A Mere Chance, Vol. 3 of 3

ion. It was such a tour as a romantic and imaginative woman born to a humdrum life would feel to be the one thing to "do" and die; and ac

cation: there is nothing like it for enlarging the m

a very interesting study, as exemplifying this soundest of popular theories. She was greatly altered in all sorts of ways. She had

thing nice." She expressed her appreciation of things smilingly and sweetly, with more or less of her natural bright frankness, but with a well-bred moderation and serenity that might have beco

s an experienced and cultured woman, a leader of society, fully equipped for that high positi

ers-indications in her reticent and reposeful manner of a tendenc

ratified by it-more especially as the young wife was evidently on the best of terms with her

self, and twinkling with diamonds everywhere, responding to respectful greetings with quiet grace, moving in her comparatively higher sphere as if she fe

another point of view. She did not like to see a girl who had been exce

ation of travel as Rachel-perhaps more, inasmuch as her young husband was a dabbler in bric-à-bric, and had a taste for old churches, and palaces, and pictures

ughters, was much the same as she had been in her maiden days-cheerful, enterprising, a rider of

rse, but the experiences of travel had

alifications in this respect, yet had glimmerings of the state of things that existed in Rachel's heart. She knew-though

ix'd in stable e

the toss

which she had only her own instinct to teach her was tainted with dishonour, so she would hold fast to some other things, if t

eness of her disposition; but there was a part of her that refused to be reconciled

n their loss as in their possession, the meaning of human happiness and the diviner aspect of human life, there was naturally a great vacuum somewhere-a great e

sign of marriage that had no inward and spiritual grace; but then she did not know what it was that she mis

ur. At the chief of these, a great ball in the Town-hall, the dramatic action of this story, temporarily suspended by o

ing was in its glory. It strangely happened to be also the anniversary of the night of her clandestine betroth

y avoided mentioning it to her; which reticence on his part was odd and uncomfortable rather than considerate and delicate, inasmuch as she was intensely anxious to pursue the line of conduct that

er to any of those who might have given her information about him-not even to B

nsciousness that he and she were "in the world together," and that

place, and periods of time in the second; and every date was a register

as covered over with inlaid woodwork), she tried to put the thought of it out of her mind-tried to shut her eyes to the inevitable agonising and tantalising perception of what might have been-and yet was acutely r

e clock struck nine silvery notes. "We were looking at the m

ren't you dressed yet? I met that young woman of yours on the stairs; she seems to have more time on her hands than s

ose ministrations, essential to the dignity of her

ressing," she replied;

whether he had enjoyed it, anxious to show him some special tenderness on this special

he laid on his arm in a perfunctory manner, and sent her back to begin her preparations for the ball. He did not wish her to

yrannical way; but his marriage with her, after a year and a half of it, had become to hi

simply because it was Rachel's habit to efface herself at the first symptoms of r

id feel, in a general way, that matrimony was-as he confessed he had been well warned that it would be-very tame and dull, and uninteresting, and that it would be too un

easant. This was particularly the case after his return to Melbourne, where his face became as familiar to club men as in the ante-nupti

ompleted, and the entire establishment was in proper order for their reception, and for the giving of that magnificent house-warming to which the world of Me

attentive of him to come home to her a full hour before he needed to have

, thought her not only one of the most lovely, but one of the most fortunate of women; and so d

ical health, and the last year or two of her life, in spite of sorrowful

ive to the eyes of the Melbourne ladies as the delicacy of her pure complexion was to those of the men. And she wore her necklace of diamo

ittle while, a short, stout man, of about forty or fifty years of age, a

stature, and a noticeable absence of beauty; and she had a dim-ver

rs, and his florid face was marked down one sid

h an eyeglass that he put into one of them whenever she came near, obviously with the intention

athered like ghosts around her, Roden Dalrymple holding the lighted match to his watch, while she sheltered the little flame from the wind-her head touching his cheek and his huge moustache as they looked

had said. Could it have been at that moment that he meant to send her

tner, feeling a break and a jar in the rhythm of the

ike to sit down for a few minutes-we'l

continued to revolve before them. She had hardly sat down, and was beginning mechanically to fan hers

lderly and amiable matron, sat down, bestowing the deprecatory sm

g a little forward, with an elbow on his knee; and Rachel, dreamily occupied as she was, was quit

ant to dance attendance upon me, my dear-I shall do very well here until Lucy want

little man, rather bluntly. "Except Lucy-and she is

erson. And the little man then began to inveigh against the abstract girl of the period with trenchant vigour-obv

rldly women-always excepting Lucy, of course-as soon as they cease to be children. They have only one object

little vulgar," replied his companion, frowning surreptitiously, and giving uneasy sidelong glances at Rachel. "There are girls and

rt for them-nothing pleases them better-when they have no serious business on hand," the little man pr

recommending marriage to

r, impecunious lover-be he ever so much a lover, and the best fellow that walks the

pertinent that she recognised in the tone and look of the speaker, a deep blush flooded

wever, that he could only be a disappointed aspirant for Rachel's hand. "He's an impu

k and been closeted with her aunt at the time when Roden Dalrymple had promised to come for her, nearly two years ago. She had gone out into the garden, thinking he might possibly have been Roden, to intercept him as he was going away. She had had only a distant glimpse of him-of his short, square figure, and the lower part of his face-but she

ss was-of course he was-Roden

, turned round, and walked deliberately

lier, "do not come. Go and dance wi

u must allow me-aw,

Mr. Gordon, I want to ask you something. Will you kindly take me out to the lobb

traordinary proceedings of her cousin "with some insolent beggar whose name she said she didn't know, though she addressed him by it almost in t

r until to-night; he had hoped he never should see her, or have anything to do with her. She had been, in his imagination of her, the embodiment of all that was detestable in woman. But now something in the candi

room. "Yes, I thought so; but I did not recognise you at first. I should have waited for an introduction, but I was

d by the shock of this unexpected attack. Rachel, on the contrary, usually

e said. "And I want to

nd, Mrs. Kingston. I am therefore, perhaps, something of

! Tell me-quickly-before anyone is here to interrupt us-did you

e to see her and

e send

urse h

hy

ly. "Do you mean to sa

tin and diamonds, without a trace of colour in her face; and the angu

ow that he was ill?-that you didn't tell Mrs. Hardy to write that letter?-that it was all done without your knowing anything a

y upon recovering consciousness was about his appointment with her-how he had deputed his friend to go to Melbourne and explain his inability t

t would be for other people) to have it all out at once, while he was as about it; "and that she would send me a note to the club, where I was staying, in the evening, or instruct you to do

nt and told

ot want to kill him-until I had taken every

ated Rachel,

t the club, and I asked him on his honour to

m why you wa

d

her strength; whole years of effort and ago

ack to Queensland soo

he said-though he had not p

-that I never knew anything-never, never, f

s heart to hear i

that I was not utterly base.

really not engaged when they said you were

drew herself up with a

im my message simply, that is all I want you to do. He will understand it. Will yo