and water were rather magnificent, and something new, so that more
attention was given to the stage than was usual at such entertainments
in those days. The fashionable listeners did not turn their backs upon
the players and talk at the top of their voices all the while the play
was in progress, as in some houses, and Geraldine was quite wrapped in
contemplation of the monsters and mermaids and denizens of the deep,
with Father Neptune and his trident at their head, so that she knew
nothing of what went on in the box where she sat, till a voice at her
elbow spoke insistently.
"They lack but one thing more--snow-white Aphrodite rising in peerless
beauty from the foam of the sea; and yet the audience has but to turn
its eyes hither, and behold they will see that crowning marvel for
themselves!"
The girl started, and looked full into the eyes of Lord Sandford, bent
upon her with a significance there was no misunderstanding. He was
dressed in a daring costume of scarlet and gold, with quantities of lace
and sparkling jewels. Even his well-turned legs were encased in scarlet
stockings, and his shoes were of the same flaming hue. His height and
breadth of shoulder always made him a notable figure; and the immense
wig he wore, which to-night was cunningly powdered so as to look almost
like frosted silver, added to the distinction of his appearance. Gilded
popinjay Lord Sandford with all his extravagances could never be called.
There was something too virile and strong about his whole personality
for that.
"I do not like compliments, my lord," she answered, the words escaping
her lips almost before she was aware; "I have heard something too much
of Venus and Cupid, Pallas and Hymen, since I made my appearance in
London routs. I am but a simple country maid, and desire no high-flown
compliments. I am foolish enough to regard them rather as honeyed
insults. I pray you pardon my freedom of speech."
"I pray you pardon mine," spoke Lord Sandford quickly. "You have
spoken, Lady Geraldine, a deeper truth than perchance you know. I, for
one, will not offend again. I would that all our sisters, wives, and
daughters would look as you and speak as you."
The frank sincerity in face and voice pleased her, and a smile dawned in
her eyes. It was the first he had ever seen bent on him, and he was
struck afresh with the pure unsullied beauty of this girl's face. Truth
to tell, his first attraction towards her had been the rumour of her
fortune, for he was more deeply in debt than he wished the world to
know; but something in the remoteness and isolation in which she seemed
to wrap herself piqued and interested him; for his jaded palate required
fresh food when it was to be had, and the vein of manliness and strength
which his life had never altogether warped or destroyed responded to the
sincerity he read in Lady Geraldine's fair face.
The curtain was down now. For a few minutes he spoke of the play and
the water apparatus, worked by a windmill on the roof, which was
exciting so much interest in London. Geraldine's eyes meantime
travelled round the box. She saw her mother engrossed in gay talk with
a small circle of admirers; but one of these edged himself somewhat away
from the rest, and finally stood apart, leaning against the wall of the
box and surveying the house from that vantage point.
Geraldine's eyes were riveted with some interest upon this newcomer,
whom she was certain she had never seen before. In some indefinable way
he was different from the men she had been used to meet at such places.
For one thing, he wore his own hair; and the floating brown curls, like
Cavalier love-locks, seemed to her infinitely more becoming than the
mass of false hair which was so much in vogue in all ranks save the
lowest. His dress, too, though far more simple than that of the beaux
fluttering round her mother, seemed to her far more graceful and
distinguished. His stockings, breeches, and vest were all of white,
with a little silver frosting. His coat was of pale blue, with silver
buttons; and his lace cravat, though small and unostentatious, was rich
in quality, and fastened by a beautiful pearl. He carried neither muff
nor snuff-box, cane nor toothpick. He did not simper nor ogle, nor look
as though he desired to attract the eyes of the house upon himself. But
he was, notwithstanding, a rather notable figure as he stood looking
gravely and thoughtfully downwards; there was something very graceful in
his attitude, and in the carriage of his head, and his features were so
remarkably handsome that Lady Romaine turned her eyes upon him many
times, and exerted all her artifices to draw him back to her immediate
neighbourhood. But he was perfectly unconscious of this, not hearing
the chatter which went on about him, lost in some reverie of his own,
which brought a peculiar dreamy softness into his eyes.
Lord Sandford, following the direction of Geraldine's glance, looked at
this motionless figure, then back at the girl, and laughed.
