called Dingle- 
 side, the heavy vapours rolled and curdled, wreathing 
 themselves into strange curves and shapes that, waving in 
 and out between the trees, a vivid fancy might well conjure 
 into phantoms of the night. 
 
 A heavy dew had fallen, moistening and thickening the 
 clinging herbage, so as to deaden the footsteps of the only 
 passer-by at this late and lonely hour ; footsteps, I am 
 sorry to say, that left an exceedingly wavering and devious 
 track behind them, denoting want of harmony between the 
 volition and execution of the belated traveller. 
 
 It was but our friend Jem Batters, finding his way home 
 from the public-houses of Middlesworth, to his mother's cot- 
 tage across Bridlemere Park. Jem Batters walking himself 
 sober, though by no means yet arrived at that desirable con- 
 dition, and hovering between the imaginative state produced 
 by combining beer with alcohol, and the nervous prostration 
 consequent on such a mixture when its fumes have 
 
86 THE BROOKES OF BBtBLEMEBE 
 
 evaporated. After to-night, Jem had resolved he -would 
 turn over a new leaf. He had been " wetting his luck," as 
 he called it, for the last time. To-morrow he was promised 
 employment in the brewery, and henceforth he would 
 become sober and steady, and save his money as well as 
 his nerve and muscle ; for Jem had found, to his dismay, 
 that these two last were beginning somewhat to fail from 
 the effects of dissipation. Thus it always was with this 
 unfortunate rustic. Every new phase of life was inaugurated 
 with a debauch that riveted his fetters faster on him than 
 before. Well might his old mother declare, " It was the 
 drink as done it. Wuss than pison ! Keep our Jem from 
 the drink, an' there ar'n't his equal, not in the parish, there 
 ar'n't — either for work or play ! " 
 
 " Our Jem" lurched up against one of the old elms, and, 
 setting his back to it, gazed down a vista towards the Manor 
 House with drunken gravity, shaking his head as he espied 
 a light tvdnkling from an upper window in the vague grey 
 mass. Jem's thoughts were running riot apace, and he was 
 speculating wildly on the inmates of that mansion, their 
 pursuits, their habits, and their position, which he had 
 been brought up to regard with a veneration such as we pay 
 to royalty — his fancies following each other something in 
 this fashion : 
 
 How pleasant to be a gentleman ! Not a gentleman in 
 trade, like his future employers, Stoney Brothers; nor a 
 soldier gentleman, forced to do as he is bid, getting wages 
 just like a working man, and expected to fight into the 
 bargain; but a real gentleman, like om* old Squire, with 
 nothing to do and plenty to drink, and time upon his hands 
 the whole day long. Then he remembered that our old 
 Squire had not been seen at farm or garden ; had not been 
 outside the house now for a weary while ; that the labourers 
 whispered to each other how his time was nearly come ; 
 that one-half of him was as good as dead already ; and Jem 
 felt an instinctive shudder creep from head to heel while he 
 shrank from the conviction that not only the old Squire, 
 but he himself, and " mother," in the chimney-corner at 
 home, and the boon companions whom he still left carousing 
 at the "Fox and Fiddle," were subject to the common lot. 
 He would drive away such thoughts though, with beer and 
 
JACK BBOOKE 87 
 
 brandy, he reflected, if he were a gentleman. If he were 
 Mr. John, for instance. Ah ! that was the man he would 
 like to change places with! Mr. John, so frank, so bold, 
 so stout and hearty, such a pleasant-spoken gentleman, too, 
 with every girl in the parish talking of his ruddy cheek, his 
 brown locks, his white teeth, and his ready smile. Jem 
 pictured to himself " Mr. John " at this moment, sitting at 
 the head of his father's table, suiTOunded by his guests, the 
 land-steward, the tax-gatherer, the new tenant at the Mere 
 Farm, and perhaps one or two of the parish churchwardens, 
 waited on by grooms, gamekeepers, the under-gardener, and 
 all the servants in the house ; drinking port wine out of 
 tumblers, and singing hunting songs alternately with Miss 
 Helen's music, who is playing the piano to the party, with 
 a gold necklace on, and flowers in her hair, Ai ! it must 
 be a jolly life, that must ! He didn't think much of Miss 
 Helen, though. She wasn't plump and likely looking, what 
 he called ; though some folks made a great to-do about her 
 slim waist and her cream-coloured face, with its black eyes. 
 To his mind, now. Cissy Brown or Sue Stanion, were either 
 of 'em a better sort ; more what he should call his choice, 
 you know. 
 
 But dear ! if he was a gentleman, he wouldn't trouble 
 much about the women-folk ! Not in his present mood at 
 least. Give him a good horse, and rabbiting every day, as 
 much as he liked, and plenty to drink when he came in, 
 and he wouldn't ask for more. He'd be as happy as a 
 king, he would ! Keep the game up too, as well as e'er a 
 gentleman of them all. Ah ! that would be prime ! " You 
 wheezy old beggar, you frightened me, you did ! " 
 
 Jem gave a violent start, that denoted a good deal more 
 nervousness than is usual with the healthy system of an 
 out-of-door labourer, and that probably frightened the 
 asthmatic sheep whose cough thus broke in on the thread 
 of his reflections, quite as much as that gasping animal, 
 lying in the driest part of the gravelled carriage-road, had 
 frightened him. Under its sobering influence, however, he 
 woke from the dream in which he had been immersed, and 
 made his way more steadily over the park in the direction 
 of his home. Thither it is not my present intention to 
 follow him. I would rather climb up one of those long 
 
88 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 flickering rays to that window high in the lofty building, 
 and enter the chamber of the only inmate still awake, an 
 hour and more after midnight, in the house of Bridlemere. 
 
 An odour of strong tobacco fills the apartment, wreathing 
 itself about the walls and furniture as gracefully, and in far 
 heavier volumes, than does the mist about the trees and 
 shrubs outside. Clearing sluggishly at intervals, it 
 discloses a short, very short pipe, such an instrument as 
 French soldiers appropriately call a " brule-gueule," 
 blackened with imremitting use, and held firmly between 
 two rows of remarkably strong, white, and even teeth. 
 Jack Brooke's mouth is like his brother Walter's, only, 
 being clean shaven, the family lines of resolution around 
 its lips are more apparent on the face of the elder son. 
 This face is brown, ruddy and healthful, not regular of 
 features, and far inferior in beauty to that of the handsome 
 hussar, but with an honest, hearty expression, and a 
 kindliness in the eyes sufficiently engaging. Perhaps it is 
 only their long lashes that impart to these a depth and 
 softness almost wonjanly. Certainly, there is benevolence, 
 goodwill, and a gentle, protective tenderness in their 
 glance. 
 
 It is a face that most people would call comely, but 
 heavy. Those who look below the surface, and are 
 accustomed to study character from slight indications, 
 would detect a sensitive nature under this rough exterior, 
 would observe signs of warm affections, a high standard of 
 good, and a generous confidence in others, mingled with 
 the diffidence and self-depreciation which spring from an 
 imaginative temperament, suppressed and restrained by 
 force of circumstances, combined with a keen sense of the 
 ridiculous. 
 
 The fancy that is easily moved to laughter is also some- 
 what susceptible of tears. A man of common sense, 
 ashamed to own his tendency to such weak emotions, 
 cloaks them under brevity of speech, rough carelessness of 
 manner, and an appearance of confirmed insensibility, 
 transparent enough to those who are in the habit of 
 penetrating the affectations of their kind. It is your glib, 
 plausible, well-spoken personage, generally voluble, always 
 indifferent, and habitually polite, whose heart is as hard as 
 
JACK BBOOKE 89 
 
 the nether millstone. Abruptness of speech, hesitation in 
 offering and accepting conventional courtesies, reserve with 
 strangers, and diffidence amongst women, these drawbacks 
 to social success are often the very offspring of generous 
 feelings and a high tone of mind. It is a calumny to say 
 that shyness arises from conceit. It is more generally the 
 result of respect for others as well as self ; and, though the 
 example be rare as it is ridiculous, a man who is capable of 
 blushing after his whiskers are grown, is usually a good 
 fellow at bottom, and as honest as the day is long. 
 
 Jack Brooke was sadly given to this absurdity. Many a 
 lady accosting Mr. Brooke across the dinner-table, had 
 marvelled to note how her simple remark brought the blood 
 to his cheek; marvelled, perhaps, still more to find no 
 further result from his confusion. He was frightened at 
 ladies, and that is the truth. " What he thought they 
 would do to him," as Walter used to say, "was a mystery." 
 But though Jack was as bold a fellow as ever stepped, 
 under circumstances of physical danger, he was routed, so 
 to speak, and put to flight with great slaughter, by the 
 society of a Miss in her teens. 
 
 His character was not very easy to penetrate. I doubt 
 if anyone knew him thoroughly. Certainly not his father, 
 nor his brother Walter, nor even Helen, though on occasion 
 she was the only person in whom he would confide. 
 "Tatters," a certain ragged terrier of eccentric habits, 
 inseparable from his master, seemed more familiar with his 
 thoughts and opinions than any other inmate of the house. 
 It speaks well for Jack that the dog loved him with a 
 devotion utterly ludicrous and canine. The domestics in 
 general liked the younger brother best. Walter gave them 
 far more trouble, domineered, hectored, blew up, always in 
 his own off-hand princely way, and they " came to heel," as 
 it were, and fawned upon him, as human nature will, when 
 consistently and judiciously bullied. He was free, too, 
 with his money, and enjoyed, besides, the prestige of his 
 profession, his moustaches, and occasional appearance in 
 undress uniform, a costume which the female part of the 
 establishment — ^from the old housekeeper, already a middle- 
 aged person when he was weaned, down to the under 
 kitchen-maid, lately promoted from the Sunday school to the 
 
90 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBSf 
 
 scullery — declared, one and all, "became Master Walter 
 wonderful! " 
 
 Jack's pursuits may be gathered from the furniture and 
 accessories of this, his own peculiar snuggery, far removed 
 from the inhabited regions of the mansion, where he spends 
 many a solitary hour undisturbed, and where he can smoke 
 his strong tobacco in peace, without polluting the atmo- 
 sphere for every other member of the establishment. 
 
 His literary tastes seem simple enough, and of a practical 
 rather than a speculative nature. A heavy work on agri- 
 culture, with elaborate diagrams of ploughs, turnip-cutters, 
 and such mechanical auxiliaries to husbandry, stands in 
 the place of honour on the row of shelves which constitute 
 his library. It is supported by a few odd numbers of the 
 Sporting Magazine, a periodical in which he takes great 
 delight; by two or three fly-books, stuffed with crafty 
 entomological imitations, tied by Jack's own strong, supple 
 fingers; and a thick quarto edition of Spenser's "Faery 
 Queen," a work into which, as into a stiff, fertile soil, you 
 may dig, and dig again, reaping in proportion to your labour 
 crop after crop in swift succession, of free, golden, and 
 abundant harvests. 
 
 In decoration, the chamber has but little to boast. 
 Originally a servant's room, very near the roof; its walls 
 are simply whitewashed ; its one window is bare of blind 
 or curtain. There is a carpet trodden into shreds by Jack's 
 nailed shooting-boots, and there is a high-backed leathern 
 chair, in the depths of which Tatters lies curled up and 
 motionless, but opening an eye occasionally to make sure 
 his master is still poring over a red-covered interlined 
 account-book at the writing-table. Propped against the 
 inkstand is a photograph from a picture in one of the 
 drawing-rooms, and when Jack's eye travels from his 
 work, it rests sadly and rather longingly on the photo- 
 graph. At such moments Tatters bestows an affectionate 
 wink on his master. 
 
 The photograph represents a handsome, prosperous- 
 looking woman with Helen Brooke's caste of features, 
 and a countenance which, although very different in 
 character, has a strong physical resemblance to the girl's 
 — a face that, with energy to sustain its bui'dens, and 
 
JACK BBOOKE 91 
 
 good humoiu' to lighten its crosses, seems designed 
 thoroughly to enjoy the pleasures as well as to fulfil the 
 duties of life, not to be cut off after eight-and-forty hours 
 of illness before it had reached its prime. Jack remembers 
 her well. To this day, when he thinks of his mother, his 
 heart tightens with the old pain that was so unbearable at 
 first. For years the child, and afterwards the schoolboy, 
 would wake up and weep in silence, longing, yearning for 
 the dear lost face, to his mind the fondest and fairest he 
 had- ever seen. 
 
 Being the eldest, Jack remembered her far better than 
 the rest. She died, indeed, when Helen was yet little 
 more than an infant ; but her first-born was her constant 
 playmate and companion, the pride of her young wifehood, 
 and the darling of her maternal heart. " Mother," says 
 a great writer, who has lately gone from among us, "is the 
 name for God with little children ; " and there is, indeed, 
 no earthly worship at once so pure, so trusting, and so en- 
 grossing, as that which is offered to her by the innocent 
 loving heart to which she is the embodiment of beauty, 
 affection, and power. When Mrs. Brooke died, the Squire, 
 as the servants said, " took on dreadful ; " but he got over 
 her loss long before his quiet, undemonstrative little son. 
 Ruth, the upper housemaid, since married, somewhat 
 hurriedly, to a blacksmith, and gone to Australia, found 
 the child, months afterwards, squeezing his poor little face 
 against the railings of the churchyard where his mamma 
 was buried, " crying," as that soft-hearted damsel described 
 it, " poor dear, softlike and patient ; and indeed if my 'art 
 'ad been a stone, it must have guv to the darling then and 
 there ! " So she carried Master John back again every 
 yard of the way, an honest mile and more, in her bosom, 
 mingling her tears with his, from pure sympathy and 
 compassion, foregoing altogether the junketing to which 
 she was bound with her blacksmith, and thereby deferring, 
 if not imperilling the whole scheme of her nuptials and 
 subsequent emigration. Jack was right to mourn for his 
 mother. He had been somewhat lonely in the world ever 
 since she left him. Whether the child's nature became 
 repressed and blighted, as it were, by so deep an affliction 
 endured so early, or that, lavishing so much love on 
 
92 TEE BROOKES OF BSIBLEMEBE 
 
 mamma, it had tlie less to spare for any one else j certain 
 it is that the eldest boy stood a little aloof from brother 
 and sister, nay, even from his father himself, and appeared, 
 unlike other children, to lead his own life apart, and follow 
 out his own train of thoughts and fancies uninfluenced by 
 the companionship of those with whom he lived. 
 
 He was no recluse though, far from it. At school, where 
 he took a leading part in football and cricket matches ; at 
 college, where he remained long enough to be plucked for 
 that preliminary examination which is called " The Little 
 Go," and whence he departed sorrowful and humiliated 
 rather than surprised. Jack Brooke was unquestionably a 
 favourite. Eetm-ning to Bridlemere, he mingled cordially 
 in the sports and gatherings of the coimty; but at the 
 latter he could scarce be said to enjoy himself; whilst of 
 the former he seemed most to relish those which are best 
 pursued alone. There was not such a fly-fisher as Jack 
 in the Midland Counties. To circumvent ducks by moon- 
 light, flushing the wary wild-fowl just within range, and 
 secm'ing the effect of both barrels, was a talent he possessed 
 in common with a select few of his fellow-creatures, and the 
 exercise of which afforded him an intense and inexplicable 
 delight ; but to walk up partridges in line, or to stand at 
 covert ends, and knock down cock-pheasants by the dozen, 
 offered him neither pleasure nor excitement. In the sport 
 par excellence, the spirit stirring, the joyous, the unrivalled, 
 the very thought of which recalls a golden vision of those 
 mUd November mornings, with their dewy pastures, their 
 fragrant copses, and their deep, still woodlands, faintly 
 blushing yet from autumn's farewell kiss ; of manly cheer, 
 and kindly greeting, and white and scarlet, and tramp of 
 hoof, and ring of bridle ; of the horse's generous daring, 
 and the dash and mettle of the hound ; of the heart- 
 beating moments ere suspense thrills into certainty; of 
 the maddening rally for a start, and the quieter, steadier, 
 more continuous energy of the chase — in the sport of sports, 
 I say, no man was a deeper proficient than Jack Brooke. 
 Yet he enjoyed it very rarely now for reasons which wUl 
 appear hereafter. He could ride, too, better than the 
 generality of sportsmen. Strongly built, and of con- 
 siderable weight, he cherished, nevertheless, a taste for 
 
JACK BROOKE 93 
 
 keeping in the front rank, which was neither to be baulked 
 by magnitude of obstacle nor inferiority of horse-flesh. 
 The youngest and wildest reprobate was easy and tract- 
 able in his hands: sitting quite still and unflurried, 
 he seemed to impart his own cool energy to his horse. 
 The animal soon enters into the joke, and enjoys it as 
 much as his rider. I do not aim at giving Jack more 
 credit than he deserves for success in a mere pastime. I 
 only wish you to infer that he had both courage and 
 temper, a combination of qualities which help a man 
 over the metaphorical ups and downs of life as across a 
 flying country, with a pack of foxhounds running hard. 
 
 In general society, our friend was, perhaps, not quite so 
 forward. In the ball-room, I fear, he sat motionless as in 
 the saddle ; and at picnics, or archery meetings, proved 
 simply a dead weight and encumbrance. He was not 
 even a good listener, and when tackled by an old, or 
 even a, young lady, without means of escape, afforded a 
 piteous and distressing spectacle. Elderly gentlemen had 
 a high opinion of him, notwithstanding. They considered 
 him "A sensible young man that: none of your talking 
 chaps. Sir; but a fellow that's not above taking a hint. No 
 conceit, Sir : not ashamed to be taught." And indeed he 
 would suffer the platitude of his seniors meekly, and with 
 a patience the less meritorious, perhaps, that he permitted 
 his attention to wander sadly during its progress, and went 
 his way totally uninfluenced by the lecture at its close. 
 
 The women, I fear, compared him unfavourably with his 
 younger brother. Of Walter's dandyism, insouciance, and 
 charming conceit, he had not one iota. These qualities, like 
 ribbons, laces, and such garnishing, command high prices 
 in the female market. The stouter calico and flannel 
 virtues, so to speak, fetch but a few coppers per yard. 
 A handsome face and a pair of broad shoulders cannot 
 hold their own against varnish and vanity combined ; nor 
 are the only merits which constitute a good husband and 
 p&re de famille of the kind much relished in a dancing 
 partner. Here and there, a very fine lady who was a 
 little tired of everybody, or a very fast one who wanted 
 to strike out a new line, might think it worth while to 
 cultivate Jack Brooke ; but each invariably gave him up 
 
94 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 in despair after half-a-dozen sentences. No woman, how- 
 ever fast or fine, likes to be assm-ed by a man's manner 
 that he is hopelessly uninterested in herself, her bonnet, 
 her conversation, and her opinions. The slightest spark 
 of intelligence, the shortest monosyllable thrown in at 
 intervals, will keep her tongue going, with small exertion 
 on a listener's part ; but the intelligence and the interest 
 must at least be simulated, otherwise she votes you, " Oh ! 
 so heavy ! " and flutters off to fasten on other game, with 
 which she hopes to have better sport. 
 
 I fear most of the young ladies about Middlesworth 
 would have passed upon Jack Brooke the sweeping con- 
 demnation that he was " absent and stupid, and always 
 seemed to be thinking of something else ! " He had a 
 good deal to think of. He was busied with no pleasant 
 thoughts now, poring over those ruled pages, and emitting 
 tobacco-smoke in pungent clouds that caused old Tatters 
 to sneeze disgusted from the depths of his arm-chair. Jack 
 was fond of forming. Jack was a practical farmer. Jack 
 could not bear to see things going wrong, and business mis- 
 managed, and money wasted where money was becoming 
 scarcer every day. His taste for agriculture he inherited 
 from the Squire : not so his love of order, method, and a 
 liberal economy. The father, like many indolent people, 
 delighted in being robbed — like most obstinate natures, 
 was penny-wise and pound-foolish. Since the latter's 
 illness. Jack was supposed to take much of the trouble 
 off his hands in looking after the Home Pai-m, and 
 managed the estate, subject to the supervision of the 
 jealous, exacting, and utterly unreasonable invalid. In 
 vain the son plodded, and laboured, and pondered, 
 tramping about the acres by day, and racking his brains 
 over the red account-book by night ; some whim of the 
 father was sure to nullify his happiest suggestions ; and, 
 exert himself as he would, he was, after all, but a man in 
 fetters, liable at any moment to be tripped up, and get a 
 sore tumble besides. Being, as I say, of a practical nature, 
 he could not but perceive the proportion in which expendi- 
 ture exceeded income ; and this, too, gave him the uneasi- 
 ness felt by every prudent person in like straits. To reduce 
 the outlay on his own responsibility was impossible, and 
 
JACK BROOKE 95 
 
 an expostulation with the Squire only brought on a good 
 deal of intemperate language and an amount of excitement 
 very hurtful to the latter in his feeble state. At first, he 
 tried to get Walter to interest himself in business matters, 
 feeling that if anyone's advice could bias his father it 
 would be that of the favourite son. This conviction was 
 not pleasant for the elder brother ; but he worked upon it 
 nevertheless with considerable energy and complete failure. 
 The hussar could not bring himself to take the slightest 
 interest in " grubbing about in the dirt," as he profanely 
 termed the fo-st and most essential of sciences. There 
 was something of the Squire's indolence and carelessness 
 of consequences in Walter which, perhaps, endeared him 
 to his father as much as his personal good looks and the 
 easy assumption of his manners both at home and abroad. 
 Once, and for a few moments, Jack bethought him of 
 enlisting Helen in the cause ; but when he remembered 
 her attendance on the invalid, his dependence on her for 
 society, and the many hours they spent together alone, he 
 refrained from adding more weight to the burden already 
 sufficiently heavy which his sister carried so uncomplain- 
 ingly. Altogether, Jack was not happy. He kept his 
 cares to himself though, never even hinted at them to the 
 others, and, night after night, pored over the red account- 
 book, with a sickening heart indeed, but an honest stedfast- 
 ness of purpose and determination to do the best he could. 
 
 Self-sacrffice is one of the most beautiful of virtues. It 
 speaks well for our fellow-creatures, that they give us so 
 many opportunities of cultivating it. If you choose, like 
 Sir Walter Ealeigh, to take the clothes off your back, and 
 spread them in the mire to be trodden on, innumerable 
 muddy feet pass over willingly enough, stamping them 
 into shreds, and even spuming your garments for a while 
 because they are not of the newest fashion. When you 
 give a shoeless beggar the shilling which, perhaps, you 
 cannot very well spare, with which you meant to have 
 procured your early dinner, or taken your child to the 
 Zoological, or bought the tobacco that is your only luxury, 
 how do you know he does not curse you because it is not 
 half-a-crown ? 
 
 Being paid in gratitude is, after all, very embarrassing. 
 
96 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 It can seldom be gracefully tendered, more seldom grace- 
 fully accepted. If a man owes me five shillings, it is 
 inconvenient both for him and me that he should liquidate 
 his debt in copper, and I can imagine many circumstances 
 in which I had rather not be reimbursed at all. Perhaps 
 it is only fair that benefits should usually be welcomed 
 with small thanks, and hardly ever be requited in kind. 
 Even without the reversion thus purchased for the donor, 
 the pleasure of conferring them is a very sufficient return ; 
 and while it is more blessed, most people will allow that it 
 is also far more agreeable to give than to receive. 
 
 A story of Jack's school-days perhaps illustrates his 
 character better than whole pages of analysis. His 
 younger brother was not only more advanced in learning, 
 but took the lead from the elder in the playgi-ound as 
 well. Not that he was as strong and active, as good at 
 cricket or football, but that the self-reliance of his 
 character imposed upon his comrades here, as sub- 
 sequently on general society in the real world. It is 
 but justice to allow this, however, that in ability at 
 lessons he was far superior to Jack. The latter suc- 
 cumbed cheerfully. His honest face would glow with 
 delight when Walter was "commended" in Cornelius, or 
 made a stunning catch at "long-slip." There was no 
 jealousy in Brooke, senior ; and as for his generosity and 
 good-nature, to use the boys' own expression, " There was 
 not such a kid in the school ! " Didn't he spend his 
 pocket-money, treating the other fellows, almost before 
 he got it ? And hadn't he given Pinkes his ferret, the 
 treasure most coveted in the whole society? white, 
 vindictive, with red eyes, and far gone in the family- 
 way, to console that mourner for the loss of his great- 
 uncle, an old gentleman for whom Pinkes entertained a 
 morbid terror and aversion, and on whose demise, I fear, 
 that young dunce looked as a happy interposition, for that 
 he would examine him in his humanities no more. 
 
 It was the custom in this, as in many other academies, 
 to celebrate the Fifth of November with great glare and 
 ceremony. The boys subscribed for fireworks ; the ushers 
 begged and bought faggots ; a neighbouring farmer, known 
 to the young gentleman by the simple appellation of 
 
JACK BBOOKS d7 
 
 " Nobs," provided a tar-barrel, while the master con- 
 tributed a half-holiday and his sanction to the proceedings. 
 Then they yelled and shouted to their hearts' content, 
 dancing and leaping like young savages, round the bonfire ; 
 and by degrees, the dun smoke, studded with sparks, rolled 
 heavily away, the flame streamed up into a shifting, 
 flickering pyramid of fire ; the Koman-candles shot their 
 luminous bullets into air, the rockets soared heavenward in 
 glowing tracks, and fell again in showers of green and 
 crimson and gold ; squibs and crackers hissed and bounded 
 about like fiery adders ; Catherine-wheels, revolving faster 
 and faster, like illuminated kaleidoscopes, wheeled into one 
 dazzling, stupefying, yellow blaze of glory; and then the 
 lustre faded, the skeleton frame-work showed, the bonfire 
 sank, the tar-barrel emitted a last feeble flash, the whole 
 thing went out like a candle, and darkness was once more 
 upon the earth. 
 
 During the height of the revels, however, it came to pass, 
 that the spirit of mischief, never dormant in a schoolboy, 
 prompted Walter Brooke to put a lighted cracker into the 
 tail-pocket of Mr. Softly, the writing-master. The professor, 
 unfortunately, carried other combustible preparations in the 
 same receptacle. The result was, a protracted and con- 
 tinuous explosion, inconvenient, ludicrous, and not devoid 
 of danger. It was some moments ere the sufferer knew 
 exactly what had happened ; and during that interval, 
 Pinkes, the boy already mentioned, being of an excitable 
 and impressionable temperament, moved, besides, by 
 feelings of terror, mixed with considerable admiration, 
 could not forbear exclaiming, " Oh ! Brooke," The 
 professor, a married man with a family, naturally 
 resenting an attempt to blow him into the air as an 
 extempore Guy Faux, caught the name instantly, and did 
 not fail to make his complaint, nor to show his scorched 
 and ruined garment to the master. Short and summary 
 is the justice of the rod. After school next morning. Jack 
 must stand forth, face to face with the avenger. He 
 marched up sturdily to the desk, with cold hands and a 
 beating heart. Stern, measured, incisive, came the accents 
 off the lips of that immovable Fate, over its high starched 
 neckcloth. 
 
 7 
 
98 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 " An outrage, flagrant, vindictive, and unparalleled — not 
 only subversive of discipline in the school, but a gross 
 offence to society at large, and a crime provided against by 
 the laws of the land. What is the meaning of it ? I ask 
 you, Brooke, what is the meaning of it? " 
 
 " Please, Sir, I didn't do it," said the poor little man, in 
 a low voice, which rang nevertheless in his own ears like a 
 trumpet. 
 
 " Please, Sir, you didn't do it ! " sneered the Fate. 
 "Lie the first. Sir — obvious, palpable, and supererogatory. 
 Then please. Sir, who did do it ? " 
 
 " Please, Sir, I don't know," answered the boy, more 
 courageously this time, for his pluck rose as the danger 
 drew near, and he felt, that though he was telling a lie 
 now, it was one which stamped him a hero and a martyr in 
 the dozen or two of opinions that constituted his little world. 
 
 " You don't know. Sir ! " repeated the cruel voice, 
 jubilant now, yet repressed, in conscious power. " Then we 
 must make you know. Sir, and teach you to know better 
 another time. Mr. Marks, the boys will attend for 
 punishment." 
 
 Mr. Marks was the usher. The boys did attend for 
 punishment, and Jack Brooke felt for the rest of the day as 
 if he was standing in the thinnest continuations, with his 
 back to a kitchen fire. 
 
 Jack shuts up the account-book at last, with a puzzled, 
 weaiy expression, and doubts whether he won't have one 
 more pipe before turning in. Tatters leaps exulting to 
 the floor, and wags his tail for permission to take his usual 
 place on the qmlt. His master pulls off his old worn 
 shooting-jacket with a yawn, and proceeds leisurely to 
 undress. Stripping, one by one, the garments from his flne 
 athletic frame, something of discontent stirs within him at 
 the thraldom and constraint in which he lives. Willingly, 
 thinks Jack, would he change places with any day-labourer 
 about the place. He could work at least as hard and 
 patiently as his fellows, for the benefit of those he loves. 
 He would be in no false position then; he would escape 
 from the perpetual dissatisfaction with the present, the 
 constant misgivings of the future. He would feel no 
 inferiority amongst his comrades, those honest hard- 
 
JACK BBOOKB 99 
 
 handed rustics, with whom strength and manhood are 
 the only tangible qualities, and intellectual power entirely 
 an unknown quantity. He could not be further removed 
 than he is now from all that he wishes to become ; and 
 perhaps he might be better appreciated by those who were 
 dependent on his exertions for their bread. Yes, he would 
 walk out cheerfully at sunrise, to earn his day's wages by 
 his day's work, so that his father and Walter, and even 
 Helen, and perhaps one or two others, might learn the stuiF 
 he was made of. " Bosh ! it's two o'clock in the morning," 
 says Jack, out loud, " or I never should be such an ass as 
 to get into this morbid strain. Hie up ! Tatters. Good- 
 night, you beauty ! " And he pauses, with the extinguisher 
 in his hand, before putting out the candles, and turning in 
 finally for his rest. 
 
 "You beauty!" I must observe, was not addressed to 
 Tatters, whose claims to that appellation would have borne 
 considerable argument. It applied to a tawdry French 
 print, which hung within sight of his pillow, and for which 
 Jack cherished an admiration, unaccountable to the most 
 intimate and confidential of his friends. 
 
 This work of art represented an impossible lady on an 
 impossible horse, with an impossible hawk on her wrist, and 
 an impossible hound at her stirrup. She wore the tightest 
 of waists, the fullest of skirts, the most exaggerated of 
 hats, and the most undisciplined of feathers. Her horse, 
 sustained to all appearance by atmospheric pressure alone, 
 danced and curvetted airily on one leg, obviously without 
 coercion from his rider, for the rein floated loose in her lap, 
 and her tiny riding- whip was carried by the hound in its mouth. 
 Clouds of dust constituted the background of this suggestive 
 composition ; and the only merit in the whole appeared to 
 be the ingenuity with which the artist had combined so 
 much levity of expression with such classic regularity of 
 features. There was something in the face, too, that drew 
 attention ; a certain depth of tenderness in the eyes — a 
 certain saucy resolution about the mouth, attractive because 
 so contradictory, without being entirely irreconcilable. 
 The French print was like a French novel — ludicrous, 
 exaggerated, unnatural, yet possessing a peculiar interest 
 and fasiuination of its own. 
 
100 T^E BROOKES OF BSIDLEMEBE 
 
 Jack bought it in Paris, to which city he had been 
 prevailed on to accompany Walter for a ten days' trip.; the 
 elder brother, I fear, furnishing the means out of his slender 
 store. Walter used to make his father laugh with an 
 imaginary description of its purchase. Jack's French, his 
 blushes, and general confusion, while he explained to the 
 smiling shop-woman which print he wanted, that voluble lady's 
 coquetry and sly allusions, with the eventual discomfiture of 
 the Englishman, and his departure in possession of the article 
 at double its marked price. I say, imaginaiy, for the 
 brothers were seldom together, except at dinner, in the gay 
 city ; and though Jack suffered from a fine chivalrous 
 shyness amongst women, he had also a business-like, 
 quick-sighted land of common sense, that would detect and 
 resist imposition from the most delusive dame who ever 
 smiled across a counter. 
 
 Whatever he paid for the print, however, he seemed to 
 value it very high. There it hung in the place of honour 
 opposite his bed-head. His last look at night, his first in 
 the morning, could scarce help resting on the winning eyes, 
 and the saucy determined mouth. Pleasant di-eams ! 
 honest Jack, and sound sleep ! unbroken by the snores 
 of Tatters, lying warm and cosy, coiled up on the quilt at 
 your feet. 
 
CHAPTEE Vn 
 
 A dragon's tooth 
 
 When Miss Brooke went out walking, she was not above 
 the little coquetries of outward adornment practised by her 
 sex. Dangerous as young ladies can be, in the full lustre 
 of candle-light, glowing, so to speak, in their war-paint, 
 whirling their scalps and other trophies in the war-dance, 
 and ftilly caparisoned at all points for the war-path, I 
 think even the most formidable, to carry on the metaphor, 
 looks more like " raisin' bar', " when she sallies forth 
 towards sundown, lithe, looped-up, and lightly accoutred 
 either for flight or battle ; to all appearance unexpectant, 
 yet at the same time not incapable of " following up a 
 trail " (for the female natiire is seldom quite unprepared to 
 take a prey) ; and, conscious that her<forces have been 
 recruited by luncheon, while her weapons are brightened by 
 the becoming influence of the evening breeze, equal to 
 either emergency, the extension of a merciful prerogative, 
 or the infliction of immediate death. 
 
 Leaning over a stile, and gazing down into the valley on 
 the town of Middlesworth, a very well-dressed and rather 
 showy-looking man smoked his cigar, apparently wrapped 
 in deep meditation. The sound of Helen's step woke him 
 from his abstraction, and the undisguised approval with 
 which he stared at her as she approached, was only 
 excusable on the plea that it was months since he had seen 
 anything in the shape of a young lady so entirely to his 
 taste. Miss Brooke did look very handsome, as she came 
 along a dry, sound path that crossed the well-drained field. 
 
 Her delicate cheek had caught a tinge of colour from the 
 
 101 
 
102 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 soft west windj-inat lifted the heavy trails of hlack hair off 
 her temples. The small well-shaped head, with its clear-cut 
 features, was borne royally as usual ; but with a jaunty car- 
 riage that sprang from the elastic step and free graceful 
 gestures of a perfect symmetry. Her lips were parted, as 
 though she drank in with zest the pure autumnal air, and 
 her eyes sparkled with the light of health and animation. 
 A dark woman with a colour has all her attractions 
 increased tenfold. In repose she is very generally pale ; 
 she rides at anchor, as one may say, under the white flag 
 — calm, stately, and peaceful ; but when she shakes out 
 her canvas and hoists the red ensign, not another craft that 
 walks the waters need hope to take the wind out of her sails. 
 Helen thought as little of her looks as any young woman 
 who possessed a glass on her toilet-table ; yet she must 
 have felt beautiful, as she stepped lightly along, enjoying 
 thoroughly the exercise, the landscape, and even the 
 solitude, so pleasant after a whole morning spent in the 
 library, listening to the Squire's everlasting surmises and 
 wearisome complaints. 
 
 The man with the cigar took a thorough inventory of her 
 as she came on. He noted the turn of her tall round figure 
 set off by a close fitting jacket, and a full fluted skirt, looped 
 up over the striped stuff petticoat, with a rim of worked 
 white edging underneath. He glanced admiringly at the 
 slender, hollow feet, with their arched insteps, cased in 
 supple, shining little boots, laced, soled, pieced, and 
 strapped, in ridiculous imitation of those ponderous articles 
 he wore himself on the heather or the stubbles. He was 
 pleased to see, though it could not much matter to him, 
 that over the straight trim ankles the bright-coloured hose 
 clung close without a wrinkle ; that the dark kid gloves 
 fitted the taper hands without a crease. Nothing escaped 
 him — not the heavy links of a gold bracelet at her wrist, 
 nor the delicate lace-edged handkerchief peeping from her 
 jacket pocket, nor the neat umbrella, much too small for 
 use, that if once opened could surely never be folded so 
 smooth again, nor even the heart-shaped locket, with poor 
 papa's hair in it, that hung on a velvet ribbon round 
 Helen's white neck. 
 
 All this, I say, he saw, as she drew nearer — and she 
 
A DRAGON'S TOOTH 103 
 
 came on pretty fast, I can tell you — nor seeing this could 
 he repress a covert smile, a smile under the skin, that 
 flitted over the man's face, and did hy no means improve 
 its expression. 
 
 He made way for her as she approached' the stile, and 
 removed the cigar from his lips. There is something in the 
 presence of a real lady, to which the lowest hred man cannot 
 but pay an unwilling, almost an unconscious deference ; and 
 this was not a low-bred man, far from it. He had been 
 much more in society, and probably knew a great many 
 more smart people than Helen ; yet, taking the two as 
 class specimens, a child would not have hesitated in 
 pointing out the aristocrat, and the plebeian. 
 
 He was a good-looking fellow too, and not in what could 
 fairly be called a flash or vulgar style. Helen did not look 
 at him, be sure, but she saw him nevertheless, and took in 
 his general appearance, as young ladies can, at a glance, 
 with her own eyes averted all the time. She observed that 
 he had heavy well-shaped features, small dark eyes, and 
 large dark whiskers, a coarse mouth, very good teeth, a 
 great deal of jewellery, and a remarkably bright colour ; 
 that his clothes were perfectly well-made (you must 
 remember Helen had two brothers, one. of them a dandy 
 by profession), and though in no way remarkable, were of a 
 fashion and material more adapted for town than country 
 wear. She could not but admit that his figure was strong 
 and well-proportioned, though a little inclined to corpulence, 
 and that the bare hand in which he held his cigar, was very 
 plump and white, adorned moreover with a diamond ring of 
 no small value; such a ring as is usually displayed in the 
 foreground of professional men's portraits, meditating under 
 crimson canopies, in irreproachable linen and suits of glossy 
 black. 
 
 " Not quite a gentleman," said Helen to herself, as the 
 man made way for her, and lifted his hat with a flourish : 
 " what Walter calls a ' Brummagem swell,' I think," and 
 would have passed on without further notice, but that 
 courtesy enjoined some acknowledgment, however distant, 
 of his civility and his salute. There is hatred at first 
 sight, as there is love. Helen was provoked with herself 
 to feel such unreasonable repugnance towa,rds a man she 
 
104 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 had never seen before, and was unlikely ever to see again. 
 She would have been more provoked still had she analysed 
 the cause of her dislike. So she inclined her head with 
 that haughty distant gesture, which is, I think, the next 
 remove from a positive slap in the face, and passed over 
 the stile with a dexterous whisk of her draperies, that 
 nullified the half-step he made in advance, as though to 
 offer his assistance. 
 
 He was determined to speak to her, nevertheless ; and 
 was rather irritated that he could not, on the spur of the 
 moment, hit upon some pretext which would give him an 
 excuse for doing so without the appearance of presumption. 
 This was not a case in which he could follow her with his 
 own pockethandkerchief, affecting to think it was one she 
 had dropped, or offer to remove imaginary briers from the 
 skirt of her dress, or adopt the successful French plan, of 
 informing the lady she has whitened her gown where she 
 could not possibly see it, and dusting it the while with 
 many protestations of deference, and entreaties for forgive- 
 ness. Few people are sufficiently brutalized to make these 
 advances to a lady, and for the true gentleman every 
 woman is a lady; but with all her softness there was 
 something about Helen that would have bidden the most 
 callous natm'e pause before venturing on a liberty ; so the 
 man put his cigar in his mouth again as she passed on, 
 and racked his brain for a question that should compel her 
 to answer him. He was a connoisseur in voices ; he was 
 resolved to hear hers. If it was at all in character with 
 her appearance, he would find out who she was, and see 
 more of her. There was a good "deal of persistency and 
 determination hidden under that smooth, shining skin of 
 his ; a good deal of self-conceit and self-confidence ; not an 
 atom of conscientious scruple or remorse. 
 
 There was nothing for it but to ask his way. An old 
 worn-out resource, indeed, yet which seemed to him the 
 least offensive in the present emergency. 
 
 It would be absurd to enquire for Middlesworth. There 
 was the town staring him in the face. He must think of 
 some other locality. Hm-rying after her, hat in hand, 
 breathlessly, he " begged her pardon. There was a short 
 cut somewhere here, and he was afraid he had iflissed it — ' 
 
A DB AGON'S TOOTH 105 
 
 would she kindly point out to him the nearest way to 
 Bridlemere? " 
 
 Helen's colour deepened, for the hurrying steps brought 
 to her recollection one or two stories she had heard of 
 plausible footpads, wrenching watches and bracelets from 
 unprotected damsels in lonely thoroughfares. She eTen 
 calculated the defence she could offer with the neat 
 umbrella, and her own speed of foot, for a quarter of a 
 mile, the distance in which she could reach Dame Batters's 
 cottage, and perhaps Jem's formidable aid ; but the voice 
 and manner were so thoroughly conventional and re- 
 assuring, that she halted and faced about boldly, pointing 
 to the direction from whence she came. 
 
 " That path takes you to Bridlemere, and on by the back 
 of the stables into the high road." 
 
 She was going to tell him there was no right of way ; 
 but, after all, he had the appearance of a gentleman, and 
 she checked the ungracious remark. 
 
 It was just the voice he expected, full, sweet, composed, 
 the quiet patrician accent distinct on every syllable. 
 
 " Thank you very much," said the gentleman, with a 
 profasion of bows and superfluity of politeness a little over- 
 done. " I am most anxious to see Bridlemere ; they say 
 it is such a chaarming place, such a beautiful old house. 
 Perhaps you can tell me if I shall be disappointed ? 
 Perhaps you know it ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I do," answered Helen shortly, for the man's 
 demonstrative manner provoked her. " I live there." 
 
 "Miss Brooke, I beg you a thousand pardons," he ex- 
 claimed, raising his hat once more, and with as much cere- 
 mony as if he had been regularly introduced by a third 
 person. "I did not expect; I was not aware;" and 
 muttering something about "honour" and "pleasure," 
 and so forth ; he passed on, pretty well satisfied with his 
 ingenuity in thus paving the way to an acquaintance with 
 this beautiful young lady. 
 
 It cost him an extra walk, though, of more than a mile, 
 for he was proceeding from a neighbouring estate, on which 
 he held a mortgage, to the town of Middlesworth, and he 
 could not, in common decency, but follow the path she bad 
 pointed out, as long as there was a chance of Helen turning 
 
106 THE BROOKES OF EBIDLEMEBE 
 
 round. He might have saved himself the trouble, how- 
 ever, for the latter walked on, looking straight before her, 
 with her head rather higher than usual, and a smile of 
 something akin to scorn curling her lip. Miss Brooke was 
 not usually a person to be acted on by external influences, 
 and to-day she had come out from a long and wearisome 
 morning in the library, where she had settled the Squire at 
 last to his accustomed nap, with every inclination to enjoy 
 her release ; yet the weather somehow, seemed spoilt within 
 the last ten minutes. The sky was darker, and the wind 
 had turned colder. It would be sure to rain before she 
 could get back. No ; it was none of these drawbacks, but 
 I have said that there are such forces as antipathies. 
 Some philosophers, indeed, opine that they are instincts 
 implanted in our nature to guard us from future enemies, 
 and it might have been something of this kind that affected 
 the young lady all the way to Dame Batters's cottage door. 
 Miss Brooke's step was hardly so light as usual, while she 
 neared the porch of that lowly dwelling, to which she was 
 welcome as the song of a wild bird, but Dame Batters 
 recognised it from her chimney-corner, and folding her 
 bare arms in her check apron, came forth to meet her 
 visitor. 
 
 "Why, if here b'aint our young lady," said the old 
 woman, in a voice that constant practice of self-commisera- 
 tion had toned down to a plaintive and somewhat irritating 
 wail. " Miss Helen surelie ; an' it do my old eyes good to 
 see her — There, it do. Come in. Miss, and set down now, 
 an' rest a bit, though it's little young bones like your'n 
 knows of rest nor rheumatics neither. ' ' Here, remembering 
 her rdle, the dame put one hand to her back, and puckered 
 up her old face into a lamentable expression of bodily 
 anguish. 
 
 "Why, I hoped the rheumatics were so much better," 
 said Helen, in her gentle, soothing tones. " You told me 
 that stuff had done you good. I can send you some more. 
 We've got plenty of it at the hall." 
 
 " Good, my dear," answered the patient, not without a 
 certain triumph, for people like to be distinguished, even 
 for the obstinacy of their rheumatism. " Ta'n't likely 
 now, is it, as anythink '11 ever do me. good? It's in my 
 
A DBAGON'S TOOTH 107 
 
 bones, you see, miss, in my bones it is, and in my bones 
 it'll stop, I know, till they lie in the churchyard, an' I 
 shouldn't wonder if they was to ache a bit at odd times, 
 even there." 
 
 This was said with a mixture of pride and resignation, 
 such as that with which a man talis of the comfortable 
 arrangements he has made for survivors after his demise, 
 probably with as little perception of the reality thus antici- 
 pated ; but it was Helen's especial nature to console. She 
 had a good deal of practice at home : and indeed, when she 
 went out, never failed to bear a ray or two of comfort along 
 with her into every cottage on the estate. The poor people 
 about Bridlemere loved the very ground she walked on, not 
 because Miss Helen was such a "fine lady" as those 
 simple rustics said, attaching to the epithet a far different 
 meaning from that which it bears in cities, nor because she 
 was generous with her money, as far as her slender means 
 allowed, but that she possessed the sympathetic quality, 
 which interests itself in a neighbour's affairs as earnestly 
 as in its own. This power of projecting the mind and 
 feelings, as it were, into the very existence of others, when 
 applied by means of diverse mental gifts, such as imagina- 
 tion, construction, tact, and ingenuity, to purposes of Art, 
 and bridled, moreover, by a severe taste, constitutes Genius. 
 When it exists simply with average brains, and a warm, 
 honest heart, it merely approaches, and that very closely, 
 the Apostle's definition of Charity. The poor are peculiarly 
 susceptible of its influence, and the kindly word, which 
 proves that the speaker not only pities, but understands 
 the privations of indigence, or the temptations of vice, 
 has warmed many a cold heart, reclaimed many a reckless 
 nature, and raised many a fallen woman out of the mire in 
 which she has been trodden down so ruthlessly. 
 
 Though Dame Batters was old, dirty, querulous, and to 
 most people thoroughly uninteresting ; though her precious 
 Jem was coarse, idle, drunken, and just thoughtful enough 
 to be dishonest, altogether a very complete specimen of the 
 village blackguard, Helen could listen as kindly to the 
 long-winded complaints of the mother, could thank the son 
 as sweetly for an act of sullen courtesy, as if the one had 
 been a duchess, and the other a dandy ; nay, the duchess 
 
108 T3E BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 and the dandy would probably baye found her far colder 
 and more distant ; would have voted her less " easy to get 
 on with," than did the humble inmates of the cottage. 
 
 Jem, unbraced, unwholesome, dishevelled and sodden- 
 looking, rose from the fire-side when the young lady 
 entered, and hid a half-smoked pipe in a wholly dirty 
 hand ; then he dragged a wooden chair from its corner, 
 knocked one of the legs home, pulled his greasy cap from 
 its peg, wiped the seat, and grinning in extreme bash- 
 fulness, ground it severely along the sanded floor to Miss 
 Helen. 
 
 Her rich young voice thanked him so musically as she 
 sat down, that he stood spell-bound, shifting from one leg 
 to the other, and cramming his horny finger into the 
 hidden pipe-bowl, not yet thoroughly extinguished, till he 
 burnt it to the quick. Jem had changed his opinion all at 
 once about Cissy Brown and Sue Stanion. How could he 
 ever have compared those bouncing, brazen hoydens to 
 such a shining vision as this? He would have given a 
 gallon of beer now, to have had his Simday coat on ; nay, 
 to have only washed his face and hands at the pump. 
 
 Mothers have quick perceptioiis, even when they are old, 
 stupid, and rheumatic. Dame Batters saw her son's con- 
 fusion, and advanced at once to the rescue. 
 
 " He was always a bit dashed with the gentlefolk, was 
 our Jem," said she, grinning significantly at her visitor. 
 " He's not had the schooling, you see, miss, of some on 
 'em, along o' my being left a lone woman so young, my 
 dear ; for a sore heart is a heavy load, and a lame fat 
 makes a long journey. Speak up, Jem," she added, turn- 
 ing briskly on her great, sheepish son. " Speak up, and 
 tell young miss the rights of it. He've got a job at last, 
 miss, what he don't need to be ashamed of, this turn, and 
 that's the truth." 
 
 Thus adjured, Jem rolled his eyes, gasped, grinned, and 
 said nothing. 
 
 "I was sorry you were out of work so long," observed 
 Helen quietly, ignoring the while the reason Jem had not 
 been employed of late at the Hall, which she knew per- 
 fectly well. " I spoke to my brother for you, and I believe 
 he spoke to papa, but you know papa has been so ill that 
 
A DBAGON'S TOOTH 109 
 
 nothing has heen decided either about the embankment or 
 the farm-road, or the draining, so my brother says we have 
 hands enough at present ; but you see, Mrs. Batters, I 
 hadn't forgot my promise the last time I was here." 
 
 All this was truth, but not the whole truth. What really 
 took place was as follows : Helen iuterceded with Jack, 
 who vowed he would not have such an idle, drunken rascal 
 about the place, not if he would do a twelvemonth's work 
 for nothing ; but after much coaxing and entreaty from his 
 beloved sister, whom, unlike most brothers, next to the 
 lady in the French print, Jack esteemed the first of woman- 
 kind, he consented to speak to the governor on the subject. 
 Broaching it, as he hoped, in a lucid interval, the topic 
 was received with such a storm of petulant anger that it 
 fell incontinently to the ground, and was not thereafter 
 alluded to. This was one of the many cases in which the 
 Squire liked his son to have all the trouble of looking after 
 the estate, but none of its management. Helen was aware 
 that she had no good news to impart, but it was her nature 
 to be considerate with her inferiors, and she let Jem down 
 as easily as circumstances would permit. 
 
 " He've got a job at last, though," resumed Dame 
 Batters, rolling the check apron round and round her bare 
 arms. " He've found a friend, have Jem ; and they do say 
 a man's best friend is him as pays him reg'lar. Fifteen 
 shillin' a week, Miss, and his beer. That's worth — ^what's 
 your beer worth, Jem ? You an' me counted it up a while 
 since. But what call have I to count it up to you, Miss 
 Helen? What's a young lady like you to know about 
 beer ? " 
 
 Helen blushed, as if she had suddenly been accused of 
 drinking that sustaining fluid in large quantities. Never- 
 theless, the beer question seemed not devoid of interest, for 
 she turned away from the old woman's keen, twinkling eyes, 
 and addressed herself to the son. 
 
 " I hope, Jem," said she, gravely, " that you won't buy 
 any, now you can get as much as you want for nothing." 
 
 He could enter into this topic heartily. 
 
 " 'Taint the beer. Miss," he explained, deferentially, yet 
 with conscious pride in the importance of the question, and 
 his own familiarity with all its bearings. " 'Taint the 
 
110 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 beer ; leastways, 'taint the beer alone as done all the mis- 
 chief. You see, miss, if a chap's dry, maybe, and he turns 
 in and takes his half-pint, why it's neither here nor there. 
 But when it's weather, and such-like, and a chap's hanging 
 about the town, of a errand, we'll say, and, as fike as not, 
 without a dry thread on him, why, I asks your pardon, miss, 
 what's a chap to do ? In a ' public,' you see, miss, he 
 gets warmed both inside and out ; then he takes his beer 
 with a flourish of lacin' to it, as we calls it, miss ; and one 
 man he stands to a friend, and another man he stands to a 
 friend ; and it's, ' Jem, 'ore's luck, my boy ; ' an' ' Jem, you 
 was always a staunch dog, you was ; ' an' ' Jem, won't you 
 sing us a song '? ' I ask your pardon, miss, but that's the 
 way the money goes, an' I've done with it, I have, for one 
 while. There ! " 
 
 He would have put his pipe in his mouth again, but that 
 he suddenly remembered his manners, and did homage 
 once more to Helen by stuffing it into his coat-cuff. 
 
 Dame Batters listened approvingly, and reached up to 
 pat her son's burly shoulders, a caress he acknowledged 
 with a shake and a grunt. 
 
 Helen was not tired of the beer question yet, apparently, 
 for she had something more to say. 
 
 " You haven't told me where your son is going to work ? " 
 she observed, looking intently out of doors, as though to 
 see if the weather still held up. " I hope, for your sake, 
 Mrs. Batters, it's not far from here ? " 
 
 " Stoney Brothers," growled Jem, with a kind of jubilant 
 defiance. " Stoney Brothers. That's the shop, miss-^- 
 that is ; and good luck to it, says I ; good luck to both on 
 'em ; for good chaps they be, and especially Master Phil." 
 
 " It's Mr. Philip, you see, miss, as got Jem the place," 
 said his mother, interpreting, as it were, with a dignified 
 politeness, to her visitor. " Mr. Philip, as has a good 
 word and a kind for rich and poor, just like yourself, miss ; 
 and like will to like, as they say, for you can't keep cows 
 from clover, nor yet cats from cream. And what I say is 
 this : you tell me what a man gets actin' of, and I'll tell 
 you what's the secret thoughts of that man's heart. 
 Butter's bound to come if you do but keep the churn 
 goiiig ; and there's not a mortal thing on this earth as 
 
A DBAOON'S TOOTH 111 
 
 Master Philip would think too good for them as comes off 
 Bridlemere ! " 
 
 Prohably Miss Brooke heard not one word, for she was 
 looking intently over the wide valley, with its broad, peace- 
 ful meadowSj its dotted homesteads and lines of intersecting 
 hedgerows, to the golden streak of simset that seemed to 
 be resting on the distant wooded hills. A November sky 
 could scarcely look more settled, and Miss Brooke cared as 
 little for a wetting as a mermaid, nevertheless she took an 
 abrupt departure, hardly noticing Jem's grotesque bow, and 
 wishing his mother a hurried farewell, because she must 
 get home before it came on to rain. 
 
 Was it only the pace at which she walked — five miles an 
 hour, I really believe, and every footfall light and springy 
 as a deer's — that brought so high a colour to her face ? A. 
 colour that went and came a dozen times before she reached 
 the stile where she met the man who asked his way, and 
 whom she had now completely forgotten — a colour that if 
 it would only settle in those delicate cheeks of hers, and 
 remain for the ball to-night, when I daresay she would be 
 very pale, must quite set at rest any discussions as to who 
 was the best-looking young woman about Middlesworth, 
 besides furnishing an extraordinary treat to the male 
 muffatee-makers and other roughs in the town, who loved 
 to congregate about the ball-room door, and watch carriage 
 after carriage landing its cargo of white muslin, with 
 remarks, it is but justice to say, neither loud nor obtrusive, 
 though extremely sincere, on the respective merits of the 
 competitors. 
 
 Perhaps anticipation of this very gathering may have had 
 something to do with the additional bloom on the flower. 
 It is difficult for middle-age — male middle-age especially — 
 to realize a girl's dreams of expectation the day she is 
 going to a ball. To her, I imagine, the ceremonial is a 
 compound of excitement, hope, emulation, triumph, 
 pleasuz'e, business and dissipation, probably with a halo of 
 romance glorifying the whole thing. It is her House of 
 Commons, her Poor-law Board, her lecture-room, her 
 hunting-field, the betting-ring of her racecourse, the deck of 
 her frigate, the front of her general action. In this bright, 
 smooth arena she concentrates the ambition, the amuse- 
 
112 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 ments, the vicissitudes, the straggles, the -victories — all the 
 best and some of the worst feelings of the other sex — and 
 yet we can sometimes find it in our hearts to grudge the 
 curtailment of our claret, the trouble of dressing after 
 dinner, the inconvenience of standing all night upon not 
 the soundest of feet, in order that she may take her part in 
 this all-important contest. She cannot go without us, 
 more's the pity ! Who knows ? perhaps to-night she 
 meditates the grand decisive stroke that is to affect her 
 whole life ! Shall indolence, self-indulgence, the cosy fire- 
 side, the roomy four-poster, seduce us from our duty as a 
 man and a chaperon ? Eing the bell. Get coffee. Tell 
 John to put us out the whitest of neckcloths and the easiest 
 of boots ; order the carriage, but let it not come round till 
 it is wanted, for great results are to be obtained only by 
 careful preparation, and the slower she is in dressing, the 
 more effective wOl be her first appearance in the room ; our 
 own purgatory is also thus cm-tailed a little at the nearer 
 end. 
 
 Dame Batters looked long and wistfully after Miss 
 Brooke's receding figure; then she shook her head, and 
 accosted Jem, who was sprawling over the fire to light his 
 pipe. 
 
 " Jem," said she, " I never see our young Miss not look 
 half so well as she done to-night. Her eyes was as bright 
 as diamonds. Wasn't 'em, Jem ? Oh ! my poor back ! " 
 
 Jem made no immediate reply. It was his practice to be 
 very chary of his words with his mother, which was, perhaps, 
 the reason she gave him more than due credit for wisdom. 
 I have observed the same result from a judicious reticence 
 in every grade of society. Presently the germ of an idea 
 formed itself in his mind. PuflBng gravely at his pipe, he 
 seemed to chum the thought, as it were, and knea^it well, 
 before he turned it out for inspection. Then he rose, 
 stretched, yawned, and thus delivered himself — 
 
 "Mother?" 
 
 "WeU, Jem?" 
 
 "D'ye mind the heifer as I druv' down the green lane 
 and by our door here, last club-momin' twelvemonth? " 
 
 "I mind her, Jem," replied the Dame. "I was bad 
 with the rheimiatics that turn. Never a heifer has the 
 
A DRAGON'S TOOTH 118 
 
 Squire bred since not half as good nor yet half as good 
 looking. No, nor Mr. Marks neither. You can't bake 
 hot bread in a cold oven, Jem." 
 
 " That heifer wur the cleanest thing ever I saw, mother, 
 bar our Miss Brooke." 
 
 " Bar our Miss Brooke," repeated the dame. " And you 
 druv' her to the butcher's, Jem. Didn't ye now ? I mind 
 it well ! " 
 
 " Iss," said Jem. " I druv' her to the butcher's." 
 
CHAPTEK Vm 
 
 MAEKBT-DAY 
 
 I HAVE already observed that Middlesworth, on occasion, 
 was capable of as much bustle and confusion as if its 
 normal state had been one of brisk commercial activity, 
 rather than complete stagnation and repose. The sur- 
 rounding country, consisting chiefly of pasture land, was 
 not, therefore, very thickly inhabited; nevertheless, once 
 in the week, the streets of this prosperous town were so 
 densely thronged as to become impassable to all but the 
 most vigorous and resolute pedestrians. It seemed as if 
 the adjoining districts poui-ed their whole population — men, 
 women, children, infants in arms, with all the horses, pigs, 
 waggons, carts, live stock, poultry, dogs, and animals they 
 could muster, into Middlesworth on market-day. As in all 
 crowds, women predominated largely. They came along 
 the highways and byways for hours during the forenoon, 
 returning in clusters about dark ; for, whatever distance 
 they might have to journey, they seemed with one accord 
 to defer their departure for home to as late an hour as 
 possible. Strong, wiry, and able-bodied, her feminine 
 roundness of form somewhat impaired and attenuated by 
 hard fare and hard labour, what a day's work will one of 
 these peasant women do in the fifteen hours of incessant 
 employment that constitute her day! First astir in the 
 humble household to light the fire and prepare her 
 " master's " breakfast ; last in bed at night, mending the 
 clothes of the family by the dim flicker of one tallow- 
 candle; every intervening moment has its appropriate 
 task, lightened only by the refreshment of gossip, which 
 
MABKET-DAY 115 
 
 she takes standing, and without respite from her employ- 
 ment, whatever it may he. There are the children to 
 dress ; there is the cottage to clean ; hread to he brought 
 home from the baker's ; water to be drawn and carried from 
 the well; the weekly stores to calculate, and a difficult 
 problem to solve which repeated practice fails to simplify, 
 viz., twelve shillings given, and fifteen required. How to 
 make the sum answer ! All the cleaning, all the cooking, 
 all the care, falls on one poor pair of shoulders, and they 
 carry the weight with surprising energy and much loud 
 complaint. To walk four or five miles backwards and 
 forwards on a high road because it is market-day would 
 scarcely seem a desirable addition to her usual task, yet is 
 this weekly pilgrimage her much prized substitute for the 
 morning concerts, races, archery meetings, picnics, and 
 shopping of the richer class. Wet or dry, frost or 
 sunshine, with tanned face, drenched stockings, and 
 draggled skirt, she plods along, the pattens and umbrella 
 in one hand, the wicker-basket empty going, full returning 
 — in the other. Whilst in the town she certainly does 
 make the most of her time, loitering over her errands and 
 prolonging her shopping to the utmost possible duration. 
 Perhaps her amusement may be varied by the excitement 
 of extricating a husband, father, or brother from some 
 attractive pot-house and incipient fight ; probably to coax 
 him homewards, and guide his inebriated steps the whole 
 way, propping him up, and replacing his hat, on an average, 
 once in every hundred yards. 
 
 The red Indian's squaw prays that her child may not be 
 a girl, for "Weary," says she, "is the lot of woman." 
 Hedging, ditching, digging, draining, ploughing, turf- 
 cutting, stone-breaking ; however hard he works, I think 
 the English labourer has a far easier time of it than the 
 English labourer's wife. To say nothing of Eve's curse, 
 she encounters as much physical exertion as his ; and all 
 the wear-and-tear of mind which her husband escapes. No 
 wonder her comely Saxon face is furrowed, and her soft 
 brown hair streaked with gi'ey before her time. 
 
 Were it not for woman's dearest privilege, her never- 
 failing luxury, how could she exist? The solace of 
 conversation, the delightful employment of the tongue, 
 
116 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 the inspiriting exercise of question and reply; these smooth 
 the roughness of her path, and turn her veiy tasks to 
 pleasure and pastime. The debates of a rookery on a 
 May morning ; the cackle of the Trojan army, as described 
 by Homer; the parrot-room, at the Zoological in the 
 Regent's Park : the shrillest and most over-powering of 
 these discords, would convey but a faint notion of the 
 monster concert provided by female voices for market- 
 day, in the streets of Middlesworth ; add to this, the 
 shouts of drovers, the lowing of oxen, the squalling of 
 pigs, the clatter of Stoney Brothers' waggons, whips 
 cracking in the horse-market, a cheap-jack selling on the 
 Parade, Strider's equestrian band performing in the Square, 
 with the clang of the church clock striking surely more 
 than four times in the hour, through and above all ; and it 
 is reasonable to suppose that more than common steadiness 
 of nerve and brain was required to buy even a yard of 
 ribbon, in the midst of all this turmoil. 
 
 It was strange how the confusion seemed to quiet the 
 quadrupeds, though they added their share of noise ; it 
 was but a feeble effort, and emitted, as it were, under 
 protest. The pigs, indeed, vindicated their character for 
 energetic and persistent rebellion ; but the poor oxen 
 lowed very meekly and pitifully; nor, aghast and utterly 
 stupefied by the surrounding clamour, would the young 
 horses show sufficient mettle to attract a purchaser. 
 
 The whole town was, more or less, pervaded by general 
 confiision ; but its streams all converged in one whirlpool, 
 where also booths were erected for the further discomfort of 
 the public, viz., the open space in front of the " Plantagenet 
 Arms." Here a dray had stopped with beer, a coal-cart 
 was discharging its load, five market-women — all with 
 parcels, three with children — had wedged themselves into 
 an impenetrable phalanx. The omnibus was starting from 
 the door, and a farmer's gig, driven by an old man and 
 drawn by a young horse, blocked up the archway. But 
 for great perseverance, and the exertion of much personal 
 strength, Eagman de EoUe, struggling through the crowd, 
 could never have reached his destination, the portals of 
 this long-established hotel and posting house — the well- 
 known "Plantagenet Arms." 
 
MABKET-DAY 117 
 
 Eags was in his usual health and spirits, in that state 
 which he himself designated as " very fit," coming from 
 the performance of his duty, or rather, of his friend's 
 duty ; he shone, not indeed in the blaze of review order, but 
 in the milder lustre of frogged frock-coat, gold-laced forage 
 cap, much on one side, without a peak, and a pair of killing 
 steel spurs. In this costume. Rags felt more equal to a 
 social emergency than in the obscurity of plain clothes. 
 The chambermaid and waiter looked after him admiring, as 
 he passed into the bar ; and when he reached that sanctum, 
 Miss Bolt, its presiding priestess, received him with a 
 giggle and a toss of her sleek head, which denoted 
 partiality and approval. 
 
 "You'll take your glass of brown sherry, as usual, 
 Capting de Eolle?" said Miss Bolt, offering at the same 
 time a bumper of that mixture (price one shilling), with a 
 pretty hand garnished by many rings, whereof, the newest, 
 I believe, had been presented, in all honour, by generous 
 Rags. He was a favourite, you see, as might be gathered 
 from her condescending manner and frequent repetition of 
 his name, with the military title she bestowed on all ranks 
 of officers prefixed. 
 
 " Is Captain Brooke in the barracks ? You can tell me, 
 Capting de Eolle, I daresay. A gentleman have been here, 
 asking for him, repeated." 
 
 Rags was gulping at the sheiTy, and preparing a compli- 
 ment whilst he swallowed it. 
 
 "He would have been, but I am on duty for him," 
 answered the hussar, adding, gallantly, " I don't regret 
 it either, for it keeps me in the town you brighten with 
 yom- presence. Miss Bolt ! " 
 
 " Go along with you now, do," replied the lady, who 
 appreciated flattery none the less that she knew it was 
 fired ofi' in jest. " I never see such a man as you, Capting 
 de RoUe, for your cajoleries — flummery, I call it. I wonder 
 what you take me for, I do." 
 
 Miss Bolt had passed many years in citadels such as that 
 in which she was now entrenched ; surroimded by outworks 
 of glass, pewter, beer, brandy, nets of lemons, jars of 
 pickles, baskets of game, bottles of bitters, and brown 
 paper parcels ; fortified, moreover, by her own rigid sense 
 
118 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 of decorum, she could afford to do what execution she 
 pleased on a besieging force, and laugh at its efforts to 
 return her fire. These ladies who live habitually before 
 the public, allow themselves, it is true, considerable 
 latitude of speech and manner. Their circle is no doubt 
 a large one; but they are careful not to overstep its 
 boundary. In flirtation they are great proficients. How, 
 indeed, can it be otherwise ? Practising it as they must, 
 hour after hour, and day after day, for months together, 
 with every class of the male species, fi:om peers to potato- 
 salesmen, including the commercial traveller — a variety 
 no less remarkable for audacity of wit, than for fluency of 
 language — in that choice kind of repartee which depends 
 for its success on pointed personal allusion, they are un- 
 rivalled ; and they possess, moreover, the advantage of a 
 partial audience, and an encounter on their own ground; 
 but with all their freedom of speech, they deny themselves, 
 scrupulously, a corresponding liberty of action ; vdth every 
 temptation to evil, they are almost without exception, un- 
 tainted by vice; and, to use their own language, "know 
 their place, and take care to keep theirselves respectable." 
 
 It did not cost Rags much trouble to finish a glass of 
 brown sherry ; yet, ere he had half swallowed his shilling's 
 worth, as many different characters had come into, and 
 gone out of Miss Bolt's sanctum, as pass and repass the 
 stage of a theatre in a pantomime. 
 
 The Chairman of Quarter Sessions, burly, good- 
 humoured, and gentlemanlike, happy mixture of squire, 
 sportsman, and magistrate, paused there to desire his 
 Clerk of the Peace might be sent to him forthwith. He 
 was sixteen stone, and a grandfather; nevertheless, he 
 congratulated Miss Bolt on her good looks and brilliant 
 ear-rings ; wishing himself, he said, " a young man, and 
 a sherry drinker again, for her sake." Miss Bolt, much 
 gratified, returned the compliment in kind, with a sportive 
 allusion to his youthful appearance, which sent the old 
 gentleman away shaking his jolly sides. He was suc- 
 ceeded by a High-Church rector, starched to the ears, 
 and buttoned to the chin, who asked for a parcel of books, 
 that should have come down by train ; but, of course, had 
 not arrived. For him, Miss Bolt took pains to explain the 
 
MABKET-DAY 119 
 
 railway arrangements, which were indeed sufficiently com- 
 plicated, and in the disentanglement of which the good man 
 showed less than his usual powers of perception : even his 
 last words, however, were, " I trust everything to you, Miss 
 Bolt ! " But, hefore Eags could remark, in a loud whisper, 
 " What touching confidence ! " Mrs. Marks, from the new 
 farm at Bridlemere, brought her little boy to be taken care 
 of, while she went to look for Marks in the horse-fair. Miss 
 Bolt turned from a business-like coquette to a loving matron 
 in the twinkling of an eye. She stuck the little man 
 against the back of an arm-chair, put a sweet biscuit in his 
 fist, and was down on her knees smoothing his flaxen curls, 
 and making friends with him, before Eags could express 
 admiration of her fondness for children, and regret that 
 she had not a bouncing family of her own. The boy, 
 sticking his fat legs straight out, and making round 
 eyes, as children do when utterly at a loss, suffered 
 himseK to be comforted with considerable philosophy, and 
 gazed in undisguised wonder at De RoUe's general appear- 
 ance, and the rapid succession of Miss Bolt's visitors. 
 
 Mrs. Marks was hardly gone ere Marks appeared, 
 looking for her, and that smart young agriculturist could 
 not think of following his wife without a word for his first- 
 born, and a glass of sherry and bitters for himself : then he 
 got into conversation with Eags, on the merits of a certain 
 young horse ; and still an endless stream of Miss Bolt's 
 admirers poured in and out. The auctioneer, from the 
 market-place, portly, well- whiskered, and high-coloured, 
 with his thumbs in the armholes of his black satin waist- 
 coat, and his white hat stuck very much over one eye ; the 
 rising apothecary, from round the corner, clean-shaven, 
 white-cravated, smooth-spoken, affecting a gravity beyond 
 his years, and the general pomposity of an authorised 
 physician ; one of Mr. Dowlas's young men, with a 
 parcel Lady Julia had ordered and forgotten ; the 
 spoi-ting saddler Will Whipthong, a little " sprung," 
 from having entertained a few friends at an early 
 dinner ; two grave men who had ordered tea at faur 
 p.m.; and who looked like undertakers, but were in 
 reality, agents for the establishment of a new branch 
 bubble bank. George Stoney asking for his brother 
 
120 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Philip, and presently, Philip asking for George; a little 
 girl, belonging to nobody, who wanted change for a doubtful 
 half-crown; the cellarman, the head ostler, the parish clerk, 
 the tax-gatherer, and presently, a select detachment of the 
 commercial gentlemen, smiling, self-confident, and debonair, 
 fresh from their dinner in the conamercial room. 
 
 It was long odds against Bags; but he made a good 
 fight of it, notwithstanding. The frogged coat, the spurs, 
 the indispensable riding whip, the brown sherry, and a 
 huge cigar, inspired him with confidence. He bandied 
 jests with the auctioneer; he stared the apothecary out 
 of countenance ; he accepted Will Whipthong's flattery, 
 not entirely disinterested, with a good-humoured con- 
 descension. A second glass of sheiTy put him on equal 
 terms with the commercial gentlemen, who are always 
 inclined to be sociable, especially with military men, and 
 the rest of the visitors he found himself in a position to 
 ignore. 
 
 Eags felt he was monopolizing Miss Bolt — such is the 
 vanity inherent in the male sex, that it was gratifying to 
 know himself the object, even of a barmaid's admiration ; 
 and he accepted it thirstily, as an earnest of successes to 
 come in a higher sphere. 
 
 Perhaps he was right. To kill a salmon, and to land a 
 trout, are efforts of the same skill, differing only in degree. 
 The nobler fish demands but stronger tackle and a gaudier 
 fly — a greater hardihood, perhaps ; but not a whit more art. 
 Cinderella at the ball, is still the Cinderella of the kitchen. 
 Toothless Lyce's heart is as near her lips as that of smiling, 
 whispering Lalage. Castle and cottage surrender alike, 
 when they begin to parley. Neither the duke's nor the 
 dairyman's daughters are proof against subtle stratagem, 
 bold assault, or persevering blockade. From Dido to Dorcas ; 
 from Pasiphae to Pamela, few, when they find it, but will 
 bend to the master hand. Though all are riddles, it seems 
 there is but one solution for the whole sex, and Congreve 
 was not perhaps much mistaken, when he makes them 
 sing— 
 
 " Nothing's new except our faces : 
 Every woman is the same." 
 
MABKET.DAY 121 
 
 Rags was getting on swimmingly. It took him, indeed, 
 several seconds to prepare his little speeches; but they 
 were received cordially; and notwithstanding frequent 
 interruptions, responded to graciously in kind. The 
 conversation proceeded somewhat as follows : — 
 
 Rags, with the utmost sweetness, "How nicely you do 
 your hair. Miss Bolt. I haven't seen such hair as yours, 
 since we marched into Middlesworth. I suppose you 
 wouldn't give a poor fellow a lock of it ; would you 
 now? — though you have plenty to spare, and it's most 
 of it real, of course." 
 
 Miss Bolt, laughing in a succession of short, shrill gasps, 
 " The idea ; I should have thought you knew better than 
 to -" 
 
 Waiter, entering in a hurry, perspiring freely, " Glass of 
 sherry and bitters, for No. 4." 
 
 Miss Bolt, hardening once more in the exercise of her 
 profession, " You know I can't abide flummery, Capting de 
 RoUe. I'm sure if I thought you was serious, I should be 
 veiy " 
 
 Same waiter, only a trifle warmer : 
 
 " Two teas, an' a pint of ale, for No. 5." 
 
 Rags, taking refuge in the last drop of his sherry — 
 
 " I know I should be very — ^yes, very grateful. I'd put 
 it in a locket, and hang it round my neck, and never take 
 it off even to shave. 
 
 " And if anyone was asking me the reason why I wear it, 
 I'd say it's 'cause my true love is " 
 
 Waiter re-entering, compelled at last to mop his face with 
 a dinner-napkin. 
 
 " Two letters and a parcel, for No. 6." 
 
 Second waiter, approaching with noiseless steps and an 
 air of perfect candour — 
 
 " Party in the coffee-room wishes to know when No. 6 
 will be back?" 
 
 Landlord's daughter, a small child, with her front teeth 
 gone, and not yet replaced, lisping painfully — 
 
 "Father says, please Miss Bolt, did No. 6 have his 
 letters before he went out? " 
 
 Head ostler, venturing but half his person, huskily, as one 
 
122 TSM BROOKES OF SBIDLEMERS 
 
 whose rest is habitually broken, and who drinks a mixture 
 of gin and hay-seeds — 
 
 " From the Telegraph office— message for No. 6." 
 
 Miss Bolt—" Bother No. 6 ! " 
 
 And when Rags, improving his opportunity, condoled 
 with her on the hardships of her position, the variety of 
 her duties, and the public nature of a department in 
 which she was " wasting her sweetness," though she neither 
 " blushed " nor remained " unseen," he was a little piqued 
 to observe that her attention wavered obviously, and fixed 
 itself on a voice in the passage giving certain directions, in 
 which the words "servant," "lodge," "luggage," and 
 "fly," were alone audible. 
 
 It was a mellow, manly voice, grave in tone, rather than 
 sad, and with a peculiarly clear enunciation of each syllable. 
 A listener might be sure, without seeing him, that the 
 owner had good teeth, and shut them tight together when 
 he spoke. 
 
 Miss Bolt listened for a second or two with the utmost 
 earnestness ; then a smile, like a sunbeam — a very different 
 smile from those she kept by her for daily use — broke over 
 her face. She shook her ear-rings till they jingled again ; 
 her eyes sparkled, her cheeks glowed, and she looked twice 
 as pretty now, while she clasped her hands, and exclaimed — 
 
 " Goodness, gracious me ! I do declare, if there isn't Sir 
 Archibald ! " 
 
 She guessed right. While she spoke, the person she 
 called Sir Archibald, entered the bar. A man of middle age 
 — ^nay, middle age is but a relative term, according to the 
 distance at which those who use it believe themselves to be 
 from either end of the rope. Here, where it is made fast to 
 the shore, a few fathoms out constitute middle age ; yonder, 
 where it di'ips already with the spray, and is about to lose 
 itself in the silent sea, an inch or two yet further out is 
 considered still to indicate this doubtfiil period. I re- 
 member when I thought a man of five-and-thirty middle- 
 aged. I call him " a young fellow" now. Well, it is not 
 worth discussing — " A soldier's a man ; a life's but a span," 
 and its termination as uncertain at one period as another : 
 so that, for most of us, there is no such thing as middle 
 age after all. 
 
MABKET-DAY 123 
 
 Sir Archibald, then, wag a good bit over fifty ; but, like 
 many men who have spent their youth in a life of constant 
 toil and hardship, he seemed rather to have hardened and 
 toughened from repeated kneading than worn by the friction 
 of continuous use. His walk was springy and elastic ; his 
 frame very spare and muscular. Every atom of superfluous 
 flesh seemed to have been absorbed by exercise, or drained 
 from his system by the action of tropical heat. His very 
 face was but skin and bone. Skin tanned, bronzed, and 
 wrinMed ; bone harsh, angular, and prominent. The whole 
 clean shaved, all but a heavy moustache, which, like his 
 hair, was rapidly turning white. Nevertheless, there was 
 beauty still, and that of an engaging kind, in the old, worn 
 face ; beauty such as a young girl loves to look upon, and 
 weave for herself a drama of passion, adventure, and 
 romance, as acted out by the possessor — 
 
 " So bronzed, so marred, of more than twice her years." 
 
 She gives it credit for former attractions, which perhaps it 
 never possessed ; destroyed by dangers and vicissitudes, on 
 which perhaps it never looked. There is many an Elaine 
 who allows her fancy to be thus captivated by a veteran 
 Launcelot ; kindling, it may be, in turn, the embers of a dead 
 grey fire into a feeble transient glow. Her fancy only, not 
 her heart ; poor girl, let her keep that treasure for a younger, 
 brighter, fresher, more congenial love. This old man looked 
 indeed as if his past career had been of no common order, 
 as if his character was one of no conventional cast. It was 
 something in the eyes that betrayed him, that contradicted 
 the qtiiet, matter-of-fact, respectable appearance of dress and 
 demeanour he thought it consistent with his time of life to 
 affect. They were very keen, dark, and bright ; set deep 
 under a pair of bushy brows, which still retained their youth- 
 ful blackness. There was habitually that glitter in them 
 which you will never observe but in eyes that are accus- 
 tomed, day by day, to stare death out of countenance, 
 which the youngest and freshest recruit acquires in six 
 weeks' campaigning, if pretty close to the enemy ; also, at 
 times, they shone with a soft, deep, tender lustre that spoke 
 of ardent affections, undying regrets, and holy, hopeless love, 
 
124 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBB 
 
 chastened by memory into religion, bearing to look back on 
 the past, because it could look forward to the future, having 
 nothing to lose now and therefore nothing to fear. 
 
 Do not think, however, that his was a countenance those 
 who run may read. Sir Archibald was the last person to 
 carry his heart on his sleeve. To the casual observer, he 
 was but a shrewd, hard, practised man of the world — a little 
 abrupt, a little caustic, and somewhat intolerant of anything 
 like weakness or want of common sense. 
 
 His popularity, nevertheless, seemed to extend beyond 
 the bar, from which retirement Miss Bolt handed him a 
 light for his cigar, with as much delighted deference as if 
 he had been a prince of the blood. Marks, returning for 
 his child, welcomed him back to the country with a perfect 
 storm of congratulations. The head ostler stood grinning at 
 him through a window that commanded the passage. A 
 buxom chambermaid came in three times for the same order, 
 beaming brightly on Sir" Archibald, and was rebuked, reason- 
 ably enough, by Miss Bolt for carelessness and inattention. 
 The landlord's little daughter recognised him, and held 
 up her toothless mouth to be kissed. The very boots touched 
 his fur cap, and was glad to see " Sir Archibald looking so 
 well." Philip Stoney, again in search of George, shook 
 hands with him enthusiastically, and was quite pleased to be 
 asked concerning the well-beiag of the chestnut horse. 
 Everybody in Middlesworth seemed to know this brown 
 man, with his white moustaches, and to be glad to see him 
 back. 
 
 " Who is he ? " whispered Bags to Miss Bolt. " Seems 
 a popular chap — ought to stand for the town." 
 
 "What! don't you know Sir Archibald?" replied the 
 barmaid. "I thought everybody knew Sir Archibald. Why, 
 he is " 
 
 Hot waiter entering in a hurry — " No. 6 come in ! Letters, 
 parcels, bottle of soda-water to No. 6 ! " 
 
 " Everybody don't know him, you see," persisted Bags ; 
 "for I don't. What's his name? Where does he hang 
 out ? " 
 
 "Well, he don't live here — more's the pity," replied Miss 
 Bolt, frowning reprovingly the while at the continuous 
 tingling of a bell, which professional instinct told her was 
 
MABKET-BAY 125 
 
 jerked by the impatience of No. 6, and which, it is needless 
 to observe, rang immediately outside the door distinguished 
 by that numeral. " He don't live near here, but he's often 
 amongst us at odd times. You see, Sir Archibald is 
 the " 
 
 Interrupted again by the warm and noiseless waiter, velvet- 
 footed, and perspiring, as before 
 
 " Half a lemon, lump sugar, wax candles, dozen sheets 
 of note-paper and envelopes, for No. 6." 
 
 " Well, I'm sm-e ! I wish No. 6 was further ! " 
 
 " And who the deuce is No. 6 ? " burst from Miss Bolt 
 and Eags simultaneously ; but it appeared that Sir Archibald 
 knew even No. 6, for almost while they spoke, he turned to 
 shake hands with a dark, fresh-coloured, smartly-dressed 
 gentleman, who entered the bar to complain that his orders 
 were not attended to with the despatch he required. 
 
 " The last place I should have expected to meet you in, 
 Multiple," said Sir Archibald, who did not seem to like 
 No. 6 as well as No. 6 liked him. 
 
 " Delighted to see you, I'm sure ! " replied the other, with 
 a cordiality perhaps a little overdone. " Business brought 
 me here, as you may suppose — ^business and pleasure com- 
 bined — or I shouldn't be staying in this cursed hotel." 
 
 Miss Bolt looked daggers. 
 
 " Gentleman !" said she. " Nice gentleman, you are, I 
 think ! — not my sort, at any rate." But her sort of gentle- 
 man, or none, he was a customer, so she wisely said it to 
 herself. 
 
 " That means you are going to the ball to-night," observed 
 the other ; and Miss Bolt thought he drew his bushy eye- 
 brows down over his eyes closer than before. 
 
 " I suppose I must look in for half an hour," answered 
 Mr. Multiple, running his white hand through his black 
 hair. "Not much to tempt one, I fancy, though, down 
 here. You know the people better than I do, Sir Archibald, 
 beauties and all. I suppose the whole thing is very pro- 
 vincial ? " 
 
 There was a gleam of amusement in Sir Archibald's eye, 
 but he observed, with creditable gra-nty — : 
 
 " A London man is quite a windfall here. Multiple, The 
 Middlesworth girls are celebrated for tenacity. If you dance. 
 
126 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 they'll run you off your legs, like an over-driven post-horse. 
 If you sit still, they'll swarm about you, like flies round a 
 honey-pot. I advise you to look out ; not one of them but 
 carries her grapnels, and they don't drag their anchors, I 
 promise you." 
 
 Multiple suspected his friend was laughing at him. He 
 was shrewd enough to know that vanity as regards the 
 other sex was his foible, and to conceal his weakness as 
 far as possible ; also the fencer's first instruction, never to 
 betray how nearly his guard had been broken, so he 
 answered gravely — 
 
 "A ball is a ball, even a hundred miles fi:om town. I've 
 done a good day's work to-day, and I have a right to 
 amuse myself. Two-and-twenty letters written, and a 
 ten-mile walk, Sir Archibald. Pretty well that for a 
 cockney?" 
 
 " I hope you have made it answer," was the reply; "a 
 man ought to be handsomely paid for all that exertion of 
 body and mind." 
 
 " I must have turned about five-hundred," said Multiple, 
 carelessly. " You make your ' monkey ' in a shorter time 
 on a race-course, but really it's almost as hard work. It's 
 not worth my while to be absent from our place, under a 
 good many hundreds, as you know, Sir Archibald." 
 
 " Indeed, I did not ! " replied the latter ; "but I'm glad 
 to hear it for your sake. I only wish my time was half 
 as valuable;" and he wondered the while what could 
 induce his friend to make this astounding statement. 
 He knew him well enough to be aware that its truth or 
 falsehood had nothing to do with its enunciation. He 
 reflected that the other knew him also well enough to 
 have spared his breath. What puzzled him was, why it 
 should be published here, for the benefit of a barmaid 
 and a young officer in undress. 
 
 " It's a nice country about Middlesworth," added 
 Multiple, in a sly, soliloquizing tone. " I've seen the 
 prettiest view to-day that has pleased my eye for a long 
 time, and that sort of thing makes an impression on 
 me. I am like Beppo's Count, you know — 
 
 ' Wax to receive, and marble to retain.' 
 
MABKET-DAY 127 
 
 I must have another look at it before long. And where do 
 you think I've been, Sir Archibald, on my way back? 
 Why, right through the park at Bridlemere." 
 
 The bushy eyebrows went down this time without a 
 doubt. Miss Bolt was watching them, and she was sure of 
 it. 
 
 " A fine place, isn't it ? " said Sir Archibald, carelessly; 
 " and been a long time in the family. Good morning. 
 Multiple ; I'm rather late as it is, and must be moving 
 now." So, with a courteous bow to Miss Bolt, who 
 returned it enthusiastically, he walked forth, and plunged 
 into the whirlpool of traffic stUl seething, and roaring, and 
 raging, in front of the " Plantagenet Arms." 
 
 Mr. Multiple retired to consume the additional dozen 
 of note-paper and envelopes in the imaginary privacy of 
 No. 6. Bags and Miss Bolt whispered confidentially on 
 matters, I imagine, of a nature which she designated 
 "fiummery ; " and Sir Archibald, puffing thoughtfully at 
 his cigar, walked down the High Street of Middlesworth, 
 absorbed in profound, and apparently somewhat anxious 
 meditation. 
 
 Whilst in the heart of the town, and in the midst of the 
 market-day bustle, he was interrupted at every step by 
 some hearty greeting, some weather-beaten face ; but as he 
 gradually approached its outskirts, these became less 
 frequent ; and by the time he reached the bridge of which 
 I have already spoken, he was in complete solitude, and 
 immersed in his own thoughts. 
 
 To judge by his face, these were of no very enviable 
 nature. Its expression had quite changed since he first 
 accosted Miss Bolt, in the bar of the "Plantagenet Arms." 
 Then he was bright, benevolent, and smiling; now he 
 seemed anxious, uneasy, and even wretched. He jerked 
 the end of his cigar into the stream, with an impatient 
 action that suggested an oath, and walked on very fast, 
 taking the footway to Bridlemere. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon, within an hour of dark; 
 a breeze, rising with the approach of night, sighed 
 mournfully through the woods that crested the rising 
 ground about the hall. He reached the stile at which 
 Helen had bestowed her unwilling answer on the 
 
128 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBB 
 
 pedestrian, but there was no need for Sir Archibald 
 to ask his way. No need, for every gleam in the land- 
 scape, every fence, every furrow, every tree in the hedge- 
 rows, seemed burnt in, as it were, by fire, on his memory. 
 There was no more chance of his forgetting them than 
 there is of your forgetting that summer sunset when heaven 
 seemed to have come down for you upon earth ; or that cold, 
 leaden dawn, when you looked about you, stupefied, and 
 wondered whether there could be sorrow like to yom- 
 sorrow, and spoke to your crushed heart aloud, telling it, 
 that henceforth there was neither hope nor rest for ever ; 
 laughing, perhaps, in bitter scorn, rebellious and erect, 
 where it had been wiser to kneel, and weep, and pray. 
 
 If Sir Archibald had been stricken blind some twenty 
 years before, he could still have described every turn in 
 that walk from Middlesworth to Bridlemere as plainly as 
 he saw it to-day. 
 
 A man who has lived half a century, cannot but have 
 known strange and sad experiences. It needs no stirring 
 career, it needs no mighty tempests on the great ocean of 
 life, to have made him familiar with its dangers and its 
 shipwrecks. There are quicksands, shifting and treacher- 
 ous, in the shallows ; there are hidden reefs for him who 
 creeps along the shore. The bark that stands boldly out 
 into blue water is perhaps the safest, after all. But what- 
 ever his course has been, and whatever reverses he has 
 met with, memory is to him either a blessing or a curse, 
 according as he is climbing slowly, wearily, yet hopefully, 
 towards the golden hills, or speeding faster and faster, 
 reckless, on his downward way. 
 
 Horace tells us, and the heathen poet was a philosopher 
 in his way, that nothing can rob us of the past. A sound 
 crack on the pate, producing concussion of the brain, had 
 probably escaped his reasoning. We are neither philo- 
 sophers nor heathens, and have a nobler and fuller 
 satisfaction in the conviction that nothing can rob us of 
 the future. And is there not some strange, mysterious 
 affinity, of which we are vaguely conscious, like men in 
 a dream, between the past and the fiiture? For good, 
 though not for evil, shall not that which hath been be 
 again ? Sin and sorrow, we believe, will indeed die to 
 
MABEST-DAli 1^9 
 
 all eternity ; but shall not love, though it has come down 
 on earth to be bruised and soiled, and trodden under foot, 
 shed its well-remembered fragrance around us again, 
 renewed and purified, holy and stainless, for ever in 
 heaven ? 
 
 Sir Archibald's brow cleared as he walked on. Soon he 
 entered the park, and made straight for the shrubberies that 
 surrounded the house of Bridlemere. Now and then he 
 paused, as if to note some alteration ; a vista that had 
 closed, a plantation that had grown up, or a tree that had 
 been cut down. His eye grew brighter at every step, 
 and presently, stooping to unfasten the gate of the wire 
 fencing that protected Helen's garden, something like a 
 tear trembled on his eyelash. If so, it was a tear of pure 
 and unmixed joy, for a woman's light footfall came fast 
 along the walk, a woman's dress rustled amongst the 
 evergreens, and Helen, emerging from their shadow, seized 
 him violently by both hands, shaking them up and down 
 with a triumphant welcome, while she exclaimed rapidly, 
 and breathless with the haste she had made : 
 
 " I rushed to the front door when I heard the fly ; then 
 I knew you'd walked, and I was sure you'd go through 
 my garden, and oh, Uncle Archie, I'm so glad you're 
 come ! " 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 " UNCLE ARCHIE " 
 
 To account for Sir Archibald's anival at Bridlemere, and 
 his cordial reception by his niece, it is necessary to look 
 into his antecedents, and for the elucidation of these I 
 must ask you to go hack quite a quarter of a century, and 
 to take your position with me on the wide door-steps of a 
 certain edifice in St. James's Street, which was then 
 known as Crockford's Club. 
 
 At that period this was a favourite resort with some 
 hundreds of the gentlemen of England, who, finding life in 
 London not sufficiently yaried and interesting during the 
 rest of the twenty-fours into which they contrived to 
 condense a week's amusement, were accustomed to con- 
 gregate here at midnight, for the purpose, so they said, 
 of social gossip and cigar smoking. 
 
 I am bound to accept this explanation, for there were 
 certainly many temptations to remaia upstairs, within — a 
 large, lofty drawing-room, heavUy famished and decorated, 
 all gold and crimson — a long supper-room, lustrous with 
 innumerable wax-lights, glancing and glittering on glass, 
 plate, china, and the gaudy variety of the choicest supper 
 that could be laid for a hundred epicures, on a snowy-white 
 table-cloth. Here, feasting at the board, sat scores of the 
 best known and best looking faces in London, in clean 
 white neck-cloths, and the rigid costume of the English 
 gentleman dressed for dinner but all with their hats on. 
 Waiters, solemnly and studiously attired, handed different 
 delicacies about with dignified persuasion, and proffered 
 cooling drinks, of skilful compounds, in which champagne 
 
"UNCLE ABCHIE" 131 
 
 was the weakest and least expensiye ingredient. Naturally, 
 there was no want of conversation, yet, at intervals, above 
 the hum of voices, might be heard a subdued rattle, and a 
 sharp, though smothered rap, proceeding from an adjoin- 
 ing apartment, where shaded lamps shed a softer lustre, 
 on a long green table, protected from the doorway by a 
 folding-screen. Here people played hazard, and played it 
 very high. Now and again, a performer would enter the 
 supper-room quietly and unobtrusively, to take his 
 place at the board, but his success, or the reverse, could 
 hardly be gathered from his demeanour. The winners, I 
 think, seemed more inclined to trifle with " cups," and 
 such mixtures, whilst the losers plunged rashly into 
 lobster-salad, and drank their champagne unadulterated. 
 Perhaps, to a very intimate friend, one would hold up two 
 or more white-gloved fingers (they always played in white 
 kid gloves), to indicate the landing of so many hundreds; 
 or another, with a scarce perceptible shrug, might whisper, 
 he had "had a baddish night," but beyond this, the 
 external composure observed would have edified a stoic. 
 A man might be made or marred, but he gave no sign. 
 Then whether he lost or won, ate or drank, he would 
 go down and smoke his cigar in the cool night-air on 
 the steps. 
 
 It is but a few minutes past twelve. Very hot, even 
 here outside. People have hardly arrived yet from the 
 House, from the opera (there is only one opera in this 
 remote period, and Grisi is young, and oh, how beautiful ! 
 with a voice 
 
 " To draw 
 Another host from heaven, to break heaven's law "), 
 
 from their various evening haunts and evening engage- 
 ments. So two young gentlemen, of whom one is sub- 
 sequently to become a peer, and the other a gold-digger, 
 have the steps to themselves. They are well dressed, well 
 looking, and betray that air of being bored, without being 
 tired, which sits so natui-ally on men who have nothing to 
 do, and do it perseveringly, from morning till night. 
 
 Says the future peer to the future gold-digger — " What 
 has become of Archie Brooke? Wasn't here last night; 
 
132 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 wasn't here night before. Can't be gone out of town, for I 
 saw his servant to-day. Didn't ask servant ; fool not to." 
 
 Gold-digger, much exhausted from having sat for an 
 hour in the drawing-room at White's, over the way— 
 "Wouldn't have told you. Good man; never knows. 
 Wouldn't say his master was in the next room if you were 
 talking to Archie through the door. Wish my man would 
 send me away; try for Brooke's." 
 
 Peer prospective — "Wonder if he's bolted. Deuced 
 hard up. Won a cracker here three nights ago ; suppose 
 he'd take that with him. Brother wouldn't pay his debts, 
 of course." 
 
 Gold-digger in posse — " Of course not ! Know mine 
 wouldn't. Here comes Tiny. Same regiment. Safe to 
 know." 
 
 Tiny, who is something over six feet high, with a 
 merry, girlish face at the top, and who is going to the bad 
 as fast as only a mother's darling can, bounces up the 
 steps, and is stopped by the pair. 
 
 " Brooke ? " says Tiny, in answer to their inquiries, 
 " Gone a crowner ! No end of a crowner ! Sent in his 
 papers. I'm sorry for it, though it gives me a step. I 
 say, I think I shall go in and have a shy." 
 
 So they all go in, and "have a shy," in which process 
 Tiny anticipates his one-and-twentieth birthday to a tune 
 that astonishes even the family man of business, when he 
 comes to arrange this young gentleman's affairs. 
 
 It was perfectly true. Archie Brooke, in a regiment of 
 the Guards, popular, good looking, fond of London, fond of 
 society, above all things fond of his profession and his 
 battalion, had sent in his papers to sell, and taken his 
 brother officers completely by siu'prise. His Colonel, an 
 old Peninsular (there were Peninsulars then, as there are 
 Crimeans now), had a private interview with him, to 
 dissuade the most promising of his chickens from so 
 irremediable a step. If it was money matters, he even 
 proposed to help him, and that was a fine trait in the old 
 soldier, and appreciated as such by the young one. No ; 
 it was not money. He offered to show the Colonel his 
 account at Cox and Greenwood's, with some hundreds (I 
 fear partly the produce of the " cracker " above hinted at) 
 
" UNCLE ABOEIE " 133 
 
 standing to his credit. Why was he resolved, then, to 
 throw all his chances so completely overboard ? Had he 
 got into a scrape? Would he confide in his old friend and 
 Colonel? Unless it was very bad indeed, surely they 
 might puU him through. No ; he was in no scrape. He 
 required no pulling at all. He was resolved to leave 
 London — ^to leave England. There were reasons for it, he 
 told the Colonel ; strong reasons ; he could not explain ; 
 and in ten days from that interview with his commanding 
 officer, Captain Brooke, late of the Brigade of Guards, was 
 dazzling his eyes in the sun-glint off the blue Mediterranean, 
 from the quay at Marseilles. 
 
 I presume nobody ever remained in that city an hour 
 longer than necessary, combining, as it does, the dirt, the 
 heat, the sterility of Africa, with the incessant bustle and 
 activity of France. It was not long before Brooke found 
 himself in Algeria, on terms of the utmost cordiality with 
 a whole French garrison, in the city of Constantine. Here 
 his military predilections tempted him sorely to don the 
 large, loose pantalon, and well-cut braided jacket of the 
 Chasseurs d'Afrique. What he wanted was excitement, 
 adventure, incessant effort, and oft-recurring danger; 
 something to stifle memory, and leave no time for thought. 
 A campaign against the Khabyles would be the very thing. 
 But he could not quite make up his mind about the justness 
 of the Frenchman's cause. Was it right thus to hunt the 
 Emir to death for the advancement of civilisation ? Was 
 it worthy of the great nation thus to appeal, unprovoked, 
 to the arbitration of the sword ? Campaigning for sheer 
 bitterness of spirit was all very well, but there were two 
 sides to the question, just as there were two opposing forces 
 to constitute the campaign. The arguments were nicely 
 balanced, and Archie Brooke, at this period of his life, was 
 no great casuist. He could not make up his mind whether 
 he ought to draw the sword with the invaders, or join " The 
 long-winged Hawk of the Desert," fighting gallantly for 
 independence, and liberty, and life. 
 
 The story goes that the ex-guardsman, sitting in a cafS 
 at Constantine, by a little round table covered with a 
 marble slab, having a glass of absinthe before him, an 
 infamous French cigar in his month, and a gay party of 
 
134 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 French subalterns looking on, deliberately tossed up whether 
 he should ride in their ranks as a volunteer, or pass the 
 outposts at once, and offer his services to Abd-el-Kader. 
 The louis came down "tails," and the chivalrous French- 
 men shook hands vrith him all round, wishing him a cordial 
 and kindly farewell, though henceforth they would never 
 meet again save as cruel enemies in a warfare so fierce that 
 quarter was too seldom asked, and indeed far too often 
 denied. 
 
 Ai-chie Brooke tm-ned up again with a tanned face and a 
 close-shaven head, under a white burnouse, at Abd-el- 
 Kader's right hand, when the Emir held a certain review, 
 in which ten thousand of the Chivalry of the Desert ranked 
 past him, horse by horse, and man by man. Horse clean, 
 wiry, sinewy, untiring; man spare, swarthy, fierce, un- 
 conquered : the beast and its master remarkable alike for 
 flashing eye, distended nostrils, clean, small, noble head, 
 and a haughty, tameless bearing that seemed to smack 
 wildly of the waste. 
 
