Anthony Hope

“ Hilary, for she remarked with a sympathetic air,—
'Never mind his folly, Phyllis dear.'
'Haven't you, Miss Phyllis?' said I.
Miss Phyllis grew very red. Fearing that I was causing her pain, I was about to observe on the prospects of a Dissolution when a shy smile spread over Miss Phyllis's face.
'Yes, once,' said she with a timid glance at Mrs. Hilary, who immediately laid down her embroidery.
'Out with it,' I cried triumphantly. 'Come along, Miss Phyllis. We won't tell, honour bright!'
Miss Phyllis looked again at Mrs. Hilary. Mrs. Hilary is human. ”

“ Hilary, with regretful candour. I took my hat and remarked,—
'A man has a right to think of himself, but I am not thinking mainly of myself. I shall not come to lunch.'
'You said you would,' cried Mrs. Hilary indignantly.
I poised the letter in my hand, reading again, 'Miss M (aud) E (lizabeth) Bannerman.' Miss Phyllis looked at me curiously, Mrs. Hilary impatiently.
'Who knows,' said I, 'that I may not be a Romance—a Vanished Dream—a Green Memory—an Oasis? A person who has the fortune to be an Oasis, Miss Phyllis, should be very careful. ”

“ I've told you all Archie's sins.'
'Nor Mrs. Hilary? I wish it was Mrs. Hilary!'
'Shall we walk on the terrace?' I suggested.
'Oh, yes, let's,' said Dolly, stepping out, and putting on a broad-brimmed low-crowned hat, which she caught up from a chair hard by. 'It isn't Mrs. Hilary?' she added, sitting down on a garden seat.
'No,' said I, leaning on a sun-dial which stood by the seat.
'Well, what is it?'
'It is simple,' said I, 'and serious. It is not, therefore, like you. Lady Mickleham.'
'It's like Mrs. Hilary,' said Dolly.
'No; because it isn't pleasant. ”

“ Yet Dolly could not think of living with the pots where they were till Monday. It would kill her, she said. So Archie left the cool shade of the great trees, where Dolly sat doing nothing, and Nelly Phaeton sat splicing the gig whip, and I lay in a deck-chair, with something iced beside me. Outside the sun was broiling hot, and poor Archie mopped his brow at every weary journey across the broad terrace. ”

“ Rhadamanthus uttered an inarticulate sound—half impatience, half, I fancy, something else.
'We are none of us perfect, I daresay. If I asked your wife——'
'I haven't got a wife,' said Rhadamanthus.
'That's why you're so hard-hearted,' said Dolly. 'A man who's got a wife is never hard on other women.'
There was another pause. Then Rhadamanthus, looking straight at the blotting-paper, said,—
'Oh, well, don't bother me. Be off with you;' and as he spoke the door behind him opened. ”

“ Musgrave is!'
'Well, I should hardly call her that,' said I, with a smile.
'Oh, you mustn't depreciate her—you, of all men!' cried the matron, with a somewhat ponderous archness. 'Really I envy you her constant society.'
'I assure you,' said I, 'I see very little of her.'
'I beg your pardon?'
'I only go to the house about once a fortnight. Oh, it's not my fault. She won't have me there oftener.'
'What do you mean? I beg your pardon. Perhaps I've touched on a painful——'
'Not at all, not at all,' said I suavely. 'It is very natural. ”

“ Dolly leant over to my cousin, and whispered, 'Tell me her name.' And he whispered something back to Dolly.
'It's awfully kind of you. Lady Mickleham,' he said.
'I am a kind old thing,' said Dolly, all over dimples. 'I can easily get to know them.'
'Oh, you really are awfully kind, Lady Mickleham.'
Dolly smiled upon him, waved her hand to me, and drove off, crying,—
'Do try to make Mr. Carter understand!'
We were left alone. George wore a meditative smile. Presently he roused himself to say,—
'She's really a very kind woman. She's so sympathetic. She's not like you. ”

“ Hilary, laying down her embroidery and clasping her hands on her knees, 'the morning you went to see father?'
'What a row there was!' said Hilary.
'And what an awful week it was after that! I was never so miserable in all my life. I cried till my eyes were quite red, and then I bathed them for an hour, and then I went to the pier, and you were there—and I mightn't speak to you!'
'I remember,' said Hilary, nodding gently.
'And then, Hilary, father sent for me and told me it was no use; and I said I'd never marry any one else. And father said, "There, there, don't cry. ”

