over rocks and splashing into pools a very | but I can assure you that if you give way exhilarating pastime. She had to wait a to it you will make a scourge for your own long time nearly ten minutes, in point of fact, which her imagination excusably magnified into half an hour. There was no occasion for anxiety about the absentees; they were not lost, for she could hear their laughter; but evidently they were in no hurry to retrace their steps. When at length they did approach she arose and fled before them, not wishing them to know where she had been; and presently the whole boat-load emerged, blinking, into the broad light of day once more. And now Miss Joy, looking across the bay towards Kingscliff and becoming aware of certain atmospheric effects which might have daunted Turner, must needs demand her paint-box and sketch-book, lest the memory of that glorious golden mist should perish for want of a skilled interpreter. Possibly it may not have been mere accident that made her unusually fidgety about the disposal of her implements and caused her to declare that nobody but Beatrice knew how to arrange these to her satisfaction. Anyhow, an opportunity was thus given to Kitty by which the latter was not slow to profit. "Gilbert!" she called softly; and as he stepped to her side, saying, "Well, what is it?" she walked on for some little distance without replying. She had thought over what she had to say to him, and very sensible and well-put this premeditated speech was; yet, when he repeated his question impatiently, she could not get out one word of it, but simply turned a pair of blue eyes, swimming in tears, upon him and murmured: "I don't think it was very kind of you to leave me like that." He did not see her eyes; he was looking down on the ground and kicking pebbles before him. "I understood," said he, "that you wished to be left." "I did not wish to be a trouble to you, of course. You seemed to like being with Beatrice best, and- and you spoke so crossly, Gilbert, and you were such a very, very long time away, and A suspicious break in the speaker's voice cut short this remonstrance. It was not a very dignified or coherent one, to be sure; but if the man had had any heart at all, he must have been a little touched by it. Gilbert was not in the least touched. He smiled in a singularly provoking manner, and remarked: : "Oh, I see! Well, my dear Kitty, I don't know what your religious principles may have to say to you about jealousy; VOL. LX. 3086 LIVING AGE. back, from which I can't undertake to relieve you. Please try to realize that you are not going to marry a country parson, or even a stay-at-home country squire. I must live in the world, I must mix with women of the world, and I must show them the civility that they expect. If that makes you jealous, I can't help it." "I don't want to be jealous," answered poor Kitty. "It isn't your being civil to Beatrice Huntley, or to any one else, that I mind, and I am willing to lead whatever kind of life you choose, if only I can feel sure that you always love me." "I should have thought," said Gilbert coldly, "that I had given as strong proofs of that as you could wish for; but I am afraid you are rather insatiable. To con. tent you I should have to put on a surplice and read the lessons at St. Michael's every Sunday; I should have to bow meekly to what you are pleased to call the ordinances of the Church, and I suppose I should never be allowed to go into society without you. If your happiness depends upon the carrying out of some such programme as that—and I suspect that it does-had you not better reconsider your position while there is still time?" This was plain speaking with a vengeance, and Kitty was staggered and bewildered by it. She had anticipated a lover's quarrel and a reconciliation; she was offered, as it seemed, a business-like bargain which she was free to accept or decline, as she pleased. "I-I don't think I quite understand," she faltered. "You have been so odd lately. Have I offended you?- or is it that-oh, Gilbert, do you really love her, and not me?" "You mean Miss Huntley?" he asked. "No, I am not in love with Miss Huntley, and perhaps her name had better be left out of the discussion. The question between us is not whether I am in love with somebody else, but whether you are in love with me. You say I have been odd lately, though I am not conscious of having changed any of my habits or opinions. May it not rather be that you have changed? or at least that you have found out that I am not the man you took me for?" He was desirous of opening her eyes; he did not see (because his own were still fixed upon the ground) how effectually he was doing so. The girl - if he had known it was looking at him with amazement and with something akin to horror. Το deceive a loving, trusting woman is not difficult; but to shake her trust and at the same time to continue to deceive her requires more delicacy of touch than Gilbert had thought it worth while to bring to this enterprise. "Perhaps you are right; perhaps you are not quite what I took you for," she said in a low voice. Yet she did not add the words which he expected and was waiting for. She did not give him his release, but turned and walked slowly back to the spot where Miss Joy was busy dashing in what looked like a hasty study of a conflagration, he following her in silence. The color had left her cheeks, but she was perfectly composed, and during the remainder of the afternoon she bore herself much as usual. Only, after they had started on their homeward