 The Emir himself looked no unworthy leader for such a 
 host. His keen eye glittered like a falcon's under the 
 snowy hood which threw his war-worn face into deep 
 shadow. His nervous, wiry figure, of which the muscular 
 proportions were scarcely concealed by the loose, white 
 garments that drooped about him, sat erect upon his lofty 
 cumbrous saddle, unlike those of his chiefs, ornamented 
 only by a border of seed-pearls embroidered on its velvet 
 housings. His black mare, with her clean, small head 
 and scarlet nostril, arched her foam-flecked neck, as she 
 champed and fretted on a powerful bit, under the loose 
 rein and light touch of her rider's hand. A cord of twisted 
 tissue, striped like a serpent's skin, secured the hood of the 
 Emir's burnouse ; a sharp sabre hung, edge uppermost, at 
 his belt. Save these, arms and ornaments he had none ! 
 Yet the Englishman, scanning that white draped figure on 
 the good black mare, standing out fi'om the array of Ai'ab 
 chivalry, apart and by itself, wondered no longer at the 
 Emir's ascendancy over his people, at their heroic and un- 
 reasoning devotion to one, in whom, like a second Mahomet, 
 they believed, as warrior, priest, and king. 
 
 Soon the ten thousand horsemen formed in their respec- 
 
-VfAi/J'^ MAi 
 
 S-fc-WA^- |=)5 
 
 "The Emir . . . looked no unworthy leader for such a host." 
 The Brookes of BrUlteineve.'] Page 134 
 
"UNCLE ABOHIE" 1S5 
 
 tive tribes, and a chosen troop from each curveted into a 
 smooth green space before the Emir, and drew up in 
 opposing bands. Then a chief on a chestnut stallion, 
 thick and muscular, like one of the Elgin marbles, dashed 
 out into the midst, and reined short up, man and horse 
 quivei-ing all over with suppressed energy and fire. Another, 
 wheeling round him at a gallop, cast an unerring spear 
 within a hand's-breadth of his turban ; and the chestnut 
 horse, springing to speed at a bound, dashed off in hot 
 pursuit. A dozen strides and he had caught his enemy ; 
 the lance was up to strike, and so like fierce earnest was 
 this warrior's play, it seemed as if it must transfix the 
 fugitive. But no, a turn of wrist, a touch of heel, the 
 chestnut skimmed aside like a swallow on the wing, and 
 swooped at another foe, fresh emerged from the opposing 
 phalanx. Another and another shot out to swell the game, 
 and then a dozen, and then a score, till the whole were 
 engaged, and the eye saw nothing but one wild whirl of 
 streaming manes and glancing steel, and floating draperies, 
 and flash of pistols, through a cloud of dust : and here and 
 there, above the dim confusion, the fragments of a shivered 
 spear, shot high into the air. 
 
 Then the dust rolled away. The skirmish subsided; 
 chiefs were standing by panting steeds, stroking the pointed 
 ears and dripping, shining necks of their favourites. Here 
 a girth had been broken, there a warrior rolled over, man 
 and horse, on the sand : but beyond this, so skilful were 
 the human, so well broken the animal performers, that 
 nothing resembling a casualty had occurred, Abd-el-Kader 
 bowed his head in dignified approval to the warlike Arab 
 on the chestnut stallion, who galloped up to signify the 
 conclusion of the sports by flinging down a broken lance at 
 the Emir's feet. The play was over — ^the real drama was 
 about to begin. 
 
 The Chieftain signed to his lieutenants to attend him. 
 All but one came cantering up and wheeled into their places 
 on his flank. This last was he whom Abd-el-Kader most 
 favoured and most trusted. He rode in slowly and steadily 
 at a walk. Brooke was watching the Emir, and for an 
 instant saw his dark eye dilate, but not another sign of 
 discomposure betrayed itself either in the pale, calm face, 
 
136 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 or the stately, motionless figure. Not a sign, and yet in 
 that instant Bou Maza levelled his pistol point-blank at 
 the Chieftain's heart: the next, his horse, the noblest 
 in the desert, stumbled on that smooth, level surface, fell 
 on his head and rolled completely over his rider, who lay 
 confused and helpless, with the smoking pistol, which had 
 gone off harmless in his grasp. 
 
 The Englishman was the first down to catch the traitor 
 by the throat, though his hand had hardly closed ere a 
 score of sabres were flashing in the sun, a score of voices 
 hoarse with rage dooming the fallen man to instant death ; 
 but the Emir's calm, cold tones rose above the angry Arab 
 gutturals, as they had risen many a time distinct and 
 measured, above tap of drum and roll of musketry, and 
 swelling battle-cry of France, and the Emir's face looked 
 upon the tumult pale, mild, and peaceful, as though reposing 
 in his harem while he spoke. 
 
 " Harm him not ? " said he, raising his voice slowly to 
 command attention. " In the name of Allah, lift him up, 
 give him back his arms, let his hands be free, and bring 
 him here, that he may look upon my face and live ! " 
 
 Bou Maza was a bold man, or he had hardly undertaken 
 the crime which had thus been so strangely thwarted. He 
 was an Arab, too, and could accept death with the strange 
 composure that never seems to desert those fatalists when 
 face to face with the inevitable ; but his features worked 
 with something keener than terror, and the foam was on 
 his lip, while his black eyes sought the ground, and he 
 shrank and cowered like a dog before the man whom 
 he had just failed to murder. 
 
 " Bou Maza," said the Emir, in deep, quiet, soiTowful 
 tones, " do you think I had not foreseen, and could not 
 have prevented, your attempt on your Chieftain's life? 
 When you left the Council yesterday it was in your heart, 
 that you would to-day murder your Father, as it was in 
 mine that you would fail and be forgiven. 
 
 " Can you not see the hand of Allah, who caused your 
 best horse to stumble and fall over a blade of tender grass, 
 that you might not slay his prophet, whom he has destined 
 to victory ? 
 
 " Bou Maza, go in peace. Go to the enemies of your 
 
"UNCLE ABOHIE" 137 
 
 country and your faith. Tell them of your treachei-y — tell 
 them of your failui-e. Tell them that Allah protects his 
 prophet alike from the steel of a traitor as from the huUet 
 of an open enemy. You shall have a free pass to their 
 outposts. Take with you horse and arms, water and pro- 
 visions. Go in peace, I say, and look upon my face no 
 more ! " 
 
 The Emir was as good as his word. Bou Maza was 
 permitted to pass out of the camp, and proceed unmolested 
 to his new friends, who received him with no great cor- 
 diality, as, indeed, he could hardly expect they should, after 
 an attempt of so heinous a nature, which had, moreover, 
 failed at the moment of execution. 
 
 Archie Brooke used often to declare that he had never 
 thoroughly realised " chivalry " till he looked on the Emir's 
 calm, noble face, while he extended pardon and protection 
 to the traitor. 
 
 I am not writing Sir Archibald Brooke's biography. 
 Another scene or two, and I have done. If circumstances 
 help to form the character of the man, the man's nature 
 again forces him into those situations which react upon it 
 in their turn. An adventurer at thirty is an adventurer all 
 his life. Brooke came back to England after Abd-el- 
 Kader was taken prisoner. Nay, he even reappeared in 
 St. James's Street, rode in the Park, went to the Derby, 
 stayed a whole fortnight in town, was a little disappointed 
 to find how many friends had forgotten him, and how the 
 few whose memories were more tenacious, had not missed 
 him at all, and thought he was still in the Guards ! The 
 Squire, too, his elder brother, had run up for the Great 
 Eace, leaving Mrs. Brooke in the country. " There was 
 another coming," he said, with a laugh and deprecating 
 shrug of the shoulders. " Archie would be with them 
 directly the nurse was out of the house. Of course, his 
 old room was always ready for him at Bridlemere." And 
 Archie promised, and shook his brother cordially by the 
 hand ; but long before the functionary alluded to had left 
 the bedside of her pale, happy, lovely charge, he was 
 battling with a sou'-wester in the Atlantic, steam against 
 storm — the one power groaning, gasping, throbbing, 
 quivering, yet wresting some two knots an hour from 
 
138 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 the headlong violence of the other — and ere the second 
 boy was weaned, his uncle had already gained more than 
 one success in South America, commanding a brigade of 
 ruffians, in comparison with whom his old friends the 
 Khabyles were perfect gentlemen and philanthropists. 
 
 Sir Ai'chibald never liked to talk much of this stage of 
 his career. I think he was a little ashamed of his cause 
 and his comrades. He had joined them, too, in a moment 
 of morbid and unworthy feeling. What right had he to 
 discipline robbers, and point guns, and mancsuvre man- 
 slaughter on a great scale, because the old dull pain at his 
 heart still goaded him to action ? Could he not drink his 
 opiate, so to speak, but out of a human skull ? He recrossed 
 the Atlantic after a time, and went no more to England, 
 but flitted through France into Eastern Europe, and set 
 himself down for a brief resting space within an hour's ride 
 of Bucharest, and took a farm on that rich Wallachian soil, 
 and reaped one abundant harvest, and so departed to rove 
 about aimlessly as before. 
 
 He lingered in Turkey for a while, as those do who are 
 tired of European life and manners. And, indeed, so 
 utterly are East and West at variance, that a man to 
 tolerate either must be thoroughly disgusted with its con- 
 verse. Sir Archibald liked the people : not the Greeks, 
 but the bold, dominant Osmanli race. He appreciated 
 their solemn courtesy, their grave, proud bearing, their 
 truth, their hospitality, their courage, their generosity, 
 their defiance of misfortune, their contempt for death — 
 nay, he admired their intolerant pride of character and 
 strict obseiTance of religion ; while he smiled to note the 
 utter freedom which abroad, at least, they affected from 
 the female yoke. He thought of settHng in Turkey, and 
 so thinking, watched those white sea-birds that flit to and 
 fro across the surface of the Bosphorus, never resting wing 
 nor dipping plumage in the fair cool wave, and wondered 
 whether he too was doomed to be a homeless wanderer in 
 the world for evermore ! 
 
 The leaven was working in him, you see, all this time. 
 It drove him into action, and in action he found the 
 anodyne which he was fain to accept for rest. 
 
 About this period, a little cloud like that in Holy Writ, 
 
"UNCLE ABGHIE" 139 
 
 "no bigger than a man's hand," appeared in Syria, above 
 the chapel-roof that covers in the most sacred spot on 
 earth. By and by it had spread over the whole heavens 
 from east to west, and the Cossacks were gathering in the 
 Ukraine, and the Royal Irish recruiting in Galway, and 
 Omar Pasha was watching his overwhelming enemy on the 
 Danube, with an army of brave men, half-starved, half- 
 equipped, and wretchedly officered, save for a handful of 
 adventurous Englishmen who had volunteered their services 
 in the cause of the Sultan. 
 
 The Turkish general was sitting quietly on his horse, a 
 little out of the line of fire from a Russian field-work, 
 against which it was his intention to advance. Omar 
 Pasha could feed an army, could manoeuvre an army, and 
 could fight an army. Moreover, he was gifted with that 
 cowp d'ceU which distinguishes at once between the apparent 
 and the real key to a position. He was muttering a few 
 phrases of discontent in German, for it was already day- 
 light, and a new redoubt, skilfully engineered, had sprung 
 up in the night. The Russians must have laboured hard, 
 and without intermission, for, though the work was low, it 
 was carefully sloped and finished off, while the few guns 
 it mounted commanded every approach to the chief earth- 
 work it was constructed to protect. 
 
 " We must have it. Excellency ! " exclaimed an English 
 officer of Engineers, with a determined look on his comely 
 red-bearded face. " It's well for us," he added, shutting 
 his glasses, and pulling his horse's head up from the wet 
 morning herbage, " that they could not put it fifty paces 
 further back. I can get a battalion along that ravine 
 tolerably under cover till within pistol-shot. We must 
 storm it then, and carry it with the bayonet ! " 
 
 " Who is to lead them ? " asked the General, mis- 
 trusting sadly an unwieldy Pasha for so dashing a 
 business. 
 
 " Oh! Major Brooke will lead them, of course," answered 
 the other. "It's just in his Hne. Excellency, we will 
 have it in a quarter of an hour." No more was said, but 
 in ten minutes' time a battalion of blue coats and red fez 
 caps was seen to disappear in a wooded hollow, under the 
 command of an officer, strangely attired in high riding 
 
140 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 boots, a plaid shooting coat, and a low round hat, with a 
 white cloth round it, carrying a sword by his side, and 
 a formidable walking-stick in his hand. Whilst they 
 seemed to be swallowed in the earth, a hea-vy, well-sus- 
 tained fire opened over the General's head against the 
 principal defence, and presently the blue coats and red 
 caps emerged from the ravine in tolerable order, formed, 
 wavered, hesitated, and finally disappeared again, leaving 
 a figure, in riding-boots and plaid coat, wildly shouting, 
 threatening, and gesticulating on the bank. 
 
 The engineer officer laughed, swore, and then laughed 
 again. Omar Pasha shook his head, with a grim, sarcastic 
 smile. 
 
 "It is a gallant Englander," he obsei-ved quietly, after 
 a few moments of suspense, during which the figure 
 descended, and reappeared from the ravine, with some 
 two or three score of bolder followers, whom it was urging 
 on by much vigorous persuasion, and a few blows from the 
 stick. Then, whirling that weapon round its head, it made 
 a dash, apparently by itself, against the redoubt. But the 
 spark had kindled now, the savage Turkish spirit fiashed 
 out, and caught like wildfire. They swarmed like wasps 
 from the ravine — ^they dashed pell-mell against the earth- 
 work; there was a loose, irregular volley, a wild, heart- 
 stirring cheer, and when the cheer died out and the smoke 
 drifted heavily away, the crimson flag, with its glittering 
 crescent, was waving fi:om the parapet, and the slope 
 beneath the outwork was dotted with blue prostrate figures 
 and white upturned faces, gleaming strange and ghastly 
 in the morning sun, 
 
 " Well done, Brooke ! " said the Engineer to himself, as 
 he cantered off to hasten some poor bullocks bringing a 
 gun up from the rear. " These Guardsmen turn out some 
 
 d d good officers ! though where they learn their duty 
 
 is more than I can tell ; " and he shook his head gravely, 
 as a man who concedes unwillingly a self-evident proposi- 
 tion. How Major Brooke's distinguished conduct affected 
 the result of the action has nothing to do with my story, 
 but when the Engineer asked him subsequently by what 
 process he had acquired a knowledge of his profession in 
 London, Brooke only laughed, and told him how the great 
 
" UNCLE ABGHIE " 141 
 
 Duke himself had testified to the difficulty of getting thirty 
 thousand men into or out of Hyde Park. 
 
 Peace came within six months after the fall of the 
 Eussian stronghold, and Colonel Brooke (he was a Colonel 
 in the Turkish service now), thought of crossing into Asia, 
 and visiting China by way of Tartary and Thibet — thought 
 of emigrating to Australia — thought of tracing the Nile to 
 its source — thought of exploring Central Africa, and — 
 found himself in Paris. Here he was rather a lion, not- 
 withstanding that lions were plenty for a little while ; but 
 he soon got tired of it — soon began to find that city of 
 glitter and whitewash, and perpetual motion and continual 
 out-of-doors full-dress, and eternal drumming, dancing, 
 dining, and standing about — was a waste, too, more dreary 
 than a Mexican plateau, more toilsome than a rocky spur 
 of Mount Atlas. 
 
 The French ladies wondered at him hugely. It was 
 strange to find a man so cold, yet so self-possessed. 
 Nothing shy, nothing awkward, nothing of the " type 
 Anglaise " about him in speech or manner ; pleasant, 
 courteous, with a good deal of their own keen sense of 
 humour, their tendency to sarcasm and repartee, but in all 
 matters bordering on romance, or even flirtation, a stone, 
 an impenetrable stone. 
 
 " C'est un ours vols tu, Clothilde ? " said a pretty 
 Marquise, summing him up in confidence to a friend, 
 whom she suspected of designs on this man of marble. 
 " Un ows instruit, bien-entendu. Un ov/rs qui a voyage 
 meme, et qui fait toilette. Enfin, un ows qui ne danse 
 pas, mais qui fait danser son monde/" 
 
 He had got sadly tired of Paris ere another recreation 
 was provided for him in the last spot on earth at which an 
 eruption was anticipated, in the country where England 
 had been walking securely over a volcano for years, and 
 started to find it burst forth over a score of kingdoms in a 
 night. He saw an account of the Indian outbreak, in an 
 English paper, sitting over his absinthe, at three o'clock, 
 in the rue Eivoli. By ten, next morning, he was at 
 London Bridge ; by seven that night, he was leaving this 
 station in the train for Calcutta direct, with his appoint- 
 ment and a pair of improved saddle-bags. 
 
142 THE BB0OEE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 He was with Sir Colin at Lucknow, and reached Wind- 
 ham in time to take his part in the hard-fonght defence of 
 Cawnpore. Then came a severe wound, a raging, wasting 
 fever, and he was down for weeks and weeks, feeble, 
 prostrate, delirious, in that blighting atmosphere, and 
 under that burning sun. 
 
 Archie Brooke rose, like many others, from a bed of 
 suffering, having found out certain truths that do not strike 
 men so keenly, in the saddle or the trenches, as on the 
 stretcher of a hospital. He was a calmer, happier man 
 after that weary period. The impatience, the restlessness, 
 the craving for incessant action were gone, and only the 
 quiet energy, and cool, good-humoured courage, which were 
 a part of his very nature, remained. He had discovered, 
 that for happiness, duty was a better substitute than excite- 
 ment. Wherever he could be of service, he went; wherever 
 he went, he worked harder, more quietly, more unselfishly, 
 than other people. 
 
 Time, or rather Mercy, had healed the great wound now 
 — the great wound that had been first dealt by a beloved 
 hand, and then torn open once again by the relentless gripe 
 of death. Twice had the pain been keener than he could 
 bear ; now there was left a dull, aching sense of void, but 
 sorrow had given place to resignation — ^resignation was 
 about to blossom into Hope. Not the hope that is 
 dependent on earthly uncertainties, and scarce deserves 
 the name, but the sure and certain hope that already 
 grasps confidently at the other world. He could have 
 borne to go to England now. He caught himself often 
 thinking of the cool English breezes, and the smiling 
 English valleys, and the white thorn on the hedges, nay, 
 the very butter-cups in the May meadows, rich with 
 gi-een and gold. He longed to be at home just once again, 
 were it only to see the grass waving tall and fresh over a 
 beloved grave. 
 
 He was employed in the pacification of the Lebanon, a 
 duty for which his familiarity with French arrangements 
 and Eastern intrigue especially fitted him ; and when that 
 complicated business was concluded, came back after his 
 long absence to be knighted by his Sovereign. If on his 
 previous return to London, he had been surprised to find 
 
"UNCLE ABGHIE" 143 
 
 how few people recognised him, he might have been grati- 
 fied now, at his first levee, with the curiosity evinced 
 concerning the quiet, dark, war-worn man, with all those 
 foreign orders on his breast, and amused at the answers 
 of old schoolfellows at Eton, and companions afterwards 
 in the world, who had quite forgotten him, and could not 
 teU who he was. After he had seen his brother's children, 
 and especially Helen, Sir Archibald completely abandoned 
 an idea he had once formed, of taking service with his old 
 employer, the Sultan, and remaining entirely abroad. The 
 girl seemed to have found her way at once to her soldier- 
 uncle's heart. She wondered, indeed, at the deep tender- 
 ness with which he would fix his eyes on her face, and why 
 there should be a moisture in them sometimes, that was 
 almost like tears ; but with the instinct of her sex, Miss 
 Brooke soon found out that her word was law with Uncle 
 Archie, and she petted him, and appealed to him, and 
 domineered over him, and ordered him about accordingly. 
 
 When Helen " came out," it was Sir Archibald who 
 arranged her presentation by the great Lady Waywarden 
 herself; and I believe he bespoke (and paid for) the 
 beautiful dress which she wore, of which, as of her 
 chaperon's, was there not an account, sublime and incom- 
 prehensible, in the Morning Post ? When his niece rode 
 in the Park, as ride she would, under a broiling sun, in 
 the hottest part of the day ; it was her uncle whom she 
 commanded to take care of her, and whose horsemanship 
 she was good enough to commend, for the Brookes, like 
 many of our English families, were centaurs fi:om the 
 cradle; whom she paraded up and down at all places, 
 untiring; and scolded if he ventured to complain of the 
 heat. 
 
 " You, dear, of all people ! Who have been in Africa 
 and India. Absurd ! Why, Uncle Archie, I call it de — 
 lightful!" 
 
 The girl was immensely proud of him, quoting him, and 
 adopting his opinions on most subjects with a facility truly 
 feminine ; and the pair had all sorts of private jokes and 
 understandings between themselves, as indeed was to be 
 expected, for in London they were inseparable : and if she 
 wanted to be taken anywhere in the country, Sir Archibald 
 
144 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 would throw over every engagement, and come down at a 
 moment's notice, to attend on his niece. 
 
 He lived in London now, very quietly and unostenta- 
 tiously, therefore people believed him to be immensely 
 rich, and, consequently, horribly stingy. That he was 
 neither the one nor the other could have been substantiated 
 by his banker, and a great many vei-y poor people, in some 
 of the most squalid rookeries of the town. Society, with 
 its usual discrimination, wondered what he would do with 
 his money, and why he did not marry ! 
 
 It seems that a bachelor is never safe, not even a 
 bachelor with white moustaches and thirty years' cam- 
 paigning over his head. There are, therefore, women to 
 be found, I presume, who spare neither age nor grey hairs. 
 How are we to distinguish them? Do they go about 
 disguised like the others at dinner and evening parties, 
 cool, shining, beautiful, and well dressed? I often marvel 
 at the men to whom these goddesses stoop so kindly ; often 
 try hard, and fail, to see what it is in Endymion, coarse, 
 ill-mannered, awkward, and perhaps irritable, that draws 
 Diana down from the lustrous regions where she reigns 
 amongst her nymphs. Is it an attractive force on his part, 
 or a spontaneous effort on hers ? Is it a merciful pity for 
 our sex, or a cordial dislike of her own ? 
 
 Even at Sir Archibald's age, it is not always a waste of 
 time to make love to an elderly gentleman; but after a 
 career like his, an honest, stand-up battle with self, fought 
 fairly out, and hardly won at last, it is like watering a sand- 
 bank in hopes of raising a crop. The labour is indeed 
 absorbed quietly, gratefully, and to any extent, but there 
 is no result from it whatever. 
 
 The marquise was right about Sir Archibald after all. 
 For women he was a bear with good manners ; but a bear 
 who had never broken his chain. There was yet a link or 
 two left that the poor bear could not have found in his 
 heart to part with. Other bears keep whole sets of rusty 
 fetters hidden away in their dens — lockets, rings, gloves, 
 flowers, efforts of embroidery, packets of faded yellow letters 
 tied about with dingy ribbons, once so bright and new. 
 Other bears even like sometimes to dwell upon their 
 servitude, to talk of their capture, their teachers, their 
 
" UNCLE ABOEIE " 146 
 
 resistance, and the red-hot foot-hold on which they 
 learned their steps. But this hear kept all such matters 
 for his own reflection; and though he hugged the chain- 
 links close to his bearish heart, they were very simple, 
 harmless, and could have compromised nobody. They 
 did but consist of a lock of hair, soft and dark like 
 Helen's, in an envelope — no letter, nothing more, except 
 that on the turned-down leaf of the envelope was written 
 in a woman's hand — 
 
 " You will forgive me, I know. But I shall never forgive myself." 
 
 And now Uncle Archie had come joyously down to 
 Bridlemere on purpose to take Helen to the Middlesworth 
 ball. 
 
 10 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE MIDDLBSWOETH BALL 
 
 This was no trifling ceremony, no commonplace, ordinary 
 function. To the inhabitants of Middlesworth it partook 
 of the nature of a sacrifice, entailing, as it did, vast prepara- 
 tion, anxiety and expense. To the surrounding county 
 families, although intrinsically a festivity, it was also an 
 important epoch from which to date all other less engross- 
 ing events. As people say before and after Christmas, so 
 those who attended it were accustomed to date their pro- 
 ceedings as before and after the Middlesworth ball. It 
 was a movable feast, too, and depended, in a certain sense, 
 and by courtesy, as it were, on the moon. She seldom 
 smiled upon it, however, usually hiding herself the whole 
 of the important night behind heavy clouds coming up from 
 the south-west, with a drizzling rain. 
 
 Post-horses were in great request at this season, and 
 their drivers expectant of large gratuities in virtue of the 
 occasion, with the very questionable state of sobriety it 
 produced ; nor were carriage accidents and heart-breaking 
 stoppages, both going and returning, by any means unusual 
 incidents in the gathering. People abused it also, and 
 never seemed sure they would go, though they always went. 
 Papas said it interfered with hunting, which was simply 
 untrue, for men cannot ride across country at night, and 
 everybody can get up to hunt however late he goes to bed, 
 as ladies very well know. Mammas thought they would 
 catch cold, which was, indeed, a more plausible excuse, 
 and borne out by subsequent indisposition ; whilst the 
 young ladies vowed it would be stupid, and they didn't 
 
 146 
 
THE MIDDLESWOBTH BALL 147 
 
 care the least whether they were taken or not, having got 
 their dresses ready all the time. 
 
 There seemed also a general anxiety to arrive as late as 
 possible. How the Town Hall, which was a large room, 
 ever filled, under this prevailing feeling, was probably 
 known hut to Tootle and Dinne, the celebrated musical 
 firm, who, from their gallery overhead, dominated the ball, 
 hatching, nursing, tempering, and keeping it alive by their 
 strains. They could have told you, and they alone, how 
 large and stately and empty the apartment looked, when 
 they first took their places, and the second fiddle com- 
 menced his excruciating practices for the attainment of 
 harmony I — ^how beautifully the walls were decorated with 
 stripes of chintz and festoons of flowers ! — how wondrous 
 was the execution of the Town Arms in chalk upon the 
 floor ! — how mellow the lustre of those wax lights under 
 which sallow women looked fair, and fair women lovely ! — 
 lastly, how the first arrivals kept cautiously in the door- 
 way, shrinking fi-om this enchanted region like a knot of 
 bathing schoolboys hesitating on a river-brink in June ! 
 
 They could have told you — ^better than I can — for they 
 must have watched her oftener — ^how Mrs. George Stoney 
 was usually amongst the earliest; how imperially she 
 entered, spreading her robes of stiff and costly material 
 about her, as she took up a position of defence, at what 
 she was pleased to term " her own end of the room ; " how 
 her husband followed humbly, looking and feeling com- 
 pletely out of place, as a man must on such occasions, 
 whose gloves are too large, whose boots too small, and 
 whose general habits and disposition lead him to wish 
 earnestly that he was in bed; how they were seldom 
 accompanied, though generally followed at a later period, 
 by Philip — far more in his element, and, for reasons of his 
 own, regarding these gaieties as glimpses into Paradise; 
 how, by degrees, more groups of beauty and muslin, and 
 tvMe and jewellery, arriving, more voices repeating the 
 same fortrmla — " What a night ! Where are you staying ? 
 Whom did you bring ? " and, " What a pity the room is so 
 narrow ! " the separate knots congregated into a crowd, and 
 then dispersed suddenly in couples, while the band struck 
 up, the centre of the apartment cleared itself as if by magic. 
 
148 THE BE00KE8 OF BBIBLEMEBE 
 
 the vis-h-vis were bespoken, the quadrilles arranged, and 
 the ball fairly began. 
 
 The weather was cold, though not cold enough to stop 
 hunting. Two or three adjoining packs of hounds had 
 shown sport; the dancing men, exhilarated by their 
 morning's amusement, were on the alert ; the chaperons, 
 congregating round the fire, already prophesied a good ball ; 
 nay, Mrs. Stoney herself whispered to George that the 
 "stuck-up set seemed less stuck-up than usual, though, to 
 be sure. Lady Waywarden hadn't come yet; " and every- 
 thing looked promising for a success. 
 
 Philip was embarked in the intricacies of " The Lancers " 
 with a pretty, blue-eyed girl, who, in the short intervals 
 permitted by that complicated dance, looked up at him from 
 under her eyelashes, as some girls always do look up at 
 their partners, with the benevolent object, no doubt, of 
 making the whole thing as pleasant as possible. She could 
 not but observe that his attention wandered visibly towards 
 the door, " watching for Lady Waywarden's party, of 
 course," thought the blue-eyed girl, and she cursed them 
 by her gods. What I mean is, she said " Bother ! " in her 
 heart. Then the measure came to a close; he mollified 
 her with tea ; he returned her to her mother, and stood 
 under the music free as air again, but still watching the 
 door. 
 
 Just after the next dance (a glorious waltz, played a 
 little too slow), a buzz of attention, almost of admiration, 
 quivered through the room. Philip's heart jumped into his 
 mouth, and sank down to his boots again. It was but Lady 
 Waywarden's party after all ! The rest of the society, 
 however, seemed to appreciate this addition to their ranks 
 more favourably, although, to Mrs. Stoney's delight, her 
 ladyship did not appear. She had dressed, indeed, for it, 
 and sent her party from ToUesdale, but changed her own 
 mind at the last moment. " The weather was hateful. It 
 was a dark drive. The Duchess could chaperon Julia. 
 Waywarden would take care of them all. She didn't want 
 to catch cold; and so good-night to you, dears, and a 
 pleasant ball ! " 
 
 Therefore, my lord came in with the Duchess of Merthyr- 
 Tydvil by his side, and a frank, free, good-humoured. 
 
THE MIDDLESWOBTM BALL 149 
 
 pleasant duchess she was ! Fine face, Saxon to the chin, 
 soft kind eyes, a rosy mouth, a ringing laugh, a French 
 dressmaker, handsome, happy, and twenty-three ! No 
 wonder she was popular, no wonder the grandees crowded 
 about her, and overwhelmed her with questions, and 
 welcomes, and civilities, and congratulations on her looks, 
 her dress, her dancing, everything that was hers ! 
 
 "Where was the Duke?" "Oh! Merthyr-Tydvil 
 never turned up ! He was hunting his hounds the other 
 side of the county. Very likely fighting his way at this 
 moment, poor fellow! on a tired horse, to Tollesdale. Very 
 likely fast asleep in his own arm-chair at St. Barbs. So 
 sorry he wasn't here ! Had waited till the last moment in 
 hopes he'd come. Merthyr-Tydvil was wild about dancing, 
 and this seemed to be such a nice ball ! " And the 
 Duchess, who, though she was a duchess, had married for 
 love, and was as happy as a dau-y-maid, looked about so 
 pleased, so pleasing, so kindly, fresh, and radiant, that 
 even Tootle and Dinne above fancied a dozen more wax 
 candles had been suddenly lighted, and struck up an 
 enlivening measure with a keener taste and spirit than was 
 usually displayed by those celebrated performers themselves. 
 Nay, Mrs. George Stoney could not resist the pervading 
 influence, and was actually fascinated by the Duchess. The 
 latter had no idea of confining her good spirits and her 
 good-humour to any one part of the room. She asked her 
 jovial host point-blank to dance with her. She made Way- 
 warden take her to the low end, and invite that great 
 handsome woman to be their vis-a-vis, owning, I am afraid, 
 that she wanted to inspect so wonderfiil a dress more 
 closely: nay, she trod upon the dress by accident, and 
 apologised so sweetly, and spoke to Mrs. George subse- 
 quently in the tea-room so Mndly, that the latter adored 
 pi^oji the spot, and was never afterwards tired of praising 
 her favourite, paying her, as she thought, the greatest of all 
 compliments, while she protested " she could not conceive 
 it possible how such a sweet creature as that could be a 
 friend of Lady Waywarden ! " 
 
 And these victories her grace effected without effort or 
 afterthought, just as she transfixed Eagman de EoUe by a 
 glance, literally dazzling that diffident hussar with her 
 
150 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 beauty, leaving him bewildered, awe-stricken, and positively 
 gasping vrith admiration. 
 
 Philip Stoney had left off watching the door for, perhaps, 
 five minutes, during which interval he had been pressed for 
 a tea-drinking service by an old lady who had held him on 
 her knee when a child. The little start he gave, and the 
 rapidity with which the colour left his cheek, when he saw 
 Sir Archibald and Miss Brooke at his very elbow, as he re- 
 entered the ball-room, sufficiently accounted for his previous 
 vigilance to anyone who happened to be watching him. 
 Mrs. George did, and, being a woman, found him out from 
 that moment. 
 
 Helen looked remarkably weU; but she, too, was pale 
 even for her. Nevertheless, as both her brothers remarked 
 (for both were there), " everything had been done to bring 
 her out in good form : " nor, indeed, could the most artfid 
 and experienced of dowagers in London have been more 
 anxious than was Sir Archibald about the dress and 
 appearance of his charge. It was this old soldier, whose 
 life had been spent in camps and deserts, and long, weary 
 campaigns, and fierce irregular warfare, who had suggested 
 the dressing after dinner, the cup of strong coffee before 
 starting, and the latest departure possible, that she might 
 appear ydih smooth hair and fresh toilet when the room 
 was at its fullest. 
 
 How proud he was of her as she moved gracefully along, 
 with her white wreath encircling the dainty head that she 
 carried like a young stag, in happy contrast vdth its wealth 
 of silken jet black hair. Even Walter could not help 
 whispering to Jack : "I must say, Nell always looks like a 
 thorough-bred one ; " and Jack replied fi:om the bottom of 
 his honest heart, " Darling Nell ! " but Sir Archibald 
 believed in her as the handsomest girl and the nicest that 
 had been seen in England for twenty years, and doted on 
 her and admired her more than did anybody else on earth, 
 except one, who had been watching the door so eagerly to- 
 night. That one could have kissed the very ground she 
 trod on. He worshipped her as an angel, while Sir 
 Archibald loved her as a child. To her uncle she was the 
 embodiment of memory — to him, of hope. 
 
 Mr. Philip Stoney, I say, started when he saw her, as if 
 
THE MIDDLE SWOBTH BALL 151 
 
 he had not expected Miss Brooke, which seems strange, in- 
 asmuch as if this had heen the case, I cannot satisfactorily 
 account for his presence here at all. 
 
 I think I cannot understand also, though I cannot 
 explain, why he made as though he had not noticed her, 
 but collected his energies a little, and then walked up to 
 perform his bow, rather distantly doubting the while that 
 he should hardly yet find courage to ask her to dance. 
 But Helen looked so pleased to see him, and shook hands 
 with him so cordially, that he brightened up all at once, 
 and made his very natural proposal with far more audacity 
 than he could have hoped, but in a low tone and a serious, 
 notwithstanding, since it was no light boon to him for 
 which he begged. I dare say Miss Brooke's quick ear did 
 not fail to detect a little tremor in his voice, and she may 
 even have suspected the reason why the strong arm fairly 
 trembled under a hand that rested on it so lightly. 
 
 If so, it might have been displeasure, perhaps, which 
 caused her to speak but little, and on commonplace topics, 
 scarce louder than a whisper, and that prevented her lifting 
 her own eyes more than once, and then very cautiously, to 
 her partner's ; nay, though her colour went and came, this 
 is often the result of hatred as well as love. I know she 
 looked Mr. Multiple straight enough in the face when she 
 recognised the stranger whom she had seen in her after- 
 noon's walk, and who presumed to bow to her on the 
 strength of that fortuitous meeting. I also think she clung 
 to Philip a little as she hurried away, leaving Sir Archibald 
 and No. 6 standing together near the door, from which 
 position they reconnoitered, and remarked upon the 
 different incidents that constituted the ball. 
 
 And now Bagman de Bolle, stimulated by the threefold 
 influence of ambition, admiration, and champagne, im- 
 plored Sir Archibald, whose acquaintance he had made 
 through Walter, to present him to the young, happy, 
 handsome Duchess. Uncle Archie, who knew everybody, 
 and, if a little satirical, was always good-natured, com- 
 plied immediately, and "Bags," emboldened by success, 
 ventured to ask her to dance, trembling the while at his 
 own audacity. 
 
 She was one of those straightforward, energetic ladies. 
 
152 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 who go to a ball for the express purpose of dancing, just 
 as a sportsman beats a turnip-field to kill as many birds 
 as he can. The more sport she had, the better she was 
 pleased. I belieye also, to use another metaphor of the 
 same nature, she cared little about a partner's points, so 
 long as he could " go." 
 
 " Very happy, I'm sure," said the Duchess, with a 
 cordial bow and a radiant smile that would have knocked 
 even an experienced practitioner out of time, while she 
 drew her arm through her partner's, and led him away 
 at once in search of a vis-a-vis, for this was to be a quadrille, 
 and she worked her dances regularly through, round and 
 square. 
 
 The hussar scarcely knew whether he was on his head or 
 his heels. He had a vague idea he was dreaming; the 
 whole thing was too like enchantment to be true ; but if 
 ever man resolved to merit his good fortune, by rigid 
 attention to a figure, and accurate execution of its steps, 
 that man was " Eags." 
 
 Though Mr. Multiple moved about the room, criticising 
 freely its inmates. Uncle Archie, be sure, did not stir from 
 his position near the door, for he had told Helen she would 
 find him there when required ; but he watched the dancers 
 with the indolent enjoyment of a man who has begun to 
 rest himself in life. Even Sir Archibald was somewhat 
 given to dreaming — a habit he ha,d acquired in many still 
 night-watches, and lonely wanderings. He had read a 
 little, and thought much. His reading had been quaint, 
 desultory, and somewhat useless; his thoughts were 
 imbued with a tinge of romance and melancholy, and 
 humour combined, which afforded him a good deal of 
 quiet amusement. From where he stood he could see 
 nothing of Helen but the ample skirt of her garment, so 
 he watched the Duchess, and admired her fresh English 
 beauty, her frankness, her comeliness, her fair modest 
 brow, her native dignity of manner, and the robe of 
 truth and innocence, and simple high-born grace in 
 which she moved so royally. He thought of her noble, 
 free-hearted young husband, whom she loved so fondly, and 
 the brave old race to which she had brought . the blood and 
 beauty of her own. The brave old race that had given its 
 
THS MIDDLSSWOBTH BALL 153 
 
 scions BO lavishly for England, wherever shot was fired or 
 sword drawn, or life poured out like water in the cause of 
 honour, and the knightly craving for renown; that had seen 
 its children stand at Inkerman, and charge at Waterloo, 
 and walk gracefully to death at Malplaquet, and shiver 
 lances on the mail-clad chivalry of France, to the battle- 
 cry of " St. George ! " at Cre9y and Poictiers ; that traced 
 its lineage upward, loyal and stainless, to the Saxon 
 Heptarchy; to the good King Alfred, even to the dim 
 distant glories of Arthur and his Round Table, with the 
 princely paladins, amongst whom one of the knightliest 
 and the noblest was its own ancestor, " Sir Carodac the 
 Keen." * 
 
 Still looking at the Duchess as she moved through the 
 dance, he thought of " The Boy and the Mantle ; " of the 
 first gentle heart on record that had given itself to a 
 Craddock ; of its faith, its loyalty, its honest, unshrinking 
 confidence in its own truth and purity, when it assumed the 
 enchanted garment that none could wear if false, however 
 beautiful, as described in the simple stanzas of that quaint 
 old ballad : 
 
 " When shee had taue the mantle 
 And cast it her ahowt, 
 XJpp att her great toe 
 It began to crinkle and crowt. 
 Shee said, Bowe downe, mantle, 
 And shame me not for nought. 
 
 Once I did amisse, 
 
 I tell you certainlye, 
 
 When I kis't Craddooke's mouth 
 
 Under a greene tree — 
 
 When I kissed Craddooke's mouth 
 
 Before he marryed mee." 
 
 A strange, old-world ballad ! Strange thoughts for a 
 
 » >i ^^y should I mention many more — 
 Sir Eaye, Sir Banler, and Sir Bore, 
 
 Sir Carodac the Keen ; 
 The gentle Gawain's courteous lore, 
 Hector de Mares and FeUlnore, 
 And Launcelot, who evermore 
 Looked stolen wise on the Queen 1 " 
 
 Bridal of Triermara. 
 
154 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 ballroom ! Sir Archibald had almost forgotten where he 
 was, when a voice that never failed to fix his attention, 
 roused him from his dream, and Helen murmured in the 
 fond, petulant tone that she used only to him : 
 
 " Oh, Uncle Archie, I've promised to dance the next 
 dance with that horrid man, and it's a waltz ! " 
 
 " That horrid man " was no other than Mr. Multiple, 
 who, considering his previous meeting with Miss Brooke, 
 and acquaintance with her uncle and second brother (for 
 Walter knew him, of course), entitled him to make the 
 request, had offered himself as a partner, and whom Helen, 
 too young a lady to be rude, was forced to accept, though 
 much against the grain. 
 
 She gave a comical little look of resignation at her uncle 
 when Mr. Multiple came to claim her, and darted one 
 glance, which was immediately withdrawn, at another face 
 far down the room. Then the waltz began, and there was 
 nothing for it but to rest her hand upon Mr. Multiple's 
 shoulder, and put off into the whirlpool under his 
 pilotage. 
 
 Had Sir Archibald not been so taken up with his favourite 
 as to have eyes for none but her, he must have remarked a 
 charming couple, in whom he was to a certain degree in- 
 terested, floating airily round to the sinking, swelling 
 strains of the soft Nachtwandler waltz. Lady Julia 
 Treadwell was one of those damsels who can never be 
 thoroughly eclipsed. Less splendid than the Duchess, 
 less lovely than Helen Brooke, she was, if possible, better 
 dressed than either, and triumphed, besides, in a brightness 
 and piquancy peculiarly her own. She danced, too, like a 
 sprite, or a Frenchwoman, and never seemed hot or out of 
 breath, whereas the Duchess, in the ardour of her exercise, 
 did pant a little more than was correct, and flush a little 
 more than was becoming. She had the knack too, of 
 talking to her partner the whole time, on indifferent 
 subjects, tinged with a strong dash of sarcasm. She 
 seemed to many lookers-on, of whom Jack Brooke was 
 one, to be discussing some engrossing topic in keeping 
 with the general fascination of the scene. What she did 
 say was simple and practical enough. You must imagine 
 the partners whirling by, smooth and speedy as an express 
 
TEE MIDDLESWOBTH BALL 155 
 
 train, the lady going with perfect ease, and, as she 
 observed, "quite within herself." 
 
 Lady Julia — 
 
 " Good waltz that old one, Mr. Brooke. They don't half 
 put the pace in, though ! " 
 
 Walter, who, though an excellent dancer, was doing all 
 he knew — 
 
 " I can make it a little faster, if you like." 
 
 Lady Julia, looking about her as coolly as if she were 
 standing still — 
 
 " Wait till that red woman collapses, and we'll get the 
 steam on. Down the whole length of the room, like the 
 run-in for the Derby, — Ah ! I like this ! " 
 
 So down the whole length of the room they came with 
 the utmost haste, for the " red woman," who was, indeed, 
 no other than Mrs. George Stoney, collapsed from sheer 
 exhaustion, after a round or two, and Lady Julia, having a 
 clear stage, took advantage of it to whirl along with a dex- 
 terous rapidity that elicited this exclamation of enjoyment 
 when she stopped, which she did immediately under Jack 
 Brooke's nose. 
 
 He made her a solemn bow, as politeness required, and 
 she returned it vrith a little, saucy nod, half malicious, half 
 defiant, that frightened honest Jack considerably. Then 
 she bent towards her partner, and asked him where he 
 learned to waltz. " You can go fast without labouring," 
 said she. " Is it natural genius or polite education ? You 
 must have begun very early. Did the deux-temps, in a 
 pinafore, with your sister, I should say?" 
 
 Walter " didn't know, he was sure. Always waltzed ; 
 ever since he could remember. Supposed he must 
 have learnt once. Taught it by his wet-nurse, in all 
 probability!" 
 
 " Don't your brother waltz ? " asked Lady Julia, quickly; 
 and, turning sharp round upon Jack, repeated her question : 
 " Don't you waltz, Mr. Brooke ? " 
 
 But before he could answer, which he must have done in 
 the negative, she was away on her flight once more, her 
 pliant figure swaying gracefully to every movement of her 
 cavalier, her draperies floating about her in a mist of lace 
 and muslin, and a gossamer material which, I understand, 
 
156 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 is called, with great propriety, "illusion," her eyes shooting 
 sparks like diamonds, and the uncompromising mouth shut 
 tighter than before. She looked like a very resolute 
 Ariel, bound on some mission not exclusively of charity or 
 goodwill. 
 
 Jack watched her for two or three rounds of the room 
 with much the same expression that a child wears staring 
 at a soap-bubble. He was wishing, perhaps, that he could 
 waltz as well as Walter ; was thinking that he had spent 
 too much time in the study of equitation, self-defence, 
 boat-racing, and professional bowling, to the neglect of 
 those lighter accomplishments which are patronised by the 
 female sex. What did they care — ^what did she care for the 
 exact feather of an oar, the scientific defence of a wicket, 
 the " cross-counter " that staggered a prize-fighter, or the 
 " set to " that landed a steeple-chase? Like Sir Andrew 
 Aguecheek, he regretted that he had not devoted to " the 
 tongues," and such polite acquirements, the hours he had 
 wasted in these rude, robust pursuits. 
 
 He watched Lady Julia, I say, as a child watches a soap- 
 bubble, and on his honest countenance came the blank 
 look of the child when the soap-bubble bursts, while he 
 turned away, and walked drearily off to the supper-room 
 to refresh himself with a draught of the "Plantagenet 
 Arms " champagne. 
 
 Physically speaking, this was by no means a wise 
 measure — ^that beverage, like a good deal of ball-supper 
 champagne, being of a kind which inflicts headache more 
 or less acute, and a hot sensation at the back of the 
 drinker's throat next morning. Nevertheless, he found 
 Eags here, in a state of high triumph and jubilation, 
 tossing off the pernicious mixture in frothy bumpers, and 
 holding Philip Stoney by his button-hole the while, in 
 ignorance or defiance of that gentleman's obvious anxiety 
 to escape. 
 
 Eags was pleased with himself, and consequently pleased 
 with everything else, even the " Plantagenet Arms " cham- 
 pagne. He had made, as he felt, a bold plunge into high 
 life. Henceforth, Eags believed, he was what French 
 people call UmcL He had not tried the great world 
 yet. He began to think he should like it. With a few 
 
TEE MIDDLE8W0BTE BALL 157 
 
 hints from Walter Brooke, he did not see why he should 
 get on worse than other people. This was a famous start. 
 He should not dance again; of course not. After the 
 Duchess, every other partner would be tame and insipid. 
 Not that he meant to cultivate her grace's acquaintance 
 any more that night. Though delightful, the process had 
 entailed a high state of nervous tension. He had done 
 enough, he thought, for once, and had earned the right to 
 enjoy himself. So Rags leaned across the supper-table, 
 and held his champagne-glass to be filled again and 
 again. 
 
 " Have some more, Brooke," said he, as Jack set his 
 goblet down with no great approval of its contents. " And 
 you too, Stoney. WTiy you've had none yet, man ! You, 
 Sir, here ! Three clean glasses and a fresh bottle of 
 champagne ! Good ball, Brooke. Capital ball ! By 
 Jove, Sir, the thing's been remarkably well done to- 
 night. I never saw a better-looking lot of women in a 
 room, and some of the London ones too, as I was telling 
 Stoney, just now. There's the Duchess of Merthyr- 
 Tydvil — ^your uncle introduced me. Isn't she just a 
 ripper ! I say, I've been dancing with her ! " 
 
 Jack cheeriiilly conceded that the Duchess was "a 
 ripper," not attaching, perhaps, to that epithet the full 
 sense of sublimity in which it was used, as I have my 
 doubts whether he considered her quite the handsomest 
 person in the room, and Eags, filling for himself and his 
 friends, proceeded with great earnestness — 
 
 " Lady Julia's not what I call an every-day one ; is she, 
 Brooke ? Can't she just dance ? And such an easy goer, 
 too, with it all. I say, old boy, your brother Walter seems 
 making the pace pretty good there, eh? Walter don't 
 often come out like this ! I never saw him so fit as he 
 is to-night. He's a brother-officer of mine, you know 
 — ^Walter-^and the greatest friend I have. There's 
 nothing I wouldn't do for Walter. Here's his good 
 health ! " 
 
 Perhaps Jack may have thought that it would be no 
 uncongenial task to " make running " in so pleasant a 
 race, and that a man deserved but little credit for being 
 "fit," as Rags called it (by which term this gentleman 
 
158 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMERE 
 
 understood the most advantageous state possible both of 
 mind and body), whilst speeding through the enchanted 
 maze, with that wicked Ariel, whom mortals and the 
 Peerage called, by courtesy, Lady Julia Treadwell; but 
 Jack was a man of few words at any time, and little 
 inclined to be loquacious now, so he contented himself 
 with a sigh and another mouthful of the execrable 
 champagne. 
 
 Philip Stoney was silently watching the dancers through 
 the door of the supper-room. 
 
 Eags proceeded with his reflections on things in general, 
 and women in particular — 
 
 " I hayen't forgotten your sister, Brooke ; though you 
 can't well tell a fellow how deucedly you admire his sister 
 to his face ! She looks like a queen ; that's what she does. 
 And dresses like one, too. Devilish odd if Walter Brooke's 
 sister didn't dress well. You know she's Walter's sister as 
 well as yours, old boy ! I say, Brooke, you must introduce 
 me to your sister. Not to-night, though. Hang it ! I 
 shan't go near the dancers any more to-night. I've had 
 my fan you know, and a skinful of this stuff, and now I 
 shall smoke a quiet weed, you know, before turning in. 
 Will you have a quiet weed, Brooke? I can give you a 
 very good one. Halloa ! Here she comes, dancing with 
 the chap that's staying in the hotel. Don't like that chap. 
 Don't ^ow him, but don't like him. Where does he hang 
 out ? Who the devil is he ? " 
 
 Though Eags was somewhat voluble, having his tongue 
 loosened by the stimulants he had applied, there was yet a 
 certain perceptive faculty glimmering through the fumes of 
 champagne which enabled him to observe annoyance and 
 something like anger in Miss Brooke's countenance as she 
 entered the supper-room, now nearly deserted, on Mr. 
 Multiple's arm. He was whispering to her earnestly, and 
 with a smile that did not improve his beauty. Her head 
 was erect, and held as far from him as the situation 
 permitted. It was obvious she did not like her company ; 
 and catching sight of her brother Jack, she made a 
 movement towards him at once, releasing her partner's 
 arm, with a cold, disdainful bow, that denoted displeasure 
 and dismissal. 
 
THE MIDDLESWOBTH BALL 159 
 
 Unfortunately, at this moment, Eags, whose legs were 
 more affected by his potations than his head, and who, 
 while he retained his sense of propriety, had great diificulty 
 in preserving his perpendicular, made such a Im-ch from the 
 table that had it not been for Jack's assistance he must 
 have fallen, then and there. Such a lurch, indeed, as only 
 needed his farther explanation of its cause — ^namely, that he 
 had caught the spurs, which, being out of uniform, he did 
 not wear — to indicate that Eags had better be got to bed as 
 soon as convenient. Jack good-naturedly helped him out 
 by a side-door, covering his retreat with his own broad 
 shoulders, and saw him safe into a fly that could be trusted 
 to take him home to barracks. 
 
 There were but three people left in the supper-room. 
 Helen, standing alone, blushing painfully with em- 
 barrassment and annoyance; Mr. Multiple stepping for- 
 ward to resume his attentions, and Philip Stoney, with his 
 lip twitching, and the eager look on his face that it used to 
 wear when he kept the vrickets for Middlesworth in their 
 great matches against Mudbury. 
 
 He had tact enough, though for a whole Eleven, and that 
 is a quality, I think, which is more successfal with women 
 than either courage or intellect, though, perhaps, it seldom 
 exists without a leavening of both. 
 
 " This is our quadrille, I think. Miss Brooke," said he, 
 with as cool, matter-of-fact an air as if it had been so 
 arranged for a fortnight, and the second figure of the 
 dance had not already commenced. Then he walked her 
 quietly back into the ball-room, without fass or ceremony, 
 thus extricating her from the false position in which 
 she was left by her brother's sudden departure in charge 
 of Eags. 
 
 What a number of ways there are of saying " Thank 
 you ! " When it is murmured by a soft kind voice that is, 
 to your ear, the one voice of woman upon earth ; when a 
 gentle head leans towards you, breathing fragrance in your 
 face ; when a loved hand rests on your arm heavier than it 
 has ever rested before, and the figure that haunts you in 
 your dreams clings closer, as if for comfort and protection ; 
 then, I think, those two little Words, however low they are 
 spoken, carry with them as much of tenderness and 
 
160 THE BROOKES OP BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 gratitude and appeal as it is in the power of language 
 to convey. 
 
 Probably, Philip Stoney was of my opinion, for although 
 it was too late to join the dancers, he did not at once 
 conduct his charge back to Sir Archibald, who was waiting 
 for her faithfiilly at his post. On the contrary, he led her 
 into a sort of passage-room adjoining the receptacle for the 
 ladies' cloaks, much affected at times as a resting-place and 
 refrigerator by tired and heated damsels, but now, in con- 
 sequence of a popular set of quadrilles and a waning 
 assemblage, left unoccupied. Here Philip set a chair for 
 the lady, with the utmost deference ; and not before she had 
 got her fan well at work did he Tenture an apology for his 
 forwardness. 
 
 " I saw you were tired, Miss Brooke," said he, affecting 
 an air of imconcem, " and I thought you would like to sit 
 down. There is not a chair in either of the other rooms. 
 I hope," he added, looking away from her, and obviously 
 not knowing exactly what he said, " I hope you are rested 
 now." 
 
 Helen smiled. The inference was an ungallant one, and 
 this unconscious, honest wooer was so different from Mr. 
 Multiple. 
 
 " Not yet," she answered kindly. " Not till I have 
 thanked you again, Mr. Stoney, for your thoughtfulness. 
 Indeed " — the fan was going very fast now — " indeed, you 
 never seem to care for any trouble or inconvenience, if it is 
 to oblige me." 
 
 " There is nothing I would not give, or do, or suffer, for 
 your sake," replied Philip, off his guard, at last. " Miss 
 Brooke " — he continued, in a choking voice, but stopped 
 short, for she had turned very pale, and the voice was not 
 like hers, in which she stammered — 
 
 "No! Oh, no! I think I will go back to Uncle 
 Archie now, Mr. Stoney, please; but thank you all 
 the same." 
 
 He might have been a little hurt, for he offered her his 
 arm immediately. 
 
 "Forgive me," said he. "I have monopolized you too 
 long. You want to join the dancers ! " 
 
 " I shall not dance any more to-night," said Helen, 
 
THE MIDDLE8W0BTH BALL 161 
 
 demurely enough, as Sir Archibald thought, for the pair 
 had almost reached him when she made this austere 
 declaration ; hut I imagine there was some mysterious 
 inflection of voice, some passing expression of countenance 
 by which it was accompanied, that gave it an import of a 
 consoling and exhilarating tendency, for Philip's face 
 brightened up on the spot, and he handed her over 
 cheerfully to Sir Archibald, wishing " Good night " quite 
 merrily, and disappearing in the crowd with the brisk 
 energy of step and manner that was habitual to him. 
 
 Helen did not dance again, and it was odd enough that 
 Philip's sister-in-law coidd not prevail on him, either by 
 entreaty or ridicule, to pair off with any one of the many 
 young ladies whom she delighted to scold, suit with 
 partners, and generally matronize at the Middlesworth 
 ball. 
 
 It did happen, though by a fortuitous concourse of 
 circumstances, truly remarkable, that he was in the street 
 at the exact moment when Helen got into her carriage, 
 after being carefully and skilfully shawled by Uncle Arclue, 
 to the disgust of No. 6, not yet retired to that dormitory, as 
 wishing to see the last of Miss Brooke. It did happen also, 
 that she wished him " Good night ! " again. Two very 
 simple words — an exceedingly conventional valediction to 
 leave a man so happy as Mr. Stoney looked when she 
 turned away. 
 
 I do not know what he saw before him to make him walk 
 so erect, so hopefixl, so defiant. At a turn in the next 
 street, however, he thrust his hat down on his head, 
 buttoned his coat, and started off like a madman in the 
 direction of the brewery. 
 
 Helen and her uncle jumbled over the rough pavement in 
 the old family coach. She "liked her ball, uncle. Oh, 
 yes ! So much ! and all the more, dear, with such a cross 
 old chaperon ! " but she was unusually silent, and did not 
 launch forth into any of the usual feminine praises of other 
 ladies' charms, and invectives against other ladies' dresses. 
 Nay, when they passed the barracks, and heard the trumpets 
 sounding the alarm, and the men turning out by scores for 
 fatigue-duty; though the alerte roused the old soldier, 
 Helen hardly noticed it ; and when her uncle bade her look 
 
 n 
 
1S2, THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 through the carriage window at an ominous red light 
 wavering across the sky, anticipating the dawn, it seemed 
 to her but a dim, confused halo, all blurred and flickering, 
 for she saw it through a mist of tears. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 A BBEAK-UP 
 
 Perhaps a fire and a shipwreck are the two scenes of 
 destruction that impress on man's mind most forcibly his 
 own impotency as compared with the elements. The latter 
 of these catastrophes is, indeed, awful during its progress ; 
 but when its work is accomplished, not a vestige is left of 
 the ruin that has been effected. The good ship has been 
 broken up ; and in a few hours, spars and timbers have 
 been scattered far and wide, while her hull sinks, fathom 
 by fathom, slowly down into the calm mysterious regions of 
 the great deep. Perhaps a summer morning rises smiling 
 and peaceful on a fatal night, and the sea hides all her 
 secrets under a fair, tranquil bosom, scarcely heaving now 
 from the storm of passions that surged up yesterday so 
 merciless and uncontrolled. She has raged and is com- 
 forted. She has destroyed and is appeased. 
 
 But with a fire it is otherwise. Grand in its resistless 
 fury while it conquers, it is grander still in its mighty 
 desolation when it has triumphed and died out. There 
 was something glorious and spirit-stirring, though frightful, 
 in the roaring blast, in the ragged jets of flame spouting 
 towards the sky, in the great luminous caverns of crimson 
 and yellow, with their beams and wood- work traced distinct 
 against the glare; in the crash of falling masonry, the 
 clouds of lurid smoke and storms of fiery showers driven 
 through the darkness; but when all this pageantry has 
 sunk and fallen through ; when night has passed away ; 
 when the cold dawn steals up to discover charred timbers, 
 blackened cornices, jagged walls with strips of shrivelled 
 
 163 
 
164 TBE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 paper clinging here and there lite weeds upon a ruin, house- 
 hold fragments all distorted and defaced ; nay, sadder sights 
 than these : the blank space floored with ashes now, that 
 was yesterday a pile of building, and a home : then it is we 
 admit the grandeur of a scene thus dignified by desolation, 
 and bow before the grim and dreaij majesty of the destroyer 
 who has passed away. 
 
 Where the brewery of Stoney Brothers had stood the day 
 before, the most imposing building, the most flourishing 
 concern in the town of Middlesworth, a still November noon 
 smiled upon a wide waste of smouldering, cinder-covered 
 heaps, with here and there a thin white line of smoke rising 
 peacefully into the air. All had been done that could be 
 done. The discipline of the Dancing Hussars, acting on 
 the energy and goodwill of the townsfolk, had, indeed, saved 
 a few waifs and strays from the general destruction. Only 
 two of the grey horses had been burned. One of these, 
 stupefied, and fascinated as it were by terror, could not be 
 induced to move ; and the other, extricated with difficulty, 
 reared, plunged, neighed, broke loose, and trotted back to 
 perish with his friend. Eags, who had turned out with his 
 troop, shaking off the fumes of the champagne easily 
 enough when there was a necessity for exertion, gave it as 
 his opinion in the mess-room at breakfast, that " It was 
 the best grill he ever had the pleasure of attending," and 
 the simple townsfolk wandered round the ruins vnth solemn, 
 awe-struck faces, asking foolish questions, and hazarding 
 the most improbable surmises as to the origin of the fire. 
 The children, too, congregating as town-children do, like 
 sparrows, from the very gutters and housetops, had begun 
 to play about the ruins before they were cold. The 
 muffatee-makers made the catastrophe an excuse for 
 additional potations ; the country-folks stared and grinned, 
 and these, too, wondered "how it came about." Nobody 
 seemed to think of Stoney Brothers, holding their business 
 consultation, a couple of ruined men, in the dining-room at 
 the comfortable villa. 
 
 How changed since the night they all sat so cosily round 
 the fire, and speculated on a friture that was now impossible, 
 and enterprises that must henceforth be abandoned for ever ! 
 
 It was no common loss they had suffered, no blow they 
 
A BBEAK-UP 165 
 
 had sustained, from which to recover and rise up with hope 
 and energy increased by the very obstacles they had to 
 overcome. It was rather a mortal wound, draining the 
 very tide of life away from their prostrate bodies — a wound 
 it was useless to bear, and impossible to cure. 
 
 George Stoney, crossing his arms on the back of his 
 chair, buried his face in them, and sat silent, not moody — 
 far less impatient — only utterly and completely broken 
 down. Always subject to despondency, inclined to take an 
 unpromising view of matters, both present and future, he 
 blamed himself for not having foreseen, even though he 
 could not prevent, the catastrophe. He blamed himself 
 for having embarked so large a capital on a venture, in 
 which the risks were proportionate to the profits ; above 
 all, he blamed himself bitterly that he had listened to his 
 brother's persuasions, and delayed the insurance of his new 
 building till it was too late. 
 
 But he never hinted to Philip by word or gesture that he 
 attributed their ruin to his coimsels. Quiet and indolent 
 as was his disposition, timid and devoid of enterprise, he 
 was a kindly man and a generous. Poverty might enter 
 their household, but disunion never. He was not utterly 
 penniless, for Mrs. George had a small income, enough to 
 ward off absolute want, settled on herself ; but he had lost 
 position, capital, business, future: above all, that which 
 could never be recovered, the labour of his prime. Nothing 
 could give him back that score of years which had made 
 Stoney Brothers the firm it was. 
 
 And this is the difference between being knocked down at 
 twenty and at forty. You may be firmer on your legs at 
 the latter age, and it takes a heavier blow to do your 
 business, but you cannot get up again like the young 
 Antaeus, who rises from his mother earth the stronger and 
 the fresher for his fall. 
 
 Its elasticity seems to me the one distinctive quality of 
 youth. Hope is still in the bottom of the box. It is only 
 after repeated shakings, and when the tenement is a good 
 deal shattered, that she fairly takes to her wings and files 
 away. But she never comes back again. You do not try 
 to mend the box any more, and she will have nothing to say 
 to a man whose tools are lying useless at his feet. 
 
166 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 George sat with his face buried in his arms, and never 
 moved save to look at his brother with a wan, weary smile, 
 intended to signify confidence and goodwill. 
 
 The latter remained at a writing-table in the comer of 
 the room, despatching the necessary letters to agents and 
 correspondents, with as much energy and clearness of head 
 as if they had commenced some fortunate speculation, 
 rather than this lamentable and irretrievable disaster. 
 Some of the books had been saved, though the new 
 counting-house was burned to the ground; and these, 
 tumbled, dirtied, many of them scorched and half- 
 destroyed, lay about his chair. It was obvious, that for 
 hours to come, Philip would have no time for despondency. 
 And yet, though he could write with a steady hand, and 
 an unclouded brow, his was by far the heavier heart of the 
 two. His own griefs, his own ruin, the destruction at one 
 swoop of all his hopes (and no one but himself knew how 
 fair those hopes had blossomed only last night) were 
 swamped in his feelings of stinging reproach about the 
 insurance. It was maddening to know that he had 
 sacrificed the whole business to a saving of one paltry 
 quarter's payment. He would not think of it. He 
 worked with an energy almost savage, to have no time 
 for reflection, and while he worked, a pang, that was like 
 physical pain, shot across him, as he remembered the 
 difference between yesterday and to-day. 
 
 Yet he wondered, too, and blamed himself, that he was 
 not more miserable ; that the gleam from a pair of dark 
 eyes shed on him last night, should still have power, not- 
 withstanding all that had passed since, to brighten the 
 gloom of his lot, and that the glory should not have 
 entirely departed, though the angel had left him hours 
 ago. 
 
 There is a proverb in daily use amongst old women, of 
 both sexes, affording them, as it would seem, much solace 
 for the troubles of their jurors, to the effect, that "the 
 course of true love never yet ran smooth." I know not why 
 this superstition of the heart should be more engrossing 
 when tossing down the mountain torrent, than when 
 floating calmly on the surface of a mild canal. I see 
 no reason for desire, simply because its object is out of 
 
A BREAK-UP 167 
 
 reach. A Dutchman, for instance, making love over hia 
 pipe in his summer-house to his cousin, whom he is 
 intended by both families to marry, ought to be capable 
 of as warm and tender an affection, as the Montague to 
 whom it is certain death to woo one of the House of 
 Capulet. Yet, I doubt, if the kiss of prosperous and 
 plighted love is ever pressed so longingly, so closely, as 
 the wild, hopeless caress that seals an eternal farewell for 
 lips, which never should have met, and parting now, must 
 drink their bitter punishment — and never smile, except in 
 mockery, again. The wound is too deep for balm ; the 
 pain too keen for tears; and yet — and yet — would they 
 have had it otherwise if they could ? 
 
 It is a dangerous example to follow that of 
 
 " The Squyer of lowe degree, 
 Who loved the King's daughter of Hongarye." 
 
 seldom guiding its imitators to a happy termination. 
 
 The " Squyer's " life and best energies are usually 
 wasted in the process ; and the Princess, though she 
 wears a calmer brow, and neither neglects her head- 
 gear, nor her manners, nor the duties of her station, 
 carries an aching heart with her, unsuspected, to the 
 grave. 
 
 But both have learned the great lesson of humanity, 
 cheap at any cost of suffering or despair : the great lesson 
 of self-sacrifice, which is the soul's training for immor- 
 tality. 
 
 Now Philip Stoney had, no doubt, set his wishes on a 
 prize which hung a good way further up the ladder than 
 he could expect to climb. Nevertheless, it was hard to see 
 the rungs break just as he got his feet upon them. I 
 make no secret of his love for Miss Brooke — a love which, 
 at the best of times, he considered foolish and presumptuous, 
 so to be cherished accordingly ; which was now utterly 
 hopeless, and, therefore, hugged closer than ever to his 
 heart. 
 
 Into Miss Brooke's sentiments I have neither the wish 
 nor the power to penetrate. Ladies are accomplished 
 hypocrites from the cradle, and possess, moreover, an idio- 
 
168 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 syncrasy wMoli defies speculation. If people habitually 
 avoid what they wish, consider Yes and No convertible 
 terms, and delight in bathing one foot only at a time in 
 the Eubicon, drawing back obstinately when there is no 
 safety but in passing over ; doing these things, observe, 
 only not so invariably as might establish a rule of contrary 
 by which to predict their conduct, it is obvious that on 
 such natures argument by analogy is thrown away, and 
 that no series of previous observation, no system of induc- 
 tive reasoning, can afford the slightest clue to a labyrinth 
 in which the paths are devious, eccentric, and, to 
 all appearance, wholly aimless and unaccountable. 
 
 Philip then sat immersed in books and calculations. 
 The thing was to be faced; liabilities must be met; 
 a settlement, however fractional, should be at once 
 promised ; and payment of twenty shillings in the pound 
 eventually worked out. 
 
 George still buried his head in bis hands : if he lifted 
 his eyes, it was but to stare vacantly at the fire, and sink 
 down again more listlessly than before. 
 
 Presently a patter of feet was heard on the stairs, 
 finishing in a bound that cleared the three last steps, 
 and shook the whole house ; then the small body from 
 which this vibration proceeded, rattled the handle of the 
 door vnth much impatience, and rushing in, leaped to 
 George Stoney's neck with a merry laugh that brought 
 warmth and consolation even to the heart of a ruined 
 man. 
 
 "Oh! Papa," exclaimed Dot, settling herself comfort- 
 ably, with her knees in the pit of his stomach, " if you 
 coidd have seen Jane running after me to the nursery, and 
 I hid behind the door, and Jane looked under the bed, and 
 in our cupboard, and found my Noah's ark, and said, ' Miss 
 Dot, you naughty, naughty child, wherever have you got 
 to ? ' and I ran out again like puss in the corner, and Jane 
 couldn't catch me, and I came down as quick as ever I 
 could to play with you and Uncle Phil, for a little ; and 
 I'U be quiet, now, papa, dear, because you've got a head- 
 ache; " and so concluded her breathless string of sentences, 
 by squeezing his nose flat against her own in a tight and 
 pierciless pmbrace, 
 
A BBEAK-VP 169 
 
 Mrs. George had a woman's tact in some things, not- 
 withstanding her violent dresses, and her feud with Lady 
 Waywarden. She had sent the child down first, because 
 her instincts told her that an appeal to his protection 
 would most readily arouse her husband from his apathy ; 
 that the sight of Miss Dot, with her sunny curls, and her 
 merry eyes, would remind him far more forcibly than any 
 reasoning she could urge, that he had not lost all yet ; that 
 there was something still left for which it was a duty to 
 labom-, and a pleasm-e to live. She followed her child 
 almost immediately, and laid her hand upon her husband's 
 shoulder, glancing towards Philip, working sternly in his 
 comer, with an approving smile, ere she began her process 
 of consolation in her own way, and in her loftiest vein. 
 
 I need scarcely observe that, on being informed of the 
 catastrophe, her first impulse was to blame somebody ; and 
 it was a good thing now that Stoney Brothers had estab- 
 lished a wholesome rule of discussing business matters in 
 business places. If they should happen to touch upon 
 "the shop" over their wine, they never brought it with 
 them across the threshold of the drawing-room in to tea. 
 It is only by strict adherence to this practice that men can 
 insure necessary repose and a healthy change of thought in 
 the bosom of their families. Mrs. George, therefore, had 
 no clue whatever to the origin of the fire, and was utterly 
 in the dark concerning the delay in effecting an insurance ; 
 but what she did know was, that the town engine had been 
 thirty-five minutes in getting under weigh for the scene of 
 action, and when it arrived, had about as much effect in 
 subduing the flames as might have been expected from the 
 squirt she kept for the amusement of her children up stairs. 
 Its inefficiency was therefore a fertile theme on which to 
 descant ; and Mrs. George, not the least hampered by an 
 unweaned baby, which she carried in the usual place, 
 descanted on it accordingly. 
 
 "I'm sure," said she, gleaning her consolations, and 
 tying them up, as it were, into a sheaf, while she went 
 along, "I'm sure, George, it's only providential that it 
 wasn't here, and us, you know, at the ball, and Jane such 
 a heavy sleeper, and cook gone to see her aunt. Why, the 
 children would have been burned in their beds. If it 
 
170 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 hadn't been for the extraordinary inefficiency of our fire- 
 engine— and I remember, George, the very words I used 
 when we saw it, last June twelvemonth, locked up behind 
 the gaol, and the key two miles off, at the police-station ; 
 and Philip said I was quite right, didn't you, Philip? I 
 say, that if our Town Council did its duty, they'd have got 
 the fire under by daybreak ; and if it had been here, a mUe 
 and a_ quarter further, George, and up-hill all the way, I 
 do believe it wouldn't have reached us till there wasn't a 
 stick standing, and we should have been without a rag to 
 cover us, or a bed to lie upon. It's a mercy, and a provi- 
 dence, I declare, George, and we ought really to be 
 thankful that it's no worse ! " 
 
 George looked up wistfally, drawing his hand through 
 Dot's pendant curls — 
 
 " "Worse ! Bella," said he, " a man can't well be worse 
 than ruined, can he ? " 
 
 But Bella was not to be so put down. Shifting the baby 
 to an unexhausted posture with the facility of constant 
 practice, she bade Dot, who had not moved, sharply to "be 
 quiet," and replied with dignity — 
 
 " No man is ruined, George, who retains his good name; 
 and his respectability, and his station, and who has married 
 into a genteel famUy, as you have done. My dear old 
 man," she added, suddenly coming down off her stilts, 
 and with her unoccupied hand pressing his head to the 
 unoccupied part of her bosom, " how can you be ruiaed 
 when you've got me, and Dot, and baby here, and the 
 children, and Philip — our dear, good Philip, who works 
 harder than all the rest of us put together ? " 
 
 PhUip heard, but made as though he heard not, bending 
 fiercely over a ledger, so that none should see his face. 
 He had sustained a bitter twinge or two this morning 
 already, but none hurt worse than this. Perhaps Dot 
 suspected something of the kind, for she slid down from 
 papa's lap, and went to Uncle Phil, standing close behind 
 his chair, perfectly quiet, and with rather a puzzled face, 
 neither springing to his knee, nor making painful plunges 
 at his whiskers, as was her wont. If she was surprised or 
 hurt that he took no notice of her, she never showed it. 
 Children seem to know instinctively when things are going 
 
A BBEAK-UP 171 
 
 wrong, and in perceptive power Miss Dot was no whit 
 behind her neighbours. 
 
 George Stoney took heart of grace when he looked at his 
 wife's happy, handsome countenance. She was the master- 
 spirit, and he knew it. So did she, of course. It dawned 
 upon him that if Bella thought matters were not irremedi- 
 able, why, things might not be so bad after all. Bella was 
 shrewd. Bella was cautious. Bella must know best. 
 Perhaps they might be tolerably comfortable still. Then 
 he remembered that although his wife's income would keep 
 him and his children from absolute hunger, Philip had not 
 a shilling lefb in the world. He leant his head down, and 
 groaned in weariness of spirit once more. 
 
 But Bella seemed to read his thoughts, and to haye 
 reflected on this contingency as well. 
 
 " I remember when I was at school, George, and though 
 Dot does grow fast, it's not so long ago, we used to have 
 a fable to turn into French, about a man and a bundle of 
 sticks. I never forget what I've once learned, George; 
 indeed, I think my memory is better than yours or Philip's. 
 I don't call to mind, at this moment, what the French is 
 for a bundle, but that's immaterial (Dot, don't tease your 
 ancle!). Now I remember perfectly well that the man 
 couldn't break the sticks till he untied the bundle, and 
 snapped them one by one. George, dear, we're only a 
 bundle of sticks now, and we must keep ourselves tied up. 
 Philip must live with us, as he's always done. Why, Dot 
 there would break her little heart without her uncle, 
 though I must say I think he spoils her most injudiciously, 
 and that's the truth ! " 
 
 Mrs. George finished with a triumphant wave of the 
 baby's whole body, that did not, however, the least inter- 
 fere with its occupation ; it was still combining the gratifi- 
 cation of appetite with the comfort of repose. Philip 
 raised his head from a half-consumed ledger — 
 
 "Bella," said he, "you're the best woman, and the 
 most generous in the world. But what you offer is im- 
 possible. I must fight my own way now, till better times 
 come round. I must leave you all, dear, kind as you are 
 to me — George and you, and the children and Dot." 
 
 He bent his head over his work again very resolutely, 
 
172 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 and Dot, who understood him pretty well, and did by no 
 means approve of the arrangement, made up her face for a 
 howl. 
 
 This performance must have roused the baby, who would 
 doubtless have shared in the concert, hut fortunately Jane 
 tapped at the door, and, entering immediately, quelled the 
 coming outbreak with her presence and authority. 
 
 " If you please, ma'am," gasped that decorous person, 
 whose composure late events had completely destroyed, 
 " there's a old woman on the stairs as says she must see 
 you or master, and is cryin' dreadful. She says she have 
 a son employed in the business, and he were at the 
 brewery, she know, last night, and she have never set 
 eyes on him since ; but she have been lookin' for him all 
 this mornin', here, there, and everywhere; and oh, 
 ma'am ! " added Jane, fairly breaking down on her own 
 account, " it's awfd to think that perhaps he may be 
 nowhere's after all ! " 
 
 " Bring in some wine," said Mrs. George, composedly, 
 for she had a firm feminine faith in stimulants under every 
 disorder of body or mind, " and tell her to come here 
 directly. Poor old thing ! I daresay she's frightened out 
 of her life about nothing, and only wants a little sensible 
 advice to set her right." 
 
 George groaned at this unlooked-for addition to his 
 troubles. Philip left his ledger, and walked across the 
 room to where his sister-in-law stood, pursued by Dot, who 
 never let go of his coat-tail. 
 
 Dame Batters followed Jane into the room, with a 
 strange, scared look upon her white, withered face. She 
 had dressed herself in her best clothes — a poor old suit of 
 rusty weeds — for the occasion, and she twitched nervously 
 at the fingers of her worn thread gloves, while she glanced 
 appealingly from one of the gentlefolks to the other, and 
 made her little respectfal curtsey, in defiance of a mortal 
 anxiety about her child. 
 
 "I made bold to come, ma'am," she began, in very 
 shaking accents, " and askin' pardon, you see, ma'am, of 
 your good gentleman and Master Philip there," with 
 another Sunday School "bob" at each of their names, 
 " for a bringin' in oimy trouble along o' yov/r trouble, and 
 
A BBBAK-UP 178 
 
 wishia' of you comfort and relief where only comfort and 
 relief is to be found ; and it's Master Philip as I was a 
 wanting to speak to most, for it's him as engages the men, 
 and — oh, my boy ! my boy ! Where is he ? What have 
 you done with him ? You didn't ought to have taken my 
 Jem away from me, if you couldn't give him me back again. 
 And me an old woman, so near my time ! Oh, dear ! oh, 
 dear ! my boy ! my pretty boy ! What shall I do ? what 
 shalll do?" 
 
 She sat down on one of the drawing-room chairs, and 
 rocked to and fro. Even in her misery she kept on the 
 extreme edge of the seat, and spared the carpet as much as 
 she could from contact with her muddy shoes. 
 
 George had not courage to look at her. Philip went and 
 took her hand. Dot, spell-bound, with mouth and eyes 
 wide open, watched her mother's movements, as the latter 
 poured out a glass of sherry, and forced it on the poor 
 shaking old dame. Mrs. George was always composed in 
 such cases. Though she would have offered a cup of cold 
 water in a manner to have shocked Brummell, who once 
 told a lady that she took physic, took advice, took a liberty, 
 but drank tea, she was a capital nurse on most occasions, 
 and especially proud of her skill in defeating hysteria, 
 whether natural or assumed. 
 
 " Take some wine ! " she said, very authoritatively, and 
 held glass itself to the trembling, toothless lips. "Empty 
 it ! down with it, every drop ! Now, my good dame, Philip 
 will tell you all he knows about your son. It seems 
 impossible he can have come to harm last night in our 
 terrible disaster. Philip will tell you. Philip knows. 
 Philip has been making inquiries aU the morning." 
 
 Mrs. George shuddered, nevertheless, at the horrible 
 vision her own attempts at consolation conjured up. There 
 was no doubt that Jem Batters had been the last person 
 seen in the brewery ; that it was his turn to sit up all night 
 for the express purpose of preventing the catastrophe that 
 had actually taken place ; neither had anybody set eyes on 
 him since. The only hope lay in the fact that not the 
 slightest trace of a man's dress or a man's bones had as yet 
 been discovered among the ruins. This consolation, how- 
 ever, would tell also in another and more dreadftd sense. 
 
174 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 He might have heen so entirely consumed that not a cinder 
 of him was left, and this, indeed, seemed the more probable 
 result of the two. 
 
 Philip tried to reason with the poor old woman, but in 
 vain. He urged every argument he could think of in 
 extenuation of the ghastly surmise that was present to all 
 their minds, though none of them would have admitted it. 
 Dame Batters always returned to her unanswerable 
 argument — 
 
 "If he wur alive, he'd a come to his poor old mother. 
 Such a good son, as he allays wur, my Jem. Not steady, 
 you know, like some on 'em, though I paid his schoolin' 
 regular after his poor father was gone. But a good son, 
 allays wur, and allays will be — there ! " 
 
 Then she seemed to try and remember something, looking 
 blankly at the wall, and gasping, while she fumbled, with 
 her trembling old hands, at her bonnet-strings. 
 
 But Mrs. Stoney's remedy, simple as it was, had its 
 effect. As the wine nerved her system, the gasping ceased, 
 and presently large tears gathered slowly in the dim, 
 bleared eyes of the grief-stricken mother. Then Dot, 
 whose attention had never wandered from her for an 
 instant, reached up a little hand, and stroked the wrinkled 
 cheek, murmuring " Poor, poor ! " and so the flood-gates 
 opened. She wept on unrestrainedly, and grew every 
 moment more hopeful and more composed. 
 
 By degrees, Philip induced her to take a less desponding 
 view of her son's disappearance. After a while she became 
 sanguine enough to feel hurt, and even angry, that he had 
 not been to see her, knowing she must be so anxious ; and 
 then she got better every minute. But she had not left the 
 house-door a Tiundred yards behind, ere a relapse came on, 
 and a tidy, showily-dressed little personage, coming to pay 
 Mrs. George Stoney a visit, was rather shocked to see a 
 dingy old woman sitting on a heap of stones by the wayside, 
 crying as if her heart would break, and, without being 
 uncharitable, came to the inevitable conclusion that she 
 was drunk. 
 
 Now this showily-dressed personage was no other than 
 Miss Prince, who had journeyed all the way from ToUesdale 
 to Middlesworth in a fly, on receipt of the intelligence that 
 
A BBEAE-UP 175 
 
 her old friend Isabella Richards was in sorrow, and her 
 husband's brewery burnt to the ground. Miss Prince, you 
 see, with her anatomically disproportionate heart, was a 
 thoroughly unselfish little woman, and never grudged 
 trouble or discomfort in the cause of a friend. Her present 
 expedition had been productive of both. In the first place, 
 Miss Prince entertained a profound distrust of all such 
 vehicles and horses as are licensed by Government to be 
 let for hire. She was persuaded that the animals were 
 unsafe, vicious and unsound; purchased therefore by the 
 proprietors at a low price, with a culpable disregard for 
 human life ; that the conveyances furnished were faulty in 
 construction, and liable to upset on any irregularity of 
 surface, besides having broken springs, worn-out tires, and 
 linch-pins on which no reliance could be placed down-hill. 
 She was satisfied, too, from her own observation and 
 experience, that the drivers were sometimes uncivil, often 
 inebriated; that they hurried recklessly over the most 
 dangerous parts of the road, without attaining a proper 
 average of speed on the whole distance; and that their 
 extortions at its close were in direct proportion to the 
 discomfort inflicted on the passenger during the journey. 
 With these apprehensions and these sentiments, a drive of 
 a few miles in a hired carriage of any description was to 
 Miss Prince an ordeal by fear, an ordeal by suffering, and 
 an ordeal by battle. 
 
 Also, before starting, she had a difference of opinion with 
 Lady Waywarden — first, on the necessity ; secondly, on the 
 feasibility ; and finally, on the propriety of her expedition. 
 
 Beaten in detail on each of these points, her ladyship 
 had retired, like a skilful general, on the next, and indeed 
 had brought her forces up for general action, along the 
 whole line, when the announcement of Miss Prince's fly at 
 the door put an end to the controversy. She retired then 
 from the struggle ; but her companion knew too well that it 
 would be resumed, again and again, till she had given in a 
 humiliating and unqualified submission. All this worked 
 in Miss Prince's mind, and brought into shape a scheme on 
 which she had long meditated, but never yet mustered 
 courage to put in practice. 
 Lady Waywarden was not one bit a more difficult person 
 
176 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 to live with than ninety-and-nine other ladies, who find it 
 conduces to their own comfort to make another woman 
 uncomfortahle, under the name of a companion. She 
 possessed intellect above the average ; a fine sense of the 
 argumentwm ad ahswdmm, and not more selfishness than 
 properly belonged to her habits of life and station. If you 
 had said to her, " You pay a lady of education and refine- 
 ment to do that which is repugnant to your own estimate of 
 those qualities ; you require her to possess such manners as 
 shall entitle her to live on terms of equality with yourself, 
 and yet lose no opportunity of impressing on her, by word 
 and deed, that she is youi inferior and subordinate; you 
 purchase, at a very inadequate remuneration, her time, her 
 inclina,tions, her opinions, her self-respect, above all, her 
 prejudices ; and you expect, that by calling her a companion 
 and making her dine with you at eight o'clock, which 
 probably disagi-ees with her, she will .thankfully accept your 
 whims, your sarcasms, your thoughtless ridicule, your wilful 
 neglect, and will forget, because she sits in the drawing- 
 room (not in an easy-chair), that she has none of the 
 personal freedom enjoyed by the domestics below stairs; 
 not one-tenth of the comforts of the steward's room, or the 
 ease of the servants' hall," If, I say, you had urged such 
 a protest as this on Lady Waywarden, she would simply 
 have considered you odious, vulgar, and presuming, with a 
 democratic tendency to confound the distinctions of society, 
 and strong symptoms of madness, premonitory or confirmed. 
 
 Her ladyship's own opinion was, that she paid her 
 daughter's ex-governess a liberal salary for the performance 
 of very trifling duties ; and she summed up her convictions 
 in the light and easy nature of her yoke, with the comfort- 
 able assurance that " Miss Prince don't mind it." 
 
 But Miss Prince did mind, nevertheless. For months 
 past she had been gathering resolution to leave Tollesdale 
 and set up once more for herself. She had talked it over 
 with Lady Julia ; for Miss Prince could no more do without 
 a confidant and adviser, than without a box of Child's 
 night-lights and a double nightcap. The young lady, in 
 her usual free-spoken way, had much shocked her_ by 
 declaring, " If I was you, and mamma ever pitched into 
 me again, I would very soon make my lucky, and hang out 
 
A BBEAK-UP 177 
 
 on my own hook somewhere else ; " nor was this advice, 
 though couched in the terms Viscount Nethersole brought 
 with him from Eton, so unpalatable as the language in 
 which it was offered. They had even got so far as con- 
 sulting upon ways and means, wherein the pupil's worldly 
 knowledge far exceeded that of her former governess. Not- 
 withstanding the drawback of her invalid sister, years of 
 economy, and an unexpected legacy from her military 
 uncle, as she called the clerk in the War Office, had made 
 of Miss Prince a small capitalist. Probably, her all might 
 have represented two years of Lady Waywarden's pin- 
 money. This nest-egg she had at last resolved to cook, in 
 such a manner, however, as to extract from it the greatest 
 quantity of nourishment. A furnished house in a genteel 
 situation, of which she should let off the different floors to 
 quiet lodgers at exorbitant rents, was Miss Prince's idea of 
 independence ; perhaps because it was as yet untried. 
 Lady Julia warmly supported the plan. It would be so 
 pleasant, she thought, to take flowers and things from 
 Covent Garden to her old governess, in her morning 
 drives, the days papa was too lazy to ride, and Cockamaroo, 
 the well-bred, white-legged chesnut was missed by his 
 admirers and his mistresses in the Park. Miss Prince's 
 future, therefore, although she was an elderly lady, was 
 only just opening on her, you see, when she started for 
 George Stoney's that morning after the fire. 
 
 She had put on her smartest clothes ; people generally 
 do when they pay visits of condolence. She came in with 
 a shawl of great splendour, fastened high up round her 
 throat, gloves and ribbons of dazzling hue to match, and a 
 whole hamper of vegetables in her bonnet. Even Jane 
 was confounded by her prismatic appearance, and stood 
 aghast, with the door in her hand, while the little woman, 
 running up to Mrs. George, fairly disappeared in that 
 ample lady's embrace, and without speaking a word, burst 
 out crying immediately as if her heart would break. 
 
 " Take a glass of wine," said Mrs. Stoney, confident in 
 the universal panacea — the perfect cure ! — and she signed 
 to George and Philip to leave the room ; but against this 
 the little woman proceeded hysterically to protest, entreat- 
 ing their forbearance, and gulping little mouthfals of 
 
 12 
 
178 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 sherry, most of which found its way into her eyes and nose, 
 and windpipe, with incoherent assurances of friendship, 
 and promises of composure between the gasps. 
 
 " To think I should find you here, dear ! " she at length 
 mustered steadiness to exclaim, as if her own home had 
 been the last place in which to look for Mrs. George. 
 " To think of my dear Bella — I always called you Bella, 
 you know, when you were in disgrace — my dear Bella, 
 burnt out, and — and in such a state altogether," proceeded 
 Miss Prince, looking round the room, as if its walls were 
 blackening and smouldering into ruin. "My dear, I 
 couldn't have belioTed it, if I hadn't seen it ; and, to speak 
 the truth — ^we've never had any secrets, have we, dear? — 
 I've just popped over from ToUesdale to see how you bore 
 it, and to tell you I'm going to leave Lady Waywarden ; 
 and — and — to know if I cannot be of any assistance? — 
 There ! Now it's out ; and I'm better." 
 
 " It was like you, dear Miss Prince," said Mrs. George, 
 quietly, while her husband and Philip shook the new visitor 
 by the hand. " You'll take your bonnet off, won't you ? 
 And so you've closed your engagement with Lady Way- 
 warden. Well, I always did say " 
 
 But here Miss Prince, in a high state of nervousness, 
 interrupted, holding her bonnet on with both hands, as 
 though she feared it might be violently abstracted, and she 
 was quite unequal to the occasion without it. 
 
 "A word on business first, dear Bella; your good 
 husband and Mr. Philip will excuse me. Gentlemen 
 understand business so much better than ladies. It's 
 partly to ask their advice that I came. You see, Mr. 
 Stoney, I've some hundreds of pounds to invest just now — 
 not many. Therefore I'm told, building is the best of all 
 speculations ; and so I thought perhaps you might intend 
 restoring the breweiy, with all the modern improvements of 
 course," explained Miss Prince, taking for granted she was 
 giving the conversation a thoroughly practical turn, "and 
 that you wouldn't mind allowing my small matter to remain 
 in your hands, at whatever interest you thought proper, and 
 indeed that could be quite an after consideration. You see, 
 I don't understand business ; yet I've made Bella there a 
 pretty good accountant, Mr. Stoney, you'll confess ; though. 
 
A BBEAK-UP 179 
 
 when I first began with her, she couldn't make a sum of 
 
 simple addition come the same twice over; but now " 
 
 and here, in her endeavom-s to cheer them all up, Miss Prince 
 tried to laugh, and burst into a sobbing, choking fit of such 
 a violent nature as might have been alarming and even 
 prejudicial to a nursing lady of less experience and com- 
 posure than Mrs. George. 
 
 Philip and his brother looked at one another silently for 
 a minute, then the latter took Miss Prince solemnly by 
 the hand — " I understand you," said he ; "a child like 
 Dot here might understand such simple, staunch generosity 
 as yours. You want to throw all you have into the gulf of 
 my ruin ; and if I allowed you, I should not only be a 
 rogue, but a brute! " 
 
 " You misunderstand me quite," she interposed hurriedly, 
 and with strong symptoms of the hysterics coming on again. 
 "It is a mere matter of business ; isn't it, Mr. PhUip ? 
 You would make it up eventually. You would return me 
 more than I advanced. It would be the foundation of a 
 fortune to me. Out of evil springs good, you know. Oh ! " 
 she added, holding fast by the bonnet, and looking 
 imploringly firom one to the other, to fix her eyes at last 
 on her old pupil, " let me help you, Bella. Bella, let me 
 do something for you ! Let me lend you a hundred pounds, 
 at least ! Fifty pounds^-twenty pounds — ten pounds ! 
 Don't send me away without giving me some consolation ; 
 if it was only a beggarly ten-pound note," 
 
 Pending the delivery of this address, Mrs. George was 
 observed to rock her baby violently to and fro, much to the 
 derangement of its digestive functions, until a sudden 
 impulse prompted her to seize on Dot, and carry both 
 children tumultuously from the room followed wildly by 
 Miss Prince, who had not, as yet, taken off a single article 
 of her out-of-door clothing. Mrs. George's bed-room 
 door was then heard to dose with a bang, and notwith- 
 standing that lady's social composure during the whole 
 morning, it is my belief that the two women having fled to 
 sanctuary, refreshed themselves with a good, hearty, com- 
 fortable cry up staii-s. 
 
CHAPTEK Xn 
 
 RAISING THE WIND 
 
 It must not be supposed that the eflfects of a, Middlesworth 
 ball died out with the extinction of its lights, or the retire- 
 ment of Tootle and Dinne from their musicians' gallery 
 above ; nor even with the putting to rights of the Town 
 Hall — a process that occupied the whole of the following 
 day. On the contrary, seeds were annually sown at these 
 gatherings, which did not come to ear for months, or even 
 years — seeds of rivalry, of friendship, of contention, of 
 good-will ; sometimes of true and deep affection, yielding 
 eventually a golden harvest, to be reaped and gathered and 
 garnered up for the abiding riches of two lifetimes. In the 
 present, no less than in former instances, many and various 
 were the results of the ball I have ventured to describe. 
 Few of the young people who attended it were altogether 
 free from its subsequent influence. Lady Julia, although 
 hardened by a couple of London seasons, and, so to speak, 
 acclimatised to balls, seemed confirmed in many whims 
 and vagaries, which had been considered heretofore but 
 passing caprices of the moment ; the very next day, sitting 
 with her mother after luncheon, pretending to work, she 
 had expressed herself in a vague and contradictory manner, 
 touching her evening's amusement. 
 
 " Of course, there were all sorts of people there, my 
 dear," observed Lady Waywarden, settling her feet on the 
 fender and her back to the boudoir wtadow, through which 
 even the November daylight came in rose-tinted, though 
 subdued. " People not even second-rate, and that your 
 father wishes one to know. So absurd ! I often wonder 
 
 180 
 
BAISING TEE WIND 181 
 
 what vuigar people and fools, my dear, were made for ? I 
 suppose we shall learn in a fature state. Really, I'm 
 glad I stayed at home. So it was a wretched hall, was 
 it, Ju?" 
 
 "Infamous," answered the young lady, with a mis- 
 chievous smile gleaming in her eyes. "A war dance, 
 literally, of savage tribes, mamma ; but without scalps, you 
 know, and the warpaint very badly put on." 
 
 "Were there any tolerable dresses? " asked Lady Way- 
 warden, languidly. " Of course, the country people made 
 themselves frights. How did the Duchess look ? " 
 
 " Too much top-hamper," answered the daughter. 
 " Otherwise, well turned out. That Italian maid knows 
 nothing about hair-dressing. The Duchess's wreath was 
 all adrift after the second waltz. Never mind, she's a 
 darling ! and I wish she hadn't been obliged to start 
 oif before luncheon. It's deadly lively, now they're all 
 gone." 
 
 "Complimentary, my dear," observed the elder lady, 
 totally unmoved, however, by the inference. " So you were 
 bored, my poor child, I fear ? " 
 
 " Dreadfully," assented the other ; " and yet I should 
 like to be going again to-night, mamma," she added with 
 a sigh. 
 
 Now this seemed to have become Lady Julia's normal 
 state for a considerable period. She was still brilliant, 
 amusing, fall of fun, devoted to papa, and fearfully addicted 
 to slang, yet at the same time, she had occasional fits of 
 depression; brief, indeed, and succeeded by unnaturally 
 high spirits, but which puzzled Miss Prince considerably, 
 though they escaped the notice of Lady Waywarden. 
 
 " You never were remarkable for consistency, my dear," 
 observed the ex-governess, one day, to her former pupil ; 
 " but now you don't know your own mind for two minutes 
 together." 
 
 To which Lady Julia replied — "I wish I didn't, my 
 dear ; I should be a precious deal jollier ! " — ^refusing, 
 however, any farther explanation of this dark and morbid 
 sentiment. 
 
 Miss Prince was really going away now, so of course she 
 and her pupil were fonder of each other thaji ^ver, 
 
182 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Miss Brooke, too, performing her daily routine of 
 duties at Bridlemere, seemed more tired by her ball than 
 was natural for an able-bodied young woman, who had 
 danced but half a dozen dances, in a room not over- 
 crowded, and with a good floor. Neither did her fatigue 
 wear off with the lapse of time. On the contrary, week 
 by week, Helen's cheek grew paler, and her smile less 
 frequent. She tended her father more studiously than 
 ever ; she went about, too, as regularly amongst the poor, 
 never missing Dame Batters, and affording that sorrowing 
 old woman all the consolation possible under her bereave- 
 ment, for there were no tidings of Jem. But her walks no 
 longer made her face glow, and her eyes sparkle, as they 
 used a while ago. She ran up no red ensign now, and 
 even the white flag under which she cruised was hoisted, 
 so to speak, but half-mast high. Nay, even after Mr. 
 Multiple had called, and he often came to Bridlemere 
 of late, her depression appeared more decided than before. 
 
 Such a visitor one would have thought must have been 
 enlivening to any lady. He was well dressed, he was, yes, 
 he was good-looking, no doubt. Mrs. Greorge Stoney, 
 indeed, at the ball, had ruled that he was " a handsome, 
 and remarkably stylish man." He could talk on any 
 subject fluently, and knew all the news and gossip of 
 town and country. Moreover, he thought Helen beautiful, 
 and did not conceal his admiration. 
 
 He was a great friend, too, of her brother, not of Jack ; 
 though they were scrupulously civil, there was a natural 
 antipathy between these two gentlemen ; but with the 
 hussar he was hand-and-glove. Why could he not stand 
 equally high in the good gi-aces of Miss Brooke ? 
 
 Multiple seemed fairly settled now at Middlesworth. 
 Whatever was his business, it would appear that it bore 
 neglect without prejudice, or could be carried on with 
 advantage from a distance. He had moved from No. 6, 
 into the most commodious set of rooms in the " Plantagenet 
 Arms," giving choice little dinners, to the infinite profit of 
 that establishment, and submitting to exorbitant charges, 
 on condition that he fmnished his own wine. He was not, 
 however, a man who shut his eyes to imposition. He took 
 oare to let his entertainers know that he submitted less 
 
BAISINQ THE WIND 183 
 
 from ignorance than forbearance. Therefore, he was better 
 treated than more confiding customers. He brought down 
 four good weight-cariying horses, from some mysterious 
 hunting quarters on the London and North Western line. 
 Horses that he gave three hundred a piece for, and that 
 were well worth two. He rode them fairly, steadily ; not 
 exactly in the front rank, but with no more scrapulous 
 regard for safety than the generality of the field. His red 
 coat was well made, his boots and breeches were well put 
 on. His second horseman came up in the nick of time, with 
 a capacious silver sandwich-box flanked by a double flask 
 of sherry, and he gave away cigars of unusual size and 
 fragrance, with indiscriminate liberality. At the covert- 
 side he become undoubtedly rather popular than otherwise, 
 and the general opinion there was that he meant to stand 
 for the town. In Middlesworth itself they did not know 
 what to make of him ; but on his offering to give ten 
 pounds, unsolicited, to a local charity, the sitting Member, 
 whose seat, though perfection in the saddle, was very 
 insecure at Westminster, received a hint from his committee 
 to bestir himself, for that there was a hidden enemy in the 
 field. 
 
 Even at Middlesworth, people do not hunt eveiy day, 
 nor, if they did, would four horses be sufficient for the 
 purpose, except on paper. Mr. Multiple, I think, liked his 
 off-days the best. If he could make an excuse, he 
 generally called at Bridlemere ; if that was impracticable, 
 he wrote a vast quantity of letters, and then lounged up 
 to the barracks, where an idle man is always acceptable. 
 Arm-in-arm with Walter Brooke, the pair trod the pave- 
 ment of Middlesworth in a style to which the honest 
 townsfolk were totally unaccustomed. Two such elaborately- 
 dressed dandies might have attracted notice even in 
 London. The muffatee-makers, male and female, audibly 
 expressed their sentiments of admiration and disgust : the 
 young ladies in the bonnet-shop put their stitches in all 
 awry, for five minutes after they had passed; and Mr. 
 Dowlas, looking wildly for his young man to measure off a 
 yard of calico, would discover him bareheaded in the street, 
 gazing after the twofold apparition with many conflicting 
 feelings, of which envy was the strongest, depicted on his 
 
184 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLBMEBE 
 
 round and simple face. Tlieir conversation on such occa- 
 sions, I am bound to say, was neither amusing nor 
 instructive. It consisted usually of the following remarks, 
 varied only in emphasis by the weather, and the state of 
 the speaker's digestion : 
 
 " Dull place this, the days there's no hunting." 
 
 " Beastly hole ! " 
 
 " I never came across so few pretty women." 
 
 "Nor so many ugly ones." 
 
 " Have you seen to-day's paper? " 
 
 " I trust it's not going to freeze." 
 
 " Let's go up to the barracks, and draw Eags." 
 
