Chapter 11. The Great Leveller.

Otago Witness, Issue 1596, 24 June 1882, Page 25

Chapter 11. The G r eat Leveller.

Lady Stainbrooke's little scheme prospered. Nora Sudely was not engaged to Croesus when Lady Stainbrooke told the painter this piece of news, but Norah Sudely was engaged to Croesus very soon afterwards. 'My dear,' said Lady Stainbrooke to Nora, upon her return from the errand on which her ladyship had sent her to keep her out of the painter's way, 'I've had a visit from your friend, Mr Vyner. Really he is a very agreeable young man. You remember I asked him if he was in love yesterday at the Academy. Well, I made a very shrewd guess. He has just been telling me all about it. It is some parson's daughter in Suffolk— an absurd affair it seemed at first— no money on either side, and, as I told him, living on love went out with the Flood ! But the strangest things happen. This girl has come in for a small fortune, and so the affair is settled.'

Nora Sudely listened to these words, and the bright colour faded out of her cheeks, and the love-light out of her eyes. She stood before her aunt, white and trembling, for a few moments—a slender girl, trembling, pale, and heart-stricken— and yet the old woman kept to her purpose still. ' Aunt,' she said, at length, trying to speak calmly, ' is this true ?' ' True, my dear?' repeated Lady Stainbrooke. ' I can, of course, only vouch for its truth as far as the young man told me, and I can't see any motive he could have, unless it was true. By-the-bye, he told me that he admired you very much, and altogether made himself very agreeable.' And Lady Stainbrooke gave a little laugh. Nora asked no more questions after this. She did not speak again of the painter, but Sir Thomas, a day or two afterwards, said to his wife :

' That girl is losing her looks— she has lost her vivacity, her charm — what is the matter with her, madam V 'She wants change,' replied Lady Stainbrooke. 'We must take her more about.'

So when Mr John Trelawn called the same afternnon to ask his old friend. Lady Stainbrooke, to dine with him at Richmond, her ladyship gladly accepted the invitation. 'The fellow is stupid, and a snob,' said Sir Thomas.

' The fellow is rich, and that makes up for everything nowadays,' answered his wife ; 'and besides he is an old friend.'

The latter recommendation in one sense of the word was true. When Lady; Stainbrooke had been a handsome young girl in her native town, John Trelawn's father had lived there, and made a great fortune there. Queer stories about the commencement of this_ fortune were not wanting. But the fact remained that vast iron works and vast wealth belonged to Mr John Trelawn, senior, before he retired from all earthly businosfs. He left only one child— John Trelawn, commonly called Croesus. This John Trelawn then had known the handsome Miss Sudely in his awkward boyhood. The handsome Miss Sudoly had married an officer and had left Warbrooke while John was at school, but still ho had known her. Trouble had conic to the Sudelys in the yearh that had rolled away iince then, and greater wealth to Ihe TreJawnb. Old Trelawn had been gathered to his fathers, and John Trelawn (Croesus) was a middle-aged man when Lady Stainbrooke returned to her native town, biit still when they met they remembered, or pretended to remember, each other. They remembered ench other's names at any rate," and Lady Stainbrooko made hersself very agreeable to Crcosus. Then Ocnsus came up to town, and was glr/1 t<- meat Lady Stainbrooko there. They w«jro iv fact, mutually urmil to each 011-iv. Join Trelawn. knew no one in London, nnd thi^h s'ady Stainbrooke hA not- ■>. hrp/. acc.'irdnt

ance, still she had some friends, and she liked John Trelawn's opera boxes, his dinners at Richmond— in truth his wealth. And so she fixed that he was to marry her niece, Nora Sudely, and he did marry her. The girl was nob a willing victim, but she yielded to her aunt's representations. . ' Think how poor your papa is, child ; think of what will become of you if you do not marry,' urged Lady Stainbrooke ; and so sad, silent, almost broken-hearted, Nora Sudely accepted her fate. She married John Trelawn because she believed that the man she loved was about to be, or was, married to another woman. She married John Trelawn because he was rich, and because she could help her father and her ailing mother, and her young brother and sister. But she never was the same woman again. I John Trelawn bought a grand new house in I South Kensington ; he bought a villa by the river, and sometimes he took his young wife down to the big house at Warbrooke, where his father had died, and they entertained Nora's family and his old friends there, but everything always seemed very dull to Nora. She tried to do her duty, and indeed did it, as well as she was able, but she was not happy. A nameless drearinesss and dullness always possessed her. Her sister married well, her younger brother entered the army, her mother died in comfort, and years passed away, but no children came to her, and there was no brightness in her life Nora told herself, and she often wondered why people cared to live, and why they fretted and fumed about things that seemed of so little worth.

