Tales and Sketches.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 5, 25 February 1871, Page 17

Tales and Sketches.

RAWDON’S RAID. [From London Society.] (Concluded from our last.) 111. THE BOODLES’ BALL.

‘I think it a most objectionable proceeding, and I repeat that it is my wish that you do not go!’ He who spoke was a grim, gaunt, grizzled personage, with a voice that grated on your nerves like a handsaw ; with thin, bloodless lips and freezing, steel blue eyes; clothed in severe evening dress; in a choking collar and a creaking cravat, and a decidedly bad temper. He w,as Jeffrey Marsden, banker, of Lombard street and Rochampton; and having managed to catch her alone in the Dane Court drawing room before the expedition started for the Boodles’ ball, he was haranguing the fair haired child whom he counted on having in another fortnight undisputed right to harangue for the rest of her natural life, in his most autocratic manner though with hardly the same effect as usual. Hilda stood where he had stopped her, rather pale, and. with her little gloved hands clasped tight upon each other ; but neither trembling nor submissive. My wish, my request, that you give up this ball, under the circumstances !’ enunciated the Croesus, after anemphatic pause, and setting down his empty coffee cup. ‘ Give up this ball ?’ Hilda repeated—and he was vaguely conscious that she spoke in a different way somehow, to her usual one towards himself—‘Why?’

Marsden looked at her over the creaking cravat as one who finds a difficulty in understanding what he hears ; or fancies he can scarcely hear aright. ‘ I beg your pardon,’ lie said in his most icily-rasping tone ; ‘ you asked me- ?’ ‘I asked you why I should give up this ball?’

She met his hard eyes quite ■steadily. He looked at her in real surprise. ‘Did you not hear me say it was my wish, my request P You can require no better reason.’ ‘ A plainer one, at all events/

‘Hilda!’

He had never called her by her name half a dozen times in his life ; he was only startled into doing, so now. What had come to her that she dared speak in this way; dared meet his rebuking glance so —yes, so defiantly ? He must put an end to this once for all.

His thin lips shut close together once or twice. Then he said, with his most offensively authoritative air: ‘ You oblige me to lay my commands upon you not to go.’ He was prepared to stalk gravely to a chair, or out of the room, when she spoke again, still in that same changed voice. ‘ You have no right to do that!’ Hilda said.

‘No right?’ he repeated, mechanically.

* No. No right to “ command” me not to go. No right to “command” me at all. No right' to speak to me as you do speak. No right to tell me at the last moment that l am not to go to-night, for no better reason than to parade your authority over me—an authority to which you have no right either.’ He turned very white, but stood speechless. She went on.

*An authority you claim, I know; but which you have done nothing to gain. What have you. ever been at the pains to win from me ; and now you “command” me ! It is too late!’

Flat rebellion this, beyond question. Fool that he was to try and crush it with the heavy hand as he thought he could do ! * Enough, if you please !’ he said, with what he flattered himself was irresistible severity ; ‘ I can listen to no more of this. Once more, and for the last time, I distinctly and formally forbid your going to this ball to-night. Be good enough to let that suffice.’

How little he knew what he was really doing at that moment! Couldn’t he almost see, thopgh, in the face she turned towards him?

*lt shall suffice !’ she said. ‘ Distinctly and formally I refuse to be forbidden. For the last time, as you say.’ Before he could find his voice again, 1 there came a sound of other voices from beyond the portieres. The other women had come down. This pleasant little tete-a-tete was going to be interrupted. And she had defied him ! This penniless child he thought he had broken so thoroughly to his hand had defied him, Jeffrey Marsden, the millionaire, who had actually condescended to ask her to be his wife ! What did it mean? What could have come to her? And what was he to do? She had set his express commands at naught; she evidently was determined to have her own way and go. His cold blood ran almost warm under the sense of his defeat. But he was so utterly taken by surprise that he could only mutter awkwardly enough something about ‘Lady Hope,' and ‘tomorrow,’ before the others were in the room. Tomorrow ! He remembered afterwards the smile that crossed the girl’s pale face when he talked of that,

‘ What’s been the matter, Mignonne ?’ Helen whispered as she came up to Hilda by the fire, and Marsden stalked away stridently in his varnished boots. ‘ Have you told him?’ Hilda shook her head.

