G. Sidney Paternoster

“ Hora's lips grew pale and his hands trembled as he listened. He recognised the emotion from which Guy suffered by the memory of his own experience when he had himself been branded in the light of day and the sight of all men. Still he strove to meet the point of view.
"I thought you had learned to place their true value upon conventional terms," he remarked.
"I have," said Guy, more bitterly than before. "I have learned that a thief is a thief whatever sophistry may be used to throw a glamour of romance over his actions." ”

“ When in response to the official summons Captain Marven returned to town he was more perturbed than he would have cared to confess, at the disastrous ending to Meriel's love affair. The intimacy of everyday life had only confirmed the favourable impression Guy had produced upon him, and he had looked forward with pleasure to welcoming him as a member of his family. But altogether apart from the question of his own gratification, he was deeply pained that a cloud should have cast its shadow on the girl's happiness, and he be able to do nothing to dissipate it. ”

“ Guy had moved quietly away. She saw that the Witch had swung on the tide. She watched him weigh the anchor and get the boat under way with a curious fear in her heart; a fear for herself. In looks, in bearing, in his manner, he was every inch a man, a man that she loved. But he was a thief, the thief who had treacherously robbed the man who had been a father to her, a thief for whom the police were searching, a thief who might any day stand in the dock as a felon.
"Guy is a thief! a thief! a thief!" ”

“ I was so enveloped in my own misery, that I was absolutely blind to all external objects. I could think of nothing but my dead hopes. So onward I went, stumbling and splashing through the mud, cursing Mannering, cursing the Motor Pirate, above all cursing myself for my own pusillanimity. Why had I listened to Winter? Why should I have allowed myself to be persuaded to play the part of coward, merely that Winter's car should have been saved from injury? ”

“ Myra rose from her chair, pale now with anger, "And now you insult me," she cried.
He would have interrupted her, but she overpowered his words with a torrent of her own. "Oh, you have the right to insult me as you please; I don't question it. Did you not buy me, as you have told me often enough, body and soul for a piece of gold and a bottle of gin. The master cannot insult the slave, you will say. I suppose I ought to smile at your reproaches, but when you accuse me of having driven Guy away—it is too much, Commandatore. ”

“ Myra's countenance cleared and a happy smile shone on her face. She looked up at him expectantly.
"You can tell me how much you care for him," he continued. "I shall not reveal your confidence to Guy."
She dropped her eyes.
"I cannot tell anyone," she whispered with a strange shyness. [Pg 14]
Hora smiled whimsically. "What liars love makes of us all," he said. "Yet perhaps you are speaking truthfully. You cannot tell me what you do not know."
"I could die—die happily—for him," she murmured softly.
"Fools sometimes die for utter strangers," remarked Hora sardonically. "That's not love. ”

“ I asked.
"That's just what I fail to understand," said Winter. "From what I could see of it, our friend the Motor Pirate is possessed of an ideal car, graceful in shape, making no noise, running with a minimum of vibration and a maximum of speed. Why, there's a fortune in it."
"Of course it is quite impossible that the motive power can be electricity?" remarked Mannering, gazing into the fire as if he could see a solution of the mystery therein. ”

“ Hora shrugged his shoulders. "You have the whole world to choose from," he sneered. "Go where you like; your native gutter is about the only place which is really suitable, but I don't care where you go so long as you do not cross my path again."
For the first time Myra looked up. She met his glance, and so fierce an anger blazed in his eyes that a thrill of physical fear passed through her. Had she been in her normal condition the anger would have awakened an answering flame in herself. ”

“ I should not at all mind exposing my car to any risk if I could get the opportunity to examine the Motor Pirate's car. If the truth must be told, from what I have seen of his car, and what you have told me, I am rather inclined to think that whoever designed it has forestalled me in an idea which I had thought quite my own. I have long been working to produce a car which would run at least a hundred miles an hour without noise or perceptible vibration. ”

“ The hour has passed. Oh! Guy, Guy!"
Lynton Hora turned upon her fiercely. "Is this a specimen of your self-control?" he said. "Haven't you learned that in the profession Guy has adopted a thousand trivial events may supply reason for delay? Mind, if I have any snivelling I withdraw my promise."
Myra was constrained into silence. She went to the window. Already the black night had given place to the grey mists of coming dawn. She looked out over the park. Uprising from the sea of shadows objects began to emerge. From the near distance the music of violins and harps throbbed to a waltz measure. ”