At laßt one day (on her birthday) John Trelawn presented his young wife with a set of such rich and costly diamonds, that it was scarcely possible for any woman to see them and know that they were hers without delight. So at least said Lady Stainbrooke, who nad helped to choose them, and it must be admitted that Nora felt a slight glow of gratitude and affection for 'John' as she gazed upon his magnificent gift. He gave them to her in the grand house at South Kensington. Sir Thomas and Lady Stainbrooke dined with them on the same day, and after dinner (her ladyship having partaken very freely of 'John's' champagne) said to Nora :

' Ah, my dear, you may thank me now, I think, that by a little innocent artifice I parted you from a beggarly painter.' Nora's face flushed, and she put her hand quickly to her side. Then she asked, almost calmly •' ' What artifice did you use, Aunt ? ! ' I invented a young woman, that was all,' replied Lady Stainbrooke with a little laugh. ' Then Mr Vyner never told you that he was engaged— never told you anything at all, I suppose ? ' said Nora, still calmly. Lady Stainbrooke nodded her head. ' He told me he admired you, and I told him — had the sense and discretion to tell him— that you were engaged, Nora, and you see how_ well it has all turned out ? You have everything— diamonds— in fact, everything a woman can desire.' 'Except happiness,' said Nora in a low tone, and she left her aunt— left her diamonds lying in their grand new velvet cases— and the old woman, as she looked at them with her blinking eyes, acknowledged to herself that John Trelawn's champage had been too much for her, and had stolen away her wit. ' I should never have told her,' she thought j but Nora said nothing more to her aunt aoout the handsome painter. Yet a few months later (for the first time since her marriage), she met him. Nora was at the Academy with some friends, and in the crowd — just as ahe had seen him long ago— her eyes fell upon his never-to-be-forgotten lace.

She held out her hand to him, and for a moment or two no word was exchanged between them. Then he eaid—

•It is a long time since we met — Mrs Trelawn.' ' Yes,' answered Nora, 'along time indeed— and,' she added quickly, her pale face flushing, ' you — you are not married, then ?' 'No,' answered Vyner, and his face, too, flushed, and he sighed restlessly. ' My aunt — Lady Stainbrooke — told me long ago— before my own marriage— before my engagement, in fact— that you were about to be married,' hesitated John Trelawn's wife, with trembling lips and moistening eyes; 'otherwise, Mr Vyner ' She said nothing more, and for a minute Walter Vyner, the handsome painter, made no reply. He stood there, looking at the once bright face which years ago had been his sweetest ideal of womanhood. It was a bright face no longer. Nora Trelawn was scarcely pretty now, with large sad dark eyes, and a hopeless look somehow all over the small, regular features, that the painter remembered so attractive and charming. ' So !' he said presently, still looking at Nora, ' that old woman spoilt two lives then ?' ' She spoilt mine,' said Nora, in a low tone, ' but — we must not speak of it now.' All around them was the crowd. Other tragedies and comedies were perhaps being played on the same stage, but Walter Vyner and Nora Trelawn thought not of these. They only remembered when they had stood hand-in-hand, that summer evening long ago, and dreamed of a future which was not to be. It was but a common story, but as the painter kept watching Nora's face, he knew that he had been regretted with no common regret, and loved with an abiding love that had not passed away. They never met again for years. W. D. Vyner rose in fame after this, and John Trelawn (Croesus) bought one or two of his pictures and hung them up in his big houses, out never noted how often his young wife's dark eyes would wander to the canvas on the walls, which Walter Vyner's hand had made to live. And so time passed on. Crccsus grew richer and stouter, but there was no other change. They had been married five years on the evening when Nora was sitting waiting for her husband— waiting for him, but not thinkingof him— thinking of the past which Lady Stainbrooke's little artifice had spoilt. Presently a heavy footstep was heard on the staircase outside. John Trelawn's wife heard it, and moved slightly, for she knew it was her husband's. A heavy footstep, and a heavy man ! A big, dull man was John Trelawn, though no fool, and kindly-hearted withal, and at times he would indulge in a ponderous sort of jocularity, which his numerous satellites unfailingly pretended to enjoy. He came into the room now, and laid one of his large hands on his wife's shoulder. 'Well,' he said, 'and how wags the world with you, my dear ?' Nora smiled faintly. ' Do you expect any one to dinner, John ?' she asked.

' 1 met Martin and Prosser,' answered Croesus, ' and the pom' devils looked hungry, a?id I took compassion. They'll be horo directly,' continued Croesus, looking at his watch, ' so I must ba oft' to decorate.'

Ho left the room with a kindly nod to his ""''», ""^ by -tui'l-by Martin and Proper were ushered in, f lwtin iMici I'lomsx wore little men, just in

the same sense that John Trelawn was a great anan. Martin and Prossor were poor, and John was rich, and that made the difference between them. They had known John Trelawn all their lives, and they smiled and sighed faintly with envy as they entered the big house and saw on every side the signs of great wealth that it contained. , „ ,* „ 'How well Croesus is looking !' said Martin facetiously to Nora. * In splendid condition,' echoed Prosser. Nora just answered tliem, and that was all. She did not care for these early companions of John Trelawn, and one of her objections to the large dull house at Warbrooke, where they then were, was that such men were never out of it. Still she could not quarrel with John for being kind to his old friends, but somehow she did not like to live at Warbroolce. * I will go and see if Mr Trelawn is ready for dinner,' she said, and so left the room, and Martin and Prosser looked at each other and smiled as she disappeared.

' TJpish !' said Martin. ' Set a beggar on horseback,' suggested Prosser, with a shrug. Meanwhile, Nora had gone up the broad staircase, and was rapping at her husband's dressingroom door. There was no response. Then she opened the door and went in. John Trelawn was lying on the soft carpet, in the middle of the room, with his face downwards. Nora screamed and ran forward. She lifted his head and turned his face round, and when she saw the dull, half -closed eyes and the ghastly colour of the skin, even inexperienced as she was, she knew what nad happened. In a moment — in the midst of his wealth, in the prime of his life— he had been struck down ; tho rich man had gone up to dress for dinner, and the grim foe had been waiting for him up-stairs. Yes, there was no mistake— Croesus was dead !

(To be continued.)