Billy Bellew : a novel

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BILLY BELLEW

B Vlot^el

BY

W. E. NORRIS

//, u

AUTOOR OF "MARCi/" " THIRLBY HALL"

"a man of his word'* etc.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

1895

By W. E. NORRIS.

MARCIA. Paper, 40 cents.
THAT TERRIBLB MAN. Paper, 25 cents.
HER OWN DOING. Paper, 25 cents.
ADRIAN VIDAL. Illustrated. Paper, 25 cents.
THIRLBT HALL. Illastrated. Paper, 25 cents.
A MAN OP HIS WORD. Paper, 20 cents.

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.

4^ For sale by all booksellers^ or will be sent by
the pttblUhera^ postage prepaid, to any part of the
United States^ Canada^ or Mexico, on receipt of price.

Copyrigbt, 1895, by Harper & Brothers.

All rightt THtntd.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGB

I. FOREIGN SERVICE 1

II. WINIFRED FORBES 14

III. BILLY DOES THE STRAIGHT THING 26

IV. A LITTLE HOLIDAY 30

V. MRS. LITTLEWOOD TAKES THE FIELD .... 52

VI. MICKY RECEIVES AND GIVES INFORMATION . . 66

Vn. A LITTLE DISAPPOINTMENT 76

Vin. HARRY LYSAGHT 88

IX. MOONLIGHT 101

X. MICKY'S PRESCRIPTION 115

XI. A WESTERLY BREEZE 126

XII. MISPLACED CONFIDENCE 140

Xin. DAISY ACTS FROM THE HIGHEST MOTIVES . . 151

XIV. THE CHEMIN DES AQUEDUCS 163

XV. BILLY TAKES LEAVE 176

XVI. BILLY HANDS IN HIS RESIGNATION 189

XVII. EDMUND KIRBY'S HOLIDAY 202

XVUI. BILLY GETS HIS COMPASS BACK 216

XIX. daisy's recovery '229

XX. THE UNWELCOME GUEST 241

XXI. CHANGES 253

XXII. A FULL CONFESSION 266

XXni. THE MINISTERING ANGEL 278

XXIV. BILLY MAKES HIS ESCAPE 295

ILLUSTRATIONS

"you must ask the wipe" FrontUpiece.

"you can take up your quarters near us" . . Facing p. 16

" IF YOU DON*T DO YOUR LESSONS NOW, YOU WILL BE SORRY " " 48

" OH, MRS. FORBES, HOW DO YOU DO ?" " 96

SHE WAS CAUGHT BY THE BREATHLESS HARRY AND THE

STILL MORE BREATHLESS COLONEL " 144

CAPTAIN PATTEN " 192

"hate you come TO EXULT OVER ME?" " 224

HE FELL BACK UPON HIS PILLOWS » • . " 256

BILLY BELLEW

CHAPTER I

FOREIGN SERVICE

One bitter January afternoon Billy Bellew, strid-
ing along at his accustomed high rate of speed
through the fog and darkness of St. James's Street,
reached the door of his club, which he had no sooner
flung open than he was greeted by a little knot of
friends, who had encountered one another a few
minutes previously in the hall of that establishment.

" Hullo, Billy ! " called out one of them, " frozen
out, like the rest of us, eh ? "

" Rather ! " answered the young man addressed,
unbuttoning his fur- lined coat and rubbing his hands,
as he approached the group. " I've been rapping
that beastly old barometer for four days ; but he said
he didn't mean going down yet a while, so I thought
I had better come up. Do the theatres and give one's
horses a rest, you know. After all, we've had a pretty
good time of it, so far. I always think one gets the
best of the hunting before Christmas."

" Well, that's a cheerful view to take of the sub-
ject," remarked the first speaker ; " but I can't say I
agree with you. Personally, I don't care about riding

2 BILLY BELLEW

over a blind country, and I'm a bit too old now to
appreciate the pleasare of getting up in the dark. I
haven't had a dozen days with the hounds yet, stnd
Lord knows whether I shall get a dozen before I have
to send my horses up to Tattersall's. It don't look
like it at present."

" Oh, you'll be all right," returned Billy con-
fidently ; " don't you worry yourself. A week of
frost, or even a fortnight, isn't such a bad thing,
when it comes at the right time."

"I like your easy-going way of calling January the
right time," ejaculated a melancholy looking little
man, whose hands were thrust deep into the pockets
of his overcoat and whose hat was rammed down
over his eyes. " It may be right enough for you lazy
beggars ; but I'll be hanged if it's right for a poor
devil of an M. P. I've got to begin work early next
month, or my constituents will want to know the
reason why. And it isn't going to freeze for a week
or a fortnight ; it's going to freeze for six weeks
straight on end ; it always does. I'll tell you what
it is : I'm a devilish patient fellow and I can stand a
lot ; but really and truly this isn't good enough. I
shall get influenza and be ordered off to the Riviera —
that's what I shall do."

"Oh, I wouldn't do that I ^^ said Billy, in a tone of
shocked remonstrance. "Of course it must be an
abominable nuisance for you to have to sit and listen,
day after day, to a lot of jabbering duffers, and I can't
think why you go in for that sort of thing. But I sup-
pose you have your reasons ; and, after all, you ought
to be able to manage a run down into the country

FOBEIGN SEBYICB 3

once a week. It isn't much; still it's better than
nothing. Better than kicking your heels at Nice or
Cannes, or some such beastly hole, anyhow."

The disconsolate legislator shook his head and
refused to be comforted. He said he might as well
give up hunting at once, and he believed he would
give it up. He added that, if there was one character
more obnoxious to him than another, it was that of
the prosperous, unsympathetic brute who insisted
upon making the best of his neighbors' misfortunes.
Finally, he dug Billy viciously in the ribs with his
umbrella, and wandered off toward the smoking-room,
whither he was presently followed by the other mal-
contents, each of whom had his own particular tale of
woe to narrate before departing.

The prosperous and unsympathetic brute did not
accompany them ; he found, on glancing at the clock,
that there would hardly be time. He made a sort of
conditional promise to dine in company with two of
them and " go on somewhere afterward," but he was
careful to impress upon them that they mustn't wait
for him, because he couldn't be quite sure yet what
his engagements might be, whereat they exchanged
meaning smiles. So he marched off into the darkness
again, a tall, well-knit figure ; and as the feeble
glimmer of the gas lamps fell upon him, the passers-by
were privileged to behold for an instant a face which
in point of beauty could, perhaps, hardly have been
matched in London or out of it. For Billy Bellew,
with his black hair, his violet eyes, and his perfectly
moulded features, might almost have posed as a
model for a somewhat robust Apollo. He was clean-

BILLY BELLEW

«

shaven, after the modern fashion, but liis mouth was
so well shaped, and his upper lip was so short, that
the modern fashion was by no means as unbecoming
to him as it is to most men of his complexion.

"Poor old Billy!" remarked one of the friends
whom he left behind him ; "it's easy to guess what
has brought him up to London, and why he looks so
confoundedly hilarious over it."

" He always looks hilarious," said the other. " It's
his little way, just as it's your little way to look
sulky. Splendid digestion, I suppose. It's simply
inconceivable that he can have remained in love all
this time with that yellow-haired, underbred woman,
who is ten years older than he is, if she's a day."

Most of us believe in quite a large number of in-
conceivable things, such as eternity and unlimited
space, so that we ought to find no difficulty what-
soever in grasping the idea that a well-to-do, well-
connected, and stiikingly handsome young man
may fall in love, and remain in love, with
an underbred woman who dyes her hair and is his
senior by a decade or thereabouts. As a matter
of fact, poor Billy had fallen in love with a lady
answering to that description ; and if he had not
remained in love with her for two years, he hon-
estly thought that he had. He would, indeed, have
been terribly ashamed of himself had he admitted a
doubt upon the subject into his mind ; although, see-
ing that the lady in question was a married lady, it
may be deemed by some that his constancy was no
legitimate matter for pride. But then the amazing
innocence of Billy Bellew would doubtless be a more

FOREIGN SEBVICB 6

difficult conception to some people than eternity or
infinite space.

He walked for a short distance along Piccadilly,
and then hailed a passing hansom, which took him to
a house in Lowndes Street, where he ascertained, on
enquiry, that Mrs. Little wood was at home. Pres-
ently he was ushered into one of those drawing-
rooms, encumbered by screens and drapery and
flowering plants and little tables adorned with old
silver knicknacks, which would be really pretty if
they had not of late years acquired a certain vulgar-
ity of association ; and he was greeted, on his en-
trance, by a lady who would also have been really
pretty, if late years had not produced the effect upon
her which years inevitably produce and which art is
powerless to conceal. Mrs. Littlewood's hair had
once been golden ; but it had never been (because
nobody's ever is) of the color which it now claimed
as its own, nor had she always exhibited to the dis-
respectful wonder of the world her present impossible
complexion. However, her china-blue eyes and her
girlish figure remained to her ; besides which, she
dressed admirably and had very small hands and
feet. She started up from her low chair by the fire-
side, exclaiming :

" So here you are at last ! I began to think that
your telegram was a humbug and that you had gone
in for skating, now that the hunting is stopped."

"Am I late ? " asked the young man, consulting
his watch and the clock on the mantelpiece. " I'm
awfully sorry if I am ; but I just looked in at the
club for a minute or two, and those fellows kept me,

6 BILLY BELLEW

jawing away about the weather and one thing and
another. Well, and how have you been getting on
all this long time ?"

He dropped into a chair and rubbed his hands,
gazing smilingly at his opposite neighbor, who re-
sponded by a shrug of her shoulders and a grimace.

" I have been getting on so badly," she answered,
" that the doctor tells me I must be getting off. I
suppose, as you have never made a single allusion to
it in your letters, you paid no attention to what I
told you about my having had a horrid cold, which
has settled on my chest ; but the truth is that I have
been wretchedly seedy, and we are going to spend
the rest of the winter in Algiers. I am thankful to
say that we have let the house ; so it is possible for
us to obey the doctor's orders."

Mr. Bellew endeavored to say what was kind and
sympathetic ; it was not his fault if experience had
taught him how little cause there was for alarm in
Mrs. Littlewood's transient ailments. But he rather
clumsily forgot to express the dismay which he
ought to have felt at the news of her impending
departure from England.

" Oh, you don't care ! " she returned pettishly; "it
will be all the same to you if I leave my bones in that
outlandish place. As far as that goes, Zsha'n't much
care either — there are many worse things than death.
What I do dread is the prospect of four or five
months' tSte-d-tSte life with Alfred. You know what
my life with him is ! "

" Oh, yes ! " murmured Billy, shaking his head sor-
rowfully.

FOEEIGN SEEVICE 7

Not that he did know ; but he knew what she had
told him, and he also knew that Colonel Littlewood
was a singularly despicable person. After a pause,
she resumed :

"I think you might come out, too, Billy. You
can't say that I am ever selfish with you, and I
haven't attempted to drag you away from your
beloved hunting since it began ; but now that the
frost has set in, it wouldn't be such a very great
sacrifice to you to come abroad with us, and it would
make all the difference to me. You could take up
your quarters in an hotel near us, you know ; I won't
even suggest that you should share our villa, because
I am well aware of the tremendous importance that
you attach to gossip."

Billy tried hard not to look aghast, and failed
signally. Not such a very great sacrifice to leave
England in the middle of the hunting season, and
dawdle through interminable weeks of enforced idle-
ness upon the shores of North Africa ? Good Lord !
But he only thought this, he did not say it, for in
his own way he was something of a hero, and that
wretched little woman knew full well how much
heroism was implied in his cheerful rejoinder of :

"All right, I'll manage it. Only I shall want a
little time to make arrangements and get rid of the
horses, and all that, you see. I'll follow you out in a
week or so. You're off at once, I suppose ? "

Mrs. Littlewood 's nature was too essentially femi-
nine to be magnanimous, and she had had too lengthy
an experience of the slippery ways of men to run
unnecessary risks. She said :

8 BILLY BELLEW

"We don't start until next Monday. You can
easily make all the aiTangements that you want to
make before then, and I do hope you will travel with
us. Alfred never thinks of any body but himself, and
doesn't even know how to take care of himself when
he is removed from his ordinaiy surroundings. I
really don't feel strong enough just now to look after
him."

She was, however, strong enough, it appeared, to
go to the theatre that night, and she had taken a
ticket for Billy, whom she expected to escort her.
He therefore gave up all idea of dining at the club,
and, having signified his willingness to accompany
the travellers on the following Monday, went away
to change his clothes. As he was leaving the house,
he encountered a dapper little red-faced personage,
with small, twinkling eyes and a grayish mustache,
who said :

" Hullo, old man ! Been arranging matters with
the wife ? Devil of a nuisance, this fancy of hers for
going abroad, ain't it ? But you're going to join the
party, I hope ? You are, are you ? That's all right !
And we shall see you at dinner, shall we ? That's all
right ! "

From the very beginning of the business, which
now seemed such a long, long time ago, Colonel Lit-
tle wood had thought, or had affected to think, that
it was all right. He was, perhaps, a bad husband ;
he certainly was not an affectionate one; he was a
confirmed tippler; he had on various occasions bor-
rowed money from his wife's friend, whom he invari-
ably treated as a personal friend of his own, and wel-

FOEEIGN SERVICB 9

corned to bis house at all times and seasons. He had
persistently ignored rumors which could scarcely
have failed to reach his ears. It was difficult to speak
civilly to the man, and impossible to help despising
him ; yet it did not seem quite so certain as it ought
to have seemed that some of those who despised him
were less contemptible than he.

This was the unwelcome reflection which thrust
itself upon Billy Bellew as he strode, with bent head,
along the filthy, slippery London pavement. It was
true that he had done Colonel Littlewood no injury of
which the law can take cognizance, but he had un-
questionably done Mrs. Littlewood the injury of com-
promising her, and he had also (though that was
a minor consideration) done a good deal of injury
to himself. He had, in short, behaved like a fool.
There was no blinking the matter ; and, as he no
longer attempted to blink it in his self- communings,
it will be perceived that he was no longer in love.
Nevertheless, he had once been in love with the
woman, who had first flirted with him, then made him
her confidant, and had finally given him to under-
stand that, had it been possible for her to begin her
life over again, she would have chosen him out of all
the world as her husband. And he was still fond of
her, he still believed in her, and he still pitied her
from the bottom of his heart. Only he sometimes
wished that she could bring herself to face the neces-
sity of submission to hard facts ; he sometimes
wished that she were a little less reckless and indif-
ferent to public opinion ; and sometimes (but that
was an idea upon which he hastened to turn his back)

10 BILLT BELLE W

he half-suspected her of being a trifle selfish. For
the rest, any man who had dared to breathe a word
against Mrs. Littlewood's fair fame in the presence
of Billy Bellew would have been a sadly battered and
disfigured man within a few minutes after the utter-
ance of his shameful calumny.

Unfortunately one cannot blacken the eyes of ladies
or knock their teeth down their throats ; so calum-
nies had been uttered, and it had been impossible to
take any notice of them. And now he was going to
Algiers with the Littlewoods ; and every-body would
hear of it ; and he would have to sell his horses in a
hurry ; and he didn't know what on earth to do with
himself out there ; and he wished he had never been
born !

The above irritated soliloquy might naturally
enough be taken as portending that the end of a fool-
ish entanglement was in sight ; but any one who had
been aware of that soliloquy, and had arrived at that
natural conclusion, would have been imperfectly
acquainted with the character of Billy Bellew. Such,
indeed, was Billy's own case ; for he had never
thought his character worthy of close inspection, and
had never supposed that he differed in any essential
particular from the rest of the world. He did differ
from the great majority in one particular — namely,
that he was absolutely unselfish. There are a few
people like that, but only a few, and most of them
old maids. Every thing pointed to the probability
that Billy would remain an old bachelor ; because he
would have submitted to any personal inconvenience
rather than cause Blanche Littlewood one moment of

FOBEIQN SEBYICE 11

additional distress, and it was certain that Blanche
Littlewood would have been infinitely distressed by
the loss of his allegiance.

So it came to pass that in the early morning of one
of those divine winter days which our northern sum-
mer can only at rare intei'vals contrive to rival, three
passengers from Marseilles disembarked upon the
modern quay beneath the white and glittering old
city of pirates. Two of them had been sea-sick and
were cross ; the third, upon whom had devolved all
previous trouble and responsibility during their joint
journey, was in his accustomed condition of equa-
nimity, and was able to derive such enjoyment from
the novelty of the scene as an uneducated sense of
form and color brought within the range of his
capacities. He dispersed the vociferous Arabs ; he
obtained possession of the luggage, after a delay of
which Mrs. Littlewood complained querulously ; he
chartered a conveyance, and, as a matter of course,
he drove up to the suburb of Mustapha Sup^rieur
with his companions to see them comfortably estab-
lished in their villa before securing a resting place for
himself.

"This is very jolly — awfully pretty, and unlike
any thing one has ever seen before, and — and that
sort of thing, you know," was the comment upon the
scenery which suggested itself to him while the little
horse toiled up the dusty road toward that quarter
which wealthy and invalid Anglo-Saxons have
marked for their own.

Colonel Littlewood said, rather snappishly, " Oh,
I dare say it's all right," and Mrs. Littlewood re-

12 BILLY BELLE W

marked that Paradise itself would hardly be worth
gaining at a cost of so horrible a voyage. She
added that she was quite sure the servants, who
had been despatched by a previous steamer, would
not have take the trouble to put anything straight.

This gloomy foreboding was, unhappily, verified.
The villa which Colonel Littlewood had taken, in
obedience to his wife's behests, was a very charming
house, built in the pseudo-Moorish style by an en-
lightened architect, surrounded by a prettily laid out
garden and commanding a view of the bay and the
snowy Djurdjura Mountains beyond, which in itself
justified the high rent demanded by the proprietor ;
but breakfast was not ready, and the baths had not
been unpacked, and Mr. Bellew had to perform many
menial oiBces before he was released, without a word
of thanks.

" Upon my word, Blanche, you do make that poor
devil work like a slave ! " exclaimed the colonel,
with a touch of compunction, after Billy had de-
parted for the Hotel d'Orient.

" Oh, he likes it, and it's good for him," returned
Mrs. Littlewood lightly.

It may have been good for him ; but it was an
exaggeration to affirm that he liked it. However,
as has already been intimated, he was one of the
most good-natured of men, and he was irresistibly
impelled by his temperament to make the best of
things, even when things did not look particularly
bright. Youth and redundant health are scarcely
compatible with melancholy. It had been a trial to
give up the hunting ; but that trial was now over

FOBEIGN SEBVICB 13

and done with ; and the blue sky and the white houses
and the sunny slopes and the palm-trees and the
feathery bamboos were pleasant to the eye.

" I expect one will manage to pull through some-
how," said Billy to himself in cheerful accents when
he reached the suburban hostelry, where a couple of
rooms had been engaged for him by telegraph.

CHAPTER n

WINIFRED FOBBES

The town of Algiers faces east, and the wooded
slopes which trend upward around and above it are
thickly sprinkled with whitewashed villas, looking,
for the most part, toward the same quarter, or a
point or two northward thereof. In old days the
inhabitants of the town naturally wished to keep
their country houses as cool as possible, and the win-
ter visitors who have supplanted them must needs
make the best of narrow windows and an insufficient
supply of sunshine. The winter visitors, however,
are gradually straggling further and further away
from the district known as Mustapha Sup6rieur, so
that some of them have already overtopped the
ridge which used to be considered its utmost limit,
and, turning their backs upon the town and the bay,
gaze due south across the wide Metidja plain. If
they thus deprive themselves of a charming and
varied prospect, they acquire what is perhaps of
more practical importance to them — the privilege of
basking in the sun's rays until the Angelus bell rings
and the brief twilight gives place to darkness. Not
that the view of the Metidja and the Atlas Moun-
tains is wanting in space or beauty of outline, or
exquisite soft gradations of tint. It lacks the Mediter-

WINIFBED FOBBBS 15

raiiean ; but if the MediteiTanean were not within
reach, it would satisfy most people.

It amply satisfied the soul of Miss Winifred Forbes,
who sat in the little arbor at the end of the garden
one moniing, looking out upon a scene with which
she was becoming familiarized by degrees, but which
it seemed to her impossible that she could ever learn
to accept as an every-day background to existence,
like the view from the library windows at home in'
Shropshire. From a point almost directly beneath
her feet the hillside fell away in abrupt declivities of
uncultivated ground, where the palmetto and the
asphodel grew and flourished among the rocks ;
immediately opposite were slopes, clothed with
vineyards, a comparatively recent and scarcely a sat-
isfactory feature in the landscape. Beyond stretched
the vast plain, with its orange groves, its corn fields,
and its scattered habitations, and in the distance
rose range after range of purple hills, fading into
shadowy outlines against a sky of unclouded blue.
She was not of a poetic or romantic temperament, —
at least, if she was, she had been too busy all her life
to cultivate any natural tendency in that direction, —
but scenery and sunlight made her happy and ap-
pealed to her, as indeed they do and must to nine
out of every ten human beings ; and, since nothing
is more becoming than happiness to the average
human being, it may be said without flattery of Miss
Forbes that, as she sat contentedly there in her clean
pink cotton gown, she was an agreeable object for
the eye to rest upon.

Her mother, a dispassionate judge, was wont to

16 BILLY BELLE W

say : " Winnie isn't exactly pretty — of course, noth-
ing like as pretty as Daisy — but she always looks
nice, and she has a clear, healthy skin." Strictly
speaking, her complexion did, no doubt, constitute
her sole valid claim to beauty, although she had a
pair of soft brown eyes which were wonderfully ex-
pressive at times, and which never expressed ill will
to man, woman, or child. But the rest of her fea-
tures were not much to boast of, and she was too tall,
too thin, too angular, to meet the requirements of
any artistic standard. Nevertheless, it was univer-
sally and quite justly admitted that she "looked
nice." Probably she was such a good girl that she
could not have helped looking nice, even though
fewer physical advantages had been vouchsafed to
her.

One knows, from having seen so many examples of
it, what invariably happens to a good girl who is the
eldest of her family, who has a younger sister better
looking than herself, and whose parents do not hap-
pen to be energetic persons. Ever since she had
reached years of discretion, Winifred had been at
once the Providence and the maid-of -all-work of the
Forbes household. It was she who engaged and
dismissed the servants, ordered the dinner, scolded
the cook, took the railway tickets, and looked after
the luggage ; it was she who copied out manuscripts
and corrected proofs for her erudite and inefficient
father, a countiy gentleman, with an odd mania for
scribbling upon historical and political topics ; it was
she who supervised Daisy's wardrobe and subsidized
that extravagant young woman with occasional doles

WINIFRED FOBBES 17

out of her own not very liberal allowance ; above all,
it was upon her shoulders that the responsibility of
seeing that Micky did not get his feet wet or over-
tire himself, or otherwise endanger his health, had,
by common consent, been placed. Now, as Micky
was a boy of fourteen, as he held decided views with
respect to the right of every freeborn Briton to per-
sonal liberty, and as it was on his account that the
Forbeses had been packed off South for the winter
by their medical adviser, it will be seen that the task
of keeping her young brother in a state of disci-
pline and submission was not*the easiest of those
which Winifred was expected to discharge.

Presently he sauntered out of the house behind
her, with his hands in his pockets, and, making his
way across a somewhat untidy garden which, in spite
of neglect, was gay with tea-roses and geraniums and
giant cinerarias, threw himself down upon the bench
by his sister's side. He was tall for his age, but not
as broad across the chest as his relations would have
liked him to be, and the color on his cheeks was
rather too vivid to be a sign of health. For the rest,
he promised to develop into a tolerably good-looking
man, notwithstanding his short turned-up nose ; and
his reddish brown hair and eyes were much admired
in the family.

" Winnie, my love," he began, " it is with sincere
regret that I have to inform you of my inability to
pursue my ordinary course of study this morning."

Winifred did not rebuke him for the above disre-
spectful imitation of his father's accustomed tone and
phraseology, because she knew by experience that re-
2

18 BILLY BELLEW

monstrances upon such points were seldom of much
avail ; she only shook her head and said quietly :

" I can't give you another holiday, Micky. If you
don't do your lessons now, you will be soiTy for it
when you go back to school and find yourself placed
among the infants. After all, you must admit that
you haven't been veiy hard worked since we came
here."

" I cheerfully make that admission, my love, and I
feel the full force of your remarks. At the same
time, it will be obvious to you that I cannot do ray
lessons in the abseilce of my kind preceptress, and
my kind preceptress will be unavoidably absent this
morning. Shortly before twelve o'clock, my love,
you will put on your Sunday clothes and go out into
society with your papa and mamma. Lady Ottery —
may her shadow never be less — has sent to beg that
they will bring one of their charming daughters
with them to her breakfast party, and the lot has
fallen upon you. It seems that a stray man has
turned up, and a stray woman is wanted to match
him."

" But why isn't Daisy going ? " asked Winifred,
raising her eyebrows a little.

" Daisy has been approached upon the subject, and
has declined. She said she would see the whole lot
of them jolly well blowed first — or words to that
effect. I am afraid our dear Daisy got out of bed
the wrong side to-day — ^though it is not for me to
complain. And I must say I should think a break-
fast party was a rather ghastly sort of entertainment."

Perhaps Miss Forbes may have thought so too ;

WINIFRED FORBES 19

but it would never have occurred to her that personal
disinclination to take part in an entertainment could
be any excuse for shirking it, and, as a matter of fact,
breakfast parties are not quite so objectionable abroad
as they would be in England. English sojourners in
Algiers and other southern watering-places have,
at all events, assimilated the foreign custom in that
respect, contenting themselves with a cup of coffee
and a roll at nine o'clock, and being prepared for
social intercourse at an hour when, if they were at
home, they would very properly refuse to see any
body. Lord and Lady Ottery, who occupied a villa
of imposing dimensions, had invited no less than
twenty people to share their midday meal that morn-
ing, and were now destined to provide food for
twenty-two, including Winifred Forbes and the stray
man of whom mention has been made.

The former hastened to array herself in what her
brother, with masculine ignorance, had described as
her " Sunday clothes " ; but she had several small
jobs to attend to before starting, so that she vexed
her father by keeping him waiting nearly three
minutes. When she had seated herself, with her
back to the horses, in the little open carriage which
had been hired for the winter, Mr. Forbes, a tall,
spare, nervous-looking old man, whose long gray hair
fell over his coat collar and whose convex spectacles
nearly hid the weak eyes behind them, thought it
right to utter a mild remonstrance.

" Winifred, my love," said he, " you would save
me an immensity of woiTy if you would try to culti-
vate the virtue of punctuality. One may almost call

20 BILLY BELLEW

punctuality a virtue, and it is scarcely saying too
much to call unpunctuality a vice. May I hope that
you have looked over those proofs and made the cor-
rections which I indicated to you ? They really ought
to be despatched to the printers by to-morrow's mail,
at the latest."

" I corrected the proofs last night and sent them
off this morning, papa," answered Winifred cheer-
fully. " I'm sorry I wasn't down in time ; but I
wanted to make sure that Micky had something to
eat before he started for his ride."

Mrs. Forbes, who was small, fragile, very prettily
dressed, and had the remains of considerable beauty,
exclaimed : " You don't mean that you have let that
boy go out riding all by himself again ! I cannot
think that it is safe, Winnie. These Arab horses are
so extraordinary in their ways of going on ! You
say they are not vicious ; but if they aren't vicious,
why are they always squealing ? "

Mr. Forbes explained. He was not himself an
equestrian ; but his historical and ethnographical re-
searches had made him acquainted with the methods
of equine management adopted by the various races
of mankind, and he imparted his acquired informa-
tion to his hearers in the low, level accents habitual
to him, much as though he had been delivering a
scientific lecture.

" I am given to understand," he concluded, " that
Michael has a secure seat, and I do not share your
apprehensions with regard to his physical safety, my
dear. On the other hand, I confess that I am not
free from anxiety on the score of his mental growth.

WINIFRED FORBES 21

When he is riding he cannot be studying, and he
certainly should be made to study at least five hours of
every day. I presume I may take it for granted that
he will not accomplish even that modest minimum
to-day."

He would not accomplish so much as a fifth part
thereof, and Winifred's eyes dropped apologetically
beneath the accusing gaze of her father's spectacles.
To be sure, it had been no fault of hers that she had
been called away from her educational duties ; but it
was a very common experience with her to be blamed
for mishaps which she was innocent of having caused,
and she had a fine stock of unconscious philosophy at
command. She was also fortunate in being able to
take things as they came, and enjoy to the full what-
ever happened to strike her at the moment as beauti-
ful or pleasant ; so she enjoyed the warm sun and the
pellucid air, and the distant views of sea and shore,
and the picturesque Oriental-looking figures which
had already lost all the charm of novelty for her
mother. As for enjoying Lady Ottery's overgrown
assemblage of expatriated Britons, and the too sump-
tuous repast to which they would presently be com-
pelled to sit down, that was another affair. Still, she
was willing to try.

Happily, it turned out that no great effort would
be necessary, for as soon as she and her parents had
joined the throng, fat, good-natured Lady Ottery
took her by the arm and whispered :

" I'm not going to victimize you with an old fogy,
my dear. I've got the nicest of young men for you
— a Mr. Bellew. I don't know whether you have

22 BILLY BELLE W

ever heard of him, but he is pretty well known as a
gentleman rider. Ottery was quite delighted to come
across him yesterday. He used to see a great deal
of him hunting last winter, and we both liked him
immensely. Such a good sportsman, and so simple
and modest ! besides being superlatively handsome,
which isn't a drawback, you know."

The first thought that entered Winnie's mind, after
she had been introduced to this highly praised gen-
tleman, and had been conducted by him into the
Moorish dining-room, which was profusely decorated
with the roses which Algiers provides without stint
to those who can afford to pay for them, was, " What
a pity poor Daisy didn't come instead of me ! This
is just the sort of man whom she would have been
sure to like."

However, in the unavoidable absence of Daisy,
there was no reason at all why other people shouldn't
like him ; and Winnie, for her part, soon discovered
that she liked him very much indeed. He was, as
Lady Ottery had truly said, remarkably modest and
simple ; he gave himself no airs upon the strength of
personal beauty ; he did not grumble (as almost
every-body else in the room did) at being out of Eng-
land, and he seemed quite eager to make acquaint-
ance with his fellow exiles.

" Well, you see. Miss Forbes," said he, in answer
to some observation of hers, " the way I look at it is
this : what can't be cured must be endured. And,
after all, I think this is rather a jolly sort of a place,
don't you ? Lots of funny things to be seen, I mean
— and I dare say one might get up a few picnics and

WINIFEED FORBES 23

excursions, and so on. I suppose you ride and drive
about a good deal ? "

Winnie replied that she did when she had time,
but that she was generally rather busy at home ; and
so he heard all about Daisy and Micky and Mr.
Forbes's literary labors, and they became excellent
friends. Probably it was the interest which the
young man displayed in Micky that won Miss
Forbes's heart.

" Poor little chap ! " he exclaimed compassionately;
" what awful hard lines for him to be seedy at his
age ! Fond of riding, you say ? I wonder whether
he would care to come out for a ride with me some
day. I might be able to give him a hint or two, and
I assure you that nothing is more important than
learning to ride in the right way. If you begin
wrong, you let yourself in for no end of bother
afterward."

This offer was unhesitatingly accepted, as was also
Mr. Bellew's further diffident suggestion that perhaps
he might be allowed to call on Mr. and Mrs. Forbes.
There is a sort of freemasonry between all classes of
human beings which stands in need of no explanatory
signs. Rogues recognize one another at a glance, and
so do honest folks. Unhappily, honest folks may, and
not unfrequently do, find themselves in equivocal
situations, so that Winifred had to modify the good
opinion wliich she had formed of her companion before
the party dispersed. She was standing beside him,
after breakfast, when coffee and cigarettes had been
carried out into the garden, and when Lady Ottery,
in the innocence of her heart, came up to enquire what

24 BILLY BELLEW

in the world had brought him to Algiers, of all
places.

" Oh, I've come out with the Littlewoods," he
answered. " Mrs. Littlewood has had a nasty cough,
and they've been ordered to winter abroad, I don't
think you know them, do you ? "

The smile faded from Lady Otteiy's lips. "No, I
don't know them," she replied, a little dryly.

" They are great friends of mine," said that foolish
Billy, and his tone of voice was nothing short of
defiant. " Especially Mrs. Littlewood : she is about
the best friend I have."

" Yes," returned Lady Ottery, moving off at once
to speak to somebody else.

Billy, who was not skilful at disguising his feel-
ings, was obviously annoyed, and lost no time in
taking his leave. After he had departed. Lady
Ottery regretfully narrated what she knew of his
recent history to Mrs. Forbes, who, having been
sti*uck by his engaging manners, asked a few ques-
tions about him.

" It is a thousand pities," said she ; " but I sup-
pose the poor young man is bent upon making him-
self impossible for the present. I had no idea that
he was here in tow of that dreadful Littlewood
woman. Of course, one isn't supposed to know ;
and if only he will refrain from parading her before
our eyes we needn't see her ; but I suspect, from the
way in which he spoke to me just now, that he means
to play the idiot. It really is too provoking of
him ! He would have been so useful in a jDlace
like this, where well-connected and nice-looking

WIKIFBED FOBBES 25

bachelors are worth even more than they are in
London I "

Mrs. Forbes was less anxious than the generality
of mothers to scrape acquaintance with eligible bach-
elors, because one of her daughters was already en-
gaged to be married, and the other, she hoped,
would be so ere long ; therefore, as she drove away,
she felt free to express her abhorrence of the con-
duct of such men as Mr. Bellew.

" Without cutting him, which is quite unnecessary,
you had better avoid him for the future, Winnie,
dear," was her concluding remark. " Under the cir-
cumstances, I am surprised that he should try to
force himself upon the society of the place at all."

"I am very sorry," said Winifred. "I thought
him so nice, and he asked me if he might call ; and
he spoke of giving Micky some instruction in riding,
too. Don't you think Lady Ottery may be mistaken
about him ? "

" It is impossible to make mistakes in matters of
that kind," answered Mrs. Forbes decisively. "If
he chooses to call, it can't be helped, and your father
can leave a card upon him after a week or two ; but
it will be out of the question for us to know him.
At all events, we must wait until we see what other
people mean to do."

CHAPTER m

BILLT DOES THE STBAIGHT THING

To wait humbly for a lead, before taking action of
any kind, is the habitual attitude of fully three-fourths
of the human race. Such is our inherent modesty
that the majority of us don't care, as Billy Bellew
would have put it, to "break our own fences"; we
have no wish to thrust ourselves into undue promi-
nence ; we are quite content to do what other people
do and say. Now, it so happened that, for some
little time after Billy's arrival in Algiers, people — and
highly influential people a few of them were — said
nothing but good of him. Mrs. Littlewood was in
bed with a bad cold, which may to some extent have
accounted for his having abstained from outraging
public decorum ; but it was, in any case, evident that
he was upon terms of intimacy with the aristocracy
of his native land, and this discovery softened Mrs.
Forbes's heart toward him. She said to her eldest
daughter that she had perhaps been a little hasty, and
that perhaps dear Lady Ottery had also been a little
hasty. All sorts of ill-natured stories got about ; and
very often, when you came to enquire into them, there
was no real foundation for them ; poor Mr. Bellew
could hardly be as black as he had been painted, or
Lady this and Lady that would never have asked him

BILLY DOES THE 6TBAI6HT THING 27

to dine with them, as Mrs. Forbes understood that
they had done. In short, if poor Mr, Bellew should
call, he was not to be turned away from the door.

It appeared, however, that Mr. Bellew was in no
great hurry to fulfil his promise ; and thus consider-
able disappointment was caused to Miss Daisy Forbes,
who, having cross-questioned her sister about him,
had come to the conclusion that she would like very
much to make his acquaintance.

" Naughty he may be," was her comment upon the
information imparted to her, " but he is sure to be
nice. Naughty people always are nice ; and in this
deadly-lively place nobody is either the one or the
other. If he doesn't turn up soon, you must write
him a note and ask him to breakfast, Winnie. Per-
haps he is shy and wants a little encouragement."

" From what I saw of him, I shouldn't say that he
suffered in that way," answered Winnie, laughing.
"At all events, I certainly shall not send him an in-
vitation ; and, after all, I am not sure that I want
him to come. He is too good-looking. Besides, I
suppose one must assume that his affections are al-
ready engaged — as yours are, or ought to be."

" According to you and mamma, his affections are
sadly misplaced, and it would be an act of charity to
him to divert them," returned the younger girl com-
posedly. "As for mine, I can't think why you
should say that they ought to be engaged. To the
best of my belief, they are at present concentrated
chiefly upon myself, and I don't propose to offer them
as a free gift to any Mr. Bellew."

Daisy Forbes had a happy conviction that when-

28 BILLY BELLEW

ever, and upon whomsoever, it might please her to
bestow her affections, they would be enthusiastically
accepted. Experience had justified her in holding
that conviction ; for she was a very pretty girl, and
she had the whole art of flirtation at her fingers'
ends. The baclielors of Salop had been as wax under
the touch of those taper fingers ; the bachelors of
London had not escaped ; and if Miss Daisy was still
a spinster, it was no doubt only because, as she her-
self averred, she had hitherto remained comfort-
ably heartwhole. Winifred sighed, rs she gazed
at her sister's small, compact figure, at her golden-
brown hair and clear blue eyes, and her pink and
white complexion. There were a certain softness
and a certain hardness about Daisy; one couldn't
help feeling occasional misgivings as to her ultimate
fate, and one couldn't help wishing that she would
anticipate and annul possible perils by falling in love
with some honest man. The unfortunate thing was
that she had not, to all appearance, fallen in love
with Harry Lysaght, who was honest and in every
way suitable, and to whom (supposing that she did
not intend to marry him) she had behaved rather
badly. It was true that there had been no actual
engagement, but the affair had been upon the very
brink of conclusion when Micky had fallen so ill with
bronchitis that the family had been sent off abroad
post-haste. Of course this had been great fun to
Daisy, who delighted in tantalizing her admirers; but
Winifred quite hoped that all would be satisfactorily
arranged on their return home in the spring. Mean-
while Daisy had to be amused, if that could be man-

BILLY DOES THE STJBAIGHT THING 29

aged. The girl was bored and out of spirits — a state
of things which, as her elder sister knew full well,
was very apt to render her mischievous.

Taking every thing into consideration, therefore,
it seemed to be just as well that Mr. Bellew had for-
gotten or repented of his intention of calling at Le
Bocage, which was the name of the villa tempo-
rarily inhabited by the Forbes family.

Winifred, on her side, liad almost forgotten him,
and had quite ceased to expect him by the time that
he tardily redeemed his promise. Supported by the
inexhaustible stock of patience and perseverance
which was her birthright, she was helping Micky to
construe a Horatian ode that afternoon. At his re-
quest she had transferred the scene of their joint
labors to the arbor at the end of the garden ; and
there (not without occasional longings to dismiss her
reluctant pupil and let the whole hopeless business
slide) she was endeavoring to turn his preposterous
rendering of the Boman poet into passable English.
A warm wind was blowing across the plain from the
distant Sahara. It was not yet one of those terrible,
furious siroccos which fill the atmosphere with fine
sand and convert the lofty blue sky into a low, copper-
colored vault ; but waves of tepid air were rolling
softly in and relaxing the energies of all living crea-
tures. ^

^^AuditiSy an me Ivdit amdbilis Insania ? — do you
hear, or does an amiable insanity delude me ? " asks
Micky sleepily ; and his instructress has to rouse her-
self with an effort, in order to point out that " amia-
ble insanity " can hardly have been the precise con-

30 BILLY BELLEW

dition of mind contemplated by the author of the
lines.

" Oh, I don't know," returned the boy, yawning ;
^^I expect he must have been a bit off his head,
or he wouldn't have written such bosh. I say,
Winnie, don't you think we might knock off
for to-day ? It is so beastly hot ! and I think
I'm going to have a headache. You know the
doctor said most particularly that I wasn't to have
headaches."

" I can't let you go for another half -hour, Micky,"
the inexorable Winifred declared. "Perhaps you
will escape in twenty minutes if only you will try to
get on. Come ! Audire et videor pios errare per
lucos amcencB Quos et aquoe subeunt et auroe.^^

Micky had resumed despondently : " I seem to
hear pious people wandering through something or

other which both agreeable waters and airs "

when he interrupted himself by exclaiming in much
more lively accents : " Hullo ! I seem to hear the
voices of people who ain't a bit pious, and who are
advancing in this direction. Heaven be praised !
It's Daisy, accompanied by a visitor. Daisy isn't
always what I could wish her to be ; but I owe her a
good turn for this, and I won't forget it."

It was not Daisy's habit to receive visitors ; still
less was it her habit to share the company of such
rare visitors as chanced to interest her with her sister.
But when Mr. Bellew had been conducted by her into
the summer-house and had shaken hands with Wini-
fred, and when Micky had joyfully gathered up his
books in preparation for a strategic movement of

BILLY DOES THE STRAIGHT THING 31

retreat, she explained this departure from established
custom.

" Very sorry to interrupt you, Winnie," said she ;
" it isn't my fault. Mr. Bellew simply refused to quit
the premises without having seen you ; so I had to
bring him out here."

Billy laughed and colored slightly ; he was neither
too old nor too wicked to blush. " I really ain't so
pushing as all that. Miss Forbes," he protested ; " but
I did rather want to ask you whether we couldn't
make up a riding-party one of these days ; and — and
you promised to introduce me to your brother, you
know."

Well, it was no hard matter to make friends with
Mr. Michael Forbes, who was a shrewd observer, and
who was graciously pleased to approve of the stran-
ger's aspect. Boys always took to Billy Bellew, and
boys make fewer mistakes at first sight than men. As
we grow old we learn to distrust appearance, and we
also, unfortunately, learn to distrust our instincts ;
but the lessons of experience, as every honest middle-
aged man will admit, are of singularly little practical
service to us. Winifred, who, being a woman, was
in some respects as good a judge of her fellow-crea-
tures as a boy, could not for the life of her help
thinking well of this pleasant, handsome, unassuming
young fellow. Perhaps he had been maligned ; even
if the story told about him were true, he might not
be wholly inexcusable ; at least, he spoke and acted
like a gentleman, and it was very kind of him to take
such an interest in Micky, to whose views upon the
subject of horsemanship he was listening with the

32 BILLY BELLE W

polite patience which masters of a craft never fail to
display in their dealings with neophytes.

But Daisy, it may be, regarded their guest in a
somewhat different, though not in a less flattering
light. Young men, whether in England or in Algeria,
did not, according to her belief, call on Mrs. Forbes
in order to listen to the chatter of a brat of fourteen,
and she soon took measures to release Mr. Belle w
from an incubus of which she felt sure that he would
be glad to get rid.

" If I were you, Micky," said she, " I should make
a bolt for it. Winnie has her eye upon you, and she
is quite capable of dragging you off somewhere to
finish your lessons before tea."

There seemed to be something in that. Micky,
after considering the question for a moment or two,
decided to adopt the safer course. He tucked his
books under his arm and held out his hand to his new
friend, saying, " Well, I think I'll be off now. The
stables are just beyond the house, and if you'll ride
up the road outside and whistle any morning about
eleven o'clock, I'll be with you in a brace of shakes. I
can show you a place where there's rare good gallop-
ing-ground, and a bit of a jump, too."

" All right ; you'll hear me whistling for you
before you're much older," answered Billy ; where-
upon the boy nodded and promptly disappeared. A
little ordinary tact, Daisy thought, would have led
Winnie to follow his example ; but Winnie was
sometimes provokingly obtuse. She showed no dis-
position to withdraw, but resumed her seat and asked
Mr. Bellew whether he wouldn't rather sit down than

BILLY DOBS THB STBAIGHT THING 33

Stand. Moreover, when a servant came across the
garden presently to announce that Mrs. Nugent had
called, and please would one of the young ladies
come in, she had the stupidity to remark :

" Perhaps you had better go, Daisy ; Mrs. Nugent
may want to see you, and I am sure she can't want to
see me."

It was a stupid thing to say ; still the advice might
be worth taking, because Mrs. Nugent was a lady
who gave frequent small dances, and was very par-
ticular about securing exactly the right number of
couples for them. It would be rather vexatious to be
cut out of an invitation by one's elder sister, while
nothing could possibly be more safe than to leave a
potential admirer in the temporary custody of that
elder sister. Therefore Daisy sighed and exclaimed :

"Bother the woman I I suppose I must go and do
the civil to her ; but she won't stay long, and I shall
be out again in ten minutes or so. I hope you won't
let Winnie drive you away before I return, Mr.
Bellew."

Mr. Bellew was evidently not anxious to be driven
away, nor was Winnie eager to dismiss him. On the
contrary, she was glad to have this opportunity of
conversing with liim for a short time in private,
and striving, if possible, at some clear comprehension
of the man. She felt convinced that he was more
sinned against than sinning ; perhaps he might
become communicative, and perhaps she might be
able to give him some assistance, verbal or other. It
was not unnatural that she should entertain this
expectation ; for many men and women, recognizing
3

34 BILLY BELLEW

in her a sympathetic soul, had been communicative
with her, and many were the men and women whom
she had been instrumental in helping out of diffi-
culties. It was for some such purpose that Winifred
Forbes conceived that she had been created ; prob-
ably she was not mistaken.

Billy, for his part, conceived, not less naturally,
that Miss Forbes had been created for a totally dif-
ferent purpose ; and this was what prompted him to
remark, after a pause :

"It's awfully good of you to undertake that young
beggar's education. From what Mrs. Forbes told me
just now, I presume that you are undertaking it, and
I should think that you must find him rather a hand-
ful, don't you ? "

" No," answered Winifred ; " Micky is really a
good boy — quite as good as I want him to be. If he
hadn't occasional fits of naughtiness, he might grow
up into a little prig, which would be dreadful. Of
course it is a great disadvantage to him to be taken
away from school, and of course he has a fine con-
tempt of female authority ; but that can't be helped.
He is delicate, though I dare say you don't think he
looks so, and for this winter, at all events, he must be
taken care of."

" Well, if I were you, I shouldn't bother much
about lessons, and I should let him have plenty of
exercise and open air ; you may depend upon it that
that's what all boys want," said Billy sapiently.
"That and kicking — which perhaps he may get later
on. Dear me ! if I hadn't been well kicked in my
boyhood, and if I hadn't been kept in pretty hard

BILLY DOES THE STRAIGHT THING 35

condition all my life, a nice sort of ruffian I should be
at the present moment ; I ain't much to boast of, as it
is. That's the worst of having been one's own
father from the outset. One don't mean any par-
ticular harm ; but one is almost bound to make an
ass of one's self. And the stupid part of it is that,
after one has learned a thing or two by experience,
one isn't allowed to make a fresh start."

"It's never too late to mend," said Winifred.
"Have you made a very great ass of yourself?"

"So I'm told. Oh, yes ! I have made a great ass
of myself, no doubt ; perhaps I ought to be thankful
that I have done no worse. Anyhow, as I was saying,
what's done can't be undone. Only I think if I had
a son, or a younger brother, as you have, I might be
able to give him a few valuable hints."

"He wouldn't take them," answered Winifred,
smiling. " E very-body has to earn his own experience,
and every-body — every man, at least — should know
how to control his own destiny. It doesn't follow
that, because you have been silly in the past, you must
be silly in the future."

"Oh, doesn't it, though?" ejaculated the young
man ruefully.

But as soon as the words were out of his mouth he
felt ashamed of them. After all, it was a shabby
proceeding to vilify Blanche Littlewood by implica-
tion ; and if he repented of what had occurred in
days gone by, the least that he could do, as a gentle-
man, was to keep his repentance to himself. More-
over, this tall girl, with the soft brown eyes, whose
sympathies he was, for some reason or other, so

36 BILLY BELLE W

anxious to gain, would not be likely to think any
the better of him for putting forward Adam's old.
unworthy excuse. Therefore he rose, thrust his
hands into his pockets, gazed for a moment or two
toward the declining sun, and then, facing about,
proceeded, with the somewhat disconcerting direct-
ness which was characteristic of him, to the point
which he had been intending all this time to approach.

" Look here, Miss Forbes,'* said he ; "I want to
ask you something. After I went away the other
day, did Lady Ottery speak to you about me and
Mrs. Little wood?"

" Yes," answered Winifred, who, though slightly
disconcerted, was less so than most people would
have been under the circumstances; ^^ since you ask
me, she did."

" I suspected as much. Well, it's always best to
start fair and have a clear understanding from the
first, don't you think so ? I mean, if you like people
and want to be friends with them, and all that, you
know. I sha'n't grumble if you say that you don't
care about being friends with me, or seeing much
more of me ; but I want you to know that Mrs.
Little wood has been abominably calumniated. The
long and the short of it is that she has been rather
imprudent, and that's what these old cats never for-
give. As for me, I'm glad to say that I'm a friend
of hers ; and any body who thinks fit to cut me
because I'm a friend of hers is heartily welcome to
do so."

It was hardly possible to help laughing at this
defiant assertion. The poor fellow could not have

BILLY DOES THE STBAIGHT THING 37

betrayed himself more completely if be had stated in
the plainest of terms what he would have died rather
than reveal. But Winifred did not laugh ; she only
said :

" Oh, I hope we shall be friends, Mr. Bellew. I
quite believe what you tell me, and you certainly
won't be cut by me, unless mamma orders me to cut
you, which doesn't seem likely."

