The girl who, with changing color, stood gazing at Lord Drake Selbie
might have stepped out of one of Marcus Stone's pictures. She was as
fair as a piece of biscuit china. Her hair was golden, and, strange to
say in these latter days, naturally so. It was, indeed, like the fleece
of gold itself under her fashionable yachting hat. Her eyes, widely
opened, with that curious look of surprise and fear, were hazel--a deep
hazel, which men, until they knew her, accepted as an indication of Lady
Lucille's depth of feeling. She was slightly built, but graceful, with
the grace of the fashionable modiste.
She was the product of the marriage of Art and Fashion of this
fin-de-siecle age. Other ages have given us wit, beauty allied with
esprit, dignity of demeanor, and a nobility of principle; this end of
the nineteenth century has bestowed upon us--Lady Lucille Turfleigh.
It is in its way a marvelous product. It is very beautiful, with the
delicate beauty of excessive culture and effete luxury. It has the
subtle charm of the exotic, of the tall and graceful arum, whose
spotless whiteness cannot bear a single breath of the keen east wind.
It is charming, bewitching; it looks all purity and spirituality; it
seems to breathe poetry and a Higher Culture. It goes through life like
a rose leaf floating upon a placid stream. It is precious to look at,
pleasant to live with, and it has only one defect--it has no heart.
We have cast off the old creeds like so many shackles; we are so finely
educated, so cultivated, that we have learned to do more than laugh at
sentiment; we regard it with a contemptuous pity.
There is only one thing which we value, and that is Pleasure. Some
persons labor under the mistaken notion that Money is the universal
quest; but it is not so. The Golden God is set up in every market place,
it stands at every street corner; but it is not for himself that the
crowd worship at the feet of the brazen image, but because he can buy so
much.
It is Money which nowadays holds the magician's rod. With a wave he can
give us rank, luxury, power, place, influence, and beauty. This is the
creed, the religion, which we teach our children, which is continually
in our hearts if not on our lips; and it is the creed, the religion, in
which Lady Lucille was reared.
Her history is a public one. It is the story of how many fashionable
women? Her father, Lord Turfleigh, was an Irish peer. He had inherited a
historic title, and thousands of acres which he had scarcely seen, but
which he had helped to incumber. All the Turfleighs from time immemorial
had been fast and reckless, but this Turfleigh had outpaced them all,
and had easily romped in first in the race of dissipation. As a young
man his name had been synonymous with every kind of picturesque
profligacy. Every pound he could screw out of the land, or obtain at
ruinous interest from the Jews, had been spent in what he and his kind
call pleasure.
He had married for money, had got it, and had spent it, even before his
patient and long-suffering wife had expiated the mistake of her life in
the only possible way. She had left Lady Lucille behind, and the girl
had matriculated and taken honors in her father's school.
To Lady Lucille there was only one thing in life worth having--money;
and to obtain this prize she had been carefully nurtured and laboriously
taught. Long before she left the nursery she had grown to understand
that her one object and sole ambition must be a wealthy and suitable
marriage; and to this end every advantage of mind and body had been
trained and cultivated as one trains a young thoroughbred for a great
race.
She had been taught to laugh at sentiment, to regard admiration as
valueless unless it came from a millionaire; to sneer at love unless it
paced, richly clad and warmly shod, from a palace. She had graduated in
the School of Fashion, and had passed with high honors. There was no
more beautiful woman in all England than Lady Lucille; few possessed
greater charm; men sang her praises; artists fought for the honor of
hanging her picture in the Academy; the society papers humbly reported
her doings, her sayings, and her conquests; royalties smiled approvingly
on this queen of fashion, and not a single soul, Lady Lucille herself
least of all, realized that this perfection was but the hollow husk and
shell of beauty without heart or soul; that behind the lovely face,
within the graceful form, lurked as selfish and ignoble a nature as that
which stirs the blood of any drab upon the Streets.
"Drake!" she said. "Why! I'd no idea! What are you doing here?"
He motioned her to a seat with a wave of his pipe, and she sank down on
the stone slab, after a careful glance at it, and eyed him curiously but
with still a trace of her first embarrassment.
