The Philanderers

days later, after a dinner with Conway at

on?' said Fielding. 'He kn

d the assertion

may have been at work. About women, I p

view of, but outside the world, say just above it in a placid atmosphere of his own creation. Fielding leaned

seas for their victims, neither did they till their island. There was no need for so much exertion. They lay supine upon their rocks and waited until a sail appeared above the horizon. Even then they did not stir

pted, 'what on earth

ngle night, as they thought. But they were mistaken. One family escaped their attention,-the Le Mesuriers, who were the custodians of the silver mines-' At this point Conway broke in with an impatient laugh. Fielding turned a quiet eye upon him and repeated in an even voice, 'Who were the custodians of the silver mines, and lived under the shelter o

ly. Fielding waved a depr

st bidders. The Le Mesuriers thus became Seigneurs of Sark. But with their position they reversed their conduct, and, instead of taking other people's money out of mines, they put their own in, with the result that they sustained embarrassing losses. I mentio

exhausted at this peri

hotch-potch of nonsens

an allegory rather than a pedantic narrative of facts. I was endeavourin

his view; he knew not, in fact, whether she was girl or woman. She was to him just an abstraction, and Drake was seldom inclined for the study of abstractions. His curiosity might, perhaps, have been stronger had Mallinson related to him the way in which he had been received at the house of the Le Mesuriers after his dinner with Drake. When he arrive

' he thought, and something m

hey had been disturbed by a rat or a mouse, discovered in the twentieth that the animal was a ball of w

m her hand. The disappointment in her voice irrit

captain real

nced at him

held the rank over there. But a captain in Matanga!' He

t my note, I suppose?' Her manner signi

,' he repli

k it worth while to take e

I dined with him to-night, but I s

hy

he's ch

what

so hopelessl

victed of bourgeoisie, you ought to tinkle a bell for the rest of your life, or at the easiest be confined east of Temple Bar. Applied to Drake the word connoted animosity pure and simple, animosity

friend,' she said wit

oked up at a corner of the ceiling as he spoke, and the

ossible emphasis on the prefix, 'Mr. Drake has travell

es

that should make

n became

y bourgeois. They love beads, and that's typical of the class. Evil commu

seemed to be seriously deliberating the truth of his remark. Mallinson

owever, relinquish on that account her intention to make Stephen Drake's acquaintance. She merely postponed it, trusting th

ore the curtain rose on a performance of Frou-Frou. During the first act the theatre gradually filled, and when the lights were turned up at its close only

Le Mesurier was like.

to her face. She seemed of a fragile figure and with features regular and delicate. Drake received a notion of unimpressive prettiness and turned his attention to the stage. When the lights were raised again in the auditorium, he noticed that Fielding was in the box talking to a gentleman

f scorn in the voice, which rang false, negatived the pity of the phrase. 'But I don't suppose for an instant that s

interest to his companion. 'Does t

nway reluctantly,

what set him

. I believe she persuaded him to w

ng a pretty heavy

at his frien

no good-well, not much anyway-at the Bar. He has scored by following her advice. So if she ever had any respo

e-haired man's her

sister, but she's at

ou come ac

em one summer when we w

rk

passing the end of his row of stalls t

aid, turning to Conway, and he saw that hi

r box noticed Drake's

is that speaking

recognition in a lift of eyebrows, and guessed from

who i

linson, assuming a

e looking,' sa

and 'Hulloa!' he added in a voice of surpri

. Le Mesurier, leaning forward hurri

he might possibly have mistaken the daughter's motive in seeking Drake's acquaintance. Was it merely a whim, a fancy, strengthened to the point of activity by the sight of his name in print? Or wa

he said, bending forwards and almost w

'I can't see. I am r

to think

son's cheek. A knock at the door offered him escape; he rose and admitted Conway. Co

ask permission, since you invited him to Beaufor

er started up

the house?' he ask

and then, with all the appearance of a penitent anx

t a suspicious glan

she said; 'I di

on that I know of why you shouldn't have asked him, except that it

r,' interposed Conway, 'there's n

We know the length of your enthusiasms, my dear Conway. But I'll grant all you li