"Lady Geraldine, pray permit me to present to you my newly-made friend
and comrade, Sir Grey Dumaresq, who, I doubt not, is dying to make his
bow to so fair a lady."
She flashed him a glance half merry, half reproachful, and he suddenly
laid his hand upon his lips, a laugh rolling from them hearty and full.
"I' faith I had forgot! How shall I teach my rebel tongue a new
language? But Sir Grey will atone for all my defects.--Here is a lady,
if you will believe it, O friend, who loves not the sugared and honeyed
phrase of adulation, but seeks in all things truth, virtue, and I know
not what else beside. It is whispered to me that she is a mistress of
all the _belles lettres_, and perchance a poetess herself."
"Nay, my lord," answered Geraldine, with a blush and a smile--"only one
who loves the poesy of those who have lived before, and left their
treasures for us who come after, and would fain drink in all the beauty
of their thoughts and of their lives."
Lord Sandford good-naturedly yielded his seat to Grey, whose sensitive
face had lighted at the girl's words.
"Methought I had come to a world where naught was dreamed of save
fashion and frippery, false adulation and falser scorn. I am well-nigh
stunned by the clamour of tongues, the strife of parties, the bustle of
this gay life of fashion."
"Oh, and I too--I too!" breathed the girl softly: and he flashed at her
a quick, keen glance of sympathy and interest.
"I was bred in the country; my grandam brought me up. I lived with my
books, amid silvan solitudes, the songs of birds, the scent of flowers.
This great glittering world of folly and fashion is like a fiery wheel
going round in my head. Ofttimes I could cry aloud for mercy, the pain
and bewilderment are so great. I know there must be noble men and good
in this strange Pandemonium; but I know not where to find them, and my
heart grows sick. Would that I could go back to my books and my dreams!
But alas! a maiden may not choose for herself."
"Still there is life here," spoke Grey quickly, "and it behoves us to
know men as well as books. I have studied both. I will study them
again. I would fain learn all that life has to teach, whether for weal
or woe. No hermit-monk was ever truly a man. Yet there be times when
one shrinks in amaze from all one sees and hears."
The chord of sympathy was struck. They passed from one thing to
another. She found one at last who knew and loved the poets of her
childhood's dreams--who could talk of Spenser and Sidney, of Watson,
Greville, and Drayton, quoting their verses, and often lighting upon her
favourite passages. Here was a man who knew Milton and Clarendon,
Hobbes, Herbert, Lovelace and Suckling, Lord Herbert of Cherbury and
Izaak Walton. He had read eagerly, like herself, poetry and prose,
drama and epic, lyric and sonnet. He could speak of Poetry as one who
had loved and courted her as a mistress. The girl longed to ask him if
he had written himself, but maiden shyness withheld her. Yet her eyes
brightened as she talked, and the peach-like colour rose and deepened in
her cheeks; and Lord Sandford, turning back once again from the mother
to look at the daughter, was struck dumb with admiration and delight.
"There is a rose worth winning and wearing, though the stem may not be
free from a sharp thorn," he said to himself; and Lady Romaine, who
chanced to catch sight of Geraldine during a shifting of the admirers
who surrounded her, gave something very like a start, and felt a curious
thrill run through her in which pride and envy were blended.
"Gracious! I did not know I had so handsome a daughter! I must wed her
as fast as may be, else shall I find my beaux going from me to her," was
her unspoken thought; and aloud she said, tapping Lord Sandford with her
fan, "Pray tell my daughter that I am about to depart. We have had
enough of the naiads and dryads, and I am tired and hungry. Who will
come home with me to supper--to take pot-luck with us?"
There was an eager clamour in response; but when the supper-party
assembled round Lady Romaine's chocolate tables in her favourite private
parlour, she noted that Geraldine had disappeared to bed, and that Sir
Grey Dumaresq had not availed himself of her open invitation.
*CHAPTER VII.*
*A FAIR FACE.*
If Grey Dumaresq was a man who craved a variety of experiences, and
wished to see life under different aspects, he was getting his wish now;
for the gay world of fashion, into which he suddenly found himself
plunged, differed _in toto_ from any of his former experiences; and so
swift was the pace, and so shifting the throng amid which he moved, that
he often felt as though his breath were fairly taken away, and as though
he had suddenly stepped into a new existence.
