IP. Jl r
rj.
n
,1
2l
i
? r,
V
Bit
-if
T lord the earl of Severne sat In his 'great
library in hie fine new house in Golden square,
and, perhaps because he had the gout and his
foot was swathed In bandages, he scowled
more ferociously at the logw burning oh the
hearth than he would otherwise have done.
Also, the lackey who mostly sat out In the
passage all day long, except at the numerous
bout fifty In the day when his lordship beat upon
tlm
the silver gong by his side to call him In was enduring tor
tures from my lordis temper and wishing that for once only
for once he could summon up his courage to return his mat
I ter's abuse and curses with Interest But the poor wretch
knew that this meant loss of place and of fine feeding below
( stairs, and good drinking, too which would be doubled and
trebled and quadrupled next week, to say nothing of vails
nd presents when Christmas came and he reflected that all
these. Including love passages with the maids In not only
this house but also others In the square, were better things
than poverty and hunger also at Christmas! Likewise, he
recalled that his old bedridden mother had a musty proverb
to the effect that " curses were like chickens and came home
to roost," and 'another "that hard words break no bones."
! and still another that " fine words buttered no parsnips," all
of which pithy and Indisputable saws, as well as many others,
' tha old dnms was In the habit of muttering In her bed day
by day when the spirit moved her. Wherefore the fellow
mumbled to himself, ' Curse on, an' you will," as he heard
my lord roaring and grunting within, while, being a philos
opher, though 'he did not know It, and, It may be, had never
heard of such a thing as philosophy, he told himself that.
If fine words did not Indeed butter any parsnips, neither
did rough words do anybody any harm, and thereupon
lifted a bottle, which he kept undeir the chair, to hie lips,
and drank well salvation to his master within.
But, now, fresh roars came from out the library and the
oen -was atrucK upon, anil " Dlessings ' were bellowed out
upon the varlet's body and other portions of his frame, so
that, slipping the bottle back Into a convenient drawer be
neath the seat of the chair, the man rose and entered the
library with an attitude of extreme alacrltv.
" Fellow," the noble lord exclaimed, " what are you
doing without? Sleeping or guzzling, or what? Don't dare
to answer, or, I' fags, I'll havs ye whipped. Where Is my
Lady Mllllcent?"
" My lord, I do not know"
" Not know! What In the name of the fiend are you
kept hers for? Look out In the square and see if she Is
coming. Look. I say."
" My lord," the man said, fawningly. " In truth her lady
shtp is coming. Tour lordship Is a necromancer. The coach
rounds the street corner, her ladyship Is wrapped in her
great fur cloak, and she descends."
But he did not tell his master that her ladyship had el
ready descended from the coach nine houses off, at which
pot she had been Joined by a bravely appareled, handsome
young man, who had kissed her hand, and, as the lackey
thought, had looked much as though he would like to kiss
her face. But It was broad daylight this he had not done.
" I do not hear the wheels," the Irascible old peer said,
.Iter two or three minutes' pause.
" My lord will remember the ground is heavy with snow."
"Bah! Has she come Into the house?"
" She is coming, my lord," the servant replied, tie having
seen her ladyship tear her hand out of that of the handsome
young man, walk swiftly towards her father's house, and,
looking round once, wave that hand towards the admiring
cavalier. This also he did not mention to his master.
Wrapped still in her long fur houppelande, her three cor
nered hat upon her head, and her long fur embroidered
gloves upon her hands. Lady Mllllcent Thame entered now
her father's presence, while bringing with her, as It seemed
to the servant if not to the master, an air of freshness and
youth that was altogether delightful. For my lady was but
two and twenty, and aha was fair and sweet; her cheeks were '
soft and had a bloom upon them such as a peach on a south
wall possesses -when at its best hi summer's prime; her eyes
were cool and gray, her hair a lock of which had escaped
from beneath her wig was blonde com me le ble.
