Spoken in anger - University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana

Transcription

Spoken in anger - University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana
WPW
OBBMMU*.
LI B R.AR.Y
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
Of ILLINOIS
Sor 65
v
3
SPOKEN IN ANGER
SPOKEN IN ANGER
llokl.
Aye, they ruled him, those
IN
fierce passions.
THREE VOLUMES.
VOL.
III.
LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS,
8,
CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.
1877.
\liig\l
f Trant'ution
re$eWed by the Author.]
LONDON
SAVILL,
EDWARDS AND
:
CO., PRINTERS,
COVENT GARDEN.
CHANDOS STREET,
J^bS
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
CHAPTER
^^S ILL
I.
you come with me
library for a few
to the
moments,
Captain Stanley?" said Sir
Hugh, taking
Vivien's
as he left the breakfast-room.
bad day,
is
it
not
?
It
good of that poor devil
ordered
Hewit
to pack
"
was
A
arm
shocking
really very
to come.
I have
him up some game,
out of gratitude, Nina would say, for we
were positively dying of ennui
now
all
but
the hampers are packed,
know what
VOL.
;
III.
to do with the birds.
we
You
1
really,
don't
are all
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
sucli
good
shots,
ful this year
a
;
and grouse have been plenti-
I don't think we've had such
good season since I've owned the place."
This in his usual pleasant, lazy voice
;
but when they were seated in the library,
Hugh's
cynical,
devil-may-care
face
sud-
denly became very grave.
" I
wish to speak to you on a very
delicate subject, Captain Stanley.
I
am
right in saying that
you
"
are related to
We
him
in
are not related
we could
brothers,
you have known
his childhood,
Mr. Strafford since
;
but had we been
scarcely have been
smiling at the thought,
!
Yet,
!"
Yivien
more
said,
D'Arcy and he
could he have
brother better than
To
and that
some way ?"
together in our childhood
brothers
I believe
gentle
little
loved a
D'Arcy
?
be sure, there had come an estrange-
ment between them
of late, that had pained
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
Vivien not a
little
;
but he with his man-
hood's health and strength was not likely to
remember peevish
Then I am
fidence
asking you
in
his
to
acquaint Lord
thousands lately
of course
;
how Mr.
To
son's recklessness.
knowledge he has
certain
of mine
from D'Arcy.
not, perhaps, betraying con-
Clowden with
my
irritability
lost several
no business
it is
Strafford pays these large
play debts, but I confess I don't at
all
like
the responsibility of his ruining himself in
my
house."
" Play debts
Vivien's
ear
Those two words smote on
!"
the
like
personal insult.
bitter
a
would
little
gain
as
a
That was the reading of
the riddle that had puzzled
He
of
sting*
him
so of late.
soon have thought of striking
child
as
touching
— and D'Arcy was
a
a gambler
card
!
memories came crowding back of the
1—2
for
Many
little,
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
gentle,
fair-haired
Marion had
"
said,
how
and
child,
When
I
am
once
dying,
Vivien, I should like to think I had trusted
DArcy
to you."
She had been very near
death at the time, and
how
the
came reproachfully back,
face
he kept that trust
some
that
!
anxiety
He had
for
pale
soft,
how had
seen
daily
weighed on D'Arcy's
mind, and yet he had never tried to win his
confidence
the
weak
;
he had stood calmly by, watching
spirit
go the road to dishonour.
It seemed to Vivien that the dishonour
was
almost his own.
" I wish I had
said
;
" do
known
you think there
this before,"
is
he
no hope of his
giving up playing ?"
" Give up
*
Play
a short laugh.
"
!'
" cried Sir
When
a
Hugh, with
man
so far as he has, he'd sell his
has gone
own
soul to
the devil rather than miss a single night.
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
Never touch a card
you value your peace
if
of mind, for
when once
hold of you,
it's
Why,
the Play fiend gets
a very old
man
known men gamble on
I've
Mr. Strafford
deathbed.
will
Play while he has a shilling
" I
Vivien
must
said, anxiously.
their
never give up
left."
what can
think
be
" Unless
done
it is
!"
abso-
would rather not write
lutely necessary, I
to
of the sea.
Lord Clowden."
Sir
Hugh went
room with
back to the
billiard-
a comfortable feeling of having
done his duty, and freed himself from a
disagreeable responsibility.
His anxiety had
been thoroughly
he might easily
selfish, for
have checked D'Arcy's gambling from the
beginning, instead of leading
him on
for
the idle amusement of seeing "the young
one go his paces
;"
and,
he
indeed,
taken great pride in him at
first
;
had
but the
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
very thought of his pupil being ruined
was enough to destroy
house
his
in
A scandal
interest in him.
to be dreaded
by
success at cards
of that kind was
a family too well
as reckless gamblers,
all
known
and whose continual
was almost a proverb.
He
possessed the comfortable philosophy that
can
always
"
ask,
Am
my
I
brother's
keeper ?" and he was not likely to think
twice of the care
young
he had taken to train
Strafford's love of cards, provided it
did not lead to any disagreeable exposure
and he would only have arched
ever so
slightly
had staked
his
brows
on hearing that D'Arcy
his last shilling elsewhere.
"Play" had never injured him, and
if
people would be so insane as to carry an
innocent amusement too
far,
blame, surely not the host,
to
make
they were to
who had
tried
his house as pleasant as possible
;
m ANGER.
SPOKEN
during the dull August evenings.
argued
more
naturally,
selfish,
but he was a gambler
and a
Hugh
and perhaps Sir
;
cynic,
;
;
was not
than his fellows
a
man
of the world
life
had been one
whose whole
long debauch
So he
whose heart had been un-
touched by sorrow or sentiment, and who
had never known an anxiety
could have roused
of selfishness.
or a joy that
him from the lethargy
Untrained
in
his
undisciplined in his manhood, was
derful
a
that
selfish,
youth,
won-
it
middle age should find him
cynical worldling?
Perhaps the
only good feeling that ever blossomed in
his
life
he owned to bonnie, good-natured
Nina.
Vivien knew very
and that
his
little
little
of
was not to
Lord Clowden,
his credit.
boyhood he had thought him a
In
brute,
leaving his wife without word or sign for
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
fourteen long years
the gentle, weary face
;
had been very eloquent, though the low
voice never complained, and the
downward
curve of those soft pink lips had sealed a
chapter of suffering that even his
wondered
man
He
understand
could
heart
his
if
;
and
young
now he
was the kind of
father
to deal wisely or gently with D'Arcy.
had grossly neglected him,
in the selfish
boy
excess of his passionate grief; for the
had been entirely on
his
own hands
Marion's death.
With
than he at
knew what
first
with no guide save his
since
a larger allowance
to do
own wavering
unstable as water, weak as a
with,
will,
woman, was
wonderful that
he gave way beneath
temptation that
many
easily
succumbed to
a stronger
man
it
a
has
?
There had been no sympathy between
Clowden and
his
son;
the weakness that
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
attracted
Vivien's
repellent
to
his
was
affection
strong-willed,
father's
He
passionate nature.
brutally
impatient
Marion's
death.
in
had become almost
his
manners
since
The very thought
of
would make
those fourteen wasted years
him gnash
almost
his teeth like a caged wild beast.
There was no resignation in that stubborn
heathen heart.
ever
for
away
the
;
Marion was
sweet
fair
lost to
him, lost
had passed
face
like the sparkle of his youth, or the
first soft flush
of
dawn
;
and now,
in the
dark night of his old age, he was friendless
and alone
as
!
Nothing
irritated
him
much
so
D'Arcy's gentle, loving sympathy; the
clinging sensitive heart had turned to
for support
and comfort in the
of their
mutual
repulsed
with
The
very
loss,
bitter,
faith
his
but
he
cynical
dead
first
him
horror
had
been
harshness.
mother
had
SPOKEN
10
m ANGER.
taught him, when timidly offered as consolation,
was treated with
contempt
and the
;
from the
fierce,
atheist's
boy shrank
dark
but never
easily rouse,
an
all
in
fear
he could so
spirit
lay.
So that when Clowden started on a cruise
in his yacht, the
very glad to be
from
him
often,
European coast
sidering
spirit,
the
;
Wild Bird^ D'Arcy was
behind.
left
from
all
He
parts
heard
of
the
notes kind enough, con-
man's
saturnine,
but showing no
interest,
embittered
no anxiety.
Indeed, Clowden seemed hardly conscious
of his responsibility
sins, this
;
and I tbink of
selfish neglect
all his
was the only one
he never acknowledged, not even in the
after-time
when
that son's crime brought
the dark flush of shame to his brow.
The afternoon
rain
had passed away into
a fresh, starry evening, and Vivien sat by
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
the
window
11
own room,
of his
into
far
midnight, thinking of some plan whereby
he might get D'Arcy away from the Lodge
without exciting any suspicions in the boy's
mind
as to his
minded
motive
;
D'Arcy
people,
obstinate at times
most weak-
for, like
—not
an honest deter-
mination, but a blind, dogged
that
is
knew
very hard to deal with
that
good
at
hearted
to leave the
avail.
Lodge,
remonstrate
the
good would
very few honest, open-
;
He
are.
with
brother might,
all
for
Captain Stanley was not
stratagem
men
and Vivien
;
influence he hoped to use for
be of no
persistency
he guessed his motive
if
wishing him
very
be
could
would have liked
D'Arcy
as
an
pointing out to him
dishonourable waste of time
to
elder
the
and fortune
gambling was; but he knew that
his
was
no position to exert authority or enforce
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
12
so he felt that he
advice,
caution
;
must
act
with
and indeed he took no small
credit
to himself for this kind of cunning.
A
goodly sight was that dark earnest
face in the soft half-light.
Wrapped
watcher below.
cloak, crouching in the
fairest
woman
whom many
and
last,
shadow, knelt the
woman
an aching heart had cursed as
maddest of them
at
in a long dark
in all Scotland, the
madly
herself as
heartless,
So thought the
all
the
;
in love
the proud head
as the
bowed
mocking, insolent
altered almost past recognition
face
by the new
soft tenderness of expression.
had
Julie
evening
felt restless
and unhappy that
the long, dull day, with
;
its
harvest of disappointment, had
left
on
alone
her
relieve
;
spirits
she
preferable
to
felt
that
action
that anything
weary
a weight
could
would be
lying there, in bitterness of
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
spirit,
crept
vainly courting
sleep;
13
she had
so
downstairs, and, unbarring the
breakfast-room
window, passed
out
low
the
;
fresh beauty of the evening and her aimless
wanderings bringing peace to her aching,
weary heart.
Never before had the
girl
bitterness of unrequited love
;
conquest had
been so easy, that she looked upon
now
her right, and
the
so
new
sense of utter subjugation that was
D'Arcy
adorers,
position
for
;
better
his
than
gentle,
most
She had
of
her
sympathetic
dis-
and the pure-souled, romantic boy
had been a new study
human
as
it
she battled fiercely with
miserably creeping over her.
liked
the
tasted
hearts.
to this student in
Besides, worldly ambition
had whispered that he was the heir
to
a
wealthy dukedom, and Julie had no objection to eventually binding a coronet on her
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
14
But now
low, white, scheming brow.
was
different
so
if
fortune
—loved
him with a
woman's
calculating
in
loved
he had been a penniless soldier of
Vivien
piness
would have
she
;
all
love, finding her hap-
mere
the
deep, true, un-
fact
of his presence.
She was now no longer a sovereign accepting
homage, and rousing strong, true love
at
amply repaid by
a
thinking
her
will,
few
false,
moments
sweet
it
a
smiles,
of blissful
realised
all
this
;
for,
confession was, with
and then the
hope,
utter desolation of despair.
few exquisite
Now
she herself
humiliating as the
all
the passionate in-
tensity of her nature, she loved this
who had never spoken one word
her,
and who seemed
warm, bright
And
of love to
as unconscious of her
loveliness
ground she trod
man
as
the
senseless
on.
there she knelt on the
damp
grass
SPOKEN IN ANGEB.
where she had
sunk down to escape his
first
notice, feeling strangely,
from the very
fool,
him,
—a
madly happy, poor
fact that she
living picture, her
could see
own, and the
few moments
those
night's, for
15
— envying
even the cigar he smoked so fiercely in his
She wondered mightily
puzzled thought.
what could bring that anxious shadow
Some
his face.
so
fair
as
absent love
herself;
acknowledged
liked
not
firm
The next moment
bear a rival even,
only a
And
an
doll-faced
white
men
always
and Julie clenched her
;
hand, and hated her fancied
small
little,
was she
her pink and
in
Strong,
baby women
perhaps, not
Some
Belle?
woman, piquant
hideousness!
for
to
she wailed, "
if
Oh
you would
!
rival.
I could
love
me
a
little."
Vivien, utterly unconscious of this
piteous appeal, threw
away
his
cigar,
and
;
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
16
shut the window
mind an
his
for there
;
idea,
like
had come into
an inspiration, so
clear a road did it light out of his anxiety.
Suppose he took D'Arcy to Boulogne with
him
;
he had not yet seen his new posses-
sions there, so
and perhaps,
tion, cards
rose
it
would he a good excuse
safely
might
removed from tempta-
He
lose their fatal power.
up with a sigh of
relief.
There would
be no need to write to any one; he would /v
work out the reformation
Vivien's
room was
himself.
close to
D'Arcy's
;
so
he crossed the corridor, and softly opened
the
door.
He
had not seen him
all
day
except at meal-times, for the boy was not
among
the party in the passage.
Yivien had scarcely given his absence a
thought at the time, because both D'Arcy
and Colonel Bellingham were only going
the ball as spectators, so of course
it
to
was not
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
17
incumbent on them to wear fancy
dresses.
For the Colonel, though several years
brother's junior,
ance a
Hugh
much
still
his
was in feeling and appear-
man
older
and while
;
own with
held his
Sir
the gallants
of the day, his brother was generally gos-
why
siping with the chaperons (I wonder
the British veteran
is
or watching
old tattler?)
movements, and the
managed her
fully dressed.
crutches resting
;
tact
Julie's
graceful
with which she
victims.
D'Arcy was lying
lay
always such a real
The
on a low
asleep
pale,
worn
face
sofa,
;
the
by the couch on which he
the shadowy, wasted hands
;
appealed
to all the tender, kindred love in Vivien's
heart, that love the
mainspring of which he
himself was so unconscious
almost have wept, strong
at the sight of the
VOL.
III.
;
and he could
man
that he was,
wreck before him.
2
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
18
" Poor
boy
!
poor
fellow
1"
said,
lie
" Worried and tired to death by this
softly.
!"
folly
He
took a plaid that lay near, and with
a touch light as a woman's wrapped
fully
Ah
round the sleeping man.
D'Arcy only trusted from the
it care-
first,
!
had
and con-
fessed all to that true loving heart, merciful
because
all
it
was
so strong, I
might yet have been
well.
am
persuaded
CHAPTEE
II.
LTHOUGH Vivien
up
his
more of
masquerade crowd
He
felt
for
ever cunningly disguised,
found him-
lithe,
know
graceful
her,
how-
by the matchless
ease that characterised her every
Down
no
scanning the gay
her
he would
think
to
Julie, he
self eagerly
*
figure.
mind
had made
movement.
the long room, bright with tropical
colouring,
gay with sunny laughter and
the rippling echo of sweet, rich melody,
moved
that motley crowd of
many
Here a bacchanal crowned with
grapes
;
there a
nations.
luscious
dandy powdered and
curled,
in all the vanity of the eighteenth century.
2—2
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
20
Bright- clad
vivandieres,
Tyrol
peasantry,
turbaned Turks, and French fisherwomen
conspicuous
while,
among
;
moving
the
throng, were the soft folds of the mantilla,
matching well the piquant mask, out of
which shone eyes bright with the dangerous
lustre of excitement
But
and coquetry.
none of these did the
tall
Moor
in
recognise
Julie.
Surely that was
—that
by him
vision that glided
Elizabethan
out
Lady Bellingham's laugh
such
ruffle
clear,
!
— none
in the
other could ring
glad harmony.
He was
just preparing to follow, marking her well
by the horned satyr on whose arm she
leant,
his,
when
a tiny gloved hand was laid on
and a pair of winning eyes looked up
at
him, fairly glittering with saucy mirth.
" It
friends,
is
not so
difficult to
Captain Stanley."
recognise one's
a
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
There was no mistaking the
21
soft
that small piquant chin, nor the
curve of
mouth
that
gleamed so redly bright through the jealous
lace covering.
" I
am
quite of your opinion, Miss Bel-
lingham," he laughed, looking down with
unfeigned admiration at the radiant
creature before him.
coloured
tulle,
Clad in
glittering
mauvy
little
cloud-
crystal
stars
covering the soft net drapery, diamonds on
the gleaming arms, diamonds blazing fitfully
on the
slender,
rounded throat, zoning the
supple waist, and starting into prism light
among
the
wavy,
sparkling, witching,
down-flung
little
hair
"Queen
of
—
the
Night" Julie made.
" Tra,
beating
la,
la!
tra,
la,
la!"
time to the music.
she
" Is
cried,
it
not
beautiful ?"
There was a luminous light in her topaz
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
eyes, for she loved brightness, music,
rich colouring with all the generous
of her mother's sunny race
was a
child,
;
and
warmth
and here she
forgetting for the time that
haughty, insolent nonchalance the world
had taught her.
"
And you
have not danced once, Captain
Stanley ?"
"
May
I
make up
for lost time
now ?" he
whispered, accepting the challenge in those
bright, bewildering eyes.
There are times when a whole lifetime of
bliss
seems condensed in a few short,
ing
moments
their
—moments that never
witchery — moments that we can
vividly, even to the sweet,
long weary years
other memories
the
Past.
after,
lies
thrill-
lose
recall
mad heart-throb,
when
the dust of
thick on the grave of
Besting for the
first
time in
Vivien's arms, her bright fair head almost pil-
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
lowed on his
23
was drinking
breast, Julie
moments
the intoxication of such
a maddening blaze of light;
the weird, sweet
her feet to
ness was
feeling his
German
its soft
all
as only a
The room
voluptuous, passionate heart can.
swam round
in
seemed to time
air
melody
but conscious-
;
merged in the
arm
perfect bliss of
so strongly, restfully
round
her.
Something of the
delirium must
girl's
have possessed Vivien too;
paused she tottered
slightly,
for
and
when they
as
he bent
over her the action was almost a caress.
"You
me
find
words
are
tired,
you a
were,
Miss Bellingham;
seat."
her
And
heart
let
simple as the
warmed
to
the
anxious ring of his low rich voice.
"
Not
in the
dazzles
here
!"
grounds.
me!"
she
cried
This
;
light,
"
somewhere
this
crowd
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
24
Out
in the soft bright moonlight
they
found many like themselves who had wandered away from the close
room; but they walked
cared not where
it
;
at last they
silently
on,
ball-
Julie
was enough just then
to lean giddily, wearily,
till
crowded
came
happy on
his arm,
to a tiuy arbour in so
remote a part of the grounds that even the
glad laughter of the masqueraders failed to
reach them.