drive, she said casually to Beatrice, "By the way, I have made up my mind not to go to London with you to-morrow. For several reasons, I would rather stay at home." Oh, but we shall not come to grief," answered Brian easily. The truth was that he could not bring himself to care quite so much about the fate of this opera as his friend did. It had been transmogrified, bit by bit, until it was no longer his opera, but Phipps's play set to music, which was a very different thing. The music was pretty and the dialogue was clever, so that there was every probability of its going down; but he was unable to regard it as being in any sense the magnum opus which must decide whether he had a career before him or not. He had satisfied himself that his strength did not lie in that particular kind of composition; he knew that he could do a great deal better; and as for the pecuniary side of the question, that was no longer of supreme importance to him. However, it was neither confidence in his abilities nor the approaching termination of suspense that made his heart beat high and his eyes sparkle, but the prospect of seeing Beatrice Huntley once more in the course of a few short days. It was ridiculous, and he often told himself that it was so. The sight of her could only mean a renewal of pangs which absence and occupation had rendered to some extent less SIR JOSEPH IS PERTURBED. sharp, and a man who knows his love to As the time drew near for the submis- be hopeless should at least take care that sion of "The King's Veto" to the judg- a hopeless business does not remain the ment of a remorseless public, all those chief concern of his life. Nevertheless, interested in the experiment became he rejoiced when he thought of the happinervous and short-tempered with one not-ness that awaited him. Would she remain able exception. While the manager of a week or more in London? Most likely the Ambiguity stormed and raved over small contretemps which he would hardly have noticed a month before, while the tenor wrangled with the soprano, and the leader of the orchestra tore his hair, and Phipps could get no sleep at nights without having recourse to sedatives, Brian, so far from showing symptoms of uneasiness, grew daily more cheerful and smiling. And when Beatrice wanted to know what these reasons might be, she did not state them, but simply repeated, "I would rather stay at home." CHAPTER XXXVII. "I never saw such a fellow as you are!" Phipps exclaimed with pardonable impatience; "one would think that it was quite the same thing to you whether we fail or succeed. Pray, do you realize that this will make a man or a mouse of you? I can afford to come to grief; I have made my name, and if people don't like me in this line, that won't prevent them from flocking to the next play that I shall write. But you why, it's almost a matter of life and death for you! A débutant who misses his first chance has to wait some she would; for is it not in November that ladies have to purchase winter gowns and bonnets and such things? And no doubt she would allow him to go and see her, since nothing had been said about her sister-in-law being in London, and he assumed that only Miss Joy would be in the house with her. That this conjecture was not altogether accurate he learnt from the following note, which he found at his club one morning: of her leaving the country at present, but | seems that no sooner had Beatrice got 66 This was very civil; and if Sir Joseph had not got the title of the piece quite right, he had made as good a shot at it as could be expected of a man who never went to theatres and considered blue-books to be a far more fascinating form of literature than plays. It was satisfactory, too, that Lady Clementina would shine by her absence on this occasion. The master of the house was not likely to put himself in the way of afternoon visitors. Perhaps Brian's impatience may have caused him to forget that in the latter part of the nineteenth century people who are asked to dine at eight o'clock are not expected to show themselves before 8.15 at the very earliest; for when he was shown into Sir Joseph Huntley's drawingroom he found it tenanted by only one person, who, from the depths of the capacious armchair in which he was ensconced, called out: "Is that you, Segrave? Well - here we are again, you see. แ Stapleford!" exclaimed Brian in undisguised astonishment. "That same," replied the other. "I told you, you know, that I should be on the spot when your show opened. That's no reason for my being here to-night, you'll say; but the fact of the matter is that I've turned up in the character of the nasty man who won't take no for an answer. Clem and my people have been going on at me till, to keep them quiet, I had to promise that I would try again. Of course I know that I haven't the ghost of a chance-less now than ever - though I take it that you're as much out of the running as I am." down to that old barrack of yours than she began to find it precious slow, and small blame to her! So what must she needs do But at this moment Beatrice herself sailed into the room, and Stapleford whispered hurriedly, "I'll tell you all about it by-and-by." This interrupted communication had conveyed to the unsuspecting Brian no inkling of the truth, and before Beatrice had been talking to him for five minutes he had forgotten all about it. It was impossible to doubt that her pleasure at seeing him again was as sincere as it was outspoken; while, for his own part, the joy of listening to her voice and gazing at her