Billy drew a long breath of relief. " Thanks ; I'm
glad that's over ! " he exclaimed. " I had to say it,
because it was the straight thing to do ; but it's a
horrid subject, and we needn't refer to it again, I
hope."

Winifred thought she knew enough of human
nature to feel tolerably certain that he would recur to
it ; but for the moment she was content to discourse
with him about Micky and about riding and about
the chances of sport which might be obtainable
within reach of Algiers, until Daisy emerged from
the house, having duly obtained her invitation from
Mrs. Nugent, and being likewise provided with a cut-
and-dried programme, which she at once submitted
to Mr. Bellew for approval.

Could he, she asked, manage to make a long day
of it and accompany them on an excursion to Cap
Caxine? They could picnic in some woods that she
knew of, and Mr. and Mrs. Forbes could drive, and
the rest of the party could go on horseback. And
would the day after to-morrow suit him ?

Winifred noticed, though Daisy did not, a momen-
tary hesitation on Mr. Bellow's part, the cause of
which was not far to seek. Doubtless he would

38 BILLY BELLEW

have to obtain Mrs. Littlewood's permission before
absenting himself for a whole day. But there was no
ring of hesitation in his voice when he replied that
he should like it of all things. Only he couldn't be
absolutely sure of being free until he reached home.
Might he send up a note in the moniing ?

Daisy having graciously acquiesced in this arrange-
ment, he presently took his leave ; and almost before
he was out of hearing, the younger of the two girls
said emphatically to the elder :

" Charming — quite charming I The best-looking
man I have ever seen in my life, and one of the
pleasantest. Winnie, my dear, I shall make it my
business to save that young man from himself — and
his friends. Why should you have a monopoly of
performing good deeds? I will take Mr. Bellew off
your hands, and you shall see what I will make of
him."

CHAPTER IV

A LITTLE HOLIDAY

It would be a happy thing for some of us if the
post came in only once a day, and all of us can escape
from our present state of constant bombardment by
the comparatively simple process of betaking our-
selves to North Africa. Even there, however, the
mail steamer arrives every twenty-four hours in these
times, bringing with it the usual and inevitable load
of worry. On the morning after Mr. Bellew's visit
to Le Bocage it brought a pile of letters, packets,
and newspapers to that destination for Mr. Forbejs, a
supply almost equally large for his wife, and a single
epistle addressed to Winifred, who, as soon as she
recognized the handwriting, put it into her pocket
and carried it out with her to her favorite retreat
at the end of the garden. Considering that it was
a love-letter, that was a very natural and ordinary
course to adopt ; yet she was not in quite so great a
hurry to open it as the recipients of love-letters are
commonly supposed and expected to be. The truth
was that she had been engaged to Edmund Kirby for
such a long time, and the prospect of the engagement
terminating in marriage was still so remote, that the
advent of his weekly account of himself had ceased
to be a particularly exciting episode in her life.

40 BILLY BELLEW

Moreover, bis epistolary style was apt to be a trifle
dreary and diffuse, wbile it not unfrequently hap-
pened tbat two-thirds of his space was taken up with
records of family bickerings and dissensions which
distressed Winifred, and which she could do nothing
to allay.

The present letter, when perused, proved to be very
much like a number of its predecessors. John Kirby
had been getting into trouble again. He had turned
up at quarter sessions in a state of shameful intoxi-
cation ; there had been great difficulty about getting
him home ; the county newspapers had said nasty
things, and there was a talk about removing his name
from the Commission of the Peace. Edmund had
been summoned from London by his mother, had
tried the effect of remonstrances, and had been as
good as kicked out of doors, with a request, delivered
in the presence of the servants, that he would betake
himself to the devil at his earliest convenience.

"All this," the writer continued, " coming upon me
in the midst of my work (which it has, of course, in-
terrupted), has been terribly harassing to me, and I
miss your constant and ready sympathy more than I
can tell you. I cannot acquit my mother of all blame
in the matter ; nor can I understand why her affection
for John should lead her to accuse me of undue harsh-
ness in my conduct toward him. I think that he dis-
graces his position, and I should be dishonest if I
did not tell him so ; but things have come to such a
pass now that I am afraid I shall not be able to tell
him that or any thing else for the future. He has to
all intents and purposes warned me off the premises,

^

A LITTLB HOLIDAY 41

and, were it not for the hope of seeing you, I doubt
whether I should ever care to revisit Shropshire."

Winifried Forbes had been betrothed to this
country neighbor of hers at a very early age. The
proposed match was not a brilliant one ; for Edmund
Kirby was only a struggling barrister ; and the family
property, which was now in the possession of his elder
brother, a hard-riding, hard-drinking squire, did not
produce a sufficient annual rent-roll to leave much
margin for the support of younger sons ; but Mrs.
Forbes had given her sanction — partly because
Winnie was no beauty, and partly because she was so
useful at home. Beggars mustn't be choosers, Mrs.
Forbes may have thought ; and she may also have
been reluctant to part with one who took nearly all
the small burdens of daily life off her hands. For
the rest, Winnie did not contemplate or desire imme-
diate matrimony. Her sister was wont to aver that
she would never have accepted Edmund Kirby if he
had not been so ugly and so unlucky ; and her sister
ought to have known, if any body did, what consti-
tuted the most urgent claims upon Winnie's regard.

Perhaps it was because she herself possessed neither
of the above mentioned claims that she was received
with a touch of unusual asperity when she came trip-
ping lightheartedly across the garden to announce
that it was all right, and that Mr. Bellew would join
their party on the morrow.

^^I am not so sure that that makes it all right,"
Winnie said. "It won't be all right if you set to
work to make a fool of the man. And I am afraid
that is the notion that you have in your mind."

42 BILLY BELLEW

" The notion that I have in my mind," returned
Daisy composedly, "is that some people, including
your friend Mr. Bellew, do not require to be made
into what they already are. Another humble notion
of mine is that you have heard from Edmund Kirby,
and that his letter has upset your little temper. Why
be so easily upset? If I had an Edmund Kirby —
but. Heaven be praised, I haven't ! — he wouldn't con-
trive to upset me, so long as we were separated by
all these miles of land and water. Let us enjoy our-
selves while we can, and make the most of the few
good things that come in our way. I propose to en-
joy my ride to-morrow, and I don't see any reason
at all why you shouldn't enjoy yours. It won't be
wildly exciting for you, I admit ; but surely it will
be a shade better than sitting at home and teaching
Micky."

Different people have different ideas of enjoyment,
and Winifred, with the light of past experience be-
fore her eyes, did not anticipate a particularly delight-
ful day. Nevertheless, in view of existing complica-
tions, there seemed little fear that Mr. Bellew would
prove a source of danger to her sister's happiness :
and this, it subsequently appeared, was likewise the
opinion entertained by Mrs. Forbes, who remarked :

"He is really a very gentlemanlike young man,
besides having plenty of money, I am told. Of
course, if he were what Lady Ottery led us to sup-
pose that he was, it would never do to allow him to
become intimate with Daisy ; but, from all I hear, I
should think he could easily shake off that disreputa-
ble woman, if he wanted to do so ; and, under all the

A LITTLE HOLIDAY 43

circumstances, I can't see any imprudence in our
making friends with bim."

It may, at all events, be truthfully asserted on
Billy's bebalf that be was innocent of the faintest
wisb or intention to flirt with Miss Daisy Forbes.
He did not even wisb to ride beside her all day, and
be was ratber disappointed wben, after presenting
bimself punctually at tbe appointed bour on the en-
suing morning, be found tbat tbat was wbat be would
bave to do. He would bave preferred assuming
cbarge of tbe boy, wbose seat and bands required
correction ; and be would infinitely bave preferred a
quiet cbat witb Winifred, wbo cbose to canter on
abead and take ber brother witb her. One can't,
however, expect to get one's own way invariably, and
Billy was nothing if not good-natured, and the day
was still young, and there was no denying that Miss
Daisy was both pretty and attractive. So the simple
hero of this simple tale submitted without any great
reluctance to his fate, while bis companion employed
successfully enough tbe arts of an expert to fascinate
him.

She suggested that there was no occasion for them
to hurry themselves. The dust raised by the car-
riage in which Mr. and Mrs. Forbes were seated, the
former reading a newspaper and tbe latter apparently
dropping off to sleep beneath a huge white sunshade,
might as well be allowed to settle down again before
they followed in its track ; cantering along the high-
road was good neither for man nor beast, and if
Micky would insist upon cantering, be must be left
to canter alone.

44 BILLY BELLEW

" Only be isn't alone," Billy observed. "It's ratber
bard lines on your sister tbat sbe sbould be obliged
to pound along at sucb a pace in tbis beat."

" Ob, sbe likes it ! " answered Daisy. " Some people
take a positive pleasure in doing tbings wbicb every-
body else bates, and Winnie is one of tbem. Don't
distress yourself about ber ; I will take it upon
myself to assure you tbat sbe isn't pining for your
society or foi;mine."

It was after tbat vicariously administered snub tbat
Billy accepted bis destiny — wbicb, as bas been said,
was not sucb a very objectionable one after all.
Tbe weatber was brilliant, tbe scene was lovely and
summer-like (for Algeria is a green country in winter,
only turning brown and melancboly toward tbe end
of tbe long bot season, wben all tbe land is tbirsting
for rain), be was out for a boliday, be bad purchased
a good little borse, and be would indeed bave been
bard to please if be bad quarrelled witb bis company.

As a matter of fact, be neitber quarrelled witb it
nor appreciated it quite as highly as many men might
bave done. He thought Miss Daisy Forbes a veiy
nice little girl ; but be was not conscious of any
inclination to fall in love with ber; and her well-
directed shots failed, somehow or other, to liit the
bull's-eye. Billy, in short, was good-temperedly
resigned, without being in tbe least enthusiastic or
grateful — wbicb showed that there must be some-
thing altogether abnormal about his condition of
mind. Daisy, piqued by an indifference to which
she was unaccustomed, did ber very best to discover
what was the matter witb him, but did not succeed.

^

A LITTLB HOLIDAY 45

He declined to be drawn by references to Mrs. Little-
wood ; more than once he responded with total irrel-
evance to the questions addressed to him ; he really
seemed, or affected to be, more interested in Micky's
horsemanship, which he was watching from afar, than
in nearer and worthier subjects of study. From this
it resulted that a long tSte-d-tite ride over hill and
dale, past the palm-crowned headland of the Bouza-
rSah and across the stretches of rough, uncultivated
country, whence wide views of sea and plain and
mountain were obtainable, conveyed an impression
of lazy satisfaction to one of the equestrians, while it
afflicted the other with a sense of lively irritation.
When at length the shade of the pine-forest, under
which it had been decided to halt for refreshments,
was reached, Mr. Bellew (if he had only known it)
was being inwardly stigmatized by the lady whom
he had escorted so far on her way as a downright
donkey; and this unflattering opinion of hers was
confirmed by the alacrity with which he hastened to
help Winnie to unpack the luncheon basket. As if
Winnie and the picturesque nondescript Arab servant,
who had been engaged to perform the functions of
butler, footman, and valet, could not have accom-
plished that between them without assistance ! Such
conduct was equivalent to a direct challenge ; and
Daisy, little though she might covet the admiration
of a downright donkey, felt bound in honor to sub-
jugate him.

He had no sort of suspicion of her designs or of
his own peril. Presently he seated himself upon the
ground between Winnie and Micky, and, while he

46 BILLY BELLEW

was eating chicken pie and drinking champagne, ad-
dressed his remarks chiefly to the boy, who listened
to them with proper deference. Micky knew enougli
about riding to know that he was only a beginner
and that Mr. Belle w was a finished artist ; he saw the
point of counsels which more advanced performers are
only too apt to treat with contempt, and he expressed
his willingness to take a day's schooling whenever
his mentor could spare time to bestow that favor
upon him.

"Between you and me," he said confidentially,
" you had better come up in the morning ; because
t^en you'll get me fresh, don't you see ? In the
afternoon I'm so stupefied by lessons that I ain't fit
to jump over a stick. You might just represent that
to Winnie when you get a chance."

Winnie did not overhear this astute bid for a whole
holiday, because she was giving all her attention to
her father, who was holding forth upon Ijhe ineptitude
of the French nation as colonists, and who was prone
to attacks of irritability when (as sometimes happened
during the absence of his elder daughter) nobody
took the slightest notice of his harangues.

" These people," he was saying, " have flung
millions into a country which used to be the granary
of Rome, and they will never see their money, or the
value of it, back. The Spaniards, the Maltese, and
the Mahonnais are reaping the reward of the blood
and treasure that they have expended, and tliey have
nothing to show, except a few laurel-wreaths, which
might have been won quite as well in a desert. Why
maintain an army and make roads and railways for

A LITTLE HOLIDAY 47

the benefit of aliens ? The Romans did not go to
work after that fashion ; nor should we, if Algeria
were one of our possessions."

So the good man prosed on ; and it was all quite
true, and it didn't in the least signify ; and the wind
sighed through the pine-branches, and Mrs. Forbes
closed her eyes, and Daisy, growing impatient, re-
marked in a loud voice that, if they were to get to
Cap Caxine and home before dark, they ought to be
moving.

It was Winifred who managed the executive de-
partment of the Forbes household, and Daisy who
ruled supreme over it. The banquet and the period
of repose, which might have been allowed to follow
it, were curtailed in obedience to the latter's command ;
the sober revellers rose to their feet, the horses were
released from the trees to which they had been secured,
and then it was that Billy found an opportunity of
addressing Miss Forbes.

" You aren't fond of riding," said he, in an affirm-
ative rather than in an interrogative tone, while he
was tightening the girths for her.

" How do you know that ? " she asked, with some
surprise.

" Oh ! one can generally tell. Of course, I can see
that you have been accustomed to ride a good deal,
but you haven't done it because you liked it. Your
sister informed me just now that you liked doing
things which every-body else hated. I suppose what
she meant was that you like doing things which other
people like, because you want to please them. Yes ;
I should say that that was you all over."

48 BUXT BELLEW

The compliment was perhaps a trifle clumsy and
commonplace, but she might have excused it in con-
sideration of the speaker's evident sincerity. Proba-
bly she herself would have been puzzled to explain
why it had the effect of provoking her ; but provoked
she was, and her rejoinder was barely civil.

^' Please don't try to make me out a saint and mar-
tyr/' she said. " I assure you I am not at all that
sort of person. It is true that I don't particularly
care about riding ; still I always enjoy a ride with
Micky — that is, provided that other people don't join
in and interrupt us."

" Well, that's straight enough, at all events," Billy
observed, looking a little glum. " I was going to
suggest a change of partners this afternoon, but I
won't make such an unwelcome suggestion now."

He would have wasted his breath if he had made
it, and Winifred was well aware of that fact, though
he might possibly be ignorant thereof. To imagine
that Daisy would put up with her brother's compan*
ionship when a more or less interesting young man
was within reach, was indeed to display a surprising
lack of knowledge of the ways of girls in general
and of Miss Daisy Forbes in particular. Still it was
nice of him to be so innocent, and it was satisfactory
to note that he had so far escaped unharmed from the
shafts which had doubtless been aimed at his heart.
Winnie would have gone the length of admitting
that she had no personal objection to a change of
partners, if Daisy had not stepped up to claim her
prey before any thing more could be said. As it was,
Mr, Bellew was dismissed with a strong impression

A LITTLE HOLIDAY 49

upon his mind that he had been metaphorically kicked,
which was really rather a pity.

There are, of course, male as well as female flirts ;
and although the former may be — as they certainly
are — infinitely less skilful and cool-headed than the
latter, they are not unfrequently actuated in their
behavior by precisely similar motives. If Billy
Bellew was unacquainted with the art of flirtation,
and had never taken the slightest pains to familia-
rize himself with it, he was none the less capable of
meeting an accommodating siren half-way. Only he
was honestly unaware that his altered demeanor
toward Miss Daisy, as they rode at a foot's pace
down the steep hillside together, was due to any
mortification on his part at having been disdainfully
treated by her sister. He was not in love with either
of them ; if he was in love at all, he was in love with
Blanche Little wood ; and he had no thought of being
false to that absent lady when his eyes encountered
those of his neighbor, as they did more than once
during the course of that downward ride.

Yet Daisy, who was an adept, and who ought not
to have been easily deceived, congratulated herself
upon having practically won the little game that she
was playing long before she and her attendant cava-
lier reached Cap Caxine. By the time that they
arrived at the wind-swept promontory, with its slim
white lighthouse, where the carriage and the other
two riders were waiting for them, she had heard as
much as she wanted to hear about him, and had told
him as much about herself as she deemed it advisable
to tell. She was confident that she had in a ceitain
4

"^* BILLY BELLSW

i*oimo faaoinated him, and she perceived that some
tixoruUo of tact and diplomacy would be required in
order to complete her conquest. That was entirely
Matisfaotory, because facile victories are not exciting,
ftiul a little mild excitement was just what she wanted
to keep her spirits up during the term of her compul-
sory exile.

We have been here more than half an hour ; we
Uiought something must have happened to you," said
Mr. Forbes, rather crossly. " Winnie, my dear, you
had better ride on as fast as you can with Michael.
He ought not to be exposed to the risk of catching a
chill at sunset ; and, indeed, I should have preferred
to avoid that risk myself, had it been possible."

Winnie obeyed orders without so much as glancing
at the new-comers, and the carriage also was presently
set in motion once more. But Daisy, not being
afraid of chills, was in no such hurry to get home.
She asked Mr. Bellew whether he was in a huriy, and
he was obliged to answer that he was not ; although
he had reasons of his own for doubting the wisdom
of turning up at Colonel Littlewood's villa too late
for dinner. Accordingly, they proceeded at a leisurely
pace along the road which skirts the coast, past the
Pointe Pescade, through the suburb of St. Eugene,
and so to the Bab-el Oued, or western gate of Algiers.
It was a distance of about six miles, and Arab horses
are not good walkers. The sun had dipped beyond
the purple rim of the Mediterranean, the brief twilight
had deepened into night, and the stars were shining
overhead before this belated couple emerged upon the
eastern side of the town, and cantered up the hill

A LITTLE HOLIDAY 51

toward Mustapha Sup6rieur. Naturally it was in-
cumbent upon Mr. Belle w to see bis fellow excur-
sionist safely bome ; and altbougb, after taking leave
of ber, he galloped down to tbe Hdtel d'Orient witb
scant regard for bisborse's legs or bis personal safety,
be could not begin to dress until twenty minutes after
tbe bour at wbicb Mrs. Littlewood was wont to dine.
Tbis was, to say tbe least of it, unfortunate. So
mucb so, in fact, tbat tbe prospect of coming trouble
robbed bim of any pleasure tbat be migbt otberwise
bave derived from tbe memory of a deligbtf ul con-
versation. Daisy Forbes was cbarraing, beyond a
doubt ; but be could bave forgiven ber if sbe bad
cbarmed bim witb a trifle less of prolixity.

CHAPTER V

MRS. LITTLEWOOD TAKES THE FIELD

Mrs. Littlewood, unfortunately, was a somewhat
exacting lady. She had, it is true, granted Billy a
whole day's leave of absence, upon the understand-
ing that he should dine with her, on his return, and
give a full account of himself ; but such concessions
were very seldom made by her, nor, it may safely be
assumed, would she have made this one if she had
not hoped to gain some personal profit thereby. As
a matter of fact, she wanted to know Mrs. Forbes,
and counted upon obtaining, through Billy, an intro-
duction to that lady. She wanted to know every-
body in Algiers who, as she herself would have
phrased it, was " worth knowing." With the incon-
sistency characteristic of her sex, she delighted in
snapping her fingers at Mrs. Grundy, but grew uneasy
the moment that Mrs. Grundy's respectable back was
turned upon her. Her wish was to run with the hare
and hunt with the hounds, and she was as angry as
ladies always are whenever it was demonstrated to
her that this cannot be done. Now she had, that very
day, been made the recipient of a most unqualified
and unmistakable snub from Lady Ottery; so that
she had returned from the garden-party where the
snub had been administered, in a thoroughly bad

MBS. LITTLEWOOD TAKES THE FIELD 53

temper, which naturally had not been improved by
Billy's failure to put in an appearance at the dinner
hour.

Her breathless slave hurried into the dining-room
just as the sweets were being removed, and was joy-
ously greeted by Colonel Littlewood, who, up to that
moment, had been having rather a rough time of it.

" Hullo, old man ! " called out the genial colonel,
"better late than never ! I've told 'em to keep every
thing hot for you, and you shall have some soup in
half a jiffy. Took you a bit longer to escort those
young women round a twenty-mile radius than you
bargained for, eh ? "

Mrs. Littlewood said nothing, but looked pained
and resigned. How well he knew that look ! — and
how he had learned to dread it ! Probably it was
a mistake on her part to employ that method so fre-
quently ; but her mistakes, like her successes, were
those of her sex. Long use and wont had taught Billy
that she could not be pacified without a scene ; so he
ate his dinner as quickly as he could and talked to
the colonel, who drank while he was eating, and he
did not make matters worse by excessive apologies.
After dinner the colonel lit a cigar, and made him-
self comfortable in an arm-chair, while the younger
man arose and followed Mrs. Littlewood. Such was
the established custom in that household, where, to
be sure, cigars were not forbidden in the drawing-
room, and where every guest was requested to do
just as he pleased.

Much as Billy Bellew hated his host, he would
just then have been better pleased with his host's

54 BILLY BELLEW

company than that of liis hostess ; but it was useless
to attempt shirking the inevitable, and the inevitable
overtook him without loss of time. He listened,
with bent and submissive head, to a recital of griev-
ances, every one of which was only too familiar to
him; he made no effort to defend himself against
the absurd accusations and reproaches with which he
was assailed ; he admitted that he liad been enjoying
himself, that the Misses Forbes were pretty girls,
and even that he hoped to see more of them. That
was the worst of Billy : you couldn't exasperate him,
nor could you by any means induce him to return
railing for railing. Mrs. Littlewood, who was not
devoid of a certain intermittent sense of humor,
ended by laughing through her tears and exclaiming :

" Oh, well, if you wori^t quarrel, I suppose there is
nothing for it but to make friends ; although I do
think that you might have been a little more con-
siderate. You knew what horrors I should have to
go through at Mrs. Ryland's garden-party ; you knew
I should come home in wretched spirits, and the
least you could have done would have been to spare
me the additional misery of a domestic meal with
Alfred, who, as you can see for yourself, is in his
usual condition at this hour of the day."

" I made as much haste as I could," Billy declared.
" I'm awfully sorry I couldn't get back sooner ; but
I really didn't know that you were likely to meet
with any — er — annoyance at Mrs. Ryland's party.
I thought you were rather looking forward to it."

" Looking forward to it ! As if I ever looked for-
ward nowadays to meeting a heap of strangers, who

MRS. LITTLEWOOD TAKES THE FIELD 66

have heard all about me — and all about you ! Isn't
it always the same old story ? They are ready to
welcome you ; but they take very good care not to
welcome me. Your friend Lady Ottery was all but
insulting when I was introduced to her this after-
noon."

" I'm awfully sorry," murmured Billy — not know-
ing what else to say.

" Oh, I don't suppose you are particularly sorry ;
it makes no difference, to you whether I am received
or cut. But I am not going to give in. I have done
nothing wrong, and I won't submit to be treated as if
I had."

" Oh, no ! I wouldn't," assented Billy rather
feebly. " Why should you, you know ? "

Mrs. Little wood laughed again. This long-legged
admirer of hers really was rather funny at times —
especially when he did not intend to be so. By de-
grees she recovered her good humor and made her
wishes known to him. He was to speak well of her
to Mrs. Forbes ; he was to enlist Mrs. Forbes's
sympathies on her behalf and to pave the way for
an acquaintance ; he was to dine with Mrs. Ryland,
whom he did not know, but who had known the
speaker from childhood and had stood by her through
thick and thin ; furthermore, he was to signify to all
whom it might concern that Mrs. Littlewood's friends
were his friends, while her enemies were his enemies.

" It isn't that I care two straws what these people
think about me," Mrs. Littlewood explained ; " only
I don't choose to live in a desert, or to be shunned
like a leper."

56 BILLY BELLEW

A very simple method of avoiding so undesirable
a state of things was open to her ; but it was not
for him to suggest its adoption. Upon the whole he
was only too thankful that indignation against Lady
Ottery had diverted her mind from the jealous mis-
givings to which she had given expression at the be-
ginning of their interview. He had half expected to
be forbidden to hold any further intercourse with the
Forbes family, so that it was a relief to find that, on
the contrary, he was positively ordered to cultivate
friendly relations with them. Whether his efforts
would produce the result aimed at was another ques-
tion. He could not feel very sanguine, having met
with many previous disappointments in similar enter-
prises.

The conversation drifted into other channels, and
was kept up, after a desultoiy fashion, for the best
part of an hour, during which time no interruption
was made by Colonel Little wood, who, presumably,
was snoring in the adjacent room. It was an evening
like a hundred others which had preceded it, and be-
cause it was like them it was more than a trifle weari-
some. Billy knew that he was looking bored ; he
was ashamed of himself for looking so and still more
ashamed of feeling so, but he couldn't help it. He
could not think of any thing new to say ; eveiy thing
that could be said had long ago been said and re-
peated again and again. No wonder there were
frequent pauses, and no wonder Mrs. Littlewood rose
at length, yawning undisguisedly, with the remark :

" You are preternaturally dull to-night ; hadn't
you better go home to bed ? If you are quick and

MBS. LITTLBWOOD TAKES THE FIELD 57

cautious you may make your escape before Alfred
wakes and comes to remind you that it is whiskey-
and-soda time."

He offered no protest. There had been a time when
he would have protested, but he had forgotten it,
although she had not. On the other hand, there had
never been a time when he had not loathed the noc-
turnal confidences of Colonel Littlewood, who was
apt to become even more offensive and expansive than
usual between eleven o'clock and midnight. So he
said good-night and stole softly out of the house into
that scented darkness which belongs to the paradise
of flowering shrubs. He ought to have been safe
from pursuit, and he probably would have been safe,
if he had not played this game once or twice before,
and if Colonel Littlewood had not been rather partic-
ularly anxious to have a few words with him. As it
was, that hospitable personage caught him up before
he reached the garden gate and begged him to come
back and " have a drink"; adding that it really wasn't
anything like late enough to turn in yet.

Billy excused himself upon the plea of fatigue ;
whereupon Colonel Littlewood rejoined, with a sigh :

" Well, you're a lucky chap to be able to tire your-
self. I wish 7" could get a good gallop, I know ; but,
dash it all ! I can't afford a horse — can't even afford
to hire one for the day. Between you and me, I
don't see how I'm going to afford to live at all in a
place like this. Devilish expensive all round, it seems
to me — ^rent, sei*vants, food, every blessed thing I
Upon my life, it's too bad that one's income shouldn't
go as far in Africa as it does in London ! "

58 BILLY BELLBW

Billy felt very much inclined to expedite matters
by asking bluntly, " How much do you want ? " But,
as Billy could not find it in his heart to be downright
brutal, even to the man whom he disliked more than
any other human being, he resisted the inclination
and listened as patiently as he could to a series of
more or less relevant statements*, the upshot of which
was to increase Colonel Little wood's indebtedness to
him by the sum of two hundred pounds. He walked
down the hill, dispirited and dissatisfied, not because
he had thrown away another couple of hundreds (for
he never troubled himself much about money, and
had no need to do so), but because he was beginning
to feel that his present position was almost intolerable.

" When you come to think of it," said he, address-
ing the stars, " the old women aren't so very far
wrong, after all. They may tell lies, and one may be
in an infernal rage with them ; but if they knew that
that fellow was borrowing of me just as often as
he chose — well, one couldn't exactly blame them for
drawing their own conclusions. I wonder whether
Blanche knows ? But of course she can't — eh ? "

The stars winked, but returned no audible answer ;
and about an hour later the deep sleep of youth and
health had released Billy Bellew from half-formed
misgivings.

Misgivings of another and a more definite nature
awaited bis awakening. It had been all very well to
rejoice that his budding intimacy with the Forbes
family had not been nipped by the frost of Mrs.
Littlewood's disapproval ; but what hope was there
that people of that sort would ever consent to asso-

MES. LITTLEWOOD TAKES THE FIELD 69

ciate with a lady whose reputation was not wholly
untarnished? Miss Forbes might perhaps be open
to representations and above commonplace preju-
dices ; but her father and mother evidently belonged
to the most exclusive and respectable section of the
entire community. In the highest circles leniency
may be looked for with a certain degree of confi-
dence ; but not in the ranks of the country gentiy.
He knew this because he was pretty well acquainted
with both classes.

However, he could but try ; and during that day,
and the three or four which followed it, he did try
his best. His promise of giving some instruction to
Micky afforded him an excuse for riding up to Le
Bocage ; and, as he was informed on the first day
that the boy had caught a slight cold, nothing could
be more proper or natural than that he should return
on the morrow and the ensuing day to make enqui-
ries. Each time he was received by Mrs. Forbes and
Daisy, but was not privileged to see Winifred, who,
he presumed, was engaged with her brother. This
was something of a disappointment to him, although,
to be sure, his immediate business was rather with
Mrs. Forbes than with her eldest daughter. The
moment that he thought he saw an opportunity, he
broached the delicate subject as skilfully as he could,
and was immediately made to perceive that he had
better drop it. All Mrs. Forbes's urbanity and affa-
bility disappeared at the mention of Mrs. Little wood's
name, and she said, with marked coldness :

" Oh, yes ! I have heard of her. We have not
met her, and there is no likelihood of our doing so.

60 BILLY BELLEW

because we don*t go out much here — except, of course,
among our friends.**

"I think you will meet her at Mrs. Ryland's,"
observed Billy. " You are going to dine with her,
aren't you ? "

" With Mrs. Ryland ? Yes, I believe we are ; but

I hope Perhaps we shall have the pleasure of

meeting you there ? So glad ! What wonderfully
beautiful weather we have been having lately, have
we not?"

There was nothing more to be said, and Mr. Bellew
said no more. Failure was certain, and already he
foresaw that Mrs. Forbes would soon be added to the
list of those enemies whom it had been enjoined upon
him that he must count as his own. Meanwhile there
was nothing inimical about the demeanor of Miss
Daisy, who, on the conclusion of his visit, picked up
a sunshade and stepped out into the garden with him
to see him mount his horse. She, at all events, did
not contemplate any severing of their friendly rela-
tions ; for she had several little schemes for passing
away the time to propose to him, and she actually
had the audacity to suggest that, if her mother could
not act as chaperon on all the excursions which she
had in mind, Mrs. Little wood might do so.

" Personally," observed the girl, laughing, " I don't
feel so terribly alarmed at Mrs. Littlewood ; and
mamma wouldn't have shied at her in that violent way
if you hadn't looked as if you anticipated it. Don't do
it again ; you would only make a worse mess of it.
You had far better trust to Mrs. Ryland, who is a
woman, and who knows how to manage other women."

MBS. LITTLE WOOD TAKES THE FIELD 61

The advice was probably sound ; but it was hardly
the sort of advice which one would have expected to
receive from a simple, country-bred girl. Her sister,
Billy felt convinced, would have spoken differently.
He was not quite sure that he liked Miss Daisy, pretty
and entertaining though she was. " She's a bit too
much in the foreground," he soliloquized, "and the
other one is a bit too much in the background. I
wish the other one would come to that Ryland
woman's feed instead of her."

Mrs. Ryland must have intimated a similar wish, or
else Daisy, who was not fond of dinner-parties, must
have cried off at the last moment ; for when Billy,
with as near an approach to trepidation as his admi-
rable nervous system was capable of, arrived upon
what seemed only too likely to prove a field of battle,
he found Winifred Forbes standing beside his hostess
near the doorway. The room — a long, narrow Moorish
apartment, dimly lighted by hanging lamps — seemed
to be* tolerably well filled with guests ; in the back-
ground could be discerned Lady Ottery, seated upon
a divan ; and next to Lady Ottery sat Mrs. Forbes,
who wore an expression of armed neutrality ; and
beyond Mrs. Forbes sat Blanche Little wood in her
powder, her paint, and her diamonds. The introduc-
tion had taken place, then ! Yes ; it must certainly
have taken place, for Blanche was talking volubly to
Mrs. Forbes, who was talking to Lady Ottery, who
seemed to be blandly unconscious that there was any
body else in the immediate neighborhood. The little
tableau thus formed by the three ladies on the sofa
was somewhat comic, and Billy, whom it suddenly

(ttf BILLY BELLE W

Mtruok in tlmt ligbt^ could not repress an abrupt
uliuoklo ; but bis feeling, upon tbe wbole, was mucb
luiiiu one of relief tban of amusement.

♦* It don't look over and above promising," be re-
HuiHiid ; " but at least tbere basn't been an actual row."

Mrs. Ryland, a tall, dark-baired, determined-look-
ing woman, sbook bim by tbe band, and said, in a
rathur louder voice tban seemed absolutely necessary,
tliut Bbo was very glad to make bis acquaintance,
baving beard so mucb of bim from ber old friend
Mrs. Littlewood. Mrs. Ryland, wbo was well-born,
wbo bad married a ricb manufacturer, and wbo enter-
tained a good deal botb in London and in tbe country,
perbaps felt powerful enougb to cbampion ber former
Bobool companion. Sbe bad always tried to do wbat
sbo could for Blancbe, not believing tbat tbere was
any real barm in tbe woman, and sbe was trying to
do wbat sbe could for ber now, witli mediocre success,
it was to be feared. At any rate, sbe knew better
than to send Mrs. Littlewood into tbe dining-room
witli Mr. Bellew, wbo was requested to take cbarge
of Miss Forbes, and to wbom tbis request did not
appear to be unwelcome.

" Well, and bow is Micky ? " be asked, as tbey took
tbeir places.

" Ever so much better, tbanks," answered Winifred,
" and quite ready to take a riding lesson whenever
you can make it convenient to call for bim. He
begged me to mention tbat to you, witb bis respects."

" I have called lots of times, without getting a
glimpse of either him or you," remarked Billy some-
what reproachfully.

MES. LITTLEWOOD TAKES THE FIELD 63

" Yes, I know ; I was sorry, but it couldn't be
helped. I didn't want him to tire himself before he
was quite well again, and if I hadn't kept guard over
him all the time that you were in the house, he would
have made his escape. He would have managed to
get leave from my father or from my mother, and, of
course, you wouldn't have seen any reason why he
shouldn't ride. He looks stronger than he is, and
feels stronger, too, which is unfortunate in some
ways."

" Oh, he'll be all right ; don't you be afraid ! " said
Billy encouragingly, responding rather to a ring of
anxiety in his neighbor's voice than to her actual
words.

" I hope he will ; but he gave us all a terrible
fright before we left England. However, there's no
use in meeting trouble half-way. And you'll take
him for his promised ride some day soon, will
you ? "

" Certainly, I will," answered Billy, adding, after a
momentary pause, " that is, if I'm allowed."

His eyes wandered as he spoke toward the end of
the table, where Mrs. Littlewood was bringing the
influence of her charms to bear upon a sprightly,
elderly gentleman. He thought it quite upon the
cards that an edict of prohibition might be issued
from that quarter, but, not wishing to betray his
fears, he made haste to offer another explanation of
his remark.

" You know what I told you that afternoon," he
said hurriedly. " Well, now that your mother and
Mrs. Littlewood have met, don't you think your

64 BILLY BELLEW

mother may decline the honor of my future
acquaintance ? "

The inference was not precisely flattering to Mrs,
Littlewood, but Winifred forbore to smile. She
understood what he had not said ; she possessed, in-
deed, the gift of understanding people before they
confided in her, and this, no doubt, it was which led
so many of them to tell her all their secrets. Before
dinner was over, Billy had as good as told her (though
not in words) all his, and had been greatly comforted
by her friendly sympathy. Naturally, there were
some things with which he could not expect her to
sjrmpathize ; but these were passed over lightly, and
she contrived to convey to him the impression that
she gave him credit for being what in truth he was — a
thoroughly honest and chivalrous, if somewhat fool-
ish, gentleman. Also she gave him to understand
that he had no need to feel alarmed lest the gates of
Le Bocage should be closed against him, and even
hinted at the possibility of their oeing thrown open
to admit Mrs. Littlewood. For gates are not the
same as doors, nor can moral contagion be imparted
through the medium of visiting-cards. Mrs. Little-
wood, Winifred presumed, would leave cards, and in
due season her civility would be returned, and she
would probably be satisfied with that measure of
recognition.

In the meantime, Mrs. Littlewood appeared to be
very well pleased with such measure of recognition
as she was already receiving. Throughout the even-
ing she behaved wonderfully well, while the colonel
behaved as well as he could. Billy, who saw them

MBS. LITTLEWOOD TAKES THE FIELD 66

into the carnage when they departed, but who, for
once, did not accompany them home, had much ado to
restrain himself from thanking them both. That
would have been a very clumsy thing to do ; but he
thought he might be permitted to thank Miss Forbes,
even though he did not specify the precise cause of
his gratitude.

CHAPTER VI

MICXY EECEIVES AND GIVES INFOEMATION

An innocent and inexperienced male creature
might not unnaturally have expected that Mrs.
Littlewood would be only half-pleased with the
results of Mrs. Ryland's efforts on her behalf ; but
the innocent and inexperienced Billy placed such
slight reliance upon his own judgment in questions
affecting the opposite sex that he was hardly sur-
prised, although he was greatly relieved, when that
lady expressed herself altogether pleased.

"I was prepared for nothing less than a slap in
the face," she remarked calmly ; " and, instead of
that, I have received several shakes of the hand.
In another week or two I shall be kissed. Not that
I am particularly ambitious of being kissed by your
friend Mrs. Forbes ; but I mean her to be very nice
and polite to me, and Pm sure she will, now. By
the way, what made you say that her daughters
were pretty ? Is the other a duplicate of that lanky
girl ? "

" Well, no ; I suppose most people would call the
younger daughter a good deal prettier," answered
Billy ; " but I like the one you saw much the best.
She's awfully jolly to talk to — no humbug or non-
sense about her, you know."

MICKY RECEIVES AND GIVES INFORMATION 67

A more diplomatic reply could not have been
made ; and it is just possible that, for all his guile-
lessness and truthfulness, Billy may have been aware
of that. Mrs. Littlewood really could not feel afraid
of the lanky girl, and she thought she knew Billy
well enough to know that, if he had entertained any
penchant for the second Miss Forbes, he would have
betrayed it. No serious impediment, therefore, was
placed in the way of his fulfilling his engagement
to Micky ; and he rode up to Le Bocage one fine
morning, having given previous notice of his inten-
tion by a note to Winifred, whom he begged to excuse
her pupil from lessons for an hour or two.

He found his young friend waiting expectantly at
the door, booted and spurred, and holding the long-
tailed, ewe-necked barb which had been purchased for
him on the strong recommendation of a local horse-
dealer. Mrs. Forbes came down the steps, shading
her eyes with her left hand and extending her right,
while she smiled upon the new-comer with an amia-
bility which showed that the sight of Mrs. Littlewood
had not deprived him of her esteem.

" I won't ask you to come in," she said. " Daisy
has gone down to the town on a shopping expedition
with her friend Mrs. Nugent, and Winnie is very
busy, writing from her father's dictation. Mr. Forbes
has promised an article to the Modern Review, which,
he says, must be finished to-day or to-morrow, and
sometimes he suffers so much from his eyes that he is
obliged to employ an amanuensis."

" For which, and all his mercies, the Lord's name
be praised ! " observed Micky, as he climbed into the

68 BILLY BELLEW

saddle. "You see, Mr. Bellew, there*8 only one
amanuensis in this house, and when her services are
requisitioned, other folks get a chance to go out rid-
ing for the benefit of their health."

The shapely head of the amanuensis could be seen
through one of the open windows, bending over a
writing-table ; from the background the voice of the
learned author could be heard monotonously rising
and falling : " If we consider dispassionately the
lessons which history has to teach us upon this all-
important point ; if we cast a backward glance
upon the consequences of democratic government,
as evidenced in — stop a moment ; stop a moment !
Winnie, my love, you scribble at such a headlong
pace that you cause me to lose the thread of my ideas,
and thus much valuable time is wasted. Please start
again. If we consider "

" I don't think we'll consider any longer, I think
we'll be off," said Micky, in an irreverent whisper.
" Don't let us be guilty of wasting valuable time."

So Billy had to move off in the sunshine, without
so much as a nod of greeting from the patient scribe ;
and it did seem to liim uncommonly hard that the
patient scribe sliould be debarred from enjoying the
sunshine which ought to have been every-body's
property. He could not help saying as much to
Micky, who replied :

« Well, I dare say it is ; but, you see, Winnie
delights in doing odd jobs."

"It appears to me," observed Mr. Bellew, with
something less than his usual good humor, " that in
your family you delight in giving her odd jobs to do "

MICKY RECEIVES AND GIVES INFORMATION 69

The boy smiled and glanced sharply at the hand-
some young giant by his side. He had a queer,
shrewd, humorous little face, and his keen eyes took
note of many things which escaped the observation of
his elders. ^^ The same notion has sometimes made
its way into my own great mind," he remarked. "All
the same, I don't see how it's to be helped. Suppose
you were driving a team of three slugs and one will-
ing one, what would you do ? "

" Why, thrash the slugs, of course," answered Billy
unhesitatingly. " Only I should take jolly good care
not to distress a willing horse in that way."

Micky shook his head. "You might distress a
horse, you wouldn't distress Winnie," said he. " She'll
always do all the work. Some day, I suppose, she'll
be put into double harness and she'll do all the work
then, and our work won't be done at all."

" Unless you do it yourselves. And why shouldn't
you ? What is your personal line of work going to
be ? — soldier, sailor, tinker, or tailor ? "

" Soldier, I hope," answered the boy ; " only it don't
do to say much about it at present, because I'm an
only son, you know, and I ain't warranted sound.
What I should like would be a cavalry regiment.
Men in good cavalry regiments always have a fine
time of it, don't they ? "

" I've known some fellows who liked the life and
others who didn't," said Billy. "It depends very
much upon where you may happen to be stationed, I
expect. So long as you're in England it ought to be
right enough ; I'm not so sure about India."

" India would do me very well," Micky declared.

70 BILLY BELLEW

" I'd go there without being ordered, if I were grown
up, and had lots of money. You have lots of
money, haven't you ? " he added, with a matter-of-
fact curiosity which was not in the least impertinent.

" Oh, dear, no ! only just enough to be idle
upon," answered the other. " And that's a doubtful
blessing."

" Well," said Micky, " if the governor will allow
me enough to be idle upon, I shall take a look round
the world, and the first place I shall make for will be
India. I want to see some pig-sticking."

" You'll have to learn how to ride before you can
play that game," observed Billy ; " and you'll never
ride while you hold your hands as high as you're
holding them now. Tiy to get into the habit of
keeping your elbows well pressed into your sides."

Micky, who was neither conceited nor a fool, took
in excellent part the admonitions which Mr. Belle w
addressed to him from time to time while they were
making their way down the steep descent toward
Mustapha Inf erieur. Boys will submit to any thing
from one whom they have once recognized as their
master, and Michael Forbes knew a fine horseman
when he saw him. Besides, Billy himself, so far as
manners and conversation went, was nothing mpre
than a big boy ; which, as most of us can remember,
used once upon a time to mean a far more important
personage than a man.

So this couple proceeded, upon the best of terms, on
their downward course, making, through rockstrewn
lanes and byways, for the great brown Champ de
MancBuvre, where military evolutions are sometimes

MICKY BBCEIVES AND GIVES INFOEMATION 71

carried out, and where, once or twice in the course
of the year, race meetings are held. It was Micky
who had suggested this as the most suitable place
for a bit of schooling, alleging that there was no
other safe galloping ground within a day's journey.

" So this is what they call a racecourse out here,
is it ? " was Billy's pensive remark on reaching the
bare, sun-baked expanse, across which clouds of dust
from the neighboring highroad were drifting lazily.
A charming prospect revealed itself to right and to
left of him — the tall, feathery palms of the Jardin
d'Essai, the wide blue expanse of the sea, the white
town rising abruptly, like a great marble pyramid,
from the waves. But he was not looking at these
things ; his gaze was concentrated on the ground,
and he murmured, " I don't know what you call safe;
but if I had a horse worth any thing at all, I'd as
soon race him over paving stones as over that ! "

" Oh, well, I mean there ain't any holes or boulders
or scrub here, that's all," Micky explained. "Of
course the racing is all skittles. They stick up
a few mignonette boxes when they have their meet-
ings, and play at steeplechasing. I wish they had
left a few of them up now ! " he added regretfully.

Even without those aids to instruction Billy was
able to form a pretty accurate estimate of his pupil's
proficiency. After a preliminary gallop, he put him
through various manoeuvres, and ended by telling
him frankly that he had a good deal to learn and
not a little to forget. "And you must sit in the
right place. If a man doesn't sit in the right place,
he car^t have good hands — mind that ! "

72 BILLY BELLEW

He went on to formulate numerous other axioms
which, however interesting to his limited audience,
might not prove equally so to the larger and more
mixed one addressed by his humble biographer, and
concluded his lecture by saying suddenly : " Now
you get on to my horse and try what you can do
with him."

Micky was out of the saddle in a moment ; but
Mr. Bellew only laughed and sat still.

" Get up again, my boy," said he ; "I knew you
had se.en this brute kicking and bucking just now,
and I wondered whether you would have the nerve
to ride him, that was all."

Micky colored. "Did you think I was a funk,
then ? " he asked resentfully.

" How should I know ? Now don't be angry,
Micky ; I sha'n't think so any more ; and if you had
been a bit short of nerve, you would only have been
what nine men out of every ten are, and what I dare
say we shall both of us be before we die. Pluck isn't
quite the finest quality in the world — though I won't
deny that I'm glad you've got it."

The alliance was cemented by this episode ; and
Mentor and Teleraachus turned their horses' heads
toward the town, meaning to reach home by a more
circuitous and less precipitous route than that which
they had selected for their descent. Now, it came
to pass that, after they had hit off the broad high-
road to Mustapha Sup6rieur, and were jogging along
it, they were overtaken by a light victoria in which
were seated two ladies, one of whom hailed them.

" So there you are ! " she cried. " And have you

MICKY BECEIYES AND GIVES INFOBMATION IS

really been giving up a whole morning to pounding
along in the dust with that pertinacious boy ? How
awfully good of you ! "

Billy took off his hat to Miss Daisy Forbes and to
Mrs. Nugent, with whom he had a slight acquaint-
ance. He said : " Not good a bit ! We've been
enjoying ourselves, in spite of the dust. Haven't we,
Micky ? "

Then, as Mrs. Nugent's coachman did not receive
orders to quicken his pace, the two equestrians moved
on with the carriage, one on either side of it, and it
so chanced that Billy found himself on Miss Daisy's
side. It has already been said that Billy was any-
thing but a lady-killer, and it might have been added
that he was in a fair way toward becoming a woman-
hater ; yet it cannot be pretended that Daisy's
method of treatment was altogether disagreeable to
him. She had certain tricks of look and voice which,
well-worn though they be, are always effective ; and
when she told him that she wouldn't have missed
Mrs. Ryland's dinner-party for the world, if only she
had known that he was to be there, she really seemed
to be speaking the truth. Then, too, there was
something very innocent and engaging about the
eager manner in which she exhibited her purchases
to him, asking him whether he was a judge of Syrian
embroidery or Kabyle pottery, and making him
promise to accompany them on their next expedition
to the bazaars. She was in the act of expressing a
hope that he meant to join the midday repast at Le
Bocage when her brother's high-pitched voice in-
terrupted their colloquy.

74 BILLY BBLLEW

" I say, Mr. Belle w," called out Micky across the
carriage, " you don't want to go back by the road, do
you ? If we turn off to the right here, we can take
one of the Arab lanes, which will be ever so much
jollier."

As the lane in question was a mere track, as steep
as a staircase in places, and overgrown with trees and
shrubs, and as, moreover, the choice of it in prefer-
ence to the highway would involve a consider-
able detour^ Daisy was fully justified in scouting her
brother's suggestion. But the good-natured Billy
assented to it at once, remarking half-apologetically
that he was out for the boy's amusement. He said
good-by to the ladies and followed Micky, who had
lost no time in taking him at his word, up the narrow
path, between high banks of red earth and beneath
the shade of interlacing boughs and creepers. It was
not until they had advanced some little distance,
their horses clambering up the rocks as only Arab
horses can, that his young friend turned round, with
a mischievous twinkle in his eye, to say:
Sorry to drag you away, you know."
Oh, I didn't mind," answered Billy placidly.

" Well, if you didn't mind, it's all right ; only I
thought perhaps you did ; and look here, Mr. Belle w,
you're a friend of mine, and I want to give you a
friendly tip about our beloved Daisy. I saw what
she was after the other day at the picnic, and I may
tell you, between ourselves, that she's a horrid little
flirt. Besides which, she's half engaged, if she isn't
quite engaged, to Harry Lysaght."

" Oh, indeed ! " said Billy, much amused. " Well,

MICKY BECEIVES AND GIVES INFOBMATION 15

really this is very thoughtful of you, Micky, and I'm
much indebted to you. And who is Harry Lysaght,
if I may ask? Not a little curly headed chap who
used to hunt with the Quorn two seasons ago ? Now
I come to think of it, I believe he did hail from your
part of the world."

Micky nodded. " That's the man. He isn't at all
a bad sort ; only he makes a perfect idiot of himself
about Daisy, and I suppose that's why she won't
marry him and have done with it. She's sure to take
him in the long run, though, because I believe she
likes him about as well as any body, and he's got no
end of a jolly place, with lots of shooting, near us. I
thought I'd just warn you ; but you needn't mention
it, you know."

