Birds of Prey — Book the 3rd, Part 6

AUNT SARAH.

After that interview in Gray's Inn, there were more interviews of a like character.

Valentine received further instructions from George Sheldon, and got himself posted up in the Haygarthian history, so far as the lawyer's information furnished the materials for such posting.

But the sum total of Mr. Sheldon's information seemed very little to his coadjutor when the young man looked the Haygarthian business full in the face and considered what he had to do.

He felt very much like a young prince in the fairy tale who has been bidden to go forth upon an adventurous journey in a trackless forest, where if he escape all manner of lurking dangers, and remember innumerable injunctions, such as not to utter a single syllable during the whole course of his travels, or look over his left shoulder, or pat any strange dog, or gather forest fruit or flower, or look at his own reflection in mirror or water-pool, shining brazen shield or jewelled helm, he will ultimately find himself before the gates of an enchanted castle, to which he may or may not obtain admittance.

Valentine fancied himself in the position of this favourite young prince.

The trackless forest was the genealogy of the Haygarths; and in the enchanted castle he was to find the crown of success in the shape of three thousand pounds.

Could he marry Charlotte on the strength of those three thousand pounds, if he were so fortunate as to unravel the tangled skein of the Haygarth history?

Ah, no; that black-whiskered stockbroking stepfather would ask for something more than three thousand pounds from the man to whom he gave his wife's daughter.

"He will try to marry her to some rich City swell, I dare say," thought Valentine.

"I should be no nearer her with three thousand pounds for my fortune than I am without a sixpence.

The best thing I can do for her happiness and my own is to turn my back upon her, and devote myself to hunting the Haygarths.

It's rather hard too, just as I have begun to fancy that she likes me a little."

In the course of those interviews in Gray's Inn which occurred before Valentine took any active steps in his new pursuit, certain conditions were agreed upon between him and Mr. Sheldon.

The first and most serious of these conditions was, that Captain Paget should be in nowise enlightened as to his _protégé's_ plans.

This was a strong point with George Sheldon.

"I have no doubt Paget's a very good fellow," he said.

(It was his habit to call everybody a good fellow.

He would have called Nana Sahib a good fellow, and would have made some good-natured excuse for any peccadilloes on the part of that potentate).

"Paget's an uncommonly agreeable man, you know; but he is not the man I should care to trust with this kind of secret."

Mr. Sheldon said this with a tone that implied his willingness to trust Captain Paget with every other kind of secret, from the contents of his japanned office-boxes to the innermost mysteries of his soul.

"You see Paget is thick with my brother Phil," he resumed; "and whenever I find a man thick with my relations, I make it a point to keep clear of that man myself.

Relations never have worked well in harness, and never will work well in harness.

It seems to be against nature.

Now Phil has a dim kind of idea of the game I want to play, in a general way, but nothing more than a dim idea.

He fancies I'm a fool, and that I'm wasting my time and trouble.

I mean him to stick to that notion.

For, you see, in a thing of this kind there's always a chance of other people cutting in and spoiling a man's game.

Of course, that advertisement I read to you was seen by other men besides me, and may have been taken up.

My hope is that whoever has taken it up has gone in for the female branch, and got himself snowed up under a heap of documentary evidence about the Judsons.

That's another reason why we should put our trust in Matthew Haygarth.

The Judson line is the obvious line to follow, and there are very few who would think of hunting up evidence for a hypothetical first marriage until they had exhausted the Judsons.

Now, I rely upon you to throw dust in Paget's eyes, so that there may be no possibility of my brother getting wind of our little scheme through him."

"I'll take care of that," answered Valentine; "he doesn't want me just now.

He's in very high feather, riding about in broughams and dining at West-end taverns.

He won't be sorry to get rid of me for a short time."

"But what'll be your excuse for leaving town?

He'll be sure to want a reason, you know."

"I'll invent an aunt at Ullerton, and tell him I'm going down to stop with her."

"You'd better not say Ullerton; Paget might take it into his head to follow you down there in order to see what sort of person your aunt was, and whether she had any money.

Paget's an excellent fellow, but there's never any knowing what that sort of man will do.

You'd better throw him off the scent altogether.

Plant your aunt in Surrey--say Dorking."

"But if he should want to write to me?"

"Tell him to address to the post-office, Dorking, as your aunt is inquisitive, and might tamper with your correspondence.

I daresay his letters will keep."

"He could follow me to Dorking as easily as to Ullerton."