‘ He has been telling me that I wasn’t to go to night, that’s all,’ she answered. ‘ Ordered me not to go. And, as he said, for the last time !’

‘Now then!’ Dick Jocelyn broke in ; ‘ come and be wrapped up, you two. Lady Jocelyn’s carriage stops the way. Perhaps you’ll give my lady your arm, Marsden. Don and I will see after the girls.’ ‘ Really, Richard,’ began that ‘ faded beauty of the baths/ Lady Hope, ‘ I think they’d better let the carriage come back for them !’

‘ Wait till it gets there, first, chere tant ! You don’t know what the roads are like to-night. Better let us come back for you. But don’t keep the horses standing, if you mean to go, I advise you. Now, Marsden, look alive, will you P’ the irreverent youth went on. ‘Ah ! here’s Don, in his Canadian get up.’ Rawdon came in with a fur pelisse over his ball dress, and another over his arm. ‘I think this won’t cruph you very much, Miss Jocelyn,’ he said, in his tranquil way, going straight up to Hilda; ‘ it’s very warm, and very light. Let me put it on for you.’ He wrapped the glossy seal skins about her tenderly, under Marsden’s hostile eyes and my lady’s. The Lombard street plutocrat cared as much, I verily believe, for the girl as he could care for anything but himself; though to ‘ form’ her for his wife he had in his eternal self-assertion, tyrannized over her till she simply hated him ; and, seeing another perform what should have been his duty—watching her face ,when she met Rawdon’s 100k —a feeling of simple dislike he had always been conscious of for the Sabreur grew sharply into a stronger, and to him a very strange one—jealously. Yes; Jeffrey Marsden hated the man jealously now. Was it he svho had underminded his authority over his future wife? Did he actually dare to— ’ He tries to stifle that half formed thought his overweening pride revolted at so angrily. ‘ But there shall be no more, of this!’ he said to himself as he led Lady Hope out to the carriage. The Pierrepoint women and the other four followed.

Dick was right about the night; it teas splendid. Clear, calm moonlit; with the thermometer down a dozen degrees below zero. A sparkling snow mantle covered the deer park and the hills beyond ; feather flakes of snow draped every tree’. Just the night for a sleigh drive, as Dick remarked.

The two sleighs were waiting just behind my lady’s family ark of a carriage. Lucia’s silver collar bells rang’out musically as the mare tossed her head and snorted, hearing her master’s voice. ‘ Keep close to us, Richard,’ my lady said, as she settled herself in her corner ; ‘and take care of Hilda, mind !’ The family ark moved on a little and then waited till the others were ready. Dick Jocelyn lifted his charge in his strong arms and carried her down the steps to her place in his own sleigh, and rolled the great buffalo robe round her. Miss Carew followed on the foot cloth, under Don’s escort.

‘ All right ?’ Dick inquired, taking his reins.

‘All right!’ came from the rear. ‘ Go on Johnston !’ And the expedition started.

The great ark lumbered along, with a tortoise like deliberation ; the two sleighs slid smoothly after. Down the Long Avenue, through the Lodge gates, out into the iron bound road, with a wall of snow a dozen feet high on either side, stretching and winding away yonder like a narrow white riband.

In the ark, the Pierrepoint woman did all the talking; my lady was sulky with cold, and Marsden sulky with wrath. ‘ Well Mignonne !’ Dick said presently to his silent companion; its all settled, ain’t it ?’

