Dornford Yates

“ May I call you 'Pat'?"
"Please. What shall I call you?"
"Stephanie. Stephanie Beauclerk. I live with my aunt, but I don't like her very much."
"Why not?" said Danvers, taking out cigarettes.
"She's not very genuine," said Miss Beauclerk, knitting her pretty brows. "She always makes me think of a witch. And she dances with lizards, and I have to call her 'Rocky', instead of 'Aunt May'." Danvers repressed a start. "'Rocky's' her nickname, you know; but she's really quite old." ”

“ But I shouldn't say a word to a soul, until you've seen Forsyth, When can you go?"
"I don't know. I can't believe it, Pat. Aunt May won't——"
"Aunt May be burned," said Danvers. "You're going to be your own mistress. How soon are you twenty-two?"
"Next week—Tuesday."
"Well, at midnight next Monday Aunt May will cease to count. It mayn't amuse her, but it's a very hard fact. You'll have your own house, your own money and your own friends. You'll see whom you please and only whom you please. If anyone comes to see you that you don't like, your servants will send them away. ”

“ But I'll never care, my darling, if I'm to be with you."
"Oh, Stephanie, I love you so."
A child rubbed her cheek against his.
"And you wouldn't say so," she said. "I tried so hard to make you, because I was sure you did. None of the others ever say anything else, but the one I wanted to say it would not speak. And so I had to. I couldn't go on, my darling; so I had to propose to you. But I don't think it matters, really. I mean, no one need know." ”

“ But all I meant, Miss Beauclerk, was that eight hundred is all right to live on, but when you've paid the books and the dressmaker, I don't think there'll be very much left."
"I only want to live," said Stephanie. "I don't like razzling at all. And I'm sure I could live on a hundred pounds a year, so I shall really be rolling. And now won't you please tell me how I've come into all this? I know you're my trustee, but where does the money come from? And whose is the house? And why didn't Aunt May tell me ages ago?"
"I don't think she knows," said Forsyth. ”

“ Danvers could have ground his teeth.
Instead—
"Marringer," he said unsteadily, "is talking through her hat. It's—it's very kind of her to take so much interest in me, but——"
"Oh, but she loves you," said Stephanie. "They all do. I didn't know Mrs. Gravel had seen you, but she has and she thinks you're wonderful, Pat."
Danvers laid down his pipe and casually mopped his face.
"You shouldn't listen to servants," he said. "If more people came here——"
"They're very respectful," said Stephanie. "Besides, Forsyth thinks so too. He told me he knew no man for whom he had a higher respect." ”

“ Half an hour slid away before Stephanie rose to her feet.
"I've got to dine out," she said, "and to-morrow I'm going away."
Danvers stood up.
"But not for long," he said. "I—I want you to come here again."
"I'll love to." She pulled on her hat, peered in the glass for a moment and turned a glowing face. "You've been very nice to me, Pat, and it's been—divine." She stretched out her arms luxuriously. "To be able to talk to a man without his pretending he loves you. As for sitting alone in a room..." ”

“ Danvers tried to lift up his heart and steady his voice.
"We must get you a lady-in-waiting," he said. "Some nice, understanding woman, who——"
"I don't want her, Pat. I don't want her. I love it when you come here, because we're alone. The knight and the maiden never had anyone else, and why should we?"
The man was shaking. Stephanie's eager breath beat upon his face. Her eyes peered into his—two glorious suppliants, praying him to spare the pretty, precious bubble that he and she had blown.
"Stephanie dear, for your sake it's better so. Forsyth is right—as always. ”

“ Danvers was a herald. He respected his office and delighted in his work at the College of Arms. In an age when traditions were dying of violence and neglect, he found himself happy in maintaining the fairest of them all. For this his profession he had his father to thank. From his mother he had inherited a little house in Westminster and a fortune which was sufficient, because he was content to live quietly and to be outrun by the times. He went out little, except to dine at his Club. ”

“ You will be independent. No one will count except you."
"You will, Pat." The man caught his breath. "Always. But—oh, my dear, I wish we'd got the room to ourselves. I want to hold on to you. What d'you think the house will be like?"
"How on earth can I tell?" said Danvers, laughing. "You must go and see Forsyth."
"I believe it's an old house," said Stephanie excitedly. "A little old house, with beams. And a flagged court at the back and a sundial. You'll come very often, won't you, Pat? You must come to dinner. ”

“ Most people, I believe, like music. Won't you take off your coat and sit down?"
She turned her back in silence, and Danvers took off her coat and laid it upon a chair. A simple, short blue frock became her admirably. And, when she stood on tiptoe and peered at herself in a glass, she might have been fresh sixteen.
"D'you like my hat?" she said.
"Yes," said Danvers. "I noticed it ages ago."
"I'm so glad. I bought it this morning. May I take it off now? It makes my head hot."
"Of course," said Danvers.
She pulled off the little hat and gave it into his hand. He laid it away with her coat. ”

“ Tell me, Pat. Why don't you marry?" Danvers started, and his pipe fell to the ground. "Marringer says you should."
Marringer was the housemaid who had 'gone with the house'.
Subduing the impulse to request that Marringer should be dismissed the next morning at eight o'clock, Danvers picked up his pipe and moistened his lips.
"Perhaps," he said, "I'm not a marrying man. Some people aren't, you know."
"That's what I said," said Stephanie, lighting a cigarette. "But she said you were. She said she'd watched you, while she was helping Gravel, and that what you wanted was a wife." ”

“ He had, he knew, confounded charity with love. He had saved Stephanie, because he loved her, and for no other reason at all. So far, so good. Love in the habit of Charity may be an exquisite thing. But the habit must not be abused—must not be employed to carry Love out of her prison ... upstairs and downstairs and into my lady's chamber.
Danvers had had a bad time. He had done alms, and his left hand was continually staring at what his right hand had done. ”

“ And if you were married already, you'd never have known of it yourself. That's the Law all over. It moves in a mysterious way, setting one man up and taking another down. Its documents are full of dead contingencies—old secrets never disclosed. ”

“ When a week had gone by and no word had come from Stephanie, Danvers wrote her three letters and tore the lot of them up. This demonstrates pretty well his condition of mind. He had also become sharply suspicious of the telephone-clerk employed at the College of Arms. Finally, he cancelled a visit which he was to have paid to an aunt. This upset the aunt and his housekeeper: Danvers would not have cared if it had occasioned a war. Until he knew where he was, the man was not going to leave Town. ”

“ And I go all over the place and have a wonderful time. Only, you see, I don't want it. I don't think I'd like it even if they let me alone. Aunt May says I can't manage men, and I suppose she's right. I'm always in trouble, Pat. The puppy-dog business was awful. Aunt May was simply wild. You see, the man was our host...."
"I see," said Danvers thickly. "Did you know you had a trustee?"
Stephanie opened her eyes. ”

“ Danvers found himself gripping the iron of the balustrade....
"Oh, I knew I had something to tell you," said Miss Beauclerk. "Old Mr. Stuggenbaum's started in again. I met him in Bond Street on Tuesday. I'd imagined it would be safe and that everyone would have gone. He tried to make me come to lunch, and, when I went into a shop, he came in and tried to pay. In the end I had to get on a 'bus. He tried to get on too, but he was too late. Of course, he rolled up here at a quarter to three. Gravel said I was out, but I don't think he believed him. ”