Anthony Hope

“ The Marchesa's tall slender figure stood before him—all in white, crowned by a large, yet simple, white hat; her pale olive cheeks were tinged with underlying red (the flush of which Lynborough had dreamed!) ; her dark eyes rested on the young man with a kindly languid interest; her very red lips showed no smile, yet seemed to have one in ready ambush. Roger was overcome ”

“ John Baptist's Feast."
"The right to know it on other days—would that be recognized in return for a homage, Marchesa?"
"One homage for so many letters?"
"I had sooner there were no letters—and daily homages."
"You take too many obligations—and too lightly."
"For every one I gain the recognition of a right."
"The richer you grow in rights then, the harder you must work!"
"I would have so many rights accorded me as to be no better than a slave!" cried Lynborough. "Yet, if I have not one, still I have nothing." ”

“ But the Woman I am to see to-morrow? Is she the Image? I shall know in the first moment of our encounter. If she is, all is well for me—for her it will be just a question of her dower of heavenly venturousness. If she is not—in my humble judgment, you, Ambrose Caverly, having put the thing with so excessive a prettiness, shall for your art's sake perish—you must, in short, if you would end this thing in the manner (creditable to yourself, Ambrose!) ”

“ The Marchesa's last words to Lady Norah betrayed the state of her mind. While the question of the path was pending, she had been unable to think of anything else; until it was settled she could think of nobody except of the man in whose hands the settlement lay. Whether Lynborough attracted or repelled, he at least occupied and filled her thoughts. She had come to recognize where she stood and to face the position. Stillford's steady pessimism left her no hope from an invocation of the law ”

“ Lynborough admired, applauded, and promised himself considerable entertainment at dinner.
How was the Marchesa, in her turn, bearing her domestic isolation, the internal disaffection at Nab Grange? He flattered himself that she would not be finding in it such pleasure as his whimsical temper reaped from the corresponding position of affairs at Scarsmoor.
There he was right. At Nab Grange the atmosphere was not cheerful. Not to want a thing by no means implies an admission that you do not want it; that is elementary diplomacy. Rather do you insist that you want it very much ”

“ But she asked him nothing of Lord Lynborough—and, if she ever looked from the window toward Scarsmoor Castle, none—not even her observant maid—saw her do it.
Yet Cupid was in the Grange—and very busy. There were signs, not to be misunderstood, that Violet had not for handsome Stillford the scorn she had bestowed on unfortunate Irons; and Roger, humbly and distantly worshiping the Marchesa, deeming her far as a queen beyond his reach, [Pg 202] rested his eyes and solaced his spirit with the less awe-inspiring charms, the more accessible comradeship, of Norah Mountliffey. ”

“ But in the strong spirit of the wine of life—whereof I have been and am an inveterate and most incurable bibber—I rejoice in that wonderful moment of mine to-morrow—when the door of the shrine opens, and I see the goddess before whom my offering must be laid. Be she giant or dwarf, be she black or white, have she hair or none—by the powers, if she wears a sack only, and is well advised to stick close to that, lest casting it should be a change for the worse—in any event the offering must be made. ”

“ They grew curious and restless on the lawn; the private audience lasted long, the homage took much time in paying.
"A marvelous thing has come to me," said Lynborough, speaking slower than his wont, "and with it a great courage. I have seen my dream. This morning I came here not knowing whether I should see it. I don't speak of the face of my dream-image only, though I could speak till next St. John's [Pg 238] Day upon that. I speak to a soul. I think our souls have known one another longer, aye, and better than our faces." ”

“ Miss Gilletson made no effort to conceal her agitation.
"Why didn't they come by the path?" cried Norah.
"They couldn't very well; Lynborough's sent them in a carriage—with postilions [Pg 211] and four horses," Stillford answered gravely. "The postilions appear to be amused, but the Ambassadors are exceedingly solemn."
The Marchesa's spirits rose. If the piece were to be a comedy, she could play her part! The same idea was in Stillford's mind. "He can't mean to be very unpleasant if he plays the fool like this," he said, looking round on the company with a smile. ”

