l^lp^plpfll^' 
 
 ^vnY 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 L I B R.AR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVLR.5ITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 Q23 
 N29j 
 
 V.I

 
 JULIAN KAESLAKE"S SECRET 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKE'S SECEET 
 
 A XOVEL 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. JOHX HODDER NEEDELL 
 
 ' Jt IS open to us as a 2J''>ssihility, hut closed against us as a right, 
 to foUow the lower when the higher calls* 
 
 LS' THREE VOLUMES 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON 
 SmTH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 1881 
 
 [All rights reserved]
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/juliankarslakess01need
 
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKE'S SECEET. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 >v^Two MEN were sitting together over the dreary 
 
 , embers of a dying fire, in the early twihght of 
 
 s a November afternoon. A small table stood 
 
 i 
 
 •:l"|)etween them, covered with loose piles of 
 
 '^^ closely-written manuscript, from which the 
 -elder of the two had been reading aloud with 
 . such absorbed interest in his employment as to 
 >be quite unconscious of the ill-disguised im- 
 
 Cpatience of his hstener. 
 
 4 He now leaned back in his chair with a 
 gesture of physical weariness, and, laying his 
 
 :, VOL. T. B
 
 2 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 long flexible fingers caressingly on the sheets by 
 his side, surveyed his companion with an expres- 
 sion divided between wistfulness and irritation. 
 ' You do not seem so much impressed by 
 the extracts I have read as I expected,' he 
 said, ' but then you are scarcely qualified to be 
 a competent critic you will at least under- 
 take my commission ? ' 
 
 ' I will undertake it, of course, only I wash 
 my hands of all responsibility as regards success 
 or failure. You will be wise to expect the 
 latter.* 
 
 He rose as he spoke, pulling up the collar 
 of his coat and shivering with intention. 
 
 ' You have let the fire down with a ven- 
 geance, Dorrimore, oblivious of vulgar sensations 
 in your intellectual zeal ; and yet if ever a 
 checrrul blaze were wanted it is in such a den 
 as this. I never come here but I wonder how 
 life sustains itself under such conditions.'
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKES SECRET. 6 
 
 He went up to the window and peered out 
 into the semi-darkness ; there was just light 
 enough to discern the outline of objects. 
 
 A lawn of unusual extent — level as the- 
 odolite could make it — and surrounded on 
 three sides with a belt of evergreens. The 
 choice pines and delicate conifers were over- 
 grown and irregular for want of judicious 
 pruning and thinning out, and the outlines of 
 the flower beds — once cut w^ith geometric 
 exactness in the velvet turf — were now scarcely 
 visible in the long unmown grass, and were 
 destitute of growth save where weeds had made 
 an easy conquest of the soil. 
 
 The broad gravelled w^alk which divided 
 the house from the lawn was saturated -with 
 moisture, and so thickly coated with rank 
 vegetation as to be scarcely distinguishable 
 from the grass itself. The whole outlook had 
 that singularly forlorn and depressing aspect, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 JULIAN KARSLAKE S SECRET. 
 
 produced by a scene originally planned for 
 luxury and pleasure, but abandoned to absolute 
 neglect. 
 
 To look within was to confirm the impres- 
 sion. The room was large and lofty, with, 
 ample conveniences for the library of a wealthy 
 and exacting student, but the book-shelves of 
 curiously carved oak, reaching from floor to 
 ceiling, were for the most part empty, except 
 in one corner where a few score of volumes 
 were scattered over the affluent space. Pe- 
 destals, intended for bust or statue, stood void 
 and purposeless, and deep in dust, save where 
 their blank surfaces were utilised as receptacles 
 for domestic litter ; thus giving the finishing 
 touch of incongruity and disorder to the scene. 
 The once-polished floor of the same sombre 
 wood was dirt-stained and carpetless, and the 
 large mullioned window, facing west, was 
 without blind or drapery of any description.
 
 JULUN KARSLAKES SECRET. O 
 
 A substantial library-table covered with books 
 and papers, and the thickly-padded chair which 
 matched it, and in which the elder man was 
 seated, were the only comfortable articles of 
 furniture in the bare and meagre apartment. 
 
 'Mr, Dorrimore watched his companion with 
 an air of contemptuous impatience ; he had an 
 author's passion for his work and wished to 
 discuss it, but it was hard to force the subject 
 on the obvious indifference of the other. 
 When he at lenizth tmiied round from his 
 post of observation it was to make the alto- 
 gether irrelevant remark : — 
 
 ' It is evident the children don't often play 
 round here.' 
 
 ' I should think not ; Sybil takes care my 
 leisure is not distiu:bed.' 
 
 * And who takes care of Sybil's leisure ? 
 What does she do with herself in a hole of the 
 earth hke this ? '
 
 6 JULIAN KAESLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 He moved away from the window and came 
 back to the fireplace, throwing on a log of 
 wood from a pile in the corner, and scattering 
 the smouldering ashes right and left. 
 
 ' If you could manage to tuck me up any- 
 where for the night, Dorrimore, I would have 
 a chat with Sybil and a romp with the chil- 
 dren/ 
 
 ' The thing is impossible, though I am more 
 sorry than I can express. We swarm with 
 animal life, and Hannah rules us with a rod of 
 iron. I dare not suggest such an idea.* 
 
 ' Then, during the half-hour it will take 
 you to pack up your papers, and the driver to 
 put in his wretched hack, I will at any rate 
 find my way to the nursery. The sw^arm 
 would not forgive me if they knew Uncle 
 Helstone had come and gone without counting 
 them over. Perhaps there may be one or two 
 missincf since I was here last.'
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKK's SECRET. 7 
 
 Mr. Dorrimore rose from his chair as if to 
 oppose his intention, but there was something 
 in the easy determination of tlie other that did 
 not look hke denial, and he sat down again. 
 
 Helstone glanced round the room to see if he 
 could discover anything in the shape of a light, 
 and observing a small spirit lamp on the high 
 mantel above his head, took it down and pre- 
 pared to light it at the failing embers with 
 considerable solicitude. 
 
 ' I look on these lamps,' he remarked, * as 
 an invention of the Evil One — they betray you 
 into darkness on the least provocation. I 
 
 should prefer a dip and flat candlestick if 
 
 I were a student.' 
 
 ' They are cheaper even than dips ; a flat 
 candlestick is an investment in comparison.* 
 
 ' You will excuse my leaving you in the 
 dark, for I have not a moment to spare. Will 
 you ring for another light, and order the trap
 
 8 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 round ? If I am to catch my train to-night I 
 must be ofl in half an hour. Thanks ; I know 
 my way.' 
 
 He crossed the long room with a firm, 
 elastic tread. Outside of it he stood in a large, 
 bare hall of fine proportions, and with a tesse- 
 lated pavement of black and white marble. A 
 livid ray of light from the faint sunset sky 
 fell across the floor, and touched the lowest 
 steps of the ample stone staircase which rose 
 with a circular sweep to the upper stories of the 
 house. 
 
 Helstone cleared the shallow ascent with a 
 few inclusive strides, cherishing his feeble lamp 
 carefully from the perils of the strong currents 
 of air that met him on the wide landings. He 
 crossed a long corridor with closed doors on 
 either side, and made his way, being evidently 
 familiar with the locality, to a room at the 
 extreme end of the house, and from the half-
 
 JULIAN K.\RSLAKES SECRET. 9 
 
 open door of which came the cheerful guidance 
 of peals of childish laughter, and the ruddy glow 
 of fire-light. 
 
 He deposited his lamp in an angle of the 
 wall, pushed the door open a httle wider and 
 peeped in unobserved. 
 
 A laro'e lono^ room, with a wide unshuttered 
 mullioned window at one end, and at the other 
 a blazing fire of ash and fir-cones roaring up 
 the huge chimney, and casting fantastic efiects 
 of dancing lights and shadows. A round oaken 
 table, without cloth but bright as elbow grease 
 could make it, was spread for tea, which was 
 evidently to consist of the home-made loaf, 
 fresh butter, and pitcher of new milk which 
 were already placed upon it. 
 
 Spoons and knives were obviously at a pre- 
 mium, and the crockery was of the most pro- 
 miscuous and inadequate description, but that 
 was of small consequence to the eager spirits
 
 10 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 and healthy appetites that were soon to gather 
 round the board. 
 
 Look at the group ; as full of vitality, 
 mental and physical, as the warmest friends of 
 the human race could wish them. Two lads 
 who looked like twins, so exactly were they 
 matched in height and feature, stood in a loose 
 embrace and attitude of critical attention, 
 watching what appeared to be a dramatic 
 representation of Mother Hubbard and her dog. 
 A girl, of about seventeen, was enacting the 
 drama, aided by a clever little Skye terrier, 
 with so much spirit and success as to call 
 forth shouts of laughter from a trio of younger 
 children, who occupied the floor between her 
 and the fire-light. 
 
 At the moment Helstone looked in, the dog 
 had I cached the flute-playing phase of his 
 history, the flute being represented by a 
 carefully whittled stick ; and was standing on
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 11 
 
 end, grasping the same between Ids front paws 
 with a grave propriety — the outcome of many 
 previous failures — which brought down rounds 
 of applause from the house. But the girl's 
 face, with its expression of half-stupified aston- 
 ishment passing slowly into triumphant recog- 
 nition of the gifts displayed by the remarkable 
 quadruped, was admirable, though probably 
 thrown away as too fine a touch upon her 
 audience. 
 
 Helstone however clapped his hands with 
 enthusiasm, and thus betrayed his concealment. 
 There was a moment's sudden, almost dread 
 silence, then, as the children recognised him, 
 there was a shout of welcome and a promis- 
 cuous rush. The room rang with rapturous 
 shouts of ' Uncle Helstone! Uncle Helstone ! ' 
 from the boys' clear treble to the tender pipe of 
 the four-year-old girl. 
 
 ' There ! there ! ' he cried, strusrgrlincr to free
 
 12 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 himself from tlie encircling limbs that were 
 either grasping or scaling his six feet of height, 
 ' let me breathe I I have only half an hour to 
 spare and lots to say. Sybil, are you glad to 
 see me ? ' 
 
 ' Too glad ! Papa never told us you were 
 coming ; ' and the girl lifted up a face so 
 radiant with spirit and expression that its 
 beauty seemed quite a secondary considera- 
 tion. 
 
 ' Of course you will have some tea ? Sit 
 down, children, and show how well I have 
 taught you to behave. I hope you like new 
 milk and brown bread, for that is what we 
 always have.' 
 
 'And so would I too if I could get them. 
 Why, here are luxuries money can't buy — your 
 own butter and Hannah's matchless bread ! ' 
 
 He drew up a chair to the table and began 
 to attack the loaf.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 13 
 
 ' It's well money can't buy them,' said 
 Sybil with a delicate smile. ' or we should stand 
 small chance of o^ettincr them.' 
 
 'And,' cried one of the boys, 'isn't it a 
 burning shame, uncle Helstone ? Papa says 
 he shall sell Yiper, for a man has offered five 
 pounds for him, and, more than that, he isn't 
 worth the tax. Xot — worth — the — tax ! ' 
 
 He spoke with a flushed cheek and in a 
 tone of trenchant derision, but Helstone could 
 see it was only his incipient, manhood that 
 kept back the tears from his eyes, and the sob 
 from Ms voice. He glanced at Sybil, who was 
 busy pouring out the milk into the respective 
 vessels, and distributing them with noiseless 
 dexterity, and he fancied her lip quivered a 
 httle. 
 
 ' Ah, well,' he said coolly, ' I didn't know it 
 was Mother Hubbard's dog when I bid for it. 
 However, I can't go back from a bargain —
 
 14 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 your father must have his price, and the 
 animal is mine to do what I Hke with. Will 
 you take him back again, Sybil, as a present 
 from me — to please the children ? ' 
 
 There was a shout of triumph, and a simul- 
 taneous rush upon the ransomed treasure. 
 
 Sybil's eyes sparkled with dehght. 
 
 ' Will I ? It is the very kindest thing you 
 could have done for us. But — are you very 
 rich, uncle Helstone ? Can you afford it — quite 
 conveniently ? ' 
 
 ' Eich as a Jew, Sybil, whenever inclination 
 comes into play. But order the children back 
 to their places, and, while they are munching 
 their bread and butter, come into the window- 
 seat and let us have five minutes' talk together.' 
 
 He drew her away to the further end of 
 the apartment, and, making her sit down on 
 the broad bench in the deep embrasure of the 
 mullioned window, stood before her, looking at
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAKE's SECRET. 15 
 
 her "svitli a mixed expression of curiosity and 
 tenderness. 
 
 ' Then it's the same old game,' he said at 
 last ; ' the master washes his hands of all 
 responsibility, and leaves the vulgar cares of 
 family hfe to you and old Hannah ? I am 
 bound to own you don't look hke sinking imder 
 the burden. I have barely time to say two 
 words — is there anything you or the children 
 want ? Are you fairly happy, child ? ' 
 
 ' As the days are long, and often I don't 
 find them half long enough for what I have to 
 do. Do we want anything ? Heaps of things 
 that uncle Helstone could not give us, but that 
 we all do very well without. Jack and Tom 
 could not laugh more merrily had they the best 
 new overcoats in the world, and, to my mind, 
 Bertie, Lucy, and baby could not look prettier 
 under any circumstances whatever.' 
 
 ' And you ? ' — surveying the slight, tall figure
 
 16 JULIAN KAKSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 from head to foot, with a vague masculine per- 
 ception that the dress she wore was somehow 
 inadequate in warmth, texture and effect. 
 
 ' I ? What does it signify ? I have a better 
 frock than this, and we never by any chance see 
 anybody. When I am teaching the children, 
 or papa is teaching me, or I am reading to 
 him, my appearance doesn't count for much.' 
 
 Insensibly the bright voice dropped a little, 
 and as she met Helstone's intense gaze of 
 observation the colour suddenly flushed into 
 her face. 
 
 ' I see what it is,' she said with a little 
 laugh, ' you are thinking how shabby I look.' 
 
 ' Heaven forbid you should know what I 
 was thinking ! But ' — looking at his watch 
 impatiently — ' do you still teach the boys ? ' 
 
 ' At present ; papa says he can't afford to 
 send them to school, and that I can ground 
 them in the rudiments as well as he"; besides
 
 JULIAX K.\ESLAKE's SECRET. 17 
 
 they are very quick. He still gives me lessons 
 and he must have time for his great work.' 
 
 Helstone's lip curled. ' How great ? I am 
 taking a portion up to town to show to some of 
 the savants^ and sound a publisher. It will 
 not succeed of course ; that is ' — seeing the 
 swift look of dismay on her face — ' too many 
 have attempted the task before to encourage 
 the hope that ^Ir. Dorrimore will succeed 
 where they have failed. But you needn't 
 attach much weight to my opinion ; I am not a 
 Greek scholar like him and you, Sybil.' 
 
 ' Xo,' said she quietly, ' and you lose a great 
 deal thereby — for yourself, I mean — we could 
 not like you better.' 
 
 At this moment the door opened and 
 Hannah, the iuLiusive help of the household, 
 came in to say the trap had just gone round to 
 the front door, and master had sent her to tell 
 Mr. Helstone. 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 ' But, goodness knows, sir,' slie added, ' it's 
 a treat for sore eyes to see you once more, and 
 how pleased the blessed babbies must have 
 been ! ' 
 
 Helstone shook the good woman cordially 
 by the hand, dexterously conveying into the 
 honest palm a substantial token of his good- 
 will, which he well knew from former experi- 
 ence would be employed in the children's 
 service, and with some difficulty got himself 
 away from the clamour of affectionate lamenta- 
 tion. His last words were to the twins, and 
 they were sotto voce : — 
 
 ' Write to me, boys, if things go wTong, or 
 you or your sister want anything. Hannah 
 knows my address.'
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 19 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 Eight years before the incidents just related 
 Herbert Dorrimore had deliberately given up his 
 professional struggles, as an ail-but- briefless 
 barrister, and withdrawn himself and his family 
 from their hard experiences of London existence, 
 under the conditions of debt and poverty, to 
 the profound seclusion of country life in a 
 remote south-western county. 
 
 A friend had offered him the old manor- 
 house, known in the neighbourhood as Ash- 
 lands, for a merely nominal rent, induced to 
 the step by the conviction that Dorrimore was 
 a scholar and genius overweighted by vulgar 
 
 c2
 
 20 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 cares, wlio only needed the opportunities of 
 leisure and retirement to do great things, and 
 remunerative things as well. 
 
 In point of fact the chief subsistence of the 
 family depended not on his profession, which 
 had never brought him in a hundred guineas 
 since he had been called to the bar some fifteen 
 years before, but on the proceeds of his fitful 
 and eccentric pen ; and, since his speciality was 
 neither the reviewing of novels nor the 
 writing of leading articles, his work could be 
 carried on as well in the provinces as the 
 capital. 
 
 Dorrimore caught at the offer eagerly 
 without much consultation with his wdfe, who, 
 according to his estimate, had early merged 
 her individuality — never strongly marked — 
 into that of her children, and seemed to have 
 absorbed every human interest in the cares and 
 coiiipiansations cf her rapidly -filling nursery.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 21 
 
 The eigliteeu months that Mrs. Dorrimore 
 lived after their removal to Ashlands were the 
 happiest in her experience since marriage. By 
 the sale of every article of value they possessed 
 their old habilities were wiped out, and al- 
 though the result was that their new home was 
 furnished with a meagreness that left them 
 destitute of many of the necessary accessories 
 of life, yet this was little to her mind in com- 
 parison with the blessed freedom from that pecu- 
 niary care which had sapped the springs of 
 health and cheerfulness during her London 
 
 career. 
 
 Then, again, she had been country-born and 
 bred, and made the best of the certainly 
 favourable circumstances in which she found 
 herself so unexpectedly placed. There was a 
 farm of about twelve acres attached to the 
 house, and she had the rare good fortune to 
 find an honest, hard-working couple who were
 
 22 JULIAN kakslake's secret. 
 
 equal to the management of the small demesne 
 between them. 
 
 The woman was frugal, capable, and in- 
 dustrious, and made no objection to undertake 
 the duties of the house single-handed, save 
 for the efficient help rendered by her tall, fair, 
 and energetic mistress ; the man was above 
 his class in intelligence, and gave good advice 
 as to the best and most productive course to be 
 adopted with the land. Under his instructions 
 two cows were purchased, which were as much 
 as Mrs. Dorrimore's finances would allow, and 
 m order to do this she surreptitiously disposed 
 of certain trinkets that still survived the wreck 
 of their fortunes ; the pasture would have borne 
 six, but for such a consummation they had to 
 •await the tardy multiphcation of benignant 
 nature, which the poor lady herself never lived 
 to see fully reahsed. By such means not only 
 was tlie house liberally supplied with new
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 23 
 
 milk and butter, as well as witli homely fresh 
 vegetables from the excellent kitchen garden — 
 new and rare luxuries to the town-reared 
 family — but there was a gradually increasing 
 surplus of these commodities for sale, on the 
 product of which all other additions to their 
 commissariat and family necessities depended. 
 Occasionally their means would be augmented 
 by casual investments, such as the purchase of 
 a few suck-lambs, bought each season from the 
 nearest shepherd, ostensibly as playthings for 
 the children, but with an ultimate view to the 
 profit of the household. 
 
 As for ^Ir. Dorrimore, he by degrees made 
 it to be understood that his literary privacy was 
 inviolable, and that he shook himself free from 
 all participation in the practical conduct of 
 affairs. He gave his wife, whose new- developed 
 energy occasioned a half contemptuous surprise, 
 carte blanche to manage matters as she pleased
 
 24 JULIAN KARSLAKE S SECEET. 
 
 SO long as he was spared all consultation and 
 annoyance ; at long intervals lie would give 
 her money, perhaps ten or twenty pounds at a 
 time, according to the proceeds of some un- 
 usually successful article ; and this was his 
 chief contribution to the expenses of his family. 
 The pity was he would not write what he 
 knew would jDay, unless driven by stress of 
 pecuniary pressure to the humiliation of literary 
 pot-boiling, his whole heart and intellect being 
 absorbed in the laborious task of a new trans- 
 lation of the Iliad. 
 
 He was an admirable Greek scholar it is 
 true, but he had neither the breadth of mind, 
 nor delicate subtlety of brain, nor native gift of 
 rhythm, sufficient to ensure brilliant success or 
 paramount superiority over those who had 
 ploughed the same field before him. 
 
 One other duty he performed — the educa- 
 tion of liis eldest child, to which he devoted
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 25 
 
 himself with an ardoiu* excited and sustained 
 by the brilliant capacity and siogidar beauty of 
 the httle girl. Sybil Dorrimore had been her 
 father's pupil from the time she was foiu' years 
 old. He taught her the Greek before the 
 Enghsh alphabet, and pleased himself with the 
 idea of reproducing in her the prodigies of 
 erudition attained by other gifted children 
 under similar experiences. He had his reward : 
 at an age when other children are stumbling 
 over the multiplication table, she liad tripped 
 lightly across the pojis asinorum, Avith brain alert 
 and adequate for the pursuit of that beloved 
 science which divided his zeal with classical 
 scholarship. 
 
 At fourteen she had paraphrased Lucretius, 
 and her eager and precocious intellect had 
 forced her into premature and passionate 
 sympathy with the majestic subhmity of 
 -^schvlus.
 
 26 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 It was well for the result of this severe and 
 sustained mental pressure that nature had 
 endowed her with a superb physical constitu- 
 tion, and that her interest in outdoor pursuits 
 and occupations led to her being in the open 
 air as much as possible, and qualified her 
 intense student life. Then her affections were 
 of a warm, natural and generous type ; she loved 
 her little brothers and sisters with a mag- 
 nanimous unselfishness that made scarcely any 
 denial or effort hard in their service. Indeed 
 she did not know, so limited was her experi- 
 ence of other lives, how unusual were the 
 requirements made upon her. 
 
 After her mother's death the burden of the 
 household management fell upon her childish 
 shoulders, so far as mental prevision went. 
 Hannah, indeed, constituted herself the all-but- 
 ubiquitous house- mistress of the estabhshment, 
 in which no other change occurred except the
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKES SECRET. 27 
 
 providing of a nurse-girl for the lovely six 
 months' old baby, which poor Mrs. Dorrimore 
 had left behind her. 
 
 The student-father buried himself more 
 profoundly in his hbrary than before, salving 
 his conscience against its reproaches for his 
 selfish apathy by devoting nearly the whole of 
 his narrow personal income to the physical 
 needs of his family, and reducing his own 
 wants within the narrowest compass. 
 
 They led a strange, self reliant life. Xo 
 one visited them, except at rare intervals their 
 mother s kinsman, Gilbert Helstone, and they 
 never went out to other houses. 
 
 Their home was, as we have said, in a re- 
 mote part of a south-western county, and a mile 
 from the village, in which there was no other 
 <?entleman's house but the vicarage. One or 
 two farm-houses stood near, but it was certain 
 that neitlier Mr. Dorrimore nor Svbil would
 
 28 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 care to make friends of their occupants ; and 
 the few county families of the district alto- 
 gether refused to acknowledge their im- 
 poverished and scrambling existence. 
 
 It was a strange experience for a beautiful 
 and gifted girl : she stepped out of childhood 
 into the adult and exhausting anxieties of 
 narrow means ; and if, in her case, they did 
 not quench the brightness of her spirit, it was 
 simply because of the abundant elasticity and 
 resolution of her natural endowments, in 
 .addition to her positive ignorance of different 
 conditions. 
 
 It often happened that, when constrained to 
 make a direct appeal to her father for money, 
 she was met by a statement of his absolute 
 inability to meet her requirements, while on 
 -those rare occasions when he was able to do 
 otherwise he was apt to survey her from head 
 to foot with a discontented expression, and to
 
 29 
 
 add the injunction that part of the fund 
 should be spent ' in buying herself something 
 decent to wear.' 
 
 But there were so many of them that 
 wanted decent apparel, and Sybil always seized 
 these occasions to set them all up in new boots 
 and shoes, which was a terrible pull upon the 
 fund ; and Hannah also was sure to have 
 in reserve some pressing demand which ab- 
 sorbed the residue. 
 
 But after all, they cared little for dress or 
 company either ; they were as happy as the 
 birds of the air and as full of resource as active 
 brains and bright natures could make them ; and 
 in their different and desultory ways the whole 
 brood loved books and study, whenever froni 
 any cause the outdoor world was under a ban. 
 
 Sybil in great measure was the family 
 tutor, but they all had the happy art — only to 
 be found amongst children at the same time
 
 30 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 clever and neo^lected — of teaching? themselves 
 and of teaching one another. The twin boys 
 were about this time twelve years old, five 
 years younger than their eldest sister: a boy 
 and two girls having been born and died 
 between them. One of her chief anxieties was 
 the education and career of her brothers, whom 
 her father still obstinately persisted in consider- 
 ing and treating as children. It was probably 
 with some vague idea of helping their future 
 that, as time passed and developed her nascent 
 capacities, she betook herself secretly to 
 authorship. She had succeeded in furnishing 
 after a fashion the large, disused drawing-room 
 of the house, which had the same aspect and 
 proportions as her father's study, and she 
 passed hours of concentrated occupation and 
 delight over an old library table which had 
 been transferred for her use to this apartment,
 
 JULIAN K.UISLAKE's SECRET. 31 
 
 and was ia perfect keeping with its lietero 
 geneous contents. 
 
 And of what vahie, do you ask, were the 
 crude lucubrations of a girl in her eighteenth 
 year, and which girl was also a recluse ? Stop 
 a moment, and consider what some of our most 
 honourable names in literature have not only 
 promised but achieved at that age, and take 
 into account likewise the training she had 
 received. She had been drilled from infancy 
 in linguistic criticism on the basis of the most 
 subtle and complete of human tongues. Xot 
 only could she read Greek tragedy, but she 
 had been taught to scan its heights and plumb 
 its depths with a disciplined faculty, which 
 stood her in good stead when it came to find- 
 ing adequate expression for lier own ideas. 
 Grant that her personal experience of liie was 
 singularly narrow, her imagination was vigor-
 
 32 JULIAX karslake's secret. 
 
 ous and intuition keen :— io;norant of the social 
 world in its practical manifestations, she was 
 versed in the literature of the day under all its 
 multiform aspects — new books being the only 
 luxury that ever found its way into their 
 house — and was well read in the dramas of the 
 old playwrights, and the virile romances of the 
 last generation. 
 
 Add something more : she had studied and 
 loved Shakespeare from a child ; that is to say, 
 she had sat at the feet of the master whose 
 mind is still the horizon beyond which none of 
 us- — poet, philosopher or otherwise — are able to 
 project our own. 
 
 Enough : what she wrote was printed and 
 paid for, she being naturally well acquainted 
 with the modes of negotiation between writer 
 and editor ; and the small sums thus obtained 
 were a valuable addition to their straitened 
 means.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 33 
 
 From some scarcely defined motive, Sybil 
 kept the secret of her authorship and its 
 success, and the impression in the family was, 
 when these casual windfalls occurred, that the 
 father's hand had bestowed them. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 34 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 * Let tlie children read the New Testament, 
 Sybil, and teach them the Lord's prayer.' 
 
 This was the sum of Herbert Dorrimore's 
 religious solicitude in regard to his family, and so 
 far Sybil, in the first flush of mental and physical 
 strength, was unconscious of moral or spiritual 
 deficiency. Her healthful and highly endowed 
 organisation was not of the type that possesses 
 inherently a profound sense of the supernatural ; 
 there was no strong bias in her mind towards 
 ' obstinate questionings,' no eager looking before 
 or after, no tendency towards mystic aspiration. 
 She was thoroughly content with what this 
 perishable and imperfect world gave her. It
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 35 
 
 naturally followed from this training, that 
 attendance upon the formal services of the 
 Church had never been considered by the 
 household in the light of either a duty or a 
 privilege, and circumstances had hitherto for- 
 bidden its taking rank as a pleasure. 
 
 The vicar of Eoosden Macrna was a man 
 of good birth and weak health, who devolved 
 almost all his parish duties upon a quick 
 succession of youthful curates, none of whom 
 remained long enough on duty to assimilate 
 themselves either to the people or their work, 
 and whose indiscriminate dismissal was popularly 
 attributed to the fickleness or irritabihty of 
 their superior. ' Our new curate ' was a stereo- 
 typed phrase at Eoosden Magna. 
 
 Occasionally, during the progress of years 
 and the growth of independent action, some 
 stragglers from the Ashlands family would go to 
 church, just as chance or humour dictated, but 
 
 D 2
 
 36 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 the services were so uniformly flat and spirit- 
 less, that it would be long before the attempt 
 was repeated. Added to which their domestic 
 arrangements and frequently insufficient attire 
 would have served as grave obstacles to regular 
 attendance. At the date, however, which we 
 have now reached, two circumstances had con- 
 duced to render Sybil Dorrimore's appearance 
 in the old family pew, with the younger child- 
 ren as her companions, an event of more fre- 
 quent occurrence. 
 
 The money-tree, watered by a brilliant 
 little sketch of hers in one of the leading 
 magazines, had borne so abundantly according 
 to her limited notions, that she had been able 
 to make substantial additions to the family 
 wardrobe, and to supply herself with a blue 
 serge dress of unusual excellence, and a broad 
 felt hat in keeping with the same. Secondly, 
 the curate then in charge was more endurable
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 37 
 
 to her fastidious judgment than any of his pre- 
 decessors had been, and in the entire absence 
 of other like interests she felt a cold, critical 
 curiosity in watching his manifestations. He 
 had been in the parish longer than at one time 
 would have been thought possible for the 
 Hon. and Eev. Aubrey de Grey to endure the 
 same face and the same voice in perpetual 
 intercourse, being now in the third year of his 
 office ; and he was in a large and altogether 
 unprecedented measure popular among the 
 people. He was reported to be very kind to 
 the poor, to visit the sick dutifully, and to bear 
 with the vicar's exacting and difficult temper 
 with exemplary patience and tact. Further 
 than this her knowledge did not go, though, if 
 so disposed, she could have learnt much more 
 concerning him. He had several times called 
 upon her father, but she had not cared to come 
 into personal contact with him, and contented
 
 38 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 herself with carelessly wondering how the 
 Eev. Julian Karslake made his visits acceptable 
 to the querulous student who was accustomed 
 to shut himself off entirely from intercoiu"se 
 with the outside world. Now and again she 
 met him in her walks with the children, but he 
 had never made any attempt to stop and speak 
 to them ; a conventional salute in passing had 
 seemed recognition enough for all parties con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Great, then, was her dismay when late one 
 afternoon in the early spring-time, just eighteen 
 months after Gilbert Helstone's last visit to 
 Ashlands, as she was sitting before her desk in 
 pleased enjoyment of her privacy, she heard 
 the click of the garden gate, and in another 
 moment the shadow of the coming guest fell 
 across her page. 
 
 She knew instinctively it must be Julian 
 Karslake, for no other stranger ever crossed the
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 39 
 
 threshold of their door, and at the same time the 
 recollection occurred to her that Hannah and 
 all the children were gone out for a walk, that 
 her father had strictly charged her he was not 
 to be disturbed, and therefore that she must 
 not only admit but entertain the visitor herself. 
 
 He had already rung the bell and was wait- 
 ing for admission outside, but she was bound to 
 keep him waiting longer while she buried her 
 books and papers out of sight, hid an old jacket 
 which she was going to mend presently, and 
 which was too disreputable for any alien vision, 
 and made a general abortive dash to reduce the 
 complex disorder of the room to some outward 
 show of decency. 
 
 But it was a forlorn hope, and all the hurry 
 and failure of the attempt was in the flushed 
 face of the girl, as she at last reluctantly opened 
 the door and stood before her visitor. 
 
 ' I am sorry to have kept you waiting so
 
 40 JULIAN KAESLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 long, but our servant is out, and my father is 
 particularly engaged.' 
 
