Denzil

“ What possible solution could the future hold? Only one—that of death for either of the men concerned. Well, death was busy with England's best—it was no unlikely possibility—and as he looked at Denzil he felt a stab of pain. Nothing more splendid and living and strong could be imagined than his six foot one of manhood, crowned with the health of his twenty-nine years.
"I hope to God he comes through," he prayed. And then he became cynical, as was his habit, when he found himself moved.
"I am on the track of Harietta, Denzil. She has a new lover—Ferdinand Ardayre." ”

“ Just as Felix and Rona, in the forest, were longing that the journey might never end, so the blameless Denzil, who had lived so many years in the prosaic groove of a country gentleman of quiet habits and few tastes, was positively yearning that he might remain forever, slowly convalescing within the magic walls of that romantic inclosure where the outside world could be so completely forgotten that it might never have existed. ”

“ Stépan, I love Denzil so dearly. It is all too awfully complicated. What so greatly astonishes me about it is that John has not written deliriously, or as though he has lost his memory, and yet if we had carried out his instructions and wishes we should be married now, Denzil and I,—and he never alludes to the possibility of this! ”

“ DENZIL A NAWAB.
When consciousness came back to Denzil he found himself alone—alone with the dead. He knew not what time had elapsed since he had been struck down by the treacherous wretch whose life he had sought to save; and no vestige of the retreating troops remained, save those whose bodies dotted all the wintry waste. Angrily and sadly the rising wind howled from the mountain pass, blowing before it over the frozen snow the long leaves of the coss, or dead grass, the fir cones and pistachio nuts from the thickets close by ”

“ But Denzil seemed as if he were going in on the heels of Crowl. This would suit Grodman better. He could then have the two pleasures. But Denzil was stopped halfway through the door.
"Ticket, sir!"
Denzil drew himself up to his full height.
"Press," he said majestically. All the glories and grandeurs of the Fourth Estate were concentrated in that haughty monosyllable. Heaven itself is full of journalists who have overawed St. Peter. But the doorkeeper was a veritable dragon. ”

“ There are some blue eyes which seem to have a spark of the devil lurking in them always, even when they are serious. Denzil's were such eyes. Women found it difficult to resist his charm, and indeed had never tried very hard. Life and its living, knowledge to acquire, work to do, beasts to hunt, had not left him too much time to be spoiled by them fortunately, and he had passed through several adventures safely and had never felt anything but the most transient emotion, until now looking at Amaryllis sitting opposite him he knew that he was in love with this dream which had materialised. ”

“ I stand aloof and admire, and wonder at so much modesty and intelligence in Lady Fareham’s sister. Let me bring her to see you, mother?”
“This is your house, Denzil. Were you to fill it with the sons and daughters of Belial, I could but pray that your eyes might be opened to their iniquity. I could not shut these doors against you or your companions. But I want no Popish women here.”
“Ah, you do not know! Wait until you have seen her,” urged Denzil, with the lover’s confidence in the omnipotence of his mistress’s charms. ”

“ In rear of his company, awaiting the order to march, Denzil stood leaning on his sword and muffled in a furred poshteen which he wore above his uniform, as the thermometer was below zero and all the troops were in those blue great-coats usually worn by our soldiers in India. The Europeans looked pale, thin, and haggard, and the dark Bengal sepoys seemed of a livid or pea-green tint, as the cold daylight stole in. ”

“ Denzil had a nervous jealousy of all who approached her; and he envied the free and easy—to some it might seem half-impudent—bearing of Waller, Burgoyne, and others, when hovering about the sisters at the band-stand, in the bazaar at Cabul, when riding or driving near the cantonments, and elsewhere. He was not old enough, or experienced enough, to know that there could be no love in the hearts of those heedless fellows, if they were so self possessed and free in the presence of the object of that love; and as little did he know the jealous fear that Rose had cost his sister at home! ”