' She directed her sweetest smile to Mallinson. 'You did, didn't you? Yes! Mr. Drake had been away from England for so long that I thought it would be only kind to ask you to bring him. But if I had known that papa had a

n objection to him. You are always twisting peop

hich brought him into relations with the Le Mesuriers,-relations ignored by Drake, but known by Mr. Le Mesurier and suspected by Clarice. Was this fact to Drake's advantage or discredit? The father's manner indicated rather the latter; but Mallinson put that aside. It was more than overbalanced by the daughter's-he sought for a word and chanced on 'forwardness.' His irrit

asked Mr. Drake to Beau

when Mallinson

the confusion in Mallinson's face and checked herself suddenly with a little laugh of pure enjoyment.

mfiture Mallinson

Then you will bring Mr. Drake,' she turned to Conway as he rose and moved towards the door. Mr. Le Mesurier had resumed

ct,' said Conway,

e fan and laid it upon

ered in a low faltering tone. 'I have

by nature responsive. Mallinson saw the mischief die out of her face, the eyelids droop unti

ps,' s

ay making his way along the row of s

me if you asked him?' she sai

yond that it was his

ot seen me then,' and so was reinstated in her self-esteem. The explanation, however, failed her the next moment. For Drake, at all events, had seen her now; she had caught him looking up into the box before Conway left. Yet when Conway commun

.' She looked up. Fielding was standing just behind her

loftily; and then, 'He might be a

impression, I believe,

ot made the remark in

said, and her voice defied

rom A Man of Influence when Mallinson was present, in a tone which never burlesqued but somehow belittled t

re is hardly a year to c

ou, Mallinson, is th

ed that the stat

ubt. You will find the explanation in that. The only people who

urried Drake out of the stalls and up the staircase to the box. Clarice w

ng. The name belonged to a speculator who had lately be

e city makes one acquainted with strang

r showed sympt

You mean to return t

an help

in England?' asked

Miss Le Mesurier. 'You were kind enough to inv

ebrows went up at th

ow you already. I saw that you had landed from an interview in the

re spoken in

t the paper which attacked you, Mr. Drake? You let

ted the look. His conviction was proved certain. There wa

ake, 'but I wanted it to be known in some qua

ied to th

ave the itinerary of t

r, talking to him, that his impression of her, gained from the distance between the box and the stalls, did her injustice. She seemed now the vignette of a beautiful woman, missing the stateliness, perhaps, too, the distinction, but obtaining by very reason of

through sheer disinclination to talk about himself, a disinclination which the g

well, and it gave him an idea. From Matanga Drake led the con

interested in

I have never seen

thought it would hav

y obs

an discount the sentiment. There is a

shoulders. 'Of the ABC or

eant really was truth to those people-truth to the characters presumed. Consistency is perhaps the better word.

he thought the curtain was on the point of rising, and Miss Le Mesurier pushed her opera-glasses towards him with a

of a sudden to one of great cordiality; he expressed his pleasure at meeting Drake, and shook him by the hand, but de

f the theatre and lingered behind his party. Fielding, Mallinso

ld is papa doing

turned his head round quickly and beheld the two gentlemen

ike him?'

e replied in

d him to you,' and some emp

ut to the brougham and

,' he said, with a wave of the h

ess she had foreseen his intention she would have und

iss Le Mesurier's, by Clarice herself, Drake, and Mallinson. From the clash of two natures so thoroughly different as those of the two men, played off against one another with all the delicate manipulation of Miss Le Mesurier's experienced hand, there was much enjoyment to be anticipated for the purely disinterested spectator which he intended to be. Of the probable dénouement he formed no conception, and in fact avoided purposely any temptation to do so. He pr

applied to London. 'The phrase,' Drake had said, 'to me is significant of something more than cheap phraseology. I know that half a throb could create an earthquake in Matanga.'

rom reflections of quite another order,

disappointment spurring him to provoke advocacy of the

er eyes,'

led in the u

hat. They seemed o

wing a wrecker's l

too. It has the g

es. There's

in fact. Clarice Le Mesurier, he remembered, had made the first advance to Drake. What if she for once in a while were to figure as the pursuer! That alternative would, perhaps, be the more diverting of the two. He must consult Mrs. Willoughby as to the effect which Drake's bearing would produce on women-consult her cautiously, prudence warned him. Mrs. Willoughb

le that he did not stop to consider it, namely, that Hugh Fielding should be a mere spectator. It did