‘ Oh ! Dick,’ she whispered out of her furs, ‘ bow can IP’

‘ You will though !’ was the wise youth’s mental reply. ‘ And so my dear Miss Carew,’ was how Don finished a long answer to certain objections—urged, half o f them it must be confessed, merely pro forma, —which Helen had raised. ‘And so, I really don’t see what else we are to do. Do you now, Hilda’s no chance with my lady if she stays here; nor have I. They’ll marry her to this—this man, Marsden. Think what that would be for both of us ! My plan saves us both. Everything’s arranged. If she says yes, you won’t gay no ?’ I don’t think Miss Carew did. In due time the Dane Court expedition arrived at Boodle Park. IV. * NUMBER NINETEEN.’ Three a.m. The Boodle’s ball began to manifest symptons of dissolution. Paterfamilias, with a ten or fifteen-mile drive beiore him through cross country roads where the snow was up to his horses’ withers in places, began to growl and lopk

at his watch ; Materfamilias, supped and sleepy, began to cluck impatiently to gather her brood round her out of the meUe. The circle was getting, freer, and the pace too. The band of the * County Crushers,’ rather wild and uncertain in its tempo, had just commenced attacking the last valse, number nineteen.

Rawdon and Dick Jocelyn were standing together near the doorway. Marsden had that moment stalked out between them. They could hear him asking about Lady Hope’s carriage in the hall; my lady was going. ‘Ain’t much time to lose, Dou/Dick said in the others ear; ‘my lady’ll carry her off directly, Better go and get your valse, hadn’t you ? She is looking for you, you. know/ Hilda was looking for him as pale, with some unusual excitement, she stood beside my lady, with her trembling little hand clinging secretly to Helen’s. The three were at the upper end of the room, where Marsden had left them to order up the ark; and couldn’t see Don in the doorway. ‘ Time enough/ the latter replied, coolly to Dick’s suggestion ; ‘ I’m waiting for —ah ; here it is—a despatch from Fyle/ A servant gave him an envelope, sealed, and with his name scrawlod upon it in pencil. ‘ Boy’s just brought this for you from Ashbridge, sir.’ George explained : ‘ You were to have it immediate, he said/ ‘All right.’

Don tore open the missive, glanced at the single line in Fyle’s writing it contained, and passed it to Dick. ‘ Baggage and us is here,’ wrote Mr Fyle ; ‘ line clear, —-'mail expected at four/ ‘Admirable !’Dick ejaculated, grinning, ‘ “ Us” means Fanehon and himself, I suppose. But you must look sharp, old man. It’s three now.’ ‘ I know. But Lucia will do the five miles in less than twenty minutes ; and I don’t want to have to wait at Ashbridge, you understand. Now, look here—you have the sleigh all ready at the half-hour. At five and twenty minutes past, just show yourself in this doorway. I shall be waltzing with her, and looking out for you. When I see you I’ll stop, aud get her out of the room in the general scrimmage without being noticed. Then on with those sealskin swaddling clothes; into the sleigh; and fouette cocker ! We ought to be half way to Calais before any one but you and Miss Carew’s the wiser. Understand ?’

‘ All right!’ Dick nodded. ‘ But, I say, Don, she won’t hang back at the last moment, eh ? It’s now or never for you, you know. Yon won’t get a chance like this again. And women are queer cattle/ I don’t think she will,’ Rawdon said, looking up the room towards her. ‘ She might under other circumstances, perhaps; but not now. Marsden has managed matters too well for that. The pompoug bully would drive a woman to anything. He was hectoring her about coming here to-night before we started, just as if she didn’t hate him already! The man’s been playing my game all through; my last move will checkmate him. It’s time to play it. You’ve ten minutes to see to the sleigh ! and I to dance number nineteen. Go along, old boy!’

