Frank E. Smedley

“ Not to know Horace D’Almayne argues yourself unknown; why, man, he is a noted wit, a successful poet, the greatest dandy, and the most incorrigible male flirt about town: knows everybody, has been everywhere, and done everything.”
“What is he like across a stiff line of country, and how many brace can he bag to his own gun?” inquired Harry drily.
“Not knowing can’t say,” was the rejoinder, “but that’s not at all in his way; he affects, if it is affectation, the man of sentiment; however, just now he is believed in to the fullest extent, and considered a regular lion.” ”

“ As she uttered these words Coverdale started, and a shade passed across his brow; not heeding it, Alice continued—
“Oh! she is a dreadful woman, and so clever! all the foolish things I did to pique Harry, in order to regain his affection, she showed them up to him in a false light, and made him believe me as wicked as herself, and so she stole his love away from poor, poor Alice;” then she would turn her face from him, and wail feebly like an unhappy child. At other times she would burst into the most violent self-reproaches. ”

“ There’s that confounded puppy D’Almayne swaggering up to Alice, stroking his stupid moustaches—yes, and she smiles and takes his arm, of course—believes all his lies, and thinks him a hero, I dare say. Oh! the poor silly fools of women that can’t distinguish a man from a jackanapes—I should have fancied Alice had more sense; but they’re all alike. Look at the idiot simpering; that’s only to show his white teeth now: the brute has no idea of a real joke—hasn’t got it in him. Well, thank goodness, it’s no concern of mine: but if I were Crane, I’d interfere with his flirting rather. ”

“ Hazlehurst.
Alice shook her head. “One does not tell such things,” she said; “if Harry cared for my affection he would soon perceive how entirely I love him; if, as I fear, he is indifferent to it, all the telling in the world would make no difference; besides, I have heard from his own lips that he loves another.”
“I do not make out that affair at all,” observed Mrs. Hazlehurst, reflectively; “it is so completely unlike Mr. Coverdale’s straightforward, honest character, to marry one woman when he cared for another, that I cannot but think there must be some mistake about it.” ”

“ Alice, the speaker, whose rounded figure and matronly air only added to her beauty, smiled at her own fears, as, placing his arm round her still taper waist, her husband replied—
“We are to be frightened about our dear boy now, are we? What a miserable little woman it is, and how she does delight in tormenting herself! Why, you silly child, little Harry has as good a seat as I have. He would be no son of mine if he could not ride by instinct. Hollo! what is the young dog at now? he never can mean to try and leap that ditch, surely!” ”

“ Kindness and affection are never so much prized as when we have suffered injustice at the hands of one we love. Words cannot console at such a moment: but sympathy—the conviction that another heart feels for and with us, is able in some degree to do so. Whatever faults Arabella Crofton might possess,—and that they were neither few nor light no one was better aware than Harry Coverdale,—the truth and strength of her regard for him he did not doubt. ”

“ But what a child it is! what a baby! Sacré! at his age I was winning twenty pounds a day at billiards in New Orleans!—And you, Harry Coverdale, mon ami, I will teach you to watch me with black looks when I am conversing with la belle millionaire; you had better attend to your own wife now—young, pretty, and neglected! Le petit Alfred has a fair game before him, if he have but wit to play it—yes! all goes as it should! fortune fills the sails! there is a cool head and a steady hand at the helm: vogue la galère! ”

“ And what of Arthur Hazlehurst? Kate, his first, his only love, was again free!—true she had erred deeply, but had she not repented more deeply, and worked out her penitence during long years of trial and of suffering? She was free! would wounded pride prevent him from taking the only step which could ensure his happiness and her own? or should “Love be still the lord of all?” Those only who have suffered and loved as he had done can be competent to decide,—and in their hands we leave the matter! ”

“ My dear Kate, you’ve given me no sounds now!”
“Really,” rejoined Kate, colouring with annoyance, and making vigorous but fruitless pokes at the cod with the fish-slice, “really, I’m afraid there are no sounds with this fish.”
“No sounds!” repeated Mr. Crane, in a high, whimpering falsetto; “codfish and no sounds! the only part, as Mrs. Trimmins knows; that I care about! Serve up a codfish without sounds! No, really this cannot be allowed to go on; there’s no man cares less about his eating than I do! Take it away, Roberts, I shall not touch a bit. ”

“ With every vestige of colour banished from her pale cheek, Kate sank back upon her chair, and drawing her breath with difficulty, placed her hand upon her side, as if in pain. Heedless of her suffering—nay, rather rejoicing in it—the evil expression came across D’Almayne’s face as, in a tone of sarcastic triumph, he exclaimed—
“You love him! I was certain of it, and am fully avenged. Chained by your marriage vow to a decrepid imbecile, while you love another with all the depth and fire of your passionate nature, you will experience the torments of the damned. ”

“ Coverdale?”
“A true bill, sir,” replied Harry; “but just at present you’ve all the pleasure to yourself, for I must honestly confess that I do not recollect you; and yet—no—yes—why, it can’t be little Alfred Courtland?”
“As for the ‘little,’ I must leave you to judge for yourself; the copy-books tell us that ‘all weeds grow apace,’ and I’m afraid I’m a shocking example; but Alfred Courtland I most certainly am, and delighted to meet an old acquaintance—if an urchin in the under-school dare pretend to have been on such a footing with one of the sixth form.” ”