 With which proposal they mended their pace, and walked 
 on resolutely, as men who have now an aim and an object 
 in life. 
 
 Eags, I need hardly state, was only too glad to receive 
 them. Hospitality itself, and abounding in leisure, all 
 comers were welcome to his barrack-room. Of late, too, 
 Eags had become more of a dandy-worshipper than ever, 
 and his confirmation in this fallacy was another result of 
 the past Middlesworth ball. 
 
 That one dance with the Duchess, simple quadi-ille 
 though it was, had produced no trifling effects on both. 
 With her Grace, indeed, its influence was purely physical. 
 Overheated, at any rate, by a previous waltz,, and standing 
 in the draught of the doorway, she had caught a cold that 
 confined her to her room, a most impatient patient, for 
 weeks. But Eags, who never had a cold in his life, did 
 not come off so easily. Eaised by the charming manners 
 of his partner to the seventh heaven of social gratification, 
 his moral being had been shaken to its centre the while. 
 He was no longer satisfied with the gaieties of the mess- 
 room, and the triumphs of the barrack-yard. He was fit 
 for something better, he began to think, than the bandying 
 of jokes with the veterinary surgeon, or the leading of a 
 squadron straight on a given point, at a walk. Visions 
 began to flit through his brain of an exchange into the Life 
 Guards ; a quiet brougham to take him out to dinner ; a 
 stall at the opera, and a tea-cart to drive in the Park. 
 He seemed to have been vegetating, hitherto, a cauliflower 
 in the country, when he ought to be transplanted as an 
 
BAISINQ TEE WIND 185 
 
 exotic to the town. Why, these great ladies were not so 
 formidable after all ! The Duchess was infinitely easier to 
 get on with than Mrs. George Stoney ; her words were not 
 half so long, nor her manners half so imperial. How 
 pleasant to meet her on the same terms in London, and to 
 do the Duchess justice, she made no difference in her 
 simple, cordial, unaffected accueil, whether in town or 
 country. But innocent Eags had never yet experienced 
 a chill from these atmospheric changes. He little knew 
 how cold the wind sometimes blows off the glaciers in 
 Mayfair. All fine ladies cannot be at the tip-top of the 
 ladder, like the Duchess of Merthyr-Tydvil, and if they must 
 be more civil than they like to those above them, why of 
 com-se they may be as rude as they please to those below. 
 A man is a ludicrous object, no doubt, with the pleasant 
 smile frozen on his face by a little contemptuous nod, and 
 his extended hand put hastily back in his pocket, or any- 
 where else out of sight. But as these kindly little offices 
 are never proffered to such monsters as from age, self- 
 esteem, or a happy stolidity, have become callous and 
 indifferent, I gather, that the more ingenuous the victim, 
 the more exhilarating must be the sport. Eags might 
 have gained some insight into these peculiarities could 
 he have contrasted the welcome of Lady Waywarden, 
 for instance, iu her own house at ToUesdale, with her 
 greeting under other roofs in the neighbourhood of Gros- 
 venor Square. 
 
 Mr. de EoUe was all on fire now to go to St. Barbs. 
 The Duke was to have a hunting party the following week, 
 and he would have given a good deal for an invitation, to 
 which, however, he did not quite see his way. I do not 
 mean to say that Eags was fool enough to have fallen in 
 love with the Duchess of Merthyr-Tydvil, but everybody 
 knows the effect on a young and inexperienced man, of 
 association with a woman his superior in rank, intellect, 
 attainments, and surroundings ; beautiftd besides, and 
 approaching, as he sees her from below, to his imaginary 
 ideal of perfection. It refines him ; it elevates him ; it 
 sheds over him the first tinge of romance, that is to be fully 
 coloured hereafter by another hand. 
 
 It was, I conceive, something of this vague, yet lofty 
 
186 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 devotion, to a sentiment rather than an individual, which, 
 in the days of chivalry, laid many a lance in rest, for the 
 renown of ladies whom knights had scarcely even looked 
 upon at a less distance than the space dividing balcony 
 from lists ; which caused a champion to shout in the battle 
 a name he had never dared to whisper in the bower ; which 
 urged George Douglas to risk life and liberty for Mary 
 Stuart ; which bade the noblest of all the noble Cravens carry 
 on his battered helmet the glove of Bohemia's beautiful 
 Queen ; and which now prompted our friend Eags to visit 
 at St, Barbs, and feast his eyes on the handsome, happy 
 Duchess, in her own home. 
 
 He was cogitating this very matter, and how to bring it 
 about, when his friends came boisterously in, and broke the 
 thread of his meditations. 
 
 " We've wandered up, to smoke a weed with you, Eags, 
 as usual," said his brother of&cer, seating himself without 
 ceremony, whilst Multiple, more polite, observed — 
 " They were in luck to find Mr. de EoUe at home." 
 Whereupon the hospitable Comet hallooed loudly for 
 Belter, and that domestic appeared forthwith, armed with 
 the three " brandies and sodas " he conceived necessarily 
 required for the proper reception of a morning call. 
 
 Neither Multiple nor Walter felt equal to the consump- 
 tion of this early stimulant, but Eags, rosy and clear-eyed, 
 hesitated not to refresh himself with the invigorating 
 draught. Then the three began to converse, as men will, 
 first of their horses, secondly of other people's horses, and 
 lastly, of their own horses again. 
 
 " Why shouldn't we go round and see him," said Walter, 
 closing the description of an animal then standing in the 
 officers' stables, on the sale of which, after some very suc- 
 cessful ride, he counted to extricate him from the most 
 pressing of his pecuniary difficulties. It occurred to him, 
 that his friend Multiple, who seemed rich, and fond of 
 hunting, might possibly buy at once, particularly if the 
 owner did not appear anxious to sell. He made a rapid 
 calculation of the hungriest creditors whose mouths must 
 be stopped without delay, also of the highest figure he 
 could ask for his horse, but his face was a study of utter 
 carelessness and imperturbability, while the three pro- 
 
BAISma THE WIND 187 
 
 ceeded to the stable, and he added, in a tone of extreme 
 weariness — 
 
 " Better see all the screws when we're about it. There's 
 Rags, with a regular string, and Goody Two-shoes to lead 
 their gallops for them. I've got a clever pony. Multiple, 
 if that's at all in your line. Well, if you like, we'll go and 
 look at Fugleman first." 
 
 Multiple had the Stud-Book at his fingers' ends. That 
 and a corresponding work of reference, the Peerage, are 
 studies of themselves ; nevertheless, men can be found 
 who have mastered both, and Walter's friend was one of 
 them. 
 
 " You said he was quite thorough-bred, I think," 
 remarked the latter. " Somehow, I don't remember the 
 name." 
 
 " You remember Fenella, though," replied Walter. 
 " Well, he's by Advance, out of Fenella ; and Fenella, you 
 know, was by Frantic, out of Dumb-Bell ; by the Mute, 
 out of Glide ; by the Shadow, and so up to the Phantom 
 blood. Oh, yes, as thorough-bred as Eclipse ; but he was 
 a late foal, and they never trained him, so there he is, as 
 fresh on his legs as a two-year-old. Six off ; very quiet ; 
 can't get him down if you try ; carry over fourteen stone, 
 and a child might ride him. He's not the least my sort of 
 horse, you know, and I hate him ; but he's the safest 
 mount, and honestly the best hunter, I think, between this 
 and Melton. Strip him." 
 
 The last sentence was addressed to a lad apparently 
 some ten years of age, really over twenty, who could only 
 reach Fugleman's withers by standing on a stable-bucket. 
 Nevertheless, this abortion when once in the saddle, had 
 the strength and neiTes of a giant ; could ride a steeple- 
 chase against half the professionals, and heaped on his 
 charge all the afiection which would have been divided 
 amongst father, mother, brothers, sisters, and friends, if he 
 had them. 
 
 Fugleman laid his ears back, and caught the manger 
 with his teeth, whereat Multiple hurried out of the stall 
 in unseemly haste, not, however, till he had satisfied him- 
 self of the animal's faultless points and fine condition ; 
 then he contemplated him from a safer position in the rear. 
 
188 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Fugleman was a large, handsome, grandly-shaped bay 
 horse, with great power behind the saddle, showing un- 
 questionable evidence of " race " in his well-turned 
 quarters, and the setting-on of his hind legs. His 
 shoulders were lengthy and sloping, his neck a little loose, 
 as though he might take some riding (and this, I think, 
 was the reason Multiple did not buy him), his head rather 
 large and lean, with long, but fine, almost transparent ears. 
 It was the horse's eye, though, that gave character to the 
 whole animal, and from which could be predicted the 
 docility, courage, and generosity of his nature. Large, 
 dark, and brilliant, it was almost womanly in the soft, con- 
 fiding expression of its glance ; like a woman's too, it 
 seemed to seek approval and sympathy from its lord — 
 seemed to say : " Love me, trust me, humour me but a 
 little, and if I die for it, I will never fail you at your need." 
 
 Altogether, Fugleman looked like a " mount " that 
 would give a man as good an idea of flying as he was ever 
 likely to acquire whilst clothed in mortal form. 
 
 " Will you see him out ? " asked Walter, detecting, as 
 he thought, a glimmer of purchase in Multiple's eye. 
 "Will you lay your leg over him? You can canter him 
 round the barrack-yard. He's very quiet, and it really is 
 a pleasure to feel such a horse as that." 
 
 But Multiple shook his head and declined. It was not 
 his way to jump on strange horses at a moment's notice, 
 and tempt his fate in unfamiliar barrack-yards. Like 
 many others, he was a fair horseman on his own horse, 
 with his own saddle and his own bridle, after a small glass 
 of cura9oa, too, just to steady his nerves ; but an impromptu 
 gallop was a different thing altogether. He was thinking, 
 moreover, of the noble, generous creature before him, not 
 with regard to his mettle, pace, and powers of endurance, 
 but his specious appearance, and the long-suffering libe- 
 rality of the public — reflecting how he woiSd like to enter 
 him for some great steeple-chase, and make him a favourite, 
 backing him staunchly in "ponies," and instructing a 
 friend in London to lay against him lavishly in hundreds, 
 then at the last moment to lame him, or poison him, 
 or bribe some reckless rider to pull him back forcibly at his 
 fences, and break both their neckg rather than win. 
 
BAISING THE WIND 189 
 
 Ah; if men were but as honest as horses, we need 
 borrow no lantern of Diogenes, for we could see them in 
 plenty by daylight. 
 
 " He's too good for hunting," remarked Multiple, as 
 they walked out of "Walter's stable, and the latter knew by 
 the way he said it, that he was no purchaser. '^Why 
 don't you train him, and put him into the Great National ? 
 I hayen't seen one more likely to win it this season." 
 
 " Why, Mexico has the refusal of him if we ever part," 
 answered Walter, which was, indeed, to a certain extent 
 true, that wealthy young nobleman having almost offered 
 three hundred for this valuable animal. " Besides, I 
 can't afford to keep horses, and get no work out of them 
 whilst in training. I'm very poor, you know," he added, 
 with a laugh. " Very poor, and very hard up besides." 
 
 Bags had walked on to open his stable-door, and was 
 holding close consultation with his groom. Multiple looked 
 after him with an odd expression, half sneer, half approval 
 on his face. He shrugged his shoulders, and repeated — 
 
 "Hard up! and here/ Well, it's extraordinary to me 
 how badly people manage their own business." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " asked Walter. 
 
 "Mean ! " replied the other. "What should I mean? 
 I thought you understood things better in the light dragoons. 
 Why, here you have the Bank of England in the barracks, 
 and you talk of being hard up." 
 
 Walter stared at him for a few moments in unaffected 
 surprise. 
 
 " I vrish I knew any bank that would cash my bills," 
 said he. " Fellows talk about money being easy. I don't 
 know what they call easy. I'm sure I've always found it 
 very hard to get, and harder still to keep." 
 
 " Money is only a conventional term," answered Multiple, 
 stopping to light one of his huge cigars. " It doesn't ex- 
 press a lot of sovereigns in a bag, any more than wealth is 
 inferred by a large encumbered estate, with a title to keep 
 up. Credit, after all, is the motive power of this great 
 commercial country ; and paper, that is good paper, repre- 
 sents property just as well as bullion." 
 
 " You mean that a fellow can always draw a bill," replied 
 Walter, " and renew when he can't meet it. I don't say 
 
190 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 it's a bad plan, mind, for kite-flying on a proper system, 
 and with a little method will keep a man afloat for years. 
 But there's always one awkward question connected with 
 it, who is to get up behind ? " 
 
 " Young in years ! " exclaimed Multiple, with mock 
 solemnity ; " but old in the tortuous labyrinths of iniquity! 
 It is not for me to teach a child of your intelligence how 
 the bubble is created, and the soap applied. Is not a com- 
 rade dearer (a good deal dearer to some fellows), than a 
 brother ? Is not friendship described as love without its 
 wings ? Look at that Cornet, even now awaiting our 
 approval of his stud. Simple integrity beams in his eye, 
 and mantles on his cheek. Fourteen stone, if he turns a 
 pound, and exuding gold from every pore. Healthy, 
 wealthy, and — not — wise ! Surely nature has provided 
 him for the express purpose of liquidation. Shall we milk 
 the Ayrshire in the cow-house — the favourite at the corner 
 — and when the bursting vessels swell appealingly under the 
 cunning hand, draw back, mock modest, and forbear to fill 
 the pail ? I tell you the name of De EoUe is as good as 
 Eothschild. Eags is your friend, and Eags stinks of money. 
 A bill at three months is convertible at a trifling discount, 
 and I am wasting my breath and spoiling my cigar, for 
 Walter Brooke knows all this as well as Frank Multiple, 
 who has been studying the interest tables and the money 
 market ever since he was three years old." 
 
 Walter laughed. " Work the Jews first," said he care- 
 lessly, " and then come to the Christians. By the way. 
 Multiple, you must dine here with Eags next week instead 
 of me. It's all the same, old fellow, and you won't be 
 ofi'ended ; but I've promised to go to St. Barbs for a day or 
 two, and it depends on what hunting there is how soon I 
 get back. Eags will take excellent care of you, and be 
 delighted. Let us go and look at his horses. If he could 
 ride her. Goody Two-shoes is the best he's got." 
 
 The speaker did not seem inclined to resume the money 
 question, and Multiple, who cared but little for horses out 
 of which no profit could be made, soon excused himself, 
 and retired for the rest of the evening to his inn. 
 
 Walter Brooke had been some few years embarked in 
 life, and was now beginning to feel the pressure that a good 
 
BAISING THE WIND 191 
 
 position, a liberal outfit, and a fair start, stave off for 
 a time. Though the effects were sufficiently pleasant while 
 they lasted, it was, perhaps, a misfortune to Walter that his 
 person and manners were of that kind which is most appre- 
 ciated in London society. He was handsome in a manly 
 and even remarkable style, without being the least a tiger. 
 He was always quiet, undemonstrative, and with his wits 
 about him ; unflurried by success, and perfectly callous to 
 the frankest rebuff. He had the knack of knowing people's 
 carriages and horses at a vast distance, and remembered all 
 their different relatives by marriage and otherwise. That 
 is to say, people about whom it was worth his while to be 
 interested. When in London, he was sure to have the 
 latest news, which he neither trumpeted in your ears nor 
 threw contemptuously at your head, but told in a quiet, 
 confidential, matter-of-com-se way, with a touch of humour, 
 and a strong dash of sarcasm. He was popular everywhere, 
 and usually seemed to consider himself a little too good for 
 his company, whatever it might be. No doubt, had he 
 lived earlier in the century, he must have achieved fame. 
 Why the women lilted him, it is, of course, impossible 
 for me to explain. I have seen so many men utterly diffe- 
 rent in every pai-ticular, without and within, yet all first 
 favourites with the sex, that I am puzzled to define the 
 qualities of mind or body that are most apt in the allure- 
 ment of their good graces. They certainly look kindly on 
 manly comeliness, yet, heavens ! what ugly fellows have we 
 not all envied riding triumphant in the lists of Love. They 
 like clever pien, so they say ; yet I find it conceded by a 
 majority, that a fool is the best material for a husband. 
 They profess to admire eloquence and to delight in being 
 amused; nevertheless, with their own charming flow of 
 language, I should feel inclined to back the listener against 
 the talker in the long run. Perhaps it is as well that their 
 predilections should defy calculation. My own belief is 
 that they are most susceptible to romantic devotion, when 
 expressed by ease of manner, willingness to oblige, and a 
 never-failing facility in acts of practical attention. A 
 limited younger brother's allowance, even added to a 
 subaltern's pay, is soon consumed in the boots, gloves, 
 blacking, eau de Cologne, and hack-cabs of a London 
 
192 THE BB00KB8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 summer, leaving little margin for these infamous ready- 
 money transactions called water parties, and none whatever 
 for tailor's bills, keep of horses, purchase of carriages, stalls 
 at the opera, cigars, bouquets, and other mere necessaries 
 of life. Two or three " good things " at Epsom and Ascot, 
 with one extraordinary " fluke " at Newmarket, did, indeed, 
 keep Walter's head above water longer than he had any 
 right to expect, and brother Jack, too, had helped him, out 
 of his own small pittance, as far as he was able ; but in the 
 affairs of men, as in those of nature, you cannot have the 
 flood-tide without the ebb, and here was Walter, at last, 
 left high and dry upon the strand. 
 
 He was literally in want of two or three sovereigns to 
 pay for moving his horses to St. Barbs, and for pocket- 
 money during his visit at the Duke's. Of course, he never 
 dreamed of giving up the visit ; the natural proceeding was 
 to obtain the sovereigns. 
 
 He was to dine tete-a-tete with Rags, at the barracks, 
 and went to dress rather early, sending his sei-vant dovm to a 
 law-stationer's shop in the tovm, before it closed. 
 
 The two brother of&cers had a cosy, pleasant little 
 dinner, by a good fire. Their wine was perfection, and 
 they drank as if they liked it. Eags talked incessantly 
 about the Duchess of Merthyr-Tydvil, and hinted, clumsily 
 enough, at his desire for an invitation to the forthcoming 
 gathering at St. Barbs. 
 
 " The Duke is sure to ask you," observed Walter, care- 
 lessly, while he filled his glass with claret, and turned his 
 chair towards the fire. " The Duke never misses a fellow 
 who seems fond of hunting, particularly if he can ride a bit. 
 Let me see. He meets at Oakover, on Friday, in his best 
 country. You can reach it from here, if you send the 
 horses by train. I suppose you'll ride Goody Two-shoes, 
 and make an example of us all if you get a start." 
 
 The other's eyes glistened. He did so enjoy being patted 
 on the back, particularly by Walter, from whom he seldom 
 received this encouragement, but who was exceedingly 
 gracious to-night. Rags had mentioned the Duchess's 
 name a score of times during dinner already, now he brought 
 it in again — 
 
 " Why, you see, when I danced with the Duchess that 
 
BAISINQ THE WIND 198 
 
 night, she asked me a good deal about hunting, and she 
 did say something about the country near St. Barbs, and I 
 thought two or three times she was going to invite me there. 
 I suppose she had to ask Aim first. I say, Walter, I should 
 like to know the Duke ! " 
 
 " He's as good a fellow as the Duchess," replied Walter, 
 with a familiarity that somewhat shocked Eags, who winced 
 at his divinity being thus rudely approached. " Let me 
 see, Rags, ^ think we could do another bottle of this claret, 
 old fellow) ; I don't know but what I could manage it for 
 you. The Duke was a light dragoon himself once, and he 
 likes soldiers better than civilians still." 
 
 Rags rang the bell willingly. He appreciated claret — a 
 taste in which I perfectly agree with him. Nor am I sure 
 but that when the wiae is sound, the second bottle 
 goes down even more pleasantly than the first. Then he 
 claimed, in a voice of deep feeling — 
 
 " Walter, you're a real brick ! Here's your health ! " 
 
 The second bottle waned rapidly. By the time it was 
 finished and the cigars alight, both young men were slightly 
 influenced by its qualities. That is to say, Walter's scruples 
 had vanished, if indeed, he owned any ; and Rags, who was 
 always a good fellow, felt twice as good a fellow now as 
 ever. 
 
 "Shall you let Lord Mexico have Fugleman? " asked 
 Rags, winking and glowing, so to speak, with enjoyment, 
 over the red end of his cigar. " He'd jump at him for three 
 hundred, I believe ! " 
 
 " He's worth more than that," answered Walter, thought- 
 fully. " I don't like to sell him, and yet, altogether, I'm 
 rather in a mess about my horses. I don't even know 
 whether I shall be able to get to St. Barbs, after all." 
 
 Rags looked blank. 
 
 " What ? Is the grey lame again ? " said he, with much 
 commiseration. " Never mind, old chap, that needn't stop 
 you. Take two of mine I " 
 
 To be called " old chap " by an individual of whose intel- 
 lectual powers you have conceived the lowest possible opinion, 
 and whose familiarity you feel less the offspring of friend- 
 ship than Bordeaux, even when that individual backs the 
 endearing appellation by offering you the pick of his stud, 
 
 13 
 
X94 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 is doubtless an aggravation. You must have good and 
 weighty reasons to bear it placidly. Walter's tone was 
 calm and confidential, while he thanked him for his pro- 
 posal. 
 
 " I've plenty of horses," said he, "so it is not that. 
 The fact is, old fellow, I've bled the governor so freely of 
 late, he hasn't got a drop of the vital fluid left. I don't 
 like to borrow of the Jews, when it's only a question of a 
 month or two, at fifty per cent. I can get all I want on a 
 bill with another fellow's name across it, which is, after all, 
 a mere matter of form, for, of course, it's my bill, and I'm 
 answerable for it. What I require is a mere trifle. Only 
 two or, say, three hundred, just to keep me going till the 
 spring. Why, my book on the National's worth twice the 
 money now. Then I take up the bill, cancel the accept- 
 ance, and nobody's a bit the wiser. I'd have asked Jack to 
 do it, of course, if I'd seen him to-day ; but Jack's the most 
 horrible fiinker when he's off a horse ; and though he'd 
 have done it he'd have jawed for an hour first. After all, a 
 brother officer is the next thing to a brother, and you and I 
 have pulled together now for some time. Look here ! Kags, 
 it would be a convenience to me if you could lend me your 
 name — only your name, you understand — for the next 
 twelve weeks. Let me see. The hunting season's nearly 
 over already. Well, certainly for not more than three 
 months ; surely and entirely as a matter of form ! " 
 
 Bags didn't like it. Bags hesitated. He was a generous 
 fellow enough, even about money, though he preferred 
 giving things away in kind, inheriting from both sides of 
 his family a proper respect for the circulating medium, and 
 he would rather have helped Walter, particularly just now, 
 than anybody else in the world. Still he didn't like it ! 
 He made a face like a child taking physic, and Walter, 
 observing this reluctance, immediately withdrew his request. 
 
 " If you've any superstition about it, old fellow," said he, 
 good-naturedly, " I'll try some one else. Lots of people 
 will be glad to accommodate me without risk, only I'd rather 
 be under obligation to you, because we're so much together, 
 and I might be useful to you in return. You're not offended 
 at being asked, old boy, at any rate, I hope ? " 
 
 This was too much for Bags. Offended ! and by Walter 
 
BAISING TEE WIND 195 
 
 — his friend, his pattern, his passport to St. Barbs ; and 
 here he was, refusing this good fellow the most trifling 
 accommodation devoid of inconvenience or hazard. He 
 made up his mind in a moment. 
 
 " There's no risk, you say ? " he inquired, looking thought- 
 fully into the coals. 
 
 " Not the slightest ! " answered Walter. " How can 
 there be ? It's my bill, not yours." 
 
 "And for how much?" added Eags, struggling sorely 
 between generosity and a constitutional dislike to com- 
 mitting himself. 
 
 " Three hundred ! " answered the borrower, point-blank, 
 adding, " We won't make it a monkey this time, Eags, for 
 fear of frightening you." 
 
 " Get the inkstand ! " exclaimed the other, flinging the 
 remains of his cigar desperately beneath the grate. " I 
 hate business. Let's do it at once." 
 
 So Walter sent to his room for his writing-case, and pro- 
 duced a piece of paper, and wrote out the bill in due foim, 
 with a rapidity and precision that argued experience in 
 such matters ; and showed Eags exactly where to affix his 
 signature, impressing on him carefully the whole time, that 
 he was incurring not the slightest risk, and indeed a merely 
 nominal liability. After which performance, they smoked 
 one more cigar, in great good-humour and harmony, re- 
 tiring to rest early, as they called it, about one a.m. 
 
 When they bade each other " Good-night," Eags looked 
 very wise, as if a sudden light had struck in on him. "By 
 Jove, Walter, I don't believe we drew that bill on stamped 
 paper ! " 
 
 " Oh yes ! we did," replied Walter, " I happened to have 
 some ' stiff' in my room." But he wondered at his friend's 
 viridity, and caught himself laughing at it more than once 
 before he went to sleep. 
 
CHAPTER Xm 
 
 CAEEYING ON 
 
 London, out of the season, is no doubt a gay and bustling 
 place to those who live in it, but to come from the country, 
 on a soft rainy morning in spring, say a week or two after 
 Valentine's Day, and splash through the muddy streets, 
 with a wet blanket of murky clouds close down upon the 
 chimney-pots overhead, and a sea of liquid mire under foot, 
 is perhaps, one of the most depressing performances, short 
 of actual misfortune, to which a man can be subjected in a 
 Christian land and a civilised community. 
 
 That it becomes tolerable, and even enlivening, when 
 combined with the borrowing of money for short periods, at 
 a high rate of interest, is one of those beautiful contradic- 
 tions in human nature, for which we are unable to account; 
 but it is a singular feature in the idiosyncrasy of mankind, 
 particularly duriag the elasticity of its third decade, that 
 pecuniary pressure should produce, probably from recoil, a 
 high flow of spirits, and a general state of imperturbable 
 good-humour. 
 
 Perhaps there is some truth in the witty Lord Alvanley's 
 precept, that it would be hard, if because a man wanted 
 money, he should therefore want everything else. Perhaps 
 all dif^culties are good for us, and therefore it is that we 
 make so many for ourselves. 
 
 In one of those quiet streets, within reach of the clubs, 
 the parks, the public offices, and the Strand, there stands a 
 large, well-built, dirty dwelling, from the exterior of which 
 you would infer that it was a roomy and commodious family 
 mansion, with a good deal of substantial furniture running 
 
 m 
 
OABBYING ON 197 
 
 to seed, and housemaids sadly neglectful of their duty. 
 Passing it often, which curiosity alone would prompt you to 
 do, for it is in a retired and little frequented thoroughfare, 
 you would wonder why you neither saw livery-servants at 
 the door, nor the slightest appearance of life below stairs in 
 the area. Being further informed that it did not belong to 
 a dentist, you would forthwith give up guessing at the 
 manners, habits, and social station of the proprietor. The 
 house would become a mystery to you, and might remain 
 so, though you passed it every day during the term of your 
 natm'al life. 
 
 For the London cabman, however, there is no such thing 
 as a mystery. Though you come across a stupid driver 
 every now and then, when you are in an unusual hurry, 
 taken as a body, I believe this fraternity to possess more 
 general information than any class on earth. Mark their 
 philosophical composure under trying circumstances, such 
 as collisions, upsets, and fatal accidents ; observe their 
 tranquil recognition of merit, their lofty indifference to 
 evil, their utter callousness to surprise ; their self-reliance, 
 their powers of sarcasm, their eloquence in denunciation or 
 repartee. Like the men you meet going to and from 
 races, but never see on the course or elsewhere ; they 
 are a class by themselves— how raised, how formed, how 
 educated, I have not sufficient statistical research to explain. 
 
 One of these peripatetic philosophers, then, was sitting 
 on the box of his hansom, at the door of the house I have 
 endeavoured to describe, accepting the rain that fell con- 
 tinuously with a resignation highly creditable in the con- 
 ductor of a vehicle, which', unlike the " four-wheeler, " 
 makes its hay avowedly while the sun shines. His horse 
 showing a good deal of well-shaped anatomy, sinking its 
 lean, handsome head, and resting, as far as possible, the 
 most ailing of its limbs, slept with great composure. The 
 pressure of the carriage had been taken off its back. 
 Obviously the fare was paying a protracted visit, and the 
 driver waited with the patience of a man who is earning 
 money the whole time he is doing nothing. 
 
 He did not seem to puzzle his brains with vain specula- 
 tions as to the house before which he had stopped more 
 than an hour ago. Did this careless demeanour, enhanced 
 
198 TBS BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBB 
 
 by his professional method of chewing a straw, spring from 
 a superiority of knowledge, or indifference to results ? My 
 own opinion is, that he was thoroughly conversant with the 
 character of the mansion and its inmates; that he had 
 learnt their trade, their liabilities, their customers; that 
 he knew as well as Walter Brooke himself, whom he had 
 brought here from the station, why his business should 
 take so long to negotiate, and what obstacles to its termi- 
 nation arose, from that officer's consistent refusal to accept 
 wine, pictures, the lease of a house in Camberwell, or a 
 share in a promising two-year-old, then at Stockbridge, in 
 lieu of any part of the coin for which he had come. 
 
 He was not the least surprised, this well-informed cab- 
 man, when a large, square, grey-haired man, looking the 
 very impersonation of respectability, bowed Walter to the 
 door, and stood in the gloomy hall, rubbing his hands as if 
 he were washing them, with an action peculiar to people 
 whose avocations oblige them to handle dirty work, meta- 
 phorical or real. 
 
 The large man conversed affably, but in a tone of 
 fatherly interest, and even remonstrance. He was, appar- 
 ently, still urging on Walter " Something to his advan- 
 tage." " No such sheny to be got, Captain," said he 
 benevolently, " out of the country itself. Our correspondent 
 obtains it as a personal favour, and forwards it direct. 
 Young men ruin their stomachs with inferior sherry. 
 Think of it. Captain. I may not have such a chance to 
 offer you again." 
 
 " My good Sir," replied Walter, " do you suppose I can 
 afford to huy sherry ? What do you think I came here 
 for?" 
 
 "Well, well," said the other, laughing over his limp 
 white neckcloth, " We are always ready to accommodate — 
 always ready to accommodate. I have incurred more 
 responsibility than I like in transacting our business with- 
 out reference to my partner, but it was to oblige you, 
 Captain — to oblige you. The picture I think you are 
 right to decline, having no permanent residence, though 
 such a picture as that, Sir, is a bank-note in a fr-ame. 
 With regard to the lease, I might afford to buy it back from 
 you at an increased price in six weeks from this time. I 
 
CABBYma Olf 199 
 
 really think you should take the lease ! It's worth more 
 and more every day." 
 
 " Then why the devil do you want to sell it ? " asked 
 Walter, not unnaturally, putting on his gloves the while, 
 and by this time driven to the door-step, 
 
 " We make things dove-tail, to suit each other, in our 
 business," was the reply ; " and I should like to put you 
 in the way of a good thing, I confess, Captain, for my own 
 satisfaction — ^that is why I confided to you the merits of 
 my partner's young, one. You won't breathe a syllable, of 
 course. I believe hatsfiil of money are to be made out of 
 that horse for the Derby after next. Your share would be 
 worth your troop to you by that time. Captain, whether he 
 won or lost. You understand me. The truth is, my 
 partner's a deal too fond of racing. It doesn't look well 
 for men of business, Captain, and I wish I could wean him 
 from it." 
 
 "I always hear about your partner," said Walter, 
 buttoning his coat with a satisfied air, like a man who has 
 got something inside. " Why do I never see him ? I 
 cannot imagine he is such an impracticable lender, and 
 such a screw about discount, as you make out." 
 
 The other smiled blandly, and went on washing his 
 hands. 
 
 "My partner's time is much engaged," said he. "At 
 present, I believe he is on business of his own somewhere 
 in the country. He will think my terms too liberal, I fear, 
 Captain, when we audit our accounts ; but I am proud to 
 have been able to accommodate you even at a personal 
 sacrifice. Good morning — good morning, Captain. You 
 will bear in mind, if you please, not to mention the two- 
 year old." 
 
 The square, grey-haired man made one more farewell 
 bow, and closed his own door softly and placidly, while 
 Walter shut down that of the hansom with a bang. Then 
 giving his orders to the imperturbable cabman with a 
 smiling face, for he was in high spirits, he congratulated 
 himself on the past interview and the success of his late 
 enterprise. 
 
 Let us see what was the amount of gain he contemplated 
 with such lively satisfaction. 
 
200 THB BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 In the first place, he had laid himself under an obligation 
 to a friend, which might or might not prove a source of 
 future inconvenience, but on this point it is right to observe 
 he troubled himself but little. Bags was a good fellow, 
 and it would all come right : so there was an end to that 
 matter. In the next, he had engaged to pay up three 
 hundred pounds of hard money within three months' 
 time. Was it more likely he could meet such a demand 
 at the expiration of that period than now? Well, he 
 thought it was ! Events would then have come off which 
 might put him in funds, and, if worst came to worst, he 
 must let that muff Mexico have poor Fugleman. For 
 these liabilities, over how much had he buttoned his pocket 
 to carry on the war ? He had fought hard for his spoil, 
 and had avoided, only by dint of persistent resolution, 
 the ownership of five dozen of bad wine, an anatomical 
 daub, ill-drawn and worse coloured ; the lease of a tumble- 
 dovm house; and an indefinite share, with three or four 
 black-legs, in a problematical race-horse. Waiving all 
 claim to these personalties, he had struggled, shilling by 
 shilling, for the discount, and found himself, at the close of 
 his interview with Mr. Pounder, for that was the money- 
 lender's name, in possession of four fifty pound notes, as 
 many tens, a few fives, eleven sovereigns, and three half- 
 crowns. This sum would keep him afloat for some weeks, 
 at any rate. He would go triumphantly to St. Barbs. 
 He would have a rare ride on Fugleman to-morrow. There 
 was sure to be a scent after the rain, and Oakover was the 
 best covert in the country. Walter placed great reliance 
 on the future. His faith was fixed, though indefinite, in 
 that blind Goddess, who certainly gives her aid most freely 
 to those who trust implicitly in her guidance. 
 
 Life seemed well worth having after all. Though the 
 cabman, in letting down the glasses, knocked its hat over 
 its eyes, the fare neither stamped nor swore, and did not 
 leave London without buying a cardcase for Helen, a pair 
 of lazy-tongs for the Squire, and a cheap tobacco-stopper 
 for Jack. 
 
 He was soon back at the railway station, and in direct 
 infringement of the company's by-laws, tendering half-a- 
 crown to the guard of the train on the understanding that 
 
CABBYING ON 201 
 
 this incorruptible functionary should reserve a carriage ex- 
 pressly for himself and his friends. 
 
 I think I have observed of late years that young men 
 travel with more impediments in the way of luggage, than 
 was the practice long ago in the days of my youth. I have 
 seen, in that primeval age, a rampant dandy of his time 
 making the transit from London to Doncaster outside the 
 mail, which, by the way, he drove, or worked, as we used 
 to call it, fully half the distance, with no more superfluities 
 than a shawl-handkerchief; no more necessaries than a 
 sherry-flask, and a cigar-case the size of a portmanteau. 
 But to-day they seem to have advanced a whole century in 
 matters of comfort and convenience. The modern traveller 
 who takes a first-class ticket requires as many luxuries as 
 an Eastern potentate. In addition to railway rugs and 
 wrappers of every description, he must be further encum- 
 bered by a faggot of sticks and umbrellas, securely strapped 
 together like the bundle in the fable, by an embroidered 
 cap, a travelling lamp, an uncut novel, a paper-knife, The 
 Times (with supplement), the Globe, a sporting paper, and 
 the Satwday Review ; nor can any of these extras ap- 
 parently be crammed into a large leathern reticule, with a 
 pocket in its stomach like a female kangaroo, already stuflFed 
 with writing materials, cigar cases, eau de Cologne, hair- 
 brushes, and, as I am informed, all the materials for an 
 elaborate toilet. 
 
 Each of Walter's three friends possessed the parapher- 
 nalia pertaining to his station. There was but little room 
 in their " engaged " compartment for the half-dozen new 
 packs of cards, without which it was impossible to travel 
 over a score of miles. These lively young gentlemen were 
 going down to join the hunting-party at St. Barbs, and had 
 arranged to dine with Walter at the barracks ; and then 
 catch a late train on a branch line, which would bring them 
 to the Duke's about midnight. The day would be thus 
 passed in change of scene and excitement. There remained 
 but the period occupied by their journey from London to 
 Middlesworth. This blank, it had been decided, could be 
 agreeably filled up with whist. 
 
 The party consisted of Viscount Mexico, an exceedingly 
 rich and uninteresting Peer, supposed to be somewhat 
 
202 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 deficient in brains, but well known at Eton, Oxford, and 
 subsequently in London, as sufficiently careful of his own 
 interests, and not too stupid to play a remarkably good 
 rubber : or to square accounts with his agent scrupulously 
 once a month, whereby the family property, little damaged 
 by a shamefully inadequate settlement on his Lordship's 
 mother, did by no means deteriorate under his administra- 
 tion. This young nobleman was very properly the great 
 gun of the party. 
 
 The other two, of smaller bore, so to speak, and inferior 
 calibre, were as well known in London as Northumberland 
 House or the Duke of York's Column. Captain Belt of 
 the Life Guards, christened Augustus, but known in the 
 regiment as Tom, was a fair specimen of a class that 
 delights to throw away its advantages, and waste its 
 energies on frivolous pursuits, for which it cares nothing at 
 heart. Tom Belt, with courage, good humour, good health, 
 and good abilities, was satisfied, or I should say, resigned, 
 to pass his days in the narrowest possible circle, even of 
 those amusements for which he seemed to live. To shoot 
 pigeons at Hornsey, to lose glove-bets at Ascot, to be well 
 dressed, and ride a neat hack in the Park — ^these were the 
 aims and endeavours of his existence. He had talents of 
 which he was scarcely conscious, for he had never cultivated 
 them. He had affections, frittered away on a hundred 
 different objects, of which he preferred the most unworthy. 
 He had a large estate which he neglected ; but, fortunately 
 for him, an agent, who allowed no "pickings" but his 
 own. He had all the accessories that go to form a man 
 of influence in his generation, and what was the result? 
 Tom Belt, with his cheery manner, his pleasant smile, his 
 good set of teeth, had the reputation of being not quite an 
 idiot, only because he could play a fair rubber at whist ! 
 
 How many men there are about London completely 
 thrown away from sheer want of a plimge into cold water ; 
 who, when braced up by danger, difficulty, or affliction, 
 prove themselves capable of great things ; and who, even 
 in the natural and tranquil course of events, do sometimes 
 get tired of frivolity at middle-age, and turn to the real 
 working purposes of life. Perhaps, if they tvill do nothing 
 but waste their time till they are ruined, the best thing for 
 
CABBYING ON 203 
 
 them is to get rid of their money as fast as they can. Yet 
 it does seem a pity to lose all the golden years of youth, 
 all the resources and advantages of wealth, because people 
 persist in making a business of pleasure, thereby losing the 
 exquisite flavour afforded by the one, as well as the sub- 
 stantial-food comprised in the other. 
 
 Tom Belt might well be called one of the drones in the 
 hive. Not so little Champignon, sitting on the opposite 
 seat, and presenting Lord Mexico with a paper cigarette of 
 undeniable quality, imported direct from Madrid, as he 
 assures his Lordship, who, possibly in complete ignorance 
 of that capital, seems but little impressed with the fact. 
 
 Champignon has worked hard all his life. Nobody 
 knows who he is — nobody thinks of asking. , From some 
 men society requires that they should bring their creden- 
 tials in their hand; others it accepts, as we accept the 
 swallows in the spring, without troubling ourselves where 
 they came from. 
 
 Champignon's name is French; his low stature, olive 
 complexion, and dark, piercing eyes, argue a Spanish 
 origin ; but when he opens his lips, you are satisfied that 
 English is his mother-tongue. There is a tradition that 
 he speaks many continental languages like a native. Pos- 
 sibly he may ; but there is no mistake about his English ; 
 and no foreigner, I think, however great his proficiency, 
 ever yet succeeded in deceiving our national ear. There 
 is also a superstition that he is connected in some mys- 
 terious manner with the Government, and this indefinite 
 link seems unaffected by a change of Ministry. Also he 
 disappears suddenly on occasion, even in the middle of 
 the season, for weeks at a time. Vague rumours then arise 
 that he is engaged in important political missions at 
 foreign capitals. On his return, invitations to dinner pour 
 in without number, and his admirers become more infatu- 
 ated than ever to observe, as he takes care they shall, that 
 he is hand-and-glove with every attacM in London, and 
 that ambassadors themselves clap him on the shoulder, and 
 call him Mon cher in the Park. 
 
 The little man loses nothing, depend upon it, by being 
 a secret from the crown of his French hat to the tips of his 
 nice boots. Nobody knows what he does with himself all 
 
204 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 the morning, or why he is regularly seen by his acquaint- 
 ance, which means everyone in London, yet never twice 
 by the same person in the afternoon. Nobody knows 
 whether he lives at the address on his cards, or where he 
 dines when not engaged to one of his noble friends, or why 
 people so often miss him at those great parties in the lists 
 of which his name invariably appears next day. Nobody 
 knows if he is, or is not, connected with several daily, and 
 one weekly paper ; or why he is half-an-hour in advance of 
 the world regarding telegrams, official news, horrible acci- 
 dents, and domestic scandal. He himself knows every- 
 thing — where you can get unadulterated sherry j who was 
 the first person to throw himself off the Monimaent, and 
 where he fell; why Lady Macallummore's hair all came 
 down at the Caledonian ball ; how she sent her maid away, 
 and where the maid is gone. Ere he has been twelve 
 hours at St. Barbs he wUl tell the Duchess of Merthyr- 
 Tydvil of a shop for cleaning old lace in the Barbican, and 
 what to give her love-birds for the gapes. He will warn 
 the Duke of a certain favourite likely to be " made safe " 
 for the Two Thousand ; and he will show the land-agent a 
 diagram of a new subsoil plough. Lady Julia calls him 
 " The Pocket Companion and Universal Keferee." Per- 
 haps, if obliged to go out, he will enjoy his day's hunting 
 less than any other country amusement ; but he will ask 
 his host honestly to put him on a quiet horse, and will get 
 through even this ordeal quietly and creditably enough. 
 
 In appearance he is not prepossessing, but he looks what 
 he is — a hard and wiry man, though small. He speaks 
 little, notwithstanding his amount of information, and 
 drinks less; but he smokes cigarettes from morning till 
 night, and makes a fair annual income by his skill in the 
 noble game of whist. 
 
 The train has panted out of the station ; cleared off a 
 few short white puffs of smoke, as though to bring its lungs 
 into play ; indulged in a strange, shrill shriek, like a wild 
 cry of freedom from some living monster, and is fairly 
 settled to its work, thirty miles an hour, over the beautiful 
 pastoral country that lies to the north of London. There 
 is a forty-shilling penalty for smoking, wisely advertised in 
 each carriage, to enhance the forbidden pleasure of a cigar. 
 
CABBYINQ ON 205 
 
 It is needless to say that three of these, and a cigarette, 
 are abeady in fall process of consumption. The fellow- 
 travellers talk a little, read a little, find the latter an 
 unpleasant process, and somebody says something about 
 "whist." 
 
 " The very thing ! " observes Tom Belt, turning from 
 the window, out of which he has been scanning the country, 
 searching, I imagine, for the easy places in the fences, and 
 thinking how tempting they look to ride over — " the very 
 thing. Play all the way down ; make the time pass. Not 
 too high, I vote. What say you, Brooke ? Quiet rubber 
 in the old form ; pound points ? " 
 
 "Pounds and fives," answered Walter, carelessly, strong 
 in the possession of ready money ; " or ponies, if you like 
 it better. I don't care. Bet what you please." 
 
 The hussar was a proficient in the game — ^perhaps one 
 of the best in London, for his years. Its intricacies 
 suited his turn of mind, and he had made many a welcome 
 hundred by the self-taught habit of remembering every card 
 as it came out. He felt now that he was a turn better 
 than any of his company : for of the other three, though 
 sound average players. Champignon could alone be con- 
 sidered even second-rate. The higher the stakes, there- 
 fore, the more profitably, he thought, could he employ his 
 time. Why, he might win enough in a couple of hours to 
 take him well over the next three months ; and something 
 seemed to tell him he was in a run of luck just now. So 
 he shuffled the cards, and cut Champignon for a partner, 
 with very decided anticipations of success. 
 
 They won the first game triumphantly. Honours divided. 
 Cards pretty equal ; but Tom Belt, possibly unused to 
 whist at the rate of thirty miles an hour, committed an 
 egregious blunder, and Mexico might have made more of 
 his diamonds. "Play must tell," thought Walter, as he 
 prepared to deal; and he laid the life guardsman thirty 
 pounds to twenty, with considerable scmgfroid. 
 
 The next was not so prosperous. The adversaries' cards 
 were of a nature to override any amount of play, and the 
 inferior performers, as Mexico pleasantly observed, " had it 
 all their own way from first to last, and won in a canter." 
 
 Fortune will sometimes take the entire management even 
 
206 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 of such games as whist, in which skill shares so largely 
 with chance. Walter lost the first rubher, though with so 
 good a partner as Champignon. It was discouraging, after 
 this, to have lee-way to make up by the inferior aid of Tom 
 Belt. 
 
 Mexico had quite sense enough to know when he was in 
 " a good thing." While the train stopped for a minute- 
 and-a-half to take in water, he made the cards, and looked 
 from one adversary to the other. 
 
 "Fifty with each on the rubber?" he asked, adding 
 lazily, " what a row that fellow makes with his bell ! " 
 
 Tom Belt declined. " I'll have a pony with you, if you 
 like ; but I think you're rather strong for us." 
 
 " I'll take the other seventy-five ! " exclaimed Walter, 
 eagerly. He had that strange prescience of success which 
 no gambler ever should or can resist, though it leads him 
 eventually to ruin. 
 
 They won it. They carried everything before them. 
 Picture-cards came tumbling into their hands by threes 
 and fours ; small tramps were valueless, and despised. 
 Success ! a bumper ! All the honom-s ! The rubber 
 resembled a regimental dinner in every respect, save that 
 it was sooner over ; and Walter, nearly a hundred to the 
 good, felt that he was in the vein, and would not disappoint 
 his luck. 
 
 But it was this very success that led eventually to his 
 discomfiture. In the transit from London to Middlesworth 
 there was time for three rubbers, hardly for four. Never- 
 theless, one of these had been so quickly played out, that 
 after losing on the next, Walter himself proposed a fourth 
 at still higher stakes, when he found himself once more 
 with the best of the three players for a partner. 
 
 Meanwhile the train went gliding on, leaving behind it 
 many a lordly hall, and wooded hill, and lovely glimpse of 
 English meadow scenery ; passing bare sky-lines of chalky 
 downs, and wide flats of rich, dark soil, and here a mill- 
 wheel silent in the hollow, and there a gleam of some quiet 
 brook, with pollard wUlows growing on its banks, until 
 presently the fields became larger, the cattle more 
 numerous, the hedges thicker, blacker, and less frequent ; 
 the character of the country, now less arable than pastoral. 
 
CABBYING ON 207 
 
 assumed a freer, wilder aspect, suggestive of galloping, and 
 the train, punctual to its time, ran into Middlesworth 
 Station before our friends had come near the conclusion of 
 their rubber. 
 
 "MiU's'orth! Mill's'orth! MiU's'orth!" shouted a 
 porter, in the easy tone affected by these functionaries all 
 over Europe, which prevents the possibility of your learn- 
 ing the name of a station unless you knew it before. " All 
 out here, if you please. Captain," added the man, opening 
 the door of the compartment in which the four whist 
 players were absorbed in their game, addressing himself to 
 Walter, whom he knew, and who had given him many a 
 shilling. 
 
 " Go to the devil ! " answered the hussar, intent upon a 
 certain knave, whose ambush he strongly suspected. 
 " What do you come jawing here for? You're not a first- 
 class passenger ! " 
 
 " Beg your pardon, Sir," said the man, grinning, " train 
 don't go any farther. Sir ; carriage has to be shunted." 
 
 " Shunt and be hanged! " replied Walter. " Here! you 
 Sir ! Run up to the barracks, and tell them to put dinner 
 off for half an hour. Ask the station-master, with my 
 compliments, to have us shunted to a siding, with as little 
 shaMng as possible, and put the danger signal on if there's 
 another train due. They know me here. Mexico, it's 
 your deal ! " 
 
 So the four gentlemen were quickly shunted off the line 
 of traiSe, and finished their rubber in great comfort and 
 dignity. Its results, however, were unfortunate for Walter. 
 To Mexico and Belt he lost nearly all the proceeds of his 
 morning's transaction with Mr. Pounder, besides half-a- 
 crown for the messenger he sent to the barracks, and a 
 sovereign among the porters who moved the carriage for his 
 convenience. Altogether, he did not return five pounds 
 richer than he went, and his groom's book, well he knew, 
 would make a sad hole in this small capital. 
 
 It was a pity, you see, that his friends, like himself, 
 belonged to a club, of which the members pay their losses 
 at whist in ready money. Otherwise the debt might have 
 stood over with a good many others. He began to wish 
 now that he had taken the sherry, the picture, or even a 
 
208 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 share in the two-year-old horse. These could not have 
 melted so rapidly. It was hard to decide what should be 
 done next. 
 
 Well, it was no use thinking of it in the meantime. 
 Walter was never better company in his life than presiding 
 over the hasty dinner he gave his guests in the barracks. 
 He joked about the hardships of campaigning ; apologised 
 for what he called Her Majesty's rations ; while he helped 
 them to turtle from Paynter's and pledged them in dry 
 champagne at ninety-six shillings a dozen. He had the 
 faculty, enviable in some respects, but which leads a man 
 too often into fresh difficulties, of throwing off all care and 
 anxiety for a time; of abstracting his mind completely from 
 every subject of future annoyance so long as a sip of 
 pleasure could be extracted from the present hour : and of 
 putting off his sorrows, as he did his debts; to be liquidated 
 hereafter, with interest added to capital. 
 
 He was so accustomed to difficulties too, though of late 
 they had been accumulating faster than usual, that he had 
 acquired great readiness of resource in pecuniary embarrass- 
 ment, and a rapid perception of expedients, which like the 
 coup d'ceil of a skifiul general, seized the remedy almost at 
 the instant of disaster. Even now, laughing gaily over his 
 champagne, and talking of anticipated sport to-morrow, he 
 had made up his mind that Fugleman must leave his own 
 stable for Mexico's at three hundred. One bold ride, he 
 felt sure, would instigate that nobleman to purchase; for 
 the Viscount, like many others, was apt to forget that a 
 horse carries some men a good deal better than others. 
 "Yes," he thought, "keep this ass in good humour, and 
 sell him my poor horse. Buy something else to finish the 
 season with, and then come the Spring meetings, with a 
 hundred or so to come and go upon, and all the oppor- 
 tunities of turning them that an industrious man can find 
 or make for himself in the ring. — Mexico, try another glass 
 of that champagne." 
 
 His Lordship was in unusual spirits. He liked winning 
 money — ^he liked a good dinner at another man's expense. 
 He was even well satisfied with his company, for Brooke 
 made himself unusually agreeable, and Rags listened to 
 him with a deference, to which, amongst his own friends, 
 he was totally unaccustomed. 
 
OABBYING ON iM9 
 
 The latter was a little disappointed that he had as yet 
 received no iavitation to St. Barbs, though he hardly 
 expected Walter to bring him one from London in his 
 pocket. But his genial nature soon recovered this trifling 
 drawback, and, as was usually the case, he enjoyed himself 
 without stint or scruple. Given two or three good- 
 humoured fellows, and tolerable wine, it would not have 
 been Rags had he failed to fall in with the jovial humour of 
 the hour. 
 
 Time passes rapidly with such a party when engaged in 
 the consumption of an excellent dinner, free from restraint 
 or ceremony. Mexico prosed a good deal about his keepers, 
 and his pheasants, and a certain system of rearing the 
 latter, which he seemed to think nobody else understood. 
 Nevertheless, though he drank freely, he preserved his wits, 
 such as they were, carefully enough. Coarse, heavy, and 
 unimaginative, his was the kind of nature on which wine 
 takes but little effect. While Tom Belt talked himself 
 into a high state of excitement on every subject broached, 
 the Viscount never showed the slightest spark of animation 
 but once, and that was when somebody contradicted him. 
 Then he turned angry and unpleasant, till Walter, with 
 considerable tact, Averted the conversation into a more 
 agreeable channel. There was not much time to spare. 
 The train that should bring the party within a five-mile 
 drive of St. Barbs, left Middlesworth at nine p.m. : never- 
 theless, before the moment of departure arrived, Tom Belt 
 sang an English, and Champignon a French song, both, I 
 am boimd to admit, of an Anacreontic character, tending 
 to the subversion of morals, and the encouragement of 
 inebriety. 
 
 Altogether, though he felt a little low when they left 
 him, and the barracks looked rather di'eary, emptied of its 
 guests, Eags enjoyed his evening considerably, and went to 
 bed in a hopeful frame of mind, anticipating great things 
 from the sport of to-morrow. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 TOO MUCH SAIL 
 
 Thbke is one advantage among many possessed by the 
 man who seeks his excitement in the hmiting-field, for 
 which he is by no means sufficiently grateful, and which 
 tends much to enhance the enjoyment of his beloved 
 pastime. It is the favourable and perhaps abnormal view 
 his tastes lead him to adopt of the weather. People who 
 are not given to hunting think him mad, when coming 
 down to breakfast on a dark, damp, dismal day, that 
 imparts to everything a gloomy aspect, no less than a raw, 
 cold touch, he exclaims, exultingly, " What a charming 
 morning!" In vain they point out that the earth is 
 saturated with wet ; the wind in the east ; that not only 
 do their own meteorological sensations, such as rheumatism, 
 lumbago, and chronic neuralgia, insist on the propriety of 
 remaining indoors, but that the glass has risen half an inch 
 since last night, denoting the probability of frost, though 
 the sky looks so like snow. The infatuated votary of 
 Diana but rubs his hands more gleefully and goes gallantly 
 in for an additional chop, while he denies himself a second 
 cup of tea. Presently he is seen picking his way to the 
 stables in search of his hack, to gallop off, cheerful, 
 radiant, full of spirits, the only thing out of doors, animate 
 or inanimate, that does not look disgusted with the state 
 of the atmosphere. 
 
 It is, however, less with the feelings of the rider than 
 the horse that I am now concerned. The horse — ^whose 
 instinct so nearly approaches reason; whose generous 
 courage refuses to acknowledge defeat; whose character 
 
 210 
 
TOO MUCH SAIL 211 
 
 and temperament are the noblest of the whole animal 
 creation. 
 
 Goody Two-shoes, stepping daintily through the deep, 
 poached clay of a narrow gateway, into a yellow, rushy 
 pasture, the surface of which is only varied by a couple of 
 magpies, and a stunted thorn, knows perfectly well why 
 she has been brought out of her warm stable soon after 
 dawn ; why she has been fed an horn* earlier than usual, 
 and forbidden to quench her thirst freely from the well 
 known pail ; why a horse-box on the railway has been 
 appropriated to the use of herself and her stable-companion, 
 for whom she manifests unfounded dislike, and a strong 
 inclination to injurious dealings by teeth and hoofs. 
 Lastly, why, after all the alarming joltings and deafening 
 noises incidental to steam conveyance, she has been 
 brought five miles at a foot's pace, with an extraordinary 
 degree of caution, by the smart little groom now perched on 
 her back, and who has ridden her some distance in advance 
 of his fellow servant, because, to use his own words, 
 "Goody, she do fight and worrit so bad, along o' company." 
 
 She is a picture standing there, with her handsome head 
 up, her delicate ears pointed, and a scarlet spot in her 
 nostril, as she spreads it wide and seems to watch with the 
 three senses, of sight, hearing, and smell, for the approach 
 of her maddening friends — the hounds. Dearly she loves 
 them, though with a wild unreasoning, and essentially 
 feminine attachment. Her fine organisation vibrates to 
 their music ; her reckless courage rises at their sight. In 
 their company what feat of daring will she not attempt ? 
 kept back from them, who can rule her so skilfully but that 
 she will prove a wild cat, a vixen, and a shrew? The 
 beautiful, brown, thorough-bred mare, is all afire with 
 excitement ; even now, though not a red-coat has yet made 
 its patch of colour to the dim, grey landscape, not even a 
 groom, slow, steady, and careful, with his master's 
 favourite, has yet arrived, except her own. 
 
 That wise little functionary dismounts in the driest spot 
 he can find, a very miiy one, nevertheless, and proceeds 
 with a blue cotton handkerchief to remove the specks of 
 mud from bit, stirrups, saddle-flaps: nay, even in a 
 measm-e, from the mare herself. Then he takes the curb- 
 
212 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBM 
 
 chain up a link, the girths a hole; adjusting saddle and 
 bridle with experienced nicety. Meanwhile, Goody Two- 
 shoes winces, kicks, and makes believe to bite. The happy 
 hour is approaching, and she is fit to jump out of her sMn 
 from positive delight. 
 
 Presently, the glance of her eye, the quiver of her ear 
 denote that she has caught the hoof-tramp of a horse ; 
 soon her stable companion, accompanied by two more 
 hunters, with their dark-coated, neatly-booted grooms, 
 makes his appearance; then from another direction, a 
 farmer on a four-year-old approaches at a trot, whilst a 
 cheery laugh, and the slam of a gate behind a neighbouring 
 coppice, denote that the plot is already thickening, and the 
 first scene about to commence. Were she of meaner race, 
 Goody would neigh aloud for joy, but she contents herself 
 with a prolonged snort instead, and bending her graceful 
 neck, plays a perfect tune on her ringing bridle in sheer 
 gaiety of heart. 
 
 Again the eager head goes up. She stands now erect 
 and motionless, save for a ripple of the quivering muscles 
 under her satin skin. Half a mile off, and invisible as yet 
 to eyes unsharpened by excitement, three black caps are 
 bobbing slowly along the far side of a ragged winter hedge ; 
 three red coats glance at intervals through its interstices, 
 ere a white dot or two straggle round the corner of the 
 fence into an adjoining field, and the crack of a heavy 
 hunting whip dwells like a pistol shot on the still dense 
 atmosphere. Nor is this all. A few early gentlemen, who 
 having had a long distance to ride, are therefore before 
 their time, come galloping up on their covert hacks ; and 
 the equanimity of Goody Two-shoes is fairly upset for the 
 rest of the day. By the time the huntsman and his hounds 
 have trotted quietly into the field appointed for the place of 
 meeting, more grooms, more hunters, more sportsmen, on 
 galloping hacks, turn up. A keeper in velveteen with a 
 double-barrelled gun under his arm, rises from some 
 mysterious ambush, and enters at once into confidential 
 relations with the first whip. 
 
 A dog-cart next arrives, driven by a gentleman who 
 seems to have missed his horse, and whom the nature of 
 the soil precludes from an attempt to leave the lane on 
 
TOO MUCH SAIL 213 
 
 wheels. Other carriages, containing ladies well wrapped 
 up, remain on the hard and friendly highway. A chesnut 
 horse with a white leg and a side-saddle appears from 
 behind an outhouse in the comer of the field ; a boy on a 
 pony surveys the whole gathering calm and unconcerned, as 
 boys always are in these days, without ever winking once. 
 The meet at Oakover is in the act of taking place, as 
 advertised. 
 
 There is nobody to wait for now, but the Duke. An 
 important omission certainly, inasmuch as his grace keeps, 
 manages, and hunts the hounds himself. But with that 
 tme politeness which is the offspring of unselfishness and 
 good nature, this scion of the House of Caradoc never lets 
 his field remember that he " hunts their country for 
 nothing; " and ere the question had been asked, "Have 
 you seen the Duke's drag? " a dark-coloured coach, drawn 
 by a handsome team, with many hunting points about 
 them, draws up at the gateway which has been trodden into a 
 perfect slough since Goody Two-shoes passed it first. The 
 Duke now hands the ribbons to Walter Brooke, divests 
 himself of his great coat, steps lightly on the roller-bolt, 
 and then swings some thirteen stone of handsome, vigorous 
 manhood into the saddle of a strong, white-faced brown 
 horse, pushed alongside the coach with much wincing and 
 " lifting," in order that a mount may be effected without 
 soiling his Grace's boots. 
 
 It is beautiful to see the rush of the hounds for their 
 huntsman as he passes into the field. Breaking wildly 
 away from rate or whip-crack, with fawning wistful faces, 
 waving sterns, and high, impatient bounds, they dash at 
 the master they love. Countess and Caroline gambol 
 round his horse ; Bonnibell throws a silver note for very joy 
 from her unwary tongue, and is iustantaneously rebuked for 
 so glaring an impropriety by the second whip ; while old 
 Bountiful, presuming on her high character and great 
 elastic powers, reaches the saddle bow at a boimd, and 
 fairly licks her lord's face, leaving four muddy foot-marks, 
 all close together, imprinted on the white thigh of his well- 
 cleaned leathers. 
 
 The Duke gathers his reins, feels for his horn, settles 
 himself into a strong hunting seat in the saddle, looks 
 
214 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 round for the owner of Oakover Grorse, a ruddy, brown- 
 coated old gentleman, who would be unhappy for weeks 
 should it be drawn blank, and with a few endearing 
 expletives scattered amongst his hounds, puts his horse in 
 motion for the covert. There is a simultaneous stir and 
 bustle through the large equestrian assemblage, whereupon 
 Goody Two-shoes, first lashing out at an unoffending pony 
 rears straight on end and refuses to be pacified. 
 
 Walter has mounted Fugleman, and dropped rather 
 behind the cavalcade, for he has seen the chesnut with the 
 side-saddle; and the Gorse being half a mile from the 
 place of meeting, he will have plenty of time, he thinks, to 
 secure his usual place for a start. The chesnut is already 
 champing his bit gaily, under the light hand of Lady Julia; 
 and Lord Waywarden, riding a strong good-looking cob, is 
 impressing on his daughter the necessity of trusting his 
 pilotage over the stiffly enclosed grass country, they are 
 likely to cross. 
 
 " Don't fuss, dear," says Lady Julia, adding with an 
 arch smile at Walter, " I can take my own line, and keep 
 it, too, in most things I try. Can't I, Mr. Brooke ? " 
 
 Walter laughs, and bows, wondering the while why the 
 young lady looks continually about, and behind her, as if 
 in search of some missing object. 
 
 " Papa, dear," she adds, after a pause, " don't you think 
 the Duke's absurdly punctual this morning. Half the 
 people can't possibly be here. Yoii came from St. Barbs, 
 Mr. Brooke, I know. How's the Duchess ? " 
 
 Walter explains that the Duchess is still confined to the 
 house, from her cold ; and poor Eags undergoing a most 
 uncomfortable ride on. his fretful mare, immediately in front, 
 feels his heart sink down to his boots, for there is no chance 
 of seeing his planet to-day. 
 
 As for Goody Two-shoes her conduct is atrocious. Not 
 satisfied with a flourishing progression side-ways, such as 
 the manage terms " passaging," and which, besides being 
 whoUyuncalledforin large grass fields, is somewhat hazardous 
 in narrow gateways, she exhibits all the caprices of her sex 
 and kind, in opposition to the wishes of her rider. Now 
 she throws that pretty head of hers into his face, at the 
 risk of knocking all the teeth down his throat ; now she 
 
TOO MUCH SAIL 215 
 
 dashes it wildly between her knees, rasping his knuckles 
 against her breastplate, pulling him fairly over her withers, 
 and causing him to present a larger surface of white leather 
 between the skirts of his hunting coat, than is desirable, to 
 those spectators who contemplate him from behind. Lady 
 Julia has a keen sense of the ridiculous; she bursts out 
 laughing. 
 
 " Our friend Eags isn't much of a fiddler," she whispers 
 to Walter. " I should suggest a little lighter fingering on 
 the strings, and a good deal more rosin for the bow. If he 
 don't mind his music, that animal will play the whole 
 fantasia right through without an accompaniment." 
 
 Walter would join in the laugh, but he remembers the 
 three hundred, and refrains. " The mare has been steeple- 
 chased," he explains, gravely, " and takes a great deal of 
 riding in a crowd." 
 
 " She's a dangerous brute ! " exclaims Lord Waywarden, 
 whose own cob is not so amenable as he could wish. 
 " Don't go near her, Julia, I beg of you ! " 
 
 " Is that the horse you bought of your brother? " asks 
 her ladyship, looking, however, in the contrary direction, 
 and regardless, apparently, of Walter's affirmative, which 
 is so far true that Jack is to have a round sum of money for 
 him, when he is paid. She. has scanned the horizon in the 
 meantime,'and looks rather pale, probably from the exertion, 
 when she turns her head again, and leans over to pat 
 Fugleman's glossy neck with her perfect little hand. " If 
 I had such a horse as that," she says, somewhat excitedly, 
 " I'd feed him every day of his life my own self. I'm not 
 sure I wouldn't dress him as well. At least, I'd do his 
 hair. I know I should take better care of him than you 
 men ever do of your favourites, as you call them ! I 
 wonder if you know, any one of you, the value of what 
 you've got ! " 
 
 The hussar accepts this peroration as most hussars 
 would ; but Walter is a person who likes to do one thing at 
 a time, and he is aware that the present situation is little 
 adapted for an interesting avowal, so he contents himself 
 with a tender glance, unfortunately lost on the young lady, 
 who is looking into the far distance straight between her 
 horse's ears. 
 
216 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 " Mr, Brooke," she says, after a pause (she liketf to 
 repeat his name, making such a soft, melodious word of it ; 
 and this, too, he considers, not without reason, is a good 
 sign), " I think I am rather smitten with your fiiend Eags. 
 I'm sure he's a good fellow, Mr. Brooke. Ask him why he 
 cuts me, out hunting, and tell him to come back and speak 
 to me." 
 
 Walter made no objections, for this arrangement suited 
 him exactly. Without being rude or inattentive, he could 
 thus steal quietly to the front, and arrange for Fugleman 
 the good start that gallant horse knew so well how to 
 keep. 
 
 Oakover Gorse, you see, was a certainty for a run. 
 There was not another covert to hold a fox within four 
 miles. There was hardly a ploughed field within an equal 
 radius. The grass carried a scent as such districts usually 
 do ; and if a man wanted to be comfortably settled with 
 hounds, it was an object to arrive early at a certain brook, 
 of formidable width, three or four fields off, and so get over, 
 if possible, without a contretemps. 
 
 Walter gave Eags the message with which he had been 
 intrusted ; and that hapless equestrian, much flattered by 
 the summons, though somewhat apprehensive as to the 
 means of obeying it, prepared to turn Goody Two-shoes 
 from the course she had adopted, following, as near as her 
 rider would permit, in the wake of the hounds. This 
 retrograde movement, however, was contrary to all her 
 notions of amusement. As well take a girl to a ball, and 
 forbid her to dance ! She shook that pretty head worse 
 than ever, reared straight up, and consistently refused to 
 move one yard in the direction required. 
 
 Eags was glad to compromise by waiting till Lady Julia 
 should arrive, and even the few seconds that elapsed ere she 
 reached him became a period of severe personal exertion 
 embittered by mental anxiety. 
 
 Now, I make no excuse for Lady Julia's conduct, 
 betraying, as it did, an ungenerous disposition to pay off a 
 disappointment of some sort on an unoffending object. 
 The cat, amusing herself with the mouse, has at least this 
 defence, that she stimulates appetite, and means to eat the 
 victim at last. But Lady Julia had no intention, so to 
 
TOO MUCH SAIL 217 
 
 speak, of swallowing Eags. It must have been sheer love 
 of mischief that bade her keep him by her side to the 
 intense irritation of Goody Two-shoes. Neither did Mr. 
 de KoUe, in his heart, care a great deal about the society of 
 her ladyship, for her own sake ; but then, she was a friend 
 of the Duchess ; and in the new career he had vaguely 
 sketched out, even honest Rags had worldly wisdom enough 
 to perceive that the assistance of Lady Waywarden's 
 daughter was not to be despised. 
 
 " What a beautiful horse, Mr. de Rolle ! " observed this 
 malicious fairy; and while she spoke he could not but 
 allow that her wicked eyes were as bright as diamonds. 
 "What a lovely head, and what perfect action ! I'm sui-e 
 it must be a delightful creature to ride ! " 
 
 The delightful creature here made a bounce in a lateral 
 direction that jerked its rider's foot out of the stirrup, for- 
 tunately on the side furthest from the lady. Eags was, 
 by this time, perspiring freely, and felt as if he had done a 
 fair day's work already. 
 
 " She's — she's good enough when she's once started," 
 said he ; " but I'm not quite good enough to ride her. 
 She wants a fellow like Walter there, or his brother Jack, 
 who's a better man still." 
 
 The avowal was made breathlessly, and the speaker's 
 hat was over his eyes : nevertheless, Lady Julia liked him 
 for his honesty. 
 
 "I thought you could ride anything, Mr. de EoUe," 
 answered this hypocrite, smoothing him down now as 
 craftily as she had intended ruffling him up ; and I always 
 understood Mr. Walter Brooke was one of the best riders 
 in England." 
 
 " So he is ! " said Eags eagerly; "and I wish he was 
 here now instead of me. But Jack Brooke's better still on 
 a queer horse. He has such nerve, you see, and such light 
 hands, though he is as strong as most horses himself. (Be 
 quiet. Goody !) I think it's his temper, though, that's his 
 great point. They say he's the best tempered fellow in 
 England, and that nobody can put him out ! " 
 
 " I should like to try ! " thought Lady Julia, though, of 
 course, she did not express such a sentiment aloud ; but 
 she looked very gracious at Eags, and asked him, in a tone 
 
218 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 of interest and judicious counsel, " why he did not get on 
 his second horse ! " 
 
 This was exactly what he had intended to do all along, 
 hefore they should find, only putting off the happy exchange 
 thus far, because his brother-officers ridiculed his possession 
 of an animal he could not control. His answer, however, 
 died out upon his lips, for, even while it reached them, an 
 electric thrill seemed to pervade the knot of horsemen 
 clustered by the Gorse. A cap was seen held up against 
 the sky, though its owner was hidden by the high-growing 
 evergreens. A heart-beating interval of keen suspense ; 
 one shiill, distinct, ear-piercing halloo; the Duke's horn 
 blowing short quick notes from the middle of the covert, 
 and Lady Julia was off like wildfire, at a gallop. Lord 
 Waywarden clattering after her on the cob, while Goody 
 Two-shoes plunged and tore madly in their wake, 
 boiling with excitement, and thirsting to get forward for 
 the run. 
 
 " This way ! Julia ! I insist ! " exclaimed Lord Way- 
 warden, as the girl put her horses head straight for an ugly 
 blackthorn fence with two ditches, of which the farthest was 
 only to be inferred from a horse's tail and a pair of scarlet 
 skirts revolving in the air. " There's a gate in the corner," 
 he added, breathlessly, getting his hand on the rein of his 
 audacious child. " We must make for the lane now. He's 
 over the brook already ; and with such a scent as there 
 seems to be this morning, this is no time for larking. 
 Mind, Ju, you're not to jump that horse till he's quieter ! " 
 
 " Oh, papa, Cockamaroo will be so disappointed ! " 
 answered Lady Julia, taking her father's advice however, 
 and swinging along by his side at an easy gallop, her 
 delicate profile looking very pretty under her neat riding- 
 hat ; the auburn hair skilfully flattened down in front, and 
 gathered up behind, just leaving the little tip of an ear, 
 with a jewel in it, visible ; the taper hands, in delicate 
 yellow gloves, holding their reins, with a light, firm touch, 
 far back in her lap, so as to give Cockamaroo's head all the 
 liberty compatible with a gentle and persuasive control, 
 while the sweet, round figure, in its tight-fitting habit, 
 swayed and gave gracefully to every stride of the well-bred, 
 powerful horse. 
 
TOO MUCH SAIL 219 
 
 It was a pity neither of the young gentlemen with whom 
 she had been riding could see her now ; hut Rags had no 
 attention to spare from his swveillance of Goody Two- 
 shoes; while Walter, with a capital start, and Mexico 
 behind him, would not have pulled back, of his own free 
 will, for any consideration on earth. 
 
 Lord Waywarden's knowledge of hunting, and familiarity 
 with the country, now stood him in good stead, though the 
 fine horsemanship and unshaken nerve of twenty years ago 
 were gone, never to return. Lady Julia and her father, 
 diverging considerably from the line of chase, made at once 
 for a convenient ford through the brook, and, cantering over 
 the opposite rise, found themselves far enough in advance 
 to pull up, and look leisurely on the exciting incidents of 
 the run. 
 
 These matters take long to describe, though they are 
 acted out in a very few minutes : nevertheless measured by 
 sensation, they are sufficiently protracted both for pleasure 
 and for pain. Whilst steadying a good horse over the first 
 two or three fields, under the conviction that he is in for a 
 gallop, a man lives through enough enjoyment to last for a 
 week, and a very short period passed under the same 
 animal, helpless on his back in a ditch convinces his rider 
 that to calculate time by seconds is an arithmetical fallacy 
 and mistake. 
 
 " I said, so ! " exclaimed Lord Waywarden, whilst his 
 daughter held her breath with delight, for the hounds came 
 streaming down to the water, and swarmed in like bees, 
 stooping to the scent as they emerged, and fleeting on 
 with a faint note of music, but not an instant's pause or 
 intermission. " I said so ; " he repeated, chuckling. 
 " They'll have plenty of room to-day. I wonder if 
 anybody will have a drive at it, Ju, for, by Jove, it's 
 a bumper ! " 
 
 The field had a capital start, and some half a score of 
 horsemen had singled themselves out from the rest, to 
 charge the first fence abreast. Of these, three were down, 
 and one had let his horse go. The Duke got his hounds 
 out of covert as soon as his fox was well away, with a 
 quickness for which he was indebted to their sagacity and 
 affection. They would fly to his born no less readily than 
 
220 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 to the challenge of old Bountiful herself, now speeding 
 along at head, swift, silent, and inexorable as death. 
 
 His Grace was out almost alongside of the pack, and, 
 regulating his course entirely by their movements, swung 
 steadily on like clockwork, lea-ving the brown horse to 
 arrange matters with the fences in any way he pleased, 
 except by refasing them. He and Walter Brooke were the 
 men nearest the hounds when they crossed the second field. 
 How often in those few furlongs the latter changed his mind 
 about letting Fugleman go for three hundred, it is not for 
 me to speculate. Mexico, watching him sailing away at his 
 ease, ridden fairly, though liberally, handled with con- 
 summate skill at his fences, and crossing them without 
 exertion, as though an unseen hand lifted and set 
 him down again seven or eight yards further on, was 
 quite determined to possess so good a horse, and would 
 have ofi'ered the money then and there — if he could have 
 caught him ! Of such an event there seemed but little 
 chance for another five-and-thirty minutes or so. As he 
 jumped a high flight of rails into the field through which 
 the brook ran. Fugleman was alongside the body of the 
 hounds, and fifty yards ahead of the Duke himself. These 
 two seemed the only horsemen inclined to face the water. 
 Swelled by the late rains nearly to its banks, it looked 
 sufficiently forbidding, and it needed but the example of 
 one well-known sportsman to lead every other man out, 
 hastily off, in the direction of the ford. Whilst they 
 hustled down to it, not one of them but confessed in his 
 heart he was wrong, and might as well have stayed at 
 home. Men are apt to be panic-stricken, you see, by 
 water no less than fire. Lady Julia and her father ex- 
 changed looks of intelligence. They were speculating on 
 the same event fi-om different points of view. 
 
 The young lady spoke first. 
 
 " He means to have it ! Papa, I knew he would. Look! 
 he's set him going. How well he rides him ! I wish I'd a 
 thousand (in gloves) on the event ! " 
 
 "No hunter in England can jump that water, Ju ! " 
 answered his lordship. "He'll break his horse's back, 
 and then he'll be sorry he didn't come with us to the ford." 
 
 They saw Walter diverging a little from the line he had 
 
TOO MUGS SAIL 221 
 
 hitherto taken. It was obvious that he had marked with 
 his eye the spot at which he meant to try and compass the 
 brook. He leapt Fugleman over the last fence at an 
 awkward place under a tree, but thus obtained a fair, 
 sound headland, with a fall of the ground, in his favour, 
 leading straight away to the water's edge. It was the 
 masterly manner in which he gradually increased his 
 horse's pace down this incline that elicited Lady Julia's 
 approbation. Fugleman's ears were pointed and his head 
 up ; the wild blood of old Frantic, inherited through Fenella, 
 was boiling in his veins. The gallant animal had no more 
 thought of refusing than his rider, and at the pace they 
 were going, it must be in or over, were the place as wide 
 as the Thames ! 
 
 "It's even betting! It's five to two ! It's a guinea to 
 a shilling," exclaimed her ladyship, waxing more and more 
 enthusiastic, as Fugleman's quick, determined strokes bore 
 him, stride by stride, towards his effort. She raised her 
 bridlehand, and moved in the saddle, as if she were riding 
 at the water herself. 
 
 " I tell you it's impossible ! " answered her father. " Ju, 
 don't be so slang ! " 
 
 " It's a monkey to a mouse-trap ! " added the young 
 lady, looking demurely in his face. * * * " Papa ! the 
 mouse-trap's mine ! " 
 
 As she spoke. Fugleman landed safely on the further 
 bank ; made a false step, a short stride, recovered himself, 
 and was away at his long, easy gallop after the hounds 
 once more. 
 
 The Duke was not quite so fortunate. Kiding, as was 
 his custom, very close to his pack, horn in hand, quaffing 
 eagerly at the cup he so loved to di-ain and conscious but of 
 one bitter drop in the whole of its contents, viz., the chance 
 that the main earths might be open at Hatherton Hill, 
 seven miles off, his Grace was unfortunately crossed by a 
 tail hound that had not come away with the rest from the 
 Gorse. To save Graceless from destruction, he pulled the 
 brown horse, at an unpropitious moment, out of his stride. 
 The result was a tremendous flounder, a sufficient ducking, 
 and a ludicrous scramble. Nevertheless, both rider and 
 horse got out at the cost of their wetting, and with no 
 
222 TBE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 further casualty than a pair of boots full of water and a 
 horn full of mud. The latter instrument was mute for the 
 rest of the day, and his Grace's enemies, if he had any 
 might observe &at in so far his fall was conducive to sport. 
 
 All this, to use an Irish expression, Lady Julia saw 
 " with the tail of her eye ; " but its gaze was still rivetted 
 on Walter speeding across a level water-meadow, inter- 
 sected by deep narrow cuttings, in all the triumph and 
 exultation of being for the moment "alone with the 
 hounds ! " 
 
 She turned as white as a sheet though, in a moment, and 
 clasped her hands, letting the reins fall on her knee — 
 
 " Oh ! Papa ! " she exclaimed. " Poor Fugleman ! Let 
 us go and help him ! " 
 
 Then she caught her bridle up, and galloped down to 
 the nearest gate, thence crossing a low fence into the 
 water-meadow, followed by Lord Waywarden on the cob, 
 that sturdy animal, by the way, blundering on his nose 
 over the obstacle. 
 
 Walter was standing by his fallen horse, looking, for once 
 in his life, really dejected and unhappy. Fugleman's hind 
 legs were still imprisoned by the deep narrow drain into 
 which they had slipped. He was carelessly nibbling the 
 short turf on which his muzzle rested, his ears were all 
 attention, his eye bright and full of vitality, but his back 
 was broke, and alas ! the gallant hunter was as good as 
 dead already. 
 
 Lady Julia was out of the saddle in a moment. She 
 never asked Walter if he was hurt. She knelt down 
 beside his horse on the wet, sloppy grass. She stroked 
 its nose with her delicate gloved hand, so small and pretty> 
 and useless to help the poor animal ; then she turned her 
 head away, and tried hard to prevent their finding out that 
 she was crying. 
 
 "It's no use," said Lord Waywarden, entering into his 
 young friend's feelings with all the sympathy of an old 
 sportsman. " The sooner he is put out of pain the better. 
 It's a hard case, Walter, upon my soul ! To get over 
 eighteen feet of water like that, and then break his back 
 in an eighteen-inch drain ! Cursed hard, I call it ! " 
 
 The dandy had by this time recovered his habitual self- 
 
c 
 
TOO MUCH SAIL 223 
 
 possession. He pulled an embroidered case from his pocket, 
 and proceeded to select a cigar with great deliberation, 
 observing, coolly — 
 
 " The fool had the whole of a fifty-acre field to put his 
 hindlegs wherever he liked, and he must needs leave them 
 in a place not a foot wide. Well, there's an end of him ! 
 It's lucky the days are long. I've a goodish walk from 
 here to St. Barbs." 
 
 Lady Julia flashed at him a look of indignation that 
 seemed to dry the very tears standing on her cheek. 
 Then she whispered to Lord Waywarden. 
 
 " Nothing Ju," was his answer, " Not all the skill of 
 the Veterinary College. Don't distress yourself, dear. 
 The poor thing is in no pain, and if it were, we can get 
 a gun in less than half-an-hour. It's the most merciful 
 way. Look ! Here are some of the field already ! " 
 
 Several of that enterprising body now appeared on the 
 scene of action. Amongst them Eags, who had found it 
 hopeless to attempt distinction on the incontroUable Goody 
 Two-shoes, and who, missing his other horse, wisely sub- 
 sided, without an effort, into the crowd. These gathered 
 like vultures round the dying horse, suggesting all sorts of 
 impossible remedies. Lord Waywarden, in the meantime, 
 sending a friend's groom back in search of the Oakover 
 keeper, with his gun. 
 
 " Take my mare, Walter," exclaimed good natured Eags. 
 "I see my servant coming through the gate. He shall 
 stay till poor Fugleman is destroyed. Why, you'll catch 
 them yet, if you bucket her well, and I'm sure it will do her 
 all the good in the world to take the devil out of her ! 
 Jump on, Walter ; I never was so glad to get off a horse 
 ia my life ! " 
 
 It was a good-natured offer, and, indeed, under the cir- 
 cumstances, there was nothing for it but to accept. Walter 
 mounted Goody accordingly, and the mare seemed to bend 
 her neck at once, and carry herself more discreetly under 
 his light, skilful touch. He looked wistfully after the 
 receding chase, but already even the stragglers were dis- 
 appearing, and it was hopeless to think of catching them 
 now. Though he pretended not to mind it, Walter did feel 
 a pang when he reflected that not only had he lost the best 
 
224 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 horse he ever rode, but the best run he was ever likely to 
 have the chance of seeing again. 
 
 For the first time, too, since they found, the recollection 
 of the three hundred, and how it was ever to be paid, flashed 
 across him. He was not a demonstrative man, nor was it 
 his way to swear aloud, but he sent an imprecation back 
 upon his heart that must have curdled all the blood about 
 that organ for more than one pulsation. 
 
 It was hard to lose such a run. Though some half-a- 
 dozen sportsmen came up at the first check, and continued 
 with the hounds till the finish, nobody saw it really from 
 end to end but the Duke. I may as well give it in his own 
 words, as detailed to the Duchess, while his Grace was 
 dressing, in a great hurry, for a large dinner party at 
 St. Barbs. It was the only half-hour on hunting-days 
 that they could spend together, and she used to make her 
 own magnificent toilet early, to take advantage of it. 
 
 "The best thing my hounds have ever had, you old 
 darling, since I took the country. (Chuck me those 
 slippers, and don't let the child in till I've more clothes 
 on.) You see, we found, and went away directly. The 
 beauties all got together, except a couple and a half. 
 That was Ben's fault. He's a willing lad, but slow. 
 They crossed the brook as straight as a bee-line, and 
 scarcely threw their tongues, for the pace they were 
 making. I don't remember such a scent this season. 
 My child, they ran as if they were tipsy. Unfortunately, 
 poor Graceless got between Tarquin's legs and. bothered 
 him. The old horse went in a good one! A regular 
 header! Precious cold the water was. A good deal 
 colder than this. (Mind I don't splash that beautifal 
 get-up !) We got out all right, however, though poor 
 Brooke, I hear, killed his horse. Luckily we had- no 
 damages to repair; but Tarquin shook his ears horribly, 
 disgusted beyond measure with his ducking. Well, we 
 came perfectly straight, over the grass, up to Coltsby, the 
 fox going right across the middle of the fields, and the 
 hounds literally racinfif— 'Countess and Caroline leading, 
 and poor old Bountiful next. It's the first time she's ever 
 been collared ; but they're far and away the best of the 
 litter, and as like old Cruiser as his photograph. However, 
 
TOO MUCH SAIL 225 
 
 you won't care to hear all about that, and how right I was 
 to put them forward, though Will advised me not. The run 
 you want to hear about, is it, dear? (Hand me those 
 towels. Mind your skirt against my wet things.) Well, 
 they kept beating me every yard they went. They were 
 half-a-nule ahead when they checked, so I can't tell exactly 
 whose fault it was, but I think the young ones had flashed 
 over it. You see, there was such a scent, and dead up 
 wind ! Two fellows, rabbiting, had turned the fox ; how- 
 ever, I was sure Hathertou must be his point, and 
 though my horn was full of mud, and I'd nobody to put 
 them to me, I managed to steady them, and hold them 
 across the turnpike-road by Waterley, in the direction of 
 the Hill. Here Prudish hit ofif very creditably, over a dry, 
 stony field (I shall keep Prudish, though her shoulders might 
 be better. She's the last I have of old Pilgrim's blood), 
 and on we went again, almost as merrily as at first. A few 
 fellows had managed to struggle up, amongst them Jack. 
 I wasn't sorry to see him, for though mine are a handy 
 pack of hounds as any in Europe, I can't do much with 
 neither a horn nor a servant. (Give me one of those 
 neckcloths, dear ; the white one.) After this, it was plain 
 sailing, almost to the finish. They hunted him at a good 
 holding pace, by Eversley and Pelton, and across the 
 London Eoad, nearly to Marberry, turning as if they were 
 tied to him, and giving Jack and me nothing to do but 
 keep our spurs going and look on. A beautiful sight they 
 were as they swung down HoUingburn Kidges and across 
 the open, again pointing for the Hill. (Now, the waistcoat, 
 mamma, and let the young one in.) ' It's worth a guinea 
 a minute, your Grace ! ' says Jack to me, just under 
 Hollingbum House, with his face as red as a turkey- 
 cock's, and his horse's neck stiff. * I'd give more than 
 that for two fi:esh horses,' was my answer. 'He can't 
 stand before them much longer at this pace, were he the 
 stoutest fox that ever was bred.' I had hardly spoken, 
 before I viewed him turning away from the Hill. He 
 couldn't face it, poor devil! and he sank the wind for 
 Wildwood. I think he made up his mind in a moment to 
 try and get there, for I never hunted a gamer fox. Here 
 a flock of sheep bad crossed his line, and the scent failed 
 
 15 
 
226 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 all at once. If I could have blown my horn, or Jack could 
 have raised a trot, I should have held them over it. As it 
 was, old Bountiful picked it out beautifully, and we got on 
 terms with him through some heavy ploughs, where three 
 couple of the young ones came out and did all the work. I 
 fancy this finished Jack's horse, for he never showed again. 
 I was almost afraid now we should get to the Forest, and 
 he might beat us, after all ; but they stuck to him over the 
 meadows by Ripplesby in a way that looked very like blood, 
 and he began to run short amongst the small enclosures on 
 old Welter's farm. By the way, young Welter went very 
 well on a grey horse that would carry me. I viewed the fox 
 twice in and out of a double hedge-row, by the orchard, 
 and I could have killed him five minutes sooner, but that 
 Fearless and Frolic led all the others wrong by running 
 heel, and Welter, who had no thong to his whip, couldn't 
 stop them. However, it's their first season, and though they 
 were as wild as hawks, they were as fresh as fire. It's 
 undeniable blood, no doubt. When I got them back to me, 
 I met him at the comer of the hedge-row, but he whisked 
 through, once more putting his head straight for the Forest, 
 and they fairly ran into him in the open, just below 
 Norman's Cross, nine miles from Oakover, as the crow 
 flies, and exactly one hour and five minutes from the 
 moment old Bountiful opened in the Gorse, with but one 
 check, to speak of, and not a hound, except Graceless, 
 missing at the finish. 
 
 " Poor Tarquin was very glad it was over, and indeed I 
 think you may say it was something like a run." 
 
 "Why didn't we come home? Well, you see, the 
 hounds were pretty fresh, and we got the second horses, 
 and it wasn't two o'clock, so I thought a good rattling 
 would do Wildwood no harm, and I spent the afternoon in 
 the Forest with about as bad a fox as I ever had the 
 pleasure of hunting, even down there. However, I brought 
 his nose home too, and altogether, I think it's been the 
 finest day's sport I ever had since I kept hounds. You see 
 — Good gracious, there's dinner ! I forget whose coming. 
 Which of those old women am I to take in ? Run down, 
 there's a dear, and teU them I won't be half a minute 
 behind you." 
 
TOO MUCH SAIL i227 
 
 It is needless to add that Ms Grace was as good as his 
 word, gave his arm to the oldest Peeress in every sense, 
 and ate his dmner with the appetite of a man who has 
 passed eight hours of hard exercise and happy excitement 
 in the open air. 
 
 While the Duke was finishing his fine run, and long 
 before he plunged into the soaking rides and interminable 
 depths of Wildwood, for the afternoon, Walter was riding 
 Goody Two-shoes by Lady Julia's side, as far as their 
 respective roads home lay together. 
 
 Lord Wajrwarden had hunted too many years to under- 
 take the labour in vain of hanging on the sMrts of a really 
 good thing, in the wild hope of ever reaching the performers 
 till it is over ; and although several of the field, with Rags 
 amongst them, persisted in the fruitless task, he impressed 
 on his daughter, with considerable emphasis, the propriety 
 of a speedy return, and a saving of their horses for another 
 day. 
 
 Walter was in low spirits, no doubt, though he affected 
 to make light of his casualty. He was fond of his horse. 
 Some men whose hearts seem curiously hard in all other 
 relations of life are capable of strong attachment to animals. 
 I believe he almost loved Fugleman. Besides, he had 
 calculated on him so confidently for extrication from his 
 difficulties; and now, instead of being cheap at three 
 hundred, he was not worth thirty shillings. Of all times, 
 too, he could ill afford to lose him just at present. Still, I 
 am of opinion that now, while his blood was yet stirring, 
 and his manlier nature aroused by the excitement of the 
 last half hour, the pang he felt most keenly was when he 
 pictured to himself the dangling head-collar, and the empty 
 stall at home. 
 
 As he turned in his saddle for a last look to where his 
 poor horse lay, he saw the keeper with the gun under his 
 arm, hastening down towards the brook. Then Walter 
 shuddered visibly, and his lip twitched. Lady Julia 
 observing his compunction, forgave him his heartlessness 
 of a few minutes ago. 
 
 Women are the best consolers, after all. Their tact is 
 so fine, their sympathy so intuitive. They neither pull a 
 long face, and remind you by mute stupidity of a sorrow 
 
228 TEE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 they might just as well dilate on in polysyllables ; nor do 
 they jar all your sensibilities, by trying to rouse you into 
 mirth, with efforts about as judicious as those of the ship's 
 steward, who brings you boiled leg of mutton and caper 
 sauce, to tempt your appetite when you are sea-sick. They 
 err in neither extreme ; but they summon the resources of 
 their delicate minds, their soft voices, and their fine eyes, 
 to put you on better terms with yourself, and consequently 
 with everything in the world, including the affliction from 
 which you bleed. Lady Julia understood this as well as 
 most other offices of her sex, and made herself so pleasant, 
 and looked so remarkably pretty all the while, that Walter, 
 though by no means a susceptible person, and disposed, 
 moreover, to gauge all women by the standard of Mrs. 
 Major Shabracque, began to acknowledge something like 
 the old foolish feeling stirring at his heart once more. 
 
 He admitted she was pretty ; he considered she was 
 agreeable ; he knew she was high bred, and he had heard 
 she would have thirty thousand pounds. Several vague 
 ideas that had been floating through his brain for some 
 weeks, began to assume a less indefinite form. I do not 
 mean that he contemplated laying serious siege to the 
 young lady, and going to her father with the cool proposal : 
 " Give me your daughter and her fortune, in return for my 
 irreproachable exterior, doubtful character, and expectations 
 — of nothing." But he thought of what might be ; of a 
 home ; of true affection ; of children ; of something better 
 than this gaudy, empty, unsubstantial life ; this wide and 
 ever shifting circle, of which, under its varying conditions, 
 the centre was always self. 
 
 The young lady saw he was in distress, while trying 
 hard to conceal it. She liked him the better for this 
 feeling, and the effort. Perhaps she had reasons of her 
 own for thus sympathising with the sorrows of others; 
 perhaps she was not thoroughly happy and heart-whole 
 herself. 
 
 Be that as it might, her manner was unusually soft and 
 kind during their ride. She neither mocked at, nor 
 ridiculed anybody, for five whole miles. He was almost 
 sure she pressed his hand when he took leave at the cross- 
 roads, where they parted. Her late presence seemed to 
 
TOO MUOH SAIL 229 
 
 shed a glow over him during the rest of his solitary journey. 
 He felt soothed ; he felt comforted, notwithstanding poor 
 Fugleman ; he could have felt almost happy, had it not been 
 for that doubly accursed three hundred. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 DBIFTING TO LBEWABD 
 
 A LUNCHEON-PARTY in a great country-house is about the 
 pleasantest meal of all. The guests are just hungry 
 enough to be in good humour. Some of them have not 
 been many hours out of their rooms. Even those who 
 came down earliest are not yet jaded with the efforts of the 
 day. Breakfast is well enough for quiet young people, 
 whom nothing can subdue, or very old ones, who are 
 obliged to take care of themselves, and so privileged to 
 retire to bed early ; but for the middle-aged, the weary, the 
 over-worked, it is no such easy matter to resume at ten the 
 flow of spirits required over-night, to last till two a.m. It 
 is against the grain that a pale face is dressed in smiles, 
 a jaded appetite, tempted with hot salmis de gibier, and a 
 relaxed nervous system braced up once more for the give- 
 and-take contest of epigram, banter, and repartee. Women, 
 I think, bear the reaction better than men. If incapable 
 of such strenuous efforts, they can remain, so to speak, 
 under arms longer than oui'selves. We are apt to pine for 
 the easy dressing suit, the slippers, the arm-chair, the cup 
 of tea cooling at our elbow, the soothing weed burning 
 slowly between our lips. We have not their energy, their 
 persistence, their spirit of emulation ; above aM, we feel the 
 want of the noble and sustaining influence of dress. There- 
 fore it is that at breakfast we are dull, pointless, sodden, 
 glad to come down late, and escape observation ; unequal 
 to a romp with the children of the house, and somewhat 
 irritated by the si^alwart domestic who persists in believing 
 we can eat of every dish, both before the fire and on the 
 
DBIFTINa TO LEEWABD 231 
 
 side-tables. But let us elude over much civility and 
 attention, get into a snug comer with the newspaper, or a 
 sheltered walk in the shrubbery, to smoke and talk honest 
 male scandal with a comrade, arrive at the sanctum of our 
 bedchamber, to find the devastation of the housemaids has 
 swept over it, and passed away, write our letters, admonish 
 our servant, skim that article in the Saturday Review 
 which we pretended last night we had read (if not written), 
 and when two o'clock comes, and a great bell above the 
 stables rings out its summons, behold, our weapons are 
 pointed, our corslet laced: we are a giant refreshed, 
 prepared for attack, defence, charge, sku-mish, or sortie, 
 thrust and riposte, " hob nob, give it, or take it." 
 
 The ladies, too, appreciate their luncheon thoroughly. 
 The hours of eating for the human subject are a mere 
 question of habit, and a healthy appetite is the most 
 infallible of timekeepers. I know not why our beautiful 
 companions confine themselves to a morsel of toast and a 
 cup of tea in the morning, to a pigeon outlet, a cubit inch 
 of jelly, two glasses of champagne, and a spoonful of ice at 
 night ; but practising such self-denial, it seems only fair 
 that they should go in for a full meal at two o'clock ; and 
 so they do, and much good it does them. Charming and 
 delightful as they are at all times, when are they so 
 charming, so delightful, sympathising, and so affable, as 
 during the subsequent hour or so ere the influence of good 
 cheer and a glass of brown sherry has entirely passed 
 away ? This is a long dissertation on luncheons ; but it 
 may serve to explain why Walter Brooke should have 
 cantered Goody Two-shoes merrily along, with the hope of 
 reaching St. Barbs in time for that sociable repast. 
 
 A man's whole life often turns upon the merest trifle — 
 nay, upon a trifle in no way connected with himself, or 
 under his own control. If the Duchess's cold had not 
 been a little better, and yet not well enough to admit of 
 accompanying her husband on the coach to Oakover ; if the 
 unpromising morning had not brightened into a finer day 
 than could have been expected ; if Lady Groneril had not 
 fancied herself smitten with a literary lion, three parts 
 dandy and one part author, therefore desirous of being 
 intellectual, and archseological, and blue, Walter Brooke's 
 
232 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 afternoon would have been filled up with a round of 
 sufilciently harmless amusement, and this chapter need 
 never have been written. 
 
 But thus it came to pass that our ill-fated sportsman, 
 though he rode his friend's mare an honest twelve miles an 
 hour, had the whole of St. Barbs entirely to himself on his 
 return. 
 
 Lady Goneril, having waded through a sentimental 
 chapter of her lion's last work, liking it none the less that, 
 in common with the general public, she could not under- 
 stand two consecutive lines, had betaken herself to a port- 
 folio of prints, and very handsome she looked in the process 
 of turning them over, though, as there were only ladies in 
 the morning-room, this was a matter ot no importance. 
 Amongst these etchings was one of a fine old ruin, called 
 Norman's Cross, which much captivated her fancy, chiefly, 
 I imagine, on account of a stone tracery round the arch 
 that she thought would furnish a killing pattern for collars. 
 An exclamation of delight brought the Duchess to her side, 
 and that good-natured hostess at once proposed a visit to 
 the original. 
 
 "My dear, would you like to see it? It's within a 
 drive. We'll have luncheon an hour earlier, and start." 
 
 Both proposals met with a warm approval. The advance- 
 ment of luncheon would shorten the morning ; the expedition 
 would employ the afternoon. The great object of killing 
 time would be effected, and Lady Goneril's reputation as a 
 bas-bleu would henceforth stand upon a pedestal. 
 
 So the bell rang, and the groom of the chambers 
 appeared, the most deferential of men : an order was then 
 transmitted through a variety of channels to reach the 
 stables at last. The coachman was directed to produce the 
 barouche, the sociable, and a dog-cart for some of the 
 gentlemen, while the studgroom, who disapproved of the 
 whole proceeding, bearing, as it did, in no way on the all- 
 important business of the chase, was required to furnish 
 two quiet saddle-horses and a pony, for certain timid 
 equestrians. Thus, when Walter had changed his hunting 
 things for the garments of civilised life, the whole party 
 had been gone more than an hour. 
 
 If luncheon be an enjoyable meal when eaten in public 
 
DBIFTING TO LEEWABD 283 
 
 \nth pleasant company, at the pleasantest time of the day, 
 it is by no means exhilarating when you sit down alone, in 
 a room of some sixty feet by twenty, waited on by two 
 decorous men in black, and tluree or four attentiTO giants in 
 livery, the whole force watching every mouthful you eat, 
 and scarcely permitting you to put salt on your plate for 
 yourself. Walter soon bolted a slice of ham and a glass of 
 sherry; then he returned to his room, drew an arm-chair 
 to the fire, and proceeded to review his position calmly, 
 and determine what must be done. 
 
 His difficulties, like all others of a pecuniary nature, 
 grew more and more appalling the longer he looked at 
 them. The troubles of the heart console themselves with 
 meditation ; the troubles of the intellect vanish when you 
 grapple them; but the troubles of the purse, so boldly 
 staved off, so easily ignored when the mind is otherwise 
 occupied, increase and multiply in an alarming ratio when 
 you encounter them face to face, and put them down in 
 black and white. 
 
