Fergus Hume

“ It's a wonderful country; but my home has my dearest love. Life there is so pleasant, so steady-going. You can take pleasure at your own time, if you want to. Here in England it is all fever and excitement. When I stayed in London I felt as if it were a nightmare with the gas and glare and endless streets, with their endless crowds rushing on--on, without rest or pause. Ah, if you saw New Zealand I am sure you would like it. Do you know New Zealand?"
"No," answered Mrs. Belswin, quietly. "I do not know New Zealand; but I have been in Melbourne." ”

“ Archie! take her, take my darling, and make her a good husband."
"As there is a God above, I will," said Maxwell, solemnly, taking the now weeping girl in his arms.
"My poor Stephano, is it you?"
"Ah, cara mia--cara mia," cried Ferrari, throwing himself on his knees beside the sofa. "Do not leave me--do not!"
"Alas, Stephano, it is not in my power! Weep! weep, poor heart! Your tears show me how much love I have lost--love that I did not deserve."
"And I?" said Belk, coming forward.
"You are a good man," said the dying woman, faintly, stretching out her hand. ”

“ Oh, why does God permits such things?"
"God permits many things," said Mrs. Belswin, bitterly, putting her arm round the shrinking form of her daughter. "Come away, dear. All that can be done will be done. The English police are clever, and may perhaps capture the murderer."
Dombrain smiled, and Mrs. Belswin noticed the smile.
"Perhaps the murderer may escape," he said with emphasis, giving a stealthy glance at Mrs. Belswin's coldly impassive face.
"He may escape man; but he will not escape God," cried Kaituna, fervently. "Oh, come away, Mrs. Belswin, come away. I shall die if I stay here." ”

“ My mother was a pure-blooded Maori. I am only half a white, and I hated his cold phlegmatic disposition, his supercilious manners. I was--I am hot-blooded, ardent, quick-tempered. Fancy a woman like me tied to a cold-blooded fish like Rupert Pethram. Bah! it was madness. I hated him before my child was born; afterwards I hated him more than ever. Then the other man came along."
"There always is another man!"
"Naturally! What would become of the Divorce Court if there wasn't? Yes, the other man did come along. A pink and white fool. My husband was a god compared to Silas Oates." ”

“ I was staying in the house as you know, and left Sir Rupert in his study quite hearty. I heard no pistol shot, and in the morning he was dead. Most extraordinary."
"Had Sir Rupert any enemies?"
"My dear sir, we all have enemies," replied Dombrain, evasively.
"I dare say; but one's enemies don't go as far as murder as a rule," answered Archie, dryly.
"No! no! that is true. But really, Mr. Maxwell, you know as much about the murder as I do, and I dare say are as completely in the dark." ”

“ The tears actually came into her eyes, and for a moment softened their fierceness. This woman, hard and undisciplined, with savage instincts derived from a savage mother, yet felt the strong maternal instinct implanted in the breast of every woman, and quailed with terror as she thought of the power her former husband had to lower her in the eyes of her daughter. Ferrari, of course, could not understand this, having been always accustomed to think of Mrs. Belswin as an untamed tigress, but now she had a touch of feminine softness about her which puzzled him. ”

“ Belk was ill-looking; on the contrary, she must have been pretty when young, for she still retained a sufficiency of beauty to warrant a second glance; but there was a restless look in her dark eyes, a settled sneer on her thin lips, and a generally discontented expression on her face which repelled the onlooker. Mrs. Belswin had an intuitive capability of reading faces, and the first glance she threw on this little figure with the withered face put her at once on her guard. On her guard against a cottager! Mrs. Belswin would have laughed at the idea. ”

“ Rupert, Stephano, Dombrain--they are all against me. Three against one, but I'll try my hardest to conquer them. It's a woman's wit against men's brutality; but I'll fight--I'll fight and win. If I win, I gain all. If I lose--oh, God! if I lose!--I surrender everything."
The morning was very chilly, in spite of its being summer, and Mrs. Belswin, having all the love for warmth inherent in those born in the tropics, shivered at the cold east wind, but feeling too upset to return direct to the house and face Kaituna's inquiring gaze, made up her mind to take a brisk walk. ”