 Her aspect and tone had a sweet inherent 
 graciousness, but she stood barring his entrance 
 into the house as she spoke, her impression 
 being that he would retire at once on hearing 
 her curt announcement. 
 
 ' Then may I not come in ? ' he asked. ' I 
 did not wish to intrude on Mr. Dorrimore. 
 My object to-day was to ask for an interview 
 with you. I am singularly fortunate in finding 
 you at home.' 
 
 He held his hat in his hand as he spoke 
 to her, and the keen east wind stirred the 
 hair on his uncovered head; an impulse of 
 hospitality induced Sybil to make way for him, 
 and mitigated the surprise of his address. 
 
 ' You wish to speak to me ? ' retreating into 
 the interior of the hall and laying her hand on 
 the lock of the drawing-room door ; ' then will
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 41 
 
 Tou please to come in here. There is no fire, 
 and it is not very comfortable. I am sorry, 
 but I have no better place to show you into.' 
 
 ' I am not cold,' he said, as he was in duty 
 bound to say ; ' and I should very much like to 
 come in.' 
 
 There was obviously no escape and they 
 entered, and as they did so, and Sybil saw his 
 glance traverse the room in one quick survey, 
 a ray of illumination struck her, and she 
 perceived all the indications of sordid poverty 
 and accumulated deficiency as she had never 
 done before. How must it all strike him whose 
 social position was said by public report to be 
 equal to that of the vicar himself, and whose 
 perfect dress, high-bred physique, and composed 
 manner, all implied liis familiarity with such a 
 different order of tliinors ? 
 
 He was still standing hat in hand, for 
 indeed she had not asked him to sit down, her
 
 42 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 supreme consciousness at that moment being 
 that his eye was caught by the aspect of the 
 huge fireless grate, where Hannah had re- 
 cently hung some tawdry paper abomination 
 which gave the finishing touch of vulgarity and 
 deliberate discomfort to the scene. 
 
 A new sensation, keen as a pang, passed 
 through her frame ; but she rallied her pride, 
 raised her head with an indefinable gesture, and 
 said with a smile : — 
 
 ' It hurts my feelings, Mr. Karslake, to see 
 you looking at our miserable fireplace, but 
 please don't accredit me with its barbarism. I 
 wish you had seen it in the summer-time, when 
 it was filled with ferns and flowers after a 
 private device of my own. You must know 
 we don't often have a fire here, and this is 
 Hannah's way of hiding the nakedness of the 
 land.' 
 
 She paused, then added in a lower tone,
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKES SECRET. 43 
 
 and one that indicated some latent feelinn; in 
 spite of her wish to speak Hghtly : — 
 
 ' I do not doubt you know how naked the 
 land is.' 
 
 ' Such estimates are piu-ely conventional/ 
 was the reply ; 'one man sees deficiency where 
 another is only able to perceive abundance.' 
 
 ' You are very good to say so, but there is 
 hardly room for two opinions in our case. I 
 have wondered now and then what the people 
 in the village say about us. I know they 
 resent our poverty very much. You see we 
 live in a big house, which before our time was 
 occupied by some rich aboriginal family who 
 did good all round, and left a vacancy felt to 
 this day. \Ve have always been aliens.' 
 
 Here she stopped, suddenly aware tliat her 
 visitor was hstening to her with a critical 
 intentness that caused her rather surprise than 
 embarrassment
 
 44 JULIAX xarslaxe's secret. 
 
 ' You have taken great pains/ he said, ' to 
 maintain the aUenation. Durincr the last two 
 years I have felt what may seem to you a very 
 gratuitous interest in all the external details of 
 your life, so far as they could come under the 
 notice of an outside observer, and you have 
 always appeared to me to rejoice in your inde- 
 pendence of all your surroundings.' 
 
 Sybil smiled a httle sarcastically. 
 
 ' Surely,' she answered, ' your interest must 
 have starved for want of supplies.' 
 
 ' The stress of starvation stimulates inge- 
 nuity. Miss Dorrimore, and at Eoosden Magna 
 there are few opposing interests.' 
 
 He paused, looked at her anew with a 
 searching earnestness of regard, and added, in 
 a lower and more deliberate tone, to which the 
 singular sweetness of his voice and the fault- 
 less purity of his accent gave an almost resistless 
 charm : —
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKE's SECRET. 45 
 
 ' I believe I know more about you than you 
 would think possible. I know you are a better 
 Greek scholar than myself, which may be but 
 a very doubtful compliment, for I have seen 
 some very clever Homeric paraphrases and 
 renderings of yours. I know besides that you 
 are a capable critic, as I have watched the 
 changes of distaste and weariness in your face 
 when listening to my poor sermons : also that 
 you are an admirable story-teller, as I have 
 heard you more than once in the chiu-ch porch 
 with your little brothers and sisters about you, 
 while I have been kept prisoner in the vestry 
 by the spell. I am even familiar with your 
 handwriting, from constant attendance at the 
 village post office. I have met you summer 
 and winter, alone or more frequently in the 
 company of the children, and never without 
 receiving some keener impression of the bright- 
 ness and power of your influence.'
 
 46 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 At this point he ceased as if to give her the 
 opportunity of reply, and Sybil, who had fol- 
 lowed his speech with increasing astonishment, 
 said with scarcely repressed indignation : — 
 
 ' You also know probably that I am a girl 
 standing almost alone in the world, and quite 
 unaccustomed to pohte society and its pleasant 
 amenities, otherwise you would scarcely ven- 
 ture to talk to me in this unusual and point- 
 blank manner. Would not the ladies in your 
 circle resent it as an impertinence ? ' 
 
 ' I cannot say ; I have never tested their 
 forbearance, but I must not allow you to think 
 it an impertinence. I fear I am a very poor 
 diplomatist, and must have spoken very badly, 
 if I have been so unfortunate as to have already 
 incurred your displeasure. What I have just 
 now said, I meant as some kind of prelude or 
 explanation to what is to follow, and that — 
 however it gets said — ^will seem to you, I
 
 JULIAN karslake's seceet. 47 
 
 fear, incredibly presumptuous aud unconven- 
 tional.' 
 
 Here he put down his hat and came a little 
 nearer to the window where Sybil was standing ; 
 a pale ray from the fading saffron of the skies 
 fell across his person, and she was quite cool 
 enough to mark how fair, and tall, and straight 
 her new companion was. The feeling upper- 
 most in her mind was the displeasure of a 
 proud and sensitive girl shghtly modified by 
 curiosity. 
 
 ' I have heard he was eccentric,' she said to 
 herself. 
 
 ' I scarcely know,' he went on, ' what words 
 to use or how to defend myself from anger or 
 misconception. Let me ask if you have heard 
 that I am called suddenly away to attend the 
 death-bed of a relative ? ' 
 
 ' I did not know. I am very sorry,' she 
 said coldly.
 
 48 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 ' I am not sure I shall ever come back to 
 take up my old duties here, aud it is this that 
 has led to the step I have ventured to take to- 
 day. I was quite resolved not to go away 
 without speaking to you. Will you bear in 
 mind what I have already told you, that I 
 know more of you, of your real self, than a 
 score of conventional meetings in ball-rooms, 
 on garden-lawns, or at the afternoon tea-table 
 could have taught me. Add to the rest this : 
 I have often visited your farm servant and 
 heard anecdotes of you from your childhood 
 upwards ; and now will you promise not 
 hastily to resent, but to take into generous and 
 reasonable consideration what I am going to 
 say?' 
 
 He ' paused ; a sudden glow flushed the 
 healthy pallor of his cheek ; his hitherto mild 
 and deliberate glance scintillated and quickened. 
 
 'Is it necessary,' he asked in a low tone
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKE'S SECRET. 49 
 
 but one that vibrated ^Yith repressed and 
 passionate feeling, ' for a man to excuse and 
 palliate as an offence the supremest proof he 
 can give of his loyalty and truth ? Simply, I 
 come to tell you I love you, Miss Dorrimore, 
 and to ask your pardon, not for the fact, but 
 for the long concealment of the same, and for 
 the strange abruptness with which I have at 
 last announced it. You may well believe this 
 reserve has been the result not of caprice, but of 
 hard necessity. Stop, I implore you, before you 
 answer. All I want now is that you should listen 
 patiently to what I have told you, and suffer me 
 in the future to do what lies in my power to 
 reconcile you to the idea of one day becoming 
 my wife.' 
 
 He spoke now vdih that complete control 
 
 of emotion, which was characteristic of the 
 
 man under the strongest excitement ; but none 
 
 the less was Sybil aware that it was rather force 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 of will than lack of feeling that kept outward 
 manifestation in check. Beneath this impres- 
 sion her displeasure yielded to a confused sense 
 of difficulty and pain. How the girl of the 
 period ought to behave in circumstances so 
 unique and unconventional she had not the 
 slightest idea ; she followed the natural move- 
 ment of a frank and courageous mind. 
 
 ' I think,' she answered, with a certain 
 sweet gravity that kindled his admiration to 
 the point of pain, ' you have taken rather an 
 ungenerous advantage of my solitary position. 
 It is very hard to understand why you did not 
 tell me this before, or at least try to know me 
 personally. I fancy few girls would beheve 
 what you have just now said to me ; they would 
 think you were playing some unmanly joke, or 
 winning some shameful bet ; but, strange as it 
 all is, I do beheve you.' 
 
 Then, as the admission passed her hps, and
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 51 
 
 the sense of all that it implied flashed upon 
 her mind, her equanimity was troubled ; the 
 colour deepened on her cheek, and a sudden 
 suffusion dimmed the clear steadfastness of gaze 
 she had fixed upon his face. 
 
 ' It was scarcely well,' she added, turning 
 a little aside, ' to force upon me so strange and 
 painful a situation.' 
 
 ' Is it of necessity painful ? ' he asked, and 
 there was an inflection in his tone that made 
 Sybil glance towards him again. 
 
 ' It is painful to me to tell you, believing 
 you in earnest, that I can do nothing more 
 than thank you for the good opinion you 
 entertain of me. I am not at all the sort of 
 girl to whom the ideas ^of love and marriage 
 would be welcome under any circumstances; 
 I am pledged to quite another sort of life, and ' 
 — with a smile — ' 1 like the life to which I am 
 pledged.' 
 
 E 2 
 
 LfBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINO/S
 
 52 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 * That is to say you propose to sacrifice 
 your life to the interests of your family — pardon 
 me, Miss Dorrimore. Or is it that I individu- 
 ally have no chance of pleasing you ? Surely 
 it is premature to decide against me on this the 
 first occasion of our speaking together ! All I 
 ask is leave to know you better ; I must go 
 away to-morrow, but you will not forbid my 
 coming to see you again on my return ? ' 
 
 He approached her, not with any pre- 
 sumptuous idea of even touching her hand, 
 though his whole being yearned towards her, 
 but simply to read the expression of her face 
 more clearly in the waning light. 
 
 'I can wait,' he added in his clear and 
 penetrating accents ; ' for I have the proper 
 temperament for a despised lover, at once tena- 
 cious and constant, but — I shall persist.' 
 
 Sybil looked up quickly. ' I think I 
 know you well enough already, Mr. Karslake,
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 53 
 
 to feel sure you will not persist one moment 
 after you are convinced you are giving me 
 pain. You are doing that now; I would 
 rather we did not meet any more : it is no 
 question of sacrifice to my family — my w^hole 
 heart is theirs — it would be an impossible thing 
 for me to desert my sisters and brothers.' 
 
 ' But they should be mine ; I will assure 
 their future more certainly than you could do. 
 I am moderately rich and free from all personal 
 family ties .' His face clouded for a mo- 
 ment as with an involuntary reminiscence of 
 pain. 
 
 Sybil smiled and shook her head. ' Thank 
 you for such a generous and inclusive proposal, 
 but we will bear our own burdens. I would not 
 suffer any man to accept such a responsibihty 
 as that ; it is right it should rest where nature 
 has placed it. Nor is this quite all : my father 
 would never consent to part with me — I am
 
 54 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 sometimes vain enoiigli to think he could 
 scarcely live without me.' 
 
 'Your father/ he repeated; and then he 
 looked into the speaker's vivid face, and an in- 
 definable expression contracted his brow. At 
 the same moment, to her infinite relief, Sybil 
 heard the sound of opening doors, and the 
 eager voices of the children. Julian Karslake 
 heard them too, and took up his hat to depart. 
 
 ' I should like to escape the observation of 
 your keen-eyed youngsters,' he said with a 
 quiet smile, ' which I can do by letting myself 
 out at the front door. For the rest, I shall 
 come back, Miss Dorrimore ; there are many 
 things unsaid, to which I shall ask you to give 
 another hearing.' 
 
 He bowed without any attempt at further 
 farewell, stopped on his way out to pick up a 
 book that had fallen upon the floor, and dis- 
 appeared in the twihght.
 
 JULIA^" KAESLAXE S SECRET. 55 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Ox the third morning after Julian Karslake's 
 visit, Sybil, on entering lier father's study at 
 the usual time, found it unoccupied. Mr. 
 Dorrimore's student habits were so regular that 
 the mere fact of not finding him in his 
 accustomed place at his accustomed hoiu* had 
 the effect of a surprise. 
 
 Moreover, she had a special interest in her 
 studies that morning ; she held in her hand a 
 Greek exercise, on which she had bestowed an 
 immense amount of labour and enthusiasm, and 
 was keenly anxious for his estimate of the same. 
 
 Like others before and smce, she had been
 
 56 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 charmed by the singular power and tenderness 
 of the scene between the shades of Agamemnon 
 and Iphigenia, as attempted by Aspasia in 
 rivalry of uEschylus in Landor's matchless 
 work, and had conceived the idea of putting 
 it into Greek, and thus, as it were, restoring 
 to the poem its original and appropriate invest- 
 ment. 
 
 When we say her whole heart had been 
 in the task, it will show how little the late 
 remarkable interview had disturbed the current 
 of her life. In short, after one half-hour's con- 
 centrated reflection, she had dismissed the 
 matter as something to be put outside the pale 
 of her accepted experiences, and which should 
 never be allowed to enter therein again. 
 
 Sybil looked anxiously round the room for 
 some indication of her father's recent presence, 
 and perceiving none, went towards the library 
 table, which stood in the recess formed by the
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. Oi 
 
 large window, to deposit her papers upon it ; 
 in so doincr she naturally looked towards the 
 gardens beyond, and saw to her surprise that 
 Mr. Dorrimore was pacing up and down the 
 gravel walk outside, his hands clasped beneath 
 the flaps of his old study gown, and his head 
 bowed in evidently profound cogitation. 
 
 It was an exquisite morning in the begin- 
 ning of April, tempting enough to win any 
 student from his books ; but as she stood and 
 watched her father, Sybil had a curious percep- 
 tion that it was neither the beauty of the day 
 nor even any intellectual pressure or perplexity, 
 which had led to this unusual proceeding. 
 Presently he looked up and saw her. 
 
 ' Come out,' he said, ' I want to speak to 
 you ; ' and in another moment she was by his 
 side, drinking in with conscious delight the airs 
 from Paradise which blew around her, the 
 scent of wild violets which grew in clusters in
 
 58 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 the unweeded borders beneath the windows of 
 the house, the tender green of the budding 
 trees, and the unflecked, translucent azure of 
 the sky. 
 
 At that instant a solitary bird came in sight, 
 and cut the air above their heads with a swift 
 but almost imperceptible sweep of wing. 
 
 ' Look ! ' cried Sybil eagerly ; ' it is a 
 swallow — the first I have seen, the earliest I 
 ever saw. Why, it is only the twelfth of April ! 
 He comes, I hope, as the harbinger of a 
 splendid summer.' 
 
 Mr. Dorrimore turned sharply round. 
 
 ' One would think jou were a child, Sybil, 
 and yet you have given me a very convincing 
 proof of the contrary. How am I to under- 
 stand a girl capable of practising the reserve 
 that you have done one day, and going into 
 puerile raptures over the advent of a swallow 
 the next ? *
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 59 
 
 For a moment she was at a loss to discover 
 his meaning, but he helped her miderstanding 
 by drawing out his folded hands from the 
 skirts of his coat, and showing an open letter in 
 one of them. He held it towards her : it was 
 of considerable length, and the writing 
 singularly clear and fine in character. 
 
 ' Do you know the handwriting ? * he asked. 
 
 A complex tumult of feeling of a passionate 
 intensity hitherto unknown to her experience, 
 stirred her soul. She straightened instinctively 
 her tall, lithe figure into an attitude of resist- 
 ance, the delicate tint of her cheek deepened to 
 carmine, the soft brilliancy of her glance 
 quickened and glowed. 
 
 'I have never to my knowledge seen it 
 before, but I conclude the letter is from the 
 Eev. Julian Karslake.' 
 
 'And you can guess the purport of the 
 same ? Child, why did you not tell me at once
 
 60 JULIAN KAESLAKe's SECRET. 
 
 of the offer he had made you ? Eecluse as I 
 am, I had heard of his leaving Eoosden Magua, 
 and could not understand his conduct ; this 
 letter here, I am happy to say, restores my 
 confidence in his good faith and sincerity, but 
 it is written under the impression that my 
 daughter has not kept me in the dark.' 
 
 He stood still, turned and looked at her. 
 The drift of his words had changed the current 
 of her feelings ; the face she now raised towards 
 him was pale and set. 
 
 * What am I to understand ? ' she asked. 
 'Can he have spoken to you on this subject, 
 and you have given him any encouragement — 
 the idea seems impossible ! ' 
 
 ' And if he have, and I have given him a 
 civil hearing,' replied Mr. Dorrimore testily, 
 * what have you to complain of .^ Am not I the 
 proper person to whom my daughter's suitors 
 should apply .P And do you think me so
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 61 
 
 selfish as to stand between you and an advan- 
 tageous marriage — however great may be my 
 personal loss ? ' 
 
 The last words seemed to be thrown in as 
 a saving clause, and aggravated her sense of 
 cruel disappointment. 
 
 ' I had thought,' she said, ' that you would 
 never have contemplated the prospect of my 
 leaving you with satisfaction, or still more have 
 supposed me base enough to abandon my 
 brothers and sisters at the first chance. It 
 hurts me dreadfully that you can speak so 
 easily of letting me go ; not but that the thing 
 is impossible — I am not going to be cast ofi*.' 
 
 ' Sybil, my dear girl, you view the matter 
 in a very perverse light. Do not all parents 
 reckon upon the pain of parting with their 
 children, without being reproached for hardness 
 of heart? Heaven knows I shall miss you 
 more than words can express, but I shall weigh
 
 62 JULIAN karslake's secket. 
 
 against that loss tlie falling off from my shoulders 
 of a growing burden of care and trouble.' 
 
 ' As how ? ' she demanded eagerly. ' Surely 
 my presence at home makes your work and 
 cares lighter ? ' 
 
 'My present cares/ he answered; 'but 
 time is running on, and the boys must go to 
 school. Putting puny earnings and miserable 
 income together, I can't see my way to sending 
 them. Then, do you suppose I have grown 
 blind over my books ? I see you growing into 
 womanhood, not only with gifts but graces 
 beyond the common, and know it is out of my 
 power to give you any of the pleasures and 
 opportunities of your age and sex. I can't 
 answer it to my conscience to keep you much 
 longer at home, as the perpetual governess of 
 the children, and with no knowledge of the 
 world outside the ring fence of Ashlands ; you 
 would soon become aware of other needs
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKES SECRET. 63 
 
 and requirements, and reproach me in the long 
 run for neglecting and ignoring them. When 
 you grew old and grey, Sybil, you would find 
 imperfect consolation even in Greek tragedy — 
 what do you say ? * 
 
 He looked towards her as he spoke with an 
 air of some deprecation ; she was keeping even 
 step by his side with head erect, and pale 
 resolute countenance. 
 
 ' Tell me,' she said, ' how all these diffi- 
 culties are to be met.' 
 
 He tapped the letter he held impatiently 
 with his delicate fingers. ' ^Yhy do you pre- 
 sume to put me to the question thus ? has not 
 Julian Karslake told you by word of mouth 
 how he proposes to meet them ? or if not he 
 has told me in unmistakable lanorua^e. This 
 young man has a romantic attachment for you, 
 Sybil, and where could you find a suitor better 
 fitted to meet all the traditional requirements
 
 64 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 of your sex? From the moment you accept 
 his addresses, he will help the boys to a career, 
 and fulfil the duties of a son towards myself. 
 He is rich and independent, and asks for 
 nothing better than the opportunity of proving 
 his devotion.' 
 
 ' And you would suffer him to prove it 
 thus — at my expense ? ' Mr. Dorrimore raised 
 an appealing hand. 
 
 ' Let us go back into the house and discuss 
 this matter quietly, since I see you are inclined 
 to be excited, Sybil. Not another word till 
 the library-door is shut behind us. How chilly 
 this spring sunshine is ! ' 
 
 She thought so too ; the glory of the earth, 
 so apparent to her senses ten minutes ago, 
 seemed departed, the buoyant energy of her 
 mind collapsed. She followed her father pas- 
 sively into the room, and sat down in her 
 accustomed place : her eye fell upon her Greek
 
 JULIAX K.UISLAKE'S SECRET. 65 
 
 translation lying on the desk, and a vague 
 eeling possessed her that that phase of her 
 life had passed away for ever. A new leaf 
 had been turned in her history, and one 
 tliat was imspeakably distasteful to her 
 sight. 
 
 ' Aye, what is this ? ' said Mr. Dorrimore, 
 whose eye was instinctively caught by the 
 finely charactered sheets ; ' some original effort 
 on the part of my ambitious little girl ? But it 
 can wait, Sybil, it can wait for another oppor- 
 tunity. What I want now is for you to tell me 
 what answer I am to give to the letter under 
 discussion.' 
 
 He smiled as he spoke, archly he thought, 
 somewhat spasmodically in fact. 
 
 ' You forget that I do not know the con- 
 tents of the letter ; would you wish me to read 
 it?' 
 
 ' On the contrary, I will read it aloud to 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 6Q JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 you myself, it deserves a second perusal. I 
 defy any man to write on so delicate a sub- 
 ject with more exquisite propriety and nice 
 feeling. Nay, cliild,' responding to some in- 
 voluntary gesture on the part of his daughter, 
 ' you need not fear there is a word in it that 
 can wound your pride.' 
 
 Sybil rose up and walked to the window, 
 and stood looking steadily into the garden, 
 while Mr. Dorrimore read the letter aloud in a 
 finely modulated and deliberate tone. He was 
 anxious to give it all the effect he could. 
 When he had finished he came and stood 
 beside her, and laid his hand kindly on her 
 shoulder. ' Little one,' he said, ' could any 
 man make a fairer or more generous offer? 
 has he not defended every point from objec- 
 tion ? ' 
 
 'No,' she returned in a low concentrated 
 tone, for she was resolved on maintaining her
 
 JULIAN KAKS lake's SECRET. 67 
 
 self-control in lier father's presence. ' You and 
 I see it from different points of view. To 
 you it all appears as the disinterested offer of 
 a man who proposes to reheve you from the 
 charges you cannot meet : to me it is a covert 
 bribe to induce me to forego my freedom of 
 choice and action. Don't you perceive how 
 ignoble that love must be, founded on sight 
 and hearsay, and treated for as a matter of 
 sale and barter ? ' 
 
 ' I perceive that my little girl is very angry 
 and therefore very unreasonable : he does not 
 propose to marry you on the terms you men- 
 tion. What he asks for is leave and oppor- 
 tunity to make your personal acquaintance and 
 teach you to love him.' 
 
 ' I shall never love him,' said the girl ; ' it 
 is on my hps to say I hate him, only I feel it 
 would be unreasonable to go so far.' Mr. 
 Dorrimore's sallow cheek took a paler tinge ; 
 
 F 2
 
 68 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 he was deeply disappointed and strongly dis 
 pleased. 
 
 ' At least, Sybil,' lie said in cold acute tones, 
 * I shall expect you to yield so far, say to our 
 family interests, as to receive Mr. Karslake's 
 visits and put the experiment to the test. 
 Selfish as we may be all round, we shall at 
 least never call upon you to offer up yourself as 
 victim in the matter ; rely upon it, no one pro- 
 poses to coerce your precious freedom of choice 
 and action.' 
 
 The tone and sneer were so unusual as to 
 bring the unaccustomed tears to her eyes. 
 Did she deserve the taunt ? Would she had 
 some friend to whose equal tenderness and 
 judgment she could appeal ! for herself she 
 felt as if she were groping in the dark. Pre- 
 sently her face brightened. 
 
 'Did you not tell me yesterday you ex- 
 pected uncle Helstone on a visit ? When he
 
 JULIAN ILVRSL.\KE's SECRET. 69 
 
 comes, would you mind asking him his opinion 
 of Mr. Karslake's oflfer ? ' 
 
 ' Upon my word, child, you are hard to 
 understand ! On one side your delicacy is so 
 acute as to be wounded by the guarded ap- 
 proach of a young man's love, and on the 
 other, you propose to discuss the pros and 
 cons, of the matter, with a rough and ready 
 fellow like Gilbert Helstone ! His opinion 
 would not have a straw's weight with me.' 
 
 Sybil was silent. She was not accustomed 
 to argue with her father, but none the less she 
 caressed the idea of the despised Helstone in 
 her mind. 
 
 Presently Mr. Dorrimore added : ' I think 
 it is high time this childish nonsense was 
 stopped in regard to him. " Uncle Helstone " 
 was well enough in your mother's hfe- 
 time, and when you were a baby in Queen 
 Street niursery, but it is necessary you should
 
 70 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 now imderstand it was a mere facon de 
 parler. Helstone is some distant kinsman of 
 your mother's, and a well-meaning man 
 in Ms way, but no uncle of yours, and 
 without the shadow of a right to interfere, 
 as he is so fond of doing, in my private 
 afiairs.' 
 
 It was in Sybil's heart to reply, ' that they 
 had always been the gainers by his interference,' 
 and it was rather an instinct of courtesy than 
 affection which restrained the words. 
 
 Her loyalty to an absent friend, however, 
 compelled her to say, though in a lowered 
 tone, 
 
 ' We did not love him because he was our 
 uncle, but because he was so good and kind.' 
 
 'Psha, my dear, we will hope to extend 
 your notions of masculine goodness and kind- 
 ness. I think we shall scarcely settle to 
 lessons this morning ; I will look over your
 
 JULIAX KARSLAEE'S SECRET. 71 
 
 translation at my leisure. Will you go to the 
 boys, or take a little walk by yourself to re- 
 cover your usual tone ? And, Sybil, one last 
 word on a subject to which it will not be my 
 way to be often referring — do nothing rashly. 
 Don't sacrifice the interests of so many to a 
 perverse, illogical prejudice.' 
 
 And with this caution he dismissed her, 
 opening the door for her departure, for perhaps 
 the first time in her life. 
 
 Sybil stood for a few moments in the 
 empty spacious hall, now flooded with sunshine, 
 uncertain where to go, or what to do. The 
 gentle sway of the trees seen through the wide- 
 open door, the scent of the daffodil meadows 
 and the gay carol of the birds seemed to invite 
 her out of doors, and in her usual mood she 
 would have summoned the children, and led 
 them off on some wild joyous ramble in which 
 her own passionate delight in the sights and
 
 VZ JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 
 
 sounds of tlie iiprousing season would have 
 stimulated and exalted theirs. 
 
 But now she had no such inclination. On 
 the contrary, after the first glance outwards, 
 she suddenly dropped her bowed head upon 
 her folded hands, and a few heavy unwilling 
 tears fell through her fingers to the marble floor. 
 
 She had hardly cried since infancy, save 
 with childish grief when her mother died, and 
 she resented the weakness she was unable to 
 overcome. Her sensations of trouble were 
 intense if somewhat vague : she had spoken an 
 absolute truth when she told Julian Karslake 
 that she was a girl to whom the ideas of love 
 and marriage were unwelcome, for she had much 
 of the inherent asceticism of a highly wrought 
 intellectual organisation which would need no 
 ordinary influences to vivify and subdue. The 
 unexpectedness and directness of her lover's ad- 
 vances both startled and displeased perceptions
 
 JULIAN IL^RSLAKE S SECRET. / 
 
 she had not known till then she possessed, but 
 the feehng had been quahfied by her perfect 
 confidence in her own power to reject them 
 finally and without appeal. But now complica- 
 tions had arisen which seemed to threaten the 
 loss, not only of her happiness but her dignity. 
 
 Her pride of independence was almost mor- 
 bidly acute ; she could scarcely have borne 
 Julian Karslake's eager offers of assistance to 
 the family at large, had she not known how 
 promptly and absolutely she would repudiate 
 them ; and the knowledge that these or similar 
 proposals had been previously made, and since 
 renewed to her father, and were accepted by 
 him as substantial arguments in favour of the 
 young man's suit, was a humihation so bitter as 
 to force the tears from her eyes. 
 
 Under this pressure her indifference was 
 fast quickening into active dislike. Xot that at 
 this time she allowed entrance to the idea of
 
 74 JULIAN kaeslake's secret. 
 
 yielding either to the urgency of Karslake 
 or to her father's ignoble pressure, but she 
 recognised the fact that she was suddenly cut 
 adrift from the joyous security and sufficing 
 interests of the past, and that the future 
 stretched before her under the liitherto un- 
 known conditions of repugnance and appre- 
 hension.
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAKE S SECRET. lo 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 It is perhaps superfluous to say Herbert Dorri- 
 more had not much delicacy or strength of 
 moral fibre. The inevitable shifts and evasions 
 of poverty and debt, the pressmre of paramount 
 natural claims, which can neither be satisfied 
 nor disallowed, are apt to attenuate that form 
 of sensibility. 
 
 He had become aware that outside attention 
 was being attracted to his domestic manage- 
 ment ; that people said it was time his two hand- 
 some spirited lads either went to school, as be- 
 came their seeming position, or were put in the 
 way of earning their own living if the paternal 
 funds were nil : also that it was a crying shame
 
 76 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 the eldest girl, who was so marvellously pretty, 
 should be always kept at home to teach and 
 mind the rest of the family. 
 
 Eighteen months ago he had been sanguine 
 about the success of his great work, and had 
 talked hopefully of sending the boys to Win- 
 chester ; but here grievous disappointment had 
 attended him. No publisher would undertake 
 the risk on the magnificent terms Mr. Dorri- 
 more thought his due. A subscription edition 
 had been suggested, but he had not sufficient 
 influence to make the plan a profitable one, and 
 his pride, tenacious where his literary honour 
 was concerned, disinclined him to the attempt. 
 The matter had ended in the first instalment of 
 the book being published by one of the trade 
 magnates in sumptuous style, on the principle 
 of divided expenses and profits. 
 
 The balance-sheet of the same had been 
 recently received and presented a dismal study ;
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 77 
 
 he details of expenditure were elaborately 
 minute and doubtless absolutely correct, but the 
 issue of the business was a heavy deficit on both 
 sides of the account, and a pohte but urgent re- 
 presentation that an immediate instalment of his 
 personal share of the liabihties was expected. 
 
 It was about this time that JuHan Karslake 
 had communicated to Mr. Dorrimore his wish to 
 be allowed to pay his addresses to Sybil, back- 
 ing the request by a statement of his position 
 and income, present and contingent, of so satis- 
 factory a character as to commend the offer at 
 once without hesitation to the harassed and 
 impecunious scholar. The idea of his daughter's 
 reluctance never occurred to his mind ; he con- 
 cluded that the advantages offered would com- 
 mend themselves to her understanding as they 
 did to his own, and he may at least be excused 
 for the opinion that the young man was emi- 
 nently calculated to attract and win a secluded
 
 78 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 girl, to whose vanity such a potent appeal was 
 to be made. 
 
 To himself the whole affair was a godsend of 
 unqualified good luck, relieving him at a stroke 
 from difficulties which must otherwise over- 
 whelm him, and generally smoothing the 
 rugged road of life for all of them. 
 