‘“Now tread me a measure, quoth young Lochinvar,”' hummed Dick, as he turned to go. ‘Wonder whether he’s ever heard of that song, old ? Ah ! beg your pardon, Marsden,’ he ejaculated with unwonted civility, as he ran against the Croesus, returning from his hunt for Lady Hope's carriage. ‘ Hope I didn't hurt you ? All right, Don!’ And the Guardsman moved off to fulfil his part in the plot, chuckling at intervals over old Jeff’s approaching discomfiture, Rawdon went straight towards Hilda. Marsden followed.

‘Well, dear,’ Helen whispered in her cousin’s ear rather anxiously, ‘ will you ?' A pressure of the hand she clung to was all the other’s answer. Then Helen felt her start nervously, and saw her turn pale, and then flush feverishly. She had caught sight of Don making his way round the outside of the circle to where they three were still standing. Miss Carew’s own pulse quickened sharply. The decisive moment was all but come.

‘ Where can Mr Marsden be,?’ snapped Lady Hope',. querulously. ‘ What a time he is, seeing about the carriage! Ah! there he is, at last.’

There he was, close behind Rawdon; whom Lady Hope overlooked till she heard him speaking to Hilda. ‘Number nineteen,’ Don was saying; our x alse, you know, Miss Jocelyn.’ Poor child ! How much those quiet, commonplace words meant to her! The crisis had arrived. If she took his arm now she gave consent to that plan for saving her he had proposed. If she refused it—what was left to her? ‘ You had better let me take you to the cloak-room, 1 think,’ rasped Marsden’s saw of a voice, wonderfully apropos ; * the carriage will be ready directly, I believe,* it added, as the speaker turned to my lady. ‘Then we had better go,’ Lady Hope assented. ‘ Will you take Hilda ?’ This was pointedly at Rawdon, who showed no signs of giving way. Marsden advanced a little. It was with l|is most

insufferable air of proprietorship that lie thought fit to say—- ‘ Excuse me, Major Daringham. Now, Hilda, come!’ And he put his arm out stiffly for her to take. As Don had said, the man couldn’t help playing his opponent’s game. That tete-a-tete in the drawing room at Dane Court just now, even, hadn’t taught him better than to take this tone to the girl a second time that night. He fancied, perhaps, that with my lady to back him, she must submit to him this time, and give him a pleasant triumph over the man he hated. So his tone and manner to her were simply unbearable. If she ever had hesitated, hesitation was past now. If he ever could have kept her, he had lost her in that moment. She lifted her head ; her eyes met Don’s; and Don read her decision plainly in them. A light came suddenly into his ; but it was in his usual impassible fashion that he struck in, sure of winning now. ‘ Afraid I can’t forego my engagement, and loose number nineteen if Miss Jocelyn decides for me,’ he said. ‘ I don t think the carriage can get up for ten minutes or so, you know, Lady Hope,’ he added, blandly; ‘and so ‘Excuse me,’ Marsden srfid, with his severest, iciest hateur ; ‘ but Miss J ocelyn really cannot ’ Hilda put her hand on Rawdon’s arm at the ‘ cannot.’ ‘ I decide for number nineteen at all events,’ she answered, just in the way she had answered him before the ball. The child’s blue eyes looked at him again in that defiant way that had so angered him then. Marsden bit his thin lips and looked at my lady. My lady looked fairly astonished for once. « Really, Hilda she was beginning in her * punishment’ tone. Hilda shook her head. ‘ I have promised, mamma. It is too

late.’ Then a quick whisper in Helen’s ear: ‘Good-bye, darling Nell? And before the others could speak again Rawdon had carried her off.