“ Now when Dolly bubbles—an operation which includes a sudden turn towards me, a dancing of eyes, a dart of a small hand, a hurried rush of words, checked and confused by a speedier gust of gurgling sound—I am in the habit of ceasing to argue the question. Bubbling is not to be met by arguing. ”

“ Apparently one could go driving without any, but I did not pursue the subject.
'It's only in stories that people are in love when they marry,' observed Miss Phaeton reflectively.
'Yes, and then it's generally with somebody else,' said I.
'Oh, if you count that!' said she, hitting Ready rather viciously. We bounded forward, and I heard the little groom bumping on the back seat. I am always glad not to be a groom—it's a cup-and-ball sort of life, which must be very wearying.
'Were you ever in love?' she asked, just avoiding a brougham which contained the Duchess of Dexminster. ”

“ I turned to Miss Phyllis.
'I hope you won't think all love-affairs are like that,' I said; but I saw her lips begin to shape into 'lovely,' and I hastily left the room.
Hilary came to help me on with my coat. He looked extremely apologetic, and very much ashamed of himself.
'Awfully sorry, old chap,' said he, 'that we bored you with our reminiscences. I know, of course, that they can't be very interesting to other people. Women are so confoundedly romantic.'
'Don't try that on with me,' said I, much disgusted. ”

“ Hilary sharply.
'As a hundred pounds are to a shilling so is the Grand Prix to the young man opposite,' I observed, taking my hat, and holding out my hand to Mrs Hilary.
'I am very angry with you,' she said. 'You've made the child think there was nothing wrong in it.'
'Oh! nonsense,' said I. 'Look how she enjoyed telling it.'
Then, not heeding Mrs. Hilary, I launched into an apostrophe.
'O! divine House Opposite,' I cried. 'Charming House Opposite! What is a man's own dull uneventful home compared with that glorious House Opposite! ”

“ My dear Dorothea,—I have heard your news. I do hope it will turn out happily. I believe that any woman who conscientiously does her duty can find happiness in married life. Her husband and children occupy all her time and all her thoughts, and if she can look for few of the lighter pleasures of life she has at least the knowledge that she is of use in the world. ”

“ George became red, and began to stammer an apology.
'Oh, I don't believe him,' said Dolly, kindly; 'he always makes people uncomfortable if he can. What were you telling him, Mr. George?'
'It's no use telling him anything. He can't understand,' said George.
'Is she very——?' asked Dolly, fixing doubtfully grave eyes on my young cousin.
'Sam's seen her,' said he, in an excess of shyness. ”

“ I had a very curious dream the other night. In fact, I dreamt that I was dead. I passed through a green baize door and found myself in a small square room. Opposite me was another door, inscribed 'Elysian Fields,' and in front of it, at a large table with a raised ledge, sat Rhadamanthus. As I entered I saw a graceful figure vanish through the door opposite. ”

“ Look here, Sam, don't go and talk about——'
'Talk about what?'
'Anything, you old idiot,' said George, with a pleased smile, and he dug me in the ribs with his cane, and departed.
I sat on, admiring the simple elements which constitute the happiness of the young. Alas! with advancing years, Wrong loses half its flavour! To be improper ceases, by itself, to satisfy. ”

“ Dolly's smile was almost a laugh as she asked,—
'How much lower, please, Mr. Carter?'
'Just by the depth of your dimples,' said I thoughtlessly.
Dolly became immensely grave.
'I thought,' said she, 'that we never mentioned them now, Mr. Carter.'
'Did we ever?' I asked innocently.
'I seemed to remember once: do you recollect being in very low spirits one evening at Monte?'
'I remember being in very low water more than one evening there.'
'Yes: you told me you were terribly hard up. ”

“ Hilary didn't want you, of course?'
'Of course not,' said I plaintively.
'Besides, you'd rather come with me, wouldn't you?' pursued Dolly; and she added pleasantly to the matron, 'Mrs. Hilary's so down on him, you know.'
'I'd much rather come with you,' said I.
'We'll have a cosy drive all to ourselves, said Dolly, 'without husbands or wives or anything horrid. Isn't it nice to get rid of one's husband sometimes, Mrs. Wiggins?'
'I have the misfortune to be a widow, Lady Mickleham,' said Mrs. Wiggins. ”

