Mrs. Challoner

“ May I ask why you place such value upon a life which, if ever useful to itself or others, has lost and lost forever, the one delight which gave it meaning?”
It was for Mr. Challoner’s voice to tremble now, as reaching out his hand, he declared, with unmistakable feeling:
“I have no son. I have no interest left in life, outside this room and the possibilities it contains for me. Your attachment to my daughter has created a bond between us, Mr. Brotherson, which I sincerely hope to see recognised by you.” ”

“ He was a person neither of great manly beauty nor of a refined exterior; he was not the man, in ordinary moods, to attract the eyes of the observer; but as he now stood in the doorway, he was marked so legibly with the extreme passion of terror that Challoner stood wonder-struck. For a fraction of a minute they gazed upon each other in silence; and then the man of the house, with ashen lips and gasping voice, inquired the business of his visitor. Challoner replied, in tones from which he strove to banish his surprise, that he was the bearer of a letter to a certain Miss Fonblanque. ”

“ Challoner.
“I’m to be married at Christmas,” Pollie answered with great firmness.
“Then I am to take your notice at once?” said Mrs. Challoner.
“Well, ma’am, yes. I’d like to leave on the 1st of November. I’ve things to do. But if you would like me to stay a week or two longer, I’d be willing to oblige you.”
Mrs. Challoner reflected for a moment. It is well-nigh impossible to accept a favour from one who has suddenly cut us down to the bare legal rights of our position.
“No, Pollie, thank you,” she said; “you can go at the time that suits you best.” ”

“ Challoner sighed; he had really anticipated something from the interview. The disappointment was keen. A moment of expectation; the thrill which comes to us all under the shadow of the supernatural, and then—this! a young and imaginative girl’s dream, convincing to herself but supplying nothing which had not already been supplied both by the facts and his own imagination! A man had stood at the staircase, and this man had raised his arm. She said that she had seen something like a pistol in his hand, but his daughter had not been shot. ”

“ I feel no lack of equality even with such a woman as Miss Challoner.”
A most unnecessary preamble, no doubt, and of doubtful efficacy in smoothing his way to a correct understanding with the deeply bereaved father. But he looked so handsome as he thus asserted himself and made so much of his inches and the noble poise of his head—though cold of eye and always cold of manner—that those who saw, as well as heard him, forgave this display of egotism in consideration of its honesty and the dignity it imparted to his person. ”

“ Through a doorway one looked into a garden behind the house which even at that season was bright with flowers. She lived with the roar of the waves upon the shingle in her ears and the gorse-strewn downs before her eyes. Challoner had found a warm and cheerful welcome at that house, and came back again to it. Stella Frobisher neither played the hermit nor made a luxury out of her calamitous loss. She rebuilt her little world as well as she could, bearing herself with pride and courage. Challoner could not but admire her ”

“ It was an awkward question, but Challoner was relieved of having to answer it by the clanging of a bell and a general stampede for the dining saloon, headed by Berth No. 3.
A few minutes of the free fight proceeding in the passage outside satisfied Strode that the first call for "tea" was not his. He returned to the cabin to find Challoner alone and in earnest contemplation of his neatly-shod feet.
Suddenly, and without any apparent cause, he laughed.
"Excuse me," he said, as though caught in some guilty act. "I thought I was alone. My son-in-law has gone to try and find his wife. ”

“ He heard handsome, indolent Raymond Challoner pour into those pretty pink-tinted ears the story of his love, and [19] he heard the lips of the girl who was more to him than life itself accept the young heir of the Challoner millions, in the sweetest of words.
“I have just one odd determination, call it a notion if you will,” he heard the young heir of Challoner say, “and that is, never to wed a girl to whom any other man has ever whispered words of love. ”

“ But now her steps, as though exhausted by emotion, began to linger on the way; she leaned the more heavily upon his arm; and he, like the parent bird, stooped fondly above his drooping convoy. Her physical distress was not accompanied by any failing 23 of her spirits; and hearing her strike so soon into a playful and charming vein of talk, Challoner could not sufficiently admire the elasticity of his companion’s nature. ”