‘ My own Hilda now ?’ he said to her when his arms were round her in the last valse. ‘You will trust yourself with me, darling ?’ ‘ O Don, take me away !’ she answered passionately. ‘ Take me away from him. Anywhere with you!’ He made no reply in words ; and she had no more to tell him after that. Round and round they swept; past my lady’s angry eyes, andMansden’sscowling face, again and again. Each time they went by the doorway, Rawdon looked for Dick Jocelyn’s signal that all was ready for the raid. At last Dick appeared. ‘ Now for it!’ muttered Don. He checked his partner, and brought her up close to where Jocelyn was waiting. It was a trying moment; fortunately it was but a moment. All passed so quickly that poor trembling little Hilda had no time to break down. Rawdon got through the little crowd near the door without notice. Then she was in the hall, and Dick was wrapping the furs about her. ‘ Good-bye, my pet!’ he said to her, rather touched at the sight of the white, wistful face: ‘Good-bye, Mignonne! Take care of her, Don!’ Then she was going down the steps into the icy air, holding Don’s arm. Out of the ruck of carriages, the sleigh and Lucia were waiting. Then Don muffled in his pelisse, was lifting her into her seat; then Lucia (without her silver grelots this time) was whirling swiftly down the frozen drive; and Daringham of ‘ Ours’ had fairly carried off old Marsden’s fiancee. Dick, on the steps, turned to his own man, who suspected nothing, was watching Rawdon’s raid, mechanically. ‘ You’d better get my sleigh up, Tom,’ he remarked; ‘ we shall all be starting directly. Well! it’s done,’ he soliloquised, as the man went off on his errand ; * I’m devilish glad of it. She’ll be now happy with Don; and old Jeff will be—- * Richard !’ my lady’s voice said sharply behind him, as he crossed the hall. ‘Where’s Hilda?’ There stood my lady and Marsden; 'Helen looking about her anxiously, a little in the rear. ‘Miss Jocelyn passed through the hall this moment,’ Marsden added. ‘ You must have seen her ; and —and —Major Daringham.’ The last words seemed to choke him. ‘Yes,’ Dick nodded; ‘I saw 'em all right.’ * Where are they, then ?’ Lady Hope snapped. ‘ I can t find Hilda in the cloak room. They say she’s not been there. Where can they be ?’ Dick faced the two, stroking his moustache calmly, but with an odd twinkle in his eyes. v. * YOUNG- LOCHINVAE.’ * Gone!' The same word from all three, but in very different keys. ‘Really / began Marsden with a portentous severity that hugely amused Dick. The plutocrat didn't understand. My lady, with the clairvoyance of a womu Qi the world, 2 and out of certain half-

formed suspicions of her own, understood everything in a moment. She glanced round her first to see that no one was within hearing; then she said in savage staccato to her nephew—- ‘ I’ll never forgive you for this, sir, as long as I live.’ ‘ Dear me, chere taute ! What have I done ?’ returned the guileless youth, not quite certain whether, as he expressed it, ‘ my lady was fly to all the little game yet.’ She wasted no time on him. Her hand grasped Marsden’s arm with an energy that startled that emotionless man. Emotionless, though, no longer ; for her words startled him even more.

‘ Don’t you see ?’ my lady, was whispering impatiently. ‘ She’s gone —with him. They’ve eloped ! Now listen !’ — for he stared at her as though she had suddenly gone mad. He really thought she had. What! His promised wife dare so far forget what was due to him as to elope! ‘ Listen !’ Lady Hope repeated, actually shaking him in her impatience. ‘ This must be prevented. They must be overtaken, stopped ! At any risk ; at once ! You must do it.’

‘l?’ Jeffery Marsden gasped. ‘You. Who else is there ? Richard is in the plot. In another hour it may be too late. Quick, man ! quick !’ He was beginning, electrified by this languid woman’s fierce, unwonted energy, to understand now. He had been robbed ; and by the man he hated most. For the second or third time that night the snowwater in his veins ran almost warm. She saw his face change. ‘ Will you go ? To save her—to defeat him, remember ! There may be time yet.’ ‘ Yes !’ he muttered between his blanched, lean lips : * you’re right. There may be time yet; and if I overtake him ! I’ll go ! But, how —where ?’ She had thought of everything, this clever Lady Hope, omniscient almost in her self-interest.