“ I am a savage—you are mine! John must know that you are mine! The family is all that matters to him, I am only an instrument, a medium for its continuance—but Denzil, you and I are young and loving and living. It is you I desire, and now I know that I belong to you. You are the man and I am the woman—and the child will be our child!"
Her spirit had arisen at last and broken all chains. She was transfigured, transformed, translated. No one knowing the gentle Amaryllis could have recognised her in this fierce, primitive creature claiming her mate!
Furious, answering passion surged through Denzil ”

“ Isolated as they were in that lonely Afghan fort, surrounded by towering green hills, the interest that Denzil and Rose had in each other grew daily and hourly deeper; so that at last she learned to love him—yes, actually to love him—as fondly as he had ever loved her, and to feel little emotions of pique and jealousy when he strove to address the daughters of the house and teach them a very strange kind of broken English. ”

“ He rode behind the house, trusting that Van Bleit if he heard would ascribe the sounds to Denzil, and followed the directions he had heard given in the whispered instructions of the previous night.
It was not long before he descried his quarry. Denzil was riding easily, as a man rides for exercise with no particular object in view. He did not once turn his head to look back, but jogging quietly on his way made steadily for the dense cover behind the hut. Lawless quickened his pace and overtook him about a mile from the house. ”

“ Well, Denzil, my boy, when you get into Cairo, give my love to Helen and tell her we’ll all go home to the old country together; I, myself, have got quite enough out of Egypt this time to satisfy my fondness for new experiences. And let me assure you, my good fellow, that your proposed duel with Gervase will not come off!”
“It will come off!” said Denzil, with sudden fierceness. “By Heaven, it shall!—it must!”
“More wills than one have the working out of our destinies,” answered Dr. Dean with some gravity. “Man is not by any means supreme. ”

“ Denzil had a longing desire to do something brilliant, that he might shine in the estimation of Rose Trecarrel. With the combined vanity and diffidence natural to a young man, he sometimes flattered himself that his handsome uniform might regain him favour in her eyes, if no other merit, mental or physical, did so; but in that he reckoned without his host, for Rose was too much accustomed to see regimentals about her—the scarlet of the Queen's troops, the silver grey of the Indian cavalry, the blue and gold of the artillery, and the quaint, half-oriental splendour of the irregular horse. ”

“ THE SCHEME OF ZOHRAB.
Time, to the young, seems but a slow and cold comforter (alas! how different it must appear to the old) ; so Denzil knew that, though sluggish, time must eventually bring about some change in the captivity he was enduring in the hands of Shireen Khan—a mode of life that, but for the sweet companionship of Rose, would have been simply so intolerable that he should certainly have attempted to escape even at the risk of death. ”

“ Glazzard, whilst liking Denzil, had never held him in much esteem. Of late, his feelings had become strongly tinged with contempt. And now, with the contempt there blended a strain of jealousy.
True that he himself had caught eagerly at the hope of entering Parliament; but it was the impulse of a man who knew his life to be falling into ruin, who welcomed any suggestion that would save him from final and fatal apathy—of a man whose existence had always been loveless—who, with passionate ideals, had never known anything but a venal embrace. ”

“ Denzil sat with a kind of helplessness in his whole attitude, his eyes devouring the girl who sang to him.
He had been in a pitiable condition when the kindness of Stepan Stepanovitch had carried him off to the luxurious simplicity of Nicolashof, and the unforeseen seductions of the life there. Fresh from his lonely journey, his heart full of sensations to which he had till then been a stranger, torn with anxiety respecting the fate of his brother, and uncertain as to the extent of the danger with which the reappearance of her uncle menaced Rona—he had been in dire need of sympathy. ”

“ Denzil remarked tentatively.
Van Bleit smiled drily.
“I daresay, Dick,” he said. “But I’ve a fancy for your company... I shouldn’t like the Colonel to get worrying you just now.”
“You mean,” Denzil said stiffly, “that you distrust me?”
“Not you, my dear fellow, but your judgment,” Van Bleit replied easily. “If it hadn’t been for me you would have parted with a fortune for a beggarly sum long since.”
“I’d be content,” observed Denzil in an injured tone, “with a handsome sum down. Where’s the sense in squeezing a man past his endurance?” ”

