VIVIETTE

BY

WILLIAM J. LOCKE

1916

[Illustration: "No, don't, Viviette; forgive me"]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

 I. THE BROTHERS

 II. THE CONSPIRATORS

III. KATHERINE

 IV. THE FAMOUS DUELLING PISTOLS

 V. A CRISIS

 VI. VIVIETTE TAKES THE RISK

ILLUSTRATIONS

 "No, don't, Viviette; forgive me"

 "Dick glared at him"

 "He held out imploring hands"

 "I want you to love me forever and ever"

VIVIETTE

CHAPTER I

THE BROTHERS

"Dick, " said Viviette, "ought to go about in skins like a primitiveman. "

Katherine Holroyd looked up from her needlework. She was a gentle, fair-haired woman of thirty, with demure blue eyes, which regarded thegirl with a mingling of pity, protection, and amusement. 

"My dear, " she said, "whenever I see a pretty girl fooling about with aprimitive man I always think of a sweet little monkey I once knew, whoused to have great sport with a lyddite shell. Her master kept it on histable as a paper-weight, and no one knew it was loaded. One day she hitthe shell in the wrong place--and they're still looking for the monkey. Don't think Dick is the empty shell. "

Whereupon she resumed her work, and for a few moments the click ofthimble and needle alone broke the summer stillness. Viviette lay idlyon a long garden chair admiring the fit of a pair of dainty tan shoes, which she twiddled with graceful twists of the ankles some five feetfrom her nose. At Mrs. Holroyd's remark she laughed after the manner ofone quite contented with herself--a low, musical laugh, in harmony withthe blue June sky and the flowering chestnuts and the song ofthe thrushes. 

"My intentions with regard to Dick are strictly honourable, " sheremarked. "We've been engaged for the last eleven years, and I stillhave his engagement ring. It cost three-and-sixpence. "

"I only want to warn you, dear, " said Mrs. Holroyd. "Anyone can see thatDick is in love with you, and if you don't take care you'll have Austinfalling in love with you too. "

Viviette laughed again. "But he has already fallen! I don't think heknows it yet; but he has. It's great fun being a woman, isn't it, dear?"

"I don't know that I've ever found it so, " Katherine replied with asigh. She was a widow, and had loved her husband, and her sky was stilltinged with grey. 

Viviette, quick to catch the sadness in the voice, made no reply, butrenewed the contemplation of her shoe-tips. 

"I'm afraid you're an arrant little coquette, " said Katherineindulgently. 

"Lord Banstead says I'm a little devil, " she laughed. 

If she was in some measure a coquette she may be forgiven. What womancan have suddenly revealed to her the thrilling sense of her sex'smastery over men without snatching now and then the fearful joy ofusing her power? She was one-and-twenty, her heart still unawakened, andshe had returned to her childhood's home to find men who had danced heron their knees bending low before her, and proclaiming themselves herhumble vassals. It was intoxicating. She had always looked up to Austinwith awe, as one too remote and holy for girlish irreverence. And now!No wonder her sex laughed within her. 

Until she had gone abroad to finish her education, she had lived in thatold, grey manor-house, that dreamed in the sunshine of the terrace belowwhich she was sitting, ever since they had brought her thither, anorphaned child of three. Mrs. Ware, her guardian, was her adoptedmother; the sons, Dick and Austin Ware, her brothers--the engagement, when she was ten and Dick one-and-twenty, had hardly fluttered thefraternal relationship. She had left them a merry, kittenish child. Shehad returned a woman, slender, full-bosomed, graceful, alluring, with amaturity of fascination beyond her years. Enemies said she had gipsyblood in her veins. If so, the infusion must have taken place long, longago, for her folks were as proud of their name as the Wares of WareHouse. But, for all that, there was a suggestion of the exotic in theolive and cream complexion, and the oval face, pointing at the dimpledchin; something of the woodland in her lithe figure and free gestures;in her swimming, dark eyes one could imagine something fierce anduntamable lying beneath her laughing idleness. Katherine Holroyd calledher a coquette, Austin whatever the whim of a cultured fancy suggested, and Lord Banstead a little devil. As for Dick, he called her nothing. His love was too great; his vocabulary too small. 

Lord Banstead was a neighbour who, in the course of three months, hadproposed several times to Viviette. 

"I'm not very much to look at, " he remarked on the first of theseoccasions--he was a weedy, pallid youth of six-and-twenty--"and thetitle's not very old, I must admit. Governor only a scientific Johnnie, Margetson, the celebrated chemist, you know, who discovered some beastlygas or other and got made a peer--but I can sit with the other oldrotters in the House of Lords, you know, if I want. And I've got enoughto run the show, if you'll keep me from chucking it away as I'm doing. It'd be a godsend if you'd marry me, I give you my word. "

"Before I have anything to do with you, " replied Viviette, who had heardDick express his opinion of Lord Banstead in forcible terms, "you'llhave to forswear sack, and--and a very big AND--"

Lord Banstead, not being learned in literary allusions, lookedbewildered. Viviette laughed. 

"I'll translate if you like. You'll have to give up unlimited champagneand whiskey and lead an ostensibly respectable life. "

Whereupon Lord Banstead called her a little devil and went off indudgeon to London and took golden-haired ladies out to supper. When hereturned to the country he again offered her his title, and beingrejected a second time, again called her a little devil, and went backto the fashionable supper-room. A third and a fourth time he executedthis complicated manoeuvre; and now news had reached Viviette that hewas in residence at Farfield, where he was boring himself exceedingly inhis father's scientific library. 

"I suppose he'll be coming over to-day, " said Viviette. 

"Why do you encourage him?" asked Katherine. 

"I don't, " Viviette retorted. "I snub him unmercifully. If I am acoquette it's with real men, not with the by-product of a chemicalexperiment. "

Katherine dropped her work and her underlip, and turned reproachful blueeyes on the girl. 

"Viviette!"

"Oh, she's shocked! Saint Nitouche is shocked!" Then, with a change ofmanner, she rose and, bending over Katherine's chair, kissed her. "I'msorry, dear, " she said, in pretty penitence. "I know it was anabominable and unladylike thing to say, but my tongue sometimes runsaway with my thoughts. Forgive me. "

At that moment a man dressed in rough tweeds and leggings, who hademerged from the stable side of the manor-house, crossed the terrace, and, descending the steps, walked over the lawn towards the two ladies. He had massive shoulders and a thick, strong neck, coarse reddish hair, and a moustache of a lighter shade. Blue eyes looked with a curiouschildish pathos out of a face tanned by sun and weather. He slouchedslightly in his gait, like the heavy man accustomed to the saddle. Thiswas Dick Ware, the elder of the brothers and heir to fallen fortunes, mortgaged house and lands, and he gave the impression of failure, of aman who, in spite of thews and sinews, had been unable to grapple withcircumstance. 

Viviette left Katherine to her needlework, and advanced to meet him. Ather spontaneous act of welcome a light came into his eyes. He removedfrom his lips the short corn-cob pipe he was smoking. 

"I've just been looking at the new mare. She's a beauty. I know Ioughtn't to have got her, but she was going dirt cheap--and what can aman do when he's offered a horse at a quarter its value?"

"Nothing, my dear Dick, save pay four times as much as he can afford. "

"But we had to get a new beast, " he argued seriously. "We can't go aboutthe country in a donkey-cart. If I hadn't bought one, Austin would, forthe sake of the family dignity--and I do like to feel independent ofAustin now and then. "

"I wish you were entirely independent of Austin, " said Viviette, walkingwith him up the lawn. 

"I can't, so long as I stay here doing nothing. But if I went out toCanada or New Zealand, as I want to do, who would look after my mother?I'm tied by the leg. "

"I'd look after mother, " said Viviette. "And you'd write me nice longletters, saying how you were getting on, and I would send you nicelittle bulletins, and we should all be very happy. "

"Do you want to get rid of me, Viviette?"

"I want you to have your heart's desire. "

"You know what my heart's desire is, " he said unsteadily. 

"Why, to raise sheep or drive cattle, or chop down trees in thebackwoods, " she replied, lifting demure eyebrows. "Oh, Dick, don't befoolish. See--there's mother just come out. "

With a light laugh she escaped and ran up the steps to meet an old lady, rather infirm, who, with the aid of a stick, was beginning to take hermorning walk up and down the terrace. Dick followed her moodily. 

"Good morning, mother, " said he, bending down to kiss her. 

Mrs. Ware put up her cheek, and received the salute with no great showof pleasure. 

"Oh, how you smell of tobacco smoke, Dick. Where's Austin? Please go andfind him. I want to hear what he has to say about the stables. "

"What can he say, mother?"

"He can advise us and help us to put the muddle right, " said Mrs. Ware. 

These stables had been a subject of controversy for some time. The oldones having fallen into disgraceful disrepair, Dick had turned architectand erected new ones himself. As shelters for beasts, they werecomparatively sound; as appanages to an Elizabethan manor-house, theywere open to adverse criticism. Austin, who had come down from London aday or two before to spend his Whitsuntide holiday at home, had promisedhis mother to make inspection and report. 

"But what does Austin know about stables?" Viviette asked, as soon asDick had slouched away in search of his brother. 

"Austin knows about everything, my dear, " replied the old ladydecisively. "Not only is Austin a brilliantly clever man, but he's asuccessful barrister, and a barrister's business is to know all abouteverything. Give me your arm, dear, and let us walk up and down alittle till they come. "

Presently Dick returned with Austin, whom he had found smoking a cigarin a very meditative manner in front of the stables. Dick's face wasgloomy, but Austin's was bright, as he came briskly up and, cigar inhand, stooped to his mother. She put her arms round his neck, kissed himaffectionately, and inquired after his sleep and his comfort and thequality of his breakfast. 

"Doesn't Austin smell of tobacco smoke, mother?" asked Dick. 

"Austin, " replied Mrs. Ware, "has a way of smoking and not smelling ofit. "

Austin laughed gaily. "I believe if I fell into a pond you'd say I had away of coming up dry. "

Dick turned to Viviette, and muttered with some bitterness: "And if Ifell into a dry ditch she'd say I came up slimy. "

Viviette, touched by pity, raised a bewitching face. "Dry or slimy, youwould be just the same dear old Dick, " she whispered. 

"And what about the stables?" asked Mrs. Ware. 

"Oh, they're not bad. They're rather creditable; but, " Austin added, turning with a laugh to his brother, "the mother will fidget, you know, and the somewhat--let us say rococo style of architecture has got on hernerves. I think the whole thing had better come down, don't you?"

"If you like, " said Dick gruffly. He had given way to Austin all hislife. What was the use of opposing him now?

"Good. I'll send young Rapson, the architect, along to make a design. Don't you worry, old chap, I'll see it through. "

Young, brisk, debonair, flushed with success and the sense of themastery of life, he did not notice the lowering of Dick's brows, whichdeepened into almost a scowl when he turned frankly admiring eyes onViviette, and drew her into gay, laughing talk, nor did he catch thehopelessness in the drag of Dick's feet as he went off to gazesorrowfully at the fallen pride of his heart, the condemned stables. 

But Viviette who knew, as Austin did not, of Dick's disappointment, soonbroke away and joined him in front of the amorphous shed of timber. Shetook him by the arm. 

"Come for a stroll in the orchard. "

He suffered himself to be led through the stable-yard gate. She talkedto him of apple blossoms. He listened for some time in silence. Then hebroke out. 

"It's an infernal shame, " said he. 

"It is, " said Viviette. "But you needn't put on such a glum face whenI'm here especially to comfort you. If you're not glad to see me I'll goback to Austin. He's much more amusing than you. "

"I suppose he is. Yes, go back to him. I'm a fool. I'm nobody. No, don't, Viviette; forgive me, " he cried, catching her as she turned awaysomewhat haughtily. "I didn't mean it, but things are getting beyond myendurance. "

Viviette seated herself on a bench beneath the apple blossoms. 

"What things?"

"Everything. My position. Austin's airy ways. "

"But that's what makes him so charming. "

"Yes, confound him. My ways are about as airy as a hippopotamus's. Lookhere, Viviette. I'm fond of Austin, God knows--but all my life he hasbeen put in front of me. He has had all the chances; I've had none. Withmy father when he was alive, with my mother, it has always been Austinthis and Austin that. He was the head of the school when I, the elder, was a lout in the lower fourth. He had a brilliant University career andwent into the world and is making a fortune. I'm only able to ride andshoot and do country things. I've stuck here with only this mortgagedhouse belonging to me and the hundred or so a year I get out of thetenants. I'm not even executor under my father's will. It's Austin. Austin pays mother the money under her marriage settlement. If things gowrong Austin is sent for to put them right. It never seems to occur tohim that it's my house. Oh, of course I know he pays the interest on themortgage and makes my mother an allowance--that's the humiliationof it. "

He sat with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, staringat the grass. 

"But surely you could find some work to do, Dick?"

He shrugged his great shoulders. "They stuck me once in an office inLondon. I suffocated and added up things wrong and told the wrong liesto the wrong people, and ended up by breaking the juniorpartner's head!"

"You had some satisfaction out of it, at any rate, " laughed Viviette. 

A faint reminiscent smile crossed his face. "I suppose I had. But itdidn't qualify me for a successful business career. No. I might dosomething in a new country. I must get away from this. I can't stand it. But yet--as I've told you all along, I'm tied--hand and foot. "

"And so you're very miserable, Dick. "

"How can I help it?"

Viviette edged a little away from him, and said, rather resentfully:

"I don't call that polite, seeing that I have come back to live withyou. "

He turned on her with some fierceness. "Don't you see that your beinghere makes my life all the more impossible? How can I be with you dayafter day without loving you, hungering for you, wanting you, body andsoul? I've never given a thought to another woman in my life. You're myheart's blood, dear. I want to hold you so tight in my arms that not theghost of another man can ever come between us. You know it. "

Viviette shredded an apple blossom that had fallen into her lap. Thefingers that held the petal tingled, and a flush rose in her cheek. 

"I do know it, " she said in a low voice. "You're always telling me. But, Dick"--she flashed a mischievous glance at him--"while you're holdingme--although it would be very nice--we should starve. "

"Then let us starve, " he cried vehemently. 

"Oh, no. Oh, most decidedly no. Starvation would be so unbecoming. Ishould get to be a fright--a bundle of bones and a rundle of skin--andyou'd be horrified--I couldn't bear it. "

"If you would only say you cared a scrap for me it would be easier, " hepleaded. 

"I should have thought it would be harder. "

"Anyhow, say it--say it this once--just this once. "

She bent her head to hide a smile, and said in a voice adorably soft:

"Dick, shut your eyes. "

"Viviette!" he cried, with sudden hope. 

"No. Shut your eyes. Turn round. Now tell me, " she continued, when hehad turned obediently, "just what I've got on. No!" she held him by theshoulders, "you're not to move. "

Now, she was wearing a white blouse and a blue skirt and tan shoes, anda yellow rose was pinned at her bosom. 

"What dress am I wearing?"

"A light-coloured thing, " said Dick. 

"And what's it trimmed with?"

"Lace, " said the unfortunate man. Lace indeed!

"And what coloured boots?"

"Black, " said Dick, at a venture. 

"And what flower?"

"I don't know--a pink rose, I think. "

She started up. "Look, " she cried gaily. "Oh, Dick! I'll never marry youtill you have the common decency to look at me--never! never! never! Idressed myself this beautiful morning just to please you. Oh, Dick!Dick, you've lost such a chance. "

She stood with her hands behind her back regarding him mockingly, as Evein the first orchard must have regarded Adam when he was more dull andmasculine than usual--when, for instance, she had attired herself inhybiscus flowers which he took for the hum-drum, everyday fig-leaves. 

"I'm a born duffer, " said Dick pathetically. "But your face is all thatI see when I look at you. "

"That's all very pretty, " she retorted. "But you ought to see more. Nowlet us talk sense. Mind, if I sit on that bench again you're totalk sense. "

Dick sighed. "Very well, " said he. 

That was the history of all his love-making. She drew him on topassionate utterance, and then, with a twist of her wit and a twirl ofher skirts, she eluded him. When she had thus put herself out of hisreach, he felt ashamed. What right had he, dull, useless, lumbering, squiredomless squire, to ask a woman like Viviette to marry him? Howcould he support a wife? As it was, he lived a pensioner on Austin'sbounty. Could he ask Austin to feed his wife and family as well? Thisthought, which always came to him as soon as his passion was checked, filled him with deep humiliation. Viviette had reason on her side whenshe said, "Let us talk sense. "

He glowered at his fate, and tugged his tawny moustache for some time insilence. Then Viviette began to talk to him prettily of things thatmade up his country interests, his dogs, the garden, the personalitiesof the country-side. Soon she had him laughing, which pleased andflattered her, as it proved her power over the primitive man. Indeed, atsuch moments, she felt very tenderly towards him, and would have likedto pat his cheeks and crown him with flowers, thus manifesting herfavour by dainty caresses. But she refrained, knowing that primitive menare too dense to interpret such demonstrations rightly, and limitedherself to less compromising words. 