“ Carter?'
'Certainly I do, Lady Mickleham. You are thinking that you would like to meet me for the first time.'
'Not at all. I was thinking that it would be amusing if you met me for the first time.'
I said nothing. Dolly rose and walked to the window. She swung the tassel of the blind and it bumped against the window. The failing sun caught her ruddy brown hair. There were curls on her forehead, too.
'It's a grand world,' said I. 'And, after all, one can grow old very gradually.'
'You're not really old,' said Dolly, with the fleetest glance at me. A glance should not be over-long. ”

“ A QUICK CHANGE.
'Why not go with Archie?' I asked, spreading out my hands.
'It will be dull enough, anyhow,' said Dolly fretfully. 'Besides, it's awfully bourgeois to go to the theatre with one's husband.'
'Bourgeois,' I observed, 'is an epithet which the riff-raff apply to what is respectable, and the aristocracy to what is decent.'
'But it's not a nice thing to be, all the same,' said Dolly, who is impervious to the most penetrating remark. ”

“ By the way, I may as well state what he—that is, my young cousin George—had done. Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible.
Well, he was in love; and with a view of providing him with another house at which he might be likely to meet the adored object, I presented him to my friend Lady Mickleham. That was on a Tuesday. A fortnight later, as I was sitting in Hyde Park (as I sometimes do) George came up and took the chair next to me. I gave him a cigarette, but he made no remark. George beat his cane restlessly against the leg of his trousers. ”

“ It was probably only kindness, but Dolly suddenly turned her eyes away from me and fixed them on the fire; she took the fan up again and twirled it in her hand; a queer little smile bent her lips.
'I hope the poor man won't die,' said Dolly in a low voice. ”

“ Hence I am not carrying pots across a broad terrace under a hot sun.'
'Why did they think you impossible?' asked Miss Phaeton, who takes much interest in this sort of question.
'A variety of reasons; for one I was too clever, for another too stupid; for others too good—or too bad; too serious—or too frivolous; too poor or——'
'Well, no one objected to your money, I suppose?' interrupted Nellie. ”

“ Hilary, and little Miss Phyllis gasped in horror.
'Oh, well,' said Hilary, with much bravery (as it struck me) , 'his father's very well off.'
'That doesn't make it a bit better,' declared his wife.
'There's no mortal sin in a little betting, my dear. Boys will be boys——'
'And even that,' I interposed, 'wouldn't matter if we could only prevent girls from being girls.'
Mrs. Hilary, taking no notice whatever of me, pronounced sentence. 'He grossly deceived his father,' she said, and took up her embroidery. ”

“ I walked towards the door. Dolly stood by the table fingering the album. I had almost reached the door; then I happened to look round.
'Mr. Carter!' said Dolly, as though a new idea had struck her.
'What is it, Lady Mickleham?'
'Well, you know, Mr. Carter, I—I shall try to forget that mistake of yours.'
'You're very kind, Lady Mickleham.'
'But,' said Dolly, with a troubled smile, 'I—I'm quite afraid I shan't succeed, Mr. Carter.'
After all, the smoking-room is meant for smoking. ”

“ Hilary pushed back her chair, and turned round to us.
'Well, I declare,' said she, 'I must be growing stupid. Here have I been writing to the Agency, when I know of the very thing myself! The Polwheedles' governess is just leaving them; she's been there over fifteen years. Lady Polwheedle told me she was a treasure. I wonder if she'd go!'
'Is she what mamma wants?'
'My dear, you'll be most lucky to get her. I'll write at once and ask her to come to lunch to-morrow. I met her there. She's an admirable person.'
Mrs. Hilary wheeled round again. I shook my head at Miss Phyllis. ”

“ Dolly had told her that she would be in a certain place; and when Miss Phyllis came Dolly was not there. The poor little lady wandered about for another hour, looking so lost that one was inclined to send for a policeman; and then she sat down on a seat by the wall, and, in desperation, asked her next-door neighbour if he knew Lady Mickleham by sight, and had he seen her lately? ”

“ I dropped that subject.
'And now,' said Miss Dolly again, 'he cuts me dead!'
'It is the height of ingratitude. Why, to love you was a liberal education!'
'Yes, wasn't it? How nicely you put that. "A liberal education!" I shall tell Archie.' (Archie is Lord Mickleham.)
'What, about Phil Meadows?'
'Goodness me, no, Mr. Carter. Just what you said, you know.'
'But why not tell Mickleham about Phil Meadows?' I urged. 'It's all to your credit, you know.'
'Yes, I know, but men are so foolish. ”