"
We
are quite
mask with
snug
here,
and may un-
safety," Julie said, uncovering
her fair bright face,
and looking doubly
winning in the subtle languor of her
tude, that if feigned
w as
r
atti-
a masterpiece of
coquetry.
"Do you
think, Captain Stanley, that I
should get very wet
if
I tried to
drink
from that fountain ?"
" Pray don't attempt such a thing," he
;
SPOKEN IN ANGEB.
"let
cried;
me
way
you something.
fetch
should have no
25
my
finding
in
difficulty
I
to the refreshment room."
" I
you would
think
don't
me
find
again," she answered, looking piquantly mat"
ter-of-fact.
That
water
looks
and inviting, you really must
a
mermaid
down by
once."
for
And
so
cool
me
let
she
be
knelt
the marble basin, trying to catch
some of the water
in her pouted lips
as
sparkling and glittering in the moon-
it fell
light.
The
sweet,
elfin
music
soft,
faint
;
hushed
air
was
full
of tiny,
the fountains dancing in the
light
;
the marble statues that
here and there gleamed strangely
life-like
the sudden utter loneliness after that gay,
mad, whirling room
ghostly,
rousing
—
the
all
looked weird and
poetry
of
Vivien's
heart; poetry so sacredly guarded that no
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
26
human hand had
ever touched
its
key-
that
little
realising her
won-
note.
He
down on
looked tenderly
gemmed
fairy
woman,
drous beauty with sudden passionate pain
—pain
that was no brother to real love,
only an intoxication born of the
woman
through which alone such a
Julie
something
purer,
for
something higher,
than
homage-loving coquette;
the fever-fit love while
though
all
he never
for
fancy,
this
despotic,
but he thought
And
it lasted.
now,
the man's passion was roused,
one
moment thought
ing words of love to her.
tiful,
as
His heart
could ever touch him.
would have craved
senses,
bewitchingly
Julie was beau-
—a
incarnate — but
beautiful
a poet's ideal
of speak-
was plighted to another, and
painter's
she
in his eyes
an engagement to marry was almost
as
a;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
sacred
marriage
as
27
and
itself;
he told
himself in his madness that
it
brotherly love he
sunny, beau-
How
tiful thing.
is
how
;
for this
felt
deceitful our
easily it blinds us
and brotherly
as Platonic
was only
own
heart
with such words
!
I don't myself believe in Platonic love
but I do sincerely believe in a real honest
between
friendship
man
thorough liking for the
of age or sex.
understand
friendship
It is
this,
is
woman
and
spirit
independent
hard for the world to
and perhaps
after all
nearest akin to
and unclogged by
really
by
its
pas-
satiety.
" Till taught
Men
such
love, in
purest, noblest meaning, unstained
sion
—
by pain
know not what good
water's worth,"
Julie cried, raising her laughing, brilliant
face.
And
of both
then she made " a pretty cup
her hands
and
offered
him
it."
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
28
What
could he do but drink
?
—tasting
the
sweetness of those "lady palms" with
a
strange, quick thrill of pleasure, she laugh-
while in
ing the
merri-
childish
saucy,
ment.
" Is
true that you
it
Wednesday?"
slight
He
silence
that
was standing
arbour,
and
as
breaking
asked,
she
on
are leaving us
had
them.
on
fallen
the
porch of the tiny
in the
spoke she looked up
she
from her low rustic
her long eyes
seat,
beaming, softly winning in the moonlight.
"
Has not D'Arcy
told
We
our plans three days ago.
France, and
first
to
and
Italy.
I think the
hope.
keen
;
about
and
Change
I
him.
I
hear
My
made
are going
then through Spain
will
air
sometimes
We
you ?
do him good, I
here
him cough
much
quite
feel
room
is
is
close
all
too
anxious
to
night
his,
in
a
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
most distressing manner.
29
I wish he would
take more care of himself."
"You
much?"
D'Arcy very
love
she
said, interrogatively
and
Out
maddening moonlight,
that
in
soft,
might
surely
he
veriest
clown
slightly impatient.
wax
romantic
had
ever
she
smiled
would have found something to
ever poor, appropriate to the
he,
this
man
disciplined
of
there towering, like a
fect
manhood,
though that
cold
as
fair
her
nature,
demigod
;
the
all
on
how-
say,
moment
she loved with
passion
The
!
but
un-
stood
in his per-
and passionless
as
form was hut a visionary
delusion of her brain.
He
smiled as he
made answer
"Yes, I do love him.
together,
give
my
injury."
almost
right
brothers,
hand
to
We
and
save
were boys
I
would
him from
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
30
And
then the smile grew tenderer even
he looked at her, rebuking
as
honest heart
by the words
his
own
he
said
as
them
" I hope
you
me
will let
be a brother to
you too some day ?"
There was wonderfully
the
man
little
vanity in
he did not think for a moment
;
that this imperious beauty loved him.
those winning glances,
he
coquetry,
nature;
all
that sweet, soft
was
thought
All
part
of
her
he only knew that he had been
near loving her, and conquered the temptation.
Oh, vain boast
!
Perchance there
was one by, even then, though
to
human
"
A
taunt
eye,
brother
me?
who laughed
!"
she cried
Surely you must
She was mad.
winds she rose up
to scorn.
it
;
invisible
"
why do you
know
"
Flinging shame to the
swiftly, clasping his
arm
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
•
She told him
with both her hands.
all
mad
the story of her
31
clear whisper, the passion
all
love, in a quick
moment
of the
hushing her sweet ringing voice to those
tense hurried
She told him how
tones.
she had struggled against this
how
the very
at
whole
will
fled,
and
love,
sound of his voice her
her
leaving
weakly despicable.
miserably,
She begged him in one
incoherent breath to hate her, to
forgive
her; and then she bowed her head upon
her hands and sobbed, " I love you
I love
you
Vivien had drawn back
that pale, upturned face,
all
slightly
passionate excitement
;
flow of eloquence died
"I
love
you;
from
the soft wo-
manly beauty nigh stamped out
sob,
oh,
;
!"
in
its
but when the rapid
away
oh,
in the broken
I love
you!" he
bent down quickly, encircling the
slight
SPOKEN
32
trembling
form
with
his
arm
Assuredly there was passion
the
till
head rested on his
bright
small,
ANGER.
EST
breast.
hidden
be-
now
neath that calm, proud exterior, and
it
leapt to his
li^ht that
soft
love-
no living woman had ever seen
He
there before.
down lower and
bent
Truly she had never looked more
lower.
as
lovely,
her eyes,
unshed
lips
eyes in a wild
with flushed cheeks she raised
beaming through the
lustre of
In another moment
tears.
would have met
;
their
but in that moment
there came to Vivien's mind, clear and distinct, like the wail of a
Vivien,
how
manhood
earnestly I
will
Pure-hearted
against the
human
!
find
you
trust
cry
that
of his
"
Oh
youth
!
your
pure-hearted
Working dark
friend
:
!"
treachery
— loving,
trusting, gentle D'Arcy.
He
threw back his head with a hard,
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
short breath
;
his
arm dropped
He
heavily from round her.
out in the
torious
clear,
33
nerveless,
stood there,
moonlight,
bright
but the price of his victory was
;
a woman's
shame
!
She shrank back, bent earthward,
flower broken at the stem,
passionate
the
vic-
like a
the intense
all
nature realising the
insult
to
She had bowed herself down to
full.
be trampled on, and she hated him, clenching her small white hands
nails
pierced
the
delicate
womanlike, she was the
painful
silence,
self-possession.
the
till
the shapely
first to
first
to
But,
flesh.
break the
recover
her
Almost before the warm,
quick flush had faded from her face and
neck she threw back her head with
all
her
if
you
old haughty defiance.
"We
please,
VOL.
will return to the
Captain Stanley."
III.
ballroom,
And
there was
3
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
34
not a single
false
note in the clear music
Stung to the quick,
of her voice.
mother's Spanish nature,
all
all
her
the brave old
Bellingham blood, was roused to shield her
in
They had been gamblers,
pride.
its
—what you
roues
will
;
race was ever noted for
hereafter,
now
a
its
Alone,
bravery.
when no eye could mock her
would make her moan;
she
agony,
but that staunch, old
but
she must wreathe her quivering lips in
false,
sweet smile, train the misery from
bind down
her large soft eyes, and
her
aching, throbbing heart with the iron nerve
of her woman's will;
never
He
know her
lie
must
arm
for the
in grave humility,
moment
the heavier
burden of degradation rested on
ders.
He
felt
never,
suffering.
offered her his
and perhaps
for
it
all
so
his shoul-
keenly, blaming
himself for the sin of loving her, taxing
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
heart with
his
shameful
not
that
mad
took
all
guarded
never for one mo-
Julie of
want of modesty in
confession
—the
the blame to
brave, kind heart
The
itself.
passion had died frostily, stricken
the
first
its
He
secret.
ment accused
having
35
sinful
down
in
horror of his awakened conscience,
and Julie could never give
life
it
again
but there was no pride in his conquest;
his
whole tender heart yearned towards her
Yes, he could say
in pitiful, brotherly love.
that word truthfully now, and he
felt
a pain
something akin to the agony of years ago,
when
his gun,
aimed
wittingly shot his
at a tiger,
own bonnie
had loved each other in
shared
many
their
had un-
horse.
They
own way, and
a glorious Western hunt, and
the hot tears that had rained
down on
its
dainty quivering limbs almost rose to his
eyes
now
as he felt the tiny weight of her
3—2
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
36
hand on
beautiful,
He
thing he had wounded.
fragile
it
hand of the
his arm, the
raised
to his lips respectfully, humbly, as he
might have kissed the hand of a crowned
and
queen;
flash,
realised
owning
pride
the
Julie,
the
to herself,
we
in
mental
one quick
nobility
with a
of
warm
flush of the
often find sad consolation in,
"might have been" has
appointed
misplaced.
us,
man,
the
when
bitterly
dis-
that her love had not been
He
was
so
worthy of
love,
towering in his manly beauty, and loyal
height of principle above
all
the
men
she
had ever known, and the woman's heart
knew
that the secret of her shame was safe
with Vivien Stanley.
CHAPTEE
S
punctual
III.
postman
as the
is
almost a proverb, but here I
think
we ought
to
say
as
unpunctual as the postman/'
grumbled
Sir
chair from the
eight,
Hugh,
pushing
breakfast- table
and no sign of the
his
" half-past
;
idiot
back
I declare
!
"
I'll
What
threat
of
dire
vengeance would
have followed none ever knew, for at that
moment
a servant entered with the post-
bag and a large parcel of books.
chatelaines white
ters,
hand distributed the
keeping two back,
with
sparkle in her bright black eyes.
a
The
let-
roguish
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
38
" I don't think
she said at
I'll let
last.
Hugh
have these,"
"Such impatience
is
sure sign that they are worth reading,
my own
This
correspondence
scratched
too
and
wretchedly
dull.
man
ever
a lady's writing, too
is
letter,
is
a
;
no
those spidery L's.
Such a
!"
over,
She turned
it
fat
never
looking towards her husband, or the black
menace in
"A
'
his eyes
might have
monogram
pretty
startled her.
blue and gold,
in
° Oh,
A. M.,' " with a rippling laugh.
Hugh who
;
The
last
is
?
Oh
!
exclamation was wrung from
her in quick surprise, for Sir
risen from his
her chair,
fie,
"
seat, and,
Hugh had
stepping behind
quickly seized
the
mysterious
epistle.
"Ah,
you, you
Mistress Nina, I
little
tease !"
good-natured gaiety,
he
now
am
even with
cried,
that
full
of
the letter
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
was
safe in his
ment
a
for
your
of
line
own
curiosity,
this
"
hand.
As
you
letter.
'
39
a punish-
shall not see
Curiosity
is
a
woman's curse/ you know."
"
And
a man's
"
laughed.
was,
You were
Hugh you
;
I passed
it
a great deal worse/' she
is
just as curious as I
could not
patiently
sit
till
to you."
There was no jealousy in that bonnie
bright girl
Hugh
a
;
she had only wanted " to tease
and her laugh rang
little,"
musically mocking, at
out,
having succeeded;
but I think had she seen those passionate
dark eyes a
moment
mind would have
it
was well
"Ignorance
wise,"
for
is
ago, even
learnt suspicion.
her that
bliss
when
she
'tis
her pure
Perhaps
did
folly to
and there was many a black
in his evil past that the
not.
be
secret
innocent heart
would have trembled to know.
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
40-
"What
are
you reading ?"
of
a
said,
who had unpacked
turning to Julie,
novels,
she
the
and now stood leaning on the back
the
chair;
curve
graceful
her
of
lissom form, the bright face bent over the
book she held.
always remember Julie
I
perfect
picture
than
a
more
a
as
woman
living
smiling or grave, seated or standing, there
are too
many
my
and form in
Oh
copies
of that
soul's
perfect
picture
gallery.
Cleopatra, Dido, Sappho, all ye
!
wielded the sceptre of coquetry
face
when
who
the
world was young, were you as lovely as this
modern witch ?
were your
Were your
lips as red ?
you her nameless,
tion
?
If so,
eyes as bright,
Did there
subtle
float
charm of
round
fascina-
no wonder men's heads
reeled,
and men's hearts were drunken, with your
beauty.
—
m ANGER.
SPOKEN
"What would
prepared
carefully
the author,
these
all
41
who
so
exciting sur-
and disappointments, say to
prises
has
my
anti-
cipating the mental feast ?" Julie laughed,
"A
book and taking up another.
the
closing
new novel by Whyte
love.
I
week's
am
glad.
packet
of
I
was
silly
Melville,
Nina
so tired of last
love
where
tales,
every one weds in the last chapter, as you
knew they would
every Jill has the Jack of her heart
be more refined, where every
Why
Juliet.
It
is
where
second;
in the
Romeo
;
or, to
marries
will people write such trash ?
never so in real
life
— never
!"
And
the bright smile faded for an instant, but
beamed up
father's
"
again, mockingly defiant, at her
laughing cry
Why,
Julie,
who has broken your
brave
heart ?"
It
was a random shot, but how near the
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
42
mark
Under the broidered bodice of her
!
dainty morning robe lay something heavily
akin to a broken heart
that had
:
an aching something,
made its moan every waking moment
of those three long days since that hateful
masquerade
ball.
But the burden of its cry
brought no useless tears to those
but a
restless
fevered
flash,
soft eyes,
and a
hot,
stinging flush to face and neck.
" Oh,
my
shame
!
my
shame
!"
were the
cruel words that scorched her brain,
and the
reproach was harder to bear than the
memory
of any deep, dire sin would have been.
in
company she must be
winning
;
and you would
But
gay, bright, and
travel far to find
a more perfect actress than this fair Julie.
We
heap praise upon puppets trained to
simulate
human
woe, but what are they in
comparison to the
men and women who
daily tread the world's stage, the cynosure
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
of
the hidden
hearts
pass
and gay, while hourly
eyes, smiling
all
!
dagger
We
presses
aching
sign
we
;
of their suffering
and yet we speak of acting
"
their
know them hy no
them by unconscious
were a rare
43
as
though
;
it
gift.
Must one have
a broken heart, papa, to
rebel against being fed with insipid sweet-
meats?" she
soft,
his
said,
laying her hand, like a
shapely snowflake, on the shoulder of
rough shooting-coat.
" I hate the very
sight of a three-volume novel, but I always
take up any book by the author of
Gladiators
7
'
The
with the keen pleasure of an
Epicurean who can depend on his cook."
"What
do you
know about cooking?"
her father cried, pinching her cheek.
take no interest in the divine art of
food palatable.
off ambrosia,
My
little girl
and never ask
"
You
making
would dine
for the receipt
!"
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
44
"
Food
what Julie
is
the
calls
coarse
necessity of life," laughed Nina.
"Cooking," continued the Colonel, who
was now on
his
What
art.
hobby, "is in reality a
fine
have your poets, your novelist,
your painter done in comparison to the
man who
"
Oh
invented an omelette ?"
hush,
!
pouting.
"
pray papa
!"
Julie
cried,
Mentioning poets and painters
in the same breath with a chef- de- cuisine
Is
it
not shocking, Captain Stanley ?"
Julie took every opportunity of pointedly
addressing Vivien now.
woman's
this
In studying
character, I have often
this
wondered
if
was a proud way of ignoring her former
madness, or
if it
was simply for the pleasure
of speaking to the
man
she loved, oh
!
so
madly, in spite of the bitter past.
" It
does
seem rather irreverent, Miss
Bellingham," he
said,
with
that
bright,
—
SPOKEK
IN"
ANGER.
45
quiet smile she loved so well, kindling as
did the dark beauty of his face
it
" but I
;
think Byron or Eaphael would do
don't
you any good
if
you were
Eeally hungry
!
How
really hungry."
the starving heart
gleamed from those yearning, tawny eyes.
Byron
Tennyson
or Eaphael,
what could they
or
Guido
do, those treasured favour-
dearly as the refined, passionate heart
ites,
loved them
?
What
poets and artists do to
fill
void that cold, calm
man had
life ?
army
could a whole
of
the empty, aching
left
in her
Hot, glowing, brain-maddening words
but fed
her love.
Softly-tinted,
perfect
colouring could only bring back his beauty
painfully life-like.
Must
all
Would
it
be always so
that was perfect in art,
all
?
that was
tender in romance, but serve as comparisons
for
"
him!
You
have not yet rendered unto Caesar
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
46
the things which be Caesar's," said Sir
Hugh,
stopping in his present amusement of feeding
Lady Bellingham's ]apdog with
"Will you pass me
morsels of game-pie.
my
other letter,
Nina mia ?"
"Please leave Tiny alone,
cried, piteously
him meat
dainty
"
;
Hugh!"
she
you know we never give
so early in the day."
"Tiny! Tiny!"
But the
Hugh
fresh voice called
held the
dog
little
at her distress.
It
was
in vain
Sir
j
laughing
fast,
his turn to tease
now.
"Not
until
you give me
my
it
not for you;
it
letter,"
he
said.
"But
Ah my
Strafford.
?
ou badly
is
!
;
why
Tiny-wisey?"
" Will
for
Mr.
beauty, did they treat
did not
(to
is
ou bite them,
her fat
you kindly take
it
up
little
my
pug-dog.)
to him, Captain
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
Stanley
He
?
breakfast in his
Not
start
well
He
asked to see you.
very well this morning
"
47
so I sent
;
is
not
him up
own room."
Vivien
I"
cried,
with a quick
they had planned leaving the Lodge
;
early the next morning.
in the arbour he had
Since that scene
no wish
to stay
an
hour longer than necessary under the same
roof with
Julie
D'Arcy was
ill
!
Bellingham;
Illness
and
now
with him must
needs be dangerous, so weak and wasted
had he become.
D'Arcy
pleasure,
" It
is
down by
smiled,
a quick,
when he saw
from
my
warm
flush of
the letter.
father," he said, laying
the side of his untasted breakfast,
dainty enough to tempt an invalid though
was
;
it
and Vivien guessed by the
it
fair flowers
so tastefully arranged in the rare old vase,
whose white hands had seen
to all things
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
48
those delicate viands were
needful before
up
carried
room
to D'Arcy's
not Julie, he
:
knew, though the boy praised her thoughtfulness with a tender love-light in his soft
blue eyes.