"I am going to tell you a secret, " he said at last, in a shamefaced way. "You mustn't laugh at me--promise me you won't. "

"I promise, " said Viviette solemnly. 

"I am thinking of going in for local politics--Rural District Council, you know. "

Viviette nodded her head approvingly. "A village Hampden--in Toryclothing?"

"They're running things on party lines down here. The influence ofWesthampton is Radical, and fills the Council with a lot of outsiders. So they've got together a Conservative Committee, and are going to run agood strong man for a vacancy. I've given them to understand that I'llbe a candidate if they'll have me. I'd like to be one. It's a rubbishything, dear, but somehow it would give me a little interest in life. "

"I don't think it a rubbishy thing at all, " said Viviette. "A countrygentleman ought to have a hand in rural administration. I do hope you'llget in. When will you know that the committee have selected you?"

"There's a meeting this evening. I ought to know to-night or to-morrowmorning. "

"Are you very keen on it?"

"Very, " said Dick. And he added proudly, "It was my own idea. "

"But you're not as keen on that as on going abroad?"

"Ah, that!" said Dick. "That, bar one, is the dearest wish of my heart. And who knows--it might enable me to carry out the other. "

The sound of a gong within the house floated through the still June air. Viviette rose. "I must tidy myself for lunch. "

They walked to the house together. On parting she put out both herhands. 

"Do be reasonable, Dick, and don't look for slights in what you callAustin's airy ways. He is awfully fond of you, and would not hurt youfor the world. "

At the luncheon table, however, Austin did hurt him, in utterunconsciousness, by his gay command of the situation, his eager talkwith Viviette of things Dick did not understand, places he had notvisited, books he had never read, pictures he had never seen. It washeartache rather than envy. He did not grudge Austin his scholarship andbrilliance. But his soul sank at the sight of Austin and Viviette movingas familiars in a joyous world as remote from him as Neptune. Mrs. Warekept Katherine Holroyd engaged in mild talk of cooks and curates, whilethe other two maintained their baffling conversation, half banter, halfserious, on a bewildering number of topics, and poor Dick remained asdumb as the fish and cutlets he was eating. He sat at the head of thetable, Mrs. Ware at the foot. On his right hand sat Katherine Holroyd, on his left Viviette, and between her and his mother was Austin. WithViviette talking to Austin and Mrs. Ware to Katherine, he felt lonelyand disregarded in a kind of polar waste of snowy tablecloth. OnceKatherine, escaping from Mrs. Ware's platitudinous ripple, took pity onhim, and asked him when he was going to redeem his promise and show herhis collection of armour and weapons. Dick brightened. This was the onlykeen interest he had in life outside things of earth and air and stream. He had inherited a good family collection, and had added to itoccasionally, as far as his slender means allowed. He had read deeply, and understood his subject. 

"Whenever you like, Katherine, " he said. 

"This afternoon?"

"I'm afraid they want polishing up and arranging. I've got some newthings which I've not placed. I've rather neglected them lately. Let ussay to-morrow afternoon. Then they'll all be spick and span for you. "

Katherine assented. "I've been down here so often and never seen them, "she said. "It seems odd, considering the years we've known each other. "

"I only took it up after father's death, " said Dick. "And since then, you know, you haven't been here so very often. "

"It was only the last time that I discovered you took an interest an thecollection. You hid your light under a bushel. Then I went to London andheard that you were a great authority on the subject. "

Dick's tanned face reddened with pleasure. 

"I do know something about it. You see, guns and swords and pistols arein my line. I'm good at killing things. I ought to have been a soldier, only I couldn't pass examinations, so I sort of interest myself in theold weapons and do my killing in imagination. "

"You give a regular lecture, don't you?"

"Well, you know, " said Dick modestly, "a lot of them are historical. There's a mace used by a bishop, an ancestor of ours. He couldn't wielda sword in battle, so he cottoned on to that, and in order to salve hisconscience before using it he would cry out 'Gare! gare!'--and they saythat's what our name comes from--see? 'Ware--Ware. ' He was the founderof our family--though, of course, he oughtn't to have been. And then wehave the duelling pistols my great-grandfather shot Lord Estcourt with. They're beautiful things--in the case just as he left it after the duel, with powder, balls, and caps, all complete. It's a romantic story--"

"My dear Dick, " interposed Mrs. Ware, with fragile, uplifted hand, "please don't offend us with these horrible family scandals. Katharine, dear, are you going to the vicar's garden party this afternoon? If youare, will you take a message to Mrs. Cook?"

So Katherine being monopolized, Dick was silenced, and as Austin andViviette were talking in a lively but unintelligible way about a thing, or a play, or a horse called Nietzsche, he relapsed into the heavy, full-blooded man's animal enjoyment of his food and the sensitive'sconsciousness of heartache. 

When the ladies had left the table and the coffee had been brought in, and the men's cigars were lit, Austin said:

"What a magnificently beautiful creature she has grown into. "

"Whom do you mean?" asked Dick. 

"Why, Viviette, of course. She's the most fascinating thing I've comeacross for years. "

"Do you think so?" said Dick shortly. 

"Don't you?"

Dick shrugged his shoulders. Austin laughed. 

"What a stolid old beggar you are. To you, she's just the same littlegirl that used to run about here in short frocks. If she were a horseyou'd have a catalogue yards long of her points. "

"But as she's a lady, " said Dick, tugging his moustache, "I don't careto catalogue them. "

Austin laughed again. "Fairly scored!" He raised his cup to his lips, took a sip, and set it down again. 

"Why on earth, " said he with some petulance, "can't mother give usdecent coffee?"

CHAPTER II

THE CONSPIRATORS

Dick went heavy-hearted to bed that night, pronouncing himself to be themost abjectly miserable of God's creatures, and calling on Providence toremove him speedily from an unsympathetic world. He had said good nightto the ladies at eleven o'clock when the three went upstairs to bed, andhad forthwith gone to spend the rest of the evening in the friendlysolitude of his armoury. Emerging thence an hour later into the hall, hehad come upon a picturesque, but heart-rending, spectacle. There, on thethird step of the grand staircase, stood Viviette, holding in one hand acandle, and extending the other regally downwards to Austin, who, withsleek head bent, was pressing it to his lips. In the candle-light herhair threw disconcerting shadows over her elfin face, and her great eyesseemed to glow with a magical intensity that poor Dick had never seen inthem before. As soon as he had appeared she had broken into her lowlaugh, drawn away her hand from Austin, and, descending the steps, extended it in much the same regal manner to Dick. 

"Good night again, Dick, " she said sweetly. "Austin and I have beenhaving a little talk. "

But he had disregarded the hand, and, with a gruff "Good night, " hadreturned to his armoury, slamming the door behind him. There he hadnourished his wrath on more whiskey and soda than was good for him, andcrawled upstairs in the small hours to miserable sleeplessness. 

This was the beginning of Dick's undoing, the gods (abetted by Viviette)employing their customary procedure of first driving him mad. ButViviette was not altogether a guilty abettor. Indeed, all day long, shehad entertained high notions of acting fairy godmother, and helping Dickalong the road to fortune and content. He himself, she learned, hadtaken no steps to free himself from his present mode of life. He had noteven confided in Austin. Viviette ran over the list of her influentialfriends. There was Lady Winsmere, a dowager countess of seventy, surrounded by notabilities, at whose house she stayed now and then inLondon. On the last occasion an Agent-General for one of the greatColonies had sat next her at dinner. Then there was her friend Mrs. Penderby, whose husband gathered enormous wealth in some mysterious wayin Mark Lane. Why should she not go up to London and open a campaign onDick's behalf, secure him an appointment, and come back flourishing itbefore his dazzled and delighted eyes? The prospect was enchanting. Thefairy godmother romance of it fascinated her girlish mind. But firstshe must clear the ground at home. There must be no opposition fromAustin. He must be her ally. 

When a woman gets an idea like this into her head she must execute it, as the Americans say, right now. A man waits, counts up all thebarriers, and speculates on the strength and courage of the lions in thepath--but a woman goes straight forward, and does not worry about thelions till they bite her. Viviette resolved to speak to Austin at once;but, owing to a succession of the little ironies of circumstance, shefound no opportunity of doing so all the afternoon or evening. It wasonly when, standing at the top of the stairs, she had seen Dick go offto the armoury, and Austin return to the drawing-room--for the men hadbidden the ladies good night in the hall--that she saw her chance. Shewent downstairs and opened the drawing-room door. 

"I don't want to go to bed after all. Do you think you can do with me alittle longer?"

"A great deal longer, " he said, drawing a chair for her, and arrangingthe shade of a lamp so that the light should not shine full in her eyes. "I was just thinking how dull the room looked without you--as if all theflowers had suddenly been taken away. "

"I suppose I am decorative, " she said blandly. 

"You're bewitching. What instinct made you choose that shade of palegreen for your frock? If I had seen it in the pattern I should have saidit was impossible for your colouring. But now it seems to be the onlyperfect thing you could wear. "

She laughed her little laugh of pleasure, and thanked him prettily forthe compliment. They bandied gay words for a while. 

"Oh, I'm so glad you have come down--even for this short visit, " saidViviette at last. "I was pining for talk, for wit, for a breath of thegreat world beyond these sleepy meadows. You bring all that with you. "

Austin leaned forward. "How do you know I'm not bringing even more?"

The girl's eyes drooped before his gaze. Then she fluttered a glance athim in which there was a gleam of mockery. 

"You bring the most valuable gift of all--appreciation of my frocks. Ilove people to notice them. Now Dick is frock-blind. Why is that?"

"He's a dear old duffer, " said Austin. 

"I don't think he's happy, " said Viviette, who, in her feminine way, hadworked round to the subject of the interview. 

"He did seem rather cut up about the stables, " Austin admitted. "But thethings are an eyesore, and mother was worrying herself to deathabout them. "

"It isn't only the stables, " said Viviette. "Dick is altogetherdiscontented. "

Austin looked at her in amazement. "Discontented?"

"He wants something to do. "

"Nonsense, " he laughed, with the air of a man certain of his facts. "He's as happy as a king here. He shoots and hunts--looks after theplace--runs the garden and potters about in his armoury--in fact, doesjust what he likes all day long. He goes to bed without a care sharinghis pillow, and, when he wakes up, gets into comfortable country clothesinstead of a tight-fitting suit of responsibilities. For a man of histastes he leads an ideal existence. "

He threw away the end of the cigarette he was smoking, as though to saythat the argument was finished. But Viviette regarded him with asmile--the smile of woman's superior wisdom. How astonishingly little heknew of Dick!

"Do you really think there is one contented being on earth?" she asked. "Even I know better than that. "

Austin maintained that Dick ought to be contented. 

"Dependent for practically all he has on you?"

"I've never let him feel it, " he said quickly. 

"He does, though. He wants to get away--to earn his own living--make away for himself. "

"That's the first I've heard of it, " said Austin, genuinely surprised. "I really thought he was perfectly contented here. Of course, now andthen he's grumpy--but he always has had fits of grumpiness. What kind ofwork does he want?"

"Something to do with sheep or cattle--in Arizona or New Zealand--theplace doesn't matter--any open-air life. "

Austin lit another cigarette and walked about the room. He was a man ofwell-regulated habits, and did not like being taken unawares. Dickought to have told him. Then there was their mother. Who would lookafter her? Dick was a dispensation of Providence. 

"Perhaps I might be a deputy dispensation, mightn't I?" said Viviette. "I don't think mother is so desperately attached to Dick as all that. Itcould be arranged somehow or other. And Dick is growing more and morewretched about it every day. Every day he pours out his woes to me tillI can almost howl with misery. "

"What do you want me to do?"

"Not to stand in his way if he gets a chance of going abroad. "

"Of course I won't, " cried Austin eagerly. "It never entered my headthat he wanted to go away. I would do anything in the world for hishappiness, poor old chap. I love Dick very deeply. In spite of his hugebulk and rough ways there's something of the woman in him that makes onelove him. "

They catalogued Dick's virtues, and then Viviette unfolded her scheme. One or other of the powerful personages whom, in her young confidence, she proposed to attack, would surely know of some opening abroad. 

"Even humble I sometimes hear of things, " said Austin. "Only a day ortwo ago old Lord Overton asked me if I knew of a man who could manage atimber forest he's got in Vancouver--"

Viviette jumped up and clapped her hands. 

"Why, that's the very thing for Dick!" she cried exultingly. 

"God bless my soul!" said Austin. "So it is. I never thought of it. "

"If you get it for him I'll thank you in the sweetest way possible. " Sheglanced at him swiftly, under her eyelids. "I promise you I will. "

"Then I'll certainly get it, " replied Austin. 

Austin then went into details. Lord Overton wanted a man ofeducation--a gentleman--one who could ride and shoot and make otherswork. He would have to superintend the planting and the cutting and thetransportation of timber, and act as agent for the various farms LordOverton possessed in the wide district. The salary would be £700 a year. The late superintendent had suddenly died, and Lord Overton wanted a manto go out at once and fill his place. If only he had thought of Dick!

"But you're thinking of him now. It can't be too late--men with suchqualifications aren't picked up at every street corner. "

"That's quite true, " said Austin. "And as for my recommendation, " headded in his confident way, "Lord Overton and I are on such terms thathe would not hesitate to give the appointment to a brother of mine. I'llwrite at once. "

"And we'll say nothing to Dick until we've got it all in black andwhite. "

"Not a word, " said he. 

Then they burst out laughing like happy conspirators, and enjoyedbeforehand the success of their plot. 

"The old place will be very strange without him, " said Austin. 

A shadow passed over Viviette's bright face. The manor-house wouldindeed be very lonely. Her occupation as Dick's liege lady, confidante, and tormentor would be gone. Parting from him would be a wrench. Therewould be a dreadful scene at the last moment, in which he would want tohold her tight in his arms and make her promise to join him inVancouver. She shivered a little; then tossed her head as if to throwoff the disturbing thoughts. 

"Don't let us look at the dismal side of things. It's selfish. All wewant is Dick's happiness. " She glanced at the clock and started up. "It's midnight. If Katherine knew I was here she would lecture me. "

"It's nothing very dreadful, " he laughed. "Nor is Katherine's lecture. "

"I call her Saint Nitouche--but she's a great dear, isn't she? Goodnight. "

He accompanied her to the foot of the stairs and lit her candle. On thethird stair she paused. 

"Remember--in all this it's I who am the fairy godmother. "

"And I, " said Austin, "am nothing but the fairy godmother's humble anddevoted factotum. " He took the hand which she extended and, bending overit, kissed it gallantly. 

Then by unhappy chance out came Dick from the armoury, and beheld thespectacle which robbed him of his peace of mind. 

The next morning, when Dick came down gloomily to breakfast, she wasvery gentle with him, and administered tactfully to his wants. Sheinsisted on going to the sideboard and carving his cold ham, of which heate prodigious quantities after a hot first course, and when she put theplate before him laid a caressing touch on his shoulder. She neglectedAustin in a bare-faced manner, and drew Dick into reluctant and thenanimated talk on his prize roses and a setter pup just recovering fromdistemper. After the meal she went with him round the garden, inspectedboth roses and puppy, and manifested great interest in a trellis he wasconstructing for the accommodation later in the summer of some climbingcucumbers, at present only visible as modest leaves in flower-pots. Neither made any reference to the little scene of the night before. Morning had brought to Dick the conviction that in refusing her hand andslamming the door he had behaved in an unpardonably bearish manner; andhe could not apologise for his behaviour unless he confessed hisjealousy of Austin, which, in all probability, would have subjected himto the mocking ridicule of Viviette--a thing which, above all others, hedreaded, and against which he knew himself to be defenceless. Viviette, too, found silence golden. She knew perfectly well why Dick had slammedthe door. An explanation would have been absurd. It would haveinterfered with her relations with Austin, which were beginning to beexciting. But she loved Dick in her heart for being a bear, and evincedboth her compunction and her appreciation in peculiar graciousness. 

"You've never asked me to try the new mare, " she said. "I don't think ita bit kind of you. "

"Would you care to?" he asked eagerly. 

"Of course I should. I love to see you with horses. You and the trap andthe horse seem to be as much one mechanism as a motor-car. "

"I can make a horse do what I want, " he said, delighted at thecompliment. "We'll take the dog-cart. When will you come? This morning?"

"Yes--let us say eleven. It will be lovely. "

"I'll have it round at eleven o'clock. You'll see. She's a flyer. "

"So am I, " she said with a laugh, and pointed to the front gate, which agarden lad had just run to open to admit a young man on horseback. 

"Oh, lord! it's Banstead, " said Dick with a groan. 

"Au revoir--eleven o'clock, " said Viviette, and she fled. 

