HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Herald, 1909-04-08, Page 7CHAPTER L
Rupert Cecil, Earl or Aubrey, had been
brought up, so to speak, by lis mother,
and perhaps his life would have been
very different but for the peculiar faults
and virtues whieh seem to be insepar-
able from a woman's guidance of a boy's
life into manhood.
But would his life have been better or
worse? There were those who said it
had been so bad that it could not well
be worse; and there were others who
said that the especially large crop of
wild oats he had sown was no more than
the natural reaction from a foolish wo-
iinan's restrictions, and that he would
make all the better man in the end.
A great deal of nonsense is talked
about wild oats, however; and perhaps
the real truth is that the world does
not so much care how large a crop a
young man sows, as how large a crop he
harvests.
As a matter of fact, Rupert was still
sowing his wild oats while the dowagers
were whispering his name among them-
selves, and while the old fellows, who had
all been through the same course, were
shaking their heads and prophesying that
there would be very little left of the
enormous estates by the time young Au-
brey was done with his wild oats.
A very debonair young nobleman was
Lord Aubrey; handsome as a Greek god,
with the careless grace of Antanous,
something of the vigor of Achilles, and
with all the reckless enthusiasm for
pleasure that Bacchus might be supposed
to have had.
Love he laughed at, when he thought
of it, which was not very often; ,.err the
most careful angling of the most skilled
fishers in the matrimonial waters never
secured from hint so much as a nibble.
No one could say that he ever did
anything dishonorable, himself; but some
of his companions were of a sort usually
avoided by a man who values his reputa-
tion. But that was not to be wondered
at, since the only qualification he re-
quired in his companions was that they
be "good feliows." "Good. fellows" are
usually bad men.
During his last year at Oxford his
mother diet]. It was a severe blow to
him, for she had managed all his affairs,
great and small, for him all his life.
He finished his course at the university
with great sobriety, carrying off high
honors, giving rise to the prophecy that
he would be a bookish man,
'Within a year his university career
was forgotten, or remembered as some-
thing incredible; for when he made his
entry into the wild set that opened its
arms to him, he made it with a plunge
that gave some ground to the prediction
that he hid been go'c-erned so long by his
mother that he had no self-government
at all, and would end by malting historic
ducks and drakes of the enormous for-
tune that had been amassed for him.
Finally the climax came. At least
people shrugged their shoulders and look-
ed askance at each other when his name
was mentioned; and they said it was
the climax. As a matter of fact it was
only a stage in his career; and although
the girls only whispered. his name when
they spoke of it among themselves, the
mothers certainly found him no less de-
sirable as a son-in-law.
"When he returns from the continent,"
they said to themselves, "he may be
willing to settle down."
It happened in this way: One of the
members of the particularly wild set to
which he young Lord Aubrey belonged
was very near to the throne. One of the
elder Cecils, a cousin of Rupert, had
ventured a little advice.
"Be careful, Aubrey! You're in risky
Company," he had said.
Rupert bad smiled, scornfully.
"A prince of the blood should be good
enough company for even a Cecil," he
bad answered.
"True enough," the older man had
responded, with a shrug; "but don't for-
get that when a prince of the blood
dances, somebody else always pays the
fiddler."
Rupert remembered the saying, which
he had thought horribly bad form at
the time, but which had struck him with
peculiar pertinency when later there
came an exposure of the doings of his
set. It was one of those scandalous af-
fairs with which the blood royal is mix -
td tip once in a while.
The part of the royal libertine was
carefully glossed over, and the burden
of the whole miserable business fell on
the broad shoulders of Lord Aubrey;
and there it rested- in spite of what was
privately said in his behalf by a few
who pretended to know Rupert.
"Aubrey," said they, "might do any
wild and reckless thing, but a disgrace-
ful thing --never.'
But most people thought he was very
wise to go to the continent, as ho did,
to there await the benevolent forgetful-
ness to which misdeeds in high life are
mercifully treated.