"Of course he could," answered George Sheldon; "but then, you see, at Dorking the most he could find out would be that he'd been made a fool of; whereas if he followed you to Ullerton, he might ferret out the nature of your business there."

Mr. Hawkehurst perceived the wisdom of this conclusion, and agreed to make Dorking the place of his relative's abode.

"It's very near London," he suggested thoughtfully; "the Captain might easily run down."

"And for that very reason he's all the less likely to do it," answered the lawyer; "a man who thinks of going to a place within an hour's ride of town knows he can go any day, and is likely to think of going to the end of the chapter without carrying out his intention.

A man who resolves to go to Manchester or Liverpool has to make his arrangements accordingly, and is likely to put his idea into practice.

The people who live on Tower-hill very seldom see the inside of the Tower.

It's the good folks who come up for a week's holiday from Yorkshire and Cornwall who know all about the Crown jewels and John of Gaunt's armour.

Take my advice, and stick to Dorking."

Acting upon this advice, Valentine Hawkehurst lay in wait for the Promoter that very evening.

He went home early, and was seated by a cheery little bit of fire, such as an Englishman likes to see at the close of a dull autumn day, when that accomplished personage returned to his lodgings.

"Deuced tiresome work," said the Captain, as he smoothed the nap of his hat with that caressing tenderness of manipulation peculiar to the man who is not very clear as to the means whereby his next hat is to be obtained,--"deuced slow, brain-belabouring work!

How many people do you think I've called upon to-day, eh, Val?

Seven-and-thirty!

What do you say to that?

Seven-and-thirty interviews, and some of them very tough ones.

I think that's enough to take the steam out of a man."

"Do the moneyed swells bite?"

asked Mr. Hawkehurst, with friendly interest.

"Rather slowly, my dear Val, rather slowly.

The mercantile fisheries have been pretty well whipped of late years, and the fish are artful--they are uncommonly artful, Val.

Indeed, I'm not quite clear at this present moment as to the kind of fly they'll rise to most readily.

I'm half inclined to be doubtful whether your gaudy pheasant-feather, your brougham and lavender-kid business is the right thing for your angler.

It has been overdone, Val, considerably overdone; and I shouldn't wonder if a sober little brown fly--a shabby old chap in a rusty greatcoat, with a cotton umbrella under his arm--wouldn't do the trick better.

That sort of thing would look rich, you see, Val--rich and eccentric; and I think on occasions--with a _very_ downy bird--I'd even go so far as a halfp'orth of snuff in a screw of paper.

I really think a pinch of snuff out of a bit of paper, taken at the right moment, might turn the tide of a transaction."

Impressed by the brilliancy of this idea, Captain Paget abandoned himself for the moment to profound meditation, seated in his favourite chair, and with his legs extended before the cheerful blaze.

He always had a favourite chair in every caravanserai wherein he rested in his manifold wanderings, and he had an unerring instinct which guided him in the selection of the most comfortable chair, and that one corner, to be found in every room, which is a sanctuary secure from the incursions of Boreas.

The day just ended had evidently not been a lucky one, and the Captain's gaze was darkly meditative as he looked into the ruddy little fire.

"I think I'll take a glass of cold water with a dash of brandy in it, Val," he said presently; and he said it with the air of a man who rarely tasted such a beverage; whereas it was as habitual with him to sit sipping brandy-and-water for an hour or so before he went to bed as it was for him to light his chamber candle.

"That fellow Sheldon knows how to take care of himself," he remarked thoughtfully, when Valentine had procured the brandy-and-water.

"Try some of that cognac, Val; it's not bad.

To tell you the truth, I'm beginning to get sick of this promoting business.

It pays very little better than the India-rubber agency, and it's harder work.

I shall look about me for something fresh, if Sheldon doesn't treat me handsomely.

And what have you been doing for the last day or two?"

asked the Captain, with a searching glance at his _protégé's_ face.

"You're always hanging about Sheldon's place; but you don't seem to do much business with him.

You and his brother George seem uncommonly thick."

"Yes, George suits me better than the stockbroker.

I never could get on very well with your ultra-respectable men.

I'm as ready to 'undertake a dirty job' as any man; but I don't like a fellow to offer me dirty work and pretend it's clean."

"Ah, he's been getting you to do a little of the bear business, I suppose," said the Captain.

"I don't see that your conscience need trouble you about that.

Amongst a commercial people money must change hands.

I can't see that it much matters how the change takes place."

"No, to be sure; that's a comfortable way of putting it, at any rate.

However, I'm tired of going about in the ursine guise, and I'm going to cut it.

