Show S R I 1 A L S T 0 R Y afta e lr v LN M n by marie van vorst author of A rhanda of the mill miss daimond De imond etc etc copyright 1906 b by J D IPPI cott company y 2 SYNOPSIS basil tempest worlds greatest novelist and poet refusing to bo be further furt lier lionized abuts himself up in craven his country home his gloomy meditations are broken up by his housekeeper who has disobeyed his orders not to admit any ane to the house the visitor Is lucy carew an american who has como come to england to write a study of the author but most of all to set get a synopsis of his new suite of poems having been promised a good position with a magazine it if successful CHAPTER I 1 continued miss carew leaned forward her hands clasped before her 1 I once read two poems of yours masterpieces they were only an epilogue any one could see that they were the forerunners of a longer work the opening and sequence I 1 have eagerly been looking for the others in vain you are mad he blurted out rudes ly and walked away from her across s the room got in between table and window his back to 0 her after a sec s ond he drew the curtain aside and exposed the black rain covered pane to the rooms light she was not singularly enough frightened to death it would be too i much to say she felt a power over s mr tempest she had it however perhaps I 1 am mad I 1 feel somer times one must be to comprehend and be sensitive to certain forms of beau J ty and greatness mr tempest came slow lyback into the room holding his lil shand hand over his eyes t will you tell them for me your public that there are no more verses to follow these that there is nothing i whatsoever to come out of this mud died and miserable brain of basil tempest will you tell them that tempest is never to write another line so long as he lives he was conscious that hat I 1 MISS carew had risen that she was standing not far away she had gathered her cloak on her arm no she said distinctly 1 I will not tell them that his eyes still covered tempest i shrugged his shoulders shou ders tell them what you please but will you go n now I 1 thank you but go you are very good very good and clever I 1 hope I 1 shall not baulk your career y women should not have careers he heard a door close the portiere U fall he uncovered his file eyes ho he was alone i with an imprecation low and sin f cere lie he stood for a moment his hands bands clinched by his side his expression 1 dark and terrible all likeness to 9 genius ealus and good looks for it pos hessed both was gone from his face he seemed brooding on horrors his i hair fell over his brow his head was bent his eyes now showed blood shot and full of tears As strong as he was weak in his emotions be was now utterly swayed b by y them like a boy he brushed away his tears with the back of his hand after he had stood so for what seemed to him a few minutes and was really a long time a gust of wind and rain struck violently against the window and he started with no care to put his disturbed countenance in order for curious eyes he went out to find mrs hen ly in her little room a corridor or so away where is the lady you forced upon me henly gone mr basil I low ilow gonet gone on foot and alone in the storm 0 mrs henrys tone if it could would have sent miss MIBS carew dry shod what folly and stupidity why did you permit it henly you use judgment and discretion what did you let her go for like that she would hear of nothing else sir she seemed disturbed without further parley he turned on his heel and marched out to the cloa cloakroom cloakroom kroo in and cloaked mm him self and went from there to th ata bles although it did not consume half an hour the putting between shafts aud and buckling up of the horse tempest fumed at the groom and with nervous haste himself threw in rubber blanket and rugs it was pouring in sheets when he came pelting out of the stable the man threw loose the mares head and the fresh beast started rapidly out into the roadway tempest had asked aske for a horse notably fastest neither his fastest nor best but a sure animal who had bad eyes for the dark like a cats and who could ha have vo felt her way to Craven ford the master of craven hardly hoped to discover so soon as the park road the guest so rudely allowed to leave his doors even a poor walker would have made the drive and the turn into the main road that led to Craven ford nevertheless he peered and as it was far from dark it seemed needless to lean forward as tempest did to search the roadside for so conspicuous an object ar ac a pedestrian young woman of no mean height or figure his horse pounded through the mud bit well in her teeth her head down the short incessant rain was a spur tempest thought oi of tho the high heels of the ladys shoes and grew hot with shame feminine folly he muttered what modern twentieth cen tury emancipation A young woman not only independent but secure in her lack of convention fancy one of our grandmothers appearing in fichu and curls and crinolines crino lines at a mans house alone not only would this girl have scorned me if I 1 had dared show appreciation of her sex but it would have been the height of to have been gallant the acme of yet as lie he mentally compared her to the summoned image of the 1830 lady miss carew lost none of her attractiveness ti veness in her plain dress the sharp note of white at neck and wrists the taille faille mbree camblee ca the svelte beauty of her figure its absurd he ni muttered tittered this emancipation of women no right or title to it for example now if I 1 were not driving to her rescue where would she be poor dear he smiled she would melt in the storm As before him the road grow grew indistinct gad I 1 should have fetched melton to drive I 1 cant make out the road she must have flown to have gone so well on to escape the boor I 1 was no wonder herri hero the mare shied violently and in holding the cart to balance and quieting her tempest almost failed to see the cause of the fright out of tho the rain and darkness a figure on a stone had miss carew she hardly recognized the voice it