Lord Banstead dismounted, gave his horse to the lad, and came up toDick. He was an unhealthy, dissipated-looking young man, with lustrelesseyes, a characterless chin, and an underfed moustache. He wore a lightblue hunting stock, fastened by a ruby fox in full gallop, and a roundfelt hat with a very narrow flat brim, beneath which protruded strandsof Andrew aguecheek hair. 

"Hallo, Banstead, " said Dick, not very cordially. 

"Hallo, " said the other, halting before the rose-bed, where Dick wastying up some blooms with bast. He watched him for a moment or two. Conversation was not spontaneous. 

"Where's Viviette?" he asked eventually. 

"Who?" growled Dick. 

"Rot. What's the good of frills? Miss Hastings. "

"Busy. She'll be busy all the morning. "

"I rather wanted to see her. "

"I don't think you will. You might ring at the front door and send inyour card. "

"I might, " said Banstead, lighting a cigar. He had tried this method ofseeing Viviette before, but without success. There was another pause. Dick snipped off an end of bast. 

"You're up very early, " said he. 

"Went to bed so bally sober I couldn't sleep, " replied the misguidedyouth. "Not a soul in the house, I give you my word. So bored last nightI took a gun and tried to shoot cats. Shot a damn cock pheasant bymistake, and had to bury the thing in my own covers. If I'm left tomyself to-night I'll get drunk and go out shooting tenants. Come overand dine. "

"Can't, " said Dick. 

"Do. I'll open a bottle of the governor's old port. Then we can playbilliards, or piquet, or cat's-cradle, or any rotten thing you like. "

Dick excused himself curtly. Austin had come down for Whitsuntide, and alady was staying in the house. Lord Banstead pushed his hat to the backof his head. 

"Then what the devil am I to do in this hole of a place?"

"Don't know, " said Dick. 

"You fellows in the country are so unfriendly. In town I never needdine alone. Anyone's glad to see me. Feeding all by myself in thatdining-room fairly gives me the pip. "

"Then come and dine here, " said Dick, unable to refuse a neighbourhospitality. 

"Right, " said Banstead. "That is really like the Samaritan Johnnie. I'llcome with pleasure. "

"Quarter to eight. "

Banstead hesitated. "Couldn't you make it a quarter past?"

Dick stared. "Alter our dinner hour? You've rather a nerve, haven't you, Banstead?"

"I wouldn't suggest it, if we weren't pals, " replied the other, grinningsomewhat shamefacedly. "But the fact is I've got an appointment latethis afternoon. " The fatuity of vicious and coroneted youth outstrippedhis discretion. "There's a devilish pretty girl, you know, at 'The GreenMan' at Little Barton; I don't know whether I can get away in time. "

Dick stuffed his bast in his pocket, and muttered things uncomplimentaryto Banstead. 

"Dinner's at a quarter to eight. You can take it or leave it, " said he. 

"I suppose I've jolly well got to take it, " said Banstead, unruffled. "Anything's better than going through dinner from soup to dessert allalone under the fishy eye of that butling image of a Jenkins. He wasthirty years in my governor's service, and doesn't understand my ways. Iguess I'll have to chuck him. "

A perspiring, straw-hatted postman lurched along the gravel drive withthe morning's post. He touched his hat to Dick, delivered the ManorHouse bag into his hands, and departed. 

"I'll sort these in the morning-room, " said Dick, moving in thedirection of the house, and Lord Banstead, hoping to see Viviette, followed at his heels. The control of the family post was one of the fewprivileges Dick retained as master of the house. His simple mind stillregarded the receipt and despatch of letters as a solemn affair of life, and every morning he went through the process of distribution withceremonial observance. In the morning-room they found Austin andViviette, the former writing in a corner, the latter reading a novel bythe French window that opened on to the terrace. Dick went up to atable, and, opening the mail-bag, began to sort the letters into variousheaps. Austin greeted Lord Banstead none too warmly, and, with scarcelyan apology, went back to his writing. He disapproved of Banstead, whowas of a type particularly antagonistic to the young, clean, andsuccessful barrister. When Viviette had informed him of the youth'spresence in the garden, he had exclaimed impatiently:

"It ought to be somebody's business to go round the world occasionallywith a broom and sweep away spiders like that. "

Viviette, mindful of the invective, received Lord Banstead with a smileof amusement. As she had two protectors against a fifth proposal ofmarriage, she stood her ground. 

"I expected you to come over yesterday, " she said. 

"No, did you really?" he exclaimed, a flush rising to his pale cheeks. "If I had thought that I should have come. "

"You've made up for it by arriving early to-day, at any rate, " saidViviette. 

"And I'm making up for it further by coming to dinner to-night. Dickasked me, " he added, seeing the polite questioning in her eyes. 

"That will be very nice, " she said. "You can talk to mother. You see, Dick talks to Mrs. Holroyd, who is staying with us, Austin talks to me, so poor mother is left out in the cold. She'll enjoy a nice long talkwith you. "

When Banstead took the chorus out to supper he had the ready repartee ofhis kind. In such a case he would have told the lady not to pull hisleg. But the delicate mockery in Viviette's face seemed to forbid theuse of this figure of speech, and as his vocabulary did not readilyallow him to formulate the idea in other terms he said nothing, butsettled his stock, and looked at her adoringly. At last he bent forward, after a glance at the protectors, and said in a low tone:

"Come out into the garden. I've something to say to you. "

"Why not say it here?" she replied in her ordinary voice. 

Banstead bit his lip. He would have liked to call her a little devil. But he reflected that if he did she would be quite capable of repeatingthe phrase aloud, somewhat to the astonishment of Dick and Austin, whomight ask for embarrassing explanations. Instead he bent still nearer, and whispered:

"I can only say it to you alone. I've been awake all night thinking ofit--give you my word. "

"Wait till to-morrow morning, and by then you may have slept upon it, "she counselled. 

"You'll drive me to drink!" he murmured. 

She rose with a laugh. "In that case I must go. I ought to be labelled'dangerous. ' Don't you think so, Dick? Besides, I'm going for a drive, and must put on my things. These my letters? Au revoir. " And, with awave of her hand she left them. 

Banstead lingered by the threshold and took up an illustrated paper. Themaid, in response to Dick's summons, bore away the letters for the restof the household. Austin and Dick concerned themselves with theircorrespondence, Dick's chiefly consisting of gardeners' catalogues. 

For a while there was silence. It was broken by a loud laugh fromAustin. 

"Dick! I say, Dick! What do you think these village idiots have asked meto do? To accept their nomination and stand as a Rural DistrictCouncillor! Me!"

Dick quickly crossed to the table where his brother was sitting. 

"That's my letter, old chap. I must here put it in your heap by mistake. The invitation is meant for me. "

"You?" laughed Austin. "Why, what do you want to fool about with villagepolitics for? No. The letter is meant for me right enough. "

"I can't understand it, " said Dick. 

Lord Banstead looked up from his paper. 

"That the Rural District Council? I'm on the committee. Had a meetingyesterday. I'm chairman of the silly rotters. "

"Then your silly rotter of an honorary secretary, " cried Dick angrily, "has sent Austin the letter of invitation that was meant for me. "

"Oh, no, he didn't, " said Banstead. "It's all right. They chucked you, old son. Now I remember. I promised to explain. "

Dick turned aside. "Oh, you needn't explain, " he said bitterly. 

"But I must. They had their reasons, you know. They thought they'drather have a brainy nobleman like your brother than a good old rotterlike you. You're--"

"Oh, hold your tongue, Banstead, " cried Austin, rising and putting hishand on Dick's shoulder. "Really, my dear old Dick, you're the rightperson to stand. They only thought a lawyer could help them--but I'm fartoo busy--of course I decline. I'm deeply pained, Dick, at having hurtyou. I'll write to the committee and point out how much fitter, as acountry gentleman, you are for the duties than I am. They're boundto ask you. "

Dick swung away passionately, his lips quivering with anger andmortification beneath his great moustache. 

"Do you think I would accept? I'm damned if I would. Do you expect me topick up everything you've thrown in the mud and feel grateful? I'mdamned if I will!"

He flung out of the room on to the terrace and strode away in a rage. 

"Seems to take it badly, " remarked Banstead, looking at hisdisappearing figure. "I had better say good-bye. "

"Good-bye, " said Austin. And he added, as he accompanied him with grimpoliteness to the front gate, "if you exercise the same tact in thechair as you've done here, your meetings must be a huge success. "

He returned with a shrug of the shoulders to his table in themorning-room. He was deeply attached to Dick, but a lifelong habit ofregarding him as a good-natured, stupid, and contented giant blinded himto the storm that was beginning to rage in the other's soul. Theoccurrence was unfortunate. It wounded the poor old fellow's vanity. Banstead's blatant folly had been enough to set any man in a rage. But, after all, Dick was a common-sense creature, and, recognising thatAustin was in no way to blame, he would soon get over it. Meanwhile, there was awaiting him the joyful surprise of Vancouver, which wouldsoon put such petty mortifications out of his head. Thus Austin consoledhimself, and settled down to the serious matters of his correspondence. 

Viviette, coming in later in hat and jacket, found him busily writing. He looked up at her admiringly as she stood against the background oflight framed by the great French window. 

"Am I presentable?" she asked, with a smile, interpreting his glance. 

"Each modification of your dress makes you seem more bewitching than thelast. "

"I trimmed this hat myself, " she said, coming into the room, andlooking at herself in a Queen Anne mirror on the wall. 

"That's why it's so becoming, " said Austin. 

She wheeled round on him with a laugh. "You really ought to saysomething cleverer than that!"

"How can I, " he replied, "when you drive my wits away?"

"Poor me, " she said. And then, suddenly, "Where's Dick?"

"What do you want Dick for?"

"He promised to take me for a drive. " She consulted the watch on herwrist. "It's past eleven now. "

"I'm afraid poor Dick is rather upset. He seems to have been counting onbeing nominated to stand for the Rural District Council, and theimbeciles invited me instead. "

"Oh, how could they?" she cried, smitten with a great pity. "How couldthey be so stupid and cruel? I know all about it. He told me yesterday. He must be bitterly disappointed. "

Austin did not tell her of Lord Banstead's tactful explanation of thecommittee's action. He was a fastidious man, and did not care to soilhis mind with the memory of Banstead's existence. If he had describedthe scene, the young man's vulgarity, his own attempt at conciliation, and Dick's passionate outburst--the course of the drama that was shapingitself might have been altered. But the stars in their courses werefighting against Dick. Austin only said:

"If we get him this appointment, it will be ample compensation, anyhow. "

"Please don't say 'if, '" exclaimed Viviette, "we must get it. "

"Unless Lord Overton has already found a man, which is unlikely, owingto the general suspension of business at Whitsuntide, it's practicallya certainty. "

"When shall we know?"

"My letter's written and is waiting for the post. If he replies byreturn we shall hear the day after to-morrow. "

"That is such a long time to wait. Do you know what to-morrow is?"

"Wednesday, " said Austin. 

"It's Dick's birthday. " She clapped her hands at a happy inspiration, and hung on his arm. "Oh, Austin! If we could only give him theappointment as a birthday present!"

Her touch, her fresh charm, the eagerness in her eyes roused him tounwonted enthusiasm. In his sane moments he did not care a fig foranybody's birthday. What man ever does? He proclaimed the splendour ofher idea. But how was it to be realised?

"Send a long prepaid telegram to Lord Overton, of course, " said Viviettetriumphantly. (How unresourceful are men!) "Then we can get ananswer to-day. "

"You forget the nearest telegraph office is at Witherby, seven milesoff. "

"But Dick and I are going for a drive. I'll make him go to Witherby andI'll send the telegram. Write it. "

She drew him in her caressing way to the table, seated him in the chair, and laid the block of telegram forms before him. He scribbledindustriously, and when he had finished handed her the sheets. 

"There!"

He fished in his pockets for money, but Viviette checked him. She wasthe fairy godmother in this fairy tale, and fairy godmothers always heldthe purse. She glanced again at her watch. It was ten minutespast eleven. 

"Perhaps he's waiting with the trap for me all the time. Au revoir. "

"I'll see you off, " said Austin. 

They went together into the hall and opened the front door. The newmare and the dog-cart in charge of the stable lad were there, butno Dick. 

"Where's Mr. Ware?"

"Don't know, miss. "

Then the Devil entered into Viviette. There is no other explanation. TheDevil entered into her. 

"We must get to Witherby and back before lunch. You drive me overinstead of Dick. "

They exchanged glances. Austin was young. He was in love with her. Dickhad committed the unpardonable offence of being late. It would servehim right. 

"I'll come, " said he, disappearing in search of cap and gloves. 

Viviette went into the hall and scribbled a note. 

"Dear Dick, --You're late. Austin and I have the most important businessto transact at Witherby, so he's driving me over. We're preparing agreat surprise for you. --Viviette. "

"Give this to Mr. Ware, " she said to the stable boy as she prepared toget into the dog-cart. 

The boy touched his cap and ran to open the gate. Viviette lightlymounted by Austin's side. They had just turned into the road when Dickcame racing through the hall and saw them disappear. He walked up thedrive, and met the boy coming down, who handed him the note, with somewords, which he did not hear. He watched the boy out of sight. Then hetore the note unread into tiny fragments, stamped them furiously intothe mould of the nearest bed, and, flying into his armoury, threwhimself into a chair and cursed the day that ever Austin was born. 

CHAPTER III

KATHERINE

The drive was a memorable one for many reasons. First the new mare flewalong at an exhilarating trot, as if showing off her qualities to hernew masters. Then the morning sunshine flooded the soft, undulatingWarwickshire country, and slanted freshly through the bordering elms insweet-scented lanes. Summer flaunted its irresponsible youth in thefaces of matronly, red-brick Manor House, old grey church, and crumblingcottage, danced about among the crisp green leaves, kissed the waysideflowers, and tossing up human hearts in sheer gaiety, played the verydeuce with them. The drive also had its altruistic side. They were on anerrand of benevolence. Austin, his mind conscious of nothing but right, felt the unusual glow of unselfish devotion to another's interests. Whenhe had awakened that morning he had had misgivings as to theadvisability of sending Dick to another hemisphere. After all, Dick wasexceedingly useful at Ware House, and saved him a great deal of trouble. An agent would have to be appointed to replace him, whose salary--not avery large one, in view of the duties to be performed, but still asalary--would have to be provided out of his, Austin's, pocket. Who, again, could undertake the permanent care of his mother? Viviette wouldstay at home for some little time; but she would be marrying one ofthese fine days--a day which Austin had reasons for hoping would not bevery remote. He would have to make Heaven knows what arrangements forMrs. Ware and the general upkeep of the Manor House, while he was inLondon carrying on his profession. Decidedly, Dick had been a godsend, and his absence would be a calamity. In sending him out to VancouverAustin had all the unalloyed, pure pleasure of self-sacrifice. 

They talked of Dick and Dick's birthday and Dick's happiness most of theway to Witherby. The telegram despatched, prepaid with the porterage byViviette, Austin felt that he had done his duty by his brother, anddeserved some consideration on his own account. And here it was that thesummer began its game with their hearts. On such sportive occasions itis not so much what is said that matters. A conversation that might beentirely conventional between comparative strangers in a fog may becomethe most romantic interchange of sentiment imaginable between intimatesin the sunshine. There are tones, there are glances, there arehalf-veiled allusions, there are--in a dog-cart, especially when itjolts--thrilling contacts of arm and arm. There is man's undisguisedtribute to beauty; there is beauty's keen feminine appreciation of thetribute. There is a manner of saying "we" which counts for more than thecasual conjunction of the personalities. 

"This is _our_ day, Viviette, " said Austin. "I shall always rememberit. "

"So shall I. We must put a white mark against it in our diaries. "

"With white ink?"

"Of course. Black would never do, nor red, nor violet. "

"But where shall we get it?"

"I'll make us some when I get home out of white cloud and lilies andsunshine and a bit of the blue sky. "

Laughter fluttered through her veins. Yesterday she had teasinglyboasted to Katherine that Austin was in love with her. Now she knew it. He proclaimed it in a thousand ways. A note of exultation in his laugh, like that in a blackbird's call, alone proclaimed it. Instinct told herof harmless words she might use which would bring the plain avowal. Butthe hour was too delicate. As yet nothing was demanded. All was given. Her woman's vanity blossomed deliciously in the atmosphere of a man'slove. Her heart had not yet received the inevitable summons to respond. She left it, careless in the gay hands of summer. 

When they drew up before the front door of Ware House he lifted her fromthe dog-cart and set her laughing on her feet. 

"How strong you are, " she cried. 

"I'm not a giant, like Dick, " said he, "but I'm strong enough to do whatI like with a bit of a thing like you. "

She entered the hall and glanced at him provokingly over her shoulder. 

"Don't be too sure of that. "

"Whatever I like, " he repeated, striding towards her. 

