The landlady met me at the door.  'Here, madam,' said she, with a
curtsey insolently low, 'here is my bill.  Would it inconvenience
you to settle it at once?'

'You shall be paid, madam,' said I, 'in the morning, in the proper
course.'  And I took the paper with a very high air, but inwardly
quaking.

I had no sooner looked at it than I perceived myself to be lost.  I
had been short of money and had allowed my debt to mount; and it
had now reached the sum, which I shall never forget, of twelve
pounds thirteen and fourpence halfpenny.  All evening I sat by the
fire considering my situation.  I could not pay the bill; my
landlady would not suffer me to remove my boxes; and without either
baggage or money, how was I to find another lodging?  For three
months, unless I could invent some remedy, I was condemned to be
without a roof and without a penny.  It can surprise no one that I
decided on immediate flight; but even here I was confronted by a
difficulty, for I had no sooner packed my boxes than I found I was
not strong enough to move, far less to carry them.

In this strait I did not hesitate a moment, but throwing on a shawl
and bonnet, and covering my face with a thick veil, I betook myself
to that great bazaar of dangerous and smiling chances, the pavement
of the city.  It was already late at night, and the weather being
wet and windy, there were few abroad besides policemen.  These, on
my present mission, I had wit enough to know for enemies; and
wherever I perceived their moving lanterns, I made haste to turn
aside and choose another thoroughfare.  A few miserable women still
walked the pavement; here and there were young fellows returning
drunk, or ruffians of the lowest class lurking in the mouths of
alleys; but of any one to whom I might appeal in my distress, I
began almost to despair.

At last, at the corner of a street, I ran into the arms of one who
was evidently a gentleman, and who, in all his appointments, from
his furred great-coat to the fine cigar which he was smoking,
comfortably breathed of wealth.  Much as my face has changed from
its original beauty, I still retain (or so I tell myself) some
traces of the youthful lightness of my figure.  Even veiled as I
then was, I could perceive the gentleman was struck by my
appearance:  and this emboldened me for my adventure.

'Sir,' said I, with a quickly beating heart, 'sir, are you one in
whom a lady can confide?'

'Why, my dear,' said he, removing his cigar, 'that depends on
circumstances.  If you will raise your veil--'

'Sir,' I interrupted, 'let there be no mistake.  I ask you, as a
gentleman, to serve me, but I offer no reward.'

'That is frank,' said he; 'but hardly tempting.  And what, may I
inquire, is the nature of the service?'

But I knew well enough it was not my interest to tell him on so
short an interview.  'If you will accompany me,' said I, 'to a
house not far from here, you can see for yourself.'

He looked at me awhile with hesitating eyes; and then, tossing away
his cigar, which was not yet a quarter smoked, 'Here goes!' said
he, and with perfect politeness offered me his arm.  I was wise
enough to take it; to prolong our walk as far as possible, by more
than one excursion from the shortest line; and to beguile the way
with that sort of conversation which should prove to him
indubitably from what station in society I sprang.  By the time we
reached the door of my lodging, I felt sure I had confirmed his
interest, and might venture, before I turned the pass-key, to
beseech him to moderate his voice and to tread softly.  He promised
to obey me:  and I admitted him into the passage and thence into my
sitting-room, which was fortunately next the door.

'And now,' said he, when with trembling fingers I had lighted a
candle, 'what is the meaning of all this?'

'I wish you,' said I, speaking with great difficulty, 'to help me
out with these boxes--and I wish nobody to know.'

He took up the candle.  'And I wish to see your face,' said he.

I turned back my veil without a word, and looked at him with every
appearance of resolve that I could summon up.  For some time he
gazed into my face, still holding up the candle.  'Well,' said he
at last, 'and where do you wish them taken?'

I knew that I had gained my point; and it was with a tremor in my
voice that I replied.  'I had thought we might carry them between
us to the corner of Euston Road,' said I, 'where, even at this late
hour, we may still find a cab.'

'Very good,' was his reply; and he immediately hoisted the heavier
of my trunks upon his shoulder, and taking one handle of the
second, signed to me to help him at the other end.  In this order
we made good our retreat from the house, and without the least
adventure, drew pretty near to the corner of Euston Road.  Before a
house, where there was a light still burning, my companion paused.
'Let us here,' said he, 'set down our boxes, while we go forward to
the end of the street in quest of a cab.  By doing so, we can still
keep an eye upon their safety, and we avoid the very extraordinary
figure we should otherwise present--a young man, a young lady, and
a mass of baggage, standing castaway at midnight on the streets of
London.'  So it was done, and the event proved him to be wise; for
long before there was any word of a cab, a policeman appeared upon
the scene, turned upon us the full glare of his lantern, and hung
suspiciously behind us in a doorway.

'There seem to be no cabs about, policeman,' said my champion, with
affected cheerfulness.  But the constable's answer was ungracious;
and as for the offer of a cigar, with which this rebuff was most
unwisely followed up, he refused it point-blank, and without the
least civility.  The young gentleman looked at me with a warning
grimace, and there we continued to stand, on the edge of the
pavement, in the beating rain, and with the policeman still
silently watching our movements from the doorway.

At last, and after a delay that seemed interminable, a four-wheeler
appeared lumbering along in the mud, and was instantly hailed by my
companion.  'Just pull up here, will you?' he cried.  'We have some
baggage up the street.'