The grunts and gurgles emitted now by the gouty old
fhan cannot be represented on paper by any combination
of the letters of the alphabet, therefore let them be Imagined,
with, since In his heart my lord loved his child full well,
an accompanying belief that they were Intended to repre
sent some form of welcome and endearment. Then, after
further choking and grunting, the earl said:
"Well, what Is a-dotng in the town? And the thieves;
has aught beten heard of them? And you, whom have you
seen, and what done? Hey? Oo!" (This latter being ad
dressed to the footman, 'who promptly went, since none
waited for his lordship to speak twice.)
" There are no tidings of the thieves as yet," tils daughter
answered, sitting down by him after the man was gone.
" The news letters say the robbery was committed In the
house by some vagabonds who knew what they were a-dolng.
Others say "
" What others?"
"I met Luke Rivers In the Mall, and and Bertie War
grave ten minutes ago in the square. And he "
" Bertie Wargrave! A wastrel, a dissolute youth; dlsso
lute as his debauched old cavalier of a father. And poor as
Job's cat"
" Maybe," Lady Mllllcent said, unmoved at this melan
choly statement. Then, looking her father In the face, she
dded, " I love him, nevertheless."
" Love away," said Lord Severne with a wheecy laugh,
the first he had given vent to that day and surprising his
daughter by doing so, since she had expected something that
waa not well! a laugh. ' Love away, and be happy, only
be no foot, nor think of marrying him. His father loved a
many when he was young; so, too, for the matter of that
did I. But we only loved them, and we knew where to
marry. My life and soul! In the days of merry King
Charles we" . j
" We are not in his days now, the Lord be praised!" Lady
Mllllcent replied " And we, the women of today, have some
touch and spot of modesty within us now. Faugh! your
merry King Charles and his French ways, and the ways of
the women of his daysi I do hate their very names the
women of his days and their multitudinous lovers! My Lord
This one day, and my Lord That another, and a broken down
cavalier the next, and so on, till a footman or a scrivener's
cleric or a shopman served at last Bah! for your King
Charles."
"We lived our lives and lovedem, too." his lordship ;
said, stni wheesing and chuckling, " and once this cursed
gout hath departed, I'll enjoy mine again. Only I would I
had not been robbed of 30,000 guineas, and I would I had a
daughter who did not wish to marry a beggarly officer in
Peterborough's Horse."
"You are deceived," Lady Milllceot said to her father,
she being the only creature who dared to argue with and
defy, and. what was worse, generally to vanquish him.
"Bertie Waigravs Is no beggar. He has 200 guineas a year
from "
"Two hundred devils!"
" Enough to keep a wife on, at least If he leaves off
Campaigning. He Is no beggar, and he wants nothing from
you. He would not even have taken your 30,ooo guineas'
worth of valuables which the thieves have robbed you of as
a git. And, to conclude, I love him, and always shall."
These were the days th Christmas day that was draw
ing near so blueterlngly was one of them that are now, to
us, so full of perfumed memories of
" The teacup times of hood and hoop,
Or while the patch was worn."
Also they were brave, bold days In many ways; days of
great storm and strife by sea and land, when Russell had
not long ago defeated our enemies our only great enemy
at La Hogue, and when Marlborough had Just done the same
thing at Blenheim. The days when men wore scarlet coats
nd wigs, and red heeled shoes, and lace that was some
times worth a fortune on their breasts and their wrists, and
carried Ivory and gold hilled swords, and fought and loved
women, and fought again and then loved other women and
oft drank too deep, though, when they were sober, they
could writs poems Imbedded now In many a sweet anthology,
and plays that were full of life and movement and had no
problems to propound.
The days when women were more prettily clothed than
ever iney nave oeen sinoe; wnt-n im Dioua ran ires a no, -run
through their veins; when. If they loved men a man one
man they said so and were not ashamed, while. If they had
a latter day capacity for Icvlng a dosen. they did not say
so but did It, assuming thereby a virtue If they had it not,
tor decency's sake.