She looked a perfect picture, as she sat there, with the steep,
descending wall, the red Devon cliffs, the blue, glittering sea for her
background; a picture which might have been presented with a summer
number of one of the illustrated weeklies; and all as unreal and as
unlike life as they are. It is true that she wore a yachting costume
exquisitely made and perfectly fitting; and Drake, as he looked at it,
acknowledged its claims upon his admiration, but he knew it was all a
sham, and, half unconsciously, he compared it with the old worn skirt
and the serviceable jersey worn by Nell, who had gone up the hill--how
long ago was it? Nell's face and hands were brown with the kiss of
God's sun; Lady Lucille's face was like a piece of delicate Sevres, and
her hands were incased in white kid gauntlets. To him, at that moment,
she looked like an actress playing in a nautical burlesque at the
Gaiety; and, for the first time since he had known her, he found himself
looking at her critically, and, notwithstanding her faultless
attire--faultless from a fashionable point of view--with disapproval.
"You are surprised to see me, Luce?" he said.
"Of course I am," she replied. "I'd no idea where you were. I've written
to you--twice."
"Have you?" he said. "That was good of you. I've not had your letters;
but that's my fault, not yours. I told Sparling not to send any letters
on."
She looked down, as if rather embarrassed, and dug at the interstices of
the rough stone pavement with her dainty, and altogether unnautical,
sunshade.
"But what are you doing here?" she asked. "And--and what's the matter
with your arm? Isn't that a sling?"
"Yes, it's a sling," he said casually. "I'd been hunting with the Devon
and Somerset; I found London unbearable, and I came down here suddenly.
I meant to write and tell you; but just then I wasn't in the humor to
write to any one, even to you. I lost my way in one of the runs, and was
riding down the top of the hill here, riding carelessly, I'll admit, for
when the horse shied, I was chucked off. I broke my arm and knocked my
head. Oh, don't trouble," he added hastily, as if to ward off her
commiseration. "I am all right now; the arm will soon be in working
order again."
"I'm very sorry," she said, lifting her eyes to his, but only for a
moment. "You look rather pulled down and seedy."
"Oh, I'm all right," he said. "And now, as I have explained my presence
here, perhaps you will explain yours."
"I've come here in the _Seagull_," she said. "Father's on board. He said
you'd offered to lend the yacht to him--you did, I suppose?"
Drake nodded indifferently.
"Oh, yes," he said. "The _Seagull_ was quite at your father's service."
"Well, father made a party; Sir Archie Walbrooke, Mrs. Horn-Wallis and
her husband, Lady Pirbright, and ourselves."
Drake nodded as indifferently as before. He knew the persons she had
mentioned; members of the smart set in which he had spent his life--and
his money; and Lady Lucille continued in somewhat apologetic fashion:
"We went to the Solent first, for the races; then, when they were all
over, everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves so much that
father--you know what he is--suggested that we should sail round the
Devon coast. It hasn't been a bad time; and Sir Archie has been rather
amusing, and Mrs. Horn-Wallis has kept things going. Oh, yes; it hasn't
been so bad."
"I'm glad you've been amused, Luce," he said, his eyes resting upon the
beautifully fair face with a touch of cynicism.
"We'd no idea you were anywhere here," she said, "or, of course, I would
have written and asked you to join us; though, I suppose, under the
circumstances----"
She hesitated for a moment, then went on with a little embarrassment,
which in no way detracted from her charm of voice and manner:
"I told father that, after what had happened, it was scarcely in good
taste to borrow your yacht. But you know what father is. He said that
though things were altered, your offer of the _Seagull_ stood good; that
you told him you didn't mean to use her this season, and that it was a
pity for her to lie idle. And so they persuaded me--very much against my
will, I must admit--to join them, and--and here I am, as you see."
Drake puffed at his pipe.
"I see," he said. "I needn't say that you are quite welcome to the
yacht, Lucille, or to anything that I have. As you say, things
are--altered. How much they are altered and changed, perhaps your
letters, if I had received them, would have told me. What was it that
you wrote me? Oh, don't be afraid," he added, with a faint smile, as she
turned her head away and poked with her sunshade at the crack in the
pavement. "I am strong; I can bear it. When a man has come a cropper in
every sense of the word, his nerves are braced for the receipt of
unwelcome tidings. I beg you won't be uncomfortable. Of course, you have
heard the news?"
She glanced at him sideways, and, despite her training, her lips
quivered slightly.
"Of course," she said. "Who hasn't? All the world knows it. Lord
Angleford's marriage has come upon us like a surprise--a thunderbolt. No
one would ever have expected that he would have been so foolish."