And now came the hitch of our adventure; for when the policeman,
still closely following us, beheld my two boxes lying in the rain,
he arose from mere suspicion to a kind of certitude of something
evil.  The light in the house had been extinguished; the whole
frontage of the street was dark; there was nothing to explain the
presence of these unguarded trunks; and no two innocent people were
ever, I believe, detected in such questionable circumstances.

'Where have these things come from?' asked the policeman, flashing
his light full into my champion's face.

'Why, from that house, of course,' replied the young gentleman,
hastily shouldering a trunk.

The policeman whistled and turned to look at the dark windows; he
then took a step towards the door, as though to knock, a course
which had infallibly proved our ruin; but seeing us already
hurrying down the street under our double burthen, thought better
or worse of it, and followed in our wake.

'For God's sake,' whispered my companion, 'tell me where to drive
to.'

'Anywhere,' I replied with anguish.  'I have no idea.  Anywhere you
like.'

Thus it befell that, when the boxes had been stowed, and I had
already entered the cab, my deliverer called out in clear tones the
address of the house in which we are now seated.  The policeman, I
could see, was staggered.  This neighbourhood, so retired, so
aristocratic, was far from what he had expected.  For all that, he
took the number of the cab, and spoke for a few seconds and with a
decided manner in the cabman's ear.

'What can he have said?' I gasped, as soon as the cab had rolled
away.

'I can very well imagine,' replied my champion; 'and I can assure
you that you are now condemned to go where I have said; for, should
we attempt to change our destination by the way, the jarvey will
drive us straight to a police-office.  Let me compliment you on
your nerves,' he added.  'I have had, I believe, the most horrible
fright of my existence.'

But my nerves, which he so much misjudged, were in so strange a
disarray that speech was now become impossible; and we made the
drive thenceforward in unbroken silence.  When we arrived before
the door of our destination, the young gentleman alighted, opened
it with a pass-key like one who was at home, bade the driver carry
the trunks into the hall, and dismissed him with a handsome fee.
He then led me into this dining-room, looking nearly as you behold
it, but with certain marks of bachelor occupancy, and hastened to
pour out a glass of wine, which he insisted on my drinking.  As
soon as I could find my voice, 'In God's name,' I cried, 'where am
I?'

He told me I was in his house, where I was very welcome, and had no
more urgent business than to rest myself and recover my spirits.
As he spoke he offered me another glass of wine, of which, indeed,
I stood in great want, for I was faint, and inclined to be
hysterical.  Then he sat down beside the fire, lit another cigar,
and for some time observed me curiously in silence.

'And now,' said he, 'that you have somewhat restored yourself, will
you be kind enough to tell me in what sort of crime I have become a
partner?  Are you murderer, smuggler, thief, or only the harmless
and domestic moonlight flitter?'

I had been already shocked by his lighting a cigar without
permission, for I had not forgotten the one he threw away on our
first meeting; and now, at these explicit insults, I resolved at
once to reconquer his esteem.  The judgment of the world I have
consistently despised, but I had already begun to set a certain
value on the good opinion of my entertainer.  Beginning with a note
of pathos, but soon brightening into my habitual vivacity and
humour, I rapidly narrated the circumstances of my birth, my
flight, and subsequent misfortunes.  He heard me to an end in
silence, gravely smoking.  'Miss Fanshawe,' said he, when I had
done, 'you are a very comical and most enchanting creature; and I
can see nothing for it but that I should return to-morrow morning
and satisfy your landlady's demands.'

'You strangely misinterpret my confidence,' was my reply; 'and if
you had at all appreciated my character, you would understand that
I can take no money at your hands.'

'Your landlady will doubtless not be so particular,' he returned;
'nor do I at all despair of persuading even your unconquerable
self.  I desire you to examine me with critical indulgence.  My
name is Henry Luxmore, Lord Southwark's second son.  I possess nine
thousand a year, the house in which we are now sitting, and seven
others in the best neighbourhoods in town.  I do not believe I am
repulsive to the eye, and as for my character, you have seen me
under trial.  I think you simply the most original of created
beings; I need not tell you what you know very well, that you are
ravishingly pretty; and I have nothing more to add, except that,
foolish as it may appear, I am already head over heels in love with
you.'

'Sir,' said I, 'I am prepared to be misjudged; but while I continue
to accept your hospitality that fact alone should be enough to
protect me from insult.'

'Pardon me,' said he:  'I offer you marriage.'  And leaning back in
his chair he replaced his cigar between his lips.

I own I was confounded by an offer, not only so unprepared, but
couched in terms so singular.  But he knew very well how to obtain
his purposes, for he was not only handsome in person, but his very
coolness had a charm; and to make a long story short, a fortnight
later I became the wife of the Honourable Henry Luxmore.

For nearly twenty years I now led a life of almost perfect quiet.
My Henry had his weaknesses; I was twice driven to flee from his
roof, but not for long; for though he was easily over-excited, his
nature was placable below the surface, and with all his faults, I
loved him tenderly.  At last he was taken from me; and such is the
power of self-deception, and so strange are the whims of the dying,
he actually assured me, with his latest breath, that he forgave the
violence of my temper!

