41 chapters
25 hour read
Selected Chapters
41 chapters
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
Alick Craven, who was something in the Foreign Office, had been living in London, except for an interval of military service during the war, for several years, and had plenty of interesting friends and acquaintances, when one autumn day, in a club, Francis Braybrooke, who knew everybody, sat down beside him and began, as his way was, talking of people. Braybrooke talked well and was an exceedingly agreeable man, but he seldom discussed ideas. His main interest lay in the doings of the human race
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
A fortnight later Craven received a note from his old friend saying that Braybrooke had spoken about him to “Adela Sellingworth,” and that she would be glad to know him. Braybrooke was off to Paris to stay with the Mariguys, but all Craven had to do was to leave a card at Number 18A, Berkeley Square, and when this formality had been accomplished Lady Sellingworth would no doubt write to him and suggest an hour for a meeting. Craven thanked his friend, left a card at Number 18A, and a day or two
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
That day Craven walked away from Lady Sellingworth’s house with Miss Van Tuyn, leaving Sir Seymour Portman behind him. Miss Van Tuyn was staying with a friend at the Hyde Park Hotel, and, as she said she wanted some air, Craven offered to accompany her there on foot. “Do!” she said in her frank and very conscious way. “I’m afraid of London on a Sunday.” “Afraid!” “As I’m afraid of a heavy, dull person with a morose expression. Please don’t be angry.” Craven smiled. “I know! Paris is much lighter
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
Not many days later Craven received a note from Miss Van Tuyn asking him to come to see her at a certain hour on a certain day. He went and found her alone in a private sitting-room overlooking the Park. For the first time he saw her without a hat. With her beautiful corn-coloured hair uncovered she looked, he thought, more lovely than when he had seen her at Lady Sellingworth’s. She noted that thought at once, caught it on the wing through his mind, as it were, and caged it comfortably in hers.
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
Though ordinary enough in her youthful egoism, and entirely du jour in her flagrantly shown vanity, Miss Van Tuyn, as Craven was to find out, was really something of an original. Her independence was abnormal and was mental as well as physical. She lived a life of her own, and her brain was not purely imitative. She not only acted often originally, but thought for herself. She was not merely a very pretty girl. She was somebody. And somehow she had trained people to accept her daring way of life
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
At the door of the Cafe Royal they stopped, and Miss Van Tuyn laid a hand on Lady Sellingworth’s arm. “Do come in, dearest. It will really amuse you,” she said urgently. “And—I’ll be truthful—I want to show you off to the Georgians as my friend. I want them to know how wonderful an Edwardian can be.” “Please—please!” pleaded Jennings from under his sombrero. “Dick would revel in you. You would whip him into brilliance. I know it. You admire his work, surely?” “I admire it very much.” “And he is
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
Lady Sellingworth belonged to a great English family, and had been brought up in healthy splendour, saved from the canker of too much luxury by the aristocratic love of sport which is a tradition in such English families as hers. As a girl she had been what a certain sporting earl described as “a leggy beauty.” Even then she had shown a decided inclination to run wild and had seldom checked the inclination. Unusually tall and athletic, rather boyish in appearance, and of the thin, greyhound type
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
Miss Van Tuyn, enthroned among distinguished and definite Georgians in a nimbus of smoke, presently began to wonder what had become of a certain young man. Despite the clamour of voices about her, and the necessity for showing incessantly that, although she had never bothered to paint cubist pictures or to write minor poetry, or even to criticize and appreciate meticulously those who did, she was cleverer than any Georgian of them all, her mind would slip away to Berkeley Square. She had, of cou
48 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
Craven went away from Berkeley Square that night still under the spell and with a mind unusually vivid and alive. As he had told Lady Sellingworth, he was now twenty-nine and no longer considered himself young. At the F.O. there are usually a good many old young men, just as in London society there are always a great many young old women. Craven was one of the former. He was clever, discreet and careful in his work. He was also ambitious and intended to rise in the career he had chosen. To succe