“ Lay aside your coquetry, your hesitations, your fears. Speak boldly to me as I do to you. Let no false modesty--no false pride--no maidenly dread come between us. I love you, Kaituna. Will you be my wife?"
There was something in this akin to the fierce wooing of primeval man. All the artificial restraints of civilisation were laid aside. The doubts, the fears, the looks, the shrinkings, all these safeguards and shields of nervous natures had vanished before this whirlwind of passion, which bore down such feeble barriers set between man and woman. ”

“ Good-natured, however, when not crossed in any way, she replied politely, as the train moved off--
"I shall return in a fortnight."
"If you don't," muttered Belk, as the long line of carriages disappeared, "I'll follow you up to London."
"Good heavens!" said Mrs. Belswin, throwing herself back in her seat, "what on earth can the man see in me to admire? I'm not a vain woman. I never was a vain woman, and why that handsome young fellow should leave youth to run after age is more than I can understand. ”

“ Belswin!"
"It is my mother--my poor mother," cried Kaituna, in an agony of sorrow. "Have you caught him? Have you caught him?"
"Who?" shouted Maxwell and Belk, while Ferrari, in a paroxysm of grief, threw himself beside the body of the woman he loved.
"Dombrain!"
"Dombrain?"
"Yes! yes! he was here! he shot my mother with that pistol. He has just left the house."
"God!" cried Belk, starting, "he was the man we saw running down the street." And he was out of the room in pursuit without saying another word.
"A doctor! a doctor!" said Kaituna, imploringly, "Oh, Archie! she will die, she will die!" ”

“ You want to be my husband! No, no, no! I marry a brave man--yes, a brave man; not a coward!"
Ferrari winced, with an angry glitter in his eyes.
"Eh, Lucrezia. You think I am a brave man if I go to assassin il marito. Cospetto! I am an Italian; but the Italians are not fools. If another man loved you, and would take you away, I would kill him--yes! But il marito--eh, that is not quite the same. I kill him and you return to the little daughter for always. ”

“ Belswin, to permit such a thing? Evidently it was common gossip. All the county knew it; and his daughter, whom he loved and trusted, had withheld her confidence.
"She's like her mother," said Sir Rupert, between his clenched teeth; "deceptive in all things. Never mind, I'll get the truth out of her before the day is an hour older, and then--Oh, these women! these women! daughters and wives, they are all the same. They smile, they kiss, they betray; and we poor fools believe them." ”

“ Maxwell felt that Kaituna was the one woman in the world for him, and never attempted to suppress his passion in any way. He allowed himself to be so entirely dominated by it, that it soon became his master, and all his days and nights were given over to dreams of this beautiful dark woman from a distant isle of the sea. On the other hand, Kaituna felt that she loved him, but controlling herself with feminine dexterity, never let her infatuated lover see that his passion was responded to in any way. ”

“ Belswin thought that there would be no difficulty in making him put her husband out of the way in some stealthy manner. Here, however, she was entirely wrong, as Ferrari, being afraid of the English law, absolutely refused to lend himself to the committal of a crime even at the command of his evil genius. In vain, with all the artistic craft of a woman, she prayed, implored, cursed, ordered. Ferrari would not be moved from the position which he had taken up, in holding himself aloof from the power of the law. ”

“ Archie tells him all his history, of his travels, his struggles, his income, his aspirations, his love-affairs--in fact, everything about himself, and the old man's heart warms towards this handsome, graceless youth, who he sees has the makings of a fine man about him. He listens sympathetically to the endless catalogue of Kaituna's charms, to the hopes and fears and heart-burnings which are part of the disease of love, and then undergoes the same thing in duplicate from Toby. ”