There was but one pledge of the marriage, my daughter Clara.  She
had, indeed, inherited a shadow of her father's failing; but in all
things else, unless my partial eyes deceived me, she derived her
qualities from me, and might be called my moral image.  On my side,
whatever else I may have done amiss, as a mother I was above
reproach.  Here, then, was surely every promise for the future;
here, at last, was a relation in which I might hope to taste
repose.  But it was not to be.  You will hardly credit me when I
inform you that she ran away from home; yet such was the case.
Some whim about oppressed nationalities--Ireland, Poland, and the
like--has turned her brain; and if you should anywhere encounter a
young lady (I must say, of remarkable attractions) answering to the
name of Luxmore, Lake, or Fonblanque (for I am told she uses these
indifferently, as well as many others), tell her, from me, that I
forgive her cruelty, and though I will never more behold her face,
I am at any time prepared to make her a liberal allowance.

On the death of Mr. Luxmore, I sought oblivion in the details of
business.  I believe I have mentioned that seven mansions, besides
this, formed part of Mr. Luxmore's property:  I have found them
seven white elephants.  The greed of tenants, the dishonesty of
solicitors, and the incapacity that sits upon the bench, have
combined together to make these houses the burthen of my life.  I
had no sooner, indeed, begun to look into these matters for myself,
than I discovered so many injustices and met with so much studied
incivility, that I was plunged into a long series of lawsuits, some
of which are pending to this day.  You must have heard my name
already; I am the Mrs. Luxmore of the Law Reports:  a strange
destiny, indeed, for one born with an almost cowardly desire for
peace!  But I am of the stamp of those who, when they have once
begun a task, will rather die than leave their duty unfulfilled.  I
have met with every obstacle:  insolence and ingratitude from my
own lawyers; in my adversaries, that fault of obstinacy which is to
me perhaps the most distasteful in the calendar; from the bench,
civility indeed--always, I must allow, civility--but never a spark
of independence, never that knowledge of the law and love of
justice which we have a right to look for in a judge, the most
august of human officers.  And still, against all these odds, I
have undissuadably persevered.

It was after the loss of one of my innumerable cases (a subject on
which I will not dwell) that it occurred to me to make a melancholy
pilgrimage to my various houses.  Four were at that time tenantless
and closed, like pillars of salt, commemorating the corruption of
the age and the decline of private virtue.  Three were occupied by
persons who had wearied me by every conceivable unjust demand and
legal subterfuge--persons whom, at that very hour, I was moving
heaven and earth to turn into the street.  This was perhaps the
sadder spectacle of the two; and my heart grew hot within me to
behold them occupying, in my very teeth, and with an insolent
ostentation, these handsome structures which were as much mine as
the flesh upon my body.

One more house remained for me to visit, that in which we now are.
I had let it (for at that period I lodged in a hotel, the life that
I have always preferred) to a Colonel Geraldine, a gentleman
attached to Prince Florizel of Bohemia, whom you must certainly
have heard of; and I had supposed, from the character and position
of my tenant, that here, at least, I was safe against annoyance.
What was my surprise to find this house also shuttered and
apparently deserted!  I will not deny that I was offended; I
conceived that a house, like a yacht, was better to be kept in
commission; and I promised myself to bring the matter before my
solicitor the following morning.  Meanwhile the sight recalled my
fancy naturally to the past; and yielding to the tender influence
of sentiment, I sat down opposite the door upon the garden parapet.
It was August, and a sultry afternoon, but that spot is sheltered,
as you may observe by daylight, under the branches of a spreading
chestnut; the square, too, was deserted; there was a sound of
distant music in the air; and all combined to plunge me into that
most agreeable of states, which is neither happiness nor sorrow,
but shares the poignancy of both.

From this I was recalled by the arrival of a large van, very
handsomely appointed, drawn by valuable horses, mounted by several
men of an appearance more than decent, and bearing on its panels,
instead of a trader's name, a coat-of-arms too modest to be
deciphered from where I sat.  It drew up before my house, the door
of which was immediately opened by one of the men.  His companions-
-I counted seven of them in all--proceeded, with disciplined
activity, to take from the van and carry into the house a variety
of hampers, bottle-baskets, and boxes, such as are designed for
plate and napery.  The windows of the dining-room were thrown
widely open, as though to air it; and I saw some of those within
laying the table for a meal.  Plainly, I concluded, my tenant was
about to return; and while still determined to submit to no
aggression on my rights, I was gratified by the number and
discipline of his attendants, and the quiet profusion that appeared
to reign in his establishment.  I was still so thinking when, to my
extreme surprise, the windows and shutters of the dining-room were
once more closed; the men began to reappear from the interior and
resume their stations on the van; the last closed the door behind
his exit; the van drove away; and the house was once more left to
itself, looking blindly on the square with shuttered windows, as
though the whole affair had been a vision.

It was no vision, however; for, as I rose to my feet, and thus
brought my eyes a little nearer to the level of the fanlight over
the door, I saw that, though the day had still some hours to run,
the hall lamps had been lighted and left burning.  Plainly, then,
guests were expected, and were not expected before night.  For
whom, I asked myself with indignation, were such secret
preparations likely to be made?  Although no prude, I am a woman of
decided views upon morality; if my house, to which my husband had
brought me, was to serve in the character of a petite maison, I saw
myself forced, however unwillingly, into a new course of
litigation; and, determined to return and know the worst, I
hastened to my hotel for dinner.