“ His was, in a word, the practical spirit, and Lynborough could not have chosen a better right-hand man.
They were all smoking; a silence had rested long over the party. At last Lynborough spoke.
"There's always," he said, "something seductive in looking at a house when you know nothing about the people who live in it."
"But I know a good deal about them," Wilbraham interposed with a laugh. "Coltson's been pumping all the village, and I've had the benefit of it." ”

“ Once more he and the law had come to loggerheads; when he emerged from confinement he swore never to employ on his own account an instrument so hateful.
"A gentleman should fight his own battles, Cromlech," he cried to his friend. "I did no more than put a bullet in his arm—in a fair encounter—and he let me go to prison!" [Pg 9]
"Monstrous!" Stabb agreed with a smile. He had passed the year in a dirty little inn by the prison gate—among scoundrels, but fortunately in the vicinity of some mounds distinctly prehistoric. ”

“ Stillford agreed. "We'll drive there and walk back?"
"Right you are!" said the Captain.
By following the party from Nab Grange to Fillby parish church, a partial idea of the locality would be gained; but perhaps it is better to face the complete task at once. Idle tales suit idle readers; a history such as this may legitimately demand from those who study it some degree of mental application.
If, then, the traveler lands from the North Sea (which is the only sea he can land from) he will find himself on a sandy beach, dipping rapidly to deep water and well adapted for bathing. ”

“ Lynborough sat on the terrace which ran along the front of the Castle and looked down, over Nab Grange, to the sea. With him were Leonard Stabb and Roger Wilbraham. The latter was a rather short, slight man of dark complexion; although a light-weight he was very wiry and a fine boxer. His intellectual gifts corresponded well with his physical equipment; an acute ready mind was apt to deal with every-day problems and pressing necessities; it had little turn either for speculation or for fancy. He had dreams neither about the past, like Stabb, nor about present things, like [Pg 34] Lynborough. ”

“ She rose too and went over to Stabb with outstretched hands. A broad smile spread over Stabb's spacious face. "It's just like [Pg 220] Ambrose," he said to her as he took her hands. "He gets what he wants—but in the prettiest way!"
She answered him in a low voice: "A very knightly way of saving a foolish woman's pride." She raised her voice. "Bid Lord Lynborough—aye, Sir Ambrose Athelstan Caverly, Baron Lynborough, attend here at Nab Grange to pay his homage to-morrow at noon." She looked round on them all, smiling now openly, the red in her cheeks all triumphant over her olive hue. ”

“ The obvious course was to set his spies to work—he could command plenty of [Pg 197] friendly help among the Nab Grange garrison—learn the Marchesa's probable movements, throw himself in her way, contrive an acquaintance, make himself as pleasant as he could, establish relations of amity, of cordiality, even of friendship and of intimacy. That might prepare the way, and incline her to accept the proposal—to take the jest—it was little more in hard reality—in the spirit in which he put it forward, and so to end her resistance. ”

“ The law, Roger, always considers what you have [Pg 46] had and what you now have—never what you ought to have. Take that path! It happens to be a fact that my grandfather, and my father, and I have always used that path. That's important by law, I daresay——"
"Certainly, Lord Lynborough."
"Just what would be important by law!" commented Lynborough. "And I have made use of the fact in my letter to the Marchesa. But in my own mind I stand on reason and natural right. Is it reasonable that I, living half-a-mile from my bathing, should have to walk two miles to get to it? Plainly not. ”

“ His manner was not always deemed so free from affectation; it was, perhaps, a little more self-conscious; it was touched with a foreign courtliness, and he employed, on occasions of any ceremony or in intercourse with ladies, a certain formality of speech; it was said of him by an observant woman that he seemed to be thinking in a language more ornate and picturesque than his tongue employed. He was content to say the apt thing, not striving after wit; he was more prone to hide a joke than to tell it; he would ignore a victory and laugh at a defeat ”

“ Every real conviction springs from personal experience. [Pg 96] I hate the law because it interfered with me. I'm not aware of any better reason. So I'm going on without it—unless somebody tries to steal my forty thousand, of course. Ambrose, thou art a humbug—or, more precisely, thou canst not avoid being a human individual!"
Lord Lynborough completed the entry in his diary—he was tolerably well aware that he might just as well not have written it—and cast his eyes toward the window of the library. ”