Drake looked at her as he never thought that he could have looked at
her--calmly, waitingly.
"No one expected him to marry," she went on. "He was quite an old
man--well, not old, but getting on. And you and he were always such
great friends. He--he always seemed so fond and so proud of you. Why did
you quarrel with him?"
"I didn't quarrel with him," said Drake quietly. "As you say, we have
always been good friends. He has always been good to me, ever since I
was a boy. Good and liberal. We have never had a cross word until now.
But you know my uncle--you know how keenly set he is on politics. He is
a Conservative of the old school; one of those old Tories whom we call
blue, and who are nearly extinct. God knows whether they are right or
wrong; I only know that I can't go with them. He asked me to stand for a
place in the Tory-Conservative interest. It was an easy place; I should
have been returned without difficulty. Most men would have done it; but
I couldn't. I don't go in very much for principle, either political or
moral; but my uncle's views--well, I couldn't swallow them. I was
obliged to decline. He cut up rough; sent me a letter with more bad
language in it than I've ever read in my life. Then he went and married
a young girl--an American."
Lady Lucille heaved a long sigh.
"How foolish of you!" she murmured. "As if it mattered."
Drake filled his pipe again, and smiled cynically over the match as he
lit it.
"That's your view of it?" he said. "I suppose--yes, I suppose you think
I've been a fool. I dare say you're right; but, unfortunately for me, I
couldn't look at it in that way. I stuck to my colors--that's a
highfalutin way of putting it--and I've got to pay the penalty. My
uncle's married, and, likely enough--in fact, in all probability--his
wife will present the world with a young Lord Angleford."
"She's quite a young woman," murmured Lucille, with the wisdom of her
kind.
"Just so," said Drake. "So I am in rather a hole. I always looked
forward to inheriting Anglemere and the estate and my uncle's money. But
all that is altered. He may have an heir who will very properly inherit
all that I thought was to be mine. I wrote and told you of this, though
it wasn't necessary; but I deemed it right to you to place the whole
matter before you, Lucille. I've no doubt that the society papers have
saved me the trouble, and helped you thoroughly to realize that the man
to whom you were engaged was no longer the heir to the earldom of
Angleford and Lord Angleford's money, but merely Drake Selbie, a mere
nobody, and plunged up to his neck in debts and difficulties."
She was silent, and he went on:
"See here, Luce, I asked you to marry me because I loved you. You are
the most beautiful woman I have ever met. I fell in love with you the
first time I saw you--at that dance of the Horn-Wallises. Do you
remember? I wanted you to be my wife; I wanted you more than I ever
wanted anything else in my life. Do you not remember the day I proposed
to you, there under Taplow Wood, at that picnic where we all got wet and
miserable? And you said 'Yes'; and my uncle was pleased. But all is
changed now; I am just Drake Selbie, with very little or no income, and
a mountain of debts; with no prospects of becoming Lord Angleford and
owner of the Angleford money and lands. And I want to know how this
change--strikes you; what you mean, to do?"
She glanced up at him sideways.
"You--you haven't got my letters?" she said.
He shook his head.
"I'm--I'm sorry," she said. "It isn't my fault. Father--you know what he
would say. He may be right. He said that--that you were ruined; that our
marriage would be quite impossible; that--that our engagement must be
broken off. Really, Drake, it is not my fault. You know how poor we are;
that--that a rich marriage is an absolute necessity for me. Father is up
to his neck in debt, too, and we scarcely seem to have a penny of ready
money; it's nothing but duns, and duns, and duns, every day in the week;
why, even now, we've had to bolt from London because I can't pay my
milliner's bill. It's simply impossible for me to marry a poor man. I
should only be a drag upon him; and father--well, father would be a drag
upon him, too; you know what father is. And--and so, Drake, I wrote and
told you that--that our engagement must be considered broken off and at
an end."
She paused a moment, and looked from right to left, like some feeble
animal driven into a corner, and restlessly conscious of Drake Selbie's
stern regard.
"Of course I'm very sorry. You know I'm--I'm very fond of you. I don't
think there is any one in the world like you; so--so handsome and--and
altogether nice. But what can I do? I can't run against the wish of my
father and of all my friends. In fact, I can't afford to marry you,
Drake."
He looked at her with a bitter smile on his lips, and a still more
bitter cynicism in his eyes.
