Vixen

windows shone out upon the vaporous autumn darkness - a row of five tall French casements - and the sound of a pi

pen drawing-room door, an interlacement of pearly runs. At this stage of his existence, Rorie had no appreci

Duchess here?" h

y Mabel is here, s

three steps at a time - to exchange his brown shooting-clothes and leather gaiters for that dress-suit of h

ion in the tall glass door of his armoire, "y

and gold furniture. White, gold, and amber made up the prevailing tone of colour. Clusters of wax lights against the walls and a crystal chandelier with many candles, filled the room with a soft radiance. It was a room without shad

onceived notion of a duchess. Lady Jane herself had dignity enough for the highest rank in the "Almanach de Gotha." She wore dark green velvet and old rose-point, and looked like a portrait of an Austrian princess by Velasquez. Years had not impaired the

ish modern classical music. Rorie hated all that running about the piano to no purpose, and could not perceive his cousin's merit in having devoted three or four hours of her daily life for th

ceaseless care, this one last pearl in the crown of domestic life, this ch

e small regular features were so delicately chiselled, the fair fine skin was so transparent, the fragile figure so exquisitely moulded, the ivory hand and arm so perfect - no, you could discover no bad drawing or crude colouring in this human picture.

he exclaimed with an air of playful reproach, "and on you

swered Rorie, chilled back into sulkiness all at once; "

been at the Tem

ests'. What have you to

shrugging her pretty shoulders in her fawn-coloured silk go

his wife is - well, a nonentity, perhaps, but

op, which Lady Mabel accentuat

r, and a green habit with brass buttons, a yellow waistcoat like her papa's

r horse-woman or a prettier girl there,

, clear as those pearly treble runs upon the Erard; but that pre

, and touching the notes silently as she seemed to admire the slender diamond hoops upon her white fingers - old-fashioned rings that had belonged to a patrician great-grandmother. "You think her quite a model young l

n't be paragons; or, if they could, this earth would be intolerable for the rest of humanity. Lord deliver us from a world overrun with paragons. Violet Tempe

. His mother had paled at the first mention of poor Vixen. That young lady's

of your vacation, Mr. Tempest might at least have had the good tas

entered the Abbey till I left it; and I don't think, considering how I've seasoned myself with Bass

utterance of hers. She had been taught to speak as carefully as girls of inferior rank are taught to play Beethov

and tell me all that has happened to you since we saw you at Lord's in July. Never mind these Tempest people. They a

he is off to Oxford," said

ed so long in Switzerlan

ncil, and water-colours, I was astonished to find what a stranger I was to the scenery. I blushed when I remembered thos

ng," said Rorie patronisingly, as if it

is year while we were t

k in two or three modern languages, to meander up and down the piano, and spoil Bristol board, or Whatman's hot-pressed imperial, and then you call yourselves educated; whi

ed at him with

e Greek," she said, "just enough to struggle throug

ted as if he

hat do you mean by making a Lady Jane Gre

position can hardly know too much,"

-and-by. And when some modern Greek envoy comes simpering up to her with a remark about the

the butler, rolling out the syllables as if it

the piano, and came to s

id Lady Jane; "Roderick's last night,

n the hearth-rug, and gazing absently up at the ceiling. It evidently s

home soon after ten," said Lady Mab

he first duty of a mother, in Lady Jane's opinion, was to rule her child, the second, to love it. The

y Mabel, when the maid had brought

. He has just bought some wonderful short-horns, and I am sure he would like to show them to you, Rorie,

the ladies to their carriage; but not another word did Ma

grown, mamma!" she remarked decisively

ver saw him lo

uperfluity. But his manners - I never saw anything s

ntemplating an escape to the billiard-room and h

talk meant. He shrugged his shoulders with a movement that indicated a d