I was at my post by ten.  The night was clear and quiet; the moon
rode very high and put the lamps to shame; and the shadow below the
chestnut was black as ink.  Here, then, I ensconced myself on the
low parapet, with my back against the railings, face to face with
the moonlit front of my old home, and ruminating gently on the
past.  Time fled; eleven struck on all the city clocks; and
presently after I was aware of the approach of a gentleman of
stately and agreeable demeanour.  He was smoking as he walked; his
light paletot, which was open, did not conceal his evening clothes;
and he bore himself with a serious grace that immediately awakened
my attention.  Before the door of this house he took a pass-key
from his pocket, quietly admitted himself, and disappeared into the
lamplit hall.

He was scarcely gone when I observed another and a much younger man
approaching hastily from the opposite side of the square.
Considering the season of the year and the genial mildness of the
night, he was somewhat closely muffled up; and as he came, for all
his hurry, he kept looking nervously behind him.  Arrived before my
door, he halted and set one foot upon the step, as though about to
enter; then, with a sudden change, he turned and began to hurry
away; halted a second time, as if in painful indecision; and
lastly, with a violent gesture, wheeled about, returned straight to
the door, and rapped upon the knocker.  He was almost immediately
admitted by the first arrival.

My curiosity was now broad awake.  I made myself as small as I
could in the very densest of the shadow, and waited for the sequel.
Nor had I long to wait.  From the same side of the square a second
young man made his appearance, walking slowly and softly, and like
the first, muffled to the nose.  Before the house he paused, looked
all about him with a swift and comprehensive glance; and seeing the
square lie empty in the moon and lamplight, leaned far across the
area railings and appeared to listen to what was passing in the
house.  From the dining-room there came the report of a champagne
cork, and following upon that, the sound of rich and manly
laughter.  The listener took heart of grace, produced a key,
unlocked the area gate, shut it noiselessly behind him, and
descended the stair.  Just when his head had reached the level of
the pavement, he turned half round and once more raked the square
with a suspicious eyeshot.  The mufflings had fallen lower round
his neck; the moon shone full upon him; and I was startled to
observe the pallor and passionate agitation of his face.

I could remain no longer passive.  Persuaded that something deadly
was afoot, I crossed the roadway and drew near the area railings.
There was no one below; the man must therefore have entered the
house, with what purpose I dreaded to imagine.  I have at no part
of my career lacked courage; and now, finding the area gate was
merely laid to, I pushed it gently open and descended the stairs.
The kitchen door of the house, like the area gate, was closed but
not fastened.  It flashed upon me that the criminal was thus
preparing his escape; and the thought, as it confirmed the worst of
my suspicions, lent me new resolve.  I entered the house; and being
now quite reckless of my life, I shut and locked the door.

From the dining-room above I could hear the pleasant tones of a
voice in easy conversation.  On the ground floor all was not only
profoundly silent, but the darkness seemed to weigh upon my eyes.
Here, then, I stood for some time, having thrust myself uncalled
into the utmost peril, and being destitute of any power to help or
interfere.  Nor will I deny that fear had begun already to assail
me, when I became aware, all at once and as though by some
immediate but silent incandescence, of a certain glimmering of
light upon the passage floor.  Towards this I groped my way with
infinite precaution; and having come at length as far as the angle
of the corridor, beheld the door of the butler's pantry standing
just ajar and a narrow thread of brightness falling from the chink.
Creeping still closer, I put my eye to the aperture.  The man sat
within upon a chair, listening, I could see, with the most rapt
attention.  On a table before him he had laid a watch, a pair of
steel revolvers, and a bull's-eye lantern.  For one second many
contradictory theories and projects whirled together in my head;
the next, I had slammed the door and turned the key upon the
malefactor.  Surprised at my own decision, I stood and panted,
leaning on the wall.  From within the pantry not a sound was to be
heard; the man, whatever he was, had accepted his fate without a
struggle, and now, as I hugged myself to fancy, sat frozen with
terror and looking for the worst to follow.  I promised myself that
he should not be disappointed; and the better to complete my task,
I turned to ascend the stairs.

The situation, as I groped my way to the first floor, appealed to
me suddenly by my strong sense of humour.  Here was I, the owner of
the house, burglariously present in its walls; and there, in the
dining-room, were two gentlemen, unknown to me, seated complacently
at supper, and only saved by my promptitude from some surprising or
deadly interruption.  It were strange if I could not manage to
extract the matter of amusement from so unusual a situation.

Behind this dining-room, there is a small apartment intended for a
library.  It was to this that I cautiously groped my way; and you
will see how fortune had exactly served me.  The weather, I have
said, was sultry; in order to ventilate the dining-room and yet
preserve the uninhabited appearance of the mansion to the front,
the window of the library had been widely opened, and the door of
communication between the two apartments left ajar.  To this
interval I now applied my eye.

Wax tapers, set in silver candlesticks, shed their chastened
brightness on the damask of the tablecloth and the remains of a
cold collation of the rarest delicacy.  The two gentlemen had
finished supper, and were now trifling with cigars and maraschino;
while in a silver spirit lamp, coffee of the most captivating
fragrance was preparing in the fashion of the East.  The elder of
the two, he who had first arrived, was placed directly facing me;
the other was set on his left hand.  Both, like the man in the
butler's pantry, seemed to be intently listening; and on the face
of the second I thought I could perceive the marks of fear.  Oddly
enough, however, when they came to speak, the parts were found to
be reversed.

'I assure you,' said the elder gentleman, 'I not only heard the
slamming of a door, but the sound of very guarded footsteps.'