To the world Aubrey maintained a
'contemptuous silence; but he did free
his mind to the chief cause of his self -
expatriation before he took leave of his
native shores.
"A word from you, he said, indig-
nantly, "would have prevented this, but
you did not 'see fit to say it, and I am
bearing the burden of your dishonor."
"It will soon blow overs" said the
prince, miserably.
"Blow over!" retorted Rupert, scorn-
fully. "And that is all you think of.
You do not deserve that I should keep
silence. You think so little of dishon-
or!"
"But you will not say anything?"
cried the abject prince.
• l upert tossed his hand with a gas.
tura of disgust,
"No, I will not say anything," he re-
plied; "but it is for the sake of the
great principle of royalty, and nut for
your sake."
So he went to the continent, and took
with him the reptuation of a very wick-
ed young nobleman; a reputation which
he took no very serious pains to change
in his new life.
His boon companions were all mem-
bers of the old set, and they had at-
tached themselves to him because of his
free-handed manner of scattering his
wealth. There are sharks of that sort
in every station of life, and the hun-
griest of them are those who swim in
the highest waters.
If Rupert had had any thoughts of
altering his anode of life, these parasites
would have found a thousand alluring
reasons for not doing so. They led him
from capital to capital over the conti-
nent, and they showed him all there
was to be seen of a certain side of life;
so that in the course of a year he might
be said to be a past master in the whole
science of dissipation.
In the meantime, thanks to that moth-
er's care, which so many had derided,
he had lost nothing of bis vigorous en-
joyment of life; for she had helped him
to have a strong constitution, fitted to
withstand the hardest strain upon it.
Perhaps she had foreseen something of
what was to happen.
And this brings us to the point where
the real story of Lord. Aubrey's life
began,
CHAPTER II.
After having none the capitals of Eu-
rope, Lord. Audrey and Ills coterie of
especial companions, three in number,
found themselves in a little inti up in
the Tyrol.
"A beastly place!" Lord Ilawkhurst
said, in disgust; and Sir Charles Loftus
and the Honorable Reginald Vernon
agreed with hint,
"Dused slow!" was what Aubrey call-
ed it; though he found himself drink-
ing in the pure, bracing air from one of
the upper balconies, with a great deal of
enjoyment.
If they all Wound it so unsuitable a
place for them, why had they come
there? It was a thing Rupert, at least,
could not have told. His dislike might
might have been because the pleasures
he had been '.ndulging is had begun. to
pall upon hi+n It might have been, in
addition, because he had had several
disagreements with his three friends;
which disagreements had been mostly of
his own making, since in the nature of
things they were not what the three
parasites wished for.
Not that they were devoted to Ru-
pert, either, for, in fact, they had come
to detest and even despise him; he had
been having such absurd attacks of hon-
or. Of course, they were all honorable
men, and had never failed to pay a
gambling debt; but their notions of
what was clue to the other sex
had never agreed with his; and
during their life abroad, when he
had necessarily seen more of them
than before, he had had occasion to first
remonstrate, and then to indignantly
threaten them with separation, if they
did not mend their ways.
• The relations between them. while
they were at the hotel in the Tyrol,
were, in feet. severely strained, and, ae,
Lord llawkshurst frankly said, under
his breath, to the others:
"He's taken the bit in his teeth, and.
be won't be controleld any longer."
"Or thinks he won't," sneered Sir
he won't be controlled any longer."
"Don't make any mistake, Loftus,"
drawled the Honorable Reginald; "Au-
brey has got the habit fo kicking over
the traces, and nothing on earth will
curb 11111. 1 o my part, .t'm not going
to waste any more time on
hint, I'm for London to -night.
I hear that the young Duke of Barring-
ton has cut loose from his guardian,
and I'm going on to help in his educa-
tion."
lie got up front the easy chair he had
been lounging in, and went lazily off.
"So much the better," said liawkhurst,
eyeing his associate as he strolled away.