Billy promised to keep his own counsel, and asked
no more questions. So far as he was concerned, Miss
Daisy was heartily welcome to marry Mr. Lysaght or
any other man whom she might fancy; still he had
reasons of his own for concurring in Micky's descrip-
tion of her. " Her sister's little finger is worth her
whole body," was his mental verdict upon a lady who
was at that moment driving homeward in a serene
conviction that Mr. Belle w's name would shortly be
added, if indeed it might not already be added, to
the list of her victims.

CHAPTER Vn

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTMENT

" I DO not see Michael," said Mr. Forbes fretfully,
as he took his place at the head of the breakfast table,
after having terminated what he was pleased to call
a morning's hard work. " Where is Michael ? "

Mr. Forbes was one of those mild, querulous
tyrants whose tyranny is perhaps more hard to bear
than that of the loud-voiced, blustering variety. He
was not in the least conscious of being exacting ; but,
as a matter of fact, he expected all the members of
his family to subordinate their convenience to his,
and unpunctuality he resented as a personal injury.
Naturally, therefore, he could not accept Winifred's
statement that Micky had not returned from his ride
yet, but would be sure to be back in a few minutes,
as any sort of excuse.

"Winnie, my love," said he, "you are far too
ready to make assertions without pausing to ask your-
self whether they are accurate or not. How can it
be possible for you to tell that Michael will reach the
house in a few minutes ? What we do know for cer-
tain is that he is well aware of the usual breakfast
hour ; and if he cannot be here at the proper time, he
should not be allowed to go out riding."

" I only hope nothing has happened to the boy ! "

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTMENT 77

exclaimed Mrs. Forbes nervously. "Are you sure
that that horse is safe for him to ride, Winnie?"

" Don't be agitated, mamma," said Daisy; " nothing
has happened to him. At least, nothing had happened
to him about half an hour ago, when we overtook
him and Mr. Belle w riding up from the town. They
chose to tuni up one of the Arab lanes toward El-
Biar, instead of coming straight back with us, which
is quite sufficient to account for their being late. I
am sorry," continued Daisy meditatively, "that I
didn't tliink at the time of mentioning our breakfast
hour ; for I wanted to make a definite engagement
with Mr. Bellew, and that little wretch Micky whisked
him off before I could manage it."

" My dear child ! " ejaculated Mrs. Forbes, in
accents of remonstrance — "a definite engagement
with Mr. Bellew ! "

" Why not ? I don't mean a matrimonial engage-
ment. Men entendu — only an engagement to come
with us the next time that we go down to buy car-
pets and cushions and things ; the time when you\e
coming, you know, mamma ; so that nothing could
be more proper. As it is, I must write him a note.
Or perhaps it would be better if you were to write
the note. That would be propriety raised to its
highest expression."

It was by this sort of quiet audacity that Daisy
was accustomed to achieve her ends and carry her
modest schemes into effect. Mrs. Forbes only pro-
tested feebly that she didn't understand why Mr.
Bellew should be invited to go shopping.

" Oh, because he wants to go," answered Daisy,

78 BILLY BELLBW

without hesitation. "Of course he wants to buy
presents and some stuff to make up into a smoking
suit, like every-body else, and he wouldn't know
where to go unless somebody told him. He will be
useful to us, too ; men are always useful when it
comes to bargaining. They don't say much ; but
they look cross and disgusted, and as the money is
supposed to belong to them, that produces a good
effect."

Mrs. Forbes yielded to these arguments. She
generally did yield to the arguments of her younger
daughter, and very seldom to those of her elder, who,
indeed, was about to offer some remarks in opposi-
tion to the project, when her attention was drawn off
by the entrance of Micky, hot, dusty, and jubilant.

" First-class, thanks ! " said he, thoughtfully fore-
stalling an enquiry which nobody had as yet addressed
him ; " haven't enjoyed any thing so much since I
left my happy home. No, my dear Winnie, I have
not washed my hands, and what's more, I ain't going
to, until I've appeased the pangs of hunger. I say !
I hope you people haven't eaten every thing up ! "

A formal and deliberate rebuke from Mr. Forbes
was listened to in respectful silence, Micky only
raising his head from his plate, on the conclusion of
it, to wink solemnly at the company. Conversation
was then resumed. The head of the family had left
the room, and the others were preparing to follow
his example, when a telegram was brought to Mrs.
Forbes, who, on perusing it, gave utterance to a little
pleased cry.

" Dear me ! " she exclaimed, " how nice ! Harry

A LITTLB DISAPPOINTMENT 79

Lysaght is coming over here for a few weeks. He
telegraphs from Marseilles, and I suppose he will
arrive by to-morrow's boat. I wonder which hotel
he means to go to ? "

Winnie looked almost as pleased as her mother ;
Micky stuck his hands into his pockets, threw himself
back in his chair, stared up at the ceiling, and whis-
tled a tune ; as for Daisy, she was unable to conceal
her discomfiture.

" Oh, what Si bore ! " she exclaimed. " Won't even
the whole length of France and the whole breadth
of the Mediterranean save us from our friends ? "

But she speedily recovered herself, and, disdaining
to notice Micky's rude hilarity, remarked : "After
all, I don't care ; let him come, if he likes. He won't
be our guest, so we shall be under no obligation to
entertain him."

" But, my dear," expostulated Mrs. Forbes, " you
must remember that he has come all this distance
simply for the sake of seeing us."

"Did he say that in his telegram? If he did, it
was pretty cool cheek on his part. One doesn't
travel long or short distances to see people without
having been asked."

Mrs. Forbes thought she would say no more for
the present. She had never been able to manage
Daisy, and she was conscious of having hitherto im-
peded, rather than promoted, Mr. Lysaght's suit by
injudicious partisanship. But Winifred was less
cautious. She went out into the garden with her
sister presently, and when they had seated themselves
beneath the shade of a spreading ilex, said :

80 BILLY BELLEW

" I hope you are not going to be a goose, Daisy."

" I hope," answered Daisy, " that I am not, and I
shouldn't think that I was. Still, one never knows.
One thing may be looked upon as beyond dispute,
and that is that Harry Lysaght is a goose. Even he
might have known better than to chase me about in
this exasperating way ! "

"It doesn't seem like good policy, certainly,"
Winifred admitted. " Nevertheless, it is the most
straightforward thing to do, and perhaps he may
think that the time for policy has gone by. And
you know, Daisy, men — even the most patient of
them — won't wait forever."

" I shouldn't have thought," remarked Daisy, " that
your experience would have led you to that conclu-
sion. Edmund Kirby has waited long enough, in all
conscience, and he appears to be prepared to wait
contentedly for the rest of his natural life."

"That is quite different. I didn't mean to say
that all men are in a hurry to get married, though I
expect Harry Lysaght will be, but they all want to know
whether they are going to be accepted or refused."

^" Of course they do, and no sooner are they ac-
cepted than they cease to be devoted slaves, and
begin to put on the airs of lords and masters. I
haven't the slightest intention of putting Harry
Lysaght out of his pain yet a while, unless a point-
blank refusal would do it. I don't mind telling you
that much."

"It is very silly of you, Daisy, because he isn't
coming here for nothing. He is sure to insist upon
an answer. And you do really care for him."

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTMENT *i81

" Honor bright, I don't," answered Daisy, yawn-
ing. " I can see that he is a highly desirable sort of
husband, and personally I like him very well — about
as well as Mr. Bellew, for instance. Only, of course,
he isn't quite as interesting as Mr. Bellew, because
he hasn't yet provided himself with a Mrs. Lit-
tlewood."

"I really think you had better leave Mr. Bellew
to Mrs. Littlewood," said Winifred.

" How immoral of you ! On the contrary, it shall
be my righteous mission to rescue him from tbat
wicked enchantress. Which reminds me that I ought
to be setting about it at once. I must get mamma to
write her note and despatch it. We'll all go and buy
rubbish to-morrow afternoon."

It was evident that nothing could prevent that
somewhat uncalled for invitation from being de-
spatched ; but it was by no means unlikely, Winifred
thought, that Mr. Bellew might be prevented from
accepting it. She forgot to take into account that
her mother's, messenger would be despatched to the
H6tel d'Orient with instructions to await a reply,
and that, should Mr. Bellew be found at home, he
would have no opportunity of consulting other inter-
ested persons before deciding whether to say yes or no.

As luck would have it, he was found at home, and,
judging from the tone of his reply, he experienced
no indecision whatsoever about saying yes. He would,
as requested, be at Le Bocage by three o'clock the
next afternoon, he wrote, and he should like nothing
better than to be initiated into the art of dealing
with native venders of curiosities.
6

82 BILLT BBLLEW

So far, so good, Daisy thought ; it now only-
remained for her to ascei*tain whether her father
meant to form one of the party or not, because, for
obvious reasons, it was desirable that the party should
consist of four, not of three persons. Mr. Forbes
having somewhat emphatically disclaimed any inten-
tions of wasting his time in the foolish and unprofit-
able manner suggested, it naturally devolved upon
Winnie to fill the vacant place, and this she con-
sented to do, after the old gentleman had accorded
her a rather grudging leave of absence.

Among the minor disappointments of lif^, few are
more irritating than the failure of a promising little
plan upon which we have expended some pains, and
it stands to reason that such a failure is rendered
doubly irritating if it be brought about by the very
person for whose benefit the plan has been designed.

This was the trial which fate had in store for Miss
Daisy Forbes, whose equanimity proved wholly inade-
quate to the strain placed upon it thereby. It was
already bad enough that Mr. Bellew should keep her
mother and her sister and her — especially her — wait-
ing for a quarter of an hour ; it was pretty cool (and
she meant to tell him so) to expect three ladies to sit
with their hats and gloves on and do nothing until it
should suit him to keep his appointment. But these
offences sank into insignificance by comparison with
the enormity of that which was to follow. The
carriage had been waiting at the door for the time
above mentioned, and Mrs. Forbes had just remarked,
" Really, my dear Daisy, if Mr. Bellew doesn't come
presently, I think we must start without him," when

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTMENT 83

a breathless Arab messenger arrived, bearing a visiting
card, upon which were scribbled these words: "So
sorry to find I can't come after all. Many apologies."

" Bather unceremonious, I must say ! " was the
observation of the recipient.

Daisy remained speechless for a minute or two ;
but that was only because she was so much taken
aback that she could not just at first think of any-
thing strong enough to say. As soon as she recovered
command of her vocabulary, which was a rich one,
she proceeded to apply a string of epithets to Mr.
Bellew wliich ought to have made that gentleman's
ears tingle. Daisy was the only hot-tempered mem-
ber of the Forbes family ; which was doubtless the
reason why she did pretty much as she pleased with
the other members of the family. When she had
flown into a rage in the days of her childhood, no-
body had ever thought of throwing cold water over
her ; on the contrary, it had been every-body's busi-
ness to soothe and comfort her, and much the same
practice had continued to prevail in later years. So,
during the drive down the hill, her mother, who sat
beside her, and Winnie, who sat opposite with her
back to the horses, vied with one another in well-
meant but ineffectual efforts to allay her wrath. But
it was useless to tell her that Mr. Bellew could not
have intended to be guilty of a studied insult and
that he would probably be able to give some perfectly
satisfactory explanation of his conduct.

" He will never get the chance of making any
explanation to me ! " she declared. " You may
receive him again, if you choose ; I won*V^

84 * BILLT BELLSW

Nevertheless, she derived some secret gratification
from one suggestion which her sister, perhaps a little
indiscreetly, put forward.

" I dare say he would have been only too glad to
come," said Winnie, " if Mrs. Littlewood had given
him leave. I shouldn't be at all surprised if she had
forbidden him at the last moment."

This, it need scarcely be said, was precisely what
had occurred. Billy had presumed too far upon the
rather unusual length to which his tether of late had
been permitted to run, and he had received a sharp
reminder that he was not a free agent. It would
have been all right if he could have got off breakfast-
ing with the Littlewoods that day ; but he tried to
get off and failed ; then, most unfortunately, it
transpired that Mrs. Littlewood wanted him to go
out driving with her ; then he had to confess that he
had a previous engagement, and then there was a
terrible disturbance. Contraiy to his usual custom,
Billy did not at once submit to do as he was told.
He pointed out that to throw Mrs. Forbes over with-
out the shadow of an excuse for so doing would be
abominably rude ; he protested his willingness and
anxiety to drive with Blanche on the morrow, and
the day after, and any number of days after ; only he
did hope that she wouldn't insist upon making both
him and herself disagreeably conspicuous by detaining
him that afternoon.

" Because," he added sapiently, " if I don't turn
up, and can't give a reason for not turning up, they'll
be perfectly certain to guess what has become of
me."

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTMENT 85

But Mrs. Littlewood was in one of her stubborn
and i)ei'verse moods. She said that if he was ashamed
of her company, he certainly could not do better than
forsake it ; she observed that she had for a long time
past seen that he was tired of her ; she advised him
to lose no time in hurrying up to Le Bocage, lest his
new friends should be growing impatient ; only, if he
did go, she hoped he would not trouble to come back
again ; because, humble though she was, she was not
quite humble enough to care about sharing with Miss
Forbes a friendship which had once been exclusively
her own. After which she burst into tears.

This was conclusive ; but by the time that Mrs.
Little wood's tears had been dried (from considera-
tions of precaution, which will readily be understood,
the greater portion of these was heroically gulped
down), and Billy had surrendered at discretion, he
discovered, to his horror, that it was already tliree
o'clock. Hence the scribbled card and the breathless
messenger.

Now, Billy was not the man to do things by halves,
and, having made up his mind to please Blanche
rather than himself, he put a pleasant face upon it.
Still it must be confessed that his face became con-
siderably longer when he heard what the object of
their drive was to be. Mrs. Littlewood may not have
originally intended to ransack the curiosity shops
that afternoon ; but such was her declared intention
now, and he dared not remonstrate, for fear of mak-
ing her ciy again. He could but hope that the curi-
osity shops of Algiers might be very numerous, and
that Fortune, who had already treated him so cruelly.

86 BILLY BKLLKW

would spare liim the additional misery of encounter-
ing the party which he had been compelled to desert.

The curiosity shops of Algiers are numerous
enough ; but that Billy should have hoped to avoid
meeting Mrs. Forbes and her daughters in one or
other of them, only shows how imperfectly acquainted
he was with the character of his fair companion.
Mrs. Little wood's victories, as he might have remem-
bered, were seldom followed up by any display of
magnanimity on her part, nor was she very prone to
deny herself the gratification of her immediate wishes
through any regard for ordinary prudence. Her
present feeling was that Billy deserved some punish-
ment, and that the Forbes family needed a reminder
that Mr. Bellew was not at their beck and call. She
therefore drove in rapid succession to the Rue Bab-
Azoun, to the Place du Gouvernement and to several
of the narrow streets that fringe the old town, making
a few purchases (for which Billy paid), but taking
little heed of the wares exhibited for her approval,
until she reached a certain establishment in the Rue
de la Lyre, at the door of which an open carriage was
waiting.

Only too well did Billy know that carriage ; from
afar he had recognized the short silk jacket, the
gaudy sash, and the scarlet fez of the Arab coachman ;
and he made a feeble, despairing attempt to avert the
imminent catastrophe.

" I — I don't think this is much of a place," he stam-
mered; "there's another chap over the way who looks
as if he'd be a great deal more likely to have the sort
of things that you want."

A LITTLE DISAPPOINTMENT 87

" What sort of things do I want ? " enquired Mrs.
Littlewood. " If you know, you're better infoimed
than I am."

She had already alighted, and, without waiting for
a reply, plunged into the dark recesses of the shop,
whither Billy, after resisting an ignoble inclination
to take to his heels, was fain to follow her. His
eyes had not yet become accustomed to the obscurity
when he heard her exclaim, in her most urbane and
amiable voice — that voice which was always associated
in his mind with moments of public humiliation :

"Oh, Mrs. Forbes, how do you do? I didn't
recognize you at first. I suppose you are going the
round of the shops, as we are. Do take pity on a
poor stranger and give me some advice. I really
don't know what's good and what isn't, and I haven't
the most distant idea of what one ought to pay. As
for Mr. Bellew, I am sorry to say that he is utterly
useless."

CHAPTER Vm

HABBY LYSA6HT

Audacity was Mrs. Littlewood's favorite weapon ;
but it cannot be said for her that she always wielded
it with skill or judgment. Sometimes, however, it
served her pui*pose by depriving others of their pres-
ence of mind ; and this was the effect which her alto-
gether unexpected greeting produced upon Mrs.
Forbes, who found herself shaking hands with the
woman before she knew what she was about.

There are situations which are saved by their own
excessive awkwardness. Every-body, except Mrs.
Littlewood, felt so thoroughly apprehensive and un-
comfortable that nobody was disposed to make things
worse than they already were ; and Mrs. Forbes, for
one, instead of sticking her chin in the air and effect-
ing a dignified retreat, began to explain, in a quite
friendly, if somewhat hurried tone, that all the
prettiest things were upstairs, that she herself was
just going away, that she only wanted to conclude a
bargain upon which she was engaged over a Kabyle
rug, and so forth.

Billy, meanwhile, was standing in the background,
looking the picture of misery. What could he do or
say ? To apologize for his defection would be a
mere mockery, to jauntily ignore the whole business

HABBY LYSAGHT 89

would require more impudence than he could summon
up ; there was nothing for it but to wait patiently,
and allow them all to see — as surely they must — that
at least he was not by his own choice in his present
predicament.

Well, they could hardly help seeing that much ;
and after a minute or two, during which the conver-
sation between Mrs. Forbes and Mrs. Littlewood had
actually resolved itself into an amicable discussion
about carpets and embroidered hangings, he ventured
to glance furtively at Winifred, whose brown eyeg
were resting upon him with an expression of mingled
amusement and compassion. Thinking that he could
read in them a permission to advance, he did so, and
said in a low voice :

" I'm awfully ashamed of myself. I'm afraid you'll
hardly believe that I haven't done this on purpose ;
but the real truth is that I was just starting to join
you when I found that Mrs. Littlewood had counted
upon my driving with her ; and so "

" I don't see why you should be ashamed of your-
self," answered Winifred, smiling, and laying ever so
slight a stress upon the word " you." " It isn't your
fault that you are in such universal request, and you
couldn't be in two places at one and the same time.
Anyhow, you owe no apology to me ; because it
wasn't I who asked you to come with us."

She turned her head, as she spoke, toward her
sister, who was standing close by and who, she hoped,
would take this opportunity of pardoning the repent-
ant offender. One cannot think of every thing, and
in her anxiety to improve Daisy's spirits and temper

90 BILLY BELLEW

she quite forgot that it would perhaps be no great
misfortune were that young woman to carry out her
threat of never speaking to Mr. Bellew again. Before
any thing more could be said she was summoned by
her mother to give assistance in the matter of the
Kabyle rug, which the turbaned individual who was
displaying it swore that he would rather give away
as a present than part with it for the price offered ;
and thus Billy was left face to face with the lady
whom he had so deeply affronted.

By this time she had made up her mind to forgive
him, for she understood very well what the state of
the case was, and it was impossible to doubt that he
was more sinned against than sinning. Still, as jus-
tice demanded that some rebuke should be adminis-
tered, she remarked :

" I can't compliment you on your courage."

Somehow or other, he looked a good deal less meek
than he had done when speaking to Winnie a mo-
ment before. " I haven't the courage to disappoint
people, if that's what you mean," he answered a little
curtly. "Mrs. Littlewood would have been disap-
pointed if I had left her to take her drive all alone
this afternoon, and of course I don't flatter myself
that my presence or absence could make much differ-
ence to you. Still, I know it was bad manners not to
keep my appointment, and I beg your pardon."

" You must be an old hand at making excuses,"
remarked Daisy, laughing ; " it is clever of you to
drive me into such a corner that I can only assure
you that it doesn't in the least matter, or else confess
that you did disappoint me by playing truant. Well,

HABBY LYSAGHT 91

at the risk of increasing your vanity, I make you
welcome to the information that I was disappointed.
So much so, indeed, that I had almost resolved to de-
cline your acquaintance for the future."

" I'm glad you thought better of that," said Billy.
" I suppose, if you had turned your back upon me,
the rest of your family would have followed suit ;
and I should have been very sorry to be cut by my
friend Micky and your sister."

It was by this unlooked-for exhibition of severity
that Mr. Bellew gave evidence of the abhorrence in
which he held all flirts. It was true that his heart
had not been touched by the tactics of Miss Daisy
Forbes ; still, as he very reasonably argued, it might
have been, and it was any thing but creditable to her
to have behaved as she had done, considering that
she was as good as engaged to another man. Unfortu-
nately, the moral lesson which he desired to inculcate
was completely thrown away upon its subject, who
had not the most remote idea of what he was driving
at, and for whom a recalcitrant wooer had all the
attraction that a game fish possesses for the experi-
enced angler. So far from taking offence, she set to
work to dispel his imaginary ill-humor, and by the
time that the Kabyle rug had at length passed into
Mrs. Forbes's possession, her own ill-humor had com-
pletely vanished.

''-4 tout p^cM mis&ricorde,''^ she remarked compla-
cently, after she had resumed her seat in the carriage
and the horses' heads had been turned homeward.
" The poor man wasn't a willing sinner, at all events ;
one couldn't look at his face and think that of him."

02 BILLY BELLEW

" I never noticed his face," Mrs. Forbes confessed,
with a sigh ; " I couldn't get beyond the face of that
woman, which was outrageously powdered and
painted. She took my breath away so by rushing at
me in that way that I hardly know what I said, and
I am afraid I was almost gushing. Winnie, dear, I
do think you might have tried to help me a little !
The next thing will be that we shall have her drop-
ping in at all hours of the day."

Mrs. Littlewood, however, had no intention of do-
ing that, and was well satisfied to rest upon her laurels
for the present. She did not even allude to the little
scene which has been described above until the time
came for her to dismiss her patient escort, when she
observed :

" I was determined that, if those good folks wanted
to know you, they should know me ; but I shall
not quarrel with you over their favors. They are
worthy sort of people, and the little one who made
eyes at you is quite pretty; but I don't see how one
could spend an hour in their company without yawn-
ing one's head off."

Now, it came to pass on the following day that,
just as Billy was about to mount his horse at the
door of the Hotel d'Orient, he was accosted by a
fresh-colored, curly-headed young man, who said :

"I think I must claim acquaintance with you,
though I dare say you don't remember me. My name
is Lysaght. We used to meet out hunting the year
before last."

" Of course, I remember you as well as possible,"
answered Billy, shaking hands. " Very glad to see

HABBY LYSAGHT 93

you again, though this is about the very last place
in the world where I should have expected to see
a sportsman. What has brought you here ? Not
health, I hope ? " Then, suddenly remembering
Micky's revelation : "Oh, by the way, though — of
course — I forgot ! "

Harry Lysaght did not ask him what he meant, but
laughed in a half -gratified, half -sheepish manner, and
said : " I suppose you know the Forbeses ? "

" Yes, a little ; not very well. I've seen more of
the boy than of any of the others. He's a good little
chap, and ought to make a fine rider one of these
days."

" Perhaps, if he lives ; but I'm afraid, from what t
hear, that his lungs aren't sound. It's to be hoped
that he'll come all right, for I' m sure I don't know
what poor Winnie would do if any thing happened
him."

After this, the Forbes family were dismissed from
the conversation in favor of certain hunting remi-
niscences, and presently the two men parted, promis-
ing one another to meet again soon. They had been
scarcely more than acquaintances in England, but
there was every probability of their becoming friends
in exile.

Harry Lysaght, indeed, not only liked, but pro-
foundly admired Billy Belle w, whose prowess in the
hunting-field and as a gentleman rider he had often
witnessed. Of Billy's* private life he did not know
much, but he did know what was supposed to be
pretty generally known about Mrs. Littlewood, and
he was sorry to hear, later in the day, from Daisy

94 BILLY BELLEW

Forbes, that that lady was spending the winter in
Algiers.

" It's an awful pity, you know," he said regret-
fully.

" So I think," observed Daisy, " and I'm doing my
little best to save him. Let us form a rescue party,
and unite in the good work. Bring him up here
with you as often as you can ; I shall always be
delighted to see him."

If her object was to arouse her hearer's jealousy,
she failed ; for, although Harry Lysaght could be
and often was ridiculously jealous, it did not occur to
him to regard Mr. Bellew in the light of a possible
rival. He himself had met with a much more
gracious reception than he had dared to hope for.
He had been very well aware that Daisy would not
like being pursued, and that was why he had given
no notice of his impending visit before arriving at
Marseilles. He had come because he had been
unable any longer to endure the pangs of separation ;
but he had come fully prepared to be teased and
baffled and held at arm's length. He was rich, he
had a fine estate, he was young and by no means bad-
looking ; he had a perfect right to demand an
answer and every excuse for anticipating a favorable
one. But, being desperately in love, he feared his
fate too much ; so that Daisy was accustomed to
amuse herself by toying with her prey. She had
welcomed him, in fact, for no other reason than that
she was glad to see him, and she was only glad to
see him because she thought she could see her way to
getting some additional amusement out of him. To

HABBY LYSAGHT 95

make Harry jealous of Mr. Bellew would not be much
fun ; but to make Mr. Bellew jealous of Harry would
be sport of a high order, and she hoped to enjoy it.

Her unsuspecting victim promised readily to do
as he was asked. " I suppose you are more or less
joking," he remarked, " but really and seriously I
believe what Bellew wants is a little more of ladies'
society. Of course he has any number of friends, and
I dare say he dines out a good bit during the season,
and all that ; but I never heard of his having a single
intimate lady friend — unless you call Mrs. Little wood
a lady."

Whether Mrs. Littlewood was a lady or not, her
intimacy with Mr. Bellew was close enough and exact-
ing enough to keep that unfortunate man pretty con-
stantly on duty during the next two or three days.
Harry Lysaght, with whom he had several chats, and
who refreshed his soul with the latest intelligence
from the shires, proposed in vain to him that they
should pay a joint visit to Le Bocage. He had
to decline, and he made no secret of his reason for
doing so.

" Mrs. Littlewood asked me to look in," he would
say. " She has been seedy, and she doesn't know
many people here. I'm afraid I couldn't very well
leave her in the lurch this afternoon."

Hany, who had met Mrs. Littlewood in England,
had, as in duty bound, left a card upon her. He had
not been admitted, but he had encountered her hus-
band in the town, and — finding after a few tentative
remarks that he might do this with impunity — he
had spoken his mind with some freedom to Billy upon

96 BUXT BSLLBW

the subject of the colonel. Any body was at liberty
to revile Colonel Littlewood in Billy's presence ; in
facty such revilings were rather agreeable to him,
as partaking of the nature of a tacit admission that
great allowances ought to be made for Colonel Little-
wood's wife.

Meanwhile Colonel Littlewood's wife kept Billy
upon an uncommonly short allowance of f reedom, and,
although she had declared that she would not dispute
with him for the favors of the Forbes family, took
very good care that he should not receive an over-
dose of them. Fruitless, therefore, were the ex-
pectant lingerings of Micky at the stable-gate, and
fruitless all the efforts of Miss Daisy to initiate a
well-conceived plan of campaign. The former was a
good deal discouraged ; the latter was only stimu-
lated by preliminary rebuffs to fresh exertions. And
success came to her at last, as indeed it almost always
does to those who are not weary in ill-doing. One
afternoon Harry Lysaght intercepted Billy, who was,
as usual, plodding along the dusty road on his way
to Mrs. Littlewood's villa, and said :

** Are you doing any thing on Thursday evening,
Bellew ? ''

" Thursday ? " repeated Billy meditatively. " No,
I don't think so. In fact, I'm sure I shall be free on
Thursday, because the Littlewoods leave on that day.
They're going up to Ham mam R'irha for a week or
so. Littlewood has a touch of the gout, or thinks he
has."

"Serve him right," said Harry. "I hope the
waters will bring it out, and keep him squealing on

HABBY LTSAGHT 97

his back for a month. You won't have to go with
them, then ? "

" Well, no ; I'm not going with them. Perhaps I
may follow — I'm not sure. Anyhow I shall be here
on Thursday evening."

" TJien you'll come with us and see the Arab town
by moonlight, won't you ? Mrs. Forbes told me
particularly to ask you. There's a full moon and
every prospect of fine weather, and it's quite one of
the things to do. You drive to the Kasbah, you
know, and then walk down. And I thought it
would • be rather jolly to have supper at one of the
restaurants afterward. You and I might treat the
company, if you felt inclined."

Billy, it is needless to say, felt quite inclined to
take part in this little jaunt, and signified his assent,
which was duly reported at Le Bocage immediately
afterward.

" That makes it all right, you see," Harry Lysaght
explained to Winnie, whom he already treated as a
sister-in-law, and to whose counsel and assistance he
had frequently had recourse in moments of perplexity ;
"now we shall have an even number. You can walk
with Bellew, and Mrs. Forbes can support your
father's steps and keep him from running his head
up against a wall."

" Yes, that will be very nice," answered Winnie,
with a demure smile.

It would have been cruel to mar the young man's

sanguine anticipations by telling him what her own

were ; but it was, as she well knew, highly probable

that Mr. Bellew would be appropriated by Daisy, and

7

08 BILLY BELLEW

tlint upon lier would devolve the task of administer-
ing balm to the wounded spirit of a gentleman who
did not always receive such ministrations gratefully.

It is, however, impossible for any human being to
foretell the course of events. Even experience is
no infallible guide, and a margin should always be
allowed for the many disconcerting contingencies
which do not throw their shadows before them.
Among these latter was one which Harry Lysaght
had assuredly never dreamt of taking into account,
and which was revealed to him when he returned to
the hotel to dress for dinner. Immediately after he
had reached his room there came a knock at the door,
and in strode Billy Bellew, who looked troubled and
a little shame-faced.

" Look here, Lysaght," said he, " I don't know
about this moonlight expedition. I think, perhaps,
I'd better cry off. And yet I don't quite see how I'm
to do fliat, either. Well, the fact of the matter is
that I told the Littlewoods I was going, and they
said at once they would put off their start till Friday
and come with us. Of course I couldn't say that it
was Mrs. Forbes's paity and that they must get an
invitation from her. I couldn't say such a thing as
that, could I ? But at the same time, you know "

" Oh, it's rather a bore, but it can't be helped," in-
terrupted Harry, trying not to look too much dis-
gusted. "After all, Mrs. Forbes does know Mrs.
Littlewood. It's only that terrible colonel who
alarms me. But I suppose he won't, eh ? "

Billy shook his head gloomily. " I should think
ver}'- likely he would ; I wouldn't answer for him.

HARRY LYSAGHT 99

He was making zigzags all over the Place du Gou-
vernement yesterday at three o'clock in the afternoon.
I had to take him home in di. fiacre and leave my
horse with a boy, who jumped on to his back, and of
course got chucked. Luckily, the horse knew his
way to the stables. No, my dear fellow ; the only
plan is to change my mind and go off to Hammam
R'irha on Thursday."

No doubt Harry was chiefly anxious that his party
should not be spoilt by the retirement of that member
of it whose presence was essential to its symmetry ;
but he was also honestly desirous of freeing his friend
from the clutches of the enchantress, and he perceived
that the departure of the Littlewoods for Hammam
R'irha, leaving Billy behind them, would afford
opportunities which no true friend of the latter's
would be justified in neglecting. Therefore he said
cheerily :

" Nonsense ! we aren't going to let you off on any
pretext. It will be all right, you'll see. You can
take charge of Mrs. Littlewood, and the colonel, if he
isn't too drunk — and I don't suppose he will be — can
walk with Winnie. Winnie is the best girl in the
world ; she won't mind walking with any body.
And I think, you know, we won't say any thing
about it at Le Bocage ; it would only make a fuss
and a discussion and do no good ! "

" I think Mrs. Forbes ought to be told," said Billy.
" It isn't only about the colonel ; for I dare say I shall
be able to bring him up to the scratch pretty sober ;
but I am not at all sure that Mrs. Forbes cares about
being intimate with Mrs. Littlewood. For the matter

100 BILLY BELLE W

of that, I may say I'm quite sure she doesn't. And
it isn't fair to spring a surprise upon her."

Harry Lysaght was not so scrupulous. He said
Mrs. Forbes wasn't a royalty; you weren't bound to
submit a list of your guests to her before inviting her
to a supper party. Moreover, supposing that a chance
of objecting were given to her, and that she did
object, where would they be then !

" Well, not in Algiers," answered Billy, with a
laugh. "At least, one of us wouldn't. Upon my
word, Lysaght, you had much better let me retire."

But this Mr. Lysaght declared and swore that he
would not do ; so, after some further argument,
Billy (who, to tell the truth, had no wish at all to
visit Tlainmani R'irha) allowed his misgivings to be
overruled.

CHAPTER IX

MOONLIGHT

Winifred Forbes stood in the moonlight on a
little bare plateau near the old Moorish citadel, or
Kasbah, which crowns the apex of the pyramid
formed by the town of Algiers. The scene at which
she was gazing with wondering eyes and parted lips
seemed to her almost too lovely to be real ; for indeed
the Algerian moon has little affinity with the cold,
hard luminary whose beams irradiate our northern
landscape on fine nights. There was nothing hard or
cold about the wondrous panorama which Winifred
beheld from her lofty standpoint. The snow-white
houses of the Arab town, the domes and minarets of
the mosques, the dark olive and ilex woods, the
palms, swaying before the breath of a light wind,
the great bay, with here and there a shimmering
sail upon its surface, Cap Matifon beyond, and the
mountains of Kabylia in the far distance — all these
lay bathed in a marvellously brilliant, yet soft,
light, which transfigured and glorified them, but did
not— or at all events did not appear to — rob them
of their color.

Winifred had stolen a short distance away from
the others to regale her eyes with this exquisite pros-
pect, and for the moment she had forgotten their

102 BILLY BBLLBW

existence — had forgotten the rather absurd scene
which had taken place a few minutes before, when,
on reaching the appointed trjsting-spot, the Forbes
family had met, not only the two friends whom they
had expected to see, but a very lively lady and a still
more lively gentleman, who cheerfully signified their
intention of joining the party. Her mother's undis-
guised annoyance, Mr. Bellew's mouraful, deprecat-
ing mien, Harry's singularly ill-advised apologies,
the aflFability of Mrs. Littlewood, the noisy joviality
of the colonel, her own desperate inclination to burst
out laughing — it had all passed away from her mem-
ory, and no doubt she would have stood stock-still
where she was for another quarter of an hour, if
somebody had not come to rouse her out of her
trance.

Somebody said, in a very gentle and apologetic
voice, " They think we ought to be starting, Miss
Forbes. Old Hamoud, the guide, says we must keep
together, or we shall get lost in those narrow
streets."

Winifred turned away obediently, but paused after
she had taken a few steps, to throw one last linger-
ing glance at the view. " Isn't it beautiful ! " she
exclaimed.

" Yes," answered Billy, " it is indeed. I don't think
I have ever seen any thing so beautiful before. But
I can't enjoy it. I'm too much ashamed of myself. I
ought not to have come, and I ought not to have let
the Little woods come. It was a great mistake? I
should have seen that at once from your mother's
face — if I hadn't known it already."

MOONLIGHT 103

" What nonsense ! The only person who made a
mistake was Harry ; he really ought to have known
better than to apologize. As for mamma, she was
surprised, and she naturally looked so, that was all.
Pray, don't distress yourself ; you aren't in the least
to blame."

" Well, if you don't blame me, I don't so much
mind," said Billy, with a relieved sigh. "The truth
is that the Lit tie woods offered to come : and when
people offer to come anywhere with you, you can't
very well tell them that you don't want them."

" Especially not when you do want them. Ought
you not to be escorting Mrs. Littlewood now ? You
needn't mind about me ; I am quite accustomed to
taking care of myself."

The party, under the leadership of the turbaned
Hamoud, had by this time been set in motion, and
was progressing down the hill in irregular formation.
Mrs. Forbes, who had taken her husband by tlie arm,
was evidently determined to avoid committing her-
self, and to devote her whole attention to her wifely
duties. Behind her walked Mrs. Littlewood, offering
occasional remarks, which, apparently, were not heard;
then came Harry Lysaght, all by himself, and tlien
Colonel Littlewood, who, judging by his loud and
continuous laughter, was relating some humorous
anecdote for Daisy's benefit. It certainly did look
as if Billy ought to intervene and effect a redistribu-
tion of partners ; but he could not help a strong feel-
ing of reluctance to disturb the existing arrangement.
Should he do what he was told to do, and what rep-
resented itself to him in the light of a duty toward

104 BILLY BELLBW

several of bis neighbors, or should he for once be
selfish and consult his own inclinations? It was
unnecessary for him to vex his conscience with such
questions ; for one of his neighbors had no intention
whatsoever of allowing him any choice in the mat-
ter. Daisy unceremoniously forsook the loquacious
Colonel, and, stepping back to meet her sister, said :

" Winnie, I wish you would go and catch up Mrs.
Littlewood. She has nobody to talk to, and mamma
is in such terror of repeating the tragedy of Jack
and Jill that she can't spare a thought for any thing
else."

" Veiy well," answered Winifred hesitatingly ;
" but I think Mr. Bellew "

" Oh, I am going to retain possession of Mr. Bel-
lew," interrupted Daisy briskly. " I have a crow to
pluck with him — several crows indeed."

Both Winifred Forbes and Mr. Bellew were ad-
dicted by nature to doing as they were bid. Neither
of them protested, and so the former presently found
herself picking her way down the steep and tortuous
streets of the old town, side by side with a lady
against whom she had conceived a strong prejudice.
It is not easy to talk to people against whom you are
strongly prejudiced, and for some little time Winnie's
efforts met with no encouragement from her partner,
who seemed to have enough to do to keep her footing,
even with the support of Billy's walking-stick, which
she had borrowed. The so-called streets of the Arab
quarter are for the most part mere flights of steps,
paved with rough and slippery stones. Mrs. Little-
wood wore very high-heeled boots, and the constant

MOONLIGHT 106

abrupt transitions from bright moonlight to deep
shadow might well have rendered advance uncer-
tain to a less absurdly shod pedestrian. She never
raised her eyes to the low arched doorways, the
plaster arabesques, and the overhanging upper stories,
sustained by groups of round whitewashed rafters,
which delighted Winnie, but plodded onward and
downward as best she could until she readied a gate-
way with a porch, on either side of which was a tiled
seat. Here she flung herself down, and took her com-
panion's breath away by asking, without a word of
preface :

" What would you do if you had a husband like
mine ? "

" But — ^but I don't know what your husband is
like," was the best reply that Winifred could hit
upon at such short notice.

" Well, at least you know what he looks like ; and
and that is what he is — that and more. I did think
that just for this once — and after my begging him
so particularly — I did think that he would have tried
to refrain from disgracing me. But you saw the
state he was in ; and it is always like that, and
always will be. It seems as if he had sworn to pre-
vent my ever knowing any nice people ! "

Mrs. Littlewood took out her handkerchief. There
were real tears in her eyes ; for she was genuinely
mortified and unhappy. As a matter of fact, her
husband was not and never had been unkind to her :
but liis habits of intemperance had caused her to
pass through some humiliating moments, and she
quite believed that she was a deeply injured wife.

106 . BILLY BELLEW

^'Ohy but I think you must be mistaken," said
Winnie, who could not help being sorry for the
woman. "I really didn't notice any thing about
him — except, perhaps, that his voice was rather
loud."

" What is the use of saying that ? " cried the other
impatiently. " K you didn't notice, I'm sure every-
body else did, that he is more than half tipsy; and
unless I can get him home before the supper — which
will be impossible — I shall have to take him home
quite tipsy. Oh, that is nothing new, I assure you !
And now let me ask you once more what would you
do if you had a husband like mine ? "

"I suppose," answered Winnie hesitatingly, "I
should try to make the best of him."

She did not mean this as a rebuke ; but it was
accepted as such by Mrs. Littlewood, who continued
to weep, and who remarked pathetically that it was
easier to offer counsels of perfection than to follow
them. She gave a moving account of her patience,
her trials, her repeated disappointments. She said
she was well aware that people called her fast and
flighty and a number of other bad names ; but
if these censorious persons only knew what her life
at home was, surely even they would not blame her
for escaping from it when she could and seeking such
amusement as still remained within her reach. In
short she made out a case for herself which aroused
the compassion and to some extent secured the sym-
pathy of her hearer.

After a time they resumed their march. Mr. and
Mrs. Forbes had long ago passed out of sight, and

MOONLIGHT 107

there was as yet no sign of the approach of the rear-
guard ; but when your only object is to reach the
bottom of a steep hill you cannot miss your way very
badly. Mrs. Littlewood, thinking that she had
gained an ally, had become more cheerful. She
said :

" After all, we must hope for the best. A walk
like this ought to sober him, and I dare say it will ;
for I am sure it must be agony to any one with
a threatening of gout to hobble down such places.
To be sure, there remains the supper, but I shall
trust to Billy to take care of him then."

"Is Mr. Bellew any relation of yours?" asked
Winifred^ with just a touch of sharpness in her tone.

Mrs. Littlewood laughed. " You know quite well
that he isn't. Of course it's very shocking of me to
call him by his Christian name, but I really couldn't
get out of the habit at this time of the day, and he
would think I was dreadfully offended with him if I
were to address him as Mr. Bellew."

" Wouldn't it be rather a good thing if you were ? "
asked Winifred, wondering a little at her own
temerity. "A good thing for both of you, I mean."

"It would be for m^, no doubt," answered Mrs.
Littlewood ; " I am painfully conscious that poor
Billy, without in the least intending it, has done me
almost as much injury in the eyes of the world as
my husband has. But, silly as you may think me, I
couldn't And it in my heart to send him about his
business. One can't be quite insensible to such devo-
tion as his, though one may have done nothing at all
to encourage it, and if it makes him happy to be

108 BILLY BELLEW

near me, why should I grudge him that morsel of
happiness ? "

" Oh, if you are sure that it makes him happy —
but he doesn't always look happy."

" No, indeed, poor fellow ! How could he ? But
I really believe that he suffers more on my account
than on his own."

Winifred, whose commiseration had by this time
given place to contempt, was saying to herself, " Well,
you certainly are the most selfish, silly, and vulgar
woman I have ever met." Mrs. Littlewood, on her
side, was thinking, "I perfectly understand what you
are driving at, my dear : I am to renounce Billy and
leave the field clear for Miss Daisy ; in return for
which you will kindly lend me your countenance arid
introduce me to your friends. Many thanks, but I do
not feel tempted to close with that offer ; it is not
quite good enough." She resumed aloud :

" If you knew Billy as well as I do, you would
understand the impossibility of my dismissing him.
He would be simply inconsolable ! I suppose you
think he would fall in love with some girl or other
and marry her. I assure you he wouldn't ; girls are
not attractive to him, and I doubt very much whether
marriage is, either. There is your sister, for instance,
who — you won't mind my saying so, will you ? — who
is making innocent little efforts to captivate him.
Well, your sister is very pretty and very charming ;
but she doesn't appeal to hira in any way. He told
me the other day, when we were talking about you
both, that he liked you much the best of tne two.
So you see ! "

MOONLIGHT 109

Winifred was very angry, but it was difficult to
make a crushing rejoinder, because there was no
denying that Daisy had made efforts to captivate Mr.
Bellew. Therefore she only quickened her pace and
said :

"Perhaps you and he are the best judges of what
concerns yourselves ; but I don't think you ought to
complain if disagreeable remarks are made about
you. Oh, there are papa and mamma and Hamoud.
I wonder what has become of the others."

The arrival of the others was retarded by the cir-
cumstance that during the greater part of their walk
they had been playing an absurd game of hide and
seek. Harry, exasperated by the jocular familiarities
of the colonel, and determined to shake him off, had
given chase as fast as his gouty companion, who had
him by the arm, would let him, to the couple in front ;
Daisy, well aware that she was being pursued, had
dodged round corners with the docile Billy, had
insisted upon exploring the most evil-smelling alleys,
had twisted and turned and, upon the whole, had en-
joyed herself very much, until at last she was caught
in an open space by the breathless Harry and the still
more breathless colonel. Harry was a good deal
ruffled. He scarcely troubled himself to lower his
voice as he caught Billy by the elbow and said :

"Look here, Bellew, I didn't bargain for this sort
of thing. You had better take charge of that brute,
and try if you can't get him to behave himself ; per-
haps you understand his little ways better than I do.
He's as drunk as a fly, jon know."

Thus, for a second time, was a charge of inebriety

110 BILLY BELLEW

brought against poor Colonel Littlewood, who really
was not intoxicated, only genial, and desirous of
spending a merry evening. He had dined, though
not any better than usual, and it is true that he had
thoughtfully provided himself with a flask of cherry
brandy; but Harry had not allowed him time to put
his lips to it, and he was only able to take a little
refreshment when that impetuous young man had
moved on, in company with the reluctant Daisy.
Billy did not attempt to interfere with him. He was,
indeed, sufficiently well acquainted with the colonel's
" little ways " to know how futile any such attempt
would be, and he also knew that the man's behavior
would be rendered neither better nor worse by so
moderate a potation.

"Excitable sort of chap, your friend Lysaght,"
remarked the colonel, wiping his mouth. "Never
was so hustled in my life ! Thought he'd liave had
me down once or twice — I did, indeed ! Dare say he
won't be in such a hurry, now he has got hold of the
young woman, eh ? So you and I will take it easy,
old man. That confounded foot of mine is beginning
to wake me up like blazes, I can tell you ! Shouldn't
wonder a bit if I had to stop in bed to-morrow and
give up Hammam what's-its-name."

" Oh, you must go to Hammam R'irha," said Billy
earnestly. "Don't let any thing prevent you from
going, even if you have to be carried down to the
station. I am sure your case is one for strong and
immediate measures."

For a man upon the verge of a fit of gout, the
colonel was wonderfully hilarious. He said it was a

MOONLIGHT 111

jolly night, and those girls were jolly girls, and he
wished he was walking with one of them. Leaning
heavily upon Billy's arm, he narrated anecdotes of
bygone moonlight nights which, as they did not
redound to his credit, and, perhaps, were not even
true, there is no need to record here ; and from time
to time, by way of letting off his supei-fluous spirits,
he woke the echoes with an extraordinary bellow,
explaining that it was a slight improvement upon the
well known jodel of the merry mountaineer.

Meanwhile, Harry Lysaght was receiving the
punishment which was his due for having so auda-
ciously taken the control of affairs into his own
hands. Daisy was very much displeased with him,
and it was not her habit to conceal her displeasure.
She contrived to say so many spiteful things to him,
before they had advanced a hundred yards, that his
already sorely tried temper gave way altogether and
a downright quarrel ensued. Such quarrels were no
uncommon feature in their intercourse. Daisy rather
liked them, knowing that they always ended just
when it pleased her to end them by signifying her
readiness to accept an abject apology : but Harry
took them very seriously, and was as miserable as
could be wished while they lasted.

He was miserable enough when Daisy and he (no
longer on speaking terms) reached the square at the
entrance of the governor's palace, where the rest of
the party, except Billy and Colonel Littlewood, were
waiting. The rest of the party had been waiting
some time and were cross. Mrs. Forbes was for going
straight home, and if Winnie, touched by the woe-

112 BILLY BELLE W

begone aspect of her sister's admirer, had not inter-
vened, she would probably have done so. Mi-s.
Forbes remarked plaintively :

" Of course, my dear Lysaght, since you and your
friend have been kind enough to invite us to supper,
we must keep our engagement, — although I may say
that, personally, I never touch supper, — but surely we
may proceed to the restaurant without further delay.
No doubt Mr. Bellew would prefer our doing so."

To the restaurant they accordingly adjourned, and
they had scarcely taken their places at a table which
Harry's forethought had made beautiful with floral
decorations when Billy and the colonel came in. The
supper was excellent, the dishes were well chosen
and well served, and the champagne was iced to the
right point ; but, viewed in the light of a festive
gathering, it was not a success. Mrs. Forbes ob-
stinately refused to talk to Mrs. Littlewood : Harry
Lysaght was silent and gloomy ; Daisy, with her
offending and offended suitor on her left hand and
the colonel on her right, was obviously out of tem-
per, while Billy, perceiving the general discontent,
remorsofullv accused himself of beinsj its sole cause,
lie murmured something of the sort to his neigh-
bor, who was not quite so prompt or so hearty
with hor oonsolatorv assurances as she had been
earlier in the eveninfir.

** Oh ! I think we have all enjoyed ourselves very
much — upon the whole," she answered, a little hes-
itatinirlv. "I shall never forixet that view from the
Kasbalu and it is roallv most kind of vou to have
prepared such a magnifioont entertainment as this

MOONLIGHT 113

for US. Only you mustn't mind if we go away
presently, because it has been rather a tiring walk
for my father, and he always keeps very early
hours."

Winifred, in truth, had not yet recovered from the
effects of her conversation with Mrs. Littlewood,
which had produced a most uupleasant impression
upon her ; she did not feel equal to the task of
comforting Mrs. Littlewood's admirer, and she was
not Sony when her mother broke up the party by
rising.

" Well, at all events," thouglit Billy, after he had
helped the Forbeses into their carriage and had seen
them drive away, " we haven't had a disreputable
scene, as we might have had if they had stayed later.
That's something to be thankful for ! "

In point of fact, there was a little scene before
Colonel Littlewood could be persuaded to go home.
Since his arrival he had been steadily imbibing all
the champagne that he could lay his hands upon ;
but he did not yet feel that he had had nearly
enough, and he expressed his firm intention of re-
maining where he was for another hour at least.
Consequently, a certain amount of mild coercion had
to be employed.

