Checkmate

ongcluse was sitting at his breakfast in h

lazy dog I am compared with you!"

I should have been later myself, had I dared; bu

u take so

eakfast, I don't mind if I

e rang t

that place last nigh

s after the match ended. You heard there was a man murdered in a pa

guess what a shock it was to me. The murdered man was that poor little Frenchman I told you of, who had been talking to

d him th

," said Arden, as he glanced hastily over it. "Did

ther in a place of the ki

ate his breakfast: and then, laying the paper down, he said, "By-the-bye, I need not bother you by asking your advice, as I intended. My uncle David has

is dark eyes were fixed on Richard Arden's. "I have been fifty times on the point of making a confession to you, and my heart has failed

, and leaning back. "Now is the best time always. If it's a bad thing, w

ing up, he said, "No man likes a crisis. 'No good general ever fights a pitched battle if he can help it.' Wasn't that Napoleon's saying? No man who has not

g and following him to the window, "ready to hear you. I

"And yet I don't know how to ask you-how to begin-

o-perhaps I don't.

no conjecture?"

rha

way connected with yo

be, po

think, Arden,

k, perhaps, y

tion, what is it?-Nothing. Love?-Nothing. Mine is adoration and utter

ary, I ought, I think, to like you better. I'm only a little surprised

place, I fancied you half understood me; and cheered by what you then

, you talk as if I had shown signs of waver

ld like me better for it-that is true also. Yours is no wavering friendshi

extended his hand energetically, and took that of Arden, who answered th

during her earlier years little society but yours, and from your being some years her senior. It results from her strong affection for you, from her admiration of your talents, and fr

old Arden's hand

plain. But your hand remains-you don't. It is a treaty, then. Hencef

me for a guardian or a father in the matter. I wish I could make my sister think exactly as I d

had not relinquished, at these words,

an enormous disadvantage, though only temporary, and the friends of the young lady must weigh my wealth against it for the present. But when the time comes, which can't now be distant, upon my honour! upon my soul!-by Heaven, I'll show you I'm of a

in Debrett, where they are taken with allowance. Your ideas upon these matters are more Austrian than ours. We expect, perhaps, a little more from the man, but certainly less from his ancestors than our forefathers did. So till a title t

there are privileges, there are also liabilities, rem

y excitement that his compan

true, of cour

suddenly dark, darker-and the whole room darkened as the air was overs

d Arden, looking from the face thus suddenly

re speaking of," said Lon

the ill-omened sense," said Richard Arden. "I have gr

least, control. Thought, action, energy, contribute nothing, and so I but drift, and-my heart fails me. Tell me, Arden, for Heaven's sake, tru

ciety, when you are in spirits and choose to be amusing. Dislike you? O

eloved, nothing is so likely to make him hated as his presuming to love. There is the secret of half the tragedies we read of. The man cannot cease to love, and the idol of his passion not only d

together, and you must see there i

you? For Heaven's sake don'

ink. There can't be any

n thoughtfully, and then, ra

esent, task your kindness no more. If you think it a fair question, will

answered hi

rticular-is she attached to anyone-

g all the people who admired her, and I am quite certain such a th

friend of yours, who I thought was an admirer of Miss Arden's, an

onour I have not

has often been staying in Yorkshire and at Mortlake with you,

n Vivian Darnley?" ex

mean no

You could not have hit upon a more impossible man," he resumed, after a moment's examination of a theory which, notwithstanding, made him a little more uneasy than he would have cared to confess. "Darnley is no fool either, a

ause. Longcluse wa

hich I think you will have no di

dear Longcluse; yo

ou think Sir Reginal

the world. Money won't, of course, do everything; but it can do a great deal. It can't make a vulgar man a gentleman, but it may make a gentleman anything. I really think you would find

ld! Heaven keep us true in this false London world! An

h his unfathomable dark eyes on Arden. Was there a faint and unconscious menace

ng elevated so neatly, at the close, into a malediction. H

luse

n hurt no one. But oh, dear Arden, what does such language mean but suffering? What is all bitterness but pain? Is any mind that deserves the name ever cruel, except from mis

there was an

t suspense. What is it to mine! I shall see her to-night. I shall see her, and how will it all be? Richard Arden wishes it-yes, he does. 'Away, slight man!' It is Brutus who says that, I think. Good Heaven! Think of my life-the giddy steps I go by. That dizzy walk by moonlight, when I lost my way in Switzerland-beautiful nightmare!-the two mile ledge of rock before me, narrow as a plank; up from my left, the sheer wall of rock; at my right so

ote. He did this rapidly. He had business in town. He had fifty thi