'Your highness was certainly deceived,' replied the other.  'I am
endowed with the acutest hearing, and I can swear that not a mouse
has rustled.'  Yet the pallor and contraction of his features were
in total discord with the tenor of his words.

His highness (whom, of course, I readily divined to be Prince
Florizel) looked at his companion for the least fraction of a
second; and though nothing shook the easy quiet of his attitude, I
could see that he was far from being duped.  'It is well,' said he;
'let us dismiss the topic.  And now, sir, that I have very freely
explained the sentiments by which I am directed, let me ask you,
according to your promise, to imitate my frankness.'

'I have heard you,' replied the other, 'with great interest.'

'With singular patience,' said the prince politely.

'Ay, your highness, and with unlooked-for sympathy,' returned the
young man.  'I know not how to tell the change that has befallen
me.  You have, I must suppose, a charm, to which even your enemies
are subject.'  He looked at the clock on the mantelpiece and
visibly blanched.  'So late!' he cried.  'Your highness--God knows
I am now speaking from the heart--before it be too late, leave this
house!'

The prince glanced once more at his companion, and then very
deliberately shook the ash from his cigar.  'That is a strange
remark,' said he; 'and a propos de bottes, I never continue a cigar
when once the ash is fallen; the spell breaks, the soul of the
flavour flies away, and there remains but the dead body of tobacco;
and I make it a rule to throw away that husk and choose another.'
He suited the action to the words.

'Do not trifle with my appeal,' resumed the young man, in tones
that trembled with emotion.  'It is made at the price of my honour
and to the peril of my life.  Go--go now! lose not a moment; and if
you have any kindness for a young man, miserably deceived indeed,
but not devoid of better sentiments, look not behind you as you
leave.'

'Sir,' said the prince, 'I am here upon your honour; assure you
upon mine that I shall continue to rely upon that safeguard.  The
coffee is ready; I must again trouble you, I fear.'  And with a
courteous movement of the hand, he seemed to invite his companion
to pour out the coffee.

The unhappy young man rose from his seat.  'I appeal to you,' he
cried, 'by every holy sentiment, in mercy to me, if not in pity to
yourself, begone before it is too late.'

'Sir,' replied the prince, 'I am not readily accessible to fear;
and if there is one defect to which I must plead guilty, it is that
of a curious disposition.  You go the wrong way about to make me
leave this house, in which I play the part of your entertainer;
and, suffer me to add, young man, if any peril threaten us, it was
of your contriving, not of mine.'

'Alas, you do not know to what you condemn me,' cried the other.
'But I at least will have no hand in it.'  With these words he
carried his hand to his pocket, hastily swallowed the contents of a
phial, and, with the very act, reeled back and fell across his
chair upon the floor.  The prince left his place and came and stood
above him, where he lay convulsed upon the carpet.  'Poor moth!' I
heard his highness murmur.  'Alas, poor moth! must we again inquire
which is the more fatal--weakness or wickedness?  And can a
sympathy with ideas, surely not ignoble in themselves, conduct a
man to this dishonourable death?'

By this time I had pushed the door open and walked into the room.
'Your highness,' said I, 'this is no time for moralising; with a
little promptness we may save this creature's life; and as for the
other, he need cause you no concern, for I have him safely under
lock and key.'

The prince had turned about upon my entrance, and regarded me
certainly with no alarm, but with a profundity of wonder which
almost robbed me of my self-possession.  'My dear madam,' he cried
at last, 'and who the devil are you?'

I was already on the floor beside the dying man.  I had, of course,
no idea with what drug he had attempted his life, and I was forced
to try him with a variety of antidotes.  Here were both oil and
vinegar, for the prince had done the young man the honour of
compounding for him one of his celebrated salads; and of each of
these I administered from a quarter to half a pint, with no
apparent efficacy.  I next plied him with the hot coffee, of which
there may have been near upon a quart.

'Have you no milk?' I inquired.

'I fear, madam, that milk has been omitted,' returned the prince.

'Salt, then,' said I; 'salt is a revulsive.  Pass the salt.'

'And possibly the mustard?' asked his highness, as he offered me
the contents of the various salt-cellars poured together on a
plate.

'Ah,' cried I, 'the thought is excellent!  Mix me about half a pint
of mustard, drinkably dilute.'

Whether it was the salt or the mustard, or the mere combination of
so many subversive agents, as soon as the last had been poured over
his throat, the young sufferer obtained relief.

'There!' I exclaimed, with natural triumph, 'I have saved a life!'

'And yet, madam,' returned the prince, 'your mercy may be cruelty
disguised.  Where the honour is lost, it is, at least, superfluous
to prolong the life.'

'If you had led a life as changeable as mine, your highness,' I
replied, 'you would hold a very different opinion.  For my part,
and after whatever extremity of misfortune or disgrace, I should
still count to-morrow worth a trial.'

'You speak as a lady, madam,' said the prince; 'and for such you
speak the truth.  But to men there is permitted such a field of
license, and the good behaviour asked of them is at once so easy
and so little, that to fail in that is to fall beyond the reach of
pardon.  But will you suffer me to repeat a question, put to you at
first, I am afraid, with some defect of courtesy; and to ask you
once more, who you are and how I have the honour of your company?'

'I am the proprietor of the house in which we stand,' said I.

'And still I am at fault,' returned the prince.