“ Belswin, what curious things you say," she replied evasively. "I have not seen any one in New Zealand I cared about, and since my arrival in England I have lived so quietly that I can hardly have met the fairy prince you speak of."
"When the hour arrives the fairy prince comes with it," said Mrs. Belswin, oracularly. "My dear, you are too charming to remain with your father all your life, as I am sure he must acknowledge himself. Have the young men of to-day no eyes or no hearts that they can see my Kaituna without falling in love with her?" ”

“ It gave him an idea, and throwing himself on his knees, he began to woo her as fiercely and as freely as ever her dusky ancestors had been wooed in the virgin recesses of New Zealand woods.
"Kaituna, I love you! I love you. You must have seen it; you must know it. This is no time for timid protestations, for doubtful sighing. Give me your hands." He seized them in his strong grasp. "I am a man, and I must woo like a man. I love you! I love you! I wish you to be my wife. I am poor, but I am young, and with you beside me, I can do great things. Say that you will marry me." ”

“ Belswin madly; but, strangely enough, it never for a moment occurred to him to save money against his possible marriage with her. If he starved, she would starve; if he made money, she would share it; and if she objected to such a chequered existence, Signor Ferrari was quite confident enough in his own powers of will and persuasion to be satisfied that he could force her to accept his view of the matter. This was the Ferrari philosophy, and no bad one either as times go, seeing that a singer's livelihood depends entirely upon the caprice of the public. ”

“ Belswin.
"Good news?" she asked, as he greeted her, and walked over to Kaituna with the eager step of an expectant lover.
"Very good news," he replied gaily, "the best of news. Toby is going out to Australia to look after your fortune, Kaituna."
"My fortune," echoed Kaituna, faintly, raising her eyes to his bright face. "I'm afraid my fortune is a myth."
"Not at all! Not at all!" replied Maxwell, kissing her pale cheek. "Your fortune at present is not in the clouds, but in the earth; and when The Pole Star Company find that rich lode they are now looking for, you will be a female Crœsus." ”

“ One gets tired of always living in a garden. A garden is nature's drawing-room. I don't say a word against England, for I like it very much, but at times I feel stifled by the narrowness of the place. England is very beautiful, yes; but New Zealand," concluded Miss Pethram with conviction, "New Zealand is the most beautiful place in the whole world."
"My dear," said Mrs. Valpy in a patronising manner, "are you not going a little too far? I've no doubt the place you come from is very nice, very nice indeed, but to compare it with England is ridiculous. You have no city, I think, like London. ”

“ Rosemary dark and sombre, old man, with its thin leaves like grey-green seaweed, form beds of reposeful tint, overlaid by brilliant coloured flowers, scarlet and blue and yellow; but the prevailing tint is white. Foxgloves with delicate white bells round which hum the noisy bees--scattered clusters of pale flushed roses, other flowers with white petals all streaked and dappled and spotted with innumerable tints. A beautiful garden, truly, and the thievish wind stealing odours from the profusion of sweets carried them on languid wings to Mrs. Belswin and Kaituna, sitting on the terrace. ”

“ Belk loved her. He was in intelligence little raised above the brute of the fields; so if he had overheard the interview between herself and Sir Rupert, and seen how ignominiously she was treated, he might have--but no, it was too horrible; and with a cry she covered her face with her hands.
"What is the matter, Mrs. Belswin?" asked Maxwell, looking at her quickly.
Mrs. Belswin at once told a lie.
"It's so horrible to think of a mother being the means of her son's death." ”

“ Belswin, bending down with a caressing gesture. "Come to your room; we can do no good here."
"Oh!" cried Kaituna, rising slowly from her knees; "who has done this? My poor father! My poor father! Who has murdered him?"
Again a flash of suspicion between Dombrain and Mrs. Belswin.
"We do not know dear," said the latter, soothingly; "but Mr. Dombrain has sent for the police. Perhaps they will find out the truth."
"They must! they must!" cried the girl, in an agony of grief. "Oh, it is terrible. To have come back for this. To be killed under his own roof by an enemy. ”