 He had fairly come to the utmost limit of his resources. 
 Three sovereigns and a half-crown lay on his dressing-table. 
 When he had paid his groom's book, and tipped de EoUe's 
 man, who would presently arrive with poor Fugleman's 
 saddle and bridle, to take the mare back, he would literally 
 not have a shilling left. Suppose they played pool before 
 dinner, and he could not purchase a sixpenny life ! It was 
 too ridiculous ! He laughed aloud at the idea ; but it was 
 a bitter laugh, with very little of mirth in it. Then he 
 blamed his father for putting him into so expensive a 
 regiment ; his brother Jack — ^for what ? Not for refusing 
 to help him ? No, Jack had always behaved like a trump, 
 he must allow; but he blamed him for not giving him 
 better advice. He blamed everyone but himself, the fool 
 that cut those drains in the water-meadow included ; and, 
 by degrees, he brought himself to think that he was an ill- 
 used man, that all the world had turned against him ; that 
 he was authorised to prey upon that world in self-defence. 
 This was a speculative theory, leading to a vast number of 
 considerations. Amongst others, he remembered how he 
 had backed Benedict for the Great Middlesworth Handicap, 
 " getting on," as it was termed, at a happy moment, viz., 
 
234 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 when an enterprising public believed the horse to have been 
 injured by a railway accident, and he knew better, through 
 information he had paid for. There was nothing dis- 
 honourable in this, far from it ! Such chances were not to 
 be thrown away. It was part of the system, diamond cut 
 diamond, and woe to the dullest diamond in the ring ! If 
 Benedict should pull it off, he would be set on his legs 
 again ; he turned over the pages of his betting-book, and 
 cast up the amount that he would clear. It reached a 
 good many hundreds. Then he thought of the horse's fine 
 form and racing qualities, of his previous performances ; 
 above all, of the money he carried, and the parties whose 
 interest it was that he should win. It looked like a 
 certainty. To be sm-e he had seen a good many 
 certainties bowled over, but this would surely prove an 
 exception. Then he would be on velvet once more. Set 
 up for the summer, quartered at Hounslow, commanding 
 the detachment at " The Gate," what might he not effect 
 with his advantages and his entree into London society? 
 He might marry Lady Julia — ^he might sell out. His 
 troop would be worth a good deal of money. To be sure, 
 he had not purchased it yet, but that, of course, must be 
 arranged somehow by the family. He would have a pretty 
 house in Belgravia, an easy appointment under Govern- 
 ment, or a place about the Court, he didn't care which ; and 
 the nicest little wife in London. How well she looked to- 
 day on horseback, and how sorry she seemed to be about 
 Fugleman. Oh, it was clear the girl liked him, though, to 
 be sure, there was nothing surprising in that ! Yes, he 
 seemed to see his way before him, if he could but get over 
 the next few weeks. Then he started up, and split a large 
 coal that slumbered on the fire with vicious energy, for he 
 remembered the bill coming due, and how acceptable the 
 money would be now that he had fooled away at whist on 
 the railroad. 
 
 As he sat down again and watched the crackling of the 
 scattered coal, a certain hard, evil expression settled on 
 his handsome face. A dogged, sullen look, half shame, 
 haK obstinacy, such as the pickpocket wears walking to 
 the station between two policemen, such as the death-cap 
 covers when the culprit's face is veiled for the last time by 
 
DBIFTING TO LEEWABD 235 
 
 the hangman's hand. If Walter could have seen himself 
 at that moment in the glass, he would not have recognised 
 the pleasing exterior by which he set such store ; he would 
 have wondered how the aristocratic features, the manly 
 countenance, could look so vile, so base, so low ; he would 
 have pondered and hesitated, and shrank from a measure 
 after which he could never feel like a gentleman again. 
 
 Though he heard a step in the passage, and knew per- 
 fectly well whose it was, he started, and his heart leaped 
 to his throat, when a smart double knock announced a 
 visitor at the door. His " come in " was dry and hoarse. 
 Though the room was large and airy, he passed his hand 
 twice across his brow to wipe off the perspiration, and he 
 walked to the window and looked out, that the dapper little 
 personage who entered might not see his face. 
 
 It was no other than De RoUe's second horseman ap- 
 pearing, as in duty bound, to report poor Fugleman's 
 destruction ; to inquire if there were further orders, and to 
 accept the gratuity which he knew was forthcoming from 
 80 " free-handed a gentleman as Mr. Brooke." 
 
 He looked wonderfully short and sturdy off a horse, 
 smoothing his sleek head, standing respectfully, half in, 
 half out of the lofty doorway, and exhaling a strong whiff 
 of that " otto of stables " which never fails to cling about 
 the persons of such functionaries. 
 
 "I've brought the saddle and bridle home. Sir," he 
 began, vrith a proper attention to business fi'rst, " an' guv 
 of them to your servant here. The Duke's bailiff, Sir, he 
 offered me a cast in his gig as for as the Lodge. The 
 mare have been wisped over, an' had a mouthful of gruel. 
 Would you please to give any more orders, afore I take her 
 home?" 
 
 The little man looked everybody straight in the face 
 when he spoke. It struck him now, as Walter turned 
 from the window, that the latter must have been shaken 
 by his fall, or perhaps he was sorry for his horse, he seemed 
 so pale and nervous, and unlike himself. 
 
 " There's no hurry," said he, still speaking with a dry 
 mouth; "the mare's done nothing, and you needn't be 
 afraid of trotting her quietly home. Did you see my horse 
 ehot ? " 
 
286 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 " Never left him till all was over," answered the other, 
 solemnly. " A peaceful ending the poor thing made too. 
 Just shivered, and gave out. He couldn't have lived 
 you know. Sir," he added, more cheerfully, " an' he did 
 his dooty whilst you owned of him — uncommon, to be 
 sure ! " 
 
 Walter seemed inclined to delay the man's departure, 
 and put one of the sovereigns off the dressing-table in his 
 hand. Something in the act, though, must have roused 
 the donor's energies, for he said, roughly and sharply — 
 
 " I shall have a letter for your master ; come again in a 
 quarter of an hour." 
 
 It was no use putting it off. If it must be done, better 
 do it, without time for further hesitation. 
 
 His face cleared, and his whole exterior resumed its 
 wonted appearance, now that he had made up his mind. 
 Drawing a chair to the table, which the Duchess's 
 hospitable care had supplied with pens, ink, paper, and 
 envelopes, in every variety ; but opening his own despatch- 
 box for the materials, he wrote off the following letter, 
 hardly once lifting his hand from the sheet : — 
 
 My dear Bags, 
 
 I HAVE been more annoyed to-day than I can ex- 
 press. Not about poor Fugleman, though that, as you 
 know, is a loss I shall not easily replace. He was quite 
 the best horse I ever had. It is another matter, however, 
 which I have just learned, that places me in an extremely 
 unpleasant position, and were it not that I am concerned 
 with so old and intimate a friend as yourself, I should be 
 at my wit's end how to act. The case is simply this : — 
 
 You remember, some little time ago, being kind enough 
 to attach your signature, merely as a matter of form, to a 
 bill of mine for three hundred pounds (£300) ? That bill, 
 by to-day's post, has been returned to me. It seems that 
 in our joint inexperience and ignorance of business, we had 
 drawn it on a stamp of insufficient value for so large a sum. 
 It should have been a three, and not a two shilling stamp. 
 This, of course, rendered the bill valueless ; and as I had 
 already calculated on discoimting it, I should be nicely 
 " in the hole " if I could not produce another for the same 
 
DBIFTING TO LEEWABD 237 
 
 amount, with the same names, but drawn in more regular 
 form. That favour I should have no scruple in asking you, 
 as it is merely a confirmation of the first, but for one con- 
 sideration, and this is what vexes me more than anything 
 in the whole business : I cannot return you the original 
 UU, and . you must take my bare word for its being 
 destroyed. You know how sensitive people are apt to be 
 in such matters : and although you are good enough to 
 compliment me on my imperturbability, even I can some- 
 times be a good deal put out. I was so provoked at the 
 bother and mismanagement of the whole thing, that I 
 threw the protested bill, from sheer temper, into the fire, 
 and did not remember till it was burnt that it was indis- 
 pensable I should return it to you. It is too late now to 
 do anything of the kind, and my only course is to enclose 
 you a fac-simile of the original bill, drawn on a proper 
 stamp, and to beg of you to scrawl your name across it as 
 before, when I can promise you shall have no more trouble 
 or annoyance about the business. If possible, let me have 
 it by return of post. 
 
 K you ever caught the hounds to-day, you must have had 
 a capital thing. The Duke's first horse has not yet come 
 back, so I conclude they ran far and straight. 
 
 What a scent there was, and what fun I had for those 
 few fields before that sad disaster ! My poor horse must 
 have covered an enormous distance at the brook. I shall 
 never have such a water-jumper again ! 
 
 The Duchess asked after you last night. If I am here 
 next week, I fully expect we shall come over together. 
 
 And believe me, 
 My dear Eags, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 W. Beooke. 
 St. Barbs. 
 
 The Martyrdom of St. Fugleman ! 
 
 Twice was he visited with sore and shameful compunc- 
 tion in the concoction of this precious epistle. Strange to 
 say, these qualms arose firom the two minor falsehoods he 
 used to support and bolster up the great lie pervading the 
 whole. He did not like to affirm that he had received 
 
238 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 letters by that day's post contrary to the fact; and he 
 hated himself for telling Bags the Duchess had asked after 
 him, when her Grace had certainly omitted to do so. These 
 circumstantial perversions, though indispensable to the suc- 
 cess of his scheme, he deplored as such ; but by some strange 
 warped process of reasoning, he persuaded himself that the 
 reduplication of the bill was less an act of positive swindling 
 than an unfortunate financial necessity, not perhaps exactly 
 on the square, yet neither strictly dishonest, inasmuch as 
 its results were not eventually intended to impoverish the 
 victim. 
 
 It could do Bags no harm, he argued, and could make 
 no difference to him, that he should incur a liability for six 
 hundred, instead of three, provided he was not called upon 
 to pay it up. This he had resolved his friend should never 
 be asked to do. He had intended all along to stand 
 between Bags and loss. It was but a temporary accom- 
 modation, after all. He would do twice as much for Bags 
 if their positions were reversed. Pshaw ! what a fool he 
 was to make such a fdss about it ! 
 
 The quarter of an hour had long since elapsed — nay, had 
 gTown into more than four times that period, under the 
 genial influence of cold meat in the servants' hall, and the 
 best ale (meaning the strongest) brewed in the county — ere 
 De Bolle's groom thought it time to tighten his mare's 
 girths and put her bridle on for their homeward journey. 
 Having completed his arrangements, and turned her round, 
 ready for a start, he sought the house, and tapped at Walter's 
 door once more. The letter was lying, sealed and directed, 
 on the table. 
 
 For one short minute, the whole tendency of the writer's 
 life and education, the impulses and instincts of a gentle- 
 man, had prompted him to throw the fatal sheet into the 
 fire, and he had better have held it with his naked hand 
 between the bars till the flesh peeled off his fingers, than 
 turned a deaf ear to the call of honour urging him by all 
 that he held most valuable to turn back while there was 
 yet time. But, alas ! that honour will not always supply 
 the place of principle. The instincts and the impulses of 
 a gentleman, even backed by superstition of race and 
 prestige of position, will not always hold their own against 
 
DBIFTING TO LEEWARD 289 
 
 the assaults of keen temptation, or the pressure of un- 
 yielding necessity. A man may need something more 
 than these to restrain him even from that which a some- 
 what inconsistent code denounces as a crime. He cannot 
 stand alone. If he has no stronger hand to lean on than 
 his own, who shall insure him from a fall that must even- 
 tually work out sin and sorrow, and inevitable shame ? Let 
 him put perfect confidence in his bodily powers and mental 
 resources. Let him never shiink from danger, nor be 
 afraid of work. But let him beware of dependence on his 
 own fortitude under temptation ; let him shrewdly mistrust 
 such accommodating counsellers as his passions and his 
 heart. 
 
 Walter had the letter in his hand, and was close to the 
 fire-place, when he heard the carriages that brought the 
 ladies back from their expedition grinding the gravel at the 
 front door. His scruples vanished at the sound. He 
 could not, he wovld not, give up this life of excitement and 
 social success for the want of a few miserable sovereigns. 
 The thing was done, and he would take his chance. 
 
 He had rather not face that honest little man again 
 though, with his fearless eyes. He walked down to the 
 library, rang the bell, bade the deferential groom of the 
 chambers inform Mr. de EoUe's servant there was a letter 
 for his master up stairs, and fell to reading an interesting 
 article on polygamy in a weekly paper, without under- 
 standing one word. 
 
 So Goody Two-shoes carried the letter back to the 
 barracks, and Walter Brooke's spurs were off, and his coat- 
 of-arms defaced, henceforth for evermore. 
 
 The ladies came into the library for tea, and the dis- 
 graced knight, always a favourite with the women, had 
 little leisure for brooding over his dishonour. They rustled 
 round him, and petted him, and sorrowed for his mischance, 
 scolding him prettily for the unfeeling manner in which he 
 related it, and asking him a thousand questions, betraying 
 the wildest ignorance of the subject, as to how it came to 
 pass. They had their own story also to impart ; for, ap- 
 proaching Norman's Cross, where, it will be remembered, 
 the Duke had killed his fox, they met Tarquin coming 
 home in that state of dignified exhaustion which marks the 
 
240 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 hunter after a hard day ; and so they doubled the distance, 
 and exaggerated the importance of the run; whereupon 
 Walter, whose character for riding stood high enough to 
 admit of such coquetries, vowed he was very glad to have 
 been out of it ; and they scolded him, and laughed at him, 
 and petted him all the more. 
 
 Lady Goneril was in raptures about the ruin. She was 
 even going to read it up in the county history, and would 
 probably be puzzled not a little at the concise manner in 
 which that erudite work condensed some two centuries of 
 important events into half-a-dozen lines, to explain the 
 first destruction, and subsequent restoration of the edifice. 
 
 " You see, I adore everything old, Mr. Brooke," said her 
 Ladyship, assuming her most becoming attitude, as she 
 stretched across him for some tea, " Old plate, old china, 
 old carving, old pictures, old lace " 
 
 " Old gentlemen ? " asked Walter simply. Whereat the 
 Duchess, and Mrs. Wimbrel, and the two Misses Mallard 
 laughed melodiously, for Lord Goneril was at least thirty 
 years in advance of his wife. 
 
 " Young gentlemen, I think," answered her Ladyship, 
 smiling sweetly, " but old friends." Then she sighed, and 
 turned her large eyes down to her tea-cup, because it was 
 her rdle just at present to be absent and melancholy, and 
 incomprise ; altogether a waif and a wounded spirit, and 
 out of place in a heartless world. She had assumed this 
 character now nearly a fortnight, and was already rather 
 tired of it, but having brought it with her to St. Barbs, it 
 must last out the visit, just like her morning and evening 
 dresses. For the next place she went to, of course she 
 could order fi*esh ones. 
 
 There are some men, and those, I imagine, not the 
 most unpopular with the other sex, whom no woman ever 
 thinks of marrying. Whether ,it is that they consider 
 business and pleasure essentially separate concerns, or that 
 the observances expected from an admirer are so different 
 from the qualities required in a husband, I know not ; but 
 they often take a pleasure in the society of the former, all 
 the keener that they never seem to contemplate the possi- 
 bility of his becoming the latter. I think I have already 
 said that Walter was established amongst them by tacit 
 
DBIFTINa TO LEEWARD 241 
 
 consent as a man to be monopolised of no one in particular ; 
 and when the youngest Miss Mallard, an impulsive, hand- 
 some, romantic girl, in her first season, showed symptoms 
 of a preference for this contraband article, the douane inter- 
 fered at once. I have not the least idea — ^how should I ? 
 — ^to what private ordeal the victim was subjected ; how 
 the inquisition, numbering amongst its familiars her sister 
 and nearest relations, pressed out the drop of heresy from 
 her blood. The torture, I believe, is usually merciless, 
 mysterious, and protracted ; but in this case it was to all 
 appearance effectual. The youngest Miss Mallard never 
 looked at Walter now, and very seldom spoke to him ; but 
 she was devoted to little Lord Caradoc, and had the little 
 child in her lap at this moment, with his chubby hands 
 buried in the wealth of her brown, beautiful hair. She had 
 told Mr. Brooke this afternoon she "was sorry for his 
 horse ; " but though this was the only sentence she 
 addressed to him the whole day, it was spoken so coldly as 
 to seem almost unkind. 
 
 It was resolved, then, by a jury of matrons, that Walter 
 was to be appropriated by nobody, though everybody felt 
 entitled to share the attentions of so general a favourite. 
 Lady Goneril would have been even more gracious, but 
 that she went for clever people, just at present, and what- 
 ever faults he had, nobody could accuse him of such a 
 social offence as superiority of intellect. Mrs. Wimbrel, 
 whose age and experience might have taught her better, 
 vowed " she doated on Mr. Brooke ; he was so quiet, so 
 reckless, so good-natured, and so good-for-nothing ! " The 
 eldest Miss Mallard, though she remonstrated with her 
 sister, showed her teeth and flourished her shoulders at 
 him on every opportunity. All the others followed suit ; 
 and even the frank, out-spoken, warm-hearted Duchess, 
 pleasant and kindly to all her guests alike, warned the 
 Duke, point-blank, that there were two or three of their 
 country neighbours whom " she would not undertake to 
 entertain, unless he asked Walter Brooke ! " 
 
 Of course, the Duke did as he was told. Her word was 
 law, as it ought to be, for theirs seemed a life-long 
 romance; and he liked the hussar besides, on his own 
 account, summing him up usually with an admission that 
 
 16 
 
242 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 " the fellow can ride, I must say, like a bird ! Thougli I 
 don't think he's much idea of what the hounds are doing." 
 
 Therefore her Grace cross-examined him as to his future 
 engagements, without reserve. "You know you're due 
 here the week after next, Mr. Brooke," said she, poising 
 the tea-pot in her hand. " You must not throw us over as 
 you did last time, with some ridiculous excuse about an 
 inspection. You'll meet your dear neighbours, the Way- 
 wardens, and Julia — I know you'd go any distance to meet 
 Julia." 
 
 A howl from the Earl of Caradoc here broke in on the 
 conversation — Bessie Mallard having upset hot tea into his 
 poor little shoes and stockings. Mamma could alone ad- 
 minister consolation under such a catastrophe ; and a pair 
 of fat legs, and innocent dimpled feet were forthwith laid 
 bare, and dried by a variety of lace-embroidered handker- 
 chiefs, to be afterwards chafed in her Grace's own white 
 hands before the fire. Bessie Mallard, too, fell down at the 
 Infant Martyr's knees with great penitence. The small 
 round tea-table was pushed away from the hearth-rug. A 
 crimson cushion rested on the low steel fender. The boy's 
 golden curls were scattered over his mother's folds of deep- 
 coloured velvet, glowing in the firelight. Graceful heads 
 bent around him, and jewelled fingers busied themselves 
 with his wants. Stately women, in their rich dark dresses, 
 converged on that struggling little patch of white, and 
 Walter's handsome figure towered above the group. It 
 was quite a tablemi when the other gentlemen came in. 
 More kindness — more condolences — more friendly outbreaks 
 of sorrow and goodwill. Last of all, when he went to 
 dress, a message from the Duke, who had just returned — 
 "His Grace's compliments — so sorry to hear about the 
 horse. Would mount Mr. Brooke to-morrow at Pelton 
 Pastures, on two of his ovyn ! " 
 
 And if they had known — if they had only suspected the 
 truth — not one of these genial, open-hearted, good fellows, 
 but would have crossed the street to avoid meeting him ; 
 not one of these kindly, pleasant, sympathising women, 
 but would have gathered up her skirts, and fled away, to 
 avoid the contamination of his presence. 
 
 In vain he strove to deaden the sense of shame vrith 
 
DBIFTINa TO LBBWABD 243 
 
 gaiety, or to drown it in wine. In vain he talked, and 
 laughed, and flirted, and was "better company than 
 usual." He felt that the mark was branded in now, and 
 would never leave him whilst he lived ; that no display 
 could effectually hide it, nor all the wine in the Duke's 
 cellars wash it out. At nine, he calculated. Bags must 
 receive the letter. Bessie Mallard, I imagine, was the 
 only person who noticed how a shadow, as of intense pain, 
 once crossed his face, when he looked at the clock on the 
 chimney-piece. She was sorry for him, wondering simply 
 what ailed him, and sighing gently in her own white bosom, 
 while she turned her eyes away. 
 
 Notwithstanding, perhaps in consequence of, the octroi, 
 she still set him up in secret for an idol, exalted, pure, 
 irreproachable, without a flaw. Could she have seen the 
 rift that cracked this spurious metal, from head to heel, 
 would she have spumed it beneath her feet, or grovelled 
 down beside it in the dust, seeking a yet lower level that 
 she at least might look up to it once more for her own 
 private worship alone ? She had a woman's rigid standard 
 of Honesty — a woman's keen sense of Honour. It would 
 have been a sore trial either way. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 COLD COMFORT 
 
 Everybody knows how soon people make up their minds 
 to the inevitable. I have been told that a man under 
 sentence of death becomes perfectly reconciled to his fate 
 in about a quarter of an hour. That he feels as if he had 
 been prepared, and intended to undergo this ordeal, for 
 years ; and had never thoroughly and essentially belonged 
 to the living world outside. 
 
 I think I have observed in mankind a singular faculty of 
 adaptation to either fortune. The beggar on horseback 
 soon relapses into as steady a trot as if he had been in the 
 saddle all his life. Dives destitute, accepts with the con- 
 dition, the consolations of Lazarus, and eats his crumbs 
 with zest, making the most of them the very first time he 
 is hungry. When he has nothing left but rags to cover 
 him, and sores perhaps beneath the rags, he forgets, as if 
 they had never been, the fragrant locks, and the supple 
 skin, the bath and the perfumes, the purple and fine linen 
 of his former state. Sometimes he bears privation even 
 better than Lazarus, who is bom to it. One who knew 
 human nature well, though, alas ! he too often turned it 
 " the seamy side without," has observed that rich men 
 reduced to poverty are less impatient of their lot than 
 those who have never known the advantages (and the 
 cares) attendant on wealth and position. The golden 
 apples are indeed very tempting when seen firom outside 
 the garden-wall ; but go in, by surmounting the spikes, or 
 creeping under the gate, according as your temperament 
 leads you to choose between rent garments and dirty 
 
COLD OOMFOBT 245 
 
 hands; fill your pockets with the apples, and your 
 bosom, and your mouth; you will admit that here too 
 you have been deceived, and that the Garden of Paradise 
 you have all your life been seeking, must lie yet somewhere 
 farther on. 
 
 The path to the real garden is steep and narrow enough, 
 but none can justly call it flinty to tread, or hard to find, 
 being indeed easiest to travel when the wayfarer is weakest 
 and weariest, being never seen so plainly as through a mist 
 of tears. There are many guides, too, rising at every turn, 
 on purpose to help you along the way. Courage, with 
 noble brow; Faith, with broad, firm breast; Gratitude, 
 with fdl heart and loving smiles ; but Sorrow there, with 
 the wasted cheek and the hollow eyes, is safest and surest 
 of all. Her hand is like a vice round your wrist ; it chills 
 you to the bone; but its grasp is a giant's to sustain! 
 The others encourage you well enough to affront the perils 
 of the journey — to ford its rivers, to leap its chasms, to 
 break through its briers and thorns ; but she alone keeps 
 you steadily to the path, forbidding you, with those mournful 
 eyes, to leave it for a hair's breadth, though the ripe firuit 
 blushes to meet your thirsty gaze, and the dewy flowers 
 drown your senses in a flood of fragrance that seems to 
 rush in from the depths of Long Ago. 
 
 She had got Phifip Stoney fast by the arm, as she led 
 him across Middlesworth Bridge, on a farewell expedition, 
 for which his better reason could find no excuse ; yet, on 
 which he dwelt, nevertheless, as the one gleam of comfort 
 in his clouded, and still darkening day. 
 
 What advantage a man gains by gaping at the four walls 
 of a buildiag, I have never yet been able to discover ; but 
 that the process, though unreasonable, must be refreshing, 
 I cannot conscientiously continue to doubt ! Middlesworth 
 Bridge looked very calm and peaceful in the early spring 
 sunshine; for though it was but little past Valentine's 
 Day in England, the sun had actually appeared. The 
 cattle in those fertile water meadows, late risers enough, 
 were on the move, feeding sluggishly, with their heads all 
 the same way. The sedges moaning wistfully as usual, 
 seemed yet to whisper something of life and hope, and 
 better times to come, at least so Philip thought ; it may be 
 
246 TEE BBOOEES OP BBIDLEMEEE 
 
 only because a brisk walk made the blood course through 
 his veins, and circle warmer round his stout, honest, 
 faithful heart. Birds were always chirping in leafless 
 hedges, and snowdrops plentifully sprinlded its surface, 
 where the copse had been cut over into sharp pointed 
 stubs. With aU its promise, why is there something 
 melancholy in the spring? I can understand the "fall 
 of the leaf" suggesting to a sensitive fancy, man's obvious 
 destiny, his maturity, the fulfilment of his promise, the 
 commencement of his decay; but though I can feel, I 
 cannot analyse a sentiment that bids the renewed year 
 welcome, with a greeting in which a nameless longing 
 sori'ow has its part no less than a natural hopeful joy. 
 I can understand, though I cannot explain, the mood in 
 which one of the noblest poems in the language pours 
 forth its sad, melodious, and suggestive wail, — 
 
 " And when I saw the Spring 
 Come forth her work of gladness to contrive, 
 With all her reckless birds upon the wing, 
 I turned from all she brought to those she could not bring."- 
 
 Philip Stoney's life was completely changed. His whole 
 prospects were ruined by the fire that destroyed the very 
 foundations on which the prosperity of Stoney Brothers 
 had been built. A few weeks, nevertheless, sufficed to 
 reconcile him, in outward appearance at least, to the hard- 
 ships of his lot. The past seemed at an immeasurable 
 distance now. Sometimes he could hardly believe in the 
 reality of those happy years, with their engrossing labom-s, 
 their social meetings, their pleasant recreations. No more 
 picnics now ; no more gallops with the Duke ; no more 
 covert shooting at Bridlemere. Was it possible that all 
 these changes could have taken place in the few weeks 
 since the Middlesworth ball? That Middlesworth ball 
 seemed the only reality left; through all his troubles, 
 labours, and distresses, he found himself thinking of it 
 night and day. The remembrance was like a ray of 
 sunshine streaming across a dismal prison cell. Some- 
 times, in his less desponding moods, it is the one bright 
 blessing of the captive's lot; sometimes, in his longing 
 thirst for liberty, it seems the bitterest drop in the cup he 
 
COLD GOMFOBT 247 
 
 has to drain. Yet even when most he chafes at its mock- 
 ing contrast, he would not for his life forego one single 
 particle of the mote-dust that dances in its golden beam. 
 Philip prized the remembrance of that one night the more, 
 that he must make up his mind now never to look in the 
 sweet pale face, and meet the dark serious eyes again. 
 
 He could put his shoulder to the wheel, and was the 
 last man on earth to sit in the mud praying Hercules for 
 help. He arranged the affairs of the finn lucidly, judici- 
 ously, and honestly, before he thought of himself. He even 
 settled matters in the most advantageous manner possible 
 for his brother, and his brother's family, before he found 
 time to look his own position in the face. Then he bought 
 a keepsake for Dot, with a few of the very last coins he 
 possessed ; and presenting it with an appropriate jest to 
 that sharp-sighted young lady, found his fortitude more 
 sorely tried in the ceremony than might have been expected 
 from the emotions of so inexperienced a personage. 
 
 The child, contrary to her wont, for she was a merry 
 little thing, sustaining the bumps and bruises, and 
 gravelled rash of every-day life, with Spartan fortitude, 
 hid her chubby face on his shoulder, and cried piteously. 
 
 " You're going away, Uncle Phil ; I know you're going 
 away! Jane told me not to vex you. Don't go away. 
 Uncle Phil. Stay with me and mamma, and Jane, and 
 I'll never vex you any more ! " 
 
 She was not to be pacified, even by mamma, whose own 
 eyes were red with crying, too; and Philip's heart was 
 heavy as he sat down to write his answer, closing with an 
 offer of employment in the City. 
 
 Keeping a small trader's books, on a ground floor in 
 Leadenhall Street, is an honest calling enough, and one 
 which affords a view of human nature varied and compre- 
 hensive, if not flattering to our kind. This is nearly all 
 that can be said in its favour. To those who have known 
 better days, especially amongst country sports and country 
 scenery, it is a sad come down, Philip braced himself 
 like a man though for the plunge. He felt a certain honest 
 courage and confldence in his own powers of endurance — 
 a certain pride in his defiance of difficulties; not pre- 
 sumptuous, but grounded in reliance on a Power whose 
 
248 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLBMEBE 
 
 omnipotence makes of Fortune and Fate but idle names 
 for a non-existent influence. He had but one weakness 
 left — ^he was about to indulge it this fine spring morning 
 in his walk to Bridlemere. 
 
 He made it early on purpose. Later in the day it would 
 be absurd and uncourteous not to call. A last interview 
 with Miss Brooke in presence of the family was a needless 
 ordeal to undergo ; and, indeed it would be far better not 
 to see Helen at all. It would stUl be morning when he 
 reached the house, and he might have a good long look at 
 the closed window-shutters of her room. This could not 
 but be most satisfactory, and, indeed, seemed all he was 
 likely to get. If she should have risen betimes (he had 
 heard her say she often walked before breakfast), and 
 should visit her garden, he could easily stop in the park, 
 far off amongst the old trees, and look on the dear figure 
 for the last time. Why should he selfishly pain her by 
 saying "farewell." Would it pain her though? His 
 heart stopped beating while he thought perhaps it would ; 
 and so strangely constituted was this young man, that 
 although he would have given his life for her, cheerfully, 
 nothing could have afforded him greater pleasure than to 
 be satisfied she was at this moment exceedingly unhappy. 
 I know, also, but I will not proclaim why I know, that 
 having solemnly resolved no temptation should induce him 
 to come within sight of her, the first flutter of her dress 
 amongst the evergreens would have brought him panting to 
 her side. 
 
 Walking then warily across the park, he did indeed start 
 to see a figure threading in and out amongst the old trees ; 
 though why its appearance should have paled his cheek, 
 and made his breath come quick, I am at a loss to explain. 
 Nothing could be less like a young lady on foot, than an 
 old gentleman on horseback; and the figure was none 
 other than Sir Archibald, breaking in a horse he had 
 lately bought for his niece. 
 
 Philip watched teacher and pupil vrith an interest that 
 their own qualities, though both were above the average in 
 their way, would hardly have elicited. While he looked, a 
 contest was taking place, and the pupil, at first sight, 
 seemed to be getting the best of it. There were deer in 
 
COLD COMFORT 249 
 
 the park, a waste of keep, against which Jack protested in 
 vain. The horse hated deer. There was a near way to 
 the stable through a glade of towering old elms. The 
 horse loved hia stable, as these animals so unaccountably 
 do. Uncle Archie, cantering him amongst the herd, 
 could not induce him to pass this turn without making a 
 dash for home. Ladies' horses, in consideration of the 
 wilfulness of their burdens, must have no wills of their 
 own, the rider persisted in opposing this tendency again 
 and again. 
 
 Young horses, especially well-bred ones, are apt to 
 resent anything like prolonged discipline with consider- 
 able energy. Two or three sharp rebukes and have done 
 with it, prove most effectual in controlling these high 
 impatient spirits; but there are occasions when sub- 
 mission on the part of the rider is ruin irremediable to 
 the horse. Then it is indispensable to conquer at any 
 price ; and there are two methods of achieving a triumph : 
 by violence, which is dangerous and doubtful ; by patience, 
 which is safe and sure. Therefore, if he has time to spare, 
 and the emergency admits of delay, the skilled horseman 
 chooses the latter. Uncle Archie was in no hurry, and he 
 wanted to make the young one quiet enough to carry his 
 niece. He sat like a statue, with a rein in each hand, 
 through all its vagaries, and neither spurred, nor struck, 
 nor jerked the bit, whispering gently and persuasively the 
 while, in the coaxing tone of a nurse remonstrating with a 
 child. The pupU, who had been first terrified by the deer, 
 and then irritated that it might not go straight home, backed, 
 plunged, reared, stood still, and even kicked. The offender 
 was not confirmed enough in vice to lie down, or rasp its 
 rider's leg against a tree. The teacher preserved alike 
 his temper and his balance, till in less than ten minutes 
 the point was gained, the tempting comer passed at a 
 canter (off-leg leading), and that mutual confidence re-estab- 
 lished, which makes horsemanship the most deHghtfal of 
 all exercises in a world, where everything is more or less a 
 question of compromise. 
 
 Even an experienced equestrian is not above being 
 pleased with himself, when he has succeeded in taming 
 a disobedient steed. Uncle Archie looked bright, happy, 
 
250 TES BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 ten years younger, while he rode on, patting his pupil 
 approvingly with the rein laid on its neck. 
 
 "Halloo, Philip!" said he more cordially than usual, 
 because his friend had tasted of adversity, " you seem as 
 early a fellow as myself. You've come to breakfast, of 
 com'se ! " 
 
 " Come to wish you good-bye," answered Philip, return- 
 ing the kindly grasp. " I go to London, to-day. Sir 
 Archibald, for good and all. I am never likely to see much 
 of Bridlemere again." 
 
 Sir Archibald was off his horse, walking along-side the 
 speaker, leading his pupil by the bridle, a situation which 
 inspires the animal with confidence in its teacher, more 
 than all the caracoUiag of the manage. He detected some- 
 thing keener than mere friendly regret in the tone. 
 
 " Never say die," he exclaimed, clapping him heartily on 
 the shoulder. " Look at me ; had you told me five-and- 
 twenty years ago, I was ever to have a gallop in this old 
 park again, I should have laughed in your beard, if, indeed, 
 when you were cutting your teeth you could have had beard 
 enough to laugh in. Yet here I am, you see, nevertheless, 
 having been kicked about the world like a foot-ball, here, 
 there, and everywhere, in the meantime." 
 
 "I wonder you ever left it," said Philip, smothering a 
 sigh. 
 
 " Thank God, I did ! " replied the other, with a fervency 
 that startled his companion. " My good fellow, you're a 
 cricketer ; did you ever go in for a match without making 
 up your mind to win ? You're a bowler, and, they tell me, 
 a pretty straight one ; did you ever deliver a ball at the 
 wickets without intending, at least, to cut the middle stump 
 clean out of the turf by the bowling crease ? If you mean 
 business, do it thoroughly ; if you don't mean business, let 
 it alone. The bravest man I ever met in Mexico, or any- 
 where else, I saw drowned, because he would turn his 
 horse back in a river when he had swam more than half- 
 way across. Pluck will do a good deal. Sir, and coolness 
 more ; but commend me to a fine dogged British obstinacy, 
 that sets its teeth and goes in to win, at any price, right or 
 wrong." 
 
 " There are some men who play a losing game all their 
 
COLD COMFORT 251 
 
 liTes," answered Philip. " I don't know why it should be 
 a consolation to have done your best, and strained your 
 muscle, and broke your heart, only to be beat after all." 
 
 " There are some games at which it is better to lose than 
 to win," returned the other. " Take an old man's word for 
 it, my boy, the prize is never worth half as much as the 
 training to obtain it. Self-denial and self-sacrifice are the 
 two qualities that distinguish what I call a man from a 
 mere figure to hang coats and breeches on. I speak plainly 
 to you, Philip, because I think you're made of stuff that 
 will stand a strain on it, and there's no use denying that 
 the strain may be very hard to bear. You will have to 
 begin life now, instead of ten years ago. Your case is 
 something like my own. Shall I tell you what prevented 
 my hawser fi-om parting every strand, and saved me from 
 drifting helplessly to the devil? " 
 
 Philip was interested in spite of his sorrows, and 
 touched, moreover, by the kindness of his companion's 
 manner. In addition to this, they were proceeding towards 
 the house, and the longer the conversation lasted, the more 
 likelihood of arriving there before it was over, so he replied, 
 with deference — 
 
 " Anything in your history that you like to mention, Sir 
 Archibald, cannot fail to be of sendee to me. Few men 
 have led so adventurous a life, or come through it so 
 successfully as yourself." 
 
 Sir Archibald smiled : the quiet saddened smile of one 
 who is looking far back into the past. 
 
 " My life has been a stirring one," said he, " because I 
 was such a coward I dared not brave my first afiSiction. 
 Because I had not the courage to stand face to face with 
 my own heart. When a man mistrusts his resolution, it is 
 good generalship to retire. At first I could only get relief 
 by the stimulus of constant difficulty, requiring constant 
 exertion. I felt that I could only fight my great sorrow by 
 flying from it, and I fled. The path I was bound to take 
 lay very plain before me, but I could only follow it through 
 a rough and tangled thicket that tore and pierced me to the 
 quick. I got a good many thorns and scratches, but still I 
 struggled on, and forced my way. I do not care to publish 
 my history, such as it is, to the world at large. I believe 
 
252 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 I have scarce ever alluded to it so distinctly before. But 
 you are young and bold, Philip Stoney ; honest, I know ! 
 and sometimes, I suspect, a little rash. You have had 
 difficulties, adversities, even sorrows, and met them like a 
 man ; still, though the brunt of the fighting is over, by far 
 the most difficult part of the campaign is yet to come. 
 There wUl be a sad and painful reaction when you find 
 yourself tied down to the drudgery that, in one way or 
 another, we all have to get through at some period of our 
 lives. Then you will, perhaps, begin to fret and complain. 
 You will say yours is a hard lot, a heavy burden ; that 
 there is no sorrow equal to your sorrow ; and Providence 
 itself has dealt with you more harshly than with your 
 fellows. I spin my yam only to show you that others have 
 had their share of buffeting as well as yourself. I left 
 England, as I then believed, for ever, some thirty years 
 ago ; not, as one good-natured friend supposed, because I 
 had gambled away a younger son's inheritance at Crock- 
 ford's and Newmarket; nor, as another charitably affirmed, 
 that I had quarrelled with my elder brother, who refused to 
 pay my debts. On the contrary, I had everything to make 
 life pleasant. Society I Kked; a profession that suited 
 me ; youth, health, and plenty of companions as young and 
 healthy as myself. I — I was attached to a woman, Philip, 
 such as a man meets once in his lifetime. It's no use 
 talking about these things now, but I — I would have done 
 anything in the world for her. Well, I threw the whole 
 freight overboard, and I saved my own honour and her 
 happiness." 
 
 " It must have been hard to give her up," said Philip, 
 simply, thinking of his own burst bubble the while. 
 
 " It seemed impcssible ! " answered the other, " and 
 therefore could only be done with a rush. I shut my eyes, 
 and leapt, and the thing was over. I never so much as 
 received a line from her again. Do you think she will not 
 thank me when we meet the other side of the blind ditch, 
 so deep, so narrow, and so easily crossed? Do you suppose 
 I thought I should never see her any more when I put a 
 thousand miles or two of blue water between my wild 
 passions and the sweet innocent face ? What is the use of 
 believing in anything, my good fellow, if you don't act 
 
COLD COMFOBT 258 
 
 upon your belief? As surely as I darkened my short span 
 of life here by leaving her, so surely will she take me by 
 the hand, and thank me that I saved both her happiaess 
 and my own, hereafter. I would have done it for her sake, 
 even had I thought we were never to meet again. Now 
 the sacrifice seems as nothing compared to the return. 
 What saved us both from ruin was this — the certainty of a 
 fiiture. She has been dead, Philip — dead for years. The 
 trees that were planted when the grass first grew above her 
 grave are now twenty feet high. There is but one life that 
 parts us, and it is not worth ten years' purchase. I can 
 look at the whole thing calmly, hopefully — ^nay, cheerfully, 
 to-day, but it was hard, I grant you, very hard at the time, 
 and had I not cut the link that bound me to her at one 
 stroke, I never could have undone it while I lived. Your 
 case might have been worse, Philip, after all. You have 
 lost your past, and your present is none of the fairest; but, 
 even in this world you have got your future stiU." 
 
 " Men have risen in London from very small beginnings," 
 said Philip, brightening in spite of himself, through his 
 companion's influence. "And to London I am going, to 
 start in life afresh, on fifty shillings a week. By the time 
 I have saved a fortune out of that. Sir Archibald," he 
 added, bitterly, " I shall be pretty well on into the future 
 you speak of with such encouragement." 
 
 "Put your trust in Heaven, my boy, and keep your 
 powder dry," answered Uncle Archie. "If the chance 
 arises, be ready to take advantage of it. If it never comes 
 at all, remember it is not yov/r hand that steers the ship. 
 Keep your weapons sharp, and above all, your shield as 
 bright as a diamond. With head and heart, and a clear 
 conscience, none of the prizes of life are out of a brave 
 man's reach. Here we are at the windows, and my brother 
 down already. I'm glad of it, for I'm nearly famished. 
 Bing that bell, there's a good fellow, for somebody to take 
 the horse, and we'll go in and ask Helen to give us some 
 breakfast." 
 
 A family party was, indeed, assembled in. the cheerfol 
 morning-room, consisting of the Squire, not in the best of 
 humours; Jack severely shod and gaitered, with a 
 shooting-dress of defiant materials, much frayed and 
 
254 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 weather-worn. Tatters curled up on the hearth-rug, 
 solemnly noting everything with one sleepless eye, and 
 Helen herself in her usual place, looking very pale and 
 handsome behind the tea-urn. 
 
 It was a formidable moment for Philip, and he followed 
 Sir Archibald through the French window, with hot cheeks, 
 cold hands and a beating heart. 
 
 No aneuroid barometer is so sensitive of change as the 
 temper of a man in love. The price of Consols does not 
 fluctuate so variably as his spirits rise and fall with the 
 apprehension of hostilities or the prospect of peace. 
 Helen put her hand out so cordially, and the sweet eyes 
 were raised with such a kind sympathising look to his face, 
 that Philip felt a whole ton of care lifted off his heart in 
 an instant, and voting ruin, or even absence, bought dirt 
 cheap at the price of such looks as these, sat down to 
 breakfast in a state of unreasonable happiness that com- 
 pletely took away his appetite. 
 
 This phase lasted half-way through his first cup of tea, 
 to which Miss Brooke helped him, as she did to every other 
 article of nourishment with her own hands. Then the 
 Squire, whose breakfast was a tedious and untidy perform- 
 ance at best, and whose fork seemed to have forgotten the 
 shortest way to his mouth, rapped impatiently on the table, 
 and called out — 
 
 " Helen ! Helen ! Wlien you've done with Mr. Stoney, 
 I wish you'd give me some tea. What's the matter with 
 you this morning, child? I'm sure you needn't treat 
 Philip with so much ceremony. You're no stranger here, 
 Philip; but I wish you'd come offcener. When's the 
 brewery to be finished. Hey ? " 
 
 The Squire did not remember things very clearly now. 
 The fire at the brewery had served him for several days 
 with a subject of which he made the most, enlarging on it 
 to his listeners in every conceivable aspect, and originating 
 the most improbable sm-mises as to its cause, progress, and 
 eventual effects. Now, he had forgotten all about it, 
 though he treated Philip with a more marked friendliness 
 than usual, as though he had some dim, hazy consciousness 
 that Stoney Brothers were ruined. 
 
 The guest would have answered, but he felt his face was 
 
COLD COMFORT 255 
 
 BCarlet, and pretended not to hear Helen, too, seemed 
 very busy with the urn, and although the heater of that 
 domestic article was usually denounced as useless in 
 sustaining a necessary temperature, I think, on this 
 particular morning, no complaints were made of its 
 deficiency in caloric. 
 
 After the Squire's observation. Miss Brooke never looked 
 at Philip once. Neither did she speak to him, nor, indeed 
 to anyone at the table. My own conviction is, that she 
 dared not trust her voice, lest she should cry, and what 
 position could be so false as that of a tea-maker in tears ? 
 
 Jack, with his usual felicity, commented on the cloud 
 that seemed suddenly to have overshadowed them. He had 
 himself, as yet, added nothing in the way of conversation 
 to the common store, though he made exceedingly good 
 practice with eggs, ham, hot rolls, butter, mutton chops, 
 cold pie, and the usual materials of a country-house break- 
 fast. Now he pushed his plate away, and remarked — 
 
 " We are rather dull this morning, don't you think so, 
 Philip ? We want Walter back to keep us all alive." 
 
 Jack believed steadfastly in Walter for every purpose, 
 grave or gay, though a less partial companion must have 
 observed that the hussar seldom thought it worth while to 
 put forth his powers of amusement for his own family. 
 
 Philip ventured to reply, that " He was not himself in 
 particularly high spirits. He had come to wish them good- 
 bye, which was always painfiil, even at breakfast time. He 
 must go to London just as the spring weather was 
 beginning, and Bridlemere looked beautiful. And he was 
 sure he should never see a place like it anywhere else." 
 
 Then he stole a look at the tea-maker, and admired, as 
 he had done a hundred times before, the length of her eye- 
 lashes, for she gazed steadfastly into her plate, having dis- 
 covered something no doubt very novel and curious in the 
 pattern, blue and gold, with the Brooke crest in the 
 centre. 
 
 "Dull," said the Squire. "We're all dull now. I 
 don't know what has come over the house. Jack there was 
 always a stupid fellow from a boy. I never hear Helen's 
 voice except when she's reading to me : and my brother 
 Archie gets his letters at breakfast time. Where's Walter? 
 
256 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 why isn't he down yet ? Gone to St. Barbs is he ? I wish 
 he'd stay here now I'm better. But he's right. Jack, I 
 say Walter's quite right to go into society. What was I 
 saying? Yes, Waywarden's altered, very much altered. 
 He's quite a young man too ; he's younger than I am, 
 though you wouldn't think it. Let me see, Archie, wasn't 
 it the year I married that Waywarden shot the woodcock in 
 my poor wife's flower-garden ? Helen, I wish you'd leave 
 Stoney alone, and put more sugar in my tea. She's very 
 absent sometimes, Archie, just like her poor mother. 
 Don't you think she's growing very like her mother about 
 the eyes ? " 
 
 Helen cast a pleading look at her uncle, as often 
 happened when the Squire's infirmities took this unhappy 
 turn for personality. She caught his eyes fixed on her 
 with a depth of loving tenderness that was very touching 
 in that old, war-worn face, but he interposed, as usual, 
 with a light laugh, to spare her visible embarrassment. 
 
 " Helen is in a horrible funk, as Jack calls it, for she 
 thinks I shall ask her to ride Clarion this afternoon, and 
 she must have seen him mutiny from her bed-room window, 
 half-an-hour ago. Didn't you, Helen ? " 
 
 "Yes, I did," said Helen, "and I watched you a good 
 ten minutes before you conquered him." 
 
 Then she remembered what had kept her so long at the 
 window, and that the horseman's was not the only figure 
 in the park. How she wished she had held her tongue. 
 How she wished she had the faculty of reserving her 
 blushes till she was alone. It would be a relief, thought 
 Helen, when this interminable breakfast was done. And 
 yet, though the ordeal was painful, she would have endured 
 it cheerfully till luncheon time, because, when a move took 
 place, one of the party must go for good and all. 
 
 Jack was the first to get up. No sooner did he push his 
 chair clear of the table, than Tatters started instantaneously 
 firom a state of profound repose to one of exuberant and 
 inconvenient energy. Jack, according to custom, was 
 bound for the farm, and his round of trial and self-restraint 
 was about to commence. 
 
 "Don't forget the new plough," exclaimed the Squire, 
 who had issued contradictory orders concerning this 
 
COLD COMFORT 257 
 
 instrument every day for a month ; " and mind you tell 
 Jones not to give a warranty with the colt. If Marks won't 
 take him without, he can let it alone. And mind, Jack, 
 they're to do nothiag at the ten acres yet. I won't have a 
 spade put in, nor a tile carted, till I can see it done myself. 
 Drained ? Of course it must be drained. But I shall be 
 about the place again by the middle or end of next week, 
 and that's time enough, in all conscience. Let old Stubbs 
 begin thinning Shotsdale, and I'll see him to-morrow to 
 arrange the top and lop, only they mustn't touch a stick 
 below the Middle Kide. And, what was I saying ? Oh ! 
 the colt's not to be sold at all till I've seen him. ^And the 
 draining ? Yes, I'd almost forgotten about the draining. 
 You've no head. Jack ; you never remind me of anything. 
 They must get to work with the draining at once. Begin 
 with the ten acres, you know ; and if Stubbs bothers about 
 Shotsdale, tell him I won't have it thinned at all. It's the 
 best covert in the country. Waywarden killed two-and- 
 forty pheasants in the comer by the pond. Let me see, 
 was it the year before or the year after he shot the wood- 
 cock in your mother's garden? And never mind the 
 plough. Jack, I haven't made up my mind about it yet. 
 And — and — that's all I can think of just now, but let me 
 see you again before you go out, in case I should remember 
 anything else." 
 
 So Jack's task, you observe, was no very easy one ; and 
 though Tatters was doubtless a great comfort, it was a 
 heavy bm-den he had to bear, and a heavy heart to help 
 him. Everything about the place was mismanaged, and 
 going to the bad. Nor, while his father lived, did Jack see 
 any prospect of amendment. It was provoking; it was 
 discouraging. Moreover, he could not but feel that he was 
 fit for something better than this eveiy-day drudgery, with- 
 out even the satisfaction of doing his drudgery effectually 
 in his own way. He neither received the wages of a 
 servant, nor possessed the authority of a master ; and while 
 he saw his future estate gradually but surely crumbling 
 away under a system of extravagance and mismanagement, 
 he was himself leading a life of almost penurious privation 
 and self-denial. 
 
 But Jack, like his uncle, had a strong sense of right. A 
 
 17 
 
258 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMERB 
 
 firm reliance on duty as a cure for discontent. In some of 
 the Brookes this feeling was altogether wanting. In some 
 it amounted almost to a religion. Jack was a square man 
 in a round hole. He knew it, felt it, was very uncomfort- 
 aUe, but being there, made the best of it, and shaped off 
 his edges as well as he could. 
 
 Tatters only thought his master walked a turn faster 
 than usual, while he took his accustomed path across the 
 park, in the direction of the farm. 
 
 Neither was Uncle Archie without his own annoyances. 
 The Squii'e was perfectly justified in complaining that his 
 brother read his letters at breakfast. One of these 
 missives made him pull a long face before he had finished 
 his first cup of tea. Helen, who possessed of course, the 
 feminine faculty of seeing distinctly through her eyelids, 
 knew by a certain way he had of smoothing his moustaches, 
 that he was at a loss. If she could have trusted her voice, 
 the voice that never failed to brighten him into smiles, she 
 would have spoken. 
 
 Perhaps, had she known the cause of his vexation, she 
 too would have shared in it very keenly, honestly angry as 
 women are under disappointment when caused by in- 
 gratitude; they boil up and quiver all over, flashing out 
 sparks of generous impatience from their eyes, when the 
 other animal only smiles cynically, as though he expected 
 nothing better from the nature of his kind. 
 
 Uncle Archie had written to a friend, a real fiiend, 
 whom he had once taken out of prison with the last 
 hundred he would see before pay-day, and another time 
 dragged from the Danube, more dead than alive, under the 
 unpleasant sputtering of a Russian howitzer, who on both 
 occasions had vowed eternal gratitude, and whose bare 
 word would have now been enough to obtain for Philip 
 Stoney an of&ce under Government. The real friend had 
 written to refase point-blank. Altogether, the little party 
 had sufficient cause to be dull, and the gloom only 
 deepened as the time to separate approached. 
 
 Uncle Archie, what with the perusal of his letters, and 
 the discussion of a very elaborate and substantial meal, 
 prolonged his sitting to the utmost permissible limits, but 
 even he rose at last. The Squire's old valet came in to 
 
COLD COMFORT 259 
 
 remove crumbs and other fragments from his master's dress, 
 to pass a damp napkin across his face, and run a comb 
 through his scanty, silvery hairs. Then he proceeded to 
 wheel the invalid, feebly waving farewells to Philip with an 
 inane snule, into the library, where he would take up his 
 usual position tiU dinner time. 
 
 Sir Archibald collected his letters, and walked out at the 
 French window, lighting a cigar. Helen, with a strong 
 inclination to take flight, and a stronger still to remain 
 where she was, and have a good cry, locked up the tea- 
 caddy with the greatest care and assiduity. Philip Stoney, 
 feeling his hands like ice, his heart like Are, and his tongue 
 cleaving to the roof of his mouth, found himself, on the eve 
 of quitting her for ever, alone with the woman he loved. 
 
 What a situation for a scene ! What a chance for a 
 declaration, an avowal, and — the usual consequences ! 
 Here were the properties, the accessories, the actors them- 
 selves, dressed in character, and knowing their parts by 
 heart. A wainscoted room, a silver breakfast-service, a 
 high chimney-piece, an old-fashioned screen, and a portrait 
 of the first Brooke of Bridlemere, looking down on the 
 whole. Through the open windows a blue sky, a bright 
 sunshine, brown ferns waving in the breeze, long vistas of 
 grand old elms, with the deer wandering ghostly and 
 indistinct between, rooks wheeling across the sky and far 
 away, through a break in the avenue, the yellow strawyard 
 and red-tiled roof of a farm. 
 
 Near the table, with its glitter of plate and its snowy 
 cloth, a beautiful young woman, grave, and pale, not half 
 so placid as she looked. Leaning against the chimney- 
 piece, a man who had always thought her an angel, and 
 never dared to tell her so. 
 
 It was, indeed, a great opportunity, and what came of 
 it? 
 
 Philip got his lips unglued so far as to enunciate the 
 talismanic name-:-" Miss Brooke." 
 
 He said it in a voice so unlike his own that she raised 
 her startled eyes. Then he stopped ; and Helen unlocked 
 the tea-caddy she had just locked up. 
 
 " Miss Brooke ! " he tried again, more distinctly ; and I 
 think in another sentence it would all have been over, but 
 
260 THE BM00KE8 OF BBtDLEMEBM 
 
 that the Sqmre was at this moment heard calling " Helen, 
 Helen ! " in testy and impatient accents, from the library. 
 
 The girl looked up almost wildly. 
 
 " I must go," she said. " My father wants me : I hear 
 him calling. Mr. Stoney, God bless you ! and good-bye." 
 
 Her hands were both in his. Ere he could bend his 
 head down to them, they had slipped from his grasp, and 
 she was gone ! 
 
 Then Philip Stoney realised, for the first time, the 
 whole extent of the misfortune that had befallen him. 
 
 He would wait to see nobody else now. After a parting 
 with Helen, and such a parting, other farewells would be a 
 desecration. He took his hat ; he stepped through the 
 window; he looked neither to right nor left, but walked 
 away quietly, steadily, slowly, yet resolutely, in the 
 direction of Middlesworth, of London, of the end of the 
 world ! never to see her again — never, never again ! 
 
 His heart had thrilled with one moment of intense, 
 unspeakable joy, but it was over directly. He was scarcely 
 across the window-sill ere the reaction came on. 
 
 " She did not call me ' Philip ' " he thought. " She 
 said, 'God bless you, Mr. Stoney.' What could I expect? 
 I am the loser in the game all through, and I am glad of it, 
 for her sake. It is better so. What matter how much I 
 suffer, as long as she is contented and happy ? Had she 
 cared for me as I do for her — no, that's impossible ; but 
 had she cared for me at all, she would have been miserable 
 now. Thank Heaven that she does not — I say, thank 
 Heaven that she does not/ Let me look along my future 
 calmly, without prejudice, like a man ! It is only in 
 moments like these a fellow requires to call upon his 
 pluck ! I shall love her all my life : there's no harm in 
 that. I shall love her as if she were an angel in Heaven. 
 Sometimes she'll think of me, and remember this morning, 
 and like to feel that if she had chosen, one man, at least, 
 in the world belonged to her, to do what she pleased with— 
 to take or leave — to mar or make. She will be a great lady 
 some day ; the noblest name in England might be proud to 
 win her. She will be a happy wife. Yes, I pra^/ she may 
 be a happy wife. I wonder if I shall ever see her ; 
 perhaps with children, beautiful like their mother, dark- 
 
COLD COMFORT 261 
 
 eyed, and with her own sweet smile — the darling! Let 
 her only be happy, and I don't care what becomes of me!" 
 
 I think Mr. Philip Stoney, thus communing with him- 
 self, all unconscious of the fine spring morning, loved Miss 
 Brooke better than Launcelot loved Guenevere. I think 
 there is a chivalry of self-sacrifice nobler than the chivalry 
 of daring. I think a man's own happiness is the most 
 precious offering he can lay at a woman's feet. 
 
 He walked very slowly and thoughtfully across the park. 
 You see he had not much before him in the future ; and, 
 were they not painful, what credit would there be in these 
 efforts of our better nature ? It was all Bridlemere till he 
 reached the high road, and Bridlemere was a magical name 
 to him, though he was but a young brewer ; as magical a 
 name as if he had been the first Caradoc himself, with 
 Arthur's accolade on his shoulder, riding in mail and plate, 
 through an enchanted forest, to seek his peerless bride. 
 
 There are giants in these days as there were in those 
 before the Flood; and we should know it, could we but 
 measure them about the heart. Brave men have lived before 
 and after Agamemnon, and the Victoria Cross is earned, if 
 it be not won, several times in a week. But of all efforts, 
 that which most elicits the qualities of courage and 
 patience, that which realises the highest type of heroism, 
 is the entire offering up of self, without a boast and with- 
 out a murmur, to the happiness of another. 
 
 Philip looked back towards the house once or twice as 
 he went along. It was natural he should. He pictured to 
 himself the Squire's easy-chair in the library ; the white 
 head resting on the back, the cushions piled to prop the 
 failing limbs ; the daughter's graceful form bent over a 
 book, as she read to her father in that gentle, quiet voice, 
 so sweet and yet a little sad, which was not the least of 
 Helen's charms. When he reached the rising ground, 
 beyond which Bridlemere was no longer visible, he turned 
 again for one more look, and could have believed he really 
 saw the scene his imagination painted for him so vividly. 
 
 Such clairvoyance is not always to be trusted. The real 
 scene is this : An empty bedroom on the second floor, the 
 blinds drawn, the fire-irons rolled in the hearth-rug, the 
 apartment " put away." No chance of intrusion- from the 
 
262 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 housemaids, and a pale, beautiful face, with the dark hair 
 pushed back, peering from behind the blind, watching, 
 watching, eyes fixed, lips apart, not a quiver in the delicate 
 features, but a load of care on the clear and gentle brow. 
 Presently the eyes light up. Somebody has stood still 
 upon the rising ground amongst the trees, and turned 
 round towards the house. A pair of white hands clasp 
 each other hard as he disappears behind the hill. Then 
 a shudder creeps over the lovely, sorrowing face. Helen 
 Brooke turns from the window, to fall on her knees by the 
 disused bed, and, burying her head amongst the doubled- 
 up blankets, gives a little helpless moan, and cries, poor 
 girl ! as if her heart would break. 
 
CHAPTER XVn 
 
 PARTNERS 
 
 Nobody on earth enjoys the country like a real Londoner. 
 There is many a man who farms his five hundred acres 
 without getting half the exercise, enjoyment, and excite- 
 ment out of his fertile loam and broad smiling pastures, 
 afforded from a rood or two of garden, if it be oiily within 
 ten minutes' distance of London Bridge by rail. Probably, 
 as desire springs from separation, so is zest the child of 
 contrast. To sit in a dingy back room all day, decently 
 attired, intent on the one great object of money-making, 
 must wonderfully £nhance the luxury of a careless, 
 unbraced lounge, with a rake and a straw hat, amongst 
 the evening perfumes of your own garden in summer. 
 To know that you mustn't stay more than ten minutes, 
 and that this mouthful of fresh air is to last you all day, 
 till the 6.30 train brings you back again, cannot but impart 
 to each precious gasp an exquisite flavour, of which the 
 habitual rustic shall never know the charm. Christopher 
 North says, if he had to write a poem on Loch-na-Gar, he 
 would descend to the depths of a metropoKtan coal-cellar, 
 and, doubtless, visions, never equalled by reality, are conjured 
 up every day in dark dusty offices, in crowded warehouses, 
 in noisy City thoroughfares on which the sun cannot shine, 
 behiad ink-stained desks, over weary legders, in the midst 
 of the traffic, and turmoil, and distraction of hot, hurrying, 
 busy, panting London. Visions of grass-grown meadows, 
 rippled by the fi-esh country breeze, of hedges white with 
 May, or black in the luxuriance of their tangled prime. 
 Here the broad river flashing back the sunlight from a 
 
264 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 sheet of gold ; there the deep woods hushed and motion- 
 less, sleeping in the light summer haze. Fancy, stimulated 
 by longing, paints the panorama with her softest hrush 
 dipped in her brightest colours, and the dreamer's eye, 
 bounded by a horizon of ten feet at most, wanders over 
 half a kingdom, to feast upon the riches, and the variety, 
 and the glories thereof. 
 
 Mr. Pounder, gi-ave, deliberate, sedate of manner, and 
 precise in attire, was a different person altogether from a 
 hale, hearty, broad-shouldered man, in a flannel-shirt and 
 straw-hat with open neck, and sleeves turned up, showing, 
 by the way, a physique that would have done no discredit 
 to a bargeman digging for his life, before breakfast, in his 
 garden at Balham, whose name was Pounder, too. The 
 Strand Pounder was smooth, plausible, exacting, suspicious, 
 and utterly without compassion. The Balham Pounder 
 was a cheery, open-hearted fellow, free of speech, given to 
 hospitality, careless, generous, and confiding, a little sat 
 upon by his wife, and much too indulgent to his children. 
 Yet the man was no hypocrite in either capacity. He was 
 simply one of the many actors on our stage whom cir- 
 cumstances compel to " double a part." In each character 
 he was equally in earnest. To see him digging now you 
 would say there was no such enthusiastic gardener in the 
 world. 
 
 A sturdy boy, absurdly like the man in squareness of 
 form and doggedness of feature, follows his father's move- 
 ments vdth intense interest. Showing thus early the 
 tendencies of Cain, he is armed with a spud taller than 
 himself, for the destruction of slugs, and he uses this 
 weapon with unsparing energy. There is blood on his 
 dirty little hands; he will very likely object to these 
 tokens of his success being washed off before breakfast. 
 In the meantime, he feels only inferior to his ideal, the 
 large, strong, good-natured father, who has dug all that 
 piece of ground since sunrise. 
 
 Every now and then. Pounder straightens his back, and 
 looks round his " little place," as he calls it, with im- 
 measurable satisfaction. In Horace's garden he had space 
 to find a lizard ; Pounder's is just large enough to contain 
 a thrush, and is haunted by one of those birds with the 
 
PABTNEBS 265 
 
 clearest pipe in Christendom. Woe to its hopes of 
 reproduction though, should Pounder junior find the 
 nest, as find it he surely will. " Those little hands were 
 never made " to spare anything so suggestive of destruction, 
 and nobody will be surprised, though mamma will be very 
 angry, if the thrush flies fui-ther off into Surrey against 
 another year. 
 
 The Colonists of Balham measured their land by feet 
 rather than acres. Mr. Pounder's garden is a hundred and 
 twenty feet one way, taking in the close-cut privet hedge, 
 and in this space every style of landscape gardening has 
 been attempted with varying success. While he looks 
 round it now in the intervals of his labour, he speculates 
 whether he will not do something more in the manner 
 of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. Move those flower- 
 beds further back, cut down that laurel; plant rhododendrons 
 in the vacant space ; put a basin and fountain, railed in for 
 security against children ; and scatter grotesque monsters 
 and statues about the whole. He must think it over, he 
 says to himself, getting to work again, fully persuaded that 
 he can carry out the new idea with success. 
 
 A little girl in a sun-bonnet, on whom Pounder junior 
 looks with some contempt, as being only a sister, comes 
 trotting out of the house, and puts her face up to father, 
 to be Mssed. She is a demure little lady enough, and has 
 been sent by mamma as a forewarning of breakfast. 
 
 Mrs. Pounder herself now appears at the door, with 
 another yet smaller child holding by her fore-finger. Mrs. 
 P. is a " genteel person," at least she would probably so 
 describe herself, and is proud of possessing great adminis- 
 trative powers. She is thin, pale, freckled, slim-waisted, 
 and prolific, having nothing remarkable about her but 
 prominent teeth and long ear-rings. She rules the 
 household, including Pounder, with a temperate but ab- 
 solute sway; keeps its expenditure down to the most 
 prudent financial estimate ; goes to church very often, to 
 parties very seldom ; is especially fond of her garden, 
 though, small as it is, she scarcely walks to the end of 
 it once a month ; and bears successive branches with the 
 unremitting regularity of the olive. 
 
 " Father ! " she calls, in a shrill voice, shading her eyes 
 
266 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIBLBMEBE 
 
 from the morning light with her hand. " Breakfast ! " and 
 disappears again, to make tea, with a quiet rapid step that 
 sufficiently denotes the decision of her character. 
 
 Now this is the part of the day Pounder enjoys most. 
 Fresh fi-om the pure air and hard exercise of the garden, 
 it is delightful to put on decent clothes, and sit down to a 
 good breakfast in the society of wife and children. 
 
 The Tiger has its cubs; the vulture its brood; the 
 money-lender, no less than these animals of prey, must 
 provide for the necessities of home and young. When he 
 fastens his talons on the devoted buck, to drain his blood, 
 it is not his own fierce thirst he has to slake. The little 
 ones must be fed. Though the victim is bleeding gold 
 at every gasp, the operator is, perhaps, but fulfilling one 
 of the best and noblest instincts of our nature. 
 
 Pounder was hospitality itself. Nevertheless, he did 
 look a little disappointed to hear a man's step on the 
 gravel — to see a man's figure coming up the path. Who- 
 ever it might be he would have welcomed him more cordially 
 to dinner than to breakfast, and he knew well enough at 
 the first glimpse who it was. There were few people he 
 would not rather have seen at the " little place " than his 
 swell partner, fashionable in dress, overbearing in manner, 
 and crushing in infiuence, from the large share he had in 
 the business. 
 
 " Come to breakfast, Mr. Multiple, I hope! " he managed 
 to say, however, with a good grace enough. " My dear, a 
 place for Mr. Multiple ; " and Mrs. Pounder, who piqued 
 herself on her breeding, had presence of mind to check the 
 apologies that rose to her tongue, for yesterday's tablecloth, 
 the assistance of the children, and her own second-best 
 gown of the year before last. 
 
 Multiple was not above doing great man amongst those 
 who were dependent on him. He enjoyed the deference 
 with which he was treated, the surprise of his hostess, I 
 fear — even the confusion created by his unexpected arrival. 
 He was dressed, as usual, with much splendour, looking 
 handsome and vulgar enough. Mrs. Pounder, who thought 
 herself a good judge of such things, considered him a 
 pattern of what she called " a fashionable West-Ender." 
 She only wished, though, there had been time to turn that 
 
PABTNEBS 267 
 
 table-cloth, and she could have put her hand on two more 
 eggs in the house. 
 
 " That's a fine boy ! " said Multiple, nodding at the 
 eldest-born, who was watching the visitor with unaffected 
 displeasure. "Like his father as two peas. And been 
 gardening, too. I know you're an early man, Pounder, so 
 I won't apologise for coming to breakfast. Plenty to eat, 
 thank you, Mrs. Pounder. Sure never to find you un- 
 provided. I've got some business to talk over with your 
 husband, after breakfast, as usual." 
 
 The prospect was unwelcome. Pounder did not like to 
 have business brought down to Balham, when the firm paid 
 such a heavy house-rent for their work-shop near the Strand. 
 It spoilt his meal altogether, and, indeed, the guest was 
 the only one of the party who showed a good appetite, for 
 the children were intimidated by the stranger, and Mr. 
 Poimder, " a very poor eater," as she said, " at the best 
 of times," was now much too flurried to swallow anything 
 but a morsel of dry toast and half a cup of tea. 
 
 The master of the house felt a little sulky, nor was his 
 mood improved to learn that his partner had thus intruded 
 to save himself the trouble of going on to their joint place 
 of business in the afternoon. Multiple had been staying 
 near Croydon, with some smart friend, where he met Lord 
 This and Lady That — firing off these great names for the 
 edification of his entertainers, in his usual swaggering style. 
 Pounder could scarce suppress a movement of impatience 
 at the mention of all this unbusiness-like gaiety, but he did 
 suppress it, notwithstanding. Every man, they say, in one 
 way or another, has a hook in his nose, and Pounder was 
 anything but a free agent where his partner Frank Multiple 
 was concerned. 
 
 Mrs. Pounder soon made her escape with her brood. 
 The visitor put his dirty boots on a chair, lit a cigar 
 without asking leave, and proceeded to business at once. 
 
 " Get a pen and ink," he said, somewhat authoritatively, 
 " and take down my directions, if you are likely to forget 
 them. You can go up by a later train." 
 
 Pounder, much dissatisfied, was forced to comply. His 
 guest puffed out a gi'eat cloud of smoke at the tea-urn and 
 went on — 
 
268 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 "Captain March's paper is no use to us any longer. 
 Mexico has refused point blank to put his name to another 
 bill. I had it last night from Mounteagle, who sat next 
 me at dinner. By the way, I doubt if ' Mount ' will be able 
 to swim much longer. Have you got March's name down ? " 
 
 Pounder nodded, and put his pen behind his ear, while 
 he looked over a note-book. He was the Strand Pounder 
 now ; Balham no longer. 
 
 " Haman will take the last on the usual terms," said he. 
 " It's as good as the others. I'm sorry my lord's found him 
 out. He was a fair customer to us, was the Captain ! " 
 
 "He's done at last," observed Multiple. "Don't you 
 forget it. Sixty per cent., and half goods, wouldn't tempt 
 me now. There's a little thing to be done for Bolster and 
 Co. on commission. I'll give you a note, and you can set 
 about it this afternoon. Did you sell those South Africans 
 yesterday?" 
 
 " Waited one more day, Sir," answered the other. " The 
 market won't turn on us, I think, just yet." 
 
 " Don't over-hoU it, that's all," said his partner. " The 
 House won't have it, I know, and they'll go down by the 
 run directly parliament meets. By the way, old Gobie's 
 dead, and the post-obits have fallen in. It's a tolerable 
 haul. I thought he was good for ten years at least, and so 
 did his son. That reminds me : what did we do Lord 
 Mounteagle's last at?" 
 
 Pounder turned over the leaves of his note-book and 
 answered — 
 
 "Thirty; all cash." 
 
 "Thirty — aU cash," mused his partner. "Well, I 
 hardly know. I don't much like to refuse him, but 
 there's a deal of bad paper about." 
 
 "It's best to be cautious," answered the other, "though 
 his lordship, I believe, will be very rich." 
 
 "One brings another, it's true," continued Multiple. 
 " Still, it often happens that those who have most friends 
 have least money, and it's not business to advance, even 
 at a hundred per cent., if you are never likely to be paid 
 at all." 
 
 This was incontestable. Pounder admitted it. After a 
 pause, he observed, with some hesitation — 
 
t>ABTNEBS S69 
 
 " I hope you have made a good bargain about the young 
 horse. Sir. I tried to dispose of him for you, to an old 
 customer, but he would have nothing to say to it. These 
 ventures seldom pay well, Sir, in our trade. Somehow they 
 don't seem to fit into the business." 
 
 Now, this young horse was rather a sore subject between 
 the partners, and had occasioned more than one remon- 
 strance on the part of the elder. Pounder stuck to the 
 old-fashioned principle of risking but one speculation at a 
 time, investing the profits as so much capital to the good, 
 after deducting a percentage towards a fund against occa- 
 sional loss. With great caution, close attention, and a 
 strict adherence to his favourite rule of never standing " a 
 heavy shot," whatever might be the temptation, he thought 
 this the safe and sure way of making a fortune. 
 
 Multiple, on the contrary, went on a different system 
 altogether. He argued, that to be engaged in a great 
 variety of speculations involved familiarity with the private 
 affairs of an extensive acquaintance. In one circle he could 
 get information that afforded valuable aid to his trans- 
 actions in another ; and a money-lender, he opined, should 
 be the best authority on all matters of the Turf, the 
 Exchange, the Share Market, nay even on home politics, 
 foreign affairs, and the last blunder committed in Downing 
 Street. He was the reverse of his colleague in ideas 
 and principles, as in dress and appearance ; but, at 
 Balham or in the Strand, his will was law. He had a 
 hook you see in his partner's nose, and though made of 
 mere paper, it was stronger than iron, because it represented 
 gold. 
 
 " I shall keep the horse, and win ' The July' with him," 
 said he, abruptly — ^not that he meant to do so, nor fancied 
 that the animal had the slightest chance, but out of pure 
 contradiction. " Your friend must be a devilish bad judge 
 to refttse such a horse as that ! " 
 
 "You know best about his judgment," answered the 
 other, piqued at his companion's tone, and aggravated, 
 moreover, by the maid, who kept putting her head in to 
 know when she might take away the breakfast things. 
 " He's more in your set than mine. All I can say is, that if 
 young Brooke don't know a racehorse when he sees him, he 
 
270 THE BB00KE8 OP BMIDLEMEBJS 
 
 has lost a good deal of time in his apprenticeship, and paid 
 a handsome premium besides for nothing ! " 
 
 Multiple's eye brightened, and his pink cheek grew a 
 tinge pinker at the name. 
 
 " We have had his paper before," said he, laughing, 
 " and I don't know that some of it was worth the stamp. 
 But I hope you accommodated him, nevertheless. I know 
 something of the family." 
 
 " This bill was as good as a Bank-of-Englander," 
 answered Pounder. "It was endorsed by Mr. de EoUe, 
 who is, I believe, m the same regiment." 
 
 Multiple laughed again. He had thought it must come 
 to this, though he hardly expected his advice would have 
 been so quickly followed. 
 
 " That's a new name, isn't it ? " he asked carelessly. " I 
 don't remember seeing it in the market. My memory is 
 pretty good in such matters, and so is my information." 
 
 "I've seen it on another bill," answered his partner, 
 triumphantly, " and to accommodate the same party. The 
 two seemed to have been done about the same time. I 
 suppose, if the gentleman is such a friend of Mr. Brooke, he 
 won't last long." 
 
 Multiple ruminated. So rapid a one-two rather puzzled 
 him. He resolved to get to the bottom of it. The best 
 point in this man's character was that he never left his nut 
 without cracking it. 
 
 "Where did you light on these bills?" he inquired. 
 " They wouldn't need to travel much, with ' Bags,' as we 
 call him, on the step." 
 
 " Mr. Brooke negotiated one of them himself. That was 
 when I tried to make him take the horse. The other came 
 to us with a good many more from Haman. They are 
 dated within three days of each other. Except for that, 
 they are precisely identical. The young gentlemen have 
 been in mischief, I fancy ; but that is no affair of ours." 
 
 " What is the amount of the first bill ? " 
 
 " Three hundred." 
 
 "And the second?" 
 
 " Three hundred." 
 
 " That's a good lump of money in so short a time. Are 
 they to be got at? " 
 
PABTNEBa 271 
 
 " They're both in the office at this moment. I can 
 dispose of them -without the slightest difficulty when I 
 reach town to-day." 
 
 " Keep them ! my good friend, keep them ! " exclaimed 
 Multiple, with a quiver of repressed excitement in his 
 voice. "Whatever you do, don't part with them at any 
 price. You see — you see — they may be of the utmost 
 value to us." 
 
 "1 confess I do not see how they can be worth more 
 than cash," answered the old man with some surprise, 
 "though I daresay they will be paid in ftdl when they 
 come due." 
 
 Multiple was recovering himself. The nut seemed hard, 
 but he was determined to crack it without assistance. He 
 must give his partner a reason, though, for hiding it up 
 monkey-like, in his cheek, till he had leisure for the 
 operation. 
 
 " Why, you see," he remarked, confidentially, " six 
 hundred is a good deal of money. Three he might have 
 managed to pay up if he won a stake anywhere in the 
 spring; but I know my man, and I don't think he could 
 hand over six hundred if he had it m his pocket. Then, of 
 course, he will want to compromise. Very likely offer us a 
 post-obit. His father can't live a twelvemonth at most. 
 Those two biUs might bring us in three times theii' value if 
 we keep our hand on them." 
 
 " You know best," answered Pounder, sulkily, in a growl 
 that seemed to contradict the assertion, and muttering 
 something about "business" and "vagaries," under his 
 breath. 
 
 " Then, you'll attend to my directions," resumed the 
 other in a matter-of-course tone. " Dear me ! it's past 
 eleven o'clock, I shall not be at gur place at all to-day. If 
 anything very queer turns up, write. Make my com- 
 pliments to Mi's. Poimder. It's time for me to be off. 
 Good-bye, Pounder. Don't forget to keep your hand shut 
 on those bills." 
 
 Uttering these disjointed sentences, particularly the last, 
 with an air of the utmost carelessness and good-humour, 
 but in a tone which his listener knew by experience meant 
 real earnest, Mr. Multiple took himself off, to the intense 
 
272 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 relief of his partner, his partner's wife, and his partner's 
 children. 
 
 The more he thought over the matter, the more he felt 
 convinced there was a mystery of which something might 
 he made. If there was a secret, that secret he was resolved 
 to possess. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, this is the most fragile of all 
 prey. To gi*asp a secret is too often like grasping a soap- 
 bubhle — the very act destroys and renders it valueless. 
 Multiple, however, was no clumsy operator. Above all, 
 though he could make haste on occasion, he took care never 
 to be in a hurry. He was human, too, although a gambler, 
 speculator, betting-man, and money-lender ; had his likes 
 and dislikes ; could take a languid interest in others so far 
 as they acted on his own passions or feelings, and con- 
 sidered himself altogether a man of amiable disposition, but 
 too sensitive to do himself thorough justice in the affairs of 
 life. 
 
 Now, Helen Brooke's dark eyes and high-bred air, not 
 devoid of a certain haughty shyness that became her well, 
 had made a deep impression on Mr. Francis Multiple, none 
 the less that his admiration seemed to produce a very 
 opposite feeling in the young lady's breast. There are 
 some men whom a woman's dislike piques into a strong 
 desire for their capture ; others, again, who are only to be 
 ensnared by an obvious predisposition in their favour, and 
 who take a deal of " bringing on ; " in fact, who require 
 much of the love-making, at least in the earlier stages, to 
 be done for them. These last are often the gentler and 
 nobler natures, almost always the most constant ; and 
 although it may be up-hill work with them just at first, 
 they warm to it very readily, and move fast enough when 
 fairly set going. Women, of course, understand both kinds 
 thoroughly, and each may rest assured that he will receive 
 just so much encouragement as shall prevent his abandon- 
 ing the chase in despair, and no more. 
 
 Now, Frank Multiple had been smitten with Miss 
 Brooke's charms the very day he set eyes on her near Dame 
 Batters' cottage in the neighbourhood of Middlesworth. 
 The sensation without being novel, was keen and pleasing. 
 It increased at the ball, and he paid the lady as much 
 
PABTNEBS 278 
 
 attention in his own unembarrassed way as circumstances 
 would permit. The girl did not fancy him in the least : 
 but, like all sensitive people, she was very shy of woundiag 
 another by word or manner and many compliments and 
 civilities passed unnoticed which would have earned for him 
 — from Lady Julia, for instance — a very effectual set-down. 
 There is a class of men in society, sirf&ciently numerous, 
 and on pretty good terms with self, to whom the adage, 
 " Silence gives consent," seems an infallible maxim. 
 Many a retiring damsel has suffered torture by "the 
 question," under the oppressive gallantries of these 
 familiars, especially when the right man in the wrong 
 place, being at the other end of the room, is thus prevented 
 from a nearer approach, and, with the exquisite discernment 
 and sense of justice peculiar to his sex, chafes the champs 
 in jealousy and bitterness of spirit, unreasonably angry with 
 her for what she cannot help. Then the forward gentleman 
 gets the credit of being on the best of terms with the back- 
 ward lady, and even persuades himself that his suit goes on 
 prosperously. Nobody pities him much, however, when he 
 is undeceived, as he is sure to be in the end, for the " real 
 jam," or what old-fashioned people call " true love," 
 triumphs at last in common life as well as on the stage ; 
 and where it exists, a word, a look, an allusion to the most 
 indifferent subject, will bring people together as if they had 
 never been estranged, and could never have a difference 
 again. 
 
 In the meantime, Frank Multiple admired Helen Brooke 
 sufficiently to covet her for his own, and therefore made up 
 his mind that she should become his property without 
 delay. She was amiable, carefully brought up, ornamental, 
 and well-bred. The connection would be much in his 
 favour: it would be another step gained on the social 
 ascent; and this time there woidd be no dirt to wade 
 through, only a pale, proud, spotless lily to crush beneath 
 his heel. 
 
 He left the train at Vauxhall Station, revolving many 
 matters in his mind, amongst which the mystery of the two 
 bills kept continually coming uppermost. Eeflection on 
 the indorser's frank disposition and inexperience in such 
 matters, he resolved to try what he could learn from De 
 
 18 
 
274 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 RoUe himself. It was possible the hussar might be in 
 town. He would at any rate, look for him at his club. 
 Passing Mr. Plausible's Commission Stables, a happy 
 thought struck him. He would ask Eags to give him his 
 valuable opinion on a " stepper." If this arrangement should 
 entail luncheon, he knew he could extract the hussar's 
 whole private history in less than two hours. 
 
 The hansom went bumping and bounding along alarm- 
 ingly near the wheels of all other vehicles, and making no 
 compromise whatever about grazing the kerb-stones, till it 
 stopped at that great nursery of heroes which dominates so 
 nobly over the rest of St. James's Square. Unheard-of 
 iluke ! Eags was in the club ; and, stranger still, seeing 
 that it was his especial duty to inform himself on such 
 matters, the porter knew and admitted the fact. Hungry 
 Eags had just ordered luncheon. Hospitable Eags was 
 delighted to have a guest: the repast should be doubled 
 forthwith, and laid in the other coffee-room. Nothing but 
 great presence of mind in Multiple served to put a veto on 
 champagne. 
 
 "Help you to see the 'Quad? Of course I will," said 
 the host, heartily, and delighted with the job. " The very 
 thing. Was just thinking what I should do this afternoon. 
 Here comes luncheon ! Have a cutlet ? Drain of Bass 
 first ? Quite right : it's the real antibilious ! " 
 
 The visitor was most welcome. Eags, like many of his 
 comrades, was always rushing up to town in a tremendous 
 bustle, and had nothing to do when he got there. To one 
 who has not " his London " at his finger-ends, a real 
 thorough-going town man is an invaluable companion. 
 Also, the hero-worship that never outlives a little experience 
 of the world, bids ingenuous youth give its senior credit 
 for much Satanic wisdom, and many vicious qualities of 
 which it is beautifully innocent. Eags believed Multiple 
 to be a second Corinthian Tom, with D'Orsay's manners, 
 the worldly knowledge of all the Chesterfields in one, the 
 brain of Talleyrand, the tongue of Faust, and the heart of 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 When men drink sherry after pale ale, at two o'clock in 
 the day, and begin to talk about horses, they are apt to 
 become confidential, discussive, and, indeed, a little 
 
PABTNEB8 275 
 
 indiscreet. Multiple drew his entertainer out with 
 considerable skill. Another pint of sherry made Eags 
 unusually loquacious. 
 
 "I've done most things now," said this honest fellow, 
 wishing to impress on his fiiend that he was " at all in the 
 ring." "Eacing, hunting, sporting, soldiering; but what 
 I like to go in for most, is society. Society, you understand 
 me, old fellow — none of your second-raters, but the real 
 thing. Front rank — ^first-class, I mean — best blood, 
 thorough-bred, you know, without a stain." 
 
 " Exactly! " answered the other, gravely. — " Duchesses, 
 Countesses, and so forth." 
 
 Eags, though bemused with sherry, blushed, well- 
 pleased. 
 
 " That's right," said he. " You're a man of the world, 
 Multiple — you've seen it all. Don't you agree with me ? 
 Nothing pays so well as what I call the first flight ? " 
 
 " To a fellow with your advantages, I dare say it does," 
 replied his guest. " Though it's hopeless work for a green 
 one. I fancy you cut your wisdom-teeth before you were 
 weaned ; but for my own part, I cannot help thinking I 
 began too young. Why, I knew Paris as well as I do Pall 
 Mall, at sixteen. 
 
 " No ! " exclaimed Eags, stricken with admiration at 
 this beautiful instance of precocity. "Ah! There's 
 nothing like it, to teach a fellow what life really is ! " 
 
 Multiple knew what this so-called life really was, better 
 than most people, and he might have told his friend, but 
 he didn't. He had experienced its feverish pleasures, its 
 false excitement, its discontent, its lassitude, its self- 
 reproach. He felt too surely that the good was all gone 
 out of him now; and though he regretted it he had not 
 even the desire for amendment. It is sad when vice, under 
 the misnomer of pleasure, has become a daily necessity — 
 when the mind has been so sapped and weakened by 
 indulgence, that disease is its normal state. And this 
 contemptible condition is what young men admire. Why 
 is it that experience, even in wickedness, should possess 
 such a charm for the untried spirit? Is it owing to the 
 folly of youth, or to the carelessness of middle age ? Does 
 the man wish the boy to wade through the mire like him- 
 
276 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 self? or is it from sheer laziness, neglect, and fear of 
 ridicule that he ignores or makes light of the stains on his 
 own attire ? The young ones are surely less to blame than 
 those from whom they take their cue. 
 
 " So you've been at all in the ring, De EoUe ? " said 
 Multiple, after a pause, during which Eags had swallowed 
 another bumper of sherry. " Getting tired of it, I suppose. 
 BlasS ennuye. Used up at five-and-twenty, eh? " 
 
 "Not quite that," replied the other, delighted however 
 with the imputation ; "but I feel game for a fi-esh excite- 
 ment ; something different from all I've tried before, you 
 know." 
 
 " Have you ever won a good stake on the Turf with your 
 own horse ? " asked Multiple. " Seen Mr. de Rolle's 
 colours flying past the chair on the outsider they laid 
 twenty to one against beiore the race ? That's not a bad 
 moment, eh?" 
 
 " It's only a money excitement, after all," said Rags. 
 " I'd rather win the Grand Military myself, if I could ride 
 the weight, which I can't." 
 
 " I see," laughed the other ; " you like something in which 
 there is a more personal interest. Well, did you ever fight 
 a duel, run away with another man's wife, or back a bill for 
 a friend?" 
 
 " I've done the last," said Eags, idiot enough, I believe, 
 at the moment to wish he could say he had committed the 
 other two follies also. "I've done the bill," he repeated, 
 " and, odd enough, do you know, it once happened to me to 
 back the same bill twice over." 
 
 Multiple turned round to ask the waiter for a toothpick. 
 " Indeed," said he, carelessly ; " how was that? " 
 
 " Why, it was for a brother officer, you know. Good 
 fellow — great friend of mine — man we all know. I name 
 no names." Eags looked very wise. " Soldiers aren't 
 always the best men of business. We made a mull of the 
 stamp, and had to do it again. Good joke, wasn't it? — 
 all for want of practice." 
 
 "I don't think I quite follow you," said Multiple. " I 
 beg your pardon, I was looking at that woman in the street. 
 You observed something about a stamp." 
 
 " Only that I backed a second bill for my friend when I 
 
PABTNEB8 277 
 
 found the first was no use. That was the way we came to 
 do a bill, as I told you, twice over." 
 
 " You destroyed the first bill, of course, so it did not 
 much matter. I dare say the thing happens every 
 day." 
 
 " Oh ! yes. I destroyed it. At least, my friend did. 
 He wi'ote to me at once to say he had put it in the fire. 
 You know the man, though I won't tell you his name. 
 He's a very honourable fellow. You can't think how 
 annoyed he was. It made him so angry that he never 
 thought of returning the bill to me till it was too late. He 
 tore it up at once, and burned it. Shows how disgusted 
 he was, for he's generally the coolest hand in the 
 regiment." 
 
 " That's capital sherry, andi'vehadanexcellentluncheon," 
 said Multiple, provokingly uniuterested, to all appearance, 
 in his friend's anecdote. " Now for the stepper. I think 
 you'll say he's very clever. Good gracious ! " he interrupted 
 himself, looking at his watch ; " I shan't be able to go to- 
 day, after all. Who'd have thought it was half-past three 
 o'clock ! Some other time, my dear fellow, I'll ask you to 
 give me the benefit of your eye to make and shape. I must 
 be off now, positively. Many thanks to you, de RoUe, and 
 good-bye." 
 
 Mr. Multiple had got what he came for, besides the 
 luncheon. He did not think it necessary to inflict himself 
 with the companionship of honest Rags during the after- 
 noon. That gentleman's conversation, though guileless, 
 was neither instructive nor amusing. The hussar was a 
 little disappointed, but at such a club as his there was no 
 lack of comrades, jovial, cheerful, happy fellows, to whom 
 headache, heartache, and indigestion were unknown. Was 
 not Brown, the celebrated pig-sticker, having his weed after 
 "TifSn" in the smoking-room? Were not Jones of the 
 Plungers, and Robinson of the Engineers, and three or four 
 lancers, and half-a-dozen of the hussar brigade ready to 
 amuse and be amused in the hall ? Rags had no difficulty 
 in passing the day till dinner time. 
 
 Multiple proceeded straight to the office near the Strand. 
 "Three hundred," he muttered, as he walked along. 
 " Three hundred, and not worth three hundred pence. 
 
278 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Yet I wouldn't take a thousand for it. No, nor ten of them ; 
 for this is the card that, if I play it right, ■will win me the 
 stake I go for. Hurrah ! for handsome haughty Helen, 
 with the proud head and the large dark eyes ! " 
 
CHAPTEE XVm 
 
 THE LONG LANE 
 
 Jack Beooke went farming, without thinking it necessary 
 to ask the Squire for any more contradictory directions. 
 He crossed the park, and reached the accustomed stile, 
 thence to strike a certain green lane, down which it was his 
 habit to plod daily. A long lane indeed, and metaphorically 
 as well as in reality — one that seemed to have no turning. 
 It was something like Jack's own life. The way was easy 
 to travel, confined between rural hedges, pretty and pleasant 
 enough. The views from it, though not extensive, were 
 smiling and peaceful. There was summer shade and winter 
 shelter above his head, and a moderately good road in 
 either season beneath his feet. But no doubt there was a 
 little too much sameness in the journey. Ups and downs, 
 hill and dale, moor and moss make easier, or at least more 
 cheerful, work than a dead level ; and the smoothest path 
 that ever was trod becomes wearisome, if a man follow it 
 day by day. Jack fretted a little sometimes at the 
 monotony of the groove into which he had been forced ; 
 but he would have been ashamed to confess a sentiment he 
 held so unmanly as discontent, therefore he fought against 
 it, and trampled it down, as only a good fellow can. 
 
 From his mother, the eldest Brooke inherited a rare 
 quality of inert resistance, which had descended to neither 
 brother nor sister. Perhaps he alone had been old enough 
 to imbibe from her certain principles of resignation that she 
 had found the great consolation and happiness of her life. 
 Like many another, she had paid dearly for her one 
 mistake: her one sin against her own heart, so fully 
 
 279 
 
280 TBE BB0OEM8 OP BttlDLEMEBB 
 
 avenged as soon as committed on that heart itself. Instead 
 of fighting with her fate, and hewailing the sorrows that 
 originated in her own deed, she grasped eagerly at the only 
 hand ahle to help her, and so lived peaceful and contented, 
 to die hopeful and happy, before Helen was old enough to 
 call plainly on " mamma." Jack not only resembled his 
 mother in disposition, but looked back to her as his ideal 
 of that perfection which he was never to see again on 
 earth. 
 
 Of course, under these circumstances he was destined to 
 marry somebody as different as possible from his pattern. 
 
 Tatters trotted watchfully along before his master, darting 
 off at intervals in pursuit of rabbits, with an energy none the 
 less dashing that he had never in his life caught one above 
 ground, and never would. He liked his expedition all the 
 better that Jack had now left off riding a certain excellent 
 cob, whose rapid paces used to reduce the poor little terrier, 
 panting behind with its tongue out, to the last stage of 
 exhaustion. But Jack had sold the cob in Middlesworth 
 market, thereafter to come into the possession of Lord 
 Waywarden, as imported direct from Wales, and nobody 
 knew what had become of the money — ^five-and-forty pounds 
 in Middlesworth notes, that he had taken for the sale. 
 There was a mystery about these notes, for they did not 
 find their way to Walter, nor did Helen wear a new dress 
 out of any part of them, and Jack was most unlikely to keep 
 a secret hoard of his own. 
 
 Also, about this time, and soon after his brewery was 
 burnt, George Stoney received the same sum exactly, from 
 an anonymous correspondent, to clear off a long-standing 
 debt, of which he had no precise recollection. 
 
 So Jack, for want of a horse, strode sturdily along on a 
 pair of well-turned legs, that carried their owner with 
 considerable vigour and freedom ; but, alas ! black Care 
 not disdaining pedestrian exercise, had dismounted from the 
 cob too, and walked beside him, offensively familiar still, 
 whispering in his ear of a thousand difficulties he wanted to 
 ignore, and reminding him of a thousand vexations he was 
 trying to forget. 
 
 She had bothered him so much and so often about the 
 farm, that he was waxing callous on that point ; and 
 
THE LONG LANE i281 
 
 ■.■^' 
 Walter's affairs, generally a feuitfur subject for anxiety, 
 seemed, notwithstanding Fugleman's death, to have taken 
 a new and more prosperous turn, so she probed him with 
 Helen, and made him wince and smart again, while he 
 reflected on his sister's altered looks and lowered spirits of 
 late. "Why is the girl so pale?" whispered the hag, 
 with her accustomed ingenuity. " So patient and apathetic 
 now, content to spend whole days about her father's easy- 
 diair, and forgetfiil of all her former amusements, and 
 occupations ? Can it be that she thinks the Squire is 
 getting worse, or is it that her own health is failing, from 
 constant attendance on an invalid? There's something 
 amiss with your sister Jack — the girl you're so fond of, so 
 proud of, that you think the fairest specimen of her sex in 
 Europe, always excepting the French print in your bed- 
 room. Suppose she, too, should be unhappy ; suppose she, 
 too, should have some secret sorrow, and be walking erect 
 vdth the outward endurance of a Brooke, though 
 
 ■' ' The burden laid upon her 
 Is more than she can bear.' " 
 
 Goaded by his tormentor, Jack turned out of the lane, 
 and crossed a tufted old pasture, sadly in need of draining, 
 at the rate of six miles an hour. All his own troubles 
 jcushed in upon him at once, and he wondered what a 
 woman could have to bother her. Then he thought of 
 Walter's equal spirits under difSculties; of his brother's 
 recklessness ; of the temptations to which he was exposed ; 
 and so thinking, he reached the end of the pasture, and 
 looking over the fence, began to count some sheep folded in 
 the next field. 
 
 He laughed, as he reflected what a poor job Walter would 
 make of the daily business he took upon himself so 
 contentedly ; but the laugh was neither honest nor cheerful, 
 for he was thinking of a parable in which flocks and herds 
 did not suffice a covetous magnate, who robbed his poor 
 neighbour of the little ewe-lamb that " lay in his bosom, 
 and was to him as a daughter." 
 
 Jack looked up &om his occupation to the wooded 
 distance, behind which stood ToUesdale, and thought if 
 
282 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 he were Walter, he would not care to be the darling of 
 so many, whilst a certain high-born damsel, graceful of 
 gesture, and saucy of speech, with diamond eyes and 
 chesnut hair, was willing to ride with him, waltz with 
 him, flirt with him, perhaps— here the black hag put the 
 probe in smartly— perhaps to love him. It was not strange 
 that he should lose count of the sheep, and have to tell 
 them by scores over again. 
 
 Suddenly, the poor frightened woolly, creatures began to 
 leap and bounce, and rush against each other in a state of 
 great confusion ; for Tatters had gone off like a mad thing, 
 yelping with delight, as he always did, when he heard 
 the measured footfall of a horse, swinging along at a 
 gallop. 
 
 It was the one temptation the dog could never resist, 
 though in consideration of its dangerous tendency to 
 equestrians, punishment and reproof had alike been tried, 
 to break him of the practice. Jack started in pursuit, and 
 re-crossing the tufted pasture, saw, as a man sees with the 
 comer of his eye, who is running at speed, a groom en- 
 deavouring to force his horse over a fence some one had 
 evidently leaped before him. The more successful rider 
 was already in the long lane Jack had recently quitted. 
 Tatters, bouncing through the hedge immediately in front 
 of a galloping horse, might be the cause of an imtoward 
 and dangerous accident. Jack, well aware by experience 
 that hallooing was no use, kept his breath for a run over 
 the pasture, and very gallantly he sped across the rough 
 uneven surface. Veiy gallantly, too, he gathered himself 
 to leap the fence into the lane, and came lightly over 
 it like a hunter, stakes, and growers, and bank, and ditch, 
 and all! 
 
 Then he stopped as if he was shot, and stood stock still, 
 a living statue, blushing — ^blushing to the roots of his brown 
 hair. Lady Julia Treadwell had pulled her horse up vrithin 
 three strides of him. How could he see in his confusion 
 that her colour was nearly as deep as his own ? How could 
 he tell that she had watched him from the corner by the 
 sheep-fold ; that she was saying to herself this very 
 moment: " Well, he can't dance; but my gracious ! can't 
 he just jump! yes; even in an old shooting jacket and 
 
THE LONG LANE 283 
 
 leather gaiters there's something very noble, after all, in 
 what I call a man ! " 
 
 These smart, fashionable, ball-going London young ladies 
 do not, I presume, divest themselves of their womanhood when 
 they put on their crmolines. Strength and courage still 
 constitute their ideal of the male, and I doubt if intellect 
 can hold its own with inches, while neither of them have 
 the slightest chance in a match against pluck. Lady Julia 
 knew a fine specimen when she saw one, as well as her 
 neighbours, and she saw one now. Jack would have been 
 there still, if she had not spoken first. He felt quite giddy 
 when she rode up and placed that pretty hand in his. She 
 had recovered her own composure by this time, and was in 
 higher spirits than ever. 
 
 No wonder you looked surprised, Mr. Brooke ! " she 
 laughed out merrily. "You wouldn't guess in a month 
 how I got here. I have brought Cockamaroo straight as a 
 line from Shotsdale, and made him do the boundary fence 
 by the osier-bed in his stride. He smudged it awfully, but 
 we got over without a fall ! They must learn you know ; 
 mustn't they, Mr. Brooke ? I don't think my groom will 
 come out of that field to-night. Look — that's the fifth 
 time he's ridden at the rails ; and my horse made nothing 
 of them. I shall be disappointed if he don't grow into the 
 best hunter we have. I am sure when he heard your dog, 
 he thought it was the hounds. Did you see me, Mr. 
 Brooke ; and didn't you wonder who it was ? " 
 
 All this was to give Jack time to recover himself, but 
 she took away his breath notwithstanding, sitting there 
 so easily on her horse, in such a well made habit, with 
 such trim gloves, such a sweet little hat, such a dainty bit 
 of collar under the pretty chin ; above all, with the caress- 
 ing accent and the bewitching smile, that a vainer or a less 
 inexperienced man would have interpreted more truly! 
 He felt conscious that he looked like a fool. He stam- 
 mered ; he smiled inanely ; he gasped ; he could find 
 nothing better than to pat her horse's neck with his strong 
 ungloved hand. He would have liked her to order him to 
 lie down before the animal, that she might trample his life 
 out beneath its hoofs; but such an execution would not 
 have suited Lady Julia at all ; and this was one of the rare 
 
284 TBM BBOOKBS OF BBIBLEMEBB 
 
 cases in which a gentleman's confusion lost him nothing in 
 the good graces of a lady. 
 