But at that moment the timepiece on the mantel-shelf began to
strike the hour of twelve; and the young man, raising himself upon
one elbow, with an expression of despair and horror that I have
never seen excelled, cried lamentably, 'Midnight! oh, just God!'
We stood frozen to our places, while the tingling hammer of the
timepiece measured the remaining strokes; nor had we yet stirred,
so tragic had been the tones of the young man, when the various
bells of London began in turn to declare the hour.  The timepiece
was inaudible beyond the walls of the chamber where we stood; but
the second pulsation of Big Ben had scarcely throbbed into the
night, before a sharp detonation rang about the house.  The prince
sprang for the door by which I had entered; but quick as he was, I
yet contrived to intercept him.

'Are you armed?' I cried.

'No, madam,' replied he.  'You remind me appositely; I will take
the poker.'

'The man below,' said I, 'has two revolvers.  Would you confront
him at such odds?'

He paused, as though staggered in his purpose.

'And yet, madam,' said he, 'we cannot continue to remain in
ignorance of what has passed.'

'No!' cried I.  'And who proposes it?  I am as curious as yourself,
but let us rather send for the police; or, if your highness dreads
a scandal, for some of your own servants.'

'Nay, madam,' he replied, smiling, 'for so brave a lady, you
surprise me.  Would you have me, then, send others where I fear to
go myself?'

'You are perfectly right,' said I, 'and I was entirely wrong.  Go,
in God's name, and I will hold the candle!'

Together, therefore, we descended to the lower story, he carrying
the poker, I the light; and together we approached and opened the
door of the butler's pantry.  In some sort, I believe, I was
prepared for the spectacle that met our eyes; I was prepared, that
is, to find the villain dead, but the rude details of such a
violent suicide I was unable to endure.  The prince, unshaken by
horror as he had remained unshaken by alarm, assisted me with the
most respectful gallantry to regain the dining-room.

There we found our patient, still, indeed, deadly pale, but vastly
recovered and already seated on a chair.  He held out both his
hands with a most pitiful gesture of interrogation.

'He is dead,' said the prince.

'Alas!' cried the young man, 'and it should be I!  What do I do,
thus lingering on the stage I have disgraced, while he, my sure
comrade, blameworthy indeed for much, but yet the soul of fidelity,
has judged and slain himself for an involuntary fault?  Ah, sir,'
said he, 'and you too, madam, without whose cruel help I should be
now beyond the reach of my accusing conscience, you behold in me
the victim equally of my own faults and virtues.  I was born a
hater of injustice; from my most tender years my blood boiled
against heaven when I beheld the sick, and against men when I
witnessed the sorrows of the poor; the pauper's crust stuck in my
throat when I sat down to eat my dainties, and the cripple child
has set me weeping.  What was there in that but what was noble? and
yet observe to what a fall these thoughts have led me!  Year after
year this passion for the lost besieged me closer.  What hope was
there in kings? what hope in these well-feathered classes that now
roll in money?  I had observed the course of history; I knew the
burgess, our ruler of to-day, to be base, cowardly, and dull; I saw
him, in every age, combine to pull down that which was immediately
above and to prey upon those that were below; his dulness, I knew,
would ultimately bring about his ruin; I knew his days were
numbered, and yet how was I to wait? how was I to let the poor
child shiver in the rain?  The better days, indeed, were coming,
but the child would die before that.  Alas, your highness, in
surely no ungenerous impatience I enrolled myself among the enemies
of this unjust and doomed society; in surely no unnatural desire to
keep the fires of my philanthropy alight, I bound myself by an
irrevocable oath.

'That oath is all my history.  To give freedom to posterity I had
forsworn my own.  I must attend upon every signal; and soon my
father complained of my irregular hours and turned me from his
house.  I was engaged in betrothal to an honest girl; from her also
I had to part, for she was too shrewd to credit my inventions and
too innocent to be entrusted with the truth.  Behold me, then,
alone with conspirators!  Alas! as the years went on, my illusions
left me.  Surrounded as I was by the fervent disciples and
apologists of revolution, I beheld them daily advance in confidence
and desperation; I beheld myself, upon the other hand, and with an
almost equal regularity, decline in faith.  I had sacrificed all to
further that cause in which I still believed; and daily I began to
grow in doubts if we were advancing it indeed.  Horrible was the
society with which we warred, but our own means were not less
horrible.

'I will not dwell upon my sufferings; I will not pause to tell you
how, when I beheld young men still free and happy, married, fathers
of children, cheerfully toiling at their work, my heart reproached
me with the greatness and vanity of my unhappy sacrifice.  I will
not describe to you how, worn by poverty, poor lodging, scanty
food, and an unquiet conscience, my health began to fail, and in
the long nights, as I wandered bedless in the rainy streets, the
most cruel sufferings of the body were added to the tortures of my
mind.  These things are not personal to me; they are common to all
unfortunates in my position.  An oath, so light a thing to swear,
so grave a thing to break:  an oath, taken in the heat of youth,
repented with what sobbings of the heart, but yet in vain repented,
as the years go on:  an oath, that was once the very utterance of
the truth of God, but that falls to be the symbol of a meaningless
and empty slavery; such is the yoke that many young men joyfully
assume, and under whose dead weight they live to suffer worse than
death.