perfect profile was, for the time being, all that he asked. Stapleford, who it appeared was staying in the house, very considerately sauntered away and picked up the evening paper. Beatrice glanced after him, smiling significantly. "Didn't I tell you," said she in an undertone, "that he would be convalescent before Christmas?" "But I don't think he is convalescent," Brian returned. "Oh, yes, he is. He took the disease in a very mild form, and he has still six or seven weeks to get quite well in. Just at present he is shamming a little to please his relations, who seem to think that his is an infectious malady, and that I shall catch it if only we can be made to breathe the same air. What a bore relations are ! Don't you think so? You ought, if any body ought. I dare say you don't, though." "I haven't a great many of them, you see," Brian remarked. No, to be sure. But here comes one who is a host in himself." Gilbert greeted his brother quite affectionately. "My dear fellow, I have been "I never was in the running," Brian meaning to write to you for ever so long, said with something of a sigh. "As for but if you knew what an army of idiotic your chance, I don't know why it should correspondents this election business has be any worse now than it was in the sum-let loose upon me, you would forgive me mer. for neglecting my friends." "Everything must be forgiven to a man who is engaged to be married and has a contested election on his hands," said Brian good-humoredly. "And what have you done with Kitty?" “Oh, Gilbert shrugged his shoulders. the old story! She promised to come with us, but at the last moment parochial claims proved too strong. The poor friv. olous world mustn't expect to win in a struggle against St. Michael and all angels. The admiral has caught a cold in -er his head, and Mis. Greenwood won't leave | in an altered voice, and turning a troubled him for fear he should forget to put his face towards Brian, “but have any feet in hot water at night. They sent you - rumors about your brother reached all sorts of messages.' you?" "None whatever," answered Brian wonderingly; "I haven't been in the way of hearing much Kingscliff news." "Ah, indeed? Well, of course it is a safe rule to disregard gossip, and no doubt at election times, when a man is more or less before the public, many things are apt to be said which are best left unnoticed. At the same time, it is not so easy for those who have a deep personal interest in the matters gossiped about to be indifferent, and I must own that what Mr. Giles told me has caused great pain both to my wife and myself." Phipps was now announced; then came Miss Joy; finally Sir Joseph, muttering apologies. Sir Joseph, Brian thought, had an anxious, harassed look-to be accounted for, possibly, by the fact that he, too, was a candidate for Parliamentary honors, and that he did not feel quite so certain of re-election as he had done in former contests. He gave his arm to Miss Joy, Stapleford took Beatrice, and the remaining three men, on reaching the diningroom, disposed of themselves in the only manner possible, that is to say, that Brian had to take a chair between Stapleford and Phipps, which was not precisely the position that he coveted. However, with so "Well, yes, and about my sister. Mr. small a party present, he would not have Giles treated the whole affair as a joke. gained much by having Beatrice for his I need hardly say that he has no idea of neighbor, and as a matter of fact, the con-making political capital out of it, though versation was general from the beginning of dinner to the end. "About my brother?" possibly some of his adherents may be less scrupulous. But to me it is no joke He took his part in it without finding it that my sister should be spoken of as particularly interesting. Mindful of the having flirted with an engaged man to the reproof which he had incurred once before extent of very nearly, if not quite, causing for sitting silent at a larger gathering in a rupture of his engagement. I consider the same room, he endeavored to do his it discreditable, whatever her ulterior induty, sustained by the hope that this even- tentions may be. In any event such a ing might end as agreeably for him as that marriage would not have been exactly had done. There was no reason why it But no matter about that. As I say, I should not, he thought, for how could he consider that, whether she marries your anticipate that when, at the expiration of brother or not, she will have brought distwo long hours, he reached the drawing- credit upon herself and upon us.' room again and was, so to speak, in sight "I don't believe a word of it!" exof land, he would be button-holed by his claimed Brian rather roughly. host and forced to listen to a deliberate Sir Joseph glanced at him. "That is analysis of the state of political feeling in to say that you don't believe these two the country from that experienced observ-people to have been guilty of the conduct er? Sir Joseph's views were doubtless imputed to them? You are, perhaps, right sagacious and entitled to attention, but to allow them the benefit of any doubt that they did not receive any; and it may have may exist upon that point, and probably been because he noticed how intently his you do not feel yourself so nearly convictim was gazing at the far corner of the cerned in their proceedings as I do. But room whither Beatrice and Gilbert had as to the fact of their having given retired that he said,grounds for gossip, there cannot, unfortunately, be any doubt at all. It is the