He
looked sadly worn and
ill
the loose dressing-grown falling with painhis
to
distinctness
ful
wasted form
;
the
blue veins in his temples contrasting the
poor, sharp, pallid face.
"
You
are looking very
ill !"
taking the thin white hand.
the
air
Change
here
is
will do
the weak,
frail
much
you good
hand
too
!"
Vivien
said,
am
sure
I
keen for you.
And he
stroked
gently.
" I shall not be able to leave just yet,"
D'Arcy
said,
almost imploringly.
win back the money I
"
Why
could
know."
'
"I must
lost last night."
stay here for that reason
play'
with
Vivien
me
felt
at
?
Boulogne,
quite guilty
You
you
when he
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
49
thought of the subtle depth of his plan,
but those feverish blue eyes read through
its
simplicity.
"
You want
know how
with
said,
to give
to insult
all
me money, and
me by
don't
offering it," he
the peevish irritability of an
invalid.
A
dark red flush mounted through the
sun-tan of Stanley's brow.
"Indeed you wrong me," was
all
he
said.
"
You know
I
want money," the other
continued, querulously,
treat
you
me
to lend
went
man
"
as a child.
me
" and you try to
I would have asked
a few thousands before I
to the Jews, only
you were a poor
then."
Why not borrow of me
" I have
now
?" he cried
with."
vol. in.
;
more than I know what to do
4
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
50
An
expression very like
passed over the other's
a death
agony
face.
" I do not borrow of
you now," he
said,
hoarsely, " because I should never be able
If I live to be eighty years
pay you.
to
any better
old I shall never be
have mortgaged
my
father's
all
now.
'
Play'
if
I
he died to-
be the beggar I
still
my
is
for
right of succession to
property; and
morrow, I should
off,
only chance
fortune must turn for
;
fate
am
and
one who waits as
patiently as I do."
There was a pathetic passion in the
words, showing
been,
how
how wasted
bitter the waiting
full
of pained
"
Borrow of
astonishment and deep pity.
me, D'Arcy, and pay
" I
to help you.
would
had
the patience.
All Vivien's heart woke
cried.
last
sell
off
the mortgage," he
out
my
last farthing
I owe a debt to your family
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
We have
that gold can never cancel.
trembled
;
"Dear
cried,
and
D'Arcy,"
brothers,
" trust
the
rich
been
voice
as a brother."
old friend, dear old brother/' he
" Always
and noble
generous
off
brown hand.
strong
the
pressing
never pay
me
51
I
!
can
those mortgages, for they are
foreclosed.''
There was none of the bitter excitement
in his voice of a
dull apathy
;
man who
but
it
ruined, only a
is
spoke with pitiful force
to Vivien's heart, for
it
was the calmness
of despair.
"
that you should have gone to
To think
the Jews, instead of coming to me," Vivien
said, in a low,
pained voice.
what can I do
for
mother, the
Oh
!
D'Arcy,
you ?"
Once before he had
useless wealth,
"
felt
the curse of his
when he mourned
day he became
its
his dead
heir.
4—%
It
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
52
seemed as though that
had
his
left
bane upon
pitiless
it,
old miser
that
might
it
hoard, but never spend.
"Have you
paid
all
your 'play' debts?"
he asked, suddenly.
"
They
night,"
my
are all paid, even
!
The
conscience,
price
of
my
of
But
peace,
!"
And
Vivien's pained astonishment, he
head upon his hands, sobbing
face
ill,
how
a
my
of
then, to
bowed
his
like a child.
Vivien was very gentle with him
and
all
}^es,
at such
my
soul
lost last
"Oh
D'Arcy answered.
'play' debts are paid.
price
what I
could he be otherwise
?
;
weak
but his
blanched to a deadly white as the
forger told his
tale.
For the weak man
before him, trusting to the similarity of his
own and Lord Clowden's writing, had
several cheques in his father's
" Those
signed
name.
cheques must be recovered at
;
'
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
any
"
Vivien
risk,"
said,
when
53
was
all
Lord Clowden may discover the
and
some
set
He
"
and
clever
detective
stopped,
white horror of D'Arcy's
not
know how
worse than
by the
did
the boy feared his father
the
scandal,
worse than his
Lord Clow-
That proud old man could
den's wrath.
never brook public dishonour
"Do you know who
!
holds those cheques ?"
said, gently.
"Colonel Johnson
won them
were signed before your
get
work,
He
face.
poverty, rose the stern fury of
Vivien
forgery,
to
arrested
told.
them
all,
Vivien, I
" I shall try.
Lock Farm,
man's
face
them
fairly.'
;
;
arrival.
am
but some
You wont
afraid."
Colonel Johnson, of the
is it
I
all
not?
I never liked that
can hardly think he
won
CHAPTER
VEEY
IV.
notable
farmhouse,
rambling old
the
building
had once been, but the busy
hands were at rest that had
taken such pride in
now
its
well-kept dairy, and
a gay parterre bloomed in the
farmyard,
ci-devant
and
hunters
cowhouse.
chafed
Its
and
at
widow,
her death he had given up the
the place into
No
seat.
having done
that
Guards,
the
late farmer's rosy
farm and turned
country
the
owner,
present
formerly Philip Johnson of
had married the
in
old
so,
extravagant
a
snug
one wondered at his
for of
all
soldier
men
assuredly
had
not
the
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
slightest talent for agriculture
pasturage and
years
faulty
three
as
since
he
little
many
children left to
was some
it
his
lost
he was in
He had
fingers.
never married again, though
ten
and goodly
:
passed quickly
fair cornfields
through those heedless
55
wife
;
and
respects,
the
care
had
his
never lacked a father's love.
From
their
had taken a
very
dislike
first
to the
and unreasoning though
cherished
it
He
tance.
meeting, Vivien
it
man.
Vague
was,
he had
through their brief acquain-
was not wont to attach any
importance to that frivolous feeling of presentiment called reading a person at
sight
;
and he never based
his
first
judgment on
the opinion of such a moment, waiting: for
any one to honestly earn
his
dislike;
rarely took
but
back.
either,
his friendship or
once
given,
he
Yet Colonel Johnson
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
56
had never given overt cause
for the feeling
of aversion, that, try as he would, he could
not quite shake
the Lock Farm,
man
he
that
he entered
as
of the
his old dislike
all
tenfold
returned,
knowledge
and now,
off;
hy
increased
held
the
proofs
the
of
D'Arcy's crime.
" Glad to see you, Stanley
you,
seat.
,?
he
cried,
The
little place.
will
cordially.
first
!
"
Glad to see
Pray take a
time you've been to
Have you
breakfasted
?
my
What
you take ?"
Vivien had been shown into the breakfast-room,
where
Colonel
Johnson
was
seated en famille, and three pair of childish
eyes
were turned on him,
full
of vague
curiosity.
"My
my
daughters Millicent and May, and
son James," said their father, with a
collective
wave
of his hand.
SPOKEN IN ANGEE.
Millicent,
May, and James, thus
duced, rose up like three
box,
"
and
sat
Thank
57
down
little
intro-
Jacks-in-the-
again.
you, I have breakfasted," Vivien
said, coldly.
"
When
you
are at leisure, I
should like a few moments' private conversation with you."
He
was a
short, foxy-haired
pair of restless blue eyes,
them on Yivien
" Private
" Certainly.
and now he
fixed
furtively.
conversation
I
man, with a
am
!"
he
repeated.
quite at leisure now.
Will you step this way ?"
And
into a small ante-room that
might once have
been a pantry, but was now,
he led him
like the rest of
the house, elegantly furnished.
People said
furnishing his house was Colonel Johnson's
hobby, and he had been
for days
known
to meditate
on the pattern of a wall-paper or
the colour of a chair-cover.
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
58
"
am
Pray take a
seat,
Captain Stanley
;
I
quite at your service."
" I shall only detain
Vivien
you a few moments,"
not taking the proffered chair,
said,
but resting his hand lightly on the back of
it.
He
felt
strangely inclined
that cautious looking
how an
often
man down
little
he held the chair instead.
knock
to
;
so
It is astonishing
under-current of unexpressed thought
shows
itself in
" I only called to ask
some
you
action.
trivial
to oblige
me with
those cheques of Lord Clowden Strafford's
that Mr. Strafford
paid his
'
play'
debts
with."
was
This
Stanley
at
;
as I said before,
stratagem
realised his
matter,
very incautious
;
a
of
he was not good
moment
afterwards
clumsy handling of so
by the
satirical
over the other's face.
Captain
he
delicate a
smile that spread
SPOKEN IN ANGER
"I should be
59
you mad,
sorry to think
May
Captain Stanley.
I ask the meaning
of such an extraordinary request ?"
no
Vivien took
insolent
friend,
has
man's
"I came from m}~
insinuation.
Mr.
the
of
notice
Strafford," he said, calmly
;
" he
very strong reason for wishing to
a
have those cheques again
kindly
tell
received, I
me
and
the total of
have in
my
cheque which you can
if
you
will
you have
all
possession a blank
fill
Captain
"Beally,
;
up
to the
Stanley,
amount/'
with
all
willingness to oblige you, I cannot possibly
move
speaking to
in this matter without
Mr. Strafford himself."
" If you
said,
" I
angrily,
Strafford;
self,
will
and
he
it is
is
understand
have
me," Vivien
come
from
Mr.
not well enough to come him-
of the utmost importance that
he should regain possession of those cheques."
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
60
watchfulness had dis-
All the cautious
appeared from the other's manner, and he
raised his eyes
till
they met Vivien's, more
defiantly than boldly.
He
read that honest
simple heart clearly as a book
D'Arcy could
;
and poor
scarcely have chosen a worse
ambassador than Vivien Stanley.
Johnson's
acute,
was
conscience,
still
though
Colonel
very
not
honest enough to exclaim
warningly against the trickery by which he
won
much
so
at " play ;" and, moreover,
he
would have been ashamed to have those
amount
cheques publicly shown, for the
signed was larger than any club, however
lenient,
But
would have quite approved.
now he saw by
Vivien's
manner that
it
was
not to expose him, but to shield D'Arcy,
that those
cheques were wanted
;
so
he
immediately took another tone.
"I
don't understand
you
in the least,
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
Captain Stanley
;
but
as
if,
61
you
Mr.
say,
am
Strafford really wants those cheques, I
sorry I cannot oblige
power
longer in
my
it
;
is
possession."
"
Not one
"
No, not one of them, and I
know when
"
God
my
out of
them, for they are no
return
to
him
of
them ?" Vivien
cried.
really don't
or where I used them."
help
him
I"
Vivien
whisper.
"
to write to
Lord Clowden."
There
is
said, in a
nothing
left
quick
now but
*****
God
help
him!
Perhaps those words
Soared upwards in the light of an answered
prayer, for never
had erring mortal
sorer
need of God's help.
There, where Vivien
white and
blue
rigid.
dilated
The
eyes,
left
him, D'Arcy
sat,
fixed horror in his
the
piteous,
helpless
misery of his weak, quivering mouth, he
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
62
looked more like
frightened than a
a
who had been
child
grown man wrestling
with a great agony.
At
the
his
frail
feet
lay
Lord Clowden's
weapon
that
dear boy,"
it
letter,
had stricken him
down.
"
My
few days now to see
you
will scarcely believe
how
wandering
life,
restless,
" I
ran,
hope in a
again.
You
tired I feel of this
knowing what
a
nomadic creature I am; but now I have
had
and I am
enough,
travelling
longing for home.
It
not
is
feelings entirely that are bringing
to England.
clever
rogue
(I
can't
help
me
back
admiring his
am
has taken the liberty of using
little
my own
I find that some designing,
imitative talent, although I
a
quite
the sufferer)
my
signature
too freely, and he has really suc-
ceeded in obtain ing several very large
sums
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
my
in
name.
So,
my
boy, finding time
my
anything but light on
hands, I
am
speeding home, and I hope, with the help
of several clever detectives, to unearth this
sly thief soon.
The person must
really be
a genius, for the plot was bold in conception and wonderfully well
D'Arcy read no more
"
worked out
;
he lay back in
his chair panting for breath, as a fox
might
exhausted in covert with the pack in view.
He
felt
benumbed, frightened, incapable of
thought, his
at the crisis.
mind
calling feebly for Vivien
He
could suggest, he could
soothe; and then vaguely he remembered
that Vivien had gone to get those cheques
back.
To get those cheques back
his horrible
the thought.
like
despair he laughed
It
came
something he
detectives
!
Even
in
aloud at
so vividly to him,
had read
—how
would work, slowly but
those
surely,
— —
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
64
they traced
till
himself
to
the
the
him,
cold
damp
thought of
would
a
in
He
!
without meaning
;
never be
said it as one
he
;
he
might
thoughtlessly
but
a
to
brow when he
his
passion,
to
And Julie
!
It should
her.
die first
speak
chilled
heir
possible
dukedom, a branded forger
A
crime
miserable
repeated
and
the
words again
"
/ will
And
die first
!"
a sudden delirious light seemed to
He had
break upon him.
but to put a
would be
bullet
through his brain and
over
the shame, the horror, the disgrace
He
;
rose up, his
all
hands shook so that he
could hardly place the crutches
;
his
quivered with painful excitement
bright
carnation
making the
!
large
burnt
startled
naturally bright and blue.
in
his
;
mouth
and a
cheeks,
eyes look un-
;
-
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
65
I believe the sudden realisation
of his
He
worst fears had turned his brain.
had
been brought up in a God-fearing home.
Naturally of
position, I
a
am
timid,
superstitious
had he been
sure,
dis-
sane, that
horrible thought could never have entered
his
He
mind.
writing these few words
"Dear Father,
cheques
;
—
It
some excuse
in
my
was I who forged those
am
read
graced, there
is
have confessed
dead you will find
temptation
wish to excuse myself.
when you
hastily
—
alive I could never
Perhaps when I
it.
up a pen,
took
this.
nothing
;
not that I
I shall
be dead
Penniless and
left for
me
dis-
to live
for."
He
signed and sealed this strange letter
adding no word of loving farewell to the
father
he was about
vol. in.
to
leave
for
5
ever.
SPOKEN IN ANG^R.
66
B'Arcy honoured
his father, but
Clowden
had never been tender with the boy's too
sensitive heart
clung
to
;
him
and now the habit of years
and
chilled
all
show of
affection.
Somehow
the enormity of the crime he
was going to commit seemed dwarfed by
He
the black misery of the present.
saw
nothing beyond the earthly judgment, that
judgment he was
he could
realise,
and the
chill
so bent on fleeing
but beyond
—
of that blank
all
j
that
was blank,
had no
terror
for him.
His resolution made a man of him,
the half-childish weakness was gone
and there was almost
a
pistol
as
;
now
;
shadow of Clowden's
determined expression on his
face,
all
fair,
girlish
he stood toying with his loaded
that
little
silver- mounted
toy that
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
written
the delay fretted
a
man who
though
him
;
but now he
felt like
has gotten his ticket for a long
who knows
journey, and
little
as
letter impatiently,
his
He had
in its tiny mouth.
his life
lield
67
is
some
time before the train will arrive.
He
that there
realised a feeling of great freedom
;
there
was no need to hurry, he might dally with
a few moments longer.
They were not
precious living moments,
because
burdened with
breathing
time
that
moments
life,
was
precious
but an
only
pleasant
because there was no need to hurry.
took up his pen again and wrote two
tender, loving notes
other for Julie.
;
He
the
And
then,
slightest
He
letters,
one for Vivien, and the
arranged them side by
side with the one addressed to
den.
idle
Lord Clow-
without hurry, without
show
of
fear,
without
5—2
an
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
eyelid quivering or his
madman pointed the
and pulled the
A
hand shaking, the
pistol at his
own
brain
trigger.
strong brown hand was laid on his
arm, swiftly, firmly pressing
it aside,
and
the bullet went crashing through the opposite wail.
But the shock was
relaxation so terrible, that he
Vivien's arms, stone dead
!
so great, the
fell
back in
!
CHAPTER
UNSET
and
V.
in the country, " rosy
golden
softness
the sea
the
brighten-
air,
of earth's fresh robe.
—the roaring,
tossing,
Sunset on
foaming deep
of unutterable calm!
away
in
around
a
great glowing ball sinking far
shining
glittering
the
carmine splendour the emerald
The mighty expanse
The
grand-
tinting
flame,
sweet, hushed
ing with
one
beautiful;"
waters,
throwing
canopy of prism-light.
Sunset
in the city, clothing the dull, grey, neutral
tints
with sudden beauty
windows
till
crimson eyes;
they flash
;
lighting
out
like
up the
great
dwelling fondly on the
fair
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
70
drooping flowers a slatternly beggar
selling
on the kerbstone, finding gold in
throwing
tumbled, ill-kept hair;
her
girl is
bright transient
gems on
all
alike, like
away into a
fade
will
a
Anon
giant playing with earth's baubles.
it
its
great, beautiful,
blue-black cloud
" Thick inlaid with patines of bright gold/*
Yes,
all
is
beautiful
that
is
natural
—the
sunrise, the noontide's glow, the gloaming,
and the night.
Earth
is
beautiful where
man
has never
reared his hideous handiwork, hideous in
its
cold
lifelessness
living Nature.
ling,
tinted,
beautiful;
the
first
compared to
Youth
witching
is
beautiful— spark-
ytmth
glory-crowned age
calm of death
one ugly thing in
life
loving,
!
is
Life
is
beautiful;
is
beautiful.
is
sin,
The
the canker
;
SPOKEN" IN ANGER.
that eats the beauty
and rotten to the
till
it
71
fades, hideous
core.
Into a gay bright room the sunset crept,
on
revelling
dainty
its
lining
boudoir
dwelling fondly, for the Giver of beauty
loves
of
it
the
round,
head,
Julie,
on the wondrous perfection
well,
woman
lying
gemmed arm
for
she
is
something
is
;"
thrown above her
restless,
this
dusty Park.
the idle days are
herself in
hot city
It
is
all
streets, or in
full
too long.
lily fair
the dull,
not worth while to array
fashion's glory,
eyes are far
fair
from the wish " to do
not worth while to scorch her
flesh in the
when
the only
away whose admiration she
ever craved for
noon
lazily
firm,
and has donned her dinner-dress
an hour too soon
It
is
The
there.
;
so she has spent the after-
in lonely abortive attempts at killing
time, the strong
young giant dying by slow
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
72
There on the
degrees.
fils
ing anger, because
too
its
in unreason-
heroine
loved
is
madly by the one man of her
Why
should they be loved
pretty,
roines
full
down
last novelette, flung
Dumas
floor lies
slightly
— while
of
beauty,
She
life
is
scarcely
an acknowledged Belle,
and passion
loverless
heart.
