Scarlet and Hyssop

remembering that she was an excellent mother, and that, next to her own affairs, it was

ere giving on Saturday. The summer weather which had begun with such splendour a week ago had by an unparalleled effort kept itself up, and seven days of sunshine had brought out a wealth of fresh green leaf on the trees, in London still varnished and undimmed by dust, and in the country of an exquisite verdure. Overhead the sun was set in a sky of divine purity, and th

and by his first marriage would inherit the bulk of her husband's fortune, and Maud would have almost nothing. Now, Mrs. Brereton had no desire whatever to see her an impecunious peeress, or, indeed, an impecunious anything, and she had come to the very wise conclusion that money certainly is money, and that where a chance of marrying a huge fortune was presented, it would be distinctly a failure of maternal duty not to put its advantages very distinctly and decidedly before her daughter. But she was never very much at ease with Maud, whom, if she had been another woman's child, she would have described as an uncomfortable kind of girl. But being her own, she spoke of her always as very original and with great opinions of her own. She did not particularly like girls, any more than she liked young men

at once put up her parasol, for a large g

this, I can never understand why we ever live in town. So sensible of dear Nellie, is it not? She has bought a cottage in the country, with an o

n't tell every one about it," said Maud. "She doesn

id her mother. "I always wonder where you get it fr

hat you couldn't understand

to her daughter. Maud seemed to think that in light conversation people meant what

o realize that one has moods which may last a year or more, a

lau

can one know whether one really likes

e opening, a header, so to

o choose that which your reason dictates, that which you know is really advantageous for you. Life would b

could remember on which she had not followed her inclination. It seemed to her that there were an immense

me to marry Anthony Maxwell!" she

disconcerting directness sprang from internal and childlike simplicity or a brutally fra

that. To tell you the truth, I was a little shy about opening the subject to you, as

" said

e guessed!" said the other; "

ess after my prolonged conve

k to him," said Mrs. B

sed her

I looked up, meaning to go, I always thought

quite sure that things

it is, of course, perfectly true that I wanted you to get better

le except for the least curl at the corner of her mouth, which mi

she asked. "His mother wrote to me

d yes, I

man is amiable, quite without vices I should think (which, after all, is most important, as so many marr

very good quali

do so not on vague grounds, but on well-defined and cogent reasoning. Or perhaps you would prefer a hu

om temper in others leaves perfectly undistu

mean to be tiresome. Was I? You were saying th

the world who are fools, heaps of very wealthy people who are vicious, and plenty, as I said, who have neither wits, morals, nor money. Which sort do you wan

l," said Maud, with a deplor

ure like a hair-dresser's. That sort of romantic stuff is extinct. It never existed in fact, and it is rapidly disappearing in fiction. If it were true, the world would have c

iage, feeling much more comfortable. If only Maud would c

I assure you it is a mistake. And when you say you do not love him, you are using expressions of the meaning of which you have no idea. You don't know what love is-no girl can. You may feel attracted to a handsome face as you c

arry any man because of h

ght. Dear me, yes! one gets used to nothing so quickly. And in the same way and with the same speed you get used to the absence of good looks. Anthony Maxwell, I allow, has but small claim to them; and I was only wondering whether,

er of Maud's m

"for you have just told me what an absurd r

e eligible ears, but restrained it, and proceeded to propound

ood looks than any one I ever saw. But what a happy, what a blessed"-and the word did not stick-"marriage ours has been! Looking back even now, I have never yet seen a man whom I would sooner have chosen. And long, long ago-a year ago at least-I tho

l that she really intended, she had no design of ruining the effect of her words by vain repetition. Once, indeed, she called attention to the loveliness of the clustered pyramids of bloom that covered the horse-chestnut-trees in the gardens round the houses of some small village half buried in blossom, but the tone of Maud's "Lovely!" showed her quite unm

e made up my mind not to make up my mind immediatel

er mother; "though personally I c

t is ideal i

There are disadvantages necessarily attaching to every step, ho

ooked at h

for what seemed to you i

But whether it would have been or not I was never privileged to know. He and I both married some one else. I was acutely miserable for at least a fortnight. But during t

her voice Mrs. Brereton thought she cou

and creeper-covered, but picturesque in a haphazard, bungalow manner, intolerably dank in the winter, when languid, foggy water covered the lower lawn, but ideally adapted for summer Sunday parties. It had long been left to moulder and mildew, but some ten years ago, while the Thames was still only a geographical expression, Mrs. Brereton, in a hunt fo