Lord Sandford had chanced upon the young baronet at a moment when a
blank had been made in his own life by the sudden and violent death of
one who had been his boon companion and friend. The gay young man, who
had fallen in a foolish duel a few weeks before, had been the inmate of
his house and the companion in all his freaks and follies; so much so,
that without him the young nobleman felt for the moment bewildered and
lost, and had absented himself from town with a view to "getting over
it," as he hoped: for he despised himself for any sign of weakness, and
would not for worlds have had his comrades and boon companions know how
the loss had affected him.
Then, as it seemed just by a lucky chance, this young and attractive man
had fallen as from the very skies at his feet. Grey Dumaresq, new to
the world of London, curious and speculative, willing to see all, learn
all, participate in all, seemed exactly the person to fill the gap in
his life. Grey had no place of abode; why, then, should he not occupy
the vacant chambers in the wing of the great mansion in the Strand which
Lord Sandford used as his customary lodging, when he was not spending
his time with friends, or making one of a gay party elsewhere? Grey had
no valid reason for declining the invitation pressed upon him. Lord
Sandford was a masterful man, and his strong personality impressed
itself upon Grey with something between attraction and repulsion. But,
on the whole, attraction seemed the stronger power, and curiosity to
know more of this man and his life held Grey's soul in thrall. He had
always experienced a vivid curiosity to taste life in its various forms,
to know and understand the thoughts, the feelings, the aspirations, the
ambitions of other men. His travels had given him insight into many
matters; but he felt that these new experiences were likely to be more
searching, more exciting, more full of keen personal interest. He had
been, as it were, a spectator heretofore; now he was to be a
participator.
He had not meant to be any man's guest; he had meant to take a modest
lodging of his own, and look about him for something in the way of
employment, but Lord Sandford had roared with laughter over such a
notion.
"What! Sir Grey Dumaresq going cap in hand to some proud place-giver to
ask for patronage, or I know not what! Gadzooks, man, with that face,
that figure, that horse, and a purse full of guineas, you can do better
than that! Trust yourself to me. I'll show you where fame and fortune
lie. You shall redeem your rat-infested old house in a very brief
while, if you will but trust yourself to my guidance. You be Damon to
my Pythias--or is it t'other way round, eh?--and I'll show you the royal
road to the goal you want."
For lack of any definite plans, Grey had consented for the nonce to
accept Lord Sandford's advice, and had quickly found himself installed
in some gloomy and stately yet luxurious chambers in a vast house, of
which only a portion was open for use, and the rest given over to a
neglect and decay that Hartsbourne itself could scarcely rival.
"But we shall change all that some day," spoke Lord Sandford, with a
careless laugh, as Grey expressed his surprise at the vast rooms and
long galleries shut up and infested by rats and spiders. "Oh yes, we
shall change all that some day; but what does a bachelor want with such
a house as this? What should I be the better for a crowd of liveried
servants, eating off their heads, idling away their time dicing and
drinking? What have I to give an army of scullions and cooks to do--I
who seldom take a meal at home after my morning chocolate? No, no; I
know a trick worth two of that. I don't ruin myself to keep a crew of
fat, lazy rogues about me, cheating me at every turn. Half a dozen
fellows and a few kitchen wenches do well enow for me; but when Lady
Sandford comes to her husband's home--ah well! then we shall see the
difference."
But though he talked jestingly from time to time of the Lady Sandford
that was to be, he gave Grey no hint as to whether his fancy inclined
more to one or another of the many gay maidens with whom he chatted and
flirted, danced and romped, in the fashion of the day; and so
bewildering and dazzling were these young madams and their surroundings
that the newcomer was lost in a maze of wonder and bewilderment, and
found it hard to distinguish one face from another, until he met one,
different from all the rest.
But Grey was not left idle; he had small time for musing. The very
first day of his sojourn in London he was surrounded by a fluttering
crowd of tailors, glove-sellers, barbers, fencers, sellers and purveyors
of every imaginable ware, who all professed their eagerness to serve
him, and quoted Lord Sandford as a patron who could swear to their
honesty and the excellence of their goods.