French he-
questionable
she,
as
her
own
ripe
and alone ?
them
hates
—those
all
all
— those
white-tied,
black-tailed dandies,
who crowd round her
at the season
greedily amorous, be-
cause she
balls,
is the fashion;
mousiached,
tall
those Poole-covered,
donkeys,
forget their nursery lisp,
who
will never
who hang on her
Victoria in the close-packed Park
them, flashing dangerous,
fiance
from
" shining
her
like
long,
a clear
hates
maddening
gleaming
stream
fringe of long dark grass"
:
—
de-
eyes
through a
as one of the
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
smitten
ones
said
the
other
which
day,
known
marvellous flower from a
has since been quoted at
73
dull brain
the clubs.
all
There comes back to her now another
scene, totally foreign to that sunset-lit,
boudoir
—a
moonbeams
its
picture bright
;
with
gay
faint
soft,
a scenery almost Oriental in
rich splendour
—
all
as a
background to
that tall turbaned man, with his deep soft
eyes and darkly beautiful face.
She
sees
again those eyes light up a sudden, mad,
sweet
fire,
so
full
of
burning
eloquence
that her heart reeled giddily for the
ment,
like
wine.
She
his
arms
mo-
one drunken with strong red
feels
the quick, firm pressure of
as vividly
now
as
though
it
were
but yesternight, and not three long years
ago, since she reaped her bitter reward of
woman's shame out
light.
in the soft
still
moon-
m ANGER.
SPOKEN
74
And
then her thoughts
wander on
to
the after-horror, and she shudders in that
warm
scented room
for the poor
distraught soul that had tried
to pass to eternity
great
sin,
not a shudder of pity
;
through the door of a
but the
S}r baritic horror
selfish
of a vain frivolous nature at the thought
of anything dreadful, and she gives a
little
quick cry as her father opens the door be-
hind her.
"
Oh
!
papa,
how you
my
" Frightened you,
says,
sitting
Fashionable
her
very tiring,
is
me
!"
pretty one ?" he
down by
wearily
life
frightened
side.
and the
He
noonday's heat has not been merciful.
must do something; a
sofa
all
day,
like
a lazy
gossips at the clubs,
finding
tired
it
all
man
can't lie
woman
;
on a
so
he
and basks in the Park,
very slow, feeling strangely
when the day
is
done,
and longing
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
for
the
hardier
of
toil
75
hunting
the
season.
my
"Frightened you,
again,
darling?" he says
taking the soft jewelled fingers in
his fat old hands.
"Yes, papa/' with another shudder; "I
was thinking of that dreadful time, you
know."
"
Ah
!
By-the-by, Julie,
think I saw
whom
do you
to-day ?"
" I hate having to guess at anything,"
with a piquant pout
for nothing.
;
"
it
Tell me,
tires one's
brain
you weary-looking,
old papino."
" Poor old Strafford.
so aged in
my
life.
of splendid greys
;
He
I never saw a
man
was driving a pair
brought them himself
from Arabia, Hammersley
have been a great shock to him
quite careworn and old."
—It
says.-
;
must
he looks
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
76
"
Why
does he not marry again, I won-
der?" Julie murmurs.
t:
He's a handsome old chap enough/'
laughs her father
;
" gilt
by the approaching
coronet, for they say the
much
longer;
ma
There
face
wasted
he's
can't last
a
to
perfect
Supposing you console the aged
shadow.
heir,
Duke
belle
?"
no answering laughter
is
in Julie's
her great eyes are open and
;
thoughtful
rapt,
full
of
beauty, and the full red
lips are firmly closed.
" Papa,"
she says,
reintroduce
me
to
" Eeintroduce
Why,
Julie,
But the
lips,
"
suddenly, " will you
Lord Clowden?"
you
you surely
soft
light
to
Lord
can't
Clowden
mean
fingers
to
!
"
pressed his
smothering the nearly uttered words.
Leave
me
as I ask you."
alone,
papa darling
;
only do
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
She stands by his
77
her hand on his
side,
shoulder, looking
down
glory of her fresh
womanly beauty.
at
him
in
all
the
"Papa," she says, after a smiling pause, during which that busy brain has never rested,
"
which
is
Lord Clowden's favourite club
" Boodles'
ever
is
the only club where
met him," he answers,
his eyes
?"
I've
round
with astonishment.
" Then, papa, I should very
go over Boodles'.
day,
much
Will you take
when you know
that
like to
me some
Lord Clowden
is
there ?"
" I don't like
"
What
it,
Julie," he cries, warmly.
will people say ?
Why,
have been your father-in-law
fellow
had not
"But
it
says, calmly
my
—
if it
"
so,
father-in-law.
that poor
had not happened."
did happen,
;
if
he would
papa dear,"
consequently, he
is
she
not
If every one weighed
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
78
conduct by the 'might have been,'
their
what a tangle the world would be
Which unanswerable
logic
in
!"
him
strikes
dumb.
^
~7pc
So a few days
after,
ip
^p
yfc
according to their
arrangement, Julie receives a telegram.
contains the one
"
It
word
Come."
But she knows what
no need to
dress.
You would
Julie en deshabille;
all
There
means.
it
never find
her lazy reclining
never tumbles a lock of her hair that
meant
to be
tumbled
she has only to don a bewitching
only to change her dainty
looks
—
as a pretty
— dressed with
is
not
—never disarranges
fold of her neatly piquant dress.
her hands in tight
is
bottines,
a
So now
little hat,
and case
French kid, and she
woman
perfect taste.
only can look
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER
Her
father meets her at the top of time-
honoured
quite
St.
James's Street; and together,
by chance
(?)
they find Lord Clowden
in the club reading-room.
look
79
vanishes
face, as
The weary, bored
from his worn aristocratic
his eyes light on this fair Julie,
winnings cordial in her kind remembrance
of him.
He
is
wonderfully changed, she thinks
that lined
trimmed
face
quite old in
is
setting
of
iron-grey
well-
its
hair
but
j
from head to heel he bears that nameless
something that sums up the grand old
—gentleman.
man would
total
Clad in a beggar's rags, the
carry
still
wondrous
that
stamp of birth that proclaims against the
common
So
saying that
men
all
are
He
Julie's shallow heart is satisfied.
aristocratic-looking
inherit a
;
dukedom;
he
the
is
rich
man
;
equal.
is
he will
she
loves
—
!
80
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
will never
marry her
this
—
so she will
marry
man
One
of her greatest gifts was patience
having made up her mind to accomplish a
knew how
certain thing, she
she
home
went
satisfied
with
afternoon
that
the
day's
satisfied she continued,
week she did not
One day she
see
is
to wait.
work
though
Clowden
perfectly
—
perfectly
for a
whole
again.
driving her dashing pair
of steppers through Pall Mall,
spies him, smiling
So
when
she
with pleasure, eager for
her notice; so she draws in her fretting,
impatient horses, holding out a wee wel-
coming hand.
"
Papa
is
not very w ell to-day," she says,
r
with her fresh sweet smile.
such a charity
if
" It
would be
you would pay him a tiny
visit."
"I
shall be only too
happy!" he
cries.
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
It
would be hard
woman
"
to refuse a pretty pleading
anything, he thinks.
Then
you jump
will
And
you home ?"
drive
81
in,
and
let
me
she smiles, with
all
a child's coy shyness beaming in her long
she will use her fresh bright youth
eyes
;
as a
weapon against
So the
list
of
first
this old
evening
many
others
man's heart.
strung on the long
is
Clowden passes
that
Her
with Julie Bellingham.
father
would
sometimes doze while she tried to weave
her spell
— the
sometimes the two
but
rubber;
it
form
;
;
Or
beauty.
enjoy a social
was a dull game
at
voice, clear as the
bells, rich as
ward cry
her
men would
That sweet, ringing
of silver
of
spell
best.
music
the lark's glad heaven-
that bended, rounded, graceful
those
white
hands
travelling
in
melody over the ivory keys, surely wooed
them from the goddess
vol. in.
"
Chance " and they
6
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
82
would forget the waiting
ner
— one
drinking
and watch
heart full of a father's pride, the
despite
other,
cards,
in,
its
heavy
of
years,
with the madness of youth, the
subtle poison that fair witch
Strangely
load
enough,
had prepared.
Lord Clowden
had
never
heard of D'Arcy's engagement
Julie;
there
had been
between father and
never confided
it
so little
son, that
to
to
sympathy
the boy had
him, most probably
because the wedding-day had never been
fixed
and the gentle
;
have shrank from Clowden's possible
on so
an engagement.
indefinite
may
sensitive heart
raillery
And now
the world was shy of mentioning the son's
name even
to
the
father
whom
he had
disgraced.
One
gether,
sunny afternoon they
soft
Clowden and
needlework
;
but
now
Julie.
she
is
She
sat
to-
hates
toiling daintily
SPOKEN IN ANGEE.
at a
gay smoking cap
—that
is
83
to say, she is
knitting bright silks together, and she
him
naively that
There
cap.
that
are
fingers
that
—those
so
nsing the implements of
little
mighty
and the
;
intended for a smoking-
something very winning in
woman
a pretty
her sex
is
it is
tells
shapeless bits of steel
in
her soft guiding
fair Julie is well
aware of
fact.
The Venetian
blinds are down, and the
lazy sunlight just catches a choice piece of
colouring
here
and
there,
and flaunts
it
mockingly in contrast with the prevailing
shadow.
profile
her
;
It
it
rests
marks
white-clad,
plays with
hands
smile,
;
now
now
the
on
Julie's
off the
cool,
soft
Eastern
supple contour of
bending
form,
and
gems on her busy white
brightening an already brilliant
shining lambent and sweet in
the changing depth of her half-veiled eyes.
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
84
And Clowden
watches her, drunk with her
beauty, but sadly alive to the cruel jest of
own grey
his
by the
hair
and
furrowed
brow,
side of that soft, smooth, childish
face*
He
has told himself that he
is
a fool in
age again and again, laughed at
his old
himself bitterly for his madness, and digested
such-like
smoke
;
wisdom savagely with
but
no use
it is
must continue
so
;
;
for in
he
is
his
his nightly
a fool, and
gay, sinful
youth surely his heart never beat more
madly than
it
does now, in the fading decay
of his old age.
"
There
is
no
fool like
telling himself bitterly
her,
abjectly as
—that
is
now, as he watches
dog might, hungering
sweet ready smile
that-
the cool, smooth crimson of her
lips,
for her smile
cleft
a
an old fool," he
showing
for a
few brief maddening moments
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
85
the tiny dazzling teeth beneath
—-that smile
that leapt to her eyes a topaz flash, and
gave a warmer roundness to those round
smooth cheeks.
"Shall we see you at Paris this winter?"
she asks, with just the look that
him most
;
and then dropping her eyelids
may
see
leave
on
again, that he
long
unmans
lashes
what a shadow
her
cheek's
their
clear
bloom.
" I hope so," he says, eagerly,
by
his great love
;
" that
is, if
made shy
I
may
join
you; but I feared you had seen too much
of
me
already ?"
She looks up winningly reproachful, but
says never a word.
"
You
settles
am
see,"
he continues, and a great pain
on the careworn,
so old that
you,
my
it
fine old face,
must be quite a bore
coming here so often
;
" I
to
but I shall
;;
SPOKEN
T
IJS
ANGER.
never forget your kindness to the lonely
old
man.
I have often tried to
mind not
to
make up my
come here any more
not so frequently
— but
—
at least
I can't keep away
these visits are the one oasis of
my
dreary
life."
"I
says,
thought you must be lonely/' she
softly
" yet
;
most men find their
clubs so good a substitute for home."
" Club
for
his
life I"
home
—
a
contemptuously
cries,
whole heart
is
full
of a
pleasant
with the sunlight of a home-
picture, bright
like
he
home where
a
woman
reigns,
gladdening the hearth with her softening
influence.
snare
—a
home.
A
"Club
cold,
club
life
is
a delusion
and a
hard parody on the word
is
a library, a billiard-room,
an eating-house, as useful as a cab, and
almost as comfortless.
Some
of
my
most
weary, lonely hours have been spent at the
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
And when you
club.
face I
must go back
87
my
are tired of
old
to the dreary, purpose-
less club life again."
"I have
not grown tired of you yet,"
"and perhaps
she laughs, gaily,
I
never
5,
shall.
"You
are very good," he says, gratefully;
and then he looks
at her, marvelling at the
beautiful blush that covers her face.
Sud-
denly a new light dawns on him, and
all
the strong old instincts wake in his heart.
"
Oh
cries
;
!
Julie,
can
" and I love
it
you
be possible ?"
he
so !"
She bends her head lower to hide the
triumph
in her
laughing eyes, and
hand trembles in
little
" I
am
so old,"
dering incredulity.
it is
not a dream.
he
"
her
his eager clasp.
says, in
Oh
!
my
happy, wondarling, say
Can I indeed
bright beautiful youth with
my
link your
dull age ?"
—
;
SPOKEN IN ANGEE.
88
She draws a
half-shrinking
pretty,
him
"
him
to
closer
little
in
allowing
shyness,
to fold her in his arms.
Say you
darling/'
like
me
a
whispers,
his
strong
will
he
trembling, holding her from
the sweet changing
The ready
her rose-leaf
"Indeed,
lie
little,
him
to
my
voice
watch
face.
comes
all
too quickly to
lips
Clowden,
I
—I
love
you
now."
"
God
"Oh!
bless
child,
you
!"
he
says,
I trust that you
gravely.
may
never
regret those precious words."
He
smooths the
soft hair that
grows so
low on her broad brow, gently and tenderly,
and then he
on the cheek.
It is
the kiss of their betrothal, and Julie
knows
it
kisses her
with a sudden
"
Oh
!
chill.
Vivien," her heart cries piteously
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
"oh! Vivien, Vivien,
your love
All the
if
89
I could have
won
like this !"
summer
she has toiled for this;
the guerdon of her patience, the fruition of
her hope,
old roue.
is
won
—the worn-out heart of an
Marvel you that she
feels
no
triumph, only the black horror of a great
despair
?
;
CHAPTER
VI.
the fashionable world had a
new
subject
of
gossip
in
Julie's
wedding, and having
grown
tired
of
speculating
on the motives that might have led to such
a marriage,
it
tried to pick
the lady herself;
tively speaking, in
here
the
foiled, for
indeed,
holes, figura-
scandal-mongers
were
Lady Clowden was most
but
signally
discreet
had she stepped straight from the
nursery to Hymen's
altar,
she could scarcely
have been more irreproachably "proper."
She had married
in society,
for
wealth and a position
and she was too wise to throw
her advantages away.
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
91
The men had always been her
but there were
many women
had rather boasted
past
Miss
But
set.
provided
injuries,
Madam
she
all
accepted
had
under
her fascinations
rather ignoring
Hamp-
the
So at
overtures,
society's
laid her
Julie
did
she
Grundy.
feigned to forget the time
all
"
show present contempt
overtly offend
tions
who
that the future Duchess of
shire could afford to
for
of fashion
excluding
of
Bellingham" from their
knew
friends,
when her
its
on the
men;
bane;
not
first
and
flirta-
using
women, and
so
even
that
Clowden, who wr as prone to be jealous of
his
new
treasure,
was quite deceived
this crafty little Julie's
new
by
policy.
There are many outwardly respectable
Bohemians, people who to the world's eye
have been born with the proverbial
spoon in their mouth
;
people
silver
who move
SPOKEN IN ANGEE.
92
gracefully
most
in
enough often among the
fashion's
pageant.
truth were known, these
Yet,
fore-
the
if
West End wan-
derers are just as full of care,
and just
penniless, as their brothers
who
shabby tents in the East.
Now
as
pitch their
Julie
had
been a Belgravian Bohemian, trading on
society with all a freebooter's licence
she was one no longer now, and, to
truth, she
was rather
tired of
;
tell
but
the
Bohemianism,
and had only joined that outlawed naughty
band in her search
now, having got
for a rich
all
she
turbed by sentiment or
husband
wanted,
if
she had not settled
down
little
and
undis-
affection, she
have been really an ungrateful
;
would
woman
into something
rather respectable.
In the second year of her marriage the
real
bonne louche came
accession to
in
her
husband's
dukedom, and henceforth you
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
93
would have thought that "Her Grace the
Duchess" had nothing but roses under her
dainty feet and
sunshine unclouded over
coronet- adorned
her
head;
but,
unfor-
was an ugly skeleton
tunately, there
in
the inmost corner of her heart, and that
skeleton was the ghastly fact that she did
not
love
her husband
whom
husband,
— her
stately
old
she slightly respected and
cordially hated.
It
was
almost
affecting
to
thoroughly he believed in her,
derly he loved her,
her
;
how
see
how
how
ten-
fondly he admired
this girl his wealth could only con-
was
sole for the fact that she
whose
whole
heart
was
hourly, for another man.
his wife,
beating
and
daily,
So unrestrainedly
that he could watch the rose tint deepen
and pale in her cheeks
of him,
his
as
she
thought
unknown, unsuspected
rival;
—
—
W ANGEK.
SPOKEN
94
watch her large eyes wake- to
almost catch the
name
so often to her lips
—Vivien.
Clowden loved Julie with
idolising, doting fondness
we
lives,
Poor old
her.
an old man's
all
;
loved her
self-
we
love
love the sunshine, as
our wealth, as we love the
our
as
a
and
that came quivering
But he never suspected
ishly as
light,
gem, a
brightness
pet,
—a
of
precious
glimpse of that thing that had gone from
him
for
misspent,
evermore
tenderly
his
youth!
regretted
—that
lost,
He
youth.
loved her
" With all love, except the love
Of man and woman when they love their best,
Closest and sweetest."
Not
as he
A
had loved Marion.
had he been a
better
love that,
man, he would have
more thoroughly appreciated
and not have waited
for
in its
those
dawn,
fourteen
—a
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
parted years to teach
meaning
true
him
that
of
its
95
value
—the
old
word,
tender
wife; a companion whose whole heart and
soul
hut a purer reflection of her hus-
is
band's
;
a friend, a
comforter, a
precious
holy link to earth, a fellow-traveller on the
road to
God
been to him
All this Marion might have
!
all this
;
Julie never could be.
But she was the darling
of
his'
old age
brightening sunbeam in his lonely
and she seemed content
his
known
its
storms
the real meaning
of that ugly word, poverty.
gilt,
the
home."
Julie had never
a gaily
;
away from the
big busy world, shielded from
"the light of
house
to fall into
niche he had carved for her,
—
Hers had been
unsuspected Eohemianism, but
she possessed a thoroughly selfish sensual
heart,
and
having
all
things
save
one
coveted treasure, found poverty in that one
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
96
All that her girlish imagination had
want.
pictured
and craved
Wealth,
title,
fashionable
among
for
was
and position
nonentity,
the very
— not
but
time back had been frigidly
pretended an
women who,
entire
danced
eligibles
by
of
but a short
polite, or
else
of her;
benched and lonely,
with
day;
the
leader
real
their satin robes
them
mere
a
forgetfulness
as they sat
had drawn in
a
women who
now.
hers
the
when she
handsomest
women who had
blackened her character in private, when
they
deigned to mention her at
now
all,
nocked round her, "the beautiful young
duchess,"
coveted
eager for
her
invitations.