 It is possible that she prolonged it on purpose, for the 
 diamond eyes shone down with kindly softened beams, and, 
 though generally so intolerant of anything like awkward- 
 ness or want of confidence, this condescending damsel bent 
 over the shy, handsome, ill-dressed young Squire with an 
 air of tender interest that she never showed to the men of 
 mark by whom she was habitually surrounded. Perhaps 
 there was something in the novelty of the situation that 
 amused her ; perhaps the love of sovereignty inherent in 
 her sex was flattered by his obvious vassalage ; perhaps her 
 woman's heart thrilled to acknowledge the presence of the 
 one being destined to become hereafter its treasure and its 
 lord. 
 
 Jack stammered out a greeting of some sort at last. He 
 never knew exactly what he said ; but had he been sure it 
 was the most arrant nonsense ever spoken, he would not 
 have had it back at any price, for it raised the saucy smile 
 he thought so bewitching, and called forth the silvery 
 laugh he had so often distinguished amongst a hundred 
 other voices at the Middlesworth ball. 
 
 Lady Julia was in no humour to be critical, far less 
 sarcastic ; and I doubt if it is possible for a man to hold a 
 more favourable position than when he meets unexpectedly 
 a lady who is kind enough to take an interest in him, the 
 said lady having galloped herself into a high state of good 
 spii-its and good humour, on a young and not very tractable 
 horse. She is conscious of looking her best, with eyes 
 sparkling and complexion heightened by the exercise ; she 
 is pleased with herself; pleased with her horse; pleased 
 with her admirer ; above all, she has got her courage up, 
 her energies into full swing, and feels that nothing can 
 stop her now in whatever she wishes to accomplish. 
 Women are easily discouraged by reverses, but the other 
 sex might well take a lesson from the dash and spirit with 
 which they play a vanning game. Lady Julia, so to speak, 
 held " four by honours " in her own hand. 
 
 When a lady wishes to make the agreeable to a married 
 man, she invariably commences conversation by asking 
 after his wife, getting the ceremony over as soon as possible 
 
THE LONG LANE 285 
 
 and dismissing the sabject at once ; with a bachelor, again, 
 if he have one, she invariably displays extraordinary 
 interest in his sister. This topic is fertile in personal 
 allusions, and has none of the admonitory associations 
 connected with the other. Lady Julia was determined to 
 know all about Helen — ^her walks, her hours, her needle- 
 work, her garden, the school children she lectured, and the 
 books she read. 
 
 " I am so fond of your sister, Mr. Brooke, and I see so 
 little of her. Mamma calls her ' My Swan.' She is as 
 graceful as a swan, isn't she ? I wish I was exactly like 
 her. Why don't she ride ? We might meet half way : 
 wouldn't it be nice ? I often ride to the cross roads at the 
 end of the lane. I'm not above two miles then from 
 Bridlemere." 
 
 " And I've walked to this field day after day for weeks, 
 and never knew there was only the hill between us ; " 
 honest Jack blurted out, turning scarlet at his temerity im- 
 mediately afterwards ; and adding, clumsily enough, " I 
 suppose you generally ride over with Lord Waywarden or 
 some of them from Tollesdale? " 
 
 " Not I," answered Lady Julia, with her ringing laugh. 
 " Don't you know, Mr. Brooke, that I'm fast, and indepen- 
 dent, and audacious, and all that sort of thing, because, as 
 Nethersole says, I 'hang on my own hook.' I'm sure 
 you've heard people abuse me. I believe you agreed with 
 them. But what's a poor unprotected female' to do; 
 Mamma never comes down till two o'clock, and papa, 
 I feel, loves his farm better than his daughter. All 
 farmers do. Don't you love yoy/r farm, Mr. Brooke, better 
 than anything else in the world? " 
 
 Jack's heart answered loudly, " I know what I do love, 
 and how much I love it! " but the words would come no 
 further than the roof of his mouth, where they seemed to 
 stick. 
 
 I can conceive, though, that his reticence did him no 
 harm. If speech be woman's privilege, surely silence is 
 man's prerogative. The former is often abused ; the latter 
 rarely. 
 
 "Will you ask your sister to come and see me, Mr. 
 Brooke ? " (Jack, like his brother, thought the name 
 
286 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 sounded very soft and pretty as she spoke it.) " Mamma 
 is so fond of her, and papa thinks she is a good example 
 for wicked me. It is no use inviting you to come over, I 
 know. I believe you disapprove of our doings at Tolles- 
 dale. I believe you're a hermit, Mr. Brooke, and hate 
 everybody ! " 
 
 He was quite sure he didn't hate her, as she smoothed 
 and stroked her horse's neck where his hand had lain. 
 He muttered something about being " very happy," and 
 " his father's health keeping both his sister and himself a 
 good deal at home." 
 
 "Then I must gallop over to see Helen," said Lady 
 Julia, gaily. "I am determined we shall be better neigh- 
 bours for the future. It's a charming ride — all grass ; and 
 except that one by the osier-bed, the fences are nothing for 
 a hunter, if you like to come straight. Look at my groom, 
 Mr. Brooke ; did you ever see such a muff? He's got off 
 to pull the rails down. Well, if I were a man, I think I'd 
 rather break my collar-bone than be beat like that ! " 
 
 The servant had indeed dismounted, being a sensible 
 fellow, when he found his efforts at coercion of no avail 
 from the saddle. He was now engaged in the difficult task 
 of holding a riotous young horse by the bridle with one 
 hand, whGst he loosened a stout piece of ash timber with 
 the other. So long as the animal was amenable, the rails 
 refused to give; when latter yielded a little, the former 
 backed, and tried to break away. A few leisurely bullocks 
 had already arrived to contemplate the proceedings, which 
 promised, indeed, to be a work of time. Lady Julia laughed 
 heartily. She did not care how long she sat on her horse 
 ia that pleasant lane, with Jack's honest embarrassed face 
 at the level of her knee. 
 
 She had to find conversation for both, and no one was 
 better qualified. Jack was too happy for talking. The 
 warm flood of light that turns everything to gold, was 
 dazzling his eyes, penetrating his heart, pervading his 
 senses, and intoxicating his brain. That first moment of 
 submission to the spell is the best, I fancy, in the whole 
 series of sensations, called up by love's white magic. It 
 mtist come from heaven, for the evil one surely never could 
 be permitted so powerful a charm. There is an Eastern 
 
THE LONG LANE 287 
 
 superstition, which teaches that when Paradise was 
 destroyed, one rose-tree alone remained, invisible, yet 
 retaining its celestial fragrance ; that every human being 
 is permitted, once in a lifetime, to taste its perfume. None 
 can thus have an excuse for disbelief in a heaven of which 
 the senses have assured them, if but for an instant ; yet 
 those are happiest to whom Azrael "proffers the rose, and 
 even while they smell it, fetches them away. 
 
 It is worth the whole reaction to know that, however 
 weak, however fallen, man can eat angel's food. 
 
 Lady Julia, however, could not sit motionless, gazing 
 down in silence on her companion. It was all very well 
 for him to stand there open-mouthed, drinking, draining the 
 elixir every drop ; but in the inner as in the outer sense, 
 though a man may bare his breast, and we need not turn 
 our eyes away, a woman must drape herself with les con- 
 venances, which constitute, indeed, the staylaces of her 
 moral being. So the skirt of the habit sustained a kick 
 and a twirl to set it right, while the wearer thought of 
 another safe topic for conversation. 
 
 "And your brother, Mr. Brooke — ^your pleasant good- 
 for-nothing brother — ^what has become of him ? We miss 
 him dreadfully at ToUesdale. We haven't seen him since 
 I don't know when. Not since he killed his horse at Oak- 
 over. I was so sorry for that poor horse. Do you know, 
 Mr. Brooke, I cried when I saw him lying in the field with 
 his back broke." 
 
 Jack winced, his chin fell. The rose had been snatched 
 from his face, and, indeed, the thorns tore him to the 
 quick, it had been dashed so smartly away. Profoundly 
 ignorant as he was of the seas into which he had ventured, 
 of course, he mistook the lights, beacons and other signals, 
 intended for his guidance, and drifted, at the mercy of 
 the winds and waves, aimlessly about in the dark. She 
 read him as easily as her prayer-book, almost without 
 looking at him, and she saw the blank disappointment come 
 creeping over his face, chill and dismal, like the mist down 
 the side of a mountain. She saw, too, the brave victory 
 over self; the frank chivalrous attachment that could 
 worship without return, without even hope; the noble 
 affection that could value her as a sister, though it might 
 
288 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 not cherish her as a wife ; and seeing all this plainly, Lady 
 Julia turned her face away from the honest, pleading, 
 mournful eyes, and entreated with more kindness of manner 
 than ever, that she might be permitted a closer inspection 
 of that "love of a creature. Tatters ! " 
 
 The dog was seized without difficulty. Indeed he had 
 been walking round the leather gaiters, rather wistfully, 
 jealous, as these sagacious animals are, of the person who 
 engrossed his master so completely. They hate strangers 
 themselves, and are justly impatient of that delight in new 
 faces, which seems peculiar to the human race. Tatters 
 growled audibly, showing the whites of his eyes, and an 
 exceedingly sharp serviceable set of teeth, when he was 
 lifted to Lady Julia's lap. He seemed to resent the 
 indignity, and by no means to appreciate the advantage of 
 his position. 
 
 "Well he is a love! " exclaimed her ladyship, taking 
 his muzzle deftly in her kid gloves, and opening it with a 
 twist that nothing but long practice could have attained. 
 " I declare if the roof of his mouth is not quite black ! Ah, 
 Mr. Brooke, you're a happy man to possess such a dog as 
 that. If it wasn't a sin to part a couple so fond of each 
 other, I'd beg him of you on the spot, and ride home with 
 him in my lap, all the way to ToUesdale ! " 
 
 "Would you like to have him? " asked Jack, eagerly. 
 " I should be so happy to give him to you. I'll send the 
 keeper over with him the first thing to-morrow morning. 
 He's a good little dog. Lady Julia, and will turn away from 
 nothing ; besides, he's so well broke, and so attached." 
 
 "Now that's a man all over," said her ladyship re- 
 provingly. " You don't consider the poor thing's feelings 
 one bit. How should you like it yourself? Is that the 
 way you value true affection? Mr. Brooke, I'm ashamed 
 of you!" 
 
 Jack colom-ed again, and felt embarrassed, for he did not 
 quite know what to make of this playful tone ; enjoying it 
 exceedingly, yet entertaining sad misgivings that it must be 
 set down to the familiarity of a sister-in-law. He looked 
 from the dog to the lady, and thought how like, and yet 
 how superior was the latter, to the print that always met his 
 waking eyes in the bed-room. 
 
THE LONG LANJS 289 
 
 It may have crossed his mind that life would be too 
 much happiness if he could substitute the reahty for the 
 likeness. 
 
 Tatters, however, as is often the case with a third party 
 in such meetings, found himself in a thoroughly uncom- 
 fortable and even false position. A lady's lap, if a delight- 
 ful situation, has the drawback of being somewhat insecure. 
 To a dog clinging by the folds of a slippery habit, on the 
 incline plane created by her attitude in the saddle, it can 
 possess no charms whatever. Tatters, gazing wistfully at 
 his master, looked as if he felt ridiculous, and whined to 
 be released. Lady Julia laughed, and took pity on him. 
 
 " You've hurt his feelings, Mr. Brooke, poor little dog ; 
 and he'll be miserable now till you make it up with him. 
 There, take him gently and set him down ! So you were 
 obliged to come round by the gate after all ! Well, now 
 the horse has completely conquered. Perhaps you had 
 better walk him about a little till he is cool." 
 
 The latter part of this speech was addressed to the 
 groom, who had ridden up somewhat crest-fallen at his 
 defeat, yet consoled by anticipation of good cheer when 
 he retm-ned to ToUesdale, where he would entertain the 
 audience of the servants' hall with a fall account of his 
 young lady's vagaries, equestrian and social ; detailing what 
 she did say, what she might have said, what she did not 
 say, and drawing largely on his powers of fiction for the 
 greater embellishment of his narrative. 
 
 How anyone paying poll-tax for servants can hope to 
 enjoy the privacy dear to our national prejudicies, is to me 
 a perpetual marvel. Are they not at all seasons in the 
 best possible position to watch his actions ? and can they 
 find any topic of conversation so engrossing, as his vices, 
 follies, meannesses, failings, and general imbecility ? 
 
 The groom knew his young lady despised him for his 
 want of horsemanship ; but he knew, too, that the footmen, 
 under-butler, and all the maids would listen delighted to 
 his account of what befel during her ride ; so he touched 
 his hat in silence, and began to walk his horse up and 
 down, just within ear-shot of the two young people, much 
 to the indignation of Tatters, who wanted to fly at him more 
 than once. 
 
 19 
 
290 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 " Then you'll tell Helen," said Lady Julia, without 
 specifying the message more clearly, and leaving her hand 
 in Jack's rather longer than is customary in wishing 
 "Good-bye" amongst mere acquaintances, probably to 
 render her leave-taking the more impressive. " I shall have 
 a charming ride back, and I will not lark over any more 
 fences if you think I had better not." (Jack, in order to 
 show that he valued it, had entreated her to take care of 
 her neck.) "Good-bye, Tatters! I mustn't take you 
 away from your master, because you love him so, you dear 
 little dog ! Good-bye, Mr. Brooke ; stick to your farming. 
 I shall tell papa that you are even fonder of grubbing about 
 in the dirt than he is. What a nice lane for a gallop — and 
 one ought really to have a gallop like this every day ! " 
 
 So she settled herself in the saddle, gave her little white 
 veil with its black spots a tug that brought it tighter than 
 ever across her face, and cantered easily away on Cocka- 
 maroo, leaving Jack to gaze after her open-mouthed and 
 spellbound; half afraid, though it was broad daylight, 
 that he might awake at any moment and find he had 
 only been enchanted in a dream. 
 
 She looked back once (for her groom, of course) before 
 the leafless hedges hid her from his sight, and then Jack 
 gave one great, deep, long-drawn sigh — a sigh that ex- 
 pressed rapture, relief, anxiety, devotion, a leavening of 
 disappointment, and a full measure of strong, tender, un- 
 selfish, and unreasoning love. 
 
 He was in the hot fit just at present, and the cold had 
 yet to come. 
 
 We ought not to lift a lady's veil and criticise the flush 
 on her face as we do the unconcealed embarrassment of a 
 man. Lady Julia rode on thoroughly and unreservedly 
 happy. She had no fear of rivalry, no misgivings of inferi- 
 ority — all that might come hereafter : now she had only 
 room for this one conviction to fill her whole being, that 
 Jack Brooke loved her. Jack Brooke, the only man she 
 ever saw who made her heart beat faster, and her colour 
 rise. She was a quick, clever girl, practical enough in 
 general, and intolerant of romance, knowing the world 
 perhaps better than is good for one of her years. She had 
 seen a deal of false coin passed, and had taken no little at 
 
THE LONG LANE 291 
 
 its real value, but she aclmowledgecl the ring of the piire 
 metal when it was thrown down at her feet. She could 
 not be mistaken now, she who had studied theoretically, 
 both in books and in society, the symbols of our common 
 weakness. He was shy with ladies, no doubt — awkward 
 even at times, and, she could not deny, generally ill- 
 dressed ; but it was something deeper, she knew, than 
 shyness that shone to-day in those tender kindly eyes, 
 and a man might be embarrassed to the verge of imbe- 
 cility without betraying that wavering wistful discomposure 
 which, like the tremble of the compass needle, indicates 
 with certainty a magnetic influence sustained. As for his 
 dress ! What did it matter how you dressed the Apollo or 
 the Gladiator ? What could all the tailors in London have 
 done for his exterior when he leapt that high wide fence so 
 lightly into the lane ? It was beautiful ! beautiful ! And 
 he loved her ! 
 
 She blushed beneath her veil from sheer pleasure at the 
 thought ; and then with the true unvitiated love came its 
 invariable attendant, humility. " I'm not good enough for 
 him," said the girl, to her own tumultuous heart. "Not 
 half good enough. I pray heaven to make me better." 
 
 She laughed at herself, too, more than once ; the trans- 
 formation could not but amuse her. It seemed so odd 
 that she, the sarcastic, worldly, impenetrable Lady Julia 
 Treadwell, whom half the men in London admired, and 
 were afraid of — ^whom the women of all ages called cold, 
 and flippant, and heartless, bent solely on social dis- 
 tinction, and preferring a Marquis to everyone in the 
 room, except a Duke, should have fallen in love like a 
 milkmaid, without calculating the cost. What would 
 Miss Prince say? How surprised she would be! And 
 mamma ? how provoked ! Everybody would make a dead 
 set at her, she knew, and that would only cause her to love 
 him, if possible, ten times more than ever. Ah ! it would 
 never come to anything, of course; but nothing should 
 prevent her treasuring the idea, hiding it up, and feeding 
 on it secretly in her own heart. Already the first gush of 
 delight was tempered with anxieties, uncertainty, mis- 
 givings. In these pleasant draughts, you see, the bitter 
 flavour lies very near the brim. It seems a law of their 
 
292 THE BMOOKES OF SBlDLEMEBB 
 
 existence that you are not to slake your thirst unchecked. 
 The first touch of the cup against your lip is indeed 
 rapture, but soon the bitter rises to mingle with the 
 sweet, and renders perhaps every drop of the scorching 
 beverage more precious still. 
 
 Lady Julia's groom was very hungry before he reached 
 the servants' hall at ToUesdale. Luncheon had been over 
 for an hour and more ere she rode up the western avenue, 
 at a walk, with her head drooping and her rein lying loosely 
 on her knee. 
 
 When she alighted from Cockamaroo she patted and 
 caressed him more than usual, even touching his sleek 
 swelling neck with her lips; then she went to her own 
 room, and sat idle in an ai-m-ehair, without taking off her 
 habit, till it was nearly dark, forgetting even to drink her 
 habitual cup of five-o'clock tea ; and that such abstinence 
 cannot but be injurious to the female system I am inclined 
 to admit, because, notwithstanding her long fast, she had 
 little or no appetite for dinner. 
 
 Her ladyship, though she rode back so slow, must have 
 been half-way home before Jack Brooke moved from the 
 spot where they parted. He continued to gaze after her 
 as if she had been a comet or some such celestial body, 
 leaving a long luminous track of glory in its wake. Then 
 he called Tatters to his feet, and, much to the astonish- 
 ment of that wise little dog, who was unused to weak 
 demonstrations, took bim up and kissed him. Why a 
 man of Jack's temperament should do anything so absurd 
 I am at a loss to conjecture: neither can I be supposed 
 to know why Captain Eaven dances quadrilles with sister 
 Anne, when Blanche has one of her bad colds and mamma 
 won't let her go to the ball : nor why young Eapid who is 
 flippant, not to say impertinent, with his seniors at our 
 club, and will never listen to me for five minutes together, 
 though my budget of news anticipates the evening paper — 
 and when I teU a story I go scrupulously into details — 
 why, I say, this hasty young gentleman sits contentedly 
 for hours in old Proser's dining-room, listening patiently 
 to his host's platitudes. Old P. is an unmitigated bore. 
 His claret is as light as his conversation is heavy. Miss 
 Proser, I grant, is an angel with its hair dressed ; but 
 
THE LONG LANE 293 
 
 then Miss Proser is up stairs playing melanclioly tunes on 
 the pianoforte in the gloom of the back drawing-room, 
 wishing her papa at the — ^well — at the club, we will say, 
 or anywhere else, provided her swain were out of his jaws. 
 Will they never ring that dining-room bell ? Miss Proser 
 frets even more than her guest, though he will come up 
 after all, I hope, before candles are brought. 
 
 In the same way I cannot tell you why everybody who 
 can get invited goes to Lady Vandal's archery parties at 
 Gooseberry Green. Is it the taste for shooting, do you 
 suppose, or an honest love of Lady Vandal that brings 
 gentlemen and ladies to her villa in such shoals? She 
 never invites me to these parties, so how can I teU ? But 
 I hear that the butts, or targets, are scarcely twenty yards 
 apart, and that not half-a-dozen people ever fit an arrow 
 to the string. Why should they? The weapons they 
 effect are for closer quarters and conflict hand-to-hand. 
 But Lady Vandal aslang, as she does, nothing but nice 
 people (whence, perhaps, my exclusion) is carefiil to ask 
 those who think each other nice. Gooseberry Green, 
 therefore, though contracted, dusty, overlooked, and an 
 inconvenient distance from London, represents Paradise to 
 several imaginative couples ; and dear Lady Vandal is 
 so indissolubly connected with each in the other's mind 
 that both are almost in love with the hospitable dowager 
 herself. 
 
 If you could see her, as I have done, in a morning dress, 
 possessing, and indeed requiring no crinoline, picking cater- 
 pillars off her currant bushes, you would still more fully 
 appreciate that power of association which sheds the charm 
 of the queen of flowers over something that " is not the 
 rose, but has been near the rose ! " 
 
 Tatters liked his master's caresses better than Lady 
 Julia's. He frisked, and sneezed, and rubbed his nose 
 against the turf, and scoured about in small unmeaning 
 circles with the utmost delight. "Love me, love my dog," 
 is an old proverb scarce complimentary to the true, devoted, 
 incorruptible friend who goes about on four feet instead of 
 two, but fall of meaning notwithstanding. You kick the 
 beast for its own sake, you caress it for its proprietor's ; 
 and some day, perhaps, you leam that the canine was the 
 
294 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 nobler nature, the stanncher, bolder, more unselfish heart. 
 There is many a dog as deserving of an epitaph as 
 Byron's. Many a man, I fear, who might write over 
 the grave of his faithful partial follower the sad sugges- 
 tive line — 
 
 " I naver had but one, and here he lies," 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 FBESSTJBE 
 
 Goaded by his own thouglits, loathing his own society, and 
 dreading of late to be left alone, Walter Brooke had become 
 exceedingly restless, and even irritable, since the mishap 
 that lost him his favourite horse. When off duty at the 
 barracks, which was frequently the case at an out-quarter 
 like Middlesworth, he generally galloped up to Bridlemere. 
 The society of Bags had become distasteful, although that 
 gentleman was slow to find it out, and indeed much 
 gratified with the greater deference now paid him by his 
 friend, attributing it to his own increased importance, and 
 more intimate knowledge of the world. With Multiple, 
 however, Walter had struck up an intimate acquaintance. 
 Something in this man's easy conventional tone, indolently 
 ignoring everything that was unpleasant or laborious, half 
 sneering at, half pitying those whose ideas soared above 
 the low level of self-indulgence, he was pleased to call 
 philosophy, seemed to soothe Walter's habitual irritation, 
 and divert him from his own thoughts. 
 
 Multiple could be an agreeable person enough when it 
 was worth his while ; and he grudged no pains now to 
 obtain a permanent footing in his young friend's family, 
 because he was playing a game of which the prize was 
 extremely precious — until won. 
 
 The money-lender, though his business as such, owing 
 to the activity of his partner, was known but to few, had 
 many calls upon his time, and fr-equent occasions for paying 
 flying visits to the capital, whence he returned, brimfiil of 
 all the latest news and gossip. After one of these expedi- 
 
296 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 tions, he usually contrived to land first at Bridlemere, 
 where he unpacked his budget and brought out his wares, 
 in their fall fresh bloom, as yet untarnished by the curi- 
 osity of Middlesworth. The Squire was always delighted 
 to receive him. For the poor invalid clinging helplessly 
 to that world which was slipping out of his grasp, a guest 
 was no mean prize, who arrived, as it were, with the aroma 
 of St. James's Street clinging about his person ; who could 
 relate the very words used by the notabilities of the day 
 " last night at Boodle's, or this afternoon at White's;" who 
 spoke familiarly of great names, known only to his listener 
 in the columns of a morning paper ; and who could furnish 
 the most authentic version of every public event, because 
 he always "happened to know" somebody who was the 
 best authority on the subject. 
 
 The end of the hunting season had arrived. Hedges 
 were budding, grass was coming up fast ; primroses and 
 anemones carpeted the woodlands; daisies were getting 
 their heads above the surface in the open. Two or three 
 positively last days from the Duke had produced two or 
 three disappointments, and one good gallop in the evening; 
 but the Vixens had got through their trouble ; the lambs 
 were growing into sheep; the ground was too hard for 
 pleasure, and it was high time to shut up. Eacing. men 
 rejoiced in their opening season, and were already busied 
 with the great Middlesworth Handicap. Benedict, " well 
 in," had come up to five to one. 
 
 All these considerations did Walter turn over in his own 
 mind, while he rode his first charger, the only sound horse 
 he had left, from the barracks to Bridlemere. 
 
 His position was now becoming day by day more pre- 
 carious ; and having but a straw to cling to, he grasped it 
 like a three-inch hawser. 
 
 He had made up his mind that Benedict mmt win, 
 simply because such an event could alone save him from 
 ruin. He had " got on," as it is called in the jargon of the 
 Eing ; that is to say, he had backed the horse long ago, at 
 something like twenty to one. Prudence whispered, now was 
 the time to " lay off" a good deal of the money, and ensure 
 a certain profit ; but Walter was too deep in the mire to 
 -be extricated by any such cautious measure. No ; a small 
 
PBE8SUBE 297 
 
 stake could do him no good ; a large one would save his 
 commission. It had come to that. If the horse lost, he 
 must sell out in order to face the settling, and then the 
 remnant left would not suffice to meet even one of the 
 bills Bags had indorsed. If that fraud was discovered, 
 his character was irretrievably blasted, and he was a 
 ruined and dishonoured man. 
 
 Pleasant reflections for a sweet spring morning! He 
 cursed his generous, well-broken horse for swerving from 
 a donkey at the roadside. He hated everything. He 
 hated himself most of all. In such a frame of mind, it 
 was a relief to overtake Multiple walking across the park 
 in the direction of Bridlemere. The well-bitted charger 
 accommodated itself at once to the pedestrian's pace, and 
 the two friends, for such they had Ijecome of late, proceeded 
 together towards the house. 
 
 " Cabinet Council to-day," said Multiple, full, as usual, 
 of the latest news ; " and an organised attack on the 
 Government when Parliament meets next week. They 
 were laying even money on a dissolution at the clubs 
 last night. The Queen came up from Osborne, and goes 
 back by the three o'clock train. Glaisher has smashed 
 his balloon. There's a monkey with no thumbs at the 
 Zoological. Consols are at 92 for the Account, and 
 Benedict's broke down ! " 
 
 Walter turned pale, and, with all his self-command, the 
 moisture broke out on his forehead. 
 
 " Will he go for the race ? " said he, in a quiet, 
 measured voice, a little harsher in tone than usual. It 
 was hard to guess by his demeanour that the news affected 
 him so deeply; but his listener was accustomed to deal 
 with these well-bred undemonstrative people, and he did 
 guess it, if indeed he was not already sure of it from his 
 own knowledge. 
 
 " They have not knocked him out of the betting," he 
 answered cheerfully. " He's only gone down a point or 
 two. The stable can't afford to scratch him, I know, and 
 go he will, if he comes to the post on three legs. I 
 haven't laid off a shilling of my own money, I can tell you 
 that. He must win at the weights, if they can keep him 
 -fit, and I believe he has only hit his leg after all ! " 
 
298 
 
 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Walter felt a little relieved, but he did not Uke it. He 
 could scarcely conceal his vexation and anxiety. The 
 other looked in his face for a moment, and then laid his 
 hand on the charger's neck. 
 
 " Excuse me, Brooke," said he, with some feeling ; " I 
 trust you will allow me to consider you a friend, and to 
 take a friend's interest in your affairs. You've backed 
 this horse heavily, I know. Never mind how I know it. 
 It's my business to learn almost everything that is going 
 on. Mind, I think he'll win ; but I needn't tell you it's a 
 great field of horses, and there are two or three very well 
 in, that we know but little about. If the thing don't come 
 off. my dear fellow, I suppose it's no secret you will get a 
 horrible 'facer?'" 
 
 " I shall lose a hatful of money," answered the other 
 doggedly. ' ' More than I like, if you mean that ? " 
 
 "Of course, nobody likes to lose money," observed 
 Multiple ; " and when a man's liabilities are more than he 
 can make good, he's in a very awkward not to say 
 dangerous position." (Walter stsurted in his saddle.) " It 
 may happen to any of us, you know ; but that don't make 
 it a bit less disagreeable. My dear Brooke, will you allow 
 me to talk to you as a friend ? " 
 
 Mr. Multiple was opening the trenches, you see. So to 
 speak, he was completing his first parallel. The early 
 operations required quite as much caution as the 
 subsequent advancement of the siege. He knew the value 
 of an ally, and this, if he could get him, would be a 
 precious one indeed. 
 
 "You're very good," answered the other, with some 
 suspicion, adding bitterly, "I'm sure I want one, and a 
 staunch one, just now." 
 
 No man alive could have looked more sincere than 
 Multiple, when he replied — 
 
 " I'll stick by you through thick and thin, Brooke ; but 
 it's no use disguising, you've got some very rough weather 
 before you. Unavoidable expenses, possible losses, 
 difficulties about ready money, perhaps a bill or two 
 coming due." Here he paused to give his so-called friend 
 the full benefit of the thrust, and satisfied himself the 
 while that his fieldworks were advancing rapidly. " Pro- 
 
PBES8UBE 299 
 
 motion, it may be, to purchase, to say nothing of the 
 thousand driblets in which money is always filtering away. 
 We might help one another, Brooke, though, if we puUed 
 in the same boat. But, first of all, IVe a scheme for you 
 I was thinking of the whole way down in the train. 
 You're a good-looking fellow, pleasant in society, popular 
 with the women. Why don't you marry ? " 
 
 " I've neTer been asked," replied Walter, demurely ; 
 adding, howeyer, " I've thought of it, too, more than once. 
 I'm afraid it's the only way left. Did you mean me to 
 marry anybody in particular, my good feUow, or to pick 
 from the lot, and take the best ? Hang it ! she must be a 
 lady, though. I couldn't afford to drive a half-bred one ! " 
 
 Multiple set his teeth, and smiled. On his face was the 
 expression of a man who has captured something that 
 writhes, and moans and struggles, but that he is determined 
 not to set free. 
 
 "I know a lady as thorough-bred as any in England, 
 with plenty of money too, that the world says would marry 
 you to-morrow if you asked her. Give her a chance, man, 
 at least, of saying * No.' She don't live far from here. Do 
 it this afternoon ! " 
 
 "I suppose I can guess what you mean," answered 
 Walter; "but I don't think old Waywarden would stand 
 it. I've nothing to settle on her but myself. Valuable, 
 no doubt, but not convertible, you see." 
 
 " Waywarden vsdll do whatever she tells him," said the 
 other. " A man with an only daughter always does. I 
 believe he thinks there's nobody worthy of Lady Julia, and 
 he'd grudge giving her to one fellow just as much as 
 another." 
 
 "It's not a bad idea. Multiple," said Walter. "I've 
 often thought before that it might pay. There's the 
 mother, though. I'd forgotten her. She'll settle my 
 business, I know, in two words. I think I see her face 
 when they talk about anything less than a Duke for Ju ! " 
 
 " The mother's the best friend you've got," answered 
 Multiple. "Depend upon it, a woman who has been such a 
 beauty as Lady Waywarden don't like going about with a 
 grown-up daughter. Nethersole is still at Eton, and a 
 precious stupid young dog I hear your future brother-in-law 
 
SOO THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMERE 
 
 is, Brooke. If Lady Julia was married, people would forget 
 the mamma had a daughter. She'd fancy herself quite 
 young, and hegin going about again." 
 
 Here Multiple fell into an error very common amongst 
 men of his calibre who are in what is called the best 
 society without being of it. They are apt to lay down 
 conventional rules for the conduct of a class with which 
 they are not intimately acquainted, drawn from what they 
 imagine they would themselves do if similarly situated. 
 These maxims are, for the most part, fallacies, grounded 
 on a narrow view of human nature, and ignoring most 
 unphilosophically the obvious fact that in civilised nations 
 the highest and the lowest ranks are least of all impelled 
 to repress or dissemble their real feelings. 
 
 Walter, though with far less experience, knew better; 
 but men are easily persuaded of what they wish, and he 
 only observed in a languid tone, " I suppose I'd better not 
 say anything about settlements ! " 
 
 "Settlements," repeated his friend, thoughtfully. "I 
 think I can advise you what to do even when it comes to 
 that. Insist that everything shall be settled on the lady 
 herself. Vow that you know nothing, and care less about 
 the money part of the business. Declare you won't touch 
 a penny in the event of her death ; that you can't bear to 
 talk about it, and feel you wouldn't sundve her a week. 
 Then wind up with your own expectations, your father's 
 intentions, his bad health, the unlikelihood of your brother 
 ever marrying, adding that nobody is half good enough for 
 her, and inferring that you are better than anyone else." 
 
 " Why, you do it so well you must have been practising 
 on your own account," laughed Walter. " Are you going 
 to put your foot in it too, old fellow ? Do you want to see 
 me in the same mess as yourself? " 
 
 " If I did, I hope you would back me up as well as I 
 have backed you," answered Multiple, with a covert smile. 
 " Fair play is a jewel, and I think you ought to promise 
 me that." 
 
 "Of course, of course!" said the other carelessly; 
 adding, " Here we are at the house, and Helen, by Jove, 
 ready dressed for a walk. Go in and do the civil whilst I 
 take this horse round to the stable," 
 
PBESSVB^ 301 
 
 Multiple was delighted to comply. Having established 
 himself on a sufficiently familiar footing at Bridlemere, he 
 lost no opportunity of making the ground thoroughly good 
 that he had already gained. He wished to glide insensibly, 
 but surely, from the pleasant acquaintance into the trusted 
 and confidential friend. That character he hoped to 
 change eventually for something more closely connected 
 still; and Helen's manner of late had given him some 
 encouragement, the more acceptable from its contrast to 
 the obvious dislike with which she had received him at 
 first. 
 
 The truth is, that living as she did so much alone, and 
 in constant attendance on her father, the society of an 
 agreeable, intelligent man could not but be an acquisition. 
 Now, Multiple had a fiind of every-day information, which, 
 when he chose, he could impart in a pleasant, easy manner 
 that enchanted the Squire, and amused his daughter. 
 Helen required, just at present, what the French call a 
 distraction, and anything was to be caught at that took her 
 out of her own thoughts. She began to miss Multiple's 
 anecdotes the days he was detained in London, and to look 
 for his arrival, with his budget of news, as an event in the 
 uninteresting routine of her life. She also had to stand 
 up for him against Jack, that gentleman, though usually 
 unprejudiced, having taken a strong dislike to his brother's 
 new friend. " He's not the right sort, Nell," he would 
 say to his sister, in moments of confidence, at her flower- 
 beds or amongst her plants. "I don't know what it is 
 about the fellow. He's decently behaved, I allow, and 
 disgustingly civil, but somehow he's not all right, Nell. 
 Hang him ! with his curls, and his rings, and his soft white 
 hands ; I should never be surprised to hear he was a ticket- 
 of-leaver ! " 
 
 Of course, defending a man causes a lady to look more 
 leniently on his faults. Neither is it against his interest 
 that she should seldom see anyone else, except her brothers, 
 in the shape of a gentleman. By degrees Helen came to 
 consider Mr. Multiple an obliging, accommodating person, 
 rather amusing besides, and to opine there might be some 
 good in him if only anybody would take the trouble to bring 
 it out. Therefore, when he was ushered into the library. 
 
302 THE BB00KM8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 where she sat by her father, she gave him her hand with a 
 pleasant smile and a cordiality of manner that in so quiet 
 a lady was extremely reassuring. 
 
 The Squire had eaten his early dinner, and gone off into 
 his usual afternoon doze. He slept so sound that the 
 visitor's entrance failed to wake him. The conversation, 
 therefore, had to be carried on in whispers so as not to 
 disturb the invalid, and this restraint also gave a character 
 of friendly intimacy to the meeting. 
 
 Helen was dressed for a walk— small hat, slender boots, 
 striped petticoat, and well-fitting gloves, as before. The 
 costume reminded Multiple of the first time he met her, 
 several weeks ago. His heart swelled with triumph when 
 he thought how well he had used the intervening period, 
 and what a game he had before him if he only played it 
 out. 
 
 He loved her, you see, after his own fashion, as the wolf 
 loves the lamb, the eagle the kid, the Turkish Pacha his 
 last pink-cheeked, hazel-eyed, auburn-haired purchase from 
 the Circassian dealer. Nay, perhaps his love was keener 
 than any of these, for it was dashed with a stinging sense 
 of inferiority that strengthened his efforts with all the 
 energy of revenge, and imparted a diabolical zest to his 
 anticipations of the triumph he had resolved to win. 
 
 Miss Brooke loved both her brothers as a well-conducted 
 young woman should. She had promised to meet Jack 
 this afternoon on his way home from the farm, and that 
 walk would be the one treat of her whole day. She pined 
 for the fresh air, too, for its own sake, as those do who 
 spend most of their time in a sick-room. She thought it 
 hard that their visitor's arrival should deprive her of this 
 necessary indulgence. She wondered what "Walter was 
 about that he did not come to her relief. The Squire's 
 servant was at the door, waiting to take his usual turn of 
 attendance, and the afternoon was wearing away fast. It 
 would be rude to desert her guest ; but there could surely 
 be no harm in asking him to accompany her part of the 
 way, and leaving a message for Walter to follow. Multiple 
 ought to have known by this frank proceeding that she 
 could hardly be in love with him. The proposal, however, 
 in order not to wake the Squire, had to be made and 
 
PBE8SUBE 803 
 
 accepted in a whisper. Multiple felt like a winner as they 
 emerged together from the hall-door, and took their way 
 across the park, winding in and out through the old elms, 
 crushing the dank, brown fern beneath their feet, and 
 disturbing the deer only enough to make them stare 
 attentive, shake their heads, and move stately on to 
 continue browzing in another glade. He knew right well 
 how such warfare should be waged, and, notwithstanding 
 that his feelings were really interested, never lost his head 
 for a moment: so he talked on indifferent matters while 
 they were in sight of the windows, and was only a little 
 graver and quieter than usual. Presently, getting further 
 into the soliitude of the park, he grew silent. She remarked 
 it, wondered what was coming, and walked rather faster in 
 consequence. He broke through his reserve abruptly. He 
 wished to startle her, and succeeded. 
 
 " Miss Brooke ! " said he, "I am placed in a very 
 awkward position. I require your sympathy and assist- 
 ance." 
 
 The large dark eyes turned on him with an expression of 
 unfeigned wonder ; but his manner, though agitated, was 
 respectful, even deferential ; and Helen, with all her shy- 
 ness, had no lack of courage. The two qualities, indeed, 
 often go together. 
 
 " I am scarcely equal to advising, far less assisting, a 
 person of your experience," she answered calmly, adding, 
 with a smUe, " My sympathy, I fear, will do you but little 
 good." 
 
 "It is all I ask for, nevertheless," said he tenderly. 
 " If I knew what you wished me to do, I should have less 
 difficulty in making up my mind; at least, I should not 
 scruple for a moment in yielding my own opinion to yours. 
 I hope you will give me credit so far, Miss Brooke." 
 
 " I do not think I quite understand you," she replied, a 
 little puzzled as to what the man could be driving at. For 
 Multiple was too old a player to show his hand at the 
 commencement of the game — but wondering also why 
 Walter had not overtaken them, and wishing that Jack 
 would speedily break the tete-a-tete by returning from the 
 farm. 
 
 "I am in possession of a secret," said he, frankly, 
 
304 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 " affecting the honour of a family for which I have the 
 grea,test regard. Indeed, for certain members of that 
 family I should he proud to make any sacrifice they might 
 require. To conceal my knowledge of this secret, places 
 nie in the position of one who participates in a crime. To 
 disclose it would entail utterly and irremediably the social 
 ruin of my friend. Miss Brooke, this is my dilemma. 
 Help me out of it." 
 
 " Fais ce que dois, advienne ce que pourra ! " answered 
 Helen, proudly. "I should think a man's own honour was 
 the best guide on such occasions as these." 
 
 He looked at her with a pitying admiration she 
 remembered, and was grateful for afterwards. 
 
 " If we could stick to that maxim," said he, gently, " it 
 would be better for us all. In this case, I should have to. 
 bid my friend good-bye, and must make up my mind to see 
 him lose his position, his profession, his acquaintance, his 
 future, his good name, everything that makes life worth 
 having. I could not bear him to be pointed at for a 
 swindler ; and yet, if I do not screen him, this must be the 
 result. Oh ! Miss Brooke, speak a word in the cause of 
 mercy ! You must have perceived long ago that with me 
 your will is law." 
 
 Helen was getting veiy stately and a little frightened. 
 
 " Forgive me again," she said, coldly, " for remarking 
 that I cannot see how all this affects me. Shall we turn 
 back, Mr. Multiple? Those clouds look very like rain." 
 
 He changed his manner now for a graver and sterner air, 
 stopping short to face her while he spoke. 
 
 " It so far affects you. Miss Brooke," said he, " that the 
 action I deplore was committed by a person who is very 
 near and dear to you, and of whose honour you are as 
 tender as of your own." 
 
 She turned deadly pale trembling all over, and scarcely 
 conscious of the action, sat down on a fallen tree, and 
 looked up in her companion's face with a mute, piteous 
 agony that seemed helplessly to await the blow. 
 
 " That person," continued Multiple in the same tone, 
 " has robbed his intimate friend of a large sum of money, 
 several hundreds, by a trick combining palpable misrepre- 
 sentation with actual fraud — by something which, if not in 
 
PBE88UBE 803 
 
 a judicial, is, at least in a social point of view, tantamount 
 to forgery. That person has placed himself without the 
 pale even of those whom the world conventionally calls 
 honest men, and that person is — ^forgive me, Miss Brooke ; 
 Helen, forgive me — your brother, Walter Brooke." 
 
 A little broken cry ; a moan as if she had been suddenly 
 stricken to the heart, escaped her. Then she sprang to her 
 feet, and on her pale fair face was written scorn, defiance, 
 indignation, and a strange wild gleam of relief. It was not 
 her brother's name she had feared to hear from those stem 
 unsparing lips ; she faced him as a man faces another 
 whom he is about to strike ; nay, she clenched her slender 
 hand, and spoke out in loud, fall, vehement tones. " It's 
 a lie," she said, " a base and slanderous lie ! You dared 
 not have told him so yourself. Is it gentlemanlike, Mr. 
 Multiple ? Good heavens ! is it mcmly to come to me with 
 this false, abominable tale ? I am only a girl, a weak girl, 
 so you are safe enough ; but if I were half as strong as my 
 brothers you — ^you — would be down there on the grass, at 
 my feet." 
 
 " I wish you would strike me," said he, very sadly, " for 
 I feel too keenly what a cruel blow I am inflicting on you. 
 Miss Brooke, strike, but hear me. Do you think, can you 
 think, I entered on this painful subject to give you annoy- 
 ance? You, for whom I would do anything, suffer any- 
 thing, forego anything. Whom else can I consult? 
 Woiild you have me go to the Squire, to Sir Archibald, to 
 your elder brother, himself the soul of honour, though he 
 scarce does me justice ? I must mean well, Miss Brooke, 
 when I could run such a risk as this of offending you." 
 
 Of course, her tears were beginning to flow. The 
 reaction had come oni and she gave him her hand almost 
 penitently. In her agitation she hardly knew, when she 
 withdrew it, that he had put it to his lips. 
 
 "Forgive me," she said. "Mr. Multiple, I had no 
 right to doubt your friendship. I will endeavour to listen 
 calmly. Surely there must be some explanation. It can- 
 not, it CANNOT be true." 
 
 " I have the proofs. Miss Brooke," he replied, in the 
 same sad sympathising tone, " and I am but too thankful 
 they have fallen into my hands. Were I the only person 
 
 20 
 
306 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 in the secret the matter would be simple enough. Unfortu- 
 nately, there is another individual concerned. One with 
 whom I have had many dealings in money matters — 
 grasping, covetous, unscrupulous. His silence must be 
 purchased; and I cannot hope tliat any of the feelings 
 which influence me will have the slightest effect on him." 
 
 Shattered, surprised, agitated as she was, Helen collected 
 herself with an effort, and asked calmly for a detailed state- 
 ment of the accusation against her brother, listening to 
 Multiple's account with fixed attention, and putting here 
 and there such questions as showed she escaped none of 
 the pain it caused her from being bewildered by the blow. 
 
 Multiple, of course, gave his own version, varying but 
 little, however, from the actual facts that had come to his 
 knowledge. When he arrived at the discovery of the two 
 corresponding bills, and his subsequent conversation with 
 Eags, she stopped him. 
 
 " You have got them both," she exclaimed. " Mr. 
 Multiple, for all our sakes, for my sake, you will keep them 
 in your own possession at any sacrifice ! " 
 
 " For yowr sake, Miss Brooke," he answered, once more 
 taking her hand, " I will spare one who is dear to you, 
 though in so doing I am within a hair's-breadth of com- 
 pounding a felony. The other person I mentioned is under 
 obligations to me ; that is to say, I hold his bond for large 
 sums of money. By cancelling the debt I can purchase his 
 silence. Understand me, Helen Brooke, to do this I must 
 sacrifice half my fortune, and I will do it only for yowr 
 sake." 
 
 She looked about her scared, turning her head from side 
 to side like a wild animal caught in a trap. She had time 
 even in that helpless, wretched moment to review the whole 
 details of the position. To imagine her father's sorrow and 
 its certain effect on his health should this great disgrace be 
 ever brought to light. Sir Archibald's agony of shame — 
 Uncle Archie, the soul of honour, the chivalrous, scrupulous 
 gentleman to whom the mere suspicion of a stain would be 
 humiliating as a blow. Jack's utter despair when he lost 
 his faith in his brother. He would feel it, she knew, even 
 more than she did ; and poor Jack had so much to grieve, 
 so much to worry him. Of Walter himself she covdd not 
 
PBE8SUBB 807 
 
 bear to think. Nor was this the worst — the reputation of 
 their family was endangered; the escutcheon they cherished 
 so proudly was threatened with defacement. At all risks, 
 ay, at every sacrifice, the honour of the Brookes must be 
 preserved. 
 
 Gould she misunderstand the nature of this friendly 
 intervention, the price demanded for his assistance, who 
 was walking so quiet, so respectful, yet so uncompromising, 
 at her side ? He seemed resolved there should be no mis- 
 conception of his meaning. They were standing together 
 near the fallen tree, her hand was again in his, and rested 
 there passively, for she was quite unconscious of his touch. 
 Though not a drop of rain feU the clouds had gathered 
 dark above their heads, and she saw everything about her 
 curiously distinct and in detail, yet through a strange lurid 
 light, as though the atmosphere were tinged with saffron 
 hues. Even the bare forked branch of a distant tree 
 against the sky arrested her outward attention with a 
 persistency that was almost distressing, though her real 
 inner self, as she knew too well all the time, was a long 
 way from here, and far back into the past. Her face was 
 white, even to the lips, and her delicate features quivered 
 and worked painfully, but she set the small teeth hard, and 
 6ore her head up nobly with a defiant courage that could 
 not have been surpassed by the first Sir Geoffrey beset 
 amongst the Ironsides at Naseby, striking dogged and 
 desperate for God and for the King. Her companion did 
 not look her in the face, his own eyes flashed and sparkled, 
 but he kept them on the ground; his cheek was flushed 
 and glowing, his frame trembled with delight and triumph, 
 and intense passionate longing, which he dignified with the 
 name of love. His arm would fain have stolen round her 
 waist, but instinct itself told him this was no time for such 
 familiarity, and it was but a cold gloved hand he pressed 
 once more to his burning lips, while the stern brief accents 
 in which he urged his suit grated harshly on her ear. 
 " Miss Brooke ! Helen ! Speak ! Is it agreed ? " 
 " Agreed," she repeated, and let him take both her help- 
 less hands in his, and bent her marble forehead once to 
 meet his kiss. And so Frank Multiple and Miss Brooke 
 were engaged. 
 
808 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Engaged! Alas! She knew too well what it meant. 
 It meant a new life, new interests, new duties, the charge 
 of another's happiness as well as of her own. All that is 
 most enticing and most precious to a woman's heart, with 
 its keen desire for appropriation, when glorified by love, all 
 that terrifies and depresses it most when expediency rather 
 than inclination has forged the handcuffs. Ah ! the grim 
 iron strikes chill to the bone bare of its silken covering. 
 True that with many of us the silk wears through ere long, 
 but still the limbs have got used to the fetter, and callous 
 to its touch. I pity no dreamer's disillusion, for it is the 
 condition of his dream, but it is hard to forego the dream 
 altogether. Not even in fancy to have basked in the magic 
 beams. It is bad enough to lose the luminous phantom 
 that so dazzled all our senses, but worse still never so much 
 as to have seen it glide from within our grasp. 
 
 Helen must give up home and kindred now. Was it this 
 reflection that seemed to weigh like lead about her heart ? 
 I think the sacrifice she felt most keenly was not of the 
 real but of the impossible. I think she had cherished a 
 vague longing for that which could not be, so she had 
 taught herself to feel, and prized the vision more because 
 her reason told her it must never reach fulfilment. Now 
 that her own act had destroyed every vestige, it did not 
 seem so impracticable after all. "Why must she be haunted 
 by that figure walking thoughtfully across the park, pausing 
 amongst the trees to look its last upon the house, and then 
 turn sorrowfully away? Why must she see a girl with a 
 pale face and dark hair pushed back, on her Imees, in a 
 deserted room, weeping, longing, praying? And how had 
 the prayer been answered? She could not, she must not, 
 she da/red not think of it now. 
 
 She turned to her af&anced husband and wondered how 
 she ought to feel towards him. Was this heavy, hopeless, 
 grudging effort at gratitude a return for his devotion? Had 
 he not offered her his all, and was it not accepted ? She 
 shuddered and sickened to think how little she could give 
 him in return. 
 
 They were going home now, for like a wounded forest 
 creature she had instinctively set her face that way, and he 
 walked by her side grave, triumphant, scheming even then, 
 
PBE88UEE 809 
 
 thinking less of her youth, her beauty, her maiden dignity, 
 her gentle loving heart than of his own ambition, and the 
 great stride he had to-day accomplished in that which he 
 considered the journey of life. Sometimes, though, he 
 glanced at the slender feet that stole in and out beneath 
 the gaudy petticoat, and then his dark cheek flushed warm, 
 and his down-cast eyes sparkled and glowed with a lurid 
 light. 
 
 They spoke but little, and on indifferent subjects. 
 Since they had agreed to become one, a wall seemed to 
 have risen between them, and, strange to say, he felt the 
 restraint more irksome than the girl. Perhaps her great 
 distress left no room for so petty a sensation as mere dis- 
 comfort. Their situation was not the least what either of 
 them had expected, and if Jack Brooke coming back from 
 the farm could have overtaken the engaged couple, it would 
 have been a great relief to both. 
 
 Perhaps the sight of her old home gave her courage ; 
 perhaps she felt that a last effort must be made; not at 
 escape — no, that was now impossible — but for a reprieve. 
 They were almost at the door when she turned full upon 
 Frank Multiple, and said in a calm measured voice that 
 surprised herself, " I have one request to make that I think 
 you will hardly deny me. Our bargain — our engagement, 
 I should say — must not be declared to-day. You kciow my 
 father's state of health. You must leave me to decide on 
 the fitting time for asking his approval. Do you consent? " 
 
 He tried to answer playfully, fondly, to affect the 
 raptures proper on such an occasion, but the phrases wotild 
 not come, and though he was provoked at his own cowardice, 
 he shrank &om meeting her eye. He made a weak snatch 
 at her hand, an awkward futile effort to detain her, but she 
 passed on as if unconscious of his presence,[]and walked up 
 stairs with a slow and stately step to the door of her own 
 chamber. God help her when she got there ! It would 
 have been a brave man who had followed her across the 
 threshold. 
 
 And Multiple, left standing at the hall-door, ground a 
 curse savagely between his teeth, then looked up as if 
 relieved by her absence from unbearable restraint, pulled 
 out a gorgeous cigar-case, embroidered by hands less pure 
 
310 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 than Helen's, but perhaps no less kind and gentle in a 
 cause they loved, and lighting it paced up and down the 
 gravel, and spoke to his own heart in bitter, mahcious, 
 measured syllables. " We shall see, my fair proud lady. 
 We shall see. Your turn to-day ; mine to-morrow. Love 
 me ! Why should she ? I have had enough of that folly ; 
 but I know something better than such child's play, and I 
 think, considering all things, I have not bought my bargain 
 too dear. She called it a bargain herself. Do you think 
 that escaped me, my lady? TS you do, you'll find yourself 
 
 d d well mistaken when we come to settle accounts. 
 
 I'll have that haughty high-bom beauty of yours all for my 
 own. Why, that alone is worth more than I need give 
 Pounder to hold his tongue. I'll have that cold white fore- 
 head down, down to the very dust ; and as for your heart, 
 curse it, let it break if it won't bend ; for you're mine now, 
 body and soul, and, by heaven! you shall find it out. And 
 yet, and yet — Blast her ! I wish she would love me a little, 
 were it only for half-an-hour." 
 
 Then, as the tobacco asserted its soothing influence, his 
 countenance brightened, his swollen features regained their 
 usual composure. He never acted on impulse, though his 
 passions were naturally violent. He was a little ashamed 
 of his late outbreak. 
 
 " What a fool I am," said he, laughing honestly enough, 
 "to put myself out for nothing. What wotild a fellow 
 have ? Here I am with the game in my own hand, winning 
 every trick, by Jove, and my deal." 
 
CHAPTEE XX 
 
 BECOIIi 
 
 There are all sorts of wooers in the ranks, from buxom 
 May to bleak December. Some men, like Don Quixote, 
 take the matter au grand sSrieux, and to such, indeed, the 
 important question must constitute an awful moment of 
 their lives. Others again, Irishmen, I believe, especially, 
 rejoicing in a wonderful mixture of good faith, bonhomie, 
 and that reckless audacity which they affirm to proceed 
 from constitutional shyness, request a lady to marry them 
 with an easy affability, just as they would ask her to dance ; 
 and seem as little affected by acceptance or refusal in the 
 one case as in the other. Levity, indifference, and the 
 gaiety of an untouched heart, have doubtless their ad- 
 vantages. To a looker-on they generally seem secure of 
 the game ; but women, I imagine, must have some secret 
 test, by which they ascertain the value of a suitor's pro- 
 fessions, distinguishing the ring of the true metal from the 
 jingle of the false. Though not always wise enough to 
 act upon it, they are seldom misled by this mysterious 
 instinct ; and my own belief is, that each of them knows 
 exactly what you think of her the very first time she sets 
 eyes upon you. It is this intuitive perception of our 
 weakness that gives her such advantage in a contest, like 
 most others, gained by the mistake of an adversary. I 
 cannot quite subscribe to the maxim, that "Faint heart 
 never won fair lady." I think if she cares to be won, it 
 must be a very faint heart, indeed, to which she will not 
 give enough encouragement to make it go in for the prize ; 
 whilst, although persistency and good fortune, or in other 
 
 3U 
 
312 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 words, opportunity and importunity may do a great deal, 
 they are not infallible, and that " one refusal," which is 
 proverbially " no rebuff," may, on repetition, grow to be a 
 very decided ebullition of hatred and disgust. Sir Dinadam, 
 in the old chronicle, with his "jests and japes," his far- 
 fetched witticisms that made Arthur and Guenevere laugh 
 so heartily they "might hardly endure to sit upon their 
 chairs," with his debonair bearing, and his courtly glance 
 roving free from dame to damsel, but settling fairly on 
 none, might, indeed, win smiles as many as he broke 
 lances ; but I doubt if the whitest bosoms in the court of 
 the " Blameless King " heaved sighs so deep for him as for 
 love-lorn Tristrem, or for Lancelot, the brave, the gentle, 
 and the saddened ; eating his own heart in utter silence ; 
 looking " stol'n wise" on one he might never claim; 
 vraestling vrith the passion, so sweet though guilty; so 
 hopeless though returned ; that was alike her punishment 
 and his own. 
 
 Not a paladin of them all, however, had he risen straight 
 from the wine-cup at the round table, could have galloped 
 off a-wooing more gaily, than did Walter Brooke, out of the 
 stable-yard at Bridlemere in the direction of Tollesdale. 
 Multiple's advice sank deep, encouraging as it did the 
 hopes he had now cherished for some time. He was not a 
 man to let the iron cool before he struck it, and ere his 
 companion had entered the house, and made his bow to 
 Helen, the hussar had changed his mind about spending 
 the afternoon at home. He turned his unwilling charger 
 from the stable-door, but that good horse no sooner felt the 
 soft elastic turf beneath his feet, than he broke into an easy 
 gallop, seeming to participate in the hopes, as in the haste, 
 of his rider. 
 
 There are some expeditions that must be undertaken in a 
 hurry, or not at all. If a fortress is to be carried by a 
 cowp-de-main, it will not do to waste time in lengthening 
 the ladders and measuring the ditch; better run in and 
 force the position pell-mell. If you mean to ride at water, 
 the sooner you set about it the better for man and horse ; 
 the longer you look, the less you will both like it. And if 
 you want to marry an heiress, you should ask the question, 
 and press for the answer at once, lest a livelier suitor cut in 
 
BECOIL 813 
 
 before you, and give you the candle to hold while he walks 
 off with the game. 
 
 Walter never slackened pace till he saw the square, sub- 
 stantial front of ToUesdale mansion-house looming through 
 its surrounding woods, suggestive of wealth, and station, 
 and domestic comfort, and all that a man who is not in 
 love connects with matrimony. Even then he would have 
 galloped to the very threshold, but that passing the double 
 doors of a deep well-littered farm-yard, he was brought up 
 by the cheerful voice of his prospective father-in-law. 
 
 " You seem in a hurry, Walter," shouted Lord Waywarden, 
 interrupting his occupation to stop his friend. * ' You needn't 
 fear to be late for luncheon in that house, as long as my 
 lady is at home. Why, man you send him along as if you 
 were riding to catch hounds ! " 
 
 His lordship was over his gaiters in the rich yellow 
 straw. His farm-book was under his arm, his pencil 
 between his teeth. He was engaged in the congenial 
 operation of poking and punching a fat bullock about the 
 tail, to ascertain the beast's chance of an agricultural 
 prize. He invited Walter to dismount and inspect the 
 Leviathan. 
 
 " Not his legs, my good fellow ; not his legs," exclaimed 
 his lordship, laughing heartily at the gravity with which 
 Walter, who was not without a certain dry humour, took 
 his gloves off, and proceeded to pass his hand down the 
 animals sinews below the knee. " Do you suppose that I 
 am training him for the Middlesworth Handicap ; or if I 
 were, do you think he looks as if he could win ? Perhaps 
 you would like to have a saddle on him, and feel his action 
 round the paddock ? Come, you'll be none the worse for a 
 lesson about stock. We'll go round the pigs. I've a 
 black sow I should like to show you, that's as sure of the 
 gold medal as if she had it round her neck. , Look at her ! 
 Fair Eosamond, my bailiff calls her. There I think you'll 
 allow I have bred a beauty at last ! " 
 
 Fair Eosamond, who was all throat and paunch, with 
 a delicate little snout and eyes choked in fat, gave no 
 symptoms of vitality beyond a stertorous snore, and looked, 
 indeed, as if she must die of sheer apoplexy before the day 
 of the show. 
 
314 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Walter asked meekly, whether it would be necessary to 
 feel her too ? 
 
 Lord Waywarden's cheery laugh rang once more amongst 
 the very rafters of the out-buildings. 
 
 " You'll never make a farmer," said he, " and I suppose 
 you don't want to learn. But having caught you down here 
 it would be scarcely fair to give you a benefit, particularly 
 as you take to it so kindly. You must have come to ask for 
 something, Walter. I never knew a fellow give another a 
 leg on to his hobby, unless he wanted something out of the 
 rider." 
 
 Lord Waywarden spoke jestingly, of course. He im- 
 agined that his young friend might require some little 
 favour connected with fishing-rights, pheasants' eggs, the 
 dry-nursing of fox-hound puppies, or anyone of the thousand 
 little matters in which country gentlemen can be of service 
 to each other. He was something more than surprised 
 when Walter told him, in a few modest but out-spoken 
 words, the object of his visit. 
 
 Something more than surprised, yet not altogether dis- 
 pleased. He liked the hussar, personally none the worse 
 — ^knowing him to be a bold rider and a good shot — for 
 certain little affectations of dandyism, that reminded him of 
 his own youth. He approved of the connection with near 
 neighbours, and a family so influential in the county. He 
 had a vague suspicion, too, that Julia was fond of him ; 
 and this would have out-weighed almost every other con- 
 sideration in his lordship's mind. The boy had nothing, 
 of coui-se; nothing, with Lord Waywarden, might have 
 meant anything under two thousand a-year; but he had 
 always understood Sir Archibald would make him his 
 heir; and Sir Archibald, everybody said, must have 
 saved enormously! In the meantime he must stretch a 
 point for Julia. After all he had but Julia and Nethersole 
 in the world. Besides, he was pleased with the manly, 
 though diffident, tone in which the consent had been 
 asked; and approved highly of the suitor's honorable 
 conduct in appealing to the father before he addressed the 
 
 ^Walter, who had played this, his last card with something 
 of the gambler's desperation, could hardly beheve his ears, 
 
hecoil 315 
 
 when my lord bade him go up to the house, and try his luck 
 with my lady. 
 
 " I don't mean the thing is settled, my boy," said he 
 grasping the young man's hand ; " but I do mean, that if 
 you can get my lady's consent, and Julia is willing, of 
 course, I'll take it into consideration, and see what can 
 be done. You're both quite young, you know, and can 
 afford to wait. Probably, for that very reason, you're in a 
 devil of a limTy. I know my lady is very ambitious about 
 Ju, and the girl's fit to be a queen, in my opinion ; still 
 she may be induced to listen to you ; for I tell you, you're 
 in her good books. Only put it as a favour, you know ; 
 put it as a favour. If my lady gets upon the high ropes, 
 let her dance till she's tired; she'll soon come down again, but 
 she likes people to say * yes ' to her, just at first. God 
 bless you ! my boy, and good luck to you ! I think you 
 would be good to Julia, and that is everything with me — 
 above rank and riches, and all besides inthe world ! " 
 
 So Walter, much encouraged, remounted to ride up to 
 the house, and Lord Waywarden, looking after him, shook 
 his head more than once, while he pictured to himself his 
 Countess, cold and stately in her morning-room. " I don't 
 envy him his job," he muttered, returning to the farm-book 
 and the fat pigs ; but he could not settle to anything now, 
 for thinking of his child. To put his own oar in at such a 
 crisis he felt would do more harm than good, so his lordship 
 thought he had better walk across the park, and inspect some 
 lately pm-ohased Herefords. 
 
 " I believe it will come off after all," said Walter to 
 himself, as he rang the door-bell, and asked if Lady 
 Waywarden was at home. He had scarcely yet recovered 
 his first unexpected success, and felt that to stop now in 
 his career would be inexcuseable. 
 
 Nevertheless, he dreaded the interview not a little. He 
 envied Mr. Silke's composure, as that immovable man 
 ushered him through two or three drawing-rooms, with 
 blazing fires, hot-house flowers, and, indeed, a hot-house 
 atmosphere, to the door of her ladyship's own snuggery. 
 Here, I think, if he had been really in love he would have 
 bolted outright ; but he only fancied he was, so he made a 
 plunge, and went in. 
 
316 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Notwithstanding the climate she affected, Lady Way- 
 wajdens fingers were very cold when she shook hands 
 with him. The chill seemed to run up his elbows and 
 curdle about the nape of his neck. She had been writing, 
 of course, but she laid her pen down with the utmost polite- 
 ness, and inquired after his family, seriatim, in a tone that 
 implied the most complete indifference to his answers, 
 adding as she stretched her cold white hand to the bell, 
 "Of course you'll have some luncheon, Mr. Brooke? I 
 believe it is hardly over yet." 
 
 Now Walter had been collecting his energies for this, 
 the grea,t difficulty of his undertaking, and a bright idea 
 struck him like an inspiration, even while her ladyship was 
 speaking. " This woman," he thought, " must be startled 
 into a consent. Conventional forms, and the restrictions of 
 polite society are the elements in which she lives ; but she 
 has not seen a man in earnest for twenty years, and will 
 not know how to defend herself against a bit of high 
 wrought feeling and romance. It will come all the 
 better, too, from me, whom she has hitherto believed 
 such another as herself. Here goes! I suppose a man 
 may stoop to conquer as well as a woman ! " 
 
 Accordingly, ere she could reach the bell, he had seized 
 the folds of her rich velvet skirt, and was down on his knees, 
 in the very whitest spot of the hearth-rug, at her feet. 
 Lady Waywarden had, certainly, never been so astonished 
 in her life before. 
 
 First, she thought he was mad, and feared him; then 
 that he was in love with her himself — poor young man! 
 and pitied him, though rfeprovingly. Lastly, she made out 
 what he wanted, and felt interested in spite of her cold 
 worldly heart. 
 
 " Nobody can help me but you. Lady Waywarden," said 
 he, pressing her dress against his lips ; " I have nobody to 
 consult, nobody to advise, nobody to pity me. Ever since I 
 can remember, I have looked upon you as something nobler 
 and wiser, and more beautiful than a woman ; perhaps it is 
 this very feeling that tortures me now, for love of one who 
 is like you in body, and mind, and intellect, and heart. I 
 have nothing to urge in my own favour; nothing to give me 
 value in your eyes ; nothing to say but this : that I love 
 
BECOIL 817 
 
 your daughter, Lady Julia, so wildly, so madly, so fondly, 
 that if you can find it in your heart to be pitiless, and go 
 against me to-day, I shall never lift up my head again ! " 
 
 Then he went and sat down away from her, leaning his 
 brow against a buhl table, as if ashamed of his ebullition. 
 
 "I am surprised ! — I freely confess I am surprised ! " 
 said Lady Waywarden, lifting both her cold white hands in 
 the attitude of a mediaeval saint, and hoping sincerely that, 
 in his agitation, he might not brush some old china off the 
 table, with his elbow. " Compose yourself, Mr. Brooke. 
 This violence is perhaps unnecessary, after all. Am I to 
 understand that your declaration is to be considered a 
 proposal in form for the hand of my daughter. Lady 
 Julia Treadwell?" 
 
 Walter intimated energetically enough that was what 
 he meant, fainting at the same time, that the young lady's 
 likeness to her mother constituted her real value in his eyes. 
 
 " There are difficulties, Mr. Brooke : you cannot but 
 see there are great difficulties," continued her ladyship, 
 spreading out her robes, and seating herself royally in an 
 arm-chair, as if it were a throne. " The match is hardly 
 suitable in a worldly point of view, even were all other con- 
 siderations satisfactorily arranged. At the same time, if 
 my daughter's happiness were involved, I should be the last 
 person to stand in its way, as too many mothers do, for 
 mere mercenary motives. Of course Julia would require a 
 suitable establishment, though it is extremely premature to 
 discuss anything of that kind at present." 
 
 " Whatever you thought suitable. Lady Waywarden must 
 be right. Your good sense and good taste will be in- 
 valuable in all such matters," answered Walter, looking 
 up from the table. 
 
 He found the game easier than he expected, and like a 
 skilful billiard player, resolved now he had got " a break," 
 to make a good score off the balls. 
 
 Lady Waywarden reflected for a few moments, during 
 which, I believe, her thoughts travelled back to her own 
 image in a long glass, dressed in white and orange- 
 blossoms, under a bridal veil. Then she asked, with a 
 sigh— 
 
 " Have you any reason to believe my daughter's feelings 
 
318 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMERE 
 
 are already interested in this, your very— very wnexmcted 
 proposal, Mr. Brooke?" 
 
 There was a winning hazard to play for here, and he 
 made it without fail. 
 
 "I would not have even hinted at such a thing," said 
 he, raising her ladyship's hand to his lips, " till I had 
 consulted my first fiiend ! " 
 
 "I must say that is vei-y honourable — ^very honour- 
 able, indeed," answered the Countess, with a little pro- 
 voking consciousness, notwithstanding all her approbation, 
 that she herself, when Julia's age, would have liked her 
 own opinion to be asked first. " I cannot but admire your 
 prudence and delicacy; indeed, it is most unusual in so 
 young a man. And I have been told — excuse me Mr. 
 Brooke — that you have been a little — what shall I say? 
 rather — in short — not altogether steadier than your 
 neighbours?" 
 
 "I never had a mother's teaching, Lady Waywarden. 
 You must think of that, and make allowances. The other 
 boys of my own age used to write home to their mothers 
 when they wanted anything, and I could scarcely remember 
 mine. I often envy Nethersole, when I think that with all 
 his many advantages, he possesses in your care the very 
 greatest of all. I might have been so different if she had 
 lived." 
 
 He really thought so for the moment, and his voice 
 shook with an emotion that was only half put on. It was 
 a splendid stroke, boldly conceived and boldly executed. I 
 believe it won him the game. 
 
 Lady Waywarden's words came huskily when she 
 answered. She had not wept for so many years that the 
 tears got no further than her throat, but they were there 
 sure enough when she thought of the poor little mother- 
 less boy at school, and her own son's letter received but 
 yesterday, asking for a variety of articles totally uncon- 
 nected with his studies. 
 
 "You cannot expect a definite answer at once, Mr. 
 Brooke," she said, surprised at her inmost heart by her 
 own tendency to acquiesce in so romantic a proceeding, 
 and a little vain of her unworldliness besides. "The 
 thing is altogether so sudden. You have taken me so 
 
EEGOIL 819 
 
 completely by surprise, and, of course, Lord Waywarden 
 must be consulted." 
 
 Walter was far too good a player, and knew the table too 
 well, to confess that he had already obtained a conditional 
 consent from that nobleman. He took her ladyship's hand 
 once more and kissed it reverentially. 
 
 "If I have only you on my side," said he, "I am sure 
 of victory. I shall be the happiest man in the world, and 
 owe it all to your kind heart." 
 
 " Well, if it depends on me," answered Lady Way- 
 warden, " I will not vote against you ; I can promise 
 that. Now you may go and see Julia, if you like. 
 I suppose you don't care about any luncheon. You are 
 almost sure to find her in the conservatory." 
 
 Lady Julia was in the conservatory, sure enough, osten- 
 sibly snipping the dead leaves off sundry plants, with a 
 pair of garden scissors. I believe no atmosphere can be 
 wholesome when raised to an artificial temperature, and 
 this may have been the reason why her colour went and 
 came so variably, and her heart beat so much faster than 
 could be accounted for by the mere act of stooping over a 
 flower-pot. 
 
 She had heard the door-bell ring, and meeting Mr. 
 Silke as she left the dining-room, where she had finished 
 luncheon, inquired, with pardonable curiosity, the name of 
 the visitor. 
 
 "Mr. Brooke, my Lady," answered that well-driUed 
 domestic, softly and imperturbably, as he would have 
 announced the Emperor of Morocco, or any other nota- 
 bility. " He asked for her ladyship, and is gone into the 
 morning-room." 
 
 How can I tell what she was thinking of ? or why she 
 started, turning red and pale? I believe she was going 
 up stairs to put on her things, for a walk, but she changed 
 her mind, perhaps opining it looked like rain, and retraced 
 her steps to the blue drawing-room, whence she proceeded 
 into the conservatory, and snipped off a dozen or so of very 
 promising shoots, without discovering the mischief she was 
 about. 
 
 A man's step on the tesselated floor made her look up, 
 and her countenance fell visibly ere Walter reached her 
 
820 THE BB00KE8 OP BBIDLEMBBE 
 
 side. Nevertheless, her confusion had completely vanished 
 when she accosted him by name, asking cordially and kindly 
 how he had left them all at Bridlemere. 
 
 You have seen a child in a white frock hunting a butter- 
 fly round a garden: from clove to carnation, from hollyhock 
 to heliotrope, from rose to mignonette, the pretty painted 
 thing quivers and settles, and flutters off again into the 
 summer sky, just as the hot little hand is in the act of 
 closing on its prize. The pursuit, like that of pleasure, is 
 endless, enticing, disappointing. After mirth, effort, failure, 
 and vexation, the disgusted little hunter generally sits down 
 to cry. 
 
 Lady Julia was like the butterfly. From flower to flower 
 she flitted ; from subject to subject she roved, and Walter 
 could not fix her ; could not drive her into a corner ; could 
 not get her on a topic that might give him the opportunity 
 he required. 
 
 Perhaps she suspected him, and fought off from maiden 
 modesty ; perhaps she enjoyed his discomfiture, and tanta- 
 lised him for sheer amusement. She plied him with 
 questions on practical matters that no amount of ingenuity 
 could twist into a romantic shape ; she told him anecdotes 
 fresh from London by that morning's post with a volubility 
 that left him no chance of getting in a word ; and he could 
 not but laugh, in spite of himself, at her sarcastic comments 
 and quaint powers of narration. All these artifices, how- 
 ever, only increased his determination to capture this 
 golden-winged butterfly; and, indeed, the prize looked 
 sufficiently alluring to have tempted even an older, and 
 wiser, and less necessitous man. 
 
 She was dressed in a very dark-coloured velvet, adapted, 
 as she considered, for out-of-door work and country wear, 
 which, fitting quite close to her bust and shoulders, fell in 
 long ample folds below the waist, giving her beautifiilly- 
 moulded form an appearance of gi-eater height than it 
 possessed. Under a little white lace collar she wore a 
 broad light green ribbon— the only bit of colour in her 
 whole dress— very becoming, as doubtless she well knew, 
 to the delicate bloom of her complexion, and the glory of 
 her rich chesnut hair. 
 
 The diamond eyes gleamed and sparkled, bright as the 
 
BECOIL 321 
 
 jewels in her perfect little ears; and the clear fair face, 
 with its well-cut features, broke into sunny smiles with 
 every changing topic that arose, but there was a strange 
 resolute expression about the rosy lips, that deepened and 
 deepened, as Walter's tone grew more and more serious 
 and affectionate. With all her beauty — ^youthful, saucy, 
 and attractive though it was — she looked a lady who could 
 depend upon herseff in any emergency, either of body or 
 mind. 
 
 "Bless me ! " thought Walter, "how like she is to the 
 print in Jack's bedroom ! " 
 
 It was strange that this resemblance should have struck 
 him now for the first time. There was no leisure, how- 
 ever, to follow out the train of ideas such a discovery 
 might have originated, for he saw his opportunity at this 
 very moment, and hastened to take advantage of it. 
 
 Lady Julia was reaching up, with the garden scissors, to 
 amputate some rusty shoots from a pendent plant with a 
 long Latin name she could not, she said, have pronounced 
 in a month. Her waist looked particularly taper and in- 
 viting in this attitude. His arm was round it in an instant, 
 and the scissors fell on the varnished pavement, with a 
 clang. 
 
 She disengaged herself in a rapid, snake-like twirl, not 
 agitated nor frightened, nor even astonished, only — as he 
 could not but perceive to his great discomfiture — somewhat 
 amused. 
 
 " This is a bad floor for waltzing, Mr. Brooke," said she, 
 composedly; " and the place altogether too hot for a dance. 
 Let us walk back into the drawing-room ! " 
 
 He knew the match was lost now : the player's instinct 
 seldom deceives him in such matters. Nevertheless, he 
 resolved to finish the game. 
 
 "Hear me, Lady Julia," said he, trying to take her 
 hand, which, however, she did not yield, keeping him, as 
 he afterwards observed, at "practising distance." " Only 
 three words. I will not detain you long. You — you spoke 
 of names just now ; could you not be persuaded to change 
 yours ? " 
 
 Of course, she knew as well as he did what was coming. 
 She ought to have blushed, hesitated, cried a little — how 
 
 21 
 
322 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 can I tell ? Perhaps even fainted away. If so, she was 
 by no means perfect in her part, for she did not so much 
 as turn red, and her eyes gleaming maliciously, while she 
 asked — 
 
 " Change it? I don't know that I should. But for 
 what?" 
 
 " Would you hate," said he, gently — " would you hate 
 to be Lady Julia Brooke ? " 
 
 Such a soft, loving look stole over the face he was 
 watching, that for an instant he almost fancied he had 
 won, but she shook her head quietly, and a little sorrow- 
 fully, murmuring in a low tone — 
 
 "I am never likely to be Julia Brooke. Let us talk 
 about something else." 
 
 " Not till I have had my answer," said he, impatiently, 
 for his temper was begioning to fail him, and it was no 
 time now for misapprehension or mistake. " I have your 
 father's sanction and your mother's consent. I have a 
 right to ask you point-blank to be my wife. Oh, Lady 
 Julia, I do love you! It is wrong to trifle with my 
 feelings any longer." 
 
 He tried to put his arm round her once more, but again 
 she took up her distance so skilfully that he was foiled. It 
 seemed strange she should be so much the cooler and more 
 composed of the two ; but then, besides that her heart was 
 completely untouched, she would not have married him, of 
 aU people, for any consideration in the world. 
 
 " Papa and mamma are veiy accommodating," said she, 
 with a little malicious curtsey. " Don't you think I am 
 the person whose taste has to be consulted first? " 
 
 "And your taste is for something nobler, and richer, 
 and altogether a better match than the poor devil of a 
 younger brother," he answered, rather ungenerously, 
 adding in a cold haughty tone, " I ought to have known, 
 I suppose, that it was unpardonable presumption to fancy 
 a Brooke could be a match for Lady Julia Treadwell. I 
 accept my dismissal, and will never trouble you to speak 
 to me again." 
 
 " Now don't be an ass, Walter ! " said she, coming closer 
 to him, and taking both his hands, while she looked up in 
 his face with a frank kindly smile. " What's the good of 
 
BECOIL 823 
 
 talking such utter bosh ? You're not a bad boy when you 
 are reasonable. We have always been the best of friends, 
 and always shall be. I would no more quarrel with you 
 than with my brother. But you know as well as I do, 
 Walter, that it's stuff to talk about anything in the shape 
 of — of — real love" (she got out with a blush) "between 
 you and me. Don't be angry ; we've had our breeze ; 
 shake hands and think no more about it." 
 
 He tried to put a heart-broken expression into his face, 
 but somewhat failed. He was angry, no doubt — dis- 
 appointed, humiliated, provoked; yet there was some- 
 thmg ludicrous in his position, even to himself. He 
 raised his eyes to hers, they looked at each other for 
 about ten seconds, and then both burst out laughing. 
 
 " I knew you were a good fellow, Walter," said her 
 ladyship, with a cordial squeeze of both her pretty hands, 
 " and I'm not deceived in you. We shall always be fast 
 friends ; and if ever I can do you a good turn I will, as 
 sure as my name's Julia. You had better go now. I'll let 
 you out of the conservatory, and you can get round to the 
 stables without passing through the house. Leave me to 
 settle with mamma. I'll let you down easy enough, you 
 may be sure. I hav'n't half thanked you for the compli- 
 ment. It is a compliment, I suppose? But you won't 
 mind about that. I'll show my gratitude some day, never 
 fear. In the meantime, God bless you, Walter, and good- 
 
 She seemed still to be speaking, at least her voice was 
 yet ringing in his ears, while he threaded the shrubbery 
 and found his way to the stables. There he swung him- 
 self into the saddle, and started for home at the most 
 liberal pace his fast and well-bred charger could com- 
 mand. 
 
 Walter was not yet accustomed to defeat or disappoint- 
 ment, particularly in such affairs as that which had brought 
 him to ToUesdale. It was very unusual for him to fail 
 with the opposite sex, and this was the first appearance in 
 the character of a discarded suitor. It seemed so strange 
 to come away without a trophy of any kind — a flower, a 
 glove, a trinket, not even the mark left by a glossy fragrant 
 head upon the collar of his coat. He could scarcely realise 
 
824 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 the fact that he, Walter Brooke, of the Dancing Hussars, 
 had been refased ! 
 
 It is wonderfdl how a man in difficulties retires, as it 
 were, upon one point after another, considering each in its 
 turn the impregnable citadel he can never be forced to 
 abandon. Wonderful how the gambler trusts ever to the 
 next card dealt, the next main thrown, for recovery of his 
 hopes and dawn of eventual success. Walter pinned his 
 faith on Benedict now; and although it was doubtless 
 unpleasant, nay, himiiliating, to be foiled, particularly 
 after obtaining both parents' consent, there was a certain 
 gleam of consolation through the gloom in the reflection, 
 that if the horse he had backed so heavily did pull it off, 
 he was better without a wife after all. 
 
 "Fellows seem to get tired of matrimony," thought 
 Walter, scouring down a grassy avenue that opened on 
 the Middlesworth road. "I've heard lots of married 
 men swear that it can never pay. And then the settle- 
 ments, and the trousseaux, and the trotting-out to be 
 crabbed by the collaterals, and the dreadful family-dinners 
 that have to be solemnised before the event. Upon my 
 soul, I tbink I am well out of it! Oh, Benedict! Benedict! 
 I know you have the pace, and I know they will run you 
 straight. If you can but stay, notwithstanding all my ups 
 and downs, I might pull through at last I " 
 
 Then, like the stab of a knife, came the recollection of 
 the two bUls, and catching the poor charger fiercely by the 
 head, he urged him faster and faster, to the extremity of 
 his speed. 
 
 Lord Waywarden, walking uneasily about amongst the 
 white faced bullocks, espied his young friend riding thus 
 recklessly away. He was at no loss to infer failure in 
 the suitor's errand, but attributed his defeat to a wrong 
 cause. 
 
 " He's had a rough time of it with my lady," said Way- 
 wai'den to his Herefords. " A very rough time of it, I'll be 
 bound. Poor lad ! he's never seen my lady with her back 
 up. I shouldn't wonder if she astonished him a good deal. 
 Now if Ju fancies this light dragoon — and I don't see why 
 she shouldn't, for he's about the right pattern — there's a 
 nice piece of work cut out for me ! Dear, dear, it's hard to 
 
"Riding thus recklessly away.' 
 The Brookes of Bridlemere.] 
 
 [Page 324 
 
BECOIL 825 
 
 have got old and heavy, and bald and slow, only to be 
 bothered with women's likes and dislikes to the end of the 
 chapter. Perhaps I'd better go at once and have it out 
 with my lady. Then we'll see what can be done for Ju." 
 It is needless to add that, notwithstanding the loss of an 
 afternoon's farming, his lordship was much relieved when 
 he got home and discovered the real state of the case. 
 
CHAPTEE XXI 
 
 AN englishwoman's CASTLE 
 
 Amongst the many promises offered by the future, there is 
 none to which people look forward with so much pleasure 
 as to that condition they are pleased to term independence. 
 With men the idea of this abnormal state is comprised 
 either in the tenancy of a public-house, or the occupation 
 and tillage of land, according to the means of the visionary 
 independent ; while with women the letting of lodgings 
 alone would seem to satisfy a craving for self-government 
 utterly opposed to the very conditions and peculiarities of 
 their sex. Each of these pursuits appears to me especially 
 influenced by circumstances beyond individual control ; but 
 perhaps the last is, of all others, that which, necessitating 
 considerable pliability of character, and implicit obedience 
 to the whims of one's fellow-creatures, is therefore furthest 
 of all removed from the impossible state of independence 
 desii'ed. 
 
 Miss Prince, showing fussy bachelors and suspicious 
 matrons over a house near the Strand, of which she had 
 recently purchased the lease and fixtures for a term of 
 years, sometimes wished herself back again at ToUesdale, 
 subject only to the caprices of Lady Waywarden, rather 
 than the imperious summons of taxes, gas, and water-rates, 
 the weekly imposition of tradesmen, the daily vexations of 
 servants, and the hourly demands on time and patience 
 exacted by the first and second floor. It was, to use her 
 own words, " up early and down late now, and everything 
 to see to with one's own eyes, and all the work of three 
 stories to be got through by one pair of hands. As to 
 
AN ENGLISHWOMAN'S CASTLE 327 
 
 servants ! bless you, my dear, servants are worse than 
 useless in a place like this ; for cooking means waste ; and 
 cleaning-up, drunkenness ; and even dusting is but another 
 word for breaking everything within reach, right and 
 left ! ■' 
 
 In such a strain did Miss Prince then ease her mind, 
 two or three times in an afternoon, while discussing the 
 many drawbacks incidental to housekeeping, with her dear 
 friend, Mrs. George Stoney, that lady having brought 
 herself and her whole family, present and prospective, to 
 lodge with her old schoolmistress. It is only fair to say, 
 however, that the little woman was, in her heart, as happy 
 and as full of chirp as a canary in its cage. The sweetest 
 bread is the hardest earned ; the soundest sleep, that which 
 is wrested from toil ; and then what matter vexation, cares, 
 annoyances, when we have got om* real treasures about us ? 
 Miss Prince never wished herself back at Tollesdale for 
 more than a minute at a time. 
 
 In the front attic was stowed away the poor paralytic 
 sister, so serene, so contented, so happy ! blessing God 
 that her disease had but little affected the mind, and could 
 not paralyse the soul. The back attic was a lumber-room, 
 rich in accumulations of dust and litter, offering to orderly 
 dispositions like Miss Prince's a hideous and revolting 
 sight. In the bedrooms were lodged with great compressible 
 skill, Mrs. George Stoney, her husband, and family ; Jane, 
 who had followed their fortunes, sleeping out, as it is 
 called, much against the advice and opinion of Dot. The 
 dravnng-rooms were occupied by a Scotch surgeon of no 
 inconsiderable practice — an obliging but extremely trouble- 
 some lodger, as Miss Prince discovered when she had taken 
 him in a week ; eccentric in habits, irregular in hours, not 
 averse to tobacco, and with a strong inclination for 
 chemistry. Of late, indeed, he rented the back parlour, 
 and had turned the small and gloomy apartment into a 
 laboratory. Philip Stoney occupied the corresponding 
 room in front ; and where Miss Prince herself slept, and 
 performed her toilet, remains to this day a mystery. 
 Nevertheless, the little woman was always as precise in 
 dress and prim in demeanour as if she still expected to 
 meet Lord Waywarden at every turn. Time and absence 
 
328 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMERE 
 
 had, moreover, in no way diminished her admiration for the 
 character of that nobleman. A print from his portrait by 
 Grant, on his favourite cob Ploughboy, hung in the parlour, 
 and views of Tollesdale, from different points and at 
 various elevations, adorned the drawing-rooms both back 
 and front. 
 
 Miss Prince's gigantic heart was as adhesive as an 
 oyster. From its great size, too, and the small circle of 
 her acquaintance, she had plenty of room in it to 
 accommodate them all. It had taken in the whole family 
 of the Stoneys ; and, indeed, the greatest blessing to that 
 little community, after all their reverses, was that they 
 might be together. The ostensible object of their residence 
 in London being that George as well as his brother Philip 
 should obtain some mercantile employment, for which he 
 was well qualified by habit and education. He had been, 
 however, so shaken in health by his reverses, that both 
 wife and brother persuaded him, though with difficulty, to 
 rest awhile from all bodily and mental labour. To this 
 end Philip brought every shilling of his own small earnings 
 to the common stock ; and these driblets, with the modest 
 portion of Mrs. Stoney, settled on herself, kept the family 
 from the pressure of actual want. That lady came out 
 with considerable energy under such trying circumstances. 
 If her polysyllables were more frequent, and her manners 
 more stately, than in prosperous days, the long words did 
 not embarrass her activity, nor the queenly airs diminish 
 aught of the diligence with which she bared her comely 
 arms to roll a pancake, and to beat up a pudding. 
 " Woman's proper sphere is her home," Mrs. George 
 would observe with great dignity several times in the day ; 
 " and no duties connected with that home, be it cottage, or 
 be it castle (Dot, run and fetch me the dishcloth), can be 
 too high for the meanest, or too low for the noblest of her 
 sex ! A genteel female. Miss Prince, as well you know, is 
 a genteel female still, sitting at the head of her own table, 
 or down on her knees, blaclang her own grates." 
 
 Such sentiments, so entirely in accordance with her 
 present feelings, and, as she fondly believed, the result of 
 early tuition, sank gratefully on Miss Prince's ears. She 
 had let the second floor to. her old fr'ieuds, at a rent 
 
AN ENGLISSWOMAN'S CASTLE 329 
 
 calculated to meet their resources, rather than to pay the 
 interest on her own capital; and this arrangement was 
 effected, moreover, with the most scrupulous consideration 
 for their feelings ; but the good little landlady never 
 grudged her liberality for an instant. My own belief is 
 that both the women were exceedingly happy under their 
 privations. They worked hard ; they bargained hard ; they 
 lived hard ; they agreed in thinking their maid-of-all-work 
 the least efficient domestic of her Hnd. " An idle, saucy 
 thing ! with no more head than a pin ! " was the form in 
 which they worded their condemnation. They also 
 esteemed a cup of tea, when the afternoon's work was 
 accomplished, as the primary condition of health, and chief 
 luxury of life. That re&eshment they imbibed together 
 out of a little brown tea-pot in Philip's apartment, before 
 he came home from business, and would please themselves 
 over their refection by looking back to days of former 
 splendour, far brighter than reality, as seen through the 
 glowing medium of contrast and time. 
 
 To hear their talk you would have supposed them reduced 
 peeresses at least — ^Lady Bountifuls in the country, Lady 
 Patronesses in town. Lady Absolutes everywhere — ^bearing 
 exile, privation, naisfortune, with the courage and constancy 
 of noble blood. After all, it amused them, and did nobody 
 any harm. 
 
 George Stoney, too, seemed better in health since he had 
 come to London. In Middlesworth everything reminded 
 him too forcibly of his misfortune and the station from 
 which he had fallen; but in the capital, where nobody 
 knew him, and he knew nobody, he relapsed with tolerable 
 contentment into a mere unit of the throng. It seemed, 
 too, that in London ruin was nothing unusual, nor was 
 there any rarity in either making or losing a fortune. " A 
 thousand openings," as Mrs. George said, " continually 
 offer themselves in the City;" and so long as none of 
 these were examined too closely, the way to wealth 
 appeared delightfully easy and secure. George read the 
 papers, took his early walk, lounged and rested, with the 
 idea that he was merely looking about him to choose with 
 caution the most eligible among all the very eligible modes 
 in which a man of business habits and practical experience 
 
330 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 could employ his talents. In the meantime his health 
 improved, and his fits of despondency became less distress- 
 ing. His was one of the many dispositions, over-sensitive, 
 and deficient in self-reliance, that can bear son'ow better 
 than anxiety, to which the prospect of misfortune is far 
 more terrible than misfortune itself. He was very happy, 
 too, in the constant society of wife and children, especially 
 Dot ; and that young lady, delighting, as became her age 
 and sex, in anything like change, flitted about him, and 
 petted and worried him to his heart's content, when she 
 was not occupied on the stair-case with a newer, and there- 
 fore more important conquest. 
 
 I am concerned to state that, in the present phase of 
 domestic affairs, and under the relaxed surveillance of Jane, 
 a shocking flirtation had sprung up between Dot and the 
 lodger of scientific tastes — a tall, uncouth personage, with 
 red hair, freckled skin, and an inordinate fondness for 
 children. This good-humoured ogre had served Her 
 Majesty in no less distinguished a regiment than the 
 Dancing Hussars, where his quaint manners and thorough- 
 going honesty made him a favourite with the men in the 
 hospital, as with the officers at the mess-table. Being a 
 military surgeon, it is needless to observe that his tastes 
 were both scientific and domestic, cherished all the more 
 fondly that the conditions of his profession were especially 
 antagonistic to study and repose. I am bound to admit, 
 however, that his opinion of the healing art was somewhat 
 derogatory, especially as regarded the skill required in its 
 higher branches. 
 
 " A surgeon," he would say, in the broad Scotch accent 
 that fifteen years' quizzing had been unable to modify — " a 
 surgeon's just a wright, mon, or a joiner like. He can 
 mend, but he canna mak'. He'll be none the worse o' 
 gumption when the stretcher's laid. Wi' madicin', its 
 clean guess-work. I'll no' say but a docktor'U be whiles 
 right. It's mair by gude luck than gude guidance, tho'." 
 
 With such sentiments, it was strange that Mr. Blair, as 
 he was called, should have had any practice at all ; and 
 ladies certainly would have placed but little confidence in 
 so plain-dealing a professor. To say, "My dear madam, 
 there's nothing the matter with you. If you were to get 
 
AN ENGLISHWOMAN'S CASTLE 331 
 
 up and clean the house, you would he quite well ! " insures 
 dismissal from attendance on a genteel invalid. Far hetter 
 to prescrihe excitement, tonic, change of scene, and good 
 living ; to forbid worry, opposition, agitation, or exposure 
 to cold, and to lay all disorders of stomach, liver, lassitude, 
 and discontent, upon sensitive fibres (whatever they may 
 mean !), relaxation of nerves, and general want of tone in 
 the whole system. 
 
 Mr. Blair, however, was a skilftd operator, and the extra- 
 ordinary strength of his long, bony, freckled fingers stood 
 him in good stead where dexterous manipulation was 
 required in wounds, fractures, or such other local injuries 
 as he contemptuously designated "just joiner's work! " 
 
 Dot, then, who had of late abandoned her favourite 
 camel for a certain ill-used doll with a shock head of hair 
 — ^which, although she lavished many beautiful epithets on 
 it in private, was known in the family by the name of 
 "Mumps" — during the rehearsal of some theatrical 
 performance, hurled her Fetich from top to bottom of the 
 stair-case, narrowly missing the glass-lamp in the hall. 
 Mumps pitched on her head, which broke short off at the 
 neck, and Dot, though generally pitiless, was so moved by 
 this unexpected decapitation that she forthwith began to 
 cry. A door on the landing opened, a red head, with 
 whiskers to match, protruded itself, and a long, freckled 
 hand wandered over the curls and pinafore of the sobbing 
 child, as gently as though she were some rare specimen of 
 moth or butterfly whose beauty would crumble beneath its 
 touch. Dot looked up a little frightened, through her 
 tears, but presently reassured by the kindly glance of the 
 grey eyes, with their white lashes, pointed with mute 
 eloquence to the doll's sad dismemberment, and wept 
 afresh. 
 
 " Dinna greet, my bonnie bird ! dinna greet ! " said the 
 tall Scotchman, examining the case with as much gravity 
 as if Mumps had been a human subject. " Whisht, lassie, 
 I'm saying ! What for would ye mak' a blether for the 
 like o' yon ? See, now, I'm a joiner mysel'. Come away 
 wi' me, an' I'll just tak' up the arteries, and tie the 
 ligaments, and sort your wee baimie for ye's good as 
 new ! " 
 
882 TEE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Dot, in the keen perception of childhood, recognised that 
 true sympathy which begins with assistance. She clasped 
 the bony finger confidently in her own little fist, and looked 
 up to the Scotchman's face. 
 
 "Will it be Mumps, the same as before she was 
 broke? " said the child, with vague misgivings that such a 
 resurrection was too delightful to be real. 
 
 "Mumps, sure enough," replied her new Mend, ushering 
 the little lady with great delight into his own apartments. 
 " Hey, lassie ! There's a piece till ye. Sit you down, my 
 woman, till I fit the auld head on the auld shouthers. 
 Look, see what a canny bairn you've gotten noo that it's 
 minnie's done greetin' ! " 
 
 So Dot, accommodated with a slice of bread and 
 marmalade, watched her host's operations with the greatest 
 curiosity and delight, dangling her legs from his great arm- 
 chair, smearing its leather cover, as weU as her own face, 
 with marmalade, and making herself in all respects 
 completely at home. 
 
 After this introduction the pair were inseparable. 
 When the surgeon came back from his practice. Dot, 
 hearing his step in the hall, never failed to fly down stairs 
 for a romp with her friend — a romp so vigorous and of such 
 duration as to incur Jane's grave displeasure when her 
 charge returned hot, tumbled, dishevelled, breaking at 
 intervals into unseemly mirth, and agitated by the 
 hiccoughs, too surely consequent on over-indulgence in 
 that agreeable emotion. 
 
 She had wonderful stories also to tell the family con- 
 cerning her new admirer. Miraculous descriptions of his 
 magic powers; his conjuring accomplishments; the in- 
 struments laid out on his shelves ; and something, almost 
 as big as Mumps, that he kept in a jar. She had even 
 excited the curiosity of her father concerning this 
 remarkable north-countryman, long before Mr. Blair, who 
 was shy, modest, and retiring, though he had worn an hussar 
 uniform, could bring himself to sustain an interview with 
 any of his fellow-lodgers. Through the good offices of 
 Miss Prince, however, an introduction was at length 
 effected, and it was with no little pride that Dot, in a clean 
 frock and hands for the occasion, conducted her own 
 
AN ENGLISHWOMAN'S CASTLE 833 
 
 particular Mend up stairs, and herself ushered him into the 
 presence of her family on the second floor. 
 
 Philip, coming home from business, that evening was 
 formally repudiated by the fickle young lady, who 
 announced her approaching nuptials with " Good Blair," 
 as she called him, in a tone of becoming solemnity. He 
 could not but laugh at the gravity with which Dot 
 administered consolation for his disappointment, assuring 
 him that on her wedding trip, to "the place where the 
 beasts are, like my Noah's Ark, if he would promise not to 
 cry he should go there too." 
 
 He seldom laughed now. Philip had need of all his 
 courage, and all his determination, to keep up his spirits in 
 the routine of daily drudgery to which he seemed hopelessly 
 tied for any length of time to come. There was labour 
 required, clear-headedness, honesty, unremitting attention 
 — all the qualities that go to money-making, without the 
 lure of prospective wealth. He felt he was but the horse 
 in the mill, working round the weary circle only to secure 
 his daily feed ; with speed to win a plate, and mettle to 
 cross a country, yet hampered to the plodding, monotonous 
 task that an ass, had it but the weight, could do as well. 
 Philip did not complain — nay, he never even suffered 
 himself to repine. Partly in the gladsome days that 
 seemed so far off now, partly under the pressure of 
 adversity and grievous disappointment, he had learnt the 
 great lesson of life. He knew that it was well for man not 
 to have the selection of his own lot. He believed that 
 there might be good reasons for many things that were 
 utterly beyond his own comprehension. He felt that three- 
 score years and ten was but a miserable segment of the 
 perfect circle that comprised existence. He had trained 
 himself to think, as a soldier who takes his turn of guard- 
 mounting or fatigue, the review before royalty, or the bivouac 
 under fire, equably and indifferently, because they constitute 
 alike the general principle which he calls duty. As a 
 traveller, to whom it is of little import that the way should 
 be here smoother, there rougher, now in the scorching sun, 
 then in the pelting shower, because it is but a day's work 
 after all, and home is so near at hand. He could think of 
 Helen, and the dream that had never quite seemed a 
 
334 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 possibility, without bitterness, almost without regret. It 
 was something to know of what his nature was capable, had 
 circumstances been different. He could even trust himself 
 to dwell on the pale, stately beauty that constituted his 
 ideal of womanhood, and feared not to recall looks and 
 tones and kind words spoken, because, as he insisted to 
 himself. Miss Brooke was only a memory now. A memory 
 indeed ! I should like to hear some casuist define the 
 difference between a memoi-y and a reality. Substance 
 and shadow can never be very far apai-t. Philip's hopeless 
 attachment, like all others so called, had a considerable 
 leaven of indefinite hope at its very core. 
 
 To be sure, he didn't know everything, and it was lucky 
 for him that he did not. 
 