Yet days, too, when villains flourished as now they never
could flourish outside the boards of fifth fate theaters, when
wills could be destroyed with open scoutlngs and derisions
by the powerful; when duels were fought In daylight in the
park, and sometimes fought unfairly, too; when men were
murdered by kinsmen for their wealth, and others kidnaped
and sold to the plantations by relations hungering for their
inheritance, and Women abducted and deceived into mock
marriages; stealthy midnight murders done and either never
known "of or the murderers never discovered.
Now. In these days of good Queen Anne of which I tell,
some of these things were still a-dolng. Lady Mllllcent
Thame loved a man who, In solemn truth, was not, perhaps,
her proper match, and said openly tint she did so; and there
were villains, thieves, highwaymen, housebreakers all about.
and villains in high life, t,oo; men were being hanged dally
at Tyburn and Execution dock, and Kennington common,
and other delectable spots for stealing shillings, and horses,
and dogs; and the earl of Severne had recently had his bouse
broken Into, and his strong box robbed to the value of
30,000 guineas.
Tet the wonder was how it had been done. The box of
iron, having in it a lock which required for Its works the
whole of the lid of the box it had been made a hundred
years before by Ventiml of Florence stood in the cabinet,
or dressing room, opening out of the bedroom of the noble
tarl. The door leading from the bedroom of his lordship to
the onblnfet stood open all night; the key to the lock reposed
beneath the pillow of Its august owner. Tet still, a week
ago, the lackey, coming In one morning to pull the hang
ings of the bedroom windows, saw that the ltd of the strong
box was open, and that the box had been rifled of all Its
contents.
Let us pass over the earl s roars and terrible ejaculations
the gout was ontilm then the awful hubbub In the hou.
the flying hither and thither and yon of the scared domestics
who, hearing their master, thought a thunderbolt bad struck
the roof. Pa.ons aussl (but sorrowfully, since, indeed. It
was rather a sight to dwell upon), a delicious vision of Lady
Mllllcant, with golden hair all tumbled and disheveled by
sleep, running into the room at the noise It would have waked
the dead! clad in some fleecy, flowing gown or robe de
chambre of clinging material, which as she ran showed fair
white arms In the loose sleeves, and little feet hastily thrust
Into gold thread, pearl embroidered mules.
"Ten thousand pounds In guineas," the earl was yelling
as she entered, " ten thousand in African Elephant guineas,
kills on Sir Joslah Child and Matthew Decker, and many
drafts! O, my heart and liver! All gone, and most of them
as ready money in hand, with, too, your sainted mother's
pearls! Ah! O! 6tap my vitals! O! no one In the house
ever, except ourselves and the domestics!"
" Excepting only Luke Rivers, who called so often to
make Inquiries after your palns--"
" Luke Rivers! A youth of parts, a godly man, a church
goer "
" Bah! One who says he Is, yet at church time Is walking
In the Mall with many a saucy quean. Church Indeed!"
while pretty Lady Mllllcent muttered to "herself : "A fawn
ing, canting knave who pretends to be at church because his
godly uncle hath much money to leave." , '
" A righteous youth," the earl went on, " and; therefore
one" " Whom you admire, and would have me wed. Tet never
will I!"
"Minion!" the earl raved, "would you accuse him of
robbing me? 111m! And he never alone in the house by day
or night and sick, too, in his rooms, at the time! "Twaa
more like your beggarly lover with his gambling, dissolute
habits, and need of money than Luke."
To which Lady MilHoent said nothing, but, tossing ner
pretty head mighty high, walked out of the room.
Now, whenever her ladyship walked out of the room
or, at least, when mostly she did so she as often as not
walked out of the house, too; the earl knowing nothing of
her movements since no servant of his would tell him aught
of what the girl did, they all loving her and being afraid of
him. And when she walked out she went ever one way,
which was down towards St. James' square and In to It and
towards the tamarisk tree which had been planted by Mme.