Julie's
and
profited
realised all this,
and
notice
quiet
by
it,
and admiration
all
their friendship
it
was worth, but
carefully
her
satire
taking
at
what
keeping
it,
knowino* that easily earned as such surface
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
love
it
is,
is
valuable so
can well outweigh
all
that
far,
the
97
loss
its
world's
other
baubles.
She was a
but what
Having
woman
could
else
loved,
of the world, certainly
she
and loved in
poor
be,
soul?
and know-
vain,
ing no other comfort, naturally she turned
to the world for consolation, finding in its
hollow
gaiety,
and
surface-gilt
glory,
at
least
an antidote against her aching heart.
And
yet in spite of
all
this wealth she
had
longed and toiled to possess, the one true,
tender piece of
womanhood
in her selfish,
Sybaritic heart asserted itself in her love,
for she
given
would willingly
it all
by the
at
up, could she have
sacrifice.
won Vivien
She would
castles, or rather huts, in
in
any moment have
the
them with him, picturing
air,
even build
and dwell
herself waiting
with the table spread, and the kettle singvol. in.
7
SPOKEN
ing on the
little
ANGER.
EST
hob— after the pattern
of a model
engraving she had once seen
for his
Her romance always
coming home.
pictured
him
— waiting
poor, because then she could
have worked for him, and those
hands longed to
the
toil for
man
idle
lady
she loved.
She would build up these wild fancies while
her maid twined priceless gems in her soft
bright hair
:
whiie listening to the compli-
ments of Eoyalty
enjoying
tally
itself
the
she was often men-
dismal
pleasure
watching by Vivien's bed of sickness.
of
At
the Premier's table she was hurrying along
the
wet
slippery
pavement, regardless of
darkness or rain, taking
home
her ill-paid
needlework to buy this poor sick husband
some coveted luxury.
at her.
Nay, do not laugh
I like to think that even in this
frivolous, worldly heart,
and beautiful
something so true
as love could dwell.
m ANGER.
SPOKEN
99
Years ago D'Arcy had given her a photo-
graph of Vivien
from
a
India,
had heen sent to him
it
;
shadowy,
ill-taken
little
picture enough, but bringing out the noble,
young
proud
face
tolerably good likeness.
artists of
Julie
miniature by one
copied in
the day
be
a
had had
it
sufficiently
to
of the
first
and she always wore
;
now, in an innocent-looking
it
pendant
little
that nevertheless had a cunningly- wrought
secret spring
jeweller
who made
who found
great
known
it
many
only to herself and the
—a
it
worth
his
to keep a
while
secrets.
There was something repulsive
in
this
German,
crafty old
marriage
Vivien
to
when he heard
of
it
remembering Marion, and knowing Julie
he
did.
And
the
bad
;
as
he had
opinion
formed of Lord Clowden seemed only to
deepen the more he knew of him
j
7—2
he had
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
100
not seen him
since
childhood,
his
but
judging him by report, he formed a pretty
good guess
man's character.
at the
" I should think
my father
must have been
man
just such another bad, selfish
of the
world," he thought.
That
father he
selfish sin
had never
had clouded
his
seen,
whole
but whose
life
!
And
hands passionately
he would clench
his
when he thought
of him, possibly living
happy and
respected, while she, that poor
broken-hearted mother, was sleeping in the
Why
cold grave.
ask himself;
was
it
why had
to bear so heavy a load
?
so
?
he would
she been chosen
why had
she not
loved and married some good, kind man,
such a husband as he would have made to
the
woman he
loved and
curse.
loved?
married but
For he might have
for
that
father's
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
All that was beautiful,
101
that was sweet
all
and holy, he insensibly connected with that
She was a mysterious
dear dead mother.
abiding
presence
He
heart.
tender
strong,
seemed to know her so
understand
to
that
in
her
so
thoroughly
well,
—that
proud, pure girl-heart, that was strong to
bear anything but shame, and shame was
the very weapon chosen to humble her to
He
the dust.
revered
all
women
sake of the love he bore her
perhaps, had
more of
ideal
;
for the
a love that,
worship in
it
than he could ever have given to a living
human
being.
After poor D'Arcy's funeral, he crossed
over to
Boulogne and stayed
chateau for
some time.
It
at the old
was the home
of his mother's childhood, her sad, friendless
childhood
!
He
liked
to
fancy the
sweet bright face peeping shyly through
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
102
quaint mullioned windows
the
fancy the restless
down
the long sombre corridors
lonely child
cculd not
;
still,
chill,
so, till
the
and how the glad laughter,
ghostly old house surely
had woken merry echoes
He
into its dismal stillness.
her
how
\
might have nestled in that
chair, or in this
that even the
to
running softly
feet
little
liked
\
had a
little
thought of
child-spirit
haunted
the unused rooms and claimed to be his
mother
One
he would
3
day,
up in an
scarcely
took
it
worn-out, ribbon-tied
it
up with tender
carefully all his
started.
old lumber-room, dusty
and mildewed, he found a
tiny,
have
life,
little
shoe
;
shoe,
a
and he
reverence, keeping
his one relic of his
mother's childhood.
One morning, among the
letters
forwarded
from his club, Vivien noticed one in an
entirely
unknown hand,
a delicate feminine
—
—
!
I
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
superscription; he
103
had no lady correspon-
dents except Carriej so
was with some,
it
curiosity he read the following:
"My
dear Captain Stanley,
am
"I
favour
had
writing to beg a very great
Yesterday,
!
the
—
pleasure
Academy, I
the
at
seeing
of
picture
a
of your curious old chateau; and you can-
how
not think
fascinated
turesque a hermitage
the very fact of
"
There
much
if
it
is
two
its
;
you
so pic-
bat I daresay, from
being your own, you
really
nothing I should like so
as the pleasure of staying there
leave
as
I hope you
run over to Boulogne
this
its
half enough.
you give me
shall
was with
I quite envy
quaint beauty.
don't value
I
for a
;
ivill
and
—
week
or
summer
"The hounds wont meet
this year till
;
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
104
December
15th,
when
the
Duke
With
very happy to see you.
be
will
our kind
regards,
" I remain,
"Ever yours
sincerely,
"Julie Hampshire."
Vivien crushed the letter impatiently in
What was
his hand.
should
that she
been
most
satisfied
had almost
to him,
True, she was a
?
coquette, but surely she
surely the
woman
perpetually to force
try
on his notice
herself
this
had victims enough
insatiate vanity
must have
with her daily triumph.
fooled
him
once,
She
and now,
looking back on that time, he might well
be pardoned for thoroughly despising her.
That she had ever loved him, he did not
believe
;
in the coldness of afterthought,
remembered that mad confession only
he
as a
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
105
piece of perfect acting, a coquette's wiles to
gain a heart that defied her power
shame
thought with bitter
moment he was ready
honour
unsullied
and he
at
one
up
his
that
give
to
the
for
;
sake
whose
of
this
smiles
were
often the price of a deathless soul.
And
unprincipled
spoiler,
now he must
leave his house because she
admired
it
request
without
for
;
he could not refuse her
positive
Vivien had ever been
So
sex.
he
wrote
a
rudeness,
courteous
polite
to
little
and
her
note,
begging her make any use of the chateau
she pleased.
As he looked
that night,
"
I
it
father."
" I
his
mother's
portrait
reproached him.
have been
said.
at
have
selfishly idling
not
been
here/' he
seeking
my
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
106
Boulogne had almost exhausted
gossip
its
about Captain Stanley's hermit habits, and
the dead letter-box his house was to those
cordial little
monde at
first
suddenly
he
bits
of pasteboard
beau-
its
had showered on him, when
disappeared,
and
the
little
town rang with the news of the Duke and
Duchess of Hampshire's
Julie
vain
was delighted with the place
little
fashion's
secure;
arrival.
woman was
homage,
now
tiring
that
that
;
already of
it
was
so
and she found the old chateau a
delightful retreat
from the frivolous noisy
world.
She would wander alone in the grounds—
that tangled, overgrown wilderness, where
the sunlight could only creep slanting and
quivering on the darkened pathways
;
and
through the gloomy old house, losing herself in
the winding corridors, and
sit
for
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
unheeded hours
deep-bedded
looking
107
from the
little
windows, thinking dreamily,
lovingly of Vivien, as she watched the perfect
sea of tossing leaves.
She did not
been any
chateau
sacrifice
so she
;
for a
moment think
to him,
it
had
giving up the
had no scruple in accepting
the perfect carte-blanche Vivien had given
her
;
and she stayed there a great deal
oftener than
Clowden cared
to stay,
making
the tower chamber her boudoir, and being
childishly
happy in the old
place.
Clowden never complained openly; the
old
man had become
new toy
;
a perfect slave to his
and the hard, battered expression
that had lately disfigured his face was fast
passing from
it.
In a very pleasant corner
of the garden of delusion he was dreaming
his
life
away.
He grew more
fond of his wife every day.
doatingly
108
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
'
We
all
know how good an
constant occupation
great and small
work
is
antidote
against heart-aches,
and Julio having no
;
real
to do, from sheer restlessness invented
a hundred pretty
toils for
her white hands.
She would dress Clowden's study with
flowers
she would even
;
fair
dust his books
sometimes, and work pretty slippers, that
never by any chance could be
him
;
but
made
to
fit
he was only too proud to
still
them, treasuring
memory
of such like acts, in his fond foolish
old heart.
She would read
them,
and
receive
the
to him, for those
dark-grey eyes that had done such mischief
long ago were sadly dimmed now;
would sing to him,
public, for her
the melody,
her
side,
sung in
whole heart would go out in
till
and
as she never
she
she forgot the old
still
man by
sang on, singing to the
love that was her curse.
I
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
109
All she did, in spirit she did for Vivien
;
and hating her husband, she was to him a
loving wife
— strange
the sake of another
woman
This
nation
you
;
with
is
all
as it
man
!
no creature of
imagi-
her faults I put her before
understand as perhaps you do.
The world held her
ferent to
many
more beautiful
—
my
as she was, confessing that I find her as
difficult to
tain,
may seem—for
to be in nowise dif-
of her fellows, only infinitely
;
but having
lifted
and pryed into some of her
secrets the
the cursecrets
—
world knows nothing of
sometimes think in
all
One could
fitter
find
no
Hampshire's heart.
the earth, the Evil
home than
Julie
CHAPTER
N
his
VII.
search
Vivien
his
for
sought
no lawyer's
It
help or advice.
sacrilege
him,
to
father,
seemed
the
very
thought of making that poor mother's story
the subject of conjecture and criticism.
In
his instinctive delicacy of feeling, he
shrank even from allowing Lady Evylin to
-
not that Carrie ever ex-
read her letter;
pressed any curiosity about
it
;
hut in her
kind good heart she was very curious, and
often wondered
jealously.
This
why
much he
sought out the
proved that
Vivien guarded
the
little
did,
though
it
;
so
he
French chapel, and
marriage was
perfectly
a
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
legal
;
Ill
but having gone so far on the road
to discovery, a sickening feeling of helpless-
ness began to creep over him.
He
had no clue
to follow
by
trace that father
;
up
nothing to
;
nothing to
know him
by, except a portrait taken in his youth
—
might no more resemble now, than
portrait he
he himself did that fair-haired copy of his
childhood
Lady Evylin
He had
treasured so fondly.
almost fancied
some
would point out the man to him
all
seemed so hopeless
rable despair
;
and a
began slowly
;
instinct
but
bitter,
now
mise-
to lay its chill-
ing hand on his heart.
Before,
of
camp
when he had
life,
to think
of,
and
he had put
a hopeful future
face with
it,
lately,
;
all
the excitement
when he had D'Arcy
off this search into
but now, brought face to
he was surprised to think that
he could ever have hoped.
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
112
His mother had sought that father
who knew him
she,
him
find
;
what chance had
never seen him
It
so well,
and
;
had
failed to
he,
who had
?
was evident that
his father
had been a
gentleman, socially speaking, and most pro-
bably a
man
of
means
;
how then had he
hidden himself so completely?
At home
and abroad, wandering
restlessly,
he looked
eagerly for the name,
Vivien Stanley
he never came across
that
name such
up,
it
it
Strangely enough,
his father
He
but
had thought
a sure clue to his father,
feeling certain that,
follow
it.
;
when he had
would
it
prove
leisure to
successful.
never struck him that
had married under an assumed
name.
Vivien had never deceived a
his
life
;
woman
in
and he was not familiar with those
petty deceptions that are thought no crime
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
when
their
guerdon
113
the price of a pure
is
trusting heart.
He
was not dead, he
was a
fatalist
that
;
Vivien
felt certain.
had
letter
said
he
should meet his father, and never for one
moment
did he give up the belief.
Some men
endowed
would have thought
it
with
such
useless to disquiet
themselves with the despair he often
his vain search
faith
felt in
they would have been con-
;
tent to rest on the oars, and let their boat
float
placidly
down
the
stream
of
life,
catching at such fruit as they passed by,
.
plucking such flowers as they could reach
without trouble
;
enjoying the present, and
anticipating the future
easily fashioned of
made
;
but
idlers are not
such stuff as Vivien was
of.
Possessing
strength of
VOL.
III.
great
will,
courage,
and crowning
indomitable
it all
with an
8
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
114
honest tender heart, naturally that mother's
command weighed on
his mind.
She had told him to seek his
avenge her shame and sorrow
sorrow alike unmerited
!
father,
and
— shame and
If he found that
father,
to the uttermost of his
power he
meant
to follow out his mother's
command,
and avenge
He
her.
never planned his vengeance
the form
should take
it
longed-for hour,
when he
till
he
;
left
the dark but
stood face to face
with that bad, treacherous man.
His love
it
for his
made him
like
any
most
noble,
mother was
it
fanatics,
sacrifice, to
That gentle
his religion
kept him pure
;
;
but,
he was ready to make
commit any
Christian
sin for his idol.
woman who had
brought him up had tried hard, but she had
failed,
to light the
inner temple
of this
man's soul with the blessed brightness that
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
shone so in her
own
115
blameless
life.
How
could the tender lesson of forgiveness preach
who
to one
But
lived for revenge ?
Carrie
carried
this
grief,
like
all
others, to the foot of her heavenly Father's
throne, and left
there, restfully.
it
gentle woman-heart,
at the eleventh
doubt that
I cannot
thy prayer was answered
— ay
5
Dear,
even though
hour
This continual disappointment changed
Vivien
that
so,
both mentally and physically,
Lady Evylin's kind
him
she saw
;
heart ached
and she bethought her of
some plan to wean him from
mad
search,
feeling
certain
when
for
mad
that
his
she
his present
thought
father
it,
had died
long ago.
He never
quite neglected her, and always,
no matter where he was, hurried home to
spend Christmas in Park Lane.
8— 2
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
116
They were
New
one
together
sitting
Year's Eve, as you saw them once before,
side
by
side in the red firelight,
when
Carrie
proposed the plan that had long been nurtured in his absence.
" I
want you
this winter
He
was
soldierly
I should
;
Will you,
chateau.
take
to
still
me
so like to see
my
"her boy," that
him
both
to
"
dislike
When
stalwart,
man, with his grave, bearded
continued, seeing
last
your
boy ?"
" I don't think they are there
his
Boulogne
to
hesitate,
face
!
now," she
and knowing
Clowden and
Julie.
I saw Clowden he talked of
spending the winter at Rome."
"I
you
shall only be too delighted
over,
dear mother,"
he
to take
said,
looking
comely
fondly at the sweet calm
face,
though the
snow-white under
soft hair lay
her sombre window's cap.
"
But the
still,
chateau
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
hardly mine now.
is
the
Duchess
she
gives
place,
hear
that
when
not staying there herself
is
her friends
leave
to
view the
was a public museum.
as if it
must
petite mere, I
and
I
117
see if there
So,
cross over next week,
no one staying there
is
now."
" Eeally, Vivien," Carrie cried, "
most
extraordinary.
woman
to rob
" That
is
Why
you
allow
are
that
you of your house ?"
the penalty one must pay for
knowing such
a
great
lady,"
he
said,
laughing ironically.
A
few days later he crossed the Channel.
There were so few pleasures he could give
"the
little
mother/' and he had long wished
to take her over the chateau
;
so he hastened
to prepare the place for her reception.
He
arrived
at
snowy evening, and,
Boulogne
on
feeling tired
a
chill
and
cold,
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
118
ordered his dinner to be served in a private
He was
room.
known
well
at the hotel,
and had often exchanged a few friendly
words with the garcon who
now
attended
him.
Vivien had taken no notice of the
this evening
absent;
—
he had grown rather
lately
poor Jacques fidgeted about,
so
at last, tired of waiting for a
till
man
and unable to keep
silent
any
remark
longer, he
cried
"
Oh
!
it
is
a dreadful
fire,
and they say
the town engines wont be able to put
all
out
r
"A
fire!"
"
reverie.
"
At
Duke
A
English
Hampshire
fire
waking from
said,
his
Where ?"
the
of
Vivien
just dashed past,
"
it
and
;
milord's
place,
the
the fire-engines have
"
at the chateau, did
you say ?"
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
Vivien
119
starting up, his face full of
cried,
horror and interest enough to satisfy even
the garrulous waiter.
"Yes, monsieur; and the English Duke
only arrived yesterday, with his beautiful
lady,
and a great many friends who had
made up a
" Get
tourist party."
me
a cab at once
man
"Tell the
(you will
him twenty
the chateau in as
at
once
And
!"
Vivien
him I
tell
napoleons to take
many
he
cried.
make him under-
stand better than I shall),
give
!"
me
to
Go
—go
pushed
the
minutes.
fairly
will
astonished waiter from the room.
"
Holy
thought
;
saints
!
But he
is
mad
!"
the
man
but he brought a voiture de place
round in a moment, and diligently impressed
on the driver the necessity of speed.
It
seemed to
through the
last
gas-lit
an age, that
drive
town, over the hard
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
120
frozen ground, past the dark, bare, whirling
trees
and ghastly snow-white pasturage.
Burnt down! the dear old place he had
loved so well
too
There might be
!
Good God
!
" Faster
seemed as
—the
beings
and
human
crouching
of
!
the hissing
fire,
to the ground, high above
the cheering firemen, and
noisy play of water, rose a
human
voice, so
of piteous agony that Vivien's
chilled
when he heard
"Let me go!"
God's
it
the white earth, and that
crowd
As he sprang
full
;
flames leaping heavenward,
sky,
pale-faced
cried
scene was bright as daylight
red
the black
he
no horse ever went so slowly.
The whole
now
the timber caught
faster !"
!
if
if
!
loss of life,
sake,
let
it
it.
pleaded.
me go
changed into wild,
blood
fierce
!"
"Oh!
And
then
for
it
menace, — " Damn
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
you
Let
!
me
I say
go,
you
roasted alive while
121
Is she to be
!
devils play with
me
here ?"
" Is
any one
in
house ?"
the
Yivien
asked.
A
dozen voices replied in wild, excited
The poor gentleman thought
French.
wife was there, but
his
had been saved
all
yes, all!