The two entertainers gazed somewhat ruefully at
one another after their guests had departed, and one
of them could not help laughing.

" XJp9n my word, Lysaght, I'm awfully sorry," he
said ; " but I told you how it would be."

"Oh, no, you didn't — you couldn't," returned
Harry, with considerable acerbity; "I defy any
8

114 BILLY BELLS W

body to tell bow tbings are going to be witb same
people ! As for tbat brute Littlewood, I sincerely
hope the waters of Hamman B'irba will drive the
gout to his stomach and kill bim."

But Billy did not hope that He had no love for
the colonel, but he certainly did not hope that !

CHAPTER X
Micky's prescription

One hot but breezy afternoon the hero of this
narrative and Micky Forbes, who had been out for a
long ride together, were jogging along the highroad
which leads through the village of Birmandra'is to
Algiers. The horses were over their fetlocks in dust,
which rose in dense clouds and swirled away before
the wind ; for that winter had been a fine one
(Algerian winters are not always fine), and although
there had been a storm with torrents of rain a week
before, all traces of it had now vanished, save in the
increased vividness of the green woods.

It was more than a week, it was more than ten
days, since Colonel and Mrs. Littlewood had taken
their departure for Ham mam R'irha ; yet Billy Belle w
was still in Algiers. That he was still in Algiers was
something of a surprise to himself, and certainly it
was not for the lack of urgent entreaty that he had
failed to follow the lady whose letters from the
interior had reached him every day. According to
Mrs. Littlewood, Hammam R'irha was one of the
most detestable places on the earth's surface. Her
husband liked it ; he was taking the baths, he played
baccarat every evening with a circle of choice spirits,
and he slept during the greater part of the day. She,

116 BILLY BELLE W

on the other hand, had neither baths nor baccarat,
nor even books to console her, and what to do with
herself from morning to night she did not know. Of
course there were walks, and there was a forest where
people went and sat ; but who wants to sit in a forest
all alone? Assuredly not Mrs. Littlewood, who
pathetically implored Billy to come and sit there
with her.

He wrote to say that he would obey her summons
immediately, but he had put off his departure from
day to day, upon one pretext or other, although he
had not deemed it necessary or advisable to mention
precisely what his engagements were. Not all of
these had taken him to Le Bocage ; but it must
be confessed that about three-fourths of them had.
Latterly, too, he had not felt quite so guilty ; because
Mrs. Littlewood had written in a more cheerful strain.
She had picked up a Captain Patten, she said, " a
very nice man," who amused her and took walks
with her and helped her to get through the long,
weary hours. Billy smiled when he read that artless
avowal. Similar avowals had reached him before,
and he knew why they were made, and formerly they
had not been without the desired effect. Alas ! once
upon a time he would have thirsted for the blood of
Captain Patten : now he only blessed the name of
that unknown warrior.

Still he did quite mean to go to Hammam R'irha,
and he felt that the time had now fully come for
him to carry out his intention. He had made up his
mind to start on the morrow — which was doubtless
one reason why he became so silent and abstracted

Micky's prescription 117

toward the close of what he thought would very
likely be his last ride with Micky Forbes. His de-
jected aspect had not escaped the sharp eyes of his
young companion, who presently began :

" I say, Mr. Bellew, you've got a fit of the blues,
haven't you ? "

Billy sighed and shook his shoulders. " Well, I
believe I have, Micky," he answered. " One's bound
to have them every now and then."

" I sometimes get them myself," Micky observed.
" The best cure is riding ; but that doesn't seem
to have answered with you. Tjie next best thing
that I know of is to have a good long jaw with
Winnie. Winnie always makes you feel better,
even when she doesn't say much ; it's a sort of way
she has."

" That's perfectly true ! " cried Billy, brightening
up ; " I've noticed it again and again."

Micky nodded judicially. " Winnie," he resumed,
"may not be quite what you would call a beauty, but,
for my part, I like her face better than Daisy's."

" So do I," interpolated Billy.

"Yes, and she's worth hundreds and thousands of
Daisies. If I were grown up, and if I weren't her
brother, I'd marry Winnie like a shot."

" You would have to get her consent first," observed
Billy, laughing.

" Oh, she'd consent right enough, if she thought I
wanted it very badly. Anything that Winnie can
give to a fellow-creature who wants it badly, that
fellow-creature will get, you may be sure."

Micky spoke with emphasis and intention. He had

118 BILLY BBLLEW

conceived for Mr. Bellew one of those ardent ant
admiring attachments wliich most of us were capabli

of feeliug in our early youth, and which some of ui
have actually felt. In later life we learn that thi
race of heroes is extinct, and that the best of goo<
fellowa has his little defects. But Micty would liavi
punched the head of any boy of his own size win
should have dared to assert that Mr. Bellew lackec
a single heroic quality. Billy realized his ideal o
what a man ought to be, and, that being so, it seemei
both natural and desirable to mate him with the idea
of womanhood — especially as a close observer coulc
detect signs that his own inclination tended in tha
direction, Winifred, it was true, was engaged tf
Edmund Kirby — a stiff, solemn fellow, who was ni
sportsman ; but the prospect of her ever marrying
Kirby was so remote that it was hardly worth taking
into account, and Micky had been careful to avoid al
allusion to the subject in his conversations with hii
friend. What he had noticed — and noticed will
satisfaction— was that, although during the previou;
ten days his younger sister had employed all hei
customary manceuvres fov the discomfiture of Harrj
Lysaglit and the subjugation of Mr, Bellew, the lattoi
had evinced a very decided preference for the societj
of Winnie. He had not, to be sure, had a great dea
of it, while he had been a great deal with Daisy; hw
that had been due to the force of circumstances. Oi
this particular afternoon the force of circumstancei
would give him a chance, Micky thought ; becaust
Mr. and Mrs. Forbes, accompanied by Daisy and hei
legitimate admirer, had driven over to the Maisot

Micky's pbescbiption 119

Carr4e, and were not likely to be back for another
hour or so.

Consequently, when the ride was at an end, this
juvenile schemer said, " You'll put your horae in the
stable and come in, won't you ? Winnie's sure to be
somewhere about, and the others will turn up by tea-
time, I expect."

" Well," said Billy, with becoming hesitation, " if
you think I sha'n't bore j'our sister."

" I don't think you will," answered Micky demurely;
" but if you find that you are bonng her, or that she
is boring you, you can call me, and I'll take you to
see a gin that the gardener has set half-way down
the hill. He swears there's been a hyena prowling
around the last two nights, and we mean catching the
brute if we can."

Winifred was neither in the house nor at her usual
post in the arbor; but her brother, who knew where
to look for her, led the way down the steep hillside,
beyond the limits of the garden, to a point where
she was discovered, sure enough, seated on % flat rock
amid the rank growth of asphodel and wormwood,
a large white umbrella over her head, an ink bottle
by her side, and a sheaf of proofs upon her knees.

She looked round and smiled. " Back already ? "
she said. " Have j'^ou had a pleasant ride ? It must
have been friglitfully hot, Micky ; oughtn't j'^ou to
go in and change ? The sun will be setting soon,
you know."

"All right," answered Micky; "I ain't going to
sit down. I just want to have a look at that gin, and
then I shall put myself indoors for the night."

120 BILLY BELLEW

Having thus skilfully accomplished his purpose, he
trolled off down the hill, and "Winifred, gazing-f ondly
after him, exclaimed :

" He is a good boy, isn't he ? I don't suppose we
know what a bother it is to boys to be perpetually
told to change their clothes and keep out of draughts
and all that."

Billy had stretched his long limbs upon the ground
by Miss Forbes's side. "Yes, he is a good little
chap," he answered rather absently. And then, "Am
I interrupting you ? "

"No; I have almost finished, and there aren't so
many mistakes as usual this time, because these slips
have been printed from a manuscript of my copying.
When papa sends his own manuscripts, we get most
startling results, for nobody can read his handwrit-
ing, and the printers make up whole paragraphs out
of their own heads."

Billy took one of the proof-sheets between his
finger and thumb and examined it with respectful
wonder. "It's extraordinaiy that a man should be
able to reel off page after page like that and have
them printed," he remarked reflectively. "How on
earth they manage to do it beats me. I couldn't put
two sentences together if my life depended upon it.
But then, of course I'm an utter duffer."

" I don't think it's so very difficult," said Winnie,
laughing. " Some people can do it and some can't.
It's an art like another. Like riding, for instance."

" Yes ; riding is an art," agreed Billy, with some
animation. "It isn't generally admitted, because
almost e very-body can sit on a horse's back ; but the

Micky's peescbiption 121

art's wanted, all the same ; and the extraordinary
thing is that you'll meet lots of men who go racing
all over England every year of their lives, without
ever twigging it.

"Well, you have * twigged' it, at all events,"
Winnie remarked.

" Yes, I can ride ; I'm glad I can do something.
Not that it's much, though, when you come to think
of it." Billy heaved a profound sigh, and added, "I
sometimes wish I had never been born at all."

Winifred looked rather grave. She thought she
could guess what he wanted to say, and she was doubt-
ful whether to listen to him or to change the subject.
For some days past she had been disquieted about
Mr. Bellew and her sister. Harry Lysaght had been
growing jealous and suspicious, and to tell the truth,
some cause had been given him for jealousy and sus-
picion. Winifred, watching the couple, had come to
the conclusion that Mr. Bellew, in spite of an out-
ward show of indifference, had virtually succumbed ;
worse than that, she was very much afraid that
Daisy herself was now continuing in earnest what
had been begun in sport. It was a great pity, and
even if she could do nothing to arrest the progress of
events, she did not at least wish to have any hand in
the overthrow of poor Harry.

Billy, who was far from divining what she was
thinking about, was a little disappointed by her
silence. Presently he sighed again and remarked :
" Well, it's been very jolly this last week, and now
there's an end of it all. Fm off to Haramam R'irha
to-morrow."

122 BILLY BELLE W

"Really?" said Winifred, raisiDg ber eyebrows
slightly, but not looking quite as regretful as be bad
hoped that she would look. "I suppose you are
going to join — your friends." She added, after a
pause : "Micky will be sorry. Have you told
him?"

" No," answered Billy, with a perceptible ring of
bitterness in his voice, "I haven't broken the sad
intelligence to Micky yet. I thought I had better
begin with you, as there was no danger of your
feelings being harrowed."

Winifred changed ber position a little and turned
her eyes, with an expression of kindly concern, upon
the handsome young recumbent giant by ber side.
" I hope you don't think me ungrateful," she said ;
" you have been most kind to Micky, and I am sure
you have done him a world of good. I shall always
remember your kindness to him."

" Oh, there hasn't been any kindness ; it has been
one word for him and two for myself really, and
you have nothing at all to thank me for. All the
same, I wish Micky wasn't the only person who was
going to be sorry at my departure."

Doubtless Micky would not be alone in deploring
that event ; but it was rather too much to expect of
Winifred that she should say so, and she remained
silent. As, however, he continued to gaze at her
expectantly, she ended by remarking :

" After all, you are not going to spend the rest of
your days at Hamraam R'irha ; I suppose you will
return here with your friends."

" Yes, I shall return with my friends," answered

Micky's pbesceiption 123

Billy gloomily. " That makes a diflference, doesn't
it?" ■

Winifred's color rose. She thought he was taking
a rather unfair advantage of the friendliness with
which she had always treated him, and she wished
him to underatand, once for all, that he must not
count upon her alliance. Therefore she said :

" Since you ask me, I must confess that I think it
does make a difference. I don't mean as to our
knowing you and your coming here sometimes ;
but "

She paused, finding it a little difficult to conclude
the sentence which she had begun ; but he did not
help her out ; so she had to resume : " What I mean
is that perhaps, under the circumstances, it is best
not to be too intimate. I think you must see that
yourself."

She became very red after she had made this
unequivocal and very uncivil declaration ; but Billy,
whose eyes were fixed upon a prickly-pear-bush, the
thick leaves of which he was slashing and hacking
viciously with the handle of his riding-whip, did not
detect that sign of distress. He himself was not red ;
on the contrary he was, as she could not help noticing,
curiously pale.

. " Yes, I quite see it," he answered quietly, " and I
won't try to be intimate any more."

Winnie's soft heart was immediately touched. She
felt that she had been cruelly harsh, and she felt also —
not for the first time — a great indignation against the
selfishness of Mrs. Littlewood.

" Mr. Bellew," she said gently, " don't you think

124 BILLY BELLEW

yon might snmmon up courage to do a rather dis-
agreeable thing, and — and regain your liberty?
Don't misunderstand me," she went on hurriedly, " I
don't want you to do it at once ; that is, so far as we
are concerned, it is of no great importance. I was
thinking of yourself."

Billy shook his head. " Thank you ; it's awfully
good of you to think about me," he answered ; " but
I'm afraid I couldn't be such a brute as to claim my
liberty. If it were given to me, that would be another
thing. Sometimes I wonder whether you don't think
worse of me and poor Blanche Littlewood than we
deserve. I should like to tell you the whole story, if
you didn't mind."

" Oh, you needn't," returned Winifred, with a
touch of impatience. " I heard it all from her that
night when we went to the old town. I am sony
that she has a tipsy husband ; but I can't see that that
is any reason why she should ruin your life for you."

Billy sighed. He was too loyal to breathe a dis-
paraging word about the woman of whose exactions
he had grown so desperately weary ; too loyal even to
listen to any disparagement of her. If he had been
disloyal in losing his heart to Winifred Forbes — and
it was now beyond a doubt that he had both lost his
heart and been disloyal in so doing — his duty clearly
was to keep the secret of his treachery to himself.
Not feeling quite confident that he would have it
in his power to accomplish that feat if he remained
where he was much longer, he jumped up and said
abruptly that he thought he had better be off.

Toward the hour of sunset the atmosphere of the

Micky's prescbiption 125

whole country-side roundabout Algiers is heavy with
penetrating aromatic odors which rise from the
flowering shrubs, the rosemary liedges, the asphodels,
and the eucalyptus woods. Until Billy Bellew turned
his back upon Algeria for the last time, the recur-
rence of that hour and of those mingled scents never
failed to give him a sharp twinge about the region of
the heart ; nor did these ever fail to bring back to him
the image of Winifred as he saw her then, standing
with her back to the sunset sky, against which two
tall stone-pines rose black and clearly defined. But
he could not afterward recall exactly what she had
said. She had made some sort of an apology, he
thought ; she had promised to make his adieux to the
others, and she had looked very sorry.

Yes, she had certainly looked very sorry ; if that
was any comfort, he might take it to himself and
make the most of it, because he was not likely to get
any other. Of course she had understood ; and of
course — as she had been careful to mention — the
recovery of his liberty would not, even if he had
recovered it, have been " of any great importance " to
her. Upon the whole, Micky's prescription could
hardly be said to have proved a success.

CHAPTER XI

A WESTERLY BBEEZB

After all, Billy was not destined to journey to
Hammam R'irba or to sit with Mrs. Littlewood in
the forest which adjoins that somewhat melancholy
health resort. A letter which he found on his table
when he reached the hotel conveyed to him the pleas-
ing intelligence that the writer's term of banishment
was nearly at an end.

"Alfred can't tear himself away from the baths
and the baccarat [she wrote] ; but, as he doesn't in-
sist upon my remaining with him, and as he really
doesn't require me, I have decided to strike my tent.
I have written to the servants to say that tliey may
expect me the day after to-morrow ; but perhaps you
had better go up there and see that the fires are
lighted and the rooms properly aired. One can't
trust these people. Captain Patten has kindly
promised to take charge of me as far as Algiers. He
is going off to Tunis, which I am sorry for, as he has
really been a great comfort to me in tlie solitude
which you didn't think it worth while to come and
relieve. I don't know whether I may venture to
hope that you will meet me at the station ; but if
that is too much trouble, I dare say you will kindly
send somebody to collect my luggage for me."

A WBSTBBLY BBEEZE 127

Billy obediently betook himself to the railway
station on the following day, after having ascertained
that Mrs. Littlewood's fires were lighted and her
rooms properly aired. He was half glad that he
was not going to Hamman R'irha, half sorry that he
was not to leave Algiers. It is always a little ridicu-
lous to say good-by and then remain where you are ;
moreover, he felt that, after what Winnie had said,
it would be out of the question for him to resume
his daily visits to Le Bocage. She had as good as
asked him to discontinue them ; added to which, it
had been only too sadly evident that she despised
him. Certainly she had a right to despise him, and
if he had been insane enough to tell her in so many
words that he loved her, she would have had a right
to disbelieve him. Yet he did love her, and had
loved her, he thought, almost from tlie date of their
first meeting. How extraordinary it seemed now
that he should have ever imagined himself in love
with Blanche Littlewood ! How extraordinary and
how veiy unfortunate !

" I should be a thundering blackguard if I were to
desert her at this time of day, though," he said to
himself, as he paced up and down the platform, where
a few natives, wrapped in dirty burnouses, were squat-
ting patiently, and where three or four loud-voiced
colonists in broad-leaved hats were quarrelling over
some question of politics. " No, I must stick to her
until she gives me a hint that she has had enough
of me."

The very last time when any woman is likely to
give such a hint is when she has reason to believe

128 BILLY BELLEW

that it will not be wholly unwelcome, and Mrs.
Littlewood unfortunately had not as yet had at all
enough of Billy Bellew, who was useful to her in a
hundred ways.

The long train rumbled slowly into the station
after a time and delivered her to her expectant
admirer, of whom she at once proceeded to make use.

"Have you got a carriage for us?" she asked.
" Please take my dressing-case and the umbrellas —
and there's a bundle of rugs somewhere. Oh, and
will you go and look after the luggage ? Tell them
on no account to put great, heavy boxes on the top
of my dress-basket ; it won't bear that sort of treat-
ment, and these people are so horribly rough. Stop
one moment ! I want to introduce you to Captain
Patten, who has charitably looked after me during
this detestable journey. I mean," she added, correct-
ing herself with a gracious little smile, " that it would
have been a detestable journey if Captain Patten
hadn't been with me to cheer me up."

Captain Patten did not present the appearance of
being particularly well qualified by nature to cheer
up any body. He was a very long man with a very
long mustache and a countenance which expressed
absolutely nothing at all. He took off his hat, held
out his hand, and mentioned that he would not have
much more than time to get on board the steamer for
Tunis. He had taken leave of Mrs. Littlewood and
had disappeared when Billy returned from his quest
in the baggage department.

" He reminds me a good deal of you," Mrs. Little-
wood was so kind as to say, after she had taken her

A WESTERLY BREEZE 129

place in the open carriage (alas ! why was it an open
carriage, and why bad cruel Fate decreed that Lady
Ottery and Mi*s. Nugent and half a dozen others
should be driving down the hill while this couple
ascended it?) ; "he has just your cool, impassive way
of taking every thing as it comes. I'm not like that.
I can't pretend to be so philosophical. No ! not even
for the sake of keeping the peace will I pretend that
I didn't think it very unkind of j^ou to leave me quite
alone in that desert all this time."

" But you weren't quite alone, it seems," pleaded
Billy; "besides, I was on the point of starting for
Hammam R'irha when I got your letter."

" Oh, I dare say ! " returned the lady sceptically ;
"by your own account, you have been upon the point
of starting for the last ten daj^s."

However, she was more easily pacified than he had
dared to anticipate that she would be. Of course he
had to confess that, during her absence, the greater
part of his time had been spent with the Forbes
family ; but, by good luck, she did not happen to be
jealous of Daisy, and apparently it had never entered
into her head to regard Winifred as a possible rival.
She ended by saying :

" Well, I think I must forgive you. It wouldn't
do to quarrel, now that we are going for once to have
a real happy time together, would it ? Alfred doesn't
mean to hurry back ; he said, 'Oh, you'll be all right
with Billy Bellew to look after you.' So like him,
wasn't it ? "

It was indeed — just like him ! Also, it would be
just like Mrs. Littlewood to insist upon having a
9

130 BILLY BELLEW

really happy time with Mr. Bellew under circum-
stances which surely demanded some slight exercise
of prudence and caution. It may be hoped that the
ensuing week was a happy one for her, because it was
quite the reverse of happy for her docile companion.
Naturally, he was kept on duty all day long ; but
even if he had not been, he would have abstained
from calling on his friends at Le Bocage. He
thought that the best plan would be not to go to the
house again unless he was asked. They must have
heard from Lysaght that he was still in Algiers, and
if they wanted to see him they would probably say
so. The chances were that they didn't want to see
him, and that they would be glad of an excuse for
quietly dropping his acquaintance. Lysaght, for one,
had been a good deal less friendly in his manner of
late.

But there were two inhabitants of Le Bocage
who neither desired nor intended to drop Mr. Bellew's
acquaintance. One of them ran down to the Hotel
d'Orient, waited till he appeared, asked him a number
of embarrassing questions, and could by no means be
induced to depart until he had promised to come
out for a ride early in the morning, Billy having
explained that he was pretty sure to be busy from
breakfast time onward. The other accosted him at a
garden party to which he had been invited (and to
which Mrs. Littlewood had not been invited) by Lady
Ottery.

" Well, Mr. Bellew," she began, " and what is the
meaning of this, please ? "

"The meaning of what?" enquired Billy feebly.

A WESTEBLY BBEEZE 131

He did not much like Daisy Forbes, but latterly
she had amused him ; and, although he thought it
too bad of her to affect to flirt with him in order to
exasperate her wooer, he could not but acknowledge
that the temptation must be rather strong to exas-
perate a fellow who made such a fool of himself as
Lysaght often did.

" Why, of your turning your back upon us without
rhyme or reason," she answered. " What have we
done? One likes at least to be told what one's
offence is."

" There's no offence at all," answered Billy ; " only
I haven't had much time to myself these last few
days. You see, Mrs. Littlewood is back from Ilam-
mam R'irha, and "

" Quite so ; we all understand that you prefer Mrs.
Littlewood's society to ours," interrupted Daisy,
who would have spoken with less good humor
if she had not been convinced of the contrary;
" but don't you think the two might sometimes be
combined ? "

Billy smiled, and shook his head. " Not again,
thank you. Have you forgotten our visit to the old
town by moonlight ? "

" Well, that was not exactly a success, I admit, but
then there were reasons. Colonel Littlewood was one
reason, and papa and mamma were two more. If
Mrs. Littlewood will come out sailing with us the day
after to-mon'ow, as I hope she will, none of those
drawbacks will be present. Mr. Lysaght knows of a
capital boat, and he wants us all to sail across to Caj)
Matifon — wouldn't you like to come ? It will be

132 BILLY BELLEW

something to do, you know. And you'll ask Mrs.
Littlewood, won't you ? "

" Of course, I should like it veiy much," answered
Billy; "but I can't say whether Mrs. Littlewood
would or not. Why are you so anxious that she
should come ? "

"Because we must have a chaperon, don't you see,
Nothing would induce mamma to enter a vessel, of
any sort or kind, unless it is absolutely necessary, and
she has taken it into her head that it wouldn't be
proper for us to make this little expedition without
a matron to look after us. I should have thought
Winnie was as good as any mati'on ; but mamma
doesn't see it in that light, and it would be quite
ridiculous to ask Lady Ottery, or any of those old
things. So if Mrs. Littlewood refuses, I'm afraid the
expedition will fall through. Perhaps you had better
not tell her that, though."

He was careful to steer clear of any such gratuitous
folly; for he did not at all want the expedition to
fall through. He was not sure that it sounded in all
respects promising ; still it would at least bring him
near to Winifred for an hour or two, and to be near
her was the only form of happiness that he could now
expect to enjoy. What was a little unlucky was that
Mrs. Littlewood was a very indifferent sailor, and
this was, in fact, the objection which that lady put
forward as soon as the project was broached to her.

" I am not going to be sick in public to please any
body," she declared. "I don't mind acting chaperon
if it's agreed beforehand that I'm not to be asked to
quit terra firma unless the sea is smooth."

A WESTEBLY BBEEZE 133

" Well, one can't sail in a flat calm, you know,"
observed Billy ; " but if this wind holds, there won't
be any sea to speak of. I don't suppose the others
would care to go if it was really rough."

Thus reassured, Mrs. Littlewood accepted without
further demur the functions which it was sought
to impose upon her. She still hankered after inti-
macy, or at least the appearance of intimacy, with
the Forbes family. She perceived that it would be
impossible for Mrs. Forbes to ignore her after she
had taken charge of the two girls for a whole day ;
finally she was growing very weary of seeing nobody
but Billy Bellew from morning to niglit. Since her
return Billy had been so attentive and devoted that
he had ceased to be interesting, and, good fellow
though he was, he did not, it had to be confessed,
shine as a conversationalist.

At the time of the above conversation the wind was
in the north, which all along the Algerian coast is the
very best quarter that it can blow from ; for in those
latitudes northerly breezes not only bring clear skies
and fine weather, but are always steady and seldom
strong. Unfortunately, a shift of several points
toward the west took place during the night ; and
that, as Billy knew, made a difference. Not that it
was blowing hard in the morning ; but gusts could
be seen sweeping over the bay, the sky was streaked
with mares' tales, and the distances had become hazy.

" We sha'n't get across to Matifon to-day ; or at
least, if we do, we sha'n't get back again," Billy
remarked to Hariy Lysaght before starting to fetch
Mrs. Littlewood.

134 BILLY BELLEW

" Ob, bosh ! " returned Hairy, in tbe petulant
accents whicb bad recently become habitual to him ;
" it's all right. For goodness' sake, don't go and spoil
the whole thing by saying that. There's no reason
why we shouldn't have a sail, any way, and it will be
easy enough to keep in under the land if we find there's
too much sea outside."

Billy had no wish to spoil sport, and he accord-
ingly refrained from mentioning his misgivings to
Mrs. Littlewood, who remarked with satisfaction that
the sea was " beautifully smooth." That portion of
it which she could see from her garden was smooth
enough ; but while driving down toward the town
she obtained a wider and a much less comfoiting
view. The great blue expanse of the bay was dap-
pled with whitecaps ; the eastern extremity of it
looked much further off than usual ; a steamer which
was about to enter the harbor was rolling scandalously.

" Good gracious ! " exclaimed Mrs. Littlewood,
" I'm not going out in that ; why, it's blowing a
gale ! "

" Oh, no, not a gale," said Billy, laughing ; " but
the wind has freshened in the last half hour, I must
admit. Still we may as well go on to the quay and
find out what the others would like to do."

" It may interest you to find out what they would
like to do," returned Mrs. Littlewood calmly, " but
perhaps it is rather more to the purpose that you
should hear what I should not like to do, and don't
intend to do. Sooner than be tossed about on those
mountainous waves, I would disappoint every Forbes
that ever lived — and you into the bargain."

A WESTEBLY BREEZE 135

The waves could hardly be described as moun-
tainous ; but Billy was quite willing to let Mrs.
Littlewood call them any thing she pleased, so long as
she did not order the coachman to turn round and
drive home. Personally, he did not much care
whether he went out sailing that day or not ; what
he wanted was to see Winifred, and he presumed
that, when once the party liad been assembled, it
would not immediately disperse.

Harry Lysaght stepped forward to open the car-
riage-door when they reached the quay ; Winifred,
Daisy, and Micky were standing close behind him ; the
little open boat, with its Arab boatman, was gently
rising and falling beside the landing steps. Evi-
dently no idea of abandoning tlie expedition had been
entertained ; and Harry's face fell when Mrs. Little-
wood ejaculated:

" You don't mean to say that you really think of
sailing in such weather ! "

" Oh, it isn't at all bad weather — it isn't, I assure
you ! " he answered eagerly. " I think we shall have
to give up Cap Matifon, because it would be such a
long job to beat back, but there's no earthly reason
why we shouldn't have a very jolly sail, and by keep-
ing under the land we shall avoid any thing like
rough water. You'll be astonished to find how
smooth it is when you get out."

"That pleasing surprise will not be for me," returned
Mrs. Littlewood firmly. " Very sorry to put you to
inconvenience, good people ; but I stipulated from
the first that I wasn't to be taken to sea in rough
weather, and I won't be — nothing would induce me !

136 BILLY BELLE W

All I can say is that, if you like to go without me, I
won't tell. And you needa't bother about me. Mr.
Bellew shall go the round of the mosques with me. I
haven't seen them yet."

As may be supposed, this suggestion was not
very favorably received. Winifred was decidedly of
opinion that, a chaperon was necessary, Daisy had
no notion of relinquishing Mr. Bellew, and Hariy
Lysaght was obstinately determined upon carrying
out his plan.

"A pretty set of funks these fellows will think us ! "
he exclaimed angrily. "Other people must do as
they choose ; but I'll go out, if I have to go alone."

The above heroic resolution was only announced
after a prolonged discussion, in the course of which
it had become painfully apparent that Daisy had gone
over to the enemy. Winifred, actuated by feelings
of compassion, had backed up Harry, had consented
to waive the chaperon question, and had even, by his
request, seated herself in the boat. Micky, on hearing
that cowardice might possibly be imputed to those
who declined tlie risk of seasickness, at once decided
to join her, but was ordered ashore again.

"You mustn't get wet," Winifred whispered.
" Please go with the others and leave Harry to me
for a little, that will be much the best wa}'. Most
likely we shall join you before you have gone very
far."

It may be that HaiTy had not quite expected to be
taken at his word; but, as Daisy promptly turned on
her heel, waving him a smiling adieu, and as Mrs.
Littlewood and Billy followed suit, there was nothing

A WESTEBLY BBEEZE 137

for it but to shove off. He took the tiller, and while
the Arab was hoisting th» sail threw an indignant
and reproachful glance at poor Winnie, who certainly
was not in her present position for her own pleasure.
He did not speak until they were clear of the harbor,
when he remarked with ah angry laugh :

" This is sufficiently ridiculous, isn't it ? "

" Tu Vas voulu, Georges Dandm I ^^ thought Wini-
fred to herself ; but she was too kind-hearted and too
sorr^'- for him to express her thoughts. Instead of
doing so, she answered apologetically : " It really
was the only way out of the difficulty. You wouldn't
give in, and Mrs. Littlewood wouldn't give in ; so we
had no alternative but a compromise."

" I don't know what you call a compromise," re-
turned the irate Harry. " I remember that, when
I was a small boy, I used sometimes to be asked
whether I would fight or take a licking. As a
general rule, I said I would fight, and then, as a
general rule, I got the licking. It seems to me that
I have been put in pretty much the same position to-
day. Of course the whole thing was arranged before-
hand ; your sister never had the slightest intention
of coming out sailing. Well, I might have meekly
taken a licking and tramped through the town with
you or Mrs. Littlewood, while she and Bellew lost
their way in one of the back streets, but I didn't see
the fun of that. I preferred to fight, and — here I
am!"

" Oh, but that doesn't prove that you have been
licked," said Winifred, laughing.

" Doesn't it ? Glad you take such a cheerful view

138 BILLY BELLEW

of the situation. For my own part, I believe my
wisest course would be ^o admit myself beaten at
once and go home by tbe next steamer."

It took some time and not a little patience to per-
suade tbis young man tbat there was still hope for
him, that Daisy was not guilty of the Machiavellian
design ascribed to her, and that Mrs. Littlewood
might be trusted to keep a watchful eye upon Mr.
Bellew. But Winifred, who knew how to manage
him, accomplished her pui*pose eventually ; though
she did not venture to suggest getting about until
they were well out to sea and she had been pretty
well drenched with spray. But at length she made
so bold as to remark :

" I doubt whether Mrs. Littlewood would hav3
liked this ; and, to tell you the honest truth, I don't
altogether like it myself."

By this time a nasty lumpy sea had got up, and
the wind was blowing in violent gusts which rendered
sailing, if not actually dangerous, decidedly unpleas-
ant. Harry turned his head toward his consoler and
for the first time noticed her dripping condition.

" What a brute I am ! " he exclaimed compunc-
tiously ; " why, you are wet through ! Of course
we'll put back at once. I was thinking about my-
self and I clean forgot you ; that's what you make
every-body do, and the consequence is that you never
get any thanks. Nevertheless, I do thank you, and
I dare say you're right about Daisy — I hope you are.
Anyhow, one can but try. I promise you that I'll
behave very prettily to her when we get on shore."

This was very satisfactory ; but the return voyage

A WESTERLY BREEZE 139

proved a long and troublesome business; so that
the afternoon was well ^advanced before Wini-
fred, with a ruined hat and jacket, and her eyes and
her mouth full of salt, disembarked at the landing-
steps. At that time of day there really did not
seem to be much use in hunting for the seceding
members of the party.

CHAPTER Xn

MISPLACED CONFIDENCE

Ii* Heaven had not blessed Billy Bellew with a
singularly sweet temper, and if his own efforts had
not secured for him an unfailing power of self-con-
trol, he would no doubt have said something that he
ought not to have said, when he saw the boat in
which Winifred was seated pushed off from the quay.
Even as it was he could not help looking rather dis-
gusted, and Daisy lost no time in taking him to
task.

"Are you regretting that you didn't cast in your
lot with these adventurous spirits?" she enquired.
" If you are, and if you think their company would
be more amusing than ours, it isn't too late to hail
them."

Billy said he only regretted that they should have
been shipped off in that unnecessary way. " I don't
see why Lysaglit should have been so obstinate about
it," he added.

Daisy shrugged her shoulders, "He is apt to be
obstinate," she remarked, "and sometimes it isn't
a bad plan to let obstinate people have their way.
They don't always like it when they have got it, you
see. A little lesson of this kind will do Mr. Lysaght
no harm."

MISPLA.CED CONFIDENCE 141

" Perhaps not ; but it doesn't follow that your sis-
ter ought to be punished with him."

" How many times am I to tell you that Winnie is
an exception to all general rules ! Punishment in-
deed — why, you couldn't have asked her to do any
thing that she would have enjoyed more than what
she is doing now. You may depend upon it that she
has already begun to stroke Mr. Lysaght down, and
pat him on the back and tell him what a fine fellow
he is and how disappointed we all are because Mrs.
Littlewood wouldn't let us go out in bis boat. Don't
make yourself uneasy about Winnie ; she is as happy
as possible, and it only remains for us to be as happy as
we can without her. Have you seen the mosques? It's
your duty to see them some time or other, you know."

Mrs. Littlewood concurred in this view, and Micky
at once volunteered to run on and look for the indis-
pensable Hamoud, who during many years has con-
ducted foreign visitors to the sights of Algiers, has
got up Aissaoua fetes for their amusement, and has
given them the benefit of calm, disinterested counsel
in their transactions with native dealers. Hamoud
was, as usual, pacing majestically up and down the
Boulevard de la R6publique. His embroidered tur-
ban, his white burnous, his blue spectacles, and his
voluminous breeches were speedily recognized by
Micky, who said, in the peculiar dialect which he had
found quite adequate to the requirements of daily
life in a French dependency:

"Look here, Hamoud. Nous voulons voir les
mosques and toutes les autres choses of that sort, you
know ; so, si voits n'etes pas engage, come on I "

142 BILLY BELLEW

Hamoud was free, and was entirely at tbe disposi-
tion of these ladies and gentlemen. He said they
would go first to the mosque in the Rue de la Ma-
rine, which is the most ancient in the town, and is
believed to date from the eleventh century. It is
not a particularly striking or interesting edifice, the
interior being, like that of all mosques, absolutely
bare, and the whitewashed columns and horse-shoe
arches possessing no special claims to beauty; still
Hamoud, after having, as in duty bound, shod his
party in enormous slippers, had a good many leisurely
observations to make upon tlie subject. The truth is
that the sights of Algiers are few in number, and when
one is paid by time it does not do to neglect details.

For the rest, these sight-seers were in no hurry, nor
did they care very much whether what they were
being shown was worth looking at or not. They
were taken next to the Grand Mosque on the Place
du Gouvernement, the exterior of which, with its
white dome and illuminated clock-tower, was already
a familiar object to them, and then they were led to
tlie fish market, which their guide assured them, truly
enough, was tr^s-curieitx. Nowhere else in the world,
one would think (and hope), can such extraordinary
and repulsive sea-monsters be exhibited for sale as
in the fish-market of Algiers. Every variety of im-
probable looking crustaceans, hideous caricatures of
fish which are not too lovely even in more northern
waters, mussels and snails, and horrible spotted eels,
lie there in profusion upon the wet slabs, and judging
by the noisy chaffering which is always going on
around them, find willing purchasers.

MISPLACED CONFIDENCE 143

" Do you mean to tell me," asked Billy solemnly,
as he pointed with his stick to a writhing heap of eels,
" that any body actually eats those filthy snakes ? "

" Platt'il?^^ said Hamoud, and then, realizing the
nature of the question put to him — " Oui^ out, c^est
pour manger — excellent — vary goot ! " He gathered
his fingers into a bunch, raised them to his lips, and
nodded expressively.

"Talking of eating," remarked Mrs. Littlewood,
"what are we going xo do about luncheon ? I don't
know how the rest of you may feel, but I'm getting
rather hungry."

" So ami," said Micky; " and by Jove! the luncheon
basket has gone off in the boat."

" I dare say it will be back again presently," Mrs.
Littlewood observed ; " nobody could be insane
enough to stay out at sea much longer in this hur-
ricane, and certainly nobody could feel tempted to
eat. However, I don't think we will wait for its
return. The best way will be for us to go to one of
the hotels, and we can see whatever else there is to be
seen in the afternoon, if you like. In the meantime,
Hamoud might keep an eye on the quay, so as to be
able to let MisSi Forbes and Mr. Lysaglit know where
we are when they come in."

This proposition meeting with general approval, a
move was made toward the Hotel de la Rcgence,
where a substantial, if not highly recherche repast
was obtained ; but although the preparing and eon-
sumption therefor occupied a considerable time, the
missing couple did not make their appearance to
claim a share in it, and Billy ended by becoming

144 BILLT BELLEW

fidgety. The feathery bamboos outside the hotel
were tossing wildly in the wind, shutters were bang-
ing, awnings were flapping and cracking like musketry ;
it was just the sort of weather in which an accident
might easily happen, and that boat of Lysaght's did
not look as if she had much hold on the water.

" I think, if you don't mind, I'll just go and have a
look-out over the bay," he said at length to Daisy,
whose efforts to entertain him had not so far met with
any marked success. " You ndfedn't be in the least
alaiTued, I am sure ; only one doesn't quite know
what sort of weather these little craft make of it in
a head wind, and it's possible that our friends out
there may be in need of assistance."

" We'll all go," answered Daisy, rising promptly.
" Micky, if you eat any more bananas and dates, you'll
make yourself ill, and then you'll catch it from Winnie."

She was not much alarmed for her sister's safety,
but she was by no means desirous that Mr. Bellew
should start off on a quixotic and unnecessary voyage
of rescue, and the patient Hamoud, who was found
leaning over the parapet of the boulevard and gazing
out to sea, earned her gratitude by laughing at Billy's
anxious enquiries. He pointed to the white sail which
was swaying and dipping in the oflSng, and remarked
that those who were in the boat had made up their
minds to return a quarter of an hour before.

" lis ne risquent rien, allez ! " he added. " Le
batelier il est bon marin, good sailah, comme vous
dites, vous autres. Seulement, c'cst du temps qu'il
faut pour revenir. Bs en ont encore pour une heure et
demie — one hour, one haff. Venez voir l'archevecli6."

MISPLACED CONFIDENCE 145

Haraoud threw the corner of his burnous over his
shoulder and waddled off in the direction of the old
town, beckoning after the imperious fashion which is
common to guides and valets de place all the world
over. Daisy and Billy followed him, the former
cheerfully and the latter a little reluctantly, while
Mrs. Littlewood and Micky brought up the rear. It
was not very like Mrs. Littlewood to acquiesce in an
arrangement of that kind ; but, as has been said
before, she was not jealous of Daisy Forbes, and she
was just the least bit in the world tired of talking to
Billy. Moreover, Micky amused her, which was a
very good reason for walking with him and drawing
him out.

Now, Micky was undoubtedly a very clever boy,
but at his age one does not know every thing, and it
certainly had never occuiTed to him that the relations
between his friend Mr. Bellew and Mrs. Littlewood
could be other than those of ordinary friendship.
Mrs. Littlewood was a married woman — it is to be
feared that he would also have called her an old
woman ; she could, therefore, have nothing to do
with Mr. Bellew's love affairs, beyond taking a
benevolent interest in them, which, indeed, she seemed
to feel. Thus it was that Micky allowed himself to
be drawn out after a fashion, and by methods which
he would assuredly have detected and baffled had he
been a little older or a little better informed.

Not that Mrs. Littlewood, when she began ques-
tioning him, had the faintest suspicion of what she
was about to hear. She was actuated merely by a
languid and rather contemptuous curiosity as to the
10

146 BILLT BELLEW

state of Daisy's affections. She knew by experience
that women of all ages were perpetually falling in
love with Billy Bellew, and she knew that that for-
Innate or unfortunate man almost remained in igno-
rance of the flattering fact. The little Forbes girl
might have lost her heart to him, or might be only
flirting with him ; either way, it did not much
signify; still one might as well ascertain the truth.
And so, to her utter amazement, she did ascertain the
truth, or something very like it. At first she was
incredulous, taking it for granted that the boy had
made a sort of hero of his big friend, as boys will,
that he had naturally thought it would be very nice
to have his friend for a brother-in-law, and that he
had not less naturally overlooked the comparatively
unimportant circumstance that his elder sister was
hardly the kind of person of whom a young and
handsome man, with considerable means and sporting
tastes was likely to become enamored. But by
degrees the conviction forced itself upon her that
Micky's assertions, preposterous as they appeared,
were founded upon something more than a germ of
reality. Billy was such a fool ! such a hopeless, help-
less fool ! It would not, when you come to think of
it, have been a bit unlike him to idealize that tall,
thin, commonplace girl, or to attribute to her all those
domestic virtues which he so profoundly admired,
and which, for that matter, she probably possessed.
Mrs. Littlewood raged inwardly at the thought of
such treachery ; but her outward aspect remained
smiling and unruffled.

" Between you and me," said Micky, who had been

MISPLACED CONFIDENCE 147

much encouraged by the sympathetic tone in which
she had responded to his previous remarks, " I don't
feel any more doubt about him. From one or two
things that he has said to me and others that I've
noticed, I'm almost sure of what he wants. But I
ain't quite so certain about her, I believe she likes
him ; but she might have reasons for not quite seeing
her way to marry him, don't you know."

" Really ? What reasons, for instance ? " enquired
Mrs. Littlewood benevolently.

Micky was upon the point of mentioning Edmund
Kirby, but thought better of it. " Oh, well, she may
think she is wanted at home, or something of that
sort," he answered. " Anyhow, I know this : just
before you came back, and when Mr. Bellew thought
he was going to Hammam R'irha, he had a long talk
with her — I left them together on purpose — and she
cried afterward. I know she did, because her eyes
were red ; and it takes a lot to make Winnie cry, I
can tell you ! Now, should you say that she had
been refusing him ? "

Mrs. Littlewood opined that such a lamentable
occurrence was not outside the bounds of possibility ;
but within her heart she said, " Catch her refusing
him ! She wouldn't get a chance like that twice in
her life ! It's a great deal more likely that she has
accepted him — subject to a condition which it isn't
difficult to guess. Well, my good woman, your con-
dition will not be complied with ; I can promise you
that much."

The conversation of which a fragment has been
recorded above was not continuous. It was inter-

14S BILLY BELLEW

mpted by perf anctoiy admiration of tLe architecture
and the tiles of the Archbishop's Palace, by a cursory
examination of the objects exposed in the museum,
br the monotonous dissertations of Hamoud, and bv
occasional observations exchanged with Billy and his
fair companion ; but it was resumed as often as
occasion permitted, and the upshot of it was that
Mrs. Littlewood prepared to take the war-path, while
Micky congratulated himself upon having gained a
powerful and benign ally.

Daisy, meanwhile, ha<J not been wasting her time.
If she fancier! — as in fact she did — that she had suc-
ceeded iKith in fascinating Mr. Bellew and in making
him a little jealous of Harry Lysaght, her error was
not wholly inexcusable. Billy, as has been said, hated
flirts ; he considered that they deserved nothing
except to be paid back in their own coin; so that
when Daisy macle a dead set at him, he did not
scruple to respond to her advances, nor did he hesitate
to humor her by looking mournful when she intimated
that Harry, after having been punished for his display
of bad temper, would be received back into her good
graces. But the game did not amuse him in the
least, and he was heartily weary of it long before
she was.

His reiterated suggestions that it was time for them
to move down toward the harbor meeting with no
attention, he lost patience at length and announced
that he would proceed thither alone ; whereupon
Hamoud, who remembered perhaps that he was now
entitled to a day's pay and that another hour of work
would not make him any richer, peremptorily assem-

MISPLACED CONFIDENCE 149

bled his party, saying : ^^AllonSy descendons ! vous
avez tout vw."

It did not prove necessary for them to descend any
farther than the Boulevard de la R^piiblique ; for at
the top of one of the long flights of steps which led
down from that spacious promenade to the quays they
encountered Harry Lysaght and Winifred, the latter
of whom greeted them with a cry of pleased surprise.

" Still here ! We thought you would have gone
home long ago."

"For the matter of that," observed Daisy, "we
thought you would have come in long ago ; but I
suppose you were enjoying yourselves so much that
you took no note of time."

Harry, who was looking penitent and shame-faced,
hastened to repudiate, in an undertone, the accusation
that he had enjoyed himself, and Daisy beckoned
him apart to lecture and forgive him. It may be
that this little manoeuvre was designed to attract the
attention of Mr. Bellew ; if so, it might as well have
been omitted, for Billy had no eyes at the moment
except for Winifred, whose draggled plight filled
him with concern.

"You're literally soaking !" he exclaimed; "you
must have had an awful time of it ! "

" Oh, it's only salt water, I sha'n't hurt," answered
Winifred; "we didn't really have such a bad time of
of it. And you ? — have you had a pleasant day ? "

"No, horrid," answered Billy, with more truth
than politeness.

Winifred raised her eyebrows, but did not request
him to explain himself. She presumed that he had

150 BUXY BELLEW

been quarrelling with Daisy ; quarrels between Daisy
and her admirers were not uncommon events. After
a short pause, she said ; " We have seen nothing of
you for a long time."

" Well — you cautioned me against trying to be too
intimate," Billy remarked.

Winifred was a long-suffering creature ; but after
all she was human, and rather heavy demands had
already been made upon her stock of patience that day.
So she returned, in accents of decided displeasure :

"You must have understood what I meant, but I
am sorry I expressed myself so stupidly. Please for-
give me, and forget that I ever made that speech. Be-
sides, the house isn't mine, and I have no right to
dictate to you whether you shall come to it often or
seldom. I suppose you know that you can't come
too often to please some of us."

Billy was too crushed to attempt any rejoinder. He
fell back, and after a few minutes the Forbes party
drove away, leaving him with Mrs. Littlewood, who
remarked pleasantly :

"What an appalling effect wind and waves pro-
duce upon some women ! Of course one always knew
that that eldest girl was plain, but I had no idea how
plain she was until I saw her with those wisps of wet
hair hanging over her ears, and her cheeks all red and
shiny."

But Billy did not rise. He answered meekly that
he could understand some people thinking Miss
Forbes plain, although he did not think so himself.
" But I dare say," he added, " I ain't much of a judge
of beauty."

\

CHAPTER Xm

DAISY ACTS FROM THE HIGHEST MOTIVES

The climate of Algiers seemed determined that
year to justify all that has been said and written in its
praise by its warmest partisans, and to prove that th«
grumblers, who are at least equally numerous, have
dwelt with too much severity upon its occasional
aberrations. A heavy bank of clouds had been
visible behind the Bouzar^ah as the excursionists
drove up the hill toward home; but this ominous
sign, which usually means a steady downpour of
forty-eight hours, heralded nothing worse in the
present instance than a storm during the night, and
a few showers which passed away before morning,
leaving the skies bluer and the trees greener than
ever.

Winifred strolled out to the summer-house after
her early breakfast, as her habit was, and filled her
lungs with the delicious, crisp air. There are days
when and places in which the mere joy of being alive
and in perfect health is, or ought to be, enough to
satisfy any body, and Winifred would have been very
well contented with existence, had she not been rather
worried by a few comparative trifles. For one thing
she was sorry that she had spoken so snappishly to
poor Mr. Bellew on the previous evening. It was

152 BILLY BELLE W

not her custom to speak snappishly, and, from what
she had since seen and heard, she did not now believe
that he had deserved to be so spoken to. Daisy had
been very nice and pleasant to Harry Lysaght on the
way home ; it had transpired incidentally that Mr.
Bellew had been " bothering and fussing " the whole
afternoon about the absentees in the boat ; after all,
it was no fault of his that he had been made to spend
several hours with a lady to whom he had intimated
that he no longer meant to pay his addresses.

" I wish I hadn't been so rude to him ! " Winifred
thought remorsefully; "but he did rather seem to be
fishing for an invitation, and he ought to have known
that I couldn't give him one. Well, I suppose he
won't come here any more now, which is all the better,
perhaps."

Nevertheless, she sighed, because she had become
fond of Billy, and she was very sorry for him. It
was a fact that she had cried after that interview in
which he had so submissively accepted her virtual
prohibition of his visits, and possibly her tears may
have been caused by sheer pity for his lot, which, in
truth, was pitiable enough ; but it is not certain that
personal regret had nothing to do with them. Why
must Daisy needs get up a flirtation with every man
who came in her wa}'^? Why, if she intended to
marry the man whom she really seemed to like better
than any body else, couldn't she do so and leave the
rest of the world in peace ? Next to a long engage-
ment nothing is so tiresome and fruitful in vexations
of all kinds as a long courtship.