Into the midst of this motley throng Lord Sandford thrust himself,
laughing his great hearty laugh, and quickly sent to the right-about
two-thirds of the importunate crowd--a jest here, a keen thrust there, a
slap on back or shoulder in another quarter, emphasizing his forcible
hints. And when the room was cleared of all but the lucky few, he flung
himself into an armchair with another laugh, telling Grey he was sorry
his knaves of servants, who looked for perquisites everywhere, had let
in this flood of rogues upon him, but added that he must needs have the
wherewithal to cut a proper figure in London town, and forthwith set
about the business of ordering an outfit for the young man which almost
took his guest's breath away.
"Poof!" he cried, when the latter strove to remonstrate, "you have
plenty of money; and these rascals can wait if it suits your pleasure.
Father's memory! Oh, be hanged to all such mawkish sentiment! You need
not think less of your father because you wear a blue coat in lieu of a
black! Rabbit me! but you are of a different world from this if you keep
alive your father's memory for six months after his decease! No, no;
you must cut a figure. Sir Hugh's name is clean forgot by now. I'll eat
my boots if 'tis not so. I'll have you as gay as my fancy paints you.
No black--no sables for the gentleman, I tell you. Let us see those
other patterns. Ah! here is something more like."
Grey submitted. In sooth, he cared but little for the colour of his
clothes, or the set of his hat, or the cut of his coat. He let Lord
Sandford have his way for the most part, only insisting here and there
upon soft and tender tints, and showing a predilection for white, which
his friend quite approved.
"You shall be a foil to me, not a rival. I have learned that art from
the ladies. I like to blaze like old Sol in his strength; you shall
rather recall gentle Luna amid her galaxy of stars. Faugh! One's tongue
gets into this silly trick of speech, so that one cannot drop it even
betwixt man and man! But you are right to think that white becomes you
well. You will look a pretty fellow, in all conscience, when you have
added a peruke to your other adornments."
But here Grey stood firm. Nothing would induce him to cumber his head
with one of those mountains of hair. In vain the perruquiers displayed
their wares; in vain Lord Sandford bantered and laughed, and made out
that he would be reckoned as a mad fellow by the young bloods of the
city. Grey would not yield an inch. He had always found his own hair
sufficient and comfortable, and he would wear it to the end. And as the
discomfited perruquier at last departed, Lord Sandford broke into
another of his great laughs.
"I' faith you are right, man. I like you the better that you have the
courage of your opinions, and care no whit for fashion. You'll be a
match for more than the perruquiers yet. There's a fighting strain in
your blood. I can see it in the glint of your eye. Well, you shall not
lack opportunity to fight as well as to laugh here in London town; but
we'll not have cold steel or hot lead again. I've seen enough of that
cursed duelling to last me for a lifetime."
Grey was quickly to discover the nature of the battles in which he was
to take a part, and at the first he shrank from them with an instinctive
aversion he could not well have defined, being no grave moralist or
philosopher. Contests of skill or of luck at the gaming tables were all
the rage of the day with the young dandies of the town, and the man who
could keep a steady head, and in some cases a steady hand, was certain
in the long run to obtain advantage over his fellows. At one club a
game something like our modern billiards was all the rage; and, of
course, a man who was moderate in his cups could score heavily over the
reckless, dissipated bloods, who were seldom sober after sundown. Dice
and cards had their vogue at other places; and though some of the games
played were those purely of chance, others required no small skill and a
clear head to ensure success, and it was here that Lord Sandford's
strong head and Grey's cool blood and temperate habits gave them the
advantage.
The young man had not been a fortnight in town before finding his
capital doubled, as well as all bills paid to the astonished tradesmen,
who seldom looked to receive their money within a twelvemonth. He was
disposed to be troubled at this easy fashion of making money; but Lord
Sandford laughed him to scorn.
"Zounds, man, what does it matter? Those young popinjays are bound to
lose their money to some one. Why not then to honest fellows like you
and me, who pay our bills and do good to the community with the money?
Scruples! Faugh! you must rid yourself of them! Sir Hugh Dumaresq's
son need not trouble himself thus. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow
we die. Isn't that good Scripture?" But the reckless young lord paled
a little at the sound of his own words. He had seen sudden death once
too often for his peace of mind of late.