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Craven realized that he had “given himself away” directly Braybrooke was gone. The two empty glasses stood on a low table in front of his chair. He looked at them and for an instant was filled with anger against himself. To be immortal—he was old-fashioned enough to believe surreptitiously in his own immortality—and yet to be deflected from the straight path of good sense by a couple of dry Martinis! It was humiliating, and he raged against himself. Braybrooke had certainly gone away thinking th
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
Craven had been right in his supposition about the world’s governess. Braybrooke had gone away from the Club that evening firmly persuaded that his young friend had done the almost unbelievable thing, had fallen in love with Adela Sellingworth. He was really perturbed about it. A tremulous sense of the fitness of things governed his whole life, presided as it were over all his actions and even over most of his thoughts. He instinctively shrank from everything that was bizarre, from everything th
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
Miss Van Tuyn had not intended to stay long in London when she came over from Paris. But now she changed her mind. She was pulled at by three interests—Lady Sellingworth, Craven and the living bronze. A cold hand had touched her vanity on the night of the dinner in Soho. She had felt angry with Craven for not coming back to the Cafe Royal, and angrier still with Lady Sellingworth for keeping him with her. Although she did not positively know that Craven had spent the last part of the evening in
42 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
The more he thought over his visit to Adela Sellingworth the more certain did Francis Braybrooke become that it had not gone off well. For once he had not played his cards to the best advantage. He felt sure that inadvertently he had irritated his hostess. Her final dismissal of the subject of young Craven’s possible happiness with Beryl Van Tuyn, if circumstances should ever bring them together, had been very abrupt. She had really almost kicked it out of the conversation. But then, she had nev
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
Lady Sellingworth was “not at home” when Miss Van Tuyn called, though no doubt she was in the house, and the latter left her card, on which she wrote in pencil, “So sorry not to find you. Do let us meet again soon. I may not be in London much longer.” When she wrote the last sentence she was really thinking of Paris with a certain irritation of desire. In Paris she always had a good, even a splendid, time. London was treating her badly. Perhaps it was hardly worth while to stay on. She had many
57 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
Two days after the visit of Arabian to Dick Garstin’s studio Lady Sellingworth received a note from Francis Braybrooke, who invited her to dine with him at the Carlton on the following evening, and to visit a theatre afterwards. “Our young friends, Beryl Van Tuyn and Alick Craven” would be of the party, he hoped. Lady Sellingworth had no engagement. She seldom left home in the evening. Yet she hesitated to accept this invitation. She had not seen Miss Van Tuyn since the evening in Soho, nor Bray
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Miss Van Tuyn and the members of the “old guard” went home to bed that night realizing that Lady Sellingworth had had “things” done to herself before she came out to the theatre party. “She’s beginning again after—how many years is it?” said Lady Wrackley to Mrs. Ackroyde in the motor as they drove away from Shaftesbury. “Ten,” said Mrs. Ackroyde, who was blessed with a sometimes painfully retentive memory. “I suppose it’s Zotos,” observed Lady Wrackley. “Who’s Zotos?” inquired young Leving of t
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
Lady Sellingworth was afraid. In spite of her many triumphs in the past she had a deep distrust of life. Since the tragedies of her middle age her curious natural diffidence, which the habit of the world had never been able to subdue, had increased. In ten years of retirement, in the hundreds of hours of solitude which those ten years had held for her, it had grown within her. And now it began to torment her. Life brings gifts to almost everyone, and often the gift-bearer’s approach is absolutel
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
Three days later, soon after four o’clock, Craven rang the bell at Lady Sellingworth’s door. As he stood for a moment waiting for it to be answered he wondered whether she would be at home to him, how she would greet him if she chose to see him. The door was opened by a footman. “Is her ladyship at home?” “Her ladyship has gone out of town, sir.” “When will she be back?” “I couldn’t say, sir. Her ladyship has gone abroad.” Craven stood for a moment without speaking. He was amazed, and felt as if
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
Miss Van Tuyn believed that things were coming her way after all. Young Craven was suddenly released, and another very strong interest was dawning in her life. Craven had not been wrong in thinking that she was secretly excited when he met her in the hall at Claridge’s. She had fulfilled her promise to Dick Garstin, driven to fulfilment by his taunt. No one should say with truth that she was afraid of anyone, man or woman. She would prove to Garstin that she was not afraid of the man he was tryi