Although there was nobody to see her, Winifred

DAISY ACTS FROM THE HIGHEST MOTIVES 153

blushed after she had formulated this last sentiment,
and glanced penitently at the unopened letter which
she held in her hand. Was she tired of being engaged
to her faithful Edmund? Of course she was not;
she would as soon have thought of being tired of her
father or mother. Still one may be very fond of a
person and yet find his letters a little prosy. This
one, which she now proceeded to read, was, if any
thing, prosier than usual. It was not enlivened by
the record of any more family rows. Edmund had
been too busy to go home again, and had heard no
news from Shropshire, which, he said, he trusted
might be taken as good news. He was getting on in
his profession, and, by way of proving that he was,
he favored his correspondent with a brief synopsis of
a case in which he had recently been engaged. This,
though doubtless worded in the clearest available
phraseology, was wholly unintelligible to her. Then
came a page and a half of observations upon current
politics, which were more comprehensible, but, it is to
be feared, not much more interesting to the recipient.
Mr. Kirby was a moderate Liberal ; he was the sort
of man who could not well be any thing else, and his
political views were not of a nature to arouse enthu-
siasm. He wound up by saying that he had perused
Mr. Forbes's article in the Modem Review with very
great interest and pleasure, and that he looked for-
ward to meeting the talented writer again before long
— " and you, too," he" considerately added as an after-
thought.

Winifred knew that the man himself was a great
deal better than his letters, that he was not in reality

154 BILLY BELLEW

as formal and pedantic as tbey made Lim appear, and
that although he abstained from the use of ardent
language, his affection for her was as strong and
genuine as every thing else about him ; still the fact
remained that his lettens chilled her. She was idly
wondering whether Edmund would like or would
sternly condemn Mr. Bellew, when Micky came out
with his lesson books to give another turn to her
thoughts.

Micky was not in one of his most docile moods that
morning. There were three outrageous false quan-
tities in the copy of Latin verses which he submitted
to his instructress ; he had brought a chameleon — his
last acquisition — out with him, and devoted a good
deal more attention to the variation in the creature's
hues than to the solution of the problem in Euclid
with which he was invited to grapple. He said there
was a volatility in the atmosphere which was dis-
tinctly hostile to the concentration of the faculties
upon any one subject, and, on being asked what he
meant by talking such nonsense, replied that it might
be nonsense, and that he shouldn't wonder if it was,
but that he had heard his revered father use those
very words a quarter of an hour ago anyhow.

Winifred refused to have her attention diverted
from the matter in hand. She plodded patiently
along, and her reluctant pupil plodded patiently after
her, until they arrived triumphantly at Q. E. F.,
whereupon Micky closed the book with a bang.

"That's capital," said he ; "now we know all about
it. I say, Winnie, I've got an idea in my head."

" Nobody who had been trying to teach you for

DAISY ACTS FROM THE HIGHEST MOTIVES 155

the last half hour would have thought so," re-
marked Winifred, laughing. " Well, what is your
idea?"

" Why, Harry Lysaght turned up just now, a good
hour before his usual time, and he looked uncommonly
like a man with a purpose. He asked for Daisy, and
presently they're going out for a walk together.
Winnie, my love, it strikes me forcibly that the
decisive moment has come."

" You don't mean that ! " exclaimed Winifred in-
voluntarily. "It's no concern of yours or mine,
though," she added at once, " and we really must get
on with your lessons."

" Yes, in half a minute. I'm glad he has made up
his mind to drive her into a corner at last, aren't you?
She'll have to take him or leave him this time, and I
think my Daisy knows too well on which side her
bread is buttered to leave him. I suppose he held a
consultation with you when you were out in the boat
with him yesterday, didn't he ? "

"My dear Micky, do you think that, if he had
consulted me, I should be likely to talk about it to
little boys ? "

" My dear Winnie, I am very old for my age, and
you might rely upon ray discretion. But I don't
particularly care to be told whether he consulted you
or not, because I'm sure he did. Quite right, too ;
and it's lucky for him that he spent the day at sea.
He wouldn't have enjoyed himself if he had been
with us and seen the way that Daisy earned on with
Mr. Bellew."

Micky, you shouldn't try to be clever. You are

cc

156 BILLY BELLE W

always fancying that you see things and letting your
imagination run away with you."

"I am, am I? Well, there was nothing imaginary
about Daisy's behavior yesterday afternoon, at all
events. I quite blushed for her ! And she was
jolly well sold after all ; for Mr. Bellew was wish-
ing her at Jericho and wishing himself in HaiTy
Lysaght's place the whole time. I'll allow," added
Micky impartially, "that it takes a bit of imagina-
tion to discover that sort of thing ; but I did dis-
cover it.'*

His imagination was also equal to the surmise that
the above statement would not be unwelcome to his
elder sister, and he at once perceived from her face
that it had pleased her. That, to be sure, did not
exactly prove what he hoped that it proved ; but he
felt encouraged to expatiate further upon the subject,
and was about to do so when he was authoritatively
ordered to stop chattering and resume his studies.

But not much more was accomplished in the way
of study that morning. Winifred herself could not
keep her mind from wandering, and she ended by
dismissing her pupil somewhat earlier than the
regulation hour. Long before that she had caught a
glimpse of Daisy and her lover skirting the hillside
together at a leisurely pace. Surely they must have
returned by now, and surely, if there were any good
news to be told, Daisy would hasten to impart it to
her ! As far as that went, she would probably be
first to hear of any bad news ; for Daisy, like the
rest of the famil}'-, instinctively turned to her in
moments of difficulty or emergency.

^

DAISY ACTS FROM THE HIGHEST MOTIVES 157

However, it was not Daisy but Harry Lysagbt who
eventually crossed the garden with hurried steps in
search of her, and as soon as she saw him she under-
stood that he was the bearer of evil tidings. Harry,
who was rather red in the face, and seemed to be
laboring under considerable agitation, said :

" I've come to bid you good -by. I shall leave by
to-morrow's steamer, if I can get a berth ; if I can't I
shall have to go by train to Oran and sail from there.
I must get out of this as soon as possible, anyhow."

Winifred started to her feet in dismay. " Oh, I'm
so very sorry," she exclaimed. " Is it really all over,
then ? "

" It's all over with me, if that's what you mean,"
answered the young man rather roughly. " Perhaps
I ought to have expected as much, and perhaps I had
no right to expect what I did ; but I must say that I
don't think I have been fairly treated."

" If Daisy has refused you, I don't think that you
have," assented Winifred sorrowfully; "but I can't
believe that she intended to refuse you finally.
Most likely it is a misunderstanding. You said some-
thing that made her angi*y, didn't you ? Sit down and
tell me all about it."

Harry did not sit down, but he said that since she
wanted to know, he could tell her all about it in a very
few words. He had asked Paisy to marry him, and
she had answered that she didn't care sufficiently for
him to do so ; he supposed that was straight enough,
wasn't it ?

Winifred had to admit that in the case of most
girls it might be so considered ; but she reminded

158 BUXY BELLE W

her hearer that Daisy was a little bit wilful and
capricions. It wasn't wise, and he should have known
that it wouldn't be wise, to approach her with a per-
emptory demand.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "An end must
come to every thing some time or other," he remarked ;
"you will hardly accuse me of headlong precipitation,
I should hope ? There was no misunderstanding and
no anger : she simply said that she was very sorry,
but that she found she didn't care enoui^h for me to
be my wife — so, after that, there wasn't much more to
be said."

" And did you say nothing more ? "

" Oh, I was ass enough to say a good deal more ;
but I should have done better to hold my tongue.
Well, it can't be helped, and I shouldn't dream of
complaining to any body except you ; but to you I
don't mind saying that I think she has treated me
veiy badly. Certainly, before you left England, slie
gave me every excuse for expecting a different
answer. Oh, I know things have happened since
then — although you don't, or won't, confess that you
do. Of course she has a perfect right to prefer Bellew
to me, and I have no doubt that nine women out of
ten would ; only — I loas first in the field, you see."

" But I think — I hope you are mistaken about Mr.
Bellew," said Winifred feebly.

"No, my dear Winnie, I am not mistaken,"
answered HaiTy, with rather a dreary laugh. "I
know when she is flirting with a man — I ought to
know, having seen her do it so often ! — and I know
when she is in earnest, because I never saw her in

DAISY ACTS FROM THE HIGHEST MOTIVES 159

earnest before. In point of fact I taxed her with it,
and she scarcely denied it. Pretty poor form on my
part, you'll say ; but, between ourselves, I don't think
either he or she has shown quite the best of good
form in this business. Now I must be off. We shall
meet again in the course of the summer, I suppose,
and I shall try to look as if I didn't mind. I couldn't
quite manage that at present, so good-by."

Winifred gave him her hand. She felt that it
would be useless to detain him any longer, and in the
face of the statements he had made, she could hardly
advise him to renew his suit, but she said she would
have a talk with Daisy, and perhaps she would send
him down a note in the afternoon.

" Oh, no, you won't do that," returned Harry,
shaking his head ; " if you send a note to the H6tel
d'Orient at all, it will be a note to Bellew, asking him
to come and dine. After all, why shouldn't you ?
It's impossible to make every-body happy, and you
naturally think more of your sister's happiness than
of mine. You were a real friend to me while you
could be, though, and I'm not ungrateful."

After he had departed Winnie went into the house,
where she found the midday meal in progress, and
received her father's customary rebuke for unpunc-
tuality. Mrs. Forbes had evidently been in tears ;
Daisy looked calm, cool, and obstinate, and Micky
made expressive grimaces from the other side of the
table. Immediately upon the conclusion of the
repast, Winifred was summoned to write letters for
her father ; so it was not until an hour later that
she was able to obtain speech of Daisy, whom she

160 BUXY BELLEW

found waiting for her in the garden, and who
began :

"For Heaven's sake, don't scold ! I have bad such
a scolding as never was from mamma, and I really
can't stand any more. You must smooth her down,
Winnie, and tell her it's all right ; she won't listen
to me."

"But I don't think it is all right," objected Win-
nie ; " it seems to me that it is all wrong. If you
really don't care for poor Harry Lysaght "

"Have I ever pretended that I cared for poor
Harry Lysaght ? Haven't I told you scores of times
that I liked him very well, and that was all ? You
know as well as I do that mamma isn't weeping over
the loss of Harry Lysaght ; it's the loss of Harry
Lysaght's property that goes to her heart. But let
her cheer up ; there are other men in the world who
have property or money. And whatever mamma's
views may be, I should have thought that j/ou would
wisli me to marry a man whom I could love— even if
he hadn't any landed property."

Winifred remained silent for a few moments.
Then she remarked : " Harry thinks there is such a
man."

" So he was kind enough to inform me. He is very
welcome to his opinion."

"That is rather hard upon him, don't you think?"

" Upon whom? Harry or the anonymous man ? "

" Well, upon both, perhaps," answered Winifred,
laughing a little ; " but of course I meant Harry.
By the way, you didn't allow the other man to remain
anonymous, according to his account."

DAISY ACTS FROM THE HIGHEST MOTIVES 161

" It was he who mentioned Mr. Bellew's name, not
I. He said he was certain that I liked Mr. Bellew
better than him, and I really couldn't contradict him
without telling a fib."

Winifred looked grave. "Of course," she began,
"I don't know how far matters have gone "

" Oil ! they haven't gone very far yet," interrupted
Daisy, " but I tell you frankly that I mean them to
go a good deal farther, before I have done with him.
Now, Winnie, you needn't put on a scandalized face,
because you were warned from the first that it wa»
my pious intention to rescue him from the clutches
of Mrs. Little wood. If you call that being hard
upon him, you must be blind to his true interests.
Whether I sliall marry him or not is another question."

" I suppose," remarked Winifred, " it is just pos-
sible that he may not ask you ! "

" Perfectly possible," answered Daisy, with a quiet
smile which implied that she did not deem such an
omission on his part probable. "As for Harry
Lysaght," she continued, "I don't see that he has
any thing to grumble at ; and I ought to be applauded,
instead of abueed, for having refused an indulgent
husband, and a charming house, and lots of pin
money from the higliest motives. I say that for your
benefit; you needn't pass it on to mamma, it wouldn't
appeal to her. The way to comfort her is to dwell
upon Mr. Bellew's wealth, which I hear is con-
siderable."

At this moment Mrs. Forbes's voice was heard
plaintively calling Winnie from the window, and
thus the colloquy came to an end.
11

162 BILLY BELLEW

Harry Lysaght received no note from Winnie that
evening, bat, on the other hand, Billy Bellew did
receive an invitation to dinner from Mrs. Forbes,
who, like a wise constitutional sovereign, had decided
to submit with as good a grace as she could to the
vagaries of one over whom her authority was but
nominaL

CHAPTER XrV

THE CHEMIN DES AQUEDUCS

Owing to a previous engagement, Mr. Bellew was
unable to accept Mrs. Forbes's kind invitation to din-
ner ; and he might have added that it would be a
waste of time to send him any more such invitations,
because he was sure to be previously engaged during
the remainder of his sojourn in Algiers. Fortu-
nately, however, for his peace of mind, he did not
know this, nor did Mrs. Littlewood upbraid him for
his faithlessness. On the contrary, she took more
pains than she had for a long time past done to make
herself pleasant to him ; only she never missed an
opportunity of saying something contemptuous about
the elder Miss Forbes, and for about ten days she
held him very tight indeed. These, it must be ac-
knowledged, were not clever tactics ; but Mrs. Little-
wood was not a clever woman. She thought (but
even clever women often fall into that error) that the
ashes of a dead love may be fanned into flame again ;
she thought that Billy was a goose, and that the
only way to deal with him was to keep him out of
temptation's way ; furthermore, she was under the
impression that she possessed sufficient influence
over him to imbue him with her own views respect-
ing other people.

164 BUXT BELLE W

For ten days, therefore, Billy was not allowed to
see much of the Forbes family, although he had some
rides with Mickv in the earlv mominc^s ; bat at the
expiration of that time Mrs. Littlewood's vigilance
began to relax. She had satisfied herself that her
devoted attendant had at least not been guilty of the
atrocity of proposing to Miss Forbes ; the meekness
with which he listened to her hostile criticisms upon
that lady helped to disarm suspicion ; she reflected
that the notions whicli find their wav into the head

■r

of the small boy should not be taken too seriously ;
moreover, she really had great difficulty in believing
that any man with eyes in his head could have been
fascinated by one so immeasurably her inferior in the
matter of looks. Consequently she let him have a
little more rope, thereby unconsciously rendering a
service to Daisy, whose patience and forbearance had
been subjected to a severe strain all this time.

Daisy, in default of other facilities for cultivating
amicable relations with Mr. Belle w, had been driven
to join occasionally in those matutinal rides. Much
as she bated early rising, and little as she relished the
company of the intrusive and obstinate third person,
she felt that she had no alternative. So she asked in
a verv humble manner whether she mii^ht sometimes
be permitted to go out with her brother and his
friend, and the request was of course granted. Her
manner had, for some reason or other, become hum-
ble ; she no longer attempted to domineer over Mr.
Belle w, or to treat him as she was wont to treat her
admirers ; she would ride beside him for long dis-
tances without once opening her lips, and she ac-

THE CHEMIN DES AQUEDUCS 165

cepted certain reprimands which he thought it right
to administer to her upon her style of equitation with
curious submissiveness. Billy thought her greatly
improved, and began to like her much better than he
had done. He had heard from Micky that she had
rejected Harry Lysaght, and he suspected that she
was already repenting of what she had done. But
not for one moment did he suspect that he himself
had had any thing to do with that hasty and foolish
rejection.

Of Winnie he obtained a glimpse, but only a
glimpse, every now and then. It sometimes hap-
pened that she was in the garden or at the front
door when he and his companions returned from
their ride, and then she would say good-morning,
or perhaps address a few words to him. Once he
ventured to suggest that it would do her good to
accompany them the next time they went out, but
his proposal met with no encouragement.

" Don't you remember telling me," she asked, " that
I was not fond of riding ? You were quite right ;
I am not fond of it. Besides, I have so many other
things to do."

But although she would not ride with him, she
did not seem to mind talking to him ; and he had
more frequent occasions of exchanging ideas with
her after the assured Mrs. Littlewood took to driv-
ing with her friend Mrs. Ryland and leaving his
afternoons free. What puzzled him a little was the
half-compassionate, half -regretful look which he sur-
prised every now and again in her brown eyes. Was
she sorry for him because he was still in bondage,

166 . BILLY BELLE W

and because he refused to break his bonds? He
hoped it might be that ; but he hardly thought it
could be ; for she never alluded even remotely to the
subject. How, indeed, should he have guessed what
she herself could not have explained? According
to her view of the situation, Mr. Bellew was not at
all to be pitied. He was going to break with Mrs.
Little wood; he had fallen in love with Daisy, who
had obviously fallen in love (and for the very first
time in her life) with him ; no diflSculties would be
raised by Mr. and Mrs. Forbes, the latter of whom
had made enquiries, and was prepared to give him
a maternal welcome, now that Hany Lysaght was
past praying for — no; Mr. Bellew could scarcely be
called a fit subject for pity. Yet, somehow or other,
she did pity him, and she regretted Daisy's perversity
almost as much on his account as on Harry's. There
ma}' have been some dim, unformulated notion in her
mind that he was too good for Daisy.

Meanwhile, the spring was advancing rapidly.
The blossoms had fallen from the almond-trees ;
such of the aloes as proposed flowering, prior to their,
demise, were sending up long spikes ; the sun was
growing more powerful every day, the winter visit-
ants were becoming restless. Among the other gifts
bestowed by the bounteous season came Colonel
Littlewood, back from Hammam R'irha with a clean
bill of health, but an empty pocket. Baccarat had
of late treated him most unkindly, he explained to
Billy, and his bad luck at that seductive game ren-
dered the negotiation of a fresh loan imperative.
Of course he got his money, and of course, in ex-

THE GHEMIN DES AQUEDUCS 167

pressing his thanks, he gave utterance to the cus-
tomary formula respecting ultimate repayment.
Repayment was what Billy had never asked for and
never anticipated ; still, as he was not what in these
days is accounted a rich man, it would have been
convenient to him to see some of his money back.
He more than suspected too that a further advance
would be required in order to defray the expense of
his friends' homeward journey. When would they
go ? he wondered — and would he be expected to go
with them when they went ? He put some tentative
queries upon the subject to the colonel, who answered
with his habitual complaisance :

" Oh, I don't know, my dear fellow ; you must ask
the wife. You and she had better settle it between
you."

No necessity for consulting Mrs. Littlewood arose ;
for that lady had already settled what she meant to
do, and in the course of the same evening she made
her intentions known to the somewhat dismayed
Billy.

" I think we have had about enough of this," she
told him. " The people here haven't been so civil to
us that we need break our hearts at leaving them ;
and although I am sorry to tear you away from Le
Bocage, I am afraid the time has come for me to
issue marching orders. It's rather too soon to go
straight back to London, though — how would Tunis
and Sicily and then a leisurely trip through Italy
suit you ? "

Billy could not imagine any thing much less likely
to suit him than the above programme, but it was

168 BILLY BELLEW

impossible to say so. What he did say, in hasty and
guilty accents, was : " That would be very nice — very
nice indeed. Only I'm not sure whether I oughtn't to
get home rather sooner than you will. I half promised
to ride for a man at Sandown, and — and tliere are
a lot of other things that I must see about. I was
thinking that I might perhaps stay on here for a few
days after you leave, and then travel straight through
to England."

The scene which he had as good as invited
promptly followed, and an unconditional surrender on
his part followed the scene with equal promptitude.
It is all very well to sneer at his weakness, but, under
the circumstances, no amount of strength would have
availed him much. He had to choose between sur-
render and quarrelling with Blanche, and he couid
not quarrel with Blanche ; he would have considered
himself a downright brute if he had done that. She
gave him to understand that his behavior in propos-
ing to desert her amounted to something not very far
short of downright krutality ; she did not forgive
him until she had made him beg repeatedly for for-
giveness ; and by way of guarding against any pos-
sible relapse into insubordination, she despatched him
to the tCFwn the next day to find out about steamers,
and to secure a passage to Tunis for himself, as well
as for her and her husband.

A sorrowful man was he when he set forth on foot
to obey her orders. It was true that the day of his
departure would have had to come sooner or later,
and that a prolongation of his sojourn in Algiers
would not have altered the fact that an insurmount-

THE CHEMIN DES AQUEDUCS 169

able barrier existed between him and Winifred
Forbes ; but most people prefer to take a necessary-
dose of pain later rather than sooner, while no man
of Billy Bellew's age believes at the bottom of his
heart in insurmountable barriers.

Tbe office of the Compagnie Transatlantique was
crowded, and he had an absurd sort of hope that
cabins might not be obtainable that week ; but the
short-mannered clerk behind the grating took his
money and his order without hesitation, and presently
pushed the tickets toward him. There is sometimes
a difficulty about getting cabins for Marseilles at
short notice ; but the coasting service is less largely
patronized. Billy turned away with a heavy heart,
and, making for the door, almost ran into the arms
of Winifred Forbes.

" I have come to take our passage," she said.
" We are such a large party that we have to make
our arrangements a week or two in advance. Are
you here on the same errand ? "

Billy nodded gloomily. " Only I'm not taking
time so very much by the forelock," he said. " We're
bound for Tunis, and we sail in three days, I'm sorry
to say."

No one could have misintei-preted the expression
which Winifred's face assumed when she heard this
announcement. She not only looked startled ; she
looked almost horrified.

^' In three days ! " she echoed. " But surely this
is a very sudden resolution, is it not ? "

" Yes, I suppose it is rather sudden ; but Mrs.
Littlewood often does make up her mind in a hurry."

170 BILLY BELLE W

" Ah — Mrs. Littlewood ! You are going with her,
then ? "

Well, if he was, that was hardly a reason for her
addressing him in accents of seeming reproach ; she
knew very well that he was compelled to do as Mrs.
Littlewood told him. He made no reply, heyond a
grunt, and then asked whether he could he of any use
in taking her tickets for her, as a lady might have
some trouble in elbowing her way through the throng.
His offer was accepted, and thus he ascertained that
the Forbeses were not going to leave Algiers for
another month. Another month ! — ah, if only some
thrice-blessed Captain Patten could have been dis-
covered to rf place him, and if he could have remained
quietly where he was for that length of time ! But
what is the good of sighing for impossibilities ?

Winifred had recovered her equanimity when he
rejoined her. She thanked him, and remarked : " I
suppose you are riding or driving ? I am going to
walk up the hill."

How like that selfish old father of hers to have sent
her all that distance on foot, and to have made her do
his troublesome jobs for him ! But Billy was glad
that she meant to walk home, all the same.

" I am doing a constitutional too," he said. " Per-
haps — if you didn't mind — we might keep each other
company."

She assented at once ; he gathered, from her
manner, that she had rather expected his proposition,
and that she had a reason for agreeing to it. Per-
haps, in the kindness of her heart, she wanted to tiy
the effect of some further remonstrances upon him.

THE CHEMIN DES AQUEDUCS 171

That/to be sure, would be a waste of breath ; still it
would be happiness to be alone with her and to hear
her voice, whatever she might think fit to say to him.

They did not return by the dusty highroad.
Miss Forbes said that, if he wasn't in a hurry, she
would prefer the Chemin des Aqueducs, a shady,
winding road which follows the contour of the hills
to the westward of Algiers, and which is certainly not
adapted to meet the requirements of persons in a
liurry. But Billy was very far from being such a
person just then, and, after a steep climb through the
white village of Isly, he gazed forward with satisfac-
tion upon a long succession of clefts and ravines, into
every one of which, as he knew, the sinuous way that
lay before them plunged deeply. The vegetation on
those hillsides is something maiTellous to northern
eyes. The woods of ilex and silvery olives, with here
and there a tall palm among them, the ragged
bananas stooping over the garden walls, above all,
the profusion of creepers and the giant ivy which
hangs in festoons from tree to tree — these, bathed in
the intense, yet mellow, light of an Algerian sun,
must needs move even an exiled fox-hunter and a
disconsolate lover to appreciative wonder. Billy paid
his tribute to the exquisite designs of nature in
characteristic terms.

"This fairly takes the cake ! " he ejaculated. "I
ain't much of a judge of scenery, but I'd back Algiers
to romp in against any other place within a thousand
miles of England."

"Yet you are going to leave it," remarked
Winifred.

172 BILLY BSLLEW

" Well, I must, you know."

" No, I don't know that at all. I don't understand
your leaving like tLis. I wish you would explain."

She spoke with an impatience which astonished
him ; if she did not understand, neither did he. But
of course he could explain, and he proceeded to do so.

Even after listening to a perfectly explicit state-
ment, Winifred did not appear to be satisfied. " I
suppose you must be speaking the truth," she said ;
"but I did not expect you to talk like that. A mouth
ago I should have expected it — I shouldn't have
wondered ; but^-but I thought you had changed
some of your ideas of late. Certainly you have
behaved as if you had."

He heard her with increasing amazement. There
could be no doubt now that she was reproaching him
— but with what ? It seemed sheer insanity to hope ;
and yet every word that she said seemed to be uttered
with the deliberate intention of giving him hope. As
they paced along from sunlight to shade and out into
the sunlight again, she begged him to be straight-
forward with her, and to tell her candidly whether
any thing had occurred to give him offence. If so,
she believed she would be able to set it right. " It is
so much better to speak out while there is still time.
Unless you speak out now, you will be sorry after-
ward, I think."

Mortal man could not resist that. Billy stopped
short and threw out his hands.

" God knows I would have spoken long ago if I had
thought — if I had dared to think — that there was the
ghost of a chance for me ! " he exclaimed. "Even

THB GHEMIN DBS AQUEDUCS 173

now I can hardly believe that there isn't some mis-
take, and I don't know what to say. But there is
nothing really to say, because you have heard every
thing. You know how I love you, you know all
about Blanche Littlewood — all that there is against
me. I don't think it's so very bad — at least not
according to my lights. If it's bad of me to throw
her over, I cau't help it ; nobody could help it ! One
thing I can tell you truly : I have never loved any
woman on earth but you, and never so long as I
live "

" Stop ! stop ! " interrupted Winifred, in a strangled
voice. She had dropped, in a sitting posture, upon the
parapet by the wayside ; her cheeks were pale and
her eyes dilated. " You were right," she went on
presently ; " there has been a mistake — a horrible
•mistake ! I don't think it can have been my fault ;
I hope you will believe that I never had the most dis-
tant suspicion of this ! I was thinking of — of some-
thing quite different."

Billy's heart sank. "But you did know that I
loved you," he murmured ; " you must surely have
known that."

" Oh, no ! how could I ? It is the last thing
that I should ever have dreamed of ! "

She got up, and continued in a calmer and more
constrained voice : " Perhaps I had better tell you
that I am engaged to be married. I have been
engaged for some years to a Mr. Kirby, a neighbor of
ours at home."

Billy groaned. " Then it would have been hopeless
anyhow," he remarked.

174 BILLY BELLE W

" Yes, of course it would. I am very, very soiTy ;
I wish I hadu't spoken as I did just now ! You must
have thought," exclaimed Winifred, the pallor of her
cheeks becoming replaced by a vivid blush as she
recalled her indiscreet utterances, " you must have
thought I was proposing to you ! But you under-
stand now, or rather you don't understand, and I don't
want you to understand. Mr. Bellew, will you please
try to forget what I said ? "

" Yes, I'll try, if you wish it," answered Billy
dismally.

He was still quite in the dark as to her original
meaning ; but that was of small consequence.

Her present meaning was clear enough to force
itself upon the most obtuse comprehension. After
an interval of silence, during which they had resumed
their walk, he asked :

"If this man Kirby had never existed, do you
think — would it have been possible for you ever to
have cared for me ? "

" As if any body could answer such a question ! "
she returned irritably. But then she caught sight of
his woe-begone countenance, and was moved to com-
passion. "What might have been, if every thing
had been different, isn't much to the purpose, is it ? "
she resumed, in a gentler tone. " But I can't believe
that we should ever have been suited to one another,
you and I. We are so veiy unlike in all our habits
and tastes. You, I suppose, live chiefly for sport,
and sport lias no attractions for me. My mission in
life is to keep house and nurse people when they are
ill, and make myself generally useful in a humdrum

THB CHEMIN DES AQUEDUGS 175

sort of way. You would be bored to death if you
were condemned to spend the rest of your days with
a person of that description ; and if you will only
try to realize what I am and what you are, I am
sure you will see, after a time, that you have had a
lucky escape."

Billy smiled, but made no rejoinder. After they
had walked about a hundred yards farther in silence,
he said, "Perhaps I had better leave you now,
hadn't I ? I can't talk, and I believe there's a short
cut to the hotel from here. To-morrow I shall go
and say good-by to you all. By that time I shall
be able to behave properly, I hope, and to look as if
nothing had happened."

She did not attempt to detain him, but she gave
him her hand and repeated that she was very sorry ;
whereupon they parted. Winifred walked steadily
on, but Billy remained standing still, with his hands
clasped behind his back and his head bowed.
When, five minutes later, a bend of the road
brought her once more in sight of the spot where she
had left him, he had not yet stirred.

CHAPTER XV

BILLT TAKES LEAVE.

Unselfishness is probably a virtue which, like
other virtues, admits of adoption and cultivation; but
we may safely assume that, in nine cases out of eveiy
ten in which it is displayed, the quality is inborn.
Winifred Forbes was scarcely conscious of the fact
that the welfare of others was more important to her
than her own ; so that psychologists may, if they
please, deny her any credit for being what she was.
Nevertheless, she was, to say the least of it, a little
unusual ; and the manner in which she was affected
by Mr. Bellew's unforeseen declaration of love was
scarcely that which it would have produced upon the
majority of young women.

What in the world was to become of Daisy ? and
how was she to be comforted ? This was what Win-
nie kept asking herself, as she tramped along the
Chemin des Aqueducs, looking neither to right nor
left, and advancing more quickly than was necessary
toward the goal that she dreaded. She had now no
doubt, nor had she had for some time past, that her
sister was in earnest. A hundred trivial incidents
had betrayed the girl's secret ; she was not flirting
this time ; she had not refused Harry Lysaght out of
mere perversity ; she had confidently anticipated what

BILLY TAKES LEAVB 111

could never come ; and Daisy, alas ! was not one who
knew how to bear disappointment or humiliation. It
would be terrible to have to tell her the truth ; yet,
of course, she must be told.

" She is sure to blame me," thought Winifred dis-
consolately, "and it does look as if I had been to
blame. Every-body would say so ; every -body agrees
that men don't propose without some sort of encour-
agement. And the worst of it is, that I did seem to
encourage him this afternoon, though I never did
before — never, I am certain, before ! Oh ! what a
dolt I was, and how thankful I am that he was too
stupid to see what I was driving at ! Only I suppose
he will see when he comes to think it over ; even he
can hardly be so simple as to imagine that I meant
nothing at all."

She laughed a little, as she recalled their conversa-
tion at cross purposes ; for all the world knows that
grief and vexation are not incompatible with laugh-
ter. Then, being somewhat out of breath, as well as
conscious of a certain trembling in the lower limbs,
she sat down on the bank by the roadside, and tried
to remember exactly what she had said to him and
what he had said to her. No great effort of memory
was required to bring it all back to her with dread-
ful distinctness. He had been reluctant to speak out;
she had insisted upon his doing so ; she had told him
as plainly as possible that he was behaving badly by
leaving the place ; she had offered to explain away
any misunderstanding which might have arisen — in
short, it must be absolutely obvious to him that,
since she had not been pleading her own cause, she
13

178 BILLY BELLEW

had been pleading that of her sister. Then, in the
natural sequence of things, she came to his amazing
avowal, to her reception of it, to that last query of
his which she had impatiently stigmatized at the
time as not being to the purpose. Assuredly it had
not been to the purpose, and perhaps, strictly speak-
ing, he had had no business to ask such a question ;
yet she lingered for some minutes over the recollec-
tion of it ; and wondered dreamily what would or
might have happened if there had been no Edmund
Kirby, no Daisy, and no Mrs. Littlewood to create
complications.

Speculations of that kind are apt to be dangerous,
and Winifred, after pursuing them for a short space,
found herself upon the very brink of a discovery
which she had no desire to make. She sprang back
just in time to save herself from making it — in time,
at least, to save herself from admitting that she had
made it — and turned resolutely to the consideration
of how she might best communicate the bad news to
her family. She concluded at length that she was
not bound to say any thing about Mr. Bellew's pro-
posal to herself; it would be suflScient to state the
bare fact that he was going away ; and if his depart-
ure should be attributed to Mrs. Littlewood's influ-
ence, that, after all, would be the cause to which he
himself had assigned it. The only thing was that
Daisy must, by some means or other, be preserved
from humbling herself before him ; and that could
be managed, Winifred thought. His leave-taking
must of necessity be brief and formal, and Daisy should
certainly not be left alone with him for a moment.

BILLY TAKES LEAVB 179

Having decided upon her line of action, she walked
home, and, as it happened, saw nobody until the
dinner hour. Then, of course, she had to speak. She
opened her mouth to do so several times, without
succeeding in getting out a word, but at length she
forced herself to begin, in what, as she was painfully
aware, sounded quite unlike her ordinary voice :

" By the way, I met Mr. Bellew at the ticket office ;
he was engaging passages for Tunis. He is going
there with Colonel and Mrs. Littlewood in a few days.
They are not coming back again."

After firing off these abrupt sentences, she attacked
her soup with great vigor, and went near to choking
herself over it. She did not dare to look up, and for
a few seconds fhe silence was unbroken. At length
Micky ejaculated in accents of consternation :

"Oh, I say!"

The clock had ticked off another dozen or so of
interminable seconds before Mrs. Forbes remarked,
severely, but rather tremulously : "I am very sorry
to hear that that — that disgraceful intrigue has not
come to an end ; and I am very sorry, too, that we
have allowed Mr. Bellew to be so much about the
house. I think, Winnie, dear, you have been scarcely
prudent in throwing — er — er — Micky at his head, as
you have done of late."

But Daisy said nothing at all. When Winifred
ventured to raise her eyes she saw that the girl had
fallen back in her chair, and that her face was as
white as the tablecloth. There was no concealment,
nor any attempt at concealment on her part ; Daisy
never did — perhaps could not — disguise her emotions.

180 BILLY BELLE W

Winifred at once began to talk, and continued to talk
incessantly for a matter of ten minutes. It was the
only thing to be done, but it was not the easiest thing
in the world to do, because nobody helped her. At
last even Mr. Forbes, short-sighted and self-absorbed
as he was, ended by suspecting that something was
the matter. He peered over his spectacles at his
younger daughter and said :

" Daisy, my love, are you feeling unwell ? If so,
had you not better retire to your room and lie down ?
You appear to me to be upon the verge of one of those
attacks of syncope to which young persons of your
sex are frequently liable. Cold water and smelling-
salts are, I believe, generally found to be eflScient
remedies."

Daisy pushed back her chair, got up, and left the
room without a word. Winifred rose, with the
intention of following her, but was detained by her
father, who wanted to have the leg of a chicken
divided for him. When he tried to accomplish such
operations for himself the result generally was that
his neighbor received the chicken bone, while every-
body else within range of him was splashed all over
with gravy. Having fulfilled the filial duty required
of her, Winifred made for the door, throwing an
interrogative glance at her mother, who responded
peevishly in an undertone :

" Oh, yes ! if you like. But she isn't going to
faint, and she doesn't want you."

Mrs. Forbes was mistaken ; for Daisy, who, like
the rest of the family, instinctively turned to Winnie
in times of tribulation, did want her sister. That,

BILLY TAKES LEAVE 181

however, did not prevent her from according her
sister an extremely discourteous reception. She had
thrown herself down upon her bed, and when the
intruder entered she started up, saying :

"What do you want? Have you come to exult
over me and to tell me that you knew all along how
it would be ? Perhaps you would like to telegraph
for Harry Lysaght. I dare say he will come, if you
do ; he isn't proud ! "

Perhaps Daisy was not very proud either. That
thought did present itself to Winifred's mind ; but
she was too sorry, and too full of sympathy for the
poor little spoiled child, to dwell upon it. She set to
work to discharge a mission for the accomplishment
of which she possessed exceptional facilities, and in a
few minutes Daisy, who had thrown her arms round
the consoler's neck, was sobbing out broken -heartedly:
" Oh, Winnie, what shall I do ? what shall I do ? "

Well, there really was not very much to be done,
except to put a brave face upon disaster, and to trust
to the healing influences of time ; but neither of these
courses could be recommended without an appearance
of cruelty. Unfortunately, too, Winifred was de-
barred from holding out any of those fallacious hopes
which it may have been expected of her that she
should suggest. In honesty, as well as in kindness,
she was bound to make it clear that, in her opinion,
Mr. Bellew had no intentions, and it was some
slight comfort to find that that was Daisy's own
conviction.

"I have been caught in my own trap," the girl
said forlornly ; " he thought I was only flirting with

182 BILLT BELLE W

him — oh, I saw plainly enough that that was what he
thought at first ! — and he determined to pay me out.
He needn't have been so cruel, though ; he needn't
have tried in every possible way to make me believe
that he loved me. I don't think it was quite fair or
honorable to do that, do you, Winnie?"

"No," answered Winifred hesitatingly, "I don't
think it was — if you are sure that he did."

" Sure that he did ! — am I likely to make a mis-
take about matters of that sort? Over and over
again he has said things to me which could only have
one meaning."

She repeated some of his speeches. Perhaps he
had really made them ; perhaps she only thought that
he had made them ; in either case she had read her
own meaning into them, as the ineradicable habit of
her sex is. Happily, it did not occur to her to blame
her sister ; the vials of her wrath, when these took
the place of despondency, were poured forth upon
Mrs. Littlewood, only a small portion of the over-
flowing measure being reserved for Billy. If she
had shown a little more indignation against the
latter, Winifred would have been better pleased
and less apprehensive. By hook or by crook she
must be kept from seeing Mr. Bellew and betraying
herself, as she almost certainly would, in the event
of her being brought face to face with him. When
Daisy was happy or unhappy, pleased or angry, she
never cared who knew it. She had practised no sort
of deceit in her life, save such as she was wont to
exercise in dealing with her admirers, and even that
could hardly be called deceit of a very subtle char-

BILLY TAKES LEAVE 183

*

acter. It turned out, however, that Daisy did not
wish to see Mr. Bellew again.

"If he asks for me, you can tell him that I have
gone out," she said. " I don't want him to know how
miserable he has made me, though I suppose he does
know. I shall never care for any body else as long
as I live — never ! And to think that he cares for
that hideous, painted old creature, whom he pre-
tended to find such a bore ! "

It would have made matters no better to suggest
that perhaps he didn't care for the hideous, painted
old creature, and Winifred maintained a guilty
silence. It was at least some relief to know that
Mr. Bellew's farewell visit, to which she looked
forward with no little personal dread, would now
in all probability prove a very brief and formal
affair.

Mr. Bellew's visit did not disappoint expectation in
that respect. He arrived shortly after three o'clock
on the following afternoon, and brevity, even if his
own inclinations had not tended that way, would have
been urged upon him by the excessive formality of
Mrs. Forbes, who was inwardly furious. It must be
confessed that most mothers would have been furious
in her place. To have lost a son-in-law of such rare
excellence and desirability as Harry Lysaght was bad
enough ; but to have been made a positive fool of by
the man whom, against her better judgment, she had
consented to accept as a pis aller, was more than
mortal woman could bear with equanimity. Still
prudence always counsels the concealment of our
wounds, and a lucky thing it was for Mrs. Forbes that

184 BILLY BELLE W

she bad to deal witb so unsuspicious and so preoccupied
a personage as Billy Bellew.

He noticed, indeed, what he could hardly help
noticing, that her manner was unusually cold ; but
he thought it very likely that she had been told of
his offer to her elder daughter, and had been annoyed
by it. For the rest, he said scarcely any thing to her,
beyond thanking her for her hospitality, and it was
Winifred who preserved the short conversation from
dying of inanition. Winifred was very nei*vous,
and so was he ; but, all things considered, they per-
formed their respective parts creditably enough.
When he rose to go, he cast an implpring glance at
her, the meaning of which she understood, though
she was doubtful about the wisdom of complying
with his mute request. But pity, or good nature, or
perhaps an unacknowledged desire to say a last kind
word to him, got the better of her hesitation, and she
followed him out to the front door.

" Thank you for coming," he said gratefully, as he
stood, with bared head, in the full blaze of the sun-
shine. " I wanted just to tell you how sorry I am if
I distressed or vexed you yesterday. Of course I
shouldn't have spoken as I did, if I had known about
that — about the other man."

" Of course not ; and of course you could not
know," answered Winifred. " Perhaps I ought to
have told you before ; but I never thought for a
moment — it seemed so utterly unlikely "

" I don't see why it should have seemed unlikely,"
said poor Billy.

" Oh, I think you must, if you will consider ! But

BILLY TAKES LEAVE 185

there is no help for it now, and you haven't distressed
rae — at least, not for myself. We must try to forget
it, and — and part friends."

" And am I never to see you again ? "

Winifred looked down. " I don't want to be dis-
agreeable," she answered ; " but I think, if we were
to meet by chance in London or anywhere, it would
be better for us to do no more than bow or shake
hands. For many reasons, I would rather you didn't
come and call."

"Yes; I understand what you mean by *many
reasons,' and I dare say you are quite right. The
only thing is that supposing — such a thing might
happen, and sometimes I think it will — supposing I
were no longer — in fact, that I were no longer upon
quite such intimate terms with Mrs. Littlewood as I
am now, might I call then ? "

It was impossible for Winifred to explain that Mrs.
Littlewood was not the obstacle. She fenced the
question by replying : " I don't know why you should
wish for any thing of the kind. Your calling upon us
would only be embarrassing and "

" And it would not make you change your mind ? "

" Of course it would not do that."

" Well, nothing will ever make me change my
mind either. You are the only woman in the world
for me, now and always. I hope you'll forgive my
saying so, and remember that I said so. All sorts of
strange things come to pass, and so long as you are
unmarried there must be just a chance for me, how-
ever poor it may be. Such as it is, I'm going to take
that chance."

186 BILLY BELLEW

Winifred entreated him not to cherish any illusions
of that description. She reminded him of what she
had told him on the preceding day. It was not
only that she was engaged to Edmund Kirby, who
was getting on very well in his profession and would
probably be in a position to marry before long, but
that she felt sure she was utterly unfitted to be the wife
of a sporting man. He must look out for some nice
girl who was fond of hunting and knew a little about
racing. "And when you have found her, I will come
to your wedding, if I am asked," she added reassuringly.

" You will never come to my wedding, unless
you come as the brido. Miss Forbes," answered Bill}'.
" Please believe that, because it's the truth."

He was going to add something more ; but at that
Mrs. Forbes, who doubtless thought that her unwel-
come visitor had taken himself off by this time, was
heard impatientl}'- calling her daughter from the
drawing-room ; so their leave-taking was curtailed.
Billy was half-way down the avenue before it occurred
to him that he had omitted to send a message of fare-
well either to Miss Daisy or to Micky.

As regarded the latter, however, an opportunity
of making amends for his forgetfulness was gi*anted
to him. He had not proceeded many yards along
the lane which leads to Le Bocage when a small
figure jumped down from the high bank on his left
hand, and barring his passage, asked breathlessly:
" Oh, Mr. Bellew, are you really going away ?"

" Yes, Micky, I'm off," he replied, with an assump-
tion of brisk cheerfulness. "The best of friends
must part, you know."

BILLY TAKES LEAVE 187

" And ain't I ever to see you again ? " the boy
asked, putting the same question that Billy himself
had put a few minutes before, but looking even more
dolorous over it. The truth was that Micky's tears
were not very far off ; though he would never have
forgiven himself if he had allowed them to fall in
the presence of one who would naturally despise
such a girlish exhibition of weakness.

" Oh, you'll see me again, right enough," answered
Billy. " In another year or two we shall have you
out hunting in Leicestershire, and then j^ou'll be
pretty safe to come across me, unless I break my neck
in the meantime. Remember what I told you about sit-
ting in the right place, and keeping your hands low."

The boy nodded, not being quite sure enough of
his voice to make any articulate reply.

"And look here," Billy went on, "we've been
capital friends, you and I, haven't we? I should
like to give you some little thing, just to put you in
mind of me now and then." He detached a small
gold compass from his watch-chain. " It isn't
worth an awful lot of money," he remarked ;" but
I've found it useful more than once when I've lost
my way in a fog or been overtaken by the dark-
ness a dozen miles or so away from home."

Micky's small brown fingers closed over the gift.
" I'll never lose it," he said. And then, after a short
pause : " Mr. Belle w, I want to say something to you.
I know well enough what has happened; I know why
you're going away. The others didn't notice Winnie's
face last night, but I did. And it isn't all up yet — it
isn't really ! "

188 BILLY BELLEW

Billy did not resent this plain speaking on the part
of his young friend, nor did he affect to misunder-
stand it. He only smiled and answered : " I'm afraid
it is all up, Micky; anyhow, she says it is."

"That's only because she thinks she is bound to
Edmund Kirby ; and I don't believe she cares a brass
farthing for him, really. He's an awful stick."

" Oh, he's an awful stick, is he ? Still she may be
fond of him. She told me she didn't like sporting
men very much."

" Don't you believe it ! She likes ycm, at all
events ; and if you'll only stick to it and look us up
in England, it will all come riglit at last, I'm sure.
It's quite on the cards that Kirby may throw her
over. He can't be in any desperate hurry to marry
her, because they've been engaged since the flood, and
it's all bosh about his not having money enough. I've
heard mamma say so lots of times."

This was good hearing, and Billy was so much
in want of a little encouragement that he may be
excused for having clutched at the straw extended to
him. However, as he reflected, after taking leave of
his juvenile counsellor, to whom he gave a solemn
promise that he would write sometimes, there was
another little diflSculty, of which the astute Micky
knew nothing. That Winnie should be set free by
Edmund Kirby would not be enough; it would still
remain for him to obtain his release from Blanche
Little wood, who was just about as likely to let him
go of hev own free will as an Arab slave-trader is to
liberate his captive, in an access of philanthropy.

CHAPTER XVI

BILLY HANDS IN HIS BESIONATION

The town of Tunis, notwithstanding the French
occupation, has not yet lost its Oriental character.
The majestic Moors, who stalk through its narrow,
ill-paved streets, or sit gravely smoking at the doors
of their shops in the covered bazaars, still retain the
eye for color of which close contact with civilization
seems fated to deprive their race, and wear clothes
that delight the gaze of the wandering artist. The
long strings of camels, the fat Jewesses, in their
amazing costume of short jackets and closely fitting
tights ; the scowling fanatics who guard the ap-
proaches to the mosques — these and a hundred other
every-day sights give evidence of a more primitive
and more picturesque phase of Eastern life than can
be looked for now in Algiers.

But the novelty and picturesqueness of the Bey's
capital left Billy Bellew cold and indifferent. To
him it was nothing more than a yellow primrose was
to the insensible Peter Bell. It was a dirty town
in North Africa Avhere there was an uncomfortable
hotel, a varied assortment of bad smells, and nothing
particular to do, except to visit the bazaars with Mrs.
Littlewood and purchase innumerable things that he
didn't want. Mrs. Littlewood wanted them and got

190 BILLY BELLEW

them ; which was, perhaps, fortunate, inasmuch as
the acquisition of marvellous shot silks and pieces of
embroidery and carpets kept her in a tolerably good
Immor. Billy paid without bargaining. After all,
that was what he was there for. It was a pity nature
had made him such a very poor dissembler; because,
if he could have contrived to look only ordinarily
cheerful, he would have spared himself some unpleas-
ant moments. As it was, Mrs. Littlewood's good
humor was intermittent, and when she became pro-
voked with him she did not spare him.

" Don't you think you had better retuni to
Algiers? "she asked him one afternoon. "You have
evidently left your heart there, and by going back
you might possibly find it again. I should recom-
mend you to stay three or four weeks, and to make a
point of seeing Miss Forbes every day. If that won't
cure you, your case must indeed be liopeless ! "

" I don't see the good of talking like that," returned
Billy ; " you know very well that I have taken my
passage for Palermo, according to your instructions.
As for Miss Forbes, it may interest you to hear that
she is engaged to be married to some man who lives
near them in Shropshire."

Mrs. Littlewood raised her artistically pencilled
eyebrows and pureed up her lips. " Oh, that's it, is
it ? " said she. " Now we know why you have been
looking as if you meditated self-destruction all this
time ! So she told you that she was eftgaged, did
she ? What could you have been saying to her to
draw forth that confidential information ? Well, I
condole with you ; though it is a comfort to think

BILLY HANDS IN HIS BESI6NATI0N 191

that you will soon be yourself again. Nobody has
better reason than I have to be aware of the ease
with which you recover from these little attacks."

Sometimes she made his life a burden to him after
that fashion, sometimes she had recourse to tears and
reproaches. Neither method was agreeable ; but of
the two he preferred the former, and this, contrary
to precedent, was the more frequently employed.
He suspected, and could not help hoping, that Blanche
had grown rather weary of him. Of course it was
no longer possible for him to deceive himself as
to the fact that he had grown terribly weary of
her.

Better times— comparatively better times — were,
however, in store for this unhappy lingerer in a
false position. The resources of Tunis having been
exhausted, the party took ship at La Goletta for
Sicily, and when they reached Palermo after a rough
passage, which one of them bore very badly, were
received on disembarking by a tall man with a heavy
mustache, who did not seem in the least sui*prised to
see them.

