A GENTLEMAN'S GENTLEMAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2203, 21 May 1896, Page 49

A GENTLEMAN'S GENTLEMAN.

Revelations concerning a harum-scarum Irishman named Sir Nicolas Steele are made by Mr Max Pemberton in his latest book i (!. D. Innes and Co.). They cover a re- ! markably varied experience. Sir Nicolas himself gives us through his valet, who does the story-telling, the impression at the outset of being a kind of Barry Lyndon without that gentleman's hollow scoundrelism. The memoirs begin with an account of what befell Sir Nicolas and his valet on Iheir arrival in London after some exciting and apparently discreditable episodes in Ireland. Sir Nicolas, in the depths of poverty, yet contrives to secure a little credit and to entertain a friend or two. Among these friends is one who figures as the heroine of a tragedy. LILIAN MORE. 11 He had met her some years before, I don't exactly know where; and it happened that they ran against eaoh other at the corner of

Qxford street on the night after be had spoken to me about going away. She was a slim little thing, not one you would have picked out on a stage as a beauty, but a wonderful woman for kindness, and jusi as sweet-tempered as any creature I ever clapped eyes on. When she came into a house it was like opening the front door to a breeze of laughter. She had a bright word and a smile for everyone, just tbe prettiest possible smile you could see, and this was the more surprising since her face was the face of a woman who had suffered much and was suffering still. I remember once going into our little parlour, where she had been taking tea with Sir Nicolas, and finding her sitting over the fire with her head resting in her hands ; and when I lighted the gas quickly, and she looked up, there were tears in her eyes. My master had gone into the other room to write a letter at the moment, and, of course, I pretended to see nothing. When he came back in a few minutes' time the whole place was rippling with her laugher. For that was the way of her — then and always ? I don't doubt it — high spirits for others and misery for herself. How many women must play a part like that 7 " This curious intimacy proceeds happily until one day there comes a note to Sir Nicolas threatening him with instant death Bhonld he ever again visit the house of the actress. Somewhat troubled in spirit, 'Sir Nicolas, however, determines to take no heed of the warning, but, with his valet, proceeds to the Chelsea lodging where his mysterious friend lives. Here a startling sight meets their eyes — the lady stretched dead on the floor, poisoned by her own hand. A brief note is found, demanding that she should be photographed as she lay in death, and that the photograph should be sent to the man whose addreßS she gave. The man, however, cannot be found, and no light is thrown on the relations between the dead girl and the mysterious stranger until long afterwards. It was then found that the fair friend of Sir Nicholas was a woman whose life had been sadly shattered by an unhappy marriage. " She had married him in Birmingham, a year after Sir Nicolas met her there. He was a well-to-do widower then, with one little child — a girl three years old ; but six months after his marriage he began to nip with his business acquaintances, and in a year he was a confirmed dipsomaniac. Business, friends, wife, and child — all these became nothing to him. He went down the ladder fast, until he had no longer a home, and his wife was driven to get what sort of a living she could as a play-actress. That he made life a hell to her I have no sort of doubt ; but while the child lived the woman was content to work and slave for love of it. What she put up with from the man's temper and .brutality and jealousies, God only knows ; for his affection for her waa strong to the last, and I believe he would have shot any man who spoke twice to her. At the time we first met her in London he was in a private hospital, but the child was dead — killed by a blow of his, as more than one whisper says, though God forbid that I should charge him with it. Be that as It may, the little one's death robbed Lilian More of all s.hje cared to lived for, and the end was what I have told. Bat of all tbe women I ever met she was the sweetest and the truest, and that I will say with my last breath." THE GREAT WHITE DIAMOND. A very different sort of story is that of the purchase and sale of a costly diamond ; the buying of it from a Vienna jeweller and the handing of it over with a fictitious history and at an enormously enhanced price to a Yankee millionaire. As usual, Sir Nicolas and his valet were hard up, and the brilliant idea occurred to them of- sending round the press a paragraph trumpeting the fame of a marvellous-jewel alleged to be in the possession of Sir Nicholas. The story tells how the Irish baronet, by ' the aid of county parchments, vamped up his "history," and persuaded the' Yankee of its truth. He had no money to buy a diamond of any value whatever, but he.trusted to. prompt payment of 100,000dol from the millionaire to pay Lobmeyr, the" jeweller, his very much smaller sum. The unscrupulous tricks and subterfuges they resorted to to gain time form an amusing narrative. The millionaire was slow in sending on hia draft, and in the meantime the designing pair had to desert their rooms, which were occupied by a gendarme. Uuluokily for them the draft was sent on to their lodging at this critical moment, and it became necessary to recover possession of it at once. "At the top of the stairs I paused a moment, and put my ear to. the keyhole of our room. Though I listened for five minutes I did not hear the sound of any voice ; and making sure from this that tbe police officer was alone in the place, I knocked gently with the butt end of the revolver upon the door. A loud ' Herein ' answered me ; but taking no notice of this, I knocked again, and at the second knock tha door was thrown wide open, and the man was before me. Quick as he was — and he put out his arm to grip my collar directly he saw me — I gripped him by the throat in such a lightning grip that his eyes seemed to start straight out of his head, and the flesh of his face went all blue and discoloured. Never was a man more taken by surprise than he was. He had looked to be the attacking party ; I had forestalled him ; and now as he reeled back over | my knee, and the gurgling in his throat was an awful thing to hear, I forced him into the bedroom close by, and held him on the bed. ' Now,' said I, not caring a rap whether he understood "English or the other thing — 'now, move a hand and I'll shoot you like a dog. What I've come here for is my money. Let me take that, and I'll give yon £100. But open your lips, and I'll close them with a bullet.' " Snatching up the precious draft, the valet hurried to find his master, to cash the draft, and then to triumphantly confront the jeweller, whose profuse apologies for his unfortunate suspicions close the episode. A haul of 7000dol is the reward of the imagina- ; tive pair of scoundrels.