s a rose-garden with a pergola running round it, while that nearest the house was during the summer chiefly occupied by garden and basket chairs. The whole front of the house, again, was, with its gravel path, capable of being roofed in with an awning, carpeted with rugs, and furnished for eating, drinking, card-playing, and other diversions not less diverting. Behind the framing of box hedge which encircled the lawn lay on each side a shrubbery of blossoming trees, lilacs an

quently she had, as gardeners, a staff of Parsifals, simple blameless fools, who moved tubs of geraniums to such places as she wished and to no others, who planted carnations in beds where she wished carnations to be planted, and did not execute fantasies of their own. The greenhouses which lay on the other side of the house were full and ready with plants to be bedded out, and for the first half-hour she was occupied in choosing exactly what she wanted in each bed. After that there was the upholsterer with his choice of c

r company, here roll upon roll of Persian rugs were gradually creeping like a tide of many-coloured waters over the green, here was a stack of chairs, and here half a hundred lanterns with which the tent was lit. And in the middle of it all, triumphantly ruling chaos, stood Mrs. Brereton,

gram. "Of course, if there are no nasturtiums out yet it can't be helped. Yes, seven lanterns at least; the electrician must look to the wires, one on each of the supports; we shall dine there as well as lunch next Sunday if it is warm. Bridge-tables? Yes, in the new shelter, two of them, and one in the corner of the long awning

l she was seated with Maud again in the carriage that the question which had occupied them so exclusively driving down reasserted itself. Even then she felt it was the better part of wisdom to let things be. Maud was clearly preoccupied, with what, it was impossible not to guess, and as she was, her

think you intend

to refuse him, b

comfort her mothe

osition, fighting her battle quite unaided, and, instead of his having to live her down, it had soon become quite clear that it would be his part to toil, faint yet pursuing, in her wake. All her life success had attended her, she always knew what she wanted and always got it, and whoever else rose and shone and passed, Lady Ardingly continued to burn with unbated luminance. To-

who tried to reason with her or alter her. Her husband, for instance, never attempted it. Finally, she was inordinately fond of gossip, card-playing, and other people's business, and was eminently good-natured provided that path did not cross her own. But she had so many private side-paths down which she was liable to wander, that one never knew for certain where she would come out next, or how she would act in any given set of circumstances. But as long as doing a kindness to another did not interfere with what she desired herself, she was always ready, even at the cost of trouble and personal exertion, to help her friends if they approached her in the proper spirit, which implied a good deal of abasement. She had been in her time a very considerable political intriguer, and, following her invariable ru

g ago, at the time when Mrs. Maxwell was house-hunting, she had heard a vague rumour that there was a possibility of this mansion being in the market, and had had the temerity to call on Lady Ardingly to know if it was so. She heard her in silence, not helping her out at difficult points, and then remarked: "Yes, we are going to sell it, and live at Clapham Junctio

a small dinner-party that night, and before the men left the dining-room she found herself sitting b

ildred," said she. "Tell me your news. How

dy Ardingly, of course, knew everything about everybody, and never,

meet him, in the way one does meet i

ot? Do you hope he will get a Government post after

of course. The War Office

st now for having men who know their work. Ardingly, I find, is reading Nelson despatches.

," said Mildred. "I always knew she would, dabbling in

I saw Alington only this evening. It is not so

son? I am told he was down

gs from?" asked Lady Ardingly. "Jim Netson

arly about the truth of a story so long as it amused. But Lady Ardingly contradicted her flat, and, the worst of it was, she was invariably right. She did not in the least care fo

it is no use my telling you thing

as she removed the cup from the tr

t things off your mind, my dear, as soon as possible. It is very enfeebling to worry. Is it"-and her eye fell on Maud, who was ta

a little staccato

d. "Yes, it is exactly that. Ant

well, you mean?" asked Lady Ardingly, wi

es

dingly

said. "At present she does not wish to marry him. Is it so? I do not wonder, dear Mil

ave tol

not play with your husband, dear Mildred. I would sooner play with a groom out of the stables. We wi

on rose wit

are too kind!" she said

r in, my dear," said La

and tall, came in obe

dge. You would like to play with your father, would you not? We will arrange a table for you. Yes, that will be very pleasant. You must come and talk to me one of these days quite quietl