 Sybil's contumacy had taken him painfully 
 by surprise, but reflection had assured him that 
 unreason was the inherent possession of every 
 feminine nature, and that his influence, backed 
 by the irresistible flatteries of a handsome 
 lover, would soon bring the girl to another 
 mind. Of that mind as a receptive medium he 
 knew much, of its special idiosyncrasies scarcely 
 anything at all. 
 
 A week had passed since their last interview, 
 and the subject had not been alluded to again ; 
 also, as if by mutual consent, she had ceased to 
 come to his study for her daily lessons.
 
 JULIAX karslake's secket. 79 
 
 Xo other of her piu'siiits had been inter- 
 mitted ; he knew she gave much of the time 
 thus gained to teaching the boys, and con- 
 tinued to spend hours of the lengthening days 
 out of doors with the children, as had always 
 been the family custom. He felt that he must 
 wait till some incident occurred. 
 
 Unfortunately for his impatient and irritable 
 temper the progress of afiaks dragged consider- 
 ably ; more than a month elapsed before he re- 
 ceived a letter from Karslake, telling him of the 
 death of the relative he was visiting, and that 
 consequently he should not be able to return to 
 Eoosden Magna till after the funeral and the 
 settlement of certain afiairs. He also told him 
 that the deceased was the only relative he had on 
 either side of the house, and that he was sole heir 
 of an accumulated fund of personal property. 
 
 Mr. Dorrimore closed the letter with 
 somethinc^ of the feelino^ of having become
 
 80 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 
 
 unawares the possessor of a mine of unlimited 
 resources. 
 
 Ten days afterwards Mr. Karslake returned, 
 to resume, it was understood, his clerical duties 
 in the parish till the vicar could provide him- 
 self with a substitute. 
 
 The morning after his arrival he called at 
 Ashlands, and Hannah, knowing him to be a 
 guest favoured by her master, showed him at 
 once into the library, where Mr. Dorrimore was 
 seated tete-a-tete with his friend Gilbert Helstone. 
 
 It was a moment of mutual embarrassment. 
 Mr. Dorrimore held at his entrance an open 
 letter in his hand, which obviously he had 
 been reading aloud to his companion, and 
 which Karslake could not fail to recognise as 
 his own. He had ridiculed his daughter's sug- 
 gestion of consulting Helstone, and then, with 
 the weakness of a nature so lacking in self- 
 reliance as his own, had taken the first oppor-
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 81 
 
 tunity of pouring forth the whole story of the 
 prodigious incident which was to bring pros- 
 perity to every member of the family, if only 
 Sybil could be brought to hear reason. He 
 hoped to fortify his own purpose by extracting 
 from Helstone the admission that there was only 
 one reasonable course of action to be pursued, 
 and thought no way better calculated to 
 produce this result than reading to him the 
 letter in which the lover at once urged his suit 
 and stated his means and intentions. 
 
 The appearance of Juhan Karslake himself 
 upon the scene was a contretemps difficult to 
 evade successfully. 
 
 Mr. Dorrimore rose hurriedly from his 
 chair, pressing the letter with overt precipita- 
 tion into the depths of his pocket, and intro- 
 ducing the two men to each other in that 
 formal and laboured fashion which comes of 
 long seclusion and desuetude. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 Karslake bowed with conventional coiu-tesy, 
 the other nodded abruptly, while keeping his 
 keen gaze fixed on his face. 
 
 It was a face almost perfect in outline, with 
 a singular clear pallor of complexion entirely 
 removed from any hint of unhealthiness, and 
 which rather served to exalt its typical 
 beauty; but it was not a face to give up its 
 secret to the first scrutiny of even a penetrat- 
 ing observer. The look which encountered 
 Helstone's from the large-lidded luminous blue 
 eyes was at once steady and serene ; the 
 firmly moulded lips, shaded but not concealed 
 by a golden moustache, indicated a suave 
 but resolute self-control, while the short cleft 
 chin and low broad forehead, with a slight 
 suggestion of tension between the level brows, 
 enhanced the power but contradicted the mild- 
 ness, of the physiognomy. 
 
 Helstone, conscious of being baffled in his
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 83 
 
 investigation, prolonged his gaze till the slightly 
 raised colour on the young man's face recalled 
 him to a sense of his rudeness. 
 
 Julian Karslake turned with marked inten- 
 tion towards Mr. Dorrimore. 
 
 ' I must apologise,' he said, ' for calling at 
 so unreasonable, an hour, but I believed I 
 should have found you alone. I will call 
 again at any time later in the day, when you 
 are likely to be disengaged. I hope Miss 
 Dorrimore and the children are well ? Perhaps 
 I might be fortunate enough to find some of 
 them in the garden ? ' 
 
 He took up his hat, bowed, and turned to 
 depart. His voice was singularly low, distinct, 
 and musical, but none the less accent and 
 manner, quiet and courteous as was the latter, 
 grated on Helstone's perceptions. Before Mr. 
 Dorrimore could speak he answered sharply : — 
 
 ' You are mistaken ; I am the intruder,
 
 84 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 and will leave you at once to transact the busi- 
 ness you have on hand. The children are 
 never at a loose end at this hour of the day. I 
 will see, Dorrimore, you are not interrupted ; ' 
 and with a slight, brusque nod towards Kars- 
 lake, he strode out of the room. 
 
 When he reached the hall he paused and 
 stood still, moved, as Sybil had been a few 
 weeks earlier, by an entirely new sensation, 
 and anxious both to understand and subdue the 
 disturbance before going to the school-room. 
 The sounds from the room behind him reached 
 his ears indistinctly, and seemed to fire his 
 blood ; the querulous and apparently apologetic 
 tones of Mr. Dorrimore had a quality of sharp- 
 ness which almost rendered his words audible, 
 but the low, modulated voice of his companion 
 would have defied the keenest hstener. For 
 all that, Helstone put his fingers to his ears 
 with a gesture of repugnance, and moved
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 85 
 
 slowly towards the door through which the 
 radiant spring-time smiled and invited him. 
 He stood leaning against the lintel, with crossed 
 arms and knitted brows, resolved on the rare 
 effort of introspection. 
 
 What ailed him ? what was required of 
 him as a friend of the family but to rejoice at 
 the good fortune that had befallen the daughter 
 of the house, and offer his congratulations to 
 her ? He might be disgusted with the grasping 
 meanness of the father, but the good faith and 
 generosity of the lover were indisputable. And 
 as for looks and manners, he said to himself with 
 a sneer, why, he was a clerical Narcissus ! 
 
 And then, somehow or other, he recalled 
 to himself the image the glass was accustomed 
 to show him. The strong, square features, 
 loose, untidy brown locks, and careless beard. 
 He looked as it wxre into his own small eyes, 
 deep set under shcjggy brows, with their
 
 86 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 keen, uncompromising expression and lack of 
 physical charm, and the cynical smile deepened 
 on his lips. Could it be that, unknown to him- 
 self, an infant hope had lurked in the recesses 
 of his unchallenged heart, as presumptuous and 
 untenable as ever befooled a reasonable man ? 
 that he had thought to have been through life, 
 say, the trusted friend and champion of Sybil 
 Dorrimore, and that to see himself thrust aside 
 as no longer needed caused this sense of bitter 
 pain and injury ? 
 
 He was roused by seeing a tiny figure flit 
 across the garden grass, with a flapping sun- 
 hat shading the dainty face, and a flower-basket 
 on her arm ; the next moment he heard the 
 shouts of the boys, and perceived that the 
 family were starting for their daily noontide 
 constitutional, for Sybil herself was bringing up 
 the rear. He was obhged to go forward and 
 meet them, for they had seen him standing idle
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 87' 
 
 in the sunsliine, and were clamorous for him to 
 join their walk. 
 
 'We are going to Datchley Wood,' said 
 Lucy, looking up smihng into his face, and 
 shpping her morsel of a hand into his large 
 palm, ' and this basket is for cowslips. Perhaps 
 you don't know it, but Hannah makes the most 
 beautiful wine ! ' 
 
 ' Then I shall certainly ask her when we 
 get home to give me a taste of its quahty. May 
 I, Sybil ? ' he asked, falhng into place by her 
 side while the rest of the party rushed on in 
 advance. 
 
 ' May you ! as if you were not quite sure 
 that you could not please me nor the dear old 
 woman better than by so delicate a piece of 
 flattery,' she answered, turning to him with her 
 radiant smile. 'But is it really true you are 
 going to stay with us more than a week ? ' 
 
 It was the first sufficient view he had had
 
 88 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 of her ; lie had reached the house late the 
 night before, and his host had kept him in such 
 close attendance on his own humours, that he 
 had only been able to pay a flying visit 
 to the nursery before breakfast, and then 
 Sybil was not there. She had given him just 
 a brief greeting on his arrival, but had disap- 
 peared immediately, under the plea of looking 
 after his sleeping accommodation. He had 
 thought then she looked paler and graver than 
 in the old times, but had put it down to her 
 growing womanhood ; now, as he gazed in- 
 tently at her, as the sweet welcoming smile 
 faded from her face, he saw there was trouble 
 in it. 
 
 ' Child,' he said, in a low tone of infinite 
 tenderness, ' are the old ties to be broken be- 
 tween us? Am I not still the friend of the 
 family? Your father at least has treated me 
 as such, and told me the strange story there is
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 89 
 
 to tell and instructed me to offer my congra 
 tulations. Am I to wish you joy ? ' 
 
 Sybil looked up ^Yitll an eager, questioning 
 expression. 
 
 ' My father has told you ? ' and a smile 
 rather compassionate than scornful touched her 
 lips ; ' then I am free to speak.' 
 
 They had entered the wood, and the child 
 had run on to join the others in their search 
 for flowers, so that the two were alone in the 
 delicious privacy of the tender vernal shade, 
 with a cloudless heaven above, and their feet 
 deep in the thick undergrowth of ferns and 
 flowers. A felled tree was lying near them. 
 
 ' Let us sit down,' said Sybil. ' I have 
 a great deal to say.' She took off her broad 
 hat and laid it on the grass beside her, and 
 then, as if still oppressed, pushed back with 
 her slender ungloved fingers the sombre masses 
 of her hair.
 
 90 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 The action showed the perfect contour of 
 the rounded wrists, the graceful poise of the 
 firm white throat, the exquisite profile of the 
 face turned aside from him. 
 
 He watched her but did not speak. 
 
 ' You are not in a hurry ? ' she asked at 
 length ; ' not bound to return at any stated 
 hour ? I mean my father will not be expect- 
 ing you ? ' 
 
 'Mr. Dorrimore has a visitor who will 
 make my goings and comings of no con- 
 sequence. I will not beat about the bush, 
 Sybil. Mr. Karslake is with him and I have 
 seen him.' 
 
 She started a little, but her answer was 
 not what he expected. 
 
 ' I am very glad,' she said in the same low 
 concentrated tone as before, one wliich he 
 knew was strange to her. ' I am very glad ; 
 you will be able to tell me how you like
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 91 
 
 his appearance — what conckisious you draw 
 from it.' 
 
 ' I should be a bold man to draw conclusions 
 from barely live minutes' speech and sight/ 
 was the answer after a momentary pause 
 of consideration. ' At least he has sood looks 
 and good manners, and the reputation of good 
 character as well — aye, Sybil ? ' 
 
 ' All that and more. He is very religious 
 and devout, and seems to hold his riches — you 
 know he is rich? — more as a trust for the 
 benefit of those in need than as a means of self- 
 indulgence. Perhaps that excuses a httle the 
 thing which I find so intolerable.' 
 
 'And that is,' said Helstone with a short 
 laugh, ' the high-handed way in which he ofiers 
 his purse to the impoverished family. The 
 boys shall go to Winchester — he will charge 
 himself with their future career ; the httle girls, 
 deprived of their natural guardian, shall have
 
 92 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 the best of bonnes or governesses ; the father's 
 debts, if any, and his wants, whatever they may 
 be, shall all be met and satisfied in full. In 
 short, he presents a blank cheque to Mr. Dorri- 
 more, and bids him fill it in at his discretion — 
 only there is a consideration ! ' 
 
 Sybil's face kindled, she drew a deep 
 breath. 
 
 ' You see it in the same light as I do ; to 
 me there is nothing but shame and humiliation 
 in Mr. Karslake's overtures ; but there may be 
 circumstances which make even self-humilia- 
 tion a duty.' 
 
 Her companion was silent. 
 
 ' The boys are so clever, and so sweet and 
 good as well ' — looking towards them with 
 yearning eyes — ' that to deny them any possible 
 chance of distinguishing themselves seems cruel 
 and unjust. Jack tells me he means to be the 
 Lord Chancellor of the future, and dear Tom
 
 JULIAX IL\RSL.\KE'S SECRET. 93 
 
 has a secret desire to go into the Church. 
 Then the httle ones are growing up and asking 
 for more every day than it is in my power to 
 give them. All this presses upon me with a 
 painful sense of responsibility. But granting 
 that I could face the idea, you who know more 
 of the world than I do, tell me, is it not an 
 unheard-of thiniz for a man to charge himself 
 with the support of a whole family ? would not 
 people cry shame upon us for suffering him to 
 do so, and the time come when he would 
 repent of his bargain and find the consideration 
 a very poor equivalent ? ' 
 
 The girl rose as she spoke and buried her 
 flushed face in her hands for a moment, then 
 slowly raising her head and straightening her 
 slight, supple figure with a gesture of dignity 
 mingled with deprecation, she added with 
 unconscious pathos : — 
 
 'You will not think it unwomanlv for me
 
 94 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 to talk to you like this ? You know I have no 
 friends and have always loved and trusted you 
 — tell me what I ought to do.' 
 
 Helstone got up in his turn and walked a 
 few paces from her. When he came back he 
 was paler than usual, but he had taken his 
 resolution. 
 
 ' Let us sit down again and talk this matter 
 over, as though we were brother and sister. 
 You do right to trust me, for I have lived so 
 much amongst women as to have become almost 
 an old woman myself ' — ^he stopped a moment. 
 
 ' Yes,' she said, looking at him affectionately, 
 ' I do not forget what you have sacrificed to 
 your mother and sister, but what I am so 
 afraid of is lest sacrifice should not pay. I am 
 not of the devout nor yet of the heroic type. 
 
 I want a great deal in life and if I made 
 
 a terrible mistake it would help my misery very 
 little to know I had done it from a good
 
 JULUX kaeslake's secret. 95 
 
 motive. Tell me your experience— it may 
 help me.' 
 
 ' There is precious little to tell, and I see 
 you have an exaggerated notion of that little. 
 Just as I was called to the bar my father died 
 in unsuspected debt and difficulty, and the 
 maintenance of my mother and sister naturally 
 fell upon me. I was engaged to be married at 
 the time, and thought the break-up of my 
 hopes and plans a terrible business, l^ut there 
 was no help for it. Thank God the girl, who 
 was a dear httle thing, soon consoled herself 
 with a better match, and so lifted off mv 
 shoulders the heaviest weight of all — the fear I 
 had made a human creature permanently un- 
 happy. I have hved long enough since then 
 to see it was all for the best. I doubt if we 
 should have made a happy couple. That 
 is aU.' 
 
 'Xot quite all,' she answered. 'You tell
 
 96 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 me nothing of the protracted self-denials to 
 clear off your father's debts and — forgive me, I 
 hardly dare to touch so sore a point — but you 
 hide the fact that there is that in the condition 
 of your mother which has made of your daily 
 life a dread and a martyrdom.' 
 
 She leaned towards him as she spoke, her 
 vivid face illuminated with the ardour of her 
 enthusiasm : he had turned a little away from 
 her, so that she could not see his face, but she 
 took up the hand that was lying loosely on his 
 knee, and touched it reverently with her lips. 
 
 ' I have done you such scant justice all 
 these years,' she said gravely, as if in explan- 
 ation of the action. 
 
 Helstone sat quite still enduring the contact 
 that thrilled every nerve with an ecstasy of pain. 
 After a moment he took her little hand that 
 trembled with emotion, into his cool and 
 friendly grasp.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE S SECRET. 97 
 
 ' You have redressed the balance, my dear/ 
 he said quietly, ' by the ardoiu: of your recofy- 
 nition now. I thank you for it, for I won't 
 deny it is sweet ; but you must remember if my 
 duty has been a httle hard, it was simply my 
 duty, which none but the basest of men could 
 have foregone. And now to go back to your 
 own affairs. There is one way of making the 
 rough places smooth — I speak to the girl I 
 have nursed as a baby — give this young man 
 what he wants and the weight of oblio-atiou 
 will be lost.' 
 
 Sybil chd not blush, but looked dreamily 
 through the leafy shades of the wood. 
 
 'I have thought about love and read 
 much about it of course, and even ' — with a 
 little laugh — 'ventured to write about it too. 
 I have my theories and my ideals Hke other 
 girls, but ' — she paused abruptly, and a wave of 
 colom: swept over her cheek. Her keen vision 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 had discovered the figure of Juhan Karslake in 
 the far distance making his way towards them. 
 
 She pointed him out to her companion, and 
 almost unconsciously passed her arm through 
 his. 
 
 ' Do not leave me/ she pleaded ; ' hear for 
 me what he has to say. My father has sent 
 him, or he knvows our habits and has found 
 us out. But it is an unwarrantable liberty to 
 have taken ; he must have known we were 
 gone out with you.' 
 
 Helstone smiled. ' Let us admire his 
 courage,' he said. ' Come, it behoves us to 
 take a leaf out of his book and stand our 
 ground — it will scarcely do for us to run away.' 
 
 And yet as he glanced for a moment at her 
 set pale face, and felt the trembling of the 
 hand that rested on his arm, his own self- 
 possession almost failed him, and he clenched 
 his tooth within his closed lips.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 99 
 
 A rare fern growing till then unheeded at 
 his feet suddenly caught liis downward glance ; 
 he stooped and picked it and showed it to 
 Sybil with due botanical comment, anxious to 
 see the tension of her mood relax ; and as she 
 fingered and examined it with real or assumed 
 interest, he breathed more freely, and standing 
 a little apart, watched the progress of the young 
 man towards them with a smile half cynical, 
 half sympathetic. 
 
 It was unquestionably an awkward position 
 for any man to fill, approaching a reluctant 
 mistress under the eyes of her approved and 
 confidential friend, but there was no apparent 
 awkwardness to be perceived. Even to 
 Helstone's unfriendly scrutiny Julian Karslake 
 seemed endowed with every charm of person 
 and grace of manner which could win a girl's 
 free heart ; and he acknowledged with a bitter 
 reluctance that lier yielding must be only a 
 
 H 2
 
 100 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 question of time. He also acknowledged, as 
 Karslake drew near enough to raise his hat and 
 address Sybil, that there was a rare absence of 
 self-consciousness, a composed and dignified 
 sweetness of personal manifestation, that could 
 scarcely be compatible with anything but the 
 finer traits of character. 
 
 Already, he said to himself, the girl felt the 
 charm, for her face relaxed and she lowered a 
 little the proud level glance. 
 
 * Hannah was right,' she said, replying to 
 his explanations, ' in regard to our where- 
 abouts, but she ouglit to have told you we had 
 planned to spend the afternoon in a long 
 ramble with our friend Mr. Helstone : it is very 
 seldom we have the privilege.' 
 
 Karslake smiled slightly in a grave deliber- 
 ate way. 
 
 That is an unmistakable dismissal. Miss 
 Dorrimore, but I was prepared to find myself
 
 JULIAX kaeslaxe's secket. 101 
 
 unwelcome. I was also charged with a message 
 to Mr. Helstone, but I have scarcely the com-age 
 now to dehver it.' 
 
 * You will hardly be able to persuade either 
 of us that you feel any difficulty ou the score 
 of modesty,' said Helstone drily, for there was 
 something in Karslake's composure that tried 
 his temper. ' Speak out, man ! I don't belong 
 to the ceremonious school myself.' 
 
 ' Mr. Dorrimore wished me to remind you 
 that liis hour for luncheon is two o'clock, and 
 that he objects to be kept waiting.' 
 
 An angry flush rose to Sybil's cheek. 
 
 ' I will call the children,' she said, ' and we 
 will all return together. Shall we wish you 
 good morning, Mr. Karslake ? ' 
 
 Undoubtedly the young man had courage : 
 he raised his eyes and met the gui's cold and 
 angry glance, but it had not the effect of daunt- 
 ing his purpose for a moment.
 
 102 JULIAN karslake's seceet. 
 
 ' Pardon my persistence,' he replied, ' but I 
 know your hours for meals are different, and it 
 will not interfere with them to stay here a little 
 longer. I am come on purpose to speak to 
 you — will you not allow me the opportunity ? ' 
 
 Heist one glanced at him curiously and with 
 a sense of increasing antagonism. His colour 
 was scarcely raised, his voice touched the same 
 low modulated key as seemed habitual, but 
 there was a quiet power under this mask of 
 gentleness that made itself felt. He saw that 
 Sybil would yield. Was it not inevitable that 
 she should ? At least, whatever the final issue, 
 he would force her to listen to Mm — as well 
 sooner as later. 
 
 ' You may as well stay, Sybil,' he said with 
 that air of natural authority acquired by their 
 life-long relations ; ' the children are not ready 
 to go home, and I should be sorry for the 
 family to lose their potential beverage. As for
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 103 
 
 me, I have no option but to obey my host's 
 commands.' 
 
 He gave her a smihng farewell nod, as care- 
 less as if his heart had not been full of bitter- 
 ness and pain ; to Karslake he bowed stiffly 
 enough ; he was quite sure now that the feehng 
 lie had excited was one of absolute antipathy.
 
 104 JULIAN KAESLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 They were left standing by the felled tree : 
 Karslake indicated it to Sybil. 
 
 ' Will you not sit down ? ' he asked. ' You 
 look pale and fatigued.* 
 
 It was on her lips to resent his remark and 
 refuse his suggestion, for her whole spirit was 
 in revolt against this forced interview ; but it 
 seemed to her finer sense unworthy to betray 
 a petty irritation, therefore she walked slowly 
 towards the place and sat down. 
 
 Her hat was still lying on the ground ; she 
 took it up and put it on — it was a relief to 
 have a shade for her clouded and expressive 
 face.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 105 
 
 Then silence fell between them; she sat 
 motionless, her head a little averted, her hands 
 folded loosely in her lap, and the leafy branches 
 above her chequering her girhsh figure with 
 dancing light and shade. She was aware that 
 her companion, who w^as leaning against a tree 
 near her, was watching her intently ; but what 
 he was about to say, or what answer she 
 should retiuii when he had spoken, she had no 
 prevision or fixed purpose. 
 
 It was this absolute irresolution of will — 
 this silence of conscience and conviction apt to be 
 so prompt and decisive, which baffled her : she 
 had a vague feeling of beicg outside her own 
 destiny, waiting to see the die cast over which 
 she had no control. 
 
 It seemed to her, as she sat waiting to 
 hear Karslake speak, as if he would never 
 break the irksome silence ; but he did so at 
 lencfth.
 
 106 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 'I see/ he began in the sweet measured 
 tones ]that thrilled her nerves with a sense of 
 keen irritation, 'that you have scarcely 
 patience to listen to ^me, and yet it is necessary 
 that I should speak to you again. It is pre- 
 cisely six weeks to-day since I saw you last : 
 through every hour of that time— whether by 
 the bed-side [of the dying, or in the thick of 
 secular affairs — I have thought of you, and 
 every thought has been a kind of wordless 
 prayer that your heart might turn towards me. 
 Is there any hope of my prayer being 
 answered ? ' 
 
 He paused and tried to look into her face 
 that was turned steadily from him ; paused a 
 moment longer w^aiting for her to speak, but as 
 she remained silent he went on : — 
 
 ' You must answer me : tell me at least 
 what you wish me to do/ 
 
 Then she lifted up her eyes full of re-
 
 JULIAN KARSL.\KE'S SECRET. 107 
 
 pressed and passionate trouble, and looked at 
 him steadily. 
 
 ' What I wish you to do ? ' she repeated. 
 'You cannot fail to see that no change has 
 taken place in my mind since I saw you last. 
 What does an honourable man do when he 
 knows the woman he professes to love is dis- 
 tressed by his importunity ? Do you need me 
 to tell you that ? ' 
 
 ' Leave her unmolested, you would say ; but 
 m that case his love must be either less than 
 mine, or the obstacles greater than those which 
 divide us. Why should you not love me, 
 Sybil?' 
 
 As he spoke he came towards her and 
 knelt in the grass at her feet, not so much as it 
 seemed in the character of a passionate lover, 
 as that the position enabled him to constrain 
 her movements and to read the effect of his 
 words in her face. From the same motive he
 
 108 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 suddenly seized the hands lying passively in 
 her lap, and held them in a close and strenuous 
 grasp. 
 
 ' Why should you not love me, Sybil ? ' he 
 repeated. 'There is nothing in my body or 
 mind to provoke instinctive aversion. I offer 
 you the best that any man can offer — not the 
 mere accident of wealth, but the vigorous first- 
 fruits of an honest passion. Perhaps it goes 
 beyond that limit, for I love you with much of 
 the heat, unreason, and determination to win 
 what I want that I have scorned or con- 
 demned in other men. Without you life 
 seems not worth having, and duty becomes 
 a dead letter. What have you to oppose to 
 the strength of such a feeling as this ? only 
 the insensibility of a recluse and studious girl. 
 There is but one barrier I should recognise 
 as insuperable ' — 
 
 Up to this point the measure of coercion
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAKE'S SECRET. 109 
 
 he had exercised, and the resolute persistence 
 of his speech had overborne her faculty of 
 opposition, but the la^t words supplied the 
 arrested power. 
 
 ' Tell me what it is,' she cried passionately 
 and freeing her hands fi'om his grasp, ' and I 
 will not fail to tell you it exists.' 
 
 For a moment there was a scintillation of 
 anger in his eyes, and the slight contraction of 
 the beautiful level brows deepened to a frown. 
 He rose and stepped back to his former 
 position. 
 
 'I could almost believe it does,' he said 
 sternly, ' or the lack of womanly kindness on 
 yoiu* part would be inexplicable.' 
 
 Sybil had risen too, and stood facmg him 
 pale with agitation, but otherwise self-contained 
 and erect, and demanding an explanation of 
 his meaning by a proud questioning look. 
 
 'You do not understand.^ I meant that
 
 110 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 perhaps I was mistaken in thinking that the 
 chief obstacle to my hopes arises from girhsh 
 reticence and over-taxed mental pre-occupation. 
 I do not know the secret of your life — ^you 
 may love some other man.' 
 
 The words dropped from his lips with pain- 
 ful reluctance, and in full expectation of pro- 
 voking her to still deeper displeasure, but he 
 was mistaken. A slight flush of colour passed 
 over the dehcate cheek, and the fine curves of 
 the lips relaxed and softened to a dreamy 
 smile. 
 
 'I have loved many men from childhood 
 upwards,' she said, ' with an ardour no living 
 creature, I think, will ever excite in my mind : 
 they have been heroes, saints, philosophers even : 
 Pericles, Csesar, Marcus Aurelius in the old 
 times ; and in the present. — I am not sure it 
 would be wise to tell you the names of those 
 who stir my enthusiasm most. You are quite
 
 Ill 
 
 right about my mental pre-occupation ; these 
 are the things I care for, I have been a 
 student all my life, I hope to be a writer in the 
 future.* 
 
 * And/ he rephed, ' it would be the aim 
 of my hfe to win you from all this impersonal 
 devotion to a humbler love and a finer ambition/ 
 
 ' There,' said Sybil with a sudden brighten- 
 ing of her mobile face, ' speaks the abso- 
 lute antagonism between us. What the one 
 holds as most precious the other imder-esti- 
 mates and contemns. I doubt if we have any 
 interests in common. I shall write under any 
 conditions of life, as inevitably as the birds sing 
 and the trees grow. Just now you asked me 
 what I wished you to do ; my answer is ready. 
 Explain to my father that your unreason- 
 able fancy for a girl you did not know, won't 
 stand the test of nearer acquaintance, and 
 release me from the trouble and pain you have
 
 112 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 caused me. You are on the point of going 
 away from liere amongst your own people, 
 where this shadowy impression in my behalf 
 will vanish into thin air, and the old times, 
 before we ever met or spoke, will come back 
 again to both of us/ 
 
 She smiled as she spoke with almost her 
 usual radiance of expression ; her voice had 
 taken a gladder tone, her very gesture as she 
 turned to move forwards, indicated a sense of 
 freedom restored. 
 
 It was the keenest pain to him to observe 
 these signs of her absolute indifference, but 
 except a little added pallor and firmer com- 
 pression of the lips he did not allow the feeling 
 to appear, nor did he attempt to dispute her 
 estimate of his feelings. 
 
 Sybil had turned to follow the children 
 into the depths of the wood, and he walked 
 quietly by her side.
 
 JULIAN K.\RSLAKES SECRET. 113 
 
 ' Before,' he said in a constrained tone, ' I 
 take my final dismissal from your lips, will 
 YOU tell Mr. Dorrimore yoiu: decision.^ also, 
 can one so generous and sympathetic as your- 
 self feel no pain for the pain she inflicts ? ' 
 
 ' But it is so difficult for me to believe that 
 it is possible for me to give you pain ; but if I 
 
 do ' she stopped, and raising her eyes looked 
 
 at him with an expression full of tenderness and 
 regret. She would have bestowed the same 
 look on any sufiering creature, but it seemed to 
 Karslake to suggest some degree of personal 
 relenting. 
 
 ' You deceive yourself,' he exclaimed ; 
 ' there is no real antagonism between us. 
 Sybil, I shall yet teach you to love me ! ' 
 
 He tried to take her hand, but she snatched 
 it away ; her forbearance was exhausted. 
 
 ' Hear me once and for all,' she exclaimed, 
 * and let this matter be ended between us. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 When you spoke to me before, did I not tell 
 you that the offer of your love was thoroughly 
 disagreeable to me, that all my nature ran in a 
 different channel from your wishes? If to- 
 day I have seemed less resolute, it was partly 
 from respect to your feelings, which appear 
 more deeply implicated than I could have 
 believed possible, and partly from obedience to 
 my father's command. But no consideration 
 shall bind me to do the falsest act of a woman's 
 life — accept a love I cannot return.' 
 
 ' You forget,' he answered in a low incisive 
 tone, ' that you are refusing a request I have 
 never made. I have asked you for your love, 
 but not for the disdainful acceptance of mine.' 
 
 ' In that case we are agreed,' she said 
 haughtily, 'and need not protract a painful 
 interview. Nothing remains but for me to 
 thank you for the offer of a privilege I am unable 
 to appropriate, and to bid you a final farewell'
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 115 
 
 She quickened her steps as she spoke, ^vitli 
 the motive of joining the children and pro- 
 tecting herself from further importunity by 
 their presence. They had seen her approach, 
 and were shouting to her to make haste and 
 look at their spoils; but Karslake suddenly 
 stepped before her so as to intercept her pro- 
 gress, at the same time making a peremptory 
 movement of restraint towards one or two 
 stragglers of the band who were inclined to 
 run and meet them. 
 
 ' You do not know what you are doing,' he 
 said ; ' you have no comprehension of the 
 extent of your own ingratitude.' 
 
 Sybil turned a little pale, a sickness of 
 heart seized her, but she did not lose her 
 courage. 
 
 ' I know,' she replied firmly, ' that you 
 have gained my father's favour by liberal 
 promises of help to all of us, and you may 
 
 I 2
 
 116 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 well judge how poor and harassed he is when 
 he has been led to listen to them insteacf of 
 resenting them. But I cannot look upon this 
 as a claim upon my personal gratitude ; to my 
 mind it wears quite a different aspect, and does 
 not touch at any point my notions of generosity. 
 Shall I add I think you forget your position in 
 reproaching me in this way ? ' 
 
 ' Did you think,' he asked, ' that the in- 
 gratitude with which I ventured to charge you 
 had anything to do with benefits either offered 
 or conferred? No man with any instinct of 
 decency would claim anything from the 
 woman he loved on the ground of obligations 
 received. The fault I find in you is the 
 absolute indifference with which you throw 
 away a love such as mine, without a single 
 effort to estimate or pity its reality and strength. 
 Fortified by your coldness against suffering, my 
 suffering is of no account to you. But as I
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 117 
 
 told you before, I am not soon daunted : 
 I shall leave no effort untried to gain that 
 Avithout which all the world is loss to 
 me. I believe I shall yet conquer your insen- 
 sibility — sooner or later you shall love me, 
 Sybil.' 
 
