Serial Story. THE DISTRESSES OF DAPHNE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue X, 8 September 1900, Page 426

Serial Story. THE DISTRESSES OF DAPHNE.

By

W. E. NORRIS

(Author of “My Friend Jim,” “Major and Minor,” etc.)

CHAPTER XVII. COMPLICATION. “Aly dear child,’' said Mrs Hamilton, laughing with the tears in her eyes, ■‘yon needn’t look so penitent about it; he has only himself to thank, and I have only him to blame. Oh, don't tell me that be couldn't have made yon fall in love with him. if he bad had the heart of a mouse. Of course he could! He is well off. he is still young, he has all the domestic virtues, his family is a most respectable one, and he is decidedly good-looking honestly, now. wouldn't, you say that he bad more than the average share of good looks?" “Oh. yes," answered Daphne, smiling down upon her mother, who had subsided into a low chair after .lack's exit bad been followed by that of Mrs Bingham; "if it conies to that. Captain Clough is better looking than- many other people." "I quite agree with you. my dear. And can it be pretended that a man like that, hasn't it in his power to make any girl in the world fall in love with him?'’ “I’erhaps he would have to begin by being in love with the girl." “The exasperating part of it is that he is in love! No. but really and truly in love; though I don’t wonder at your doubting it. Well. I give him up; I wash my hands of him; I have played my’last card!” “You know, mother dear,’’ Daphne resumed, after a short pause, “it wouldn't, and couldn’t, have made any difference if he had been ever so devoted a lover." "I am not so absolutely certain of that.” sighed Mrs Hamilton; “still, of course. I know what I know. And I am beginning—l may as well confess it —to see that there can lie only one end to all this.” “Ah, there you are wrong, mother! I don't ask, 1 don’t, even wish, to be allowed to marry Otto; I only want it to be understood that I shall never marry anybody else.” “That is so absurd!” “I don’t think it is.” “You would if you knew all. That is, you would think me absurd for objecting to your marrying him. But I am going to withdraw my objections: I feel that I must. They are not, in point of fact, as strong or as conclusive as I imagined that they were.” “Oh. don't say that!” exclaimed Daphne; "you make ine feel such a wretch! It is tiresome of me—l fully realise how tiresome it must be—to proclaim that I intend to remain single; but I can't help it. ami you are not to suppose, please, that I consider myself a martyr. Feeling as you do, and as it is quite natural that you should, you can't really think that your objections are a bit less conclusive now than they have been all along: so 1 mustn't allow you to withdraw them.” Mrs Hamilton moved uneasily in her chair. To reveal the fact that the supposed victim of the Stelvio Pass was alive and well would be to introduce all manner of fresh complications into a situation already complicated enough; yet it seemed scarcely honest to keep silence upon the subject. She ended by exclaiming irritably: “Surely it is sufficient for me to say that 1 no longer object! Must I go down on my knees amt beg you to do what you are dying to do?” “1 am not dying to marry Otto," Daphne declared. “If I were to marry him against your wishes liecanse it would be against them, whatever you may choose to say I should never be happy: nor. I think, would he. The greatest kindness you can show me. mother, is not to tempt me any more. You and he do tempt me a little; I won't deny it. Only I know very well all the same that I should lay up future remorse for myself and sorrow for you by taking you at your word; therefore, I am not going to take you at your word. Let us say no more alsmt it.” For that evening, at all events, they

said no more about it: and if they both slept badly, what else could they expect? Self-sacrifice is perhaps the least immediately remunerative of all virtues, for nobody can practise it without a discouraging and only too well-founded suspicion that it is most unlikely to be appreciated. Mrs Hamilton was. upon the whole, less to be pitied than her daughter, inasmuch as she foresaw a more or less satisfactory termination to the affair. Otto von Kahlenburg was not. to be sure, the son-in-law whom she would have chosen, had she been at liberty' to choose: yet she was conscious of a personal liking for the young fellow. and she did not doubt that he would contrive to vanquish Daphne’s lingering scruples. As for the forger of Old Burlington-street, he was at once a blessing and a bore—negligible, for the rest, in both capacities, seeing that he was precluded from steppingforward into the light.