I've an old aunt settled at Dorking who has got a little bit of money to leave, and I think I'll go and look her up."

"An aunt at Dorking!

I never heard of her before."

"O yes you have," answered Mr. Hawkehurst, with supreme nonchalance;

"you've heard of her often enough, only you've a happy knack of not listening to other people's affairs.

But you must have been wrapped up in yourself with a vengeance if you don't remember to have heard me speak of my aunt--Sarah."

"Well, well, it may be so," murmured the Captain, almost apologetically.

"Your aunt Sarah?

Ah, to be sure; I have some recollection: is she your father's sister?"

"No; she's the sister of my maternal grandmother--a great-aunt, you know.

She has a comfortable little place down at Dorking, and I can get free quarters there whenever I like; so as you don't particularly want me just now, I think I'll run down to her for a week or two."

The Captain had no objection to offer to this very natural desire on the part of his adopted son; nor did he concern himself as to the young man's motive for leaving London.

CHAPTER VIII. CHARLOTTE PROPHESIES RAIN.

Mr. Hawkehurst had no excuse for going to the Lawn before his departure; but the stately avenues between Bayswater and Kensington are free to any man; and, having nothing better to do, Valentine put a shabby little volume of Balzac in his pocket, and spent his last morning in town under the shadow of the mighty elms, reading one of the great Honoré's gloomiest romances, while the autumn leaves drifted round him, dancing fairy measures on the grass, and scraping and scuffling on the gravel, and while children with hoops and children with balls scampered and screamed in the avenue by which he sat.

He was not particularly absorbed by his book.

He had taken it haphazard from the tattered collection of cheap editions which he carried about with him in his wanderings, ignominiously stuffed into the bottom of a portmanteau, amongst boots and clothes-brushes and disabled razors.

"I'm sick of them all," he thought; "the De Beauseants, and Rastignacs, the German Jews, and the patrician beauties, and the Israelitish Circes of the Rue Taitbout, and the sickly self-sacrificing provincial angels, and the ghastly _vieilles filles_.

Had that man ever seen such a woman as Charlotte, I wonder--a bright creature, all smiles and sunshine, and sweet impulsive tenderness; an angel who can be angelic without being _poitrinaire_, and whose amiability never degenerates into scrofula?

There is an odour of the dissecting-room pervading all my friend Balzac's novels, and I don't think he was capable of painting a fresh, healthy nature.

What a mass of disease he would have made Lucy Ashton, and with what dismal relish he would have dilated upon the physical sufferings of Amy Robsart in the confinement of Cumnor Hall!

No, my friend Honoré, you are the greatest and grandest of painters of the terrible school; but the time comes when a man sighs for something brighter and better than your highest type of womanhood."

Mr. Hawkehurst put his book in his pocket, and abandoned himself to meditation, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands, unconscious of the trundling hoops and screaming children.

"She is better and fairer than the fairest heroine of a novel," he thought.

"She is like Heloise.

Yes, the quaint old French fits her to a nicety: 'Elle ne fu oscure ne brune, Ains fu clere comme la lune, Envers qui les autres estoiles Ressemblent petites chandoiles.'

Mrs. Browning must have known such a woman: 'Her air had a meaning, her movements a grace;

You turned from the fairest to gaze on her face;'

and yet 'She was not as pretty as women I know.'

Was she not?"

mused the lover.

"Is she not?

Yes," he cried suddenly, as he saw a scarlet petticoat gleaming in the distance, and a bright young face under a little black turban hat--prettiest and most bewitching of all feminine headgear, let fashion change as it may.

"Yes," he cried, "she is the loveliest creature in the world, and I love her to distraction."

He rose, and went to meet the loveliest creature in the world, whose earthly name was Charlotte Halliday.

She was walking with Diana Paget, who, to more sober judges, might have seemed the handsomer woman of the two.

Alas for Diana!

the day had been when Valentine Hawkehurst considered her very handsome, and had need to fight a hard battle with himself in order not to fall in love with her.

He had been conqueror in that struggle of prudence and honour against nascent love, only to be vanquished utterly by Charlotte's brighter charms and Charlotte's sunnier nature.

The two girls shook hands with Mr. Hawkehurst.

An indifferent observer might have perceived that the colour faded from the face of one, while a blush mounted to the cheeks of the other.

But Valentine did not see the sudden pallor of Diana's face--he had eyes only for Charlotte's blushes.

Nor did Charlotte herself perceive the sudden change in her dearest friend's countenance.

And that perhaps is the bitterest sting of all.