Davis, who was. In truth, that Moll Davis of whom no more
was known than that King James, when duke of York, loved
her and gave her a house in the square. And, beneath that
tamarisk tree would ever be found awaiting La-dy Mllllcent
perhaps by rendezvous, since lovers have ever done such
things and ever will. It Is to be supposed that handsome
young man in the scarlet coat whom we have heard spoken
of as Bertie Wargrave. And soft words would be whispered
end hands clasped, and If there was a fog or the night was
nigh, or the watchman was asleep or drunk their lips would
meet and murmurs pass between those lips. And so you
who read do now know enough to understand, or at least
as much as a poor scribe knows how to relate from what
books and telltale lovers have revealed to hhn.
" My precious soul, my sweet, my love, my life!" Bertie
said the day after the roobery, as he slipped his hand be
neath my lady's long furred cloak, and put It In under her
arm and held her hand aftar those things written above had
had their happenings. "What is it?" And then he listened
to his lady love's story.
' But, sweetheart," he said at last, " 'tis passing strange.
Luke Rivers ill In bed at -his time! He ill In bed! he, the
only man who. prior to tlie robbery, had been admitted to
your father's house!" I
" Is't not so?" Lady Millicent asked, pausing In her walk.
Ah, Bertie, fond love, what know you to the contrary?
Tell me, tell me, my heart?" while, bidden as much by the
look in her eyes and 'the bloom on her cheeks, as by her
words, Bertie went on:
" Last night," he said, " I sat In Luke Rivers' lodgings
down by the river. And and he told me he muwt go forth
that .instant, only only -he knew not how to compass It.
He owed much money to his landlord who waited beneath
to pounce on him If he attempted to dement, and waited with
a Bow street man to serve a warrant on him. Tet still he
aid he would go an' he could. He had a dicing debt to pay
that night. O! if. he could but go. Then, suddenly, he be
sought of tne a favor. If I would tend him my coat and
cloak and hat and would call out ' good irigrhtt' &s he went
down the stairs, the Catchers below would think It was the
visitor going forth and not he. and so he could go and would
soon return and release me. Also, he said, if I would walk
about the room now and again, then would the obdurate ones
below think he was still In 't. and so he could creep back in
safety to his hole and I could go."
" And thou did st It! Risked thyself for that canting,
hypocritical sewer rat?"
' I did It. heart of my heart In truth I did. And he
went forth clad In my clothes, which well became the royster
kig, doystering ne'er do well your revered father calls me,
but not the sober, pious churchgoer, Luke Rivers. And a
sweet fool he looked In them. Yet still he went. And, my
lady fair, 'twas vastly cold when I was left alone with nought
but a guttering rushlight to cheer me. Now," said JJurile to
Lady Mllllcent, " listen to me, and " , '
" Do I not ever listen to you, no matter what you speak
upon? Am I not your slave your loving slave, but still that
same? Is there a thing you do or say. that makes not sum
mer In my heart?"
" Sweetest," said Bertie, stopping the words from issuing
"out of he pomegranate Hps by a process that he who writes
this narrative has been told, ss effective on occasions, " listen
to me. Walking about the gloomy den. holding the rush
light on high so that I might see, I did perceive upon bis
mantelpleo a key."
Bloundelle
Burton.
s' jo
...
l1
'I
f '-X
4t
WOT YETf YOU WILL
"A key! The dastard, treacherous knave! Oo on why
do you stop and break off? '
" 'Tis you who stopped me. Still, it matters not. Mllly,
that key was a strange one, cunningly wrought and devised.
And and and "
" But my father's key never leaves his room. That, too,
lies ever on the high mantelshelf."
" Does he, thy father, never leave his room? Has he ne'er
done so, leaving Luke Rivers there alone one single moment;
long enough to make a wax Impression?"
" But, sweetheart, if he had gone to our house to rob
the strong box, then would he not have left the key in his
rooms?"