'It is not that I was patient.  I have begged to be released; but I
knew too much, and I was still refused.  I have fled; ay, and for
the time successfully.  I reached Paris.  I found a lodging in the
Rue St. Jacques, almost opposite the Val de Grace.  My room was
mean and bare, but the sun looked into it towards evening; it
commanded a peep of a green garden; a bird hung by a neighbour's
window and made the morning beautiful; and I, who was sick, might
lie in bed and rest myself:  I, who was in full revolt against the
principles that I had served, was now no longer at the beck of the
council, and was no longer charged with shameful and revolting
tasks.  Oh! what an interval of peace was that!  I still dream, at
times, that I can hear the note of my neighbour's bird.

'My money was running out, and it became necessary that I should
find employment.  Scarcely had I been three days upon the search,
ere I thought that I was being followed.  I made certain of the
features of the man, which were quite strange to me, and turned
into a small cafe, where I whiled away an hour, pretending to read
the papers, but inwardly convulsed with terror.  When I came forth
again into the street, it was quite empty, and I breathed again;
but alas, I had not turned three corners, when I once more observed
the human hound pursuing me.  Not an hour was to be lost; timely
submission might yet preserve a life which otherwise was forfeit
and dishonoured; and I fled, with what speed you may conceive, to
the Paris agency of the society I served.

'My submission was accepted.  I took up once more the hated burthen
of that life; once more I was at the call of men whom I despised
and hated, while yet I envied and admired them.  They at least were
wholehearted in the things they purposed; but I, who had once been
such as they, had fallen from the brightness of my faith, and now
laboured, like a hireling, for the wages of a loathed existence.
Ay, sir, to that I was condemned; I obeyed to continue to live, and
lived but to obey.

'The last charge that was laid upon me was the one which has to-
night so tragically ended.  Boldly telling who I was, I was to
request from your highness, on behalf of my society, a private
audience, where it was designed to murder you.  If one thing
remained to me of my old convictions, it was the hate of kings; and
when this task was offered me, I took it gladly.  Alas, sir, you
triumphed.  As we supped, you gained upon my heart.  Your
character, your talents, your designs for our unhappy country, all
had been misrepresented.  I began to forget you were a prince; I
began, all too feelingly, to remember that you were a man.  As I
saw the hour approach, I suffered agonies untold; and when, at
last, we heard the slamming of the door which announced in my
unwilling ears the arrival of the partner of my crime, you will
bear me out with what instancy I besought you to depart.  You would
not, alas! and what could I?  Kill you, I could not; my heart
revolted, my hand turned back from such a deed.  Yet it was
impossible that I should suffer you to stay; for when the hour
struck and my companion came, true to his appointment, and he, at
least, true to our design, I could neither suffer you to be killed
nor yet him to be arrested.  From such a tragic passage, death, and
death alone, could save me; and it is no fault of mine if I
continue to exist.

'But you, madam,' continued the young man, addressing himself more
directly to myself, 'were doubtless born to save the prince and to
confound our purposes.  My life you have prolonged; and by turning
the key on my companion, you have made me the author of his death.
He heard the hour strike; he was impotent to help; and thinking
himself forfeit to honour, thinking that I should fall alone upon
his highness and perish for lack of his support, he has turned his
pistol on himself.'

'You are right,' said Prince Florizel:  'it was in no ungenerous
spirit that you brought these burthens on yourself; and when I see
you so nobly to blame, so tragically punished, I stand like one
reproved.  For is it not strange, madam, that you and I, by
practising accepted and inconsiderable virtues, and commonplace but
still unpardonable faults, should stand here, in the sight of God,
with what we call clean hands and quiet consciences; while this
poor youth, for an error that I could almost envy him, should be
sunk beyond the reach of hope?

'Sir,' resumed the prince, turning to the young man, 'I cannot help
you; my help would but unchain the thunderbolt that overhangs you;
and I can but leave you free.'

'And, sir,' said I, 'as this house belongs to me, I will ask you to
have the kindness to remove the body.  You and your conspirators,
it appears to me, can hardly in civility do less.'

'It shall be done,' said the young man, with a dismal accent.

'And you, dear madam,' said the prince, 'you, to whom I owe my
life, how can I serve you?'

'Your highness,' I said, 'to be very plain, this is my favourite
house, being not only a valuable property, but endeared to me by
various associations.  I have endless troubles with tenants of the
ordinary class:  and at first applauded my good fortune when I
found one of the station of your Master of the Horse.  I now begin
to think otherwise:  dangers set a siege about great personages;
and I do not wish my tenement to share these risks.  Procure me the
resiliation of the lease, and I shall feel myself your debtor.'

'I must tell you, madam,' replied his highness, 'that Colonel
Geraldine is but a cloak for myself; and I should be sorry indeed
to think myself so unacceptable a tenant.'

'Your highness,' said I, 'I have conceived a sincere admiration for
your character; but on the subject of house property, I cannot
allow the interference of my feelings.  I will, however, to prove
to you that there is nothing personal in my request, here solemnly
engage my word that I will never put another tenant in this house.'

'Madam,' said Florizel, 'you plead your cause too charmingly to be
refused.'

Thereupon we all three withdrew.  The young man, still reeling in
his walk, departed by himself to seek the assistance of his fellow-
conspirators; and the prince, with the most attentive gallantry,
lent me his escort to the door of my hotel.  The next day, the
lease was cancelled; nor from that hour to this, though sometimes
regretting my engagement, have I suffered a tenant in this house.



THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION (Continued).



As soon as the old lady had finished her relation, Somerset made
haste to offer her his compliments.