It is not enough that some must weep while others play; the mourners must weep unnoticed, unconsoled; happiness is so apt to be selfish.

Of course the conversation was the general sort of thing under the given circumstances--just a little more inane and disjointed than the ordinary small talk of people who meet each other in their walks abroad.

"How do you do, Mr. Hawkehurst?

--Very well, thank you.

--Mamma is very well; at least no, not quite well; she has one of her headaches this morning.

She is rather subject to headache, you know; and the canaries sing so loud.

Don't the canaries sing abominably loud, Diana?

--loudly they would have made me say at Hyde Lodge; but it is only awfully clever people who know when to use adverbs."

And Miss Halliday having said all this in a hurried and indeed almost breathless manner, stopped suddenly, blushing more deeply than at first, and painfully aware of her blushes.

She looked imploringly at Diana; but Diana would not come to the rescue; and this morning Mr. Hawkehurst seemed as a man struck with sudden dumbness.

There followed presently a little discussion of the weather.

Miss Halliday was possessed by the conviction that there would be rain--possibly not immediate rain, but before the afternoon inevitable rain.

Valentine thought not; was, indeed, positively certain there would be no rain; had a vague idea that the wind was in the north; and quoted a dreary Joe-Millerism to prove the impossibility of rain while the wind came from that quarter.

Miss Halliday and Mr. Hawkehurst held very firmly to their several opinions, and the argument was almost a quarrel--one of those little playful quarrels which form some of the most delicious phases of a flirtation.

"I would not mind wagering a fortune--if I had one--on the certainty of rain," cried Charlotte with kindling eyes.

"And I would not shrink from staking my existence on the conviction that there will be no rain," exclaimed Valentine, looking with undisguised tenderness at the glowing animated face.

Diana Paget took no part in that foolish talk about the possibilities of the weather.

She walked silently by the side of her friend Charlotte, as far away from her old comrade, it seemed to her, as if the Atlantic's wild waste of waters had stretched between them.

The barrier that divided them was only Charlotte; but then Miss Paget knew too well that Charlotte in this case meant all the world.

The ice had been broken by that discussion as to rain or no rain, and Miss Halliday and Mr. Hawkehurst talked pleasantly for some time, while Diana still walked silently by her friend's side, only speaking when compelled to do so.

The strangeness of her manner would have been observed by any one not utterly absorbed by that sublime egotism called love; but Valentine and Charlotte were so absorbed, and had no idea that Miss Paget was anything but the most delightful and amusing of companions.

They had taken more than one turn in the broad avenue, when Charlotte asked Mr. Hawkehurst some question about a piece which was speedily to be played at one of the theatres.

"I do so much want to see this new French actress," she said.

"Do you think there is any possibility of obtaining orders, Mr. Hawkehurst?

You know what a dislike Mr. Sheldon has to paying for admission to a theatre, and my pocket-money was exhausted three weeks ago, or I wouldn't think of giving you any trouble about it."

Philosophers have observed that in the life of the plainest woman there is one inspired moment in which she becomes beautiful.

Perhaps it is when she is asking a favour of some masculine victim--for women have a knack of looking their prettiest on such occasions.

Charlotte Halliday's pleading glance and insinuating tone were irresistible.

Valentine would have given a lien on every shilling of his three thousand pounds rather than disappoint her, if gold could purchase the thing she craved.

It happened fortunately that his occasional connection with the newspapers made it tolerably easy for him to obtain free admissions to theatres.

"Do not speak of the trouble; there will be no trouble.

The orders shall be sent you, Miss Halliday."

"O, thanks--a thousand thanks!

Would it be possible to get a box, and for us all to go together?"

asked the fair encroacher; "mamma is so fond of the theatre.

She used to go often with poor papa, at York and in London.

And you are such an excellent critic, Mr. Hawkehurst, and it would be so nice to have you with us,--wouldn't it, Di?

You know what a good critic Mr. Hawkehurst is?"

"Yes," answered Diana; "we used to go to theatres together very often."

This was a cry of anguish wrung from a bleeding heart; but to the two absorbed egotists it seemed the simplest of casual observations.

"Do you think you could manage to get a box, Mr. Hawkehurst?"

asked the irresistible enslaver, putting her head on one side, in a manner which, for the protection of weak mankind, should be made penal.

"I will try my uttermost," answered Valentine.

"O, then I'm sure you will succeed.

And we shall be amused by your deliciously bitter criticisms between the acts.

One would think you had studied under Douglas Jerrold."

"You do me too much honour.

