Edgar Fawcett

“ Adalbert went to stay with his aunt, and Thorpe soon received an invitation to join him at the delightful sea-fronting villa.
"My dear Mr. Thaxton," said Mrs. Dudley, soon after Thorpe's arrival, "I do so want to ask you what are your feelings with respect to my poor dead sister's son. Adalbert strikes me as a most talented and brilliant man."
"He undoubtedly is," answered Thorpe.
"Yet so indolent."
"Indolent hardly describes him, Mrs. Dudley. Adalbert, to be quite frank with you, is a man victimized by the idea of fatalism. He is possessed of the belief that it is needless to do anything. ”

“ Dudley called after him:
"The inevitable, remember, is something that we poor mortals can rebel against, even while we tell ourselves that we can't. The whole thing is a mighty mystery, Addie, my boy; but effort, and not apathy, is the best help for it."
There were other enchanting sails on the Fornarina as days glided along. Lady Isabel chose always to go; sometimes Mrs. Dudley did not feel equal to going, but insisted that Adalbert should take her place, and sometimes Adalbert refused to go because of real or assumed laziness, and she went—always very reluctantly on these occasions. ”

“ But not a few of the other Balliol men treated Thorpe Thaxton's defensive stand as the merest snobbish pose. Of course, he had his motives. Money was a huge power nowadays, and this Thaxton fellow could hold his own well enough, past a doubt, as eldest son of a hugely rich Birmingham cutler. Nevertheless, blood and title were always dear to these new Croesuses. Old England wasn't quite hopelessly vulgarized yet. The upstarts knew a gentleman—or a lady. And Adalbert Hereward had a sister, pretty and rather poor. ”

“ Everything happens. You've heard me speak before now about the current of things."
"Oh, haven't I!" grimaced Thorpe.
"Well, it's so interesting to stand on the bank, as one might say, and watch. We all do stand on the bank and watch. That is, metaphorically."
"Quite so," muttered Thorpe; "and practically we're all in the swim."
"Oh, yes. We're all part of the inevitable, of course. We can't help being in the swim." Here Adalbert looked full at his companion, with that placid sweetness which fascinated both sexes in almost equal degree. ”

“ Then her bottom appeared, like the belly of a big dead fish, and two heads were seen close to its glassy bulge. A hollowing of the water disclosed, for less time than it takes to draw one good breath, two human forms, buoyed there somehow—woman and man. ”

“ About a week later there appeared at the Broadstairs villa an exceedingly smart vehicle, to which were attached a pair of sleek roans of good breed and style. But the carriage had room for only two, and although Adalbert drove out in it with Thorpe the first day after its arrival (the whole pretty and proper thing being another avuncular loan) , Lady Isabel, on the following day and several days that succeeded it, graciously assumed his place. People meanwhile came in for tea on certain afternoons; golf was played on neighboring links ”

“ My man will have the order despatched to Ramsgate in no time."
The Fornarina was in readiness not long afterward, and the perfect weather promised an ideal cruise, Thorpe's uncle was a man who loved his steam yacht as some men love their favorite horse. Wealth had given him the power of caressing her into a condition of faultless mechanism, allied to a luxury of service that discipline could ill surpass. ”

“ Dudley, seating herself on the clean, even deck at her nephew's side. "This, Adalbert, is one of the fascinating things that riches can do. We come of a race, you and I, that used to call riches vulgar. But we must reverse our old verdicts. These new millionaires are so often refined. They buy refinement, like everything else. Look at Thorpe Thaxton now as he paces the deck arm-in-arm with Isabel ”

“ She even let her eyes slip along the lines of his trim and virile figure. "Oh, there's no such danger. Besides, you can withdraw if it threatens. Because a woman is in love with one man, it doesn't mean that she will treat another with scorn—especially if he's nice. And you—well, you'll do admirably. There—is it a compact? If so, shake hands on it."
They shook hands on it, and the next day Lady Isabel arrived.
She was driven from the station by Adalbert in one of his aunt's smart traps. It was then rather late in the afternoon, and Thaxton did not meet her until just before dinner. ”

“ Adalbert nodded rather vaguely, pulling at the end of his pointed blond beard, and surveying Thorpe with his big eyes of drowsy blue. "My dear Thorpe," he said, "do you really think it's in the current of things?"
"Not a bit. I know you well enough to tell you so, and by all means I should advise your breaking off at once with Cecilia Armitage. You're not cut out for one another at all. She hasn't a penny, and you, as you've told me——"
"Have only twelve hundred pounds a year," finished Adalbert, behind a yawn. He put his hand, the next moment, on Thorpe's arm. "Dear old chap! ”