44 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Francis Braybrooke was pleased. Young Craven and Beryl were evidently “drawing together” now Adela Sellingworth was happily out of the way. He heard of them dining together at the Bella Napoli , playing golf together at Beaconsfield—or was it Chorley Wood? He was not quite sure. He heard of young Craven being seen at Claridge’s going up in the lift to Miss Van Tuyn’s floor. All this was very encouraging. Braybrooke’s former fears were swept away and his confidence in his social sense was re-esta
51 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
On the following day Miss Van Tuyn, remembering her feeling at Camber in the twilight, went to the telephone and called up Number 18A, Berkeley Square. The solemn voice of a butler—she knew at once a butler was speaking—replied inquiring her business. She gave her name and asked whether Lady Sellingworth had returned to London. The answer was that her ladyship had arrived in London from the Continent on Saturday evening. “Please tell her ladyship that her friend, Miss Van Tuyn, will call on her
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
Lady Sellingworth of course understood Beryl’s purpose in visiting her so soon and in being so unreserved to her. The girl’s intention was absolutely clear to her mind horribly experienced in the cruel ways of women. Nevertheless she believed that Beryl had spoken the truth about what had happened at Camber. When it began to get dark Craven had wanted to hold Beryl’s hand. Lady Sellingworth felt that she hated Beryl, hated Alick Craven. And herself? She did not want to contemplate herself. It se
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
Miss Van Tuyn was in Garstin’s studio on that day. Although apparently calm and self-possessed she was in a condition of acute nervous excitement. Craven’s mention of Glebe Place through the telephone had startled her. At once she had understood. People had begun to gossip, and the gossip had reached Craven’s ears. She had reddened as she stood by the telephone. A definite sensation of anxiety mingled with shame had crept in her. But it had been succeeded by a decisive feeling more really charac
35 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
Mrs. Ackroyde had a pretty little house in Upper Grosvenor Street, but she spent a good deal of her time in a country house which she had bought at Coombe close to London. She was always there from Saturday to Monday, when she was not paying visits or abroad, and Coombe Hall, as her place was called, was a rallying ground for members of the “old guard.” Invariably guests came down on the Sunday to lunch and tea. Bridge was the great attraction for some. For others there were lawn tennis and golf
55 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
Beryl Van Tuyn found that it was not necessary for her to cross the ocean on account of her father’s sudden death. He had left all his affairs in excellent order, and the chief part of his fortune was bequeathed to her. She had always had plenty of money. Now she was rich. She went into mourning, answered suitably the many letters of condolence that poured in upon her, and then considered what she had better do. Miss Cronin pleaded persistently for an immediate return to Paris. What was the good
37 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
She heard steps mounting the stairs, and got up from the sofa. She looked once more at the portrait, then turned round to meet the two men, standing so that she was directly in front of it. Just then she had a wish to conceal it from Arabian, to delay, if only for a moment, his knowledge of what had been done. Arabian came into the studio and saw her in her mourning facing him. At once he came up to her with Dick Garstin behind him. He looked grave, sympathetic, almost reverential. His brown eye
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
About seven o’clock that evening Lady Sellingworth was sitting alone in her drawing-room. Sir Seymour Portman had been with her for an hour and had left her at half past six, believing that she was going to spend one of her usual solitary evenings, probably with a book by the fire. He would gladly, even thankfully, have stayed to keep her company. But no suggestion of that kind had been made to him. And, beyond calling regularly at the hour when he believed that he was welcome, he never pressed
41 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
“I haven’t the least idea,” said Craven, looking uncomfortable. “Perhaps—She complained of the heat just now. She may have gone to the door to get some air. Please forgive me!” He glanced from Miss Van Tuyn to Arabian, who was still standing up stiffly, with a rigidly polite expression on his face. “I must just see!” He turned away and walked down the restaurant. When he got to the counter where the padrona sat enthroned he found their waitress standing near it. “Where is the signora?” he asked.