" Don't look at me ! " cried Mrs. Littlewood, wav-
ing him off with her sunshade. "How could you
be so cruel as to come and meet sea-sick people !
Alfred, please take Captain Patten away, and engage
him in conversation. No words can describe what I
have suffered on board that horrible steamer, and I
know I must be of a livid green color."

She really was not ; her cheeks had the usual lilac
tint which in these days is considered such a vast
improvement upon natural hues, and Captain Patten

192 BILLY BELLEW

gallantly, but laboriously, rose to the level of tlie
occasion.

" Not at all, Mrs. Littlewood, I assure you ! " he
declared. " You're looking as fresh as a — as a — ^as I
don't know what. You are, upon my word ! "

Captain Patten was a man of few words ; but
what he lacked in eloquence he doubtless made up in
power of appreciation. Billy was very pleased in-
deed to see him, and had not the common -sense to
affect annoyance at having been kept in the dark as
to what was obviously a preconcerted arrangement.
Yet, stupid and provoking though he was, Mrs.
Littlewood abstained for some days from avenging
herself upon him. Perhaps she thought that she was
avenging herself upon him by leaving him severely
alone while she explored the town and its vicinity
under the guidance of his long-legged substitute ;
perhaps she honestly enjoyed a change. Either way,
he obtained a period of leisure which Colonel Little-
wood kindly strove to enliven for him. Colonel
Littlewood, it may be, was becoming a trifle nervous.
For many good reasons he did not want to offend
Billy Bellew, and although he reposed an admiring
confidence in Blanche's knowledge of what she was
about, it did, perhaps, occur to him that there is such
a thing as slipping between two stools.

"Patten's a rare good fellow. Not much in
Blanche's style, you know," he Avas careful to explain ;
" but she took pity upon him at Hammam R'irha,
because he didn't seem to know what to do with him-
self, poor beggar 1 He talks of coming on to Italy
with us. I hope you won't mind him, Bellew?

BILLT HANDS IN HIS BESIONATION 193

Quiet sort of chap ; won't bother you in any way.
Was in some cavalry regiment. I forget which ;
but had enough of the service, and is wandering
about now, trying to amuse himself. Seems to have
plenty of the needful.''

In accents which had the unmistakable ring of
veracity Billy expressed his willingness to welcome
this addition to their party. As a matter of fact.
Captain Patten did not bother him ; Captain Patten
bothered nobody. He was very solemn, very silent,
and apparently very devoted to the sprightly little
lady who had flung her net over him. When a move
was made to Naples, he gravely accepted the post
assigned to him, and was privileged to discharge
some of the duties which had hitherto fallen to Mr,
Bellew's share. If he was jealous of the man whom
he had superseded, he kept his jealousy, like his other
emotions, discreetly veiled from the eyes of the world,
while that dull-witted Billy never made the slightest
pretence of being jealous of him.

It was from Naples that our hero despatched the
first of a series of letters which Micky Forbes carried
about in his pocket until they reached a grimy and
crumpled old age. They are still extant ; but per-
haps it is as well not to quote them at length, because
the truth is that Billy's epistolary style was not quite
on a level with that of Lord Chesterfield or Mrae.
de S^vign^. As, however, they elicited replies in
due course, they may be considered to have served
their purpose. The one which bears the Naples
postmark contains more questions than information;
but Captain Patten is alluded to in the course of it,
13

194 BILLT BELLE W

and mention is made of the circumstance that Mrs.
Littlewood and that gentleman are absent on an
excursion to Pompeii.

"As for me," the writer continues, " I haven't got
any thing to do, except to sit here at the window and
wish to Heaven I was on board the steamer that sails
for England to-night. It's jolly hot, and the water
is as blue as they make it ; but I'm dead sick of
foreign parts."

It is a fact that Mr. Bellew spent a whole week at
Naples without visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum, the
Museo Borbonico, or Vesuvius. The same may be
said of Colonel Littlewood, who, however, acquired
an exhaustive knowledge of all the principal cafes in
the place and the various liquors obtainable there.'
Florence was treated with equal contempt by these
unworthy travellers. To be sure, there chanced to be
a race-meeting at the Cascine, to which Billy was
permitted to conduct his friends in a carriage of his
hiring, and at which he duly lost as many pairs of
gloves as Mrs. Littlewood required him to lose ; but
churches and picture galleries he left to Captain Pat-
ten, to whom nothing seemed to come amiss.

" It would be interesting," remarked Mrs. Little-
wopd one evening, " to hear how you pass your time.
Is your own company so fascinating that you ne'oer
tire of it ? "

"Two's company, three's none," answered Billy
good-humoredly. " Don't you trouble about me ;
rm all right. When I've nothing else to do, I study
the time-tables and calculate how long it will take
us to get home."

BILLT HANDS IN HIS BESIONATION 195

"I don't know how you can expect the time-
tables to tell you that," returned Mrs. Littlewood,
with a frown. "We are going to Venice and a
good many other places before we make for home,
I hope."

Billy made no rejoinder. He could not share in
Mrs. Littlewood's hope ; but he was aware that he
would, at all events, have to go to Venice. When
he should have tarried for a decent length of time
upon the shores of the Adriatic, it would surely be
permissible for him to mention that a good many
people were anxiously awaiting his return to his
native land.

Probably the whole world can show no more lovely
or charming city than Venice in fine spring weather ;
but in order to enjoy Venice or any other place, it is
of course desirable that you should not be eager and
impatient to be somewhere else ; and this may account
for Billy Bellew's lack of enthusiasm in gazing upon
a scene which called forth some guarded expressions
of approval from Colonel Littlewood himself. Never-
theless, Billy's first morning in Venice was satisfactory
to him, for it brought him, among a heap of English
letters, one with an Algerian stamp and an address
written in legible, though somewhat unformed char-
acters. This, when opened, proved to be a truly
delightful epistle. Very few people know how to
write letters, — Billy himself, as has been mentioned,
was far from having attained proficiency in that art,
— ^but there are just a few who seem to know by
instinct exactly what to say to their correspondents,
and Micky Forbes was among the number.

196 BILLT BELLEW

" Upon my word, that's a wonderful boy! " exclaimed
Billy aloud, after he had perused the two closely
written sheets forwarded to him by his young friend.
" He'll be a great man one of these days, you see if he
won't ! Grammar and spelling be hanged ! He can
describe things in a way that makes you see them,
and that's more than I could do if my life depended
on it."

A more dispassionate critic might have pronounced
a less flattering verdict, but it was certainly true that
Micky's composition betrayed a clear comprehension
of what Mr. Bellew would like to hear. The doings
of the Forbes family were faithfully reported therein,
but only one of the family was dealt with in detail,
and what was said about her was of a nature to give
comfort to a friend whose absence she was represented
as deploring. Winnie, it appeared, had not been a
bit like herself since Mr. Belle w's departure. She had
been dull and out of spirits ; she was always wishing
that the time had come for them to leave Algiers,
she had even gone so far as to confide to the writer
that she did not feel particularly well or happy.

" She's not really seedy, though," Micky thought-
fully added; " it isn't that. Thank goodness, I'm not
seedy either ! The doctor says I'm as fit as a flea
now, and we are to cross to Marseilles the day after
to-morrow. I don't know whether I'm to go back to
school this summer or not, but I expect not, and we
are pretty sure to be in London next month. Do
look out for us. I shall look out for you everywhere.
And please write again soon."

How, after that, was Billy to help resolving that,

BILLY HANDS IN HIS RESIGNATION 197

come what might of it, he would be in London during
the course of the ensuing month ? After all, there
would probably be no difficulty, for it was reasonable
to anticipate that the Littlewoods also would arrange
to return before then. Great, therefore, was his con-
sternation when he met Mrs. Littlewood at dinner —
she had been out in a gondola with Captain Patten
nearly all day — when she informed him, as a piece of
news which he would be rejoiced to hear, that they
had let their house in Lowndes Street for the season.

" Now," she remarked, " we can dawdle about as
long as we like. When we are tired of this, we will
go on to Milan and the lakes ; afterward, if the
weather keeps fine, we might cross the Alps and
wander through Switzerland. Switzerland is delight-
ful before the tourists' season sets in, and Captain
Patten has never been there. So he won't mind
Lucerne and Interlaken, and all the other hackneyed
old places."

Captain Patten, perceiving that he was expected
to say something, departed from his usual taciturnity
so far as to declare :

" Always charmed, I'm sure, to be anywhere where
you are, Mrs. Littlewood."

Billy had neither the good manners nor the hypoc-
risy to follow this brilliant lead. He said nothing at
the time, and it was not until late in the evening that
the opportunity came to him of making an announce-
ment which he had determined to make. In the
meantime, he had been privileged to share a gondola
with the colonel, and in the company of that charm-
ing associate had been propelled up and down the

198 BILLY BELLE W

■

Grand Canal in the wake of the bark which bore Mrs.
Littlewood and her silent slave. The inevitable
songsters, in their illuminated barges, had been
bawling out " Santa Lucia ! " and " Funicoli f uni-
coR ! " beneath the Rialto ; the night air had been
balmy and the starlight effects exquisite, no doubt,
for those who cared about such things ; but the
colonel had been, if possible, rather more offensive
than usual, and Billy had more than once longed to
take him by the neck and heels and heave him over-
board. But now the colonel had gone off somewhere
to quench his thirst, and Captain Patten had said
" good-night," and the time had evidently come for
Billy to face whatever might be in store for him.

" I'm afraid," he began, rather abruptly, " I can't
manage the lakes and Switzerland ; I must be getting
back home. I'm sorry to be obliged to leave you,
but it isn't as though you would have nobody. Your
friend Patten seems game to stay with you as long
as you want him."

Mrs. Littlewood was indolently -fanning herself.
She smiled, and her smile was not precisely amiable.
" Just for the sake of curiosity," she remarked, " may
I ask if you really think that Captain Patten is capa-
ble of filling your place ?"

Billy looked down and fidgeted. " Well, he seems
to have shown himself pretty well able to fill it for
some time past," was the best reply that he could
think of.

" Oh, no ! he hasn't ; and I think you know that he
hasn't. A year ago you would have been furious if
I had even pretended that he had, as I have been

BILLT HANDS IN HIS BESI6NATI0N 199

doing lately. Come, let us be frank. You want a
pretext for washing your hands of me, and I have
given you one. You must admit that that was rather
generous of me. Go, if you want to go, I have no
power to prevent you ; but please don't come back
again and ask to be forgiven after you have got over
your infatuation for that long, lank girl. You have
been most successful in deceiving me once ; you will
hardly deceive me a second time."

Without being in the least clever or discerning,
Mrs. Littlewood knew her man. Billy had always
tried to behave fairly and honorably : he could not
but feel that it was neither fair nor honorable to
desert a woman who had avowed that she loved him,
and whom he had once loved ; and this appeal of
hers, which was not couched in the form of an
appeal, would have induced him to renounce all hope
of ever winning Winifred Forbes, if any thing could
have induced him to do that. But nothing could.
All that Mrs. Littlewood could accomplish now was
to make him thoroughly ashamed of himself — as it
was perhaps only right that he should be. He made
several attempts to speak, but checked himself each
time, and finally broke off in despair with :

" It's no use, Blanche ! I can't soften things
down, much less plead excuses. You're quite right
about Miss Forbes; I do love her, though it's true
that she is engaged, as I told you, to another man.
There ! now you may abuse rae to your lieart's
content; I deserve any thing that you may like to
say of me."

Mrs. Littlewood did not take advantage of the

200 BILLT BELLEW

permission accorded to her; she merely said, in a low
voice, " Thank you. At least I can't complain of any
dissimulation on your part this time. So it is all
over at last ! I am not surprised ; I liave seen for
a long time what was coming ; and if it hadn't been
Miss Forbes it would have been somebody else, I
suppose. I am well rewarded for all the sacrifices
that I have made ! If only I had known what joii
were ! But, funny as you may think it, I really did
believe in you."

Poor Billy did not think it funny at all. Proba-
bly he had never before in his life^not even when
Winifred had refused liim — felt more utterly
wretched than he did at that moment. Yet he could
not unsay what he had said, nor could he remind
Blanche that such sacrifices as she had made on his
account had been made entirely against his wish and
approval. He had simply wanted to pass as her
friend, he still wanted to be her friend, and he was
actually foolish enougli to say so, instead of getting
up and going away, which would have been a much
better plan.

The consequence was that he had a terribly bad
quarter of an hour. His feelings were not spared,
his vows of days gone by were minutely recalled
to his memory, his friendship was disdainfully re-
jected, and his presents were flung back with scorn
in his teeth — though, to be sure, this latter form of
chastisement proved in the sequel to be purely
metaphorical. Mrsr Littlewood would not give him
her hand at parting ;• she said the only request she
had to make of him was that he would forget her.

BILLT HANDS IN HIS BESI6NATI0N 201

"And that won't cost you a great effort," she
added bitterly.

The conduct of such women as Mrs. Little wood
is often perplexing. She was absolutely selfish, she
had a keen eye to the main chance ; in all proba-
bility she only cared for Billy Bellew because it
flattered her vanity to have a docile admirer, and
suited her convenience to possess a liberal one. Yet
she may, for the time being, have fancied that she
was sincere in renouncing him, and that she meant
her renunciation to be final. It not unfrequently
happened to her to say and do things over night
of which she repented in the morning.

But if she repented on the following morning
her repentance came too late, for Billy was up and
away soon after sunrise ; and sad was the soul
and deep were the curses of Colonel Littlewood
when he realized that his benevolent banker had
absconded.

CHAPTER XVII

BDMUND KIBBT's HOLIDAY

** This is a thousand times worse than Algiers ! "
exclaimed Daisy Forbes despondently. "Goodness
knows, Algiers was bad enough the last part of the
time ; but for utter dulness and misery home beats
it hollow. One had warmth and sunshine out there^
if one had nothing else."

She had stationed herself beside one of the high
narrow windows in the library of the house where
she had been born, and was looking out upon a land-
scape which on that bitter spring afternoon looked
very wintry. Winifred, who was seated at a writing-
table near her, and who had been busily engaged for
two hours in setting her father's bills and other
documents in order, glanced up and remarked as
apologetically as if she had been answerable for the
weather :

" It is too bad of the east wind to set in at this
time of the year ; but perhaps it won't last. I only
hope," she added, with a troubled look, "that we
haven't come back too soon."

It was not of her sister that Winifred was think-
ing when the latter uneasy aspiration escaped her ;
but Daisy appropriated it to herself as a matter of
course.

BDMUND KIBBT's HOLIDAY 203

** Oh, it isn't the having come back to England
that I mind so much," she returned discontentedly ;
" but why couldn't we have stayed in London instead
of rushing down here, where there's nothing to do
and nobody to talk to ? We all wanted to stay in
London, except you."

Nothing can be more certain than that, if the
above assertion had been true, the Forbes family
would have remained in London. They would have
remained there even if Daisy had been alone in
desiring it ; for Daisy's wishes, which had always
been more or less paramount with her relatives, had
been yielded to without thought of controversy since
she had become so pale and listless and dispirited.
But, as a matter of fact, the girl had declared that
she hated the bare idea of theatres and society, and
had begged to be removed as soon as possible to the
peace and solitude of Shropshire. Winifred did not
remind her of this ; she only said :

" Well, we shall be going up later, you know, when
every thing will be looking more cheerful. Even
London isn't very pleasant in a black east wind."

" A row of houses and a yellow fog would be more
cheerful to look at than that ! " groaned Daisy, with
a wave of her hand toward the prospect outside the
windows.

Stratton Park could not be called a pretty place,
although it would pass muster among a hundred other
English country houses of its class. The plain white
structure, built at a period when domestic architecture
was little considered, stood rather low, and rather too
near to a sheet of ornamental water, upon which

204 BILLY BELLEW

Micky waB at that moment seated in a boat, fishing
for perch and tench. The garden was not much of
a garden, and the park was not much of a park ; but
the former was bright with old-fashioned flowers
during the summer season, and the latter could boast
of some fine trees. Winifred rose and walked to the
window.

"I wish Micky would come in," she said. "It
seems a shame to send for him, but he must be per-
ished with cold."

" Oh, I should think so," answered Daisy, shrug-
ging her shoulders, "but you would insist upon
bringing him here."

Winifred had, it must be owned, given her vote in
favor of quitting the metropolis for Shropshire. She
had not been left in ignorance of Micky's con*e-
spondence with Mr. Bellew ; she had been informed
that Mr, Bellew had left Venice on his way back to
England, and it had seemed to her that, for Daisy's
sake, a meeting ought, if possible, to be avoided.
There was no trusting Daisy in her present mood ;
she was capable of doing and saying things which
she might regret for the rest of her life. The girl
appeared to have absolutely no self-respect ; she
either was or thought she was broken-hearted, and
she did not care who knew it. Profoundly Sorry as
Winifred was for her, she could not but find her very
trying at times. Before they had left Algiers she
had worn her willow in so ostentatious a fashion that
eveiy-body — Lady Ottery, Mrs. Nugent, and all the
rest of them — had discovered what was the matter.
If she were to be brought into contact again with

EDMUND KIEBT's HOLIDAY 205

Mr. Bellew, the chances were that even his phenomenal
blindness would no longer remain proof against what
could be seen with half an eye. Moreover, Winifred
herself did not at all want to renew acquaintance
with the disturber of their peace. He had disturbed
her peace as well as Daisy's ; she knew that now,
having almost as little aptitude or inclination for
deceiving herself as she had for deceiving others.
It was not a thought to be dwelt upon ; it was
a thought to be resolutely thrust away. But we
know what invariably happens when Nature is
driven out with a pitchfork, and Winifred had long
ere this been forced to acknowledge in the secrecy of
her own heart that Billy Bellew might have been
more to her than he was, or ever could be now, if she
had not already plighted her troth to Edmund Kirby.
And Edmund, who had only found time to spend
half an hour with them during their passage through
London, was coming down to Stratton that veiy after-
noon for a week's holiday. Winifred felt it to be
both a melancholy and a shameful fact that she was
not looking forward to his visit with any great antici-
pation of pleasure.

After a time Daisy consulted her watch, yawned,
and rose. " That ardent lover of yours will be here
presently, I suppose," she remarked. " I had better
make myself scarce. Why he doesn't go to his own
people, instead of quartering himself upon us, I can't
think."

" It isn't very comfortable for him at home ; he
dpesn't hit it off with his brother, you know," said
Winifred ; " but I don't think you will find him

206 BUXT BEIXEW

much in your way, aud there isn't the slightest ne-
cessity for your leaving the room. Please don't go."

But Daisy laughed rather ill-naturedly, and replied
that she hoped she knew better than to play goose-
berry ; added to which, she experienced no sort of
yearning for £dmund Kirby's company. So she went
her way ; and soon afterward the sound of carriage-
wheels upon the gravel announced the arrival of the
guest.

Edmund Kirby entered the library without having
even waited to remove his overcoat. He held out
both his hands, which were large and strong, and
hb grave, uncomely countenance was illumined by a
smile which rendered it at least agreeable to look
upon.

^ They told me I should find you here," he said.
He was a big, broad-shouldered man, who looked a
good many years older than he actually was. His
hair was beginning to fall off, and was turning gray
at the temples ; his face, which was clean-shaven,
save for a slight whisker, already exhibited perma-
nent lines, and in the matter of features could not be
described otherwise than as decidedly plain. Never-
theless, it was an honest face and by no means a
stupid one. Winifred rang for tea, and ministered to
his needs while he talked. His speech was much less
tiresome and pedantic than his letters.

" This is an unfortunate business about Daisy," he
remarked, after a time, "What made her refuse
young Lysaght, do you suppose ? You never gave
me any distinct explanation of the affair ; and I
thought her looking very dull and out of sorts when

EDMUND KIBBT's HOLIDAY 207

I saw ]ier iu London. She hasn't been losing her
heart to an Arab chief in Algeria, I hope?"

Winifred told him the whole story. He was sure
to hear it sooner or later, and she seldom kept any
secrets from Edmund, who, indeed, was both a trust-
worthy and a sensible confidant. Only she did not
mention the offer of marriage which she had received,
because that was hardly her own secret.

" I never met Mr. Bellew," said he, when she had
finished ; " but I have often heard of him. He goes
by the name of Billy, and is said to be one of the
best gentleman-riders living. Not my style of man,
of course ; but a good fellow, I should imagine, from
what people say of him. There's nothing against
him to my knowledge, and he must be well off. I
really see no reason why Daisy's romance shouldn't
end happily. It would be more satisfactory, perhaps,
if she would take young Lysaght ; but if she won't,
she won't."

" But, unluckily, it is Mr. Bellew who won't take
Daisy."

" That remains to be seen. I have great faith in
Daisy's powers of persuasion ; and as for that Mrs.
Littlewood whom you speak of, her powers can
only be temporary. We lawyers hear a good deal
about entanglements of that kind. They are always
temporary. Mr. Bellew will be in London when
you arrive ; gay people like you will have no diffi-
culty in meeting him ; and then it will be all plain
sailing, you'll see. Hullo ! here's Micky with a bas-
ket full of fish. Well, Micky, how are you ? All
right again ? "

206 BILLY BSLLEW

Micky had reasons of his own for deploring the
existence, and objecting to the presence, of Hr. Kirby.
He said :

" Oh, how do you do ? Yes, I'm all right, thanks.
Winnie, you shall have fish for breakfast to-morrow
morning. Look at this big fellow ; I must put him
in the scales presently ; and I've caught lots of little
ones."

" You may catch any thing you like, except a chill,"
said Winifred. " Your nose is blue, and — oh, Micky,
I do believe you have been wading ! "

"Couldn't help it, my dear," answered Micky;
" but don't excite yourself. I ain't a bit cold, and
I'm going off to change as soon as I've taken this
basket to the kitchen."

He departed at once on his errand, making a gri-
mace as he went at the back of the unconscious Kirbv,
who resumed his conversation with Winifred.

But Winifred had ceased to be an attentive listener.
She was in constant alarm lest her brother should fall
ill again, and every time that he came in with wet
feet could think of nothing else until she had satisfied
herself that all the precautions enjoined by the doctor
had been taken. After returning several totally irrel-
evant replies to the observations of her betrothed,
she begged to be excused. "I must just see that
Micky is putting on dry clothes," she pleaded.

Edmund Kirby had been engaged for too long a
time and was too sensible a man to be exacting.
" Don't mind me," he answered ; " I'll go and look
up Mr. Forbes ; I want to have a talk with him about
that last article of his. But you should beware of

BDMUKD KIBBY's HOLIDAY 209

coddling the boy, Winnie ; he'll be delicate all his
life long, if yon adopt that system."

Unfortunately, there are cases where no other sys-
tem can be adopted ; unfortunately, also, there are
people who are doomed to be delicate all their lives
long, and whose lives are not likely to be long unless
they are coddled. This is what strong men, who
liave never known a day's serious illness, are naturally
reluctant to believe ; and Edmund Eirby only smiled
when Winifred came into the drawing-room before
dinner with a grave fac^, saying that she had been
obliged to send Micky to bed. She wanted to send
for a doctor into the bargain, but neither her father
nor her mother considered that necessary. The latter
remarked :

" He seemed to be quite comfortable when I saw
him just now, only a little feverish. Of course he has
caught cold, but really, Winnie, dear, I don't know
what else you can expect if you allow him to stand
about in wet boots with the thermometer almost at
freezing point."

Winifred said no more, and the subject was
dropped. She went straight upstairs after dinner
though, and did not reappear, so that Edmund Kirby
went to bed with a slight sense of injury upon him.
He could discuss politics, theology, or philosophy
with Mr. Forbes contentedly enough, but with the
ladies of the family he did not get on very well in
Winifred's absence. The ladies of the family thought
him a bore, and were upon sufficiently intimate terms
with him to make little secret of their sentiments.
They tolerated him, they acquiesced in his engage-
14

210 BILLT BELLE W

ment to Winnie ; but they were in no haste to wel-
come him as one of themselves, nor did they antici-
pate being called upon to do so for some time to
come. Meanwhile, they had nothing particalar to
say to him, and when Winnie was out of the room
they were very apt to ignore the circumstance that
he was in it.

He was up early the next morning, as overworked
London men who are out for a country holiday
always are, and at the front door he found Dr. Hale,
tlie local practitioner, mounting his horse.

" Hullo, doctor ! " said he; "have they sent for you
to see the boy ? Not much amiss, I hope ? "

The doctor jerked up his bushy eyebrows, drew
down the comers of his mouth, and replied, " So do I,
but one never knows how these things may end, and
he's a bad subject for inflammation of the lungs,
poor little chap ! Don't tell them I said that, please ;
there's no use in frightening people, and he may be
quite well again in a week. By the way, have you
seen your brother?"

" Not yet," answered Edmund ; " I only came
down last night."

" Well, see him as soon as you can, and frighten
him, if you can. He is one of the people whom there
may be some use in frightening."

Do you mean that he is ill ? " asked Edmund.
My dear sir, he isn't ill, he is dying. You'll find
him walking and riding about much as usual ; but he
is simply killing himself. I've told him so scores
of times, and he won't believe a word of it. You
had better try if you can't make him believe jou.

%

EDMUND KIEBY's HOLIDAY 211

Well, I must be off now ; I shall look in again this
evening."

This warning with regard to his brother gave
Edmund matter for serious reflection, and perhaps
caused him to think less about Micky's illness than he
might otherwise have done. Neither Winifred nor
her mother came down to breakfast ; but Mr. Forbes
and Daisy did not appear to be much alarmed. The
former soon betook himself to his study, w^hile the
latter evidently did not deem it any part of her duty
to entertain Mr. Kirby ; so he presently took his hat
and stick and, leaving a message with the butler to
the effect that he would not be back until after
luncheon, set off to walk to the home of his boy-
hood. It was rather a long walk, but he did not
mind that ; what he did mind a good deal was
the prospect of the reception which awaited him at
the end of it.

Some people know how to perform unpleasant
duties, and most people know how to shirk them ;
but it was Edmund Kirby's misfortune that he be-
longed to neither category. He had got to tell his
brother sternly and forcibly that he was drinking
himself to death, and in the course of that day he did
so — with results which might have been foreseen.
There was a terrible scene when he began to talk
about hydropathic establishments and the necessity
of submission to restraint ; even poor old Mrs. Kirby,
who had at first tried to mediate between the two
brothers, ranged herself decisively upon the side
of the elder after that ; and the end of it was that
Edmund had to. depart with more celerity than

212 BILLY BELLE W

dignity in order to avoid the scandal of a stand-up
fight.

Bad news greeted him on his return to Stratton
Park. Micky was worse, much worse. The doctor
had again been summoned, and had made no secret
of his misgivings ; the whole household was in dis-
order and dismay, and it obviously behooved a visitor
to pack his portmanteau. But Edmund was begged
not to. do that. He saw Winifred for a few minutes,
and she assured him that there was no necessity for
such a step.

" He is very ill," she said, " and he cannot be out of
danger for some days, but I am sure we shall save him
— we must! He has youth on his side, you know ;
and that is the main thing. E very-body says that is
the main thing. Don't you think so yourself?"

" While there is life there is hope," answered
Edmund, who certainly was not skilful in hitting
upon the right thing to say. He added, somewhat
more happily, "I only wish I could be of some help
to 3"ou."

Well, he could not be of much help ; nor, for the
next few days, did it look as if any body could be
of help to poor Micky, who lay fighting with such
vitality as his small body contained against a malady
which slays hundreds of strong men every year. But
the weak sometimes win a battle in which the strong
succumb, and on the day before that which must of
necessity bring Edmund Kirby's holiday to a close
the invalid was pronounced to be all but safe.

" He only wants careful nursing now," said Wini-
fred, who had come down stairs to announce this

EDMUND KIBBT's HOLIDAT 213

joyful intelligence to her betrothed. " We have had
a dreadful fright ; but we needn't be frightened any-
longer, thank God ! I am so sorry that your visit has
been such a dismal one. Perhaps you wUl be able to
come again later on, though. And before you go,
Micky wants very much to see you for a few minutes.
He made such a point of it that Dr. Hale consented ;
but I am sure you will remember how weak he is,
and that he mustn't talk much."

Edmund was rather surprised ; for Micky and he
had never been close allies, and he could not imagine
what the boy could have to say to him. On the
following morning, however, he of course obeyed the
summons conveyed to him, and greatly shocked be
was to see what a change had been wrought in the
appearance of one who, to his somewhat careless
scrutiny, had looked very much like other boys only
a week before. Micky's cheeks had fallen in, there
was not a particle of color in his face, and his eyes
had become large and brilliant. But he articulated
without apparent difficulty. After sending away his
nurse he said :

" Come and sit down, Edmund ; I want to talk to
you. I believe I ain't going off the hooks this time,
but it has been touch and go, I can tell you, and old
Hale won't say I'm out of the wood yet. So, as
there's something that I think you ought to know,
I won't keep it to myself upon the chance of
my ever seeing you again. It's about Winnie.
I want you to let her off from her engagement
to you."

Edmund stared. *• To let her off from her engage-

214 BILLY BBLLEW

ment ! " be repeated. " Why should I do that,
Micky ? Does she wish for a release ? "

" Oh, she wishes for it right enough, only she'll
never ask for it. She isn't that sort. But it's as
plain as a pikestaff that you and she weren't built for
one another ; and it isn't asking an awful lot of you
to break the thing off."

" My dear boy," answered Edmund, smiling, " I
don't think you can know much about that ; and
surely your sister and I are the best judges of our
suitability to one another. I need hardly say that
if she had ceased to care for me, or — or if she had
begun to care for somebody else "

" But that's just it," interrupted Micky. " She does
care for somebody else, and I'm perfectly certain that
her only reason for refusing him was that she thought
herself bound to you. You may have heard her
speak of Mr. Bellew. Well, he's the man."

Edmund shook his head, still smiling. " Oh, no,"
said he, "you have made a little mistake, my boy ;
you forget, perhaps, that you have two sisters."

But Micky was able, in a very few words, to dem-
onstrate that he was under no misapprehension.
If, in the course of the disclosures which he pro-
ceeded to make, he was not very tender to the feel-
ings of his auditor, it must be remembered, in justice
to him, that he did not believe his auditor's feelings
to be in any great danger of laceration. For the rest,
Edmund Kirby was a barrister by profession, and a
man of strong will and steady nerves by nature. His
face betrayed little emotion when Micky had made
an end of speaking, and he said quietly, as he rose :

EDMUND KIEBY's HOLIDAY 216

" Well, my boy, I'm obliged to you for what you
have told me, and I will give the matter full and care-
ful consideration. I shall not say any thing to your
sister before I leave, — it will be better not to disturb
her at present, — but I will promise you not to force
myself upon her in any way, and, if she ever marries
me, it will be of her own free will. More than that I
do not feel justified in saying for the moment ; but
you may rely upon that, and I hope it will satisfy you."

Micky knitted his brows. He would have preferred
a promise of immediate retirement ; but one cannot
expect to get every thing, and he knew that Edmund
Kirby was, as he mentally phrased it, " a straight
fellow, though he was such a solemn old stick." He,
therefore, nodded acquiescence and fell back upon
his pillows, for in truth he was not equal to more
w^ords.

Half an hour later Edmund had bidden a cheerful
farewell to his entertainers, and had driven away to
the railway station. He obtained a compartment in
the train to himself, and greatly astonished Micky
would have been if he could have seen the " solemn
old stick" seated there motionless, with his head
buried in his hands, the whole way up to London.

CHAPTER XVm

BILLT GETS HIS COMPASS BACK

Fob some days after Edmund Kirby's departure
Micky continued, as Winifred asserted and believed,
to make steady progress toward recovery, but Dr.
Hale would not say that his patient was out of danger
yet, nor did be appear to be thoroughly satisfied with
the result of his daily examination. One morning
he betook himself to Mr. Forbes's study, instead of
leaving the house as usual, and stated plainly that he
would like to have a second opinion.

" Oh, certainly. Dr. Hale, if you wish it," said Mr.
Forbes, looking up from the volumes which he was
consulting with the air of one who has been rather
unwarrantably disturbed. "My daughter gave me
to understand that there was no further cause for
anxiety ; still, if you wish it, I will of course write or
telegraph to any London physician whom you may
think proper to name."

" I do wish it, and there is great cause for anxiety,
and it will be better to telegraph than to write,'*
answered Dr. Hale bluntly, for he was not best pleased
with what he considered to be the old gentleman's
selfish apathy. " Unfortunately, the symptoms which
have shown themselves are not such as to admit of
doubt or discussion, but you will probably be glad

N

BILLT GETS HIS COMPASS BACK 217

afterward to tbiuk that you had tlie best advice
obtainable."

He named a celebrated authority on pulmonary dis-
eases, undertook to despatch the telegram himself, so
as to save time, and marched off, leaving Mr. Forbes
a little alarmed and a good deal put out. Winifred
was immediately summoned to her father's presence
and was asked to be so kind as to explain what the
meaning of all this was.

"Dr. Hale is a well-intentioned man, I have no
doubt," Mr. Forbes said, " but his manner is almost
offensively brusque, and he really shows very little
consideration either for ray peace of mind or for my
pocket. I do not grudge necessary expenditure, I
have in fact sanctioned it; but at the same time I do
not think that the cost of bringing a London physi-
cian down to Shropshire ought to be lightly incurred."

It was not very easy to explain that the expenditure
was necessary, although the danger was imaginary;
but Winifred, who was accustomed to managing her
father, contrived, somehow or other, to reassure him
upon both points. She did not want to be fright-
ened, she declared that she herself was not fright-
ened; and perhaps it was not exactly fear, at least
not fear of the very worst, that kept knocking for
admittance at the door of her heart. If it was, she
•kept the door tightly barred. She could not believe,
she would not allow herself to believe, that Micky's
life was in peril. From the first she had been
certain that he would get well, and she clung obsti-
nately to the conviction even after the great man
had come and gone without uttering a single word of

218 BILLT BELLEW

eUcoaragemeBt, even after it had become manifest to
every-body in the sick room, except herself, that the
boy's strength was fast ebbing away.

What did distress her terribly, but more because
of its pathos than because she realized the significance
of the symptom, was that his mind had begun to
wander. He was always fancying himself back in
Algiers, always talking about riding, always eagerly
appealing to somebody who was absent to say whether
he was not sitting better, or whether he was not
holding his hands right. And Mr. Bellew's name was
forever upon his Hps. The little compass that Billy
had given him, and the letters that he had received
from Naples, Venice, and other places, had been put
under his pillow at his request. He constantly felt
for them, and seemed to be more easy when he had
clutched those treasures. One day, during an in-
terval when he had all his wits about him, he im-
plored Winnie to send for his beloved instructor and
friend.

" He must be in London now, and if you write to
his club, he'll get your letter. Tell him I'm very
bad, and I know he'll come. I do so want to see
him, Winnie." How could she refuse a plea which
was repeated again and again with increasing
urgency ? It would be awkward, perhaps even pain-
ful, to have him in the house, but such considera-*
tions seemed of little importance under such circum-
stances. She consulted her mother, who had sunk into
a state of helpless, tearful ineptitude, and who said :
" Oh, send for him, if you like ; send for any body you
like. All I ask of you is to save my boy. That is

BILLT GETS HIS COMPASS BACK 219

the least you can do after having brought him to
death's door by your carelessness."

Thus it came to pass that Billy, on entering his
club one morning, found an envelope marked " imme-
diate," the contents of which caused him to turn on
his heel, without waiting for breakfast, and hail a
passing hansom.

" Poor little chap I " he exclaimed aloud, as he
clambered into the vehicle, " what a bad job ! She
doesn't say he's dying, though. Oh, no, he can't be
dying, you know ; that would be too monstrous."

Like Winifred, and like a great many other people, —
like most of us, perhaps, — he had a vague impression
that terrible calamities only fall upon those who have
done something to deserve them. Nevertheless,
every day brings us abundant proof that Job's com-
forters did not get to the root of the mystery, and
the sun continues to shine and the rain to fall upon
the just as upon the unjust. It may too surely be
maintained that we none of us know what are
calamities and what are not.

If Billy Bellew could not regard his enforced
journey down to Shropshire as an unmixed calamity,
he must be pardoned. He was going to see Wini-
fred, and he had been hungering and thirsting for
the sight of her all these long weeks ; he had not
known how much he loved her until he had been
separated from her ; nor, in spite of all that had
passed, had he given up hope. More than once,
while he was sitting in the railway carriage, he
raised her letter to his lips. At least ho was going
to see her, perhaps to spend several days in the

220 BILLY BELLEW

house with her ; and surely the very fact of lier
having sent for him might be taken as a sign that
she was relenting, if only ever so little. But what-
ever may have been Billy's faults, selfishness was not
one of them ; and notwithstanding a subdued exhil-
aration, of which he was more than half ashamed,
he did not forget the purpose of his journey. It
would be an exaggeration, perhaps, to say that he
was as deeply attached to Micky Forbes as Micky
was to him ; yet he had become veiy fond of the
boy. He had an immense number of friends, but
no near relations — nobody in whose affections he
occupied the first or even the second place ; as-
suredly nobody, except Micky, who would have
thought of sending for him wlien overtaken by
dangerous illness. Micky and he had always got on
so well together, too, and had so tlioroughly under-
stood one another ! One doesn't invariably get on
well with one's nearest relations, nor is mutual
comprehension the commonest thing in the world,
even between friends. Friendship and love often
have to get on as best they can without it.

But Micky was not going to die — such a* thing
couldn't be ! A boy so clever, so plucky, and (since
he was an only son) so necessary, could never have
been created merely that he might be extinguished
before he had time to do more than just show
what he was made of. Thus Billy quieted the
misgivings which he not could stifle altogether. He
turned impatiently away from the coachman, who
had been sent to meet him at the station on his
arrival, and who, in answer to his enquiry, said

BELLT GETS HIS COMPASS BACK 221

sorrowfully, " Sinking fast, sir ; nothing can't save
him now, they tell me." People of that class
always insist upon making the worst of things, he
thought.

The worst had, however, already happened.
Already the blinds were drawn down at Stratton
Park. Dr. Hale, who rode away from the house
while Mr. Bellew was approaching it, was frowning
and biting his lips, as even doctors sometimes find
themselves compelled to do ; the old butler, who
held the door open, was sobbing without shame
or disguise ; never again would Micky's cheery,
high-pitched voice be heard within those silent
walls.

" The end come very sudden, sir," the butler said.
" We didn't none of us have much hope — not these
two days ; but — but — oh, dear, oli, dear ! I don't
hardly know how to bear it, sir. Seems only yester-
day that he used to come running into my pantry
when 'twas as much as he could do to walk alone,
and his nurse she'd scold me for giving of him bis-
cuits. And him so full of life — and a useless old
fellow like me to be left here ! "

Billy scarcely heard these incolierent utterances.
He was dazed and confused ; he could only keep on
repeating to himself stupidly, "It is all over. The
boy is dead — he is dead. I must go away ; I mustn't
trouble them."

He had recovered his senses sufficiently to ask that
the carriage, which had been driven round to the
stables, might be brought back, when some one came
swiftly down the staircase, and advanced toward hira

222 BILLT BELLBW

across the darkened halL Was this Winifred ? this
tall, pale, haggard woman, who said :

" They have told you that you have come too late.
But he would not have known you, if you had come
earlier ; he was quite unconscious since the middle of
last night."

She was not crying, like the butler, nor did she
falter in her speech ; but an indescribable change had
come over both her voice and her face. Perhaps it
was not only Micky who was dead ; perhaps the old
Winnie had died with him and would return no more.
For in truth it is a mistake to suppose that we only
die once.

She went on, in the same composed, level tone :
" You were speaking of going away again. I hope
you will not do that, unless you are obliged. We
should like you to stay until after the funeral ; Micky
would have wished it. And you will not be in any
body's way ; you will only be one of several people
who must be asked."

Billy said something ; he hardly knew what. It
was impossible to express what he felt while she
maintained that attitude of stony reserve, and he was
sure that she did not wish him to utter common-
places. She turned away, after giving some direc-
tions to the butler, who conducted him to his bed-
room, lie did not see her again until the day when
poor little Micky's coffin was laid in the grave, nor
did he see Mrs. Forbes, who had taken to her bed ;
but Mr. Forbes and Daisy appeared at dinner the
same evening, and he had several long talks with
them before the uncles and cousins who had jour-

BILLT GETS HIS COMPASS BACK 223

neyed from various parts of England to attend the
funeral arrived. They were both very unhappy, as
was only natural, and allowances must be made for
people who are very unhappy ; still their grief occa-
sionally took a form which was almost too much for
Billy's forbearance. Mr. Forbes openly and queru-
lously blamed Winifred for the blow which had fallen
upon him and his house. She had been in charge of
the boy, and she had allowed him to incur a risk
which no sane person would have permitted.

" Of course I should on no account say this to her ;
although it does seem to me that some slight acknowl-
edgement, some few words of remorse, would not have
been unbecoming on her part."

Daisy did not go quite so far as that. What she
complained of was of the stubborn way in which
Winnie kept them all at arm's length.

" She doesn't make the least effort to comfort any
of us ; she seems to think that poor dear Micky was
her exclusive property, and that nobody else has a
right to be miserable, now that he is gone."

"I am sure you do her an injustice there," Billy
declared. "Most likely she is afraid of breaking
down — and no wonder."

" Oh, it isn't that ; it wouldn't matter if she did
break down, since she won't stir beyond mamma's
room or her own. We have to go about as usual and
see to things."

" But, from what the servants tell me, it is she who
is making all the arrangements."

" Yes, she is giving the orders that have to be given ;
but one can't feel very grateful to people who relieve

224 BILLT BELLE W

one of miseries and horrors in that hard-hearted way.
She does her duty — she would always do that — only
duty doesn't quite take the place of affection, does it ?
I don't believe Winnie has ever really cared for any
body except Micky. Certainly not for Edmund
Kirby, whom she says she is going to marry."

"You think she doesn't care for him?"

" I'm quite sure she doesn't ; but I dare say she will
marry him, all the same, because she will tliink it her
duty to marry him. I can't understand that sort of
self-sacrifice, can you ? I see notliing admirable in it ;
it seems to me horrid and unnatural to marry any one
whom you don't love."

Daisy wept pretty constantly during this and
other conversations with the man wliom she did
love, and his heart became much softened toward
her by reason of her words and her tears. He had
not given her credit for so much feeling ; he thought
it very pardonable that she should long for her
sister's sympathy ; he was a hundred miles from
suspecting that her sorrow (which was genuine
enough, so far as it went) was beginning to be
lightened by a nascent hope of brighter days to come.
Otherwise he would hardly have fallen into the
extraordinary blunder of confiding his own hopes to
her, such as they were.

It was on a warm, still afternoon, when he had
strolled out into the shrubberies with her, that he
innocently narrated the whole story of his love and
his rejection, which was listened to with the silence
of profound amazement. That avowal of Billy's was
probably the bitterest pill that had ever been admin-

BILLT GETS HIS COMPASS BACK 225

istered to Daisy in her life ; but she was not so much
angry with him — though she had a confused im-
pression that he had behaved rather deceitfully — as
startled, mortified, and thrown oflf her balance. A
horse who has won every race in which he has been
engaged only to be beaten at last by a rank outsider
may, for any thing that one knows, experience simi-
lar sensations ; at all events, many horses, as Billy
Bellow was aware, never run so well again after sus-
taining such a defeat. It was simply incomprehen-
sible ! To have been distanced by Mrs. Lit tie wood
would have been sufficiently humiliating ; still, Mrs.
Littlewood, in spite of her age and her paint, was the
sort of woman by whom men are frequently attracted.
But Winnie, of all people in the world ! Winnie,
who had always been accounted the plain one of the
family, who had seemed cut out for spinsterhood, and
to whom the youths of the vicinity were wont to pay
the doubtful compliment of treating her like a mother
or an elder sister ! It was fortunate for Daisy that
she was not called upon to say much, and that
Billy had become accustomed to hearing her speak in
tremulous, tearful accents. What she did say was
not particularly encouraging.

" If you ask me, I must confess that I don't think
Winnie is at all likely to change her mind. You
know what she is — a martyr to duty, and she is
engaged to Edmund Kirby. Besides, with her
strait-laced ideas — you see, people did talk a good
deal about you and Mrs. Littlewood in Algiers."

" Oh, yes ; I know there's that," answered Billy
sorrowfully.
15

226 BILLY BELLBW

"I should think that would be almost enough in
itself ; but of course one can never tell. I think, if
you don't mind, I will go indoors again now. I feel
so wretchedly ill, and it seems too heartless to be talk-
ing of engagements and marriages at a time like
this."

Billy had no more private interviews with Miss
Daisy Forbes after that. The uncles and cousins
descended like a flight of crows in their black habili-
ments. On the morning of the funeral Edmund
Kirby also arrived, so that the rivals were able to
scrutinize one another and even to exchange a few
words. Both of them were fair-minded men, and
the judgment of neither was prejudiced ; but it was
scarcely within the limits of possibility that they
should make friends. For the rest, the occasion
did not admit of that, and one of them was
so overcome by the sadness of the ceremony in
which they presently had to take part that he
had enough to do to abstain from making a fool of
himself.

When all was over, and when the mourners had re-
turned to the house, Winifred, who had stood with
unfaltering composure beside the grave which her
mother and sister had not felt equal to approaching,
sent a message to Mr. Bellew that she would like
to see him for a few minutes before he left. He
found her waiting for him in the library, a slim
black figure against the gray sky ; for she had sta-
tioned herself close to one of the windows, with her
back turned toward it. Not being a poetical or im-
aginative person, he could not have said what it was

BILLY GETS HIS COMPASS BACK 227

in her appearance or attitude that conveyed to him
an impression of utter loneliness ; but he received
that impression, and it gave him a shai*p twinge at
his heart. As he drew near she said :

" I wanted to thank you for having come ; and
I have something to give you. It's only the little
compass that you gave to Micky. I thought perhaps
you would like to have it again ; he was holding it
in liis hand when he died, and — and "

She could not finish her sentence. The tears
which she had restrained so long brimmed over her
eyelids at last ; one of them fell upon Billy's big
sinewy hand, which had gone forth instinctively to
clasp hers.

" Oh, my poor dear ! " he exclaimed, " I'm so sorry
— so dreadfully sorry ! And I can't do any thing for
you, I can't even say any thing ! "

She drew her hand away and dried her eyes. " No-
body can do any thing," she answered gently, " and
there is nothing to be said ; but I understand quite
well how sorry you are, and I shall never forget you
or your kindness to Micky. Perhaps sometime or
other we shall meet again, and then, if you haven't
forgotten him — and I don't think you will — we can
talk about him together. Just now I couldn't speak
of him even to you. 6ood-by. The kindest thing
you can do for me at present is to leave me alone ;
and I know you want to be kind."

He took her at her word ; he could not possibly
have intruded upon her grief at such a moment with
a renewal of vows to which she had refused to listen
in brighter days. But, although his heart ached for

228 BILLY BELLEW

her as he left the room, his spirits were lighter on his
own account than they had been when he entered it.
She had promised that she would never forget him,
and she had spoken of meeting him again ; surely it
was as permissible to assume that her words meant a
good deal as that they meant next to nothing.

CHAPTER XIX

daisy's recovery

Edmund Kieby remained at Stratton Park for
twenty-four hours longer than the other relations and
friends of the family who had attended the funeral ;
but he only saw Winifred for a few minutes during
that time, and she shed no tears in his presence, as
she had done in Billy Bellew's. Edmund had never
been Micky's friend, nor was there any thing disturb-
ing to the composure in his foimally expressed, though
doubtless sincere, condolences. It was a result of
Edmund's natural temperament that he always ex-
pressed himself formally when he was most moved,
and there were, besides, reasons of which Winifred
knew nothing for his being even less demonstrative
than usual on that occasion.

He had not forgotten his promise to the dead boy,
and he was fully purposed to keep it ; but he had
come to the conclusion that things must be allowed
to remain as they were for the present. Apart from
Winifred's manifest unfitness to enter upon a pro-
longed explanation and discussion, he was not yet
certain that he would render her any service by set-
ting her free. He was not certain that she loved that
man Bellew ; he was quite certain that she was not
the girl to fall in love with mere physical beauty, and

230 BILLY BELLEW

from all that he had heard of his rival, he doubted
very much whether, even if she did love him, she
would consult her own future happiness by marrying
one whose habits of life were totally opposed to hers.
Moreover, he himself loved her — loved her with all
the strength of his calm, concentrated character ; and
he was at least entitled to pause before relinquishing
all that had hitherto lent brightness to a somewhat
sunless existence. So, after saying what seemed to
be requisite and appropriate, he went away ; and it
cannot be truthfully asserted that any body in the
house missed him.

To say that Micky was missed in that sorrow-
stricken household is to give a very faint idea of the
blank left by the disappearance of its youngest and
liveliest inmate. Winifred, whose loss was in reality
far greater, and whose grief was likely to prove far
more permanent than that of either of her parents,
was the only one who made any efforts to pick up the
dropped thread of their common life, to resume occu-
pations which must eventually be resumed, and even
to affect a cheerfulness which she could not feel.
She was rewarded by reproaches, by accusations of
heaitlessness, by frequent hints that she was herself
responsible for the bereavement which had befallen the
family ; but these things scarcely hurt her. Wlien
one has broken an arm or leg, one does not grumble
about a few additional scratches, and by degrees she
attained her object, whicli was to rouse the old people
from their apathy, and force them gently back into
their several grooves. With her sister she had
more trouble. Daisy not only refused to be com-

daisy's eecoveey 231

forted, but refused in an extremely disagreeable
manner.

