Stella Fregelius: A Tale of Three Destinies

soldierly bearing. His record was rather distinguished. In his youth he had served in the Crimea, and in due course was promoted to the command of a regiment of Guards. After this, ce

outh too large. Yet it could boast what, in the case of a man at any rate, is better than beauty-spirituality, and a certain sympathetic charm. It was not the face which was so attractive, but rather the intelligence, the personality that shone through it, as the light shines through the horn panes of some homely, massive lantern. Speculative eyes of the sort that seem to search horizons

er dinner-that comes of stopping too long at once in the country and drinking port. I notice you never touch it, and a go

pocket and produced th

; but I believe I f

perfect a thing, but when it comes to making use of it, then you forget," and with a little gesture of imp

am afraid it is true. When one's mind is very f

hobby-horse of yours is carrying you-to the devil, and your family with you. I don't want to be r

w what was coming. The port drunk after claret had upset his father's digestion a

e slice out of a man's life, my boy. By the time that I was your age I had done a good deal," said his

s I did at college, and as I have always done, with results which, without boasting, I may fairly call glorious-yes, glorious-for when they are perfected they will change the methods of com

enthusiasm shine and die upon his son's face, and the sight vexed him. Enthusiasm, as he conceived,

onograms and aerial telegraphs already? It seems to me that you merely wish to add a new terror to existence. However, there is no need to pur

could be deadlier, except, perhaps, that of the cruelty which can suggest to a woman that no man will ever look at her because of her plainness and lack of attraction; or the coarse taunt which, by shameless implication, unjustly accu

r," he began, struggling to free his c

cannot see the commercial use of this invention. As a scientific toy it may be very well, though, personally, I should prefer to leave

, it is no use my explaining any further. It

me a few minutes' conversation. For some weeks I have been seeking an opportunity to talk to you;

you should say that. I am always about the place if you want

eading those eternal books; or wandering about rapt in contemplation of the heavens; s

e humble. He could not altogether respect his father; the gulf between them was too wide and deep. But even at his present age of three and thirty he considered it a duty to

Monk, after a solemn pause, "that the affai

answered Morris. "I have not liked t

unbusiness-like man. That mortgage I looked to your mother's fortune to pay off, but other calls made this impossible. For instance, the sea-wall here had to be built if the Abbey was to be saved, and half a mile of sea-walling costs something. Also very extensive repairs

ook over the mortgage after my mo

s business abilities-or perhaps I should say instincts, for they are hereditary-to his own advantage. In fact, however, directly or indirectly, he has done well out of this property and his connection with our family-exceedingly well, both financially and socially. In a time of stress I was forced to sell h

e done the same. He advised you

must remind you that in such matters I have had no assistance. I do not blame you any more t

"Well, father," he asked, "wha

resources and-friends. But, of course, this place is in a way expensive, and you yourself would be the last to pretend that our burdens have been lessened

se. In addition to what I inherited from my mother, which, of course, under the circumstances I do not ask for, I have my fellowshi

l, who did not wish to pursue this bran

re at Monksland, as for the purposes of my work it would have suited m

iticism. Of course, as you were going to devote yourself to this line of research it was right and proper that we should live together. Surely yo

orris, softening, as was his fashio

d that the conversation was at

d his father, presently, "was very different to the

in he knew what was coming, and it was w

student and a recluse-no, don't deny it, for nowadays I can barely persuade you to attend even the Bench or a lawn-tenn

ed sharply,

er, but I have n

of this property is not without importance, very well to do. Jane gets fifty thousand pounds down on the day of her marriage, and as much more, together with the place, upon old Lady Rose's death; while Miss Layard-if she is not quite to the manner bo

s. "Why, I have only spoken three

resting. To her you are a mine of splendid possibilitie

d, who isn't a lady, and has a vicious tempe

andidly, Morris, that at

one to whom I felt much attracted, and that I

t. You ought to have been born three centuries ago, when the old monks lived here. You would have made a first-c

t a lady whom I liked, and who wouldn't expect too much, and who was foolish eno

of a woman would fulfil the

s though he expected to find his id

cousin Mary, I suppose-an easy-going person of

But Colonel Monk had not commanded a regiment with some success and been a military attache for nothing; having filled diplomatic positions, public and private, in

g, and I promised old Charters that I would always be in bed by half-past eleven. Good night, my boy. By the way, you remember that your uncle Porson is coming to Seaview to-morrow from London, and that we are engaged to dine with him at eight. Fancy a man w

anything else to which interest could help him. And there he sits hour after hour gabbling down a little trumpet and listening for an answer which never comes-hour after hour, and month after month, and year after year. Is he a genius, or is he an idiot, or a moral curiosity, or simply useless? I'm hanged if I know, but that's a good idea about Mary; though, of course, there are things again

et he has forgotten all about Mary now, and is thinking of his electrical machine. What a curiosity! Good heavens; what a curiosity! Ah, I wonder what they would have m

king over the placid sea before Morris brushed the night de

course, he thought about his instruments; these were never absent from his heart. His instinct flew back to them as an oasis, as an island of rest in the wilderness of this father's thorny and depressing conversation. Th

a matter of dispute. Some said the Abbey and its lands were granted to a man of the name of Monk by Henry VIII., of course for a consideration. Others held, and evidence existed in favour of this view, that on the dissolution of the monastery the abbot of the day, a shrewd man of easy principles, managed to possess himself of the Chapter House and further extensive hereditaments, of cours

n and one of a middle class and business, but rather wealthy family, the property must have been sold years before. That fortune, however, had long ago been absorbed-or so he gathered-for his father, a brilliant and fashionable army officer, was not t

bolster up the fortunes of a shattered family. Also-and this touched him, this commanded his sympathy-he was the last of his race. If

Yet, either from idleness or pride, to advance these he had never stooped to scheme. Where the welfare of his family was concerned, however, as

get himself called to the Bar; but although a really brilliant University career and his family influence would have given him advantages in any of these professions, he had declined them all. So, following his natural bent, he became an electrician, and now, abandoning the practical side of that modest calling, he was an experimental physicist, full of deep but unremunerative lore, and-an unsuccessful inve

-exhausting study. Therefore he was not a man who if left to himself, would marry, as so many do, merely in order to be married; indeed, the idea to him was almost repulsive. Had he been a woman-hater, he might have accepted it more easily, for then to him one would hav

he Gate of Heaven. Look, too, at the little clouds that in an unending stream floated out of the gloom-travellers pressed onwards by a breath of destiny. They were leaden-hued, all of them, black, indee

on its wings. That beyond some such gates as these, gates that at times, greatly daring, he longed to tread, lay the answer to many a mystery. Amongst other things, perhaps, there he would learn the meaning of t

ntal and bodily, took hold of him. Well, often enough such is the fate of those who dream; those who turn from their ne