THE NOVELIST

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 8, 6 November 1880, Page 61

THE NOVELIST

By MES. FORRESTER,

A Strange Affair.

Author of "Fair Women," "Dolores," "From Olympus to Hades," &c, &c.

Down the staircase of a tiny house in Mayfair trips a very pretty woman. She is beautifully dressed in a toilette which one would certainly ascribe to Worth, La Ferriere, or Mason. In each ear glistens a brilliant of considerable size. As she reaches the drawing-room, and puts a small hand on the door, it trembles visibly. Whom does she expect to see on the other side? She gains courage, turns the handle, and enters. It is only her husband. He smiles appreciatively at her, and says, "By Jove, Maddy, what a get-up ! And, by Jove," with a slight change of accent, " where did you get those earrings 1 " A suspiciously-listening ear might have detected, a little nervousness in the voice with which Madame answers airily, "Yes, aren't they wonderful? I know I take every one in with them to-night." Dick, ' however, is not suspicious ; Tie is a great good-tempered giant who is as ignorant about dress andt jewels as he is knowing on the subject of horses, dogs, guns, and fishingtackle.

"You don't mean to say they aren't real?' he says, opening his eyes a little Avider. " Sir Frederick Aston bought them for me in the Palais Royal, and they cost four pounds," ansAvers Maddy. "Well," returns Dick, "that only slioavs what fools people are to go and give hundreds of pounds for a thing that can be so easily imitated. But," Avith an admiring glance at his Avife, "you're a deuced clever little woman ! Noav, if that goAvn of yours had come from Paris it couldn't fit you better. Do you knoAV, sometimes, Avhen I tell Avomen that you have all your things made at home, I can see plainly by their eyes that they don't believe me." "Why tell them anything about it, dear?" says his Avife quietly. "O, because Avomen are so deuced spiteful, and they knoAV perfectly Avell that I can't afford to pay for Worth gOAVns for you, and they miglit say — " "Don't you think the brougham must be here ? " interrupts Maddy. "I am afraid Aye shall be late for dinner. "

At this juncture the servant announces it. Three years before, Captain and Mrs. Vernon married for love. So absorbing was their passion for each other, that they were content, for the moment, to ignore the practical side of life, and to imagine that they Ayere^ quite capable of undergoing all sorts of privations as long as they could share them together. That was a little more than three years ago. To-day, to hear them on the subject of love-marriages, one would shrewdly suspect that something must have happened to alter the romantic views they dnce held. Still, they get on very well; very well, indeed, for married people. At all events, they do not quarrel ; and, in the present day, a negative feeling of good-natured tolerance between man and wife, and the absence of any desire on the part of either to annoy the other, may be looked upon (by comparison) as bliss. The day after the dinner at which Mrs. Vernon appeared for the first time in her Palais Royal earrings, she went to Sandown with a party ; and Dick took the opportunity of paying a morning visit to a fair friend of whom, in former days, he had been an admirer. It is extraordinary how jealous wives are of women who have been friends of their husbands ; they invariably hate them. If Maddy disliked one woman in the world more than another, though phe pretended to be friendly with her, it was Mrs. Lovell. Dick, who retained an honest liking for his old flame, used now and then to take advantage of his wife's absence to have half an hour's chat with her. He did not always mention these visits to Maddy, because women never can understand that a man may feel friendly to another woman, and nothing more.

Mrs. Loveli is very glad to see Dick, and very cordial. They talk about fifty things, and then the lady says suddenly, " By the way, Dick, has any one died and left you money ? "

"No," replies Dick, opening his eyes ; "I wish they had. Why ? " "Then you've been winning at racing or cards ? "

" I never gamble now,'* replies Dick, with a sigh and shake of the head. v I can't afford to make what little I have less. "

" O," says Mrs. Lovell, " I thought, seeing your wife with those magnificent diamond solitaires last night, that some stroke of luck had befallen you, and that you had had a generous fit in consequence." A smiles widens Dick's honest face. " Some mystery, I suppose?" inquires Mrs. Lovell, with a slight raising of her eyebrows. Dick laughs heartily ; he is evidently enjoying a little joke. Mrs. Lovell waits patiently until he shall feel disposed to pass it on. ' ' I don't mind telling you, " he says presently, '• because I knoAV you're safe j but Maddy would be awfully angry with me for splitting about it. The fact is they aren't diamonds at all, but paste. Wonderful imitation, aren't they?" Mrs. Lovell presses he lips together, and looks at Dick with an expression of countenance that would seem to indicate a difficulty in deciding to herself whether he is the greatest fool she ever met, or something else. "Really?" she says. Dick, not having acute perceptions, is not aware of the sneer levelled at himj but pro* ceeds with considerable enjoyment, " Yes, by Jove, Palais Royal diamonds I Sir Frederick Aston got them for her, and gave four pounds for them." Mrs. Lovell suddenly sees something out of the window, and hastens to look at it. But if any one were looking in, he would see an angry Bearle,t face and mazing eyes, Surely she.

cannot be annoyed because Sir Frederick, who has been a very great friend of her own, should undertake a little commission for another lady ! In a minute, however, she comes back smiling. "O, she remarks airily, "and so those are Palais Koyal diamonds, are they? I should never have thought it." "Yes, I saw the name of the man on the little cardboard box on my wife's dressingtable just before I came out, but I forget it." " She is wearing them, I suppose ? " No, because I looked in and saw them." Mrs. Lovell appears to lose her interest in the earrings, and they fall to talking of other matters. As Dick his taking his leave, she says, as if seized by a sudden idea, "O Dick, I wish you would do me a favour." "Of course I will," he answers heartily. "That is if I can."