 Going constantly to business, through the most crowded 
 thoroughfares of London, this young man could not of 
 course take note of the countenance or figure of every 
 passenger he shouldered on the pavement. It is easy 
 enough to pass a familiar friend without recognition in the 
 City. Thus it happened that Philip Stoney was unaware of 
 the impression made by his presence on a shabbily dressed 
 and altogether disreputable looking vagabond who slank 
 along behind him one sunshiny morning for a considerable 
 distance, avoiding as much as possible the observation of 
 No. 76, on duty in the Strand. This person had shrunk 
 from meeting Philip's eye when he came face to face with 
 him, starting, indeed, and changing countenance with 
 considerable embarrassment, but turning round directly 
 the latter had passed, and following on his track, now 
 almost overtaking him, and again lingering in the rear, as 
 if wishing, yet fearing to be recognised. Such was indeed 
 the case. Though Philip's face brought back to him all of 
 his life that he had the smallest pleasure in recalling; 
 though Stoney Brothers, and especially the younger, were 
 the only people, save one, for whom he had the slightest 
 feeling of gratitude or affection, he dared not go up to the 
 man' he considered his benefactor, and accost him as a 
 friend. Jem Batters had escaped from the burning of the 
 brewery with life, which he sometimes thought was more 
 than he deserved. The fire had originated in his own 
 habits of drunkenness, for when left in charge of the 
 
AN ENQLISHWOMAN'S CASTLE 835 
 
 building he had neglected the very duty he was especially 
 placed there to fulfil, had sunk into the sodden, stupid sleep 
 of intoxication, only waking to find himself bewildered, and 
 not half sobered, amongst the flames. Maddened by 
 surprise and terror, he had rushed into the street and fled 
 to the open country for his life. He never stopped nor 
 recovered his senses tiU the glare on the horizon half-a 
 dozen miles off denoted that he was at least clear of 
 immediate danger, and then mingled feelings of shame, 
 remorse, and apprehension that he might be suspected as 
 an incendiary, prevented his returning to his home, and 
 made him leave Middlesworth and its neighbourhood, as he 
 phrased it, " for good and all." 
 
 A man so circumstanced almost always goes to London. 
 Jem Batters turned up in the metropolis with no better 
 recommendation than his own unprepossessing appearance, 
 and it is needless to say that anything like an honest career 
 was closed to him from the first. A garret in a low 
 neighbourhood became his home; occasional — using the 
 term, in contradistinction to jyrofessional — thieves were his 
 associates; and dog-deaHng, which comprised also dog- 
 stealing, supplied him with the means of procuring a little 
 food and a good deal of gin and beer. 
 
 Nevertheless, demoralised, brutalised as he was, the man 
 could not see Philip without experiencing a revulsion of 
 feeling that prompted him to take his benefactor by the 
 hand, entreat forgiveness, and implore help into the path of 
 honesty once more. The very look of Philip's back and a 
 certain shooting-coat he remembered well, was like a puff 
 of the free Bridlemere breezes that used to cool his forehead 
 so gratefully far away down there iu the fresh smiling 
 country at home. He could fancy he saw the white cottage 
 with its heavy thatch, and its low, snug porch, the little 
 garden, the pig-sty, the row of pea-sticks, the linen on the 
 thorn fence, and his mother watching for him in the lane, 
 shading her eyes with her hand. He was going to his work 
 once more in the dull, grey mornings, with spade on shoulder 
 and pipe in mouth, young, strong, healthy, above all, honest, 
 and afraid of no man. He wondered now that he could ever 
 have been discontented with his lot. Ay, if he had but 
 minded what mother told him, he would not have been to- 
 
336 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMERE 
 
 day skulking about the close, narrow streets of London, so 
 far from his parish, so far from home, so far from her. 
 The last thought goaded him to overtake Mr. Stoney, and 
 ask if the " old woman," as he would have called her, were 
 still alive ; but his heart failed him when he thought of the 
 young man's clear eyes and bold manly face. " Dash it ! " 
 said he, "a chap's good for nothing till he's had his 
 drain," and so speaking turned aside into one of the many 
 gin-shops abounding in that part of London. 
 
 It was full, even in the morning. Two or three men, 
 who looked as if they had been up all night, and indeed 
 every night for a week, thronged the door ; a woman 
 leading a child was coming out, another carrying a baby 
 going in. A short, white-faced, broad-shouldered man, in 
 a fur cap and dirty shirt sleeves, was serving half-a-dozen 
 customers as fast as they slapped their hal^ence down on 
 the counter ; but nobody seemed to dwell over the 
 pernicious luxury, nor to connect with its consumption any 
 idea of conviviaUty or good-fellowship. It was served, as it 
 seemed, grudgingly ; tossed off greedily ; and, if one might 
 judge by the craving expression of the wistful eyes, forgotten 
 as soon as drank. Jem groped in his pocket for the coppers 
 required, turned his dram off at one go-down, felt its fiery 
 influence give temporary warmth to his heart and steadiness 
 to his nerves, wiped his lips, ran out into the street again, 
 and found of course that Philip had disappeared amongst 
 the crowd, and was gone. 
 
 He must return home now — home, as usual, at this time 
 of the day ; but the sight of his old employer had unsettled 
 him, and Jem Batters began at last to take serious thought 
 of the position he had voluntarily accepted, and the probable 
 termination of his career. Even the gin so lately swallowed 
 did not afford him the usual anodyne. As he dragged 
 himself heavily up the filthy wooden stair-case that led to 
 his den — for it could hardly be called a room — something of 
 that sad home-sickness took possession of him which afflicts 
 the mountaineer when he has been absent from his native 
 hills beyond a certain time. The countryman felt he was 
 pining — actually pining for his heavy shoes, his smock- 
 frock, his spade, his pickaxe, his old familiar tools. He 
 longed for the very snort of the plough-horses, the tinkle ot 
 
AN ENGLISHWOMAN'S OASTLM 83? 
 
 the bell-wether, the muck and mire of the farm-yard. His 
 vigour sapped by the polluted atmosphere in which he lived, 
 his nerves shattered by alcohol and tobacco, I believe that 
 if he had heard a cow low in the street he must have burst 
 into tears. 
 
 " Come," said Jem, sitting down on the dirty floor, and 
 looking wildly about him, " this won't do — ^this won't. I 
 ain't agoin' to have the horrors, surely — not this turn. 
 Dash it ! if I'd ere a copper left, I'd get out of this, and go 
 for a three." 
 
 The price, however, of that stimulant, viz., a threepenny 
 measure of gin, not being available, he was compelled to 
 satisfy himself for the present with a smoke ; so he filled a 
 pipe, with strong, acrid tobacco, and propping his back 
 against the wall, because chair and bedstead had long ago 
 found their way to the pawnbrokers, proceeded, with con- 
 siderable dissatisfaction, to survey his present home. 
 
 I can scarcely hope to convey to any but a clerical reader, 
 or one whose kindly sympathies have led him to visit the 
 dwellings of the London poor, even a vague idea of the lair 
 for which Jem Batters had exchanged his cottage in the 
 green lane at Bridlemere. So true is it that half the world 
 does not know how the other half lives. Our great 
 metropolis contains the richest and poorest inhabitants on 
 earth. It would be very good for both to see something 
 more of each other. A man goes to his turtle at eight 
 with none the less appetite that he has supplied a starving 
 family with bread at noon. A woman's beauty loses none 
 of its freshness for opera, ball, and concert, that she has sat 
 by the sick, read the Bible to the blind, or stretched a 
 gentle hand to raise the fallen, before she made her toilet 
 for the world. It is something to be associated, however 
 humbly, with One who is especially the Friend of the 
 friendless ; and those who seek, like the Persian Kiug, for 
 a new pleasure, should not despair of finding it till they 
 have tried the recreation of doing good. I am not going to 
 enter upon the question of how far people are justified in 
 spending money on articles of luxury and ostentation : such 
 a subject would involve much splitting of straws in its 
 discussion, and trespasses, moreover, on the domain of 
 political economy. . H the rich had fewer follies, the poor, 
 
 22 
 
038 TEE BB00KE8 OP BBIDLEMEBE. 
 
 at least temporarily, would have less employment. Pending 
 the discovery of Utopia, we must accept our own world as 
 we find it ; still nobody need be the least afraid but that 
 opportunities will arise in plenty every day for the exercise 
 of Christian charity, and the indulgence of their best and 
 holiest feelings, without apprehension lest alms-giving 
 should interfere with the rights of labour, or the impostor's 
 mouth be filled with the bread of an honest man. 
 
 The room, then, which, out of doors, Jem Batters 
 designated by the imposing title of "his place," was 
 low, gloomy, and ill-ventilated. The walls were blotched 
 and stained with damp, the floor with filth. A close 
 atmosphere, reeking with a variety of unsavoury odours, 
 seemed to have been imprisoned here for weeks, un- 
 freshened even by such air as was to be had without. 
 Jem, in his early cottage life, had long ago been taught to 
 associate rheumatism with open windows, and cold with 
 cleanliness. Nor was the small allowance of oxygen 
 supplied consumed by the proprietor alone : several 
 animals of different kinds occupied the apartment in 
 common with its lord. They were chiefly of such 
 descriptions as are called by men of Jem's class, " fancy 
 articles." A lop-eared rabbit squatted, grave and unwieldy, 
 in a dilapidated hutch. Two ferrets wound their white 
 bodies stealthily, like huge caterpillars, to their master's 
 person, and crawled into his pocket. Eats of grim and 
 venerable exterior, clustered in a wooden tenement, gnawed 
 and splintered by their teeth. A squirrel was practising 
 perpetual motion in its cage. The curiously British 
 instinct that impels our countrymen to the pursuit of what 
 they call sport — for which there is no corresponding term in 
 any foreign language — was deeply ingrained in Jem's 
 character, as in that of nine out of ten Britons throughout 
 every class of society. This peculiar organisation it is 
 which leads my lord to breed a Derby winner ; to cross the 
 North Sea in his yacht that he may whip wild streams 
 amongst the pines for Norwegian salmon ; to scratch his 
 lordly face, and imperil his noble neck over Northampton- 
 shire ox-fences in the first flight with a pack of fox-hounds ; 
 which sends the colonel after the buffalo on the prairie, or 
 wild hog in the Deccan, or the cruel tiger in the jungles of 
 
AN ENGLISHWOMAN'S CASTLE 339 
 
 the Punjaub ; which bids our squires slay partridges, our 
 yeoman keep greyhounds, our village blacksmith set 
 surreptitious trimmers in the forbidden mere; which 
 makes our mechanics dog-fighters, and our peasants 
 poachers ; nay, which tempts the cosy London tradesman 
 to sit patiently in a punt for hours, that he may take a prey 
 from the bosom of the quiet Thames, spread like a sheet of 
 silver under lovely Eichmond Hill. 
 
 Jem Batters possessed this instinct to a considerable 
 degree, and it induced him to appropriate other people's 
 dogs in London, as it had tempted him to snare the squire's 
 game at Bridlemere. He drew some incomprehensible dis- 
 tinction in his own mind between such pursuits and the 
 actual pm-loining of money and silver spoons. I doubt if 
 Jem considered himself virtually a thief, although he made 
 a precarious living by stealing favourites from doating 
 masters and mistresses, chiefly the latter, whose gratitude 
 bestowed, as their affecting advertisements promised, large 
 rewards on restitution of the missing treasure. He was 
 often heard to boast that he did a good business in this, 
 which he was pleased to term, " the fancy and toy-dog 
 line." 
 
 To-day, however, he looked about him remorseful, and 
 disgusted with himself. The sight, as I have said, of 
 Philip Stoney's back had worked a complete revulsion of 
 feeling in this poor, friendless vagabond. Business, of 
 course, must be attended to in the meantime; but still 
 he resolved, come what might, if he watched at the same 
 place every day for a week, he would have another look at 
 the only face in London that reminded him of his boyhood 
 and his mother, and, bad as they were, the better and 
 happier days of the old life at home. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 A BKOKBN EBBD 
 
 " I'll lay against the field ! Bar one !" " I'll lay against 
 tlie field. Bar one ! " Amongst the Babel of voices that 
 rise from the seething turmoil of the ring on Middlesworth 
 Race-course, this sentence is the oftenest repeated, and the 
 most distinct. While the speculators who live by the Turf, 
 from the great commission agent, never opening his mouth 
 but in hundreds, to the " Welsher," offering the best price 
 going in pounds, but missing, vrhen confiding takers of the 
 odds dream fondly they shall be paid, are jostling, elbowing, 
 crushing, and, so to speak, eating one another ; above the 
 roar, and the swarm, and the confusion, still the noisy 
 exception predominates — " Bar one ! " 
 
 That " one " is Benedict, the pick of the prophets, the 
 pride of the stable, the "good thing" of the forthcoming 
 year. 
 
 See ! the numbers are up. What a field of horses ! 
 Three-and-twenty going for the great event ! and from 
 close-packed carriages, from densely crowded stand — from 
 dark, serried masses lining the course in long perspective, 
 far away, even to the outskirts of the town, thousands of 
 upturned faces are watching eagerly for the " favourite ; " 
 thousands of voices asking in every tone, from shout of 
 careless glee to whisper of hoarse emotion, "Which is 
 Benedict?" 
 
 Here he comes! Striding down the straight, like a 
 steam-engine, hard held, going within himself — strong, 
 easy, level regular as clock-work; his skin satin, his 
 muscles steel, his crest iron. There is even a grim 
 
 340 
 
A BBOKEN EEED 341 
 
 smile on Sam Waster's pale face, as he steadies him 
 deftly to his hand, feet slightly forward, elbows in, the 
 silken jacket inflated, fluttering,, and the dirt flying behind 
 him in the faces of his competitors. Sam has taken off 
 nine pounds of weight to. ride this very race. He is on at 
 five hundred to nothing ; and if judgment, science, and 
 horsemanship can land him, Sam means to be first past 
 the chair. There is no question about the horse running 
 straight to-day ! 
 
 Wedged in a corner of the stand, whence he could 
 command the whole of the Eace-course with his glasses, 
 but, contrary to his custom, neither making the agreeable 
 to the smartest of the ladies, nor conversing with the most 
 influential of the men, Walter Brooke stood watching the 
 favourite, paler, sterner, more reserved than his wont. He 
 had shut his book up, left the ring, and ascended to this 
 post of observation, that he might look on undisturbed, and 
 abide the issue. 
 
 While the horses walked off towards the starting-post, a 
 white-gloved hand was laid on his shoulder, and Multiple's 
 pink face and black whiskers were at his ear. To do him 
 justice, the money-lender had taken the trouble of pene- 
 trating the crowd to reach his friend, that he might give 
 him a hint. 
 
 " They're making Bivouac a favourite down there," said 
 he, nodding towards the betting enclosure, with his cunning 
 smile. " I wish there mayn't be a screw loose with our 
 horse. I've laid a good deal of my money off since I 
 came." 
 
 "Bivouac can't get near him at the weights," answered 
 Walter, turning still paler than before. " I shall stand 
 every shilling ! " 
 
 To-day must make or mar him ; he knew that ; besides, 
 it was too late now for compunction or compromise. The 
 flag was down, and they were off ! 
 
 His hand shook so that he could hardly hold his glasses 
 in their place. The distant race looked like the hues of a 
 kaleidoscope, drawing rapidly out into a parti-coloured 
 stripe. The man at Walter's elbow voted the pace merry ; 
 the one behind him thought it awful; and a crusty old 
 gentleman of great experience and pertinacity observed, 
 
342 TEE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBB 
 
 " That fool Sam is making too much use of the favourite." 
 Nevertheless, Benedict, forcing the pace to suit himself, 
 was two lengths ahead of everything, and full of running. 
 
 Walter's knees shook now, and his whole frame felt 
 unstrung. Success is sometimes, for the moment, more 
 difficult to bear than defeat. 
 
 It seemed a good job, after all, that Lady Julia had 
 refused him. 
 
 As the horses came in sight, a roar like that of a 
 famished monster rose from the whole multitude at once. 
 Rushing straight to the spectators, it was difficult to tell 
 who was in front. Already whips were going, and arms 
 and legs urging horses to the loose irregular stride, that 
 told their powers were spent. At the distance there were 
 but three in the race, and one of these changed his leg and 
 gave in, fifty yards from home. 
 
 Bivouac, by Vidette, was game as a fighting-cock. To 
 use his trainer's expression, "he could stay for a week; " 
 but he was a length behind the favourite, and his jockey 
 had already got at him severely. 
 
 Opposite the stand, Benedict made something like a false 
 step, though it was scarce perceptible to any one but his 
 rider. Bivouac's nose was at Sam Waster's knee in the 
 next stride. 
 
 None but the great jockey knew perhaps what had 
 happened. He sat resolutely down for the famous set-to 
 that had so often landed him a winner on the very post. 
 His whip was out, his spurs were going, while every muscle 
 of the wiiy, pliant little athlete seemed to lend aim, and 
 power, and energy, to the effort of his horse. 
 
 Bivouac crept up, inch by inch. To either rider, the 
 other's horse seemed standing still ; and the roaring crowd, 
 the close packed stand, the rails, the booths, the telegraph 
 shed, to be fleeting by them at the rate of forty miles an hour. 
 
 Walter's heart beat so fast he felt half suffocated; and a 
 chili sensation, beginning at the crown of his head, curdled 
 all the blood in his body, till it reached his heels; the 
 shouting, too, stupefied him as he heard the horses' names 
 roared alternately by thousands of lungs, mingled with ex- 
 clamations of " Capital race ! " " What a rally ! " " Look 
 at Sam's set-to ! " " By Jove ! it's a dead heat ! " 
 
A BBOKEN BEED 343 
 
 Walter shut his glasses and put them in their case, 
 " Beautifully ridden," he muttered ; " hut we've had a 
 squeak for it!" Then he swore one deep, deadly, hitter 
 oath helow his hreath, and wiped the dried froth from the 
 corners of his mouth, for Bivouac's number was up, and the 
 favourite in the last stride had been beaten by a head ! " 
 
 As he went down the crowded stair-case of the stand, he 
 moved like a man in a dream. The Duchess of Merthyr- 
 Tydvil's party was before him ; and Lady Goneril turned 
 round to shake hands with the good-looking young hussar. 
 He had presence of mind to seem pleased, and to observe 
 "How cold it was! and what a capital race!" But I 
 think if her ladyship had known the very slight impression 
 made on his senses by her gorgeous attire of dark blue 
 velvet trimmed with swans'-down, she would have ascribed 
 his indifference to the score of intense stupidity, and never 
 been so civil to him again. 
 
 He didn't know he had seen her, when Multiple asked 
 him the question later, as they drove home. 
 
 The money-lender as usual, had not failed to make a 
 pretty good day's work, " I was always a little doubtful 
 about that leg," said he, while driving Walter up the 
 Bridlemere avenue in his phaeton, after the races ; " and 
 you see the deep ground broke Benedict down, just as I 
 feared it might. If I hadn't got home on Bivouac, I 
 should have been in the hole as well as you." 
 
 The other did not answer; he had spoken but little 
 during their drive, and then only on matters unconnected 
 with the day's sport. It was obvious that he was beat, 
 both morally and physically. He had scarcely enough of 
 the common instinct of courage left to dissemble his pain. 
 Multiple read his thoughts, and smiled in covei-t triumph : 
 with the sister's promise given, and the brother completely 
 in his power, he felt the game was his own. He regretted 
 only that he must go to London in an hour ; that he could 
 not even stay to dinner, and mark with cruel glee the 
 constraint and misery of his affianced bride. Nevertheless, 
 he had given Helen to understand that he should see her 
 before he started, and he liked to think of her waiting his 
 arrival, dressed for dinner thus early, that the enforced 
 interview might be uninterrupted, 
 
344 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Miss Brooke looked very pale and sad, as she sat at the 
 drawing-room window, to watch Frank Multiple and her 
 brother drive up the avenue. Her heart, indeed, melted at 
 the sight of Walter, and she knew she had never loved him 
 so well as now, for was she not a woman ? — and had she 
 not sacrificed her happiness, her self-respect, nay, her very 
 existence for his sake? It seemed harder than usual to 
 bear her fate to-night, for the day had been one of much 
 discomfort and complaint with the Squire, nor had she been 
 dismissed from attendance on him early enough to take her 
 customary walk across the park, as far as a certain rising 
 ground and clump of trees, for which she had of late con- 
 tracted a great affection. It might have been a little galling 
 that this daily pilgrimage was prevented by her early toilet. 
 Now that she was dressed, and it was too late for walking, 
 a soft, spring rain had begun to fall, bringing out, almost 
 perceptibly, the teeming buds of the hawthorn, and the 
 young, green leaves on the topmast branches of the elms. 
 A fragrant air stole in at the open window, mingling with 
 the scent of a few fresh-gathered violets. Something in the 
 time, the place, the scene, seemed so suggestive to the 
 longing, loving heart of all it had hoped, and lost, and 
 suffered, that the large tears brimmed in Helen's eyelids, do 
 what she would to keep them back, and fell slowly, one by 
 one, upon her hands. There was a face that met her, 
 whichever way she turned — a haunting face, with fond, 
 reproachful eyes, that no power on earth could drive away. 
 Not such a face as Multiple's, bright, confident, overbearing, 
 assuming already, though his glance shunned hers, the port 
 and demeanour of a master. Nor such a face as Walter's, 
 haggard, contracted, desperate, prematurely wrinkled, as it 
 seemed to her loving observation, since the morning, and 
 wearing on its every feature, the deep-set marks of anxiety, 
 and shame, and remorse. 
 
 There was no need to tell her what had happened. She 
 knew too well that her brother had lost heavily, and that 
 now more than ever must she interpose to save him who 
 was powerless to save himself. If she had cherished any 
 vague, uncertain hope that his success might, in some way 
 or other, help her to a chance of freedom, this conviction 
 seemed to cut away the last strand of rope to which she 
 clung. 
 
A BBOKEN BEED 845 
 
 Walter soon went upstairs to dress for dinner. Jack was 
 already engaged in the same operation. Multiple's phaeton 
 was waiting at the door to take him to the station, and 
 there was no escape from one of those t§te-a-tetes with her 
 fature lord, which she loathed and dreaded every day more 
 and more, none the less as time slipped on, that she felt 
 their engagement must be proclaimed, ratified, kept ! 
 
 It required all her constancy, all her resignation, all her 
 nohle, self-sacrificing courage to realise this last contingency. 
 It is not too much to say that she would have accepted as 
 a blessing any misfortune to herself that might have inter- 
 posed to save her from the fate she had elected to accept. 
 
 They were a " likely couple," as the upper-housemaid 
 thought, peeping into the drawing-room to set it to rights 
 a little during the dressing-hour, and retiring in great con- 
 fusion when she found it thus occupied. She voted him " a 
 splendid gentleman," with his strong-built figure, his 
 brilliant colour, his black whiskers, his proftision of 
 velvet and jewellery. Miss Brooke, indeed, was too pale 
 for her taste, and " very 'aughty for so young a lady " (the 
 housemaid herself was of the rosy, roystering pattern); 
 " but she'd a 'andsome 'ead, in course, and carried it, no 
 doubt, like a queen ! " 
 
 It was erect enough now, for Multiple was leaning over 
 her work-box, and affecting, as he sometimes chose to do, 
 the playful confidence of an accepted lover. Strange he 
 could not see how pained and distressed she was ! Perhaps 
 he did see it, and liked to mark the struggles of the wild 
 bird in his hand. 
 
 " Helen ! " said he, dwelling a little on the word, to 
 watch her wince under that familiar appellation ; " Helen, 
 I am concerned about Walter. He has lost a large stake 
 to-day, and I fear he has not the means to pay it up." 
 
 The dark eyes flashed defiance, and the blood mounted 
 to her brow at the insinuation ; but it ebbed slowly back, 
 and her head sank dejectedly when she remembered the 
 real dishonour of which this man held the proofs. She 
 ought to be thankful for any influence over him, of what- 
 ever nature, that could save her brother. 
 
 " It is as I feared," she said, very sadly. " I saw it in 
 bis face when he came in, Perhaps it may be a lesson to 
 
S46 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 him. Is it very much? More than we could make up 
 amongst us? — I mean, Jack and I?" 
 
 She was evidently resolved to exclude him from partici- 
 pation in family affairs as long as she could ; but he would 
 not so understand her. 
 
 "Don't distress yourself," said he, placing his hand on 
 hers, which lay beneath his touch, cold and passive as the 
 hand in alabaster on the paper-weight by its side. "I have 
 pulled men through worse scrapes than his ; and we are all 
 in one boat now, are we not, Helen? — though it's still 
 your fancy to keep it dark. Well, it's lucky for Walter 
 that we are. Lucky for him that he has a sister, and is 
 soon to have a brother-in-law ! It would have been 
 awkward, wouldn't it, if he'd fallen into any other hands 
 than mine? " 
 
 Whenever he thought she was not sufficiently demon- 
 strative in her submission, this was the generous manner 
 in which he chose to twitch the rope round her neck. It 
 never failed to succeed, as now. 
 
 "You are very good, Mr. Multiple — Frank, I mean," 
 was her answer. "I am sure we are truly sensible of 
 your kindness — truly grateful, and I, most of all ! " 
 
 She spoke in a low, weary tone, as if forcing herself to 
 say something she had got by rote. He was not quite 
 satisfied yet. 
 
 "Of course — of course," he replied, impatiently. "I 
 have no doubt you know the alternative, and appreciate 
 my forbearance ; and so you ought. But look you, Helen : 
 I think I have a right to some consideration in this busi- 
 ness, and you are hardly treating me on the square. At 
 your earnest request, I gave you your own time ; and, I 
 must say, you have taken it to some purpose. If I am to 
 assume the responsibilities of your family — and you alone 
 know what serious responsibilities these are — 1 am surely 
 entitled to be considered one of them. I must be off in 
 five minutes to hit the train. Don't you think, Helen, as 
 you object to my doing so, you are bound to speak to your 
 father yourself, when I am gone ? " 
 
 This was a twitch at the rope that brought its poor, spirit- 
 broken captive down on bended knees with a vengeance. 
 
 "Not to-night," pleaded Helen. "Not to-night. He 
 
A BBOKEN BEED 847 
 
 was so much worse to-day; and, you know, the doctors 
 say that any agitation, however pleased he was, of course ; 
 hut that any agitation is so had for him, and might bring 
 on another fit. I promise not to delay an hour when he is 
 better. There, I promise. Don't — don't worry me please ; 
 I think I haven't been quite well all day." 
 
 She moved from the table at which they had been 
 standing, and bent over some hot-house flowers by the 
 window. He asked her to give him one of these, in a tone 
 that implied request less than command, and she obeyed 
 at once, selecting the choicest blossoms, and tying them up 
 in a neat, business-like manner to form a bouquet. The 
 nimble fingers did not tremble, nor the pale forehead flush, 
 nor was there any of the assumed reluctance, the pretended 
 refusal, the playful expostulation, that renders a gift of this 
 sort precious both to the giver and recipient. 
 
 He would let her off none of his dues. He made her 
 pin the nosegay in his button-hole ; and while she stooped 
 over it in the performance of this act of vassalage, both 
 her brothers, ready dressed for dinner, entered the room. 
 
 Multiple, nothing daunted, slapped Walter on the 
 shoulder, and nodded a familiar farewell to Jack, hurried 
 across the hall, jimiped into his phaeton and drove off. 
 The brothers looked in each other's faces with a blank 
 astonishment that was sufficiently ludicrous. Then Walter 
 broke out in a harsh, sarcastic laugh. 
 
 "Bravo, Nell!" said he. "That's your game, is it? 
 Well, of all people in the world, you're the last I should 
 have suspected would set her cap at Frank Multiple ! " 
 
 It was too much. Notwithstanding his ill-humour, the 
 accusation, spoken in a rough, brotherly tone, was not 
 really meant to offend. But Helen's nerves had been 
 overstrung all day : the last quarter of an hour had been 
 spent under an ordeal, the pain of which could only be 
 appreciated by a proud, sensitive and loving nature like 
 hers, doing violence no less to its most cherished prejudices 
 than its holiest affections ; and now, to hear the person for 
 whose sake the sacrifice had been offered, the torture under- 
 gone, make a jest of her oblation, and attribute the victim's 
 self-devotion to mere coquetry or worse, it was too much, 
 too much, and Helen feirly broke down beneath the trial. 
 
348 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 She did not answer, nor even look at him. She only hid 
 her face in her handkerchief, and rushed upstairs without a 
 word. 
 
 Presently the hrothers went to dinner by themselves, for 
 her maid came in with a message, conveying "Miss Brooke's 
 love ; and she was tired, had got a headache, and did not 
 mean to come down again to-night." 
 
 It was neither a hearty nor a lively repast. Walter 
 spoke but little ; busied himself profoundly in the mixing 
 of his fish-sauce ; pushed his plate away after every course 
 with a gesture of dissatisfaction, and drank sherry as if it 
 was water. While the servants were in the room Jack 
 abstained from offering any remark, eating in silence, and 
 with little appetite ; but when the last dish had been 
 handed, the last napkin flourished, the door closed for 
 the last time, he resolved on making one determined 
 effort to break through the reserve that was gradually 
 growing up between his younger brother and himself. 
 
 It was a mild, still evening; the windows were open, 
 and the mellow globe of lamp-light, shining on the flowers 
 and fruit that covered the table, increased the darkness 
 of the black gulf without. A soft rain fell continuously, 
 and pattering gently on the garden-walk, enhanced the 
 silence that grew every minute more oppressive. It 
 served Jack, however, with a means of breaking the 
 spell. 
 
 "Mr. Multiple must have had a wet drive," said he, 
 pushing the wine across to his brother, and trying to speak 
 indifferently, though irritated at the mere mention of the 
 man's name, even by himself. "I wonder he didn't go to 
 town straight from Middlesworth ! Somehow, that fellow 
 is always hanging about here. I say, Walter, upon my 
 soul, I sometimes think he tries to spoon our Nell ! " 
 
 " Very likely," answered Walter, with a liberal gulp at 
 the sherry. " Nelly might do worse. He's a rich chap, 
 and not a bad fellow of his kind." 
 
 " He's not good enough for Nell ! " replied Jack vehe- 
 mently. " Not half good enough ; and never would be, if 
 he had the Bank of England in his pocket. He's not a 
 gentleman, Walter, I'm sure of it. I doubt very much if 
 he is even an honest man ! " 
 
A BBOKEN SEED 849 
 
 His brother winced, and the blood mounted in his cheek. 
 " A gentleman ! " he exclaimed. " What is a gentleman? 
 — a poor devil who is expected to wear kid gloves and a 
 good coat, and to pay for them out of twopence-halfpenny 
 per annum. Thank your stars you're an eldest son. Jack ! 
 You can be a gentleman that way, and a honest man too — 
 free, gratis, for nothing." 
 
 " I don't know that I have so much advantage over you, 
 Walter," said Jack, a little sadly ; " and I'm sure if I 
 have, I'll share it with you, old boy, to the very uttermost. 
 You and I, and Nell, you know, must hang together, what- 
 ever happens. The last thing I can remember our mother 
 saying was, * When you're a big boy, Jack, love your little 
 brother and sister.' My little brother's as big as myself 
 now, and twice as knowing ; but that's no reason we 
 shouldn't be as good brothers to-day as we were when I 
 pitched into Maidey Major for licking you with a cricket- 
 stump in the Lower Shooting-fields." 
 
 He spoke with affected gaiety, but his voice trembled a 
 little in real emotion, and found its way, assisted by the 
 sherry, to Walter's wild, hardened heart. 
 
 "You were always a good fellow. Jack," said the latter 
 kindly. " By Jove ! how that beast Mauley went down at 
 the end of the second round. You cross-countered him. 
 I remember it as well as if it was yesterday. For the first 
 twenty minutes, that was the best fight I ever saw in my 
 life. After all, it was a very jolly time at dear old Eton — 
 happier, I often think, than one has ever had since." 
 
 Perhaps the speaker considered this memorable battle, 
 in which, as on many other occasions, his brother suffered 
 severely for his sake, a chief ingredient in the jolly time 
 alluded to so fondly. Be that as it may, there is no question 
 but that, to use the young gentleman's veynaculur, it was 
 " an out-and-out mill," won by sheer pluck and endurance 
 on the part of Brooke, who was a year younger, an inch 
 shorter, and a half a stone lighter than his antagonist. 
 
 "We might all be very happy together now," proceeded 
 Jack, a little dubiously, as though venturing on dangerous 
 ground, "if we had no secrets from each other. Come, 
 Walter," he added, in a louder, franker voice, pushing the 
 decanters over tohis brother once more ; "it's no use you 
 
350 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMERE 
 
 and me beating about the bush. Why should we ? You've 
 lost a cracker again to-day. Got into a devil of a mess, I 
 shouldn't wonder. Well, it's not the first time. Tell us 
 all about it. If I can't help you, I can advise ; if I can't 
 advise, at least I can see you through it." 
 
 " I believe I may trust you," answered the other, filling 
 his glass. " I'll tell you what it is, Jack. I am in a mess 
 this time, and one that I don't see my way out of at all, 
 just yet. You know, what with the regiment and my 
 horses, and one thing and another, I've no end of expenses 
 that it's quite impossible to meet with the governor's 
 allowance — quite impossible ! " 
 
 " Yes, I know that," said Jack, who had, indeed, suffi- 
 cient reasons of his own for a conviction of the fact. 
 
 "Well, of course," resumed the other, with a certain 
 vague dignity that he had often found impressive on similar 
 occasions, " I can't live quietly down here, as you do ; nor 
 would I, if I could. I must hold a certain position, and 
 go to a certain extent in the world. This entails expense. 
 Keady money must be got, by hook or by crook. Jack, I've 
 been driven to the very utmost shifts — by Jove, Sii", shifts 
 I don't like mentioning even to you — for raising the wind, 
 so as to keep me going during the last three months." 
 
 Jack turned pale : he dreaded what was to come next. 
 Walter, too, had drank sherry enough to resolve he would 
 make a clean breast of it once for all. He paused a 
 moment, threw a biscuit to Tatters, dozing on the rug, 
 and proceeded — 
 
 "Nothing but the heaviest pressure. Jack, would have 
 induced me to be such a fool. You can have no idea what 
 I endured before I could bring myself to — to compromise 
 my own character so deeply. I had been floored at every- 
 thing I touched. Such luck at whist would have broken 
 Eothschild. I give you my word, I played three rubbers 
 one night at Mexico's without holding a trump — and a 
 partner most of the time who could only have played the 
 game he did from inebriety, acting on confirmed softness 
 of the brain. Then, you know, I lost three hundred slap 
 in that cursed water-meadow with poor Fugleman. The 
 horse was as good as a bank-note. In short, altogether 
 I was in such a mess that I went to a friend, and — ^I may 
 
A BBOKEN MEED 851 
 
 as well out with it at once, Jack — I got him to back a bill 
 for me at three months, for three hundred pounds." 
 
 Jack drew a long breath, immensely relieved. " Thank 
 God ! " said he, " it's nothing dishonourable ! Walter, 
 upon my word, you frightened me ! I did not know what 
 you were going to confess; and yet, I might have been 
 sure of a Brooke," he added proudly, and with a gesture 
 that gave him for the moment a certain resemblance to 
 Helen. " I suppose none of our name ever yet did or 
 thought a shady thing in their lives." 
 
 The interruption recalled Walter to himself : his worse 
 self — that is to say, cold, calculating, unfeeling, impemous 
 to those softer and more generous emotions which had 
 almost overmastered him for the moment — ^with a readi- 
 ness of resource and quick perception of expedients, 
 habitual to him, the result, perhaps, not more of natural 
 character than of the games of combined chance, skill, 
 and calculation, to which his habits of life had trained 
 him, he saw the possibility, even now, of using Jack's 
 affection to extricate him from the most pressing of his 
 difficulties. If one of these bills could be taken up and 
 got back into his own hands, he need be less apprehensive 
 that his fraud might be discovered, and, indeed, he would 
 gain time to provide for the renewal, if not liquidation, of 
 the other, which would be the only document likely to 
 appear. He knew Jack well enough to be sure he would 
 never dream of comparing notes with Rags, and, indeed, 
 would consider the whole matter too sacred to breathe a 
 syllable about it to any living soul — Jack was so safe, so 
 loyal; Jack was such an honourable fellow! When he 
 thought of his brother's exclamation, he wondered how he 
 could have been such a fool as ever to contemplate the 
 avowal he was so near making a few minutes ago. It was 
 folly to show your hand till the game was played out ; and 
 that culprit richly deserved sentence who pleaded guilty 
 before his case had been tried. 
 
 Jack, in the meantime, was cogitating how he could get 
 his brother out of his difficulties once again, and for the 
 last time, without the possibility of their recurrence. He 
 had done the same thing for Walter very often before, and, 
 generous as he was, had usually contented himself with but 
 
352 TES BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 vague promises of amendment. Now, he thought, if he 
 could obtain some pledge for future self-government, no 
 sacrifice would be too costly to . attain so desirable an 
 object. Jack had not the money in his own possession, 
 of course; indeed, our friend's available resources were 
 seldom represented by paper, consisting generally of a few 
 pieces of gold, and, towards quarter-day, even of silver. 
 Nevertheless, he turned over in his own mind a thousand 
 schemes for the furtherance of his plan, and determined at 
 any rate to start for London early the following morning, 
 and see what could be done. The first step, of course, was 
 to ascertain what had become of the bill. Now Walter, in 
 his familiarity with such methods of raising the wind, had 
 been careful to keep the two bills separate as far as he 
 could. For the second he had obtained cash, short of 
 very considerable discount, at which even his accustomed 
 stoicism complained loudly, from a person named Haman, 
 of the Jewish persuasion; and more than the normal 
 rapacity attributed by Christians to capitalists of that 
 faith. From previous acquaintance with this gentleman's 
 system of doing business, he thought it extremely probable 
 that his bill had long ago found its way into other hands ; 
 whereas, in Pounder's office he had equal reason to suppose 
 that its companion would be forthcoming, at all events 
 until the period had expired for which it was drawn ; so 
 when Jack, after an interview of deep reflection, asked 
 him abruptly, "Which of the money-lending tribe had got 
 him by the throat," he answered in a tone of becoming 
 meekness and penitence — 
 
 " Well, I went to the most respectable man I could find 
 — a person of the name of Pounder ; not exactly a Jew, 
 you know, but a fellow who does these sort of things for 
 ' noblemen, gentlemen, heirs to entailed estates ' — like you. 
 Jack — and ' officers on full pay,' like me. He's a most 
 respectable man, or I wouldn't have had anything to do 
 with him in such a matter, of course." 
 
 " I'm glad to hear it," observed the elder brother, 
 wondering what amount of roguery this conventional term 
 '* respectability" might be stretched to cover. "I should 
 think the quality somewhat rare in his profession. What 
 is the address of this respectable money-lender ? " 
 
A BROKEN REED 853 
 
 " Pounder," answered the younger. " No Christian 
 name, of course : these heathens never have. Mr. Pounder, 
 No. 101, Short Street, Strand." 
 
 Jack repeiated the address once or twice, so as to fix it in 
 his mind, then he got up, walked round to his brother's 
 chair, and laid his hand on his shoulder. 
 
 " Walter," said he, " I'll pull you through this. I can't 
 quite see my way yet, but, I'll pull you through. Don't let 
 the thing bother you any more. I don't want to drive any 
 bargain with you, old boy ; you and I are much too good 
 brothers for that ; but Walter dear, it would make me very 
 happy, and Nelly too, if you would leave off betting so 
 much, and playing so high, and resolve not to raise money 
 in this way any more — at least, without consulting me. 
 Only promise me this, if you can keep your promise, and 
 you shall never hear the subject mentioned again! " 
 
 The tears came into Walter's eyes, and he dashed them 
 away with his hand. Even his heart was not proof against 
 such kindness, and once more he was on the eve of a 
 full confession ; but Jack, who had observed the gesture, 
 and who could not bear to witness his distress, bade him 
 " Cheer up ; there was nothing to be ashamed of. No 
 great harm had been done, after all ; " and the words fled 
 back from his very lips. He dared not, he could not 
 acknowledge himself a swindler in the face of this loving 
 brother, tMs honest, generous, high-minded friend. 
 
 "I promise," said he, clasping Jack's strong hand in 
 
 both his own. "You're too good to me. D it, old 
 
 boy, I don't deserve such a brother. I'm tired now — tired 
 and beat, and not half up to the mark. Good-night, Jack, 
 we'll talk it over to-morrow, coolly and quietly, you know, 
 without partiality, favour, or affection ! " 
 
 So Walter, not entirely uninfluenced by his potations — 
 for a man cannot drink a full-bodied brown sherry all 
 dinner-time and for an hour or two at dessert, with the 
 same impunity as second-growth claret at twenty-four 
 shillings per dozen — took his candle and yawned his way 
 up stairs, not entirely dissatisfied with the tm-n matters 
 had taken, and impressed with a vague, misty kind of 
 persuasion, that Jack was a trump, and everything would 
 turn out for the best in the end. 
 
 23 
 
354 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMERE 
 
 Tatters, coiled on the rug, jumped up full of life and 
 energy directly his master stirred. The latter rang the 
 bell, proceeded to his own room at the top of the house, 
 threw himself into the worn arm-chair, with his eyes fixed 
 on the French print, and loading the faithful short pipe, 
 with Tatters (who had pattered up-stairs close at his heels) 
 curled on his knee, began to lay his plans and smoke. 
 
 Judging by the amount of tobacco consumed in their 
 elaboration, these must have involved considerable fore- 
 thought. It was not till Jack had sat in the same position 
 for more than two hours, during which the French print 
 had completely lost its identity, and assumed a striking 
 likeness to Lady Julia Treadwell, that he made the 
 slightest movement, and then he started up, to the great 
 discomfiture of his dog, and pulled a small, shabby 
 portmanteau fi:om under the bed. 
 
 No, Tatters ! the gun-case is not forthcoming next, as 
 on happier occasions, and it is no question now of a start 
 in the early fogs of morning for the persecution of rabbits. 
 
 The terrier, with his head on one side, and a comical 
 look of expostulation on his hairy visage, watched one 
 article after another packed in the leathern receptacle, 
 more and more dejectedly. Alas ! they were all suggestive of 
 decent in-doors attire. My own belief is, that when the dog 
 saw a civilised morning-coat laid at the top, he made up his 
 mind for the worst, and resolved what to do. At any rate, 
 he whined at the door, as was his custom when asking to be 
 let out, and although Jack left it ajar in case he should 
 return, disappeared in the dark passage, and was seen no 
 more that night. 
 
 Next morning, however, soon after dawn, Jack walked 
 sturdily into Middlesworth station, with his portmanteau on 
 his shoulder — for he made himself thus independent of 
 carriages and servants, not choosing to be cross-questioned 
 as to his journey — was somewhat provoked, somewhat 
 amused, and a good deal surprised, to find Tatters waiting 
 at the booking-office. There was no resisting the dog's 
 appeal, though he looked a little sheepish, as if afraid he 
 had done wrong, while imploring at the same time not to 
 be left behind ; and Jack, who was always rather childish 
 about Tatters, but who had of late become fonder of him 
 
A BBOKEN BEED 855 
 
 than ever, bade his faithful little follower jump on his knee, 
 and carried him off with him to London, 
 
 While the inseparable couple, chilled, sleepy, and 
 Tinbreakfasted, but consoled because together, were steam- 
 ing away to the metropolis on his business, Walter lay 
 snug and warm with closed curtains at Bridlemere, dream- 
 ing that he stood in a pew at Lady Julia Treadwell's side, 
 to be called in church; but that hearing Bivouac was 
 disqualified for the Great Middlesworth Handicap, and the 
 stakes had been given to Benedict, Mrs. Major Shabraoque 
 stepped out from behind the organ, and forbade the 
 banns. 
 
CHAPTER XXm 
 
 POUNCE COMMBECE 
 
 Jack Bbooke, arriving in London, di-opped his portmanteau 
 at the station, and sallied forth on business, after a heavy 
 breakfast, with Tatters at his heels. The dog was well 
 accustomed to be left to his own guidance, and it is indeed 
 only by thus trusting dumb animals that they acquire the 
 sagacity at which, in our self-conceit, we marvel so con- 
 descendingly. The brute's intellect, like that of the man, 
 increases largely by exercise, and the assumption of re- 
 sponsibility is equally conducive to the moral improvement 
 of each. A dog in a string is a contemptible instance, 
 arguing want of confidence on one side, and of loyalty on 
 the other, that deserves to terminate in secession ; whereas 
 the franker nature that leaves its four-footed dependent to 
 roam at will, and trusts to its attachment for a re-union, 
 finds itself tracked through crowded streets and intricate 
 paths, with the unerring fidelity of an instinct both above 
 and below the reasoning faculties of man. 
 
 Tatters, following him through the confusion of Middles- 
 worth on Market-day, was as little likely to lose his own 
 master as his own skin, and, indeed, could have been 
 deprived of either only by being forciljly caught up and 
 held. Now this was no easy matter to accomplish. The 
 dog, unless he was quite sure of his man, had a way of 
 keeping out of arm's length, and dodging ofl' from beneath 
 the grasp, extremely baffling to a stranger ; and if foiled, 
 moreover, would have been no very desirable prize when 
 captured. The black roof of his mouth, so much admired 
 by Lady Julia, set off the whiteness of two formidable rows 
 
 m 
 
POUNCE COMMBBGE 357 
 
 of teeth ; and Tatters, who would have scorned to turn tail 
 on pole-cat, fox, or badger, was capable of inflicting very 
 severe punishment on the human hand, nor would he have 
 had the slightest scruple in tearing it to the best of his 
 ability. 
 
 Jack entertained, therefore, no apprehension of losing 
 his dog in London, and stalked along in perfect confidence 
 that his friend would not leave his heels, Tatters plodding 
 close behind him, ludicrously intent on the business he was 
 about, and suffering himself to be in no way distracted by 
 the remarks his rough-and-ready appearance called forth. 
 These were more sincere than complimentary. The 
 London passenger is seldom a good judge of terriers, and 
 limits his profoundest criticisms to the paradox that "their 
 beauty consists in their ugliness," so that the long coat, 
 long body, long head, and short legs of Jack Brooke's 
 favouiite elicited more derision than applause. A connois- 
 seur in the article, however, had scanned him approvingly 
 from the other side of the street, so approvingly, indeed, as 
 to resolve on cementing a further acquaintance with this 
 desirable specimen. For that purpose he lounged along 
 about ten paces off, feigning to be wholly engrossed in 
 omnibuses, shop-windows, chimney-pots, and such objects 
 as seemed to have no possible connection with a prize 
 twelve inches high. 
 
 Jem Batters, still in ankle-jacks and shabby velveteen, 
 with the red handkerchief, much frayed and worn, knotted 
 round his neck as of old, was patrolling the Strand, at the 
 spot where he had once caught sight of Philip Stoney, in 
 the vague hope of meeting that familiar face again. It had 
 haunted Jem perseveringly of late, and the desire to learn 
 news of home had acquired an irresistible force which he 
 accepted, in his ignorance, as a warning of some dreadful 
 calamity to his mother or himself. Therefore, he watched 
 and waited da,y after day, at the same hour and place, 
 missing Philip, whose tibie of attendance at his office varied 
 according to the press of work, by about ten minutes, with 
 the regularity of clock-work. 
 
 Such anxieties, however, could not be allowed to inter- 
 fere with business. Jem noticed a "tidy sort of a dog " 
 following a gentleman, and it was Jem's profession, there- 
 
358 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 fore, to follow the dog. He had never seen Jack Brooke in 
 a hroadcloth coat and a London hat in his life, so did not 
 recognise the young squire's back, nor, if he had, would it 
 have made any difference to his proceedings. The dog he 
 had convinced himself was a noble animal, provided by 
 nature to be matched, mutilated, enticed, advertised for, 
 and restored, according to his courage, breed, beauty, and 
 the value set upon hun by the proprietor. So Tatters 
 followed Jack, and Jem followed Tatters, till they turned 
 into Short Street, and stopped at Mr. Pounder's door. 
 
 Now, on one side of the house in which the money- 
 lenders were the sole inhabitants, stood the dwelling of 
 Miss Prince, full to the very attics; and on the other an 
 empty stationer's shop under repair, having a warehouse at 
 the back, once a receptacle for unsold books, magazines, 
 travels, biographies, novels like yours and mine, pamphlets 
 on political questions of fleeting interest, and such literary 
 lumber. This edifice, jutting out at right angles from the 
 rear of the premises, commanded the rooms on the ground- 
 floor of the neighbouring houses on each side. It was the 
 very place from which Pounder's back-yard could be reached 
 most readily ; and Jem's experience taught him that it was 
 quite probable his hairy quarry would be turned into that 
 back-yard for a space, whether his master was retm-ning 
 home, or only paying a visit to a friend. Everything 
 favoured his plan : the workmen had " knocked off," as 
 they called it, for half an hour to a neighbouring beer-shop, 
 leaving nothing to keep guard but a hundred of bricks, a 
 riddlingsieve with the bottom out, and a barrow full of lime. 
 To be sure, there were only the walls to steal. Jem 
 entered, therefore, unquestioned, ensconced himself in the 
 warehouse, and watched patiently for his chance. 
 
 How it came, and what he saw, is perhaps better 
 described from within than without. 
 
 Pounder was sitting at a piece of furniture, called by 
 upholsterers a knee-hole table, in a dingy, dirty room, 
 commanding a cheerless view of the back-yard already 
 mentioned. There were none of the usual appliances in 
 this apartment that suggested the conveyance of money or 
 property. None of the pigeon-holed drawers lettered down 
 to Z, arguing business habits of nice arrangement and 
 
POUNCE COMMEBCB 859 
 
 precision ; none of the green boxes, fireproof and padlocked, 
 with names painted on them in large black capitals, scorn- 
 ing as it would seem, to contain parchments of less 
 importance than bonds, title-deeds, and such questionable 
 materials for endless suits of equity and common law. No 
 railed-in desk for the clerks, nor black arm-chair for the 
 client, nor sheaves of uncut quills, nor bundles of papers 
 tied with tape, nor drift of letters on the writing-table, 
 amongst which the visitor's own, appointing an interview is 
 always uppeiinost. Save Pounder's umbrella, there were 
 not even the commonest article of domestic use. Neither 
 fender, fire-irons, nor coal-scuttle. All was bare, all was 
 shabby, and all was dirty. 
 
 It was difficult to say for what purpose the room had 
 been intended by the builder ; perhaps for a bed-chamber, 
 as a few steps led up to it firom the level of the passage, 
 and it opened into another smaller apartment, whence there 
 was no further egress, and which could only have served to 
 contain a bath or wardrobe, being lighted but by a bull's- 
 eye in the partition wall, and therefore too dusky to dress, 
 and too close to sleep in. 
 
 Although the place promised little of wealth in its 
 aspects and arrangements, yet in the drawers of the 
 knee-hole table, ink-stained and fi:ayed as it looked, were 
 locked away documents worth not only a round sum of 
 money but the peace and comfort of many a fi:ank, genial, 
 inconsiderate young heart ; representing perhaps all the 
 hopes of its Future, all the advantages of its Past. There 
 were signatures in those recesses to bid mamma cry and 
 papa swear ; to mulct younger brothers and sisters of many 
 a loose hundred not in settlement, that would have been very 
 acceptable for the bride's trousseau, or the subaltern's pro- 
 motion; to make a brave lad tremble, and an honourable 
 one prevaricate ; to turn the merry, cheerful home of break- 
 fast-time into a scene of reproach, and constraint, and 
 humiliation, when the post came in. 
 
 Other rooms in the house were well and even gaudily 
 famished. The front parlour contained several original 
 pictures of famous Dutch and Italian masters, painted 
 with considerable felicity by a man in the Haymarket, 
 any one of which could be spared at a moment's notice 
 
SeO THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 to accommodate a borrower, and replaced forthwith in a 
 different style by the same hand. The drawing-room 
 floor, besides its cracked min-ors, rejoiced in fanciful 
 cai-ving, handsome bronzes, and a heavy chandelier in a 
 canvass bag. There were bed-rooms, I believe, above this, 
 but they had been long since dismantled and put away, 
 having nothing but the bare bedsteads left, with store of 
 moths and spiders, cobwebs for hangings ; and for a cai-pet, 
 dust two inches thick. 
 
 Notwithstanding the size of the house, however, most ol 
 the business was conducted in this dingy back room, the 
 greater portion of which Jem Batters, himself unseen, 
 commanded from the post of observation he had taken 
 up. 
 
 Pounder sat writing busily at the table. His large bald 
 forehead, as he bent over his work, conveyed an impression 
 of the utmost respectability and benevolence. There had 
 been rain during the morning, and the garden at Balham 
 was a fortnight earlier than last year. He was inclined, 
 therefore, to look favourably on the world in general, and 
 had experienced more diflBculty than usual in hardening his 
 heart to the business standard required. Multiple, walking 
 up and down the room, was immersed in some calculation 
 with which he appeared a good deal dissatisfied. His cheeks 
 were flushed, and he frowned in a manner that did not 
 improve his beauty. He had stopped short in one of his 
 turns, obviously for a burst of ill-humour, when Jack's ring 
 at the door-bell vibrated through the house. 
 
 " Can't you go and see who it is ? " exclaimed he, 
 angrily, while Pounder deliberately finished a sentence, 
 and wiped his pen on his sleeve. "If it's Overdue, I 
 won't see him ! " he halloaed after his partner, who had 
 disappeared down in the passage. " And you may tell him 
 so ! He's played fast and loose with us long enough. I'll 
 sell him up ; I will, by heaven ! as sure as he stands there. 
 Get out ! you brute. Halloa! Whose dog's this ? " 
 
 Four pattering feet having made themselves distinctly 
 heard on the oil-cloth outside, now brought their rough 
 little proprietor bodily into the room. Tatters, according 
 to custom, preceded his master, whom Pounder was 
 ushering with great obsequiousness into the office, and 
 
POUNCE COMMEBCE 361 
 
 thus gave Multiple timely warning of the entrance of 
 Jack Brooke. 
 
 Now, it was by no means the money-lender's cue to be 
 known as such to those with whom he associated on terms 
 of equality in general society. He chose to appear among 
 them a gentleman of independent income — well-born, well- 
 bred ; a man of position, education and taste. He liked 
 them to wonder, " who the deuce Multiple was," knowing 
 that, with the world, an object gains by mystery more than 
 it loses by suspicion ; but he had no wish that they should 
 be able to identify him with the bill-discounting firm so 
 generally consulted and so universally abused. Above all, 
 he was most anxious that none of the Brooke family should 
 learn the truth, at all events till he had become one of 
 them, and even with a bosom friend like Walter he had 
 been careful to attribute his thorough knowledge of money 
 matters to high betting and large speculations on the Stock 
 Exchange. To have confronted Jack Brooke, wliom he 
 felt thoroughly to distrust him, here of all places m the 
 world, would have been destruction. 
 
 But Multiple had a quick eye, and recognised the dog in 
 an instant. His first impression was that Walter had come 
 up about the bills, till he heard the elder brother's voice 
 outside the door, and he had just time to make a dive at his 
 hat, and remove it along with himself, into the other room, 
 where he resolved to remain in hiding till the interview 
 terminated ; exulting the while that prudent, steady-going 
 Jack Brooke was walking like other people into the toils, 
 and that he should soon have the whole family in his power 
 — ^the elder brother embarrassed, the younger dishonoured, 
 and the sister compromised. 
 
 Whenever this man thought of Helen, something seemed 
 to come over him that imparted a bitter, morbid pleasure to 
 the very act of evil-doing, as if it gratified him to think 
 that the lower he himself fell the deeper would be the 
 degradation to which he would drag her down. How 
 fiercely he longed for that hour ! less Ske one who desires 
 the guerdon of a warm attachment, than one who thirsts for 
 the wild triumph of revenge. Though the image of Miss 
 Brooke, filled his heart and brain, his was a sort of love 
 turned, as it were, inside out, that very closely resembled 
 the cruel instinct of hate. 
 
362 THE BEOOKES OF BBIBLEMEBE 
 
 However quick he might he though, in identifying 
 Tatters, the dog's honest dislike, cherished with canine 
 fidelity, seemed quicker still to recognise the presence of 
 an enemy. He bounced about the room, barking furiously, 
 and scratched hard at the door of communication between 
 the two apartments. Jack Brooke, seated himself as 
 desired, apologised to Pounder, for the intrusion and 
 ill-behaviour of his favourite. 
 
 " He won't leave me for five minutes," said Jack, with 
 pardonable pride ; " but he's a keen little brute after 
 vermin, and hasn't learnt town manners yet. I'll answer 
 for it, he winds a rat somewhere about now." 
 
 Pounder winded a rat too, or thought he did ; and 
 resolved to di-aw cautiously up to his game. It consisted, 
 he hoped, of a firesh, frank, inexperienced young gentleman, 
 short of cash, rich in expectations, willing to make allowance 
 for the tightness of the money-market, and ready to do a 
 post-obit. on reasonable terms — say, three for one. 
 
 Motioning Jack to a chair, he seated himself at the knee- 
 hole table, leaning his elbow thereon to balance a paper-cutter 
 in his large, strong clean hand. He had not yet mastered 
 the visitor's name, therefore opened the conversation dis- 
 creetly, with a remark upon the genial temperature, so 
 unusual for the time of the year. He sat opposite the little 
 window of communication, through which he could observe 
 his partner's anxious face. 
 
 Multiple was not quite easy about this unexpected arrival, 
 for although it would have pleased him much to see the 
 elder fellow following the younger brother's example, still, 
 like all men who lead a life of duplicity, and who feel 
 themselves permanently in a false position, he mistrusted 
 everything that was unexpected or unaccounted for. 
 
 Jack, fronting his new acquaintance, was agreeably sur- 
 prised at the frank expression of countenance and respectable 
 appearance, so dififerent from what he expected. Aiiy little 
 awkwardness he may have betrayed at first, which Pounder 
 set down to the usual embarrassment of a borrower, soon 
 disappeared, and he entered on the business that brought 
 him, in the most straightforward manner, without delay. 
 
 "I believe," said he, abruptly, "your name is Pounder, a 
 professional money-lender? " 
 
POUNCE COMMERCE 363 
 
 The other looked hard at the huU's-eye window for in- 
 structions, ere he delivered himself of the customary answer. 
 
 " The name is correct enough. Excuse me, Sir, for 
 ohserving that you are mistaken in our calling. We are 
 but confidential advisers in matters of pecuniary difficulty. 
 I will not deny that we occasionally make small advances 
 to clients of position and character, on the usual terms." 
 
 Jack was a little puzzled at so subtle a distinction ; but 
 went straight to the point. 
 
 " I am an eldest son," said he. Mr. Pounder bowed low. 
 " Heir to an entailed estate." Mr. Pounder bowed lower. 
 "Anything that passes between us is of course in the 
 strictest confidence." Mr. Pounder bowed till his polished 
 head was visible to the very crown. The action denoted 
 sympathy, reverence, and incorruptible good faith. 
 
 " In the strictest confidence," he repeated, with another 
 glance over Jack's head, to make sure his partner was 
 watching, " and vnthout exception taken to any unguarded 
 expressions of remonstrance or friendly warning that may 
 be called forth by our interests in our client's welfare. 
 Young men are apt to be incautious, imprudent, wilfully 
 blind to their own interests. I have sustained abuse, Sir, 
 that you would hardly credit, and bad language that I will 
 not pain you by repeating, in this very room, as a return for 
 my earnest entreaties to misguided young gentlemen that 
 they would take a little time and consideration before 
 entailing ruin on their families and themselves. Your 
 dog is very uneasy. Sir, and I think there must be a rat 
 somewhere about. We keep that recess locked, and our 
 clerk, who is in the City, has mislaid the key, or we would 
 soon unearth the intruder. I love a rat-hunt still, out of 
 business hours, as well as a younger man." 
 
 This frank admission was made to take Jack's attention 
 off the subject they had been discussing. The visitor was 
 shrewd enough to suspect Mr. Pounder's benevolent phrases, 
 and the latter did not fail to observe his suspicion. Tatters, 
 besides, was sniffing about the door of communication with 
 an energy that it was impossible to ignore. Altogether, 
 Pounder thought it best to establish the impossibility of 
 searching the other room at once, so put his little romance 
 of the key and his rat-catching predilections together, with 
 
364 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMBBB 
 
 simplicity that set mistrust at defiance. He spoke the 
 truth so far, that at Balham he would have joined in such 
 a pursuit with the utmost glee ; but here, like other mighty 
 hunters, his game was man. 
 
 " Be quiet, Tatters ! " said Jack, calling the dog beneath 
 his chair, and repressing all outward demonstrations of 
 excitement, save a stifled growl and an angiy red eye. 
 "We don't come for rat-catching, Mr. Pounder, or my 
 little terrier here could make you open your eyes, if you 
 care for that sort of thing. My business is of some im- 
 portance, and, if you please, we will go into it at once. I 
 am an eldest son, as I have already told you. My father 
 is Mr. Brooke, of Bridlemere, near Middlesworth. Perhaps 
 you may have heard the name before ? " 
 
 Pounder's countenance brightened. He recognised the 
 name at once ; for he had bills at the moment almost 
 beneath his hand, bearing that signature, of which his 
 partner had never ceased to impress on him that he could 
 not be too careful, and he knew the drawer of those bills 
 by sight perfectly well. His professional keenness enabled 
 him to trace a family likeness in his present visitor to the 
 embarrassed young officer whom he had accommodated ; 
 and his professional instinct hinted the probability that the 
 elder brother, the heir himself, had been recommended by 
 the younger to the same fountain whence he drew his own 
 precarious and costly supplies. 
 
 Visions came over him, enhanced by his visitor's appear- 
 ance, of immediate necessities, inviolable secrecy, mutual 
 convenience, and a heavy post-obit. Not only did Jack 
 look, he thought, lilce an eldest son ; but there was an air 
 of simplicity about his dress, his manners, his square 
 shoulders, his frank, weather-browned face, that argued 
 honesty of purpose, liberality of character, general in- 
 experience in borrowing, and unflinching determination 
 to abide by any bargain that he had once made, however 
 injurious to himself. Here was a prize worth half a dozen 
 such plausible, improvident, necessitous dandies as the 
 brother — a prize that, judiciously handled, and skilfully 
 captured, might by a trifling annual outlay, become the 
 making of the firm at his father's death. He looked 
 benevolently interested and concerned. 
 
POUNCE COMMEBCE 865 
 
 "I can feel for a young man in difficulties," said he, 
 with a grave paternal air. " I have had much to contend 
 with, Mr. Brooke (I think you said your name was Brooke) ; 
 much to contend with in early life myself. Mine is a 
 curious history, and shows how cautious a youth should he 
 to horrow from respectable parties. At five-and-twenty 
 years of age, Sir, I had an opening of business that 
 necessitated a small advance of capital. A few, a very 
 few thousand pounds was demanded for a share in the 
 excellent firm of which I am now proud to be senior 
 j)artner. The matter was trifling enough ; but I was a 
 young man in those days, Mr. Brooke, and I am sorry to 
 admit, not a very steady one ; I could not lay my hand on 
 the sum required, small as it was, and what did I do ? 
 Consult some friend of experience and professional standing, 
 to abide by his judgment, and act on his advice ? Not a 
 bit of it ! I wanted the money. I was in a hurry for the 
 money. I would have the money; and I went to an 
 avowed money-lender, a regular bill-discounter, and ob- 
 tained it, Sir, upon terms that, even at this distance of 
 time, I blush to recall. He must have made me pay not 
 less than one hundi-ed per cent. ; one hundred per cent., as 
 I sit here, for every shilling he advanced me before I had 
 done with him. And I found out, when it was too late, that 
 the firm itself would have lent me the money on far more 
 liberal terms, trusting to my own undertaking for payment 
 of capital and interest, by quarterly instalments out of my 
 share in the annual profits. It was a lesson I shall never 
 forget, Mr, Brooke, and I regret it the less that it taught 
 me the caution I needed, and impressed on me in the 
 strongest manner the liberality of our firm. It has always 
 been our mode of doing business. I trust the same system 
 may continue so long as I have the honour to conduct its 
 affairs. Pardon me, Mr. Brooke, this is irrelevant — a 
 little word of warning from an old man to a young one, 
 of which the motive must excuse the impertinence — ^we 
 will proceed to your business, if you please, at once. Do 
 you desire a temporary advance for immediate necessities ? 
 I observe, state the sum, and name your securities. Do 
 you ask my advice as to the prudence of borrowing money 
 in the abstract? I, reply emphatically, don't." 
 
366 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Multiple, watching at the window, and listening intently 
 to this peroration, ground his teeth in anger and disgust. 
 '.' The clumsy ass ! " he muttered below his breath, "to try 
 this affectation of honesty with a fellow that, he must see 
 at a glance is a really honest man. Not to know it's only 
 fit to gull some fool, who is half a rogue already. Idiot ! 
 I wish he was up to his neck in his own cabbage-beds ! I 
 shouldn't be the least surprised if he blew the whole business 
 to this blundering, straightforward, hard-headed young 
 clodpole, and put us all in the hole before he has done." 
 
 He was in a very uncomfortable position. Closeted in a 
 dusty little room, within ten feet of a critical job, the mis- 
 management of which he was compelled to witness without 
 interference, because he was afraid to discover himself, Mr. 
 Multiple's face grew darker and darker, and his blood 
 tingled to his finger-ends. 
 
 Jack Brooke had listened attentively to the money- 
 lender's tale, and its effect, as his partner foresaw, was the 
 very reverse of what the narrator intended. The young 
 Squire had mother- wit enough to detect a false ring in the 
 assumed friendship and sincerity of his senior. Like a 
 fencer who has yet to prove his adversary's strength, he 
 paused a little ere he took up his ground cautiously out of 
 distance, feeling the other's blade, as it were, with a very 
 gentle and inquiring touch. 
 
 That other, strong in the maturity of experience and 
 confidence of daily stratagem, engaged boldly and without 
 hesitation. The sooner his visitor's business was done, he 
 thought, and the more effectually, the better. Attributing 
 his silence to a natural diffidence in exposing his affairs, he 
 leaned across the table, and renewed the conversation with 
 great complacence. 
 
 "Would it be premature, Mr. Brooke, to suggest a short 
 and general statement on paper, shall we say, of the 
 advance you may require? We can meet your views 
 probably in a variety of ways, any of which would suit our 
 convenience equally well. A life-assurance; a bill at an 
 earlier or later date, indorsed, as a matter of form, by one 
 other signature; an undertaking for repayment, with 
 accumulative interest, on the demise of certain parties. 
 I throw these out as mere suggestions. Whatever you 
 
POUNCE COMMERCE 867 
 
 resolved, you can depend upon us, believe me, to consult 
 your interests as carefully as our own." 
 
 " Stop a moment," said Jack, " you go fast, Mr. 
 Pounder. I did not come here to borrow money ; at least 
 that was not my primary object." 
 
 " Glad to hear it. Sir ; glad to hear it," replied Pounder, 
 by no means unused to such declarations at the opening of 
 proceedings. " If advice is all you require, you've come to 
 the right shop for the article. And we make no charge for 
 it, neither. No * six-and-eightpennies ' here, Mr. Brooke. 
 Any information an old man can give a young one, you are 
 welcome to from me for nothing." 
 
 Multiple's attention had been more than once arrested by 
 the visitor's declaration. He knew his man, and was sure 
 that what Jack Brooke said he meant. He listened pain- 
 fully now, suspecting what was to come, and wishing he 
 had trusted his partner more implicitly in the matter of the 
 bills. 
 
 " I am not here as a borrower, Mr. Pounder," explained 
 Jack, " so much as a purchaser ; though it is quite possible 
 I must be the former in order to become the latter. I wish 
 to have no reserve but to treat you with the confidence I 
 expect in return. You are acquainted with my brother, 
 Walter Brooke, a subaltern in the Dancing Hussars ? " 
 
 Pounder glanced at the bull's-eye, and detecting no 
 signal for a negative, affected to task his memoiy severely 
 ere he replied — 
 
 " I think I have the name somewhere on my books. 
 An agreeable, well-informed young gentleman, if I re- 
 member right. I am proud to make the acquaintance of 
 his brother." 
 
 " He has been here not long ago," continued Jack, fixing 
 his eyes on the other, " and borrowed three hundred pounds 
 of you in this very room on a bill at three months." 
 
 " Three hundred pounds at three months," repeated 
 Pounder, thoughtfully. "Very possibly, very possibly. 
 You must allow me to refer back. I cannot carry these 
 trifling matters in my head, but I am very scrupulous in my 
 entries, very ! " 
 
 To Multiple's extreme vexation, watching him through 
 the bull's-eye, he unlocked one of the drawers beneath his 
 
368 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 hand, and produced a file of papers, at the top of which was 
 the bill in question, and its duplicate. 
 
 Wetting his thumb deliberately, he turned them slowly 
 over, checking them off one by one all the way through and 
 back again, till he returned to the document he wanted. 
 Having thus gained a few moments, during which he ran 
 over some complicated mental arithmetic, he laid two 
 papers on the table before him and observed — 
 
 " You are right, Mr. Brooke. Quite correct, sir. Here 
 is the bill to \^hicll you allude. Ah ! three months — three 
 hundred. This, I presume is your brother's signature ; not 
 very legible, but enough for the purpose, and indorsed 
 by one De EoUe, a subaltern ofBcer in the same 
 regiment." 
 
 " Mr. Pounder ! " exclaimed Jack, eagerly, " I don't 
 understand these things. I don't profess to be a man of 
 business. The bill cannot be worth more than three 
 hundred pounds at most. What shall I give you to take it 
 away with me now, this moment? Name your own 
 terms; I will engage to find means of paying the 
 price ! " 
 
 Pounder smiled blandly, "well satisfied. It would, of 
 course, be a good stroke of business to obtain the elder 
 brother for a debtor rather than the younger. 
 
 In his own opinion, and he had considerable sagacity in 
 such matters, Walter Brooke's paper was about the least 
 valuable with which he was concerned. In the matter of 
 solvency, he rated the hussar very little above Mr. Overdue, 
 while here was a substitute offering himself eagerly, with 
 " eldest son " written on every feature and apparent in 
 every movement. He would have closed gladly with the 
 offer after only the usual modest reluctance that wary old 
 men, as well as prudent young women, think well to affect 
 in accepting the fulfilment of their wishes, when catching 
 sight of his partner's face at its post of observations, he was 
 discomforted to perceive the strong expression of warning 
 and disapproval it conveyed. 
 
 "Do I quite understand you, Mr. Brooke?" said he 
 fidgeting with the papers. " Is it your object to take up your 
 brother's liabilities, or are you desirous of a farther advance 
 on your joint security ? " 
 
POUNCE COMMEBCE 869 
 
 " I speak plain enough," answered ' Jack, shortly. 
 "What I want is that hill of Walter Brooke now lying 
 beneath your hand. How much less than three hundred 
 will you take for it now, at this moment? That point 
 settled, we will consider how the sum can be raised on my 
 personal security afterwards." 
 
 Multiple still telegi-aphed violently to refuse. Pounder 
 was a good deal puzzled, not so much by the purchaser's 
 anxiety, though that was sufficiently unaccountable, as by 
 his partner's reluctance to dispose, on advantageous teims, 
 of what they had both reason to believe would eventually 
 prove a bad debt; and thinking to gain a little time, 
 and perhaps elucidate the mystery, he observed quietly — 
 
 " There are two bills of Mr. Walter Brooke here in my 
 possession ; which of them do you propose to redeem ? " 
 
 Multiple groaned in spirit. Slipping from the window, he 
 stole softly to the door and held it ajar, uncertain how to 
 act. Tatters, already sharply rebuked for interference, 
 dared not remonstrate, but was obliged to content himself 
 with a deep angry, continuous growl beneath his master's 
 chair. 
 
 The blood flushed to Jack's forehead. " Two of 
 them ! " said he. " How d'ye mean ? I have consulted 
 Walter. I am in my brother's confidence. There must be 
 something wrong here ! " 
 
 " There must indeed," answered Pounder, gravely, and 
 not entirely without sympathy for the modest, guileless 
 nature with which he had to deal. At Balham he would 
 have gone into his cause hand-over-head. Even here, in 
 the office, he was sony for him, though he meant to 
 accommodate him with a post-obit just the same. " I fear 
 there must be something wrong, Mr, Brooke. If you will 
 keep your dog quiet, I will detail the circumstances as far 
 as my memory serves me. I have the date of your brother's 
 last visit iQ my day-book. Here it is. On that occasion 
 I cashed for hun one of these bills — ^the date of which is 
 also entered — deducting the customary discount ; a mere 
 trifle for accommodation. Cast your eye down that column 
 in the last date. On that day, Sir, in the usual course of 
 business, I became possessed of another bill of your brother 
 for the same sum, indorsed by the same party, except that 
 
 24 
 
370 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 it seems to hate been drawn two days subsequently, an 
 exact facsimile of the previous one. You observe, 
 therefore, that it would take six hundred pounds to cover 
 the whole amount advanced to Mr. Walter Brooke upon his 
 own and his friend's security. Have you any reason to 
 suspect, Sir, that either of these documents can have been 
 tampered with? To speak plain English, Mr. Brooke, 
 this business is not entirely unlike a case of forgery." 
 
 Now, Pounder had his own reasons for thus desiring to 
 elucidate the mystery that hung over these two bills. It 
 was obvious that his partner knew something more about 
 them than was apparent on the surface ; also, that he was 
 strangely anxious to keep them both in his hands, as 
 though their possession by another would compromise 
 himself or some one in whom he was interested. Not in 
 love alone is it a wise maxim to 
 
 " Trust me all in all, or not at all." 
 
 People in the same boat should row the same stroke if 
 they would make way against the stream. Had Multiple 
 told his partner candidly why he wished, to hold these two 
 documents in terrorem over Walter's head, Pounder would 
 probably have laid himself out on his oar with his usual 
 energy and perseverance. Now he was backing water when 
 the other wanted him to pull. Nay, he was not unwilling to 
 discover something to his principal's prejudice that might 
 serve as a set-off against the power which heavy pecuniary 
 obligations, and a knowledge of one or two transactions not 
 exactly sanctioned by the laws of the land, gave the latter 
 over himself. This was why he hinted his suspicions of 
 foul play to Jack, disregarding, as if it were not there, a 
 white face at the door peering right into the room, working 
 with suppressed anxiety, entreaty, and resentment, till its 
 expression was truly diabolical. 
 
 On the mention of the two bills, where he only expected 
 to find one, a horrible suspicion had crossed Jack Brooke's 
 mind. He reflected on his brother's manner both before 
 and during the time of his confession at Bridlemere ; on his 
 obvious mental suffering for a considerable period; his 
 restlessness ; his irritability ; his anxiety about trifles, so 
 
fOUNCB COMMEBCE f 371 
 
 unlike his usual disposition ; especially on the agitation he 
 betrayed in making an avowal which, after all, admitted 
 nothing more criminal than the common imprudence of 
 raising money on a bill; and recalling these suspicious 
 symptoms, he shuddered while he came to the conclusion 
 that there was some gross fraud connected with this 
 transaction, of which his brother was cognisant, if, indeed, 
 he had not been its originator. Pounder's last sentence 
 drove the nail home to the quick. Jack collected all his 
 energies, and held his breath while he thought what was 
 best to be done. There was still one hope left — his 
 brother's signature might have been imitated by some 
 skilful forger. He was angry with himself that he could 
 not feel thoroughly convinced this was the case. 
 
 "May I look at that bill? " he asked quietly, pointing 
 to the uppermost of those which lay beneath Pounder's 
 hand. 
 
 " Certainly," said the latter, turning his eyes purposely 
 from the door, and spreading the document out on the 
 table, but keeping hold of it at top and bottom with both 
 strong hands the while. 
 
 Jack studied it minutely. He could have taken his oath 
 to his brother's signature ; with that of Ragman de Rolle he 
 was not acquainted, but he examined it as critically as a 
 detective or an expert. Not a dash nor a dot in that 
 officer's bold, irregular handwriting escaped his observation. 
 " Now the other," said he deliberately, having taken a good 
 five minutes to peruse the first. 
 
 Before complying. Pounder locked the examined bill 
 carefolly away in a drawer. This unexpected precaution 
 did not escape the visitor's observation, and roused his 
 suspicions to the utmost. Multiple breathed again. 
 
 Still keeping his hand on it. Pounder spread the second 
 bill out under Jack's nose, who treated it like the first. 
 Again there could be no doubt of his brother's handwriting. 
 He could have sworn to it here also ; but he turned pale 
 when he examined the indorsement. Ragman de Rolle's 
 name was written feebly, neatly, with far less boldness and 
 freedom than on the other bill. Had he been trusted with 
 a full confession. Jack would not have suspected Walter of a 
 heavier and more dangerous crime than he had really 
 
872 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 committed. The conviction of his younger brother's guilt 
 went through the elder like a shot. He trembled — ^he 
 turned pale. His features quivered from the shook. Then 
 he rallied with the very peril of the crisis. Though a 
 thousand thoughts of home, his father, Helen, Uncle Archie 
 chased each other wildly through his brain, the one 
 idea predominated over all, that Walter must be saved at 
 any cost, at any sacrifice. If he could obtain possession of 
 this bill his brother would at least be free from danger of 
 detection. Time would be gained ; arrangements made ; 
 a compromise would be effected; but the bill he must 
 have ! " 
 
 "I will take it up," said he, affecting carelessness, 
 though his voice trembled. " Hand it over. I can afford 
 to pay for my fancy." 
 
 He had resolved to accept any eventual loss, however 
 ruinous, and would have proved, as Pounder's instincts told 
 him, an extremely valuable customer; but the money- 
 lender did not dare disobey his partner, and shook his head 
 in mild deprecation. 
 
 "Not business, Mr. Brooke ! " said he. "Excuse me ; 
 not business. In matters of this kind I must consult 
 the firm." 
 
 Jack's eye was on the bill — ^keen, glittering, vigilant — as 
 it had rested in merrier days on some twisting cricket-ball 
 when he kept the University wickets to professional 
 bowling. 
 
 "I make you a liberal offer," he urged. "Your own 
 terms ! " 
 
 "And I must decline it," answered Pounder polite, but 
 obviously determined. 
 
 He moved his hand as he spoke, probably with the 
 intention of locking the coveted article out of sight, but the 
 practised wicket-keeper was to quick for him. Jack pounced 
 at it like lightning, and effected a brilliant catch ; still the 
 money-lender's grasp, though a thought too late, fell like 
 an iron fetter about his wrists, and he struggled in vain to 
 shake them free. 
 
 " Stand off, man ! " exclaimed Jack, his spirits rather 
 than his temper rising with the encounter. " I will have 
 it, I tell you ! Upon my soul, I'll strike if you don't let go ! " 
 
POUNCE COMMEBCE 373 
 
 " Two can play at that game, Mr. Brooke," replied the 
 other, not entirely without a fierce enjoyment of his own in 
 the prospective " set-to." He was a powerful, muscular 
 man, fond of exercise, and had not engaged in what he 
 called " a breather " for years. 
 
 One or two heavy lurches, and the knee-hole table across 
 which they wrested came to the floor with a crash. 
 Pounder's foot caught in it as it fell, and Jack was able to 
 free his left hand, in which, however, he did not hold the 
 bill. He was no less surprised than encouraged to find no 
 alarm given by his antagonist ; no cry for " Police ! " no 
 indication of assistance being within ear-shot. His hopes 
 rose. He would get clear off with the bill after all ; but 
 his blood was up, too, and he meant real fighting now if he 
 was opposed. Both men breathed harder, fiercer, and their 
 eyes were beginning to shine. 
 
 " Will you let go ? " hissed out Jack, savagely, between 
 his teeth, while he got his arm back to strike. 
 
 "Not if I know it!" replied Pounder, in a hoarse 
 whisper, and these were the only words that passed. 
 
 There was a dull, heavy sound, and the money-lender 
 reeled, and lost his footing. Struck just behind the temple, 
 he felt his senses failing, and everything in a swim all round 
 him. Nevertheless, he clung manfully to his adversary, 
 who, with another blow, felt confident of getting clear off, 
 prize and all. His hand was back to repeat it, when a 
 crash resounded in his ears, a flare of yellow flame passed 
 before his eyes, then came a dull, numbed tingling, a sickly 
 sensation of repose on an inclined plane in the dark, and a 
 vague peevish consciousness of a familiar voice wandering 
 about him, saying — 
 
 " I wouldn't have believed they put such good horn into 
 the handles of these cotton umbrellas ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 A BBOEBN HBAD 
 
 The handle of a cotton umbrella, when the horn is really 
 sound, may prove, on occasion, a very efficient weapon of 
 offence. Jem Batters, amused, excited, and intensely 
 pleased, witnessed the whole skirmish from the post of 
 observation he had so skilfully taken up. He saw Jack 
 close with Pounder, and smiled in grim satisfaction at 
 their " style," as he called it, when the men " took hold." 
 He scarce repressed audible approval of the masterly 
 manner with which the young Squire, whose face he 
 recognised, delivered his left ; and he did exclaim " Foul, 
 Foul," loud and distinct, when Multiple, white and 
 scowling, stole in behind the successful combatant, and, 
 glancing vainly here and there for a weapon, seized his 
 partner's umbrella to lay open a good four inches of Jack 
 Brooke's head, dropping him prostrate and senseless at his 
 feet. All this, I say, he saw to the best advantage ; yet, 
 perhaps, had the partners been aware they were thus over- 
 looked, their consultation, hurried and frightened as it was, 
 would have been more hurried and frightened still. 
 
 Multiple, though he affected a brutal carelessness while 
 he praised the strength of the umbrella, looked down on 
 his work a minute afterwards with intense confusion and 
 dismay. Pounder's hard head, indeed, soon recovered the 
 knock it had sustained ; but his adversary lay senseless on 
 the carpet, face foremost, where he fell, with a dark stream 
 winding slowly, slowly, from his brown hair along the floor ; 
 and Tatters, who had barked furiously through the conflict, 
 unnoticed by either of the men, though he made his teeth 
 
 374 
 
A BBOKEN HEAD 875 
 
 meet in Pounder's boot, sitting on end at his master's side, 
 lamenting him in a series of loud, dismal, and long- 
 protracted howls. 
 
 " It's a devil of a mess," said Pounder, panting for 
 breath, and wiping the perspiration off his face, while he 
 slowly recovered the effect of his exertions. " He's a right 
 good man, though ! I don't know I ever had hold of so 
 good a man at the weight. I think I could have tackled 
 him by myself, too. I was coming round again when you 
 interfered between us. You must have hit uncommon hard, 
 Mr. Multiple. See ! you've broke my new umbrella all to 
 shivers. Well, we must bring him to, and hush the whole 
 thing up the best way we can." 
 
 So speaking. Pounder bent over the body of his late 
 antagonist, and lifted his head from the floor to inspect the 
 injuries he had received. 
 
 " Why, he don't move ! " exclaimed the acting partner 
 in great consternation. " Quick, Mr. Multiple ! Water, 
 water, for the love of heaven ! There's a ewer somewhere 
 in the front parlour. This is a bad business — a bad 
 business, I fear ! " 
 
 Multiple's face was ghastly white, and he trembled 
 visibly ; but there was something of the beast of prey even 
 in his fear, and he looked the murderer he might have 
 become, while he whispered huskily, " Better make sure. 
 Help me to make sure. Pounder, and put him out of the 
 way for good and all ! " 
 
 He quailed beneath the other man's look. There was in 
 it contempt, defiance, menace ; the indignation of a bold 
 nature at a coward's cruelty ; the warning flash of a long- 
 repressed spirit that seemed to say, " Have a care ! My 
 blood is up, too, and it would take but little to make me 
 lay you there beside him with a blow ! " 
 
 In that moment each man felt how much he hated the 
 other ; but Pounder's spirit was, for the time, in the 
 ascendant ; and when he imperiously repeated his command 
 to go for water, the other slunk from the room like a beaten 
 hound. 
 
 At his return, they propped the sufferer to the best of 
 their abilities, doing all that Pounder's experience suggested 
 to restore consciousness, though in vain. Jack breathed, 
 
876 TEE BBOOKES OF BBTDLEMEBE 
 
 indeed, but it was with a heavy, stentorious snore, and he 
 gave no other signs of vitality whatever. 
 
 " This will never do, Mr. Multiple," exclaimed his 
 partner, after a last unavailing effort. " The man will die 
 if we cannot get a doctor to him. This is something more 
 than a common crack on the head. Stop a moment, Sir ; 
 there's a surgeon lives next door. I'm sure of it, for I 
 knew a lad taken there from a cab-accident last winter. 
 We must carry him in directly. I see nothing else for it." 
 
 " It'll blow the whole thing," said the other, unwillingly. 
 " What a fool you were, Pounder, to show him the bill ! " 
 
 " Not so bad as if he died in our hands," expostulated 
 his partner. "How should you like a coroner's inquest, 
 Mr, Multiple ? and a jury to view the premises ? and you 
 and me shifting from the dock to the witness-box, according 
 to which could most criminate the other ? I tell you, if he 
 dies, that umbrella would hang either of us or both ! " 
 
 He must have hated him very sincerely, or he never 
 could have taken such delight in his confederate's discom- 
 fiture, being himself in an equally perilous situation. 
 
 Multiple was quite unnerved. The cold sweat stood on 
 his face, and his teeth chattered, but his cunning did not 
 forsake him, and dipping his handkerchief in the pool on 
 the carpet, he smeared the edge of the passage steps 
 carefully with blood. 
 
 " We must call it a fit, Pounder," said he, " and get 
 somebody to swear he was subject to them. You must 
 hide the umbrella away carefully, and take an opportunity 
 of destroying it unseen. Let us have our story perfect, my 
 good friend, that we may both tell the same. A client 
 comes in whom you don't know. You can swear you never 
 saw him before ; so, of course, you don't know him. He 
 seems labouring under excitement and is incoherent in his 
 talk. You are used to people being incoherent in their 
 talk when they want to borrow money. This will raise a 
 laugh, and that is always in your favour. Seeing the man 
 so excited, you endeavour to dissuade him from entering on 
 business till he is cooler, and entreat him to call again. 
 He leaves you in a towering passion, misses his footing on 
 the slippery oil-cloth outside, and falls with the back of his 
 iiead against the edge of the top step, which inflicts the 
 
A BBOKEN HEAD 877 
 
 fatal injury. For a few minutes you are paralysed, and 
 know not how to act. Then you remember your medical 
 friend next door, and seek assistance to carry him in. I 
 need not appear at all. Or stay, I am passing by at that 
 moment. You know me, though not intimately, and 
 entreat me to help you. I comply, as any Christian would. 
 I am on the Continent, travelling from place to place, 
 address very uncertain. My evidence would be quite 
 superfluous. I need not even be called." 
 
 Pounder smiled grimly. It was his partner all over ; but 
 he felt to fear him less now than he had done for many 
 months. He was himself very callous to personal 
 apprehension, and it was worth a considerable risk to 
 have gained, by the events of the last half-hour, so strong a 
 hold over one who had long had him in his power. A fair 
 upstanding tussle, too, with a man of his own strength and 
 weight, had done him a world of good. Altogether, 
 Pounder felt more like what he was at Balham, though 
 conscious at the same time of being mixed up with a very 
 awkward catastrophe in the Strand. 
 
 "While the story is making," said he, with a certain 
 sardonic humour, " the subject of it will die, unless we 
 bestir ourselves pretty smartly. Here ! catch hold of that 
 cloth. Put it over Ms face. No need that everybody 
 should see it, going from one door to the other. Wait 
 while I lift his shoulders. Now help me with the legs. 
 By Jove, what a fine-made chap he is ! D — n it, man, 
 don't hurt the dog ! " 
 
 Multiple had inflicted a savage kick upon poor Tatters, 
 who resented interference with the lower part of his 
 master's body. Nothing daunted, the terrier would have 
 made at him again, but something seemed to remind him 
 all at once that this was no time for bickering, and he 
 fell in with the mournful procession, walking peacefully 
 behind the bearers and their burden, utterly dejected and 
 forlorn. 
 
 The partners paused in the passage while one ran out to 
 knock at the neighbouring door, and returned quickly to his 
 task. No need, as Pounder said, that they should stand 
 longer in the street than they could help. The precaution, 
 though judicious, was unnecessary. There was but one 
 
378 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 solitary passenger, an ill-looking fellow in a shabby 
 velveteen coat, to witness their proceedings, and he seemed 
 quite unconscious of their presence. He could have found 
 out, indeed, nothing he did not know before, however 
 closely he had scanned them; but whatever his object 
 might be, his interest seemed chiefly centred in a sack 
 carried beneath his arm. 
 
 V/hen Miss Prince's door was opened, however, by the 
 astonished maid-of-all-work. Pounder, looking back for the 
 dog, observed the street was empty, and Tatters was gone. 
 
 The consternation created through the whole establish- 
 ment by this startling arrival may be easily imagined. 
 The maid-of-all-work, not subject to fainting fits unless 
 when excited by drink, and deban-ed, therefore, from the 
 resource of a good, hopeless, helpless swoon, screamed 
 lustily, tapping the floor with alternate feet, as though 
 dancing on hot plates of iron. Her shrieks brought Miss 
 Prince to the landing on the stairs, who stood there for at 
 least a minute, speechless, spell-bound, holding up her 
 gloved hands in an attitude of overwhelming horror and 
 consternation. She had scarcely made her appearance in 
 this tragic character, ere Jane rushed from the upper floor 
 with her cap-ribbons flaunting behind her, and Dot clinging 
 to her skirts. Having left her younger charges safe, 
 though insubordinate, in the nursery, she was less disposed 
 than the others to put an alarming construction on the 
 disturbance, and expressed her opinion audibly, and with 
 strong marks of disapproval, that it was " only a drunken 
 man, some friead of the lodger! and what business had 
 they to bring him here ? " 
 
 Mrs. George was engaged on a shopping expedition with 
 her husband, unfortunately for Miss Prince, who would 
 otherwise have fallen back literally and metaphorically on 
 the assistance of her pupil. The strong white arms would 
 have supported, and the ample person sheltered the poor 
 little governess, while Mrs. George's habits of command 
 and tendency to take the entire management of everything 
 and everybody about her, would have been invaluable in a 
 crisis like the present. Seeing, however, that she was 
 cheapening calico as far off as Eegent Street, it was no use 
 wishing for her. Philip, of course, was at his business ; 
 
A BROKEN HEAD 879 
 
 but fortunately, the most important person of all, viz., 
 Doctor Blair, was within. 
 
 I believe it was Dot's voice, rather than any unusual 
 sounds in the hall, that brought him out of his little 
 laboratory in the back parlour. As his gaunt figure 
 emerged from that retreat, it came in contact with 
 Pounder's broad back, and looking over that stalwart 
 bearer's head, the doctor perceived at once that some 
 serious accident, requiring his professional assistance, must 
 have taken place. Blair's eccentricities were chiefly 
 apparent when off duty. A call to action seemed to dispel 
 them at once ; and when his professional instincts were in 
 the ascendant, he could behave like other people. With a 
 glance at Dot, to make sure her precious safety was in no 
 way compromised, for the child's curly locks and round 
 astonished eyes were sufficiently conspicuous in the throng, 
 he whipped his coat off, turned up his shirt-sleeves, and 
 pushed Pounder aside from his place at the sufferer's 
 shoulders, ia the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 " In here, mon ! in here," said he, partly pulling the 
 body, and partly hustling the bearers into the front parlour, 
 which constituted Philip Stoney's bed-room. " There'll 
 no' be a toom space to dandle a cat in yon bit box, where I 
 keep my instruments. Come in ben, mon, and lay the 
 puir thing on the bed. See till I tak' the cloth off, an' I'll 
 sune redd him up, 'gin he be na clean past the joiner's 
 skill. Ay, ay, it's been a gay clean lick, yon ! I've seen 
 a mon clinkit doun on the stanes as deed's a 'nit wi' less ! " 
 
 Talking the whole time, he stripped the covering from 
 off Jack's face, propped him gently on the pillows, carefully 
 laying clean towels beneath his still bleeding head, applied 
 restoratives which, to a certain extent, acted at once, 
 snipped away the brown locks matted now with blood, and 
 did everything that surgery and sympathy together could 
 accomplish for the recovery of the patient ; but in all his 
 evolutions, and notwithstanding that his attention seemed 
 completely engrossed with the task, he contrived to inter- 
 pose his person between his two visitors and the door. 
 
 " Bide a wee," said the doctor, with a hitch of his gaunt 
 body in the way, as Multiple tried to sidle quietly past, and 
 make his escape imobserved. " Bide a wee, mon, or we 
 
380 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 ken if the lad's deed or alive. Hey ! tak' yon bason, an' 
 baud it here, the height o' my knee. Gatch hold o' yon 
 bit napkin. Canny, mon ! Canny ! I'm sayin' ! Though 
 it's joiner's wark, ye ken, it's no' a mantlepiece ye're 
 mendin', but a men's heed ! " 
 
 Thus did Doctor Blair skilfully contrive to keep Multiple 
 within reach ; nor was it until his experience had been 
 satisfied life was not possibly endangered, that he relaxed 
 his vigilance to inquire, in a franker and less suspicious 
 tone, the origin of the accident. 
 
 Pounder told their story as agreed upon. He was 
 unable, he said, to identify the gentleman, their conver- 
 sation had been exceedingly short, and confined to business 
 matters. The gentleman seemed flushed and excited. He 
 had, himself, remarked a strange sleepy expression in the 
 eye ; so much so, that he suggested they should defer any- 
 thing conclusive to a second interview. The gentleman 
 walked out hurriedly, Pounder should say, under great 
 excitement. No sooner was he in the passage, than he fell 
 with a heavy crash, cutting his head against the step. He 
 might have slipped, for the oU-cloth was very slippery ; 
 but Pounder was inclined to think he had a fit of some 
 sort, and no doubt he was subject to them. 
 
 To this lucid statement Doctor Blair listened very 
 attentively, making only a strange grimace at the mention 
 of the word "fit"; then he turned sharp round on Multiple, 
 and asked if he knew anything of the other gentlemen, or 
 the young man whom they both brought in ? 
 
 Multiple knew the other gentleman slightly ; had made 
 his acquaintance in the city ; believed him to be a most 
 respectable man ; was passing the door by chance at the 
 time of this deplorable accident, and rendered what little 
 assistance he could, as a matter of course. With regard to 
 the sufferer, really could not speak positively. It was 
 difficult to identify features when in that state of collapse. 
 Mr. Blair's professional experience (he believed he had 
 the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Blair — he begged pardon. 
 Doctor Blaii-). Well, Doctor Blair's professional experience 
 knew this better than he did, and that he had professional 
 experience was obvious &om his skilful treatment of the 
 patient, now, he hoped, in a fair way of recovery. They 
 
A BBOKBN HEAD 881 
 
 were both much indebted to him for his kindness, and the 
 other gentleman would take care that any expenses incurred 
 should be repaid. He was not staying in town himself, 
 and was even at the present moment very much engaged, 
 and desirous to be off. 
 
 The Doctor supposed that he "had gotten a name and 
 an' address, like other folk." 
 
 Certainly, his name was Francis. John Francis, Esq., 
 Pavilion Hotel, Folkestone. He was only in London for 
 the day : and, indeed, was about to return to the Continent 
 forthwith. 
 
 All this sounded plausible enough. Blair, though not 
 quite satisfied, was forced to content himself with it. 
 There seemed no pretext for attributing foul play to either 
 of these gentlemen; no sufiBcient reason for placing the 
 affair in the hands of the police. He did not think much 
 of the last speaker, with his flashy dress and pretentious 
 manners ; but even if the patient's injuries should take a 
 fatal turn, the other party would be forthcoming, no doubt. 
 He knew the other party by sight, as a householder next 
 door. Being a lodger himself, Mr. Blair had great faith in 
 the respectability of householders. The name, he now 
 ascertained, was Pounder. Well, he must look to Mr. 
 Pounder, in the event of an inquiry becoming necessary. 
 What he did not like in the business was, the suggestion 
 of a fit; and he kept muttering, in a jerking, uncomfortable 
 sort of way, "Fett, indeed! Fett! Whatna like fetts 
 yon, to cut a gash in a men's occiput 'hree inches long, and 
 as deep as a dyke-back ? Weel, weel, there's some would 
 ha' redded him up waur nor Andrew Blair. I ken fine the 
 way to clout a broken heed, wha but me ? I've sat an' 
 sorted them by twanties. It was, ay, 'Whaur's Blair? 
 I'm wantan' Blair. Bin for Doctor Blair ! ' 
 
 " Cows' milk an' marea' milk, 
 An' every beast that bears milk, 
 Between Saint Johnstoun and Dundee, 
 Come a' to me — come a' to me." 
 
 Then he turned to Pounder and told him point-blank that 
 he should hold him accountable for the whole transaction, 
 both to the Mends of the patient and to the public, should 
 
S82 TEB BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 any inquiries be hereafter instituted — a responsibility which 
 the money-lender gladly accepted, feeling he was thus 
 further neutralising the obligations that existed between 
 his partner and himself. 
 
 As soon as Jack had been made pretty comfortable on 
 Philip Stoney's bed, though he had not yet recovered 
 consciousness, Pounder took his leave. Multiple having 
 departed directly he could do so without appearing too 
 unfeeling. Blair then proceeded up stairs to reconcile 
 Miss Prince to this invasion of her premises, and found that 
 lady in a towering passion, at least for her. In anyone of 
 less equable temper, it would have been but mild dis- 
 approval. " She had no notion," she said, " of her house 
 being turned into an hospital. Why didn't they take the 
 poor thing to the hospital, or the public-house, or the work- 
 house, or somewhere? and she was surprised at Doctor 
 Blair, that she was ; so inconsiderate. She should have 
 thought he knew better ; that she should ! " 
 
 The doctor was not unskilled in the very rudiments of 
 his profession, nor ignorant how the gentle sex may be 
 most readily brought round, under anything like dis- 
 composure or vexation. He was well aware that in such 
 cases it is sound practice to eschew argument, soothe 
 irritation, and stimulate curiosity. 
 
 " Miss Prince," said he, with a certain pomp that he 
 had found imposed successfully on his landlady, " I've no' 
 got to be told the day that ye're mair a Samauritan than a 
 Londoner. I'm no' sayin' but yon lad in the front parlour 
 may ha' fall'n among thieves. There's a mystery some- 
 where, my good leddy, an' a pirn it'll tak' time to unwind. 
 A bonny lad, he is, too, an' an awfu' clink he's gotten in 
 his brain-pan, if brains he behove to have like you an' me. 
 Pairfect quiet, mem, an' a good sleep, once he's sensible, 
 may bring him round ; but it's a doubtful case, my good 
 leddy ; a doubtful case ; an' I would like weel to get your 
 opinion, 'gin ye would step doun, an' tak' a look of him. 
 Ye're a quiet body, Miss Prince, an' your foot falls as light 
 as a faiiy's." 
 
 Could any woman, especially any little woman, exulting 
 in the airy proportions of her figure, and secretly proud of 
 her feet, resist such a proposal, so beautifully put ? 
 
A BBOKEN BEAD 383 
 
 Miss Prince smiled blandly, nay affectionately, in her 
 tall lodger's face, and followed him down stairs like a middle- 
 aged sylph. It needed but one peep into the front parlour, 
 where Jack Brooke lay, to convert her feelings of disapproval 
 into the v/armest sympathy. She saw a towel steeped in 
 blood on the floor, a long figure prostrate on the bed, a 
 scatter of brown hair and another red-stained cloth on the 
 pillow ; and though she sickened and trembled, while her 
 eyes filled with tears, the brave little woman whispered her 
 readiness to remain all day, if necessary, at her post, as 
 nurse to the sufferer. 
 
 This, however, was by no means Blair's object. Having 
 won her over so judiciously, he was now only anxious to 
 get her out of the room, and Miss Prince went up-stairs 
 "all of a twitter," as she observed, without identifying 
 Jack Brooke ; having seen, indeed, nothing of him but his 
 blood and the back of his bandaged head. 
 
 Doctor Blair, though, had risen fifty per cent, in his 
 landlady's good opinion with the events of the morning. 
 " Such a skilful operator, my dear," as she afterwards 
 observed to Mrs. George Stoney, in furnishing a confidential 
 report of all that had taken pla,ce. " Not that I saw him 
 at work, of course ; but his manipulation, I understand, is 
 considered by the profession perfection. And so gentle- 
 manly with it. Eeminds me of my poor uncle — military, 
 you know ; and such a fine figure of a man ; but affable to 
 a degree. I'm sure, when he came to take the lodgings I'd 
 no idea. It only shows how people may be deceived. I 
 do assure you, Isabella, when he took me down to the poor 
 young man's room, and I saw the bandages and the blood, 
 and all, on the floor, I felt that if I hadn't had such entire 
 confidence in him, both professionally and as a perfect 
 gentleman, I must have dropped. It's been quite an 
 adventure, dear, hasn't it ? But we mustn't make a noise 
 talking, as our good doctor pronounces that perfect quiet — 
 with skilful treatment and nourishing food, of course — but 
 that perfect quiet is indispensable for recovery." 
 