In sooth, Grey felt but little scruple in taking his winnings. The
young man was not greatly in advance of his age, although he was indued
with a nature more finely strung and aspirations more lofty than
belonged to most. Gambling was so much a matter of course both in this
and in other lands, and the devotees of the amusement so numerous and so
bent upon their sport, that it would have needed stronger convictions
than Grey as yet possessed to make any stand on such a point. He took
the same risks as the others, and if his coolness of head, steadiness of
hand, and quick observation and memory served to make for success in his
case, he rather regarded this as a witness to his superiority, and felt
only a small sense of reluctance in pocketing his gains; which
reluctance he could only attribute to a lingering memory of words spoken
by his mother when he was a growing boy, and news came to them from time
to time of Sir Hugh's losses over cards, and the necessity for further
retrenchments upon the already impoverished estate.
But the cases being so dissimilar, Grey did not see that he need debar
himself from this easy highroad to fortunes, as it then seemed. Nobody
was dependent upon him. Nobody was there to grieve over his troubles or
to rejoice over his success. His honest serving-man was in sooth the
only being in any way deeply attached to him; and Dick was as delighted
at his master's brave appearance, and at the golden stream running into
his pocket, as though he had achieved some great success or triumph.
There was one way by which Grey had pocketed considerable sums of money
that was very congenial to him, and had given him some very happy hours.
This was the speed and strength of his horse, which Lord Sandford had
made boast of, vowing in the hearing of some of the smartest dandies of
the town that Don Carlos would beat any steed against whom he was
pitted--a challenge eagerly taken up by the young bloods, proud of their
own horses and horsemanship, to whom trials of skill and strength, and
contests over which wagers might freely be exchanged, were as the very
salt of life.
So either out at Hampstead, or at Richmond or Hampton Court, Don Carlos
had been set to show the metal of which he was made, and had come off
easy victor in every race and every match, whether flat running, or
leaping, or a course of the nature of a steeplechase had been elected.
His strength and speed, sagacity and endurance, had never once failed
him, and already he was the talk of the town, and Grey could have sold
him for a great price had he been willing to part with his favourite.
Many bright eyes had smiled upon the young centaur, many languishing
glances had been cast at him. He had been called up again and again to
be presented to some high-born dame, or some bevy of laughing maidens,
and he had bowed with courtly grace, and received their sugared
compliments with suitable acknowledgments. But no face had attracted
him as that face he had seen once at the water theatre, almost upon his
first appearance in the gay world. He knew that it belonged to Lady
Geraldine Romaine; and often his eyes roved round some gay assemblage,
searching half unconsciously for a sight of her tall and graceful
figure, and the sweet, earnest face, so different from the laughing and
grimacing crowd in which he now moved. Grey had not known much of
women, so far. His college life first, and then his roving career of
adventure, had hindered him from making friendships save with those of
his own sex; and his deep love for his mother had preserved as a living
power his chivalrous belief in women, and a resolute determination to
disbelieve the idle, malicious, and vicious tales he heard of them on
all sides. Womanhood was sacred to him, and should be sacred to the
world. That was his inalienable conviction; and he had striven to be
blind and deaf to much of what had often been passing around him, that
he might not sink to the level of the men he met, who would tear to
tatters a woman's reputation for an evening's pastime, or revel in every
ugly bit of scandal or tittle-tattle that the young beaux' valets
learned from the lackeys of other fine folk, and retailed with additions
at the door of the theatre, the gates of the Park, or on the staircases
of the fashionable houses whither their masters and mistresses flocked
for amusement, unconscious or heedless of the gossip spread abroad about
them by their servants at the doors.
Grey took no pleasure in the society of these fashionable dames. His
tongue had not learned the trick of the artificial language then in
vogue. He was disgusted by the gross flattery every lady looked to
receive, and the lisping platitudes of the attendant beaux filled him
with scorn. It was small wonder that he chose rather the society of men
of more virility and stronger fibre, such as Lord Sandford and his
chosen friends; for though many of them were wild young rakes, and not a
few had a very doubtful record, yet Grey knew little enough about that,
and found them not without attraction, although the higher part of his
nature revolted from much that he saw and heard. Nevertheless, he
regarded it all as a part of the experience in life which he craved, and
he might have become in a short while just such another as these, had it
not been for an incident which suddenly arrested him in his career of
dissipation, and turned his thoughts into different channels.