“ How well you look! I was not sure that you and Aunt Bee were home, or I should have hurried back yesterday."
"Rona does look well, and so do you, Denzil. I don't think I ever saw you look better," said Miss Rawson, handing him his tea. "We got home the day before yesterday. The heat in London and Paris was too great for us to wish to stay there."
"And what do you mean by facing the world?" persisted Denzil, sitting down luxuriously, tossing his straw hat upon the grass, and lifting his dazzled eyes once more upon the princess of Thule who stood before him. ”

“ Conceive of it, Denzil! The man at the Ardayre ball was her first husband for whom she always retained some kind of animal affection—because he used to beat her. They married her to Stanislass just to obtain the secrets of Poland, and any other thing which she could pick' up. Her marvellous stupidity and incredible want of all moral restraint has made her the most brilliant spy. No principles to hamper her—nothing. She has only tripped up through jealousy now. ”

“ But presently reality fell upon Denzil and he almost groaned.
"I must leave you, precious dear one—even so—I gave my word of honour to John that I would never take advantage of the situation. Fate has done this thing by bringing us together; it has overwhelmed us. I do not feel that we are greatly to blame, but that does not release me from my promise. It is all a frightful price that we must pay for pride in the Family. Darling, help me to have courage to go." ”

“ Ardayre said, seemed to bring peace and healing to all their troubled souls.
But when he was alone with Denzil late, after the two women had retired to bed, he sunk into a deep chair in the smoking room and suddenly burst into a peal of cynical laughter.
"What the devil's up?" demanded Denzil, astonished.
"I am thinking of Harietta's exquisite mistake. She believes the baby is mine! She is mad with a goat's jealousy; she supposes it is I who will marry Amaryllis—hence her plot! Does it not show how the good are protected and the evil fall into their own traps!" ”

“ Instinctively men are ashamed of being moral and domesticated.
Denzil puffed his cigarette, unembarrassed. Peter bent attentively over his work, making nervous stabs with his awl. There was a long silence. An organ-grinder played a waltz outside, unregarded; and, failing to annoy anybody, moved on. Denzil lit another cigarette. The dirty-faced clock on the shop wall chimed twelve.
"What do you think," said Crowl, "of Republics?"
"They are low," Denzil replied. "Without a Monarch there is no visible incarnation of Authority." ”

“ Lady Susan went slowly back to her seat before the fire, and almost immediately Sir Denzil came in again, dusting himself from the sand more vigorously than ever.
"How do you feel now, my dear?" he asked.
"Sick to death," she said quietly.
"You will feel better after a night's rest. The journey has been a trying one. Old Mrs. Lee will make you comfortable here, and I will return the moment I am sure of Denzil's safety. You agree with the necessity for my going?"
"Quite."
"Every moment may be of importance. But the moment he is safe I will hurry back to see to your welfare here. ”

“ And the fool Denzil thinks to thwart me,—I, who have never been thwarted since I knew the meaning of existence!”
He paused in a kind of breathless agitation, and Dr. Dean grasped his arm firmly.
“Come, come, what is all this excitement for?” he said. “What are you saying about Denzil?”
Gervase controlled himself with a violent effort and forced a smile.
“He has got his chance,—I have given it to him! He is alone with the Princess, and he is asking her to be his wife!”
“Nonsense!” said the Doctor sharply. “If he does commit such a folly, it will be no use. The woman is not human!” ”

“ Angela and Henriette,” Denzil said, and Fareham started up from the chess-table, scared at the young man’s agitated tone and pallid countenance. “We have looked in every room—”
“In every closet,” interrupted Dorothy.
“In every corner of the staircases and passages,” said Squire Dan.
“Can your lordship help us? There may be places you know of which we do not know?” said Denzil, his voice trembling a little. “It is alarming that they should be so long in concealment. We have called to them in every part of the house.” ”