A Laodicean

Chapter 1

DARE AND HAVILL.

Young Dare sat thoughtfully at the window of the studio in

which Somerset had left him, till the gay scene beneath became

embrowned by the twilight, and the brilliant red stripes of

the marquees, the bright sunshades, the many-tinted costumes

of the ladies, were indistinguishable from the blacks and

greys of the masculine contingent moving among them. He had

occasionally glanced away from the outward prospect to study a

small old volume that lay before him on the drawing-board.

Near scrutiny revealed the book to bear the title 'Moivre's

Doctrine of Chances.'

The evening had been so still that Dare had heard

conversations from below with a clearness unsuspected by the

speakers themselves; and among the dialogues which thus

reached his ears was that between Somerset and Havill on their

professional rivalry. When they parted, and Somerset had

mingled with the throng, Havill went to a seat at a distance.

Afterwards he rose, and walked away; but on the bench he had

quitted there remained a small object resembling a book or

leather case.

Dare put away the drawing-board and plotting-scales which he

had kept before him during the evening as a reason for his

presence at that post of espial, locked up the door, and went

downstairs. Notwithstanding his dismissal by Somerset, he was

so serene in countenance and easy in gait as to make it a fair

conjecture that professional servitude, however profitable,

was no necessity with him. The gloom now rendered it

practicable for any unbidden guest to join Paula's assemblage

without criticism, and Dare walked boldly out upon the lawn.

The crowd on the grass was rapidly diminishing; the tennis-

players had relinquished sport; many people had gone in to

dinner or supper; and many others, attracted by the cheerful

radiance of the candles, were gathering in the large tent that

had been lighted up for dancing.

Dare went to the garden-chair on which Havill had been seated,

and found the article left behind to be a pocket-book.

Whether because it was unclasped and fell open in his hand, or

otherwise, he did not hesitate to examine the contents. Among

a mass of architect's customary memoranda occurred a draft of

the letter abusing Paula as an iconoclast or Vandal by blood,

which had appeared in the newspaper: the draft was so

interlined and altered as to bear evidence of being the

original conception of that ungentlemanly attack.

The lad read the letter, smiled, and strolled about the

grounds, only met by an occasional pair of individuals of

opposite s*x in deep conversation, the state of whose emotions

led them to prefer the evening shade to the publicity and

glare of the tents and rooms. At last he observed the white

waistcoat of the man he sought.

'Mr. Havill, the architect, I believe?' said Dare. 'The

author of most of the noteworthy buildings in this

neighbourhood?'

Havill assented blandly.

'I have long wished for the pleasure of your acquaintance, and

now an accident helps me to make it. This pocket-book, I

think, is yours?'

Havill clapped his hand to his pocket, examined the book Dare

held out to him, and took it with thanks. 'I see I am

speaking to the artist, archaeologist, Gothic photographer--

Mr. Dare.'

'Professor Dare.'

'Professor? Pardon me, I should not have guessed it--so young

as you are.'

'Well, it is merely ornamental; and in truth, I drop the title

in England, particularly under present circumstances.'

'Ah--they are peculiar, perhaps? Ah, I remember. I have

heard that you are assisting a gentleman in preparing a design

in opposition to mine--a design--'

'"That he is not competent to prepare himself," you were

perhaps going to add?'

'Not precisely that.'

'You could hardly be blamed for such words. However, you are

mistaken. I did assist him to gain a little further insight

into the working of architectural plans; but our views on art

are antagonistic, and I assist him no more. Mr. Havill, it

must be very provoking to a well-established professional man

to have a rival sprung at him in a grand undertaking which he

had a right to expect as his own.'

Professional sympathy is often accepted from those whose

condolence on any domestic matter would be considered

intrusive. Havill walked up and down beside Dare for a few

moments in silence, and at last showed that the words had

told, by saying: 'Every one may have his opinion. Had I been

a stranger to the Power family, the case would have been

different; but having been specially elected by the lady's

father as a competent adviser in such matters, and then to be

degraded to the position of a mere competitor, it wounds me to

the quick--'

'Both in purse and in person, like the ill-used hostess of the

Garter.'

'A lady to whom I have been a staunch friend,' continued

Havill, not heeding the interruption.