But Viviette laughed, and fled lightly up the stairs, and on thelanding blew him an ironical kiss from her finger tips. 

When Viviette came down for lunch, she found Dick awaiting her in thehall. With a lowering face he watched her descend and, his hand on thenewel, confronted her. 

"Well?" said he indignantly. 

"Well?" she said, cheerfully smiling. 

"What have you got to say for yourself?"

"Lots of things. I had a lovely drive. I got through all my business, and I have a beautiful appetite. I also don't like standing on a stair. "

At her look he drew aside and let her pass into the hall. 

"You promised to drive with me, " he said, following her to a chair inwhich she sat. "Driving with me is no great catch, perhaps; but apromise is a promise. "

"You were late, " said Viviette. 

"My mother kept me--some silly nonsense about vegetables. You must haveknown it was something I couldn't help. "

"I really don't see why you're so angry, Dick, " she said, lifting candideyes. "I explained why we had gone in my note. "

"I didn't read the note, " said Dick wrath-fully. "A thousand notescouldn't have explained it. I tore the note into little pieces. "

Viviette rose. "If that's the way you treat me, " she said, piqued, "Ihave nothing more to say to you. "

"It's the way you're treating me, " he cried, with a clumsy man's awkwardattempt at gesture. "I know I'm not clever. I know I can't talk to youas sweetly as other people; but I'm not a dog, and I deserve someconsideration. Perhaps, after all, I might have the brains to jest andtoss about words and shoot off epigrams. I'll try, if you like. Let ussee. Here. A man who entrusts his heart to a woman has a jade for hisbanker. That's devilish smart, isn't it. Now then--there must be somerepartee to it. What is it?"

Viviette looked at him proudly, and moving in the direction of themorning-room door, said with much dignity:

"That depends on the way in which the woman you are talking to has beenbrought up. My repartee is--good morning. "

Dick, suddenly repentant, checked her. 

"No, Viviette. Don't go. I'm a brute and a fool. I didn't mean it. Forgive me. I would rather go on the rack than hurt your little finger. But it maddens me--can't you believe it? It maddens me to see Austin--"

She broke into a little laugh and smiled dazzlingly on him. 

"I do believe you're jealous!" she interrupted. 

"Good heavens!" he cried passionately. "Haven't I cause? Austin haseverything his heart can desire. He has always had it. I havenothing--nothing but one little girl I love. Austin, with all the worldat his feet, comes down here, and what chance has a rough yokel like meagainst Austin? My God! It's the one ewe lamb. "

He raised his clenched fists and brought them down against his sides andturned away. The allusion and a consciousness of Vancouver brought asmile into Viviette's eyes. She had a woman's sense of humour, which isnot always urbane. When he turned to meet her she shook her headreprovingly. 

"And David put Uriah into the forefront of the battle, and carried offpoor little Bathsheba. No one seemed to have concerned himself with whatBathsheba thought of it all. Don't you consider she ought to have somechoice in the matter--whether she should follow the sprightly David orcling to the melancholy Uriah?"

"Oh, don't jest like that, Viviette, " he cried. "It hurts!"

"I'm sorry, Dick, " she said innocently. "But, really, Bathsheba has herfeelings. What am I to do?"

"Choose, dear, between us. Choose now--in Heaven's name, choose. "

"But, Dick, dear, " said Viviette, all that was wickedly feminine in hershouting her sex's triumph song, "I want a longer time to choose betweentwo hats!"

Dick stamped his foot. "Then Austin has been robbing me! I'm growingdesperate, Viviette, tell me now. Choose. "

He seized her arms in his strong hands. She felt a delicious littlethrill of fear. But knowing her strength, she looked up at him with achildish expression and said plaintively: "Oh, Dick, dear, I'mso hungry. "

He released her arms. She rubbed them ruefully. "I'm sure you've madehorrid red rings. Fancy choosing a hard, uncomfortable hat like that!"

He was about to make some rejoinder when the presence of Mrs. Ware andKatherine Holroyd at the top of the stairs put an end to the encounter. The victory, such as it was, remained with Viviette. 

At lunch, Austin, his veins still tingling with the summer, laughed andjested light-heartedly. What a joy it was to get away from stuffy courtsof justice into the pure Warwickshire air. What a joy to drink of thewine of life. What was that? Only those that drank of the winecould tell. 

"What about the poor devils that only get the dregs?" muttered Dick. 

Austin declared that the real wine had no dregs. He called his motherand Katherine Holroyd to witness. Mrs. Ware was not sure. Old port hadto be very carefully decanted. Did he remember the fuss his dear fatherused to make about it? She was very glad there was no more left--forDick would be sure to drink it and it would go to his head. 

"Or his toes!" cried Viviette. 

When Austin explained Viviette's meaning to his mother, who had not anallusive habit of mind, she acquiesced placidly. Port was not good forgouty people. Their poor father suffered severely. Austin listened toher reminiscences and turned the talk to the drive. It had been morelike driving through Paradise with Pegasus harnessed to Venus's car thananything else. He must take his mother out and show her what a goodjudge of horseflesh was dear old Dick. 

"As she's my mare, perhaps I might have the privilege, " said Dick. 

Austin cried out, in all good faith: "My dear old boy, is there anythingespecially mine or yours in this house?"

Katherine, a keen observer, broke quickly into the talk. 

"There's Dick's armoury. That's his own particular and private domain. You're going to explain it all to me this afternoon, aren't you? Youpromised yesterday. "

She drew Dick into talk away from the others. The lecture on the armourywas fixed for three o'clock, when she would be free from the duty fromwhich, during her stay at the Manor House, she had freed Viviette, ofpostprandial reading of the newspaper to Mrs. Ware. But her interest inhis hobby for once failed to awaken his enthusiasm. The dull jealousy ofAustin, against which his honest soul had struggled successfully all hislife long, had passed beyond his control. These few days of Austin'sWhitsun visit had changed his cosmic view. Petty rebuffs, such as thematters of the stables and the Rural District Council, which formerly hewould have regarded in the twilight of his mind as part of theunchangeable order of things in which Austin was destined to shineresplendently and he to glimmer--Austin the arc-lamp and he thetallow-dip--became magnified into grievances and insults intolerable. Esau could not have raged more against Jacob, the supplanter, than didDick, when Austin carried off Viviette from beneath his nose. Until thisvisit of Austin he had no idea that he would find a rival in hisbrother. The discovery was a shock, causing his world to reel andsetting free all the pent-up jealousies and grievances of a lifetime. Everything he had given up to Austin, if not willingly, at leastgraciously, hiding beneath the rough, tanned hide of his homely face allpain, disappointment, and humiliation. But now Austin had come andswooped off with his one ewe lamb. Not that Viviette had encouraged himby more than the real but mocking affection with which she had treatedher bear foster-brother ever since her elfin childhood. In a dim way herealised this, and absolved her from blame. Less dimly, also, he felthis mental and social inferiority, his lack of warrant in offering hermarriage. But his great, rugged manhood wanted her, the woman, with animperious, savage need which took all the training of civilisation torepress. Viviette alone in her maidenly splendour, he could have foughtit down. But the vision of another man entering, light-hearted anddebonair, into those precincts maddened him, let loose primitiveinstincts of hatred and revenge, and robbed him of all interest in thetoys with which men used to slay each other centuries ago. 

Austin, being nearest the door, opened it for the ladies to pass out. Viviette, going out last, looked up at him with one of herwitch's glances. 

"Don't be very long, " she said, Before Austin could resume his seat Dick leaped up. 

"Austin, look here; I've something to say to you. "

"Well?" said Austin. 

Dick pulled out a cigar, bit the end off, and finding that he hadripped the outer skin, threw it angrily into the fireplace. 

"My dear old boy, " said Austin, "what in the name of all that's neuroticis the matter?"

"I've something to say to you, " Dick repeated. "Something that concernsmyself, my life. I must throw myself on your generosity. "

Austin, his head full of philanthropy, thrust his hands into his pocketsand smiled indulgently on Dick. 

"Don't, old chap, I know all about it. Viviette has told me everything. "

Dick, his head full of passion, staggered in amazement. 

"Viviette has told you?"

"Of course; why shouldn't she?"

Dick groped his way to the door. It were better for both that he shouldnot stay. Austin, left alone, laughed, not unkindly. Dear old Dick! Itwas a shame to tease him--but what a different expression his honestface would wear to-morrow! When the maid brought in his coffee he sippedit with enjoyment, forgetful for once of its lack of excellence. 

There was one person, however, in the house who saw things clearly; andthe more clearly she saw them the less did they seem satisfactorilyordered. This was Katherine Holroyd, a sympathetic observer andeverybody's intimate. She had known the family since her childhood, spent in a great neighbouring house which had now long since passed fromher kin into alien hands. She had known Viviette when she first came, with her changeling face, a toddling child of three, to the Manor House. She had grown up with the brothers. Until her marriage the place hadbeen her second home. Her married life, mostly spent abroad, hadsomewhat broken the intimacy. But her widowhood after the first fewhopeless months had renewed it, although her visits were comparativelyrare. On the other hand, her little daintily-furnished London house inVictoria square was always open to such of the family as happened to bein town. Now, as Austin was the most frequently in town, seeing that helived there all the year round, with the exception of the long vacationand odd flying visits to Warwickshire, to Austin was her door mostfrequently open. A deep affection existed between them, deeper perhapsthan either realised. To be purely brotherly in attitude towards a womanwhom you are fond of and who is not your sister, and to be purelysisterly in your attitude towards a man whom you are fond of and who isnot your brother, are ideals of spiritual emotion very difficult toattain in this respectably organised but sex-ridden world. 

During the dark time of her early widowhood it was to Austin's delicatetact and loyalty that she owed her first weak grasp on life. It was hethat had brought her to a sense of outer things, to a realisation thatin spite of her own grey sky there was still a glory on the earth. Hewas her trusted friend, ally, and adviser, who never failed her, and shecontemplated him always with a heart full of somewhat exaggeratedgratitude--which is as far on the road to love as it is given to manywomen to travel. 

She had barely reached the top of the hall stairs--on her way to spendher reading hour with Mrs. Ware, when she saw Dick come out of thedining-room with convulsed and angry face, the veins standing out on histhick bull's neck. She felt frightened. Something foolish and desperatewould happen before long. She resolved to give Austin a warning word. With an excuse to Mrs. Ware she went down again to the dining-room, andfound Austin in the cosiest and sunniest frame of mind imaginable. Obviously there had been no serious quarrel between the brothers. 

"Can I have a few minutes with you, Austin?"

"A thousand, " he said gaily. "What has gone wrong?"

"It is nothing to do with me, " she said. 

He looked amusedly into her eyes. "I know. It's about Viviette. Confess. "

"Yes, " she replied soberly, "it's about Viviette. "

"You've seen it. I make no bones about it. You can believe the veryworst. I have fallen utterly and hopelessly in love with her. I am atyour mercy. "

This beginning was not quite what Katherine had expected. In hisconfident way he had taken matters out of her hands. She had notanticipated a down-right confession. She felt conscious of a little dulland wholly reprehensible ache at her heart. She sighed. 

"Aren't you pleased, Katherine?" he asked with a man's selfishness. 

"I suppose I must be--for your sake. But I must also sigh a little. Iknew you would be falling in love sooner or later--only I hoped it wouldbe later. But _que veux-tu?_ It is the doom of all such friendships. "

"I don't see anything like a doom about it, my dear, " said he. "Thefriendship will continue. Viviette loves you dearly. "

She took up a peach from a dish to her hand, regarded it for a moment, absent-mindedly, and delicately replaced it. 

"Our friendship will continue, of course. But the particular essence ofit, the little sentimentality of ownership, will be gone, won't it?"

Austin rose and bent over Katherine's chair in some concern. "You're notdistressed, Katherine?"

"Oh, no. You have been such a kind, loyal friend to me during a verydark and lonely time--brought sunshine into my life when I needed itmost--that I should be a wicked woman if I didn't rejoice at yourhappiness. And we have been nothing more than friends. "

"Nothing more, " said Austin. 

She was smiling now, and he caught a gleam of mischief in her eyes. 

"And yet there was an afternoon last winter--"

His face coloured. "Don't throw my wickedness in my face. I rememberthat afternoon. I came in fagged, with the prospect of dinner at theclub and a dismal evening over a brief in front of me, and found yousitting before the fire, the picture of rest and comfortableness andcompanionship. I think it was the homely smell of hot buttered toastthat did it. I nearly asked you to marry me. "

"And I had been feeling particularly lonely, " she laughed. 

"Would you have accepted me?"

"Do you think that it is quite a fair question?"

"We have always been frank with one another since our childhood, " saidhe. 

She smiled. "Has Viviette accepted you?"

He broke away from her with a gay laugh, and lit a cigarette. 

"Your feminine subtlety does you credit, Katherine. "

"But has she?"

"Well, no--not exactly. "

"Will she?"

He brought his hand down on the table. "By heavens, I'll make her! I'vegot most of the things I've wanted during my life, and it'll be odd if Idon't get the thing I want more than all the rest put together. Nowanswer my question, my dear Katherine, " he continued teasingly. "Wouldyou have married me?"

The smile faded from Katherine's face. She could not parry the questionas she had done before, and it probed depths. She said very seriouslyand sweetly:

"I should have done, Austin, as I always shall do, whatever you ask meto do. I'm glad you didn't ask me--very glad--for the love a woman givesa man died within me, you know. "

He took her hand and kissed it. 

"My dear, " said he, "you are the truest friend that ever man had. "

There was a short pause. Austin looked out of the window and Katherinewiped away some moisture in her eyes. This scene of sentimentality wasnot at all what she had come for. Soon she rose with a determined airand joined Austin by the window. 

"It was as a true friend that I wanted to speak to you to-day. To warnyou. "

"About what?"

"About Dick. Austin, he's madly in love with Viviette too. "

Austin stared at her for a moment incredulously. "Dick in love--in lovewith Viviette?" Then he broke into a peal of laughter. "My _dear_Katherine! Why, it's absurd! It's preposterous! It's too funny. "

"But seriously, Austin. "

"But seriously, " he said, with laughing eyes, "such an idea has neverpenetrated into old Dick's wooden skull. You dear women are alwaysmaking up romance. He and Viviette are on the same old fairy and greatbrown bear terms that they have been ever since they first met. Shemakes him dance on his hind legs--he wants to hug her--she hits him overthe nose--and he growls. "

"I warn you, " said Katherine. "Great brown bears in love are dangerous. "

"But he isn't in love, " he argued light-heartedly. "If he were he wouldwant to stay with Viviette. But he's eating his heart out, apparently, to leave us all and go and plough fields and herd cattle abroad. Thelife he lives here, my good mother's somewhat arbitrary ways, and onething and another have at last got on his nerves. I wonder now how thedear old chap has stood it so long. That's what is wrong with him, notblighted affection. "

"I can only tell you what I know, " said Katherine. "If you won't believeme, it's not my fault. Keep your eyes open and you will see. "

"And you keep your eyes open to-morrow morning and _you_ will see, " hesaid, with his bright self-confidence. 

So Katherine sighed at the obtuseness and inconvincibility of man andwent to read the leader in _The Daily Telegraph_ to Mrs. Ware. Austin, with a smile on his lips, wandered out into the sunshine in searchof Viviette. 

Before they parted, however, Katherine turned by the door. 

"Are you coming to the armoury to hear Dick's lecture?"

"Of course, " said Austin gaily. "The dear old chap loves an audience. "

CHAPTER IV

THE FAMOUS DUELLING PISTOLS

Dick's great-grandfather (Wild Dick Ware, as he used to be called by thecountry-side), besides other enormities of indiscretion, committed anarchitectural crime. Having begun to form the collection of arms whichwas Dick's pride and hobby, he felt the need of a fencing gallery wherethey could be displayed to advantage. None of the rooms in the housewere suitable. Building a new wing would cost too much. So, like a goodold English gentleman, accustomed to get what he wanted, he ruthlesslycut off a slice of the nobly proportioned morning-room, containing abeautifully-mullioned casement at the side, knocked a French windowthrough one end, so that he could wander in and out from the terrace, knocked a door through the other so that it opened on a corner of thehall, forgot all about the fireplace, and left his descendants to makethe best of things. 

This long, narrow, comfortless strip of a room was Dick's armoury, den, and refuge. It was furnished with extreme simplicity. At the further endtwo rusty leather arm-chairs flanked a cast-iron stove in the corner, andwere balanced in the other and darker corner by a knee-hole writing-desklittered with seeds and bulbs and spurs and bits of fishing tackle, andequipped for its real purpose with a forbidding-looking pen and inkpot, and a torn piece of weather-beaten blotting-paper. At about a third ofthe way down from the terrace door a great screen, covered with Americancloth, cut the room almost in two. Against this screen stood two suitsof beautifully-finished fifteenth-century Italian armour. Between themand the further end of the room ran a long deal table, with a greenbaize cover. An odd, dilapidated chair or two stood lonely anddisconsolate against the opposite wall. The floor was covered with oldmatting and a few faded rugs. The walls, however, and the cases rangedalong them gave an air of distinction to the room. There hung trophiesof arms of all sorts--a bewildering array of spiky stars like themonstrous decorations on the breast of a Brobdingnagian diplomatist, ofguns and pistols of all ages and nationalities, of halberds, pikes, andpartisans, of curved scimitars, great two-handed swords, and long, glittering rapiers, with precious hilts. There, too, were coats of chainmail and great iron gauntlets, and rows of dinted helmets formed acornice round the gallery. 

