Jaffery

e of our hearts, we had planned such a merry one. It was the first since our marriage that we were spending at Northlands,

a charming old lady almost worthy of being the mother of Barbara. To speak truly, I had always enjoyed my visits. But when the news came that, for the sake of the dear lad

good, and we can give Susan

would be with us. Why not ask his sister Euphemia? They had a mouse and lion affection for each other. Then there was Liosha. Both she and Jaffery met in Susan's heart, and it was Susan's Christmas. With Liosha would come Mrs. Considine, admirable and lonely woman. We trusted to luck and to Mrs. Considine's urbane influence for amenable relations between Liosha and Euphemia Chayne. With Jaffery in the house, Adrian and Doria must come. Last Christmas they had spent in

s there?" a

Palace Hotel. Including Eileen's children and their governess and nurse a

he said. "We

up,"

and left her reckoning on her fingers, with knitted brow. Wh

wish men had some kind of practica

ing-room, that the maids should sleep eight in a bed, that Franklin, our excellent butler, should perch in a

there are only three grown men-three ha'porth of grown men" (I couldn't

g you from asking men

John Costello's son, who would most likely be at

hem, dear,"

hen I thought of their accommodation my brain reeled. In order to ret

ything that we should like to do, while Barbara, without much reference to us, settled what was to be done. In that way we divided the labour. Old Jaffery, back from China, came to us on the twentieth of December, and threw himself heart and soul into our side of

o be engaged when the other suggested a meeting. A trumpery series of accidents. Besides, Adrian, with his new lease of health and inspiration, had plunged deeper than ever into his work, so that it was almost impossible to get hold of him. On the few occasions when he did emerge from his work-room into the light of friendly smiles, he gave glowing accounts of progress. He was satisfying his poet's dreams. H

antement prodigieux. You thought I was going off my chump, you dear old fuss-box. But you we

ught of a tit

es-'God'-short like

ormists and Evangelicals would be frightened by the very name. He lost his temper and scoffed at my Early Vi

xious to avoid a duel of plates and glasses, for we w

n he laughed, with a gleam of his old charm, and filled up my wine glass. "Anyhow, Wittekind, who ha

book under a diff

agreed with Wittekind. It all depended on

f dissension, "thank Heaven the wre

r generous arms and one on her back-to his mere pair-that I realised, with the shock that always attends one's discovery of the obvious, the superb Olympian greatness of the creature. She stood nearly six feet to his six feet two. He stooped ever so little, as is the way of burly men. She held herself as erect as a redwood pine. The depth of her bosom, in its calm munificence, defied the vast, thick heave of his shoulders. Her lips were parted in laughter shewing magnificent teeth. In her brown eyes one could read all the mysteries and tenderness of infinite motherhood. Her hair was anyhow: a debauched wreckage of combs and wisps and hairpins. Her barbaric beauty see

iling lady of plump unimportance, to whom I afterwards told my fancy, could not understand it. Speaking entirely of physica

veyed with a twinkling eye the decorous quartette sitting by the fi

ha. Let's leave 'em. Come and I'll

nd Doria were with us. Well, they were coming the next day, together with Euphemia and the four unattached men. As I said before, I had given up enquiring into the lodging of this host, but Barbara, doubtless, as is her magic way,

ock Franklin brought me a telegram into the libra

mity. Come at

God!" said he, and we stared

nswer,

ask Mrs. Freeth kindly to come here. Say the matter's important." Franklin withdrew. "

nderstood-" He

rbara mu

may be Adrian, so I'll co

come? I should think I would.

d swinging hou

ly busy, dear

ich Jaffery had put down in the arm of a couch, and before we could do or say anything,

ordered

ery's comi

Send Eileen to me. I must

ry laid his heavy h

er of a wife

you to tell me

our coats and then round to t

r. Boldero's," I said to the chauff

and Jaffery at the back, I sideways to them on one of the little chair seats. We had the car open, as it was a muggy day

t telegram?"

a," s

s Adrian," s

f the others would have said something definite. Ah!" she smote her knee with

in the town clearing magically before us. Sometimes a car on an err

happened to Adrian?" Jaffery asked me a

d been in a jocularly satirical vein. I had mentioned his pontifical attitude, the magnification of his office, his bombastic rhetoric over the Higher Life and the Inspiration of the Snows, and, all that being part and par

ery. "There's someth

lough and Hounslow, and past the desolate winter

ffery, "it's G.P.-General

hat I fea

He turned

y has told yo

d God! Doria! I

ffery's great raw hand. Only at weddings or

re we tear ourselves to pieces now, the

t was not a fog, for one could see clearly a hundred yards ahead. But there was no sky and the air was a queer yellow, almost olive green, in which the main buildings stood out in startling meanness, and the distant ones were providentially obscured. Though it was but little past noon, all the great shops blazed with light, but they illuminated singularly little the yellow murk of the roadway. The interiors were sharply clear. We could see swarms of black things, seething with ant-like activity amid a phantasmag

ibule, and the hall-porter emerged as from a cavern of despair. He opened the car-door and touched his peaked cap. I c

he matter

you kno

N

to give her the shock of his news, a

dero's d

was dead. That was all I could think of. The only coherent remark I heard the man make was that it was a dreadful thing to happen at Christmas. Barbara gripped my hand tight and did not say a word. The next phase I remember only too vividly. When

for a moment an elderly woman whom we did not know. The study door was flung wide open-I noticed that the jamb was splintered. From the drawing-room came sounds of awful moaning. We entered and found Adrian's mother alone, helpless wit

al medical man is apparently away for Christmas. I'

y wife,

s no one here capable of doing anything. I

oned Barbara fro

Of course you were aware of her condition-well

er?" Jaffery

ying dead on the floor in that room"-he pointed to the study-"and a woman in a dreadful state. I've

inst the walls of my head was the thought that Adrian lay there in the room where I had seen the strange woman, lifeless and stiff, with the laughing eyes forever closed and the last mockery gone from his lips. Just then th

lly knew more than the scared maid-servant and the porter of the

the maid came to his door with a cup of chicken-broth. She knocked. There was no reply. She knocked louder. She called her mistress. Doria hammered . . . she shrieked. You know how swiftly terror grips a woman. She sent for the porter. Between them they raised a din to awaken-well-all but the dead. The man forced the door-hence the splinters on the jamb-and there they found Adrian, in the great bare room, hanging horribly

Christmas visit, took charge of the situation, sent for the doctor, despatched the telegram to us, and with the help of the porter's wife, saw to Adrian. T

ed it-and talked of the catastrophe. As yet, of course, we knew nothing of t

will take the car and bring us what we want from Northlands, and will look

and death. I did what was possible on a Christmas eve in the way of last arrangements. But to-morrow was Christmas Day. The day after, Boxing Day. The day af

such another