common talk of the place. Mr. Giles says that the only persons who appear to be ignorant of it are the Greenwood family." "Well, there is your brother's case; it is an instance of what I was saying, that Conservatism only requires to be popularized. A few months ago his return, from what I heard, was almost a certainty. I doubt very much whether it is so now. We have got a first-rate man, Mr. Giles, to oppose him, and I should not be at all surprised if we carried the division. I have a slight acquaintance with Mr. Giles; indeed, it was from him Sir Joseph paused and stroked his chin. "I hardly know whether I ought to put such a question to you," he said, speaking Brian made no immediate rejoinder. It was all very well to declare that he did not believe this report, but he did believe it — he had reasons quite apart from the tittle-tattle of Kingscliff for believing it and it was as if this stout, respectable, commonplace man had planted a dagger in his heart. That Gilbert should be a traitor was not surprising; he had never really recovered his trust in Gilbert, though he had ceased to think bitterly of him. But that Beatrice was unworthy of the love which he had given her, and which, despite her unworthiness, he could not recall, was a hard thing to admit. Yet the admission had to be made. Blows of that kind stimulate the action of the brain when they do not arrest it, and he saw quite clearly that she was without excuse. It did not seem to him to be proved that she would marry Gilbert. She mightand indeed that would be very characteristic of her intend to throw him over, after preventing a marriage which she thought likely to turn out unhappily. But, whatever might be her motives, the fact must remain that she was trying to bring dishonor upon a man whom she treated as a friend and misery upon a girl for whom she professed to feel sincere affection. "She is utterly heartless," he thought sadly; and it may be that this judgment upon her had been in his mind once or twice before, though it had never until now found expression. To Sir Joseph he only replied, "I am very sorry to hear what you tell me, but I am afraid I can do nothing." | "H'm! I am a peaceable man, Mr. Segrave; but if a brother of mine were to behave as your brother is behaving, I should have a word or two to say to him a word or two to say to him. As for Beatrice, I have thought it my duty to speak to her, and have been met, as I expected to be, by a reminder that she is her own mistress now. However, she has agreed to return to the country with me and to stay a week." There was a solemnity and even something of a subdued commiseration in Sir Joseph's accent as he made this announcement, such as may occasionally be noticed in the voice of a judge when pronouncing a heavy sentence upon a convicted felon; but Brian did not know Lady Clementina very well, and so missed this touch of humor. His only desire now was to get away as soon as might be. He shook himself free of Sir Joseph presently and advanced towards Beatrice, who was still deep in` conversation with Gilbert, intending to make some excuse to her and retire. Stapleford intercepted him, with as near an approach to an ironical laugh as so good-natured a man could compass. "You have been enlightened by the virtuous Joseph, I see. Fine spectacle, Joseph, when he gets up on his hind legs. Did he tell you that your brother's conduct was 'distinctly discreditable '?" "I should not have been inclined to contradict him if he had," answered Brian shortly. "Oh, no; you would think it discreditable in a man to break his word under any circumstances; and so it is, for that matter. Only, you know, it isn't exactly that that rouses the righteous indignation of Clementina and her prince-consort. I expect, for instance, that they would have found plenty of excuses for me if I had thrown some young woman over for Beatrice's sake." "You are rather cynical; it seemed to me that he was honestly distressed," said Brian. He added half involuntarily and somewhat feebly, "Do you believe that she- that Miss Huntley knows what she is doing?" Stapleford made a grimace. "I should say that Beatrice knows as well as most women what she is about. After all, she is a woman; she isn't an angel, though I dare say I may have taken her for one once upon a time. Apparently Beatrice's assertion that he was in a fair way towards recovery was no vain boast. Brian passed on to the recess in which she and Gilbert had ensconced themselves. "I have come to say good-night," he announced, when she looked up at him inquiringly; "I am rather busy, as you may imagine, and it is getting late." She held out her hand, without offering any remonstrance. "Till to-morrow, then," she said. "We shall be in our places before the overture strikes up, you may be sure. Perhaps you will come and receive our congratulations after the first act." "Or your condolences," he answered, and, nodding to his brother, turned away. Congratulations or condolences, it mattered little enough to him now which he might earn. Fortune had done her worst, and he could afford to smile at any future assaults that she might have in store for him. CHAPTER XXXVIII. 66 THE KING'S VETO.' THE manager of the Ambiguity Theatre had had a short but singularly lucrative career. He had never shrunk from costly experiments; he had known how to bait his hook with the novelty and variety which are so essential to theatrical success, and he had always triumphantly landed his public. It was therefore safe to predict that a first night at the Ambi |