 Involuntarily the girl shivered. There was 
 a concentration of purpose in his low tones 
 which seemed equal to the accomphshment of 
 his will. Some shadow cast by future experi- 
 ences seemed to chill and darken her spirit, 
 and induced her to speak with a passionate 
 asperity alien to the intrinsic nobleness of her 
 nature. 
 
 'Have you the power of destroying my 
 free-will,' she asked, ' or am I bound, under 
 penalty of moral condemnation, to accept your 
 own estimate of the good you offer me ? Do 
 you think no man as much in earnest as your- 
 self, has ever failed before? I know — you
 
 118 
 
 have reminded me — you are well qualified to 
 win a girl's heart, but I am different from 
 other girls. I see you are beautiful, but what 
 is your beauty to me if it does not touch 
 me ? I believe you are good and kind, and 
 still my desire is to escape from you. Can I 
 say more ? ' 
 
 She stopped and turned towards him in the 
 energy of her expostulation, every point of 
 face and figure irradiated by the tender spring 
 sunshine, falling in broken lights through the 
 foliage above their heads. 
 
 There was much of the virginal majesty 
 and proud self-reliance of a Diana in the poise 
 of the tall and supple figure ; the perfect hues 
 of her face, the vivid crimson of the sensitive 
 hps, the passing glow of indignant feeling on 
 the clear pale cheek, the angry sparkle 
 of the eyes which met his in unflinching 
 protest, stirred the hot blood in his veins
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET 119 
 
 and shook him with a j^aroxysm of mortal 
 passion. 
 
 For a moment he hesitated whether to turn 
 and flee from her in despair at her coldness, or 
 to seize her in his arms and try and melt her 
 heart against the fire of his own. 
 
 This was the transient impulse in one over 
 whom impulse had lost its sway. What he did 
 was prosaic enough. 
 
 He held out his hand to her with the 
 ordinary action of leave-taking. 
 
 ' Let us at least part friends,' he said. ' I 
 have not the courage to withstand your hard 
 words — at least to-day. Good-bye.' 
 
 Their hands met. He scarcely touched 
 the warm ungloved finger-tips, but there was 
 something in his very abstinence that brought 
 a sense of keen compunction to the girl's 
 chivalrous soul. 
 
 'Forgive me!' she pleaded, attitude and
 
 120 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 expression changing to sudden softness/ ' I 
 have been rude and harsh in trying to be plain, 
 and your forbearance makes me doubly 
 ashamed. I should be proud to call you my 
 friend.' 
 
 She held his hand in her own in a generous 
 clasp, and he endured without retiurning the 
 pressure ; endured to look into her tender eyes, 
 full of sweet self-reproach, with no further 
 betrayal of himself. And then when she had 
 turned away he went deliberately towards the 
 children, greeting them all by name, and 
 saying something apt to the individuality of 
 each. He even w^aited to examine and gauge 
 the contents of their baskets, w^hich they 
 pressed upon his notice in the eagerness of their 
 childish competition. 
 
 ' Go,' he said after a few minutes, ' your 
 sister is waiting.' 
 
 And he stood tranquilly watching their
 
 JULIAX KARSL.\KE's SECRET. 121 
 
 departure till the last childish figure had faded 
 from his sight, the clear treble voices — all 
 talking eagerly together — had fainted on the 
 distant air. They left a solitude profound 
 enough to sanction any demonstration of self- 
 indulgence, and for a moment the young man 
 felt a wild desire to throw himself prone on 
 the grass where she had sat, and bury his face 
 in the feathery blades caressed by her uncon- 
 scious fingers. 
 
 He contented himself, however, with 
 stooping down and picking up a bunch of wild 
 flowers she had held and dropped ; amongst 
 them were the rare fern leaves Gilbert Helstone 
 had given her. These he threw away with an 
 instinctive impression of repugnance and mis- 
 trust ; the rest he shut up between the leaves 
 of a little book he carried in his pocket. 
 
 Then he too turned and left the wood.
 
 122 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 The old manor-house of Ashlands stood about 
 three miles from the sea-shore, and Gilbert 
 Helstone, with all a Londoner's desire to drink 
 in as much pure air as possible during his brief 
 hohday, was in the habit of striding down to 
 the beach and back again before breakfast. 
 
 On the third morning of his visit he had 
 accomplished his constitutional at an earlier 
 hour than usual, and, finding he had time to 
 spare, he ascended the precipitous cliff which 
 formed the eastern point of the long line of 
 rocks stretching far beyond the range of 
 vision, and threw himself on the turf. It was 
 a morning in the middle of May, but the
 
 JULIAN KAKSL.\KE's SECRET. 123 
 
 season was early with the fretful iincertainty of 
 our Enghsh chmate, and the temperature was 
 as high as midsummer. The sky was a fleck- 
 less dome of pale blue, palpitating in the white 
 light of the unclouded sunshine, and the sea 
 shone with a metallic lustre m the unmitiofated 
 glare. A few fishing-boats, for the most part 
 gone out to empty the lobster pots of their 
 night spoils, dotted the surface here and there, 
 or the sails of a distant vessel struck suddenly 
 into sight on the verge of the horizon. 
 
 On the beach below two tiny figures were 
 stripping ofi* their clothes preparatory to a 
 plunge m the sea, for the coast was secluded 
 enough to make it free to any bather. 
 
 At the height he was above them Heist one 
 could not recognise the boys, but as their 
 young shrill voices rose in the silent air he 
 detected a familiar ring, and identified them as 
 Jack and Tom Dorrimore. He was, however.
 
 124 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 in no mood to discover himself, nor was lie 
 anxious for their gleeful companionship back to 
 the house, for there are times when the careless 
 hght-heartedness of children jars with intoler- 
 able discord on the adult mind, harassed with 
 the cares and disappointments of life. 
 
 He was aware that the twins were accus- 
 tomed to come down and bathe alone, but they 
 generally went to a different part of the shore, 
 considered safer and more remote from obser- 
 vation than this. The whole range of beach at 
 Eoosden Ma^^na was of shingle, and regarded as 
 dangerous and treacherous in the extreme for 
 any bather who was unfamiliar with the fea- 
 tures of the coast, and Helstone had even 
 expostulated with Sybil on the risk she suffered 
 the children to run. 
 
 But she had answered brightly that the 
 danger did not exist for those who knew as 
 they did almost every pebble, rock, and pool,
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 125 
 
 every shelving slope and sudden pitch of coast 
 from infancy. 
 
 He threw himself down on the turf and 
 watched their gambols with no feeling of un- 
 easiness ; the tide was ebbing fast and the sea 
 superficially calm, though with an ominous 
 ground-swell imdetected by liis unpractised eye. 
 
 He was reassured, too, by the siglit of an- 
 other bather at a considerable distance from 
 the boys, who had rowed out from the shore 
 into deep water, sprung into the sea with the 
 cool dexterity of a practised diver, and had 
 been for some time swimming luxiu-iously in its 
 warm pellucid depths. 
 
 Helstone felt inclined to envy him that 
 power over the element which he himself had 
 never acquired; and there was an obvious 
 mastery and vigour in his movements which 
 struck even the unprofessional observer. 
 
 ' The man who cannot swim is maimed of
 
 126 JULIAN kakslake's secret. 
 
 another sense,' he said to himself ; ' I suppose 
 these lads can do a little in that way.' 
 
 He approached the edge of the cliff to watch 
 them ; they were still playing ' like troutlets 
 in a pool,' running races with each other, 
 diving, dipping, and wading far out into the 
 receding tide. Now and again he could only 
 see their curly black heads bobbing up and 
 down like corks in the water, and a feeling of 
 considerable uneasiness possessed him. Still, 
 they never failed to scramble back in safety to 
 the shore, their merry laughter sounding far 
 and wide in the clear air. 
 
 Helstone shouted to them it was time to go 
 home to breakfast, but apparently his voice 
 was not heard. They rushed back into the 
 water as before, intent on securing a prize of 
 magnificent mares' tails sea-weed which was 
 floating past them. 
 
 Jack, the most adventurous, had seized it
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 127 
 
 in his grasp, as he thouglit, when the shppery 
 object escaped him ; he made another dash 
 after it, lost his foothold on the treacherous 
 slope, and before he could recover liimself the 
 ebbing tide had sucked him imder and was 
 carrying him out to sea beyond any chance of 
 his power of recovery. ' 
 
 Tom, who had struggled back in safety to 
 the shore, uttered a piercing shriek, running 
 frantically back into the sea at the peril of his 
 own life. 
 
 It w^as a terrible moment. Helstone's posi- 
 tion was one of such absolute powerlessness as to 
 bring with it almost the experience of madness. 
 He could not annihilate the awful distance 
 between himself and the drowning boy, though 
 the first impulse of frenzy was to leap sheer 
 from the chff on which he stood ; but granting 
 that he had feiled to dash out his own life in so 
 doing, of what avail would it have been ?
 
 128 JULiAX karslake's secret. 
 
 He could not swim ; he was as helpless to 
 save life as the shrieking child below. Was he 
 then to stand, with the sweat of mortal terror 
 on his brow, and passively watch the destruc- 
 tion of that cherished life, and take back the 
 news to Sybil ? All this occurred to liim wdth 
 the instantaneousness of thought, and then a 
 gleam of hope struck across his mind. 
 
 That stout swimmer he had seen before, 
 and who was now leisurely putting on his 
 clothes, must surely have noticed the boys 
 at play, and might have seen the danger; 
 or, if the curve of coast had hidden them 
 from his sight, Tom's screams for help must 
 surely reach his ears. 
 
 No ; he could perceive from his movements 
 that he was unaware of the tragedy being 
 enacted before his eyes ; the poor boy's cries, 
 choked with sobs and abortive efforts at help, 
 had not penetrated to the ledge of rock on
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKES SECRET. 129 
 
 whi^h he was sitting, full in Helstone's sight. 
 But his voice should reach him ; and Helstone 
 gathered up his strength into a mighty shout 
 for help that, in its strenuous agony, might 
 almost have roused the dead. 
 
 The other has heard the sound, and looks 
 quickly up to see whence it proceeds, but, God 
 of mercy, how deliberately he moves ! Another 
 minute and it may be too late, if not too late 
 already ; does he not see the tiny figure tossing 
 on the crest of the outgoing wave ? He does ; 
 there is a moment's pause, a quick glance 
 around as if to gather some comprehension of 
 the facts, and then he rushes to the water's 
 edge and flings himself into the sea. 
 
 To the man standing in speechless agony 
 above him and watching his movements, the 
 sea looks calm and his progress slow and 
 unsatisfactory, but he cannot estimate the cruel 
 force of the heavy ground-swell against the 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 swimmer's limbs, nor the fact that the ebbing 
 tide carries its victim still beyond his reach. 
 
 What he sees is that the boy is not yet saved, 
 and he almost curses the inadequacy that mocks 
 his hopes. 
 
 Again and again, yielding to a useless im- 
 pulse, he shouts encouragement or invective, 
 until at length the blessed moment of fruition 
 comes — the boy is in the grasp of his saviour. 
 Then Helstone prepared to rush down the cliff, 
 eager to be at hand to receive the "piteous bur- 
 den, never doubtmg that his Hfe is still in him. 
 
 Standing now on the sea-shore, he is better 
 able to judge how severe a struggle it has been ; 
 the swimmer is still some distance from land, 
 and he has evidently some difficulty in breasting 
 the waves that beat him backwards, with one 
 arm encumbered with his helpless load- 
 
 They stand and watch him, man and boy 
 on either side.
 
 JULIAN K.\RSLAKE's SECRET. 131 
 
 Poor Tom, with set white face, shivers 
 naked on the beach with his eyes strained 
 towards his brother, and scarcely conscious of 
 tlie tender pity with which Helstone has drawn 
 him towards him. The other two are near 
 enough now for speech and recognition. 
 
 ' It is Juhan Karslake,' gasped Tom. ' 
 Jack — look at Jack!' The boy's nerveless 
 arm hung over Karslake's shoulder, his face 
 pale as a lily rested upon the same, the 
 salt ooze dripping from his hair over the 
 closed eyes and parted, breathless lips. The 
 limbs, of marble famiess, seemed to Helstone's 
 shocked perceptions to have already the 
 rigidity of death. 
 
 He would have waded into the sea to take 
 him into his arms, had not Karslake shouted to 
 him to stand back. 
 
 ' You do not know the coast ; it is steep 
 as a hill-side. I shall be all rieht in a minute.'
 
 132 JULiAX karslake's secret. 
 
 A few moments longer, and he had put the 
 boy carefully into Helstone's arms. 
 
 ' Keep his head raised,' he said ; ' and Tom, 
 my boy, run for my coat yonder.' 
 
 Tom flew speechless and heedless of the 
 stones that cut his naked feet. 
 
 ' He is dead,' said Helstone in an awed tone. 
 '0 God, that I had been on the spot, and had 
 skill and strength to save him ! ' 
 
 ' We cannot decide that he is dead ; let us 
 lose no time in useless regTcts. Here ! wrap 
 him in this coat and carry him to the Harbour 
 Inn, close at hand. We can try some simple 
 remedies till medical aid is brought.' 
 
 By this time the news of the accident had 
 spread, and stragglers were gathering from every 
 part. There was no difficulty in finding a 
 messenger to the nearest doctor, and suggestions 
 were poured in on all sides. Karslake's advice 
 could not be improved upon, however, and
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 133 
 
 Helstone followed it, making his way as swiftly 
 as he could over the heavy shingles, with Jack's 
 head pillowed on his arm and a crowd of fisher 
 folk, men, women, and boys, bringing up the 
 rear. 
 
 Tom, pale and hushed, stayed of necessity 
 behind to put on his clothes, looking from time 
 to time at Karslake, who had volunteered to 
 wait for him, and was standing a little way 
 off wringing the water from his hair and gar- 
 ments. 
 
 A stifled sob reached his ears. 
 
 ' My hands shake so I can't dress myself — 
 would you mind helping a fellow a bit ? ' 
 
 Karslake came towards him. ' I am a httle 
 shaken myself, Tom, but we shall manage 
 between us. Come, you cut a much more 
 respectable figure than I. Xow you have your 
 boots on (we will not wait to lace them), I 
 think I must ask you to run for my other
 
 134 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 clothes under the clifF. Don't forget the shoes, 
 and I will not keep you two mmutes.' 
 
 Tom was there and back in a flash, and in a 
 few moments they were walking hand in hand 
 over the beach towards the inn. 
 
 ' I did not know it was you, Mr. Karslake, 
 at first. Oh, what will poor Sybil say ! ' 
 
 ' ^ov did I know it was Jack Dorrimore, 
 so that Sybil at least will have nothing to say 
 
 to me, besides ' he stopped short, for he 
 
 saw the boy had no doubt that his brother's 
 life was saved. 
 
 As they approached the house, the crow^l 
 which w^as momently increasing gave way with 
 a murmur of pity and approval. 
 
 ' It was passon who went in after him — 
 they do say he's the finest swimmer in all the 
 country round. Aye, thick's the little lad's 
 brother.' 
 
 The drowned boy was lying on a couch,
 
 JULIAN K.\RSLAKE's SECRET. 135 
 
 wrapped in a blanket, in the best parlour of 
 the inn, as Karslake and Tom entered. 
 
 A batli with hot water stood near, from 
 which it was evident he had just been lifted, 
 without any effect on his condition being 
 produced. 
 
 Gilbert Helstone was hanging over the head 
 of the sofa with intense anxiety written on his 
 face, and the motherly landlady was on her 
 knees chafing, with patient assiduity, the yet cold 
 and rigid limbs. Tom gazed about him for a 
 moment with distended eyes and then, uttering 
 a piercing cry, rushed forward, and before he 
 could be restrained had flung himself on his 
 brother's body. 
 
 ' Jack,' he sobbed, hugging him in his 
 warm arms and pressing his now glowing face 
 against the lips, and cheek and brow^ that were 
 the counterpart of his own, save in their still 
 pallor, ' why don't you open your eyes and
 
 136 JULIAN KAESLAKES SECRET. 
 
 speak to me? You are not drowned, you 
 know — Julian Karslake has saved you. Why 
 don't you do something for him ? ' he demanded 
 almost fiercely of the pitying group who stood 
 around — ' it is cruel to let him lie here like 
 this.' 
 
 ' My boy,' said Helstone tenderly, ' we 
 will do our best, and in order that we may do 
 so you will get up and go away and wait 
 patiently in another room till we can bring the 
 good news to you. He cannot breathe while 
 you are holding him so tight.' Tom released 
 his grasp and rose to his feet. 
 
 ' I can do no harm by looking at him and 
 watching,' he pleaded ; ' let me stay.' 
 
 At this moment there was heard the distinct 
 sound of wheels, and a stir and movement 
 in the little crowd outside the windows. The 
 announcement that the ' doctor be coming ' flew 
 from lip to lip. Tom caught the welcome
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 13T 
 
 sound and his look of agony lightened. Dr. 
 Bertram was an old friend in whose power to 
 save he had the most implicit confidence, and 
 he flew out of the room to meet him. 
 
 The doctor was just stepping out of his high 
 dog-cart. The boy rushed towards him to help 
 and quicken his movements. 
 
 ' Come ! ' he gasped, ' it is Jack. He 
 would have died if you had not come — new 
 it will be all right.' 
 
 ' We will hope so, my boy, we will do our 
 best. Let us see Jack at once.' He w^ent 
 straight up to his patient, after a keen glance 
 round the room at its several occupants and a 
 friendly nod to Karslake. 
 
 He stood for a moment by the couch 
 shocked, in spite of his professional training, at 
 the aspect of the pathetic little figure stretched 
 upon it, whose vitality of yesterday had been 
 so abundant and joyous a possession.
 
 138 JULIAN kaeslake's secket. 
 
 He felt his pulse and tested liis temperature 
 without suffering his face to betray to those 
 who were watching him anxiously, the impres- 
 sion produced. 
 
 ' How long was he in the w^ater ? ' he asked 
 abruptly. 
 
 ' Not a quarter of an hour, I should think, 
 but we had no means of measuring the time.* 
 It was Helstone that answered. 
 
 ' It was longer than that,' said Karslake in 
 a low tone ; ' I did not notice his danger at 
 first — there was a heavy sea on and the tide 
 carried him out.' 
 
 Dr. Bertram nodded. Then he sat down 
 by the side of the boy and raised his head care- 
 fully on his arm, compressing the delicate 
 nostrils and wiping out his mouth and throat 
 with assiduous tenderness. 
 
 ' Let us have fresh hot water,' he said 
 cheerily, ' and hot bottles to succeed ; we have
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 139 
 
 perhaps some hours' work before us, and I 
 must have the room cleared except of our good 
 hostess and the one of you Uvo gentlemen who 
 can best trust his own nerve and patience. 
 Please God, we shall vet bringr him to.' 
 
 The two men looked at each other, both 
 recognising the sacrifice demanded. 
 
 Then Karslake rose. 
 
 ' Mr. Helstone is an old friend of the family 
 against whom mv claims to make mvself useful 
 count for nothing.' 
 
 Bertram looked disappointed. ' We have 
 worked together ])efore, Juhan, at such tasks 
 as these ; however, settle it between you. And 
 you may as well take the earliest opportunity 
 of changing your wet clothes and getting a cup 
 of hot coffee. Then if you want to be other- 
 wise useful, go up to Sybil Dorrimore and 
 break the news gently to her.'
 
 140 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 It was afternoon on the same day when Gilbert 
 Helstone entered the Hbrary at Ashlands. He 
 had seen as he passed the window that Mr. 
 Dorrimore was not there, and tliat Sybil was- 
 standing at her father's writing-table, so intent 
 upon a strip of paper she held in her hand, 
 that she had neither heard his footsteps nor 
 perceived his approach. Also, there wa& 
 something in her air and attitude that told him 
 she was still ignorant of the events of the morn- 
 ing. He went in qnietly and closed the door 
 behind him. 
 
 Sybil looked quickly up ; there was a con- 
 traction of pain and displeasure on her face
 
 jULL\x k\rsl,\ke's secret. 141 
 
 that passed away immediately beneath tlie 
 sudden anxiety his aspect excited. 
 
 'What is the matter? has anything hap- 
 pened? Have not Jack and Tom been with 
 you?' 
 
 Helstone hesitated. ' They are all right 
 now,' he said hurriedly, as he watched every 
 trace of colour receding from the vivid face 
 before him, and the eyes dilating with an in- 
 stinct of almost maternal apprehension. ' You 
 may well bear to hear of their danger when I 
 tell you it is over. Have you seen no one this 
 morning ? ' 
 
 'Xo one. You are not keeping anything 
 back from me in mistaken kindness ? Am I 
 wanted ? Is there anything to be done ? I can 
 be quiet in an emergency.' 
 
 ' My dear, thank God the emergency is past. 
 In one word. Jack has had a severe ducking, 
 but a good night's rest will set him right again,
 
 142 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 and he will be able to walk home to-morrow 
 to tell his own story. Tom simply stays beside 
 him because it seems to be a law of nature 
 they should not be parted.' 
 
 ' And that is all — all the truth ? no reserva- 
 tions — no after-claps of pain ? May I go to 
 him?' 
 
 ' Certainly you may if you will, only I 
 hope you will first give me some dinner, of 
 which I stand sorely in need. Come, child, 
 drop your mistrust of my statements and sit 
 down like a sensible girl, and I will tell you 
 the whole story point by point. But were 
 you not uneasy at our non-appearance at 
 breakfast ? ' 
 
 ' Not in the least ; I knew they were gone 
 down to bathe and would meet you on the beach, 
 and I concluded that you were giving them a 
 breakfast at the Harbour Inn, as you have some- 
 times done before. But Jack — tell me about
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 143 
 
 Jack ! And yet I hardly need to be told. 
 He was battling — lie went out beyond his depth. 
 And I owe his sweet life to you. I do owe it ? 
 — he is saved ? ' she added passionately. 
 
 Helstone's swarthy cheek flushed. He felt 
 as if he woldd almost have given his right 
 hand to have been able to answer in the affirma- 
 tive, and have estabHshed such a claim upon 
 the ardent, gratitude of the tender, pain- 
 stricken girl who was hanging on his lips. 
 'He is saved,' he said in a dry, measured 
 voice, 'but not by me. You owe your debt 
 to Juhan Karslake.' 
 
 Sybil recoiled as if a blow had struck her, 
 and though no exclamation had escaped her 
 self-control before, she now uttered a low sound 
 almost like a moan of pain. 
 
 Helstone watched her with acutest interest. 
 
 She stood for a few moments a little turned 
 away from him, evidently striving to rally her
 
 144 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 
 
 forces, then sitting down in the chair he had 
 before offered her, she said in a quiet con- 
 strained voice, ' Please tell me all about it.' 
 
 When he had done she lifted up her pale 
 set face, but there were no tears in her eyes. 
 
 ' But he ran no risk in saving him — he has 
 the reputation of a champion swimmer — on 
 such a morning as this the sea would be calm. 
 It was an act of simple humanity that cost him 
 nothing.' 
 
 Helstone was silent. 
 
 ' Was it not so ? ' she asked with a vibration 
 of pain in her voice that touched him to the 
 quick. 
 
 ' Not quite so easy as all that, but I am a 
 poor critic of aquatic feats ; but it seems, 
 according to Dr. Bertram, he has a speciahty 
 for saving life from drowning, and we are all 
 fond of exhibiting our prowess, whatever form 
 it may take.'
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 145 
 
 And then suddenly changing his tone, and 
 speaking with a bitterness which he no longer 
 tried to repress, he added — 
 
 ' You will have to ^ive in, child ; you will 
 never be able to withstand these accumulated 
 inducements.' 
 
 Her ansAver startled him, it was so different 
 from what he had expected. ' Yes,' she said 
 drearily, ' I am being driven by circumstances 
 beyond my power of self-direction ; each new 
 incident seems to bind me hand and foot. 
 Look here ! ' 
 
 She took up the same slip of paper he had 
 seen in her hand on entering the room and 
 showed it to him. It was a cheque to Mr. 
 Dorrimore's order, drawn by Julian Karslake 
 on the local bank for 850/. 
 
 Helstone took it from her hand, examined 
 it curiously, and put it down without comment ; 
 but one glance at Sybil's shame-dyed cheeks 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 was such an appeal to his sympathy that he 
 said — 
 
 ' You see men view pecuniary transactions 
 so differently. I should find it hard to accept 
 hi. from my best friend if I were starving — 
 Julian Karslake would tell us that Avas un- 
 christian pride, and that he would take alms if 
 he needed them. Your father has no sensibihty 
 on this point — he has long lived out of the 
 world, and he thinks the world ought still to 
 find him means to do so. He considers him- 
 self defrauded of his dues as a writer, and 
 accepts a bonus like this as a providential right- 
 ing of the scale.' 
 
 ' But consider,' she said almost with a 
 shudder, ' how my father must have confided 
 all the secrets of our position to him — have 
 shown him his loss of spirit and dignity, before 
 he would be able to make him fully understand 
 that he had no pride nor manhood left to be
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKE's SECRET. 147 
 
 insulted ! Mr. Karslake must know this is a 
 free gift ; I mean there cannot be the smallest 
 pretence of future payment, nor do I feel sure 
 that this is all. What I do know is that we 
 are at this moment pensioners upon his 
 bounty ' 
 
 ' Xot quite so bad as that, Sybil ; a man's 
 loan to a friend is not accepted as an obligation 
 by every member of the family, and, after all, 
 there is no doubt that Mr. Dorrimore calls this 
 a loan. It is at least in our power to make 
 Karslake understand that you and tlie children 
 are so far provided for as to be independent of 
 his good offices, and that what transactions take 
 place between him and your father are simply 
 their own affair. Will you leave these matters 
 in my hands, child ? ' 
 
 Sybil looked up with an ironical smile. 
 
 ' And you will undertake to tell him too, 
 that I equally refuse to acknowledge any claim 
 
 L 2
 
 148 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 upon my gratitude for liis saving Jack's life — 
 that, precious as my little Lord Chancellor is to 
 me, I have bought him back too dearly if thanks 
 and deep obhgation to him are to be the 
 price ? No, Mr. Helstone, no ; you cannot 
 help me. The idea of discussing these matters 
 of £. s. d. with Mr. Karslake makes me 
 sick at heart. His beautiful, high-bred face 
 would express nothing but cold surprise. Mat- 
 ters must rest as they are for time and chance 
 to settle, and what that settlement will be it is 
 not very difficult to guess.' 
 
 Her voice sank to a tone of utter dejec- 
 tion. 
 
 ' Even nov/,' she continued, as Helstone 
 remained silent, ' I am fully aware our affairs 
 are falling from bad to worse. My poor father, 
 discouraged by ill success, docs not write with 
 the talent and spirit of old — we all want the 
 sunshine of a little favour to develop and
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 149 
 
 sustain our faculties. The last two seasons 
 have been bad, and that makes all the differ- 
 ence between paying our narrow way with 
 great difficulty and much self-denial, and not 
 being able to pay it at all. Bills, not of extrava- 
 gance but of barest necessity, haunt my dreams 
 like a nightmare ; it is no good to take them 
 to my father, for he has no money to give me. 
 If the children are sick, I tremble with appre- 
 hension quite apart from love or fear, lest I 
 should be constrained to call in Dr. Bertram, 
 whose last account has remained for yeai^ un- 
 paid. \yhat little I can do to reduce expenses 
 seems so poor and useless as almost to paralyse 
 my efforts ' 
 
 ' Stop I ' he cried, deeply pained ; ' can this 
 have been the case, and you have not claimed 
 my right to help you ? Sybil, I thouglit you 
 had more faith in me.' 
 
 ' I have perfect f^aith in you,' she answered,
 
 150 JULIAN KAESLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 with a sweet gravity, ' but I have learned only 
 very lately the details of your domestic life, 
 and I doubted your right to help us. If you 
 had been alone in the world, I almost think I 
 should have told you all this before, and asked 
 you for what 1 wanted ; and if I tell you now it is 
 that 3^ou may understand the resistless pressure 
 upon me. The case stands thus : we must 
 •continue to struggle on, sinking year by year 
 into deeper poverty — my brothers denied their 
 natural rights — or I must go to Julian Karslake 
 and tell him the truth.' 
 
 ' And what is the truth ? ' demanded Hel- 
 stone, almost harshly. 
 
 ' That I showed a total misconception of 
 my true position when I dared to reject his 
 advances with so much decision and pride of 
 independence — that I am so hampered by 
 responsibilities, sacred responsibilities, that 
 I cannot escape — that if he is still willing
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 151 
 
 to help us ' — her voice fell — ' I -will acknow- 
 ledge his charity in any way he chooses to 
 dictate.' 
 
 ' If the dictation assume the form of a 
 brief engagement and speedy marriage ? ' 
 
 Sybil looked at him with pained surprise, 
 but to protest or complain was contrary to her 
 nature. 
 
 ' You make me feel,' she said, ' how un- 
 natiu-ally I am situated in having no womanly 
 guidance. It is scarcely seemly to discuss such 
 closely personal matters, even with a kinsman 
 and life-long friend like you. But as I have 
 gone thus far, I will go on to the bitter end, 
 and answer your question. Don't feel too 
 much ancjjer or disgust, for all this is the out- 
 come of very hard and very painful thinking. 
 If Mr. Karslake will accept my submission 
 after all I have said to him, I will leave every 
 future arrangement in his hands.'
 
 152 JULIAN kakslake's secret. 
 
 ' And will you tell liim that you love him, 
 child ? He will want that.' 
 
 ' No,' she cried, passionately, ' I will not 
 tell him that, but I will tell him that I will 
 order my life and conduct in obedience to his 
 will. And if it be possible to coerce one's love, 
 I will love him yet with all my heart and all 
 my strength.' 
 
 Her eyes flashed, and her pale cheek took 
 that slis^ht transient flush that stroncp emotion 
 calls up in high-strung temperaments such as 
 hers. 
 
 Helstone gazed upon her with a strong 
 yearning pain, and then, mistrusting his own for- 
 bearance, got up and began to pace the room. 
 
 ' One more unworthy question from my 
 lips, Sybil, and I have done ; and think of me 
 as the life-long friend in answering it. It 
 seems so strange that a man like Julian Kars- 
 lake should fail to please you, that I am half
 
 JULIAN K.iRSLAKE's SECRET. 153 
 
 inclined to believe tliat you have seen some one 
 else that has taken your girl's imagination cap- 
 tive. Is it so ? Does the man live whom you 
 would rather marry ? ' 
 
 He turned suddenly round and faced her, 
 his own deep-set eyes and cheek aglow, but 
 there was no answerin<2^ fjleam in hers, and he 
 scarcely cared to wait for the quiet disclaimer 
 that fell from her lips. 
 
 The sudden entrance of Mr. Dorrimore was 
 a welcome relief to each. 
 
 ' Aye ? ' he said, looking suspiciously round, 
 ' a cabinet council of two ? I look upon this 
 room as sacred, Sybil ; strange that I should 
 have to tell you so at this date. Have you 
 been meddling with my papers ? surely I did 
 not leave them open hke this ? ' 
 
 He w^ent eaojerlv to his writino^-table, shuf- 
 fling the papers right and left, and covertly 
 slipping the cheque out of sight.
 
 154 
 
 ' I came in as usual after dinner to see if 
 you wanted me,' began Sybil, but Helstone 
 interrupted her by rising to leave tlie room. 
 