They were holding him
Clowden
and he struggled
;
He wanted
captors.
back, poor old
fiercely
with his
go into that mass
to
of dancing flames, that burning, tottering
house, in search of her
old age
" In
the
Julie
!"
strong
light of his
!
" She
He
—the
is
there,
I
you!"
tell
tower chamber
!
Oh
he
!
cried,
God,
my
was so weak in the hands of those
men
using their kind force so cruelly,
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
122
and
tears
of agony rolled
down
his poor
"I
will save
said;
and the
lined face.
Vivien came close to him.
her,
God helping me/' he
strong quiet words
instantly.
He
man
calmed the old
struggled no more
;
a wor-
He
champion than he was gone.
thier
could trust the owner of that true hearty
voice.
So he stood, his hands clasped, his
grey head bare to the
chill
night-wind, his
eyes fixed in one long moveless stare on the
high round tower, that stood
like a strong
black giant in the sea of flames.
Those who held him loosened
Perhaps he prayed, that old
instinctively.
atheist, in that
yearning agony
who was gone
solemn moment of anxious,
;
or perhaps he trusted
— trusted him as a God
Vivien asked for a rope
now
their hold
;
him
!
he was so calm
in action that he could wait to try its
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
That one would not do;
strength.
brought him another
them
tried
all
—
several
others
human
one thought of dissuading him
was that in
They
who
—he
;
life.
there
his face that chilled such words.
"he looked
said afterwards
one
like
could save."
Up
end
so they
the one he chose must needs
;
be strong for the weight of a
No
123
those stairs
Stair
?
tongues
smoke.
upon
stair
His
brain
hands burnt and
;
never
hot, darting flame-
columns of thick black
stifling
;
Would they
!
reeling
his
giddily,
blistered, clinging to the
scorching hand-rail.
Ah
last
!
thank God, here was the door at
He
!
turned
it;
groped for the handle, found
but the door refused to move.
Great Heavens
inside
!
it,
He
!
it
beat
he cried to her
was locked, and locked
on the oaken
to
open
it.
Oh
panels
!
that
—
;
SPOKEN
124
deafening
crashing,
hardly hear
ANGER.
IN"
uproar
own
his
voice
grew damp with agony;
flashed before his eyes
staples
are
woodwork,
flames
life
one
was
he
wrenched
and
he
!
—against
Once more
Steady
!
himself
strength
his
all
effort,
more
once
brow
roused
that strong, old oaken door.
only
His
the hot
He
how weak
God,
!
could
burst into
;
darkness.
with a mighty
oh
!
he
then died away in heavy
moment, and
sickening
;
—steady—the
from
rotten
the
staggers
into
the
room.
That bright, scented, dainty boudoir ; he
takes
the
it
in at one glance.
gilded
velvet couch,
She
is
lying on
her face buried
in the cushions, her white hands clasped,
shivering and moaning.
" Julie
and
!
at the
my
poor child, Julie
sound of
his
!"
voice,
he cries
so
;
strong
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
and tender even then, she
Over
125
raises her face.
blanched terror sweeps a great
its
Ay, in the very
change.
of death
face
she can rejoice at seeing him!
"You," she
but not with fear now
She put
save me."
and trembling,
says, rising
"you have come to
;
one
out
quivering
hand and touched him, and the big eyes
scanned his face
passion.
"You
don't
He
is
know how
Oh
longed to see you.
have changed
of tender, mournful
full
!
Vivien,
I
have
how you
!"
broke in fiercely impatient
no time for
frivolity
;
the tower will be in flame
in five
—
" This
minutes
!"
She caught his hand.
"Look!" she
"look!
we
can't escape
He
cried,
laughing hysterically,
shall die together.
me now
turned
;
Ah! you
I"
the red flames were dancing
;;
SPOKEN IK ANGER.
126
over the fallen door, and the choking smoke
filled
the room.
"You
Velvet
mad!" he
are
cloth
from a
seizing the
cried,
scattering
side-table,
the ornaments, broken where they
wound
thoughtful
;
;
he
Even then he was
round her.
it
fell
must
that strong rope he held
not cut the delicate fragile waist.
mad
" Yes,
ness to love
madness
to
tread on
;
!"
you
she cried, " if
it
mad-
is
as I never loved before
worship the very ground you
to treasure
up every word you
ever spoke to me, cold enough though they
were,
Grod knows.
Madness
to
my
feel
heart aching, aching heavily, wearily, year
by year
;
and each moment in every passing
day a year in pain.
Longing
very
for the
sight of you, as the starving long for food
as the traveller in a scorching desert
might
pine for one drop of cold, sweet water
!
If
!
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
this is madness, then I
you blame me?
Is
am
mad.
my
it
127
Why
fault?
If I
you think I would not much
could, don't
my
rather love that wretched old dotard,
husband
You condemn me
1
do
in your cold
English prudery, because you cannot under-
A heaven
stand such love as mine.
hell, I
It
it.
am
is
not ashamed of
it
or a
I glory in
;
an heritage, only to know such
love as this
"
Oh
!
dimming
Vivien/' she continued, big tears
those blazing eyes, " I would do
anything to win your love
degradation I
my
darling,
would not
my
darling
!"
;
there
sink
is
no
Oh
to.
and she kissed
those strong brown hands, trying to hinder
him
her
as
he knotted the rope round her
tiny
dainty
fingers
were
;
but
powerless
against the iron of his.
"
Hush, Julie
!"
he
said,
and the pale
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
128
grave face grew very stern
good woman
;
you hinder me
my
He
are
"
not
you are not a
fit
to die.
If
like this it will be positive
and murder
suicide,
off
you
;
too, for
you
are cutting
chance of escape."
last
threw open the window.
"lam
do as I
going to
tell
" Save
let
you down
;
will
you
you ?"
yourself
!
save
yourself
I"
she
cried.
He
threw back his head in angry im-
patience
" I
came
" Kiss
to save you !"
me
once," she pleaded, tremblingly,
and the warm colour crept over her
She was not given to over-
and neck.
modesty,
face
but her great love
roused
her
womanhood.
"
Only once, Vivien," grown bold by
silence
and her own
despair.
his
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
He was
129
looking out into the black dark-
ness below.
" It
a long
is
way down
;
you must not
And
be frightened; only hold tight."
wound
the rope round his arm.
"Kiss
He
me once!"
she cried, clinging to him.
bent down hastily, pressing a quick,
impatient kiss
on her white brow
;
then, almost before she was aware of
had
and look up
Look up
looking
hold
sake
it,
he
he
fast,"
cried,
!"
There was no
!
down while
anxious face
as
and
her through the window.
lifted
"For God's
"
he
lit
fear of her
he was there
by the
hand over hand he
;
the pale,
cruel, roaring flames,
let
her
down
slowly
but surely, she knowing nought of that
perilous
knowing
descent;
that he was there
haggard, beautiful
vol. in.
;
nothing
but
seeing nothing but his
face.
9
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
130
He
stood
there,
all
his
braced to guide that cord,
nerves
tense
till
a hoarse cry
from the crowd below told him she was
safe.
Then
his
bruised
hands
from the blackened rope, and he
dropped
fell
back-
wards, downwards, into darkening space
!
CHAPTER
AGER,
friendly
stretched
Julie,
VIII.
hands were
out
quickly
to
receive
cutting the
rope from round her.
had looked up, and held tight
as
She
Vivien
bade her, but she had obeyed him mechanically,
—clinging
scious hands,
there.
But
to
the rope with uncon-
and looking up because he was
as her feet touched the ground,
and that hoarse deafening shout went up,
all
the strained muscles relaxed, and she
back in a dead
faint.
Clowden caught her in
cious
crowd
his arms, striving
away from that
to bear her
;
fell
kindly,
offi-
but her weight was too great
9—2
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
132
for the old
man
in his present state of ner-
vous excitement, and he was obliged to
allow a bystander to take her.
Most of the
fire
sufferers
from that
terrible
had found refuge in Myrtle House,
being the nearest habitation to the
chateau,
and the
little
doors wide on that
it
ill-fated
hostess opened her
sad night
of terror.
Happily none of the guests had suffered in
any way beyond the shock of so sudden a
The
catastrophe.
fire first
breaking out in
the kitchens, there had been ample time for
escape before
spread.
it
They were gathered
windowed
group,
(it
many
of
them
anxious
pale-faced,
in full evening dress
was about half an hour before dinner-
time when the
when
in,
a
parlour,
together in the bay-
fire
alarm was
the Duchess of
first
given)
Hampshire was
pale and unconscious.
carried
Lucy had her
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
up
taken
her
to
own
despatched her maid in
133
and
bedroom,
all
haste for
a
sofa
drawn up
to
doctor.
Julie
the
was lying on a
when she beckoned Clowden
fire,
He had
side.
to her
been watching her recovery
from that death-like swoon with yearning
eyes, standing in the
less
"
shadow, feeling help-
and anxious.
You
are better now,
my
darling ?" he
asked, bending tenderly over her.
"
Where
is
he ?" she asked, anxiously.
Who ?"
" Ah !" she
"
cried, starting
"
ing her hands.
He
said I
his last chance of escape.
him
"
!
Oh
Hush,
I
up and wring-
was cutting
I have murdered
God, I have murdered him
my
darling
;
off
who
are
!"
you talking
about ?" Clowden
said,
back to the sofa
and the doctor, who was
j
trying to lead her
SPOKEN IN ANGEE.
134
Lucy from
following
the room, paused in
the doorway.
"
Oh
save
!
him,"
"
Clowden's hand.
will
by now
him.
me, and I kept him
Perhaps he
too late.
seizing
cried,
Swear to me that you
go hack and save
save
to
she
He came
till
it
was
burnt to death
is
!"
She covered her
face
with both her hands,
shrieking aloud at the horrible thought.
The
"
He
doctor came back into the room.
is
quite safe," he said, with a warn-
ing look at Clowden
;
" quite safe
him myself but a moment
down
lie
"
again,
madam
Do you know
ago.
!
I saw
Will you
?"
Captain Stanley
?" she
asked.
" Mais oui
!
Oh
yes,
madam," he
an-
swered, calling on the saints to forgive the
lie.
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
"
Was
135
Vivien who saved you, Julie ?"
it
Clowden asked.
"
Yes
—
yes, it
" Oh, thank
God
was Vivien
that he
I"
safe
is
she sobbed.
!"
Clowden followed the doctor from the
room.
"
Where
" It
is
he ?" he asked.
was only a
madam.
to calm
lie,
I
monsieur.
I said
know nothing
it
of the
gentleman."
Clowden
left
the house at once, walking
The
back towards the chateau.
ing, cruel flames
noonday.
striving
lit
the whole road like
The firemen were
still
there,
might and main to prevent the
timber catching.
They had given up the
chateau, that
was hopeless
down
huge log
ing
fierce, glar-
like a
;
;
it
must burn
there was no sav-
it.
None
of the crowd
knew anything
of the
—
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
136
they called
brave gentleman,
as
He
some
had
escaped,
said,
and
thought he had perished in the
chateau
was
literally
Vivien.
others
The
lire.
wrapped in flames
*****
nothing living could possibly be there.
In a darkened room a
full
man
of youth, full of beauty
all his
;
lay dying
lying there in
crushed strength, helpless as an infant.
Dying
!
With
sun shining warm
the
and radiant on the thawing
frost outside
with the birds singing in the bare old trees
he had loved so well
of
life
;
and the bright light
and day pouring
its
beauty on that
smouldering heap of ashes that had once
been the old chateau.
That time but a day
before the chateau stood in all
that
its
pride
time but a day before, that
pain-
wrought, scarcely breathing form had been
a strong hale man.
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
Dying
return
him
;
when kind
!
when
his lips, all
eyes looked for his
bright, tired eyes that loved
Dying
slept.
137
!
when with
a prayer on
unused to prayer, an old
man
watched by his bedside.
The
blinds were down, for the brightness
Had
of day pained those poor fading eyes.
they been
up,
he could have seen from
where he lay the piteous ruin of the old
chateau,
wind
—the
left
bare trees
many
a
swaying in the
gap to mark
Nothing but the tower was
stood, high
and
defiant,
its
fall.
It
still
though the
dis-
left.
figured window- holes were a weird preface
to the desolation within.
The
and
it
solid
masonry had
defied the flames,
was perfectly hollow and empty, save
for the stone staircase, that still spired up-
wards, corkscrew-like
ing of
the
;
for the
wooden
floor-
tower chamber had fallen
in,
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
138
and down below, crushed among the
debris ,
they had found Vivien but a few
short
hours
since.
The
cruel flames
but his limbs were
distorted
dead man.
power
they had thought
They had
Medical
carried
skill
had done
was a
to Myrtle
all
in its
word
—the man's hours were num-
!
Clowden had
offered to sit
Clowden had promised
needed.
old
him
it
to alleviate his suffering, but the
had gone forth
bered
horribly crushed and
all
lying there pale, and heavily in-
;
active, at first
House.
had not come nigh him,
man
up with him
to call aid, if aid
was
So through the grey dawning the
watched, with sleepless, haggard,
yearning eyes, by the side of his dying
son.
What
cruel irony of Fate
them together
so
!
had brought
Their lives had lain far
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
parted
whose
and yet when the son lay dying,
;
he had never brightened, the
life
was there
father
139
;
and his retribution was
beginning unrecognised by himself, and un-
known by
He
his son.
sat there silently
watching him
;
and
the pale shadowy dawning passed away into
He
the bright clear light of sunrise.
there longing feverishly for the dying
speak,
to
to
recognise
him
;
sat
man
longing to
proclaim himself with an almost irresistible
yearning
;
longing for that wronged son's
pardon as he had never longed
for
anything
before.
Only once he had spoken, a whispered,
impatient
sunlight,"
his
that
seat
command
and Clowden had obeyed
out
j
the
taking
again by the bedside; watching
changed, haggard
closed,
" shut
to
quivering
face,
eyelids.
and
And
those
as
the
;
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
140
sunlight crept
in,
the two faces grew into
a strange likeness, the one altered in
anxious watchfulness, the other in
its
pain-
its
stamped calm.
Vivien opened his eyes, and as they
fell
on Clowden a shadow of the old bright
smile came back.
"
She
is
safe ?"
he said
heart beat quicker, for he
He bowed
recognised.
that he was
man
at
;
;
a dimness
moment
that
Julie compared to his son
" Will you raise
you, that
had no
his head, he
passed before his eyes
"Thank
and Clowden's
knew
words to answer the dying
what was
;
me
a
will
little
?
?" he said.
do/' as
Clowden
raised the pillows under that poor
heavy
head.
"
What
presently.
is
the matter with
" I feel so
I can hardly breathe.
me ?"
he
numbed and
Am I dying ?"
said,
cold
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
was
There
and
anxious
something
haggard,
in
that
141
his
face
so
Clowden an-
swered almost involuntarily in a choking
sob
"
They say
"
Who
"The
so."
say so ?"
doctors."
There was a smile on the dying man's
face,
"
bright and transient.
They
Do you
are
wrong
?
I have work
and I cannot
die until
accomplished."
There was a great
his
cannot die yet.
I
believe in fatality
to do in this world,
it is
;
silence.
Those words, "
eyes.
yet," so confidently spoken,
Vivien closed
I
cannot die
went home to
Clowden's heart.
"Oh! God,"
that he
It
is
may
in
this
atheist cried,
"grant
live."
such moments of agony that we
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
142
God
recognise the need of an omnipotent
all
the proud science of earth fades before
the grey cold barrier of death.
me
" Eaise
I will
tell
a little," Vivien said, " and
you about
it."
Heaven knows why he chose
of
confidant
liked
him
;
this
make
had
had never
a
never
been
them
between
sympathy
slightest
He
man.
there
to
the
but
;
perhaps, in the face of that utter weakness
that was so miserably creeping over him,
some doubt of his
boast,
yet," presented itself;
human
"I cannot
and there
is
die
that in
comfort in con-
nature that finds
vincing another of the strength of a hope
when
it
is
beginning to
fail
us.
It
is
strange that with our hand on a prop that
is
breaking under us,
and
cry,
" See
how
we
should cling to
strong
it
is I"
it
But
most men are true to their own delusions,
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
143
and you must remember that
had been Vivien's
Clowden
once
creed.
raised him, pillowing his
on his own
that
this fatality
He
breast.
was very weak,
strong man, and the
laboured
As Clowden
breath was painfully distinct.
wiped the dampness from his brow,
back
to
him
picture-gallery
so
Vivien in his arms.
the
man was
Who
his
that
vividly,
where
he
head
had
it
came
moonlit
held
first
Only once
before,
and
own son
was to blame but himself
His son might have been
all
for this ?
his
own,
loving him, honouring him, a dearer, nobler
reflection
of his
were, had offered
own
youth.
Fate, as
him that son
it
in his early
childhood, like a fair blank page, on which
he might write an atonement
past.
Fate
possessing
all
for the bitter
had sent that son
to
him,
that was calculated to touch
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
144
the hardest heart;
childish beauty
and the
little
him
sent
in
all
his
and pleading helplessness,
boy had stood at his
father's
heart and knocked in vain
He
had
realised his responsibility,
had flung
it
He
off.
had
but he
sacrificed his
child mercilessly for the selfish gratification
That he might
of his love for Marion.
possess her, he
for his
own
helpless
had crushed
flesh
all
sympathy
and blood, and
baby to the mercy of
left
that
strangers.
"Was Clowden to be thanked that those
strangers had dealt kindly with the friendless
waif?
Had
he done aught to brighten
that son's childhood
boyhood
All
;
aught to train his
;
aught to establish his manhood ?
he had done
for
stamp him by a cruel
sinister
of illegitimacy.
atonement
was
too
son
that
lie,
with the bar
And
late,
was to
how
now, when
his
own
—
SPOKEN
;
m ANGEK.
brutality rose before
him
145
in all
its
glaring
hideousness.
Atonement was too
late
make no bargain with
Clowden's heart,
now
death
the
selfish to
we can
;
and
;
last,
yet
yearned
even then for that injured son's forgiveness.
But he dare
not ask
it.
There was some-
thing in the proud dignity of that pallid
drawn
face that checked the yearning im-
pulse to
own
himself; to say to that dying
man whose mother
he had cast on the
man
world penniless and heartbroken, the
whose
" I
life
he had blighted
am your
The
father
father he
the father to
!"
had been taught
whom
he owed no debt, but
the heavy debt of retribution
not say
on his
it,
lips.
He
!
could
the words trembled unuttered
He
could only hold
bowed by the heavy weight
vol. in.
to hate
him
up,
of his colossal
10
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER
146
formidable
frame,
strength.
But the
even
in
old
man
crushed
its
scarcely
cognised the strain on his arms
re-
mechani-
;
he braced his muscles to bear the
cally
weight, so great was his interest in Vivien's
story
;
opening, as
unveiling, as
life,
it
it
did, the sealed past
did, the
mystery of Isabelle's
from the dark hour he drove her from
him.