 From Miss Prince's raptures it may be gathered that her 
 scientific lodger had made a rapid and effectual conquest of 
 his landlady, and had gained in a few minutes what she 
 would have termed a large share of her esteem. The only 
 
884 TES BBOOKBS OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 intimation, howeTer, she vouchsafed him of this favourable 
 state of feeling was a mild request that he would partake of 
 their family tea up-stairs, in Mrs. Stoney's sitting-room, at 
 seven o'clock — an invitation which suited the doctor 
 remarkably well, inasmuch as he was at that moment 
 meditating the removal of his patient, by means of his own 
 strong arms and the stout maid-of-all-work's help, to his 
 bed-room on the drawing-room floor, which he would vacate 
 for a shake-down in the sitting-room adjoining, and where 
 he could have him under his own hourly surveillance, 
 especially during the night. Doctor Blair was a great man 
 for " watching a case," exemplifying the necessity of such 
 vigilance by the following metaphor : — 
 
 " The whole art of surgery, an' the pharmacopoeia to 
 boot, 's just a bung in a bar'l. Gin ye dinna want the 
 bar'l wasted, ye'U keep your eye on the bung ; aince it's 
 oot, there's nae mair drink till the neist brewin'." 
 
 Jack Brooke then lay, all unconscious, outside Philip 
 Stoney's bed; and the latter, plodding on, column after 
 column, with laborious pen, little dreamed that his daily 
 life was again to be interwoven with associations he loved 
 so dearly for Helen's sake. Her brother ! Could he have 
 guessed the truth, I question if the clerk's accounts would 
 have come right that day, if correct orders would have been 
 given to travellers or light porters, and necessary letters 
 written without mistakes by post-time. Business men are 
 sometimes in love, too; but it is not a business transaction: 
 and I would rather myself take a clerk who had been 
 married a few years, and was familiar with the blessing, 
 than one on the eve of entering the holy state. 
 
 Philip Stoney had tried hard to shake off the influence 
 of his dream, and succeeded as a right-thinking, resolute 
 man always does succeed; but though the vision had 
 departed, there was a faded and reflected light still left. 
 He was not happier — far from it; but he was better; 
 wiser, sadder, quieter, but indubitably better, and this, I 
 think, is usually the effect wrought on a noble nature by 
 deep sorrow of the heart. It suffers in silence, and there- 
 fore, while it suffers, it reflects. Joy makes her favourites 
 genial, frank, high-spirited, and out-spoken ; but grief 
 teaches her pupils purity, sympathy, self-sacrifice, and 
 
A BBOKEN BEAD 885 
 
 trust. Her lessons are hard indeed to learn, and harder to 
 forget ; but I think they will not leave us with the rest of 
 oui" education ; and when we have done with the training of 
 the body and the teaching of the intellect, we shall find 
 they were the true schooling of the soul. Philip's early 
 life had fitted him as well to obtain mastery over self as to 
 battle with the world. Habits of business form, perhaps, 
 the best of all mere physical groundworks on which to 
 build up a character of self-reliance and self-restraint, 
 producing, as they seldom fail to do, a tendency to close 
 reasoning and constant mental supervision. That system 
 of " taking stock " is a wonderful up-rooter of false ideas, 
 a wonderful leveller of self-conceit. A man who is exact in 
 trifles will seldom deceive himself in important matters, 
 just as the reckoner who adds his pence up correctly is 
 little liable to make mistakes when he reaches the column 
 that sets forth the pounds. 
 
 An athlete of mere average energy may easily overtax 
 his muscles to the detriment of his mind. Excess of 
 physical exertion, even when beneficial to the frame, robs 
 the brain of that mysterious fluid which constitutes its 
 motive power, and for which science has yet to find a name, 
 so that while body and mind act and react on each other 
 with surprising fidelity, the grosser slave of the two is 
 extremely prone to fail his fellow-workman should he find 
 his share of the labour one jot more than he considers his 
 due. The youth who turns his attention to becoming a 
 wrestler will, even if he succeeds in his ambition, never be 
 more than 
 
 " The best wrestler on the green," 
 
 and the gymnasium, with all its advantages, is not the 
 best school fi:om wliich to turn out a truly successful 
 man. 
 
 A liberal education, as it is called, on the other hand, 
 confined far too exclusively to the ornaments of literature, 
 is prone to produce nothing better than a mere elegant 
 scholar, whose very studies have taught him to relish those 
 luxuries of the intellect which waste and enervate the 
 character, just as stimulants sap and destroy the frame. 
 
 25 
 
886 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 He may write a pleasing romance, perhaps, or a fine poem, 
 but he will not be found in the front rank of those who 
 further the good work with hand and brain. He will 
 neither be a great statesman, a great soldier, a great orator, 
 philosopher, discoyerer, or philanthropist. To be great, 
 requires not only the comprehensive mind that embraces 
 the widest views, but also the keen perception that detects 
 the slightest flaw, the orderly exactitude that pays scrupu- 
 lous attention to details. A bad man of business is never 
 a really good man at anything in the world. 
 
 Helen's training, too, like that of Philip, had during 
 her earlier years been of a kind to elevate her out of self. 
 Though an only daughter, living with a father and two 
 brothers, she had not been subject to the over-indulgence 
 such a position usually entails. Her father's calls on her 
 time and patience had served to teach her the hard lesson 
 very soon, and she had profited by it. 
 
 The last person Helen ever thought of was Miss Brooke ; 
 and now in her great sorrow, this habit, ingrained in her 
 natm-e, of considering others before herself, alone enabled 
 her to bear the daily trials of the present and to face the 
 gloomy perspective of the future. 
 
 There was one indulgence, however, notwithstanding her 
 fortitude, to which Helen clung with strange pertinacity. 
 It was her afternoon walk, when she was dismissed attend- 
 ance on her father during the hour or two of his customary 
 slumber. 
 
 Wet or dry, she scarcely ever missed it now; and the 
 servants at Bridlemere, taking note, according to custom, 
 and discussing with great freedom their young lady's 
 doings, though they wondered that she always took the 
 same direction, agreed that " she looked very peaking, 
 poor thing; and the walk, no doubt, did her a world of 
 good ! " 
 
 Even the Squire, feeble as he was, and engrossed with 
 the new medicine that was to restore his failing powers so 
 miraculously, found time to observe Helen's altered looks, 
 and found fault, with the irritability of self-reproach, 
 because she was so pale. 
 
 On the very day that Jack had gone up to London in 
 secrecy — nay, at the very hour he was laying unconscious 
 
A BBOKEN HEAD 887 
 
 on Philip Stoney's bed, and Blair was making arrange- 
 ments to move that fine helpless form up stairs to his 
 own, the Squire was croaking out a feeble remonstrance 
 on his daughter's habit of sitting brooding with her face 
 so near the fire. 
 
 "It burns every atom of colour off your cheek, Helen," 
 he quavered out, as angry as if deprecating some loss of 
 property, or injury to himself; " and you will be the only 
 Brooke, fi:om old Dorcas downwards, ever known to wear a 
 pale face. In my time, young people didn't use to sit 
 moping over the fire all the best part of a spring morning. 
 They bustled about, like bees in a bee-hive, from sunrise 
 to simset, as merry as May-day. I can't think what has 
 come to them all now. What does Jack mean by bouncing 
 off like this, without a ' By your leave,' or ' With your 
 leave ? ' and who is to see Marks, I should like to know, 
 about the road-rate ? I'd go myself, if I thought it would 
 hold up (Helen, put my gloves along with the hat, instead 
 of laying them across the stick, where they're no use) ; but 
 it looks like rain — uncommon like rain, and it wouldn't do 
 to get wet, first day of going out, and all. Middlesworth 
 market? What d'ye mean about Middlesworth market? 
 He never loovM go there without seeing me first ! Then 
 Walter's forgotten his old father, since he's been so much 
 at Tollesdale. Walter and — what's his name ? and you, 
 Helen, all undutiful ! Three undutiful children ! Not you, 
 my darling ! not you ! " he continued, whimpering, as his 
 better feelings obtained the mastery, and he remembered 
 his daughter's gentleness and patience, and sad, uneventful 
 life, wearisome for one so young. Then he pulled her face 
 down to his own, and kissed it, wetting it with his tears ; 
 but forgot them long ere they were dry, and so maundering 
 on about his broth and his medicine, cLropped asleep at his 
 usual time, and left the poor, pale, fond attendant fi:ee for 
 an hour at least. 
 
 So Helen put on her walking things, and emerged fi:om 
 the breakfast-room window — she always went out at the 
 breakfast-room window now — then proceeded right across 
 the park, till she reached a clump of trees on a rising 
 ground, from which, looking back, Bridlemere House could 
 be seen plainly, but beyond which the slope of the hill hid 
 
388 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 it from the eye. Here she stopped to gather a violet or 
 two nestling under the old elms, and hid them in her 
 bosom. But she kissed the sweet flowers tenderly before 
 she put them away, and a drop fell on them that was clear 
 and pure as the dew of heaven, though it came but from a 
 poor, aching, earthly heart. She had always loved violets 
 from a child, but their fragrance had never been so painful 
 yet so dear to her as now. Then she walked on with 
 slower and sadder step, avoiding a certain stile at which 
 she remembered to have been affronted once by the un- 
 welcome courtesy of a stranger, who — was no stranger 
 now! 
 
 She started, as if she had been stung, and hurried 
 fiercely forward in the direction of Dame Batters' cottage. 
 She paid a visit there most days now, and was welcome 
 as an angel of light to the poor old woman, who loved to 
 relate her troubles to " our Miss Brooke " over and over 
 again, never tired of descanting on her Jem's disappear- 
 ance : her own rheumatism ; the changes — dear me! the 
 changes wrought by time; the wickedness of Middles- 
 worth ; the fire at the brewery, and the sad loss sustained 
 by the town in the ruin of Stoney Brothers. 
 
CHAPTEE XXV 
 
 A BUNDLE OP STICKS 
 
 " One, two, three, four, five, six ; and one for the pot ! 
 I've often heard my uncle declare — a. military man like 
 yourself, Doctor — that weak tea was as unwholesome as 
 weak brandy-and-water. Belaxing, he said, and deleterious 
 at the same time, while strong tea braces the nerves, and 
 strong 'grog,' I think he called it, gives a fillip to the 
 system. Only think ! " 
 
 Miss Prince sat in great state at her tea-table in the 
 front bedroom, now used conjointly by herself and the 
 Stoneys as a refectory. They "took their meals" to- 
 gether, the little woman contriving in this, as in many 
 other ways, to save her lodgers' pockets at the expense 
 of her own. On the present occasion, with a playful 
 application of the old school-girl vocabulary, she persisted 
 in considering the party as " her treat ; " in no way dis- 
 guising the fact that it was held for the greater glorification 
 of her new favourite. Doctor Blair. She and Isabella had 
 therefore attired themselves in their garments of state ; the 
 latter looking very handsome in a black satin dress that 
 had already done a good deal of duty on festive occasions ; 
 but that set off to advantage her white skin, her massive 
 proportions, and the braids of her long, silky, dark hair. 
 Miss Prince herself was dressed in a brocade, of an 
 enormous pattern, not unlike the papering of a veiy old- 
 fashioned bedroom, but of a costly texture, which for value, 
 and indeed antiquity, might have belonged to the Queen of 
 Sheba. It seems a peculiarity of this particular fabric that 
 
 it is prone to force much of the wearer's person into an 
 
 m 
 
890 THB BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 unbroken protuberance immediately below the chin, and on 
 this protuberance Miss Prince had planted a wide cameo 
 brooch, representing several naked figures, in attitudes 
 more or less suggestive of classical beauty and Pagan 
 propensities. Thus attired, the little lady considered her- 
 self, as it were, en tenue de campagne, but the addition 
 of a pair of green kid gloves brought her out forthwith in 
 "review order." She waved her gloved hand over the 
 teapot, and told the Doctor once more, and for the tenth 
 time, that " she was glad to see him, and hoped he was a 
 tea drinker." 
 
 Now, Doctor Blair had been a traveller in his day, and 
 before he joined the Dancing Hussars (which regiment he 
 had also accompanied through many a long march in the 
 glowing mornings of the tropics) had wandered, on his own 
 account, over almost every part of the world in which tea 
 is consumed. Had drank it hot, weak, and unpalatable, in 
 lonely posting-houses, on those dreary, monotonous, inter- 
 minable journeys across Russia, that oppress the senses 
 like a dream, and like a dream leave no salient points, no 
 definite objects nor events by which to distinguish them 
 when they are past. Had chipped off corners fi;om a solid 
 brick of it with the handle of his knife, and boiled them 
 over a fire of camels' dung in the wastes of Tartary, to 
 share the beverage with a sallow, flat-faced*, beady-eyed 
 comrade in a sheepskin garment, greasy, woolly, and lined 
 throughout vsdth vermin. Had even watered spoonfuls of 
 it lying at the bottom of transparent porcelain cups, and 
 pledged in the steaming draught no less dignified a host 
 than a mandarin of the second class in the Celestial 
 Empire. 
 
 Cold and strong in Crimean trenches, weak and scalding 
 in Parisian salons, Blair had drunk tea wherever tea was 
 made, but never, he declared, with such satisfaction as 
 to-night ; for was not Dot flitting gaily about him, bringing 
 sugar, cream, muffins, cut bread-and-butter; and was he 
 not prescribing to his favourite, and administering, surrep- 
 titious slices of the latter, plastered with jam a quarter of 
 an inch thick ? 
 
 "Your tea's as strong as brandy. Miss Prince," said the 
 Doctor, approvingly, finishing his first cup at two gulps. 
 
A BUNDLE OF STICKS 891 
 
 " I'll no' say strong tea's as good as strong toddy, though ; 
 but little Missy here is wearyin' for a sup, and I'll just ask 
 ye for another dish before ye begin to a second brew." 
 
 "Now, Dot! I will not have you worry the Doctor," 
 interposed Mrs. George, already prepared, womanlike, to 
 fall down and worship, because the visitor had been repre- 
 sented to her as a hero. " She's such a child for the gentle- 
 men, Doctor. I declare to you I can't keep her away from 
 them : and papa spoils her so, he makes her worse. I'm 
 sure. Dot, if you go on as you've begun, I don't know what 
 you'll come to when you're grown up. Don't let her tease 
 you. Doctor. Dot ! do you hear me ? Get off the gentle- 
 man's knee ! " 
 
 But Dot knew better. Another prescription was in 
 course of preparation, and the merry eyes laughed and 
 sparkled while the remedy was stuifed into the rosy, 
 expectant mouth. Then Dot put both her fat arms 
 round her new friend's neck, and kissed him publicly, 
 without the slightest affectation of diffidence or discom- 
 posure. " I like you, good Blair ! " pronounced the 
 young lady, as clearly as the process of mastication would 
 permit. " I'm to be your wife, you know, instead of Uncle 
 Phil's, ain't I, mamma? I like you, and I like Uncle 
 Phil, and I like papa, and I like mamma, and I like Miss 
 Prince, and I like Jane, but I don't like Mr. Multiple ! " 
 
 Dot chanted the roll of her predilections in the sing- 
 song with which children usually get over anything like 
 repetition, as being less wearisome than simple recitative. 
 It is a tone that forces itself on the least attentive circle, 
 and Dot's audience were by this time listening to her 
 open-mouthed. 
 
 " Mr. Multiple, child ! " said her mother, laughing, in 
 spite of herself, at Dot's eagerness. " What can have put 
 Mr. Multiple in your head ? " 
 
 Philip, too, looked up from his plate uneasily at the 
 name. It sounded harsh in his ears. Perhaps he had 
 learned, as people so circumstanced always do learn un- 
 welcome facts, that the gentleman was a great deal at 
 Bridlemere ; and because he had resigned his treasure 
 was no reason he should cease to be jealous of it. 
 
 "I saw Mr. Multiple to-day," replied Dot, nodding her 
 
392 T3E BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 head a great many times to imply certainty. "I saw Mm 
 with good Blair on the staircase. Didn't I, good Blair ? " 
 
 " The bairn was playin' herself on the stair," observed 
 the Doctor, thus appealed to, " whan the puir fallow that's 
 gotten his heed brok' was brought ben to this gentlemen's 
 room.^^ I was feared the bit lassie might ha' gotten a fright, 
 mem," he added, apologetically to his little friend's mamma, 
 " but she's a fine spirit for sic a young thing. It would be 
 a gruesome bogle, I'm thinkin', that would daunton Miss 
 Dot." 
 
 All this, like most indeed of the guest's conversation, 
 was Hebrew to Mrs. Stoney; but she bowed, neverthe- 
 less, with great dignity, and tm-ning sharply on the child, 
 repeated her question — 
 
 "What can you mean, you silly thing! about Mr. 
 Multiple ? I can't think when you have ever set eyes on 
 him, even last vrinter, at Middlesworth ; but how dare you 
 say you saw him here to-day? " 
 
 " I did see him, mamma," answered the child, grately, 
 colouring up very much, and nestling closer to " good 
 Blair's" side. "He was helping another gentleman to 
 carry the thing into Uncle Phil's room. The other gentle- 
 man lives next door. I often see him go out when I'm at 
 tea. I don't like Mr. Multiple, mamma, because Jane said 
 he was a bad man, when we met him in Hosier Street, near 
 my own home ; and I would have told him to go away to- 
 day, but the thing was covered up, and had blood on it, 
 and I was frightened, and hid my face in Jane's gown till 
 good Blair shut the door." 
 
 The Doctor looked from one to the other of the tea- 
 drinkers with suspicion stamped on his shrewd Scotch 
 face. George Stoney, though lately become the most 
 silent of men, replied to the question conveyed by the 
 expression of that hard-featured countenance. "When 
 Dot speaks like that," said he, "you may be sure she is 
 in earnest, and knows what she is about. The child never 
 told a story in her life, and never forgot a face she had 
 once seen. It's a peculiarity she inherits neither from her 
 mamma nor me." 
 
 " It's impossible Mr. Multiple could have been here to- 
 day," interposed Uncle Phil, disregarding Dot's reproachful 
 
A BUNDLE OF STICKS 393 
 
 looks. " I have reason to believe he is at this moment in 
 the town of Middlesworth — and I wish I was there, too," 
 added Philip, to himself, with a sigh. 
 
 " Do you know anything of this Mr. Multiple ? " inquired 
 the Doctor, carelessly, preparing at the same time another 
 liberal mouthful of consolation for his pet. "Is he a 
 gentleman or a professional man? or just a do-nothing, 
 daundering and trafficing about?" 
 
 " He's a man with plenty of money," replied Philip, 
 speaking very fast, while his colour rose ; " and seems 
 to do plenty of harm with it. I know nothing of him 
 myself, and have heard but little from the Middlesworth 
 people. That little is quite enough. I wish to heaven 
 he had never come within a hundred miles of the town ! " 
 
 He hid his face in his teacup when he had finished, a 
 little ashamed of his ebullition. 
 
 " And which o' the gentlemen do they call Mr. Multiple, 
 my bonnie bird? " asked Doctor Blair, in coaxing tones of 
 the lady on his knee. " Was it the stout, wise-like man wi' 
 a white cravat, an' a decent black cot like a meenister, or 
 the set-up, saucy chap wi' a curly heed, and saft hands, and 
 rings, and bonnydies, an' ' havers,' that set a woman better 
 than a mon." 
 
 Constant practice, and feminine affection, had rendered 
 Dot a proficient in the Scottish tongue, of which language 
 indeed she favoured Jane with many choice samples in the 
 nursery ; she understood her gigantic playfellow perfectly 
 well, and replied without hesitation 
 
 " It was Mr. Multiple that went backwards into Uncle 
 Phil's room. I don't know the other gentleman, though I 
 see him when I'm at tea, and Jane says he's a curmudgeon. 
 But I do know Mr. Multiple, and I don't like him." 
 
 Doctor Blair looked thoughtful. He felt satisfied the 
 child was sure of her man, and, indeed. Dot's positive, 
 though simple manner, canied conviction along with it. 
 He ran over the circumstances of the whole affair in his 
 own mind, and it looked more mysterious now when thus 
 reviewed than it had done under the immediate bustle 
 created by the emergency. Two men bringing another in 
 half-dead — indeed, a good deal more than half to any but 
 professional eyes — accounting for the sufferer's state by a 
 
394 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 tale that bore on the^ face of it marks of medical incon- 
 sistency and untruth; only remaining to see the patient 
 well bestowed, but hurrying off before they could know for 
 certain whether he would or would not recover from the 
 blow, and one of them giving a false name before he left ! 
 
 " John Francis," repeated the Scotchman, in indignant 
 murmurs to himself. " John Francis, indeed ; Paveelion 
 Hotel, Folkestone. There's a wise-like address for a 
 decent mon ! Ye thought ye'd be like the tailor lad wha 
 cuttit aff his ain shanks wi' his ain shears, an' had gotten 
 a fale to you surgeon. Bide you a wee, Maister John 
 Francis, or Multiple, or whatever they call ye. Andry 
 Blair'U be upsides wi' ye, for all that's come and gaun yet. 
 An' ye're kenspeckle enough, my mon. Even the bairnie 
 here was dooms sure o' ye at the very onset. Dinna you 
 think I'm like to forget ye ; and once your heed's under my 
 belt, I'll wring it aff for ye, sure as my name's Blair ! " 
 
 But it was not the Doctor's practice to wear his thoughts 
 on his sleeve, and he entertained moreover, certain old- 
 fashioned notions as to the stringent requirements of good 
 breeding. He always admitted, despite his ungainly 
 exterior, that he was rather a ladies' man, and he busied 
 himself now to hand the teacups, carry the kettle, and 
 cut more bread-and-butter, of which seductive food he and 
 Dot had between them consumed an inordinate quantity, 
 with an alacrity that won him golden opinions from his 
 landlady. 
 
 Miss Prince thought she had never before met one of the 
 opposite sex who combined, as she expressed it, such 
 delicate attentions with such a manly deportment. Lord 
 Waywarden had hitherto constituted her ideal of what a 
 gentleman should be ; but Lord Waywarden, though 
 doubtless a most agreeable person, never could keep awaie 
 to talk to her for more than five minutes at a time. 
 Neither was his lordship's conversation, she must allow, so 
 improving as the Doctor's, nor his accent so impressive and 
 remarkable. Miss Prince was quite gratified, when she 
 came to think of it, that the poor young man, whose 
 identity she little suspected, had been brought in to recover 
 consciousness beneath her roof. 
 
 The teapot had to be refilled more than once, and under 
 
A BUNDLE OF STICKS 895 
 
 its genial influence the ladies' tongnes were loosened, and 
 they discoursed volubly on their own and their neighbours' 
 affairs. Wine is, no doubt, an incentive to conversation ; 
 but I think for the encouragement of that kind of talk 
 which attributes startling motives to common actions; 
 which exchanges information, remarkable alike for its 
 imprudence and its improbability ; which is understood, in 
 short by the generic term "gossip," the bottle is far behind 
 the teapot. 
 
 Miss Prince's third cup led her insensibly back to the 
 spacious halls and lofty chambers of Tollesdale. She 
 impressed on her guest, at great length, the height of the 
 hall, the proportions and furniture (different in each), of 
 the rooms on the ground floor, the number and value of the 
 pictures, the width of the staircase, and the length of the 
 conservatory. Thence, by an easy transition, diverging 
 into an eulogy of his lordship's character, his hospitality, 
 his magnificence, his county influence, and the affability of 
 his manners. " Lady Waywarden, too," continued Miss 
 Prince, warming to the subject as she sipped her tea, " is 
 a most elegant person. She was the Court beauty. 
 Doctor Blair ; quite the Court beauty of her day, when you. 
 Sir, must have been a boy at school, and I myself was " — 
 (here her conscience, admonished by a sparkle of mirth in 
 Mrs. George's eyes, gave her a vigorous nudge) — "well, 
 when I was a good deal younger than I am now. She 
 never had his lordship's angelic temper. Sir ; far from it ; 
 but her complexion was like a girl's of eighteen, and her 
 handwriting copper-plate. I do assure you, positive copper- 
 plate. You must have observed. Doctor, how a fine skin 
 nms in families. My own poor mother was called the 
 White Kose of Tiverton, and Isabella here, Mrs. Stoney, 
 has three sisters — haven't you dear? — with velvet skins 
 like your own. It's no wonder Lady Julia should be 
 beautiful. Lady Julia Treadwell, Doctor, that's their only 
 daughter and my pupil. I think my favourite pupil, after 
 you, Isabella dear. A most engaging young lady. Doctor 
 Blair. Such a figure ! such spirits ! such talents ! The 
 best dancer, so they said, yet turned out by the Entrechats 
 pere et JUs, and as kind a heart as ever beat in a pure and 
 virgin bosom ! " 
 
396 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIBLEMEBE 
 
 Here Miss Prince blushed a little, coughed, and paused^ 
 being out of breath. 
 
 The Doctor thought he was expected to say something, 
 so he hitched Dot on the other knee, and blm-ted out 
 
 " It's a wonder she's no' got married yet ! " 
 
 Miss Prince nodded her head a great many times, there* 
 by bespeaking the attention of her audience, especially 
 Mrs. George, ere she observed sagaciously 
 
 " Quite a gentleman's remark, I'm sure, and more to the 
 purpose than you might have supposed. I think there is 
 no doubt she is going to be married, and that almost 
 immediately, though as yet it is to be kept a profound 
 secret." 
 
 Mrs. George half rose from her chair at the news. 
 
 " Oh ! I am so glad ! " she exclaimed, as though the 
 intelligence imparted some keen and inexplicable joy ; and 
 that Lady Julia's coverture could signify one toss of a half- 
 penny to her. Even Dot looked up delighted. Miss Prince 
 herself was vibrating all over with suppressed importance 
 and satisfaction. What is there in the matrimonial yoke 
 that its imposition on a fresh bondsman should afford such 
 universal contentment to the whole of the gentler sex ? It 
 cannot be the unworthy consideration that another com- 
 petitor is promoted out of the ranks ; for grandmamma on 
 crutches, who has long withdrawn from the game, and Miss 
 Saucebox there in short frocks, who has not yet become a 
 player, are equally sincere in their congratulations. Every- 
 body knows that at a wedding the church is filled with 
 women who have no concern, directly or indirectly, with 
 the principal performers. I don't think I ever heard of a 
 man attending this sacred ordinance unless compelled to do 
 so, and the compulsion, by the way, is invariably under 
 female pressure. Is it then uimiixed joy, I say, at a sister's 
 triumph, or gratitude for her deliverance from the perils of 
 spinsterhood, or a fine liberal satisfaction in the victory of 
 the good cause? I am inclined to repudiate all these 
 explanations, and to believe that, like the Ministerial party 
 in the House of Commons, the whole female sex exult, as 
 an abstract question of principle, in the winning of every 
 additional unit to the side of the Government. 
 
 " I'm afraid I am very indiscreet," resumed Miss Prince, 
 
A BUNDLE OF STICKS ' 897 
 
 with a smile at the Doctor ; " but among friends I may be 
 confident it will go no farther. My sweet pupil, as I am 
 informed, is about to bestow her hand on a very old 
 acquaintance, and a very near neighbour, and a very hand- 
 some young gentleman. Mr. Stoney, you must know 
 whom I mean ! " 
 
 Mr. Stoney, thus adjured, woke up from a brown study, 
 and guessed Sir Abraham Evergreen, a county baronet of 
 seventy, who had buried two wives already, and lived at 
 least forty miles from ToUesdale, as the crow files. His 
 suggestion was coughed down at once. 
 
 " It is a most suitable match," continued the tea-maker, 
 with a dignified wave of the unoccupied hand in its green 
 kid glove. " Suitable in years, connections, personal ap- 
 pearance, expectations, really in every respect, and I am 
 heartily glad of it. What do you think, my dear Isabella ? 
 What do you think of young Mr. Brooke, of Bridlemere ? " 
 Philip looked up interested enough now, though for an 
 instant something swept across his face like pain. His 
 sister-in-law saw it, though no one else did, and she 
 repeated Miss Prince's words in such a tone of wonder as 
 startled that lady again at score. 
 
 " Not the eldest Mr. Brooke ; not the young Squire as 
 they call him, who was never mtich of a favourite with my 
 sweet girl ; but the second son, Mr. Walter. Such a hand- 
 some young man ! very dashing, very accomplished ! They 
 will, indeed, be a most elegant couple ! " 
 
 " All this is vary inter — esting," observed the Doctor, 
 fidgeting on his chair, now that he had finished his tea, 
 and beginning to feel it was time to go and look after his 
 patient. " Aji' I'm thinkin' if the leddy was yov/r scholar, 
 mem, she'll be as gude as she's bonny. Are ye wantin' 
 doun, little missie ? Ye'U excuse my takin' leave of the 
 company for the present. Miss Prince. I've a bit joiner's 
 wark, ye ken, that will noo want shuperveesion. May be, 
 I'll hae to pit in a tack, just to keep the bung in the bar'l 
 yet. I've had a vara pleesan' crack, an' a most deleeshus 
 tea, and soe I'll just tak' a French leave o' ye, wi' a Bong 
 swore, la compagnie !" 
 
 Mollified, however, by the entreaties of all parties — for 
 all, except perhaps Philip, were bursting with curiosity — 
 
398 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 the Doctor promised to look in later, with news of his 
 patient, pending which return Miss Prince flourished the 
 teapot once again, for a little more gossip, and another cup 
 of her favourite hoTerage. 
 
 " Have I astonished you enough, my dears? " said she, 
 looking round triumphant, " or shall I tell you another 
 piece of news ahout the old county in which we have all 
 passed so many happy days ? Ah ! I have got a hudget of 
 marriages for you when once I begin. What should you 
 say if Mr. Walter Brooke were not the only one of his 
 family about to enter the holy state? " 
 
 PhUip turned very pale, but answered never a word. 
 
 " Say ! " exclaimed Mrs. George, advancing boldly to the 
 rescue, though fearful of what was coming next. "Why, 
 that it was extremely improbable, unless you had it on the 
 best authority. Humour, we used to learn at school, has a 
 hundred tongues. When the rumour is concerning 
 marriages, I think a hundred thousand would be nearer the 
 mark." 
 
 " Well, my dear," admitted Miss Prince, " I'll allow I'm 
 not so certain of this wedding as the other. I've often 
 been surprised, though, that Miss Brooke hasn't married 
 years ago. With her beauty, and her sweet temper, and 
 her expectations from her uncle, I don't know any young 
 lady less entitled to remain in a state of single blessedness. 
 Don't you think so, Mr. Philip ? You know her, I believe, 
 better than any of the other townspeople in Middlesworth." 
 
 Philip forced himself to answer with a brave fixed 
 face — 
 
 " I had the pleasure of knowing Miss Brooke, and seeing 
 her very often in her own family. She is too good for any 
 man, were he the best and noblest in the land. I trust 
 she will be happy with him. Who — who did you say it 
 was, Miss Prince?" 
 
 His lips were dry and white while he asked. He had 
 not before realized the amount of hope that lay stifled, but 
 still existent in his heart, till these last tidings came to 
 sear out every trace of his folly, as with a hot iron. It 
 was a friend's hand, too, that thus applied the cautery. A 
 gentle, kindly hand that would not have given him a 
 moment's suffering for a kingdom, yet it seared him deep. 
 
A BUNDLE OF STICKS 399 
 
 steady, unshrinking and pitiless, because unconscious of his 
 pain. 
 
 " That's what I always thought, Mr. Philip," exclaimed 
 Miss Prince, exultingly. " From the time I first set eyes 
 on her, at our archery meeting, when Lady Waywarden 
 said it was dull, and damp, and there should never be 
 another at ToUesdale — and my lady kept her word, too, for 
 that matter — I always thought if I'd been a man, that was 
 the girl I should have chosen for my wife. She mightn't 
 have had Lady Julia's sparkle and spirits, and what I call 
 perfect finish of company manners — ^for, to be sure, she 
 hadn't the same advantages of education ; but to see her 
 come into a room, with her beautiful head up, and her 
 noble quiet walk, she was more like a queen than a simple 
 English lady ; and when she turned those deep dark eyes 
 upon me, with a gentle, sorrowful look in them, like a 
 deer's, why I used to feel as if I could burst out crying, 
 and hug her round the neck, if she hadn't been so tall. 
 Couldn't you, Mr. Philip ? " 
 
 If he hadn't been a man, he could have burst out crying 
 now, and as for hugging, why, not to mention Miss Brooke, 
 he could have hugged the little tea-maker herself, and 
 welcome, for the way in which she spoke of his heart's- 
 delight. It was torture, no doubt, but there was, never- 
 theless, a wild, maddening thrill of ecstasy in the very pain. 
 
 You see he had not even heard the dear name spoken 
 for so long. He was like a man who thinks by abstaining 
 fi-om water to cure the fever of thirst. No wonder the 
 ripple of the stream was sweeter than music in his ears. I 
 have known men and women too, declare they would rather 
 hear a beloved object maligned than not mentioned at all, 
 and it is doubtless pleasant to defend the absent, who are 
 never really absent fi-om our thoughts. How then can we 
 but feel kindly towards the impartial observer (of its own 
 sex, of course), who betrays a tendency to fall down and 
 grovel in the dust before our idol, as we do ourselves ? 
 
 "You were a great favourite of hers. Miss Prince, I 
 know," said Philip, warmly. "I have often heard her 
 speak about you, and you know how truthful and sincere 
 she was. You — ^you didn't hear anything for certain, Miss 
 Prince, I think you said ? " 
 
400 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEEE 
 
 He had put his lips to the pleasant cup now, he couldn't 
 resist, and the bitter drop, as usual, was not far oflf. 
 
 " Not for certain, exactly," replied Miss Prince ; " but 
 still I think between you and me, Mr. Philip on the very 
 best authority. You see, I occasionally receive a letter 
 from Lady Waywarden's maid — her confidential maid, you 
 understand — a most respectable person, whom, indeed, 
 when I quitted ToUesdale, I requested to inform me at 
 stated intervals of the welfare of the family. Her ladyship, 
 you know, is much engaged, and has little time to spare for 
 mere private letter-writing, and Lady Julia is apt to forget 
 these duties till the post has gone out, and it is too late. 
 Well, it was only this morning I heard from Elise of her 
 young lady's approaching marriage to Mr. Brooke ; and in 
 the same letter she tells me that there seems every chance 
 of a double wedding at Bridlemere, for a gentleman, a gi'eat 
 friend of Mr. Walter, is never out of the house now ; and 
 the Squire's groom told my lord's second coachman that the 
 servants understood it was all regularly arranged, and as 
 soon as his master got a little better. Miss Helen and 
 the visitor were to make a match of it. A very rich gentle- 
 man, Elise says, and a very handsome, free-handed one. 
 She does not consider Miss Brooke looks well; but 
 attributes it to the weather, and thinks matrimony a 
 cure for all disorders. It may, or may not, be a sovereign 
 remedy," concluded Miss Prince, demurely, pushing her 
 cup away and folding her gloved hands in her lap. " It's 
 impossible for me to give an opinion, for I've never tried it." 
 
 " The name — the name, my dear ! " urged Mrs. George ; 
 thinking that it would be more merciful to put Philip out of 
 his pain at once. " You keep us all in suspense, while you 
 withhold the only part of your news that can enable us to 
 judge whether this gentleman is an eligible match for our 
 lovely neighbour. Miss Brooke, of Bridlemere." 
 
 " It's very odd," returned Miss Prince ; " the name had 
 quite escaped me, and I never recalled it till that child 
 mentioned it just now. The fortunate gentleman is a Mr. 
 Multiple, from London, I understand ; a partner I imagine 
 in some great banking-house. Very suitable in point of 
 years, and devotedly attached to the lady. It is a most 
 desirable match ! " 
 
A BUNDLE OF STICKS 401 
 
 Philip sat quietly to be operated on. Something told 
 him this was coming all along. He had learned, surely 
 enough, though I cannot tell by what means, how a person 
 of that name, young, wealthy, fashionable and handsome, 
 had become a frequent visitor in the house which contained 
 his treasure. Something had often warned him that this 
 must be the end ; and now, why was it so painful, since he 
 had anticipated it long ago ? Probably, because, however 
 much Hope may be cut over and trodden down, she is never 
 utterly destroyed until grubbed up by the roots. He bore 
 the knife, though, resolutely and without flinching. When 
 the surgeon runs his instrument into a flesh wound to keep 
 it open, lest it heal too rapidly, we turn our faces to the wall, 
 and set our muscles, and nerve ourselves against the well- 
 meant infliction ; so, when our hearts are probed in careless 
 gaiety by dear, unconscious fiiends, we summon all our 
 pride and all our endurance, and steel ourselves to bear, 
 and never wince nor quiver while the iron seems to enter 
 into our souls. PhiUp Stoney was but a ruined brewer 
 after all; yet he was capable of self-devotion and self- 
 sacrifice, such as we ascribe, on somewhat slender grounds, 
 to the era of chivalry, and possessed, moreover, that leaven- 
 ing of romance which lies deep in the characters of most 
 Englishmen, and is so seldom permitted to appear on the 
 surface. 
 
 Had he known Multiple to be a good man and true, I 
 believe he could have merged his selfish feelings, and 
 forgotten his own disappointment in Helen's welfare. I 
 believe he could have borne to see her happy with another, 
 and been even thankful for her sake ; but what he could 
 not bear was, that she, his treasure, his ideal, and his 
 pride, should knowingly throw herself away on a man 
 whom, if she had loved, she would not have been the 
 Helen he adored. 
 
 Mrs. George read his thoughts, and was sorry for him ; 
 more, she interposed to save him further torture, by rising 
 from the tea-table, and so promoting a general break-up. 
 Her good intentions were, however, anticipated by the 
 return of Doctor Blair, who stood like an apparition in 
 the doorway, with an expression of grim contentment on 
 his remarkable features. Dot jumped up incontinently 
 
402 TBE BB00KE8 OF BBIBLEMEBE 
 
 from under the table, and seized his bony hand to pull 
 him in. 
 
 " What news of the patient ? " was inquired, in chorus, 
 by all the tea-drinkers ; Miss Prince adding, on her own 
 account — 
 
 "I am sure there is hope. Doctor, by the favourable 
 expression of your face!" 
 
 Blair sat down, and shook his head gravely. 
 
 "There's a nm-se at wark, yonder," said he, "to beat 
 the whole College o' Surgeons all to rubbish, and they call 
 her Dame Nature. The lad was sensible a while syne. 
 He's a wise-like lad, yon, and gotten a fore-arm like a 
 smith's ! His heed maun be as hard as whinstane ; but 
 ye'll obsairve that whan Dame Nature kens the brain is 
 worth the trouble o' presairvin', she'll no' forget to hap it 
 up in a gay stout box. I'd be loth to ' trephine ' the lad, 
 whilk the ignorant tairm ' trepannin,' for he's maist oot o' 
 danger the noo. A's no tint that's in hazard, ye ken, or 
 Miss Dot here would gar us greet baith sides our mouths 
 ilka day in the week. Na, na : I'll no ' trephine ' the lad, 
 'gin he'll pull through as he stands." 
 
 "Do you consider him out of danger? " asked two or 
 three voices simultaneously, in the weak expectation that 
 any doctor would answer such a question point-blank. 
 
 " I'm no' by ony means oot o' danger mysel' ! " replied 
 Blair, gallantly, "with twa such braw leddies at my side, 
 no' to speak o' little Missie here on my knee. But the 
 lad's progressin', progressin' slowly, but favourably. He 
 wandered a wee thing at the first, whan he cam' round ; 
 and he's been anxious syne, just aff an' on, an' awfu' taken 
 up aboot a doag. He canna rest for thinkin' aboot his 
 doag, puir fellow ; an' I was just forced to humour him and 
 tell him we would ha'e the beastie advairtis'd." 
 
 " I hope you will keep your word," said Philip. " He'll 
 not get well half so fast if he's lost anything he sets his 
 heart on; and your skill. Doctor, will not get half the 
 credit of his cm-e." 
 
 " Hoot, fye ! " replied Blair. " There sma' skeel in 
 mending siccan' a clout in the pan as yon ! I'm no' 
 saying but what he's been corrackly treated, though it's 
 not possible to go wrong in oases like these wi' a healthy 
 
A BUNDLE OF STICKS 403 
 
 subjeck. I promised him, natheless, Mr, Stoney, just to 
 ease his mind ; an' noo I'll see an' comb oot a bit 
 adverteesement, just to keep touch, ye ken." 
 
 Doctor Blair sat down accordingly, at the instance of his 
 two hostesses, both of them were naturally bursting with 
 curiosity, and proceeded to write out an advertisement for 
 the next day's Times, couched in the following words : — 
 
 "Lost, in the immediate neighbourhood of Short' Street, Strand, 
 between the hours of twelve and two o'clock, yesterday, a rough black 
 and grey Terrier, of the famous Castle Cropperton breed. Whoever shall 
 bring the same to the barman of the Dog and Donkey Tavern, Strand, 
 ■will receive a reward. The terrier is perfectly domesticated, and 
 answers to the name of ' Tatters.' " 
 
 " Tatters ! " exclaimed everybody in a breath, as the 
 Doctor, not without pride, read out this choice and 
 discreet composition. " Tatters ! " and they looked at 
 each other in utter bewilderment and surprise. 
 
 "Ay, Tatters!" repeated the Doctor, with strong dis- 
 pleasure. " What na like name's yon for a doag ? If they 
 called him Wallace, now, or Mungo, or even Dawvid, there 
 might be some sense in them. But Tatters ! It's no' 
 wise-like ! " 
 
 " And this is a young man, you say?" interrupted Philip, 
 eagerly. " A man of my age or less, and a little taller, 
 with brown hair and ruddy face, and strong active figure? " 
 
 "I'll no' say much for the colour in his face," answered 
 the Doctor. " Ye ken depletion works as quick most as a 
 lick o' white paint ; but he's a braw lad, like yersel', mon, 
 wi' a bonny curl in his locks, and a pair of shouthers that 
 might ha' served Saumson Agonistes. I'm thinkin' this 
 lad's no' been that far from the Pheelistins himsel'." 
 
 " Good heavens ! " exclaimed Philip. " It must be Jack 
 Brooke ! What can have happened ? How came he here ? 
 Surely there is nothing wrong at Bridlemere ? I'll go and 
 see him this instant ! " 
 
 " You'll no' ! " replied the Doctor, laying his strong bony 
 hand on the young man's shoulder, and holding him by its 
 pressure forcibly down in his chair. " He's takin' a sleep, 
 and whan he waukens the morn, we'll ken whether he'll 
 liviB or dee. See an' help to rid up the tea-things, mon. 
 
404 TEE BEOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 There's Miss Prince lockin' the cookies in the press. 
 Whan ye're sorted, mem," added the Doctor to his 
 landlady, gallantly, " I'll he happy to tak' a hand at the 
 cartes wi' ye ; an' I'll wager a bawbee with Miss Dot, 
 that she canna keep still for mair than five consackutive 
 meenits on the clock ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 HIGH PEESSTJRB 
 
 When Pounder had disposed of the wounded man in his 
 next-door neighbour's house, and found himself deserted by 
 his partner at the earliest opportunity it may be supposed 
 that he reviewed the doings of that day with feelings of 
 considerable apprehension and disgust. It seemed an ugly 
 business enough, whichever way he looked at it. Should 
 the sufferer die, which was by no means improbable, there 
 existed, he well knew, a form of justice to be observed, 
 called an inquest ; and even when verdicts are satisfactory, 
 jurymen often make unpleasant remarks on facts of which 
 they disapprove, as revealed by the evidence. Then, at the 
 best, supposing the coroner and all believed the story of the 
 fit and the fall against the top step in the passage, these 
 twelve intelligent Englishmen would probably demand a view 
 of the premises ; and what awkward questions might not be 
 put to him, Poimder, as to his profession, means of liveli- 
 hood, general character, and antecedents ? which conscience 
 reminded him would not bear examination. It was hardly 
 possible but that much must transpire, which it was his 
 interest and hourly endeavour to keep a secret. Again, 
 suppose the surgeon's evidence repudiated the notion of 
 a fit (and the money-lender a quick-sighted man enough, 
 remembered the expression of Blair's countenance when 
 that affliction was suggested as the cause for the accident). 
 Suppose, on cross-examination, it should turn out that 
 Multiple had been present in the house, though he affirmed 
 to Blair he had only been passing the door. Suppose the 
 workmen in the adjoining building should have heard or 
 
 MS 
 
406 THB BtLOOKES OF BBIDLBMEBE 
 
 seen something of the scuffle, two against one; and 
 
 suppose the jury should return a verdict of Oh ! 
 
 that was impossible ! absurd ! He would not allow himself 
 to think of it. The man would be sure to recover. People 
 did not die of a crack on the head. This fellow, too, was 
 as tough as a prize-fighter ; he could not but allow that, 
 when his partner came to help him, he was getting the 
 worst of it ; and he was no chicken, he knew — had been 
 one of the best men in London, either with or without the 
 gloves, at five-and-thirty ; and used to think he could 
 wrestle a bit even later in life than that ! No — of course 
 he wouldn't die; but what then? Except as a hanging 
 matter, his recovery would be almost as prejudicial to them 
 as his death. It would blow the whole connection to the 
 devil! 
 
 Here was a young man, an eldest son, with whose family 
 they had done business, whose antecedents and position 
 were perfectly well known to them, half killed in their own 
 office, under broad daylight, by the acting partner himself 
 (for, of course he. Pounder, must bear all the blame), in a 
 disgraceful fracas about a bill. Why, the Times would 
 take it up, and the Morning Post, and all the Sunday 
 papers, not excepting Bell's Life, which would devote a 
 leading article to the affair, as being somewhat in its own 
 line. What would be the consequence? Young spend- 
 thrifts would avoid a den of usury, in which they were 
 subjected to ill-usage besides exposure ; fresh paper would 
 cease to float into their strong boxes ; old customers would 
 extricate themselves at any sacrifice from their clutches ; 
 and all the brisk trade they had been doing would be 
 diverted at once into the jaws of Haman. 
 
 It was no pleasure having a garden at Balham, even a 
 fortnight earlier in its vegetation than last year, while 
 involved in such a labyrinth of difficulties as these; and 
 Pounder confessed to himself, for once, that he was beat, 
 and that it would take a wiser head than his to decide what 
 should be done. He seldom consulted Multiple on matters 
 of business ; for that gentleman usually so arranged, as 
 that his partner's share of responsibility should only consist 
 in seeing his own instructions earned out. There was a 
 stringent general order, too, against bringing Short Street, 
 
BIOH PBE88UBE 407 
 
 under any circumstances, to Mayfair; in other words, 
 Pounder was expressly forbidden to visit Multiple at his 
 lodgings, near Piccadilly. 
 
 Li an emergency like the present, however, the foi-mer 
 decided that any breach of established discipline was 
 permissible, and calling a cab he proceeded westward to 
 take counsel of his partner, in a high state of perturbation 
 and dismay. From sheer habit he canried the umbrella in 
 the hand that dealt the final blow. Its horn handle had 
 been actually splintered by the force applied. Pounder's 
 heart failed him when he observed a single hair from Jack's 
 brown head adhering to the weapon, and while he plucked 
 it out, a blush of honest shame crimsoned his broad face at 
 the remembrance of the scu£9e and its results. 
 
 The money-lender's predilections were all in favour of a 
 fair stand-up fight, and the bare notion of foul play was 
 extremely distastefiil to his sympathies, natural and 
 acquired. Till he married and settled at Balham, he 
 had been what is termed a "sporting-man" about 
 London, frequenting " sets-to," matches against time, 
 pigeon shootings, dog-fights, and such congenial conflicts, 
 professing one and all to be open and above-board tests 
 of endurance, strength, and skill. Their theory at least, 
 admitted nothing in the shape of treachery, or unequal 
 odds ; and while their honesty was of a very questionable 
 kind, its limits, though widely extended, were never 
 avowedly overstepped. 
 
 Pounder was better adapted for an old-fashioned outlaw 
 than a modem swindler, although in his case, as in many 
 others, education and his partner's example had done much 
 to engraft a fair stock of cunning and hypocrisy on his 
 original brute strength and rough, resolute nature. He 
 was thoroughly discomfited now, and feared that he could 
 not, as usual, shake off his business recollections with the 
 first shriek of the railway-engine. Even at Balham he felt 
 too surely he must be haunted by the doings of the day : 
 the recollection of his defeat ; the interference of his 
 partner; above all the labyrinth of perplexity in which 
 the whole affair was involved. 
 
 While his cab-horse slipped and scrambled, and stumbled 
 up the Haymarket, he reflected that nothing but Multiple's 
 
408 THE BBOpKES OF BBIDLEMEBB 
 
 extraordinary cunning and wealth of resources in emergency 
 could save them from shipwreck in the present crisis. 
 
 " He's soft," thought Pounder, who hated him heartily 
 enough, " and selfish and luxurious, I know. I don't even 
 believe that he has got even a grain of pluck in him, when 
 he's fairly tackled ; but his headpiece is a good one I must 
 allow. The best I ever came across, or he'd had it broke 
 many a time by now. That headpiece will pull us through 
 once more, I'll answer for it. I shall go easier down to 
 dinner when I've had my instructions, and see my way a 
 little clear out of this infernal mess ! " 
 
 Prepared to be consoled, he jumped out and rang the 
 bell. " Was Mr. Multiple at home ? He must see him 
 directly, on business of importance." 
 
 The servant knew Pounder by sight perfectly well. " He 
 was very sorry, Mr. Multiple was not at home — ^had gone 
 out early — expected him back every minute. Sure to 
 come in at dressing-time. Would Mr. Pounder step in 
 and wait?" 
 
 Here was another difficulty. Pouiider saw nothing for it 
 but to comply with the valet's suggestions, and " stepped 
 in " accordingly. He might have waited all day, had his 
 patience lasted, for Multiple was a score of miles out of 
 town by this time, meditating his decisive stroke as he 
 sat solitary in a first-class carriage, steaming down to 
 Bridlemere. 
 
 The moment had arrived to play his last card without 
 compunction ; for if the game was not won and the stakes 
 landed, before Jack Brooke's hard head recovered its con- 
 sciousness, why the whole match must be lost, irretrievably, 
 once for all. He rather liked the excuse for final measures; 
 rather enjoyed the prospect of putting the strong, painful, 
 irresistible pressure on that haughty girl with her dark 
 eyes, whose image haunted and goaded him like a curse ; 
 anticipated with morbid pleasure the probable scene, and 
 vowed to have amends for the anxieties and humiliations 
 he chose to persuade himself she had made him undergo. 
 
 Perhaps it is the pace at which we speed, suggestive in 
 itself of abnormal energy and power, and comparative 
 ubiquity, that makes things appear feasible when we travel 
 by railway, though we considered them perfectly impossible 
 
HIGH PBESSUBE 409 
 
 before we took our tickets, and shall find them extremely 
 difi&cult to accomplish when we have arrived. It has never 
 been my good foritmie to cleave the skies like Daedalus, or 
 Mr. Glaisher, in a balloon : nor am I likely to do so, unless 
 the " Deus qui vult perdere, prius dementat; " but I have 
 no doubt that every man begins to feel a hero at an eleva- 
 tion of a thousand feet, and I fancy that for consciousness 
 of capability, and a general conviction of superiority to his 
 kind, as the horseman is to the pedestrian, so is the railway 
 traveller to the horseman, and the aeronaut to the railway 
 traveller, though the last fly through space at the rate of 
 sixty miles an hour, on the wings of the Liverpool express. 
 
 Multiple's brain was seldom idle, but it did not usually 
 work so fast as now, while he traversed the wide green 
 pastures, grown lately so familiar, that told him he was 
 approaching Middlesworth station. He felt none of the 
 diffidence, none of the misgivings, none of the conflict of 
 hopes and fears, half-cherished, half-repressed, that chequer 
 the anticipations of a true lover in his meeting with her 
 whom he has taught himself to esteem fairer, and wiser, 
 and better, and harder to win than all the other daughters 
 of Eve. He neither trembled when he thought of his 
 princess, nor did his heart thrill, and his cheek bum to 
 feel that every minute and every mile brought him closer 
 to her presence; that nothing but the near horizon now 
 divided him from the palace in which she lived; that yonder 
 line of wooded hills was within the range of her vision as 
 of his ; that the very breeze which stirred the clump of 
 leafless poplars at the station where he gave up his 
 ticket would but dally with that half-dozen of elms, a mile 
 off on the height, ere it passed on to whisper amongst the 
 evergreens in Helen's garden, under her windows at 
 Bridlemere. These are lovers' fancies, fond, foolish, yet 
 engrossing for the time. Multiple was no fond, foolish 
 lover, but a wooer— fierce, resolute, and not to be denied. 
 
 While the train slackened speed to glide into Middles- 
 worth Station, he clenched both his hands tight, till the 
 costly rings he wore printed marks in his soft wliite fingers, 
 smiling with the sinile of one who has taken a prey for 
 which he feels no pity, and got an enemy at a disadvantage 
 to whom he will extend no grace. 
 
410 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Miss Brooke's walk was over just about the time Mr. 
 Multiple's train stopped at its last station but one. Helen 
 had paid her usual visit to Dame Batters, whose remarks 
 were more inconsequent, as her rheumatism seemed more 
 troublesome, than common. The girl entered her own 
 garden with drooping head and slow, listless step. Some- 
 body had compared her to a lily once, in Philip Stoney's 
 hearing. It was long ago. She knew exactly how long, 
 and could have named the very day of the month on which 
 this exceedingly trite simile was proclaimed. She also 
 remembered how a young man in company had clandes- 
 tinely gathered one of those spotless flowers soon after, 
 and, too shy to wear it in his buttonhole, had twirled it 
 about between his fingers till the stalk broke. She had 
 not forgotten how he picked up the head and put it away 
 somewhere — ^probably in his pocket — with great care and 
 secrecy, believing himself unobserved. And so he was by 
 all but her. She was like a lily still ; but a poor, faded 
 lily now — drooping, forlorn, and dejected ; no longer the 
 priestess of the garden and the pride of the summer's day. 
 
 She felt oppressed by one of those strange, dim fore- 
 warnings of evil to which we are subject all our lives, but 
 especially in the sensitive season of youth. Forewamings, 
 that overshadow us with no kind of reason, and arise from 
 no phantom revelations of the future, but from the certain 
 influence of the past. Medically speaking — ^not romanti- 
 cally — they are apt to originate in affections of the heart. 
 Derangement of the liver, I suspect, and disorder of the 
 stomach will also create these depressing sensations ; but 
 though often the effect of bodily ailment, a long course of 
 mental anxiety is sure to produce them in their most dis- 
 tressing form. If any particular misfortune happens to us, 
 after one of these morbid attacks, we hold up our hands, 
 and talk vaguely about mysterious af&nities, and the 
 wonderful presentiments of the soul. If, as is usually 
 the case, nothing out of the common way takes place, we 
 forget all about them directly ; change of scene, or diet, or 
 society, has drawn them from our minds. 
 
 Helen felt low and neiwous when she went to dress. 
 Sitting down before her glass, and looking on the lovely 
 image it reflected, her thoughts flowed back in the contem- 
 
HIGH PEESSUBE 411 
 
 plation of her own face, to him for whose sake alone she 
 prized the beauty, which she could not but be aware she 
 possessed. It was sad, it was humiliating, yet it was not 
 entirely displeasing, to feel how everything now reminded 
 her of him ; and when she considered that soon it would be 
 a crime to think of him at all, she felt justified in indemni- 
 fying herself by present rebellion, for the loyalty that must 
 never again be shaken after the fatal day on which she had 
 passed her word. 
 
 The maid, who had been with her young mistress in the 
 nursery, and who was an execrable hairdresser, pulled, and 
 parted, and brushed out Helen's long locks, chattering 
 volubly the whHe, with that happy insensibility to the low 
 spirits of others, enjoyed by so many of her class. She 
 was especially fluent to-night on Mr. John's abrupt de- 
 parture, an occurrence sufficiently unprecedented to have 
 occasioned many surmises below stairs, and condoled 
 with Helen on the probability of her sitting down alone, 
 in the event of his not returning to dinner. 
 
 No lady's-maid — even if she lived in a booking-office — 
 would be likely to have the remotest idea of the time at 
 which any train in the twenty-four hours was due at a 
 station ; and though people were continually arriving at 
 Bridlemere by this method of transit, Helen's attendant 
 entertained no more distinct notions of when, or how, or 
 why they got to Middlesworth, than if she had resided in 
 another kingdom, instead of the adjoining parish. 
 
 When, therefore, the grinding of wheels was heard 
 outside, followed by an alarming peal at the door-bell, 
 it never occurred to her that this was the most probable 
 hour at which the young Squire would return by the quick 
 afternoon train in time for dinner, having been up to 
 London for the day. 
 
 She dropped one of Helen's long, black tresses, and 
 nearly swallowed a great two-legged hairpin that she held 
 between her teeth. 
 
 "Whoever can have arrived at this time of night?" 
 exclaimed the handmaiden, it being a quarter past seven 
 p.m. "Master Walter isn't expected back from the 
 barracks, for his things isn't laid out, nor the sheets on 
 his bed, I know. Lor! Miss Helen, what can have 
 
412 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 happened? It give me quite a turn, it did, to hear that 
 bell a-rmging so, when it will be as dark outside in half an 
 hour as a wolf's mouth." 
 
 << 1\7?^ "^^ ^° ^^^ ^^® ^^ y°° ^*®'" said Helen, listlessly; 
 
 tell them to put off dinner till I ring, and mind papa's 
 soup IS ready for him at eight o'clock. I'll take it in when 
 I leave the dming-room, Eun and see, at once ; I'll finish 
 my hair myself," 
 
 Helen was too glad to be let alone, even by her maid, 
 and having expected all day that Jack would return to 
 dinner, to which meal, indeed, she would not have sat 
 down by herself, was in no way startled by the noisy 
 arrival. 
 
 Soon the handmaiden returned, breathless, and clasping 
 her side, but with the beaming face of one who bears tidings 
 that cannot but be welcome — 
 
 " Oh, Miss Helen ! " she exclaimed, " only think ! It's 
 Mr. Multiple! We've ordered his things to Master 
 Walter's room, and he've asked me himself— and him 
 looking so stout and well, to be sure — to tell Miss Brooke, 
 with his compliments, that he hoped he might jine of her 
 at dinner, and pay his respects to the Squire afterwards ; 
 and, oh ! Miss Helen, I'm sure I'd better get out your pink 
 tulle, and put flowers in your hair now." 
 
 Helen, opposite the glass, saw her own face fall, and its 
 expression startled her. It reminded her of a girl taken 
 along Piccadilly by a policeman one day when she was 
 riding with uncle Archie. In a few seconds she thought 
 she had grown like that poor, desperate, hardened girl. 
 She smiled, nevertheless, scornfully and bitterly at the 
 maid's suggestion of putting flowers in her hair, and, 
 rising at once, proceeded hastily with her toilet, that she 
 might not keep her future lord waiting for dinner. Never- 
 theless, when shei had almost finished dressing, and her 
 maid was jerking the indispensable three drops of scent 
 into a laced handkerchief that lay ready by her gloves, 
 she did not disdain to put on two more rings and an 
 additional bracelet, in honom* of her unexpected guest. 
 Because she hated the man, was that a reason she should 
 not look her best, even in his eyes ? As it is the soldier's 
 pride and point of honour to preserve his steel untarnished. 
 
BIQH PBES8UBE 413 
 
 though shoes be worn and uniform in rags, the ammunition 
 spent, the bread not come up, flanks threatened, and 
 retreat cut off, so woman keeps her beauty bright and 
 polished, even in the last extremity : and, though she must 
 needs surrender it to the bitterest enemy, takes care to 
 give it up without a speck to dim its lustre or detract from 
 the value of his prize. 
 
 While the servants were in the room — and you may be 
 sure that on such an occasion they did not in any way 
 diminish the curiosity and surveillance habitually exercised 
 by these familiars — the conversation was carried on 
 pleasantly and good-humouredly enough. General topics, 
 of a self-evident nature — such as the lateness of the spring, 
 the uncertainty of the weather, the advantage of railways, 
 and the health of the family — formed its basis, just as they 
 did for you and your bride when you dined tHe-d-tete the 
 first day of your honeymoon, and might be supposed to 
 have a few interests in common which would bear consider- 
 able discussion; or, as they did that wretched evening, when 
 you came down in your black dress to sit at the accustomed 
 table, when the routine of daily life — interrupted while a 
 certain room was darkened, and a certain awful Presence 
 pervaded the house of mourning — ^had subsided into its 
 usual channel, the servants handing successive dishes in 
 established order, and the sad hearts present, vainly 
 affecting to interest themselves in ordinary topics, because 
 the one engrossing subject that pervaded them was too 
 sorrowful and too sacred to reveal. 
 
 The dinner, as it seemed to Helen, was protracted to an 
 unusual length, and yet much too soon over at last. Not 
 that she herself did justice to its cheer, although Multiple, 
 who was always a methodical person at dinner-time, and 
 Buffered nothing to interfere with his material pleasures, 
 went very systematically through the bill of fare, and 
 finished off with a glass of old Port, after cheese. When 
 the dessert was put on the table, Miss Brooke rose, and 
 muttering something about " papa's soup," excused herself 
 from further attendance, on the plea that she always sat 
 with the Squire for half an hour before he went to bed ; so 
 she sailed out of the room, more upright than usual, not, 
 however, till Multiple, opening the door gallantly, with a 
 
414 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEEE 
 
 bow and a flouiish, chilled her blood by whispering that he 
 " had seen the Squire himself for five minutes before dinner, 
 who was prepared for everything, and approved highly of 
 the measure! " 
 
 After this parting shaft, he rang the bell, ordered more 
 coals, and sat down to his claret with an appearance of 
 complete confidence and contentment. 
 
 It was, Helen's last chance. While she took her father's 
 soup into the library, she meditated for an instant some 
 such appeal as a daughter has a right, and, indeed, an 
 obligation, to make. Her heart swelled when she thought 
 of the fine, tall, handsome man she used to run to, with all 
 her foolish fears and troubles as a child; of the good- 
 humoured voice that made light of her difiiculties ; and the 
 strong arm that tossed her little form to his shoulder — 
 whence she looked down on the world, reassured, trium- 
 phant, and consoled. He would come to her rescue to-day, 
 as he came when the brindled cow kept her prisoner in the 
 orchard, or when her governess punished her unjustly for 
 one of brother Walter's misdeeds. It was only to go to 
 dear papa, jump on his knee, make a clean breast of it, and 
 everything was put right. Alas ! dear papa had neither 
 body nor mind now for helping her over a hard word to 
 spell, or a high stile to climb. She remembered what the 
 doctors said, that the slightest agitation might be fatal, and 
 resolved that if this man had so far forgotten his promise as 
 to have broached the hated subject, and really obtained the 
 Squire's consent, why, the sacrifice must be completed. 
 For her father's sake, and Walter's, she would endure 
 without complaint — but it was base, ungentlemanlike, dis- 
 honourable of Mr. Multiple — and this man was to be her 
 husband ! The interview between father and daughter was 
 of no long duration, and productive of no disturbance, at 
 least to the former. Helen entered the drawing-room with 
 a flush on her brow, and a flash in her eye, to meet her 
 future lord. He had hurried, he had mistrusted her, he 
 had neither honour, nor generosity, nor common delicacy. 
 It was horrible to hate him, but it was worse still to 
 despise. 
 
 He was already settled in an arm-chair before the fire. 
 Brilliant in colour, faultless in attire, comely, lusty, and 
 
Eian PBE8SUBE 415 
 
 flushed with wine, his very attitude and bearing seemed 
 suggestive of satisfaction and confidence in himself. He 
 did not even rise when Miss Brooke came in, but put out 
 his hand as she passed with a familiar gesture, as though 
 inviting her to sit on his knee. She stood over against him 
 on the hearth-rug, very angry — ^yes, I must admit that the 
 gentle, good-tempered Helen was very angi-y, though she 
 strove to speak calmly and without raising her voice. 
 
 "Is this generous, Mr. Multiple?" said she. "Is it 
 fair or honourable, or even the common courtesy of a gentle- 
 man ? You have no right to force yourself upon me when 
 I'm alone like this — ^papa so ill, and my brothers both 
 away. It's infamous, Mr. Multiple — ^it's a shame! — it's 
 too bad ! " 
 
 "You look veiy handsome when you're cross," he 
 answered with an insulting affectation of carelessness. 
 " All you dark women do. But I wouldn't advise you to 
 give me too much of this sort of thing when we're married, 
 Helen. I'm a good-tempered fellow enough, but I don't 
 like curry for dinner every day. This, I suppose, is only a 
 lovers' quarrel, and you mean it to end in a lovers' make- 
 up. Well, I'm agreeable: kiss-and-be-friends is a very 
 pretty game for a winter's evening — Men entendu — ^when 
 the two players are quite alone ! " 
 
 How she wished for brother Jack's arms and shoulders 
 now — ^nay, for brother Walter's much-admired ivory- 
 handled sword. I believe that in either case, something 
 very like manslaughter would have been the result. It was 
 little use, however, clenching those pale, slender fingers, 
 and the nearest weapon of offence was only a sandalwood 
 paper-cutter after all. What would somebody else say 
 (somebody whose every tone, when he spoke to her, on the 
 merest trifle, was between a prayer and a caress), if he 
 could see her now ? The thought softened her, and she 
 continued pleading more mildly, with a little tremble in her 
 voice that betokened tears not very far off. 
 
 " At least, you should have given me time — you had my 
 promise, and surely that ought to have been enough. 
 When you know us better, Mr. Multiple," she added, for- 
 getting fi:om its familiarity the very chain that galled her 
 to the quick, " you will not require to be told that the 
 
416 THE BBOOEES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 word of the Brookes is as good and better than their 
 bond." 
 
 "I would not give much for the one or the other from 
 some members of your family, Helen," he retorted, bratally. 
 "I know quite enough about their bonds, and the only 
 word I mean to test is yours. Come, you've ridden the 
 high horse quite long enough. I think it's time for me to 
 assume some of the authority of — of a husband, Helen — 
 that's what I mean to be." 
 
 He thought she was cowed by his unconcealed disregard 
 for her feelings, and that she only wanted " taMng hold 
 of," as he called it, to give in. Of course, he drove her 
 too far. 
 
 " I am not married to you yet, Sir," she observed, in a 
 low voice, between her set teeth ; " and it remains with me 
 still to decide whether I shall ever become your wife." 
 
 He wheeled his chair round, so as to look fuU into her 
 face, and there was no less of bitter, malicious triumph in 
 his eyes than in his voice, while he replied, " Does it ? I 
 think, perhaps you may find, my fine, resolute, haughty 
 young lady, that you are not quite so free an agent as you 
 suppose. Look you here, Miss Brooke — or rather Helen, 
 for, after all, you belong to me now ; and if I choose to call 
 you Helen, who shall interfere vrith me ? Look you here, 
 it's time for you and me to understand each other. I have 
 got a pull over you, and I mean to use it. If you do not 
 choose to fulfil your solemn engagements at my own time, 
 and in my own manner— by Heaven, I'll make such an 
 example of your boasted name of Brooke, that you'll hide 
 your heads, every one of you, whenever honour is so much 
 as spoken of amongst the upper classes, or honesty amopgst 
 the lower ! I mean it, I tell you, and I'll do it too, as 
 
 sure as I sit here ! " ,,,.,, .^ , 3 
 
 " You threaten me 1 " she sobbed out, wild with tear and 
 
 hatred, and despair. " You threaten me ! What can you 
 
 do!" 
 
 •' I can try Mr. Walter Brooke for forgery ; that is what 
 I can do!" retorted Multiple, whose temper was rising 
 fast. " And if I cannot transport your favourite brother 
 for life as a convict, I have proof under my hand that will 
 drive him out of England, and debar him from the society 
 
BIQR PBES8VBE 417 
 
 of every honest man on the Continent, or elsewhere. 
 Come, Miss Brooke, this is child's play. I don't want to 
 bully you, but you must know a man does not waste his 
 chances when he enters for such a prize as yourself. 
 That's the way to put it, isn't it ? Be reasonable ; je suis 
 bon diable moi — ^not such a bad fellow after all, only I 
 mean what I say ; and no consideration on earth has ever 
 yet turned me from an object I have resolved to accom- 
 plish." 
 
 The chain was too heavy, the pressure too severe— she 
 could fight against it no longer, she was beginning to cry 
 now, and a woman's tears are always the prelude to sur- 
 render. 
 
 " What would you have me do ? " she asked, in such a 
 sad, helpless voice as moved even Multiple to a certain 
 measure of remorse. 
 
 " Be reasonable," he answered, " that is all I ask. Do 
 not fly out at me, right or wrong, whenever you are in bad 
 spirits, or a bad temper. We might be happy together, 
 Helen, if you would only believe it. I think I should learn 
 to be a better man, a different man altogether, if you could 
 bring yourself to care for me a little. However, that will 
 come. It must come, when we have known each other 
 longer. Meantime, you have misjudged and misunderstood 
 me. I am not here to-night to force my society on you, 
 nor to take advantage of your loneliness. Far from it ; I 
 came down in virtue of my present connection with the 
 family to break a little piece of bad news, on which I kept 
 silent till you had finished dinner, and before the servants, 
 lest your father should by any chance learn what has taken 
 place. It is bad news enough, but I trust there is no real 
 cause for alarm. Your brother Jack " 
 
 Helen gave a little cry, and sat down, looking intently in 
 the speaker's face with her large dark eyes. He thought 
 how handsome she was, and went on 
 
 " Your brother Jack has met with an accident. Nothing 
 dangerous, I honestly believe, but still a serious and 
 unpleasant accident enough, which will prevent his being 
 removed for some little time. He is in excellent hands, 
 and has the best surgical advice. I took care of that. He 
 does not like me, Helen, but still he is your brother," 
 
 27 
 
4lS THE BtiOOKES OF BMlDLEMEBlS 
 
 " Oh, thank you! " she murmured. "It was good of 
 you. I am grateful. I am, indeed. Tell me what has 
 happened. Tell me all." 
 
 " Why, the fact is, you know, Helen, young men will be 
 young men," replied Multiple, in what he considered a con- 
 fidential, domestic tone; "and Jack, though he seems so 
 steady, is no exception, I suppose, to the general rule. As 
 far as I can learn, he went into an office near the Strand, 
 belonging to a person with whom I have some slight 
 acquaintance, for the purpose of raising money. Jack is an 
 eldest son, you know, and your poor father's life is none of 
 the best. I wish he had consulted me first ; I might have 
 been of service to him. However, that has nothing to do 
 with it. Well, he seems to have had something like a 
 fainting fit. I think I have heard him say he is subject to 
 them in the spring — and falling, struck his head severely 
 against some article of furniture, I believe. Nothing very 
 alarming, after all, but still enough to keep him quiet for a 
 day or two. I happened to be passing in the street when 
 they were taking him to a doctor, and I need not tell you I 
 never left him till I saw him made quite comfortable, and 
 ascertained that he was out of danger, of course." 
 
 "Where is he?" exclaimed Helen, eagerly. "I must 
 go and nurse him ! Papa is wonderfully better. I might 
 go up to-night." 
 
 She was playing every card into his hands. He could 
 no longer conceal Jack's whereabouts, nor was there any 
 object in doing so ; but if Helen was resolved to constitute 
 herself head nurse forthwith, how could the gentleman 
 become more thoroughly established as one of the family, 
 or the lady compromise her character more completely than 
 by their journeying up to London together for that purpose 
 on the morrow? 
 
 "He is at No. 100, Short Street, Strand," answered 
 Multiple, firankly. " A comfortable place enough, with the 
 best professional advice. You wiU now see. Miss Brooke, 
 what injustice you have done my motives in coming down 
 to-night. My intention was to take your place in attend- 
 ance on your father, had he been worse, or, if that was 
 unnecessary, to offer my escort to London to-morrow that 
 you might join your brother." 
 
MIGH PttESSVBJ^ 419 
 
 A bright blush, colouring her very temples, swept over 
 Helen's face while he spoke, succeeded by a deadly pale- 
 ness. I cannot tell what communications may have been 
 still kept up between the George Stoneys and their old 
 friends in Middlesworth, nor how Miss Brooke came to 
 know Mr. Philip's address, and the fact that he was 
 lodging with Lady Julia Treadwell's old governess. She 
 had heard it, nevertheless, and it had not escaped her 
 memory. Her heai-t thrilled with happiness to think that 
 she would at least see him once more, and then — a keen 
 pang smote the fond, faithfixl heart to reflect how, and in 
 what capacity, she must meet him again. 
 
 Multiple saw the blush, and the tender look in the dark 
 eyes ; he misinterpreted both, as was natural, and began to 
 hope he might teach her to love him a little in time after all. 
 
 Perhaps this rendered him more gentle, more amenable 
 to her wishes than he would otherwise have been. He 
 made no objection to her early retirement, in consideration 
 of their proposed jom:ney, which it was agreed should take 
 place immediately after breakfast. Nay ! beyond a passing 
 frown, and a smothered oath, he showed neither anger nor 
 disappointment, when Helen, ringing for hand-candlesticks, 
 adroitly bade him good-night in presence of the servants, 
 thus avoiding any warmer leave-taking than the habits of 
 society enjoined. Poor girl ! She had not forgotten that 
 first caress, which seemed still to fester on her brow ; she 
 shuddered at the idea of still another, loathing and dreading 
 so her future, that she could even force herself to banish it 
 from her thoughts. 
 
 He was well satisfied thus far. The game was going 
 just as he wished. Of course there must be little difficul- 
 ties, little hesitations, he reflected. Women were such 
 fools ! and never seemed to know their own minds ; but the 
 thing was as good as settled now, and after the journey 
 to-morrow she would have neither wish nor excuse for 
 delaying the ceremony that was to put an end to all this 
 trouble and self-restraint. 
 
 He mixed himself a stiff glass of brandy-and-water, which 
 he carried off to Walter's apartment, and, having made up 
 the fire, proceeded to smoke one of his best cigars in a very 
 contented frame of mind. 
 
456 TME BB00KS8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Helen's head was in a -wliirl. When she reached her 
 own room and tried to look steadily at the difficulties before 
 her, they seemed, as it were, to surround and hem her in, 
 ere they crushed her beneath their weight. On one thing 
 she was resolved ! Nothing — ^no ! nothing on earth should 
 induce her to meet Philip, for the first time since that well- 
 remembered parting, in the character of Mr. Multiple's 
 bride. Poor fellow ! he did not deserve it ! Something 
 told her how hard and heavy the blow would fall. It 
 should not come from her hand, if she died for it. Yet she 
 must hasten to Jack. He was evidently very seriously 
 hurt. Her place was surely by his side. What to do? 
 Oh ! What to do ? Was it woman's curse that she must 
 thus be eternally hemmed in by forms and customs, and 
 never, though her heart was breaking, be allowed to act for 
 herself. 
 
 Long after her maid left her she sat looking at the fire, 
 thinking — ^thinking; but as the stable-clock was striking 
 two she stole softly down-stairs, in a dark morning dress, 
 with a travelling bag in her hand. She let herself out at 
 the back door, and, I need not say, though the lock was 
 stiff and the bolts were rusty, woke none of the men- 
 servants sleeping on the ground floor for purposes of 
 vigilance in case of alarm. Then she walked across the 
 park to Dame Batters's cottage, roused that old woman, 
 who took her at first for a ghost— disappointed, though re- 
 assured, when convinced of her bodily presence— asked 
 leave to sit by her fire for an hour, binding her solemnly to 
 secrecy, and at dawn had taken her place in the early train 
 that would reach London long before Multiple was up. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 Jem Battebs, though a heayy sleeper at most times, partook, 
 on the night in question, of the same restlessness that dis- 
 turbed his mother's slumbers, and kept Miss Brooke watch- 
 ing so eagerly for the pale-eyed dawn. It was scarcely 
 daylight in London, when a dismal and heartrending howl 
 from Tatters caused him to start up broad awake on his 
 ragged pallet, and to discharge horrible oaths at the comer 
 in which a hairy little form could be Taguely discerned 
 sitting on end, utterly broken-hearted and forlorn. Poor 
 Tatters, in the recollection of his short life, had never before 
 slept away from Bridlemere, and now to find himself in a 
 strange place, with a strange man, uncertain where his own 
 master was, subjected besides to the indignity of a chain 
 and collar, was a combination of misfortunes so crushing as 
 to call forth a succession of the loudest and most dismal wails, 
 appealing to all creation against the injustice of his fate. 
 He would not eat, a plate of broken victuals lay disregarded 
 by his chain. He would not drink, and had indeed imme- 
 diately upset the saucer of dirty water provided for him, in 
 his sbruggles. He gasped, he panted, he whined without 
 intermission, and at stated intervals drew out one of the 
 long, melancholy notes that now woke Jem Batters, and 
 elicited from that reprobate no modified expressions of anger 
 and disgust. 
 
 The dog-dealer was not altogether satisfied with his 
 capture. All his life he had entertained a feeling of admira- 
 tion for the young squire, and he almost loved him since he 
 
 had seen him hold his own so well in the fierce wrestling- 
 
 m 
 
422 THB BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 bout lie witnessed from his place of concealment. It went 
 to his heart to rob so tough a fighter of his dog, and if eyer 
 Jem entertained scruples as to the exercise of his profession 
 It was now sitting up in the cold light of dawn, with a dr^ 
 mouth, a shakng hand, and a sense of irritation and dis- 
 content at everything in the world pervading his whole 
 tZ\ ^^}^^^ei Ms mind by flinging one of his boots 
 at iatters, with a profane injunction to be quiet. The 
 temer bit the missile through, and shook it in defiance, but 
 continued howling more persistently than before. 
 
 Jem resolved to consult a fiiend in his dilemma, and for 
 that purpose rose fi-om his pallet on the floor, plunged 
 headforemost into the shabby shooting-jacket that did duty 
 for a. counterpane, retrieved his boot, put a hat on his head, 
 a pipe in his mouth, and so was dressed for the day. 
 
 Tatters, watching this toilet with the keenest attention, 
 forbore to howl, earnestly trusting that a change of anj 
 kind would be a move in the right direction. The dog laj 
 down when Jem left the room, with his mouth close to the 
 floor, and his eyes fixed on the narrow chink below the 
 door, as if he expected his master to appear at any moment 
 through that aperture. He must have been disappointed 
 when in half an hour's time his gaoler returned, accompanied 
 by another gentleman as unlike Jack Brooke as possible. 
 
 Jem bore in his hands and hat the materials for break- 
 fast, three-pen'orth of pork, some veal pie, and a quartern of 
 gin. He carried also a ginger-beer bottle with ink in it, a 
 spectral steel pen, and a sheet of dirty paper. A literary 
 effort was obviously pending, and Jem's friend afforded no 
 assistance of the kind unless, as he expressed himself, 
 " things was ready squared, a drain kep' handy, and linin' 
 found ! " 
 
 The gentleman on whose scholarly attainments Jem, in 
 common with a large circle of acquaintance, placed implicit 
 reliance, was an exceedingly smart and dirty personage, to 
 whose profession his very remarkable exterior gave no clue. 
 
 He was short, swarthy, flat-nosed, and a good deal pitted 
 with the small-pox ; had beady black eyes, jetty ringlets, 
 cm'ling to the roots, more oUed than brushed, gilt ear-rings, 
 and a scanty moustache. He wore a long, black tailed-coat, 
 in the last stage of decomposition, a red shawl handkerchief 
 
"NOBLER KING" 423 
 
 with white spots, apparently no shirt, drab trousers, low 
 shoes, and straps. To the inexperienced, he might have 
 been a bird-fancier, a bill-sticker, a pickpocket, or a ship's 
 steward out of place. To those who had studied more 
 attentively the different industrial branches carried on in 
 the lower walks of London-life, he represented many an 
 unfortunate and deserving object for the bounty of the 
 charitable. 
 
 He was the daughter of a beneficed clergyman in the 
 Isle of Wight. He was the widow of a Crimean oificer, 
 reduced to the last stage of distress, by the failure of two 
 commercial houses and a bubble bank. He was a Pole 
 escaped from Siberia, and a Missionary, off whose person 
 slices had been cut and eaten raw, by the Fee-jee islanders. 
 He had a mother in a mad-house ; a young wife attacked 
 by paralysis, and a large family of chUdren, with but one 
 suit of clothes amongst them, boys and girls. He had 
 invented a patent, and was waiting for the jG500 promised 
 by Government : therefore only required a loan for imme- 
 diate necessities, to be repaid on the fourteenth of next 
 month. He was, in himself, a whole division of discharged 
 soldiers, with pensions that had expired for unaccountable 
 reasons, at unusually short periods. Nay, he was the mother 
 of five children at a birth, all living, and all demanding 
 large supplies of that maternal sustenance which could be 
 furnished by substantial food alone ! 
 
 Notwithstanding his Protean nature, and the various 
 characters he adopted with such facility, he represented in 
 Jem Batters's garret, nothing more interesting, than a smart, 
 dirty, dapper, ugly little man of five-and-forty ; known to 
 the society he adorned, by the name of " Nobler King." 
 
 Breakfast, laid on a soiled pocket-handkerchief, soon 
 disappeared. Tatters was offered a morsel of veal pie, which, 
 possibly recognising the presence of his natural enemy, the 
 cat, he smelt at and declined. Then Jem took a pull at 
 the quartern measure, coughed, wiped his lips, and passed 
 it to "the Nobler," who followed suit ere he proposed 
 immediate application to business. 
 
 "Shall us draw it mild, Mr. Batters?" said he, "or 
 shall us draw it strong ? Is it somethin' to disclose of a 
 appallin' natur, on receipt of a small sum in postage-stanips, 
 
424 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 to pay unawoidable expenses, from a well-wisher and a 
 Friend ? Or is it just the regular thing— Urgent distress— 
 'Umble Supplication— Knuckle down— and grab wot we 
 can get ? " 
 
 " The Nobler " spread his paper on the rabbit-hutch, 
 smoothed it out with his greasy coat-cuff, and winked 
 solemnly at his employer. 
 
 " It's on my mind about the dawg," answered Jem, un- 
 easily. " 'Taint in my buttons to keep the dawg. He's a 
 bemtiful toy-dawg, too, Nobler,— ain't him? The chap's 
 a good chap as owns the dawg, an' he shall have him back, 
 so he shall, free-gratis for nothin'." 
 
 "Nobler King's" eyes twinkled. It seemed a good 
 joke to hear Jem Batters talk about returning the stolen 
 animal without payment ; but professional etiquette forbade 
 him to interrupt the meditations which it would be his part 
 to comb out into an involved, eloquent, and ill-spent appeal. 
 
 " Tell'ee how it is ! " exclaimed Jem, bringing his fist 
 down on the rabbit-hutch with an emphasis that bounced the 
 cork out of the ink-bottle, and drew a sharp, angry bark 
 from Tatters. " This here's wot I call a game, this is ! an' 
 I'd as soon be shot of it as not, mate. 'Taint the dawg, 
 bless ye, 'tis the chap as owns the dawg, wot beats me in 
 this here game. There've been murder done, Nobler, or 
 next thing to murder, anyway, an' I've a-been a what-d'ye- 
 call afore the fact, I have, an' I ain't agoin' to keep dark, I 
 ain't, not if they was to hoffer liberal. Ten cooter, we'll 
 say, an 'arf paid in advance ! " 
 
 Jem paused — reflected — finished the gin, apparently in 
 absence of mind, much to Mr. King's disgust, and then 
 following the wisest course with a professional adviser of 
 any kind, made a clean breast of it, and related to his 
 companion the struggle he had witnessed, the foul play that 
 had proved fatal to one of the combatants, and all the 
 circumstances under which he obtained possession of the 
 dog. 
 
 "Nobler King" ruminated deeply. This, he was of 
 opinion, seemed a case for a threatening letter, and on that 
 peculiar style of composition, he especially prided himself. 
 The two laid their heads together for a long consultation, 
 nor indeed coqld they arrive at any definite conclusion, 
 
"NOBLEB KING" 425 
 
 till another measure of gin had been sent for, and consumed 
 at the visitor's expense. 
 
 Under this additional stimulant, with much care, re- 
 petition, and forethought, the following epistle was con- 
 cocted for the extortion of money from as unlikely a person 
 as could have been selected in the whole of London, viz., 
 Mr. Pounder, of the firm of Multiple and Pounder, Short 
 Street, Strand : 
 
 " Mb. Poundeb — Sib : 
 
 " HoNODEBD Sib, this from a Friend and Well-wisher, 
 who was at the time a Witness, also whereby you are 
 deceived in thinking that your Cruel rage and bloody, bar- 
 barous doings can lie unbeknown, Mr. Pounder, 
 
 "Sir, it was broad daylight, and he saw you strike the 
 young Man down, likewise the Humbrellier what directed 
 the Fatal blow, and can swear the same truly in this court. 
 You ought to know, honoured Sir, as murder never go Un- 
 punished, and if you will send three shillings and sixpence 
 in postage stamps to the address herewith you will greatly 
 oblige a Friend ; and if i had not respected of you this 
 would not have taken place ; and so no more at Present 
 from your Well-wisher. 
 
 " If two half-crowns was payable more convenient, i can 
 swear easier to the Other, him as took off directly as the 
 coast was clear." 
 
 Jem Batters grinned with intense approbation, while this 
 production was read aloud. It comprised, in his opinion, 
 all the elements of grandeur. It was vague, awful, mys- 
 terious, indefinite. At the worst, he opined, it could not 
 but bring back three shillings and sixpence in postage 
 stamps ; nor was he without hope that its mixture of threat, 
 promise and persuasion, might produce, by return of post, 
 the more liberal offering of hush-money comi)rised in the 
 two half-crowns suggested by the last clause. 
 
 "Nobler King" saw that his composition was appreciated, 
 and determined to work out a plan of his own that had been 
 forming in his brain ever since he sat down to breakfast 
 opposite Tatters; and had been struck with the correct 
 
428 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 points and general beauty of that hirsute and high-bred 
 httle dog. ° 
 
 The sheet was folded, wafered and directed, not very 
 legibly, to the proposed recipient. Jem suggested a further 
 outlay of one penny, for a postage stamp, ere he dropped 
 It into the nearest letter-box. " The Nobler" shook his 
 head m manifest disapproval of this unnecessary extrava- 
 gance. 
 
 "Apen'orth o' baccy would do us a sight more good," 
 said he ; " and wot's the use of your paying the Queen's 
 flunkies, when you can wait upon yourself. Here, ketch 
 hold — take and drop it in at Pounder's door. The walk 
 will do you good, man, and I'll stay an' take care of the 
 dawg till you come back." 
 
 Now this arrangement of his friend's was calculated to 
 extricate Jem from another difficulty in which he was 
 placed by the surreptitious possession of Tatters. The dog 
 was so shy and strange in its new position, that he hardly 
 liked to take it with him, for fear it should slip its collar 
 and make its escape in the street ; while, on the other hand, 
 to leave so valuable a fancy article unprotected at home, 
 was a temptation to which he had rather not subject the 
 honesty of the neighbours, particularly with so bad a lock 
 as that which fastened his crazy door. He brushed him- 
 self up a bit, therefore, by the simple process of lacing his 
 boots and turning his hat hindside before, ere he sallied 
 forth on his errand, leaving " Nobler King " with a yard of 
 clay in his mouth to keep watch on Tatters, till his return. 
 A trust fulfilled by that worthy in the usual manner since 
 the days of Diomed ; of which more anon. 
 
 Jem Batters proceeded without delay in the direction of 
 Short Street ; but so much time had been consumed in the 
 discussion of breakfast and the composition of the missive 
 he carried (for greater safety) in his hat, that it was near 
 noon ere he reached the money-lender's door. Here he 
 dropped his^note stealthily through the aperture provided 
 for that purpose, and hastened up the street to return down 
 the other side, and cast wistful glances at the house in 
 which he knew Jack Brooke was lying wounded, suffering, 
 perhaps insensible, or even dead ! 
 Jem's knees knocked against each other when he saw the 
 
"NOBLEB KING" 427 
 
 blinds down in the front drawing-room ; a precaution taken 
 indeed to prolong the slumbers that heralded the patient's 
 recovery ; but which Jem, with a confused notion of obituary 
 manners and customs, interpreted as a signal that all was 
 over. His heart failed him, and he shrank with natm-al 
 cowardice from ascertaining the truth he dreaded ; tm-ning 
 homewards at once, and revolving as he went, whether, if 
 Jack Brooke had really no more use for him, he was not 
 justified in making what he could out of his dog. 
 
 Thus it came to pass, that at the comer of Leicester 
 Square, Jem nearlyran into the arms of Sir Archibald Brooke, 
 walking with a stout, fresh-coloured young man, whom it 
 was not difficult to identify as Mr. Ragman de Rolle, The 
 latter, who had imbibed the greatest possible veneration for 
 his friend's uncle, had called thus early on the old soldier, 
 to ask his advice in the purchase of some saddlery, and Sir 
 Archibald, dearly loving and thoroughly understanding 
 everything appertaining to his favourite animal, the horse, 
 rea^y accompanied the subaltern through a long and 
 minute inspection of saddle-trees, blankets, valises, wallets, 
 holsters, stirrup-irons, head-stalls, tiger-skins, and shaving- 
 brushes — all the gaudy paraphernalia appertaining to the 
 equipment of a mounted hussar. 
 
 After a morning so spent, it was but natural the pair 
 should light their cigars and saunter westwards, with an 
 eventual prospect of luncheon at " The Rag." The young 
 hussar was spending his fortnight's leave between "Re- 
 turns " in London, and made the most of its every 
 moment. No pedestrian in strong training did harder 
 work than honest Rags in the pursuit of pleasure. It was 
 severe enough formerly, when he contented himself with 
 the easy dissipations and convivial amusements of his club ; 
 but now that he aspired to become one of the great world, 
 and to frequent a grade of society brightened by such 
 ornaments as Lady Goneril and the Duchess of Merthyr- 
 Tydvil, why, not only did the bodily fatigue become ex- 
 cessive and exhaustive, but the wear and tear of mind was 
 beginning to print little marks about his eyes, and to fade 
 the rosy colour in his cheek. 
 
 The unexpected sight of Sir Archibald brought Jem 
 Batters back at once to bis former s§lf. AIJ the super- 
 
428 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 structure of knowing London worldliness and slang street- 
 born assurance melted away at the first glimpse of that 
 kind, familiar face._ The old feudal feeling, the sentiment 
 of clanship, not quite extinct among the country peasantry 
 of England, gained its accustomed ascendancy, and, Jem 
 never knew exactly how or why, he found himself standing 
 in the middle of a crossing, with his hat off, asking Sir 
 Archibald's pardon ; and, while he shrank from the soldier's 
 keen eye, pouring into his attentive ear an incoherent tale, 
 from which it only seemed clear that Jack Brooke had been 
 murderously attacked by a person named Pounder, and was 
 now lying dangerously wounded if not dead, in a lodging- 
 house. No. 100, Short Street, Strand. 
 
 Sir Archibald's adventurous life had taught him to 
 extract no less speedily than correctly, the salient points 
 of a perplexed and exaggerated narrative. He had dealt 
 heretofore with panting aide-de-camps despatched by in- 
 furiated generals to require impossible reinforcements at a 
 critical moment. He had examined frightened peasants, 
 caught, collared, and cross-questioned, with a pistol at 
 each ear, and elicited an approximation to the truth out 
 of their stammering patois. He had even sifted the 
 evidence of native Indian purveyors, and more than once 
 fished up a gi-ain of fact from a whole bushel of falsehood, 
 overlaid with all the trope and metaphor of Oriental elo- 
 quence. Also, on several occasions, generally under a 
 galling fire from the enemy, it had been his lot to do duty 
 with officers of all ranks, whose method of getting out of a 
 mess was the issue of contradictory orders, with a storm of 
 personal abuse, accompanied by oaths unfit for publication. 
 He was, therefore, pretty well accustomed to go quietly, 
 coolly, and by the shortest way, to the information he 
 wanted to gain. 
 
 In a few minutes he had learned the precise _ hour at 
 which his nephew was attacked, the residence of his assail- 
 ant, and the place where he lay. Also his informant's own 
 address, extorted unwillingly, and only on the strongest 
 compulsion. Then he thought for a while, determining to 
 ask no assistance, at least for the present, from the police ; 
 reflecting, that if necessary, he could so describe his in- 
 formant as would enable justice to lay hold on him at any 
 
"NOBLER KING" 429 
 
 moment; whereas, if this should turn out to be some foolish, 
 young man's brawl, there was no occasion to make it public ; 
 and so concluding, put half-a-crown in Jem's willing hand, 
 and turned with a calm face and a courteous apologj, to 
 take leave of his friend. 
 
 But staunch Bags was not to be thus shaken off. "I 
 didn't mean to listen," said he ; " but I couldn't help 
 hearing. I can't tell whether I'ye learned more than 
 yon wish me to know, but as far as I can make out, Jack 
 Brooke seems to be in a difficulty. They're great friends of 
 mine, the Brookes, and — and — ^you'ye been very kind to me 
 yourself, Sir Archibald. I'm not a talking chap, you know ; 
 but I feel these things. I do indeed. There's nothing 
 would give me greater pleasure than to be of service to any 
 of the family. Two heads are sometimes better than one, 
 Sir Archibald, even when there's as much difference as 
 between yours and mine. There's a bother of some sort, 
 I'm sure. I should take it as a great favour if you would 
 allow me to see you through it ! " 
 
 Sir Archibald knew, nobody better, how to distinguish 
 between the conventional politeness of an acquaintance, and 
 the unshrinking loyalty of a friend. He grasped Rags 
 warmly by the hand. 
 
 " You're a trump ! " was all he said. " I know I can 
 depend upon you. I'll tell you what it is, De Rolle, I 
 shouldn't mind having two or three fellows like you at my 
 back, if ever I went soldiering again." 
 
 Then the two linked arms and walked off to Short Street, 
 without another word; the younger man very proud and 
 happy, because of the senior's commendations — for Sir 
 Archibald's compliments were precious from their rarity, 
 and it may be that Eags, with the keen enthusiasm of 
 youth, rated his companion even more highly than he 
 deserved. 
 
 In the meantime. Pounder, comparing himself, with a 
 grim smile, to an old spider watching in the comer, sat 
 at his knee-hole table in an excee^ngly uncomfortable 
 frame of mind. He had taken his troubles down to 
 Balham the day before, and they had poisoned the whole 
 happiness of that pleasant retreat for him all night. He 
 could not even work them off in the garden at daybreak ; 
 
430 TSE BBOOKm OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 and when he reached the office to find no news of Multiple 
 no directions how to act, they assumed a magnitude that 
 completely cowed and overwhehned him. He had ascer- 
 tained by inquiiy next door, that the patient was still alive. 
 He could ehcit nothing more decided from the maid-of-aU- 
 work, who, like her species, delighted in generalities: and 
 this was the only scrap of consolation he could get. Ere 
 he had thoroughly digested it, however, he received the 
 threatening letter that represented the joint abilities of 
 Jem Batters and Nobler King. This mysterious pro- 
 duction only added to the multitude of his perplexities. 
 
 One thing alone seemed clear— that the ship was wrecked, 
 the helm abandoned, and it behoved him now to shift for 
 himself. He had no feelings of regard for his partner, very 
 little esprit-de-corps connected with the business. Mutual 
 interest alone had held it together, and the only principle 
 acted on by both its heads throughout, was to take care of 
 Number One. Pounder began to think he had better throw 
 his partner over, and make terms for himself. 
 
 He speedily ran through a rough calculation of his debts 
 to Mr. Multiple— debts, that is to say, for which he was 
 legally liable, considering that of a few trifling temporary 
 advances, not so stringently secured, it was, as he 
 whispered softly to himself, a waste of time to make 
 account. 
 
 The legal debts amounted, however, to a large sum, 
 though not quite beyond his reach, if he chose to incur 
 great personal sacrifices for that which he felt now to be 
 a question of personal safety. He was aware, also, that 
 the two bills he held, or at least one of them, was valued 
 very highly by the Brookes as afi'ecting the honour of their 
 family. It would, doubtless, fetch a proportionate price, 
 and he felt justified, under existing circumstances, in 
 making terms on his own account. Altogether, he was 
 actually debating whether it would not be advisable for 
 him to communicate at once with Sir Archibald, whom he 
 knew by name and reputation, when on a;nswering a knock 
 at the door, that his ear told him proceeded firom no 
 policeman's or detective's hand, he found himself face to 
 face with that gentleman and his friend. 
 
 They had inquired at the neighbouring house how the 
 
"NOBLBB KING" 431 
 
 patient was getting on, and, more fortunate than Pounder, 
 had seen Miss Prince in the passage. She whispered to 
 them that her charge was asleep, and they discreetly 
 withdrew at once to prosecute their researches next 
 door. 
 
 Pounder backed civilly before his visitors into the very 
 room in which the conflict had taken place. He affected, 
 of course, to ignore the motives of their presence, and 
 rubbing his hands blandly, as usual, remarked that "it 
 was a fine growing morning for the time of year ; and he 
 never in his life remembered money so tight in the City." 
 
 Sir Archibald took a good survey of his man, measuring 
 him, as it were, morally and physically with his eye. What 
 he saw in no way deterred him from the straightforward 
 course it was his nature to adopt. He accepted the chair 
 offered him, drew it close to the table, and looked Pounder 
 fiill in the face. 
 
 "You are a man of the world, Mr. Pounder," said he, 
 " and so am I. I know you, and I daresay you know me. 
 We can trust each other in a matter of plain sailing, where 
 it is the interest of neither to deceive. I have a bargain to 
 propose." 
 
 Pounder smiled. 
 
 " Sir Archibald Brooke, I believe," he observed, with a 
 courteous bow. "Money matters connected with the 
 family, I presume ? You are aware. Sir Archibald, that 
 our clients rely implicitly on our honour, and that these 
 affairs are conducted in the strictest confidence. Is this 
 gentleman a relative, may I ask, bearing the same name 
 as yourself? " 
 
 The old soldier dissembled his impatience, though the 
 words " honour " and " confidence," in Pounder's mouth, 
 irritated him to the last degree. 
 
 " This gentleman's name is De EoUe," he answered. 
 " Mr. de Eolle, Loyal Dancing Hussars. He is an inti- 
 mate friend of mine, and the business on which I am 
 entering has nothing whatever to do with either honour, 
 or confidence, or secrecy." 
 
 Pounder resolved to make the best of it now, and was 
 indeed rather pleased with the turn things had taken. 
 
 " This gentleman's presence," said he, " much facilitates 
 
432 THE BBOOKMS OF BRIDLBMEBE 
 
 matters between us. I shall have the satisfaction of con- 
 sulting you both, as men of honom-, on an aifau- of the 
 utnaost delicacy. I presume I can rely on your assurance 
 that it goes_ no further than this room." 
 
 Sir_ Archibald was no swearer in general, but he came 
 out with an oath now. 
 
 " it all, Sir ! " he exclaimed, "you talk as if you 
 
 were an officer and a gentleman, with the honour of a 
 whole regiment confided to your keeping! Come, Sir, 
 let us waive all this absurdity, and speak in plain English! 
 I know enough to send you to hard labour, if not over the 
 seas as a convict, within two months from this time, if I 
 choose to divulge my knowledge, and produce a witness 
 who saw everything that took place in this very room only 
 yesterday. You are liable to be arrested now— at any 
 moment, for conspiracy, if not for manslaughter, and 
 you carry it off. Sir, by Heaven ! as if you were a general 
 of division at his own headquarters." 
 