At that moment sounds seemed to come from Dare which bore a

remarkable resemblance to the words, 'Ho, ho, Havill!' It was

hardly credible, and yet, could he be mistaken? Havill

turned. Dare's eye was twisted comically upward.

'What does that mean?' said Havill coldly, and with some

amazement.

'Ho, ho, Havill! "Staunch friend" is good--especially after

"an iconoclast and Vandal by blood"--"monstrosity in the form

of a Greek temple," and so on, eh!'

'Sir, you have the advantage of me. Perhaps you allude to

that anonymous letter?'

'O-ho, Havill!' repeated the boy-man, turning his eyes yet

further towards the zenith. 'To an outsider such conduct

would be natural; but to a friend who finds your pocket-book,

and looks into it before returning it, and kindly removes a

leaf bearing the draft of a letter which might injure you if

discovered there, and carefully conceals it in his own pocket-

-why, such conduct is unkind!' Dare held up the abstracted

leaf.

Havill trembled. 'I can explain,' he began.

'It is not necessary: we are friends,' said Dare assuringly.

Havill looked as if he would like to snatch the leaf away, but

altering his mind, he said grimly: 'Well, I take you at your

word: we are friends. That letter was concocted before I

knew of the competition: it was during my first disgust, when

I believed myself entirely supplanted.'

'I am not in the least surprised. But if she knew YOU to be

the writer!'

'I should be ruined as far as this competition is concerned,'

said Havill carelessly. 'Had I known I was to be invited to

compete, I should not have written it, of course. To be

supplanted is hard; and thereby hangs a tale.'

'Another tale? You astonish me.'

'Then you have not heard the scandal, though everybody is

talking about it.'

'A scandal implies indecorum.'

'Well, 'tis indecorous. Her infatuated partiality for him is

patent to the eyes of a child; a man she has only known a few

weeks, and one who obtained admission to her house in the most

irregular manner! Had she a watchful friend beside her,

instead of that moonstruck Mrs. Goodman, she would be

cautioned against bestowing her favours on the first

adventurer who appears at her door. It is a pity, a great

pity!'

'O, there is love-making in the wind?' said Dare slowly.

'That alters the case for me. But it is not proved?'

'It can easily be proved.'

'I wish it were, or disproved.'

'You have only to come this way to clear up all doubts.'

Havill took the lad towards the tent, from which the strains

of a waltz now proceeded, and on whose sides flitting shadows

told of the progress of the dance. The companions looked in.

The rosy silk lining of the marquee, and the numerous coronas

of wax lights, formed a canopy to a radiant scene which, for

two at least of those who composed it, was an intoxicating

one. Paula and Somerset were dancing together.

'That proves nothing,' said Dare.

'Look at their rapt faces, and say if it does not,' sneered

Havill.

Dare objected to a judgment based on looks alone.

'Very well--time will show,' said the architect, dropping the

tent-curtain. . . . 'Good God! a girl worth fifty thousand

and more a year to throw herself away upon a fellow like that-

-she ought to be whipped.'

'Time must NOT show!' said Dare.

'You speak with emphasis.'

'I have reason. I would give something to be sure on this

point, one way or the other. Let us wait till the dance is

over, and observe them more carefully. Horensagen ist halb

gelogen! Hearsay is half lies.'

Sheet-lightnings increased in the northern sky, followed by

thunder like the indistinct noise of a battle. Havill and

Dare retired to the trees. When the dance ended Somerset and

his partner emerged from the tent, and slowly moved towards

the tea-house. Divining their goal Dare seized Havill's arm;

and the two worthies entered the building unseen, by first

passing round behind it. They seated themselves in the back

part of the interior, where darkness prevailed.

As before related, Paula and Somerset came and stood within

the door. When the rain increased they drew themselves

further inward, their forms being distinctly outlined to the

gaze of those lurking behind by the light from the tent

beyond. But the hiss of the falling rain and the lowness of

their tones prevented their words from being heard.

'I wish myself out of this!' breathed Havill to Dare, as he

buttoned his coat over his white waistcoat. 'I told you it

was true, but you wouldn't believe. I wouldn't she should

catch me here eavesdropping for the world!'

'Courage, Man Friday,' said his cooler comrade.