‘ The other sledge !’ she answered ; it’s ready down there, by this time* Didn t you hear him order it ? Follow the track. They have gone to Ashbridge, I am nearly sure. There is no train yet; you must prevent this! But don’t waste time ! You have your coat and hat! Quick ! ‘Never fear!’ he returned; and the blanched lips were actually guilty of an oath ; * I’ll do it!’ He flung his coat about him, and hurried through the inner glass doors out on to the steps. Dick, explaining matters to Helen sotto voce, had kept an eye on him all the time. ‘Let me see about the carriage, Aunt Hope !’ he observed. ‘ Poor dear old Jeff will catch his death of cold if you trot him about on a night like this.’ He moved away in pursuit; though rather wondering what Jeff could possibly do, you know, after all. Lady Hope caught him just as he was pushing open the doors that Marsden had just swung back. Through them he saw the latter rush down the steps, and leap (actually leap !) into his (Jocelyn s) sleigh, in readiness, as my lady had foreseen, below; saw the horse plunge and spring forward under the whip ; saw his man get knocked backwards and loose his hold on the reins, and Jeffrey Marsden drive furiously off and disappear. ‘ Oh ! by Jove ! you know ’ Dick began. Ladv Hope stopped him. ‘ Silence, sir.!’ she said ; ‘ do you want all the world to know this ? I sent him to stop them. And he will.’ * Willhe?’ thought Dick; he’ll probably break his own neck in the first five minutes, that’s all!' Then the thought of Jeffrey Marsden driving a sleigh about the country in the dead, of night, and coming to frightful grief against a gatepost or in a side-drift, caused Ensign and Lieut, Richard Jocelyn to laugh aloud. < * Take us to the carriage, sir!’ his relative said majestically ; ‘ whatever happens, we had better not stay here* They were all back, again at Dane Court when they heard what had happened. Swiftly and smoothly, flinging up a little shower of spray and leaving a straight track behind it that did credit to Don’s steering; faster and faster, as Lucia warmed to her work, between the high snow walls on either hand, the sleigh that carried La Mignonne and her Lochinvar whirled along the white solitary road that led to the Ashbridge station, four or five miles off. Muffled in her furs, and with the great buffalo-robe over all, Hilda lay back, only answering her lover s attempts to reassure her by a little sob now and then. The excitement of the last hour or two had been a little too much for the child. ‘ But it’s all right now, darling !’ Rawdon said presently, taking a pull at the mare as he topped the one long hill that lay between Boodle Park and Ashbridge—- ‘ its’s all right, now. We shall be at the D’Arbley’s by dinner time, comfortably. I’ve telegraphed to her to meet us at the Nord terminus. She’s about the only relation I’ve got left; and as she's fond of me, she’ll simply worship you, you know! We’ve managed beautifully, haven’t we ? Got away, and no one that

matters the wiser! Jove! though, I should like to see the City man’s face tomorrow—or rather this morning, when he discovers Eh ? what’s that ?’ He checked Lucia a moment and turned his head to listen. The ringing of grelots behind, plain enough. Round a slight bend came something dark against the snowy roadway at a furious rate after them. Another sleigh.