Now. it came to pass on the next afternoon that, while she was reconciling- herself to coming events with the aid of a cup of tea. a visitingcard of unusually large dimensions was brought to her. The gentleman whose name it displayed amidst calligraphic flourishes wished, sfhe was told, to know whether Mrs .Hamilton was disengaged and would do him the favour to receive him. She replied in the affirmative, taking it for granted that “Graf von Kahlenburg— Lindenhausen” was the person with whom her thoughts happened at the moment to be engaged; so that she was somewhat startled when there presently stalked into the room a tall, stalwart individual, white-mous-tached and white-whiskered, who bowed low and apologised in a strong Teutonic accent for his intrusion. “Permit me.” he said, “to account for myself and excuse myself by informing you that Otto von Kahlenburg is my nephew and my adopted son. Also that I have travelled all the way from Vienna for the purpose of soliciting this audience.” "Please sit down." answered Mrs Hamilton, instantly divining that an atack in force was about to be made upon her. and fixing bayonets, so to speak, in order to receive the same in a style due to herself. For, however little ambitious she might be of an alliance with the von Kahlenburg family, she had no notion of submitting- tamely to impertinent accusations, and Jack Clough’s hints respecting the arrogance of the Austrian nobility had prepared her for something of the kind. The old gentleman (who was a spruce, pleasan, t-looking olid gentleman and who evidently employed a. good tailor) sat down and unfolded his case with engaging candour. He did not. he said, pretend to exercise absolute control over his nephew; although, as the head of a family wh ch enjoyed a certain distinction in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was socially, if not legally, entitled Io make his voice heard in matters affecting the welfare of that family. Over his personal fortune and the greater part of his landed property he did hold complete authority, and could dispose of these by will in any manner that might seem best to. him; so that if. for example, his nephew were to contract a marriage of which he was unable to approve, nothing would be more simple for him than to cancel the will under which his nephew would profit to a handsome extent nt his death. Very well: then would Mrs Hamilton, as a woman of the world, kindly ask herself whether an alliance with an untitled English lady—doubtless charming, yet just as unquestionably an alien and a heretic could be viewed with favour uy the existing chief .of the von. Knhlenburgs? "My nephew’ has not disguised from me his wish to make such an alliance; I know that he is now in England with the hope and intention of making it, in spite of

my disapproval, and his silence since he reached this country has caused me very great, uneasiness. He left me. I should tell you, protesting that he had no definite plan, except to keep various shooting engagements, that he could not even say whether Miss Hamilton was in London or not. and that he had reason to doubt whether his suit would be entertained, supposing that he should find an occasion to —how do you say?—to push it forth. Therefore I have thought to myself. ‘Good! 1 will not interfere with the chance of his failure or rejection." Hut when T heard—oh, not from him. naturally. but through other channels—that he has been a frequent visitor at your house, it became impel ative upon me to aet without delay. Without delay, 1 take the straightforward course. I give orders to pack my portmanteau, I start, direct for London, T throw myself, madam, upon your good feeling! Dare I hope that I do not arrive too late ?”

“I assure you,” said Airs Hamilton coldly, “that you cannot be more averse to the prospect which seems to alarm you so much than 1 am. At the same time, I do not admit that your nephew's marriage to my daughter, if such a thing were ever to take place, would be a misalliance on his part. We are not, it is true, related to the ducal families which have the same surname as ours; still we are not low-born people, and—”

“Ah, my dear lady, you shock me!—■ you distress me! Pray, lielieve that I have never for one moment presumed even in thought, to use so insulting a term with reference to you. But consider, I beg of you, that you are English. while we are Austrians—that you are Protestants, while we are Catholic*. Consider all the consequences which these distinctions entail.” “I have considered them, and other formidable objections as well. I can only repeat that I am not in the least ambitious of capturing your nephew. The less so because my late husband’s relations with h'is father were of a painful nature to me. You will, no doubt, have forgotten them, although I very well recollect meeting you in Vienna many years ago. when Herr von Pardowitz was so kind as to introduce his younger brother to me at a ball.” Count von Kahlenburg slapped his leg. “Is it possible! Yes, yes; it all comes back to me. and your name—but your name is not a very uncommon one in Great Britain. 1 believe?—should have suggested more to me than it did. That unfortunate Mr Hamilton, who was first, robbed and then wounded in a duel by my rascally brother! Certainly you must have painful memories of my in-other, and although he is dead—or rather because he is dead- I will admit to you that we all knew him to lie a. rascal. Otto, poor boy. is not a rascal, but your fear lest he should have inherited bad qualities is very par-donable-—very pardonable indeed! T am even glad that you should be set against him by that fear.” The old gentleman was so obviously glad, and for such obvious reasons, that Mrs Hamilton could not refrain from saying: “I am not as unjust as you make me out; your nephew. 1 am sure, is an honest man. and I should not have allowed myself to be set against him on account of his parentage. which I did not discover until we

had been for some time acquainted with him. Not. that is, on account of his father having been what you have just called him. Thene were —other considerations which left me no choice but to break with your nephew as soon as I found out who he really was.”

