Sir Augustus Harris

“ ROSALINE.
What's this? (picking up Mandarin's Wig.) One of his props?
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
That? That is a Mandarin's wig. Yes, of course it is one of his props. He has just been engaged on a great work: "The Decapitation of a Mandarin after a Chinese Reverse." The gentleman who sat for the Mandarin wore that wig.
ROSALINE.
What a funny subject to choose.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Rather playful, isn't it? He likes 'em like that. That's his forte.
ROSALINE.
What is his name—do I know him?
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Charlie Sylvester; and a rattling good chap he is, let me tell you. ”

“ HENRICH SCHERCL.
The business of you gentlemen is always "most important" excepting when it concerns them that find you the wherewithal. (Aside.) What a nice girl!
(ROSALINE smiles at him.)
CHARLES SILVESTER.
I don't think, my dear Schercl, that you have much cause to complain. You don't lose by us; now confess!
HENRICH SCHERCL.
My dear sir, if I lost by you how do you think I should garry on my business? One must live. But you artists don't give us much chance. You are always bleeding us for what you call "a bit on aggount."
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY (coming down) . ”

“ It was a constant source of vexation to him that Bella was not liked as much as her handsome, clever husband, and he began to be painfully alive to the fact that she could not have been received in certain houses whose doors would have been gradually opened to him. In a social sense his wife was a failure, and with a sigh he realised that it was almost an impossibility to show her where the fault lay; he could not always be at her elbow to guard against little solecisms of manner and speech which he knew must jar and grate on others even more than on himself. ”

“ CHARLES SYLVESTER.
Have you done anything to "Susannah?"
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Not a stroke, but I commence to-morrow in earnest. I've a model coming this afternoon, and if you'll let me use your studio, I shall knock in enough in a week for old Schercl to see when he calls again.
CHARLES SYLVESTER.
Why do you want my studio—what's the matter with this?
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Well, the fact is my wife is always popping in here, and if she found me with a model posed as Susannah she'd go into hysterics. You understand me?
CHARLES SYLVESTER.
Understand you. I'm a married man. ”

“ It was not possible that Bella had taken such a step without his knowledge or sanction. He looked up with such hopeless misery written in his white face that Mrs. Blackall could not help a certain pity for her son-in-law, although in her opinion he had brought the thing upon himself, and the very compassion she felt for his suffering had the effect of making her more harsh and unsympathetic.
"What did you expect?" she asked. "As a man of the world could you really imagine that a young, high-spirited girl like my daughter would content herself with the life you tried to chain her down to? ”

“ For fully ten seconds John Chetwynd sat spell-bound, and then he broke into a laugh—mirthless, hollow.
"And I prayed to my God to send his blessing on—our—future," he said in a dull, mechanical manner. "Well, the last act is played out and they may ring the curtain down. From to-night I believe neither in woman, Heaven, nor hell, save that which each man makes for himself."
Bella had turned her shapely back on the apotheosis of respectability for a life of excitement and the protection of another man. Nobody was surprised but John himself. ”

“ I'm not at all certain whether you think me good enough for you, myself."
"Bella, Bella!"
"Oh! Yes, it is easy enough to look broken-hearted. How dare you turn my friends out of the place? It is you, not I, who have brought disgrace upon us by introducing a stranger here and mortifying and humbling me in front of him. If the Dosses are good enough for me, they are good enough for my husband."
"My dear wife, they are not good enough for you. There is the whole truth. Why are you so altered? Why will you not listen to me and take my advice as you used to do? ”

“ He became interested in one of his patients, the only daughter of the Duke of Huddersfield, Lady Ethel Claremont, and this interest blossomed into something stronger and warmer—something that at last he dignified by the name of love, though he was by no means without misgivings as to whether it could ever really lay claim to the title.
Certain it was that there was no more of the old exultation about his heart that had formed so large a part of his former courtship; there were no extravagances, no quickened pulses—rapture's warmth had yielded to the mildest of after-glows ”