" It was a broken key. Doubtless one that had failed and
so was flung aside. Another, a second, or a third, sufficed
better, and that he took, SeeBt thou?"
" O, Bertie, Bertie," Lady Mllllcent exclaimed, her blood
on fire, "bring It home to him; let us bring it home to him.
Get you father's goods back to him he loves his possessions
and It will soon be Christmas; we will spend It together. A
masterful, exacting man is my father; but I have a touch
of his condition. I, too, am masterful. Had my lord not
wanted to find his master he should never have bred me.
Give him his money back end he shall give you your wife.
Trust me. Now come. See, my precious love, the wintry
night draws in H Is nigh dark and, O, the watchman sleeps
again. Dost thou see that, Bertie?"
" I see, and, seeing, understand. Thus and thus." -f
Christmas eve in London. A fine, clear night, with,
nevertheless, (leaks and flakes of snow blowing through the
air as though driven forward by the cold north wind as
avaintt couriers of what was on the way from that stormy
north. Yet still fine and clear, with a half rusty moon
banging low In the heaven anjl lighting up the faces of the
passers by; lighting up the faces of the mummers and the
maskers dancing round his grace of Northumberland's house
at Charing Cross, and singing of carols and scrambling for
the small silver pieces thrown out to them by the duke's
sumptuously clad menials. Lighting up, too, the faces of
men and women passing along, many of whom bad already
anticipated the drlnkings and feastlngs of the morrow, and
the faces of debauched gentlemen" night hawks, mohocks,
owls, etc.," as they termed themselves who lered into
every young woman's face, and, as often as not, got the leer
returned with interest.
Through this crowd weat two young men, one tall, dark,
handsome, covered up in a heavy roquelaure, and with his
laced hat pulled well down over his brows; one, who was
leading, helping-, guiding another, wl surely was his
younger brother. A stripling lad this, with eyes blue as the
periwinkle and cheeks pink as the Bourbon rose, with fair
curls tucked well up under his slouch felt hat; a youth at
whom every woman's eye was directed with an approving
gltuve. Leading, guiding this youth, whose sword got vastly
in his way, the other went on, until at last, turning down a
street leading to the river's edge, both paused beneath the
stoop of one of the ancient houses.
" Put on thy visard mask now, sweet one," the elder said.
MHs must be upstairs since the landlord .would never let him
oome down. The door staads open, ths stairs Invite. Tread
softly, or shall I carry thee up them?"
" Nay. let me walk. Bertie. Cut down your feet heavily.
I will plant mine lightly.'
" you are not afeard?"
"Afeord! with you by my side! Nay, never. Not of ths
fiend himself."
Up the stairs, therefore, the two went, while, sinoe the
landlord seemed to be carousing within with some friend-
41
ISSS
)
Y
jr
I "
V v
HAVE ONE IfltlDE TONIGHT.
perhaps the Bow street runner he heard them not. Nor
would It have mattered much had he done so, since he had
some days before been paid his bill by Luke Rivers, who was
now as free as air. -But this neither my lady nor her lover
knaw as yet They knew It soon, however, when, tapping
gently on the door of Rivers' room, they learnt by the silence
that was the only answer for silence can answer as well as
words sometimes that the man they sought was not within.
"You understand?" Bertie Wargrave whispered in her
ladyship's ear. " He is out. Therefore he has paid his bill.
"Pis well. We know where he got the money from. Now to
open the door. Thinking it most like he would do this, I
have brought these."
Whereupon Bertie produced from his pocket a bunch of
picklocks, and In five minutes they were In the rooms.
High and low they hunted for half an hour by the aid of
the rushlight they kindled after some trouble, and then, at
last, they found that for which they sought though found
t only when they had begun to despair. Thrusting his hand
up tlhe large open mouthed grate. In which no Are had been
hind led for many a long day, they found all. The bags of
guineas one being open, doubtless for the thief's needs the
drafts, the bonds, all.
" We have gotten them," Bertie said. " We are man and
wife."