“ But Miss Challoner’s nature was calm, and were it not for these letters—” here his arm shifted a little—“I should not be so sure of my jury’s future verdict. Love—” he went on, after a moment of silent consideration of a letter he had chosen from those before him, “disturbs the most equable natures. When it enters as a factor, we can expect anything—as you know. And Miss Challoner evidently was much attached to her correspondent, and naturally felt the reproach conveyed in these lines.” ”

“ A growing wonder began to mingle on the man’s face with the lines of solicitude. ‘I am Miss Fonblanque,’ he said; and then, perceiving the effect of this communication, ‘Good God!’ he cried, ‘what are you staring at? I tell you, I am Miss Fonblanque.’
Seeing the speaker wore a chin-beard of considerable length, and the remainder of his face was blue with shaving, Challoner could only suppose himself the subject of a jest. He was no longer under the spell of the young lady’s presence; and with men, and above all with his inferiors, he was capable of some display of spirit. ”

“ Mr. Challoner, very white by now, pointed to the door before he sank again into his chair. Brotherson took it for dismissal and stepped slowly back. Then their eyes met again and Mr. Challoner spoke his first word:
“There was another—a poor woman—she died suddenly—and her wound was not unlike that inflicted upon Edith. Did you—”
“I did.” The answer came without a tremour. “You may say and so may others that I was less justified in this attack than in the other; but I do not see it that way. A theory does not always work in practice. ”

“ Before one such house, that stood a little separate among walled gardens, a cat was playing with a straw, and Challoner paused a moment, looking on this sleek and solitary creature, who seemed an emblem of the neighbouring peace. With the cessation of the sound of his own steps the silence fell dead; the house stood smokeless: the blinds down, the whole machinery of life arrested; and it seemed to Challoner that he should hear the breathing of the sleepers.
As he so stood, he was startled by a dull and jarring detonation from within. ”

“ It was not to the comparatively poor, the comparatively obscure man she sought to show contempt, but to the brother of Oswald whose claims she saw insulted. A woman I should have respected, not killed. A woman of no pride of station; a woman who loved a man not only of my own class but of my own blood—a woman, to avenge whose unmerited death I stand here before you a self-condemned criminal. That is but justice, Mr. Challoner. That is the way I look at things. ”

“ There is only one Godall.—By the way,’ he added, as Challoner lit his cigar, ‘how did you get on with the detective trade?’
‘I did not try,’ said Challoner curtly.
‘Ah, well, I did,’ returned Somerset, ‘and made the most incomparable mess of it: lost all my money and fairly covered myself with odium and ridicule. There is more in that business, Challoner, than meets the eye; there is more, in fact, in all businesses. You must believe in them, or get up the belief that you believe. ”

“ But she refrained out of compassion for the man she loved, and declared instead, “Miss Challoner died from a wound; how given, why given, no one knows. I had rather have died myself than have to tell you this. Oh, Mr. Brotherson, speak, sob, do anything but—”
She started back, dropping his hands as she did so. With quick intuition she saw that he must be left to himself if he were to meet this blow without succumbing. The body must have freedom if the spirit would not go mad. ”

“ His face flushes, and his arms, that had stretched forth involuntarily to clasp her, fall heavily to his side.
His teeth shut tightly together. He is angry with himself for showing his weakness.
A hot flush mantles his brow. He folds his arms tightly over his chest and looks down at the beautiful girl kneeling before him, wondering vaguely where Raymond Challoner, her husband, is.
At that moment he catches sight of her dress, which he had not noticed before—black crape, the emblem of widowhood—and his heart gives a spasmodic twitch. ”

“ I had hoped not to be called upon to mention what I cannot but consider a most unfortunate coincidence. As a gentleman you will understand my reticence and also why it is a matter of regret to me that with an acumen worthy of your position, you should have discovered a fact which, while it cannot explain Miss Challoner’s death, will drag our little affair before the public, and possibly give it a prominence in some minds which I am sure does not belong to it. ”

