Fergus Hume

“ Haskins said one word under his breath, but Tod overheard and giggled. That was exactly like Tod Macandrew: he had no sense of the fitness of things.
"Silly ass!" commented his friend savagely, spinning up the line, "you frighten the fish."
"Not on to your hook, anyhow," chuckled Tod into the depths of his hat, "what a sinfully bad angler you are, Jerry."
"As bad an angler as you are a lover, perhaps," snapped Gerald, throwing his rod on the grass and squatting to manufacture a cigarette.
Tod sat up abruptly with a wounded air. "I call that beastly: to taunt a chap, because a girl won't bite." ”

“ Rebb thinks that six thousand a year is worth losing his own soul for. It is the world he gains, and the price he pays. But he shall not succeed, my sweetheart; you shall have your own way, I swear."
"Gerald! Gerald! I would much rather fly away with you to the end of the world, and leave everything to my guardian."
"I daresay, dear; and in the South Seas, no doubt, we could find an Eden whither that serpent would not come. But your good name has to be considered, Mavis. Rebb has put it about that you are insane, and that such insanity made you kill Bellaria." ”

“ His threat to call the police was bluff, as Gerald knew, and because Gerald did know Rebb was furious.
"Prove that she has been mad all her life," said Haskins coolly. "Mavis has been with Mrs. Pelham Odin since she left here, and that very clever old woman cannot see that my wife is mad: nor can Macandrew, nor Arnold, nor anyone else."
"I can, I can!" cried Mrs. Crosbie, with a bright red spot burning on either cheek, and looked very angry.
"Ah! you are a prejudiced witness, seeing that you wish to marry Major Rebb, for the income he is now losing." ”

“ Rebb is too clever a man to place his precious neck in a noose. When her birthday came, and she turned restive, he would simply have called in a doctor to pronounce her insane and unfit for marriage."
"No doctor would dare to say that: Mavis is quite sane."
"Much can be done with money," said Tod dryly, "and Rebb has six thousand a year at his command. Besides, even if he could find no doctor to swear to her insanity, the mere rumor of such a thing would prevent any man from marrying her."
"I am not so certain of that," said Gerald grimly. "As you said just now, much can be done with money. ”

“ I call him Santa Claus when he does that. But, oh! there is Bellaria. Stay here, Gerald; I'll see what she wants."
As it was early in the afternoon Haskins had an excellent view of the Florentine, who stalked across the lawn almost to the foot of the beech, drawn thither by her nursling's answering cry. "You are always sitting on the high branches of that tree," said the Italian crossly, and in most excellent English. "Why do you do that?"
"I can see the river and the pool," said Mavis quickly. "Oh! Bellaria, I wish I was a nymph, that I could plunge into the cool water." ”

“ A motor car draws the attention of the grown-up as much as a military band attracts the notice of a child. Mr. Geary departed with dignified haste to see what new and aristocratic visitor was coming, and--since Tod's bulky form filled in the whole small window--Gerald followed at his leisure. The coming of the motor car stirred up the same bustle in this lonely inn as did the mail coach in the days of old. ”

“ Crosbie in talking of the moneylender had confessed as much--they had been ruralizing in some quiet and cheap part of the country.
For the next twenty minutes the conversation was of a light and somewhat frivolous order, and in so congenial an atmosphere the widow expanded like a flower. Even Mrs. Berch grew more human, and less like a stone image. It was quite like old days, when Gerald's mother had sat knitting and listening with a smile on her well-remembered face. Mrs. Crosbie evidently recalled the past, for when Gerald finally took his departure she accompanied him to the door. ”

“ Consequently Tod and Lady Euphemia were fighting with all the ardor of their fiery race, and the domestic peace of the House of Macandrew was a thing of the past.
"You should consider the Dowager," sang out Haskins, who knew and approved of the grim old lady, "she's your grandmother."
"No one denies that," yelled Tod crossly, "talk sense!"
"Hear then the sense of Gerald, son of his father," shouted the other in a high tenor. "Mrs. Pelham Odin, who is--as you know--the clever old actress who looks after Charity, won't let you marry her, seeing that you have no money. ”

“ Poor Bellaria doesn't mean to be cross, and, if she cannot keep her temper, I must. I wouldn't strike her or anyone, even if I were in a rage. Do you strike people when you are angry?"
Gerald coughed. He had a vivid recollection of schoolfights, and of horsewhipping a scandal-monger, much later in life. "It is necessary sometimes, Mavis," he remarked: "the world is not inhabited entirely by agreeable people."
"Oh, I know that!" she said quickly, "the old gardener, Matthew, who came to help me from Leegarth, is very disagreeable, and he seems to be a little afraid of me. ”

“ Rebb certainly should be punished for the infamous way in which he had treated the girl. Hitherto everything had gone as he desired, but with the finding of the cylinder came the change in Rebb's fortunes. Now he had a determined young man to deal with, who would be less easy to manage than an unsophisticated girl. Haskins chuckled as he thought how angry Rebb would be when Mavis, free from the slur on her sanity, and from the wicked charge which he was striving to fasten on her, came forth boldly to face the world. ”