" Not yet," a voice exclaimed, while at the same moment
the ruahlight was knocked to the floor, my Lady Mllllcent
was thrust aside, and a pair of sinewy hands seized Bertie
by the throat, and, flinging him down on the bed, began to
throttle the life out of him. " Not yet! You will have one
bride tonight, and that is death! Afterwards this stripling,
who Is a woman, doubtless, can Join you." And again Luke
Rivers, Who had returned from Rummer's coffee house for
more money with which to gamble, pressed harder and
harder on Bertie Wargrave's throat. " And then," he added.
" the river can have you both.''
Yet, think not that the bold heart of Lord Seveme's
daughter hed stood still. 'Twaa not of such mettle this
masterful brood was made. The candle was knocked out 'tis
true, but the moon, whose rays streamed through the window
Into the room, Illuminating It brightly, could not be served
thus. And, through her rays, there flashed now something
on whioh they sparkled and gleamed, something that, bright
one Instant, was gone the next. The small, lithe rapier the
girl had carried at her side with muoa discomfort to herself,
caused still greater discomfort to Luke Rivers as it hurtled
against his ribs and, gilding in between two of them, caused
him to utter one piercing yell, to quickly. In his agony, un
clasp his hands, and then fall senseless on the bed by the
side of his expected victim, while the fair young slip of
noblwee hissed, " Dog! Beast! Jackal In the lion's hide, you
would have put It on him. On him, my one, my only love.
Die, an' thou wilt."
By 10 o'clock on Christmas night the earl of Severne's
Hood ran high. A-many a glass of Lisbon and Oporto had
he drunk since morning, mar.y a weird song of old Carolinian
days had he favored his listeners with When they would
listen the domestics had been bidden to eat and drink their
fill, and the gout had gripped hire worss than sver. Tet,
still, my lord was at his best In one way. No matter
whether his heart was softened by ths bold recovery of his
precious treasure, or whether his daughter bad worsted him
In one final conflict, at least shs was now ths affianced wife
of fhe man she loved.
-1' fags!" the earl grunted to Bertie Wargrave as he
drank again. " If you're no good at aught else, you are good
at making a fool girl love you. Also you havs a touch of
ths bulldog In you. You uhall havs her. 'Fore gad, you
; '1
i
" i
A-
7
t. I
'A
V
Ml.
a.
S
shall. But I'll have you out of Peterborough's regiment, and
buy you one for yourself, If you must go a-soldlerlng. Buss
her, man, buss her, though I doubt me If your lips know ths
way to a woman's, unless i be those of some saucy waiting
maid's."
Then, as Bertie stepped up to his future bride and kissed
her long and tenderly, his arm around the silken dress shs
wore now, the old man seemed mightily astonished.
" He might be his dissolute father," his lordship mut
tered, "or me when I was young. Sounds! I do believe he
has kissed her before. I should, had I been he."
So, in spite of his lordship's gout and In spite of his tem
perand his terrible loss, which was now retrieved, they kept
high revels hi Beveme house that night That bowls of
spiced wine and other drinks should be consumed bravely by
all need not be told, remembering that these were days of
wassail and carouse, nor that the servants reeled about un
steady and my lord slept In his chair, nor that Bertie and
her pretty ladyship sat behind a vast Indian screen at Inter
vals, there to talk! Nor that the ghl sat later at her spinet
and her lover sang a soft song to her made by my Lord Pem
broke, having for refrain the lines:
" Silence In love hetrays more wo
Than words, tho' ne'er so witty.
Ths beggar that la dumb, you know.
May challenge douMe pity." i
And Lady Mllllcent hummed, out of keeping with the
tune, " I love you, I love you, I love you," as shs aoooro
panled him, and the bells of St Martin's and St James' rang
out their Joyous peals for ths laM trme as midnight struck;
and my lord slumbered stertorouxly.
And Luke Rivers lay tn ths watchhouse wondering
whether Tyburn or the plantations would be his doom.