It was Dick's sanctuary, where, according to family tradition, he wassupposed to be immune from domestic attacks. Anyone, it is true, couldopen the door and worry him from the threshold, but no one enteredwithout his invitation. Here he was master. Here he spent solitary hoursdreaming dreams, wrestling with devils, tying trout-flies, making upmedicines for his dogs, and polishing and arranging and rearranging hisarmour and weapons. Until the furies got hold of him he was a simplesoul, content with simple things. The happiest times of his life hadbeen passed here among the inanimate objects which he loved, and here hewas now spending the hours of his greatest agony. 

The words he had just heard from Austin rang like a crazy, deafeningchime through his ears. He sat in one of the old leather chairs, gripping his coarse hair. It was unthinkable, and yet it was true. Viviette had told Austin the thing that glowed sacred at the bottom ofhis soul. The scene danced vividly before his eyes: the two brightcreatures making a mock of him and his love, laughing merrily at thetrick they had played him, pitying him contemptuously. There was a flameat his heart, a burning lump in his throat. Mechanically he drew from alittle cupboard near by a bottle of whiskey, a syphon, and a glass. Thedrink he mixed and swallowed contained little soda. It increased thefire in his heart and throat. He paced the long room in crazyindignation. Every nerve in his body quivered with a sense ofunforgivable insult and deadly outrage. Austin's face loomed before himlike that of a mocking devil. He had hell in his throat, and again hetossed down a dose of whiskey, and threw himself into the arm-chair. Thedaily paper lay on a stool at his hand. He took it up and tried to read, but the print swam into thin, black smudges. He dashed the paper to theground, and gave himself up to his madness. 

After a while he remembered his appointment with Katherine at threeo'clock. He glanced at his watch. It was a quarter to the hour, and, beyond a cleaning yesterday afternoon, no preparations were made. In anautomatic way he unlocked some cases and drew out his treasures, wipedthe sword-blades tenderly with chamois leather, and laid them on thelong, baize-covered table. Here and there from the cornice he selected ahelmet. The great mace used by his ecclesiastical ancestor he unhookedfrom the wall. Soon the table was covered with weapons, selected in adazed way, he knew not why. A helmet fell from his hands on the floorwith a ring of steel. Its visor grinned at him--the fool, the tricked, the supplanted. He kicked it, with a silly laugh. Then he pulled himselftogether, picked it up, and examined it in great fear lest harm shouldhave happened to it. He put it on the table, and in order to steady hisnerves drank another large whiskey and small soda. 

He scanned the table, perplexed. Some accustomed and important exhibitwas not in its place. What was it? He clasped his head in his hands andstrove to clear his mind for a moment from obsession. It was somethinghistorical, something unique, something he had but lately mentioned toKatherine. Something intimately connected with this very room. At lastmemory responded. He placed a chair between the two suits of armour thatstood against the screen and the end of the long table, and, mounting, took a mahogany case from a shelf. Then he sat on the chair, put thecase on the table, and opened it by means of a small, ornamental key. Itcontained a brace of old-fashioned duelling pistols, such as were usedat the beginning of the nineteenth century. They were long-barrelled, ivory-handled, business-like weapons, provided with miniature ramrods. The velvet-lined interior of the case was divided into variouscompartments, two for the pistols, one for powder-flask, one forbullets, one for percussion-caps, and one for wads. In his dull, automatic way, his mind whirling madly in other spheres, he cleaned thepistols, shook the powder-flask to make certain that powder was stillthere--he loved to pour out a few grains into his hand and show thepowder that had remained in the flask for generations, ever since thepistols were last used--counted the caps, which he had counted manytimes before, looked stupidly into the only empty compartment, only toremember that there never had been any wads, and, finally, grasping oneof the pistols, took aim at a bulb on his writing-desk at the end ofthe room. 

He had been tricked, and robbed, and mocked. He could see the scene whenshe had told Austin. He could hear Austin's pitiless laughter. He couldpicture her mimicking his rough speech. He could picture them, faithless, heartless, looking into each other's eyes. .. . Suddenly hepassed his hand over his forehead. Was he going mad? Hitherto he hadheard their voices in the dimness of imagination. Now he heard them loudin vibrating sound. Was it real or imaginary? He drew deep, panting breaths. 

"Dick's not here, " said Viviette's voice from the terrace. "He hasforgotten. "

"Really, my dear, I don't very much care, " Austin replied. "Where youare, I am happy. "

"I wish that telegram would come. It's quite time. Don't you think wehad better tell Dick to-day?"

"No, no. To-morrow. "

"After all, what is the good of hiding it from him?"

A laugh from Austin. "You think we ought to put him out of his miseryat once?"

It was real! Those two were talking in flesh and blood on the terrace. They were talking of him. His misery! That had but one meaning. And thedevil laughed! Unconsciously his grip tightened on the butt of thepistol. He listened. 

"Yes, " said Viviette. "It would be kinder. "

"I stick to the birthday idea. It would be more dramatic. "

"The damned villain!" Dick muttered. 

"I want to-day, " said Viviette. 

"And I want to-morrow. "

"You speak as if you were my lord and master, " said Viviette, in themocking tones Dick knew so well. 

"No other man shall be if I can help it. "

The clear, young masterful voice rang down the gallery. Dick slid hischair noiselessly to the side of the screen which hid him from theterrace-window, and, bending down low, peered round the edge. He sawthem laughing, flushed, silhouetted against the green, distant trees. Austin was looking at her with the light of passion in his eyes. Shelooked up at him, radiant, elusive, triumphant, with parted lips. 

"Please to remember we were talking of Dick. "

"Confound Dick! In this he doesn't count. I matter. And I'll show you. "

He showed her in the one and only way. She struggled for a second in hisarms, and received his kiss with a little laugh. They had moved to thefar lintel of the door. Dick's world reeled red before his eyes. Hestood up and held the pistol pointed. Damn him! Damn him! He would killhim. Kill him like a dog. 

Some reflex motion of the brain prompted action. Feverishly he rammed acharge of powder down the pistol. Wads? A bit of the newspaper lying onthe floor. Then a bullet. Then a wad rammed home. Then the cap. It wasdone at lightning speed. Murder, red, horrible murder blazed in hissoul. Damn him! He would kill him. He started into the middle of theroom, just as they walked away, and he sprang to the door and levelledthe pistol. 

Then reaction came. No. Not like a dog. He couldn't shoot his brotherlike a dog. His arm fell helplessly at his side. He turned back againinto the room, staggering and knocking himself against the cases by thewalls, like a drunken man. The sweat rolled down his face. He put thepistol beside the other on the table. For some moments he stood ahulking statue, shaken as though stricken with earthquake, white-faced, white-lipped, staring, with crossed, blue eyes, at nothing. At last herecovered power of motion, drank another whiskey, and replaced bottle, syphon, and glass in the cupboard. 

He found himself suddenly clear-headed, able to think. He was not inthe least degree drunk. To test himself he took up a sword from thetable, and, getting the right spot, balanced it on his finger. He couldspeak, too, as well as anybody. He turned to a long Moorish musketinlaid with gems and mother-of-pearl, and began to describe it. He wasquite fluent and sensible, although his voice sounded remote in his ownears. He was satisfied. He had his nerves under control. He would gothrough the next hour without anyone suspecting the madness that was inhis mind. He was absolutely sober and self-collected. He walked along aseam of the matting that ran the whole length of the gallery, and didnot deviate from it one hair's breadth. Now he was ready. Perfectlyprepared to deliver his lecture. He sat down and picked up thenewspaper, and the print was clear. "The weather still continues to befine over the British Islands. The anti-cyclone has not yet passed awayfrom the Bay of Biscay. .. . " He read the jargon through to the end. Butit seemed as if it were not he who was reading, but someone else--aquiet, placid gentleman, deeply versed in the harmless science ofmeteorology. Where his real self was he did not know, so he toyed withthe illusion. 

A voice broke on his ear, coming, it seemed, from another world. 

"Dick, may we come in?"

He rose, saw Katherine, Austin, and Viviette on the threshold. Heinvited them to enter, and shook Katherine by the hand, as if he had notmet her for a long time. 

Viviette danced down to the table. "Now, Dick, we're all here. Put onyour most learned, and antiquarian mariner. Ladies and gentlemen, I callon Mr. Richard Ware to deliver his interesting lecture on the ingeniousinstruments men have devised for butchering each other. "

Dick put his hand to his head in a confused way. His real self wasbeginning to merge itself into that of the quiet gentleman, and therewas a curious red mist before his eyes. 

"Come on, " cried Viviette. "Look at Katherine. Her mouth is watering fortales of bloodshed. "

Dick could not remember his usual starting-point. He stared stupidly atthe table for a moment; then picked up a weapon at random, and made agreat effort. 

"This is a Toledo sixteenth-century sword--reported to have belonged toCosmo de Medici. You see here the '_palle_, ' the Medici emblem. The onenext to it is a sword of the same period, only used by a meaner person. I should prefer it, if there were any killing to be done. "

He described one or two other weapons. Then, glancing over his shoulderat Austin and Viviette, who were talking in low, confidential tones alittle way off, he stood stock still, and the beads of sweat gathered onhis forehead. Katherine's voice recalled his wandering wits. 

"This is a cross-bow, isn't it? The thing the Ancient Mariner shot theAlbatross with. "

"A cross-bow, " said Dick. "The iron loop at the end was to put one'sfoot into when one wanted to load it. "

"And this, " said Katherine, pointing to a long steel thing with a greatknob adorned with cruel spikes, "is the family mace, I suppose. I'veseen it before, I remember. "

"Yes, that's the mace. "

"What a blood-thirsty set of people you must have been!"

Austin came up with a laugh. "There's a legend among us that once motherwas left alone in the house and insisted on having this mace near herbed so as to defend herself against burglars. But why do you leave me totell the story, Dick?"

Dick clenched his fists, and, muttering something, turned and ascendedthe gallery above the screen. Viviette followed him. 

"You're not doing it at all nicely. I don't think you want to. "

"Can you wonder at that?" he said hoarsely. 

Viviette played deliciously with the fire. 

"Why, aren't we intelligent enough for you?" she asked with childishinnocence. 

"You know what I mean. "

"I haven't the faintest idea. All I know is that you may as well bepolite, at any rate. "

He laughed. Ordinarily he had little sense of humour; but now he had theflames in his heart and the hell in his throat, and red mist beforehis eyes. 

"Oh, I'll be polite, " he growled. "By God, I'll be polite! One may besuffering the tortures of the damned, but one must smirk and be polite!"

He snatched up the first thing to hand, a helmet that stood on a case, and brought it down below the screen. 

"Katherine, Viviette says I'm not delivering my lecture properly. I begyour pardon. I'm rather shy at first, but I get warmed up to my subject. What would you like to hear about?"

Katherine exchanged a glance with Austin. 

"Don't you think we might put off the rest till another day?"

"Yes, old chap. Put it off till to-morrow. It's your birthday, youknow. "

"Birthday? What's that got to do with it? Who knows what may happenbetween then and now? No--no. I'm all right, " he cried wildly. "You'rehere, and you've got to listen. I'll get into fine form presently. Look!" he said, pointing to the helmet he was holding. "Here is aCromwellian morion. It was picked up by an ancestor at Naseby. It has aclean cut in it. That's where an honest gentleman's sword found its wayinto the knave's skull--the puritanical, priggish, canting knave. "

He threw the helmet with a clatter on to the table as if it had been theknave's canting head. He caught up a weapon. 

"This is a partisan. All you had to do when you got it inside a man wasto turn it round a bit, and the wound gaped and tore. This tassel is forcatching the blood and preventing it from greasing the handle. Here's abeauty, " he went on, taking a sword from the row he had laid out fordisplay, and holding it out for Katherine's inspection. "One of the petsof the collection. A French duelling sword of the middle of theeighteenth century. " He gave a fencer's flourish. "Responsive to thehilts, eh? Ah! It must have been good to live in those days, when youcould whip this from your side at a wrong done and have the life of theman that wronged you. The sweet morning air, the patch of green turf, shoes off--in shirt and breeches--with the eyes of the man you hate infront of you, and this glittering, beautiful, snaky thing thirsting forhis heart's blood. And then--"--he stood in tierce, left hand curved, holding in tense fierceness the eyes of an imaginary opponent--"and thena little clitter-clatter of steel, and, suddenly--ha!--the bladedisappears up to the hilt, and a great red stain comes on the shirt, andthe man throws up his arms, and falls, and you've killed him. He's dead!dead! dead! Ha! what a time to live in!"

Katherine uttered a little cry of fear, and grew pale. Viviette clappedher hands. 

"Bravo, Dick!"

"Bravo, Dick!" cried Austin. "Most dramatically done. "

"I never knew you were such an actor, " said Viviette. 

Dick stood panting, his hand on the hilt of the sword, the point on thefloor. 

"I really do think I've had enough, " said Katherine. 

"No, not yet, " he said in a thick voice. "I've not shown you half yet. I've something much more interesting. "

"But, Dick--"

Viviette interrupted her. "You must stay. It's only beginning to beexciting. If you only do the rest as beautifully as you did that, Dick, I'll stay here all day. "

Dick, with a curious outward calm, contrasting with the fury of his mockencounter, put down the sword and went to the end of the table, wherethe case of pistols lay. 

"At any rate, I must show you, " said he, "the famous duelling pistols. "

"They were the very pistols in the duel between his great-grandfatherand Lord Estcombe, " said Viviette. 

"They've not been used from that day--he killed Lord Estcombe, by theby--till this. The case is just as it was left. I was going to tell youthe story yesterday. "

"I remember, " said Katherine, by way of civility. "But Mrs. Ware stoppedyou. "

She was a mild-natured woman, and the realistic conjuring up ofgore-dripping tassels and bloody shirts upset her, and she desired toget away. She also saw that Dick was abnormally excited, and suspectedthat he had been drinking. Her delicate senses shrank from drunkenness. 

"You must tell the story, " cried Viviette. "It's so romantic. You likeromantic things, Katherine. The great-grandfather was a Dick Waretoo--Wild Dick Ware they used to call him. Go on, Dick. "

Dick paused for a moment. He had a curious, dull, befogged sensation ofbeing compelled to do things independently of volition. Presentlyhe spoke. 

"It happened in this very room, a hundred years ago. Lord Estcombe andmy great-grandfather were friends--intimate friends from boyhood. WildDick Ware was madly in love with a girl who had more or less becomeengaged to him. Now, it came to his knowledge that Lord Estcombe hadbeen using blackguard means to win away the girl's affections. And oneday they were here"--he moved a pace or two to one side--"just as Austinand I are now. And the girl over there--"

Viviette, with a gay laugh, took up her position on the spot to which hepointed. 

"Just in this identical place. I know the story--it's lovely!"

"An old Peninsula comrade of Wild Dick Ware's was here too--a man calledHawkins--"

"Katherine shall be Hawkins, " cried Viviette. 

"And in his presence, " Dick continued, "Wild Dick Ware told the girlthat he was mad for love of her, but that he would not force her choice;yet one of those two, himself or Lord Estcombe, she must choose, forgood and all. She could not speak for shame or confusion. He said, 'Throw your handkerchief to whichever of us you love. ' And they stoodside by side--like this"--he ranged himself by Austin's side--"oppositethe girl. "

"And she threw the handkerchief!" cried Viviette. 

"Throw yours!" said Dick. He looked at her with fierce intensity beneathrugged brows; Austin with laughing challenge. She knew that she was theobject of each man's desire, and her sex's triumph thrilled through herfrom head to foot. She knew that this jesting choice would have seriousimport. For some seconds the three remained stock still. She glancedflatteringly from one man to the other. Which should she choose? Herheart beat wildly. Choose one or the other she must. Outside that roomno man lived whom she would marry. Each second strained the situationfurther. At last her spirit rose in feminine revolt against the trapwhich Dick had set for her, and, with a malicious look, she threw thehandkerchief at Austin's feet. He picked it up and gallantly put itto his lips. 

"In the story, " exclaimed Viviette, "she threw it to Lord Estcombe. Austin is Lord Estcombe. "

"And I'm Dick Ware, " cried Dick, in a strangled voice. "Wild Dick Ware. And this is what he did. He dragged the girl out of the room first. "

He took Viviette by the arm and roughly thrust her past the screen. 