“ Roger Wilbraham, going suddenly a little white, said he thought that persecut [Pg 179] ing a lady was no fit amusement for a gentleman. Lynborough did not suppose that the Marchesa—with the battle of the day at least drawn, if not decided in her favor—could be regarded as the subject of persecution—and he did recognize that young fellows, under certain spells, spoke hotly and were not to be held to serious account. He was smiling still when, with a forced remark about the heat, the pair went out together to smoke on the terrace. ”

“ Fate helps those who help themselves: her new courage of brain and heart had its reward. She had not been there above a minute when Roger Wilbraham came out from the Scarsmoor gates.
Lynborough had, he considered, done enough for one day. He was awaiting the results of to-morrow's manoeuvers anent the cricket match. But he amused himself after lunch by proffering to Roger a wager that he would not succeed in traversing Beach Path from end to end, and back again, alone, by his own unassisted efforts, and [Pg 140] without being driven to ignominious flight. ”

“ Now, too, Lynborough might have got his flush—if he could have been there to see it!
"Bring me my field-glasses!" she cried.
The window commanded a view of the gardens, of the meadows beyond the sunk fence, of the path—Beach Path as that man [Pg 68] was pleased to call it!—and of the gate. At the last-named object the enraged Marchesa directed her gaze. The barricade of furze branches was gone! The gate hung open upon its hinges!
While she still looked, three figures came across the lens. A very large stout shape—a short spare form—a tall, lithe, very lean figure. ”

“ The human being as such? If I'm a vegetable, am I not a mistake? If I'm an animal, am I not a cruelty? If I'm a soul, am I not misplaced? I'd say 'Yes' to all this, save that I enjoy myself so much. Because I have forty thousand a year? ”

“ Save that it is gloriously paradoxical to meet a foreign Excellency in this spot, and to get to most justifiable, most delightful, loggerheads with her immediately. I have conceived Machiavellian devices. I will lure away her friends. I will isolate her, humiliate her, beat her in the fight. ”

“ The pale faint flush again adorned her fading cheeks. "I never met a man more thoroughly a gentleman."
"You never met—" began the Marchesa in petrified tones. "Then you have met—?" Again her words died away.
Miss Gilletson took her courage in both hands.
"Circumstances threw us together. I behaved as a lady does under such circumstances, Helena. And Lord Lynborough was, under the circumstances, most charming, courteous, and considerate." She gathered more courage as she proceeded. "And really it's highly inconvenient having that gate [Pg 132] locked, Helena. ”

“ Irons was a fine young man, still in the twenties, very fair and very bronzed. He [Pg 18] had seen fighting and was great at polo. Stillford, though a man of peace (if a solicitor may so be called) , was by no means inferior in physique. A cadet of a good county family, he was noted in the hunting field and as a long-distance swimmer. He had come to Nab Grange to confer with the Marchesa on her affairs, but, proving himself an acquisition to the party, had been pressed to stay on as a guest.
The men began to bandy stories of Lynborough from one table to the other. ”

“ But to sit here with the padlock before her, and see Lynborough pass through the gate—a meeker woman than she had surely been moved to wrath! He had bathed—as he had said he would. And he had sent her the padlock. [Pg 69] That was what came of listening to conciliatory counsels, of letting herself give ear to dilatory persuasions!
"War!" declared the Marchesa. "War—war—war! And if he's not careful, I won't confine it to the path either!" She seemed to dream of conquests, perhaps to reckon resources, whereof Mr. Stillford, her legal adviser, had taken no account. ”

“ And youth allied with beauty becomes self-assertive, a claimant against the world, a plaintiff against facts before High Heaven's tribunal. The Marchesa was infinitely delighted with Nab Grange—graciously content with Na [Pg 32] ture—not ill-pleased with herself—but, in fine, somewhat discontented with her company. That was herself? Not precisely, though, at the moment, objectively. She was wondering whether her house-party was all that her youth and her beauty—to say nothing of her past endurance of the Marchese—entitled her to claim and to enjoy. ”