 ' I am going to the nursery, Sybil, to try 
 and induce Hannah to find me something to 
 eat. She will not prove hard-hearted^ I trust, 
 though I ask for it in uncanonical hours.' 
 
 He nodded to his host and departed. 
 
 Mr. Dorrimore's pale fastidious face con- 
 tracted into a frown. 
 
 ' Is it that man who influences you against 
 your true interests ? Sybil, I have something 
 very serious to say to you.' 
 
 He sat down in his padded chair, clasping 
 each arm with his thin flexible fingers as if to 
 impart resolution to his purpose and looked 
 his daughter steadily in the face. 
 
 ' I am prepared to listen,' she said in a low 
 voice, ' but before doing so I am bound to tell 
 you I have seen Mr. Karslake's cheque. I
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 155 
 
 could not help cloiDg so — it lay open on the 
 table.' 
 
 A slight flush passed over Mr. Dorrimore's 
 cheek. Sybil observed it. and it drew her 
 heart towards him and strengthened her pur- 
 pose. She was going to add another item to 
 her confession when her father interrupted her. 
 
 ' It is of httle consequence,' he said coldly, 
 ' it would have been part of the business I have 
 in view to tell you of it. That cheque repre- 
 sents a loan without which open shame and 
 disgrace must come upon us. Which shame, 
 think you, is the worst — to accept such a loan 
 from a man who will not miss it, or to leave 
 oiu- village tradesmen's bills unpaid till tlieir 
 forbearance is exhausted, and they drive us to 
 extremities and out of Ashlands ? ' 
 
 Sybil remained silent. 
 
 * Out of Ashlands I ' repeated Mr. Dorri- 
 more cynically — ' that will follow. The same
 
 156 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 post which brought this timely aid from Juhan 
 Karslake, brought also a letter from the new 
 owner of the place — my old friend's nephew. 
 He writes to say his uncle was rich and 
 eccentric, but he is poor and practical, and the 
 only terms on which he will accept me as a 
 tenant are that I pay a sufficient rent for 
 house and land. Now, the fair marketable 
 value of Ashlands w^oidd absorb every shilling 
 I could lay my hands on.' 
 
 He paused again and looked at the pale 
 girl opposite him with an expression of bitter- 
 ness almost vindictive in its intensity. 
 
 ' I have not yet finished the list of our woes : 
 I am growing old and weak, and the brain no 
 longer answers the demands made upon it. 
 My girl can criticise her father. For years my 
 pen has helped to feed my brood, but it will do 
 so no more. I must stand aside for younger 
 men and lesser gifts. You will perhaps answer
 
 JCLTAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 157 
 
 that I have spent as httle on my children as it 
 was possible to do, and nothing at all on their 
 education. It is not true. I have emptied my 
 mind into yours so far as it could hold the gift, 
 and if in turn you communicated what I gave 
 you, I am still the fountain-head.' 
 
 ' Father ! ' cried Sybil, rising in distress and 
 going to his side — ' have I ever dared to re- 
 proach you ? have I ever, even in thought, 
 presumed to judge your conduct.^ What have 
 I done that you are so angry with me ? ' 
 
 She had laid her hand tentatively on his 
 arm, but he pushed it away. 
 
 ' What have you done ? ' he repeated with 
 a sneer : — ' vindicated your woman's right of 
 free-will, and rejected the man who alone 
 could stop our fall to ruin. As you examined 
 the cheque just now in defiance of all the laws 
 of honour, perhaps you also read the note in 
 which it was enclosed ? Xo ? It is no matter,
 
 158 JULIAN KARSLAKES SECRET. 
 
 you shall know the contents of the one as of 
 the other. Mr. Karslake followed you on 
 Tuesday to Datchley Wood — he did so at my 
 suggestion, or at least with my sanction. 
 What reception did you give him ? ' 
 
 She was silent ; such a change of feehng 
 had passed over her since then, that she was 
 inclined to wonder at the vehemence and deter- 
 mination she had shown. 
 
 ' Give me an answer, Sybil ; I am disposed 
 to hear your version of the tale.' 
 
 ' If,' she replied coldly, ' Mr. Karslake has 
 laid his complaint before you, there is nothing 
 for me to tell. Doubtless he speaks the truth.' 
 
 Mr. Dorrimore pushed back his chair so as 
 to increase the distance between them ; he was 
 apt to express his displeasure by such puerile 
 manifestations. 
 
 ' You are insolent ! ' he said in a tone new 
 to her. ' Is it on the strength of your youth
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 159 
 
 and beauty, or because you are so learned and 
 so clever? So far as that goes, Julian Kars- 
 lake would like you better a little less exalted ; 
 and for the rest ' 
 
 He broke off suddenly as if his measure of 
 self-restraint, poor as it was, had given way, 
 and went on more vehemently : 
 
 ' Placed as we are, I might have been for- 
 given if I had urged you to accept any decent 
 offer of marriage that would have helped us 
 out of our difficulties. But what can any 
 woman desire that this young man does not 
 possess ? What inexplicable bHndness and in- 
 sensibility is it that leads you to drive him away 
 almost with insult and contumely ? I am not 
 selling you, as we are told our high-born 
 mothers sell their daughters, to old age, vice, or 
 infirmity, but to ' 
 
 But here Sybil interrupted him in her turn. 
 
 * Spare me,' she cried passionately, ' spare
 
 160 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 
 
 me the reiteration of Julian Karslake's perfec- 
 tions — I admit them all ! I am blind and 
 insensible, and am prepared to own I treated 
 
 him with insufferable arrogance, but ' with 
 
 a sudden fall of her high spirit and a burst 
 of reluctant tears, ' my excuse is simply this — 
 I do not love him.' 
 
 ' You talk like a heroine of penny romance,' 
 said her father contemptuously. 'Matrimony 
 is a matter of mutual adaptability and respect, 
 hot passion soon grows cold. If your personal 
 fancy is for the role of a Juliet, I should advise 
 you to thwart it, I don't think it would add 
 much to your charms in Mr. Karslake's eyes. 
 But we are talking beside the point ; he has 
 withdrawn his — persecution, shall we call it ? ' 
 
 Sybil wiped away her tears. ' And all his 
 liberal offers of help ? ' 
 
 'That, girl, is my affair,' returned Mr. 
 Dorrimore angrily, 'So much have I told
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECEET. 161 
 
 you, that if the ruin that impends is averted, 
 you may be quite sure I have had outside aid. 
 Whence it comes is no longer business of yours/ 
 
 There was a brief silence. Presently she 
 asked : — 
 
 ' Is he going away ? ' and Mr. Dorrimore 
 repeated drily : — 
 
 ' He is going away, so soon as our vicar can 
 provide a substitute. You would not have 
 the church orphaned even for your sake ? ' 
 
 Sybil walked to the window and looked 
 out. Her heart was full almost to bursting, 
 but there could be no outpouring before this 
 cynical father. The remembrance of her 
 mother — the tall, fair, gracious presence of her 
 happy childhood — glanced across her mind, 
 evoking a passion of regret and yearning that 
 almost amounted to agony. As she stood with 
 her wistful gaze fixed on the outer landscape, 
 she perceived that the wind had risen there 
 
 YCL. T. M
 
 162 
 
 was a delicious murmur in the trees and a 
 breath of salt air from the distant sea. She 
 could scent the fine aroma, and feel its refresh- 
 ing breath upon her aching brow through the 
 half-open lattice. It brought back suddenly to 
 her mind the accident of the morning and her 
 renewed obligation to Karslake, of which her 
 father was still ignorant. Was she bound to 
 tell him ? Yes, by every instinct of honour, yes. 
 
 She told him in as few words as possible 
 that the boys had gone down to bathe ; that 
 Jack had lost his footing and might have been 
 drowned, if Mr. Karslake had not been on the 
 spot and saved him. Her own face was pale 
 with intensity of feeling, as she spoke of the 
 terrible possibility. 
 
 ' Little fool ! ' apostrophised the father ; ' we 
 will put a stop to those games for the future. 
 Jack is thirteen and shall begin to earn his 
 living. I have had an offer from a re-
 
 JLXIAX KARSLAKe's SECRET. 163 
 
 spectable chemist at Dorchester, and shall 
 accept it ; he has seen the boy and taken a 
 prodigious fancy to him. I am a poor man, 
 and must accept my position.' 
 
 Sybil's lips parted in voiceless appeal. Jack 
 — her little Lord Chancellor — the ardent, bright, 
 imaginative student, relegated to a chemist's shop 
 in Dorchester — to a vreary drudgery that would 
 eat into his soul and, worse than all, divided 
 from his other self, his twin existence ! If the 
 balance of her purpose had hung in equal poise 
 before, her ardent sisterly affection supplied the 
 determining weight. She looked at her 
 father, but liis unusual energy seemed to have 
 collapsed ; he was bending over a newspaper 
 he had taken from a table. As she watched 
 him he tlirew it from him with an expression 
 of impatience. 
 
 ' My sight fails me ; life on the terms I 
 hold it is scarcely worth living.'
 
 164 JULIAN KAESLAKES SECRET. 
 
 His daughter went up to him and kissed his 
 forehead; there was a deliberation in the action 
 that made him suspect a hidden significance. 
 
 'You will have occasion to answer Mr. 
 Karslake's letter,' she said in her low vibrating 
 tones ; * tell him that I want to see him to thank 
 him personally for what he did for Jack.' 
 
 Mr. Dorrimore had no fine intuitions. He 
 caught her hand to detain her, for she was 
 about to leave the room. 
 
 * You mean ^that you will smooth my path, 
 to possible blindness, Sybil ? ' 
 
 Her heart swelled, her eyes dilated, and a 
 painful glow suffused her face and neck. 
 
 ' Shnply : I will make Mr. Karslake under- 
 stand that I will be his wife if he still wishes to 
 marry me.'
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. iGi 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Many admirable and more false things have 
 been said from age to age of the relation of 
 the sexes ; that the one is meant by nature as the 
 complement of the other, in default of wliich 
 the existence of each remains maimed and in- 
 complete. But assuredly as there are men, not 
 spiritual ascetics only, with whom devotion to a 
 cause, be it one of principle or passion, fills 
 every interstice of their nature to the exclusion 
 of those inherent yearnings, so are there women 
 in plenty with whom to stand alone seems the 
 necessary attitude for the full development of 
 their powers.
 
 166 JULiAJs^ karslake's secret. 
 
 They are not quick to love : not that their 
 nature is unloving, but that they demand more 
 than the individual can give ; not that the sweet 
 instinct of maternity is dormant within their 
 bosom, but that they would not limit it to the 
 brood that might cluster around their own 
 knees. Such have felt they could grow better 
 and freer with more room to grow in than is 
 possible to any woman who has bound up her 
 life with that of another, and is limited and re- 
 strained by the pressure of baby fingers. 
 
 Vows make duties which otherwise one is at 
 liberty to ignore and pass by. 
 
 From this class have sprung some of our 
 finest intellects and most honoured philanthro- 
 pists. And to this class young Sybil Dorrimore 
 conceived herself to belong ; not perhaps with 
 perfect justice, for as yet the passionate capa- 
 bilities of her own nature were both latent and 
 Tsinsuspected. Her instinctive recoil from Julian
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKES SECRET. 167 
 
 Karslake arose more from the abruptness and 
 determination of his advance, and the unsus- 
 pected favour given by others to his suit, 
 than from any reasoned antipathy. At the 
 same time it was no petty conflict she had passed 
 through, nor was it any perfect victory she liad 
 gained. Circumstances had driven her to the 
 edge of the circle she would fain have 
 avoided, but she said to herself there was 
 small chance that she should ever be induced to 
 enter in and sit down at the central point of 
 warmth and contact. 
 
 Three days had passed since Jack's accident, 
 but Julian Karslake had not obeyed ihe 
 summons contained in Mr. Dorrimore's note of 
 acknowledgment. 
 
 ' I shall have humbled myself in vain ! * 
 thought the girl, and though her cheek burned 
 with shame at the idea her heart leapt with a 
 sense of recovered freedom.
 
 J 68 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 During that short period she endured a 
 humiliation so intense that it was in itself 
 calculated to harden her heart against the 
 kindness that caused it. So many outstanding 
 bills had been paid, that the neighbourhood 
 woke up to the conclusion ' that Mr. Dorrimore 
 must have come into a fortune.' Hannah for 
 the most part disbursed these moneys, and every 
 report she brought back to her young mistress 
 of the equal surprise and satisfaction of the 
 recipient, was a separate sting and wound to 
 Sybil's pride of independence. 
 
 Then again Tom delighted, now that all 
 danger was over, to have such danger to 
 describe, and feeling himself to hold a 
 superior position as witness of the scene, was 
 never tired of going over the details of Jack's 
 accident, and bearing his hearty boyish testi- 
 mony to Karslake's pluck and good-nature. 
 
 Next to the disparagement of those we love, 
 
 I
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAKE's SECRET. 169 
 
 there are few thiDgs more trying to poor 
 human nature than the exaltation of those we 
 dishke. 
 
 As Sybil looked at her two brothers loung- 
 ing in the sunny window-seat, and stimulating 
 each other in these reminiscences with a 
 perpetual ' Don't you remember, Tom ? ' and 
 an ' Ah, Jack, you couldn't know — of course ' 
 — a feeling of irritability, quite new to her 
 experience, rufSed her temper and gave a 
 certain sharpness to her voice. 
 
 ' My dear boys, do try and forget it all, and 
 give your minds to your lessons, as you used to 
 do before Jack was half drowned and wholly 
 saved ! ' 
 
 'Why, Sybil,' said Tom reproachfully, 'I 
 thought you liked a noble action ? ' 
 
 ' My darling ! ' she answered with prompt 
 compunction, stooping down and kissing them 
 both, ' so I do. But a noble action is something
 
 170 
 
 that costs us hard, and it didn't hurt Mr. Kars- 
 lake much to jump into the sea and fish Jack 
 out.' 
 
 Another ahnost intolerable vexation was 
 her father's petulant anxiety at his non-appear- 
 ance. 
 
 'Has he not called ? have you not seen 
 him, Sybil .^' he would ask again and again in 
 the course of the same day. ' Surely he must 
 have received my letter ! ' he would remark, 
 and then he would speculate on the chances of 
 miscarriage, and even propose to write again, 
 had not his daughter's passionate protests 
 sufficed to induce him to postpone his purpose. 
 
 Gilbert Helstone had returned to town, but 
 a circumstance had occurred on the day of his 
 departure of which the family at Ashlands 
 naturally knew nothing. 
 
 The nearest railway station was fiwe miles 
 from Eoosden Magna, and the way to it
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 171 
 
 lay direct througli the village itself. As he 
 passed in his hired fly along the principal 
 thoroughfare he saw Juhan Karslake in the 
 little garden belonging to the house where he 
 lodged, evidently intent on some work amongst 
 the flowers. 
 
 A sudden impulse seized Helstone to stop and 
 speak to him ; and having looked at his watch 
 and found he had ten minutes to spare, he 
 called to the driver to stop, jumped out and 
 approached Karslake with outstretched hand 
 and a cheery ' good morning,' not sufiering him- 
 self to be daunted by the fact that thougli the 
 other had turned on hearing wheels and recog- 
 nised him, he showed no inclination to come 
 forward and speak. 
 
 'I have ten minutes to spare,' continued 
 Helstone with rather forced heartiness ; ' better 
 here in this charming^ old villa c^e than at the 
 station. Are you given to growing flowers ? —
 
 172 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 Wliat a kindly dispensation of Providence it 
 is that country curates can find interest in these 
 rural pursuits ! ' 
 
 ' I thought you grew flowers at the Temple? 
 At any rate, I am so addicted to the pursuit, 
 and so far an expert in it, that I sometimes 
 doubt if I have not missed my vocation. Are 
 you a connoisseur ? examine these pansies.' 
 
 As before, there was something in the suave 
 and unruffled composure of his companion that 
 chafed Helstone's temper and made him say, 
 more from the desire to test Karslake's equani- 
 mity than from preconceived intention : — 
 
 ' Excuse my turning the conversation 
 abruptly. I just want to say two words to you : 
 I am not only an old friend, but a relative of 
 the Dorrimore household, and have nursed 
 Sybil as a baby. I know the girl's heart and 
 character better than she knows them herself, 
 and I want to warn you. She is capable of
 
 jjCLixy k.\rslae:e's secret. 173 
 
 any sacrifice in the interest of her flimily, and 
 of a hfe-long repentance afterwards.' 
 
 Karslake was silent for a moment. ' Is he 
 honest ? ' was the question he was debating in 
 his mind, and then he turned his clear, direct 
 gaze upon Helstone's face, without a shade of 
 embarrassment or excitement in his aspect. 
 
 'Well, on the strength of your intimate 
 connection with Miss Dorrimore, I must per- 
 force excuse an interference that would otlier- 
 wise appear to me unwarrantable. Are the two 
 words spoken, or is that but one of them ? ' 
 
 * Curse his insolence ! ' muttered Gilbert to 
 himself; but aloud he answered, ' I was afraid 
 you would resent my speaking, but her happi- 
 ness is of more accoimt to me than a mere 
 breach of conventional courtesy. If I should 
 find it at any time wrecked in your hands, I 
 shall not need permission to make my protest
 
 174 JULIAN karslake's secret, 
 
 or even to come to her relief. What I say I 
 mean — I have given you fair warning/ 
 
 He turned and went quickly out of the 
 httle garden-gate, without giving the other an 
 opportunity of reply, but as he jumped into the 
 fly he looked curiously back to notice what 
 might have been the effect of his words. To 
 all appearance Karslake was bending over his 
 flower-beds with as complete an interest as 
 before the interruption. 
 
 ' A cool hand ! ' he said bitterly to himself, 
 ' but the mischief is I leave him here to win.' 
 
 But for all that Julian Karslake had not 
 yet gone up to Ashlands to receive Sybil's 
 proffered thanks.
 
 JULIAIf KARSL axe's SECRET. 175 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 Mk. Dorrbiore's scholarly repose was dis- 
 turbed: as day succeeded day in unbroken 
 monotony, lie began to realise with increasing 
 exasperation that he was to be disappointed 
 after all. Deliverance from debt, and peace of 
 mind as regarded the future, had been offered 
 to him on the very easiest terms, and he was to 
 be flung back again into the slough of impotent 
 anxiety, owing to the contumacy of his 
 daughter. What could have been the char- 
 acter of her refusal, when so determined a 
 suitor was not to be wpn back by the extended, 
 ohve-branch ? Then came the rumour that the
 
 176 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 vicar had found another curate, and that Mr. 
 Karslake's departure was imminent. Surely 
 he would not leave the neighbourhood without 
 coming to bid them good-bye ? 
 
 More than once her father had summoned 
 Sybil to his presence under some shallow pre- 
 text, and then taken the opportunity to resume 
 his cross-examination respecting the interview in 
 Datchley Wood, as well as his acrid reproaches 
 of her perversity and blindness. 
 
 To the high-spirited sensitive 'girl it was a 
 moral torture hard to be endured, and all the 
 harder that her life-long reverence for her 
 father, and her noble tolerance of his infirmities, 
 prevented any adequate expression of her 
 feelings. 
 
 But the repressed passion naturally served 
 to stimulate her irritation against the man who 
 brought this humiliation upon her. 
 
 Things indeed went very hardly with the
 
 JULIAN EARSLAKE's SECRET. 177 
 
 family at this time. Hitherto, so long as they 
 left their father undisturbed they had been 
 allowed to follow their own free-will. Sybil 
 had ruled without interference from, or refer- 
 ence to, his authority. But now Mr. Dorrimore, 
 unable to settle to his books, took to wandering 
 in and out of nursery and school-room, and 
 to finding fault with every detail that came 
 under his notice. 
 
 The boys were blamed, and that harshly, 
 for idleness and uselessness, when in point of 
 fact no occupation was open to them beyond 
 their studies and games ; the inevitable noise and 
 ready laughter of buoyant spirits and sonnd 
 health were rebuked and ridiculed as indica- 
 tions of stupidity and childishness. The father 
 who had never spent half-a-dozen hours in his 
 life on the training of his children, now put them 
 through a rigorous examination, and was unut- 
 terably disgusted to find that their mathematical 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 and classical attainments were greatly below their 
 sister's at the same age. He forgot that her 
 education had been systematic, and her intelli- 
 gence exceptionally keen, and that all that the 
 boys had acquired — which was fairly creditable 
 — had been derived from her in an uncertain 
 and scrambling fashion. 
 
 ' Are they dunces or fools ? ' he demanded, 
 angrily eyeing her with that bitter irritation 
 which the present state of affairs had induced. 
 * I supposed you had done better for them than 
 this.' 
 
 ' I have done my best,' said Sybil bravely, 
 and stretcliing out a hand to each of the shame- 
 faced lads with a burning sense of wrong and 
 injustice, ' and they are equal now to the third 
 form either at Eton or Eugby. Give them 
 a fair chance and they will soon show you what 
 they are able to do.' 
 
 ' And whence,' he asked with a sneer, * do
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 179 
 
 you get your knowledge of third-form require- 
 ments at either of the schools you mention ? 
 Is it derived from Gilbert Helstone, who scarcely 
 knows doo^-latin enouo^h to make his law-books 
 intelligible ? For the rest, I have no power to 
 give them a fair chance; such was offered them, 
 but you rejected it. Jack will have Latin 
 enough to spell out the labels on Mr. Freeman's 
 drawers and bottles. Can the other children 
 read and write? ' 
 
 He wheeled his chair round suddenly so as 
 to face the three little fissures crowded too^ether 
 in the ample window-seat, and who were 
 watching his unusual proceedings with mixed 
 wonder, fear, and dislike. 
 
 Bertie, who was ten, lifted up a pair of clear 
 brown eyes and said : ' I can read and wTite 
 too. I can say the Lord's prayer in Greek and 
 Latin. Sybil is the cleverest girl in the world ; 
 but I want a pair of new boots very "badly, and 
 
 X 2
 
 180 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 Hannah says my knickerbockers can't be 
 mended any more. Lucy and Clare want some 
 too — boots I mean.' 
 
 The sweet bokl face of tlie boy touched a 
 chord in the father's heart, a chord that could 
 scarcely but vibrate again, as his eyes fell on 
 the upraised countenances of his lovely little 
 daughters, who were both gazing at him with 
 the solemn round-eyed astonishment of child- 
 hood. 
 
 ' I can't help Jack and Tom to the fourth 
 form at Eton,' he said drily, 'but I can find you 
 and your sisters some new boots. Here are five 
 sovereigns, which the cleverest girl in the world 
 may spend as she sees fit.' 
 
 He rose as he spoke, took out the money 
 from his purse and laid it on the table ; the 
 children gathered round it and began to 
 handle the gold coins as a natural curiosity. 
 
 'Will that buy Tom and me a new suit too?*
 
 JULIAX K.\RSLAKE's SECRET. 181 
 
 asked Jack! ' It looks a lot of money — why, 
 Syb, what s the matter ? ' 
 
 The girl's face was crimson ; there w^ere 
 tears of shame and anger in her eyes and her 
 heart beat passionately. 
 
 ' Don't touch the money, Jack ! ' she said in 
 a whisper. 'Xo, it would not be enough, nor do 
 you want a new suit.' 
 
 'I am of a different opinion,' said Mr. 
 Dorrimore, looking at her steadily ; ' you seem 
 to have a very imperfect understanding of the 
 family necessities. Here, Jack, I will give both 
 you and Tom a couple of sovereigns apiece ; you 
 can rig yourself out for that sum, I suppose ? ' 
 
 Once more he applied himself to his well- 
 filled purse, w^hich it seemed to his daughter he 
 handled with an ignoble satisfaction, counted 
 out the money and handed it over to the 
 astonished boys. 
 
 ' Don't lose much time about the outfit.
 
 182 JULIAN KAESLAKES SECRET. 
 
 Sybil,' he said, preparing to leave the room and 
 shooting this Parthian arrow behind him: 
 ' when Jack is decently clad I will take him to 
 Dorchester.' 
 
 On the head of the stairs he encountered 
 Julian Karslake coming up, and started back 
 nervously, his self-command quite shaken at the 
 unexpectedness of the recognition. 
 
 ' Aye ! Mr. Karslake — at last ? ' he stam- 
 mered ; ' better late than never. I am very 
 glad to see you ; shall we go into the library ? 
 We have a good deal to say to one another.' 
 
 ' Thanks ; but I was told you w^ere out and 
 that I should find the children in the nursery — 
 I want to know if Jack has quite got over the 
 fright he gave us.' 
 
 ' Oh, quite unnecessary, he is right enough! 
 Come this way with me. I have been 
 expecting you every day for the last three 
 weeks.'
 
 JULIAX KARSL AXE'S SECRET. 183 
 
 A flush of annoyance rose to Karslake's flice ; 
 lie could not be rude to his host, still less to the 
 man who was in his debt, but he was equally 
 resolved against a private colloquy with Mr. 
 Dorrimore. He knew Sybil was within the 
 apartment, for he had heard her father address 
 her, and it was to her only he wished and 
 purposed to speak. 
 
 'If you will excuse me,' he said, and went 
 forward and knocked at the door. 
 
 ' Come in ! ' cried a chorus of voices, and he 
 entered. 
 
 It was the first time he had ever penetrated 
 so far into the family interior, and the first 
 glance at the assembled group told him some- 
 thing was amiss. 
 
 Sybil was standing by the table with an 
 expression of mingled trouble and pain in her 
 pale face ; she and Jack seemed to have started 
 apart from some closer embrace, for the boy
 
 184 JULIAN karslake's secket. 
 
 was still haijging about her with the spaniel-like 
 demonstrativeness of his age. Tom had turned 
 eagerly about to face the new comer. 
 
 ' Oh, is it you ? ' he cried with a pleased 
 look : ' we wondered who it could be. No one 
 ever comes up here — or at least no one ever 
 knocks when they come. Why, we have never 
 seen you since that morning, and now you are 
 going away ! ' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Karslake, ' I am going away, and 
 that explains the reason why I have taken the 
 liberty of coming up here. I wished to say good- 
 bye to you all ; also I wished to see with my own 
 eyes that Jack was none the worse for his 
 ducking. I need scarcely ask if you are all 
 right again.' 
 
 ' Yes,' answered Jack sheepishly, ' I am all 
 light, thanks to you. Perhaps I ought to have 
 written to thank you — you see, I didn't know
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 185 
 
 it at the time — but all the same I am very 
 much obliged to you, and so is my sister, aren't 
 you,Syb?' 
 
 She had not yet raised her eyes and looked 
 at him. Her attention seem fixed upon the 
 five golden sovereigns that the little girls were 
 still fingering upon the oaken table, her 
 strongest mental impression at the moment 
 being that he saw them and must know whence 
 they came. The shame of each separate coin 
 seemed to burn like red-hot metal into her 
 soul. None the less was she. bracing her 
 courage to go through the task to which she 
 had pledged herself. 
 
 ' I am so very much obliged to Mr. 
 Karslake,' she answered, still without raising her 
 eyes, ' that I should like to thank him alone by 
 myself. Tom, dear, take all the children away 
 for a little while and give them a swing.'
 
 186 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 There was a murmur of approval, and then 
 they all trooped out at once, smihng and 
 noddmg at the visitor as they passed him ; and 
 the two, for the third time in their lives, were 
 alone together. 
 
 The meridian sun of a fierce June day was 
 blazing through the wide undraperied window, 
 revealing with ruthless splendour all the 
 bareness and ughness of the large, half- 
 furnished apartment. From the uncarpeted 
 floor to the blank walls, from the clumsy 
 uncushioned wooden chairs to the broad deal 
 shelf that ran the length of one side of the 
 room, and was covered with a miscellaneous 
 litter of the most incongruous description, there 
 was not a point of comfort or touch of beauty. 
 What charm there was gathered round the 
 living figures : the girl whose shabby clinging 
 dress seemed to possess the grace of classic 
 drapery because it defined accurately the
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 187 
 
 faultless lines and curves of the figure beneath, 
 and whose sad proud face, with the hair 
 brushed back from the temples and gathered 
 up into a heavy coil behind, could have won 
 no higher beauty from the most elaborate 
 costume of Worth or Elise. 
 
 On the other hand, the simple perfection of 
 Karslake's mourning dress seemed precisely 
 in keeping with the singular refinement and high 
 breeding of his physique. A beautiful woman 
 may be able to defy the accessories of dress, but 
 a man, however graced or gifted by nature, 
 suffers more or less, but suffers inevitably, 
 from obvious deficiencies of the same. 
 
 Sybil was still standing at the table with her 
 interlaced fingers resting upon it. Her dress 
 was of some dark blue fabric ; and the sleeve 
 tight to the arm, without ruflSe or white hnen 
 to soften the contrast between it and the fair 
 rounded wrists. The delicate symmetry of the
 
 188 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 small flexible hands, a little browned by expo- 
 sure to the sun and air, he had noticed before, 
 but he did not therefore fail to notice it anew. 
 From them his eyes slowly travelled to her face, 
 the pain and pallor of which struck him with a 
 pang. 
 
 ' Why do you stand ? ' he asked ; ' there is 
 a chair near you, will you not sit down ? ' 
 
 ' That seems to be your formula,' she 
 answered with the faintest possible smile 
 touching her hps ; ' those were the first w^ords 
 you said to me in Datchley Wood. But I 
 would rather not sit down. I have a great deal 
 to say, and I like to stand at my work.' Then 
 at length she raised her eyes and looked at 
 him, but still she did not blush : she had strung 
 her courage and resolution to martyr-like 
 tension. What lay before her was no girUsh 
 difl[iculty, but a stern duty, to be fulfilled 
 without betraying the weakness of the flesh.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 189 
 
 Her companion had some intuitive percep- 
 tion of this ; he apprehended by magnetic 
 instinct that she was going to offer herself as a 
 victim on the altar of family expediency, and 
 involuntarily his brow contracted and his face 
 grew stern and set. He would accept no such 
 sacrifice — cold surrender for living devotion ; 
 nor would he help her reluctant attempts at 
 self-immolation. 
 
 He remained silent therefore, as if awaiting 
 further explanation, although he knew he made 
 her difficulty greater ; but her spirit rose to the 
 emergency. 
 
 ' May I ask why you are come ? ' she said with 
 gentle deliberation — ' whether it is in answer to 
 my father's request, or just simply to say good- 
 bye to us all before you go away ? ' 
 
 ' Just simply to say good-bye to you all.' 
 
 He was well aware this was not the answer 
 she expected ; he even perceived that she
 
 190 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 doubted its truth, from the brief flash of 
 indignation which hghted up her face. He 
 met her glance, however, with the same quiet 
 resolute look as before. 
 
 ' At the same time I quite understand that 
 you wished to thank me personally for saving 
 Jack's life. I did save it undoubtedly, but at so 
 little personal risk as to reduce the obligation 
 to a minimum. Still, as a matter of course, you 
 would be sorry to owe to me even so little as 
 that : did you expect me to say I was come to 
 receive your reluctant gratitude ? Let it pass, 
 I will consider myself thanked.' 
 
 ' And have I nothing to thank you for but 
 saving Jack's life ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing.' 
 
 She smiled a little bitterly. ' I quite under- 
 stand, but there is no need to try and spare my 
 feelings. I know all we owe you. You have 
 saved us from disgrace and ruin. It is through
 
 JULIAN K.\ESLAKE'S SECRET. 191 
 
 your intervention that we are able to remain a 
 little Ioniser in our old home. It is through you 
 again that my father is able to supply the 
 pressing wants of the children, on a scale to 
 which we have never been accustomed ' — she 
 indicated the money on the table as she spoke. 
 'In plain terms, we are pensioners on your 
 bounty — nay, do not deny it. I have seen the 
 cheque you gave him.' 
 
 He suffered her to go on, for he saw she 
 was bent on accomplishing the task she had set 
 herself, nor was it his intention to betray the 
 intense sympathy he felt as he watched her 
 victory over her shame and her pride. He 
 was scarcely conscious how his own cheek 
 flushed, arui^his gaze softened and kindled as he 
 dwelt on her vivid, expressive face. 
 