"Then--that case was on the table. And without a word Wild Dick Warecomes up to Lord Estcombe so--and says, 'Choose. '"

He gripped the pistols by the barrels, crossed them, and presented thebutts to Austin. Austin waved them away with a deprecatory gesture anda smile. 

"Really, old man, I can't enter into the spirit of it, like that. You'resplendid. But if I took a hand, it would be tomfoolery. "

"Oh, do, do, " cried Viviette. "Let us go through with it and see justhow the duel was fought. It will be thrilling. You'll have to fall deadlike Lord Estcombe, and I'll burst into the room and tear my hair overyour poor corpse. Do, Austin, for my sake. "

He yielded. Any foolishness for her sake. He took a pistol. 

"You'll have to be Major Hawkins, Katherine, " he said lightly, as ifinviting her to condescend to some child's game. 

But Katherine put her hands before her face and shrank back. "No, no, no. I couldn't. I don't like it. "

"Then I'll be Major Hawkins, " said Viviette. 

"You will?" Dick laughed harshly. "Then be it so. "

"I know just what they did. "

She placed the men back to back, so that Austin faced the further end ofthe room and Dick the open French window. They were to take three paces, count one, two, three, and, at the end of the third pace, they were toturn and fire. 

Dick felt the touch of Austin's shoulder against his, and the flame athis heart grew fiercer and the hell in his throat more burning, and theuniverse whirled round in a red mist. Viviette moved to theweapon-laden table. 

"Now. One--two--three!"

[Illustration: Dick glared at him]

They paced and turned. Dick levelled his pistol instantly at Austin, with murderous hate in his eyes, and drew the trigger. The pistolclicked harmlessly. Austin, self-conscious, did not raise his pistol. But Dick, broadening his chest, glared at him and shouted, wildly, madly:

"Fire, damn you! Fire! Why the devil don't you fire?"

The cry was real, vibrant with fury and despair. Austin looked at himfor an amazed moment; then, throwing his pistol on to one of thearm-chairs, he came up to him. 

"What fool's game are you playing, Dick? Are you drunk?"

Katherine, with a low cry, flung herself between them, and, clinging toDick's arm, took the pistol from his hand. 

"No more of this--no more. The duel has been too much like realityalready. "

Dick staggered to a straight-backed chair by the wall, and, sittingdown, wiped his forehead. He had grown deathly white. The flames hadbeen suddenly quenched within him, and he felt cold and sick. Viviette, in alarm, ran to his side. What was the matter? Was he faint? Let hertake him into the fresh air. Austin came up. But at his approach Dickrose and shrank away, glancing at him furtively out of bloodshot eyes. 

"Yes. The heat has oppressed me. I'm not well. I'll go out. "

He stumbled blindly towards the French window. Viviette followed him, but he turned on her rudely and thrust her back. 

"I'm not well, I tell you. I don't want your help. Let me alone. "

He passed through the French window on to the terrace. The sky hadclouded over, and a drizzle had begun to fall. 

Viviette felt curiously frightened, but she put on an air of bravado asshe came down the gallery. 

"Have you all been rehearsing this little comedy?"

No mirthful response lit either face. She read condemnation in bothpairs of eyes. For the first time in her life she felt daunted, humiliated. She knew nothing more beyond the fact that in deliberatecoquetry she had pitted brother against brother, and that somethingcruel and tragical had happened for which she was being judged. Neitherspoke. She summoned her outer dignity, tossed her pretty head, and wentout by the end door which Austin in cold politeness held open for her. Then she mounted to her bedroom, and, throwing herself on her bed, burstinto a passion of meaningless weeping. 

Katherine handed Austin the pistol which she had taken from Dick's hand. 

"Now you'll believe what I told you. "

"I believe it, " said Austin gravely. 

"That duel was not all play-acting. "

"That, " said he, "was absurd. Dick Has been drinking. It was a sillyfarce. Viviette egged him on until he seemed to take it seriously. "

"He did take it seriously, Austin. He's in a dangerous mood. If I wereyou I should be careful. Take a woman's warning. "

He stood for a moment in deep thought, his gaze absently fixed on theweapon he held in his hand. Suddenly a glint of something strange caughthis eye. He started, but recovered himself quickly. 

"I'll take your warning, Katherine. Here's my hand upon it. "

A moment later, when he was alone, he uncocked the pistol--Dick'spistol. The glint had not been imaginary. It was a percussion cap. Withtrembling fingers he picked it off the nipple. He passed his hand acrosshis damp forehead, for he felt faint with dread. But the task had to beaccomplished. He unscrewed the ramrod and picked out the wad, a pieceof white paper which dropped on the floor. From the barrel held downwarda bullet dropped with a dead, fateful thud on the floor. More paperwad--a slithering shower of gunpowder. He put the pistol down, and tookup the one he himself had used from the chair where he had thrown it. Itwas unloaded. His eye fell on the bits of white paper. He picked them upand unfolded them. The daily newspaper lay by the stove, with the cornertorn accusingly. 

Then he understood. He sank into a chair, paralysed with horror. It wasDick's pistol that was loaded. Dick had meant to murder him. By thegrace of God the pistol had missed fire. But Dick, his own brother, hadmeant to murder him. An hour later he walked out of the room, the caseof pistols under his arm, with the drawn face of an old man. 

It was not until Dick had stumbled five or six miles through thedrenching downpour that the thought reached his dulled brain that he hadleft the pistols loose for anyone to examine. The thought was like agreat stone hitting him on the side of the head. He turned and began torun homewards, like a hunted man in desperate flight. 

CHAPTER V

A CRISIS

Viviette having repaired the disorder caused by her tears went down totea. Mrs. Ware, Katherine, and a curate deliberately calling or takingshelter from the rain were in the drawing-room. Austin, to his mother'smild astonishment, had sent down a message to the effect that he wasbusy. On ordinary occasions Viviette would have flirted monstrously withthe clerical youth, and sent him away undecided whether to offer toshare his lodgings and hundred pounds a year with her, or to turnCatholic and become a monk. But now she had no mind to flirtation. Sheleft him to the undisturbing wiles of Mrs. Ware, and petted andsurreptitiously fed Dick's Irish terrier, whose brown eyes lookedpathetic inquiry as to his master's whereabouts. She was sobered by theuncomprehended scene in the armoury--sobered by Dick's violence and byAustin's final coldness. A choice had been put before her in deadlyearnest; she had refused to make one. But the choice would have to bemade very soon, unless she sent both her lovers packing, a step whichshe did not for a moment contemplate. 

"You must promise to marry one or the other and end this tension, " saidKatherine, a little later, after the curate had gone with Mrs. Ware tolook at her greenhouses. 

"I wish to goodness I could marry them both, " said Viviette. "Have amonth with each, turn and turn about. It would be ideal. "

"It would be altogether horrid!" exclaimed Katherine. "How could such athought enter your head?"

"I suppose it must have entered every woman's head who has two menshe's fond of in love with her at once. I said yesterday that it wasgreat fun being a woman. I find it's a d. D. D. D. Imposition!"

"For heaven's sake, child, make up your mind quickly, " said Katherine. 

Viviette sighed. Which should it be? Dick, with his great love and roughtenderness and big, protecting arms, or Austin with his conquering ways, his wit, his charm, his perception? Austin could give her the luxurythat her sensuous nature delighted in, social position, the brilliantlife of London. What could Dick give her? It would always be a joy todress herself for Austin. Dick would be content if she went about inraiment made of dusters and bath towels. In return, what could she giveeach of these men? She put the question to herself. She was notmercenary or heartless. She gave of herself freely and loved the giving. What could she give to Austin? What could she give to Dick? Thesequestions, in her sober mood, weighed the others down. 

When the rain ceased and a pale sun had dried the gravel, she went outinto the grounds by herself and faced the problem. She sighedagain--many times. If only they would let her have her fun out and giveher answer six months hence!

Her meditations were cut short by the arrival of a telegraph boy on hisbicycle at the front gate. He gave her the telegram. It was for Austin. Her heart beat. She went into the house with the yellow envelopecontaining Dick's destiny and mounted to the little room off the firstlanding which had been Austin's private study since his boyhood. Sheknocked. Austin's voice bade her enter. He rose from the desk where, penin hand, he had been sitting before a blank sheet of paper, and withouta word took the telegram. She noticed with a shock that he had curiouslychanged. The quick, brisk manner had gone. His face was grey. 

"It is _the_ telegram, isn't it?" she asked eagerly. 

"Yes, " said he, handing it to her. "It's from Lord Overton. "

She read: "The very man. Send him along to me early to-morrow. Hope hecan start immediately. "

"Oh, how splendid!" she exclaimed with a little gasp of happiness. "Howutterly splendid! Thank heaven!"

"Yes. Thank heaven, " Austin acquiesced gravely. "I forgot to mention toyou that Lord Overton knows Dick personally, " he added, after a pause. "They met at my house the last time Dick was in London. "

"This _is_ good news, " said Viviette. "At last I can give him a birthdaypresent worth having. "

"He will not be here for his birthday, " said Austin, in cold, eventones. "He must catch the mail to-night. "

Viviette echoed: "To-night?"

"And in all probability he will sail for Vancouver in a day or two. Itwon't be worth his while to come back here. "

She laid a hand on her heart, which fluttered painfully. 

"Then--then--we'll never see him again?"

"Probably not. "

"I didn't think it would be so sudden, " she said, a little wildly. 

"Neither did I. But it's for the best. "

"But supposing he wants some time to look about him?"

"I'll see to everything, " said Austin. 

"Anyhow, I must be the first to tell him, " said Viviette. 

"You will do me a very great favour if you will let me have thatprivilege, " said Austin. "I make a particular point of it. I have someserious business to discuss with him before dinner, and that will be thetime for me to break the news. "

He was no longer the fairy godmother's devoted and humble factotum. Hespoke with a cold air of authority that chilled the fairy godmotherdomin Viviette's bosom. Her prettly little scheme dwindled intochildishness before the dark, incomprehended thing that had happened. She assented with unusual meekness. 

"But I'm desperately disappointed, " she said. 

"My dear Viviette, " he answered more kindly, and looking at her withsome wistfulness, "the pleasures and even the joy of life have to giveway to the sober, business side of existence. It isn't very gay, I know, but we can't alter it. "

He held out his hand. Instinctively she gave him hers. He raised it tohis lips and held the door open for her. She went out scarcely knowingthat she had been dismissed. Austin closed the door, stood unsteadilyfor a moment like a man stricken with great pain, and then, sittingdown at his desk again, put his elbows on the table, rested his head inhis hands, and stared at the white piece of paper. When would Dick comehome? He had given orders that Dick should be asked to go to him as soonas he arrived. Would Dick ever come home again? It was quite possiblethat some misfortune might have happened. Tragedy is apt to engendertragedy. He shuddered, hearing in his fancy the tramp of men, and seeinga shrouded thing they carried across the hall. He bitterly accusedhimself for not having sought Dick far and wide as soon as he had madehis ghastly discovery. But he had required time to recover his balance. The horrible suddenness had stunned him. Attempted fratricide is not acommon happening in gentle families. He had to accustom himself to theatmosphere of the abnormal, so as to state the psychological case in itsnumberless ramifications. This he had done. His head was clear. Hisunalterable decision made. Now the minutes dragged with leaden feetuntil Dick should come. 

Viviette was the first to see him. She had dressed early for dinner, and, as the late June afternoon had turned out fine, was taking herproblem out to air on the terrace when she came upon him standing at thedoor of his armoury. His hair was wet and matted, his eyes bloodshot, his clothes dripping, and he himself splashed with mud from head tofoot. He trembled all over, shaken by a great terror. The case ofpistols had gone. Who had taken them? Had the loaded pistol beendiscovered?

As Viviette appeared, robed in deep blue chiffon that seemed torn fromthe deep blue evening sky, and looking, in the man's maddened eyes, magically beautiful, he held out imploring hands. 

"Come in for a moment. For the love of God come in for a moment. "

He stepped back invitingly. She hesitated for a second on the threshold, and then followed him down the dim gallery, past the screen where allthe swords and helmets lay scattered on the table. He looked at herhaggardly, and she met his gaze with kind eyes in which there was nomockery. No. Nothing had happened, he told himself; otherwise she wouldshrink from him as from something accursed. 

"My God, if you knew how I love you!" he said hoarsely. "My God, if youonly knew!"

His suffering racked her heart. All her pity melted over him. She laidher caressing fingers on his arm. 

"Oh, my poor Dick!" she said. 

[Illustration: He held out imploring hands. ]

The touch, the choke in her voice, brought about Viviette's downfall. Perhaps she meant it to do so. Who can tell? What woman ever knows? In aflash his arms were around her and his kisses, a wild, primitive man'skisses, were on her lips, her eyes, her cheeks. Her face was crushedagainst the rough wet tweed of his coat, and its odour, raw and coarse, was in her nostrils. She drooped, intoxicated, gasping for breath in hisunheeding giant's grip, but she made no effort to escape. As he held hera thrill, agonising and delicious, swept through her, and she raised herlips involuntarily to his and closed her eyes. At last he released her, mangled, tousled, her very self a draggled piece of chiffon like thenight-blue frock, soiled with wet and mud. 

"Forgive me, " he said, "I had no right. Least of all now. God knows whatis to become of me. But whatever happens, you know that I love you. "

She had her hands clasped before her face. She could not look at him. 

"Yes, I know, " she murmured. 

In another moment he had gone, leaving Viviette, who had entered theroom a girl, transformed into a woman with the first shiver of passionin her veins. 

Dick, vaguely conscious of damp and dirt, went up to his bedroom. Thesight of his evening things spread out on the bed reminded him that itwas nearly dinner-time. Mechanically he washed and dressed. As he wasbuckling on his ready-made white tie--his clumsy fingers, in spite ofmany lessons from Viviette, had never learned the trick of tying abow--a maid brought him a message. Mr. Austin's compliments and would hesee Mr. Austin for a few moments in Mr. Austin's room. The words werelike the dreaded tap on the shoulder of the hunted criminal. 

"I'll come at once, " he said. 

He found Austin sitting on the chair by his desk, resting his chin onhis elbow. He did not stir as Dick entered. 

"You want to speak to me?"

"Yes, " said Austin. "Will you sit down?"

"I'll stand, " said Dick impatiently. "What have you to say to me?"

"I believe you have expressed your desire to leave England and earn yourliving in a new country. Is that so?"

The brothers' eyes met. Dick saw that the loaded pistol had beendiscovered, and read no love, no pity, only condemnation in the hardgaze. Austin was pronouncing sentence. 

"Yes, " he replied sullenly. 

"I happen, " said Austin, "to know of an excellent opportunity. LordOverton, whom you have met, wants a man to take charge of his timberforests in Vancouver. The salary is £700 a year. I wired to Lord Overtonasking for the appointment on your behalf. This is his answer. "

Dick took the telegram and read it with muddled head. Austin had lost notime. 

"You see, it fits in admirably. You can start by the night mail. Yoursudden departure needs no other explanation to the household than thistelegram. I hope you understand. "

"I understand, " said Dick bitterly. A sudden memory of words thatViviette had used the day before occurred to him. "I understand. This isto get me out of the way. 'David put Uriah in the forefront of thebattle. ' Vancouver is the forefront. "

"Don't you think we had better avoid all unprofitable discussion?"Austin rose and confronted him. "I expect you to accept this offer andmy conditions. "

"And if I refuse?" asked Dick, with rising anger. "What dare youthreaten me with?"

Austin raised a deprecatory hand. 

"Do you suppose I'm going to threaten you? I simply expect you not torefuse. Your conscience must tell you that I have the right to do so. Doesn't it?"

Dick glowered sullenly at the wall and tugged his great moustache. 

"You force me to touch on things I should have liked to keep hidden, "said Austin. "Very well. " He took a scrap of crumpled paper from thedesk. "Do you recognise this? It formed the wad of the pistol that wasin _your_ hand. "

Dick started back a pace. "You're wrong, " he gasped. "It was _your_pistol that was loaded. "

"No. Yours. The cap missed fire, or I should have been a deadman--murdered by my brother. "

"Stop, " cried Dick. "Not murdered. No, no, not murdered. It was in fairfight. I gave you the choice. When I thought I had the unloaded one Icalled on you to fire. Why the devil didn't you? I wanted you to fire. Iwas mad for you to fire. I wanted to be killed there and then. No onecan say I shirked it. I gave you your chance. "

"That's nothing to do with it, " said Austin sternly. "When you fired youmeant murder. Your face meant killing. And supposing I had fired--andkilled you! Good God! I would sooner you had killed me than burdened mysoul with your death. It would have been less cowardly. Yes, cowardly. The conditions were not even. To me it was trivial fooling. To you, deadly earnest. Are you not man enough to see that I have the right toexact some penalty?"