"I understand," he said; "I quite understand. When you said that you
loved me, loved me with all your heart and soul, you meant that you
loved Drake Selbie, the heir of Angleford, the prospective owner of
Anglemere and Lord Angleford's money; and now that my uncle has married,
and that he may have a child which will rob me of the title and the
money, you draw back. You do not ask whether I have enough, you do not
offer to make any sacrifice. You just--jilt me!"
"You put it very harshly, Drake," she said, with a frown.
"I put it very truly and correctly," he said. "Can you deny it? You
cannot! The man who sits here beside you is quite a different man to the
one to whom you had plighted your troth. He is the same in bone and body
and muscle and sinew, but he doesn't happen to be Lord Angleford's heir.
And so you throw him over. No doubt you are right. It is the way of the
world in which you and I have been bred and trained."
"You are very cruel, Drake," she murmured, touching her eyes with a lace
handkerchief, too costly and elaborate for anything but ornament.
"I just speak the truth," he said. "I don't blame you. You are bred in
the same world as myself. We are both products of this modern fin de
siecle. To marry me would be a mistake; you decline to make it. I have
only to bow to your decision. I accept your refusal. After this present
moment you and I are friends only; not strangers; men and women in our
set are never strangers. But I pass out of your life from this moment.
Go back to the _Seagull_ with Archie and Mrs. Horn-Wallis, and find--as
I trust you will--a better man than I am."
She rose rather pale, but perfectly self-possessed.
"I--I am glad you take it so easily, Drake," she said. "You don't blame
me, do you? I couldn't run against father, could I? You know how poor we
are. I must make a good marriage, and--and----"
"And so it is 'good-by,'" he said.
He looked so stern, so self-contained, that her self-possession forsook
her for a moment, and she stood biting softly at her underlip and
looking by turns at the ultramarine sea and the stern face of the lover
whom she was discarding. He held out his hand again.
"Good-by, Luce," he said. "You have taught me a lesson."
"What--do you mean?" she asked.
He smiled.
"That women care only for rank and gold, and that without them a man
cannot hold you. I shall take it to heart Good-by."
She looked at him doubtfully, hesitatingly.
"You will take the _Seagull_ south?" he said. "Be good enough to ask
your father to wire me as to her whereabouts. I may need her. But don't
hurry. I'm only too glad that you are sailing her. Good-by."
She murmured "Good-by," and went down the steps slowly; and Drake,
Viscount Selbie, refilled his pipe. Then he rose quickly and overtook
her. She stopped and turned, and if he had expected to see signs of
emotion in her beautiful face, he was doomed to disappointment; indeed,
the look of apprehension with which she heard his voice had been
followed by one of relief.
"One moment," he said. "I want to ask you not to mention that you have
seen me here."
She opened her soft hazel eyes with some surprise and a great deal of
curiosity.
"Not say that I have seen you?" she said. "Of course, if you wish it;
but why?"
"The reason will seem to you inadequate, I am afraid," he said coldly;
"but the fact is, I am staying here under another name--my own is being
bandied about so much, you see," bitterly, "that I am a little tired of
it."
"I see," she said. "Then I am not to tell father. How will he know how
to address the wire about the yacht?"
"Send it to Sparling," he said. "I am sorry to have stopped you.
Good-by."
She inclined her head and murmured "Good-by" for the second time, and
went on again; but a few steps lower she stopped and pondered his
strange request.
"Curious," she murmured. "I wonder whether there is any other reason?
One knows what men are; and poor Drake is no better than the rest. Ah,
well, it does not matter to me--now. Thank goodness it is over! Though
one can always count upon Drake; he is too thorough a gentleman to make
a scene or bully a woman. Heaven knows I am sorry to break with him, and
I wish that old stupid hadn't made such a fool of himself; for Drake and
I would have got on very well. But as things are----As father says, it's
impossible. I wonder whether they are coming back; I am simply dying for
tea."
Before she got down to the jetty, her fellow voyagers caught her up.
They were in the best of spirits, and hilarious over the fact that Sir
Archie had slipped on one of the grassy slopes and stained his white
flannel suit with green; and Lady Lucille joined in the merriment.
"I'm sorry I didn't come, after all," she said. "It was rather boring
waiting there all alone; but perhaps Sir Archie will kindly fall down
again for my special benefit," and she laughed with the innocent,
careless laughter, of a child.