 ' I am scarcely likely to deny a fact,' he 
 said. ' It is quite true I have persuaded Mr. 
 Dorrimore to accept an inconsiderable loan, but
 
 192 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 I am grieved that you should know of the 
 transaction, and extract all this weight and pain 
 of obligation from it. Simply, it was not on 
 your account but his — you have no debt to pay.' 
 
 She was silent ; what was she to conclude 
 from this guarded reticence on his part ? 
 Would her submission come too late ? had he 
 reconsidered the matter, changed his mind, 
 given up his persistence, and decided to 
 accept his ungracious dismissal ? 
 
 A trifle turned the current of feeling in 
 each : at the same moment she heard Mr. 
 Dorrimore's voice in the garden below, pro- 
 testing sharply against some childish transgres- 
 sion, though her anxious endeavour to dis- 
 tinguish who was the culprit was unsuccessful. 
 
 The eager solicitude of her look touched 
 Karslake to the quick. 
 
 ' I wish you would sit down,' he said, 
 coming near to her and pressing the comfortless.
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAKE's SECRET. 193 
 
 wooden chair on her acceptance ; ' and do not, 
 I entreat you, think it necessary to thank me 
 any more for my good deeds. They have 
 failed utterly since they have become an 
 additional burden to you. I had bound my- 
 self to complete silence on the old theme this 
 morning,' he continued ; ' but to see you like 
 this — pale, harassed, unhappy — is more than 
 I can bear. Under what conditions and re- 
 strictions will you allow me the blessedness of 
 helping — not you, but yours, for whom you 
 feel so keenly — -just as friend or brother 
 might?' 
 
 Sybil drew a deep breath. He had taken 
 her unresisting hands quietly in his, and she 
 suffered them to remain. She felt the power 
 of his self-restraint as well as the beauty of the 
 face bent down in anxious scrutiny of her own, 
 in every nerve of her susceptible and high- 
 wrought temperament. But she was equally 
 VOL. [. o
 
 194 JULIAN kaeslake's secret. 
 
 aware that no touch of passion or thrill of love 
 responded to his own. 
 
 He was all that Avas quahfied to inspire it, 
 only — he did not inspire it. Even now her 
 cheek was pale, and the look that she raised 
 to his, steadfast and unabashed. 
 
 ' You are very good,' she said, ' so good 
 that I shall take courage and say all that was 
 in my mind. My poor father has the sad 
 prospect of a disappointed and harassed old age 
 before him ; I see my darhng brothers growing 
 up without training and fit education, and 
 threatened with a life of drudgery and separa- 
 tion, and — I cannot bear it ! You have offered 
 before to help them on certain conditions, and 
 I was blind to their needs and my own duty. 
 Tell me again it is in my power to rejDay your 
 charity ! ' she concluded with sudden vehe- 
 mence. ' Make my task a little easier I ' 
 
 And then a wave of painful crimson slowly
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 195 
 
 dyed lier cheek and neck, and she withdrew 
 her hands from his grasp and turned away from 
 him. 
 
 What should he do ? should he anticipate 
 her further humiliation and accept the sweet 
 boon that a few weeks ago had seemed hopeless 
 of attainment, and smother his refined objec- 
 tions in his love ? 
 
 While he hesitated she spoke again in a low 
 subdued voice : — 
 
 ' It is not possible that I have been mistaken 
 in thinking that your liberality to my father 
 arose in a measure out of your professed regard 
 for me ? that when you first spoke of what you 
 could or would do for us, it was to reconcile 
 me to the withdrawal of my poor faculty of 
 help ? Also you have pressed the same offers 
 upon him by letter as well as by speech — offers 
 that met all the conditions of our need. In 
 return, I understood — I believed '
 
 196 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 ' That I wanted you so sorely for my wife/ 
 he interrupted at length, in compassion of her 
 cruel embarrassment, ' that I increased the bribe 
 — doubled the bidding — according to the mea- 
 sure of your reluctance? Is that what you 
 thought ? ' 
 
 ' I think it was something like that/ she 
 answered, with a dreary smile, ' and I thought 
 it an ignoble proceeding on your part to attack 
 me on my weakest side, my love to my family. 
 But I was wrong ; you are not that, and I was 
 arrogant and ungrateful; since then — that is 
 since I saw you last — I have been taught 
 humility ; and now if the gift of all I have at 
 my disposal is still of any value ' 
 
 'My darling, my darhng,' he said, ap- 
 proaching her passionately, 'I do want you 
 sorely for my wife. The desire of yesterday is 
 cold to that of to-day. I love you, Sybil, with 
 a perilous strength, but yet not quite in such
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 197 
 
 unmanly fashion as to take you on these terms 
 of sacrifice, as a mere equivalent for paltry pe- 
 cuniary claims. Ko, not if I loved you better 
 than I do, and you were still nobler and fairer 
 than you are.' 
 
 ' Then,' said Sybil, lifting up her sad pale 
 face, ' I have nothing more to say, and all is 
 over between us. You must leave me to bear 
 my own burdens, of which my unpayable debt 
 to you will be the heaviest of all.' 
 
 ' But you have made it more than ever im- 
 possible that 1 should leave you tlius. Under 
 tiny circumstances I shall try and assuage the 
 keenness of my disappointment by persuading 
 jou to suffer me to help you to bear your 
 burdens. And then from time to time I shall 
 ask you, as I ask you now, if there is no other 
 alternative possible but gratitude or rejection ? ' 
 
 He had seized her hand and felt she was 
 trerablinjT from head to foot, her colour
 
 198 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 changing, her eyes veiled and downcast. These 
 were hopeful symptoms to the yearning passion 
 he was holding in check. He tried to draw 
 her towards him and she offered no resistance. 
 
 ' Sybil,' he whispered in tones dissolved to 
 tenderest appeal, 'I can be content with a 
 little — a tithe of what I give you. Speak ! I 
 ara hungry for one kind look or word — is it too 
 much to ask ? ' 
 
 A slight repressed shudder passed through 
 her frame ; the conflict in her mind was diffe- 
 rent from what he supposed, but it was over. 
 If she would have her sacrifice accepted it 
 must be more absolute than she had contem- 
 plated at first. She raised her sweet eyes 
 to his, wet with emotion. 
 
 ' You threatened to constrain my love,' she 
 said, 'and such prophecies fulfil themselves 
 sometimes. I will pay our debts with the 
 devotion of my whole life.'
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 199 
 
 He seemed to snatch the words from her 
 lips with passionate, resistless kisses. What 
 further admission could he ask from the proud, 
 ascetic girl? Then he paused on his sudden 
 and unexpected rapture. 
 
 ' You love me, Sybil ? say it again ! ' 
 
 She bent towards him, for he was almost 
 kneeling at her feet, and touched his forehead 
 with her lips with a sweet pathetic gravity. 
 
 ' I have never loved any one, nor will I ever 
 love any one but you. Will that suffice ? ' 
 
 There was the sound of heavy footsteps and 
 the rattle of knives and glass, announcing 
 Hannah's approach with the preparations for 
 their early dinner, together with the rush of the 
 children's feet and the clamour of thek voices. 
 Sybil drew herself away. 
 
 ' Go,' she entreated. ' I am not equal to 
 any explanations to-day. Meet tlie children 
 and say good-bye to them outside.'
 
 200 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 'And you — when may I sse you again ? — 
 this evening ? ' 
 
 She started. So soon ! was the inward pro- 
 test of her mind, but to him she answered : — 
 
 ' Yes ; only you must let me fulfil my pro- 
 mise to the children, and go with us for a walk 
 to Fulwood Common.'
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAiE'S SECRET. 201 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 There is a dim region in the distant wilds of 
 Bayswater called Burnham Square. It is of un- 
 impeachable respectability and of a gloom that 
 may be felt. The houses surround on three 
 sides a sylvan enclosure in comparison with 
 which Draper's Gardens and Finsbury Square 
 are gardens of delight ; but the inhabitants who 
 have the right of entry to the same regard their 
 privilege as a badge of distinction. The fourth 
 side opens on the main thoroughfare, and com- 
 mands the doubtful advantage of uninterrupted 
 omnibus traffic. 
 
 In one of the smaller of these substantial 
 houses Gilbert Helstone lived, his household
 
 202 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 consisting of himself, his mother and sister, and 
 three female servants. One of these, a power- 
 ful middle-aged woman, was rarely, if ever, seen 
 by the world outside, being in fact, as it is not 
 our object to be in any way mysterious, the 
 personal attendant or keeper of the lunatic Mrs. 
 Helstone. 
 
 Why a man of worldly experience and prac- 
 tical sense should burden himself with so tre- 
 mendous a responsibility, and by so doing 
 destroy the happiness of two lives, may appear 
 strange, but it was the issue of a point of 
 honour. 
 
 He had pledged himself to a dying father 
 not to place her in an asylum, at a time when 
 her mania was but slightly developed, and her 
 physical health seemed sinking fast, and he had 
 renewed the pledge again and again under 
 stress of piteous pleading in the lucid hours of 
 the unhappy woman.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 203 
 
 Since that time, dating now far back to the 
 years of early manhood, the mental disorder 
 had increased, and the bodily weakness dimin- 
 ished in an inverse ratio, until tlie hope of 
 release by death faded into an incalculable 
 distance. 
 
 For the most part the madness took the 
 form of obstinate and destructive imbecility, but 
 there were occasionally biu"sts of violent frenzy, 
 which taxed the resources of the household to 
 the uttermost. Theirs was a secret difficult, but 
 necessary to keep, and the very length of time 
 it had been preserved strengthened the necessity 
 for keeping it. 
 
 Sara Helstone had sacrificed her youth and 
 happiness to this terrible claim, or rather had 
 chosen to share her brother's burden in spite of 
 protest and disclaimer on his part. 
 
 She had once been fliir, but now at thirty- 
 five had scarcely a trace of beauty remaining ;
 
 204 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 solicitude that never slackened and watchfulness 
 that dared not relax, had lined the smooth brow 
 with wrinkles, contracted the open gaze, and set 
 hard lines about the once curved and smiling 
 lips. Character and temper had suffered equally : 
 she was heroic enough to remain at her post 
 and keep the long day's guard in Gilbert's 
 necessary absence, but not sufficiently heroic to 
 keep in considerate check the passionate irrita- 
 bility and impatience which meanwhile had 
 been seething in her taxed heart and brain. 
 She reserved the outcome for him, often making 
 his daily life intolerable, spoiling his dreary 
 meals and sending him from his home, or 
 receiving him back again so sore and em- 
 bittered in spirit that it was hard to forbear 
 telling her that the greatest mercy she could 
 show him was to leave him to fight his battle 
 alone. 
 
 Look at her now as she sits at the break-
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 205 
 
 fast-table waiting for Gilbert's appearance 
 before she pours out tlie coffee, carefully pre- 
 pared by her own hands according to his taste, 
 and you can perceive that the comparative 
 placidity produced by a tranquil night's rest is 
 yielding to angry vexation caused by his being 
 late. She is tall and thin, with clear-cut 
 features sharpened now to unlovely acuteness ; 
 she has a mass of hght brown hair, ill arranged 
 and abeady breaking away in slovenly disorder 
 from the confinement of the comb. It is hic^h 
 summer, and the sun that streams into the 
 room has almost a tropical power, though it is 
 not yet nine o'clock, but her dress has no 
 seasonable coolness or freshness, and the linen 
 at throat and wrists is soiled and crumpled. 
 One would say to look at her she had scarcely 
 cast a glance in her glass, and indeed it is many 
 a day since Sara Helstone had cared to study 
 the points of feminine nicety of attire.
 
 206 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 The door opened and Gilbert entered. 
 
 ' I am afraid I have kept you waiting,' he 
 said, ' but — I overslept myself.' 
 
 She 'looked at him steadily, and a change 
 came over her face ; the knitted brow and 
 tetchy lines about the mouth relaxed, and an 
 expression of softness and tenderness succeeded 
 that for the time being was almost a transfigu- 
 ration. The hand that w^as holding his cup 
 towards him shook a little, and as her eyes met 
 his the colour rushed into his face. 
 
 ' It was a blundering lie, Sara, and you 
 have detected it. JSTo matter : I am glad you 
 were not disturbed. It is over now ; she is ex- 
 hausted and quiet.' 
 
 * She did you no harm ? ' 
 
 ' None,' he answered, meeting her searching 
 gaze frankly ; ' none, beyond robbing me of my 
 night's rest. Is the post come in ? ' 
 
 She rose and pushed the letters towards
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 207 
 
 him, and watched him curiously as he turned 
 them indifferently over. Presently she saw the 
 languid look quicken as she expected. 
 
 ' Aye, what is this ? A letter from Dorri- 
 more ! wonders will never cease.' 
 
 He broke the seal and read eagerly, and as 
 he read his face flushed and darkened, and a 
 scarcely restrained oath broke from liis lips. 
 He put down the letter with a gesture of 
 repugnance, and looked across the table at his 
 sister. 
 
 'Are you in a mood for a guest, Sara ? ' he 
 asked, and it was not difficult to guess at the 
 hidden pain from the sneering bitterness of his 
 tone. ' A young lady with a pot-full of money 
 coming up to London to buy her wedding 
 clothes, and who can think of no other friend 
 to take her in but you, of whose existence she 
 has scarcely been aware ! It is of a piece with 
 Dorrimore's selfish impudence.'
 
 208 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 He tossed the letter to her as he spoke, 
 pushed back his cup and chair, and began to 
 pace the room impatiently. His nerves were 
 unstrung from the cruel experiences of the past 
 night, and there was consequently less power 
 of resistance to the rage and passion of his 
 soul. 
 
 Mr. Dorrimore wrote blandly to say his 
 daughter was definitely engaged to Julian 
 Karslake ; that the marriage was fixed for the 
 early autumn ; that Eoosden Magna, or even 
 the county town, scarcely furnished sufficient 
 facilities for providing a suitable trousseau ; and 
 that it had occurred to him his old friend, 
 Gilbert Helstone, would receive Sybil for a few 
 weeks in order that she might have the benefit 
 of his sister's judgment and experience. He 
 also added that Mr. Karslake's London living, 
 to which he had been recently appointed, being 
 in their immediate neighbourhood, would give
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 20 J 
 
 the young people opportunities of meeting fre- 
 quently under Miss Helstone's chaperonage, and 
 that her advice would also be invaluable to 
 them in regard to the furnishing of the rectory 
 house. 
 
 ' Since when,' asked Gilbert, stopping before 
 his sister's chair, ' has Herbert Dorrimore had 
 this lively sense of your capacity ? Faugh ! 
 the base satisfaction of the man with his in- 
 famous bargain makes me sick ; he has not the 
 spirit of a whipped hound.' 
 
 Sara folded up the letter deliberately ; on 
 this point she had no sympathy with lier 
 brother ; the symptoms of a mental disturbance 
 she could not understand vexed and irritated 
 him. 
 
 ' Why does all this put you out so much ? ' 
 
 she asked in the cool measured tones which are 
 
 best calculated to chafe the temper of an angry 
 
 man. ' I thought you were very fond of the 
 
 TOL. I. p
 
 210 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 Dorrimores' eldest girl ; why do you object to 
 her making a good match ? And it must be a 
 very good match indeed if Mr. Karslake is 
 the bridegroom.' 
 
 Helstone gnawed his lip savagely under his 
 thick moustache ; this phlegmatic recognition 
 of the position of his rival was like pouring 
 vitriol into his wounds. 
 
 ' How comes it,' he asked sharply, ' that 
 you are so well acquainted with Mr. Karslake's 
 income ?' 
 
 ' I am not only acquainted with his income,' 
 replied Sara, buttering her dry toast v/ith care- 
 ful attention, ' but I am in a sense acquainted 
 with Mr. Karslake himself. If you ever went 
 to church you would know he read himself 
 in at St. Mark's about three vreeks ago. The 
 living is valued at 1,200/. a year, and his 
 churchwarden told me — you know he is our 
 grocer — that he has considerable private means
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKE'S SECRET. 211 
 
 besides. He has already begun to furnish his 
 rectory en prince.'' 
 
 ' And on what law of shameful inequality 
 was a living like St. Mark's given to a man rich 
 enough without it, and with no qualificatioifs 
 for its duties ? ' 
 
 Sara shrugged her shoulders. ' Does your 
 ignorance of church matters go so far as to 
 make you think preferment is bestowed accord- 
 ing to need or merit? Though as for the 
 latter, Mr. Karslake seems a very excellent 
 young man, and with no conceit about him in 
 spite of his good looks. I think I shall like to 
 have the girl here. If you hke, I will answer Mr. 
 Dorrimore's letter.' 
 
 He stood by the window a few minutes 
 before making any reply, and looked out into the 
 square. Every leaf on the trees was white 
 with dust, and not a leaf stirred in the still air. 
 A nursery-maid with a troop of children were
 
 212 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 slowly perambulating the dismal enclosure, and 
 so quiet was it that he could distinguish her 
 shrill impatient tones as she checked and scolded 
 her charge with quite unnecessary zeal. 
 
 As he gazed there came over him a pro- 
 found sense — perhaps deepened by this trivial 
 incident — of the injustice and contrarieties and 
 burdens of life. The lurid scenes of last night, 
 the wearing trouble of his own lot, mixed 
 themselves up with the sense of Sybil's sacrifice 
 and Karslake's easy unmerited triumphs. 
 
 But the triumph was not yet completed ; 
 perhaps it w^as not altogether an adverse fate 
 that was drawing the lines of Sybil's destiny 
 under his own hands. He turned round and 
 sat down to his untasted breakfast. 
 
 ' Write if you please,' he said ; ' we could 
 scarcely refuse to take the girl in. It will be 
 a diversion to you to buy wedding clothes, only 
 ours is a dangerous house for a guest.'
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 213 
 
 'She need know nothing, but that our 
 mother is an invahd unfit to be seen by 
 strangers, and a girl with her head full of a 
 handsome lover and pretty gowns will not be 
 over curious in such matters — nothing makes 
 us so selfish as happiness. But her coming is 
 not all ; we shall have to invite Mr. Karslake 
 to visit her here : no doubt they will have 
 arranged that he should meet her at the 
 station.' 
 
 ' If Sybil Dorrimore is to be our guest, Sara, 
 no one will meet her at the station but myself. 
 Mr. Karslake will have to postpone their 
 
 reunion. As for coming here ' he set his 
 
 teeth hard as if to keep in the injimous 
 expressions that rose to his lips, and, meeting 
 his sister's steady look of penetration, added 
 quietly — 
 
 ' We will wait and consult the lady on the 
 matter.'
 
 214 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 ' I must be off,' he added presently, after a 
 few minutes' rapid discussion of his neglected 
 breakfast. 'I have an appointment with 
 Stainforth at the House at twelve, and great 
 men must not be kept waiting by little ones. 
 Good-bye.' 
 
 Three days afterwards he was standing on 
 the platform of the Great Western Eailway 
 waiting for the arrival of the Dorset train. It 
 was not due till five o'clock, but he had been 
 there for the last hour, pacing up and down with 
 a restlessness as uncontrollable as it was new to 
 him. 
 
 He had hitherto been a patient, self-con- 
 trolled man, accepting his hard lot with a quiet 
 magnanimity, and considering himself as irre- 
 trievably cut off from the hopes and passions 
 of his happier neighbours. Now he was 
 conscious that all this was changed. The stern 
 hand of Necessity pointing back from love
 
 JULIAN K.\RSLAKE'S SECRET. 215 
 
 and bliss to the rugged heights of Duty, no 
 longer swayed him to obedience but provoked 
 a sense of protest and defiance. Since he had 
 admitted to himself that he loved Sybil 
 Dorrimore with all the strength of his strong re- 
 pressed nature, and that she did not love the 
 man she had consented to marry, he had 
 begun to question what should withhold him 
 from trying his own chances and upsetting a 
 mercenary bargain. 
 
 Was it not a crime to condemn any woman 
 to a loveless marriage ? still more, one of her 
 strong capacity for joy or sorrow? 
 
 Karslake utterly failed to move her. Might 
 it not be in his own power to stir her latent 
 heat and and wake up the slumbering passion 
 of her nature ? That such susceptibilities ex- 
 isted he was certain : God forbid that she 
 should first become conscious of them when 
 that consciousness was sm. From such a
 
 216 JULIAN kaeslake's secret. 
 
 contiDgency it was duty as well as interest to 
 save her. 
 
 And yet he knew while he argued thus that 
 he was cheating his own soul — planing the 
 downward slope to dishonour. But he had 
 chosen to shut his ears to his voice of con- 
 science, and give the reins to self-will and 
 opportunity. 
 
 The bell rang, the hiss of the expected train 
 was to be heard, and he had only just time to 
 turn sharply back to that point of the platform 
 where he had ascertained the passengers would 
 alight. He was under the impression that 
 Sybil would travel first-class, and liad taken his 
 stand accordingly ; but he was at fault. In vain 
 he looked for her sweet face at the blue- 
 curtained windows. 
 
 At the same moment he was aware that he 
 had received a checkmate — Julian Karslake, 
 who had only stepped u])oti the platform five
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 217 
 
 minutes before, had found himself ahnost 
 opposite to the second-class carriage where 
 Sybil sat, and was now in the act of helping her 
 out. In the state of mind into which Gilbert 
 Helstone had worked himself, the natural 
 incident seemed a premeditated insult and 
 interference : he cleared the space between them 
 in a couple of strides. 
 
 ' Excuse me,' he said hotly, ' you take my 
 duties ujDon 3'ou — Miss Dorrimore is my guest.' 
 
 Karslake dropped the hand he had taken 
 and stepped back, possibly to avoid the chance 
 of a collision, then slightly raised his hat in 
 recognition of the speaker. 
 
 • I did not see you were here, but even as 
 her host you will scarcely object to my paying 
 my respects to my future wife. I conclude 
 you know we stand in that relation to each 
 other, and I must ask your leave to allow me 
 to visit her at your house.'
 
 218 JULIAN KARSLAKE*S SECRET. 
 
 He spoke with perfect temper, and as if 
 slightly amused at Helstone's heat, and as he 
 finished he took Sybil's hand again in his and 
 looked at her, as it seemed to the other, with a 
 cool proprietorship hard to be endured. Still 
 he w^as conscious that he could not make a fool 
 of himself on the Paddington platform, and he 
 compelled himself to some barely conventional 
 phrases. Sybil herself had stood gravely 
 looking from one to the other during the brief 
 colloquy ; she now drew away her hand from 
 Karslake and gave it to Helstone. 
 
 ' It is rather hard,' she said, ' on Miss 
 Helstone that she is not only asked to entertain 
 a girl she does not know, but the girFs friends as 
 well. Mr. Karslake will let us have this evening 
 for becoming acquainted with one another. You 
 will not mind his calling upon me to-morrow ? ' 
 
 ' He knows my sentiments towards him,' 
 answered Helstone wdth a harshness he made
 
 JULIAN KARSL.\£E's SECRET. 219 
 
 no attempt to subdue ; ' it remains for him to 
 decide whether ^^^ith such knowledge he can 
 come as a guest to my house, and for you in 
 that case to fix the times and seasons. But I 
 shall take it as a favour if he will confine 
 his visits to the hours when I am absent fi'om 
 home.' 
 
 'The master of the house has a right to 
 dictate his own terms, and I have no choice but 
 to accede to them,' said Karslake. ' I will call 
 upon you, Sybil, at twelve o'clock to-morrow.' 
 He took her hand, bowed over it till his lips 
 touched it, raised his hat and departed. 
 
 The girl watched him out of sight with an 
 indefinable expression in her eyes and an 
 aching sense of pain at her heart ; as she 
 lowered them she met Helstone's intent gaze. 
 
 ' You see,' she said in a low tone, ' it has all 
 come about as I told you it would. But why 
 are you, the kindest of men, so uncivil to him?
 
 220 JULIAN karslake's secret 
 
 Had he been any other but hhnself he must 
 have quarrelled with you.* 
 
 He was busy securing her luggage and 
 made no answer, but when they w^ere seated in 
 the cab and fairly on their way he said; — 
 
 'I mistrust the man who can keep his 
 temper under any and every provocation. I 
 see your future, Sybil : he will wear out your 
 living soul with that mechanical and perfunc- 
 tory goodness of his ! He excites in my mind 
 an instinctive antipathy and suspicion.' 
 
 ' Then we will not talk about him, for if he 
 did not excite in mine the warmest gratitude 
 and esteem I should be a base and disloyal 
 creature. I don't know why you describe his 
 goodness in such harsh terms — it is not justified 
 by my knowledge of him.' 
 
 She spoke with the generous warmth of one 
 defending the wronged and the absent, but it 
 was natural that he should attribute the glow on
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 221 
 
 her cheek and the vibration of her voice to 
 some deeper feehng. 
 
 ' You will find my sister more sympathetic ; 
 she " sits under " Mr. Karslake, and is prepared 
 to admit all the perfections you have so oppor- 
 tunely discovered.' 
 
 Sybil was silent ; there was a chill on her 
 feelings caused by finding her old friend less 
 generous and true than she had expected : 
 it jarred on her delicate sense of honour that 
 he should disparage her lover to herself. She 
 leaned towards the window and watched the 
 dreary suburb through which they were 
 passing. 
 
 Helstone's irritation would not allow him to 
 remain quiescent. 
 
 ' What have become of the objections and 
 drawbacks that were so influential three 
 months ago? There seems now an absolute 
 unanimity between you.*
 
 222 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 She turned round and looked at him with 
 a grave reproach in her beautiful eyes. ' Do 
 you quite understand that I have promised to 
 be his wife ? ' 
 
 ' And your blind submission begins this side 
 of the altar ? ' 
 
 ' Precisely so, if you will convey a reproach. 
 I look upon a contract as binding when the 
 agreement is made — the adding of the signatures 
 is but a matter of form. And the contract on 
 one side is so unequal that it will be hard work 
 for me to redress the balance.' 
 
 ' Come ! ' he replied cynically, ' this is a 
 different mood from that you showed in 
 Datchley Wood — in the forlorn old library at 
 Ashlands. I scarcely thought that you had 
 such a full share of the prudent adaptiveness of 
 your sex. How long did you take to discover 
 Mr. Karslake's merits? you were stone-blind to 
 them when we parted last.'
 
 JULIA^' kaesl.^ke's secret. 223 
 
 ' I refused to admit them,' she answered in 
 a low suppressed voice, 'but I knew all the 
 time that they existed ; and from the moment 
 I made up my mind to accept the generous 
 help he offered us, I bound myself to pay the 
 debt with every equivalent in my power. 
 Would you have me do less ? you whom I 
 have always fancied honest and chivalrous as 
 the knights of old ? ' 
 
 He met the wistful sweetness of her eloquent 
 face, and had some difficulty in stifling a groan 
 beneath a sneer. 
 
 ' Take care,' he said ; ' you are wronging us 
 both. I am myself about as poor a moral hero 
 as you will be likely to meet, and if Mr. 
 Karslake is the piece of matchless perfection 
 he would have us believe, I will never trust my 
 instincts again. But we will waive the discus- 
 sion. Here we are at the door of my house, and 
 the next step is to introduce you to my sister.'
 
 224 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The condition of engaged lovers is popularly 
 supposed to be idyllic. The cynical may sneer 
 at the period of illusion, and foretell the swift 
 awakening at the touch of rude reality, but 
 even tliey admit the existence of a sweet 
 spring-time. We doubt, however, very much 
 if the enchantment is often so thorough or 
 beatific as imagined, especially in these days of 
 clear-sighted calculation of ways and means and 
 of complicated yet hnperative requirements. 
 
 And it is not as if the desire and demand 
 only touched outward and secular needs, there 
 is less simplicity of feeling and singleness of 
 purpose than of yore. The old superstition of
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 225 
 
 the omnipotence of love is laughed to scorn ; it 
 is no longer held to be equal to the constant 
 harmonising of discordant elements or to the 
 pro\4ding of a perennial stimulus to exertion. 
 The man ponders now on the eventualities of 
 the girl's development and the contingent re- 
 sults of her previous experiences, and she, in lier 
 turn, pauses to deliberate whether, when the 
 flush of love-makins: is over, there is crrace and 
 Strength enough in her lover to sustain the stern 
 ordeal of perpetual companionship. 
 
 Sybil Dorrimore had not only asked herself 
 these questions, but had decided to answer them 
 in the negative. On the strength of her super- 
 ficial acquaintance with his character, she had 
 reached the conclusion that she and the man she 
 was going to marry were not akin. She knew 
 equally well that she did not love him : she was 
 .simply marrying him in the interests of her 
 family, as absolutely a sacrifice as modem 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 JULIAN kakslake's secret. 
 
 conditions would allow ; but in order to make 
 that sacrifice effectual she must not suffer 
 Karslake to knoAv that anything of the kind 
 was involved. And also, in order to meet the 
 demands of personal honour and truth, she 
 must live and move and have her being 
 towards him animated by so devoted a loyalty 
 that the absence of a tenderer emotion should 
 defy detection. 
 
 She did not deceive herself so far as to 
 think this would be easy, but she did think it 
 would be possible. Outward observance should 
 be so sohcitous and so complete that the 
 living fire of loving impulse should never be 
 missed. 
 
 Happily, she said to herself, her lover was 
 not demonstrative or exacting ; in truth he 
 accommodated his demands to the natural reti- 
 cence and tender asceticism of the girl he loved, 
 taking what she allowed or gave him with a
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 227 
 
 generous forbearance to which she did very 
 inadequate justice. 
 
 On all practical points she deferred to his 
 and her father's wishes imphcitly. Although 
 nothing could have been more distasteful to 
 her mind than such a hurried fulfilment of 
 their engagement, she made no overt objection 
 to tlie proposal that they should be married in 
 the autumn, and yielded still furtlier when it 
 was suggested that she shoidd go up to town to 
 3uperintend the furnishing of her new home 
 and to afford the opportunity of daily inter- 
 course. 
 
 Xo one who watched her — and Gilbert 
 Helstone watched her very closely — would ever 
 have imagined how intense the tedium of that 
 daily intercourse sometimes became. The sweet 
 solicitude of her manner towards Karslake, the 
 real warmth of her gratitude for the services he 
 had rendered, took so bewitching a form it 
 q2
 
 228 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 would have been difficult to distinguish it from 
 tenderness. 
 
 Then she could not help taking a healthy 
 girlish interest in the furnishing and decorating 
 of the gloomy but substantial old rectory-house 
 which was to be her future home. It was an 
 appeal to an indulgence of artistic tastes and 
 womanly instincts which had hitherto been 
 denied all scope. To make the rooms beautiful 
 and harmonious as far as might be, was a task 
 that excited her easily kindled enthusiasm. 
 Karslake supphed the experience and judg- 
 ment needed in the work, she the invention 
 and adaptiveness. And there was small 
 difficulty in carrying out mutual schemes and 
 theories with all the art resources of London at 
 command, and a balance at one's banker's that 
 seemed to Sybil to represent the idea of ex- 
 haustless wealth. 
 
 ' But we will not fill up every nook and
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 229 
 
 crevice,' Karslake had said on one occasion; 
 ' we will buy some of our household treasures 
 in Italy, Sybil. I have seen such things in 
 dingy stores in the back streets of Milan, and in 
 holes and corners of Eonie and Venice, as 
 would make your eyes sparkle with wonder 
 and delight. We will go together and hunt 
 them out.' 
 
 ' I fancy,' she answered, looking at him with 
 the crrave but tender smile that crave such a 
 charm to their intercourse, ' that if I am ever 
 happy enough to find myself in either of these 
 cities, I shall have something better to do and 
 think of than finding bric-a-brac for our 
 drawing-rooms or even pictures for our walls. 
 If we go, Julian, shall we ever be able to per- 
 suade ourselves to come back and live at 
 Bayswater ? ' 
 
 To him, with her for his companion, Eome 
 or Bayswater were alike, or rather on all
 
 230 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 grounds, he preferred the latter ; to her, life 
 under southern skies and in the art cities of 
 Italy, would have such fresh springs of inspira- 
 tion and delight as would make the forced 
 observance of her duty almost an easy thing. 
 