Dick remained silent for a few moments, while the powers of light anddarkness struggled together in his soul. At last he said in a low voice, hanging his head:

"I'll accept your terms. "

"You leave by the night mail for Witherby. "

"Very well. "

"There's another point, " said Austin. "The most important point of all. You will not speak alone to Viviette before you start. "

Dick turned with an angry flash, "What?"

"You will not speak to Viviette alone. When you are gone--for there isno need for you to come back here before you sail--you will not write toher. You will go absolutely and utterly out of her life. "

Dick broke into harsh, furious laughter. 

"And leave her to you? I might have known that the lawyer would have hadme in the trap. But this time you've over-reached yourself. I'll nevergive her up. Do you hear me? Never--never--never! I would go through thehorror of to-day a thousand times--day by day until I die, rather thangive her up to you. You shall not take this last thing from me--thishope of winning her--as you have taken everything else. You havesupplanted me since first you learned to speak. It has been Esauand Jacob--"

"Or Cain and Abel, " said Austin. 

"You can taunt me if you like, " cried Dick, goaded to fury, and thewhole bitterness of a lifetime surging up in passionate speech. "I havegot past feeling it. Your life has been one continual taunt of me. Youhave thought me a dull, good-natured boor, delighted to have a wordthrown at him now and again by the elegant gentleman, and ratherhonoured than otherwise to be ridden over roughshod, or kicked into themud when it pleased the elegant gentleman to ride by. No, listen to me, "he thundered, as Austin was about to protest. "By God, you shall listenthis time. You've made me your butt, your fool, your doer of trivialoffices. I've wondered sometimes why you haven't addressed me as 'mygood fellow, ' and asked me to touch my cap to you. I've borne it allthese years without complaining--but do you know what it is to eat yourheart out and remain silent? I have borne it for my mother's sake--inspite of her dislike of me--and for your sake, because I loved you. Yes. If ever one man has loved another I've loved you. But you took no heed. What was my affection worth? I was only the stupid, dull boor . .. But Isuffered it all till you came between me and her. I had spent the wholepassion of my life upon her. She was the only thing left in the worldfor which I felt fiercely. I hungered for her, thirsted for her, mybrain throbbed at the thought of her, the blood rushed through my veinsat the sight of her. And you came between us. And if I have damned mysoul, by God! the damnation is your doing. Do you think, while I live, that I'll give her up to you? I'll get my soul's worth, anyhow. "

He smote his palm with his clenched fist and strode about the littleroom. Austin sat for a while dumb with astonishment and dismay. Hischerished, lifelong conception of "dear old Dick" lay shattered. A newDick appeared to him, a personality stronger, deeper than he could haveimagined. A new respect for him, also a new pity that was generous andnot contemptuous, crept into his heart. 

"Listen, Dick, " said he, using the familiar name for the first time. "DoI understand that you accuse me of sending you out to Vancouver andhastening your departure so as to gain my own ends with Viviette?"

"Yes, " returned Dick. "I do. You have laid this trap for me. "

"Have you ever heard me lie to you?"

"No, " said Dick. 

"Then I tell you, as man to man, that until this afternoon I had nosuspicion that your feelings towards Viviette were deeper than those ofan elder brother. "

Dick laughed bitterly. "You couldn't conceive a clod like me falling inlove. Well?"

"That's beside the question, " said Austin. "I did not behavedishonourably towards you. I came down. I fell in love with Viviette. How could I help it? How could I help loving her? How could I helptelling her so? But she is young and innocent, and her heart is her ownyet. Tell me--man to man--dare you say that you have won it or that Ihave won it?"

"What's the good of talking?" said Dick, relapsing into his sullen mood. "If I go she is yours. But I won't go. "

Austin rose again and laid his hand on his brother's arm. 

"Dick. If I give her up, will you obey my conditions?"

"You give her up voluntarily? Why should you?"

"A damnable thing was done this afternoon, " said Austin. "I see I had myshare in it, and I as well as you have to make reparation. Man alive!You are my brother, " he cried with an outburst of feeling. "The nearestthing in the world to me. Do you think I could rest happy with theknowledge that a murderous devil is always in your heart, and that it'sin my power to--to exorcise it? Do you think the cost matters? Come. Shall we make this bargain? Yes or no?"

"It's easy for you to promise, " said Dick. "But when I am gone, how canyou resist?"

Austin hesitated for a moment, biting his lips. Then, with the air of aman who makes an irrevocable step in life, he crossed the room andrang the bell. 

"Ask Mrs. Holroyd if she will have the kindness to come here for aminute, " he said to the servant. 

Dick regarded him wonderingly. "What has Mrs. Holroyd to do with ouraffairs?"

"You'll see, " said Austin, and there was silence between them tillKatherine came. 

She looked from one joyless face to the other, and sat without a wordon the chair that Austin placed for her. Her woman's intuition divined asequel to the afternoon's drama. Some of it she had already learned. For, going earlier into Viviette's room, she had found her white andshaken, still disordered in hair and dress as Dick had left her; andViviette had sobbed on her bosom and told her with some incoherence thatthe monkey had at last hit the lyddite shell in the wrong place, andthat it was all over with the monkey. So, before Austin spoke, she halfdivined why he had summoned her. 

Her heart throbbed painfully. 

"Dick and I, " said Austin, "have been talking of serious matters, and weneed your help. "

She smiled wanly. "I'll do whatever I can, Austin. "

"You said this afternoon you would do anything I asked you. Do youremember?"

"Yes, I said so--and I meant it. "

"You said it in reply to my question whether you would accept me if Iasked you to marry me. "

Dick started from the sullen stupor into which he had fallen andlistened with perplexed interest. 

"You are not quite right in your tenses, Austin, " she remarked. "Yousaid: Would I have accepted you if you had asked me?"

"I want to change the tense into the present, " he replied. 

She met his glance calmly. "You ask me to marry you in spite of what youtold me this afternoon?"

"In spite of it and because of it, " he said, drawing up a chair near toher. "A great crisis has arisen in our lives that must make you forgetother words I spoke this afternoon. Those other words and everythingconnected with them I blot out of my memory forever. I want you to do mean infinite service. If there had been no deep affection between us Ishould not dare to ask you. I want you to be my wife, to take me intoyour keeping, to trust me as an upright man to devote my life to yourhappiness. I swear I'll never give you a moment's cause for regret. "

She plucked for a while at her gown. It was a strange wooing. But in hersweet way she had given him her woman's aftermath of love. It was agentle, mellow gift, far removed from the summer blaze of passion, andit had suffered little harm from the sadness of the day. She saw that hewas in great stress. She knew him to be a loyal gentleman. 

"Is this the result of that scene in the armoury?" she asked quietly. 

"Yes, " said Austin. 

"I was right then. It was a matter of life and death. "

"It was, " said he. "So is this. "

She looked again from one face to the other, rose, hesitated for amoment--and then held out her hand. "I am willing to trust you, Austin, " she said. 

He touched her hand with his lips and said gravely: "I will not failyour trust. "

As soon as she had gone he went to the chair where Dick sat in gloomyremorse and laid a hand on his shoulder. 

"Well?" said he. 

"I agree, " Dick groaned, without looking up. "I have no alternative. Iappreciate your generosity. "

Then Austin spoke of the appointment in Vancouver. He explained how theidea had occurred to him; how Viviette had come late the night before totell him of what he had never before suspected--Dick's desire to goabroad; how they had conspired to give him a birthday surprise; how theyhad driven over to Witherby to send the telegram to Lord Overton. And ashe spoke, Dick looked at him with a new ghastliness on his face. 

"This afternoon--in the dining-room--when you said that Viviette hadtold you everything--?"

"About your wish to go to the Colonies. What else?"

"And what I overheard in the armoury--about a telegram--tellingme--putting me out of my misery?"

"Only whether we should tell you to-night or to-morrow about theappointment. Dick--Dick, " said Austin, deeply moved by the greatfellow's collapse, "if I have wronged you all these years, it wasthrough want of insight, not want of affection. If I have taunted you, as you say, it was merely a lifelong habit of jesting which you neverseemed to resent. I was unconscious of hurting you. For my blindness andcarelessness I beg your forgiveness. With regard to Viviette--I ought tohave seen, but I didn't. I don't say you had no cause for jealousy--butas God hears me--all the little conspiracy to-day was lovinglymeant--all to give you pleasure. I swear it. "

Dick rose and stumbled about among the furniture. The setting sun felljust below the top of the casement window, and its direct rays floodedthe little room and showed Dick in a strange, unearthly light. 

"I wronged you, " he said bitterly. "Even in my passions I'm a dull fool. I thought you a damned cad, and I got more and more furious, and Idrank--I was drunk all this afternoon--and madness came, and when I sawyou kiss her--yes, I saw you, I was peeping from behind thescreen--things went red before my eyes, and it was then that I loadedthe pistol to shoot you on the spot. God forgive me! May God havemercy upon me. "

He leant his arms on the sill and buried his face. 

"I can't ask your forgiveness, " he went on, after a moment. "It wouldbe a mockery. " He laughed mirthlessly. "How can I say. 'I'm sorry Imeant to murder you--please don't think anything about it?'" He turnedwith a fierce gesture. "Oh, you must take it all as said, man! Now, haveyou finished with me? I can't stand it much longer, I agree to all yourterms. I'll drive over to Witherby now and wait for the train--andyou'll be free of me. "

He turned again and moodily looked out of the window in the full floodof the sunset. 

"We must play the game, Dick, " said Austin gently, "and go through thehorrible farce of dinner--for mother's sake. "

Dick heard him vaguely. Below, on the terrace, Viviette was walking, andshe filled his universe. She had changed the bedraggled frock for thegreen one she had worn the night before. Presently she raised her eyesand saw him leaning out of the window. 

"Have they told you that dinner is not till a quarter past eight?" shecried, looking deliciously upwards, with a dainty hand to her cheek. "Lord Banstead sent a message to mother that he was unexpectedlydetained, and mother has put back dinner. Isn't it impudence?"

But Dick was far too crushed with misery to respond. He noddeddejectedly. She remained staring up at him for a while and then ran intothe house. 

Dick listlessly mentioned the postponement of dinner. 

"I'm sorry I asked the little brute, but I couldn't avoid it. "

"What does it matter?" said Austin. He was silent for a moment. Then hecame close to Dick. 

"Dick, " said he. "Let us end this awful scene as friends and brothers. As Heaven hears me, there is no bitterness in my heart. Only deepsorrow--and love, Dick. Shake hands. "

Dick took his hand and broke down utterly, and said such things ofhimself as other men do not like to hear. Presently there was a lightrap of knuckles at the door. Austin opened it and beheld Viviette. 

"I won't disturb you, " she said; "I only want to give this note toDick. "

"I will hand it to him, " said Austin. 

She thanked him and departed. He closed the door and gave Dick the note. Dick opened it, read, and with a great cry of "Viviette!" rushed to thedoor. Austin interposed, grasped him by the wrist:

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to her, " shouted Dick wildly, wrenching himself free. "Readthis. " He held up the note before Austin's eyes, with shaking fingers. Austin read:

"I can't bear to see the misery on your face, when I can make you happy. I love you, dear, better than anything on earth. I know it now, andI'll go out with you to Vancouver. "

"She loves me. She'll marry me. She'll go out to Vancouver!" cried Dick. "It changes everything. I must go to her. "

"You shall not go, " said Austin. 

"Shall not? Who dares prevent me?'

"I do. I hold you to your word. "

"But, man alive! she loves me--don't you see? The bargain is dissolved. This is none of my seeking. She comes of her own free will. I amgoing to her. "

Austin put both his hands affectionately on the big man's shoulders andforced him into a chair. 

"Listen to me just for one minute, Dick. Dick, you dare not marry. Don'tdrive me to tell you the reason. Can't you see for yourself why I'veimposed this condition on you all along?"

"I know no reason, " said Dick. "She loves me, and that is enough. "

The greyness deepened over Austin's face and the pain in his eyes. 

"I must speak, then, in plain terms. That horrible murder impulse is thereason. Today, in a fit of frenzied jealousy, you would have killed me, your brother. Is there any guarantee that, in another fit of frenziedjealousy, you might not--?"

A shudder ran through Dick's great frame. He stretched out his hand. "For God's sake--don't. "

"I must--until you see this ghastly business in its true aspect. Look atthe lighter side of Viviette's character. She is gay, fond ofadmiration, childishly fond of teasing, a bright creature of bewilderingmoods. Would she be safe in your hands? Might you not one day again seethings red before your eyes and again go mad?"

"Don't say any more, " Dick said in a choking voice. "I can't stand it. "

"Heaven knows, I didn't want to say as much. "

Dick shuddered again. "Yes, you are right. I am a man with a curse. Ican't marry her. I daren't. "

CHAPTER VI

VIVIETTE TAKES THE RISK

Presently Dick raised the face of Cain when he told the Lord that hispunishment was greater than he could bear. Tears leaped to Austin'seyes, but he turned his head away lest Dick should see them. He wouldhave given years of his life to spare Dick--everything he had in theworld--save his deep convictions of right and wrong. He was responsiblefor Viviette. That risk of horror he could not let her run. He hadhoped, with a great agony of hope, that Dick would have seen it forhimself. To formulate it had been torture. But he could not weaken. Thebarrier between Dick and Viviette was not of his making. It was composedof the grim psychological laws that govern the abnormal. To havedisregarded it would have been a crime from which his soul shrank. Allthe despair in Dick's face, though it wrung his heart, could not movehim. It was terrible to be chosen in this way to be the arbiter ofDestiny. But there was the decree, written in letters of blood andflame. And Dick had bowed to it. 

"What's to become of her?" he groaned. 

"This will be her home, as it always has been, " said Austin. 

"I don't mean that--but between us we shall break her heart. She hasgiven it to me just in time for me to do it. My luck!"

Austin tried to comfort him. A girl's heart was not easily broken. Herpride would suffer most. Pain was inevitable. But Time healed manywounds. In this uncertain world nothing was ever so good as we hoped, and nothing ever so bad as we feared. Dick paid little heed to theplatitudes. 

"She must be told!"

"Not what happened this afternoon, " cried Austin quickly. "That we buryforever from all human knowledge. "

"Yes, " said Dick, staring in front of him and speaking in a dull, evenvoice. "We must hide that. It's not a pretty thing to spread before agirl's eyes. It will be always before my own--until I die. But she mustbe told that I can't marry her. I can't ride away and leave her in doubtand wonder forever and ever. "

"Let us face this horrible night as best we can, " said Austin. "Avoidseeing her alone. You'll be with mother or packing most of the evening. Slip away to Witherby an hour or so before your time. When you're goneI'll arrange matters. Leave it to me. "

He made one of his old, self-confident gestures. But now Dick felt noresentment. His spirit in its deep abasement saw in Austin the better, wiser, stronger man. 

At a quarter-past eight they went slowly downstairs to what promised tobe a nightmare kind of meal. There would be four persons, Viviette, Katherine, and themselves, in a state of suppressed eruption, and two, Mrs. Ware and the unspeakable Banstead, complacently unaware of volcanicforces around them, who might by any chance word bring about disaster. There was danger, too--and the greatest--from Viviette, ignorant ofDestiny. Austin dreaded the ordeal; but despair and remorse had benumbedDick's faculties; he had passed the stage at which men fear. With hishand on the knob of the drawing-room door Austin paused and lookedat him. 

"Pull yourself together, man. Play your part. For God's sake, try tolook cheerful. "

Dick tried. Austin shivered. 

"For God's sake, don't, " he said. 

They entered the drawing-room, expecting to find the three ladies, andpossibly Lord Banstead, assembled for dinner. To Austin's discomfiture, Viviette was alone in the room. She rose, made a step or two to meetthem, then stopped. 

"What a pair of faces! One would think it were the eve of Dick'sexecution, and you were the hangman measuring him for the noose. "

"Dick, " said Austin, "is leaving us to-night--possibly for many years. "

"I don't see that he is so very greatly to be pitied, " said Viviette, trying in vain to meet Dick's eyes. She drew him a pace or two aside. 

"Did you read my note--or did you tear it up like the other one?"

"I read it, " he said, looking askance at the floor. 

"Then why are you so woe-begone?"

He replied in a helpless way that he was not woe-begone. Viviette waspuzzled, hurt, somewhat humiliated. She had made woman's great surrenderwhich is usually followed by a flourish of trumpets very gratifying tohear. In fact, to most women the surrender is worth the flourish. Butthe recognition of this surrender appeared to find its celebration in afuneral march with muffled drums. A condemned man being fitted for thenoose, as she had suggested, a mute conscientiously mourning at his ownfuneral, a man who had lost a stately demesne in Paradise and had beenironically compensated by the gift of a bit of foreshore of the Styxcould not have worn a less joyous expression than he on whom she hadconferred the boon of his heart's desire. 