Count von Kahlenburg pursed up his lips and scrutinised her curiously. “So! —was that story true? Was it Mr Hamilton who knocked my brother over the edge of the road on the Stelvio Pass and left him there for dead? That was my brother’s statement; but he was, to use plain language, such a liar that we attached little importance to it. Aforeover, we could only feel thankful to anybody who had enabled us to represent that he was dead; for he was upon the point of being arrested on a charge of forgery, and he could not have escaped conviction. You did not know this?”

“I did not know it at the time, and until the day of his own death my poor husband, whose mind you did not think it necessary to relieve, thought that he ha'd been guilty of manslaughter. Quite recently the truth has come to my

“Now, that is most singular! I had supposed that I was the only person living in possession of a secret which 1 have not divulged even to my nephew. Who can your informant have been 9 However, it is a matter of small consequence now. My brother, whom we despatched to South America as soon as he was in a state to travel, succumb ed to yellow fever there shortly after his arrival, and if I have allowed it to • e assumed that he perished in Tyrol that is not because I should have risked anything by proclaiming the facts of the case. The law cannot punish dead men.”

"And you are quite sure that he is dead?”

Absolutely sure; the proofs of his death and burial are in my possession And if he were not,” the old gentleman added, with a slight laugh, “he would not have omitted to present himself m our country long since, for as my elder brother, he would have been entitled to claim the estates which T now enjoy.”

Well, remarked Mrs Hamilton yielding to an irresistible temptation "he was not dead a few days ago anv how.” "

Afy dear lady! what impostor has been deceiving you?” “You have only to call at 95, Old Burhngton-street in order to ascertain by the evidence of you own senses. But you will not find an impostor there. I recognised Herr von Pardowitz the moment that I saw him, in spite of his white hair, and this at least I must say for him: He has shown more consideration for my feelings than you have. He had nothing in the world to gain by letting me know that he was alive. He only remem bererd what you seem to have forgotten- that the greater part of mv life has been spent under a shadow which might have been removed, and he relieved his conscience at some risk —so he says—to his safety. Of course tor your own sake you will not be, tray him. Otherwise I should not have told you this.”

( ount von Kahlenburg twirled his moustache meditatively, while for a moment his face grew rather long But presently he recovered himself

Impossible,” he exclaimed; “impossible. When I tell you that I have documents—stamped, official docu-ments-which testify that mv brother died on a certain date and that his interment took place twenty-four hours later.” “1 don’t know whether official documents are always to be relied upon or not,” answered Mrs Hamilton. “There must be some official documents I suppose, to show that your brother died in Tyrol. What I do know is that he was at the address which 1 have given you the other day and there you will probably discover him if you will call and ask for Herr Weiss.” “T will lose no time in doing- that.

but 1 cannot doubt, my dear madam, that you have been imposed upon. Let us now try to fathom this man's motive for imposing upon you. You spoke just now of having broken with my nephew, and indeed 1 guessed from what he himself told me that you had inflicted on him a—a,—how do you say Zaruckstoss in English?” “A rebuff.” “So —a rebuff. Well, you gave him perhaps a reason for doing so?” "Not last summer, but when he followed us to England—of course without any invitation from me and quite against my wish—l was obliged to tell him why I could never consent to my daughter's marriage with a son of Herr von Pardowitz.”

“Ah, there we have it. De you not see that Otto would at once resolve to make away with your reason if he could? And, as a fact, have you not again consented to receive his visits?” “I do not see how all the resolution in the world could enable him to resuscitate his father.” “Oh, this Herr Weiss is not his father. I will undertake to convince you very shortly that he is not. But it would not surprise me to find that Herr Weiss is in my nephew’s pay.” “You forget that my own eyes and ears have already convinced me that Herr Weiss is Herr von Pardowitz. However, you can't do better than go and judge for yourself. He bound me over to secrecy, I must confess. Still, as I say, your recognising him can do no harm, since you won’t for your own sake betray' him.” Count von Kahlenburg, visibly staggered, began to think aloud in his own language. “A forger is always liable to be placed upon his trial for forgery. That cannot be denied, although evidence would be very difficult to obtain after so many years. Yet he would scarcely venture toi lay claim to the title and estates. H’m, h’m. One might after all acquiesce in his incognito, supposing that by a miracle he should turn out to be what he represents himself as being. What else is there to be done?”

“There is nothing else to be done,” said Mrs Hamilton, whose knowledge of German had been equal to the following of the above soliloquy; “only I hope you now realise that you are not altogether entitled to look down upon my' daughter. Humble as we are we don’t commit forgery in our family.” The old gentleman laughed good humouredly' enough. “Madam,” said he, “I acknowledge the justice of your rebuke. Nevertheless Otto ought in my' opinion to marry an Austrian and a lady of his own rank. For the rest, if matters stand as you suppose, I have no authority, and it will be for my elder brother to pronounce judgment.” “You will be glad to hear that he has already pronounced judgment against the marriage. Not that I consider myself in any way' subject to his decisions.”