 Since she had left Ashlands and, as it were, 
 washed her hands of her responsibilities, she 
 had experienced a painful sense of loss and emp- 
 tiness. To live and work for others had been 
 the business of her life hitherto, and now that 
 she found herself standing at ease and an object 
 of ceaseless attention and solicitude, the novelty 
 of the situation was positively distasteful. 
 
 A few days before coming up to town she 
 had parted from her brothers on their way to 
 Winch estei^ Karslake having run down to 
 Ashlands on purpose to take the boys to school. 
 
 They were in the highest delight, only just 
 qualified by the pain of separation. Jack said, 
 ' his foot was now on the first runsf of the ladder.
 
 JULIAX KAESLAKE's SECRET. 231 
 
 and it would be his own fault if he did not get 
 on in the world. Syb should see.' 
 
 As they all stood together waiting for the 
 train at Crewkerne Station, her thoughts 
 recurred to the contents of the trunk at their 
 feet which included sucli schoolboys' outfits as 
 had completely staggered tlieir crude ideas of 
 what was necessary or desirable. The boys 
 were allowed to believe all this outlay was met 
 by their father, which was ostensibly the case 
 and were full of surprise and gratitude, but she 
 knew from what soiu'ce his purse was supplied, 
 and moreover whose was the generous kindness 
 and good sense that had arranged the details. 
 
 When she had made some objection to 
 what seemed to her the extravagance of the 
 outlay, Karslake had said with a singularly 
 pained and reluctant manner — 
 
 ' You must let me manage these matters ; I 
 am no stranger to them. I had a brother once
 
 232 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 to whom I stood in the relation of fatherly 
 care-taker, there was so much difference of age 
 between us. He taught me exactly what boys 
 want at school.' 
 
 ' A brother ! You had once a brother and 
 this is the first time you have mentioned him ! ' 
 
 There was an implied reproach in her 
 astonishment ; a secret sense in her mind that 
 here — in this lack of fraternal feeling — was 
 another proof of the want of sympathy between 
 them. 
 
 ' It is probable,' he answered, ' that I shall 
 never mention him again ; I have done so 
 now from a scruple of conscience which already 
 appears to me unnecessary. I considered you 
 ought to know.' 
 
 Sybil looked at him in earnest surprise. 
 There was a contraction of pain on liis face, a 
 vibration of suffering in his tone, that struck lier 
 as different from anvtliinjz she liad observed in
 
 JULL^ KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 233 
 
 ]iim before. Was it j^ossible his quiet exterior 
 concealed some family secret or corrodiug 
 memory ? And if it did, she had no right to 
 press with questions the man to whom they 
 were all so heavily indebted. 
 
 'You will, of course,' she replied gently, 
 * always obey a scruple of conscience for your 
 own sake, but never think it necessary to tell 
 me anything that is painful for mine.' 
 
 ' Thank you ! ' he had replied as if he felt 
 her absolution a profound relief, and no more 
 had been said on the subject; but the incident 
 had left a shadow on her mind. 
 
 Now that she found herself a guest for an 
 indefinite time under Miss Helstone's roof, and 
 cut off, as we have said, from her natural duties, 
 Sybil's instinctive desire to help and identify her 
 self with the needs and interests of those around 
 her, had no outlet except towards her reserved 
 and irritable hostess. It was very easy for her
 
 234 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 to perceive that Sara Helstone carried a burden 
 of care, and the girl did her tender and skilful 
 best in the effort to hghten it. Her intellectual 
 gifts and exceptional training had never induced 
 any weariness of, or distaste for, the common 
 routine of daily life and practical duties, 
 and she offered her services about the 
 house, or at the work-table, or in any way 
 her kindly ingenuity suggested, with an eager- 
 ness to be useful that could scarcely be with- 
 stood. 
 
 Miss Helstone felt her heart softening 
 towards the stranger in a way that surprised 
 her. She had never expected that a girl that 
 knew Greek and understood logarithms could 
 have been so unassuming and engaghig. She 
 ceased to wonder at the infatuation of her 
 brother in Sybil Dorrimore's regard, or that a 
 man like Juhan Karslake, who might have 
 chosen where and whom he pleased, held that
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 235 
 
 he had won in this ol)sciire and portionless 
 creature the priceless pearl of his life. 
 
 How it came about she scarcely knew, but 
 before Sybil had been her guest a fortnight, she 
 had confided to her their household secret, and 
 felt an infinite relief in pouring forth — when 
 once the flood-gates were opened — to the grave 
 and tender girl, the pent-up sorrows and denials 
 of her life. And as Sybil held her hand 
 meantime, pressing her lips with reverent 
 sympathy upon it, the elder woman was 
 conscious of a balm and solace in the contact 
 that seemed to quicken the slow courses of 
 
 her blood. 
 
 ' Child,' she said, wiping away the unac- 
 customed tears, ' I need scarcely, impress upon 
 you that what I have told you must not be told 
 to Julian Karslake, no, not even when he is 
 your husband. Gilbert would never forgive 
 me if he thought I had betrayed our secret to
 
 236 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 him. But someliow, without assurances, I feel 
 it will be safe with you.' 
 
 ' Quite safe. I Avill never have a secret of 
 my ow^n from Mr. Karslake, but I shall know 
 how to keep those of my friends.' 
 
 ' And will you be willing to let him have 
 secrets from you?' asked Sara, more from a wish 
 to divert the conversation into a lighter channel 
 than from any special interest in the subject. 
 
 Sybil's mind reverted instantly to the air 
 of mystery with which her lover had referred to 
 his brother, and her face clouded with an ex- 
 pression of anxiety and dissatisfaction. 
 
 ' I cannot say : the idea is a very disagree- 
 able one to me, but I suppose all of us reserve 
 certain rights. If I were aware of a secret, I 
 should, I think, ask to have it cleared before 
 w^e stood in the relation of husband and wife.' 
 
 The more she thought about the matter — and 
 she did think of it continually — the more did her
 
 JULIAN IL\RSLAKES SECRET. 237 
 
 judgment confirm this passing impression, until 
 she had come to the dehberate decision that 
 she would take the earliest opportunity to 
 re-open the question with Karslake. 
 
 Such an opportunity occurred a few days 
 afterwards, as they sat resting on a solitary 
 couch in the vestibule of Burlington House after 
 a long inspection of the crowded walls. 
 
 ' Do you remember,' she asked, ' telHng me 
 how much you knew about me even before our 
 acquaintance began — how minute and intimate 
 your knowledge was? Since then there are 
 few of our family concerns that have not come 
 under your notice, but I seem to know so little 
 about you.' 
 
 ' In what way ? You know my pedigree 
 
 who was my father, who was my mother. 
 Mine has been a very uneventful life. I was under 
 the care of guardians from a boy. I went to Win- 
 chester and Oriel. I spent two years in foreif^n
 
 238 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 travel. I took orders, and Koosden Magna was 
 my third and last curacy.' 
 
 She was silent, but her eyes met his with a 
 pained, dissatisfied expression. 
 
 ' This is the barest outline of your life,' she 
 said at length. ' Do you wish me to believe it 
 has been so bald and meagre as to furnish no 
 personal experiences at all ? ' 
 
 ' I should make a bad autobiographer. 
 Question me on any point and I will answer 
 you.' 
 
 ' Were you alone on your travels ? ' 
 
 ' No,' he answered, smiling ; 'my guardians 
 would have thought it an obvious neglect of 
 duty to have trusted so raw a youth to his own 
 devices amidst the snares of foreign lands ; my 
 tutor went with me.' 
 
 She hesitated and the colour rushed into 
 her face. 'And your brother being so much 
 younger than yourself was still at school or
 
 JULIAN karslake's seceet. 239 
 
 college ? I am a poor diplomatist, and will own 
 frankly that I am very anxious to liear some- 
 thing more about your brother.' 
 
 His brow contracted ; it was not a move- 
 ment of pain, but one of absolute displeasure. 
 
 ' Then I must have misunderstood what 
 you said to me when this subject was last 
 mentioned between us ? or else the delicate con- 
 sideration you showed then w\as a mere passing 
 influence. Sybil ' 
 
 He spoke her name and paused upon it as 
 if to demand her sohcitous attention ; and she 
 who had never known him before under this 
 aspect, drew herself up involuntarily and re- 
 turned his grave attent gaze with proud 
 suiprise. Having hitherto been sued as 
 goddess, a fall to mere^humanity cliilled her for 
 the moment. 
 
 ' May I ask if any circumstance has quick- 
 ened your curiosity on this point ? '
 
 240 JULIAX KARSLAKES SECRET. 
 
 She did not speak, simply because her 
 spirit rebelled against replying to a question 
 asked in such a tone of cold authority. After 
 waiting a reasonable interval, he repeated it 
 witli a slif]^ht variation of terms. As in all 
 moments of strong excitement, her eyes Hashed 
 and dilated while her cheek grew pale. 
 
 ' It is an insult to my feeling in this matter 
 to stigmatise it by such a term as curiosity. 
 Cannot you understand that reflection may 
 have led me to think differently from my first 
 impression, and to object to the existence of a 
 mystery between us as a constant source of 
 speculation and uneasiness ? To my view it 
 must be something terrible that makes one 
 brother cut himself off from tlie other. On the 
 eve of a life-long companionship,' she added in 
 a lower tone and one that trembled with 
 passionate emotion, ' there should be no dis- 
 loyal reserves or concealments ; they will make
 
 JULL\X KARSLAKE's SECRET. 241 
 
 danger for the future. My whole hfe is open to 
 you; yours is a sealed book to me — is that fair? 
 is that Avise?' 
 
 ' Fair ! wise ! ' he repeated. ' I think you 
 scarcely recognise that your language implies 
 not only condemnation but a threat, and yet it 
 is scarcely possible for me to resent any words 
 of yours. Unhappily, I see you have imbibed 
 an impression on this point unfavourable to 
 myself, though it was equally open to you to 
 believe that my reserve, far from being disloyal, 
 was an act of reluctant fidelity elsewhere. The 
 silence I should have maintained respecting my 
 brother had he been hving, is additionally 
 binding upon me now he is dead. I have 
 nothing more to say on the subject. I do not 
 think we will discuss the point any longer. 
 
 Sybil's lip curled a little, though hitherto a 
 sneer was almost unknown to her face. 
 
 ' It would not be seemly to do so,' she 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 answered, 'for your manner implies not a 
 request but a command.' 
 
 ' Only — you are deeply offended and your 
 faith in me is shaken?' 
 
 There was nothing of deprecation in his 
 tone ; the lines of the straight brows and round 
 the finely cut mouth w^ere deepened, and there 
 was a latent fire in his eyes that testified to 
 strong feeling held in check. As she glanced 
 towards him she received a renewed impression 
 of the beauty and power of his face. She 
 turned a little aside and shuddered slightly; 
 she felt at once repelled and attracted. If 
 hitherto she had cherished some unconfessed 
 idea of easy conquest over a nature w^eaker 
 than her own, it was gone for ever. 
 
 ' I suppose,' she replied, ' I am offended 
 but not deejDly, I have no right to be that ; and 
 I have the same faith as ever in your honour, 
 but not in— -the simplicity of your character. I
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 243 
 
 feel as if I had been looking up into a cloudless 
 summer sky, and some drops of a sudden 
 .'thunder-shower had fallen on my face.' 
 
 'And do these new hghts make you hesitate 
 about the safety of trusting your happiness in 
 my hands ? It is not too late : draw back, 
 Sybil, if you are afraid.' 
 
 Her heart gave a great leap. The idea of 
 recovering her hberty stirred her for the 
 moment like trumpet-tones, but the next she 
 remembered her bonds. There was but one 
 chance of freedom. 
 
 ' Shall I ask you, in my turn, if you want to 
 cast me oiT?' she asked with a slight smile. 
 'For my own part, I have no wish to draw 
 back. I am not afraid, though the path is not 
 so clear and straight as I thought it.' 
 
 ' I cannot talk in tropes. Yesterday I should 
 have thought it was impossible that I could 
 have offered to release you from your engage 
 E 2
 
 244 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 merit, but yesterday I should equally have 
 thought it impossible such words as have passed 
 to-day could have been spoken between us. In 
 spite of your assurance to the contrary, you mis- 
 trust me ; there is a lurking doubt in your mind 
 as to what your judgment would be if you knew 
 all the facts concerning my brother and myself. 
 I see plainly that your own passionate sisterly 
 affection distorts the matter out of due propor- 
 tion. Another point is this * he stopped 
 
 as if to give her the opportunity of reply, but 
 as she remained silent, he went on : — 
 
 'I love you already immeasurably more 
 than you return the feeling, and have tried to 
 reconcile myself to the difference by believing 
 that my devotion, proved in daily and hourly 
 intercourse, would quicken yours ; but there is 
 no hope or chance of this if your trust in me is 
 weakened. Think it over, Sybil. Discuss the 
 subject, if you choose, with Mr. Helstone and his
 
 JULIAN KAESLAKE's SECRET. 245 
 
 sister, and let me know your decision when we 
 meet again.' 
 
 She was silent with pain and astonishment. 
 It Avas a turn of affairs so unexpected as to 
 leave her at a loss how to speak and act. One 
 confused thought at length found utterance. 
 
 'It is hard to believe in the strength of 
 your love when you can so easily conceive the 
 idea of letting me go.' 
 
 ' It is not easy, but there are circumstances 
 in which a man had better pluck out his right 
 eye or cut off his right hand than peril his 
 future. A married life even with you, where 
 faith was lost, or at least suspicion lurked, is an 
 experience I could not endure. Sooner than 
 
 that, utter loss — unsatisfied yearning ' his 
 
 voice fell. 
 
 ' You conquer me,' she said, ' as you have 
 never done before.' 
 
 She was hard]y aware she had made the
 
 246 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 admission until the words had passed her lips, 
 but there was no sign of the triumph she had 
 feared in his face. 
 
 There was the same quiet intensity, 
 thoroughly under control, which had charac- 
 terised his manner throughout the discussion, and 
 which she recalled to her mind was in a lesser 
 degree his habitual manifestation, but never 
 before had it so seemed to subjugate her 
 senses and her imagination. He was still silent 
 as if her answer had not satisfied him. What 
 extent of admission, what measure of assurance, 
 did he want ? She could not bring herself to 
 lay her pride lower at his feet. At the same 
 moment she perceived Gilbert Helstone making 
 his way towards them. 
 
 ' Here is Mr. Helstone,' she exclaimed with 
 a sense of unspeakable relief. ' He promised to 
 come and show me his favourite pictures if he
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 247 
 
 could get away from the Temple in time. Shall 
 we join him ? ' 
 
 He bent towards her so as to look into her 
 face. 
 
 ' You have not answered me/ he said. 
 
 ' What do you expect me to say ? I will 
 consider the advice you have given me and 
 adopt it, at least so far as concerns myself. 
 You will come and see me when you see fit, and 
 learn my decision ? ' 
 
 He signified assent and rose up. The 
 shadows of late afternoon were gathering round 
 the place ; the scattered groups of sculpture 
 gleamed more vaguely in the softening light ; 
 only a few knots of people stood liere and there 
 in the thinninc^ n^alleries, talkino; and lausrhinir 
 in a lowered key, for eveiy sound was becoming 
 more audible in the increasing silence. 
 
 'I can leave vou now in Mr. Helstone's
 
 248 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 care : he is a better cicerone than I. Farewell. 
 I shall see you again ere a weak is out.' 
 
 He bowed over her hand till he touched it 
 with his lips as was his habit, stopped on his 
 way to say a few words of courteous greeting 
 to Helstone, and passed out.
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 249 
 
 CHAPTEE Xm. 
 
 Helstoxe strode up to the coiicli where 
 Sybil was seated and threw himself beside her. 
 He leaned forward and looked anxiously in her 
 face. 
 
 ' What is wrong ? There is trouble in the air. 
 Has he brought that j^athetic droop to the lips 
 and intense light to the eyes ? ' 
 
 He compressed his own hps to restrain the 
 injurious epithet that always sprang to his tongue 
 with any mention of her lover's name. 
 
 ' Have you quarrelled — parted, please 
 God ! ' 
 
 Sybil felt distressed and uncertain. Her
 
 250 JULIAN karslake's seceet. 
 
 experiences hitherto had granted her httle 
 practice in that absokite control or concealment 
 of feeling which intercourse with society, and 
 the buffets of every day fortune, help to give. 
 The painful perplexity of her mind showed 
 itself in her expressive face, do what she would 
 to banish or regulate expression. Moreover, 
 there was something in the suppressed eager- 
 ness of Helstone's manner and the flash of his 
 eyes as he bent towards her, that gave her a 
 sensation of embarrassment. 
 
 ' I am ashamed to be so poor a dissembler,' 
 she said, rallying her spirit. ' You are right in 
 thinking there is something wrong, and I am 
 distressed at having offended him.' 
 
 He uttered a passionate expletive. The 
 thought in his mind was how he would have 
 watched and waited on her mood, and fenced 
 her round from the faintest brush of care : — 
 distressed I
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAKE'S SECRET. 251 
 
 ' Child,' he said, ' you cut me to the quick. 
 I have given up pretty well all concern for my 
 personal happiness, but yours is dearer to me 
 than that ever was. It must not be spoilt by 
 this man. That he has the power of distressing 
 you makes my blood boil. You have trusted me 
 hitherto : trust me now I ' 
 
 She passed her hand over her brow deliber- 
 atinor. She had been bidden to consult this 
 friend, but her native sense of loyalty revolted 
 from the idea. It was perhaps well that at 
 this moment the beU for departure rang, and 
 the few stragglers that remained began to move 
 towards the stairs. He drew her hand through 
 his arm with the tenderest solicitude. 
 
 ' At least,' lie said, ' it is in my power to 
 take care of you a little longer. Your precious 
 lover has never thousrht of iiivinof vou anvthincr 
 to eat, I'U warrant. We will take a hansom, 
 and recruit nature at Blanchard's, and then — it
 
 252 JULIAN kaeslake's secret. 
 
 is the last night of ' Les Huguenots ' — we will go 
 and hear Nilsson the Divine, and forget all the 
 troubles of earth. To my mind she is the 
 ideal Valentine/ 
 
 They carried out his programme very much 
 to Sybil's delight. In Helstone's society there 
 was a sense of ease, a happy consciousness of 
 loving favour and absence of criticism that she 
 certainly did not as yet enjoy with Julian 
 Karslake. On this occasion she gave herself up 
 to enjoyment without stint and without alloy of 
 care. She would waive the consideration of her 
 difficulties till alone at night ; they should not 
 come between her and these hours of passionate 
 rapture. 
 
 Possibly the charming little dinner a deiLv, 
 in which Helstone had taxed his ingenuity to 
 provide those dainties which were likely to tempt 
 a girlish epicure, had something to do with 
 raising her spirits and touching her cheek with
 
 JULTAX karslake's seceet. 253 
 
 its lovely carmine tint, seeing that she was no 
 spiritual ascetic but a sentient human creature, 
 apt to receive pleasure at every pore of her being, 
 physical as well as mental. The keenness of 
 delight she now experienced as she sat rapt and 
 inspired imder the combined spell of the 
 magnanimous pathos of the play and the 
 witchery of the singer, was intensified to abso- 
 lute anguish — her own identity for the time 
 being lost in that of Valentine. Helstone sat 
 well back in his chair and gazed his fill at her, 
 kno^^ncr she was unconscious of his re^^ard. 
 He too was wont to lend his whole soul to the 
 adoveihle pri ma-donna, but to-night, if her charm 
 were not less, it only served to stir and deepen 
 personal feeling. 
 
 Every impassioned accent, each yearning 
 embrace, stimidated his own love, and quickened 
 the restrained heat of his own heart. The 
 face and form of Sybil Dornnmoe, her very
 
 254 JULIAN karslake's secret, 
 
 posture and expression, had enougli of charm 
 and grace to excuse some extravagance of 
 passion ; the beautiful intent face, with its 
 kiminous eyes dilated and delicate lips 
 tremulous with ardent sympathy, did it not 
 indicate a depth and power of sensibility that 
 would faint and sicken in the dull and torpid 
 atmosphere of Karslake's measured love ? 
 
 Would she not wake up sooner or later — 
 aye, it would be later — to find herself bound to 
 that most bitter and ignominious of all slaveries 
 —a marriage of the corporeal alone ? Worse : 
 he had already troubled her peace of mind; 
 now in these halcyon days of their courtship 
 she had spoken of herself as ' distressed ' at 
 having offended him. Offended him! she whom 
 he himself knew to be generous and good to the 
 stretch of magnanimity, to be cast down under 
 the displeasure of a man who had purchased her 
 regard by a kind of underhand bribery, and whose
 
 JULIAN kakslake's secket. 255 
 
 quiet assumption of superiority was as smoke in his 
 nostrils, utterly to be mistrusted and contemned. 
 
 And yet, were all this doubly true, she was 
 his guest under conditions that appealed so 
 strongly to his honour that he was tongue-tied. 
 He could not reveal his love to a girl who was 
 trusted to his care as a betrothed bride : only if 
 he saw just cause to interfere in the interests of 
 ker own happiness, he would use his opportunity 
 of deliverance to the uttermost. And farther, he 
 said to himself, as he watched the changes of her 
 expressive face, he would not force the truth upon 
 the unconscious girl to whom he was nought 
 but friend and brother, even if he were free to 
 speak. What had chiefly disgusted him with 
 Karslake had been the cold-blooded pertinacity 
 with which he had constrained her to his will. 
 
 That night, after Sybil had gone to her 
 room, it was her turn to sit and consider tlie 
 future about which Helstone's mind was busy.
 
 256 JULIAN kakslake's secret. 
 
 The moon was at its full, and sailing througb 
 ether as blue and cloudless as was at the same 
 hour arched over the hills and downs of her 
 beloved Dorset. She put out the candle and 
 sat down by the open window. The dust- laden 
 trees and formal paths of the square below 
 were transfigured into beauty in the moon- 
 light air; the traffic of the neighbourhood 
 was at its lowest ebb, for it was long past mid- 
 night. 
 
 She crossed her arms upon the window- 
 ledge and pillowed her dainty chin upon them, 
 looking out into the night with grave introspec- 
 tive vision. 
 
 'Many a time,' she said to herself, 'if I 
 marry Julian Karslake, shall I look out upon 
 such a scene as this and yearn and long for the 
 old house at home ; many a time shall I feel 
 the same doubt and discontent and impatience 
 with my life. How I shall miss the kisses of
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 257 
 
 the little ones and the fierce liuggings of my' 
 boys, and dear old Hannah's friendly gossip ! 
 Shall I seize my chance, and tell him I will 
 take him at his word and get back my free- 
 dom ? ' 
 
 Yes, that was the question to answer. Her 
 head sank lower till it was buried in her arms, 
 and for a few moments of concentration she 
 weighed the ar^^juments for and against the 
 decision. 
 
 Had he a right to claim from her this bhnd 
 trust in his perfection ? it was in that way she 
 put it to herself. Did he suppose her a girl 
 likely to surrender her faculty of judgment so 
 far as his conduct was concerned, and accept 
 his brief assurances with the imphcit docihty of 
 a child ? Oh, if they did but stand on equal 
 ground she w^ould let hhn go, albeit there was 
 an unconfessed attraction that even now brought 
 a faint flush to her cheek and a quicker pulse to 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 t 
 
 258 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 her bosom ; but how was it possible when they 
 had taken his money and his gifts to deprive 
 him of the only recompense in their power ? 
 
 Could the boys be fetched home from 
 Winchester again, and her father held respon- 
 sible for the large sums of money he had 
 shamelessly accepted from his son-in-law ? Or 
 could she support life under the burden of such 
 obligations if he refused, as he probably would 
 refuse, to withdraw them? JSfo, better than 
 that the fulfilment of the contract under any 
 conditions. 
 
 ' And in truth,' she said to herself, ' I do not 
 doubt his sincerity ; I seem to accept without 
 misgiving the quiet and unostentatious evidence 
 of his daily life. Also if the noble sweetness 
 of his face behes him, he must be a consummate 
 dissembler indeed.' 
 
 She closed the window and lowered the 
 blind, the unclouded moon still giving light
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAKE's SECRET. 259 
 
 enough for her simple preparations for bed. 
 But at that moment the silence of the night, 
 brooding and solemn as it ahvays is, was 
 broken by the sound of an unnatural scream or 
 rather yell, again and again repeated. There was 
 the simultaneous sound of hurried footsteps, 
 voices in eager mterchange, and of heavy weights, 
 it might be of furniture or otherwise, dragged 
 persistently over the floor. 
 
 For a moment Sybil stood stricken with in- 
 stinctive terror, the next the recollection of the 
 miserable calamity that hung over the Helstone 
 household rushed across her mind. Here was 
 the explanation of the sounds which seemed to 
 grow more horrible as she listened. The tones 
 of the maniac's voice became articulate, but 
 could it be a woman that vented her rao-e and 
 malignity in curses so appalling that they might 
 have chilled the blood of the most hardened 
 s 2
 
 2t)0 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 blasphemer? What, too, was the meaning of 
 the ominous movements that seemed to gather 
 significance as the minutes succeeded each 
 other? She fancied she could distinguish 
 Helstone's voice, but it was low and suppressed, 
 suggesting the sickening idea of a mortal 
 struggle ; then there were the prompt but 
 heavy footsteps and low authoritative tones of 
 a woman's voice ; all other sounds, however, 
 were blurred and dominated by the discordant 
 shriek, or oath, or laugh of the maniac. 
 
 It was not many moments Sybil remained 
 a passive listener, the impulse was instinctive 
 to offer what help was in her power. 
 
 She had extinguished her light, and the 
 upper storey of the house was unfamihar ground 
 to her, but the moon was still shining in a 
 cloudless sky, and the noise itself would guide 
 her to the scene; she swiftly bound up l:er 
 loosened hair and laid her hand on the handle
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 261 
 
 of the door. At the same moment it was 
 opened from without by Sara Helstone. 
 
 She was ghastly pale and trembling from 
 head to foot ; the look of determination in 
 Sybil's set pale face struck her ^\iih surprise ; 
 she set down the lamp she carried and put her 
 back against the door. 
 
 ' Where were you going, child ? ' 
 ' To help, if possible. I wonder you are 
 not there — are you afraid ? ' 
 
 ' Afraid ! yes. for him, not for myself. I 
 have attempted to enter and was thrust out. 
 Do you think you could do anything ? a baby 
 like you snatch him from a madwoman's grip ! 
 Hush ! ' 
 
 She stopped and hstened intently to the 
 sounds overhead : the scuffle seemed to become 
 more desperate, then there was the noise of a 
 heavy fall succeeded by an awful silence. 
 
 The two women looked at each other with
 
 262 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 eyes glazed with terror, then Sara turned and 
 laid her shaking hand on the lock of the door. 
 
 ' God in heaven ! ' she gasped, * has the 
 •worst happened? My limbs fail me, I have 
 not the courage I once possessed. Child, if 
 you will, go and see what has happened/ 
 
 Then, rallying as suddenly, she seized Sybil's 
 arm, who had turned at once, eager to obey. 
 
 ' Am I mad too to send you on such an 
 errand ? Gilbert would never forgive me. 
 Stop, listen ! is that his voice ? thank God, it is : 
 then, no matter, no matter.' 
 
 She grew calmer, still holding Sybil's arm 
 and interpreting the sounds that reached their 
 strained ears. 
 
 ' Those are his footsteps ; then it is she who 
 has fallen. He is speaking to Mrs. Joyce, they 
 are lifting her up, carrying her to her bed. 
 God, would it be a sin to pray she might never 
 rise from it again ? '
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 263 
 
 Then a brief silence fell between them. 
 Sybil drew a long breath of relief: she could 
 gather from w^hat she heard that her worst 
 fears were groundless. Helstone's voice was 
 clear, his footsteps firm, but still a great 
 horror held her. That miserable woman 
 was his mother ; had she received hurt at his 
 hands ? 
 
 A little longer and they heard him coming 
 downstairs ; Sara flung open the door and 
 called him. 
 
 He came eagerly towards them. 
 
 ' That is right,' he said, ' to find you together. 
 All is well. I was coming to Sybil's room to see 
 how she had borne the fright. I cannot forgive 
 myself for having subjected her to it. We 
 should have no friends, Sara ; our roof should 
 never be offered as shelter to outcast or 
 miscreant even ; still less to her.' 
 
 He was gazing at her with eyes still afiame,
 
 264 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 as she thought, from his recent excitement, 
 rendered all the more conspicuous by the 
 pallor of his face and the disorder of his dress. 
 In point of fact he was drawing rash deductions 
 from the sight of the passionate sympathy with 
 which she was regarding him. 
 
 She had come quite close to him and laid 
 her hand on his arm ; — 
 
 ' Is it true that all is well ? ' she asked in 
 her low vibrating tones ; ' you are not seriously 
 hurt ? — nor she ? ' 
 
 His brow lowered a little. ' She is more 
 hurt than I could wish, though her hurt is small. 
 Her keeper, thinking me unable to take care of 
 myself, interfered between us and threw her by 
 some sudden manoeuvre learnt in other scenes 
 than these. But it was an alternative to which 
 I pledge myself, Sybil, she shall never resort 
 
 agam. 
 
 Sara had not yet spoken, but her eager eyes
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE's SECRET. 265 
 
 had been examining his person from head to 
 foot, and now she touched his throat and 
 pointed to the left hand that was hanging by 
 his side. 
 
 ' This must end,' she said in a dull saturnine 
 voice, ' even if I turn informer myself. How 
 little more would have made this horrible 
 struggle a death-struggle to you ? Look at the 
 print of her murderous fingers round his throat, 
 and the mark of her teeth in his hand ! And 
 yet he will scarcely exert his man's strength 
 ao^ainst her furv. This is not the first time bv 
 fifty ' 
 
 ' For God's sake hold your tongue, Sara, 
 and don't scare Sybil out of her wits ! Mine is 
 the best of sisters, but she has the gift of magni- 
 fying our troubles. I have a scratch on my 
 hand that a sponge will wipe out, and for the 
 rest — ' he smiled a little faintly — 'it was 
 perhaps the maternal instinct exaggerated and
 
 266 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 distorted by disease. Poor soul ! do you forget 
 how she loved us once, my girl ? ' 
 
 The tears welled out over Sybil's eyelids ; 
 she scarcely knew how eloquent was her face 
 of tender pity and approval, till Helstone 
 suddenly snatched her hand and pressed it to 
 his lips. 
 
 ' God bless you, child,' he said hoarsely, 
 ' and pay you back for all the sweet sympathy 
 and love you have shed around you ! Go to 
 bed now and sleep in peace : she is quiet and 
 exhausted, and these outbreaks don't often 
 occur. Come, Sara, bid us good-night.' 
 
 ' Kot till I have seen for myself that things 
 upstairs are as safe as you say. Why, Gilbert, 
 this girl was coming to help you ! ' 
 
 She moved away as she spoke and began 
 to ascend the upper flight, leaving the two 
 standing alone together. 
 
 It was in Helstone's mind, still overwrought
 
 JULIAN K.\RSL.ys:E's SECRET. 267 
 
 as he was by the late excitement, to yield 
 without resistance to the impulse quickened to 
 passionate intensity by Sybil's tender sympathy, 
 throwing on one side the scruples that had 
 held him hitherto, and plainly telling her that 
 he loved her as no other man did. Was not 
 the moment auspicious when her own feelings 
 had been so strongly moved in his behalf, 
 and she had also just quarrelled with her lover .^ 
 
 Could a woman who looked at him with 
 such passionate pity in her lovely eyes be hard 
 to win to a feeling deeper and stronger still ? 
 He came nearer to her. 
 
 ' You would have come to my help ? ' he 
 said. 
 