“ I cried, turning to my companion, "we must be mad to think that Mannering could play the part of the Motor Pirate on that old car of his."
There was something so irresistibly ludicrous in the idea, that we both indulged in a hearty fit of laughter, and with one accord we turned and walked down the road.
"He may keep his fast car elsewhere," remarked the detective, when his mirth had subsided. ”

“ Hora shrugged his shoulders. "Men are men," he said. "You may be having visitors who might hardly like to come here. Eh?"
Guy smiled.
"I see it is possible," continued Hora, smiling in his turn. "Then there are others whom I might not wish to meet. The men of your own years with whom you mix, with whom you must mix if you are to keep your position, will probably be often dropping in on you. I am getting of an age, Guy, when I might find their presence, I will not say distasteful, but just a little wearisome. At chambers of your own you will be much freer in that respect." ”

“ Myra was forced to protest. "To thrust myself on Guy. To be repulsed—the shame of it, Commandatore," she answered weakly.
"Bah!" replied Hora. "A man will fight for a woman, and take no shame in his repulse. Why not a woman for a man? Are you of such ordinary stuff, such common fustian, that you will tamely stand by while some milk-and-water chit takes your natural mate from you? You had better go back to the gutter, if so."
There was scorn in his words, scorn in the tone of his voice, and if Hora intended to rouse the woman's spirit the words did not fail of their purpose. ”

“ His anger had carried him out of himself, and too late Hora perceived that his virulent tongue had said too much.
Guy had drawn himself up, pale with anger.
"Sir," he said, "I must ask you to leave me to myself. I cannot listen to abuse of one who is more to me than anyone else in the world."
Hora strove to undo the effect of his words. "Chivalrous as ever, Guy," he remarked quietly, though despite his intention a sneer curled his lips at what appeared to him a ridiculous exhibition of sentimentalism. ”

“ It was the evening of the second day after Hora's exhibition of emotion upon hearing the name of Marven. He had not referred again to the object of his hatred, and neither Myra nor Guy, who sat with him at the table, had prompted his memory.
Guy looked round the room before he answered. He had been well trained in the observance of caution. But the servants had retired, the door was closed. The three were alone.
"All London offers replenishment of our empty coffers," he answered light-heartedly. "Who is to have the honour?" He turned to Myra. "Shall I peel a peach for you?" he asked. ”

“ The man she had learned to love was a thief—a thief. She told herself fiercely that she no longer loved him, that she had never loved him, but the ache at her heart gave the lie to the declaration.
The perpetual ache at her heart! If she could only have shared the burden with Mrs. Marven, taken advantage of her Aunt's sympathetic counsel, sobbed out her trouble and her despair on that motherly breast, the pain would have been easier to bear. But she could not do that. Thief though he was, Meriel could not betray Guy's confidence. ”

“ He allowed for Guy's youth. Youth was ever impressionable and romantic, changing in its fancy, and ever amenable to the mutable feminine. Once let him be removed from the presence of Meriel Challys and Hora thought that Guy might be weaned from his obvious infatuation. Indeed, there was a probability that his romantic imaginings might be turned to account. The young man, floundering out of his depths in the quicksands of romantic imaginings, might be easily captured by the wiles of a really clever woman. ”

“ He was surprised to see the tears trickle down her cheeks and the corners of her mouth turn downwards. There had been no snivelling about Myra in the past.
"I could not help Guy going. He does not love me," she said meekly.
Hora's scorn could no longer be restrained. "Love," he sneered. "The world is mad on the subject, the besotted idiocy of immature brains. Because a girl would and a boy won't a man's plans and schemes are to be wrecked. I'll be alone in future. You can take yourself off as soon as you like." ”

“ Whitsea lies on the estuary of one of those Essex rivers which flow into the North Sea through a wilderness of shallows. The visitor who goes to it expecting to find any one of the ordinary attractions of the average seaside watering-place may make up his mind to be wofully disappointed. But the visitor with a delight in the unconventional and the unhackneyed need not fear boredom. The salt marshes which border the river for miles have a wild beauty entirely their own. Flowers grow there as if the sea were no enemy to them. ”

“ It had destroyed, though at the time he did not recognise the fact, the delight he had felt in being something apart from other men, the exhilaration of being in conflict with the world. The obvious scorn which the girl felt for the thief, her absolute belief that the idea of theft was as repugnant to him as it was to herself, were deadly blows to the philosophy which Lynton Hora fondly imagined he had planted so deeply as to be ineradicable. Guy felt that his belief was crumbling. ”