" I've been wanting a pair of paste earrings for years like those of your wife, and a friend of mine is going to Paris to-morrow. If you could only get me them to show her, I wouldn't keep them for more than an hour, and Mrs. Vernon would never know."

Dick hesitates. He does not think it would be fair to Macldy, and he has no desire to annoy her, poor little woman ! But Mrs. Lovell has very coaxing manners, and presently lie yields, and going ofF then and there, returns -with the cardboard box. It is not three minutes' walk from Mrs. Lovell's house to his own. Mrs Lovell opens the box. Yes, there, nestling in the wool, lie those lovely stones that look quite worthy of a velvet case. Some of their brilliancy seems to be reflected in her eyes as she regards them.

"You'll let me have them back by three," says Dick earnestly.

" Long before then," she answers. It is past half-past two when the following letter is put into Captain Vernon. 's hand : "My dear Dick, — I am distracted ! I don't know what to do, or how to tell you ! The most dreadful thing has happened to me. I have lost your wife's earrings. The moment you left me, I rushed off in a hansom to Eatontquare with them in my pocket, and when I got into the house they were gone. I don't know the man's number, and did not notice his face. lam furious with myself for having borrowed them. Of course your wife will think it a mean action on my part to want to imitate her earrings ; but what vexes me most of all is to think, my dear Dick, that I should have got you into such trouble. I have sent an advertisement to the ' Times, ' and I need hardly say that if they are not forthcoming, I will do my best to replace them. You Avill never speak to me again, I daresay ; but you can't feel as angry with me as I do with myself. — Your distracted 'EVA.'"

When Pick has mastered the contents of this note, he sends forth a volley of curses, "not loud, but deep." They are not, however, launched against his temptress, Eva, but only against his own folly. He has betrayed Matldy, and to the Avoman whom of all others she hates. Dick is big and broad, and knows not fear under ordinary circumstances ; and Maddy is a little woman and not a virago, but still he quails, and his heart beats thick and fast as the time of her return from Sandown approaches. He arms himself with a five pound note — he has not many, poor fellow — and prepares to make full confession and reparation. Maddy comes in smiling. She has had a charming day. But Dick cannot rest till he has told his story, and he blurts it straight out like the honest fellow that he is. A surprise is in store for him — an agreeable surprise. She does not fly at him, nor pour out the vials of her wrath upon him ; she only turns ghastly white, and, forcing a sickly smile, says that "it does not matter," that "no doubt they will be brought back." She will not even take the bank-note that he tries to force upon her. She is a 'trump, a brick, Dick swears to himself; he had never known before how good she was ! If he only had the money, how he would like to give her a real pair for taking it so well ! Up-stairs in her own room Maddy is not bearing it quite so well as Dick fancies. Her small hands are clenched in fury; she has almost made her teeth meet iv her pillow ; if Mrs. Lovell were to come in she would propably pass a very " mauvais quart el'heure." Presently Mrs. Vernon is sufficiently recovered to pen a hasty note, which she posts with her own hands.

The following morning, as Mrs. Loveli is still at breakfast, Sir Frederick Aston is armcmncecl. Before he has time to make the customary salutation she bursts out, ' ' O, have you heard the dreadful misfortune that lias happened to me ? I was never so humiliated in my life. I am more than disgusted with myself. Of course Mrs. Vernon will spread the story all over London, and every one will be abusing me."

There is such genuine distress in her eyes and voice that it is impossible for Sir Frederick to entertain any suspicion of her sincerity. Whatever he may have come to say he leaves unsaid.

Next day there are two advertisments in the second column of the "Times." "Fifty pounds reward. Lost, a pair of brilliant single-stone earrings. Whoever takes them to, " &c. Just beneath this appears, " Four pounds reward. Lost from a cab between Park-lane and Eatonsquare, a pair of paste earrings, " tSrc. Mrs. Lovell, happening to meet Captain and Mrs. Vernon in the Row that morning, says to the latter, "I shall never forgive myself; but how much worse it might have been ! Just think of that poor woman who has lost her ' real ' diamonds 1 "

A fortnight elapses ; the two advertisements continue to appear daily, evidently without result. At the end of that time Mrs. Lovell calls very early one morning at the Vernons' little house in Mayfair. She lmcl counted on finding Dick and his wife together at breakfast, but Mrs. Vernon is alone. Dick has gone to look at a horse.

Mr?. Lovell comes in radiant, carrying a little white box in her hand. She holds it out to Maddy with genuine glee.

"Only imagine, my dear, what luck! I have found your earrings ; they had slipped

through my pocket and stuck in the lining of my dress."

Maddy takes the box with a trembling hand, opens it and gazes long and searchingly at the stones as if to assure herself that they are identical with the lost ones. Apparently satisfied with her scrutiny, she looks up and says, in the most insulting tone she can command,

"O, so you have thought "better of it ! I fancied you meant to keep them. Now " (with rising passion), "as I don't choose to have a thief in my house, go, and never dare to set foot in it again ! " Mrs. Lovell remains perfectly imperturbable. "It is quite natural under the circumstances that you should feel vexed," she says ; " but I can excuse you. They are a wonderful imitation, aren't they ? So much so that I took them to my jeweller, and he offered to give me four hundred pounds, for them. I miist tell Dick that, as he is rather hard up at times. There is no reason Avhy the man shouldn't cheat himself if he likes, is there ? Good-bye, dear ; we shall always be friends now, sha'n't we ? "