“ Pelham Odin, her theatrical instinct uppermost, "a comedy with twin girls in it would draw all the town. And that gives me an idea. I can assist you, if you can swear," she laid her hand on his arm, "that this Mavis Durham is not crazy."
"I can swear, certainly. Would I wish to marry her if she were?"
"Love may laugh at lunatic asylums as well as at rank," said the actress merrily, "but if you are certain that the girl is sane, why not let her take Charity's place in The Moon-Fay?" ”

“ What am I to say when you tell me that you have fallen in love in five minutes."
"You loved Charity when you first set eyes on her, Tod."
"That's different!" snapped the solicitor. "She's an angel! It's only right to love an angel like winking when you spot her."
"I quite agree with you, and so I loved Mavis."
"Is this girl pretty?"
Haskins smiled to himself, as he had not yet informed Tod of the marvelous resemblance between the dancer and the recluse. "Yes, she is pretty!" he said calmly. ”

“ Bellaria is a woman, and will sooner or later discover our secret. Then there is Geary, and your guardian."
Mavis shivered. "I am afraid of Geary, with his big knife, but not of Bellaria or my guardian. She will be a little angry, but when I tell her how happy I am she will be glad. And my guardian is always kind. Oh, Gerald, tell him that you love me, and wish me to be your wife. Then he will stop Geary from coming here, and we can be happy."
Haskins hugged her to his breast and smiled grimly in the darkness. He was very certain that, if he told Major Rebb, there would be no end of trouble. ”

“ After all I am young, and--as the cook said--of that 'appy disposition that I can love any one. Why shouldn't I seek in some Fairy Woods for the Sleeping Beauty?"
"Sleeping!" sniggered Tod, lighting his pipe, "then she must have written that silly message in her sleep. Or perhaps she talks in it," he added, recollecting that the message was a spoken one. "A nice wife to have, upon my word. You won't get a wink of sleep."
"Toddy, you are of the earth, earthy, and an unimaginative beast. Romance doesn't appeal to you. I shall search for the Pixy's House!"
"In what direction?" jeered Macandrew. ”

“ I was brought into your life by means of the cylinder to marry and cherish you, in spite of Rebb's cruel device of keeping you ignorant, so that you should not be able to communicate with the outside world. Then Arnold, by God's mercy, has been enabled to snatch you from the very jaws of your enemies. These things point to joy coming out of sorrow. Go down, my dear, to Exmouth with Sammy Lee. I dare not come with you, nor can Schaibar, as we will both be suspected by Rebb, and must prove--as we can--that we have nothing to do with your flight. ”

“ Crosbie should think of marrying him. There's something queer about him."
"Bosh!" said Tod, lightly whiffing away his friend's suspicions, which indeed had little foundation. "Rebb is no worse, nor no better, than any other man. We all have turned-down pages in our life's book, which we should like no one to read."
"That's quite a high flight of oratory for you," said Haskins dryly.
"Oh I can gas as well as most, when necessary," retorted the other, "but you are asinine, seeing a bird in every bush."
"H'm!" murmured Gerald, unconvinced. "All the same, I shall keep my eye on Major Rebb." ”

“ I, at once, saw the danger to which Mavis was exposed, having read the will of Julian Durham, and so insisted that she should fly. She was surprised that I desired her to do this, as, in her innocence, she never deemed that she would be accused. However, I rapidly convinced her, and she agreed. Leaning on her arm, I led her round the village, as I feared lest her scream should have attracted attention. ”

“ Gerald looked down on the quaint peaceful quadrangle sleeping in the chill whiteness, at the range of buildings with their fantastic architecture, and at the darkly solemn trees which girdled this Enchanted Palace. Then he became aware of a slight, white-clothed figure flitting across the shaven lawns, like a ghost of dead-and-gone beauty. A musical whisper stole through the warm stillness, and the adventurer, with a fast-throbbing heart, flung himself on to the boughs of the copper beech, to use it as a stair for descent. ”

“ Mavis stretched out her arms langorously, "how can I live through seven days without you?"
"By knowing that sacrifice is the soul of love."
"But why must you go?" she entreated. "Oh, do not go, darling. Let us be always together in this garden."
"I fear Bellaria will object," said Haskins, smiling.
"She will never know?"
"Oh yes. We cannot always meet by stealth. ”

“ This laborer said that a lunatic lived in the Pixy's House, looked after by another lunatic."
"The blind leading the blind. Go on."
"The first lunatic is a girl, and the second an old woman. The girl never comes out, and no one has ever seen her, but the old woman does shopping and all the rest of it. That's all."
"What infernal rubbish!" said Haskins crossly. He did not like his unknown princess to dwindle to a commonplace lunatic. And yet, when he remembered the spoken message, it did seem a trifle mad. "Well, and did you call at the Pixy's House?" ”

“ If Mavis is not mad, why should her guardian shut her up in a lonely house?"
"That," said Gerald very dryly, "is what I went to Major Rebb's rooms to ask when I met you."
Bellaria arose, much astonished. "You will dare to face the Major?"
Haskins laughed. "Do you take me for a schoolgirl? Of course I shall face the Major, and a dozen like him if necessary."
"You are a brave man."
"And Major Rebb? What is he?"
"The kindest and best friend that a miserable woman ever had," retorted the woman fiercely, "not a word against the Major. I won't hear a word, I tell you. What he does is right." ”