Diana Tempest, Volume I (of 3)

tage comes the exc

e point that catches the eye in the middle distance! We stood there once. Perhaps we go back in memory-all the way back-to that little town and spire in the green country, and pray once again in the co

the time, and recall a "Good-bye" that was lightly uttered because it was only though

een

ack across the breezy uplands of his well-spent life, his eye avoided and yet was inevita

s ago or yes

sterday mingled with the heavy pressure of years, m

try nigh

h, Colonel." He had written something then. What was it? His own name? Memory failed. Who was that devil in the room, with Swayne's face and blurred watch-chain-two watch-chains-and the thick busy hands? And then it was night, and he was in the streets again in the hot darkness, among the blinking lamps and stars that looked like eyes, and Swayne was seeing him home. And there was a horror over everything; horror leant over him at night, horror woke him in the morning and pursued him throughout the day, and the next day,

had been staring at a blank sheet, and now a dark slide had been suddenly taken from the magi

hich consists in being subservient to the impulse of the moment. The effects of a feeble yielding to im

even chivalrous, inclinations towards others, especially towards women not of his own family. In his own family, where there had always been, even in his moth

ould have called sins, by laying the blame on others, and by this means to account for the glaring discrepancy

e might have his faults, he was wont to say, but his heart was in the right place. If things went amiss, the fault was in the circumstance, in the temptation, in the unfortunate character of those with

anguage, however spiritual, however orthodox, to la

, Colonel Tempest struggled back to the well-worn position, now clutched with both hands, that he had been betray

in which he suffered for Swayne's sin. And Swayne se

hing had power to affect him for l

l. Things took their usual course. Colonel Tempest had his hair cut as usual; he observed

ng ha

is growing towards the light, foreseen, but unknown? With what body will they come, we ask ourselves-these slow results that spring from the dust of our spent actions? Faith sows and waits. Sin sows and trembles. The fool sows and forge

ning, without warning, i

oked it," said a man in the club to him as he came in. "His tuto

out whistling. He meant no harm; but the smallest arrow of a refined ple

ead it, to find the place, but he could see nothing. At last he poured out a cup of coffee and drank it, and then tried again. There it was: Narrow escape of Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Tempest on the Metropolitan Railway. Mr. Goodwin and his charge, Mr. Tempest, were returning by the

ead no more. He w

d tried before and failed, and he had not heard of it? They wo

ter than he could bear. Weak men should abstain from wrong-doing. They cannot

e most trifling description, and some of which he did not even hear of at the time, which roused it afresh. There seemed to be a fate against John at Eton w

ay to himself; "but they will do it y

s Swayne knew the man he had to deal with, and had foreseen a movement of that kin

understood to be a sort of mental chloroform for uneasy consciences, did not seem to meet his case. The thought of John's danger never troubled him-John's possible death. The superstitious terror

(the patent medicine of the spiritual life of the age-the universal pain-killer)-eve

d consequently a popular, companion. His health, never strong, always abused, began to waver. At fifty-five he

noon, whither he had gone to assist at a certain fashionable wedding at which his daught

his way through the throng of footmen

ng back to the h

desmaid. Di is my only daughter, but I don't see much of her; others take care of that." His tone was pathetic. He had g

e. Do you mind coming down to my club? I have not seen you really to speak to since I came back. I want to have a tal

cram for the army, but also at Sandhurst. But Colonel Tempest had felt no gratitude on that score. Was not all John's wealth Archie's by right? and John must know it. Men do not gr

no worse than the rest. Poor fellow, it's very little I can do for hi

e and his sister Di had not even the modest fortune of a younger son eventually to divide between them. One of the beauties of Colonel Tempest's romantic clandestine marriage had been the lack of settlements, which, though it had prevented his wife bringing

be said that there was friendship between the two, but John, though only one year his cousin's senior, had taken the position of elder brother from the first, and had stood by Archie on occasions when that choice, but expensive, spirit needed a good deal of standing by. Archie had inherited other things from his father besides his pe

n and let us talk thi

h moments-he could afford to indulge a sentiment almost of regret for him. At times he still hated him with the perfect hatred of the injurer for the injured; but nothing to stir that latent superstitious horror, and consequent detestation of the cause of the horror, h

e again-wide awake, hydra-heade

olonel Tempest, and then turned away

" said John, as his

n to join another man who was entering at that moment, and hurried after Swayne. He overtook him as he passed

m as he joined him. He evident

t they have got the whip hand. Swayne was not to be outshone in the art of grovelling by any of his o

se years?" said Colonel Tempest, hurriedly.

. "Business before pleasure. That's my motto. And I've been mortal sick, too. Thought I should have gone up this time last year

"I can't stand it any longer. I can't indeed. It's wearing me into my grave. I want you-to cancel the be

wayne, with contemp

ing me," repeated Colonel Tempes

Swayne. "If you won

mpest was

ds on," he said hoarsely, "much less ten. I've b

lready. All the parties will be glad to have the money down. He's in England again now, thank the Lord. That's a

espairing remembrance of repeated failures in that

ockets, "what's the good of talking? Sorry not to part friends, Colonel; but what's done is done. You can't send back shoes to t