"Vernon is good enough at plain pluck-
ing of pigeons, but when it comes to the
delicate work we have in hand, he is too
clumsy."
"I suppose they'll come?" queried Sir
Charles, a little nervously.
"Come!" ejaculated the other, with a
confident laugh, "If you knew the mar-
chioness as well as 1, you would never
doubt it. Ten to one she's in the hotel
now."
take you at ten to one," said Lof-
tus.
"Done! in guineas," responded Ilawk-
hurst.
Out came their note -books, and the
bet was booked.
"How wilt you find out?" demanded
Sir Charles.
"Ask the landlord. Here he comes, by
a special providence. Landlord," he said
to the host, "any of my countrymen
stopping here?"
"None, mulor," answered the host, ob-
sequiously,
:Tad time for travellers, I suppose?"
said Ilawkhurst.
"Yes; only two arrived since your
party, miler."
"Men, of course?" said Ilawkhurst,
"No hope of any ladies eoming at this
season."
"But your are wrong, miler," cried the
landlord, in triumph, "They are ladies,
and one of them is more beautiful than
words can tell."
"You are enthusiastic," said Flevek-
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lutrst, castinga glanee at ALoftus, '"What
is the name of the -divinity?"
`"leer mother is; the ]Marquise, de Sen -
tie," replied the landlord, preachy, for
he felt the hoar of each liigli r:nil:.
"you see;" said Ilawkhurst, when the
landlorcl'.ivad left them, " Clothiide is
here, and the- gn]nea is mine."•
"Yottrluck IS good," .said Sir Charles,
with . the ghost of a sneer on his lip; for
lie believed that his friend had been sure
of the arrival before betting. "But 1
shall not gnarreh with that now, if it
only continties good- I am not so hope-
ful as-yo`ta tYpe. know that Aubrey has
always becri. eu cold toward women when
it came to a `matter of real passion."
"Trust me, and above all, trust Clo-
thilde," said Hawkhurst, with easy confi-
dence.
"And. the girl?"
"Take her on faith, too. When CIo-
thilde suggested the plan, and said her
Lucie was just the one to earry it out,
I knew that it was just as site said.
Wait! you shall see her this evening, 1
do not doubt. I am doubly glad Vernon
is going."
Lord Aubrey, meanwhile, had been
Wandering' over the mountain side,
tempted there by the outlook from his
balcony.
"A lovely spot'." he ejaculated once,
as be stood on a great, jutting rock
and had a view of the pretty little val-
ley at his feet, and of the mountains
stl etching far away in the distanee. "
wonder what possessed Ilawkhurst to
think of such a place! Ile is as muck
oot of harmony with such pjeaecan
things as I am with myself."
He kicked a stone, and watched it
bound from rock to rock, and finally lose
itself in n. wooded ravine.
"Poor little stone!" 11e muttered. "It
had a gay time of it for a while, leaping
and flying through the air, nil bright
and glistening with the sunshine on it;
and then lost in the darkness of the
woods, perhaps never to see the sunshine
again, but to lie where it has fallen and
grow green with moss. All, well! it
may be that if the little stone could go
on endlessly leaping and bounding, and
glistening in the bright sunshine, it
would grow very weary of it all, If 1
know anything about it, the little stone
would."
He turned, as he finished his soliloquy,
and sauntered down the mountain, Near
the inn be met and passed two ladies, to
whom he courteously but indifferently
lifted his hat, e"`
"A handsome,. hard 'face the mother
has," be thought... "Thus d,altghter is prt-
ty, and shy. '.Clio Tait .Preiteh"
"Cie'!" exclaimed the. girl, when 11e
was out of hearing; "but he is hand -
sem e."
"And one of the richest men in Eng -
lend, my dear," said the older woman.
"We owe something to that deur Hawk-
silliest."
awk-
s1iu st." •
"Our - dear llawkshurst will probably
pay himself all we ever owe hint." sneer-
ed the. younger one. "]3eeides, he does not
look so easily fooled."