"
Of course you already know that
I
have
no claim on Lady Evylin," Vivien began,
"
beyond the claim she
she
My
adopted me.
Lady Evylin were
fact alone,
all
poor mother and
schoolfellows, and to that
it
strange
that I never even saw
knew nothing
heart, I
am
the benefits I have received.
will think
villain."
on herself when
and her own kind
indebted for
You
laid
of
when
my
I
father
tell
;
you
that I
him except that he was
a
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
He paused from
147
Clowden
sheer weakness.
wiped the death-damp from his brow.
he was a
his
own
"
who need
;
accuse
him when
heart thundered the words
When my
child,
old,
villain
a
Yes,
?
poor mother was a mere
schoolgirl
barely seventeen years
he won her affections, and persuaded
her to elope with
him
of her, he cast her
cruel lie that she
you,"
he
cried,
excitement, "
then, growing tired
;
off,
with the shameful,
was not his wife
eyes
his
when he grew
Mark
!
lighting
with
tired of her
he
did not desert her; he chose a safer, surer
way
himself of the
of ridding
was weary
of.
He
cunning, on the
woman he
calculated, in his brutal
effect
such words would
have on a proud, pure-souled
chose the very weapon he
her for ever from him.
the world to deal with
girl
;
and he
knew would
He had
no
sever
woman
of
— simply an innocent,
10—2
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
148
trusting child,
cruel
whom
the bare fact of his
was not
she
words, that
He
roused into fleeing from him.
him
then, no law could touch
him
left
;
he was freed
hated burden;
cast
and
;
wife,
was
safe
his wife
had
for ever
my
his
from his
poor mother was
on the world."
The
flash
died
from his eyes, but no
passion could have cut Clowden's heart* so
effectually as the perfect scorn
he mentioned him
—
all
with which
the utter contemp-
tuous hate of years rung in these faintly-
spoken words.
" I have been
my
reminded that the
man was
owed him any
love for
father, as if I
thai fact
Why,
!
the very workhouse where
I was born was kinder to
he was
;
it
my
mother than
at least offered her the shelter
he denied."
"
Were you born
in
a workhouse ?"
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
Clowden
cried.
His
son's
149
words were stab-
bing his heart, but that fact stabbed his
pride,
and pride had ever been the basis of
that bad selfish man's character; and
pride cried out
love
"
in its
now
paltry hurt, where
—and he did love Vivien—was dumb.
My
mother was picked up fainting in
the streets, penniless and friendless
else could
He
she find a
home P"
said this impatiently;
tion fretted
—where
him; with
the interrup-
his breath failing,
and that strange, cruel numbing weakness
creeping through every limb,
precious,
and
needless
moments were
waste
of
breath
painful.
" There was a lady
my
to
poor mother while she was in the work-
house, and she so
she
who was very kind
made a
won on
her heart that
confidante of her.
had a brother in the law, to
This lady
whom
she
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
150
my
showed
and he pronounced
father
"
had
My
when
knew
my
When
we
but she failed to find
she lay dying she
to
my
find
father.
are fated to meet.
so surely that I
know
that
left
She said
we should one day meet
she was sure
man,
for that
that he was really her hus-
sake,
charge to me,
I believe
My
perfectly legal.
it
poor mother searched
she
certificate,
lied cruelly.
band, for
him.
marriage
mother's
;
and
I believe
it
I shall not die until
I have seen him.
"
You
"to hold
are very kind," he said, gently,
me
cushion under
lie
am
I think if
fully heavy.
I must
I
up.
my
afraid I
my
dread-
you put that
head I could
high,
am
lie
sofa
nicely
breath catches
so
strangely."
Clowden fetched
lows
:
it,
rearranging the
of a truth that heavy weight
pil-
had
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
much
been almost too
down again
a
151
He
him.
for
sat
the shadow, feeling
little in
a painful pleasure in being near that un-
owned son
reproach,
past
—wishing, with
that
unavailing
undo the
he could
—thinking of that evening
ton Hall,
when he
bitter
at Dooling-
held Vivien in his
first
now how he had
arms, wondering
self-
steeled
his heart against his child.
Vivien's thoughts were
"
"
My poor dear
how
mother
still
!"
with the past.
he
said, faintly,
vividly she comes back to
She was so
so
patient,
Had you known
her,
good, so
!
I
manner of man he was,
out into the world.
what the world was.
to-day.
gentle
you would have
wondered how the brute could
broke her heart
me
often
live
who
wonder what
to drive a
mere child
He must have known
Do you
think such
a monster could have lived happily ?"
a
!
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
152
"Oh
voice
"
no
!"
Clowden
"he did not
;
He
was
in
said,
a
choking
live happily."
my mother's
murderer
!"
Vivien
said, sullenly.
" She died of starvation
when
I was only
years old.
Even now
I can
five
remember the
cruel,
bitter, lonely life she
In the midst of bright, happy
led.
creatures
we were
crowded
streets
Hand
as isolated as
had
been
a
fellow-
though the
wilderness.
in hand, the cold piercing to our very
we wandered about
hearts,
winter time
— wandered
in the frosty
through the
streets,
because our bare garret was too cold to
in,
and a
What
fire
a luxury
that time
delicate,
refined
dare not think
must have been
woman
and she surrounded
me
ness she could, poor
comes back to me, so
and privation
we
!
sit
to her
of.
—
I was a child,
with
all
darling!
the bright-
and yet
full of horrible
it
misery
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
"I know
that
much
153
as I felt the cold,
I was warmer clad than she was
hungry
after sharing
all
And now,
herself.
that meagre misery that
slowly drained her dear
life,
I find myself
possessor of fifteen thousand a year
money my mother was
father took her,
home
you
heiress
" I
!
to.
That
My
perceive, from a wealthy
to drive her out into the cold hard
world, disgraced and a beggar
"
that
would give me
as I often was, she
that she denied
food
;
Oh
am
God
!
forgive me,"
1"
Clowden
cried
;
your father."
It was a yearning cry
wrung from
from him
With
his .hard
of self-reproach
cruel
heart,
wrung
start,
Vivien
in spite of himself.
a quick
spasmodic
answered him in the one word
"
You
Who
I"
is
it
who compared
death
to
a
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
154
burnt-down candle?
Life flashed in those
passionate eyes, bright and startling.
came back
to those nerveless hands
spoke
grasped
he
the
through in one long
as he
tearing
sheet,
Then,
rent.
;
Life
like the
sudden flame of a dying candle, his
covered
before,
strength
re-
him weaker than
left
and the man's
it
spirit
succumbed to
the man's weakened body, and he lay back
quite
still.
Clowden
sat there, lost in the
face buried in his hands
;
past
;
his
the heavy tears
slowly trickling through his clasped fingers.
Vivien's voice startled him, breaking the
stillness
;
the voice was low and faint, the
disjointed words were painfully distinct.
" In the breast-pocket of
Clowden
chair;
he
rose at once
felt
in
the
;
my
coat."
the coat lay on a
breast-pocket,
found a leather miniature case
:
and
long ago,
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
summer
in the golden
155
of his
He
held that miniature case before.
in Vivien's hands
his
hand
;
the aim of his
last
come too
late
it
were shut, but
it.
he had called
life
found his father
It
!
is
often
;
but
it
a
so,
it
had
bitter
on the great importance we attach to
our frivolous
human
hopes, that the wish of
Be
a lifetime comes to a dying man.
bright angel of fame, love, or wealth
when
put
obtained the one wish of his
he had at
satire
his eyes
closed firmly over
He had
life
;
he had
life,
the heart
the hand
is
is
too
;
it
the
comes
too faint to rejoice,
when
weak
comes
to grasp
it
;
to be
met by the gaunt black shadow that
says, "
Stand
aside, for
he
is
miner
Vivien opened the miniature
was the sweet loved
mother
j
case.
There
face of his dear
dead
there was the thin closely-written
paper of his dead mother's
letter.
So he
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
156
had always kept them,
He
his relics of the past.
and together,
safe
held the letter to
Clowden.
"
Her
He
letter,"
he faintly whispered.
pressed the portrait to his lips in one
long fervent
He
kiss.
weaker suddenly,
seemed to
the hand that held
for
dropped heavily to his
it
miniature
fell
grow
unheeded
to
side,
and the
the
ground,
shattering the ivory.
All the old familiar sweetness came back
Clowden bent
to his lips as he whispered.
to hear the words.
"Mother, dear mother,
after
all
these
weary years."
"Oh! my
forgive me,"
laid his
fell
"
son,
my
Clowden
son,
cried in agony.
hand on Vivien's
on the dying man's cold
Oh
!
my
son,
my
say that you
son
!"
;
He
his hot tears
face.
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
The
fingers of the
157
hand he held closed
firmly over his for one brief
moment
;
and
the father saw a change, swift and terrible,
pass over his face
—the grey cold shadow of
death
Was
it
that hand-clasp forgiveness, or was
the death struggle
?
CHAPTER
LL
IX.
Boulogne was roused by
the catastrophe of the chateau
.
fire.
Old and young, rich
and poor, men and women,
haunted the smouldering
all
ruins.
Visits
of condolence and offers of timely assistance
crowded in upon the
sufferers,
who, with
the exception of Clowden and Julie (who
were staying at Myrtle House), had taken
up
their temporary residence at one of the
town
hotels.
Many
of the English residents called on
Lucy, but she was too much engaged to see
them
the
;
and they were met
sad intelligence
at the door
by
of Captain Stanley's
SPOKEN" IN ANGER.
and the Duchess
death,
of
159
Hampshire's
illness.
While the busy world outside talked
in
wonder, in sorrow, or in pity, Clowden sat
in the darkened house, surrounded by the
world of his
letter
in
own
his
past
sat with Isabelle's
;
hand;
reading
sat
those
trembling weary lines of the dead
woman
he had wronged, under the
of
living
woman whose youth
roof
the
he had blighted.
Only a few moments back Lucy had
entered that very room
nised
her.
What
;
he had not recog-
connexion could
there
possibly be between that gentle faded lady
and the rosy dimpled impulsive
had loved him long ago
her tender
!
child,
who
She had come in
womanly sympathy with news
from the sick-room, bidding him throw
all
anxiety, for his wife
off
had quite recovered
from the feverish symptoms she had shown
—
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
160
in the early morning, and that she was now-
courteous
him
leaving
past,
and
The
gratitude,
his
past
!
had thanked her in
to the dark
own
had
and she
flitted
some household duty
on
intent
away,
He
calmly.
sleeping
memories of the
unavailing self-reproach.
So speedily
lost,
and yet in
Had
early promise so lasting.
its
he thought
then of the darkness of an old age embittered
by hopeless remorse
!
How eagerly
he had embraced the spurious wisdom of
tortured science
make man but
;
the philosophy that would
clay, fashioned
and unanswerable
that deems
all
for a
homage
soul's
to a
by chance
eternity
Maker below
the mental endowment of a reasoning being.
He
had accepted the pernicious doctrines
of those founders of ancient schools, whose
grand
intellect, perverted
by egotism, had
tried to storm the sacred citadel of truth,
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
because the blessed
had
love
seemed
earthly pride
;
161
story of
too
all
a Saviour's
simple for his
he had wandered awhile in
the dark mazes of their weird imagination,
and ended by becoming an Atheist ; believing
nothing,
morn
nothing,
fearing
the
in
bright
of his youth, laughing to scorn
all
duty to God and his fellow- man.
He
had lived
was told
and
sual,
—
for himself,
and
in that all
his selfishness, his careless cruelty,
his sins.
Sybaritic
He had
life
;
lived an easy, sen-
affecting
the
blase
cynicism of later years, wrapping himself
in a cloak of egotism until he
and
Ftifled all his
his heart,
had numbed
nobler feelings, hardened
and debased his character.
The man had not been made
for
idle-
ness; that strong will, those fierce passions,
would have found vent
in constant brain-
engrossing work had wealth not come to
VOL.
III.
11
;
-
SPOKEN IK ANGER.
162
him
and he did not possess
as a birthright,
the genins that can carve a path for
itself.
Eiches had indeed been Clowden's curse
the strong vitality of his nature needed
all
had
and he
occupation,
thrown himself
heart and soul into worldly pleasure.
With
the
yet on his lip he had
down
proved every extravagance of fashion, and
found himself a roue at heart while yet a
boy in years
of youth
j
gone
the bright fresh charm
all
time had
before
for ever
traced a single line on his unclouded brow.
Then, weary and cynical, he had travelled
far
and near, seeking pleasure
chemist seeks
that
is
the
for
to multiply
as
precious
and make
the
al-
principle
gold.
In his wanderings he had met Isabelle
D'Almez.
this
Here was a new sensation
for
blase worldling of three-and- twenty
genuine admiration
!
—
Never before had he
SPOKEN
seen
woman
m AKGEIt.
163
Graceful with,
so beautiful.
Nature's innate ease, every movement
all
captivating in
unstudied harmony, the
its
contour of
perfect
would have
entitled
had the
been
face
That sweet dusk
and
glorified
consummate
bewitchingly lovely.
less
face,
by
art of
form
lithe
her to beauty, even
stant fascination, was a
wit,
long
the
mobile in
poem
its
con-
brilliant
with
With
love.
all
the
which he was master
he had tried to win her
love,
and
suc-
ceeded.
After having
name, he had
won
her under an assumed
deception he had practised.
his
own
owning
shrunk from
theories of love,
the
He had had
and
it
seemed to
him, that trust once broken, the delicate
subtle
be
felt.
charm of romance can never again
This
before her as a
girl idolised
Um ?
him
;
why
stand
Some day he would
11—2
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
164
tell
name
her his real
while love was
;
but not now, not
His
sweet and new.
so
jaded heart had hugged this romance,
fear-
who have once been
blase
ing as only those
can fear the loss of that mysterious sym-
pathy without which the fondest love
only friendship.
won
As Vivien
her love, and in the
is
Stanley he had
name
of Vivien
Stanley he married her.
No
horrible thought of future treachery
had entered
side
in
the
deception,
his heart as he stood
French
little
begun perhaps
rare such love was,
with
all
How
fashion
That
the
paltry
in
of losing her heart-
fear
whole, trusting love.
chapel.
been kept up solely
pride of birth, had
from the morbid
by her
He had
proved
and he valued
it
how
then
a miser's jealousy.
sweet after the weary formalities of
had been
their
sunny nomadic
life,
;
SPOKEN" IN ANGER.
with
a
whose
companion
165
mood
every
changed but to meet the sj^mpathy of his
now
own;
gaiety
now
with
bright
own
of her
the resistless
laughter-loving
race
a tender romance that
pensive with
could tame even
all
his
He
rough temper.
did not understand music
his seldom do, but the
;
such natures as
wondrous melody of
her voice never failed to enter his heart
and leave
In
echo there.
its
all
things
she was a companion such as he had never
met
It
before.
wearied of her
his
love;
brutal in
it
;
was not true that he had
satiety
had not yet cursed
was simply
its excess,
had wrecked her
his
temper,
so
so speedily roused, that
life.
Laodice Crispin, danseuse at
Her Majesty's
Opera, had reigned, by right of her coarse
animal beauty, over the
dissipation.
Her bold
small world
blue eyes and
of
glit-
SPOKEN IN ANGEE.
166
tering
hair
were not without
a
certain
charm, and she was wont to queen
own
Very much
will.
in
choosing her victims
right royal fashion,
at her
it
as
an Eastern
despot might have selected some
new im-
portation from the slave market, she had
Clowden, then a mere
chosen
college
bent,
;
nattered
him
the
to
and subjugated him,
for
youth
at
top of his
the time,
rapidly and completely.
who make
a mockery of love
find their greatest curse
in really loving.
Often those
It
was so with
men
she
this
woman, who had lured
into loving her,
drove
ruined,
and then laughed as
them from
out into the
She herself loved
her, penniless
shadow of
at last,
and
despair.
and she did not
know how much
she loved Clowden until
he had
her allegiance for ever.
cast
Guided by her
off
love, she
had traced him to
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
Altenah, and
it
was only by the
extravagant promises
all
most
Clowden
had
the
airy
shattering
happiness by telling Isabelle,
fabric of his
with
that
her from
prevented
167
the exaggeration of jealousy, the
deception that had been practised on her.
Returning from the weary work of soothing the jealousy of a
woman
he hated, he
had been met by passionate reproaches from
the
woman
he loved.
Unreasonable as
it
was, he had
felt
indignant with Isabelle
for accusing
him
of the attention he
paid another
happiness.
woman
And
it
solely
was
to
had
save
scarcely
her
strange
that his fierce undisciplined temper, already
irritated
by the
coarse vindictive jealousy
of a vain, underbred
woman, should have
burst the slight trammels of self-control.
Had
he not been blinded by passion he
would have seen that a
little
tenderness
—
SPOKEN IN ANGEE.
188
calm the summer
could easily
In
Isabelle's temper.
liant
storm
her flushed
all
of
bril-
beauty she stood there, accusing him
with more of a
child's
outraged woman's
drunkard
might
petulance than an
As
anger.
have
weapon that came
to
seized
hand,
roused
a
so
the
first
he
had
flung those cruel, lying words at her
" You are not
No
words
sooner
my
wife !"
had
left his lips
the
hasty,
passionate
than he would willingly
have recalled them.
The haggard misery
of that pallid, changed face
;
the horror of
those widely-opened eyes, proclaiming that
the taunt had gone
home
too surely.
It
was no longer an angry child who conbut a pale, wan woman, aged
fronted
him
for ever
by that blow
;
dealt in anger's brutal
instinct.
How
the words came back to
him now,
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
the
hard,
drj*
voice
that
a just
God
169
cursed
slowly
him
"
will
my
As
there
one day
is
suffer, as
I
in heaven,
now
broken heart I curse you
you
From
suffer.
!"
Those words had repulsed his repentant
longing for reconciliation, and he had
the room in anger.
From
that hour he had
never looked on Isabelle again,
by the calm dead
left
till
he stood
figure at the Doolington
Arms.
That
flower,
girl
whose heart had been
like a
opening to the sun's rays, but droop-
ing with the
first
cloud
;
that petted, spoilt,
—Ah
he who
proud
young
known
her in her gay bright youth, could
well realise
how
spirit
as the
weak
had
she must have suffered, by
the dreary misery of that
cold, pitiless
!
letter.
The
hard,
world had treated her very
are ever treated in
life's
ill;
great
SPOKEN
170
down by
crushed
battle,
ANGEE.
IJST
trie
strong, their
faint frail cry for help lost in the din of vic-
tory
;
shall rise to
Babylon
At
the last great day,
lost till
when
it
heaven a witness against you,
!
first
he had thought her leaving him
was but a mere burst of anger, and that she
would return
several
so he
;
had stayed
at
Altenah
weeks in the vain hope of seeing her
again.