“ REMBRANDT TEMPENNY (aside) .
This is a dignified position for a husband and a ratepayer!—the butt of a bad girl!
MRS. SYLVESTER.
Your frivolity will avail you nothing. If you were indeed brought here by a friend of Mr. Sylvester's, I can guess who he is. His name is Tempenny, and I shall enquire into the matter at once. (Going.)
ROSALINE.
Of course his name is Tempenny—I never denied it.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY and MRS. SYLVESTER (aside) .
What?
ROSALINE.
I am nobody's accomplice—I am an honest woman earning a living. I will tell lies for no one.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY (aside) . ”

“ If ever a man was torn two ways, halting between prudence and worldly consideration on one side and the force and power of a love which he had honestly believed was laid for ever in its grave, that man was Sir John. The idea of seeing Bella again did not occur to him for some days, but when it fastened on him he could not shake it off. ”

“ I hope Ethel does not credit it, or I shall never be permitted an opportunity of refuting such a calumny."
"I know too well how highly Mamma thinks of you, John," said Ethel, prettily.
"Well, I admit it—I do admire you immensely—I admire your power, your position, your ability to make an income—a large income, sitting comfortably in an arm chair. And then there is such solidity in a doctor's profession—people are always ill."
"Mamma is ill herself," broke in Lady Ethel, "and that is why we have intruded to-day."
"I hope it is nothing serious, my dear Duchess." ”

“ And then he went on his knees beside her and prayed her to grant him this one boon; he poured out a flood of feverish words, hardly pausing to think; he tried to paint an alluring picture of their life in the future: they would leave Camberwell, he said; she should go where she liked if she would but listen to reason; it would ruin him in his profession, he pleaded, if she persisted in returning to the stage. As he talked the pretty face grew harder and older. Bella had made up her mind, and the man beside her had not the faintest power to sway her by his reproaches or entreaties. ”

“ Ethel and Bella. Ah, Ethel is far the nicer name. We didn't think once that you would ever be telling me you were going to be married to someone else, did we? It feels queer, and it hurts me—a little, I think. Good-bye, Jack. I see now why you could not kiss me—it would not be right of you. She is a young girl and she might find it hard to forgive you if she knew. ”

“ For almost the first time in his life John Chetwynd was tongue-tied.
Who and what was this man, and what was he to Bella? He forced himself to give a professional opinion, and answered mechanically a string of questions Mr. Bolingbroke poured forth, but he hardly knew what he was saying.
"If only she gets over this she shall never be bothered any more, poor darling," he said brokenly. "I suppose I can go in, eh?"
His hand was on the door—John Chetwynd sprang to his feet.
"No one must see her," he cried excitedly. "I absolutely forbid it. It would be most dangerous—most improper." ”

“ What an invaluable husband you will make with all that knowledge at your finger ends! I need have no misgivings as to Ethel's health, and she has always been so subject to chills. The risk of entrusting one's daughter to an unobservant man is shocking, but to a physician! To have for one's daily companion a great and renowned doctor, what an advantage—what a security! ”

“ But John Chetwynd was far from being this. He had felt his wife's desertion far too deeply to show his scars, nor was he a man to wear his heart upon his sleeve; but as time went by and the utter callousness of Bella's conduct came home to him, he realised to the full that she was unworthy of a single pang, and he became reconciled to the inevitable. His profession claimed every spare moment, and for a man ill at ease there is no specific like hard work. ”

“ With the result, my dear, of making this man absolutely mad about me. He has become an utter imbecile. C'est tout dit. His incoherent raving would only bore you, so, like the kindhearted little person I am, I spare you this infliction. Suffice it to say that he is mine body and soul. I say nothing about his fortune, because that naturally goes with the other two.
Let me thank you sincerely for your wise counsels,
And, believe me,
Ever affectionately yours,
ALICE.
Miss Amy Conway to Miss Rose Dacre. ”