was so full of live welcome wont you get in at once please hero at this sido side I 1 cant help you unfortunately unfortunate ly or leave my seat scat can you manage it she wont stand miss carew displayed neither ill temper nor grudge in a twinkling she had climbed into the cart was nt at his side you will let me drive you ou back to craven warm you feed you show you hospitality I 1 am chagrined miss care carew ile he had started to turn to tho the station please it if it too much to ask he was sufficiently impressed by what he belt believed ayed was the will of the modern woman to not gainsay her 1 I dont wish to obey you but I 1 have no choice put on this macin tosh please and cover yourself with this rubber there over us both theres a shorter cut to the town tow n if you will vill tell me if there is a stile just there it would beto bemo be M to o the right yes then we turn here and should reach Craven ford in three quarters of an hour hush he said as she thanked him trouble I 1 am ashamed of myself dont make me feel more so tell me if I 1 am not too curious where you are bound for to london tonight to night and to america the day after tomorrow to morrow tempest caught his bi breath eath you mean you were serious you came to england to see nie me andare and are going back on the first ship yes she said simply but I 1 never heard such a ven venture Is all i sporting work like that seven thousand mile for success fi yes she finished 1 I suppose so it seemed to them worth it I 1 should of course have sue suc ceedee but you have traveled before you know europe oh yes she said 1 I was in school in france chave I 1 have traveled but I 1 have never been in england you must stay lie he cried en entrust ent husi ast icly En glands a garden this county especially lovely i why pen thuen castle is within two miles of me raynes and the forest of raynes 1 I know said his companion here to the west low shelving to the sea and she repeated one of tempests sonnets written 15 years bai before fore her manner of speaking it was delightful oil fit C 6 she presented a pitiable sight under understanding stan ding and simple he said nothing when she ceased ile he dirt did not speak again until they had entered the small hamlet of craven ford and drew up tip to the station under a red lantern that swung from the caves in the rain two men in raincoats stood smoking their pipes under the roof shelter at tempests hallo one of them came out to the plat platform forn edge Is that you mr tempest sir yes hold the mare will you therell bo be no london train tonight sir a li accident slug morges way no trains out before tomor to mor row there was a moments silence on the part of the people in the trap then the lady said but there are other trains surely to other stations none either way tonight to night mm mam 11 reassured mr Ranis dill tempest stood up in the cart and shook out his hat fiat from which the water rn rim Ranis dill at the mares head patted her neck the he sweat r run un ning from her wet sides was drowned back on her by the rain 1 I have chosen craven miss carew 4 h in order that I 1 might be quite out of 0 the world it has proved to me often that I 1 have succeeded but never so thoroughly as tonight to night theres the station an alehouse and a few farms you cant stay laiq ij any of them well drive back then at once to warmth and light slip she thanked him and refused to hear bedr f of it 1 I shall stay in some one ot of those houses if they will have me t r he got out of the cart theres a lire fire in the station tyes ryes sir 11 A let me help you out miss carew please come in for a few moments and let us see each other and get out of this infernal dark r she presented a pitiable sight eight Dren drenched blied through her hair clinging to her face her clothing clinging to her like a vine to a tree he exclaimed t with contrition and anger and drew diew her to the fire into the red glow J you will be ill your feet and stockings must be dripping drink this he had his flask and forced her to take a generous draught to all she was obedient now he said determinedly you mustio must go back with me dont retaliate A so cruelly mrs henly will care for you like a mother I 1 cant leave you here but wet meek as her drenched hair made her ber look her reddening cheeks proved that all her blood was not beaten out of her by the rain you must leave me here mr tempest 1 I wish he said impatiently you were not an american and a modern woman she turned her hands bands before the blaze and he saw how fine they were how slender and distinguished 1 I am both however she replied with a little smile 1 I have failed and I 1 am going back tempest without further parley f went to the door and called to rams dill can your wife put this lady miss s carew up for the night give her a good bed and some hot dinner and some dry things tempest had made of craven and the ford a shrine for all the county and for reasons more human than for his genius genaus alone was adored 1 I expect missus ll be pleased to mr tempest come then ho he ordered over his sh shoulder 0 ulder to the girl in a tone as masterful J I 1 as if he had not been beaten Ranis dill has a very decent cottage not half a mile from the castle its clean and well kept and polly j Rains dill is a nice creature ill let 4 you stay there or at the castle he waited impatiently as aa she put her foot on the step of the cart she chose composedly mrs Rams Rains dills please on tho long wet way back he said ive been a boor will you forgive me you have bave been most kind mr tern tem 1 pest 0 4 no no tell me please you forgive g I 1 ve me how can you ask it I 1 should never have so forced myself f you do then 1 I am obstinate say t the words well then I 1 do of course forgive you mr tempest will you prove it if I 1 can the Ranis dill cottage a type ol of hundreds of low vine covered nestling houses sent out into the t rain its one ruddy star through a small windowpane window pane As the cart ay aj proa preached clied the door opened and a cheerful bar of light cut into the 4 dark a TO BE CONTINUED |