'Madam,' said he, 'your story is not only entertaining but
instructive; and you have told it with infinite vivacity.  I was
much affected towards the end, as I held at one time very liberal
opinions, and should certainly have joined a secret society if I
had been able to find one.  But the whole tale came home to me; and
I was the better able to feel for you in your various perplexities,
as I am myself of somewhat hasty temper.'

'I do not understand you,' said Mrs. Luxmore, with some marks of
irritation.  'You must have strangely misinterpreted what I have
told you.  You fill me with surprise.'

Somerset, alarmed by the old lady's change of tone and manner,
hurried to recant.

'Dear Mrs. Luxmore,' said he, 'you certainly misconstrue my remark.
As a man of somewhat fiery humour, my conscience repeatedly pricked
me when I heard what you had suffered at the hands of persons
similarly constituted.'

'Oh, very well indeed,' replied the old lady; 'and a very proper
spirit.  I regret that I have met with it so rarely.'

'But in all this,' resumed the young man, 'I perceive nothing that
concerns myself.'

'I am about to come to that,' she returned.  'And you have already
before you, in the pledge I gave Prince Florizel, one of the
elements of the affair.  I am a woman of the nomadic sort, and when
I have no case before the courts I make it a habit to visit
continental spas:  not that I have ever been ill; but then I am no
longer young, and I am always happy in a crowd.  Well, to come more
shortly to the point, I am now on the wing for Evian; this incubus
of a house, which I must leave behind and dare not let, hangs
heavily upon my hands; and I propose to rid myself of that concern,
and do you a very good turn into the bargain, by lending you the
mansion, with all its fittings, as it stands.  The idea was sudden;
it appealed to me as humorous:  and I am sure it will cause my
relatives, if they should ever hear of it, the keenest possible
chagrin.  Here, then, is the key; and when you return at two to-
morrow afternoon, you will find neither me nor my cats to disturb
you in your new possession.'

So saying, the old lady arose, as if to dismiss her visitor; but
Somerset, looking somewhat blankly on the key, began to protest.

'Dear Mrs. Luxmore,' said he, 'this is a most unusual proposal.
You know nothing of me, beyond the fact that I displayed both
impudence and timidity.  I may be the worst kind of scoundrel; I
may sell your furniture--'

'You may blow up the house with gunpowder, for what I care!' cried
Mrs. Luxmore.  'It is in vain to reason.  Such is the force of my
character that, when I have one idea clearly in my head, I do not
care two straws for any side consideration.  It amuses me to do it,
and let that suffice.  On your side, you may do what you please--
let apartments, or keep a private hotel; on mine, I promise you a
full month's warning before I return, and I never fail religiously
to keep my promises.'

The young man was about to renew his protest, when he observed a
sudden and significant change in the old lady's countenance.

'If I thought you capable of disrespect!' she cried.

'Madam,' said Somerset, with the extreme fervour of asseveration,
'madam, I accept.  I beg you to understand that I accept with joy
and gratitude.'

'Ah well,' returned Mrs. Luxmore, 'if I am mistaken, let it pass.
And now, since all is comfortably settled, I wish you a good-
night.'

Thereupon, as if to leave him no room for repentance, she hurried
Somerset out of the front door, and left him standing, key in hand,
upon the pavement.

The next day, about the hour appointed, the young man found his way
to the square, which I will here call Golden Square, though that
was not its name.  What to expect, he knew not; for a man may live
in dreams, and yet be unprepared for their realisation.  It was
already with a certain pang of surprise that he beheld the mansion,
standing in the eye of day, a solid among solids.  The key, upon
trial, readily opened the front door; he entered that great house,
a privileged burglar; and, escorted by the echoes of desertion,
rapidly reviewed the empty chambers.  Cats, servant, old lady, the
very marks of habitation, like writing on a slate, had been in
these few hours obliterated.  He wandered from floor to floor, and
found the house of great extent; the kitchen offices commodious and
well appointed; the rooms many and large; and the drawing-room, in
particular, an apartment of princely size and tasteful decoration.
Although the day without was warm, genial, and sunny, with a
ruffling wind from the quarter of Torquay, a chill, as it were, of
suspended animation inhabited the house.  Dust and shadows met the
eye; and but for the ominous procession of the echoes, and the
rumour of the wind among the garden trees, the ear of the young man
was stretched in vain.

Behind the dining-room, that pleasant library, referred to by the
old lady in her tale, looked upon the flat roofs and netted cupolas
of the kitchen quarters; and on a second visit, this room appeared
to greet him with a smiling countenance.  He might as well, he
thought, avoid the expense of lodging:  the library, fitted with an
iron bedstead which he had remarked, in one of the upper chambers,
would serve his purpose for the night; while in the dining-room,
which was large, airy, and lightsome, looking on the square and
garden, he might very agreeably pass his days, cook his meals, and
study to bring himself to some proficiency in that art of painting
which he had recently determined to adopt.  It did not take him
long to make the change:  he had soon returned to the mansion with
his modest kit; and the cabman who brought him was readily induced,
by the young man's pleasant manner and a small gratuity, to assist
him in the installation of the iron bed.  By six in the evening,
when Somerset went forth to dine, he was able to look back upon the
mansion with a sense of pride and property.  Four-square it stood,
of an imposing frontage, and flanked on either side by family
hatchments.  His eye, from where he stood whistling in the key,
with his back to the garden railings, reposed on every feature of
reality; and yet his own possession seemed as flimsy as a dream.