" Please don't let us have any more humbug," the
girl exclaimed irritably one day; "lean stand any
thing but that. If you don't know why I should be
more miserable than you are, you must be rather dull
of comprehension ; but of course you do know, and
we had better not talk about it ! The only thing that
would do me the slightest good would be a change ;
and I suppose there is no chance of our leaving this
dreadful, dreary place for months and months to
come."

Personally, Winifred had no desire to leave home,
and the usual six or eight weeks' visit to London
during the season was, under the sad circumstances,
naturally abandoned ; but as the summer went on,
her father began to speak of running up for a few
days by himself to transact some matters of business,
and to confer with his political and literary friends,
while Mrs. Forbes, who had fallen into a chronic
state of low spirits, evidently stood in need of deliv-
erance from solitude, which was always to her one of
the most intolerable of earthly ills. Winifred, there-
fore, ended by suggesting that the whole family should
move to the metropolis ; and in the nick of time came
the offer, at a nominal rent, of a house in Hans Place
from some old friends who had been ordered off to
Kissingen, in consequence of having eaten too many
dinners.

The offer was accepted, and the Forbeses took pos-
session of their temporaiy residence toward the fag
end of the 8eason,wben every brick and paving-stone in

232 BILLY BELLEW

the city was baked through and through, when weary
Parliament men were pining for release, and when
jaded maids and matrons were beginning to ask them-
selves whether, after all, tlie game had been worth
the candle. The general stampede had not, however,
yet set in ; so that Mrs. Forbes was able to see her
friends in a quiet way, and her husband could count
upon a daily meeting with kindred spirits at the
Athenaeum.

As for Winifred, she found the loneliness of Lon-
don a good deal more trying than the loneliness of
home. She had nothing to do ; she did not care to
see people, nor, it appeared, did any body particu-
larly care to see her — not even Edmund Kirby, who
wrote a short note (all his notes had been short of
late, which was quite a new departure) to say that be
would call as soon as he could, but that he was very
full of work for the moment. Nevertheless, London
contained one person who wanted to see her very
much indeed, and whose unexpected good fortune it
was to encounter her, one afternoon, in Kensington
Gardens, where she had been sitting for more than
an hour, idly watching the children and the nurse-
maids.

She greeted him with a faint semblance of her old
welcoming smile and without any of the emotion
which caused him to stammer and stutter absurdly.

"Oh, yes ; I am quite well, thank you," she said,
in response to his first intelligible enquiry. " We
have come up to London for a few weeks, and I think
both my father and my mother are the better for the
change already."

daisy's recovery 233

" But yow," Billy insisted — " are you really better ? "

" Yes," she answered a little doubtfully, " I suppose
I am better in one way. I don't mind talking about
Micky now ; though we hardly ever do talk about him
at home. That is the most terrible part of death, isn't
it ? — that one can't talk naturally or easily about
those who are dead, if one has loved them. Nobody
can."

Billy could. Perhaps it was out of his power to
speak otherwise than naturally and easily upon any
subject ; perhaps the intuitive sympathy of love em-
boldened him to speak of his former pupil in a way
which he knew that Winnie would like, although
every-body might not have liked it. Be that as it
may, he persuaded her without difficulty to sit down
on a bench beneath one of the smoke-blackened elm-
trees, and for a quarter of an hour she listened to him
and talked to him in an unreserved fashion which
certainly did her good. To no one else had she con-
fided her "great trouble — the trouble which beset her
day and night — that if she had not allowed her
brother to go out fishing that day, he would not
have caught the cold which had killed him. Billy
of course said what every reasonable being would
have said in his place ; but he was not successful in
comforting her.

" Oh, I quite understand that lam entitled to plead
not guilty," she replied ; " but nothing can alter the
dreadful fact — nothing ! If you had accidentally
killed your brother out shooting, you would feel as I
do, even though you might know that you had taken
all the ordinary precautions."

234 BILLT BELLEW

After this, they sat silent for some nuDutes, and
then she rose, saying that it was time for her to go
home. " I am so very glad to have seen you," she
added, ^^ and I can't tell you what a comfort it has
been to me to talk about those dear old days that will
never come back. I almost always think of you now
when I think of my poor Micky."

She seemed to have so completely put away from her
the memory of the last of those old days that he hardly
dared to remind her of it ; but he could not let hor
go without ascertaining her address and repeating a
request which she had not then seen fit to grant.

She was not very much inclined to grant it now ;
yet she hardly knew how to refuse. She did not wish
to hurt his feelings ; besides which, it would seem a
little inconsistent to deny him the privilege of calling
in Hans Place after he had stayed several days at
Stratton. The sight of her hesitation decided him to
mention something which he would have mentioned
before, had an opportunity of so doing been accorded
to him.

" I — I'm not quite as good friends with Mrs. Little-
wood as I used to be," he blurted out, conscious of an
uncomfortable increase of color on his sunburned
cheeks. " I left them at Venice, and we didn't part
on the best of terms, and I've heard nothing of them
since. I — I thought you might like to know," he
added apologetically.

"I am very glad for your sake," Winifred said.
" I always hoped, you know, that something of this
sort would happen sooner or later."

" Well, I'm veiy glad too ; it would be ridiculous

daisy's becoveey 235

to pretend that Fm not. And — and now I suppose
Mrs. Forbes won't object to my coming to her
house."

" No," answered Winifred slowly, " I don't think
my mother will object ; only I can't quite promise
that she will see you. She has hardly begun to
receive visitors yet."

Billy was upon the point of saying that, if he
called in Hans Place, it would not be for the pleasure
of seeing Mrs. Forbes ; but he checked himself in
time, and he was likewise successful in repressing
other injudicious remarks which rose to his lips dur-
ing the few minutes that elapsed before his com-
panion requested him to call a hansom for her.

Winifred, for her part, could only hope that she
had not acted injudiciously. The mischief, after all,
had been done, and was irremediable. Daisy would
not be any worse off than she already was for seeing
Mr. Belle w again ; nay, she might even be better off ;
since men do change their minds sometimes. Had
he not, as a matter of fact, changed his mind about
Mrs. Littlewood ? It cannot be said that this line of
thought or the speculations arising out of it were
altogether agreeable to Winifred ; but she resolutely
persevered with them, because she felt that she ought
to be ashamed of finding them disagreeable. Why
should she grudge her sister an allegiance which had
once been offered to herself, but which it had been,
and must always be, out of the question for her to
accept? There was, of course, no reason why she
should thus play the dog in the manger's part, and
she determined that she would endeavor henceforth,

236 BILLY B£LL£W

SO far as in her lay, to bring about what was requisite
in order to make poor Daisy bappy once more.
Daisy bad been really unhappy for a long time past ;
latterly, too, she had repelled all attempts at sympathy
and had become extremely reserved in her demeanor
toward her sister. " Reserved " was the chaiitable
term that Winifred employed ; but " sulky " would
have been nearer the truth.

Well, at all events, tliere was no sulky sound about
the ringing laugh which greeted Winifred's startled
ear, after she had reached home and was mounting
the stairs toward the drawing-room. There are
people, Winifred heraelf was one of them, who can
laugh quite well when they are unhappy ; but there
are others — and to this class Daisy belonged — whose
emotions admit of no variety, and who must needs be
either meny or melancholy. These last do not sorrow
long ; but while they do their sorrow is very apparent
indeed. Now, Daisy had been sorrowing for several
months without intermission ; if, then, she could
laugh like that again, it was certain that the tide
must have definitely turned. So much the better !
The turn of the tide must have come some day, and
no sensible person could have wished the girl to
mope and mourn longer than she had done. Wini-
fred was not in the least shocked, only she was rather
puzzled, because she could not imagine who had suc-
ceeded in effecting so sudden a transformation.

She paused for a moment on the landing. She
could hear Daisy's voice in the drawing-room,
followed by a deeper and more masculine one ; after
which there was a second outburst of hilarity. Then

daisy's eecoveey 237

she opened the door, and, not a little to her amaze-
ment, beheld her sister in the act of tossing lumps of
sugar at Harry Lysaght, who, with his right hand
behind his back, was catching, or attempting to
catch, them in his left. He made a very bad failure
with the lump which was thrown toward him when
that tall black figure entered the room; he stood
stock-still, smiling feebly, looking extremely red and
foolish, and not knowing what to say. But Daisy
came to his aid.

" Will you have some tea, Winnie ? " she asked
calmly. " I thought you had gone out driving with
mamma. Harry made his appearance a short time
ago, and he has been teaching me a new game by
way of cheering me up. It isn't a very amusing game,
but it's just a shade better than nothing at all. Our
conversation had reached the vanishing-point, you
see, when we started it."

At any rate, it appeared to have answered its pur-
pose. The old Daisy had returned; and what was
even more surprising was that Harry also seemed to
have returned, upon much the old terras — Harry, who
all this time had been absent from home, whose
absence had almost avowedly been due to reluctance
to meet his former love, and who had not even gone
down to Shropshire to attend Micky's funeral ! He
had written to Winifred at the time, and had said
that he hoped she would understand why he felt
unable to pay that last tribute of affection and respect
in person. It was impossible to suppose that he
would have been where he was, or would have con-
ducted himself as he had just been conducting him-

238 BILLY BELLE W

self, unless advances of a very encouraging kind bad
been made to bim. If sucb advances bad indeed been
made again, so mucb tbe better. Still, tbe situation
was necessarily embarrassing, and be escaped from it
as soon as be decently could.

Winifred did ber best to set bim at bis ease, but
be made ber task so difScult for ber tbat she was not
at all Sony to see the last of bim. He insisted upon
pulling a long face and speaking in a subdued voice ;
although be did not allude in so many words to tbe
family affliction, be implied that be bad not really
been forgetful of it, tbat Daisy's merriment was
merely assumed, and tbat be had only recommended
the throwing of lumps of sugar about the room as a
measure of temporary alleviation. In short, he was
quite as maladroit as it was at all possible to be.
When be bad departed, Daisy made bis excuses and
her own, and did so with a better grace than she had
shown in her dealings with her sister for some months
past. "I know you must think me a brute, Winnie,"
she said, " but I can't help it ! I'm not like you ; I
can't just sit still and go on bearing things. And
time does make a difference. Not to you, perhaps,
but to commonplace wretches like me it does."

"Of course, it makes a difference to any body,"
Winifred answered ; " the world goes round, and if
we wished ever so much to stand still we couldn't. I
didn't think you a brute at all, and I was only too
glad to see Harry Lysaght here — though he was
about the last person whom I expected to see. Did
you send for him, Daisy ? "

"Well, I wrote him a note and told bim be might

DAISY*8 BECOVEEY 239

call if he liked ; I did so want to see somebody young
again ! But I didn't send for him in the way that
you mean ; please don't jump to headlong conclusions.
I told him all along that I had no quarrel with him."

This artless • confession on Daisy's part, of her
inability to exist without an admirer of some sort or
kind, was a reassuring symptom ; but it threw' addi-
tional doubt upon the wisdom of bringing her once
more into intimate relations with Billy Bellew. It
was, however, indispensable that Winifred should
make some mention of her late encounter, so she said :

" Somebody else is coming to see us soon, I believe.
I met Mr. Bellew in the park just now, and he asked
whether he might call."

It was not without trepidation that she spoke, but
the effect of her announcement upon her sister was
very far from being what she had anticipated.

" I was wondering whether he would turn up now
or wait a little longer," Daisy remarked, with a short
laugh. " Is it too soon to congratulate you ? Any-
how, I beg to offer my congratulations in advance.
Don't roll your eyes at me ; I assure you they are
quite sincere."

" I don't know what you are talking about," faltered
Winifred ; for indeed there are occasions when even
the most truthful people feel bound to make use of
that formula.

" My dear Winnie, isn't it about time to drop pre-
tence ? You see, I happen to have heard upon the
best authority — his own, in fact — that Mr. Bellew
proposed to you before he left Algiers. He told me
all about it when he was at Stratton, and I believe he

240 BILLY BELLEW

rather hoped that I should intercede for him. But
intercession is hardly necessary, I presume."

" I wish you had not heard of it in that way,"
exclaimed Winifred, much distressed. " I would
have told you at the time, only it seemed best to say
nothing. And I am sure you can't really think that
I ever had any idea of marrying Mr. Bellew. You
know very well that I am engaged to Edmund
Kirby."

" Oh, yes ; you are engaged to Edmund Kirby —
c^est entendul But Edmund Kirby will be very
gently and considerately dismissed, and the blow
won't kill him. Even if he were desperately in love,
which he isn't, the blow wouldn't kill him. I ought
to be something of an authority upon such subjects,
oughtn't I ? Well, you see before you a case of com-
plete recovery. I don't know how I came to make
such an idiot of myself ; most likely I should never
have wasted a second thought upon him if he had
not begun by snubbing me. Anyhow, he ended as
he began, and the last dose was tolerably effectual."

Winifred gazed earnestly at her sister. "I hope
you are speaking the truth ! " she exclaimed half
involuntarily.

" Oh, you make your mind easy ! I am speaking
the truth. You'll admit that I generally do. I
haven't the power of keeping things dark that some
people have ; though I think I have kept your secret
pretty well all this time. Here comes mamma back
from her drive. I'll promise not to let her into your
secret until you give me leave, if you'll promise in
return not to reveal my little secret to Mr. Bellew."

CHAPTER XX

THE UNWELCOME GUEST

Busy as Edmund Kirby was, he might very well
have spared an hour of his valuable time for a visit
to Hans Place : still he had no great difficulty in
pursuading himself that circumstances had compelled
him to postpone that duty and pleasure from day to
day. But when he felt that it could be postponed
no longer, he did find very great difficulty in making
up his mind wliat to do or say. The case, to be
sure (supposing that it had not been his own case),
was one of elementary simplicity. He had only
to go straight to Winifred, tell her what he had
heard from her brother, and assure her that, if
she indeed loved another man, he would never think
of holding her to an engagement which she had
entered into at a time when she had had few oppor-
tunities of judging what other men were like.
Since, however, the case was his own, Edmund could
not help allowing weight to reasonable doubts and
hesitations. He loved Winifred with all his heart,
which, to do him justice, was a warm and steadfast
one ; he had never loved, or dreamed of loving, any
body else ; if he had been undemonstrative, that was
partly because it was his nature to be so, and partly
because he had felt so certain of her affection. Owing

16

242 BILLY BBLLEW

to their long betrothal^ they had grown to be more like
married people than lovers ; it was natural that their
mutual relations should have become established
upon that footing ; and it was also natural — so, at
least, those who had greater knowledge of such sub-
jects than Edmund Kirby could pretend to affirm —
for women to be affected by passing caprices. Does
a man surrender his wife when he suspects that she
has permitted her fancy to wander from its allegiance
for a moment ? And would he consult her happiness
if he did, or could ?

Such self-communings were scarcely consistent
with the strict integrity which had hitherto governed
all Edmund Kjrby's actions, and they failed to bring
him any nearer to a decision. His strong inclination
was to wait and trust to time ; but his conscience
told him that he ought, at all events, to give Wini-
fred a chance of claiming her liberty. That might,
perhaps, be managed without any mention being
made of Mr. Belle w's name ; the mere fact that he
was not yet in a position to fix any date for their
marriage would afford her a fair pretext, if she
wanted one. Finally he set forth, without a definite
programme, to pay his long-deferred call ; he resolved
to be guided by whatever kind of reception might be
accorded to him. He was received, as it chanced, by
Mrs. Forbes, who soon took occasion to mention that
she did not feel up to much talking that day. It had
always been Edmund's privilege to bore his pro-
spective mother-in-law intolerably, and she knew him
too well to stand upon ceremony with him.

" Winifred is with her father, writing from dicta-

I

THE UNWELCOME GUEST 243

tion/' she said. " I dare say you can see her for a few
minutes, if you don't mind going down to the dining-
room and ringing the bell."

He had a craven desire to reply that he would not
interrupt Mr. Forbes's literary occupations ; but he
stifled it, and shortly afterward the meeting which he
had so greatly dreaded had become an accomplished
fact. The first thing that struck him, after he had
taken note, with concern, of Winifred's pallor and
the dark semicircles beneath her eyes, was that she
was really and unmistakably glad to see him again.
She held his hand while she sat beside him ; she led
him on to talk about his work, about liis never end-
ing domestic worries, and about his plans for the
approaching holiday season ; she was as kind, as
sympathetic, as comforting as ever, and perhaps —
yes, certainly, she was more openly affectionate.

These omens, which some very sagacious persons
might not have considered wholly favorable, had a
reassuring effect upon Edmund Kirby ; still he could
not allow them to divert him from his purpose. It
took him rather a long time to explain how, after
anxious thought, he had arrived at the conclusion
that he ought to release her from her engagement ;
but he got through his appointed task at last, and,
all things considered, lie did not perform it so badly.
A man who does not deem his actual income sufficient
to marry upon, and who can only look forward to a
very slow increase in his earnings, ought, no doubt,
to say the sort of things that he said ; probably also
the general run of men who say such things expect
the sort of answer that he obtained.

244 BILLY BELLEW

But Edmund, who had not quite ventured to
expect it, was overjoyed when it came. Winifred
had no thought of deserting him ; she was willing to
wait for him as long as it might be necessary (pos-
sibly, if she had spoken her whole thought, she might
have said the longer the better) ; she declared with
a smile that she should continue to look upon him as
her affianced husband, unless he wished to throw her
over, and she begged him never to doubt her again.

But she did not ask him whether he had any special
reason for doubting her ; she did not tell him that
she had met Mr. Bellew ; nor, during an interview
which her duty to her father obliged her to curtail,
did she make a single reference to Micky. The
above omissions were somewhat significant, and it
was, perhaps, fortunate that ignorance and pre-
occupation prevented Edmund from noticing them.
He went away, promising to come again as soon as
he could, and telling himself that he had now faith-
fully obeyed the voice of conscience.

It was on the following afternoon that Harry
Lysaght, dropping in about tea-time, found the
three ladies at home, and was greeted in a very
friendly manner by them all. Mrs. Forbes's wel-
come, in particular, was so warm as to be almost
enthusiastic. She had, of course, heard of his
previous visit; she had drawn natural conclusions
from that circumstance and from Daisy's recovered
cheerfulness ; her own cheerfulness had, in a great
measure, been restored, and she had said to her
elder daughter :

" One can't be thankful enough that Harry

i

THE UNWELCOME GUEST 245

Lj^saght had such a forgiving disposition. The
whole thing will come on again now, you will see,
and I hope and trust we shall hear no more of that
wretched Belle w creature."

One consequence of this speech was that Winifred
abstained from distressing her mother by mention-
ing her encounter with Mr. Bellew in Kensington
Gardens, and another was that she gave private
instructions to the butler not to admit that gentle-
man, if he should call. It was the best plan, she
thought — the only plan. He would be hurt, per-
haps, and she herself would be soiTy to miss seeing
him again ; but there was no help for it. Some
day, when Daisy should be safely married, or, per-
haps, when her own marriage should be a thing of
the past, they might meet once more and talk over
old days without harm or danger ; but for the
present such talks could not safely be indulged in.
She had to admit that they could not safely be
indulged in, although she avoided a too close scrutiny
of reasons.

But we are all of us at the mercy of accidents, and
Mr. Forbes's butler just then happened to be very
much at the mercy of a neighboring housekeeper to
whom he was paying his addresses. Thus it came to
pass that, after having carried the tea up to the draw-
ing-room, he deserted the post of duty in order to
slip round the corner for a few minutes, and thus the
uninformed footman, answering the door-bell in his
absence, solemnly announced Mr. Bellew to a dismayed
coterie ! Winifred caught her breath ; Mrs. Forbes
gave utterance to a subdued but perfectly audible

246 BILLY BELLEW

exclamation of annoyance ; Harry Lysaght glared
savagely at the intruder ; only Daisy retained her
self-command, and smiled with mingled amiability
and amusement.

As for Billy, who could not but perceive that his
entrance was inopportune, he behaved quite irre-
proachably. He did not seem to notice any thing ;
he shook hands with every-body, including Harry
Lysaght, whose salutation was scarcely that of a
friend ; he sat down, took the cup of tea which Daisy
offered him, and at once set to work to make polite
conversation. The truth was that he did not care in
the least whether any of them, except Winnie, were
glad to see him or not ; and Winnie had given him
leave to call. Nevertheless, it was obviously expe-
dient that he should cut short his present visit. The
freezing civility of Mrs. Forbes and Lysaght's undis-
guised irritation were hardly atoned for by the gra-
cious vivacity with which Daisy responded to his
remarks, and although Winifred tried to make the
best of an awkward business, she said little and was
visibly disconcerted.

Mrs. Forbes took advantage of the inevitable pause
which soon supervened, to sa}'^, without addressing her-
self to any body in particular : " It is extraordinary
that such a number of people should be still left in Lon-
don. One thought, and rather hoped, that every-body,
except members of Parliament and business men,
would have gone away by this time. Not that it
matters very much to us ; for of course we are only
seeing a few very old friends — unless the servants
make a mistake, as they sometimes do."

THE UNWELCOME GUEST 247

After that, it only remained for a visitor who had
been admitted by mistake to retreat as speedily and
gracefully as might be. This Billy did soon after
he had swallowed his tea and had declined a second
cup, comforting himself with the reflection that it.
would not, in any case, have been worth his while to
protract a dialogue which included so many partici-
pants. He was, however, conscious of a feeling of
discouragement and disappointment as he walked
away. It was now quite clear that Mrs. Forbes
would have nothing to say to him, if she could help
it; there had been a disquieting suggestion of sarcasm
about Daisy's amenities ; he could not help doubting
whether Winnie herself had really wished or in-
tended him to take advantage of the permission that he
had obtained from her. And why in the world had
Lysaght been so abominably uncivil ? One could
understand the fellow having been silly enough to be
jealous out in Algiers ; but he must know very well
by this time that there had never been the slightest
ground for sucli jealousy.

Mr. Lysaght appeared, as if in answer to these
musings, to speak for himself. He must have been
tolerably expeditious about taking his leave, and he
must have run from Hans Place to Piccadilly ; for he
was a short-legged man, and Billy Bellew habitually
covered nearly as much ground in one stride as he
did in two. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be a
little out of breath. ,

"I thought I would catch you up, if I could,
Bellew," he explained. " I want to have a word or
two with you. It's rather unpleasant, of course ; but

248 BILLY BELLEW

it would be still more unpleasant, I think, if we
didn't come to some sort of an understanding."

"About what?" enquired Billy somewhat shortly.

"Well, about your visiting the Forbeses. To
§peak candidly, I don't like it, and I don't call it
quite fair. If they wanted you, nobody would have
a right to complain ; but since they don't want you —
and you yourself must have seen this afternoon that
they did not want you— is it very good form to
thrust yourself upon them ? They can't very well
slam the door in your face, you see."

"I should have thought they could ; but I certainly
don't wish to thrust myself upon any body. Are
you commissioned to tell me that I'm not wanted ? "

" Oh, no ! I'm speaking entirely on my own hook ;
but there can't be much doubt of the fact. That is,
as regards three of the family. Unfortunately, I
can't be so positive about the fourth."

" H'm ! and what business is it of yours, if one
may ask ? " enquired Billy, who quite mistook his in-
terlocutor's drift.

" I suppose you know what took me to Algiers,"
returned Harry, with an embarrassed laugh. " I dare
say you know, too, why I left in such a huyry, and
you can probably guess what my — my hopes still are.
All that doesn't entitle me to interfere with you or
dictate to you, you may say. Perliaps it doesn't ;
but I may venture to call myself a friend of the
family, and, for the matter of that, I thought, a few
months ago, tliat I might venture to call myself a
friend of yours."

" My dear fellow," said Billy, in something more

THE UNWELCOME GUEST 249

like his customary good-humored accents, " I'm sure
I never wished to be any thing except a friend to you.
It was no fault of mine if you chose to take it into
your head that I was your enemy."

" Well, that's just what I thought, and that's why
I followed you just now. It can't trouble or incon-
venience you much to leave London at this time of
year, and if you would only go away, you would do
a real service to more persons than one. I'll speak
more plainly, if you insist upon it ; but it is not over
and above pleasant even to speak as plainly as this,
and I take it that you understand what I mean."

Billy stroked his chin reflectively. " Yes ; I under-
stand," he answered ; " and it so happens that I have
arranged to start on a yachting cruise with another
fellow in a few days. I was rather thinking of cry-
ing off ; but after what you've said, I don't know
that I will. Perhaps, after all, I oughtn't to intrude
upon them while they are in such deep mourning.
Of course it's different for you."

" Exactly so," agreed Harry eagerly ; " it really is
different — I stand upon quite another footing."

" Yes. But mind you, Lysaght, I'm not promising
to drop their acquaintance. That I will never do
until she — until they tell me in so many words that
they don't want to know me any more. I shall cer-
tainly try to see them again in the autumn."

" Oh, it will be all right by then ; there won't be
the slightest objection to your seeing them in the
autumn," returned HaiTy, with an alacrity which
rather surprised the other ; " it's only just for the
present that they'd rather you left them alone. Well,

250 BILLT BELLEW

I'm awfully obliged to you, Bellew, and I'm sorry I
was so beastly rude while you were sitting there at
tea ; I hope you'll overlook it. And I say, Bellew,
my place isn't far from Stratton, you know ; so, if
you cared to come down for a few days' covert-
shooting toward the end of the year, I should be only
too glad to put you up."

It was difficult to reconcile this sudden outburst of
cordiality with the speaker's previous assertions and
implications ; but the effect of it was to send Billy
off to his club in greatly improved spirits. "I've
been in too great a hurry, that's what it is," he
mused. " And, when you come to think of it, that's
pretty much what the old lady gave me to understand.
I don't suppose she's particularly fond of me, any-
how, though she used to be amiable enough at one
time. So I must sail for the Hebrides or the Orkneys,
or wherever it is. I wonder whether that beggar
will tell them where I've gone, and why I've
gone."

This seemed, upon further reflection, to be so un-
certain that Billy at length resolved to take the
libert}'- of inditing a few lines to Winifred. The
subjoined composition, notwithstanding its brevity,
was the outcome of much thought, and a profligate
expenditure of club note-paper :

" My Dear Miss Forbes :

" I dare say you may have heard from Lysaght that
I am starting in a day or two on a yachting cruise,
and I suppose there is no hope of my seeing you
again before I sail. From what Lysaght said, and

THE UNWELCOME GUEST 261

from your mother's manner this afternoon, I am afraid
she was not best pleased with me for forcing my way
into your house at a time when you are not receiving
visitors : but you know, though she doesn't, that all
your troubles are my troubles, and that I am not
lieartless and forgetful ; so I am sure I need not
apologize to you.

" There are other things which I should like to say,
if I dared ; but perhaps it is better not. Only I want
you to believe that, whatever happens, and wherever
I may be, I shall be,

" Always and only yours,

"W. Bellew."

Billy, after reading over the final copy of this mis-
sive, thought that it was not so bad ; and in truth it
might have been worse. It elicited a prompt and
very kind reply, in which Winifred contrived to show
that she appreciated his delicacy and forbearance,
while abstaining from any allusion to the things
which he had left unsaid. She herself left a good
deal unsaid ; for she did not wish to give him pain,
and it seemed unnecessary to repeat what he already
knew, or to rebuke him for subscribing himself after
a fashion which only Edmund Kirby had the right
to use.

With her letter in his pocket, and some unjustifiable
hopes in his heart, Billy set out for Southampton to
join his friend's yacht. Mrs. Forbes is now kind
enough to say that he behaved very like a gentleman
in taking himself off at what might have proved to
be a critical moment. Mrs. Forbes, it is true, does

252 BILLT BELUBW

not know, and never will know, what were the real
motives of his gentlemanlike conduct on that occa-
sion ; but even if she were informed of them, she
would probably continue to speak well of Billy Bellew,
who has, indeed, given her the best of all reasons for
speaking well of him.

CHAPTER XXI

CHANGES

Billy Bellew's abrupt disappearance from the
scene was the solution of a difficulty, and as such was
doubtless a subject for thankfulness ; yet one may
deplore many events which one would not cancel, if
one had the power ; and Winifred permitted herself
some occasional moments of self-pity in that she was
now severed from the only human being to whom she
could speak openly of her great sorrow. Every day
that sorrow was becoming less keen and less present
to those about her ; more and more did they show a
disposition to relegate it to the background, to treat
it as the friends of a man who is afflicted with some
mortal disease are wont to treat his malady. Such
things cannot be forgotten, but it is considered to be
both cruel and in bad taste to make mention of them.
This is the common fate of the dead ; at first they
are not talked about, because it is too painful to talk
about them ; as time goes on they are forgotten,
because their names have ceased to be familiar.

Moreover, other and more cheerful topics of con-
versation inevitably arise ; such as, for instance, the
immense and unlooked-for consolation which had
been granted to Mrs. Forbes by Hariy Lysaght's
return and Daisy's welcome of him. There was never

254 BILLY BELLEW

any counting upon Daisy ; still it did seem reasonable
to believe that she bad at last made up ber mind to
accept ber long-suffering wooer, and now tbat Mr.
Bellew bad, by tbe mercy of Heaven, been removed,
a fond motber migbt fairly bope tbat no f urtber com-
plications would present tbemselves. Harry Lysagbt
bimself entertained tbe same bope, basing it upon tbe
same ground, of wbicb be made no secret in talking
matters over witb Winifred. As soon as be found
out tbat sbe was not too engrossed by ber personal
grief to listen to bim be reinstated ber in ber old
position as bis confidante, and frankly confessed to
ber tbat it was be wbo bad persuaded Billy to vanisb
into space.

"Tbe fact was," said be, "tbat I couldn't feel
safe — not tbat I do feel safe yet, but I mean tbat I
couldn't feel any tbing like safe wbile be was bang-
ing about. We migbt bave bad all tbe old trouble
over again. Out of sigbt is out of mind. It isn't
tbat sbe cares for bini, but tbat sbe can't resist
tiying to make bim care for ber, don't you see.
And I suppose sbe ratber enjoys torturing m^,
too. However, I'm almost sure tbat it will be all
rigbt now."

Winifred remembered tbat ber sister bad once
described Harry Lysagbt as not being proud, and
certainly be seemed to deserve tbat cbaracter.
Humility is a virtue ; but tbere is sucb a tbing as
carrying it to outrageous lengtbs.

" I do bope," sbe exclaimed apprebensively, " tbat
you didn't tell Mr. Bellew wliat you were afraid of !
Even if you didn't mind bis knowing for your own

CHANGES 255

sake, you ought to have remembered that you had no
right to betray Daisy."

" My dear Winifred, there wasn't any thing to
betray ; you don't suppose that Daisy was ever in
love with the man, do you? Well, you needn't
laugh ; I know I did suppose so for a time ; but it
was natural enough for me to make a mistake. How-
ever, all I said to Bellew was that you none of you
wanted to see him just now, and that I didn't think
it very good form on his part to force himself upon
you. I put it upon your being in mourning, you
know — and all that. He quite saw it, and he gave
in almost immediately. Bellew is really an awfully
good fellow ; though perhaps he's a bit dense."

Happily, Billy Bellew was not the only person
treated of in the present narrative who possessed that
thrice-blessed quality of density. From the moment
that his potential rival was removed from his path
Harry Lysaght ceased to be jealous of him, and it
may be doubted whether, up to the present time of
writing, he has ever divined that he once had most
legitimate cause for jealousy. His second courtship
progressed smoothly and swiftly in the seclusion of the
house in Hans Place, whither no other male visitor of
less than sixty years of age ever penetrated ; he was
secure from those anxieties which Daisy might have
amused herself by inflicting upon him, had she had
the chance ; and before London was quite empty
that city contained at least one perfectly happy man.

It was all very satisfactory, of course, and Wini-
fred was glad that her sister had at last chosen the
man whom she ought to have chosen at first ; but it

256 BILLT BELLEW

was diflSciilt to share Mrs. Forbes's exultation or to
stifle certain misgivings. These, however, Daisy, as
soon as she perceived their existence, kindly made
haste to allay.

" I know what you're thinking about," said she to
her sister ; " but you really needn't distress yourself
any longer on that score. Every-body has these little
attacks, though every-body doesn't owh to them, as I
did ; and every-body is cured who gets such a douche
of cold water as I have had thrown over me. Trulv
and honestly, I like Harry much better than Mr.
Bellew. Besides, I doubt whether it is a good plan
to start by being passionately in love with your
husband."

" I don't know of any better plan," observed Wini-
fred doubtfully.

" Yet you propose to marry Edmund Kirby ! At
least you say you do, and you have cheerfully sent
off Mr. Bellew on a yachting cruise, without so much
as enquiring who his shipmates are to be. Well, I
suppose you know your own business best ; but I
should have thought that was rather a dangerous
experiment to tiy. People who go off yachting in
unknown company sometimes forget to come back
again."

Daisy only laughed, and was avowedly incredulous
when she was assured that, if Winnie ever married at
all, it would be Edmund Kirby, not Mr. Bellew, who
would stand beside her at the altar : but she promised
to keep her convictions on that subject to herself, and
to respect a secret which could hardly be said to be-
long to her. Probably she was not very anxious to

11

CHANGES 257

proclaim how completely she had mistaken the mean-
ing of Billy's attentions in Algiers ; probably also
she had little attention to spare from matters of more
urgent and personal importance to her than her
sister's ultimate destiny. For she had yielded to
Harry's earnest entreaties, and had consented to
^x an early date for their wedding. The ceremony
must of necessity be a very quiet afiPair ; but she was
determined that her trousseau should be in all respects
worthy of a rich man's wife, and there was not too
much time in which to provide it.

It was not until the middle of August that the
dressmakers and milliners released their open-handed
customer, and the wreaths which had been left upon
Micky's grave were withered and brown long before
Winifred could return to replace them with fresh
ones. Then, after a few weeks, during which Harry
rode or drove over to Stratton every day, and helped
by his cheerful presence to dispel the gloom which
still clung to the house, the wedding was solemnized
in the same little church which, not so long before,
had witnessed a more mournful rite, attended by very
nearly the same people. Mrs. Forbes and Winifred
laid aside their black dresses for the day, but resumed
them on the morrow, resuming also, as was indeed
inevitable, their interrupted melancholy. Mrs. Forbes
was rejoiced to think that Daisy was well and happily
married; but as soon as the excitement was over, she
relapsed into a state of depression and fretfulness
from which it was no easy task to rouse her.

Winifred had to undertake that task, and accom-
plished it with more or less of success. She had
17

258 BILLY BELLEW

plenty of leisure to devote to it in those days ; for
her father was allowing contemporary literature
a brief respite, and Edmund Kirby was, by her
advice, and in compliance with her requests, spend-
ing a well-earned holiday in the Alps. Edmund
had, at first, been reluctant to leave England, but
had ended by agreeing with her that, since his
brother would not receive him, and since he had
not been invited to take up his quarters at Stratton
Park, the best thing he could do was to recruit
exhausted nature by a change of air and scene. He
had been soriy to part from her ; but he had not
been afraid. The confidence which he reposed in
her was unbounded ; she had told him that he
must never doubt her again, and he did not doubt
her ; even after he heard that Mr. Bellew had
called in Hans Place he felt no uneasiness. He had
distinctly offered her her freedom, and she had as
distinctly refused to listen to his offer ; it followed,
as a matter of course, that poor little Micky had
been entii'ely misled as to her supposed change of
sentiments.

Winifred was all the more touched by his faith in
her loyalty because, do what she would, she could
not always keep herself from doubting whether she
wholly deserved it, and because she suspected that
some rumor about her and Mr. Bellew must have
reached his ears. In answering bis letters, which
were now' as numerous and as prolix as of yore, she
was careful not to vex him by reporting rumors
which had reached not only her ears, but those of
eveiy-body else in the county. John Kirby's ex-

CHANGES 259

cesses had arrived at such a pitch that it was
becoming a serious question with the county
magnates whether some public notice would not
have to be taken of them. If the man would have
been satisfied with being carried to bed drunk every
night, an infirmity which after all chiefly concerned
himself might have been ignored ; but the mischief
of it was that lie must needs stagger scandalously
through the streets of the market-town in broad day-
light; that he insisted upon taking his place on the
bench beside brother magistrates who did not care
to be seen speaking to him, and that, when there, he
was apt to conduct himself in a manner calculated
to bring contempt upon the whole class of the great
unpaid. For the time being he was ill with what
was believed to be his third attack of delirium
tremens ; but he had such an iron constitution that
he was pretty sure to be as well as ever again
ere long.

Such, at least, was the despondent expectation of
the neighboring county gentlemen; but Dr. Hale, who
was of a different opinion, rode over to Stratton Park
one day to ask for Edmund Kirby's exact address.

" Mrs. Kirby doesn't seem to know where he is,"
the doctor explained to Winifred, when she had
been sent for in order that she might supply the
required information, "and they ought to telegraph
for him. His brother may die at any moment."

" Is it so bad as that ? " asked Winifred, a good
deal shocked and startled.

" Well, it's like that ; I don't know whether you
can call it bad. One is sorry that any man should

260 BILLY BSLLEW

die in such a way ; but one can't feel sorry to think
that the world will soon be rid of him, and that he
will be replaced by a steady, respectable fellow.
Edmund has worked hard and he has good abilities ;
but luck hasn't favored liim so far. When he suc-
ceeds to the property we may hope to see him dis-
tinguish himself. He ought to have no difficulty
about getting into Parliament, I should say."

So decisive an opinion, coming from so competent
an authority, gave Winifred food for reflection. If
John Kirby was really going to die, and Edmund
was about to become a comparatively rich man, it
followed that certain contingencies which had hith-
erto appeared to be remote must now be regarded as
imminent ; and she was not quite prepared to face
them. During the next few days she searched her
heart and conscience more closely than she had ever
done before — with results which were not, upon the
whole, satisfactory to her. She was very much
afraid that she would have to tell Edmund some-
thing which she did not at all want to tell him, and
which she had not until that moment plainly admitted
to herself. It was not, perhaps, very important, — she
felt almost sure that it was not important, — still,
there it was, and as matters stood she was bound in
honor to make her statement. Later on there might
not be the same necessity; if only John Kirby
would get well again and live for a few more years
bygones might very well be treated as bygones.
Probably she was the only human being, with the
exception of poor old Mrs. Kirby, who prayed fer-
vently for the recovery of that reprobate.

CHANGES 261

But prayer, as all divines are agreed, is of doubt-
ful utility when tbe motives which prompt it are
purely selfish, and that may have been one reason
why no miracle was wrought in John Kirby's case.
By the time that his brother had retunied post-haste
from the Continent, he was suffering from a compli-
cation of maladies against which medical skill was
powerless ; so that Edmund, who found his way to
Stratton Park on the day succeeding that of his
arrival, could only report that there was nothing
more to be done. Edmund was distressed and
worried and even a little remorseful (for indeed he
had never been too tender in his treatment of the
dying man) .; but he expressed in somewhat warmer
language than nsual the joy that it gave him to be
once more within sight and hearing of Winifred, and
although, of course, he said nothing about it, she
perceived that the idea which had occurred to her
had likewise suggested itself to him. He had spent
a great many years in the wilderness ; it was but
natural that he should be eager to cross the frontier
of the Promised Land.

According to him, John was not in immediate
danger, though recovery was impossible ; the doctor
had spoken of a week or ten days ; but the struggle
might be still further protracted. " In any case," he
said, " I hope to run over and see you again to-mor-
row ; for I can be of no use at home, unfortunately,
and my mother seems to prefer being left to herself."

However, he did not return on the morrow ;
because John Kirby died that night, and the news of
what had occurred reached Stratton Park soon after

262 BILLY BELLEW

breakfast the next morning. Mrs. Forbes, who con-
veyed it to her daughter, was not restrained by any
false feeling of delicacy from congratulating her
upon the vast improvement thus brought about in
Edmund's fortunes.

" He really will be quite well off," she said. " One
can't expect that he will inherit any ready money,
but I fancy that he must have laid by something.
Naturally, he will give up his profession now, and I
should think he would wish to be married as soon as
possible. I am so glad for your sake, Winnie, dear.
It was becoming quite a Jacob and Rachel business."

" Oh, but we haven't in the least minded waiting,"
answered Winifred quickly ; " and I am sure we are
neither of us in a hurry now. He will have a great
many arrangements to make before he can settle
down to his new life, and — and I think I am of some
little use at home, am I not?'*

This plea for delay would have been recognized as
very cogent a twelvemonth before ; in fact, it was
just because her eldest daughter was in the habit of
taking housekeeping and all other small daily worries
off her hands that Mrs. Forbes had acquiesced in that
interminable engagement. But times were changed
now, and she proceeded amiably and relentlessly to
cut the ground from beneath the supplicant's feet.

" My dear," said she, with a sigh, " you have been
most useful ; I can't think how we should ever have
got on without you — while there were four of us. The
time has at last come, though, for you to think a little
of yourself. I have been talking things over with
your father, and he quite agrees with me that it

I

CHANGES 263

would be too miserable for us to go on living here,
deprived of all our children. We think of letting
the place for a few years and travelling abroad.
Perhaps, when the cold weather sets in, we may go
back to Algiers for the winter. It suited your father
very well last year, and we should find a few friends
there, which is always an inducement. My own idea
is that much the best plan would be for you and
Edmund to be quietly married before we start — say
in November."

To go back to Algiers for the winter ! Winifred
started and shuddered at such a suggestion. How
could her mother bear the thought of returning to a
place where every familiar sight and sound and scent
must revive the memory of what they had lost ? For
herself, she felt that she could not do it. Rather than
that, she would marry Edmund Kirby the next day ;
rather — far rather — would she die ! She merely re-
marked, by way of reply, that no doubt it would be
good for them all to leave home for a time, and so
fell to wondering why she should, even in thought,
have bracketed her marriage and her death as two
alternatives, only comparatively preferable to the
tortures of memory with which she had been threat-
ened. Because she was really very fond of Edmund,
and she knew that his wife would be fortunate among
women. To be sure, there was that disagreeable
confession which it would be her duty to make to
him before the date of their wedding could be
appointed.

Presently Mrs. Forbes, who was toasting her toes
before the fire— for the autumn mornings were

264 BILLY BSLLEW

chilly — ^looked up from the weekly paper which she
was perusing to say : " Dear me ! Mr. Belle w has
been upon the point of death with typhoid fever.
Now that he can't give us any more trouble, one feels
free to be sorry for him, poor fellow ! Not so much
on account of his illness, since it seems that he is
getting better, as because that dreadful Littlewood
woman has been nursing him, they say. Of course
she will have a double hold over him now. How
shocking it is that these things should be talked
about, and even commented upon in print, without a
word of disapproval ! Society has certainly changed
very much for the worse since my young days, and I
do think that one of the most discreditable signs of
the times is the circulation of these so-called society
papers."

Mrs. Forbes held out the journal in question, of
which she was a constant and attentive reader, to
her daughter, whose eye was at once caught by the
following paragraph :

"The dangerous illness of the popular * Billy'
Bellew has caused widespread regret and anxiety.
He is still lying at the shooting-box of his friend Mr.
Maxwell, in Aberdeenshire, where he was seized with
the attack of typhoid fever which so nearly termi-
nated his career. But the latest reports are very
reassuring, and we may hope to see Billy winning
fresh laurels in the pig-skin when the great steeple-
chasing events of the coming season are decided.
He himself, it is said, attributes his escape from the
jaws of death solely to the unwearying attentions of

CHANGES 265

his old friend Mrs. Little wood, who has been with
him throughout his illness, and who has steadfastly
refused to resign her post in the sick room at the
bidding of trained nurses."

Winifred laid down the paper, remarking calmly :
" Yes ; it is a pity that Mrs. Littlewood was in the
house at the time ; as you say, he can hardly hope to
shake off her hold upon him now. And I should
think his life would have been quite as safe in the
hands of a trained nurse as in hers."

Soon afterward she rose and left the room. If she
shed a few tears in private, that did not prove much ;
had she not wept once before in Algiers, on less prov-
ocation ? Billy had not then sworn that be loved
her, and her only ; nor had he assured her that he
had finally broken with Mrs. Littlewood. It was true
that she did not wish him to remain faithful to his
vows ; still it did tjpem very sad that he should have
fallen back into his old servitude. Moreover, women
always find something especially pathetic in the
thought of a strong man being laid low. And Micky
had been so fond of him ; and she herself was very
much attached to him, both for Micky's sake and
for his own. Upon the whole, Winifred could have
brought forward many excellent and convincing
excuses for her tears.

CHAPTER XXII

A FULL CONFESSION

"The late John Kirby," remarked Mr. Forbes,
" was not a man whom it was possible to regard with
any of that respect or esteem which I might be
wrongly supposed to have entertained for him, were I
to attend his funeral in person. Of the dead it has
long been agreed by common consent that nothing
but good shall be spoken ; yet even in the case of
those who have passed, as it were, out of our jurisdic-
tion, it is inexpedient to pay honor where no honor is
due ; and I fear that the fact of my presence in the
churchyard to-mon*ow would be liable to miscon-
struction. However, we will send the carriage."

These sentiments, when rendered into less beauti-
ful language, simply meant that Mr. Forbes was not
going to expose himself to the risk of catching cold
for the sake of a disreputable ruffian, whose demise
was a boon to the community in general and to the
Forbes family in particular. Somewhat similar views
must have been held by the neighboring nobility and
gentry ; for although a long line of carriages followed
the imposing hearse which bore John Kirby's body
to the grave, they were all of them empty ; and per-
haps the tenantry only attended in such large num-
bers from a sense of duty to the new squire and a not

A PULL CONFESSION 267

unnatural wish to start well with him. The obse-
quies were conducted with much pomp and at con-
siderable expense, Edmund being a great stickler for
the due observance of use and wont in such matters.
The same sense of respect for traditional customs led
him to remain indoors, with all the blinds drawn
down, until one more coffin had been added to the
row in the family vault; but on the following day he
thought there could be no harm in his betaking him-
self to Stratton Park, where his advent was fully
expected.

It was partly because she felt quite certain of his
putting in an appearance that afternoon that Wini-
fred left the house soon after luncheon and wandered
down through the garden toward the park. He
would see her mother, and if he should wish to fol-
low her, it would be easy enough for him to do so ;
but there was a chance — just the ghost of a chance —
that he might be content to postpone their meeting
to another day ; and although Winifred was no
coward, she was not exempt from that desire to stave
off the inevitable as long as possible which is common
to frail humanity. However, she did not think very
much about Edmund Kirby after she had set out on
her walk. It was one of those soft, still autumn
days, the beauty and the melancholy of which are
peculiarly English. Although the sun was shining,
the prevailing tints of the landscape were silvery
gray ; a thin haze blurred the outlines of the trees
and hung over the fields and the low hills ; the
foliage was changing, a few dead leaves were al-
ready fluttering to the ground, and the grass was

268 BILLY BSLLEW

Still wet with yesterday's dew. The annual death
of Nature had not yet come ; but forebodings of
its approach were in the air. That death would of
course be succeeded by the annual resurrection ; but
it seemed to Winifred that there could never be any
more spring or summer for her. It was over — quite
over and done with — tliat dear old life, which had
had its little worries, but through which there had
always run an undercuiTent of youth and felicity.
Never again would Micky play truant ; never again
would she pursue him breathlessly through the
stable-yard, and away down to the muddy home-
covert ; never again would she ride with him to see
the hounds meet ; never again would the sound of
his shrill young voice call her from her accounts, or her
copying work. The whole atmosphere was heavy
with the weight of that eternal pitiless silence. Oh,
no ! her mother was right ; life at poor old Stratton
had become impossible.

She visited a dozen familiar spots, every one of
which spoke to her of Micky, telling herself that to
her dying day she would not, if she could help it,
visit them again ; she wanted to see them to say
good-by, that was all. During the remainder of
the time that must elapse before she quitted the
home of her childhood forever, she would only leave
the house to go out driving with her mother or to
walk down to the village. Finally, she reached the
shore of the lake which had been the innocent cause
of so much sorrow, and stood for a while beside the
rotting boat-bouse, gazing at the smooth, gray sur-
face of the water. The boat, which had only been

%

A FULL CONFESSION 269

secured by a chain from the stern, had floated out
from the shelter and was in need of bailing; there
was a tin bait-box on one of the seats and a spare
line lay near it. Probably nobody had approached
the spot since that fatal day, so many months ago,
when Micky had left it, bearing his fish-basket with
him in triumph. Winifred stooped down, grasped
the chain, and was drawing the boat toward her,
when a voice from behind her back said :

" Can I help you ? "

She turned her sad, pale face toward the tall man
in the black clothes, whose appearance did not startle
her, and answered : "I wanted to get hold of that
little bait-box. I think Micky must have forgotten
it and left it there."

Edmund soon secured that treasure, and handed it .
to her without a word. He was full of sorrow and
sympathy for her ; but, not knowing what to say, he
held his peace, like the sensible man that he was, and
so for a brief space there was silence. He broke it at
length by remarking :

" I have just had a long chat with your mother.
She tells me that Mr. Forbes thinks of letting the
place and going abroad for a time. It sounds like a
wise plan."

" Oh, yes ; it is the only plan," agreed Winifred.
" I didn't think of it until she mentioned it ; but 1
see now that we couldn't have stayed on here. We
should have all learned to hate it, and that would have
been too dreadful."