"You're not only woe-begone, " she said, with spirit, "but you're utterlymiserable. I think I have a right to know the reason. Tell me, whatis it?"

She tapped a small, impatient foot. 

"We haven't told my mother yet, " Austin explained, "and Dick is rathernervous as to the way in which she will take the news. "

"Yes, " said Dick, with lame huskiness. "It's on mother's account. "

Viviette laughed somewhat scornfully. 

"I am not a child, my dear Austin. No man wears a face like that onaccount of his mother--least of all when he meets the woman who haspromised to be his wife. "

She flashed a challenging glance at Austin, but not a muscle of his greyface responded. Her natural expectations were baffled. There was nostart of amazement, no fierce movement of anger, no indignant look ofreproach. She was thrown back on herself. She said:

"I don't think you quite understand. Dick had two aims in life--one toobtain a colonial appointment, the other--so he led me to suppose--tomarry me. He has the appointment, and I have promised to marry him. "

"I know, " said Austin, "but you must make allowances. "

"If that's all you can say on behalf of your client, " retorted Viviette, "I rather wonder at your success as a barrister. "

"Don't you think, my dear, " said Austin gently, "that we are treading ondelicate ground?"

"Delicate ground!" she scoffed. "We seem to have been treading on avolcano all the afternoon. I'm tired of it. " She faced the two men withuplifted head. "I want an explanation. "

"Of what?" Austin asked. 

"Of Dick's attitude. What has he got to be miserable about? Tell me. "

"But I'm not miserable, my dear Viviette, " said poor Dick, vainlyforcing a smile. "I'm really quite happy. "

Her woman's intuition rejected the protest with contumely. All theafternoon he had been mad with jealousy of Austin. An hour ago he hadwhirled her out of her senses in savage passion. But a few minutesbefore she had given him all a woman has to give. Now he met her withhang-dog visage, apologies from Austin, and milk-and-water asseverationof a lover's rapture. The most closely-folded rosebud miss of EarlyVictorian times could not have faced the situation without showingsomething of the Eve that lurked in the heart of the petals. So much theless could Viviette, child of a freer, franker day, hide her justindignation under the rose-leaves of maidenly modesty. 

"Happy!" she echoed. "I've known you since I was a child of three. Iknow the meaning of every light and every shadow that passes over yourface--except this shadow now. What does it mean?"

She asked the question imperiously, no longer the elfin changeling, thefairy of bewildering moods of Austin's imagination, no longer thelaughing coquette of Katherine's less picturesque fancy, but a modernyoung woman of character, considerably angered and very much in earnest. Austin bit his lip in perplexity. Dick looked around like a huntedanimal seeking a bolting-hole. 

"Dick is anxious, " said Austin, at length, seeing that some explanationmust be given, "that there should be no engagement between you before hegoes out to Vancouver. "

"Indeed?" said Viviette. "May I ask why? As this concerns Dick andmyself, perhaps you will leave us alone for a moment so that Dickmay tell me. "

"No, no, " Dick muttered hurriedly. "Don't leave us, Austin. We can'ttalk of such a thing now. "

Again she tapped her foot impatiently. 

"Yes, now. I'm going to hear the reason now, whatever it is. "

The brothers exchanged glances. Dick turned to the window, and staredat the mellow evening sky. 

Austin again was spokesman. 

"Dick finds he has made a terrible and cruel mistake. One that concernsyou intimately. "

"Whatever Dick may have done with regard to me, " replied Viviette, "Iforgave him for it beforehand. When once I give a thing I don't take itback. I have given him my love and my promise. "

"My dear, " said Austin, gravely and kindly. "Here are two men who haveloved you all your life. Don't think hardly of us. You must be brave andbear a great shock. Dick can't marry you. "

She looked at him incredulously. 

"Can't marry me? Why not?"

"It would be better not to ask. "

She moved swiftly to Dick, and with her light touch swung him round toface the room. 

"I don't understand. Is it because you're going out into the wilds?That doesn't matter. I told you I would go to Vancouver with you. I wantto go. My happiness is with you. "

Dick groaned. "Don't make it harder for me. "

"What are you keeping from me?" she asked. "Is it anything you don'tthink fit for my ears? If so, speak. I'm no longer a child. Is thereanother woman in the case?"

She met Austin's eyes full. He said: "No, thank God! Nothing of thatsort. " And as her eyes did not waver, he made the bold stroke. "He findsthat he doesn't love you as much as he thought. There's the wholetragedy in a few words. "

She reeled back as if struck. "Dick doesn't love me?" Then theannouncement seemed so grotesque in its improbability that she began tolaugh, a trifle hysterically. 

"Is this true?"

"It's quite true, " said poor Dick. 

"You see, my dear, " said Austin, "what it costs him--what it costs usboth--to tell you this. "

"But I don't understand. I don't understand!" she cried, with suddenpiteousness. "What did you mean, then--a little while ago--inthe armoury?"

Austin, who did not see the allusion, had to allow Dick to speak forhimself. 

"I was drunk, " said Dick desperately. "I've been drinking heavily oflate--and not accountable for my actions. I oughtn't to have done whatI did. "

"And so, you see, " continued Austin, with some eagerness, "when hebecame confronted with the great change in his life--Vancouver--helooked at things soberly. He found that his feelings towards you werenot of the order that would warrant his making you his wife. "

Before Viviette could reply the door opened, and Mrs. Ware andKatherine entered the room. Mrs. Ware, ignorant of tension, wentsmilingly to Austin, and, drawing down his shapely head with both hands, kissed him. 

"My dear, dear boy, I'm so glad, so truly glad. Katherine has just toldme. "

"Told you what, mother?" asked Viviette quickly, with a new sharpness inher voice. 

Mrs. Ware turned a beaming face. "Can't you guess, darling? Oh, Austin, there's no living woman whom I would sooner call my daughter. You'vemade me so happy. "

The facile tears came, and she sat down and dried them on her littlewisp of handkerchief. 

"I thought it for the best to tell your mother, Austin, " said Katherine, somewhat apologetically. "We were speaking of you--and--I couldn'tkeep it back. "

Viviette, white-lipped and dazed, looked at Austin, Katherine, and Dickin turns. She said, in the high-pitched voice, to Austin:

"Have you asked Katherine to marry you?"

"Yes, " he replied, not quite so confidently, and avoiding herglance--"and she has done me the honour of accepting me. "

Katherine held out a conciliatory hand to Viviette. "Won't youcongratulate me, dear?"

"And Austin, too, " said Mrs. Ware. 

But Viviette lost control of herself. "I'll congratulate nobody, " shecried shrilly. She burned with a sense of intolerable outrage. Only afew hours before she had been befooled into believing herself to be themistress of the destinies of two men. Both had offered her their love. Both had kissed her. The memory lashed her into fury. Now one of themavowed that she had been merely the object of a drunken passion, andthe other came before her as the affianced husband of the woman whocalled herself her dearest friend. 

Katherine, in deep distress, laid her hand on the girl's arm. "Why not, dear? I thought that you and Dick--in fact--I understood--"

Viviette freed herself from Katherine's touch. 

"Oh, no, you didn't. You didn't understand anything. You didn't try to. You are all lying. The three of you. You have all lied, and lied, andlied to me. I tell you to your faces you have lied to me. " She swungpassionately to each in turn. "'Austin can never be anything to me but afriend'--how often have you said that to me? Ah--Saint Nitouche! Andyou"--to Austin--"How dared you insult me this morning? And you--howhave you dared to insult me all the time? You've lied--the whole lot ofyou--and I hate you all!"

Mrs. Ware had risen, scared and trembling. 

"What does the girl mean? I've never heard such unladylike words in adrawing-room in my life. "

Dick blundered in: "It's all my fault, mother--"

"I've not the slightest doubt of that, " returned the old lady withasperity. "But what Austin and Katherine have to do with it Ican't imagine. "

The servant opened the door. 

"Lord Banstead. "

He entered a cold, strange silence. Everyone had forgotten him. He musthave attributed the ungenial atmosphere to his own lateness--it washalf-past eight--for he made penitent apology to Mrs. Ware. Austingreeted him coldly. Dick nodded absently from the other side of theroom. Viviette, with a sweeping glance of defiance at the assembledfamily, held herself very erect, and with hard eyes and quivering lipscame straight to the young fellow. 

"Lord Banstead, " she said. "You have asked me four times to marry you. Did you mean it, or were you lying, too?"

Banstead's pallid cheeks flushed. He was overcome with confusion. 

"Of course I mean it--meant to ask you again to-day--ask you now. "

"Then I will marry you. "

Dick strode forward, and, catching her by the wrist, swung her away fromBanstead, his face aflame with sudden passion. 

"No, by God, you shan't!"

Banstead retreated a few paces, scared out of his life. Mrs. Ware soughtAustin's protecting arm. 

"What does all this mean? I don't understand it. "

Austin led her to the door. "I'll see nothing unpleasant happens, dear. You had better go and tell them to keep back dinner yet a few minutes. "

His voice and authority soothed her, and she left the room, casting aterrified glance at Dick, standing threateningly over Lord Banstead, whohad muttered something about Viviette being free to do as she liked. 

"She can do what she likes, but, by God! she shan't marry you. "

"I'm of age, " declared Viviette fiercely. "I marry whom I choose. "

"Of course she can, " said Banstead. "Are you taking leave of yoursenses?"

"How dare you ask a pure girl to marry you?" cried Dick furiously. "You, who have come straight here from--"

Banstead found some spirit. "Shut up, Ware, " he interrupted. "Play thegame. You've no right to say that. "

"I have the right, " cried Dick. 

"Hush!" said Austin, interposing. 

"There's no need to prolong this painful discussion. To-morrow--asViviette's guardian--"

"To-morrow?" Dick shouted. "Where shall I be to-morrow? Away fromhere--unable to defend her--unable to say a word. "

"If you said a thousand words, " said Viviette, "they wouldn't make anatom of difference. Lord Banstead has asked me to marry him. I haveaccepted him openly. What dare you say to it?"

"Yes, " said Banstead. "She has made no bones about it. I've asked herfive times. Now she accepts me. What have you to say to it?"

"I say she shan't marry you, " said Dick, glaring at the other. 

"Steady, steady, Dick, " said Austin warningly. But Dick shook hiswarning angrily aside, and Austin saw that, once again that day, Dickwas desperate. 

"Not while I live shall she marry you. Don't I know your infernalbeastly life?"

"Now, look here, " said Banstead, at bay. "What the deuce have you got todo with my affairs?"

"Everything. Do you think she loves you, cares for you, honours you, respects you?"

Viviette faced him with blazing eyes. 

"I do, " she said defiantly. 

"It's a lie, " cried Dick. "It's you that are lying now. Heaven andearth! I've suffered enough to-day--I thought I had been throughhell--but it's nothing to this. She loves me--do you hearme?--me--me--me--and I can't marry her--and I don't care a damn whoknows the reason. "

"Stop, man, " said Austin. 

"Let me be. She shall know the truth. Everyone shall know the truth. Atany rate, it will save her from this. "

"I will do it quietly, later, Dick. "

"Let me be, I tell you, " said Dick, with great, clumsy, passionategesture. "Let's have no more lies. " He turned to Viviette. "You wrote mea letter. You said you loved me--would marry me--come out toVancouver--the words made me drunk with happiness--at first. You saw me. I refused your love and your offer. I said I didn't love you. I lied. Isaid I couldn't marry you. It was the truth. I can't. I can't. But loveyou! Oh, my God! My God! There were flames of hell in my heart--butcouldn't you see the love shining through?"

"Don't, Dick, don't, " cried Katherine. 

"I will, " he exclaimed wildly. "I'll tell her why I can't marry anywoman. I tried to murder Austin this afternoon!"

Katherine closed her eyes. She had guessed it. But Viviette, with partedlips and white cheeks, groped her way backwards to a chair, withoutshifting her terror-stricken gaze from Dick; and sitting, she grippedthe arms of the chair. 

There was a moment of tense silence. Banstead at last relieved hisfeelings with a gasping, "Well, I'm damned!"

Dick continued:

"It was jealousy--mad jealousy--this afternoon--in the armoury--the mockduel--one of the pistols was loaded. I loaded it--first, in order tokill him out of hand--then I thought of the duel--he would have hischance--either he would kill me or I would kill him. Mine happened to beloaded. It missed fire. It was only the infinite mercy of God that Ididn't kill him. He found it out. He has forgiven me. He's worth fiftymillions of me. But my hands are red with his blood, and I can't touchyour pure garments. They would stain them red--and I should see redagain before my eyes some day. A man like me is not fit to marry anywoman. A murderer is beyond the pale. So I said I didn't love her tosave her from the knowledge of this horror. And now I'm going to theother side of the world to work out my salvation--but she shall knowthat a man loves her with all his soul, and would go through any tormentand renunciation for her sake--and, knowing that, she can't go and throwherself away on a man unworthy of her. After what I've told you, willyou marry this man?"

Still looking at him, motionless, she whispered, "No. "

"I say!" exclaimed Banstead. "I think--"

Austin checked further speech. Dick looked haggardly round the room. 

"There. Now you all know. I'm not fit to be under the same roof withyou. Good-bye. "

He slouched in his heavy way to the door, but Viviette sprang from herchair and planted herself in his path. 

"No. You shan't go. Do you think I have nothing to say?"

"Say what you like, " said Dick sadly. "Nothing is too black for me. Curse me, if you will. "

She laughed, and shook her head. "Do you think a woman curses the manwho would commit murder for the love of her?" she cried, with a strangeexultation in her voice. "If I loved you before--don't you think I loveyou now a million times more?"

Dick fell back, thrilled with amazement. 

"You love me still?" he gasped. "You don't shrink--"

"Excuse me, " interrupted Banstead, crossing the room. "Does this meanthat you chuck me, Miss Hastings?"

"You must release me from my promise, Lord Banstead, " she said gently. "I scarcely knew what I was doing. I'm very sorry. I've not behavedwell to you. "

"You've treated me damned badly, " said Banstead, turning on his heel. "Good-bye, everybody. "

Austin, moved by compunction, tried to conciliate the angry youth, buthe refused comfort. He had been made a fool of, and would stand thatfrom nobody. He would not stay for dinner, and would not put his footinside the house again. 

"At any rate, " said Austin, bidding him good-bye, "I can rely on you notto breathe a word to anyone of what you've heard this evening?"

Banstead fingered his underfed moustache. 

"I may be pretty rotten, but I'm not that kind of cad, " said he. And hewent, not without a certain dignity. 

Dick took Viviette's hand and kissed it tenderly. 

"God bless you, dear. I'll remember what you've said all my life. I cango away almost happy. "

"You can go away quite happy, if you like, " said Viviette. "Take me withyou. "

"To Vancouver?"

Austin joined them. "It is impossible, dear, " said he. 

"I go with him to Vancouver, " she said. 

Dick wrung his hands. "But I daren't marry you, Viviette, I daren't, Idaren't. "

"Don't you see that it's impossible, Viviette?" said Austin. 

"Why?"

"I've explained it to Dick. He has hinted it to you. You're scarcely oldenough to understand, my dear. It is the risk you run. "

"Such men as I can't marry, " said Dick loyally. "You don't understand. Austin is right. The risk is too great. "

She laughed in superb contempt. 

"The risk? Do you think I'm such a fool as not to understand? Do youthink, after what I've said, that I'm a child? Risk? What is life orlove worth without risk? When a woman loves a fierce man she takes therisk of his fierceness. It's her joy. I'll take the risk, and it will bea bond between us. "

Austin implored her to listen to reason. She swept his arguments aside. 

"God forbid. I'll listen to love, " she cried. "And if ever a man wantedlove, it's Dick. Reason! Come, Dick, let us leave this god and goddessof reason alone. I've got something to say which only you can hear. "

She dragged him in a bewildered state of mind to the door, which sheheld open. She was absolute mistress of the situation. She motioned toDick to precede her, and he obeyed, like a man in a dream. On thethreshold she paused, and flashed defiance at Austin, who appeared toher splendid scorn but a small, narrow-natured man. 

[Illustration: "I want you to love me forever and ever. "]

"You can say and think what you like, you two. You are civilisedpeople--and I suppose you love in a civilised way according to reason. I'm a primitive woman, and Dick's a primitive man--and, thank God! weunderstand each other, and love each other as primitive people do. "

She slammed the door, and in another moment was caught in Dick's greatarms. 

"What do you want to say that only I can hear?" he asked after a while. 

"This, " she said. "I want you to love me strongly and fiercely for everand ever--and I'll be a great wife to you--and, if I fail--if I am everwanton, as I have been to-day--for I have been wanton--and all that hashappened has been my fault--if ever I play fast and loose with your loveagain--I want you to kill me. Promise!"

She looked at him with glowing eyes. All the big man's heart meltedinto adoring pity. He took her face in both his hands as tenderly as hewould have touched a prize rose bloom. 

"Thank God, you're still a child, dear, " he said.