“ If I mistook my position, or Miss Challoner’s position, it is not for me to apologise. I never hid my business from her, nor the moderate extent of my fortune. If she knew me at all, she knew me for what I am; a man of the people who glories in work and who has risen by it to a position somewhat unique in this city. ”

“ Doris, with a look of deep anxiety, sped away, and the two men stood face to face.
It was one of those moments which men recognise as memorable. What had the one to say or the other to hear, worthy of this preamble and the more than doubtful relation in which they stood each to each? Mr. Challoner had more time than he expected in which to wonder and gird himself for whatever suffering or shock awaited him. For, Orlando Brotherson, unlike his usual self, kept him waiting while he collected his own wits, which, strange to say, seemed to have vanished with the girl. ”

“ The irony, the hardy self-possession with which this was said struck Mr. Challoner to the heart. Without a word he wheeled about towards the door. Without a word, Brotherson stood, watching him go till he saw his hand fall on the knob when he quietly prevented his exit by saying:
“Unhappy truths cannot be long concealed. How soon does the doctor think my brother can bear these inevitable revelations?” ”

“ For the love of such a man as Miles Challoner she would have risked everything, in the first appreciation of such a sentiment so fresh and novel to her in all her experience of life--and that experience had been singular and not small; to be the recipient of such a passion as that man proffered and laid at her feet, she would have let her dead past bury its dead ”

“ He sees not the gilding, nor the food and drink placed in it; he sees only the cruel iron bars that hold him back from freedom and its joyousness.”
This was the very opening which Challoner desired, and he was quick to take advantage of it.
“Marry me, little Jess, and you shall live just the life you crave,” he cried, falling dramatically on his knees at her feet, and at the same instant seizing both her little clasped hands in his and covering them with hot, passionate kisses. ”

“ Edward Challoner lay on his bed in the large room overlooking the valley and the distant sea. In the House of Repose he lay awaiting the call to a longer rest than earthly weariness can secure. The grave old Padre of the neighbouring village of St. Pablo stood near the bed. Eve Challoner had sent for him, with the instinct that makes us wish to be seen off on a long journey by a good man, of whatsoever creed or calling. ”

“ HE was so obviously out of his element in those teeming regions of the Boreas, and tried so hard not to show it, that Strode was attracted to him from the first.
Challoner was the name inscribed on his belongings, and it seemed to fit, as names occasionally do. Tall, grey-haired, still slimly elegant, he was of an age that baffles any decision as to whether a man is prematurely old or uncommonly well-preserved. ”

“ At first I was unable to perceive the relevancy of the matter to the title, for it seemed to be a journal of Challoner's private life; but later I began to see the connection, to realize, as Challoner had said, that the collection was nothing more than a visible commentary on and illustration of his daily activities.
The volume opened with an account of the murder of his wife and the circumstances leading up to it, written with a dry circumstantiality that was to me infinitely pathetic. It was the forced impassiveness of a strong man whose heart is breaking. ”

“ Of course I have no right to question, who was a stranger to you four-and-twenty hours ago, and had never heard the name of Challoner, except that it was a good and an old name; but when one sees young things like you about to forfeit caste and build up a barrier between yourselves and your equals that the bravest will fear to pass, it seems as though one must lift up one’s voice in protest.”
“Thank you; but it will be of no use,” returned Phillis, coldly. ”

“ Yet I have a faithful woman there to keep every one out of his room.”
“You have had much to carry for one so young,” was Mr. Challoner’s sympathetic remark. “You must let me help you when that awful moment comes. I am at the hotel and shall stay there till Mr. Brotherson is pronounced quite well. I have no other duty now in life but to sustain him through his trouble and then, with what aid he can give, search out and find the cause of my daughter’s death which I will never admit without the fullest proof, to have been one of suicide.”
Doris trembled. ”