“He has pronounced against the marriage!” eehoed Count von Kahlenburg, with raised eyebrows. “I wonder why.” “Well, he maintains that my husband intended to murder him.” "Just what he always maintained. 1 begin to doubt—but no! It is too impossible!—too absurd! In any ease, I will go and investigate the affair. Meanwhile, my dear lady, may I ask you to take no decisive step until 1 see you again? My nephew is not, 1 presume, actually betrothed to your daughter as yet?” “Certainly not.”

“Good! Then you will not. I feel sure, permit such a betrothal before this mystery is cleared up. For I must still, with all respect to you. believe that you have been tricked.” “He will not.” mused Mrs Hamilton, after her visitor had ceremoniously bowed himself out, “be able to maintain that theory'. How odd of him not to see that he himself has given the strongest eontirmat ion to the story by confessing that his brother was not killed on the Stelvio! And since it is now admitted that I have been under a false impression all these years, how can I be expected to stand in the way of Daphne's wishes and happiness? There is the veto of Herr von Pardowitz. of course, but really a man who insists upon being accounted dead must not ask to be treated as though lie were still living. As for this old Count von Kahlenburg. his impertinence would lie really amusing, if he hadn’t it in his power to disinherit his nephew. How humiliating it is that threats of that kind can’t lie altogether despised!—and how much more humiliating it would be if we were.to despise them and his nephew were to

yield to them! Well, I must wait and see what will come of all this; I certainly must not for the present breathe a word to Daphue.”

Al this moment her ruminations were broken in upon by the throwing open of the door, through which came short, sharp, gasping sounds, as of a stationary underground steam engine. "Oh,” she ejaculated in dismay, under her breath, “here is that pestering, panting. Perkins again!”

Mrs Perkins indeed it was; and Mrs I'erkins, having encountered a greyheaded foreigner on the door step, was in a state of quite undisguised thirst for information. So lost, in fact, was the good lady to all sense of decorum that even while her right hand was grasping Mrs Hamilton’s, she seized with her left a visiting card which lay upon the table and, after examining it, dropped it with a triumphant grunt.

“Didn’t I say so!” she exclaimed. “Didn’t you say what?” inquired Mrs Hamilton querulously.

“Oh, only to myself! You may rely upon me to say nothing to anybody else without your leave. But as I came up the stairs. I did say to myself. ‘Well, if that was not our dear Count Otto’s uncle, I’ll eat them both!" ” “I daresay,” returned Mrs Hamilton, provoked beyond endurance,“that you are capable of swallowing your dear Count Otto and his nnele too; you have my full permisison to try. Butbas anybody denied that Count von Kahlenburg is Count von Kahlenburg? And is there any reason why he should not eall upon me, if he likes?”

“Dear Mrs Hamilton, don't be cross with me?” pleaded the fat woman plaintively; “I quite understand that you may have motives for —for clandestine behaviour, and if 1 only knew what they were. I should very likely sympathise with them: but I can’t help wondering —how can T help wondering, when we are a'll so fond of you and dear Daphne?—what they are.” “I cannot imagine what you are talking about,” said Mrs Hamilton, recovering her self possession and assuming the nearest semblance of an awful, cold dignity that she could command. “I have never before, that I can remember. been accused of clandestine conduct, and if it were at all worth while to defend myself against such a charge—but you will probably understand, upon reflection, that I do not feel disposed to do that. We will sa,\ no more about the matter, please. I hope your daughters are quite well?”

Not by methods of that kind was Mrs Perkins to be discouraged. She apologised profusely, but she soon contrived to recur indirectly to the forbidden subject, and if. at the end of a quarter of an hour, she left Palace Gate without having elicited any fresh fact, she had nevertheless, during that time, foreetl her long-suffering victim to prevaricate palpably. “I will get to the bottom of it all!” she promised herself. “Very evident it is to me that there are wheels within wheels, and I shouldn’t be surprised if Mrs Hamilton were partly in ignorance, though she knows more than she chooses to reveal. But it is useless for her to twist and turn; truth will out!” Mrs Hamilton at the same moment was reaching much the same conclusion. “At this rate,” she murmured disconsolately, “we might almost as well throw our cards upon the table. Daphne and I. anyhow, have done nothing that we need be ashamed of. and if the von Kahlenburgs are made uncomfortable—well. they shouldn’t have relations who forge people’s namesand get knocked over precipices, and pretend to be dead when they aren’t dead. With a skeleton like that in the family cupboard, it isn't becoming to turn up one’s nose at a match which no English nobleman would consider beneath him.” (To be Continued.)