"It is natural that you should have such a feeling,"
said Edmund ; " but I hope you don't mean that the

270 BILLY BSLLEW

whole neighborhood has become distasteful to you.
For your parents to leave England is all very well,
but my home — our home — must be in Shropshire now,
and I am afraid it will be my clear duty to inhabit it
for eight or nine months of the year."

" Oh, of course."

"And your mother thinks," Edmund went on,
" that it would be better for you not to accomjiany
them when they start on their travels. She thinks
that if you and I were quietly married before then,
nobody could accuse us, under the circumstances, of
a want of proper feeling ; and she says, truly enough,
that, as your sister's wedding has taken place since —
since your trouble — there is no real reason why yours
should not. I do not think it at all likely that my
own mother would raise any objection ; she, too,
speaks of going South for change and rest." He
added, after a short pause, " I don't like the idea of
hurrying you, and you shall not be hurried, if you
dislike it ; but at least there is no harm, I hope, in my
telling you what I should wish."

He spoke in an apologetic tone, and was evidently
prepared for opposition ; but met with none.

" I don't want to go abroad," Winifred said, " and
I quite think, as you and mamma do, that if we are
married without any fuss or rejoicings, we shall not
be called heartless. Besides, I don't know that it
would so very much matter if we were."

She came to a full stop here ; but as Edmund was
beginning to speak, she interrupted him by adding :
" Only there is something that I must tell you before
I marry you. It is a rather disagreeable thing to

k

A FULL CONCESSION 271

have to say; and perhaps — I don't know — perhaps,
after you have heard it, you may not wish to marry
me at all. Still I am sure that it ought to be said."

" I also have something to tell you," Edmund ob-
sei-ved ; " and it is so disagreeable to me to mention
it that I have put off doing so longer than, perhaps,
I ought to have done. But we shall both feel better
when we have relieved our minds. Will you begin,
or shall I ? "

" Oh, I will speak first, please," answered Winifred,
with a faint smile. "What I have to say will be
soon said. You remember my telling you, after
we came back from Algiers, about Daisy and Mr.
Bellew? Well, I didn't tell you the whole truth
then. If I had, I should have told you that Mr.
Bellew made me an offer of marriage just before he
left. I was utterly taken by surprise ; I had never
supposed that he was thinking of any thing of the
kind, and I honestly believe that I have never been
any thing more than friendly with him."

Edmund nodded, and looked as if he expected her
to continue. Evidently she had neither astonished
nor angered him, so far.

" Did you know of this, then ? " she asked.

" Yes ; I knew that Bellew had proposed to you
and had been refused ; I will tell you presently how
I came to hear of it. But that was not all you had
to say, was it ? "

Winifred sighed. "No; not quite all," she
answered. " Mr. Bellew was here for a few days in
the spring, as you know ; but I scarcely saw him or
spoke to him, and it was only by the merest chance

272 BIIXY BELLEW

that I met him afterward, one day, in London.
Then we did talk for a long time about Micky —
you know liow fond Micky was of him ? — but we
didn't speak of — of other things. Only I under-
stood that he had not changed. A day or two later
he called in Hans Place ; but mamma snubbed him
and Harry Lysaght was jealous of him ; so he went
off yachting. I have not seen him since."

" But you have wished to see him ?"

" I don't think I have — not in the way that you
mean. I suppose in one sense I shall always wish to
see him; because there is nobody else in the world who
seems to me like a sort of link with Micky. But in
reality I shall go out of my way to avoid meeting
him ; for — oh, how shall I make you understand ! "

" My dear," said Edmund gently, " it is not difficult
to understand ; though I dare say it is difficult for
you to explain. I will try to make it a little easier.
What I had to say to you — and perhaps I ought
to have said it before now — was this: You remem-
ber that poor little Micky was very anxious to speak
to me during his last illness. "VVe thought then,
you know, that he had taken a turn for the better
and was getting well again ; but he himself must
have felt some doubts ; for he told me that, in case
of our never meeting again, he wished me to know
what had occurred in Algiers. His impression was
that you had only refused Mr. Belle w because you
considered yourself bound by your engagement to
me, and he asked me to promise that I would release
you from that engagement. Of course I could
not comply with such a request upon the spur of

%

A FULL CONFESSION 273

the moment, and without liaving satisfied myself
that I ought to do so ; but I did promise that you
should never marry me against your will. After-
ward in London, as you will recollect, I offered to set
you free ; though I did not mention all the reasons
that I had for thinking that freedom might be
welcome to you. I should have gone on to mention
them, I hope, if your reply had been less decided ;
but as it was, I believed what I wanted to believe,
and took it for granted that Micky had made a
mistake. I couldn't feel quite easy in my mind,
though, and I meant to tell you to-day about that
interview that I had with him. Now, my dear
Winnie,! know as well as possible what your goodness
and unselfishness have made you resolve to do ; but it
wouldn't really be a right thing, or even a kind thing,
to marry me when your heart belongs to another
man. You would be treating me badly, if you did
that ; you aren't treating me badly by giving me
pain which you can't help now, and I suppose you
could no more help loving that other man than I
could help loving you."

" But I don't ! — I don't ! " exclaimed Winifred,
who was not misled by the above unemotional
speech, and who knew how great an effort it had
cost Edmund Kirby to make it. " What I thought
you ought to be told — what I wanted you to under-
stand — but I almost despair of making you or any
body else understand it ! — was not that I care for
Mr. Bellew more than I do for you, but only that,
if every thing had been different, I might, perhaps,
have loved him."

18

274 BILLT BELLEW

Her pale face flushed all over, and she lowered
her eyelids. " There ! " she murmured ; " now I
have told the truth, and the whole truth. If, after
that confession, you still wish me to be your wife, I
will many you as willingly as I would have done at
any time during all these years. More willingly,
indeed ; for I have no home duties now."

Edmund looked puzzled. He was not a man who
understood, or particularly wanted to understand, fine,
gradations of sentiment. He wanted to do what
was right and straightforward, and it appeared to
him that there should be no splitting of hairs upon
so important a question as that of mamage.

" I may be dull of comprehension," he said, " but
you don't convince me that you are not in reality in
love with Belle w. You say you will go out of your
way to avoid him ; you say that you might have
loved him, if every thing had been different ; doesn't
all that mean that you would have allowed your-
self to love him if you had not been engaged
to me ? "

" No ; it doesn't mean that, Edmund. I wasn't
thinking only of my engagement when I spoke of
things being different ; I was thinking of him, too.
He would have to be different — very different, in-
deed, from what he is — before I could love him."

Edmund's brow cleared a little. "Well," he
remarked, " it is true that Bellew's tastes are quite
unlike yours, and I can hardly imagine you leading
the kind of life that he leads. Not that there is any
harm in it, and I don't wish to sneer at racing and
hunting men, who are at least very superior to

V

A FULL CONFESSION 275

loafers, only you have never been accustomed to
think and talk about nothing but horses."

Winifred smiled. " I should certainly be a fish
out of water at Melton or Newmarket," said she ;
" but that was not quite what I meant. I meant that
Mr. Bellew, good and kind-hearted as he is, and thor-
oughly manly in some ways, is not manly in others.
Perhaps it is just because he is so good and kind-
hearted that he is so lamentably weak. You won't
have forgotten what I told you about him and Mrs.
Littlewood. She is not at all a nice woman ; he
wanted to shake himself free of her, and before I had
any suspicion tliat he cared for me, I used to try and
induce him to screw up his courage to the sticking-
point. But he never could. She made him ridicu-
lous in Algiers ; it was she who dragged him ostenta-
tiously away from the place, in spite of his reluctance.
In London he assured me that he had broken with
her finally ; yet it seems that when he was taken ill
in Scotland a short time ago, he made haste to send
for her. Mamma showed me a paragraph in a news-
paper, which said that he ascribed his recovery to
her careful nursing. Do you understand any better
now ? "

If he did not, he at all events thought that he did.
There was nothing incomprehensible to him in the
disdain which a right-minded woman must naturally
feel for a man, who, while professing to love her, had
not the moral courage to renounce a bj'-gone entangle-
ment of which he was weary. And if he himself did
not yet occupy quite so high a place in her affections
as that man might have occupied, he had at least

276 BILLT BELLEW

done nothing to forfeit her respect. Nor was it
unreasonable to hope that, as years went on, she
might learn to love him with a love which he had
hitherto, perhaps, exerted himself too little to earn.
Something of this kind he said to her ; and her reply-
was of a nature to satisfy him and to relieve him of
all his doubts.

**I wouldn't marry you, Edmund," she declared,
" if I didn't feel sure that I could do my duty and be
a good wife to you. We know each other so well
that we needn't be afraid of making any of those
dreadful discoveries which often cause unhappiness
among mamed people. Only you mustn't expect me
to be always cheerful or to be the same as I was
before I lost Micky. I feel as if I had grown old
before my time ; you will have to make the best of
an old woman."

" My dear," answered Edmund, " whether you are
old or young, cheerful or sad, you will always be
yourself. You won't hear me complaining of you,
and any slightest wish of yours that I can gratify I
will gratify ; that I promise you."

She knew that he would keep his promise, and she
was neither unhappy nor ungrateful, as they walked
slowly back toward the house together in the waning
light. Gratitude is, indeed, due for the love of any-
honest gentleman ; and as for happiness, how many-
people ever obtain it in its supremest form, or, obtain-
ing it, are able to keep their hold upon it ? Winifred
was more than reconciled to a destiny which, now
that she had unbosomed herself of her secret, she
could contemplate without dread or misgiving ; she

A FULL CONFESSION 211

recognized, too, the chivalrous forbearance of her
future husband, who had refrained from demanding
more than she was able to give him.

Nevertheless, there must always be a touch of sad-
nes8 in the certainty that supreme happiness is abso-
lutely unattainable.

CHAPTER XXm

THB MINISTERING ANGEL

Cbuising is, in these days, a very common form of
recreation among the well-to-do ; but probably there
are only two classes of persons who can be said to
really enjoy it ; the keen sailor, who usually contents
himself with a small vessel and is seldom to be met
with in the Solent or on the west coast of Scotland,
and the over-worked man, to whom the mere fact of
having absolutely nothing to do and no letters to
write and receive is in itself sufficient. Billy Bellew
belonged to neither category ; so that, in spite of
fine weather and pleasant company, he found the long
summer days a good deal longer than they ought to
have been after he had sailed from Southampton on
board his friend's yacht. And this was unfortunate;
because his one wish was to get through the summer
and early autumn with all possible despatch. He had
his programme all ready mapped out, and under
ordinary circumstances he would have admitted that
it was not one to grumble at. So many weeks yacht-
ing ; so many weeks on the moors, with old Maxwell
and other friends from whom he had received invita-
tions ; perhaps a little stalking ; then, if there should
be time enough left, a week or so of cub hunting, and
then — well, then surely it would be permissible to

THE MINISTERING ANGEL 279

drop a line to Lysaght and hint that Shropshire
adjoins Cheshire, in which latter county he had
de'cided to take up his hunting-quarters for the
winter. He could not help — for the matter of that,
he did not wish to help — ^being sanguine. He rea-
soned that, if Winnie had had no idea of ultimately
yielding, she would not have been so anxious to send
him away; he thought it veiy natural that in the
first freshness of her sorrow she should shrink from
contemplating consolation, and he bore no ill-will
against Harry Lysaght for having interfered in the
matter. " I'm such a dulBfer," he reflected ; " I don't
make any allowance for women's sensibilities ; and I
dare say, if I had stayed on in London, I should only
have succeeded in rubbing them all the wrong way
and making them hate the sight of me. I expect I'm
best where I am for the present."

Nevertheless it was very tedious where he was.
The long swell of the lazy Atlantic, the tumbling seas
of St. George's Channel, the wild, melancholy beauty
of the north Irish coast, the marvellous coloring of the
Sound of Jura, and tlie noise and bustle of tourist-
ridden Oban — all these were tedious to him. Not
quite so bad, perhaps, as Naples and Florence and
Venice ; still wearisome enough. Who cares to sit
and look at an interminable succession of dissolving
views, while waiting for the verdict which is to deter-
mine the whole course of his future life ? There were
several other men on board. They occupied them-
selves principally in playing poker, snoozing over the
newspapers, and devising ingenious practical jokes for
the benefit of Billy, whose spirits, they remarked,

280 BILLT BELLEW

required rousing. They weVe very good fellows in
their way, — certainly much better company than
Colonel Littlewood, — and Billy had always liked
them. It was not their fault that they had bored
him to death now. At Portree one of them, who had
received a batch of letters, had a rather interesting
piece of intelligence to impart.

" You know little Lysaght, don't you, Bellew ? '*
said he. " Going to be married in a few weeks to
some girl who lives near him in Shropshire. A Miss
Forbes, whom he has been wanting to marry for ever
so long, it seems ; only she wasn't quite in such a
hurry as he was. Looks as if she was rather in a
hurry, now that she has made up her mind, doesn't
it ? Well, she's a lucky young woman ; for Lysaght
ain't half a bad little chap, and he has more money
than he can spend. Wedding to be quite private;
owing to a recent bereavement in the bride's family.
H'm ! I trust that may be taken as a delicate and
kindly intimation that no presents are expected."

This ungenerous view of the case by no means
commended itself to Billy, who forthwith despatched
an order to a well-known firm of silversmiths, and
a letter of warm congratulation to Harry Lysaght,
in which he made so bold as to send his kindest
remembrances to Winnie, together with the expres-
sion of a hope that he might find himself within
reach of Stratton Park before the year was out.
His letter and his present were gratefully acknowl-
edged in due course ; but Harry quite forgot to
deliver the kindest remembrances and the accom-
panying message. How could an excited bride-

THB MINISTERING ANGEL 281

groom-elect be expected to cany such trivialities in
his head !

The incident, however, was of service to Billy, in-
asmuch as it enabled him to feel himself, for a time,
more or less in touch with the Forbes family. More-
over, Harry alluded to shooting prospects in his reply,
and mentioned that he fully intended to be at home
again by the middle of November.

Whether Billy was destined to shoot pheasants in
November or not was for some weeks after this a
very doubtful question ; but it was quite certain that he
would shoot no grouse that year. It may have been
at one of the ports in which the yacht lay before he
quitted her, or it may have been in Edinburgh, where
he spent a night, that he picked up the germs of the
sickness which prostrated him immediately after his
arrival at Mr. Maxwell's shooting lodge ; either way,
it soon became evident that he was in for typhoid
fever, and sorely perplexed his host was to know what
was' to be done with him. The one thing which
could assuredly not be done was to move him ; so
additional medical assistance and trained nurses were
telegraphed for, and the disadvantages of a remote
locality had to be contended against as best they
might. Mr. Maxwell, a kindly, fussy old gentleman,
at first proposed to send for his wife, but yielded to
the representations of his other guests, who were con-
vinced that Mrs. Maxwell's health would not stand
the strain which it was sought to impose upon her.
As Mrs. Maxwell was a smart lady, who affected to
be something of an invalid, and who detested dis-
comfort of any kind, it is more than likely that the

282 BILLT BELLEW

Other guests were right ; bat her husband continued
to be very uneasy.

" It would be an awful thing if the poor fellow were
to die here ! " said he. " I don't half like the respon-
sibility of having a man dangerously ill in the house,
with no lady to see whether he is being properly
attended to or not."

Billy, luckily for him, soon became unconscious
of all the trouble that he was causing. He was con-
scious, indeed, of nothing but a prolonged and hide-
ous nightmare, in which his personal identity seemed
to have slipped away from him; so that he could not
be sure whether it was he himself or somebody else
who was burning and suffering on that naiTow bed.
But by degrees and at intervals his senses began to
return to him, and he became dimly aware that there
was somebody strangely resembling Blanche Little-
wood who was always at his side. At first he was
too weak to do more than wonder whether it really
was Blanche, and, if so, how she came to be there ;
sometimes she spoke to him and sometimes he made a
faint monosyllabic reply, without having understood
what she said ; only one day, when there came a
sound as of a heavy man approaching on tip-toe, and
when presently the ruddy, sympathetic countenance
of old Mr. Maxwell was bent over him, he made an
effort and asked a few questions.

" Oh, youWe all right, old man," Mr. Maxwell said
reassuringly, in answer to some of these ; " you aren't
going up aloft just yet — don't you flatter yourself !
Yes ; you've had rather a long bout of it, and you've
been about as bad as you could be, but the doctor

THE MINISTERING ANGEL 283

pronounced you out of danger nearly a week ago.
All you have to do now is to get well, and take your
time about it. Trouble ? Nonsense, my dear fellow I
you've given no trouble to any of us, I can assure
you. We've been going on shooting and every thing,
just as usual, ever since that excellent little woman
came and insisted upon taking charge of you. Upon
ray word, I can't feel thankful enough to her — and
her husband."

" Her husband ! " repeated Billy feebly. And then
in a dismayed tone, " Is he here, too ? "

" Well, yes ; he's here. She couldn't very well
have come without him, you see, could she ? Oh,
that's all right ; he has liked himself very well here,
I think ; and of course we were only too glad to have
another gun after you were laid on the shelf. Quite
a boon to us, in fact."

" He hasn't shot any body yet, then ? "

"]Sr — no, not exactly. That is, of course not!
Why the deuce should he ? Now, look here, Belle w;
I mustn't let you talk any more, or I shall catch it
from Mrs. Littlewood. I'll come in and see you again
as soon as she gives me leave, but I'm afraid I have
exceeded my time already."

It may have been because Mr. Maxwell was not
desirous of being further interrogated as to Colonel
Littlewood's exploits that he left the room so pre-
cipitately ; but Billy did not need to be told what a
dangerous neighbor the colonel (who had once been a
crack shot) had become of late years ; while he knew
only too well how dreadfully offensive the colonel
was apt to be after dinner every evening. What a

284 BILLT BELLBW

time poor old Maxwell and his friends must have been
having of it with the man !

This thought disturbed and distressed him more
than the unexplained fact that Mrs. Littlewood bad
established herself upon the premises; for his brain
was not yet in working order, and could not deal
with more than one subject at a time. But he was
soon enlightened by Blanche herself, who told bim
how, by the happiest accident, she and Alfred had
been staying with some people a few miles away,
when the news of his illness had reached them ;
how she at once implored Mr. Maxwell to entrust
the patient to her care, and how she had occupied
her present post of responsibility for more than a
month. She spoke of it all as a matter of course ;
her voice was subdued and soothing ; she was
arrayed in a garb appropriate to the circumstances,
and she made arrangements and gave instructions as
coolly as if she had been his wife or his sister. She
seemed to have clean forgotten that they had not
parted precisely on terms of amity.

Billy himself had forgotten what the actual
state of affairs was, and had only a confused im-
pression that Fortune had, somehow or other, played
him a scurvy trick. By degrees, however, he began
to realize what that trick had been and what its con-
sequences were likely to be. Blanche Littlewood,
for reasons best known to herself, had not only
pardoned him but had laid him under an obligation
which he could not, without the basest ingratitude,
ignore. If, in return, she should claim once more
the fealty which he had vowed to her in years gone

THE MINISTERING ANGEL 285

by, could he kave the heart to meet her with a
renewed declaration of independence? Would he,
if he should demand it, be bound in honor to re-
nounce, at her bidding, the woman whom he loved ?
These were hard questions, and he debated them
inwardly for many days, without saying a word
about them. But when at length he was able to
leave his bed for a few hours together, and when,
one afternoon, he was half sitting, half reclining
before the fire, with Blanche, who had been reading
a novel aloud, opposite to him, the time seemed to
have come for them to arrive at some sort of an un-
derstanding. He opened the proceedings by enquir-
ing what had become of Captain Patten.

" Captain Patten," replied Blanche serenely, " has
vanished into infinite space. He was a worthy and
useful creature in some ways ; but I don't think I
ever met any one who had a clearer conviction of the
necessity of taking care of himself, and I rather sus-
pect that Alfred frightened him. Alfred, as you may
be aware, has a tiresome habit of asking his friends
to oblige him with small loans, and the consequence
is that some of them cease to be his friends rather
suddenly. Captain Patten ceased quite suddenly,
and I hadn't the curiosity to enquire why he had
departed or where he had gone." She added pres-
ently, in a tone of mild reproach, " I think you might
have known better than to be jealous of Captain
Patten."

But I never was jealous of him," Billy protested.

I never thought of such a thing. It wasn't on that
account, you know, that we parted in Venice."

286 BILLT BELLEW

" Wasn't it ? Well, perhaps I was the jealous one,
then. At all events, we were both of us angry, and
we quarrelled, and now we must try to forget that
we ever quaiTelled. That is always the best plan,
isn't it?"

"I dare say it is, as a general rule; only I wanted
to explain that I had no more intention of quarrelling
with you then than I have now. And I think I
ought to say too, that I haven't changed in any way
since then — not in any way."

Mrs. Little wood declined to understand him.
"Indeed you have changed very much, my poor
Billy! " she returned, laughing. " Shall I fetch a
looking-glass for you? You will want one soon,
when you shave off that black beard, which really
must come off. I insist upon it ! "

He gave in for the time being, promising himself
that he would be more explicit upon some future
occasion ; but that future occasion never came. She
was wonderfully skilful in staving it off, whenever it
seemed to be at hand ; she made no allusion to the
Forbeses, nor would she take any notice of his own
tentative allusions. Her manner had also undergone
a complete and perplexing alteration. Instead of
being peevish and exacting, as of yore, she was
always patient, always on the watch to supply those
numberless small needs which an invalid experiences,
but scarcely cares to mention. She treated him as if
he belonged to her ; yet she said never a word of
love, nor did she seem to expect that he should do so.

Thus day succeeded day until Mr. Maxwell's engage-
ments compelled him to leave the Highlands. It was

I

THE MINISTERING ANGEL 287

not yet thought expedient for Billy to travel, and the
old gentleman entreated him to remain where he was
until he should be quite convalescent, adding :

" I know I am leaving you in good hands ; for
Colonel and Mrs. Littlewood have most kindly
promised to stay and take care of you. There really
seem to be no limits to Mrs. Littlewood's kindness."

There really seemed to be none ; and the dreadful
part of it was that her kindness was going to be
rewarded, if not with ingratitude, with something
which might only too probably represent itself to her
under that aspect. The last week of Billy's sojourn
in Aberdeenshire was less pleasant than those imme-
diately preceding it had been. He was able to take
his meals down stairs now, able to go out for drives
and short walks, able also to renew intercourse with
the colonel, who welcomed him boisterously, borrowed
a hundred pounds of him, and waxed uproarious over
Mr. Maxwell's whiskey. It was quite clear that the
colonel must not be allowed to go on scandalizing the
servants any longer ; it was quite clear, too, that
Billy had no further excuse for trespassing upon the
hospitality of the absent owner.

He said as much one fine, frosty October morning,
to Mrs. Littlewood, who at once agreed with him.
They would all travel south together as far as York,
she said ; after which she and her husband would
proceed to London, while Billy could carry out the
intention which he had previously expressed of be-
taking himself to the Midlands, in order to inspect
his hunters. She was so reasonable and, as he could
not help feeling, so generous, that he was quite unable

288 BILLT BBLLEW

to find any adequate words in which to thank her.
For the rest, she declared that she desired no thanks ;
he had already conferred the greatest boon upon her
that he had it in his power to confer by getting
well.

** I haven't so many friends in the world that I can
afford to lose the best of them," she added.

Well, she should at least never lose his friendship;
he was deteimined of that. Not even to please Wini-
fred herself would he turn his back upon the woman
who had tended him with such untiring devotion and
had dealt with him in so merciful and magnanimous
a spirit. But Winifred, he felt sure, would ask no
such sacrifice of him. Winifred, who was herself
merciful and magnanimous, would undoubtedly admit,
when once the facts should have been related to her,
that he could not possibly consent to it. She might
not approve of every thing in Mrs. Littlewood's past
conduct ; she might not, just at first, feel very ami-
cably disposed toward her ; but she would certainly
acknowledge what every one must needs acknowl-
edge ; and in time, perhaps, he would have the happi-
ness of seeing Winifred and Blanche fast friends.
The poor fellow actually believed that that was possi-
ble. It was therefore not in the least surprising that
he should have believed, as he did, in the ultimate
success of his suit. Apparently Blanche did not
mean to oppose it, and he had regarded Edmund
Kirby all along as a quantite negligeahle.

In this fool's paradise he lived contentedly enough
for some little time, while his strength slowly came
back to him, and while he made arrangements for the

I

THE MINISTEBING ANGEL 289

transfer of bis horses into Cheshire. Some friends of
his who resided in the latter county (indeed, there
was scarcely a county in England which did not con-
tain some friends of Billy Bellew's) invited him to go
to them for the opening meet of the season, and stay
until the modest mansion which he had hired in their
neighborhood should be quite ready for his reception.
Having accepted their invitation, he betook himself
to London to make some necessary purchases, and, of
course, to pay his respects in Lowndes Street. But
Mrs. Little wood was not at home when he called, and
he learned from her husband, who greeted him with
affectionate cordiality, that she had left town for a
few weeks.

" Come and dine to-morrow evening, old chap," the
hospitable colonel said. " I'm on garsong for a bit."

Billy declined the dinner, pleading that he was
still obliged to be very careful in the matter of diet
and early hours. He said he was extremely sorry to
have missed Mrs. Littlewood, and he really was sorry.
Yet it cannot be truthfully asserted that he was over*
joyed when, on reaching his destination in Cheshire a
few days later, he found her established in the house
as one of his fellow -guests. He had not at all expected
to meet her there, he would fain have avoided telling
her that he meditated a speedy excursion into the
adjoining county, and he was vexed to hear from his
hostess that she had invited herself. That lady
availed herself of the privilege of old acquaintance-
ship to speak with perfect candor upon the subject.

" For the last two years," said she, " I haven't
asked Blanche Littlewood to stay with us ; and I
19

290 BILLY BELLEW

dare say you know why I haven't. Of course it was
good of her to nurse you when you were ill ; but I
confess that I was sorry and disappointed when I was
told of what she had done ; for I quite hoped that
there had been an amicable rupture between you.
Unfortunately, I know you too well to have the
faintest hope of your attempting to emancipate your-
self now that, as you so absurdly affirm, she has
saved your life : but I wish you would give her a
gentle hint that I can't let her make use of me in this
way a second time. To put things in brutally plain
language, I don't wish the house to get a bad name."
It was all very well for Billy to protest indignantly
against language which he declared to be totally un-
justifiable as well as brutal ; but he could not deny
that Mrs. Littlewood had probably come down to
Cheshire for the express purpose of staying under
the same roof with him ; nor did Mrs. Littlewood
herself deny it when they met. The moment that he
saw her his heart sank ; for he perceived at once that
she had reverted to her former self. The powder,
the rouge, the darkened eyelids, the fashionably cut,
but somewhat exaggerated costume — all those features
which in far Aberdeenshire had been so delightfully
conspicuous by their absence, were now to the fore
again, as was also, alas ! the old air of triumphant
proprietorship and defiant indifference to the world's
opinion. After dinner she beckoned him away from
the rest of the company into the library, where she
threw herself down upon a sofa, and, making him sit
beside her, asked him whether he didn't think it very
nice of her to have arranged this little surprise for him.

;

THE MINISTEBING ANGEL 291

He was troubled and annoyed ; his nerves, perhaps,
had been rendered sensitive by his illness, and before
he could check himself he answered sharply : " No ;
I don't think it nice at all ! I wish to Heaven you
wouldn't do such things ! "

She raised her eyebrows. " That means ? " said she
interrogatively.

" It only means that I can't see the use of it. It
does you a lot of harm ; it makes people say things
which aren't true, but which can't be contradicted ;
and — and it places me in a horribly false position."

" Oh — a false position ? "

" Yes ; because it gives me the appearance of being
something more than I want to be, and what I hope I
always shall be — ^your friend."

"You used to wish to be something more," Mrs.
Little wood remarked.

Billy looked down. By the sound of her voice he
knew that the interview was not going to be a pleas-
ant one ; but it was unavoidable, and the best plan
was to clear away ambiguity once for all.

"I thought," said he, "that we had agreed in
Venice to close that chapter. Can't we close it and
be friends ? After what I told you then — and when
I was ill I told you again, you know, that I hadn't
changed in any way — you must see that there is
nothing else to be done. You must see that, if I
wished it ever so much, I couldn't go back and be
what I was last year or the year before."

But that was just what Mrs. Littlewood did not
see. She said that love, if it were in any sense
worthy of being called by that name, was eternal;

292 BILLY BBLLEW

she believed and was sure that Billy bad once loved
her ; she would uot aud could not believe that be
was really a traitor. For her own part, she could
pardon any thing and every thing to one whom she
loved. Ceitainly she had been angered and hurt
by that fancy of his for Miss Forbes ; but she bad
known all along that it was only a passing fancy, and
that he would return to her in the end. As matters
had fallen out, it was she who had returned to him,
and perhaps that had been foolish of her; but could she
have left him to die ? Warming with her theme, she
became really eloquent. She pointed out, what was
true enough, that it was she, and she alone, who had
suffered in social esteem through their intimacy;
that she had not hesitated to brave the comments of
malicious tongues when she had flown to his sick
bed; and that, although she did not grudge one of
the sacrifices which she had made for his sake, it was
nothing short of an insult to talk to her of friend-
ship now.

Billy groaned. He was very remorseful — a great
deal more remorseful than he had any need to be —
yet what could he do ? As he had said, he could not
go back and be what he had once been.

" It's best to tell you the truth, Blanche," he burst
out. "God knows I'm not ungrateful to you; but
you would only think me a humbug if I tried to ex-
plain how I feel about it all. The truth is that I
am going to marry Winifred Forbes, if she will have
me ; and as soon as I can, I shall make my way into
Shropshire and ask her again. That's why I came to
this part of the world."

THE MINISTEBING ANGEL 293

Mrs. Littlewood stared at him for a moment and
then, to his amazement, broke out into a loud laugh.

"Do you mean to say that you haven't heard,
then ? " she ejaculated.

" Heard what ? " asked Billy.

" Why, that the girl is upon the point of being
maiTied to her old flame ? Indeed, I'm not at all sure
that she isn't actually married now. The wedding
was to be to-day or to-morrow, I know. Who but
you would have waited tranquilly all this time until
it quite suited your convenience to throw the hand-
kerchief, never doubting that the young woman
would likewise sit patiently in a corner, awaiting
your pleasure ! I thought, of course, that you had
given up all idea of espousing her, though you might
still be cherishing some sentimental regrets."

Never has such a thing been heard of as that a man
of Billy Bellew's strength and stature should faint
away on receiving a startling piece of intelligence ;
even delicate ladies have, in the latter part of the
present century, wholly abandoned the practice. But
Billy was hardly out of the convalescent stage yet,
and so, for a few seconds, he felt that pause of the
heart, that cold moisture of the brow, and that
deathly sickness which are the usual precursors of
unconsciousness.

" Is this true ? Do you know that it is true ? " he
gasped out hoarsely.

" Dear me, yes ! I heard all about it from Mrs.
Ryland weeks ago, and there are half a dozen people
in the house now who can convince you, if you are
sceptical. It seems that the man — Kirby, isn't his

294 BILLT BELLEW

name ? — succeeded to a property the other day, and
the Forbeses certainly don't appear to have lost time
in calling upon him to redeem his promise. Perhaps
you will excuse me from condoling with you. All
prejudice apart, I must say that I think you have had
a lucky escape."

Then all of a sudden she changed her tone, and,
laying her hand upon his coat-sleeve, mui^nured,
" Don't be angry with me. I'm not angry with you,
though some people might think I had a right to be.
Haven't I told you that I can forgive until seventy
times seven ? "

But Billy could make no answer.

He rose abruptly and staggered toward the door,
making uncertain clutches at the furniture as he went.
It was soon known that he had been taken ill and had
been obliged to go to bed ; but his servant, who had
received instructions to admit nobody into his room,
assured Mrs. Littlewood and other anxious enquirers
that the indisposition was merely temporary, and that
his master intended to hunt on the morrow, as bad
been arranged.

%

CHAPTER XXIV

BILLT MAKES HIS ESCAPE.

It was not very much sleep that Billy Bellew
obtained that night. When he reached his bedroom
he felt quite sufficiently ill and exhausted to go to
bed, and he did so ; but he was far too broad awake
to remain there ; so, as soon as his man had left him,
he rose, put on a smoking suit, dropped into an arm-
chair before the fire, and sat for a long time staring
vacantly at the glowing coals.

At first he could not put any order into his
thoughts ; the one fact that Winifred was lost to him
forever was all that he could realize. But by degrees
many things became clear to him, and he wondered
at the fatuity which had hitherto blinded him to
what was so patent. How had he ever been insane
enough to believe that Winifred would consent to be
his wife ? He had misunderstood her as completely
as he had misunderstood Blanche Littlewood — only
in an opposite sense. The woman whom he loved
had offered him friendship ; the woman whose friend-
ship he would gladly have retained claimed love frojn
him, and would take nothing less. It could not have
been otherwise. They had obeyed their respective
natures, and had acted as they were quite certain
to act, under given circumstances. It was easy to

296 BILLT BELLEW

understand that Winifred, whether she loved Kirby
or not, would never allow herself to play the man
false to whom she had plighted her troth. And most
likely she would be happy with Kia*by, even though she
might not be actually in love with him. " She thinks
so much more of other people's happiness than she
does of her own," sighed Billy, " that, so long as he
is contented, she won't ask for any thing else. She is
like that^-one or two people in the world are like
that, 1 suppose."

He himself, little as he suspected it, was not so
very unlike that, and it was chiefly his unselfishness
that saved him from giving way to despair. Wini-
fred had chosen her destiny, and would not be dis-
satisfied with it ; that was something. It was some-
thing too, that Blanche, to whom he owed so much,
and from whom he could not desire to be permanently
alienated, would now have things as she wished to
have them. All would go on as heretofore, he sup-
posed. He would continue to be*more or less at her
beck and call. He would continue to subsidize the
accommodating colonel, and she would continue to be
ostracized by those who deemed it incumbent upon
them to discountenance such irregularities. After
all, what did it signify ? Very little indeed to him,
and presumably still less to her ; since she had never
winced at gossip as he had done. For the rest, he
contemplated the present and the future from some-
thing of a fatalistic standpoint. Both were the
logical and inevitable outcome of the past. To
use language which is somewhat out of date, but
which may be none the worse on that account, he had

\

BILLY MAKES HIS ESCAPE 297

done wrong and bad got to suffer for it. Because it
cannot be rigbt to make love to your neigbbor's wife,
even tbougb your love-making be confined to verbal
expressions, and even though, upon more mature
consideration, you should discover that you have
never been in love with her at all.

It was not until nearly two o'clock in the morning
that a terrible idea suddenly presented itself to this
belated seeker after truth and resignation. What
if the colonel were to die? The contingency was
neither a fanciful nor a remote one. A middle-aged
man, with a short neck and a red face, who had led
a thoroughly unhealthy life for many years, might
apply in vain to an insurance company, and, sup-
posing that Mrs. Littlewood should be left a widow,
would it not become Billy Bellew's bounden duty to
make that reparation to her which she would unques-
tionably expect ? Every argument that she had em-
ployed to show that his proffered friendship was an
insult to her now would apply with double force
then ; there was no getting out of the fact that he
had compromised her, and it was difficult to see how
there could be any honorable getting out of his
obligation to many her, when and if she should be
released from her present bondage. All the same,
he could hardly bring himself to face the thought.
Eventually he might have to face it ; but not now —
surely not now, while his wounds were still fresh and
bleeding !

" I hope to God I may die first myself, that's all ! "
muttered poor Billy, as he returned to his bed. " It
isn't so very unlikely when you come to think of it.

298 BILLY BELLEW

I've had plenty of narrow shaves before now, and I
shall have plenty more — riding the animals that I do.
And there's no better death than breaking your neck
over a fence while hounds are running."

He slept a little after this, and when he made his
appearance at the breakfast table some hours later,
he was able to respond cheerily to the many queries
showered upon him in respect to his health.

Now, if Billy had desired to break his neck that
very day, he could not have made choice of a more
promising and capable accomplice than his chestnut
mare The Shrew, whom he had selected to caiTy him.
His host shook his head when he saw her, and said :
" I wish you would sell that brute, Bellew ; she isn't
safe to ride ; I don't care how good a man she has on
her back."

"Oh, she's all right with me," answered Billy.
" As for selling her, I don't suppose I could get a ten-
pound note for her. Besides which, I shouldn't like
to be a murderer."

He had bought her for a song, by reason of her evil
reputation, and had won half a dozen steeplechases
with her, though he had seldom hunted her. She
was a magnificently made mare, with marvellous
speed, endurance, and jumping power, but so violent
and excitable that nine men out of ten would have
pronounced her useless with hounds. Moreover, she
was afflicted with a temper which was easily roused,
and which, when roused, displayed itself in eveiy
form that equine ingenuity can compass. Billy bad
somehow or other contrived to get on terms with her.
He always rode her in a plain snaffle, and was wont

BILLY MAKES HIS ESCAPE 299

to affirm that, so long as she was not interfered with,
she was the safest mare in England. Still she was
hardly the animal to take to an opening meet, when the
whole country-side had turned out in force, and when
every road and lane was blocked with vehicles. He
had to keep clear of the throng ; and, under the
circumstances, he was not sorry to have so good an
excuse for deserting the ladies.

The hounds were not long in finding, and, although
Billy got away under considerable disadvantages, he
was soon with them. The mare, of course, bolted.
That was what she always did ; and it would have
been not only impossible to hold her but very
unwise to attempt it. Her rider sat down in his
saddle and began to enjoy himself. He knew that
she was no fool ; he knew that she would steady
down after the first burst ; and meanwhile it was
glorious to feel that, in spite of all, life still had its
happy moments. The Shrew, too, was enjoying her-
self. The country was rather a stiff one ; but noth-
ing seemed to come amiss with her, and she sailed on,
taking her fences in perfect style, and finally clearing,
without an effort, a brook which reduced the field to
a very select few.

But shortly after this a thing happened to her and
to her rider which had never happened before since
they had arrived at a mutual understanding. How
it came to pass Billy could not have explained. Cer-
tainly the hedge looked big, black, and ragged, and
the take-off was bad, and she was going at racing
speed ; yet it was madness to attempt to steady her,
and he did so quite involuntarily. The moment that

300 BILLY BELLEW

be realized his mistake he dropped his hands ; but it
was too late. The mare threw up her head, whipped
round, and they were within an ace of parting
company. The incident in itself was not of very
great importance, for he got her through a gap
presently, and was even able to make up his lost
ground ; but to Billy it was pregnant with the saddest
significance.

^^ It has come at last," he muttered to himself ;
" my nerve is going ! I'll never hunt again if I can't
go straight ; and if I have to give up hunting, God
help me ! "

This much was, at all events^ certain, that he had
seen the best of his first day's hunting that season.
The mare's temper was upset ; she could not or
would not forget that he had touched her mouth
once ; she began to rush madly at her fences ; she
made several bad blunders ; and he was glad enough
when a brilliant but comparatively brief run was ter-
minated by a kill in the open. For the first time in
his life he found himself almost wishing that the
next covert might be drawn blank.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Littlewood and her hostess had
been trying to see something of the run on wheels,
and had been quite unsuccessful. Indeed, a heavy
barouche is not a conveyance very well adapted for
that purpose, which was doubtless one reason why
they had been left in undisputed possession of it.
On the other hand, the opportunity thus afforded of
administei-ing a well-meant and kindly lecture was
not to be neglected by a lady who had once been on
terms of greater intimacy with Mrs. Littlewood than

BILLY MAKES HIS ESCAPE 301

she was now. So she talked at considerable length,
and said some very sensible things, not one of
which produced the faintest impression upon her
companion.

"If you were Mrs. Grundy in person, you could
not be more convincing," Blanche wound up a pro-
tracted discussion by saying ; " but, you see, the
truth is that Mrs. Grundy and I fell out some
years ago, and I couldn't propitiate her now if
I tried. Therefore, I am not going to try ; nor
is Billy. It may be very sad, but it is a fact that
we don't care."

" Well, I can say no more," returned the other,
out of patience. "I think you are But per-
haps I had better not tell you what I think you
are, and perhaps we had better turn toward home.
We have seen the last of the hunt for to-day, I
expect."

As a matter of fact, they were nearer than she
supposed to the hounds, who by this time had started
a second fox and had run him some distance ; but it
so chanced that owing to the lie of the land and the
set of the wind, the first intimation of their vicinity
that reached her ears was the sound of a galloping
horse's hoofs upon the road behind her. She turned
around and recognized her husband, who at once
signalled her to stop the carriage.

" Good Heavens, George ! " she exclaimed when he
drew near, " what has happened ? You are as pale as
death. Has there been an accident ? "

" Yes," he answered hurriedly, " Bellew has had a
bad fall. I want the carriage, if you don't mind.

302 BILLY BELLBW

You won't have a very long walk home, if you cut
across the fields."

He would not return any definite answer to the
agitated questions with which the two ladies plied
him ; but he was very urgent that they should start
on their walk immediately ; and all the time that they
were interrogating him, he kept glancing over his
shoulder. At length he jumped off his horse, took
his wife by the arm, and drew her aside.

" For God's sake get that woman away ! " he
whispered. " They are carrying him down the road,
and she mustn't see him. She can do no good ; nor
can you."

" Oh, George ! do you mean that he is dead ? "

" He has broken his neck. He put that brute of a
mare of his at a gate, and she breasted it — never
tried to rise. I suppose he must have pitched on his
chin. Oh, poor dear old Billy ! to think that it
should have ended like this ! "

It was, at least, as we know, the end which he
would have chosen ; and nobody can know whether,
if his life had been prolonged for a few more years,
he would have been able to dispose of it according
to his choice or not. While the husband and wife
were still whispering together, Mrs. Littlevvood
joined them.

"You need not trouble to make any mystery
about it," she said quietly ; " I know he has been
killed. If he had only been badly hurt, you would
have told me so. Don't think about me, please ; I
shall not get in your way, and I have no title to be
considered, you know."

k

BILLY MAKES HIS ESCAPE 303

Then she sank down upon the bank by the road-
side and sat — with her elbows on her knees, and her
chin supported by her clasped hands — a pathetic
picture of blank despair, in her fine clothes and the
unaltered juvenile bloom of her drawn cheeks.

Soon a slowly moving procession came in sight.
Six members of the hunt were carrying the dead
man, whose white face, upturned to the sky, had not
been covered, and bore no disfiguring marks. His
colorless lips were curved into a faint smile. They
lifted hinl, with some difficulty, into the • carriage,
and then fell back. One or two of them were
completely and undisguisedly overcome ; every one
of them was deeply moved ; for all Billy Belle w's
acquaintances had been his friends. But Mrs.
Little wood watched them in silence and with dry
eyes. There was no good in crying ; there never
would be any good in crying again. Tears had
been of service to her on many and many a past
occasion ; but the man who had been distressed and
moulded to her will by them had passed forever
beyond the reach of such influences. Her calamity
was as irremediable as it was cruel. Vain had been
her sacrifices, for she had made real and great
sacrifices, though they had been unsolicited by
him; she had lost caste permanently and she had
gained nothing, absolutely nothing — not even poor
Billy's love. It does not seem likely that any one
who has read this record of a part of Mrs. Little-
wood's life will feel much pity for her ; yet it may
be acknowledged that she was punished in propor-
tion to her offences.

304 BILLY BELLEW

At that same hour the bells of the parish church at
Stratton were ringing merrily in honor of a very unos-
tentatious wedding which had just taken place. The
bride and bridegroom had already driven away, and
had been followed by most of those few near rela-
tions who had witnessed the ceremony. Mr. and
Mrs. Lysaght, whose own orange-blossoms had hardly
faded as yet, were about to step into their brougham
when the former said :

"Well, I'm glad that's over! Between you and
me I was a little bit nervous ; for I wasn't sure how
she would get through it. I knew she would have to
walk past poor little Micky's grave, you see."

"You needn't have been alarmed," Daisy an-
swered; "nothing would ever make Winnie break
down. Besides, I believe she is perfectly contented
— though why she should be contented Heaven alone
knows ! "

" That was a queer business about her and Bellew,"
HaiTy remarked musingly ; " I should never have
believed it if you hadn't told me. One would have
said they were the last couple in the world to take a
fancy to one another. And you think she really did
care for him ? "

" I thought so ; I am not sure that I think so.
Winnie has always been incomprehensible to me, and
always will be, I suppose. Most likely that is
because I am too much of a sinner to enter into the
sensations of a saint."

" Such as you are, you are good enough for me,"
said Harry complacently.

" I flatter myself that I am. But Edmund Kirby

BILLY MAKES UIS ESCAPE 305

ifln*t good enough for Winnie ; and if you are wast-
ing sympathy upon her, as I can see that you are,
you may take comfort from the thouglit that Mr.
Bellew wouldn't have been good enough for her
either."

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... It is charming company in charming surroundings. Its
pathos, its humor, and its array of natural incidents are all
satisfying. One must feel thankful for so finished and ex-
quisite a story. . . . Not often do we find a more impressive
piece of work. — N. Y. Sun.

Sprinohaven. Illustrated. 12mo, Clotb, $1 50 ; 4to,
Paper, 25 cents.

LoRNA DooNE. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 00 ; 8vo,
Paper, 40 cents.

Kit and Kittt. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25 ; Paper, 35 cents

Christowell. 4to, Paper, 20 cents.

CradoCe No well. 8vo, Paper, 60 cents.

Erema ; or, My Father's Sin. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents.

Mart Anerley. 16mo, Cloth, |1 00; 4to, Paper,
15 cents.

Tommy Upmore. 16mo, Cloth, 50 cents ; Paper, 85 cts. ;
4to, Paper, 20 cents.

His tales, all of them, are pre-eminently meritorious.
They are remarkable for their careful elaboration, the con-
scientious finish of their workmanship, their affluence of
striking dramatic and narrative incident, their close observa-
tion and general interpretation of nature, their profusion of
picturesque description, and their quiet and sustained humor.
— Christian InieUigencer, N. T.

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, Niw Tobk.

tar The above toorks cure for eale by all hookseUert, er toill be
sent by the publieherSj poetage prepaid^ to any part of the United
States, Canada^ or Mexico, on receipt of the jniee.

By GEOEGE DU MAUEIEE

Trilby. A Novel. Illustrated by the Author.
Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 15; Three-
quarter Calf, $3 50 ; Three-quarter Crushed Le-
vant, $4 50.

Certainly, if it were not for its predecessor, we should
assign to " Trilby " a place in fiction absolutely companion-
less. ... It is one of the most unconventional and charm-
ing of novels. — Saturday Review^ London.

It is a charming story told with exquisite grace and ten-
derness. — N. Y. Tribune,

Mr. Du Maurier has written his tale with such original-
ity, unconventionality, and eloquence, such rollicking humor
and tender pathos, and delightful play of every lively fancy,
all running so briskly in exquisite English and with such vivid
dramatic picturing, that it is only comparable ... to the
freshness and beauty of a spring morning at the end of a
dragging winter. ... It is a thoroughly unique story. — N. Y.
Sun.

Peter Ibbetsox. With an Introduction by his
Cousin, Lady ***** ("Madge Plunket").
Edited and Illustrated by George du Maurier.
Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50.

That it is one of the most remarkable books that have
appeared for a long time is, however, indisputable. — N. Y,
Tribune,

There are no suggestions of mediocrity. The pathos is
true, the irony delicate, the satire severe when its subject is
unworthy, the comedy sparkling, and the tragedy, as we have
said, inevitable. One or two more such books, and the fame
of the artist would be dim beside that of the novelist. — iV. Y.
Evening Post.

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.

The above works are for sale by all booksellere, or u>ill he eent bp
the publisfiere^ postage prepaid^ to any part of ih/t UniUd StateSf
CanadOf or Mexico, on receipt of the price.

WILLIAM BLACK'S NOVELS

LIBRARY EDITION

Mr. Black knows so well just what to describe, and to what
length, that the scenery of his novels — by comparison with that
of many we are obliged to read — seems to have been freshened
by soft spring rains. His pamting of character, his conversa-
tions and situations, are never strongly dramatic and exciting,
but they are thoroughly good. He never gives us a tame or a
tiresome chapter, and this is something for which readers will
be profoundly grateful. — N". Y, Tribune.

A DAUGHTER OP HETH.

A PRINCESS OF THULE.

DONALD ROSS OF HEIMRA.

GREEN PASTURES AND PIC-
CADILLY.

IN FAR LOCHABER.

IN SILK ATTIRE.

JUDITH SHAEESPEARK IX-
iQBtrated.

KILMENY.

MACLEOD OF DARE. Dl'd.

MADCAP VIOLET.

PRINCE FORTUNATUS. Ill'd.

SABINA ZEMBRA.

SHANDON BELLS. Illastrated.

STAND FAST, CRAIG -ROYS-
TON I Illastrated.

SUNRISE.

THAT BEAUTIFUL WRETCH.
Illustrated.

THE MAGIC INK. AND OTH-
ER STORIES. Illustrated.

THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
OF A HOUSE-BOAT. Ill'd.

THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
OF A PHAETON.

THREE FEATHERS.

WHITE HEATHER.

WHITE WINGS. Illastrated.

YOLANDE. Illastrated.

12mo, Cloth, $1 25 per volame.

WOLFENBERQ.— THE HANDSOME HUMES.

Illastrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 per volame.

HIGHLAND COUSINS.

Ulustrated. 12mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 75

Complete Sets, 26 volumes. Cloth, $30 00 ; Half Calf, $S7 00.

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.

The above works are for tale by aU booksellers, or will he sent by
the publishers^ postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or
Mexico, on receipt of the price.

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