He
had never rejoiced in
he saw Marion, six years
found no
difficulty
his freedom
after,
till
and then he
in persuading
himself
that Isabelle was dead, his repeated efforts
to find her being so unsuccessful.
returned in the
anxiety, there
first
agony of
him
she
his repentant
might yet have been happi-
ness between those two
had dulled
Had
his
\
but those six years
self-reproach,
forgetfulness
;
and taught
and in Marion he saw
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
the ideal
woman he had
beautiful, pure,
The
171
long dreamt of
and holy.
love of such a
man
lasting,
must
amount
of veneration
always
as
Clowden, to be
contain
a
certain
that worship due
;
only to the Supreme he lavished on her,
shrining her for ever in his heart.
It
was partly
his
own
delusion, partly
that he did not understand her, and partly
the calm sweetness of manner that every
one admired her
this
for,
dower of perfect
that
won
for
Marion
love.
She possessed neither
beauty nor sparkling wit
Isabelle's brilliant
j
the plain-spoken
world would have called her
soft features
and Madonna-\\ke expression insipid by the
side of that sweet, dusk, mobile face
j
and
yet his poor wronged wife could never have
won such
perfect
unchanging
affection.
Isabelle faded away, like the
memory
of
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
172
a plaything he had long since tired
Marion took her place
the
lie
woman he
love,
Was
?
prosper
bought
it
He
?
gracious, dignified,
of.
treachery to his poor
pered
and
delighted to honour, the wife
would be proud
But that
—
of,
fourteen years
at the price of his
little son,
meet
that
had
it
thought of those
it
pros-
should
parted
he thought of D'Arcy's un-
;
timely death.
Then
a smile chased the haggard sorrow
from his
face, for across
the dark chaos of
the past flashed the bright light of the present
—the
old age.
fair
young
The
past
would bury
grave.
Why
ing remorse
A
its
bright
face of the wife of his
w as gone
last
T
for ever
;
he
reproach in Vivien's
torment himself with unavail-
?
fire
burned in the grate, and he
crushed poor Isabelle's letter in his hand
SPOKEN IN ANGEB.
and threw
on the flames.
it
173
That
fragile
paper should never more accuse him, and
with
it
he would forget his
Though
sin.
the past held a shadow, the future should
yet be bright.
He
an
felt
more
his lost son once
darkened room
lay.
longing to look on
irresistible
so he entered the
where the dead
softly,
The wintry sun
;
crept faintly, in slant-
ing rays of light, through
marking
man
its chill
silence,
in cold awful distinctness the out-
lines of that quiet, breathless form.
And
there, looking
beautiful,
terribly
waxen
face,
what
unlike
on the passionless,
so like, and
he
was,
woman — a woman from whose
haggard eyes
fell
pallid lips escaped
She stood
no
;
stood
a
lustreless
aud from whose
no moan.
there,
dead man's side
tears,
vet so
a living
woman, by a
her whole soul bound in
—
;
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
174
bondage as
as
still
moving, not one
his
warm
not
;
muscle
a
pulse of
astir,
life
only the soul stunned and horrified, looking
from those dull widely- opened eyes.
A warm wrapper fell loosely round her, its
vivid colour contrasting the pallor of her face;
her soft brown hair hung dishevelled.
neither heard
He
close the door.
cried aloud in his astonishment
" Julie
"
him open nor
She
I"
Who
is
that ?"
she asked, in
monotone, pointing to the bed.
be Vivien
a low
" It cannot
he was so young, he was so
;
strong, he could not die yet, could he ?"
Clowden started
at the
weird vacancy of
her strange smile.
"
"
Who
who
"
is it
is
it
?"
she cried, impatiently
?"
Come away, my
gently.
darling,"
he
said,
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
She
laid lier
175
hand on the dead man's
icy
brow.
" So cold
my
love,
"
love
Come
harshly
what you
Oh
my
!
!"
away,
Clowden
Julie,"
" you are not well
;
"
she murmured.
I"
;
you don't know
Come away
are saying.
cried,
;
if
any
one sees you here, they will talk about
Come away-— he was nothing
She flung
arm
tiful
there was no pallor
;
stormy face
life,
now
laid
on her
in that beau-
no want of lustre in those
;
blazing angry eyes
to
to you."
hand he had
off the
it-
;
the whole
woman woke
quivering with passionate
excite-
ment.
"
Let them talk
whole world
1"
If
talk.
tongues to flaunt
she cried
my
it
j
" let
the
had ten million
shame, what could
it
say but that I loved the noblest, best of
men ?
Is love a
sin
?
Can we
will
our
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
176
love
Do you
?
think that I
am
an automa-
—a puppet be led by the cold world's
— that I
scorn — machine without
to
ton
feeling
a
must
lose
He
dead.
is
him
all,
him,
and not cry out
Oh, God
my
—and
me — only
to him,
him
The
You do
1
1
let
?
bury
was only
yesterday I
and
me
I clung
die with
death so would have been sweet
been preferable to
!
with him would have
life
with you.
I hate,
-"
I loathe you
He had
will
know how
not
bitterest death
—
it
agony
so full of life
and begged him to
— ah
despise
!
arm round me,
strength
my
and they
!
darling
yesterday he kissed
felt his
in
listened to her so far, strangely,
awfully calm, only putting his hand out to
the
nearest
chair
witli
a
movement, and leaning on
the last insult roused
him
;
vague helpless
it
heavily
;
but
his eyes flashed,
the colour came to his thin cheek, to his
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
pallid
"With a low,
lip.
177
hoarse
cry he
dashed the chair from him, and caught her
arm, crushing
it
painfully.
She shrank back, every nerve quivering
with
terror, for his face,
was
altered so
that
it
down
to hers,
by sudden passionate
looked scarce
devil of
bent
human
hate,
the incarnate
;
murder glared in those convulsed
swollen features, and
in
those
gleaming
dilated eyes.
It
the
was an awful, a
woman who had
terrible
braved
trembled at her handiwork.
foam -clothed
thrice the
lips
tried
sight,
the
and
storm
Thrice those
and
speak,
to
words died away in guttural
articulate sounds.
in-
Then a ghastly change
passed swiftly over his face, dragging one
side
down, eye
and mouth,
wrought in blue-black marble
VOL.
III.
fixed
;
as
and he
12
if
fell
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
178
forward heavily,
dragging
suddenly
her
with him to the ground.
One
breathless
moment
warm
and then the
of frozen horror,
quick blood of
life
returned to her veins, and she sprang up,
wrenching her bruised white arm from that
quivering paralytic grasp, and ran shrieking
from the room.
Leaving him there
wreck;
dead,
alive,
yet
There,
by
—a
yet lacking
without
his
side,
ghastly,
life's
death's
the
fearful
vitality;
holy
son
she
calm.
had
dedicated from his birth to be her avenger
Surely,
avenged
Isabelle
Stanley,
you
!
were
;
CHAPTEE
X.
TETLE HOUSE
from
garret
was
full
basement
to
there were doctors and nurses,
who came
relations
who came
who were
to be useful;
out of curiosity, and
only in the way.
at the poor old
paralysed
novelty had worn
and
off,
They
man
stared
until
the
and then they
fell
to petting his wife.
" Poor child
!"
They
was a dreadful shock
all
agreed " that
for her,
it
and they did
not wonder that she shrank from so ghastly
a sight."
"
Your Grace must not
the fashionable
doctors
agitate yourself,"
said.
" All
12—2
that
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
180
medical
skill
can do
being done, but we
is
cannot allow you to see our patient just
yet."
many
So Julie found
her
fair
sigh,
;
And
pitied,
of a truth
herself she
no sorrow,
for
sympathise
felt
with
was herself she
it
for
;
no
anxiety,
her stricken husband
moments
found a
soft
fancying herself a martyr,
and making every one
her.
drawing her
mournful expression, that
face into a
became her well
her in
her helpless husband.
selfish neglect of
She would weep and
shield
to
ever
place in her bad selfish
heart.
And
he
— that
speechless
wreck,
what
were his thoughts as he lay powerless and
incapable of movement, through the long,
long day
!
Only the
left
hand had escaped
that cruel numbness, and
than the hand of a
little
it
was weaker
child.
What
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
181
passed in the tortured mind as
in
dumb
when he read
Was
that letter from the
man, who, defying
this the
God, had deified himself; carrying
responsibility
no
that interfered
Sybaritic
of
life
all
own
his
and crushing down
with his easy, callous,
life.
He had
what he
than
higher
selfish Jove of pleasure,
all
!
he had promised
the future
this
grave?
his
gleamed
horror from his poor dull eyes
Was
himself
it
argued that
will
;
man may make
that starting
life
the barque
fair,
well stored with wealth and wealth's
accessories,
he
may
steer
clear
of
every
breaker, shut out the sight of every storm,
unfurl his sails to every pleasant wind, and
so pass smoothly through the sea of mortality.
He
had lived up to
diligently,
carefully
he
this selfish creed;
had
obeyed
its
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
182
promptings
had
;
He
and what had he gained ?
sold himself for nought, sold his eternal
soul
worldly ease and pleasure
for
what had he gained
and
;
Verily, verily, sin
?
is
a hard taskmaster.
Although there were so many staying
at
Myrtle House, ostentatiously there
his sake, he
but for
would have been very lonely
The
Lucy.
little
would gossip together
be away
;
for
;
nurses
hired
the doctors would
the friends would be comforting
Julie.
Then Lucy would
room, and find him
talk so gently to
that was hers
;
him
steal
into
all alone.
the
She would
of that precious hope
she would
tell
him
story, that
the
all
glad story of a world's redemption
tender, beautiful
sick-
;
that
had seemed
all
too simple for a man's belief.
She would take her
little
marked
Bible,
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
183
and read to him of that dear Saviour who
came
were
to seek and to save only those that
It soothed him, all this gentle,
lost,
child-like faith
horror
and by degrees the blank
;
his eyes,
left
up strangely
and they would light
at the sight of her.
One day she knew he recognised
for his
drew
weak
the
off
hand held
left
hers,
ring, those
little
her,
and feebly
two bright
jewelled hearts he had given her long ago.
He
it,
pointed to the
window
;
she
opened
thinking he wanted the freshness of the
outer air
;
but he made a motion with his
hand and the
ring,
and then she knew that
he wished her to throw
throwing
one
it
far.
regret, that
past;
it
it
She
out.
let
memory
was meet that
it
She did
go,
so,
without
of the brief bright
it
should go, for
in her sober middle age she
had found a
greater treasure, and Lucy's heart was with
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
181
that treasure, for ever in the
keeping of
her God.
And
they were together, hand in hand,
in the twilight, the old paralysed
faded
the
And
the
woman who had
unbroken, that
Lucy,
and they both
held;
slept, his
unconsciously,
And
slept.
poor bound
spirit
away, into the presence of the
gave
and
intense
so
all
loved him.
bowed her head on the hand she
wearily
they
was
silence
man and
while
passed
God who
it.
Who
erring
can
tell
what pardon
met the
Who
mark a
sinner there
?
dare
boundary to the mercy of Omnipotence
And
Lucy, who had loved him
?
so,
*****
did
Duke
of
not sorrow as one without hope.
So
they
buried
Clowden,
Hampshire, in the family vault
j
and no
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
eye
mourned him, save the
185
faded woman, whose youth the
by the
cold state
Clowden
And
leading
still
They
had blighted.
his love
side
gentle
little
storm of
laid
him
in
Lady
of Marion,
Strafford.
Julie
men
Hampshire
captive
still
list of
Belles
— leading,
seemingly,
life.
Where
retribution
say; but
I
;
still
by her rare beauty
standing high on the
is
lives
fashionable
happy
a gay,
many would
?
think a day will come
even she will answer for her sins
haps you would think
;
was
she
when
or per-
;
already
punished, could you peep beneath the surface
gaiety
of
her
watch her when she
manner
is
j
alone,
could
you
when no
eye can see the bright fascination fade from
her
lips,
or
watch the great weariness in
her haggard eyes, as she gazes on the strong,
dark, pictured face of Vivien Stanley.
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
186
She wears the
always
hidden
locket that holds
little
tiny weight presses on
often
when the
joy beams
and
;
its
her aching heart,
on her
false smile
and the
sweetest,
bosom
her
in
it,
lips is
brilliant light of feigned
topaz
her
in
fire
long
soft
eyes.
You would
scarcely
know
woman,
this
the fame of whose insolent beauty rings
far
and
you
near, could
agony of
see the
love with which she presses kisses on the
pictured
hers
;
lips
lips,
that never in
life
met
could you see the haggard, piteous
pain, that
stamps out
all
her beauty, and
hear the passionate eloquence, the intense
yearning of that reiterated cry
"
Oh
And
!
my
love,
every
my
year
love
she
French town where he
fresh flowers
!"
visits
the
died, only to
little
shower
on the ground that covers him,
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
only
to
with a
read
187
empty,
sorrowing,
aching heart the marble tablet that
and how
when
met
he
his
tells
untimely
end.
Surely
there
unavailing love
the
men who
retribution
is
;
in
this
and that not among
all
happy
follow her footsteps,
even to touch her hand, brave and good
though some of them
be,
can she find one
to take the place in her heart that
man
So
scorned to occupy.
let
her move, a bright star in society's
enjoying
After
firmament.
before the footlights,
behind the scenes
There
the
dead
is
Evylin.
Such
of
a
pageant
why
sadden ourselves
who
fondly treasures
?
another
memory
the
Vivien
dear
old
Stanley
lady
—Lady
she
has
become, with her sweet kindly face and soft
silvery hair.
—
!
—
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
188
Hung
little
on the dining-room wall in the
house
Park
in
Lane
two
are
oil
paintings, very precious to the gentle old
lady.
with
One
bright-faced, dark-eyed boy,
clustering
soft
lute saucy
a
fair
hair
—the
reso-
mouth, and sturdy grace of limb,
winning a second glance from the most
careless stranger.
Carrie looks at this one always
a
mist in her soft blue eyes
passes on to the other.
matured in
its
;
first,
with
then she
The same
but
face,
calm decision, and manhood
has darkened the hair to a rich brown
a handsome, noble, soldierly face.
And
the
old lady says tenderly
My
dear
She passes most of her time in
this
"My
dear
son,
Vivien
!
son
dining-room;
and to those who
visit
her
SPOKEN IN
she
how
tells
A^TGER.
189
good, and noble, and brave he
was, " her dear son Vivien."
In default of Vivien's dying
childless, his
uncle had willed his fortune to a monastery
hard by
;
so the
hoarded wealth passed into
holy hands.
The good monks were
own
their
after
masses sung
to
and I
his soul
for
guilty
the
fashion,
grateful
of
spirit
enough
trust the
brought peace
Ferdinand
De
Chambrau.
It
%
7F
7|«
<fc
¥fc
was Christmas Eve, nearly
a
year
after
Clowden's death, and Lucy, sitting
alone
by her
fireside,
Palmer, wondering
not come
;
thought of Mathew
why
for these
his usual letter
had
two had a habit of
always exchanging the compliments of the
season
j
once,
and once only in
all
the long
;
!
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
190
Lucy
year, did
and
thinking of
so
eyes,
and gave
a
;
him, she raised her
little
cry
of
surprise,
was Mathew standing
there
for
Mathew
address a letter to
in
the
as
she
doorway
"
How
strange
1"
gave him her hand.
she
"
laughed,
Why,
I was just
thinking of you, and wondering
had not written
"
to
As I
me
sat
I"
down
to write,
threw down
and here I am instead of my letter
;
Looking down on
light,
you came back
so vividly, Lucy, that I
my pen
why you
how
fair
the
in his fond eyes
!"
her, there in the, gas-
little
flushed face looked
!
" Lucy," he cried, impulsively, " I have
come
for
a
Christmas gift;
—Don't answer me
without
it.
listen to
me
for a
few moments.
I
can't
live
yet, darling
I
your love was given away before I
know
first
that
asked
SPOKEN IN ANGER.
you
it
to be
my
191
I have thought over
wife.
a good deal lately, and I can well under-
stand
how
been by
constant your heart must have
my own
do you think
Grod's sight to
when the
But
constancy.
it
right and
now, dear,
acceptable in
bury your heart in the grave,
living need
it
As
so?
believe that all needful sacrifice
is
I verily
welcome
to the Lord, so I think, darling, that
can obey and please
Him by
accepting the
And
I think that
happiness he offers us.
when we can be happy together
to
we
it is
wrong
deny ourselves that happiness. You may
not think so now, but I
be happier as
fectly,
my
my
wife
darling.
years that you
—
may
;
am
sure }~ou would
I love you so perI have
prayed
one day be mine
\
for
and
do you know, Lucy, there have been times
when
I have almost doubted, for this unre-
quited love seemed so hard to bear."
;
!
J
SPOKEN" IN ANGEK.
92
There was a bitter pain in his
making the good kind
his heart,
haggard
"
Oh
!
as he
made
forgive me,
voice, in
face quite
this confession.
Mathew/' Lucy
cried
and, covering her face, she wept bitterly.
It
was so dreadful to think that she had such
power over the man by her
God, and
of
side
her earthly
—he a
love
priest
come
to
between him and his Master
He dropped her hand, and
He did
paced the room.
not try to hush her sobs
;
he did not
say one word to soothe her self-reproach.
All
the old fond love was battling fiercely in his
heart,
and he strove to conquer
had often
He
it,
as he
tried before in his lonely
home.
paced that room, forgetful of her pre-
sence, the
woman whose name
even was
music to his heart.
She rose up and
his arm,
laid her
and the dull pain
hand gently on
left
his eyes as
SPOKEN
m ANGER.
they met hers, so sweetly
193
mistily
blue,
"upturned in the gaslight.
" Mathew," she
" I will
whispered,
be
your wife."
He
hand on the
on
He
caught her to his heart.
laid his
fair head, resting so peacefully
his breast.
"
Oh
Thy
!
Father," he said, "for tins and
all
mercies I thank Thee."
And
then he kissed her
—
his own, his
*****
very own, at
The
last.
crocuses were just peeping prettily
from the ground,
like
doves from a buried
ark, to learn tidings of the
when
a wedding took place
quiet that even
she
is,
tardy spring,
—a wedding
so
Boulogne, busybody that
knew nothing
of
it
until
it
was
over.
The sunshine of youth had passed over
v
L.
III.
13
SPOKEN IN ANGEK.
194
both bride and bridegroom, but the sunshine
of a happy wedded
life
abided with them.
The bridegroom looked
at the bride's face,
as
he crossed the threshold of the house of
Grod, out
from
its
sombre
bright flooding sunlight
busy passing
bride's
face,
throng;
and in
;
stillness into the
he saw not the
he ]ooked at
his
eyes
all
the old
sweet beauty beamed again, as though
faded calm had been but a
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w. h. russell, ll.d.
william black,
justln McCarthy.
JAMES GRANT.
Mrs.
J.
H.
KIDDELL.
FLORENCE MARRYAT.
Mrs. CASHEL HOEY.
MORLEY FARROW.
GUY LIVINGSTONE, &c. &c.
Also numerous Essays, Articles, Novelettes, Poems, and Papers of interest.
The above Volumes are
elegantly
bound in
may
had of
Cases for Binding
any
be
cloth gilt, price 8s.
per volume.
the Publisher, or through
Bookseller, price Is. 6d. each.
TINSLEY BROTHERS,
8,
CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.
P^WP^P
w^mm
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