“ As she spoke, Harry glanced towards her to discover whether she had been really too much pre-engrossed to attend to him, or whether she merely affected to have been so for the amiable purpose of provoking him; deciding in favour of the first hypothesis, he resumed: “I was saying, my dear Alice, that although your flirtation with that foolish boy, Alfred Courtland, had caused me some uneasiness—because people dared to remark on it, unluckily not in a way that I could take up—yet that I was convinced it was merely thoughtlessness on your part, and was anxious to forgive and forget it.” ”

“ I’ve been hunting for you for the last half hour. Why have you left la belle Coverdale?”
“Oh, yes! that is good! looking for me, indeed, when I passed you twice close enough almost to brush against your elbow, and you never even saw me, so engrossed were you plotting treason with some party unknown,” was the captious reply.
“Ungrateful! when it was for your interest I was exerting myself,” returned D’Almayne, reproachfully; “but you do not explain why you have quitted la belle Alice; you really are not sufficiently attentive; no pretty woman likes to be neglected.” ”

“ His name having been the name selected by the forger Vondenthaler, he felt that he ought to withdraw from the railway company altogether; if he remained, he should always be an object of suspicion. He knew the nature of city capitalists well; they had not all such enlightened views, such generous souls, as his excellent friend Mr. Crane; besides, he could not reconcile it with his honour to remain a director without paying, in ready money, his share of the loss they had sustained by the rascality of Vondenthaler—a man who, he blushed to reflect, he had introduced. ”

“ Sophistry, Kate, sophistry! which, while you think it, and act upon it, fails to satisfy even your warped and distorted sense of right and wrong.
Kate Marsden married Mr. Crane—there was a union! On the one side youth and beauty; intellect, lofty enough to have aimed at any achievement which the mind of woman has accomplished; energy, sufficient to have gained the object striven for; ambition, that when all was won would have despised the trophies at her feet, and sighed for more worlds to conquer ”

“ Now comes the bore of being a married man: what a splendid adventure I am shut out from! If I were but single, an opportunity now offers of captivating a lovely and accomplished foreign Countess, with a dowry of diamonds in her dressing-box, and a gold mine in her precious pocket: there’s a good opening for a nice young man!”
“Pray avail yourself of it,” returned Alice. “Don’t let me be any obstacle; carry off the Countess, and I will remain behind with that noble creature whom you style Don Whiskerandos. I prefer him infinitely to you, he is so like a very well-trained baboon.” ”

“ I’ve followed a bad mode with tolerable success, and reaped the fruits of such folly, and now I’ll try whether I cannot imitate a good one. I’d do a great deal to reinstate myself in the good opinion of Harry and his wife; they’ve been very kind to me, too kind, for it overpowers me; but of course they must have lost all respect for me—Harry thinks me a soft, foolish boy, and Alice, a weak, sentimental puppy. Well, I’ll do my best to gain their esteem, and if I fail, I shall be none the worse for having tried. How pretty that little Emily is! ”

“ You say I have changed from a child into a woman, but you have turned from a young man into a middle-aged one during these last six months; you are either ill or unhappy, or working yourself to death—all three, perhaps.”
“Oh, you are fanciful, and not used to the pale faces of us Londoners,” returned Arthur.
“You cannot put me off in that manner,” continued Alice, pertinaciously; “people do not look ill and careworn without some cause for doing so. How is it, pray, that you never come here? so fond as you used to be of Kate, too! ”

“ For a moment, as D’Almayne’s glance met that of the man he had wronged, his self-possession failed him; and, ignorant to what extent Lord Alfred might have become cognizant of his nefarious practices, he hesitated how far he dared provoke any disclosure. But it was too late to retract: his social position, on which depended his very means of existence, was at stake; and as the thought crossed his mind, the gambler spirit awoke within him. He would carry the matter with a high hand; a bold course was always the wisest; Fortune would favour those who trusted her. ”

“ Wonders will never cease,” resumed Harry, meditatively: “but are you going by this train? Jump in here, man, and I’ll introduce you to my wife. Alice, this is Alfred—I beg his pardon, but I can’t remember he’s not a little boy still—Lord Alfred Courtland. You remember Arthur Hazlehurst, my fidus Achates, don’t you, Courtland? my wife is his sister. Tickets! well, here they are. What a suspicious generation these railway officials are! anybody would suppose they had been accustomed to deal with thieves and pickpockets all their lives, instead of honest Englishmen. ”

“ To them, with the greatest tact and kindness, did Kate proceed to enact the character of guardian angel; and, ere she had been half-an-hour in the house, had completely won all their affections, from the poor mother, who began to see light breaking in upon her darkness, to the olive-branch of four—whose visions of unlimited sugar-plums bade fair to be realised. Ah! it is easy to buy golden opinions of the poor and needy in this world: generosity, i.e., judiciously disposing of superfluous cash, is a virtue strangely overrated. ”

“ She has tact and talent; a soul of fire beneath an exterior of ice; she is poor and ambitious. I could not have hoped to find one better suited to my purpose. She shall marry Crane; his purse will be in her hands; he will become her slave; and, Alphonse, she shall be mine! Do you doubt my success, mon ami? Bah! the game is as simple as child’s play. She is young, ardent; she will marry an old man to satisfy her ambition—she will despise him. Her heart will pine for an object on which to lavish its tenderness ”

“ What an inconceivable scoundrel that Horace D’Almayne turns out! I’m about as easy-tempered a fellow as can be; too much so, I’m afraid; for I often say Yes, when I feel I ought to say No; but I’ll cut the swindler dead at the club, or wherever I meet him, and if he does not like it, I’ll show him his note to Tirrett, or better still, read it out at the club; such perfidy ought to be exposed, and I’ll not flinch from doing so. Coverdale shall see that his example of straightforward manliness is not quite thrown away upon me. ”