* Dick, perhaps !’ Don muttered ; ‘ but no, he wouldn’t come after' us. Besides, he wouldn’t yaw about so frightfully. That fellow’s never driven a sleigh before, I should say ?’ Oh,’ Don !’ Hilda suggested, nervously; ‘ suppose it should be ?’ * Marsden ?’ By Jove, it is ! My lady’s found us out and sent him, I suppose, to bring us back dead or alive! What a joke, isn’t it ?’ - Mignonne didn’t seem to see it in that light at all. ‘ For Heaven’s sake, Don, don’t let him overtake us ! I couldn’t bear to see him again/ she added. * No chance of his overtaking us, Mignonne !’ Don laughed. ‘ls there, Lucia ?’ The mare tossed her head, and sprang away like an arrow, as the. reins dropped . on her back again. A hoarse cry came from the pursuing sledge. It was so close behind them now that they could see its occupant gesticulating vehe- ; mently; could hear him calling to them to stop —Marsden's voice they both said. ‘ He’ll break his neck directly!’ Rawdon observed with a grim sort of smile; ‘ and we must leave him to it, I’m afraid !’ He looked at his watch as lie spoke. ‘ Yes; we’ve no time to waste. Allons !’ The mare laid herself out fairly now. The speed at which they tore along almost took Hilda’s breath away. They left the other sleigh as if it had been standing still. They were on the high ground now. Straight before them, yonder, where the lights were twinkling, lay the Ashbridge station ; right and left the snow-mantled country could be seen for miles. Rawdon’s eye ran along a thread-like dark track he knew where to look for—the line of rails down which the Paris mail was coming.

‘ She ought to be in sight, if they told Fyle the truth !’ he muttered ; ‘ awkward if she’s been blocked anyVhere, now we’ve got this fellow behind us !’ Again his eye ran along the line of the embankment, It stood out well against the white background; nothing was visible on it.

All this time Lucia’s speed never slackened : they were close on the station now. Where was the Mail ?

He caught sight of something at last. A red light: a gleam of other lights ; dull through frosty window panes. Then the shriek of a whistle reached them. It was the Dover Mail running into Ashbridge. Other eyes beside Don’s had caught sight of it. Again that cry to them to stop came from the other sleigh behind. Don laughed. ‘ Rather a sell for him, you know ! He’ll come up just in time to see us start!’ he remarked.

So it seemed, for they were passing through the gate of the station-yard almost as he spoke. It was a tall, heavy gate, usually held open by a catch, but on this occasion by a man muffled up to the eyes —Mr Fvle.

‘ All right, sir !’ that individual reported, as Don pulled up a moment. ‘ The Frenchwoman is here with the luggage and the tickets ; Mail’s signalled. You’re just in time, sir.’ Don leaned forward and said a brief word in the man’s ear. Mr Fyle grinned. ‘ I’ll take care, sir,’ he returned. The sleigh moved on up the ltttle incline to the" station entrance. Mr Fyle hurried the next moment up after it. Mademoiselle Fauchon rushed out to meet her mistress. The Dover Mail ran alongside the platform. Just at that moment the pursuing sleigh reached the gate of the yard. The pursuer shouted for some one to open it in vain. With an oath, he leaped out and fumbled with frostbitten fingers at the latch. In vain, too; the latch was immovable ; Mr Fyle perhaps best knew why. The pursuer saw the train run in, heard the doors slam as its passengers took their seats, heard the whistle sound for its departure. And this infernal gate wouldn’t open ! At last the undignified notion of climbing over struck him. He put it into immediate practice, slightly incommoded by the severely-strapped evening nether garments. It was a sight to see that tall, gaunt figure acheval upon a gatebar !

Just as it got there the train began to move slowly off. ‘ I’ll telegraph though !’ the figure muttered aloud with a vicious expletive, and preparing to descend on the other side. Not carefully enough, unfortunately. His foot slipped and turned awkwardly on the middle bar, and Jeffrey Marsden, Esq, came heavily to the ground with a badlysprained ankle. Where Mr Fyle presently found him. The Paris Mail reached its destination without mishap, and Don and his Mignonne got to the Avenue de l’lmperatrice in capital time for dinner, as he had prophesied.

Two days afterwards my lady—she managed to survive her disappointment—read her daughter’s marriage in the “ Times.” So did Marsden, in bed with incipient rheumatic fever, and a sprained ankle. So did Dick Jocelyn and Helen, lingering over their tele a tete breakfast in the Oak Parlor at Dane Court.

It was in that very room, by-the-bye, that, in the snow-time last year, I heard from those same two people the story of

Rawdon’s Raid.