But before the new piece is produced I shall have left London, and shall not have the pleasure of accompanying you to the theatre."

"You are going to leave London?"

"Yes, to-morrow."

"So soon!"

cried Charlotte, with undisguised regret; "and for a long time, I suppose?"

she added, very mournfully.

Miss Paget gave a little start, and a feverish flush lit up her face for one brief moment.

"I am glad he is going," she thought; "I am very glad he is going."

"Yes," said Valentine, in reply to Charlotte's inquiry, "I am likely to be away for a considerable time; indeed my plans are at present so vague, that I cannot tell when I may come back to town."

He could not resist the temptation to speak of his absence as if it were likely to be the affair of a lifetime.

He could not refrain from the delight of sounding the pure depths of that innocent young heart.

But when the tender gray eyes looked at him, so sweet in their sudden sadness, his heart melted, and he could trifle with her unconscious love no longer.

"I am going away on a matter of business," he said, "which may or may not occupy some time; but I don't suppose I shall be many weeks away from London."

Charlotte gave a little sigh of relief.

"And are you going very far?"

she asked.

"Some distance; yes--a--hundred and fifty miles or so," Valentine answered very lamely.

It had been an easy thing to invent an ancient aunt Sarah for the mystification of the astute Horatio; but Valentine Hawkehurst could not bring himself to tell Charlotte Halliday a deliberate falsehood.

The girl looked at him wonderingly, as he gave that hesitating answer to her question.

She was at a loss to understand why he did not tell her the place to which he was going, and the nature of the business that took him away.

She was very sorry that he was going to disappear out of her life for a time so uncertain, that while on the one hand it might be only a few weeks, it might on the other hand be for ever.

The life of a young English damsel, in a prim villa at Bayswater, with a very commonplace mother and a practical stockbroking stepfather, is rather a narrow kind of existence; and to such a damsel the stranger whose hand lifts the curtain that shrouds new and brighter worlds is apt to become a very important personage, especially when the stranger happens to be young and handsome, and invested with that dash of Bohemianism which to artless and sentimental girlhood has such a flavour of romance.

Charlotte was very silent as she retraced her steps along the broad gravel walk.

As they drew near the Bayswater-gate she looked at her watch.

It was nearly one o'clock, and she had promised Mrs. Sheldon to be home at one for luncheon, and afterwards shopping.

"I'm afraid we must hurry home, Di," she said.

"I am quite ready to go," answered Miss Paget promptly.

"Good-bye, Valentine."

"Good-bye, Diana; good-bye, Miss Halliday."

Mr. Hawkehurst shook hands with both young ladies; but shaking hands with Charlotte was a very slow process compared to the same performance with Diana.

"Good-bye," he repeated, in a lingering tone; and then, after standing for some moments silent and irresolute, with his hat in his hand, he put it on suddenly and hurried away.

The two girls had walked a few steps towards the gate when Charlotte stopped before a stony-looking alcove, which happened at this nursery-dinner-hour to be empty.

"I'm so tired, Di," she said, and went into the alcove, where she sat down to rest.

She had a little veil attached to her turban hat--a little veil which she now drew over her face.

The tears gathered slowly in her eyes and fell through that flimsy morsel of lace with which she would fain have hidden her childish sorrow.

The tears gathered and fell on her lap as she sat in silence, pretending not to cry.

This much rain at least was there to justify her prediction, uttered in such foolish gaiety of heart half an hour before.

Miss Halliday's eyes were undimmed by tears when she went back to the gothic villa; but she had a feeling that some great sorrow had come upon her--a vague idea that the last lingering warmth and brightness of summer had faded all in a moment, and that chill gray winter had closed in upon Bayswater without any autumnal interval.

What was it that she had lost?

Only the occasional society of a young man with a handsome pale face, a little haggard and wan from the effect of dissipated habits and a previous acquaintance with care and difficulty--only the society of a penniless Bohemian who had a certain disreputable cleverness and a dash of gloomy sentimentality, which the schoolgirl mistook for genius.

But then he was the first man whose eyes had ever softened with a mysterious tenderness as they looked at her--the first whose voice had grown faintly tremulous when it syllabled her name.

There was some allusion to Mr. Hawkehurst's departure in the course of dinner, and Philip Sheldon expressed some surprise.

"Going to leave town?"

he said.

"Yes, papa," Charlotte answered; "he is going a long way into the country,--a hundred and fifty miles, he said."

"Did he tell you where he was going?"

"No; he seemed unwilling to mention the place.

He only said something about a hundred and fifty miles."

CHAPTER IX.