"My dear Lucie," responded the old-
er woman, "yott•have gifts that I do not
possess, but I have experience, and it
tells me that arty men may be fooled
by a woman, if she go about it the-
right
heright Way."
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That evening, after Vernon was gone,
tate ladies were met iu 1.11e parlor, and,
after a. show of greats sill -prise, klawks-
httrst, greeted them, and then presented
Lord Aubrey and Sir Charles,
Aubrey noticed at ace that the mo-
ther, the Marquise de Sainte, seemed re -
Weed, but. hardly surprised, to meet
llawkshurst, but 1 Lucie Was both
surprised and annoyed.
The marquise attached herself at
once to Aubrey, and 3lawkshurst de.vot-
ee,l himself to the daughter in his bold,
insolent way. Luck seemed in despair,
but was apparently- at a 'complete less
to ilnow ]low to avoid attentions whish
were plainly distasteful to her.
Aubrey Baas dimly conseious that lie
was being mixed up in an affair that
would be not at all to his liking. 'The
hard -faced marquise and 1-Iawkshurst
were so evidently in collusion, in some
plan which had the beautiful Lucie for
its object, that the earl found himself
growing indignantly restive in the con-
templation of the scene.
"It is plain,' he thought, "that T am
to be made to serve some purpose in the
affair, or 1 should not have been brought
here. But what can he Hawkshurst's in-
tentions? That 'beautiful girl is a lady,
and, moreover, her mother would surely
not countenance any wrong to her. Can
Hawkeshurst be thinking of marriage.
An odd way to go about it, even with
a French girl."
He studied the beautiful face of Lucie,
and was pained to see how hopelessly
she glanced now and again at him or at
Sir Charles, as it realizing that they
were both of the s::,e stamp as the
man u'ltose attentions, sanctioned by ]ler
mother, were yet so obnoxious to her-
self,
"I will interfere." he "aid, emphatical-
ly; to him -ell'; "and later I will have
apt explanation with IIawkshurst."
'With him to deeirle was to do, and he
rather nueermoniousiy- left the mar-
quise to be entertained by Sir Charles,
while be walked over to the other cou-
ple. .Malik •hnret geeetetl hlui 1t•itlt a
scarcely concealed scowl, while Lucie
noticed his pretence nuly by a tunic.
glance aur. a quid: dropping of her
]sun lashes over her great brown eyes.
llawkshurst was plainly put nut by
the interruption, and after a short time
sulkily rose a11d left the earl with Lucie.
Aubrey salr hint -roes over to the mar-
quise and ejaculate something an an
angry manner, and then leave the rum.
The marquise fiat looked troubled, and
afterward shrugged user shoulders, as if
au unavoidable thing had happened.
A little later tale exeueed herself to
Sir Charles, and joined Aubrey and the
timid Lucie, who seemed greatly reliev-
ed by her eoming. Aubrey was both in-
dignant and piqued by the evident fear
Lucie had of him: for she was beautiful
enough to make ]rim wilt to stand well
with her. Moreover. no man likes to
feel that is disliked, without knowing
th0 0111180,he
When the two ladies left the parlor,
which they did leave before long, Aubrey
sought llawkshurst, who was smoking a
cigar in the moonlight. Hawkshur:st,
ileo was by far the cleverest of the
nnble parasites which had attached them-
selves to the careless young nobleman,
had for a long time Maintained a. pow-
erful aseendeney over the latter.
Now that a rupture was imminent,
perhaps it ryas no more than natural
that Aubrey should feel more unpleasant
toward him than toward either of the
other companions who had done so
much to make vice palatable to him.
32' approached Ilawks1uu1 t, therefore,
with more anger in his heart then the
incident of the evening sremed to justify. f
"Olt!" said 1Iuwksbarst, sullenly, "it's !
you."
les," reelied tee earl, "it is I and I
4 wish an explanation.'