 Pounder liked fair fighting best. He was neither 
 annoyed nor intimidated at the other's tone; on the 
 contrary, he felt it a change and a relief to have to deal 
 with an honest man, who meant what he said. 
 
 " I am glad you take my candour in such good part. Sir 
 Archibald," was his temperate reply. "What took place 
 in this office yesterday was no fault of mine. Your 
 nephew, a fine, athletic young man. Sir Archibald, en- 
 deavoured to possess himself of certain papers, by force, 
 and in our joint resistance — for my partner, Mr. Multiple, 
 happened to be in the next room — I regret such necessary 
 violence was used, as has been productive of very serious 
 consequences. My partner. Sir Archibald, is a man of 
 violent temper under excitement, and your witness — if 
 witness you have, though, of course, I do not dispute 
 your word — will have informed you that Mr. Multiple 
 struck the decisive blow. I am pretty strong and active," 
 added Pounder, looking down at his own stalwart person, 
 with some satisfaction, " and could have protected my 
 property for myself, without resorting to such desperate 
 extremities." 
 
 There was no resisting the man's firank, good-humoured 
 manner, while he spoke. Both the visitors began to con- 
 
"NOBLEB KINO" 438 
 
 ceive a better opinion of him than they entertained at their 
 first entrance. 
 
 Sir Archibald had winced, visibly, when he heard 
 Multiple's name mentioned, though he was more vexed 
 than surprised, for Pounder's information only corroborated 
 certain grievous suspicions he had long entertained, and 
 the skeleton in his cupboard at present was the frequency 
 of such a man's visits to his niece at Bridlemere. 
 
 Nevertheless, he put all this aside for future considera- 
 tion, and proceeded at once with the business in hand. 
 
 "We imderstand each other, Mr. Pounder," said he. 
 " Tell me all you know ; I'U make it worth your while. I 
 think we ought to be able to come to some arrangement 
 without requiring the magistrate's warrant, after all." 
 
 Thus adjured, Pounder related, simply and truthfully 
 enough, the circumstances that led to Jack Brooke's 
 casualty, as they occurred, coming by degrees to the 
 point at which the two corresponding bills had been 
 produced, and evolving very cautiously his own suspicions 
 of foul play, if not forgery, on the part of the gentleman 
 by whom these compromising documents were drawn out, 
 
 " In all my business experience. Sir Archibald," he con- 
 tinued, in a tone of deep feeling, and with an air of the 
 utmost frankness, "I cannot call to mind a similar occur- 
 rence. Mistakes, indeed, often happen with young men, 
 who are eager, hurried, and ignorant of detail ; but such 
 a mistake as this seems so awkward, so unfortunate — 
 what shall I say? — so deplorable, that I am only speaking 
 the feelings of my innermost heart, when I declare it was 
 distressing to me, as it is incomprehensible. It would be 
 a great object, doubtless, for the sake of all concerned, that 
 both these bills should return into the possession of the 
 family — should, indeed, be taken up, and destroyed without 
 an hour's delay. I have them here in this room, in my 
 own keeping, notwithstanding Mr. Brooke's bold and 
 dashing attack yesterday ; but I am scarcely justified in 
 parting with them, even for the highest considerations, 
 without my partner's consent ; and you will see our diffi- 
 culty, Sir Archibald ; do we not run a great risk of 
 rendering ourselves amenable to the laws of our country 
 by compounding a felony ? " 
 
 28 
 
434 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Shot after shot he poured into the old soldier, sitting 
 upright in his chair, paler and paler, as he took every 
 charge without flinching; but who gi-oaned at the final 
 missile as if it had reached the seat of life at last. The 
 honour of the Brookes was to him a question of faith and 
 worship, little short of a religion, and every nerve quivered 
 withshame and anger, while the horrible suspicion dawned 
 on him more and more clearly, that his brother's son had 
 been guilty of so foul a deed. Well ! if the family honour 
 lay a-bleeding, they must throw a cloak over it, were it 
 of cloth of gold ! Sir Archibald set his teeth hard, and 
 spoke out so calm and distinct, that Rags looked round at 
 him astonished. 
 
 " Name your terms," said he. " Fill up a cheque here 
 on this table. I pledge myself to sign it with one hand, 
 when the bills are put in the other." 
 
 Our friend Eags, although in a general way detesting very 
 cordially anything approaching to business, and when faii-ly 
 collared half-yearly by his own agent, yawning lamentably 
 during the whole interview, with every mark of disgust 
 and inattention, had listened eagerly to the foregoing 
 dialogue, as though it poured in a stream of light on much 
 that had hitherto been dark, mysterious, and inexplicable. 
 He had fidgeted a good deal in his chair, looking from 
 Pounder to Sir Archibald, ready, impatient, yet waiting his 
 opportunity to strike. Now he started up, to the intense 
 astonishment of both, and laid his hand forcibly on the 
 latter's arm. 
 
 " Hold on," said he. " You are making a long rigmarole 
 about nothing. Perhaps I can explain this matter clearer 
 than either of you." 
 
 Pounder wished nothing better. He anticipated now the 
 proof positive of all that he had suggested, and an offer 
 of hush-money from Sir Archibald, that would make him 
 independent of his partner for life. 
 
 He produced the bills from the drawer in which they 
 were locked away, and spreading the earlier in date on the 
 table under its indorser's eye, asked solemnly : 
 
 " Mr. de Rolle, is that your signature? " 
 
 Eags examined it attentively, and nodded. He could 
 have sworn to it with a clear conscience, therefore was his 
 affirmative very quiet and unmoved. 
 
"NOBLEB KINO" 485 
 
 Pounder took the second bill, to spread it out in the same 
 impressive manner. 
 
 "And this?" he asked. "You will observe the 
 difference. Is this also your signatm-e? " 
 
 "Yes," exclaimed Eags, vehemently, blushing at the 
 same time all over his honest cheeks and forehead. "I 
 backed poor Walter's bills for six hundred altogether, and 
 if they're due, I'm ready to pay the money up now. 
 Cheque on my banker — drawn here — Pounder or bearer — 
 Multiple or order — anyhow you like to have it ! " 
 
 It was perhaps the first lie Eags had ever told in his life. 
 Though he blushed so red during its delivery, he was not 
 in the slightest degree ashamed of it, nor indeed, if 
 falsehood can ever be justifiable, had he any reason to 
 be so. 
 
 Pounder's chin fell to his watch-chain. Sir Archibald 
 was not deceived, but he shot a grateful glance at his young 
 fi:iend, that would have gone straight to his heart, had 
 Eags not been looking out at window, with a transparent 
 affectation of complete indifference and content. 
 
 Pounder was the first to speak. He saw the great game 
 was up, but true to his professional instincts, he also 
 discerned no contemptible pickings to be gathered off the 
 wreck. 
 
 " The bills do not fall due," said he, " for nearly a week. 
 It would, perhaps, be advisable to purchase them from me 
 at something less than the fall amount." 
 
 He spoke to willing listeners enough. When Sir 
 Archibald and his generous young fiiend walked out of 
 Pounder's offices, Walter Brooke was no longer in danger of 
 detection. Moreover Helen's uncle, by a judicious appeal to 
 Pounder's self-interest, had prepared an additional weapon 
 or two, both offensive and defensive, against the man to 
 whom Helen had plighted her word that she would be 
 his wife. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVni 
 
 THE ladies' mile 
 
 NoBLEE King, left to his own devices, smoked out his yard 
 of clay with great deliberation, ere he proceeded to the 
 corner in which poor Tatters continued to bewail his 
 captivity. Then he turned his cuffs back, pulled a brush 
 from his pocket, and taking the dog between his knees with 
 professional dexterity, dressed him over from end to end, 
 entirely regardless of the little animal's growling pro- 
 testations and vicious struggles to get free. When he had 
 thus arranged the terrier's toilet to his satisfaction, he 
 completed his own with the same instrument — first his hat, 
 then his hair, then his coat, and so prepared himself for 
 supervision by the great world. He next inflicted a good 
 deal of unnecessary discipline on his victim, till the 
 animal shrank against the wall sufficiently cowed and 
 subdued, in which state he left it alone for about five 
 minutes, shutting the door after him as though he did not 
 mean to retm-n, but bursting in and releasing the captive 
 when at the last stage of despondency, and thus presenting 
 himself at its need in the light of a liberator and a 
 friend. 
 
 Tatters now agreed to be earned under " the Nobler's " 
 arm without resistance, and the two journeyed in this fashion 
 all along Pall Mall, by St. James's Street, past "White's 
 window, in which nothing was as yet visible but a pafr of 
 large grey whiskers, a glossy hat, and the broadsheet of 
 The Times, and so by the south side of Piccadilly to the 
 corner of Hyde Park. Here " the Nobler " put his burden 
 down for a minute or two, but without letting go of the string 
 
THE LADIES' MILE 487 
 
 wluch secured it, to so arrange his own hair and neck- 
 cloth very carefully under the clock. It was five minutes 
 past one, a beautiful spring day in the first burst of the 
 London season, and already the Park was full. 
 
 I can remember, nor is it so very long ago, when the 
 busy people, who have nothing to do, paraded, horse and 
 foot, with the utmost regularity in that promenade which 
 is called Eotten Eow, once in the twenty-four hours, at 
 5.30 p.m. This daily walk or ride seemed sufficient in those 
 idle times for all purposes of air, exercise, and conversa;tion ; 
 but the Anglo-Saxon energy of to-day is not so easily 
 satisfied. We like to "go in "for our London season 
 now, as we do for our other pleasures, " tooth and nail." 
 We meet our dear Mends, whose name is legion, each one 
 of whom to know is to love, and none of whom ever bore us 
 in the least, at a nine o'clock dinner, where we are packed 
 as neatly as the present costume of the nation will admit. 
 Just before we begin to get pleasant, it is time to go away, but 
 our regrets at parting must be consoled to feel that in 
 another hour we shall all be together again, on a staircase, 
 jammed so close, perhaps, as to have no room to breathe ; 
 but still, delightful thought, in proximity to those whose 
 conversation never fails to raise our spirits and improve our 
 minds. Tom fi."om these blissful scenes — and I appeal to 
 everybody over five-and-twenty whether an announcement 
 that the carriage " stops the way " is to be confronted as a 
 calamity, or welcomed as a release — ^how delightfiil to reflect 
 that in six hours at most it will be time to rise and break- 
 fast, in order that by noon we may be ready dressed and 
 prepared at all points to meet the same people again. 
 After luncheon, however, we can exist without them for a 
 space of nearly three hours ; but we are back in the old 
 place to look for them once more, by six o'clock, and so on, 
 ad infinitum. 
 
 It is this ceaseless repetition, which renders the pleasures 
 of a London season, though vastly amusing and exciting, no 
 doubt, somewhat exhausting, and indeed monotonous, to 
 persons of only average energy and good spirits. 
 
 " Nobler King," however, who possessed more than his 
 share of both these advantages, and was, besides, in his 
 own degree, a thorough man of the world, looked on the 
 
438 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 gay, brilliant, parti-coloured scene that met his eyes in. the 
 Eide with every mark of scientific interest and critical 
 approval. To a "cad" about London, who knows every 
 celebrity, man and woman, perfectly well by sight, who is 
 also acquainted with a good deal of their private history, 
 that they hardly know themselves, it is more than amusing, 
 it is positively instructive, to watch the gorgeous figures 
 shifting here and there in the human kaleidoscope. He 
 knows, or thinks he does, why that gentleman on the Arab 
 has made six short turns, only a quarter of the way to 
 Kensington gate, and why that lady in the bright-coloured 
 habit, vyith all that beautiful hair, will come leisurely down 
 at a walk, on the Knightsbridge side, so as to meet him, 
 quite by accident, under the trees. He knows how that 
 fine-looking man, on a thousand guineas' worth of horse- 
 flesh, cantering the treasure so deftly in all the triumph of 
 equestrian skill, has two bills out that he is at his wits' 
 end to meet, and will stand or fall on the settling day of 
 next Derby, by the issue of the great race. He has an eye 
 to perceive, too, that the rider in cloth boots, who looks and 
 is a man of wealth and substance, affects to be anxiously 
 seeking a friend for whom he waits, because his thorough- 
 bred hack, with its tail tucked down, declines to move one 
 step further in an opposite direction to its own stables. He 
 knows what this wonderful Amazon, the boldest of the bold, 
 gave for the perfect creature she rides so beautifully ; how 
 it is bred, where she bought it, and who is to pay for it. 
 He knows the pet name of that pretty pony, as of the titled 
 little lady it carries, and of her three tall handsome sisters 
 on their tall handsome horses, in charge of dear papa, a 
 stalwart nobleman not less than sixteen stone, all scouring 
 along at speed, talking and laughing in the highest possible 
 state of health, spirits, and good-humour. He knows, too, 
 though nobody else does, the real name of this elaborate 
 individual, seen every day riding at a foot's-pace, 
 faultlessly dressed, superbly mounted, holding communi- 
 cation with no man and supposed by the laughing young 
 critics who hang over the rails and remark on the cavalry 
 as they pass, to be a tailor's showman, a pickpocket m 
 disguise, or an escaped lunatic. He is, in short, 
 perfectly conversant with the persons, horses, carriages. 
 
THE LADIES' MILE 439 
 
 names, titlea, follies, extravagances, and vices of the 
 aristocracy, no less than with the attempts of the numerous 
 class beneath them to imitate their superiors in those 
 matters which are least worthy of imitation. 
 
 " Nobler King," therefore, feels himself to belong, in a 
 manner, to the gay world, and walks across the Eide, 
 holding Tatters under his arm, with none of the diffidence 
 that renders this passage an awkward and painful ordeal to 
 quiet country clergymen, or respectable squires of many 
 acres, who are unaccustomed to the bustle and publicity of 
 metropolitan life. 
 
 Mr. King is not without acquaintances here and there, of 
 his own class and profession, but etiquette seems to 
 forbid mutual recognition for the present ; and although 
 he was drinking with that sodden-looking gentleman at 
 his elbow till two o'clock this morning, a scarce perceptible 
 wink of the near eye is the only greeting vouchsafed. The 
 sodden-looking gentleman, who is encumbered with a 
 poodle in a blue ribbon, a King Charles spaniel in a string, 
 and two toy terriers in his waistcoat, makes no sign 
 whatever. He has remarked Tatters, notwithstanding, and 
 recognising his friend's versatile talents, observes approvingly 
 within himself, " This is one of ' the Nobler 's ' games, this 
 is. Never said nothinkto me, nor nobody, he didn't. He's 
 a deep 'un, ' the Nobler ' — a precious deep 'un. He's as 
 deep as a tailor's thimble, he is." 
 
 " The Nobler's " profundity, however, being an incon- 
 testable question, no further notice is taken of his 
 movements by the sodden-looking gentleman, who pursues 
 his own way amongst the nurses and childi-en on the grass, 
 while Mr. King, curling his ringlets about his eyes with his 
 unoccupied hand — for he cherishes the delusion that he is 
 an exceedingly good-looking man, and much admired by the 
 female portion of our aristocracy — proceeds along the 
 shaded walk, which at this hour is crowded with the 
 prettiest dresses and the prettiest faces in Europe, and 
 where to-day, for the first time in the season, not a chair is 
 to be had for love or money. 
 
 The ladies have come out in high force and unusual 
 numbers. Like snails after a shower ; nay, rather let me 
 say, like roses after rain, they are taking advantage of the 
 
440 TBM BB00EB8 OF BBIDLEMEEB 
 
 bright spi-ing sunshine to add a gleam to their petals, and 
 a shade of deeper colour to their bloom. It is the first real 
 fane day they have had, and their light summer dresses look 
 Iresh, and pure, and dehcate as the blossoms in a cherry 
 orchard. Parasols are up, of course, and there is indeed 
 glare enough to warrant a general display of this defensive 
 apparatus, which I have, nevertheless, often observed 
 unfurled under the darkest skies. The tender green leaves 
 gleam and qmver over a thousand dainty heads in their 
 transparent little bonnets. Slender feet, encased in kid 
 and hronze, rest lightly on the dry white gravel. Eyes are 
 glancing, hands waving, tongues going, gossip reigns 
 supreme, while the men who let the chairs walk to and 
 fro, exulting, though serene, since all are occupied, 
 and all are paid for, wooden, wire and canework, from end 
 to end. 
 
 Amongst the different groups that formed the entire mass 
 of good looks, good manners, and doubtless good intentions, 
 I have endeavoured faintly to sketch out, there was one, 
 consisting of three people huddled gracefully together under 
 a tree, that attracted " the Nobler's " attention, in common 
 with most other occupants of the Eide, both horse and 
 foot. Innumerable looks were directed at this little party 
 from eyes that could shoot rays nearly as bright as its own. 
 Innumerable hats, constructed by the best makers, were 
 flourished in its honour ; and many a generous steed, with 
 sensitive mouth and severe bridle, felt himself pressed up 
 to his bit once more, for the hundredth time, because 
 his rider would fain pass before this trio to the greatest 
 advantage. 
 
 Comments, polite though ill-natm-ed, were made on it in 
 every tone by every observer, and the buffoon of the hour 
 constructed in its honour an elaborate jest on the spot, for 
 the amusement of his male audience, which witticism, how* 
 ever, when diluted for feminine ears, was found to have lost 
 its point, and to be neither laughable nor appropriate. 
 Two of the group were perhaps two of the prettiest women 
 in London, the thii'd incontestably one of the dullest 
 noblemen in the Upper House. 
 
 Nevertheless, they seemed perfectly well satisfied with 
 each other as they sat. 
 
THU LADIES' MILE 441 
 
 The Duchess of Merthyr-Tydvil had quite recovered her 
 cold, and was permanently established at Caradoc House, 
 Circus Square, for the London season. Her gi-ace had 
 been a great promoter of the " early Park movement," 
 and was indeed, a staunch admirer of all out-of-doors 
 amusements, I am certain I met her once at Cremome, 
 behind an exceedingly thick veil, on Merthyr-Tydvil's arm, 
 but I do not think she liked it ; and after she had seen him 
 shoot the chamois that scours over its perennial hill at the 
 end of the tube, and knock the cushion that tries your 
 fighting powers into the middle of next week, she had 
 quite enough, not caring to stay for the fireworks, but well 
 satisfied to get her duke back into the brougham, and drop 
 him at Pratt's to finish his evening in less questionable 
 society. 
 
 The Park, at noon, however, suited her grace's taste to a 
 nicety. She could bring little Caradoc here in the shortest 
 of firilled trowsers and the brightest of velvet jackets ; also 
 his papa, when not otherwise engaged (the latter was, at 
 the present moment sculling his heir-apparent about on the 
 Serpentine) ; and she could chaperone Lady Julia too, who 
 had taken a great liking to the penny chairs at this hour of 
 the day, and for some inscrutable reasons of her own, never 
 rode Cockamaroo of late till five o'clock, p.m., and then 
 very often gave him a good gallop in the country. She 
 was apparently thinking of that favourite horse, or some 
 other very engrossing subject, even now, for, although her 
 eyes and her talk sparkled as usual, she relapsed into 
 occasional fits of abstraction, lasting for several seconds at 
 a time, during which she seemed profoundly unconscious of 
 her companion's presence, and not half so much wearied as 
 was natural by the conversation of Lord Mexico. 
 
 I suppose a real bore is the person of all others who has 
 the least notion what a bore he is ! Nature seems to have 
 provided plate armour for him within, as she has for the 
 rhinoceros without. To say that he is impervious to a hint 
 expresses nothing. He is invulnerable to the most sting- 
 ing sarcasm, as he is insensible of the most pointed rebuke. 
 A barb that would quiver in anybody else's flesh drops 
 from his coat of mail, foiled and blunted at his feet. It is 
 one of his peculiarities that his voiee never varies in its 
 
442 THE BBOOKMS OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 harsh, undeviating, regulated monotony, but is always out 
 of tune in exactly the same degree. Nobody ever knew a 
 bore with a cold or sore throat, or such accidental impedi- 
 ment to the exercise of his vocation. He is in capital 
 wind, too, habitually, and does his work without the 
 slightest symptoms of distress. When fastened on his 
 victim, there is even a severe beauty in the order and 
 method with which he fulfils his task. That he is a 
 calamity of no trifling calibre, I concede, but I am willing 
 at the same time to hope that he teaches us many usefiil, 
 social lessons — such as forbearance, self-restraint, and the 
 art of swallowing grievous and protracted yawns with a 
 smooth face. Lord Mexico found small reason to complain 
 of incivility or inattention from his listener, and believed 
 himself, no doubt, to be an eloquent and agreeable man. 
 
 He was engaged at present in describing a young 
 retriever to Lady Julia, who sometimes listened and some- 
 times did not, but made no scruple of cutting across his 
 conversation v\rith irrelevant remarks of her own whenever 
 the occasion prompted an interruption — Lady Goneril's 
 ball, at which they had all met within the last twelve 
 hours, affording a subject for at least five minutes' serious 
 discussion. 
 
 "They are curly and sagacious, you know," proceeded 
 his lordship, drawing circles in the gravel with the point of 
 his cane; "and come to heel at once, with scarce any 
 breaking, but you must be careful not to speak too harshly; 
 and if ever you lay your hand on them " 
 
 " They spoil your dress to a certainty, my dear," said 
 Lady Julia to the Duchess. " I shall leave off altogether, 
 I think, unless the ball-givers can produce a better set of 
 dancing-men. I had room enough last night, I allow, but, 
 literally, not a partner who could keep time except one, 
 and he was a conceited minx, at home from Eton for his 
 sister's marriage. I liked the pluck of the thing asking 
 me, so I waltzed with him, and he waltzed very well. 
 Mind you have Caradoc taught before he goes into long 
 stockings, dear ! " 
 
 "Carry takes after papa, and can do everythmg! 
 answered the Duchess good-humouredly. " Now, I thought 
 it was a c(^ital ball. I'm sure I was so stiff when I came 
 
TEE LADIES' MILE 443 
 
 down to breakfast, I could hardly put one foot before the 
 other." 
 
 "In stiffness after severe exercise," continued Lord 
 Mexico, with a dry unmoved voice, as if he was reading 
 Colonel Hawker's instructions to sportsmen, " I have found 
 it a good plan to chafe the limbs gently with the hand 
 before my sitting-room fire; and my keeper quite agrees 
 with my suggestion, that, whenever every other remedy 
 fails, nothing does so much good as " 
 
 " A ball again to-night, and another to-morrow, and 
 mamma's muffled drum, as I call it, to-day from five to 
 seven! " yawned Lady Julia, wearily. "What a bore it 
 all is, dear ! I think I must be getting too old for society. 
 I've a great mind to take up politics : the dullest men seem 
 interested about that ; and I could coach papa famously 
 with the Blue Books. Well, there's one comfort : nothing 
 ever can be so stupid again as Lady Goneril's ball last 
 night ! " 
 
 "Hush!" exclaimed the Duchess. "Here she comes. 
 My stars ! what a bonnet ! " 
 
 The bonnet thus apostrophised was indeed nodding 
 slowly down the walk, poised on the lofty roll of Lady 
 Goneril's magnificent hair. Its wearer had tired of her 
 author some weeks ago, and was now chiefly occupied with 
 what she called her duty to society. This conscientious 
 state of mind prompted her to endless balls and parties on 
 her own account, as well as to attend those of her 
 numerous acquaintance, so that her life was one of 
 incessant motion; and although still exceedingly hand- 
 some, she was paler and thinner than when she visited 
 Norman's Cross from St. Barbs. 
 
 The same spirit of sacrifice to those inexorable Furies, 
 Les Convenances, bade her insist upon poor old Goneril 
 hobbling about, arm-in-arm with her, whenever his gouty 
 feet would permit; and this nobleman, who was good- 
 nature personified, though he had done exactly what he 
 liked best for forty years, found himself in his old age 
 subjected to a course of severe discipline and exercise such 
 as he had scrupulously avoided all his life. 
 
 Though very well hatted, wigged, dyed, cravatted, and 
 girthed up, he trotted along, somewhat ruefully, by the 
 
444 THE BB00EE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 side of his tall, handsome wife, and only brightened a little 
 when he caught sight of Lady Julia, who was an immense 
 favourite with all old gentlemen of the superannuated r(m6 
 school. "She was so clever," they said, tapping their 
 antediluvian old snuff-boxes with their wasted old knuckles. 
 Such manner, such tact, such savoir-vivre, and such a 
 Mtle devil with it all, that it was positively quite refreshinff 
 to sit next to her ! " r j i s 
 
 He mumbled out an unintelligible compliment on her 
 good looks, and she accorded him her hand with far greater 
 cordiality than she would have shown to a younger and 
 more appropriate gallant. Lord Mexico had not yet 
 thoroughly broke his retriever, he had only now arrived 
 at the stage when it is advisable to accustom the dog 
 gradually to the sight and sound of a gun. Lady Julia 
 had almost forgotten he was there. 
 
 The Duchess and Lady Goneril exchanged compliments 
 about last night's ball. Then the latter turned to the 
 younger lady, and told her how beautiful she looked on 
 that occasion. 
 
 "Your dress was per — ^fection, my dear," said she; 
 "and I assure you everybody said you were the ornament 
 of my room." 
 
 To which Lady Julia demurely answered, " That is a 
 very high compliment, for it was a most chai-ming ball ! " 
 
 " So good of you both to come," replied Lady Goneril, 
 passing on with a smile and a bow, to repeat the same 
 sincere dialogue with the next group, and the next, and the 
 next, all the way down, till the old lord should stop dead 
 lame before they quite reached Apsley House. But long 
 ere this the subject of the ball had been forgotten by our 
 trio, and Mexico had brought his retriever to the point at 
 which he thought fit to puff off small charges of powder in 
 its ears. 
 
 Presently no less a person walked by their chairs without 
 recognising them than Mr. Eagman de Kolle, puffing 
 absently at his cigar. 
 
 Kags was very much pre-occupied, and very unhappy. 
 Had it been othei-wise, he would have glanced shyly about 
 in search of his few acquaintances, appealing to them for 
 nods of recognition, and blushing painfully while he passed 
 
THE LADIES' MILE 445 
 
 under the batteries that range so formidably along the 
 whole of " the ladies' mile." 
 
 To-day, however, he was too miserable to care for 
 ridicule or encouragement. His idol, you see, had fallen, 
 and he could not see it up again. He had hitherto 
 considered Walter Brooke the pattern of all that a gentle- • 
 man should be ; and now that his eyes were opened, he 
 longed painfully to be in the dark once more. It seemed 
 so completely a matter of course to honest Bags to have 
 saved his brother officer's worldly reputation at any 
 sacrifice, that the consciousness of having done so gave 
 him not the slightest pleasure. He dreaded meeting him 
 again, he dreaded going back to the regiment, he dreaded 
 the horrible power he now possessed over the man he had 
 hitherto regarded as so superior to himself. Altogether, 
 Rags had never felt less comfortable than when he entered 
 the Park on the present occasion. Had he stayed away 
 altogether, I do not think he would have been very 
 generally missed. In the whole gathering, I doubt if he 
 knew a dozen people by sight ; but it was part of the 
 routine of his London day to ride or walk twice in the pre- 
 scribed locality, and here he paraded constantly. 
 
 Lady Julia's quick eye caught him long before he 
 approached. She whispered something to the Duchess 
 that made her laugh. 
 
 " If Eags cuts me to day," said this incorrigible young 
 woman to her friend, " I tell you, once for all, up goes the 
 sponge ! What is the use of my having been so admired 
 last night, and broken poor old Lord Goneril's heart by my 
 ' get-up ' of this morning ? What avails my obedience to 
 you, my chaperone ; my patience with this — this ill-broken 
 retriever on my other side ; my popularity with the wicked 
 in general, if I am to be defeated here on my own ground 
 by Eags ? No, Duchess ; he shall not escape. Fire a gun, 
 dear, as we say at Cowes, and bring him to." 
 
 Thus adjured, the Duchess executed so graceful, marked 
 and cordial a recognition as could not elude the subject's 
 notice. Eags started, blushed, clutched desperately at his 
 hat, and brought himself up, very awkwardly indeed, but 
 with obvious enthusiasm, in front of the two ladies. 
 
 Diffidence, when it springs from sincere reverence and 
 
446 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 admiration, cannot be very displeasing to women ; and I 
 believe shyness in ours, partly perhaps from its rarity, is 
 much prized by the other sex. The Duchess was ex- 
 tremely kind in her greeting, and Lady Julia who ever 
 since the morning poor Fugleman was killed, had taken a 
 ' liking for Bags, became almost affectionate. 
 
 " Had Mr. de EoUe been long in town ? Why did he 
 never come to see them ? They were always at home for 
 luncheon. Would he come to mamma's afternoon to-day 
 — any time between four and seven? Where was he 
 staying? He should have a card directly she got back. 
 Was he still quartered at Middlesworth ? How was the 
 dear old county looking ? Had he been over to ToUesdale ? 
 Could he tell them any news of the people at Bridlemere? " 
 
 Bags winced. Even this flattering interest, real or 
 assumed, was powerless to console him. He answered 
 vaguely and at random, he fidgeted from one foot to the 
 other. When the Duchess dropped him some gracious 
 platitude he went down upon his knees with but little 
 eagerness to pick it up. Altogether, though obviously 
 flattered by their kindness, he seemed relieved when the 
 interview was over, and departed awkwardly indeed, but 
 still with much alacrity, on his way. 
 
 " What is the matter with him? " said Lady Julia, as 
 his figure disappeared amongst the crowd. " I am sure by 
 that man's manner he is not easy in his mind. How 
 different from yours, Lord Mexico. I suppose if you had a 
 mind you'd be as easy in it as possible. Duchess, you've 
 a great deal to answer for; I don't think Bags has ever 
 been the same since you danced with him at our Middles- 
 worth ball. Wasn't that a good ball. Lord Mexico? I 
 forget though, whether you were there! " 
 
 '' When my retriever is thoroughly habituated to all such 
 sights and sounds," continued his lordship, ignormg the 
 ball question entirely, "I then accustom him to observe 
 the different modulations of my voice-anger, reproach, 
 menace, expostulation, and encouragement, and his tram- 
 
 '"'^'^roughly destroys his ear for music, I should 
 think," retorted Lady Julia, turning impatiently from his 
 lordship to the Duchess, and adding confidentially m her 
 
THE LADIES' MILE 447 
 
 Mend's ear, " Do you know, I'm rather unhappy about 
 Eags, that's what we call him, dear, in our part of the 
 country. I've rather a weakness for Eags. He's a very 
 honest, unaffected, good sort of fellow. Eags is unselfish ; 
 Eags is straightforward ; Eags is sincere ; there are not 
 
 many people you can depend upon like Eags ; and 
 
 Good gracious ! there's Tatters ! " 
 
 The Duchess looked round in unfeigned astonishment, 
 she thought her charge had gone mad ; the voice in which 
 Lady Julia spoke the last sentence betrayed deep emotion, 
 while her cheeks and brow became scarlet. At the same 
 moment " Nobler King " was passing immediately in front 
 of their chairs, and his little prisoner, hearing its name 
 thus pronounced in familiar tones, struggled hard, with 
 starting eyes and panting tongue, to get free. The young 
 lady half-rose from her seat, but controlled herself with an 
 effort, and "Nobler King" strode on unnoticed, not, however, 
 till she had thoroughly satisfied herself that his unwilling 
 captive was no other than Jack Brooke's favourite terrier. 
 
 Lady Julia, though she might sometimes speak un- 
 advisedly, and in a hurry, was a person who seldom acted 
 on impulse. She felt at this moment, too, that she needed 
 all her self-command ; for although the unexpected 
 appearance of something associated with Jack Brooke had 
 thus agitated her, she was extremely unwilling that her 
 weakness should be guessed, or her discomposure observed 
 by her companions. 
 
 Ere the one had time to ask what was the matter, or the 
 other to observe anything unusual, the colour had faded 
 from her face, leaving her only a shade paler than before ; 
 and the pretty mouth had shut tight with the expression 
 that always came over it when she made up her mind to a 
 decided stroke. If that was Mr. Brooke's dog she would 
 have it at any price for its master's sake. If it was only 
 an extraordinary likeness to the precious creature, why, she 
 would have it all the same, and for the same reason. 
 There is no proverb of more extensive application than 
 " Love me, love my dog," and its converse. 
 
 " Nobler King," in the exercise of his vocation, could see 
 out of the back of his head, like a woman. He knew, as 
 weU as she did herself, that the pretty girl under the tree, 
 
448 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 in the light sprigged muslin trimmed with apple-green 
 ribbons, had taken a fancy to his charge, and though he 
 might not be quite sure of Lady Julia Treadwell, he was 
 perfectly familiar with the name and appearance of the 
 handsome Duchess hy her side. So he sauntered leisurely 
 off the walk, amongst the horses, and Tatters, peering over 
 his shoulder like a child carried by its nurse, looked help- 
 lessly here and there in wistful eagerness to detect the face 
 of a friend. 
 
 " Lord Mexico," observed Lady Julia, turning carelessly 
 to that nobleman, who had not even yet quite done with his 
 retriever. "You have talked about dogs till I begin to 
 think there is one subject in the world on which you are 
 well-informed and even eloquent. I want a terrier, a rough 
 one, very much : at least, Nethersole does, which is all the 
 same. Don't you think that is just the kind of thing over 
 there ? Not up in the trees ! Good gracious ! but there. 
 The one that curly man in the Ride has got in his arms ! " 
 Lord Mexico's vision having been brought with some 
 difficulty to bear on the animal in question, for he was one 
 of those provoking people who, when warned of an object 
 on the right, invariably look for it on the left, he expressed 
 a qualified approval of its appearance, but showed no further 
 interest in the suhject. 
 
 " Go and tell the man to come here," added Lady Julia, 
 imperiously ; " if it's a well-bred one, I'll buy it, and take 
 it home with me at once. How horrified mamma will be, 
 when she sees it at luncheon ! " 
 
 Lord Mexico hesitated ; he looked at his hoots, which 
 were thin ; he looked at the road, which had been watered 
 into a delightful puddle, fetlock deep, for horses ; then he 
 looked at Lady Julia's delicate sarcastic face, and rose to 
 obey. Somehow people always did what Lady Julia told 
 them ; and, muttering something about "worsted stockings," 
 he plunged into the morass, and tapped " Nobler King " on 
 his unoccupied shoulder. 
 
 The strangely assorted pair stopped momentarily the 
 whole stream of the Eide. Peers and peeresses diverged on 
 either side, to the complete derangement of their pace and 
 conversation. A general of cavalry had to make his charger 
 change its leg at half a stride's notice that he might avoid 
 
THE LADIES' MILE 449 
 
 them. An amiable baronet lost both stirrups, his balance, 
 and his hat, almost everything but his temper, from the 
 suddenness -with which he pulled up; and an extremely 
 dashing, solitary, Bois de Boulogne looking lady, in a 
 velvet habit, relapsed so instantaneously from a haute-icole 
 canter to a butter-and-eggs trot, as to transform, with the 
 rapidity of magic, a round, shapely, flowing form of feminine 
 beauty into a mere mass of pudding, quivering and shaking 
 about in a bag. 
 
 " The Nobler," however, maintained his position in 
 dignified composure. He took off his hat, and drew up 
 his short form with the air of an old French. marquis. 
 
 " Glad to see you, my lord viscount ! " said he, with 
 perfect assurance, and in a voice that might have been 
 heard at the Ban-acks. " Your lordship looks well, but 
 a little low in condition. London life, my lord, London 
 life ! It must tell. I find the same thing myself. Your 
 lordship was good enough to oblige me with the loan of 
 half-a-crown at Epsom Spring. If you happen to have 
 seventeen and sixpence about you, I could pay up at 
 once in gold. It's these small debts, my lord, that give a 
 gentleman a bad name amongst the lower classes." 
 
 " Go to the devil ! " answered Mexico, impatiently, for he 
 observed a whole knot of laughing idlers ; amongst others 
 the Duke of Merthyr-Tydvil, with little Caradoc on his 
 shoulder, listening delighted to this harangue. "Go to 
 the devil ! you impudent vagabond. Or stay : there's a 
 lady wants to look at your dog. Come into the walk 
 with me." 
 
 " Since your lordship is good enough to offer me the 
 choice, I will give you the precedence to which you are 
 entitled over the other noblemen," replied " the Nobler," 
 with undiminished affability, adding, " I shall have great 
 pleasure in allowing your lordship to present me to any 
 lady of your acquaintance." 
 
 This polite speech brought the viscount and the dog- 
 stealer in front of Lady Julia's chair. Tatters recognised 
 her in a moment, making frantic efforts to extricate himself 
 from his keeper's gi'asp, and the young lady herself doubted 
 no longer that this was the same dog she had taken in her 
 lap to caress that happy morning in the green lane. 
 
 29 
 
450 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 She smothered a sigh, this wilful, prosperous coquette, 
 and with it an intense longing to buy the beast at once for 
 a hundred pounds, and take it in her arms, new dress and 
 all, while she covered it with kisses. She began low, 
 however, as she thought, in her bargaining, and remarked 
 quietly, " That is rather a nice dog, though too long-coated 
 for a lady. I will give you a sovereign for him, if I can 
 take him with me imme«iiately, just as he is." 
 
 "Very sorry to disappoint your ladyship," replied "the 
 Nobler," with the utmost deference ; " but the dog is private 
 property, and is not for sale." 
 
 Mr. King, you observe, had far too much tact to attempt 
 with ladies the same grotesque buffoonery that he found 
 answered his purpose admirably with the male scions of 
 aristocracy, who encouraged and rewarded his impertinences. 
 Such want of worldly wisdom would soon have destroyed 
 the easiest and most lucrative branch of his profession, 
 therefore his female customers pronounced him a "most 
 civil and obliging person, who could always supply any kind 
 of dog you wanted at less than a week's notice ; " and not 
 one of them but would have flown out indignantly at 
 husband or brother who had hinted the possibility that 
 the darling she mourned so bitterly last autumn and all 
 through the winter, had been abstracted and sold to go to 
 Liverpool through Mr. King's ftdl concurrence and advice, 
 if not actually purloined by that gentleman himself. 
 
 " Not for sale ! " exclaimed Lady Julia, with rising colour. 
 " Then, why do you bring him here ? Where did you get 
 him ? What's his history ? I believe you stole him ! " 
 
 " I brings him here every day for a hairin', my lady," 
 answered " the Nobler," bowing at eveiy second word with 
 the utmost politeness. " He belongs to a cousin of my 
 own. A respectable tradesman, my lady ; a man of some 
 property. He's very much attached to the dog for its affec- 
 tionate disposition and manners in the 'ouse. I never see 
 a dog so gentle with children, my lady, along of being 
 brought up vnth 'em; and broke to a drawing-room— 
 leastways a parliom-— wonderful ! No, my lady, I don't 
 think as my cousin could be tempted to part of Scamp. 
 Tho' of course he's a man with a large family too. Scamp, 
 my boy, it's time for us to be goin' home." 
 
THE LADIES' MILE 451 
 
 But Tatters answered in no way to the name of Scamp, 
 and Lady Julia was more convinced than ever that it was 
 the dog she thought. Moreover, though it might be sup- 
 posed that Mr. King's dinner-hour was approaching, he 
 seemed in no great hurry to depart. 
 
 " Five pounds ! " exclaimed her ladyship, in a low, rapid 
 voice, a little ashamed of the price, but all her prudential 
 resolutions disappearing before the contingency of losing 
 sight of Tatters, 
 
 "It's a bargain, my lady!" replied "the Nobler," 
 closing with so good an offer on the spot, and releasing 
 his captive at once, who jumped without delay into Lady 
 Julia's lap, and whined and trembled with delight, licking 
 her face repeatedly without finding its caresses repelled. 
 
 Lord Mexico looked on in astonishment, and the Duchess 
 began to think there was something more than a mere case 
 of dog-fancying in this costly and unexpected purchase of 
 an exceedingly rough-coated terrier ; but a difficulty now 
 arose which was hardly to be expected in such a quarter : 
 the five pounds was not forthcoming with which to pay for 
 the dog ! 
 
 Lady Julia did not of course go for a morning's walk 
 with a purse in her pocket. The two or three rings and one 
 bracelet she wore might have been worth seventy or eighty 
 pounds. Her handkerchief and parasol represented two or 
 three sovereigns more ; but of ready money she had not so 
 much as a postage stamp, having actually paid for her own 
 chair and the Duchess's with two of those convenient little 
 government securities brought out for the purpose. 
 
 Her companion had indeed got her purse with her, but it 
 contained only eighteen-pence, the Duke having borrowed all 
 her surplus of silver to pay for his boat on the Serpentine. 
 It was no use asking him. Merthyr-Tydvil never had a 
 farthing in his pocket, as, how should he, with a generous 
 disposition, a pack of fox-hounds, string of race-horses, and 
 three country-house establishments, all on full pay ? 
 
 Lady Julia turned round and appealed to Mexico. This 
 nobleman's income was two-and-twenty thousand a year, 
 paid quarterly, without deduction or drawbacks. He was 
 virtually one of the richest men in London, had no town- 
 house, and only a shooting-box in the country ; could give 
 
4,6i TEE BJR00KE8 OF BBIDLBMEBM 
 
 five hundred a-piece for his horses, or his opera-boxes, or 
 anything he fancied, and laid by every year two-thirds of 
 his income. But when Mexico came to turn his pockets 
 out, he could only muster seven-and-sixpence in silver, and 
 two of the new halfpence that shine like brass. Mr. King 
 was anxious for his money at once. He had an " appoint- 
 ment," he said, with a gentleman in the City at two. He 
 ought to be gone now. 
 
 Fortunately at this crisis, Mexico caught sight of Young 
 Overdue, an ornament to her Majesty's Household Brigade, 
 with an allowance of two hundred per annum, and the 
 tastes, accompanied by the liabilities, of a millionaire. 
 
 " Overdue ! " holloaed the Viscount ; " can you lend us 
 a fiver?" 
 
 " A hundred of them, if you like," answered the spend- 
 thrift, pulling out a roll of notes in a beautiful satin case 
 embroidered with gold. " Take what you want. It's 
 settling day at Tattersall's, so a few more or less makes 
 no difference ! " 
 
 So Lord Mexico, borrowing a five-pound note from the 
 reckless young soldier, handed it to Lady Julia, who paid 
 it away to "Nobler King" in exchange for Tatters, and 
 although she punctually repaid his lordship within twenty- 
 four hours, I think it very probable the viscount forgot to 
 reimburse Overdue, and I am sure the last never troubled 
 his head about it again, one way or the other. 
 
 Having obtained what she wanted, Lady Julia grew very 
 impatient to get home. 
 
 " You win come to luncheon with us, dear ? " said the 
 Duchess, who lived only two doors off. No ! Lady Juha 
 would not come to luncheon. It would make her so late. 
 Mamma never went out the days of her "at homes" 
 therefore she could have the carriage early, and meant 
 to go and see Miss Prince, her old governess, so she took 
 leave of her chaperone on her own door-step, and hurrying 
 off to the dining-room with her prize, proceeded to give 
 Tatters a most indigestible and injudicious luncheon 
 without farther delay. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 jack's alive 
 
 Though she travelled without a companion by ordinary 
 mail-train in a first-class carriage as yet unprovided with 
 any startling apparatus by which to communicate her 
 alarms and misgivings to the guard, Miss Brooke arrived 
 safely in London, without sustaining insult or injury on her 
 journey. 
 
 She was only very cold, pale and uncomfortable while 
 she drove through the morning streets, in the noisiest of 
 cabs, but had presence of mind enough left, notwithstanding 
 her preoccupation, to resist the driver's extortion when he 
 set her down at Miss Prince's door, and to give him not 
 much more than fifty per cent, over his legal fare. She felt 
 strange, confused, wearied and anxious, yet at the same 
 time happier than she had been for weeks, and she certainly 
 did wonder, as she entered the house, whether it was not 
 possible that she should find Philip Stoney in attendance on 
 her brother. 
 
 Could she have known that he turned the comer out of 
 the street, about thirty seconds before she drove into it, I 
 imagine she would have felt a good deal relieved and not a 
 little disappointed. 
 
 There was no disappointment, however, in her meeting 
 with Jack. He was up, he was out of danger, he was in a 
 fair way for recovery. The strong family constitution, and 
 the hard family head had carried him through triumphantly, 
 and there was nothing, so Doctor Blair said, to prevent his 
 being on his legs again in a week, as well as ever he was in 
 his life. This good news she learnt immediately on her 
 
 459 
 
454 THE BB00KE8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 arrival from Miss Prince, who wept copiously in imparting 
 it._ Mrs. George Stoney also, though by no means a weak- 
 mmded person, could not resist folding the young lady in a 
 tearful embrace. Helen felt she was among friends, and, 
 being comforted, consoled, relieved from the anticipation 
 of a great affliction, cried a little, I daresay, too ; but she 
 stopped the water-works before she entered the invalid's 
 chamber, and only suffered them to play off quietly and in 
 secret, while she looked out of window, after the first 
 greeting with her brother was over, and she had satisfied 
 herself of his thorough amendment and well-being. 
 
 _ Of course she insisted on becoming head-nurse imme- 
 diately, unpacking her little travelling-bag, and pitching 
 her tent, as it were, at the Front, without delay. Doctor 
 Blair, entering the room, caught her in the act of smooth- 
 ing her long, black hair at the glass over his chimney- 
 piece. The tall, freckled Scotelunan started, and turned 
 so red that his whiskers paled by comparison. 
 
 Thomas the Ehymer, when he met the Queen of Faery, 
 guiding her snow-white palfrey through lihe gleams of the 
 summer lime-trees with more than mortal grace — sweet- 
 voiced ; bright-eyed ; glowing with beauty, and all a-blaze 
 with gold, could not have been more completely taken 
 a-back. Jack, lying on the sofa, laughed tUl his bandages 
 came loose, ere he could explain her presence. 
 
 But if Blair was dazzled with the vision that had thus 
 in'adiated like a flood of sunshine the gloom of his drawing- 
 room floor, no less was he enchanted with the quiet 
 dexterily displayed by Miss Brooke in repairing damages 
 for the sufferer." 
 
 " I have been used to a sick room all my life," said she, 
 when the doctor expressed his surprise and admiration, 
 " though I never had to nurse Jack before. If you will 
 tell me exactly what you wish done, I think you may leave 
 him to my charge, Sir, as confidently as if I was one of 
 your own hospital nm-ses." 
 
 " Hospital nurses ! " repeated Blair, who knew the 
 pattern well, lifting up his hands and eyes in vehement 
 protest, " I'm thicJkin' we'll none o' us get nursed by the 
 like o' you in this world, an' I'm of opeenion, mem, that 
 we'll no need nurses nor doctors neither in the next. 
 
JACK'S ALIVE 455 
 
 What ye'U do, Miss Brooke, to-day, is just to tak' a bed in 
 beyont, for s' long as it's your pleasure to stop. I'll see 
 and ha'e the room sorted for ye this vary meenit. Whaur 
 will I sleep mysel' ? Oo ! I'ye gotten a lawboratory in the 
 hoos. I can aye rest the better when I ken I'm no far off 
 my tools. Ye'll gi'e your brither yon bit dose in the phial 
 gin he's wakin' in an hour's time. Gin he's no, ye'll just 
 pit it behind the fire ! Fare ye weel. Miss Brooke ; ye're 
 a wise-like young leddy, an' I'm proud to get a grip o' your 
 hand ! " 
 
 So speaking, Doctor Blair departed to prepare his own 
 sleeping-room for Helen, ere he went out to visit his 
 patients, leaving her fairly installed and settled in a chair 
 at Jack's pillow, for the latter had insisted on being dressed 
 and moved to a sofa in the front room, under the impression 
 that he would be able to leave the house and return home 
 in the course of the day. 
 
 But though Jack thought, like other hardy, well-plucked 
 individuals who are unused to illness, that because he was 
 no longer in actual danger, he must, therefore, be quite 
 well, his sister's experience took a less sanguine view of his 
 condition, and she saw that perfect quiet was in this, as in 
 all similar cases, the shortest road to recovery. 
 
 So she would tell him nothing of her own doings, and 
 refused even to discuss with him the probability of regain- 
 ing Tatters, a matter on which Jack's mind was a good 
 deal disturbed ; but sitting within reach of him in silence, 
 and busying her slender fingers with a bit of crochet-work, 
 out of the travelling i)ag, which only to look at was an 
 opiate and a sedative, she had the satisfaction of seeing his 
 eyes shut, his head droop, and his whole frame relax in a 
 deep, sound, healthy slumber that promised to last for 
 hours. 
 
 The apparition of Miss Prince gesticulating in dumb 
 show at the door did in no way disturb the patient, and 
 Helen crossing the room lightly with her noiseless step, 
 gathered from the little woman's pantomime and broken 
 murmurs that it was her own and Mrs. George's opinion 
 Miss Brooke must take some rest. For the fr^herance of 
 this object she had made and brought a cup of strong black 
 tea, such as one might give a student who has been out 
 
456 TEE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 of bed several nights to keep him awake yet another hour, 
 and had placed it in the adjoining apartment for Helen's 
 consuraption. Here, too, the young lady found a large easy 
 chair in which to repose her frame ; and here, with the 
 door ajar, that she might watch her patient, Miss Prince 
 left Helen, with an assurance, in a ghostly whisper, that 
 none of the Stoneys, nor indeed any other inmate of the 
 house, should disturb her solitude. 
 
 After the strong tea, sleep was of course impossible ; and 
 the crochet-work, though she had it on her knee, did not 
 make much progi-ess. Helen soon relapsed as usual into 
 contemplation of the impossibility she resolved every day to 
 think of no more. Jack's accident, and her own undecided 
 step in thus journeying unaccompanied to London, had for 
 a time broken the thread of her customary reflections ; but 
 the anxiety of the one was happily over, and the excitement 
 of the other had passed away with her arrival. The dull, 
 familiar pain began to gnaw, as of old, relieved only by the 
 prospect of seeing Philip Stoney just once more. A 
 contingency that, while it added sharpness to the pangs, 
 rendered them notwithstanding less wearisome and intoler- 
 able. 
 
 He might be in the house even now, she thought, 
 perhaps only parted from her by the planking of the floor ; 
 yet, had it been so, he would surely have afforded her some 
 token of his presence, could not have left her entirely 
 unnoticed, like an utter stranger. Perhaps, after all, he 
 had given her up, as she had him ; perhaps he had not 
 really cared for her so very much — ^he had never exactly 
 told her so. Ah ! that would be better for him, for both ; 
 and yet she could not bring herself to wish it. How 
 wicked of her ! No ; though she might pray for it, she 
 could not bring herself to wish it ! 
 
 But it was not so — she was sure it was not so ! In such 
 matters there is a conviction deeper than all reasoning 
 that accompanies the truth. She knew he loved her, just 
 as certainly as she knew it was her duty to forget him 
 henceforth. If she could see him she would tell him so. 
 The pain would be over then once for all. Why was he 
 away to-day of all days ? Where could he be? What was 
 he doing now ? 
 
JACK'S ALIVE 457 
 
 What Mr. Philip Stoney was actually doing at the 
 moment Miss Brooke's reflections brought her to this point, 
 was hurrying back to Short Street, at the utmost pace his 
 somewhat remarkable walking powers could commands 
 He had been obliged to leave home for business, before 
 Jack Brooke woke in the morning ; but as he had never 
 yet asked for a half-holiday from his employer, he found 
 little diificulty in obtaining a remission of his duties for the 
 rest of the day after dinner-time. Philip was the most 
 considerate fellow in the world of other people's feelings, 
 and he had learned through Blair the anxiety under which 
 the convalescent laboured about his dog. He had employed 
 the first hour of his spare time, accordingly, in seeking the 
 haunts of sundry individuals whom he knew by sight in the 
 streets, as belonging to the dog-fancying profession. In 
 such research he had come across no less practised a 
 proficient than Jem Batters, who, after a touching and 
 penitent recognition, not without gushing tears, consequent 
 on an overdose of stimulants, confided to him that he was 
 himself in quest of just such an article as " Mas'r Philip " 
 described. On comparing notes a little further, Jem 
 " made a clean breast of it," with a few reservations in his 
 own favour, and detailed the whole account of the mur- 
 derous onslaught to which he had been a witness. Philip 
 was quite satisfied that his friend had been the victim of 
 foul play, though he little suspected at whose hands, and 
 was now more than ever anxious for an interview, in which, 
 if Jack was well enough, they should devise means for 
 the recovery of his favourite, and the punishment of his 
 foe. 
 
 Jem Batters, indeed, had declared confidently that he 
 could lay his hand on this or any other missing dog in 
 London within twenty-four hours ; and had also expressed 
 his readiness to identify the person of Mr. Brooke's 
 assailant, and swear to him, if necessary, in a court of 
 justice. Previous to taking further measures, however, he 
 wisely suggested that Tatters, with the sagacity of his kind, 
 might have run straight back to the place at which he was 
 kidnapped on escaping from captivity, and proposed, there- 
 fore, in the first instance, to accompany Philip as far as 
 Miss Prince's house in Short Street before making search 
 
458 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 elsewhere.^ Thus it came to pass that the pair appeared at 
 her door in the very moment when a smart and gaudy- 
 looking gentleman, having rung gently at the bell, was 
 endeavouring to ascertain whether Miss Brooke had 
 arrived from the maid, who knew nothing, as in duty 
 bound. 
 
 Multiple, I think I have already shown, was not a man 
 to be easily foiled in an emergency. When he came down 
 to breakfast at Bridlemere, ready dressed for his journey, 
 he was doubtless startled, as well as angry, to learn that 
 Miss Brooke had gone. He recovered himself, however, 
 quickly enough, and dissembled his surprise Avith habitual 
 cunning, avoiding any interview with the Squire, and lead- 
 ing the servants to suppose by his manner that he was 
 aware of the young lady's movements, and had arranged to 
 meet her at some intermediate station, and thence accom- 
 pany her to her journey's end. He did not of course say so 
 in as many words to the butler who brought in the urn, or 
 the footman who packed up his things, or the coachman 
 who drove him to the station ; but each of these domestics 
 nevertheless, as well as the whole household, including 
 Helen's own maid, imbibed somehow this improbable 
 version of the business, and became fully persuaded of its 
 truth. 
 
 Multiple's knowledge of Miss Brooke's character satisfied 
 him that she was just as sure to go at once to her brother 
 as a wounded deer is to travel down-hill to the stream ; but 
 it was necessary that he should make certain of her refuge 
 in the first instance before taking farther measures ; and 
 though he had no desire to confront Jack Brooke, and a 
 stronger objection still to the gaunt Scotch doctor who had 
 questioned him so freely, he thought he might safely inquire 
 at Miss Prince's door whether the young lady was within, 
 and make it appear in this quarter also, that even if they 
 had come up in difi'erent trains their intention was to travel 
 down again to Bridlemere together. 
 
 The moment he set eyes on him, Jem Batters recognised 
 his figure. He caught tight hold of Philip Stoney's 
 arm — 
 
 " That's the chap," said he. " I'd swear his life away 
 amongst a score on 'em. I'm not over fond of the Bobbies 
 
JACK'S ALIVE 469 
 
 myself, Mas'r Phil ; but you just ketch a hold on him — I'll 
 haye a peeler from round the corner to help us, in less than 
 no time ! " 
 
 Even while he spoke, Multiple turned to depart, having 
 learned what he wished to know. The two men on the 
 pavement cut off his retreat, and Jem advanced on him 
 with more determination than that besotted person usually 
 displayed. 
 
 "No, you don't!" said he, coming close up, as if to 
 collar his man. " You're a nice party, you are. D'ye 
 think I wasn't down upon your little game here yesterday ? 
 Aye, do, if you dare ! If you lift a finger, I'll have every 
 peeler in Bow Street down on ye, you thieving, murdering, 
 dog-stealing blackguard — ^you ! " 
 
 Multiple drew himself back, ready to strike if necessary, 
 knowing what a fair blow he could get at an adversary who 
 prepared to collar him and didn't ; but recognising Philip 
 Stoney, whom he had seen in Middlesworth, he thought it 
 best to take the high hand, affecting a tone of haughty 
 surprise rather than indignation at the whole proceeding, as 
 being less an outrage than a mistake. 
 
 " What does this mean ? " said he, loftily. " Who, and 
 what, is this drunken ruf&an? May I ask. Sir, as he 
 seems to accompany you, whether he is acting under your 
 orders, or on your behalf? Oh ! I beg pardon — Mr. 
 Stoney, I believe? You can doubtless assure this 
 impudent fellow that he takes me for somebody else." 
 
 The last sentence was spoken in a tone of admirably- 
 acted surprise, subsiding gradually into a courteous appeal 
 for that assistance which one gentleman naturally affords 
 another. Philip, however, was not to be thus hood- 
 winked — 
 
 " This is an awkward business, Mr. Multiple," said he. 
 " I am unwilling to make a disturbance in the street, but 
 I cannot lose sight of you till matters have been cleared up. 
 I am surprised you should have come here ! " he added, 
 reflectively, and more to himself than the other. 
 
 " I came here as an intimate Mend of the family," 
 answered Multiple, putting a bold face on the business ; 
 " to offer my assistance to the gentleman who is lying ill 
 up-stairs, and to inquire after Miss Brooke. Here she 
 
460 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE ■ 
 
 comes. K you disbelieve me, let her answer for herself; 
 but in the name of everything that is courteous and 
 gentlemanlike, send this ruffian about his business forth- 
 with ! " 
 
 Thus adjured, Philip, whose belief in the truth of Jem 
 Batters' story was considerably shaken by Multiple's 
 manner, as well as his own conviction of its extreme 
 improbability, withdrew the latter into the passage, for they 
 had hitherto been standing on the step, and shut-to the 
 door, leaving Jem outside. Helen was already in the hall : 
 she had heard voices in loud altercation, and fearful the 
 noise might wake her brother, had come down to entreat 
 the disputants to be quiet. Philip stood spell-bound. 
 Multiple's appeal was no less unexpected than Miss 
 Brooke's appearance at this juncture. Unconsciously, 
 though, he interposed his own person between the young 
 lady and her visitor. The latter was the first to speak — 
 
 " Miss Brooke," said he cheerfully, " you can bear 
 witness to my identity. There has been some ridiculous 
 mistake, but your presence sets everything right. Mr. 
 Stoney will be satisfied with your assurance that I come 
 here with the right of one bound to your family by the 
 closest ties — or, at least, very soon about to be so. Is not 
 this the truth? " 
 
 Philip looked fi-om him to her, like a man who awaits his 
 sentence. She was quite pale, and even her lips were 
 white. No sound came from them in answer, but one of 
 her listeners, intently watching, could perceive that they 
 syllabled a distinct affirmative. 
 
 Then Philip's heart died within him, and he cared little 
 what became of Multiple, or Jem Batters, or Jack Brooke, 
 or indeed anybody in the world. It was true then — all 
 true ! How could he have so deceived himself as to dis- 
 believe it when he heard it first ? 
 
 " I only called to say I was at your orders about return- 
 ing," added Multiple, quite satisfied with the way in which 
 he had got out of his present difficulty, and chiefly anxious 
 now to secure his retreat. "We will go down together, 
 when you think your brother well enough to leave him, 
 Helen, unless you wish me to return to the Squire, and 
 come up for you again in a day or two." 
 
JACK'S ALIVE 461 
 
 She found her voice now, and a very cold, haughty voice 
 it was, while she replied — 
 
 " I shall write to Uncle Archie to take me down at 
 once ; and ask him to stay with us till my brother is able 
 to come home." 
 
 Then she turned away without further leave-taking, and 
 began to walk slowly and heavily up-stairs. Multiple was 
 gone in a twinkling. Philip Stoney stood under the lamp 
 in the hall, and watched the folds of her dress rustling, 
 step after step, towards her chamber. Already she had 
 reached the first landing, and was turning to go on. 
 
 " Miss Brooke ! " said he, pale, half-choking, but staunch 
 and true to the last. She stopped, and somehow, with one 
 bound, he was at her side. " Miss Brooke," he repeated, 
 " I know it all — I heard it yesterday. I am sure now it is 
 true. My only wish is for your happiness. I pray that 
 you may be the happiest woman in the world ! God bless 
 you!" 
 
 She gave him her hand, and when he took it a warm 
 tear fell on his own ; she sobbed out a return of his solemn 
 blessing, and rushed away to the room she now occupied, 
 at once. Had she stayed another moment she must liave 
 fallen in his arms, and told him then and there how well 
 she had loved him — so dearly, so long — and how she loved 
 him stilL There was no escape but in flight ; nevei-theless, 
 when she reached her sanctuary, I doubt if she could write 
 legible or intelligibly to Uncle Archie, unless she checked 
 the stifling sobs that rose so wildly, and dried the blinding 
 tears that would not be controlled. 
 
 And this was the meeting to which these two young 
 people had respectively looked forward so longingly ! that 
 in all their unhappiness they had regarded as a definite 
 point to which they must come sooner or later ; and that 
 would surely, in some way or other — they didn't exactly 
 know how — affect their future very beneficially, and enable 
 them to bear their subsequent trials with exceeding fortitude 
 and resignation. Nothing, a week ago, could have 
 distressed either of them so much as an assurance that 
 this interview was never to take place. 
 
 And what was its result? A man walking aimlessly 
 about the streets of the busy city, in the vain hope that 
 
462 THE BB00KB8 OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 change of scene and constant motion, would take off some- 
 thing, were it ever such a little, from the hurden of leaden, 
 hopeless sorrow, that he seemed destined to carry to his 
 grave. A woman, sitting bowed over a writing-table, 
 weeping, longing, wild, repentant, heart-broken, wishing 
 only that she might die. 
 
 In the meantime Brother Jack was'sleeping a sound, un- 
 broken slumber, that, to use Blair's metaphor, kept the 
 " bung in the barrel " more effectually than all the doctor's 
 stuff the Latin language was ever corrupted to compound. 
 The sleeping draught, directed to be administered in case 
 he should wake, had not indeed been thrown "behind the 
 fire," but stood untouched on the chimney-piece, his fine 
 form lay stretched supine and motionless ; the pallor 
 occasioned by loss of blood was on his cheek, but his 
 measured breathing announced the depth of his welcome 
 and unbroken sleep. It was this regular breathing that 
 first aroused Helen from the passion of grief to which she 
 had given way. With every woman worthy of the name, 
 the instincts of the nurse predominate over aU other feel- 
 ings, however engrossing, and Helen was essentially a 
 woman in the most lovable and womanly attributes of her 
 sex. As her ear satisfied her of Jack's salutary slumbers 
 and happy recovery, she blamed herself for suffering any 
 subject in the world to divert her thoughts from her 
 brother's safety, and for dwelling on her own selfish 
 sorrows, however keen they might be, at such a time. She 
 forced herself to allow that she ought to be contented, 
 cheerful, even happy. Had she not saved "Walter firom 
 dishonour (though she shuddered to think at what a price ?) 
 and was not Jack rescued to-day almost out of the jaws of 
 death ? Oh ! if this blessed sleep would only last, she 
 would have both her brothers to live for ; and it mattered 
 little then what became of her ! 
 
 She composed herself sufficiently ere long to write to 
 Uncle Archie ; and it speaks well for her unselfish natm-e, 
 and habitual consideration for the feelings of others, that 
 she worded her note pleasantly and cheerfully, as if she 
 was the lightest-hearted damsel in the world. 
 
 The envelope was hardly addressed ere she was startled 
 by one of those alarming double knocks that seem to shake 
 
JACK'S ALIVE 463 
 
 a small London house to its veij foundations, and are 
 inflicted by great people's footmen, as though in indignant 
 protest that such humble tenement should presume to have 
 a door at all. The maid, ascending all begrimed &om her 
 work below, answered the summons with unexpected 
 alacrity, but must have been sui'prised at the unusual 
 proceeding which instantly followed her admission that 
 Miss Prince was at home. 
 
 Instead of the orderly entrance customary with the 
 aristocracy in the height of the London season, a beautiM 
 young lady, beautifully dressed, descended from a remark- 
 ably well-appointed barouche, with a rough terrier in her 
 arms, to proceed, decorously enough, into the house. No 
 sooner, however, had her feet touched the pavement, than 
 the dog, struggling violently from her hold, dropped head 
 and tail in a horizontal line, to scour through the open 
 door, and up the opposite staircase as hard as he could lay 
 legs to the ground- The young lady followed almost as 
 rapidly, leaving the stately footman in his six feet of helpless 
 magnificence to exchange with the dingy, little maid-of-all- 
 work vacant looks of astonishment and dismay. 
 
 They had not the least recovered themselves before the 
 dog reached the top of the stairs, and bouncing with both 
 fore-feet against the door that opposed him, so violently as 
 to burst it open, leapt with a yell of delight to Jack Brooke's 
 neck at a bound, licking his face, hands, hair, whiskers, in 
 an outburst of affection, all the more true and touching 
 that it wanted the power of speech to give it vent. 
 
 Jack woke up with a start, to find his favourite in his 
 arms. He thought it was a dream — he was sure it was a 
 dream, when he opened his eyes wide, and looked towards 
 the door. 
 
 Lady Julia Treadwell could nm up-stairs as fast as most 
 people, and was not likely to lose her recent purchase for 
 want of a little activity and speed of foot. She darted 
 after Tatters, determined that he should not escape ; and 
 the ardour of the chase brought her point-blank into the 
 room where Jack Brooke lay, pale, bandaged, dishevelled, 
 but looking very handsome nevertheless, while he returned 
 the caresses of his dog on the sofa. 
 
 Lady Julia, for once in her life, was fairly taken aback. 
 
464 TBE BROOKES OF BBIDLBMBBE 
 
 That she had not heen thinking of the gentleman on whose 
 solitude she thus intruded during the last ten minutes, I 
 will not venture to affirm ; hut if so, she had pictured him 
 to herself walking over the farm at home in leather gaiters, 
 perhaps standing at a well-remembered spot in the green 
 lane, looking wistfully towards ToUesdale, and wishing — 
 well, wishing the London season was over, and she herself 
 had begun her country rides again. 
 
 It was startling, then, to bounce in on him, here of all 
 places in the world, apparently in his bed-room, or the 
 next thing to it, in such deshabille too ; and, good heavens ! 
 those bandages ! What could have happened ? Surely 
 not seriously hurt ! 
 
 For once, I say, she was really taken aback, and this 
 worldly young lady, who prided herself above all things on 
 an external composure and good breeding that no untoward 
 combination could affect, blushed scarlet to the roots of her 
 chesnut hair, and stood stock-still, open-mouthed, looking 
 as awkward as a milkmaid. Soon, however, all thoughts 
 of self merged in anxiety for his welfare, and she turned 
 quite pale again, though she walked quietly up to his sofa, 
 and placing one hand on his shoulder, while he took the 
 other as reverently as if it had been some saintly rehc, 
 prevented the effort he was making to get up and bid her 
 welcome. 
 
 Tatters in the meanwhile jumped down, barked, scoured 
 round the room, and jumped on the sofa once more. 
 
 "What is it, Mr. Brooke? " she asked, in a low, eager, 
 broken voice. "Why are you here? What is the 
 matter? Don't be afraid to tell me. Is it anything 
 really serious ? " 
 
 Jack was in the seventh heaven, like a Moslem who has 
 fallen asleep to clash of scimitar and clang of atabal in 
 battle, to be woke by the wave of his love's green scarf 
 in paradise. He was yet half afraid he must be dreaming 
 still. 
 
 " Serious! " he repeated, with a smile. "Not a bit of 
 it ! Only a common crack on the head : I've had many a 
 worse out hunting. The doctor — ^who makes the most of 
 it, of course — says I shall be all right in a day or two. How 
 good of you, though, to come and see me." 
 
JACK'S ALIVE 46S 
 
 .*' I didn't -conie to see you, Mr. Brooke," replied her 
 ladyship, and here she coloured up a good deal once more. 
 "Misa Prince, my old -governess, lives in this house, and I 
 often pay her a visit." Then, tempering a little the cold 
 water she had just dashed over him, she added tenderly, 
 " I hope it is as you say. I trust you may not be danger- 
 ously hurt. Oh ! Mr. Brooke, I know you are too rash, 
 too foolhardy. Tell me all about it : I must know, I insist 
 on knowing, bow it happened ! " 
 
 Jack had not yet coolly reviewed the proceedings of the 
 previous day for himself. As the circumstances rose before 
 Mm, one by one, he felt how inappropriate they were for 
 narration to such a person, at such a time, and in such a 
 place. He could no more prevaricate than he could tell a 
 direct lie, so he thought it better to refuse her the informa- 
 tion she required point-blank. Also, the train of thought 
 thus originated, associated itself necessarily with Walter, 
 and something went through him like a knife, while he 
 remembered how often he had suspected, and with what 
 apparent reason, that the interest Lady Julia showed in 
 himself was but for Walter's sake after all ; so his voice 
 was a good deal colder, and his manner more reserved, 
 while he replied — 
 
 " The whole origin of the accident was of a nature that 
 could not possibly interest you or any other lady. Men 
 are always getting into scrapes, you know, and are lucky 
 when they get out of them with no more damage than a 
 crack on the crown. Mine is really almost well. I hope 
 to be back at Bridlemere to-morrow. We Brookes, you 
 know. Lady Julia, have got very hard heads ! " 
 
 " And hard hearts too ! " thought Lady Julia, though 
 she was careful, you may be sure, not to say so. She 
 only smiled a little scornfully, and observed, with some- 
 thing of impatience, and even irritation, in her tone — 
 
 "You haven't thanked me for bringing back your dogi 
 I dare say you never missed him, poor little fellow ! - I 
 suppose you're like the rest, of the world. It's * Out of 
 sight, out of mind' with you too ! " 
 
 Jack looked up from the sofa, rather reproachfully. 
 There was no mistaking the inflection of her voicej the 
 hardness and constraint of her manner. What had he 
 
 80 
 
466 TEE BROOKES OF BB.IDLEMEBE 
 
 done now, he thought, to have created this little ebullition 
 of pique, or anger, or dislike, or whatever it might be ; and 
 why should she vent it upon him to-day, of all days, when 
 she had him lying helpless, prostrate literally at her 
 feet ? A man may be thoroughly ignorant of women and 
 their ways, without being an utter fool; and while Jack 
 looked at his pretty visitor, and marked her shifting colour, 
 her restless gestures, her obvious uneasiness and discom- 
 posure, something more than a suspicion of the truth 
 seemed to shoot through his whole being, causing the 
 blood to dance in his veins, with a thrill that was 
 extremely bad for his broken head, and by no means 
 conducive to the regular action of his heart. 
 
 "How can I ever thank you enough?" he answered, 
 fervently, " whether you brought my dog here, or my dog 
 brought you. I always valued Tatters as much as he 
 deserved (there's not such a terrier of his weight in 
 Europe !), but I have prized him still more since — since the 
 last month or two, and I shall like him still better than 
 ever now ! " 
 
 It was a very lame confession — not the least an explicit 
 avowal; but Lady Julia knew her man, and it gave her 
 courage to continue in the same strain as before. 
 
 "If it hadn't been for me, you would never have seen 
 him again. A dreadful dog-stealing man was can-ying him 
 about in the Park. I knew him directly, and only think, 
 Mr. Brooke ! the darling knew me ! So I bought him 
 immediately, and took him home, and gave him some 
 dinner — ^too much, I'm afraid, for he made himself 
 sick — and brought him here, because I wouldn't let 
 him out of my sight till I could send him safe back to 
 Bridlemere." 
 
 No voice — not even the first loved voice of his childhood, 
 he remembered quite distinctly still, had ever sounded so 
 sweet in Jack Brooke's ears ; no face had ever looked so 
 fair to his eyes as that which hovered about him now, 
 framed in a delicate, transparent little bonnet, with its 
 light-green trimming. He could have fallen down and 
 worshipped her. At least he would have liked to tell her 
 he could. But the words wouldn't come. He wasn't 
 brave enough. All he did say was this — 
 
JACK'S ALIVE m 
 
 " I hope he did not give you much trouble ? Did you 
 get him to follow you pretty well?" 
 
 Her voice trembled a good deal now, and her ladyship 
 was rapidly losing her self-command while she answered 
 this vei-y uninteresting question. 
 
 "He followed me well enough when I took him home, 
 and seemed to have grown quite fond of me in the carriage, 
 till I brought him to this door. Then he broke away 
 altogether and rushed up here, and I ran after him, or I 
 should not have intruded, Mr. Brooke, in this uncere- 
 monious kind of way. I ought to beg pardon, I suppose, 
 for my rudeness. He's a faithful little dog, poor Tatters. 
 I must say he seems quite happy to have got back to his 
 master. He won't look at me now, and I don't believe he 
 cares for me either one bit ! " 
 
 She was close to the sofa by this time, and its occupant 
 had taken hold of her hand. I am not sure but that he was 
 pressing it to his lips ; and though she looked very happy, 
 the tears were gathering in her eyes. At this juncture Miss 
 Prince opened the door, having heard that her pupil had 
 arrived, wondering, perhaps, whether she could have found 
 her way to the front drawing-room by mistake. The 
 governess, though I am bound to admit she was more 
 shocked than surprised, started violently when she caught 
 sight of the pair, and retired forthwith. 
 
 As their subsequent proceediugs could have been of 
 interest only to the performers themselves, perhaps we 
 had better follow the example of Miss Prince. 
 
CHAPTEE XXX 
 
 THE EEASON WHY 
 
 Old Dame Batters, suffering more than ever from rheuma- 
 tism, notwithstanding the fine spring weather, already 
 brightening into summer, had taken to sunning herself 
 at her cottage-door of late, creeping about it for hours 
 together, and looking earnestly up and down the green 
 lane, as though in expectation of a guest. For one guest 
 indeed, the guest whose footstep falls unbidden alike at 
 pauper's hovel and at chieftain's hold, she had been long 
 prepared. She was "near her time," she said, "ready 
 and wUlin' ; but she prayed to see her Jem once afore she 
 did depart. Ah ! prayed for it, night an' momin', she did, 
 and so she should ! She knowed Jem couldn't a got to 
 heaven afore his poor old mother. He'd be strange, too, 
 and dashed like, even if he had ! No ; she'd see Jem, some 
 odd time, waUdn' down the lane with his hands in his 
 pockets, an' arter that she'd goo. She wouldn't want to 
 stop long then — not she ! — there ! " 
 
 And so, shading her eyes from the afternoon sun, just as 
 he had fancied many a time in her absence, Jem saw his 
 mother once more, as he plodded up the green lane from 
 Middlesworth Station, having travelled from London, third 
 class, with money in his pocket furnished by Philip Stoney, 
 and a resolution to lead a sober and honest life for the 
 future, aroused by the arguments, exhortations, and even 
 entreaties of the same individual. Philip's influence had 
 indeed been always beneficial to this poor reckless vagabond, 
 and his kindness, as will presently appear, was destined to 
 be repaid an hundred-fold. 
 
 468 
 
THE SEASON WHY 469 
 
 The meeting between mother and son was so quiet and 
 undemonstrative that a looker-on would hardly have 
 believed it a surprise. She patted him on the shoulders 
 indeed, and the tears came thick and fast to her dim old 
 eyes ; but her voice was very low and broken, while she 
 sobbed out, almost in the words of scripture, "My boy! my 
 boy! thee hast been dead an' art alive agin." 
 
 Jem said very little, but he too dashed something from 
 his eyes with his dirty hand ; and when she had got him 
 fairly within doors, and at the old chimney corner, with his 
 pipe, he observed huskily — 
 
 " I'll nivir leave of ye now, mother — not till you leave of 
 me. I've not been a good son — far from it. But I tell 
 'ee, mother, I've seen ye most days, in London an' 
 elsewheres, a-settin' theer in that corner, just as I see ye 
 now!" 
 
 Then the poor old woman wept aloud for joy, sobbing 
 and rocking to and fro, as though she were in pain. 
 
 It was not long, however, before she composed herself, 
 and proceeded to inaugurate a feast in honour of the occa- 
 sion. Though it might have been about half-^past two p.m., 
 she soon had a little black tea-pot out of the cupboard, and 
 prepared about a pint of very doubtful tea, without milk or 
 sugar. Over this favourite refreshment, keeping always 
 between him and the door, as though fearfel he might give 
 her the slip once more, she related at great length the 
 gossip of the village, and last news round Bridlemere. Put 
 into a less diffuse form, its substance amounted to this : 
 that old Halfcock, the keeper, had had " words " with the 
 Squire about the game, and talked of giving up his place ; 
 that Sue Stanion was married, and Cissy Brown wanted to 
 be ; that the new curate had given Mother Barefoot a pair 
 of shoes, who had pawned them, and been found drunk 
 under a hedge next day ; that Mr. Marks had got the first 
 prize at Middlesworth Show for a yearling bull, and the 
 ToUesdale bailiff only taken the second; that the family 
 were to be home next month, and great rejoicings were to 
 take place, both there and at Bridlemere, on the marriage 
 of our young Squire with their young lady; that she (the 
 dame) had herself seen Lady Julia, and thought her not to 
 be compared to their own Miss Helen, and that the latter 
 
470 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 came to the cottage most days, looking strange, poor dear, 
 and pale — she 'as used to have such a colour with her 
 walk, and that Master Walter was away for good and all, 
 but they couldn't make out whether he was coming to his 
 brother's wedding or no, and some said as he wanted to get 
 the young lady for hisself ; lastly, that the dark gentleman, 
 him as used to come after Miss Brooke, you know, hadn't 
 been seen about Bridlemere since Sir Archibald came 
 down, and she (Dame Batters), who had been young 
 herself, opined that was the reason as the dear took on so, 
 and looked so pale and peakin' with it all ! 
 
 Whereupon Jem, who seemed to have learned discretion 
 in his ups and downs, smiled quietly, as one who knows 
 better, but thought well to keep his superior information 
 to himself. He had reasons of his own for connecting 
 Sir Archibald's present sojourn at Bridlemere with Mr. 
 Multiple's disappearance, and did not himself consider 
 the absence of this gentleman a loss to any one concerned. 
 It was improbable the two would meet again on the same 
 terms as formerly, after a certain interview in London in 
 the private room of a club to which they both belonged, 
 that began indeed with something of a hostile tendency, 
 but concluded in the unconditional surrender of one of the 
 belligerents. 
 
 Sir Archibald's first care, when he received Helen's 
 note, was, as usual, to place himself at his niece's dis- 
 posal, and he arrived at Miss Prince's door, just as Lady 
 Julia Treadwell drove away from it in the new character 
 of an affianced damsel. He discovered Jack in a state of 
 extreme discomposure, caused by overwhelming happiness, 
 which the old soldier attributed to lightness of head rather 
 than heart, the result of his contusions. Finding him 
 unusually incoherent. Uncle Archie had recourse to Helen, 
 and was distressed to observe by her countenance that she, 
 too, had been suffering from emotion, though of a different 
 nature. His kindness and sympathy ere long elicited from 
 poor Helen a burst of sorrow, in which the story of her 
 engagement escaped her almost involuntarily, though even 
 to Uncle Archie she would not disclose her knowledge of 
 Walter's dishonour, nor the bargain by which her contract 
 with Mr. Multiple had been ratified. 
 
THE SEASON WHY ill 
 
 Neither was he disposed to hreathe in mortal ears the 
 suspicions which, notwithstanding De Kolle's generosity, 
 he had conceived, so that the two were for the first time 
 in their lives at cross-purposes, fencing and concealing 
 from each other that which was uppermost in the thoughts 
 of both. 
 
 At last Sir Archibald took his niece's hands in his, and 
 said very quietly — 
 
 "You do not love this man, Helen, and yet you are 
 determined to marry him ? "" 
 
 " Honour ! Uncle Archie," replied pale Helen, trying to 
 smile. " I will not bear to hear him spoken ill of, because 
 I am to be his wife. I have promised, and I mean to keep 
 my word ! " 
 
 "But, supposing he should give you up?" replied the 
 other — " supposing he should write to you with his own 
 hand, absolving you from your obligations to him, how 
 would it be then ? " 
 
 Helen blushed ; the idea of liberty was indeed more than 
 sweet, but there was, nevertheless, something of pride and 
 pique in the tones with which she answered — 
 
 " If such a humiliation were possible. Uncle Archie, of 
 course, a lady does not hold a gentleman to the fulfilment 
 of his bargain." 
 
 Sir Archibald contested the point no longer ; but after 
 another interview with Pounder and Jem Batters, followed 
 by a long consultation with an old Crimean friend, wrote a 
 note to Mr. Multiple, in which he requested an immediate 
 meeting without witnesses, on business of a private and 
 delicate nature. The old soldier had long since learned 
 that men are never so impracticable as when ranged two 
 and two on each side. 
 
 Multiple was ere this pretty well convinced that, to use 
 his own language, " the game was up." Still he had read 
 Helen's character aright, and knew that if he had a chance 
 left it was in her scrupulous sense of honour, and unde- 
 viating fidelity to a promise she had once made. 
 
 It was his nature to carry an unblushing front, and he 
 met Sir Archibald now with a cheerful manner and a 
 cordial smile, though he was careful not to assume a, 
 false position b;^ offering his hand, 
 
472 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 " This is an awkward business," said he, frankly. " An 
 awkward business, Sir Archibald, and I cannot sufficiently 
 regret the share my partner has had in it. Though at 
 first sight it looks strange, perhaps it is fortunate, after 
 all, that I am about to become connected with the family 
 through your charming niece." 
 
 Sir Archibald winced, but preserving his outward com- 
 posure, observed gravely — 
 
 " Mr. Multiple, I have a. proposal to make to you." 
 
 The other smiled, and offered him a chair, which, 
 however, was declined. 
 
 " My proposal to you. Sir, is this — that you shall sit down 
 at that table and write out a formal renunciation of any 
 claim you may have extorted on false pretences from Miss 
 Helen Brooke." 
 
 It was a large morsel to swallow. Multiple thought his 
 adversary's position must be very strong, or he never would 
 have made so confident an advance. 
 
 " And the alternative? " said he, with a laugh, that was 
 almost good-humoured in its carelessness. 
 
 " A general show up of the whole affair in a court of 
 justice, which would blow you and ^our whole business to 
 the devil ! " answered Sir Archibald, in the quiet tone of a 
 man who knows he has got yet more in reserve. 
 
 "And the publication of Mr. Walter Brooke's peculiar 
 method of doing business," retorted the other, maliciously, 
 " which could hardly escape notice from the Horse Cruards, 
 and might afford employment to the Committee of this very 
 Club, of which you know he is a member." 
 
 " You have communicated with your partner, I presume," 
 said Sir Archibald quietly, and Multiple knew perfectly what 
 he meant. 
 
 "Will Mr. de RoUe repeat that statement on oath?" 
 asked the latter. 
 
 " Will you choose to see Mr. Pounder in the witness- 
 box? " demanded Sir Archibald in turn. "I don't think 
 it would answer either your purpose or mine," added he, 
 in a grave, stem tone, "to make this matter public. Come, 
 come. Sir, there is only one course for you to pursue. Sit 
 down and write me the paper I require. In consideration 
 of its immediate receipt, I pledge myself to refrain from 
 
THE SEASON WHY 473 
 
 taking any. further steps; and although I will trouhle you 
 never to speak to me when we meet, I will carry my 
 hostility no fui-ther, and I never wish to enter upon this 
 or any other subject with you again." 
 
 There was nothing else for it, and Multiple found him- 
 self constrained to comply. He could not face a public 
 inquiry, as Sir Archibald well knew, and although the loss 
 of such an advantageous alliance as he had proposed him- 
 self was a sad blow and discouragement, anything was 
 better than the complete ruin, both pecuniary and com- 
 mercial, that revelations, extorted on oath, as to his present 
 affairs would too surely entail. Neither did he quite fancy 
 provoking the personal hostility of Helen's quiet, resolute, 
 and adventurous partisan. Sir Archibald, well satisfied, 
 received the required paper with a bow, and walked out of 
 the room, saluting his late friend, whom he had forbidden 
 ever to speak to him again, vnth as much courtesy as if 
 they had settled their difference with less legal weapons 
 than those of moral pressm-e and moral force. 
 
 He had saved Helen, that was his great consolation 
 under the new trial which now awaited him in an interview 
 with Walter. 
 
 Himself the soul of honour, it is needless to say that Sir 
 Archibald would rather have lost all he possessed in the 
 world, than that his brother's son should have been guilty 
 of the deed which, in spite of De EoUe's generous mis- 
 statement, he felt Walter had committed. The old soldier 
 shuddered and sickened at the very thought. Nevertheless, 
 the thing was done ; there was no undoing it, and the only 
 palliative left was the promptest reparation, short of public 
 exposure, that could be made to society. 
 
 Sir Archibald's better self told him, indeed, that without 
 full confession, there could be no complete atonement for 
 a wrong ; but he was an erring human creature after all, 
 and he could not, strive as he would, bring himself to 
 forego, on his nephew's behalf, even the shadow of that 
 worldly honour, which is to such men as the very breath 
 of their nostrUs. He had been accustomed from childhood 
 to identify the name of Brooke with all that was chivalrous, 
 high-souled, generous, sans peur et sans reproche. It is 
 not too much to say that be would have given his life 
 
474 THE BROOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 ratlier than this thing should have happened, to blur with 
 a breath of shame the brightness of his fair ancestral shield. 
 
 He took Helen down with him to Bridlemere, and the 
 girl, on whose mind a new, vague sense of happiness was 
 stealing, which she felt to be exquisitely delightful and not 
 altogether unreasonable, thought she had never known her 
 uncle so silent and preoccupied. He would not even enter 
 the house, but drove off at once to Middlesworth Barracks, 
 where he was fortunate enough to find Walter alone in his 
 quarters, being indeed the subaltern on duty for the day. 
 
 Of their interview it is needless to give the particulars. 
 Each perfectly understood the other, and the full confession 
 that had been staved off by the generosity of Kags, was 
 neither offered nor required. It is enough to say that when 
 Sir Archibald returned the salute of the smart light dragoon, 
 on sentry at the gate, he was a poorer man by a good many 
 hundreds than when he entered the barracks, and Walter 
 was entirely freed from the debts and liabilities he had 
 incurred, during the last few years, with such industry and 
 perseverance. 
 
 One proviso was made, however, on which the old officer 
 proved inexorable. Walter must leave the army. He 
 should serve her Majesty no longer. Sir Archibald would 
 give no reason for this decision ; but he had been a soldier 
 for forty years, and entertained his own high and stringent 
 notions of military honour. In any other career, at home 
 or abroad, he promised to assist him to the utmost of his 
 abilities, but his nephew's papers must go in immediately. 
 He would take no denial about that. So every man in 
 the regiment, except Eags, was surprised when Comet 
 Anastasius Green became Lieutenant, vice Walter Geoffrey 
 Brooke, who retired. 
 
 Helen and her uncle grew more inseparable than ever 
 at Bridlemere. The Squire was better in bodily health, 
 though his mind failed rapidly, and it was with some 
 difficulty that he could be brought to understand his eldest 
 son's marriage. I imagine the family man of business had a 
 tiresome task in arranging the necessary settlements, which 
 could Only be made by his consent. Jack, with his brown 
 locks cut away for a good four inches along Ms hard, service- 
 able head, was naturally almost always at Tollesdalp. By 
 
THE BMA80N WHY 475 
 
 Lady Julia's express desire they were to be married in the 
 country, and Lady Waywarden had actually consented to 
 forego one half of a London season, in order, to use her 
 own words, " that she might see the last of her child before 
 she lost her for good." Wonderful to say, she took Jack 
 into high favour, and found out that she had always liked 
 him exceedingly. " So well-principled, my dear," she told 
 her friends, "and in every respect so superior to his brother, 
 the good-looking one." His lordship, I think, entertained 
 a secret predilection for his old favourite still. He was 
 very staunch in his friendships, and he knew Walter so 
 much the best of the two. Nevertheless, day by day he 
 found something more to admire and respect in his future 
 son-in-law, and it was delightful to have a companion every 
 night after dinner, who could enter con amore into his 
 doings at the farm, and knew more about "top-dressing'" 
 than his pompous old bailiff himself. 
 
 Viscount Nether sole approved highly of the whole pro- 
 ceeding, inasmuch as the marriage was to bring him home 
 from Eton in the middle of the half. It is to be presumed 
 that he would have welcomed the Great Mogul into the 
 family, with exceeding cordiality, on the same terms. 
 
 Lady Julia grew softer and quieter day by day. She 
 even left off talking slang, except on occasions of great 
 excitement, or when she wanted to make Jack laugh. She 
 was very happy, as young ladies sometimes can be, even 
 when they have got all they want in the world. Tatters, 
 also, was more petted and made of than dogs usually are, 
 although they may have successfully performed the office 
 of go-between. He wore a light green ribbon round his 
 neck now, of which I think he entirely disapproved, and 
 besides being dusty, weary and footsore, was generally in a 
 state of quenchless thirst and disgust. You see, Jack had 
 with great propriety, presented him as a gift to his ladye 
 love, and the consequence was that Tatters, whenever he 
 missed his master from ToUesdale, was off like a shot, and 
 did the whole distance to Bridlemere, under a scorching 
 sun, at a gallop, returning with the same expedition if he 
 found his search fiiiitless, so that the poor little dog was 
 constantly arriving at either place with his tongue out, in 
 the last stage of exhaustion. 
 
476 THE BBOOKES OF BBIDLEMEBE 
 
 Somebody, however, or something must usually go to the 
 wall when a couple are about to be married, and in this, 
 as in many other cases, the canine devotion and fidelity 
 sufiered in silence, and abated nothing of its affection or 
 its truth. The sun shone very bright, which added to the 
 discomfort of poor Tatters during the few weeks in which 
 Lady Julia was getting a trousseau that, I cannot but agree 
 with Lord Waywarden, seemed of unnecessary splendour 
 and profusion. It was thirsty weather in and about 
 Middlesworth, and beer was consumed in larger quantities 
 than usual. At this critical moment Mr. Marsh, the 
 brewer in Stingo Street, died of a natural complaint called 
 old age, and his business went a-begging for a purchaser. 
 It rejoiced the hearts of many an old friend in and about 
 the town to learn that Stoney Brothers had bought it of 
 the executors, and nobody was more pleased with this 
 arrangement than Miss Prince, though she lost her prin- 
 cipal lodgers thereby, whom, indeed, she had less occasion 
 to regret, having sold her house in Short Street very 
 advantageously, to a patient of Doctor Blair's, and, if I 
 am rightly informed, invested the proceeds of her sale in 
 this very concern. 
 
 Where the rest of the money came from served as a 
 topic of conversation for every gossip in Middlesworth, a 
 large percentage of the population. Surmises, exceedingly 
 far-fetched and extravagant, obtained universal credence. 
 The least improbable was, perhaps, the following. That 
 Mrs. George Stoney had been left a round sum of money 
 by this very Mr. Marsh, who, though her maternal great- 
 uncle, had never taken the slightest notice of her during 
 his life, and that a larger sum, varying with the imagina- 
 tive powers of the narrator, had been advanced at consider- 
 able risk by some personal and devoted friend. 
 
 Certain it is that Mr. and Mrs. George Stoney, accom- 
 panied by Dot and Jane, and the usual complement of 
 children, returned to Middlesworth and occupied extremely 
 uncomfortable lodgings, with the avowed intention of re- 
 entering their old home when the term for which they had 
 let it should have expired. 
 
 Philip also, who had never lost his energies, now 
 recovered much of his former good spirits and bright looks. 
 
THE REASON WHY 477 
 
 He was very busy indeed, and scarcely gave himself a 
 moment's respite from his toils. Amongst many other 
 avocations, he was constantly engaged with a series of 
 experiments bearing on the production of beer, and 
 oiiginating in certain discoveries made by him amongst the 
 ruins of the brewery, as to the effects of fire. Shodid his 
 chemical theories turn out one-half so successful as he 
 expects, that catastrophe, originating in Jem Batters's 
 drunkenness, will have proved, with one exception, the 
 most fortunate event of his life. 
 
 This exception has been owing also to the influence of 
 the thoughtless vagabond whom he has striven so long and 
 patiently to extricate from the Slough of Despond, out of 
 which a drunkard never emerges unassisted. 
 
 Had Jem not been an eye-witness to the assault on Jack 
 Brooke, it is probable that Helen's engagement to Mr. 
 Multiple would have been fulfilled. If such had been the 
 case, I think Philip Stoney would never have returned to 
 Middlesworth. I think Helen herself would have looked 
 very different that bright June morning on which I am 
 about to take leave of her at Bridlemere. 
 
 It is still sunny, glowing midsummer weather, with a 
 scent of hay, and a quiver of heat, and a hum of insects in 
 the air. The massive trees are black in their deep 
 luxuriance of foliage, and the very birds are hushed and 
 silent in the shade. The deer have buried themselves in 
 distant glades, crouching amongst the fern and foxglove in 
 Dingleside at the farther end of the park, and the few 
 cattle visible from the house windows are standing knee- 
 deep in a gleam of water between the woods, tossing their 
 wide-homed heads at lazy intervals, but loth to mar their 
 indolent enjoyment by so much as the movement of a limb. 
 Roses are blooming bright and fragrant in Helen's garden, 
 and not a petal has yet been strewn by the sleeping breeze 
 on its level shaven sward. A brace of white butterflies are 
 flitting to and fro against the blue sky, and a puff of smoke 
 is curling upward in thin, spiral wreaths. Save for these, 
 everything seems basking, quiet and motionless ; even the 
 figure from which the smoke is rising reclines at ease 
 in a well^sloped, comfortable garden-chair. 
 
 Nine o'clock breakfast is over. The Squire has been 
 
478 TEE BB00KB8 OF BBIDLEMBBE 
 
 wheeled off to his library as usual. Jack, released from 
 duty at the farm, in consideration of his approaching 
 nuptials, has departed, on a half-broken three-year-old, for 
 ToUesdale : and Sir Archibald, who is sadly addicted to 
 tobacco, has lit his after-breakfast cigar, and settled him- 
 self for a luxurious smoke under the shade of the lime-trees 
 in Helen'-s garden. 
 
 Presently, a white dress comes dazzling out upon the hot 
 gravel-walk beneath the breakfast-room window, and Miss 
 Brooke, with her black hair shiniag like jet in the sun, 
 crosses the lawn, hummiug a tune and gathering a rose as 
 she passes on, workbox in hand, to take a seat by Uncle 
 Archie for an hour of happy, quiet talk, which they both 
 prize as one of the chief enjoyments in the day. The 
 Squire sleeps away most of his time now, and Helen's 
 duties are less onerous, if they are more indispensable, than 
 heretofore. 
 
 She looks brilliant this fine summer's morning, with her 
 fresh toilet, her raven hair, and her sweet white brow, from 
 which the load of care seems of late completely removed. 
 Sir Archibald's heart stirs within him ; it is so like the 
 face of thirty years ago ; the face that has never faded in 
 his memory, that pervades even to-day, the glowing land- 
 scape, the sleeping woods, the earth, the air — above all, the 
 blue, distant heaven, whence he can almost fancy she is 
 looking down upon him still. 
 
 Helen makes a little affected grimace of disgust at his 
 cigar, though amongst ladies she professes to "like the 
 smell of them above all things in the open air," as indeed 
 she would of asafoetida if that happened to be Uncle 
 Archie's favourite perfume but this is a nice little 
 opportunity to tyrannise over him, so she takes it out of his 
 mouth in her taper fingers, and makes as if she would 
 throw it away. 
 
 "Jack has given up the vile practice," says she, " even 
 though Julia declares she delights in it. Uncle Archie, 
 why don't you ? " 
 
 " I'm not going to be married, Helen, am I ? At least, 
 I hope not," answered her uncle, repossessing himself of 
 his narcotic. " Wait till you've a pipe of your own to 
 put out, my dear. Perhaps it won't be long first, after all." 
 
TBE SEASON WHY 479 
 
 Helen busies herself in tying up a standard rose tree, 
 already sufficiently well secured, and the exertion no doubt 
 brings a very bright colour to her delicate cheek. She 
 abandons the tobacco question forthwith, and Sir Archibald 
 smiles slyly, as old gentlemen will when they take unfair 
 advantage of young ladies by the argumentwn ad homi- 
 nem." 
 
 "Jack is a sad martyr," continues Sir Archibald. "It 
 must be a very laborious business, this making love, Helen. 
 Don't you think so ? Almost as bad as making hay this 
 broiling weather. There's Jack, started oflf directly he'd 
 swallowed his breakfast, under this tropical sun ; and if the 
 young horse consents to take him there, which is doubtful, 
 he'll be at ToUesdale all day. He'll have a walk and talk 
 with Lady Julia, luncheon with Lady Julia, and a drive with 
 Lady Julia; tea with the same person; dinner as near 
 her as the process of feeding will permit ; perhaps another 
 walk and talk by moonlight with Lady Julia to finish up. 
 What can they find to talk about? and how tired poor Jack 
 will be when he comes home ! " 
 
 " Tired ! " repeated Helen, indignantly. " I don't think 
 Jack and Julia could ever be tired of one another. Besides, 
 Uncle Archie, you know they must have such a quantity of 
 things to settle. How nice it will be, when they come to 
 stay with us here for the rest of their lives ! I think we're 
 all of us a great deal happier than we deserve ! " 
 
 WhUe she spoke it was strange how the same expression 
 seemed to pervade those two faces ; how like the war-worn 
 old man and the fresh young girl were to each other, for a 
 few moments, ere it passed away. It left his features first, 
 perhaps because the feeling that produced it was even 
 deeper and holier in his heart than hers. Then he smoked 
 for a while in silence ere he asked maliciously — " Will it 
 be too hot for a ride to-day, Helen ? "Why shouldn't we 
 canter over to ToUesdale in the afternoon and ask Lady 
 Waywarden for some tea ? Then we might all come back 
 together, and indeed it would be a charity to poor Nether- 
 sole, who has confided to me that his sister's engagement, 
 which he expected would be ' awful jolly,' has turned out 
 ' cruelly slow.' What say you, Helen ? I've nothing 
 particular to keep me in this afternoon, have you ? " 
 
480 THU BBOOKMS OP BBILLEMEBM 
 
 Helen coloured again ; nearly as red as the rose she had 
 placed in the bosom of her white dress. It was a blush, 
 though, in which there was more of pleasure than of 
 shame. She looked Uncle Archie steadilj' in the face, not- 
 withstanding that the crimson was rising to her temples. 
 Then the tears gathered in her eyes, though they shone 
 with a thorough heart-felt happiness, while she replied — 
 " I wouldn't go away this afternoon to be made Queen of 
 England, and you know it, Uncle Archie. It's Philip's 
 day, and he works so hard, poor fellow, and waits so 
 patiently; and he would have had no day at all, and I 
 don't know what would have become of him, nor of me 
 neither, if it hadn't been for you, you dear, kind, generous, 
 self-willed, tiresome old monster; and I shall never let you 
 go away from me, though you're very provoking sometimes, 
 but love you and tease you, and take care of you all the 
 days of my life ! " 
 
 Then she ran back into the house, partly to get the 
 newspaper, and partly to hide her tears, for she was crying 
 from sheer happiness ; and Sir Archibald, looking into the 
 depth of the blue summer sky, remembered how just such 
 another figure had left him years before in an agony of 
 shame, and sorrow, and remorse, because her woman's 
 weakness could not resist the pressure laid upon it by 
 friends and family. How, when Helen's mother had passed 
 her word to his elder brother, while avowedly she loved 
 himself, he had sworn, even in the bitterness of his sorrow, 
 that he would deal faithfully, loyally by both, sacrificing his 
 own happiness without a murmur ; and how through good 
 and evil he had kept the spirit and the letter of his oath. 
 
 ."And now," said Uncle Archie, flinging the end of his 
 cigar into the rose bushes, with his face still turned to 
 heaven — " now I have dy reward. When I meet you 
 there I can tell you how I have watched over those you 
 loved on earth, and kept for you the heart you once prized 
 so dearly, as pure and stainless as your own ! " 
 
 I know not if she heard him. Perhaps the lowest of our 
 whispers may reach eternity, for it is not so far from any 
 of us, after all. 
 
 UNWIN BBOTHEBS, THE GBEBHAM PItESS, WOKING AKD liONDON. 
 i.