 The words were simple enough, but the in- 
 flection of voice, the eager glance, the scarcely 
 restrained gesture, gave them a meaning difficult 
 to misunderstand. A certain vague uneashiess 
 she had felt before in their recent intercourse
 
 268 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 returned upon her mind, and sent a flame of 
 colour into her pale face. But to doubt the 
 honour of the man whom she had loved and 
 honoured all her life, was an idea to be rejected 
 with indignation, if possible. 
 
 She returned his burning gaze with a direct 
 steadfast glance. 
 
 ' Can you doubt I would have helped you 
 if it had been in my power ? ' she said gently. 
 'One would have felt the same impulse towards 
 a stranger, much more towards the oldest and 
 best of friends. The only comfort I can find 
 in the midst of this terrible trouble of yours is 
 that you are equal to it, and justify the affection 
 and trust we all feel for you. Do go and rest 
 now, or you will not be fit for your duties to- 
 morrow ; we idle women can do as we please.' 
 
 She held out her hand with her sweet grave 
 smile, and he was scarcely aware in what a 
 strenuous clasp he held it. He was full of
 
 JULIAN EL\RSLAKES SECRET. 2fi9 
 
 yearning admiration for the tender seventy 
 with which she had recalled him to his duty. 
 
 ' I am very tired too,' she added. ' I hope 
 we may all sleep too sound for dreams.' 
 
 ' Good-night,' he said, and dropped her 
 hand, and then stood for several minutes longer 
 watching the door that shut her out from his 
 sight.
 
 270 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Whether it were the result of physical or 
 mental causes, Helslone felt so little in tune for 
 work the following morning that he left his 
 chambers, after an abortive struggle to fix his 
 attention to the matters in hand, in despair of 
 doing any good. 
 
 It was Saturday, and a long summer's 
 afternoon stretched its weary length before 
 him. He had no wish to go home. Then it 
 occurred to him that the operatic concerts at 
 the Crystal Palace were in full swing ; he 
 would go there and kill the hours. He could 
 sit and devour his own heart unnoticed amidst 
 the crash of the orchestra, or cheat his pain as
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 271 
 
 the solo of some incomparable singer reached 
 his ears. 
 
 He went, but found it was still early when he 
 arrived ; even after the diversion of luncheon, 
 to which he had recoiu-se in the extremity of 
 his weariness, there was a long hour before the 
 concert began. Many of the people, indeed, 
 had already taken their seats and were possess- 
 ing their satisfied souls in patience, but his 
 mind rebelled against such vapid inaction. 
 
 He strolled vaguely over the building, 
 looking absently at everything but receiving 
 no definite impression, till he found himself at 
 length in one of the least known and 
 frequented of the Eastern courts. There 
 was no great attraction in its desolate bareness 
 save its coolness and repose, and Helstone 
 had sauntered almost round the enclosure 
 before he became aware that there were other 
 occupants of the place besides himself.
 
 272 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 But with the discovery every trace of 
 languor vanished, and he stood rooted to the 
 ground with an astonishment that almost 
 amounted to disbelief in his own senses, and 
 then shaken by a vspasm of wTathful indignation 
 it was a hard matter to hold in check. 
 
 A man, woman, and child were grouped 
 together in a recess formed by the pillars of 
 the structure. Concealment had evidently been 
 their object, and under ordinary circumstances 
 it could not have failed to have been obtained. 
 
 The woman was young, and beautiful as 
 well, so far as Helstone could judge from the 
 imperfect view her position allowed ; she held 
 her hat drooping from her hand by its string, 
 and she was sobbing so bitterly as to be fain 
 to lean for support on her companion's shoulder. 
 At least the golden head was pillowed there 
 without let or hindrance on his part. 
 
 A boy of three or four years old, prettily
 
 JULIAN e.\rslae:es secret. 273 
 
 dressed in the extreme of a fantastic fashion, 
 stood on his other side and pressed with 
 childish exigence against his knee, evidently 
 trying to divert his attention towards himself. 
 
 The man was Juhan Karslake, and the 
 little face lifted towards him was a tender 
 miniature cop}^ of his own, so absolute in re- 
 semblance that the most casual glance from the 
 dullest observer could not have failed to mark 
 the fact. 
 
 It was a pregnant discovery, and the rush 
 of emotion it excited was, as has been said, 
 almost beyond Helstone's control. 
 
 His first impulse was to rush towards them 
 and charge Karslake on the spot with the 
 infamy of his treachery — force the truth from 
 the weeping woman, and hurl his wrath and 
 defiance at his head. 
 
 But a moment's reflection forbade this: 
 whatever the turpitude of the man's dishonour, 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 the grief and privacy of the woman were 
 sacred. 'No : he must restrain his vengeance 
 till a more convenient season. All he did was 
 to cross the court swiftly so as to pass directly 
 before Karslake's sight, confronting him for a 
 moment with a gaze of uttermost aversion 
 and contempt. 
 
 As he strode out of the Palace (for the 
 amenities of the concert were no longer to be 
 contemplated), his brain was in a whirl, but 
 unquestionably the paramount feeling of his 
 mind was one of triumph. He had always 
 disparaged and mistrusted the man, and his 
 prescience was justified by the event. 
 
 Now, without controversy, he was at liberty 
 to snatch Sybil from the hands that would 
 have dishonoured her ; now there was cause 
 enough to break that hateful bargain. Nor 
 was there any chance of escape for the criminal, 
 for this was no case of circumstantial evidence ;
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 275 
 
 the facts of the accusation liacl been seen by his 
 own eyes. An absohite passion of disgust 
 moved him as he recalled the late scene. The 
 studied privacy of the locality ; the beauty and 
 distress of the girl ; tlie lovely child-head 
 raised in innocent appeal, and the pallor and 
 dismay of the central figure, as he perceived 
 Helstone's recognition, were so many damning 
 points against him. 
 
 And this was the man who had played the 
 pious curate for three long years at Eoosden 
 Magna — who had knelt by dying beds, mouth- 
 ing the prayers of the Church with elaborate 
 hypocrisy, and pressing first to his own per- 
 jured lips the sacramental cup — who had pro- 
 fessed a Joseph's chastity as a lure to the girl 
 who hung back from his advances, and who 
 made a parade of every cheap virtue under 
 heaven : of saving life when there was no risk 
 to his own, and of heaping alms because he 
 
 T 2
 
 276 JULIAN karslake's seceet. 
 
 held wealth as nought beyond a loan for his 
 neighbours' needs ! This was he who must 
 have broken the heart and ruined the life of 
 the woman who had trusted him, and repudiated 
 every tie with the child for whose existence he 
 was responsible ! The beauty of his person, the 
 charm of his manner, the secret attraction of 
 his individuality only enhanced his guilt. 
 
 Thank God it was not yet too late to save 
 Sybil ! What steps should he take to make 
 his discovery effectual? That was the next 
 question. Had Mr. Dorrimore been a man 
 other than he was, the most natural and 
 straightforward course would have been to put 
 him in possession of the facts and take his 
 advice upon them. But so great was Helstone's 
 contempt for him, that he doubted whether 
 the father would not choose rather to sacrifice 
 his daughter than his own pecuniary interests. 
 No, he must act on his own responsibility,
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKe's SECRET. 277 
 
 and also must be on liis c^uarcl aj^^ainst beini]^ 
 
 CO o 
 
 carried beyond reason by the strength of per- 
 sonal feeling. 
 
 Helstone's first idea had been to relate to 
 Sybil the discovery he had made, convinced that 
 the indignant and outraged girl would cancel 
 the engagement at all costs. But as the first 
 excitement cooled, wiser and juster thoughts 
 prevailed. 
 
 True, it was inconceivable that any excul- 
 patory explanation of the scene he had wit- 
 nessed could be given by Karslake ; but perhaps 
 honour, or at least generosity, demanded that 
 the latter should have the chance; a chance, 
 however, which Helstone's generosity woidd 
 scarcely have afforded him had he not been 
 morally convinced of its futility. Distasteful as 
 the proceeding w^ould be, he would see him 
 face to face in his own house, prefer his accusa- 
 tions, and give hun the opportunity of defence.
 
 278 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 Neither would he take him at unawares ; he 
 would write and fix day and hour for the 
 interview. 
 
 By this time it was close upon the dinner 
 hour at Burnham Square ; and he had walked 
 and reasoned himself into a calmer and healthier 
 condition of mind. He would go home as 
 usual ; on this occasion he was sure to find 
 Sybil there ; her lover was otherwise engaged, 
 and the perpetual companionship would not be 
 enforced to-day. He caught his train, and was 
 fortunate enough to report himself in such 
 unusually good time as to win Sara's approval 
 of his punctuality. 
 
 As he stood in the little dining-room, 
 waiting for the entrance of the ladies into the 
 opposite apartment, which he never cared to 
 enter alone, he could not help observing that 
 there was a completeness and grace in the 
 arrangement of the table that had hitherto been
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 279 
 
 an unknown condition in his experience. 
 Linen and silver had always been fliirly , clean 
 and bright under Sara's rule, but now there 
 was a charminfr arrangement of fruit and 
 flowers in ruby Bohemian glasses of which both 
 form and colour were perfect. 
 
 Doubtless the manipulation was Sybil's ; but 
 whence had come those costly and fragile 
 vessels ? His brow contracted as the thouo'ht 
 occurred to him they had probably been an 
 offering from Karslake to his sister, for he was 
 quite sure such an investment was equally 
 beyond her taste and means. In that case it 
 was the last time his table should be polluted by 
 their use. 
 
 Then he strolled towards the window and 
 took up a book open, face downwards, on a 
 chair from which he had seen Sybil rise to 
 greet his return. It was a volume of Dr. 
 Newman's sermons, and Karslake's name, in his
 
 280 JULIAN KAKSLAKES SECRET. 
 
 own admirable handwriting, w^as on the title- 
 page. He flung it from him almost with a 
 groan of disgust, and then hearing the ladies 
 come downstairs, joined them in the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 At dinner there was a restraint over the 
 whole little party. Helstone naturally was 
 inclined to be taciturn, and the others had 
 scarcely rallied from the excitement of the 
 previous night. 
 
 Sara, keen to notice any change in her 
 brother's physiognomy, was struck by the pre- 
 occupation of his manner and the restlessness 
 of his aspect, and did her best to stimulate him 
 to talk as he was always wont to do when 
 Sybil was present. 
 
 ' Sybil has had a very dull day,' she eaid. 
 ' Mr. Karslake has not been to see her, and she 
 has been reading sermons. In my young days 
 people never read sermons except on Sundays.'
 
 JTLLVX KAKSLAKE's SECRET, 281 
 
 ' And tliat is the day/ returned Sybil 
 smiling, 'when I particularly enjoy a novel.' 
 
 ' I should fancy your knowledge of sermons 
 rather limited,' said Helstone. ' Did you ever 
 read one before P Xewman will scarcely get 
 the benefit of comparative criticism. Do you 
 profess to like the book ? you read to order, of 
 course ? ' 
 
 ' I never profess, and I frankly own I do 
 not hke it. But then I imagine the voice of 
 the Baptist crying in the wilderness was very 
 unwelcome to the mixed population of Judea. 
 Newman's preaching is quite outside my own 
 experience ; at present I have never felt that 
 strong coercion of disappointment and vanity 
 which is the dogma of all moralists from Solomon 
 downwards.' 
 
 ' And you fondly hope to escape it ? ' 
 
 ' Xot entirely, but I do not mean to let it 
 crush all my hope and faith in human nature
 
 282 
 
 under its weight. Newman is a modern 
 Baptist, denouncing what seem to me even 
 natural and legitimate instincts as sin in the 
 sight of God. You know I have not been 
 brought up to think much about sin.' 
 
 ' My dear,' said Sara, ' Mr. Karslake would 
 be very much shocked to hear you say so.' 
 
 It was very much to the credit of Helstone's 
 forbearance that he made no reply to his sister's 
 remark, though a smile of bitterness curled his 
 lips. 
 
 ' Is that sneer meant for Julian or me ? ' 
 asked Sybil ; ' for his scrupulousness or my 
 laxity ? But please understand me, Miss 
 Helstone : — I do not mean I have not been 
 taught to distinguisli right from wrong, only it 
 has been on broader grounds — the sense of what 
 was due to my own moral being and my 
 neighbours' welfare. That minute accountability 
 of a creature to a personal God on which
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 283 
 
 Newman insists, seems to me mechanical and 
 dogmatic — at least it is alien to my turn of 
 mind.' 
 
 ' Dogmatic ! ' repeated Helstone. ' So far as 
 I know anything of Newman's speciality, he is 
 simply nothing if not dogmatic' 
 
 The eloquent blood rose in Sybil's cheek, 
 her eyes flashed ; for this girl coidd defend the 
 honour of an author with the passionate ardour 
 most of us reserve for oiu' own predilections and 
 interests. 
 
 ' Little as I know of him,' she said, ' I 
 know more- than that. Dogmatic he is, but 
 with such a power of personal conviction and 
 such uncompromising courage in expressing it ; 
 such a superb indifference to the judgment of 
 his fellows, and such marvellous faith in God, 
 as stir my lighter soul to its depths, or rather 
 reveal to me a depth I had no knowledge of 
 before.' •
 
 284 JULIAN kaeslake's seceet. 
 
 Her voice sank a little ; she was confused 
 by Helstone's intent gaze. 
 
 ' Dear me ! ' said Sara Helstone sarcastically. 
 ' I looked at one of the sermons, and I thought 
 it rather common-place, but then I am not 
 clever or a critic. I see the sermons are called 
 "plain and parochial,*' and I thought they 
 answered exactly to their title.' 
 
 Sybil smiled, but with no touch of mental 
 superiority, 
 
 ' There is a refreshing absence of fine 
 writing, an absolute disdain of rhetoric — I think 
 few of us hke that in a sermon. This man 
 seems to me as if he had deliberately strij)ped 
 himself of intellectual graces, holding that he 
 was pledged to present the truth of God in its 
 naked simplicity and sternness. But what is the 
 result ? A power, an intensity, that penetrates 
 below all superficies to the very core and marrow 
 of one's being.'
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 2S5 
 
 ' That is scarcely the style of Julian 
 Karslake's sermons ? ' remarked Helstone sar- 
 donically. 
 
 ' That is scarcely the style of one man in a 
 thousand,' said Sybil smiUng ; 'but it 'strikes 
 me you have never heard Juhan Karslake 
 preach.' 
 
 ' And God forbid I ever should ! ' muttered 
 he as he rose to open the door for their exit. 
 ' You need not hope to enjoy a long gossip 
 tete-a-tete ; I shall drink no more wine to-night.' 
 
 He wrote his note to Karslake, however, 
 before he joined them in the drawing-room ; 
 proposing to call upon him on Monday even- 
 ing at eight o'clock, if he would give him an 
 interview. 
 
 ' I hope I shall trouble his Sabbatic tran- 
 quillity — he will scarcely have the audacity to 
 see Sybil between this and then. Faugh ! 
 Conceive of him standing up before the people
 
 286 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 and exhorting them in the way that they should 
 
 go! 
 
 The letter was posted late at night, and the 
 second post on Monday brought an answer to it. 
 It stated in cold but sufficiently courteous terms 
 that Mr. Karslake was unavoidably compelled 
 to be absent from town on Monday till a later 
 hour than that named by Mr. Helstone, but 
 that he should be at home at the time mentioned 
 on the following day. 
 
 Helstone crushed the letter vindictively in 
 his hand : there was a coolness of effrontery in 
 it, he considered, hard to bear with patience. 
 Possibly, nay probably, his engagement might 
 be in the interests of Sybil's rival ; and he had 
 the weight of his imspoken condemnation to 
 endure for another twenty-four hours longer. 
 
 As he set himself anew to a stern considera- 
 tion of the matter, a certain feeling of impotence 
 came over him . How he wished that Karslak^^
 
 JULIAN K.\RSLAKE's SECRET. 287 
 
 offences brought him within the pale of thekw! 
 If he should deny the facts, what testimony had 
 Helstone to bring in support of his accusation ? 
 If he chose to assure Sybil of his honour and 
 fidelity with that smooth tongue and unabashed 
 steadfast mien, would not the girl beheve her 
 lover rather than her friend ? The more so as 
 he had openly acknowledged prejudice and 
 mistrust. 
 
 On the preceding day, Sunday, the ladies, 
 as usual, had attended morning service at St. 
 Mark's, and he had ascertained that, also as 
 usual, Karslake had done the duty. 
 
 Sara had remarked that she very much 
 preferred his style of sermons to Dr. Xewman's, 
 and though Sybil had looked with an amused 
 smile at Helstone, she had added ' that she liked 
 his sermon herself better than usual, and almost 
 thought it would have won a measiu-e of ap- 
 proval from him.'
 
 288 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 Helstone looked at her steadily. ' You 
 have the most implicit faith in this man's 
 sincerity ? ' he asked almost sternly. 
 
 ' In what way do you mean ? do you ask if 
 I believe him to be as religious a man as he 
 appears ? ' 
 
 ' Not precisely that/ returned Helstone 
 impatiently ; ' I mean, that whatever he chooses 
 to tell you about himself you accept with com- 
 plete reliance on his w^ord ? ' 
 
 Sybil changed colour and was silent. Was 
 Helstone acquainted with the point at issue 
 between them? could there be iacts in his 
 possession of which she was ignorant ? The 
 anxiety that still possessed her mind stirred 
 painfully and quickened into new life. 
 
 Instead of answering his question she asked 
 another. 
 
 ' You did not know Mr. Karslake before you 
 met him at Ashlands ? '
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE's SECRET. 289 
 
 ' I did not,' he said drily. ' The only point 
 I wanted to settle was whether you would 
 break your heart if you found him unworthy ? ' 
 
 At another time she would have resented a 
 vague accusation as a breach of honour, but 
 now this partial mistrust was contending against 
 her generosity. 
 
 ' You have some (definite charge to bring 
 against him ? ' she asked in her low sensitive 
 voice. ' Will it not be better to speak out at 
 once ? ' 
 
 ' I would only too gladly speak, but I am 
 tongue-tied at present. Have I troubled your 
 peace of mind, child ? Well, it was out of 
 pity, lest the shock should be too sudden and 
 severe.' 
 
 He spoke ironically and turned sharply 
 from her, vexed that he had spoken at all. If 
 there was anything needed to stimulate the 
 
 VOL. I. u
 
 290 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 rancour of his feelings towards Karslake it was 
 the unexpected look of pain in Sybil's face. 
 The behef he had entertained of her funda- 
 mental indifference which would induce her to 
 welcome any sufficient cause for breaking the 
 engagement, had of necessity mitigated in his 
 view the consequences of her lover's treachery. 
 But if he were mistaken, and she would suffer 
 at his hands ? 
 
 In that deplorable case what adequate 
 vengeance would be in his power ? He could 
 take from him the girl he had outraged by the 
 reversion of his ignoble love ; possibly he might 
 expose him before the world and cover him 
 with public contumely ; for priests were un- 
 frocked even in these neutral days, and 
 ignominiously turned out of the church they 
 had dishonoured. But granting all this, the 
 shame and ruin of Karslake's life w^ould be
 
 JULIAX KARSLAXE's SECRET. 291 
 
 but a poor equivalent for Sybil Dorrimore's 
 suffering. 
 
 He felt as if he could scarcely control his 
 impatience till the hour arrived when he would 
 be face to face with his enemy, and able to take 
 the first steps towards his chastisement. 
 
 v2
 
 292 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 At seven o'clock on the following Tuesday 
 evening Gilbert Helstone knocked at tlie door 
 of the old-fashioned, massively-built, red-brick 
 house known as S. Mark's Eectory, and was 
 at once shown into the library, evidently as an 
 expected guest. 
 
 ' Let your master know at once that I am 
 here,' he said, flinging down his card with an 
 abruptness he was little accustomed to use 
 towards his inferiors ; but the sleek, conven- 
 tional manner of the man, and the abundant 
 evidences of wealth and luxury by which he 
 saw himself surrounded, stimulated the acri- 
 mony of his feehngs.
 
 JULIAX KARSL.\XE'S SECRET. 293 
 
 ' Mr. Karslake is at dinner, sir, but I will 
 take in your name at once.' 
 
 He felt relieved on hearing he was in the 
 house, having entertained some suspicion that 
 he would cheat him of the interview. 
 
 The man went out shutting the door 
 softly, but before doing so he put some coals 
 on the fire which was already too bright and 
 fierce for Helstone's comfort, and placed some 
 newspapers at his elbow as a suggestion for 
 his amusement. Helstone pushed them aside 
 impatiently, and getting up from the comfortable 
 lounging chair into which he had flung him- 
 self, began to walk about the room and in- 
 spect its multitudinous contents with an ever- 
 deepening indignation and disgust. 
 
 The apartment was of excellent proportions, 
 and might have been called lavishly furnished 
 and adorned, had not the strictest taste subordi- 
 nated and harmonised its details. Not only
 
 294 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 was the furniture that marked its intention as 
 hbrary of the most complete and costly kind, 
 but ingenuity seemed to have been exhausted 
 in its construction to adapt means to ends, or 
 rather to suggest ends that would never have 
 occurred to the ordinary student. Even this 
 Helstone might have pardoned in a weak- 
 brained professional man who was convention- 
 ally supposed to spend a good part of his life 
 in his study and at his desk ; but what could 
 excuse the Turkey carpet on the floor — the glow 
 and texture of the wine-coloured draperies 
 at the windows — the aesthetic pedantry of the 
 high carved mantel and tiled grate — the fine 
 bronzes which lurked unostentatiously here and 
 there, and the precious engravings on the wall ? 
 Helstone^s mind recurred to the forlorn old 
 library at Ashlands, which had been tSybil 
 Dorrimore's only experience of literary ease, 
 and he asked himself with a sneer if the man
 
 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 295 
 
 furnished his own rooms in this fashion, what 
 more could he deem necessary for his bride's 
 special apartments. Then there was a fire in 
 the grate ; and this also seemed to him another 
 proof of efieminacy and self-indulgence, though 
 the July evening was sombre and chilly enough 
 to excuse the same. 
 
 He sat down a^ain with a more concentrated 
 feeling of animosity than before : hypocrite and 
 Sybarite combined ! 
 
 A little loncrer and he beean to grow im- 
 patient and to resent his being kept waiting as 
 an intentional insult : he was yearning for the 
 conflict — for the certain triumph of confronting 
 and confounding his foe, almost with the 
 intensity of a wild beast held at bay. He had 
 pat his hand on the bell with the intention of 
 sending a message to the master of the house, 
 when the door opened and he entered. Hel- 
 . stone turned sharply round.
 
 296 JULIAN KARSLAKE'S SECRET. 
 
 Karslake was in evening dress, as perfectly 
 attired as if he had been entertaining at his own 
 table or going out to dinner, and the fact marked 
 a sharp contrast between himself and the negli- 
 gent morning costume of his visitor ; as sharp 
 as between the statuesque beauty of his face, 
 the close- cut hair and delicate golden moustache, 
 and the irregular features, bushy beard and 
 generally careless physique of the other. 
 
 He went close up to the fire-place near 
 which Helstone was standing before he spoke, 
 and then he said in the cool but courteous tones 
 of distant acquaintanceship : — 
 
 ' I am sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr. 
 Helstone, especially as it must be a matter of 
 no common importance that has induced you 
 to come to my house.' 
 
 For a moment Helstone was staggered by 
 the audacity of his self-possession. Was he 
 about to ignore or deny the incident of Satur-
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKE'S SECRET 297 
 
 day? but he was on his guard against injuring 
 his own case by any premature violence of 
 speech or manner. He contented himself ^nth 
 surveying the speaker from head to foot with a 
 deliberate insolence of regard which, if bestowed 
 upon himself, he would have held as the most 
 intolerable of insults, but he spoke almost as 
 quietly as Karslake himself had done. 
 
 ' Do you remember the warning I gave you 
 in your cottage-garden at Eoosden Magna — 
 namely, that I constituted myself the guardian 
 of Sybil Dorrimore's welfare ? I am come to 
 redeem the pledge.' 
 
 ' I remember the circumstance perfectly, and 
 I am as much at a loss now as I was then to 
 recognise your right of interference. Let us face 
 the matter at once, ^Ir. Helstone ; there is no 
 need of any circumlocution between us. I know 
 what has brought you here to-night, and it is 
 quite superfluous for you to come to the attack
 
 298 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 with the foils on. DeHver your soul of what 
 you think it right to say. I am prepared to 
 listen.' 
 
 His colour rose a little, there was a latent 
 fire in his glance, and an inflection of repressed 
 indignation in his voice, but tone and manner 
 were under perfect command. The cold 
 authority of his speech exasperated Helstone 
 beyond endurance. Were the tables to be 
 turned upon him and he, the accuser, challenged 
 to the encounter with an effrontery beyond cal- 
 culation ? An oath escaped his hps ; he pushed 
 back his chair and took a turn or two through 
 the room, then stopped abruptly in front of 
 the other. 
 
 ' You presume to question my right of in- 
 terference ! Who should save Sybil Dorrimore 
 from the wretched fate of marrying a villain 
 but the man who knows she has no other 
 friend ? If I were a stranger, and accident had
 
 JULIAX KARSLAKe's SECRET. 299 
 
 revealed to me the truth as it did on Saturday, 
 I should be justified in warning a hio'h-hearted 
 and sensitive girl of the fraud practised on her 
 credulity. You can hardly be prepared to go 
 the length of denying what I saw — another 
 woman in your embrace and the incarnate 
 pledge of your loves by your side ! ' 
 
 He stopped as if to give Karslake the option 
 of reply, for he had made an instinctive move- 
 ment that seemed to express repudiation ; but 
 as he showed no disposition to speak, the other 
 went on with increased bitterness. 
 
 ' I have no strained notions of masculine 
 morahty, God knows, and have run riot like 
 other men, or, may be, worse than many ; but 
 you have coerced Sybil Dorrimore on the 
 groimd of special purity and devotion, and a 
 holy immunity from vice and folly. The 
 condemnation one feels for the lusts of the 
 common-place profligate becomes absolute
 
 300 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 loathing when one recognises the priest and 
 saint in the transgressor. You have spoilt the 
 life of one fair woman, but, please Heaven, you 
 shall not spoil the life of another ! You have 
 flung out one little child upon a nameless exist- 
 ence, but you shall never be the father of 
 Sybil's possible children ! ' 
 
 It is very difficult, under any circumstances, 
 for one human being to defy the overwhelming 
 and conscientious accusation of another, with 
 perfect success. And it was no simulated 
 reprobation that animated Helstone, and moved 
 him to an almost feminine eloquence of vitu- 
 peration : tlie hate and contempt were alike 
 genuine and generous. Nevertheless Karslake 
 stood, as he had done from the moment of his 
 entrance, in an attitude of cold attention, 
 offering no interruption, betraying no sign of 
 emotion. 
 
 He did not even lower his eyes, but con-
 
 JULIAN KAKSLAKE's SECRET. 301 
 
 tinued to watch the speaker through every 
 passionate clause of his attack, with an air of 
 unmoved and critical observation. 
 
 Helstone felt himself foiled and exasperated 
 by his failure to provoke him to reply. 
 
 'You do well to be silent/ he said con- 
 temptuously, ' and my task is almost done. 
 I felt it incumbent on me to tell you my inten 
 tions previously to putting the facts of the case 
 before the lady to whom you are engaged. Thank 
 God, it is not too late to save her I What further 
 action I may see fit to take in the matter, in 
 the interests of religion and decency, I have 
 not yet decided on.' 
 
 ' You mean, that you threaten to inform 
 Miss Dorrimore of the incident you witnessed 
 last Saturday ? ' 
 
 ' Such is my precise meaning ; that I have 
 not done it already is a stretch of forbearance 
 on my part you had no right to expect. But,
 
 302 JULIAN karslake's seceet. 
 
 as a matter of form, I am prepared to listen to 
 any attempt at palliation you will probably be 
 anxious to make/ 
 
 ' You are mistaken,' re^^lied Karslake ; ' I 
 have no such anxiety. Whatever explanation 
 were possible I should emphatically decline to 
 give it to you. I repudiate your right of 
 interference in our afiairs. The patience with 
 which I have listened to what you have had to 
 say is due only to the regard which I know 
 Miss Dorrimore feels for you, and perhaps 
 to the belief I entertain of your sincerity. 
 But I am none the less relieved to hear that 
 you consider your duty as accomplished ; mine 
 forbids me to utter one single word otherwise 
 in reply.' 
 
 'Any other word would be superfluous,' 
 returned Helstone with a sneer. 'No man 
 listens tamely to such language as I have used 
 to you to-night, unless he recognises its justice.'
 
 JL'LIAN KAKSL.U^e's SECRET. 303 
 
 Karslake smiled. ' I am saircely to be 
 entrapped into denial or admission by any 
 superfluity of insult. I could almost congratu- 
 late you, Mr. Helstone, on the vent you have 
 found for the ill-wiU you always bore me. 
 But, in reproducing the tableau you just now 
 so vividly described, for Sybil's enlightenment, I 
 demand you will not distort or exaggerate the 
 facts, nor force your conclusions upon her mind 
 as proven.' 
 
 ' Your sohcitude is in vain, Julian Karslake ; 
 there is a weight of evidence in one single cir- 
 cumstance that no sane mind could resist. In 
 the minute resemblance of the child to yoiu^self 
 there is a damning proof of your relationship 
 which no ingenuity of false swearing or fervour 
 of denial on your part, can break down. And 
 you may rely upon it, I shall not let any scruple 
 of mawkish dehcacy invahdate the strength of 
 my case. You shall not marry Sybil Dorrimore,
 
 304 JULIAX karslake's secret. 
 
 though your house is furnished and her wedding- 
 clothes are bought ! ' 
 
 For a moment Karslake seemed to hesitate. 
 A spasm of pain, beyond even his strong power 
 of self-repression, contracted his face. He 
 turned away from Helstone's ruthless scrutiny, 
 and leaning over the high mantel, shielded 
 his eyes with his hand. 
 
 ' Wait a moment,' he said ; * I will consider 
 it as^ain.' 
 
 Hel stone watched him curiously : kindly as 
 his nature was, he had no more sympathy 
 for Karslake's evident suJffering than the 
 schoolboy for the cockchafer on the pin. JSTo 
 mental distress, in his opinion, could be 
 adequate to the punishment deserved. He 
 could not even leave him alone, but broke in on 
 his considerations. 
 
 'Let me warn you that, if you were to propose 
 to swear on the Bible the child were none of
 
 JULIAX kakslake's secket. 305 
 
 yours, it would not shake my convictiuu one 
 jot ; one breach more or less of what the 
 lowest amongst us hold binding would be of 
 small account to you.' 
 
 Karslake looked up quickly. ' Thank you,' 
 he said, ' for }'ou have unwittingly done me a 
 service by the brutality of your insult. Had 
 there been one human touch of pity in your 
 reprobation, I might have been Ijetrayed into 
 the weakness of self-defence. As it is, we have 
 surely now met and parted for tlie last time. 
 It will of course be necessary for me to see 
 Miss Dorrimore again, but it shall be elsewhere 
 than under your roof.' 
 
 ' If it is in my power to prevent it you shall 
 never have speech with Sybil Dorrimore any 
 more.' 
 
 ' But it will not be in your power,' said 
 Karslake. ' And now, with your leave, I will 
 ring the bell and bid you good-night. You 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 JULIAN karslake's secret. 
 
 hesitate ! Have you any wish to try another 
 turn of the screw ? ' 
 
 Helstone rose ; he was going to speak when 
 the door opened, and the servant appeared in 
 answer to the summons he himself had not 
 heard. There was nothing for it but retreat. 
 He took up his hat and went out, feehng he 
 had not half triumphed as he wished and ex- 
 pected. But perhaps he would have held a 
 different opinion could he have seen the ges- 
 ture of mental and physical collapse with which 
 Julian Karslake flung himself into a chair, and 
 buried his face in his arms on the table before 
 him. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
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