"It seems to me," retorted the other,
"that it is I who ought to have an ex-
planation. Why need you have inter-
fered with my ;amts'
"I don't 1111derstand your game," ans-
wered Aubrey, hotiy; "hut I do not hes-
itate to say that it looks uncommonly
like, somethmg infamous."
"Oh!" sneered llawk,hrlrst, "your vir-
tue is troubling you again."
The young nobleman was hardly equal
to answering a sneer of that sort, and it
made him the more furious to be aw.tire
of the fact:
"That is not to the purpo"e," the said,
"I lay no claims to extraordinary virtue,
but 1 have always drawn the line at any-
thing dishonoring to myself."
"I don't see,' retorted Ilawkhurst,
coolly, "that you have any concern in
this matter."
"I don't see it either." replied Aubrey;
"but I am satisfied that 1 am being given
a concern in it that 1 repudiate. I am
not yet the adept in vice that you nre,
and I cannot guess whither you are tend-
ing in this matter; but I am not so blind
as not to see that I am being used. And
I warn you, Lord ]lawkhurst, that I will
hold you to a strict accountability for
any part you force 1)10 to play."
"It looks to me," said Ilawkhnre,t,
with an evil sneer, "as if you were seek-
ing a quarrel with nre."
1 am not seeking a quarrel with you
or any ono else, my lord," was the an-
swer; "but I do assure yon that I shall
never shirk one when it seems to nue
necessary."
"The world is large, Lord Aubrey,"
said IIawkshurst, coolly; "you are not
forced to remain here if you object to
what is going on."
"You have made 3110 a part of it," re-
plied Aubrey, haughtily, "and I shall re-
main to help that poor girl, if need be."
"I should suppose," said the other,
with another sneer, "that the marquise
would be equal to watching over her
daughter."
"She ought to be, and I hope she is
as ready as she is able," replied the earl,
Lord Hawkshurst shrugged his shoul-
ders, and the conversation ended. That
same evening there was 0 meeting be-
tween the tnewati€te and llawkshurst in
the corridor, while Sir Charles was keep-
ing guard over Aubrey.
"Well;' mar ilee.
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IN THE SPRING
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lee 'ahas my ford taken fire?"
"At the beauty of your Lucie? Not
and yet elle is love's enough to turn any
plan's head. But he has bitten—snap-
ped, 1 should say, at the bait, and is
eager to play .Don Quixote, and do any-
thing to rescue the shy, timid little
beauty from the wiles of my wicked self.
You can depend on Lucite?"
"As on myself"
"And you will be ready on time`"
"We are ready now.'"Good!"
(To he cnntinoed.I
aa
KING IN BERLIN.
No Indication of Ito"stile Feelings
in German Capital.
•
A Berliu despetell says: When City
Councilor Mielreiet„ a sturdy old Berlin-
er of 72 years. proposed the customary
"hoeh" -for "Edward VII., Sing of
Great Britain and Ireland," the shout
that went up fairly shook the rafters
and made the windows rattle. The good
impression was confirmed a day later
when it was announced that decoration*
had been conferred ou the chief burgo-
master and several prominent city offi-
cers.
The effect of elle city visit was im-
mediately forthcoming. If there had
been any doubts as to the warmth of
people's feelings for the English visitor
they were from then on allayed, anal
wherever the King or Queen appeared
they were dteeteci in a fashion unfami-
liar to those 1rh0 are acquainted with
the Berliner's phlegmatic, not to say
surly, attitude towards the kings and
princes of the earth.
It was obvious from the first that:
the political impoltanee of the visit
Iny very•largely in the personal note.
in other words, in the manner of the
King's reception by the people of Ber-
lin. The political situation between
England ani Germany possesses, as a
platter of concrete fact, no pointy of
difference, and so the visit offered no
occasion for anything beyond a pc -
oral but very thorough discussion ct
the policy of the two collntries.
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