Paula and her lover backed yet further, till the hem of her

skirt touched Havill's feet. Their attitudes were sufficient

to prove their relations to the most obstinate Didymus who

should have witnessed them. Tender emotions seemed to pervade

the summer-house like an aroma. The calm ecstasy of the

condition of at least one of them was not without a coercive

effect upon the two invidious spectators, so that they must

need have remained passive had they come there to disturb or

annoy. The serenity of Paula was even more impressive than

the hushed ardour of Somerset: she did not satisfy curiosity

as Somerset satisfied it; she piqued it. Poor Somerset had

reached a perfectly intelligible depth--one which had a single

blissful way out of it, and nine calamitous ones; but Paula

remained an enigma all through the scene.

The rain ceased, and the pair moved away. The enchantment

worked by their presence vanished, the details of the meeting

settled down in the watchers' minds, and their tongues were

loosened. Dare, turning to Havill, said, 'Thank you; you have

done me a timely turn to-day.'

'What! had you hopes that way?' asked Havill satirically.

'I! The woman that interests my heart has yet to be born,'

said Dare, with a steely coldness strange in such a juvenile,

and yet almost convincing. 'But though I have not personal

hopes, I have an objection to this courtship. Now I think we

may as well fraternize, the situation being what it is?'

'What is the situation?"

'He is in your way as her architect; he is in my way as her

lover: we don't want to hurt him, but we wish him clean out

of the neighbourhood.'

'I'll go as far as that,' said Havill.

'I have come here at some trouble to myself, merely to

observe: I find I ought to stay to act.'

'If you were myself, a married man with people dependent on

him, who has had a professional certainty turned to a

miserably remote contingency by these events, you might say

you ought to act; but what conceivable difference it can make

to you who it is the young lady takes to her heart and home, I

fail to understand.'

'Well, I'll tell you--this much at least. I want to keep the

place vacant for another man.'

'The place?'

'The place of husband to Miss Power, and proprietor of that

castle and domain.'

'That's a scheme with a vengeance. Who is the man?'

'It is my secret at present.'

'Certainly.' Havill drew a deep breath, and dropped into a

tone of depression. 'Well, scheme as you will, there will be

small advantage to me,' he murmured. 'The castle commission

is as good as gone, and a bill for two hundred pounds falls

due next week.'

'Cheer up, heart! My position, if you only knew it, has ten

times the difficulties of yours, since this disagreeable

discovery. Let us consider if we can assist each other. The

competition drawings are to be sent in--when?'

'In something over six weeks--a fortnight before she returns

from the Scilly Isles, for which place she leaves here in a

few days.'

'O, she goes away--that's better. Our lover will be working

here at his drawings, and she not present.'

'Exactly. Perhaps she is a little ashamed of the intimacy.'

'And if your design is considered best by the committee, he

will have no further reason for staying, assuming that they

are not definitely engaged to marry by that time?'

'I suppose so,' murmured Havill discontentedly. 'The

conditions, as sent to me, state that the designs are to be

adjudicated on by three members of the Institute called in for

the purpose; so that she may return, and have seemed to show

no favour.'

'Then it amounts to this: your design MUST be best. It must

combine the excellences of your invention with the excellences

of his. Meanwhile a coolness should be made to arise between

her and him: and as there would be no artistic reason for his

presence here after the verdict is pronounced, he would

perforce hie back to town. Do you see?'

'I see the ingenuity of the plan, but I also see two

insurmountable obstacles to it. The first is, I cannot add

the excellences of his design to mine without knowing what

those excellences are, which he will of course keep a secret.

Second, it will not be easy to promote a coolness between such

hot ones as they.'

'You make a mistake. It is only he who is so ardent. She is

only lukewarm. If we had any spirit, a bargain would be

struck between us: you would appropriate his design; I should

cause the coolness.'

'How could I appropriate his design?'

'By copying it, I suppose.'

'Copying it?'

'By going into his studio and looking it over.'

Havill turned to Dare, and stared. 'By George, you don't

stick at trifles, young man. You don't suppose I would go

into a man's rooms and steal his inventions like that?'

'I scarcely suppose you would,' said Dare indifferently, as he

rose.

'And if I were to,' said Havill curiously, 'how is the

coolness to be caused?'

'By the second man.'

'Who is to produce him?'

'Her Majesty's Government.'

Havill looked meditatively at his companion, and shook his

head. 'In these idle suppositions we have been assuming

conduct which would be quite against my principles as an

honest man.'