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
Miss Van Tuyn was not in the hotel when Lady Sellingworth called. She did not come back till late, and when she entered the hall she was unusually pale, and looked both tired and excited. She had been to Dick Garstin on an unpleasant errand, and she had failed in achieving what she had attempted to bring about. Garstin had flatly refused not to exhibit Arabian’s portrait. And she had been obliged to tell Arabian of his refusal. The man at the bureau gave her Lady Sellingworth’s note, and she too
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
The winter night was dark when Miss Van Tuyn stood in the hall of Lady Sellingworth’s house waiting for the footman to find a taxicab for her. A big fire was burning on the hearth; the old-fashioned hooded chair stood beside it; and presently, as no taxicab came, she went to the chair and sat down in it. She felt very tired. Her whole body seemed to have been weakened by what she had just been through. But her mind was charged with intense vitality. The thoughts galloped through it, and they wer
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
On the following afternoon Craven called on Lady Sellingworth about five o’clock and was told by the new footman in a rather determined manner that she was “not at home.” “I hope her ladyship is quite well?” he said. “I believe so, sir,” replied the man. “Her ladyship has been out driving to-day.” “Please give her that card. Wait one moment.” He pencilled on the card, “I hope you are better,—A.C.,” gave it to the man, and walked away, feeling sure that Lady Sellingworth was in the house but did
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
After Lady Sellingworth had written and sent her note to Craven she felt that she was facing a new phase of life, and she thought of it as the last phase. Her sacrifice of self was surely complete at last. She had exposed her nature naked to Beryl Van Tuyn. She had given up her friendship with Alick Craven. There was nothing more for her to do. The call of youth had wrung from her a response which created loneliness around her. And now she had to find within herself the resolution to face this l
40 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
As soon as Beryl had gone Lady Sellingworth went downstairs to her writing-room. She turned on the electric light as she went in to the room, and glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. The hands pointed to half-past nine. She wondered where Seymour was dining. He might chance to be at home. It was much more likely that he was dining out, at one of his clubs or elsewhere. If he were at home and alone he would come to her at once; if not she would perhaps have to wait till half-past ten or eleve
35 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
Early on the following morning, soon after ten o’clock Miss Van Tuyn was startled by a knock on her bedroom door. Everything at all unexpected startled her just now. Her nerves, as even old Fanny could not help noticing, had gone “all to pieces.” She lived in perpetual fear. Nearly all the previous night she had been lying awake turning over and over in her mind the horrible possibilities of the future. It was in vain that she tried to call her normal common sense to the rescue, in vain that she
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
Rather late in the afternoon of the same day, towards half-past five, Dick Garstin, who was alone in his studio upstairs smoking a pipe and reading Delacroix’s “Mon Journal,” heard his door bell ring. He was stretched out on a divan, and he lay for a moment without moving, puffing at his pipe with the book in his hand. Then he heard the bell again, and got up. Arabian’s portrait stood on its easel in the middle of the room. Garstin glanced at it as he went toward the stairs. Since the day when h
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
“I’ll go your way if you like. I live in St. James’s Palace. But I’m in no hurry. Do you live in my direction?” “Oh, no. I live quite near in Chelsea.” “I can walk to your door then if you don’t mind having my company,” said Sir Seymour. “Thank you!” And they walked on together in silence. Sir Seymour wondered what was passing in the mind of the man beside him. He felt sure that Arabian had been at first suspicious of him in the studio. Had he been able by his manner to lull that suspicion to re
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
When Sir Seymour was going out of the main hall of the building in which Arabian lived a taxicab happened to drive up. A man got out of it and paid the chauffeur. Sir Seymour made a sign to the chauffeur, who jerked his head and said: “Yes, sir.” “Drive me to Claridge’s Hotel, please,” said Sir Seymour. He got into the taxicab and was soon away in the night. When he reached the hotel he went to the bureau and inquired if Miss Van Tuyn was at home. The man at the bureau, who knew him well, said t
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
On the following morning, true to his word, Sir Seymour visited Scotland Yard, and had a talk with a certain authority there who was a very old friend of his. The authority asked a few questions, but no questions that were indiscreet, or that Sir Seymour was unable to answer without betraying Lady Sellingworth’s confidence. The sequel to this conversation was that a tall, thin, lemon-coloured man, with tight lips and small, dull-looking eyes, which saw much more than most bright eyes ever see, a
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
Sir Seymour usually called on Lady Sellingworth about five o’clock in the afternoon when he was not detained by work or inevitable engagements. On the day of his visit to Garstin’s studio with the inspector he felt that he owed it to Adela to go to Berkeley Square and to tell her what had happened in connexion with Arabian since he had last seen her. She must be anxious for news. It was not likely that she had seen Miss Van Tuyn, that beautiful prisoner in Claridge’s hotel. Miss Van Tuyn might h
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
That evening Miss Van Tuyn learnt through the telephone from Lady Sellingworth what had happened in Dick Garstin’s studio during the previous night. On the following morning at breakfast time she learnt from Sir Seymour that the flat in Rose Tree Gardens had been abruptly deserted by its tenant, who had left very early the day before. She was free from persecution, and, of course, she realized her freedom; but, so strange are human impulses, she was at first unable to be happy in her knowledge t
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
One evening, some ten days later, before any rumour of Lady Sellingworth’s new decision had gone about in the world of London, before even Braybrooke knew, on coming home from the Foreign Office Craven found a note lying on the table in the tiny hall of his flat. He picked it up and saw Miss Van Tuyn’s handwriting. He had not seen either her or Lady Sellingworth since the evening when they had met in the Bella Napoli . Both women had come into his life together. And it seemed to him that both ha
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter